Growing Pains!
Hope Fellowship • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Last lesson of the rebellion of Lucifer and mankind.
Mankind didn’t know the difference between good and evil, lucifer and the angels that rebelled against God did!
15 The Lord God took the man and placed him in the garden of Eden to work it and watch over it. 16 And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree of the garden, 17 but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for on the day you eat from it, you will certainly die.”
1 Now the serpent was the most cunning of all the wild animals that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You can’t eat from any tree in the garden’?”
2 The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat the fruit from the trees in the garden. 3 But about the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden, God said, ‘You must not eat it or touch it, or you will die.’ ”
4 “No! You will not die,” the serpent said to the woman. 5 “In fact, God knows that when you eat it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” 6 Then the woman saw that the tree was good for food and delightful to look at, and that it was desirable for obtaining wisdom. So she took some of its fruit and ate it; she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. 7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made loincloths for themselves.
22 The Lord God said, “Since man has become like one of Us, knowing good and evil, he must not reach out, take from the tree of life, eat, and live forever.” 23 So the Lord God sent him away from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. 24 He drove man out and stationed the cherubim and the flaming, whirling sword east of the garden of Eden to guard the way to the tree of life.
Sin crippled mankind from maturing from it’s created infancy, to all that God intended us to be.
Example of phone, tablet, and computer updates: They are often updated over the air nowadays, but what would happen if a security update was issued, but your device couldn’t connect to the manufacturers server to receive it?
Let’s say your phone caught the virus that the update protected against and it began to all crazy and do it’s own thing, what would you do?
You can’t connect to the server, and you’re stuck with the phone that you have.
What if once we have the virus, we have to take the phone in for regular updates in order to maintain it’s security and operational integrity?
Would you really go through the trouble of taking your phone in to get regular updates? Or would you settle?
What if some updates cost you, but they would add great benefit to your user experience? Would you pay it? Or just settle for what came free?
God is the one who comes to get our attention to let us know that there is a problem that lives within our “phones”, our bodies. It’s called the nature of sin!
This virus that affects our minds, our emotions, and perspective.
Psychological perspective. There is overlap among psychological theories, there’s no one dominant theory.
Physiological psychology: your genetics help determine part of who you are both outwardly, and psychologically.
Your environment can and will affect/trigger certain ways of thinking and feeling that may be inherited, but we can individually take note of what those thoughts are and weigh them, evaluate them to see if they are appropriate for the circumstance, or if things are just a “coincidental”.
Social cognitive theory (Dr. Albert Bandura)
Learning from environment and experience: This is a more active aspect of psychology and it intertwines with our physiology.
Our attention has to be caught by the person or circumstance.
We must retain what we are observing or experiencing.
The learner must have the opportunity to reenact the learned behavior.
There must be a reason for the learner to apply the learned material or behavioral, they must be motivated to reproduce the behavior.
Reciprocal determinism: the interaction of environment, person, and behavior.
The environment might influence a person’s behavior, but behavior can also change the environment.
The Bobo Doll: children watching of an adult acting aggressively to a rubber doll. Rewards, punishment, no consequence.
Pastor Jones: “When something irritates you, you have to ask yourself, does it irritate me because of something being objectively wrong, or because it irritates something that’s wrong with me?”
2 Consider it a great joy, my brothers, whenever you experience various trials, 3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. 4 But endurance must do its complete work, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking nothing.
16 I say then, walk by the Spirit and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. 17 For the flesh desires what is against the Spirit, and the Spirit desires what is against the flesh; these are opposed to each other, so that you don’t do what you want. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.
19 Now the works of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, moral impurity, promiscuity, 20 idolatry, sorcery, hatreds, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambitions, dissensions, factions, 21 envy, drunkenness, carousing, and anything similar. I tell you about these things in advance—as I told you before—that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
These are things that lie within us, maybe not all of them, but maybe a couple or a few within each of us.
This depends on parents or grandparents (genetics), environment, parental/caregiver interaction, lived through experiences.
These are like the behaviors of immature children, or those who have lost or never had boundaries.
So how do we get past them?
12 A man who endures trials is blessed, because when he passes the test he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love Him.
13 No one undergoing a trial should say, “I am being tempted by God.” For God is not tempted by evil, and He Himself doesn’t tempt anyone. 14 But each person is tempted when he is drawn away and enticed by his own evil desires. 15 Then after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin, and when sin is fully grown, it gives birth to death.
Romans 7
Romans 8
Romans 12
Ephesians 1
3 His divine power has given us everything required for life and godliness through the knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and goodness. 4 By these He has given us very great and precious promises, so that through them you may share in the divine nature, escaping the corruption that is in the world because of evil desires. 5 For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with goodness, goodness with knowledge, 6 knowledge with self-control, self-control with endurance, endurance with godliness, 7 godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. 8 For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they will keep you from being useless or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 The person who lacks these things is blind and shortsighted and has forgotten the cleansing from his past sins. 10 Therefore, brothers, make every effort to confirm your calling and election, because if you do these things you will never stumble. 11 For in this way, entry into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be richly supplied to you.
21 envy, drunkenness, carousing, and anything similar. I tell you about these things in advance—as I told you before—that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith, 23 gentleness, self-control. Against such things there is no law. 24 Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 Since we live by the Spirit, we must also follow the Spirit.
Growing does not feel good, it’s frustrating, it’s painful, it will cause you to be irritated easily, but if we want to mature, we must willing go through Jesus’ process of transformation.
11 And He personally gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, 12 for the training of the saints in the work of ministry, to build up the body of Christ, 13 until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of God’s Son, growing into a mature man with a stature measured by Christ’s fullness. 14 Then we will no longer be little children, tossed by the waves and blown around by every wind of teaching, by human cunning with cleverness in the techniques of deceit. 15 But speaking the truth in love, let us grow in every way into Him who is the head —Christ. 16 From Him the whole body, fitted and knit together by every supporting ligament, promotes the growth of the body for building up itself in love by the proper working of each individual part.