Grown Up Faith

Dave Carr

When I Grow Up • Sermon • Submitted a year ago • Presented a year ago

0 ratings

· 5 views

Notes

Transcript

INTRO.

Welcome in to Wednesdays! I’m so glad you chose to be here tonight! I believe God has something he wants to say to you tonight. Whether you’ve been coming for a long time or it’s your first week! Maybe you even made a new years resolution to start coming on Wednesdays!

New years resolutions are hard, how many of you made a new years resolution? How many of you are still doing your new years resolution?

That’s good, keep it up! Any time I think about new years resolutions I think about this AT&T commercial from a few years back, watch this with me:

https://youtu.be/8BivNsBv9tc?si=uffluoYjvJ95Ix7O

I used to love those commercials, something about an adult at a kids table. Trying to have a simple conversation with them. Do you want more reliable or less reliable… obviously the point of the commercial is to make it so obvious that even kids can comprehend why to go with AT&T. But for some reason we don’t understand similar situations that are just as obvious.

Like check out this video: (VIDEO IDEA: a student pastor with some kids from K12 sitting around a table similar to the commercial, SP asks “do you want a better relationship with God? Or a worse relationship with God?” But then ask the questions of this series that get us to a better relationship with God that they would disagree with… like, “do you want more responsibility or less?” or “Do you want to grow up or stay a kid forever?” “Do you want to pick up after yourself or have more play time?” get some crazy kid answers and try to bring some humor in this moment. The point of the second part of the answers is that of course they would say that because they're kids, they're immature. But we don't want to stay immature. "there's a limit to which we should trust what kids have to say".)

Haha isn’t it obvious? Of course we would want a better relationship with God. Even some of our k12 kids get that.

But why do you think they chose the answers that meant they want less responsibility?

Like be real, you know there are days where you want to just go home and not take care of your responsibilities. You have homework you don’t want to do, you have chores you don’t want to do, you have a bed time and a wake up time that you don’t want to obey. There are plenty of times that a life of less responsibility seems appealing. Of course that’s why the kids agreed with that. Should we listen to them though? Should they make decisions for us?

Of course not, we can’t always trust what kids say about things. They’d rather eat ice cream for dinner and never go to sleep. But we know a way of life like that is going to lead to some serious health problems.

So why can’t we just live a life of no responsibility? Especially in our faith, like forget other areas of life for a second, why can’t I just show up to church when I want to, get the time with God when it’s convenient, do I really need to be in community, serve others instead of putting myself first in everything… that just sounds like more work and responsibility than I care to take on. That sounds like stuff that is meant for the adults in the room.

Well this month we’re talking about how we can grow in maturity, and how part of what that means is taking on more responsibility. I hope you takeaway that a life of maturity is a more compelling life than one of immaturity.

Don’t take it from just me take it from what God’s word has to say about it, let’s read from Ephesians 4:

11 So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, 12 to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up 13 until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.”

Become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.

God sets the goal for us. Maturity is the goal.

Let’s go back to our process that we’re using all month long. How we grow: Immature (others are responsible for me) Adulthood (I’m responsible for myself) Maturity (I healthily take responsibility for others

Maturity is the goal, we should be striving for a life where we healthily take responsibility for others. Paul just laid it out for us that we then take on the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. God has a plan even for our spiritual maturity.

God’s plan for our spiritual maturity: Immaturity (others are responsible for my faith and spiritual growth) Adulthood (I take responsibility for my spiritual growth) Maturity (I help others grow spiritually)

(SP NOTE: this could be a helpful illustration, use what makes sense for you with your room.)

In order for us to better understand this process let’s go back to the illustration of the kids table. Here’s the thing about the video with the kids, they’re going to grow physically. They’re going to mature because physical maturity happens naturally over time.

Spiritual maturity must be chosen and pursued.

Like here’s the spiritual reality, I’ve got this kids table up here with kids chairs. (take a seat) If I was 6, this would make sense. But when you see me sit in this chair it’s a little uncomfortable. Because I’m too big to sit in this kids chair.

Some of us are doing this spiritually. We’ve been immature for far too long. Others are responsible for our faith and spiritual growth journey. We’re relying on someone else to say something that nourishes our soul. We’re relying on a small group leader to help me pay attention during group. I’m relying on someone else to call me out in worship because I’m distracting my friends. I’m relying on someone else to lead me to God and lead my relationship with God. Like an adult at the kids table looks funny doesn’t it? The reason an adult at a kids table looks funny is because an adult isn’t made for the kids table - adults are made for the adult table. There was a time when the kids table made sense, but at some point on their life, adults got big enough that it was naturally time for them to change tables.

The same is supposed to be true in our faith. Going through a Wednesday being completely reliant on your small group leader or your student pastor to lead you spiritually makes sense if you’re new to faith. But there should come a time when relying on your SGL or SP for your spiritual growth starts to look as funny as an adult sitting at a kids table - because you weren’t made to completely rely on them for your spiritual growth!

For some of us in this room. It’s time to grow up spiritually.

But if we get back into the process, the next step beyond immaturity is adult hood. PRODUCTION NOTE: put this slide back up

So if I’m immature, how do I take responsibility for my spiritual growth?

Let’s go back to our main scripture for the night (SP NOTE: don’t read the whole thing but point out the things in the next section):

It says, Christ gave us leaders in our lives to teach us about Jesus. Your small group leader, your pastors, residents, teachers, parents, coaches even. you have adults in your life that God has placed their on purpose, to help give you direction, to equip you for service, so that you might know Christ fully.

So if I were to put it simply it would be this:

How do I take responsibility for my spiritual growth?

1. Listen to leaders

2. Practice yourself

3. Be an example for others to do it themselves

Your leaders in your life have valuable wisdom for how to follow Jesus in this life, if you were to seek out their wisdom and listen to what they say you will be taking responsibility for your spiritual life on your own.

(SP NOTE: this isn’t a full list of how a student can do it theirself, but it’s a starting point. I’d encourage you to emphasize things that matter to you in this section.)

This is a big one but practice yourself matters so much. So many of you are relying on someone else to do the work in your spiritual life. So what does it look like to practice yourself.

Instead of relying on someone else to say something that nourishes our soul, we seek out God’s word and find it for ourself. Instead of listening to whatever I want on my way to school I listen to worship music and center my heart before school, I lead my friend group by setting an example for them in speech, conduct, love, faith, and purity. That ones directly from 1 Timothy 4:12:

12 Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith and in purity.

Instead of being quick to be frustrated with your parents you are quick to honor them, you take time each day to be attentive to the presence of God. Instead of relying on someone else to lead me to God and lead my relationship with God, I lead myself in my relationship with God. Maybe no one has ever told you, that you can lead your own relationship with God, you don’t have to have someone else responsible for you.

Part of how you can know that you’re taking responsible for yourself is also in how you be an example for others to do it themselves. I want to give you a list that’s not everything you could possibly do to be like Christ but a list to help you get started with how to reflect Christ in how you live:

Love your neighbor.

Care for the outcasts.

Patience with your teachers

Kindness for your friends.

Peace when there’s anger around you.

Gentleness with someone being harsh to you.

Self-Control to not make everything about you.

If you want a simple version of this, just look up the fruit of the spirit in Galatians.

Let’s remember though, that’s just adulthood. That’s just taking responsibility for my spiritual growth. Some of you in the room have been checked out for the whole teaching because you’ve “got that down”. You’ve already learned how to take responsibility for yourself. That’s great! There’s still another step for you!

Maturity (I help others grow spiritually)

So if you’re in here and you feel like you’ve learned how to take responsibility for yourself.

How do I take responsibility for my spiritual growth?

1. Listen to leaders

2. Practice yourself

3. Be an example for others to do it themselves

(SP NOTE: this isn’t a full list of how a student can take initative, but it’s a starting point. I’d encourage you to emphasize things that matter to you in this section.)

If you’re at a place where you’re ready to help others grow spiritually, that’s great! Take initiative to lead your group when no ones talking, take initative to lead by confessing, take initative to lead by starting a bible study in your school, take initative to lead by sharing the gospel with your school, take initative to lead by calling out anyone distracting in worship, take initative to by encouraging everyone around you to take notes in the teaching.

If that sounds like you and you’re already doing those things, disciple someone. Literally go find someone in this room who’s younger than you, and start meeting with them. Find out what hangups they have in their life. Encourage them in their faith. Make their spiritual growth the thing you are taking responsibility for. Make it a big deal because it is.

Lastly reflect Christ, because you’re never too mature to stop reflecting Christ. It’s the basics and the advanced. There’s levels to this, because usually when you think you’ve figured it out, is when pride has taken over. Humble yourself and go back through this list and test yourself. How are you doing at these things:

Love your neighbor.

Care for the outcasts.

Patience with your teachers

Kindness for your friends.

Peace when there’s anger around you.

Gentleness with someone being harsh to you.

Self-Control to not make everything about you.

Take responsibility for your spiritual maturity. Let’s pray.

Related Media

Related Sermons

Earn an accredited degree from Redemption Seminary with Logos.