Spiritual Teenagers

1 Corinthians 3:1-23

Imagine a playroom filled with toys.

One child has a toy that he is playing with and another toy that he is not playing with. Now imagine a sibling or another child comes into the room and decides to play with the toy that is not being played with. What is about to happen?

That child that was playing with one of his toys is going to drop that toy, and snatch the other toy and say, “That’s mine!”

Nobody has to teach a kid this. It is natural. And it’s hard to grow out of this. You’ll have teenagers. That’s my phone. This is my room. I had a cousin that would say, “This is my truck.” — “Dude, you’re 14, you can’t drive, and this is your dad’s truck.”

What’s sad is adults don’t grow out of this. In marriage, “This is my money. That’s not what I want.”

And the worst part is when it shows up in church…are you stuck as a spiritual teenager?

We’re growing up as we go down this road from dead — infant — teenager — adult — parent. Everybody will go through all of these stages, but the problem occurs when we get stuck. ff it exist

Am I a spiritual teenager?

Beliefs and Behaviors

Excitement over the new deeper relationships they have now that they didn’t have before.

Remembering who they were before Christ and taking joy in who they are now.

Learning Christian language.

Believe that people are not caring for them enough.

Mimicking other Christians’ behaviors in order to look good and gain praise.

Serving in ministry as long as the benefit outweighs the cost.

Incomplete understanding of more complex doctrines and subjects in the Bible.

What you might say or hear someone say:

“I’m not coming to church here anymore. It has become too big. There are too many people.”

“I do not have anyone who is spending enough time with me.”

“I didn’t like the music today. It would be better if they did it like…”

“I am not being fed in my church, so I am going to a church that meets my needs better.”

Spiritual teenagers are self-focussed.

They’re focussed solely on their own spiritual growth.

They’re focussed solely on having their own needs met.

They want people to pour into them, but they are not making much effort, if any at all, to pour into others.

We find this issue in the Bible. There was a church that was roughly 2-3 years old and they were struggling in their growth. They are the perfect example of a spiritual teenager.

1 Corinthians 3:1–23 ESV

But I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it. And even now you are not yet ready, for you are still of the flesh. For while there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh and behaving only in a human way? For when one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” are you not being merely human? What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each. I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labor. For we are God’s fellow workers. You are God’s field, God’s building. According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master builder I laid a foundation, and someone else is building upon it. Let each one take care how he builds upon it. For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw— each one’s work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. If anyone’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire. Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple. Let no one deceive himself. If anyone among you thinks that he is wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is folly with God. For it is written, “He catches the wise in their craftiness,” and again, “The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are futile.” So let no one boast in men. For all things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future—all are yours, and you are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s.

Spiritual teenagers are self-focussed.

“I follow Paul…I follow Apollos.”

Pride in what the believed and what they thought the church should be doing.

“I” was a focus on themselves. I know what I’m doing. I know what is best. I’m right and you’re wrong, (v.18) “thinks that he is wise in this age…”

This was a church full of people who were only interested in having their needs met. They were only focussed on how following Christ benefited them.

This is a stage that all Christians go through, just like all kids and teenagers. But the problem comes when they get stuck here because there is no spiritual parent to teach them otherwise.

The Church isn’t yours; it’s God’s!

v. 6 — God gave the growth…

v. 7 — only God who gives the growth…

v. 9 — God’s fellow workers…God’s field…God’s building…

v. 16 — God’s temple.

v. 23 — You are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s.

This isn’t yours, it’s God’s.

The mission of the church isn’t yours, it’s God’s.

The success of this church isn’t yours, it’s God’s.

There is nothing about this church for you to take an I stance on.

Some people are crafty and try to get around this and blame God for their argument of preference. “I prayed and God told me that you shouldn’t do that. I prayed and God said you need to be doing this instead. I prayed and God told me that I needed to tell you that this is wrong.”

The church doesn’t exist for the satisfaction of ourselves; it exists for the salvation of others.

Paul plants, Apollos waters, God gives the growth and gets the glory.

What is the growth? It is the harvest of someone coming to know Christ. It is the harvest of someone being set free from the influence and condemnation of sin. It is the harvest of someone being brought out from the world and into the Kingdom of God.

(v.10) take care how (you) build upon the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

The church’s foundation is Jesus saves!

Paul goes on to explain our building upon the Gospel with two types of materials — precious and flammable. And he adds that God will judge what we build with fire.

v. 13 — “what sort of work each one has done.” God is going to judge the quality or the motive of our work. Some of you are truly serving God for God’s glory and the salvation of others. Some of you are serving so long as it makes you feel good about yourself and you are noticed and appreciated.

You are not fooling anyone. You can satisfy yourself here as much as you want. You can take pride in all that you do. You can live for the praise of men. You can make it look as humble and holy as you want, but God will see and ultimately His opinion is the only one that matters.

And verse 15 shows that some will not have anything left after the fire but their salvation in Jesus Christ. You’ll basically be like someone who made it out of a burning house just in time. You were so focussed on yourself that you forgot others who needed to be saved as well.

You were so focussed on making sure you had all your arguments fine-tuned and perfect so you could teach with pride all that you know. You were so focussed on what made your comfortable that you pushed others who didn’t know God away from the church.

Self-focus short-circuits the unity of the church and will bring God’s swift judgement.

1 Corinthians 3:16–17 “Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple.”

First of all, one of the disadvantages to the english language is that we don’t know when “you” is plural or singular. And in our individualistic culture, we automatically assume it’s just me.

The “you” here is plural referring to the Church as a whole. Paul is address the Corinthian church as one body with many members. If anyone (singular) destroy’s God’s temple (singular) and you (plural) are that temple, God will destroy him (singular).

Now the obvious truth is that if anyone outside of the faith comes in and seeks to divide and destroy the church, God will destroy them.

This wording here is no light by any means. God is not going to make life difficult for them. He is going to destroy them. Now Paul is not saying that they are doing this, but what he is saying is that if they are not careful, some of them will.

This word translated destroy is used in countless ways, corrupt, perish, and destroy. This means that this is righteous judgment.

Arguments can be made that people who divide a church are not saved people. But I would like to at least urge you to hear this warning. I don’t know how it would happen, but we all need to take seriously this warning and make sure that we are never found to be acting in a way that would unhealthy division in a church.

How do we keep our focus shifted from the satisfaction of ourselves to the salvation of others?

Philippians 2:3–8 “Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”

Jesus came in humiliation to save us from our sins. You can go in humility and sometimes humiliation to lead others to Jesus.

Hebrews 12:2 says that Jesus, “for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame…”

Jesus humbled Himself to death on a cross. Jesus had every right and every good thing, but He laid them aside to bring us salvation.

Keep your focus on Jesus’ cross, and you’ll never find yourself too focussed on yourself.

You may notice your sin, but you’ll never find yourself insisting on your own way. You will be humble seeking to know what God wants you to do.

With your focus on Jesus and what He did for you, you will also realize that He died for others too—others that do not yet know Him. Knowing this, you will go and tell others about Jesus. You will set aside your preferences in favor of doing whatever is necessary for reaching the lost without excusing sin.

Is your focus on your own satisfaction or the salvation of others?