Craving Maturity in Christ Part 2
Craving Maturity in Christ • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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The Power to Mature
The Power to Mature
The rod and reproof give wisdom, but a child left to himself (gets his own way) brings shame to his mother.
Hear, my son, your father’s instruction, and forsake not your mother’s teaching, for they are a graceful garland for your head and pendants for your neck.
Whoever heeds instruction is on the path to life, but he who rejects reproof leads others astray.
Maturity does not come naturally. It either comes through rights choices involving self-discipline, self-restraint, self-denial, moral integrity and strong character or it comes through repetitive hardships, trials and losses until one finally gets it. Or, it comes through the receiving of intentional instruction in wisdom.
These verses in Proverbs speak of the process of maturity. The one who will humble themselves and receive correction is one who will embrace and apply godly instruction. But the one who refuses boundaries, restraint and discipline demanding to do things and live their own way not only becomes a shame unto themselves and their parents but also to God.
But if they will receive the godly knowledge, wisdom and understanding and apply it to their entire lives, they will abound in the grace of the Lord and be adorned with His mercies. Otherwise, they not only live on the fast path to self destruction, they in up leading others with them.
The Apostle Paul addresses this very same spiritual principle with the Hebrews in Hebrews 5:12-14
For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food, for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.
Basically, Paul was saying, “You guys didn't get it the first time and you need to be retaught the fundamentals of Jesus 101.” The sad thing is that when we do the wrong thing for so long, we are convinced it is right. And if someone comes along and points out that it is actually contradictory to Christ, we become defensive, argumentative and offended rather than turn to the Word of God and reconsider our ways and thinking.
Have you ever seen a small child who is still on milk and mushy stuff want to reach and grab some meat off of Momma or Daddy’s plate. They really have no idea that they will chock on it but in their minds they see it and want it and think they can handle it. I see the same thing spiritually in the church.
The church is filled with Christians who could not tell you a hermeneutic from a homiletic but will justify cultural compromises while claiming to be solid in the precepts and principles of God’s Word. This is why we have so many Christians justifying sinful recreational practices and lifestyles. They attempt to apply culture to Scripture, as if cultural authority were sovereign, instead of Scripture to culture to draw people unto salvation. Just because the Scripture does not use 21st Century cultural language does not mean the precepts, principles, ethical standards and expectations of the Holy God and Creator have changed. His righteousness remains the standard and His judgements will be final.
It is the immaturity of the Church that finds cultural compromises to God’s righteousness acceptable and justifiable. Many have convinced themselves that holding to God’s moral and ethical boundaries, His precepts and principles, His commandments for holy living are too restrictive, legalistic and a deterrent to our children and our evangelistic efforts to fit in with the world. They define God’s standard based on their own moral presuppositions rather than His absolute authority.
When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways.
But the mature Christian does not see God’s call to holiness through the eyes of a spiritual adolescent. Instead, they do not see God’s ethical laws as suffrage but true liberty. The suffering comes through this fallen world and the battle against this fleshly life. But in these sufferings, we are crucified with Christ and through the power of His resurrection and His Holy Spirit we find perseverance, strength, and hope that in us will be produced that which is pleasing to the Father the mature image of His Son Jesus Christ.
Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
God has poured out His love upon us. Do not be condemned but convicted. Do not let your countenance fall but be encouraged. Do not be offended but transformed. Do not be conflicted but convinced that Christ is at work in you and the good work He started in you He is sure to finish as you let Him have full command of your heart and mind. Spread the Word. Proclaim the Gospel of Christ. Warn others of sin and teach them in wisdom as you too grow in Christ.
Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ. For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me.
Through Christ you have been given the power to mature in the Lord. It is the power of His Word and the Power of His Holy Spirit. It is His power that has worked in you thus far. It is His power that is working in you even now. And it is His power that is faithful to work in you tomorrow and every day after that as you seek to grow and mature in Christ.
