Boys to Men
From Boys to Men • Sermon • Submitted
0 ratings
· 1,820 viewsGod wants us to move from childish ways to manly ways
Notes
Transcript
Sermon Tone Analysis
A
D
F
J
S
Emotion
A
C
T
Language
O
C
E
A
E
Social
“Boys to Men”
Text:
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. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.
(VIDEO) … Being a Man
My ILLY: When I was a boy (about 5 years old) I used to love to play “Mannix”. (The Detective)
Question: What if you happen to drop by my house tonight and found me still playing “Mannix”?
You would think …“Something’s Wrong!”
The sad truth is… We have men in the body of Christ have been saved for 5-10-20 years and they’re still playing Mannix!
· Their spiritual growth has been stunted!
· They’re still playing with childish things!
In the “spirit” they are still “little boys”!!!
Men… What I want to say to us today is this… There must come a time in our life when we make a decision…
· It’s time to grow up!
· It’s time to “put away childish things”!
We must grow from Boys to Men!
All of us in this room are at different stages in our spiritual growth and development.
-- Just like its true in the natural, so it is true in the spiritual.
-- Healthy & Normal Christians are supposed to have
spiritual growth, not stunted growth!
Example: Kaitlin
...at 18 months to about 3 years old… “Teletubbies.”
...from 3- 6 years old … “The Wiggles & Sponge Bob”
…from 7 - 12 she liked to watch… “Cheetah Girls”
She’s 20 years old now. You’re not going to find her watching the “Teletubbies”. If she was… there might be something a little abnormal in her growth! Her
psychological growth would be stunted (not normal). So it is normal for her to grow out of that stage and put away
childish things.
The Bible says… we ought to put away some childish things in our lives. And the apostle describes what those childish things are in verse 11. “When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things.’ (, NKJV)
Notice those three words:
I SPOKE
I UNDERSTOOD
I THOUGHT
Those are the three main areas that control our life:
1) Our Words
1) Our Words
2) Our Mind
2) Our Mind
3) Our Reasoning
3) Our Reasoning
The way we respond to these 3 areas of our life… we will either spur us on to spiritual growth or stunt our spiritual growth. They will create health or they will create harm in our walk with God.
Let’s talk about these 3 key areas this morning:
The first area has to do with our…
1) “WORDS” - the way we speak
1) “WORDS” - the way we speak
A. Paul says, “I used to speak as a child speaks.”
· How does a child speak? (think about it)
o They speak without thinking
o They spew out whatever is on their mind!
o They repeat things they shouldn’t repeat at
inappropriate times!
My Example: My Dad’s “T-Shirt in the box” @ x-mas
Paul says… “This is the way I talked when I was a child… but now I’m a man and I put away childish talk!”
B. Men… The Bible has a lot to say about our WORDS!
Let me just a read a few things the Word has to say to us:
“Death and life are in the power of the tongue, And those who love it will eat its fruit. ” (, NKJV)
Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruits.
Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruits.
· Do you know that you can set the atmosphere with your words?
o In your home
o At your workplace
o Here at the Church
· You can bring a spirit of death or a spirit of life into any environment… based on the words that are coming out of your mouth!
C. Men… let’s be honest today:
Sometimes we are “hung by our tongue”!
“A fool’s mouth is his destruction, And his lips are the snare of his soul. ” (, NKJV)
“A fool’s mouth is his destruction, And his lips are the snare of his soul. ” (, NKJV)
A fool’s mouth is his ruin, and his lips are a snare to his soul.
Did you hear that? “your words are a snare to your soul”!
Sometimes the reason you’re depressed or in a bad mood is a direct result of what you’ve been speaking all day!
· “Yeah, the boss says, they’re gonna lay a few people off
at work. Yeah, its probably gonna be me.”
· “Oh the economy is so bad! Probably gonna lose my car and my house next.”
· “Gloom, despair, and agony on me!”
“A fool’s mouth is his destruction, And his lips are the snare of his soul. ” (, NKJV)
“Whoever guards his mouth and tongue Keeps his soul from troubles. ” (, NKJV)
“Whoever guards his mouth and tongue Keeps his soul from troubles. ” (, NKJV)
Whoever keeps his mouth and his tongue keeps himself out of trouble.
Here’s a great prayer we ought to be praying over ourselves everyday:
“Set a guard, O Lord, over my mouth; Keep watch over the door of my lips. ” (, NKJV)
“Set a guard, O Lord, over my mouth; Keep watch over the door of my lips. ” (, NKJV)
Set a guard, O Lord, over my mouth; keep watch over the door of my lips!
Men… your mouth will stunt your spiritual growth and hinder you from becoming a man of God!
Closure: Paul says… “When I as a child, I spoke as a child, but when I became a man… I put away childish things!”
The next area Paul point out to us is our…
2) MIND -- this has to do with our thought life.
2) MIND -- this has to do with our thought life.
Paul says… “When I was a child, I thought as a child….”
A. If there was ever an area that ruins more men than any
other… it is this area of the mind!
· That’s why God’s Word tells us to guard the gate of our mind! Watch out what we put in there!
“For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ, ” (, NKJV)
“For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ, ” (, NKJV)
For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ,
B. Keep in mind Paul is comparing spiritual growth to
moving from being a child to a man!
· Think about the mind of a child:
o They let anything enter their mind!
o They watch anything on TV
o They listen to anything on the radio!
o They have no self-control on what they put in their mind!
· Paul is saying… “Wait a minute! I must put away childish thinking!”
o I can’t just allow anything to enter into my mind!
o I have to be on guard!
o I have to take captive every thought that exalts itself against the knowledge of God!
C. Men… God is calling us to have a disciplined mind!
How do we do that?
· You have to change your habits!
· Change what you watch!
· Change what you listen to!
· Identify triggers in your life, that cause you to be tempted and to stumble!
o Certain type of Music
o Certain types of TV shows
o You can’t go certain places!
Notice… I’m NOT telling you specifically what you should do…because if I did… it would become legalism, and it wouldn’t help you.
-- What’s wrong for me, may not be wrong for you!
-- What’ s wrong for you, may not be wrong for me!
Closure: What I am telling you is that if we’re gonna move from “boys to men”… we have to put away the childish way of thinking!
The last thing that can stunts the spiritual growth of many men is our…
3) REASONING - what we believe
3) REASONING - what we believe
“When I was a child I understood (reasoned) as a child…”
“When I was a child I understood (reasoned) as a child…”
This has to do with how we formulate our opinions, our ideas, our world-view.
A. Have you ever sat and talked to your 3 year old and
listened to their reasoning?
· They’re cute! But sometimes they don’t make sense!
o Example: As a bus driver I like to ask little kids what they want to be when they grow up:
§ Astronaut
§ Astronaut
§ Princess
§ Police officer
Ask them again, the next week and you will get a whole different answer!
WHY? Because they’re still childish in their
reasoning, (their ideas about themselves and the world) is still unstable!
B. Men…If you’re gonna move from being boys to men… you
have to become stable in what you believe about God,
yourself, and this world you live in!
-- You have to develop some convictions in your life!
-- You have to be solid about what’s right and wrong! What’s evil and what’s righteous!
C. Let me read these couple of Scriptures and then we’ll
close:
“If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways. ” ()
“If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways. ” ()
If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.
“For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God; and you have come to need milk and not solid food. For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe. But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil. ” ()
“For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God; and you have come to need milk and not solid food. For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe. But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil. ” ()
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.
Closure: Men God is looking for a remnant of men who have thrown away the “milk bottle” and began to press their way into a deeper walk with God. Men who have drawn a line in the sand and will say, “I’m going all the way with God!”
“When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things.’
“When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things.’
1) Our WORDS
2) Our MIND
3) Our REASONING
From Boyz to Men… which one is God challenging you with on the Father’s Day?
PRAY (Call Father’s Forward)