Four Seasons Of Christianity
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
Greetings…
A few weeks back I mentioned that, occasionally on Sunday evenings over the remainder of the year, I was going to focus on some titles my friend Larry, the kids, and I came up with as a way to compare each other’s study and style, if you will.
The first lesson on the list we have already studied was titled, “3 Missing Ingredients In The Church.”
Zeal: (Energy).
Commitment: (Duty and Ought).
Intestinal Fortitude (Guts & Toughness).
Today we are going to look at the second of these titles the, “Four Seasons Of Christianity.”
With that in mind let’s examine our lesson for today.
Babe
Babe
Ignorant Stage.
Ignorant Stage.
This is the milk stage of the child of God as they are unskilled, as of yet, in the word.
13 for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child.
2 I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it. And even now you are not yet ready,
1 As for the one who is weak in faith, welcome him, but not to quarrel over opinions.
This ignorance can either motivate to improvement or lead to destruction.
32 and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
6 My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge; because you have rejected knowledge, I reject you from being a priest to me. And since you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children.
This stage in a Christian’s walk with God is also the…
Observation Stage.
Observation Stage.
Everything is new and exciting.
Have you ever looked at a baby’s eyes they are constantly moving about observing and taking in as much information as possible, and this is very good.
This is a good thing and something that should be encouraged but also guarded against.
9 Rejoice, O young man, in your youth, and let your heart cheer you in the days of your youth. Walk in the ways of your heart and the sight of your eyes. But know that for all these things God will bring you into judgment.
Summary
Summary
As babes in Christ, with a limited knowledge, everything is a brand new experience and a time we not only should not forget but cherish or long for in some ways.
2 Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation—
However, though we are to long for those pure and innocent days we keep in mind God is not ok with us staying infants concerning his word.
Babes in Christ must grow into “metaphorically speaking” a…
Teenager
Teenager
Eat Well But Clumsy Stage.
Eat Well But Clumsy Stage.
At this stage God’s children should no longer be reliant on the milk of God’s word but rather be about consuming the solid food or meat of God’s precious message and like teenagers physically there should be a great hunger for it by now.
This isn’t to suggest they won’t struggle because the reality is they will struggle with immorality of various kinds due to their still lacking of integration with God’s word, however, they will be much less likely to get caught up in something due to ignorance.
In other words, they know enough that when they find themselves in differing situations that they are ignorant in they “can” make rational judgments, though not fully mature.
9 How can a young man keep his way pure? By guarding it according to your word.
There is a price with such a combination of feasting and clumsiness and that is the secondary stage which is the…
Strong But Overconfident Stage.
Strong But Overconfident Stage.
As just said the appetite for God’s word at this stage is great and this leads to a new found strength with God’s word. However, this strength can often, if not careful, lead to overconfidence. One way this can bit the “metaphoric teenage spiritual stage” is that…
One can associate with the wrong people “trying to spiritually help them” and put their spiritual selves at risk.
2 For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge.
33 Do not be deceived: “Bad company ruins good morals.”
In an attempt to help their friends or family they could find themselves “being carried away” instead.
17 You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, take care that you are not carried away with the error of lawless people and lose your own stability.
12 Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall.
Summary
Summary
This stage is a vital part of maturing in our walk with God and growing closer to him, however, those in this stage must be very careful not to fall themselves while helping others.
1 Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted.
Teenagers in Christ must then grow into an…
Adult
Adult
Family Stage.
Family Stage.
It’s typically at this stage that the souls of others start to take center stage in our life.
One starts to turn their attention on those inside and outside the church that need our help spiritually not out of “God wants me to” but out of a sense of “want to for God.”
4 Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.
The idea takes full form of how the church is really their family and they are responsible for it.
They are willing do whatever it take to provide spiritually for their family by any means biblically possible.
This family sense of obligation includes the physical providing to the best of their ability.
8 But if anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.
This family sense of obligation also includes the spiritual providing to the best of their ability.
1 Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted. 2 Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.
The spiritual side of this isn’t limited to helping with sin but helping to head it off because at this adult stage in ones Christian walk they should find themselves in an…
Energetic Teaching Stage.
Energetic Teaching Stage.
This is when Christians should have a good combination of zeal/energy and knowledge of God’s word.
They are not longer ignorant babes or teenage clumsiness with God’s word they are able to “rightly handle it.”
15 Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.
This is the perfect time where one is able, if they have passed through the other two stages, to expound God’s word to others by way of individual study and public teaching.
12 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,
If embraced properly this “energetic teaching stage” will allow the adult child of God to be filled with, not only the word of God, but the valuable advice of others that have been before us and still know more than us.
20 Listen to advice and accept instruction, that you may gain wisdom in the future.
Summary
Summary
This is an exciting and pivotal stage for every child of God.
This is when we are not only “learning on our own” but “ fully embracing the wisdom of others” in the Lord.
Lastly, when the child of God matures past the adult stage, so to speak they mature into the…
Elderly
Elderly
Work Smarter Not Harder Stage.
Work Smarter Not Harder Stage.
Those that have reached this stage have not only years of study and thus knowledge under their belt but also the wisdom to go with it in a wide and varied assortment of areas.
29 The glory of young men is their strength, but the splendor of old men is their gray hair.
12 Wisdom is with the aged, and understanding in length of days.
When a child of God finds themselves in this stage they have a responsibility to impart their wisdom, not just knowledge, on those younger than them.
7 I said, ‘Let days speak, and many years teach wisdom.’
Summary
Summary
The more a child of God “does for God” and the more he or she “goes through various trials” the more wisdom they accumulate and are able to pass on.
This simply cannot be done quickly and thus takes time.
Conclusion
Conclusion
To be clear there is no actual “physical age” for each of these steps.
In other words 50 or 90 year old could be the babe stage of the Christian journey and a 30 or 40 year old could be in the elderly age of their Christian journey.
The physical is not the indicator their spiritual maturity is.
As the Hebrew writer said in Hebrews 6:1, “Therefore let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity…”
Invitation
1 Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, or his ear dull, that it cannot hear; 2 but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear.
6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.
17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.
6 And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.
30 The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent,
32 “Therefore whoever confesses Me before men, him I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven.
8 in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.
1 Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, 2 and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. 3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures,
3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. 5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.
7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.