Worship call 0720

Worship Call 0720

Thursday September 1, 2022

Spiritual Maturity

Friends, be fed and more! Psalms 37:3 Trust in the LORD, and do good; so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed. The word "verily", in this verse, is the Hebrew word “emunah” (em-oo-nah). It also means "faith" or "faithfully". When we trust in the Lord, and our trust is demonstrated by doing good, He declares that He will faithfully feed us. How will we be fed? The Hebrew word for "fed" is “roeh” (ro-eh), which also means "shepherd". Yes, the good shepherd feeds his flock who trust Him, by leading them to green pastures, and He does it faithfully. Messiah Yeshua (Jesus) is our Chief Shepherd. We know His voice, trust him, and follow His direction, so we don't go hungry. Friends, we're continuing to trust in the Lord and do good; to dwell in the Land and be fed. But our deepest hunger is for the Shepherd Himself... to be nearer to Him. He feeds us, in every way. Yet His deepest longing is that we dwell with and in Him, as He said, "Abide in Me and I in you". Not only does our life depend on Him, Who is faithful, but the greater relationship He offers and desires is to be our friend, and even our Husband. Your family in the Lord with much agape love, George & Obadiah (in Baltimore), Baht Rivka (in Israel) and Elianna (in Texas)

And this is another fine day in the Lord

What is all of this there for?

Matthew 5:48 (NASB95) — 48 “Therefore you shall be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

88.36 τέλειοςa, α, ον: pertaining to being perfect in the sense of not lacking any moral quality—‘perfect.’[1]

Stepping through the door of Salvation where our sins are forgiven, is not the end of the journey, but the beginning of the Journey.

In the stages of life physically none of us were born matured. We had to grow. We had to eat our vegetables there were things we had to learn and as time passed we grew to be adolescent onward to become adults.

1 John 2:12–14 (NASB95) — 12 I am writing to you, little children, because your sins have been forgiven you for His name’s sake. 13 I am writing to you, fathers, because you know Him who has been from the beginning. I am writing to you, young men, because you have overcome the evil one. I have written to you, children, because you know the Father. 14 I have written to you, fathers, because you know Him who has been from the beginning. I have written to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the evil one.

There is an objective to the spiritual life and that is that each one of us reach the place of maturity in the faith.

What does spiritual Maturity mean?

1. Maximizing one’s life to the glory of God.

2. Capacity for the blessings of God

3. Maximizing one’s use of one’s spiritual gifts

4. An effective witness for God.

5. Living in the image of Christ.

Ephesians 4:13–16 (NASB95) — 13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ. 14 As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming; 15 but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ, 16 from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.

What we become by way of maturity does not come by determination and good intent. But I will say it should be all our ambitions to live the Christian way of life moving from babes in Christ to maturity in the faith.

There are those things I do in maintaining spiritual priorities in life as in taking in God’s word and walking in accordance with the dictates of the Holy Spirit for the purpose of reaching spiritual maturity. Growing comes not through my determination or ambition it comes strictly by the work of Holy Spirit in me.

On my part what I do on a day to day basis is to maintain those priorities which will strengthen my faith.

Such as the Journey of Abraham. He stepped from a place where he was familiar with and went to a place where the Lord said.

Hebrews 11:8 (NASB95) — 8 By faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed by going out to a place which he was to receive for an inheritance; and he went out, not knowing where he was going.

Is the account of Abraham about a man who lived the straight and narrow?

No, of course not. It was a journey of many failures. Abraham would take one step forward and two steps back sometimes. But then it was that the Lord put Abraham’s faith to the test when he told Abraham to take his only uniquely born son to the mountain and take his life.

We know the story. Abraham succeeded in trusting and obeying the Lord.

Note where that testing took place. not at the beginning of the journey but when Abraham was older.

Many dismiss the Christian way of life for whatever reason. They think lightly of their own sins knowing that the sins were paid for at the cross and they take it that since Christ did it all that there is no responsibility on the part of the believer. We are saved by grace in the age of grace and live by grace.

If that is you, then you have the wrong or no view of the Christian way of life. You have taken your Salvation for granted and your life will be lived in vain lest there be a change of mind (repentance)

Christian responsibility to live the life that is worthy of our calling is highlighted in this verse.

Matthew 5:48 (NASB95) — 48 “Therefore you shall be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

In the Hebrew the equitant to Teleios is תָּמִים [tamiym /taw·meem/] adj[2]

Genesis 6:9 (NASB95) — 9 These are the records of the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blamelessתָּמִים [tamiym/taw·meem/] adj[3]in his time; Noah walked with God.

Sometimes this gets a little confusing for preachers as they attempt to explain away Noah’s drunkenness later on.

Completeness is having integrity living a life of righteousness heart directed to God.

But we also have to live in a body of corruption. A battle between the spirit and the flesh. Completeness or maturity is not the absence of the sin nature but the subordination of the flesh under the spirit. Peter tells us that we must be on guard. It is certain that the mature believer would be big game for Satan to pounce upon at any opportunity.

The measurement of one’s dealing with people outside of one’s personal affection is a gauge to where you are in your own spiritual life and Love for God.

[1]Louw, J. P., & Nida, E. A. (1996). In Greek-English lexicon of the New Testament: based on semantic domains (electronic ed. of the 2nd edition., Vol. 1, p. 745). United Bible Societies. [2]Strong, J. (1995). In Enhanced Strong’s Lexicon. Woodside Bible Fellowship. [3]Strong, J. (1995). In Enhanced Strong’s Lexicon. Woodside Bible Fellowship.