7 MEASURES OF MATURITY
2 Peter 3:18
INTRODUCTION
A. HUMOR: 10 Things You’ll Never Hear in Church:
10) So many people want to share their testimony at church that you have to assign numbers to them;
9) When the pastor closes the sermon, the chant of “We want more! We want more!” erupts.
8) The ushers have to empty the collection plates halfway through the offering because they are too full.
7) The congregation refuses to stop singing during worship.
6) Members begin buying new Bibles because they wore out their older ones.
5) There’s an influx of people asking, “Is there something I can do?”
4) The Sunday School Director has a nervous breakdown because so many people want to teach.
3) People offer their seats to newcomers
2) New carpet has to be installed around the altars because the people have worn it out.
1) The congregation douses the pastor with a cooler of water at the end of the service.
B. TEXT
“Our hope is that, as your faith continues to grow, our sphere of activity among you will greatly expand…” 2 Cor. 10:15.
“Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into Him who is the Head, that is, Christ” Eph. 4:15.
“…So that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God” Col. 1:10.
“We…thank God for you…because your faith is growing more and more, and the love all of you have for one another is increasing” 2 Thess. 1:3.
“Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation” 1 Pet. 2:2.
“But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” 2 Pet. 3:18.
C. THESIS
1. One of the greatest jobs that parents have is to help their kids grow up into intelligent, Christ-loving, law-abiding and successful adults who make a positive contribution to other people's lives.
2. To this end, as parents raising kids, we observe key stages in their growth -- milestones -- and secretly celebrate. When we see these key achievements, we are encouraged that maybe we’re doing something right!
3. It's similar in the spiritual realm. As the Scriptures point out, WE ARE SUPPOSED TO BE GROWING! If we are not growing, there is something drastically wrong, as there would be with any of us whose children stopped growing before maturation.
4. There are milestones of growth that each of us need to achieve. These are markers of advancement that encourage us that we are making progress.
5. Today I'm going to touch on “Seven Measures of Maturity" that each of us need to strive for and grow in during our Christian lives.
I. ASSURANCE OF SALVATION
A. LEARNING FAMILY IDENTITY
1. It's sweet to have a newborn baby. They’re so cute, but can't do very much.
2. It's a big deal the day they learned to say "Momma" or "Dada." This is the sign that they have identified who their parent is.
3. Next they learn to say their own name. So there is established a family identity. The child knows who they are and who their parents are. God wants us to learn this too!
B. KNOWING THIS EXPERIENTIALLY
1. Eternal life is a present possession (John 5:24; 1 John 5:11-12). We become actual children of God by being "born" into His family through Jesus Christ (John 3:3-5).
2. We are to have a "know-so" salvation; that is, we ought to have the certainty that we are NOW children of God.
3. Many Christians struggle with their assurance of salvation. They have frequent doubts about whether they are saved and on their way to heaven.
4. An important milestone for the Christian is to get to the place where they are settled & confidence of their salvation and their future destiny.
5. The terms for being saved are spelled out in Romans 10:8-10. If we’ve confessed Jesus as our Lord and believe in his resurrection, then were saved. Faith doesn't follow feeling, but feeling follows faith.
6. A young man once doubted his salvation and went to his pastor.
a. His pastor said, "Let's get a hammer, stake, and an indelible marker and go out behind your barn." They went behind the barn and the pastor prayed with him the “sinner's prayer.”
b. The pastor said, "Write today’s date and the time on the stake and pound it into the ground. The next time the devil tells you you're not saved, bring him out here and say,
c. ‘Devil, look at this stake. Here on it is the day and the time I asked Christ to save me, and according to His Word, I am saved! Now get out of here in Jesus name!’"
II. ABILITY TO FEED YOURSELF
A. GETTING THE GERBER
1. Another wonderful day in the life of raising a baby is when the child learns to feed itself. Babies aren’t very good at feeding themselves, at first.
2. They get food all over the floor. They sometimes throw it around the room and get it all over their faces.
3. I've seen them take a bowl of spaghetti and turn it upside down on their heads!
4. But it's a great day when they learn to feed themselves. Instead of you having to spoon every bite into their mouths, you can do something else.
B. SPIRITUAL FEEDING
1. It's the same way spiritually. I'm convinced that a majority of people who call themselves Christians don't know how to feed themselves! They depend on other people to feed them.
2. Peter said, “Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation” 1 Pet. 2:2. We are to seek out nourishment from the Word and Jesus.
3. “Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me” John 6:57.
4. The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you—they are full of the Spirit and life” John 6:63.
5. Jesus is the Vine and we are the branches. We derive our life from Him. Without Jesus we have no life. We must go to Him in praise, prayer, and the Word to imbibe His life.
III. PURIFICATION OF THOUGHTS, SPEECH, AND LIFESTYLE
A. POSITIVELY: TAKE ON THE LIFE OF JESUS
1. It’s God’s will that we be conformed into the image of His Son Jesus; Rom. 8.29.
2. “If you have really heard His Voice and learned from Him the truths concerning Himself, then throw off your old evil nature—the old you…full of lust and sham. Now your attitudes and thoughts must all be constantly changing for the better. 24 Yes, you must be a new and different person, holy and good. Clothe yourself with this new nature.” Eph. 4:21-23, Living Bible. Elsewhere Paul told us to “Put on Christ” Rom. 13:14.
3. The first step to getting rid of our old corrupt lives is to take in the life of Christ. It’s a superior life, and with our cooperation, it will force out and replace the old life.
4. Becoming like Christ is not done from the outside by our own efforts; rather, it is done from the inside, by transformation, as Jesus is given the right to establish His kingdom in our hearts.
5. Some old, brown leaves, hang on oak trees all during winter. It looks like they'll never fall off. But when spring comes and the new life flows up through the trunk of the oak tree and into the branches, it forces out the old dead matter.
6. It's the same way if we allow the new life of Christ to have preeminence in our lives.
B. NEGATIVELY: GET RID OF THE OLD LIFE
1. However, we still have a part to play. We must cooperate with the Holy Spirit’s conviction when we do wrong. When He shows us an area of improvement, we’re to alter our behavior.
2. Paul says, "Stop lying to each other….If you are angry, don’t sin by nursing your grudge….If anyone is stealing he must stop it….Don’t use bad language. Say only what is good and helpful to those you are talking to, and what will give them a blessing” Eph. 4:25-29, Living Bible.
3. When the Holy Spirit shows us what we need to do, He will also give us the power to obey Him and throw off the old lifestyle.
4. HUMOR: ASSISTING HER EDUCATION
a. A mother heard her 7-year-old son screaming. She ran into the room, to discover her 2-year-old daughter is pulling the hair of her brother.
b. The mother said, "You’ll have to overlook this. Your sister doesn't know what it feels like to have her hair pulled."
c. Five minutes later the mother heard the daughter screaming. She ran back into the room and said, "What happened?"
d. The boy answered, "She knows what it feels like now."
IV. KNOWLEDGE OF THE WORD OF GOD
A. SCRIPTURES
1. “Now the Berean Jews were of more noble character than those in Thessalonica, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true” Acts 17:11.
2. “Study to show yourselves approved unto God, as workmen that don’t need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the Word of truth” 2 Tim. 2:15.
3. “We have much to say about this, but it is hard to explain because you are slow to learn. In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again” Heb. 5:11-12.
B. SCHOOLED IN THE WORD
1. One of the marks of maturity of the child of God is a thorough knowledge of the Bible. Someone has said, "The Christian who has a Bible that is falling apart usually has a life that’s NOT falling apart."
2. If we wish to be "approved" by God, then we must "study" God's Word. The Word tells us how to live and has within itself the power to set us free, when combined with faith in Christ.
3. Those who have not dug into God's Word are like unschooled children who are not prepared for life in the real world. We can’t be effective for God without a thorough knowledge of the Bible.
V. CONTINUOUS DEPENDENCE ON THE HOLY SPIRIT
A. THE HOLY SPIRIT NECESSARY
1. “Are you so foolish? After beginning by means of the Spirit, are you now trying to finish by means of the flesh?” Gal. 3:3.
2. Just as we have been radically saved at the inception of our spiritual life, we must continue in the power of the Spirit. As one saint said, "I was born in fire and only fire can sustain me!"
3. Many Christians are like a car that's run out of gas and is still coasting on momentum. They got saved and got some speed, but now they're just coasting. It's dangerous and it won't last.
4. They’re like a love relationship that is trying to continue without love.
5. The Christian life depends on the life of God to continue. Paul said, "Keep being filled with the Spirit" Eph. 5:18.
B. DEPENDENCE INCREASES GOD’S POWER
1. Paul said, “But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness’” 2 Cor. 12:9.
2. The more we learn to depend on the Holy Spirit, the more God can do through to our lives.
3. Paul, without modern communications or print medium, altered the Roman world because he depended on the Holy Spirit to get the job done.
VI. CONFIDENCE IN GOD’S CHARACTER DESPITE ADVERSE CIRCUMSTANCES
A. SCRIPTURES
“‘The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.’ In all this Job sinned not, nor charged God foolishly” Job 1:21-22.
Later Job said, “Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him” (13:15).
B. FAITH IN A GOD YOU’RE CERTAIN OF
1. The patriarch Job is possibly the greatest example of confidence in God's character despite terrible adversity.
2. Though losing all of his children and property to catastrophes, Job kept believing that God was a good God and would somehow work everything out for the good.
3. This is a characteristic of a mature child of God. They can survive -- with their faith intact -- the storms, reverses, and troubles that come in this life.
4. We must have an unshakable faith in God and His goodness. If we don't have this, then we really don't know God, that He’s a God of love and goodness!
VII. PERSEVERANCE IN DOING THE WORK OF THE KINGDOM
A. COMPLETE YOUR WORK
1. There's a lot of people that start this race, but not as many that finish. A crowning symbol of maturity is to stay at one’s assigned task until the Lord calls you home.
2. In the parable of the talents or minas, the servants who had been entrusted with money by their Master had to give an account of their stewardship. So will we!
3. Paul wrote, “Tell Archippus: ‘See to it that you complete the ministry you have received in the Lord’” Col. 4:17.
B. PERSEVERANCE IS A QUALITY CREATED IN US AS WE PERSEVERE
1. “Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything” James 1:4.
2. “You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did” James 2:21-23.
3. Heb. 10:36, "You need to persevere that when you have done the will of God you might receive the promise."
4. Jesus said, "They that are faithful unto the end, the same shall be saved." Mt. 24:13.
5. Do not grow weary in well doing, for in due season you will reap, if you faint not!
CONCLUSION
A. ILLUSTRATION: Dusty Like You
1. Jerry Steen got a new job; mixing cattle feed. For 2 weeks, every day when he came home, his 2 boys, ages 3 and 4 would look at him, and say, "Boy, dad, you sure are dusty!" He would reply, "Yep, I sure am!"
2. One day as Jerry was washing his car, he saw his oldest son picking up gravel and dust and rubbing them into his pants. He asked him, "Want are you doing?" His boy replied, "I want to be dusty like you dad!"
3. It’s natural for a child to want to be like his father. How do you need to change to be like your heavenly Father and Jesus?
B. THE CALL
1. We talked about – assurance of salvation, feeding yourself, purification, knowledge of the Word, dependence on the Holy Spirit, faith in Jesus & God’s character, & perseverance doing the work of the Kgdm.
2. We’re supposed to be growing. Hopefully you don’t think you’ve arrived!
3. In what ways do you need to grow? Let’s stand and pray for those areas.
4. Prayer for salvation.
