Stand & Read - 1 Peter 2:1-3
“Therefore, putting aside all malice and all guile and hypocrisy and envy and all slander, [2] like newborn babes, long for the pure milk of the word, that by it you may grow in respect to salvation, [3] if you have tasted the kindness of the Lord.”
“It’s Time To G.R.O.W. Up!”
Prayer…
We have heard it said to us once or twice before…
“Grow Up!”
-It hurt, but yet, we knew that it was true…
You were younger…doing what children or teens do…and some misunderstanding or “out-of-touch” adult would snarl those hurtful words at you…”GROW UP!”
-Most likely, we acted as though they didn’t apply to us…or it didn’t matter…
-Maybe we knew it was true, but yet…it is too fun to act young and foolish…
-Sometimes, when we knew that those words applied to us, we would ponder them in the quietness of our bedroom that evening…
In any event, we have been faced with this truth…that we needed to “GROW UP!”
We know that it is necessary…
We know that we must, but yet, we do our best to avoid it…the inevitable…growing up…
-It almost strikes fear into us because we know that with maturity comes responsibility and then comes the demand for results, or fruit from our lives saying that we are indeed, GROWN UP!
Well…here we are today, hearing those words again…”GROW UP”!
All coming from the Written Word of God in I Peter 2…
Yet this time it is very different than before…
Why is that?
-Because rather than an old aunt who growls that phrase at you; or a crotchety, old and angry man saying it…this time, it is GOD!!!
-These words are from the lips of the one who knows you inside and out…
-The source of these words is the Almighty and All-Powerful, LIVING God who holds the world in His hands…
And we know that when they come from His lips…they are just and true…
Job 34:21
"For His eyes are upon the ways of a man, And He sees all his steps.”
You see…what God sees is the truth…
He sees through the façades and the pretences that we put up for others to see…
And while everyone may believe that we are GROWN UP, God sees that there is a LACK of maturity…
Hebrews 4:12
“For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.”
The Word also tells us that it does see deep within us…to our core.
It is active in our lives and is a piercing tool, which CAN divide and discern the masqueraded actions of men…
It “judges” us, as it says in Hebrews…therefore, we must take heed to what it may say today to us this morning…
I believe we need to hear this because we do something with information that we do not want to hear…we do not want to listen to…or even put into action in our lives…
What do we do with that information and those cutting words???
-We disregard them…
-We discredit them…
-We make reason for “short comings” and failures…playing the blame game…
-We out-right, ignore and turn a deaf ear to the advice…
While that may be just fine when it is a mad old man yelling at you, or that irritating aunt…it is NOT good advice to take when it is God speaking to you today!
The advice that IS good to take when God speaks to you…LISTEN TO IT, and CHANGE YOUR WAYS so that they might coincide with God’s will for your life!
You see, throughout the Word of God we are instructed, “Not to be deceived”.
Why would we continually need to hear that unless, we humans in our frailty, would continually allow for things that are spoken to us, FROM GOD, to be pushed under the rug and not heeded???
-We have terrible habits of not listening to what we don’t want to hear, UNTIL we are forced to change…
Example…
Eating better…when we have a life-threatening heart attack…
Managing the money better…when we almost loose the house…
Treating our wives better…when she threatens to leave you…
Galatians 6:7
“Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap.”
This comes to us to warn us to not allow for deception to jade our thinking…
Because if we were to continue on in our paths of deception, we will reap the harvest of the laboring in deception…
Don’t be deceived, because God is not mocked…what He says it true, and the fruit will be the evidence of such truth…
-Either fruit from the change, making life better…
-Or fruit from the same-old-thing, resulting in misery, pain & disappointment…
You may be saying to yourself…
“WHY is this guy railing on and gone off on this distant tangent???”
I am railing on this issue because I know, beyond a doubt today, that when I mentioned the title this morning…”It’s time to GROW up!”
-You said, this doesn’t apply to me…
-I have been saved a long time, and have known the Lord longer than you have been alive…
I know that that is true, but that doesn’t mean that you are mature in Christ, resulting in abundant fruit from your life…
And I, respectfully, say all this today as a preface because I want to warn you; as a messenger of the Lord this morning…PLEASE DO NOT disregard this message this morning!
Because it is very possible that the Lord has a desire to speak to you today…
-For many…we need to GROW UP this morning in the faith…
-No longer drinking on the milk of the Word…
-No longer acting as children with temper tantrums, kicking, screaming, and the like…
-No longer being bound up by old habits from the old nature…
-No longer allowing immature actions to result in your life bringing division, strife and contention…
A mature one will allow for their rights and feelings to take a back seat to others…not enforcing their own desires…
A mature one will not try to convince others of how right they are, and how wrong others are…
A mature Christian is lifting OTHERS up and not themselves…they could care less about themselves…
Nor do the mature puff themselves up…
My friends in Christ…I want you to be a mature group of believers today…
Unfortunately, there are some who do act-out in immaturity…
Some are not acting their age “IN CHRIST”…
-My mother would always say to me when I was a kid…”Act your age, and not your shoe size!”
For a while, the two were not that different; but now, there is truth there for me!
Today…the Lord is saying unto you…”IT IS TIME TO GROW UP!”
Say it…”It’s time to grow up!”
ILLUSTRATION:
I know that I will very soon, within two weeks, know the reality of a baby once again in our house…
But a basic principle that we all know to be true with babies is that they like to eat…and they are motivated to eat…and live to eat…
So much so, that they have a cry that a Mother can come to notice as a “hungry” cry…
One thing is for sure, that if a baby doesn’t eat…something is wrong.
-They are sick, something is out of balance and there is something to be concerned about…
Another thing that can be alarming is if there is no growth in the baby…
-Obviously again, there must be something wrong that is going on inside of that little life…
In any event, when there is no eating and/or no growth…there is a problem with the child…
How does this relate…?
Are we lacking a spiritual appetite? Do we have a desire for the things of God anymore?
Do we lack TRUE growth within our spiritual lives? Do we lack in fruit or evidence of salvation?
If so, then we are sick or lack health today…
It is tragic, but many in THE church today are faced with this in their lives…
-No fruit…
-No growth…
-No appetite…
-No desire any longer for the things of God…
And today, I hope that you will take a look within yourself and find that there is a need for growth and maturity within you…! (Something I think that is true for all, because we will ALWAYS have more to learn, and deeper depths to go in God.)
How do we get there?
That is what I want to address this morning…How do we make it happen? How can we see growth in our lives???
I will be working from the acronym this morning…G.R.O.W.
So let’s work from this today…coming form I Peter…
Get Into The Word…Prayer…Church…
When we are lacking growth in Christ…it all begins in the Word of God!!!
1) The Word
This is the first place to look at in your life to find what may be going wrong…for if this element of your life has gone array…then the others will be of little effect anyhow.
Ask yourself…are you in the Word? If not…you can do all the other things correctly, and still be missing the true growth that could be yours…because the Word is a must!
The Word is the seed by which our lives are planted, fertilized, spouted, and grown into flourishing and thriving trees planted by the streams of living water…
Psalm 1:3
“And he will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither; and in whatever he does, he prospers.”
-This is a picture of what God desires for you and I…
-However, we do not get to this point without first being in the Word…that is the Source!!! The stream of living water is the Word…Christ!!!
Why is the Word so important to us?
Because it is God’s revelation of Himself to man…in it is found life and liberty to all who believe on it.
-The Word is also Jesus…
John 1:1-5
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. [2] He was in the beginning with God. [3] All things came into being by Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. [4] In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. [5] And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.”
My friends, there is more to the Word than what we think, we relegate it to something needed, but not necessary. Maybe not in word, but in deed!
But WE NEED the Word! Because…IN IT IS FOUND THE LIFE OF GOD!
-Jesus likened Himself often to being Living Water and the Bread of Life…and truly, it is so…
-Just as we need water and bread as an essential to life…we need Jesus as an essential to Spiritual Life too!
Psalm 119:116
“Sustain me according to Thy word, that I may live; and do not let me be ashamed of my hope.”
2) Prayer
Not only is the Word necessary, but also, prayer is the key too!
Prayer is simply communication with God; and this is our “connection” to Him…
These both go hand-in-hand…
They are the essentials that we have come to know to be necessary for our lives and spiritual maturity in Him.
-Thus, the call for us to “pray without ceasing”…and to “pray continually”…
The Word and Prayer…are your DAILY meat and bread…
-Your two main ingredients to your life, for fullness and growth…
3) Church Attendance
A supplement to these two, but yet still very necessary is…going to Church!!!
We MUST go to Church to be feed the Word of God, leading to maturity…to worship in a cooperate setting…to be formed into the image of Christ together with the Body.
Hebrews tells us in Hebrews 10:25 to…
“not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more, as you see the day drawing near.”
-We need to be in Church, assembled together, so that we will be useful as a Body of Christ…
ILLUSTRATION:
Have you ever bought something that is not assembled? And you have had to assemble that thing…was it useful BEFORE the assembly? Of course not, that is why it required assembly.
The same is for you and I…we need assembly too! We need to be together with “the Body”, and that is where we become useful for God…serving the saints and the sinners.
-We are also encouraged to do it all the more when “the day” is approaching. What day is that? The day of the return of the Lord! Do you believe it is soon? Are you coming together with the saints in greater frequency because of that knowledge of God’s soon return?
Getting into the house of God will make you more mature as you learn the Word, grow together with others and hear God’s heart-beat for the cooperate body…
Proverbs 27:17
“Iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.”
Within the Body, you are able to build healthy relationships that bring growth to you as well…
-By the challenge of seeing others who are very mature…and you aspire to be like them, as they follow Christ!
-By being around others who may challenge you, and cause you to place into action, your knowledge of the Word. Forgiving, praying for others, loving those who despitefully use you, etc…
-By being an example to others who may be younger in the Faith than you…a good thing for all to be involved in is to train up others in the truth of God too. It will bless you!
There are other benefits too…but we will have to cover them at another time…
Anyhow…the first step is the simplest, most “common knowledge” piece of information we know from just coming to Church in general…
-We must be people who are diligent in the Word…Prayer…and Church attendance.
Remember, once a week attendance is not an end to attendance…it is only the beginning!
When I started going to Church…I went once a week…then I GREW to twice and three times…J
It is a beginning, not an end!
Next…we need to…
Rid Yourselves…
Here in I Peter…he speaks to the audience and tells them to rid themselves of various things that would slow their Spiritual lives down from progress in God! I.e.…GROWTH!
Peter encourages us to strip off everything that may hold us back from the Lord…
-Things like…malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy and slander…
-Characteristics that are not a representation of Christ, or one who is mature in Him…
Therefore, these things must be removed from us…weeded out from our lives, if you will, so that what is desired may flourish and grow into fullness in Christ!
Ephes. 4:22
“…that, in reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit…”
Hebrews 12:1
“Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance, and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us…”
There is clear direction that comes from the Lord in these two verses that exhort us to lay aside those things, which EASILY, entangle and hinder true growth and maturity in our lives.
-If these things were predominant…if these things were able to remain…then there would be no room for the good, pure and profitable things to BE in your lives, let alone them being able to grow in you…(think of a garden and weeds)
-Where there is darkness, there cannot be light!
ILLUSTRATION:
Think of a boat that is sinking…immediately, those on board would begin to do one thing…they would begin to throw off those things which are unnecessary and just weighing down the vessel.
They would do this in order to keep the boat afloat, and so that the lives of those on board could be saved…
The same applies to each of us…
With sin in our lives, we need Christ. And with Christ, we need to throw off those things, which would weigh us down and risk our lives in Christ!
Sin does so easily entangle us…so we must be wise to the enemy and follow the direction of the Lord in down-sizing our lives so that we are only keeping the truly necessary and wholesome things which spur growth and not decline!
Not only do we need to Get into the Word, Prayer and Church…
We need to Rid ourselves of those thing which do hinder and weight down…
But, we also need to…
Override The Deeds Of The Flesh…
Though we may “rid ourselves” of those things that are unnecessary…we still will be in conflict with the flesh…we will never be completely free from the longings of the flesh until the day we step onto the other side of glory…
However, we do need to remain in constant conflict with the flesh…for by its deeds, we will find death…
Romans 8:13
“for if you are living according to the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live.”
This must be our focus…to put to death the deeds of the flesh! We need to be killing off the sinfulness that wants to spring up within our lives and take over the territory of the good and honorable fruit of our lives…
-For in this struggle we will find life and liberty in Christ Jesus our Lord!
Paul stated some interesting things in Romans 7:14-the end…but in Romans 7:15 it says…
“For that which I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate.”
-We have heard this before, and we have understood this to mean that those who are saved will still struggle with the flesh and its desires…and this is very true for us…HOWEVER!
-Though we will always know this struggle, we CAN find victories through Christ!!! We can!
-It is through the saving grace of God that we can do it! Change will not come with just good intentions, but with Christ’s help!
We are not our own master, because evil and the flesh rule within us; we are slaves to them…BUT
We have a way out provided in Christ…the One who will provide a way out of temptation so that we will not be “overcome by sin”…
1 Cor. 10:13 tells us…
“No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, that you may be able to endure it.”
Here is the truth this morning…
If you fail in your desire to stand up against sin…it IS NOT because Christ’s provision of grace was inadequate!!!
IT IS because the Christian has failed to resist their own sinful desires, by the power of the Spirit, made available to them…
2 Peter 1:3
“…seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence.”
-All power in Christ has been made available to you for life and victory in Christ Jesus…
So yes! Every Christian CAN override the deeds of the flesh, IF we desire to.
And IF we depend upon the power and faithfulness of God!!!
The last avenue towards GROWTH in God is simple…
Walk In The Ways Of God…
Isaiah 30:21
“And your ears will hear a word behind you, "This is the way, walk in it," whenever you turn to the right or to the left.”
Within this portion of Scripture…verses 19-22…God speaks to Zion or Israel, and speaks to them about how He will hear them when they will cry to Him…and how they will hear His voice saying, “This is the way…walk ye in it!”
I believe that this is a picture for us today as well…
For those of us who would hear the voice of God (and those who are saved, have and do) I believe that He has shown “the way” to us as well…
Today, His call to us is…”Walk in it!!!”
My friends, understand me when I say this…
We don’t need more teaching…
We don’t need to have better leadership…
We don’t need to read more books…
None of these things are going to help us to walk in the Lord better…we already know what we should do!
-We just have to start doing what we know we should be doing!!!
-We have got to begin to put into practice what we know is right and just!!!
Today, in the Power of our Mighty God, I beseech you to simply WALK IN THE WAYS OF GOD!!! Just do it! There are no tricks to it…just a choice to DO IT!
-Stop digging around in the muck and the mire of life, lift up your head towards your loving Savior and walk in the ways of God!!!
Psalm 119:16
“I shall delight in Thy statutes; I shall not forget Thy word.”
Psalm 119:33
“Teach me, O Lord, the way of Thy statutes, And I shall observe it to the end.”
Do you hear that? There are no requests for the “tricks of the trade” or any “quick fix” ideas…just simply a request for the knowledge of the better way, and then a determined choice to DO IT!
-Yes, we do it in the strength of God…
-But, we see the way of the Lord, and we walk in it…by choice and action!
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So, How do we grow in the Lord???
1) Get into the Word…get into prayer…get into Church and Sunday School!
2) Rid yourselves of those things that entangle and ensnare you!
3) Override the deeds of the flesh! Be done with them!
4) Walk in the ways of God! Just do it!!!
As I close…
My friends…it is time to GROW up today!
It is time to Grow up and become mature in Christ!
Hebrews 5:12
“For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you have need again for someone to teach you the elementary principles of the oracles of God, and you have come to need milk and not solid food.”
-Without a doubt, this can be true for some today as well…
As you have sat here this morning, you have come to realize that you do need to mature. You should be more grown up. And you have said to yourself…”IT IS time to grow up in Christ!”
-God desires growth in your life this morning…
-God desires a choice to come from you today, one that says, I WILL grow up!
1 Cor. 13:11
“When I was a child, I used to speak as a child, think as a child, reason as a child; when I became a man, I did away with childish things.”
Do away with those childish things this morning, and begin to think as a man, or a woman. Begin by making the choice today to mature and grow up in Christ. Don’t be deceived…see the truth, and respond to a loving Savior this morning!
Stop holding out on God and hesitating…you are only hurting yourself!
God desires to use you. He wants you to be useful to Him, but you need to be mature.
You need to stop being a vessel of the enemy, although in ignorance it is happening, it is happening because there is immaturity and you know no better…
ALTAR CALL:
If you would say, yes, I want to be more mature in Christ…raise your hand today!
If you hope to be deeper into the things of God, and grow solidly and firmly in the Word…say yes…raise your hand!
If you are willing to throw off the deeds of the flesh today, those old sinful habits…raise your hand! Giving up habits…
Do you need salvation in Christ? He will bring you too into maturity, but it begins at the Cross of Jesus, and in acceptance of Him…
CLOSING SONG: Sanctuary
