Grow Up Part I

IT IS TIME TO GROW UP.

Lesson Text I Corinthian 3:1-3, Hebrews 6:1-6,and Ephesians 4:11-16

Thank God for the resources I used when preparing this especilly a work writen by Dr. S Myers and a message about growth and the Holy Spirit preached by Pastor Clinkscales

Let’s take a look at the Corinthian Church.

The city of Corthian was a place where you can find drunkenness, pride, and greed as well as idol worship. The Corinthian Church had let some of this creep into their lives causing disunity and immaturity in the Church. Paul could not address them as mature Christians because they were still unweaned babies. The Corthinas were jealous, full of strife, had cliques, had arguments (3:1) had issues with sexual impropriety (6:12-20) divorce and marriage problems (7:1-40), confusing with eating meat offered up to idols (8:1-13), lack of respect in church (11:2-16) inappropriate behavior during the Lord’s Supper (11:17-34) pride, jealous, and strife concerning spiritual gifts.

We too are often like the Corthian Christians childish and immature, but today we learn to identify the areas of our life we need growth so that we can mature and eat meat, be the bride of Christ we are called to be, and be fruitful and multiply by birthing spiritual babies. Lets examine a few of the charters tics of babes.

The objective of this lesson is not to discourage or to belittle: but to provoke growth. When the Lord gave me this lesson I discovered areas where I too need to grow. I would like to take this time to apologize in advance to those who will be offended; however I must say this in love, Grow up!!!

Please close your eyes and picture this with me. You walked into church on Sunday and the Ushers were in the back playing uno, the Missionaries were on the front row playing checkers, the First Lady was wearing pigtails stride rite walking shoes and was playing with a baby doll, the Deacons brought their GI Joe men, the lay members are crying, a few are fighting over a toy, the Motherboard was arguing about who had the better gift, the choir marched down the aisle singing Old McDonald had a farm EIEIO, the Minster was asked to pray and he prayed now I lay me down to sleep I pray the lord my soul to keep, then the Pastor got up to preach and said Goo Goo Ga Ga. You would look around and wonder why are they acting like children? Believe it or not, as sad as this sounds many of us are babies spiritually.

I love babies I think they are so adorable the way they make those funny faces the way they goo goo ga ga but when those same things are done by a thirty year old its not cute. An individual that has reached adult age and exhibits childish behaviors would be labeled as having a developmental disorder. In our spiritual life many Christians are spiritually retarded; by age they should be in adulthood however they are just like babies

My dear sisters and brothers in Christ If you find yourself in this next section it is time to grow up.

Babies need milk, they have no teeth and their digestive system can not digests the enzymes in meat.

It is nothing wrong with milk for the newly born Christian; babies receive many nutrients and antibodies from their mother’s milk. However a five-year-old child has no business on his mother’s breast. As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word that ye may grow thereby: (1 Peter 2:2) just like babies are expected to grow from their mother’s milk. We are expected to grow from the milk of the word when it is applied to our lives. You are a baby when you have very little knowledge or understanding of the word, and little to no application of the word to your life. Immature Christians only can digest Noah’s Ark, David and Goliath, Jonah and the big fish and a few other Bible stories. They can’t explain what they believe in and why they don’t know the difference between salvation and sanctification, they don’t understand why we worship on Sunday and not Saturday. Spiritual immaturity is the reason why many of us stay away from Daniel and Revelation. Develop an insatiable hunger for the word of God. Grow up!

Lets just face it babies are cute but they cant do anything for themselves they depend on others for the everything. Spiritual speaking what are you a babe, a child, a young adult a spiritual father or mother or have you reached a state where you are spiritual grandparent. It is very important not to look at a person’s age and believe they are mature. Age does not determine your spiritual maturity neither does the amount of time you have been saved. Years do not equal maturity; it does tell how long you been on the road however it doesn’t tell where you are on the road.