Sermon Transcript
It’s good to be with you all this morning. I want to encourage you to open up your Bible, if you would please, to the book of 1 John, if you brought a Bible or you have it there in the pew in front of you. We’re continuing our series here in the book of 1 John. Also got the Scripture from today in your notes. Many of you, I know, have been following along with the fires here in California.
It seems like every year there’s new and different fires. And I’m told that most recently, I looked at earlier this morning, that they feel like they’ve got most of the fires contained, and praise God for that. But it makes you kind of wonder, if you were ever in a situation like that, what would you grab first if you had to evacuate your home and to grab certain things and you couldn’t grab everything? I know for me, one of the first things that I would grab, if I could, would be our photo albums and the different DVDs of our children when they were growing up. I love watching the DVDs, even if I’ve seen them 100 times, of our kids when they were growing up, because when you’re watching them in real time, you’re thinking, this is taking forever.
And they’re probably thinking that, too, right? You remember whenever you were young and you’re like— how old are you? I’m 3 and a half, which is basically, I’m almost 4. I’ve never had somebody say, I’m 43 and a half, or, I’m 67 and a half. No, like, as we get older, time goes by faster, but when you’re young, you just can’t wait to grow up.
And as a parent, you’re watching your kids grow up, and you don’t realize how fast they’re growing until you look back or you hear from other people who haven’t seen them in a while say, man, they’re really growing. And then I’m grateful for that. I love that the DVDs in our home capture their little voices. I remember how little they were and all of those things. I remember when I had hair, because I’m in those videos.
So that’s a really good thing, too. So all of those things are awesome. I don’t know what you would take, but we need those reminders of growth and of development. Maybe you did the old thing in your home if you have kids, or if you were growing up, that where your parents would take the little— here, stand up against the door and let’s mark how tall you’re getting. And my, look how big you’re growing.
Or maybe you had some other type of thing where your kid made some sort of craft where they had their handprint or their footprint or something like that. And all like, we love those things. I recently got, a couple weeks ago, some cards from our preschoolers here at BCC that I would love to share with you. Because it’s a reminder that they, too, are growing. And it also reminds you of the fact that preschoolers are truth-tellers, and they say whatever is on their mind and whatever they’re thinking.
And that’s really good, too. This was part of Pastor Appreciation Month. Thank you for those of you who expressed appreciation. You don’t need to appreciate us anymore until next October. But I’m going to share with you— some of these are awesome.
You know, Pastor Steve, we love you. Thanks for being our pastor. Love that one. Here we also have from Finn, said, thank you, Pastor Steve. He’s got a picture of a horse there, or a little sticker there.
Uh, here’s more of the thing. Thank you, Pastor Steve. We love you. And it’s a picture of either me or the child running and sleeping. I don’t know how they could have a picture of me doing that, so maybe that’s of them.
It’s not clear. But then we have, I like Pastor Steve because he’s super silly. We love you. Like that one. I love hanging out with the kids, and they know that when I’m around, that I’m super silly with them.
I like— this is a quote— I like when he plays tag with me. Thank you, Pastor Steve. So, again, we’re starting to get into different things that— they don’t care that I’m a pastor. They like that I play with them and play tag with them. I like to play at Pastor Steve’s house.
That’s from Jonah Lynch. So, yeah, Jonah told me he doesn’t care about me. He cares that I have a house and that he’s been to my house. Starting to be a recurring theme here. What does Pastor Steve do at the church?
He preaches, and I like his trampoline. That was from Ariel that she shared with me with lots of stickers. So, she likes that I preach, which she’s never heard, but she likes that I have a trampoline at the house, and you, too, can come. Here’s another one. I like to jump on the trampoline.
What does Pastor Steve do at the church? He, quote, plays with toys. Okay. That’s from Aria, and I appreciate that. This is from Xander, my buddy.
I like picking fruit at Pastor Steve’s house, and it was silly when Pastor Steve put ice cream on my head. It made me laugh. Word of explanation, as the family pastor, I’ve never physically put ice cream on Xander’s head. Maybe other children, no. But I sometimes pretend, and I pretended to put ice cream on his head.
I don’t remember the scenario. But it’s a reminder that kids are growing, and they say awesome things, and so I hold on to these things, and my kids grow. And everybody grows. One thing we know about growth is this— it’s expected, right? You know that growth is expected.
Physical growth, spiritual growth. One truth we know about growth is it’s expected. It’s the norm. And when it doesn’t happen, we begin to ask questions going, why isn’t this person growing? Why aren’t I growing?
I know when I was little, I wanted to grow to be able to be tall enough to dunk a basketball on a 10-foot goal. Never happened, but I’m thankful for whoever invented the rims that can come down a little bit. I’m also thankful for my job here, because one of the perks of playing with children is that whenever I play basketball with them, they think I’m Shaquille O’Neal. I dominate them. I back them down into the paint.
They can’t stop me. So that’s a lot of fun for me. That’s a perk of mine. I also remember the growth being expected, being told when I was sitting at the kids’ table, one day you’ll get to sit at the adult table. And I couldn’t wait to sit at the adult table until that day came, and that was fun for about 10 seconds.
You know, like, I’d like to go back to the kids’ table. Thank you very much. The kids’ table’s far better. The adult table’s very overrated. Growth is expected physically.
Spiritually, growth is expected. And we see that all throughout the New Testament. God expects you and I to grow. He expects us to progress from where we are to where He wants us to be. We call that in the New Testament sanctification.
Fancy word. Basically means that God is making us more and more holy. Which is another churchy word that basically means you are not who you used to be. When you are a Christian, you are— a Christian is not somebody who is merely good or does good things. A Christian is somebody who allows God to progressively make them more like Jesus.
It’s called sanctification. I am not who I was. I’m becoming something else and allowing God to shape me into what he wants me to be. It’s expected. And when that spiritual growth doesn’t happen, Because it’s the norm.
When it doesn’t happen, we should be asking questions. Why aren’t I growing? Why isn’t this person growing? That should distress us, much like a lack of physical growth would. Second thing we know about growth is that growth is a process.
And one of the things John is gonna encourage his readers with is this information that there is, spiritually speaking, as with our physical growth, spiritually speaking, It’s a series of stages. And if you forget that, as a Christian, you will be discouraged. To the degree that you and I forget that spiritual growth takes time and that it’s a process and that there are a series of stages, to the degree that we forget that is the degree that we will be discouraged. And he’s going to remind us here that, of course, you’re over here, but eventually you’re going to be over here, and that’s okay. And we, as adults, are able to look at young people when they stress out over I’m going to miss this.
I’m going to miss that. And they’re stressed out over, I just can’t wait till I get older. We’re able to say, this is just a phase, and this, too, shall pass, because we have a better process of time. We’re more mature. We’ve been through it, and we understand that growth is a process.
But because it’s a process, and you start hearing things like what John has been saying all throughout his letter here, he’s basically saying, you’re not living the way that you should live, or you’re missing the mark in these particular areas. You’re going to be discouraged if that’s all you’re hearing and forgetting spiritual growth is process. And you and I need to participate in the process. He provides the process. We need to participate in it.
Otherwise, we’re going to stay stagnant, whatever stage of growth that you’re at, and you’re not going to grow beyond that, and that’s a problem. So John’s going to remind us of some spiritual growth principles and some stages that he wants us to remember that It’s expected that we grow, and it’s a process that we grow. And don’t be discouraged when you’re not seeing everything that you want to see yet, because the process is not leading you to perfection. The process is leading you to greater maturity. And sometimes that process hurts, but participate in the process so that God can move you further along the way.
So, we’re going to talk about the stages today, but we’re also going to talk about what we need in each of those stages to help make sure that we are participating in this process. Look at 1 John 2, starting in verse 12. Just going to read 3 verses today. It’s in your bulletin notes as well. You’re going to notice it looks different on the page of your Bible, most likely.
We put it in sort of normal formatting here on the slides and in the bulletin, but it is sort of set apart in a unique way, which causes us to sort of go, is John having a lapse in his thinking? Is he having a, you know, a senior moment here? Is he being interrupted? Is this some sort of interlude? Let’s not allow that to distract us from the truth that is in here.
Verse 12. I am writing to you, dear children, because your sins have been forgiven on account of His name. I am writing to you, fathers— verse 13— because you know Him who is from the beginning. I am writing to you, young men, because you have overcome the evil one. I write to you, dear children, because you know the Father.
I write to you, fathers, because you know Him who is from the beginning. I write to you, young men, because you are strong. And the Word of God lives in you, and you have overcome the evil one. You may have noticed there’s some repetition here. Why is John repeating himself?
Why not just say it once? Because anytime you have something important to say, don’t you repeat it? He has something that he’s wanting to encourage his readers with, so he’s going to repeat himself in a couple different places. And in some places, he adds to what he had said before. But he talks about 3 distinct stages.
But before he even does that, starting in verse 12, he gives us a term that encompasses all of the stages. Dear children, verse 12. It’s a term that means born ones. And he’s referring to anybody who is a Christ follower. Wherever you are in your stage of development— you all are at different stages, I’m at a different stage— if you are a Christ follower, whatever stage you’re at, he’s going to demonstrate that we are all part of one particular category, an umbrella term called dear children.
We are born ones. I am a child. You are a child. Even though we may not look like children, but we will always be our parents’ children until the day that we die. We are always our parents’ children.
And he’s saying, if you are a Christ follower, you are part of God’s family. So he’s using a term there in verse 12 he’s used throughout the letter. He loves calling people dear children. And quite frankly, to John, everybody was a child because he’s in his 80s now at this point. So everybody’s a child.
But he’s saying, you’re a dear child. You are part of the body of Christ. You are a Christ follower, whether you’re early on or you’re further along down the road here. Dear children, and one thing is true of you. If you’re part of the body of Christ, if you’re a Christ follower, if you said yes to the decision to follow Jesus, your sins have been forgiven.
One thing is true of you. Your sins have been forgiven. Well, why have our sins been forgiven? He says, on account of his name. On account of his name.
It’s not because on account of something you’ve done. It’s not on account of the fact that we’ve deserved it. It’s on account of his name, Jesus’ name. His name represents everything that Jesus is and says and does. So he’s talking about Jesus dying the death that we should have died, living the life we should have lived, Jesus being the atoning sacrifice for our sins, our advocate with the Father.
He’s all of those things that he’s been talking about already in 1 John. He’s saying Jesus is all those things, and on account of Jesus’ name and what He’s done for you and for me, we can have forgiveness. You and I can’t have forgiveness any other way. And this is good news, because this is a far more sure hope of being forgiven than of saying, I think I’m forgiven because I’ve repented. Or of saying, I think I’m forgiven because I’m really sincere.
Or, I think I’m forgiven because I’ve done more good things than bad. Or, I think I’m forgiven because God is a really loving God, and I don’t think a really loving God would punish somebody who was trying to follow Him the best that they could, right? This is a far more sure hope. It’s saying you have been forgiven, if you’re a Christian, on account of His name, on account of who Jesus is and what He has done. He’s saying that that is true of you regardless of your stage of spiritual development.
It’s not on account of your name. It’s not for your glory. In fact, it gives God greater glory that we don’t have a part in it. We just simply receive it. So, this is the first stage of spiritual growth, even before he gets to the actual stages that he’s going to get into here, is to decide to follow Jesus.
That’s a decision I can’t make for you. And if you’re here today, and you’re not sure that you’re a Christian, or, you know, you’re kind of— wherever you are, you’ve got to start there and say, have I said yes to what Jesus has done for me? John is writing so that you and I might have eternal life and so that we might know that we have eternal life. He’s writing so that you might become a Christ follower and know that you’re a Christ follower, that you have forgiveness. A Christian is not somebody who has access to forgiveness.
A Christian is not somebody who would like to be forgiven. A Christian is somebody who has it, past tense. It’s a settled fact. And so he’s writing to a group of people who have already received it. And if you haven’t received that yet because you’ve not yet confessed your need for forgiveness, then that’s where it needs to start.
It’s got to start there.
And every week we talk about this. It starts by simply acknowledging that you’re a sinner and that you need Jesus to come into your life and to be the leader of your life. And then you follow Him, not because of anything good that you’ve done, but because of what Jesus has done. You put your hope and your trust in that. And one thing is true of everyone who’s in that category, which is anyone who’s a Christian— your sins have been forgiven.
Great news. Then he gets into what is really our true first category of spiritual growth, starting in verse 14. Dear children. Spiritual children. Well, isn’t that the phrase he just used in verse 12?
It is in English, but not in Greek. Sorry. So sometimes, like, we have to break this out. In verse 14, he’s using a phrase that is in our English Bibles is a little distinct than what he said in verse 12. It’s a different type of child.
The first child in verse 12 is born ones, anyone who’s a Christian, anyone who’s been born again. Verse 14, he’s talking about somebody who is relatively new in their spiritual formation. They’re just starting out their spiritual journey. He’s referring to— it’s actually in Greek, it’s recently born. That’s what it means.
Somebody who’s still early on in the stages of spiritual growth. And this is the first stage after a person has decided to follow Jesus. And he says that one of the things that a spiritual child knows is they know the Father. Verse 14, they know the Father. That happens in the physical realm, right?
Acknowledgement of a parent. When you walk into a room and an infant’s eyes light up because they recognize Mama or Dada. And they can’t pronounce their parents’ names, They don’t know how their parents met. I’ve never walked into the nursery and had an infant say to another one, you know, I remember that second trimester in the womb. Boy, let me tell you, that was crazy.
I’ve never heard an infant tell another, let me tell you how my parents met. Crazy story. But they know the Father. They know their parent. They acknowledge the Father.
They have a relationship with the Father. And it’s with joy that they acknowledge the Father. It’s with joy that they recognize their need for the Father. They don’t have all the spiritual lingo down yet. They don’t speak Christianese like those of us who are Christians for a long time start using phrases and words that other people are like, what are you talking about?
Being born again, or asking Jesus into your heart, or God’s really put it on my heart. Like, what are you talking about? What they know is that they know the Father. That’s what they know. They don’t know the doctrine of sanctification.
They can’t even pronounce sanctification. But they know the Father.
How do you know, spiritual child, if you’re in that stage, that what you believe is true? They may not be able to explain it all, but they know the Father. They know the one in whom they have believed. What else do we know about kids? Oh, we know that very often with physical children, that they tend to be regulated more by their emotions than by understanding.
By their feelings more than wisdom. They can be up one moment and down the next really, really quickly. They can be happy one moment and then scared the next. And the same is true in the spiritual realm. We can be full of joy one moment and then really scared the next because we’re afraid that God’s going to abandon us.
And what we need in that moment is to know the Father. We need to come back to the Father. If you’re in that stage of development, that’s fine. You don’t blame a child for being a child. But what comforts that child is to know that the father’s got this under control.
And so, spiritual children need to know the Father. They need to know that God’s got this. And the ups and downs of life are going to happen, but hopefully, because spiritual growth is a process, you are going to move away from that up-and-down-ness And you’re going to be able to remain steadfast because you know the Father. It changes everything to know the Father, to know that Dad’s got this. Another thing we know about kids is that they often lack discernment.
Parents, can I get an amen from that? Yeah. Kids often lack discernment. Not always. I lacked discernment as a kid.
I was the kind of kid who stuck my finger in fans and told my parents, just continue to let that happen until I finally learned a lesson. I shouldn’t stick my finger in fans, because that really, really hurts. I lacked discernment. Kids lack discernment very often. They end up in situations that they don’t know how to get themselves out of.
My oldest son, Tate— Tate, you probably don’t remember this, but walked in one day to his bedroom when he was 2 or 3. We heard a sound coming, and he was on a bookshelf that was about this high and had about this much space in between, and he didn’t know how to get out. Not sure how he got in, but he certainly couldn’t get out. My daughter Raya— listen, I’m an equal opportunity embarrasser as a father. My daughter Raya, remember we were at the car wash one time.
I was paying for the car wash. It’s the kind of thing where you, like, you don’t do it like yourself. It goes through and that’s super fun. But they have all these products there by the cash register. I’m paying for the car wash and I turn around and she’s just red as a beet.
I come to find out she’s gotten some Turtle Wax on her hands, and she’s rubbing it all over, like, her face as a child. And she’s having, like, an allergic reaction, and it’s burning her skin. And so, I have to, you know, excuse myself from the cash register, run to the restroom, and try to figure out how are we gonna take care of the situation. She smelled like oranges for about a week, but she lacked discernment. My son CJ, I remember being in Chicago when We were at a food court, and he was playing by the escalators.
And no big deal, because nobody was there at the food court at the time. And I’m just watching him, and then I look up, and I notice CJ’s got his hands on the little rubber railing on the outside of the escalator, and he’s going up and up and up. And when he gets to about 5 or 6 feet, I notice this, so I run over there and grab him. I guess he would have gone up all the way. That would have been super scary.
Kids lack discernment. You find something on the ground, I’ll put that in my mouth. I’d like that in my mouth. That would taste good. We do this all the time, right?
We lack discernment. And because of that, as spiritual children in that phase, we need to come back to what the Father wants of us. He wants us to be more discerning. You don’t blame a child for lacking discernment, but if they stay like that for years and years and years and continue to lack discernment, That’s not what the Father wants for you. You’ve got to know the Father so that you can move further along in the process of spiritual growth.
We also know that about children, very often they lack empathy. They can be hurting, and the whole world revolves around what they need in that moment. And you can be hurting, and they don’t care. It’s just about what I need in this moment. And they’re, in that moment, consumers, right?
They’re consumers. It’s just simply, meet my needs right now. You know any adults like that? Where it’s just the world revolves around them? You have a conversation, and they don’t ask you about you.
They only talk about themselves, and they’re only focused on what they need in that moment. We need to know the Father so that we can become more empathetic and realize that there are needs of people around us. And the Father gently teaches us and disciplines us so that we can grow through that, and it’s not just staying in that phase. Another thing about spiritual children we know is that they need nourishment. They need food.
They need encouragement. They need love. They need consistency. They need to play so that they can exercise their muscles. And they need to grow.
Same thing as a spiritual infant. A person needs love and encouragement. We shouldn’t be looking at them and saying, how bad for you to be a spiritual infant. If they’re brand new in their spiritual formation, we need to help them and encourage them and love them and give them opportunities to serve so that they realize church is not just about consuming and taking in, but it’s also about serving others. There are needs of others around them.
But one thing we know is true about spiritual children. They know the Father, and their world can revolve around the Father. And that’s what God wants, because He’s going to come back to it later on, but it’s a beautiful way to start. The children know the Father. Then he goes on and he says— he uses a term here for young men, or it could be young women.
He’s talking about adolescence, spiritual youth. It’s the second stage after infancy. It’s great to be an infant. Please don’t stay an infant. Please, you and I, like, let’s move out of spiritual infancy and move towards spiritual adolescence, being a spiritual youth.
It would be a shame to walk into a hospital and see a bunch of newborns there and see somebody putting a 30-year-old in an incubator or trying to bottle-feed an adult. You’d say, like, what’s wrong here? We’re not supposed to stay as infants. We’re supposed to mature and develop.
And we— our knowledge of the Father helps us to move on to spiritual youthhood, youthdom, being a spiritual adolescent. And one thing we know about youth is they’re young and they’re strong. It says you’re strong. Hang around young people and you’re going to be exhausted because of their youthfulness and enthusiasm and strength and vitality. After family fun night, us adults were packing up and we were tired.
Not our young people. They wanted to hang out some more. I ran a couple weeks ago a 10K in San Jose with my son CJ. I had trained for this. He hadn’t trained one lick, and he beat me by like 10 or 15 minutes.
I was happy with my time. He’s just running along and just— he even took a doughnut in the middle of the course. I was told about this. It’s just crazy. This is what young people do.
Their strength, their vitality, their enthusiasm. And he’s saying, because you’re strong, you have overcome the evil one. So, we know that about spiritual youths. They are overcoming and have overcome— past tense— the evil one. Well, how did they do that?
Because they’re strong. How are they strong? Because the Word of God, it says, lives in you. You’re not strong just because you’re at this stage of life. As a spiritual adolescent, you are growing because you are learning to now not just live moment to moment based on your emotions and on your feelings, but you are becoming more like Christ and learning to apply what it is that you know about the Father.
You are taking what the Father has shown you, and you are putting it into practice because you’re learning to live according to God’s Word. You’re learning to apply God’s Word. We know this about adolescents as they begin to use their mental muscles and apply what it is that they’ve been learning, hopefully. Same is true. Don’t stay in infancy.
Become an adolescent. And as that happens, we need to understand the only way you and I overcome the evil one, the only way that that happens is through the work of Christ and through the Word of God. He mentions the Word of God here. He’s going to mention in chapter 3 the work of Christ. Verse 8 of chapter 3, he says that the reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work.
The devil’s desire is to steal and to kill and destroy. And the only way you can overcome his condemnation and his tactics is through the work of Christ. To continue to come back to that, an adolescent says, I’m not strong on my own. And a spiritual adolescent is somebody who says, I have the Father, And through the work of Christ, I’m able to withstand anything that the enemy throws my way. The enemy wants to steal, kill, destroy, deceive, do all of that.
I’m not going to fall prey to that. A spiritual adolescent isn’t just following a stranger anymore. A spiritual adolescent isn’t doing what a child does and just being immature and saying, feed me, nourish me. They’re able to feed themselves and nourish themselves because the Father has taught them how to do that through God’s Word. So, the work of Christ, but also the Word of God that he mentions here.
The Word of God. Those are the only 2 ways that we can stand up against the enemy. The work of Christ helps us to stand against the enemy’s tactics and his condemnation.
The Word of God helps us to stand against temptation, because he’s going to try to tempt you. A spiritual adolescent is saying, I’m not going to fall prey to that. I’m not going to just follow any voice. I know the voice of the Father. And I’m going to follow Him.
These are wonderful stages to— again, we’re moving further down. Hopefully, you don’t just stay over here in infancy. You’re moving on from infancy to adolescence, and then you move on to spiritual adulthood. Hopefully, that’s where we end up. And it’s not just, again, a function of age, by the way.
We so often think of age. There are some teenagers who are more mature in Christ than some adults who’ve been a Christian for a long time. Amen? Now, we know people like this. Somebody who thinks that they’re more mature and further along.
This isn’t about how old you are, young people. This isn’t about how old you are. It’s not. It’s about following Christ and allowing Him to move you down the road. Just because you’re a teenager, 1 Timothy 4, don’t let anybody look down on you because you’re young.
Set an example for the believers in speech and life and love and faith and in purity. You have access to growth. Just like anybody else does. But he says after adolescence comes spiritual parenthood, spiritual fathering, spiritual mothering, a spiritual parent. After childhood, adolescence, spiritual parenting.
And one thing he says here about spiritual parents is they know Him who is from the beginning. I love that because that’s going back to what he had said about infancy.
What do infants know? They know the Father. Well, he’s saying the same thing here, but now they’re taking their knowledge and they’re building on that all throughout that time and applying what they know to a more intimate walk with God. That is through experience, saying, I feel like I really know the Father, and they haven’t lost awe of who the Father is.
If you are progressing spiritually but you’re not maintaining a sense of awe about who God is, that’s a problem. And a spiritual parent never loses sight of that. I need the Father in my life. And I walk with Him, and I delight in Him, and I lean on Him, and I come back to that again and again and again. You never lose your need for the Father, even as a spiritual parent, as a spiritual adult.
One thing we know about people who are maturing in their faith is that they’re modelling maturity. They’re modeling maturity in their life, and the New Testament gives us several different suggestions of what this might look like. One thing we know about somebody who’s at that stage of life is they are reproducing themselves, making disciples. You and I are called to make disciples. We’re not just to follow Jesus, we’re to help others to follow Jesus.
We’re to help others come to Christ and to become like Christ. So, they’re multiplying themselves. A mature person is not interested in finding followers for themself, but introducing people so that they might be followers of Jesus. And they live in such a way that they model that. They’re able to say, as with the Apostle Paul, follow my example as I follow Christ.
They’re leading out. They live a life worthy of imitation. They’re not saying, feed me, nourish me. It’s all about me and my needs, and I’m not getting a whole lot out of church, and I’m not— you know, it’s all about me. No, this is about somebody— who is receiving in the truth of God and acting on it, modeling it, reproducing themselves in others.
They’re teaching others. That’s a sign of maturity. Not just that you can teach, but that you are teaching the truth of God in a way that is helping make followers. Because the writer of the book of Hebrews says, you all have been Christians long enough. You ought to be teachers by now.
Do you really need another Bible study? Do you really need another, you know, sermon in your life? Take those things, your knowledge of the Father, and pour into other people. That’s somebody who models maturity. They’re able to reproduce themselves in others.
They’re taking their knowledge of the Father and applying it. They’re bearing fruit. They’re teaching others. And they’re living a life worthy of imitation. All of those things because they know the Father.
And we never lose our need for knowing the Father. I hope that we would all get to this point. You’re all, and I am, at some point along the way here or before coming to Christ, wherever you’re at, we want to help you to take a next step. There’s always a next step for you and for me. There’s always a next step.
Anytime there’s a sermon that you hear, there’s always a next step. Anytime that you listen to a, you know, or participate in a Bible study, there’s always a next step. And it’s not just more knowledge. How do I apply this? How do I put it into practice?
A mature person, a spiritual parent, is somebody who knows the Father and they are doing those kinds of things. Now, one of the things that came up that over the weekend I was having conversations with people, we were kind of joking a little bit about how do you know a person who is mature spiritually from somebody who’s not? Is there— are there a couple different indications? And I can think of 3 ways to know that you’re not as mature as you think you are, if that’d be helpful. One is, is if you tell people that you’re mature, you’re probably not as mature as you think you are.
That’s like telling people that you’re wise, which is usually proof that you’re not. The most mature people are the most humble people, are people who are— they don’t have to talk about it. If you have to talk about how mature you are and how you’ve arrived, It’s a sense of entitlement, and it’s a sign that you may be further back in infancy or adolescence. God wants to move you further on down the road. Another way to know that you’re not as mature as you might think is if you’re the kind of person who is more of a grace person than a truth person.
Grace without truth. What I mean by that is you’re the kind of person who doesn’t want to judge others. You don’t want to ruffle feathers. And so, you accept other people, without also bringing in the truth of God and your knowledge of the Father, where there are often limits that we’re to live with, and choices have consequences. And sometimes the moment you begin moving in that direction, people are saying, like, you’re judging me.
And so if then you back off, you’re doing grace without truth. And grace without truth isn’t really grace at all. It’s just being nice. It’s just being accepting, and it’s okay, but it’s not what God wants. It’s not grace without truth.
Another sign, though, that you’re not as mature as you might think is truth without grace, if that’s your thing. Well, I’m more of a truth person. I’m just a truth teller. I just tell it like it is. Or you’re a jerk, because truth without grace is belligerence.
We’re motivated by truth, but are you equally motivated by grace? You see, Jesus, when He came, was full of grace and full of truth. He was not either/or. He wasn’t grace on Monday and then truth on Tuesday. And you and I, well, I’m more of a grace person.
I’m more of a truth person. That— like, that or should not be part of our vocabulary. God, as part of the process of maturing us, wants us to be 100% grace, 100% truth, as much as we can by allowing God to transform us from within. And the moment that we start leaning in one direction or another, we start moving away from the process that God wants for us. Grace without truth isn’t really grace.
Truth without grace is legalism. It’s being a Pharisee. It’s being judgmental. It’s looking down your nose at other people and discouraging people from following Christ. Neither of those is helpful.
Grace and truth. Let me give you 2 things, though, that I think would be really helpful to think about when it comes to your own spiritual growth and other people’s spiritual growth. How could we summarize these 2 things? There’s 2 things that are great indicators that you are growing spiritually. 2 wonderful indicators.
He doesn’t mention them here, but we can sort of summarize His teaching and all the teachings of the New Testament in these 2 things. One is obedience.
Obedience.
If what you are learning isn’t making its way out into your actions, then you’re not really progressing and maturing. You’re just growing smarter.
Spiritual maturity is better displayed in our acts than in facts. It’s better displayed by what we do and putting our faith into action than by what we know. And if what you and I know isn’t working its way out somehow into our actions, we need to come back to the Father, ask Him for help to mature and to move further on down this path. It’s obedience. It’s not perfection, by the way.
It’s not perfection. You and I will not be perfect here, but God’s desire in using trials and Circumstances help us become more mature and more complete so that we don’t lack anything, the book of James tells us. Second thing that’s the primary mark of spiritual growth for all of the different things here is dependence. This is contrary to physical growth. In physical growth, as parents, we try to teach our children to become more independent.
We want them to learn how to use the potty. We want them to be able to pick out clothes and pick up after themselves. We want them to become more independent so that they can become more mature and contributing adults that is a blessing to society, not a burden. We want them to be able to learn these things. And so, we understand that the pathway to physical maturity is independence, but the pathway to spiritual maturity is dependence on God.
It’s not growing independent of Him, but it’s growing more dependent upon Him. So what should be happening as you’re moving through the stages is not saying, I’ve kind of figured it out here. No, you are saying more than ever, I am who I am only by the grace of God. I’m saved only by grace. And God, I need You not just to be a part of my life, but to be my life.
I’m completely dependent upon You.
I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. I’m forgiven on account of His name. I have a relationship with the Father because the Father has made that possible. Obedience and dependence, obedience and dependence, again and again and again.
God uses so many different ways to grow our faith. He uses people. He uses circumstances. He uses teaching, spiritual disciplines, learning to pray and read God’s Word and He says community, service, serving other people. You don’t just need one of those things, you need all of them.
If you ask a really spiritually mature person how did they get there, I’ll tell you, like, the answers are all the same. They’ll all say those things. There’s no different formula. Like, you’re not going to find another way around it. But it is a process, and our responsibility is to take those things, those tools that God gives us, and to help— have Him help us to move further down the road.
You and I can grow as much as we want to grow spiritually. I don’t think that there’s a lid on that. If you and I are motivated to grow and to depend upon Him and to become more and more obedient, we can. And so, any lack of growth means that that we’re not participating in that process. Let’s join God in the process of wherever you are in the spiritual spectrum, keep coming back to the Father, keep coming back to what Jesus has done for us, the work of Christ and the Word of God.
We’ll grow, grow, grow. Let’s pray.
Father, we come to You grateful for reminders that in life we have things that help us to understand spiritual things, and You’ve given us something that we can relate to today. We understand what it means to move from childhood to adolescence and to mature adulthood physically, but sometimes we forget that in spiritual terms. And I pray that You would just take this teaching and help us to apply it to our lives. We pray that You would give us eyes to see this week ways that we can grow. I pray that we would join You in that growth process.
That we would not fight against it. I pray that we would also look, as a sign of maturity, look outward at the needs of people around us and see how we can help them to grow. You may want us to be a part of helping other people to grow. I believe You do want that. So thank You, God, for Your Word.
I pray it would not return void. I pray that it would change us from within as we go out this week. I pray all these things in Your Son’s name. Amen. Pastor Dave is going to come on up.
