Christ is truth and the Holy Spirit who guides the church is the Spirit of Truth. This means both our words will be honest and that our actions will reflect the integrity of Christ. Before we correct we must see error therefore today we are going to take a deep look within and allow the Holy Spirit to expose some immature behaviors that we may have. Now when you see yourself in the mirror of His Word, you don’t need to be the great pretender. Many of us wear so many masks. We never really see ourselves for who we really are. The Word of God is restorer and today I want to expose some behaviors and attitudes that are not like Christ so we can be restored to be like Him. As saints living in the last days we have to come on with the come on and quit playing. God wants to get in our stuff to make us more like His son. So if your feet start to feel a little uncomfortable it’s probably not that that your feet are swelling or that your water pill isn’t working. It’s just the Word of God is stepping on your toes. If it gets to tough to bear just say ouch and keep on reading. The first step of maturity is to recognize your own faults and to turn towards truth.
Are you a spiritual child? Are you spiritually still running around the church, in your neighborhood in diapers or pull ups? Have you even progressed to pull-ups stage? Just because you’ve been a Christian for many years, does not mean that you are “mature.” You may be like the boy who had been in the same grade for two years. When he got to the end of his second year in third grade he thought to himself I know I’m gonna pass this time because I did it better than my friends I did it two times. When he got his report card he went to his teacher with a very sad look on his face and said, “Why didn’t I pass this time?” The teacher replied, “I’m sorry, but you haven’t obtained 2 years of knowledge; you’ve had only one year 2 times and you still haven’t retained what you need to be promoted. During those two years the boy had not improved! So it may be with many Christians; they have not grown spiritually, but simply keep repeating their first year of spiritual life many times! Have you been a repeater or have you been promoted in you spiritual growth.
No doubt, the Corinthians would have denied being immature babies, yet Paul stated that they were. This is what he said to them in 1st Corinthians 3:1-3, “And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal (worldly), even as unto babes in Christ. I have fed you with milk, and not with meat (solid food), for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able. For ye are yet carnal (wordly); for whereas there is among you envying (discontented or resentful longing aroused by another’s possessions, qualities, or favor), and strife (angry or bitter disagreement, conflict), and divisions (not unified), are ye not (carnal) and walk as men?” Paul called the Corinthians, babies in their Christian life because they were not yet spiritually healthy and mature. The proof was that they quarreled like children. Spiritual babies are controlled by their own desires(“flesh”); mature believers are controlled by God’s desires for their life. How much influence do your own desires have on your life? The goal for a mature child of God is that his or her desires become united with the desires God has for his or her life. Repeat after me, “Being controlled by my own desires will stunt my growth.” If Paul were here today, would he have to share the same thought with us? We often find it easy to call someone else out. But today let us examine ourselves, because you might find out that spiritually you are stunted in your growth.
You Might Be a babe if you are not capable of feeding or caring for yourself.
Children are totally dependent upon someone else to prepare their meals, cool and blow their food, feed them their meals, and then wait for all that food to process in their tiny little tummies. Then the messy job begins to see if first they have a stinky, (sniff diaper) then to get all the right changing tools, check for stools that are too hard or too soft, check for diaper rash,(hold up ointment) wash their little hiney’s with a wet one,(hold up wet one) lightly powder their diapers, (hold up the powders) and be sure to properly velcro the diaper so there is no leaks. So it is with a Christian. Even though many Christians are adults and capable of physically feeding themselves, spiritually they are just not incapable. They are totally dependent upon those who are mature in Christ to help them along. For some there is no mature saint to help them along. Many times a baby Christian will eat some bad spiritual food and it makes them sick. This is what false doctrine does for a baby Chrisitan. A babe in Christ often had difficulty discerning the difference between good teaching (bible based truth) and bad teaching (lies of man). Good conduct (righteousness) and bad conduct (wickedness). Babes in Christ have to be spoon fed proper nourishment to grow healthy. They must be held by the hand and told what is truth, wrong, righteousness, and wickedness. Children are known for putting everything they come in contact with in their mouths. They don’t know that’s unhealthy for them. Yet many saint ingest everything from everybody that seems to sound good and churchy.
Children are also known for improper attire when they try to do it themselves. It may be on the wrong foot, wrong side, or something that simply does not match but they are children and we expect that from them. But something is going wrong when you never grow. You should not at the age of 10, 20, and 30 years after salvation still need to be fed, burped, and changed. If this is you gotta grow up.
Rick Warren state in his book Purpose Driven Life “God wants you to grow up. Your heavenly Father’s goal is for you to mature and develop the characteristics of Jesus Christ. Sadly, millions of Christians grow older but never grow up. They are stuck in a perpetual infancy remaining in diapers and booties. The reason is that they never intended to grow.” |
It often times seems that we think we are supposed to grow and develop in every area of our lives except our spiritual lives. What do you think Paul meant when he said, “Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.”
No comments:
Post a Comment