"The Stages of Spiritual Growth" - Sermon 9-23-18 - Bob Wade

[Music] in a world of disagreements large and small I believe that you exist will fit with everyone go ahead how can a good eval for God allow innocent people suffer unspeakable tragedies then there's all these questions you know about ethics is rural issues as well and I would say well they're crazy for not testing what they think just because you can't see it doesn't mean it's not real it's just real it's what you see and then I begin with the assumption that God is love historic Christian condition is this vast diverse conversation that's been going on for thousands of years [Music] hey open up your Bibles to first John chapter 2 you know the purpose of the Christian life is supposed to be a process of growth I mean we're supposed to be growing continuously more like crisis sometimes you know that happens on purpose I mean sometimes you and I are just led to grow we've become hungry you know spiritually and we just want to know the Lord something happens in our lives and you know I can remember multiple times in my life where that's happened where I just couldn't get enough for the word I mean just you're opening it up you're reading and just feels like you've read something maybe a hundred times and yet brand-new things seemingly just kind of jump out at you you know when it's all new there are other times so the growth is forced on us you know through a tough season of life maybe through trials the one thing that's certain though is that God wants us to grow and it doesn't come easy you know you and I can stop and we can have instant relationship with God you know we can stop and pray and have instant forgiveness and an instant relationship between you you and I and God I mean just like that but we can't have instant maturity we don't just grow because we pray some prayer that becomes more difficult because now for me to gain spiritual insight or godly wisdom all the things that God really wants me to to acquire now I've seemingly got to go through some things then maybe I didn't choose to go through what John's gonna do here in verses 12 to 14 is he's gonna talk a little bit about the stages of a spiritual life and he's gonna talk about you know our need to physically go further and what that means in life he's gonna use the physical stages of life as a metaphor here for us in the way that to show what really a stage of a spiritual life ought to look like he's gonna call believers three different names he's gonna call some believers little children he's going to refer to as young men and others his father's now even though he uses the masculine here it doesn't mean just males this is all about mankind now each state has to do with a spiritual level of a believer has nothing to do with age he has nothing to do with the physical season of life but it has to do with the spiritual season of life so let's stop in first John chapter 2 and read through verses 12 13 and 14 John writes and he says I am writing to you little children because your sins are forgiven for his name's sake I'm writing to you father's because you know Him who is from the beginning I'm writing to you young men because you have overcome the evil one I write to you children because you know the father I write to you father's because you know Him who is from the beginning I write to you young men because you are strong and the Word of God abides in you and you have overcome the evil one now what John's gonna do here is going to start off with at stage one here and that's little children in verses 12 and 13 and he starts off and he says this again about the children he says I'm writing to you little children now he uses an interesting word here when he says that he starts off and uses this word cacnea for little children it means newly born once or our baby Christian would be easy to stop and see that's where you would begin these would be the people that you know just have made some decision haven't been a believer very long you know they've somewhere along the line they've they've made a decision to follow Christ and so they're still brand new in their faith but when you get to verse 13 and it repeats the saying again at the second part of verse 13 he says I write to you children he changes the word the first time he used technique which means newly born one the second time though he changes it and he used the words Patea which means immature one now the reason why that's a big deal is because what it implies both of them could be used over little children but the word pedia here at least gives the idea that this is someone that should have grown and has it you know as believers in Christ that's sometimes true of us Paul even wrote about it go back in your Bible to first Corinthians chapter 3 first Corinthians chapter 3 Paul is dealing with the believers in Corinth and he stops in verse 1 and he says this about the believers there he says but I brothers could not address you as spiritual people but as people of the flesh as infants in Christ now he's not saying that they're actually real infants but he's saying spiritually where they're at is they're sort of infantile in their belief and we'll kind of get into that in a minute what that kind of entails here but let me give you another one go over to the right to Hebrews chapter 5 Hebrews chapter 5 look at verses 11 and 12 and 13 Hebrews 5 the writer of Hebrews says this for though by this time you ought to be teachers you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the Oracles of God you need milk and not solid food for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of God's since he is a child do you realize what he's saying there he's looking at the believer and he's saying look you should have grown to a certain point now where you can take the difficult concepts of God and you can begin to apply them to your life and understand what these things mean but what you really need to hear over and over again it's just that God loves you you're never gonna grow deep like that yes it's true yes it's a real thing yes we all need to hear that but you need to understand more you need to grow and unfortunately that doesn't always happen you know what it's interesting I as I was thinking about this this past week about little children I started thinking about what are the things that are true about the little children for exactly they're very ruled by their emotions same as maybe a young and immature believer something happens and they're easily frightened my grandkids love to play this game we call it rawr we're basically I go hide and then they come looking for me and and in the dark I jump out you know when they scream you know I mean it we do it over and over again you know and they like that you know if I do that to my wife she would look at me going what what are you doing you know it's a different world they love the idea of the emotional swings they love all that so they're easily frightened they're easily excited I can pull out a piece of candy they get really excited you know they're easily distracted you know what they really need they need the family that's around them to help them grow to advance in their faith now remember when John is writing this John is likely over 90 years old and so he's at this place where you know being over 90 everybody that he looks on is sort of a youngster he's the last of the first generation believers and he walked with Jesus but now he's writing the second and third and even fourth generation believers some of whom are struggling and so what he does here is he tells us in verses 12 through 13 three things that are true about little children here he's gonna give three things here the first thing he's gonna tell us here again in verse 12 is he says this he says I'm writing to little children because your sins are forgiven well that's a great reminder how important is that can't think of how many different people that have come along in life and had something happen in their life and then they feel complete like Oh God could never forget me and I need to remind them over and over again course God forgive you he's good to his word if God says he'll forgive you you have been forgiven so we need to remember that I mean it's true this forgiveness is really central to everything in our faith I was thinking about it you know I was 14 years old when I made a decision to follow Christ and I can remember going home and there were a lot of things I didn't know I didn't know what the word justification meant I didn't know what the word propitiation meant you know what I knew forgiveness I knew that God had forgiven me and that was perfect let's brand-new believer and now I could explain this concept of forgiveness to people that were around me it was a great reminder in fact it's such an important reminder in the church that you ever thought about like you know once a month we stop and we do communion you know we have the tables back there we bring around you know the little piece of bread and the little piece of you that the bit of juice and we we do that do you know why we do that it's to remind you that Jesus died on a cross to forgive you that's why you do that that's why Jesus said as often as you do this do this in remembrance of me what I've done so forgiveness is a huge part of what we want to do now the second thing he says here about these little children here in verse 12 he keeps going he says I'm writing to little children because your sins are forgiven for his name's sake now he gives us the why the first thing he does is he tells us what he does but now he's going to tell us why does God forgives us and he forgives us for his name's sake now this is an important one because oftentimes as young believers we think somehow that we might be deserving of forgiveness that maybe were just kind of winsome enough and God just sort of looks at us and loves us and he wants to you know forgive us that's really not the primary reason that forgiveness happens the primary reason forgiveness happens not because I'm deserving it happens because of who God is it has to do with God's character let me show you I'm talking about your finger here in John and I want you to go back into the Old Testament to one of the prophets the prophet Ezekiel that's right before the Book of Daniel Ezekiel and once you go to chapter 36 because the Lord says something in here in Ezekiel 36 that kind of explains here what he's going to do he says here in verse 22 Ezekiel 36 he says there say to the house of Israel thus says the Lord God it is not for your sake o house of Israel that I am about to act but for the sake of my holy name I'm not doing this because you deserve it I'm not doing it because you're you know you're pretty people I'm doing it for the sake of my name which you have profaned among the nations to which you came and I will vindicate the holiness of my great name which has been profaned among the nations which you profaned among them and the nations will know that I am the Lord declares the Lord God when went through you I vindicate my holiness before your eyes in other words what God is saying is look here's here's what I'm gonna do I'm going to forgive you and all of the world is going to know that there is a God who provides forgiveness even to people who don't deserve forgiveness that's what I'm gonna do His grace is going to be on display God's holiness it's gonna be put to the side by God's grace so that he can extend love and forgiveness to people see we're supposed to as young believers come to the place where we begin to realize that God didn't save me because I'm good that God saved me because he's good that's why and let me show you something keep your finger here in John again go back over to Psalm 79 Psalm 79 look at verses 8 and 9 he says do not remember against us our former iniquities let your compassion comes speedily to meet us for we are very brought very low help us O Lord of our salvation for the glory of your name deliver us and atone for us our sins for your name's sake God do this because you are great and merciful would you do that Psalm 25 verse 11 for your name's sake o Lord pardon my guilt for it is great see we never come before the Lord and go I deserve to be forgiven so forgive me it doesn't work like that we come before the Lord and go God you are great and I'm asking because you're great would you forgive me would you make me your child God's name here stands for his character we are forgiven on the basis of who he is and by the way this is what makes us family you know when you come into a church you often hear people say things like oh hey brother you know sister and college you people call each other that and you know people are always like why do you kind of view each other as family because we've all been similarly forgiven all been similarly brought into this family that none of us deserve that's what makes us brothers and sisters it doesn't matter who you are it doesn't matter where you're from now there's a third thing that he's gonna say here to to these young those little children here is that's in verse 13 in the second part of it they're back in first John chapter 2 he says this and I write to you children because you know the father you know one of the most important things we can do as newborn believers in Christ is to recognize our parents right my wife my wife Galen loves to watch this show called Call the Midwife anybody watch this show okay Call the Midwife it's all about these these midwives who delivered all these babies in 1950s and 60s you know England kind of in a poorer area stuff like added and here's what I know about the show every single time I walk into the room and the shows on there's a woman screaming okay which I don't really like to watch the show very much but but then what they do is after they scream and this baby comes out immediately they wrap this baby up and they put the baby right up on on the moms chest right there and so I walk in the other day and you hear the Midwife say the first thing this baby needs to see when it opens the size is its parent that's good theology right first thing we need to see when we open our eyes spiritually is who our father is it's the same thing new believers need to know who their father is now the problem here is that some people never get beyond that level of faith that's the depth of their life spiritually they even die of old age but spiritually immature never having taken seriously their walk with Christ never having responded to the call of God in their lives and I'm gonna be honest with you that to me sounds like a spiritual loss it's a waste of a life time that God has given them to use I mean think about how selfish is it for me to put my desires before the Lord's desire telling myself well God will understand or I have a special little dispensation from God he's gonna let me do it my way but let you know I'll do it later and I'll do what God wants later and later never came let me think about that for a second he imagined one day standing before the Lord and the Lord looks at you and he says I had all these plans for you and my only response is I just thought I knew better than you God that's not a good answer God wants us to grow God wants us to mature he wants us to take the life that we've been given and use it to the fullest extent to use the resources that he's entrusted to us but here's the thing if I never get out of the maternity ward spiritually I just stay there forever eventually it becomes a rest home right I can't believe that that's what God would want for me that's why John uses the word Patea the immature wants it's time to grow up now there's a second stage here and that is the young men and young women verses 13 and 14 he says this again I write to you father's because you know Him who is from the beginning I write young men because you have overcome the evil one and then if you go to the second part of verse 14 he says I write to you young young men because you were strong and the Word of God abides in you and you have overcome the evil one so John tells us three things here about the young men and the young women of faith first of all he tells us they're strong and then he tells us why they're strong because they know the word and then as a result of being strong in the word they have overcome the evil one well how does the word make me strong well keep your finger here in John again and I want you to go back to psalm 119 psalms is the longest and biggest book in the Old Testament you can't miss it if you go to about the middle of your Bible it's right there psalm 119 what he says starting in verse 9 he asked a really important question here David writes here and he says how can a young man keep his way pure in other words how do I do this right God how do I get past what everybody else does and grow and become what you want me to be how can a young man keep his way pure by guarding it according to your word well what does that mean verse 11 he says I have stored up your word in my heart that I might not sin against you we become strong because we put the word inside of us we begin to use it we begin to memorize it we begin to read it and think on it and pray about it and use it to overcome the evil one that's the result now that turn there overcome the evil one refers to the breaking of the power of sin in our lives that happens when you and I come to faith in Christ in fact again keep your finger here in John go over to Romans chapter 6 Romans chapter 6 mark was not kidding when he said we're committed to being in the word right Romans chapter 6 starting with verse 5 Paul writes and he says for if we have been united with him in death like this we shall certainly be united with him in the resurrection like this we know that the old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing that we would no longer be enslaved to sin for one who has died has been set free from sin and now if we have died with Christ we believe that we will also live with him we know that Christ being raised from the dead will never die again now stop look up for a second that's a really important statement and this is a little bit off subject here but I've heard people say this before well every time you sin Yury crucify Christ that's not true stop saying that Jesus went to the cross one time it was enough he doesn't have to go to the cross again that's why we don't typically have crosses that Christ still hangs on it because he came off of it and now he's sitting at the right hand of the Father keep going here verse 8 now if we say if we have died with Christ we believe that you will also live with him knowing that Christ being raised from the dead will never die again death no longer has dominion over him for the death he died he died to sin once for all but the life but the life he lives he lives to God so that we might you must also consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus let not sin therefore reign in our mortal bodies and make to make you obedient to its passions you don't have to sin any longer that's what it's saying but he's telling us here is that new birth experience that time that you came forward in some meeting or prayed with your parents or had something like that where you stopped and you confess your sin and before God you asked him to come and live inside of you something amazing happened at that moment at that very moment you were freed from the penalty of sin you were forgiven but you were also freed from the power of sin meaning you don't have to sin anymore I mean there was a time before you came to faith in Christ you were a slave to sin I mean go back to Ephesians chapter 3 for a minute Ephesians chapter 3 or chapter 2 verses 1 through 3 Paul writes and he says this you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked following the course of this world following the Prince of the power of the air the spirit that has now at work in the sons of disobedience among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh carrying out the desire of the body and the mind and we're by nature children of Wrath like the rest of mankind do you realize what he's saying there there was a time that you did exactly what the world told you to do that's what you did you were a slave to it but you're not a slave anymore when you came to faith in Jesus Christ you were set free you were forgiven and now you're empowered to not have to do that any longer now that doesn't mean you're not gonna sin I mean we choose to sin every single day I would be lying to you if I said I didn't get in the car and as I'm driving up Pima you know and the science says 45 do I have to say it I mean you only mean anybody else do this I mean come on we do that kind of stuff right sometimes we sin and don't even know it I could be driving along good tune comes on you know and I'm fiddling with it you know I'm listening to the stuff or you know and and it's kind of going on and I look down and I'm doing 70 it happens right I didn't mean to do it but I can but here's the thing I don't have to do that any longer I'm not a slave to sin any longer no John keeps going here in the second part of verse 14 and now he's gonna tell them why they are strong he says they know God's word you realize what a help that is knowing the word let me just give you a little test let's just say that you and I are just stopping for a minute we're having a conversation and I say to you you know I'm really like you know I got this turmoil going on I just feel like there's no peace in my life you know what the answer is Philippians chapter 4 says do not be anxious for anything but in everything by prayer and supplication let your requests be made known to God and they in the peace of God which goes beyond all comprehension will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus in fact it even takes it a step further in verses 8 and 9 it will tell you you know what if you'll just fill your mind with things that are they're true and honorable and right and pure and lovely and anything excellent anything good repute and the God of peace will remain with you that's a victory instead of living in fear now I I start seeing me living without peace I start thinking I can have peace if I just simply go to the Lord let me give you another one what if I say to you you know I'm kind of afraid it's the answer to that do you know that the Bible tells us to fear not 365 times how many time how many days in a year are there pretty important little concept right fear not let me show you what this is what the Lord says about fear a fear excuse me Isaiah chapter 41 verse 13 I say a 41:13 would you put that up here please for I the Lord your God hold your right hand that's a pretty good thing it is I who say to you fear not I'm the one who helps you you know why I know that verse has been a lot of times I've had to go to that one because fear is engulfed to me too we live in this world or where peace goes away and I better know how to get it and we live in a world where we can challenge and buy things and they can be scary to us and I need to find someplace where I can go and have God answer that for me so where our strength comes from it comes from knowing God's Word and being in the word now there's a third stage here and that is the stage of the father's look at verse 13 back in 1st John he says this about the fathers I am writing to you father's because you know Him is from the beginning drop down to verse 14 he's gonna actually say the same thing I write to you father's because you know Him who was from the beginning what is he saying here he's saying these are believers who have grown out of childhood these are the believers who have fought the daily battles of life and have matured to the point that they trust God to get them through they've lived through the ups and downs of life they've lived through the heartaches they've lived through the health issues the financial issues the relational issues and they have trusted God and come out the other side okay I was trying to think how do I explain this and then it then it occurred to me probably every single one of us has watched a war movie at some time in life right Saving Private Ryan or something you know something we've all watched war movies and you know the truth is if I were to go around right now with them I could say hey give me a take on war every one of us would have a take on war and then it occurred to me it was a guy sitting in the first service this morning that I've had conversations with before that was in Vietnam he has a different take on things you know why he didn't see the movie he went there he lived through it see I can't comment with great depth because I saw the movie but he could comment because he lived through it those are the fathers and mothers of the faith their value in the churches is amazing they have they have gone to God they have seen him answer they've trusted him to provide they have trusted him to carry them through these difficult moments they've seen him they've heard him and they found him to be faithful and it doesn't matter how old you are that's not the issue here John makes the statement here you know him who is from the beginning these are the spiritual adults these are the people that their knowledge of God and His faithfulness just tends to grow their faith has just ripened it didn't come off the tree early it stayed there this passage is so important to us because it really challenges us if you really think about it because you have the little children those that are that are immature at this point they know their Heavenly Father they got it great but the fathers and the mothers of the faith they know him who is from the beginning you know what that's telling you you know that God that's powerful they created X tehila out of nothing the God who sustains all of the universe the God and Jove who tells us that he knows exactly where every single creature needs to go at every single moment that's the God I know or the God that's personal enough to know what's on my heart what's rolling around in my brain what's what's pushing me and and scaring me and frightening me he knows everything before it even comes to my brain the thoughts or the words to my mouth he knows it question is where are you at in this growth chart if you're young in the faith I mean if you're a pretty new believer you're right where you need to be knowing that God is your father and that he has saved you not because you were good but because he's good because his name's sake but if you have been a believer for a while and you just simply have never gotten out of the maternity ward spiritually it's time for you to start putting God's word in your heart and becoming a warrior a little bit it's time to grow it's time to take on the challenges of life and meet them and trust God and see him so that you come out the other side and you can literally say I've walked with God or better yet God's walked with me to this moment and you know what it's scary but you can trust him if you fall into that last category I want to encourage you you ought to be thinking what Mark mentioned during the announcements about becoming a disciple err you ought to be thinking about reproducing your life into somebody else that doesn't mean you're perfect you know what it meant it mate you've already walked down a road that someone behind you has not walked yet and they just need you to walk with them and help them where are you at on this growth chart did you pray with me father I pray that you would challenge us to grow and to become the men and women you want us to be we'd be honest with ourselves that we'd be open to what you want for us in our lives Lord if we hear you calling Lord I pray that you would move in such a way to create obedience that people would respond it begin to take your word into their hearts they could trust you and for those that have done that that they would step out and begin to lead those that need to be led to a greater depth with you lord I pray you'll do this for our good because we're in massive need God but mostly for your glory thanks Lord Jesus regardless of where you're at spiritually God wants you to put his word inside of you that you would be strong so that you would overcome so that you would become the fathers and mothers of the faith god bless you all [Music]

Channel: Highlands Church

Views: 12,076

Rating: 4.9166665 out of 5

Keywords: sermon, church, highlands church, bible, scottsdale, arizona, jesus, god, religion, christian, non-denominational, evangelical, christianity, theology, christ, pastor, Bob Wade, The Stages of Spiritual Growth, Knowing Truth: The Letters of John, 1 John, 1 John 2:12-14

Id: 4SRTiIAifZ4

Length: 34min 24sec (2064 seconds)

Published: Mon Sep 24 2018