Time to Grow Up - Divine Reset | Tony Evans Sermon

everybody wants a crown without having a cross you must make serving god submitting to god and following god the most important thing in your life and as for me and my house we're gonna serve the lord if you're not operating in authority as a way of living don't come and jump authority just when you get in trouble encouragement is not related to what i achieved encouragement is tied to who i am and here's a principle you need to know for your life even though god has promises the promises won't occur until you repent for the sins that got you in the mess in the first place in other words mr if you want to live the best way to do that is to get to know the life maker there is nobody like you and when god made you he did not mess up the goal of the church according to paul in colossians chapter 1 he says these words in verse 28 and 29 we proclaim him christ admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom so that we may present every man complete in christ for this purpose i labor he says my goal in ministry for the church at colossae the church here the church everywhere is to present every person complete the word complete means mature god's goal is your spiritual maturity not your church attendance if maturity is not being emphasized if spiritual growth is being marginalized if we become satisfied with how many folks are in the seat regardless of their spiritual age we have failed as a church as a ministry both locally and as the body of christ god measures the success of a ministry by the maturing process of the folks who are in that ministry he says i labor for maturity the biblical word discipleship that process of maturation that process of bringing you to maturity god is after a divine reset but he needs some mature people he needs mature christians not just church attenders paul complains to the church at corinth he says brethren so these are christians he's not talking about sinners he says brethren i can't speak to you as spiritual but as men are flesh as infants in christ you're still babies he says i want to take you somewhere but you refuse to grow up now let me explain a simple principle paul went to corinth in approximately 50 a.d he wrote the book of corinthians in approximately 55 a.d let me say it again he went there in about 50 a.d he wrote them this book first corinthians in 55 a.d so that's five years paul says in five years you ought to be mature if you're a five-year-old christian five years is all you need to move from spiritual infancy to a basic spiritual maturity so carnality let me define it for you is that spiritual state where a christian knowingly and persistently lives to please self rather than to please christ it is that persistent state where you knowingly willingly persist to please self over pleasing christ in other words living for christ glorifying christ representing christ is not your goal now you want him to take care of you but pleasing him is not your goal that makes you fleshly a carnal christian is like what he calls a natural man in verse 14 of chapter two he says but a natural man does not accept the things of the spirit of god for their foolishness unto him and they cannot understand them because they are spiritually appraised a natural person can't understand spiritual things because they're non-christians but he says a carnal christian they're a christian but they're like a natural man they're on their way to heaven but they don't understand spiritual things on earth they don't have this spiritual perspective on life they have a human perspective on life that's carnality because of a refusal to grow so let me say it again if you've been saved five years or more and you are not spiritual where you look at life through god's lens as a normal way you operate then you are a spiritual infant a fleshly believer who is missing out on spiritual experience because you're not operating that way i'm not operating that way not only can we have carnal christians we can have carnal christians in carnal churches because the church is not operating that way that goal isn't maturity that goal may be entertainment their goal may be money their goal may be notoriety but the goal of maturity is not the goal and if that's not the goal you're not a serious christian and we're not a serious church well let's take this a little deeper shall we hebrews chapter 5. he says in verse 11 concerning him we'll talk about that in a moment he's talking about melchizedek we have much to say it is hard to explain since you have become dull of hearing let me pause right there the book of hebrews was written some 30 years after jesus died and rose some of these christians have been saved for 30 years in corinth that's five years in hebrews some of these christians have been saved 30 years and he says y'all still dull of hearing the greek word deal of hearing means mule-headed mule-headed stubborn let's go a little deeper he says for though by this time somebody say time you get the point you've been saved long enough for us not to have to go through all this by this time some of y'all 30 years you ought to be teachers say you've been saved long enough to help somebody else you can't even help yourself he says but you have need again for somebody to teach you the elementary principles of the oracles of god and you have come to need milk and not solid food now who gets milk all the time a baby a baby feeds on milk because it's an emphasis he says not only can you not teach we need to take you back to the abc's he calls them elementary principles c spot run and b is for boy we need to take you back to spiritual kindergarten because you've refused to grow spiritually he goes on and he says everyone who protects only of milk is not accustomed to the word of righteousness he is an infant but solid food is for the mature who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil there's a lot to unpack here he says the problem with infants the immature the folks that god can't use so he can't reset what he wants to do in history he says everyone who partakes only of milk is not accustomed to the word of righteousness he says here's what keeps you a baby you haven't gotten use to use the word of god to address the issues of life a baby won't grow just by watching mama have milk they've got to use it ingest it for growth to occur says the thing that keeps you a baby is you don't use the word of righteousness and he says solid food is for the mature for the people who have his senses trained notice that their senses trained the proof of maturity here it is here it is here it is is your ability to discern he says your ability to discern that is your ability to look at things through spiritual eyes not just through physical eyes he makes the difference between milk and meat or milk and what he calls solid food milk he says you need the elementary principles of the word of god meat he says you have the ability to discern okay you're not a meat christian because you carry a bible you're not a meat christian because you can quote verses you're not a meat christian because you go to church you're a meat christian because your spiritual antenna can discern things spiritually without the ability to discern it doesn't matter how many small groups bible studies church attendance you take it is the choices that determine whether you're spiritual or not let me help you to grab the difference between milk and meat here's milk milk is what jesus taught on earth and what jesus did on earth that's recorded in the bible so here it is you're a milk christian simply by learning what god says okay you can you can read the bible study the bible and that gives you milk that gives you milk a meat christian doesn't just know what it says but uses what it says for to make decisions you study the bible so you you're drinking milk but you're operating from a heavenly perspective because you're operating on meat you got steak now solid food you study the bible to get the content you operate spiritually to utilize the content when you're operating spiritually based on the milk you gravitate to the meat or to the solid food because the bible tells you what jesus did and said on earth the meat means you're operating from what he's doing now in heaven and i'll show you that in a moment so it is your use so let me tell you how god helps you out god likes to help us out notice the milk christian verse 13 is not accustomed to the use of the word because they're an infant they don't they don't know they can't they can't chew the meat solid food is for the mature the spiritual perspective then it's for the mature who because of practice have their senses trained ah here we go a football team goes to the training room and when the football team goes to the training room they go through the playbook they go to the playbook to learn the plays they're in this room classroom there's a defensive room there's an offensive room there's sub breaks out of that to learn the particular plays right now you're in the training room to learn the plays but then they go to the practice field on the practice field they practice the plays they learned in class that's where they're hitting and tackling you can talk about hitting and tackling when you're not being hit or tackled but once you've been hit a tackle now we know whether you know the play but the only way we know that you know to play is on the field so what god does for you to see whether you really understand the play you were saying amen to is put you on the field of life where you have to make decisions and when he puts you on the field of life through trials and troubles and difficulties and challenges do you run to god's word do you run to god's perspective do you act on what he says or do you go to the human way of doing it the secular way of doing it the non-christian way of doing it then god says you didn't learn to play because you're not accustomed to using the word of righteousness he said you're gonna have to use this in your decision making on a daily basis it means you you as a family you're gonna have to say how does god say we should raise this through these children how does god say i'm to be the husband how does god say used to be the be the wife how does god say i'm operated work how does god say i'm to operate in the secular uh uh environment of what does god say and it ought to be your first question not the one you run to after you tried everything else he says it's time to grow up and become a tour you've been infants too long and the church in america has been an infant church mega churches and all what will happen if you decide to be mature which is the use not only the knowledge of the word first thing to happen is that you'll now be able to pick up on spiritual signals you won't need rabbit ears because you'll have direct tv you'll need rabbit ears when you have directv because there's something up in the sky that's sending you a signal you'll be able to pick up the holy spirit we'll be able to bring god's thoughts to your mind see that's what god does with spiritual people he brings see see we have the national news and local news right now i'm preaching the national news you know the national news you get things that are happening all over the place but for your daily decision making you need local channels you need local news you need stuff that's talking to you about the thing you're facing and what you're going through the national needs don't news don't deal with you it deals with national uh but the local news is where you live where you work where you okay so when you come to church you get national news but when you are mature you get local news god can now talk to you bring thoughts to your mind ideas to your mind let you see things behind the scene that you couldn't see with your physical eyes but he'll let you he'll let you in on some secret stuff because he can now speak to your mind because he can you can now pick up signals you couldn't pick up before because you're growing spiritually the the signals work you'll be able to distinguish between legit and illegitimate okay now here's the big one this is the final one but this is the this is the zinger he started off in verse 11 by saying concerning him i have much to say now he's gonna say a lot in chapter seven so this week you can read chapter seven he'll go into it in more detail but he says i can't talk to you now about him because you you're you're too infantile you're too you're too babyish and i have he says i have uh much to say so whatever this is is a big deal that i want to tell you but you're not ready to hear it so i'm going to tell you now even though some may not be ready to hear it because it's a big deal back up in verse 5 he says so also christ did not glorify himself so as to become a high priest but he who said to him you are my son today i have begotten you just as he says also in another passage you are a priest forever according to the order of melchizedek verse 10 being designated by god a high priest according to the order of melchizedek he says i want to tell you about the melchizedekian priesthood i want to talk to you about that but y'all ain't ready for this and i want to tell you that jesus christ is after the order of melchizedek melchizedek now to understand what jesus is to you today he says if you understand melchizedek it'll help you to understand who jesus is today because jesus is a high priest like melchizedek was so who is melchizedek and why does it matter genesis chapter 14. this is how the new testament takes the old testament and brings its relevancy to us today through the person of jesus christ in genesis chapter 14 abraham has been involved in a battle in a fight he's come back from a battle verse 17 of genesis 14. he comes back from his battle in verse 18 says and melchizedek king of salem brought out bread and wine uh-uh uh-oh uh bread and wine that sounds like communion doesn't it he brought out bread and wine now he was a priest of god most high let me say that god most high is el elyon el elyon means the god who overrules okay keep that in mind melchizedek is a high priest and of the most high god but he's also a king of salem salem means peace jerusalem jerusalem that is peace he is a king and he blessed him and said blessed be abram of god most high okay what did melchizedek do he blessed abraham so melchizedek is the priest who brings blessing to abraham now guess what the bible says you and i are the seed of abraham stick with me here because we we we in a little tall cotton here he says blessed through a of the abraham a god of most high possessor of heaven and earth jesus christ all authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth okay and blessed be the god most high who has delivered your enemies into your hand he that is abraham gave him a tenth of all a tithe of all so let me summarize because there's so much here abraham has been in a fight he's been in a battle you can read it in the preceding verses and the god most high has given him victory but he's been in a fight when he comes back he meets melchizedek a high priest coming out of a fight melchizedek blesses him gives him bread and wine because he's been in a fight you will see in the following verse he's getting ready going to another fight with the king of sodom so he left one fight he's going to another fight between the two fights he runs into melchizedek the high priest melchizedek blesses him gives him bread and wine to strengthen him because he can't go to another fight if you're a serious christian that means last week you were in a fight so if you're not a serious christian you ain't in no fight cause nobody rejecting you nobody's against you you just going along with the crowd but if you're gonna stand up for jesus christ you're gonna you're gonna run into some fight sometime in your family sometimes in your neighbor you're gonna run into some stuff sometimes that can make you weary that was last week but now this week you got a fight coming up you don't even know about yet it's not cause you're looking for a fight trying to find the fight trying to be in a fight it's just because the world is against you so between last week's fight and this week's fight you need some bread and wine you need to be refreshed empowered strengthened with the blessing of god to help you deal with what it looks like when you're a mature christian he says i want to tell you about my care today why because jesus is after the order of melchizedek how because he brings to us the strength for spiritual living in the fight of a secular society by the bread and wine of his communion with us so that we can go and fight and watch him overrule watch el elyon make the final decision the reason why you want to be mature say is because that means your circumstances don't have the final decision your boss doesn't have the final decision the situation in the culture doesn't have the final decision because you belong to the mature saints of god under the priesthood of christ who's after the order of melchizedek who can meet you in the battles of life somebody ought to be wanting to be a mature christian so that all that god can give and wants to give you're able to receive so you're going to battle if you're going to be able to a christian because you're going to be living by divine insight in that secular perspective it is easy to forget what this is supposed to be all about so if you want to change what you do you got to change who you are but the way to change who you are is to grow who you become with the seed being expanded within you i said why would god call me all the way down here and then allow me to get sick i remember him saying blessed be the god of all comfort who allows us to go through things that we might be able to comfort others you need some people that will be in your life that tell you that you tripping and that you've lost your ever-loving mind and that you need to get back on the narrow path if you become a regular abider in the scriptures you're going to show yourself to be a real disciple this is one of the occupational hazards of being a pastor that people don't think you have to wage war against sin like they do and what's even worse is that sometimes we think we can't lead them if we act like we're just as vulnerable as they are god gets at us in different ways doesn't he there are some things that god's people are going to get to know about us regardless of how we started god will empower your actions he will not replace your actions we can't fake it and make it in front of the word you

Channel: Tony Evans

Views: 362,453

Rating: 4.8983459 out of 5

Keywords: sermon, sermons, divine reset

Id: EnnoEnlCXJg

Length: 27min 43sec (1663 seconds)

Published: Sun Mar 28 2021