Sermon presented by Peter Eddington on March 8, 2014 in the Cincinnati East, Ohio congregation.

 

Do you remember your first trip to Disneyland or an amusement park? How about your first time at King's Island?

Now I have a slightly older crowd here this morning, but you remember back when you were young and there was the Ferris wheel and all of that. But do you recall the long lines for the most popular rides? And guess what is at the entrance to the line? Usually a cut-out of a little person, with a ruler and height measurement restriction. And as our three boys grew up, their hope was the next time they visited Disneyland they would be tall enough to ride Space Mountain or the Matterhorn. We lived in southern California so when people would be visiting town, or visiting from Australia we'd say, "What do you want to do?" And they'd say, "We want to go to Disneyland!" So we went quite a few times over the years.

Back then, a rider on even the tamest of rides had to be at least three years old. You couldn't take an infant on almost any ride. That is unless you went to the kiddie section of the park. And I remember our boys feeling disappointed and yearning for the day when they would be old enough to ride on the Matterhorn. We all want to be old enough to be grown-up so that we can ride the big rides. But at Disneyland in the children's section is another famous ride, Peter Pan's Flight. Now this was rather ironic. Disneyland guests of any age are welcome to ride in little boats that fly over scenes based on Disney's film version of the classic story. And we're all told, through the music playing while you take the ride, that we should all be like Peter Pan himself. What did the boy proudly sing in Disney's movie? Let me quote a few lines from the song, some of the relevant parts to what we're talking about here today. Peter Pan says, "Are you ready for today's lesson?". And all the children say, "Yes, Peter!". And then Peter Pan says,

"Listen to your teacher. Repeat after me. I won't grow up. I don't want to go to school. It would be beneath my dignity to climb a tree. I'll never grow up, never grow up, never grow up. Not me. Not I. Not me, not me. I won't grow up. I don't want to wear a tie. Never gonna be a man, I won't. I'd like to see somebody try and make me. I won't grow up. Because growing up is awfuler than all the awful things that ever were. I'll never grow up, never grow up, never grow up. No, sir. Not I, not me, so there. I will stay a boy forever. I'll never grow up, never grow up, never grow up. Not me. Not me. Not me. Not me. No, sir, not me."

So, while our boys want to grow up in order to be tall enough to tackle the big roller coaster thrills, there is another story next door telling them to never grow up.

When it comes to you and me in our spiritual life, are you more like most kids who want to grow up so they can ride Space Mountain? Or, are you like Peter Pan who embraces his eternal immaturity with vigor? And I think you know what I'm really getting at. Do you want to grow up into the stature and the fullness of Jesus Christ? And of course most of us will very quickly say, of course I want to grow up in Christ. I want to be a mature Christian. Don't we all? But how much does this desire guide your daily life? Are you actively working on becoming a mature disciple of Jesus Christ? And do you understand what Christian maturity really is and how you're able to attain it?

What memories do you have of wanting to grow up when you were younger? They probably go beyond amusement park rides. How about wanting to be old enough to drive a car? Every teen looks for that time. To legally buy a beer, perhaps. Or to get married. But what about members now of God's Church? Do you want to grow up spiritually? Do you have goals to be able to go on the big rides of life? And is there any evidence of this in your daily life? So, in today's message let's take a closer look at growing up. And I've titled it, "Are You Going to Grow Up?". 

Are you going to grow up. And it's pretty much a pre-Passover and Unleavened Bread topic for us to think about, and that is growing up in Christ. I've divided today's message up into seven sections for a little bit of organization. I like to have my things organized and lined out.

And the first one I've called: Growing up in Christ. If you wanted to write that down; growing up in Christ. Let's turn to Ephesians 4:11-16. And we'll read a key passage that discusses the concept of growing up. It's actually a scripture from which we draw the inspiration for our United Church of God vision statement. Ephesians 4:11. And He gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers for the equipping of the saints for the work of service for the edifying of the body of Christ. Notice Ephesians 4:13. Till we all come to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God to a perfect man. Or, to mature manhood. Or, womanhood. To the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. So that's what we are to attain. That's how we are to mature; to the fullness of Christ. Ephesians 4:14 we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, but speaking the truth in love may grow up in all things into Him who is the head, Christ. And then Ephesians 4:16 from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working, from the Greek word energia, for the effective energy, by which every part does its share, so, it's a group effort, right? Causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love. A member of the Church of God then, we see here, is to be a perfect man, a perfect woman, to be mature, we read in Ephesians 4:13. No longer a child. Ephesians 4:14. That is to the stature and character of Jesus Christ Himself. The last phrase of Ephesians 4:13 says attain it to the full measure of the fullness of Christ. Become like Christ. And so what do we do? We put away ourselves, we put away the old man, we put away the old person and we become more like Christ.

What is the fullness of Christ? What might be this whole measure of this fullness that we're supposed to have? Let's go back to Ephesians 1 where the word fullness is introduced in this letter that was written by the apostle Paul. We see the word fullness used here in Ephesians 1:22-23. And God put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church. So Jesus Christ is the head of the church. And the church is His body, Ephesians 1:23, the fullness of Him who fills all in all. The Weymouth New Testament says: the completeness of Him who everywhere fills the universe with Himself. And God is omnipresent, isn't He? Jesus Christ is omnipresent. The fullness of Him who fills all in all. Who everywhere fills the universe with Himself.

It'll be my paraphrase by saying that Christ so leads His church that He fills it completely. It's His church, and He's leading it, and He's in it. He's present throughout the church. And He should be in all of His people all of the time. If you think of the church as a water container, then we are to be filled to the brim with Jesus Christ and the power of His Father's and His Holy Spirit. So we put away the sinful self, we put away our own thoughts and our own desires, and we put on Jesus Christ. And He must fill our lives now once we become a converted Christian.

Notice Ephesians 3:14-19. Paul says, it's for this reason I bow my knees to the Father, of our Lord, Jesus Christ , from whom the whole family in Heaven and on Earth is named, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man. And so we see it's through the power of God's Holy Spirit in us that this is possible. Ephesians 3:17 That Christ may dwell in your hearts, through faith, that you being rooted and grounded in love may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width, and length, and depth, and height, to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. This is growing up in Christ. This is spiritual maturity. Growing up in Christ. Being filled with Christ completely. Striving to live a sinless life. Putting away our own selfish desires that are at odds with the word of God. So, growing up in Christ.

The second part I want to look at, I've called: No Longer Children. Number two is no longer children. To get back to our earlier example, it's not just Peter Pan. There's a very catchy rock song by the Ramones from the 1970's called "I Don't Want to Grow Up". In 2002 the Ramones were ranked the second greatest  band of all time by Spin magazine, trailing only the Beatles. The Ramones were very, very popular in the 70's. And in this song they capture the agony and heartache of living in this world. And to me it shows the tragedy of living in the world without a true hope in God and Jesus Christ. Without the depth and height of what it means to be filled with the fullness of God.

Here's some excerpts from the song's lyrics. The Ramones sing: "Nothing ever seems to turn out right. I don't want to grow up. When I see the price that you pay, I don't want to grow up. I don't want my hair to fall out. I don't want to grow up. Well, when I see my parents fight, I don't want to grow up. They all go out and drinking all night. I don't want to grow up. When I see the Five O'clock News, I don't want to grow up. I don't want to get a big old loan, work them fingers to the bone, I don't want to grow up."

And it's basically a song about no hope in the future. And today many people follow the sentiments of these lyrics and try to hold on to childhood. They think, why grow up? But we, as God's people, as God's church, are to become fully saturated with the Holy Spirit to fully embody Christ's presence in our life. We are to measure up, to grow up to the full height that God intends for us. We have a goal of growth in the Body of Christ. We do want to grow up spiritually, and emotionally, and physically. We do want to put away the old sinless man and become like Christ, and that's why we're here.

Let's go back to Ephesians 4 again and read verse 14 one more time. Ephesians 4:14. We should no longer be children. The NIV says, no longer be infants. And Weymouth says, be no longer babes. And then it continues, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the trickery of men and the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting. So we are not to be children or babies who are tossed back and forth by the waves and blown here and there by every wind of doctrine, or rumor, or innuendo. Who are the infants, here in this context, in verse 14? They are those who are influenced by the teaching that contradicts the core truth of the Biblical record. Because there are false teachers who practice trickery, it says, for their own deceitful gain of their own deceitful plotting. Satan will try and lead you astray. Satan is smart. He's crafty. He's deceitful. And every wind of doctrine that we read about here in verse 14 is not always blatant. It can be something that distracts us from the truth, that misguides our thinking.

We all know people that have rejected the fourth commandment outright, or who have rejected other major Biblical doctrines. But more often than not it is more subtle than that. Instead we see people getting distracted from their relationship with God. We see those who are distracted by life, by technology. Things that affect their life's goals and their spiritual goals. And some are affected by persuasive, unbiblical philosophy and rumors. So it's easy for spiritual infants, for babes, to become focused on something other than a deep relationship with God like they should.

If you're not mature, Paul says, you are easily tossed to and fro in faith, and in life. Easily. And the use of the metaphor infants here, implies that spiritually immature people are not able to make themselves grow up. Real babies depend on others. Depend on their parents to feed them, clothe them, change them, protect them. Real babies need help. And so it is with those who are young in the faith. They need to be instructed and equipped by spiritual teachers and leaders and helped to mature and grow up. If you'll go back to Ephesians 4:11-12, He gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers. Why? For the equipping of the saints for the work of service for the edifying of the Body of Christ. And so we see that the church leadership has an important role to play in helping the saints become equipped, in helping people mature and grow up and become valuable pillars in the Church of God. To help us move beyond that spiritual infancy from when we were first called. But the responsibility for helping those young in the faith to grow up is not just a job for the ministry. It's a job for the whole church. We work together in it. And those of us who have been around for many years, those who have studied and learned the scriptures for decades should now be able to be teachers to help others.

Notice Colossians 3:16. Let's turn over there for a moment. Once again, reading from the words of the apostle Paul. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom. And this, of course, he's writing to the church at large, the general membership. Teaching and admonishing one another. So all of us should have the fullness of Christ, all of us should have the word of Christ dwelling in us richly so that we can teach and admonish one another. It's not just a job for the church leadership. It continues, in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.

Notice Hebrews 5:12. This is actually Paul, it's kind of corrective language here, he says to them, for though by this time you ought to be teachers, but you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the articles of God and you have come to need milk and not solid food. Hebrews 5:13 for everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness for he is a babe. But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil. And so he says we should all now be beyond solid food. We ought to be teachers.

All of us begin our Christian lives as infants, no matter our chronological age. Some are called to the truth even later in life, but they are spiritual infants to begin with. But God intends for us to each grow up as the Body of Christ does its work in our lives. And as we grow into maturity we become those who teach and nurture others so that they too, and the whole body; the whole congregation; might grow up in Christ. You see, it's a group effort, it's a church effort.

And the only way to grow up, to become a teacher, to grow into maturity is as we read earlier through the power of the Holy Spirit in us. We have to feed on His word, talk with Him, and live our life in Him, in Jesus Christ and the Father.

So make sure you're firmly grounded in the faith and not easily tossed about by every wind of doctrine, remain firmly in God's truth, and help others grow up in their faith. Become a teacher yourself. Grow up spiritually. Be mature, no longer a child as Paul said.

My third section I've called: Where have all the grown-ups gone? Where have all the grown-ups gone? So, let's switch gears a little bit now and look at that trend today not to grow up. Let's look at the Peter Pan principle. People want to remain childish. And it's more than just a Peter Pan syndrome or a song by the Ramones. Many don't want to mature. And being a grown-up is frowned upon. A book written by Diana West in 2008 captures this sentiment. It's called The Death of the Grown-Up. The sub-title is "How America's Arrested Development is Bringing Down Western Civilization." Here's a portion of the book's synopsis. You know, on the back cover. Where have all the grown-ups gone?, she asks. That is the provocative question Washington Times syndicated columnist Diana West asks as she looks at America today. Sadly, here is what she finds. It's difficult to tell the grown-ups from the children. In a landscape littered with baby Brittany's, moms who mosh and Dads too young to call themselves mister. As far as West is concerned, grown-ups are extinct. The disease that killed them emerged in the '50's, was incubated in the '60's and became an epidemic in the '70's, leaving behind a nation of eternal adolescents who can't say no. A politically correct population that doesn't know right from wrong. The result of such indecisiveness is ultimately the end of western civilization as we know it.  And we thank insight for which Diana West takes readers on an odyssey through culture and politics from the rise of rock and roll to the rise of multiculturalism, from the loss of identity, to the discovery of diversity. From the emasculation of the heroic ideal, to the "PC"-ing of Mary Poppins all the while building a compelling case against the childishness that is subverting the struggle even against Jihadist Islam in a mixed-up post 9/11 world. That's the synopsis of the book.

And then she opens the book, The Death of the Grown-Up, with chapter one. It is called The Rise of the Teen. Here's what she says: Once there was a world without teenagers. Literally. Teenager, the word itself, didn't pop into the lexicon much before 1941, and this speaks volumes about the last few millennia. In all those many centuries nobody thought to mention teenagers because there's nothing to think of mentioning, and she'll explain here in a minute. But I might add at this point that a few decades ago once a child became 14 or 15 he went to work. He worked on the farm. He became a young adult. You know the idea of spending one's teen years in leisure is a relatively new phenomenon. So West continues, considering what I'd like to call the death of the grown-up, it's important to keep a fix on this fact, that for all but this most recent episode of human history there were children and there were adults. Children in their teen years aspired to adulthood, significantly they didn't aspire to adolescence. Certainly adults didn't aspire to remain teenagers. She says that doesn't mean that youth hasn't always been a source of adult interests, you can think of Huckleberry Finn and some of those stories about kids. But something has changed, she says. Actually a lot of things have changed. For one thing, turning thirteen, instead of bringing children closer to an adult world, now launches them into a teen universe. For another, due to the permanent hold our culture has placed on maturation process, that's where they're likely to find most adults. Diana West then spends a lot of time expounding upon this point and says our culture has morphed into a perpetual adolescence. Adults acting like teens. And you may have heard of the term used to describe those in their 20's as those being in a stage of adult-escence. They never really left their teen years behind, their adolescence behind.

Chapter three: she calls it Clash. West analyzes the anti-war movement of the 60's and 70's in terms of it being a revolt against parental authority and establishment. She says, central to the surrender of the adult man was the collapse of the parent. As much as any political, economic or demographic factors this made the ascendancy of youth possible and possibly inevitable. First on campus and later in the wider culture.

Chapter four is titled: Parents Who Need Parents.  She describes the phenomenon of adults who bow to the whims of their children against any normal definition of maturity and engage in juvenile behavior themselves. You've probably heard stories of parents who hire strippers to entertain their kids' football team? You know, things like that. Parents are acting like kids. The parents are setting the worst of moral examples. They're acting like juveniles themselves.

And then West ends with chapter nine which is called: Men, Women or Children, where eternal youth is proving fatal it's time to find our rebirth in adulthood. And it is a problem in society, this perpetuating the teen years as long as possible.

I spent time on this because the effects of society also infiltrate our thoughts in the Church of God. The idea of preserving our youth at all costs, always having to look young, disrespecting the elderly can creep into our spiritual life and give us those tendencies. We have to mature. We have to grow up. We have to stop doing spiritually childish things. Right? That's what we're talking about.

Look at 1 Corinthians 14:20. This is a poignant verse included in the discussion of speaking in tongues by the apostle Paul and it bears a lot of relevance here today. Paul says, Brethren, do not be children in understanding. However, in malice be babes. So, be infants in evil is what the New Revised Standard Version says. Be infants in evil, but in understanding be mature. Whereas the New Revised Standard Version says, but in thinking be adults. Don't be a perpetual teenager spiritually.

Then, 1 Corinthians 13. Go back to that and look at verse 11. Here in the chapter about Godly love the apostle Paul talks about spiritually moving beyond adolescence. 1 Corinthians 13:11. He says when I was a child I spoke as a child and understood as a child. I thought as a child. He says, but then I grew up. When I became a man I put away childish things. And what this world will need when Jesus Christ returns is a mature line of leadership that will expound the plan of salvation to the rest of humanity. Who will help the rest of the world literally grow up spiritually. It won't be a time just for fun and games, but a time for real grown-ups, spiritually speaking, that will fix the problems of this world. And that's the job that we will have to do along side Jesus Christ when He returns. We're going to have to be grown-up. We're going to have some maturity to fix the immature problems of this world.

Yes, life is enjoyable and we're able to have fun but when it comes to the serious questions of life, the real issues of God's plan for us, we must develop and grow. We must grow up into the stature of the fullness of Christ. The world will need spiritual grown-ups to lead them. We must become more and more like Christ ourselves now.

Point four I've called: Measuring your age. Measuring your age. So, how does the Body of Christ grow? How does it grow up into His fullness? How do we become a perfect man or woman?

And then we ask, does your spiritual maturity match your chronological age in the church? The number of years you've been in the church. Do you grow a little wiser? A little more mature each year of your life? Or are you stuck in some kind of spiritual adolescence yourself? Or can ask have you just lived that many years in the church that many times over? I guess the question is, are you growing up or are you just getting older? Right?

To find out if you're growing up or just getting older consider the following measurements of age. Number one is our chronological age. Chronological age of course is the amount of time a person has spent on this planet as a human being. It's our age in years, our chronological age.

And secondly you have your physiological age. Which refers to the degree to which the systems of your body have developed relative to your chronological age. So, if you're thirty years old, you look like a thirty year old, or you look like a five year old. It's your physiological age matching your chronological age. We actually did a Beyond Today program a few weeks ago that will air soon about a little girl who is fifteen years old and looks like she's one week old. She's like a newborn. She's not growing up at all, but she's fifteen years old. It's an incredible story and we're going to talk about that a little bit on Beyond Today.

Then you have your intellectual age which refers to whether a person's intelligence is below, above, or equal to his chronological age. So, how are you doing with your schooling? Is it matching your age? Then your social age. Social age compares social development with chronological age. It asks the question, does this person relate as well as he or she should for his age?

And then you have, number five, your emotional age. And emotional, like social age compares emotional maturity with chronological age. It asks the question, does this person handle their emotions as well as they should for their age?

Then finally, spiritual maturity. How do you measure your age when it comes to spiritual maturity? Spiritual compares our maturity with our conversion experience. It asks the question: Does this person handle themselves in a Godly manner as well as he or she should for the number of years they've been in the church? How's their spiritual age? Their spiritual maturity?

We have no control over our chronological age. And only minimal control over our intellectual and physiological age. But we can choose our spiritual age, our social age, and our emotional age. Learning appropriate social skills and developing emotional and spiritual maturity are choices that we all have here. And so we ask ourselves, as we look at these measurements of age, we ask, how old am I then? How old are you? Are you becoming more Godly as you grow up? Or are you stuck in time somewhere from many years ago when you first came into the church? So that's measuring your age.

And so, that leads to number five: What is arrested spiritual development? What is arrested spiritual development? Children who freeze their emotional and intellectual progress at certain levels are said to have become victims of arrested development. And there are some health conditions that can cause that. But we've all know adult men and women who appear to be emotional adolescents and unfortunately television situation comedies make fun of arrested development. There's even a show called "Arrested Development". Where the parents are acting like kids the whole show. It's ridiculous. They make it funny to see adults acting like teenagers. But it's really rather sad. What Diana West wrote in her book about the death of grown ups, is unfortunately true and an indictment on our society and you see it on television sitcoms.

When we find Christians who have been baptized for decades behaving as though they were baby Christians, we're probably looking at cases of arrested spiritual development because this kind of growing up takes effort. It takes study. It takes prayer. It takes work to become like Jesus Christ. To take on the fullness of Jesus Christ doesn't just happen. We have to grow into it. If we find ourselves fighting the same old problems we fought when we were first converted we may be suffering from it ourselves. Here's some ways of testing for arrested spiritual development. Some questions to ask ourselves.

Do you still have just as big a problem with your temper as when you were first converted?

Do you feel spiritually powerless?

Are there sins in your life that you can't eliminate?

Do you have long dry spells in which there seems to be nothing going on between you and God?

Are you unable to generate care, love, and concern for others?

Do you live a fundamentally self-centered, self-seeking life?

Do you still seek to manipulate and control others through emotional blackmail and negative stroke seeking?

Is it all about you?

Do anger, hatred and jealousy play inordinately large role in the way you express your personality?

Do you put others down to make yourself feel better?

Does your life reflect more of the works of the flesh than the Fruits of the Spirit? And that's one of the biggest keys right there. The Fruits of the Spirit in your life. How is your love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, goodness, perseverance?

And so, these questions and their answers can be very revealing to us as we think about them. And they can be helpful in taking stock of where we are in our spiritual trajectory towards taking on the fullness of Jesus Christ. It's all about examining ourselves, isn't it? Asking where are we on the fullness of Christ timeline. And especially before Passover we're reminded it's a good exercise to undertake to see where we are on the timeline towards being filled with the fullness of Jesus Christ of examining ourselves.

Go to 1 Corinthians 3:1. It's clear that Paul was frustrated and disappointed with the Corinthians level of ability to understand spiritual truth. He said, you guys are not getting it. And it appears to be an issue of moral responsibility. And we know this because he rebukes them. Look at 1 Corinthians 3:1. And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual people, but as to carnal. As to babes in Christ. You guys are not growing up! 1 Corinthians 3:2. I fed you with milk and not with solid food for until now you were not able to receive it and even now you're still not able to. 1 Corinthians 3:3. For you are still carnal. For whether there be envying, strife and divisions among you, are you not carnal and behaving like mere men? So he was using the example of milk vs. solid food again. Babies vs. grown ups. Paul said the brethren had a chronological age as adults, but their spiritual age was as an infant. Needing to be fed with a bottle, with formula because they wouldn't grow up. These people here are in a state of arrested spiritual development. Because they were relatively ignorant of God's word. He said you're not spiritually mature. You're not studying. You're not learning how to live a Christian life. And from this we infer that spiritual maturity is dependant upon an understanding God's word. Spiritual maturity depends on an understanding of God's word.

We read Hebrews 5:12-14 earlier. And remember, Paul painted a three-fold profile of spiritually mature people. He said, you're able to digest spiritual food. You're able to digest solid food, and this means that they should be able not only to understand and apply to their own lives the simpler milk truths, they should also be able to do this with more advanced spiritual truths. Take on the solid food. A mature person can digest spiritual food.

He says, too, in Hebrews 5, able to teach others which is a point we covered earlier. A spiritually mature person should at least be able to explain and apply God's truth to others. What do you believe? Here's what I believe. Why? Here's why.

And thirdly, Hebrews says they're able to discern good and evil. To digest solid food, teach others, and discern good and evil. And this refers to the developed ability to appraise every major area of life from the perspective of God's word.

When you're spiritually mature you should be able to face almost any situation and know what you should do, how you should act in light of God's word in that situation. The Bible doesn't tell us dos and don'ts for every little thing that we'll come across in life. It gives us the principles and we should know how to apply those principles and reach a verdict, whether it's true or false. Make a judgment call on whether its true or false. Whether it's spiritually helpful or spiritually harmful and then go the right way. And so that's our fifth point about arrested spiritual development. So watch out for that in your own life. And make sure you're moving beyond and growing each year.

Number six: The Holy Spirit is the Empowering Source. The Holy Spirit is the empowering source. Spiritual maturity involves sensitivity to and powerful leading by the Holy Spirit. It's the Holy Spirit that gives us the capacity to not just be lead by our own human spirit but to have then the capacity to love as God loves. God is love and then we also should become love if we are to be like Him.

The influence of the Spirit of God helps us to do that. And in a spiritually immature person the Holy Spirit may just be a flicker, a little ember. But as we move deeper into a relationship with God in obedience to Him, the influence of the Holy Spirit become greater in our life. And yes, then we can address the situation and know what we should do. The Holy Spirit imparts the power of God to the people of God. It enables us to transcend our human capacities and limitations. The more God's Spirit is active in our life, the quicker we will attain spiritual maturity. Since the capacity to love in a Godly way is a product of the Holy Spirit, so spiritual maturity then is its fruit. The empowering source of the Holy Spirit then leads us through the stages of spiritual maturity.

When we're first baptized and receive the Holy Spirit we are babes in Christ, right? But then there are stages we go through as we mature and notice how the apostle Peter explained it. We're going to go to turn to 2 Peter 1. If anyone knew that spiritual growth takes time it was the apostle Peter. We're all very familiar with the pre-Passover story of Peter when Christ was being prepared to be crucified. He didn't have much faith at that point. But we see what he became once he had the power of the Holy Spirit working in his life. We see him reach a certain emotional and spiritual maturity that he didn't have before when we look at the gospel accounts of him and now read this epistle, we see tremendous spiritual growth. And so he says in 2 Peter 1:5, but also for this very reason giving all diligence, so it's not just something that happens, you have to give diligence to it. Add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge. To knowledge self control. To self control perseverance. To perseverance, Godliness. To Godliness, brotherly kindness. To brotherly kindness. love. And what this is here is a progression of maturity from a babe in Christ to a mature adult in Christ. And being filled with the fullness of Christ. 2 Peter 1:9, for he who lacks these things is short-sighted, even to blindness. And has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins. So you're moving beyond the old man, right? 2 Peter 1:10, therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure. For if you do these things you will never stumble. He says if you will follow this progression you will not stumble. 2 Peter 1:11 and then an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly to the everlasting Kingdom of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. So the ultimate goal of this progression is to be in the everlasting Kingdom of God. God says I want you to add, to develop, to grow in these areas. Spiritual maturity will always involve unselfish sacrificial living. It's saying no to self and yes to God when you truly are spiritually mature. It's pleasing God and following what He wants you to do, not pleasing yourself.
It's interesting to note from Peter's listing that they progress and become more mature attributes as we go through them. In everything in life there are stages of development. In sports. In music. Or in any skill. You start out with lesson one, don't you, just trying to play Chopsticks on the piano. But then you progress beyond that. There are stages of development in music and sports. The beginner stage. The intermediate stage. The advanced stage. And then we say someone is an expert.

Look at stage one here in 2 Peter 1:5. The beginner stage. He says, start out by adding to your faith virtue and knowledge. The concept of the word virtue is making right moral choices. It's going to start making the right choices early on. And involves the study of the word of God, he says you cannot mature spiritually without the knowledge of God. You've got virtue and knowledge there in the beginning stage.

Then you move to the intermediate stage in 2 Peter 1:6. This is the emotional maturity stage. Emotional maturity precedes the spiritual maturity, and he calls it self-control. He says you have to next develop self-control in this intermediate stage. Learn to say no to what we feel like saying yes to. Self-control is you saying, no, I'm not going to do that. And that's not just a spiritual maturity, that's an emotional maturity. Being grown up in what you say yes and no to. Then Peter lists patience and perseverance here in this intermediate stage. Patience or perseverance basically means endurance. It means to stick it out. It means don't quit now what you started. It means to solve problems. Don't shirk problems. Work through them.

And then we reach stage three, the advanced stage in 2 Peter 1:6-7. Godliness and brotherly kindness. Okay, so now you're not just making right decisions, but now you're becoming a Godly person and you're filled with brotherly kindness. Love for God and love for your fellow man now. We put off self, we put on Christ. And brotherly kindness is one of the greatest blessings in life. So that's the advanced stage here in 2 Peter 1:6-7.

And then we reach the expert stage. Stage four. The sacrificial service stage. It's giving of yourself without expecting anything else in return. Love. And it's actually the love of God. Godly love in your life. That's the expert stage. God is love, and we also become love. How do we get like this? It's not going to come naturally. It must come supernaturally. It's not instinctive to our human nature. It's also not going to come quickly. But there is a way to get there. As Peter says in 2 Peter 1:5 and 2 Peter 1:10. We must give all diligence. You have to work at it. It doesn't just happen. So we ask ourselves since a year ago, since last Passover and Unleavened Bread, have we matured? Have we improved in each of these stages of maturity? Have we reached the expert stage yet? Where everything we do is like God would do it. The key is using God's Holy Spirit, as we read in many other scriptures including Ephesians 3:16 earlier where it told us the Holy Spirit gives us this power to take on the fullness of Christ.

Finally, point seven: Don't become dull of hearing. Don't become dull of hearing. We come here every week, we keep the Holy Days every year, and we take the Passover annually. But don't take it for granted. Don't become dull of hearing.

I used to tell my sons when they were younger to clean their rooms, but when I'd check later their room was still a mess. And when I'd ask them why, they'd say, "Oh, I didn't hear you." So I'm thinking, do I need to take them in to get their hearing checked? No, the problem was they had selective hearing. My wife tells me I have that sometimes, too.

If we want to mature spiritually, we must be willing to not only learn what God says in His word, the knowledge, but also then listen and obey. Especially when He personally applies His truth to areas in our lives. We have to listen to what God is saying. We cannot be dull of hearing. The same Holy Spirit that enlightens us to understand God's word; that makes the pages come alive when we read them; that same Holy Spirit also engineers situations in our life, pointing out steps we need to take to mature. Steps we need to take to then apply that knowledge. Our conscience gets pricked when we should be acting in a more spiritually mature fashion. If we don't, and here's the warning, if we don't He'll give it someone else who will listen.

Look at Acts 28. Right there at the end of the book of Acts. Acts 28:25-28. Here Paul actually quotes from Isaiah. It says, so when they did not agree among themselves they departed after Paul had said one word, here's what Paul said, the Holy Spirit spoke rightly through Isaiah, the prophet to our fathers, saying, go to this people and say, hearing you'll hear and shall not understand, and seeing you'll see and not perceive, for the hearts of these people have grown dull, their ears are hard of hearing, that become dull of hearing and their eyes have closed lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, lest they should understand with their hearts in terms that I should heal them. Therefore, let it be known to you that the salvation of God is being now sent to the Gentiles and they will hear it. So, if we don't follow suit, God will find others that will. So we must listen. Must listen, hear and do, and then become mature teachers of the word ourselves.

Final passage, 2 Timothy 2:2. Once again the apostle Paul, this has basically been the apostle Paul explanation here today. Paul said to Timothy, The things that you have heard, the things you have been taught, the things you have heard in church, the things that the word of God has shown you, from me, and among many witnesses, commit these to faithful men, you'll be able to teach others also.

So, what you've heard, what you're learning, make sure you're using that to help others. To teach others as well. You've got to make it a part of your life so you can help others with it.

And so, when it comes to you and your spiritual life, are you more like most kids who want to grow up, so they can ride Space Mountain? Or are you more like Peter Pan who embraces his eternal immaturity? And thick with enthusiasm.

We ask: Are you actively working on becoming a mature disciple of Jesus Christ, to take on the fullness of Jesus Christ?

When the saints of God are resurrected as spirit beings, when we're resurrected to help the whole world understand God's truth, we will be given unlimited power. The question is, will you be mature enough to handle it with care? Or will you act like the sons of thunder who said, "Zap 'em, God! Bring down lightening from Heaven and get rid of them!". If you had that kind of power, will you use it with wisdom and care? Will you be mature enough to handle it?

Christopher Reeve, who of course played Superman in the movies for many years, was quoted as saying: "What makes Superman a hero? It's not that he has power, but that he has the wisdom and the maturity to use the power wisely." And so, in all the old Superman cartoons and comic books, Superman used that power perfectly every time for the good of humanity, didn't he? He used it with maturity and wisdom.

H. D. Wells, in his book Love and Mr. Lewisham said: There's truths you have to grow into. And that's what we're doing here today. We're growing into the truth of God, into the knowledge of God, and we're becoming mature Christians. So don't forget that. A member of the Church of God is to become a mature man, a mature woman. Or as one translation says, become perfect. Not that we'll do it perfectly, but we're to attain to perfection, as we're lead by the power of God's Holy Spirit. We are to be no longer a child in the faith. We are to achieve the stature and character of Christ Himself.

And as we approach the Passover, think: Am I more like Jesus Christ this year, or did I backslide? Am I growing up to be like Him? Or did just another year go by?

Make sure you are firmly grounded in the faith and not easily tossed about by every wind of compromising doctrine. Remain firmly in God's truth and then help others grow up in their faith. So be a teacher of the word. The more God's Spirit is active in our life, the quicker we'll attain to that spiritual maturity. We have to ask for it. It has to be active in our daily life. So, be mature. And I ask, are you growing up? Be mature, grow up into the fullness of Jesus Christ.