How to Grow

Well, today I wanted to talk to you about a subject that became impressed upon me from an event that occurred a month ago. Last month I went to my 50th high school reunion in Minnesota. This is Mr. Davis from Minnesota. He's from South Minneapolis. I was from a suburban St. Paul community called West St. Paul. 50 years is a very long time. And I had not been to a reunion in 40 years. I went to my 10-year reunion, but have had virtually no contact with my classmates in 40 years. And I also thought to myself, well, should I even go?

My life has gone in a totally different direction. I'm sure others are saying the same thing, too. Why would I want to reconnect with people that I don't even know anymore, that have been pushed into the background? After graduation, I went to college at the University of Minnesota. Then went on to Pasadena and to Bridget Wood in England. And I found that even my best friends in high school, that their relationships faded.

All of us went our separate ways with new associations, careers, and just our different directions that we went. But the invitation came for the 50th reunion. One lady there in our class found the names of many of us and sent out invitations for an event in June of last month. I asked myself, should I go?

Who's going to be there? Would I know anyone? Would they know me? What would be the point of reconnecting with people from 50 years ago that are so different from life as we are today? Maybe they won't be interested. I decided to go. The reunion date came, and I'm sure everyone was conscious. We found that there was going to be 130 out of a class of 365 who would come.

Thank you very much. 365 in our class, 130 came to the event. When I walked in to the country club where we had the event, I quickly recognized faces, personalities, and so it was just yesterday. I mean, there they were. I mean, just a little older version of that person. Just like seeing Dr. Kuretics. I've not seen him in 46 years. It was like seeing my class 50 years ago.

And I was very happy I came. I was very glad. I was very happy to see my classmates. My classmates were happy to see me too. The reverse was true. While we don't have much to do with one another, we did share a very important period in our development. But some of them I had gone back to fifth grade, from fifth grade to twelfth grade, had known them every year and really spent a lot of time with them in class, tests, teachers, and we had so many things that we shared with one another about the various teachers, our crazy English teacher.

We had to mean all the different things that kind of just came back to life very, very quickly. I was concerned about coming because the last two years of high school I had really, in a sense, withdrawn from many of the activities of school. I was coming to understand the Sabbath. Even though I didn't keep it very well, I was beginning to read. I was beginning to study. I was beginning to see that Christmas and some of the major holidays were not Christian.

I began to see that things were just way different from what society had. I wasn't involved with debate, science fairs, and things that I really, really enjoyed. I kind of became not a recluse but had withdrawn from those activities. So I thought that maybe I would not be really appreciated that much. But that was false because everybody had come from different areas and had done different things.

Some had gone through severe trials. One person came to me and said he didn't marry. His wife died. Married again, his wife died. You know, others had divorces and other things that occurred in their lives. We were still going to find out that about 40 of our class were now deceased. That was 12% of the 365. When we were young, we thought we were invulnerable.

And here, we read about people that had died of this and that. You know, at age 45, 55, one died last year. Others had died in Vietnam. They had perished over time. The names of these people, their photographs, were over a big table at the reunion and their names were read aloud. We recounted, in fact, as we got to talking, and right now we even developed closed Facebook groups so that we can continue our discussions.

Because I felt like with so many there, I only started conversations that I wish we could have continued. But one interesting thing that came out in the conversations was about the changes that have taken place from 1965 to the current time. 1965, this was before Woodstock. This is before Janice Joplin and Jimi Hendrix. This is before the first man landed on the moon. I mean, this is like history books. It took going back to a former century, which it really was in one sense. This is going back to a time when we had parties at our homes.

They were supervised by our parents. Our parents were welcome to our parties. They came there. My mom was making a bonfire for the kids, you know, and she was as welcome as anybody else. This was a time before drugs. We heard about people that were off narcotics. You know, that was just very, very troubling. And we heard that it was like the worst thing that could possibly happen.

There was very little, if any, premarital, you know, there was a sex between classmates. I mean, that was unheard of. That was just fun. You just wouldn't think that. It was a different society altogether. And no matter what happened in our class over the years, we recollected back to those days and to those values and talked about what had happened to society.

I'm not sure what these people feel now, but nonetheless, we did recall that period of 1969 and before. One common thing and one common expression that occurred at the table that I was sitting at with a number that I had talked to was that, you know something? We have really grown up. Now, we have really, you know, as we look at each other's gray hairs and we look at each other and most everybody I talked to had retired. In fact, one thing they asked me, are you still at it? Yeah, I'm still at it. I'm still working. But most of the ones I had talked to, including the organizer, who was a little girl in fifth and sixth grade that I stood next to waiting for the school bus to come to pick us up to school.

She didn't like me. I was very annoying to her at the bus stop. But she was the one who organized the event and she had a 40-year career as an English teacher and was now retired. It just so much has happened from this one person's life that we've kind of shared and experienced. But we were treating each other very kindly and very, very maturely. As young people, we were filled with all kinds of foolishness and now we were impressed with the fact that, look, we have grown up and we have matured.

This was stated a number of times. Well, this leads me to the subject of our maturation and maturing as Christians. Because we have been brought into the church, has brought out so well by the servant that my wife and I both spoke to each other about how much we appreciated the servant at this morning about what the responsibilities of a Christian is and where we're going. When you become a Christian, when you come to conversion, it isn't like, well, we have arrived and you stay at the same level.

That's just the very beginning. That's just like being a child. That's just like being somebody who is just about to start in life and doesn't really know all the things that you will be faced with in life. You're faced with sickness. You'll be faced with difficulties, with setbacks, with bankruptcy, with loss of a job, or promotion, or something big and wonderful happening, or certain things where you are abased. And you grow through those experiences. And as we talk to one another, we've shared some of the things that have happened to us, good and bad.

Those Christians, we are also growing in much the same way. Except that with our class, there's a certain sense of sadness that we have grown up, but in a sense, the dead end is coming. Literally, a dead end is coming to our life. I thought to myself, no, for a Christian, there is no dead end. For the Christian, you know, you go through your 20s, and your 30s, and your 40s. There's something in a book by, you know, Sheehy, the book Passages, that talks about the various stages you go through in life, your 20s, how you seek a mate, how you get your career and job.

In the 30s, you go through a fear of disillusionment. In the 40s, you've got to make a break. In the 50s, you come to resignation.

But we go through the 60s, and 70s, and 80s. And then, someday, we'll be 100 and 200. And what will we be when we're a thousand years old? Or a million years old? The process of growth and maturation in the kingdom of God is without end. It's a continual process of growing, developing, and knowing the fathomless wonders of God. One reason why God has a universe so huge before us is because of the size of it to show the expanse of where He wants us to go. And number two, the time. Just what mankind's been able to figure out. The universe is 15 to 20 billion years old.

It's a long time. But also, there's a future that is fathomless. And if there was no time, what happened in those 20 billion years? There's just a lot of unanswered questions.

But the fact is that God has created us as conscious beings that have a purpose that are continually growing and that growth will be without end. The parables speak about leaven that grew and filled the whole. Talk about the mustard seed that starts small and grows. There's a period and there's a process of maturation, but the understanding is that maturation is never complete. It never comes to a standstill. And the wonder of God is that He has not finished in His expansiveness and growth. At one time, there was no you.

But now there is a you. And you are part of the family of God. And God has you as His child and as someone that is growing and developing. And to God, that's a great joy. And we want to fulfill that joy. The Bible speaks about spiritual maturity and something we need to consider and ask ourselves, now are we continuing to grow up? Just like our class on a very carnal and physical level.

We said, you know something? We have matured. We have grown up just from the standpoint of physical age. And one of the little incidents brought up was that those who went to their 25th high school reunion, which I was not at, commented that, and that we were in their 40s at that time, that was about age 42 or 43, commented that, you know, at that reunion we all compared ourselves with one another. Well, what are you doing? What bank are you working for? You know, what position do you have? And, you know, what is, what are your assets? And, you know, what do you have?

We compare. But now, in the 50s reunion, nobody really compared. They shared. They said, we compared one time, now we share. We're sharing our experiences, which are important. And that was an important part of the maturation process. God wants us to grow and mature as human beings, certainly. But the next step, next level, is for the Holy Spirit of God to mature to a higher spiritual level. That is what's expected and wanted of us by God. This world is unbelievably immature. This world is a child that's hungry. A two-year-old is hungry. The reaction of world leaders in countries to problems is the reaction that a one-year-old has to having his diapers full.

That's the way that they react to world problems. They don't know what to do when they scream their heads off. And they just have to have somebody deliver them from them. And the only way they can resolve issues is by fighting, destroying, and killing, senselessly. We've come to the time of the last centuries of the existence of this world. And in the last century, we had a senseless war, which is World War I. We're building to figure out why we're even fighting that brought the death of tens of millions of people, followed by, one generation later, the unnecessary war, World War II.

And now we have nuclear weapons. And this next month, August, will be the 70th anniversary of the dropping of the one and only nuclear weapons ending World War II.

Very interesting number. 70 years. There are 70 years of respite. I don't think it's been in the 70 years arrested from nuclear war. It was Iran, with other countries, with crazy leaders, children playing with unbelievably destructive weapons, that they won't do something very, very immature and foolish. Which brings us then to why God has to step in and save this world from itself. But on our level, on your level and my level, we are asked to grow up and not to be left the world, not to react to the senseless, crazy and childish way. In Ephesians chapter 4, verse 15, and I can go through many, many scriptures on the subject of spiritual maturity in both Old and New Testaments. But the apostle Paul, in talking to actually very, very sophisticated groups of people, such as Ephesus or Corinth, has spoke to them and said, we've got to grow up. We have to mature. And here he is, speaking not to some simple society, but to people of repute, intelligence, and loss of knowledge.

In Ephesians chapter 4, in verse 15, he says, but speaking the truth and love, may it grow up to him to become like Christ, to grow up unto him in all things, which is ahead even Christ. That our responsibility, our job, is to grow up, is to match, mature as Christ. In fact, in the New International version, this is translated, instead speaking the truth and love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is ahead, that is Christ.

Christ is the embodiment of maturity. What he did on this earth, the way he conducted himself, how he spoke, how he reacted to whatever was happening in society, whether it was with his peer element, with his disciples, the apostles, or whether it was with the government, he was always at the highest level of maturity and set the example of maturity as no one had known it.

Are we achieving that maturity because that is the ultimate maturity?

I've read an interesting book, just, well actually, scanned the book. It's called The Christian Atheist.

It was written by a pastor of a church who talked about how he had been a pastor, conducted a lot of activities, and very successfully conducted a lot of activities. But after a while, he began to ask yourself the question is, you know, are the people really building their inside life and growing up to becoming our Christ? Or are they Christians in the name only and acting as though there is no God?

Then he asked himself even a deeper question after 18 years, have I acted on my own and doing things because of my skills and abilities in my mind, and have I, do I have Jesus Christ living his life in me? It tragically came to the conclusion that he really wasn't. It wasn't that he was against Jesus Christ. Obviously, that's his job. But was his life in the process of maturing and becoming like Christ, where Christ was really alive in this room like he is right now and scanning our lives? And were you inviting him into your life?

No, God knows us, but do we know him? And we really feel close to him in the way we live, the way we think, and the way we act in a spiritual way. And people have said, well, what is a spiritual person? What is a spiritual person?

You know, how would you define somebody a spiritual person? Is it someone with a halo on their head?

No, a spiritual person is one who does things physically according to the ways, laws, and manner of God. How you do physical things determines your spirituality. The way you react, what you say, how you speak, how you think. And the more spiritual world you are, the more mature you are, both work either way, the more you are a person who is spiritual. And we are asked to grow spiritually.

1 Corinthians chapter 3 and verse 1. 1 Corinthians chapter 3 and verse 1.

This is where the Apostles Paul is speaking to a challenged congregation.

They were really a blustering church of a lot of competent people, intelligence, knowledge.

Corinth was the port city for Athens, which was the intellectual capital of the world.

They're people who really were very, very knowledgeable, very, very smart. And Paul writes to them in 1 Corinthians chapter 3 and verse 1.

And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual people. You've been there a number of years before, established that church. In fact, that was one of the big growth areas in Paul's ministry. He went to Athens first and really came up against brick wall. He argued with the philosophers. He gave his sermon about the unknown God. But we have no record of any church in Athens. But across the bay, there was many souls there. There were many people who came to conversion in Corinth. And so they were people pretty much of the same kind genre. But one area had zero growth and one had much growth. We don't know how big the church in Corinth was, but obviously they had all kinds of things that were happening and going on and activities. And people who had a lot of spiritual gifts. And there was just Paul wrote just so many things that are indicators that this was a vibrant and bustling church. But it had his problems. In fact, when he writes this to them, he speaks to them with certain reservations about things that he'd heard. Now, to people that he knew, baptized, and worked with, and communicated and so forth, and now he has disappointing news about them acting in childish ways. And I, brethren, could not speak to you as two spiritual people, but as two carnal, as two very, very physical, devoid of the Spirit of God that brings maturity. As two babes in Christ. Verse 2, I fed you with milk, and not with solid food. We started with the ABCs. We started with Christianity 101.

The repent, believe, stop doing bad things. I mean, that's where Christianity starts. But that's just a very start, because after you stop doing things that are sinful, you have to start doing things that are helpful, and things that are mature. The things that bring about your usefulness to others, and service to others. I fed you with milk, and not with solid food. For until now, you were not able to receive it. And even now, you are still not able. He says, I'm really disappointed. He says, I started off in a very simple way. And these people, this was the real jolt of them, because they thought they were really smart. They thought they were progressive. They were advanced. They were independents. They were all these kinds of things that they were, I'm going to join my particular group here. I'm of Paul. No, no, no, I'm of Apollos. And another person took another brother to court. And then he had the sin in 1 Corinthians 5 that was allowed in the church. Under the progressive titles that we know more, we're just, you know, kind of, we're just being very, very advanced about ourselves and knowledge. Paul says, you are not. You're carnal. You're immature. You're children. He says, for where there are envy, strife, and divisions among you, are you not carnal and behaving like mere men? Because the fruits of your church are just a lot of disruption and divisions. People just at each other's throats. Is that maturity? No matter how you feel and just about your cause, when the net result is a church that's in upheaval, which it was, the way Paul wrote 1 Corinthians. For when one says, I'm of Paul, another says, I'm Apollos, I am not carnal. He brings this up as an example, where people sign it with one particular individual over another. So, the apostle pauses to this church, basically, grow up. Stop acting like babies. I've had to feed you very, very basic milk. We really want to get to solid food. We want to be able to give you a banana. We want to give you some meat. So you can do those things that go beyond just not doing bad things, but developing the kind of character that displays love in your family, the proper kinds of communication, the proper kinds of service to your church, to your family, to your children, the example that you set, and to the world. That's what we have to get to. I feel we're working that through that in the United Church of God. I'm very thankful that we have added to the church. We have an environment of peace right now, which we've not had. And one of the biggest prayers I have, God, keep the peace that we have, because it's only in this environment are we going to advance further to the church. Because we really have very little impact on the world.

Like I told our people, you know, who get upset about something, they go off and they form another group. So one time we were a lake, then we became a pond, and then we became a puddle, and then we became a teacup, then we'd give a thimble. And I don't want to scoot out to be just an eyedropper as far as impact on the world. We've got to turn that around. We've got to have some impact to the world. And I tell our people, I tell our council, I will tell our council on mixed meetings, that we really need to work with what we have to be able to be known. One thing we learned from the public appearance campaigns of last September that nobody knows us.

Very few people know who we are. Yet I feel that God is working with us, and there is some plan that is being worked through us. And frankly, it won't be coming from television, it won't be coming from very cleverly written articles. It'll come from the lives of people that shine the light of God to the world. In my rotary club, I speak about the church all the time. Before we had a public appearance campaign, I had Peter Eddington come and give a presentation about the Beyond Today Television program. They were astounded. You mean we have this program produced up on a hill from here?

They had no idea that we had the program that we did. Some of them started watching it. Some of them watched it on television. I was able to invite three people from our club who came to the public appearance campaign. But for the most part, we are not known at all. Yet we have a treasure for knowledge base of truth about who God is, what life and death are, what man's purpose is.

Now, just in talking with my old classmates, I saw that they were here, there, everyone else. The Supreme Court decision was made after our reunion, and I've been becoming Facebook friends with a number of them. Some of them had been rainbow avatars put on their particular names. I just know that they're all over the place. And one wrote to me and said, well, Vic, you believe, you know, this is one of the ones that had the avatar, and she saw my statement about the Supreme Court decision and the church's position on it. And she said, you know, of course, you believe it from the stamp of the Bible, which, as you know, is a book that was written one particular time period that, you know, it's been really updated since that time. You know, and I, you know, I wanted to write, I wrote to her very nicely, I said, I respect, well, I didn't respect that much, I don't know if I said that, but I see your views, whatever. And I almost said, love wins. But, you know, these people just are lost, and we know the truth.

We know the truth. No, we know what works and what doesn't. We know that God has given us choices. He's also told us that whatever choice you make, you will accept the consequence of that choice.

Now, people want to make their choices and have the consequence they want. No, the consequence comes, got it built in, baked into the choice that's made. Continuing, 1 Peter chapter 2. 1 Peter chapter 2. We'll go to another leader in the New Testament church that talks about the subject of growing up and maturing. 1 Peter 2.

Therefore, laying aside all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all evil speaking, obviously the things that the apostle Paul even said are manifestations of immaturity.

As newborn babes desire the pure milk of the word that you may grow thereby. I want you to grow up, and what you're growing up from is being malicious, deceitful, hypocritical, envious, and just a lot of evil speaking. All that is a sign of maturity. If you see somebody speaking and gossiping and saying all kinds of manner of evil, this person is a two-year-old. This person is a one-year-old. That's the level at which they are talking. They are not mature. They need help. They need to grow up. And, of course, the most noted statement by the apostle Peter in 2 Peter chapter 3 and verse 18, 2 Peter 3, 18, grow in grace and knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. That's how he ends his writings. Grow mature, advance. There are a few passages in the book of Hebrews. In Hebrews chapter 5 and verse 12.

Hebrews chapter 5 and verse 12.

The church that he spoke to was the original home office church of the New Testament.

It was the church in Jerusalem. That's where it all started.

It started off with a lot of enthusiasm. But it's also a church that went into a doldrums period and a period of cooling off. And there are warnings given to this church of committing the unpardonable sin of drifting so far away that you really can't even rekindle your first love.

But he said in verse 12 of Hebrews 5, For though by this time, and this is decades after the church was established, you ought to be teachers.

Instead, he says, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God. This can happen.

And where we have 10 years of gross or 20 years of gross, or we just lived our first year in the church over and over again.

And we want to be able to advance and build upon what we've established and understand cause and effect of Christian thinking, Christian relationships, and that you don't do certain things, and that you also do certain things as a Christian. That's maturity. And you come to need milk and not solid food. He told that pretty much to the Corinthians. Now he's telling that to the people in Jerusalem. The church has his problems then. The church has his problems now.

For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe.

If all he can handle is just the ABCs, and the simple things. I have this one little chart at home that is called, Everything I Learned and Everything I Needed Going Like I Learned in kindergarten.

Don't hit, don't spit, make sure you don't do this.

Now if that's all we know, then that's very, very immature.

But also he says, as he's unskilled in the word of righteousness, the word of righteousness, the word of righteousness.

The word of God is for the purpose of creating righteousness, righteous character. I'll be speaking about that at the Feast of Terramachals in our sermon that will be given to all. About who's going to be in the kingdom of God, and why will they be in the kingdom of God? And what really constitutes righteousness? Who showed well on your holy hill?

It's the word of righteousness that produces the type of result that God wants. But this person who wrote the book, the Christian atheist, are we really a Christian? Or could we even be a Christian agnostic?

Or somebody who has the name of Christ, has the name of the church, does the things that they should, even attend services. But it's really like Christ isn't living his life in them, and is not translated into action and activity towards other people that's helpful and generous.

It continues to say in verse 14, Solitude belongs to those who are of full age.

That is, those who by reason of use, because of application, because of doing those things, of use, have their senses exercised.

You know, what reason why we have various situations that come to us?

In life.

So we make a choice.

Either we'll be forgiving or not forgiving. Either we'll be helpful or not helpful. Either we're going to react in a mature way or we will react in a childish way.

And it's this having to make choices and making the right choice is how we become mature and strong.

Exercise to discern both good and evil.

And he continues in the next chapter in Hebrews 6 in verse 1. Therefore, leading in the discussion of the elementary principles of Christ, he says, I hope that we've done that. You know, that we're, we've got that covered.

Let us go on to perfection. But he explains what the basics were.

This isn't going to say too much about where he's going. He just basically repeats where they came from. Not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works. I mean, that's where it begins.

Now, what we're trying to do, really, with public appearance campaigns with people, is just to get them to stop sinning.

We want them to stop doing those destructive actions that are affecting their lives and the lives of the people around them.

From dead works.

And the face towards God, where we say, look, there is a better way.

Believe what God has written.

We don't have to tell you to believe. I hope not.

I should have been believing a long time ago.

Of the doctrine of baptism. So we've been there, done that, and been baptized.

The laying out of hands. Of the resurrection of the dead, which explains what man is, what his future is.

And of eternal judgment.

And this we will do if God permits.

Basically tells the church, let's move on to more important and more advanced. Then let's go to Christianity 201, 301, 401. Let's go on to graduate school.

You know, in Galatians chapter 3 verse 24, the apostle Paul speaks of a scripture that we hear many times, and I'm not going to go into his full depth.

But the apostle Paul explains one of those things that brings about certain behavioral habits that should become automatic.

Galatians chapter 3 verse 24. He says, therefore, the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ.

The purpose of the law was to become an agent that helped us to become mature, and to become grown up as Christ is.

That we are unjustified by faith.

But after faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor.

That once you've already developed those good habits that the law has brought you to Christ, you don't have to be reminding yourself of the very basics.

We don't have to have honor your father and mother. Thou shalt not steal.

Now, we don't walk in the church, how are you today?

You know, thou shalt not steal.

If students wanted to remind you, you know, thou shalt not kill, then we should have established that a long, long time ago.

It's a tutor. It's a law that is a tutor that teaches us the very basic things.

I like to learn through tutorials. I've learned to use InDesign and Photoshop through tutorial videos. That's the way I learn things the best.

I don't learn too well from lectures. I get kind of, I want to hear and see it over and over again.

But I've seen these tutorial videos on how to use Dreamweaver. That's the one I probably use the most for web work.

And then I see a video. It teaches me some skill. Oh, there it goes. That's the way it works. That's how you insert an image. That's how you make a table. That's how you, you know, link, code, whatever.

And then, you know, something, I don't need that tutor anymore because I do it automatically. Right now, I go and do those things over and over again. Man, you go back to have a review from time to time, but I don't have to have that tutor stand over me. In the same way, the law of God. Doesn't mean that tutorial is invalid or that it shouldn't be applied to somebody else. It's just that you don't leave it.

Because you have grown up and you do those things. Your life is a reflection of God.

1 Corinthians 13 now. 1 Corinthians 13 and verse 11.

When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child. This is all Himself speaking.

At one time, He really was a kid. He was an immature, impetuous, violent person.

I understood as a child, I thought as a child, but when I became a man, I put away childish things. I put away childish things. Can we all say that there's a point in our Christian development, not only in our physical development, because we don't want people to have third graders.

This morning at breakfast, we had this beautiful little girl that sat at our table. Her name was Eva, three years old, and her parents were there. And she said such nice, cute little things.

You know, if she was 30 years old and talked that way, something's wrong with that girl.

Now, when you're a child, you do childish things, childlike things. But when you're older, you put away childish things. It's cute back then, but now more is expected.

1 Corinthians 14 and verse 20.

1 Corinthians 14 verse 20. I like this scripture because of something else that it teaches. 1 Corinthians 13 verse 20. Do not be children in understanding.

We tell our kids, you know, please do this. Please, you know, clean up your room. Please, you know, be nice to your friends. You know, please come home at this time.

And we want you to, you know, don't be children in understanding. You don't get it. And understand why I'm saying these things, and what the end goal of it is, and what the benefits are of understanding.

So don't be children in understanding. No, grow up. Understand the bigger picture. However, in malice, in malicious things, be babes. But in understanding, be mature. Be mature.

So understanding would be mature, but in malicious things or evil things, and as Paul wrote in another place, that there are certain things that are done out there in the world that we don't even need to know about.

We should be all ignorant to those things. Or just not really in the full course of things. And right now we have evil things talk to our children.

Evil of behavior that is private and secret, that we feel like we've got to tell our children about. By the way, Billy, you're a boy. Well, maybe not. We have our children all confused about these things that may be there in the very, very small minority.

But in malice, we should be babes.

Ephesians chapter 4, verse 11. Ephesians chapter 4 and verse 11. Talking about the role of the ministry and one of the jobs that Howard Davis has here.

For you and for himself. For all of us. He himself gave some to the apostles and some prophets and some evangelists, some pastors and teachers. He talks about the various roles now that were becoming established in the church. Teachers, seminar givers, presenters, power appointees, directors, you know, whatever. All these are put there, but also pastors and teachers. For the equipping of the saints.

For the work of the ministry and for the edifying of the body of Christ. To build up the church, to help it become more mature.

Till we all come to the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God to a perfect man. Perfection is also a synonym for maturity to a mature person. To the measure and the stature of the fullness of Christ. Our minister has the job of helping all of us to become more like Jesus Christ. If you want to know what his maturity, study the life of Christ.

That is maturity. That is perfection.

That we should no longer be children. Toss, to and fro. You hear things that are unseemly. You hear things that are rumors. You hear things that, you know, well maybe it's okay to eat pepperoni. Oh, okay, let him know that. You know, and then all of a sudden they're tossed to and fro. Because they haven't been grounded.

And they don't have these things embedded in their lives. They haven't grown up.

Tossed to and fro and cared about with every wind of doctrine.

And believe me, people come through with all kinds of variations of teaching.

Well, maybe Pentecost is all about when Christ returns. All of a sudden people go, oh yeah, what else is different? You know, and people just want to find a loose brick and are tossed to and fro. And a new roof forms and all this type of thing happens.

Very mature, very childish behavior. I'm going to take my marble to go someplace else.

And realize how important it is for us not to be blown to and fro with every word of doctrine, but a trickery of man in the cunning, craftiness of deceitful plotting, as people try to do things that divide and destroy.

1 Corinthians 2, verse 6.

The Apostle Paul writing against the Corinthians church and said what he wanted to do.

What he really wanted to do to the church. What he wanted to do for them, I should say.

1 Corinthians 2, verse 6. Yet among the mature we do impart wisdom.

Although it is not the wisdom of this age.

It is among the mature. No, when you have people who are mature, that are grown up, then you can rise to higher levels of wisdom in what the church ought to be, what the church ought to teach, and how we can project ourselves to the world. No longer children, no longer second graders, third graders. You no longer one-year, two-year-old, and how you react. But you are people who are truly people of substance.

People of character, of integrity.

And that what you say is what you are.

There are no people living double lives.

That's maturity. We do impart wisdom.

But it is not the wisdom of this age. This is the wisdom, of course, that comes from the Holy Spirit of God. Maturity, spiritual maturity, does not happen automatically.

While we, as a physical being, can grow up, and our bones become different, and our body becomes different, and so forth, automatically, as we mature physically, spiritual maturity is not automatic.

Spiritual maturity requires a growth agent that comes from the Holy Spirit.

Of God. And a comparison to Jesus Christ as the model of perfection.

One of my favorite scriptures about growth is found in Colossians chapter 1, verse 9. Colossians chapter 1, verse 9.

As you see here, there are many, many passages that I'm just touching the cream of those scriptures that talk about God's looking for maturity and growth. 1 Corinthians 9. 1, I should say, in verse 9. And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, heard about your faith, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord. Here we have the prayer of the Apostle Paul. Notice this prayer that the Apostle Paul had. In fact, when I have been reading this passage, and I even prayed this passage this morning, I said, God, I ask for the people in the church of God, in the United Church of God, to be filled with the knowledge that comes from you so they can walk worthy of you.

Their lives can shine forth with worthiness, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God. Wow! To me, those are such powerful words. And perhaps in my particular role, I take it very, very personally, and I take it very, very as something that is so important for the church. We're not just placeholders. I'm not just kind of managing a big corporation or small corporation, however you want to define this.

We're here to be agents of change, and asking our ministers to be catalysts of change, and asking that what we do in the media, whatever we do in the development of our future ministry, to be those who equip saints to make people be better than they were before, to where we can say, are you better off now than you were four years ago, spiritually, not just physically.

Our lives are those lives that are to develop towards understanding our full potential, which is not just what the physical world has. It doesn't really know what goes on from here. As with my class, we didn't talk about life beyond death. One thing we knew that we have another reunion, that they're saying, let's have one in five years, because it'd be more of us who'll die.

It's kind of, you know, a little dark.

But, you know, we live a life as though this is just one stage into something greater and more mature and greater. This is God's universe and timetable.

I'll just conclude here with one passage that I really like.

There's a couple in Psalms, and I'll just read this one.

Psalm 90 and verse 12. So, teach us to number our days, David writes, so that we may gain the heart of wisdom.

Are you living your days? Are you counting your days?

Because in your 20s, you're counting away from birth.

As you get older, in your 60s, you're counting down. Are we counting the number of days so that we may gain a heart of wisdom?

To conclude with you was saying, may the God of grace and peace be with you. That's the way Paul opened and closed virtually every one of his messages. May the God of grace and peace be with you to help us all grow to the fullness and stature of Jesus Christ.