Grow Up! Series

Sherlyn, from Lawrence, Kansas, says her husband usually sets his computer bag next to the front door before leaving home in the morning. One day, he left the house but forgot to take his computer with him. Our 2-year-old saw it and came running to find me. “Mama, Daddy forgot to take his diaper bag!” (Sherilyn M., Lawrence, Kansas, “Life in Our House,” Christian Parenting Today, May/June 2000; www.PreachingToday.com).

Sometimes you wonder about some people. Perhaps, they still need to take a diaper bag, because they act like two-year-old’s, thinking the whole world revolves around them.

However, if you’re going to enjoy healthy relationships, you have to grow past that stage; you have to learn to put God and others first in your life. That’s because healthy relationships require self-sacrifice, humility, and the ability to listen to God’s Spirit. And all of that requires a certain level of spiritual maturity. So if you want to enjoy healthy relationships and maintain unity in the church…

GROW UP.

Move past childhood into spiritual adulthood. If you have your Bibles, I invite you to turn with me to 1 Corinthians 3, 1 Corinthians 3, where the Bible makes this very clear. Through the Apostle Paul, God says…

1 Corinthians 3:1-2 But I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it. And even now you are not yet ready… (ESV)

Years ago, there was a Hardees commercial which showed a mother in bed, bottle feeding her “baby.” All you see is the mother’s head with her hand holding a baby bottle behind a pile of blankets. The mother is cooing, telling her “baby” how good he is to be drinking so much. “Good boy,” she says. “That’s my boy.” Then her “baby” sits up from behind the covers, and you discover that he is a grown man.

Sandy loved that commercial, NOT! It was gross, but that’s exactly the picture God paints here in 1 Corinthians 3. There are people in adult bodies behaving like tiny little babies. They are drinking milk when they should be eating solid food.

In Hebrews 5, the author expresses the same frustration with another group of people. There He says, in verse 11…

You have become dull of hearing. For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles [the ABC’s] of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food, for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled [literally, inexperienced] in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil (Hebrews 5:11-14).

The Bible is NOT talking about gaining more knowledge here. It is NOT talking about a learning “deeper” set of truths that are only for the spiritually elite. NO! The Bible is talking about “experiencing” the knowledge you already have. It is talking about “training yourself” to practice “the word of righteousness.”

A church had called a new pastor, and on his first Sunday he preached a wonderful sermon. The people really loved it, and they gave him many compliments.

They came back the next Sunday, anxious to hear him preach again. But the new pastor preached the same exact sermon. The people were a little disappointed, but they thought, “He is a new preacher. Maybe he hasn’t had time to prepare another sermon yet.”

Then, on the third Sunday, when he preached the exact same sermon again, the people were downright angry. The chairman of the church spoke to the pastor after the service and said, “Pastor, what gives here? Don’t you have any other sermons?”

The pastor replied, “Sure I do, but none of you have begun to practice this one yet.”

If you want to grow to spiritual maturity, you have to begin practicing the truth you have already heard. You have to become experienced with righteousness. It has to become a part of your everyday life.

In other words, to grow up, you must eat right. You must learn to eat the solid food of God’s Word like an adult. That means you must put into practice God’s principles about right relationships. Practice self-sacrifice. Practice humility. Practice the things the Holy Spirit tells you in the context of your relationships.

More than that, to grow up, you must act right. You must behave like an adult, as well.

1 Corinthians 3:3 …for you are still of the flesh [i.e., you are still controlled by your fleshly desires]. For while there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh and behaving only in a human way? (ESV)