Growing Up is Part of Life
And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men.
Luke 2:52
I was a little child when I grew up in the small town of Kalkaska. It’s about 17 miles due east of Traverse City in northern Michigan and when I lived there it had about 2000 people – total. And every one of them thought it was their responsibility to tell my folks what I was doing. Kalkaska wasn’t a town of
In the summer between my freshman year and sophomore year in HS my dad moved to Escanaba, MI to start at new church. It was in this huge city of some 17,000 citizens that I spent many of my formative years as a “young man.” I completed those years in college here in Lansing at Great Lakes Christian College. It was here that I fell in love with Donna and married her. We moved to St. Joseph to begin our first ministry and it wasn’t too long after that Donna became a mother and that I became a “father.”
It wasn’t too long after this major event that I figured out that being a “father” was about a lot more than just making babies. It was about growing babies into little children, who become young men and women, and eventually, mothers and fathers.
Tyler: Charlotte growing up…
This is the cycle of life that has no end… or so it seems. Actually, there is an end purpose, at least in the spiritual realm there is – and that’s what we’re going to talk about today.
God’s greatest desire is to know us intimately as friends and companions.
Let’s look at what the apostle who was closest to Jesus said about those who would follow Him. Turn in your Bibles to 1 John 2:12-14 and let’s learn about our new family together.
Your New Family
I write to you, dear children, because your sins have been forgiven on account of his name.
I write to you, fathers, because you have known him who is from the beginning.
I write to you, young men, because you have overcome the evil one.
1 John 2:12-14
Your New Family
I write to you, dear children, because you have known the Father.
I write to you, fathers, because you have known him who is from the beginning.
I write to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God lives in you, and you have overcome the evil one.
1 John 2:12-14
As Rick and I studied this passage together this past week we asked ourselves two questions.
First: What’s John trying to tell us?
Second: So what? In other words, what’s the point of what John is trying to tell us?
Last week we looked at the importance of making a definitive decision to change our direction. We urged you to repent from the ways of that creepy dude, Gollum and to instead choose the ways of Frodo, who was a steward of God’s mission with his life.
Today, as we looked at the text we began to see that after we make that decision to follow Jesus and determine to live a new way there is a process of spiritual growth in God’s family just like in your family.
John describes three different stages of spiritual growth.
First, there are the “dear children”. Literally these are the “little children”. They are the cute and innocent ones!
Then there are the “young men”. Don’t confuse these with men only – we’re referring to a stage of life. You might liken it to the teen years or the early years of being an adult.
Finally there are the “fathers”. Again this is a stage not a gender and it refers to those who have reached a particular place in their lives – reproduction.
Let’s look at the characteristics of each of these stages as described by John – the author of the gospel that carries his name and the apostle who was closest to Jesus. I think he has something important to say to us about our relationship with the creator and father God.
Little Children
I write to you, dear children, because your sins have been forgiven on account of his name.
I write to you, dear children, because you have known the Father.
In John’s words he twice addresses a group that he refers to as “dear children” and he describes them with two important characteristics.
They were forgiven all of their sins – on account of His name – and they have known the father.
This shouldn’t surprise us. When you think about it Little Children have very basic emotional needs. They are incredibly important and extremely simple.
First: Little children need to feel safe and secure.
Second: Little children need to know that they are loved.
John puts it down very clearly – all of our sins are forgiven and our father God loves us with all of his heart. Period. It’s that simple.
John is describing the new believers here as little children – people who desperately need to understand that one simple fact – they are safe and they are loved.
Illustration: Kids need safety and love
So What: You are God’s kid… do you get that?
Illustration: Suma the Elephant…
A friend of mine, Gary Shoup, who lives right here in Okemos wrote a book called, Suma, the Elephant. In this book, which you can read in just a few minutes and could potentially affect the way you think about yourself and others for the rest of your life, there is a baby elephant named Suma who is stolen from his parents and then tied to a tree by a band of rotten monkeys. The monkeys hid in the trees above him and convince Suma that he cannot escape by hitting him in the head with coconuts every time he tries to get away. After a while Suma quit trying and years later he was still convinced he could not escape. Even when free elephants came by him in the jungle he was convinced he could not be like them. There is more to the story but I don’t want to ruin it for you. If you want to read the rest of the story you’ll have to pick up a copy at the Okemos Big Boy – where we hold our free Annual Christmas Breakfast.
This story is one that Satan tries to repeat in every one of our lives. We were stolen from God by sin and rebellion and then we were tied to a tree and that snake of a monkey, Belezebub is up in the tree throwing coconuts and yelling you can’t get away, you can’t get away you are tied to the tree with a string made of sin.
Look… Little children. You have been set free. Your sins are forgiven and you are God’s kids.
It’s that knowledge that makes you safe and secure. It’s that sense of freedom that sets you up for the next stage of spiritual development – the coming of age and becoming what John refers to here as a “Young Man”.
Young men
I write to you, young men, because you have overcome the evil one.
I write to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God lives in you, and you have overcome the evil one.
When we read this part of the text I wanted to dig into this because – well, I’m a young man and Rick… isn’t!
The “young man” is not about gender – it’s about the stage of spiritual life that is about beginning to become what God imagined you to be when he created you in the first place! This is really a very exciting – and dangerous time.
Exciting because of the potential of what you might become!
Dangerous because of the enemy who is working to subvert, discourage, mislead, corrupt, and destroy you. This is not business. This is personal.
The key characteristic of a growing and strong spiritual “young person” in God is that they have overcome the evil one. Notice that the word is overcome – not defeat. The idea is that you get past him – not that you crush him – that is up to God in the end times. Our Job is to get by him.
ILLUSTRATION: American Gladiator – getting by the gladiators in the games… If you go head to head – you go down. If you scoot by – well that works just fine.
So how do you do that? Look at the text again. You do it by the word of God living in you.
This is a lot more than just knowing the word of God.
It involves something called “muscle memory”
ILLUSTRATION – Muscle Memory Ideas: Car skidding, Golf swing,
You need to train in using the word of God as a part of your life
Fathers
I write to you, fathers, because you have known him who is from the beginning.
I write to you, fathers, because you have known him who is from the beginning.
When we looked at this part of the text I wanted to take the fathers because I am one and Tyler… isn’t… yet!
Did you notice what I noticed in this passage concerning the fathers?
First, John says it twice in verse 13 and 14. I think that this is important. We’ll look at that in a moment.
Second, what John said to the fathers is almost what he said to the little children. Not quite – there is a very significant difference.
Fathers (again this is not gender or age specific – it’s referring to a stage of spiritual maturity) are people who have known him – who is from the beginning. In other words, they are people who know God in his many textures and his many depths. They know the father God as the creator in Genesis. They know him as the God of salvation in Exodus. They know him as the God of wisdom in Proverbs. They know him as the God of beautiful imagery in Psalms. They know him as the God of hope in Isaiah. They know him as the God of deep disappointment in Jeremiah. They know him as the God who came to our world in the Gospels. They know God from day one until today. Their relationship with God is close, personal and deep. It’s rich, vibrant and lasting.
Let me say something here. We’re talking about a kind of person who has come to know Jesus in such a powerful way that it has changed him and it changes everyone he comes into contact with. It is a special kind of spiritual leadership that is characterized by influence in the lives of others.
Think about it for a moment. An earthly father is a person who guides, encourages, directs, teaches, and quietly leads the little children and young men in their part of the world. For better or for worse, a father has great influence because of who he is in the life of the people in his world.
One of the most powerful commercials I’ve ever seen pictures a little boy following his daddy around mimicking his every move. Dad picks up a rock and flicks it in the lake and his little five year old picks it up and plunks it in the water just off the shore. Dad hops on a rock and jumps to the other side of a little rivulet. His son climbs up the rock and jumps into the rivulet with a splash. Dad sits down by a tree flicks a cigarette from a pack and lays the pack down beside him. His son picks up the pack and looks inside it… Do you see how it works?
It’s no different in the spiritual realm. This connection comes only through time with God. It comes through prayer. It comes through familiarity with his word. It comes through a sharing of passion for his mission. It comes through you being focused on the same things that God is focused on.
The world will question your commitment to his ways and think you have gone off the deep end when the reality is that when it’s real it transforms you from the inside out – and you become the kind of person that everyone is glad to call a friend. Wouldn’t you like to be that kind of person?
Friend – that is a Godly man or a Godly woman.
When you are deeply connected to God it changes you and influences the people around you. The most effective part of this influence is not with words – it’s with the example of a Godly life.
Remember though – it’s not about you. It’s about God in you! This is not passed on with preaching – it’s passed on by example and authenticity – and remember that it has little to do with age or gender.
Paul and Timothy… 1 Timothy 3? (Read and refer to text) Young men appeal to older men as fathers, older women as mothers, young women as sisters, and young men as brothers…
Spiritual maturity
How weird would it be if we could see the spiritual maturity of all the people sitting in this room? I mean what if everybody had special glasses that they could put on and see just exactly the spiritual growth and maturity of everybody else.
In this room, there would be little child, young people, and spiritual fathers and mothers.
If you are a little one – you are forgiven and loved!
If you are a young person – you can overcome the evil one if you let the word live in you!
If you are a father – you can make a difference – as you let the fullness of your knowledge of God saturate every part of your life.
Where are you at? What do you need to do today?
Invitation to prayer and decision.
