Grow Up!
Text: Ephesians 4:13-16
By: Ken McKinley
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Nostalgia is a powerful thing. Have you ever noticed that when some people talk about the past they refer to it as the “Good ole days?” TV commercials have picked up on this. I remember seeing the commercials for Life cereal where the little boy took a bite and his friends say “Mikey likes it.” And not too long ago I was watching a commercial where the now grown up Mikey still likes Life cereal. I think Toys R Us nailed it when they sang, “I don’t want to grow up, I’m a toys R us kid…”
So like I said, nostalgia is a powerful thing. But nostalgia itself isn’t so bad; it becomes bad when a person literally doesn’t want to grow up.
In our text; the apostle Paul tells us that out goal, is maturity in the faith. Last time we talked about how God has called apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers to equip the saints for the work of ministry – today we see why we need to be equipped. So that we can grow up.
Our culture may want to get in touch with their inner-child, but the Bible tells us that we are look forward towards maturity and growth, with the goal being that we become more and more like Jesus.
Back in verse 3 Paul told us to make every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit, last time he told us that God gave apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers for the equipping of the saints, and in verse 13 we see Paul speaking about unity once again. The unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God. In-other-words, in our faith we are supposed to have unity. We’ve talked about how we can differ on the non-essentials, but in the essentials we are to have unity. We are to grow up, to be more mature in what we believe. If we do this it will help keep us from looking to false doctrines and the entertainment based worship service.
I don’t mean to offend anyone, but those things are for the more immature Christian, the Christian who needs to be motivated by something other than God’s promises in his word. Let me use Scripture to explain this. Turn with me to 1st Cor. 14:20-22 (read). Signs, wonders, entertaining worship services… all of these things are were to peak an unbelievers interest and hold an immature Christians interest. But the mature Christian doesn’t need these things. They don’t need to see a miracle to know that there is a God, they know that they’ve already been part of a miracle when they were born again. They are rooted and grounded in God’s Word and don’t need to be entertained to walk by faith. Now like I said, I’m not trying to offend anyone here, I’m just telling you what the Bible says.
Paul tells us that we are to grow up in our faith, but he goes on and says we should be growing in knowledge as well. Jesus said that we are to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, MIND and strength, and to love our neighbors as ourselves. But this knowledge goes beyond just knowing the facts about something; it has to do with knowing something is true and then acting on that knowledge (remember our lesson from Romans chapter 6).
By growing in faith and knowledge we come together in unity and maturity. If we all agree, that doesn’t mean that our job is done. I mean, we can all be immature and agree on something just as easily as we can all be mature and agree on something.
And let me just say this really quickly – Christian maturity has nothing to do with ones chronological age, it has little to do with how old a person is. It has to do with reflecting the character of Jesus Christ. David was a teenager when God called him, so was Daniel and so was Mary. John the beloved was a young man, so was Timothy; Peter and Paul were middle aged, Moses and Abraham were old.
How much of the character of Jesus Christ do you reflect in your life? What growth have you seen in your life recently? Do you understand the Christian faith better today than you did a year ago… or two years ago… or ten years ago? Do you love the Lord now more than you did in the past? Are you maturing in your faith, or are you resting on where you’ve been? We are to be moving up, not down, and you cannot coast uphill.
So Paul says we shouldn’t be children who are tossed to and fro by people who trick us with false doctrines.
Babies are awesome!!! There is no doubt that they are a gift from God. Just think about that for a minute. What other creature in the world with an over-sized head, a drooling problem, an inability to control its bodily functions, and that smells more often than not would we flock around and eww and ah over and want to hold and cuddle with? But that’s what we do with babies. But no-one thinks it’s cute when a person stays a baby for too long. Have you ever seen a 40 year old man in a diaper? If you did you would no doubt think that there was something emotionally and psychologically wrong with him; at least you should. It’s unnatural, and it’s not right.
Paul says that an immature Christian is unstable, that they are tossed to and fro. Have you ever known someone who can’t control themselves, but instead they are controlled by their circumstances, and by the crises’ in their lives? Well our text is saying that immaturity results in instability. It also results in being deceived. The Internal Revenue Service and the FBI both train their agents the same way to spot counterfeit money. What they do is train them to be so familiar with the real thing, that when they are presented with a counterfeit, it’s easy to spot. Do you know Scripture well enough to distinguish truth from error?
Christians need to grow up!
The path to maturity, to unity in the faith, and in the knowledge of the Son of God is through the truth. Notice verse 15 says “speaking the truth in love.” People can tell a lie in love, and can speak the truth with hate or malice. But we must speak the truth in love. That doesn’t mean we sugar coat things and skirt around the hard issues; it means we confront them head on, but we do it realizing that we too are sinners and would be lost if not for God’s grace, and we do it with concern and compassion.
I honestly think that one of the issues we face in youth culture today is that our youth haven’t had anyone tell them the hard truth. Teachers and college professors see truth as a relative thing, not as an absolute. Politicians see truth as an optional thing, to only be used when it is to their benefit. Parents would rather be their child’s best friend instead of their parent, and so they avoid the uncomfortable issues, and we have a society today that asks Pontius Pilates famous question, “What is truth?”
When a pastor takes the pulpit he should not be preaching on poorly informed opinions, he should be preaching the truth so that you might be sanctified by it. Jesus said, “Sanctify them with your truth; Thy Word is truth.”
The truth is a rare thing today because we live in a world of deception, but it’s a necessary thing for that same reason.
The University of Virginia did a study and found that 91% of the people they studied lied regularly. They said that people tell; on average, two lies a day, or at least that’s how many they admit to.
So we live in a culture of deceit, but on the other hand we have a “tell-all” culture. What used to be reserved 50, 40, or even 30 years ago is now being broadcast on evening TV and the internet. In roughly 8 years we’ve gone from a President who would not admit to using drugs, saying “I never inhaled.” To a President who admitted to using marijuana, and cocaine. He even uses its street name by calling it “blow.” What’s happened to modesty in our country and our culture? How is it than in 8 years we could go from a culture that had a great deal of concern about the alleged drug use of a Presidential candidate, to a culture that elects a Presidential candidate who openly and un-regrettably admits using illegal drugs?
I think that the prophet Jeremiah summed it up when he said, “The heart is deceitful above all else, who can know it?”
We live in a fallen world, and it’s going to get worse before it gets better.
Look at verses 15 and 16 again (read). As we speak the truth in love, and as we recognize our sinfulness and our need for a Savior, as we look to Christ and Christ alone for our salvation, then maturity will come. As we the body are joined to Christ, it is He who will build us up. We are not independent little bodies running around; we are a unified whole. Each one of us is part of the whole, each one of us should be doing what God has called us to do, serving as God has called us to serve, living as God has called us to live, and walking worthy of our calling.
I have bad knees. Sometimes during the winter it’s hard for me to get around, and sometimes my knees will lock up and not work the way they are supposed to. I could just be walking and my knee will lock up and if I’m not careful I could find myself flat on the ground.
Well the Body of Christ is sort of like our human bodies; each part has to do what it is made to do, or problems arise.
Are each of us doing our part? Or are we like my bad knees which sometimes cause the rest of the Body to stumble?
I really can’t answer that for any of you, you have to answer it for yourself, just like I have to answer it for myself, but we should keep in mind that we never reach a plateau when further growth becomes and option. Scripture tells us to walk worthy of our calling. It tells us to run the race with patience. We are to press towards the mark for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. We are told to run in such a way that we might obtain the prize. We should never confuse stability with stagnation.
And Scripture tells us to grow up; as individuals and as a church.
Our growth individually impacts our growth corporately.
So as individuals and as a church lets purpose to do just that; to grow in our faith, to grow in our understanding, to grow in our Christian maturity, and to grow in our Christian unity.
