People have the tendency to use word pictures to help others understand difficult concepts. This is quite common in the church. The church has often been compared to a business, a farm, a team, a school or a hospital. However, none of these analogies have the ability to adequately convey what God has intended His Church to be. Scripture has chosen to illustrate the church as a family. When you stop and think about it, all congregations have a definite life cycle just like individuals. If you chart a congregation’s history you will see that as it progresses toward growth and maturity it goes through definite ages and stages. In fact since we are on the subject of spiritual growth, we need to realize that this same truth holds true for individual believers. Once we are born into God’s forever family, we are called to embark on a journey of growth from spiritual infancy to adulthood. This morning we are going to examine the growth process that God has intended for the church and individual believers to experience. Some of the information my really disturb us but if we honestly take it to heart and apply it to our lives not only will we begin to change and grow, the church will as well.
I. Understanding what it means to be a mature Christian.
A. Mature Christians display a commitment to a consistent walk with Christ.
1. Paul defines Christian maturity in Ephesians 4 as “being like Jesus.”
2. A maturing believer’s life will be marked by wisdom, self discipline and commitment.
3. For this growth to exist in our lives there must be a commitment to daily prayer and Scripture reading and a determination to obey God regardless of the cost.
4. Our goal should never be simply one day arriving at Heaven’s doorstep. It must be to grow into the person that God intended when He created us.
B. Mature Christians seek to reach out to those who are outside the church.
1. Mature Christians are disciple-making Christians. They seek to reach and care for others regardless of if they are friend or foe.
2. There must be an intentional decision made by the church to invest in the reaching and growing of people.
3. Mature Christians carry their share of the ministry responsibility with a contagiously positive attitude.
4. God is working in you and you must work as God works. It’s a partnership. You do what you can and God adds the rest.
5. We discipline ourselves and allow the Lord to discipline us. We work and allow Him to work through us.
II. The Bible chooses to characterize the church as a family.
A. Images of the Church as a family in Scripture.
1. There are no verses that directly use the term family in connection with the church. However, there are numerous instances where local congregations are compared to or described in terms of a family unit.
2. Consider the terminology that Paul uses in the qualifications for an elder.
3. He must manage his own family well and see that his children obey him with proper respect. (If anyone does not know how to manage his own family, how can he take care of God’s church?) (1 Timothy 3:4-5—NIV)
4. We need to pay close attention to two Greek words in this passage.
a. Prostemi is the word that is translated manage, it literally means to stand in front of.
b. Epimeleomai is the word that is translated take care.
c. The use of these two words reflects the idea of a leadership style that reflects loving care.
5. If the leaders of the church must manage their families well it stands to reason that the church is to resemble a family not a business, team or school.
6. In fact Paul urges Timothy to treat fellow believers as you would members of your natural family.
7. Do not rebuke an older man harshly, but exhort him as if he were your father. Treat younger men as brothers, older women as mothers, and younger women as sisters, with absolute purity. (1 Timothy 5:1-2—NIV)
8. For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name. (Ephesians 3:15—NIV)
9. These and many other Biblical examples demonstrate that the Lord views the church as a family.
B. There are three significant lessons we can learn from how Scripture characterizes the Church as a family.
1. If Christians are family then we should not treat each others as strangers by displaying prejudice or forming cliques.
2. If Christians are family then they should relate to one another as loving family members do.
3. Although Christians are family they are still responsible for their own growth toward maturity.
4. Parents cannot force their children to grow into responsible adults; believers cannot make one another grow in Christ.
5. As Christians we must accept our responsibilities as a part of God’s family.
III. The stages of growth within a family.
A. Everyone begins in the birth and infancy stage.
1. Brand new Christians are characterized as being infants.
2. Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation. (1 Peter 2:2—NIV)
3. A new Christian should cry out for the nourishment of God’s Word in the same way a baby craves milk.
4. Spiritual infants need and an abundance of attention, patience and care.
B. As we begin to grow we enter the stage of childhood and discovery.
1. Once believers begin experiencing their first growth and begin taking their first faith steps they enter spiritual childhood.
2. During this period of time great leaps in maturity should begin to become visible.
3. This is the time when the basics of Christianity should begin to be learned and applied.
4. Believers in this stage are very curious and inquisitive. They are also very impressionable.
C. The next stage individuals will enter is that of adolescence and irresponsibility.
1. As believers grow and become less dependent upon others and begin to venture out on their own they enter spiritual adolescence.
2. This stage of development is usually marked by conflicting attitudes and emotions, going to extremes and pushing the boundaries.
3. During this period of development spiritual insight and Biblical wisdom seems to reach new lows.
4. The adolescent believers become primarily focused on their selves and own perceived needs.
D. Lessons learned in adolescence lead us into the stage of adulthood and maturity.
1. If the lessons learned during spiritual adolescence are applied they will go a long way in helping to develop productivity and stability in your walk with Christ.
2. This stage of development must be the ultimate goal for both individual believers and the church.
3. This stage is marked by leadership, responsiveness, resilience and resourcefulness.
4. This is the stage that each of us should be striving to attain.
IV. Issues that prevent us from growing up.
A. We need to identify which stage of growth we are in.
1. We need to honestly assess which stage of development we are in.
2. We need to identify the obstacles that keep us from reaching the next level.
B. We need to determine what changes need to be made to enable us to grow to the next level.
1. Once we identify the obstacles to our growth and determine the necessary changes that need to be made.
2. Are there areas of weakness or sin that need to be addressed?
3. After the necessary changes are determined we need to act to implement them.
C. We need to realize the urgency of growing to the next level of maturity.
1. There needs to be a plan put into place to implement the necessary changes.
2. There needs to be an urgency to implement the changes because the depth of our relationship with Christ depends upon it.
3. The only question left is this, “Are we going to procrastinate or are we going to renew our commitment to spiritual growth today?”
4. Let’s grow up! The best time to do so is now.
How many of us have watched Trading Spaces on TLC or seen Bob Villa and became inspired to finally do something about our own tired and outdated homes? It’s easy to get inspired to do something. Once inspired by seeing a weeks work condensed into a one hour TV show we can easily envision the lasting improvements we can make in our own homes. Yet here we sit; one month, six months, one year after starting and our weekend transformation sits half finished as we struggle to find the time to finish what we started. This can happen in our spiritual lives too. We begin our walk with Christ full of excitement. Fully intending to do whatever it takes to make it all the way. But after a while, Christianity becomes too daily. It’s the same thing over and over again. The same prayers, the same worship, the same Bible stories; we want to follow Jesus but we begin to drift. We get distracted. The excitement cools, our dedication weakens, we begin to neglect prayer and study and church. Before we know it, our faith is weak, perhaps even dead. What then . . . ?
