Growing Leaps and Bounds in Your Walk With God.
Dr. Michael Pope HEB 12:1-2
Theme: Maturity and Spiritual Growth:
A young man used to dive for exotic fish for aquariums. He said one of the most popular aquarium fish is the shark. He explained that if you catch a small shark and confine it, it will stay a size proportionate to the aquarium. Sharks can be six inches long yet fully matured. But if you turn them loose in the ocean, they grow to their normal length of eight feet.
That also happens to some Christians. Churches have some of the cutest little six-inch Christians who swim around in the confines of their own little circles feeling safe and secure. But the way to grow in the Lord is put them into a larger arena--into the whole of God’s creation--only then can they become greatly used by God. Charles Simpson.
I. HEB 12:1 MATURITY BEGINS WITH A LOOK UNTO SALVATION: Isaiah 45:21-23 “Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else.”
a. We Look for Acknowledgement from the Father – We can receive ack in two ways:
1) By Answered Prayer
a) Prayer of Salvation: RM 10:13 “For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord SHALL be save.”
b) Prayer for Sanctification: PS 6:7-8 “Depart from me, all you workers of iniquity; for the LORD has heard the voice of my weeping. The LORD has heard my supplication; The LORD will receive my prayer.”
2) With a Fresh Anointing: Ex: of Apostles prayer in a time of persecution Acts 4:29-31 “Now, Lord, look on their threats, and grant to Your servants that with all boldness they may speak Your Word, by stretching out Your hand to heal, and that signs and wonders may be done through the name of Your Holy Servant Jesus. And when they had prayed, the place where they were assembled together was shaken; and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke the Word of God with boldness.”
Jer 33:3 “Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and show thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not.”
b. We Look for Acceptance from the Father – Eph: 1:6 “to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved.”
c. We Look for Assurance from the Father – John 6:37 “All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out.”
“You won’t be truly free to serve until you are fully assured you are truly saved”. MPope
TWO BASIC THINGS WE LOOK FOR IN ASSURANCE:
1) We want to know we are truly FORGIVEN; 1JN 1:9 “If we confess our sings, He is faithful an just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
Difference between CONDEMNATION and CONVICTION: “you feel like running, but no place to hide”.
2) We want to Know we are truly in His FAMILY.
1 Jn 5:12-13 “He that hath the Son hath life; he who does not have the Son of God hath not life. These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may KNOW that you have eternal life.”
(PS 121: 1-2; “I will lift up mine eyes to the hills from whence cometh my help? My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth”) ; PS 123:1 “Unto You I lift up my eyes O You who dwell in the heavens”;
Therefore I will look unto the Lord; I will wait for the God of my salvation: my God will hear me. Micah 7:6-8
II. MT 16:24 MATURITY BUILDS ON A LIFE OF SANCTIFICATION:
Alan Redpath: "The conversion of a soul is the miracle of a moment, but the manufacture of a saint is the task of a lifetime."
MT 16:24 “If anyone desires o come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it”.
Jesus said: MT 13:8: ‘Hearing you will hear and shall not understand, and seeing you will see and not perceive; for the hearts of this people have grown dull. Their ears are hard of hearing, and their eyes they have closed. Lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, lest they should understand with their hearts and turn, so that I should heal them.”
a. Taste - Fellowship: Psalm 34:7-9 O taste and see that the Lord is good:
b. Trust - Find that God does all things well;
IS 26:3 “You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on Thee, because he trusts in you.” (EVEN IN THE DARK)
c. Turn - Follow (Me): PV: 28:5 “they that seek the Lord understand all things.”
Strong sons of God are not perfected by childish pursuits. David Breese,
1) Turn aside from the things of the world – Constantly distracted
Jesus said: MT 6:24 “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.”
2) Turn lose of the those worldly possessions which are destined to perish (ill of 2 year old having a death grip on something when you try to take them home). We are like that, God may call, but we are so fearful of leaving worldly things behind.
3) Turn to Jesus - MT 7:21 “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord’, shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heave.”
d. Treasure: - Fruitful Life: Gal: 5:22 “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.”
The life of spiritual maturity involves keeping your heart tender to the things of God
III. EPH 3:17 MATURITY BLOSSOMS THROUGH A LOVE THAT SATISFIES: I love them that love me; and those that seek me early shall find me. Pv 8:16-18
A.W. Tozer said, "We are called to an everlasting preoccupation with God."
a. 17 This love rests through faith
b. 17b This love is rooted in Christ
c. 18 This love recognizes the extent to which God went to bring salvation
d. 19 This love is revealed in a daily personal walk with Christ
e. 19b This love is realized each time you are filled with the Holy Spirit
There was a great theologian who came to the USA from England and was being interviewed by a group of seminary students. The question was asked, “What is the most profound thought that ever occupied your mind.” The answer:, “Jesus loves me this I know for the Bible tells me so.”
You may go very, very deep in theology; you may become a scholar; you may become a philosopher of religion, but you’ll never discover anything more profound than the KNOWLEDGE that God loves you so much He gave His Son the Lord Jesus Christ just for YOU!
IV. Jn 15: MATURITY IS BLESSED BY A LONGING TO REMAIN STEADFAST:
You're never too old to grow up. Shirley Conran, Savages
“ABIDE IN ME.”
a. Abide in Christ – the branch clings to the vine as we should cling to Jesus.
PV 19:23 “The fear of the Lord leads to life, and he who has it will abide in satisfaction, He will not be visited with evil.”
b. Abound in Fruit – a natural progression in the Christian life:
We bear fruit – more fruit – much fruit
“If you stop and ask yourself why you are not as fruitful as (early) Christians, your own heart will tell you that it is neither through ignorance nor inability, but purely because you never thoroughly intended it."
Invitation: I believe one main reason we don’t see spirit filled, zealous for the glory of God churches is NOT because God doesn’t want to use and empower us, but because He won’t use us…the reason is we are unwilling to turn fully to Him because:
We so love our ‘secret sin’. What is that sin? That is for you to acknowledge before God, but I would hazard to guess that at the base of it lies REBELLION. It isn’t that God hasn’t ‘convicted’ us of our ‘secret sins’, it’s just we refuse to give it up.
INVITATION:
MATURITY iLL: As water never rises above its level so what we do never rises above what we are...We shall never take people one hair's breadth beyond our own spiritual attainment. We may point to higher things, but we shall only take them as far as we ourselves have gone. W.H. Griffith Thomas.
