I want to start today’s message off with a video I found this past week entitled, “Things you can’t do when you’re not a toddler”.
VIDEO: “Things you can’t do when you’re not a toddler”.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MOs5K5-NtXs
These things may seem a bit outrageous but I think every one of them is true. Many things in life are not appropriate as we age and become more mature.
Today is Hazen’s Birthday, Friday was Logan’s Birthday, the week before was Shelby’s, the week before that was Shayla’s, and the week before that was Jade’s. 5 of our 8 children all have birthdays that fall within 5 weeks.
Besides hitting our pocket books, it really hits us as parents with the reality that they are all growing up and getting older.
But you know, many times age does not have a thing to do with how young or how old someone is.
You know, I have had people tell me all my life to grow up. I’ll be 43 in November so I believe it is obvious they are not talking about age.
In our text today from I Peter we are admonished to grow up as well - to grow in respect to our salvation. It has nothing to do with age. In fact, I can promise you that whether you are a young child, a teen, a young adult or older; you are going to be told periodically in your life, to grow up.
Some of us this morning need to grow up! We need to grow up in the things of God and stop playing church.
Illustration: Back in 2011 I received an invitation to attend my 25-year high school reunion. For months I was excited to take Stacy back to the place I had some of the best memories of my life. The closer the time came for the reunion, the more excited I became, thinking of all the wonderful stories I would hear about the changes and the accomplishments of all of my old classmates.
I wondered if any others had found Jesus as I had and if their lives had changed too as a result.
I even tried to guess what some of my friends would look like, and what kind of jobs and families some of my close friends had. The big day finally came and my energy was almost contagious. But I have to tell you it was one of the saddest experiences of my life. “Good grief,” more than a little surprised. It was not what happened but what did not happen. It has been 25 years, 25 year—and they had not changed. They had simply gained weight, changed clothes, gotten jobs…but they had not really changed. And what I had seen was maybe one of the most tragic things I could ever imagine about life. For reasons I can not fully understand, it seems as though some people choose not to change.
I never, never want that to be said of me. Life is too precious, too sacred, too important. If you ever see me go stagnant like that, I hope you give me a quick, swift kick where I need it. I hope you will love me enough to challenge me to keep growing.
I. You know; we need to grow up. We need to grow up and be a winner and not a whiner!
A. In verse one of our text, Peter invites us to put aside all malice, hate, hypocrisy, envy and slander. In other words to grow up and let the mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus.
1. A whiner meerly wants to blame someone or something for perceived injustices in his or her life. And what if by chance the whiner is right – that someone else is to blame, will it make any difference most of the time?
2. No, not at all. A whiner’s life is diminished because his or her focus is always on what is wrong rather than what is right. He or she seems to have a built in homing device that accentuates the negative; and life’s victories are drowned out by the constant search to find what is wrong.
3. If you are a whiner this morning you need to grow up.
Illustration: Bernard Brown is president of a Regional Health Care System in the state of Georgia. Brown once worked in a hospital where a patient knocked over cup of water, which spilled on the floor beside the patient’s bed. The patient was afraid he might slip in the water if he got out of bed, so he asked the nurse’s aide to mop it up. The patient did not know it, but the hospital policy said that small spills were the responsibility of the nurse’s aides while large spills were to be mopped up by the hospital’s housekeeping department.
The nurse’s aide decided the spill was a large one and she called the housekeeping department. A housekeeper arrived and declared the spill a small one and an argument followed. “It’s not my responsibility,” said the nurse’s aid “because it is a large puddle.” The housekeeper did not agree. “Well, it is not mine, she said, “the puddle is too small.” The frustrated patient listened for a time, then took a pitcher of water from his night table and poured the whole thing on the floor. “Is that a big enough puddle now for you two to decide?” It was, and that was the end of the argument.
4. Jesus this morning would like to clean up the puddles in your life and mine, but first we have to decide if we are going to give them to him or just argue with Him as to why we have them in the first place.
5. In Philippians 2:14-15 we re reminded Do everything without grumbling or arguing, 15 so that you may become blameless and pure, “children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation.” Then you will shine among them like stars in the sky
6. Is your focus one of gratitude or grumbling?
II. But we also need to grow up and be a truth seeker and not a trial run.
A. You only live once they say, well, then I say, “so live it right “– “crave for the spiritual” as Peter tells us in verse 2.
1. A trial run is only a test, an experiment. It is not the real thing! A truth seeker on the other hand lives by truth not by fad or popularity.
2. As believers in Christ we need to grow up this morning and seek to live a holy and pure life before God. That is the quest of a truth seeker.
3. If a 40-year-old adult behaves as a child, we tell him/her to grow up. In other words act your age.
4. As a Christian we too are admonished to grow up. To seek to live a life that would be pleasing to God. If you have a potty mouth, clean it up; if you are viewing pornography on the web, turn it off; if you have sin in your life, get rid of it!
Illustration: Last Spring the boys and I painted our shed at the parsonage. The boys painted the low parts and I was in charge of painting the high parts. I climbed up the ladder clutching my paint bucket, I found myself holding tightly to the ladder, my fingertips were turning white. I crept up slowly, as I really don’t really like heights. As I began to slowly paint, the sky was clear, the sun was beautiful; the wood began to soak up the paint. Eventually I begin to hum a song and think positive thoughts and I forgot all about the height.
I learned something while painting the shed. Something can be very scary until you start working.
5. Seeking to live a holy life before God can be very scary as well. If you see where you are, where God has placed you as His very own, it can be a scary place. God I can not do this. I can’t be what you want me to be. But, just keep working!
III. But we also need to grow up and accept our responsibility as a member of the Body of Christ.
A. Peter tells us in verse 5 that we are living stones, a spiritual house, and a holy priesthood and in verse 9 we are a chosen race, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession.
1. WOW what flattery. But there is something more that just the titles of what we are, there is a purpose to the titles. Verse 9 But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.
Illustration: When a baby comes home from the hospital, he or she is given no chore to do. There is no room to clean or trash to dump. But as that baby grows into a little boy or girl and can accept limited responsibility we give him or her chores to do. Chores teach a child responsibility. It says that as a member of this family you have a responsibility to help provide for its life and its well being.
2. So too, each one of us who calls LCC home has a responsibility to grow up and find our place of service and ministry within the Body of Christ. Finding your place of ministry does contribute to the life and well being of all of us, but it also helps you. It helps you to feel a part of a greater whole and feel useful.
3. A family shares things like dreams, hopes, possession, memories, smiles, frowns, and gladness. A family is a clan held together with the glue of love and the cement of mutual respect. It is group of people who pull together for the benefit of all. A family is shelter from the storms, a friendly port when the waves of life become too wild. No person is ever alone who is a member of a family.
4. LCC, we are family and we are responsible to and for each other. Grow up and do your part.
IV. But there is one more thing Peter tells us to do in order to grow up in the faith. We need to grow up and do what we are told.
A. In verse 8 Peter says they stumble because they are disobedient to the word.
1. Which one of us this morning can’t recall the discipline of a loving parent because we didn’t do what we were told?
2. Obeying is part of growing up. It is learning to respect the authority and experience of someone else who really does know more about life than I do even though he or she goes by the name mom or dad.
3. In fact, I think that obedience is a key to a fulfilling walk with God. If your spiritual life is hurting this morning, the first place to check is with Dad. Are you doing what God has asked of you or are you living in disobedience?
Illustration: The story is told that when Queen Victoria was a child, she did not know she was in line of the throne of England. He instructors were frustrated trying to prepare her and motivate her for her future, but she just did not take her studies seriously. Finally, her teachers decided to tell her that one day she would become the queen of England. Upon hearing this, Victoria quietly said, “Then I will be good.” The realization that she had inherited this big calling gave her a sense of responsibility that profoundly affected her conduct from then on.
Conclusion:
This morning God is asking each one of us to grow up! It has nothing to do with our age or even how long we have been a Christian. It has everything to do however with acting, behaving and living by the standard that God has set for us.
Is God saying to us, “grow up?” We usually say that to each other with a ting of sarcasm and indifference, but what God says He supplies to make it happen.
May we all desire to grow up this morning!
