SPIRITUAL ADOLESCENCE
Text: Jeremiah 18:1-11
Have you ever known someone that you would could consider to be a know-it-all? We know that there is truth to the understanding that the older we get, the wiser we get. There is also the reality that as adolescents, to one degree or another or at one time or another that young people sometimes think that they know-it-all. Only as they get older do they realize that wisdom increases with age. In fact, how often do we hear adults with the wisdom of their years say, “If only I knew then, what I know now”. Perhaps, that is why they say “hindsight is 20/20”.
Consider Psalm 25:7: “Do not remember the sins of my youth, nor my trangressions; according to your mercy remember me, for your goodness sake” (NKJV). This was a Psalm that was written by David. It is as if David were saying, “Hey, God, it’s me, David. When you look at the sins of my youth, please remember that I was once young and foolish. So please forgive and forget. In fact, let’s erase that part”.
In Jeremiah 18:1-11, we have a parable that came about through what God revealed to Jeremiah when he went down to the potter’s house. God helped Jeremiah to associate the clay with the house of Israel and the potter with God. The point was obvious. God was saying to the house of Israel through this prophetic parable, “Why will you not let me mold you to be a vessel for my purposes?”
THE DANGER OF INDEPENDENCE
There is not a soul alive who does not enjoy being somewhat independent. Part of how we express who we are is through our individualism. We like having things that are unique. We also like having it our way. When we are growing up or when we grew up, we went through that hard time in the teenage years that is called adolescence. The reason that time is difficult to us is because we are going through or went through a phase in Erikson’s eight stages of psychological development known as “Identity versus Role confusion”.
When we hear the story of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15:11-32) we are not told the age of the younger brother we know as the prodigal son. He was young and foolish and thought he had the world by the tail. It would be a safe conclusion to say that he was probably in the latter part of his adolescent years when he seemed to be struggling to find out who he was. It was, it seems, an identity crisis like one an adolescent might encounter in the Identity versus Role Confusion stage.
The danger of the independence area is that there is a tendency to rebel. One of the things that adolescents do as they try to figure out who they are is rebel. We do not mind rebels so long as they have a legitimate cause. But, we tend to question rebels who work hard at being rebellious. When adolescents rebel against all authority and the reason of authority figures, we tend to think of them as unruly. Jeremiah 18:1-11 is a parable about how the house of Israel was acting like an unruly adolescent in the spiritual sense.
I just recently read a story about Benjamin Franklin when he was a young boy. He had just turned seven years old when his friends and family gave him some money for his birthday. It was a pocketful of small coins. The story does not say exactly the amount he was given. Like most all children, he wanted to go to the store and spend his money. On the way to the store, young Ben Franklin met a boy who charmed him with a whistle. Naïvely, young Ben offered the other boy all of his money for the whistle. The other boy took the money in exchange for the whistle. Later, that evening, young Ben was playing his whistle when his brothers and sisters informed him that he had paid four times what the whistle was actually worth. Young Ben was embarrassed and began to cry. As an adult, with some wisdom and maturity under his belt Benjamin Franklin said, “In later years, I think I have met many people who have paid too much for a whistle”. (paraphrased from the following resource: Ernest A. Fitzgerald. Keeping Pace: Inspirations In The Air. Greensboro: Pace Communications, 1988, p. 155).
Although Benjamin Franklin only seven years old in this story, we could say that many adolescents make this same kind of mistake. Sometimes the mistake actually does involve an uneven trade in a money transaction. It also true that even when no money was involved, there have been many who have paid too much for a whistle because of the fact that they thought that they were too wise to be taken (cheated) so easily.
In First Corinthians 3:2, Paul refers to those who were young in the faith. Their food was milk because they were spiritual babies. Paul uses another metaphor when he talks about how the spiritual babies progress to the adult diet of eating meat or solid food. The point that I am getting at is that spiritual adolescence is a possible stage and a likely stage between young Christians and mature Christians.
THE DANGEROUS OVERCONFIDENCE OF SPIRITUAL ADOLESCENCE
One of the problems of spiritual adolescence is that of being overconfident. Let’s say that that there was a young man (we’ll call him Joe) who had great confidence in both dad’s car and his driving ability. Then one day, another young man by the name of Jerod challenged him to a race. Challenge accepted they began to race each other. Joe wins the race hands down. The car appears to be just as good as it always was. Joe crosses the finish line and thinks to himself, “I’m the man! Nobody can beat me in this car”. Then, all of a sudden, as he begins to decelerate, the engine in dad’s car throws a rod and will not run anymore. OOPS!
There are times when God’s children might be just as careless as Joe was with dad’s car in their spiritual lives. Joe knew the rules. Racing dad’s car was against the rules. Joe disobeyed because he was too confident.
When I was fifteen, I decided to take one of our family cars for an unsupervised spin. By accident, I had discovered a spare key. At the time of this adventure, which would not have been permitted by my parents, I took the car for a spin in the neighborhood. After almost driving the car into the ditch, I decided that it was time to complete the journey around the block and put the car back where it belonged. At the time all I had was my driver’s permit which I had just gotten. By law, if I am not mistaken, with a driver’s permit you are supposed to have an experienced driver at least 21 years old. Boy was I lucky.
A second danger of overconfidence as it relates to spiritual adolescence is that of moderating religion. In his book The Screwtape Letters, C. S. Lewis describes what is like a parable that is ongoing through different episodes of how a Senior Demon, whom he calls Screwtape trains his young and vulnerable apprentice nephew Wormwood how to disrupt, derail and hinder the growth and progress of Christians in their knowledge of the love, grace and mercy of God and His sovereignty. In one of his letters to his nephew Wormwood, Screwtape gives these insights: "A moderated religion is as good for us as no religion at all. ... "You see the idea? Keep his mind off the plain antithesis between True and False. Nice and shadowy expressions---"It was a phase" ---"I’ve been through all that" ---don’t forget the blessed word "Adolescent" (New York: Bantam Books, 1982, p. 27). Deception is the key behind this book and how it strikes true to life in the minds and hearts of men. And Satan is the master of that deception because he is the father of lies (John 8:44).
God wants us to continue to grow in knowledge, wisdom and faith. When the spiritual adolescent tries moderate his or her religion, he or she feels or begins to feel and think that they know all that there is to know. Satan wants to use the spirit of spiritual adolescence to his advantage. If we give the devil an inch, he will try to deceive us so that he might become a ruler.
THE NEED FOR SPIRITUAL CONFORMITY
We are the clay and God is the potter. Whenever clay that has been molded develops a defect, the potter will correct the mistake. Clay objects that have been molded usually develop defects because of impurities that may exist in the clay. Given that is the case, then that clay cannot maintain the shape that the potter had intended until it is reworked and remolded. Sometimes potters might get discouraged and discard clay altogether. But, God does not discard any of us.
Before a new product is released on the market to consumers, the production company has to do some pre-marketing research. They have to make a prototype. For instance, when they make a new car they always start with a prototype which is the first model of its kind. The prototype is used for study to see if the product that is being made will be as flawless as possible. Concerning cars, all models are fashioned after the prototype. Christ succeeded where Adam failed. Jesus is our prototype. He is flawless. Every time God works with us as the clay on His potter’s wheel, He is trying to mold us into the likeness of Jesus.
Left to ourselves, our fate would become that of Humpty Dumpty. Don’t you remember how it goes? Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall. Humpty Dumpty had a great fall. All the King’s horses and all the King’s men couldn’t put Humpty Dumpty back together again.
The difference between us and Humpty Dumpty is that his outcome was irreversible, unlike our own. Sometimes we are broken by choice when we refuse to let God reshape us and remold us. The molds of our own making cannot withstand the impact of the world which is the very reason why we become nothing more than a mass of clay unless we allow God to remold us. The ultimate rejection of God’s hand on our lives results in misery. The absolute rejection of God’s hand upon the lives of unbelievers is in the gift of salvation and eternal life. The ultimate end of rejection cannot be any worse than its end result which is eternal separation and death in Hell.
Spiritual conformity is the key. You see God made you first of all. God continues to remold and reshape us throughout our spiritual pilgrimage here on earth. Your strength is not your own, but God-given: "But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed" (Second Corinthians 4:7-9 NIV). That is why apart from the Lord we can do nothing (John 15:5). You see God continues to make and reshape us with every passing hardship. God does not send the hardships that we encounter but He does use them to transform us according to His will when we conform to His will for our lives (Romans 8:28).
You will sometimes hear people say, "God is not finished with me yet". Jeremiah 18:1-11 is a passage of scripture that explains why that is the case. That is why Paul reminds us not to be conformed to this world (Romans 12:2). It is indeed a tragedy when people wait till death comes near before they decide to be authentic. Unlike clay which is inanimate, we are animate and we have a will that can resist God the potter’s hand. We must remember that we are nothing more than clay in the God the potter’s hands that he seeks to mold us so that we may "will and ...act according to his good purpose" (Philipians 2:13 NIV) and be molded after the likeness of Jesus Christ.
