IT’S TIME TO GROW UP Part 3
Spiritual Immaturity
Instability in the Faith
Ephesians 4:11-16, "And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ: That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive; But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ: From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love."
Jesus established the church before going away after his resurrection. The church was established with the idea in mind that it would be a place for God’s children to come together in mutual agreement and help one another to grow closer to Jesus. In establishing the church, God placed within the church certain positions or ministries that are absolutely necessary in helping people to grow into spiritual maturity.
All of us begin this walk with the Lord by being Born Again into the family of God. This is not a physical birth for such would be impossible. Nicodemus questioned Jesus concerning this very thing when he said in John 3:7, "...How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter the second time into his mother’s womb, and be born? "
Since we are Born Again into the family of God by the Spirit of God through the power of His Blood, isn’t it reasonable to assume that we must all go through the growth process to become mature and stable in the faith of our Lord?
Becoming a mature Christian requires as much hard work, a lot of hard knocks, falling and getting up time and again until we reach Heaven. We are ever growing as long as we are walking upon the earth and we won’t grow up or mature completely until we enter the streets of the New Jerusalem. Just as it takes a long time to grow from a newborn baby, to a toddler, to an adolescent, to a teenager, and on into adulthood, it takes time to grow into a more mature Christian who is stable in their walk with the Lord.
All of us go through stages of growth. Perhaps it would do us good to look at the different stages of growth and make some comparisons to our spiritual growth. It may help each of us to know where we are in our maturity in Christ.
Just as your mother, father, sisters, brothers, cousins, aunts or uncles are placed in your natural family to help you grow up, Jesus has chosen to place Apostles, Prophets, Evangelists, Pastors and Teachers in your life to help you grow up spiritually. These are often referred to as the 5-Fold Ministry within the church.
The role that these offices will play in your life depends upon the level of spiritual maturity that you have reached.
The Evangelist is usually the first exposure you have to the 5 fold ministry within the church.
It is the Evangelist that first brings the message of the gospel to your heart and life. That evangelist may be a close friend, family member, acquaintance at school or on the job, or it may be a fiery evangelist preaching behind a pulpit. The fact is that anyone who carries the message of salvation through the Blood of Jesus to a lost soul is an evangelist.
The evangelist gives you the bottled milk of the Word of God. The message of salvation is the only food you need to become a child of God. We hear the milk of the Word and it tastes sweet to our soul. Then we choose to either accept that word or to reject it and remain outside of the family of God.
It is fitting that mild is white in color, (unless you get yours from a brown cow, then it’s chocolate – HA!) for that white color represents the power of the Gospel to wash away your sin in the Blood of the Lamb and place upon you the robes of righteousness like pure white linen. That’s the milk of the word. Those who listen to it and obey it with sincerity are born again and on their way to Heaven.
Being born again is a wonderful and glorious experience in and of itself, but there is more to come. That newborn baby takes in nothing but milk for a few weeks but it isn’t long until that baby needs something more substantial than milk to help it grow.
Babies soon need to have some soft baby food to fill their appetite in addition to the milk. To those of us who are more mature in our physical growth, we look at baby food with disgust. Who wants to eat mushy vegetables or liquid meat? It may not appeal to us but to that baby it is far better than just the milk alone.
For a Baby Christian there soon comes a time when more is required than just the milk of the gospel message. The inner hunger and thirst of the heart and soul cries out for more and more because we are never satisfied with just being saved and that’s all.
That’s where the Apostle comes in. It is the Apostle who begins to preach that there is more than just being born again. It is the Apostle who preaches the message of righteous living, getting established in the Lord and surrendering your life to Jesus completely and in service to God through a local church. He just doesn’t preach the gospel of salvation, he preaches the need for a walk with the Lord.
Even so, the Apostle does not always give you the real meat of the Word of God. He is still offering you spiritual baby food. Messages on getting into a local church and going to work for the Lord, or getting involved in some sort of ministry outreach are wonderful but they are still little more than milk. If that Apostle were to preach the things that are hard to understand or that made a deep spiritual requirement, there would be very few who would follow Christ.
They know that a newborn Christian cannot handle or digest the stronger teaching of the Word so they teach classes on salvation, coming to church, reading your Bible, or being faithful to the house of God. The Apostle takes us one tiny step closer to maturity in Christ. His words are good, sweet and filled with mush, and are designed to help you to get better established in the Lord.
How many of us are still in the bottled milk stage and how many have grown just a little and are now looking for the baby food jars from the realm of the Spirit?
Now let’s take this a step further. There comes a day when babies begin to grow a few teeth and now they need something to chew on. They still aren’t ready for a full blown steak yet but they can eat small pieces if it is cut up for them. We must be careful not to feed them too much or too fast for even though they may have teeth to chew with, their stomachs may not be able to handle much strong meat.
A toddler goes past the milk to get to the Soda Pop if you let him. He will pass up the baby food jars to get to the crackers, candy and cookies because he has already developed a taste for those things that are sweet and fun to eat. But, have you ever tried to get that toddler to eat their spinach, or carrots or beets, or liver? You better watch out or you may be wearing it instead of them eating it!
That’s the way that some of God’s Children act as well. They are ready for something new and more substantial than just milk or baby food. Now they want to learn more about Jesus and his Word so they begin to study or to attend services where they can feel the “move of the Holy Spirit” and see others being moved at the same time.
You can see a lot of these adolescent Children of God at rallies, social gatherings, fun seminars, and the like, but you still won’t see many of them really paying attention to a strong sermon from the pulpit. They are focused only on the blessings, the feelings and the easy, fun things of living for the Lord. Unless there is some special service, like a singing, a revival, a rally or the like going on, they likely won’t even show up for church and, if they do show up, they won’t take part in what is happening because they are waiting for the “sweetness” to fall on them.
There comes a time that adolescents get enough teeth and their body matures enough that they are ready to go out and make their mark upon the world and let everyone know that they are around and that they are important.
That’s when the Child of God goes from the adolescent stage to the Teenage years in their walk with Christ.
Teenagers have developed to the place where they can eat anything, and they often do. Sometimes they eat so much and so much of a variety at one time that their stomach gets confused and it makes them sick. They love the junk food, they love whatever food they can get and they make sure that none is left over for the next meal.
They will go around letting everyone know that they are here. You can’t miss them! Growing in Christ will bring us to this same place in the realm of the Spirit also.
Spiritual teenagers will gobble up any wind of doctrine that comes their way because their hunger to hear from the Lord is insatiable. They listen to everything that anyone says who calls themselves Christian. The problem is that many who feed them are not as mature as they are and the messages they give forth can be as confusing to the spirit as the mixture of pizza, chocolate ice cream, apple pie, Coca Cola, hamburgers, French fries and a banana split is to the natural stomach.
There are a lot of “Teenage Children of God” out there who live in great confusion because they have listened to too many voices and don’t have the ability to discern what is good and what is not from God.
Most of them flock together and strive to be a part of everything. Have you ever been around a group of Christians and they all tried to play a game of “one Up-man-ship”?
That’s where, no matter what testimony a person can give, there is always someone who will come up with a better one to gain the upper hand. You can have a really great testimony like, “I saw 6 dead people raised from the dead at one time” and someone will come up with “well, you know what I saw? I saw Jesus walking down the aisle of the church just before He raised those 6 dead people.”
Does that sound like teenagers or what?
Their physical body is becoming fully developed and the hormones are kicking in and it drives everyone around them, including themselves, off the deep end!
I’ve seen a lot of God’s Children who act spiritual, and talk about spiritual things, but their head knowledge far exceeds their heart knowledge and it shows.
I read this sign in one of the churches where I attended: “Teenagers, pack your bags, leave home, get out into the world and make your own way – while you still know everything.”
I often wonder how people who have only known the Lord for a few years are more outspoken on many matters beyond their understanding, even when there is a much more mature thinking and experienced man or woman of God around who can give really good instruction. I think we can see why I call them Spiritual Teenagers.
After those difficult teenage years have passed, and sometimes that seems to take a lifetime for some and they never grow up, then comes the years of adulthood and a continued lifetime of maturing, changing, growing and becoming all that God has planned for us to become.
Growing in Christ is somewhat limited by time but it is limited more by our commitment to building a strong relationship with Jesus and our absolute commitment to studying and knowing His Word.
In the physical realm, our maturing process is limited by our commitment to become responsible, model citizens of society who act and live under acceptable norms. We must make the decision to be providers for our family, capable and knowledgeable workers on the job, and commit ourselves to investing our time wisely to become a better man or woman.
Again, even the most mature Child of God is still a Child of God and subject to making major mistakes and wrong decisions. We will never be perfect in this life.
But Jesus wants his children to grow up. We must learn to be more like Jesus. We must learn his Word and behave like responsible citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven.
So the question for each of us is this. Where are we in our level of Spiritual Maturity?
Are we the Newborn who knows nothing and can only handle the milk of God’s Word?
Are we the toddler who knows just enough to get into trouble and is always getting meddling in things where he has no business and making a mess of things, and who isn’t ready to learn what’s right and what’s not?
Are we the adolescent who is only out for the fun and not ready for the work of maturing in Christ?
Are we the teenager, who takes everything in but is often unwilling to give anything in return, and who knows right from wrong but has a really hard time doing the right?
Are we the adult who by reason of exercising of our spiritual muscles and sensing the move of the Holy Spirit, are becoming more like Jesus every day?
Don’t you think that its time to grow up?
Jesus is looking for those who will grow up and become spiritually mature. It’s only those who can really become vessels of honor to be used in God’s Kingdom.
It will take all the efforts of every prophet, pastor and teacher to help us grow up in Christ, but that’s why we are here. These jobs may not be as glamorous as that of the Apostle and Evangelist but they are just as important for the spiritual maturity of God’s Children.
