Living the Word

James Groff

Growing in Maturity • Sermon • Submitted 6 years ago

Ephesians 4:17–24

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Worship Service: Announcements John Ivan Byler

Call to Worship, Offering David Burkholder

Singing Shandon Mullet

Reading and Pastoral Prayer James Groff Theme - Intercession

Family of the Week: Micah, April, & family: Pray for love and wisdom in interacting with our neighbors, for boldness in sharing Truth, for each of us to have at least two Followers to mentor, and for locals to promote the technologies our NGO has developed.

Caleb B

Jim L sister

Scripture Reading 2 Peter 3 Robb Mullet

Marks of maturity sermon series:

Hebrews 6:1

διό

English Standard Version Chapter 6

Therefore let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity,

Over the next 6 sermons, we will ask ourselves, what visible marks show we are growing in maturity. What visible realities will be present in our lives if we are growing. Everything that grows progresses in maturity. And while spiritual growth does not happen overnight, or sometimes even quickly, but if it is not happening at all, you should question your spiritual health.

We have enough farmers here to understand this illustration. If you take a newborn calf, and it does not stand in the first couple hours, that calf will probably not make it, and then after standing, if it does not drink milk within the first day, it will probably die. And after drinking milk, if it does not transition to a bottle, and milk replacer within a week, it will probably die. And if further down the road it does not begin to eat grain, it will probably die. And if it does not transition to eating grass or hay, it will at minimum live unhealthily. And we could look at other plants and animals, and while the marks of maturity will be different, if they are not progressing, the life is in danger.

And so as we go through these, let us consider ourselves. Am I growing? The only biblical way to assess our progress is in our growth in spiritual maturity, and visible holiness. This is not something you decide as the bluegrass song says “Me and Jesus we got a good thing goin”. This is worked out in the community of believers, and we are each called to be watchful of ourselves, and our brothers to be sure that we are continuing on the path to maturity. If you are not more holy than you were last year in some measurable way then you had better start searching your heart. And hopefully, as we progress through this series, we will be helped by scripture to search our conduct, and our hearts.

Message James Groff

“Living the Word” - Defeating Insignificance

Our world is caught in insignificance.....we are caught in chasing things of insignificance

“The mainstream media are making the mistake of appealing to emotions rather than reason. It’s catchy, sure, but it’s also hollow. It’s the equivalent of junk food, and it leaves the audience feeling unsatisfied.” Comment on Quillette

Our world is caught in insignificance.....we are caught in chasing things of insignificance

In so many ways, we see the pursuit of cheap pleasure and the accepting short lived joy dominate our lives and thinking.

We see this in the media: A commenter on a editorial said: “The mainstream media are making the mistake of appealing to emotions rather than reason. It’s catchy, sure, but it’s also hollow. It’s the equivalent of junk food, and it leaves the audience feeling unsatisfied.” Comment on Quillette

This reality extends to the debates our country is having over many issues. And it is easier to retreat to our well-developed arguments, and just exchange slogans versus the hard work of respecting the disagreeing party, and entering respectful and community building dialogue. With another school shooting, all we hear know, is it’s easy, “Australia took away guns, and they have no gun violence” easy......or the other side, “Guns don’t kill, people kill”. But few are willing to listen to the broad range of ideas and solutions being proposed without entering a mud throwing war.

We see this in relationships - the quick and the fleeting dominate our romantic relationships. Humans of New York post a description of a couple in Indonesia where the man was describing that after 5 months of being together he summoned up the courage to kiss her on the cheek, and he’s not entirely sure if he did that too early. The commenters on that were dumbfounded that it took that long. Our culture expects that a couple may sleep together after the first date. The easy and fleeting pleasure of physical and sexual touch have replaced the long joy of commitment and interaction with the whole of your partner. No wonder then, that relationships do not last. They are like a diet plan consisting of eating bacon cheeseburgers and fries every day. Good for the first week, but deadly after a year.

Main idea: Immaturity seeks quick cheap pleasure, maturity seek lasting and eternal joy.

Our passage begins with a negative statement. Don’t walk like the rest of the Gentiles walk. And then he describes the nature of this walk:

They are dark in understanding

This is intentional - they avoid understanding that will curb their behavior - The lottery player does not face the reality of the odds because that would point to the futility of his actions. They only see the dude in Kentucky, or the lady in Conn that took home $250M....that could be me

The drunk does not face up to his impaired condition as he drives into the solid truth of a power pole speaks to reality. I can handle this.....I’m not impaired, this is not affecting me.

This darkness is brought about by the absence of the light of Christ - alienated from the life of God

This darkness is intentional - due to the hardness of their hearts

Their ignorance is sourced in their hardness of heart

Given up to cheap pleasure - deceitful desire

Cheap pleasure is a liar, it never delivers the promised reward

Deceitful desire - our desires lead us to justify destructive behaviors

Destructive behaviors are then justified by the development of arguments that defend the behaviors as normative.

With a desire for more and more

Then, we are given the alternative - The former way is not the way of Christ

One task , four steps

Be renewed in the spirit of your minds

1. Seek to understand Christ as the foundation of Truth

Develop passion towards Christ

2. Put off the old self

3. Put on the new self

The circular motion of the hearts desires and the application of the mind

It’s kind of like the chicken and the egg - Which comes first?

We see mature Christians and we wonder how they arrived, and we want the elevator, but they took the steps

- first this way understanding,

then that way growing our hearts desires towards God

Works both ways - towards Christ, or towards self

We make this more difficult than it is.

We of all people have immediate access to the study of the word of God

We have a massive availability of good books and teaching geared to all levels of learning

It is a matter of the heart

We all have things we care about, and if we spend time around each other, the things we care about will be evident. How will you know?

You will see the passion spark in our eyes. If you go to Bro. Harry Lee’s house, and you ask him about antiques, he will generally light up and talk about the various pieces he has, and how he got them.

You will also know when you see how we spend our time. There is a difference between those who like running, and those who don’t One spends Saturdays running 5k’s or more, and the other posts a meme that says “I ran to the fridge for breakfast, does that count as exercise?”

And, you will know by the things we learn about. If you take an evening class on how to run a lathe so you can drill and work on gun barrels, you indicate that you are very interested in shooting very accurately.

And, you know by what you avoid - A person

So, let’s apply the same matrix to our spiritual life

Does the truth of Christ spark a passion in your eyes. If someone strikes up a conversation about faith, does it draw you in? Do you love Jesusm or do you just want his benefits

Do you spend time? You will never get the furnace of gospel passion burning if you don’t go to the forest and cut some wood to throw on the fire. You will never incline your heart closer to God if you never give it the spiritual food it needs to burn hot.

And, if your heart is passionate towards Jesus, you will put away the things that betray his love towards you. If he is your treasure, you will not hold onto other treasure in his place…you will seek to put it away.

In it’s place you will build the treasure of Godliness.

I urge you to continually ask yourself these questions

Am I growing? Is my maturity progressing?

Am I passionate about the gospel? Am I passionate about Christ?

Am I growing in understanding of the Truth of God?

Am I putting away Sin? explore later

Am I putting on Godliness - am I living the word? vs 25-32

Speaking truth

Controlling my anger

Laboring honestly

Speaking good upbuilding words

Being Kind and forgiving

What is the fuel

Vs 17 begins Now - that means because of

In the earlier part of ch 4 Paul describes the Gospel of Christ, and it’s purpose

God’s good gift in Christ was given to bring about a people built on truth and love.

This morning, he calls each of us to join in the growing body of Christ and be transformed by his truth. Living the word in this dark and broken world