“By This Time”

Ephesians 4:11-16 (NLT) Now these are the gifts Christ gave to the church:  the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers. 12 Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do His work and build up the church, the body of Christ. 13 This will continue until we all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God’s Son that we will be mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ. 14 Then we will no longer be immature like children.  We won’t be tossed and blown about by every wind of new teaching.  We will not be influenced when people try to trick us with lies so clever they sound like the truth. 15 Instead, we will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ, who is the head of His body, the church. 16 He makes the whole body fit together perfectly.  As each part does its own special work, it helps the other parts grow, so that the whole body is healthy and growing [mature] and full of [unselfish] love. 

• God has called each one of us to walk in spiritual maturity.

1 John 2:12-13 (NIV) I am writing to you, dear children, because your sins have been forgiven on account of His name. 13 I am writing to you, fathers, because you know Him who is from the beginning.  I am writing to you, young men, because you have overcome the evil one.

1.  Children

1 Peter 2:1-2 (NLT) So get rid of all evil behavior.  Be done with all deceit, hypocrisy, jealousy, and all unkind speech. 2 Like newborn babies, you must crave pure spiritual milk so that you will grow into a full experience of salvation. 

• Conversion is not the end goal, rather it’s the gateway to a deeper life in Christ.

“Babyhood is a delightful thing; perpetual babyhood is deplorable.  The perpetual spiritual infant is an embarrassment to God.  God wants us rich in spiritual things.  Unless we are grown-up in Christ, we will be a liability—childish and petty, wanting attention all the time, and wanting to be amused.”  —Leonard Ravenhill

2.  Young Men

• During this stage our lives can best be described as a mixed bag of immaturity and maturity.

3.  Fathers 

1 John 2:13 (NIV) I am writing to you, fathers, because you know Him… 

1 John 2:14 (NIV) I write to you, dear children, because you know the Father.

• A genuine mark of being a father/mother in the faith, is the reproducing spiritual kids.

Two Observations:  

1.  Natural age, nor earthly success equates to spiritual maturity. 

2.  Most Christians tend to plateau in the “young men” stage of spiritual maturity.               

“There are three persons living in each of us:  the one we think we are, the one other people think we are, and the one God knows we are!”  —Leonard Ravenhill

Q — Why aren’t more Christians moving into higher levels of spiritual maturity?

1.  We believe to the point of inconvenience and we stop.

• If it inconveniences OUR plan, time, effort, energy, or money in the slightest way…we are not interested.

Q — How will we ever make a difference in this world, if we keep thinking our lives 

        belong to us? 

2.  We don’t welcome correction.

Teachable — “willing to learn.” 

Correctable — “to make right, to adjust, to bring up to standard.” 

Q — Are you willing to be corrected?

Hebrews 12:6 (NLT) “God disciples [corrects] those He loves.”  

2 Timothy 3:16-17 (NIV) All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 17 so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. 

Q — Are you willing to be corrected?

Galatians 2:11-14 (NLT)  But when Peter came to Antioch, I had to oppose him to his face, for what he did was very wrong. 12 When he first arrived, he ate with the Gentile believers, who were not circumcised. But afterward, when some friends of James came, Peter wouldn’t eat with the Gentiles anymore.  He was afraid of criticism from these people who insisted on the necessity of circumcision. 13 As a result, other Jewish believers followed Peter’s hypocrisy, and even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy. 14 When I saw that they were not following the truth of the gospel message, I said to Peter in front of all the others, “Since you, a Jew by birth, have discarded the Jewish laws and are living like a Gentile, why are you now trying to make these Gentiles follow the Jewish traditions? 

Proverbs 10:17 (NLT) People who accept discipline are on the pathway to life, but those who ignore correction will go astray.

Proverbs 12:1 (NKJV) Whoever loves instruction loves knowledge, but he who hates correction is stupid.

Proverbs 13:18 (NKJV) Poverty and shame will come to him who disdains correction, but he who regards a rebuke will be honored.

Proverbs 15:10 (NLT) Whoever abandons the right path will be severely disciplined; whoever hates correction will die.

Proverbs 29:1 (ESV) He who is often reproved, yet stiffens his neck, will suddenly be broken beyond healing.

Proverbs 15:5 (NLT) Only a fool despises a parent’s discipline; whoever learns from correction is wise.

Proverbs 19:20 (NLT) Get all the advice and instruction you can, so you will be wise the rest of your life.

Proverbs 9:9 (NLT) Instruct the wise, and they will be even wiser.  Teach the righteous, and they will learn even more.

1 Peter 5:5 (NLT) In the same way, you who are younger must accept the authority of the elders.  And all of you, dress yourselves in humility as you relate to one another, for “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”