The Goal of the Christian Life is Maturity. One of the great purposes of the church is, as Paul says in Col. 1:28, “that we may present everyone fully mature in Christ.” Spiritual maturity…becoming more and more like Christ. Make that your personal goal. And may one of your greatest desires be to see others commit to growing in their faith.
What does it mean to be mature as a Christian? Paul is not pointing to a pinnacle to reach the top and then be declared to be mature; he is describing something more like an arrow traveling towards Christ, maturity is a process ~ admonishing teaching… I strenuously contend to this end…As Christians we are called to grow constantly, to be in the process of becoming… I am 57. When I was a boy growing up in this church, I would look at the great saints around me, folks like Doris, my mother, and so many more as OLD…I thought they’d made it… a simple life of faith and bliss. What were they, in their 30’s, 40’s. Now that I am really OLD, I know now all adults are still trying to figure out life….Growing in faith is a process…
What does it mean to be mature as a Christian? Paul is not pointing to a pinnacle to reach the top and then be declared to be mature; he is describing something more like an arrow traveling towards Christ, maturity is a process ~ admonishing teaching… I strenuously contend to this end…As Christians we are called to grow constantly, to be in the process of becoming… I am 57. When I was a boy growing up in this church, I would look at the great saints around me, folks like Doris, my mother, and so many more as OLD…I thought they’d made it… a simple life of faith and bliss. What were they, in their 30’s, 40’s. Now that I am really OLD, I know now all adults are still trying to figure out life….Growing in faith is a process…
When we stand before the Lord Jesus Christ on the day of judgment, he is not going to say, what did you accomplish, how successful were you, what level of maturity did you attain. His question will be closer to the question the resurrected Jesus asked Peter; “Do you love me.” Jesus is going to care about our focus: did we seek the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength… did we serve God by serving others… Maturity in Christ is not something to attain, it is a way of life, seeking him, learning, unlearning our patterns that get us into trouble…
I’ve been watching the Olympics… Most events I don’t care who wins or loses, I enjoy the sport itself… I know a person who enjoys hunting, but he prays he never actually gets any animal because that’s way too much work. He likes the process, being there, the camp, the woods…
Think of maturity as a way of life, focused on Christ, constantly learning. I typed into google search box, “What’s a mature Christian?” Up came list after list after list, “10/3/7/2 marks of a mature Christian.” The few articles I skimmed all made sense sort of… a few points from one: “A mature Christian is even keeled, not impacted by highs and lows of life” “You find value in daily life, trivial seasons” “You are at peace with situations beyond your control” “You practice spiritual discipilines” “You do not compare yourselves to others” The danger in listing benchmarks of maturity is that I am either in or out, I am mature or I’m not. But if you think of it as a way of life, as an arrow pointing to Christ, it’s all about the direction. Consider this benchmark: Your heart breaks for the poor and marginalized. There is a crazy assumption in this particular criteria to determine if you are mature. Your heart breaks for the poor and marginalzed. What if you are the poor and the marginalized, unwelcome in society, ostracized. Surely the rejected are able to grow in Christ too!
On the wall behind me is a cross. I love that cross, what it stands for and the person who made it. (He made it for Seeds of Hope). A messy person made it that never got his life on earth together, he died in his addictions. I am confident I will one day see him again in heaven! If you define maturity as a set of accomplishements to attain then Big Ryan was not mature. I was honored to know him over multi years including the weeks before he died ... On many occasions he tagged along with me in the few months before he died when I delivered boxes of food from the foodbank… I talked to him about… From an earthly perspective he did not get hold of the triggers causing turmoil, yet I am fully convinced he was pointed in the right direction towards Christ. He was in the process of maturing in his faith.
If I listen to the articles telling me the marks of a mature Christian, then I am a failure because I do worry, I get anxious, I get off track. I’m sorry if you disappoint yourself one more time by reacting in an “unfaithful way.” But even when we fail, if we keep on looking to Christ, that is the process of maturity… Big Ryan Templin believed the only way to salvation was Jesus Christ. Maturity is a way of life, it is the process of looking to Christ…
…wherever you are in your faith, turn towards Christ, look to Him…Do not be content with who you are right now ~ look to Christ for greater understanding, greater practices. This is why we engage in the disciplines of faith, so we are more likely to hear from God. Disciplines help us focus on Christ:…this is what Chad’s class is all about… if too many people want to sign up, he’ll do a second class…or a third… don’t look at great people of faith as your benchmark, I need to become like _________, heros are great, as long as you don’t put them on the absolute pinnacle, but rather understand maturity as an arrow… Christ always takes me just as I am… Talk to any great saint and ask them how mature they think they are in their faith and they will tell you not as saintly as you think…. The more you know about any discipline/subject the more you realize you don’t know…
There are 3 ways Paul outlines to make maturity a way of life in these verses: Point to Christ, admonishing and teaching. Oh, and there’s a fourth: Work hard. Some of us need a kick in the pants to start working hard to grow in faith and teach and counsel others… Grace as the only way to salvation, but that doesn’t mean we aren’t called to work hard…
The goal is maturity in Christ as a way of life. What’s the first thing on Paul’s list: Proclaim Christ. Talk about Christ. Tell people about Jesus. Learn from Christ. Make him the center… If you want to play the piano you can read about it all day long, but the only way to gain any competency is to play.
I read a story of a 70-year-old, blind, uneducated African woman who got saved. Filled with gratitude to the Savior, she wanted to do something for Christ. She went to the missionary with her French Bible and asked him to underline John 3:16 in red. The missionary watched as she took her Bible and sat in front of a boys’ school in the afternoon. When school dismissed, she would call a boy or two and ask them if they knew French. When they proudly said that they did, she would say, “Please read the passage underlined in red.” When they did, she would ask, “Do you know what this means?” And she would “proclaim Christ” to them. Over the years, 24 young men became pastors due to her work.
Proclaim Christ. Elevate him in your life, testimony. You don’t need to learn anything new to simply make Jesus the most important truth in your daily life. I love the story in the book of John in which Jesus heals a blind man. He goes on his way and the Pharisees and townspeople ask him what happened. He points to Jesus and says, “that man healed me, that’s all I know.” Live Christ wherever you are… point to him.
How to make the goal of maturity a way of life: Proclaim Christ and admonish one another. If one person admonishes, then another is the admonishee. Admonish means to correct, set on a right course, Paul urges in 1 Thess. 5:14, “We urge you, brothers, admonish the unruly, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with everyone.” Have courage to speak into fellow Christians lives. Give others permission to be honest with you. One of the deals I have with Sally is that if I ever do anything really stupid as a pastor I really don’t want her to defend me, please tell me I’m wrong.
Admonishing is about undoing our bad patterns or misconceptions. Back in the early 90s when I was pastor in Nooksack, the community had a huge VBS with six plus churches. I was at the Nooksack Post Office and a pastor from one of the churches that wasn’t involved met me. I knew him. I said, “Why don’t you have your church join the rest of us for VBS.” He told me something I’ve never forgotten. I didn’t agree with his application but I was intrigued by his statement: “Carl, before you came I was involved in that VBS, but I found I had to sit down with the kids after VBS and unteach them some of the things they learned.” ,,, The point: living as a Christian, pointed in the direction of Christ with the goal of maturing, we often have to remove some of the roadblocks in our life, to unlearn. Sometimes we need good friends, fellow Christians to dare to speak up…
Teaching and being taught is a huge part of Christian maturity. To be a Christian is to forever be a student in the school of Christ, always learning, growing…not only books or bible study, but also experiences, the model Jesus often used with his disciples is more like a coach of a team… Some may have a gift for teaching, but everyone is a teacher at some level, somebody they can influence, formal to informal settings… How to mature as a way of life: Keep Christ at the center, admonish, teach. Maturing in Christ as a way of life is the goal, Proclaiming Christ, Admonishing and teaching others is the way to become immersed in a life of pointing to Christ.
Paul then throws in this wonderfully ordinary dirty everyday insight to his way of making the goal of maturity a realty: “To this end I strenuously contend…” I.e. I work hard. We work hard to acquire enough to put food on the table. We work hard to win the game. We work hard having fun. We work hard to achieve. Paul testifies that he works hard to achieve spiritual maturity… If you agree that faith in Jesus Christ is the most important truth that defines you, then commit yourself to working hard for your sake and for the sake of others. Too many Christian in the American Church are passive in matters of faith ~ go ahead and tell me why that might be? (fear, failed, don’t trust others…)
I am saved 100% by grace, I can do nothing to deserve salvation, it is only by the blood of Jesus Christ that my sins are forgiven. But the truth of grace does not exclude hard work ~ hard work for the cause of Christ is a compliment to grace: the second half of Col. 1:29 is vital: READ.
Don’t be lazy in your faith. Work. You can do it ~ he will give you strength. I often get tired in my daily patterns going about in the community, meetings, but then I sit for a bit and I realize I can do more…we all need time off, for there is plenty in the scriptures about rest, but the Christian committed to Christ as a way of life never retires. Seriously, some of you are passive in your faith, that really is my temptation. I dare you to risk working hard, and you will be amazed at the strength you are given. As Paul said in Phil. 4:13, “I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.”
The goal is to mature in Christ. This may be an impossible goal on this earth to attain to perfection, but it is the process that is most important, always pointing to Christ. We do it by proclaiming Jesus Christ constantly, seeing him at the center of everything we do, admonishing one another, or unlearning/removing that which keeps us from focusing on Christ, teaching and learning one another greater truths of living for him, doing it all with wisdom because we are all so different and situations are so different, and finally commit yourself to working hard believing you will have an amazing supernatural strength to do and see things that will glorify Christ. May maturity in Christ become a way of life. Amen.
I’ve been watching the Olympics… Most events I don’t care who wins or loses, I enjoy the sport itself… I know a person who enjoys hunting, but he prays he never actually gets any animal because that’s way too much work. He likes the process, being there, the camp, the woods…
Think of maturity as a way of life, focused on Christ, constantly learning. I typed into google search box, “What’s a mature Christian?” Up came list after list after list, “10/3/7/2 marks of a mature Christian.” The few articles I skimmed all made sense sort of… a few points from one: “A mature Christian is even keeled, not impacted by highs and lows of life” “You find value in daily life, trivial seasons” “You are at peace with situations beyond your control” “You practice spiritual discipilines” “You do not compare yourselves to others” The danger in listing benchmarks of maturity is that I am either in or out, I am mature or I’m not. But if you think of it as a way of life, as an arrow pointing to Christ, it’s all about the direction. Consider this benchmark: Your heart breaks for the poor and marginalized. There is a crazy assumption in this particular criteria to determine if you are mature. Your heart breaks for the poor and marginalzed. What if you are the poor and the marginalized, unwelcome in society, ostracized. Surely the rejected are able to grow in Christ too!
On the wall behind me is a cross. I love that cross, what it stands for and the person who made it. (He made it for Seeds of Hope). A messy person made it that never got his life on earth together, he died in his addictions. I am confident I will one day see him again in heaven! If you define maturity as a set of accomplishements to attain then Big Ryan was not mature. I was honored to know him over multi years including the weeks before he died ... On many occasions he tagged along with me in the few months before he died when I delivered boxes of food from the foodbank… I talked to him about… From an earthly perspective he did not get hold of the triggers causing turmoil, yet I am fully convinced he was pointed in the right direction towards Christ. He was in the process of maturing in his faith.
If I listen to the articles telling me the marks of a mature Christian, then I am a failure because I do worry, I get anxious, I get off track. I’m sorry if you disappoint yourself one more time by reacting in an “unfaithful way.” But even when we fail, if we keep on looking to Christ, that is the process of maturity… Big Ryan Templin believed the only way to salvation was Jesus Christ. Maturity is a way of life, it is the process of looking to Christ…
…wherever you are in your faith, turn towards Christ, look to Him…Do not be content with who you are right now ~ look to Christ for greater understanding, greater practices. This is why we engage in the disciplines of faith, so we are more likely to hear from God. Disciplines help us focus on Christ:…this is what Chad’s class is all about… if too many people want to sign up, he’ll do a second class…or a third… don’t look at great people of faith as your benchmark, I need to become like _________, heros are great, as long as you don’t put them on the absolute pinnacle, but rather understand maturity as an arrow… Christ always takes me just as I am… Talk to any great saint and ask them how mature they think they are in their faith and they will tell you not as saintly as you think…. The more you know about any discipline/subject the more you realize you don’t know…
There are 3 ways Paul outlines to make maturity a way of life in these verses: Point to Christ, admonishing and teaching. Oh, and there’s a fourth: Work hard. Some of us need a kick in the pants to start working hard to grow in faith and teach and counsel others… Grace as the only way to salvation, but that doesn’t mean we aren’t called to work hard…
The goal is maturity in Christ as a way of life. What’s the first thing on Paul’s list: Proclaim Christ. Talk about Christ. Tell people about Jesus. Learn from Christ. Make him the center… If you want to play the piano you can read about it all day long, but the only way to gain any competency is to play.
I read a story of a 70-year-old, blind, uneducated African woman who got saved. Filled with gratitude to the Savior, she wanted to do something for Christ. She went to the missionary with her French Bible and asked him to underline John 3:16 in red. The missionary watched as she took her Bible and sat in front of a boys’ school in the afternoon. When school dismissed, she would call a boy or two and ask them if they knew French. When they proudly said that they did, she would say, “Please read the passage underlined in red.” When they did, she would ask, “Do you know what this means?” And she would “proclaim Christ” to them. Over the years, 24 young men became pastors due to her work.
Proclaim Christ. Elevate him in your life, testimony. You don’t need to learn anything new to simply make Jesus the most important truth in your daily life. I love the story in the book of John in which Jesus heals a blind man. He goes on his way and the Pharisees and townspeople ask him what happened. He points to Jesus and says, “that man healed me, that’s all I know.” Live Christ wherever you are… point to him.
How to make the goal of maturity a way of life: Proclaim Christ and admonish one another. If one person admonishes, then another is the admonishee. Admonish means to correct, set on a right course, Paul urges in 1 Thess. 5:14, “We urge you, brothers, admonish the unruly, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with everyone.” Have courage to speak into fellow Christians lives. Give others permission to be honest with you. One of the deals I have with Sally is that if I ever do anything really stupid as a pastor I really don’t want her to defend me, please tell me I’m wrong.
Admonishing is about undoing our bad patterns or misconceptions. Back in the early 90s when I was pastor in Nooksack, the community had a huge VBS with six plus churches. I was at the Nooksack Post Office and a pastor from one of the churches that wasn’t involved met me. I knew him. I said, “Why don’t you have your church join the rest of us for VBS.” He told me something I’ve never forgotten. I didn’t agree with his application but I was intrigued by his statement: “Carl, before you came I was involved in that VBS, but I found I had to sit down with the kids after VBS and unteach them some of the things they learned.” ,,, The point: living as a Christian, pointed in the direction of Christ with the goal of maturing, we often have to remove some of the roadblocks in our life, to unlearn. Sometimes we need good friends, fellow Christians to dare to speak up…
Teaching and being taught is a huge part of Christian maturity. To be a Christian is to forever be a student in the school of Christ, always learning, growing…not only books or bible study, but also experiences, the model Jesus often used with his disciples is more like a coach of a team… Some may have a gift for teaching, but everyone is a teacher at some level, somebody they can influence, formal to informal settings… How to mature as a way of life: Keep Christ at the center, admonish, teach. Maturing in Christ as a way of life is the goal, Proclaiming Christ, Admonishing and teaching others is the way to become immersed in a life of pointing to Christ.
Paul then throws in this wonderfully ordinary dirty everyday insight to his way of making the goal of maturity a realty: “To this end I strenuously contend…” I.e. I work hard. We work hard to acquire enough to put food on the table. We work hard to win the game. We work hard having fun. We work hard to achieve. Paul testifies that he works hard to achieve spiritual maturity… If you agree that faith in Jesus Christ is the most important truth that defines you, then commit yourself to working hard for your sake and for the sake of others. Too many Christian in the American Church are passive in matters of faith ~ go ahead and tell me why that might be? (fear, failed, don’t trust others…)
I am saved 100% by grace, I can do nothing to deserve salvation, it is only by the blood of Jesus Christ that my sins are forgiven. But the truth of grace does not exclude hard work ~ hard work for the cause of Christ is a compliment to grace: the second half of Col. 1:29 is vital: READ.
Don’t be lazy in your faith. Work. You can do it ~ he will give you strength. I often get tired in my daily patterns going about in the community, meetings, but then I sit for a bit and I realize I can do more…we all need time off, for there is plenty in the scriptures about rest, but the Christian committed to Christ as a way of life never retires. Seriously, some of you are passive in your faith, that really is my temptation. I dare you to risk working hard, and you will be amazed at the strength you are given. As Paul said in Phil. 4:13, “I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.”
The goal is to mature in Christ. This may be an impossible goal on this earth to attain to perfection, but it is the process that is most important, always pointing to Christ. We do it by proclaiming Jesus Christ constantly, seeing him at the center of everything we do, admonishing one another, or unlearning/removing that which keeps us from focusing on Christ, teaching and learning one another greater truths of living for him, doing it all with wisdom because we are all so different and situations are so different, and finally commit yourself to working hard believing you will have an amazing supernatural strength to do and see things that will glorify Christ. May maturity in Christ become a way of life. Amen.
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