Spiritual maturity

The Trifecta of all things that can be a detriment to people coming to church took place today at least on my side of South Bend. First, Time change, spring forward, something about losing that hour that just throws all of us off a bit. Secondly, it is raining, the good, sleeping kind of rain, started yesterday and it has settled in. Thirdly, our city girls basketball team, Washington went to the state championship last night in Indianapolis. They fought a good fight but came up short and to lose on a last second shot takes the wind out of your sails so most of my members are still in Indy recovering.

With that, PRAISE GOD FOR THE PEOPLE WHO WERE AT CHURCH AND CAME WITH A MIND TO WORSHIP GOD. We finished off I Corinthians 13: 11-13. The title of our message was "Spiritual Maturity", with the sub theme being "It's Time to Grow Up". In order to become spiritual mature and grow up in Christ, we must:

Accept our Responsibility: Paul starts off vs 11 by saying WHEN. I paused there because I realized that we all have a when. We may not all share the same How, or Why, or What, or Where but we all have had a When. That place where we fell short of the glory of God, that moment where we lived beneath our calling, that time where we disappointed ourselves and our God. Where was your When? David's was on a roof top, Moses' was on a beach, Peter's was in the Garden and Paul's was while he was holding the coat, make no mistake we all have had a when.

However Paul teaches us How to deal with our when moments because he shows us how to accept responsibility. He says, "When I was a child". Notice he takes blame. He does not blame his background, pedigree, TV, Lyme disease, parents, educational system, church or Pastor. He says, "I spoke as a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child".

Spiritual maturity realizes ITS TIME TO GROW UP. We may not be able to choose what we go through but we can choose how we go through it. Take spiritual inventory of your life, walk around the rooms of your life and see what areas you need to grow up in. The biggest room in the world is the room for improvement.

Assume our Rightful Place: Martin Luther stated that, "A Christian is never in a state of completion but always in the process of becoming". Paul uses the word "child" to describe what he WAS. The word he uses is similar to 1 Corinthians 3:1 where he talks about infants in the church, how I wished you were spiritual people but you were babes in Christ, people of the flesh and so I had to feed you milk and not meat.

We still have babies in church. Someone told us we were cute when we threw a tantrum, laughed when we refused to help if it didn't go our way, patted us on the head when we stuck our lip and pouted for all to see. However that is not our rightful place. Paul says, "I Became", which means what I was, I no longer am.

Time and space won't permit me to tell my story but everyone ought to have a "Before and After testimony". Paul says when I stepped into my rightful place, I had to "put away, or gave up" my childish ways. When you go in to the place God has for you, you have to leave somethings at the door. Some habits, friends, conversations, attitudes, places have to be put away. I lost it right there because all of the things that I had to put away was for God's purpose and his plan. You can't walk into a new land burdened with old baggage, We all have some things to put away.

Allocate my Reward: Right now I only see through a glass darkly, but my reward is one day it will be Face to Face. What keeps me going on bad days, rainy days, low attendance days, is one day I will see my Saviour.

As usual, I have typed too much, when I become a good preacher like my fellow bloggers, I will learn to compress and simplify, in either case,

Still feel like running,

Owens