This is a rush transcript.

[00:00:00] Go ahead and grab a seat. And one of the things we all have to do in life is grow up. That's something we've all got to do.

[00:00:09] And sometimes along the way, there's people telling us to grow up, telling us we need to mature, we need to take life more seriously. I've been blessed with some men that God placed in my life that basically called me out and inspired me to mature. One of them was my dad. I was blessed with a Christian dad who liked to read his kids the Bible, and we didn't wake up with an alarm clock at Blakey house. We woke up with the Book of Proverbs. I don't know if anybody else woke up like this. How long will you lie? Theros Sluggard.

[00:00:41] That's what I heard in the morning. Right. As the door turns on its hinges, as he opens my door in the morning. So the slug, it rolls over in his bed. All right. Good morning, Dad. Great to see you, too. All right. When I was in college, I had a professor who would say things like, most of my students are dreamy losers who never live up to their full potential. And when he would say stuff like that, you loved him. You were like, yes, this guy speaking the truth. He's inspiring. And so I took every class with this guy named Dr. Simons, and he was kind of one of those crazy professors who inspired you and you wanted to learn. And the problem was I had an eight o'clock poetry class. I don't think great poetry is written at eight o'clock in the morning. Right. So one day as a college student, I decided I purposed in my heart to sleep through poetry class. And while I was sleeping during that class, my phone rang. Now, this was a little bit back in the day when phones had, like, wires attached to that. Right. And I don't know why. In my sleep, I answered my phone and I said hello. And I heard three words from my professor Blakey Sturr thyself is what he said. And I realized in that shocking moment that my professor must had left class, found a telephone, found my phone number and called me to be at poetry class. I've never run to a class so fast in all of my life. Now Blakey stir thyself. I can still hear him saying it sometimes, right? When I started working at CompassHB Bible Church in Aliso Viejo, I remember the first time Pastor Mike Foobar as anybody who heard Pastor Mike Foobar preach the word of God before. Yeah, he's a preacher. And he he said, Hey, I want you to preach at our church. It's one of the first times he ever asked me to do it. He's like, I want you to do it. I want you to bring me your outline for your sermon before before you're done with it. I wanna go over it with you. And I was like, OK, that sounds great, Pastor Mike. And then so I was working hard on this sermon and I came up to him in the hallway at the church. I can remember the exact spot where I came up to him, had my outline all printed up. Hey, here's my outline for the sermon. What do you think, Pastor Mike? And I'm ready for an at a boy or a good job or I'm like, hey, this will be great. And this pen just appears in his hand out of nowhere like magic, and he just starts crossing out. I mean, there's not much on the piece of paper. It's just the outline. And he's like tearing it apart. And he and he just hands it to me and he's like, what are you even really trying to say? And then he just walks away. I just walked back to my office, like looking at the paper, like, what am I really trying to say here?

[00:03:21] Yikes. All right. So sometimes you hear a challenge and what it actually does is it inspires you to make sure in your life. And we're going to study a verse this morning where your father in heaven is going to tell you that you need to grow up. And it's Colossians, chapter one, verse 28. So everybody open a Bible. Turn there with me to Colossians, chapter one. And I really want you to see hear the call for those of us who are in Christ Jesus. And we've spent some weeks now trying to just study passages that talk about being in Christ, a new creation in Christ. There's no condemnation in Christ. And we're making it very clear we're trying to any ways that when Jesus died and when he. What was he that he said right before he died? The last phrase of Jesus Christ. He said, what? It is finished. It's done. So all of what we do in the Christian life is 100 percent based on what Jesus has already done. We are not saved by our own works. Can I get any Amen from anybody on that were saved by the work of Jesus Christ? And we transfer our trust from us trying to be good and we trust in what Jesus has already finished. And that's where our life starts. And we're finding out that it's not just believing what Jesus did know. When we believe in that, we become a new creation in Christ. The old is gone and the new has come. And we die with Jesus to an old life of sin. And when it's no longer even us who lives, but Jesus now lives in us. And not only can we have confidence, we won't be judged for our sins when we die. We can have peace and joy in this life. But then look what it says here in Colossians, one twenty eight. And we're going to dissect every line here of this verse. This is Page 983. If you got one of our Bibles here, Colossians, chapter one, verse 20, a hymn referring to Jesus, Jesus, we proclaim warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom that we may present everyone much. Sure. In Christ. So we see that once were in Christ, once were born again. And we get this a washing of our old life and we get the power of the spirit to live a new life. And we have this salvation, this regeneration work of God. Once we're in Christ, well, we see that just like we would expect someone who's born to grow up and mature over the course of their life. There is this idea of being mature in Christ. And so here's a letter, the letter of Colossians written to a church. And he's Paul's writing to this church and he's saying, hey, here's the goal. Through all of our warnings, through all of our teachings, with all of the wisdom that we've got. We want every one of you to be able to be presented before God as mature in Christ. And he's going to make it very clear earlier in Colossians one, he's so thankful that they are in Christ. But he is writing this letter to help them make sure in Christ.

[00:06:43] He's saying, hey, you guys, you need to grow up.

[00:06:48] And we've got to be careful, because there's this mentality today that I'm an Jesus. I'm good. I'm fine. I'm going to heaven when I die. And the Christian life almost becomes like cruise control as long as I'm in Christ. Everything's cool, like we're living on Easy Street. And there's one thing we learn in the New Testament. The Christian life is not easy street.

[00:07:08] It's a narrow way.

[00:07:10] And few are actually those who go on the way of Jesus Christ and those who grow, those who go in the way of Jesus. There's this expectation that you grow up in your faith, that you reach this maturity. So this is a grow up sermon for those who are in Christ. We need to grow in Christ.

[00:07:33] Now we're going to look at what the Greek is really saying here. There's three key words. If you look at verse 28. Three key words that it's saying here. It says, Warning everyone. Teaching everyone with all wisdom. So this is how people are going to be presented. Mature is through the warning, the teaching and all the wisdom that comes along with that. So we're going to get. I'm going to throw out some Greek words here and we're gonna try to really study what this versus say and by looking at the original language of the Greek. And then we're gonna look at the way those words are used in other passages. But when I'm studying at home for these sermons, I have my Greek New Testament right next to me. And then I also have this other translation of the Bible that I really like to study sometimes. It's called the Jesus book, The Hawaiian Pidgin Translation, as anybody ever heard this one before. If you haven't, you need to look it up. Here's Colossians, 128 in the Hawaiian pidgin. This is like the street language of Hawaii here. And when it says him, we proclaim this is how they say. We stay tellin everybody about Jesus. See, I like that right there. We'll stay telling everybody about Jesus. We use everything we know for teach them so they can come moe strong inside.

[00:08:44] That's what we're going for this morning. Most strong insur because they stay tight with Christ all the way. All right. That that we tell everybody about Jesus.

[00:08:53] And so if you if you don't have a new life in Christ, I mean, we are talking about that with people in this area of the world every single day. We've got somebody at this church trying to talk to somebody else about what it really means to be in Christ Jesus. And we want you to have confidence, assurance, peace in your soul that, you know, you are one of the people that Jesus has saved, that you know, that you have a relationship with God through his son, Jesus Christ. But if you have that relationship.

[00:09:27] I just got to ask you here today. Are you maturing? Are you growing up? What does that even mean?

[00:09:33] OK, so I want to encourage you this week to read this entire book of Colossians. That's our book. We're coming to you on Scripture of the Day. We're starting it all Wednesday. Who's still reading through the scripture of the day with us here at Compas HB. Okay. Yeah, we're we're working always. We've been going through books now. There's shorter books, letters. Paul's writing Galatians Ephesians. We're reading Philippians right now. Chapter three is our chapter we're on. And then Colossians. And Paul's writing this from prison. And he's writing this letter. Just to give you the context of Colossians, look at chapter one, verse six. Because Paul didn't plant this church. He hasn't even been to this church in colossi. And he says here in cloches one, verse six, he's talking about the word of truth, the gospel. We stay telling everybody about Jesus. That's what Paul was all about. And he says, I know the gospels come to you. I know you guys have heard the truth of Jesus and it's come to you, he says in verse six, as indeed the whole world is bearing fruit and increasing, the gospel just continues to echo, to resound, to wring out. More and more people are hearing it and getting saved. And I know what happened to you guys there in colossi. And he says since the day you heard and understood the grace of God, in truth, just as you learned it from a paff, Chris, our beloved fellow servant, he is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf and has made known to us your love in this spirit. So that's a key name you might want to write down if you don't know this guy. A path for us. You can't really understand the book of Colossians without a path, Chris. He's the guy who who planted this church and we don't really know. Maybe a paphitis. People think he came over to efforts, emphasis when Paul was there, preaching in emphasis. Maybe he got saved and then he brought it back to colossi. We don't really know what happened, but we do know that when Paul's riding Colossians, a paphitis is with Paul and they're clearly talking about their concerns and their love for this church in Colossians. One of the concerns they have is that this church that has heard the gospel and is in Christ. Are they going to grow up? Are they gonna mature? Go to chapter four, verse twelve, where it mentions a paphitis again. Now, at the end of Colossians, A brings him up again and he's there with Paul. And Paul's in prison when he's writing this letter and he refers to a Paris and Colossians for verse twelve of Paris. Who is one of you? A servant of Christ Jesus greets you. He says, Hey, Paris is here with me. And he and I have been talking and I'm writing this letter. And he wants you guys to know he's greeting you. He cares about you. And then he says this about a Paris always struggling, always agonizing on your behalf in his prayers that you may stand. What does it say there stand one was the concern. See, they're so thankful they're praising God. We have a church. The church has real Christians in it. These people, they know the gospel. They are in Christ. But now there's this agonizing prayer that at Paphitis is praying. And it's leading to Paul writing this letter that now that you are in Christ. Our goal is to present everyone in Christ much. Sure. And so that's the the theme here. And there's this false teaching that seems like they're being exposed to. And there's things that are trying to take them away from maturity. And Paul's wanting them to be presented as mature, grown up men and women fully developed in their faith in Christ. And so that's the concern of this letter. And Cloches 128 is kind of the theme verse of Go back. And let's just give you now these three words. What are they? What do they mean here in Colossians 128? Because he says we're preaching Jesus, but we're not just preaching now the gospel message. He's clear the gospel has come to them. They've believed that they are in Christ cave. So now we're doing this warning and the Greek word for the warning. There is new Forteo. Maybe you've heard of a pathetic counseling or it's also or usually referred to as biblical counseling. But the idea is a warning admonishing it sometimes translated. But you could put the word counseling down there. OK, what we're doing is we're applying the Bible. We're applying what God's word is to specific situations in life. People are getting married. So we do some premarital counseling and we look at what does the Bible have to say about getting married, somebody struggling with anger. So we might do some counseling about anger. What does the Bible have to say about that issue that you're dealing with in your life? Hey, we want to warn you, if you don't deal with that issue, we want to admonish you. If you don't take that seriously, you're not going to grow up. You're not going to mature. So this kind of teaching is like specific counseling, where you have a situation, you have an issue. There's something going on in your life. It kind of starts with where you're at maybe. And then we apply the Bible to what's going on in your everyday life, these kinds of warnings. Hey, if you keep living that way, here's how that's going to play out. You might need to change your course based on what the scripture says right here. Let this word be the lamp to your feet and the light to your path. Don't just do what other people are telling you what you think is best. Really live out God's word. So there's a warning, a kind of counseling. Then he says teaching, which is the Greek word de Dusko, which refers to maybe teaching like what we're doing right now as we get into the word. But it can also refer to other forms of teaching, not just preaching, as we think of it, with the whole church, but any time that people are speaking God's word to one another, that this word teaching could refer to that. And then it says, with all wisdom, Sofia is the Greek word for wisdom and wisdom is the art of living skillfully. That's a good definition for wisdom. Wisdom is not just what you know. It's you're actually able to apply it to your life. So there's the distinction between knowledge, information and wisdom. What you do with that information transformation, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. When I understand God is going to hold us accountable for how we live our lives. I begin to think maybe I should live my life differently according to God's word. So when I start to change my life based on what God says, that's wisdom. So he says, we're going to warn everyone. We're gonna teach everyone. And we're gonna do it with all the wisdom, like people who know the word, who've applied the word. So we have an understanding of it ourselves and we're actually doing it ourselves. And from that wisdom, we talk about everybody's specific situations. We teach them everything Christ commanded. And when you hear that, the warning, the teaching, the wisdom, see, and my concern is a lot of people think, well, that's what pastors do. Pastors are those who have this ability to teach. And God gives them a a specific role in the church. And we know that pastors sometimes they do counseling with the people in the church and they're out teaching in different areas. And we sure hope the pastors have wisdom. And so some people when we read a passage like this. Well, that's what the church is doing. That's what the pastors are doing. Maybe some other leaders in the church are doing this. That's not really what this versus saying. Yes, pastors do warning and teaching and they speak hopefully living it out themselves with wisdom. But this isn't just saying what Paul's going to do or a Paphitis is gonna do. This is really for everybody. So let's start by talking about what I should be doing and then let's talk about what you should be doing. And we can both agonize for one another and. Prayer, we can both pray for one another, that we'll get mature here at this church that will grow up so term of being a first Timothy four. And let's see how it says to a young pastor here, a 30 something year old Pastor Paul writing to Timothy and first Timothy chapter for just a few pages over to the right here in your New Testament. Actually, page nine hundred and ninety two. First, Timothy for eleven. Let's pick it up there. And Paul, he disciple this guy, Timothy. And now Timothy was being the pastor of a church. And he gives him some instruction about how to be a pastor. And he says this, that you're supposed to command and teach these things. So, yeah, pastors do counsel. They do teach. And he says here in First Timothy for 12 that no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example. Hey, I know you're a younger pastor. Some of the people in the church are going to be older than you. Don't let them look down at your youthfulness. Let them look up to you as you set an example to them. And you should be setting an example in speech and conduct in love, in faith and in purity until I come to vote yourself, be committed to the public reading of scripture, to exhortation, encouragement, coming alongside of people to teaching. Do not neglect the gift you have, which was given you by prophecy when the Council of Elders laid their hands on you. Practice these things. Immerse yourself in them so that all may see your progress.

[00:19:05] Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this. Stick with it. For by so doing you will save both yourself and your years.

[00:19:16] Wow, that's a powerful statement.

[00:19:19] It's saying, hey, what we're doing right now is very important, a public reading of scripture. The teaching that goes along with this man, this is something I need to keep all the pastors here. Pastor Bill, Pastor Daniel. We all are committed to teaching the word of God. In fact, today we've got Pastor Bill preaching in the high school ministry this weekend. We've got Pastor Daniel preaching in the junior high ministry this weekend. So, yeah, we need to be teaching and it needs to be clear that we're working hard to teach and hopefully you're seeing some progress that we're getting better at. We could definitely use your prayers that we would grow up and mature as pastors.

[00:19:58] And it says what we're doing here is so important if we persist in this, if we keep a close watch on this, if we keep teaching the word and you keep hearing the word and we stay together.

[00:20:08] That's the way of salvation, is what it's saying. This is how people are endure in the faith as they get taught the word and they hear the word. This is a really important thing that we're experiencing right now. This isn't something to treat, casually hit or miss. No, I need to be here ready to go. You need to be here. Ready to go. We need to persist in this. It's sad.

[00:20:30] And I could really use your prayers. I need to grow up. I've only been a pastor of a church for four and a half years. That's not a very long time.

[00:20:38] I'm still learning a lot of ways of wisdom of how to really help people here at this church. I really need you to pray that all grow up and mature. But go back to Colossians, Chapter one, and you'll see that I don't really think when Paul says this, he's referring to himself or a paphitis or just the church leaders when he's talking about warning and teaching everyone with all wisdom. Look at Colossians and we are verses 128. Now look at 316. Look at Colossians 316. I need everybody to see this verse because you're going to notice these same exact words. It says, Let the word of Christ dwell in you ritually teaching and admonishing one another in all.

[00:21:28] What does it say?

[00:21:28] Their wisdom in the Greek language? It would be hard not to notice. I know. And one verses says warning. And then here in the other verse it says admonishing.

[00:21:39] And it's that same word, a tale that's used sometimes in counseling, but it's using these same words here. But it's very clear here we're teaching and admonishing who want another. So this is not just referring to the leaders of the church. Everybody in the church, everyone who is mature in Christ, would be able to offer counsel, to teach and to have some wisdom to share with one another in the church. So we think pastors, they should be studying the Bible before they ever teach the Bible. We even think pastors, maybe they should have some education, some formalized training, maybe they should be discipled by other pastors who teach them the ways of being a pastor. You would think if somebody is going to be a teacher or a counselor, they need a lot of experience in God's word, a lot of wisdom about how to apply it as they go and tell other people it's and we all need that is what it's saying.

[00:22:42] We're supposed to be doing that with one another.

[00:22:45] So we've got this this kind of dichotomy, this false way that we think where we kind of put certain people up on this idea of being teachers and then there's the rest of the people in the church when this is actually saying everybody in the church should be teaching one another, should be admonishing or counseling one another. Everybody should have some wisdom to share with one another.

[00:23:10] And so it's saying, here's the key, cloches three, verse 16. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly. You need this word of Jesus, all the commands of Jesus, starting with the good news of how we get saved in Jesus. And then the whole way that it says we're supposed to live our life in Jesus Christ. You need to, like, have the word of Christ. Make a house in your heart. That's the idea behind the Greek language there. It needs to dwell in you. It needs to make its abode. And you, like, build a house of the Bible in your soul.

[00:23:44] That's what it's saying here is are you rich in scripture? Is it living in you? Point number one, let's get it down like this. You need God's word to grow up.

[00:23:58] That's what it's saying.

[00:23:59] You need the word of Christ to dwell in you richly. This is how you're going to mature. OK. Now, I sat at the dinner table when I was growing up and I was told that I needed to eat my green beans so that I would grow as anybody else told things like this when you were growing up. I don't even know if that's true. But I know that I was I didn't want to eat the green beans and I might have heard things over the years, like you want to stay small forever, kid. I might have heard stuff like that. You know what I mean? You better finish your dinner if you want to be a winner. I might have heard things like this. Right. Yeah, you got it. You got to eat that. Now, I had a real hard time with the green beans. I had kind of a gag reflex, if we can be honest here. OK, there was beans within the beans. You know. And I got in my mind, right? I remember one time I was at grandma's house and there were some long looking green beans being served up on that plate. And I lied to my grandma and said, my parents don't want me to eat green beans. All right. So we understand this idea on a fundamental level since we've been growing up, that you gotta eat if you want to grow.

[00:25:17] Does the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you sit here this morning? Let me just tell you, if this is the one time you really study the Bible during the week, I don't think that's what this verses talking about. I don't think it's talking about a weekly dose of studying God's word. It's saying it lives in you. It's saying it's how you live your life. It's coming home with you, it's something you're in every day, maybe even multiple times a day.

[00:25:46] I mean, the eating analogy is throughout scripture that that's what we're supposed to do with God's word, with his truth, with the words of Christ, that we eat them up just like we all eat many times, not just once a week, not even just once a day.

[00:26:04] Do you digest this book?

[00:26:08] I mean, we we try to help everybody get into the Bible, we're very proud of our middle name here at Compass Bible Church. All right. I mean, we're saying, hey, it's awesome. You're here at the sermon. This is really important that we have this time of preaching God's word together. But we encourage everybody at this church, if this is your church, we want you to be in a fellowship group.

[00:26:29] And we don't think the pastor should be the only people teach and we think we should all be teaching one another as we're all study in the word. Hey, what did you get out of the word of God? The text for this week. Hey, why don't you share what you're learning with other people in your group? So we encourage fellowship group.

[00:26:48] We that's why we emphasize scripture of the day. If we're not gathering together as a body of believers, then we're throwing out a chapter that we want everybody to read, Texture Fellowship Group about it. Email one another about a get together and talk about it. We're throwing our videos on YouTube that we can all watch to help get on the same page about it. Let's live this book out. Let's eat it up every single day. That's how we're going to mature.

[00:27:15] Is through the word of God.

[00:27:17] And we're supposed to eat it and digest it, so there's this first step is just taking it in. Just studying it. What does it say then?

[00:27:27] I got to start making sure I'm doing it. I'm applying it. Not just that I know what it says here, but what it says here. That's what wisdom is. Wisdom is doing what God says in your everyday life. Wisdom is not as the world says it, just kidding experience. That's not what wisdom really is. That's how a lot of us think of wisdom. That's how the world refers to wisdom. Wisdom in the scripture is actually the experience of applying scripture. You actually know what it says because you're actually living it out. That's wisdom in the Bible, not just, hey, I learned the hard way because I made a bunch of mistakes. And through that experience, I kind of learned what not to do. Wisdom in the scripture is I actually know what to do because it tells me and I actually do it.

[00:28:11] That's wisdom.

[00:28:13] So I'm studying it. I'm learning it. And then I'm applying it to my life. And as I developed this habit of the word coming in and dwelling in me richly and I know how to apply it and I'm starting to see real changes in God's really doing his work and growing me up. Then I start telling everybody else, hey, well, I heard this passage or I study this. And it showed me to do this. And now I have something to share with other people. And I find myself now counseling somebody with some wisdom that I myself received, either from some teacher, from God's word as I was studying it. And I'm passing it on now to other people. I'm teaching others with what I have been taught.

[00:28:54] You really know the Bible when you can say what the Bible says to somebody else. That's when you know it, if it's just in your head. You don't really know it if you're just trying to do it. You don't really know it when you can articulate what it's saying to your kids, to your spouse, to somebody else, one on one to your fellowship group. That's when you really know the Bible.

[00:29:16] When you become a teacher, when you are so familiar with the material that you could share it with other people. That's the standard of maturity that he's trying to push everybody. You need to be able to counsel. You need to be able to teach. You need to have some wisdom because you know what it says and you've seen it play out in your life. That's that's a different standard than maybe what we're holding ourselves to here today. That we're all supposed to be counselors and teachers and have some wisdom to share. Go to Romans fifteen. Turn over to the end of the Book of Romans. Page nine hundred and forty nine here as we get towards at the bottom of that page Romans, this masterpiece of the gospel that Paul wrote. He says this towards the end of the book, Romans 15 14. And this is a verse that I encourage you to to think about because it's talking about you. He's talking to those who are in Christ, the Church of Jesus in Rome.

[00:30:18] And he says, I myself am satisfied about you, my brothers, that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with knowledge, with all knowledge and able to instruct one another.

[00:30:34] Now, that doesn't sound like the same Paul, who was right in Romans Chapter three to me, because when he was writing Romans three, he said, no, no one is good. Not even when one person is good. And he was talking about us in our sin.

[00:30:51] But then he went through this whole story of what it means to be in Christ, that you're justified by faith when you trust in what Jesus has done, his death for you on the cross. His resurrection. When you trust in Jesus, God declares you not guilty and you receive righteousness. And then in that righteousness you put to death, you consider yourself dead to your old life and you start walking in a new life.

[00:31:16] And nothing can separate you from the love of God in Christ Jesus. And now you're living with a renewed mind and you're live in this whole new way where you give your life to Jesus Christ. And after God has done his mighty work to place you into Jesus. Now you're full of goodness. Now you know what life is about. Now you're able to instruct one another, he says. So he goes from before, where in Christ to being in Christ to growing in Christ. And now he's talking about mature people in Christ. Know something about Jesus. To share with other people.

[00:31:52] That's that's the life stage of every Christian. Every Christian should want to get to the stage where I can counsel and teach and have wisdom to share with other people, because I've seen the Bible, the word of Christ applied in my life, and I can share that. I can pass it on. And I know chapter and verse to share.

[00:32:13] Now, that is not the culture that we're live in, in. We are living in this cruise control kind of Christianity. Amen Jesus. So it doesn't matter too much. What I do doesn't matter too much. If I grow, I guess that would be a good idea if I grow. But if I don't or if I'm not, I'm still going to heaven when I die. And there's just this laid back attitude about.

[00:32:32] And are people really thinking that all of us at the church need to grow up to be teachers, to be counselors, like every single one of us is supposed to have something to say?

[00:32:43] That's what the Bible's talking about. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly so that you could be one of the people admonishing and teaching and giving wisdom to one another. That's what a mature church looks like.

[00:32:58] This is actually how we should be evaluating our church or other churches. Don't evaluate a church based on how good is the guy teaching the Bible upfront. Evaluate a church. How many teachers does this church really have?

[00:33:11] That's how we should be thinking about churches. I don't tell you how strong a church really is.

[00:33:16] Can I just start talking to different people at this church, go into all the different fellowship groups at this church, and there's people who have something to say from God's word.

[00:33:26] And they speak it. They teach it to one another.

[00:33:31] Turn with me to Ephesians Chapter four, because this idea of maturity, once you start looking for it, Paul writes about it a lot. Even some of the other writers of the New Testament, this idea of maturity and this is a really important word in the Greek language for mature. It's telling us, hey, maybe you've heard of the tell us the end, the completion telling us means you're being completed, you're being perfected. You're you're mature. Now has the idea of we're getting to the end of, like your gear, get into your final life stage, you're growing up is the idea. And a lot of times they translate at maturity because there's another word NEPI ass that is used to referred to as a child. And so they use these two words here to kind of show opposite ways they use them in in contradiction with one another to help us get the meaning. That's what Paul does here in Ephesians Chapter four. It's look with me at verse 11. Ephesians four eleven. Page nine hundred and seventy seven, he says. And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers. That last one there is the people we would usually refer to as pastors today to equip the Saints for the work of the ministry. So definitely there are special leaders in the church that God calls that he that he has do certain things that equip the Saints for the work of ministry for the building up, it says here for building up the body of Christ. So the work of ministry or the work of service, maybe it's translated. Who does it do it? Does it say the shepherds teachers are doing the work of ministry or the shepherd? Teachers equip the WHO to do the work of ministry.

[00:35:15] The Saints say.

[00:35:18] So we've got to be careful, we don't have this mentality that ministry is done by paid professionals or or special gifted people, it says everybody who's a saint. Everybody who's been set apart from their sin and placed into Jesus.

[00:35:31] We're all called to do the work of ministry. We're all called to serve. This is how the body really gets built up. Not when it has a few people leading the charge, but when everybody is building it up and look what it says. The goal is in verse 13. Here's the goal of maturity for all of us who are in Christ until we all attain to the unity of the faith, of the knowledge of the son of God to mature manhood. To the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, we want unity in maturity.

[00:36:04] This is a common goal for every single one of us that as we are in Christ, we would grow up in our faith like like we would expect someone to act like a man or a woman and to be a bit. Sure. A dolt. That's what it's say. And should be the expectation for all of us.

[00:36:22] We will we need this unity of faith. We need to really know Jesus Christ. We need to mature. And then look what it says. The last phrase there to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. So there's a clear life development for a believer way at the moment, I believe I'm in Christ and I receive the righteousness of Christ. But then there's this time of growth. We refer to as sanctification. And in that process, I can become more and more like Jesus, less and less like the old me. More and more like him. And then there's going to be this time of glorification. When I get to be with Jesus, I get to see him in all of his glory. And the promise of the Bible is when you see Jesus, you will be made like Jesus Christ. And so the longer somebody is a Christian, the more we should see them being conformed into the image of Jesus. Less and less like them. More and more the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. The work of Christ is being completed, perfected. You're being you're being brought to the end of what it means to be in Christ.

[00:37:31] Your Maturi.

[00:37:33] Now it says here is the opposite of maturity in verse 14, so that we may no longer be children tossed to and fro by the waves, carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.

[00:37:52] So it says mature manhood is is what we should be going for. That should be the goal of all of us. We should be united in our thinking that we all need to grow up in our faith because we don't want to stay children.

[00:38:04] Now, this is really interesting, if you if you ever get the privilege of learning the Greek language, there's a word for children, tech non or tech noss. And, you know, hey, that's the word for children. One of the first words that you learn, it's used all throughout the New Testament. That's not the word that's here for children. It's this other word, nappy us. And it has a very unique kind of understanding at a NEPI.

[00:38:26] OSSE is someone who's not able to speak. That's that's the idea. We're talking about such a young child that they're not even developed yet to where they can even speak. And when you take that definition of a child here, one who's not able to speak and you start applying it to what it's saying here, you're realizing that a mature believer is someone who has something to say from the Bible and a child believer is one who's really not able to speak the Bible to other people. Look where it goes on to say the opposite of being a child. Verse 15. Rather speaking the truth in love. We are to grow up in every way into him. Who is the head into Christ from whom the whole body joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love. The goal for every one of us is that we can speak the truth to one another, that we can say it in love to one another because we really do care about each other's spiritual condition and our maturity in the faith. And as we speak the truth to one another, as each part in the body is speaking, that truth. That's how the whole body grows, not just certain people in the church speaking the truth to the whole church, but the whole church speaking the truth to one another. That's the idea we're seeing here in Ephesians four. And if you are in Christ, but you can't speak the truth in love to one another, you're being tossed to and fro like a child. It says you're not able to speak. You might be in Christ, but you might be immature. You're still learning the Bible and applying it to your own life. You haven't learned it to the point where you could counsel others or teach others or share something from the truth of God's word.

[00:40:15] And look what it says back. Go back to verse 14, because this is a strong warning for us, says we may no longer be children tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine. Now gives us some pictures here which apply to precious young kids, like if you've ever gone to the beach with young kids and they run out and then the wave comes and they run back, as anybody ever played that fun game before with kids. Right. Or sometimes the kids, like, grab onto your leg or they, like, hang onto your hand because the wave comes and the wave would just knock the kid down. But they want to grab onto you for stability. I don't know if it's ever been so windy that you were hanging onto your kid's hand like you were afraid they were gonna blow away.

[00:40:59] I don't know if you ever had that experience, but it say some of us aren't strong enough.

[00:41:03] We can't stand firm enough on the word of God that these other kind of doctrines now it's using the word teaching here, but it's not referring to sound Bible teaching. It's not saying it comes from the word of Christ. No, look at what it's saying here. There's human cunning and there's craftiness in deceitful schemes. Who's the crafty one out there deceiving everybody?

[00:41:25] Satan is Satan works through deception.

[00:41:30] He works through half truths. He works through twisting the word of God. And there's even humans out there who know what's going to be popular with people who have their own personal opinions, their own personal experiences.

[00:41:44] And they say these things like that's what God wants everybody to do, because that's been their own personal way of thinking and those kinds of thoughts, human cunning and deceitful schemes. They can even happen in the church.

[00:42:00] Now, I would hope when you come here and you're evaluating a church and you're evaluating a sermon, I would hope that the standard you use to evaluate a sermon is not. Do I agree with it? Is not. Did I like how it made me feel? But was it an accurate representation? And clearly presented what the Bible really says. That's how we should be evaluating teaching it. Does it really come from God's word? And I know there are people who come to this church. People who visit this church, and they're not even really listening to what we're saying, as if they're going to go home and do it. They're listening like looking for something wrong so they can go have barbecue pastor for lunch later on that day. That's how it works in the real world. I mean, there's people there just looking for that thing that they don't agree with, that they don't think is right and they're going to jump on that. That's how people really are. How do we treat one another that same way? Is there a different standard between like what gets taught in the sermon and what I just say out of my mouth in my fellowship group or what I just share with somebody else over the phone? Like, are you holding yourself to the same standard of counseling and teaching with all wisdom, like speaking the truth? Are you making sure that everything coming out of your mouth is the truth? Or do you just let it fly? Do you just shoot from the hip? Do you just say it because you think it?

[00:43:22] I mean, it is way too common here at this church to hear people say things like, well, one of my favorite versus in the Bible and I can't really remember where it is right now. And I'm going to completely butcher it. But one of my favorite verses is.

[00:43:35] And then they butcher it. That's not acceptable. That's not speaking the truth in love. That's misquoting scripture.

[00:43:45] And a lot of times what people think the Bible says is not even really what the Bible says. So it's saying, hey, that you could be a child getting tossed around and somebody shares this experience that they had and you kind of roll with that and somebody offers this opinion that they've got and you kind of roll like that. You need to get mature.

[00:44:05] You need to get equipped. You need to know what it really says in the Bible so that you could share it with somebody else so that, you know, what you're saying is what God is saying.

[00:44:17] And there's not a discrepancy between the two.

[00:44:21] And if you don't have something true to say, maybe you shouldn't even be saying some. Maybe it should have a question mark at the end of it. Maybe you should be asking for somebody else's wisdom rather than just expressing what you think about.

[00:44:35] So there's a standard here that we're supposed to speak the truth in love. And there's also this warning that there's this immature kind of person that goes to church, even really saved person, but they're not able to speak.

[00:44:47] They haven't matured yet in their understanding of God's word. And they're just offering their own kind of thinking. We need to really watch out for that.

[00:44:57] You need to make sure that you're not doing that.

[00:45:01] What don't be a child press on towards mature manhood and speak the truth in love. How many things do you and I hear get expressed like they're from the Bible but are not actually from the Bible? We need to be able to discern those two things, go over to Hebrews Chapter five. Look what it says here in Hebrews five. And we don't know who wrote Hebrews. We're not 100 percent sure, but we know why it was written.

[00:45:28] It was written to the Jews so that they would stop hanging on to the old covenant and they would embrace the new covenant because the life we have in Jesus is better than the life of the old covenant. And he's proving to them like deep things from the Old Testament and how all those things are fulfilled. All the law of the Old Testament is fulfilled in Jesus Christ. And he's just showing them, hey, I know this was a part of the Old Testament teaching Luke how Jesus did it, and he's just inspiring them, hopefully, to worship Jesus. And he wants to get into really deep, multiple layered things from the Old Testament and point to how Jesus fulfills all of them. And then he says this in Hebrews five eleven, he says about this. We have much to say. There's so much more I want to teach you. And it is hard to explain. Since you have become Dohle of hearing.

[00:46:23] Ouch. Right. Houge. He just says, you guys are not really listening, is what he says.

[00:46:35] For her, though, by this time you are to be teachers, you should be mature. You should be able to speak the truth of God in love to one another.

[00:46:45] You need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You still need melk like a new Christian, not solid food, like a mature Christian. For everyone who lives on, MLK is unskilled in the word of righteousness.

[00:46:59] Since he is a child, there's our word he's not able to speak.

[00:47:05] So we got to we got to ask ourselves, what does he mean here when he says you are to be teachers? Is he saying to everybody that he's writing this letter to which seems to be all Jews all over the place? Is he. Is he writing this letter to them thinking that every one of them should come up and give the sermon? Is that what he means by teacher? Or does he mean this kind of teacher that we're learning about this teaching one another? This speaking the truth in love to one another, like all of you by this time, should have something to say from God's word. You should be, by this time, skilled in the word of righteousness, but instead you're still unskilled. And it's like we've got to go back and start all over and teaching you. I mean, this is a strong rebuke and it's a strong rebuke to people who are in Christ, to church people, that they are not at the level of maturity they should be with, how long they've been in Christ, that they haven't really applied themselves to the word and applied the word to themselves and really grown up and matured in the way that they should. He says the weaknesses, we don't have enough teachers and some of you should be teachers by now.

[00:48:12] And so he says they're dole of hearing, they're not really listening.

[00:48:18] See, there's there's two dangers that keep us immature. There's reasons we don't grow up in our faith. The first one is we're listening to false things or we're saying false things. We're saying a child because we're just listening to human wisdom or we're even being deceived by craftiness and we're just listening to false things or saying false things. The other reason that we might not be maturing is we're not really listening to the truth of God's word. We're not taking notes. We're not taking it serious. We're not sitting under teaching. We're sitting over teaching.

[00:48:53] And we're deciding if we think what God says really applies to us rather than how we used to describe it. Sitting under teaching like God's word has authority over me.

[00:49:04] So people are coming to church and they're here and what it says, but are you perhaps Dole of hearing? Are you not really listen, I remember this one young man that came into our youth group back at CompassHB Bible Church, Analise Sylvia.

[00:49:18] And this guy, he got so fired up, it seemed to me like he just became such a passionate we tell on everybody about Jesus kind of guy. And he went to his high school and he was telling everybody about Jesus there. And he wanted to study the Bible and he wanted to have prayer meetings. And it seemed to me like this guy was an on fire new believer in Jesus Christ. And I was like, hey, this is exciting. And I'm investing in this guy. I'm I'm loving this guy. I'm getting to know him. His family were reaching out to them at the church. I'm, like, praising the Lord. And then over time, you can just see it like the fire.

[00:49:52] You're watching the fire go out and there's not the prayer, there's not the Bible reading. There's not this zeal to go keep telling everybody about Jesus. And it's not maturing. It was like it seemed like it was there for a minute. But then it's like being extinguished.

[00:50:10] And I remember I went up to the guy and I I was pleading with the guy, he was starting to go back to some of his old. Since he was returning to his old ways, it appeared that his 180 degree turn of repentance wasn't really a 180 degree turn. It appeared like he was doing a full 360 right back to where he started.

[00:50:28] And I was pleading with him.

[00:50:31] And in that high school ministry, one of the regular themes was, hey, a lot of young people say they are in Christ and then they don't maturing Christ.

[00:50:38] They actually fall away from Christ. Watch out. Beyond your guard.

[00:50:45] And I said, hey, man, you heard those messages. What happened? Why are we here? And I'll never forget what he said. He said, I thought you were talking to somebody else.

[00:50:59] I thought you were talking to somebody else who said, I stopped really listening because I thought I already got it. And I thought you were talking to somebody else.

[00:51:08] And that young man fell away from the faith in Jesus Christ. Because he became Dohle of hearing. It was it was a sad thing to see.

[00:51:21] And sometimes it's awesome, one of the great experiences that I have. Preaching God's word is I can tell sometimes it's not what I'm saying. But this Holy Spirit is really working through the word in people's souls. And and sometimes people come up to me afterwards and they're like, OK. Now, be honest with me. Were you talking to me that whole time? They'll come up and they'll be like, hey, did you do that one just for me? And I don't always say this, but what I'm thinking sometimes is, brother. I didn't even see you were there. You know what I mean? I don't I don't I don't always say that. But many times that's the case. Like, I didn't even know you were in the room, you know, like I couldn't make your face out based on the way the light fell in the room. I got I didn't even know you were there. But they thought they were getting spoken straight to. That's an encouraging thing. That's not somebody who's dull of hearing. If you think the sermons for somebody else, if you come out of a sermon thinking, man, that was a really good one. I can't wait for so-and-so to hear it. You might be Dohle of hearing.

[00:52:20] You're not listening like God speak into you like this is something you can know on the back of the hand up. We're recommending this book, Maturity, by Sinclair Ferguson. It's going to take a minute for it to get here. It'll be here by next weekend. And he he talks about this conversation he had with a man who read through the book of Ephesians. And the man was just telling him how encouraged he was by the book of Ephesians and the things that he like had learned from it. And he was just emotionally excited. And you could tell there was this great zeal with the guy. And he said to him, OK. What did you learn from Ephesians? Like, how would you explain the book of Ephesians to somebody else?

[00:53:00] And the guy didn't have anything to say.

[00:53:03] He can't tell you what the main themes were from evasions were.

[00:53:07] He couldn't tell you how it broke down. He couldn't even quote some of the specific ideas that had meant a lot to him. He was just having some kind of emotional experience from reading through the book of effusions. He didn't actually know what it says.

[00:53:22] Are you listening? Like, there will be a test later when you have to share what it says with somebody else?

[00:53:29] Trust me, you learn the material better than ever when you know that you're gonna have to teach it to other people. That takes you to a whole new level of learning. Can I get a man from anybody on that one? We're all called to be teachers.

[00:53:42] And speaking honestly, as it does here in the Book of Hebrews, by this time some of you ought to be teachers.

[00:53:49] But you're you're not you're still taken melk, not solid food. You're unskilled in the word of righteousness. Look at verse 14. Solid food is for the mature hoop for those who have their powers of discernment, trained by constant practice, constant practice to distinguish good from evil.

[00:54:10] I'm so constantly in the word. The word is so in me that I'm learning how to think.

[00:54:16] According to the word, I'm learning how this is evil. This is not what God wants me to do. This is consistent with the will of God. This is what God's telling me to do. And life's becoming much more clear of the things I should stay away from and the things I should do. And as I grow in my own understanding of the word, I have something. I have some wisdom. The word is being applied to my life and I now have something I can pass on to other people.

[00:54:41] What have you learned from God's word that you could teach to others? And you know, the chapter and the verse.

[00:54:50] I mean, can you can you imagine if I came up here and I was like, you guys know that verse, right? You heard that one before. Like, you know. And I pulled out my phone right now and I was like, what is that verse? And I Google the verse.

[00:55:02] As I'm preaching, would you respect that? Why do you respect that if you do it? You're saying you're building your life on this verse and you don't know its address.

[00:55:14] You don't know where it set. It's not precious to you. Your Bible doesn't open to that page.

[00:55:20] See, we're supposed to be teachers. That's the goal for every single one of us. You're you're mature in life. When you when you know something to pass on to the next generation, are you mature like that for as a Christian? Make maturity your goal. This is point number two. Let's get this down, make maturity, your goal, and then here's how we're gonna define maturity from these passages, how this word is used to layoffs. As one who speaks, not an MPAC, not one who's such a child that he's not able to speak. No.

[00:55:55] What we're seeing clearly is maturity is when I have something to say, not something that I think that's something I heard from somewhere, not my own personal opinion or experience, but I have something from the word of God to speak the truth in love to other people, because it's it's meant something to me and I want to share it with others.

[00:56:15] That's maturity.

[00:56:16] One who can speak the truth and love, one who warns and teaches one another with all wisdom. That's the definition we're seeing clearly of maturity, look at chapter six, verse one here in Hebrews. Therefore, let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity. So that word, therefore, elementary is beginning.

[00:56:40] There is a beginning doctrine that we all need to know. We all need to know the gospel of Jesus. The response of repentance and faith. That's what he goes on to say here, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works. Thinking that you can do anything to save yourself. We need to change our mind about that, repent from trying to do it ourselves and have faith toward God. Yeah, we need to have the foundation. We need to have the beginning. Here's who Jesus is. Here's what he did. Here's how you respond. And then we need to mature and we need to put our foot on the gas. And the word of God is the gas. The power of the Holy Spirit. We're not kicking it in cruise control from here to heaven. We're putting our foot on the gas and seeing how far we can get on our way to have.

[00:57:25] That's how Christians should be driven, determined, mature people, discipline, self-control. People who want to grow up will even eat our green beans. That's who we are.

[00:57:41] Throw me to Philippians Chapter three, and you can see how Paul personally expresses here his own desire to mature in Philippians Chapter three, verse twelve. OK. This idea of are sometimes translated, complete, perfect, mature, contrasted with being a child, not one who speaks, but someone who can speak the truth, someone who can teach one another.

[00:58:07] Paul, we know Paul, I mean, this guy. I mean, he planted so many churches, he evangelize so many souls, he encouraged so many believers. I mean, he wrote so many books of the Bible, were reading through him right now on the scripture of the day. So many letters that this man has written that are still impacting our lives.

[00:58:28] I mean, this guy, people have a hard time relating to him because he seems like a super apostle, some kind of super hero, Christian guy.

[00:58:35] And this is what he says in Philippians, chapter three, verse twelve. He says, Not that I have already obtained this or I'm already perfect. He's basically saying, hey, I'm not complete yet. I'm not perfect yet, but I press on. I may not be perfect yet, but I press on to make it my own. I'm not there yet, but I'm going for it. Because Christ Jesus has made me his own. See, Paul, he thinks a little bit differently than maybe how the thought is today.

[00:59:02] Oh, I'm in Christ, therefore I'm good. No, Paul's thinking I'm in Christ. Therefore, I grow is what he's doing.

[00:59:09] If I'm one of Jesus his people, I need to press on and be perfect and be complete like Jesus.

[00:59:16] Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead.

[00:59:25] I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

[00:59:32] And then he says this verse 15. Let those of us who are mature think this way. If the apostle Paul needs to grow up in his Christ likeness, do you think you and I still have a way to go?

[00:59:50] I think we do. I don't think we're ever going to arrive.

[00:59:55] At some level of Christianity here in this life where we're good enough, where I can just retire now, I can just stop serving. Stop studying. I'm there. Let's get this down for point number three. Christians don't retire. We rapture.

[01:00:08] OK. We don't retire.

[01:00:11] We rapture, and when I say rapture, immediately, people start thinking eschatology and events. I don't know if I agree with that as Jesus coming back. No, I mean, rapture will like what the word really means. The ecstatic joy, the pure delight that you and I will experience when we see Jesus. And we are made like him.

[01:00:30] And that's the goal. This there's going to be some day for every one of us who are in Christ Jesus. There's this upward call of God. There's going to be this moment we're in in a moment, it says we're going to be changed. We're going to we're going to meet the Lord Jesus in the air.

[01:00:45] The scripture says we may not fully understand how it's all going to play out, but we have confidence that we will be with Christ. And when we are with Christ, we will be made like Christ. And at that moment, we will be perfected. We will be complete.

[01:01:00] We will be like Jesus. And he says until that moment, that moment happens, I'm pressing on towards that moment. I'm trying to grow arms and everybody who's mature. You should think this way, too, that we need to grow up in our faith.

[01:01:14] We need to become more like Jesus. Until that moment comes when we are made like Jesus.

[01:01:21] And so we need to hear what the word is saying, what Paul is right, and to the Kalash, it's hey, you. Here's our goal, every single one of you. We're warning.

[01:01:30] We're teaching. We have all this wisdom. I'm giving it to you. And we're giving it to one another. And we want every one of us much. Sure.

[01:01:39] In Jesus Christ. Let's pray about that here for our church, father in heaven, we need to come to you as our father who disciplines us, who loves us, who grows us up. Father, we are just a young church, just a just getting started here in Huntington Beach and God, I really do believe that our best days are ahead of us. And so, God, I pray that you will miss Shoura Scott. I pray that you will grow us up.

[01:02:09] That we would not stage children listening to our own thoughts or other people's opinions, that we will not become dhol of hearing in your work. Please help me to be a better preacher of your word, to be a better counselor to people here at this church. God, I need your wisdom. I need to grow.

[01:02:27] I don't understand things. God, I pray that for my brothers and sisters that every single one of them would have this goal of maturity in their life and they would press towards. That's the action step, the thing they'd would be thinking as they leave here today, as is the word of Christ dwelling in me richly, is am I eating it up like food?

[01:02:51] Am I able to speak it to others in love and teach one another?

[01:02:58] God, wouldn't it be awesome if you did a work here among us? Well, we didn't have certain people who teach, but we were all able to teach because you are maturing us in our faith. We could all speak the truth and love to one another. So if anybody was brought in here, they would meet somebody who can share with them not only the gospel, but what it really means to be maturing Christ. And they know about it because they're living it out. Now, we pray that you would build the Church of Jesus Christ as he promised that he would, that you would build it on the solid rock of the gospel of Jesus and that it would be built up as all of us mature in our faith and speak your word to one another that your word would become our word sky. We ask you to do this work by your Amazing Grace. We know that it's all by your goodness, by your undeserved favor, that you saved us, that you grow us, and that someday you will make us like Jesus. It's all your goodness given to us. And so we worship you now, God for your grace.

[01:04:07] That saves us and trains us in Jesus Christ name. We pray. A man.