Growing Deeper
Are you an old Christian or a mature Christian?
An Old Christian has not dealt with their worldly nature – so grumbles, criticises, objects
Paul in writing to the Corinthians 1 Cor 3:1-3 had a church like this.
Babies are cute when small but if they continue to act like babies when they are old it is not so cute!
What are the reasons we don’t mature?
An Old Christian has not dealt with their worldly nature – so grumbles, criticises, objects
Paul in writing to the Corinthians 1 Cor 3:1-3 had a church like this.
Babies are cute when small but if they continue to act like babies when they are old it is not so cute!
What are the reasons we don’t mature?
- Because we don’t know we are free
- Maturing takes a lifetime but starts when you realise you have all you need to grow
- Adrian from Hospice – desperately wants to understand – to become mature
- Freedom is in Christs victory over sin and the authority that is ours to come against any deception
- No one else can repent for you
- Today no one is responsible for their own shortcomings!
- Yet you have to admit you’re wrong and repent
- There is no one but Christ you can forgive you totally
- No one can submit you to Christ
- We must chose for ourselves to take God at his word
- Hebrews 5:12-14 – similar to Corinth
- We are saints through Jesus Christ
- We are completely righteous
- Do you still believe you have to ‘do a good job’ to convince Him?
- We still possess capacity to make mistakes and sin
- But we have the weapons to deal with this
- Our basic weapon is the truth that we have significance, security and acceptance already
- That we have a Father in heaven who loves us no matter what
- It takes 6 weeks to break a bad habit – why do you think lent is six weeks?
- Knowing when something is wrong
- Like bank tellers are trained to spot forgeries
- Uncovering Satan’s lies – that we have not changed and are not really Christians
- Things that have been said about you in the past are lies
- Things we have done wrong, sometimes very wrong in the past
- It’s a lie to believe they still prevent us maturing
- We may be frightened of man or of Satan but 1 John 4:4
- Where did they come from?
- Should I forgive someone?
- We may be told we are stuck in habitual sin – drinking, gambling, pursuit of money, porn
- Christ says we are free – though we may need to take hold of the weapons we have and do battle for 6 weeks!
- Swinging a great ball at an indestructible wall – you give up on the 39th swing, but the 40th would have done the damage
- Maturing takes a life time – growing old simply happens
- Find a prayer friend someone you can confide in, if you continue to struggle
- If something in your past was traumatic – you may need someone to confide in and pray with you