I won’t Grow Up

Winter In The Word Where the Rubber Meets the Road #5 I Won’t Grow Up! If you could, what would you go back and reclaim from your childhood? What is arrested development? What can cause it? Can it be fixed? How? _________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ Hebrews 5:11 We have much to say about this, but it is hard to make it clear to you because you no longer try to understand. Say about what?____________________________________________________ What causes someone to no longer try to understand?______________________ _________________________________________________________________ How would you react if someone that you consider to be a spiritual mentor sent you a note like the one you are about to read? Hebrews 5:12 In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! 13 Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. 14 But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil. I would feel________________________________________________________ Boiling it all down, what is your spiritual mentor saying to you?_______________ _________________________________________________________________ What is Paul trying to get us to understand with his instruction from Ephesians 4? 11 So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, 12 to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up 13 until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. 14 Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming. 15 Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ. 16 From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work. Paul is saying______________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ Even Peter, who knew a little something about spiritual immaturity calls us to do this… 2 Peter 1: 5 …make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; 6 and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; 7 and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love. 8 For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 But whoever does not have them is nearsighted and blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their past sins. What is at stake here? What id we don’t follow these instructions?____________ _________________________________________________________________ Assuming we all want to do what the apostles want us to do, how do we go about it? This is where the rubber meets the road. _________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ ___Goodness ___Knowledge ___Self-control ___Perseverance ___Godliness ___Mutual affection ___Love What in the world does this have to do with conquering anxiety?______________ _________________________________________________________________ 1 John 4:16 God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. 17 This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus. 18 There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. We may not achieve perfect love. But if we spend our lives growing toward it, we will never fall prey to arrested development.