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Intro
Interesting enough culture does not paint a picture of this topic much at all today.
Today’s topic, if it is portrayed in culture today, is the thing that is something you try to delay or fear.
Most people might classify this under “adulting”, and you know what the ads say about adulting now, drink more wine.
It may seem like a joke and kind of is, however this mantra is lived out by so many people especially my generation today.
Unfortunately, today’s topic is shown in a light that is negative, but if understood correctly could help out your life substantially, and for sure those around you.
Today we’re gonna explore the topic of maturity- specifically spiritual maturity.
There is no such thing as instant maturity.
There’s also no such thing as complete maturity in this life.
But there is such thing as maturity and working towards spiritual maturity in this life as a follower of Jesus.
Now when I say spiritual maturity I could also say biblical maturity.
But I am certainly not talking about the cheap, lazy, self centered, drink more wine view of maturity.
I believe when it comes to maturity believers are in one of three categories:
Not growing, they are backsliding in the faith and living in sin.
New to the faith, slowly growing and living off of spiritual milk.
Maturing in Christ and growing on solid food.
Now a disclaimer would be that people could also be in a few of these categories at a time.
I have known many people in my life who would claim to be mature Christians and seem to be to a lot of others, but still struggle with basic hurdles in categories 1 and 2.
With that said let’s assume that categories 2 and 3 are forward motion.
However category 3 is the one to strive for.
Category is obviously the worst one to be in, however many Christians- including myself over the years- has found themselves here when they are not walking in fellowship of the Lord and with others.
The easiest time to jump into this category is when we are not growing in our personal spiritual life, and neglect going to church.
That is a recipe for spiritual disaster.
The sermon today could easily be our theme sermon, if there was such a thing, for our entire series.
Grab your Bibles and open up to Colossians 2:6-7.
READ COLOSSIANS 2:6-7
PRAY
This passage lays out our aim as a church, and lays the foundation for today’s message.
This passage also explains the way in which maturing in Christ looks like.
Are you ready and tracking with me today?
You can get out your bulletin inserts and follow along if you’d like.
Don’t skip ahead and look at the “Put off”, “Put on” chart yet- we’ll save that for later ;)
We’re going to pull apart Colossians 2:6-7 and see how it is our aim as a church and in our own lives as we strive to be mature followers of Christ.
Verse 6- Receive Christ, continue to live your lives in Him.
Verse 7- Rooted and built up in Him.
Strengthened in the faith, as you were taught.
Overflowing with thankfulness.
Weeks ago before we started this series we talked for 3 weeks regarding why we need to pursue discipleship.
One of the sermons was on the fact that as we pursue discipleship it, builds our faithfulness, and we looked at Colossians 2:6-7 as a “Faithfulness Checklist”, so today we’re going to break down that checklist..
So the first part of Colossians 2 in verse 6 tells us as we have received Christ, continue o live your lives in Him.
Receive Christ, continue to live in Him
The very first part of growing into spiritual maturity is of course receiving Christ.
We understand that our salvation is not by works, good deeds or by any way we try to earn it, but only through Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection.
This is realizing that Jesus was and is both God and man and came to pay the penalty for our sin, from Genesis 3 and is the only substitute to satisfy God’s Holy wrath on our behalf.
And by confessing, and repenting of our sin to God, and asking Jesus to cleanse us from the inside out, we are made right before God.
At that moment we receive the Holy Spirit into our lives as Jesus promised in John 14:16-17.
This process is trading our old life and habits in for a new life pursuit of holiness, and righteousness before God.
It’s not living for the enemy anymore and submitting your life for God’s purposes.
It’s restored fellowship with the Father.
And it’s subjecting our thoughts, words and actions to bring glory to God and lead others to Christ.
This is what the first part of Colossians 2 means.
This is also the first and most important step into maturing in Christ.
We’ve taken the first important step, however there is still much more we can learn, and grow in so that we can know God more and be more like Christ.
The second step is in Colossians 2:7.
Rooted and built up in Him
We’ve received Christ and started living differently but the next step is to set our roots.
We begin to explore God’s Word more intentionally and it is very exciting!
We learn truths that we’ve never heard before or that are completely contradictory to the world we’ve experienced so far.
We gain a hope and perspective that we’ve never had and it is all good!
We might then pursue finding a Bible preaching/teaching church to help us in our understanding of God’s Word.
We also are looking for a church that displays authentic community which we later find out it’s what true Christian fellowship is supposed to look like.
We are certainly looking for a church that is striving ahead for spiritual maturity, rather than tradition or focusing on secondary issues!
We’re looking for community that displays what John is talking about in
This is the church that is almost impossible to find but should be of importance to every church- a confessing and forgiving church.
A church that is all about reconciliation and bringing people back to one another and to God.
At this stage where we are setting roots and building up our lives in Him we find community and become more intentional in our walk with finding other to help us grow stronger in Christ.
At this stage we are certainly growing- we’ve already understood the gospel and received the salvation message but begin to understand the process of the Christian life more clearly.
The process in theology terms is broken down into 3 things.
Justification
Justification is being saved from the penalty of sin at the moment of our conversion.
We are free from sin and the penalty that goes with it, as we confess it the moment we give our hearts to the Lord.
This is our position in Christ.
Amen!
Sanctification
Sanctification or transformation is the continual confessing and repenting of our sin throughout our entire lives.
This is a process that happens as a Christian day in and day out until Jesus comes back.
This is our condition in Christ- that we are becoming more and more like Him as we are sanctified each day.
This is a beautiful thing because it truly means that God continues to work in us and refine us daily.
The last step in the process of our Christian life is called the process of glorification.
Glorification
This the last part of the process and happens at our death.
This means that we have the promise of being saved from sin, forever!
Hallelujah?!
Saved from the presence of sin forever at our death.
This is our expectation in Christ- to be like Christ, perfect and complete.
So we have Justification, Sanctification and Glorification- got it??
Ok, lets move on to the next part of Colossians.
(2:7)
Strengthened in the faith, as you were taught
While we are in Colossians, turn with me to chapter 3.
READ COLOSSIANS 3:1-4
Colossians 3:1-4 is the product of moving past relying on milk and going on to solid spiritual food.
Spiritual milk is important, it’s what gets us started.
Being teachable and not stuck in your ways enables you to move to solid food.
If we claim we have it all figured out, and do not stay teachable then we will not pursue solid spiritual food.
READ 1 CORINTHIANS 3:1-3
We work towards solid spiritual food as we shed off layers of worldliness.
We’ve understood the basics, we’ve started to allow the Lord to live in us and through us, but as Colossians 2:7 says that we continue to be strengthened in the faith, as we were taught.
And as we move to this stage we gain a more eternal perspective in life that sets our minds above on heavenly things verses earthly things.
It’s realizing daily that we died to our old self and striving for future glory in Christ.
That is our prize and most important reward in this life and the next.
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