Settling for Hot Dogs When Prime Rib is on the Menu
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Maturity
Maturity
Paul was the spiritual father of this church. He is spending 18 months in Corinth, and he is working on helping this church to mature… to grow up.
1 But I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ.
2 I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it. And even now you are not yet ready,
Marks of maturity.
Marks of maturity.
Diet.
Babies eat milk.
10 being designated by God a high priest after the order of Melchizedek.
11 About this we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing.
12 For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food,
13 for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child.
14 But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.
What is our spiritual food:
Milk- 1 Peter 2.2
2 Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation—
Bread- Matt 4.4
4 But he answered, “It is written, “ ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’ ”
Meat- Hebrews 5.11-14
11 About this we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing.
12 For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food,
13 for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child.
14 But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.
We need a balanced diet and a mature diet. No drinking the bottle when we should be grown up.
How do you identify mature and immature Christians? I’ll give you an idea.
Mature Christians know what Jesus is doing now.
Mature Christians know what Jesus is doing now.
What is Jesus up to today?
While it is imortant to knkow the stories of Jesus, it is mature to know our risen Jesus,
6 Yet among the mature we do impart wisdom, although it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are doomed to pass away.
7 But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glory.
It is important that we preach the Gospel to the lost; but it is also important that we interpret the Gospel to the saved.
Mature Christians practice love and seek to get along with others.
Mature Christians practice love and seek to get along with others.
3 for you are still of the flesh. For while there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh and behaving only in a human way?
4 For when one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” are you not being merely human?
The Christians at Corinth are fighting over personalities.
This type of Christian leaves when they don’t get their way. This type of Christian is bothered when their personality doesn’t get the lime light.
When immature Christians, (lay people or the leadership clergy) get into places of leadership, the results will be disastrous. Pastors and laity.
It is the pastors job to be mature and grow the church. It is the bodies job to desire to be mature and seek to grow up in Christ. See Ephesians 4.1-16 As they mature, spiritual gifts are discovered, and then those spiritual gifts are used to build the church.
What is ministry? It is loving, feeding, and disciplining god’s family so that His children mature in the faith and become more like Jesus.
The Quality Christian 1 Corinthians 3.5-9.
The Quality Christian 1 Corinthians 3.5-9.
5 What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each.
6 I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth.
7 So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth.
8 He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labor.
9 For we are God’s fellow workers. You are God’s field, God’s building.
Jesus introduced the parable of the sower in the individual heart, Paul took this same image and applied it to the collective- the church. The task of ministry is sowing seed, cultivating soil, watering plants, harvesting fruit.
Where do we grow wrong? Looking at gardeners instead of the Lord of the harvest.
6 I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth.
Paul planted the seed, Apollos watered it… but only God could make it grow.
How does it grow.?
Diversity of ministry-vs7
Unity of purpose-vs8
unity and humility of spirit-vs6-7
Being proud of one’s church is one thing, being proud of individuals in the church takes the glory away from where it rightly belongs- on God, the Lord of the harvest.
What is the fruit of the local assembly?
Fruit of the Spirit- Galatians 5.22-23
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.
Holiness
Giving
Good works
Praise
Souls won to Christ.
Work- Proverbs 24.30-34
30 I passed by the field of a sluggard, by the vineyard of a man lacking sense,
31 and behold, it was all overgrown with thorns; the ground was covered with nettles, and its stone wall was broken down.
32 Then I saw and considered it; I looked and received instruction.
33 A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest,
34 and poverty will come upon you like a robber, and want like an armed man.
Quality-1 Corinthians 3.9-23
Quality-1 Corinthians 3.9-23
See 1 Corinthians 3.13
13 each one’s work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done.
God is concerned with the quality of the local assembly. The church does not belong to us, it belongs to Him.
How to build quality:
Build on the right foundation- 1 cor 3.10-11
10 According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master builder I laid a foundation, and someone else is building upon it. Let each one take care how he builds upon it.
11 For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.
The gospel of Jesus Christ is the foundation.
Build with the right materials- vs 12-17
12 Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw—
13 each one’s work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done.
14 If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward.
15 If anyone’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire.
16 Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?
17 If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple.
The best materials for building the temple… not wood, hay, stubble, ..... rather gold, silver, etc., this is the Word of god.
Preacher/teacher must dig deep into the word of God.
It is very serious work.... look at 1 Cor 3.16-17
16 Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?
17 If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple.
What we build into our own lives is what will be built into our church. The work can never go deeper than we have gone ourselves.
Build according to specs.- 1 Cor 3.18-20
18 Let no one deceive himself. If anyone among you thinks that he is wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise.
19 For the wisdom of this world is folly with God. For it is written, “He catches the wise in their craftiness,”
20 and again, “The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are futile.”
19-a man’s wisdom will only trap him.
20 a man’s wisdom leads to vanity and futility, quote from Psalm 94.11
The church must be identified with the needs of the world, it must not imitate the wisdom of the world.
Build for the right reason. -1 Cor 3.21-23
21 So let no one boast in men. For all things are yours,
22 whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future—all are yours,
23 and you are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s.
Glory in Christ. Nothing more, nothing less, nothing else.
Bottom line:
Mature Christians Worship Christ: Nothing More, Nothing Less, Nothing Else
Mature Christians Worship Christ: Nothing More, Nothing Less, Nothing Else