I am going to do my best not to be mean this series, but I want to warn you:
anytime you want to see real change in your life, it almost always requires tough conversations, “let’s get real” moments, and discipline.

As in natural life, there are spiritual stages of growth and development.

John talks about this in 1 John 2:12-13a
I am writing to you, little children because your sins are forgiven for his name's sake. I am writing to you, fathers because you know him who is from the beginning. I am writing to you, young men because you have overcome the evil one.

What do we see here?
Little Children, Fathers, Young Men (women too)

1. Let’s start with fathers

Killing the Orphan Spirit: "You cannot be a father without first being a son."

We have a pandemic of people expecting to skip stages in their relationship with God. We look at a doctor and realize they have spent 10 years of post high school education before they get to practice on their own. We don’t question that. In fact, we justify their fees in large part based on that!

Yet when we look at our Christian lives, we don’t comprehend the fact that a 10 year process with God will actually take 10 years. If you think about it, a person who cannot comprehend the concept of a 10 year process taking 10 years is a child. No concept of time. Audrey at lunch: “Audi, how long before summer break?” “Ten billion hundred thousand years.”

When you skip stages you skip the development that happens in those stages.

Fathers understand the process and the time it takes to complete the process because they have endured the process and have seen the benefits of the process.

This is why John says to the fathers: “you know him who is from the beginning.” Fathers are people who know God because they’ve been in relationship with God. They’ve endured and grown and learned and failed and gotten back up. They’ve won and lost and laughed and cried. They’ve hurt and been broken, but have also experienced joy and have been restored.

Fathers know the process and in the process they have known the one who is from the beginning, the father. They’ve also realized that in the entire process, the Father was always there, even if they couldn’t see him. That is not a lesson a child understands. That is a lesson someone who has gone through to the other side understands.

If you want to develop into fatherhood, into maturity, you have to go through the stages of spiritual development.

And by the way…why does God want us into spiritual maturity? Father and mothers produce children. God wants you helping his plan of redeeming mankind.

2. Next, young men

“You have overcome the evil one.”

In the stage of life between childhood and adulthood is a time of development, exploration, finding identity, discovering who you are. There is absolutely no doubt why satan attacks that 18-28 age group the hardest. If he can ensnare you in identity issues and developmental problems, he can stop you before you become a threat.

Beyond just overcoming spiritual issues, you have the culture around us that tells us labels are what identify us.
- Republican. Democrat.
- White. Black. Hispanic.
- Male. Female. Or other these days apparently.
- Gay. Straight.
- Conservative. Liberal.
- Texan. Everybody else.

Listen, I know who I am. I am not a white Conservative, straight male Christian. I am a Christian.

When labels become your identifiers you have engaged in idolatry and placed a cultural marker over a spiritual calling.

Children think in labels. Children don’t call an 18 wheeler an 18 wheeler. They call it a big truck. We talk to our kids using broad labels because they cannot understand the intricacy of what separates a truck from an 18 wheeler, And it is the same with these labels that our culture is trying to use to identify us.

But God is calling us to a deeper level, a more mature level, where we understand that we are not a label first but a follower of Jesus Christ first,
a son or daughter first, and that we have the spiritual maturity to understand the intricacies of both what the culture is trying to tell us versus who God says we really are.

Too many Christians are living spiritually immature lives because they have embraced a label as their identity rather than the word of their Father about them.

This is precisely why satan is exploiting this age group.
WHY? Because it is here where you overcomer the evil one.

God doesn’t have grandchildren. There has to come a point in your life going from child to adult where you stop feeding on the faith of your mom and dad and begin to eat from the relationship with God you’ve embraced and developed on your own. Mamma’s relationship with God will not get you into heaven. If you don’t know him personally, then you will live without him for eternity.

This is the time where we have to experience God on our own.

Now parents, your main role is not to provide for you child. So many parents live this life and their kids have everything they could need but their souls are barren.

Parents, your job is to point your kids to God. You don’t lord your relationship with God over them, but you invite them in to see how beautiful that relationship truly is.

This is hard because it requires you to have endured the process, to have embraced Jesus for yourself, and to have been living it before your kids.
This doesn’t mean be perfect. Fail. But let your kids see your restoration. Mess up. But let your kids see what grace and forgiveness looks like.

Your kid better be able to call out to heaven better than they can hit a baseball! Their time as a star athlete will end but their spirit is eternal!

This is where our relationship with God goes from dependency on our spiritual examples (like parents) to our dependency on God.

This is the process of spiritual maturity.

There is a reason why people hate this stage the most. And while I realize you may be physically past the 18-28 stage, you may very well still be in the young man spiritually stage, so listen up.

This is the stage where you have to take responsibility for you.
Your thoughts.
Your allegiances.
Your actions.
Your beliefs.
Your spiritual wellbeing.
Your correction.

I remember the last time my mom spanked me. She used a flyswatter. I laughed. She did too, and then quietly said, “Wait until your dad gets home.” This was the fear portion of my development process. But in truth, I was too old to be making the mistake I was making. I should have been able to self correct at that stage.

If you don’t learn to discipline yourself in this stage of life, God will do it. And if you keep refusing to change, God will leave you to your desires. (Romans 1)

Some of us think God will chase us down, but the Prodigal’s father didn’t. “Yeah but he leaves the 99 to go after the 1.” True. But he also let Eve bite the apple. He let Abraham lie. He let Moses question. He let Jonah run. He let Peter deny. He let Judas betray. I don’t want to live a life where I am putting all of my money on Jesus chasing me down. I have grown to a place of spiritual maturity where I realize I need to be chasing him, not the other way around.

I will always have a Father waiting to welcome me home, but a spiritually mature person understands that there is no guarantee of a God who will chase you down.

Sometimes the best thing that could ever happen to you is not in the Father’s house but in the pig pen or the belly of the whale.

This is the stage of life where we overcome. So how do we overcome?

Luke 9:23
And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.

The flesh is how evil gets in, but the flesh has to die. Dead men can’t fall into temptation. If you will sacrifice your flesh on his Cross, you will find life in him and death to sin. (Romans 6,7,8)

3. Lastly, to the children

This is to the spiritually immature. I don’t mean that negatively. Immature is from 2 words that mean “not ripe.” It is simply “not fully developed.”

Most Christians are still in the child stage.

Evidence
PEW RESEARCH CENTER - APRIL 23, 2018
When asked about a variety of possible attributes or characteristics of God, U.S. Christians by and large paint a portrait that reflects common Christian teachings about God. For instance, 93% of Christians believe God (or another higher power in the universe) loves all people, regardless of their faults.
Percentages who believe in God as described in the Bible:
18-29: 43%
30-49: 49%
50-64: 67%
65+: 65%

Why is this? The God of the Bible is mean and scary, right? I know we use Noah and the Ark in every kids ministry, but let’s not gloss over that God was destroying humanity in this story. That Old Testament God was a doozy! Thankfully Jesus calmed him down in the New Testament!

Why is the God of the Bible so hard to palette to so many people? Because that God forces you to deal with your sin and evil and brokenness your problems and abhorrent behavior.

“I just want a Jesus who loves me and accepts me for who I am.” This is what children say.
- > Jesus loves me this I know.
- > Jesus loves the little children.

Why these songs? The start is his love for you, but it cannot stop there.

Back to 1 John 2: I am writing to you, little children because your sins are forgiven for his name's sake.

It’s like spiritual high fructose corn syrup. You are forgiven and loved and accepted and the object of his affection. Yep to all of that. And that never changes. But you have to understand at some point that his kindness has a purpose.

Romans 2:4
…his kindness is intended to turn you from your sin.

The spiritually immature love that verse.
The spiritually mature read the context.

Romans 2:1-6
You may think you can condemn such people, but you are just as bad, and you have no excuse! When you say they are wicked and should be punished, you are condemning yourself, for you who judge others do these very same things. 2 And we know that God, in his justice, will punish anyone who does such things. 3 Since you judge others for doing these things, why do you think you can avoid God’s judgment when you do the same things? 4 Don’t you see how wonderfully kind, tolerant, and patient God is with you? Does this mean nothing to you? Can’t you see that his kindness is intended to turn you from your sin? 5 But because you are stubborn and refuse to turn from your sin, you are storing up terrible punishment for yourself. For a day of anger is coming, when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed. 6 He will judge everyone according to what they have done.

I am not here today to discourage you or to pour salt in your wound or water on your campfire. I am here to tell you who you are messing with. This isn’t happy pappy sky daddy. This is God ALMIGHTY. He speaks the universe into existence. He holds your very breath in your hand. Yes he is love and mercy and grace and peace, but don’t think for a moment you are going to simply prance through this life like a kid skipping across a meadow and NOT be expected to change you very nature of who you re to be more like him!

Tim Ross says it so beautifully:
“The good news is that no matter your situation, Jesus loves you and wants a relationship with you. But if you accept that good news, I got bad news:
in the same way he died for you, you have to die for him. If you accept him as Lord and not just Savior you have to die to your will, die to your ways, die to your desires, you have to die to your agenda.”

If you are expecting God to adjust and amend to your view of life and morality rather than you adjusting and amending everything you are to his life and morality, then I am compelled by the Holy Spirit to tell you to GROW UP!!

You are more than your carnal passions and lusts.

Romans 6:1-16
1 Well then, should we keep on sinning so that God can show us more and more of his wonderful grace? 2 Of course not! Since we have died to sin, how can we continue to live in it? 3 Or have you forgotten that when we were joined with Christ Jesus in baptism, we joined him in his death? 4 For we died and were buried with Christ by baptism. And just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father, now we also may live new lives. 5 Since we have been united with him in his death, we will also be raised to life as he was. 6 We know that our old sinful selves were crucified with Christ so that sin might lose its power in our lives. We are no longer slaves to sin. 7 For when we died with Christ we were set free from the power of sin. 8 And since we died with Christ, we know we will also live with him. 9 We are sure of this because Christ was raised from the dead, and he will never die again. Death no longer has any power over him. 10 When he died, he died once to break the power of sin. But now that he lives, he lives for the glory of God. 11 So you also should consider yourselves to be dead to the power of sin and alive to God through Christ Jesus. 12 Do not let sin control the way you live; do not give in to sinful desires. 13 Do not let any part of your body become an instrument of evil to serve sin. Instead, give yourselves completely to God, for you were dead, but now you have new life. So use your whole body as an instrument to do what is right for the glory of God. 14 Sin is no longer your master, for you no longer live under the requirements of the law. Instead, you live under the freedom of God’s grace. 15 Well then, since God’s grace has set us free from the law, does that mean we can go on sinning? Of course not! 16 Don’t you realize that you become the slave of whatever you choose to obey? You can be a slave to sin, which leads to death, or you can choose to obey God, which leads to righteous living.

Our spiritual immaturity should wreck us to the core!

Yet for so many, we are content in our mediocre Christianity and we constantly fight the same sins, same scenarios, same lusts, same issues, same iniquity

Hear me church, I am not trying to beat up on you. I am imploring you, begging you, to go deeper! Develop. Mature. Dive in. Stop being driven by something that was supposed to have died when you said yes to Jesus!

Here’s my point today:
YES God is love and YES his love for you is supposed to make you feel good about him. YES his love for you is supposed to draw you to him. YES his love for you is supposed to get you to a place where you realize your need for him and you embrace him. But this is the start of your relationship with God, not where you are supposed to stay.

Remember, Jesus loves you but he loves you too much to leave you where he found you!

If a person was 35 years old and still acted out like a 5 year old, we’d say there’s a problem. Why don’t we think the same way about our relationship with God?

If you are a new Christian, then you are expected to act like a new Christian. but you are also expected to grow and mature in your faith!

If you are an old Christian, then you are expected to act like an old Christian!

1 Corinthians 13:11
When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways.

Paul is saying “I GREW UP!”

Ok rubber meets the road time. I have given you scripture, I have given you theory. Now it is time for practicum.

What does it look like to be a mature Christian? Help me see it so I can be it. Here is what mature Christians do:

Romans 12:9-21
9 Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good. 10 Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor. 11 Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord. 12 Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer. 13 Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality. 14 Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. 15 Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. 16 Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be wise in your own sight. 17 Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. 18 If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. 19 Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” 20 To the contrary, “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.” 21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

Here is the comparison:

The road to growing up spiritually is the path where you starve those things that nurture immaturity and feed those things that nurture maturity.

Hebrews 12:1-2
Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us. 2 We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith

Where are you on the path to spiritual maturity?

Are you a child?
You are either new to this thing called Christianity or somehow your growth has been stunted, whether you own fault or by someone else’s hand. Let’s move forward by addressing the one thing the Holy Spirit is revealing to you right now. We don’t fix everything in one fail swoop, but what is that one thing Jesus wants you to change to grow to the next level?

Are you a young man/woman?
Are you fighting the enemy right now to overcome the evil one? You overcome by the blood of the lamb, the word of your testimony, and you love not your life even unto death. What does that mean? Maybe the way you overcome is by allowing the Holy Spirit to put to death that thing in you that needs to die so you can live in Christ. God give me wisdom to know what to do and how to do it, even if that means letting someone in on my struggle so they can help me overcome.

Are you a father/mother?
If you are, you have a responsibility to help the children and young men/women into maturity.

What is the Holy Spirit saying to you through this message?