19 Sermon Illustrations on Spiritual Maturity

Dr. Shelton, a former president of the National Bible Institute in New York City, used to recount with a twinkle in his eye the story of the first time he took his little daughter to a restaurant. She began prattling in her high, clear childish voice to the amusement of the other diners and the embarrassment of her father. "Hush, Marjorie," he said, "people are looking at you." "But Daddy," she protested, "Marjorie must speak!" May it not be that immature Christians by their foolish talk and thoughtless behavior cause those around them to laugh at Christians in general and bring embarrassment to their heavenly Father? Let us consciously strive for spiritual maturity so that with Paul we may say, "When I became a man, I put away childish things" (1 Corinthians 13:11).

"We have our infancy at our first conversion, when liable to childish ignorance and many infirmities, we have our youth and growing age, when making progress in the way of grace towards perfection, and lastly, we have our perfect manly age when we are come to our full pitch, when grace is fully perfected in glory. In Scripture there is nothing said of a fading and declining time of old age in grace." The fact being that, unlike the natural life, the spiritual life does not conclude in declining strength and inevitable decrepitude, but continues its progress even beyond the grave. We go from strength to strength, not from strength to weakness. The old age of grace is maturity, not decay; advancement, not decline; perfection, not imbecility. In the advanced years of nature we lose many of our faculties, but in advanced grace our spiritual senses are more quick and discerning than ever. The aged man feels the grasshopper to be a burden, and the clouds return after the rain; but to the advanced believer the greatest loads are light and the rain is over and gone. Old age goes down to death, but ripe grace ascends to everlasting life. Lord, let me grow ripe but not rotten, maturing but not decaying, for thy glory's sake.

"It is not a wonder for a clown, that hath not been acquainted with dainties, to love garlic and onions; but for a prince, that hath been acquainted with better diet, to leave the dainties of his father’s table for such base feeding, that were strange. I do not wonder at carnal men, that they are delighted with carnal objects: they never knew better, but for a child of God, that hath tasted how gracious and sweet God in Christ is, to find sap and savour in coarser fare, this is wonderful." Yet were our author now alive he might weep his eyes out as he saw professing Christians craving for the ball-room and the theatre. The carrion which professors can now feed upon is disgusting to the very thought of a real Christian. Entertainments are got up among religious people which are unworthy even of decent worldlings. Many true hearts are deeply wounded by this terrible degeneracy. Were it not for a small remnant we had been as Sodom, and been made like unto Gomorrah.

Few minds are sun-like, — sources of light to themselves and to others. Many more are moons, that shine with a derivative and reflected light. Among the tests to distinguish them is this: the former are always full, the latter only now and then, when their suns are shining full upon them.

— Hare

At first we give little children such food as will be easily assimilated; they have nothing else but milk. By and by hard crusts are given them, for there are wisdom teeth to be cut. Suppose when we give them more solid food, they began crying out for the milk again, should we give it them? The Lord does not wish you always to be babes, He would have you grow into men in Christ Jesus; and though Christ is always your food whether He comes to you as milk or as meat, yet still He will not always be milk to you lest you should remain a babe. He means to be meat to you, that your senses may be exercised, that you may be able to understand the stronger and deeper truths of the Kingdom of God.

The New Testament is very clear that God's will for every believer is spiritual maturity. He wants us to grow up. The apostle Paul says, "We are not meant to remain as children ... but to grow up in every way into Christ the head" (Ephesians 4:14, Phillips). The goal of spiritual growth is to become like Jesus. This has been God's plan for us since the beginning. He created us to be like his Son.

The big question, then, is how. How does spiritual growth happen? How do we become mature in Christ? Churches are filled with people who have attended for decades but show little development in discipleship. What's the problem?

One of the biggest barriers to growth is the misconception that all you need is Bible study to grow. Many of our churches have been built on this myth. I call them "classroom churches." Classroom churches tend to be left-brain oriented and cognitive-focused. They stress the teaching of Bible content and doctrine but they give little, if any, emphasis to believers' emotional, experiential and relational development.

The truth is that it takes a variety of experiences with God to produce true spiritual maturity. In addition to Bible study, it takes worship experiences, ministry experiences, fellowship experiences and evangelism experiences. In other words, spiritual growth occurs by participating in all five purposes of the church. Mature Christians do more than study the Christian life -- they experience it.

Genuine spiritual maturity includes having a heart that worships and praises God, building and enjoying loving relationships, using your gifts and talents in service to others, and sharing your faith with lost people. Any strategy to move people to maturity must include experiencing all of God's five purposes for us: worship, fellowship, discipleship, service and evangelism.

To Christians who fool themselves by thinking all they need to do to grow is attend Bible studies, James warns, "Do not deceive yourselves by just listening to his word; instead put it into practice!" (James 1:22 TEV).

What people need is a practical program for putting truth into practice! The respected Bible teacher Gene Getz says, "Bible study by itself will not produce spirituality. In fact, it will produce carnality if it isn't applied and practiced." Bible knowledge without ministry and missions tends to produce Christians with judgmental attitudes and spiritual pride.

If Christianity was simply a philosophy, then our primary activity might be studying. But Christianity is a relationship (John 14:20-21) and it is a life (John 10:10). Jesus didn't say, "I have come that you might study." The words that are used most often to describe the Christian life are love, give and serve. Yet the schedule of most churches indicates they believe the sole duty of a Christian is to study!

Honestly, the last thing some believers need is another Bible study to attend. They already know far more than they're putting into practice. What they need are ministry and evangelism experiences where they can apply what they already know, relational experiences (like a small group) where they can be held accountable for what they know, and meaningful worship experiences where they can express appreciation to God for what they know!

The Dead Sea is dead because it takes in water but doesn't give any out. When any Christian's schedule consists completely of receiving biblical input but has no planned outflow of ministry or evangelism, his spiritual growth will be limited. Study without service leads to stagnation.

Of course, we must "continue in the Word" to be Christ's disciples. All I'm saying is that it is a mistake to assume that study alone will produce maturity. It won't. It is only one component of the maturity process. People need experiences, in addition to study, in order to grow. That is why you need a balanced strategy for developing disciples.

At Saddleback Valley Community Church, we have seen amazing results by using a balanced strategy that involves people in worship, fellowship, discipleship, service and evangelism at the same time. In the fall of 1999, we designed a six-week balanced spiritual growth emphasis called "40 Days of Purpose," and the results were breathtaking: In just 40 days, 564 people accepted Christ, 1,065 new believers were baptized, 1,628 new members joined our church, 2,701 more signed up to be involved in a lay ministry, and 5,465 were trained in personal evangelism and world missions!

This spiritual growth emphasis was so effective that we did another one the next fall, in 2000, using the same pattern. The results were again incredible. We moved more than 2,000 people into new small groups in a single week and, without any formal emphasis on giving, more than $10,000,000 was committed for a children's building.

Spiritual Maturity

Spiritual maturity comes not by book knowledge but by strict compliance to the revealed will of God.

I believe in instant purity for the believer, but I do not believe in instant maturity by God in Grace. Cleansing is immediate – by the Blood. Conformity is progressive – by the rod!

Through the atoning death of Christ, heart purity is instant — but progress is constant.

The law of spiritual progress goes like this: Process then crisis, followed by a process then crisis, ad infinitum.

There is a “deeper life.” It is deep as a personal Gethsemane and costly as a personal Calvary.

We are, each of us, as spiritual as we want to be. The throttle is in our own hands.

Too many of us want to make a peace treaty with Christ, but will not make a total surrender to Christ.

A secret of victory: To do what God wants me to do; To do it as He wants it to be done; To do it when He wants it done.

There may be no more theological frontiers to explore, but there are new dimensions of spirituality to explore – new possibilities of Grace!

The Christian has every right to tell God he wants to be a saint, but the Christian has no right to tell God how to make him one.

It is much easier to wear a cross than to bear a cross.

Whom the Lord loveth, He corecteth. Correction is criticism in action.

Sanctification is not isolation (Simon Stylite’s style), but rather constant, Spirit-operated purification in a world of militant corruption.

Knowledge is not character, but character is developed from knowledge and obedience.

Lord, let nothing live in me that should die and let nothing die in me that should live.

The worst thing that God gives us is better than the best thing Satan offers.

No fruit is better than its tree.

I do not know the weather ahead, I do know the path that I must tread.

Truth can be a mental idol until it gets into the “blood stream.” It then becomes a motivating force.

The Beatitudes should really “be” attitudes of the Christian’s life.

The Beatitudes should “be” attitudes in our daily walk with God.

Cultivate cheerfulness.

Every mother is a career woman.

“He anointeth my head with oil.” If He does not anoint it, no one else can.

“He anointeth my head with oil.” Without the anointing, what use is a bishop’s miter?

Sermon on remaining faithful in the Christian life. Genesis 5:21-24

STILL FAITHFUL? (*)

===============

I. The Christian life is a marathon.

II. Enoch: the ultimate marathon runner.

A. Only has seven verses, yet mentioned with heroes in Hebrews 11.

B. Enoch's secret.

III. Walking with God. Gen 5:21-24

A. This means living with an awareness of God's presence.

B. We must cultivate a consistent fellowship with God.

IV. Pleasing God. Heb 11:6

A. How to please God.

B. Overcoming the greatest temptations to quitting the race:

1) Resist bitterness.

2) Avoid Disobedience.

3) Banish pride.

V. Serving God.

A. Enoch was engaged in his world.

B. Many Christians stagnate in their senior years.

C. Embrace challenge.

D. Focus on finishing, not placing.

* This sermon was adapted from the article "Staying Faithful Through the Years" by Jerry Bridges, Discipleship Journal #58, July/Aug 1990, pp. 18ff.

Many churches act as though spiritual growth is automatic once a person is born again. They operate with no organized plan for following up new believers and no comprehensive strategy for developing members to maturity. They leave it all to chance.

They assume that Christians automatically will grow to maturity if they attend church services. All we need to do is just encourage people to show up at meetings, they think, and the job will get done.

Obviously, this isn't true. Spiritual growth does not just happen once you are saved, even if you attend services regularly. Churches are filled with people who've attended for their entire lives yet they are still spiritual babies. An assimilated member is not the same as a mature member.

Spiritual growth is not automatic with the passing of time. The writer of Hebrews sadly noted, “... 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” (Hebrews 5:12). Millions of Christians have grown older without ever growing up.

The truth is that spiritual growth is intentional. It requires a commitment to grow. A person must want to grow, decide to grow and make an effort to grow. Discipleship begins with a decision. It doesn't have to be a complex decision, but it does have to be sincere.

When the disciples decided to follow Christ, they certainly didn't understand all of the implications of their decision. They simply expressed a desire to follow Him. Jesus took that simple but sincere decision and built on it.

Philippians 2:12-13 says, “... continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.”

Notice that it says “work out” - not “work on” - your salvation. There is nothing you can add to what Christ did for your salvation. The Apostle Paul is talking about spiritual growth in this passage to people who are already saved. The important thing to note is that God has a part in our growth but so do we. We must make an intentional effort to grow.

We become whatever we are committed to -- without a commitment to grow, any growth that occurs will be circumstantial, rather than intentional. Spiritual growth is too important to be left to circumstance. It needs to be intentional, not incidental.

In my book “The Purpose Driven Church” (chapter 6), I point out that every church is defined by what it is committed to. The same is true for individual believers. Our commitments define us. Just as a great commitment to the Great Commandment and the Great Commission will grow a great church, I believe it is also the way to grow a great Christian.

Spiritual growth that leads to maturity begins with the kind of commitment described in Romans 6:13: “... give yourselves completely to God - every part of you - for you are back from death and you want to be tools in the hands of God, to be used for his good purposes.”

Some of us hesitate to commit ourselves to developing an intentional plan of growth for our members because we believe spiritual growth is a personal and private matter. Rather than interfere, we choose to allow each person to develop in his own way at his own rate.

This is an American aberration from the truth. The idolatry of individualism in our culture has influenced even the way we think about spiritual growth. So much of the teaching on spiritual formation is self-centered and self-focused without any reference to our relationship to other Christians. This is completely unbiblical and ignores much of the New Testament.

The truth is that Christians need relationships in order to grow. We don't grow in isolation from others. We develop in the context of fellowship. Over and over again in the New Testament we find this basic truth: Believers need relationships with each other to grow!

Hebrews 10:24-25 says, “Let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another....” God intends for us to grow up in a family.

Relationships are the “glue” that keeps people connected to your church. But relationships play an even more important role in moving people to maturity. They are absolutely essential for spiritual growth.

According to the New Testament, fellowship is not optional for a Christian. It is mandatory! Christians who are not connected in loving relationships with other believers are disobeying all the “one another” commands given in God's Word.

The Apostle John tells us the proof that we are walking in the light is that we have fellowship with each other (1 John 1:7). If you're not having regular fellowship with other believers, you seriously should question whether you are really walking in the light. Trying to walk in the light without fellowship with other believers is a futile activity.

John goes even further to suggest that we ought to question whether we really are saved if we don't love other believers. “We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love our brothers. Anyone who does not love remains in death” (1 John 3:14).

The quality of your relationship to Christ can be seen in the quality of your relationship to other believers. “For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen” (1 John 4:20). Notice that John says “cannot.”

It is impossible to love God if you don't love His children.

_____________

Rick Warren is pastor of Saddleback Valley Community Church in Lake Forest, Calif.

*

Many churches act as though spiritual growth is automatic once a person is born again. They operate with no organized plan for following up new believers and no comprehensive strategy for developing members to maturity. They leave it all to chance.

They assume that Christians automatically will grow to maturity if they attend church services. All we need to do is just encourage people to show up at meetings, they think, and the job will get done.

Obviously, this isn't true. Spiritual growth does not just happen once you are saved, even if you attend services regularly. Churches are filled with people who've attended for their entire lives yet they are still spiritual babies. An assimilated member is not the same as a mature member.

Spiritual growth is not automatic with the passing of time. The writer of Hebrews sadly noted, “... 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” (Hebrews 5:12). Millions of Christians have grown older without ever growing up.

The truth is that spiritual growth is intentional. It requires a commitment to grow. A person must want to grow, decide to grow and make an effort to grow. Discipleship begins with a decision. It doesn't have to be a complex decision, but it does have to be sincere.

When the disciples decided to follow Christ, they certainly didn't understand all of the implications of their decision. They simply expressed a desire to follow Him. Jesus took that simple but sincere decision and built on it.

Philippians 2:12-13 says, “... continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.”

Notice that it says “work out” - not “work on” - your salvation. There is nothing you can add to what Christ did for your salvation. The Apostle Paul is talking about spiritual growth in this passage to people who are already saved. The important thing to note is that God has a part in our growth but so do we. We must make an intentional effort to grow.

We become whatever we are committed to -- without a commitment to grow, any growth that occurs will be circumstantial, rather than intentional. Spiritual growth is too important to be left to circumstance. It needs to be intentional, not incidental.

In my book “The Purpose Driven Church” (chapter 6), I point out that every church is defined by what it is committed to. The same is true for individual believers. Our commitments define us. Just as a great commitment to the Great Commandment and the Great Commission will grow a great church, I believe it is also the way to grow a great Christian.

Spiritual growth that leads to maturity begins with the kind of commitment described in Romans 6:13: “... give yourselves completely to God - every part of you - for you are back from death and you want to be tools in the hands of God, to be used for his good purposes.”

Some of us hesitate to commit ourselves to developing an intentional plan of growth for our members because we believe spiritual growth is a personal and private matter. Rather than interfere, we choose to allow each person to develop in his own way at his own rate.

This is an American aberration from the truth. The idolatry of individualism in our culture has influenced even the way we think about spiritual growth. So much of the teaching on spiritual formation is self-centered and self-focused without any reference to our relationship to other Christians. This is completely unbiblical and ignores much of the New Testament.

The truth is that Christians need relationships in order to grow. We don't grow in isolation from others. We develop in the context of fellowship. Over and over again in the New Testament we find this basic truth: Believers need relationships with each other to grow!

Hebrews 10:24-25 says, “Let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another....” God intends for us to grow up in a family.

Relationships are the “glue” that keeps people connected to your church. But relationships play an even more important role in moving people to maturity. They are absolutely essential for spiritual growth.

According to the New Testament, fellowship is not optional for a Christian. It is mandatory! Christians who are not connected in loving relationships with other believers are disobeying all the “one another” commands given in God's Word.

The Apostle John tells us the proof that we are walking in the light is that we have fellowship with each other (1 John 1:7). If you're not having regular fellowship with other believers, you seriously should question whether you are really walking in the light. Trying to walk in the light without fellowship with other believers is a futile activity.

John goes even further to suggest that we ought to question whether we really are saved if we don't love other believers. “We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love our brothers. Anyone who does not love remains in death” (1 John 3:14).

The quality of your relationship to Christ can be seen in the quality of your relationship to other believers. “For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen” (1 John 4:20). Notice that John says “cannot.”

It is impossible to love God if you don't love His children.

_____________

Rick Warren is pastor of Saddleback Valley Community Church in Lake Forest, Calif.

*