How To Remain Spiritually Immature - [1 Corinthians 3:1-4]

I think I love almost everything about babies, almost everything. I've had four kids,

I have four kids, and I almost like every stage, watching those little kids grow up.

I can remember with all four of my kids having the little toddler stage and they're about ready to walk and I'm coaxing.

You know, you coax your first one, you beg your second one, you force your third one to walk, you're walking.

And just watching the development of little babies. I like that.

Immaturity is not bad, as long as you begin to mature. We don't say to babies,

I can't believe you're so immature, you can't put one foot in front of another, how dare you. But as kids get older, they should learn how to walk and they should mature.

They should develop. They should grow up. Now, it's not wrong to be immature if you're a kid, unless you don't mature.

And the same thing is true spiritually. It's okay to be an immature Christian, if you're a new

Christian. But it's not alright to be an immature Christian, if you've been a

Christian for quite some time. Did you know what, do you know this? That the

Bible teaches that those people that don't mature should ask yourself the question, how can

I be a Christian? Did you know the Bible teaches that you should mature rapidly?

That you should mature quickly? There's nothing wrong with being a kid, but there's everything wrong with being a kid who doesn't mature.

And likewise, there's nothing wrong with being a new Christian. We like new Christians, by the way, don't we? Fired up and excited and talking about how they got saved.

I like that. But those new Christians must mature.

So I ask the question to start the sermon. Are you a mature Christian? If you're a brand new

Christian, the answer is no. But if you've been a Christian for six months, one year, five years, 30 years, yea, 50 years, you ought to be mature.

And you ought to be maturing. Show me a physical baby that doesn't mature, you'll take that child to the doctor.

Something's wrong. When you're first a parent, you go in, the child gets weighed.

Are they gaining any weight? Are they feeding properly? Are they latching on? Are they this and are they that?

Because you're concerned, is my baby growing? Is my baby healthy? It's the same thing when it comes to spiritual matters, too.

Let's turn our Bibles to 1 Corinthians 3 and deal with the subject of spiritual immaturity.

Spiritual immaturity. And on the flip side, the wonderful benefits to spiritual maturity.

I want you to be mature, because you will appreciate your salvation more. You will adequately discern biblical truth from error.

You will be assured of your salvation. You will be able to teach others. And so God is looking for Christians to mature.

Now the good news is we are a maturing church and many of you are very mature, but not all of you.

And it's my desire, like in 2 Peter 3, that you grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Now I love 1 Corinthians. And you say, based on how many weeks we've been in it, we get that.

But I want to encourage you. We've gone through 47 verses in 1 Corinthians chapter 1 and 2.

47 verses. That's as many verses as 2 Thessalonians total. So it's like we finished a book already.

Titus only has 46 verses. It's like we preached through an entire book of the Bible with only two chapters.

I don't know how many we're in. Maybe 25 weeks into 1 Corinthians. But it's like we finished a book.

So I feel better about myself. My self -esteem just skyrocketed. Paul is writing to the church at Corinth to correct them.

I'm preaching to you so we don't fall into the same things that Corinth falls into. Not one of the elders thinks our church as a whole is like Corinth.

But we have some people here who act like Corinthians. And we want to make sure we use the Word of God by the

Spirit of God to root those things out. Because there's forgiveness found. Pardon found.

How about that Isaiah reading today in Isaiah 55? Abundant forgiveness. And Paul writes to them and he says,

You've got some problems and let's deal with the first problem. By the way, what is the first problem? You know by now. It's church unity.

And he deals with that in chapters 1, 2, 3, and 4. He wants the church to be united.

As Jesus is the groom and the church is the bride. There should be not two brides.

Not three brides. Not a bride and a concubine. Not a bride and a concubine and a mistress. But the bride of Christ.

Pure and clean and holy. Bought by Christ's blood. But these factions come up.

Look at verse 4 of chapter 3. I follow Paul. I follow Apollos.

Look at verse 21 of the same chapter. So let no one boast in men. For all things are yours.

Verse 22. Whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas. Even into chapter 4.

Look at chapter 4 verse 6. The theme of disunity is still there. I have applied all these things to myself and Apollos for your benefit, brothers.

That you may learn by us not to go beyond what is written. That none of you may be puffed up in favor of one against the other.

There's one argument that goes through chapters 1, 2, 3, and 4. And that is unity. So this morning, if you'd like to have a title of the message,

I've entitled the message, How to Remain Spiritually Immature. To try to teach you, let's do the opposite.

Who wants to be immature? I don't. Who wants to be maturing? Who wants to grow up? You can even say to your kids sometimes, if they do something that's lower than their age, lower than their

IQ, you say to them, you know, you're 8 years old and you're acting like you're 6 years old.

It's time to what? Grow up. How many times have you heard that in your life?

Maybe from your mom and your dad. It's time to grow up. And Paul knows how to say things.

And he says in chapter 3 verses 1 to 4 something that's kind of striking. Kind of shocking.

Kind of scathing to get their attention because disunity is such a big deal. I don't know how many people here have ever been to a town hall meeting in New England.

How many people here who have been to a town hall meeting in New England would want that kind of attitude in the local church?

Chapter 3 verses 1 to 4 talk about immaturity and then the rest of the chapter talks about the proper evaluation of leadership.

But we're only going to get to the first four verses today. How we can assess the problem of disunity because people are immature.

And so I think you're a maturing church. So we're going to look at them and then ask ourselves the question, are we still immature as individuals or are we maturing?

Let me read the verses. But I, chapter 3 verse 1 to 4, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ.

I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you are not ready for it. And even now you are not yet ready.

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?

For when one says, I follow Paul, and another, I follow Apollos, are you not being merely human?

And right from the get -go, Paul shocks them. This is a kind of a zing.

If you haven't noticed this in Paul yet, before he zings you with a shock treatment, he kind of warms you up a little bit and says, okay, brothers, this is the first real zing in 1

Corinthians. And he kind of warms you up a little bit. And he's going to call you brothers, but you can tell after the word brothers is going to be the scalpel that's going to come right at you.

And he says, but I, brothers. He's been talking about the apostles in chapter 2.

We've got the mind of Christ as apostles. We give it to you so you can have the mind of Christ. But now I, the apostle, am going to address you.

And he said, you ought to be growing. You're acting fleshy.

Do you see the text? I could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh.

You're acting carnally. Your behavior is not matching who you are in Christ Jesus.

He's not saying you're unbelievers, but he's saying you're acting like unbelievers. And then who would do this?

He says, and you are acting like babies. Quit being a baby.

How many times have you ever said that to your kids? Maybe you don't say that, but I've said it to my kids.

Does the church of Corinth have any excuse? Have they been taught improperly? Had not

Paul been there for 18 months? He's taught them what they needed to learn. The apostle Paul. How would you like to have the apostle

Paul as your teacher, preacher, pastor, apostle? And how would you like Paul then to go away, write you a letter back, and say,

Grow up, you big baby. If I was on the receiving end of that letter, my mind would probably go back to the sentence and read it again and read it again and read it again.

And try to think, who here in this church needed to hear that? Because certainly it's not for me. Boy, you should have been at church today, because that message would have been good for you, but you weren't here.

Be that kind of attitude. Paul was the pastor, followed by Apollos, and now they're acting like babies.

There's no excuse. And he didn't say, oh, you're just some cute little babies.

Because they should have been growing up. You don't tell a 15 -year -old, boy, you're a cute little baby. Nice little dimple.

Goo. This is like the spur on the end of a cowboy boot that goes into the side of the rib cage of the horse.

For what reason? Because Paul's over the top, he's lost his mind, he's mad, he's angry.

No, because he wants them to do the Christ -honoring thing. They've been saved, and they ought to act like it.

And they're acting like babies. Well, what does he say next?

Maybe you've asked yourself this question. How do I know I'm growing in Christ? How do I know that I'm growing? When I was a kid, we had a growing bean on the back side of the closet.

And it was about 6 '6", or something like that. I don't know. We didn't have very much faith, because I think

I wanted to be 6 '7". And so it was this growing bean that had the numbers and all that. And we'd stand behind that, and the mom would write.

My mother would write how tall I was and what the date was. And I'm thinking, I'm growing. I'm getting bigger.

I always prayed to be 6 '7", so I could be a point guard in the NBA. Didn't work.

How do I know I'm growing? Paul's going to answer those questions. How do you know you're growing?

Because you're going to be able to take more and more truth as a Christian. Look at how he says it in the backwards way, verse 2.

I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it. And even now you're not ready for it.

How do you know you're growing? The point is you can accept solid, good, firm meat to stabilize yourself.

How do you know you're not growing? It's when you've been a Christian for a long time, and you demand milk from the pulpit.

I hear people say, you know what, I'm not getting fed from that sermon. Well, if you mean spoon -fed, maybe you're right.

But here comes the truth from God, verse by verse. And one of the signs of your growth should be,

I can accept that. I'm understanding it. I'm putting things together now better than I used to be. My focus is on the truth versus what babies focus upon.

And that is, show me a baby and I'll show you somebody who focuses upon themselves. How do people like me?

How do people greet me? Am I in the center of attention? I like these songs. I don't like these songs.

I don't like the parking lot. I do like the parking lot. Growing people say this, I'm receiving the word of God, and I'm getting it.

I understand the atonement better. I understand Christ better. I appreciate what he's done for me better.

Babies just focus upon themselves. And it's not bad if you're a baby. But if you should be old enough to serve other people and learn and grow, but everything's about me, myself, and I, Paul says, grow up.

You could ask yourself the question, do I long for deeper truth? I don't mean some weird Gnostic kind of mystical thing, but I just would like to understand the

Scriptures better because there's this triune God that has saved me, and for all eternity I get to appreciate his salvation.

The more I can know now about him, the better. That's a good sign of growth.

They should be thinking as Corinthians, the God of the universe has given his son to die for me.

Did you like the song? His righteousness exchanged for our what? Sin. And when you realize that you're on the receiving end of such great, sovereign, distinguishing grace, your response should be humble, unifying thoughts.

Or do you say, well, I just want the basics. I only want the basics. You want more evidence that Corinth is fleshy?

Look what they do. What does fleshy, immature carnality manifest itself as?

Verse 3, people that are jealous and quarreling. What do carnal people do? Here's what they do, verse 3, for you're still of the flesh.

That's an evidence. Case in point, exhibit one. You want to know that you're an infant and you need to grow up?

You're of the flesh, for while there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh, behaving only in a human way compared to a spiritual way?

The answer is yes. You're acting fleshy.

You're acting not like a Christian. When you see jealousy, you often see strife.

I call these the siblings of destruction because they're around a lot. Romans 13, let us walk properly as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in quarreling and jealousy.

If you've been saved by Christ Jesus, knowing that you deserved hell and now you get heaven by grace alone, shouldn't you be serving other people like Jesus served?

Or should you try to put this group against that group and create strife? Show me someone in the church that creates strife and I'll show you someone who needs to grow up.

It's not my church. It's not their church. It's Christ's church. That's fleshy behavior, a desire to have peace with your brothers and sisters.

That's spiritual behavior. Paul says, you've got it all wrong. Paul says, diagnose yourself.

Have you ever gone to WebMD? And you're like, I shouldn't have done that.

I had a cold and now I think I'm going to die in the next day. Self -diagnosis. If you have these four things, decrease life expectancy by, you're going to die today.

I go, I should have never looked. He said, diagnose yourself. If you're factious, if you're envying, if you've got a lot of strife and you just cause trouble in the church all the time, your focus is on you and you're a baby.

Stop it. Grow up. It looks like a duck. Quarrelers are fleshy.

Factionist people are fleshy. People who cause strife are fleshy. They do something else, found in verse 4.

Create factions. And when one says, I follow Paul, and another,

I follow Apollos, are you not being merely human? And he says, not mere man, mere men.

That's what you did before you were saved. Can you imagine these Greek philosophers, that the unbelieving

Corinthians would say, yes, this is how they do things. I'm of Socrates. I'm of Plato. I follow this guy.

I follow Aristotle. And I'm lined up underneath there. You're not with me. You're against me. He said, you used to do that, but you don't do that anymore.

You ought not to do that anymore. I will never forget the time

I heard about a marriage counselor. Calvary Chapel, Costa Mesa.

The husband said to the pastor, associate pastor, I'm not really treating my wife in a good way, and I need some help.

Please come in. Bring your wife. The man said, I'm selfish. I act like a baby.

I throw things. I yell at my wife. Are you a Christian? Yes. I say

I'm a Christian. He's got a valid testimony. Wife says yes. I think he's a Christian too. So he said to the man, please come with me, and I'd like your wife to stay here.

So they went down the corridor of the church. This is a true story. Into a room with the lights off.

And then the pastor said to the man, please hold your hand up.

Held his hand out. Something soft and kind of squishy was placed into his hand. He turned on the lights.

They were in the nursery, and there was a large diaper in his hand. And he said, the next time you'd like to act like a baby in front of your wife, and a little three -month -old, throwing fits, yelling, screaming, and all that, put the diaper on.

Go do what babies do in the diaper. Take a shower and go out and be a man to your wife. You think

I'm a difficult counselor? People say, I don't like to get counsel from Pastor Mike because he's too hard.

I mean, come on. I'm sweet. It's all relative.

Now, pagans act like pagans. Unbelievers act like unbelievers. But Christians ought to act like Christians.

And if you've been a Christian for a while, then you ought not to be all about yourself, because as you grow in Christ, you realize that just like John the

Baptist, when he said, Jesus must increase, and I must what? Decrease.

Show me a decreaser, and I'll show you somebody that wants to keep peace, and not always stir up trouble in the church.

Some people just like to do that, stir up the trouble. Troublemakers. They can try to do it in a wise way, in a so -called godly way, but Paul says, just get rid of all that.

Forgetting. So in the time we have left, I want to give you some derived from this passage, some derived from other parts of the

Bible, ways that you could stay spiritually immature. Ways that if you want to stay immature, just keep on doing it.

By the way, this is just a teaching outline, and so you don't want to do any of these. You want to do the opposite.

If you have been doing these, there's forgiveness found in Christ Jesus. I could call this, steps to stay in the spiritual car seat.

That will ensure infancy. We don't want to do these. I think we'll have to do this next weekend as well, but let's see how far we get.

Christians mature. We'd like to keep on maturing through God's ordained means. We don't want to do the opposite.

How to stay spiritually immature, number one, drink milk when you should be eating meat.

Now, that was alluded to earlier, but now I want to make what was implicit explicit. Drink milk when you should be eating meat.

We've had people at this church say, my high school kids can't really understand the message, so we'd like to have a

Bible study in the back room during your sermon. I have several comments to that. After, no, big baby.

No, just kidding. Sorry, I didn't say that. I said, let me talk to your dad, and why don't you take notes of the sermon?

Why don't you learn and grow as you understand the preaching, and go home and say to your dad, could you help me understand what

Pastor Mike said? But this refrain of simple, watered down, too difficult,

I had to look up a word in the dictionary, I only want monosyllabic words, will not help you grow.

If you want to grow, you have to study. And some of us are smarter than others. Some of us are not as smart as others, and so it takes work.

It takes work to learn and grow and to study the Scriptures. And if you want to grow, you will set your mind to study the

Scriptures. And when Jesus says something to someone, and they say, that was a hard saying, you say with them,

Jesus, that was a hard saying, but please help me understand it. Because as your depth and knowledge and grace increases in Christ Jesus, everything else is helped.

I can appreciate my salvation more. I can teach others more. I can realize that I've been growing five years ago,

I couldn't grab that concept, but now I'm starting to get my arms wrapped around it. Don't be the ones who say, we want simpler.

You need to be the ones that say, turn it on. Kerosene on the fire. You don't want your kids to go to Sunday school.

Well, we went to Mr. Bertrand's Sunday school, and how was it? Kid stuff. I want

Tom to be teaching the deep things of God. Who Christ is. He's an eternal

God. He chooses his bride before time begins.

Did you know, even at Ephesus, Paul says, I'm going to teach you people at Ephesus, in the book of Ephesians.

Many illiterate people there, he writes the letter to them, and it's going to be read out loud, and he says, let me talk to you about deep things to start.

I want to teach you how to praise God. Matter of fact, let's just go there. What am I doing? Ephesians, chapter 1.

How often do I hear the refrain, well, we don't really want to believe in election.

We can't get around election. We don't really want to believe in predestination. We'll turn it to post -destination or something else.

But, you know, it's there. And as you learn, and as you grow, and as you get some deeper truth, we'll tell you in about five years, maybe on this dividing doctrine of predestination.

Did you know in Ephesians, chapter 1, Paul says, before you bow your head and say, I praise you,

God, for the death of Christ, he says, I want you to understand that you need to praise God for unconditional, sovereign, distinguishing election.

The day that God opened my mind to understand that truth, I had the second blessing. Seriously, I didn't know what

I was going to do. I thought, you know, I needed some kind of, what do they call those people behind the people that get slain in the spirit?

They kind of catch them, or spotters, or something like that. I never knew what the spiritual qualifications for being a spotter was, but I thought to myself,

I cannot believe this. God knew every one of my sins that I would ever commit. Before time began,

He chose, if you could see what

I've thought in my mind and done with my body for the last 50 years, you would not want me to be your pastor.

And if I could see what you've thought in your minds and done with your bodies, I wouldn't want to be your pastor.

And I'm not even holy by nature. The holy

God of the universe says, before time, I set my love on them.

And if you get that truth, you are going to begin to mature. But if you're prideful and say,

I cannot believe that, you're trying to make God into somebody who's less than you, because you'll stand up for your own will, your own rights, your own sovereignty.

And look what Paul says. How do you praise the Lord? Paul doesn't say, well, we'll work up to it.

Kind of an inch by inch kind of thing. He says in chapter 1, verse 3, Blessed be the

God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.

Praise number one, even as He chose us in Him. When? Before the foundation of the world.

Why? That we should be holy and blameless before Him. Don't forget verse 5, because it goes with verse 4.

In love He predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ according to the purpose of His will for a reason, verse 6, to the praise of His glorious grace which

He has blessed us in the Beloved. Paul did not say, you know, this whole election deal causes a lot of controversy.

Let's talk about that later in advanced class. You ought to say to yourself,

I don't think I like it personally that God chooses before time. It creates a lot of questions in my mind about what if you're not picked, what if this, what if that.

I've got all these other questions, but I have been bought by Christ Jesus, given by the

Spirit of God, and I will obey His Word and I will believe it. And if you come to the text with that, you're going to grow.

But if you say, well, you know what, God looks down the quarters of time and you mess around with this verse, I'm going to tell you something, you are going to be stunted in your behavior because you will not let the

Word rule over you. Everybody has to believe in predestination. You either pick the kind of predestination that exalts man, his belief, his repentance, his decision, or you believe in the predestination found right there in love.

He predestined us before the world began, and you say, I can't believe that I'm on the receiving end of election.

You say, well, you know, I don't like all this election talk. That's all you ever talk about is election.

Grow up. The way that you've even said that shows me that you're stunted in your growth because you will not have this sovereign

God who by His own good pleasure, not by what you've done, holds out the clemency, holds out the staff of clemency and says, bow before the

Lord and believe in Christ Jesus. And you never knew that it was done in eternity past.

The father chooses the bride in an arranged marriage for the son.

Sometimes it's pride. People get stuck because they don't want to have this

God who's super -sovereign, who distinguishes who He loves.

By the way, in case you're wondering, maybe you're a visitor, when the angels fell, were any of the angels given a second chance?

Were any of the angels given redemption as a possibility? Does that make God less than God then?

No. God is still God even though they've fallen and they have no plan of salvation. What do they deserve?

Justice. What do we deserve? Justice. And if God bestows some grace to some grace,

He is still God. Sometimes it's pride that stops our growth.

Sometimes it's laziness. Turn with me if you would to Romans chapter 12. Turn with me to Romans chapter 12.

As you're turning there, I'll just tell you this. I have to pick a grade level to preach to.

I could pick pre -K and tell you, you know, you want some high school theology? Come on Wednesday nights to the special group, the special study group.

Most churches do it that way. I could pick PhD level or anywhere in between.

If you were the pastor, what would you pick? You've got to preach at some level, 5th grade, 8th grade.

You say, well, the NIV is written in 8th grade English. Maybe that would be a good spot. New King James is written in 11th grade

English. That would be a good spot. New American Standard is written in 12th grade English along with King James. That would be a good spot.

Wherever it is, it needs to be high enough so the majority of the congregation rises up.

I'm not going to shoot low. I want you to have Bible, pencil, pen, resources to say it's time for the biggest meal.

It's time for the biggest meal. I want to try to explain things well.

I want to say in other words when I say propitiation. But it is your responsibility to listen and to learn.

By the way, if you have a job, don't they have big words at work? I don't want the big words, man.

Just give me the facts. I'll get the big words on Wednesday night in that little secret study over there in the church parlor.

No. We all just know. And if God has written the word propitiation and election and redemption, then ought we to know it?

And if you meet a brand new Christian and they don't know? They don't know. But if you meet a

Christian who's been around long enough and they don't know and their lives are falling apart, I know why their lives are falling apart.

Because the greater you appreciate God and the more you mature, the better you handle the trials that God has ordained for your life.

And so if I didn't love you, here's what I would do. Well, we want everybody just kind of like me and we'll just preach at a real low level.

And then comes along cancer. Weak doctrines are going to be bulldozed by cancer.

I've got to bury my 18 -year -old special needs son. And if what they've been getting has fluffed their whole life, how do you think they're going to handle that?

How will Nancy handle that? She's going to cave because she will be immature. So part of it's pride and part of it is we just need to say,

Lord, I want to study better. I want to study more. Give me desire to do this. And I need to use my mind.

Romans 12 talks about that. Henry Ford said, thinking is the hardest work there is, which is probably the reason why so few engage in it.

But someone said, I didn't say this, but I'll repeat it, the probable reason some people get lost in thought is because it's unfamiliar territory to them.

I'm glad that you're not this way. But don't ever turn into the kind of church that is what

I call people magazine Christianity. When I get on airplanes and somebody's sitting next to me and they've got

People Magazine, Self Magazine, Us Magazine, Unholy Trinity, Me, Myself, and I Magazine, and all the glitz and glamour and all that stuff, you know what

I think? My first thought is probably not the best one, but my second one is probably better.

But my first thought is, what a waste of a life. My second thought is, that used to be me.

Just a different kind of magazine, different kind of study. And we as Christians need to use our minds.

And the world is going to try to anesthetize our minds, distract our minds. We're caught up in the latest basketball, computer game, this, that, and the other.

Everything is right in its place. But when the place becomes preeminent, I'll show you somebody who then becomes retarded in their thinking.

They're going backwards. Ralph Waldo Emerson said,

The hardest task in the world is to think. But we, true or false, are to love

Jesus with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. George Bernard Shaw said,

Only 5 % of people think. Only 15 % think they think. The other 80 % would rather die than think.

IBM's founder, Thomas Watson Sr., since 1914, had a little card above his office wall that said,

Think. There's a great Puritan, by the way, named Thomas Watson. I'm sure he would say, spiritually think.

Your mind matters. Look at Romans chapter 12. You want to grow? You're going to have to use your mind.

You're going to have to stop and think and cogitate and review. That's why your personal Bible study is so important with your own

Bible. Stop and go back. I appeal to you, therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, Romans 12 .1,

to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God.

This is fascinating. Which is your spiritual worship. Which is your reasonable, logical worship.

If God has saved you, isn't it logical that you say, I'm going to praise and honor and thank this

God for the rest of my life. Based on, what does the text say?

The mercies of God. What mercies of God? You say, well, I've got to use my mind the right way.

What's the first thing I need to do? Here's what you need to do. You don't have to do it right now. But close your eyes and rehearse chapters 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, and 11.

By those mercies of God, by the mercies of God that God has, even though I had no righteousness, he gave me righteousness that was a perfect righteousness from Jesus himself, confirmed by the resurrection.

He's given me the spirit of God now, and he's sanctifying me. He will glorify me. I can't lose my salvation.

And in light of that, it's time to what? It's time to praise

God. Be thankful to God. To present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God.

That's what the text says. Pretty easy to give money. Pretty easy to give time.

Pretty easy to give yourself for some errands. But how about you? God wants you. You are on the sacrifice.

And you're not a dead sacrifice, but living. Boy said, God does not want your money or your time without yourself.

You are the one for whom Jesus died. You are the one he loves. And in a society that says indulge,

God says sacrifice. The good news is,

Jim Elliot was right. He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose. Verse 2, you see the text with the mind.

Do not be conformed to this world. Don't fit into their mold. But be transformed by the renewing of your what?

Mind. That by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

How to stay spiritually immature, number 2, don't show up for corporate worship unless a senior pastor is preaching.

Stay home instead. What does that tell me about someone that says, by the way it happened back at Grace Church, people would go, is

MacArthur preaching tonight? No. All right, I'm not going. I just have two simple words for that kind of theology.

Easy words, simple words. Any guesses? Grow up.

If the person is qualified, if the person is biblical, if the person is teaching the

Word of God and you normally show up at corporate worship, you don't say, well the pastor is not there, I'm not going to show up.

Babies do that. That tells me more about you than it tells me about anything else.

There's something about corporate worship where the

Word of God is preached. I even think in Romans 1, if I remember right, it's fine to read your

Bibles, I want you to. It's fine to listen to tapes, I want you to. It's fine to memorize Scripture, I want you to.

But nothing can replace the proclaimed Word of God when the saints get together. Nothing.

Paul even said it in the first chapter of Romans. Now let's see if I can find it.

Sometimes I have things on my notes. Sometimes I don't. Paul said,

I want you to know, my brothers, that I have often intended to come to you, but thus far have been prevented, in order that I may reap some harvest among you, as well as among the

Gentiles. He says, I've got this book, Romans, to give to you. You'll learn, you'll grow, you'll understand it all.

You'll get it, you'll comprehend it. But there's something better, and that's me, Paul, preaching

Romans to you in person. Number three, how to stay spiritually immature.

Some of these are quick, some of these are slow. Number three, let your children choose what church you attend.

I don't even ask my kids when we go to another church, did you like it? I might get to that, but I don't start, well, did you like it?

And then I go, yeah, here's some eight -year -old kid giving me an assessment of if they like the church or not. What do they know?

Now, maybe they're getting old enough now, and they're pastor's kids, he preached the Bible, it was verse by verse, they sang songs about Christ being exalted.

But I don't say, did you like the church? The church is not to like or dislike. A church is a place where we worship.

I didn't really like that. I've had people say to me, I didn't really like that song you picked. They didn't say it like that because I'd have to restrain myself and say, oh,

Steve Cooley picked them. No, I'm just kidding. Friends, you're acting like a baby.

You can have preferences. And like I tell people, if you want faster music here, well, this is just what the elders have decided.

For many reasons, that's another sermon. Go to your car and put in Striper, I don't care. Double speed, it doesn't matter to me what you listen to,

I'm not a legalist. But I don't pick the songs, I don't go, hmm, let's see, what should we pick today that everybody would like?

I got an email from Tim a while ago, he said, if you ask the wrong questions, you get the wrong answers. Did you like it?

No, we don't ask those questions. The same people that ask their kids, did you like that Sunday school?

What do you mean, Dad, the Sunday school, I had to go in there, I've never met anybody there in my life, and the teachers seem really mean, and there's no carpet on the floor, and they don't give me some kind of push -up popsicle, and you go in there,

I hate it, and they're standing like that. Well, of course you didn't like it because you're brand new. You're going to teach your kid how to like it.

Worship has nothing to do with liking it. I think at the end of the day, you can say, I enjoyed that, it's good to give praise to the

Lord with a corporate body. You can feel good about it. But the people that say, do you like the church,

I never see them go home and say, you know, I just inherited $100 ,000, and my 8 -year -old, how should

I invest that? Because if I heard that, I'd say to the dad, grow up.

I'm just kidding. I would, I'd be nicer, hopefully. Worship is giving.

And so when you ask the kids, you can say, tell me about church today. Was anybody nice?

And there's ways to get to the right question. But if you pick a church based on if kids like it or not, friends, let me just tell you something, and I know you're already here, so I'm not after you, they're not going to like it.

Because what do kids like? Action. Oh, it wasn't really like Six Flags Riverside, so I didn't really like it.

But when people say, how do we get kids in the church? Because if we can get the kids, we can get the parents. It's backwards.

I'm after your mind as a parent. And the oxygen's coming down for you. I don't care where you send your kids.

And once I got you, though, your kids would be right by you, thinking that, you know what, people get saved by listening to the Word of God. And the fastest way to damn your kids is to keep them in the back for the whole time and let them be taught by somebody else.

Don Kistler said that. I didn't say that. But I believe it. We have junior church not for you members.

It's not for you. As soon as you can get your kids out of junior church to sit next to you, that's when you should.

If you're a brand new Christian here today, or you're here saying, I'm not even a Christian, but I've got my kid and my kid's kind of unruly, do you have some place to put him?

Yes, we do. We love you and we want to serve your kids. But I'm after you, and once I get you, through the

Word of God, proverbially get you, we're going to bring the kids in because they need to learn. It's not babysitting.

We'll try to teach them who God is, but it's not for you to send your kids, if you're a member maturing, to send your kids off to junior church.

I don't have time for any long ones, so let's see if I can give you a couple of other short ones. You want me to get you mad?

I'll just say it and go on to the next one. Let your wife pick your church. If you're a dad, a husband, and you let your wife pick the church, you need to grow up.

Should your wife like the church? Can you talk together? Are you equal in Christ? I get all that.

But you're a leader for a reason, friends. And I'll say this now, I might as well. I'm going out of town soon.

Preach away and fly off and let the elders deal with it. Immature women don't like my preaching.

But maturing and mature women do. Because the preaching style found in the

Bible is so opposite of what a carnal or a natural woman would want.

In this day and age where people say, well, how did you like the sermon? He was kind.

He was relevant. He seemed to understand. He didn't seem to above it all. And he shared some of his experiences.

It's not what I'm after. In the days of the Puritans in the 1770s in New England, people would say, well, what did you think of the sermon?

And here's what they would say. Biblical, high view of God, Christ -centered. Bring in Louise May Alcott, other kind of transcendentalist friends, male and female.

Take away some of the tough sides of God, like predestination, sovereignty,

God's will that saves, not free will that saves. We don't like all that. So what we need to do is have a kinder, gentler

God in what was born, Unitarianism and Universalism. And by the way, we don't like cemeteries next to the church because it makes us think of our kids that we buried and parents that we buried.

So let's move the cemeteries out to Forest Lawn Drive. If we had to walk through those doors every single

Sunday and say, you know what, I miss Blake. I miss my mom. I miss those babies we had to bury.

The church would be better off. Once transcendentalism, Louise May Alcott, romance novels, low view of God came in, people would say, what do you think of the sermon?

And they would say things like, he seemed empathetic. He seemed to identify.

He shared some of his struggles. If you know me well, you know

I sin. You know I have struggles. If you don't think that I do, you can talk to Kim.

But when the Bible says you preach the word of God like a herald, 2 Timothy 4, verse 2,

I'm going to preach the word of God like a herald. And the herald says this, God, you've just told me that in light of all the great things you've done for the people, you've put up a fortress, you've saved them from opposing marauders, you've given wives, you've given produce, and now you're telling me,

King, to go tell the people, pay more taxes, 5 % increase starting tomorrow. Then the herald comes out and he sticks his finger out and he goes, well, you know,

I'm not really that good at paying my taxes. I've struggled in my life with paying my taxes. We all kind of need to get together for kumbaya and we could have an

Oprah book club to pay taxes and all that kind of stuff. No, I'm supposed to pay my taxes, loud and clear, received.

And now I have a message from God for you. Pay more taxes. But nobody likes that kind of preaching because it seems so different than society.

Society's sharing, you know. There's a reason, this is Father's Day, so I'm just going to say this too.

Wives, don't say to your husbands, you should be more transparent. When I hear that,

Kim doesn't say it to me because she's... I just owe

Kim a dollar. I just mentioned her name. You should get together with other guys at the church and maybe have breakfast together.

You should get together with some of the guys at church and you can maybe share a book study together.

Friends, how about you should get together with those other guys and go cut down those trees over there, drag them over there and then go downtown and preach the gospel.

And the men go, hoorah! Just be a little more transparent, we'd be fine.

All week long, God says, Mike, don't be factious, don't be striving, don't be self -centered, don't be a baby.

Grow up in your life. And I say, Lord, I'm sinful and fallen and foolish and I'm so thankful that you're a forgiving

God. Now I have a message for the people. It's time not to be factious, sinful, immature. It's time for BBC to grow up.

I'm not over you, I'm not better than you. I'm not the most spiritual, mature person here, but I have a message from God.

So ask yourself the question, what kind of preachers do you like to listen to even on the radio? Some are a little more empathetic, some are not.

You know I don't treat Kim like some kind of cave woman. Do this, do that. It's sinful lording over.

But at the end of the day, the husband's a leader for a reason. And I think, rightfully so, there are many very godly ladies who are at this church that I don't think they'd pick this church, but their husband said, honey, that's where we're going.

But before I get kicked out, I'm not going to do the next one. What would you do if I moved away to California and never came back?

The first pastor of this church went to vacation in New Hampshire and never came back. I have round -trip tickets.

Kim only has one way, but I got to... And in two years,

I write you a letter. And I say, you know what? I was there for 13 years teaching you the truth.

And the only thing I hear now is, I'm Steve, I'm of Dave, I'm of Pradeep.

Strife, quarreling, church splits. I'd come back, if the elders would allow me, and I would stand up and say, because grace has graced you, it's time to grow up.

Wouldn't you feel bad if I had to do that? Imagine Corinth getting this letter from Paul. For those of you that are maturing, great job by the grace of God.

For those of you that want to mature, it's never too late to repent. And for those of you that sit here today without Christ Jesus, consider your latter end, because you are going to die and face

God. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father, I thank you for these dear people.

I thank you for Bethlehem Bible Church. Each person here, who wants to learn, who wants to grow.

And I just pray, wherever they are, that you would take them to the next level of spiritual maturity. That you would develop them.

Father, that in even our midst, we would send out missionaries, pastors, elders, pastors' wives, missionary wives.

We could send out teachers into the school districts, public and private. That you would mature us.

But Lord, my biggest prayer is that we wouldn't lose our first love, like Ephesus did.

So kindle that in our hearts. Help us. Use your word. And Lord, help us also to be patient with the new

Christians as you mature them. We need wisdom for that too, Lord. In Jesus' name,