Grow Up (Part 1)

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A Christian view of depression (Part 2)

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No Compromise Radio Thanks for tuning in to No Compromise Radio with pastor and author,
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Dr. Mike Abendroth. Today on No Compromise Radio, we'll be hearing Pastor Mike open the
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Word of God in a recent message he preached at Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston, Massachusetts.
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Now let's join Pastor Mike in progress as he preaches through the scriptures, verse by verse, with no compromise.
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I think I love almost everything about babies. Almost everything. I've had four kids,
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I have four kids, and I almost like every stage, watching those little kids grow up.
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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.
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I like that. Immaturity is not bad, as long as you begin to mature.
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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?
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But as kids get older, they should learn how to walk and they should mature. They should develop, they should grow up.
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It's not wrong to be immature if you're a kid, unless you don't mature. And the same thing is true spiritually.
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It's okay to be an immature Christian, if you're a new Christian, but it's not alright to be an immature
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Christian if you've been a Christian for quite some time. Did you know what, do you know this, that the
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Bible teaches that those people that don't mature should ask yourself the question, how can
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I be a Christian? Did you know the Bible teaches that you should mature rapidly, that you should mature quickly?
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There's nothing wrong with being a kid, but there's everything wrong with being a kid who doesn't mature.
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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,
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I like that. But those new Christians must mature.
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So I asked the question to start the sermon, are you a mature Christian? If you're a brand new
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Christian, the answer is no. But if you've been a Christian for six months, one year, five years, 30 years, yay 50 years, you ought to be mature.
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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.
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You know, you're first to parent, you go in, the child gets weighed, and are they gaining any weight, and are they feeding properly, and are they latching on, and are they this and are they that?
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Because you're concerned, is my baby growing, is my baby healthy? The same thing when it comes to spiritual matters too.
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Let's turn our Bibles to 1 Corinthians chapter 3 and deal with the subject of spiritual immaturity.
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Spiritual immaturity. And on the flip side, the wonderful benefits to spiritual maturity.
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Spiritual immaturity. I want you to be mature because you will appreciate your salvation more.
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You will adequately discern Biblical truth from error. You will be assured of your salvation.
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You will be able to teach others. And so God is looking for Christians to mature.
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Now the good news is we are a maturing church, and many of you are very mature, but not all of you.
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And it's my desire, like in 2 Peter chapter 3, that you grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
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Now I love 1 Corinthians, and you say, based on how many weeks we've been in it, we get that.
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But I want to encourage you, we've gone through 47 verses in 1 Corinthians chapter 1 and 2.
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47 verses. That's as many verses as 2 Thessalonians total. So it's like we finished a book already.
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Titus only has 46 verses. It's like we preached through an entire book of the Bible with only two chapters.
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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.
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My self -esteem just skyrocketed. Paul is writing to the church at Corinth to correct them.
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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.
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But we have some people here who act like Corinthians, and we want to make sure we use the Word of God by the
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Spirit of God to root those things out. Because there's forgiveness found, pardon found.
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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.
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And 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.
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And 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.
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But these factions come up. Look at verse 4 of chapter 3, I follow
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Paul, I follow Apollos. Look at verse 21 of the same chapter, so let no one boast in men, for all things are yours.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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So this morning, if you'd like to have a title of the message, I've entitled the message How to Remain Spiritually Immature.
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To try to teach you, let's do the opposite. Who wants to be immature? I don't. Who wants to be maturing?
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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
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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?
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Grow up. How many times have you heard that in your life? Maybe from your mom and your dad.
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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.
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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?
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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.
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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?
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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.
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I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it, and even now you are not yet ready.
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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?
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For when one says, I follow Paul, and another, I follow Apollos, are you not being merely human?
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And right from the get -go, Paul shocks them. This is a kind of a zing.
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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.
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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.
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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, and so you can have the mind of Christ, but now
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I, the apostle, I'm going to address you. And he said, you ought to be growing.
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You're acting fleshy. Do you see the text? I could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh.
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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.
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And then, who would do this? He says, and you are acting like babies.
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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.
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Does the church of Corinth have any excuse? Have they been taught improperly? Had not
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Paul been there for 18 months, he's taught them what they needed to learn? The apostle Paul, I'd like to have the apostle
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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.
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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.
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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 really would have been good for you, but you weren't here.
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Be that kind of attitude. Paul was the pastor followed by Apollos, and now they're acting like babies.
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There's no excuse. And he didn't say, oh, you're just some cute little babies, because they should have been growing up.
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You don't tell a 15 -year -old, boy, you're a cute little baby, nice little dimple, goo.
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This is like the spur on the end of a cowboy boot that goes into the side of the rib cage of the horse.
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For what reason? Because Paul's over the top, he's lost his mind, he's mad, he's angry.
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No, because he wants them to do the Christ -honoring thing. They've been saved and they ought to act like it.
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And they're acting like babies. Well, what does he say next?
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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 backside of the closet.
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And it was about 6 '6", or something like that. I don't know, we didn't have very much faith, because I think
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I wanted to be 6 '7". And so it was this growing bean, and it had the numbers and all that, and we'd stand behind that, and the mom would write, my mother would write how tall
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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
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NBA. How do
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I know I'm growing? Paul's going to answer those questions. How do you know you're growing?
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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.
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I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it. And even now you're not ready for it.
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How do you know you're growing? The point is you can accept solid, good, firm meat to stabilize yourself.
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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.
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Oh, 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.
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But here comes the truth from God, verse by verse, and one of the signs of your growth should be,
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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.
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How do people like me? How do people greet me? Am I in the center of attention? I like these songs.
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I don't like these songs. I don't like the parking lot. I do like the parking lot. Growing people say this,
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I'm receiving the word of God, and I'm getting it. I understand the atonement better. I understand
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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.
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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.
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You could ask yourself the question, do I long for deeper truth? I don't mean some weird
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Gnostic kind of mystical thing, but I just would like to understand the scriptures better because there's this triune
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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.
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That's a good sign of growth. They should be thinking as Corinthians, the
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God of the universe has given his son to die for me. Did you like the song? His righteousness exchanged for our what?
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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.
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Or do you say, well, I just want the basics. I only want the basics. You want more evidence that Corinth is fleshy?
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Look what they do. What does fleshy, immature carnality manifest itself as?
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Verse three, people that are jealous and quarreling. What do carnal people do? Here's what they do.
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Verse three, for you're still of the flesh. That's an evidence. Case in point. Exhibit one.
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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?
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The answer is yes. You're acting fleshy.
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You're acting not like a Christian. And when you see jealousy, you often see strife.
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I call these the siblings of destruction because they're around a lot. Romans chapter 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.
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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?
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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.
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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.
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That's spiritual behavior. Paul says, you've got it all wrong. Paul says, diagnose yourself.
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Have you ever gone to WebMD? And you're like, I shouldn't have done that.
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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.
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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.
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Stop it. Grow up. Quarrelers are fleshy. Factionist people are fleshy.
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People who cause strife are fleshy. They do something else, found in verse four, create factions.
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And when one says, I follow Paul, and another, I follow Apollos, are you not being merely human?
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And he says, not mere men. That's what you did before you were saved. Can you imagine these
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Greek philosophers that the unbelieving Corinthians would say, yes, this is how they do things.
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I'm of Socrates. I'm of Plato. I follow this guy. I follow Aristotle and I'm lined up underneath there.
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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.
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I will never forget the time I heard about a marriage counselor,
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Calvary Chapel, Costa Mesa. The husband said to the pastor, associate pastor,
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I'm not really treating my wife in a good way and I need some help. Please come in.
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Bring your wife. The man said, I'm selfish. I act like a baby.
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I throw things. I yell at my wife. Are you a Christian? Yes, I say
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I'm a Christian. He's got a valid testimony. The 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.
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So they went down the corridor of the church, this is a true story, into a room with the lights off.
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And then the pastor said to the man, please hold your hand up.
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He held his hand out. Something soft and kind of squishy was placed into his hand. He turned on the lights.
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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, throw in fits, yell and scream 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.
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You think I'm a difficult counselor? People say, I don't like to get counsel from Pastor Mike because he's too hard.
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I mean, come on, I'm sweet. It's all relative.
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Now pagans act like pagans. Unbelievers act like unbelievers. But Christians ought to act like Christians.
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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
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Baptist, when he said, Jesus must increase and I must what decrease, show me a decrease and I'll show you somebody that wants to keep peace and not always stir up trouble in the church.
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Some people just like to do that, stir up the trouble, troublemakers that all they can try to do it in a wise way, in a so -called godly way.
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But Paul says, just get rid of all that, forgetting. So in the time we have left,
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I want to give you some derived from this passage, some derived from other parts of the
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Bible, ways that you could stay spiritually immature. Ways that if you want to stay immature, just keep on doing it.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Christians mature. We like to keep on maturing through God's ordained means. We don't want to do the opposite.
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How to stay spiritually immature, number one, drink milk when you should be eating meat.
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Now, that was alluded to earlier, but now I want to make what was implicit explicit. Drink milk when you should be eating meat.
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We've had people at this church say, you know, my high school kids can't really understand the message. So we'd like to have a
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Bible study in the back room during your sermon. I have several comments to that. After no, big baby, no, just kidding.
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Sorry, I didn't say that. I said, let me talk to your dad and why don't you take notes of the sermon?
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Why don't you learn and grow as you understand the preaching and go home and say to your dad, dad, could you help me understand what pastor
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Mike said? But this refrain of simple watered down too difficult.
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I had to look up a word in the dictionary. I only want monosyllabic words. Monosyllabic words will not help you grow.
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If you want to grow, you have to study. And some of us are smarter than others.
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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.
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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,
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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 has helped.
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I can appreciate my salvation more. I can teach others more. I can realize that I've been growing five years ago.
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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.
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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.
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Well, we went to Mr. Bertrand's Sunday school. How was it? Kid stuff. I want
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Tom to be teaching the deep things of God, who Christ is. He's an eternal
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God. He chooses his bride before time begins.
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Did you know even at Ephesus, Paul says, I'm going to teach you people at Ephesus.
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In the book of Ephesians, many illiterate people there, he writes a letter to them and it's going to be read out loud.
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And he says, let me talk to you about deep things to start. I want to teach you how to praise
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God. Matter of fact, let's just go there. What am I doing? Ephesians chapter one.
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How often do I hear the refrain? Well, we don't really want to believe in election.
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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.
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But you know, it's there. And as you learn and as you grow and as you get some deeper truths, we'll tell you in about five years, maybe on this dividing doctrine of predestination.
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Did you know in Ephesians chapter one, Paul says, before you bow your head and say, I praise you
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God for the death of Christ, he says, I want you to understand that you need to praise God for unconditional, sovereign, distinguishing election.
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No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Abendroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.
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Bethlehem Bible Church is a Bible teaching church firmly committed to unleashing the life transforming power of God's word through verse by verse exposition of the sacred text.
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Please come and join us. Our service times are Sunday morning at 1015 and in the evening at six. We're right on route 110 in West Boylston.
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You can check us out online at bbcchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.
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The thoughts and opinions expressed on No Compromise Radio do not necessarily reflect those of WVNE, its staff or management.