Series 201: Spiritual Maturity
What is Spiritual Maturity?
Ephesians 4:13 (Phillips translation) “In the unity of common faith and the knowledge of the Son
of God, we arrive at real maturity, the measure of development which is meant by the fullness of
Christ.” This verse says that you can define spiritual maturity in one phrase. That phrase is this:
Spiritual maturity is being like Christ. It says real maturity is the measure of development which
is meant by the phrase “the fullness of Christ.”
Remember:
– It’s not automatic
– It is a process
– it takes discipline
We’re going to first look at this introduction to spiritual maturity and habits as we’ve been
doing. Then we’re going to look at how to get a grasp on your Bible.
Then we’re going to look at the habit of a daily quiet time, a daily time with God.
Four Habits
– Time with God’s word
– Prayer
– Tithing
– Fellowship
The Goal:
Romans 6:19 (Phillips) “In the past you voluntarily gave your body to the service of vice and the
purposes of evil. So now give yourselves to the service of righteousness for the purpose of
becoming truly good.”
Six Ways to Get Grasp on Bible
- HEAR
- READ
- STUDY
- MEMORIZE
- MEDITATE
- APPLY
Six Parts of Prayer
- Praise: Begin by expressing my love to God
- Purpose: Commit to God’s purpose and will for my life
- Provision: Ask God to provide for my needs
- Pardon: Ask God to forgive my sins
- People: Pray for other people
- Protection: ask for spiritual protection from God
Build a Habit of tithing or honoring God with my giving:
“Just as you excel in everything — in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in complete earnestness –see that you also excel in the grace of giving.” 2 Cor. 8:7
Giving and Spiritual Maturity:
- Giving makes me more like God
- Giving draws me closer to God
- Giving is the antidote to materialism
- Giving strengthens my faith
- Giving is an investment in eternity
- Giving blesses me in return
- Giving makes me happy
Fellowship
Why is fellowship so important?
- I belong in God’s family with other believers
- I need encouragement to grow spiritually
- I need accountability to grow
- Christ is present when we fellowship together
- There is great power when people pray together
- Fellowship is a witness to the world
- I am obligated to every other Christian
1 Peter 4:10 “God has given you some special abilities [spiritual gifts]; be sure to use them to help each other.”
One of the most important things you want to understand about spiritual gifts is that they are a special endowment that God gives to every single person who comes to Christ. That spiritual gift is really for one main person only. A spiritual gift, that special ability God gives to each believer is for the purpose of me ministering to other believers.
WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF SMALL GROUPS?
Acts 2:42-47 is where we’re getting the concepts:
Bible Study: “They devoted themselves to the apostle’s teaching.”
The first thing we notice about small groups is Bible study. That’s exactly what we’re doing. When we read the scripture, the New Testament in particular, we’re devoting ourselves to the Apostles’ teaching because that is the Apostles’ teaching.
Fellowship. “and to fellowship.” Someone said the definition of fellowship was two fellows in a ship, rowing together. If you’ve ever tried to sit side by side in a row boat and coordinate your efforts. If one person rows a little bit more than the other person, you just go in a circle. But if you coordinate your efforts together, you can go fast and accomplish a lot. Fellowship is a coming together in one mind, one purpose, the purpose of bringing honor to Jesus Christ and serving one another. It’s relating to one another in a special relationship.
Communion. “and to the breaking of bread”. Some people have asked when they’ve come to Saddleback, especially if they’ve come from a little bit smaller church and outside of Southern California, they say, “Why doesn’t Saddleback Valley Community Church take communion every Sunday morning?” There are basically three reasons: One is logistics. We’ve got thousands of people moving through and it’s a logistical nightmare. Second, the strategy of the ministry is to reach unbelievers on Sunday morning. Communion, the breaking of bread, really is an activity of the believers. That’s something special for the believers. It would be rather awkward to be passing the juice and the bread to a non-Christian and have them participate.
Prayer. Praying for one another. “Our father, give us our daily bread. Forgive us our debts as we …” Notice the plurals throughout. It’s interesting that Jesus would choose plurals, rather than saying the singular,
Support. I encourage you to read this Acts 2 passage, verses 42-47 and just think in terms of what these believers were doing for one another. They were undergoing persecution? They couldn’t purchase food in the bazaars because they were being kicked out of the Jewish community. (That means their Visa Card was canceled!) They had to rely on other believers who had the resources to meet their needs. People were literally selling the things that they had in order to meet the needs of other people. They were supporting financially and physically other believers. Sacrificing to meet their needs.
“They gave to anyone as he had a need.” Philippians 4:15 “You shared with me the fellowship of giving and receiving.” Supporting one another is so important. There has been so many times in the small groups that we’ve been involved with when someone had a need. They lost their job or something like that and the group would gather around and would do everything they could to meet the needs, the daily food, even paying rent in some cases. I had a friend who didn’t have a car — and you need a car for transportation. Another brother just said, “I believe God wants me to give him a car” and he went out and bought one and gave him one. That’s love. That’s the way the Christian life ought to be related to one another.
Social. “they ate together with glad and sincere hearts.” Eating is a very intimate kind of thing. We do a lot of that around here! Eating is a social event and it was something they did a lot of. We’re great on ordering pizza, going to a restaurant, but something we haven’t done very often here is we don’t have people into our homes. We need to have people into our homes, eating together, relating in a home setting, having friends over, playing some games together and just getting to know each other. Don’t worry about the dust! “get into the habit of inviting guests home for dinner or if they need lodging, for the night.” Romans 12:13 That’s a special ministry.
Singing or praising. “Praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people.” They were praising, and singing together.
Outreach. Touching lives for Jesus. “and the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.”
Fellowship is an extremely important aspect and habit of the Christian life. I want to encourage each of you to do whatever you can to be involved in some kind of small group or some kind of accountability group where you can begin to use your gifts to encourage people in their personal walk with the Lord as well as you receiving some encouragement for your walk with the Lord.