Scripture: Philippians 3:15-4:1
Listen Link: Listen link: www.lcepc.org then look for “sermons” tab.
Are you living a life worth copying? Are you living a great life that people would admire? Are you living a great life? I know, humble people find it hard to answer these questions in the affirmative. We are aware of our faults and sins. So, we do not think of ourselves more highly than we ought. But if “more highly than you ought” is what you are not supposed to do, doesn’t that mean that you are supposed to think of yourself as highly as you ought to as highly as you realistically can? I think you are supposed to think of yourself as highly as is correct. And for most of you, you are underestimating your value in the kingdom of God.
In clothing, one spot on the front of your shirt that you just can’t wash out can ruin that shirt for public appearances. And we tend to treat ourselves like that. One bad spot on your record and you tend to think you’re good for nothing. But the truth is, forgiveness and grace mean that sins and mistakes don’t count against you or make you useless to God. God redeems everything, so that your worst moments become lessons learned and wisdom you can share with others who have made, or might make, the same mistakes if they don’t hear from you.
In 1 Timothy 1:15, Paul called himself the worst of sinners. Yet here, he is saying, “Join together in following my example.” You know what example he is talking about. We have been discussing it for a couple of weeks. Remember, his devotion to the work, his willingness to take up a cross and suffer for the work, and his strong desire to press on toward the goal for which Jesus Christ has taken hold of us. But please note too that Paul’s great sin of persecuting the church before he was saved, did not disqualify him from serving the Lord after he met Jesus on the Damascus road.
So, for us, no sins in our backgrounds disqualify us from being useful to the Lord once we give ourselves over to him. So, take heart! As a born again believer, filled with the Holy Spirit, you have much to offer to the world around you, even if it is just your story of how God saved you that might encourage another to believe that they can be saved to. I mean if He can save me, He can save anybody right?
That’s why Paul says this, “All of us, then, who are mature should take such a view of things.” Of course, that line means that there is a difference between a mature believer and an immature one. The Bible does give us guidelines so that we can evaluate the level of our maturity too. It is what helps us think of ourselves rightly, not too high, but not too low either.
So, should you think of yourself as a mature believer? How can you know? There are identifiable stages of Christian growth. I did a little research on the stages of Christian growth. I found a very good resource at JimPutnam.com.[i] Jim Putnam is a successful minister who leads in discipleship resources. I want to summarize what I found there for you.
Stage 1: In the first stage, a person is spiritually dead, meaning that he or she has not been born again. This stage is characterized by the word unbelief. We are spiritually dead. This is pre-Christian. Like the first soil in Jesus’ parable, they might be exposed to hearing the Word of God, but they are not really paying attention. In one ear and out the other.
Stage 2: is new Christian. I hope that everyone in this room has at least accepted the good news about salvation through Christ. Then you are saved, alive, born again. And please, if you have any doubt or concern about that come talk to me later. I can help you make sure.
Every new Christian starts out as a spiritual infant. As new believers, they are excited and eager to learn. They know something has changed, and it can be a very exciting time of awe and wonder. Their unsaved friends often notice the difference, and infants are quick to announce their new faith to whoever will listen. But this is also a sensitive and vulnerable stage. But as with the rocky soil, that shallow rooted joy can be snatched away through some hard experiences of difficulty or rejection. The Church is important for encouraging growth.
As they grow, spiritual infants move on to Stage 3, the spiritual child stage of development. At this point, they understand the basic language of faith. They can still be excited about their faith. However, they are only just beginning to learn how to obey the Word of God. They are often like the third soil in Jesus’ parable. They want to be Christian, but they are also still too concerned about their own comforts, which are like the weeds in the third soil.
As spiritual children grow up into Stage 4, they’re more and more able to ignore or let go of the weeds so that God can pull them and the growing Christian can mature into the spiritual young adult stage, in the rich soil that bears much fruit. At this stage, they have grown tremendously from where they started. They are eager to serve, think independently, and look much like adults. They are zealous for God and can be characterized as being “God-focused” and “other-centered.” They are becoming intentional or strategic about sharing their faith and will see people converted, but it often takes a little more growth before they start reproducing new disciples who can make disciples. They serve intentionally but don’t make disciples intentionally. This is good soil. Rich growth can continue.
So, we can identify one more stage. Stage 5, where we become spiritually mature enough to reproduce disciples – we become spiritual parents. I am purposely using the term parent here rather than the word adult. As Christians, we are called to make disciples – to do our part to reproduce our faith in another. Adults are able to reproduce, but that does not mean they are reproducing. Parents reproduce.
So, there you have the 5 stages of the spiritual growth of a disciple. It can also be summarized in one sentence, like this: I want to see and help visitors become believers, believers grow into membership, members grow into servants and ministers, who grow into leaders and disciple makers. Can you see where you are? Can you identify whether there is a next step for you to take? I think the majority of the people in this room are pretty well mature enough to produce disciples. Maybe some of you are making disciples, deliberately mentoring younger Christians to help them grow in the Lord. But I want to challenge you to make sure that you have been discipled, are still being discipled, and that you are prepared to disciple others after you.
One very easy way to put yourself in a good place for this is to be a kid’s hope mentor in our schools. In just an hour a week you can help a student improve his or her outlook on life, his grades in school and chances for success. Ask me about that.
You can also accept this challenge by talking with me about discipleship. In this case, you’d sort of be the student. I have materials that we can go through together. This would be a small group study, and we’d have to pick a day that we can meet together for about an hour at a time. This would be a pretty intensive course. The course takes you through basic instructions for how to know you are a Christian and how to progress as a disciple until you are ready to lead the course for someone after you.
I also have an even more intensive course for which you need a sponsor to participate. You need at least one person you’re accountable to who is probably your sponsor. The lessons take you through honest self-observation and confession to reconciliation. Eventually you are in a place where you can become a sponsor, while still falling back to any of the previous steps as needed, which is often.
If you choose to pursue such courses, you would be in keeping with Paul’s instructions to Timothy where he said, in 2 Timothy 2:2, “The things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable people who will also be qualified to teach others.”
You see the links in the chain there? First Paul, linked to Timothy, who links up to others, fully expecting that they will link up to still others to receive the message of wisdom and maturity of the gospel so that the church grows on. And since we are here today, we can give thanks that God’s plan of linking generation to generation through the faithful passing down of the gospel truth has been working for thousands of years. And it will keep on working as long as each of us accepts our responsibility to be the strongest link we can possibly be, for the sake of those who will be coming after us, while still relying on the links that came before.
That gets us back to today’s text. “Only let us live up to what we have already attained. Join together in following my example, brothers and sisters, and just as you have us as a model, keep your eyes on those who live as we do.” That’s another way of expressing the links in the chain. Be intentional about finding the people who can help you grow more mature in Christ. Paul set the example. And keep your eyes on the people around you who live like Paul. Also, be on the lookout for younger saints who haven’t been Christian as long as you and offer to help them along. They are too precious and important to neglect or ignore.
Paul shows us that he is very confident that his mission and teaching come from God when he says, “And if on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you.” That’s almost humorous. You have a right to your own opinion. And you’ll come around to my way of seeing things if you sincerely seek the Lord.
Then he issues a warning that lists out for us some signs of immaturity in Christians. Let me read that again from verse 18-19. “For, as I have often told you before and now tell you again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ.”
When Paul says that many live as enemies of the cross, he is not just talking about unbelievers who persecute the church! He is very concerned, tearfully concerned, about people in church who think they are believers but who live as enemies of the cross by virtue of their failure to take up a cross and live as faithful disciples. This does refer back to the Judaizers who want believers to be circumcised. But it includes all who don’t let themselves be discipled or mentored. They end up stunted in Christian growth, bearing very little good fruit, or even none. They are the ones who don’t press on. “Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is set on earthly things.”
But for the ones who are truly saved and in love with God do accept the responsibility of discipleship. For them Paul says, “Our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.” To them he can joyfully and confidently exhort: “Therefore, my brothers and sisters, you whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm in the Lord in this way, dear friends!
So, are you thinking of yourself rightly? Do you live a life worth copying? Do you want to live a life worth copying and do you want to work on that through a discipleship course that will get you ready to disciple someone who came to faith after you or even because of you? Take a step today and talk to me about options.
Listen Link: Listen link: www.lcepc.org then look for “sermons” tab.
Are you living a life worth copying? Are you living a great life that people would admire? Are you living a great life? I know, humble people find it hard to answer these questions in the affirmative. We are aware of our faults and sins. So, we do not think of ourselves more highly than we ought. But if “more highly than you ought” is what you are not supposed to do, doesn’t that mean that you are supposed to think of yourself as highly as you ought to as highly as you realistically can? I think you are supposed to think of yourself as highly as is correct. And for most of you, you are underestimating your value in the kingdom of God.
In clothing, one spot on the front of your shirt that you just can’t wash out can ruin that shirt for public appearances. And we tend to treat ourselves like that. One bad spot on your record and you tend to think you’re good for nothing. But the truth is, forgiveness and grace mean that sins and mistakes don’t count against you or make you useless to God. God redeems everything, so that your worst moments become lessons learned and wisdom you can share with others who have made, or might make, the same mistakes if they don’t hear from you.
In 1 Timothy 1:15, Paul called himself the worst of sinners. Yet here, he is saying, “Join together in following my example.” You know what example he is talking about. We have been discussing it for a couple of weeks. Remember, his devotion to the work, his willingness to take up a cross and suffer for the work, and his strong desire to press on toward the goal for which Jesus Christ has taken hold of us. But please note too that Paul’s great sin of persecuting the church before he was saved, did not disqualify him from serving the Lord after he met Jesus on the Damascus road.
So, for us, no sins in our backgrounds disqualify us from being useful to the Lord once we give ourselves over to him. So, take heart! As a born again believer, filled with the Holy Spirit, you have much to offer to the world around you, even if it is just your story of how God saved you that might encourage another to believe that they can be saved to. I mean if He can save me, He can save anybody right?
That’s why Paul says this, “All of us, then, who are mature should take such a view of things.” Of course, that line means that there is a difference between a mature believer and an immature one. The Bible does give us guidelines so that we can evaluate the level of our maturity too. It is what helps us think of ourselves rightly, not too high, but not too low either.
So, should you think of yourself as a mature believer? How can you know? There are identifiable stages of Christian growth. I did a little research on the stages of Christian growth. I found a very good resource at JimPutnam.com.[i] Jim Putnam is a successful minister who leads in discipleship resources. I want to summarize what I found there for you.
Stage 1: In the first stage, a person is spiritually dead, meaning that he or she has not been born again. This stage is characterized by the word unbelief. We are spiritually dead. This is pre-Christian. Like the first soil in Jesus’ parable, they might be exposed to hearing the Word of God, but they are not really paying attention. In one ear and out the other.
Stage 2: is new Christian. I hope that everyone in this room has at least accepted the good news about salvation through Christ. Then you are saved, alive, born again. And please, if you have any doubt or concern about that come talk to me later. I can help you make sure.
Every new Christian starts out as a spiritual infant. As new believers, they are excited and eager to learn. They know something has changed, and it can be a very exciting time of awe and wonder. Their unsaved friends often notice the difference, and infants are quick to announce their new faith to whoever will listen. But this is also a sensitive and vulnerable stage. But as with the rocky soil, that shallow rooted joy can be snatched away through some hard experiences of difficulty or rejection. The Church is important for encouraging growth.
As they grow, spiritual infants move on to Stage 3, the spiritual child stage of development. At this point, they understand the basic language of faith. They can still be excited about their faith. However, they are only just beginning to learn how to obey the Word of God. They are often like the third soil in Jesus’ parable. They want to be Christian, but they are also still too concerned about their own comforts, which are like the weeds in the third soil.
As spiritual children grow up into Stage 4, they’re more and more able to ignore or let go of the weeds so that God can pull them and the growing Christian can mature into the spiritual young adult stage, in the rich soil that bears much fruit. At this stage, they have grown tremendously from where they started. They are eager to serve, think independently, and look much like adults. They are zealous for God and can be characterized as being “God-focused” and “other-centered.” They are becoming intentional or strategic about sharing their faith and will see people converted, but it often takes a little more growth before they start reproducing new disciples who can make disciples. They serve intentionally but don’t make disciples intentionally. This is good soil. Rich growth can continue.
So, we can identify one more stage. Stage 5, where we become spiritually mature enough to reproduce disciples – we become spiritual parents. I am purposely using the term parent here rather than the word adult. As Christians, we are called to make disciples – to do our part to reproduce our faith in another. Adults are able to reproduce, but that does not mean they are reproducing. Parents reproduce.
So, there you have the 5 stages of the spiritual growth of a disciple. It can also be summarized in one sentence, like this: I want to see and help visitors become believers, believers grow into membership, members grow into servants and ministers, who grow into leaders and disciple makers. Can you see where you are? Can you identify whether there is a next step for you to take? I think the majority of the people in this room are pretty well mature enough to produce disciples. Maybe some of you are making disciples, deliberately mentoring younger Christians to help them grow in the Lord. But I want to challenge you to make sure that you have been discipled, are still being discipled, and that you are prepared to disciple others after you.
One very easy way to put yourself in a good place for this is to be a kid’s hope mentor in our schools. In just an hour a week you can help a student improve his or her outlook on life, his grades in school and chances for success. Ask me about that.
You can also accept this challenge by talking with me about discipleship. In this case, you’d sort of be the student. I have materials that we can go through together. This would be a small group study, and we’d have to pick a day that we can meet together for about an hour at a time. This would be a pretty intensive course. The course takes you through basic instructions for how to know you are a Christian and how to progress as a disciple until you are ready to lead the course for someone after you.
I also have an even more intensive course for which you need a sponsor to participate. You need at least one person you’re accountable to who is probably your sponsor. The lessons take you through honest self-observation and confession to reconciliation. Eventually you are in a place where you can become a sponsor, while still falling back to any of the previous steps as needed, which is often.
If you choose to pursue such courses, you would be in keeping with Paul’s instructions to Timothy where he said, in 2 Timothy 2:2, “The things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable people who will also be qualified to teach others.”
You see the links in the chain there? First Paul, linked to Timothy, who links up to others, fully expecting that they will link up to still others to receive the message of wisdom and maturity of the gospel so that the church grows on. And since we are here today, we can give thanks that God’s plan of linking generation to generation through the faithful passing down of the gospel truth has been working for thousands of years. And it will keep on working as long as each of us accepts our responsibility to be the strongest link we can possibly be, for the sake of those who will be coming after us, while still relying on the links that came before.
That gets us back to today’s text. “Only let us live up to what we have already attained. Join together in following my example, brothers and sisters, and just as you have us as a model, keep your eyes on those who live as we do.” That’s another way of expressing the links in the chain. Be intentional about finding the people who can help you grow more mature in Christ. Paul set the example. And keep your eyes on the people around you who live like Paul. Also, be on the lookout for younger saints who haven’t been Christian as long as you and offer to help them along. They are too precious and important to neglect or ignore.
Paul shows us that he is very confident that his mission and teaching come from God when he says, “And if on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you.” That’s almost humorous. You have a right to your own opinion. And you’ll come around to my way of seeing things if you sincerely seek the Lord.
Then he issues a warning that lists out for us some signs of immaturity in Christians. Let me read that again from verse 18-19. “For, as I have often told you before and now tell you again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ.”
When Paul says that many live as enemies of the cross, he is not just talking about unbelievers who persecute the church! He is very concerned, tearfully concerned, about people in church who think they are believers but who live as enemies of the cross by virtue of their failure to take up a cross and live as faithful disciples. This does refer back to the Judaizers who want believers to be circumcised. But it includes all who don’t let themselves be discipled or mentored. They end up stunted in Christian growth, bearing very little good fruit, or even none. They are the ones who don’t press on. “Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is set on earthly things.”
But for the ones who are truly saved and in love with God do accept the responsibility of discipleship. For them Paul says, “Our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.” To them he can joyfully and confidently exhort: “Therefore, my brothers and sisters, you whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm in the Lord in this way, dear friends!
So, are you thinking of yourself rightly? Do you live a life worth copying? Do you want to live a life worth copying and do you want to work on that through a discipleship course that will get you ready to disciple someone who came to faith after you or even because of you? Take a step today and talk to me about options.
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