How to Grow Up In Every Way | Luke Humbrecht

Discover the transformative power of living in God's abundance and breaking free from scarcity mindsets. Learn powerful biblical principles from Isaac's story of experiencing supernatural provision during famine. Understand how to identify and remove spiritual blockages that prevent God's overflow in your life. This life-changing message explores practical steps for accessing divine abundance, maintaining spiritual growth, and becoming a channel for God's blessings. Perfect for Christians seeking breakthrough, spiritual growth, biblical prosperity, overcoming obstacles, faith building, spiritual transformation, abundant living, divine provision, spiritual warfare, and personal development. Gain insights on moving beyond comfort zones, dealing with difficult seasons, and experiencing supernatural breakthrough in every area of life.

This sermon was recorded at a Sunday morning gathering at Church of the Lookout in Longmont, Colorado.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to the Lookout Weekly Podcast. Church of the Lookout is in Boulder, Colorado, and our vision is Jesus abiding in his presence, growing in his family, and living on his mission to transform the world with awe-inspiring love. Visit us online at the lookout.church. And today we're gonna open up the word. Um, a couple things before we jump into the sermon this morning. Uh, number one, uh, we are coming off of 21 days of prayer and fasting together. Some of you that's new information. Um, and so if you're coming in and you're not a part of that, it's okay. Uh, if you if you have been a part of that, I hope that it's been a fruitful time. And and I know that across the room, depending on you know uh who you are and kind of what God led you to fast or remove from your life for the last 21 days, I hope that it's been a fruitful time. The whole prayer, my whole prayer this entire time is, God, stir up a hunger in me, stir up a hunger in this body for more of you, God, were we been satisfied and maybe even numb through just overconsumption, the things of this world, be it, be it the things that we input into our minds, our brains, or even food in our bodies, or whatever it is. God, would you stir up and unlock a new hunger? Somebody in pre-service prayer today said this. They just they realized that they were, as they were kind of fasting uh uh some some of their news feed, they realized that their news feed is literally called the good their Google feed, right? So it's their daily Google food. Who eats Google every morning? Right? Who eats feed? Like you we literally call it a feed because we're feeding on these things. It's your feed, it's my food for the day. What if you've replaced your food with the food of the word of God, right? And so, and I know some of a lot of you guys have done that. I just I pray that God has stirred up desire uh for more of him, and I pray that that continues. And listen, some of you uh over the last 21 days, as of you as you've participated, maybe you felt God speak things to your heart. Maybe you felt God speak things to us on behalf of this church body. And if that's true, we just want to invite you to come and and share those things with us or anybody in our leadership because we want to hear. We believe that God speaks to all of us, not just the people on stage. Anybody with me on that? This is the body of Christ. And uh and we do this together, and so that's why we do, we're orienting our hearts towards Him uh this year. And so thank you for participating. Um today I want to bring a message that's kind of it's not part of a series, it's kind of setting up where we're going for the next several weeks, but it's more of a standalone. And some of it is just based on stirrings um in my own heart. And then coming off of this last year, our eldership took a retreat uh together, and we do that uh at least once a year to to reflect, to pray, to be in the word, and just ask God, God, what are you speaking to this, you know, to us this year? And and on our last retreat, the passage that we're going to look at today in the scriptures was one that we spent a lot of time reflecting on and just asking God to open up. It just felt like God was pinpointing some things for us. And it comes out of Ephesians 4. And over the next several weeks, we're actually gonna do a deeper dive into the book, this letter to the Ephesians. Um, and it's gonna be a really fun exploration together. But but I want to I want to just jump right in. I there's a there's one passage in particular that I feel like for us is gonna be important as we go into this year. Um, and it's it comes from Ephesians chapter 4, where Paul is painting a picture of what life in the church is supposed to look like. Okay? Um and just a little bit of context for us here today, if you're not familiar with the book of Ephesians and the scriptures, Ephesians is this little letter, it's six chapters in the New Testament, that uh the apostle Paul wrote to a church in a city called Ephesus. Now, the way that the church worked at that point in time, um so Paul was in prison when he was writing many of his letters, and he was the best way he could communicate with the churches all across uh Asia Minor, and this would be modern-day Turkey, okay, where Ephesus was. And at that point in time, the church was spreading, but the way it looked, it looked a lot different than maybe a lot of our churches here today. It was actually a network of house churches in the city called Ephesus, and it was probably like a dozen or so house churches ranging from 20 to 50, maybe at most, you know, if you could do a standing room only for a gathering, hundred, maybe do 120 type of thing. But the he would write a letter to a city, and and the whole his expectation was one house church would receive it and read it together. They probably read the entire letter, all six chapters together in one sitting as a letter from Paul, and they'd receive what they could receive, and then they would pass it on to the other house, the next house church, and they would just circulate it around the city. And a lot of these letters were not just meant for that city, but to circulate as far as it would go. So he'd write letters to cities with the intention of pass this on to others after you spent time with it. So I just want you to just imagine uh being in a room with uh a couple dozen people and you're reading all six letters together, maybe under candlelight, and and and that's all you're doing. You're just gonna read some encouragement from Paul. And Paul, in this particular letter, it's one of my favorites in all the scriptures. He has such a massive vision of what Christ has done in the world, and such a massive vision of what that means for the church, which is the body of Christ, which is the temple of the living God, um, that he just he can't stop himself from overflowing in his use of words and language. Okay. So what we're about to read is one of the longest run-on sentences in all the New Testament. Okay. And Paul had a good way of, he had a way of doing this. It was an English teacher's nightmare, all right? He would have flunked, right? But they didn't have punctuation the same way in the Greek, and so we we kind of guess how the the set the sentences come together, but you're gonna see it just it goes on and on and unfolds and unfolds and unfolds. And and what do you start to see, we're entering into a vision of what the church could be and should be. Okay, you guys with me? So before we read the scripture, let me just pray, just settle in this morning. And you know, and I know coming in this morning, um, maybe you came in today, and there's a lot you're carrying on your heart, a lot you're carrying on your mind that has nothing to do with the gathering here today. Maybe it's from your life, relationships, national events, international events. There's a lot going on, friends. And we carry a lot with us into this moment. Can we just offer it back to Jesus today? And just humble ourselves before the word of God. So Jesus, I just before we read your scriptures here today, God, we just submit the content of our minds and our hearts back to you. God, for every place of heaviness, I just thank you for the light and easy yoga Jesus. For every place of pain and grief, I thank you for the comfort of the Holy Spirit. For every place of anxiety, I thank you that we are firmly rooted in your love. And Jesus, as we open up your scriptures here today, we do so with grateful hearts. Thankful, God, that we get to feast on these words of belief as the church has done for two thousand years. And it's not the printed word that changes us, it's your spirit empowering the word of life. So we thank you to address us this morning to change us. Speak to each and every one of us right where we're at. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. So Ephesians chapter 4, starting in verse 11. This is a good one, guys. And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds, and teachers to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for the building up of the body of Christ until we all attain to the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. Everybody say, fullness of Christ. So that we may no longer be children tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness and deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love. This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. So if you didn't catch it in this passage, again, Paul has this massive vision for the church, and the church much more than a place that you go on Sundays, it's much more than a this awesome place that has good programs for kids. It's not just a um, you know, one time of week where there's somebody really smart from the stage, thank you so much, and you feel better for the next seven days until you can you can scrape yourself back to church. Um Paul's vision is this expansive, robust, vibrant, spirit-filled, prophetic new creation community that is intended to have no other equivalent in the world, and the world's best of chance, best attempts to create an equal kind of community fall short because there is nothing else built on the substance and quality of love and reconciliation and restoration as the Church of Jesus Christ. There is no, there's no such thing as forgiveness as profound as that which has been to afforded to us in Jesus Christ. And that forgiveness seeps so deep into us it changes the way that we see each other. It changes the way that we see our enemies. It changes the way that we see people who are different than us. It transcends every socio-economic uh economical boundary, every ethn ethnic boundary. There is there is nothing as reconciling as the work of God from heaven to earth and then from the church into the world. And in what the church is intended to do is to reflect the life of God in the new heavens and the new earth, to be a prophetic picture of what is to come. That's what the invitation is. And it it just it just defies every the small categories that we tend to put the church in. And and in this church, in this body of Christ, not just this body of Christ, but the global historic body of Christ that we're participating in, the good news is everybody gets to play a part, everybody contributes, and everybody is growing up into Christ who is the head of his church. Come on, are you guys listening today? Everybody gets to play. And there's a lot of metaphors for the church when you read in the scriptures as as as the apostles would start establishing the churches, there's all kinds of metaphors that they use. And sometimes they use this language of the temple, you know, and and that that comes when you start healing hearing this word of God filling the earth, you know, and filling the temple, that that God, that the earth really is created to be a temple that fills it's been to be filled with the glory of God, as a temple would be filled with glory, that us as a people and the entire earth ultimately is to be a temple. So that's one metaphor. We we hear, yeah, about the temple, the building. We've talked about family, that that what God is doing, He's adopted the world to Himself. He's called through Jesus, He's called sons and daughters back into relationship with the Father, making a new family. We hear the metaphor of a bride that God is coming back for a pure and spotless bride, to be married to Jesus for all the time. All the men say amen. That it's a good thing to be married to Jesus, covenant love with the one who knows how to love us. So we are the bride of Christ. That's another metaphor for the church. We're the army of God, right? So we don't just sit on our butts waiting for things to happen, but in the authority of Christ, we we move, and where every place our feet tread, we go with the authority of the kingdom of God because every square inch of the earth is his. And so we we we we don't sit back, we we move forward in the strength that God provides. But in this passage, the working metaphor that Paul is using is this one of the body. And he emphasizes that in a body, Christ is the head, and in this body there are various parts, joints, ligaments, all working together, growing up into the fullness of Christ. We are to grow up in every way. And that's what I want to talk about for a few minutes here today. We are to grow up in every way. I think it's it I think this is a good message for us today, for this year. I think this is a message to the entire body of Christ that he wants us to grow up in every way. Grow up in every way. And so, in order to grow us up in every way, what this passage, what he walks through, is it says that he he gives people and gift things and grace to the church. And in this particular, he he case he talks about apostles and prophets and so on and so forth. I I there's a lot of different takes on this. I just, I just I think that the main thing to know for today is that every person sitting in this room has a particular gift and the and grace for the sake of the body. Every person in this room, I believe that. When we look around this room, nobody is exempt. Everybody has been given a grace and a gifting for the sake of the body. Why? For the equipping of the saints, for what? The work of service, the work of ministry. Okay? So when it says the equipping of the saints, what that means is that God gives us to each other to build each other up for the ministry, the service that He's called us to in the world. And that's not just that, I mean, that would include serving the body of Christ in the church and the different ways that we have to serve each other here, but it's more than that. It's serving, it's serving the world. It's the ministry that God has called you to in the marketplace, in the social sector, in the places that God has assigned us. And our job is to equip each other for the things that God has called us to do, for the building up of the body, which is us, into maturity. So maturity is important to Paul. It's important to the writers of the New Testament that we are to mature. Why? For the unity of the faith, until we all achieve the unity of the faith, not sameness, not cookie-cutter Christianity, not uniformity, but oneness, unity, which means that we're all working off the same picture of who Jesus is, and we follow him according to the revelation. That's what he calls the knowledge of the Son of God. And so unity doesn't come from just agreeing with each other, unity comes from having a clear picture of who Jesus is, and we're pursuing him together. So the knowledge of the Son of God is what creates unity among the church. And then we all come at it in different ways from there. And so, in in that, he's talking about the building up of the body until we take the unity of faith, the knowledge of the Son of God, which means that the building up of the body, the unity of the faith, isn't just about us becoming better versions of ourselves, it's about us becoming more Christ-like. God isn't interested in the better version of yourself, he's interested in Christ-likeness in you, which happens to be the better version of yourself. But there is a difference. I just want to make sure because everyone's about the better version of yourself. Everyone's talking about that. You don't have to be a Christian to be fighting for a better version of yourself. And if you want to go for a better version of yourself, knock yourself out, just knock yourself out, do that. But that's not what Paul's talking about here. He's saying, listen, there is something else that God is doing, and it's called Christ's likeness, maturing into the fullness of the stature of Christ. Jesus is the measuring stick of our maturity. So if unless our lives are looking more like Jesus, they're not actually becoming more mature. Why? So that we may not be children. Flag that. Just bookmark that in your mind. So that we may not be children. What's wrong with being children? There's nothing wrong with being children. The Bible talks about childlikeness, but in this passage, it's more like childishness, where it talks about as children, we're often deceived, tossed to and fro. We never know what to think by every deceitful scheme, move to and fro, he said, by every wind of doctrine, just all the ways of thinking that just toss us. I'm over here, now I'm over here, now I'm back over here. And anybody ever feel like that? We're tossed to and fro. I feel like that sometimes. But he's saying we equip each other for the building of the body so that we may not do that anymore. We gotta grow up, and he that's what he says, speaking the truth in love. This goes back to us. That we speak the truth in love. Why? So that we can grow up into Christ. And then he just talks about this is where every we're we're joined together by every joint, each part working properly. That's you, and that's you, and that's you. And I think you right? Every part working properly. Why? So that the body will grow, building itself up in love. So the the game plan here is Jesus has given us everything we need to build ourselves up in love. Do you guys know that? That even in this church, he's given us everything we need to build ourselves up in love. Okay. Are you guys with me? No, that's a lot there. That's a lot there. I encourage you, go home and just reflect on that line by line. So Paul's progression here is this working picture of there's a body, and God is growing us up in his body. We're all working together, but we're growing up into maturity, no longer being children, but we're growing up into the fullness of the measure of the stature of Christ. So just like we are born and have to move developmentally through stages of life, it's no different as we grow into the image of the stature of Christ. We're born and we have to grow into adolescence, we have to grow into our teenage years, and we have to grow into adult years, parenting years, and ultimately grandparenting years. And it's a good working metaphor. I want to talk about each of those stages here in a second, but one of the problems that we face when we when we enter a passage like this, and this is what I think we have to confront here, is just because we should grow up into Christ doesn't mean that we actually do so. Right? There are several things that happen in our lives and in even in the church that stunt our growth. Sometimes we just feel stuck. We're stuck at where we're stuck at where we're at. There's maybe various reasons we feel stuck at a certain place. We're not able to grow up, we feel stuck. Maybe it's not just because we're stuck, maybe it's just quite honestly that we've just settled for where we're at. And we're like, man, uh this is good, but and I don't think I need to go any further than where I'm at. So we what we do is sometimes we settle. So instead of instead of believing that there is a fullness of Christ that is still waiting for us, we're like, you know, I'm good, I'm good, I have enough, and I'm just gonna stay right here. Sometimes when we're growing in Christ, depending on how long you've been walking with Jesus, sometimes we just downright hit a wall. We just hit a wall. And it feels like we did something wrong. And maybe sometimes there are things that God wants to address, but walls are even a way that God uses in our life to get our attention, to say there's there's other, there's a new way forward. What got you here is not what's going to get you forward. I'm getting your attention to make a way for you into what I'm doing in your life. So if we can receive even the walls as a gift from God, they are all invitations to follow Him to a new degree. Okay. But this is like for this reason, though, this sometimes we just get stuck where we are at. This is why a lot of spiritual leaders end up falling later in life. They get to a measure of success, or they get to a measure of things look good on the outside, but something on the inside is not quite right. They pretend to be something on the outside that they are not on the inside, which is so deceiving. And all of us are tempted to do that. But the Bible, what Paul tells us to do is to grow up in every way. We are to grow up in every way, but babies are so cute. They're so cute, right? We love babies. And you know, it's true, nobody accuses of baby of not pulling their weight around here. Nobody threatens their baby. You better go get a job. You know, that's not gonna happen. We love babies and what they provide to a body. We love newborns and the life that they even we love what they bring to a home, but even in the church, it's a beautiful stage. However, if you're at home and your baby is now 35 years old and you're still being spoon-fed by your mother, and you're still doing the airplane thing, here comes the airplane, you know, and you're doing that, we've got a problem. We've got a massive problem. If you're three decades in and you're still being spoon-fed by your parents, and you know, and it's one of those things where I don't know that this probably isn't a surprise to you, but you know, the um, you know, I it's it's amazing where in much of the church, especially in the West, we get stuck in infancy and adolescent stage when we should be growing up and eventually leading others and teaching others to do what we have received and learned. And what we've done a lot of times is we settle for being fed and fed and fed and never are called to grow up into the fullness of the stature of Christ. Now, you might be like you might be sitting here like, that's a that's a little offensive. I'm 30, 40, 50. You might be biologically a grandparent, but spiritually, you're still an infant in your spiritual maturity. Can we just say it straight like that? That actually could happen. And if you're offended by that, then you know, honestly, it's just like you need to grow up. You gotta grow up. If you're offended by me telling you to grow up, then you need to grow up. Because that's what we're here to do. We're here to grow up in every way, and sometimes we're mistaken. Just because we've been doing this a long time doesn't mean we're growing up into Christ. Knowledge of God is not the same as maturity in God. It's not the same thing. And in a content-saturated world, we've got to separate the two. God is not after knowledge, he's after knowledge that leads to obedience, which means we grow up in every way into Christ. Guys, smile at me. Come on. You love this. This is good for you. The the I think the sociological name for this is failure to launch. Um, which is a thing that happens, and even in the church it happens. And the truth, but the truth, here's the good news for us here today. All of us have a next step in our discipleship to Jesus. All of us in this room, nobody has been left without a next step in your discipleship to Jesus. Okay? But for every single one of us, your next right step might be different than somebody else's, and that's okay. There's no judgment. But the invitation for all of us is what is your step of obedience into growing up into the fullness of the stature of Christ? It doesn't matter if you're a student, it doesn't matter if you're a grandparent, we all have a next step, and we ought to take that seriously because God is after the fullness of life inside of us. And he's going to agitate us until we're willing to go with him. Because he loves us. All right? Okay. So let me just read a different version of this in Ephesians 4. This is what Eugene Peterson in the message, in the message uh version of the Bible says. And uh this is a little more colorful, starting in verse 14. He said, No prolonged infancies among us, please. We'll not tolerate babes in the woods, small children who are easy prey for predators. God wants us to grow up to know the whole truth and tell it in love, like Christ in everything. We take our lead from Christ, who is the source of everything we do. He keeps us in step with each other. His very breath and blood flow through us, nourishing us so that we will all grow up healthy in God, robust in love. Come on. No prolonged infancies among us. If you're an infant, awesome. But no prolonged infancies, we're to grow up healthy in God, robust in love. I just think that's the word of the Lord for us today. And so what I want, I want to actually walk through a few of these stages, though, of spiritual maturity. And I'm gonna do this. There's about five things I'm gonna point out. This isn't all in the passage that we just read, but this is just more an observation of different developmental stages we go through. And the reason I'm going through this is that we can ask a few questions as I go through this. Number one, where are you on the spectrum? What stage are you at? Number two, what do you need right now in your growth and your walk with Jesus? And number two, what are you called to provide for others? If we are here for the building up of the body and for the maturity of the body, where are you in this picture to sharpen and strengthen others? All right, you ready to go? So let's talk about the newborn stage. The newborn stage. This is where we're learning to live, okay? And we all start here, all of us, every single one of us, start here. There's the truth is we are unborn and then we are born into Christ. John 3 3. This is what he said to Nicodemus, an experienced Pharisee. He said, Jesus answered him, Truly, truly I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. So, according to Jesus, and he would say this to a seasoned teacher of the law, which may have felt a little offensive, like you need to become like a baby. You need to be born again. You don't even know what you're talking about. You need to be born again. All of us start here of being born again. And he, Nicodemus hears this and he's confused. Because if you're religiously mature, how can you be spiritually immature? But Jesus is saying, this isn't just about what you know again, this is about new life, a rebirth of the heart. And in other passages, Paul would use more stark terms. He would say, you were dead, and now you've been made alive. And we all start in spiritual death, and then we're made alive in Christ. We're born into new life in Christ. This is a good thing. And just like we're entering, when we enter into new life in Christ, and some of you maybe just think back when that happened for you. And if that hasn't happened for you, it can happen for you even today. We're all born, and it's a beautiful thing. Just think about what that was like for you when you were first born into Christ. And at that time, you had to be surrounded by others who could carry you. You didn't know up from down, you didn't know what this was. You're trying, you're reading through, you're searching for a job, and you're looking for, you know, like, oh, there's a book called Job in the Bible. I'll just read that. And you realize it has nothing to do about career choices. It's pretty, it's pretty hard and depressing. Um, but but but but you find out how to read the books of the Bible, and uh and it's all new, it's new languages, but you need somebody else to carry you to teach it to you, right? You're and and when you come into Jesus, you start to notice all of your very desires start to change. Do you remember that? When your desires start to change, and I this wasn't my story, but I hear I've heard so many stories of people like just addicted to substances of all different kinds, and they come into Jesus and all of their desires change just like that. And then they're starting to be filled with the desires of God in their life, and you're you're realizing, oh my God, I'm not the same person as I was. And it's not of your own doing. This is the work of God, it's the supernatural work of God. How many of you guys are glad to be born again into Christ? He changes us from the inside out, and it's a beautiful thing. And when God brings those to us and in this family who are new to Christ, we receive them and we don't expect them to be somewhere they're not. We say, This is so awesome. Let me walk with you, because what you need when you're born is somebody to walk with you, to teach you. You start to learn how to want what God wants. I remember when I started actively following Jesus when I was just in junior high, I just I just started reading all of the books that were on my parents' bookshelf. And I just like, I just, I was hungry, I was so hungry for anything I could get a hold of. I started reading all these books. And maybe, maybe, maybe you're in that season where you're new to the faith and and you're just starting to get a hold of books and videos and podcasts and have spiritual conversations. It's all new to you. And this is why in 1 Peter chapter 2 he says, like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk that by it you may grow into salvation. And it's a good thing, like an infant feeding on the milk of its mother. Milk is food that's digested by somebody else so that we can it can be received by another. And when you're in a newborn stage, it's really good to be with others who have the ability to share with you what they've experienced in God. And when you're walking with somebody who's new, this is your chance to digest the word of God and bring it to them in a beautifully in a fresh way. Saying, hey, here's what's available to you in Christ. It's a beautiful thing. And so when you're a newborn, this is where you're learning the scriptures, you're learning to grow in community. You get baptized and you learn to walk out your baptismal identity of being baptized in the Father, Son, and the Spirit. But it doesn't end there, right? Infancy is a beginning stage, but then from there we grow into adolescence where we're learning to walk. So as a newborn stage, we're learning to live. In adolescence, we're learning to walk. You start moving from learning into practicing. So this is where you start taking your first steps and you're learning to fall and make mistakes. And you remember some of you, some of you know, like, you know, if you have young children or you had young children, those first steps, and you don't know how far they're gonna make it across the room before they fall. And even when they fall, you you cheer them on, or like, yes, that was awesome. Nobody rebukes their adolescent for like, I can't believe you didn't make it across the room the first time. It's just like every step is a celebration, right? And this is the same way in the body of Christ, when we take our first steps, we we celebrate with each other. I love, even over the last few months, I've been spending more time with my kids, and we've just been reading the Bible together. And I'm just trying to teach them what I know about how to like open the Bible, and here's what I do when I open the Bible, and here's some questions to start asking. And so they're not only just hearing me teach the scriptures, now I'm I'm helping them learn how to read the scriptures for themselves, which is what you're learning to do as an adolescent. You're starting to move from being fed to feeding yourself, you're starting that journey. You're starting to learn how to hear God's voice for yourself. So when you're newborn, you're like, you're helping other people are helping you hear God's voice. This is what God wants to say to you. But when you start to journey with God, you're learning to hear God's voice for yourself. You're learning to read the scripture, you're being established in your identity, you're learning to practice the one another's, right? So in the scripture, all the time they say, love one another, be patient towards one another, encourage one another. You know, and and what we're doing in the adolescence is you're learning to practice life in the kingdom of giving, tithing, serving, showing hospitality. You're learning to take your first steps in kingdom life. It's a beautiful thing, it's a beautiful thing, but still at this point, you're really only thinking about yourself at this point because it's still new and you still don't feel very good at it. And so you're taking your first steps, and that's good. But a transition starts to happen out of adolescence. This is a really important transition. And you start to move into teenage years, okay? And teenagers, you gotta learn this. So you move from learning to walk to learning responsibility. Okay. First John chapter 2, he writes it like this, and he talks about the spiritual stages. He says, I am writing to you, little children, because your sins are forgiven for his name's sake. I'm writing to you, fathers, because you know him who is from the beginning. I'm writing to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the evil one. So in this one passage, he addresses children and young men and women and fathers and mothers. And these are likely metaphors for these different stages that we're talking about. But he refers to the young men as the ones who are strong, they're fighters, and um um, and and he's encouraging that the word of God abides in them. And the teenage season is an important season in spiritual development because this is a season where we start to be tested in what we've learned. And this is where we start to wrestle with feelings of temptation, identity, purpose. It's like the gym where we're growing in strength. Do I really believe what I think I believe? And you're learning not only to believe that for yourself, but for others. And this is where character is forged. You're tested with who you are and what you know, and this is where you're called into new responsibility. In the teenage years, is where you're given the keys to the car. And like, all right, I've trained, I've taught you everything I know. It's time, it's it's time now. You're gonna have to start taking some steps into taking responsibility for yourself, but you're gonna start catching a vision what it means to care for others. This is an important one. Because you can't actually grow into this stage until you start catching a vision that I don't only exist for myself, I exist for those around me as well. And and the role, and we'll get to this in a second, the role of wise mothers and fathers is to call teenagers into the identity and to trust and to say, hey, listen, this is new for you, but I know you can do it. I've taught you well, and you're gonna go do it. You're gonna start learning to do this. And so this is, I remember this happening to me when I was in high school, actually. This is I had a call-up moment by one of my youth pastors. I was playing guitar, I was leading worship, and and the at the church I was at in Indiana, we the youth worship team went and led worship for the kids, uh the kids' ministry, and it was great. It was awesome, except that we thought we were way too cool for school. All right. We thought we were the stuff, dude, because we had electric guitars and drums and the whole thing, and we, you know, it was just like we just thought we were awesome. And so we showed up to kids' minister and we were, you know, it was a Sunday morning, we're back there, and we show up kind of with the swagger, and you know, we're playing guitar and kind of doing the thing. Then right afterwards, we go out into the hallway, and my youth pastor comes out and he says, he said, listen to me, he said, he said, if you ever do that again, he said, I I will like you will be unallowed. Like I'm gonna cut this off right here. If you ever show up half-hearted to lead worship again, you are done. And what he would go on to say, listen, he said, these kids are learning from you. Like you're not here just to bring your gift, they are learning what worship looks like from you. And if you're gonna come in half-hearted, then you're not gonna have a chance to come in here. Every time you set foot on the stage, you are to model what it looks like to come with a full heart before Jesus. Come on, I was like, Woo! I mean, it was a it was a stern rebuke, he said, not ever again. You're not to do that. And I remember that. It was a call-up moment. I felt at first kind of defensive. I'm like, was it really that bad? But he was right because I didn't come with a full heart. I remember that shaped me, and I can even trace my entire life back to that moment. From that moment on, never again, whether I'm with five people or five hundred people or whatever the whatever the number of people, I'm gonna come with a full heart because the content of my life affects the people around me. That's what teenagers start to learn. It's not just about me, it's about my effect on the people around me. You're to grow up in every way. Now, some of you, let's just stop there. Some of you, that's a new thought that you're coming and here, it's not just about you hearing a good message, it's about the effect that you're having on the body of Christ. Are you learning to lead? Are you learning to teach? Are you learning to have an effect and to be responsible for more than yourself? You may still be an adolescent. That's okay, but it's time to grow up. That's a good word, Louis. Hey, I'm just saying what Paul's saying, alright? So, in a teenage years, this is where we're learning to put to practice everything we've learned for the sake of others. We're learning to confess sin. We're learning about spiritual warfare and tempt overcoming temptation. This is where we need to find mentors and spiritual mothers and fathers to grow us up in the faith. You will not be able to get forward to move forward without spiritual fathers and mothers in the faith. And uh, and this is where you start to pray for others as much as you pray for yourself. You're starting to pray for others. This is the switch that starts to happen. Consider others more highly. Okay. But then we don't end there, we we we continue to grow, and so we move from a learning responsibility to learning to lead. This is spiritual mothers and fathers. This is what we call a parenting stage. Mature believers reproduce, they disciple, that carries others through pain, they speak life and truth with gentleness, they call each other up into love. The writer of Hebrews he doesn't mince any words. He says, Hebrews chapter 5, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone else to teach you again the basic principles and oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food. Okay. So, in other words, like, hey, I wish that you guys were able to teach what I've taught you so far, but you're still babies. And yeah, I just I need to reteach you who you are and what you've been given. And then the hope is that eventually you can teach it to others, right? To grow up into all things. And so this is a good thing though. He's not writing this to shame anybody. This isn't shame language, by the way. This isn't an indictment, it's about the reality that we never stop growing into the fullness of Christ. And the writer of Hebrews, he's longing for them to grow into their calling, um, to know what it's like to be in a place where you you hunger for the depth of God, and and you're longing to pour out what you've learned. And this is why Paul writes in Philippians chapter 3, he says, brothers, join in imitating me. Do what I'm doing. Brothers, join in imitating me and keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example you have in us. So this is why we need spiritual mothers and fathers in the house of God who live as the examples. And Paul is not being arrogant, he's not saying, I'm the only one who's God. He's he's he's being parental. And spiritual maturity looks like being a life others can imitate. Let me just ask let me just ask the question to you. How would you feel if others imitated you? And that's not a shame question. Okay? There's no this is a no-shame zone, by the way. It's a no-shamed here. This is a growth conversation. How would you feel if others imitated you in the way that you worship, in the way that you pray, in the way that you give, the way that you serve, the way that you practice to one another's? How would that be? And are you calling others to do to do that? And this is what we get to do. This is where we're all going, where as we're becoming spiritual mothers and fathers in this faith, we're learning to pour ourselves into those around us. And here's here's the big one. When you come to church, when you're a spiritual mother and father, you do not come to church to get fed. How many times over the years have I heard people switching churches and even this church or other churches, and like I just am not getting fed there anymore? Like, I'm not even sure. I don't even know if you know the point of going to church. Church is about, like, I hope that you, that, that the word of God is nourishing for you. But when when you grow up into Christ, when you've learned, when you're learning to read the scriptures for yourself, what you're here for is not so much what can people do for me. You're here to create an environment for others to enter into. You're here to create a caring, loving, you're here to bring the resources of God to those who are younger in the faith that you can come alongside to champion the work of God inside of them. So whether the sermon's good or the sermon's bad, you're good because you've been feeding yourself all week. You're not even here for that. You're here to serve the younger ones that God has put around you. And so when I hear people that have been walking with Jesus for 30 years and they're switching to churches because they're not being fed, I'm just telling you guys, we are way blown out. Like we are way off course if that's what we're doing. Because spiritual mothers and fathers have learned to nourish themselves in the Lord to the degree that they are now obsessed with pouring themselves out to the ones that God has given them. Okay, so this is this is good news though, because that means we get to do that. That means when we come, we're looking for the opportunities to give away what God has given to us. It's not just about what we're getting out of it, it's what we're providing for others here. True spiritual parents are here to create a safe place for others. We're here to pray for others, to give your life away. That's what you get gets you up in the morning. So when you get up, you're like, I don't know if I feel like going to church. That's how adolescents and teenagers think. That's not how parents think. Can we just say it like that? Parents don't think like that. Parents are like, I'm going because God is bringing people that need me to be present on the prayer team and on the worship team and in pre service prayer and to go serve in the kids' ministry. I'm I'm gonna go create a space for others. It's not, oh well, I stayed up last night and I just don't feel it this morning. That's not how parents think, that's how adolescents think. Parents think, I'm going because God has brought God is bringing people that need me to attend to. That's so good, Luke. I'm so glad that you call us out. I'm in a good mood up here. I don't know about you. I'm in a good mood. There's nothing in me that is trying to create like, oh, geez. But we must know this is the trajectory. And we're not doing something different, all right? This is where we're going. And I hope this is where you're going. Because there's so much life. Because parents know that when you eat when you start to switch from living for yourself to living for others, it's the only way past that wall of feeling stuck. You're trying, you're spending all your time trying to get unstuck. God is calling you to give your life away. This is the Jesus way, the cruciform way of die to yourself. That's the best way to find life. That's what spiritual parents begin to realize. Oh, life is actually comes when I give myself away. Okay. I got to keep going because we're running out of time. So, spiritual parents, but it doesn't end there. There's this stage of spiritual grandparents, which is learning to bless. And this cuts against the grain of the myth of retirement. It's the myth of retirement. You're not going to hear the apostle Paul talking about retirement. Okay, no. You might retire from your paid work, which you can and you probably should at some point. But you don't retire from the kingdom of God. You don't retire from meaning and purpose. It's just your your purpose starts to change. And you might not have the same capabilities you once had, but no, you know what you have? You have the stories and the testimonies of the goodness of God. You don't have the same energy you once had, but you have the faith that you once had. And so some of you have counted yourself out. What do I have to offer in the body of Christ? Let me let me just tell you, grandparents, we need you so badly. We need you. We need you. We need your stories, we need your victories, we need your failures. We need who you've become, and we need what you have to offer. And the point of grandparents is to bless and to call out the goodness and to remind us of what we've forgotten and to come alongside and said, Hey, I'm here to pray for you, I'm here to support and encourage you. You don't have the resources maybe you once had, but you have the life of God seeping out of every pore of your body. Bless you. This is the blessing of grandparents. So can you guys see how we need all of these together? We need those who are new to the faith. We need those who are adolescents taking the first step. We need the teenagers who are a little rebellious, can't quite figure out who they are, but they're learning to grow up into the image of the stature of Christ and in the learning to take responsibility. We need the parents who are creating the spaces. We need the grandparents who are learning to bless. Psalm 92 says it this this way: the righteous flourish like a palm tree. They bear fruit in old age. You can bear fruit in old age. They are ever full of sap and green to declare that the Lord is upright. Woo! Your days aren't over. We need you more than ever. So here's the question I want to circle back to. What would it look like for our church this year to grow up in every way into Christ who was the head? What does it look like for you? And as I'm talking, man, I may, I don't know. There may have been some things that kind of cut, maybe some things that got pinpointed in your own life. And I'd say, you know what? Hold those before God. What is God calling you to do? Church, what we're doing is more than about believing in Jesus. It's about being with him and becoming like him together. It's about meeting people where they are and journeying with them to where God wants them to be. That's what we're doing as a church. We're growing up into spiritual maturity because God has given us everything we need to build ourselves up in love. So here's my prayer, especially coming off of a season of fasting and prayer. Here's my prayer: God, unlock the hearts of your people to be who you made us to be. This year, unlock our hearts. If there's places we're stuck, at the places where we're settled, at the places where we're we haven't moved beyond where we've been, I'm telling this is the year, guys. May we be filled with faith to know that there's more to come and there's more he is growing us up into so that the whole world will see the fullness of the measure and the stature of Christ and the beauty of the church. Come on. So that being said, I we're what we're doing, you know, as a leadership, we're you know, we're we're kind of early on in our intentionality around creating opportunities and spaces for us to grow in these different stages, okay? But we're we're we're gonna be diligent this year in creating opportunities. Josh mentioned a couple that are coming up very quickly. If you're newer to the church, if you just kind of want to understand how to take first steps into this community, this church, and maybe you've been around, but you're still just trying to figure it out. Come to the Welcome to the Lookout class on February 22nd, okay? I'm hoping it's a great place for you to be able to find your place, but then also get some traction points because God has something for you here. Come to that class, all right? It's nothing else, it's free lunch, all right? Free lunch. Everybody loves free lunch. But the second part, like you said, February 17th, Megan and I are leading emotionally healthy spirituality. It is a course, but the the hope is that you'll be able to journey with others in the midst of this course and you're learning the rhythms of being with Jesus to live a life from the inside out. We've led this course several times. I love, I love what it provides, and it's a good um, it's a good foundation for the rest of the culture that we're trying to build of a life rooted in Christ that's overflowing to others. All right. If you have not taken the course, I want to encourage you, clear your schedule. It's Tuesday nights, clear your schedule. You can register online, come be a part with us. All right. I cannot encourage you strongly enough. Um, it's gonna be a fun experience. There's gonna be a lot of people newer to the church, and then also some of us who've done it before. Even if you've done it before, come do it again. Okay? You can keep going. And listen, we're gonna keep having these opportunities to grow up into Christ. And I just want to encourage you. Everybody has a step. You've never arrived. You've never arrived. You've arrived to this moment, but God has more for you. And I want to encourage your spirit, don't be discouraged with where you're at. Jesus is leading you, and he's given this body to you to help accompany you on the journey. Amen? All right, so last thing this morning, just across the room, just close your eyes with me. Close your eyes with me. We're we're we're coming into land here. So I just want to ask a couple questions to us as before we leave. And these are kind of reflection questions as we respond to the word, because this word is about receiving the gift of the body and us growing up into the fullness of the statue. I just want to ask you for a second, who in who in your life has contributed to where you are today? Who has God given you in your life that has contributed to who are who you are today? Just think about your whole life and your spiritual growth and where you are today. The people that have invested in you. What was it about them? What did they say? What did they do? What did they model for you? And as people come to mind, names and faces, I just want you to take a moment and thank Jesus for them. Thank you, God. Now I want you to think about maybe others in the room here today who've done that. People that have become gifts and graces to you in your own walk with Jesus. Same thing, as people come to mind that you're thankful, like, man, I would not be who I am without them. Just thank Jesus for them. And as I'm talking, some of you are realizing, man, I need I need somebody in my life. I need a mentor. I need a spiritual mother or father. I need someone to adopt me into their life. Or maybe you know that you need somebody else needs you. And you don't know where to start. And if that's the case, whether you need people in your life or you know that others need you, I just want you to make that a prayer today. God bring the right people into my life. I just say, in your own words, make that a prayer beforehand. And God, together we thank you. I thank you for this word. I thank you for your leadership and the way that you're growing us up, that you're not leaving us where we're at where we're at, but we're all growing up. And God, I pray for every one of us here today that we would continue to be the kind of body that builds itself up in love. Everybody functioning, everybody contributing, everybody overflowing the love that you have shown us. I thank you, even after the service today, that we'd call out the gold that we see in each other. We'd learn to celebrate each other, tell each other the life of God that we see in each other. And God, as we leave this place, I thank you that we're leaving with your life. We're leaving with joy. That we get to be a part of what you're doing. So I bless my friends and my family here. I thank you that we're a part of this together. We love you today, Jesus. And it's in your name we pray together. Amen. Amen. Amen. It's good. Yeah, you can clap. Let's stand, let's stand up. Let's stand up. Thank you guys for stretching a little bit with me here today. Um and and tracking along in the Word. Encourage you to dig into Ephesians over the next couple months. Okay, we're gonna be talking about the fullness of life in Christ together. It's gonna be a beautiful journey. Go sign up for the classes we have coming up. And as we leave, like Josh said, if you're a guest with us here today, you're gonna see a sign right in the back that says connect with us. I'll be back there in just a minute. We'd love to pray for you. If you need prayer for anything else, we're gonna have a ministry team up on the sides of the room and they're gonna have purple badges. If you want prayer today, and you know that you need strength in a part of your life, you maybe you need healing, or you want to respond to something that God is doing in your life, go to the prayer team after the service here today on the sides of the room and receive prayer. And we'd love to meet you there. For the rest of you, I bless you to go in the peace of the strength of the kingdom as the beautiful body of Christ. I love you guys. Have an awesome day.