Stages of Spiritual Growth

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   and i think it's appropriate message this morning seeing that we are uh ending a year and moving into another year i think it's good to evaluate where we are on some things let's pray over the word and we will get into it this morning thank you heavenly father we just pray in jesus name today lord that you will give us ears to hear and hearts to understand your word lord that you will anoint our hearts and anoint our years and lord enable us to be honest with ourselves to accept what your word says and to determine and examine where we are individually in our spiritual growth lord we thank you for your word that's true and we pray that you will help us to understand it to absorb it to apply it in jesus name amen what i'm going to speak to you today is about um the stages of spiritual growth uh we're going to look at the differences between spiritual maturity and spiritual immaturity but the bible is very clear matter of fact there's quite a few words i actually taught on this 20 say 20 three years ago 22 years ago except uh i had the four stages of spiritual growth now i think there's about five that i've discovered but this is going to be a little different than what i preached years ago because back then i was 24 years old 23 years old i've learned a little bit since then amen hallelujah i want you to take your bibles and we're going to read a few passages before we get into this breaking it down but i want you to go to um first of all the first peter chapter two first peter chapter two and really in the bible the bible does mention four different words for spiritual growth but actually there's five they sound similar but you will see these terms in the bible you will see people referred to as babes in the lord you see um the term children and you see the term young man and you see the term father used in in relation to spiritual growth but this the verse i want to get to we're going to read verse one and two first peter two one and two just as our beginning spot here but this is what it says it says wherefore laying aside all malice and all guile and hypocrisies and envies and all evil speaking as newborn babes desire the sincere milk of the word that ye may grow thereby

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   now this verse right here implies that we should be growing right that we shouldn't we start out when we are born again through faith and repentance in jesus christ and and we know we're saved and we have the witness of the spirit that were born again it says from that moment on we should desire and i love what this word means in the greek it it means to earnestly desire it means to crave intensely the sincere and it's interesting this word means the unadulterated word of god you see this is one thing that i've never understood about so-called converts in christendom that don't want to read their bibles and don't want to pray and don't want to go to church and hear the word preach because if you're born again you know when a newborn baby comes into this world guess what they're hungry they want milk they want to be satisfied and because their stomachs are so small they have to eat frequently they have to eat several times i mean every every few hours they need to be getting that pure milk that they need to keep them alive and what happens if they don't they begin to die right some babies get in critical condition if they cannot feed early on and have to be hooked up to feeding tubes and all these different things but the bottom line it says desire as newborn babes desire the sincere milk of the word now in the greek this word babe here this is what it's the greek word it's pronounced brephos and what it means is an infant literally a babe a young child or one newly come to the faith okay so we see that this is a person who is just you know he's talking about people who have just been born again okay and that's important because there's another word in the bible used for babe as well but it's not the same greek word this greek word is it's napios that sounds funny doesn't it napios this word it's translated babe sometimes it's translated children sometimes it means this it means a simple-minded person an immature christian and i think it's interesting because i this is the first time i really noticed that this is two different words here see there are people who are babes in christ they've they've newly been saved and of course they're not going to know a lot of things they're not going to know how to live the christian life they're not going to know how to act they're not going to know a lot of scripture they're not going to know things but that's not because of any fault of their own that's just because they're newly come to the faith everything's brand new and and they've got a lot to learn but then the reason i believe it uses a different brephos and this napios i

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   believe it uses this different word to show that there are people who are still babes that shouldn't be babes yeah and that's a fault of their own that's people who should have matured should have grown up spiritually should have done something but they have either done something or allowed things in their lives that stunted their growth and they're still babes in the lord they're immature and um it's it's interesting because this word napios um it means even not speaking it means simple-minded person an immature christian do we know some like this well we may be surprised at our own selves in a minute right now i wanted you to we we read that word and that's the word in in uh first peter 2 2 here when it says as newborn babes desire sincere milk of the word that is one that's newly come to the faith a babe a young an infant again a completely different word now i want you to go we're going to read a couple of passages go to hebrews chapter 5. hebrews chapter 5. everybody there hebrews chapter 5 we're going to go down to verse 11. [Music] and he's speaking of some well we'll back up and read a little bit because he's speaking about jesus and just some awesome revelation about jesus let's look at verse 5. so also christ glorified not himself to be made a high priest but he that said unto him thou art my son today i have begotten thee as he saith also in another place that art of priests forever after the order of melchizedek speaking of jesus who in the days of his flesh when he had offered up prayers and supplication with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death and was heard and that he feared and though he were a son yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered and then it says in being made perfect he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him called of god a high priest after the order of melchizedek look at verse 11. now paul's trying to teach some deeper things to these hebrew christians and look what he says to him here he says of whom we have many things to say speaking of jesus and the deep revelation of him that's in the old testament he said of whom we have many things to say and hard to be uttered seeing that ye are dull of hearing for when the time ye ought to be teachers you have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of god and have become such as have need of milk and not of strong meat for everyone that uses milk is unskillful in the word of righteousness for he is a babe

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   but strong meat belongs to them that are of full age even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern good and evil now i want you to see that the word in hebrews 5 here for babe when he says someone who is unskillful in the word of righteousness he's using this term napios which is that simple-minded immature christian this is the christian who has not grown up in the time that they should have grown up this is the christian that that has not learned some things that they should have already learned and this is the the context also what paul is saying the time had come you ought to be teachers but now you need someone to teach you again the first principles the foundational doctrines of christianity and look at chapter six verse one he goes on to say here's these foundational doctrines you should have these down pat he's saying to them and he says therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of christ let us go on to perfection or maturity not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward god and of the doctrine of baptisms and of the laying on of hands and of the resurrection of the dead and of eternal judgment so he says these are the principal doctrines of christianity and he's telling them you should know these you should know these we should be able to move on into deeper things we should be able uh to give you some meat these are foundational principles but you know what i'm discovering and i'm just going to be honest that most of christendom right now and especially in america are not even grounded in these foundational doctrines of repentance of faith of the doctrine of baptisms that there's more than one baptism a baptism in water baptism in the holy spirit with speaking in tongues a baptism of fire that there's the the operation of the laying on of hands to ordain to impart spiritual gifts for healing and for deliverance that there's a whole ministry of laying on of hands and of the resurrection of the dead which speaks of the day of of the rapture and the the second coming and all the events that surround that and of course of eternal judgment of heaven and hell and of the saints that will be judged and given rewards or not and of those who will be damned and eternally punished in the lake of fire i mean these are foundational doctrines and yet many are moving away from these things or never here's the sad part never got established in the truth never got firmly established part of it was because something was something was wrong and i honestly think let me just say this i honestly think that many of the people we say or the church world says that their converts are not you hear me but that still doesn't mean there are some who get converted and the parable of the sower plays this out they get converted and it says they begin to grow spiritual growth happens and let me just preface this with this that there is no

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