Moving Toward Maturity

In this message, Dr. Stanley tells us that it was predetermined that we would be saved to grow and conform to the likeness of Jesus Christ. As believers, if we don’t grow, there’s something wrong with us. Dr. Stanley teaches us how to judge, test, and gauge our growth as Christians. He also explains how we can change our conversations, our conduct, and our character.

Start your day off right with the free in touch devotional. Subscribe today.
In touch, the teaching ministry of Doctor.
Charles Stanley, reaching the world with the gospel of Jesus Christ. Next on in touch, moving toward maturity.
When a child is born, you expect that child to grow.
And after a few weeks maybe or a few months and you think something’s wrong, this child’s not growing because it’s natural for them to grow.
When you were born again as a child of god, you became just that a child of god.
And likewise, you and I are expected to grow.
Now being born again means that god has forgiven us of our sins and he’s brought us into a personal relationship with him.
That’s salvation. That’s being born again.
So being born again we as believers, if we don’t grow, there’s something wrong with us, because god intends for us to grow and to grow and to grow till the day we die.
With the growth spiritually. And if you’re not growing in your Christian life, there’s something wrong.
You say, well, how will I know?
If you listen carefully to this message, you’re gonna find out how to judge yourself test yourself, gauge yourself as to if you’re growing as a Christian or if you’re stagnating.
Well, somebody says, well, maybe I’m just stagnating. I’m staying where I am. No.
If you stagnate, you don’t stay there.
If you drift further and further and further away from god, if you are not growing.
And I wanna show you the warnings that he tells us here in Second Peter.
So if you’ll turn there for just a moment and, uh, in the first chapter, he begins by reminding, uh, his readers that god has given every he has everything we need to be the persons he wants us to be.
The second chapter, he reminds us of the false doctrine that’s floating around causing people not to grow and leading them astray.
Then when he comes to this third chapter, he helps us, but all the things that are happening and will happen And he comes to this last verse and I will just read just a few verses here.
Um, let’s go to the seventeenth verse.
You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand That is the difficult times are coming, beloved knowing this beforehand, be on your guard.
So that you are not carried away by the era of unprincipled men and fall from your own steadfastness.
And then he makes this statement is where I’m coming to.
But grow in the grace and knowledge of our lord and savior Jesus Christ to him be glory both now and to the day of eternity amen.
Now look at that verse. He says, but grow That’s an imperative, and it happens to be in a Greek tense that says this, grow and keep on growing and keep on growing and keep on growing, not just grow to point, but just keep on growing in your Christian life.
And that’s what he’s saying to us here.
So When we think about that, uh, we think about, um, why we should grow and think about, uh, what does it mean to grow in his grace?
Well, his grace, of course, is his love and his undeserved love in favor toward us, and we’re to be growing in that continually.
So we want to answer the question.
First of all, why should we endeavor to grow in the grace and knowledge of our lord and savior Jesus Christ?
Why should we do it? And so there are three reasons primarily.
The first one is that he has predestined predetermined before you were saved, before you were saved, he predetermined that you would grow.
That’s the will of god. That’s the will of god and plan for your life.
So he says in Romans chapter eight that twenty ninth first that he predetermined or he predestined us to be conformed to the image of his son.
If I’m if I’m becoming more and more in the likeness of his son, I am changed in my conversation, my conduct, my character, I’m growing.
So ask yourself the question, is that happening in your life or is it not?
A second reason he wants us to grow is in order to protect us to protect us from false ideas, false prophets, as he said, So I want to give you a few verses of scripture that sound just like our society today and he says, one of the reasons you need to keep growing is to protect you in this kind of environment.
So their environment was sort of like ours.
So let’s look if you will in that, um, look in the second chapter beginning in the first verse.
He said, but false prophets also arose among the people just as there will be false teachers among you who will secretly introduce destructive terraces, even denying the master, that is Jesus, bringing swift destruction upon themselves.
Many will follow their sensuality and because of them, the way of the truth will be maligned.
And in their greed, they will exploit you with false words. Their judgment from long ago is not idle.
And their destruction is not sleep.
He says he’s predestined us to be confirmed the likeness of his son and he wants to protect us the society in which you and I live and the third reason he says our love for Jesus and our knowledge of him.
And so god is very, very interested in our relationship to him.
And his will is that you and I are growing.
Now nobody knows whether you’re growing but yourself, but probably the people who watch you, they can tell by your conversation, by your attitude, by what you do, by what you talk about.
All these things, it indicates that somebody’s either growing or not, they’re not growing.
And if you look at your life and you say, well, ten years ago, where was I?
And you say, well, I’m better where I was then than you’ve been backsliding for ten years.
You say, well, I don’t drink, I don’t smoke, I don’t commit adultery. I don’t do all these things.
We’re not talking about what you don’t do. We’re talking about who you are as a person.
Growing in likeness to Jesus Christ, you say, but he was absolutely sinless as he was.
And that doesn’t mean that you are not gonna reach a stage of being sinless But he says he predestined us.
Listen to be he predestined us to become like his son, conform to him.
That is as much likeness as we can possibly be.
And in a few moments when I give you a list of things, it doesn’t mean that every single one of these things is gonna be true of you.
And that you have to do every single one of these things to be growing because we all come from different backgrounds.
We were saved early later in life.
We all have different responsibilities and that we grew up with different attitudes.
But in this list, you’re gonna be able to discover whether you personally are growing or not.
And if you’re not growing more than likely, listen carefully, there’s something you’re holding on to that you shouldn’t be holding on to.
People do not become born again by the grace of god changed, had name written in the lamb’s book of life, sealed by the Holy Spirit of Promise who lives within them and one who does not draw unless that person is holding on to something in their life that’s keeping them from growing.
So I’d ask you a question. What just came to your mind as soon as I mentioned that?
Because it did.
That was if if you’re not growing and you’re living in sin, And and you say, well, I’m not living in sin.
I got a few sins, but listen, if I am continually being conformed to his likeness, you know what I’m doing?
I’m con I’m continually being sanctified cleaning up anything. Think about this.
Somebody says, well, I think I’m doing pretty good. Okay, sir.
If you had on an absolute white suit, beautiful white suit.
Oh, ma’am, you had on a beautiful white wedding dress, and we said, well, we’re going down into this coal mine.
You think you’re gonna come out white? No. Because it’s gonna rub off on you.
We are living in a society where a sin, whether it’s through the television, where people go, what they buy, what they look at, what they see, what they do, our lives are easily unclean if we’re not careful.
And the Bible talks about sanctification, a sanctified life watch this a sanctified life is a life that is continually growing in holiness, righteousness, and obedience to god.
It doesn’t mean that you’ll not sin, but for here’s what it means.
If you’re growing in him, you deal with it right then.
And when people say, well, you know, nobody’s perfect. Everybody’s got their sin, not necessarily so.
It may be to have some people have this weakness that weakness of the, but that doesn’t mean they have this, and they may be battling with it.
They may be struggling to give up with it.
And to lay it aside, which is what we ought to be doing if there’s something in our life that’s not right.
And so god has intended that you grow and you were saved to grow and to live in righteousness.
And so what I’d like to do is I’d like to give you a list of things that are evidences that you’re growing in the lord or evidences that you’re not.
And I think you’ll agree with every one of them.
You may not like them, but you’ll have to agree that if I’m growing, the following things are true.
So are you ready to say amen? Alright. Number one.
If I’m growing in the lord, I’m becoming increasingly aware of my sinfulness and my weaknesses.
I’m increasingly aware as I grow, I understand more.
I become more and more sensitive to things in my life that are not right.
As we come along in life, things we don’t think about.
But the more you grow into Christ likeness, watch this.
He gives you the spiritual insight to see that that doesn’t fit who you are.
And so One of the reasons we know that we are growing is we become more and more sensitive to sin in our life, even little things, for example, used to put up with.
Maybe words you used to say. Things you used to look at, whatever it might be.
You become more and more sensitive And here’s what happens. The sensitivity is that doesn’t fit me.
That doesn’t indicate that I’m being conformed to the likeness of Christ. A second thing is this.
Our response to sin in our life is quick involving genuine repentance.
That is Repentance means I am sorry for what happened. I turn away from that.
I don’t want that in my life. Listen. You don’t think it’ll grow.
From nine o’clock in the morning till eleven o’clock at night? Yes, it will.
The time to deal with sin is immediately. Lord, I want to ask you to forgive me for that.
I’m ashamed of myself. And, uh, so I wanna handle it right now.
If you’re growing in your Christian life, you don’t wait.
Number three, um our spiritual battles are becoming more and more intense and yet we’re still rejoicing.
Now if you’re growing in your Christian life, here’s what happens.
You begin to realize that spiritual battles listen, uh, uh, are difficult and they’re hard, but they’re opportunities.
That would you you you realize, for example, this is bothering me today and three months or six months from now same thing happens and you know what?
You said, thank you, Jesus. Thank you. Thank you.
Thank you dear, Lord for sending that in my life because you’re showing me now I can love you and I can forgive them with no problem whatsoever.
So you can measure that. Then of course, we begin to see trials and temptations as opportunities for growth.
Now with God, I wanna thank you for how you’re gonna deal with this in my life.
I’m gonna trust you. I don’t know exactly what to do at this moment, but I know you’ll show me how and I’m gonna deal with it, and you bring me through it.
Then of course, we begin to view service to him, as a high honor, not a burden.
And I think how often people say, well, you know, I I go to church and and I I just don’t have time to to serve in the church.
You don’t have time. Oh god could give you time but taking away your job and love everything else.
But in other words, Here’s the thing about it.
You have to find out what does God want you to do?
We’re not saying that everybody ought to preach and teach and sing and acquire or lead the music or do anything else we do.
But the truth is you and I have time. You have time to visit somebody who’s sick.
You have time to witness to somebody who just opens the door wide open for you to share your faith, you and I have times to serve god in many, many, many ways, and we don’t see it as a burden.
For example, suppose I saw uh sermon preparation, which is a task for sure every week.
Not once in a while, but every week because every sermon, I want to be the best I can do.
Suppose I saw that as a burden. No. It’s one more awesome opportunity.
Listen, for me, do you know who grows the most? I do. God, I discovered things.
I’d never discovered it, but we’ll see things in scripture. I never paid any attention to it.
Here’s the thing about it. Watch this.
God is gonna stir you up enough and plow up your ground enough that when something new comes along, you think, how did I miss that lord?
The Christian life is a wonderful, exciting journey because you’re growing into Christ’s likeness.
You you know what you’re doing. You’re putting yourself in a position for God to really bless you.
Look, He says my will is to conform you to the likeness of my son.
And so when you think about whether you’re growing or not, See if that’s the truth.
Now the next one is one of the most important lessons I’ve ever learned.
We’re able to view everything as coming from him.
That is probably one of the most, not probably.
That is one of the top lessons I’ve ever learned in the Christian life.
You said, wait a minute, everything doesn’t come from him. I didn’t say that.
I said we learn to see everything is coming from him.
And one of the toughest battles of my life when I had lots and lots of enemies who wanted to get rid of me and did everything possible.
And in the prayer room one day, it’s like the Lord said to me. You wanna win this battle?
Do exactly what I tell you. You see everything is coming from me, not them.
No matter what they say, what they do, how they treat you. You see that is coming from me.
Because I could stop it, but I’m allowing it, and I’m allowing it for a reason.
So if you will see that is coming from me, you won’t get angry, You won’t get bitter.
You won’t get resentful. You won’t get hostile. They won’t even figure out what in the world’s going on.
That they can do all of those things and you’re just happy about the whole situation.
It is a powerful lesson because it is the truth.
Nobody can do anything to a child of god unless he allows it.
If we’re gonna grow in our Christian life, we have to lift our vision.
Lord, no matter what they say, I’m gonna say, that’s coming from you, you must have known that I needed that, Lord.
You’re testing my patience. You’re testing my morals. You’re testing this.
Testing that, so I must need that praise god’s cinnamon.
And and and what happens is you’re able to see a difference in your life.
Then of course, uh, we’ll sense when our faith’s growing stronger.
You’ll be able to tell when you’re growing longer because things that used to bother you, it won’t bother you.
Uh places you used to go. You won’t go anymore. Things you used to want. You don’t want anymore.
Things used to see. You don’t see anymore.
And you thank him seeing it as from him and you’ll find your faith growing stronger.
Then of course, if we are growing in the lord, we’re gonna spend more time in worshiping him and praising him.
This is why people. I don’t I don’t understand people who don’t go to church regularly.
Now you may you may be in one of those areas this country that’s not a church within fifty miles.
I do realize there’s some places a long ways away or maybe somebody in your home, they can’t be left alone.
I’m sure there are exceptions, but forget about the exceptions. Why don’t you go to church?
You say I can live a Christian life without it.
Well, tell me what you’re doing for Jesus.
Tell me about tell me about how much time you’re spending in prayer and worship.
I’m not saying that people can’t I’m just saying the simple this.
He says, forsake not the assembling of yourselves together as some do. You know why God puts us together?
He puts us together, for example, to worship him, to praise him.
Now, I can worship the lord and praise god singularly, uh, in my house by myself, I can shout or sing.
I can praise the lord and uh whatever it might be.
But it’s a whole lot more powerful when I hear you sing. And while we all praise the lord.
And we’re all reading the scripture and we’re just having a good time praising God.
He wants us to praise him. And you know what’ll happen?
When you’re growing in the lord, you want to be a part of a fellowship.
You want to grow in the lord. You want to be in his word.
You want to hear somebody explain the word of god. You want to grow.
You want to see every single time an opportunity.
Then our desire to obey him is becoming more and more intense and sin is less and less attractive.
The more you and I live like Jesus, the less and less we’re gonna put up with sin in our life.
And god wants us to live a sanctified life.
Now listen to this, a sanctified life is a life that has been set apart by god through the Holy Spirit to live a godly life.
It doesn’t mean that we’re sinless, but sanctified means I’ve been set apart by him. Uh, you have.
If you’re saved, you set apart by him, to live a godly life.
And so when that’s true, you have less and less interest. Here’s what’ll happen.
You’ll spend less and less time on foolish things. Less and less money on foolish things.
Less and less time listening to foolish stuff.
Less and less time wasting your time when you could be filling your mind with godly thoughts and filling your mind with truth that that builds you up strengthens you and em and empowers you to defend your faith.
And we need that in this day and time.
Then of course, We’ll be more and more eager to share what Christ is doing in our life.
As you grow in your Christian life, you wanna tell it. You can’t keep it to yourself.
And as I said before, you know, when I go to a restaurant, something, the first thing I’m doing is looking for an opportunity to say something to whoever’s waiting on me that’ll open the door for me to not tell them who am and only want them to know who am.
I just want them to know, uh, who Jesus is.
Then We listen, we are experiencing an ever increasing awareness of his presence.
I think personally for me, That word presence is number one.
Walking in his presence, he sleep in his presence, You wrestle with difficulties in his presence.
And the more godly you become, and the more Christ like you become, and the more obedient you become.
Listen, there’s some things you absolutely would not say if Jesus were sitting here or would not do.
Well, he is here. And when you see the the stronger you become as a believer, what happens is the more aware of his presence you are in some things you don’t tolerate in your life because you’re a follower of Jesus Christ.
Then of course, you’ll know How well you’re growing when you just love to spend time alone with god.
You’ll know when you’re growing when you covet the time you spend alone with him.
God, I just wanna be alone with you.
It has nothing to do how long it depends on what’s going on.
But when you think of who god is and that he loves you, and he’s willing to spend as much time with you as you’re willing to spend with him.
He listen. You’ll be growing in your Christian life when you’re saying Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus.
Thank you. I’m gonna have this time just alone with you. And somebody said that to me this week.
She said, You know, I’m so excited about uh what’s going on in my life because now I’m gonna be able to spend more time alone with the lord.
And less time I have to work. You have to make time.
I guarantee you the devil’s gotta list this long for every one of us.
You need to do this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, and when you finish doing all that, you don’t have nothing to show for it.
It’s a choice we make and I don’t know how to tell you any clearer.
It’s a choice we make, how much time we spend with them.
Then of course, Uh, one of the things that’s so important when you’re growing, the more you grow in the lord, the more you’re going to want to give.
Yeah, you know, and it’s just That’s just what happens. Why? Because you’re becoming more like him.
He says he’s conformed us to the likeness of his son.
And so god’s always given to us, we’re gonna want to give more to others and to the lord’s work, whatever it might be.
And then There’s gonna be a continuous growing hunger in your heart for God. Can’t get enough.
Now watch this. If you’re really hungry and you go to a restaurant and you got plenty of money buying anything you want, what do you do?
You look on that and think, oh, this is what I think I want.
You spend your money on it. It may satisfy you. It may not.
I can tell you this. You’re always satisfied when you spend time with him.
He’ll see to that because you’re growing into Christ’s likeness you’re honoring him and he’s gonna honor you.
And one last thing I’d say. If you’re growing, you’re gonna feel god’s love.
If you’re really growing, you’re gonna feel he loves you. Listen. I can give you a testimony.
It’ll make it short. There was a time in my life, and I’d been a pastor for a number of years.
If you asked me if God loved me, I’d tell you yes.
If you ask me, do you feel it? I didn’t feel it.
I didn’t feel like I was worthy of it.
And I was preaching to other people about the love of god, but when I went back to look at my sermons, I only had one.
And it was not worth listening to. You can’t preach something. You don’t practice.
And so When I think about growing in the Christian life, when you are able to experience and sense and feel the love of god in your life.
Now watch this, satan will say, what about this? What about this? What about this? What about this?
You just ignore that. We’re talking about god’s god’s love for you doesn’t change whether you sin or not.
His love doesn’t change.
You suffer the consequences of disobedience, but he loves you just the same.
Now you probably had thought about all those things already. Imagine being on your deathbed.
And for the last thirty years of your life, you’ve just had it your way.
If you’ve never trusted Jesus as your savior, number one.
You ask him to forgive you of your sins based on what he did at the cross, surrender your life to him, and ask him to help you grow as a believer.
As a follower of Jesus, and be true to him.
And watch what an awesome thing he does in your life.
So I would simply ask you the question this morning that nobody’s business but yours.
Would you say on the basis of what you’ve heard that you are growing in your Christian life, and you’re excited about Jesus, or would you have to say?
I thought I was.
Then if you just thought you were, what are you willing to do about it?
You willing to ask God to forgive you that you’re not growing like you ought to be growing.
You want to repent of your sin and you want to ask him god.
What am I holding on to in my life?
That I should not be holding on to that’s keeping me from growing the way you want me to grow.
God, I’ll let it go. Amen.
And father, we thank you for your forgiveness and your cleansing.
Thank you that you’re right here twenty four hours a day, sixty minutes in every hour and sixty seconds in every minute.
In your presence, willing to aid us help us to grow into Christ’s likeness.
We pray this one that you’ll speak to somebody, father who’s unsaved, and to realize what a tragic life they’re living, They may have all the money, all the popularity, all the prestige, all the glory, all the position, all of that without you zero.
Open their eyes dear god to help them see.
They need to be forgiven of their sins They need to repent of their sins.
They need to surrender themselves to you and really begin living for the first time in their life.
In Jesus named. Amen.