The Path to Spiritual Maturity: Insights from Ephesians

We are in the middle of a series called the Summer of Spiritual Strengthening, and we're talking about the topic of spiritual growth.

And oftentimes we talk about spiritual growth within the church with the assumption that everybody knows what that means.

And for the most part, we do know certain aspects of spiritual growth.

But we don't want to assume that everyone knows what spiritual growth is, or we don't want to assume that we know every aspect of spiritual growth.

We want to go to Scripture and we want to recount these things, and we want to see exactly what the Bible has to say about spiritual growth.

So we looked at, I think it was two weeks ago, what biblical spiritual growth is.

And it's not necessarily reading our Bibles.

And when I said that, people actually perked up.

They said, what spiritual growth?

Not reading my Bible.

Well, understand what I mean by this?

Just reading our Bible does not equate spiritual growth.

And atheists can read a Bible that.

That doesn't necessarily mean that we're growing spiritually.

Now, reading your Bible can lead to spiritual growth.

Reading your Bible can be a fruit of spiritual growth.

But just reading our Bible itself is not spiritual growth.

Another thing that we said was just attending church is not spiritual growth.

And someone might say, well, Pastor, that's a very dangerous thing to say because then that means people are going to come to church.

No, that's not what I'm saying, because coming to church is a very important thing.

But we know that just coming to church does not equate spiritual growth.

You can come in and leave and be basically the same way that you were before you came in.

And so we see that the Bible gives us many things that are what we would call fruits of spiritual growth and certainly can feed our spiritual growth.

But true spiritual growth is defined in Romans chapter 8 as conformity to Christ to be more and more like Him.

And we look at Ephesians, chapter 2, verses 8 and 9.

For by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves.

It is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast.

And what the Bible tells us there is that we're saved only by the grace of God.

And what we're going to see is that in the very next verse, and we looked at this a couple weeks ago, that the spiritual growth that happens after salvation is only by God's grace.

He says in the very next verse, for we are his workmanship.

God is working in us to be more like Him.

And he says he is working in us, created in Christ Jesus unto good Works.

We are created in Christ Jesus to perform good works.

Now, we don't do the good works so that we're more like Jesus.

We are more like Jesus as we do those good works.

He's.

He's changing us and he's moving us and he's growing us.

And he says at the end of that verse that that is what God has ordained for us to do.

But then I want you to jump ahead a couple chapters, and I want you to look at Ephesians, chapter four, because Ephesians chapter four now tells us more about this spiritual growth process.

Paul says, I, therefore the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that you walk worthy of the vocation wherewith you're called.

Now what is he saying here?

Anytime you see the word therefore in Scripture, he's referring back to something.

What is he referring to?

He's referring to chapters 1, 2 and 3 of the book of Ephesians and chapters 1, 2 and 3 Of the book of Ephesians.

Tell us all the wonderful things that God has given us in our salvation.

It tells us what God has done for us.

It tells us what our salvation looks like.

It tells us that he has extended freely to us his grace.

And it is all about the riches of Christ.

Really, the end of chapter three is all about the unsearchable riches of Christ.

And now he says, because of those things that God has done for us, because of who he is, because of what grace he has extended to us, he now calls us, and I love how he puts there, a prisoner of the Lord.

No longer as a Christian, are we a prisoner to sin.

The Bible says that before we came to Christ, Ephesians chapter two tells us this, that we were dead in our sins, that we were under the bondage of that sin.

But now that we are Christians, we're no longer prisoners to sin.

We are now prisoners of the Lord.

And he says, because now you are part of the family of God, because now you owe everything to God.

He pleads with us.

He says, I beseech you, I plead with you that you walk worthy of the vocation or the job wherewith ye are called.

Now, what are we called to?

Well, we saw that back In Ephesians chapter 2, verse 10, you're called to be in Christ Jesus unto good works.

So we're called now to work for the Lord.

We are called now to serve the Lord.

We are called now to grow more and more like him.

So we're called to walk worthy.

And that phrase is so important because sometimes people can misunderstand what that phrase walk worthy really means, because someone might read it this way.

Well, I need to walk worthy so that God will love me more like I got to earn his love.

And so I need to walk worthy so that God isn't mad at me.

I need to walk worthy so that God will extend more grace to me, so that I can understand him more and that he can love me more.

But I'm going to tell you, and I think I've told you this before, God loves you infinitely.

At the moment of salvation, you can't earn any more love.

So what does it mean to walk worthy of the vocation in which we're called?

Well, we don't walk worthy so that God will love us more.

We walk worthy because he loves us already.

That's really the purpose.

Because of what God has done for us, we're now going to walk in light of that love.

And so it's motivated out of gratitude.

It's not about earning things.

It's not about meriting some kind of status with God.

It's about walking in the gratitude and the thankfulness of what he has already done for us and what he continues to do in our life.

And so as a Christian, we're called to walk a certain way.

I've heard some people say, well, you know what?

If you're a Christian, just do whatever you want to do.

God loves you anyway.

There's really no right or wrong.

We're all just trying to find our own path, folks.

That's such a false teaching because the Bible says now that we are believers, though we won't be perfect.

We are called to walk a certain way.

We are called to be different.

We are called with a purpose.

And he talks about how that purpose is to be lived out.

Here in chapter four, verse two, he says, these are the character traits that should come along with this process of walking worthy.

These are things that we must have in our life if we want to grow in the Lord, he says, with lowliness and meekness, with long suffering.

There's three things there that we need to take note of.

Lowliness.

That's humility.

We need to have humility in the process of spiritual growth.

If it's all about me and if it's all about how smart I am, if it's all about how good I am, if it's all about how righteous I am, I'm missing the point.

Because spiritual growth is about dying to myself and humbling myself to the Lord and saying, lord, you are the only one that can Bring me any spiritual growth.

You are the one that's giving me these things.

You are the one that's teaching me.

You are the one that's convicting me.

You're the one that's strengthening me.

And so when we come into this process of understanding the way that we should walk, it starts with a heart of humility.

We're never going to grow in our spiritual walk if we're walking with pride, if we're walking with selfish endeavors in our life.

He says, do it with lowliness and then meekness.

Meekness is being gentle.

It's.

Some people define it as strength under control.

So it doesn't mean that we should be weak in our Christian walk, but what it means is that we should allow ourselves to live lives that are gentle and not harsh to other people.

We should have patience.

We should.

We should have self control.

And that's what he addresses here.

He says lowliness, meekness with long suffering.

I love the way that the King James puts it, long suffering, because it is that it's.

It's going through things and sometimes it takes patience.

And that's really what that's talking about there, long suffering, patience.

And so as a Christian, it's not about happening overnight.

A lot of times people are confused.

They get saved and they've been saved for like six months.

And they think, you know what?

I've got this down.

I. I really understand what it means to be a Christian.

And there's that, you know, ignorance.

As a new Christian, they think that they have all the things they ever.

I've read through the Bible, I know everything.

And the truth is, is that a lot of times what happens is that in that they think that now I have it all figured out, everything's going to go my way.

And then the first struggle comes up and now there's not patience.

And now they're backtracking and questioning whether or not God is good, whether or not God loves them.

Because there's a misunderstanding whether or not of what the Christian life looks like.

The Christian life is full of trials.

The Christian life is full of times in which we're called to exercise patience.

And then he goes on to say this.

Forbearing or bearing one another in love.

So part of the spiritual growth process is what we talked about this morning.

Growing in our love for one another.

You know, there's a portion of time in which, as a Christian, we must understand that the Christian life is about being with other people.

It's about sharing the truth of God with other people.

It's about encouraging other people.

And to do that, we have to have love for them.

And then he says in verse number three, something very interesting, because as we mature in our Christian faith, there has to be a recognition of the priority.

And he says in verse three, endeavoring, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

Christian maturity is pursuing unity within the church.

Unity is not the norm.

We know that.

Get 10 people in the room and ask the question, there's going to be probably 10 different opinions.

And with those 10 different opinions can come 10 different paths that can be taken.

And a lot of times what happens is that as a young Christian, we don't really see the need for having unity with someone else because we think, well, I'm following Jesus and everything's going to be okay.

I don't care what they're doing, I don't care how I act, I don't care how they perceive me.

But at the end of the day, there is something to be said about pursuing that unity within the church.

And by the way, we can't spiritually grow unless we are to some degree plugged into a local body of believers.

I. I know that there's levels that we can do at home.

We can read our Bibles, we can pray, and those are amazing things.

We don't need to be around other people to do that.

But the Bible does speak of the importance of finding a community to find people that can edify us, that can sharpen us, that we can learn from, that we can teach.

And that's the process in which we're seeing here in Ephesians chapter four, is that we're to pursue this type of unity.

And an immature Christian doesn't even think about unity.

But as we grow in our faith, we're desiring to walk in fellowship.

And he tells us the reason why.

For there is one body and one Spirit, even as you're called, in one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in you all.

He tells us the reason why we should pursue unity.

Because we're all on the same team.

We have the same faith, we have the same Father, we have the same Lord, we have the same call, we have the same baptism.

He says there's this common bond that we all have as the body of Christ, to walk in unison together.

And so a spiritually mature Christian is pursuing that type of unity with humility, with meekness, with that patience that was mentioned before, with that love that's mentioned there in verse number two.

And so to be a mature Christian, it is to understand that God has priorities and we are to walk a certain way.

And to walk a certain way means to obey him.

And he says in verse seven, but unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ.

So it's all through the grace of the Lord.

All of these things that we're receiving in our life are gifts from God.

And so as a Christian, what it means is to lean on the grace of God to allow the grace of God to fuel our forgiveness, allow the grace of God to fuel our service, allow the grace of God to fuel our spiritual growth.

But we can skip ahead a little bit in this passage because all of this is good.

Some of this speaks to how we're supposed to work within the church and the.

And the leadership and the goal for leadership.

And that is to, as verse 12 says, to perfect the saints or to mature the saints for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ.

So we're to see it as a collective thing that we're doing.

Even though my spiritual growth is an individual thing, my spiritual growth should affect other people.

There should be this bond that we see within the body of Christ.

But.

But I want to skip ahead just a little bit, and I want you to see what verse 17 says.

He says this.

I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles, walk, in the vanity of their mind.

Now that's an interesting phrase there.

He says, don't walk like the Gentiles.

Walk with this vanity of mind.

What is vanity of mind?

Vanity of mind, really is this emptiness, this.

This whole plague that we're facing in the world today that what matters is the material.

What matters is what feels good right now.

If I want it, I want to get it.

And that's the vanity of this world.

The vanity of the world is emptiness and hopelessness.

And he says, don't walk like you are hopeless anymore, because now you have hope.

As a Christian, we have a hope that is different than any other hope that's in this world today.

I've used this phrase before, and I think it's important to note Christian hope is not me just crossing my fingers and saying, well, I hope that God is going to love me.

I hope that God's going to come through on this one.

No, hope literally in the Greek, means to have a confident expectation that God is going to keep his word.

I have hope in the Lord, I'm confident that he will be true to me.

I am confident that he loves me.

I am confident that as I serve him, he will equip me, that he will protect me, that he will provide everything that is needed in this path that we call Christianity.

So he says, don't walk the way that the world walks.

So as a Christian, we see that there's a difference.

There's a different path that we are to take.

And verse 18, he says, having the understanding darkened, he's describing the way that the Gentiles walk.

Their way is dark, their way is limited, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them because of the blindness of their heart.

He's describing the way that the Gentiles walk.

And by the way, when he's talking about Gentiles here, he's talking about unbelievers.

So what is he saying here?

He says that spiritual growth means that we no longer are walking in the ways of this world.

We're no longer walking in the wisdom of the world.

We're no longer walking in the methods of the world.

We're walking in the way of the Lord.

And in the way of the Lord.

There isn't blindness in the way of the Lord.

There's clarity in the way of the Lord.

There isn't ignorance in the way of the Lord.

There's truth in the way of the Lord.

Is not it darkened, but the way of the Lord is light.

So he says there's a different way.

And he goes on to describe more about what the world does and how they walk.

Verse 19 who being past feeling.

That's an interesting thing.

It's basically that they're beyond the conviction of God, have given themselves over to lasciviousness.

Now that's a big word.

It's a word we use for lasciviousness is lewdness.

Basically, it's the sense sensuality, like whatever feels good, I'm going to do it.

And he says that that's what they do.

They live in the sensuality.

And what does that produce?

Well, it produces work.

All uncleanness with greediness.

It's work that's full of sin, full of selfishness.

And then he says something so interesting.

Here he's talking to Christians.

He says, but ye have not so learned Christ.

He says, you have not learned the same thing.

Jesus has taught you something different.

We know that following Christ, being conformed to Christ means that we look different than this.

A Christian should not be characterized by all the things that he just described there.

A Christian should not be walking around hopeless.

A Christian should not be walking around ignorant.

A Christian should not be walking around with blindness of their heart.

A Christian should not be walking around with sensuality.

A Christian should not be walking around with uncleanness and greediness.

If that's how we're characterized.

We're certainly not walking in the vocation which we're called.

We're not following God's plan for our life.

We're going to a separate way.

And he's calling the church here in Ephesus out.

He's saying, that's not the way that you learn Christ.

That's not what Christ teaches you.

Conformity to Christ looks completely different.

Verse 21.

He says, if so be that ye have heard him and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus.

He says, it is only Jesus who teaches you this different way.

You don't teach yourselves.

You're not going to learn this in the marketplace.

You're not going to learn this on Netflix.

You're not going to learn this on the Internet.

You're going to learn this way of thinking, this way of living through conformity to Christ, to submit to him, to honor him, to follow him in every single way.

And that's what he's talking about.

Then he says, okay, this is what this looks like.

This is what this practically looks like.

He says that you put off, concerning the former conversation, the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lust.

So he says, put off the old man.

Now, we're going to have two phrases here tonight that we're going to talk about.

We're going to talk about the old man and the new man.

Okay?

So when we're talking about an old man, okay, my kids, Micah doesn't think I'm old, but I really.

I feel like I'm getting older.

As they get older, some of you that have kids that have already grown up, as they grow up, it just makes you remind yourself that you're getting older, if they're getting older.

So the old man's not me.

The old man's not anyone in this building.

The old man is the fleshly way that we used to be.

The old man is the old system.

The old man is our sensuality.

The old man is what we've been saved from.

And he says, put off the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lust.

It means this.

It's corrupt because it's dictated by our own lust, our own passion.

Then he goes on to say, Something more.

He says, not just to put off the old man, because that's what sometimes people preach.

The way you spiritually grow is you stop sinning, you stop doing bad things.

You just stop it.

You ever had someone just tell you to stop something?

You're like, well, how do I stop?

I don't know.

How do I stop this?

You know, how do I figure this out?

And a lot of times what's being taught in churches is just stop doing all these bad things.

Which I agree with, but it's not the complete message.

He goes on to say, put off the old man, but verse 23, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind to be renewed in the spirit.

Allow the Holy Spirit to dictate the way that you think.

Allow the Holy Spirit to dictate the way that you act.

And he says, what this looks like is verse 24, and that you put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.

So the new man is the Holy Spirit, the.

The transformed creation that God has called us to be.

So we have a choice to make.

Are we going to put on the old?

Are we going to put on the new?

Now, I had an analogy to show you guys, and it's kind of silly.

I don't know how it's going to play out, but let's pretend like this blue jacket that I'm wearing, I think it's blue.

Sometimes I don't perceive color the way that I should.

Sometimes I'm wearing something and Alicia's like, that's not green or that's not blue.

I'm like, I thought it was blue.

But anyway, I think this jacket's blue.

This is the new man.

Okay?

This is the new man.

So let's pretend I'm going to start with the new man off, and I'm gonna start this neutral here.

And then I've got a black jacket over here.

Okay?

This black jacket is going to symbolize the old man.

Okay?

So let me put the black jacket on.

I used to do this thing with the teens when I was a youth pastor.

And I'll tell you, the story has nothing to do with what I'm preaching on, but it has something to do with this analogy.

I used to go up on Wednesday nights and I'd say, okay, guys, I'm going to teach you guys apologetics, which means defending your faith.

And I would tell the kids, I'd say, hey, when I put this jacket on, I'm an atheist professor.

And when I take this jacket off, I'm your youth pastor, so don't be alarmed if I act differently.

So I would put the jacket on and I would really ask them hard questions.

Well, like, if you believe in God, why does this happen?

And it.

I. I've had a couple teens that come back to me and they say, pastor Josh, I remember when you used to put the jacket on and like, teach us how to defend our faith.

Anyway, that's not the same analogy.

So if I had the old man jacket on, okay?

So now I'm acting in the old man.

So now I'm making decisions that make me feel good, that give me some type of personal vindication.

So let's say someone wrongs me.

Okay, let's.

I was driving back from the Poconos, and as you know, people cut you off.

And we've talked about, you know, car accidents here.

People cut you off, people drive.

And there's a way that I can respond to that in the flesh, or there's a way that I can respond to that in the new man.

So let's say a situation is if someone comes up to me and they say something that I don't like, you know what my flesh wants to do?

My old man wants to tell them what I think about them.

Well, you know what, you think you're so good.

Let me tell you what you've done wrong.

Let me tell you all the problems that I see about you.

That's what my flesh wants to do.

That's the old man's response.

The old man's response is, do whatever makes you feel good.

Do whatever it takes to put someone else down so that you can be lifted up.

That's the old man.

But if I was to put the new man jacket on, right?

If I put the new man jacket on and then now someone comes and says something to me.

I'm not guided by what I feel that I want to do.

I'm guided by what God is telling me to do.

And I know the truth.

And I say, you know what?

I'm going to have some level of self control.

I'm going to have some level of temperance, I'm going to have some level of patience.

And I'm going to respond to him the way that Christ would respond to him in that moment.

So what did Jesus do when people harmed him?

Well, when we know that he responded with meekness, we know that he responded in forgiveness, we know that he responded with patience.

And so it's a picture, as a Christian is, are we going to put the old man on and act the way that we want to act, Are we going to put the new man on and be renewed in our mind and think different ways?

And that's really what he's talking about in this passage.

And he says, put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.

So as a Christian, if we want to be truly righteous, if we want to live a life of holiness, by the way, God calls us to live a life of holiness.

All holiness means is separate, different, distinct.

So it means to be sanctified, to be put in a special place.

God has sanctified us.

That word sanctify means that God has taken us from one place and he's putting putting us in another place, that is for a specific use.

So God has us in our life to live for him to live holy well.

The only way that we can find true righteousness and true holiness, as it says there in verse 24, it's after God.

It's after him guiding us and not us guiding ourselves.

And then he gives us some examples here in verse 25.

He says, Wherefore putting away line.

So stop the old way.

Don't lie, but don't just stop lying.

But he says, speak every man truth with his neighbor, for we are members, one of another.

So spiritual growth is not just, hey, well, you know what?

I'm going to stop lying, even though that is a part of it.

I stop lying and then I speak truth to my neighbor.

Why?

Well, it says there, for we are members one of another.

We are brothers and sisters in Christ.

Therefore I. I'm to speak good things to them.

I'm to build them up.

You know, there's the old adage, which I agree with to some degree there.

You don't have anything good to say, don't say anything at all.

That's a good piece of advice.

But a better piece of advice is if you don't have anything good to say, pray about maybe finding something good to say about somebody.

Why can't I say something good about someone?

And there might be that they aren't a good person.

Maybe they are a person that's in sin and we don't have much to say about them.

But at the end of the day, there's also things that I can do to edify that person or to evangelize that person, or to lead them to a place of encouragement, to lead them to a place of hopefully seeing the Holy Spirit working in their own life.

So he says, don't just stop lying, but speak truth to every man.

Then he says verse 26, Be angry and sin not.

So there's a type of anger that we all are familiar with in our life, and it's a selfish anger.

I get angry because someone has wronged me.

And the Bible has a lot to say about that.

The Bible says for us not to have that type of anger.

Now, we do know that there's a way that we can be angry and sin not.

Jesus showed us that.

Jesus showed us that there is a time for righteous indignation in our life.

We can get angry.

But every time that Jesus got angry, it was about those that had rebelled against his Father.

It wasn't about personal slights against him.

And what I want us to understand that as a Christian, so often we get so angry about things that don't matter.

And really we don't get angry about the things that do matter.

Oftentimes we're not angry at sin.

We're angry at people just getting in our way, encumbering our process, slowing us down.

And I want you to see here this evening that there is a right way in the flesh to.

Or excuse me, in the Spirit, to get angry, but there is a wrong way in the flesh.

So he says, be angry and sin not.

Let not the sun go down upon your wrath.

So there's a warning here.

Like, even if you do get angry, don't hold on to that anger.

Don't let that anger dictate every aspect of your life.

Because sometimes we can start in a place of righteous angry, but that can move to a place of bitterness, that can move to a place of malice towards somebody else.

And.

And malice is something more than just hatred.

Malice is, I hate you, but I also want something bad to happen to you.

And that can get to a place of.

Of true destruction within our life.

Why, he says in verse 27, don't give, neither give place to the devil.

With this aspect of wrath in our life, we can eventually get to a place where that sin, though it might not be starting in a place of sin, can lead to a place of sin, and the devil can take hold in our life.

Then he goes on to say in verse 28, let him that stole steal no more.

And it's not just stopping that it goes on, but rather, let him labor working with his hands the thing which is good that he may give to him that needeth.

So he says, the Christian way is not just to stop thieving, but it's now to work hard and to give to those who are in need.

And so it's more than Just stopping the wrong.

It's about infusing in the good that God has called us to live out in our life.

Then he goes on to say, verse 29, let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth.

Now, oftentimes this is seen as a passage of scripture not to say curse words.

And even though I would agree that that would be part of this, I think it's a broader command to not let anything that's corrupt, not let anything that's dirty or suggestive or painful for other people, poisonous to other people, come out of our mouths.

He says, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that I may minister grace unto the hearers.

Our speech should always be edifying.

So as we grow in our Christian walk, what we say does matter.

What what we say to other people is, has a lasting impact.

So if I say things that are degrading to other people, whether to their face or behind their back, that's corrupt communication.

And the Bible says, as a mature Christian, I have to think before I speak.

I have to allow the Spirit to edify those around me, administer grace to the hearers.

That word edify is such a strong word.

It's a.

It's a word that has a picture of building somebody else up, fortifying someone else in the truth.

For me, to edify is not to tear somebody down.

I've heard sometimes people teach like, you got to tear someone down before you can build them up.

I. I don't believe that that's scriptural.

I do understand that there.

There are certain principles in which people have seen that work, but that's not the biblical model.

The biblical model is speak so that someone is built up in the power of Christ.

Someone's built up in the promises of God.

And I want you to think about that in your spiritual growth process.

Why?

I'm.

I'm very mature in my spiritual walk, but I have a hard time saying good things to people.

Well, maybe we're not as mature as we thought we were.

Well, you know what?

I'm really growing in the Lord, but I really.

I gossip a lot.

I have a hard time with that.

And some of us might not even know that we're gossiping.

Some of us might not even know that we're slandering people behind their backs.

The Bible very clearly teaches that that's a.

That's poisonous.

That's.

That that can kill different relationships, that can harm the gospel of Jesus Christ being sent out.

I encourage you to think about what you're saying.

I don't know about you, but there's been times in my life where I allow the flesh to speak, and I recognize how devastating those words will be, and they're right in my mouth, but I can't get them back.

And they get out there, and there's a lot of shame, there's a lot of guilt, and oftentimes we don't know how to navigate that.

The Bible says there's no more condemnation, so we ask for forgiveness.

And certainly there's forgiveness for things that we say.

But as a Christian, specifically a growing Christian, we have to think about what we're saying is administering grace unto the hearers.

Because if we do continue on in sin, verse 30 says, and grieve not the Holy Spirit of God whereby you're sealed unto the day of redemption.

We know that we're sealed in the Holy Spirit, but there's a way, as a Christian, that we can grieve the Holy Spirit by continuously rejecting the conviction of the Holy Spirit.

We talked about this a little while back.

There's a lot of people that want the comfort of the Holy Spirit in their life.

Like the comfort of the Holy Spirit's a wonderful thing.

And if you haven't experienced the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it's.

It's an undescribable feeling.

It's.

It's an amazing thing.

But at the same time, often we don't celebrate as much the conviction of the Holy Spirit.

And that's actually part of how the new man is able to be seen in our life.

As the conviction of the Holy Spirit comes in, we realize that that's not something that I need to do anymore.

The conviction of the Holy Spirit tells me that this is wrong.

This is against God's word.

But oftentimes, if we reject the Holy Spirit's conviction in our life, it says there that we grieve the Holy Spirit.

That's something that we don't want to do.

And then he goes on to say in verse 31, let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice.

So we list all these things here that are devastating to a Christian, that are devastating to any human being.

Bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, evil speaking.

He says, put that away from you with all that malice that's wrapped up in that.

We already talked about what malice is.

And then he goes on to say verse 32, and be kind one to another.

Take tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God, for Christ's sake, hath forgiven you and So a mature Christian is a Christian who is ready to forgive.

Now, forgiveness is a difficult thing because oftentimes we think that forgiveness means to relinquish someone of their guilt that they have done within their life or their sin that they've done in their life.

So what, what do I mean by this?

As a Christian, I think what this is teaching, and I would be open to anyone's opinion later on as we talk about this, but I don't believe that this just means that someone sins and we go, well, forget about what they did.

Like, let's just overlook their sin and just keep letting them have their sin in their life.

No, I don't think that that's what this is talking about.

I think what this is talking about is that we're able and open to have that restoration process happen, that we're forbearing one another in love, that we're offering forgiveness.

But really, restoration and forgiveness are two different things.

If I forgive someone but they're not repentant and they're still sinning against me, that restoration might not happen.

And so the goal is always restoration within a Christian relationship.

But at the end of the day, we must be, at least as Christians, willing to offer that forgiveness.

And that only is going to be seen through a mature Christian, an immature Christian is never going to understand why we should forgive someone who sinned against us.

But he says there in verse 32, it's about forgiving one another.

Why, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you so we don't forgive someone because they earn it.

We forgive someone because we have been forgiven.

We extend mercy to people because we have been given mercy.

We extend grace to people because we've been extended grace in our life.

And I think about this a lot within my own Christian walk is if I am struggling in an area that God has called me to grow in, why am I struggling?

Well, many reasons why we struggle.

But I. I would say that most of the time in my life, the reason why I'm struggling is because I've got my eyes off of what God has done for me, or I've got my eyes off of what God has called me to do.

And I'm thinking about myself.

I'm thinking about the way that I feel.

I'm thinking about how I can be the winner in this.

And really what we see is that as a Christian, as a maturing Christian, it's not about me coming out on top, it's about God coming out on top, and it's about God being clearly lifted up and that his light shines through my life.

And then that would be spiritual growth.

So spiritual growth is not just knowing a lot about the Bible.

I think a lot of times we say, well, that person has a lot of Bible memorized, so they must be growing spiritually.

Well, it may mean that they're growing spiritually or may mean they just have a really good memory.

Just having Bible verses memorized does not necessarily equate being spiritually mature.

Now, we do know the Bible says, let me hide God's word in my heart that I might not sin against thee.

So, so we do know that the offensive weapon against temptation in our life is having the word of God in our hearts.

But it's more than just memorization.

It's about having it within our hearts.

So certainly the Bible is the tool that we use to strengthen our life.

But I think so many times we just think about people spiritually growing by seeing, well, they know a lot about the Bible, so they must be spiritually mature.

Well, spiritual maturity is not just having facts in our mind.

I've watched, I. I think a few weeks ago, we.

We had, you know, Christian Bible Jeopardy.

Up here on Wednesday night.

And I don't know if you've ever watched Jeopardy, but every so often on the real Jeopardy, they have Bible categories.

And I'm always excited about that.

Cause I'm like, yes, Bible categories.

That's something that I know.

And there will be people on there that aren't professing Christians, but they might know a Bible fact.

Just knowing Bible facts does not equate spiritual growth.

So what does equate spiritual growth?

It's understanding those Bible truths, applying that to the way I live my life and allowing Christ to be seen through my life.

It's reflecting everything that God has given us in our own walk.

And so some might say, well, what does that look like?

Well, we're going to come back next week and we're going to look at Galatians, and we're going to see the works of the flesh and the fruit of the Spirit.

And we're going to see how, as a Christian, we can put our life to the test.

Am I growing in the Lord?

Well, you know what?

I go to church Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night.

I go to every fellowship.

So I'm growing in the Lord.

This is not a sermon to stop you from coming to church.

It's actually all the more, I want you to be here.

But at the same time, I don't want everyone to be lulled into a false sense of security just by saying, I'm here, so I must be okay.

It's a second step.

It's the step of personalizing it.

It's a step of understanding that God's truth must change my life.

It's an understanding of whether or not I'm going to put on the old man or the new man today.

Am I going to yield to the flesh or am I going to yield to the spirit?

And some folks have told me, and I've even said this, well, sometimes I want to be in the spirit, but the flesh takes over faster.

Well, it's a whole life of dying to my Jesus said, take up your cross.

Bear your cross.

That means to die to my flesh.

So that's a prayer every day.

It's preemptive, right?

We shouldn't wait till the temptation comes and say, well, now I need to is which way is the flesh?

Which way is the spirit?

It's every day asking God to give us wisdom and understanding and conviction and comfort and.

And all the things that God has called us to have within our life so that we make the right decisions when we come to a situation in our life.

I'll say this.

You know, if I was.

Let me.

If I said, I know my wife, okay?

I. I know Alicia so well, and I was going to cook a.

A meal for her, and I.

And so I know what she doesn't like, but let's just pretend like, in this case, I don't know.

And I cook a meal that I think is delicious, but I cook something that she doesn't like, and I present it to her, and I say, look, won't you love this?

And she's like, no, you obviously don't know who I am.

If you know that.

If you don't know that I like, hate this food.

Well, at the end of the day, what we see is that sometimes as Christians, we're trying to present something to God without even understanding what he wants from us, without even understanding who he is.

And we're trying to perform for him, Lord, isn't this what you want?

But if we don't know what he wants, we don't know what he loves.

If we don't know what he distinctly is against, we're never going to be able to properly please him.

So what I would encourage you to do when you're thinking about spiritual growth is not about knowing or doing more things.

Well, Pastor, you know What?

I have 10 ministries right now, and I think that I'll be really spiritually mature If I have 15 ministries.

So give me five more ministries.

That's not what we're talking about here.

It's really about knowing God more.

It's really about communing with him and understanding him, spending time with him, learning from him, growing in your love for him so that you're able to identify things in your life that please Him.

And really that's spiritual growth.

Now it's a lot easier for me as a pastor to tell you this is the five step process to become a stronger Christian.

Read your Bible, pray, go to church, you know, be kind to everybody and, you know, I don't know, serve in a ministry.

If I could tell you those five things and say, if everyone does that, you'll grow.

The problem with that is that you could be doing that with the wrong motivations.

You could be doing that in the flesh, you could be doing that with bitterness, you could be doing that with evil speaking, you could be doing that with malice.

And even though you're doing all these things performatively, there isn't a heart of service, there isn't a heart of growth.

And we could be missing the point.

So as a church, my goal is not to just give you a list of the top 10 things you do to be better Christian.

The number one thing, the only thing that you do to grow in the Lord is commune and fellowship with Him.

And then all the other things are things that help you grow in that.

So of course reading your Bible is going to give you more understanding of who God is.

But if you don't love him, reading the Bible is not going to be meaningful.

And so it's the love for him that leads to.

When you read it, it leads.

It's not just words on a page, but it's God's love letter to us.

Prayer is not just a chore.

When you love him, prayer is talking to your Savior.

Service is, is not going to be a burden anymore.

But now service is.

I'm getting to serve.

I have the privilege to serve the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords.

And no matter if people thank me or not thank me, I'm doing it because of him and I'm doing it for Him.

And it'll change everything that we do when we have that perspective of that love relationship with God.

And so we, we come back next week, we'll look more about the fruit of the spirit and the works of the flesh and how we can identify those things in our life, and we'll be able to take the next step in our Christian walks.