Time to Grow Up

God's children are still in the crib. Dr. Tony says the Lord wants to move you beyond where you were first accepted his time celebrating 40 years of faithfulness. This is the alternative Dr. Tony Evans authored speaker, senior pastor of Oakland Bible Fellowship Dallas, Texas, president of the alternative, we don't expect much from newborn baby. But as they grow toward adulthood, they increasingly demonstrate more responsibility.

Likewise, not driven, says God expects us as Christians to become spiritually mature using our growth and wisdom to influence those around us. Let's join him as he explains first three.

The first three verses this is what God brother could not speak to you as to spiritual men, but estimate all flesh is to infants in Christ I gave you milk to drink, not solid food, for you are not able to receive it.

Indeed, even now you are not able, for you are fleshly, but since there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not fleshly and are you not walking like mere men, most of you will remember the sitcom. Different strokes. It brought a lot of laughter into our lives and into our homes as Arnold and Willis were adopted by Mr. Drummond and they moved from the projects to the penthouse. They started living large. Their environment was totally shifted to another realm. What created the comedy in different strokes was these young boys learning to grow up and live in an environment they were used to. They brought the thinking the language the perspective of the interface of the bear background into their new environment. Mr. Drummond spent time trying to re-acclimate and reorient them to the more sophisticated style of living that was part of their penthouse reality as they transition from their project history. Even so, if you have come to Christ, you shifted locations. The Bible is clear that you are no longer part of the kingdom of darkness.

You are now part of the kingdom of light, we have entered in the Bible says to the kingdom of his dear son.

The problem is one week transferred out of hell to heaven. When we transfer out of the dark kingdom into the kingdom of Christ. We brought out all thinking with us. Our whole perspective with us.

Our old values with us, but in this new arrangement in this new environment I Jesus Christ is seeking to bring us to a new way of thinking functioning in living based on our new location, but the challenge is, you can be so used to where you came from. You don't know how to adjust the way you.

The Bible calls this process.

Spiritual maturity growing up spiritually becoming a spiritual adult and no longer functioning as a carnal kid.

Suffice it to say that what God wants his people to do who are his children is to grow up next time to grow up.

The divine reset that is needed today are adult Christians, because far too many of God's children are still in the crib. The national question. If a magic wand was way you so that your physical age would reflect your spiritual age. How many of you would still be in diapers. Many of us would still be in diapers because we've not grown up spiritually and we're still spiritual babies much longer than we should be. This is a perpetual problem in the Bible and that is Christians unwilling to grow up to God to reset their lives or our context in the church and our families culturally cause they refused to grow up. This refusal is called carnality in the Bible. It's called flash and I want to challenge us today to grow up. The goal of the church. According to Paul in Colossians chapter 1 in verse 28 and 29th. We proclaim him, Christ admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom, so that we may present every man complete in Christ. For this purpose I labor, he says. My goal in ministry for the church at Colossae. The church here.

The church everywhere is to present every person complete the work completely mature. God's goal is your spiritual maturity, not your church attendance. If maturity is not being emphasized. If spiritual growth is being marginalized. If we become satisfied with how many folks are in the sea regardless of their spiritual age. We have failed as a church as a ministry, both locally and as the body of Christ.

God measures the success of a ministry by the maturing process of the folks who are in that ministry. He says I labor for maturity. The biblical word discipleship. The process of maturation that process of bringing you to maturity and any parent notes that if their baby is not growing something is wrong and I don't say, well, as long as you show up every day. It doesn't matter that you are growing because of the idea is to go from infancy to maturity, not just make you comfortable being an infant.

Day after day, month after month, year after year. God is after divine reset but you need some mature people in these mature Christians, not just church attenders. Paul complains to the church).

He says brother so these are Christians.

He's not talking about sinners. He says brother I can't speak to you as spiritual, but as men of flesh as infants in Christ you still babies. They don't have this spiritual perspective on life. They have a human perspective on life. That's carnality because of a refusal grossly reset again if you say five years or more and you are not spiritual way you look at life through God's lien as a normal way you operate, then you already spiritual infant, a fleshly believer who is missing out on spiritual experience reset.

I wish I could speak to your spiritual man, but I can't because you're stagnant.

You reject a spiritual perspective. Let's take this a little deeper, showing Hebrews chapter 5. He says in verse 11, concerning him. We have much to say.

It is hard to explain. Since you have become dull of hearing me pause right. The book of rose was written some 30 years after Jesus died and rose somebody's Christians have been saved for 30 years and Karen that's fabulous and he rose somebody's cousins up and say 30 years, and he said all still going. The Greek word dull of hearing means new new stubborn novel you reject the spiritual so you can hear the spiritual and some of y'all been saying for 30 and I want to tell you some deep stuff I want to tell you some stuff that will blow your mind concerning him now because his neck. He says I really want to go. Not only can I not tell you not only would know because you dull of hearing, I want to show you some stuff that will blow your mind.

You can say 30 years and you still refusing spiritual development to go deeper with you. I love the show you some stuff that will bring heaven's perspective into your historical personhood into your family into your work into your finances into your interface with the culture that I want to give you some stuff that can reach you but you refuse because your mutants dull of hearing, the receptivity is three makes a complaint he can't do what he wants to go because there's no urgency of the moment babies is little deeper. She says for the body.

This time somebody's a time you get the point you been saved long enough for us not have to go through all this. By this time, so we are 30 years, you ought to be teachers to you been saved long enough to help somebody else you can help yourself know one thing you'll find out about the baby somebody else got you got a baby. One of the ways you know the baby is developing they can pick up a spoon phone and it can pick up a spoon, because it's too immature by this time you ought to be a teacher you want to be able to bring spiritual impact in the life of somebody else and say five 1015 2025. Some of the 30 years in the book of Hebrews. He says, but you need again for somebody to teach you the three principles of the articles of God and you have come to need milk and not solid. That will get to know all the time baby baby fetal milk because incident she said not only can you not take. We need to take you back to the ABC because of elementary principal. See Spot run and beautiful boy.

We need to take you back to spiritual kindergarten because you refuse to grow spiritually. He goes on, and he says everyone partakes only of milk is not accustomed to the word of righteousness. He is an infant but solid food is for the mature because of practice have this sense is trying to discern good and evil is a lot to unpack. Dr. Evans will do just that when he returns with more of our message in a moment but first, today's lesson comes from Tony's brand-new series divine reset is a look at how God gets our attention and helps us refocus our lives helping us overcome the mistakes pain and problems of our past moving forward with greater clarity and purpose in our future. You learn how to turn confusion and the confidence despair into determination and defeat into victory. They're all covered in the set of 10 full-length lessons that includes material. We won't have time to bring you on the air.

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Just visit us today at Tony have a start or for details or call our resource request line at 1-800-800-3222 that's 1-800-800-3222. Will Tony will come back with more of today's lesson right after this coming November church of the birth of Jesus Christ travel with Dr. Tony having since he retraces the life and human journey of the greatest being to ever walk this earth over here in Capernaum place where Jesus did most of his miracles is in this place. He demonstrated he truly is the son of God traveled the streets and synagogues think Jesus one and physical locations were some of the most powerful events recorded in the Bible to place is like that much of what we read about in Galilee have the right here journey with Jesus in theaters November 15, 16th and 17th. Dr. Tony Tony Evans.org locations showtimes Christians at the time to grow spiritually active get five years old. We send them to school to grow academically want them learn the ABCs want to learn their bowels. We want them to learn what they need in order to become ill and be responsible. One of the tragedies we have our kids graduating from school to read the Fed reading that affects the resident life UK. We are going away so that growth is critical to their rest of their life will be is not always the time it's using the time. That's why you're be involving the kids education to make sure that getting the right education with the right value system because you want their life to pan out a certain direction because the time for those 12 grades were used for their adult maturity and their ability to live responsibly. The problem with entrance near mature the folks that God can use so we can reset what he wants to do in history.

He says everyone partakes only of milk is not accustomed to the word of right because here is what keeps you a baby you haven't gotten use to use the word of God to address the issues of life. This will keep you in the crib you're not constantly says to the word of righteousness. You're not use to using God's word to make life decisions because remember your fleshly so you still operate know what folks think what your mama said that he said was on the television what your friends say and what you think you're not used to using the word of God. No matter how much comes word you may hear and charge you not used to using it. Not hearing it, you will not become mature by just hearing the Bible preached thought and explain that will not produce maturity. The proof of maturity. Here it is. Here it is.

Here it is. Is your ability to discern the six ability to discern that is your ability to get things to spiritualize not just in physical lives we live in a world of glitz and glitter live in a world of shininess and we been doing because it looks shiny and look good but it was human. It wasn't divine, but unless you have spiritualize you will deserve to look at the extra room and be drawn to it because he says the mature don't just look at things physically, they look at things spiritually look at things through God's eyes. Your spiritual reality has since sits, it can pick up signals that you can pick up things spiritually like you can pick up things physically but sensitive need to be trained, they will just happen. They need to be developed so God wants to help you. A football team goes to the training room one football team goes to the training room they go through the playbook. They go to the playbook to learn the plays in this world. Classrooms for the defense room is an offense of Rome that some breaks out of that to learn the particular play. Right now you're in the training room to learn the place but then they go to the practice field on the practice field.

They practice the plays they learned in class is where the hitmen tackling talk about hitmen tackling.

We do not want to tackle that we know what you know to play numbers. We don't know you know the play. Could you send a man we don't know you don't play because you should well know that you don't play because you wave your hand like you just don't give we don't know that you know to play because you said I will praise the Lord and God. Good all the time all… Good it sound like you don't play you got your Bible so it looks like you know to play, but the only way we know that you know the place is on the field. So what God does for you to see whether you really only stand play.

He was just put you on the field of life where you have to make decisions, and when he put you on the field of life through trials and troubles and difficulties and challenges do you want to God's word.

Do you want God's perspective.

Do you what it says you go to the human way of doing the second way of doing it the non-Christian way of doing it when God says you can learn the place could you not accustomed to using the word of right you talk if you agree with it but until you do it on the practice field. You don't know yet. That's what God does is purge people. He brings the national news local news. Right now I'm preaching the national news international you get things are happening all over the place before you decision-making you need local channels in the local New Jersey stuff is talking to you about the pain you're facing what you're going to the nationally the news don't deal with you. It deals with national about the local news is where you live when you were okay.

So when you come the church you get national news. But when you are mature you get local news document talk you bring forth much ideas human that you see things on the scene that you couldn't see with your physical eyes but to let you to let you in on some secret stuff because he can now speak your mind because you can you can now pick up signals you could pick up before your growing spiritually will be able to distinguish between legitimate and illegitimate backup. In verse five he says, so also Christ did not glorify himself so as to become a high priest, but he said to him you are my son, today I have begotten you just as he says also in another passage. You are a priest forever according to the order of today. Verse 10 be designated by God, please. According to the order of a thick soul who was Melchizedek and why does it matter in Genesis chapter 14 has been involved in a battle in the fight he comes back and is now the numbers I think that's an king of Salem to NSAID to be able of God most high. Okay what the last Abraham. So Mount is the priest who brings blessing to Abraham against the Bible says you and the seed of Abraham. He says let's be able of God most high Jesus Christ. All the funds be given to me in heaven and on earth and Blessed be the God most high, who has delivered that his Abraham gave him 1/10 of all time about Abraham is buried in a fight he's been in a battle you can read the preceding verses and God alone has given him victory, but when he comes back teammates priest coming out of the fight blessing to give them Brandon why because he's been in a fight you will see the following bombs going to another fight with the king of Sodom so we let one fight.

He's gone to another fight between the two sites he runs into the high priest blesses him, give him bread and wine to strengthen him because he never going to another fight everyone serious Christian last week you went a fight to serious Christian no fight robotic rejecting you. Nobody jinxed you. You just going along with the crowd you run into some fight sometimes in your family sometimes you will run into some stuff. Sometimes that can make you wary last week, but now this week is not because you looking for a fight trying to find the fight trying to be in a fight. Just because the world is against you. So between weeks five and six weeks by some bread. You need to be refreshed empowered strengthen with the blessing of God to help you deal with what it looks like when you are mature Christian said I want to tell you about my Wife because Jesus is after the order of a deck because he brings to us the strength for spiritual living in the secular society by the bread and wine of his communion with us so that we can go and watch him overrule Marcello Elian make the final decision.

The reason why you want to be what to say is that mean the circumstances don't have the final decision. Your balls don't have the final decision situation and the call to have the final decision because you will all Saints of God under the priesthood of Christ who commits you battles of life, wanting to be a mature, so that God can give wants to give able to receive so you go battle to a Christian because you will be living by divine insight, secular perspective, Dr. 2011 on the importance of moving beyond spiritual infancy and there's more to today's message than we were able to bring you on the air but is always full-length copies are available.

Just check with us for information on the title. Time to grow up or better yet, ask about getting a copy of Tony's complete new series divine reset, a collection of 10 messages that will help you grow past or current spiritual and emotional challenges. Resetting your focus and attention on God and his priorities. As I mentioned earlier, it's yours. With our thanks when you make a donation toward Tony's ministry and will also include a copy of his practical booklet winning your spiritual battles. Visit us today@tonyevans.org to get all the details before time runs out you can make your contribution and your request online again that's Tony up and start all are a or color 24-hour resource request line at 1-800-800-3222 and let one of our team members help you again dial 1-800-800-3222 when the road gets tough. It helps to know how others have successfully navigated the trip next time. Dr. Evans offers us encouragement tells us about people who've gone before us on their faith journey. Be sure to join the alternative with Dr. Tony ever since my cube I think celebrating 40 years of faithfulness. Thanks for the generous contributions listeners like you