How to Be a Growing Christian | Part 2

What does it mean to you? We'll begin in verse 12 as Adrian Rogers reveals how to be a growing Christian. How are you moving toward maturity?

You can be young only once, but you can be immature for a long, long time. And the problem in many of our churches is that we have people who have been born, but they cease to grow. So we want to talk to you a little bit about how to be a growing Christian, because fellowship in churches comes about when we grow. Now look in verse 12. I write unto you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you for his name's sake. I write unto you, fathers, underscore the word fathers, because you have known him that is from the beginning. I write unto you, young men, underscore the phrase young men, because you have overcome the wicked one. I write unto you, little children, because you have known the Father.

I have written unto you, fathers, because you have known him that is from the beginning. I write unto you, young men, because you are strong and the word of God abideth in you, and ye have overcome the wicked one. We're talking about going on to maturity. What is maturity? Maturity is Christ-likeness. Put this verse in your margin. Ephesians 4, verse 13, Paul says, Till we all come to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man.

And the word perfect here does not mean sinless. It means a mature man unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. Do you know how I measure my ministry?

Not the size of the buildings or the love offering or the Sunday school attendance. Are you becoming more and more like Jesus? Are you becoming more and more like Jesus? That was the goal of Paul's ministry. Put this verse down, Colossians 1 and verse 28.

Paul says, Whom we preach, that is Jesus, and in teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus. And again, the word perfect means mature. Now, maturity is a lifelong process. Folks, it's not a 100-yard dash.

It is a marathon. Nobody is instantly mature. A wise man has said, if you want to grow a squash, you can do that in 40 days.

If you want to grow an oak, you can do that in 40 years. You can be instantly spiritual, you can be gifted, you can be healthy, but you cannot be mature. So I'm trying to teach you now how to move into maturity, to go from childhood to adolescence to fatherhood. That's what John is talking about. Now, first of all, he talks about the childhood stage.

Look, if you will, in verse 12. I write unto you, little children. Now, write this down, the thrilling wonders of childhood, the thrilling wonders of childhood.

Oh, it's so wonderful. Little babies are so wonderful. We love little babies. Our church loves little babies.

The joys, the thrills, the excitement when God brings a baby into home. But now let me tell you something, folks. I've been doing a survey of little children. By the way, I am a bona fide grandfather. And you learn things by being a grandfather that you don't learn by being a father. Because when you're a grandfather, you can back yourself out and study a little bit, and you can watch. And you know what I have learned through my very scientific study as a bona fide grandfather, through my humble but accurate opinion? Let me tell you.

Let me tell you about little children, these wonderful little children. They're selfish. The most selfish creatures on earth is a baby.

I mean, every movement is this way. You take something away from him, and he'll go into rage. Not only are they selfish, but they're crude and rude. They will burp in your face and think nothing of it.

And I'll tell you something else about them. They're lazy. They just lie around the house. They don't do anything. They don't help cook. They don't help clean.

They don't bring anything in. They are lazy and unproductive. These precious little children, I'll tell you something else about them. They are totally inconsiderate. They'll wake you up in the middle of the night, and I'm going to tell you something else about it. You won't agree with this, but they're mean. They're mean. We've got our little grandsons together. I mean, they had not been on the floor for 30 seconds before Stephen Paul moved over and bit Andrew.

I mean, good, took a chunk out of Andrew. Mean. Mean. Little kids. We think about these sweet little darlings.

I'm telling you, friend, they're selfish, they're rude, they're inconsiderate, they're lazy, they're unproductive, and sometimes mean. If you look at a little child like that and you say, hey, if that's a human being, I don't want to be one. Have you ever heard anybody say, if that's a Christian, I don't want to be one? They look at a little baby Christian. You know, thank God for little baby Christians. But little baby Christians have to grow up, and when you get saved, nobody is saved, full grown, and I don't care what age you are, when you get saved, you are a babe in Christ, and John is writing to some, and he calls them little children. Now, thank God for little children. Thank God for people like this, folks.

I mean, I'm grateful for this. But don't find some baby in our church and say, well, now, if that's what being a Christian is, I don't want to be a Christian. Well, that's a baby Christian.

They have to grow up. And, you know, I used to think that a great church was a church where everybody was a mature Christian. That's not a great church. That's a failing church. That would be like saying a great home is a home where they're all adults and there are no children and no grandchildren. See, that's not a great home.

That's not a great home. Thank God for the spilled milk. Thank God for the dirty diapers. Thank God for the Cheerios on the floor. Thank God for, listen, all of that comes with it. And we need to make these baby Christians who come to Jesus feel at home. We need to love them. And our church is, in one sense, a maternity ward.

Now, the problem, the problem is some stay in the maternity ward far too long when you are a great big baby still on the bottle, still sucking your thumb, not growing, not serving, not working, having to be served, and still selfish and still rude and still crude and still lazy and still unthoughtful. May God have mercy upon you. You're to grow. There is a legitimate childhood. Now, the Bible says put away childish things, but the Bible says still be childlike.

You know, a child has that wonder, that sweetness. Keep that in you. Keep the wonder, keep the excitement, keep the joy. Remember when your sins were forgiven you. Never forget it. Never forget it. Never forget it. I write unto you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you.

Thank God for that. I write unto you, young men, because you're strong and the Word of God abides in you and you've overcome the wicked one. When you get to be a father, you don't cease in the battle. You don't lose the wonder.

You don't step out of the warfare. You just add all these things to it until you become a full-grown man. And that's the reason a person who is really maturing the Lord. Did you know that little children enjoy these kind of people? Because they themselves still have a childhood.

They've never lost the wonder. Did you know there ought to be a little boy in every man, a little girl in every woman who's full-grown, still love to laugh, to play, to have the good times, and I don't care who you are. There ought to be that manhood. You ought to stay in the battle.

You ought to stay in the warfare. The Word of God ought to be in you. You just simply add all these things together until you become a full-orbed individual, what the Bible calls a father, and then you are at home in any crowd with little children. You know little children love Jesus.

They come sit in his lap. And the older men, the apostle John when he was old, he loved to be with the Lord Jesus Christ. And so what we're talking here about is growing in the grace and knowledge of Jesus.

Now let me tell you, folks, well, let me ask you an obvious question. Who wrote this book of 1 John? John wrote this. And if you say, Oh, dear, sweet old John, the beloved disciple. You know, when we think of John, don't you have just sort of a nice idea of John, the disciple whom Jesus loved, the one who wrote about love and told his loved one, I want to tell you, friend, if you'd have been around John when he was a young man, you would not have wanted to be around John. Let me tell you what John was like. Do you want to know what John was like by nature? Do you know what his nickname was? Son of thunder! That was his nickname. He had a hair trigger. Do you know what he was by his natural disposition?

Selfish as all get out. James and John came to Jesus and said, Lord, when you come in your kingdom, Lord, I'd like to sit on your right hand and my brother over here wants to sit on your left hand. That's what he said. When they were there going through Samaria and the Samaritans would not receive them. You know what John said? He said, Lord, you want us to call down some fire from heaven? Lord, a little heavenly napalm. That'll fix these folks here.

God, let's nuke them till they glow and then we can shoot them in the dark. Lord, oh, God, let's get them! Jesus had to say, John, you don't know what spirit you're of. I mean, don't get the idea that John was Mr. Nice Guy.

John was not Mr. Nice Guy when Jesus got hold of him. But he grew in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. And you see him later on, he's called Beloved Apostle. You see him later on when he went to Samaria. He was the one that led that revival there. It wasn't consuming fire, but Holy Ghost fire that he brought down upon them the second time when he came.

He was the one who wasn't trying to be first, but he was the one who taught us to love one another. You see, what John is talking about now, the Apostle John, he has experienced, he has grown in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, and that means if there was hope for old John, there's hope for you. You can grow.

Now, I want to ask you another question. I didn't ask, are you saved? Are you a growing Christian? I mean, listen, to fail to grow is a sin.

If you don't love Jesus Christ more today than you did yesterday, you're backslidden. You need to be growing in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Now, how are you going to grow? How are you going to grow?

What are the means of growth? Because a growing church is a healthy and a happy church. That's where the fellowship is sweet. Well, number one, there must be the miracle of life.

There must be the miracle of life. Now, he calls them little children in verse 12. Actually, he uses two words for little children in this same passage of Scripture. He uses one word that just simply means born ones, and then he uses another word which means children under discipline.

Technia and pedia. You've got to be a born one. I mean, you cannot grow up and then get born. Have you ever talked to somebody and you try to lead them to Christ, and they say, well, I've got some things in my life I need to straighten out, and when I get all that done, then I'll become a Christian.

Pardon me, but that's not very bright. That's like saying I'm going to grow up and then I'll get born. No, you see, it is birth that precedes growth.

When we were here many, many, many years ago in the old church building downtown, I had all the boys and girls. I was trying to teach a lesson on growth, and so we got some little potted plants, and we gave them different Sunday school classes, and we told one, give this plant water, sunlight, and fertilizer, and we told others, give this plant water and fertilizer but no sunlight. Another one, give this sunlight but no water and fertilizer, until we had all of the different combinations that you could get, and some plants were growing like this, and some were like this, and some were kind of like this, and then we gave the kids a stick, just a plain wooden stick in a pot, and we said to them, give it light, give it water, and give it fertilizer, and so the kids would bring their different plants Sunday morning, but you know what? Those kids that had a stick, their stick never grew at all.

It just wouldn't grow because the stick had no life. Now, don't try to grow up before you get born. Give your heart to Jesus Christ, and first of all, there has to be. You have to be born from above in order to grow. Are you saved?

I mean, do you know the Lord Jesus Christ? Do you have that life in you? First thing, growth requires the miracle of life. Second thing, growth requires the passage of time. You will not be instantly mature.

There are no shortcuts. Now, I did a little reading. I found out that a mouse reaches maturity in three months. Cats and dogs are able to reproduce in 12 to 18 months. Gorillas and chimpanzees when they're 10 years old, but human beings mature and become self-sufficient almost the slowest of all species.

That's very interesting about those of us who think we are the smartest. There's no instant maturity, and just keep plodding along and you will find out that you will grow. Here's the third thing that growth requires. It requires the receiving of nourishment.

Now, I want to stop right here and talk a little bit. You know, the Bible says in 1 Peter 2, 2, the newborn babes desire the sincere milk of the Word that you may grow thereby. You don't take a new Christian and give him a study in Revelation, Ezekiel, or Leviticus.

You get him in the Gospel of John and other places. You get him in the milk of the Word so that he may grow thereby. And the word desire here means to crave, to crave the milk of the Word. And it's in the imperative form.

You're commanded to crave the Word of God. Do you know what a newborn baby in the physical realm is interested in? Not the print on the curtains and not that wonderful little mobile that you hung over his bed.

He's oblivious to that. It's the bottle. Or it's that homominized milk, whichever one he's on. I want you to know that he is interested in that milk.

And that's what Peter is saying in 1 Peter 2, 2, as newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the Word that you may grow thereby. You know, if I were to come to you and I'd say, how are you doing in your Christian life? Well, Pastor Rogers, I'm not doing very good. I'm not winning any battles. I'm not getting my prayers answered.

Nothing is making sense. Very frankly, I'm discouraged. I'd say, well, tell me about your Bible study. Oh, I come and hear you preach on Sunday morning, Pastor, if company doesn't come. If it's not raining, I'm there to hear you preach. You ought to be happy at that. Friend, that'd be like giving a newborn baby four gallons of milk on weekends. That's just not going to get it done. You've got to be feeding day by day on the Word of God. That's where the strength comes.

Now, you can grow very fast. Ethel Barrett wrote about Dwight L. Moody. Many of you don't know Dwight L. Moody. I mean, well, he's dead.

You couldn't know him, but I mean, you could have known about him. He was the Billy Graham of his day. And here's what she said about Moody. You know, Moody didn't have a theological education.

She said this. When Dwight L. Moody became a Christian, he developed such a hunger for God's Word, spent so much time reading it, and was so quick to obey it that he became a menace, listen to this, to some believers. His rapid spiritual growth was an embarrassment to certain people who, though they had been saved for years, never grew up in Christ. Week after week in the church Moody attended, he would share a new experience that he'd had with the Lord. Finally, some of the older saints who couldn't stand feeling humiliated by his exemplary life went to Moody's uncle and urged him to quiet down his nephew.

And then Ethel Baird said this. His robust spiritual health and bounding energy disturbed their napping. He was just too much. So while they were sucking their thumbs, he was growing until he left them far behind. He grew more in a few years than they did in 30 because he got on the Word of God. You've got to get the Word of God in your heart and in your life you're gonna grow.

Watch it. What does it take to grow? Listen, you've got to have birth. Number two, it takes time.

Number three, you have to be constantly feeding on the Word of God. Now let me tell you something else about little babies. Little babies will eat junk food if you give it to them. And little babies will put anything in their mouth.

I mean a cigarette butt, a roach, or anything else. I'm telling you, they'll put anything in their mouth. I am surprised at what some people who are members of this church, I come into their home and they'll have Jehovah's Witness literature. Not even though it's Jehovah's Witness literature in their home. Little babies will put anything in their mouth, in their head they don't understand. The Bible says they don't have discernment.

They don't have discernment. You have to feed on the Word of God. Listen, precious friend, it takes life.

It takes time. It takes nourishment. And I'll tell you something else, it takes discipline and exercise. If you're to develop and not be a flabby Christian, Hebrews 5, verse 14, But strong meat belongeth to them who are of full age, even to those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil. And the word there for exercise is the word we get our English word, gymnasium, from. You know why we have so many flabby Christians? They come down the aisle of the church, they get baptized, then they come Sunday after Sunday, sit, soak and sour.

They do not exercise. Now, if you want to go on to maturity, get a job. There's a place of service for you.

You say, well, pastor, I can't teach. Well, maybe you can help in a ball club. Maybe you can help in a gymnasium. Maybe you can help in the dining hall.

Maybe you can help in the bookstore. Maybe you can help in the office. Maybe you can help in the Sunday school class. Maybe you can help in the jail ministry.

Begin to exercise, and don't just sit around like a turtle on a log. Get busy for the Lord Jesus Christ. It is a shame and a disgrace that so many people have been Christians so long and are still sitting in the nursery being rocked, sucking their thumb. Amen.

You know it is true. Are you a growing Christian? If you're a child, thank God that you've been born into the family. Praise God! But I want you to become a young man.

There's a battle. There's some work to be done. Are you a young man, a worker and a warrior?

Thank God! But I want you to become a spiritual father. I want you to remind others of God. I want you to become a giving person. I want you to become a reproducing person. I want you to be a person that has the knowledge of God and if somebody has a problem, they can come to you. And you have been so much with God, you begin to act and look like him. Did you know that you spend enough time with somebody you begin to look like them and act like them?

Joyce is getting worried. Listen, folks. We become like God. Now here's the first step is being born. Have you been born into the family of God? Do you know Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior? God wants to save you. He wants to forgive your sin and he will do it. Would you pray a prayer like this?

Oh God, thank you for loving me so much. Thank you for sending Jesus to die for my sins. Thank you for paying my sin debt and taking the judgment that I deserve. You told me if I would trust you, Lord Jesus, you would save me.

I trust you right now. Forgive my sin. Cleanse me. Make me your child. Save me, Lord. And help me not to be ashamed of you. In your name I pray.

Amen. Now if you've just prayed to receive Jesus Christ, we would love to celebrate with you. Go to our Discover Jesus page on our website. You'll find answers you may need about your newfound faith.

We have a response section there for anyone. You can share your testimony with us or tell us how this message has made a difference in your life. Go to lwf.org slash radio and click on the tab that says Discover Jesus. And if you've given your heart and life to Christ, welcome to God's forever family.

Let us hear from you today. Now if you'd like to order a copy of today's message, call us at 1-877-LOVE-GOD and mention the title, How to Be a Growing Christian. This message is also part of the insightful series, Sweetest Fellowship This Side of Heaven. If you'd like the complete collection, all 11 powerful messages, call that number, 877-LOVE-GOD or go online to lwf.org slash radio or write us to order at Love Worth Finding, Box 38600, Memphis, Tennessee 38183. It takes life, time, nourishment and exercise to grow.

Adrian Rogers offers this advice, don't worry about what you can't do, find out what you can do and begin to do it and you'll grow. We're so glad you joined us for today's program. Be sure to tune in next time for more real truth that never changes right here on Love Worth Finding. We love hearing from listeners and how this program is making a difference. Here's a powerful testimony. A listener wrote and said, today I got down on my knees and I accepted Jesus as my savior.

I've never been a Christian, so this is new to me. Adrian Rogers is an amazing pastor and his messages have had a big impact on me. Well, we praise God for that news and we're overjoyed to hear about your newfound faith. It's our honor to share these life-changing messages and resources with listeners who are in every stage of spiritual maturity, whether you're a brand new Christian or a long-time follower of Christ or you have never bowed your knee to Jesus. To say thank you for your gift to support us this month, we want to send you our God's Word booklet collection. Request the God's Word booklet collection when you call with a gift at 1-877-LOVEGOD. Or give online at lwf.org slash radio.