I'm Mature - Immature | Jason Martin

You're listening to a message to go from AX Church. We hope this message

will light up your team today's sermon, right, Okay, so let me

just bring up the slides. So for a slide, So this was the

slide that we talked in KEO. Right. So remember we are point A

to point B. We all have a destination, right, but in reality,

we have so many pitfalls. Right. You have some people lose a

job, some people break up, some people get sick, some people lose

money, and there is so many challenges that come our way. We live

in an imperfect world, right, and we know for a fact that if

we are furthering God's kingdom, the devil is not happy, so he will

throw different challenges away. Right. So we see we have all these pits

in the middle before we reach the end. Right. So uh And when

I talked talked about it previously, I said that we have to focus on

our purpose and we have to also ignore what people are telling saying about us,

but focus on God's truth. Okay, So today's one, I wanted

to just go a bit deeper. And when we look at this diagram,

right, you look at these pits. So for imagine you are in the

pit. Okay, I think, for example, the pit where there's a

shark. Okay, imagine you are in that pit and you get out of

that pit and you go into, say that place with the fire. Right,

what happens to you when you get out of that pit? What happens

to you? Tired? Okay, you're injured someone you thought you're safe?

Okay, stronger? Yeah, the fact is we are no longer in the

pit. Right, we got out of the pit. We will get hurt,

we will get injured. But you know what they're saying, right,

what doesn't kill you makes you stronger, right, makes you go up,

and it helps us grow. And what is that growth? Call that growth

is if you go back one slide, maturity. So when we go through

a challenging and we come out the other side stronger, God, there's something

in us that causes us to mature. Right, So we either mature,

say I'm mature or immature? Which one are we? You know in that

in each of the challenges that we face, we can choose either one of

this. I choose to mature or I choose to remain immature. And if

you choose to remain immature, what happens you stay in the pit, or

you may go backwards. You may go backwards as well, because they say

it's not worth it. I want to go back right. So next line,

what is maturity? So this one is based on the dictionary definition,

right, the quality of behaving mentally and emotionally like an adult. Well,

I know some adults who are not very mature, so it's not the biblical

definition. Take it with a pinch of salt, right, right. The

second thing is the time when an insurance agreement or investment becomes ready to be

paid. Okay, So there is two things in common with both these definitions,

and the one get all the guest lives. But the two things in

common is that it both takes time. You have to grow up from a

child to become an adult. Your investment has to take time to mature,

right and time. Of course, there is so many things that can happen

during that time. Right, And if I go to the next light,

So one of the there was a newspaper journalists who came out with a definition

of maturity. This is a truncated version. It's actually much much longer,

but I thought it's quite cool. So maturity is patience. It is the

willingness to give up immediate pleasure in favor of the long term gain. Maturity

is perseverance, the ability to sweat out a project or situation in spite of

heavy opposition and discovering discouraging setbacks. Maturity is the capacity to face unpleasantness and

frustration, discomfort and defeat without complaint or collapse. Maturity is humility. It

is being big enough to say I was wrong and when right. The mature

person does not experienced the satisfaction of saying I told you so. So this

is just part of it. So when you look at this definition, ask

yourself, am im mature? You know? Because all of us aspire to

say that, hey, we are mature. You know. I think all

of us want to be mature, and we want our kids to grow up

and to mature. Because the last thing you want for your kid to be

is that they grow up in age, but they do not mature. What

happens you will raise somebody that is like a spoil brad everything else about me,

because what there's a kid one, everything is mine. When they see

a toy or whatever it is, everything is about them. It's no longer

about what God wants it's no longer about helping people, but it's about themselves.

Okay, So what does the Bible tell us about maturity? Because in

KO, remember we talked about purpose. We have to know our purpose.

We know that we will reach from point A to point B, but there

will be different challenges. So today's one is what happens when? How do

we go through these challenges? How do we mature instead of remaining immature so

that we can finish the good fight? Right? Okay, So next slide.

So the verse is from Philippians Tree. So during occasualch preached from Philippians

one. This is Philippine's tree. So you can see it is a continuation

of Paul. What Paul is telling the Church of Philippi. So let me

read it. But what things were to gain to me? These I have

counted loss for Christ. Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the

excellence of the knowledge of Christ, Jesus my Lord, for whom I have

suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, that I may

gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which

is from the law, but that is true faith in Christ. The righteousness,

which is from God faith. Next, life, that I may know

Him and the power of his resurrection, the fellowship of his suffering, being

conformed to his death, and if by any means I may attain to the

resurrection from the dead. Okay. Next, not that I've already attained,

I am already perfected. But I press on that I may lay hold for

what for that for which Christ Jesus has laid hold of me. Brethren,

I do not count myself to have apprehended, but one thing I do.

Forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forward to those things which are

ahead. I pressed to us the goal for the price of the upward call

of God in Christ Jesus. And this is the last verse. Therefore,

let us as many as our mature have this mind. And if in anything

you think otherwise, God will reveal even this to you. Nevertheless, to

the degree that we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule.

Let us be of the same mind. Okay, Even reading that,

right, I know I've lost you all. Honestly, right, it's right,

because it's very deeps I say, I need God's grace to help me

get through this. But I have thought I'll put it into three points,

so you only need three points. I'm trying to do something different today.

Instead of doing chronological, I will do counter chronological. So I'll go backwards.

See whether it works in terms of it. Okay, all right,

so next slide. So the first point is maturity. First point is maturity,

right, how do we get how do we mature? In Christ?

Of course, maturity is the end goal. So like I say, I

mentioned is counter chronological. This is the end. This is the end goal,

maturity. Okay, next line, uh, next, this one comes

later. Sorry, Okay, So this is Philippines three fifteen. This is

the worst that we read. But now I've highlighted a few things so that

y'all can follow. Therefore, let us as many as our mature have this

mind, and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal even this

to you. Nevertheless, to the degree that we have already a team,

let us walk by the same rule. Let us be of the same mind.

Okay. So the first thing, as many as our mature have this

mind. So what is mature? Because Paul used the word mature here,

and the word mature here right in Greek, it actually means perfect. It

means perfect. OKAYU wincer correct, Go to the other verse. So Matthew

five for the air, right, it says here, but you are to

be perfect, even as your father in heaven is perfect. So the word

perfect, right, Yeah, in Greek it's the same word perfect. And

in Philippians they use the word mature. So how many of you all think

you're already perfect? You're not right, I'm not. Then how can we

live out this? Or what does it mean? So maturity is a process

we have to It's a process of continuous improvement. You know, you continuously

mature and you continuously grew. That's why here in Matthew five for the eight

he says, therefore you shall be perfect, just as your father in heaven

is perfect. So every day we live, we need to mature and become

more and more like God. So that means easy decision that we make.

Is it God like or is it flesh? That is how we can mature,

right, that is how we can mature. If I go back to

that slight Philippines three. Okay, so it says, yeah, as many

as are mature, have this mind. So what mind is he talking about?

Have this mind? So this one I will come back to it later.

But there is that means, right Paul saying, if you are mature,

you need to have this criteria and I will touch some of these criteria

later, okay, And then he says, yea, and if in anything

you think otherwise, God will reveal even this to you. So sometimes when

we are going through difficulty, right, we may not have we have may

not have any idea why we're going through it right, because there are circumstances

and situations. Okay, when we are going through it, we know that

a God, you are in control. I can see your hand so clearly

you're doing this, and I see how you're moving. But there are also

pits and values that we go through where we have no idea why did God

allow this? Right? And we say, God, how can you allow

this? If you are a good God, why would you allow this to

happen? Why do good things happen? And why do bad things happen to

good people? You know, we have all those kind of questions, and

these are legit questions and we may not have the answers. But it says,

yea, if in anything you think otherwise, that means if you think

that a God is not good, God says, God will reveal even this

to you. So God has the answers, we must seek him. And

when he reveals it to us, that helps us mature, That helps us

grow to become more like him. Right, and he says, yeah,

Nevertheless, to the degree that we have already attained, let us walk by

the same rule. Okay, So what does this mean we have already attained?

So how many of us have had testimonies already? Right? You have

had testimonies. You have gone through pits and you have come out stronger.

You have testified of God's goodness. And that is the thing that you have

already attained. You have already attained the experience that God is good. God

is with me. No matter what. God has healed me. God has

protected me. God has provided for me even though I walk through the value

of the shadow of that He is with me. So all those experiences,

right, you have already attained it. And you need to use this to

help you true your next bit. You have to use it to make because

if you do not, then you forget what God has done for you before,

who he is and what he is capable of doing. All Right,

So if I go to the next line. This is Philippins one. So

in all my prayer for all of you, I always pray with you joy

because of your partnership in the Gospel from the first day until now, being

confident of this that He who began a good work in you will carry it

on to completion. So God has already begun a good work with you the

moment you went through, the moment you were born. You've gone through so

many pits of life. He has already begun their work, and he will

continuously do it. And by continuously doing it, he will continuously reveal your

plans and purposes and who he is. So sometimes when we go through the

pit, like God, I have no idea why I'm going through this,

I cannot explain. If people come and ask me, why are you going

through this? You say, oh God, it's so good. How come

you going through this? He said, I do not know. But I

know who my God is, and I know what he has done for me

and what he will continually do for me. When you speak like that,

right that is spoken like someone who has the maturity and the identity and saying

that I know who my God is. So imagine that if you are not

mature. They like, hey, go through a tough time. Oh,

I think God is not good luck, because that's what sometimes kids and parents,

you know, and parents gave your kids tire. They're like, wow,

thank you, you are the best. When they say you say no

TV, oh man, you're the worst. You know, But what does

that speak maturity? It's not They do not recognize the person. They only

are looking at what's in it for me. But maturity speaks about we recognize

who God is. We know that we have a plan and purpose and that

He will help us through it all right. Next Jeremiah twenty nine. There's

so many verses of God's promise, but he knows here. For I know

the plans I have for you. They class a lot, plans to prosper

you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a

future. This is one verse. Next verse. Even though I walk through

the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for you are with me.

Your rod and your staff they comfort me. We know all these verses,

and these are the verses that we have already attained, and we need

to exercise them when we are in the pit because this is the truth of

God, and we need it in the darkest moments. Right, that will

help us remember who God is. Okay, so that's the first M.

Second M. To reach a place of maturity, you need the right momentum,

right, you need to move forward. Okay, So let's go to

the next line. So this is the verses before you see, right,

Not that I've already obtained all this or have already arrived at my goal.

But I pressed on to take hold of that which Christ took hold of me.

Brothers and sisters. I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold

of it. But one thing I do forgetting what is behind and straining toward

what is ahead, I press on towards the goal to win the prize for

which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. All right, So the

second word is momentum. Look at a neighbor and say momentum. So what

is momentum? What it's momentum. It's momentum physics. You know, you

have to move forward, right, momentum. Yeah, you know, like

a snowball, right, You've seen snowball starts with a small snowball, It

goes around, goes down, the hill, it becomes bigger and bigger,

gathers momentum and then it becomes like an avalanche or whatever. It is.

Right, and there is momentum. But right now I want to ask you,

right, how is your momentum of your Christian walk? Do you that's

your Christian walk? Have momentum or are we stopped? You know? Because

this is a question which I had to ask myself. If I had the

right momentum of snowball and I've been a Christian, I grew up in a

Christian family, by now I should be like, wow, I should be

an avalanche that can can like really change the world. But what happened?

Have I lost momentum momentum? Or have I realized that it's not worth it?

Or what has caused me to slow down? So before I reach maturity?

Right, that's why some of us will never mature because we have stopped.

We have stopped. So if you look at this here right back on,

it's like okay, so it says, yea, I press on you

look at how much moment m Paul head He said, I press on to

take hold on what we cries, the hold of me. Then he says,

forgetting what is behind straining towards? What is a hit I press on

towards the goal. You can see the amount of action, right or proactive

action that he's saying that, Hey, I am straining ahead. Are we

straining a hitler? It's not just okay, we take one step ahead.

This is straining ahead. You know, we are really pushing ourselves forward.

And what can cause us to push that forward? You know, like recently

right now it's a lot of concerts. There are a lot more concerts now

happening right, both in Malaysia, Singapore and stuff like that. Right,

the momentum of purchasing tickets, right, he's quite crazy, and you know

you're really pursue and there's a lot of strainer that means you strain you.

I think you saw on Facebook probably one guy booked the whole meeting room open,

all these laptops and trying to trying to get their tickets in there.

But they know what their goal is and they have that momentum and they're moving

forward, and only when they move forward they can get success or whatever success

they will want to attain. So for us, that's why I say X

Clang came from a good we came from missions conference. We have had a

good teen's camp. Now, what what do we do with it? If

we are just saying that, hey, we are just going to chill until

the next message, until the next hype hype is that's all it is.

It's hype, you know. And if we been on hype, then we

are not striving for maturity. Okay, So it saysier right forgetting what is

behind. Sometimes we have you know, those days, I've done that before,

Now it's time for the younger ones. Or we just say that I

had success before, or I've been burned before. I think I don't want

to be burnt again. And what happens We stay in the pit. We

stay in the pit, and we cannot progress for the you know. So

for Paul right again, where was he writing this in prison? In prisoner

and he had this much drive? I'm like quite amazed. Okay, is

this training pressed on towards the goal? Okay, next line? So this

is the the picture that I wanted. I wanted to find an action picture

of pressing on And this is a picture of pressing on. Is our Christian

walk like this? It's not even a Christian walk, it's Christian run.

You know, some of us are it's like Christian joke or Christian like Christian

walk in the bark, you know. But this is running the race.

So commitment is the igniter of momentum. This is just a quote that I

got. What causes these people to strain forward the commitment? They are committed

to the finish line? Are we committed to the finish line? To be

honest, sometimes right right now, like I have the tendency as or to

compare with my colleagues, or you know, you go and hang out with

your friends and all the suddenly what this guy very successful, multi millionaire already

and stuff, and then you're distracted and I distracted, and then suddenly I

say, hey, actually, will I be happier if I get all this?

Or my focus has changed? And it has I'm no longer focused on

the plans and purposes that God has for me. You know, because through

the world, do you think Paul looked successful? She was? He was

very successful. He was very successful, but then he was beaten, he

was put in a prison and then at the end executed, but he was

clear of his purpose. Right, thanks, And this is the last m

so before we have the momentum. Right, we need to measure. We

have to measure because you can have momentum in the wrong direction. You can

have momentum in the wrong direction. Right, So it means that, hey,

I have momentum like like, for example, a lot of people on

their death bid. You know, we have read so many stories on their

death bid. Right, people say, I wish I spend more time with

my family, but their momentum when they were alive is towards money. So

it's not that we do not have momentum, but we may have momentum at

on the wrong things. So we need to measure. We need to take

stock first. Okay, thanks, So this is the worst before that.

But what things were to gain to me? These I have counted loss for

Christ. Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the

knowledge of Christ, Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss

of all things and counterm as rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be

found in Him, not having my own righteousness which is from the law,

but that which is true faith in Christ and the righteousness which is from God

by faith. Okay, that I may know Him and the power of his

resurrection, fellowship of his sufferings. Being conformed to his death by any means

that I may attain the resurrection from the dead. Okay, So remember the

the verse fifteen. So verse fifteen, I'm not sure they can pull it

up, but it says that mature and have this mind. Right as are

mature and have this mind. So I told you, I want to come

back to what is this mind? So this mind, if we go back

to worst seven, this mind will count loss, count things that were gain

as loss. This mind counts all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge

of Christ. And I have suffered the loss of all things, but I

count them as rubbish. That is the mind of maturity that Paul wants us

to have. Are we counting the right things as gain? Because you remember

cho I said to live is Christ and to die is Gain. And that

was the mind that Paul had. That was the mind that Paul had.

Okay, next line, Okay, so this one I just put it here

right, So count he said, counted loss right three times? Was one

count loss for Christ? Then he counted loss for the knowledge of Christ.

Count as rubbish and gain Christ and be in the righteous in Christ. Righteousness,

so you can see it. Right for him, what ever was important

to him. You know that he was actually one of the most learned Jewish

teachers. Right, But he said, I will counted as loss for Christ.

He gave it all up at the road to Damascus. Remember after that

he said, counted loss for the knowledge of Christ, because he says that

I want to know Christ. I want to know who he is. I

want to know him better. And the last one is countless rubbish. So

countess rubbish, right, what do you do with rubbish? Throw away?

And what did he throw away? What did he throw away? He threw

away everything that the world says was success, and he counted accounted it because

he wanted to gain Christ. Because if he wanted to be successful in the

eyes of the world, he would hold on to what the world thinks is

success. But when he holds onto that, he cannot gain Christ. You

cannot serve both money and God, right, you can't. So he had

to throw it away. And then he said, I want to Christ.

Okay, next, So having more to live with is no substitute for having

more to live. For some of us we live for property when we should

be living for purpose and we can't take our property anyway, you know.

But when we live for purpose, right, you are doing exactly what God

has created you to do. And when you do that, you know what

happens. You will succeed because that's what you are created to do and only

you can do that. Right. So remember there were three ms, so

I did it in reverse. Right. We one to mature. But before

we mature, we need to move in the right direction. We have to

have momentum. And to ensure we have momentum, we need to measure and

make sure we are hated in the right direction. That's how we mature.

That's how we mature. So I wanted to just end with a story.

So this story is I'm not sure. I'm sure y'all would have heard about

it. This guy he's called Eric Little. So Eric Little is a British

Olympian. He's a Christian, He's a British Olympian. H And he's a

sprinter. Right, He's a sprinter. His best best spot or best race

is one hundred meters. So he just training his whole life for this for

the nineteen twenty four Olympics. When he went to the Olympics. Right,

guess what the one hundred meter race right fell on a Sunday, So you

know what he did. He pulled out. He pulled out of the race

that he has been training his whole life because he says that he does,

I mean he wants to keep the Sabbath holy and said, okay, I

will train for the two hundred meters and the four hundred meters, you know,

even in that short span. And what happened is he won gold in

the four hundred meters. When we are running God's race, when we are

we have the right momentum, we know what we are measuring. God will

make sure we mature. And you know, like investments, right, when

you mature, you will become what you were in God intended you to be.

And that is a story of Eric Little. And after that, right

he went back to China to do missions, and a lot in the world's

eyes people so wasted, so wasted you go and do missions. You should

have continued your track. Or some people will say he is so wasted.

You train so long for one hundred meters and you didn't race, you know,

but he was very clear his measurement was God's measurement is not the measurement

of the world and his success was am I pleasing God? If that is

your measure of success, then you will definitely mature and reach and finish your

race. Well man, So right now, Church, we need to mature.

We need to mature. A lot of us here have been Christians for

very, very long time, and we may have lost the momentum for various

reasons, I myself included. But right now I told myself, Okay,

I need to measure. I need to see you. Am I measuring what

is important to God? What is important to God? Am I living a

life which is pleasing to him? Because, like what Paul says, right,

he wanted to in verse eleven, I think verse eleven that I may

know him because he wants to know Jesus power of his suffering, a power

of his resurrection, fellowship of his suffering, and being conformed to his death.

So what he wanted to do is he wanted to become like Jesus.

He wanted to experience God's power. He wanted to partake in the suffering and

partaking in the suffering. And sometimes when I read it as are like,

man, do I want to suffer? But I would read all of us

are going to suffer anyway. Wouldn't you want to suffer with Christ in your

sight when you have a partnership with Him and He will bring you through it

and make you more mature, make you stronger, and then by any means,

I may attain to the resurrection from the day all of us. If

we want to be resurrected with Christ, we need to finish our race.

Well. We hope you've been blessed by this message. For more information on

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good week, a hit for you. God bless