Welcome to the For the Gospel podcast. My name is Kosti Hinn, and I am your host for this episode. We are going to be looking at the signs of Christian maturity. One of the most common questions we get is how do I know if I'm growing or I feel complacent or a little stagnant in my faith? What am I supposed to be looking for? How do I know if I am a mature Christian? And so I want to offer you some key points. You could definitely add to the list that I'm going to give you in this episode, but I think this is a great starting point for us. And none of this is meant to guilt or shame you if you say, man, I'm not there. Um, some of these are really hard for me. That's okay. The fact that you want to pray, you want to grow, and you're willing to strive by the grace and strength that Christ provides is an excellent sign of your Christian growth and, in fact, your maturity. And so before we walk through those, I want to remind you that we're a ministry that provides sound doctrine for everyday people. You can go to our website, www.forthegospel.org, for a load of articles. Uh, we've obviously got this podcast. We've got videos coming on our YouTube channel. So be sure to subscribe there. And then we are on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok. And we have a ton coming this year. If you want to give and you're excited to partner with our ministry, you can do that on our website at our donate page. And we will continue to put out annual reports and information about the way that we use your money. The last thing I'm really excited about is we have stickers coming and we have swag t-shirts coming, and we are going to be giving a lot of those away. We'll launch a merch store at some point to make sure that we can uh pay for the cost of those items and get them to you. But what we really want to do is inspire people to live boldly for the gospel and wear the word gospel on them or on their car. So look for more of that. We're thrilled. God's been growing this thing really fast. It's all Him, it's all for His glory and all for the gospel. So thank you for your prayer and for sharing the content and for your support. So let's jump in. Some basic questions. Am I growing? How do I know if I'm growing? How do I know if maturity is evident in my life? Am I slowly and consistently becoming more like Jesus? These are questions that Christians should answer and should take a serious look at. The Bible repeatedly tells Christians that they are supposed to be maturing. They're supposed to be growing. Good works should be coming out of our life. They're not the way that we're saved, but they are something that comes out of our life if we are saved. And so there really is no model or concept in the Bible for what I would call cruise control Christianity. In fact, cruise control Christianity is not even genuine Christianity. You're either growing or you're coming to the realization that you're possibly not even a Christian. And I just talked with a brother this past week who grew up in church, uh, played sports at a Christian university, married a Christian gal, has been in church for most of his whole life, and just this past year sees the evidence of conversion. The power of the gospel is actually changing him. Before there was a lot of superficial surface level behavior, but now he's been completely transformed. I get the joy of baptizing him and walking with him. And this brother is seeing real evidence of Christian faith in his life. And so I would encourage us all to take a good look in the mirror and ask the Lord, show me the ways that I'm growing. And if I'm not growing at all, like not even the smallest move forward in my faith, what are the evidences that I'm even saved? These are important questions because you can have confidence that the Lord is in you and working through you. There's no need to kind of wander or even go through the motions. Um, salvation is something that everyone can have if they will place their faith in Jesus Christ, they will follow him, and they will profess him as Lord and Savior of their life. That's something that's available to all people. Not all people will take that. Not all people will even want it. But for those of us who have said, yes, I'm a real Christian, we need to see evidence of that. And one of the ways is to see if we're maturing. So are you imitating Christ, like 1 Corinthians 11 1 says that we should be doing? Are we giving ourselves up like Christ in a sacrificial way, like Ephesians 5 talks about? Uh, are we keeping the commandments of Christ? Jesus told his own disciples, if you love me, you'll obey me, or this is even how you'll know that you're a follower of me, if you obey me. Jesus modeled that by obeying the Father. John 14, verse 15 lays that out. Are you growing in holiness? 1 Peter 1, verse 16. Peter calls the church that's being persecuted to grow in holiness. I've always found that to be completely crazy and awesome in it in a good way. That Peter is crazy enough to tell these Christians, not, oh, you guys, you have every right to pull back, you have every right to hit cruise control, you have every right to be really angry and really sinful right now. Look at the way that Nero and look at the way that Rome is treating you. No, he says, Be holy as I am holy, quoting God from scripture. Are you suffering like Christ? 1 Peter 2 21. The question begs by the grace of God, are you seeing signs of Christian maturity in your life? So here are four signs that I want to give you. You can prayerfully assess these. The first one is you see trials as training. You see trials in your life as training. Now, this one's not very fun, but you know, since when is growth painless? Who in the world puts up with a gym trainer who doesn't make you sore? You'd get fired in the athletic world if you didn't push athletes to their limit and help them get better and help them get stronger. But for some reason, we think the Christian life is going to be just some smooth sailing operation, or we want our pastors to just pat us on the back all the time and not push us. We don't ever want to leave a sermon, quote, sore spiritually. But God does that through trials all the time. Romans 5, 3 through 5 reminds us to rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance. Endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope doesn't put us to shame because God's love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. James says it clear as day in James 1, 2 through 4, that we're to consider it all joy when we encounter various trials. Why? Because the testing of our faith produces endurance. Endurance is going to produce maturity. There's going to be a perfecting of the saints. And so we grow stronger from trials. And part of Christian maturity is not getting angry every time you go through something difficult and saying, God, why are you doing this to me? Why would you do this to me, Lord? No. We begin to say, Lord, whatever you are doing in this season, whatever you are allowing in this season, teach me, grow me, help me to be faithful. Help me to find something good, something to praise you about still. And so a mature Christian will have natural feelings like anyone else, but they don't follow their feelings, they follow their faith. They don't see what God is doing on the other side. They don't know what he's up to per se, but they trust him all the while. Are you somebody who sees trials as a sort of cosmic abuse, shaking your fist at God, demanding he answer your prayers and come rescue you? Or if you come to rest in his sovereignty, trials are training. The more you see that, and I'm not talking about faking it, I mean for real. You really see it, even in the midst of pain, you get the joy of saying, Hey, that's a sign of Christian maturity. I'm growing. This thing works. And let me tell you, it really does, because the Holy Spirit is the one doing it. Number two, a sign of Christian maturity is that you pray with a wider perspective. What do I mean by that? Well, when we first get saved, or when we're an immature Christian, it seems like every prayer or two is for Aunt Sally's cold and Uncle John's knee replacement, and for us to get better grades or us to have easier commutes. Lord, let there be less traffic today, or one that, you know what, it's not really a bad thing to pray, but when we're always praying for it and we're so appalled when it doesn't go our way, what about traveling mercies? Oh Lord, give us traveling mercies. Well, what if God wants to delay your trip so you can share the gospel with someone in the airport while you're in the middle of nowhere and his will is a delay? How's that for traveling mercies? You were the traveling mercies for someone else. So as long as you're praying for traveling mercies in a way that sees God's will in all things, hey, pray for traveling mercies. Just know you might be someone's as you share the gospel with them during a snow delay. But we got to pray with a wider perspective if we're mature Christians. We can be sensitive at times to somebody poking at our prayer life like I'm doing right now, but I do this out of love. I want to push you a little bit and I want to challenge you a little bit. And it's good for us to sober up to the reality that God's divine opinion matters when it comes to your prayer life, even though it's personal. You want your prayer life to be biblical. And so we can pray for our physical and emotional needs. Those are very important to God. Matthew 6, verses 25 to 34 would certainly make the case for that. Ask God for what you need. Certainly ask him for food and clothing and shelter, but seek first the kingdom, he says in Matthew 6, 33. 2 Corinthians 12, 7 through 9, Paul prays that the thorn in the flesh be relieved, whatever that was for him. He definitely wanted relief. And so God cares about our emotional needs or what is ailing us or what is causing us problems, like Paul was experiencing. Some scholars think it was a physical thing. Many scholars believe it was some sort of heckler or demonic assault that he was enduring. Whatever the case, he prayed for it to be removed. 1 Peter 5 7 says, cast all your anxieties on God because he cares for you. And so we can pray and cast anxieties on the Lord, but there's so much more to prayer than just asking God to do everything we want. When you look at Paul's prayers in the New Testament, it is eye-opening. Recently I did a study on about 41 prayers or statements of prayer by the Apostle Paul to kind of look at what kind of prayer life he fostered. And I'll tell you what, over and over and over, his prayers are focused on the salvation of souls, freedom from sin, open doors for the gospel, Christ-centered peace, joy in the midst of trials, thanksgiving to God for all he was doing in the hearts of believers and through believers. So what if we praised more in our prayers? What if we prayed for open doors for gospel work and then went out and did gospel work? What if we begged God to kill our sin, to expose us of our pride, to help us be more patient? What if we told God in our prayers honestly how we're feeling and how much we hate that we're feeling that way, and that we need his grace and his power to come in and change our minds and change our hearts and turn us back to him? What if we prayed for joy in the midst of what we were going through and we didn't always pray for God to get us out quick from what we're going through? We should thank God more. We should praise more. We should pray more in that way. So some passages to dig into would be prayers like Paul prays in 2 Corinthians 13, 7 through 9, or in Philippians 4, 6 and 7, in Ephesians 1, 15 to 23, Colossians 4, 2 to 4, in 1 Thessalonians 1, 2 to 3, or in Philemon verses 4 through 7, you'll see examples of Paul making statements about prayer or offering prayers that have very little to do with anything that would cause us to want to pray more for Uncle John's knee replacement or Aunt Sally's cold. Not that it's bad to pray for healing from those things. But Christians, may we pray more like Paul, more like Jesus. Physical and emotional needs are important, but a maturing Christian will pray with a wider perspective than just our own or those we love's temporal needs. Number three, do you respond to rebuke with receptivity? A maturing Christian will. You will respond to rebuke with receptivity. And being receptive to rebuke is something that Proverbs says is indicative of a wise man. Fools and immature Christians don't like rebuke. Mature Christians want the rebuke. They want, like Proverbs also says, the faithful wounds of a faithful friend, somebody to tell you like it is. And naturally, I get it. When pleep when people play offense, we have a tendency to play defense. It's innate. But it can also be a sign of our immaturity as a Christian. And so maturity says, I know my pride. I know that I mostly think I'm right. I know that I get reactive when somebody calls me out on my stuff. And so I need that because I want to follow Jesus and I want to be holy and I want to be right with him and I want to love others. And so I need people to point things out in my life. But sometimes our immaturity rears its ugly head when we react defensively or even aggressively to somebody who's lovingly pointing out our need for repentance. Do you freely admit that you very likely could be the problem in some scenarios you're experiencing? Are you open to other people shining the light of truth on your darkened blind spots? Christian maturity reflects the heart of Psalm 51, 17, where David says, the broken and contrite heart, O Lord, you will not despise. And so if you are a broken and contrite Christian, habitually, I know we all make mistakes and we all have our days where the pride game is strong. But are you a Christian that regularly loves the rebuke and the reproof of your brothers and sisters? Proverbs 26, 12 says, Do you see a man who is wise in his own eyes? There's more hope for a fool than him. May we all respond more receptively to the rebuke of those who love us. Finally, you will know that you're a maturing Christian because habitual sins are fading. Certain habitual sins are starting to fade and wane in your life. Now, nobody is called to perfection as a Christian, but every Christian is called to progression. That means you're always going to be progressing. But the way you are is not the way you're one day going to be. The plain truth is when you put off the old self and you're walking in the newness of the Christian life and being renewed by the Holy Spirit day by day, he's going to transform you. That's what Ephesians 4, 22 through 24 makes clear. And it may seem agonizingly slow sometimes, but God is growing you, Christian, are habitual sins fading. Sometimes God uses confession of sin to start cleansing it out of you. There is nothing like telling your husband, your wife, your pastor, your friend the ugly truth about what you are wrestling with. When you bring that sin that loves the darkness out into the light, it does not survive. It cannot survive. So I've often said you name it and you shame it. Okay? Here's what I mean. You name the sin and you shame that sin. That might look like admitting to your spouse something you're dealing with and naming it specifically, not just saying, oh, I'm wrestling through some pride. No, honestly looking at your husband or your wife and saying, right now I think the entire world revolves around me, and this should be this because I am this and I know that that's pride. It's so shameful. I hate it. I hate that I'm wrestling with that. That is naming it and shaming it. And when you do that with people you trust, they are so excited and eager to come in and say, I know. Thank you for sharing that with me. Let's pray, offer you some action steps and give you accountability. For some of us, we we tend to say, Well, you know, I'm just I'm struggling with some weaknesses. You know, we say that kind of stuff. What if we more often just said, I'm struggling with lust, I'm struggling with contentment. I'm not happy with my life. I'm not happy with what God has provided. I'm not happy with who God has provided. And I know that that is spitting in the face of God. It is saying, your way is not good enough. What do you, what do you know? You don't know what you're doing. Give me what I want, do it the way I want it, right now, like a little brat throwing a fit. And oh, that is just so not the heartbeat of a worshiper. And I need to have the heartbeat of a worshiper because I need to bring glory and honor to God, because why else am I on this earth? Oh, God, help me. That's like a Psalm 5117 type of confession of sin. And that will help your sin fade. The best thing you could ever do to nurture, foster, and grow your habits of sin is to keep them in the dark. That will keep them growing. And so, by the grace of God, certain sins like unbelief or addiction will be shattered upon conversion. Oh, that happens all the time. People just say, I have no more appetite for this sin. I'm over it, I'm done, I'm never going back. That happens all the time. It's a beautiful picture of a believer being converted. But sometimes the habitual cycle of other sins fades over time as you grow. And as more of God's word comes in and your mind is transformed and renewed day by day, God's word starts changing you, and your desire and your hunger changes. Philippians 2 12 says we need to work out our salvation with fear and trembling. Though we know that God is the one doing it, he has still provided a clear path for growth. First Corinthians 10 13 says, No temptation has overtaken you, but such as is common to man. And God, who is faithful, will not allow you to be tempted beyond which you are able, but with the temptation will provide you a way of escape also that you may be able to endure it. Basically, God always provides a way of escape from our temptation. We just tend to choose the temptation, follow it down the road, which leads to sin. And James, of course, points out that ultimately that sin leads to death. It's a separation from God moment. And the more we just go and live it, the more we see our faith isn't actually genuine. And pretty soon we realize, you know, I'm not even a Christian. And sin has taken control, it's reigning in our life. But a maturing Christian is well aware of the power of sin, well aware of their own weakness, and knowing that they are in desperate need of Christ and his grace. The only difference really between you, me, and other people is that believers will sin and unbelievers will sin. But one of us confesses that sin, repents of that sin, and goes to the cross with that sin, and one of us just kind of does our thing and brushes it under the rug. The unbeliever does that, justifies it or loves it. The believer, oh, we sin, but we take it to the cross. And so a maturing believer will see as they continue to take their sin to the one who paid for that sin, they'll find that God's grace is greater than their greatest sin, and that God is working in you both to will and to work for his good pleasure, as Philippians 2.13 explains, and that patterns of holiness can and will slowly grow in your life, and that habitual sin will decrease. And like 1 John 3:6 explains, you are no longer going to be sinning recklessly. You're actually going to be growing in holiness. And so as you strive in grace to grow in your faith, be encouraged by Paul's words in 1 Corinthians 15, verse 10. He says, But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me did not prove vain. Bottom line, it's all grace, and we need grace. And you will know if you have experienced the explosive grace of God in your life and you are maturing as a believer, because you start to see things with new eyes. The eyes of Christ, if you will, or what for 1 Corinthians 2 calls the mind of Christ. You begin to think God's way, see things God's way, and trust in and live out God's way. And so the four signs that I've laid out for Christian maturity that you can certainly add to and pray through are that you see trials as training, you pray with a wider perspective, you respond to the rebuke of others with receptivity because you want to grow, you want your problems pointed out so you can grow, and your habitual sins are fading. You are not who you used to be, but praise God, you and I are not who we are going to be. He's doing a work in us, he's going to finish that work and perfect that work, and his grace in us is not going to prove vain. So trust him today and take whatever is burdening you to him today. I pray this helps you or convicts you or encourages you wherever you are in your walk with the Lord. Keep on going. Thank you for listening to this episode of For the Gospel. 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