WEBVTT 00:00:00.640 --> 00:00:02.000 Kids are dismissed. 00:00:12.880 --> 00:00:13.519 Amen. 00:00:13.839 --> 00:00:14.720 Good morning. 00:00:15.679 --> 00:00:18.480 Welcome again to Community Bible Fellowship Church. 00:00:18.719 --> 00:00:20.399 My name is Daniel. 00:00:20.640 --> 00:00:22.879 We're going to be in Psalm 1 this morning. 00:00:22.960 --> 00:00:36.560 If you want to open to Psalm 1, we're continuing in this miniseries on the mission of the church, the mission of CBFC here in particular, which we're summarizing this way. 00:00:36.719 --> 00:00:47.200 We exist to glorify God by magnifying his name, maturing his people, and multiplying his church, which will be up there in just a second. 00:00:48.000 --> 00:01:00.560 And I'd love if we could just spend some time saying this together again as soon as it is up there when our lovely director of worship and student ministries, Noah, is able to bring that up in just a moment. 00:01:02.000 --> 00:01:05.519 In three more minutes. 00:01:05.840 --> 00:01:06.319 Alright. 00:01:06.480 --> 00:01:07.519 Let's test your memory. 00:01:07.599 --> 00:01:08.879 Do you have it memorized? 00:01:09.200 --> 00:01:09.519 No. 00:01:10.239 --> 00:01:17.599 We exist to glorify God by magnifying his name, maturing his people, and multiplying his church. 00:01:17.680 --> 00:01:18.560 Some of you know it really well. 00:01:18.719 --> 00:01:19.120 Very good. 00:01:19.280 --> 00:01:33.200 So last week we looked at our purpose for glorifying God by magnifying his name in worship in Psalm 96 as we encounter, express, embody, and enjoy the glory of the Supreme Lord Jesus Christ. 00:01:33.280 --> 00:01:38.079 Today we're looking at that second part of our mission: glorifying God by maturing his people. 00:01:38.959 --> 00:01:41.040 We'll be doing that in Psalm 1. 00:01:42.480 --> 00:01:50.640 There's a message that we hear constantly in our culture that's very attractive, and it's basically you can be whoever you want to be. 00:01:51.280 --> 00:01:52.879 Don't let anyone else define you. 00:01:52.959 --> 00:01:54.480 Don't let your parents define you. 00:01:54.560 --> 00:01:56.319 Don't let culture or tradition define you. 00:01:56.480 --> 00:01:58.159 Don't let society put you in a box. 00:01:58.319 --> 00:02:02.719 You determine who you are, you chart your own course, you write your own story. 00:02:03.200 --> 00:02:06.159 Children's movies tell us to follow your heart. 00:02:06.400 --> 00:02:09.919 Graduation speeches tell you to forge your own path. 00:02:10.080 --> 00:02:14.719 Advertising sells us products that promise to help us become the person we want to be. 00:02:14.960 --> 00:02:19.680 Social media gives us a platform to construct and express our authentic selves. 00:02:19.919 --> 00:02:25.039 And the assumption underneath all of this is I am the author of myself. 00:02:25.520 --> 00:02:26.479 I create me. 00:02:26.719 --> 00:02:35.680 Our world is constantly kind of humming the refrain of that old poem, It Matters Not How Straight the Gate, how charged with punishments the scroll, I am the master of my fate. 00:02:35.840 --> 00:02:38.319 I am the captain of my soul. 00:02:39.280 --> 00:02:40.560 And that's appealing, right? 00:02:40.639 --> 00:02:45.599 Nobody wants to feel like we're a puppet being controlled by external forces. 00:02:45.759 --> 00:02:53.919 We like to think we're independent, rational people that can make our own decisions and choose who we become and what we're like, not being forced into some mold. 00:02:55.840 --> 00:03:01.280 The problem is that none of us actually become ourselves by ourselves. 00:03:02.159 --> 00:03:07.439 Even while we're saying nobody tells me who to be, there are a thousand voices telling us who to be. 00:03:07.759 --> 00:03:12.400 In fact, part of the reason I spent years thinking nobody can tell me who to be is because Mrs. 00:03:12.479 --> 00:03:16.240 Williams stood in front of my fifth grade class and told me, no one can tell you who to be. 00:03:16.719 --> 00:03:17.520 And that's the irony. 00:03:17.680 --> 00:03:21.280 We're formed by the very message of nonconformity itself. 00:03:21.599 --> 00:03:24.560 Because we're formed by everything. 00:03:25.199 --> 00:03:26.960 Everything around us is forming us. 00:03:27.039 --> 00:03:37.039 Your phone is forming you, the advertisements you see are forming you, the shows you watch are forming you, your job and coworkers are forming you, the music you listen to is forming you, your friends, your family, what you see online. 00:03:37.120 --> 00:03:41.919 Everything is forming us, discipling us, catechizing us, shaping us. 00:03:42.319 --> 00:03:57.759 Every day, the stories we hear and consume are teaching us what a successful life looks like, what a beautiful person looks like, what relationships are for, what money is for, what sex is for, what we should fear, what we should celebrate, what we should be angry about, what we should desire. 00:03:58.560 --> 00:04:04.159 And most of that, almost all of that, doesn't happen because we consciously choose to be formed by it. 00:04:04.319 --> 00:04:09.599 Nobody like sits down on a Friday night and says, all right, now I'm gonna let Netflix shape my understanding of the good life. 00:04:09.840 --> 00:04:13.520 No, it happens quietly and subtly and slowly. 00:04:14.400 --> 00:04:22.079 And eventually the things we repeatedly hear and see and practice and think and love begin to shape the people that we become. 00:04:23.920 --> 00:04:32.800 When we hear the word discipleship, we tend to think of like a small group or Bible study or meet meeting someone at Speakeasy Coffee to talk about Jesus. 00:04:33.120 --> 00:04:35.680 But really, discipleship is just about formation. 00:04:36.959 --> 00:04:45.920 A disciple is an apprentice, a learner, someone who's being trained or shaped or formed into a particular way of seeing and living in the world. 00:04:46.079 --> 00:04:51.040 So the question for us is not, am I being discipled, it's who is discipling me? 00:04:51.199 --> 00:04:52.800 Or what is discipling me? 00:04:52.959 --> 00:04:55.439 What kind of person am I being formed into? 00:04:57.120 --> 00:05:01.439 And that's essentially the question that Psalm 1 will pressure us to ask. 00:05:01.839 --> 00:05:10.879 Psalm 1 begins the entire book of Psalms, it sets the stage for the entire Psalter by telling us that there are fundamentally two ways of being formed. 00:05:10.959 --> 00:05:20.399 There are sort of two streams from which you can drink, two environments you can put down roots in, and eventually they produce two radically different kinds of people. 00:05:21.279 --> 00:05:32.959 One becomes like a tree, rooted and living and growing and fruitful, and the other becomes like chaff, rooted, weightless, blown wherever the wind carries it. 00:05:33.120 --> 00:05:36.240 And what makes the difference is what has been forming them. 00:05:36.639 --> 00:05:39.680 So let's read together from God's word now in Psalm 1. 00:05:39.839 --> 00:05:44.879 Please stand with me if you're able for the reading of the Word of God. 00:05:45.839 --> 00:05:48.720 In Psalm chapter 1, beginning in verse 1. 00:05:50.560 --> 00:06:07.759 Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers, but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. 00:06:08.240 --> 00:06:15.519 He is like a tree planted by streams of water, that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. 00:06:15.680 --> 00:06:18.240 In all that he does he prospers. 00:06:19.199 --> 00:06:24.639 The wicked are not so, but are like chaff, but the wind drives away. 00:06:24.959 --> 00:06:34.000 Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous, for the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish. 00:06:34.319 --> 00:06:36.319 This is God's word, you may be seated. 00:06:36.879 --> 00:06:38.319 Would you pray with me now? 00:06:40.720 --> 00:06:47.600 Gracious Father, we thank you and praise you for your word this morning. 00:06:48.399 --> 00:07:02.959 In a world that is just filled with voices constantly telling us who we should be, we ask that you would, by your spirit, quiet our hearts right now that we may hear your voice and yours alone. 00:07:03.920 --> 00:07:09.839 Holy Spirit, open our eyes to see the beauty and glory of Jesus Christ in your word. 00:07:10.399 --> 00:07:13.600 Plant your truth deep truth deep within us. 00:07:15.040 --> 00:07:23.199 Use it not merely to inform our minds, but to shape our hearts, our loves, our desires, our habits, our lives. 00:07:23.759 --> 00:07:36.720 Make us like trees planted by streams of water, rooted in your grace, growing into the likeness of Jesus Christ and bearing fruit for the good of the church, for the good of the world, for the glory of your name. 00:07:36.959 --> 00:07:38.560 We ask this in Jesus' name. 00:07:38.800 --> 00:07:39.439 Amen. 00:07:43.519 --> 00:07:51.839 Psalm 1 gives us this picture of a mature tree as, sorry, a mature believer, as a tree, a healthy, flourishing tree. 00:07:52.079 --> 00:07:58.480 And so this morning I want us to use that picture to think about maturity as a Christian in three parts. 00:07:58.639 --> 00:08:00.720 The root, the shoot, and the fruit. 00:08:00.879 --> 00:08:02.000 We're going with a rhyme this morning. 00:08:02.079 --> 00:08:03.600 I think this is the first time I've done a rhyme. 00:08:03.759 --> 00:08:08.319 I'm branching out, pun intended, into new outline ideas. 00:08:08.399 --> 00:08:09.040 So first the root. 00:08:09.120 --> 00:08:09.920 What are we rooted in? 00:08:10.000 --> 00:08:11.519 What is shaping us and forming us? 00:08:11.759 --> 00:08:12.959 Second, we'll see the shoot. 00:08:13.040 --> 00:08:14.000 What are we growing into? 00:08:14.079 --> 00:08:16.800 What does Christian maturity actually look like? 00:08:17.040 --> 00:08:18.240 And finally, then the fruit. 00:08:18.560 --> 00:08:19.680 What is all of this growth for? 00:08:19.839 --> 00:08:23.600 What should a mature Christian and a mature church actually produce? 00:08:24.079 --> 00:08:27.439 So the root, the shoot, and the fruit. 00:08:27.759 --> 00:08:29.279 First, the root. 00:08:30.480 --> 00:08:35.679 Psalm 1, as we mentioned, gives us two competing environments for formation. 00:08:35.759 --> 00:08:44.000 There's the counsel way and seat of the wicked, and then there is delight and meditation in the word, the instruction, the revelation of the Lord. 00:08:44.159 --> 00:08:47.759 And notice how comprehensive this formation becomes. 00:08:47.919 --> 00:08:52.639 You walk in counsel, then you stand in a way, then you sit in a seat. 00:08:52.799 --> 00:08:58.559 What you listen to becomes the path you walk, and eventually the place you settle down. 00:08:59.279 --> 00:09:05.919 But the blessed person, or some translations say the happy person, puts his roots somewhere else. 00:09:06.159 --> 00:09:10.399 His delight is in the instruction, the word, the revelation of the Lord. 00:09:10.559 --> 00:09:13.120 He meditates on the scriptures day and night. 00:09:13.200 --> 00:09:17.919 And eventually then verse 3 says, He is like a tree planted by streams of water. 00:09:18.159 --> 00:09:25.039 So he has grown into something mighty and beautiful because of where he's planted his roots. 00:09:25.679 --> 00:09:27.519 Because of where his roots have been planted. 00:09:27.679 --> 00:09:34.240 So God's vision for our maturity begins with putting our roots where he has promised to nourish us. 00:09:35.200 --> 00:09:38.480 And that starts with his word, the scriptures. 00:09:45.919 --> 00:09:50.559 You absolutely should read your Bible, you should meditate on scripture day and night. 00:09:50.720 --> 00:09:55.519 But God's vision here, I think, is bigger than like checking off a spiritual discipline each day. 00:09:55.919 --> 00:10:00.000 This word for meditate here is a Hebrew word, Haga. 00:10:00.399 --> 00:10:06.639 Literally means something like to murmur or to mutter, uh, to quietly speak words over and over to yourself. 00:10:07.679 --> 00:10:13.840 And the reason is likely because ordinary Israelites at this time would not have owned Bibles. 00:10:14.240 --> 00:10:15.759 They didn't have scrolls. 00:10:15.919 --> 00:10:21.679 Uh written manuscripts could be incredibly expensive, and most Israelites couldn't read, uh, weren't literate anyway. 00:10:22.399 --> 00:10:32.240 But God was encountered in his word communally, through corporate worship, through the public reading and teaching and instruction in the scriptures. 00:10:32.399 --> 00:10:37.360 So this is a man who has heard God's word, read and taught among God's people, perhaps in the temple. 00:10:37.679 --> 00:10:42.159 He learned it, memorized it, carried it with him, and then repeated it to himself day in and day out. 00:10:42.320 --> 00:10:49.039 He chewed on it throughout the week until God's word begins to shape the way he sees everything, and the way he loves, and the way he lives. 00:10:49.120 --> 00:10:56.399 So he encounters God's word among his people, and then he rehearses it to himself day and night. 00:10:56.559 --> 00:10:59.279 So that's where transformation begins. 00:10:59.679 --> 00:11:05.279 We talked last week about encountering the glory of God through corporate worship. 00:11:05.519 --> 00:11:18.480 2 Corinthians 3.18 says that we all, together, we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. 00:11:19.279 --> 00:11:27.200 So as we encounter the glory of God in worship, we don't just magnify his name, but we are being transformed. 00:11:27.360 --> 00:11:30.480 We become like the God that we encounter. 00:11:30.879 --> 00:11:34.399 So magnifying his name naturally gives way to maturing his people. 00:11:34.559 --> 00:11:39.120 That's why God continually gathers his people around his word here at CBFC. 00:11:39.360 --> 00:11:43.840 We're not coming here just to learn more theology, learn more about the Bible or about God. 00:11:44.000 --> 00:11:44.960 That should happen as well. 00:11:45.039 --> 00:11:50.639 But we come together to encounter God, to hear his voice and his word, to see his glory in Christ. 00:11:50.720 --> 00:11:54.720 And as we encounter him together, the Spirit transforms us together. 00:11:56.000 --> 00:11:59.919 And normally that transformation isn't dramatic and showy. 00:12:00.639 --> 00:12:06.080 Think again about the picture in Psalm 1 that the tree is planted by streams of water. 00:12:07.600 --> 00:12:11.600 Trees don't grow because somebody dumped 10,000 gallons of water on them once. 00:12:12.559 --> 00:12:17.440 They grow because their roots remain near a steady, consistent source of nourishment long term. 00:12:18.000 --> 00:12:25.200 And that's a beautiful picture of how God ordinarily matures his people out of sinfulness into godliness long term. 00:12:26.399 --> 00:12:30.240 Because we didn't become the sinners that we are overnight. 00:12:30.720 --> 00:12:34.000 Years of repeated habits have formed us. 00:12:34.559 --> 00:12:41.679 We've practiced ways of thinking, desiring, responding, spending, speaking, worrying, consuming over and over and over. 00:12:42.000 --> 00:12:50.799 Rhythms of disobedience, patterns of thinking, rituals of sinful behavior over years and decades have formed us into this particular mode. 00:12:50.879 --> 00:12:58.399 So we've worn grooves into our hearts through things we've done thousands of times, things we thought thousands of times. 00:12:58.559 --> 00:13:03.679 And becoming a Christian doesn't mean that those grooves are instantly erased. 00:13:04.320 --> 00:13:06.000 We need to be reformed. 00:13:06.879 --> 00:13:18.159 And so God gives us new rhythms, new habits, new rituals, new practices to be rehabituated and reformed into the people that we were called to be. 00:13:18.480 --> 00:13:25.360 That's why repeated, ongoing rhythms, rituals, habits, patterns are so important for Christian maturity. 00:13:25.519 --> 00:13:28.080 We can't just show up to church once and hope to be fixed. 00:13:28.320 --> 00:13:30.240 We've been habituated into who we are. 00:13:30.320 --> 00:13:31.919 We need to be habituated out of it. 00:13:32.000 --> 00:13:36.320 And so God has placed us into these new habits, these new rhythms. 00:13:36.559 --> 00:13:41.120 He's placed us beside streams of grace that steadily do just that. 00:13:42.000 --> 00:13:56.480 Sunday after Sunday, God gathers his people here, and we hear the word, we sing the truth, we confess our sins, we hear again the good news of forgiveness in Christ, we pray, we give, we receive bread and wine and the presence of grape juice and the presence of Jesus. 00:13:56.639 --> 00:13:59.200 We fellowship, we serve, we encourage one another. 00:13:59.360 --> 00:14:02.879 Sometimes we correct or challenge one another, we bear one another's burdens. 00:14:03.039 --> 00:14:14.559 We participate in these spiritual habits, rhythms, rituals, week in and week out, day in and day out in our own time, over months and years and decades. 00:14:15.279 --> 00:14:29.840 Not because going through religious motions magically or mechanically makes anybody holy, but because God has appointed ordinary means through which his Spirit continually ministers the grace of Christ to his people. 00:14:31.360 --> 00:14:35.120 So much of Christian maturity is wonderfully ordinary. 00:14:36.159 --> 00:14:44.559 We so often want that dramatic spiritual breakthrough that changes everything overnight, but that's the rare exception, not the rule. 00:14:45.120 --> 00:14:49.200 Nobody stares at an oak tree for 20 minutes and goes, wow, look how much it grew. 00:14:49.919 --> 00:14:55.519 But go back 20, 30, 40 years later, and that's when you see this amazing thing being brought about. 00:14:55.679 --> 00:14:58.240 In the moment, you don't see anything at all. 00:15:00.399 --> 00:15:03.759 So maybe you look at your life right now and think, I'm not growing. 00:15:05.679 --> 00:15:08.639 I should be further along than I am now. 00:15:08.799 --> 00:15:09.840 I should be better at this. 00:15:10.000 --> 00:15:11.120 I should know God more. 00:15:11.279 --> 00:15:14.000 I shouldn't still be struggling with this sin or with that sin. 00:15:14.080 --> 00:15:16.720 I I can't tell you how many times I've thought that. 00:15:17.279 --> 00:15:19.120 And probably will think that. 00:15:20.559 --> 00:15:26.559 So maybe you just feel spiritually dry and stagnant, like nothing is happening this morning. 00:15:26.799 --> 00:15:31.759 But brothers and sisters, don't mistake slow growth for no growth. 00:15:32.240 --> 00:15:33.519 Back to rhyming again. 00:15:33.759 --> 00:15:35.600 Don't mistake slow growth for no growth. 00:15:35.759 --> 00:15:38.480 Trees grow slowly, you can't see it in the moment. 00:15:38.799 --> 00:15:42.399 And sometimes God does his deepest work beneath the surface where you can't see it at all. 00:15:42.559 --> 00:15:48.159 So don't despise the ordinary means of God's grace because they don't feel dramatic. 00:15:48.559 --> 00:15:50.080 Don't look super spiritual. 00:15:50.320 --> 00:15:55.039 Keep putting your roots by the water, keep coming to Christ, keep receiving what he gives. 00:15:55.200 --> 00:15:59.120 The God who planted you has not grown tired of tending you. 00:16:00.080 --> 00:16:01.679 He is working. 00:16:02.879 --> 00:16:05.840 And he understands this takes time. 00:16:07.039 --> 00:16:11.440 Sunday after Sunday can feel ordinary. 00:16:12.080 --> 00:16:15.519 Opening your Bible tomorrow will probably feel ordinary. 00:16:16.240 --> 00:16:18.720 Taking the Lord's Supper can feel ordinary. 00:16:18.879 --> 00:16:35.039 Praying with another believer can feel ordinary, but through thousands of seemingly ordinary encounters with the grace of God, the Spirit is putting down roots in the steady stream of his grace and transforming his people, growing his people, maturing his people. 00:16:36.960 --> 00:16:41.840 And notice how many of those streams of grace God has located here among his church. 00:16:42.159 --> 00:17:00.320 These are all like different little trickling streams that converge into a mighty river through the Church of Jesus Christ, where we encounter the preaching of the word, baptism and the Lord's Supper, corporate worship, corporate prayer, pastoral shepherding, Christian fellowship, encouragement, discipline, discipleship, bearing burdens, serving and being served. 00:17:00.480 --> 00:17:07.599 God has designed us to mature together, and so God has made CBFC to be a river of his grace for us to plant our roots in together. 00:17:07.839 --> 00:17:11.359 This is how Christians primarily are nourished. 00:17:12.240 --> 00:17:14.640 So, yes, read your Bible on your own. 00:17:14.799 --> 00:17:15.440 Absolutely. 00:17:15.599 --> 00:17:16.640 Read it more. 00:17:16.880 --> 00:17:19.519 Pray and develop rhythms of prayer in your life. 00:17:19.680 --> 00:17:21.759 Study and read good theology books. 00:17:21.920 --> 00:17:23.440 Grab some in the back. 00:17:23.759 --> 00:17:28.720 Fast, sing, develop personal habits and rhythms that place you near to God's grace. 00:17:28.880 --> 00:17:39.680 But don't imagine that you can mature into the believer God wants you to be apart from deep, committed life among his people and the ordinary means that he has given to the church. 00:17:40.240 --> 00:17:48.000 You cannot expect to grow while continually uprooting yourself from the places God has promised to water you. 00:17:51.759 --> 00:17:53.440 So where are your roots? 00:17:54.319 --> 00:17:59.599 Are you placing yourself again and again by the streams of grace that God has given? 00:18:00.720 --> 00:18:07.599 Are you living closely enough in relationship with his people to be known and encouraged, corrected, served and loved? 00:18:07.759 --> 00:18:16.960 Are you learning from other mature older believers, not like some 20-year-old guy on a stage, but like mature believers that God has given you in this church who have been walking with Christ for decades? 00:18:17.599 --> 00:18:21.759 Are you absorbing as much of his word as you can? 00:18:23.039 --> 00:18:28.799 Only then will you grow and mature into the fullness of what God desires for you. 00:18:30.240 --> 00:18:32.559 Because roots aren't the goal, right? 00:18:33.039 --> 00:18:36.079 Nobody plants a tree because they want an impressive root system. 00:18:36.319 --> 00:18:43.839 I mean, there are probably some people out there, but roots exist to nourish something above the ground. 00:18:44.240 --> 00:18:47.759 God roots us in his grace, in his church, because he intends us to grow. 00:18:47.839 --> 00:18:50.640 And that brings us from the root to the shoot. 00:18:51.200 --> 00:18:52.000 The shoot. 00:18:52.160 --> 00:19:00.319 If God has planted our roots in the stream of his grace so that we will grow, the question is, what are we supposed to be growing into? 00:19:01.440 --> 00:19:06.480 Because spiritual growth can be like a pretty vague idea that we talk about in the church a lot. 00:19:06.720 --> 00:19:09.119 We want to grow in our faith, become spiritually mature. 00:19:09.759 --> 00:19:12.160 What does an actual mature Christian look like? 00:19:13.359 --> 00:19:17.039 Well, the remarkably simple answer that the Bible gives is Jesus. 00:19:17.920 --> 00:19:23.279 Christian maturity is becoming increasingly like Jesus for the glory of Jesus. 00:19:23.519 --> 00:19:26.480 Loving what Jesus loves, doing what Jesus does. 00:19:26.880 --> 00:19:33.920 Romans 8.29 says that God has predestined us to be conformed to the image of his Son, to the image of Jesus. 00:19:34.240 --> 00:19:40.319 Colossians 1.28 describes the goal of Christian ministry as presenting everyone mature in Christ. 00:19:40.720 --> 00:19:51.519 Ephesians 4.13 says that God has given us the church so that we might grow to mature manhood, womanhood, personhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. 00:19:52.640 --> 00:19:55.359 We already heard it in 2 Corinthians 3. 00:19:55.920 --> 00:20:02.880 We behold the glory of Christ, and as we do, we are being transformed into the same image, the image of Christ. 00:20:03.279 --> 00:20:11.759 So maturity isn't about becoming a more impressive Christian or a more theologically astute Christian or a Christian with more evangelical converts. 00:20:12.319 --> 00:20:15.200 Christian maturity has a face and it looks like Jesus. 00:20:15.359 --> 00:20:39.680 It looks like increasingly loving what Jesus loves, hating what Jesus hates, forgiving as Jesus forgives, serving as Jesus serves, giving as Jesus gives, trusting the Father as Jesus trusts, suffering as Jesus suffered, dying as Jesus died, living a life patterned after the life of Christ Himself. 00:20:39.839 --> 00:20:51.039 So God is reproducing the character and life of his Son in us, in his church, so that God is displayed in us for the glory of Jesus. 00:20:52.960 --> 00:21:02.559 And that means that growth into the image of Jesus, patterned after the life of Jesus, involves, like Jesus, both death and resurrection. 00:21:03.440 --> 00:21:10.000 This is the way the New Testament repeatedly portrays sanctification for us, growth and maturity in holiness. 00:21:10.160 --> 00:21:14.400 Ephesians 4 says to put off the old self and to put on the new. 00:21:14.480 --> 00:21:19.920 We're to be continually dying to an old way of living and enlivening ourselves to a new self. 00:21:20.240 --> 00:21:23.519 Ephesians 4 again says to put off the old, that's what I just said. 00:21:23.680 --> 00:21:26.720 Romans 8 says to put to death the deeds of the flesh. 00:21:26.880 --> 00:21:28.000 We're to be killing it. 00:21:28.240 --> 00:21:31.759 As John Owen said, be killing sin, or it will be killing you. 00:21:32.000 --> 00:21:39.599 Colossians 3 says, to put to death what is earthly in us, and then put on compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, patience, and above all, love. 00:21:40.799 --> 00:21:51.279 So Christian maturity means increasingly dying to everything unlike Christ and coming alive to everything Christ like, killing off ungodliness and enlivening godliness. 00:21:53.039 --> 00:21:59.119 God is transforming his church, he's transforming our behavior, our desires, our loves. 00:22:00.079 --> 00:22:08.559 That obedience increasingly grows out of hearts that resemble the heart of Christ through lives that resemble the life of Christ, death and resurrection. 00:22:08.799 --> 00:22:17.599 Or if you prefer the fancy theological lingo, mortification and vivification, vivification. 00:22:17.839 --> 00:22:23.039 And this is for individuals and for the whole church of God collectively. 00:22:23.359 --> 00:22:44.000 Ephesians 4 says that Christ gave shepherds and teachers to his church to equip the saints for the work of ministry for building up the body of Christ until, listen again to the corporate language, till we all attain to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. 00:22:44.160 --> 00:22:59.359 And then he says, verse 15, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love. 00:23:00.960 --> 00:23:14.799 So CBFC exists here because God is growing a body of people that increasingly resembles its head, Jesus, by shepherd teachers leading while the whole body in love is built up into Christ. 00:23:15.920 --> 00:23:23.359 That means Christ did not give pastors to the church so that pastors could do all the ministry while everybody else watches. 00:23:23.599 --> 00:23:33.839 He gave leaders to equip the saints to do the ministry so that the whole church grows into maturity together as we all increasingly resemble Christ as a body. 00:23:35.680 --> 00:23:41.440 And we must care then for the fullness of the body, not just for ourselves as individuals. 00:23:41.839 --> 00:24:01.680 The image of God, the image of the triune God, who is both one and three, both singular and plural, is manifested in humanity, not only in singular individuals, but in the plurality and diversity of the church as a whole, as we together put on display the goodness and beauty and truth of our Creator and Savior. 00:24:02.000 --> 00:24:10.640 Meaning, the image of God, for the glory of God, is incomplete in your individual maturity. 00:24:10.880 --> 00:24:17.519 It reaches its fullest expression in the maturity of his entire church here at CBFC and across the nations. 00:24:17.680 --> 00:24:20.079 The body is built up together. 00:24:21.359 --> 00:24:23.359 We'll talk more about what that looks like in just a moment. 00:24:23.440 --> 00:24:24.319 That's the shoot. 00:24:24.480 --> 00:24:30.319 That's the growth God intends to produce from roots planted deeply in his grace. 00:24:30.480 --> 00:24:35.519 A people together, increasingly conformed to his image for the glory of his name. 00:24:38.240 --> 00:24:40.000 But even that isn't the end. 00:24:40.240 --> 00:24:45.839 Because a healthy tree doesn't exist merely to have deep roots and an impressive trunk. 00:24:46.079 --> 00:24:50.400 Eventually, all that growth grows to produce something beyond itself. 00:24:50.880 --> 00:24:55.680 Deep roots produce healthy growth, and healthy growth eventually produces fruit. 00:24:56.160 --> 00:24:58.960 It's finally the fruit of maturity. 00:24:59.119 --> 00:25:07.359 Verse 3 in Psalm 1 says that the righteous person is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season. 00:25:08.000 --> 00:25:10.160 And that raises one final question. 00:25:10.480 --> 00:25:15.359 What is the end product of our maturity and growth? 00:25:17.279 --> 00:25:21.200 Well, a fruit tree doesn't eat its own fruit, right? 00:25:22.160 --> 00:25:30.960 All the water, the nutrients that come up through the roots, all the growth that happens in the shoot eventually produces something that exists for something outside of itself. 00:25:31.279 --> 00:25:34.640 And Christian maturity works the same way. 00:25:35.759 --> 00:25:40.400 God doesn't mature us merely so we can become impressive specimens of Christianity. 00:25:40.640 --> 00:25:48.880 He matures us so that his grace increasingly flows not just to us, but through us for the good of others, for the glory of his name. 00:25:49.119 --> 00:25:54.079 Think about what Paul calls the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5. 00:25:54.400 --> 00:25:55.039 Love. 00:25:55.440 --> 00:26:01.519 And after that, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. 00:26:01.680 --> 00:26:04.319 Most of those aren't private virtues, they're relational. 00:26:05.599 --> 00:26:07.200 Gentleness, kindness, love. 00:26:07.440 --> 00:26:10.240 They change what it's like for other people to live around you. 00:26:10.400 --> 00:26:15.039 God doesn't make you patient so that you can just sit around admiring your patience. 00:26:15.359 --> 00:26:18.720 He makes you patient because other people need your patience. 00:26:19.440 --> 00:26:23.200 He doesn't make you generous so that you can congratulate yourself on being generous. 00:26:23.359 --> 00:26:29.039 He makes you generous because somebody needs what God has entrusted you to use for his kingdom. 00:26:29.440 --> 00:26:33.599 He doesn't teach you forgiveness just so you can understand the doctrine of forgiveness. 00:26:34.079 --> 00:26:40.799 Somebody is eventually going to sin against you, and you are put there to display the forgiveness of Jesus in forgiving them. 00:26:41.680 --> 00:26:49.519 Christ's likeness, like a mature tree, is inherently self-giving because Christ is self-giving. 00:26:50.640 --> 00:26:55.119 And the first place that fruit should be tasted is right here among the people of God. 00:26:56.079 --> 00:27:04.240 Remember what we just read in Ephesians 4, the whole body, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love. 00:27:04.799 --> 00:27:09.680 And that means that maturing his people isn't merely something leaders do in the church. 00:27:09.759 --> 00:27:14.880 It is something God does through his whole church, by the church, for the good of the church. 00:27:15.200 --> 00:27:22.880 Christ gives leaders to equip the saints so that the saints do the work of ministry together, so that the whole body builds itself up in love. 00:27:23.839 --> 00:27:28.720 And that means that as we mature, one of the questions we begin to ask changes. 00:27:28.880 --> 00:27:33.279 We will move from simply asking, How is this church helping me grow? 00:27:33.440 --> 00:27:36.240 to how am I helping the people of this church grow? 00:27:36.480 --> 00:27:38.400 Who am I helping grow? 00:27:38.720 --> 00:27:40.960 Not because we ever stop needing to receive. 00:27:41.039 --> 00:27:48.240 We we come in here every week desperate, needing to be fed and encouraged and corrected and challenged and loved. 00:27:48.720 --> 00:27:51.839 But maturity increasingly turns our gaze outward. 00:27:53.279 --> 00:27:55.440 So who are who are you encouraging? 00:27:55.920 --> 00:27:58.079 In this church, who are you praying for? 00:27:59.039 --> 00:28:00.880 Whose burdens are you carrying? 00:28:01.039 --> 00:28:03.759 Who knows that they can call on you when their life falls apart? 00:28:05.519 --> 00:28:06.880 Who are you teaching? 00:28:08.000 --> 00:28:10.640 Who are you welcoming into your home? 00:28:10.880 --> 00:28:14.559 Who is becoming more like Jesus because God put you in their life? 00:28:14.720 --> 00:28:16.400 Because God put you in this church. 00:28:23.119 --> 00:28:24.000 Christian maturity. 00:28:24.160 --> 00:28:28.799 Am I becoming more like Jesus and am I helping anyone else become more like Jesus? 00:28:31.279 --> 00:28:36.000 But the fruit doesn't even stop there at the walls of the church either. 00:28:36.880 --> 00:28:45.839 When God was forming his people, he said to Abraham in Genesis 12, I will bless you so that you will be a blessing to the nations, to the world, to our neighbors. 00:28:46.000 --> 00:28:50.079 So a mature church should be good for its neighbors and for the nations. 00:28:50.960 --> 00:28:59.279 If we are actually becoming more like Jesus, then the people around us ought to experience something of the goodness of Jesus through us. 00:29:01.200 --> 00:29:26.559 Just as Jesus on earth not only taught God's word and preached the gospel and worshipped his Father and prayed, but also served the lost and had compassion on the suffering and welcomed children, embraced lepers, fed the hungry, defended the vulnerable, cared for the sick, received outsiders, so too should we strive for the maturity of Christ-likeness that bears fruit not only here, but in the world as we devote ourselves to the same things that Jesus was devoted to. 00:29:28.559 --> 00:29:31.599 Scripture repeatedly makes that connection for us. 00:29:31.839 --> 00:29:39.680 James 1 tells us that what real Christianity looks like, what true and pure religion is, is caring for orphans and widows in their distress. 00:29:41.279 --> 00:29:46.799 Jesus' call to his kingdom people in Luke 12 is sell your possessions and give to the needy. 00:29:47.759 --> 00:29:56.640 He tells his disciples in Luke 14, not merely to show hospitality to those like themselves, but he says, When you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame. 00:29:56.720 --> 00:29:57.839 That's your guest list. 00:29:58.000 --> 00:30:00.480 That's who our attention is to be geared toward. 00:30:00.559 --> 00:30:09.920 In fact, the office of deacon in the New Testament is set up in the early church to do just that, to oversee care for the material needs of the church and mercy ministry to the poor of the community. 00:30:12.000 --> 00:30:36.160 Jesus says in Matthew 25, kind of terrifyingly, that in his return and final judgment, he will judge between the true believers and those who secretly reject him, and shows us that the mature and true expression of Christianity is seen and displayed in care for the hungry, the thirsty, the stranger, the naked, the sick, and the imprisoned? 00:30:38.960 --> 00:30:47.519 If CBFC ceased to exist today, would those people, those in need in our community, be affected? 00:30:48.559 --> 00:30:49.920 Would they notice? 00:30:51.200 --> 00:30:53.599 That's an important thing for us to think about. 00:30:54.000 --> 00:30:58.160 Because what happens when a whole congregation increasingly resembles Jesus? 00:30:58.319 --> 00:31:30.720 Well, the poor encounter generosity and widows are cared for, and children without families are welcomed, and the lonely are invited in, and people in crisis receive practical help, and the suffering are visited, and the sick are cared for, and the vulnerable are protected, and neighbors encounter kindness, the resources that God has entrusted to us are shared, not because good works replace the gospel, and not because the mission of the church can be reduced to making the world a nicer place, but because mature followers of Jesus, who increasingly resemble Jesus, increasingly love the things Jesus loves and do the things Jesus does. 00:31:31.119 --> 00:31:34.960 We should not seek to bear fruit differently than Jesus himself did. 00:31:40.240 --> 00:31:46.079 One more thing about fruit that leads us where we're going next week, and we'll spend more time then. 00:31:46.160 --> 00:31:48.480 It's that fruit carries seed. 00:31:50.880 --> 00:32:00.640 A mature tree eventually participates in producing not fruit primarily, but more trees. 00:32:02.480 --> 00:32:06.160 Mature disciples eventually, in bearing fruit, become disciple makers. 00:32:06.319 --> 00:32:09.519 Mature churches produce more churches. 00:32:09.759 --> 00:32:12.559 The gospel that took root in us doesn't terminate with us. 00:32:12.720 --> 00:32:17.759 Fruit becomes seed, seed takes root, and roots grow into shoots that bear fruit, and the cycle repeats. 00:32:18.960 --> 00:32:19.759 Getting ahead of ourselves. 00:32:19.839 --> 00:32:20.960 That's where we're going next week. 00:32:21.119 --> 00:32:24.160 Today, we'll just conclude with this. 00:32:26.400 --> 00:32:35.119 Maturing in faith and godliness is essential for CBFC, and it is essential for each of us individually. 00:32:35.759 --> 00:32:38.400 And it is really, really difficult. 00:32:39.839 --> 00:32:46.960 And even talking about growth in a context like this immediately brings about all sorts of different thoughts and feelings. 00:32:47.119 --> 00:32:51.680 Some of us, I'm sure, feel guilty because we're not growing and we know it. 00:32:52.079 --> 00:32:56.960 And that guilt only then paralyzes us and hinders our growth even more. 00:32:58.480 --> 00:33:03.920 For others, talking of growth brings longing because we desperately want to grow more than we feel like we've been able. 00:33:06.160 --> 00:33:09.599 Maybe for you it brings frustration or shame. 00:33:11.519 --> 00:33:15.599 Maybe for some of us, if we're honest, we become conceited in conversations like this. 00:33:16.240 --> 00:33:26.240 Maybe you've sat here through this whole sermon pretty confident you're doing fine as you quietly compare yourself to others in the room and rank your spiritual maturity in reference to them. 00:33:26.400 --> 00:33:34.720 All of us, though, whether it's right there in our faces or we have to dig deeper to see it, all of us find things in ourselves that don't look very much like Jesus. 00:33:36.559 --> 00:33:40.400 We still struggle with decade-old sins. 00:33:40.799 --> 00:33:42.240 We still lose our patience. 00:33:42.400 --> 00:33:44.640 We still struggle to forgive. 00:33:44.799 --> 00:33:50.480 We still love the things we shouldn't love and fail to love the things that we know we should. 00:33:50.559 --> 00:33:58.960 We still get selfish and anxious and proud and greedy and lustful, and sometimes we look at ourselves after years of following Jesus and wonder, why am I not further along by now? 00:34:00.880 --> 00:34:05.200 Community Bible Fellowship Church, Jesus is not done with you. 00:34:05.599 --> 00:34:08.079 He has not abandoned you. 00:34:08.239 --> 00:34:17.599 The promise of the gospel, of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, is not merely that God forgives us and then tells us to try really hard to be better people. 00:34:18.960 --> 00:34:29.679 The promise of the gospel, of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, of the God who planted us beside the streams of his grace, is that he intends to finish that work that he started in us. 00:34:30.000 --> 00:34:35.519 He tells us in Philippians 1, He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion. 00:34:36.000 --> 00:34:38.000 At the day of Jesus Christ. 00:34:38.320 --> 00:34:48.639 There is a day coming when we will see Jesus face to face, and the slow work of sanctification will finally become the finished and eternal work of glorification. 00:34:49.199 --> 00:34:56.000 He says in 1 John, when he appears, we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. 00:34:57.760 --> 00:35:06.639 And everything in you, everything that does not look like the glorious perfection and beauty of Jesus Christ will finally be gone forever. 00:35:07.280 --> 00:35:22.000 No more pride, no more lust, no more greed, no more bitterness, no more selfishness, no more envy, no more doubt and unbelief, no more fighting the same sins you thought you would have defeated years ago, and no more wondering why you're not further along, only wondering how did I become like this? 00:35:22.960 --> 00:35:24.719 How is Jesus this good? 00:35:24.960 --> 00:35:38.480 The God who has been patiently tending his people through thousands of ordinary Sundays and thousands of ordinary prayers and encounters with his word and acts of repentance and faith will finally bring his work in you to completion. 00:35:38.880 --> 00:35:46.000 When Christ returns, and he is coming soon, he will have what he intended all along. 00:35:46.239 --> 00:35:56.719 A people perfectly conformed, perfectly reflecting his image, his glory, perfectly loving God and one another in never-ceasing, ever-increasing joy. 00:35:57.119 --> 00:36:18.639 Until then, church, keep your roots by the streams of God's grace, keep putting to death sin and bringing godliness to life, keep helping one another grow and making disciples, keep bearing fruit in the church and in the world, and when growth feels painfully slow, look again to Christ and remember where all of this is going. 00:36:19.760 --> 00:36:26.320 We exist to glorify God by maturing his people because God Himself has committed to maturing his people. 00:36:26.480 --> 00:36:28.000 He will surely do it. 00:36:28.880 --> 00:36:31.039 Until then, let us press on in faith. 00:36:31.119 --> 00:36:32.239 Let's pray. 00:36:32.639 --> 00:36:53.119 Lord Jesus, you are a good and ever patient Lord, and we praise you for your gentleness, your kindness, your patience with us as you tend to the messy, thorny gardens of our heart to cultivate maturity, godliness, Christlikeness in us. 00:36:53.519 --> 00:37:16.320 Lord, we just pray for everyone in this room, every member of CBFC, everyone who's visiting with us this morning, that you would do a work in our hearts right now to encourage us, to strengthen us by the good news of your death and resurrection, and to send us out of here ready to kill sin, to awaken godliness, to put on Christlieness, and to make disciples in a world that desperately needs you. 00:37:16.400 --> 00:37:18.719 We pray this, Lord, in your name and for your glory. 00:37:18.960 --> 00:37:19.599 Amen. 00:37:26.480 --> 00:37:27.519 Thank you, Daniel. 00:37:27.599 --> 00:37:31.920 Please stand with us as we uh sing yet not I but through Christ and me.