Markers of Maturity - Spiritual Stability

Series: Markers of Maturity

What is Spiritual Stability and how can we achieve it?

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Shall we pray? Father, we love your word. We want to be people who are grounded and rooted in the truth of your word. Make it such an important part of our life that we can't even get started on our day without getting our fill. Lord, I pray that we will be a church that's rooted in your word. In Jesus' name. Amen. Speak to us, Lord. Let's read from Ephesians 4. So Christ Himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors, and the teachers to equip his people for works of service so that the body of Christ might be built up until we reach the unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. Anyone attaining to the full measure? Yet. Anyone there? Anyone? No, didn't think so. Um we will no longer be infants. Sometimes I feel like an infant. I don't know about you. Tossed back and forth by the waves, blown here or there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head. That is Christ. From him the whole body joined and is joined and held together by every supporting ligament. It grows, builds itself up in love as each part does its work. I love God's word, man. So good. Who wants to be mature? We want to be mature, right? We don't always enjoy the maturing process, but we want to be mature. See, I'm a school teacher. It's like, that's my day job. This is my passion. That's my day job. And I'm surrounded for about 70, 80% of my life, including how much I hang out with my kids. I'm surrounded by immaturity on any given day by about 70, 80%. You want to know what immaturity looks like to me, the Mr. Lewis definition. For me, it's the inability to deal with what's happening right now without causing a fuss. If you've ever worked in a school or worked with young people, you'll know exactly what I'm talking about. There's a whole lot of fuss that goes on at school. Um my mum calls it being a fuss pot. And as a teacher, you've got to deal with a lot of fuss pots. That's a that's a proper Northeast phrase, that one, isn't it? Fusspot. Um he stole my pencil. She keeps looking at me when I talk to her. It happens. Mine fingernail doesn't feel right. She said my face looks red. It's in a PE lesson. I can't open my cheese string with tears. But I'm wanting a red ukulele. That's that's my life, ladies and gentlemen. Um, and then there's the slightly older ones I work with year five up to year eight, and there's a slight I've got a very specific name for a type of year eight girl, all right? I call them the drama llamas. All right. It's a bit funny because also it's also the same type of year eight girl that loves to come and work with me in the performing arts department, all right? The drama llamas. Um I can spot them from a mile off when they uh when they join us in year five, but they only really manifest themselves when they kind of joy start year eight. It's really interesting. Um there's always a relationship, starting or ending. There's an argument that they can't remember even remember why it started, and drama follows them wherever they go. Who knows anyone like that? Yeah, you know what I'm talking about, and I'm not just talking about your eight girls either. We've all got a little bit of that drama llama in us, right? Come on, be honest, be honest. Uh the other day last week, I was in such a bad mood. Like you guys are like sat there now thinking, surely that's not possible, Matt. I can't imagine it. Right? I was just absolutely storming, I was fuming, and I couldn't tell you why. Praise the Lord for a wonderful wife that just lets me kind of crack on. But I wonder, I wonder, when we think about maturity, what's our default setting when it comes to the tough things coming at us? Not the colour of our ukulele or if our pencil is sharpening or not, but like when the times get tough, when it's hard, do we turn into a drama llama? Are we a fuss pot? I wonder. Does your life descend into chaos when times get tough? Do you just go in a bad mood, like me? Is it all you all about the stress? See today I really want us to kind of focus in a little bit on something called spiritual stability. Okay, to be the ability to be stable no matter what. How does that sound? Good? Amen. So uh a little while ago, I stumbled, you know, when you read in the Bible, and and this I've read this loads of times, I've heard it preached on loads of times, but I just stumbled upon this, and it just it was beautiful, it was a beautiful moment. We're gonna read from Habakkuk 3, 17 to 19. Sorry if you pronounce it differently, it doesn't matter. Though the fig tree does not bud, and there is no grapes on the vines, and no olive crop, and the olive crop fails, the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the sheepfold and no cattle in the stalls. Sounds pretty bleak, hey? Yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Savior. The sovereign Lord is my strength, he makes my feet like the feet of a deer, and he enables me to tread on the heights. Amazing, right? So the whole book of Habakkuk is it's written about 600 years before Christ, okay, before Jesus came to the earth. And the corrupt nation of Judah is right on the edge of being conquered by the Babylonian Empire. So it's looking pretty bleak for these people, okay? And this book is huge, it's unique amongst the other prophetic books in the Bible that are kind of around this time, in that it's like they they are God speaking, but this is this is a beautiful kind of raw personal dialogue between God and Habakkuk, set in this backdrop of absolute chaos. Habakkuk asks God two questions. God responds, and then he makes this beautiful statement of faith. Let's read it again. Yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my savior. The sovereign Lord is my strength. He makes me my feet like the feet of a deer. He enables me to tread on the heights. We don't always wanna. We don't always wanna respond with joy, do we? Or rejoice in the Lord when times are tough. It's hard. And I guess everything I'm gonna say today, I want to frame amongst that. We get it, it's hard. All right, you might have walked in this morning and you were like, please sing any other song apart from that joy one, and there we were, right? And we've all been there when it's like, man, life is tough. Habakkuk said, The sovereign Lord is my strength, he makes my feet like the feet of a deer, he enables me to tread on the heights. The feet of a deer. What I don't even know if I want new feet. I'm not sure that Judith would appreciate a hairy set of hooves in the bed. But you know when you you know when you're reading the Bible and something just jumps out at you. I was like, I was like, Lord, what are you on about? Like, you ever been there? But um, for me, you know, if you're reading the word and that happens, you just look at it and go, What? Eh, then there's three things you need to do, okay? Get your notepads. Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal to you why it's there. Study it until you understand why it's there, the context, its history, what would that mean to the person who wrote it or the people it was being written to? And then you've got to ruminate on it, you've got to chew it over, you gotta let it sit for a little while. Chew it over, ruminate, chew it over again and again. So I went down a little bit of a rabbit hole with this one. This the Bible uses um the idea of deer, they're beautiful creatures, aren't they? We have them in Prada. I mean, I remember when we moved to Prada, we went for a walk, and then there was just all of these deer everywhere, and we were like, Thank you, Lord, this is beautiful. Um, but the Bible uses three like kind of ways to symbolize this in our relationship with God: spiritual dependence or thirst. All right, as the deer pends for the water. Do you remember that one? Some of you are desperate to sing it now, aren't you? Right? Um, beautiful, love it. Um, vitality, number two, vitality, beauty, marital devotion. Maybe we should look at that at some point. That'd be good. But number three, God given resilience and sure-footedness. Who wants to be spiritually sure footed? I know I do. So uh Habakkuk uses this word, uh, let me say it right, ayala, ayala, ayala, let's say ayala, okay? To this for this for the word deer, okay? So when we think of deer, we think of Bambi, right? Beautiful. And we so we should. Um, and it's this word, this female deer or door, and we picture Bambi. But often um scholars are kind of they liken this in this moment. You know, the readers of Habakkuk, likely, in the context of the mountains, which he goes to talk on about in just a moment, they pictured something a lot more like something called the Nubian Ibex, okay? Which is a bit more like a goat, but it kind of looks like a deer. And what I wanted to do is I wanted to show you this. This is incredible, right? This is taken from like a Richard Attenborough thing, I think, right? Hopefully it's gonna work, right, Fiona. It's my fault if it doesn't. Um, this is unreal, what these animals can do. This isn't obviously their natural habitat, but take a look at this. There they are, just climbing a rock. Oh, it's a sheer face. It's it's wow, my goodness. Look at that. Look at those hooves. Lovely hooves. Oh my goodness. In in this video, they're actually um oh, it's got sound. I didn't mean for it to have sound, so it's all good. Don't worry. Look at that, unreal. So, in this video, like there's salt and minerals in the rock that they've used to build the dam. So they climb the dam. It's unbelievable. Thank you. Hooray! It worked, Fiona. Well done. Um, I can only see your eyes. So yeah, she is smiling, it's fine. Um, get this. Are you ready for a biology lesson? Right? Their feet are biologically perfect to hold on. They've got something called a cloven hoof. All right, so it's you know, imagine a horse's hoof, it's like a big old clump designed to help them stay on ground securely. Well, this is like it's got two parts, and the two parts they kind of spread, they can conform to the rock. There's a flexibility, an ability to be molded. Number two, they've got a hard outer shell and a soft inner pad. Hard shell, soft innards. And I've always coined a little phrase, you've probably heard it, I might have even said it to you, that we should be people with soft hearts, thick skins. Okay? Being able to fend off those arrows that come. Words, offense, all that stuff, it's gonna come, right? Jesus said we're gonna have a tough time, but we remain soft-hearted, thick skinned. Amen. You with me? Number three, their feet follow perfectly. Get this, right? Um, apparently, they look after their front feet and their back feet follow to step exactly precisely where the front feet have just stepped. See, oh bless, don't get upset. Our Toby, our dog, he's no longer with us. Um, it was always hilarious watching him try to walk over a cattle grid, right? And he had these big gangly legs. And and if he knew, if he knew, just put my front feet down and my back feet would follow. Unfortunately, he wasn't so good at it, but these guys, I love the idea of God supernaturally guiding us. We just have to worry about right in front of us. Um, I want to be like that. I want to be like that when the danger comes, when the fire comes, when those testing times come, when the storms come, just just chilling with me cloven hoofs and my soft heart, me thick skin on the mountainside. Sounds good? So, how do you know if you've got yourselves some dear feet? Well, all right. Firstly, time after time in scripture, God uses like tough times to refine his people, right? So we've got to kind of be aware that those tough times are here to refine us. Our deer's feet develop in the fire, in the storm. It's on the mountainside that he makes our feet like deer's feet. On the mountainside is where he enables us. It's almost like we've got to learn this stuff on the job. Let's read 1 Peter 6 to 7. In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith, of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined in fire, may result in praise, glory, and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. It's how we respond in the trials that will signpost our maturity, our stability. All right, so how do we develop those hoofs, those feet of deers? I've said quite a lot of this stuff before, but it's good stuff. So let's go. Let's enable ourselves in God's strength to chill on the mountainside, right? Number one, we're gonna climb higher. See, most animals, when a threat comes, they'll run and hide in the thicket or the hedge, or the they'll find a place, safe place to hide, right? But we need to climb higher, okay? They run for cover, but dear, they run for the hills. We need to run to God rather than run away. And I love that we're a church full of people who just keep coming back, right? Because you know, we have the privilege of looking after this flock, and we know a little bit of what's going on, not everything, and we're not gossipy or anything like that, but we kind of know. All right, we gotta keep coming back, we've got to keep digging into the presence of God because He's there with you in the trials, amen. But we love our natural deposition is to run away, isn't it? To run away, maybe even from God when times get tough. We've all known someone whose faith has been shaken, and that's the last time we've seen them in church, or the last time they've answered your text message. You know, but Hebrews 10 says, let us consider how we may spur each other on towards love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the day approaching, see, we're called to do this together. And I believe that church can be one of the best places to have your worst day. All right, honestly, you know, if you need a break, if church isn't gonna be good for you that day, you know, that's cool, but don't give up meeting together, amen. Because walking this journey together is so important. Number two, let's find our strength in the Lord. Habakkuk said in verse 19, the sovereign Lord is my strength, the sovereign Lord is my strength. It's easy to look for our strength and our comfort in other places, isn't it? I don't know what your place is, we've all got one. Maybe it's the doom scrolling, maybe it's how hard you work, maybe it's certainty and having to have everything sorted. Maybe it's comfort, binge watching TV, your favorite football team, black and white army. Maybe it's food, maybe it's your independence, maybe it's even people, other people, I don't know. Finding our strength in our in God, it's not about pretending that we have it all together. Alright? It's okay for it to be tough. Alright? You don't have to put a brave face on. Okay, you know, the thing about David constantly complaining about his circumstances in the Psalms, wasn't he? Time and time again, you see it, but God, this is how it is. This oh God, this is tough, man. Why goodness, whoa, I'm having this is I'm struggling, Lord, but my hope is in you, my strength is in you. I'm gonna keep on praising. Oh, but you know, let's be people who we're not putting a brave face on to show off to anyone, we're being real about this stuff. You know, the Bible's full of lamenting, you know, but in this season, we might feel one way, but we look to God, we find our hope and our strength in Him. Nowhere else, not even, dare I say it after my previous point, not even in each other or in church. All right. See, I you know I love this house, I love this community, right? And we've got some incredible pastoral people, and the pastoral care that goes on here is second to none, but there's a little bit where it's gotta be you and God. All right, if you're relying on people, even if they're godly people and they're giving you really good advice and they're making you feel really good, maybe this trial that you're facing, or the next one, or whatever, it's that time where you've got to climb higher into the presence of God. Number three, ah, let's go. Know the word. We know the word so it comes out when it's needed. All right, Habakkuk knows his scripture. In fact, the whole concept of God making our feet like the deers is actually him quoting Psalm 18, where David wrote, It is God who arms me with strength and keeps my way secure. He causes me to stand on The heights. God's word is truth and life. Number those up and down people like you're yours. Maybe they look for truth everywhere else. Maybe they look for people. You ever known people who will ask everyone's advice until they find someone who agrees with them in the first place? You know what I mean? But if we know God's word, then we can have a scripture for our season. And this one, Psalm 18, was Habakkuk's scripture for the season. So whatever it is you're facing, if you're deep in the Word, you can get a scripture for the season. So that when the storms come, it's okay. You've got truth to stand on. Sound good? Right, last one. We've got to follow the path. Sometimes when it's tough, we've just got to put one foot in front of the other. And let the back feet follow. See, Psalm 119 says, Your word is a lamp to my feet, a light on my path. It's about letting us guide letting him guide you and relaxing in faith. Sometimes the faith is in the relaxing to know that he is in control, right? Because and this is a word for some of you, so listen in deer, those deer, the ibex, whatever you want to call them, they're not consumed with finding the route back down off the mountain. They're not consumed with trying to fix the mountain. Okay? It's one foot in front of the other. Trusting that as we look down and saw out our path, that the rest is gonna follow. I get it. It's difficult. I remember when Judith was ill after we had Josh sitting for hours and hours, days and weeks, silence from God. It's hard. It's hard. We were praying for just the thing that we could do, the miracle. Just Lord, if you could just do this, if you could just do that, Lord, what do we need to do so that you'll move? How can I change how I'm praying? What scripture do I need to read? All of the stuff that we turn to to try and find a route back off the mountain when really maybe we've just got to follow the path. We were just like, Julie, we need to pray harder. We need to have more faith. Declare it. Don't worry, I'm a faith guy. We're just not reading the word enough. Do you remember? Yeah. We probably just needed to sit with it for a while and let him guide the path. I said there was that was the last one, there's one more. Understand the process. Often more than not, he doesn't level the mountain, he gives us the feet we need for the journey. Amen. Come on. People with DS feet understand the process of spiritual formation. Drama lovers expect an easy life. Or at least a quick fix for the pain. Maybe they blame the past people in their lives. Maybe they blame the enemy. Rather than just recognizing the season of formation and walking through it. Dears feed people see the mountain as the prize rather than just the pain. Maybe the trial you're in right now is there to change you, to form you, to shape you into something greater. I want to be that kind of person to you. It's hard, right? But the process of that of maturity, let's read Matthew 7 really quickly. Everyone who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on a rock, and the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on the house, but it didn't fall because it had been founded on the rock. If you want deer's feet, if you want to know, if you want to have a steadfast stability, when times get tough, you've got to build on the rock. The foundation, the rock that is Jesus. As well, it's really easy to chase maturity, isn't it? Well, all right, well, okay. Um if I've got to be more, all right, if I want to be more godly, I need to be more, I need to show more self-control. I need to pray more, I need to do all the stuff. See, it's not the maturity that we should be chasing, it's not even the fruit of the spirit that we should be chasing, guys. The clue's in the name, it's fruit. It's fruit. Maturity is the fruit of devoted, faith-filled relationship with Jesus Christ. If you want to walk where the terrain is treacherous, then it starts with a daily devoted life of prayer, of reading the word, of worship. That's where we're formed. That's where we can build on the rock that is Jesus. I've said it before so many times now, but I ain't gonna stop saying it. So many of our problems will sort themselves out if we can carve out some time in our day to read his word, to pray, to listen to his voice. See, I can't do it for you. Coming here isn't enough. It's time to pull up your socks and make it happen. That's how you build your house on the rock, that's how you have sure feet, so that whatever is around the corner, maybe you're facing it now, maybe it's coming your way. Build on the rock that is Jesus. Let's read Habakkuk again. Though the fig tree does not bud, and there are no grapes on the vine, maybe the olive crop fails, and the fields produce no food. Though there are no sheep in the sheepfold and no cattle in the stalls, maybe your medical report came back bad. Maybe the mortgage rates are doubled. When the energy bills spike or redundancy calls, when the markets crash, when that CV goes unanswered, when the medication doesn't work, when the anxiety comes to rob you, when mental health disrupts, when inflation hits hard and the shelves are empty, when the chronic pain debilitates, loneliness overwhelms, when the bank account is drained, when the bailiffs come knocking, when the credit cards are maxed out, politics gets even crazier, if the crime rates rise, climate change gets out of control, if my family falls apart, all my friends walk away, yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Savior. The sovereign Lord is my strength. He makes my feet like the feet of a deer. He enables me to tread on the heights. Shall we pray? Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you that it's beautiful, it's poetic, it's cleverer than anything we could imagine. We thank you that it's life, that it can come into a situation, change it completely. Lord, we want to be people who have built a house on the rock, who knows what it means to clamber upon treacherous terrain and feel completely at ease. That's who we want to be, God. And we submit our hearts to you, we submit our lives to you. God, I pray for each person here that you will equip them, you will enable them, Holy Spirit, even now to walk those scary paths. Will you be their strength? Will you be their guide, Lord? Will you help them? In Jesus' name. Let's just let's just stay in this moment. It's okay if we're just quiet for a moment, isn't it? Yeah. So let's you know, let's not move around, let's just relax for a moment. Because if you are in the storm, maybe it's just a moment to take a big deep breath and chill in his presence.