Growing Up Together

Growing Up

Together

God never intended you to grow in isolation

God’s people are to be the Church, a Holy Nation

God’s intention is to group us together

As a body with all its members working together

In Ephesians 4:13, there are two essentials to maturity.

The first mentioned is…

 all of us coming to unity in our faith

Faith is defined as…

 persuasion, credence; moral conviction

It is our assurance, belief, fidelity.

How close are we in this unity of the faith?

The answer has to come from how well

the Body of Christ is working together.

Is each part doing its work?

Is there support from each part?

Maturity is measured not by how much faith

we have but by how unified we are in the faith.

Too often our persuasion, moral conviction

divide us rather than unite us.

Without faith it is impossible to please God.

I have watched many become shipwrecked

in their faith because they were unwilling

to work together with other believers.

I have always been very active in the local church.

I have been in many groups and meetings

where I struggled because my persuasion

and convictions were challenged.

Because of those struggles over faith,

my mind was opened as we based

our differences on God’s Word.

As strong as my convictions are, I

realize “I know in part” until Christ comes.

I am grateful for the times I have

been shown a more excellent way.

The hardest times in my life have been

when for the good of the Body of Christ, I

had to leave a group of believers, the Church.

This has happened three times in my adult life and I

can say I still love those I left and want with all my

heart to see them become everything God has for them.

 I still view myself united with them even

though we approach the work of God differently.

The second element to maturity is

our Knowledge of the Son of God.

This is a part of knowing

God’s Word and much more.

I see quotes all the time that I use.

 They are great sayings, but most of the time,

I don’t know the person who coined it.

A lot of us are like that…

 We quote the Word of God even paraphrase it, so it
becomes a part of us, but many times we don't know

what was in His heart and His purpose for saying it.

Each one of us have a personal responsibility to

grow in our Knowledge of Christ and our faith.

But we also have a responsibility to

do it together with other believers. 

As the scriptures say as iron sharpens

iron so a man does his friend.

  Proverbs 27:17

Our maturity must be looked at on two levels

personal and our part in the Body of Christ.

Scripture Reading

Ephesians 4:11-16 NLT

11 Now these are the gifts Christ gave to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers. 12 Their responsibility is to equip God's people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ.

13 This will continue until we all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God's Son that we will be mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ.

14 Then we will no longer be immature like children. We won't be tossed and blown about by every wind of new teaching. We will not be influenced when people try to trick us with lies so clever they sound like the truth. 15 Instead, we will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ, who is the head of his body, the church. 16 He makes the whole body fit together perfectly. As each part does its own special work, it helps the other parts grow, so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love.