The LORD's Day September 2, 2007

Moving On Into Maturity

Psalm 143.10

If you have been born again, then it is God’s desire for you to grow and mature and become more like Jesus. Like our own children, the LORD wants us, His children, to develop. If we saw that one of our children or grandchildren or nieces or nephews were not we would be concerned and take action to get them help.

This verse is prayer for maturity. David is asking the LORD for a number of things. When we live out life as followers of Jesus we see the spiritual needs we have. Our prayers begin to change from “LORD, I want this,” to “LORD, please produce this character in me.” It is God’s Will for us to be holy.

When we were children our reasoning had not reached that level. The child whose bedtime has arrived and protests, “I don’t want to go to bed ” does not understand like the adult who says, “It is time for me to go to bed ” The child is trying to get out of what he needs while the mature person is doing what he needs.

When we were children our reactions were not bridled like they are now. The verse we read this week in about the LORD putting a guard over my mouth is a prayer of a mature person who has come to realize the damage that could be done if we spill off everything that comes to mind.

When we were children our responsibility was a lot less than it is a adults. We really were largely carefree as children. We did not know how good we had it.

1. A Teachable Spirit

Teach me to do your will, for you are my God

This prayer teach me... exercise, train

When a person sincerely prays to the LORD asking Him to teach them something that person has a teachable spirit. You cannot learn from the LORD without this. I have met not many, thank the LORD, but I have met some who had an unteachable spirit. Within their souls there is a resistance to being taught. The lack of humility is a sign of this.

Calling on the LORD the way the Psalmist is here is demonstrating a beautiful teachable and humble spirit.

I need help O LORD, I need Your instruction. I want to learn. In this particular case it is learning to do God’s will. More about His will in a few moments. Right now we are looking at the idea of being taught and asking the LORD to do that in my heart.

The sense of this comes from a knowledge that I still have a lot of growing to do. It comes from the realization that I have not arrived and am still in need of growth.
The more I get to know Jesus the more I realize that need to grow to become like Him. David is asking the LORD to daily show him how, through his experiences in life, to obey him.

The process of this is a combination of growing in the knowledge of His Word and then being trained by it. God’s Word is my training manual to maturity. As we look at the Proverbs this fall we will see character development that the LORD has in mind. Israel’s motto was learn and live but we do live and learn. We learn from life’s experiences as we lay them next to God’s Word.

These things are absolutely essential for moving on into maturity.


2. A Desire to Please the LORD (Knowing and doing His will)

Specifically David’s prayer of being taught is aimed at doing the will of God. He desires to accomplish the things that bring God pleasure and delight. He desires the things that will put him in God’s favor.

We all need to be taught along these lines. We are to aim at perfection. Too often we aim at something else and hit it

Knowing and doing God’s will pleases Him. So this prayer Teach me to do your will, for you are my God, is a cry from the heart of one after God’s own heart. This is spiritual maturity: having this desire to please the LORD by knowing and doing His will.

A servant’s heart and a teachable spirit go hand in hand. We also learn by serving. Giving ourselves to the LORD and others develop character that is Christlike. Give yourself fully to the LORD and you will know what His will is. (Romans 12.1-3)

When children are young and they have Father’s Day, the moms go out and buy the gifts for them. As they mature they buy gifts themselves and give them to their dads. As they get older they desire to do things for their fathers, not just receive things from him. My brother and I both drove my dad’s car. One time it needed to get work done on it. My brother and I got it to the shop. We were both home from college. When my dad went to pick it up after he asked how much he owed. The mechanic said, “Nothing. Your son paid the bill in full.” My folks were pleased. Actually they were elated. My brother was beginning to give back. When our relationship with the LORD gets to that place we are maturing. If we are always on the receiving end our relationship with Him is not a mature one. When we grow up in Christ we move from being served to serving Him.

3. All incorrect perceptions gone
Frightened about the Holy Spirit. We are told in this verse: may your good Spirit
lead me

God is good. His Spirit is good. For years I (along with a load of young teenagers) were worried we may had committed the unpardonable sin. Evangelists would come to our church and camp meetings and preach on that danger of sinning against the Holy Spirit. We came to be afraid of the One called the Comforter or Counselor. It would have been better for them to speak of those good aspects along with the warning rather than to scare us away from understanding the Spirit of God working His will out in our lives, helping us, guiding us into all Truth.

Maturing is understanding relationship with God is not built on terror but rather on love. The terrorist don’t have the hearts of people- they have the minds of the people and their minds full of fear but not their hearts are against them. You cannot establish a lasting relationship with a person who hangs a threat over you. True relationships are built on love. The work of the Holy Spirit in my heart produces love. I wish the “evangelists” of my youth would have mentioned that. I wish they had talked more about the fruit. Instead we put distance between us and the LORD and His Spirit because we were afraid of sinning against Him. We missed out on understanding the main work of the Spirit in the life of the believer and that is to produce love.

God could force us to obey Him but that is not how He works. He desires for people to simply and lovingly place their trust in Him. When they do they give Him their hearts- willing.

Maturity is realizing God wants the best for us. The person who asked me a while ago, “Why is God doing all these terrible things to my family?”, does not really know God. He is not out to destroy us He is out to save us and make us like Jesus.

4. Level Ground is not seen as boring but good.

“...may your good Spirit lead me on level ground.”

level country, table-land, plain

When we are young we love roller coasters- at least most of us do. I remember my last ride on one. I knew it was time to stop this craziness. My body was changing and no longer adjusting to the sudden dips and turns. My roller coaster days were over.

Spiritually there are many similarities. Ups and downs are the norm for a young believer. We experience elation and disappointment. Take for example the whole matter of answered prayer. As a new believer it can make me feel like everything is coming my way and send me on a high that rivals clouds. Then there is the valley when all the prayers I have prayed are not answered the way I thought they should be. It can be downright depressing. As I grow in the LORD I realize that He has exercised His will even when I have asked Him to.
I am growing to understand that sometimes God’s will on a subject is far away from mine. He is patient and allows my heart to come along to join His where I can pray, “You will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” This is spiritual growth. Spiritual growth is becoming like Jesus. When we begin to pray like Him we are moving into maturity

We move along quickly on level ground. The mountains are beautiful but they require climbing. I prefer the level ground for traveling.

Emotionally level ground is a lot healthier than great highs and lows. When we are young we experience them but as we mature we level out. David even prayed that the LORD would lead Him in His goodness, by His Spirit on level ground.

David was no stranger to the alternative. From the time he killed Goliath until he finally became King years later his life was emotionally was up and down. He knew what mountain peaks were and he knew what valleys were. He knew what it was to be down. That is why we can relate to the words God breathed through him in the Psalms. We feel what he felt. These were David’s formative years.

God desire to take us to level ground. He wants us to mature, produce fruit and bring glory to His name (John 15).

Growing up is not easy. My granddaughter was over this week and she asked if she could put some shoes she keeps at our house on and lo and behold we could not get them on her feet! She outgrew them. There are childish ways that we are to put away, Paul writes to the Corinthians in the Love Chapter about these. Attitudes and reactions that would follow that are childish need to be done away with. The blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from them.

Maturity means responsibility. I am no longer a child. I am a man or woman fully responsible for my actions and attitudes and reasoning. In fact the more mature I am the more reasonable I will be. The child that protests, “I am not cold,” (when in a pool) as their teeth chatter and they are shivering is almost funny at times. The child who is cranky and whose eyes are blood shot and insists, “I am not tired,” is not convincing. Yet we expect it from them. When Emma told Grandma Lucy a while ago that she thought she had enough candy for that day when Grandma offered her another one we marveled. When adults act like children it is unseemly. Jesus is looking for a church that is loves Him and loves one another being mature in the fruit of His Spirit whereby He said men would know we are His disciples.

And all this for the Father’s Glory!
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The LORD’s Day
September 2, 2007

We Worship In Singing
We Worship In Receiving the LORD’s Supper
We Worship In Hearing the Word of God
Moving On Into Maturity Psalm 143.10

*Tithes and Offerings can be placed in the box at the rear of the sanctuary*
Please join us for coffee and bagels downstairs if you are visiting today.


This Week
Bible Reading Psalm 144-147

Monday Men’s Prayer Meeting 6:30am in the church basement
Wednesday Bible Study -7:30pm at the parsonage
Thursday Bible Study 10:30am in the church basement
Next Lord’s Day
Morning Prayer- 10am in the church basement
Morning Worship- 10:30am(Sunday School for Children)
Spanish Service- 4pm


In Your Prayers For All of God’s People

Remember the men serving in the armed forces: Bradley, Julia Bujold’s grandson with Special Forces in Afghanistan, home on leave right now, Ken Brown, Pastor’s friend’s son on his third tour of Iraq- He will be there until next month. Please pray for the whole family. Billy Knapp, Jr. in Iraq with the Marines (neighbor of the church and Pastor- Billy’s sister graduated from Good Shepherd). He is due home at Thanksgiving. Matthew Klaus, brother of Good Shepherd parent in Iraq as a firefighter for Haliburton. Pastor’s nephews’ and niece’s cousin Kim’s husband, Jay, in Iraq. Pray for them and the others away from their families. Praise God for keeping David Louis, Jake Morgan and Tom Hindelang safe during their times in Iraq. Christine Frankland, Katharina’s daughter undergoing treatment for leukemia. Kathy, Ziggy and Margot’s daughter-in-law, under the doctor’s care for fibromyalgia. Thank God for answers to prayer for her. Pray for Eloise Brooks in Sunrise Manor undergoing rehab and hopefully coming home soon. Remember Jean Louis as both he and Eloise are on dialysis. Grace Martin, Edie Raevis’ daughter, having surgery on her back this Tuesday. Edie’s daughter’s mother-in-law, Millie Espisitohas a severe infection and is in grave condition. Reginald Mooney, friend of Terri and John Garry, with a tumor in his kidney. Please remember Pastor’s friend Kim Richardson’s daughter, Kelly, finished chemotherapy and awaiting surgery. Please remember this whole family in prayer.. Jeannie Rocarro recovering from surgery. Pastor Jerry Bonfiglio’s family who has been through so much grief this summer... Leah May’s cousin, Joan, respiratory problems, now in rehab. Lucy Mancini under Orthopedic Specialist’s care and physical therapy for pain and injuries resulting from the accident. Mary Butler, Pastor’s family’s former neighbor from Bellmore and dear family friend, recovering from surgery removing a tumor in the colon as well as removal of gall bladder and appendix. Stephen Huges, brother of a Good Shepherd Nursery School Mom, their parents home in Hewlett was destroyed in a fire. Judy Mucci is in the hospital. The cancer has spread to her spinal fluid. She has been placed in Hospice and has been given two to six months to live. Please remember her and Dr. And Mrs. Mucci this week in your prayers as well as Judy’s daughter Tatum.
Good Shepherd Nursery School opens this week -let’s remember the staff and students in prayer as well as the children of our fellowship beginning school this week.