Raising kids is a big deal.  I’m in the Pappy stage, but I clearly remember the days when we were in the middle of it.  The days when we were three little girls deep.  I remember being so tired and wondering if there would ever be a Saturday when I could sleep in and relax.  I remember the insane amount of things we had to pack into the minivan to spend the night anywhere.  I remember the nights everyone fell asleep in their beds.  And then waking up to discover that the night was so rough, my wife was somewhere else, and someone else was in my bed.  No one was where they were supposed to be.

The thing about raising kids is you start with clarity, hope, and courage.  You know exactly how you are going to raise them.  Then every year after that, you begin to leak confidence.   It’s like walking into every day with the attitude, ‘I haven’t a clue if what we are doing is right.’  They become teenagers, go to high school, and between their friends, activities, driving, and jobs, you begin to watch them grow up. 

How do you know your kids are fully grown and mature?  It’s when your kids, with no prompting from you, take ownership of their lives and make the right choices.  You can trust them when you aren’t around.  You see them think about and care for others around them.  They see what needs to be done and they do it well and with the right attitude.  The first time you see this, you will be stunned, and it will blow your mind.   Why?  Because you have loved them and battled with their selfishness since they were in diapers.

Today, I want to ask, what does it look like to be spiritually transformed from the inside out?   To be fully mature.  Scripture lays it out for us; let’s read it.

Romans 15:1-2 Those of us who are strong and able in the faith need to step in and lend a hand to those who falter, and not just do what is most convenient for us. Strength is for service, not status. Each one of us needs to look after the good of the people around us, asking ourselves, “How can I help?” 3-6 That’s exactly what Jesus did. He didn’t make it easy for himself by avoiding people’s troubles, but waded right in and helped out. “I took on the troubles of the troubled,” is the way Scripture puts it. Even if it was written in Scripture long ago, you can be sure it’s written for us. …Then we’ll be a choir - not our voices only, but our very lives singing in harmony in a stunning anthem to the God and Father of our Master Jesus!  7 So reach out and welcome one another to God’s glory. Jesus did it; now you do it! MSG

Scripture teaches that Jesus didn’t make it easy on himself by avoiding people’s troubles, but waded right in and helped people.  

The core of spiritual maturity is when the decisions you make aren’t about your comfort.  You’ve grown past comfort, and you look after the good of others.  

You take your strength and offer it to others.  You are able to move your focus from yourself to others.  It’s no different than watching kids grow up.  Without prompting from others, we take spiritual ownership of our lives and make the right choices.  We can be trusted.  We see others, we think about and care for them.  We see what needs to be done and do it well with the right attitude.  We take the initiative to help others.

If we are only making decisions in our lives that make us comfortable, if we don’t care or think about others, if we have bad attitudes about helping people, we are still growing up spiritually.  And that’s okay if we are moving toward maturity.  However, it’s not okay to stay stuck in our comfort zone and never grow past our immaturity.  It’s like watching a kid at age 17 act like they are 12.   

And that’s the danger of being a Christian in North America.  It is common for us in North America to become and stay consumers and not grow up into being a disciple.  A consumer shows up to church and asks the questions we would ask any bank, restaurant, or retail store, ‘What do you have for me?’ ‘What’s on your menu, what can you give me?’ and, ‘Will you meet my needs?’  What is the common theme?  My focus is on me.  A disciple shows up and asks the questions, ‘Will this church help me reach my friends far from God?’  ‘How can I bring my strength to help in areas you might be weak?’ and, ‘How can I pray, give, and serve to be a part of the spiritual family here?’  What is the common theme?  My focus is on others, so I can bring my strength to others.

Let’s stop and take a look back.  Let’s see how the disciples moved from consumer to disciple.  

Matthew 4:18 One day, Jesus was walking along the shore of Lake Galilee. He saw two men who were brothers. One man was called Simon, and he was also called Peter. His brother's name was Andrew. Their job was to catch fish. They were throwing their nets into the lake to catch fish. 19 Jesus said to them, ‘Come with me and be my disciples. Then I will teach you how to catch people, instead of fish.’ Easy English Bible

These guys are ordinary, hard-working guys.  They are not the best or brightest when it comes to religion.  Actually, they really have no business being chosen to lead a religious movement.  But Jesus invites them to follow Him.  

As they follow and experience Jesus, Jesus begins to explain what it means to be a disciple of Jesus.  

Matthew 16:21 From then on Jesus began to speak plainly to his disciples about going to Jerusalem, and what would happen to him there - that he would suffer at the hands of the Jewish leaders, that he would be killed, and that three days later he would be raised to life again. 22 Peter took him aside to remonstrate with him. “Heaven forbid, sir,” he said. “This is not going to happen to you!” 23 Jesus turned on Peter and said, “Get away from me, you Satan! You are a dangerous trap to me. You are thinking merely from a human point of view, and not from God’s.” TLB

The cross rattled Peter.   Peter wants to follow a Jesus who avoids the cross, not a Jesus who embraces the cross.  Peter becomes agitated and defiant because, up to this point, following Jesus has been enjoyable.  He had a hope of a better life, ruling with Jesus in his new kingdom.   But the cross means a loss of power, control, and influence.  Peter can’t understand the cross because he is still thinking about himself.

Jesus’ response was a shock.  ‘You are a dangerous trap to me. You are thinking merely from a human point of view, and not from God’s.’ Jesus is introducing them to another way of living.  This discipleship thing isn’t about your comfort.  It’s not about your success.  It’s not about anything this world values.  To be a disciple of Jesus, we see things through God’s point of view.   And what is required of Jesus is to go to the cross to save others.  This makes no sense to Peter.

Moments before Jesus is betrayed, they enjoy the last supper with Jesus.  I want to read it for you.

Luke 22:22 The Son of Man must die in the way that God says. But it will be very bad for the man who gives me to my enemies.’ …24 Then the apostles began to argue among themselves. They were arguing about which of them seemed to be the most important. Easy English Bible

Three years into following Jesus, they still didn’t get it.  They still could not stop incessantly thinking about themselves.  In front of Jesus, they argued about who was more important.  

Jesus dies and is resurrected.  Jesus shows himself to the disciples.  I want to read to you one of their questions for Jesus. 

Acts 1:6 They asked him, “Lord, are you going to free Israel from Rome now and restore us as an independent nation?” TLB

They still didn’t get it.   They still viewed God’s kingdom as a physical kingdom on earth where they would get the key spots around Jesus.   They are still thinking about themselves, their comfort, and their success.  Not until they are anointed by the Holy Spirit do they stop thinking about themselves.  

Later, Peter and John are walking into the Temple, and we see what happened.

Acts 3:5 The lame man looked at them eagerly, expecting a gift. 6 But Peter said, “We don’t have any money for you! But I’ll give you something else! I command you in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk!” TLB 

It’s the first time we see the disciples thinking about others.  And that’s when God moves through them.  It’s a picture of what it looks like to be fully transformed spiritually.   They finally began to think about others.

How are you doing so far?   Did I lose you?  Their journey to be fully transformed, fully mature, is our journey.  We are ordinary people who probably shouldn’t be in charge of anything religious.  As we try to figure out what it means to follow Jesus, we discover that Christianity isn’t about making our lives more successful and more comfortable.  It’s bigger than that; it’s about God shaping our character.  Christianity is about full surrender and seeing life through God’s perspective.  And in the process, it’s so hard to stop thinking about ourselves - all the time.   Our comfort.  Our wants.  Our success.   Our title.  Our ego.  And like the disciples at the last supper, we can still feel that tension that leads us to compare ourselves to others.  Not until we stop thinking about ourselves all the time and offer our strength to others do we experience being fully transformed spiritually.

Here is what I want you to see.  We have been in a series about the spiritual war you were born into.  You were created with God’s glory and honor [Psalms 8:4-5].  You have an enemy working to steal that from you [John 10:10].  And Jesus has come to restore that in you [John 10:10].   We have talked about the lies we all deal with.  Here are a few.  Regret and guilt.  Self-doubt.  Entitlement.   Feeling unlovable.  We know the damage these lies have done to us.   We see and experience the spiritual battle.  And to help us experience God, we get together to pray, worship, and hear the scriptures on Sunday.  

I want you to see and understand that, as Jesus gives you healing and hope in your spiritual family here, you can help others find hope.  They are in a spiritual battle, too.  But to help others, we have to grow up past our consumer stage, where we only make decisions that make us comfortable.  We must grow up into the disciple stage, where we think about others and the battle they are in.  We make decisions based on what they need, not based on our comfort.  And I know what I just said stands completely opposite to the world we live in.  I know what I just said really can rub our selfishness the wrong way.  I get it.  When we have shared this before, we have had people get frustrated with us.   They said, “I wish I had gone to another church that didn’t ask anything of me.”  But I want you to be spiritually transformed from the inside out.  

When we had a chance to start and build a new church, we decided to create a church that was passionate, relentless, and unapologetic about reaching people far from God.  We wanted to be the place for our family and friends to discover God’s grace.  My challenge for the launch team is my challenge for you today.  I invite you to have strong personal relationships with Jesus throughout the week so that we can focus on others on Sunday morning.  Why?  Church isn’t always about us.  We are trying to create a place where we introduce people to God’s presence on Sunday morning.  And of course, if you had a bad week and need prayer, church is for you.  That’s obvious.  

To begin your journey, I want you to take the next step, whatever that is for you.  And in general, you will probably have to wrestle with a couple of things.

Maybe you feel ordinary, hurt, wounded, and really shouldn’t be leading or doing anything around religion.  Your next step is to understand who the disciples really were.  They were ordinary people with hurts and insecurities.   What made the disciples amazing wasn’t anything about the disciples.  What made them amazing was that God was in them.  It’s the same for you.  It’s not about your inability; it’s about who God is.  So take the next step at home and in church.  Pray with your kids or your family.  Talk to your kids about your spiritual struggles.  Engage here at MRC.  You can greet people and say ‘hi’ to them.  I want you to see how valuable you are when you attend regularly.    If you don’t take this next step, you may always feel like you are on the sidelines looking in.  

Maybe you thought Christianity was about making our lives successful and more comfortable.  It’s not.   It’s about God walking with us through difficult times.  You and I will continue to walk through hard times.  

2 Corinthians 1:3 He comes alongside us when we go through hard times, and before you know it, he brings us alongside someone else who is going through hard times so that we can be there for that person just as God was there for us. MSG

Christianity is not about the North American dream of health, wealth, happiness, and comfort.   How can we look at the cross and Jesus and come to any other conclusion than that being a disciple of Jesus is about full surrender of my life for God’s purposes?  Your next step is surrender.  If you don’t take this next step, Christianity will be confusing to you.   You will be searching for the North American dream and frustrated that God isn’t giving it to you. 

Maybe it’s hard for you to stop thinking about yourself… all the time.  The whole point of experiencing Jesus is that it so impacts us, it shows up in how we treat others.  

Philippians 2:1-4 If you’ve gotten anything at all out of following Christ, if his love has made any difference in your life, if being in a community of the Spirit means anything to you, if you have a heart, if you care - then do me a favor: Agree with each other, love each other, be deep-spirited friends. Don’t push your way to the front; don’t sweet-talk your way to the top. Put yourself aside, and help others get ahead. Don’t be obsessed with getting your own advantage. Forget yourselves long enough to lend a helping hand. MSG

In our spiritual family, can you put yourself aside and help others get ahead?  If you don’t take this next step, you may always be searching for the next thing, next book, next teaching, next program, next whatever, and never finding what you are looking for.  

Maybe it’s hard for you to stop comparing yourself with others, leading to tension in your life.  

Galatians 6:4-5 Don’t be impressed with yourself. Don’t compare yourself with others. Each of you must take responsibility for doing the creative best you can with your own life. MSG

You were created to be you, so stop trying to be like someone else.  This church was created to be this church; we aren’t trying to be like another church.  If you don’t take this next step, you may fail to see how valuable and special you are and always feel less.  And notice, the focus continues to be on you.  

Please hear me.  To be spiritually transformed from the inside out, to be fully mature, is when the decisions you make aren’t about your comfort.  You’ve grown past comfort, and you look after the good of others.  

Here is my challenge for you today.  Take your next step, whatever that is for you.  Don’t stay comfortable.  Grow up past that.  Move from being a consumer to a disciple.