Shelburne Free Press
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Crossroads Community Church


Sunday November 9th, 2014
What a glorious morning filled with Joy, and how blessed we are to have the freedom meet together every week to worship the Lord. Pastor Don welcomed us all, shared announcements and prayed, “Father God we praise and thank you for our many freedoms, we honor you as we honor our soldiers today, who have lain down their lives sacrificially for our earthly freedom, above all we thank You for our saviour Jesus Christ who sacrificially lay His life down for our eternal freedom, today teach us to put the lives of others ahead of our own just as they have, in Jesus name Amen.”
Pastor Don shared God's word continuing with part 2 on “Spiritual Maturity.” He began, “Last week I asked you to consider where you personally were in your spiritual journey to maturity.” God's plan is to take us from natural man to spiritual man in the likeness of His Son Jesus. To mature as a Christian is equal to an infant who needs nurturing and nourishment to grow, to gain strength, to learn abilities, and when he matures he reproduces. In 2Peter 3:17-18 we are instructed to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ so that we may stand against false teachings that don't line up with God's word. No matter where we are on the path to maturity there will always be situations that come along to test our knowledge and maturity. We must continue to grow by drawing closer to God, (James 4:7, 8). I believe spiritual immaturity to be one of the biggest problems not only in our daily lives but in the Church today. Instead of resolving conflicts with love and kindness, we argue selfishly, tend to follow the crowd and become ungrateful or bitter. If we would ask ourselves What Would Jesus Do before any situation life would be better for everyone.
So we know we need to grow, but what do we need in order to grow? Spiritual maturity is not measured by how old a person is, by how long ago one has received Jesus or how many times one's kept a chair warm at church, it isn't even by what you say you believe. It is however by the level of commitment one has to growing in Christ for even Jesus grew in the sight of God and man, (Luke 2:52). It is our actions matching our words, doing what we say we believe, being doers not just hearers of the word that determines our maturity, it is a heart relationship with God. God is in the process of changing us to be more like his Son but we need to let him and be willing to put some effort into it. Our attitude needs to change,(1Peter 2:1-3), we need to grow up and be responsible for feeding ourselves daily not just relying on a half hour sermon on Sunday morning although it is important to attend church for we draw encouragement from one another. So one vital thing we need is Bible reading, a strong devotional life gives good offense against temptation, (2 Timothy 2:15-16). Morning time with God is a rudder to our day, it prepares us for what is ahead and guides us through the unexpected, rule of thumb; pray more worry less. True peace comes from knowing God is in control, (Philippians 4:6-8). How do we stay pure in a contaminated world? By seeking wisdom in reading God's word, praying and meeting with each other as Paul wrote in Hebrews 10:25. When we gather with each other we benefit from each other's gifting in the measure that God has gifted each of us, this will help every one of us grow and our gifts multiply as we serve each other as unto the Lord, (Ephesians 4:11-16).
Beloved In today's society, there are many negative influences but Jesus words in scripture help us control our sinful desires; we are instructed to not grieve the Holy Spirit, to walk in love and to be imitators of God as his beloved children, (Galatians 5:16, Ephesians 4:30-32, 5:1,2). We need to know that we are not perfect yet but we are being perfected by the Holy Spirit of God. It is certain that even just this week we have all faced unpleasant incidents or frustrating encounters and depending on where we are in our growth; we all reacted differently according to our level of maturity. Some reactions might have been calm and kind while others bitter and angry but Jesus commands us to love our neighbour as ourselves, (Matthew 22:37-39) This is easier said than done for the natural man but it becomes easier and easier to do the more we grow into the spiritual man, as mentioned before God's plan is to take us from natural man to spiritual man in the likeness of His Son Jesus. The more we mature in our Christian walk the less we will worry about what we shouldn't do and the more we will focus on what we can do for others, putting others' needs first, planting seeds of God's love in people's lives, Leaving Others Valued Every day. We may not all have lain our lives down at war but as soldiers of Jesus Christ when we put the interests of others first we are imitating His attitude of sacrificing our desires and resources for the benefit of our fellow man, “For greater love has no one than this: to lay down one's life for one's friends…….Asherey Shalom…
To learn more visit www.shelburnecrossroadschurch.ca
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