This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

Welcome to day four of our look through Hebrews chapter five. We're going to
look at verses 11 to 12 particularly today, but I want to read for you 11 to 14
right now, even though we're going to look at these the next two days, because
this passage goes together as an encouragement, a challenge about growth. The
writer's just been talking about Jesus as our great high priest, and out of what
he's written, he's going to talk to us now about our growth, what's happening in
our lives.

Verses 11 to 14. We have much to say about this, but it's hard to explain
because you are slow to learn. In fact, though by this time you ought to be
teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God's word all
over again.

You need milk, not solid food. Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant,
is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. But solid food is for
the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from
evil.

Several times as we've walked through Hebrews, we've talked about the struggles
that some that he's writing to are facing. Struggles to grow, struggles to stay
connected to Christ, the desire to wander away from their faithfulness to Jesus
to something else. Until now, we've not really heard the diagnosis of what was
wrong in people's lives.

We've talked about it some, looking back on what was happening in that day, but
we haven't seen it in Hebrews, in the writing. But now he tells us what's wrong.
We've heard the cure before, some warnings and cures, but now is the diagnosis.

So what's the disease? What are they facing? Well, it's in the phrase here, you
are slow to learn.

That's what's causing them to face all this struggle. Literally, this phrase
means lazy of hearing. They're not taking the time to hear from God and do what
God has said to do.

And so because of that, it says you ought to be teachers. How do you know if
you're mature as a believer? How do you know if you've gotten stuck in your
faith and you're still in immaturity?

Well, you're mature if you're able to explain what God's doing in your life to
somebody else. You're able to pass it on. If you're not able to do that, you're
stuck in immaturity.

When you're able to say these are God's purposes for my life, this is who Jesus
is and what He's done in my life. You're able to explain that to other people.
That's maturity.

That's growing. The maturity in your life, the growth in your life is not an end
in itself. It's not just selfish.

The reason for maturity is ministry. The reason God shares things with you is so
that you and I can share them with other people. Now I understand we don't all
have the gift of teaching.

We don't all have the gift where we stand in front of other people and teach.
But this passage reminds us we're all to be teachers. There is someone that all
of us can teach.

Might be one of your kids. Might be a friend. Might be a co-worker.

One person in your life, one moment in your life that they need some
encouragement. And we can teach. And this is a passage that's talking about
spiritual maturity and how it happens in our lives.

So let me give you four facts about spiritual maturity that are in this passage.
These are actually facts about maturity we teach in our 201 Spiritual Maturity
class here at Saddleback. And they happen to all be, well there's three of them
plus an extra one even here, they happen to all be in this one passage of
Hebrews.

What are the facts about maturity? Fact number one, time does not guarantee
maturity. Just because you've been a Christian for a long time does not mean
you're necessarily spiritually mature.

You might have been a Christian for 20 years and it's all that old phrase. You
don't have 20 years of experience as a Christian. You have one year of
experience 20 times.

You're just going around and around the same circle. You're not learning. You're
not growing.

So this phrase, you've been Christians for a long time now but you ought to be
teaching others and you're not. We all know people who have been believers for a
long time and yet they haven't grown. There hasn't been really any change in
their life.

They don't have any deeper love for the church or for God's people. They're
still all about God serving them and not them serving others. They're still a
baby Christian in many ways.

And on the other hand, we all know people who have been Christians for a very
short time and yet have seen tremendous growth in their lives. So it's not a
matter of time. It's a matter of something else.

We're going to talk about it in just a moment. A second fact about maturity in
this passage is there are signs of immaturity. There are signs of the fact that
we're staying in immaturity.

And if I see these in my life, I know something's wrong. I've got to get going.
I've got to get on with maturity.

What are the signs? Well, you can't teach others. That's one of the signs.

If you've never found yourself explaining the truth of God to somebody else,
never, you're still immature. Another sign is you can't discern good and evil.
Just keep getting caught up in doing evil things.

And it's like, well, I didn't even know. I just sort of tripped into it somehow.
That's a sign of immaturity.

You're still drinking milk, it talks about here. Not the meat of the word, but
the milk of the word. Now, what's that all about?

To still drink milk means you're doctrinally weak. It means you're emotionally
gullible. You tend to go after the emotion.

It means you're a personality follower. You tend to go after the person. You're
not focused on God's word.

You're focused on everything around God's word. The writer of Hebrews could see
this in those to whom he was writing. And by saying that, he's reminding us we
can see it in ourselves.

It just takes the courage to take a look. If I'm still struggling with right and
wrong, I still can't teach, it indicates I'm still a baby Christian and I got to
get growing. Now, when you're a new believer, you are a baby Christian.

God understands that, but he then challenges you to grow beyond that. I remember
as a brand new believer, I mean, just a few weeks, few months old as a believer,
I was praying, one of my first prayers about dating and relationships, should I
date this girl who I knew was interested in me, who was an unbeliever? Should I
get more connected to her?

And my prayer was, here's a baby Christian prayer, my prayer was, "Lord, let the
next song on the radio tell me whether I should date this person or not. " So
the Lord, in his graciousness to me as a baby Christian, the next song on the
radio was basically a "dumper, dumper, dumper now, don't date her, no way" kind
of song. It was as clear as a bell.

I think that's okay as a new believer for me to pray that kind of prayer. And it
was gracious of God to answer it. But if I'm praying that kind of prayer five
years, 10 years later, when I should have studied God's Word by that time, I
should know that the Word says, "Don't be unequally yoked.

Don't make a partnership with believer and unbeliever. " I should know that by
then, then I'm still being a baby Christian. Then it's time to grow up.

So there are signs of immaturity in your life, and we all have some of them. We
all have a lot of growing to do. But my question is, is that all you can see, is
just the signs of immaturity?

If so, God has some work to do in your life, and He will do that work. Fact
number three. It is a process.

What does it mean to grow? It's a process of learning God's truth. You don't
grow to become a mature believer overnight by one sermon or one seminar or one
prayer.

No, it's a process of learning God's truth. The phrase he uses here is, "They're
not acquainted with teaching about righteousness. " I love that word
"acquainted.

" The Greek word there means you're inexperienced, you're ignorant, you're
unskilled. So to be acquainted with God's word means you're experienced in God's
word. You're knowledgeable about God's word.

You're skilled with God's word. Proverbs 8. 5 says, "You'll learn to be mature.

" It's a process. 2 Peter 3. 18 says, "Continue to grow in the grace and
knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

" It's a process. It's a process of learning God's truth. Of putting God's truth
into my mind, into my heart, so that it flows into my life.

Doing God's truth. Those who think that they're going to grow overnight are
always disappointed and they end up staying immature, oftentimes many, many,
many years longer than they should. It's those who realize it's just this
process of beginning to learn.

And as many have said, it is often a three steps forward, two steps back
process. You're not perfect. But you keep trying.

You keep putting God's word into your life. Keep learning God's word in your
life and doing God's word in your life and that's how you grow. And there's a
fourth truth behind this.

It is a process. And number four, it's a process that takes discipline. Did you
notice he said in this passage, "Who by constant use have trained themselves.

" Constant use, trained themselves. That's the discipline part of this. 1
Timothy 4.

7 says you take the time and trouble to keep yourself spiritually fit or you
discipline yourself in another translation for the purpose of godliness. The
word discipline and the word disciple sound very much alike because obviously
they come from the same root. You know what it means to be a disciple?

You know what the root meaning is? Learner. Learner.

I'm learning to live life from Jesus Christ. And to be a learner, to be a
disciple takes what's behind that word. It takes a discipline in my life.

Unless I discipline myself to spend a few minutes with the Lord reading his word
every day then I'm not going to be able to engage in this process of learning
God's truth. Unless I discipline myself to trust God's word instead of trusting
my emotions or trusting somebody else's opinions to take that difficult step
then I'm not going to be engaged in this process of learning God's truth. Now
the beginning point of discipline is getting God's word into your life on a
daily basis.

I've found if I'll read God's word on a daily basis, it empowers me to do God's
word on a daily basis. And I'm not talking about reading chapters or books each
day. Just take five verses, ten verses.

Just read enough to give you the strength that you need for that day. He will do
that. Now as we talk about growth and what it means in your life and my life,
I'd like to take just a moment to pray for you, for your growth in Christ, for
your growth in faith.

Lord, I pray for each of us right now and I ask you help us to grow. Thank you
that you have put into our hearts, into our lives, a process by which we can
grow through your word and through your spirit. And Lord, forgive us for those
times when we expect growth to come overnight.

Forgive us for those times when we've given up on growth and give us a fresh
start right now in growing in you. Lord, instead of being embarrassed about how
much we haven't grown, help us to be encouraged about the fact that you'll never
give up on us. You'll always keep growing us in you so we trust in you in a new
way.

Lord, I pray for each of us that you give us the discipline to spend some time
in your word every day and then let your word breathe its way into our life so
that we can be growing in you, Jesus, becoming the kind of people that you've
made us to be. We ask this in your name. Amen.

Tomorrow, we're going to focus on distinguishing good and evil in our lives.