Last week the sermon addressed several things that “we need to” do or be or change or think. Those things ranged from a reevaluation of our notions of personal glory and aggrandizement to realignment of our priorities to reflection upon our salvation to serious consideration of our personal development as followers of Christ to the responsibility we have to care for one another to the call we have to live and act differently than we did before we knew Christ (that was a long, long sentence!). As someone pointed out to me after the sermon last week, I probably should have described those thirteen items as things we MUST do instead of things we NEED to do. That was wise counsel.
This week, as promised, we “finish the sentence.” You will note by comparing the sermon titles from last week and this week that it makes a full sentence. “We Need to . . . Grow Up.” To some ears that may sound harsh. To be honest, it sounds a bit harsh to my ears, and I have wrestled with this for several weeks now. Yet I believe it is something that we need to hear—it is something that I need to hear. It is incumbent upon us that we be people who grow beyond whatever it is that we are right now. Our God is not a God who is satisfied with his people remaining stagnant. On the contrary, our God is continually equipping us and challenging us and leading us to be far more than what we are in this moment. I pray that all of us— starting with me—will be open to the
directions in which our great God is taking us. I pray that we will set aside everything that hinders us from drawing nearer to being the people that God wants us to be.
–Ricky