Milk Is for Starting, Not Staying: The Force of Righteousness

Sermon outline

God wants every believer to grow from spiritual infancy to maturity, and the force of righteousness in you is released when you train yourself to speak and live by the Word instead of your feelings.

1. Dull of hearing: milk is for starting, not for staying

   The writer of Hebrews had many things to say that were hard to utter, not because the apostles could not say them, but because these Christians were dull of hearing and could not receive them. By now they ought to have been teachers, yet they needed milk again. It is fine to start on milk, but not to stay there, and the number of years you have served the Lord does not measure your maturity; your response to the Word does.

   Illustration: On the long drive from Johannesburg to Durban, his young son Adrian kept standing up behind him, grabbing his shirt and asking, 'Daddy, are we there yet?' The father knew the route, the petrol stops and the arrival time; the child only had questions.

   “There's another level of Christian living.”

   • Hebrews 5:9-14
   • Hebrews 6:1
   • Hebrews 11:6
   • Mark 4:37-39
   • 1 Timothy 4:7
   • Proverbs 18:21

2. Gather with a mission, not for tea and cake

   Too many home cells gather for vetkoek, cream cakes, tea and coffee, and go home without touching the Word of God. Cream cakes and doughnuts will not bring people in; prayer in the Holy Ghost charges the atmosphere, and God adds to the church. Every gathering, at home, at church or at work, is a mission to touch lives and spread the gospel, so speak faith over it: put out ten chairs and declare that they will be filled.

   Illustration: A home cell of five where the whole evening is spent praising the sister's tea and the cream cake she bought down the road, and nobody opens the Bible.

   “We are in the business. The Lord's business.”

   • Acts 2:47
   • Acts 19:20

3. The doctrine of righteousness is attached to the way you talk

   The Amplified Bible says the one still on milk is unskilled in the doctrine of righteousness and 'not able to talk yet'. A believer who knows what Christ has done does not call himself a poor old sinner saved by grace, and does not think or speak defeat. He takes up the shield of faith and the sword of the Spirit, refuses to be ruled by feelings, and stops hiding behind 'waiting on God'; he speaks to pain, to lack and to empty chairs.

   Illustration: Every morning before he preaches, his body would say it is in no position to preach, but he has trained himself not to go by the way he feels, because he has a mission and people waiting on him.

   “God is waiting on you to change your language.”

   • Ephesians 6:16-17

4. Righteousness is a force, released by your words

   Force is strength, power and influence that causes something to move, with vigour and intensity, and righteousness is that kind of force in a believer. It is unleashed by what you say. When the fire in your heart goes out, you start warming yourself at the fires of the world, but people whose fire burns bright cannot wait to get to church and to the Word.

   Illustration: Peter followed Jesus from a distance and warmed himself at the fire. He also recalls the Cliff Richard song 'From a Distance'.

   “Righteousness is a force. How will that force be unleashed? By your words.”

   • Mark 14:54

5. Don't ask 'Am I happy with pastor?' Ask 'Am I growing?'

   A pastor is employed by God, not by the church, and is a gift to the body of Christ. The church is not a democracy but a theocracy, led by the Holy Spirit through the leader God has set, so members should trust the vision and run with instructions rather than debate them. He is responsible to teach the Word, not to work out anyone's salvation for them, and each person must ask whether they are growing.

   Illustration: When the church went on television with only forty members, one brother later admitted he thought the pastor had 'lost it completely'. He also tells of a woman he led to Christ twenty years earlier who wrote to say her family was still serving the Lord.

   “The question should be asked is am I growing?”

   • Acts 13:2
   • Philippians 4:6
   • Philippians 2:12

6. Two characteristics of a babe: dull in hearing and unskilful in the Word

   Number one, a babe is dull in hearing: the Greek word means dull and slothful, unable to grasp spiritual truth, so new converts can overtake people who have sat in church for years. Number two, a babe is unskilful: the Greek word means inexperienced, while 'full age' means full maturity, and God wants you to move from the one to the other. 'Exercised' comes from the word behind gymnasium and gymnastics, so the church must train like athletes, for example praying in tongues for ten minutes, then fifteen, then thirty, and refusing excuses.

   Illustration: Some believers turn to 'First Imaginations chapter 1 verse 1: pick up the phone' and ring a friend to complain. He tells them instead to shut the door, pray in tongues, declare that no weapon formed against them shall prosper, and only then phone to say everything is all right. He also mocks the excuse calls: 'The flu grabbed me this morning, tell pastor I can't come to church.'

   “Prayer changes things, not the telephone.”

   • Matthew 19:30
   • Isaiah 54:17

7. Big people talk big: live as a new creation

   A born-again believer should walk tall, speak big and still show humility, because with God all things are possible. You are a new creation, not a sinner saved by grace, a son of God who prays with power; unemployed, you speak a job, and sick, you speak healing. He shares that he is miserable when he is not in the Word, and wants to see the church become firebrands who cast out demons, heal the sick and speak wealth into existence.

   Illustration: His wife bought him a snowball so huge that someone at home called it a 'snow rock', and he cut off only a small piece, to make the point that the mouth was given to speak God's Word, not just to eat. He also looks at a poor family arriving by public transport and sees a millionaire in the making.

   “Big people talk big, big people act big, big people walk big.”

   • Ephesians 6:10
   • Philippians 4:13
   • Matthew 19:26
   • Romans 12:3
   • 2 Corinthians 5:17
   • Ephesians 4:8
   • John 1:12
   • James 5:16
   • Luke 4:18
   • John 15:7
   • Jeremiah 20:9
   • Acts 17:28