Grow up! "Yeah, it's kinda like that." Parable Series

Jesus talked in parables, so I’ve been thinking of modern day parables that we could use to describe the Kingdom of God.  We’ve been talking about maturity in church lately… talking about growing up and what that means.  Tonight I wanted to touch on a couple aspects of that.  But first, here are a few questions.  

What fears did you have as a kid that seem silly now?  Why were you afraid?  

In what areas of your life now, do you feel small or feel vulnerable?  What in life affects you the most negatively?

Giant Sequoias are the worlds largest tree.  The largest Sequoia was over 311 feet tall and 56 feet around. That’s over the length of a football field.  The oldest Sequoia is 3,500 years old.  If you’re wondering how old that is, Moses wrote the first five books of the Bible 3,500 years ago.  They are the oldest living things on earth.  

You would think that these old, giant trees must have had a bunch of lucky breaks to have lasted this long.  But that is simply not the case.  A grown Sequoia can withstand lightning strikes, fire, predators, floods and anything else you can throw at it.  Not only that, it needs all of those things to be able to grow healthy and reproduce. 

Here’s what I mean.  

In the 1950’s, there would be wildfires that would break out in Yosemite and Sequoia National forest and what would people do?  Well, they put it out.  Seems logical.  But what the park rangers found was that as they continued to put the fires out year after year, the Sequoias were dying and they weren’t reproducing. You see, the Sequoias need fire in order to reproduce.  There would be thunder storms.  And the lightning strikes would set the forest floor on fire.  The fire would burn up everything on the forest floor… except the Sequoias.  The giant sequoias are made in such a way that they are fairly fireproof.  Not only that, the fire would burn up all the other kinds of trees and plant life and the resulting ash would make the soil super rich with nutrients.  Nutrients the trees fed off.  The heat from the fires would dry out their pine cones which caused them to open up and drop all the Sequoia seeds.  Seeds that would drop into the nutrient rich soil and grow healthy.  Not only that, the fire burned up all the other trees that would block out the sun over the Sequoia saplings.  

These giant trees have gone through a lot to be the giants that they are today.  But here’s the great thing about being a giant tree.  Once it’s mature, it doesn’t have to worry about the fires… it doesn’t have to worry about predators… it doesn’t have to worry about floods or any other thing.  It is strong in whatever circumstances it finds itself in. 

A sapling has to be worried about the environment around it.  It has to worry about predators, fire, violent storms, lack of sunlight and infestation.  An immature tree is affected by a lot.  

What are you affected by?

Being immature in Christ can cause you to fear your circumstances, fear people and allow the worries and cares of the day to rip you apart.

Being mature in Christ allows you to be strong in your circumstances, allows what people say and think about you to not matter and keeps you from being blown to and fro by your everyday circumstances.   

One of the things we’re affected by is how we feel about ourselves.  We are our own worst enemy sometimes.  The great thing about salvation is that when you are saved, you get everything God has for you.  But if you don’t know what God says about you, about who you really are… you will doubt that you are a Giant Sequoia.  You will see yourself as a tiny sapling.  Legally, no one receives their inheritance until they are 18 years old.  If they are under 18, it is held in a trust until they are of age.  There’s a level of maturity that has to be reached before you can access everything God has for you.  If you don’t let God define who you are… if you don’t believe that He has made you a Giant Sequoia, it will be difficult for you to live like it.  That’s why we renew our mind with the Word of God.

 Ephesians 4

¹⁴ Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming. ¹⁵ Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ. ¹⁶ From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.

We are not to be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves… As Christians, God has created us to be strong and firm.  When we are mature, we are not moved.  How are we mature?  By allowing Christ to be our head.  The head holds the brain and the brain tells us what to do.      

²⁵ Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to your neighbor, for we are all members of one body. ²⁶ “In your anger do not sin”: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, ²⁷ and do not give the devil a foothold. 
²⁹ Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. ³⁰ And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. ³¹ Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. ³² Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you. 

When you are mature in Christ, you live above the fray, just like the Giant Sequoias.  When we don’t fight with each other, when we don’t allow ourselves to get angry or feel like we have to defend ourselves, we can rest in the fact that people don’t control our destinies.  Let me show you how Christ did it.  

Mark 14:
⁵⁵ The chief priests and the whole Sanhedrin were looking for evidence against Jesus so that they could put him to death, but they did not find any. ⁵⁶ Many testified falsely against him, but their statements did not agree.
⁵⁷ Then some stood up and gave this false testimony against him: ⁵⁸ “We heard him say, ‘I will destroy this temple made with human hands and in three days will build another, not made with hands.’” ⁵⁹ Yet even then their testimony did not agree.
⁶⁰ Then the high priest stood up before them and asked Jesus, “Are you not going to answer? What is this testimony that these men are bringing against you?” ⁶¹ But Jesus remained silent and gave no answer.

Mark 15:
³ The chief priests accused him of many things. ⁴ So again Pilate asked him, “Aren’t you going to answer? See how many things they are accusing you of.”
⁵ But Jesus still made no reply, and Pilate was amazed. 

How many of us when push comes to shove can walk away from those who talk junk about us?  That is a sign of maturity.  How often do we rush to our own defenses?  How many Facebook statuses do you read every day of people trying to justify themselves?  Of people trying to plead their case?  Of people being offended about what someone else said about them?  Brothers and sisters, this should not be so. 

Luke 6
²⁷ “But to you who are listening I say: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, ²⁸ bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. ²⁹ If someone slaps you on one cheek, turn to them the other also. If someone takes your coat, do not withhold your shirt from them. ³⁰ Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back. ³¹ Do to others as you would have them do to you.

This is the path to maturity.  When you are not so worried about what people think of you, you grow.  God will defend you.   

James 1
² Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters,^[a^] whenever you face trials of many kinds, ³ because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. ⁴ Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. 
 
When you are immature, you are afraid.  You are afraid of what people think of you.  You wonder how you’re going to live life.  You don’t trust God with everything, so everything becomes scary.  When you are immature, you are primarily worried about yourself.  If we’re not careful, we can allow the cares of this life and other people’s opinions of ourselves to choke the life out of us. 

Matthew 13 Parable of the Sower
¹⁸ “Listen then to what the parable of the sower means: ¹⁹ When anyone hears the message about the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in their heart. This is the seed sown along the path. ²⁰ The seed falling on rocky ground refers to someone who hears the word and at once receives it with joy. ²¹ But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away. ²² The seed falling among the thorns refers to someone who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, making it unfruitful. ²³ But the seed falling on good soil refers to someone who hears the word and understands it. This is the one who produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.” 

Here’s the thing… You all were meant to go through trials and tribulations… lightning storms and fires.  When we ask God to save us from every trial, what ends up happening is that the life in us gets choked out of us because we are distracted by other things.  We need God to send fire in our lives to destroy all the things around us that compete for His attention.  Whether it’s your relationships and friends… whether it’s your family… whether it’s Facebook and video games or whatever takes up the time that God desires to spend with you.  You can withstand fire in your circumstances.  You are a Giant Sequoia.  You need God to take away everything that isn’t bringing you closer to Him.  Because once everything in your life is about Him, that’s when you’ll grow.  You’ll find you can see the sun(Son) better because there aren’t competing trees blocking your view of it(Him).  You’ll find that your heart is fertile soil, because it has been refined of everything that would keep you from Him.    

 And then, when you are mature… you will be able to reproduce.   A mature tree is always trying to multiply.  A young tree cannot multiply.  A young Sequoia cannot attempt to reproduce until it is at least 12 years old.  We multiply by being otherly-centered and not just focused on ourselves.  And these difficult circumstances and relationships we face?  That is the soil that will allow us to multiply in Christ. And the great thing is… because Christ is in us, we can stand up under any problems or issues we face.     
Mark 4

³⁰ Again he said, “What shall we say the kingdom of God is like, or what parable shall we use to describe it? ³¹ It is like a mustard seed, which is the smallest of all seeds on earth. ³² Yet when planted, it grows and becomes the largest of all garden plants, with such big branches that the birds can perch in its shade.”

Matthew 17
²⁰ He replied, “Because you have so little faith. Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”

Philippians 1
⁶ being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

You start out with a mustard seed of faith.  Even then at the beginning, nothing is impossible for you.  But as you mature in Christ, that mustard seed becomes a large tree.  And the great thing is, Christ is the person who plants you and makes sure you become the mature tree He intended you to be.  When you are a Giant Sequoia, you won’t be moved by the storms or fires of life.  You will withstand everything life throws at you, because the testing of your faith(that mustard seed) produces perseverance. And perseverance will produce maturity in you.  If life was easy for you, you wouldn’t grow.  You would get weaker.   When you work out, what are you doing?  You are ripping your muscles apart.  But then they grow back stronger.  This is how we should look at life’s problems.  

As long as you are immature… you will be afraid of your circumstances.  You will be caught up in what people think of you.  You will struggle with small things.  

When you are mature in your faith… there isn’t anything you can’t handle.  You aren’t worried about what people think of you because you know who God says you are.  The small, petty things of life are down low on the ground and can’t hurt you.  

You are a Giant Sequoia.  Don’t settle for being a tiny sapling.