1 Corinthians 13:11-12
When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things. For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.
I was thinking about when I was child, I did some crazy things. Did you ever tempt fate? Tempt life and death? When you look back when you were in your teens and preteens; the peer group pressure? Do you remember things like selfishness; lies? It was easy to tell a lie when you were young, but you really didn’t know what a lie was. You remember being a thief? “Don’t mess with those cookies…don’t mess with this…” Your siblings told you “don’t bother that…don’t take it.” Though that seems small, its still thievery. I was with a company that I was a contractor at, and I was told I could go into the office supply cabinet. I looked in there and it was as though I made it to mecca! I had a pen fetish and they had all types of lead, ballpoint, felt tip point, roller ball point; All sorts of erasers, those like putty, the big white ones, the big brown ones. Post it notes, tape…they had all the goodies. Colored paper clips…you never know how bad you need a paper clip until you need it. I was told I could get whatever I needed. I got every pen and eraser that I could get…and it wasn’t going anywhere but back to my desk. I was doing work with them, but some of them never stayed at my desk, but went home, and rested there. Now because it didn’t come from management and came from one of the engineers on the floor, it wasn’t for me to take, but I took and took and took again. I don’t know if there is such a word as nice stealing, but I stole, often. I was justifying everything…taking 4 bottles of whiteout, just in case I may need it. But I was a thief.
How about cheating? Do you remember anger? How about faithlessness? As a teenager, we told other teenagers “are you going to be faithful,” yet we weren’t even faithful. We tell them “don’t cheat on that test,” yet we cheat on that test.
Lets look at our childhood. Have you ever been selfish in your childhood? You know there use to be a truck that came around and the driver was Mr. Liberty. He had popsicles, iced cold bazooka bubble gum, fudge sickles, freeze pops, eskimo pies, the ice cream bars with chocolate on the outside, and the neapolitan ice cream…He always carried the right stuff for the kids in the neighborhood. He came at the right time, and when he rang that bell, every kid on that street came running, hopping and skipping beside the truck. He tried to satisfy every child and teach us about our money too. We had a wonderful time waiting for him to come, and we use to promise each other that we’d help the kid who didn’t have money and get them something. But when that time came up, we didn’t want to share, even when you ate some of another kids iced cream before. Then you would order knowing you had no money, then you felt angry, disenchanted; let down because you couldn’t get the thing you wanted.
Do you remember something you took from your sibling or friend and never gave it back? Did you know that you can’t steal someone from another person? You saw one teen with a girl you wanted. So you went about trying to steal the girl from him? This happened to me. Pains and trials and let downs that I didn’t even know were there. Kids being talked about, being made fun of. Teenagers. Wanting to be accepted. “You don’t dress right. We don’t like you. You belong with the misfits.” The things was is the misfits were all straight A’s. These memories are still with me today. Sometimes memories are still there, but attached to those memories are a growth that you never grew beyond. What about when things didn’t go your way? Were you angry with the person, the situation or with yourself? What about when you didn’t get chosen to do a particular task? Some of us want to be chosen, others of us don’t because we don’t want to be called a teachers pet. You remember when your sibling or friend told a lie to your mom or dad? Think about those moments? Do we ever see some of the remnants of our past childhood come up in our life now…how we walk in Christ, how we choose our friends, how we do business? Yes we do. The Word of God says when I was a child, I thought as a child, spoke as a child…Some of the things we do today are still from our past as a child. Did our bodies grow up and our minds stay the same? What does it mean to become a man? Not looking at things from a child’s point of view, but looking sensibly and reasonably. I don’t need to smack you back because you smacked me. We need to realize one thing. We need to grow up.
You wonder why God can’t use us? Because we haven’t grown up. He can’t give a responsibility to someone who is still doing the same old childish things. Think about it. If a person still hasn’t grown up past the mindset of having a playful type mentality all the time, would you entrust them to manage your money? Would you entrust them to handle your business? Think about it. Just relate that with God. Will the Lord entrust you to deliver His word to a person who’s soul is aching, who’s heart is hurting if your still in a child’s mentality? We have a lot of immature Christians out there. Some of them have come into the understanding of what the being clear picture is about. But they begin to play around, and take it lightly. They don’t look at others pain, anguish or hurt, but they say rather it is kind of funny the way they look. When you were a child, some of the things you did carried over into your adulthood. If you grew up liking toy race cars, maybe you became a race car driver. You ever wonder what your life would have been like had you not chosen your profession? What would you have done, accomplished, succeeded in? Would I have known who Jesus is? Would I be in this state or this country? What would I have done?
A lot of times our faith or the lack of faith is due to something that is lingering over into our childhood, linger into our adulthood. We had faith in someone; they failed, so we saw that faith didn’t work, or we have less faith. It causes you to have a misunderstanding of faith. Lack of faith is usually equated to having an emotion disillusion. You have a relationship with someone and you know it would last, but they pull out for some reason. But they told you they had faith in the relationship, then that lessens your idea of faith. The delusion of it all is because of the attachment you had on others wasn’t strong enough to maintain the bond, your faith lessens. You ask, “what came out of me that caused their walking faith not to be strong? Did I cause them not to be faithful? Did they see a lack of faith in me so they became unfaithful to us?” Then you begin to test that faith on them and say “I will try this one more time.” Then when they do it again, you don’t trust them at all.
What does mature mean? Its being able to let things go that don’t make sense. Mature comes in when you’re able to look at something circumspectly, weigh it, not just accept it, but know the consequence behind it. Whereas a person who is younger will jump right in and do it and find out later that it was bad. Maturity will say I’m 72 years old, I don’t need to have a car note. Maturity makes sense. I’m not working anymore, why would I go and make a big bill? You can’t live off someone else. You say you did when you were younger, and think you can do it today. Making the same old mistakes you did when you were younger. “He’s cute, got nice hair and muscles. So he must have a brain.” That is the same thing you did when you were younger. You weren’t looking for intelligence, you were looking for looks. You still live the life of a teen and here you’re 62. You still turn out to be a teen and your 50, making the same old stupid mistakes you made when you were younger. When it says I let go of childish things…the way you talked and acted. You can’t do the same things you use to do when you were younger. You should have some wisdom. Have you grown up yet? Its not the shape or the color of the product. Its whats in there that matters. You don’t want a man who will be candy on your arms. You want someone who will enhance you and teach you something. Whatever God gives you, trust Him.
Don’t let the ways of your past control your future. Don’t make the same stupid mistakes; being giddy making your choices in life. Start looking at thing a bit more seriously.
