The Dangers of Spiritual Maturity
Text: Philippians 3:1-16
Introduction: Illustrations of Danger Levels
A. Video Game: as you advance to difference levels, the dangers change, new challenges
B. Ballplayer: young struggle with mechanics, with strategy: QB footwork
Old struggle with pride, attitude, desire
1. why multi-million $ contracts
2. toward the game and other players
3. Michael Jordan losing desire for Basketball
C. New Convert: worried about cursing, how to handle next time offered a drink
Older Christian: has the above "licked," but must be careful about other sins
D. Compare Galatians 5:19-21
1. Flesh: overt sins mentioned, but also inner sins like contentions, outbursts of wrath,
selfish motives.
2. As you mature, the dangers are more covert, secret
3. Rather than putting pornography in your path, you’ll be tempted to do a right thing in
the wrong way.
Transitional Statement: Paul mentions three dangers facing the spiritually mature that we must be aware of.
Big Idea: There are dangers (pitfalls) that the spiritually mature must guard against.
I. Self-sufficiency (v. 3, 9) "confidence in the flesh"
Cause:
1. Success can cause us to coast or look to ourselves
2. As we develop good habits and practices, it takes less "effort" to keep up a good show.
This naturally results in a tendency to slack off.
3. Taking our gifts and abilities for granted
Symptoms:
1. Unable to discern between selfish ambitions and Godly ambition
2. Not growing in your gift or Christian life
3. Prayer is lacking or tacked on
4. When you can perform without effort or preparation. Note: There may be times that you
must operate w/o preparation - "Be Ready" - Here, referring to times when you should
prepare but you fail to put in the time.
5. When programs become more important than the leading of the Spirit
Solution:
1. v. 9 "power of his resurrection rather than the power of the flesh"
2. 1 Cor. 9:24 "give your best effort"
a. Pete Rose: whatever his failings, he played hard
b. Mickey Mantle: One of his regrets was that he could have been better if he worked
II. Spiritual Arrogance (v. 12) "thinking you have arrived"
Cause:
1. Pride
2. Placing a greater emphasis on knowledge or methods, rather than people
Symptoms:
1. Judge motives instead of actions or see hidden/ulterior motives in others
2. Marble Madness: take your marbles and go home (because you know that as "one of the
mature" ones, they need you and will want you back." You say, "Do it my way or I quit"
3. A critical spirit
4. The chief syndrome, If I can’t be the leader, then I’m not playing
5. When knowledge and methods are more important than people. "People don’t care how
much you know, until they know how much you care."
6. False humility
"And the Devil did grin, for his darling sin
Is pride that apes humility."
Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834)
7. When you think you have exclusive knowledge or that you are the only one who knows
ex. went to a SS or Music seminar
"Nobody can be so amusingly arrogant as a young man who has just discovered an old idea and thinks it is his own."
Sydney J. Harris (1917-1986)
Solution:
1. v. 12 realization that you have not arrived
2. Realize that others have not arrived and are in the process of growing. Just because
you’ve mastered certain areas of the Christian life doesn't mean that others have.
3. Confess your pride and condescending attitude. Pride was the sin of Lucifer.
4. Recognize your propensity toward pride
"If I cannot brag of knowing something, then I brag of not knowing it; at any rate, brag."
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)
5. Humble yourself James 4:10, 1 Peter 5:6. If not, God may have to humble you
My pride fell with my fortunes.
Shaekspeare in As You Like It [1598-1600],Act: I, Scene: ii, Line: 269
III. Indifferent Disposition (v. 15)
Cause:
1. Lack of results, inability to see tangible results
a. "I like mowing my lawn because I can see immediate results"
2. Physical Cause, fatigue, pressure
3. When others let you down: Elijah "I'm the only one"
4. Monotony
Symptoms:
1. Prayer is perfunctory
2. Excitement or zeal is missing on a regular basis
3. When you are satisfied no matter the results, good or bad
4. Q? Does interest wane and then attitude die down or does our attitude change and then
our interest wane?
5. Predictability
Solution:
1. v. 15 "keep the same ‘standard’ (attitude that you have attained)"
2. Set new goals or re-focus on old ones 1 Cor. 9:26
3. Accept a new challenge (don’t necessarily drop the old job)
a. Pastor who accepted curriculum writing responsibility
b. experiment with a new ministry
4. Vary your habits
Conclusion:
Solutions from 1 Cor. 9
1. v. 24: strive for excellence, give your best effort
2. v. 26 Have a goal, purpose: helps you know when you are straying
3. v. 27 self-discipline, difference between this and striving in the flesh
"T. Roosevelt: "The things that will destroy America are prosperity at any price, peace at any price, safety first instead of duty first, the love of soft living, and the get rich theory of life."