Brethren, I would ask you this:
Do you really know what you believe
about the Lord Jesus Christ?
I mean, do you really know what you believe?
When you've got a son with lymphoma,
you begin to ask the question: what do I really believe?
You know right here in this space where I stand
there was a body yesterday.
When you're a young woman
with two young children
and you're standing in front of an open casket
with your husband in it,
you start asking yourself what you really believe.
Do we know what we really believe?
See, this is what lifts us out of childishness.
Because this idea of waves
and this idea of wind -
that's an idea of storms
and they come.
And what he says is they're doctrinal.
We get hit with truth and error -
lots of error, bad doctrine.
You know what it does.
It tests what we believe.
It's constantly pulling us
and we're confronted by waves
and winds and storms of bad teaching
and waves and winds and storms
of what life brings upon us.
And the issue is:
what do we really believe?
Do you really know where your hope is set?
When things don't go your way;
when the bottom begins to fall out;
when the foundations are giving way,
do you really know what you believe
about the Son of God?
And you don't want to leave that part off the end.
This is not just "the faith" in some ambiguous way.
What do you really believe about the Lord Jesus Christ?
What do you really believe that He is to you?
Who is He?
You see, this is the issue
with mature manhood.
Yes, it's that we rightly handle the oracles of God.
It's that we know them.
It's that by practice our powers of discernment...
but I'll tell you this,
Paul is very specific here.
Paul is specific about the Scripture,
about what we believe,
and it's got to do with the Son of God.
That's the issue.
Do you believe that Jesus Christ
is the sure, steadfast anchor of your soul
when the devil rushes in? And he will.
Because he's looking for opportunity
and he's looking for people to devour.
And we see what he did to Job. And we see what he did to Peter.
We see that he came upon the Lord Jesus Christ.
And he's looking for opportunity with each one of us
when he rushes in.
Have you so tried and proven
the Lord Jesus Christ
that you know exactly where to run?
Have you so tried and proved
the promises - all those promises -
that we can stand back
and on the good, sunny day we can say:
Oh, all those promises are yes and amen in Christ.
But I'll tell you when the storms come,
you know where the children go?
They go to the Internet.
Where do the children go?
They go to the TV.
Where do the children go? They go to the distractions.
They go somewhere else.
They go to whatever sedative in this world.
Have we tried and proven Christ
that we know He's our only refuge?
You see, this is what brings people
up out of childishness, childhood.
Do you have an arsenal of promises
that you have tried and proven?
This excerpt was taken from the full sermon:
No Longer Children