Saturday, January 26, 2013

Acceptance Worship Center Ministry of Washington DC
Ministry theme – The Year of Maturity, 2013
“When I grew Up”
Min. Mark James - Lead Pastor
1 Corinthians 13:11
·        New Living Translation - When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child. But when I grew up, I put away childish things
·        The Message Bible - When I was an infant at my mother’s breast, I gurgled and cooed like any infant. When I grew up, I left those infant ways for good.
As we embark on the 2nd month of the New Year, please remember that this is still the Year of Maturity.  Whatever we do, or say will now gear towards our growing up.  No longer are we going to remain in childish things or behaviors.  There are a few points of growing up, and I will do my level best at sharing these points as the year goes by.  The scriptures mentioned above starts us off in our first dialogue for the year!
(Webster definition of Change, - To become different or undergo alteration.)
Point 1 -   My Speech change – Your pattern and levels of communication starts to gear towards things of survival and growth.
Point 2 – My thoughts change - Proverbs 23:7 - For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he.  Your thoughts are now embellished towards manhood and women hood.
Point 3 – My way of reasoning change – The way you think, understand, and form judgments are now based on logic, past experience, & religious encounters.  No longer is someone else totally reasoning out situations on your behave.
Conclusion – Paul says to this New Church that maturity is at hand for them.  He shares with them that are times to grow up and stop acting like a child.  In saying that, we recognize that there is a great need for change in order for growth to take place.  Some of us are stumped in our growth because we have allowed horrible past experiences to not let us grow up and become the mature adult that God intended for us to be.  I admonish you this year to start back on your path of growing up in the word.  Start changing your speech.  Speak life, speak sound wisdom, speak love, & speak liberty.  Clean up your thinking!  Your thoughts should now be geared towards kingdom building ideas.  Change your way of reasoning out your problems and understand how your actions will affect your future. 
Paul states at the end of that scripture, that when he grew up, things began to change.  Let’s gleam from Paul’s example and grow up.