Mature Christianity

By Mark Schonebaum

Jesus took the twelve apostles and turned them into powerhouses for the Christian movement. This is our goal as mature Christians to be powerhouses for the Christian movement. A mature Christian is someone who God has worked on in two ways: inwardly and outwardly. Inwardly you have been transformed and now have the fruits of the spirit: love, jo

• Language: English
• Publisher: Trilogy Christian Publishing
• Release date: Sep 17, 2020
• ISBN: 9781647734657

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Mature Christianity

Mark Schonebaum

Trilogy Christian Publishers

TUSTIN, CA

Trilogy Christian Publishers

A Wholly Owned Subsidiary of Trinity Broadcasting Network

2442 Michelle Drive

Tustin, CA 92780

Copyright © 2020 by Mark Schonebaum

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever.

For information, address Trilogy Christian Publishing

Rights Department, 2442 Michelle Drive, Tustin, Ca 92780.

Trilogy Christian Publishing/ TBN and colophon are trademarks of Trinity Broadcasting Network.

For information about special discounts for bulk purchases, please contact Trilogy Christian Publishing.

Manufactured in the United States of America

Trilogy Disclaimer: The views and content expressed in this book are those of the author and may not necessarily reflect the views and doctrine of Trilogy Christian Publishing or the Trinity Broadcasting Network.

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available.

ISBN 978-1-64773-464-0

ISBN 978-1-64773-465-7 (ebook)

Contents

Dedication v

Acknowledgments vii

Chapter 1. Mature Christianity 1

Chapter 2. Infant, Teenager, Maturity 9

Chapter 3. Peter’s Roadmap 23

Chapter 4. Faith 35

Chapter 5. Virtue 53

Chapter 6. Knowledge 71

Chapter 7. Self-Control 89

Chapter 8. Steadfastness 107

Chapter 9. Godliness 123

Chapter 10. Brotherly Affection 137

Chapter 11. Love 153

Chapter 12. You Shall Never Fall 169

References 179

About the Author 181

This book is dedicated to my amazing family;

Lilly, Adam, Gabriel, and Ziyada.

I thank GOD for you guys every day.

I love you guys.

Acknowledgments

I want to thank God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. Thank you for saving me. Thank you for teaching me and guiding me. All things are possible with Your guidance, this book is proof of that. Thank you for the Word of God, the Bible.

Rick—Thank you for introducing me to Jesus, the crown of rejoicing is waiting for you in heaven.

Chanz—Thank you for your friendship and brotherhood. You embody what it truly means to walk with someone. Thank you for everything.

James and Tabitha—Not too many people would show up at midnight to help. You guys always did. Thank you. I love you guys.

Chanz and Mike—Our time together figuring out what true discipleship means has been incredible. This book is better because of it. Thank you.

To my men’s group—When I was first putting all the notes together for this book, we did a study of it in a group, and our discussions helped to shape this book. I thank you all for your brotherhood. Aaron, Allen, Clayton, David, Emmanuel, George, Jeremy, John, KC, Robert, Ron, Scott, Scott, and Steve.

Scott—Thank you for your brotherhood and your family. Soooooooooon!

Thank you to my church—Central Church, centralonline.tv. Pastor Jud, Thank you for leading a church with radical grace. Thank you to all the staff and volunteers who make it an amazing place to find God.

Chapter 1

Mature Christianity

Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching

everyone with all wisdom, that we may present

everyone mature in Christ.

(Colossians 1:28 ESV)

Jesus took the twelve apostles and turned them into powerhouses for the Christian movement. This is our goal as mature Christians to be powerhouses for the Christian movement. A mature Christian is someone who God has worked on in two ways: inwardly and outwardly. Inwardly you have been transformed and now have the fruits of the spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Galatians 5:22–23). Outwardly you are a light to the world and have a servant’s heart (Philippians 2:12–18). God has transformed your life, and you are making a difference for the Kingdom of Heaven. This is what God has done for me, and I want you to experience the power of God like I have.

Do you feel like He has done this for you? Have you felt the power of God transform your life? Or do you feel like you have been stuck in the same place for a while? Maybe you’ve been attending church but haven’t seen any life transformation. Maybe you have been in small groups and serving, but you feel like you are just checking off boxes. You feel like there has to be something more than this. Do you feel like you don’t know what to do to connect at a deeper level with God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit? What’s missing? There has to be a pathway to maturity that will help you start to really grow and develop as a Jesus follower. Based on the teaching of Peter the Apostle in 2 Peter 1:3–15, this book lays out a pathway that will get us there. In the following chapters, I will show you what the Holy Spirit has shown. Our sourcebook is the Bible, and with the help of Jesus and the Holy Spirit, we can get to a place of maturity. Let’s start growing together!

We will start by defining what a Mature Christian is. Mature Christianity: A fully developed, equipped, established, complete, and ready, follower of Jesus Christ. A fully developed person (James 1:2–4) has been through the trials and has come out the other side perfect and complete. An equipped person (2 Timothy 3:16–17) has been taught and trained by the scriptures and has the tools for every good work. An established person (Colossians 2:6–7) has Jesus as the foundation in their lives and built up from there. A complete and ready person (2 Corinthians 7:1) has been cleansed of their defilements and purified by Jesus. A follower of Jesus Christ is someone who becomes a disciple-making disciple. Someone who has been trained by Jesus and is now training others to do the same. This gives us a good definition of what a mature Christian is, and what our goal is.

Now let us look at what God’s plan is for our life. I have taken Titus 2:11–14 (ESV) and used the key phrases italicized to show us His plan for us.

By the Grace of God

We have Salvation

God is Training us

"To Renounce ungodliness and worldly passions"

And live self-controlled, upright and godly lives

Waiting for (…) Jesus Christ our redeemer

Who Purifies us

And makes us Zealous for good works

This, in a nutshell, is the process of Sanctification. Where the Holy Spirit works in you, to conform you to the image of Jesus Christ. We are saved by the grace of God from our former self and trained until we become zealous for good works. This is a life-long process that, year after year, we should see some measurable results. These results should be witnessed in your personal life, your family life, your community, and beyond. The three steps of this process are:

Salvation / Born-again

Training / Cleansing / Sanctification

Feed my sheep / Great Commission

God saves us from our former life and gives us a new life in Christ. Then He begins to train us and shape us with the help of Jesus and the Holy Spirit. He cleanses us from the sin of our past and puts us on a path towards holiness. As we grow and mature, then He uses us to help others along in the process. Our end goal is laid out for us in the Great Commission given to us by Jesus in Matthew 28:16–20 (ESV).

Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. And when they saw him, they worshiped him, but some doubted. And Jesus came and said to them, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.

As we have been trained up, now we are called to help train up the next generation of disciples of Jesus. We are to become a disciple-making disciple of Jesus.

Our model of what this looks like is Jesus Christ himself. The life and teachings of Jesus are the standards that we strive for. He was the only perfect person to walk the earth. He was God incarnate (John 1:1–18). We cannot become Jesus, but we strive to be more like Him and to help others along the path as well. We continually keep our eyes on Jesus as the founder and perfecter of our faith (Hebrew 12:1–2). He is our light along this path. The Holy Spirit is our guide. As we learn to listen and follow the Holy Spirit, He will guide us on the path of righteousness. With the help of Jesus and the Holy Spirit, we will attain our goal of Mature Christianity.

I want to give you a snapshot of what it looks like to be a mature Christian. Looking at 1 Timothy 4:6–16, we have six things that a good servant of Jesus will attain.

Knowledge of God

Godly behavior and attitude

Hope set on God

Command and teach the things of God

An example to other believers

Endurance

A knowledge of God means that you have an understanding of who He is and what He is doing in your life and the lives of others. Godly behavior and attitude mean that you started to behave in a godly manner and taking on the mind of Christ. Hope set on God is one of an eternal nature. You no longer look at your current circumstances, but know that God is working in your life and have an eternal focus. You also have a working knowledge of the Bible and the teachings of Jesus and are able to help teach others the same. You are also a Light to the world (Matthew 5:14 ESV) that others may see God working in you and through you. Your actions lead people to Christ. You also have a don’t give up mentality. This is a marathon, not a sprint. The outcome of all of this is that you will save both yourself and the ones you have helped along the path (1 Timothy 4:16). This is just to show you what it looks like to be a mature Christian. The rest of the book goes into more detail on how to get there. In the end, you will have a life transformed by Jesus, and be on a mission for Jesus.

The sourcebook we are using is the Bible. The Bible is the training manual given to us by God (2 Timothy 3:16–17). We are moving from a passive role to an active role in our relationship with God. You are now in training with the help of Jesus and the Holy Spirit. Our goal is to become a mature Christian. As with any training, it takes time, effort, and a plan. The more you put into it, the more you will get out of it. This takes consistent effort on your part. If you want to get your physical body in shape, it takes work. You need a training regimen, and you need to follow it. The same goes for your spiritual body. The two aspects of training are: study and application. As a Christian, we study the Bible. This is our training manual. We need to gain a working knowledge of God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit, and the Bible teaches us this. Then we need to apply to our life what we learn in the Bible.

Knowledge + Application = Wisdom.

As we gain wisdom,