1. THE JOY OF SPIRITUAL MATURITY – Philippians 3:12-21
“One of the greatest gifts God has given us is the infinite opportunity for spiritual growth. But however much we have matured, there is always more beyond … The possibilities go off the chart”
- Jim Peterson

2. Lessons from Paul about spiritual maturity:
1. Strive to grow in Christ.

3. Philippians 3:12-14 (Holman Christian Standard Bible)
Not that I have already reached the goal or am already fully mature, but I make every effort to take hold of it because I also have been taken hold of by Christ Jesus.

4. Philippians 3:12-14 continued:
Brothers, I do not consider myself to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: forgetting what is behind and reaching forward to what is ahead, I pursue as my goal the prize promised by God’s heavenly call in Christ Jesus.

5. Lessons from Paul about spiritual maturity:
1. Strive to grow in Christ.

6. Lessons from Paul about spiritual maturity:
1. Strive to grow in Christ.
2. Live what you profess to believe.

7. Philippians 3:15-16
Therefore, all who are mature should think this way. And if you think differently about anything, God will reveal this to you also. In any case, we should live up to whatever truth we have attained.

8. Lessons from Paul about spiritual maturity:
1. Strive to grow in Christ.
2. Live what you profess to believe.

9. Lessons from Paul about spiritual maturity:
1. Strive to grow in Christ.
2. Live what you profess to believe.
3. Choose your friends carefully.

10. Philippians 3:17-20
Join in imitating me, brothers, and observe those who live according to the example you have in us. For I have often told you, and now say again with tears, that many live as enemies of the cross of Christ.

11. Philippians 3:17-20 continued:
their end is destruction; their god is their stomach; their glory is in their shame. They are focused on earthly things, but our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.

12. Lessons from Paul about spiritual maturity:
1. Strive to grow in Christ.
2. Live what you profess to believe.
3. Choose your friends carefully.

13. Lessons from Paul about spiritual maturity:
1. Strive to grow in Christ.
2. Live what you profess to believe.
3. Choose your friends carefully.
4. The glorification of the believer.

14. Philippians 3:21
He will transform the body or our humble condition into the likeness of His glorious body, by the power that enables Him to subject everything to Himself.

15. Lessons from Paul about spiritual maturity:
1. Strive to grow in Christ.
2. Live what you profess to believe.
3. Choose your friends carefully.
4. The glorification of the believer.

16. 1 Corinthians 15:44-49
If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. So it is written: The first man Adam became a living being; the last Adam became a life-giving Spirit. However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural; then the spiritual.

17. 1 Corinthians 15:44-49 continued:
The first man was from the earth and made of dust; the second man is from heaven.
Like the man made of dust, so are those who are made of dust; like the heavenly man, so are those who are heavenly.

18. 1 Corinthians 15:44-49 continued:
And just as we have borne the image of the man made of dust, we will also bear the image of the heavenly man.

19. 1 John 3:2
Dear friends, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet been revealed. We know that when he appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him as He is.

20. Lessons from Paul about spiritual maturity:
1. Strive to grow in Christ.
2. Live what you profess to believe.
3. Choose your friends carefully.
4. The glorification of the believer.