Why Spiritual Maturity Shows Up In Conflict | 1 Corinthians | Week 5

Something about a handwritten note hits different. It can carry encouragement across decades, drop you back into a moment, and remind you that God was working even when you did not see it. That idea becomes the doorway into Paul’s letters to the Corinthian church, where care and correction sit side by side, and where real spiritual growth gets tested in everyday life.

We dig into 1 Corinthians 3 and the sharp contrast between milk and solid food. Spiritual age and spiritual maturity are not the same, and time in church is not the same as becoming like Jesus. We talk about how conflict reveals what is really controlling us, why Matthew 18 pushes us toward reconciliation, and how jealousy, gossip, and retaliation expose immaturity. We also walk through the fruit of the Spirit as a practical growth marker, and we ask a question that gets uncomfortably specific: can we feed ourselves spiritually through prayer and Scripture, or do we live only on Sundays?

From there, the conversation turns outward to discipleship and mission. The call is not to stay comfortable in the light, but to go and make disciples starting with our neighbors and moving toward the hard places. Jamie Bridges connects Matthew 7 and 1 Corinthians 3 with a memorable warning: storms test foundations, and fire tests materials. If our foundation is Christ, what are we building with, and will it last when life gets loud?

If you want a clear, biblical framework for spiritual maturity, Christian discipleship, and building a faith that holds up under pressure, listen now. Subscribe, share this with a friend, and leave a review with the most challenging question you are taking from the message.

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Transcript

Welcome And Opening Message

SPEAKER_01 0:02

Hello, this is Jamie Bridges, and thank you so much for joining us for this week's podcast. All of our services are inspired and built straight from the Bible. Let's get into this week's message recorded at Life Community Church.

Old Notes And The Power Of Writing

SPEAKER_03 0:16

Hey, we're in this series in the book of Corinthians, and I think this is important to note. It's important because Paul's writing letters. We know this is the fourth letter. He wrote four letters to the Corinthian church. We only see two of them. First Corinthians is the second letter. And uh it reminded me I was going through some old uh boxes and I found notes. Uh a fraction of the notes. These are notes that Kelly had sent me in high school, or I sent them to her in high school. And kids, you may not understand notes, but it's when you actually took out a pencil or pen and wrote on paper, and in between classes, you would pass it to them. Leave it in their locker. A locker is something that you would put your stuff in. Okay? Some of it is in cursive. Cursive is just a fancier way of printing. We up to date? There's nothing like getting a note. It beats every text message. You can remember where you were at. Now, my mom's warning to me when we got married be careful what you put in writing. That's still true. I know you can unsend things, okay, but be careful what you put in writing. Facts, in 1994, uh the last time the World Cup was in the U.S., my mom and my mom, dad, sister, and a friend went on vacation. And my mom sent me a postcard. Not because they were gone a long time, but because this was the modern day text message. And for whatever reason, they decided to go to Indiana. So she had to send me a postcard in the mail to give me an update how vacation was going and to let me know where they went. You guys don't understand this. This is like sending a pick while you're on vacation. It just used to come in the mail and cost you at that time 10 cents. You also don't know what 88 cent gallon of gas is. So old times weren't all that bad. I know some of you are dying for me to read one of these. And here's why I'm gonna read one. Because I dated these. Like I put dates on everything. So this one is from December 16th, 1992, which is interesting because our first date was December 4th, 1992. So I was already sending you notes, you know, arguably 12 days into this relationship. And I just want you to understand how silly and immature this note is. Hello. How are you today? I'm doing a little better than yesterday. Tonight, would you like to go to church with me? That was a pickup line right then. I'm thinking about church. Are you? Then I have a game after if you would like to go to the game. However, I will be a little sweaty.

SPEAKER_02 3:46

Okay, the bell's about to ring. And I'm speechless. See you later.

SPEAKER_03 4:00

Listen, I can preach for the last fifteen years and you never clap, but I read one note from high school. Hello. How are you today? I'm doing pretty good. Do you still want me to come over after school? Hold on, I gotta see the date on this. April 18th, 1994. We've progressed. We've now been dating over two years at that time. Fun facts, Kelly actually broke up with me at one point. Just throwing that out there. I'm just saying. Anyway, this is the point. This is what Paul is writing. And you understand when you receive a note or an encouragement, you understand where you were. You understand what was going on. You understand the situation. This is what Paul is doing. Guys, I wish I was with you, but I'm not with you. But because I'm not with you, there are some things that I'm hearing. So I'm writing you this note to encourage you, to challenge you, to let you know up front, guys, I'm thinking about you and I want to be there, but we got to talk about a couple things. But don't, don't, don't forget the power of encouragement. Don't forget the the power of encouraging something someone with a note. This, for example, I found this one in there. I was we were leaving Omaha 20 years ago, and it says, You've changed my life forever. Unknowingly. Jackson Booth. Like to me, 20 years later, it's still a reminder that God impacted someone's life, and they made a note to encourage me to know those things happened. This is we have to understand that up front so that we what we hear, we can grasp the reason why. Like I think that's important. I think sometimes you might get a note or a letter and think, I've done something wrong. You don't care. What Paul's trying to get the Corinthian church to understand is that guys, I care about you, so I'm saying something. Know this. When someone's willing to do hard things and say something to you, understand how much strength and courage it takes for that to happen so that you can understand where they're coming from.

A Simple Challenge To Encourage Someone

SPEAKER_03 6:39

And so this is my challenge to you. And I know you can do it through a text message, I know you can do it through an email, I know you can call someone. My challenge to you this week, would you encourage someone in your life with whatever God wants you to say to them and write it on a note and give it to them in a maybe unfamiliar way? Maybe it's left on a bed pillow, maybe it's left on a car, maybe it's left on a seat. Can I challenge you to encourage someone that way? Because this surpassed 20 years, and 20 years later, it's still something that impacts when I read it. I still can read this 32 years later. I know where my parents were, my sister added a note on here. Like all of these things I think are so important when it comes to what we're doing in other people's lives. This is the attitude that Paul had.

Milk Versus Solid Food Faith

SPEAKER_03 7:42

Now, what Paul says in 1 Corinthians chapter 3, I think is worth noting. He's saying hard things. But again, he's already set up, guys, I'm for you. I want the best for you. And because I want the best for you, I'm gonna say hard things to you. And he says this in verse 1 Dear brothers and sisters, when I was with you, I couldn't talk to you as I would to spiritual people. I had to talk as though you belonged to this world or as though you were infants in Christ. I had to feed you with milk, not with solid food, because you weren't ready for anything stronger, and you still aren't ready. Paul's going, guys, you've been in church a long time, and the way you're acting shouldn't be the way you're acting. And because of that, I'm having to water down some things, to go back to some things, to give you some things. We understand this in the natural. Here's why we understand the natural. We understand, I understand. My granddaughter cannot eat steak at this moment. She doesn't have the development, the teeth, she doesn't have all those things. So she gets a bottle, she gets milk, she gets soft foods, yogurts. We understand that. What Paul is saying is, church, we know that you're following. We know you're believers. You just should be further along than you currently are. Spiritually speaking, you should be eating steak now. We understand that at a year old, but if you're 15 and you're still getting a bottle, we're gonna go, something's wrong. Right? Something is wrong if I'm still drinking milk only. Okay, it might be a deficiency, it might be, it might be something's yeah, we understand that, but we can acknowledge something's not right there. This is what Paul is addressing. He's going, guys, you're immature. Here's here's the things that these are problems, this is what's happening. And there's three truths from this that I really want us to hone in on. Number

Spiritual Age Is Not Maturity

SPEAKER_03 9:38

one, spiritual age and spiritual maturity are not the same. They're not the same. The Corinthians had been Christian for years, and yet Paul is still calling them infants. They've been to small groups, they've given money, they've attended church on Sundays, yet maturity-wise, something isn't right. And he's saying a practical way to measure spiritual maturity is not by how much someone knows, but how much someone looks like Jesus. That's what Paul is saying. And so he addresses this.

Conflict Reveals What Controls You

SPEAKER_03 10:15

He's saying, Listen, how do you respond to conflict? He's asking this question. He's saying, Listen, how do you respond when there's conflict? How you respond to conflict shows us how spiritually mature you are. Doesn't say because you've been in church for 15 years and you used to lead Sunday school or a small group or were a board member. He doesn't say that. He's saying how you handle conflict shows us your spiritual maturity. Look at it, verse three. For you are still controlled by your sinful nature. How are you acting? You are jealous of one another. You're quarreling, you're fighting with one another. Doesn't that prove that you are controlled by your sinful nature? Aren't you living like people of the world? He's saying, Are you seeking reconciliation or retaliation? Whatever you're seeking, it's showing your maturity. If you're seeking retaliation spiritually, that's not how Jesus would do it. And so you're showing us spiritually you're immature. If you're seeking retaliation, you're showing us that. If you're seeking reconciliation, you're showing us Matthew 18 that when Jesus said, when you have a problem with your brother, go to that person. And in going to that person, you resolve what is going on. If he doesn't listen, bring a friend with you and talk to them. If he understands it, you've won a brother. This is what Matthew 18 is saying. He's saying, Listen, if you don't go to that person and you're gossiping about them over here and you're never addressing it, you're showing us one thing, you're immature. How you handle conflict, he says, will show us how mature you are.

Fruit Growth And Feeding Yourself

SPEAKER_03 11:58

And then the second thing is the fruit of the spirit growing in my life. Jesus said, A tree is known by its fruit. So he says, look for increasing love, increasing joy, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, self-control. He doesn't say you're gonna perfect it. He said, Are you progressing in it? Are you growing in it? If you're in this room, there's no arrival moments, there's no moment where you say, Whoo, I've hit the top of joy. I'm as joyful as I'm ever gonna be right here. You're not gonna go there. You're progressing in the he's saying, Are you progressing in these areas? Are you are you more joyful today than you were a week ago? If we've gone backwards, then we gotta go, oh, something's not right. Are you gentle today? Are you being faithful today? Again, not perfection, progress. Are we becoming more like Christ? I think one of the biggest questions Paul's asking the Corinthian church is can you feed yourself spiritually? Are you living off Sundays or can you can you pray on your own? Can you read the Bible on your own? Can you feed yourself? Like we get it, right? At some point, like a little kid's in a little high chair and you're spoon feeding them and they're getting it all over. It's cute. They're taking food and they're throwing it, you're like, oh, that's so cute. You're 50 and you're doing that. Something ain't right. That's not that's messy all over my face. It's not cute anymore. If I'm spinning it back out, it's not cute. Right? You don't walk into a restaurant and go, hmm. I mean, unless you're throwing rolls, right? I mean, now I got you hungry for bread. He's saying, can you feed yourself? Do I spend time in God's word, or do I need Sunday to feed me only? That's not he's saying you're immature if you are you serving others? Like mature people say, How can I help? Immature people say, What's in it for me? Mature people are going, like, where's the need? How can I serve? How can I help in this area? Whoop, I see a need. I'm owning this. Immaturity says, I mean, what am I getting out of it? This is what he's talking about. Then the biggest question, the two biggest questions, can I handle correction? What's my teachability? How teachable am I? Here's culture. Can't teach an old dog. None of you are dogs. Stop saying that. I get it. We've aged, we've matured, we've experienced things more than others, but it doesn't mean we've arrived. We still need to be corrected. We still need to be learning. There are still teachable moments. I don't care if you're 80 years old. Are you teachable? Do I become defensive when I'm corrected? Am I offended? Do I admit when I'm wrong? All of these things are answering questions of what? Of maturity. I would say one of the best things that you can do, one of the best areas you can grow is openly acknowledging when you've missed it and when you're wrong. It's the best thing you can learn. Openly say it quickly. Yep, that was on me. That's my fault. What does that show? It shows maturity.

Discipleship That Goes Beyond Church

SPEAKER_03 15:33

And then the last thing I would say on this are we making disciples? Like, are we? This is a this is a simple test. Is anyone following me as I follow Christ? This is the biggest danger in the church right now. And Paul is addressing it. And here's why it's dangerous. Because Jesus gave us two commands. Go from here and make disciples. That was it. Go and make disciples. That means we don't live here. I know we like to linger here. Let's stay here as long as we can. This isn't the call. This is important. We don't forsake this time, but this is a shot in the arm. This is a moment where we gather. This is a moment where we're encouraged. But the the story is to go, make disciples. Who is following you? Who's learning from you? Who are you sharing your life with? Who are you letting see the mistakes, the mess ups, the real you? Like, who are you showing that to? Because that's the call. This is the danger. I'm gonna just hang around people like me. That's not the point. That's not what it's about. People not like Jesus light, Jesus. That means there's gonna be some people that I need to be around that don't know the light, and I need to go into darkness so they see the light. Hanging out only in the light is not the call of the church. It's not come and see, it's go and tell. We've made the church show and tell. It's go and tell. Go and tell what? Go and do what? Make disciples. Where? Everywhere. Judea, Samaria, Jerusalem, the ends of the earth. These are important because Jerusalem is where they were. They said, Listen, where you are right now, you make disciples. Go to Samaria. What's Samaria? That was the despised places. No one wanted to go to Samaria. People went around Samaria. He said, I'm calling you into some dark places. And just so people weren't confused, he said, to the ends of the earth. Go. Pastor Doby always said, Don't fly over mission fields to get to mission fields. It's very important that we understand it starts in our Jerusalem, our backyard, our neighbors, our family. The goal is to make disciples, and he's saying up front, like guys, here's how we know. If we're not making disciples, I question our spiritual maturity. If we're not letting, if we're showing people the social media version of ourselves, we're not letting them see the real us. Because the real us usually needs to say, dude, I miss it. That's my bad. The real us needs to go, dude, I don't have it all together. I mess up. I'm not perfect. This was always the most difficult thing in the church for me growing up. You show up, and it was like you had to be perfect. Crossing perfect hair, perfect outfit. It's like, dude, that's not, I don't want someone to have to look like me. I want them to look like Christ. This is what Paul is addressing. And Paul ultimately says, Stop making this about people. He goes back to chapter one. You say you follow Paulus, you say you follow Paul. I'm telling you, unless you follow Jesus, you're missing it. And then Paul says, Who am I? Paul says, Listen, I'm the guy that's planting seed, I'm the guy that's watering. God's the one that grows it. Paul's put it into perspective. I'm not the guy that grows it. This is when we usually mess up. When we think we're responsible for the growth, we mess up. My responsibility is to plant seeds. My responsibility is to come alongside and water those things. God takes the tiny seed and he grows it into something that is so beautiful that only he could do. That's it. That's all I'm responsible for. Paul's going, you're making it about me. It's not about me, it's about Jesus. And before we start going, like, oh, that's such a problem back then. No, we got our preacher, we got our denomination, we got our podcast, we got our things. Paul's going, stop making it about the things and make it about Jesus. God gives the growth.

Build On Christ With Better Materials

SPEAKER_03 20:16

All of us in this room, you're building something every day. All of us. We're building something. And Paul shifts to this construction illustration, tying in what Jesus said in Matthew chapter 7 to what Paul is saying in 1 Corinthians 3. They parallel and they come together. In Matthew chapter 7, what he is saying, what he is sharing, what Jesus is sharing, he says, anyone who listens to my teaching and follows it is wise. Like a person who builds a house on solid rock. Jesus is saying up front, there's a foundation. And you gotta build your foundation on Christ. And for the listeners, they understood this. The foundation is good. And he says, Listen, some of you build with sand, some of you build on rock. Your foundation, it's either on sand or it's on rock. And he says, Listen, when you build it, as a builder, you understand this. When you build it, they're both gonna look like the same building. They're gonna put them right next to each other, and you're gonna look at them, you're gonna be impressed. You're gonna go, Wow, what a building! He says, This is how you know whether it was built right when the winds come and the rain comes and the floods come, which building is standing? This is what Jesus said. He didn't say if they come, he said, when they come, you're gonna find out. Have you ever built a sand castle? Hours building this thing made out of sand and one tide. It's like, well, that's gone. You get it. Paul is saying. Why are we building our lives on sand castles? Jesus is saying, Why are we building on sand? Paul then says, guys, I'm assuming all of you are Christians, and your foundation is Jesus and it's rock solid. He doesn't say, Is it sand, foundation, or rock? He says it's rock. I'm more concerned with your materials. Jesus talked about a flood, a wind, a rain. Paul says, it's on the rock, but are you using gold? Are you using silver? Are you using precious stones? Because if you're using wood and hay, when the fire comes, it's gonna burn all that up. Paul is saying it's not so much what you're building on. I believe you're believers, I believe you're Christians. You're building your life on the rock. I'm more consumed by what you're building with. Jesus was, what are you building it on? Paul's like, what are you building with? Because there's a moment where you can build something with wood, and people are like, Man, we love barn wood. That is incredible. Look how good that is, and then the fire comes and it burns up.

Storms And Fire Test What Lasts

SPEAKER_03 23:13

And you quickly realize, man, both teach that testing is inevitable. You're gonna get a sudden call at some point in your life, and it's not the call you thought. You're gonna get a report from somebody who's looking across the desk, and they're gonna say, ma'am, I hate to tell you this, but you're gonna get some kind of report and a moment where something suddenly happens, and you go, Whoa, whoa, whoa, that is not my plan. That is not how I thought this was gonna go. And you're gonna find out in that moment, what do you actually believe? What do you what did you actually build your life on? Because if that destroys you, then just know this. You built something that was on sand, and when life got hard, it blew it all away. But when you build your life on the rock and you say, Jesus, it's you first, there is no second, I'm willing to do whatever. There's no news that could come to you that would shake you. Why? Because there's an eternal perspective that is appointed to every man wants to die, then the judgment. Why am I preparing you for college? I need to prepare you for judgment. Every single one of us, like, stop preparing for the rest of your life. Let's prepare people for the fact that every single one of us is gonna die. That's not that's not like, oh my gosh, I didn't know it. I go, well, he's telling me something brand new. We know it, we've experienced it. So then why are we not building something on something that would be eternal? My goal isn't for them to see me at 80 and 100. My goal is for them to see me in eternity. I don't want you to see me at 80. I don't want you to change my diapers. I want you to see my new six foot five ripped up body in heaven. Let's go, somebody. Oh man. Bill, you're gonna be short in heaven! Good knees, though. Good knees. Here's what both are Matthew 7 and 1 Corinthians 3, both are warnings to believers. That hearing without obeying in Matthew 7 is foolish. Because guys, listen, this was the category. The category of Matthew 7 was all of you heard me, only you that listened and did were wise. Some of you listened and didn't. That's foolish. That was the warning. First Corinthians 3. Paul warns believers to build, to not to build carelessly on Christ's foundation. Listen to me, students in this room. Listen, and your foundation is Jesus, it's important, it's the starting point. But what you build now on that foundation is super important, it's so important. And what you're building and the materials that you're using right now, that's what it's about. Because the fire is gonna come, it's gonna come. And when you've built it right, man, it won't even matter. Storms test the foundation, fires test the materials. One reveals what we're standing on, the other reveals what we've been building. In both cases, God is only concerned with what lasts. What lasts.

Grab The Spoon And Get Fit

SPEAKER_03 27:11

Listen to me. This will not sustain you for the rest of your week. This is to push you. It's time to grab the spoon out of whoever you're learning from and grab it yourself and start eating, start growing. Because here's what happened when I start eating, I know some of you are vegetarians, you're like, I got a problem with this. As you start eating meat, all of a sudden, strength starts coming. As you start eating protein, carbs, as you start exercising, all of a sudden, what is it? That's why Paul uses the word exercise. What's he saying? He's saying when you do that, you're fit. The goal is to be spiritually fit. We get it from a physical standpoint. Spiritually, can we say the same? That's the important question.

Prayer For Christlike Lives

SPEAKER_03 28:10

Jesus, we need you today. God, we acknowledge. We acknowledge that apart from you, God, we are nothing. So we attach ourselves to your teaching, to your ways. God, I pray this prayer over every kid going to camp, over every parent in this room, over every adult, to over every student. God, my prayer is that we would become more like you. God, that when the world sees us, they don't see Jamie Bridges, they don't see Mike Darnell, they don't see Gavin Steele, they see Jesus Christ. God, my prayer is that a world that is curious and wondering would say, What is so different about you? And it's not about us, it's about the one who saved us, the one who changed us, the one who's correcting us, the one who's imparting his spirit in us. It's not us, it's not us. It's the Spirit of God that's living in us. God, may it change the way we think, the way we live, the way we do life. In Jesus' name. Amen.