How does a Christian grow up in the faith?

In Psalm 119:9-16, the psalmist asks, "How can a young man cleanse his way?" and answers: by God's Word. Dr. Toby Holt shows what it means to take your faith seriously and grow up spiritually. Spiritual maturity means taking personal ownership of your faith through steady time in God's Word — not growing godly "by osmosis." The psalmist hides God's Word in his heart so he will not sin, treasures it above riches, and meditates on it. Ignoring Scripture is like assembling a complex set without the instructions.

Questions this study answers:

1. Why is God's Word essential for spiritual growth? Because it is how God cleanses, guides, and matures His people. There is no growing up in the faith apart from it.

2. What does it take to develop lasting convictions? Hiding God's Word in the heart and valuing it above everything else — built by treasuring Scripture, not skimming it.

3. How do we move from shallow to serious faith? By intentional, regular time in God's Word — meditating on it and delighting in it. Maturity comes by ownership, not osmosis.

"Your word I have hidden in my heart, that I might not sin against You." — Psalm 119:11 (NKJV)

Dr. Toby Holt is President of New Geneva Theological Seminary, and his sermons have been downloaded more than 1.9 million times on SermonAudio. Find more verse-by-verse Bible teaching at newgeneva.org; support this ministry at newgeneva.org/give.

Have you ever watched a child, maybe around Christmas time, open up a toy or maybe a Lego set

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that may be a little bit above their age range? Have you ever watched a child open up a toy,

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especially a Lego set, that has more pieces and it has more complexity than the child can possibly

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handle? Well, as you watch the child open the box and get out all the pieces and the like,

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what does the child usually do? Well, the child usually just dives on in. The child gets their

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hands in and starts to connect things and try to put things together. And before long, the child

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looks at what the child is making, and the child realizes this isn't turning out so great. And

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meanwhile, as a parent, you're standing back and watching all this. And as you watch this,

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what's the one advice you want to give your child at this time? You're ahead of me. You look at the

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child and you say, look, see all these pieces and all these parts? You see how difficult it is to

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put them together in the right way? Well, I've got the answer, and the answer is found here. Try

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opening the manual. Try reading the instructions, and as you read the instructions, you'll be able

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to assemble this toy, this Lego set, just as the manufacturer has designed it. And until children

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respond to that sort of input, you know that they're just going to continue to struggle and

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be frustrated. Now, stepping back from this analogy, here's the thing. The mindset that

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tells a small child that I can do it apart from the directions, the mindset that tells a child

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I can do all this without reading instructions or manual, that's for someone else. The mindset that

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says I don't need the instructions is the same mindset that comes into the Christian church

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and tries to handle emotional hardships and difficulty and spiritual concerns apart from

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this. That tries to handle all the difficulties that exist in living in a fallen world apart from

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the manual, apart from the instructions. This world is filled with all sorts of complexity.

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There are undoubtedly spiritual and emotional hurdles that are too high for you to jump.

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There are things broken in your life now, or which will become broken in the future,

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that you cannot reassemble on your own. Whether it's marriage issues, whether it's issues with

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your kids, whether it's vocational problems or the like, if your tendency is to pour out all

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the pieces on the table of your mind and try to put them together on the basis of your own

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understanding, you will fail. And yet we can be so stubborn in trying to do just that. We can be like

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the kids staring at the mountain of Lego pieces thinking, if I just do this, if I just assemble

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it this way, it'll all be fine. It'll all work. Meanwhile, what sits there collecting dust? God's

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word. Even as Christians, this can be a temptation. It's a temptation to say, I really don't need

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that. In fact, that's kind of written old people a long time ago in a place far, far away. And I

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don't understand some of it. And so I'm just going to keep it over there. I'm going to do my thing

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here. And I'll still have a God thing going on. I'll still love Jesus, but you know, Bible, it's

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nice and it's good. But again, it can do its thing and I'll do my thing over there. That's not the

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way this works. God has sent us like sheep into a dark and depressing world, a place filled with

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death and decay. And he has given us a few things to arm and equip us. One is the spirit that is

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inside us even now as believers. The second is this. If you want to go marching into the darkness

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of this world, apart from a proper understanding of what this book says and how its principles

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apply to your life, good luck, because that's all you'll have. All right, if you would, let's look

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at today's text. And let's look at verse 9, then we'll work our way through the bounds. Okay, verse

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9. How can a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed according to your word. You know, there's a

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quote about young people. It goes something like this. It says, you're only young once in your life,

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but immaturity lasts forever. Do you know anyone who's fallen in that category? Some folks, even

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though genetically chronologically they're no longer the children they once were yet they're

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still childish even though physically they've attained some form of maturity yet still they

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remain immature not only the christian walk but in all other activities growing older doesn't

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necessarily mean that you've grown wiser and doesn't necessarily mean that you've grown more

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mature now today this is actually very fortunate i didn't time it this way but it is excellent that

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worked out this way. Today, we celebrated the graduation of three of our students. And as they

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came up to the stage, those of us who know them have every reason to have good expectations for

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them and for their future. With that said, there's an interesting phenomenon that occurs between

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roughly the ages of, I don't know, 18 and say 25, maybe even up to 30. Now, what is that? Well,

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it's this. It's that the maturity of the 18-year-old as they cross a stage, in many cases,

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that maturity becomes arrested, goes into hibernation as they enter into their 20s.

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In other words, at a time when you would think that 18, 19, 20-year-olds, 21-year-olds and the

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like start to be making progress in their lives, at a time when you would think that Christian

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kids growing up in a Christian household would then be demonstrating Christian principles and

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teaching others the ways that at a time when you might think that, you might be startled to find

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out, it doesn't necessarily work that way. You know, in churches, something that's interesting,

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the most religiously active people, polls have demonstrated this, the most religiously active

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people in a church are the teenagers. Now, what I mean by that is there's so many activities and

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functions and things that exist for young people that in terms of activity has this veneer of

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religiosity over it. Teenagers are some of the most religiously active people in any church setting.

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With that said, guess what? Guess what the least religiously active demographic in the church is?

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20-year-olds. Those in their 20s. 20-somethings. The least religiously active people.

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are the people who previously were the most religiously active people.

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What in the world happens?

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What in the world happens and what's going to keep it from happening

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even to those that we care about?

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Well, there's a lot of contributing factors, as you could probably guess.

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There's a lot of reason why people remain childless,

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especially in our very immature culture and day and age.

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Our culture isn't doing our kids any favors.

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It's really not.

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Our culture is not doing our kids any favors.

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There's a lot about our society that negatively impacts our own kids.

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You could probably name some of those things right now.

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Whatever the case, one of the problems that our young people have is even though they're

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religiously active, that doesn't necessarily mean that they're building a foundation.

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Even though they encounter God's Word at a lot of intervals, that doesn't necessarily

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mean they know it.

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It doesn't necessarily mean they study it.

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It doesn't necessarily mean that they read it.

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And it doesn't necessarily mean that they're going to grow and continue their walk forward as they enter their 20s on the basis of its virtues.

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In fact, poll after poll after poll say just the opposite.

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Generally speaking, the young people of North American evangelical churches are not especially well grounded.

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Now, let me compound the problem.

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Let me see if I can get everyone in the room angry with me.

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many of the parents aren't that much further along.

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It's not simply a function of the youth not necessarily being with it.

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A lot of times it's parents, and the problem is also the parents' maturity.

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The parents' maturity and biblical fidelity and literacy even is not necessarily there.

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And if a parent has set a low bar for their own growth and sanctification

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and knowledge and understanding of what that book says,

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then so will their children.

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And if the parent, through action or omission, leads the kid to think that church and scripture

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and faith and prayer is really not that important, they will learn that lesson.

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You submit or immerse your children into sports, other activities, social activities that are

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otherwise good.

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You do it on the Lord's Day or Wednesday nights or on other avenues when they might be growing

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in the faith.

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You subject them habitually, regularly, consistently to that which does not necessarily have virtue

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eternal, but rather is taking them out of settings in which they will grow, guess what? They'll learn

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that lesson and they'll apply it in their 20s. They will depart. And if you treat church and

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scripture and prayer and all that as an extracurricular activity in your own family's

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life, they'll learn the lesson. And the kids will treat it as extracurricular in the time yet to

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come. With that said, I'll get off my soapbox for a moment here. I want you to notice something

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about verse nine. Verse nine is not directed towards the parents. Verse nine is directed to

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the youth. Verse nine is directed to the young man, the young woman. In other words, if you're

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a 15, say, through 30-year-old in the room this morning, this verse is for you, and it says this.

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It says, how? How can a young man cleanse his way? And then the author answers his own question

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by taking heed of your word.

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Young men, young women in the room here this morning,

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at the end of the day,

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you alone are responsible for your spiritual growth.

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At the end of the day, you alone are responsible

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for your own spiritual growth.

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What do I mean by that?

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What I mean is what verse 9 means.

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A time comes when you have to take ownership for your own faith.

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Scripture would suggest that time has come.

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We tend to think sometimes as kids that our parents are intermediaries.

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Our parents are intermediaries between us and God, right?

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Because they've been praying for us.

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They've been teaching us, instructing us, and that's true.

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They've been raising us up in the fear and admonition of the Lord, and that's a good thing.

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But that mindset as a child can continue.

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Even as we grow old enough to start taking ownership,

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instead what we do is we see our parents as these intermediaries between us and God.

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As long as they're praying for us, we don't necessarily need to pray for ourselves.

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As long as Dad's in Scripture, it's not necessarily important whether I'm in Scripture.

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We can do it with our grandparents, too.

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As long as Grandpa's a holy man, somehow, someway, there are tangible spiritual benefits that drift on down towards me.

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Well, maybe at one season this is true.

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With that said, it's time for young folks, all folks, you and me, regardless of what age we're at,

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to take ownership and say, this whole thing is between me and God.

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One of the challenges that our kids have, though, at this same time is that they have immature

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friends and contemporaries who set such a low bar. And then we match ourselves against them,

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and we think we're doing pretty good, while the bar is just through the floor. It's time to start

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rising above that bar. That's what verse 9 is telling us to do, to take ownership of what

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we believe. Verse 9 is directed to those in this room, regardless of age, and saying it's never a

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time to slack off. It's never a time to be immature in our faith. Now is the time to start cleansing

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and preparing our walk in life because the road is long and dangerous. Let's look at verses 10

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through 12. Verse 10, with my whole heart I've sought you, but let me not wander from your

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commandments. Your word I've hidden in my heart that I might not sin against you. Blessed are you,

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O Lord, teach me your statutes. You know, the Jewish people in the centuries immediately

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preceding Christ's advent and in the century to thereafter, they used to wear something. They used

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to wear something called a phylactery. Anyone know what a phylactery is? A phylactery is a tiny

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little box that contains a tiny little scroll on which are written tiny little words from scripture.

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And Jews would wear these phylacteries, oftentimes one literally on their forehead

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and another on either left arm, depending on whether they were right or left-handed.

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Now that seems kind of odd.

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Wear a little box on your head that has a little scroll containing the words of God.

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Seems a little odd.

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So why did they do it?

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Why did they do it?

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Well, they did it because there are passages like today in Psalm 119,

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and even more so in Deuteronomy chapter 6,

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that say that the word of God is supposed to be closely appended.

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to our life. Do you remember what Deuteronomy 6 says? It says bind the word between the frontlets

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of our eyes upon our hand. Put it on our doorposts if need be. Append it to our lives. The word of

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God shouldn't be something gathering dust on a bookshelf. Rather, it should be something so near

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and dear to us as if it's sitting in a little box on our forehead. With that said, verses 10 through

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12 in today's text were written by someone who had the same mentality. This text may have been

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written by David. A lot of people believe it was. Some think Ezra. Whatever the case is, it was

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written by someone who says, I don't want to keep the word of God at arm's length. Rather, I want to

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embrace it in such a way it's as if, it's as if it was literally written in ink upon the chambers of

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my heart. And that's what you see in this text. Your word I have hidden in my heart that I might

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not sin against you. Is that where you're at? Is that too much? Is having that sort of affinity

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for scripture to the point that you would tattoo it on your own heart, wear it in a box on your

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head, is that where you're at? Or does that seem like overkill? Isn't it enough, you know, just to

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be a Christian? Isn't that really enough? Do you have to study the Bible too? Do you have to care

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about theology? Or is that just for someone else? You know, the pastor, some elders, and like,

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it's theology just for them. You know how I'm going to answer that question. Let's say you're

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building a home. And the builder says, you know, I like blueprints. I like blueprints, but I really

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don't rely on them. I don't trust the blueprints. I leave the blueprints over there while I'm

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building the house. Is that the guy you want to hire? Well, probably not. Why? Because you know

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instinctively that if the builder is not relying and immersed upon the blueprints, you know that

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the likelihood of him making a catastrophic error goes to the ceiling.

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In the same way, if you went in and you consult with a lawyer,

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and the lawyer says, you know, I sure love the law.

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Whew, I love that law.

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Of course, I don't have any law library or any books.

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I don't study it that much, but I love it.

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I love it, and I'm ready to take your case and defend you against all comers

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based on my love for the law rather than my understanding or study of it.

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Again, is that the person you want to hire?

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Well, absolutely not.

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You see, whether it's a lawyer, whether it's a builder,

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whether it's a truck driver who, I don't know, likes to look at a map,

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the thing that all these people have in common

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is that they know they can't effectively serve and do their jobs

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apart from the instructions, apart from the manual,

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apart from that which has been written down by an authoritative source

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that tells them how to proceed.

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Again, I don't want to live in a building that's been built by someone who didn't look at the

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blueprints, and I don't want to hire a lawyer who's never studied the law. In the same way,

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what kind of Christian are you going to be if you habitually keep God's Word at arm's length?

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I can answer it for you. You'll be a bad one. You'll be an uneducated one, an illiterate one,

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a weak one, perhaps even a self-deceived one, if you're not immersed in the Word.

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All right, verses 11 through 12 remind Christians, whether we're young, whether we're old, that we're supposed to do this.

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We're supposed to hide his word in our hearts.

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Let's look at verses 13 and 14.

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With my lips, I've declared all the judgments of your mouth.

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I have rejoiced in the way of your testimonies as much as in all riches.

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All right, let me put you on a spot here this morning.

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If you had to choose, if you had to choose between monetary riches up to the rafters,

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You've got to choose between monetary riches and one copy of God's Word.

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What would you choose?

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If you could only have one.

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If in my hand I had a check for a billion dollars,

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it would probably bounce, but if I had one,

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and I had a Bible, and you could only have one for the rest of your life.

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You could only have one.

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You could have the money, you could have the full bank account,

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you could have that, or you could have one tattered, dog-eared copy of Scripture,

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of which, if you did not select that copy, you could never have any other copies,

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what would you choose? Now, you all know what the right answer is. You know where I'm going with

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this. The question is not what my answer is, and the question is not what the right answer is. The

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question is, what is your answer? How would you, in your own conscious this moment, answer that

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question? Well, verse 14, we see what the psalmist's answer is. He says that God's word,

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God's testimony outweigh all riches.

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Now again, that seems like a nice sentiment when you read it and you go, oh, how nice.

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We look at that and we see what the psalmist says, we nod our head and we affirm the psalmist.

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But the question is not what the psalmist thinks this morning.

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The question is, do we share this sentiment?

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For some of us, the answer may be no.

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Now why is that?

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Why would anyone choose the billion dollars over the Bible?

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because spiritually we have a trouble with what you might call valuation valuation let's say right

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now we go up to a toddler two three four five year old and let's say we take a gold brick or a check

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for a billion dollars and we put that on a plate and on the other plate we put a cookie and we walk

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into the nursery and we extend both arms and we say take one which is going to go you know the

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answer the cookie why because the child does not know how to properly appraise value short-term

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mid-term or long-term well here's the thing even in our older age we have the same problem we can

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give lip service to that which is good we say i value i love scripture i love the law i appreciate

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it and the like and that all may be true absolutely true and yet so often we choose the adult version

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of the cookie. We choose to spend our time, efforts, resources, what have you, and things

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that do not aid or abet our spiritual growth. And we keep the Bible, God's word, God's law,

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his precepts, prayer, and the like. We keep these things over there. And maybe in our mind's eye,

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we tell ourselves, eventually I'll become like that. You know, grandpa, he seems to have time

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on his hands. He grows in the word. Eventually I'll get there. But right here, especially when

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I'm young, meh, not so much, not for me. We are bad appraisers of value. We habitually choose that

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which is least important, and so frequently, regularly, consistently take that which is most

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important and set it to the side. Living here on the Gulf Coast, there's a story, a story of a man

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who was lost far out at sea, or he was sailing far out at sea, and he had one of those GPS systems on

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the boat and this particular gps system would regularly every 90 seconds or so would send out

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a sharp beep now as he's sailing along this thing kept beeping and he tried to fix it to turn it

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down or what have you and didn't work and so as he sailed for days he just got endlessly annoyed

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endlessly irritated by the sound of the beep of these global positioning system reminding where

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he was at he knew where he was at he didn't need this thing anyway well then what happened well

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then the storm hit. Then a storm hit, the water comes over the boat and ends up damaging even his

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GPS. And there he is adrift at sea. And as he's adrift at sea, a day later, the storm has subsided.

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He's sitting in his boat, lost in knowledge of where he is on this world. What sound does he

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most want to hear at this time? The beep. At this time, he places a value upon that which existed

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to let him know where he's at and where he should be going.

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He puts a value on it that he otherwise previously didn't.

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For many of us, we've heard stuff like,

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oh, I'm telling you before, read the Bible more.

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How many times have you heard that?

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If you've been to church a long time, have you heard that a lot?

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Spend time in prayer. Come to church more often.

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How often have you heard these sort of things?

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Well, we hear them often enough, and we say,

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well, that's, I know, I know, I know, I know.

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We tend to tune that sort of stuff out.

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We don't necessarily value it.

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But here's the thing.

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Through virtue of my profession, I know firsthand in my own experience and the experiences of those that I minister to,

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I know that life will get hard for you at some time in the near, mid, or long term, or all of the above,

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when you will desperately need and desperately turn to this book, desperately turn to the Bible.

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In the same way that the man adrift at sea desperately wanted to hear that beep.

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Why?

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Because you're looking for direction.

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That time's going to come.

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Some of us have already been there, where some hardship came on our radar that was so difficult,

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so challenging, that maybe for the first time in months or years, we opened the Bible. We came to

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church. We started praying. Sometimes God will appoint those seasons just for that end, because

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He knows we oftentimes learn best or respond best when things are challenging for us. Now, is it

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good to turn to God's word when you need it? Yes. Is it good to turn to God's word when you have no

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other options and you're desperate? Yes. But you know what's even better? What's even better

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is that you are so habitually familiar with the lifeline God has sent you through his word

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that in the moments where the challenges come upon your radar, in your own heart, his word has been

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written to the point that you can quote it to yourself. To the point where something comes on

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your radar and immediately there's several verses or passages or people or situations in scripture

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that we immediately can apply to our own heart and mind it comforts us because we already know

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it's better to be able to draw certain passages to mind when you need them than after hardship

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is barged through your door and you got to go scrambling to find the book now in order to bring

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those sort of passages to mind when you need them now or in the future here's what you need to do

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today you need to start being intentional in ways that you might not otherwise be doing that's our

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intentionality is what we see in our closing verses verses 15 and 16 verse 15 i will i will

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meditate on your precepts and contemplate your ways i will delight myself in your statutes i

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I will not forget your word. Intentionality. In verses 15 and 16, you see three different

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promises in two verses. The office says, I will, I will, I will, I will meditate. I will meditate

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on your precepts. I will delight in your statutes. I will not forget your word. Are you detecting a

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theme? Again, this is what we call intentionality. Intentionality is when we volitionally say,

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I am going to take action based on what I believe to be true. You see, we can nod our heads to

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propositional truth all day long. That's really easy. I assure you, you can get heads nodding

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and amens and the like if you just say propositional truth. That's not the hard part.

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The hard part is what you're going to do this week to respond to it. It takes intentionality.

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It says, I'm going to take action based on what I believe to be true. And I'm not just going to

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take it once. I'm not just going to try out the Bible and then give up after, you know, a week.

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but I'm going to keep at it. I'll meditate. I'll study. Again, is that where you're at?

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Young or old, is that where you're at? It really is the bar. It really is the standard. I'm sorry

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if that's a shock, and I'm sorry if that's a surprise to you, but it really is what you're

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called to do, what we're all called to do. You know, in the field of biology, there's a word

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called osmosis. Are there any science teachers in here? I don't want to betray my ignorance.

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Osmosis is the gradual absorption, specifically of a liquid or water, through a thin membrane.

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An example is to put a plant in the ground, the plant absorbs the moisture from the soil

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through a thin membrane.

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So this is osmosis.

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I got that definition from Wikipedia, so it can't be wrong.

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So osmosis is how plants absorb the water and the like.

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Now, have you ever heard someone say that they learned something through osmosis?

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In other words, have you ever heard someone say that, you know, just through going through life,

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I just picked things up, I just learned things as I went, I learned it through osmosis.

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Well, here's the thing. Osmosis may be wonderful for plants, but it's bad for you.

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Osmosis may be wonderful for plants, but it's bad for Christians.

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And the reason is because of what we see in verses 15 through 16.

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You're not called to just incidentally become more godly.

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You're not called to just coincidentally start learning His Word

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as you encounter it here and there, like a pinball bouncing around you.

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Eventually, some of the veneer and shine rubs off on you.

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No, you're called to be intentional.

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What else is 15 and 16 saying?

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I will meditate on your precepts.

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I will contemplate your ways.

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I will delight in your statutes, and I will not forget your Word.

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As a function of your own will and volition,

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you should be called to meditate and pursue the word of God.

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As we look to wrap up this morning, I want to address the youth.

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In 1 Corinthians 13, the Apostle Paul talked a little bit about growing up.

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In 1 Corinthians 13, the Apostle Paul looked back at his own youth,

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and he talked a little bit, briefly, about what it looks like to get more mature,

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what it looks like to grow up.

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Specifically, he wrote these words.

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He said, when I was a child, I spoke as a child.

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When I was a child, I spoke as a child, and I understood as a child, and I thought as a child.

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But, but when I became a man, I put away childish things.

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When I was a child, I spoke as a child, and I understood as a child, thought as a child.

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But when I became a man, I put away childish things.

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What does that mean?

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I want you to notice something in Paul's words here.

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Specifically, once again, I want you to notice he's not talking to the parents.

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Now, there are verses that talk to the parents, but there are also verses that talk directly to the youth.

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There are verses in Scripture that go straight to the heart of the young man or the young woman,

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and that's what we see in 1 Corinthians 13.

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When I was a child, I had certain behaviors and appetites and attitudes and things I did and listened to

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and people I hung out with and the like.

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But then, as I grew older, as I became more mature, as I became an adult especially,

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I didn't necessarily do all the things that I used to do.

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I didn't necessarily listen to all I used to listen to.

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I didn't necessarily hang out with the same people I used to hang out with.

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And I didn't necessarily prioritize the cookie.

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You understand this?

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At one point, Paul, the Apostle Paul, would have prioritized the cookie.

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I have no doubt about that.

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At one point, Paul would have chosen the cookie.

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But what he's saying in 1 Corinthians 13 is, now I put the cookie away.

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What are you all doing with a cookie, whatever it is, whatever that looks like, in our own lives?

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And again, that's not just for the youth, that's for all of us.

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Have we put the cookie at arm's length and sought that which is more valuable, sought that which is richer?

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Today, today, if you have not already, you need to take ownership over your faith.

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Your faith does not hinge on the basis of whether your parents are wonderful, godly people,

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your grandparents are wonderful, godly people, the elders or the deacons are wonderful, godly people.

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On the day you stand before God, it's going to be you and him.

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It's time to take ownership of your faith.

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At a minimum, that means reading Scripture.

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At a minimum.

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I can't set the bar much lower, especially for young people, and say this.

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If you're not regularly reading Scripture, whether it's one proverb at a time or a whole chapter or what have you,

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but if you're not habitually, consistently reading Scripture, then you're not really maturing.

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that's the lowest bar in kingdom growth, is that you take the time at least to read a few verses

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or a chapter of scripture each day. That's one way to respond, but you have to be intentional

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in doing it. In Psalm 119, God's putting that responsibility on you. So be introspective. As

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you go out these doors, again, whether you're young or old, be introspective. Say, where am I

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at in this? Where am I in my growth? Am I consistently taking scripture and kind of

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keeping it at arm's length? Am I consistently saying, I don't need Wednesday night fellowship?

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I don't need community groups. I don't need Bible study. That's for other people. I'm doing all

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right. If that's where you're at, my encouragement, my exhortation to you is to do something different

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because God has put the responsibility upon you that you could echo the psalmist's words.

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I will meditate on your word day and night. I will write the precepts on my heart. If need be,

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take baby steps. If need be, take baby steps, but take steps. Start simple if that's where you're

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at, but be consistent, be regular, be habitual, form these good habits, and don't put it off

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another day. Start today. Let's pray.