God's Full Purpose — Zac Poonen

The Full Purpose of God and the Many Facets of His Glory

So, as I was saying, we had as our theme for the last conference, proclaiming the full purpose of God. And if you didn't see any of it, we had a little diagram with the seven colors of the rainbow in a circle, with seven segments of the circle, you know, all the different colors.

And I was saying, God in his great wisdom put seven colors in white. And if you look at them individually, violet and green and blue and red, they don't look like white at all. They look the opposite of white.

Now who would think red isn't white or violet isn't white? But it's a combination of seven colors that makes white. And when we think, it's a very beautiful illustration of the glory of God, which has got many, many facets to it and many aspects to it.

And the only person who could manifest all of it was Jesus Christ. It says, John says, the word was made flesh and we beheld his glory. That means we saw all the colors of the glory of God in one person.

And so, that was the first body of Christ, Jesus himself. It didn't come in, you know, the body of Christ didn't come to earth with great pomp and show, like it wasn't born in a palace. Those wise men, the only place where those wise men were foolish was when they came to Jerusalem and thought the body of Christ would be in the palace and it was not in the palace.

The last place they expected was a cow shed. And I've thought of it like this, I don't know if I'm right. They came to Jerusalem following the star for so many hundreds of miles, all the way from Iran or somewhere they started out from.

And when they came, the star is a picture of God's word. Followed, followed, followed, followed, came to Jerusalem. And at that point, they said, oh, we don't have to follow the star anymore. Jerusalem, we look for the palace, the king will be there.

And he was not there. And because of that, they got delayed in going to Bethlehem. If they had not delayed and just followed the star and not their own reason, they may have had the wonderful joy of seeing Jesus born in the stable, in the cow shed, like the shepherds saw.

But we read in Matthew chapter 2 that by the time the wise men went there, he was not in the cow shed. He had left it. He was in a house. I would have liked to see Jesus in a cow shed. But in fact, the angels from heaven told the shepherds, the one sign of the savior of the world being born is that you'll never see another baby anywhere in Bethlehem in a cow shed.

That's the only mark. I mean, there are so many babies in Bethlehem because so many people had gone there for census. Jesus was not the only baby. But you'll only see one baby in a cow shed. And the wise men missed it.

Because they followed their reason. Just for a short point, short place. What I learned from that is, you follow your reason after some time. You say, hey, I know it. I mean, I got a little bit of the word of God.

Now, the rest, I'll follow my reason. You may not lose all that God has for you, but you lose a little bit. Whereas, if you follow all of God's word, implicitly, without question, you'll get all that God has for you.

So, there are a lot of things we can learn from that. And that the first body of Christ was not born in a big, even today it's not seen in cathedrals and big buildings. It's in small little groups here and there that the body of Christ, the beginning of a body of Christ is.

The Spiritual Body of Christ and the Full Purpose Beyond Holiness

So, the glory of God was seen in Jesus in its fullness. And then he died and went up to heaven, and resurrected and went to heaven. And then he poured out his Holy Spirit. And on the day of Pentecost, another body of Christ was formed.

The first one was physical. This one is spiritual. And the spiritual body of Christ, it's many different. Those first 120 people were together the body of Christ. Now, no single man was the body of Christ.

That is only Jesus. There's never been any other single person who is the whole body of Christ since then. Ever since then, it has always been a number of people. The first time, 120. The church was 120 people filled with the Holy Spirit.

And each would be manifesting some different aspect of the glory of God. But together, they would manifest the whole glory of God, like Jesus did. So, this was the distinctive feature of New Testament Christianity.

Not victory over sin. We have preached victory over sin so much, because that is the stepping stone to the body of Christ. But if you stop at victory over sin, you haven't understood the whole truth, you know, the full purpose of God.

Victory over sin is like having a healthy member of the body. Okay, the hand is healthy. But if the other members are paralyzed, what's the use of having a healthy hand? So, there have been, through the centuries, many people who have preached holiness.

I mean, John Wesley preached holiness way back in the 18th century. He was really a godly man, one of the godliest men that Christianity has seen. But if you read John Wesley's writings, there's almost zero mention of the body of Christ.

Zero mention of being built together. Zero mention of apostles and prophets. So many things that Paul spoke about, somehow John Wesley missed. Martin Luther missed. Martin Luther was a great man of God who proclaimed justification by faith in the 16th century.

But even he missed a simple thing like water baptism. He baptized children. John Wesley baptized children. I've often felt that if John Wesley was living in Bangalore, India today, I would visit him very frequently to have fellowship with him, such a godly man who knew the Lord so well.

But I would never be able to work with him in the church because he would baptize children. And I'd say, John Wesley, I respect you a lot, but I'm sorry, we've got to have separate churches. You run your Methodist church and I'll run CFC because we can't agree on baptism.

One baby is born in the church and you'll want to baptize him. And I'll say, no, we don't baptize children. But yet, when it comes to godliness, I'd learn a lot from him. The same thing with some great saints like Andrew Murray.

He wrote a book on infant baptism. Godly man to preach holiness. So I found through the years there have been a lot of people who preached holiness. Andrew Murray and Charles Finney and all were in the 19th century, 200 years ago nearly.

But the full purpose of God is not just holiness. For example, let me show you what it speaks about. In the New Testament, you find a word called mystery. 1 Timothy 3, 16, it speaks about a great mystery.

Now, whenever you read the word mystery in the New Testament, I want to read this verse in the Living Bible. Great is the mystery of godliness, 1 Timothy 3, 16. 1 Timothy 3, 16 in the Living Bible reads like this.

Here it says, great is the mystery of godliness. Mystery means, the definition would be a truth that is hidden, like Jesus said, from the clever and the intelligent, but revealed by divine revelation to those who come to God like babes.

Matthew 11, 25, Jesus said, I thank you, Father, you have hidden these things from the clever and the intelligent and revealed them to babes. What do babes have that clever, intelligent people don't have?

Humility. Jesus picked up a child and said, humble yourself like this child. Clever, intelligent people around the world, I've always seen, are usually, usually quite proud of their intelligence and their cleverness.

Some manifest that pride in arrogant ways, try to show off. Some are secretly proud that I'm not a dumb guy like this other guy sitting here. They may not say it, but they feel that way. I'm a smart guy.

I'm not so stupid like some of these others. I won't swallow all this. And those people never come to know the truth. Where God sees genuine humility, like a child, those are the only ones who will understand the truth.

Because those are the only ones who get grace. And those are the only ones who actually get victory over sin. So, mystery is a secret that God reveals to those who really humble themselves. Whether they are clever or not clever makes no difference.

That's a mystery. And the mystery of godliness is that Christ was revealed in the flesh and the word vindicated means righteous or pure in his spirit. Now, let me read in the Living Bible, which is very good.

It is quite true that the way to live a godly life is not an easy matter. And I think we'll all agree there. But the answer lies in Christ, who came to earth as a man. That means he didn't live here as God, was proved spotless and pure in his spirit.

Spotless and pure in his spirit. And that spotlessness and purity was not just observed by people who saw him, but by angels. Beheld by angels means angels who see us all the time. You know, even your wife doesn't see you all the time.

Your husband doesn't see you all the time. Your parents don't see you all the time. Angels see you all the time. You know, what some things you're doing in secret which you're ashamed of. Angels see you all the time.

And if angels can see your spotless and pure, and the next step is God himself, but next best is beheld by angels. And that is what we have preached among the nations. Okay, so that is one part of the mystery of the new covenant, that you can live a really godly life.

One part of the glory of God. But the other mystery, this is called a great mystery. Now there are many mysteries in the New Testament, but only two great mysteries. There's a mystery of iniquity. There's a mystery of the kingdom of God, Matthew 13.

Mystery of iniquity, 2 Thessalonians 2. But great mysteries are only two. One is this, how to live a holy life. The second great mystery is in Ephesians 5, about Jesus and his bride becoming one body.

You know, the husband is, verse 23, Ephesians 5, 23. The husband is the head of the wife like Christ is of the church. So the Christ and the church are like husband and wife. And verse 30, we are members of Christ's body.

He's speaking about the body of Christ now, not holiness. He's speaking about the second great mystery, the body of Christ. This cause a man shall leave his father and mother and cleave to his wife, and two shall become one flesh.

Meaning that, what's he talking about? Is he talking about husband and wife? No. This is a great mystery. Again that word, great mystery, verse 32. But I'm actually not speaking about husband and wife.

I'm speaking about Christ and the church. How does this verse, leave father and mother and cleave to his wife, refer to Christ? That Jesus Christ left his heavenly father, came to earth. It's amazing, you know, like it says, a man when he gets married must leave his earthly father and mother and cleave to his wife.

Which very few husbands really do. But that's a divine pattern. Jesus left his heavenly father, with whom he had been for all eternity, and became a man, and is forever a man. When he went back to heaven, he didn't give up his body and say, I'm not a man now, I'm just back to my old state of being one spirit with God.

No, he is a man forever. It's amazing humility, you know. It's like my deciding to become an ant, to help ants. I say, okay, I'm going to be an ant forever now. I'm not going to revert to my original position as a human being.

I don't think we will see the extent of Christ's humility and sacrifice till we see him. When we see him, we will be so astonished at the depth of his love and sacrifice and humility, which we see a little bit now.

And then, if we have not lived totally for him on earth, we will feel so ashamed at our lack of sacrifice, our lack of humility, and lack of love, and our stinginess, and our miserliness in our giving ourselves to him, and our calculating attitude, and so many things in which we were proud.

We will really feel ashamed. I often think of that. I say, Lord, I don't want to be ashamed when I see you. I have many years of my life where I failed the Lord and I regret it, but of the years that are left to me, I don't want to regret that once I got light on this, that I lived a non-sacrificial life, or I lived a life with even an atom of known pride.

I mean, there is unknown pride in all of us, but there should be no known pride. We must ask God to give us continuous light on two things, selfishness and pride. These two are very deeply rooted in us, far more than we realize.

And God doesn't give us light unless we ask him for it. If we really are desperate to say, Lord, show me the selfishness and pride in me, he will show it to us. Because that is what hinders the building of the body.

If I have a proud attitude to another member of the body, I can't really become one with him. Here it speaks about, this mystery is great, verse 32, but I'm speaking of Christ and the Church. One body, he is the head and we are the members.

And so, if each of you have come to think that the New Covenant message is just that we don't just get forgiveness, but we get victory, I can say you've understood the ABC of the New Covenant message, but you haven't understood the whole thing that must lead on to becoming one body.

Why do you learn ABC? Because you use those letters to make words. You don't just repeat the alphabet. You know the alphabet in order to make words. So, you know holiness in order to build the body. Just like you build words with the alphabet, just knowing the alphabet is not enough.

Knowing holiness is not enough. That's only learning the alphabet in order to build words or build the body of Christ. So, I see that if we don't recognize this, we will never be able to manifest the entire glory of God because none of us can do it on our own.

Only Jesus could do it on his own. I'm helplessly dependent on other brothers and sisters, however gifted I may be. Even the Apostle Paul, he couldn't manifest all the glory of God himself. He couldn't even overcoming.

Paul, Titus, and the Need for Complementary Members

Have you read this verse? 2nd Corinthians chapter 7. 2nd Corinthians chapter 7. We know that the Apostle Paul knew how to rejoice always. That means he was never depressed or discouraged. You can't be depressed and discouraged and rejoice always.

No. Then you can rejoice sometimes, but always means you're never discouraged or depressed. But how did he overcome his discouragement and depression at times? 2nd Corinthians chapter 7. You know, we get depressed and discouraged when we have a lot of pressures.

Inward pressures and outward pressures. We live in a world where there's a lot of outward pressure and inward pressure. They are mentioned in verse 5. When we came to Macedonia, our flesh had no rest.

We were afflicted on every side. Conflicts outside, fears inside. All of us face situations in the world where we have conflict in our place of work. With unbelievers, with other believers. Conflicts outside and then all of us face situations where we have fears and anxieties inside.

If you are honest, we all have to admit we face situations where we are tempted to fear and anxious about some situation, how will this turn out. But God helped us to overcome. The word comfort means strengthened.

From the F-O-R-T is there in comfort. That means strengthened, like a fort. God strengthens us to overcome our depression by sending Titus. We would have thought, Paul said, well God just gave me a sudden infilling of the Holy Spirit and helped me to overcome my depression.

No, it was through Titus coming and encouraging me. Now who is Titus? Is he some senior brother, much older than Paul? No, he is a junior co-worker of Paul's. Paul, the great apostle, was encouraged and strengthened by one of his junior co-workers coming and encouraging him.

So that is something which really shows us how Paul was part of a body. Even his overcoming life came through fellowship with other members of the body. In this case, Titus. And many other situations, for example, when he first went out in his ministry, God said, I can't send Paul alone.

He may be very gifted, but he has to go with Barnabas. And there was a balance. Because I think Paul was a very strict man. And by himself, he would have manifested one aspect of Christ. God's strictness against sin, God's severity and discipline and all that.

But the other aspect of God's gentleness and graciousness and mercy needed another person like Barnabas to manifest that. And so when they worked together, the glory of God was seen full of grace and truth, like in Jesus.

In Jesus, it was seen perfectly. But there is no human being on the face of the earth, not even the apostle Paul, who could manifest it perfectly. He needed a body. The Old Testament prophets, they all operated individually.

They never worked together with anybody else. Right through the Old Testament, Moses was a lone man. Joshua was a lone man. David was a lone man. Isaiah was a lone prophet. Jeremiah was a lone prophet.

There were other prophets in Jeremiah's time. There was Huldah, a prophetess. There were other prophets like Habakkuk and Zephaniah who prophesied about warring Israel against going to Babylon. But they never worked together.

They could not work together. Because the moment they would start working together, they get into conflict. Nobody in the Old, no two people in the Old Testament could become one. No husband and wife in the Old Testament could become one.

And when a New Testament husband and wife are not one, they are like an old covenant couple. In the New Testament, we are supposed to be one. Or become more and more one. But I find a lot of even New Testament husbands and wives, they are more one on the day they are married.

They really love one another. And every year after that, they drift further and further apart. Just like old covenant people. It shouldn't be like that. I mean, if you are one on the day of marriage, then every day after that, you should be more and more and more and more one.

If both take up the cross. And that's very rarely seen. I mean, I've hardly ever seen a married couple that's more one with each other, say, 30 years after they are married than they were in the beginning.

Superficially, yes, but in a deep unity. There are a few, praise the Lord. In the same way in a church. A church should become more and more one as time goes on. Just like a married couple. And unfortunately, what I see in many churches, is they become more and more apart as time goes on.

And marriages, they divorce and sometimes churches just back up. But that means they have not seen, they have seen maybe individuals in that have seen the great mystery of godliness, how I can live a holy life and maybe they are living a holy life.

But they have not seen the second mystery of how to become one. Christ and the church becoming one. And maybe great apostles like Paul don't see that they need young brothers like Titus. Or they don't see that they need another brother like Barnabas to balance them out.

See, this is the great danger when we, when God has really blessed us and given us revelation and helped us to understand so many things that other people haven't understood, even in our own church. We can begin to think that we are really somebody.

That's exactly what the devil wants you to think. You are really somebody. And the moment you begin to think like that, and you think that I don't need these other folks. They need me, but I don't need them.

You can be pretty sure the devil has taken over your thinking. I will tell you why. Because see what Jesus says. This is a great verse. I don't know whether you have seen this. 1 Corinthians 12. In 1 Corinthians 12 it says, there is a great chapter on the body.

1 Corinthians 12, verse 12 onwards. The body is one, but it has got many members. There are many members, but one body. And have you seen this verse? Read it carefully, slowly. Though there are many, 1 Corinthians 12, 12, they are one body.

It's talking about the human body with many members. So also is, not the church, so also is Christ. This is the only place in the whole New Testament where the church is called Christ. It's always Jesus who is called Christ.

But here the church is called Christ. Did you notice that? Even as the human body is one, but has many members, and all the members of the body are one body, so also, we should think so also is the church, but it says so also is the Christ.

That means the unity between, you know like, I said my head is Zakponin and my body is Zakponin. That's what it means here. The head is Christ and the body is Christ. It's an awesome title. Me, being a part of Christ, me representing Christ.

See, like my fingers and parts of my body represent Zakponin. In the same way, as a member of the body of Christ, I represent Christ. Very few people have seen it. That's why they are so careless about sin.

That's why they are so careless about their relationships with one another. That's why so many husbands and wives don't bother about their relationship with one another. They haven't seen the second mystery.

I tell you in my life, there are very few preachers I've seen who have understood the second mystery. The first one about holy life, you know, there are people preaching it even 200 years ago. But this mystery of the church being one body, which is part of the full purpose of God, that means like the seven colors of the rainbow.

We can say holiness is one color of the rainbow. Yeah, let's say it's red. Red is one of the seven colors of the rainbow, which make white. But it's not everything. I don't neglect it. Some people are taken up with evangelism.

We must reach out with everyone the gospel. Great, I believe in. Let's say that's blue or something. Blue is one color. But it's not everything. And so, if we see a child is given a circle with seven segments and some of those segments are colored in the colors of the rainbow, violet and indigo and blue and green.

And you tell the child who understands the seven colors of the rainbow, now fill up the other segments which are missing. And a little child will not think of the other colors. A little child will select his favorite color.

My favorite color is blue. So, I'm going to make it all blue. Or my favorite color is green. I'm going to make it all green. That's how a lot of Christians are. My favorite task is evangelism. That's all I'm interested in.

I agree, brother. Evangelism is very important, but that's not all there is in the church. Read the New Testament. Or another fellow says my favorite thing is holiness. That's all there is in it. No, that's just one aspect of it.

And a lot of people are taken up with one truth which is missing and make it the whole thing. Just like some people take evangelism, make everything evangelism, some people make holiness. That's everything.

But there are different segments in the body of Christ and I've got to see what is missing here. I know in our churches in India, we saw that the message of discipleship was missing and the message of building people into one family and demonstrating a family relationship in a local church was missing.

In all of India. So we felt that God's calling us to color these segments of the circle which are not colored. Why should we keep coloring the things which are already colored? There are some segments that are blank.

Practical Holiness, Righteous Anger, and Taking Up the Cross

You know, inner life, for example. We hardly, I don't think in my whole life I ever heard anybody preaching on anger or taught me what is the difference between sinful anger and righteous anger. You know, it says in Ephesians 4, 26, Be angry, but don't sin.

That means there's an anger which is righteous and an anger which is sinful. And nobody taught me that the way to distinguish is, like in English, when you don't understand a word, you go to the dictionary.

What's the meaning of this word? Serendipity. Never heard that word. There is a word like that, by the way. You look up the dictionary and you find the meaning of serendipity. Oh, I never knew that word.

And you, like that you see something in scripture. Righteous anger. Now, we'd like to classify all our anger as righteous anger so that we say, I'm overcoming sin. When I got upset with my husband or my wife, it was righteous anger.

And the wife says, I also had righteous anger against you. It's all deception. I say, if you want to know the truth, look up the dictionary. And for us, the dictionary is Jesus. The word became flesh.

Here in the Bible, the word is a word. It's black ink on white paper. The word is black ink on white paper. And when the word is black ink on white paper, I may not understand it. But if I take that word and see how it was in the flesh, I understand it.

So then I look at Jesus and say, where do I see anger in him? Oh, he was angry when he saw people making money in the name of religion. And when I see TV preachers making money in the name of religion, I should be angry.

If I'm not angry at them, I'm not like Jesus. How many people understand that? A lot of people watch these TV preachers and say, oh, they are not so good. Jesus didn't look at these money changers in the temple and say, oh, they are not so good.

He was really angry and chased them out. And I say, every time I see these fellows swindling poor people of their money, I'm angry. And the more I see, the more angry I am. And I believe I'm like Jesus.

And he was angry when they would not allow a man with a withered hand to be healed. When I see so many people with withered, defeated lives in so many churches, and the pastors won't let them hear the message of victory, I'm angry with them.

Okay, that's righteous anger. Where was Jesus not angry? When they called him a devil. So, if people call me names, I shouldn't be angry. When they spat on his face. If somebody spits on my face, I must love him and say, Father, forgive him.

So, I understood from looking at the dictionary, Jesus, what is righteous anger and what is sinful anger. Sinful anger is where somebody hurts me, speaks about me or my family, or does evil to me or speaks against my family.

If I get angry, I'm sinning. I must just forgive. But where it touches the glory of God, the name of Jesus is being dishonored, or in the name of God people are making money, there I should be angry. But what have I seen among Christians?

I'm talking about born-again Christians. I see them getting angry when somebody speaks against them, or speaks against their church, or speaks against their family. And then I don't see them angry when I see them, see these pastors making money in the name of religion.

I say, you guys got it all upside down. You're just like the worldly people. You don't have any righteous anger in your life. You have all your anger, sinful anger. I never heard one sermon on that in my 54 years as a believer.

So, what are people preaching? I never heard one single person talk strongly against lusting after women and pornography and all that. I hardly ever heard anyone preaching against it. What are they preaching then?

And then I never heard people saying how we can be built together into a body, what it actually means to take up the cross every day. You go and ask the average preacher, what does it mean to take up the cross every day?

I don't think you'll get a correct answer. I never found one. In practical terms, explaining what it means to take up the cross every day, which means to deny your own will, to do the will of God. I never heard it.

And yet, do you know that the Bible never says you must pray every day, or you must read the Bible every day? But it says you must take up the cross every day. I was taught in my younger days to read the Bible every day.

That's good. To pray every day, good. But the most important thing Jesus said, take up the cross every day, nobody taught me. So, I'm just saying there are so many things that are so important in the New Testament, they're completely left out.

And I found a lot of preachers were preaching what the Old Testament preached, that God will make you prosperous and God will make you healthy. That is not the New Testament message. And no wonder the body of Christ is not built because you can't build the body of Christ with an Old Testament message.

The Holy Spirit's Baptism and the Body's Mutual Dependence

And so, I see here one more thing which I wanted to show you, 1 Corinthians 12. You know, the baptism in the Holy Spirit, verse 13, is to make us one body. Do you know the whole purpose of the baptism in the Holy Spirit is to make us one body?

The baptism in the Holy Spirit is like a fire. On the day of Pentecost, 120 pieces of iron were thrown into the furnace and came out as one piece. We can look at it like that. The fire of the Holy Spirit melted them into one.

So, the baptism in the Holy Spirit is something that makes us into one body. And then it says, The foot cannot say to the hand, Oh, I'm not a part of the body. The ear cannot say to the eye, I'm not a part of the body.

And here is the most amazing statement of all. I don't know whether you've noticed it. The most amazing statement. One is that so also is the Christ, in verse 12. I showed you that. The second most amazing statement is here in verse 21, the last part.

Jesus, the head, does not say to the lowest member of the body, the feet, I don't need you. If there was ever anybody who could have said, I don't need you, it was Jesus. He could turn around to all of creation and say, I don't need you.

But it says the head, the feet are the lowest member of the body. That means Jesus does not say to the lowest, weakest, most useless member of the body of Christ, does not say, I don't need you. And that is what we need to also learn in the church.

Welcoming Weak Members and Demonstrating the Body of Christ

I was saying somewhere about a little drama that my family and I did for our local church in Bangalore many years ago. We had a picnic once and each family was asked to do one item. You could do a little drama or you could sing a song.

So my children were all small those days and the youngest was maybe four or five. And we decided to do a little drama with a message. So I asked one of my four boys to act like a retarded child who couldn't speak anything but say la-la-la-la-la.

That's all he could say. And I said, okay, now you're going to act like that, right? And the drama is, how shall we prepare for the church picnic? What item shall we do? And this is part of a drama. And we said, okay, we'll sing a song as a family.

So we're going to sing, count your blessings, name them one by one. So I said, let's try it out now. So we all tried to sing together, count your blessings, name them one by one. And this retarded child just makes some mumble jumble and all.

And the other three boys say, hey, dad, tell him to shut up, otherwise he'll spoil the whole, our presentation because he doesn't know how to sing. You've got to tell him to keep quiet while we're singing.

That's the only way we'll have a good performance. I said, if you reject one member of our family because you say he's retarded, then you guys are retarded, not him. An intelligent person, a loving person, will include every member of the family in some way in any project that we do, in any drama that we do.

So we are not going to exclude him. But we're going to make it sound more beautiful with him than without him. Okay? How shall we do it? That's where you need to use your intelligence. Okay, now I said, this is where we're going to do it.

While we sing each line, he'll be quiet, but at the end of the one line, he'll say, la, la, la, la. Then we sing the next line and he will say, la, la, la, la. So we sang like this. Count your blessings, name them one by one.

La, la, la, la. Count your blessings, see what God has done. La, la, la, la. I said, doesn't that sound much better than just he brings in a little melody at the end of it? And like that, we sang the song.

Then at the end of the drama, I said, this is how it is in the body of Christ. Some weak brother comes, someone who feels he's a little shy. He's not this outgoing, smart type like some of the others.

Spiritually, you can think he's a little retarded. He doesn't talk much. He's a little shy. Or maybe he's defeated. He's still struggling with some sin. And spiritually, he doesn't know so much of the Bible.

There are so many ways in which you can say a person is spiritually retarded. A good church will make that person welcome and encourage him to become a member of the family of God because he loves Jesus.