Going Deeper with God — James Peat

Going Deeper with God

Teaching. I pondered this much on what to teach as a first lesson for myself in this new year. It was originally going to be called Keep Calm and Carry On. And I pondered this much and I thought, do I really want to carry on as I did last year?

And the conclusion was no. And I'm thinking not only for myself but for the church. And then it was going to be Power Through Prayer. And eventually I've come to this title through much meditation of Going Deeper With God.

Going Deeper With God. I've spent a good maybe ten days just meditating on this message. It's very hard sometimes to get what's in your head out on paper. So I pray for grace and I ask for grace this morning.

It's a bit like a musician who knows what he hears but he can't get it out on his instrument. But by the grace of God, we will be fed today. Amen? So we stand this morning for the reading of God's Word.

The Call to Move from Spiritual Immaturity to Maturity

We're going to be in Hebrews chapter 5. We're going to read from verse 12 through verse 14. For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God.

And you have come to need milk and not solid food. For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness for he is a babe. But solid food belongs to those who are of full age.

That is, those who are by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil. Amen. Lord, we thank you for your words this morning. Lord, I pray for myself and for everyone in here, Lord, that you will give us ears to hear what you are saying to every one of us, both individually and corporately, Lord.

Lord, may we clear away the clutter of last year and as we head into this new year, Lord, for those who desire to go deeper with you, Lord, will you refresh us by your word? Will you convict us, Lord, of your heart and show us the deeper way of spiritual truth concerning you and your gospel?

And we ask this in Jesus' name. All God's people said, amen. And amen. Please be seated. So we are well into 2022 and all our New Year's resolutions are intact, I'm sure. Maybe one of those New Year's resolutions is a new Bible plan.

Maybe it's a daily devotional or through the Bible in one year. Something in this vein. Maybe someone bought you a present or you decided yourself, I'm going to begin again afresh. But maybe you decide this every year and every year it fails at some point or another.

And it's possibly a mystery as to why this happens. So let me put before you a series of questions to ask yourself. The first is, do I truly desire to go deeper with God? I say truly because it has to be true to yourself.

Do I truly actually desire to go deeper with God? And how about this? What cost am I willing to pay to go deeper with God? And what cost am I willing to pay for this? Those are two fair questions, but I think a better question would be this.

Am I satisfied where I am as a Christian? Am I satisfied in my position in Christ, what I'm doing and what I'm not doing? Or maybe the question, can I go deeper? Can I go deeper in my spirituality, in my Christian walk?

And if so, how so? If I can go deeper, will the Lord show me how to do it? So this morning I would like to explore this together. Today's message is entitled Going Deeper with God. Going Deeper with God.

It's going to be in three parts. The first part is immaturity. The second is marriage. And the third part is maturity. Now, in this passage that we've just read, the writer of this passage would explain certain things in regards to the priesthood.

You know, every one of us has been called a royal priesthood. He's speaking about both earthly high priests and Jesus Christ, who was, according to chapter 5 verse 10, called by God as high priest according to the order of Melchizedek, the king of righteousness.

But it seems to be in the middle of his teaching that he just breaks away. This makes me think that this could possibly be the Apostle Paul. Some say Barnabas or Apollos who wrote this letter. He breaks off and says in verse 11, you have become dull of hearing.

Maybe that's you. Maybe you feel even yourself, you've become dull of hearing the Spirit. And maybe he thought, rather than going into this long theological discord about the royal priesthood, that he was talking somewhat over their heads.

So the first part we're going to look at is number one, immaturity. So let's begin. Look at verse 12 of Hebrews chapter 5. For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God.

You've come to need milk and not solid food. You ought to be teachers. Essentially saying you've been Christians now for a very, very long time. And if he's writing to Hebrews, well, the Jews would have known the law, they would have had lots of information.

And really by this time, they ought to be at a level to teach. Indeed, we know not many have been called to be teachers. They shall receive, according to James chapter 3 verse 1, the stricter judgment.

But what the writer is saying, do you have the ability to teach, i .e. the basics of the Christian faith? Not all the doctrine, this is a big body of work and it is tricky. But would you say yourself you have the ability, for however long you've been a Christian, to sit down and actually teach somebody the basics of the Christian faith in your Bible?

This is a fair way to assess your own Christian walk. Can I sit somebody down and speak maybe simply the way of salvation through the scriptures to Christ? Now, for example, I've been a guitarist since I was 13.

So that's quite a few years, 31 years. I've not been called to be a guitar teacher. I'm not qualified to be a guitar teacher. But I can show you two or three on the guitar, okay? And I can prove it after if you want to know about it.

This should be a way to assess your own Christian walk. And I'm sure you're all skilled, we're all skilled in various areas of life. But this is the key one. Why? Because we're Christians. Can we and do we have the ability to teach?

Or are you still on the gospel milk, the ABC of the faith and have not moved on to solid food? And I would say the solid food here is the ability to teach others, the ability to instruct others in the faith.

Going on in verse 13, for everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness for he is a babe. I think what the writer's referring to is milk only Christians that remain at kindergarten level and they're the ones who just receive only.

Babes who can only receive milk. They come to church, they receive a sermon or they receive something from a gospel message or from a book but aren't able to instruct anyone else or unwilling to instruct anyone else in the faith.

This is what the texts are calling baby Christians. Now the other day I went to visit a particular church and I was shown around, I was rather stopped by a church warden. And a church warden in the Church of England has to have the ability to be able to take a service if the vicar doesn't show up.

And a chap showed me around the church and he spoke to me about the church and spoke to me about the wonderful stained glass window. He said, which is nice to look at when the sermons are boring as hell.

And then we got chatting about the Bible. And I found out that he'd been a Christian a long time, at least 55 years. He was in the Navy and he told me that he was a Christian in the Navy and that was in 1965.

The reason why I know this is because I ask questions and I listen to the answers. Essentially to use back at him if I need to or to understand something. It's important to ask questions and listen to the answers as Jesus did when he was young, 12 years old, in the temple in Luke chapter 2.

And then we got talking about the Bible and he simply said this, well I don't know all of these things, I don't know any of this. You obviously know a lot more and I assure you I was talking very basic level of Christianity.

This is a church warden, someone who's been a Christian for a minimum of 55 years, possibly longer. And I feel that within the Christian community there is a sense of false humility at knowing nothing.

Do you understand? Well I don't know these things, basic things. There's a false humility. Actually I don't believe, I've meditated on this a bit, what is this? Oh I don't know anything, I'm not capable, I'm not, I actually I don't believe it's false humility, I think it's actually pride.

Pride in not knowing anything and fear and unwillingness to teach and learn. Now this man remember was in the Navy. So as a sailor I'm sure he received basic instructions and I hope to some degree he was recognised with what he learnt before they let him on a warship to fire missiles.

So this is someone who's able to learn, this is someone who's able to take instruction and able to implement what he's learnt. But there's an unwillingness. You see, for those who are still on milk, remain a babe in the Christian faith.

Even if you've been in the faith for 55 years, essentially you're still a babe in the faith. However, verse 14 says solid food belongs to those who are of full age. That is those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.

Solid food, solid Bible teaching belongs to those who are of full age. Now I think milk is good, it lines the stomach in order for you to receive good food. But you must move on and I don't believe we can go any further in your Christian walk, any of us, spiritually on milk alone.

The question is how do we wean ourselves off milk? How do we get from milk to meat? I think the answer is in this passage and we're going to be looking at it further. Our spiritual senses need to be exercised.

This passage says used. You could have a soldier who's been out on the battlefield. He is someone who's had his senses exercised. He's someone who's had his training and his drilling exercised. Or a police officer who's been out on the street for 30 years.

He's got 30 years of actual experience of arrest and everything else. They actually sharpen their senses by being out on the streets as a soldier is out on the field. It might be worth writing this down.

Trained by practice, developed by experience in his power. That's how a Christian goes from milk to meat. Trained by practice, developed by experience in his power. I've met many Christians who have a lot of knowledge.

Knowledge tends to puff up. Experience in practice tends to build a deeper love towards the church. It's a great emphasis these days put on knowledge within the Christian community, which is good, but it needs to be coupled with experience.

Otherwise it's just knowledge. There's no interaction with like-minded believers. It's just knowledge. Before we look at and go into those spiritual practices, which we'll be looking at, the ones that lead to spiritual adulthood, we need a fair understanding as Christians what we've entered into.

It's very important as Christians to know what we've actually committed to when we say that we've become a Christian. I know, especially in the Western world over several hundreds of years, it's commonly accepted that everyone's a Christian.

Not so much these days, but maybe going back 50 years, everyone assumed because they're a white Westerner they are indeed a Christian. But this, of course, isn't the case. This brings us to number two, which is marriage.

Christian Marriage and Submission to Christ

Marriage. Will you turn with me to Ephesians chapter 5? Ephesians chapter 5, we're going to read from verse 22. There ought to be two distinct kinds of marriage. One is a state marriage, and the second is a Christian marriage.

There must be rules governing both. For a secular marriage, a state marriage, there's the British law. For the Christian marriage, essentially it's the Bible, God's law. I read on the back of a book which was critiquing and asking if Jesus was a moral teacher.

If Jesus said much about marriage or if Jesus said much about sex, and someone commented on the back, Jesus said little about either. However, his followers seem to say nothing but about marriage and about sex and about everything else.

But this is not true. Jesus was a Jewish rabbi, therefore it's already been said. However, he reiterates that in the Gospels. So, let's have a look at Ephesians 5 and verse 22. Wives, submit to your own husbands as to the Lord.

Now, for the wives to submit is controversial both in the world and in the church. No matter what you say, it's controversial. But with the Bible, there's no confusion whatsoever. But what tends to happen when there's anything controversial, people go to the exception rather than the rule, as they do in most theological arguments, and even non-theological arguments where there is something seemingly controversial.

For example, if you're dealing on a discussion about abortion, people immediately go to the exception. For example, the woman was raped or about incest. They go to the exception rather than the general rule, which is consensual sex and unwanted pregnancy.

So, immediately people go to the exception. Am I right? Rather than the rule. There's many debates on what does it mean for a wife to submit to her husband, and if we were here all day unpacking that, we would be here till next Sunday.

But the New Testament makes it clear that both men and women have a perfect spiritual equality. Galatians 3 .28. Let me say that again. Both men and women have a perfect spiritual equality. However, when it comes to the family, there is order, unity, and there has to be leadership, especially if there's two.

You can't have a democracy when there's two. God has chosen the husband and the father to be head, and this must be accepted for us to go on in our Christian walk. It's pretty clear through thousands of years of civilization that women tend to be the homemaker and men tend to be the protector.

Everything's controversial, I get it. But civilization will say the opposite, and I can guarantee you if there's a husband and wife laying in bed and they hear a noise downstairs, whom is going to be sent?

You go, honey. After all, you're the man. Although both bleed. Is this true? You're the man. Let me say this. Who would you rather deal with, the angry wife next door or the husband? The matriarch, they're vicious, the lioness.

Personally, I'd rather deal with the man because the woman is sort of like a hunter-gatherer lioness, and she's there protecting her family and her household. Actually, she's normally the one saying to her husband, you're not actually fierce enough.

You need to go and tell them what for. I remember Derek Prince teaching about women in the church, and he mentioned a book by David Pawson. You heard of David Pawson? Leadership is male. Very controversial.

I think that was back in 88. What both Derek Prince and David Pawson found is timid men coming up to them afterwards saying that this is controversial with an angry wife in the distance saying, go and tell him.

It says here to submit as to the Lord. This doesn't mean that you submit to your husband as you would God, but what it means is this. Dutifully, both husband and wife submit to God. Let's look at the previous verse.

Submitting to one another in the fear of God. A man has his job, the woman has her job, and you're to submit in your roles as to the Lord or unto the Lord. This is biblical marriage. Now, when it comes to a couple falling in love, Scott, listen up, pay attention.

Marriage next month. There's this initial spark, isn't there? When two fall in love, wonderful. They're excited, it's new, and they spend time together getting to know each other. Then there's the wonderful engagement and marriage and all the organization, still fresh in my mind, of inviting friends and family and everyone's rather excited.

Then, of course, after the wedding, you move in and the house is in order, tries to be. Then you start to settle. You start to realize that marriage the biblical way is actually quite hard. To actually submit one to another unto the Lord is actually quite difficult.

Maybe after a little time, you start to think, well, I haven't got as much time as I had before on my own. Maybe after more time than this, you start to reminisce life before marriage and how things could have been.

Now, the world says, if you're not happy, leave. That's what the world says. You actually, the world says, deserve to be happy. What the church says, you made a commitment before the Lord. You must stay.

I'm sure this doesn't resonate with anyone. Maybe once you've entered into this covenant, you ask yourself, why didn't anybody warn me? I told them I was getting married. They're all so happy. Off you go.

Why didn't anyone warn me about this? Now look, marriage is a mystery. Somebody said this to me. Marriage is a mystery. You can't know anything about marriage until you've been initiated into it. You can read books about marriage, but unless you are initiated into it, in a sense, you're in the dark.

However, let me say this. The Christian life is exactly the same. The Christian life is exactly the same as marriage. They are both covenants before the Lord. Consider this. When you committed to the Lord, when you married the Lord, you've entered into this covenant.

Your marriage to your physical spouse is a visible marriage. The marriage to Jesus is invisible. It's a picture of your covenant with Christ. Have you ever considered the fact that Jesus is with you all the time, even if you can't see him?

You're happy to quote, I will never leave you nor forsake you. I am with you wherever you go, whatever film you watch, whatever you say in front of your husband or your wife, however you say, maybe things you do to your next door neighbour.

I am with you wherever you go. Jesus is with us. Now let's just reverse this because if marriage is the same as your Christian life, I want to run through this. There's this initial spark, isn't there?

That's when you're saved. Then you spend time together. This is the exciting thing when you become a Christian, reading your Bible. Then there's the engagement and marriage, which is your baptism. Then you move in.

You start to go to church. Then you start to settle. You go, this is quite hard, especially submitting in a church or to biblical teaching. Then you start to think, well, I haven't got as much freedom as I used to have.

Then you maybe start to reflect on your secular life, your BC days. Then the world says, oh, you can leave. This is on the cusp of a Christian falling away. You deserve to be happy. Then you may ask, why didn't anybody warn me beforehand?

Can you see that? There's an absolute picture. One is visible and one is invisible. Let me just say this, though. Marriage is perishable. Marriage in the Christian world is eternal. These are the pictures you have.

If you can get that in your mind, meditate on it for a week, and it will blow your mind. There's so much in it. The self-life, both with your earthly marriage and your Christian marriage, it has to die.

Dying to Self in Order to Go Deeper with God

Turn me to John chapter 12. The self-life has to die because we're talking about one who desires to go deeper with God. This message is not for those who don't desire to go deeper with God. It will do nothing for you.

Desire could be translated wish or want. It's a very hard thing. When I speak with other pastors, they say the same thing. There doesn't seem to be desire in people. I think that desire is something that has to be cultivated.

You have to fight for it in some sense. When you first become a Christian, maybe it's a bit like when people first meet. I really dislike this phrase which has come into our colloquial language, which is, we have date nights.

We go on date nights. I understand it. You want time together with your spouse. I get it. But it could also be trying to harpen back to that excitement when you first met. I've said it myself, and I think I'm wrong when it comes to the Christian life when you first believe.

I get it from Revelation. But that initial spark, what you have when you become a Christian, maybe we strive for that, and it's actually not obtainable. You can't get there. Why is that? Because you've moved on.

Within a marriage where the love grows deeper, that's the same in the Christian walk. If we're just trying to get that initial spark, when I first became a Christian, we're chasing after stuff which isn't there.

We're chasing after shadows. It's not there. In fact, it's the milk and not the meat. Here's the meat. Let's have a look. John 12, verse 24. Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone.

You see that? There's something of your life that has to die, but if it dies, it produces much grain. If one wants to go deeper with God, you have to die more. But I'm committed to Christ, but you need to die more to yourself for you to gain the grain.

Who loves his life will lose it, but who hates his life in the world will keep it for eternal life. You see that? To grow deeper in love is simply this. Submit more to your marriage vows and submit more to your Christian vows if you desire to go deeper.

If you don't desire, this won't help you. You may have to fight for this, but the seed has to drop to the soil and be watered before it can germinate. However long you've been a Christian, I'm assuring you there's deeper you can go, unless you think you've achieved it all.

There's much deeper, and that's the beautiful thing. There is further for you to go. Always the Lord will teach you new things. Always you'll read the scriptures and the Lord will illuminate passages to you.

He will give you a rhema word, something which he will quicken his word, refresh and renew it to your mind. You'll go, how come I've never read that? It will take you on a spiritual journey, as the Lord has done with me, even in recent weeks.

Complete revival in the understanding of God's word. Now Paul continues here in Ephesians. Get back to Ephesians 5, quick. You think, well James, how can you know all of this about marriage? You've only been married a year.

I've been married for 15 years to Jesus, so I have some sort of experience. Paul continues, look, verse 23, Ephesians 5, says, For the husband is the head of the wife, as also Christ is the head of the church, and he is the saviour of the body.

Therefore, just as the church is subject to Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything. Now what is this mystery? What first of all, the Greek word mystery is mystarius, which means something which has been revealed only to those who have been initiated.

Jesus, when he spoke parables, the kingdom, the mystery of the kingdom is revealed to you, but those outside, it's not been revealed, but you've been initiated into, therefore it's been revealed to you.

So what is this mystery that Paul keeps going on about? Let's have a look in verse 30, Ephesians 5, verse 30. It says, For we are members of his body, of his flesh and his bones. Essentially, we are the bride of Christ.

We use that phrase. And for this reason, a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. What is the mystery? Here's the answer. This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church.

There's the mystery. Not just individual members, but we are members of a body which is the bride of Christ. You see that? It's very clear. The mystery is why some haven't matured is because they're not maintaining their Christian marriage in the church.

Whether it's a hard sound or not, I believe it to be true. They've separated, think of the word separated, their Christian life from their church life. I'm just Christian, but I'm not, and this is really terrible at the moment because so many are not committed to a church.

So many are not submitting within a church. Many resist the word submitting to a church, and they deceive themselves, and we're going to see that in a minute. But they've separated the two. You see, when you ask a married person, how are you, it shouldn't be before long before they mention their spouse.

It shouldn't be. They don't say, well, I'm doing really well, and I'm great, thanks. They say, well, I'm doing really well, we've just got a dog, Chelsea's very happy, whatever it is. It doesn't take long to go, well, Chevrolet, how are you doing?

Yeah, not too bad, Piers and I have been da-da-da-da in such and such place. It shouldn't take too long. And that, if you think of that in your church life, should be the same. The question is, are you subject to your husband, meaning Christ?

That's the question in everything. I believe this is the way to mature. In fact, if you truly want to go deeper with God, I believe this is the only way to mature as a Christian. Not a separate Christian, not a nomadic Christian, but one who is committed to a church.

You can go on learning stuff. You don't need to come to a church to learn about the Bible, you don't need to be a Christian. But if you want to be part of the bride of Christ, you have to come to church.

Maturity Through One-Another Service

This will bring us to our third point, maturity, maturity. Turn with me, please, to Romans, chapter 12. You're doing very well on a Sunday morning. It's a little heavy, I know. But if we can grasp this, we're doing well.

Romans, chapter 12, from verse 10. Be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love, in honour given preference to one another, not lagging in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord. Rejoice in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing steadfastly in prayer, distributing to the needs of the saints, given to hospitality.

Notice twice it says there, one another. Kindly affectionate to one another, giving preference to one another. This is what the text calls serving the Lord. Although you're serving someone in the church, you're actually serving the Lord.

Then it says to continue steadfastly in prayer. Now apparently, I didn't have time to add them all up, there are 59 one another verses in the New Testament. 59. They are known as the one anothering verses, which I have called one anotherness.

We studied that on Wednesday. 59 one another verses in the New Testament. For example, love one another, serve one another, be devoted to one another, honour one another, accept one another, instruct one another, greet one another, encourage one another.

Everything is about one another. One another, that's the key. Let me read this to you. The one another commands us to consider not just our personal relationship with Jesus, but our relationship with Christ and all those in our local church.

You see that? That's serving the Lord. I think it's clear if we desire to go deeper with God, we have to learn. I say learn, underline that, to serve one another, because it doesn't come naturally. It just doesn't.

You may be asking, do you mean then I need to attend church more? Yes. Simple as that, because you can't do one to another via Zoom or WhatsApp or text message. It's by being together, serving one another.

Corporate Prayer and Growth Through Practice

I believe this has to start with prayer. This is the ABC of the faith. Now, in the Christian mind, there's so many that I've spoke with, they have a whole selection of counters to this type of teaching.

For example, Jesus says, pray privately. Go into your prayer closet and seek the Lord privately. I find it interesting that whenever there's anything church-related, think about this, why I'm teaching this is that we grow deeper in our love and service of God, but whenever there's anything church-related, it seems immediately people go straight to the Gospels.

Jesus said this and Jesus said that. There needs to be a distinction between the Gospels and the epistles. The Gospels is telling us the history of Christ, why he come, what he fulfilled on earth. But he said that, I will build my church and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.

He come to inaugurate the institution of the church, and it's through the 12 apostles that we get into the church age, start with the book of Acts and then through the epistles. That's why there's so much instruction through the apostles, and it's authoritative.

Jesus gave them the authority and commanded them to go out and commissioned them to set up churches. The epistles instruct corporate prayer. You may say this, but I don't need to do all these things. I'm saved by grace through faith.

I'm not talking about your salvation. I'm talking about growth. If you want to grow in the faith, this is how to go about it. You're still married to the person you married, even if you do nothing. You're still technically married to that person.

But as you know, marriage needs to be maintained. Is that right? For example, if you went to buy a car and you bought a lovely car, drove it off the forecourt in this wonderful car, you drove it for a week, no problem, and suddenly you get up one morning and put the keys in the ignition, nothing happens.

So you phone up the garage and say, look, I bought this car last week. Hello, Mr. Pete. Yes. And I said, I've got a problem with the car. I'm very terribly sorry about that. And let me come and check out the car.

And he comes and looks at the car and turns. And he asks you, have you put any fuel in this car? No. That's why, because you haven't maintained it. You haven't done anything. You bought the car, you drove it off.

You're enjoying the car, but you're not doing anything to maintain it. Or people get embarrassed being at church, I think especially when it comes to prayer. And this has to be combated. Some people don't like to pray out loud.

We had a wonderful study on Wednesday about prayer and the need of prayer. And I thought, how am I going to get everyone to pray? Because if these things need to be trained by practice and developed by experience and His power, you have to do it.

If you want to know how to pray, pray. If you want to know how to run, run. It's one of these things. So I started with prayer and I said, then we're going to go around the table and you're all going to pray once.

Some people's face was, they've never prayed before. And people had already admitted it's hard to pray. So people were very honest. I think I stood up and said, Lord, I thank you for salvation in Jesus Christ.

Amen. Sat down the next person, we went around the whole table and everyone prayed. Amen? That's good. But that's a beginning and how we overcome the fear, because we're supposed to be a family. And if you stand up and pray and get something wrong, so what?

We have to overcome it by the doing. Or you may say, I don't really want to spend too much time at church because I don't like the people in it. I don't like so and so. And do you know what? There might be real good reasons for you not liking so and so.

I'm reminded of something C .S. Lewis said. He said, when you walk down the street and you see that person coming towards you, and if, oh no, it's him again, is he going to stop? Can I get past him? A doctor called this a heart sink patient, when you see the patient and you're like, oh no.

And we all know that. And C .S. Lewis said, so you put on the airs and graces. Hello, how are you today? And you pretend to be rather jolly about it. And after a while, you actually start to become quite a jolly person with that person.

As you walk off, it's not quite so bad. And I think of the verse in Ephesians where Paul says, you must put on Christ. Fake it till you make it. There's got to be something in that because you're doing everything unto the Lord and it's not about ourselves.

You see, it's in the coming together and in the one anothering that we can be trained by practice and developed by experiencing his power. Or another simple analogy, and I'll finish with this, he said, if you wanted to learn ballet, I don't have a desire.

But if I did and I went to the ballet school and the teacher says you have to be here, the class is on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Okay. And after about six months, you realize that everyone's much better than you and you're not really getting on too well.

Your ball work is not so good. Okay. So you speak with the teacher and you say, look, I'm really not progressing. Everyone else seems to be doing really well and I'm not. What's going on? And the ballet instructor says, well, you've only been coming on Mondays, I've noticed.

That's why your progression is slow. And everyone else has been coming on the Monday, Wednesday and Friday. That's why their progression. It's not so much that you can do the ball work at home. It's the one anothering is where things are developed.

Submitting to Christ as Head of the Church

Simple analogy, but I believe it renders some good. So remember, wrapping this up, that Christ is the head of his church. He is the bridegroom and we are his bride. And if we are to grow, if we are to desire to grow in the Lord, we must submit to his headship.

His word says that we're to meet and to serve one another. If the Christian desires to go deeper with God, this is how to go about it. This is simply the way to go about it. So let me leave you with these questions and then we're going to worship Andy.