Polish (7) — George Verwer

How we praise God for what He is doing here each evening in answer to prayer in the hearts of many people. Jak bardzo często, jak codziennie wieczorem dziękujemy Panu za Jego błogosławieństwo i pomoc dla Was na tej konferencji.

Repentance and Christian Spiritual Maturity

The Bible says the joy in heaven over just even one sinner who repents. Czytamy, że jest radość w niebie wtedy, gdy naraz jeden grzesznik pokutuje. So let us be rejoicing and thanking God for those that have come to know Jesus Christ in a personal way over these past few days.

A więc radujmy się i cieszmy z tego, że są tutaj z nami ludzie, którzy poznali Pana w ciągu ubiegłych kilku dni. This morning we want to consider this important subject of Christian and spiritual maturity.

Dzisiaj chcę mówić na temat bardzo ważnego zagadnienia, mianowicie chrześcijańskiej dojrzałości. Paul wrote to Timothy and he said, be strong, be strong in the grace that is in Jesus Christ. Apostle Paweł pisał do Tymoteusza podkreślając, wzmacniaj się, bądź męż, silny w Słowie Jezusa Chrystusa, w Ewangelii.

And I believe this is another one of the most important subjects that we could consider from God's Word. I myślę, że jest to kolejny bardzo ważny temat, który musi być wspomniany i wyczytany, znaleziony w Piszmie Świętym.

We praise God that so many have been going over and buying some of these great books, especially the books by A .W. Poser. There's not many left. Tak bardzo się cieszę, że wielu z Was skorzystało z okazji i kupiło wiele książek przy stoisku książkowym, szczególnie książki Posera.

Już niewiele zaprawy zostało. I'd like to mention three other books. Chciałem również wspomnieć trzy dalsze książki. Plus this very important small book. A także tę malutką brosurę. This is the Gospel of John.

Ewangelii świętego Jana. It's because an elderly praying lady sent me this book through the mail that I started on the road to Jesus Christ. Kiedyś nas starsza niewiasta siostra posłała mi tego typu Ewangelię pocztą i to mnie zmieniło.

And if you want to have a ministry, then just carefully, prayerfully start distributing that little booklet. I jeśli szukacie jakiegoś swojego pola działalności, to możecie modlitwie, ostrożnie wysyłać tego rodzaju Ewangelie.

And I understand they have them available on a very, very special basis. I wydaje mi się, tak mi się wydaje, że tutaj można otrzymać tę Ewangelię na zupełnie wyjątkowych warunkach. We know God uses His Word.

Wiemy, że Bóg używa swojego Słowa. The three books I want to mention. First of all, a book called Johnny. Pierwsza książka, której chciałem wspomnieć, to książka Johnny. How many of you heard her speak when she came to Poland?

Ilu z was słyszało Johnny, gdy była w Polsce? Many of you. O, wielu z was. I was speaking a couple of years ago in her church. Przed dwoma latami miałem okazję rozmawiać w jej kościele w Polsce. Where she is a faithful member.

W którym jest członkiem. And one of my very closest friends a few years ago had an accident, a car accident in Spain. Jeden z moich bardzo bliskich przyjaciół miał tu kilkulatę wypadek samochodowy w Szczecin.

Some of you know him, Jonathan McCroskey. Niektórzy z was go znają. John McCroskey. And he is now also a paraplegic, just like Johnny. I teraz także jest paraplegiciem, tak samo jak Johnny. But he's going all over the world ministering the Word of God.

He's on a tour right now, headed for a French-speaking Canada. Ale cały czas jeździ po świecie w swoim wózku. Teraz na przykład jest w Kanadzie francuski. Ja nie mówię po francusku. And I'm amazed the wonderful way that God uses people with tremendous handicaps.

Jestem naprawdę tak zdziwiony, jak Bóg wykorzystuje ludzi, którzy mają takie wielkie naleźci. We have a new book in English called Beyond Healing. Beyond Healing. W języku angielskim została wydana książka o tytule Poza Uleceniem.

It shows the wonderful things that God sometimes does when He in His sovereignty chooses not to heal a particular person. Książka ta mówi, że Bóg ma swój specjalny plan w stosunku do ludzi, których nie jest draga, pomimo tego, że oni się modlą o tym.

Another great book, a very old book. Jeszcze jedna bardzo stara książka. From the writings of the great minister C .H. Spurgeon. A special powerful thought for each day of the year. This is spiritual meat for those who want to go on in maturity in Christ.

One of the best books on the subject of prayer is written by this man, Mr. Hallowsby. This is his book on the subject of conscience. Now, is that the price? 50 złotych? Well, I know you're going to rush over there to get a hold of these books.

Ephesians 4 and the Maturity of the Church

But this is the book of books. How many of you have your Bibles this morning? Or a New Testament? The Word of God. Sharper than a two-edged sword. Turn with me in your Bibles to the book of Ephesians.

Ephesians, chapter 4. And I'd like us to read from verse 7 through verse 16. What a powerful passage of Scripture. Let the Word of God speak to your heart. Notice this is preceded by verses 4 through 6, which is another great plea for unity.

There are so many other things I would have loved to have said yesterday. It's important to understand that in each one of these major subjects we are discussing each morning from God's Word. It's just the beginning.

And it's up to you, through the Word and through books, to develop this subject on your own, in your own Bible study and in your discussion group. I would remind you that I'm still open to receive any prayer requests or any questions.

You can just turn them in at the book table. Read verse 7 through verse 16. And verse 8. He appointed one apostle, one prophet, one evangelist, one shepherd and one teacher, to prepare the saints for the works of service, for the construction of the body of Christ, until we all come to the unity of faith and to know the Son of God, to man's perfection, and to grow up to the dimension of Christ's fullness.

So that we may no longer be children carried and carried away by the wind of teaching by human deception and by the shepherd who leads us into the abyss. But that we, being sincere in love, may grow up in every aspect of Him who is the head of Christ, from whom the whole body is connected and bound by all mutually reinforcing bonds according to the purpose of each individual apostle's actions, grows and builds itself in love.

Let's pray. Father, we thank you for your words. We thank you for what you have been doing each day in our midst. We thank you for those that have come to know you personally, others who have come back to you.

Lord, help us now to concentrate on your word and what you want to say to us. That we may not be just hearers of the word only, but doers. Lord, you know our hearts. If there's any resistance, any pride, we pray, oh God, break our hearts this morning.

You know the worries and the thoughts that may be running through our minds on different issues. We thank you, our God, that we can cast every care upon you because you care for us. We praise you, oh God, through Jesus Christ.

Amen. I am often sharing on this particular passage of scripture. Especially when I am asked to speak on the subject of spiritual balance. And I believe Christian maturity and spiritual balance are absolutely linked together.

I shared with you a couple of days ago how some people who may think they're not converted... It may be that they are converted, but they have never grown in their faith. They have never grown into spiritual maturity.

They have never grown into spiritual maturity. Dr. Schaefer, Francis Schaefer, has written many books. I don't know if any of them are in Polish. He was a very dear friend of mine. His wife is still alive.

Just had a letter from her. And his sons and other children have a powerful ministry. He wrote a little book, The Mark of the Christian. What is the mark of the Christian, which is in Polish? And it talks about love.

So when we talk about Christian maturity, we're driven right back to yesterday's subject, love. That is the mark of spiritual maturity more than anything else. I once wrote a book called A Revolution of Love.

Not speaking of political revolution, it's speaking of personal, spiritual revolution. And I believe this is God's great burden for every one of His children. God gives different men and women in the church gifts, as we see in verse 11.

Some of you have been given gifts by God. In preaching, in teaching, in leadership. In serving others. Why does God give us these people? Verse 12. For the perfecting, and a better word actually, for the bringing into maturity of the saints for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ.

And verse 13. Till we all come into the unity of the faith, the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a mature man. Now, what does that say in Polish? Also in English, it uses the word perfect. But I believe if you study that in the Greek, you will see that that word today means maturity.

Perfectionism, Sin, and Confession

One of the false doctrines that is coming to some countries and some churches is this doctrine of perfectionism, that people can come to a particular state in their Christian faith where they're now perfect.

That has done a lot of harm in India, in Turkey, in Norway, in a number of countries I've been in. It sounds very tempting. Because we want to do the best for Jesus. We don't want to sin. There is in a sense we want to walk a totally perfect life before God.

That is our goal. But as human beings, I think it's very clear from the Word and from history that this is a lifetime. And that as Christians, even as mature Christians, we do sometimes sin. Look at 1 John, chapter 2.

We're going to go back to Ephesians. And I hope you'll write some of these references down. 1 John is a very short epistle. You can easily read it. The main theme is reality, maturity, and love. And when as a young Christian I failed the Lord, often it was 1 John 1 and 2 that brought me out of that difficulty and failure and sin to repentance and cleansing.

Verse 8 in chapter 1 is a heavy blow to perfectionism. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. This is also the chapter that talks about walking in the light. Verse 7.

But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanses us from all sin. Unless you know how to deal with sin in your life, you will never come into Christian maturity.

You will probably end up quite discouraged. Because you get these very high goals. And you maybe get a great blessing in a camp or a meeting. Launch out in your newfound victory. But then you fail or you sin.

And remember, God is not just concerned about the outward sins. This is probably not the biggest problem with most of us. Big, heavy, outward temptations, like dreaming about robbing the local bank. This is your big temptation.

Or wanting to go down the road and punch some old lady in the nose. More of our sins today are dispositional sins, which A .W. Tozer often talks about. Wrong attitudes toward another brother or sister.

Wrong thoughts concerning the opposite sex or concerning something else. You know, I'm tempted to speak on the subject of sex. But I haven't been asked to speak on the subject of sex. In England, in our churches, we don't like too much talk about sex.

I don't know if you have that problem in Poland. For my Bible-loving friends, there are 500 verses in the Bible, even the King James and the Polish Bible, on the subject of sex. And for most of the young people in the West, this is the real battleground of spiritual maturity.

I always get amused when I'm in a church where they claim they teach the whole counsel of God. Sometimes they go from Genesis right through Revelation. It takes them ten years, verse after verse. And I often point out a few of my favorite verses about sex.

Like that very difficult verse that says, Be thou satisfied with the breasts of the wife of thy youth. And I say, when did you last teach a sermon on that verse? And a lot of our problems among Christian young people, and they often have more problems than non-Christians in this area, is because they think sex is a problem.

But the Bible doesn't teach that. The Bible teaches that sex is a gift from God. It is very clear that it is within the marriage relationship that it is to be finalized. My memory suddenly does go back to 23 years ago, here in Poland, when I first came.

That when revival broke out in that meeting, I was only told this later by those who understood Polish. I didn't understand what was going on. That many of the sins that were being confessed generally privately were sins dealing with sexual difficulty.

Now, of course, when you speak about sex, people get the idea that you have a problem. So let me just put your mind at ease concerning this. I definitely do have a problem. All of my Christian life, I have battled the lust of the mind.

But when I have failed the Lord, I have been able to go to 1 John 2, verse 1. Now, you are very fortunate in Poland. And there doesn't seem to be so much pornography all over the place. At 16 years of age, I was a pornoholic.

I was addicted to pornographic magazines at 16. And one of the great works of God in my own life was when after my conversion, I put a match on those magazines and they went up in smoke. Hallelujah! What a victory!

But what about my mind? How was I going to handle all the memories? Maybe a glass of gasoline and a match. And the battle in my mind has gone on all of my Christian life. And in doing research on many Christian leaders around the world and counseling many, many leaders around the world, I discovered many have the same problem.

I remember some years ago, and you know, sometimes we are not afraid to talk about our sins before we were a Christian. We almost glory, you know, I was a drug addict. But Jesus saved me. And we bring these people in to give their testimony in our churches.

Isn't it wonderful what God has done? Tello was giving his testimony how he was in deep wickedness and sin and iniquity and terrible things in his life. Christians were just... And he said, but then at eight years of age I gave my life to Jesus Christ.

You know, you don't have to add anything to your testimony. If you were saved at seven on your mother's knee, you don't have to make a big, big, big story about it. Some of the most dedicated Christians I know, many of them come from Christian homes and made professions of faith in Christ when they were children.

God wants honesty, God wants reality, that's the road to maturity. I'd like to just share one example of how God cleansed me and brought me up from a deep struggle and a deep failure. I only share this because thousands of people have given back to me the fact that being honest has helped them in their Christian life.

This is only a few years ago. I was already a Christian leader, already preaching nine hundred times a year around the world. But I went out. I love to go into the woods. I've been out into the woods here every morning, praying and running.

I was so encouraged as I went out on the road this morning. I saw a group of young men doing their exercises this morning. I thought, boy, some of these people mean business for God. See, back in England, we have a major problem among the Christians.

They are unable to get out of bed. This is the biggest problem in the country. Just getting out of bed. Early enough to get time in the Word of God and get awake and pray. We often see them running for the railway station.

To get the train into central London. Some look like they had just gotten out of bed and they're going down the road. Well, this particular day, I was out in the woods just praying, just praying. And there was a pornographic man with a magazine hanging in the tree.

No, no, not today. Some years ago. Yeah, well, no, we wouldn't want that. You may wonder what kind of trees we have in England. Obviously, someone purchased this magazine. Probably it brought them some confusion and torment.

They hung it in the tree and they used a gun to shoot holes right through the magazine and they left it. Now, I would love to be able to tell you that the great, dynamic disciple George Ververs saw this magazine and in the name of Jesus, a laser beam of spiritual power went from me and destroyed the magazine.

One more testimony of the victorious life. Oh, wonderful to have such great men of God ministry to us. But the truth is and I'm very sorry to say this that that little magazine caught me by surprise and made a complete fool out of me that day in those woods.

And you know, when we sin like that and it may be in some other area the sins connected with pride are worse than the sins connected with sect from what I read in my Bible. But when we sin in such a shameful way one of Satan's helpers is always there.

You can write this down. The Bible says Satan is the accuser. He is the accuser of the brethren. And when I failed that morning Satan was whispering in my ear. You're no good. You're a big hypocrite. Why don't you throw away all of this Christianity business and come full time with my operation.

But because I knew something of Christian maturity I knew that Satan was a liar. So I, instead of listening to him stood on the word of God in repentance and brokenness and received cleansing into my heart.

Materialism, Prosperity, and Spiritual Balance

I noticed someone had a tape recording here yesterday. Someone showed me a tape recording from a group that comes out of America that teaches if you are really spiritual you will have lots of money. That is the mark of spiritual maturity.

Big bucks. This is a great verse for defending the extreme materialism that we have in some parts of the world. But I can tell you most Christians in our countries the vast majority have rejected this as a false emphasis.

You see, it's taking a truth to extremes without incorporating other truths. God does prosper some people. God does answer prayer and bring in finance for his work. God doesn't prosper everybody financially.

Most of the Christians I know around the world don't have much money. And often when they get some money they always want to give it away. I have lived in India for a number of years and I just wish you could come and visit India.

Where literally millions of people.

Live in the streets at a lower level than anyone in Europe would keep a pet, a dog. And at the same time India has some of the most wealthy people in the entire world. It used to be common to spend a million zlotys just on the way.

That's nothing. Euro money, zlotys. Well, dollars then, whatever. Most of the Christians in India are not living in the streets so God has helped them. But most of them don't have a lot of money. Finance is not necessary a mark of spirituality or the blessing of God.

It may in fact be a sign that self, Prime Minister's self is on the throne of a person's life. It may indicate that. I believe truth is very important. I hope you will develop Biblical sound doctrine.

The Bible emphasizes the importance of doctrine and the word of God if we are to grow into maturity and not be blown about all over the place like it says there in the next verse. Show love through speaking.

Speaking the truth in love. Do you see the picture? Balance. And as you go through the word of God you will find again and again the need for balance. Even many times the things that we are arguing about as Christians.

One brother says, we need more messages on this over here. And another brother says, we need it this way over here. This is the emphasis we need. I believe the truth is often in the middle. The truth is often a blending of different extreme Bible statements to bring us into spiritual balance and Christ-likeness.

When I was first converted to Christ I was a natural extremist. I find one verse that says, God, did you see this? This is what we need today. Let's go tell the pastor. That pastor doesn't know what he's talking about.

Look it. Here is the word of God. Let's get the pastor. I remember when I came across Luke 14 .33. That was a big, big moment in my life. I was a materialist. Luke 14 .33. I was a materialist. I had three businesses.

And I had money. And I knew how to spend it. The nightclubs, the fun, the big parties. I was converted to Christ. I was reading the word of God. And I saw that verse. You can write it down. It says, except you forsake all that you have you cannot be my disciple.

That's exactly what it says. So I started preaching Luke 14 .33. And I started practicing it. I gave away almost everything I had. I sold my businesses. And I started living on the littlest amount of money every day, less and less.

And I would preach this. After two years at university where I caused a great amount of grief to some people I went to a Bible college. I was there one week. And I thought the place needed revival. I started praying for all the leaders.

I started preaching Luke 14 .33 to the students. And my room turned into an auction. My little bedroom. As different students heard my message they would bring their possessions to my room and I would sell them.

And then I'd send the money to missionary work. And the leaders of the school were very concerned about this fanatic extremist who was upsetting the school. We had some very interesting situations. Because who were we going to sell these things to?

They were all Christian students. So we put a sign on the bulletin board listing the things that were for sale. And people would come to my room and they would buy some of these things. And as they would go we'd give them a little leaflet about Luke 14 .33.

Some of them, after a couple of days they were feeling very guilty they brought the things back again. So we would sell them again. But you know it was a wonderful day in my life. I was very happy. When I discovered the book of Philippians.

And chapter 4. You can write this right next to Luke 14 .33. What does it say? But my God my God shall supply all your needs according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus. I thank God for that verse.

And that slowly brought me into balance. It took a long time for me. That's why wherever I go I preach on balance. Find the balance in your Christian life. Do you know what has happened now? My daughter came to me some time ago.

And she said, Dad, you are getting very extreme in the area of balance. I thought this is impossible. You know, God has us in His great school. When we are converted to Christ we become a disciple. God wants us to grow in maturity.

And in some ways it's like being in a school. God's primary school. Then after some years God's secondary school. God's university. And then God's graduate program. Do you have graduate programs? Get the best of them.

Marriage, Submission, and the Testing of Maturity

And I believe God's number one graduate program is marriage. When I was 21 I thought I was becoming more and more mature in the faith. I was winning many people to Christ. I was spending much time in prayer.

I was reading all these great books Andrew Murray, Watchman Nee. I could speak about all of these things. I thought I'm really getting mature and sanctified. And something really big happened in my life.

I got married. And through marriage I discovered how much of George Verwer was not crucified and not mature as God would have it. How many of you are married? Raise your hands. Not so many. Yeah, I didn't wait long enough.

How many of you occasionally, you know, it may have just entered your mind just for a moment, you know, raised your hand. The thought about marriage. It just entered their mind. Hey, Irish. OK. The rest of you are living in a general state of confusion.

If you are an extremist and by the way God has many other graduate schools, you don't have to get married. And some of God's people for the sake of the gospel are committed to the single life. God has no problem giving them an advanced training program.

But if you are an extremist I recommend that you don't get married. Because marriage demands biblical balance. Let me give an example. I didn't believe in spending any money except for the word of God and Christian literature.

So when I met the woman who later became my wife I told her that I would not be spending any money during the engagement period. Because she lived in a boarding house. They were supplying the food. Nothing else was needed.

I was in Bible school. They were giving me food. Nothing else is needed. So for over one year we were going together and I never spent a penny. I don't know how she kept going with me. We had some very interesting experiences.

One day we were sitting by the lake talking to each other. I had already told her on our first meeting that if she married me I didn't think that would happen of course. But that if she married me I was going to be a missionary she would probably end up being eaten by cannibals in New Guinea.

That was on our first meeting. The second meeting I gave her my dirty laundry to wash to test her submissiveness. On the third meeting we went door to door selling books to the Spanish people. On the fourth meeting we started a long study in the book of Acts.

Anyway we were sitting there that day and we were getting hungry. But we were a long way from the school. So I thought well we just have to trust God we don't want to spend any money. So I would pray some very wild prayers.

Then some people came and they sat behind us and they started to take food out of their bag and eat sandwiches. And we just sat there and we were getting hungry. And those people they got up and they threw their bag in the rubbish basket.

This was a big step of faith for me. I went into the rubbish basket and I went over to my fiancée and I said the Lord has provided. The amazing thing and things like this caused me to become more extreme.

There were sandwiches and fruit that had not been touched. Wrapped in paper it had not been touched and I gave that to my wife. Now after the marriage this became more difficult. We went to live in Mexico together and we didn't eat very much food.

We lived in the back of a Christian... We opened a Christian bookstore and we just lived in a little room in the back and I didn't give her any money. And for a long time she didn't say anything. But as I came into balance I gave her one dollar I said this is for you feel free to spend it however you want you don't even have to tell me.

Now we can laugh but this could have completely ruined our marriage. Especially when the children came along I'm not going to buy anything to put the children in baby baskets. Just put them in the dresser drawer pull out the drawer and put the baby in the drawer and put it back in.

Well, you can see why I believe in spiritual balance. Somebody once said to me you should buy flowers for your wife to show her that you really love her. Flowers? Flowers? God's money for flowers? This money is needed for world evangelism to feed those who are hungry and dying without food in Africa.

How can we spend money on flowers? No flowers. My wife always tried to be so brave. She doesn't need. Five years I wrestled with that. Finally balance came. I went out into the woods and found some old flowers and I brought those to my wife.

But it was a miraculous day in my life. I actually spent some money and bought some flowers. It's a miracle when I gave them. My wife did not have a nervous breakdown. Why do I share this with you this morning?

Because everywhere I go in the world I find Christians dedicated Christians getting into extremes. Not in the same way as me but in some other form of extremism. Your problem will not be like mine. There are many, many different problems.

But I would beg of you to let one biblical portion of Scripture bring the other portion into balance in your life. I have listed in my Bible over fifty areas fifty, five zero where I am working to find spiritual balance and maturity.

Ten Areas Requiring Spiritual Balance

Satan's first effort will be to keep you from real commitment to Jesus Christ. Strategy number one. Strategy number two. When you have come to know Christ and you are committed to Christ and you are filled with the joy of God and filled with the Holy Spirit Satan will try to get you into extremism.

Especially if you are strong temperament strong minded. Do you have any of those people in Poland? I know Henry here. Are there any other people like Henry? Strong minded. And God uses that. But it has to be continually brought into balance.

And that's why often God gives this kind of person a very special wife. How I thank God for my wife. Spiritual balance can come in many ways. You may not have a wife. You may have a friend. You may have a spiritual counselor.

God uses many things. What are some areas where you'll be wrestling with this balance and maturity? Let me see how many I can give you before it's eleven o 'clock. You can make a list. Number one. The crisis versus the process in our Christian growth.

Acts 4 .31 is a crisis. Acts 20 .32 is a process. I'll repeat it. Acts 4 .31 is a crisis. And Acts 20 .32 is the process. If you come forward in one of the evening meetings and you're saved or you recommit your life to Christ there may be some tears.

There may be some emotions. Don't be afraid of emotions. Jesus wept. Paul wept. But the big factor now is when you leave here God's process. Daily in the Word of God. Daily on your knees in prayer and intercession.

Daily fellowship. Daily worship. Daily denying self, taking up the cross. It's not one or the other. And you may meet some people. I've met some in Poland. Very crisis oriented. Whatever problem you have you just need to be backed by the Holy Spirit.

Then you won't have any more problems. It's just not true. And in my meetings I see plenty of people zapped or filled with the Holy Spirit. I speak in some of the biggest churches in the world of all different denominations.

But I know without God's process people get off balance and they don't go on. Number two. Discipline and liberty. 1 Corinthians chapter 9 talks about buffeting the body, talks about the discipline line.

Galatians 5, 13 talks about the liberty, the freedom we have in Jesus Christ. Some churches emphasize discipline. Some churches emphasize freedom. Some churches get easily into legalism. It's all rules and things you're not allowed to do.

Others overreact to that and they get in a completely liberty situation where they're getting into all kinds of problems. Number three. The balance between zeal and wisdom. And second. A .W. Tozer said the greatest gift needed in the church today is discernment.

That deep spiritual wisdom. Oh, how important that is. In my own life I was strong on zeal and weak on wisdom. We have an important word in English. It's called common sense. God wants us to use common sense mingled with faith.

Biblical Submission and Freedom

Another area. Number four. Submission and freedom. There's some extremist teaching going on today. But here, you know, we have to submit to our church leader no matter what he says. We just submit. We do exactly what he says.

Others are over here. They say, no, whatever the Holy Spirit leads me to do, that's what I'm gonna do. I don't listen to man. Isn't the truth somewhere in the middle? We need biblical submission. But not to the destruction of our own unity and the responsibility of finding God's will for our lives.

In England, whole churches have been split in two fighting over this particular issue. Number five. The warfare. The emphasis on spiritual warfare. Second Timothy, chapter two. Brought into balance by the emphasis on the rest of faith.

Hebrews, chapter four. Both are in the Bible. In our work, we became too extreme about being soldiers. That's only one of dozens of ways to describe a Christian. We are also friends of God. We're also kings and priests.