Celebration of Spiritual Growth ( Philippians 1:6-11 John Lasken)

And I'm gonna start with a proverb, and that is not in the New Testament, folks. That is in the Old Testament, so I should turn that way. So as you read through the scriptures, you do devotion, certain things stand out when you read.

This stood out to me this week when I was reading it. It says this in Proverbs 12, verses 17 and 18. He who speaks truth tells what is right, but a false witness deceit. There is one who speaks rashly like the thrust of a sword, but the tongue of the wise brings healing.

So that's something to think about this week as we think about how we use our tongues and how are we going to speak to other folks. And are we gonna use our tongues to praise the Lord?

I hope we do.

Now tonight there's gonna be prayer meeting here at six o 'clock, so if anyone is interested, the doors will be open, so come on in. And by the way, we also sing hymns, acapella, if that's an interest to someone too.

So we really enjoy a Sunday night prayer. The Men's Movie Night, this is on 7 -7, which I think is a Friday. I might not get that right. But anyway, that's gonna be the end of this week. And the last day for sign up is to be today.

If you want to do that, it's a sign up online. There's a link in the pastorgram that went out on Thursday, but there's also a link on the church app calendar if you're interested in that. And Bob Nichols is the one who's heading that up, so he's right back there at the door.

There's also a dinner before that if you'd like to take part of that, and that's gonna be a TG Fridays. So if you're interested, guys, come on out, it'd be great. Also for the men, the men's breakfast has been moved to not tomorrow, Monday, but the Monday after that.

So that's 7 -10, July 10th, and that's early in the morning. So make note of that, guys, if you want to come out to the breakfast. Also for the men, men's Monday night group, the regular group that we meet for Bible study, and we're going through the Spurgeon book right now.

It's seven o 'clock on Monday night. Yes, we are meeting tomorrow. A few people asked me about that. We are meeting tomorrow. We know it's July 3rd, so a lot of people have off, but the men are meeting.

But the ladies now, the normal Tuesday morning class that the ladies have is on July 4th, so that class is canceled for this week. So July 4th, no class for the ladies, so please take note of that. And also now for the ladies again, Monday night precept, the class that Cindy Randall teaches is not going to start tomorrow, but it's going to start the week after again on the 10th of July.

That's seven o 'clock here at the church. They're going to go through the precept study with Kay Arthur, and if you're interested in that, there is a book associated with that, so please see Cindy Randall for that.

Also, we want to bring your attention to next Sunday already. It's this Sunday. We don't want to leave the moment here, but next Sunday we're going to have a special opportunity to be with a couple of our missionaries.

This is Steve and Jan Hobson, and for some of the old timers here, they actually know Steve and Jan Hobson because they were pastors. Steve was pastor here way, way back when, but they went to be missionaries to the Philippines.

They have a lot to report. The things that the Lord has been doing in the Philippines has been absolutely incredible, and they've actually had ties into doing some ministry in the Middle East. They're going to be here and they're going to give an update next week, but they also want to stay after the second service next week to get much more in depth of what the ministry is all about.

They want to have a Q &A session with us. They want all of us to be able to hear what's going on, and they want to have an extended session, so everyone, please remember that, and I hope that everyone can stay and just talk to the Hobsons next week after the second service.

They really are going to enjoy seeing everyone. Now, with that in mind, I was going to say, there is a certain other missionary friend of ours that has recently come home, and I see he's actually sitting here, so Ron, it's good to see you.

We've been praying for Ron Jacobs. He went over to Malawi to visit with Hamilton, Banda, and work in the ministry there, and Ron may give us an update next week or the week after. We're not sure now, because now the Hobsons are here, so we're gonna figure out what's gonna go on with that, and we'll talk to you, but we can't wait to hear what Ron has to say and what's going on over there with Hamilton and Malawi.

It's an exciting time, and the Kamlins were here earlier today, our missionaries to Portugal, and they're back, and they're with us again, and Gary Kamlin is gonna be speaking soon at one of the services we have here, so there's a lot of things going on.

In addition to that, VVS registration is online and through the link. It's either through our website, cornerstonesj .org, or it's in the pastorgram, so please register your children as you can. Now what we'd like to do is recognize anybody who has graduated.

We want those who are transitioning from eighth grade to high school or high school to college or anybody who's graduated college, any higher education, and this could be an adult too. If you would stand, we want to pray for you, and we know Caleb is, because Caleb was here in the first service, so Caleb graduated.

So we thank you, Caleb. But if there's any other graduates, please stand if you could. We would like to pray for you now. Robert, thank you for that.

I know that was reluctant,.

But thank you for standing up. So let's go to the Lord in prayer, and I want to pray specifically for our graduates. Father, we thank you for what you're doing. We thank you, Father, for this opportunity we have this morning.

Celebrate communion. Celebrate, Lord, the work that you're doing overseas and within our midst as the gospel goes forth in Malawi, in the Philippines, Lord, in the Middle East, Father, and in Portugal.

We thank you so much for those who are serving you with a whole heart. We thank you, Father, for the worship team and all that you're doing here with this service that your name would be honored and glorified.

We lift up your holy name this morning. And Father, for our graduates, we are so grateful, Father, for the homes that they have. We are grateful for the parents that they have that are raising them. In a very difficult generation, Father, but they're standing firm on you, firm on the word of God.

And we pray, Father, as I saw Robert and Caleb stand here, there's probably many, many more. I didn't see any others stand right now, but we pray, Lord, that you would be with those who are transitioning from one school to another or one grade to another or have graduated in some sense, maybe higher education that maybe aren't here today, Father, but that you would continue the work that you have begun in their hearts.

Father, not just gaining just a secular education, Father, but growing them in you, Lord, as they, Father, just work hard and they're endeavoring, Lord, to improve their minds, their souls, their bodies, that you would help them, Father, along their path, Father.

And we thank you, Lord, for the hard work they've put in. We thank you for helping them get to this point of graduation, Lord, and we praise you in Jesus' name, amen.

Let's all stand together and worship the Lord. Worship you, Lord. Help us to always be mindful of that, Lord, that you came here, Lord, you're the Word made flesh, Lord, Father. We love you and we thank you so much, Lord, for what you did for us, Lord.

Seek to praise and honor you, Lord, and help that to instill in us a life that pursues your will for our lives.

We bow our whole spirit, come make us humble We turn our own evil, cast down our sin, we pray

Church, so we celebrate Communion the first Sunday of every month, and we're coming up to July 4th. And what that makes me think about is how we celebrate freedom. We celebrate the freedoms that are enshrined in our Bill of Rights, the freedom of speech, religion, assembly, and we are blessed to live in a country where we can worship freely.

Amen? Amen. Amen.

We just hope that it remains free for us to celebrate and to worship freely. We celebrate this table and what Jesus did by granting us freedom from sin. His sacrifice paid for our freedom as long as we believe and put our trust and faith in him.

This is an amazing gift, eternal freedom to worship Christ in heaven forever. I'm reminded of Philip the Evangelist, as we like to call him here, and he led an evangelism class on Monday nights. We took a break from the apologetics men's ministry and did a church-wide evangelism class.

And it was a fantastic class. If you missed it, you really missed out. But it was a fantastic class, and we talked about being bold enough to share the news of this amazing gift that Christ has done for us.

And it's become a verb sort of in our family. I know that my mother-in-law and my wife talk about re-comforting someone because it was all around re-comfort and the way that he shared the gospel with pretty much everybody he came across.

And I pray that we could be as bold as well to share the good news of the gift that Christ gave us in dying on the cross. Jesus tells us to practice this ordinance, to remember his sacrifice in this gift.

He established it so we would never forget what he did and the cost of his sacrifice and the gift of salvation. Jesus also warns us, though, not to take this ordinance lightly. Jesus tells us to examine ourselves and repent of our sins.

It says in 1 Corinthians 11, 27 through 29, whoever therefore eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a person examine himself, then and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup.

For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself. So clearly the Lord's table is meant to be taken seriously. Each of us should examine ourselves, we should repent of our sins, and we should thank him for his sacrifice.

The grace and mercy he has shown us cost, was very costly. Freeing us from the bondage of sin was very costly. There should be a time of reflection and communion with our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

So why don't we take a moment to do just that? Lord God, I thank you so much for sending your son to die on the cross. I thank you for your sacrifice to provide us with a way to be reconciled to you, a way to be freed from the bondage of sin, a way to spend eternity worshiping you in heaven.

God, I just pray that we come to this table with pure hearts as the song we sang said, Lord, I just pray that we would remember the sacrifice, that we would understand how much it costs Lord, and that we would be forever grateful of the gift that you've given us.

I pray this in Christ's name, amen. So it says in 1 Corinthians 11, 23 through 24, for I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, this is my body, which is for you, do this in remembrance of me.

And then continuing in 25 and 26, it says in the same way, also he took the cup after supper saying, this cup is the new covenant in my blood, do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me. For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.

So I ask the men to come forward. The Lord said, this is my body, do this in remembrance of me. The Lord Jesus said, this is my blood, this is the new covenant in my blood, do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me.

Lord God, we thank you so much for this precious gift, your sacrifice on the cross that freed us from the bondage of sin. I pray that you would give us the boldness to share the news of this precious gift with as many as cross our path, God.

And I pray that you would use us to spread the good news of your gospel throughout the earth. I pray all these things in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

Good morning. Pastor Jeff is, I pray, enjoying and being refreshed on his sabbatical. One of the things that he had designed to do was to take various hikes while he was on sabbatical. I don't know if he's gonna take his kids with him, but one of the hikes that he had on his radar scope was Mount Washington.

I don't know if any of you have ever hiked up Mount Washington, but it is a journey. It's a fairly decent elevation. It's not a technical climb that you would need the various ropes and stuff, but it is an arduous climb.

There are ways that you can go wrong while you're walking up Mount Washington. I have a fear of heights, and there are three ways to ascend, three major ways to ascend, and it has to do with this feature called Tuckerman's Notch.

It's a large swath of the mountain that has been washed away for whatever reason, and one goes below it and up around the side, a fairly precipitous hike along a ridge line. Another goes this way and up and around it.

That's the way that my friend and I chose. At one point in time, there was about an eight-foot boulder that we had to get up over, and there was no way around it. You had to get up and over this boulder.

I could do that with my eyes closed almost, except for the fact that below the boulder was the path, which was only about four feet wide, and next to that path was Tuckerman's Notch. I was frozen, okay?

My point is, Jeff has got this climb that he would like to do, and it's a journey, and it's not a journey. He can stop halfway. Once he leaves the ranger station at the bottom, the next stop is the lookout house up on top.

There are paths that he has to follow. There are places he could fall. There are lots of things. He has a journey ahead of him. Last week, we started in the book of Philippians, and I talked to you in Philippians about being partners in the gospel.

Today's message continues on our Christian journey, and we're gonna talk about spiritual growth. Now, I'm going to backtrack a half a second, and as we get into this, I'll actually tie into it. I gave you some information last week about what happened in Fullerton a couple of weeks ago, and last week, I spoke predominantly about the spiritual aspects of the time we were there and things that occurred.

I referred to 1 Peter 2, where it says that God owns me, and he owns his church. It's not my church. It's his church. There's a definitional truth that's involved with that. We talked about some of the things that transpired, but then we concluded that thought with, we know in the end, God wins, and then I gave some challenges that said things like, we are called by God.

We are his children. We are his church. These are definitional. We have the Holy Spirit. This is promise. We are given the great commission. This is our marching orders, and we must keep our eyes focused on him and on his glory.

This is the way we are to be, because in Matthew 5, 18, it says, "'Let your light shine before men "'so that they may see your good works "'and praise your Father who is in heaven.'". And this is our ultimate motivation, is God.

I wanna give you just a couple of more facts about what's going on, what went on, so that you as a church are aware. And remember, this is God's church. This is not our church. We are part of the church of God in greater context.

But some of the things that did happen, and I wanna clear up some thoughts and set some thoughts very straight. Pastor Jeff was not defrocked. If there are any impressions that Pastor Jeff was defrocked, lost his ordination, that did not happen.

After the questions and answers and testimonies were given, the vote was taken by all of the delegates that were there. Pastor Jeff's ordination is placed in trust. They desire that he retract and repent and correct his course from things and ways that he had proceeded.

Pastor Jeff is not compromising. He did not compromise. He is not backing down to the culture of the world. Pastor Jeff is standing strong.

Amen.

Both Pastor and Jeff remain fully credentialed in the EFCA. There's no fear that we have lost our credentialing, but there are decisions that need to be made. Jeff levied some thoughts that must be considered seriously by the EFCA, and he put them out there very clearly.

The EFCA now needs to decide what they're going to do with these exhortations that Pastor Jeff gave. Pastor Jeff needs to decide how he is going to respond to the EFCA pastors and delegates who made this vote saying, "'Jeff, we would like you to recant.

"'We would like you to restore. "'We would like whatever it is you want to do.'". As Pastor Jeff and I were leaving Fullerton, and he was going to be leaving for his six-week sabbatical, I said, "'Jeff, I don't want you to make a decision.

"'What I am asking is that you spend "'the next eight weeks praying. "'Don't make a decision based on emotions. "'Let the Holy Spirit tell you "'what decision needs to be made.'". And I promised for myself and for you, Jeff, if you decide to go this way, we got your back, and Jeff, if you decide to go that way, we got your back, because it's the Holy Spirit who's going to tell you where to go.

Now, if things go down a path, and I want to make very clear, some people were teasing me about this after first service. "'No decision has been made.'". I'm going to say it in different words in case you didn't catch what I just said.

"'No decision has been made, but if.'". If things go, and the EFCA says we stand by what we said, and if for God's sovereign will, if for his sovereign will, we as a church follow behind Jeff and choose that the EFCA is not the right place for us, "'No decision has been made.'".

Do not leave here saying, Pastor John said, unless you say no decision has been made. If this happens, a couple of things will happen off of that. First of all, both Jeff and I will pursue ordination as independent pastors, and then once that has been completed and we have submitted our paperwork to become an independent church or whatever, both Jeff and I would have to surrender our credentials to the EFCA.

Let me say one more time, no decision has been made, but I want you as our brothers and sisters to know where we are. I want to encourage you that what has happened, what will happen is all under the sovereign will of God.

We rest there for Jeff, for the EFCA, for all of us, we're on a journey. None of us are where we eventually will be, God has said that, but we are on a spiritual journey. There are decisions that are in front of us, and by the way, this is a message now for us, there are decisions as we are on our journey, but we must in all ways accept the sovereignty of God.

There was a video included in last week's Pastor Graham, it was a interview with Jeff and Calvin Lindstrom, James Pittman, there was some discussion about what are the important aspects, what's happening.

If you have not seen it, I really encourage you to see it. Pastor Jeff speaks very clearly, and the moderator is very, very good in how he deals with this issue. There was one phrase made in that interview, spiritual growth has been replaced by conformance with woke ideology, and unfortunately, that's too prevalent in churches today.

Let me say that one again, because it is so important. Spiritual growth, which is the path we are on, has been replaced by conformance with the woke ideology. Paul in his letter to the Philippians encourages spiritual growth.

In fact, he celebrates spiritual growth. That's where we are today. The path that we take as we are walking from where we are today is reflective of where we stand in our submission to the sovereignty of God.

Let's pray. Father, as we open your word, we surrender to it. As we stand before you, we surrender to you and to your sovereign will. As we consider decisions in front of us, as we consider the path in front of us, we seek to follow you.

We praise you, Father God, that Pastor Jeff stands strong to you without compromise. We pray that we, your children, would be likewise. And we pray, Lord, that your word would encourage us on the spiritual growth and on the journey that we are on, amen.

I am not a biologist. My kids, my grandkids love to talk to me about things, and if it gets into the realm of physics and engineering, I can talk to them. But if there were ever a question of biology, I'm not your guy.

But I remembered something from school, and it intrigued me, so I did some research. There are seven characteristics of living people in a biological realm, and some of them include with the need to take nourishment, respiration and oxygen, the need to reproduce, our ability to respond to stimuli.

Growth is one of the characteristics of a living being. It has been stated that if you stop growing, you're dying. Now, I believe, again, in my reading, there are X number of cells in the human body that die every day.

That's not a bad thing because new cells are taking their place, they're reproducing, they're growing. Disease really makes a mess with all of that. Biologically, when you stop growing, you start dying.

And I want to tell you that spiritually, when you stop growing, you start dying. You see, God has called you from where you were. And if you go into Ephesians 2, you were dead in your trespasses and sins.

You followed after the course of this world the prince of the power of the air. All of these bad things in verses one and, then it says, but God. Amen to that. There is a transition that takes place, but when that transition takes place, it's not a complete accomplishing everything.

God places you on a journey that he wants you to take. Now, it's interesting because God could have said, Ray, the moment you accepted the Lord, I am making you perfectly, holy, complete. He could have done that, but he doesn't.

He takes you where you are and he makes you a new creation and he gives you the Holy Spirit, but he's going to send you on a journey. And this journey is spiritual growth. But that spiritual growth is not something that we do by ourselves.

This is through the Holy Spirit and by his grace, but we do play a role. And that role is sometimes called spiritual discipline. There are aspects to spiritual discipline. Praying, reading his word, meditating on it, memorizing it, having it in your mind so that the what if happens, his word is right there for you.

Surrendering to him, setting priorities according to him, spending time in fellowship one with another. There's a list of spiritual disciplines that are powerful and they equip you for this spiritual journey and spiritual growth.

But they're not things you'd even do those by yourself. They are there, but you must be surrendering to the Holy Spirit and following his grace. If you were to go into my office upstairs at my house, you will see that every night, one of the last things I do before I go to bed is I think about tomorrow and I write a list of everything I want to accomplish tomorrow.

I'm a list guy. Any list people here? If you do something that wasn't on your list, do you write it down so you can cross it out? Then you're a real list person. The first thing on my list is devotion.

If I wake up in the morning and go into my office and have my devotion so I can cross it off my list, it doesn't mean a thing. But if I wake up in the morning and I have in my heart, good morning, God, and I have in my heart, I need you today so much, who was it that set all the orphanages in England and he said, I am so busy, I cannot, I can't afford to not take time to pray?

That's a loose paraphrase. How many hours a day did he pray? If I wake up in the morning and I say, good morning, God, I need you today, let's open your word and see what you have for me today. Let me meditate on a piece of your word.

That is spiritual discipline, not just checking it off a list. If you came here today because it's Sunday and you can check it off your list, I went to church on Sunday, I would come here because you're meeting with the Lord.

When we spend time in the beginning of a service and we worship, can you put that slide up, guys? When we come here and we sing songs, this is not a concert. This is not a sing-along. If you went to camps and had a sing-along, this is not a sing-along.

It's worship, it's worship. We just prayed these words, and I emphasize the fact that we didn't sing these words because this is worship. We prayed these words, give us clean hands. These are the evidence of the activities that we take and the decisions we make during the day, the things that we choose, the things that we take hold of, the way that we impact people.

Give us clean hands. Give us pure hearts. It's that peace inside of us that can have this relationship with God. Give us pure hearts where the, okay, don't mean to offend anybody or put anybody on the spot, but in a few months, the Eagles will be playing again.

Which is more important, on Sunday, an Eagles game or coming into the fellowship and worshiping? I want you to say, we just prayed, give us pure hearts. Let us not lift our souls to another. That is the path.

That's our footsteps. That's our marching orders in this spiritual life you see, if we think that we can control this, even the spiritual disciplines, let me take you to Jeremiah 17, nine. The heart is more deceitful than all else and desperately sick who can understand it.

If you're going to be making this based on your heart's inclinations, that's not gonna get it done. And if you think that I can be clever enough and smart enough and intuitive enough, I'm gonna take you to Proverbs three, where it says, lean not on your own understanding.

Submit to God. That's our spiritual journey. The things of spiritual discipline are things that you ought to be aware of. And you should be practicing the spiritual disciplines. But did you know that Satan counterfeits every single one of them?

And the way that you know you are doing spiritual disciplines as opposed to the counterfeit is what's your motivation, where's your heart, what's your focus, what is important to you? There was a video, a pastor by the name of Mark Driscoll.

Now I understand he has certain baggages, but this particular sermon is so powerful. It is so powerful. And in it he says that Satan's counterfeit counterfeit to being born again is woke. That's a paraphrase, but that's what he said.

Satan's counterfeit to being born again is woke. What that means is if you are born again, you are a new creation, your heart has been made new, you have what you need now to be on this journey. And so if those truths are uncompromised in your life so that when you're making this journey, when Pastor Jeff walks up Mount Washington, he's gotta stay on the path, he can't go off.

And when he goes up on that path, he cannot take his eyes off of where he is or there is a rock that is going to give him all kinds of trouble. If you are born again and you're following after the Holy Spirit and you're letting God guide your path, you are on a journey and you are growing spiritually, but if you are woke, you are dead.

That's a Satan's counterfeit. A parent, a grandchild's thrill is to see their children grow spiritually, isn't it? To have those moments. You as a parent provide things. You provide limits and you provide discipline.

You provide love, food, security, instruction. You provide an example. Every step that is taken in the right path is a source of rejoicing for a parent. I've gotta believe that when God looks down at you, my brothers and sisters, and he sees you make those choices and go up that path, and you're walking and you're growing spiritually, it brings joy to his heart.

I gotta believe it. Philippians 1, six to 11 is our text today. I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will complete it, will bring it to completion at the day of Christ. It is right for me to feel this way about you all because I hold you in my heart.

For you are all partakers with me of grace, both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel. For God is my witness, how I yearn for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus.

And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more with knowledge and discernment so that you may approve what is excellent and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God.

We're going to look at the assurance of God's work, confidence in one another on this journey, involvement with one another on this journey, and evidence of spiritual growth as it occurs in each other, the assurance of God's work.

And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Christ. Cried God had began this. You did not achieve perfection and come to Christ. There was a song back in the late 60s, kind of a tongue-in-cheek title, He's Filling Up Heaven with Sinners.

Think about that for a minute. If you think that you are righteous, isn't that kind of like the spiritual leaders of the day, they thought they were righteous? But if you're like that man who stood at the back of the temple, bowed down, and he said, Lord, have mercy on me, the chief of all sinners, that's who he's calling.

He's not calling the righteous ones. He's calling those who admit, I fall short, I'm a sinner, but you sent your son to the cross. If you've never prayed that prayer, you need to pray that prayer now.

I'm a sinner, you sent your son to the cross. I confess and repent of my sins. I accept without condition your blood. And he starts the journey, he begins the good work in you. You see, back in Genesis, on the sixth day, he created man and he said, it's good, it's very good.

Then he created woman, brought them to man, and it was a perfect union, and he instituted marriage, and it was absolutely perfect. They walked in the cool of the day with God until that horrible day. Satan comes and deceives, and sin is entered, and death enters spiritually into the heart of man.

But you see, there's some promises. Ezekiel 11 talks about, I'm gonna put in you a new heart. Give you a new heart. That's his work within you. In 2 Corinthians 5, 17 is, you're a new creation. Old things passed away, all things become new.

He starts the journey for you. When you accept his word, it says in 1 Thessalonians 2, that word performs work in you. And so the journey goes on because of his power. And Hebrews 13 tells us, he equips us for every good work through Jesus Christ, and so the journey begins.

Again, God could have made you perfect, but he decided not to. So that as you walk in this world, as you make these decisions, as you're on this journey, and then you make a mistake, and we know you will, 1 John says, he who says he is without sin is a fool, and he deceives himself.

But if you confess your sins, he's faithful and just to forgive you of all sins, cleanse you in righteousness. So as you're on this journey, and you make a mistake, and you come back to him, what a joy that can bring to your heart.

And it says there that he is faithful to bring it to completion. He promised these things that are going to be abundant by his goodness. And in fact, in Romans 8, 28, he said that all things work together for good.

He doesn't say that you're now a believer, all things are gonna be nice and easy for you. They're going to be for your good because he's gonna be there every step of the way. John 10, 10 says, I've come that you can have life and have it to the full.

This journey, this journey is going to be experiencing life in a way that the world cannot counterfeit. Satan can make you think that if you make this choice, you're gonna have a lot of fun, and maybe you will for a moment.

But if you follow Christ, maybe you're gonna skip out on that quote unquote fun thing, but boy, you're gonna sleep better at night. And your sense of fulfillment is gonna be so much greater. He comes that we can have life to the full.

Jeremiah 29, 11, I know that it speaks to the nation of Israel and what he plans for them, but it applies so much to each of us. I know the plans that I have for you, declares the Lord. Plans for welfare and not evil, to give you a future and a hope.

So we go on this journey knowing that as we're on this journey, he is the one that's gonna take us to the end. He is the one that's gonna bring it there. But do you know what it says? We don't even know what we're gonna be yet.

And I love the phrase, you ain't seen nothing yet. If you think God is giving you such blessings and you can see, you ain't seen nothing yet because he's gonna make it better and better and better. I was talking with Gary Kamlin of Between Services, and we were talking about some of the trials that even Pastor Jeff is going on.

It says in the Beatitudes, blessed are those who are persecuted. Blessed are you when you are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for yours is the kingdom of heaven. But in the same way, they also persecuted the prophets who are before you.

Even in those moments where the world or whatever is standing up against you, count it joy because it teaches us in James that trials eventually lead to perfection. This is the journey that he allows us to go on.

It's just gonna be a lifelong journey. I've had the privilege of taking some hikes of my own. And in a younger day, I did a lot of whitewater rafting, my brother and I. We could take on the big rivers.

We didn't need to have a scout or a guide. We had those of us who knew our way. We did the Grand Canyon twice down the Colorado River. And so when you'd approach a huge rapid, all the rafts would pull aside and you would march up to a lookout point because the water changes every day a little bit.