Ordinary Christianity (part 4)

Bethlehem Bible Church

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Well, we've talked at some length about the fruit of the spirits, and I'm trying...

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Do you ever find yourself wanting to say fruits of the spirit? Do you?

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Is that wrong or right, technically, if we're going to get technical? It's technically wrong.

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Why is it technically wrong? Because it says fruit. Well, let's close in prayer.

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Because it does say fruit. Because this is the inevitable... Because it's not... Here's how we see when we read

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Galatians 5. We look at it as a list of individual things that the Holy Spirit produces in us.

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And the truth is, the Holy Spirit produces fruits. One outworking, one finished product.

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And in that finished product are all these things. And so that's what we're looking at, or what we're talking about, when we talk about what we should expect out of our lives.

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That's ordinary. You know, you read that list... Let's just read it. I mean, just think, this is the ordinary

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Christian. This is what ordinarily happens to us. And then I want to look at that list, and then

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I want to say, well, what happened to me? You know, there seems to be some kind of malfunction.

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And if it's not in the Holy Spirit's part, then whose is it? Let's look at Galatians 5, 22 and 23.

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Well, you know what, let's back up a little bit. Because it does help to kind of set it in context. I'm going to start reading in verse 16.

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But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the

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Spirit, capital S. And the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh. For these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.

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That's like Roman 7 language. I don't do the things I want to do. I do the things

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I don't want to do. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.

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Now, the works of the flesh are evident. Sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality.

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Idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy. Fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions.

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Envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. Now, when you look at that list, you think what?

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Works of the flesh, what do you think of that list? Does it sound like any one individual?

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What's that? Sounds like there are groups of people that do different types.

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I mean, if you met one person who was involved in all these things, what would you say, what would you think about that person?

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I'll tell you what I would think about that person. That person is not long for this world because you just can't live like that for very long.

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That is a rough way to live. So I think it's talking about like worldly activity in general.

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So then he says, I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

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So it's not all those things that you have to do, it's any of those things. If you're involved in them, you're in trouble.

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If that's the pattern of your life, you are in spiritual danger.

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Then he says, but the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self -control.

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Against such things there is no law. Now when you read that list, I mean, I don't know about you, but by the time I get to the end,

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I just kind of relax. Why? Because it makes me feel good. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, it just sort of makes me relax.

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Faithfulness, gentleness, self -control. Against such things there is no law. Well, what do I know? That I'm not all these things perfectly.

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I don't think the Holy Spirit is failing because he's not failing. But this is the end result.

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This is the end result, not the second by second perfect result.

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In other words, should I expect to see these things in my life? Yes. Am I perfect in any of these things?

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Probably not. But the Holy Spirit will inevitably produce that. But I just want to bring that up before we move on, because we're going to see that that's not what the church at large often focuses on.

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And this is going to seem like a side route, but let me do this anyway. Anybody know about the

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Cologne Cathedral? I was reading this and I can't even remember how long it took to build.

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Anybody know about the Cologne Cathedral? Hundreds of years to build this.

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And I don't remember who even started it, some king over there. I guess it would be in Germany.

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Knowing that he wouldn't see the end result and his point in talking about this is that sometimes true greatness takes time.

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It takes patience. You have to be willing to start something knowing that you may not even see the end of it.

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Now can you think of something like that in our lives rather than the Cologne Cathedral?

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Something in your life where you start in your lifetime and you think, I may not see the end result of this.

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Let's just have a moment of prayer for Becky. The big dig is the wrong answer.

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I feel like I should be on Family Feud. We surveyed 100

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Christians across the United States and asked them, Okay, other thoughts?

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That's what you were thinking too? You people. You need to stop reading the

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Boston Globe. What might you start in your lifetime and not see the end result during your lifetime?

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Training your kids. You won't see the end result.

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That's kind of tricky. Because you will see the end result of that when you die. You'll know exactly what the end result of it is.

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That's an ongoing process. I track where you're going with that, Sam. Preaching the gospel to other people.

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Is it possible that you could preach the gospel to somebody and then die and you may never see that person come to salvation, but they could come to salvation?

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Yes. How about this? Suppose that 100 years from now,

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Bethlehem Bible Church is right here, but it's like 16 stories high. That sounds crazy.

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I'm just saying there are things that we start that we may not see the end of. It's like with our grandkids.

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Do we know that we're going to see the end? I hope that we won't see the end of their lives.

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We don't know what the end result is going to be, but we start now. Actually, we started before with our kids.

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There are things that we can only just set in motion and we can only contribute to, and then we just have to trust the

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Lord. But sometimes those things, as in when he's talking about the Cologne Cathedral, those things turn out to be very spectacular.

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Well, why? Because it takes a long time to do. There are a lot of things, I think, that sometimes take a long time to produce and the end result is worth it.

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Sometimes maybe not, like the big dig. At least I don't really think it was worth it.

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I think it was something that had to be done. Okay, sorry. Sorry for that.

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But he just talks about how sometimes excellence takes a long time. And how do we feel about things like that?

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I mean, if I told you, which is easier to get people excited about? If I say, listen, if everybody at BBC gives $100, we can build a massive building and we'll have it done in 30 days.

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Or if I say, you know what, if we make the groundwork now, our great -grandchildren will build a wonderful church and it'll be 10 ,000 people and we'll have the best pastor in the whole world.

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People aren't going to get that excited about that because we want results now. Why do people live the way they live with credit cards and everything else?

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Because they want what they want and they want it now. The long -term thing is often not so exciting.

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Well, here's a very simple and very personal one. Why do people marry the wrong person? Why is that?

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They want to have kids before it's too late or whatever. Let me just kind of summarize it this way. Do they take the short -term view or the long -term view?

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Short -term view. If you take the long -term view, you're far less likely to,

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I mean, you're marrying the right person theologically, but the wrong person to our way of thinking because it doesn't last.

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If you take the long -term view, I mean, what do people focus on?

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Looks. A bunch of things that are fleeting. What they ought to be focused on is character, their love for the

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Lord, those kind of things. Let's read

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Matthew 28, 16 to 20.

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Would somebody read that? Great commission. Very familiar. Matthew 28, verses 16 and 20.

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Who has that? Nobody has it.

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Nobody can find it? Okay. Brian Bartlett. We have to go to some basics in the

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Bible here. Matthew. Now, is that a short -term goal or a long -term goal?

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It's pretty easy to sort that out, right? Is Jesus worried about the end result?

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Is he like, I don't know if you guys are going to get this done or not. He already accomplished it.

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He's not worried about it. And the end result is going to be a great thing, right?

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I mean, this is what, even just thinking about discipleship. Do you make disciples quickly?

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I mean, we can get people, people come to faith sometimes rather quickly. But a true disciple, how long does that take?

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Think about the life of Paul. We see that right away he gets saved, right, on the road to Damascus.

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He gets saved and he's transformed and then he starts testifying of Christ. But how long is it before he starts being the

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Apostle Paul? It's years, right?

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I don't know if it's 13 years, but it's years. Why? Because he has a lot to learn before he can do that.

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And he learns from the Lord Jesus Christ himself. Let's look at Romans 8. Romans 8.

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And we're going to read verses 28 through 39.

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And would somebody read that, please? Yeah, go ahead, Luke. Okay, now let's break that down just into basically two components.

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If you look at the first part of that section, would you say that the

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Triune God has a long -term goal or a short -term goal in terms of his plan of salvation?

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Long -term. Now, the second half of it.

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When you read those things, I mean, very familiar words. But when you read those things, how do you even wrap your arms around the value of that?

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How do you even measure that? You know, when you think about long -term plan and results is eternal and it's temporal too.

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I mean, just think about those words. Do they have value for us right now and forever?

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There's no way of estimating. There's no way of putting a price tag on that.

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It transcends value. And his point is, you know, we get so caught up in the ephemeral, the temporal, the right now.

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And what we ought to be doing is setting our sights on eternity, so to speak, looking at things that have genuine value now and eternal value.

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How many are familiar with the Heidelberg Catechism? Anybody memorize Heidelberg Catechism?

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How about question number one? I'll just ask you and then let's see if you can get the right answer.

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You won't be able to. What is thy only comfort in life and in death?

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Well, that's okay. That's the beginning of it.

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You have anything else? Do you want me to read the whole thing? Sure, go ahead. All things are subservient to my salvation.

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What does that mean? And another way of saying that is all things work together for good.

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I'm saved and all things work together for my good. Now, let's go back to the question and think about that.

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What is thy, what is my, only comfort in life and death? That my sins are paid and that my eternal salvation is secure no matter what happens right now.

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That's the Steve translation of the Heidelberg Catechism. I mean, isn't that a comfort?

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You know, what happened this week in San Bernardino was terrible. I mean, I grew up just a short drive from San Bernardino.

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And, you know, I can't help but think, you know, what happens where somebody said, you know, what's the security up there at Camp Spofford where we were this weekend?

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And I'm going, well, you know, there are Navy SEALs out there in the lake. And they pop up, you know, should terrorists.

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Was that true? No. No, no, it's not true. Yeah, our plan was we just hide behind Austin.

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But, you know, my response was, well, I hope if, you know, if ISIS shows up this weekend that they just shoot me.

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I'd rather not be on some tape being, you know, beheaded or whatever. How can you just, and I'm not even joking.

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I mean, I just want it to be fast. But if you think about it, what is it that we're concerned about?

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I'm not concerned about anything. God is sovereign. And if he chooses to end my life, then my life is going to end.

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And I can think of a lot worse ways to go. My comfort in life and death is not my physical security.

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My comfort in life and death is not my wealth. My comfort in life and death is not my home.

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It's not my wife. It's not my kids. It's not my grandkids. It's not anything. It is this that my sins have been paid for and that my eternal security is sure.

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Now, along those lines, Horton asked this question. In fact, let's just go to Ephesians 2.

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I don't want to ask the question before we read this. Ephesians 2, verses 4 to 10. And this really, again, is very important for us to consider.

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Ephesians 2, verses 4 to 10. And it just focused on the eternal nature of our salvation rather than the transitory things that some people focus on.

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Ephesians 2, verses 4 to 10. Yes, go ahead, Lisa. Okay, now the question that the author asks here is, and this should be easy, is faith a gift given in salvation or a condition upon which salvation is based?

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It's a gift. I mean, the text says that. But how many people who would say, and probably are

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Christians, would say that it is a condition upon which salvation is based? And what's the difference?

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How could somebody say that it is a condition upon which salvation is based? Okay, I think you're on the right track.

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You say that, you know, where grace is sort of removed from the equation. That's close,

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I think. Tom. Well, it means that we're not totally depraved. It means that we're not dead in our trespasses and sins.

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There's some island of righteousness in us that is able to respond to God's call. Okay. We can't respond, we're dead.

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Right. We need God to resurrect us, regenerate us before we can do anything. Okay, we need to be regenerated before we can do anything, right.

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Well, so what's wrong with saying that faith is a condition upon which salvation is based?

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And what you're saying is we're dead and we can't exercise faith, right.

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But what difference does it make when we say that? In terms of mental approach and in terms of peace and in terms of...

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Okay, so if it depends upon you, then there are some reasons to question, right, whether or not you've done things the right way or whether or not it was sure or not.

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And what do we see? I've mentioned this before, but several years ago, I think it was shortly before my dad died,

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I was out in California and I went to a church on Easter Sunday. And they had this, well, it wasn't a church, they had this thing out in the park and I just thought, well, this would be interesting.

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And so at the end of this, he actually did give the gospel. I mean, you could pull the gospel out of all the things he said,

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I guess is how I would say it. And then, you know, invited people to come forward and people were getting baptized right away.

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And I just thought, well, you know, it's interesting. That's an interesting way of doing things. But I just thought, now, if people believe that, you know, they were the ones...

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Now, do you have to exercise faith? Yes. And if you believe that it was of your own doing, then, you know, that you've skewed kind of,

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I think, the promises of God. I mean, I don't think if you have a wrong understanding of salvation, that doesn't mean that you can't be saved.

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I want to be clear about that. I mean, you could be an Arminian and still be saved. I think the difference is, you know, when you consider the promises of Romans 8, when you consider the work of God in Ephesians 2, where it says

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God made you alive, I think there's a big difference because when you just realize this is a work of God, now, you can relax and you can think,

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I'm secure, not because of anything I did, right? But because of the work of God in me.

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It's His doing. And I am His craftsmanship. And at the end of the day, when

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I am raised in glory, it's not going to be because of anything I did.

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I am the object of the work of God. I am the object of the affection of God.

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We are believers. Now, there are two possible responses to that kind of thinking, right?

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That God is sovereign in salvation, that God is going to finish the work that He has begun. And what are the two possible responses?

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One is, great, I don't have to do anything.

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Okay? We would call that, basically, it's a form of hyper -Calvinism or hyper -grace thinking, you know,

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I can do whatever I want. But the Christian response, the right way to think about it is, out of joyful obedience and submission of the

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Lord, I'm going to follow Him. I'm going to do what He wants. I'm going to preach the gospel.

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I'm going to seek to obey Him and to honor Him and glorify Him in all

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He has asked me to do. Not because it's going to gain me points. It's not going to get me a higher place in heaven or whatever.

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That's not my concern. My concern is just to be faithful to the Lord Jesus Christ who bought me.

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That would be my concern. Questions or comments about that?

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Okay. Okay. He says that, Gordon says,

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My goal is, again, to encourage an orientation and habits that foster deeper growth in grace, more effective outreach, and a more sustainable vision of loving service to others over a lifetime.

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This is not a call to do less, but to invest in things that we often give up on when we don't see an immediate return.

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The fact that ordinary has become to mean mediocre and low expectations is a sign of the problem

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I want to address. There's nothing wrong with the ordinary life. It's an obedient life. It's not a meaningless life.

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Now, we're going to talk somewhat about what it means to be young and restless.

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And he talks about some things that I really don't care about, so I'm not going to mention them. But what about this idea now that there's a really,

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I would say, while we have a youthfulness to our society, I would say there's an immaturity to our society.

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What do I mean by that? There's an immaturity to our society. I was talking about it with somebody yesterday.

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What do you just suppose about this? When is somebody a grown -up, an adult, okay, when they're responsible for their actions?

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Well, by law, when is someone responsible for their actions? Eighteen.

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Okay. But. And this is where I was going. Yes, but. But things are hard.

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Yeah, things are hard. I'm looking forward to a future president saying that you can stay on your parents' life insurance policy until retirement.

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You never have to get your own insurance. Whose insurance are you on, my parents?

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Aren't you like 72? Yeah, well, it's good times. I'm still living in the basement playing

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Xbox. Xbox 17. And that's what

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I mean. There's an immaturity. You're an adult at 18. You're responsible for your actions. When can you buy alcohol?

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21. Well, when you're not at 18, you're an adult. Okay. Excellent point.

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So, Joni says that, you know, while they're in college, they can sign forms to block you from seeing their grades.

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And, you know, what college student wouldn't want to do that? You know, you might be picking up the tab.

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Think about that, though. You might be picking up the tab and not able to see your kids' grades. But, you know, we also have a society that says, well, even though you're not an adult at 14, you're old enough to have an abortion and not tell your parents about it.

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And that's something else Joni said. You know, there are contradictions in the law. Let me see if I got this right. I can make life or death decisions about an abortion at age, sometimes as young as 12, if you get a court to decide that your parents aren't nice to you and probably wouldn't let you have the abortion.

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Therefore, you can do it at age 12. But you can't get a tattoo until you're 18. You can't buy a beer until you're 21.

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You can't rent a car until you're 23. You can defend your country sometimes at 17 with a waiver. And now if you're a girl, get ready for the draft.

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Going to put you on the front lines, even though the Marine Corps says that doesn't work. I don't want to say our country is crazy, but our country is crazy.

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I mean, just think about that. An abortion as young as age of 12 without your parents' consent.

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But you can't get a tattoo. It takes a village.

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I mean, it's just bizarre. But, you know, think about this, too. And he asked this question. He says, Howard Twitter, and listen to this.

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You just don't really think about this in terms of gaming and all these other things. I'm sorry.

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The Bible and other things. But he mentions gaming. He says, Howard, Twitter, gaming, and reality TV is shaping rather than merely reflecting our culture.

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You know, there was a time where I thought, for example, I mean, this is old school reality TV. Old school reality

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TV is Jerry Springer, right? I mean, they bring in crazy people from all around the country, and then they set them up to fight.

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Nowadays, the idea is to get your own show so that you can show how crazy you are, right? So you can have cameras following you around and show how nuts your family is.

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But, Howard, you know, how are these things shaping rather than merely reflecting our culture?

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And I think in many ways. I think our culture has become much more crass, mean -spirited.

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Why? Well, I think Twitter. What is it about Twitter or Facebook or other online things that make it okay to be mean -spirited, cruel?

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You know, why do we have all these things about what's it called? What are you? Cyberbullying. Yes, cyberbullying.

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Thank you. There's no personal contact. It's not face -to -face. There's no personal, you know.

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It insulates you from the consequences. It insulates you from the consequences. There's a certain anonymity, you know, a lot of times.

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You know, because, like, you have some stupid name online like the Tuesday guy. Nobody knows who that is.

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So I'm just like, I'm just flaming everybody. And if you know what flaming is, then shame on you.

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If you're laughing, shame on you. But these things really are kind of shaping.

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They're making our society more crass, you know, less connected, too.

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I mean, like when I was a kid, I mean, I think it's funny. I see these little memes now, and I'm like, dude, that's me.

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You know, you see all the bikes in front of the house, and you go, that's how you know where your friends were? That was me when

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I was growing up. I'd go right in behind and go, oh, you know, that's so -and -so's bike. I'll just stop in here.

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I mean, that's how we live. My mom used to say, get out of the house. She'd say that all the time.

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And, you know, we'd be gone from, especially during the summer, from after breakfast until, you know, dinnertime.

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I don't even know. I don't think we ate lunch very often. Sad times. But enough about my childhood.

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But, I mean, things have just really changed. Now, you know, where do kids meet their friends? Well, sometimes it's in the neighborhood still.

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But I think a lot of times, you know, especially as they get into their, you know, as they advance in age all the way up to, like, nine or ten, they're meeting their friends online.

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I saw some survey. I don't know if this is true or not, but this just seems so totally weird to me. I think it was like 75 % of kids, like, under the age of five have some kind of online device or something.

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And I'm like, it's bizarre. Well, I was just, I saw somebody the other day posting that they just went out and bought a new tablet for both spouses and their child, and their child's three.

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I don't know, you know. Was she doing Amazon shopping? I don't know. Mommy, I want.

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I just don't know. But our society is definitely changing, and, you know, some of the ways are not so great.

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But I think there's a lot of immaturity and a lot of anger and a lot of other things being focused on.

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But I think the other thing is, and this is where he's really ultimately going, is he's like, there's a lot of pleasure -seeking.

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There was a book out maybe 20 years ago called, not entertaining ourselves, amusing ourselves to death.

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And I think we have certainly gone farther and farther in that direction. And I want to just talk about this concept.

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Who wants to define hedonism? Corey. It is the love of pleasure.

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The love of pleasure. And pleasure -seeking, I think we can do that. Let's go to Ecclesiastes, Chapter 2.

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I mean, tell me this doesn't describe our world.

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I said in my heart, come now,

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I will test you with pleasure. Enjoy yourself. But behold, this also was vanity.

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I said of laughter, it is mad and of pleasure. What use is it? I searched with my heart how to cheer my body with wine, my heart still guiding me with wisdom, and how to lay hold on folly till I might see what was good for the children of man to do under heaven during the few days of their life.

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I made great works. I built houses and planted vineyards for myself.

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I made myself gardens and parks and planted in them all kinds of fruit trees.

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I made myself pools from which to water the forest of growing trees. I bought male and female slaves and had slaves who were born in my house.

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I had also possessions of herds and flocks, more than any who had been before me in Jerusalem.

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I also gathered for myself silver and gold and the treasure of kings and provinces.

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I got singers, both men and women, and many concubines, the delight of the children of man.

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So I became great and surpassed all who were before me in Jerusalem. Also, my wisdom remained with me, and whatever my eyes desired,

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I did not keep from them. I kept my heart from no pleasure, for my heart found pleasure in all my toil, and this was my reward for all my toil.

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Then I considered all that my hands had done and the toil I had expended in doing it, and behold, all was vanity and a striving after wind, and there was nothing to be gained under the sun.

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What people do is they accumulate stuff. They just find ways to entertain themselves, to please themselves, and this is the way of the world now, and I mean more so now than ever.

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You can basically live online and do nothing more. I think about, you know, read this week that Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook, plans to, like, what was it, give away $1 billion for the next 40 -some odd years or whatever it is.

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Well, how can he do that because of, you know, Facebook and the stock value he has?

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But what does he have to do now? You could say run the company, and I would just say, well, he doesn't really have much to do.

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This man says the more one pursues happiness, the less one experiences the happiness desired, right?

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Because happiness as an end to itself leads to what?

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One short -term goal after another. You know, once I have this, that'll make me happy.

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Well, it doesn't last, and then once I have that, it'll make me happy, and it doesn't work. Michael Horton defines happiness this way.

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Happiness is something that happens when we are looking for something or someone other than happiness.

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I'm going to read that again and see what you think. Happiness is something that happens when we are looking for something or someone other than happiness.

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Anyone? Okay. How would you define happiness, then?

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Okay, happiness, emotional experiences, joy, a more settled state.

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Other thoughts? Janet? Yeah, happiness is a byproduct of other things that we're doing.

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Yeah, I agree with that. Well, here, let me put it this way.

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What do you think about this, you know, and I think this is what Tom was driving at. You know, the difference between happiness, which, you know, is basically what he's been talking about a lot.

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You know, even in the Christian world, what do we seek? Mountaintop experiences, happiness. You know, we go up to Camp Watumbo or whatever that was.

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What was that yesterday? Yeah, Camp Spofford. I was close. You say

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Spofford, I say Watumbo. You know, no, it was more than just, you know, a happy time.

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But the point is, you know, we focus on these mountaintop experiences, and what he's pointing us to is settled contentment of understanding not just who we are in Christ, but what all that means, what that entails, and how our focus should be not on these short -term pleasure -seeking or even happiness -seeking things, but understanding who we are in Christ and living accordingly, focused on the long -term, not the short -term.

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I like this quote because I think this is so apropos vis -à -vis our society. He says, we are called to enter the kingdom like children, but not to remain locked in the perpetual restlessness of childhood and adolescence.

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You know, we're to have faith like a child. We're not to live like children is how I would say it.

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And, you know, so many times this is the people in the church become a reflection of the world around them, focused on the short -term, not focused on the long -term.

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Now, I think this is a good question. What is maturity, and why is maturity difficult and undervalued in our society?

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I want to answer that. I don't want to get to the what is maturity yet because I'm not really sure

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I understand maturity. What I will say is why is maturity difficult and undervalued in our society?

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And I would say to a certain extent, this gets right back to what we talk a lot about here, parenting.

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Why is maturity difficult and undervalued in our society? Because many parents don't teach their kids what it is to be an adult.

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And they don't teach them either by example or by instruction. If you live like a kid, then why would you be surprised if your kids live like kids?

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Why would you be surprised that they don't grow up? And, you know, it's so often like a – what's the word

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I'm looking for? It's almost like a – not a prototype, but like – oh, a stereotype.

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That's what I was looking for. A stereotype on TV where, you know, the rich and successful parents just kind of leave their kids on their own.

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But it's not just the rich and successful parents who leave their kids on their own. You know, there's a tendency even in Christian homes.

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Like, all of a sudden, when the kid isn't cute and adorable anymore, what do you do with them?

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I don't know what to do, so I leave them alone. You know, you have a 9 -year -old, a 10 -year -old, and an 11 -year -old, and they're suddenly left making decisions that they shouldn't be making because there's nobody to make those decisions for them.

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There's nobody to tell them, you know, that's not a good idea. We have to – we,

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Christians, have to teach our kids constantly all the way up until they leave the home.

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That doesn't mean we run every aspect of their lives. That just means, like I say on many occasions, like, as they get older, we give them more and more responsibility.

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But that doesn't mean we stop checking in on them and talking to them about their decision -making. We want to shape and mold that, and that's what maturity is.

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That's how you get to maturity, is by having someone who's mature. I mean, basically, we could just call it what?

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Discipleship. Harry was talking about discipleship yesterday.

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What's the end goal of a discipling relationship? Multiplication, which means my goal should be, if I'm discipling somebody –

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I think I'm catching Harry disease. My goal should be to put so much myself into that person that whatever good that's in me they get – hopefully they strain out all the bad, which there's a lot to strain out – but so that they go further than I do, you know, spiritually and in other ways.

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I want them to go, isn't that what you want for your kids? And that's what a discipleship relationship is, whether it's your kid or somebody else.

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You want to pour yourself into them so that they can go actually further than you do, than you have.

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And that's the goal. You know, what does maturity mean? Let's just talk about that for a second.

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What is spiritual maturity? If I were to say this is, you know, the specimen of a mature

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Christian. What would that be? Okay, somebody has a right understanding of the

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Word of God and walks in those ways. How about this? What if I just say this? I mean, how about if I just said

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Galatians 5, 22, 23? Somebody who I read that list and that's that person.

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Now, are we going to see that? Are we going to see that perfection of spiritual maturity in this life? No. But the goal is that.

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You know, another verse that comes to mind is, be filled with the

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Spirit, be filled with the Holy Spirit. What does that mean? You know, Ephesians 5, 18, it means to walk by the Spirit. It means to be controlled by the

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Holy Spirit. And if you see somebody who is being controlled by the

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Holy Spirit, then the inevitable result is going to be the Galatians 5 model.

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Galatians 5, verses 22 and 23, not the other verses. Spiritual maturity, that's what we're looking for.

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I mean, the perfection of spiritual maturity, of course, would be the Lord Jesus Christ. And we're not going to be perfect in this lifetime.

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You know, I mean, if you would have said a dead saint, I would have said, well, that's correct, because that is a perfectly spiritually mature person.

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In this life, we won't see perfection, but we should see the direction of maturity.

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We should see a leaving behind, as it were, of spiritual adolescence, of wanting, you know, the quick fix, and of being willing to do the hard work that it takes to reach spiritual maturity.

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We need to close. Father, just thank you for your word, for what it says about all that you have done for us.

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And Lord, in light of that, in light of causing us to be born again, in light of granting us everything in Christ Jesus, what manner of children ought we to be loving, obedient, striving for maturity, seeking to make disciples?

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Lord, let us not seek after vanity, after temporal happiness.

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But Father, let us be focused on the long term, on the things that matter, and on even thinking beyond our lifetime in the kingdom work, the things that we can be doing now, that we may not see the end results, but Lord, we can trust you to bring about the fruit in due time.