1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:05,920 He was chapter number five is where we're gonna be this morning. 2 00:00:05,920 --> 00:00:11,040 As we have already read, you all know, if you don't know me well, 3 00:00:11,040 --> 00:00:19,640 then you can learn that I have three kids and I love being a dad almost all the time. 4 00:00:21,980 --> 00:00:22,920 No, I love being a dad. 5 00:00:22,920 --> 00:00:23,840 It's awesome. 6 00:00:23,840 --> 00:00:27,800 And one of the rules that I tell my kids, they have one rule. 7 00:00:27,800 --> 00:00:29,120 I said, kids, you got one rule. 8 00:00:29,120 --> 00:00:32,240 Audrey, Zeke, Milana, one rule. 9 00:00:32,240 --> 00:00:36,040 And the rule is this, no more growing up. 10 00:00:38,480 --> 00:00:39,160 Stop. 11 00:00:40,960 --> 00:00:45,200 And I say that because how many of you guys have felt this before with your kids or grandkids? 12 00:00:45,200 --> 00:00:48,080 Man, they're growing up so fast. 13 00:00:48,080 --> 00:00:54,400 And you're like, it's just going too fast because you love them so much and you want to soak in every moment you have with them. 14 00:00:54,400 --> 00:00:56,560 Some moments you want to fly by. 15 00:00:56,560 --> 00:01:00,600 But some moments you want to soak up and that's a big thing. 16 00:01:00,600 --> 00:01:04,880 And when I was young, time seemed to crawl. 17 00:01:04,880 --> 00:01:09,200 But as we go on, time seems to go faster and faster. 18 00:01:09,200 --> 00:01:15,080 And so you want to capture it and enjoy it and it's a lot of fun. 19 00:01:15,080 --> 00:01:18,160 You ever feel that way? 20 00:01:18,160 --> 00:01:21,400 Of course, though, it's a horrible rule, no more growing up. 21 00:01:21,400 --> 00:01:25,200 Because the other part of me is get out of my house. 22 00:01:25,200 --> 00:01:26,480 Right? 23 00:01:26,480 --> 00:01:28,280 It's time to grow up. 24 00:01:28,280 --> 00:01:30,800 I want my kids to grow up. 25 00:01:30,800 --> 00:01:32,200 You want your kids to grow up? 26 00:01:32,200 --> 00:01:33,600 I want them. 27 00:01:33,600 --> 00:01:40,880 I know you don't necessarily, but in the one sense, but in another sense, you don't want them to not grow physically. 28 00:01:40,880 --> 00:01:42,880 You don't want them to not grow. 29 00:01:42,880 --> 00:01:48,600 You want them to grow physically and relationally and spiritually and financially. 30 00:01:48,600 --> 00:01:51,080 Stunning growth is not an admirable thing. 31 00:01:51,080 --> 00:01:55,520 Nobody's like, hey, let's stop growing. 32 00:01:55,520 --> 00:01:59,800 If you take any time to think about it, and a lot of times the alternative is not growing, is dying. 33 00:01:59,800 --> 00:02:02,600 You know, and we don't want that. 34 00:02:02,600 --> 00:02:07,040 There's a criticism that some make about Christianity. 35 00:02:07,040 --> 00:02:13,960 In fact, I heard Orthodox Jew and political commentator Ben Shapiro say this recently. 36 00:02:13,960 --> 00:02:21,280 He said that in comparing Judaism to Christianity, he made the claim that Christianity is just about faith and belief. 37 00:02:21,280 --> 00:02:24,000 It's just that God's just concerned about what you believe. 38 00:02:24,000 --> 00:02:32,080 He said that in Judaism, we care about what you do, but not so much what goes on in your head and your heart. 39 00:02:32,080 --> 00:02:38,240 And I want you to know something very clearly today, and I like a lot of what he has to say. 40 00:02:38,240 --> 00:02:43,040 Our Jewish brothers and sisters, you know, they're not our brothers and sisters in Christ, but I'm like Paul. 41 00:02:43,040 --> 00:02:47,040 I don't know that I could say this. 42 00:02:47,040 --> 00:02:48,480 This is a big statement by Paul. 43 00:02:48,480 --> 00:02:52,240 I would be a curse if it were for my kinsredeemer in the flesh, right? 44 00:02:52,240 --> 00:02:55,480 Like he's saying, I want Jewish people to be saved. 45 00:02:55,480 --> 00:02:56,680 That's what Paul's heart was. 46 00:02:56,680 --> 00:02:59,200 That's my heart, too. 47 00:02:59,200 --> 00:03:00,640 That's true. 48 00:03:00,640 --> 00:03:02,520 But I want you to know something very clearly today. 49 00:03:02,520 --> 00:03:10,160 That is not an accurate portrayal of Christianity because God cares about what we do. 50 00:03:10,160 --> 00:03:12,720 God cares about what we do. 51 00:03:12,720 --> 00:03:15,200 God cares about your behavior. 52 00:03:15,200 --> 00:03:17,400 He cares about your growth. 53 00:03:17,400 --> 00:03:18,440 What shall we say then? 54 00:03:18,440 --> 00:03:21,280 Should we continue and send that grace may abound? 55 00:03:21,280 --> 00:03:22,320 God forbid. 56 00:03:22,320 --> 00:03:23,560 May it never be. 57 00:03:23,560 --> 00:03:26,120 That's not what God wants at all. 58 00:03:26,120 --> 00:03:32,240 God is concerned with our growth. 59 00:03:32,240 --> 00:03:37,760 Like a father who cares for their kid, God wants us to grow up. 60 00:03:37,760 --> 00:03:40,160 He really does. 61 00:03:40,160 --> 00:03:42,000 I want you to know that very clearly today. 62 00:03:42,000 --> 00:03:43,880 Of course, it matters what we believe. 63 00:03:43,880 --> 00:03:50,840 Salvation does come by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. 64 00:03:50,840 --> 00:03:54,440 And if you're here today and you never put your faith and trust in Christ, it matters 65 00:03:54,440 --> 00:03:56,640 what you believe. 66 00:03:56,640 --> 00:03:59,160 The issue isn't that God doesn't care about your behavior. 67 00:03:59,160 --> 00:04:04,040 He just knows that your behavior can't make you right with God. 68 00:04:04,040 --> 00:04:06,720 You're already wrong with God. 69 00:04:06,720 --> 00:04:10,920 Jesus came and kept a law you could not keep and died to death that you and I deserve to 70 00:04:10,920 --> 00:04:15,240 die so that we could have His righteousness put to our account. 71 00:04:15,240 --> 00:04:22,040 God put our sin to His account and now we get to live as people who, believing, have 72 00:04:22,040 --> 00:04:24,080 life in His name. 73 00:04:24,080 --> 00:04:26,960 That's what He wants for us. 74 00:04:26,960 --> 00:04:31,560 But that doesn't mean that we get saved and then that's it. 75 00:04:31,560 --> 00:04:35,880 God wants us to grow. 76 00:04:35,880 --> 00:04:41,240 And in growing, He wants our behavior to be changed. 77 00:04:41,240 --> 00:04:44,680 God wants you to be spiritually mature. 78 00:04:44,680 --> 00:04:51,040 That's His desire for every person who comes to faith in Christ. 79 00:04:51,040 --> 00:04:55,360 So I want you to grow up. 80 00:04:55,360 --> 00:04:57,440 God wants you to grow up. 81 00:04:57,440 --> 00:05:02,880 In today's text, you're going to find that it's God's will that we grow into spiritual 82 00:05:02,880 --> 00:05:04,000 maturity. 83 00:05:04,000 --> 00:05:10,160 This is the third of three warning, actually multiple warning passages in the book of Hebrews. 84 00:05:10,160 --> 00:05:13,920 We're on the third one that we've been to in the book so far. 85 00:05:13,920 --> 00:05:17,080 We're walking, if you're here with us the first time. 86 00:05:17,080 --> 00:05:20,440 It is my pattern, not all the time, but most of the time to go verse by verse through the 87 00:05:20,440 --> 00:05:21,440 Bible. 88 00:05:21,440 --> 00:05:22,800 That's what we're doing. 89 00:05:22,800 --> 00:05:28,360 So we've just gotten ourselves to Hebrews chapter five, verse number 11. 90 00:05:28,360 --> 00:05:32,560 And there's been three warning passages in Hebrews, three times that the author says, 91 00:05:32,560 --> 00:05:35,000 hey, now pause, let me give you a warning. 92 00:05:35,000 --> 00:05:36,040 There's danger here. 93 00:05:36,040 --> 00:05:37,920 Pay attention. 94 00:05:37,920 --> 00:05:43,320 The first one was back in chapter two and he said, he warned us about drifting. 95 00:05:43,320 --> 00:05:49,240 Hey, it's important that you don't drift because the salvation that you received is so great 96 00:05:49,240 --> 00:05:50,240 a salvation. 97 00:05:50,240 --> 00:05:51,720 You don't want to drift from that. 98 00:05:51,720 --> 00:05:55,080 The second warning back in chapter three was the danger of unbelief. 99 00:05:55,080 --> 00:05:58,560 He says, hey, there was these people that could have gone into the promised land and 100 00:05:58,560 --> 00:05:59,760 they didn't believe God. 101 00:05:59,760 --> 00:06:01,200 They didn't listen to God. 102 00:06:01,200 --> 00:06:02,200 They didn't believe God. 103 00:06:02,200 --> 00:06:04,000 And so they did not enter his rest. 104 00:06:04,000 --> 00:06:07,280 And so he says, you need to be diligent to enter into his rest. 105 00:06:07,280 --> 00:06:10,760 And that's kind of a very similar thing to what we're going to talk about today. 106 00:06:10,760 --> 00:06:11,760 Grow. 107 00:06:11,760 --> 00:06:13,280 Get into God's rest. 108 00:06:13,280 --> 00:06:18,480 Now, in this third warning in today's text, we're going to see the warning about the danger 109 00:06:18,480 --> 00:06:23,680 of spiritual immaturity, the danger of spiritual immaturity. 110 00:06:23,680 --> 00:06:27,360 Today we're going to see that God wants us to grow and to mature. 111 00:06:27,360 --> 00:06:31,960 If we do not grow up into all he wants us to be, that's very dangerous for us and it's 112 00:06:31,960 --> 00:06:33,640 dangerous for others. 113 00:06:33,640 --> 00:06:34,760 And we're going to talk about that. 114 00:06:34,760 --> 00:06:42,240 So to pursue spiritual maturity passionately and effectively, we must take these four steps 115 00:06:42,240 --> 00:06:44,880 that we're going to see in the text. 116 00:06:44,880 --> 00:06:52,160 Now, everything I'm going to say, he's talking here to believers, to people who know Christ 117 00:06:52,160 --> 00:06:53,160 as their savior. 118 00:06:53,160 --> 00:06:57,400 And the reason why I say that is because my steps that I'm going to talk about today 119 00:06:57,400 --> 00:07:01,920 are assuming that you've already, you already know Christ as your savior. 120 00:07:01,920 --> 00:07:06,160 If you don't know Christ as your savior, you can't grow because the Bible says that 121 00:07:06,160 --> 00:07:10,640 you're not spiritually necessarily, that it's not, the issue is that you're spiritually 122 00:07:10,640 --> 00:07:12,880 dead. 123 00:07:12,880 --> 00:07:19,640 Ephesians 2 1 says, and you have to be quickened who are dead and trespasses and sins. 124 00:07:19,640 --> 00:07:21,440 Now that doesn't mean you can't make any decisions. 125 00:07:21,440 --> 00:07:26,400 It doesn't mean as some of our Calvinist friends say that you're totally unable of doing anything 126 00:07:26,400 --> 00:07:27,400 good. 127 00:07:27,400 --> 00:07:33,800 You are still responsible to respond to Christ's call. 128 00:07:33,800 --> 00:07:36,000 That's part of it. 129 00:07:36,000 --> 00:07:38,720 You believe that? 130 00:07:38,720 --> 00:07:41,920 You still have the responsibility to choose. 131 00:07:41,920 --> 00:07:45,840 But once you get saved, once you know Christ as your savior, once he comes in and lives 132 00:07:45,840 --> 00:07:51,040 inside of you then, these are steps that you need to understand and take so that you can 133 00:07:51,040 --> 00:07:52,040 grow spiritually. 134 00:07:52,040 --> 00:07:53,960 It's not enough just to be born again. 135 00:07:53,960 --> 00:07:56,320 Once you're born, you need to grow. 136 00:07:56,320 --> 00:07:58,240 So what are these four steps? 137 00:07:58,240 --> 00:08:03,000 Step number one, we must know our unattained goal. 138 00:08:03,000 --> 00:08:04,920 Know our unattained goal. 139 00:08:04,920 --> 00:08:10,840 Verse 11, of whom we have many things to say and hard to be uttered, seeing that ye are 140 00:08:10,840 --> 00:08:11,840 dull of hearing. 141 00:08:11,840 --> 00:08:13,520 Let's pause there. 142 00:08:13,520 --> 00:08:20,080 The scripture continues here in verse 11, and if it's your first time here today, you 143 00:08:20,080 --> 00:08:24,080 need to know that we've talked about every verse up until this point. 144 00:08:24,080 --> 00:08:28,080 So when we get to verse number 11, he's talked to us about what's going on. 145 00:08:28,080 --> 00:08:32,600 And one of the things he said, and this is the theme of the book, and I don't know, Steve, 146 00:08:32,600 --> 00:08:36,640 if you can go back to this, I'm kind of throwing you for a loop, go back to our title slide 147 00:08:36,640 --> 00:08:37,920 if you don't mind. 148 00:08:37,920 --> 00:08:43,080 The title slide, here's the title of this long series that I'm doing. 149 00:08:43,080 --> 00:08:46,120 The title of the series is Jesus is Greater. 150 00:08:46,120 --> 00:08:47,920 Jesus is Greater. 151 00:08:47,920 --> 00:08:51,800 You could sum up the book of Hebrews into this one word, better. 152 00:08:51,800 --> 00:08:52,800 Better. 153 00:08:52,800 --> 00:08:53,800 He's greater than Moses. 154 00:08:53,800 --> 00:08:55,160 He's greater than the angels. 155 00:08:55,160 --> 00:08:57,800 We have a better sacrifice. 156 00:08:57,800 --> 00:09:02,000 And then what he's been talking about in the verses 1 through 10 is we have a better priesthood. 157 00:09:02,000 --> 00:09:04,240 We have a better priest. 158 00:09:04,240 --> 00:09:08,000 There's those Old Testament priests that are from the Aaronic line. 159 00:09:08,000 --> 00:09:09,000 He talks about that. 160 00:09:09,000 --> 00:09:13,280 Here, Christ's priesthood has been compared to the Old Testament priesthood in the previous 161 00:09:13,280 --> 00:09:14,280 verses. 162 00:09:14,280 --> 00:09:19,600 The end of that explanation is that we have a high priest that's not a priest after the 163 00:09:19,600 --> 00:09:27,400 order of Aaron, but a priest that's after the order of a guy named Melchizedek. 164 00:09:27,400 --> 00:09:32,160 And so Moses, who led God's people out of Egypt, had a brother. 165 00:09:32,160 --> 00:09:35,560 God called his brother to be a priest. 166 00:09:35,560 --> 00:09:40,880 And that priest would do things like, he basically, the priesthood, they would represent God. 167 00:09:40,880 --> 00:09:43,040 They would represent the people to God. 168 00:09:43,040 --> 00:09:46,240 They did that through sacrifices, through ceremonies. 169 00:09:46,240 --> 00:09:47,240 That's what they did. 170 00:09:47,240 --> 00:09:49,280 They went up to God on the people's behalf. 171 00:09:49,280 --> 00:09:55,840 And a main part of how they represented people to God was through the sacrificial system. 172 00:09:55,840 --> 00:10:01,040 They would sacrifice, a blood sacrifice, the sacrifice usually of a lamb. 173 00:10:01,040 --> 00:10:05,120 And that pointed to the Lamb of God, Jesus, who would take away the Son of the world. 174 00:10:05,120 --> 00:10:07,000 We'll talk much more about that. 175 00:10:07,000 --> 00:10:08,960 But there was an Aaronic priesthood. 176 00:10:08,960 --> 00:10:12,760 It came down from Aaron, him and his sons, and his sons after him. 177 00:10:12,760 --> 00:10:16,200 They were the people who were the priests in Israel. 178 00:10:16,200 --> 00:10:22,360 But in the last 10 verses, he brought up a different order of priests, a priest after 179 00:10:22,360 --> 00:10:25,160 the order of Melchizedek. 180 00:10:25,160 --> 00:10:29,760 Melchizedek was a figure referred to very few times in the Old Testament. 181 00:10:29,760 --> 00:10:33,080 But in his first description, he's seen, and this was the key, and we're going to talk 182 00:10:33,080 --> 00:10:37,960 more about it here in a couple of weeks, he is seen as both priest and king. 183 00:10:37,960 --> 00:10:39,560 Most of the priests weren't royal. 184 00:10:39,560 --> 00:10:40,560 They were just priests. 185 00:10:40,560 --> 00:10:46,040 In fact, God wanted that to be divided, separation of church and state. 186 00:10:46,040 --> 00:10:47,400 That's what he wanted. 187 00:10:47,400 --> 00:10:52,560 But you had this one who's Melchizedek, and he was called the priest, the king of Salem, 188 00:10:52,560 --> 00:10:53,960 the priest of the Most High God. 189 00:10:53,960 --> 00:10:57,160 He was a royal priest. 190 00:10:57,160 --> 00:10:59,600 And Christ said, in fact, look at your Bibles. 191 00:10:59,600 --> 00:11:00,880 Let's get them open. 192 00:11:00,880 --> 00:11:02,560 Mine's upside down. 193 00:11:02,560 --> 00:11:04,960 Shouldn't be. 194 00:11:04,960 --> 00:11:14,520 Hebrews 5. 195 00:11:14,520 --> 00:11:19,080 Look at verse number six, and he says also in another place, thou art a priest. 196 00:11:19,080 --> 00:11:21,000 How long? 197 00:11:21,000 --> 00:11:22,000 How long? 198 00:11:22,000 --> 00:11:23,000 Forever. 199 00:11:23,000 --> 00:11:26,040 After the order of Melchizedek. 200 00:11:26,040 --> 00:11:30,920 And then in verse 10, calling of God, a high priest, after the order of Melchizedek. 201 00:11:30,920 --> 00:11:34,320 Talking about Jesus in a prophetic Psalm, hey, you're going to be a priest, but your 202 00:11:34,320 --> 00:11:36,440 priesthood is not going to end. 203 00:11:36,440 --> 00:11:40,600 It's going to be forever, and it's going to be after this order of this guy named Melchizedek. 204 00:11:40,600 --> 00:11:42,040 The king priest. 205 00:11:42,040 --> 00:11:45,360 And Jesus Christ is our royal priest. 206 00:11:45,360 --> 00:11:48,880 He is king, and he's sitting on the right hand of God. 207 00:11:48,880 --> 00:11:49,880 That's pretty cool. 208 00:11:49,880 --> 00:11:55,440 Now, so when he says, of whom I have many things to say, it's kind of like he pauses 209 00:11:55,440 --> 00:12:00,320 and looks at his audience or thinks about his audience as he writes, and says, oh, no. 210 00:12:00,320 --> 00:12:03,080 But this is going to be hard. 211 00:12:03,080 --> 00:12:04,840 In fact, that's what he says, right? 212 00:12:04,840 --> 00:12:07,200 You see it in verse number 11. 213 00:12:07,200 --> 00:12:14,600 Of whom we have many things to say and hard to be uttered, seeing your idol of hearing. 214 00:12:14,600 --> 00:12:19,680 It is clear that the Holy Spirit has much more to say about Jesus Christ in Melchizedek, 215 00:12:19,680 --> 00:12:23,560 and he mentions that speaking such things is hard to be uttered. 216 00:12:23,560 --> 00:12:24,560 Why? 217 00:12:24,560 --> 00:12:27,440 Why is it hard for him to say it? 218 00:12:27,440 --> 00:12:28,440 What's the reason? 219 00:12:28,440 --> 00:12:32,080 Well, from the text we're told to read, we're about to read. 220 00:12:32,080 --> 00:12:37,600 We know that what he's going to say about Melchizedek is more deep and more complex and more impactful. 221 00:12:37,600 --> 00:12:44,720 It's in those couple of verses that he refers to, though here he says about an ought. 222 00:12:44,720 --> 00:12:45,720 Do you see that? 223 00:12:45,720 --> 00:12:48,440 Let's look at verse of whom we have many things to say and hard to be uttered, seeing 224 00:12:48,440 --> 00:12:53,920 your idol of hearing, verse 12, for when the time ye ought to be teachers, do you see that 225 00:12:53,920 --> 00:12:54,920 ought? 226 00:12:54,920 --> 00:12:56,560 You know what ought means? 227 00:12:56,560 --> 00:12:58,400 Ought means like a duty. 228 00:12:58,400 --> 00:13:00,680 This is where I expect you to be. 229 00:13:00,680 --> 00:13:02,560 This is where you should be. 230 00:13:02,560 --> 00:13:05,880 This is where you're supposed to be. 231 00:13:05,880 --> 00:13:08,040 But he says you're not there yet. 232 00:13:08,040 --> 00:13:15,960 There's a status and a ministry that they ought to have been at by this point that they have 233 00:13:15,960 --> 00:13:18,000 not yet attained. 234 00:13:18,000 --> 00:13:21,200 He's expressed two ways in this particular passage. 235 00:13:21,200 --> 00:13:23,160 The first way is in verse 12. 236 00:13:23,160 --> 00:13:29,280 He says for when for the time ye ought to be what? 237 00:13:29,280 --> 00:13:31,840 Teachers. 238 00:13:31,840 --> 00:13:33,360 You ought to be teachers. 239 00:13:33,360 --> 00:13:35,640 What is he saying? 240 00:13:35,640 --> 00:13:40,080 With as much time as they have been believers, he's saying you've been saved for a long time 241 00:13:40,080 --> 00:13:41,080 by this point. 242 00:13:41,080 --> 00:13:42,680 You ought to be teaching this stuff. 243 00:13:42,680 --> 00:13:45,600 That's what he's saying. 244 00:13:45,600 --> 00:13:52,200 This desire for every believer is that they become teachers. 245 00:13:52,200 --> 00:13:55,600 This does not mean every person in the church is gifted to teach in the way that I'm doing 246 00:13:55,600 --> 00:13:57,200 right now. 247 00:13:57,200 --> 00:14:02,200 God does not call every believer to formally teach as a position of authority in the church. 248 00:14:02,200 --> 00:14:06,680 But every believer is expected to teach in some area of life. 249 00:14:06,680 --> 00:14:08,960 Do you get it? 250 00:14:08,960 --> 00:14:14,840 My wife does not like being in public, speaking in public. 251 00:14:14,840 --> 00:14:20,120 She likes speaking at home. 252 00:14:20,120 --> 00:14:24,800 And I've even heard her preach, amen. 253 00:14:24,800 --> 00:14:30,480 I'm not saying she never gave me an outline. 254 00:14:30,480 --> 00:14:33,560 Everybody ought to teach. 255 00:14:33,560 --> 00:14:39,440 Hebrews 10, 10, 25 tells me that as a believer, I'm not to forsake the discipline of assembling 256 00:14:39,440 --> 00:14:42,040 with the assembly, the church. 257 00:14:42,040 --> 00:14:44,240 And it gives me a reason why in verse 24. 258 00:14:44,240 --> 00:14:46,600 It'll be up on the screen. 259 00:14:46,600 --> 00:14:48,000 Check this out. 260 00:14:48,000 --> 00:14:56,920 And let us consider one another to provoke, to love, and to good works, not forsaking 261 00:14:56,920 --> 00:15:01,640 the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some is, but exhorting one another, 262 00:15:01,640 --> 00:15:03,600 encouraging one another. 263 00:15:03,600 --> 00:15:07,360 And so much the more as you see the day, you know, the day of the Lord, as you see with 264 00:15:07,360 --> 00:15:12,240 the day Christ is coming back, you got to do more, not less of that, as you see this 265 00:15:12,240 --> 00:15:13,240 day approaching. 266 00:15:13,240 --> 00:15:21,320 There ought to be a teaching and an encouraging that goes on between the rows in the parking 267 00:15:21,320 --> 00:15:28,680 lot across the lunch and dinner tables after church and during the week, not just from 268 00:15:28,680 --> 00:15:33,720 the pulpit, not just from the lectern in the Sunday school class. 269 00:15:33,720 --> 00:15:35,280 There's a teaching that ought to go. 270 00:15:35,280 --> 00:15:36,280 There's an encouraging. 271 00:15:36,280 --> 00:15:37,280 There's a provoking. 272 00:15:37,280 --> 00:15:42,520 There's a some as my former pastor used to say, thumbs in the back of the shoulder blades 273 00:15:42,520 --> 00:15:46,720 and our brothers and sisters say, hey, go on, move forward. 274 00:15:46,720 --> 00:15:48,660 You can do this. 275 00:15:48,660 --> 00:15:49,660 You can do this. 276 00:15:49,660 --> 00:15:50,660 Hey, stop doing that. 277 00:15:50,660 --> 00:15:51,660 Start doing this. 278 00:15:51,660 --> 00:15:57,240 Hey, didn't you see in the Bible, let me tell you what I learned this week from God's word. 279 00:15:57,240 --> 00:15:59,120 That ought not to be weird in our assembly. 280 00:15:59,120 --> 00:16:03,400 That ought to be what we do all the time. 281 00:16:03,400 --> 00:16:05,600 You know what else we're supposed to teach? 282 00:16:05,600 --> 00:16:07,240 Not just with each other. 283 00:16:07,240 --> 00:16:10,180 We ought to teach in our homes. 284 00:16:10,180 --> 00:16:11,720 We ought to teach in our homes. 285 00:16:11,720 --> 00:16:13,720 Deuteronomy six forces this. 286 00:16:13,720 --> 00:16:17,320 Hero Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord. 287 00:16:17,320 --> 00:16:20,360 And thou shalt love the Lord, that God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, with all 288 00:16:20,360 --> 00:16:21,640 thy might. 289 00:16:21,640 --> 00:16:26,560 And these words which I command thee this day shall be in thy mouth. 290 00:16:26,560 --> 00:16:30,360 Sorry, they should be in that heart. 291 00:16:30,360 --> 00:16:33,000 And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children. 292 00:16:33,000 --> 00:16:35,600 And thou shalt talk to them as thou sitest in thy house. 293 00:16:35,600 --> 00:16:41,600 And when thy walkest in the way, by the way, and when thou lieest down, and when thou risesst 294 00:16:41,600 --> 00:16:49,240 up, every mundane, every day moment of life is the opportunity that we must seize to teach 295 00:16:49,240 --> 00:16:54,160 our kids and our grandkids who God is and the way they ought to live. 296 00:16:54,160 --> 00:16:55,840 Do you guys believe that? 297 00:16:55,840 --> 00:17:00,080 That's what he's telling us here. 298 00:17:00,080 --> 00:17:08,960 Now there is some controversy in the church, in the so-called church world about whether 299 00:17:08,960 --> 00:17:12,160 or not women ought to teach in the church. 300 00:17:12,160 --> 00:17:18,400 The passage in 1 Timothy, 1 Timothy 2, 11-15 says this, let the women learn in silence 301 00:17:18,400 --> 00:17:22,480 with all subjection, but I suffer not a woman to teach, nor do you re-surp authority over 302 00:17:22,480 --> 00:17:24,560 the man but to be in silence. 303 00:17:24,560 --> 00:17:29,520 For Adam was first formed in Eve, and Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived 304 00:17:29,520 --> 00:17:31,160 was in the transgression. 305 00:17:31,160 --> 00:17:35,200 Notwithstanding, here's what it says, verse 15, notwithstanding, she shall be saved in 306 00:17:35,200 --> 00:17:42,600 childbearing if they continue in faith and charity and holiness with sobriety. 307 00:17:42,600 --> 00:17:47,360 When it says here that she shall be saved in childbearing, Paul's not talking about 308 00:17:47,360 --> 00:17:51,280 salvation from sin by the gospel. 309 00:17:51,280 --> 00:17:53,920 That's not what he's talking about. 310 00:17:53,920 --> 00:18:00,520 It is saying that mothers have an incredible teaching ministry already to the next generation 311 00:18:00,520 --> 00:18:07,560 by the nature of their God-given role as mothers and aunts and grandmothers. 312 00:18:07,560 --> 00:18:12,720 You see that after you see the most, here's how you see this. 313 00:18:12,720 --> 00:18:14,600 Do moms have an influence? 314 00:18:14,600 --> 00:18:15,600 Huge. 315 00:18:15,600 --> 00:18:17,960 You know how you see it? 316 00:18:17,960 --> 00:18:27,640 Anybody ever watched those gigantic muscle-bound linebackers on the sideline, and they finally 317 00:18:27,640 --> 00:18:32,400 get the camera on them, and they wave, and what do they say? 318 00:18:32,400 --> 00:18:33,880 Hi, mom. 319 00:18:33,880 --> 00:18:36,120 Hi, mom. 320 00:18:36,120 --> 00:18:37,120 Right? 321 00:18:37,120 --> 00:18:40,280 What's my point? 322 00:18:40,280 --> 00:18:45,800 They have a huge insolence because they have a lot of time there with their kids. 323 00:18:45,800 --> 00:18:49,000 God expects women who are mothers to be their teachers in the homes. 324 00:18:49,000 --> 00:18:50,800 You know who Oscar calls to be teachers? 325 00:18:50,800 --> 00:18:54,160 Mark 16, 15 tells us really clearly. 326 00:18:54,160 --> 00:19:02,560 And he said to them, go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. 327 00:19:02,560 --> 00:19:05,840 Who's responsible for teaching? 328 00:19:05,840 --> 00:19:07,880 Everybody. 329 00:19:07,880 --> 00:19:11,920 To know the Lord is to speak about him. 330 00:19:11,920 --> 00:19:14,960 Acts 1-8, but ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost has come upon you. 331 00:19:14,960 --> 00:19:20,760 Be my witnesses in Judea, in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, to the uttermost part of the earth. 332 00:19:20,760 --> 00:19:23,560 Matthew 28, 18 through 20. 333 00:19:23,560 --> 00:19:26,080 Jesus came and spoke unto them, saying, all power is given to me in heaven and earth. 334 00:19:26,080 --> 00:19:29,200 Go ye therefore and teach all nations. 335 00:19:29,200 --> 00:19:32,400 Make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the 336 00:19:32,400 --> 00:19:36,120 Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things. 337 00:19:36,120 --> 00:19:37,920 What's our command of you? 338 00:19:37,920 --> 00:19:43,360 And lo, I'm with you, all way, even unto the end of the world. 339 00:19:43,360 --> 00:19:44,680 Amen. 340 00:19:44,680 --> 00:19:49,440 When we are commissioned to proclaim the gospel, to be God's witnesses, and to make disciples 341 00:19:49,440 --> 00:19:54,520 of all nations by teaching them to observe all that Christ has commanded, that includes 342 00:19:54,520 --> 00:19:56,920 all of us. 343 00:19:56,920 --> 00:20:02,200 That's not just what the pastors do, or the deacons, or the trustees, or the Sunday School 344 00:20:02,200 --> 00:20:03,200 teacher. 345 00:20:03,200 --> 00:20:04,200 That's not just what they do. 346 00:20:04,200 --> 00:20:05,960 That's what all of us do. 347 00:20:05,960 --> 00:20:10,400 We're all called to great commission teaching ministry. 348 00:20:10,400 --> 00:20:16,800 We all, as he says here, we all ought to be teachers. 349 00:20:16,800 --> 00:20:20,480 And notice that he frames this ought, this expression. 350 00:20:20,480 --> 00:20:21,480 Go back to the verse. 351 00:20:21,480 --> 00:20:23,400 Are you ready? 352 00:20:23,400 --> 00:20:28,720 Verse 12, for when, for the time, he ought to be teachers, notice that expression. 353 00:20:28,720 --> 00:20:33,720 He frames it for the time. 354 00:20:33,720 --> 00:20:39,360 You can't teach until you've been taught. 355 00:20:39,360 --> 00:20:41,680 Who wants educated teachers? 356 00:20:41,680 --> 00:20:43,120 Rather than educated teachers. 357 00:20:43,120 --> 00:20:44,120 Right. 358 00:20:44,120 --> 00:20:51,160 You can't make somewhere you've never been when it comes to this consistent teaching ministry. 359 00:20:51,160 --> 00:20:54,960 He says here, you can't teach until you've been taught. 360 00:20:54,960 --> 00:20:56,960 You can't take someone where you've never been. 361 00:20:56,960 --> 00:20:59,040 It takes time to learn and to grow. 362 00:20:59,040 --> 00:21:02,520 And this leads to the second phrase that I wanted to point out in this ought. 363 00:21:02,520 --> 00:21:07,320 Look down at verse number 14. 364 00:21:07,320 --> 00:21:12,280 But strong meat belonging to them that are of, what's the next two words? 365 00:21:12,280 --> 00:21:15,960 Full age, full age. 366 00:21:15,960 --> 00:21:17,640 There's an ought in that too. 367 00:21:17,640 --> 00:21:23,000 He's saying that for the amount of time that they have been taught, they should be mature. 368 00:21:23,000 --> 00:21:26,120 They should have grown up. 369 00:21:26,120 --> 00:21:28,200 Immature things have a hard time teaching. 370 00:21:28,200 --> 00:21:30,460 Immature things do not reproduce. 371 00:21:30,460 --> 00:21:33,120 Immature things needs to still develop. 372 00:21:33,120 --> 00:21:36,160 Mature things reproduce. 373 00:21:36,160 --> 00:21:41,880 The Holy Spirit is pointing to the unattain goal that should be the goal of every believer. 374 00:21:41,880 --> 00:21:43,880 What is that goal? 375 00:21:43,880 --> 00:21:52,200 Spiritual maturity in the believer that is marked by spiritual influence and influential 376 00:21:52,200 --> 00:21:55,960 obedience to everybody around us. 377 00:21:55,960 --> 00:21:56,960 That's what God desires. 378 00:21:56,960 --> 00:21:58,920 Do you see it in the text? 379 00:21:58,920 --> 00:22:01,880 Do you see what I'm talking about? 380 00:22:01,880 --> 00:22:03,320 So let me ask you a question. 381 00:22:03,320 --> 00:22:04,720 You ready? 382 00:22:04,720 --> 00:22:10,280 Is spiritual maturity something that you're pressing towards? 383 00:22:10,280 --> 00:22:12,920 Is it a goal that you desire for your own life? 384 00:22:12,920 --> 00:22:15,960 Now be careful how you answer that question. 385 00:22:15,960 --> 00:22:22,080 If I ask you if you're humble and you quickly answer yes, you may reveal something about 386 00:22:22,080 --> 00:22:24,240 yourself. 387 00:22:24,240 --> 00:22:26,200 It's not wrong to see that you're maturing. 388 00:22:26,200 --> 00:22:31,280 It's wrong, it's a wrong attitude to feel as if you've arrived with no need of maturing 389 00:22:31,280 --> 00:22:33,120 to do. 390 00:22:33,120 --> 00:22:38,200 As long as we're breathing, we should be obeying and growing and influencing. 391 00:22:38,200 --> 00:22:39,520 You believe that? 392 00:22:39,520 --> 00:22:45,800 So the first step to growing spiritually is to accept the unattain goal. 393 00:22:45,800 --> 00:22:50,400 So let me ask you, is spiritual growth, spiritual maturity on your radar? 394 00:22:50,400 --> 00:22:55,360 Are you concerned with that as much as you are your career or your investments or your 395 00:22:55,360 --> 00:22:57,440 short game? 396 00:22:57,440 --> 00:23:04,840 Are you as concerned about that as you are as your popularity at school or your status 397 00:23:04,840 --> 00:23:07,400 with your friends? 398 00:23:07,400 --> 00:23:10,280 Where's this unattain goal? 399 00:23:10,280 --> 00:23:12,240 Who has some room to grow? 400 00:23:12,240 --> 00:23:13,240 Anybody? 401 00:23:13,240 --> 00:23:15,040 Okay, I got you that far. 402 00:23:15,040 --> 00:23:16,040 Good. 403 00:23:16,040 --> 00:23:17,320 Here's step number two. 404 00:23:17,320 --> 00:23:19,320 Step number two. 405 00:23:19,320 --> 00:23:22,440 We must assess our own condition. 406 00:23:22,440 --> 00:23:23,920 We must assess our own condition. 407 00:23:23,920 --> 00:23:24,920 Where yeah? 408 00:23:24,920 --> 00:23:26,320 Where yeah? 409 00:23:26,320 --> 00:23:29,920 Where yeah? 410 00:23:29,920 --> 00:23:31,240 It wasn't full age. 411 00:23:31,240 --> 00:23:33,880 We can see that here in the text about these people, right? 412 00:23:33,880 --> 00:23:39,960 He said, you ought to be teachers, you need to be full grown, but you're not there yet. 413 00:23:39,960 --> 00:23:42,640 They weren't teachers even though they ought to be. 414 00:23:42,640 --> 00:23:44,720 He names our condition in verse 13. 415 00:23:44,720 --> 00:23:46,760 Look at it, verse 13. 416 00:23:46,760 --> 00:23:54,840 For everyone that uses milk is unskillful in the word of righteousness for he is a, 417 00:23:54,840 --> 00:23:55,840 what is it? 418 00:23:55,840 --> 00:23:57,560 Babe, hey, you got it. 419 00:23:57,560 --> 00:23:59,960 Who here loves babies? 420 00:23:59,960 --> 00:24:03,280 I love babies. 421 00:24:03,280 --> 00:24:06,240 Most everyone thinks babies are cute. 422 00:24:06,240 --> 00:24:08,000 This is birthday season in our family. 423 00:24:08,000 --> 00:24:09,880 It happens twice a year. 424 00:24:09,880 --> 00:24:12,200 There's three of us out of the five in our family. 425 00:24:12,200 --> 00:24:16,000 Three of us have birthdays within a couple of weeks of February and March. 426 00:24:16,000 --> 00:24:26,760 Then my wife and daughter have, I know when it is, birthdays in July, right? 427 00:24:26,760 --> 00:24:31,200 So we celebrate births. 428 00:24:31,200 --> 00:24:34,360 Almost every time this time of year, Facebook memories come up or different things. 429 00:24:34,360 --> 00:24:36,840 We start reminiscing and we look at all. 430 00:24:36,840 --> 00:24:42,120 Remember when she used to pronounce her aas like this and all that stuff, right? 431 00:24:42,120 --> 00:24:44,040 You remember that? 432 00:24:44,040 --> 00:24:46,400 We go back and reminisce about when kids were babies. 433 00:24:46,400 --> 00:24:48,080 They were so cute and fun. 434 00:24:48,080 --> 00:24:50,800 Most of the time they were fun. 435 00:24:50,800 --> 00:24:54,200 Babies being babies can be really cute. 436 00:24:54,200 --> 00:24:57,340 If you're nursing or bottle feeding at six months, it's cute. 437 00:24:57,340 --> 00:25:05,040 If you're still bottle feeding at 16, it's a tragedy. 438 00:25:05,040 --> 00:25:09,400 And you laugh, but let me say it again. 439 00:25:09,400 --> 00:25:13,360 If you're bottle feeding at 16, it's a tragedy. 440 00:25:13,360 --> 00:25:18,080 Do you get the metaphor? 441 00:25:18,080 --> 00:25:22,160 The issue with these Christians that he was writing to was that they were still at a place 442 00:25:22,160 --> 00:25:28,480 where for the time they were still babies. 443 00:25:28,480 --> 00:25:33,840 The Holy Spirit is referring not here to, not to physical development, but to spiritual 444 00:25:33,840 --> 00:25:34,840 development. 445 00:25:34,840 --> 00:25:36,640 They were immature spiritually. 446 00:25:36,640 --> 00:25:38,560 That's the metaphor. 447 00:25:38,560 --> 00:25:41,760 What was making, teaching them difficult? 448 00:25:41,760 --> 00:25:44,600 What was creating their current condition? 449 00:25:44,600 --> 00:25:45,840 Okay. 450 00:25:45,840 --> 00:25:47,080 You guys get the big picture, right? 451 00:25:47,080 --> 00:25:49,200 You've got, you've got babies. 452 00:25:49,200 --> 00:25:50,840 Let's think this all the way through. 453 00:25:50,840 --> 00:25:57,360 You've got babies, then you have toddlers, then you have kids, then you have adolescents, 454 00:25:57,360 --> 00:26:03,200 and then you have teenagers. 455 00:26:03,200 --> 00:26:06,440 And then you get them out of the house. 456 00:26:06,440 --> 00:26:11,160 You have young adults, and then you have adults, and then you have, you guys notice this pattern, 457 00:26:11,160 --> 00:26:12,160 right? 458 00:26:12,160 --> 00:26:21,120 He's saying you should be over here, but you're still over here. 459 00:26:21,120 --> 00:26:27,840 You're still over here. 460 00:26:27,840 --> 00:26:31,720 What was creating them being here and not over there? 461 00:26:31,720 --> 00:26:33,440 What does it say? 462 00:26:33,440 --> 00:26:39,040 Verse 11 tells us, you see it? 463 00:26:39,040 --> 00:26:44,080 I want to tell you some things that are going to get you to grow, but the problem is ye 464 00:26:44,080 --> 00:26:48,880 are dull of hearing. 465 00:26:48,880 --> 00:26:51,080 The word for dull is the word nothrose. 466 00:26:51,080 --> 00:26:56,720 It means sluggish, lazy, or even stupid, slothful. 467 00:26:56,720 --> 00:27:00,000 The issue wasn't that they had no capacity to learn. 468 00:27:00,000 --> 00:27:01,720 The problem was one of character. 469 00:27:01,720 --> 00:27:06,640 They were slow to hear and not very receptive. 470 00:27:06,640 --> 00:27:10,520 They were not taking the teaching very seriously. 471 00:27:10,520 --> 00:27:13,760 What was it that they were slow to hear? 472 00:27:13,760 --> 00:27:20,880 Verse 13, for everyone that uses milk is skillful in the word of, what is it? 473 00:27:20,880 --> 00:27:24,440 The word of righteousness. 474 00:27:24,440 --> 00:27:29,160 According to the Holy Ghost and the writing of Hebrews, there's a connection between spiritual 475 00:27:29,160 --> 00:27:37,240 maturity and the reception and the receiving and the obedience to the word of God. 476 00:27:37,240 --> 00:27:41,960 Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. 477 00:27:41,960 --> 00:27:43,280 So don't let this miss you. 478 00:27:43,280 --> 00:27:46,320 You're like, Ben, I already knew this. 479 00:27:46,320 --> 00:27:47,560 I don't care if you know it. 480 00:27:47,560 --> 00:27:49,840 What are you doing with it? 481 00:27:49,840 --> 00:27:54,040 There's a connection between milk and meat. 482 00:27:54,040 --> 00:28:00,000 It's talking about the word of God. 483 00:28:00,000 --> 00:28:04,840 According to the Holy Ghost, what was causing their stunted growth? 484 00:28:04,840 --> 00:28:08,720 What was creating their arrested development? 485 00:28:08,720 --> 00:28:14,160 It was how much that they were taking in the word of God and receiving it. 486 00:28:14,160 --> 00:28:16,840 It wasn't that they didn't know it. 487 00:28:16,840 --> 00:28:19,580 It's that they weren't receiving it. 488 00:28:19,580 --> 00:28:20,580 They weren't hearing. 489 00:28:20,580 --> 00:28:23,600 There is not like they didn't have any capacity necessarily. 490 00:28:23,600 --> 00:28:26,280 Everything was, they weren't doing anything with it. 491 00:28:26,280 --> 00:28:29,880 They were slow to hear and apply God's word to their lives. 492 00:28:29,880 --> 00:28:36,500 So if the second step is to assess your current condition and what's causing you or stunning 493 00:28:36,500 --> 00:28:45,400 your spiritual growth is your capacity to hear and obey the word of God, where are you? 494 00:28:45,400 --> 00:28:48,320 Not you. 495 00:28:48,320 --> 00:28:51,600 You and you and you. 496 00:28:51,600 --> 00:28:52,600 You get it? 497 00:28:52,600 --> 00:28:54,600 Miles, where are you? 498 00:28:54,600 --> 00:28:55,600 Miles. 499 00:28:55,600 --> 00:28:57,600 You gotta deal with him. 500 00:28:57,600 --> 00:28:58,600 No, I'm joking. 501 00:28:58,600 --> 00:29:02,840 You ever feel like the preacher's preaching right to you? 502 00:29:02,840 --> 00:29:03,840 Where are you? 503 00:29:03,840 --> 00:29:04,840 I'm not talking to you. 504 00:29:04,840 --> 00:29:05,840 I'm talking to you. 505 00:29:05,840 --> 00:29:08,640 Do you get it? 506 00:29:08,640 --> 00:29:11,960 If you're new into the Christian faith and you're growing, there's no shame in being a 507 00:29:11,960 --> 00:29:12,960 baby. 508 00:29:12,960 --> 00:29:15,040 There's no shame in that. 509 00:29:15,040 --> 00:29:17,520 So he goes, well, we don't want babies. 510 00:29:17,520 --> 00:29:19,920 We want babies. 511 00:29:19,920 --> 00:29:23,960 We want a bunch of people who don't know Christ coming to know Christ and starting out their 512 00:29:23,960 --> 00:29:26,240 relationship with God. 513 00:29:26,240 --> 00:29:28,720 Let this be a spiritual nursery. 514 00:29:28,720 --> 00:29:32,400 But we just don't want to have babies and not help them grow. 515 00:29:32,400 --> 00:29:36,300 We don't want to have babies and leave them on the doorstep. 516 00:29:36,300 --> 00:29:38,880 Bring them inside and help them grow. 517 00:29:38,880 --> 00:29:39,880 You get it? 518 00:29:39,880 --> 00:29:44,400 And four or five years from now, I just don't want them to be babies anymore. 519 00:29:44,400 --> 00:29:47,600 You get it? 520 00:29:47,600 --> 00:29:50,000 It doesn't necessarily mean that you're a baby in life. 521 00:29:50,000 --> 00:29:51,000 Don't take this. 522 00:29:51,000 --> 00:29:52,320 Don't be offended. 523 00:29:52,320 --> 00:29:59,680 There are some very sophisticated, responsible people that don't even know Christ as a Savior. 524 00:29:59,680 --> 00:30:03,200 We're committed at our church to making sure that if someone gets saved, we have a pathway 525 00:30:03,200 --> 00:30:05,640 for them to grow. 526 00:30:05,640 --> 00:30:09,320 We don't want to have spiritual babies through evangelism and then leave them at the hospital 527 00:30:09,320 --> 00:30:10,820 to fend for themselves. 528 00:30:10,820 --> 00:30:12,800 We want to help them grow. 529 00:30:12,800 --> 00:30:16,200 If you've been in church for years and you know a lot, but you're not growing in the 530 00:30:16,200 --> 00:30:21,040 responsiveness to God's word or an obedience to God's word, what you just learned is that 531 00:30:21,040 --> 00:30:25,640 time doesn't equal spiritual maturity. 532 00:30:25,640 --> 00:30:30,440 Let me say that again because it's really confused in a lot of churches, sometimes even 533 00:30:30,440 --> 00:30:31,700 our church. 534 00:30:31,700 --> 00:30:37,180 Just because you've been here a long time doesn't mean you're fully mature. 535 00:30:37,180 --> 00:30:43,280 You could sit here every week and not grow. 536 00:30:43,280 --> 00:30:44,760 So what's the solution? 537 00:30:44,760 --> 00:30:49,480 Well, here's the third step. 538 00:30:49,480 --> 00:30:50,920 This is just awesome. 539 00:30:50,920 --> 00:30:56,680 Number three, we must consume the necessary nutrition. 540 00:30:56,680 --> 00:30:57,680 What's the goal? 541 00:30:57,680 --> 00:31:00,440 I've got to grow. 542 00:31:00,440 --> 00:31:01,440 Where am I at? 543 00:31:01,440 --> 00:31:02,440 Am I a baby? 544 00:31:02,440 --> 00:31:03,440 Where am I at? 545 00:31:03,440 --> 00:31:05,480 Well, how do I grow? 546 00:31:05,480 --> 00:31:06,960 Now that I know where I'm at, where do I grow? 547 00:31:06,960 --> 00:31:09,040 Well, you have to consume the necessary nutrition. 548 00:31:09,040 --> 00:31:14,480 This is what he says, verse 12, 13, here we go, for the time you have to be teachers, 549 00:31:14,480 --> 00:31:18,160 you have need that want to teach you again to be the first principles of the oracles 550 00:31:18,160 --> 00:31:22,000 of God and are become such as having need of milk and not of strong meat. 551 00:31:22,000 --> 00:31:25,200 For everyone that uses milk is unskillful in the word of righteousness, for he is a 552 00:31:25,200 --> 00:31:26,200 babe. 553 00:31:26,200 --> 00:31:27,200 So what was the solution? 554 00:31:27,200 --> 00:31:29,160 The solution, if they were babies, was milk. 555 00:31:29,160 --> 00:31:31,440 The solution was to teach you again. 556 00:31:31,440 --> 00:31:36,280 The solution was to go back to the beginning with a right attitude. 557 00:31:36,280 --> 00:31:41,000 The time they needed to be quick, this time though, they needed to be quick to hear. 558 00:31:41,000 --> 00:31:43,200 They needed to be quick to respond. 559 00:31:43,200 --> 00:31:48,480 The solution is the word of God. 560 00:31:48,480 --> 00:31:51,080 That's the solution. 561 00:31:51,080 --> 00:31:54,600 What's the difference between milk and strong meat? 562 00:31:54,600 --> 00:31:55,600 What's the difference? 563 00:31:55,600 --> 00:32:00,360 Well, one difference is the ability of the consumer to assimilate the nutrition. 564 00:32:00,360 --> 00:32:02,360 Okay? 565 00:32:02,360 --> 00:32:04,120 Babies can digest milk. 566 00:32:04,120 --> 00:32:06,560 Have you noticed that? 567 00:32:06,560 --> 00:32:07,800 It's very good for them. 568 00:32:07,800 --> 00:32:10,760 They grow like crazy on milk. 569 00:32:10,760 --> 00:32:15,400 The Bible tells us to even be like babies, to desire the sincere milk of the word that 570 00:32:15,400 --> 00:32:17,520 you may grow there by. 571 00:32:17,520 --> 00:32:19,600 That's what 1 Peter 2 2 says. 572 00:32:19,600 --> 00:32:23,320 Babies know just a couple of things right from the beginning. 573 00:32:23,320 --> 00:32:26,000 They know when they're uncomfortable. 574 00:32:26,000 --> 00:32:29,680 They know when they're tired and they know when they're hungry. 575 00:32:29,680 --> 00:32:31,440 That's what they know. 576 00:32:31,440 --> 00:32:35,440 Babies have an intense desire for milk. 577 00:32:35,440 --> 00:32:39,200 We ought to have a desire like that for the word of God. 578 00:32:39,200 --> 00:32:40,880 We ought to. 579 00:32:40,880 --> 00:32:43,400 Once you get older though, just eating milk isn't enough. 580 00:32:43,400 --> 00:32:46,600 The older you get, the more nourishment you need. 581 00:32:46,600 --> 00:32:50,360 Strong meat isn't absorbed or digested by babies in the same way. 582 00:32:50,360 --> 00:32:54,800 So as you grow in Christ, you move on from the first principles of the oracles of God 583 00:32:54,800 --> 00:32:56,800 to strong meat. 584 00:32:56,800 --> 00:33:00,360 I can tell you that the Bible does not disappoint in this way. 585 00:33:00,360 --> 00:33:03,800 There's plenty to consume. 586 00:33:03,800 --> 00:33:06,920 If you want to eat, there's some food right here. 587 00:33:06,920 --> 00:33:08,800 Are you with me? 588 00:33:08,800 --> 00:33:10,600 And it's good. 589 00:33:10,600 --> 00:33:13,200 It is so good. 590 00:33:13,200 --> 00:33:14,840 Please don't help me bore people with the Bible. 591 00:33:14,840 --> 00:33:17,600 It is not boring. 592 00:33:17,600 --> 00:33:22,440 Another difference is the way that, okay, what's the difference between milk and strong meat? 593 00:33:22,440 --> 00:33:26,720 One is the ability of the person to digest it, right? 594 00:33:26,720 --> 00:33:29,520 Another one is the difference in the way it's consumed. 595 00:33:29,520 --> 00:33:35,120 A baby desires the milk, but think about it, a baby has to be fed. 596 00:33:35,120 --> 00:33:39,560 A baby has to be fed. 597 00:33:39,560 --> 00:33:40,840 He must be fed by their parents. 598 00:33:40,840 --> 00:33:42,280 They're either bottle fed or breast fed. 599 00:33:42,280 --> 00:33:48,880 Either way, it takes a direct connection by someone else to get food to the baby. 600 00:33:48,880 --> 00:33:53,480 People who are eating steak for dinner are usually not being fed by a fork with their 601 00:33:53,480 --> 00:33:55,280 mother. 602 00:33:55,280 --> 00:34:02,520 That is a lot funnier to me, apparently, than it is to you. 603 00:34:02,520 --> 00:34:05,800 Woo-hoo, here comes the... 604 00:34:05,800 --> 00:34:06,800 Kind of weird, right? 605 00:34:06,800 --> 00:34:09,840 Here comes the steak, huh? 606 00:34:09,840 --> 00:34:10,840 Right? 607 00:34:10,840 --> 00:34:14,480 Hopefully, the last time you had a steak, you cut it up yourself and ate it off your 608 00:34:14,480 --> 00:34:18,440 own plate, right? 609 00:34:18,440 --> 00:34:22,800 As a parent, you give milk to the baby, then you give food to the baby and help them learn 610 00:34:22,800 --> 00:34:24,320 how to eat themselves. 611 00:34:24,320 --> 00:34:27,280 Even for a long time, you provide the food. 612 00:34:27,280 --> 00:34:28,280 You're paying for the food. 613 00:34:28,280 --> 00:34:30,160 Anybody paying for the food? 614 00:34:30,160 --> 00:34:31,800 Who's paying more for the food right now? 615 00:34:31,800 --> 00:34:33,480 Yeah, that's right. 616 00:34:33,480 --> 00:34:34,880 Yeah. 617 00:34:34,880 --> 00:34:40,040 As they grow, though, you teach them to prepare their own meals, even though you finance it. 618 00:34:40,040 --> 00:34:45,640 Eventually, they need to be able to finance and consume their own meals. 619 00:34:45,640 --> 00:34:49,120 Get out of my house. 620 00:34:49,120 --> 00:34:52,080 Get off the payroll. 621 00:34:52,080 --> 00:34:57,360 Go out and live your life and just bring back the grand babies, right? 622 00:34:57,360 --> 00:35:00,400 Reproduce and start the process all over again. 623 00:35:00,400 --> 00:35:03,920 You're laughing, but that's basically what he's saying here. 624 00:35:03,920 --> 00:35:05,920 Do you get it? 625 00:35:05,920 --> 00:35:10,280 When it comes to the Word of God, we want people to end up as self-feeders. 626 00:35:10,280 --> 00:35:14,120 A classic line that gets told to pastors all the time is, pastor, we're just not getting 627 00:35:14,120 --> 00:35:16,720 fed. 628 00:35:16,720 --> 00:35:20,680 And I hope that I'm never guilty of not trying to feed you or helping you to learn. 629 00:35:20,680 --> 00:35:25,320 And sometimes I think that that says more about you than it does about me. 630 00:35:25,320 --> 00:35:33,480 Because you can't expect to eat once a week and to be spiritually nourished. 631 00:35:33,480 --> 00:35:38,720 What will help you grow more than anything is being taught how to be in God's Word every 632 00:35:38,720 --> 00:35:45,000 day and not just to hear it, but to consume and consume it, but to learn it and to obey 633 00:35:45,000 --> 00:35:51,520 it and then train somebody else to do the same thing. 634 00:35:51,520 --> 00:35:59,040 You know, there's a kind of learning that you can only get from teaching. 635 00:35:59,040 --> 00:36:04,480 There's a kind of learning sometimes that you can only get when you're responsible now. 636 00:36:04,480 --> 00:36:07,840 Anybody learned something as a parent you didn't learn as a kid? 637 00:36:07,840 --> 00:36:11,240 Yeah. 638 00:36:11,240 --> 00:36:14,840 So God wants us to get the food into us. 639 00:36:14,840 --> 00:36:18,040 So what's your relationship to the Word of God? 640 00:36:18,040 --> 00:36:20,800 Are you only getting it at church? 641 00:36:20,800 --> 00:36:23,400 Are you only getting it in your Sunday school class? 642 00:36:23,400 --> 00:36:29,280 Are you only getting it when someone else has digested it and is feeding it to you? 643 00:36:29,280 --> 00:36:34,400 When you hear it this way, are you responding to it? 644 00:36:34,400 --> 00:36:36,520 Are you growing into a self-feeder? 645 00:36:36,520 --> 00:36:41,720 Are you taking in the Word of God so that you can grow in it on a daily basis? 646 00:36:41,720 --> 00:36:44,680 And then are you feeding somebody else? 647 00:36:44,680 --> 00:36:47,960 Are you training them in the Word of Righteousness? 648 00:36:47,960 --> 00:36:52,720 You may be able to see where you are in your spiritual maturity based on your relationship 649 00:36:52,720 --> 00:36:54,840 to the Word of God. 650 00:36:54,840 --> 00:36:58,320 Do you get it? 651 00:36:58,320 --> 00:37:00,760 Do you want to grow? 652 00:37:00,760 --> 00:37:02,360 Do you want to be spiritually mature? 653 00:37:02,360 --> 00:37:05,680 Well, you have to know the unattain goal. 654 00:37:05,680 --> 00:37:08,080 The unattain goal is I want to be a reproducer. 655 00:37:08,080 --> 00:37:09,080 I want to be a trainer. 656 00:37:09,080 --> 00:37:10,920 I want to be a teacher. 657 00:37:10,920 --> 00:37:14,680 Once you get that decided, then you have to assess where you're at. 658 00:37:14,680 --> 00:37:15,920 Am I a baby? 659 00:37:15,920 --> 00:37:17,000 Am I an adolescent? 660 00:37:17,000 --> 00:37:18,840 Am I a young man? 661 00:37:18,840 --> 00:37:19,840 Am I a reproducer? 662 00:37:19,840 --> 00:37:21,340 Am I a grandparent spiritually? 663 00:37:21,340 --> 00:37:22,340 I can't wait. 664 00:37:22,340 --> 00:37:24,160 That's an awesome place to be. 665 00:37:24,160 --> 00:37:27,680 And then number three, once you figure out where you are, then you have to consume the 666 00:37:27,680 --> 00:37:28,680 proper nutrition. 667 00:37:28,680 --> 00:37:29,680 Do you need milk? 668 00:37:29,680 --> 00:37:30,680 Do you need bread? 669 00:37:30,680 --> 00:37:32,160 Do you need meat? 670 00:37:32,160 --> 00:37:33,400 It's all right here. 671 00:37:33,400 --> 00:37:35,640 It's all right here. 672 00:37:35,640 --> 00:37:36,840 That leads us to step number four. 673 00:37:36,840 --> 00:37:37,840 Are you ready? 674 00:37:37,840 --> 00:37:40,280 Step number four. 675 00:37:40,280 --> 00:37:43,520 We must exercise the right discernment. 676 00:37:43,520 --> 00:37:48,960 There's a really tough word in there. 677 00:37:48,960 --> 00:37:51,560 Exercise. 678 00:37:51,560 --> 00:37:54,080 Exercise. 679 00:37:54,080 --> 00:37:56,200 Look at verse 14. 680 00:37:56,200 --> 00:38:07,240 But strong meat, strong meat, belongeth to them that are of full age so that they will 681 00:38:07,240 --> 00:38:11,080 eat it and get fat and slow and happy. 682 00:38:11,080 --> 00:38:15,320 Is that what it says? 683 00:38:15,320 --> 00:38:19,520 What's the point of the nutrition? 684 00:38:19,520 --> 00:38:27,840 So even those who by a reason of use have their senses, exercises discern both good 685 00:38:27,840 --> 00:38:28,840 and evil. 686 00:38:28,840 --> 00:38:30,880 So let's take verse 14 phrase by phrase. 687 00:38:30,880 --> 00:38:31,880 You ready? 688 00:38:31,880 --> 00:38:36,400 It's going to go quick. 689 00:38:36,400 --> 00:38:44,000 We've already made a connection between food, nutrition and the word of God. 690 00:38:44,000 --> 00:38:45,320 Okay. 691 00:38:45,320 --> 00:38:47,320 Strong meat belongeth to them that are full age. 692 00:38:47,320 --> 00:38:51,240 Mature people need adult meals. 693 00:38:51,240 --> 00:38:52,480 You need the proper nutrition. 694 00:38:52,480 --> 00:38:57,000 The word of God is the milk, bread and meat that gets us the nutrition we need to grow. 695 00:38:57,000 --> 00:39:00,120 Oh, and by the way, anybody in here a physical adult? 696 00:39:00,120 --> 00:39:01,480 Anybody in here? 697 00:39:01,480 --> 00:39:02,640 Physical adult. 698 00:39:02,640 --> 00:39:03,640 Adults. 699 00:39:03,640 --> 00:39:06,640 Some of you are not adults. 700 00:39:06,640 --> 00:39:07,640 Okay. 701 00:39:07,640 --> 00:39:08,640 Okay. 702 00:39:08,640 --> 00:39:10,600 Anybody here drink milk this week? 703 00:39:10,600 --> 00:39:11,600 Yeah. 704 00:39:11,600 --> 00:39:15,640 It's not that you reject milk. 705 00:39:15,640 --> 00:39:16,640 You just don't eat. 706 00:39:16,640 --> 00:39:19,760 It's like that's not the only thing you ate last week, right? 707 00:39:19,760 --> 00:39:23,200 You ate some milk and some bread and some meat, a full nutrition. 708 00:39:23,200 --> 00:39:24,200 Okay. 709 00:39:24,200 --> 00:39:25,200 That's a whole other part. 710 00:39:25,200 --> 00:39:26,200 Okay. 711 00:39:26,200 --> 00:39:28,920 Mature people need adult meals. 712 00:39:28,920 --> 00:39:30,960 They need a balanced breakfast. 713 00:39:30,960 --> 00:39:36,560 The word of God is milk, bread and meat that gets us the nutrition we need to grow. 714 00:39:36,560 --> 00:39:41,360 And he says, then he says, even those, these are those mature believers. 715 00:39:41,360 --> 00:39:42,360 Why? 716 00:39:42,360 --> 00:39:43,440 Why do they need strong meat? 717 00:39:43,440 --> 00:39:45,840 Why does it belong to mature believers? 718 00:39:45,840 --> 00:39:46,960 Why? 719 00:39:46,960 --> 00:39:49,120 Because by a reason of use, use of what? 720 00:39:49,120 --> 00:39:53,840 Use of the strong meat, use of the nutrition that they have taken in, have their senses 721 00:39:53,840 --> 00:39:57,240 exercised to discern both good and evil. 722 00:39:57,240 --> 00:40:06,080 The whole point of nutrition is to use the energy that it gives to go out and do something. 723 00:40:06,080 --> 00:40:08,040 To go out and do something. 724 00:40:08,040 --> 00:40:13,480 The word of God gives us the spiritual life and vitality to live for Christ. 725 00:40:13,480 --> 00:40:18,000 Are you struggling with temptation? 726 00:40:18,000 --> 00:40:20,720 Are you struggling at being what God wants you to be? 727 00:40:20,720 --> 00:40:24,920 I'm not saying it's every time, but at least some of the time, it may be because you're 728 00:40:24,920 --> 00:40:28,440 not, you don't have any food. 729 00:40:28,440 --> 00:40:30,440 You're emaciated. 730 00:40:30,440 --> 00:40:32,760 You need the word of God. 731 00:40:32,760 --> 00:40:36,360 The word of God is what gives us spiritual life and vitality to live for Christ. 732 00:40:36,360 --> 00:40:42,760 The word of God then also, it says here, have their senses exercised to discern both good 733 00:40:42,760 --> 00:40:44,240 and evil. 734 00:40:44,240 --> 00:40:46,360 The word of God gives us discernment. 735 00:40:46,360 --> 00:40:48,040 It tells us how to live. 736 00:40:48,040 --> 00:40:50,040 It shows us what to do. 737 00:40:50,040 --> 00:40:58,320 If you take it in and do not do anything with it, you get spiritually fat and lazy. 738 00:40:58,320 --> 00:41:05,780 There's a lot of people in a lot of churches who would kill it on jeopardy if the category 739 00:41:05,780 --> 00:41:13,000 came up and it had anything to do with the Bible, but they're babies. 740 00:41:13,000 --> 00:41:18,040 Do you get it? 741 00:41:18,040 --> 00:41:23,280 What's the point of the nutrition to go live it out, to go do something with it? 742 00:41:23,280 --> 00:41:24,760 I'm not asking you how much you know. 743 00:41:24,760 --> 00:41:26,640 I'm asking you what are you doing? 744 00:41:26,640 --> 00:41:30,640 What would the health of someone be who takes in a lot of calories and never uses those 745 00:41:30,640 --> 00:41:32,640 calories? 746 00:41:32,640 --> 00:41:33,640 They do not get up. 747 00:41:33,640 --> 00:41:34,640 They do not walk. 748 00:41:34,640 --> 00:41:35,720 They don't exercise their senses. 749 00:41:35,720 --> 00:41:38,160 They never reproduce. 750 00:41:38,160 --> 00:41:41,560 That's the problem in so many churches. 751 00:41:41,560 --> 00:41:44,800 It can be a problem in our church, though I don't think that it characterizes everybody 752 00:41:44,800 --> 00:41:46,200 in our church. 753 00:41:46,200 --> 00:41:50,440 For some, the problem is that they never take in God's word. 754 00:41:50,440 --> 00:41:53,480 They don't attend enough to get much from the preacher or the teacher. 755 00:41:53,480 --> 00:41:57,800 They don't have much nutrition in the first place, so they don't grow. 756 00:41:57,800 --> 00:42:02,640 For others, the problem is that you can tell, they can tell you the finer points of theology. 757 00:42:02,640 --> 00:42:06,160 They can tell you every kind of position that you can take on the tribulation. 758 00:42:06,160 --> 00:42:08,640 They can describe you the hypostatic union. 759 00:42:08,640 --> 00:42:13,080 They can tell you the difference between being infrelapsarian and superlapsarian. 760 00:42:13,080 --> 00:42:14,840 They win every sword drill. 761 00:42:14,840 --> 00:42:19,560 They know what a sword drill is, but there is hidden sin in their lives. 762 00:42:19,560 --> 00:42:21,560 They aren't godly in their daily walk. 763 00:42:21,560 --> 00:42:22,880 They're not kind to their wife. 764 00:42:22,880 --> 00:42:25,960 They're not kind to their kids. 765 00:42:25,960 --> 00:42:30,920 They haven't told somebody about Jesus in years. 766 00:42:30,920 --> 00:42:31,920 They don't serve. 767 00:42:31,920 --> 00:42:32,920 They don't give. 768 00:42:32,920 --> 00:42:33,920 They don't share. 769 00:42:33,920 --> 00:42:36,360 They don't reproduce. 770 00:42:36,360 --> 00:42:41,760 And the danger in that is they think that because they know a lot that they're spiritually 771 00:42:41,760 --> 00:42:43,840 mature. 772 00:42:43,840 --> 00:42:52,520 And what John the Revelator got from Jesus, they told one of the churches there in Revelation 773 00:42:52,520 --> 00:42:57,520 is you think you're great, but you don't even understand that you're wretched and poor and 774 00:42:57,520 --> 00:43:00,880 blind and naked. 775 00:43:00,880 --> 00:43:02,960 The emperor has no clothes. 776 00:43:02,960 --> 00:43:07,080 Do you get it? 777 00:43:07,080 --> 00:43:12,080 If you're feeling guilty about this, I'm not thinking of one person in here. 778 00:43:12,080 --> 00:43:14,320 I'm not. 779 00:43:14,320 --> 00:43:17,680 I'm not except for me. 780 00:43:17,680 --> 00:43:22,520 But there's a problem when our knowledge far outpaces our obedience. 781 00:43:22,520 --> 00:43:25,560 Do you get it? 782 00:43:25,560 --> 00:43:27,360 Their knowledge outpaces their obedience. 783 00:43:27,360 --> 00:43:34,160 James spoke about this when he said this, be doers of the word and not hearers only. 784 00:43:34,160 --> 00:43:35,160 What is it? 785 00:43:35,160 --> 00:43:38,000 Deceiving your own selves. 786 00:43:38,000 --> 00:43:41,840 For if any man be a hero of the word and not a doer, he's like a man beholding his 787 00:43:41,840 --> 00:43:43,600 natural face in the glass. 788 00:43:43,600 --> 00:43:47,800 For he beholds himself and goeth his way and straightway forgeteth what manner of man he 789 00:43:47,800 --> 00:43:48,800 was. 790 00:43:48,800 --> 00:43:56,600 But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty and continueeth therein, he being 791 00:43:56,600 --> 00:44:02,320 not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed. 792 00:44:02,320 --> 00:44:05,080 That's a good verse, isn't it? 793 00:44:05,080 --> 00:44:07,400 Jesus said something about it too. 794 00:44:07,400 --> 00:44:10,120 He told the story of a wise man and a foolish man. 795 00:44:10,120 --> 00:44:13,440 You know the song, some of you. 796 00:44:13,440 --> 00:44:20,120 There's Matthew 7, 24, therefore whosoever heareth he sayings of mine and doeth them. 797 00:44:20,120 --> 00:44:25,160 I will like him into a wise man which builds his house on a rock. 798 00:44:25,160 --> 00:44:26,600 Who's the man with the rock? 799 00:44:26,600 --> 00:44:31,480 He's the one that hears the word of God and does something with it. 800 00:44:31,480 --> 00:44:36,000 And the rain descended and the floods came and the winds blew and beat upon that house 801 00:44:36,000 --> 00:44:40,000 and it fell not for it was founded upon a rock. 802 00:44:40,000 --> 00:44:45,520 And everyone that hears he sayings of mine and doeth them not shall be like him into 803 00:44:45,520 --> 00:44:53,080 a foolish man which built his house upon the sand and the rain descended and the floods 804 00:44:53,080 --> 00:44:59,360 came and the winds blew and beat upon that house and it fell. 805 00:44:59,360 --> 00:45:01,800 This is a very scary phrase. 806 00:45:01,800 --> 00:45:04,240 This is why what Hebrews says is a warning. 807 00:45:04,240 --> 00:45:05,560 Are you ready? 808 00:45:05,560 --> 00:45:11,480 The great was the fall of it. 809 00:45:11,480 --> 00:45:14,520 Did you know the Bible is amazing? 810 00:45:14,520 --> 00:45:22,920 It is amazing at giving us discernment and teaching us how to do every kind of good work. 811 00:45:22,920 --> 00:45:26,040 That's exactly what Paul said to Timothy in this critical passage on the word of God. 812 00:45:26,040 --> 00:45:30,920 All scripture is given by inspiration of God and it's profitable for doctrine, for 813 00:45:30,920 --> 00:45:35,400 reproof, what to know, what to reject, for correction, for instruction and righteousness, 814 00:45:35,400 --> 00:45:36,400 what to do. 815 00:45:36,400 --> 00:45:38,400 That the man of God may be perfect. 816 00:45:38,400 --> 00:45:40,800 Do you know what that word perfect means? 817 00:45:40,800 --> 00:45:41,800 Mature. 818 00:45:41,800 --> 00:45:48,200 That the man of God may be mature, thoroughly furnished unto all good works. 819 00:45:48,200 --> 00:45:53,920 If the word of God equips you for every good work, then let's get equipped. 820 00:45:53,920 --> 00:45:56,320 Let's get equipped. 821 00:45:56,320 --> 00:46:00,680 Let's not just put on our pads and our cleats and our shoulder pads and helmets and then 822 00:46:00,680 --> 00:46:07,400 show them off at church, go back home and take them off and live however we want. 823 00:46:07,400 --> 00:46:14,080 Let's put all those things on and let's go out and win the game with the Lord's help. 824 00:46:14,080 --> 00:46:19,040 You're not dismissed, you're set. 825 00:46:19,040 --> 00:46:21,120 How do we grow in spiritual maturity? 826 00:46:21,120 --> 00:46:23,280 How do you do it? 827 00:46:23,280 --> 00:46:25,680 Do you want to grow? 828 00:46:25,680 --> 00:46:28,240 You have to know the unantamed goal. 829 00:46:28,240 --> 00:46:31,680 We rarely end up doing anything that we don't set out to do. 830 00:46:31,680 --> 00:46:35,880 There's got to be a pointed decision. 831 00:46:35,880 --> 00:46:36,880 What's the unantamed goal? 832 00:46:36,880 --> 00:46:38,520 You ought to be teachers. 833 00:46:38,520 --> 00:46:40,520 You ought to be influencers. 834 00:46:40,520 --> 00:46:42,880 You ought to be reproducers. 835 00:46:42,880 --> 00:46:45,320 What's your current condition? 836 00:46:45,320 --> 00:46:47,320 Are you a babe? 837 00:46:47,320 --> 00:46:48,440 Are you a young man? 838 00:46:48,440 --> 00:46:50,360 Are you full age? 839 00:46:50,360 --> 00:46:53,320 Are you a grandparent? 840 00:46:53,320 --> 00:46:54,640 What's your spiritual condition? 841 00:46:54,640 --> 00:47:01,160 What's your, you have to consume the right nutrition, milk, bread, meat. 842 00:47:01,160 --> 00:47:04,200 What's your relationship like with the word of God? 843 00:47:04,200 --> 00:47:06,520 Is it a weekly thing? 844 00:47:06,520 --> 00:47:09,960 Is it a monthly thing? 845 00:47:09,960 --> 00:47:15,520 Or do you say give us this day our daily bread? 846 00:47:15,520 --> 00:47:20,320 And then we gotta, once we actually get it in our heads and in our hearts, is it affecting 847 00:47:20,320 --> 00:47:22,680 your hands and your feet? 848 00:47:22,680 --> 00:47:28,360 Are you exercising the right discernment, able to know what's right and what's wrong? 849 00:47:28,360 --> 00:47:32,800 I want to end today's message with a verse from next week's text in Hebrews 6-1 where 850 00:47:32,800 --> 00:47:38,800 he says, therefore, leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto 851 00:47:38,800 --> 00:47:41,800 perfection. 852 00:47:41,800 --> 00:47:45,320 The word perfection here is a word for maturity. 853 00:47:45,320 --> 00:47:47,520 It's a word for completion. 854 00:47:47,520 --> 00:47:52,160 It's the same phraseology that you'll find in the preamble to constitution when it speaks 855 00:47:52,160 --> 00:47:56,160 about becoming a more perfect union. 856 00:47:56,160 --> 00:47:59,200 The idea is moving on into completeness. 857 00:47:59,200 --> 00:48:02,160 It speaks of progress. 858 00:48:02,160 --> 00:48:05,920 It's saying, here's what Hebrews is saying. 859 00:48:05,920 --> 00:48:07,520 Here's what the Holy Spirit is saying. 860 00:48:07,520 --> 00:48:09,840 Let's grow up. 861 00:48:09,840 --> 00:48:10,840 Let's grow up. 862 00:48:10,840 --> 00:48:12,400 Don't stay a baby. 863 00:48:12,400 --> 00:48:13,600 Don't stay a teenager. 864 00:48:13,600 --> 00:48:16,320 Don't stay an ineffective, lazy adult. 865 00:48:16,320 --> 00:48:18,280 Let's grow. 866 00:48:18,280 --> 00:48:22,960 Let's move out on into his rest and be on mission for Christ. 867 00:48:22,960 --> 00:48:28,040 So my question to you is, first of all, are you saved? 868 00:48:28,040 --> 00:48:31,800 Have you gone from spiritual death to spiritual life? 869 00:48:31,800 --> 00:48:37,920 Verily, verily, I say unto you, ye must be born again. 870 00:48:37,920 --> 00:48:42,560 If a man is not born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. 871 00:48:42,560 --> 00:48:47,040 He that believeth not is condemned already because he is not believed in the name of 872 00:48:47,040 --> 00:48:48,600 the only Son of God. 873 00:48:48,600 --> 00:48:56,240 So if you're not saved, get saved. 874 00:48:56,240 --> 00:49:02,480 If you are saved, time doesn't mean that you're mature. 875 00:49:02,480 --> 00:49:03,480 Are you mature? 876 00:49:03,480 --> 00:49:04,480 Are you maturing? 877 00:49:04,480 --> 00:49:06,040 Are you growing? 878 00:49:06,040 --> 00:49:07,040 Are you teaching? 879 00:49:07,040 --> 00:49:09,120 What's your spiritual condition? 880 00:49:09,120 --> 00:49:11,480 What's your relationship to the Word of God? 881 00:49:11,480 --> 00:49:15,640 And are you living it out? 882 00:49:15,640 --> 00:49:17,800 Let's go on to perfection. 883 00:49:17,800 --> 00:49:18,800 Let's grow up. 884 00:49:18,800 --> 00:49:47,800 Would you bow your heads and close your eyes with me?