So everything that we do when we are walking with our Father, we're walking with Him, we're doing the things that He shows us, and He is working His character in us.
He is shining His light on us.
He's chasing the darkness out of those little places in us where we have a little rebellion or where we have a little fear or where we have an addiction or where we have, you know, some kind of sexual immorality that is, that is a temptation.
He's working on it.
He's getting rid of it.
He's working on it.
He's getting rid of it so that we will be complete.
God promises in Joel 2, 28 to pour out His Spirit on all humanity.
Welcome to Global Outpouring, where we contend for that promise outpouring.
We equip for that outpouring so that we may engage in that very outpouring.
I'm Philip Bus.
And I'm Sharon Bus.
Welcome to the podcast today.
We're going to discuss a subject that some people are probably wondering about.
Cause everybody says nobody's perfect.
But if nobody's perfect, why does God command it?
Let's dig.
Thanks so much for joining us today.
We are so delighted that we can be together again.
I don't know how you feel about it, but we just really love to reach into your life and
into your community to bring things that will help you prepare for the outpouring that will
help you to contend and to equip and to engage in it.
We want to really encourage you if you haven't already done so, that you would go to our
website, globaloutpouring.net and make sure that you have subscribed to our email lists
so that we can stay in touch with you because you just don't know how these things are
going to continue these days with the threats that we keep hearing all the time.
Come on.
We've got to walk together with God and that's what this is all about.
So let's stay in touch with each other and we'd love to hear back from you.
We always appreciate your feedback and we'd love to hear from you where you're
listening from and we'd love to hear if you have something on your heart that you want
us to bring so that we can take it to the Holy Spirit and see what he gives us for you
to help to answer questions or to go deeper in things that you might want to understand
better.
We just love the things of God and we love His outpouring and we want to see more of
it in your life.
So today we're going to talk about if nobody's perfect, why does God command it?
Okay so where does God command it?
Genesis 17, 1, and when Abram was 90 years old and nine, the Lord appeared to Abram and
said unto him, I am the Almighty God, walk before me and be thou perfect.
Oh, be perfect?
What sounds like an order.
So the word there in Hebrew for perfect is tamim and the outline of how it's used in
the Bible is it means complete or whole or entire or sound.
It can mean healthful, it can mean entire like of time and in the Strong's definitions
it means integrity, it means without blemish, complete, full, perfect, sincere, sound, without
spot, undefiled, upright.
It's referring to like the lamb that's without blemish for the sacrifices that you couldn't
give something in a sacrifice that was blind in one eye or you know, bruised or has a
broken leg.
It has to be complete, it has to be entire.
So in some other translations like the Young's literal translation, this Genesis 17, 1, that
last portion of it says walk habitually before me and be perfect.
You mean you have to make a habit about it?
Sounds like it.
And I think the walking habitually before him is the key to being perfect, to being
complete, to being without blemish.
Several translations use the word blameless there instead of perfect, be blameless, be
complete.
The Holman Christian Standard Bible says live in my presence and be blameless.
The Amplified Classic says walk and live habitually before me and be perfect, blameless, wholehearted,
complete.
And it goes on to talk about making covenant.
He's going to make covenant with him.
He's at this point in that chapter, he gives the covenant of circumcision.
He makes the promise about I'm giving you this land for you and your descendants.
And then he says, I'm going to change your name.
I'm going to put a ha into your name.
So from Abram to Abraham, Avraham and Sarah to Sarah.
You know, he's adding his breath.
And of course, breath is life.
If you don't have breath, you're not living.
That's right.
Okay.
So let everything that has breath praise him, right?
So he's giving him all of these promises.
And Abram starts to negotiate with God.
He says, Oh, I'm 99 years old.
And Sarah is 90.
And we're going to have a baby.
You gotta be kidding.
And Sarah laughed too.
And so God tells him, you're going to have a baby and you're going to call his name laughter.
Yeah.
Yitzhak means laughter.
We've talked about this before, but there's something that we totally miss in English
about the meanings of names because it's like there's a root word that means something and
then it's turned into a name and the name means that we don't get that much in our language.
Like I think I've used these illustrations before that, okay, if you name your daughter
Joy, you know what that means.
If you name your son Rocky, it's pretty clear what that means.
It's going to be kind of tough.
Yeah.
It's better be.
Yeah.
And like our pastor has named two of his sons with names that you understand, Arrow and
Valor.
Okay.
You know what those names mean.
It's not typical in English that we do that.
But we have this name, Isaac, Yitzhak, it means laughter.
And so God is making this promise and Abraham's going, come on, you know, we've got Ishmael
here.
Why don't we work with him?
Yeah.
You know, it's like some years, years ago, Johnny Cash did a song called Boy Named Sue.
Oh yeah, I remember that one.
And so the poor kid goes through life, then his dad left and the kid goes through life
with a boy named, named Sue, you know, and my name is Sue.
How do you do?
Yeah.
And finally he caught up with his dad and he's going to kill him in the bar because,
because what he put him through naming him that.
And then he says, says, I knew what life was going to be.
I give you that name so that you would grow up to be tough.
Then they made up and they're real good after, you know, that's, that's not realistic.
You know, it was a good song, but.
Yeah.
But the point is that your name really has a lot to do with who you become too.
Yeah.
That's why the prayer of Jabez in the Bible, his mother named him Jabez or Yavetz.
Yavetz, I think is how it's pronounced in Hebrew.
And it really means pain because she had a lot of pain when he was born.
I mean, she must've had back labor or something that there was so much pain involved that
she named him pain.
Well, when Benjamin was born, the last of the 12 sons, Benoni.
Right.
You mean, which means son of my sorrow.
And then at the end of when she died, when she died, they changed it to Benjamin.
Yes.
Son of my right hand.
That's Jacob said that.
Yeah.
Son of my right hand changed his name.
Right.
It made a difference in his destiny.
Yeah.
You know, but the point is here that God is saying to Abram, here's all these things I'm
doing and Abram is trying to say, you know, let's try this a different way.
I can't see this working.
You know, I really don't think you can do this is basically what he was saying, but
our father is faithful and he's going to do what he says he's going to do.
Yeah.
But here's something that I saw as we were studying this, that the very first verse of
this chapter is talking about be perfect.
Walk with me, walk with me, walk habitually with me and have integrity, be blameless.
Integrity, it's honesty.
Right?
Yeah.
So, you know, the chapters that follow before Isaac was born, you've got the story of Sodom
and Gomorrah in the middle of that.
And then you've got where Abraham goes to Sojourn among the Philistines and he shows
up near the king of Bimelech and he says to Sarah, you know, why don't you just tell them
that you're my sister?
Because it's really kind of true.
You're my niece basically.
And that's a really close family tie.
So, you know, just don't tell them you're my wife because they might kill me because
you're wonderful.
I said Sarah must have been a knockout at 90 years old.
Well, you know, she'd already had the, ah.
Yeah, it makes her the breath of God.
Even your skin.
Yeah.
You know, because the life they lived in like nomads out in the desert, dwelling in tents.
Right.
That's got that dry air.
Sure.
You know, people those that spend a lot of time in the sun, those in dry climates.
I remember in Tibet.
Oh, yeah.
You know, because the sun is so intense, their faces are burned like a deep red.
And I remember with one 23-year-old girl, it just looked like she was a lot older.
Yeah.
Yeah, the sun does that.
But I think the other thing is the political possibilities of a Bimelech wanting her to
be in his harem because, you know, look at Abraham, this wealthy man with all these flocks
and herds and all this wealth.
And so, you know, let me take his sister into my harem and that makes us one.
And that means I have access to his money.
Wow.
Okay.
But I think God was giving Abraham a little hint at the beginning of all these promises.
Walk before me, walk with me, walk close to me and have integrity.
Be honest.
What would have happened if he would have just said, and this is my wife.
But here's the point.
I think Abraham had all this wealth, but he didn't have an army.
Well, he did manage to have enough of an army to rescue Lot, you know, back in the day.
True.
Yeah.
But that was also because God was helping him.
But I think the thing is that his fear for his life overwhelmed him that he forgot the
promises of God.
God had made him promises.
Yeah.
Uh-huh.
So, giving him a clue here, walk before me and be blameless.
Walk before me and be perfect.
Walk before me and have integrity.
Walk before me and be complete.
If you'll stick with me, I will complete you.
And he let his fear overwhelm him.
And God had to come to his rescue.
He gave a dream to Abimelech, you're a dead man if you touch that woman.
She's another man's wife.
And so, God rescues us even when we don't follow through with what God said.
Yeah.
You know, it was really kind of the Lord to give him a clue.
It's kind of like what God said to Cain, evil is crouching at your door.
Yeah.
Don't open the door to it.
Yeah.
Leave that door closed.
Don't go there.
Have integrity.
And we get tempted all the time.
So, if this means be perfect, like don't ever do anything wrong, well, it's a good order.
However, we are Adamic in our nature.
And there is that weakness, like Jesus said of his disciples when they were sleeping,
the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.
Yeah.
You know, and the flesh just doesn't have what it takes to come up to the standard without
the spirit.
So, the key is walking with him and he'll do the job.
Yeah.
If we go on and talk a little bit more about what our father is really like, we can see
that remember Enoch walked with God and he walked with him habitually.
That's one of the translations.
He walked habitually with God.
Yeah.
So, in this walking together with him, what happened to Moses when he was on the Mount
for 40 days, came down, went back up for 40 days more?
What did he look like when he came down?
He must have just glowed.
Well, yeah.
The only thing is that he glowed.
That veil over your face.
Yeah, they couldn't.
They couldn't look at him.
Yeah, they couldn't.
I mean, that's when you think about that, you know, for somebody's face to shine so
bright, you can't look at him.
Right.
Wow.
Right.
So, that's what happens when you are habitually with him.
You know, you can tell, you can tell when you meet someone that is really walking with
God, they have a glow.
They have a glow about them.
So, 1 John 1, 5 says, then this is the message which we've heard of him and declared to you
that God is light and in him is no darkness at all.
So, when Moses spent all that time with him on Mount Sinai, that light began to rub off
on him.
And remember the blessing, the Aaronic blessing, the Lord Yehovah bless you and keep you.
The Lord Yehovah make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you.
The Lord Yehovah lift up his countenance, his face.
His countenance.
Yeah, and his countenance is light.
Yeah, think about that.
The Lord lift his countenance on you.
Yeah.
Oh, well, if he lives in you, he can shine on you.
Exactly.
And that gives you peace.
Peace.
That gives you shalom.
The meaning of shalom is that there's nothing broken, there's nothing missing.
It comes from the root word shalem that means complete.
Yeah.
Paid in full.
So, we learned from Claren McQueen when he lived in Israel, when he would go and pay
his electric bill, they would stamp it shalem.
Shalem.
Yeah, shalem.
That it means complete.
It's paid.
It's finished.
You know, you have reached the goal this month.
You have paid your bill.
Yeah.
Okay.
So, it's about reaching a goal.
It's about accomplishing something.
It's about finishing something.
So, if God is light and in him is no darkness at all, let's look at John 1 verse 4.
It says in him, talking about Jesus, in him was life and the life was the light of men.
Now, we know that when a baby is conceived, when the sperm comes together with the egg,
there's a flash of light and that is the beginning of life.
It's amazing.
It is amazing.
So, every one of us has that flash of light from our father who is the father of lights,
right?
Yeah.
And then verse 9 says, that was the true light which lights every man that comes into the
world.
Well, there it is.
That is the light that comes, that lights every man as he comes into the world.
Every human being starts with a flash of light.
And then John 8, 12 says, then spoke Jesus again unto them saying, I am the light of
the world.
He that follows me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.
We don't have to live in darkness.
When he's living inside of us, he is providing light and he's shining his candle in all those
little corners trying to drive out all of our little darknesses that cause us to fear,
that cause us to not walk in integrity, that cause us to not be complete in some way.
Yeah.
When you have enough of the light in you, then the darkness doesn't stick.
Yeah, that's a good way to put it.
Excellent.
And then in John 9, 5, he says, as long as I'm in the world, I am the light of the world.
And James 1, 17 says, every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and comes
down from the father of lights with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.
So he is complete light.
Like there's no light behind him that would cause a shadow because he's just putting out
light and that's why there will be no shadows in heaven because everything has the light
of life in it.
So that light of life that's in even the grass, there's no shadows.
I can hardly wait to see it.
I'm just really looking forward to that.
But then Jesus goes on to say, he says in Matthew 5, 14, you are the light of the world.
A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid.
So then he goes on further in Matthew 5 and Matthew 5 is part of the Sermon on the Mount.
So in verse 43, he says, you have heard that it's been said, you shall love your neighbor
and hate your enemy.
But I say to you, love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that
hate you and pray for them, which despitefully use you and persecute you.
Now just stop right there.
That is something that we ought to just ponder about on a regular basis.
That ought to be the kind of scripture that you put up on your mirror or your refrigerator.
So that you ponder this, love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them
that hate you and pray for them, which despitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be
the children of your father, which is in heaven.
For he makes his son to rise on the evil and on the good and sends rain on the just and
on the unjust.
For if you love them which love you, what reward do you have?
Don't even the tax collectors do the same?
And if you salute your brethren only, what are you doing more than others?
Don't even the tax collectors do that?
The lowest of the low are going to greet their own friends and their relatives, right?
And verse 48 says, be therefore perfect even as your father which is in heaven is perfect.
Okay, so here's a New Testament scripture.
We're being ordered to be perfect.
What does it mean?
What does it really mean?
That latter part of the verse from the Young's literal translation says, you shall therefore
be perfect as your father who is in heaven is perfect.
So this is a statement.
This is a promise rather than an order.
Now I assume that it's probably correct that we should take it as an order.
But when you put it in a more literal translation, it's not saying that you have some kind of
way that you can do this yourself, which is where perfectionism comes in.
You know, I'm a recovering perfectionist and I'm better than I used to be.
Right, honey?
We just celebrated 43 years or 43rd anniversary.
43 years, yeah.
And we're not perfect yet.
No, we're not perfect in that way.
But we are growing in God.
Yes, and you never quit growing in God.
Exactly.
And I hope that you can see that I've made some improvements in 43 years.
Because I used to really be a lot crankier than I am now.
And I recognize it faster when I discover that I'm cranky.
But you know, lots of times you're cranky because you're tired or because you're hungry.
Or you didn't get enough sleep.
Didn't get enough sleep.
Something has got you angry that's something different.
And then you respond in anger to something else.
Yeah.
You know, or if you're in pain, you can just those things can.
What is it?
Hungry, angry, lonely, tired.
That's halt.
It spells halt.
Hungry, H, angry, A, L, lonely, T, tired.
But you can add in pain or sick to those.
And those are the times that you're most vulnerable to being less than perfect.
Being cranky or out of sorts.
Yeah, the decisions you can make when you're just because you're really hungry, you know,
like, let's hurry up and do this so we can.
Yeah.
There's a thing called hangry.
Hangry.
Okay.
Yeah.
And, you know, guard your children from that, always have some kind of a nutritional thing
that you can give them when they're hungry that won't really spoil their dinner.
I remember I would come in the kitchen and say, I'm hungry while mom's fixing dinner.
She'd say, go have a glass of milk.
Well, that would be enough to kind of get me over that hangry place without really spoiling
my dinner.
And there's some nutrition in it.
Right.
So anyway, moving on, moving on.
It's about growing into spiritual maturity.
That verse in the Amplified says, you therefore will be perfect growing into spiritual maturity,
both in mind and character, actively integrating godly values into your daily life as your
heavenly father is perfect.
Isn't that beautiful?
Yeah, it's very beautiful.
And then the literal standard version says, you will therefore be perfect as your father
who is in the heavens is perfect.
So what does that look like?
What does that look like?
It reminds me of when Dean Braxton got to heaven.
Jesus looked at him.
Yeah.
Well, Jesus looked at him.
And when Jesus saw himself in Dean, then he knew he was in because Jesus recognized, he
mirrored himself.
Yep.
He recognized that his character was being built.
Reflected.
Not even reflected.
He was in him.
Sometimes we think that it's only reflection, but I think it really has a lot to do with
how much we allow him to be seen in us, that we be transparent, that we humble ourselves,
that we go low so that Jesus can go high, that his presence will be seen.
Yeah, that's right.
That's good.
So this idea of perfection in the Greek, in the New Testament, the Strong's number is
G5046 and the word is talios.
It means brought to its end, finished, wanting nothing necessary to completeness, perfect,
that which is perfect.
It also means consummate human integrity and virtue, full grown adult of full age, mature.
So the King James translates it perfect 17 times and of full age once and man once.
But I think in the days when the King James was translated some 400 years ago, the word
perfect might have been better understood as being complete.
Complete, yeah.
You know?
But it's changed as it's been used generation after generation.
So I want to read to you from some of these words from the lexical aides to the New Testament
in the Bible that I use called the Hebrew Greek Key Study Bible, it's the 1991 edition.
In the back of it, it has lexical aides that were put together by Spiros Zodiades.
And he says of this word talios, as I said, it's number 5046.
It is from the word talos, which is 5056, meaning goal or purpose.
So it means adult, full grown, of full age, as opposite to little children.
So in other words, we're going to act grown up instead of acting childish.
Yeah.
Okay.
There's a difference between childlike and childish.
And we're supposed to be like little children in terms of trust, but we're not supposed
to behave like little children having a temper tantrum.
Or in character.
Yeah, exactly.
This image of fully completed growth as contrasted with infancy and childhood underlies the ethical
use of, I'm not a Greek scholar, taloi.
The talios is one who has attained his moral end, the goal for which he was intended, namely
to be a man obedient in Christ or a woman, of course.
It may be true though that having reached this attainment, other and higher ends will
open up before him in order to have Christ formed in him more and more.
When one is talios, it does not mean that he has all the grace available bestowed upon
him.
Taliotes, perfection is not a static state.
In a physical or literal sense used of spotless sacrifices involving animals or objects, wherein
nothing is deficient.
So it can also be used for talking about a full year or a perfect work or something done
as it ought to be.
Okay.
So that's what this word talios means.
Then we have the word taliu.
This is a word that comes from talios and it means to complete or finish.
So it means to be made perfect or complete only in the sense of reaching one's prescribed
goal.
Hmm.
Okay.
It was about making Christ perfect.
Remember how he was made perfect by his sufferings in Hebrews 5, 9, Hebrews 7, 28.
It's to consecrate him by sufferings to his office and fully to qualify and enable him
to discharge it.
And it's part of the word that is used when Jesus said it is finished on the cross.
And I love how that is put together where John is talking about what happened when Jesus
was being crucified.
It says this in John 19 and verse 28.
It says, after this, knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the scripture
might be fulfilled, he said, I thirst.
Okay.
And the word being accomplished, it's related to this word about being completed.
Okay.
Hmm.
Okay.
Now there was set a vessel full of vinegar and they filled a sponge with vinegar and
put it up on hyssop and put it up to his mouth.
When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, okay, it's prophesied that they gave me vinegar
to drink.
In Psalm 22, 31, when Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, like was prophesied
in Psalm 22, 31, he said, it is finished.
And that is what the high priest said when the lamb was slain and lifted up.
So Jesus was saying it is finished.
And that word comes from this same word that is talking about it being accomplished 50,
55, it means the end goal.
Okay.
So his goal, it's the end of the accomplishment to complete anything, not merely to end it,
but to bring it to perfection or to its destined goal, to carry it through.
Jesus came to this earth for the purpose of giving himself as the lamb of God.
Yeah.
That was his purpose.
That was his goal.
He completed it.
He finished it.
Yeah.
It is finished.
Okay.
He completed the goal that he perfected it.
He was perfected by the things that he suffered.
He completed his job.
So everything that we do when we are walking with our father, we're walking with him, we're
doing the things that he shows us and he is working his character in us.
He is shining his light on us.
He's chasing the darkness out of those little places in us where we have a little rebellion
or where we have a little fear or where we have an addiction or where we have some kind
of sexual immorality that is a temptation.
He's working on it.
He's getting rid of it.
He's working on it.
He's getting rid of it so that we will be complete.
I'm looking at it as when a child is going through school, a kindergartener accomplishes
all of the things that a kindergartener should learn.
They learn their colors.
They learn to count.
Maybe they've learned all those things before they get there.
I mean, I know...
It depends on the mom.
It depends on the mom or whoever's with the child, you know, but working with those things
that a kindergartener should accomplish.
I had learned how to tie my shoes before I got to kindergarten, but I taught a little
boy that didn't know how to do it because that's something that has to be accomplished
in kindergarten.
Then you get into first grade.
If you accomplish what you're supposed to do in kindergarten, you go into first grade
and that's where you learn more about the letters and putting the letters together.
The sounds now become words.
Promotion.
Yeah, you've been promoted into another place because you completed something.
Yeah, that's good.
So it's about completing.
You're walking with God and you're completing.
Here's the thing that you're completing for this space of your life.
So you mean if you don't pass the test, that means you get to take it over.
Oh yeah.
He wants you to pass the test.
So if you don't pass it for whatever reason, he'll give you another opportunity.
It's going to come around again.
And the sooner, you know, when we bumble, when we stumble, the picture of maturity is
in how fast we get up and get back to him because he's always calling us to come back
to me.
Just get up and keep going.
You know, if you're in a race and you stumble and you fall, do you quit the race?
No, you get up and you keep running.
There are people who have won races that were on the ground, on the track.
They fell down, they got up, they gave it all they had and they won the race.
So Eric Little was one of those.
Yeah, I think he was.
So you know, this is the point that we walk with him and step by step.
How do you walk?
One step at a time.
Yeah.
So you walk one step at a time and that is how we walk habitually with God.
I remember when we went behind the scenes at the Sight and Sound Theater in Branson,
which is better than any Broadway you can ever see.
It's beautiful.
And we got to see all the different animals that they had back there because they use
live animals on their sets.
And as far as someone asked about training them, and what they said is if the animal
will perform over a hundred times without messing up, you know, they will use it in
a live performance.
And I remember hearing, I don't know, Christopher Parkening, the guitarist, one of the, maybe
Smey with Segovia, it's like you have to play a piece seven times in a row without any flaws
and you're ready to perform it live.
Yeah.
Wow.
So it's about practicing.
Practicing the presence of God will make you walk circumspectly toward Him.
Yes.
Yes, absolutely.
When we are walking with Him habitually, that's the key word.
Not that we are completely every moment thinking about Him, but when you realize that you aren't
thinking about Him, you just go back and think about Him.
Go back and acknowledge His presence.
That's how you get closer.
We walk with Him and He's working with us to accomplish these things.
So this is one of my favorite, absolute favorite verses, 1 Thessalonians 5, 23 and 24.
Philip, would you read that for us out of the Passion Translation, please?
Now may the God of peace and harmony set you apart, making you completely holy.
And may your entire being, spirit, soul and body be kept completely flawless in the appearing
of our Lord Jesus, the Anointed One, the One who calls you by name is trustworthy and will
thoroughly complete His work in you.
Amen.
Thank you, Jesus, for completing your work in us.
That is the picture of what we're talking about.
And He never gives up.
No.
Yeah, we're the ones that kind of, we do something wrong and sometimes you do something
and if you feel like maybe you got really humbled or this or that, then you may turn
your back on God.
Like He's not really with me, you know, something that can cause, maybe it's a direction God's
trying to steer you and it didn't go the way you wanted it to, you know, makes you take
offense maybe at others, maybe offense at God.
Can you take an offense at God?
Yeah, sure.
I get a bit on, you know, people that we do podcasts with, sometimes I just kind of, I
cringe a little and say, well, that's the way I can talk to God.
I'm mad at God, you know, I thought, how could you get mad at God?
He can just blow you away, you know, one breath.
But you know, He is patient.
And that's why things take so long.
Because He's being patient, giving people an opportunity to repent.
So Fideus is a thousand years, so His patient, He just lets us go through something for a
while.
Yeah, He's waiting for us to repent.
We want it done right away.
That's what develops patience in us.
Yeah, there was a song, I think, Wendy and Mary made back in the 1980s, you know, called
the microwave oven, mom's green come to put it on credit, take it with you, you know,
and all these things.
Instant breakfast.
Yeah, instant Christian saved overnight, something, something, because that's what we like.
You know, Lord, give me patience.
I want it now.
But we don't get it right now.
That doesn't work because it has to be built in you.
Yeah.
It's like if it takes, if it takes 21 days to make a habit, that's what they say a lot
of things you do something 21 days.
How long does it take?
How many tests does it make to make you perfect?
Yeah, if you had 21 tests in a row and you pass, will that make you perfect?
Well in that area, probably.
Yeah.
And then there's another area that he's going to take you through.
You don't slam the door and leave.
Yeah.
So these words in First Thessalonians 5, 23 and 24, in the King James, it says the very
God of peace sanctify you wholly.
And that word wholly is the Greek word, holoteles.
And it comes from holos and teles, which is the word that we just studied, 5056.
So it means complete to the end, absolutely perfect, wholly, in other words, completely.
So the God of peace sanctify you wholly, completely.
And then he goes on to say, I pray God that your whole spirit, soul and body be preserved
blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus.
That word whole is the word holocleros.
And it comes from this word holos and kleros from holos, 3650 meaning all or the whole
and kleros meaning apart or share.
So the word holocleros means whole, having all its parts.
And perfect, perfect.
You get it?
Perfect.
I love this.
That which retains all that was allotted to it at the first, wanting nothing for its completeness,
bodily, mental and moral and tiredness.
It expresses the perfection of man before the fall.
Beautiful.
I love that.
Yeah.
The holocleros is one who has preserved or who having once lost has now regained his
completeness.
Did you catch that?
If you lost part of it along the way, he knows where you dropped it off and he's picked it
up and he's brought it to restore it to you.
Some part of you may have been put into a prison someplace.
He knows exactly where it is and he knows how to get it out and restore it to you.
The next verse is faithful is he that calls you who also will do it.
So if you're walking with him, then he's going to be working all this stuff in you.
So it's about developing his character in you.
We were predestined to be conformed to the image of his son.
So for walking with him, we're going to start looking more and more like Jesus and it's
easy to do if he's living inside of us and we're clothed in him.
All we have to do is be transparent and he's the one that will be seen.
All we have to do is humble ourselves.
If we go low, he'll go high.
He'll be seen.
What's that scripture?
Humble thyself in the sight of the Lord and he will lift you up in due time.
So if Jesus said in Matthew 23, 37, you shall love the Lord with all your heart.
So if God is love and we are to love him with all of our heart, with all of our soul, with
all of our mind, with all of our strength, it's something that he's working in us.
It's that agape love, the kind of love that looks for what the one loved needs and provides
it.
That's what the love of God is.
He's looking into us, seeing what we need and he's working with us to provide all of
that as we walk with him step by step.
We're going from kindergarten to first grade.
We fulfill first grade, we go to second grade.
We fulfill second grade, we go to third grade.
The idea of perfection or completeness is like Ronis Sporopoulos, our friend that speaks
Greek because she is Greek.
She explains this idea of completeness, of perfection as like if you have completely
redone your living room and you've put in new furniture and you've hung new pictures
on the wall, you've put in all these decorations and you stand back and you say, that's perfect.
But then you're in the store and you find something else.
Oh, that would be perfect for this room.
And so you bring it in and you add to the perfection.
So that's perfect to the second power then.
That's a good way to put it.
So the idea of perfection is not that we have attained all of it at once, but that we're
in a process as we walk with him, we're becoming like him.
The more time we spend with him who is light, the more light we become.
The more time we spend with him who is love, the more we're able to love beyond ourselves.
Yes.
Now this morning, just to close with this thought, this morning as I was waking up,
I heard these words, come closer.
And I think that is going perfectly, perfectly with this message that there is a place that
we can go that's closer, where we can have more today than we had yesterday of his light
and his life and his love.
We can have more grace worked in us as we get closer to him.
The closer we get to him, the more he is working what we're trying to call perfection.
Let's call it completeness.
Let's call it blamelessness.
Let's call it without blemish.
You are complete in him.
Exactly.
You are complete in him because he did the work on the cross.
He said it is finished.
So what we're doing is we're applying the finished work that Jesus did on the cross
in order that we are complete.
But faithful is he that calls you who also will do it.
He is doing it in us as we walk with him.
Just have to keep walking with him.
Just step by step.
Amen.
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Until next time, this is Sharon Buss.
And I'm Philip Buss.
And God bless you with this overwhelming loving presence.