Latest / Calvary Church with Ed Taylor Podcast / #20250319 - Stuck: The Problem of Stunted Spiritual Growth - 1 Corinthians 2:13-3:3

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#20250319 - Stuck: The Problem of Stunted Spiritual Growth - 1 Corinthians 2:13-3:3 · Calvary Church with Ed Taylor Podcast

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Welcome to the study of God's Word recorded live at Calvary
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Church in Aurora, Co. To learn more about the many
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resources available through Abounding Grace Media or to tune
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into our live stream services, visit us online at Calvary Co
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dot Church or download our free Calvary Church app.
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Now let's open our Bibles and study God's Word.
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Amen. I hope you guys enjoyed the time
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of prayer. I always love give 10.
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So thankful we get to do this to pray together.
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So thankful for this church. So thankful for you guys.
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And it's a privilege to stand and and bring the word tonight.
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So if you guys want to turn to 1st Corinthians chapter 2, First
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Corinthians chapter 2, we're going to look at just a little
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bit at the end of First Corinthians 2A, little bit at
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the beginning of First Corinthians 3.
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And if you're taking notes, the title of the message tonight is
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stuck The Problem of Spiritual stunted growth.
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The problem of spiritual stunted growth.
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Now, originally I was planning to to, to give a different
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message tonight, but I've been having more and more
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conversations within the last week or two weeks, both here in
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the church with guys in men's ministry or on Calvary Live.
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As people are calling. And I'm hearing this more and
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more that people are really struggling with not being
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further along in their walk with the Lord, feeling like they are
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doing the things that they can, but they're feeling stuck.
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They, they perhaps are allowing their activities or allowing
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their work to take up more time than developing their personal
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walk with the Lord. And I've been there before and
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you sometimes hear people say, I don't really feel like I'm
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growing, but I'm also not falling away.
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I kind of feel like I'm just in this place where I'm sort of
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floating and, and that I've had that conversation with a lot of
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people. The good news is this, and This
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is why I'm happy to stand before you to point us to Jesus
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tonight, just to say this, if someone wants to grow
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spiritually, they will. They will.
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I heard someone say it this way. Spiritual growth is like an all
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you can eat buffet. You can have as much of it as
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you want or you can have as little as you want.
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But I do know this, that God is waiting to give you more.
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If you've been walking with the Lord for a week, if you were one
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of the people that stood this weekend and gave their life to
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Jesus, God has more for you and you're just at the beginning.
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If like me, you've been walking with the Lord for 30 or more
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years, God has more for you as well.
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Because the truth is, everybody is either growing or falling
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away. There's no such thing as this
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kind of middle ground where we're just sort of hovering.
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We might feel like that, but we are either gaining ground or
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we're losing ground. And so the question is, why do
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some people then seem to succeed when it comes to their spiritual
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growth? And they do that with great
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effects, while it seems that others wither and fall away.
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And that's kind of what I'm hoping that we can see from
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God's Word tonight. I think the answer to that is
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because we don't always take advantage of all that God has
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given us, the table that's been spread before us.
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God has much for us and it is God's desire that we would grow.
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So if you're in a place tonight or if you know somebody that's
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in the place tonight that's just feeling like they're stunted,
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just feeling like, man, I, I, I'm, I'm going through the
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motions right now. I'm kind of feeling just a
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little bit like I'm in this in between place and, and in my
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heart of hearts, I'm desiring to move forward, but I'm, I'm kind
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of at a loss. And what would you say, by the
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way, if somebody came to you and said that?
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And hopefully tonight, maybe even just the encouragement from
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the Word will help you to maybe put some words to people in your
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life that are in that season. So in First Corinthians, we're
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in the middle of the section here at the end of First
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Corinthians 2, beginning of chapter 3, that's going to speak
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of three different kinds of people.
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And that's what we're going to look at tonight, these three
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different kinds of people. Corinth, as you know, was a
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church with a lot of problems. So if you think our church has
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problems, try going to the Church of Corinth.
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Read through the list. Every chapter in First
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Corinthians deals with some kind of a problem, so much so that
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you could say the theme of the entire letter of First
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Corinthians is solving problems within the church.
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And and so every church has problems.
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Wherever there's people, there's gonna be problems.
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And in this section here of chapter 2 and Chapter 3, Paul is
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dealing with the problem of spiritual stunted growth.
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So for any of us who have had kids, we know that when you have
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a baby, that season of babyhood is great.
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It's not always easy, but we love that season.
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We love the way babies smell. We love the way babies cry.
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We love watching their first steps.
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We love, we don't like the sleeplessness.
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We don't like all the other stuff that comes with that.
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But for someone like me that's now got 4 adult kids, I look
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back to those days, even though when I was in those days, I
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couldn't wait to get out of that.
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But I look back and I'm like, I miss that season of my kids
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being babies and just being able to care for them in that way was
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so sweet. Which probably means I'm getting
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close now to being close to becoming a grandfather.
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I'm not ready yet, but I feel like, OK, maybe that's stirring
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in my heart. So babyhood is a sweet season if
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you're a baby, if you're a baby, It's not a sweet season if if
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you're you're staying there for years and years and years and
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years. In other words, when you, when
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you pick up a baby and you, you after a baby's being fed and
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he's done and you burp him, that's the cutest thing.
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And we're all so happy when a baby gets burped and we take
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pictures and we clap and it's wonderful.
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It's not so cute when your 15 year old's at your table, dinner
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table and he burps, right? And you're like, bro, that is so
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rude. What's the matter with you?
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Where are your manners? And it's similar in some ways to
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spiritual birth. When somebody gets saved here,
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we had the privilege since we've started the book of Galatians
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here, to see somebody at every single service stand to give
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their life to Jesus. I'm just standing back and just
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so, yeah, we can clap for that and give the honor to the Lord.
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That doesn't happen. And I'm so thankful.
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And so this is what we do. We clap, we cheer, we get
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excited. The Bible says all of heaven
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rejoices when one Sinner is saved.
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And we rejoice because we know man, they have been brought from
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death to life. It's so wonderful.
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But it's so disheartening. And as a pastor, I've seen this
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so often in the church when that person doesn't grow, when that
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growth doesn't happen, when there's stunted spiritual
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growth. Physically, when a baby is born,
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if the baby's healthy, it's inevitable that the baby's going
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to grow, right? It's inevitable that they're
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going to be nursing. And then at some point you're
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going to move them into the, the Gerber food and, and give them
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little spoonfuls of food. And then at some point they're
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going to be able to eat more solid food and eventually
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they'll grow teeth and they'll be able to eat.
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That's inevitable that that's going to happen.
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If they're hungry, it's inevitable that they're going to
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learn to want to walk and, and they're going to crawl and walk
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and then they're going to start start to talk.
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They're going to get potty trained.
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Wonderful if if all that's happening when you're a baby.
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It's not so wonderful if that's happening as a 20 year old,
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right when someone's in that place and you're still feeding
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them Gerber food just because they haven't taken advantage of,
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of growing here. However, here's the problem.
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Physically, if you're healthy, growth is inevitable.
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Spiritually, it is possible for a Christian not to grow.
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That's the that's the sad thing, but to stay a spiritual baby,
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that's what Paul talks about here, to stay stuck.
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And we know this. Some Christians, when they get
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saved, man, they are off to the races and they grow very, very
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quickly. I have seen that happen six
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months, man. They are just on fire and
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they're moving forward and advancing in their walk with the
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Lord. There are other Christians that
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grow very, very slowly and for whatever reason, And here's the
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thing, this isn't a competition. We are in our lane, my lane.
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Paul says. I'm running my race.
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I'm not looking to my left or to my right and trying to evaluate
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how fast or how slow my race is compared to yours.
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I'm keeping my eyes on Jesus, the author and the finisher of
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my life, of my faith. And, and, and yet at the same
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time, there is a problem when some Christians barely grow at
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all because time spent doing something isn't necessarily a
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guarantee that there's going to be growth in that.
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I have seen people that have been saved for a very, very
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short time have much more spiritual maturity in their life
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than some people that I've known that have been walking with the
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Lord for many years. And I think again, the problem
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is that not all of us take advantage of what God has for
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us, what God has given us. So we're going to take a look at
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three different kinds of people here in First Corinthians 2.
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If you're taking notes, here's our first person we're going to
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look at #1 the natural man. We're going to see this here in
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verses 13 and 14, the natural man, or if you want to stay
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here, the unsaved man. And when we use the word man
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here, when Paul uses the word man here, of course, it's
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Speaking of mankind, Speaking of both man and woman.
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Verse 13, he says these things. We also speak not in words which
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man's wisdom teaches, but which the Holy Spirit teaches,
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comparing, he says, spiritual things with spiritual.
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So spiritual people want to grow spiritually.
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They want to mature. They want to grow in spiritual
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wisdom. And Paul is saying here that
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this is taught to us by the Holy Spirit himself.
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That is how we grow. It's a work of the Spirit and
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every believer sitting in this room, every believer listening,
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has access to this spiritual wisdom that Paul talks about.
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Now, it doesn't mean that every believer has equal spiritual
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wisdom. I don't think that's what Paul's
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saying or that every single one of us will understand every
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spiritual mystery. But it does mean this, that
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every believer can understand the basics of the Christian
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faith and more than that, so it may not make sense in human
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wisdom, but the Holy Spirit teaches us and it says here in
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verse 13 how to compare spiritual things with spiritual.
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Here's what this means that the only way a spiritual person, a
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born again person can understand spiritual things is by the Holy
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Spirit of God himself. That's the only way.
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But here in verse 14, in other words, in contrast, in contrast
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now to the spiritual man receiving spiritual things from
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the Spirit of God, but the natural man does not receive the
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things of the Spirit of God for their foolishness to him, nor
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can he know them because they are spiritually discerned or
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they are spiritually understood. Now when it speaks here of the
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natural man, it's not talking about an outdoors, environmental
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friendly dude that has a beer and eats granola and lives off
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the land, right? The word here for natural is a
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materialistic person who lives as if there's nothing beyond
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this physical life. So this is an unregenerate or
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unsaved person who is apart from Jesus and he is a Sinner by
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nature and by choice. Now here's what Paul would say
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about the spiritual man in Ephesians chapter 2 verses one
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through 3. He says, And you, Christian, he
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made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins in which you
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once walked, according to the course of this world, according
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to the Prince of the power of the air.
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Speaking of Satan, the Spirit who now works in the sons of
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disobedience, among whom we all also conducted ourselves in the
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lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of
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the mind. And we were by nature children
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of wrath, just as others. That was all of us at one point.
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We were all the natural man. The word therefore natural in
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the Greek is the Greek word sukacos, which means soulish.
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In other words, they are governed by the impulses of
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their body. So the natural man is governed
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by the five senses, what they can touch, what they taste, what
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they hear, what they see, what they smell.
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So you're hungry, you eat if you're thirsty, you drink if
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there's sexual urges, you get those satisfied.
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This is the way every person has gone through life.
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It's the way we went through school.
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That's how we learned math. It's how we learn science.
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It's how we learn biology. It's how we work.
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It's how we earn a living because we are very much in
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touch with this physical world. And it's a physical world that
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God made for us, that God gave us, and he did give us our five
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senses. But with the natural man, that's
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as far as he goes. He can't discern anything
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spiritual, only what he can touch, taste, see, hear or
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smell. As a matter of fact, in verse
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14, it says he does not receive the things of the Spirit of God.
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So again, this is an unsaved person who's not interested in
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the things of God. He's not interested in faith.
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He has no concern for sin. He is unrighteous.
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And we really can't expect righteousness from from an
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unrighteous person. We can't expect them to feel the
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way we feel about sin when they sin because as we read from
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Ephesians, they are spiritually dead.
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Oswald Chambers says it this way.
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There's nothing attractive about the gospel to the natural man.
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The only man who finds the gospel attractive is the man who
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is convicted of sin. Because if you hear that bad
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news, praise the Lord. There is good news coming,
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right? And and it would be wrong to
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expect the natural man to see and to value spiritual things.
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We see here. He can't do that.
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It's impossible for him to do that.
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The things of God are foolishness to them.
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They don't believe in angels. They don't believe in heaven or
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hell. They don't believe in a literal
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Garden of Eden. You'll hear them even ask
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questions. You may have had a family member
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or a friend say you guys really believe that there was a talking
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snake in the garden, or you really believe that a man was in
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a belly of a whale for three days.
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You guys are idiots. I've seen stuff all over social
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media making fun of these things, mocking these things.
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And again, we're dealing here with the natural man and we have
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to understand that, that again, the senses, if they see it, if
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they taste it, if they touch it, that they smell it, then I'll
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believe it. And we all have a little bit of
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that still in us, don't we? The kind of person that says I
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need proof before I believe. And the natural person is in
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this position of needing this kind of evidence because verse
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14 tells us here. Nor can he know them, nor can he
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know the things of the Spirit of God, because they are
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spiritually discerned. In other words, the things of
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the Spirit of God are not validated by the senses, but
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spiritually by the Holy Spirit who lives in every born again
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believer. So a natural man can't discern
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or can't understand spiritual things.
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It would be like trying to explain a beautiful sunset or
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your favorite color to a blind person that has never seen
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anything like that before. They lack the capability of
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being able to understand what a sunset looks like.
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They lack the capability of being able to understand what a
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a dark Everett Everest green color looks like.
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The Holy Spirit for the for the natural man has to reveal
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spiritual things to them and that's why the Bible won't make
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sense to the natural man. Second Corinthians chapter 4
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four. You might want to write that
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down, maybe even next to these verses here when it comes to the
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natural man Paul there tells us this, whose minds the God of
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this age Speaking of Satan again, whose minds the God of
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this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the
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gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God should
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shine on them. So if you've ever had a
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conversation Thanksgiving dinner, your guys are all around
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the table and your unsafe family members are there or you're out
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hanging out with your unsaved friends and you try to talk
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about spiritual things or you try to bring up spiritual things
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and it doesn't make any sense to them.
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And they can't understand why you would go to church every
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week and they can't understand why you'd want to read this.
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And they can't understand why you're praying to the stand
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upstairs. How do you know he even hears
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you? It's because of this.
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It's because of this, they're the natural man.
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Now, I'm not saying, by the way, don't talk to your family
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members about spiritual things because that might be the
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opportunity for the Lord to use you to plant spiritual seeds in
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their life. But I am saying because of this,
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understand This is why they don't always get it.
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This is why they can't understand you.
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You're an enigma to them. Back in the day, they used to
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call us Jesus freaks, right? We, I just don't understand you
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guys, and this may be by the way, more important than talking
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to them about God. I think just as important, if
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not more important would be you talking to God about them.
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If you've got a, an unsafe friend or an unsafe family
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member, pray for them because this is only something God can
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do. You can't do this.
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They can't even do it for themselves.
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Ask that God would open their eyes and save them from their
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sin. Ask that God would bring them
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from spiritual darkness into spiritual light.
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Otherwise they will never be able to comprehend what you are
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saying when you talk about the things of the Spirit, when you
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talk about the Lord. So the natural man left to
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himself has no sensitivity to God.
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Now he does have. The Bible says eternity is
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written in the heart of every every person.
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So there is something in them that understands that there is a
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God. But we look for that and all the
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places that the world offers to try to fill that in us.
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But here's the greater tragedy that the natural man is one
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thing. The greater tragedy is that too
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many Christians still think and live like the natural man that
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refuse to discern spiritual things.
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In other words, we think like the natural man.
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We're using man's wisdom. We're discerning things in that
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way rather than spiritually. Like a blind man who's been made
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to see but and has access to that beautiful sunset.
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God has given us now the ability to see.
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I once was blind. Now I see, but our eyes are
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closed and, and, and the beautiful sense that's right in
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front of us, but we're unwilling to open our eyes.
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So that's the natural man #2 we're going to come to the
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second person here. Number 2 is the spiritual man,
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the spiritual man. You'll see this here in verses
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15 through 16. And again, if the natural man is
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the unsaved man, then the spiritual man, of course, is the
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saved man, the saved man. So it says this in verse 15.
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But he who is spiritual now, he who is born again, he who's
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saved judges all things, yet he himself is rightly judged by no
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one. Now real quickly, he's not
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saying that every Christian is above every criticism.
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That's not what he's saying. He's saying here that the
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natural man is not equipped to judge a spiritual man because
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the natural man doesn't know the mind of the Lord, as Paul would
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say here in verse 16. For who has known the mind of
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the Lord, that he may instruct him?
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And then Paul says, but we have the mind of Christ and he's
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talking here, by the way, to all Christians, this church at
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Corinth with all the issues that they had.
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He's talking to the mature Christians and he's talking to
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the immature Christians. He's talking to the growing
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Christians. He's talking to those Christians
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that feel stuck in their walk with the Lord, but they all have
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the mind of Christ. Corinth with all their problems,
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they have the mind of Christ. It's a fact.
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They were saved. They were washed in the blood.
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They were given the gifts of the Holy Spirit and functioning in
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those gifts and they can discern spiritual things.
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And the same thing is true of you tonight too.
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You can understand spiritual things.
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You may have all the reasons why you think, well, maybe not me,
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I'm not a reader. I don't comprehend well.
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I don't remember things well. But if you're born again, you
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have the Spirit of the living God living inside of you.
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The moment you said yes to Jesus, you didn't.
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I know this was happening, but the Spirit of God himself came
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and lived inside of you. And it's the guarantee, Paul
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would say, of your inheritance that you're going to heaven
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someday and he will never leave you and he'll never forsake you.
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And now he's our helper. He comes alongside us, He helps
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us, he comforts us, he convicts us, and he he helps us to
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understand the word when we're reading it.
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It's like this was just words on a page.
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Now it's breath on a page. It's inspired by God as God
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breathes. And the Holy Spirit allows us to
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for, for this to become life to us, just like we need our
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physical food, this becomes our spiritual food.
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So again, the natural man, as far as he can go, is the five
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senses. The spiritual man says here
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judges things spiritually. He is spiritually discerned.
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He goes beyond the five senses. He perceives things.
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The things of the Spirit are now real to him because the Spirit
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of God is revealing those things to him.
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And if you're, if you have been saved and walking with the Lord,
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you understand this. Isn't it amazing?
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Those moments that you wake up and you're like, Lord, I'm just
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weary and I need AI need a word from you.
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I need a touch from you. I'm overwhelmed, I need wisdom.
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I don't know what I'm going to do.
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And you open this up and God himself speaks directly to where
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you're at. Isn't that a wonderful thing?
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And you're just blown away. Like it's like God, you really
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are speaking to me. This is so amazing.
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And he gives you a word or you read a devotional and that
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devotional is exactly what you needed.
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You, you turn on Grace FM and Pastor Ed's teaching a message.
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That's exactly what I needed to hear today.
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It's because the Spirit of God loves you and he's speaking to
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you and he's ministering to you and he's helping you to grow.
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Now, the word spiritual here is the word numaticos in the Greek,
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which means simply that this person belongs to God.
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We are the holy spirits. So we think of spiritual things.
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Those things are what now occupy our minds, not like the things
23:36
of the natural man. You guys all remember before
23:38
Christ the things that occupied your mind, right?
23:41
Those are very much different now when we're thinking about
23:43
the things of the Lord, our thought process.
23:45
Man, I can't wait to get to church.
23:47
Man, I can't wait to be with my brothers and sisters.
23:49
I can't wait to open up the Bible and have that experience
23:52
of God speaking to me. A spiritual person was a natural
23:56
man, but he has now crossed over into a supernatural man because
24:01
we've got the Spirit of God living in US.
24:03
And he tells us here in verse 16, we have the mind of Christ.
24:07
So if you're born again here and you've given your life to Jesus,
24:11
you have this, You have tonight the mind of Christ.
24:16
And Paul is saying, so walk in it.
24:19
Walk like you have the mind of Christ.
24:22
You don't. Don't live like you don't have
24:24
it. Don't live like a poor person
24:27
when you have all of these spiritual riches that are at
24:30
your disposal. Again, a natural person only
24:34
thinks of their appetite and what they desire.
24:38
The spiritual person thinks of spiritual things now and what
24:41
God desires and it's what drives us and it's what occupies our
24:46
thinking. You know, after I was saved,
24:50
there were things that lost their punch that I loved when I
24:54
was unsaved. I'm sure you guys remember that,
24:56
right? And of course, I still struggle
24:57
with things, but but the sin that I used to really love and
25:01
really enjoy doesn't do it for me anymore.
25:03
The spiritual man can't fully enjoy the things of the natural
25:09
man anymore because you've got the Spirit of God living in you
25:12
and he's convicting you. He's like, oh, you probably
25:14
shouldn't be smoking that you probably shouldn't be drinking
25:17
that you, you shouldn't be looking at that, right?
25:21
The natural man can't enjoy the spiritual things.
25:25
And there were things I remember as an unsaved natural man, an
25:28
unsaved person that I didn't like.
25:30
I, I didn't really have any desire to read the Bible.
25:32
That felt very boring to me. I, I was annoyed by Christians
25:36
because I'd been in the church my whole life and I saw a lot of
25:38
hypocrisy. So I used that as an excuse of
25:41
why I didn't want to be involved in church.
25:43
I wish I would have heard Pastor Ed's message from this past
25:44
Sunday about grace and hypocrisy because that would have really
25:47
ministered to me. I, I, I made fun of people
25:51
worshipping. I thought it was the funniest
25:52
thing to see people lifting their hands because I was a
25:54
natural man and those things didn't make any sense to me.
25:57
Those are things now that I love, which is so funny.
26:00
I now can't wait to read the Bible.
26:02
It's my favorite thing to do. I can't wait to go to church.
26:06
My, my favorite time of the week is is the weekend and Wednesday
26:10
nights when we're all together. Now I hunger for spiritual
26:14
things. Now I want to learn more things.
26:16
I was not a great student, but now I can't wait to learn more.
26:19
And I love the very people that at one point drove me crazy, and
26:23
I also drove them crazy as well too.
26:25
It's amazing how coming from the natural to the spiritual, how
26:28
God changes us from the inside out.
26:31
And it says here that this spiritual person can judge all
26:34
things. Verse 15, the beginning there,
26:37
he judges all things. In other words, he can evaluate
26:39
everything. Now, now that you're spiritual,
26:41
you can scrutinize literally. You can get beneath the surface
26:46
or beneath the fluff, down to the things that really matter.
26:50
You're able to do that because you are spiritually discerning
26:54
things. You're correctly able to discern
26:57
where at one point you were never able to do that.
26:59
The spiritual man gets it. When it comes to life, when it
27:04
comes to the Bible, you get it. It doesn't mean you understand
27:08
everything. It doesn't mean we don't have
27:09
questions. Or we come up to the pastors and
27:11
say, can you help explain this verse to me?
27:13
Or that? That's part of the growth that
27:15
God has for us. But the Holy Spirit opens up the
27:18
word to us and speaks to us so wonderfully and we realize again
27:22
how blind we once were. And if you've ever had this
27:26
thought that, like man, being a Christian is so good, why
27:29
doesn't everybody see it? You know, or you leave the
27:32
church and you're filled with the Spirit and you're thinking,
27:33
man, I just wish that my family knew what I'm experiencing here.
27:37
I wish they knew the peace. I wish they knew the joy that I
27:40
have, the love that I have for the Lord.
27:42
And, and the Love's overflowing now to other people.
27:45
We're all so different, but we love one another.
27:48
It's because we've been brought from death to life, life and a
27:51
dead person can't understand these things.
27:53
So if you're a natural person, you have to think about it this
27:57
way, that you've only been on one side.
28:00
You can knock the spiritual, you can knock the supernatural all
28:04
day long, but you have never experienced it, so you don't
28:07
know what you're talking about. But as a spiritual person, you
28:11
can evaluate both sides because you were in the natural side,
28:15
but now you're on this side and you know, now this side is
28:19
better. This side has more answers.
28:21
This side is more satisfying. Being born again, I have more
28:24
discernment. I have more logical thought.
28:27
The other side was smoke and mirrors.
28:29
It promised something that it never delivered on.
28:32
But this side, I'm settled, I'm satisfied, I'm at peace.
28:38
It's wonderful. And again in verse 15 here it
28:42
says, yet he himself is rightly judged by no one.
28:48
In other words, unbelievers just won't get you.
28:52
And you have to be OK with that. Not everyone's going to
28:54
understand you. Not everyone's going to get you.
28:56
The new Living translation with this particular verse says it
28:59
this way. They don't understand you at
29:02
all. They don't understand you at
29:04
all. Again, you try to talk to them
29:06
about being born again or about the Holy Spirit, about heaven,
29:09
about hell, and they won't get it until the Holy Spirit opens
29:14
up their eyes and reveals it to them because they are natural
29:18
and they're they're unable to discern things spiritually.
29:23
Only the spiritual man can discern these things.
29:26
You know in Psalm 34 verse 8, he says taste and see that the Lord
29:32
is good, but that doesn't happen with our tongue.
29:35
It's something that happens with our hearts.
29:38
Or Hebrews 10/23 it says lay hold of God's promise, but
29:43
that's not something we do with our hand.
29:45
It's something we do with our hearts.
29:47
Or second Corinthians 318 says behold him.
29:52
But that's not something we do with our eyes.
29:55
It's something we do with our hearts spiritually or Revelation
29:59
3/22 he who has ears to hear what the Spirit says to the
30:03
churches is not something that we hear with our physical ears.
30:06
It's something with our heart. It's something in the spirit and
30:11
the natural man can find fault with us.
30:13
Certainly there's there's all sorts of we're still a work in
30:16
progress, every single one of us right.
30:18
There's still enough in me that's not yet Christ like, and
30:21
I pray that the Lord would make me more like Jesus more and more
30:24
every day. But what they won't understand,
30:27
they can point out your faults, but they won't understand being
30:30
born again, what that means. They won't understand the grace
30:33
of God, real forgiveness, real mercy, and they'll just look at
30:38
you and think you've lost your mind, you've gone crazy.
30:42
First John chapter 3 verse one says it this way.
30:46
First John 31 Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed
30:51
on us, that we should be called children of God.
30:54
How wonderful. Therefore the world does not
30:57
know us because it did not know Him.
31:02
They don't know what to make of you anymore.
31:05
They knew you back in the day when you guys would hang out in
31:07
the bar and run around the town. Right now they see you have a
31:10
joy, They see you have a purpose.
31:12
You have a calm settledness. You're satisfied, you're
31:16
content. And so it's Paul saying here,
31:18
the spiritual person is rightly judged by no one because the
31:22
match, the natural man doesn't get it.
31:25
Billy Graham, the great evangelist, said it this way.
31:28
Being a Christian is more than instantaneous conversion.
31:34
It is like a daily process whereby you grow to be more and
31:38
more like Christ. Amen.
31:41
So the natural man, the spiritual man.
31:44
Now we come to the the third description, not of the natural
31:48
man or not of the spiritual man, but to a hybrid of sorts,
31:52
someone that's kind of in between, a spiritual baby, as
31:57
Paul says, a stunted spiritual person.
32:01
And this is where many people get stuck.
32:04
And this is the verse that I've been taking people to as I've
32:06
been having these conversations #3 Paul calls him the carnal
32:11
man, the carnal man. And we see this here in chapter
32:14
3 as we begin here. And you could say in place of
32:18
carnal, you could also say an immature spiritual man.
32:21
You've got the spiritual man, but there's also the immature
32:25
spiritual man. Chapter 3 starts with this in
32:28
verse 1. And I, brethren, so notice he's
32:31
talking to believers here in the church.
32:35
I brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual people, but
32:40
as to carnal or immature. And then he says, as to babes in
32:47
Christ, verse 2, I fed you with milk and not with solid food for
32:53
until now you were not able to receive it.
32:55
And even now you are still not able.
32:59
Paul is writing for this church at Corinth.
33:01
They were suing one another. They were getting drunk at the
33:05
communion table. They were eating all the food
33:08
before the poor people got there for the feast.
33:11
They were divided. Some were saying I'm of Paul,
33:14
others were saying I'm of Appallus and all of these things
33:18
abusing, as it says in verse 14, the gift of the of speaking in
33:22
tongues. They were saved, they were born
33:26
again. Paul calls them again here in
33:27
verse one, brethren, but Paul is calling them carnal.
33:31
Paul's calling them carnal. Now carnal, the Greek word for
33:34
that is sarcicos, which literally means flesh, flesh or
33:40
like meat. But the idea here is that a
33:44
carnal person is simply fleshly. In other words, he knows the
33:49
things of God. He has been born again, but he's
33:52
still characterized by the old nature, by the flesh, by the
33:57
things of the natural man, which is why Paul would later say our
34:01
daily battle is with the Spirit of God in us and our flesh.
34:05
And they're constantly waging war, he says, against one
34:08
another. And we have the opportunity to
34:10
surrender to our flesh or we have the opportunity to
34:13
surrender to the Spirit of God in US.
34:17
And so again, the the carnal man often like the natural man,
34:24
wants to just evaluate things by what I can taste, what I can
34:26
touch, what I can see, what I can smell, what I can hear.
34:29
It is an immature spiritual man. And in the NLT instead of
34:33
cardinal there Paul says it this way.
34:36
I had to talk to you as though you belong to this world.
34:41
And I got to believe that for Pastor Paul, that broke his
34:44
heart to say that I have to talk to you like you guys are babies,
34:48
like you, like you still belong to this world.
34:51
Because Paul had been at Corinth for a year and a half and he
34:55
loved this church and he taught them well.
35:00
And, and here he's now getting at the difference between belief
35:04
and behavior. Belief and behavior.
35:09
The difference between knowing Jesus as your Savior, which is
35:13
so wonderful, but also knowing him as your Lord, as your
35:17
master. It's the difference between a
35:20
profession of faith and the practice of faith.
35:26
It's the difference between being saved but still being
35:29
controlled by the flesh by the flesh.
35:32
So it would be like. I used to live in Tucson, AZ and
35:35
I have had this experience. Super hot day, so hot that you
35:40
can't stand it, but the swimming pool you want to get into is too
35:45
cold, and you're stuck between something that's too hot and too
35:49
cold, and neither one is pleasant.
35:52
That's what the carnal man is like.
35:54
They have enough of the world in them to truly enjoy Jesus
35:58
because there's the conviction of the Spirit that's there.
36:01
But they have Jesus in them and are unable to truly enjoy the
36:06
things of the world, at least the way that they once enjoyed
36:08
those things. And it's a miserable place to
36:10
be. Someone said it this way.
36:12
You can take the Christian out of the world, but it's a lot
36:15
harder to take the world out of the Christian.
36:17
Can I get an Amen? I'm there, too.
36:20
A cardinal person will say this. Yeah.
36:21
Yeah. I know I'm saved.
36:22
I know I should read the Bible. I know I should pray more.
36:25
I know I'm going to heaven when I die.
36:27
But I feel stuck right now in my walk with the Lord.
36:30
I feel stunted. I'm not growing spiritually.
36:33
I'm not further along that I know that I should be.
36:36
They've been born again. But now they're.
36:39
They're needing to learn how to walk in obedience and surrender
36:44
and and holiness, which by the way, brings such blessing into
36:49
our life. It brings such peace into our
36:51
life. It's not just enough to be a
36:54
convert. Paul is saying, I want you to be
36:57
growing in your relationship with the Lord.
37:00
It's not just about knowing information because lots of
37:04
carnal Christians have information about the Bible.
37:06
They understand spiritual things.
37:08
It's not just information, but it's transformation that their
37:12
life now is in alignment with the Lord.
37:16
And, and there are certain characteristics of again, the,
37:19
the, the this carnal person and you can, you can just feel
37:23
Paul's broken heart here, just as a parent would be broken
37:26
hearted by a prodigal child. Paul says this in verse 2.
37:30
Again, I fed you with milk and not with solid food for until
37:34
now you were not able to receive it.
37:37
And even now you are still not able.
37:40
Again, Paul said in verse one, they were, they were babes that
37:43
were babies in Christ. The, the Christians in Corinth
37:47
were still on the bottle. Now, there's nothing wrong with
37:52
being spiritual babies. New believers are spiritual
37:56
babies. They are going to be immature.
37:59
These young Christians, they just got saved.
38:02
And it's wonderful. It's so wonderful when they come
38:05
in and for a season, that is to be expected for a new believer,
38:08
right? They don't know the difference
38:10
between an apostle and an epistle.
38:12
They're just glad to be here. They're just glad that they're
38:14
saved. And so when a new believer comes
38:16
into the church, we should be patient with them.
38:18
We should be kind to them as they grow, as they mature,
38:22
because if you remember everything is new when you get
38:24
saved, it's like the deer in the headlight.
38:27
Look now what? Right.
38:28
Like I got saved. Now what do I do?
38:30
Paul saying here, I fed you with milk because they couldn't feed
38:35
themselves. That's the point.
38:36
There was a time in all of our lives when that was acceptable
38:40
to be drinking the spiritual milk, the basics of the faith.
38:44
But as we mentioned earlier, when babies don't grow up,
38:47
that's a problem because it speaks of something unhealthy.
38:51
I looked earlier this week at a picture of a premature baby,
38:54
beautiful little baby, smaller than the hand of his mom.
38:58
It was so cute. But I thought, what a tragedy to
39:00
say, stuck there, right? The baby wouldn't make it, that
39:03
it would. It would say if he's not
39:05
growing, not gaining weight, there's something unhealthy
39:07
there, something immature. So when Paul speaks here of
39:12
milk, he's Speaking of the basics that are easy for us to
39:15
digest. In other words, Jesus came into
39:18
the world. We all agree, right?
39:20
Jesus was born of a virgin. Jesus lived a perfect life.
39:24
Jesus died on a cross and suffered at the hands of men.
39:28
He rose again from the dead. Now he offers forgiveness and
39:32
eternal life and abundant life here on earth today.
39:36
And so the way that we grow, we read the Bible, we develop a a
39:40
personal prayer life, we go to church regularly and we serve
39:44
with one another in the family of God.
39:48
Paul would say this and you can write this down in Hebrews 512
39:51
right right next to verse verse 2 there Hebrews 512 for though
39:55
by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to
40:00
teach you again the 1st principles of the oracles of
40:04
God, the basics of the Christian faith.
40:06
He says this you have come to need milk and not solid food.
40:13
Paul, Paul is just broken. I believe here spiritual
40:17
immaturity makes a person unable to understand the spiritual
40:23
truths. This is what it means.
40:26
You can be a Christian. But not know what's in your bank
40:30
account. You are rich in Christ and a lot
40:35
of believers are like this. We I've got all of these riches
40:37
here, all of these great and precious promises here at my
40:41
disposal. But I sit around and I think I
40:44
don't know if I can make it. Paul's like the Lord is like you
40:49
can make it. Jesus has said you, you, you can
40:52
keep yourself in the love of God.
40:54
We sit around and go. I don't know if God's going to
40:56
come through for me when every promise in His word is that He
41:00
will never leave you. He'll never forsake you.
41:03
He hasn't brought you this far just to leave you, to embarrass
41:07
you, to watch you struggle and suffer.
41:09
That's not the heart of our Father.
41:11
Your bank account reads the same as every other Christian's bank
41:15
account. He who knew no sin became sin so
41:18
that you might become the righteousness of God.
41:19
He took your spiritual debt out of of your account and he placed
41:24
everything that he was his perfect life, all the blessings
41:27
that he earned, his forgiveness, his favor.
41:30
The Bible says we are now Co heirs with Christ.
41:32
Everything that was his. You got your name on the credit
41:34
card, you got the keys to the car, you got the Manson, you got
41:37
it all. All the riches in Christ are now
41:39
at your disposal. But Jesus would have to say to
41:43
his disciples, John 1612, he would say, I still have many
41:48
things to tell you, but you're unable to bear them right now.
41:53
I'll also add this, I think one of the reasons that a person
41:57
can't handle the solid food sometimes of the word of God is
42:01
that as a Christian, they filled themselves with spiritual junk
42:05
food and it's a real thing. There's so much of it out there
42:09
on social media that self help, the motivational preaching, the
42:14
hyper emotional preaching, where if you come in and you don't
42:17
feel this, there's something wrong with you.
42:20
If you're not healed, it's because you don't have enough
42:21
faith. And so we go to all sorts of
42:24
places in this. It's because sometimes our taste
42:27
buds have been so conditioned by the spiritual junk food that
42:31
when we come and we just hear the good, plain, simple teaching
42:34
of the word of God, I'm not really interested in that
42:37
because I don't have a taste for that.
42:38
It's not sugary sweet like what I get when I when I watch this
42:42
dude on YouTube, right? And so I'm not really interested
42:45
in slowing down and going verse by verse to the Bible.
42:47
It's just not, it's not my speed.
42:50
But the question is you need to ask Lord, I know I need to grow
42:56
and I think every single one of us hopefully can say there's an
42:59
area or areas of my life. I know I need to grow and to ask
43:03
Lord tonight, where have I been unable to receive?
43:06
Lord, what is it that you're wanting to work out of my life
43:10
and work? What is it that you're wanting
43:11
to work into my life? Not only a diet, by the way,
43:15
that's a problem, but sometimes the activity is a problem too.
43:18
Verse three, he says this for you are still carnal.
43:23
Ouch, right? You are still carnal.
43:25
You still need milk. Paul is saying that this is
43:27
where your life is at right now. And then he continues, for where
43:31
there are envy and strife and divisions among you, Are you not
43:35
carnal and behaving like mere men?
43:37
So he's just giving one example here.
43:39
They were envying one another. They were striving against one
43:42
another. There were divisions.
43:44
These were all activities of what Paul would call carnality.
43:47
It was fleshly. This was one example.
43:51
Again, they were saying, I go to Pastor Paul's church.
43:54
And so I'm, I'm, I'm in the real church and you should come over
43:57
to my side. And then this guy's over here.
44:00
Well, I go to Pastor Apollos's church and we do more baptisms
44:03
than you guys do. And this person's like, yeah,
44:05
well, I've been Pastor Peter's church.
44:07
And you know, Peter man, he, he, he was really God's close
44:11
disciple. And then there were some people
44:12
were like, well, I'm in Jesus church, right?
44:14
And there's all this division that was happening here proving
44:18
that they were living as carnal people.
44:21
So again, there's the natural man, there's the spiritual man,
44:25
and there's the carnal man. Again, we don't use that word
44:27
too much today. Carnal, it means immature or
44:31
fleshly. That might be a better way of
44:33
looking at it. So here's the question.
44:35
Tonight as we get ready to to shut the study down, which one
44:39
are you? And maybe just ask yourself in
44:43
this moment, Holy Spirit, reveal to me where am I at, honestly?
44:46
Or give me an honest evaluation of myself tonight, where am I?
44:50
Are you still the natural man tonight?
44:52
Are you here? Did did you somehow come in?
44:54
I drove by and I saw the sign that said church 7:00 tonight.
44:57
I thought, man, who knows who walked in the doors tonight?
45:00
And you're thinking, yeah, I don't understand spiritual
45:02
things. You're right, but tonight you
45:05
can because tonight Jesus wants to save you and bring you from
45:09
spiritual death into spiritual life.
45:12
And you can come to Jesus tonight and we're going to have
45:14
pastors and some prayer team up at the front.
45:16
So we invite you to that. We would be overjoyed to be able
45:21
to pray with you tonight and lead you to Jesus.
45:24
Are you a spiritual man tonight? Are you, are you born again and
45:27
are you growing in your walk with the Lord?
45:30
I hope so. And, and, and I pray so, and I
45:33
think so. I think that that would
45:35
characterize a lot of the people in our church.
45:37
I pray it's true of me as well. Or are you carnal?
45:42
I've found myself in the carnal category more times than I'd
45:44
like to admit. You've come so close.
45:48
You look right, you say the right things.
45:52
Jesus is your Savior, but you haven't surrendered to the
45:55
Lordship. But I'm not allowing you to
45:59
dictate my life. I'm not walking in obedience
46:03
because I'm unwilling to give this up over here.
46:08
I remember Becky and I on our honeymoon.
46:10
We were at the Caribbean islands, at one of islands
46:14
there, and one afternoon, it was getting towards the end of the
46:16
day, they had these big tricycles that would float on
46:18
the water and we'd pedal and we pedaled out just not too far
46:21
from the land. And we stopped and we were
46:23
talking to each other for a little bit.
46:25
It was probably longer than I thought, but it felt like just a
46:27
few minutes. And so we looked at the time we
46:29
should probably get back. If they're going to close
46:30
everything down to five, it's going to be time for dinner.
46:32
So we turn our bikes around these things floating on the
46:35
water there. And we had drifted so far from
46:39
the land. We thought we were just, you
46:41
know, it would take us a couple minutes.
46:42
It ended up taking us, I can't remember how long, I want to say
46:44
like an hour to get back. And we were peddling against the
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current. It was horrible.
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But but I remember thinking that and thinking, you know, the only
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thing that you have to do to start drifting in your walk with
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the Lord is nothing. You don't have to do anything.
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Nothing is going to make you drift in your walk with the
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Lord. And every stage and every realm
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of this age, the currents and the waves are shifting and, and
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they're pulling at you and pressing against you, just like,
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by the way, all that you need to do in your friendships if you
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want to develop friendships. But all you need to do to drift
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in those friendships is do nothing.
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Don't text, don't call, don't have dinner together.
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Do nothing. Or your marriage.
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All you have to do is nothing in order for the two of you to
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drift apart. And it's true in our
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relationship with Jesus too. You're either growing or you're
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drifting further and further away from the land out into the
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ocean as the sun is setting. Not a fun place to be.
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So when somebody is struggling and this is where I'm going to
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close and, and the worship team can come back up when somebody
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is struggling. And I've had this conversation
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multiple times a week. That's why I just felt impressed
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that the Holy Spirit had this word for us tonight.
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When someone's struggling and feeling stuck and feeling
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stunted spiritually, I'm, I always ask these two questions.
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So you'll know this now if you come to me #1 1st, a success.
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Is there any continual, willful, unrepentant sin in your life?
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Is there something that you're unwilling to give up that the
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Lord has asked you to give up? Is there?
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Is there an area of your life that is not surrendered to the
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Lord? You may feel like I've got 98%
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of it over here. I'm good, but there's still this
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area over here because that can keep us stunted spiritually sin
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it it can keep us from fellowship with the Lord.
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It it can block us if you know from from hearing the voice of
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the Holy Spirit in our life. And it's always good to take
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stock of our life and ask if there's something like that in
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our life. By the way, we all sin.
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We all struggle. It's not that's not the issue of
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struggling, but is there something unrepentant, willful.
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It doesn't mean you're not saved, but it does mean that
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you're not enjoying the fellowship of the Lord that you
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may not be able to hear him. And yes, you might feel stuck in
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reality, you're drifting right. But if the person honestly says,
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well, of course there's sin in my life.
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Of course. Yeah, but but nothing in
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particular that I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm not releasing to the Lord.
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Then the next question is I'll just say, well, the milk of the
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word, the milk of, of what God wants us to do, the very basics.
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We could say the bare minimum is are you reading your Bible
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regularly and hearing from God? Because he says that is the
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bread of life and that's how we grow.
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Are you developing a prayer life throughout the day?
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And here's a big one. Because most of the time, people
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that feel stuck spiritually or stunted, I'm not growing.
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I'm not. This is the usually the problem.
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They're not in regular fellowship with other believers.
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They're not coming to church. They're doing what the Lord says
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not to do. They're forsaking the assembling
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of yourselves together. I love the online service.
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I'm thankful for it, but that's not the same thing as church.
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It's wonderful if you're sick, it's wonderful if you can't make
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it if you're on vacation or you're traveling or something.
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But we need to be face to face with one another.
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God saved us both into a relationship with Him, and God
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saved us into a community of His people because He knew I needed
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you for my growth. He knew that, and He knew that
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you needed me for your growth. That's what church is.
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So it's His Word which has the power to change our lives and
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help us grow. But we need to read it.
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And if we're not reading it, then we're not going to
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understand it. We can't put it under our pillow
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and then just hope that by osmosis the Word of God comes as
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we sleep at night into our hearts and our minds, right?
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We have to read it. That's going to help us grow.
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Prayer has the power to change our lives and to help us grow.
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But we need to be a praying people.
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And I think that's an area all of us could probably say, yeah,
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that's, that's the area of my life I can grow in.
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It's my prayer life. And then we need to be a part of
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a church community, God's people encouraging one another, giving
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to one another, challenging one another.
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But as an old, old preacher once said, if you need to or if you,
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if you, if you need to grow up, you need to show up, right?
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If you don't show up, you're not going to grow up.
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We need to commit to being a part of a local church
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gathering, and that is taking advantage of what God has given
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us. That is the all you can eat
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buffet. Just those three simple things
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alone. And again, there's God's part
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and there's my part. And God is saying, as Paul is
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saying here, I want you to advance.
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I want you to move into the deeper things of God.
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I want you to have solid food. But for some of us, you haven't
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even been doing these basics and you're still at milk.
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You're still not reading your Bible and you're not praying.
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You're worrying more than you're praying, and you're not
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regularly involved with other believers in your life.
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So how can you handle more growth if you're not even doing
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the basic things? And again, this isn't a
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spiritual checklist. This isn't a legalistic thing
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where if I do these things, that's that's a wrong approach
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as well to think that we're more spiritual because I check these
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things off of my list. But again, if you're in the
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carnal category today, I would just encourage you resolve to
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pick up your Bible and begin to read it, trusting that God
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speaks to you. We are as a church going through
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a Bible reading plan on the you version.
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That might be a great thing for you to join us with that and,
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and, and invite friends, invite other brothers and sisters here
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in the church to be a part of that because they make comments
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on the on the Bible reading that day to ask questions.
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You can have a little community there right there online.
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Resolve to pray. Come out to our prayer meeting
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Sunday morning, Sunday after during first service and 2nd
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service, we have a men's and women's prayer meeting.
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Get involved here in church. Of course there's young adult
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ministry, singles ministry, men's, women's ministry, but all
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of this in order for you to grow is only going to be the result
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of the Holy Spirit at work in you.
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Again, Paul tells us in chapter 2, verse 13.
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We read it. The Holy Spirit himself teaches
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us. Peter would say He's given us
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all things that pertain to life and godliness through the
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knowledge of Him who has called us.
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And here's the thing, the Lord is patient with us.
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I'm so thankful for His patience.
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I need it. He's willing to wait for you
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because He loves you. How many of you would be willing
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to wait for your kid if they were out there?
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I'll wait until the day I breathe my last breath for my
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kid to come back. But you only have one life.
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This is your one shot. This is it.
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You don't get to redo this over and this life will soon be
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passed, James says. It's a vapor.
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It's here and it's gone. And the Lord would say, choose
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this day who you're going to serve.
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How long have you halted between two opinions, been on the fence,
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been in this place between both hot and cold, lukewarm.
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And if you'll take the necessary steps tonight as we worship of
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obedience and surrender and just yes, Lord, OK, I'm ready, Lord,
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I am ready. And if I'm not, Lord, make me
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ready. I'm willing.
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If I'm not, make me willing to be willing, Lord.
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And if you do this, you will grow.
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It's God's desire for you. You won't be stunted anymore,
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you won't be stuck. You'll find yourself filled with
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great joy and with the presence of God himself in your life.
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And for the rest of us, it's just good for us to take stock
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of our life and to evaluate these things spiritually in our
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lives. Where am I at?
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And I think the Lord will minister that to you as well.
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And Lord, I just want to, as we close, thank you, Lord, for your
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word, thank you for speaking through your word, and thank
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you, Lord, for your patience. God, I wouldn't be where I am
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today if you had given up on me because there were so many
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moments in my life, so many times.
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Lord, if you were like me, you would have thrown in the towel,
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but you're not. You're nothing like me.
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You are God Almighty who sent your Son to make a payment for
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our sins and on the cross, Jesus, it is finished, paid in
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full once and for all. And now we have been brought
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near to the to you by the blood of Jesus.
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Your word says boldly approaching the throne of grace
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with confidence to find help in time of need.
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And we need help and you are the helper, Holy Spirit.
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So tonight we come to you. We thank you for your word.
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I pray that it nourishes us, but I also pray Lord that it changes
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us. Lord, we want to be changed as
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we behold you. And we pray these things now in
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Jesus name, Amen. We pray that you've been
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encouraged by this Bible study, delivered live from the
55:39
sanctuary of Calvary Church. For prayer, call us at 87730
55:45
Grace that's 877-304-7223. To listen to this message in its
55:52
integrity or to join us for our live stream services, visit us
55:56
online at Calvary Co dot Church or download our free Calvary
56:01
Church app. Be blessed as you worship Jesus
56:04
this week.