Latest / HBCWestminster / 2.2.20 1 Corinthians 16:13 Pastor Danny Gardner

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2.2.20 1 Corinthians 16:13 Pastor Danny Gardner · HBCWestminster

• 0:00
  I don't know if you, like me, ever look back at your life. Maybe thank God for sparing you from the consequences of your own immaturity. Does that ever happen? Where you look back at certain things, you're like, man, that could have gone so much worse. What was I thinking? I don't know if anybody else does, but I do rank the stupidest things I've ever done.
• 0:24
  I rank them. I have a ranking order of the dumbest things I've ever done. And I'm going to share with you guys, and I know a few of you maybe have heard me tell this story before, but I'm going to share it with you again. I'm going to share with you number two on the list. Number two, second dumbest thing I ever did. I was 19 years old, and most of my dumbest things I've ever done took place between the ages of 18 and 24. Most of them begin with one time when I was in college. That's most of my dumb stories.
• 0:52
  But I was 19 years old, and my friends and I decided that we were going to go camping. It was the end of May. We'd just finished our college semesters, and so we decided we were going to go to the mountains of California, the Sierra Nevada mountain range. The end of May, it was still cold at night, but warming up during the day, and so all of the snow was melting.
• 1:14
  As you know, the eastern side of the Sierra Nevada mountain ranges, I'm sure you've heard, you know, and all that, that there is a ton of snow, just like there is here. All of that snow all melts at the same time and floods most of the rivers. And so what are even dry in August become raging kind of whitewater rapids during May and June. But my friends and I all decided we were going to go to the mountains and go camping. And so we did, and we camped alongside the Kern River.
• 1:40
  kind of central California, and it was just ripping, ripping, raging high water. And so we decided that we'd go up. My friends and I decided that we would go up and stand on a small bluff that overlooks the river, and we're just seeing it, I mean, just cascading down. Scary, the amount of volume of water, the sound, and everything else. The color of the water was even a little bit frightening, but we're standing there on the edge.
• 2:09
  of this bluff, and we're looking down at the river, and like happens with, you know, in the minds of immature young men at times, one guy looks at the other one and says, what? Let's jump in, right? Let's jump in. I'll do it if you do it. No, I'm going to do it, you know, you do it, whatever. And so it gets to the point where me and my buddy are going back and forth, and we end up in our shorts and no shirts on, okay? And we're standing there on the side of this thing looking down at this water, and in the same moment, both of us kind of look at each other and say,
• 2:38
  this is stupid. Like, we are going to die for sure. Like, we are not doing this. And so just as we were chickening out, getting ready to turn around, we realized that on the higher bluff above us, a crowd had gathered. And as they're looking down at us, looking down at the river, one of the young ladies that's standing up on the bluff shouts down, do it. Do it. All right, man, there's no backing out now.
• 3:10
  You know, one, two, three, we both jump, jump into that water. And you guys, the impact, the cold temperature of the water. I mean, as soon as I hit the water, I thought this, I might have just killed myself. This might be the end. I mean, I didn't know. I'm not going to be able to get out of this. It was so bone numbingly cold that I thought my muscles didn't work. It was a shock.
• 3:37
  I was now, whatever, 15 feet deep in this, you know, and I'm twisting around like I'm in a washing machine. And I just thought, I got to get out of this. I'm scrambling, scrambling, scrambling, scrambling, swimming. I didn't know which way I was swimming. I'm going, I'm going, I'm going, I'm going. I feel sand underneath me spit up onto this, you know, little beach a hundred yards downstream. I look up, I've got sand all over me. My buddy is laying there. We had survived, you know, and I say,
• 4:07
  That that is the second stupidest thing I've ever done because the first stupidest thing I've ever done immediately preceded it. We looked at each other laying there on the sand and said, you want to go again? And we did. We ran up. We jumped in. I found out later that evening, that same evening, we went to a convenience store down the road. I found out that two young men our age doing the same thing had been killed the weekend before. Jumping from the same spot, washed downstream. Both of them had died.
• 4:39
  When I look back, I really do, I think I cannot believe how foolish I was, how the Lord spared me at times from my own stupidity and from my own immaturity. I can't believe I was so easily swayed. I can't believe how I valued others' opinions of me to the point that it actually changed my behavior and caused me to do things that I would never do now.
• 5:06
  Do you ever wonder if you will someday look back at what you are now, at who you are now, and think some of those same things? You know, I didn't know when I was 19 that I wasn't mature. I didn't know in the moment. I'd have said, no, I'm doing pretty good. I mean, as 19-year-olds go, you're like, well, that's not a great thing to brag about. Do you ever wish that you had pressed harder toward maturity in Christ? Well, what does it mean to be...
• 5:35
  mature our text this morning and i'm in first corinthians this morning chapter 16 you see it there on the screen first corinthians chapter 16 and verse 13 which will literally say act like a man look what it says in verse 13 i'll do 13 and 14 this morning it says be watchful stand firm in the faith act like men be strong let all that you do be done in love
• 6:04
  It literally says, act like a man. Well, what is a man? And how would you define manhood? Is it simply the ability to reproduce? Because I've met many men who have fathered children who themselves still act like boys. Like you may have boys of your own, but man, that doesn't make you a man. Is it the ability to provide for a family? Maybe that's manhood. But then again, I've met many men who can purchase beautiful homes and cars, but who still act like boys.
• 6:36
  Maybe maturity should be defined by age. And I suppose it would be fair to assume that the older a person is, the more mature they should be. But then again, I've seen young people act like adults, and I've seen old people act like children. In fact, I'm shocked at the number of adults who grow up in the church and never stop acting like kids. And here's the conclusion I've drawn. I think that there is a big difference between growing up in the church and growing up in the faith.
• 7:08
  Those are very different things. It is possible to grow up in the church, and many of us probably did. Grew up in the church, but never actually grew up in the faith. Just because you heard all the stories a million times and sang all the songs doesn't mean necessarily that your faith was stretched, that you pressed on toward maturity in Christ. And I think if we were to boil the entirety of God's Word, Old and New Testaments, the law, the writings, the prophets, history,
• 7:38
  Poetry, wisdom, the gospels, the epistles, and the prophecy. If we were to take all of that and boil it down into one phrase, it could be this. You ready? The entirety of God's word could be summarized in this one phrase. God's desire is that mankind be sanctified through the atoning and sustaining work of Jesus Christ.
• 8:02
  That's it. The whole thing. God's desire for you is that you be sanctified through the atoning and sustaining work of Jesus. In other words, the Lord desires more for you than your simple transfer of status from the kingdom of darkness into his glorious light.
• 8:23
  It is true that he wants people to be saved. He wants people to become Christians. He wants you to believe. He wants you to put your faith and hope and trust in Jesus for the salvation of your sins. He wants that, but that's not where he wants you to stop. Our Christian journey does not end with salvation. Does that make sense? It continues. In fact, our justification, what the Bible calls our justification, our salvation, the moment you put your hope and trust in Jesus,
• 8:54
  is only the first step in a lifelong process of becoming more like Him. More and more and more like Jesus, what the New Testament describes as spiritual maturity. Listen to Ephesians 4. It says, We must all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood.
• 9:21
  to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children. The Bible says, don't act like babies anymore. In fact, the Lord has harsh words for those who are in the church, constantly exposed to eternal truth, but who refuse to grow up. Chapter 5 of Hebrews, the author rebukes his readers because of their spiritual lethargy. Chapter 5 and verse 11, he says, these things are hard to explain.
• 9:46
  He literally says, because you're dull of hearing. He rebuked some in that church because of their spiritual immaturity. These things are hard to explain because you're dull of hearing. The word for dull could also be translated slothful, lazy, lazy. He goes on in the next verse. By this time, he says, you ought to be teachers. You still need people to teach you all of the elementary teachings of Christ all over again. You need others to teach you.
• 10:14
  light of the amount of time that those people had been saved, they should have been teaching others, no longer relying on others to feed them baby food. He says in the following verses, go on to maturity. The author exhorts the church to action. He says, remedy what has so far been a spiritual failure. We shouldn't live under the faulty assumption that spiritual maturity comes automatically with age. It doesn't. And so how does the Bible define maturity?
• 10:45
  How does God's word define manhood? I think mature believers, according to our text this morning, mature believers have five distinctive qualities. And I'm just going to list them for us, just like the apostle Paul does for the church at Corinth. He just gives a list. I'm just going to list them for us. Here's what a mature believer looks like, acts like, thinks like, and here's the goal that we should be shooting for. Number one, notice in verse 13, the mature believer is watchful.
• 11:15
  It says be watchful. Now the word that Paul uses for watchful could also be translated vigorous or awake. In fact, it's often used in the New Testament to refer to being spiritually alive. The New Testament gives a whole bunch of things to be on the lookout for, but for sake of time, I'm just going to focus on three. Three things that you should be watchful of or alert for. First is the enemy of your souls.
• 11:41
  The Bible says to watch out. You have a spiritual enemy. And I know that we don't often think about this. In fact, you know, constant thoughts of the fact that there are spiritual forces in this world who would seek your demise are so far from our daily living sometimes that we forget all about them. But the Bible actually says that there is an enemy of your soul who hates you, who hates you and wants you to fail.
• 12:09
  In fact, 1 Peter 5 and verse 8 says, be sober-minded, be watchful. It's the same word, be watchful, be on the lookout. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour. Resist him, firm in the faith. We must, church, live as though we have an enemy. Our adversary, the devil, really is active in his hunting of and his devouring of Christians. Be on the watch.
• 12:37
  Be on the lookout. Second, temptation. Watch out for temptation. Mark 14, verse 38, Jesus said, watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. Watch and pray. And I like that he includes those two things. Watch out for temptation and pray. Pray against temptation. And I think we often imagine that our struggle against temptation is our struggle, but it's not.
• 13:04
  Jesus actually teaches in this verse that our sanctification, our fight against sin is a community project. It's not on you alone. He says, pray, the Lord will help. Pray, staying alert ourselves, true, vigilant to protect our own souls. Yes, our own guard ever raised and eyes open, but not acting as if the Lord won't be right there to help. Watch out for temptation. And third, watch out, the Bible says,
• 13:36
  For spiritual apathy. Apathy just means the lowering of defenses, the running down of your spiritual muscles. Did you know that it is actually possible to stop caring about spiritual things? It's possible. And I know that you all know because we've all experienced this. There have been times in our lives where we have been on fire for Jesus.
• 14:02
  Can't get enough, reading as much as we can, being with the saints and in fellowship and worshiping as much as we can. But at times, sometimes, that spiritual excitement and fervor wanes and eventually it begins to diminish over time. Isn't that true? And you find yourself not caring as much, not as passionate, not as full of zeal anymore. We must watch against spiritual lethargy and spiritual indifference. And this is particularly difficult.
• 14:29
  Since the nature of these sins, lethargy and indifference, actually makes them difficult to detect. The problem with spiritual apathy is that it compounds. Apathy makes us numb, and numbness makes us not alert anymore to spiritual things, right? And so the problem just becomes exponential. That numbness produces more numbness. It would be like going to the dentist, him shooting you full of Novocaine, beginning to work on the inside of your mouth, right?
• 15:00
  and then asking you to describe it as he does. Like, I don't know what you're doing, man. What it feels like is that you're ripping all my teeth out. That's what it feels like, right? I don't know what you're doing. I don't know why my head keeps jerking both ways. I don't know why it smells that way. Is that tooth dust? What is that? Like, I don't know.
• 15:23
  right and that can happen to us there is i mean especially the enemy of our souls would seek to fill us full of spiritual novocaine that we can't feel anymore that we're numb that we don't care anymore revelation chapter 3 and verse 1 jesus says to one of the churches i know your works you have the reputation of being alive but you're dead wake up same word watch wake up
• 15:50
  Strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have not found your works complete in the sight of my God. And this is why it is so important. It is so important to live in Christian community. This is why we cannot do it on our own. Why? Because when we're numb, when we're numb, we don't know what's happening to us. We don't care about spiritual things. This is why you need spiritual brothers and sisters. You need them. I need them.
• 16:17
  so that they can come along and say, you know what? You can't feel right now, but I'll feel for both of us. Trust me, you're not in a good spot. I will pull you along with me. Watchful, that's first. Notice second, the mature believer is firm. Look what he says in verse 13. Be watchful, stand firm in the faith. Stand firm, the word for firm simply means steady, unchanging.
• 16:46
  And in a culture that never seems to stop changing, mature believers provide stability like a rock against the storm. We live in a weird time, don't we? I feel like we have to tiptoe with our words. Like everyone in town is right on the edge of being offended all the time. All the time. Like I don't even have to say anything offensive. I can just say something that...
• 17:15
  They take as offensive. You know what I mean? Like it's 25 years ago, it was called political correctness. Today, we've taken that idea to the extreme. One consistent conversation I've had with my sons is the proper way to interact with non-Christian friends, classmates, and teammates at school. Hallie and I will remind them as they go to school or as they go to baseball practice that they are light in the midst of darkness, that they're called to make disciples.
• 17:45
  But that they must do that with gentleness and respect, right? You don't just stand up, start flipping tables and start preaching. How do you do it? How do you stand in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation without offending? How do you call them to Jesus in love? And we remind them that some of their classmates and teammates will actually be offended at the name of Jesus. That is true. You mentioned the name of Jesus. There are some who are offended by it.
• 18:17
  What astounds me is that these same public schools, while outlawing the name of Jesus, are at the same time promoting things like gender fluidity as if that's not offensive. In other words, my boys can be outspoken girls. If they want to be, they could go on campus and they could declare themselves to be female. They could, and they'd be applauded for it, but they cannot be outspoken Christians.
• 18:52
  right what in the world what happened you know i i thought about and pastor sam and i were actually discussing this topic this week and i even debated whether to say anything like this but i thought man stand firm in the faith what does it mean for believers to take a stand it says to stand what does it mean i i i graduate i'm on my um my 26th year out of high school okay so i'm coming up on our 30-year reunion uh soon
• 19:20
  So we're not talking about that long ago. You know, we're not talking centuries ago. When I was in high school, the most scandalous thing that happened, the biggest scandal in my high school was when one of the young ladies got pregnant. Teen pregnancy topped the list. Worst thing that could happen. I remember at the time when I was in high school.
• 19:47
  There was a very popular television show. Everybody watched it. The most popular television show was a show called Beverly Hills 90210. Everybody remember? Beverly Hills 90210. We're talking early, mid-90s, right? None of you youngsters remember the show, and it's probably good.
• 20:04
  But, man, you know, all of them, Brenda and all of them all hanging out at the Peach Pit after dark, okay? And so that was like the big television show. I remember the scandal that happened on primetime television. This was only 25 years ago. It was that Brenda, one of the young ladies, was contemplating whether she was going to sleep with her boyfriend and lose her virginity on prom night. And, you guys, that's a huge deal. It's a huge deal. I don't mean to make light of that.
• 20:34
  But compared to what is on television now, that's a joke. Our society has pushed that ball so far down the field that they look back at that now and they say, man, that's nothing. That's nothing. Okay, what happened? 25 years, what happened? And especially in the last 10 years, right? Because those first 15 of the 25, I don't think much happened. What happened in the last 10?
• 21:09
  Where we've blurred the line so much that we don't even know who we are. Our kids are so confused. We don't even know who they are. What happened? What do we need to do about it? I would say stand firm in the faith. Standing firm in the faith means that we would be men and women who would be willing to take a stand on issues. Believing not only that we are right, but that there is a right. We actually have to fight for that.
• 21:38
  Not only are we right, there is a right. There's a right and a wrong. We have to draw lines. We have to make decisions. Mature believers are not those who are carried about by every wind of doctrine. Charles Hodge one time said, not every doctrine is open to debate. I heard a pastor one time say, if you brag about having an open mind, shut it. Your brains are leaking out. Now listen, I'm not saying, like I said, I'm not saying we've got to start kicking in doors. That is not the best way to get this done. It's not.
• 22:13
  But we have to be a people, believers have to be a people who are willing to take stands, who are willing to call wrong, wrong, evil, evil, right? And who have to be willing to do that in grace and in love. Stand firm in the faith. A mature believer is firm. Notice he continues, the mature believer is active. And I love that he says this, verse 13, be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, not pretend to act.
• 22:42
  but act like action, active. Paul's command to act like man expresses the idea of having courage enough to respond. And fear can be a crippling agent if it's dwelt upon. I feel for my sons who go to school and go to practice and go, you know, basketball games or wherever, and they're hanging out with all of their buddies, and they know that some things are right and some things are wrong. But dad, it is scary to take a stand.
• 23:13
  It is scary, and I get it. Fear can be crippling. It can be paralyzing if it's dwelt upon, but mature men and women have learned to act despite what may be overwhelming odds. You ever wonder how much of what you do or don't do, you do or don't do because you're afraid? I remember talking to my dear friend and now pastor at this church, Bob Jones, as he was turning 60 years old, five years ago.
• 23:44
  Right before his 60th birthday, he came and he said, Danny, I think I'm done being afraid. I think I've wasted too much time being afraid. He said, I think I'm done with three quarters of my life. If I have four 20 years, four scores of my life, I'm turning 60, so I'm three quarters done. And he said, I think I'm done being afraid. I've wasted enough time. What are people going to do, right? I mean, I'm 60, I'm 65, I'm 75. What are you going to do?
• 24:12
  I've got nothing to lose. I'm not being afraid anymore. You know, since then, you know what he's done? Two of maybe the scariest things a man can do he has done since then. One was sell his house and move down the street from the church. They used to live in Littleton, right? Some of you guys know the story. They lived in that same house for 34 years. They thought they would live there for the rest of their lives. He was tired of making the 40-minute commute to be with God's people.
• 24:40
  I'm gonna sell my house and I'm gonna move down the street from the church. He said, Pastor Danny, now, what are the odds? There was a real conversation. What are the odds that my wife, Dina, is gonna outlive me? If you know Bob and Dina, you know the odds are 100%, okay? 100%, Dina's gonna outlive Bob. That's gonna happen, all right? But what are the odds? And I said, well, they're pretty good, Bob. And he said.
• 25:05
  Where should I move? Knowing that that's true, knowing that my wife will be a widow someday, where should I move? And I said, I'll tell you where I would move. There is a strategic way to do this. If I knew that Hallie was going to be on her own for the last portion of her life, I would move to a house directly in between the church and the pastor's house. I'd make him drive by her house every day, two times a day. Back and forth to work, he has to drive by my house, right? And that's what he did. They live right over here.
• 25:36
  They live right over here, Highland Greens, right? I mean, that's where they live. I think it was smart. That was one thing that he did. One of the scariest things you can do, move. Right before retirement, move. The second thing that he did in those last five years, scariest thing a man can do is become a pastor. I'm done being afraid. And I encounter people constantly who feel conviction, who know what they need to do, but then they never do it because they're afraid. I know what I need to do. I know what changes in my life I need to make, but you know what?
• 26:09
  I'm just not willing to let God have that kind of control over my life. What if he calls me to do something scary? You know what? Can I just put the unsurety of that to rest? Because he absolutely will. There's no question about whether God will call you to do something scary. He will. He will call you to do something scary. But do me a favor. Do this. Ask somebody who's further down the road of their Christian walk than you.
• 26:40
  a generation, two generations ahead of you, ask them if they ever took a step of faith. Ask them if they ever were up against that moment where you were like, did the Lord ever call you to do something scary and you did it? And ask them if they regret it.
• 26:58
  Ask them if they could go back and say, you know what? I wish that I hadn't taken that stand. I wish I hadn't taken that step of faith. I wish that I hadn't. I was scared in the moment. I wish that I had chickened out. Ask them if they could go back and redo that if they would. Nobody, nobody is going to say that they wish they could go back and be more afraid. Nobody will. Act. Like boys sit still. That's what boys do. Men act. Act like men. Notice fourth. He says the mature believer is strong.
• 27:29
  I like that he just says, there's nothing frilly about it. He just says in verse 13, be strong, be strong. Now that's in the passive voice, which means that it means be strengthened, be strengthened. It doesn't mean pull yourself up by your bootstraps, right? It doesn't mean do more pushups, right? Although...
• 27:48
  We should all probably do more push-ups, okay? But he just says be strong. Be strengthened by the strength of the Lord. I love Colossians 1, verse 28, where the Apostle Paul says, Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom that we may present everyone mature in Christ. Again, that idea of pushing on.
• 28:10
  to maturity. He says, I'm proclaiming Jesus. I warn everyone. I teach everyone with all wisdom. And then he says, for this end, I toil, struggling with all his energy that powerfully works in me. So in other words, all of the stuff that I'm doing, can you imagine the apostle Paul's life? All of that that I've endured, all of the trouble, all of the insecurity, all of the imprisonments and the beatings and the shipwrecks and all of that stuff. He says, I've done all of that, not by my own strength, but by being strengthened by the Lord.
• 28:40
  How do we do this? It seems like such a daunting call, taking a stand, remaining firm, acting like men, watching out not only for our own souls, but for the souls of others. How do I do that? And he says, by the strength that the Lord will provide. God's strength. We can't strengthen ourselves. It is the Lord's work to do, but we must be submissive to him in order for him to work in us to his glory. You see, scripture teaches
• 29:13
  That there is an inner man. In the same way that there's an outer man. There is an inner man. In the same way that you have a body and that is your outer physical man, so also there is an inner man. We are just as much spirit as we are body. And in order for our inner man to be healthy, we must eat and exercise the same way that we eat food and exercise our physical bodies. I should not expect...
• 29:45
  that I could go out and run a marathon right now. Why? It's no big secret. I've not been training for one. Last Saturday, a week ago yesterday, I had lunch with Barry Gonzalez. And Barry is a beloved brother here, a member of the church, his wife Tiffany and their daughter Savannah. We're eating lunch together. And you guys, Saturday mornings during the fall and winter, our baseball team that my sons play on and that I coach have...
• 30:18
  We practice on Saturday mornings when the sun is shining. We practice. And so this last Saturday, a week ago yesterday at practice, I had made this resolution, and it was a relatively foolish one, where I, you know, a couple of days before January 1st decided, you know what, everybody always says I'm going to work out more, I'm going to exercise more, I'm going to eat right and all of that stuff. But I thought, you know what, I'm going to do this so that I actually do it. This is the year I'm actually going to do it.
• 30:43
  There are times when we work the boys out, the high school boys, right? Getting ready for the season. They run, they do pushups, they do all of these things. And what is the normal standard operating procedure is that they all work and the coaches stand and watch, right? And I mean, it's every time. Come and watch this. This is what we do.
• 31:01
  And I usually stand there, and I've got a baseball bat, and I kind of lean against the bat, and I do this thing. Or I practice my baseball bat skills, which means I can bounce it. It bounces up to me. I can do it behind my back. I can bounce it to myself. I figured out how to do all of these things while they're all working out. I thought, this is the year I'm going to actually work out with them. I can't make an excuse about not having time. I'm there.
• 31:22
  I'm ready to go and whatever. So I'm going to work out with them. So two Saturdays ago, I decided to do this. We're running intervals. We're doing push-ups and planks and leg lifts and jogging and doing all of this stuff. And you guys, I mean, I was 15 minutes or so into it. I really honestly thought I was going to puke. I mean, I was this close. I was just hurling on. And it would have been bad too because we have an artificial turf field. So it would have been bad news. Who would just say that? I mean, I was so close. You know, I'm like, I'm getting ready to heave and whatever.
• 31:51
  And doing all these push-ups. Well, I was okay. I made it. The 20-minute thing, you know, I made it. I played it off. The boys, I don't think, noticed how hurt I was. But I drove and I had lunch straight from there to have lunch with Barry Gonzalez. And the place that he chose to have lunch was Wishbone, right down the street. So it's oily, greasy, whatever, you know, good food. But, man, it wasn't going to help. And so I walked in, sit down next to Barry.
• 32:18
  How you doing, Pastor Danny? Man, I'm hurting. I was feeling kind of sick to my stomach. Like I just, for 20 minutes, just worked and worked and worked and worked and push-ups and all of these things. Forgetting the fact, you guys remember who Barry is? He's the guy who a month and a half ago did an Ironman triathlon, okay? So I'm lamenting to him for 20 minutes. Barry, for 20 minutes, I was jogging and doing push-ups. I am not, I am hurting. He's like, and he was very gracious. Oh, yeah.
• 32:49
  That sounds hard. Oh, Barry, how was your triathlon? You swam for two miles? Well, yeah, 2.4. You rode a bike for 100 miles? Well, yeah, 112. And then you ran a marathon. Yeah. How long did that take? He says, well, there was a headwind during the bike part, and so I didn't meet my goal. How long did it take? 17 hours. 17 hours. Physical exertion. Can you imagine swimming?
• 33:23
  and then biking and then running 17 hours. Like, Barry, what was your goal? 15. The headwind. I kept getting these goat head thorns. I kept having to change the tires on my bike because of the wind. It was blowing thorns up on the road. Messed me up. It's like, but Barry, the pushups I just did were hard, dude. They were hard. They were hard. You don't understand, Barry. Listen, brothers and sisters, if we don't exercise our physical bodies, why should we expect them to perform for us?
• 33:55
  We shouldn't. If we don't exercise our spiritual bodies, why would we expect them to perform for us? We won't. We shouldn't. Be strong? We can't expect to be strong if we're not strengthening our spiritual bodies. One pastor, you've probably heard it said many times, one pastor said it this way, it's like we all have two dogs living inside of us that are constantly fighting. The one that wins is the one I feed. The one I feed is the one that wins.
• 34:24
  Why wouldn't we strengthen the inner man to combat spiritual temptation, spiritual laziness, so that we'd be ready to go out and run a spiritual triathlon? If that's what the Lord would call us to do, amen, we'd go be ready to do hard things. Last, notice verse 14, the mature believer is loving. He says in verse 14, let all that you do be done in love. And this might be the most important of the five.
• 34:52
  Taken without this fifth one, the first four characteristics, watchful and firm and active and strong, the first four would be militant and harsh and ineffective. They'd be like a barking father, constantly criticizing the actions of his kids. That is the man or woman without love.
• 35:16
  Love is what makes us. Love is what makes it all work. Without love, no amount of strength or courage will matter for the kingdom. We will be resounding gongs and clinging cymbals because love complements and balances everything else. In 1 Peter 4 and verse 8, it says, above all, keep loving one another earnestly since love covers a multitude of sins. A mature believer is watchful.
• 35:48
  The mature believer is on the lookout for the enemy, is on the lookout for temptation, on the lookout for spiritual apathy. The mature believer fellowships with the body because they know, they recognize that we need one another to push one another, to spur one another on toward love and good deeds. The mature believer is firm. They stand firm in the faith. They're willing to take a stand on right and wrong things that may not be popular, but which reflect the heart of God.
• 36:18
  A mature believer is active. Active. Boys sit still. Men act. They are active. They are strong. Strengthened by the power that God provides. Working out, exercising, and feeding the inner man. Ready to take up the call of God. A mature believer is loving. In fact, everything that they do is in love. Love covers all. Love conquers all.
• 36:48
  And our wives will come home this afternoon and we're going to watch football. The man weekend will draw to a close. But as it does, church, let's reflect on what it means to press on toward maturity, no longer being children. The world would say, grow up, get a job, have some kids. God says, grow up, keep watch, stand firm, take action, be loving. Stop being kids. And Lord, I pray that you would bless again the preaching and hearing of your word.
• 37:21
  God, we thank you. We thank you for the truth that it proclaims. God, may we not judge others. God, it's not our place to do so. But we do know, God, that there is a judge. You are the judge and you have spoken. And so may we not also, in fear, cower from declaring the truth. God, may we press on toward maturity, the completion and perfection of our souls. May we long for that day. And it's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen, church?