Latest / Harvest After Sunday / Growing as a Person - Being Human Pt. 3: Theology Q&A
Transcript
- Harvest Media: Sunday podcast. I'm Natalie and I'm your host and I'm here with Stefan, Pastor of Preaching and Teaching. And today we are going to continue our conversation from a couple of weeks ago on what it means to be human. It's a huge topic, and I'm glad we're taking the time to unpack it in several ⁓ different conversations because we talked initially that we're made in the image of God to resemble, represent, and reflect Him. And then we got to talk about ⁓ the fact that we are Spiritual, physical, and relational beings. Those are like the elements that make us up holistically. so now we get to talk about the need of prioritizing all three of those in balance as we grow as believers, yeah, growing as humans. And I'm really excited to talk about this aspect of ⁓ this topic. And let's just start by talking about when we think about growing to reflect God as his people, what do we even mean by growth? What is the goal? Yeah. So in Colossians chapter one, Paul says what the goal is, ⁓ chapter one and chapter three. So he says in chapter one, verse twenty-eight, he says, Him we proclaim, that being Jesus, him we proclaim warning everyone and teaching everyone. So that means instructing in what to avoid and in what to pursue. The warning is don't do these things, teaching is do these things. So him we proclaim warning everyone and teaching everyone to what end that we might present everyone mature in Christ. And that word mature is a Greek word that means complete or well rounded. Mm-hmm. that we may present everyone well rounded in Christ. So we're talking about sanctification here? Yeah. Okay. Sanctification, becoming more Christ like. Right. And and so th it that really begs the question, well then what does it look like to be well rounded in Christ? Yeah. What does it look like to grow in maturity? And that's what he defines for us then in chapter three. Mm-hmm. When he says that we're being conformed unto his image. So this is where like the Christian can't say image of God language is just a Genesis thing and it doesn't carry into the New Testament because Paul in Second Corinthians three and Colossians three uses image of God language as the end goal of the Christian life. To be conformed to the image of Christ. In in 2 Corinthians 3, he says that we're being conformed to this image from one degree of glory to another. another and this is by the spirit. Mm-hmm. Which I always find encouraging 'cause it's nice and slow, one thing at a time. Right. Which is what we need. Right. He's not asking us to make a one eighty overnight 'cause we can't do that. ⁓ the really the picture that I think that I really love is and I can't remember if we talked about this previously, but ⁓ in James, James refers to the law of God, the commands of God, the teaching of God. That's what law in scripture means, teaching. What God teaches as truth through his word, he calls it the perfect law. And he describes he describes the the person who looks into the the word of God as someone looking into a mirror. Now, Paul talks about looking into a mirror as well, and he says, For now we look at a mirror lit dimly, then we will see face to face. Okay, let's put it all together. 'Cause we talked about how the word for image is reflection and a mirror was the illustration that I used. So when I look at the truth of God's word, I am looking at what it looks like to reflect God. If I will simply live according to that. But I'm looking in a mirror lit dimly. I can't see. It's foggy. It's it's distorted. Why? Because the law of God, his word, is showing me all the ways that my life does not match what his word says. I am not reflecting what his word says. And from one degree of glory to another, as the Spirit uses that word to change me, little by little I start to see the reflection more clearly. And then there is coming a day where we will not be looking at at a mirror of God's word, we will be looking at the word who became flesh. We'll be looking at Jesus face to face, because the work of God in us has been brought to completion. And now we stand before Jesus, face to face, perfected, looking just like him. As he is, so we will be. Right? That's the vision of maturity in Scripture. Is that that his word shows me how I'm not reflecting him. When I believe in Jesus, the Spirit uses His Word to help me reflect Him little by little. And there's coming a day where we will reflect Him perfectly because we'll be with Him forever. So we look at that and say, okay, then everything that we talked about in those first two episodes on being human from Genesis 1 and 2 really matters for the Christian. Yeah. Because you and I are still the image of God. And we are being conformed to the image of Christ as members of new creation. And so those things that we learned about the image of God in Genesis one and those things that we learned about being human in Genesis two, that that is all included then in what it means to grow in maturity in Christ. Yeah. So now we have the vision, the goal of our growth as humans. Let's talk about each element kind of separately and what growth looks like. So starting off with spiritual growth, what contributes to our spiritual growth? From what you're saying, already, I think it's gonna be looking into the perfect law is gonna really contribute to our spiritual growth. Yeah. So so we let's let's review the image of God. We are made to resemble God. And I had said that week that to resemble is to resemble God is to think like God thinks, to think according to the truth of what God says. That's when I am living in such a way that it is evident that I think in line with what God's word says, then I am resembling God. So if resemblance is a part of being the image of God. That means that truth is an integral piece of resembling him. Then we talk about how. We we had that little excurses last time in part two where God breathed into the man the breath of life and the man became a living being, and and we talked at the end of that episode about how the breath of God and the word of God and the spirit of God and how they give life throughout the Old Testament are all wrapped up together. That when you hear the breath of God, you can't really distinguish that concept from his word and the word that brings life. So if I am made as the image of God with a spiritual aspect to my being, then that is the that is the the aspect of me that is made to be oriented toward truth. That the word of God, when it takes root in my life, ⁓ allows me then to think according to the way that God thinks, so that I can properly reflect Him. What does it mean to be spiritually dead? It means to be living contrary to the Word of God and rejecting the truth of God in exchange for a lie. Those who are not new creations in Christ, who are not living in the newness of life, they are doing so because In the words of Paul in Romans 1, they exchanged the truth of God for a lie. So when I am spiritually dead, it's because I am living in the world according to a lie. When I'm brought to new life, it's because I have been remade according to the truth of God's word. Therefore, for me to grow spiritually, is that I need to intentionally pursue the reorientation of my life according to God. To the truth. So long as I'm embracing lies, I will be stunted in my growth. That's why Paul says in Romans 12 that we are to be renewed in our minds. ⁓ and and that through being renewed in our minds, we are transformed so that then we can approve or we can know what the will of God is, what is good and pleasing and perfect. So I really can't say that I'm growing as a Christian if I'm not growing in the truth of God's word. This is so huge because I think that, I don't know, even as believers, s spiritual, like that it can feel it feels like feelings. It feels a little woo woo. It feels like you know, like there's even s even the spiritual disciplines can become kind of rote or additive to our lives. And I just I would love for you to talk more about this and for people to really hear how this essential part of the renewal of our mind and being anchored and truth like that It's not feelings at all. It's about concrete truth and that is revealed to us in the Word of God and it actually renews our mind. And that is the essential component of every spiritual discipline. You know, 'cause I think that People could engage kind of I'm using quotes, like in spiritual disciplines and it could be fruitless or even self-serving. Totally. ⁓ like not just fellowship with other believers or relationship with other believers, but speaking the truth in love when necessary. You know, ca teaching and counseling one another with all the wisdom he gives, not just putting our eyes on the word of God or our ears. you know, on a Sunday morning or at a Bible study, but submitting our minds to the truth. Yeah. ⁓ and being renewed. And not just asking for God God for things in prayer, but praying according to the truth of his word and letting that transform our thinking and then our hearts and our our then our prayers. ⁓ so s I think maybe talk a little bit more about understanding like renewing our mind with the truth of God's word is really the essential piece in that. Yeah, and and I I think it's good that you bring this up because it's ⁓ the language that's been used for ⁓ the last forty years or so, ⁓ very commonly to refer to Christian growth is the phrase spiritual formation. Mm-hmm. And that that ⁓ that term is used in wildly different ways depending on your your denomination or tradition or background. ⁓ but often spiritual formation is referring to Christian habits and and you know, making sure that you have time in the word and prayer and meditation and right and those things are all necessary in the Christian life. But if I start from the place of saying spiritual formation is about having the right habits in your life, now what I've done is I've I've made spiritual growth into ⁓ something that I do rather than something in which I am renewed. I can read God's word without submission to the truth. Absolutely. I can pray in wildly non-true ways. I can meditate on untrue things. If I am ⁓ if I am prone to prioritizing feelings and internal witness, ⁓ then that's gonna drive the way that I read scripture and the way that I pray and the way that I meditate and the way that I relate to people. So you actually can't have a a true view of spiritual formation in the broadest sense of the term without first having a word driven and word submitting or a submitting to the word view of what spiritual growth is. That's why I I really try to when we talk about ⁓ when we talk about spiritual growth, I try to not use that as a catch all. I w I try to use that as specifically growing in the truth. One, because I think that that's the way that scripture talks about it. two because I've dedicated like ten years of my life to studying this. But really, more than that, because it's easy to spiritualize things and call it spiritual formation, rather than saying spiritual growth is the pursuit, embrace, and submission to the truth, so that my my whole being comes in line with the truth more and that. Christian growth is the catch all. Christian growth is the broad umbrella under which then spiritual growth is me giving attention to the spiritual aspect of my human being that is made to resemble God according to the truth. And maybe some of the complication comes w I think we touched on it in the last conversation on this topic when we were talking about like how many elements do we have? Is it you know, is it mind, spirit, soul, body, like there's all these words and and maybe you can just clarify us really for us really concretely, like do those words all refer to the same part of us? Like that we we talked around that, but I think there could be confusion when we try to separate, like, ⁓ my mind. mind is different than the spiritual aspect of of things and that's why we're not understanding that spiritual growth comes from renewing our mind with the truth. There's ⁓ I have emotions and then there's spiritual because then there's the soul and the heart and talk a little bit about how to rightly understand those components one more time, just like really clearly so that we're not separating it in a way that's unhelpful. Yeah. the way that I would summarize it is in your Bible, when scripture is using various terms to refer to the immaterial reality of your life, all those terms are referring to the same thing. So heart, soul, mind, spirit, all of those terms are being used to refer to the immaterial nature that you have as a person. Whenever ⁓ scripture is using terms that are related to Your physical nature. Body, flesh. Sometimes flesh is referring to our sinful nature, but there are other times in the New Testament where flesh is referring to your physical body. ⁓ Then we can say that that is has in view the physical nature that you have as a person. But what scripture does not do, I don't think, ⁓ is treat those things as divisible ultimately. So you You can at bedrock separate the two, and one of them is more important than the other. I don't think that scripture gives us warrant to do that. It does it does talk about those different aspects of our being so that we can see the role that each one plays in me being a whole person. Yeah. I think that's helpful. And I I meant to clarify that in our last or ask you to clarify it in our last conversation, but I'm glad we're doing it now, and I think it does ⁓ lead to a lot of of issues when we're not rightly understanding that those immaterial aspects are all one thing. ⁓ and we start kind of dividing them up and separating the mind and the heart. I know we could do a a whole thing on this, but even like you mentioned our emotions and you know, our emotion and our heart response is coming from what we think and believe. So we just we cannot separate these things and rightly understand spiritual growth. And our emotions are also a physiological thing. Mm-hmm. I mean you like that's that's what I mean is you you have thoughts that are in line with the truth or are out of line with the truth. And those thoughts are then manifested in your brain chemistry and your hormones and then your physical body. Right? Like, is anger a spiritual or physical reality? Yes. Yes. It's both. when I am hungry and I get hangry because I'm I am short tempered because I haven't eaten in a while. ⁓ is that a physical or a spiritual reality? Yes, it's both. I yes, there was a a physical condition that played into my angry response, but my response of anger is rooted in a misalignment with the truth that's manifesting itself in a physical action. And so the more that we can just see these things work together and and are culp are equally culpable, then what I can do is I can say, okay, well then priority number one, get in line with the truth. Because so long as I'm not in line with the truth. Body is going to follow me wherever my mind goes. And if I am out of step with the truth, my body will be out of step with the truth too. And the things that I do with my body will be out of step with the truth. But if my mind is renewed by the truth, then my body will follow. Well, let's renew our minds with the truth about what scripture says about our bodies, because they are important and we have them for a reason. ⁓ so let's talk about that and how we should be thinking about our physical growth or ⁓ the the importance of our physical bodies, the material beings that we are. what does scripture have to say about it a lot, but maybe you just hit us with a couple Yeah, I think the most prominent passage I would go to is first Corinthians six. ⁓ because Paul is confronting a misunderstanding of the truth that is leading to the church in Corinth. ⁓ living in sexual immorality and promoting it in their midst. And ⁓ their their whole argument is, ⁓ well, if if the body is if the stomach's made for food Then I should eat. Well, the body is made for sexual relationship, therefore we should enjoy that. And and Paul says, ⁓ you have the wrong view of the body there. ⁓ your body's made to glorify God. And so honor God in your bodies. And then in the same passage he he confronts the idea that sin is is separate from your physical body. And so things that you do with your physical body can't be sinful. And he can confronts that to say no when you do sin you your body is complicit in it and it is just as much a reality for your body as it is for your spiritual well being. So you were bought with a price you are not your own therefore honor God in your bodies. Interesting that the price that they were bought with is the blood of Christ and Jesus is saying You, including your bodies, were bought with a price. Not just your soul. It's not that Jesus just ransomed your soul. It's that your whole self belongs to him. And when when my body participates in sin, it is not a neutral party in that. It's a part of me. and the other side of that is also true. That when when I am participating in holiness and righteousness and the pursuit of growth with my physical body, that is a part of me. That is just a part of my pursuit of Christian growth. As I align the immaterial aspect of my being with the truth of God's word, and that then works itself out in what I do with my body, that is going to reinforce that truth that I'm submitting to and help me then to participate physically according to that truth. So like I said earlier, you know, those those Christian habits. We can do those in false ways if we're not submitted to the truth. Well, when I am submitted to the truth, and then I do build in those habits of prayer and meditation and scripture reading and and I'm I'm caring for my body for my general health so that it's functioning properly, all of those things are physical things that I am doing that are helping me to think more clearly about the truth. Yeah. And to live more faithfully according to the truth. So the main goal for our bodies. is to honor God with our bodies. Right. So that could have so many implications. And I want to drill down into some practical things to help us understand. I mean, honoring God with my body could be anything from being physically able enough to serve at the church or serve, volunteer, help, serve in my home, family, take care of my responsibilities to how I like reflect him, represent him. How much does the image of my body matter? How I'm presented to the world in terms of like how I look? Or is it just health? I mean, what is when we say how it represents God and brings glory to God, is it just what I do with it ⁓ in terms of more like effort, health, service, what my actions or what does this have to do with appearance? Yeah. So the I think it's good that you bring up the word represent 'cause that was what we said about the image of God. Part of the image of God is not just to resemble God, but to represent him. And what I talked about in that first episode is that representing God means that you physically reflect him in a physical world. So the way you conduct yourself in the world makes visible who God is as you represent him physically. So to honor God in my body is to intentionally pursue those things that enable me to represent him in a physical world with my physical body. So I think that we can prioritize physical things in a way that seeks to glorify myself. I think that's vanity. but caring for my physical body and and seeking to care for my body in a way that that optimizes its functionality is certainly glorifying to God. You gave me this body, I want to care for it, I want to treat it well. Is is the outcome of that gonna be a certain physical appearance? Perhaps, but if my appearance, if if my Appearance becomes the driving goal, that's where vanity comes in very quickly. Yeah. Where I'm not actually seeking to glorify God in my body, I'm seeking to glorify myself in my body. And I'm not saying there's anything wrong with wanting to look your best. Right? Like there's nothing wrong with a glow-up. But there is something wrong with pursuing the glow-up. at the expense of representing God. I think that too often we will prioritize our physical appearance in such a way that we are not reflecting God anymore. We are reflecting the world because we embrace what the world says we should look like. Now we've now I'm no longer in step with the truth. I'm embracing a lie. And I'm living it out, right? There's a it it can be a very fine line there. But I do think that there is when it comes to the appearance piece, I do think there is an element of it where we can say, if I'm caring for my body and I'm just seeking to honor God in it, I can I can glorify him by seeking to care for it as best I can. Not seeking to get the praise of other people, but to just say, God, you've given me this body, I want to care for it. But I think even more than the appearance piece is is the idea. Actual functionality of it. That's why the the the view of the image of God that we represent God is called in theological circ circles the functionalist view. My actual function in the world, what I do with my body. So when I am going to work, when I am spending time with my kids, when I am with my wife. When I am going to the store, when I'm working in my backyard, all of those things are me physically in a physical world either representing God and reflecting him or not because I've embraced something that isn't true. So this is where like work, especially for men, like your career isn't your identity, but it absolutely is a way that you represent God. So honor God in your body when you go to work. Do a good job. Like when when we are when when we're in our backyard, I'm actually talking with my son about this right now. We're kind of we have these like things that we focus on every month, and this month we're focusing on on vocational responsibility, like me seeing the work that I I have as a good thing and doing it well for no other reason than it's a good thing. That is representing God as his image by honoring him with my body. I know we like to go back to Genesis a lot of times, and it's helpful for people to see that we are created to work before the fall, right? The work is a good thing. Right. Work became hard because of the fall. It became painful because of the fall. The earth now works against us because because of the fall. But work was actually restful for the man. I don't want to go on too much of a tangent here, but it's it's worth saying this. On ⁓ in the creation week, every day has an end except day seven. Day seven does not have an end. ⁓ Why? Because before sin entered the world, rest in the presence of God was the ongoing reality. And when the man was created, he was rested in the garden to work it and to keep it. That in his ongoing state of rest before God, he would cultivate the garden and it would flourish and bring more life. That's what we were made to do. So I think a really a really tangible question then to ask about pursuing physical growth under maturity in Christ is am I in my physical body cultivating what will bring glory to God or am I cultivating something else? I think that's a really helpful reflective question. And there's a few other things in the passage that you mentioned from First Corinthians six twelve through twenty that I think are also helpful. Some of these were in our study. I did a few months ago, and they've really transformed the way that I think verse 12, I will not be mastered by anything. Like when we because we I think we are so tempted to think of these what should I avoid and what should I do? And lists of do's and don'ts and what's okay and what's permissible. We do it with, you know, sexuality and purity, and we do it with food and drink and all the things. ⁓ and I think let's look at the heart of this question. What am I mastered by? Is it my own desires? Is it something else? else have control over me ⁓ when it comes to my physical being ⁓ and really evaluating if if I need to do something about that so that I'm truly seeing my body as the temple of the Holy Spirit, another great thing to reflect on when we're thinking about how we view our bodies and what we're doing with them. and then you are not your own. You are Paul with a price. I mean, you're not your own. And so I think different people face different tendencies to go ⁓ high vanity control, you know, appearance, ⁓ other people. It Going to be towards not caring for their body and not making choices where they're stewarding their body well, and ⁓ and so those elements of this passage can help us reflect and see where we need to correct our thinking. I think it would be important to talk about physical struggles and limitations that people might experience and how we can understand that ⁓ while still being able to glorify God. I think of people with With ongoing health issues. I think of people with ⁓ limited physical abilities. ⁓ I think of women who, you know, we think, ⁓ we're supposed to multiply and fill the earth and I am struggling. I can't I'm not able to do that. I mean these things that So significant and so tied to our physical bodies that might really bring pain and disappointment to people. ⁓ can we still glorify God if we have a body that is not perfectly able? Yeah. That's a ⁓ important question. And we live in the aftermath of Genesis three. So God's good creation. ⁓ was fractured as a result of man's sin and the whole creation groans for the restoration of all things. That means that affected everything. yes, we sin in things we do, but we also just live with the effects of the brokenness that sin brings in my own life. And that means that there are going to be things about my body that don't work the way that that they would have before Genesis three. I think that it's right To lament that, to say, I wish I could, but I can't. Lament is a biblical category and is a good response. It's not lament is not despair. Lament is to say, I see that things are not the way they should be, and Lord, I need you to make things right. And I know that one day you will make them right. Then I think the the next piece, now that we can say, yes, we all live in that, with varying abilities and and to varying levels unable to do certain things. ⁓ the the passage where the widow comes and gives two coins. ⁓ And Jesus says she gave more than anybody else, because she gave from all that she had. All of you have so much, so what you give, what the little bit that you gave was meaningless to you, so it's meaningless to me. But that was a sacrifice for her, and so it's meaningful to me. I think that we can expand that principle to what it looks like to honor God with your body, to say, I don't have as much as I wish. I had. I can't do all that I wish that I could do. But God, in your wisdom, you have placed me where I am in time and space with the abilities that I have. And what is going to be a fragrant offering to you is for me to simply use what you have given me to reflect you in my body. I won't be able to reflect this thing in the same way as that person because they are able to do something I'm not able to do, but you didn't give me their body, you gave me mine, and so I want to honor you with what you've given me. Knowing that that though the world might say it's a feeble offering. If I honor you with what you've entrusted to me, you'll be just as glorified as anybody else honoring you with what you've given them. But someone someone who's you know, ⁓ this is gonna be maybe ⁓ an imperfect statement, but it's the best thing that I can think of. Someone who who can go a hundred miles an hour and chooses to go twenty is not glorifying God in the same way as somebody who can only go thirty and they go thirty. Like there is a there's there is a an affection for the glory of God that drives me to honor him with the body that he's given me and when I am seeking to honor him with my body according to that affection, ⁓ th I think that God is honored by that. So for the person who's struggling with that, I would say I understand the struggle. And I don't blame you for lamenting it. In fact, I'm glad that you lament it because you see that things are not the way they should be. And be encouraged that a day is coming where things will be the way that they should be. And use this time to simply honor God with what He's given you, even if it means that He hasn't given you what He's given somebody else. ⁓ let's talk about this third pie th piece, relational growth. it might feel like we can master some of these individually, the spiritual and physical. Okay, I finally understand these things. I'm renewing my mind. There's some progress here in this area, but now we have to introduce it in other people and relate with others. Yeah. And mess it all up. Yeah. ⁓ 'cause it seems complicated. I mean, is relational growth does that mean I have tons of great relationships and we never have conflict? conflict or what is relational growth. Well there's two relationships. There's the vertical and the horizontal. And Jesus said that the whole law of God can be summarized in love God and love your neighbor. So ⁓ the I said last time ⁓ that that you cannot be truly human apart from relationship. Yeah. When you live in isolation, you're not fully human. You might be fully human in a biological sense, but not in a biblical sense. ⁓ we are made for relationship with God as as our primary relationship, and things go wrong when that relationship is broken. That's James chapter four. You you you murder and steal because you are not right with God, and so it makes you not right with one another. Another. ⁓ so we relate to God, and that relationship with God is not just knowing the truth. That that's a I know the truth, but then I relate to God according to that truth. I am personally engaging with Him, and that's then affecting the way that I live, and now I'm relating to other people according to that truth, and as an outworking of my relationship with God. So relational me being a relational being, therefore relational growth, is that my relationship with God and my relationships with others are increasingly reflecting the truth more and more and are looking more and more like how Jesus related to the Father and how He related to people. If we're being conformed to His image, if the end goal is maturity in Christ That means that my my relational being is relating more and more the way that Jesus relates. And when we're throwing other people into the mix, it certainly messes it up. Right? Like it would be really easy to do the Christian life if I didn't have to deal with people. And they would say the same thing about having to deal with me. Because all of us are are in our own way. out of alignment with the truth. All of us are living out that lack of alignment with the truth in our physical bodies, that then we relate to one another in these physical frames according to our distortions of the truth that then leads to conflict between us. And the more that we are collectively pursuing the truth and collectively relating in these physical frames according to the image of God, the more that our relationships will glorify God, the more that we will truly love one another. And that's why Jesus says, the world will know you are my disciples by how you love one another, because there is a love that reflects God as we relate to one another that the world can't impersonate because the world has embraced a lie. And when we have embraced the truth and are then relating to one another according to that truth, it will be obvious that we belong to Jesus because we reflect him. And can we talk about some practice? Ways that it would look like like what we would actually be doing in the way that we relate to one another that is aligned with the truth in God's word and glorifies Him and looks differently than the world. Because I think we've talked about lies and misconceptions and renewing our mind with the truth. And I think many of us, even believers, ⁓ believe that a lack of conflict or keeping the peace, whatever we consider that. To look like means good relationships and means loving one another, and that's not what I see when I look into scripture about the reality of what it's gonna look like to relate to one another. ⁓ in fact, I have really grown to appreciate that there is a very frank reality in scripture that there will be sin, and so God gives us commandments about how to address. Sin in our life and when other people sin. And definitely in my own life, I was not and still struggle, but was not regularly like confessing, forgiving, pursuing reconciliation, speaking the truth in love, you know, certainly being patient, bearing with one another, ⁓ things that in the commands themselves address the fact that there is sin and brokenness and gives us the correct responses to them. But we actually have to apply them. So just having a bunch of relationships, even having relationships with other believers, that's not a godly relationship. We actually have to be doing the action, that is godly obedience. And if we're realistic about sin in our own lives and in the lives of others, then we will have to take the appropriate action if we're relating to one another rightly. Yeah. Yeah, I mean in a world in a world with sin, lack of conflict does not mean it's a healthy relationship. I would actually say in a world that is marked by sin, ⁓ lack of conflict is a sign that it's an unhealthy relationship because you are looking over sin in order to keep the peace. ⁓ we are we are not called to be peacekeepers. We're called to be peacemakers, which assume A lack of peace at the outset that we then bring to bear on whatever our situation is. And if we think about what does it look like practically, well, we're if we're made to to reflect God, we have to start with God. We if if we start with us, we can get to moralism really quick. Just do the right things. why are they right? They're right because they reflect God. So who is God? He is merciful and gracious. Slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness. He is generous. He is kind. ⁓ We look at those things. He he's a loving father who disciplines, so he convicts us of our sin and points us toward righteousness. We look at those things, and then we look at all the commands about the one another's in the New Testament, and we can say, Yeah, we're called to be generous to one another because God was generous to us, therefore we we look out for one another's needs. ⁓ we forgive one another because God through Christ has forgiven us. We're patient with one another because God was patient to us. We practice faithfulness. Faithfulness with one another. We're loyal and we don't betray one another because God's faithful to us. We we're slow to anger. There are things to get angry about. Like the it's not anger in and of itself is not sin. There is anger that is sinful. ⁓ and So what are the things that makes God angry? Those things should should produce a righteous anger in us, but that anger doesn't lead to us then acting out on it. That anger should then lead us to call out on God to do something about it. ⁓ when when we start looking at it that way then we can say, Okay, so relationships that rightly reflect God are relationships that are reflecting the kinds of things that God does for his people and so we do that for one another because he first did it for us. ⁓ And and God made peace with us, so I'm gonna make peace with you. We are going to sin against one another at varying levels because we are all at varying places in our journey toward maturity and we're not seeing Jesus face to face. So sin is going to be a struggle until that day. What marks a relationship that is a reflection of God is how we deal with that sin, and that is through confession, repentance, forgiveness, reconciliation, the making of peace. humility where I will put my own interests aside for the sake of us together. All those things. ⁓ and the more that I'm relating along those lines with people, because of who God is, the more that our relationships will reflect God. Because my neighbor who is not a believer is a very kind person. ⁓ but does that kindness reflect God? Well If it's just rooted in, well, you should be kind because it's the right thing to do, then no, that kindness does not reflect God in the way that we're supposed to. The kindness that reflects God is the kindness that says, God has been kind to me, therefore I will show you the same kindness. That's a completely different pathway to the same thing that we're going to call kindness, a completely different pathway. And while one in a in a common way we could say Reflects God because kindness, we can recognize kindness. It is a completely different thing for the Christian who says, No, the reason I want to be kind to you is because of specifically how God was kind to me. And I would be a hypocrite if I didn't show that same kindness to you. I want to reflect him. So I will put myself aside and I will show it to you. It's hard. It is. It's hard. We need a lot of help. it's always the best place to be when we're realizing our utter dependence on the Lord. So I'm thankful for that. And then I just want to encourage people too, as they listen, and realize that they're really struggling. Yeah. ⁓ because we all do struggle and I've struggled and I got to the place as I looked into the truth of God's word more and more, and my desire to follow him was growing. I realized I really needed help. Like I saw people doing it, women walking, and they just seemed to get it, and they were following Jesus, and it practically like they were doing it practically in their lives. Like in these way we touched on some practical things here, but there's so many. And the different areas people might be struggling with are gonna vary so greatly. And I totally understand the need to identify that and have some space and some. Time to walk alongside and say, I really need help navigating this area in my life. I feel mastered by this, or I'm I'm aware that I'm not rightly thinking about this. and there could be so many things. So I just want to remind people, invite people, go forward on Sunday and pray with someone, fill out a connect card, get on the app or the website right now and look at the groups and studies. ⁓ there are ways to sign up for one on one discipleship and counseling. ⁓ I needed help walking with someone and I identified them and I went and I asked really in a clunky way like can you speak into my life? Can you help me? You see, you know, what can you do? And it was a beautiful relationship that developed and so fruitful. God used that ⁓ over the course of years, looking at his word regularly together and exposing where I was not believing Believing the truth to change my life in practical ways. And I was someone who was a believer coming to church, you know, reading God's word, praying, but not really viewing scripture as practical hope and help for my life. And it is there. If we will surrender to it, it will take surrender. And we are meant to do it in relationship. And so I just want to encourage people not to be stuck in despair or just or confusion, ⁓ but take a step because we are we are meant to walk together and there are other believers who understand and want to encourage you and love you and ⁓ point you towards the truth and love and so that's my encouragement, my invitation for our church family today. Thanks for joining us for the Harvest After Sunday podcast, where we help you grow into the image of Christ by applying the truths in his word for his mission. We'll see you Sunday.