Latest / INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living / Growing-Up Goals for Diligent Disciples │ Msg 1616 - Pastor Chuck Swindoll Insight for Living

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Growing-Up Goals for Diligent Disciples │ Msg 1616 - Pastor Chuck Swindoll Insight for Living · INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living

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Speaker 1: If I could choose two qualities I would desire most
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Speaker 1: to have formed in every follower of Christ, I believe
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Speaker 1: I would choose diligence and determination. Few internal qualities steal
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Speaker 1: us for what lies ahead in our Christian experience. Like
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Speaker 1: diligence and determination, I want to be able to push
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Speaker 1: deep into a person's character, their inner essence, and eventually
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Speaker 1: strike granite. And there is no better test of true
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Speaker 1: granite like character that would outstrip diligence and determination for
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Speaker 1: doing what is right. And by the way, such character
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Speaker 1: cannot be laid hold of through a shoddy, haphazard throwing
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Speaker 1: together of a life. Nope, not like that. Character like
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Speaker 1: this is formed within us by the spirit of God.
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Speaker 1: Once it against the tank root, you can begin to
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Speaker 1: handle the blast of adversity like a steer in a blizzard.
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Speaker 1: You can stand firm. The ice may form on your horns,
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Speaker 1: but you keep standing firm, unmoved, because Christ has been
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Speaker 1: given full sway in your life. And that diligence and
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Speaker 1: determination is at work that my friend leads towards spiritual maturity.
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Speaker 1: And that is what it looks like to be grown
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Speaker 1: up in the family of God. In my closing message
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Speaker 1: in this series, I want us to focus on the
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Speaker 1: words of Peter. Remember him, the once bumbling, stammering, wishy,
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Speaker 1: washy fisherman from Galilee, so proud of himself and yet
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Speaker 1: so failing, who became a pillar of the church the
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Speaker 1: grace of God, and ultimately pin the second of two
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Speaker 1: letters to the people of God, urging them to stand
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Speaker 1: firm in diligence and determination all the way to the end.
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Speaker 1: It's where I like to conclude our study together. Frankly,
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Speaker 1: I cannot think of a better closing passage for our
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Speaker 1: spiritual growth messages than tewod Peter chapter one, verses one
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Speaker 1: through eleven. Join me please as I read this from
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Speaker 1: the New Living Translation. Second Peter one, Verse one begins,
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Speaker 1: this letter is from Simon Peter, a slave and apostle
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Speaker 1: of Jesus Christ. I'm writing to you who share the
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Speaker 1: same precious faith we have. This faith was given to
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Speaker 1: you because of the justice and fairness of Jesus Christ,
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Speaker 1: our God and Savior. May God give you more and
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Speaker 1: more grace and peace as you grow in your knowledge
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Speaker 1: of God and Jesus our Lord. By his divine power,
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Speaker 1: God has given us everything we need for living a
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Speaker 1: godly life. We have received all of this by coming
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Speaker 1: to know him, the one who called us to himself
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Speaker 1: by means of his marvelous glory and excellence. And because
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Speaker 1: of his glory and excellence, he has given us great
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Speaker 1: and precious promises. These are the promises that enable you
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Speaker 1: to share His divine nature and escape the world's corruption
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Speaker 1: caused by human desires. In view of all of this,
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Speaker 1: make every effort to respond to God's promises. Supplement your
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Speaker 1: faith with a generous provision of moral excellence and moral excellence,
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Speaker 1: with knowledge and knowledge, with self control and self control,
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Speaker 1: with patient endurance and patient endurance, with godliness and godliness,
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Speaker 1: with brotherly affection and brotherly affection, with love for everyone.
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Speaker 1: The more you grow like this, the more productive and
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Speaker 1: useful you will be in your knowledge of our Lord
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Speaker 1: Jesus Christ. But those who fail to develop in this
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Speaker 1: way are shortsighted or blind, forgetting that they have been
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Speaker 1: cleansed from their old sins. So, dear brothers and sisters, work,
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Speaker 1: it's hard to prove that you really are among those
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Speaker 1: God has called and chosen. Do these things and you
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Speaker 1: will never fall away. Then God will give you a
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Speaker 1: grand entrance into the eternal Kingdom of our Lord and
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Speaker 1: Savior Jesus Christ. The Idaho Power Company had a real
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Speaker 1: problem back in early nineteen seventy two. It was not
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Speaker 1: only embarrassing, it was downright mysterious. A number of the
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Speaker 1: same kind of complaints came to them at the public
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Speaker 1: utilities there in Boise. The complaints were something like this,
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Speaker 1: we are finding a number of electrocuted eagles down below
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Speaker 1: the high tension wires that you have strung around our area. Well,
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Speaker 1: this was the worst kind of publicity for a utilities company,
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Speaker 1: especially so since the newspaper was now printing pictures of
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Speaker 1: these noble birds all in a heap. It seemed as
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Speaker 1: though a modern technology had once again collided with the
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Speaker 1: beautiful world of nature, and the public wasn't going to
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Speaker 1: stand for it. What the utilities company wish the people
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Speaker 1: would understand is that it was all absolutely accidental. They
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Speaker 1: just couldn't seem to convince them of it, and so,
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Speaker 1: not knowing what they should do, they decided they would
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Speaker 1: hire an expert. And they found a man named Morland Nelson,
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Speaker 1: who was a falconer, a naturalist, an environmentalist, and in
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Speaker 1: fact a cinematographer. He had made a study of these
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Speaker 1: beautiful creatures, which, by the way, were among the endangered
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Speaker 1: species protected by federal law, and he asked the company
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Speaker 1: if they wanted him to work for them for a while.
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Speaker 1: He would like for them to build across his acreage
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Speaker 1: a mock up of the tall poles that held the
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Speaker 1: voltage boxes and the conductors, and to string the wires
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Speaker 1: from pole to pole as they would normally do out
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Speaker 1: in the field, but of course add no electrical charge.
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Speaker 1: So he could watch these birds and see if he
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Speaker 1: could find out what was happening. He studied them for months.
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Speaker 1: By early nineteen seventy three he was onto something, and
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Speaker 1: by the latter part of the year he had found
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Speaker 1: the answer. He discovered that these giant birds of the sky,
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Speaker 1: when they would reached their wingspan out to its fullest
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Speaker 1: six to eight feet, would touch not only the conductor
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Speaker 1: with one wing, but a ground wire often with another,
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Speaker 1: and of course that meant instant, instant death. He said,
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Speaker 1: I think the answer is if we could somehow build
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Speaker 1: them an artificial perch to save them the trouble, and
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Speaker 1: they could without being in any way harmed. They could
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Speaker 1: find lodging in these perches but they would be protected
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Speaker 1: from the electrical current. If you will do that, your
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Speaker 1: problem will be solved. They did, and it was. Everybody
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Speaker 1: was happy. The public was pleased, the personnel of the
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Speaker 1: utilities company were overjoyed, and even the eagles were delighted.
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Speaker 1: I might add, I thought, as I read that true story.
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Speaker 1: In God's family, there is a far more embarrassing, and
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Speaker 1: I might add, a mysterious problem. A greater number than
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Speaker 1: we would ever believe of our family, who have been
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Speaker 1: healthy and growing and reproducing Christians are falling. They are defecting.
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Speaker 1: In fact, the statistics are to scandalous and epidemic proportions.
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Speaker 1: And it's bad publicity not only because of the fact,
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Speaker 1: but the newspapers are even putting pictures of some of
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Speaker 1: those who were once numbered among us, so that all
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Speaker 1: can see them as no longer claiming to love the Savior.
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Speaker 1: Why are they falling? What is the answer to this
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Speaker 1: strange mystery of defection? Not all of them are adult,
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Speaker 1: by the way. Some of them are just fledglings, just
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Speaker 1: young eagles who have recently learned to fly. Why. I
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Speaker 1: don't pretend to be the expert as that man was,
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Speaker 1: but I have studied the subject for years, and the
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Speaker 1: longer I live, and the more I read and observe,
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Speaker 1: the more convinced I am that that story of the
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Speaker 1: eagles provides a perfect analogy for us who are in
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Speaker 1: the family, for so many who should be producing, who
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Speaker 1: are big enough to perch in places of what we
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Speaker 1: might call Christian nesting. When they spread their wings, they
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Speaker 1: find that they touch not only one tip with idealism,
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Speaker 1: but they are zapped by the other side, touching realism.
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Speaker 1: And it's a killer. We nurture the young Christian on
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Speaker 1: the idealism of doctrine and the peerless truths of the
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Speaker 1: New Testament as well as the Old. We tell them
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Speaker 1: of the Savior, who is Jesus, the son of God Deity.
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Speaker 1: We speak of his blood, we declare the cross. We
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Speaker 1: talk about his intercession for us, and we reflect upon
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Speaker 1: his substitutionary death at Calvary, and we talk about his coming.
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Speaker 1: All of that is marvelous, and I might add idealistic truth,
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Speaker 1: and it is as it should be. But how easy
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Speaker 1: it is to come into the family and think that
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Speaker 1: we can stretch our wings and fly our way through
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Speaker 1: this life in sort of a downhill slide. And some
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Speaker 1: even have the audacity to add, if you come to
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Speaker 1: know Christ, your problems will be solved. You won't have
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Speaker 1: the difficulties you used to have, you won't have the
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Speaker 1: struggles you used to have. In fact, it seemed as
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Speaker 1: though God turns all of his power loose, and you've
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Speaker 1: got it made, and then they touch reality and it
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Speaker 1: blows them away. One of the things I think that
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Speaker 1: provides an answer is balanced teaching, the kind of communication
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Speaker 1: that says to the Christian world Christ is indeed God.
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Speaker 1: His death is in fact the sacrifice, the sacrifice that
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Speaker 1: God honors. He is surely coming again. But in the meantime,
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Speaker 1: while waiting, you not only must believe right. You have
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Speaker 1: an uphill battle with your old nature and with the
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Speaker 1: world around you and Satan, who is oppressing you with
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Speaker 1: all of his demons, and you've got your work cut
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Speaker 1: out for you. So you need to behave right as well.
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Speaker 1: Just idealistic belief won't cut it. There has to be
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Speaker 1: realistic behavior. Philippians Chapter three, for example, written by a
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Speaker 1: man I'm sure you would say was an adult believer,
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Speaker 1: and certainly since he was the apostle Paul, he had
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Speaker 1: come as close as anyone would ever come to arriving
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Speaker 1: at a place of well, what shall we say, uninterrupted bliss, idealism,
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Speaker 1: all the dreams having come true. No, as a matter
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Speaker 1: of fact, if I read this passage correctly, I find
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Speaker 1: quite the contrary. Look at Philippians three, verse twelve, the
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Speaker 1: adult theologian Paul writes, not that I have already obtained
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Speaker 1: it meaning full maturity, or have already become perfect, but
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Speaker 1: I hope you've marked this next section. I press on.
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Speaker 1: That's reality, not that I have already become perfect. But
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Speaker 1: I press on the living Bible says, I don't mean
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Speaker 1: to say I'm perfect. I haven't learned all I should
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Speaker 1: even yet, but I keep working toward that day when
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Speaker 1: I will finally be all that Christ saved me for
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Speaker 1: and wants me to be. That's the emphasis I press on.
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Speaker 1: In fact, he says in verse eleven of chapter four,
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Speaker 1: I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am.
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Speaker 1: I know how to get along in humble means, and
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Speaker 1: I know how to live in prosperity in any and
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Speaker 1: every circumstance. Market I have learned, I press on. Life
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Speaker 1: isn't simply soaring through the heavenlyes. It has to do
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Speaker 1: with perching in precarious places. It has to do with
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Speaker 1: doing battle with the elements. It has to do with
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Speaker 1: fighting a very real adversary. I appreciate the honesty of
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Speaker 1: a pastor's wife, Gail MacDonald. While she and Gordon, her husband,
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Speaker 1: were in ministry in New England, he was pastor of
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Speaker 1: a grace chapel in Lexington, Massachusetts. While there, my husband
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Speaker 1: and I have occasionally felt on the edge of an
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Speaker 1: ill defined despair. Now these are realistic words. I continue.
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Speaker 1: There were times when we felt a variety of things.
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Speaker 1: A desire to either quit or run, a feeling of anger,
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Speaker 1: the temptation to fight back at someone, the sense of
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Speaker 1: being used or exploited, the weakness of inadequacy, and the
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Speaker 1: reality of loneliness. Such attitudes can easily conspire to reduce
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Speaker 1: the strongest and the most gifted to a state of nothingness.
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Speaker 1: That is reality, that is, as we say today, where
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Speaker 1: it is at. She simply tell us, when you stretch
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Speaker 1: your wings, you're liable to touch, on one hand, idealism,
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Speaker 1: and you must, for that is where dreams come from.
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Speaker 1: But you'll also touch realism, and that's where the flat
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Speaker 1: comes from and by touching both, you get zapped. You
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Speaker 1: want to run, you want to quit, you want to scream,
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Speaker 1: you want to fight, you want to chunk it all.
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Speaker 1: Bail out in the Christian life, give it up to
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Speaker 1: the winds with restraint. I've had it. Maybe someone in
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Speaker 1: your family has already said that, and it's the hardest
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Speaker 1: thing in the world for you to accept that that
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Speaker 1: person has become a statistic when he perched in the
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Speaker 1: wrong spot. I'm committed in this series, and I have
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Speaker 1: been since we started. I'm committed to realism. We talked
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Speaker 1: about being born into God's family. It is a gift.
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Speaker 1: It is a precious gift. It comes from the Father above,
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Speaker 1: through faith in the Lord Jesus, his son who paid
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Speaker 1: the penalty for sin on the cross, and by believing
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Speaker 1: in the Savior apart from works, by trusting in his
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Speaker 1: finished work at Calvary, I become a member of the
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Speaker 1: family of God, privilege of all privileges. I am born
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Speaker 1: into his family. But at that moment the struggle starts,
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Speaker 1: the earthly struggle. None from heaven. God has been satisfied
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Speaker 1: with the death of his son. God is pleased with
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Speaker 1: me as his family member, and God is if you
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Speaker 1: would allow me on my side, because I've taken his side,
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Speaker 1: and God gives me all I need to fly and
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Speaker 1: to fly free and to soar, and ultimately to reproduce
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Speaker 1: His character traits in my life and hopefully in the
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Speaker 1: lives of others. I reach infancy and I come across
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Speaker 1: that time of learning how to eat and how to
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Speaker 1: feed myself and what I like and how I made,
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Speaker 1: and this leads into childhood. The world of discovery opens
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Speaker 1: up to me and I learn. Even there, I have
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Speaker 1: alien forces that fight against my growth, but I'm kept
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Speaker 1: in touch with reality so that I don't fail and fall.
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Speaker 1: I know that when I give up, and when I
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Speaker 1: reach those times that Missus McDonald writes of, I know
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Speaker 1: that my God is on my side and he will
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Speaker 1: help me through. I lean hard on him. I reach
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Speaker 1: adolescence and I struggle with independence and finding my own
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Speaker 1: way and learning how to run and learning how to compete,
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Speaker 1: and learning how to find my identity and discover that
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Speaker 1: I am, in fact an eagle at heart, and before
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Speaker 1: I know it, I'm on my way to adulthood. Funny
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Speaker 1: thing about the Christian life unlikely, the natural, the physical
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Speaker 1: life is that we can revert back to childhood, can't
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Speaker 1: we can't you remember times in your life when you,
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Speaker 1: an adult Christian, acted like an adolescent Christian, or when you,
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Speaker 1: as an adolescent Christian, look more like an infant Christian,
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Speaker 1: hardly able to walk, just making messes, you just sort
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Speaker 1: of fiddled around rather than kept pursuing. Of course, you
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Speaker 1: can remember those times, and so can I see that
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Speaker 1: needs to be said to people. Adult Christians need to
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Speaker 1: know that even though adult, there will still be times
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Speaker 1: when you will lapse into adolescence. But it need not
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Speaker 1: be the end of the life. You need not fall
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Speaker 1: and become a victim of disillusionment under the high tension
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Speaker 1: poll of that battle with reality. That's why I suppose
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Speaker 1: I like the writings of Peter so much. Peter is
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Speaker 1: a realist. I identify with the guy. I love the
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Speaker 1: way he says what he says. He never gets too ethereal.
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Speaker 1: I don't think he could if he wanted to, just
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Speaker 1: to start with. But the thing you love about him
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Speaker 1: is that he's come from that background. He was almost
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Speaker 1: a goner, remember at the cross, or just before it,
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Speaker 1: warming himself by the fire, hoping somehow to identify with
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Speaker 1: a riff raft not to be numbered among the disciples.
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Speaker 1: And oh, you remember that terrible moment, And then you
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Speaker 1: remember the joyous day when Jesus, having been raised from
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Speaker 1: the dead, says to his friends, go tell Peter, I've
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Speaker 1: come back and mine. Peter not only was restored, but
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Speaker 1: he became the spokesman for the early Church. And I'm
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Speaker 1: sure he was as shocked as any one of us
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Speaker 1: would have been as his contemporary, to know that he
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Speaker 1: would be chosen to provide truth for the Book of
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Speaker 1: God two Letters. It's in the second letter that I
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Speaker 1: find some information that to me is worth all our while.
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Speaker 1: It's a perfect conclusion to our series for those who
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Speaker 1: think idealistically, I can grow so fast, I can skip
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Speaker 1: a stage or two, or I know the truth so
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Speaker 1: well I won't encounter difficulty, or I've arrived. This is easy.
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Speaker 1: Get a good dose of second Peter. He'll correct your thinking.
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Speaker 1: He'll keep you from becoming an electrocuted eagle paralyzed by reality.
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Speaker 1: He says in verse two, grace and peace be multiplied
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Speaker 1: to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus,
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Speaker 1: our Lord. And then he talks about idealism. He goes
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Speaker 1: back to our birth, and he reminds us of three
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Speaker 1: great facts. Number one, his divine power has granted to
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Speaker 1: us everything pertaining to life and godliness. So at birth
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Speaker 1: we were given God's divine power, even the one who
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Speaker 1: called us by his own glory and excellence. And second
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Speaker 1: verse four, for by these he has granted to us
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Speaker 1: his precious and magnificent promises. So we've got his truth
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Speaker 1: as well. When we came to be a member of
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Speaker 1: his family, he gave us his power. Think of that.
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Speaker 1: It was a gift. We didn't work for it, we
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Speaker 1: didn't earn it, we didn't even have to pray for it.
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Speaker 1: It came as part of the initial package. And I
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Speaker 1: was getting into the Marine Corps and going through the
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Speaker 1: early hours of boot camp, which are the most dreadful
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Speaker 1: of all hours of life. I might add, you're given
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Speaker 1: a bucket issue. Only marines understand that talk. That means
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Speaker 1: that initial issue one tube of toothpaste, one toothbrush hard
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Speaker 1: preferably wire, one comb, one bar of soap, preferably lava soap,
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Speaker 1: and on and on, one pair of well, anyway, you know,
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Speaker 1: you got it bucket issue. And it was all part
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Speaker 1: of coming into the outfit. When you came into the outfit,
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Speaker 1: call the family of God divine power. That was one
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Speaker 1: promises from the book. That was two. That's verse four.
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Speaker 1: And along with that you notice that by them you
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Speaker 1: might become partakers of the divine nature. You even had
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Speaker 1: the presence of God to hang on to, constant presence.
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Speaker 1: There will never be a time in the believer's life
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Speaker 1: when the presence of God will be absent from you.
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Speaker 1: You won't act in it all the time, you won't
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Speaker 1: draw from it, but you'll have it. You've got it.
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Speaker 1: It's part of the bucket issue. That's one wing, and
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Speaker 1: it's terribly important. But if you stop there, you'll just
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Speaker 1: fly around in circles and finally just flap yourself to death.
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Speaker 1: You won't go very far. You got to have another wing.
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Speaker 1: And that's what the next section is all about. The
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Speaker 1: balance here has to do with obedience. In fact, he
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Speaker 1: says in verse five for this very reason, applying all diligence.
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Speaker 1: Interesting term diligence, it appears again in verse ten, be
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Speaker 1: all the more diligent. It means to make haste, to
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Speaker 1: be eager, to exert oneself. It's human responsibility. If you
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Speaker 1: like theological terms. Verses three and four have to do
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Speaker 1: with divine provision, the divine enablement. Verses five through nine,
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Speaker 1: and ten and eleven have to do with human responsibility.
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Speaker 1: And that's where we come to terms with reality. It
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Speaker 1: was Bunyan who wrote, the soul of religion is the
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Speaker 1: practical part. This is also the high tension part. You
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Speaker 1: have to handle this with care. Verses three and four
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Speaker 1: talk about the right kind of belief. Verses five through
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Speaker 1: ten on into eleven talk about the right kind of behavior,
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Speaker 1: and they go together. Look at the expectations that he
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Speaker 1: lays on Peter, the realist of the disciples. For this
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Speaker 1: very reason, applying all diligence. Now, if you're the type
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Speaker 1: that likes lists, you'll love this passage. You can count them.
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Speaker 1: There are eight things you can work on, eight expectations,
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Speaker 1: eight goals and objectives. You want to know what you
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Speaker 1: can work on in your Christian life, start here. It
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Speaker 1: begins with faith. For this very reason, applying all diligence
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Speaker 1: in your faith, this is the foundation of everything. What
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Speaker 1: our Lord says in his book is true. I believe
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Speaker 1: that by faith. Therefore, when God says to me, I
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Speaker 1: am to abandon my worries to him. Then I abandon
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Speaker 1: those worries to him by faith. When he tells me
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Speaker 1: he will take care of those needs that I can't
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Speaker 1: meet in myself, by faith, I trust him to meet
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Speaker 1: those needs. When he says I have written this for
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Speaker 1: your understanding, I read it, I claim it, I say
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Speaker 1: it's for me, and I use it. By faith, I
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Speaker 1: count on it to be effective. I don't rely on
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Speaker 1: my own understanding. At many times in my life, I
28:19
Speaker 1: rely not on my human logic, but on his truth.
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Speaker 1: That's faith. God says it, we believe it, and we
28:27
Speaker 1: move on, counting on him to keep his word. That's foundational.
28:33
Speaker 1: That's the cornerstone of the church. Jesus Christ is the basis,
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Speaker 1: and our link to him is faith. Now it doesn't
28:42
Speaker 1: stop there. Now some things have to be supplied. See
28:46
Speaker 1: the word now applying all diligence in your faith. Supply,
28:54
Speaker 1: And then he lists seven other things. Before I go
28:56
Speaker 1: any further. Look at the words supply. Choral master will
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Speaker 1: appreciate this word, our choir leader. Will all of you
29:05
Speaker 1: who have led groups of people, or done plays and
29:09
Speaker 1: been the director of a film or a production. You'll
29:13
Speaker 1: like this word. It is in fact, the term the
29:16
Speaker 1: Greek word is from where we get our word choreography
29:20
Speaker 1: or chorus, and it goes back to those ancient Greek
29:26
Speaker 1: days when there were magnificent performances, some of them comedies,
29:30
Speaker 1: some of them tragedies, many of them including music in
29:35
Speaker 1: the presentation. And the one who produced it, that is,
29:38
Speaker 1: the one who was responsible for the financing of it,
29:42
Speaker 1: was called by this Greek name translated here in verb
29:46
Speaker 1: forms supply. He was the supplier. He was the choreographer.
29:51
Speaker 1: But in his case he took care of all the
29:54
Speaker 1: financial needs of the group of the troop. My, there
30:01
Speaker 1: was no stopping extravagance, knew no bounds. So one tried
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Speaker 1: to outdo the other one, and it came to be
30:08
Speaker 1: a lavish kind of supplying. And that's what Peter uses
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Speaker 1: to your basic faith. Add lavishly these things. Number two
30:22
Speaker 1: moral excellence. See it in your Bible, Supply moral excellence.
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Speaker 1: It's used earlier in verse three, simply translated excellence. It
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Speaker 1: has to do with the proper fulfillment of anything. The
30:39
Speaker 1: proper fulfillment of a knife is to cut. The proper
30:44
Speaker 1: fulfillment of a field is to grow crops and produce
30:48
Speaker 1: The proper fulfillment of a horse is to run. The
30:51
Speaker 1: proper fulfillment of a medicine is to heal. What's the
30:54
Speaker 1: proper fulfillment of a believer? What's the fulfillment of a believer?
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Speaker 1: It is the attractive character of Jesus Christ. It is
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Speaker 1: the moral excellence of his model. Add to your faith
31:12
Speaker 1: the moral excellence, the attractive character of Christ. And to
31:18
Speaker 1: that it adds knowledge in your moral excellence, supply lavishly knowledged.
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Speaker 1: This isn't theoretical knowledge. This isn't being able to spout
31:31
Speaker 1: the ten, twelve to fifteen major doctrines. Oh, there's nothing
31:35
Speaker 1: wrong with that. But there's another word for that. This
31:38
Speaker 1: is a word for practical knowledge. This is a term
31:41
Speaker 1: for making the right decisions and acting honorably in a
31:45
Speaker 1: threatening situation. It has to do with thinking, with discernment.
31:51
Speaker 1: It has to do with wisdom to deal fairly with life.
31:56
Speaker 1: I have been concerned for a long time about our
32:00
Speaker 1: our being in love with love. I mean, it's to
32:03
Speaker 1: the point where it's love, love, love, love love. Everything
32:08
Speaker 1: just doesn't make indifference. And love is like a river
32:11
Speaker 1: and it just has left its banks. Well, that's when
32:15
Speaker 1: it floods that's when disaster happens. And so for years
32:20
Speaker 1: I have been saying love needs the banks of truth
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Speaker 1: and discernment to keep it in bounds, because when love
32:28
Speaker 1: lifts above those banks, we're loving the wrong thing. There
32:33
Speaker 1: is a place for discernment to say to love, that's
32:36
Speaker 1: far enough. Stop. You're not to love that, you're to
32:42
Speaker 1: be angry at that, you're to fight that, you're to
32:48
Speaker 1: quit at this point because this kind of knowledge gives
32:52
Speaker 1: me the discernment to know truth from error in a
32:57
Speaker 1: practical way. So add that to your deposit, and there's
33:02
Speaker 1: a fourth. Self controlled. Barkley says, it's the ability to
33:06
Speaker 1: take a grip on one's self. That's pretty clear, isn't it.
33:11
Speaker 1: Controlling one's passions, especially as it relates to the sensual life.
33:20
Speaker 1: Michael Green writes, any system which divorces religion from ethics
33:24
Speaker 1: is fundamental heresy. A self control in life so that
33:31
Speaker 1: one's desires and passions don't rule him or her. Let
33:40
Speaker 1: me tell you, let me let you in on one
33:41
Speaker 1: of my particular passions. I love boats. I do. I
33:49
Speaker 1: confess it to everyone. Nothing wrong with loving boats. My
33:55
Speaker 1: granddad had a boat, little fishing boat, and I remember
33:58
Speaker 1: fishing with him in the bays of Sout Texas and thinking,
34:01
Speaker 1: in fact, I even said to my granny Granddaddy, when
34:03
Speaker 1: I get big, I'm going to have a boat just
34:06
Speaker 1: like you've got. And I didn't want a motor like
34:09
Speaker 1: he had, because his would never start. I wanted an
34:12
Speaker 1: outboard motor, and I wanted a boat just like he had.
34:15
Speaker 1: And so a year or two ago I got a
34:18
Speaker 1: little fishing boat. Okay, a little sixteen foot fishing boat
34:22
Speaker 1: with an outboard motor, just the greatest thing. But you know,
34:26
Speaker 1: as soon as you get a boat and you take
34:29
Speaker 1: a drive down where they sell boats, yours looks like
34:32
Speaker 1: a rusty barge. I don't care how nice that boat is.
34:36
Speaker 1: There's always nicer vessels. When I drive down the streets
34:44
Speaker 1: of well Highway one down near Newport where they built
34:49
Speaker 1: barges along the way and other nice boats. I have
34:54
Speaker 1: to keep putting my head towards this windshield and looking
34:59
Speaker 1: straight ahead, you know what, because I am tempted. I
35:04
Speaker 1: just want to stop and look at him. Sure, and
35:11
Speaker 1: as soon as you get up in one of those
35:14
Speaker 1: big boats, you think, this one makes mine look like
35:18
Speaker 1: a dinghy. I could really enjoy this, why don't I
35:25
Speaker 1: have one? Well, first my wife and second self control
35:33
Speaker 1: works and the earth I have to consciously put on
35:42
Speaker 1: the breaks. And you know what happens when I do,
35:47
Speaker 1: I really enjoy my little boat. Suddenly that little boat
35:51
Speaker 1: is all in the world I need, and it's absolutely acceptable.
35:57
Speaker 1: Peter says, for this very reason, applying all diligence, build
36:04
Speaker 1: on faith, and then moral excellence and then knowledge that works,
36:10
Speaker 1: followed by getting a grip on yourself and not fulfilling
36:16
Speaker 1: every one of your little passions that would just make
36:20
Speaker 1: you temporarily satisfied, and that leads to perseverance. This is
36:27
Speaker 1: our word hoopo men o to abide under. It's the
36:32
Speaker 1: picture of a mind that is unmoved by difficulty, distress,
36:37
Speaker 1: or disaster. It is a mind that is able to flex.
36:43
Speaker 1: It is emotions that are able to cope with opposition
36:46
Speaker 1: from the world around us and enticements from the flesh
36:50
Speaker 1: within us. The Greek term always has in its background courage.
36:56
Speaker 1: This is courageous fortitude. I remember, while overseas and being
37:02
Speaker 1: stationed in the Orient, we took a trip up to Atsugi, Japan,
37:08
Speaker 1: and while up there I had a chance to go
37:11
Speaker 1: down into the streets of Tokyo. This was back in
37:15
Speaker 1: nineteen fifty seven, fifty eight, only what twelve years removed
37:23
Speaker 1: from the end of the Second World War when Tokyo
37:26
Speaker 1: had been leveled. This leveled. I remember as a young
37:31
Speaker 1: man being impressed with the way that city had been rebuilt,
37:36
Speaker 1: and I thought, the reason that has happened is the
37:41
Speaker 1: diligence of the Japanese people. I mean, you could not
37:46
Speaker 1: you couldn't guess that the place had been a place
37:49
Speaker 1: of disaster. It was the most modern city I'd ever seen,
37:53
Speaker 1: and they had done it in ten, twelve thirteen years. Perseverance.
38:00
Speaker 1: There are times that reality will cut your legs out
38:03
Speaker 1: from under you, and you haven't you feel any place
38:06
Speaker 1: to go, any place to look but up. This writer says,
38:11
Speaker 1: add to your faith and your knowledge and your self
38:14
Speaker 1: control the quality of perseverance. Work on that one. And
38:19
Speaker 1: then godliness, true piety, and attitude and action, the heart
38:24
Speaker 1: that takes God seriously, that has reverence towards the Father,
38:29
Speaker 1: and respect toward one's fellow man, one who correctly worships God,
38:34
Speaker 1: and one who graciously and humbly serves other people. And
38:40
Speaker 1: while you're at it, work on brotherly kindness Philadelphia is
38:45
Speaker 1: the original word brotherly affection. Get along well with others,
38:54
Speaker 1: learn to like other people. I can't do that if
39:00
Speaker 1: you're a loner, and if you're determined to stay alone
39:04
Speaker 1: and untouchable and untouching. This is bearing one another's burdens.
39:10
Speaker 1: This is feeling another person's pain. This is giving oneself
39:14
Speaker 1: to another person's need. This is, if necessary, stripping your
39:18
Speaker 1: coat and letting him have it. And that leads to
39:25
Speaker 1: Christian love verse seven. And then your brotherly kindness supply
39:30
Speaker 1: lavishly love. Does it help to have a little acrostic
39:35
Speaker 1: ll I listen well to someone I love. Oh, I
39:40
Speaker 1: overlook petty differences and faults, not major matters. When I
39:46
Speaker 1: love someone, I confront If it's a major issue, I
39:49
Speaker 1: tell them the truth. But if it's a minor difference
39:53
Speaker 1: of opinion it's too small to mention, I overlook it.
39:56
Speaker 1: I forgive the I value the other person. I see
40:01
Speaker 1: the importance of dignity in another life, and I treat
40:05
Speaker 1: them with that and e I express it. It isn't
40:08
Speaker 1: a hands behind the back talk about love. It's an
40:11
Speaker 1: unfolding of arms around in a hug and embrace that
40:15
Speaker 1: says in many ways without words, I love you. Now,
40:21
Speaker 1: Peter exhorts us, having given us the expectations. He says,
40:25
Speaker 1: for these qualities are yours and are increasing. You'll be
40:33
Speaker 1: useful and fruitful. See how he says it. They render
40:38
Speaker 1: you neither useless nor unfruitful, putting in positive words, they
40:44
Speaker 1: make you useful, and they make you fruitful in the
40:48
Speaker 1: true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But verse nine
40:53
Speaker 1: adds the negative. However, he who lacks these qualities. What's
40:58
Speaker 1: true of that person says he's blind or short sighted
41:06
Speaker 1: has forgotten that he's been purified from his sins. One
41:11
Speaker 1: person writes the word he uses commonly means short sighted.
41:16
Speaker 1: If one is blind, how can he be short sighted?
41:21
Speaker 1: If Peter had this meaning in mind, he may mean
41:24
Speaker 1: that such a person is blind to heavenly things and
41:27
Speaker 1: engrossed in the earthly. He cannot see what is afar,
41:33
Speaker 1: but only what is near. This makes excellent sense in
41:36
Speaker 1: view of the immorality and earthiness of false teachers. But
41:43
Speaker 1: probably Peter was thinking of another meaning, to blink to
41:48
Speaker 1: shut one's eyes. Thus the meaning is that such a
41:53
Speaker 1: person is blind because he blinks, or willfully he closes
41:59
Speaker 1: his eyes to the light. Spiritual blindness descends upon the
42:05
Speaker 1: eyes which deliberately look away from the character to which
42:10
Speaker 1: the Christian is called when he comes to know Christ, brethren,
42:19
Speaker 1: Verse ten, be all the more diligent, he says again,
42:25
Speaker 1: to make certain about his calling and choosing you. As
42:29
Speaker 1: long as you practice these things, you'll never become a statistic.
42:35
Speaker 1: You'll never walk in darkness. As long as you're walking
42:38
Speaker 1: in the light, You'll never lose your focus. You'll never
42:44
Speaker 1: perch and be killed, never defect men and women. God
42:53
Speaker 1: made us to be mature, reproducing believers. That's the kind
43:02
Speaker 1: of persons he has in mind when he calls us
43:06
Speaker 1: into his family. He gives us his power so we
43:12
Speaker 1: can soar like an eagle. He provides us with promises
43:16
Speaker 1: to protect us, and he assures us of his presence
43:20
Speaker 1: so that we can have an identity. He wants us
43:25
Speaker 1: to be in truth like an eagle. Factor even says
43:31
Speaker 1: it in Isaiah that we mount up with wings as eagles,
43:36
Speaker 1: and we run and aren't wearin. We walk and we
43:38
Speaker 1: don't faint. Remember the story that comes out of Indian lore.
43:45
Speaker 1: I love it. An American Indian tells about a brave
43:50
Speaker 1: who found an eagle's egg and put it into the
43:53
Speaker 1: nest of a prairie chicken. The eglet hatched with the
43:57
Speaker 1: brood of chicks and grew up with them all his life.
44:03
Speaker 1: The eagle, thinking he was a prairie chicken, did what
44:07
Speaker 1: prairie chickens do. He scratched in the dirt for seeds
44:13
Speaker 1: and insects. He learned to eat worms, taught himself to
44:17
Speaker 1: cluck and cackle, and he flew in a brief thrashing
44:23
Speaker 1: of wings and flurry of feathers, no more than a
44:26
Speaker 1: few feet off the ground. This eagle did that, after all,
44:30
Speaker 1: that's how prairie chickens are supposed to fly. Years past,
44:35
Speaker 1: one day, the eagle grew very old, and he saw
44:38
Speaker 1: a magnificent bird far above him in the cloudless sky,
44:43
Speaker 1: hanging graceful majesty on powerful wind currants, and its soared
44:49
Speaker 1: with scarcely a beat of its strong golden wings. Oh
44:57
Speaker 1: what's that beautiful bird? Said the changeling eagle to his neighbor.
45:04
Speaker 1: What is that? That's an eagle, he clucked. That's the
45:10
Speaker 1: chief of birds. But don't give it a second thought.
45:14
Speaker 1: You could never be like him. So the eagle never
45:18
Speaker 1: gave it a second thought, and it died convinced it
45:25
Speaker 1: was a prairie chicken. I wait a minute, Wait a minute,
45:34
Speaker 1: there is a beattitude in all of this, Okay. Blessed
45:42
Speaker 1: is the bird who, when he decides to be an eagle,
45:50
Speaker 1: does what an eagle is supposed to do. There's even
45:57
Speaker 1: an analogy in the Christian life. Blessed is the person who,
46:04
Speaker 1: when he decides to be a Christian, does what a
46:10
Speaker 1: Christian is supposed to do. You know what I see,
46:17
Speaker 1: and I think is worth thinking over for a long
46:19
Speaker 1: long time. I see two perils, not one.
46:24
Speaker 2: One peril paralyzes us, the other peril immobilizes us. The
46:30
Speaker 2: one peril that paralyzes us is what I call a
46:38
Speaker 2: high tension polls of reality. But what immobilizes us or
46:45
Speaker 2: the low vision rolls of identity. If I believe with
46:53
Speaker 2: all my heart that I'm not supposed to make it
46:56
Speaker 2: as a Christian, I won't. If I set in my
47:01
Speaker 2: heart the fact that I am a victim, not a victor,
47:05
Speaker 2: that Christ is sort of eking out his existence.
47:08
Speaker 1: Through me, I'll live like that, like an egle living
47:12
Speaker 1: in the feathers of a prairie chicken. But if I'm
47:17
Speaker 1: convinced in my heart that God has called me to
47:19
Speaker 1: adulthood in faith, to a responsible position of reproduction and
47:27
Speaker 1: a role of serving people, ministering and loving and caring
47:32
Speaker 1: for them and giving so that His kingdom might be increased,
47:38
Speaker 1: it changes everything. My whole identity takes on that of
47:41
Speaker 1: an eagle, and what a change it makes in my life.
47:49
Speaker 1: I am terribly grateful that God has given down through
47:53
Speaker 1: time certain people to be eagles in the Christian family.
48:04
Speaker 1: One of them was Martin Luther, who said what men
48:08
Speaker 1: and women in their hearts wanted to believe but couldn't
48:12
Speaker 1: let those words come out of their mouths. He said it,
48:19
Speaker 1: and he said it in such a way that it
48:20
Speaker 1: turned the corner and introduced to the world of a
48:24
Speaker 1: reformation of thought that led to all that Protestantism was
48:30
Speaker 1: about to become. Listen to his words. Let's see sass
50:00
Speaker 1: S S S S S S S S S S
51:04
Speaker 1: S it. So thank you, our Father, for strength that
52:39
Speaker 1: comes in knowing the truth, for the freedom that it brings,
52:46
Speaker 1: freedom from the bondage of things that have held us
52:49
Speaker 1: in their grip for too long a time. Thank You
52:55
Speaker 1: for the joy of growing up for the delight of
52:59
Speaker 1: war in the light, even as your son is in
53:04
Speaker 1: the light. Thank You for the accompanying power that you provide,
53:13
Speaker 1: reminding us again and again that if we in our
53:17
Speaker 1: own strength confide our striving is losing. With the right
53:28
Speaker 1: man on our side, the man of your own choosing
53:34
Speaker 1: victory is an invincible reality. Thank you, Father, for your
53:42
Speaker 1: people who love you and are growing, who are discovering
53:48
Speaker 1: how to balance reality with theory. Thank You for abiding
53:55
Speaker 1: with us through this series and stimulating us to grow
54:01
Speaker 1: and to be nurtured, to mature, to become reproducing, right thinking, holy,
54:11
Speaker 1: living men and women of God. May it be such
54:17
Speaker 1: a united force, such a magnetic appeal, that those without
54:21
Speaker 1: the Savior would turn to him simply on the fact
54:26
Speaker 1: of realizing what they are missing without that power in
54:30
Speaker 1: their lives. In the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord,
54:37
Speaker 1: our Savior, we give you thanks Amen.
54:44
Speaker 3: The preceding message, Growing Up Goals for Diligent Disciples, was
54:49
Speaker 3: copyrighted in nineteen eighty five, and the sound recording was
54:52
Speaker 3: copyrighted in twenty sixteen by Charles R. Swindell, Inc. All
54:56
Speaker 3: rights are reserved worldwide. In the preceding message. Charles R.
55:00
Speaker 3: Swindall Inc. Is grateful to Stonebriar Community Church for permission
55:05
Speaker 3: to use their two thousand and seven performance of A
55:08
Speaker 3: Mighty Fortress Is Our God arrangement copyrighted in nineteen ninety
55:13
Speaker 3: seven by Integrity's Hosanna Music and Word Music