WEBVTT
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2 Corinthians 8 verses 6 through 8 is what we'll read this morning.
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The text begins with this.
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Accordingly, we urge Titus that as he had started, so he should complete among you this act of grace.
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But as you excel in everything, in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in all earnestness, and in our love for you, see that you excel in this act of grace also.
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I say this not as a command, but to prove by the earnestness of others that your love also is genuine.
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This is the word of God, and I pray that He would seal it in your hearts.
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A few years ago, a security video from a mall went viral.
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It was an older man who was getting on an escalator at the mall, and perhaps you've seen this video, and he stumbled as he was getting on and fell down on the escalator.
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And the escalator is, of course, going up, and he's trying to get himself up on the escalator and he falls backwards and tumbles down several stairs.
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And then he tries getting up again and trips on his own briefcase and falls backwards down more stairs.
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And a third time, the guy falls maybe four or five times.
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Every time he tries to get up and take a step forward, he falls down again.
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And wouldn't you know it?
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He gets to the top of the escalator.
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He's always falling backwards, but somehow arrives at the top of the escalator.
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If you've seen this video, you know what I'm talking about.
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If you have not seen this video, you have probably lived this video.
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If you are a Christian, that is an image of our sanctification.
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We know the Lord is taking us up into the image of Christ.
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We know the Lord is transforming us.
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We know God is working in us, bringing us heavenward, but our efforts, it seems, are always going backwards.
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Sometimes our spiritual life seems like one step forward, two steps back, and yet somehow, mystery of mysteries, we keep growing in godliness.
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And that is because the Christian life is a life of spiritual growth.
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I'm not saying the Christian life is a life of uninterrupted growth, or it's not a straight line growth.
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It's not a life without stumbling, but the Christian life is a life of spiritual growth.
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Sometimes we feel like we are falling, but over time God works in us to bring us forward into higher and higher degrees of godliness.
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It was the philosopher of our age, Shell Silverstein, who described it this way: I tripped on my shoelace and I fell up.
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Up above the clouds, up where the colors blended into the sky, I fell up.
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That describes the sanctification process that God keeps bringing us up despite our efforts to the contrary.
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We stumble, we sin, and we regress, but the grace of God continues to move us towards maturity.
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Salvation, of course, gives us our spiritual life, and then we grow in our spiritual life.
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There is a reason the Christian life is called the Christian life.
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Because we're living it out, and we are growing and maturing, just like your physical life.
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Your physical body grows and matures and gets older and ages.
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So it is with a spiritual person.
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The spiritual person grows in maturity and ages.
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We have a joke in our family where we often will tell our youngest daughter, Geneva, to stop growing up.
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We like her as a little girl.
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Stop growing up.
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But the problem with that is that she keeps growing.
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And as she has pointed out a few times, it is because we keep feeding her.
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Well, you could no more command the child to stop growing than you could command a Christian to stop growing.
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What are you supposed to do?
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Say, stop being conformed to the image of Christ?
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It's the Spirit of God who works in us to conform us into the image of Christ.
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Paul tells the Philippians, work out your salvation with fear and trembling, knowing that it is God who works in you and through you to will and to act according to his good purpose.
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And if God who gave us his son and seals us with his spirit, of course he's going to give us everything pertaining to life and godliness.
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God who gives us all things through his son and spirit is not going to withhold godliness from us.
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But he doesn't give us to us instantly either.
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We grow and mature.
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We trend upwards, and trend is the right word.
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Over the Christian life, you are trending towards godliness.
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You are godlier today than you were yesterday, and you'll be godlier tomorrow than you were today.
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And that's not always going to be true, though, because there are days that are bad, like when I said you're godlier today than yesterday.
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Some of you are thinking, let's not talk about yesterday.
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Okay, so go a year ago.
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You are godlier today than you were a year ago.
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And you'll be godlier next year than you are today.
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It's a trend upwards.
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In a sense, it's like the stock market.
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It is trending upwards.
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Yes, there are dips and yes, there are declines and all of that, but generally it trends over time upward.
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I am not a licensed broker, so that is not investment advice.
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It's merely making the point that generally things trend up.
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And so it is spiritually as well.
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We don't mature in a straight line, but over time we grow in godliness.
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There's a sense in which we're like an oak tree.
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An oak tree, the acorn falls to the ground.
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The acorn has to die for the oak tree to live.
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The acorn has to be no more.
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And that's conversion.
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You are dead spiritually, you are living for the flesh and the lust of this world.
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And the Lord gets a hold of your life.
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You become convinced that your sins were given to Jesus Christ, and that Jesus suffered and died on the cross, bearing the penalty for your sins, and that he rose from the grave on the third day, and that his resurrection assures your salvation if you put your trust in him.
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And so what happens is you are leading your own life and you become convinced of that, and you put your faith in Christ, and the old you dies.
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That's what Paul says a few chapters earlier in 2 Corinthians 6.
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The old man, when you become a Christian, the old man is dead.
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Behold, anyone who is in Christ is a new creation.
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The acorn dies and in its place becomes a little a little oak tree.
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And you know, those little new oak trees are so small, like a squirrel could eat them.
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They're tiny.
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But over time they grow.
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And by the third year or so, they have roots that go down.
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And they keep growing.
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And they're going to keep getting bigger and bigger and bigger.
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Not that every year is necessarily a ban or year.
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I mean, some years there might be blight on the tree, or some years there might be a lightning striking the tree, and branches fall off, or who knows what happens.
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Disease can hit the trees.
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And do you know the crazy thing with oak trees is every year all their leaves fall off.
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But you know what?
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Next year they all grow back.
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And more of them grow back next year than the year before.
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I think of that every fall when I start blowing leaves.
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There were not this many leaves last year.
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And so it is with the Christian life.
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And sometimes you feel like it's everything is dead.
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And lo and behold, it grows back more robust than it was before.
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That is the Christian life.
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It is overall progress and increasing maturity.
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And so here's a very interesting question to think about.
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When you hear me say that you grow in spiritual maturity, what does that mean?
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Like, how would you see growth in spiritual maturity?
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That's where Paul starts in this passage with the Corinthians.
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He's going to give five descriptions of spiritual maturity, five measures of spiritual maturity.
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And he does that in verse 7.
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Before we get to verse 7, though, verse 6 sets you up for this.
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I'm not going to get all the way back into Paul's relationship with the Corinthians, as complicated as it is, but we looked at that last week.
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Remember that Paul is asking the Corinthians to give money for the church in Jerusalem, and he's using the Macedonians, this poor church, as an example for that.
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He's writing to them, and he says back in verse 1, the churches of Macedonia, which is the Thessalonians, the Philippians, and the Bereans, they gave so generously for the church in Jerusalem.
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So he's asking the Corinthians to do the same.
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The letter of 1 Corinthians, or maybe even a letter between 1 and 2 Corinthians, was brought to the Corinthians by Titus.
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The Corinthians do not like Paul.
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They view themselves as having graduated beyond Paul's ministry, but they do like Titus.
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In God's providence, they respect Titus.
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And so Paul is sending Titus to collect the offering.
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That's what's described in verse 6.
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We urge Titus that what he had started on his last visit there, he should complete among you this act of grace, collecting their offering.
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He's letting them know.
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Hey, Titus is going to be there on Thursday.
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It would be awkward if you don't have your church's money ready for him.
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And so he gets into that by reminding the Corinthians in verse 7, as you excel in everything he says.
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Now, this is Paul talking to a church that doesn't like him, and that is by all accounts an immature church.
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When you read 1 and 2 Corinthians, you do not come away from these two books going, man, that church is a mature, godly church.
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I always laugh as a pastor when some people say, Oh, we should do this because the Corinthian church did this.
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Look how the Corinthian church spoke in tongues.
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We should do that.
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No, you if the Corinthian church does something, it's an argument against doing it.
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Do you understand that?
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That's who Paul's talking about.
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Even so, he points out to them that they are growing spiritually.
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And this gives us hope.
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I mean, if the Corinthians are growing spiritually, man, praise God.
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That means someone like me can grow as well.
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Their growth is seen in five areas.
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He lists them in verse 7.
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The first is in faith.
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They're growing in faith.
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Now, faith, of course, is a gift.
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In one sense, faith is binary.
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You either have it or you don't.
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And that's talking about saving faith.
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Before you come to faith in Christ, you have not come to faith in Christ.
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You don't have faith in Christ.
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Then you have an encounter with Christ through the preaching of his word and the gospel.
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You believe it, and you come to faith in Christ.
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That's the work of the Spirit in your life.
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The Spirit causes you to be born again.
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He plants a seed in your heart.
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That seed is life and spiritual energy.
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You are brought from darkness to light, from death to life.
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You were dead, now you're alive.
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That's saving faith.
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It brings you alive.
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And in a sense, you can't get more saving faith.
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Saving faith is regeneration in that sense.
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You can't get more regeneration.
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You know, a baby is born, the baby's not more born.
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And so it is with a Christian.
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You come to faith.
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You don't gain saving faith throughout your Christian life, you have it at the moment of your conversion.
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So it makes sense to distinguish between saving faith and sanctifying faith.
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You grow in your faith in sanctification throughout your spiritual life.
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Without saving faith, there is no spiritual life, but saving faith is not the end of spiritual life, but the start of it.
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What does it mean to grow in faith?
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It means to grow in your confidence in God.
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When Paul says the Corinthians are growing in faith, it means they're growing in their confidence in God.
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Confidence that his word is true.
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Confidence that his promises are true.
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Confidence that heaven is real.
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Confidence that Christ is worth following, no matter what the cost is.
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That's how you're growing in faith.
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The Bible often pairs faith with hope.
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Hebrews chapter 11 says that faith is the assurance of things unseen, the hope or the confidence in things hoped for.
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You can't come to God unless you have faith.
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It's obvious to say, but in order to come to God, you must first believe that he exists.
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That's your faith.
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And faith doesn't end there.
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The second part is you must believe that he rewards those who search for him.
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That's faith.
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That you believe God exists and that he is worth it, that he rewards me when I pursue him with my life.
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That's faith.
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That's why Abraham left his family, left his life in err to go to a foreign place where he didn't know anybody, he didn't know what was there, except that God promised something good there.
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And so he went.
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That's saving faith.
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And that faith grows in the sense of sanctification.
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Think of Moses in Pharaoh's household.
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He had everything, treated as Pharaoh's son, and yet he considered the riches of Pharaoh's household nothing compared to the blessing of being persecuted with God's people.
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Moses is sizing things up right here.
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Yes, he believes that God exists, but he gets to the point in his spiritual maturity where he believes with all of his heart that it is better to be persecuted with the people of making mud without straw, bricks without straw, than it is to be numbered among Pharaoh's own family.
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That's saving faith.
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And you grow in that faith throughout your lifetime as you become more aware of God's promises and you treasure them more and more.
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This is the kind of faith that drives John to leave Galilee and go to Patmos, where he'll die a martyr's death, basically.
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This is the kind of faith that compels martyrs.
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And to bring it to our world, it is the kind of faith that lets you stop compromising in your life, that tells you it is worth it to be obedient to God rather than to get whatever gains it are that you're following through sinful means.
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And you grow in that throughout your life.
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Man, it's encouraging as a pastor to hear somebody who's been a Christian a short period of time to say, hey, now that I'm a Christian, I feel like maybe I should stop stealing from my work.
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Like, yeah, praise God.
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That's a good conviction to arrive at.
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Excited for that.
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You know, it'd be odd if you were a Christian for 20 years and you said that, but a new Christian, that's a great thing to arrive at that conviction about, isn't it?
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You know, and you come to the conviction because the eighth commandment is there, stealing is wrong.
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But the more mature reason, the reason it's working in your heart is you become convinced that obedience to God is a better reward than whatever you were stealing.
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This is a kind of faith that you say, I need to break up with that ungodly girlfriend or boyfriend I have, or I need to create distance between me and these ungodly friends because the knowledge of God and the blessings of holiness are more pleasurable, bring me more joy, more reward than these sinful actions and sinful conduct.
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That's this kind of sanctifying faith.
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And as faith grows, your resolve grows with it.
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The longer you're a Christian, the stronger your confidence in God should be because you've seen more of his faithfulness.
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You know his word better, you've watched him keep his promises.
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You have doubts have less of a grip on you the longer you're a Christian.
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There's some people that are always plagued by doubts, and that's true.
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Nevertheless, you notice the longer you're following the Lord, the darkness of doubts seems to be less and less.
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The grip that those doubts or that sin once held you in seems to get loosened.
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The Christian who has walked with Christ for decades should have a stronger faith and should trust him more deeply than the one who has just begun.
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That's what Paul means in verse 7 that you excel in everything.
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You're growing in faith.
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Secondly, your spiritual growth is seen in the realm of faith and also in the realm of speech.
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That's the second area of spiritual growth, the measure of spiritual growth that Paul gives.
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And speech is probably the realm where your spiritual maturity is most evident to others.
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It's so clear how spiritually mature somebody is based upon their speech.
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And that's because your speech is an overflow of your heart.
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Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.
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And so it's just a window into how mature the person's heart is.
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Now, first of all, the word for speech here is the word logos, the Greek word logos, the word.
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It is the word that is used in John chapter 1 to describe the Son of God.
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The eternal Son of God is the Lagos of the Father.
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Whatever is in the Father, is the Son.
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All that God is, the Son is.
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The speaker has a word, the word is Lagos, the word is the Son.
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That same principle applies to us.
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What is in our heart, who we are, is what is in our speech.
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It comes out, not perfectly, of course, with the Father, everything that is in the Father is perfectly in the Son.
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With us, we have measures of self-control and filters and ramblingness and all that.
00:17:55.839 --> 00:18:02.319
So it's not a one-to-one correlation, but generally it is true that your speech reveals who you are.
00:18:04.000 --> 00:18:07.039
Speech generally reveals at least three things about a person.
00:18:07.599 --> 00:18:10.000
It shows you what is in their heart, of course.
00:18:10.240 --> 00:18:16.160
It shows you what's in their mind, what they're thinking about, and it shows you the level of self-control they have.
00:18:17.359 --> 00:18:22.160
Because as you grow in self-control, you learn not to say everything that's going in your mind.
00:18:22.960 --> 00:18:24.799
Little kids don't have that self-control, right?
00:18:24.880 --> 00:18:26.799
If a little kid thinks it, they say it.
00:18:27.920 --> 00:18:30.000
Some kids are just like rambling 24-7.
00:18:30.160 --> 00:18:31.279
They they talk in their sleep.
00:18:31.359 --> 00:18:32.640
They're just always talking.
00:18:32.880 --> 00:18:34.559
They have no unarticulated thoughts.
00:18:34.640 --> 00:18:36.799
And that's cute in a little kid for a while, right?
00:18:37.440 --> 00:18:37.920
It's cool.
00:18:38.000 --> 00:18:44.559
Even as they get maybe, you know, 10 or 12, it's cool to know what's going on in their hearts and in their minds because they're always telling you that's great.
00:18:44.880 --> 00:18:47.200
Paul says, when I was a child, I talked like a child.
00:18:47.519 --> 00:18:48.480
That's wonderful.
00:18:48.640 --> 00:18:52.240
But when I grew up, I put childish ways behind me.
00:18:52.400 --> 00:18:57.599
So people develop a level of self-control to regulate their speech.
00:18:57.839 --> 00:19:02.559
Just because you have it on the inside doesn't mean you need to say it on the outside.
00:19:02.720 --> 00:19:08.880
And I have some had somebody non-ironically tell me, I don't want to filter my speech because that's hypocrisy.
00:19:09.039 --> 00:19:12.559
That's like saying, I don't want to wear clothes because I want everybody to know who I really am.
00:19:12.880 --> 00:19:15.200
No, brother, go ahead and put on clothes.
00:19:15.440 --> 00:19:17.759
And go ahead and rein in your speech, okay?
00:19:18.000 --> 00:19:19.359
It's a favor to all of us.
00:19:19.440 --> 00:19:21.200
That's your self-control.
00:19:23.039 --> 00:19:33.279
As you mature in Christ, your self-control grows, and your speech gets more and more controlled.
00:19:35.599 --> 00:19:42.000
I've heard people try to justify profanity by saying, hey, it's just it's just me being authentic.
00:19:42.400 --> 00:19:44.160
You know, this world is raw, yo.
00:19:44.480 --> 00:19:45.599
The world is raw.
00:19:45.759 --> 00:19:52.400
And I just gotta speak what's in me, and all the something bad happens and it's all in my heart, and it's just gotta it's gotta come out.
00:19:52.480 --> 00:19:53.920
That's authentic speech right there.
00:19:54.000 --> 00:19:57.200
That's who it's it's just reflecting the raw emotion of what I am.
00:19:57.440 --> 00:20:03.759
I mean that that may be true, but it is very immature.
00:20:04.880 --> 00:20:16.319
Because a mature person demonstrates self-control over their emotions, and as they become more mature, their speech becomes more mature.
00:20:17.920 --> 00:20:19.759
Like I said, you can see this with children.
00:20:20.079 --> 00:20:21.680
If it's in, it comes out.
00:20:22.079 --> 00:20:25.920
But as adults, as you grow into adulthood, you regulate your speech.
00:20:26.000 --> 00:20:27.839
That is true spiritually as well.
00:20:28.000 --> 00:20:36.319
I'm talking like at a you know, an educational psychology level about kids, of course, but Paul's bigger point is spiritually, this is true.
00:20:36.640 --> 00:20:41.920
As you grow spiritually, you learn to speak things that are true.
00:20:42.640 --> 00:20:46.559
There's a self-control that you've developed.
00:20:47.039 --> 00:20:56.319
And you think about the way stages of speech, and I'm drawing this in 1 John, where John in one, John talks about children in the faith, teenagers in the faith, immature people in the faith.
00:20:56.480 --> 00:20:58.240
The same principle applies to speech.
00:20:58.400 --> 00:21:03.359
You know, a child in the faith, you would say, don't use profanity because it's unwholesome speech.
00:21:03.440 --> 00:21:07.279
It's bad as an honor of the Lord, and get some self-control with your emotions, okay?
00:21:07.440 --> 00:21:09.839
That's what you would tell a child, and that that works for a child.
00:21:09.920 --> 00:21:13.359
You know, you tell the child, don't say those words, those words are bad.
00:21:13.519 --> 00:21:15.359
That's how you would teach a child.
00:21:15.759 --> 00:21:19.279
A teenager has grown a little bit beyond the list of naughty words, though.
00:21:19.440 --> 00:21:26.240
For a teenager, John tells the teenagers, speak with confidence, speak with conviction.
00:21:26.640 --> 00:21:32.000
Talk about things that are true and reflect your faith.
00:21:32.640 --> 00:21:40.880
And then for a mature person, you've gone into the Ephesians 5 world where there's no filthiness coming out of your mouth, but rather thanksgiving.
00:21:41.519 --> 00:21:48.240
A more mature saint, it's not that they're not saying certain words, and it's not that they're only saying things that are convictionally true.
00:21:48.400 --> 00:21:52.559
It's beyond that, even for a mature saint, they are saying things that are praiseworthy.
00:21:52.640 --> 00:21:54.000
They're giving thanks.
00:21:54.880 --> 00:21:59.279
You know, so you're you're in a car accident, you know, somebody crunches the back of your car.
00:21:59.359 --> 00:22:03.599
The first Words that are inclined to come out of your mouth are probably not godly.
00:22:05.200 --> 00:22:08.160
And so you use self-control to keep them in.
00:22:08.640 --> 00:22:18.000
A mature saint has a self-control, but has on top of that, praise God for this opportunity to grow me in patience with my insurance company this week.
00:22:18.640 --> 00:22:23.440
Lord, I'm so thankful for this accident because I will be so patient at the end of this week.
00:22:23.599 --> 00:22:29.359
Now, I'm speaking a little jokingly, of course, because it's helping you understand the point.
00:22:29.599 --> 00:22:33.680
The more mature you are, the less of a joke that is.
00:22:33.839 --> 00:22:36.960
It's always going to be a little funny, but the less of a joke it will be.
00:22:37.519 --> 00:22:41.359
An immature person is like, oh, those words I said when I got rear-ended were bad.
00:22:41.759 --> 00:22:49.519
The more mature a person has self-control, and the senior saint knows how to give thanks in any situation.
00:22:50.160 --> 00:22:55.279
As grace changes your heart, it changes your mouth.
00:22:56.640 --> 00:22:58.319
And you can grow in it.
00:22:59.039 --> 00:23:00.559
It is worth yourself asking.
00:23:00.640 --> 00:23:05.359
What does your speech show about your own spiritual maturity?
00:23:06.400 --> 00:23:11.839
As a Christian grows, his heart is sanctified, his mind is renewed, his self-control is strengthened.
00:23:12.000 --> 00:23:15.680
Thirdly, you see spiritual growth in the world of knowledge.
00:23:16.240 --> 00:23:16.799
Knowledge.
00:23:16.880 --> 00:23:19.279
Then the Corinthians placed a high value on knowledge.
00:23:19.440 --> 00:23:23.119
I'm not saying they had knowledge, they placed a high value on knowledge.
00:23:23.279 --> 00:23:28.160
Paul in 1 Corinthians chapter 13, verse 2, I would say is being sarcastic to them.
00:23:28.240 --> 00:23:32.000
When you read it and you don't know if it's sarcastic, but when you hear it out loud, it's obviously sarcastic.
00:23:32.079 --> 00:23:36.319
He tells the Corinthians, you excel in all knowledge and all mysteries.
00:23:36.559 --> 00:23:38.400
I mean, that's sarcastic, right?
00:23:38.880 --> 00:23:41.359
Corinthians, you know all things.
00:23:42.079 --> 00:23:45.599
At the very least, it shows that they valued knowledge.
00:23:45.839 --> 00:23:47.279
They valued it.
00:23:47.519 --> 00:23:56.000
There's a literal, a legitimate sense in which spiritual maturity should produce greater spiritual understanding.
00:23:56.880 --> 00:24:03.440
The Bible contains deep truths, it contains complex doctrines, it contains paradoxes.
00:24:03.839 --> 00:24:08.720
And as a Christian matures, you should grow in your understanding of those things.
00:24:08.880 --> 00:24:11.440
Now you never reach the point where you say, I have God figured out.
00:24:11.599 --> 00:24:12.400
Of course not.
00:24:12.880 --> 00:24:24.319
The more you know God in some ways, the more you recognize how far beyond you He is, but you also recognize the more you know God, the more you're growing in knowledge of Him.
00:24:25.920 --> 00:24:32.720
You know, a new Christian, sometimes people will ask, do you have to believe in the virgin birth, or do you have to understand the Trinity?
00:24:32.799 --> 00:24:35.839
Or do you have to believe in this or the other thing in order to be saved?
00:24:36.000 --> 00:24:38.880
And the answer is going to be no to all of those questions, basically.
00:24:39.119 --> 00:24:42.000
To be saved, you have to believe whatever you know.
00:24:42.160 --> 00:24:47.759
Whatever's confronted to you, whatever you're confronted with about Christ, you have to believe that to be saved.
00:24:48.000 --> 00:24:53.119
Not that you believe all things, because you don't know all things, but you believe all things that you know.
00:24:53.359 --> 00:25:01.200
And then you grow in godliness as you're growing in knowledge and you are continuing to believe all that you know.
00:25:01.440 --> 00:25:04.000
Do you need to believe in a global flood to be saved?
00:25:04.160 --> 00:25:05.119
No, of course not.
00:25:05.279 --> 00:25:07.839
But once you read about it in the Bible, you need to believe it.
00:25:07.920 --> 00:25:08.880
Does that make sense?
00:25:09.200 --> 00:25:11.519
Do you need to believe the Trinity to be saved?
00:25:11.680 --> 00:25:12.000
No.
00:25:12.319 --> 00:25:17.680
But once you understand that the scripture says that God is three and one, you need to believe that.
00:25:17.759 --> 00:25:19.440
And this is where those deep doctrines come in.
00:25:19.599 --> 00:25:31.119
You'll have a new believer that says, okay, you tell me that there's one God, but that Jesus is God and He's not the Father, and the Father is God, and I'm not good at math, but one plus one is not one.
00:25:32.160 --> 00:25:33.680
So what do you tell the new believer?
00:25:33.839 --> 00:25:35.119
You say you just have to believe that.
00:25:35.440 --> 00:25:37.440
That's what the Bible teaches, the Trinity.
00:25:37.519 --> 00:25:39.680
You just have to believe it, even if you don't understand it.
00:25:39.759 --> 00:25:41.920
That is a great answer for a new believer.
00:25:42.559 --> 00:25:49.759
But as you grow in your understanding of God, you grow in your understanding of a doctrine like that.
00:25:50.000 --> 00:25:55.359
You recognize, well, wait a minute, God is one being, but in three persons.
00:25:55.680 --> 00:25:57.599
You start to make those kind of distinctions.
00:25:57.759 --> 00:26:01.920
As you grow even more, you make other distinctions along that line.
00:26:02.160 --> 00:26:05.039
And you grow in your understanding of the Trinity.
00:26:05.200 --> 00:26:08.079
God's sovereignty and man's responsibility is another example.
00:26:08.400 --> 00:26:14.559
A new believer says, Well, if God is sovereign over who can be saved, how come people also choose to follow Christ?
00:26:14.640 --> 00:26:15.519
How can they both be true?
00:26:15.599 --> 00:26:18.400
And you just tell the new believer, like, they're both true.
00:26:19.200 --> 00:26:20.319
Deal with it.
00:26:21.359 --> 00:26:29.119
But as you grow in maturity, you start to see how God's providence and his sovereignty superintends our decisions.
00:26:29.279 --> 00:26:30.799
Here's a great example at hand.
00:26:30.960 --> 00:26:32.880
Who wrote the book of 2 Corinthians?
00:26:33.039 --> 00:26:35.279
Did Paul write it or did God write it?
00:26:35.599 --> 00:26:38.960
You tell a new believer both, and just deal with it.
00:26:39.839 --> 00:26:52.480
But as you grow in godliness, you learn about providence and that God is superintending every action in Paul's life, everything that happens to Paul to shape Paul exactly into the person who would write this book.
00:26:52.640 --> 00:26:57.920
The Spirit inspires him and superintends every word that Paul writes so that it's inspired and inerrance.
00:26:58.079 --> 00:27:00.079
That is more mature doctrine.
00:27:00.319 --> 00:27:04.559
And not that you ever reach the point where you say, I have now solved the mysteries of the Trinity.
00:27:04.720 --> 00:27:10.240
I now fully understand the relationship of God's sovereignty and man's responsibility and the way the Spirit works in inspiration.
00:27:10.400 --> 00:27:18.319
No, you will never get to those points, but you should be growing in your knowledge of those things throughout your life.
00:27:18.880 --> 00:27:19.839
Throughout your life.
00:27:20.000 --> 00:27:34.559
And I harp on this point just because I've heard people say that knowledge of God or doctrine or theology stunts maturity, does not help spiritual growth, almost view it as an enemy of spiritual growth.
00:27:34.799 --> 00:27:40.480
Those people tend to elevate experiences and tone down knowledge.
00:27:41.359 --> 00:27:47.279
But you notice on this list, Paul does not say as you've grown in your experiences of God.
00:27:48.000 --> 00:27:50.640
He says, as you've grown in your knowledge of Him.
00:27:50.799 --> 00:27:53.680
Maturity does not mean refusing to think.
00:27:54.559 --> 00:27:58.799
Your doctrine should get better the longer you walk with Jesus.
00:27:59.119 --> 00:28:05.359
Doctrine is not the enemy of spiritual growth, it's rather one of its evidences, which leads to number four.
00:28:05.680 --> 00:28:07.519
The realm of earnestness.
00:28:07.759 --> 00:28:11.440
Spiritual maturity is seen in earnestness, and this is a really cool word.
00:28:11.599 --> 00:28:12.799
Not a word we use a lot.
00:28:12.960 --> 00:28:17.519
I can't remember the only, I can't remember using this word outside of the Bible.
00:28:17.839 --> 00:28:18.960
But it's a fun word.
00:28:19.200 --> 00:28:22.000
Earnestness can mean zeal or energy.
00:28:22.240 --> 00:28:24.160
I'll define it this way on the screen.
00:28:24.400 --> 00:28:26.559
Wholehearted enthusiasm.
00:28:26.720 --> 00:28:28.400
That's the lexical definition of it.
00:28:28.559 --> 00:28:30.160
The Greek dictionary would define it that way.
00:28:30.319 --> 00:28:34.960
Wholehearted enthusiasm, and it gives a synonym as zealous or zeal.
00:28:35.599 --> 00:28:36.720
It's energy.
00:28:36.880 --> 00:28:38.640
It's being excited about something.
00:28:39.599 --> 00:28:41.039
That's what earnestness means.
00:28:41.119 --> 00:28:42.559
You're stoked about it.
00:28:42.960 --> 00:28:47.920
The more mature you grow in Christ, the more excited you are about the things of God.
00:28:48.160 --> 00:28:56.240
It's not simply having an enthusiastic personality like every Christian needs to be a T-I-Doubleger Ur bouncing off the walls for Jesus kind of thing.
00:28:57.200 --> 00:29:04.640
But it does mean that you should be growing in your enthusiasm for the things of God.
00:29:05.920 --> 00:29:12.160
You know, if you're an e or a Christian, you should grow through that over the course of your life.
00:29:12.720 --> 00:29:16.799
Some people are naturally excitable, and some people are naturally reserved.
00:29:16.960 --> 00:29:21.519
But Paul's talking about something deeper, a growing eagerness for the things of God.
00:29:22.960 --> 00:29:28.240
As you mature as a Christian, spiritual things should mean more to you, not less.
00:29:29.119 --> 00:29:40.160
You should have an increasing eagerness when you think about serving Jesus, an increasing enthusiasm for ministry, an increasing willingness to extend yourself for things that have eternal value.
00:29:40.240 --> 00:29:44.799
And this is one of the key ways you see maturity go in people's lives.
00:29:45.920 --> 00:29:50.400
You know, when you're immature, you can spend so much time on things that don't matter.
00:29:50.799 --> 00:29:58.000
And as you grow in maturity, you st what matters in eternity starts to get clarified for you as you grow up.
00:29:58.799 --> 00:30:04.400
I mean, I think it's some of the things kids kids spend half of their time in an imaginary world.
00:30:05.440 --> 00:30:09.119
Which is fine, it's adorable when they're kids.
00:30:09.519 --> 00:30:10.720
But you grow out of that.
00:30:10.880 --> 00:30:20.559
I mean, here's just a practical example of this, and I know that I will get a few emails from people who don't like this example, but I use it every now and then, and it's the then right now.
00:30:21.839 --> 00:30:29.680
You know, when you're a kid, you can spend hours and hours playing video games that just suck the life out of you.
00:30:30.720 --> 00:30:32.960
But you should grow out of that.
00:30:33.359 --> 00:30:40.720
You know, when the older person is throwing their life away with video games, it's a sign of sadness, not a sign, not of virtue.
00:30:41.039 --> 00:30:43.119
You have to grow through that.
00:30:43.200 --> 00:30:46.480
And maturity is growing up to appreciate what matters.
00:30:46.559 --> 00:30:51.920
And I'm not just trying to pick on other people's hobbies, but all of my hobbies are completely sanctified.
00:30:56.319 --> 00:31:02.480
There's a part of maturity where you get clarity on those kind of things and you grow in them.
00:31:02.960 --> 00:31:04.720
They recognize that with Jesus, didn't they?
00:31:04.799 --> 00:31:13.839
When he overturns the temples, the crowd confronts him, and they realize that the scripture said, zeal for his father's house will consume him.
00:31:14.079 --> 00:31:18.960
And that is the model for us to be consumed about God's things.
00:31:19.200 --> 00:31:22.720
And the more you mature, the more your zeal gains depth.
00:31:22.880 --> 00:31:29.680
You become more eager to serve, more diligent in prayer, more serious about holiness, more invested in eternal things.
00:31:30.000 --> 00:31:34.559
More concerned about salvation and spiritual knowledge and growth than the kind of other things.
00:31:34.640 --> 00:31:40.160
And you can tell what somebody is concerned and eager and zealous about by, again, what they talk about.
00:31:40.319 --> 00:31:43.839
It just, you know, what a person cares about is all over them.
00:31:46.240 --> 00:31:52.319
As you grow in earnestness, the things of God become less peripheral and more central.
00:31:53.519 --> 00:31:56.960
I love that Paul pairs this with knowledge.
00:31:57.279 --> 00:32:03.119
Because knowledge without earnestness or knowledge without zeal is dead and dry.
00:32:03.279 --> 00:32:07.839
Knowledge without zeal is a thousand-page theology book that nobody will ever crack.
00:32:08.799 --> 00:32:14.720
Knowledge paired with zeal becomes a potent demonstration of maturity.
00:32:16.000 --> 00:32:18.480
Which leads to the final example here.
00:32:18.640 --> 00:32:21.039
There's one more word before we get to the fifth point in verse 7.
00:32:21.119 --> 00:32:23.839
He says, and in our love for you, just a quick reference to that.
00:32:24.079 --> 00:32:26.079
It's more obvious in Greek than English.
00:32:26.240 --> 00:32:34.559
In Greek, it's very clear that Paul's saying the Corinthians are growing in Paul's love for them, not their own love for Paul.
00:32:34.799 --> 00:32:38.640
Because remember, in 2 Corinthians, they're not really stoked about Paul right now.
00:32:38.720 --> 00:32:40.880
And Paul is fighting the battle in his own heart.
00:32:40.960 --> 00:32:45.200
He said it back in chapter 6, I'm trying to still love you guys.
00:32:45.599 --> 00:32:50.079
In chapter 7, verse 2, he says, Make room in your hearts for us too.
00:32:50.400 --> 00:32:52.319
I want you in my heart.
00:32:53.279 --> 00:32:56.240
So he tells them here, it's a very clever way of wording it.
00:32:56.319 --> 00:33:00.799
He's not telling them, I know you love me more than you did yesterday, because it might not even be true.
00:33:01.039 --> 00:33:05.519
I mean, there's a reason he's sending Titus to get the money and not himself.
00:33:06.720 --> 00:33:13.920
But he does tell them, I want you to know you're growing in these areas, and because of that, I'm growing in my love for you, even if it's unrequited.
00:33:14.480 --> 00:33:15.839
Very clever way of putting it.
00:33:16.079 --> 00:33:17.759
But it sets up his fifth point.
00:33:17.920 --> 00:33:20.960
The fifth way you see spiritual growth is in giving.
00:33:22.160 --> 00:33:25.920
Because you're growing in this way, keep giving.
00:33:26.640 --> 00:33:30.640
See that you excel in this act of grace also.
00:33:32.480 --> 00:33:36.000
We don't always think of giving as an area of sanctification.
00:33:36.720 --> 00:33:38.079
But notice Paul's logic.
00:33:38.240 --> 00:33:43.839
If you're growing in faith, speech, knowledge, and earnestness, also excel in giving.
00:33:44.480 --> 00:33:47.839
Your giving should grow throughout your Christian life.
00:33:48.640 --> 00:33:49.920
Now, a quick point here.
00:33:50.000 --> 00:33:56.720
I've heard it said sometimes people are supposed to give a tithe, and I've even heard it said your tithe grows because your income grows as you get older.
00:33:56.880 --> 00:34:01.759
That may be kind of anachronistic, like a Western way of thinking, but it's not true.
00:34:01.839 --> 00:34:05.359
In the Old Testament, you weren't commanded to tithe as your worship to God.
00:34:05.519 --> 00:34:09.440
The Old Testament commanded tithing, of course, but it was more close to taxation.
00:34:09.599 --> 00:34:16.480
They paid a tithe for the maintenance of the Levites, they paid a tithe for the temple festivals, that's 20% of your keeping track at home.
00:34:16.639 --> 00:34:22.960
They paid a tithe every three years for the ministry to the widows and the poor and the orphans.
00:34:23.039 --> 00:34:23.760
That's about 3%.
00:34:24.159 --> 00:34:27.599
They didn't do the corners of their fields, so throw in another one or two percent.
00:34:27.760 --> 00:34:32.159
So you're looking at basically a tax rate in the Old Testament of 25%.
00:34:32.480 --> 00:34:34.320
That's what the Israelites are paying in tax.
00:34:34.480 --> 00:34:36.960
That is not necessarily their worship.
00:34:37.199 --> 00:34:41.280
They had, we looked at this verse last week, a free will offering on top of that.
00:34:41.440 --> 00:34:46.639
So it's a little bit, I think, errant to describe the Old Testament Israelites as tithing for their worship.
00:34:46.800 --> 00:34:52.960
No, they tithed for their taxes and they gave free will offerings for their worship.
00:34:53.280 --> 00:34:56.079
In the New Testament, the word tithing isn't used.
00:34:56.239 --> 00:34:59.199
I mean, there's it's used twice and it's kind of sarcastic.
00:34:59.440 --> 00:35:10.719
It's the Pharisee who goes into the temple and is like beating his breast and says, I thank you, God, I'm not like that tax collector over there because I tithe.
00:35:11.280 --> 00:35:13.280
That's the New Testament use of tithing.
00:35:14.400 --> 00:35:19.599
And it's going to come up in Matthew 23, where Jesus says, You Pharisees, you tithe the mint in the cumin.
00:35:20.320 --> 00:35:21.920
He doesn't mean that as a compliment.
00:35:23.519 --> 00:35:27.119
The New Testament doesn't teach tithing, it teaches generous giving.
00:35:28.000 --> 00:35:30.880
You give as the Lord works in your heart.
00:35:30.960 --> 00:35:38.239
You're commanded to give to your church, and 1 Timothy 5 says that you're supposed to give your church here, is defined by where you're hearing the word preached.
00:35:38.880 --> 00:35:41.360
So you give to the church you go to for worship.
00:35:41.440 --> 00:35:46.159
You give to the person and the ministry that is preaching over your soul.
00:35:46.800 --> 00:35:47.760
That's the command.
00:35:48.000 --> 00:35:49.840
But the amount isn't given.
00:35:50.159 --> 00:35:53.199
And that's because your giving reflects your heart.
00:35:53.280 --> 00:35:55.119
Do you see how all these are the same?
00:35:55.360 --> 00:35:57.760
You're giving, like your speech reflects your heart.
00:35:57.840 --> 00:36:02.000
And so as you mature in your knowledge and love of the Lord, your speech matures.
00:36:02.320 --> 00:36:08.719
As what you know reflects what you're spending your time studying, as you know more about the Lord, your knowledge grows.
00:36:09.679 --> 00:36:14.320
Your faith, the longer you walk with Jesus, the more your faith grows out of the overflow of your heart.
00:36:14.639 --> 00:36:16.079
That's the point about giving.
00:36:16.239 --> 00:36:19.920
The longer you walk with the Lord, the more generous you are.
00:36:20.159 --> 00:36:23.519
Where your treasure is, your heart will be also, Jesus says.
00:36:23.679 --> 00:36:30.400
And that's why what we looked at last week, Paul's use of the Macedonians is very insightful, because those people were poor.
00:36:30.559 --> 00:36:31.920
The Corinthians were not poor.
00:36:32.079 --> 00:36:36.400
The Macedonians, which is the Thessalonians, the Philippians, the Bereans, they were poor.
00:36:36.480 --> 00:36:38.000
And do you remember what they were doing?
00:36:38.320 --> 00:36:43.519
Begging God through Paul to let them give their money.
00:36:43.760 --> 00:36:47.440
The Corinthians tried to give to Paul for his ministry, and Paul said, No, thank you.
00:36:47.519 --> 00:36:48.880
Keep your filthy lucre.
00:36:49.760 --> 00:36:53.760
The Thessalonians, meanwhile, are just grabbing his coat, saying, Please, brother, let us give.
00:36:53.920 --> 00:36:55.679
They hardly had anything.
00:36:56.159 --> 00:37:00.159
So now Paul's telling the Corinthians, here's your chance, guys.
00:37:00.480 --> 00:37:04.320
If you're growing in godliness, now give generously.
00:37:04.480 --> 00:37:09.199
The longer you know Christ, the more eager you should become to give.
00:37:09.280 --> 00:37:11.840
And so, like I asked you about your speech.
00:37:12.320 --> 00:37:13.440
Let me ask you this.
00:37:13.679 --> 00:37:17.760
Can you measure your own spiritual maturity by your giving?
00:37:18.800 --> 00:37:21.039
And by the way, it works in both directions.
00:37:21.280 --> 00:37:24.800
What you love in your heart is what you end up giving to.
00:37:25.920 --> 00:37:31.199
You know, your neighbor's abandoned derelict car in his front yard is an eyesore to you.
00:37:31.440 --> 00:37:32.320
You can't stand it.
00:37:32.400 --> 00:37:33.920
You wouldn't pay a penny for it.
00:37:34.079 --> 00:37:35.519
But then you get it.
00:37:35.599 --> 00:37:38.320
He gives it to you, or maybe you did pay a penny for it.
00:37:38.719 --> 00:37:47.920
And now you start working to fix it up and you start buying things for it and investing in it, and it suddenly becomes a treasure to you that you can't even imagine how your other neighbors would roll their eyes at it.
00:37:48.000 --> 00:37:50.079
They don't they know how special this car is?
00:37:50.960 --> 00:37:53.920
That's a little illustration of what giving in the church is like.
00:37:54.079 --> 00:37:58.719
The world wouldn't understand why you would give to gospel ministry, but it's your gospel ministry.
00:37:59.760 --> 00:38:05.920
It's the people preaching the word to you, it's the missionaries your church sends out, it's the congregation you're part of.
00:38:06.079 --> 00:38:08.639
And as you give to it, you grow in your love for it.
00:38:08.719 --> 00:38:10.320
And like I said, it works in both directions.
00:38:10.480 --> 00:38:12.079
What you love is going to be what you give to.
00:38:12.159 --> 00:38:13.920
You can go backwards and say, What am I giving to you?
00:38:14.079 --> 00:38:15.599
That's gonna reveal what you love.
00:38:17.360 --> 00:38:20.639
Growing Christians should become growing givers.
00:38:21.679 --> 00:38:33.840
Not merely giving more dollars because their income goes up over their life, but giving more generously and sacrificially and instinctively and willingly as they grow up over their life.
00:38:36.400 --> 00:38:38.960
You know, at the very least, give some money.
00:38:39.039 --> 00:38:45.360
I had a high school student between services say, you know, I make$55 doing two hours of lifeguarding a week.
00:38:45.440 --> 00:38:47.280
What are you asking me to give?
00:38:47.440 --> 00:38:53.920
And I told him, and there's a lot of you around, so you've probably heard this car, many of you heard the conversation, give them a dollar, throw a dollar in the offering box.
00:38:54.000 --> 00:39:07.679
You know, as a as a little kid, put a dollar in, and that's gonna start the pattern of growing in your life, of giving in your life, so that as you're getting more money and you're you're you're gonna grow more generous over time.
00:39:09.039 --> 00:39:12.800
You know, and a student might roll his eyes and say a dollar.
00:39:12.880 --> 00:39:13.760
I mean, that's weak sauce.
00:39:13.840 --> 00:39:14.480
I'm not gonna give a dollar.
00:39:14.559 --> 00:39:15.199
That's embarrassing.
00:39:15.440 --> 00:39:15.760
Okay.
00:39:16.719 --> 00:39:18.960
Fine, I'm glad you said it, not me.
00:39:21.599 --> 00:39:24.079
The giving indicates your growing love for the Lord.
00:39:24.159 --> 00:39:26.079
And that's what Paul means in verse 8.
00:39:26.239 --> 00:39:28.960
I say this not as a command.
00:39:30.000 --> 00:39:34.880
So you are missing the point if you say, the pastor just said I have to give a dollar next week.
00:39:35.039 --> 00:39:44.880
I am not saying this as a command, but I'm saying this to prove your earnestness and to demonstrate that your love is genuine.
00:39:45.119 --> 00:39:49.039
If the New Testament just said give 10%, that verse would make no sense.
00:39:50.320 --> 00:39:57.039
The New Testament doesn't say what percentage to give, it says to give generously and sacrificially and joyfully, by the way.
00:39:57.679 --> 00:40:01.360
Because it's a reflection of your genuine love, as it is with all these things.
00:40:01.440 --> 00:40:04.559
And so, a quick closing point with that list on the board.
00:40:04.800 --> 00:40:07.199
You want to grow in spiritual maturity.
00:40:07.440 --> 00:40:10.559
You can do practical things to grow in those areas, sure.
00:40:10.880 --> 00:40:13.760
But growing in those areas is not the end in and of themselves.
00:40:13.920 --> 00:40:16.559
Like make a list of four words you want to stop saying, okay?
00:40:16.639 --> 00:40:17.840
I mean, you can do something like that.
00:40:18.000 --> 00:40:21.519
Get a Bible reading regimen in your life, set an alarm, and read the Bible in the morning.
00:40:21.599 --> 00:40:23.039
You can do something like that.
00:40:23.280 --> 00:40:26.400
You know, when the offering plates are passed next week, put a few dollars in.
00:40:26.480 --> 00:40:27.519
You can do something like that.
00:40:27.679 --> 00:40:31.519
Those little practical things will help you grow in godliness for sure.
00:40:31.679 --> 00:40:36.960
But those practical things are almost, they can come very close to stapling fruit on the tree.
00:40:37.119 --> 00:40:37.840
You know what I mean?
00:40:38.000 --> 00:40:39.760
Don't confuse fruit with the root.
00:40:39.920 --> 00:40:42.400
The root here is your love for Jesus.
00:40:42.639 --> 00:40:45.920
As your love for Jesus grows, those other things happen more naturally.
00:40:46.079 --> 00:40:51.599
As your love for Christ grows, you maybe don't have to have the list of words anymore, you know?
00:40:51.679 --> 00:40:56.480
You just have a love for Jesus, and that becomes compelling enough.
00:40:56.639 --> 00:41:03.679
This is what Paul means when he tells the Ephesians the law is good if you use it lawfully.
00:41:03.920 --> 00:41:07.440
Don't use the law to boost up your own godliness.
00:41:07.599 --> 00:41:13.679
Use the law to give you guidelines as an overflow of your love for Christ.
00:41:14.480 --> 00:41:16.159
That's the Christian life.
00:41:16.400 --> 00:41:23.840
We stumble, we lose grounds, there are moments when we go backwards, but God's grace keeps carrying us up.
00:41:24.159 --> 00:41:34.800
Like the man on the escalator, our Christian life, we fall and we get up and we fall again, and somehow, supernaturally and providentially, we grow in maturity despite ourselves.
00:41:35.039 --> 00:41:40.719
And one of the places where that growth should become increasingly visible is in our giving.
00:41:40.880 --> 00:41:43.119
I pray that God would make us a generous congregation.
00:41:43.280 --> 00:41:49.840
Lord, we are grateful for your gospel that you gave to us.
00:41:50.559 --> 00:41:53.039
You gave your son when we were yet sinners.
00:41:53.440 --> 00:41:56.559
You gave your righteousness when we hadn't a righteousness of our own.
00:41:57.119 --> 00:42:01.360
You gave mercy when we deserved wrath, you ultimately will give heaven when we deserve hell.
00:42:01.519 --> 00:42:04.400
You give yourself and not what we deserve.
00:42:06.079 --> 00:42:11.039
We're grateful that because we have received much, we too can be generous.
00:42:11.760 --> 00:42:15.599
We're thankful for the areas of growth we've seen in our own life and in our congregation.
00:42:15.679 --> 00:42:18.559
You have made this a blessed and mature congregation.
00:42:18.719 --> 00:42:20.000
We're thankful to be part of it.
00:42:20.159 --> 00:42:22.079
We give you thanks for this in Jesus' name.
00:42:22.400 --> 00:42:23.039
Amen.
00:42:25.199 --> 00:42:33.840
If you have any questions about what you heard today, or you want more information about what it means to follow Christ, please go to our church website, ibc.church.
00:42:34.000 --> 00:42:35.440
If you live in the Washington, D.C.
00:42:35.599 --> 00:42:39.679
area, we'd love to see you at one of our own worship services at Emmanuel Bible.
00:42:39.840 --> 00:42:47.920
Now may the Lord bless you this week as you seek Jesus constantly, serve the Lord faithfully, and share the gospel boldly.
00:00:07.519 --> 00:00:11.759
2 Corinthians 8 verses 6 through 8 is what we'll read this morning.
00:00:11.839 --> 00:00:14.000
The text begins with this.
00:00:14.240 --> 00:00:22.480
Accordingly, we urge Titus that as he had started, so he should complete among you this act of grace.
00:00:22.960 --> 00:00:33.600
But as you excel in everything, in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in all earnestness, and in our love for you, see that you excel in this act of grace also.
00:00:33.920 --> 00:00:43.920
I say this not as a command, but to prove by the earnestness of others that your love also is genuine.
00:00:44.560 --> 00:00:48.159
This is the word of God, and I pray that He would seal it in your hearts.
00:00:48.399 --> 00:00:53.200
A few years ago, a security video from a mall went viral.
00:00:53.359 --> 00:01:02.960
It was an older man who was getting on an escalator at the mall, and perhaps you've seen this video, and he stumbled as he was getting on and fell down on the escalator.
00:01:03.039 --> 00:01:10.799
And the escalator is, of course, going up, and he's trying to get himself up on the escalator and he falls backwards and tumbles down several stairs.
00:01:10.879 --> 00:01:16.719
And then he tries getting up again and trips on his own briefcase and falls backwards down more stairs.
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And a third time, the guy falls maybe four or five times.
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Every time he tries to get up and take a step forward, he falls down again.
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And wouldn't you know it?
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He gets to the top of the escalator.
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He's always falling backwards, but somehow arrives at the top of the escalator.
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If you've seen this video, you know what I'm talking about.
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If you have not seen this video, you have probably lived this video.
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If you are a Christian, that is an image of our sanctification.
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We know the Lord is taking us up into the image of Christ.
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We know the Lord is transforming us.
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We know God is working in us, bringing us heavenward, but our efforts, it seems, are always going backwards.
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Sometimes our spiritual life seems like one step forward, two steps back, and yet somehow, mystery of mysteries, we keep growing in godliness.
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And that is because the Christian life is a life of spiritual growth.
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I'm not saying the Christian life is a life of uninterrupted growth, or it's not a straight line growth.
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It's not a life without stumbling, but the Christian life is a life of spiritual growth.
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Sometimes we feel like we are falling, but over time God works in us to bring us forward into higher and higher degrees of godliness.
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It was the philosopher of our age, Shell Silverstein, who described it this way: I tripped on my shoelace and I fell up.
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Up above the clouds, up where the colors blended into the sky, I fell up.
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That describes the sanctification process that God keeps bringing us up despite our efforts to the contrary.
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We stumble, we sin, and we regress, but the grace of God continues to move us towards maturity.
00:03:15.199 --> 00:03:22.159
Salvation, of course, gives us our spiritual life, and then we grow in our spiritual life.
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There is a reason the Christian life is called the Christian life.
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Because we're living it out, and we are growing and maturing, just like your physical life.
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Your physical body grows and matures and gets older and ages.
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So it is with a spiritual person.
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The spiritual person grows in maturity and ages.
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We have a joke in our family where we often will tell our youngest daughter, Geneva, to stop growing up.
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We like her as a little girl.
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Stop growing up.
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But the problem with that is that she keeps growing.
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And as she has pointed out a few times, it is because we keep feeding her.
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Well, you could no more command the child to stop growing than you could command a Christian to stop growing.
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What are you supposed to do?
00:04:10.800 --> 00:04:13.199
Say, stop being conformed to the image of Christ?
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It's the Spirit of God who works in us to conform us into the image of Christ.
00:04:18.480 --> 00:04:28.160
Paul tells the Philippians, work out your salvation with fear and trembling, knowing that it is God who works in you and through you to will and to act according to his good purpose.
00:04:28.319 --> 00:04:37.199
And if God who gave us his son and seals us with his spirit, of course he's going to give us everything pertaining to life and godliness.
00:04:37.439 --> 00:04:42.560
God who gives us all things through his son and spirit is not going to withhold godliness from us.
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But he doesn't give us to us instantly either.
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We grow and mature.
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We trend upwards, and trend is the right word.
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Over the Christian life, you are trending towards godliness.
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You are godlier today than you were yesterday, and you'll be godlier tomorrow than you were today.
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And that's not always going to be true, though, because there are days that are bad, like when I said you're godlier today than yesterday.
00:05:06.720 --> 00:05:09.120
Some of you are thinking, let's not talk about yesterday.
00:05:10.240 --> 00:05:12.240
Okay, so go a year ago.
00:05:12.800 --> 00:05:15.360
You are godlier today than you were a year ago.
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And you'll be godlier next year than you are today.
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It's a trend upwards.
00:05:19.199 --> 00:05:20.560
In a sense, it's like the stock market.
00:05:20.639 --> 00:05:21.920
It is trending upwards.
00:05:22.000 --> 00:05:28.879
Yes, there are dips and yes, there are declines and all of that, but generally it trends over time upward.
00:05:28.959 --> 00:05:32.000
I am not a licensed broker, so that is not investment advice.
00:05:33.199 --> 00:05:37.600
It's merely making the point that generally things trend up.
00:05:38.560 --> 00:05:41.759
And so it is spiritually as well.
00:05:42.639 --> 00:05:47.600
We don't mature in a straight line, but over time we grow in godliness.
00:05:47.680 --> 00:05:50.000
There's a sense in which we're like an oak tree.
00:05:50.319 --> 00:05:53.120
An oak tree, the acorn falls to the ground.
00:05:53.279 --> 00:05:55.600
The acorn has to die for the oak tree to live.
00:05:55.680 --> 00:05:56.879
The acorn has to be no more.
00:05:56.959 --> 00:05:57.920
And that's conversion.
00:05:58.079 --> 00:06:03.360
You are dead spiritually, you are living for the flesh and the lust of this world.
00:06:03.439 --> 00:06:04.959
And the Lord gets a hold of your life.
00:06:05.120 --> 00:06:20.160
You become convinced that your sins were given to Jesus Christ, and that Jesus suffered and died on the cross, bearing the penalty for your sins, and that he rose from the grave on the third day, and that his resurrection assures your salvation if you put your trust in him.
00:06:20.480 --> 00:06:27.839
And so what happens is you are leading your own life and you become convinced of that, and you put your faith in Christ, and the old you dies.
00:06:27.920 --> 00:06:31.040
That's what Paul says a few chapters earlier in 2 Corinthians 6.
00:06:31.199 --> 00:06:34.079
The old man, when you become a Christian, the old man is dead.
00:06:34.240 --> 00:06:36.800
Behold, anyone who is in Christ is a new creation.
00:06:36.959 --> 00:06:41.040
The acorn dies and in its place becomes a little a little oak tree.
00:06:41.360 --> 00:06:45.040
And you know, those little new oak trees are so small, like a squirrel could eat them.
00:06:45.120 --> 00:06:46.160
They're tiny.
00:06:46.959 --> 00:06:49.199
But over time they grow.
00:06:49.519 --> 00:06:52.959
And by the third year or so, they have roots that go down.
00:06:53.120 --> 00:06:54.480
And they keep growing.
00:06:54.639 --> 00:06:57.600
And they're going to keep getting bigger and bigger and bigger.
00:06:57.759 --> 00:07:00.959
Not that every year is necessarily a ban or year.
00:07:01.040 --> 00:07:09.600
I mean, some years there might be blight on the tree, or some years there might be a lightning striking the tree, and branches fall off, or who knows what happens.
00:07:09.759 --> 00:07:11.040
Disease can hit the trees.
00:07:11.120 --> 00:07:15.120
And do you know the crazy thing with oak trees is every year all their leaves fall off.
00:07:15.680 --> 00:07:16.319
But you know what?
00:07:16.399 --> 00:07:17.839
Next year they all grow back.
00:07:18.319 --> 00:07:20.879
And more of them grow back next year than the year before.
00:07:20.959 --> 00:07:23.120
I think of that every fall when I start blowing leaves.
00:07:23.199 --> 00:07:25.360
There were not this many leaves last year.
00:07:26.000 --> 00:07:27.519
And so it is with the Christian life.
00:07:27.600 --> 00:07:30.560
And sometimes you feel like it's everything is dead.
00:07:30.800 --> 00:07:34.959
And lo and behold, it grows back more robust than it was before.
00:07:35.120 --> 00:07:36.480
That is the Christian life.
00:07:36.560 --> 00:07:40.240
It is overall progress and increasing maturity.
00:07:40.399 --> 00:07:43.279
And so here's a very interesting question to think about.
00:07:44.399 --> 00:07:50.879
When you hear me say that you grow in spiritual maturity, what does that mean?
00:07:51.120 --> 00:07:55.040
Like, how would you see growth in spiritual maturity?
00:07:55.920 --> 00:07:59.040
That's where Paul starts in this passage with the Corinthians.
00:07:59.120 --> 00:08:04.560
He's going to give five descriptions of spiritual maturity, five measures of spiritual maturity.
00:08:04.720 --> 00:08:06.399
And he does that in verse 7.
00:08:06.560 --> 00:08:09.680
Before we get to verse 7, though, verse 6 sets you up for this.
00:08:10.079 --> 00:08:17.360
I'm not going to get all the way back into Paul's relationship with the Corinthians, as complicated as it is, but we looked at that last week.
00:08:17.519 --> 00:08:27.439
Remember that Paul is asking the Corinthians to give money for the church in Jerusalem, and he's using the Macedonians, this poor church, as an example for that.
00:08:27.920 --> 00:08:37.440
He's writing to them, and he says back in verse 1, the churches of Macedonia, which is the Thessalonians, the Philippians, and the Bereans, they gave so generously for the church in Jerusalem.
00:08:37.519 --> 00:08:39.919
So he's asking the Corinthians to do the same.
00:08:40.159 --> 00:08:45.840
The letter of 1 Corinthians, or maybe even a letter between 1 and 2 Corinthians, was brought to the Corinthians by Titus.
00:08:46.080 --> 00:08:47.919
The Corinthians do not like Paul.
00:08:48.080 --> 00:08:52.720
They view themselves as having graduated beyond Paul's ministry, but they do like Titus.
00:08:52.960 --> 00:08:54.799
In God's providence, they respect Titus.
00:08:54.960 --> 00:08:57.759
And so Paul is sending Titus to collect the offering.
00:08:57.840 --> 00:08:59.279
That's what's described in verse 6.
00:08:59.440 --> 00:09:06.720
We urge Titus that what he had started on his last visit there, he should complete among you this act of grace, collecting their offering.
00:09:06.960 --> 00:09:08.000
He's letting them know.
00:09:08.159 --> 00:09:10.159
Hey, Titus is going to be there on Thursday.
00:09:10.320 --> 00:09:13.919
It would be awkward if you don't have your church's money ready for him.
00:09:14.559 --> 00:09:22.639
And so he gets into that by reminding the Corinthians in verse 7, as you excel in everything he says.
00:09:23.120 --> 00:09:33.120
Now, this is Paul talking to a church that doesn't like him, and that is by all accounts an immature church.
00:09:33.440 --> 00:09:41.840
When you read 1 and 2 Corinthians, you do not come away from these two books going, man, that church is a mature, godly church.
00:09:42.399 --> 00:09:47.039
I always laugh as a pastor when some people say, Oh, we should do this because the Corinthian church did this.
00:09:47.120 --> 00:09:48.799
Look how the Corinthian church spoke in tongues.
00:09:48.879 --> 00:09:49.440
We should do that.
00:09:49.600 --> 00:09:52.960
No, you if the Corinthian church does something, it's an argument against doing it.
00:09:53.120 --> 00:09:54.000
Do you understand that?
00:09:54.879 --> 00:09:56.720
That's who Paul's talking about.
00:09:57.200 --> 00:10:04.639
Even so, he points out to them that they are growing spiritually.
00:10:05.519 --> 00:10:06.799
And this gives us hope.
00:10:06.879 --> 00:10:10.639
I mean, if the Corinthians are growing spiritually, man, praise God.
00:10:11.360 --> 00:10:13.840
That means someone like me can grow as well.
00:10:14.799 --> 00:10:16.399
Their growth is seen in five areas.
00:10:16.639 --> 00:10:17.759
He lists them in verse 7.
00:10:17.919 --> 00:10:19.519
The first is in faith.
00:10:19.759 --> 00:10:21.600
They're growing in faith.
00:10:22.000 --> 00:10:24.080
Now, faith, of course, is a gift.
00:10:24.320 --> 00:10:26.240
In one sense, faith is binary.
00:10:26.320 --> 00:10:28.399
You either have it or you don't.
00:10:28.559 --> 00:10:30.559
And that's talking about saving faith.
00:10:30.799 --> 00:10:34.159
Before you come to faith in Christ, you have not come to faith in Christ.
00:10:34.320 --> 00:10:36.080
You don't have faith in Christ.
00:10:36.320 --> 00:10:39.919
Then you have an encounter with Christ through the preaching of his word and the gospel.
00:10:40.080 --> 00:10:43.120
You believe it, and you come to faith in Christ.
00:10:43.200 --> 00:10:44.960
That's the work of the Spirit in your life.
00:10:45.120 --> 00:10:47.200
The Spirit causes you to be born again.
00:10:47.440 --> 00:10:49.440
He plants a seed in your heart.
00:10:49.600 --> 00:10:52.159
That seed is life and spiritual energy.
00:10:52.320 --> 00:10:56.159
You are brought from darkness to light, from death to life.
00:10:56.480 --> 00:10:58.240
You were dead, now you're alive.
00:10:58.320 --> 00:10:59.360
That's saving faith.
00:10:59.440 --> 00:11:00.720
It brings you alive.
00:11:00.799 --> 00:11:04.799
And in a sense, you can't get more saving faith.
00:11:05.039 --> 00:11:07.200
Saving faith is regeneration in that sense.
00:11:07.360 --> 00:11:09.440
You can't get more regeneration.
00:11:10.320 --> 00:11:13.279
You know, a baby is born, the baby's not more born.
00:11:13.679 --> 00:11:15.039
And so it is with a Christian.
00:11:15.120 --> 00:11:16.240
You come to faith.
00:11:16.399 --> 00:11:22.559
You don't gain saving faith throughout your Christian life, you have it at the moment of your conversion.
00:11:23.120 --> 00:11:28.080
So it makes sense to distinguish between saving faith and sanctifying faith.
00:11:28.399 --> 00:11:33.360
You grow in your faith in sanctification throughout your spiritual life.
00:11:33.600 --> 00:11:40.399
Without saving faith, there is no spiritual life, but saving faith is not the end of spiritual life, but the start of it.
00:11:40.799 --> 00:11:43.279
What does it mean to grow in faith?
00:11:43.759 --> 00:11:46.399
It means to grow in your confidence in God.
00:11:47.120 --> 00:11:52.639
When Paul says the Corinthians are growing in faith, it means they're growing in their confidence in God.
00:11:54.159 --> 00:11:56.159
Confidence that his word is true.
00:11:56.399 --> 00:11:58.399
Confidence that his promises are true.
00:11:58.639 --> 00:12:00.639
Confidence that heaven is real.
00:12:00.879 --> 00:12:04.480
Confidence that Christ is worth following, no matter what the cost is.
00:12:04.559 --> 00:12:06.320
That's how you're growing in faith.
00:12:07.440 --> 00:12:10.879
The Bible often pairs faith with hope.
00:12:12.000 --> 00:12:22.320
Hebrews chapter 11 says that faith is the assurance of things unseen, the hope or the confidence in things hoped for.
00:12:22.960 --> 00:12:26.159
You can't come to God unless you have faith.
00:12:26.320 --> 00:12:31.440
It's obvious to say, but in order to come to God, you must first believe that he exists.
00:12:31.679 --> 00:12:33.039
That's your faith.
00:12:33.279 --> 00:12:34.720
And faith doesn't end there.
00:12:34.879 --> 00:12:40.080
The second part is you must believe that he rewards those who search for him.
00:12:40.320 --> 00:12:41.120
That's faith.
00:12:41.279 --> 00:12:48.000
That you believe God exists and that he is worth it, that he rewards me when I pursue him with my life.
00:12:48.159 --> 00:12:49.039
That's faith.
00:12:49.279 --> 00:13:01.679
That's why Abraham left his family, left his life in err to go to a foreign place where he didn't know anybody, he didn't know what was there, except that God promised something good there.
00:13:01.840 --> 00:13:03.279
And so he went.
00:13:11.519 --> 00:13:12.960
That's saving faith.
00:13:13.360 --> 00:13:16.639
And that faith grows in the sense of sanctification.
00:13:16.799 --> 00:13:20.320
Think of Moses in Pharaoh's household.
00:13:20.720 --> 00:13:33.360
He had everything, treated as Pharaoh's son, and yet he considered the riches of Pharaoh's household nothing compared to the blessing of being persecuted with God's people.
00:13:33.600 --> 00:13:35.759
Moses is sizing things up right here.
00:13:35.919 --> 00:13:54.559
Yes, he believes that God exists, but he gets to the point in his spiritual maturity where he believes with all of his heart that it is better to be persecuted with the people of making mud without straw, bricks without straw, than it is to be numbered among Pharaoh's own family.
00:13:54.799 --> 00:13:56.000
That's saving faith.
00:13:56.080 --> 00:14:04.799
And you grow in that faith throughout your lifetime as you become more aware of God's promises and you treasure them more and more.
00:14:04.960 --> 00:14:11.440
This is the kind of faith that drives John to leave Galilee and go to Patmos, where he'll die a martyr's death, basically.
00:14:11.600 --> 00:14:15.759
This is the kind of faith that compels martyrs.
00:14:16.080 --> 00:14:31.120
And to bring it to our world, it is the kind of faith that lets you stop compromising in your life, that tells you it is worth it to be obedient to God rather than to get whatever gains it are that you're following through sinful means.
00:14:31.840 --> 00:14:34.480
And you grow in that throughout your life.
00:14:35.600 --> 00:14:44.639
Man, it's encouraging as a pastor to hear somebody who's been a Christian a short period of time to say, hey, now that I'm a Christian, I feel like maybe I should stop stealing from my work.
00:14:46.559 --> 00:14:48.000
Like, yeah, praise God.
00:14:48.080 --> 00:14:50.080
That's a good conviction to arrive at.
00:14:50.559 --> 00:14:51.759
Excited for that.
00:14:52.240 --> 00:15:00.240
You know, it'd be odd if you were a Christian for 20 years and you said that, but a new Christian, that's a great thing to arrive at that conviction about, isn't it?
00:15:00.960 --> 00:15:06.320
You know, and you come to the conviction because the eighth commandment is there, stealing is wrong.
00:15:06.480 --> 00:15:16.320
But the more mature reason, the reason it's working in your heart is you become convinced that obedience to God is a better reward than whatever you were stealing.
00:15:17.039 --> 00:15:38.720
This is a kind of faith that you say, I need to break up with that ungodly girlfriend or boyfriend I have, or I need to create distance between me and these ungodly friends because the knowledge of God and the blessings of holiness are more pleasurable, bring me more joy, more reward than these sinful actions and sinful conduct.
00:15:38.879 --> 00:15:41.919
That's this kind of sanctifying faith.
00:15:43.440 --> 00:15:47.039
And as faith grows, your resolve grows with it.
00:15:47.679 --> 00:15:54.559
The longer you're a Christian, the stronger your confidence in God should be because you've seen more of his faithfulness.
00:15:54.720 --> 00:15:58.159
You know his word better, you've watched him keep his promises.
00:15:58.480 --> 00:16:02.639
You have doubts have less of a grip on you the longer you're a Christian.
00:16:03.679 --> 00:16:07.679
There's some people that are always plagued by doubts, and that's true.
00:16:08.000 --> 00:16:16.399
Nevertheless, you notice the longer you're following the Lord, the darkness of doubts seems to be less and less.
00:16:16.559 --> 00:16:21.519
The grip that those doubts or that sin once held you in seems to get loosened.
00:16:22.879 --> 00:16:32.559
The Christian who has walked with Christ for decades should have a stronger faith and should trust him more deeply than the one who has just begun.
00:16:32.960 --> 00:16:36.559
That's what Paul means in verse 7 that you excel in everything.
00:16:36.639 --> 00:16:38.480
You're growing in faith.
00:16:38.720 --> 00:16:43.600
Secondly, your spiritual growth is seen in the realm of faith and also in the realm of speech.
00:16:44.000 --> 00:16:50.080
That's the second area of spiritual growth, the measure of spiritual growth that Paul gives.
00:16:50.320 --> 00:16:55.440
And speech is probably the realm where your spiritual maturity is most evident to others.
00:16:55.600 --> 00:17:00.240
It's so clear how spiritually mature somebody is based upon their speech.
00:17:00.639 --> 00:17:04.400
And that's because your speech is an overflow of your heart.
00:17:04.480 --> 00:17:08.319
Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.
00:17:08.880 --> 00:17:12.480
And so it's just a window into how mature the person's heart is.
00:17:12.640 --> 00:17:16.720
Now, first of all, the word for speech here is the word logos, the Greek word logos, the word.
00:17:17.279 --> 00:17:21.519
It is the word that is used in John chapter 1 to describe the Son of God.
00:17:21.680 --> 00:17:24.880
The eternal Son of God is the Lagos of the Father.
00:17:25.039 --> 00:17:28.880
Whatever is in the Father, is the Son.
00:17:29.359 --> 00:17:31.759
All that God is, the Son is.
00:17:31.920 --> 00:17:36.960
The speaker has a word, the word is Lagos, the word is the Son.
00:17:37.759 --> 00:17:40.640
That same principle applies to us.
00:17:41.119 --> 00:17:45.279
What is in our heart, who we are, is what is in our speech.
00:17:45.519 --> 00:17:50.720
It comes out, not perfectly, of course, with the Father, everything that is in the Father is perfectly in the Son.
00:17:50.880 --> 00:17:55.759
With us, we have measures of self-control and filters and ramblingness and all that.
00:17:55.839 --> 00:18:02.319
So it's not a one-to-one correlation, but generally it is true that your speech reveals who you are.
00:18:04.000 --> 00:18:07.039
Speech generally reveals at least three things about a person.
00:18:07.599 --> 00:18:10.000
It shows you what is in their heart, of course.
00:18:10.240 --> 00:18:16.160
It shows you what's in their mind, what they're thinking about, and it shows you the level of self-control they have.
00:18:17.359 --> 00:18:22.160
Because as you grow in self-control, you learn not to say everything that's going in your mind.
00:18:22.960 --> 00:18:24.799
Little kids don't have that self-control, right?
00:18:24.880 --> 00:18:26.799
If a little kid thinks it, they say it.
00:18:27.920 --> 00:18:30.000
Some kids are just like rambling 24-7.
00:18:30.160 --> 00:18:31.279
They they talk in their sleep.
00:18:31.359 --> 00:18:32.640
They're just always talking.
00:18:32.880 --> 00:18:34.559
They have no unarticulated thoughts.
00:18:34.640 --> 00:18:36.799
And that's cute in a little kid for a while, right?
00:18:37.440 --> 00:18:37.920
It's cool.
00:18:38.000 --> 00:18:44.559
Even as they get maybe, you know, 10 or 12, it's cool to know what's going on in their hearts and in their minds because they're always telling you that's great.
00:18:44.880 --> 00:18:47.200
Paul says, when I was a child, I talked like a child.
00:18:47.519 --> 00:18:48.480
That's wonderful.
00:18:48.640 --> 00:18:52.240
But when I grew up, I put childish ways behind me.
00:18:52.400 --> 00:18:57.599
So people develop a level of self-control to regulate their speech.
00:18:57.839 --> 00:19:02.559
Just because you have it on the inside doesn't mean you need to say it on the outside.
00:19:02.720 --> 00:19:08.880
And I have some had somebody non-ironically tell me, I don't want to filter my speech because that's hypocrisy.
00:19:09.039 --> 00:19:12.559
That's like saying, I don't want to wear clothes because I want everybody to know who I really am.
00:19:12.880 --> 00:19:15.200
No, brother, go ahead and put on clothes.
00:19:15.440 --> 00:19:17.759
And go ahead and rein in your speech, okay?
00:19:18.000 --> 00:19:19.359
It's a favor to all of us.
00:19:19.440 --> 00:19:21.200
That's your self-control.
00:19:23.039 --> 00:19:33.279
As you mature in Christ, your self-control grows, and your speech gets more and more controlled.
00:19:35.599 --> 00:19:42.000
I've heard people try to justify profanity by saying, hey, it's just it's just me being authentic.
00:19:42.400 --> 00:19:44.160
You know, this world is raw, yo.
00:19:44.480 --> 00:19:45.599
The world is raw.
00:19:45.759 --> 00:19:52.400
And I just gotta speak what's in me, and all the something bad happens and it's all in my heart, and it's just gotta it's gotta come out.
00:19:52.480 --> 00:19:53.920
That's authentic speech right there.
00:19:54.000 --> 00:19:57.200
That's who it's it's just reflecting the raw emotion of what I am.
00:19:57.440 --> 00:20:03.759
I mean that that may be true, but it is very immature.
00:20:04.880 --> 00:20:16.319
Because a mature person demonstrates self-control over their emotions, and as they become more mature, their speech becomes more mature.
00:20:17.920 --> 00:20:19.759
Like I said, you can see this with children.
00:20:20.079 --> 00:20:21.680
If it's in, it comes out.
00:20:22.079 --> 00:20:25.920
But as adults, as you grow into adulthood, you regulate your speech.
00:20:26.000 --> 00:20:27.839
That is true spiritually as well.
00:20:28.000 --> 00:20:36.319
I'm talking like at a you know, an educational psychology level about kids, of course, but Paul's bigger point is spiritually, this is true.
00:20:36.640 --> 00:20:41.920
As you grow spiritually, you learn to speak things that are true.
00:20:42.640 --> 00:20:46.559
There's a self-control that you've developed.
00:20:47.039 --> 00:20:56.319
And you think about the way stages of speech, and I'm drawing this in 1 John, where John in one, John talks about children in the faith, teenagers in the faith, immature people in the faith.
00:20:56.480 --> 00:20:58.240
The same principle applies to speech.
00:20:58.400 --> 00:21:03.359
You know, a child in the faith, you would say, don't use profanity because it's unwholesome speech.
00:21:03.440 --> 00:21:07.279
It's bad as an honor of the Lord, and get some self-control with your emotions, okay?
00:21:07.440 --> 00:21:09.839
That's what you would tell a child, and that that works for a child.
00:21:09.920 --> 00:21:13.359
You know, you tell the child, don't say those words, those words are bad.
00:21:13.519 --> 00:21:15.359
That's how you would teach a child.
00:21:15.759 --> 00:21:19.279
A teenager has grown a little bit beyond the list of naughty words, though.
00:21:19.440 --> 00:21:26.240
For a teenager, John tells the teenagers, speak with confidence, speak with conviction.
00:21:26.640 --> 00:21:32.000
Talk about things that are true and reflect your faith.
00:21:32.640 --> 00:21:40.880
And then for a mature person, you've gone into the Ephesians 5 world where there's no filthiness coming out of your mouth, but rather thanksgiving.
00:21:41.519 --> 00:21:48.240
A more mature saint, it's not that they're not saying certain words, and it's not that they're only saying things that are convictionally true.
00:21:48.400 --> 00:21:52.559
It's beyond that, even for a mature saint, they are saying things that are praiseworthy.
00:21:52.640 --> 00:21:54.000
They're giving thanks.
00:21:54.880 --> 00:21:59.279
You know, so you're you're in a car accident, you know, somebody crunches the back of your car.
00:21:59.359 --> 00:22:03.599
The first Words that are inclined to come out of your mouth are probably not godly.
00:22:05.200 --> 00:22:08.160
And so you use self-control to keep them in.
00:22:08.640 --> 00:22:18.000
A mature saint has a self-control, but has on top of that, praise God for this opportunity to grow me in patience with my insurance company this week.
00:22:18.640 --> 00:22:23.440
Lord, I'm so thankful for this accident because I will be so patient at the end of this week.
00:22:23.599 --> 00:22:29.359
Now, I'm speaking a little jokingly, of course, because it's helping you understand the point.
00:22:29.599 --> 00:22:33.680
The more mature you are, the less of a joke that is.
00:22:33.839 --> 00:22:36.960
It's always going to be a little funny, but the less of a joke it will be.
00:22:37.519 --> 00:22:41.359
An immature person is like, oh, those words I said when I got rear-ended were bad.
00:22:41.759 --> 00:22:49.519
The more mature a person has self-control, and the senior saint knows how to give thanks in any situation.
00:22:50.160 --> 00:22:55.279
As grace changes your heart, it changes your mouth.
00:22:56.640 --> 00:22:58.319
And you can grow in it.
00:22:59.039 --> 00:23:00.559
It is worth yourself asking.
00:23:00.640 --> 00:23:05.359
What does your speech show about your own spiritual maturity?
00:23:06.400 --> 00:23:11.839
As a Christian grows, his heart is sanctified, his mind is renewed, his self-control is strengthened.
00:23:12.000 --> 00:23:15.680
Thirdly, you see spiritual growth in the world of knowledge.
00:23:16.240 --> 00:23:16.799
Knowledge.
00:23:16.880 --> 00:23:19.279
Then the Corinthians placed a high value on knowledge.
00:23:19.440 --> 00:23:23.119
I'm not saying they had knowledge, they placed a high value on knowledge.
00:23:23.279 --> 00:23:28.160
Paul in 1 Corinthians chapter 13, verse 2, I would say is being sarcastic to them.
00:23:28.240 --> 00:23:32.000
When you read it and you don't know if it's sarcastic, but when you hear it out loud, it's obviously sarcastic.
00:23:32.079 --> 00:23:36.319
He tells the Corinthians, you excel in all knowledge and all mysteries.
00:23:36.559 --> 00:23:38.400
I mean, that's sarcastic, right?
00:23:38.880 --> 00:23:41.359
Corinthians, you know all things.
00:23:42.079 --> 00:23:45.599
At the very least, it shows that they valued knowledge.
00:23:45.839 --> 00:23:47.279
They valued it.
00:23:47.519 --> 00:23:56.000
There's a literal, a legitimate sense in which spiritual maturity should produce greater spiritual understanding.
00:23:56.880 --> 00:24:03.440
The Bible contains deep truths, it contains complex doctrines, it contains paradoxes.
00:24:03.839 --> 00:24:08.720
And as a Christian matures, you should grow in your understanding of those things.
00:24:08.880 --> 00:24:11.440
Now you never reach the point where you say, I have God figured out.
00:24:11.599 --> 00:24:12.400
Of course not.
00:24:12.880 --> 00:24:24.319
The more you know God in some ways, the more you recognize how far beyond you He is, but you also recognize the more you know God, the more you're growing in knowledge of Him.
00:24:25.920 --> 00:24:32.720
You know, a new Christian, sometimes people will ask, do you have to believe in the virgin birth, or do you have to understand the Trinity?
00:24:32.799 --> 00:24:35.839
Or do you have to believe in this or the other thing in order to be saved?
00:24:36.000 --> 00:24:38.880
And the answer is going to be no to all of those questions, basically.
00:24:39.119 --> 00:24:42.000
To be saved, you have to believe whatever you know.
00:24:42.160 --> 00:24:47.759
Whatever's confronted to you, whatever you're confronted with about Christ, you have to believe that to be saved.
00:24:48.000 --> 00:24:53.119
Not that you believe all things, because you don't know all things, but you believe all things that you know.
00:24:53.359 --> 00:25:01.200
And then you grow in godliness as you're growing in knowledge and you are continuing to believe all that you know.
00:25:01.440 --> 00:25:04.000
Do you need to believe in a global flood to be saved?
00:25:04.160 --> 00:25:05.119
No, of course not.
00:25:05.279 --> 00:25:07.839
But once you read about it in the Bible, you need to believe it.
00:25:07.920 --> 00:25:08.880
Does that make sense?
00:25:09.200 --> 00:25:11.519
Do you need to believe the Trinity to be saved?
00:25:11.680 --> 00:25:12.000
No.
00:25:12.319 --> 00:25:17.680
But once you understand that the scripture says that God is three and one, you need to believe that.
00:25:17.759 --> 00:25:19.440
And this is where those deep doctrines come in.
00:25:19.599 --> 00:25:31.119
You'll have a new believer that says, okay, you tell me that there's one God, but that Jesus is God and He's not the Father, and the Father is God, and I'm not good at math, but one plus one is not one.
00:25:32.160 --> 00:25:33.680
So what do you tell the new believer?
00:25:33.839 --> 00:25:35.119
You say you just have to believe that.
00:25:35.440 --> 00:25:37.440
That's what the Bible teaches, the Trinity.
00:25:37.519 --> 00:25:39.680
You just have to believe it, even if you don't understand it.
00:25:39.759 --> 00:25:41.920
That is a great answer for a new believer.
00:25:42.559 --> 00:25:49.759
But as you grow in your understanding of God, you grow in your understanding of a doctrine like that.
00:25:50.000 --> 00:25:55.359
You recognize, well, wait a minute, God is one being, but in three persons.
00:25:55.680 --> 00:25:57.599
You start to make those kind of distinctions.
00:25:57.759 --> 00:26:01.920
As you grow even more, you make other distinctions along that line.
00:26:02.160 --> 00:26:05.039
And you grow in your understanding of the Trinity.
00:26:05.200 --> 00:26:08.079
God's sovereignty and man's responsibility is another example.
00:26:08.400 --> 00:26:14.559
A new believer says, Well, if God is sovereign over who can be saved, how come people also choose to follow Christ?
00:26:14.640 --> 00:26:15.519
How can they both be true?
00:26:15.599 --> 00:26:18.400
And you just tell the new believer, like, they're both true.
00:26:19.200 --> 00:26:20.319
Deal with it.
00:26:21.359 --> 00:26:29.119
But as you grow in maturity, you start to see how God's providence and his sovereignty superintends our decisions.
00:26:29.279 --> 00:26:30.799
Here's a great example at hand.
00:26:30.960 --> 00:26:32.880
Who wrote the book of 2 Corinthians?
00:26:33.039 --> 00:26:35.279
Did Paul write it or did God write it?
00:26:35.599 --> 00:26:38.960
You tell a new believer both, and just deal with it.
00:26:39.839 --> 00:26:52.480
But as you grow in godliness, you learn about providence and that God is superintending every action in Paul's life, everything that happens to Paul to shape Paul exactly into the person who would write this book.
00:26:52.640 --> 00:26:57.920
The Spirit inspires him and superintends every word that Paul writes so that it's inspired and inerrance.
00:26:58.079 --> 00:27:00.079
That is more mature doctrine.
00:27:00.319 --> 00:27:04.559
And not that you ever reach the point where you say, I have now solved the mysteries of the Trinity.
00:27:04.720 --> 00:27:10.240
I now fully understand the relationship of God's sovereignty and man's responsibility and the way the Spirit works in inspiration.
00:27:10.400 --> 00:27:18.319
No, you will never get to those points, but you should be growing in your knowledge of those things throughout your life.
00:27:18.880 --> 00:27:19.839
Throughout your life.
00:27:20.000 --> 00:27:34.559
And I harp on this point just because I've heard people say that knowledge of God or doctrine or theology stunts maturity, does not help spiritual growth, almost view it as an enemy of spiritual growth.
00:27:34.799 --> 00:27:40.480
Those people tend to elevate experiences and tone down knowledge.
00:27:41.359 --> 00:27:47.279
But you notice on this list, Paul does not say as you've grown in your experiences of God.
00:27:48.000 --> 00:27:50.640
He says, as you've grown in your knowledge of Him.
00:27:50.799 --> 00:27:53.680
Maturity does not mean refusing to think.
00:27:54.559 --> 00:27:58.799
Your doctrine should get better the longer you walk with Jesus.
00:27:59.119 --> 00:28:05.359
Doctrine is not the enemy of spiritual growth, it's rather one of its evidences, which leads to number four.
00:28:05.680 --> 00:28:07.519
The realm of earnestness.
00:28:07.759 --> 00:28:11.440
Spiritual maturity is seen in earnestness, and this is a really cool word.
00:28:11.599 --> 00:28:12.799
Not a word we use a lot.
00:28:12.960 --> 00:28:17.519
I can't remember the only, I can't remember using this word outside of the Bible.
00:28:17.839 --> 00:28:18.960
But it's a fun word.
00:28:19.200 --> 00:28:22.000
Earnestness can mean zeal or energy.
00:28:22.240 --> 00:28:24.160
I'll define it this way on the screen.
00:28:24.400 --> 00:28:26.559
Wholehearted enthusiasm.
00:28:26.720 --> 00:28:28.400
That's the lexical definition of it.
00:28:28.559 --> 00:28:30.160
The Greek dictionary would define it that way.
00:28:30.319 --> 00:28:34.960
Wholehearted enthusiasm, and it gives a synonym as zealous or zeal.
00:28:35.599 --> 00:28:36.720
It's energy.
00:28:36.880 --> 00:28:38.640
It's being excited about something.
00:28:39.599 --> 00:28:41.039
That's what earnestness means.
00:28:41.119 --> 00:28:42.559
You're stoked about it.
00:28:42.960 --> 00:28:47.920
The more mature you grow in Christ, the more excited you are about the things of God.
00:28:48.160 --> 00:28:56.240
It's not simply having an enthusiastic personality like every Christian needs to be a T-I-Doubleger Ur bouncing off the walls for Jesus kind of thing.
00:28:57.200 --> 00:29:04.640
But it does mean that you should be growing in your enthusiasm for the things of God.
00:29:05.920 --> 00:29:12.160
You know, if you're an e or a Christian, you should grow through that over the course of your life.
00:29:12.720 --> 00:29:16.799
Some people are naturally excitable, and some people are naturally reserved.
00:29:16.960 --> 00:29:21.519
But Paul's talking about something deeper, a growing eagerness for the things of God.
00:29:22.960 --> 00:29:28.240
As you mature as a Christian, spiritual things should mean more to you, not less.
00:29:29.119 --> 00:29:40.160
You should have an increasing eagerness when you think about serving Jesus, an increasing enthusiasm for ministry, an increasing willingness to extend yourself for things that have eternal value.
00:29:40.240 --> 00:29:44.799
And this is one of the key ways you see maturity go in people's lives.
00:29:45.920 --> 00:29:50.400
You know, when you're immature, you can spend so much time on things that don't matter.
00:29:50.799 --> 00:29:58.000
And as you grow in maturity, you st what matters in eternity starts to get clarified for you as you grow up.
00:29:58.799 --> 00:30:04.400
I mean, I think it's some of the things kids kids spend half of their time in an imaginary world.
00:30:05.440 --> 00:30:09.119
Which is fine, it's adorable when they're kids.
00:30:09.519 --> 00:30:10.720
But you grow out of that.
00:30:10.880 --> 00:30:20.559
I mean, here's just a practical example of this, and I know that I will get a few emails from people who don't like this example, but I use it every now and then, and it's the then right now.
00:30:21.839 --> 00:30:29.680
You know, when you're a kid, you can spend hours and hours playing video games that just suck the life out of you.
00:30:30.720 --> 00:30:32.960
But you should grow out of that.
00:30:33.359 --> 00:30:40.720
You know, when the older person is throwing their life away with video games, it's a sign of sadness, not a sign, not of virtue.
00:30:41.039 --> 00:30:43.119
You have to grow through that.
00:30:43.200 --> 00:30:46.480
And maturity is growing up to appreciate what matters.
00:30:46.559 --> 00:30:51.920
And I'm not just trying to pick on other people's hobbies, but all of my hobbies are completely sanctified.
00:30:56.319 --> 00:31:02.480
There's a part of maturity where you get clarity on those kind of things and you grow in them.
00:31:02.960 --> 00:31:04.720
They recognize that with Jesus, didn't they?
00:31:04.799 --> 00:31:13.839
When he overturns the temples, the crowd confronts him, and they realize that the scripture said, zeal for his father's house will consume him.
00:31:14.079 --> 00:31:18.960
And that is the model for us to be consumed about God's things.
00:31:19.200 --> 00:31:22.720
And the more you mature, the more your zeal gains depth.
00:31:22.880 --> 00:31:29.680
You become more eager to serve, more diligent in prayer, more serious about holiness, more invested in eternal things.
00:31:30.000 --> 00:31:34.559
More concerned about salvation and spiritual knowledge and growth than the kind of other things.
00:31:34.640 --> 00:31:40.160
And you can tell what somebody is concerned and eager and zealous about by, again, what they talk about.
00:31:40.319 --> 00:31:43.839
It just, you know, what a person cares about is all over them.
00:31:46.240 --> 00:31:52.319
As you grow in earnestness, the things of God become less peripheral and more central.
00:31:53.519 --> 00:31:56.960
I love that Paul pairs this with knowledge.
00:31:57.279 --> 00:32:03.119
Because knowledge without earnestness or knowledge without zeal is dead and dry.
00:32:03.279 --> 00:32:07.839
Knowledge without zeal is a thousand-page theology book that nobody will ever crack.
00:32:08.799 --> 00:32:14.720
Knowledge paired with zeal becomes a potent demonstration of maturity.
00:32:16.000 --> 00:32:18.480
Which leads to the final example here.
00:32:18.640 --> 00:32:21.039
There's one more word before we get to the fifth point in verse 7.
00:32:21.119 --> 00:32:23.839
He says, and in our love for you, just a quick reference to that.
00:32:24.079 --> 00:32:26.079
It's more obvious in Greek than English.
00:32:26.240 --> 00:32:34.559
In Greek, it's very clear that Paul's saying the Corinthians are growing in Paul's love for them, not their own love for Paul.
00:32:34.799 --> 00:32:38.640
Because remember, in 2 Corinthians, they're not really stoked about Paul right now.
00:32:38.720 --> 00:32:40.880
And Paul is fighting the battle in his own heart.
00:32:40.960 --> 00:32:45.200
He said it back in chapter 6, I'm trying to still love you guys.
00:32:45.599 --> 00:32:50.079
In chapter 7, verse 2, he says, Make room in your hearts for us too.
00:32:50.400 --> 00:32:52.319
I want you in my heart.
00:32:53.279 --> 00:32:56.240
So he tells them here, it's a very clever way of wording it.
00:32:56.319 --> 00:33:00.799
He's not telling them, I know you love me more than you did yesterday, because it might not even be true.
00:33:01.039 --> 00:33:05.519
I mean, there's a reason he's sending Titus to get the money and not himself.
00:33:06.720 --> 00:33:13.920
But he does tell them, I want you to know you're growing in these areas, and because of that, I'm growing in my love for you, even if it's unrequited.
00:33:14.480 --> 00:33:15.839
Very clever way of putting it.
00:33:16.079 --> 00:33:17.759
But it sets up his fifth point.
00:33:17.920 --> 00:33:20.960
The fifth way you see spiritual growth is in giving.
00:33:22.160 --> 00:33:25.920
Because you're growing in this way, keep giving.
00:33:26.640 --> 00:33:30.640
See that you excel in this act of grace also.
00:33:32.480 --> 00:33:36.000
We don't always think of giving as an area of sanctification.
00:33:36.720 --> 00:33:38.079
But notice Paul's logic.
00:33:38.240 --> 00:33:43.839
If you're growing in faith, speech, knowledge, and earnestness, also excel in giving.
00:33:44.480 --> 00:33:47.839
Your giving should grow throughout your Christian life.
00:33:48.640 --> 00:33:49.920
Now, a quick point here.
00:33:50.000 --> 00:33:56.720
I've heard it said sometimes people are supposed to give a tithe, and I've even heard it said your tithe grows because your income grows as you get older.
00:33:56.880 --> 00:34:01.759
That may be kind of anachronistic, like a Western way of thinking, but it's not true.
00:34:01.839 --> 00:34:05.359
In the Old Testament, you weren't commanded to tithe as your worship to God.
00:34:05.519 --> 00:34:09.440
The Old Testament commanded tithing, of course, but it was more close to taxation.
00:34:09.599 --> 00:34:16.480
They paid a tithe for the maintenance of the Levites, they paid a tithe for the temple festivals, that's 20% of your keeping track at home.
00:34:16.639 --> 00:34:22.960
They paid a tithe every three years for the ministry to the widows and the poor and the orphans.
00:34:23.039 --> 00:34:23.760
That's about 3%.
00:34:24.159 --> 00:34:27.599
They didn't do the corners of their fields, so throw in another one or two percent.
00:34:27.760 --> 00:34:32.159
So you're looking at basically a tax rate in the Old Testament of 25%.
00:34:32.480 --> 00:34:34.320
That's what the Israelites are paying in tax.
00:34:34.480 --> 00:34:36.960
That is not necessarily their worship.
00:34:37.199 --> 00:34:41.280
They had, we looked at this verse last week, a free will offering on top of that.
00:34:41.440 --> 00:34:46.639
So it's a little bit, I think, errant to describe the Old Testament Israelites as tithing for their worship.
00:34:46.800 --> 00:34:52.960
No, they tithed for their taxes and they gave free will offerings for their worship.
00:34:53.280 --> 00:34:56.079
In the New Testament, the word tithing isn't used.
00:34:56.239 --> 00:34:59.199
I mean, there's it's used twice and it's kind of sarcastic.
00:34:59.440 --> 00:35:10.719
It's the Pharisee who goes into the temple and is like beating his breast and says, I thank you, God, I'm not like that tax collector over there because I tithe.
00:35:11.280 --> 00:35:13.280
That's the New Testament use of tithing.
00:35:14.400 --> 00:35:19.599
And it's going to come up in Matthew 23, where Jesus says, You Pharisees, you tithe the mint in the cumin.
00:35:20.320 --> 00:35:21.920
He doesn't mean that as a compliment.
00:35:23.519 --> 00:35:27.119
The New Testament doesn't teach tithing, it teaches generous giving.
00:35:28.000 --> 00:35:30.880
You give as the Lord works in your heart.
00:35:30.960 --> 00:35:38.239
You're commanded to give to your church, and 1 Timothy 5 says that you're supposed to give your church here, is defined by where you're hearing the word preached.
00:35:38.880 --> 00:35:41.360
So you give to the church you go to for worship.
00:35:41.440 --> 00:35:46.159
You give to the person and the ministry that is preaching over your soul.
00:35:46.800 --> 00:35:47.760
That's the command.
00:35:48.000 --> 00:35:49.840
But the amount isn't given.
00:35:50.159 --> 00:35:53.199
And that's because your giving reflects your heart.
00:35:53.280 --> 00:35:55.119
Do you see how all these are the same?
00:35:55.360 --> 00:35:57.760
You're giving, like your speech reflects your heart.
00:35:57.840 --> 00:36:02.000
And so as you mature in your knowledge and love of the Lord, your speech matures.
00:36:02.320 --> 00:36:08.719
As what you know reflects what you're spending your time studying, as you know more about the Lord, your knowledge grows.
00:36:09.679 --> 00:36:14.320
Your faith, the longer you walk with Jesus, the more your faith grows out of the overflow of your heart.
00:36:14.639 --> 00:36:16.079
That's the point about giving.
00:36:16.239 --> 00:36:19.920
The longer you walk with the Lord, the more generous you are.
00:36:20.159 --> 00:36:23.519
Where your treasure is, your heart will be also, Jesus says.
00:36:23.679 --> 00:36:30.400
And that's why what we looked at last week, Paul's use of the Macedonians is very insightful, because those people were poor.
00:36:30.559 --> 00:36:31.920
The Corinthians were not poor.
00:36:32.079 --> 00:36:36.400
The Macedonians, which is the Thessalonians, the Philippians, the Bereans, they were poor.
00:36:36.480 --> 00:36:38.000
And do you remember what they were doing?
00:36:38.320 --> 00:36:43.519
Begging God through Paul to let them give their money.
00:36:43.760 --> 00:36:47.440
The Corinthians tried to give to Paul for his ministry, and Paul said, No, thank you.
00:36:47.519 --> 00:36:48.880
Keep your filthy lucre.
00:36:49.760 --> 00:36:53.760
The Thessalonians, meanwhile, are just grabbing his coat, saying, Please, brother, let us give.
00:36:53.920 --> 00:36:55.679
They hardly had anything.
00:36:56.159 --> 00:37:00.159
So now Paul's telling the Corinthians, here's your chance, guys.
00:37:00.480 --> 00:37:04.320
If you're growing in godliness, now give generously.
00:37:04.480 --> 00:37:09.199
The longer you know Christ, the more eager you should become to give.
00:37:09.280 --> 00:37:11.840
And so, like I asked you about your speech.
00:37:12.320 --> 00:37:13.440
Let me ask you this.
00:37:13.679 --> 00:37:17.760
Can you measure your own spiritual maturity by your giving?
00:37:18.800 --> 00:37:21.039
And by the way, it works in both directions.
00:37:21.280 --> 00:37:24.800
What you love in your heart is what you end up giving to.
00:37:25.920 --> 00:37:31.199
You know, your neighbor's abandoned derelict car in his front yard is an eyesore to you.
00:37:31.440 --> 00:37:32.320
You can't stand it.
00:37:32.400 --> 00:37:33.920
You wouldn't pay a penny for it.
00:37:34.079 --> 00:37:35.519
But then you get it.
00:37:35.599 --> 00:37:38.320
He gives it to you, or maybe you did pay a penny for it.
00:37:38.719 --> 00:37:47.920
And now you start working to fix it up and you start buying things for it and investing in it, and it suddenly becomes a treasure to you that you can't even imagine how your other neighbors would roll their eyes at it.
00:37:48.000 --> 00:37:50.079
They don't they know how special this car is?
00:37:50.960 --> 00:37:53.920
That's a little illustration of what giving in the church is like.
00:37:54.079 --> 00:37:58.719
The world wouldn't understand why you would give to gospel ministry, but it's your gospel ministry.
00:37:59.760 --> 00:38:05.920
It's the people preaching the word to you, it's the missionaries your church sends out, it's the congregation you're part of.
00:38:06.079 --> 00:38:08.639
And as you give to it, you grow in your love for it.
00:38:08.719 --> 00:38:10.320
And like I said, it works in both directions.
00:38:10.480 --> 00:38:12.079
What you love is going to be what you give to.
00:38:12.159 --> 00:38:13.920
You can go backwards and say, What am I giving to you?
00:38:14.079 --> 00:38:15.599
That's gonna reveal what you love.
00:38:17.360 --> 00:38:20.639
Growing Christians should become growing givers.
00:38:21.679 --> 00:38:33.840
Not merely giving more dollars because their income goes up over their life, but giving more generously and sacrificially and instinctively and willingly as they grow up over their life.
00:38:36.400 --> 00:38:38.960
You know, at the very least, give some money.
00:38:39.039 --> 00:38:45.360
I had a high school student between services say, you know, I make$55 doing two hours of lifeguarding a week.
00:38:45.440 --> 00:38:47.280
What are you asking me to give?
00:38:47.440 --> 00:38:53.920
And I told him, and there's a lot of you around, so you've probably heard this car, many of you heard the conversation, give them a dollar, throw a dollar in the offering box.
00:38:54.000 --> 00:39:07.679
You know, as a as a little kid, put a dollar in, and that's gonna start the pattern of growing in your life, of giving in your life, so that as you're getting more money and you're you're you're gonna grow more generous over time.
00:39:09.039 --> 00:39:12.800
You know, and a student might roll his eyes and say a dollar.
00:39:12.880 --> 00:39:13.760
I mean, that's weak sauce.
00:39:13.840 --> 00:39:14.480
I'm not gonna give a dollar.
00:39:14.559 --> 00:39:15.199
That's embarrassing.
00:39:15.440 --> 00:39:15.760
Okay.
00:39:16.719 --> 00:39:18.960
Fine, I'm glad you said it, not me.
00:39:21.599 --> 00:39:24.079
The giving indicates your growing love for the Lord.
00:39:24.159 --> 00:39:26.079
And that's what Paul means in verse 8.
00:39:26.239 --> 00:39:28.960
I say this not as a command.
00:39:30.000 --> 00:39:34.880
So you are missing the point if you say, the pastor just said I have to give a dollar next week.
00:39:35.039 --> 00:39:44.880
I am not saying this as a command, but I'm saying this to prove your earnestness and to demonstrate that your love is genuine.
00:39:45.119 --> 00:39:49.039
If the New Testament just said give 10%, that verse would make no sense.
00:39:50.320 --> 00:39:57.039
The New Testament doesn't say what percentage to give, it says to give generously and sacrificially and joyfully, by the way.
00:39:57.679 --> 00:40:01.360
Because it's a reflection of your genuine love, as it is with all these things.
00:40:01.440 --> 00:40:04.559
And so, a quick closing point with that list on the board.
00:40:04.800 --> 00:40:07.199
You want to grow in spiritual maturity.
00:40:07.440 --> 00:40:10.559
You can do practical things to grow in those areas, sure.
00:40:10.880 --> 00:40:13.760
But growing in those areas is not the end in and of themselves.
00:40:13.920 --> 00:40:16.559
Like make a list of four words you want to stop saying, okay?
00:40:16.639 --> 00:40:17.840
I mean, you can do something like that.
00:40:18.000 --> 00:40:21.519
Get a Bible reading regimen in your life, set an alarm, and read the Bible in the morning.
00:40:21.599 --> 00:40:23.039
You can do something like that.
00:40:23.280 --> 00:40:26.400
You know, when the offering plates are passed next week, put a few dollars in.
00:40:26.480 --> 00:40:27.519
You can do something like that.
00:40:27.679 --> 00:40:31.519
Those little practical things will help you grow in godliness for sure.
00:40:31.679 --> 00:40:36.960
But those practical things are almost, they can come very close to stapling fruit on the tree.
00:40:37.119 --> 00:40:37.840
You know what I mean?
00:40:38.000 --> 00:40:39.760
Don't confuse fruit with the root.
00:40:39.920 --> 00:40:42.400
The root here is your love for Jesus.
00:40:42.639 --> 00:40:45.920
As your love for Jesus grows, those other things happen more naturally.
00:40:46.079 --> 00:40:51.599
As your love for Christ grows, you maybe don't have to have the list of words anymore, you know?
00:40:51.679 --> 00:40:56.480
You just have a love for Jesus, and that becomes compelling enough.
00:40:56.639 --> 00:41:03.679
This is what Paul means when he tells the Ephesians the law is good if you use it lawfully.
00:41:03.920 --> 00:41:07.440
Don't use the law to boost up your own godliness.
00:41:07.599 --> 00:41:13.679
Use the law to give you guidelines as an overflow of your love for Christ.
00:41:14.480 --> 00:41:16.159
That's the Christian life.
00:41:16.400 --> 00:41:23.840
We stumble, we lose grounds, there are moments when we go backwards, but God's grace keeps carrying us up.
00:41:24.159 --> 00:41:34.800
Like the man on the escalator, our Christian life, we fall and we get up and we fall again, and somehow, supernaturally and providentially, we grow in maturity despite ourselves.
00:41:35.039 --> 00:41:40.719
And one of the places where that growth should become increasingly visible is in our giving.
00:41:40.880 --> 00:41:43.119
I pray that God would make us a generous congregation.
00:41:43.280 --> 00:41:49.840
Lord, we are grateful for your gospel that you gave to us.
00:41:50.559 --> 00:41:53.039
You gave your son when we were yet sinners.
00:41:53.440 --> 00:41:56.559
You gave your righteousness when we hadn't a righteousness of our own.
00:41:57.119 --> 00:42:01.360
You gave mercy when we deserved wrath, you ultimately will give heaven when we deserve hell.
00:42:01.519 --> 00:42:04.400
You give yourself and not what we deserve.
00:42:06.079 --> 00:42:11.039
We're grateful that because we have received much, we too can be generous.
00:42:11.760 --> 00:42:15.599
We're thankful for the areas of growth we've seen in our own life and in our congregation.
00:42:15.679 --> 00:42:18.559
You have made this a blessed and mature congregation.
00:42:18.719 --> 00:42:20.000
We're thankful to be part of it.
00:42:20.159 --> 00:42:22.079
We give you thanks for this in Jesus' name.
00:42:22.400 --> 00:42:23.039
Amen.
00:42:25.199 --> 00:42:33.840
If you have any questions about what you heard today, or you want more information about what it means to follow Christ, please go to our church website, ibc.church.
00:42:34.000 --> 00:42:35.440
If you live in the Washington, D.C.
00:42:35.599 --> 00:42:39.679
area, we'd love to see you at one of our own worship services at Emmanuel Bible.
00:42:39.840 --> 00:42:47.920
Now may the Lord bless you this week as you seek Jesus constantly, serve the Lord faithfully, and share the gospel boldly.
