You're ready. Alright, thank you brother. Well, Jeremy, you are telling the truth. Indeed, when I first started preaching and putting together a message and trying to communicate it, it was exhausting. I'm getting better, so it's not as hard on me anymore. I apologize that it's still exhausting for you. I'll do my best to help you out with that. Why don't you turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 13. That's 1 Corinthians chapter 13. We've been considering this concept of adoption in scripture. We will review some of the major principles that we learned last time, but then we're gonna turn our focus today onto some practical aspects of how this concept of adoption, or this position that we've been granted, should affect our conduct in the body of Christ. Our text for today, 1 Corinthians 13, and just verse 11. When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child, but when I became a man, I put away childish things. Now, I do understand that in context, this being the great 1 Corinthians chapter 13 love chapter, that here the apostle Paul is promoting love as an unfailing and unchanging concept. He says our preaching and our knowledge and the way that we use our spiritual gifts, all those things we do in part, but And it's true, these things are incomplete. It's just a transitional phase, some of these things that we do. Someday the master teacher will come. He'll show to us all things. And then we will see clearly, and all this partial stuff will be replaced with something better. But the love never changes. And that's a lot of what Paul is communicating in this verse. So now we are in this childlike phase in our relationship and our understanding of our God and our faith and Paul is communicating these things to us in this passage. So the context is spiritual and the application almost dispensational in a way. But because he's using an allegory that is a principle, a physical principle to show a spiritual truth, I think we can take this principle and apply it across the scope even beyond this context. So today we're gonna take a very practical look at this idea of becoming an adult in our faith and putting away the childish things and becoming a man or becoming an adult in our Christian walk. I consider titling this message, Just Grow Up. But when I found so much of these things applied to my own heart, I thought, well, that's a little harsh. So we'll skip that. And the reason is, you know, so often us as Christians, we are of all men sometimes most haughty when we ought to be of all men most humble. And I think sometimes we do Christ a disservice sometimes in our attitudes, even the way sometimes that we preach from our pulpits in Christendom. So I want to be aware of that. And when I preach, my prayer is always, you know, Lord, do a work in me first. on this text, on your word. Teach this lesson to my own heart first before I go teaching it to others. Help me to grow in my faith and to grow my desire to serve you. And so hopefully today the message will come off in a spirit of encouragement, because that's what my desire is. So, so after all this idea of adoption is spiritual adoption in the family of God, as we learned last time, is the placing of an adult son into the family of God putting putting that the that brother or sister, the son or daughter, in the place of the family as an adult with all the responsibilities and privileges that come along with that. It's not the same as salvation. You see, to begin life, you are born, but you're born into the wrong family. You're born into the family of Adam. Jesus even said to the Pharisees, you're of your father the devil. We're born in sin, and that family that we're first born into is a sinful race. You need to be reborn. You need to be born into God's family. It's a spiritual rebirth. This is what brings you into the family of God, and you start out as a babe in Christ. It's a progression. You need to mature. You need to learn to take hold of the promises and the benefits of your new family. And salvation, so that's how we get into the family, and it creates spiritual babies. But the adoption of sons, when the Bible speaks of this, the Bible is using the word of adult sons, of adult children that are the offspring of the father. And so they're positioned in the family. They have all those, you know, they have those privileges and they have those responsibilities. And adoption teaches the concept of adulthood. in the family of God. We don't come into God's family through adoption. That's not how we get here. We're not these poor, sweet, innocent, helpless orphans just waiting for some loving God to come along and adopt us into his family and give us a home we deserve. No, that's not it. We don't deserve all of that favor and all of that grace. We're desperately wicked. We need to repent first and have that spiritual rebirth to come into God's family before that process of adoption actually begins. So we've got to be born into a new family. And through that process, we come into a more full recognition and utilization of the benefits as being a member of this family. Now at work, we have a benefits package. And there's lots of various benefits that go along with working at my place of employment. Some of them are essential. like the health insurance. Everybody's instructed on this up front. They set you up day one, and after 90 days, it takes effect. It's the same for everybody. Everybody utilizes that benefit. There's also a retirement savings benefit, an option. Most people know about it, but not everybody takes advantage of it. But then there's some other benefits that you'll kind of learn about as you go. And a lot of them, some people never even learn about and never even take advantage of. It might be a discount on a gym membership or a hotline you can call with inquiries or concerns or if you're emotionally distressed or something like that. A lot of people don't even realize those services or those benefits are there for them. And just because you're an employee doesn't mean that you take advantage of all the benefits. Some people don't see any value in some of those benefits. However, in the benefits package of being in the family of God, it's vital that we take advantage of all the benefits and everything because it's vital to our optimal service to Him. So there's no, you know, silly benefits in being in God's family. There's no unneeded benefits in being in God's family. We need to grow into the utilization of all these things. So we must embrace this adoption and expedite our growth as a believer. God is trying to do a work in us. He's, He's, He's, He's, growing us up into his family, he's placing us into his family, and we need to make sure that we are at his disposal and allowing him to work in us the work that he's wanting to do. A son is one who, in the eyes of society, is associated with the family and is responsible. As opposed to a child, we typically think the parent is responsible for the child. So we see a child doing something that they ought not do. We say, well, it's OK. They're just a child. Or we say, where is that child's parents? Because we see the responsibilities being on the parent. But when you see sons, when you see a business called Thompson and Sons, You would think that, okay, the sons are responsible, they've been apprentices under the master tradesman, they're still under his guidance, but they're responsible. You know, you wouldn't hire a business called Thompson and Kiddos to come out and remodel your house, because that just seems, you know, that doesn't seem very legitimate, whereas Thompson and Sons, you get the impression that there's responsibility there. and that there's ownership there. And so when God places us in his family, has adopted us as sons, we need to take some ownership in our responsibility in the local church. So our verse here, let's read it once again, 1 Corinthians 13, 11. When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child, but when I became a man, I put away childish things. Paul teaches two phases in life. that is in the Christian life, you have childhood and you have adulthood. Interestingly, we in the world would typically add a third phase in life, some kind of a transitional phase between the two, this, you know, the teenagers or the youth group or the young people. We would add another phase in there between the two phases that Paul gives when he says, you put away the childish things and you become an adult, you become a man. We suspend sometimes our young people between these two biblical stages for an extenuated period of time, sometimes in a way that I believe is unhealthy. Sometimes we isolate them in this phase And I don't think that's a good idea. Now, I'm not preaching against teenage classes or youth groups in a church. That's not what I'm doing here. But in some ways, sometimes, I'm glad that my sons are growing up in a place where that's not an option for them. graduated in here, you know, with the adults, and they learn from the adults, and they're with the adults, and they're becoming an adult. They are a young adult. And so, the reason, you know, if we take the young people, we isolate them with their peers, then who are they learning from? They're learning from rookies who are just like themselves, who are still searching, who are still finding their way, as opposed to, you know, the privilege we have here. They're learning from you. You know, they're learning from you how to act like men and women of God. They're learning from you how to respect one another as adults in the family of God. They're learning from you how to treat visitors when they come. They're learning from you how to help with the chores around the chapel. They're learning from you how to help guide the precious little ones in our meeting and how to keep them safe. They're learning from you how to participate in worship and show reverence in the remembrance meeting. They're learning from you how to sit quietly during the teaching. They learn from you how to be courteous to others and give preference to one another. Looking at others as being more important than yourself, whether it's going through the food line and not taking too much or waiting for others to go, giving preference to others. In whatever way, they're learning how to be good Christians from you, from the, what I should say, the veterans of the faith, and that's where we want them to be learning from, not isolating them with their peers to only learn amongst their peers. They won't learn these things best from other teens. They'll learn from watching the veterans of the faith, mature adult Christians. We bought into the ways of the world if we create a phase in life where a person has the physical capabilities and privileges of an adult without the responsibilities. That's not biblical. If you've got the physical capabilities and you've got the privileges of an adult, then you also have the responsibilities that go along with that. There's no... There's not this, you know, cheat time. There's not this time that the world would say you're sowing your wild oats. A time of being wild and free before having responsibility and settling down. There's not a time of getting it all out of your system before being tied down with responsibility. That's not the way it works. I see young adults today who are of age to begin acting like adults, but they're still too cool to be like us lame adults. They're carefree and too ignorant to handle the real things of life, and they prefer to have it that way. That's the way they like it. While in contrast, it ought to be something that they strive for to be the adults. That is what they should hope to accomplish. When I was a young, immature person, I say when, you know, like I arrived or something like that, but back when I was even more immature than I am now, I wanted to be on the junior varsity basketball team for absolutely the longest period of time they would allow me to be on the team. And let me tell you why. It meant more floor time for me. It meant I'm on the court. I'm a starter. I get to play more. I'm a bigger deal on the team. I can hold my own on the court. And the people that are out there, I'm just as big or bigger than the rest of them that are out there. And that's the way I wanted it. I was a big fish, but I didn't realize it was such a little pond. and I wanted to stay in that phase for as long as I absolutely could. As I matured though, I realized that JV was just really kind of a consolation round. Sure, it was legit to us youngsters and it's a good training ground, but the point is to graduate to the varsity. Most of the fans didn't show up for the JV games. They waited until our game was over and the varsity game started. That's when the paying fans would come in. They'd pay their admission so they could watch the older people play. That's what financed the program. That's what was important. That's what gave us the ability all to be there in the program. Without the varsity, there is no junior varsity. There was no need for, there was no purpose, and it wouldn't exist and survive without the varsity. Varsity represented the school. Your school was rated based on the record of your varsity team. Nobody cared how strong the JV team was. The only relevance of the strength and the purpose of it was so that you were breeding good, strong people to put into your varsity team. That was the point. The smart ones, that were my age, the smart ones, they were willing to give up that starting position on JV so that they could be second string on the varsity team. They knew what was important. But us immature ones, we didn't understand these things. You gotta grow up to realize. And I need to get into the big pond before I can really grow myself and make a difference in what's going on. It's much harder, it's much more painful, it's not as fun, but it's necessary in order to further the cause. I have to grow up out of that JV stage. And so it is in our Christian faith, we ought not to spend loads of time and resources, extending the time that believers can spend in the JV program in their Christianity. That's not the point and that's not a biblical model. By legitimizing this middle ground and prolonging a phase of life when they are sucking resources, isolated from the real work and from mature believers, the responsibility of the kingdom is not incumbent upon them along with the benefits. Now, again, please understand, I'm not saying a youth group in and of itself would be a bad thing. What I'm saying is, is that it needs to employ biblical principles of development if it's to be a healthy phase of growth for those young individuals. It ought to be a shortened phase. It ought to be a phase that's getting them ready to move on to the next phase. Otherwise it can be crippling and actually stunt the growth of a young believer if we prolong this phase and isolate them in this group and have this expectation that they're just gonna sit here in this phase and not have the expectations of a young adult upon them. There must be education, experience and interaction with a healthy cross section of mature believers. There must also be a striving to graduate from the program and a longing to be an asset to the kingdom of God. Paul says, I put off childish things and became a man or became an adult. It should be instructive to us that there is no transitional phase in Paul's program. Now there are stages of childhood and there are stages of adulthood. It's not just the two, you've got the two phases, but you have different stages within those phases. And scripture does recognize this. Turn to 1 John in your Bibles, 1 John chapter two. And we'll just take a look at an example. But I hate to break it to you young people, from a biblical standpoint in categorization, you're either a young adult or you're just an older child. You don't have a phase in between that you can be proud of, really. You're either an older child or you're a young adult. You've gotta fit into one of those categories. For a long time, you desired when you were little, you saw the adults at the adult table, you wanted to sit at the adult table during the holiday meals or the potluck meals or whatever it is, and that's good. You should long for being there in that place. But I want you to notice something. that usually it's one of the mature servant adults during the potlucks that will go and sit at the little kids table with the little kids to give instruction and to help cut meat and hopefully keep a food fight from breaking out or something like that. But they understand there is a place of service to be had there. So anyway, 1 John 2 and verse 12 says, I write unto you little children because your sins are forgiven you for his name's sake. Now I want you to pause right here for a second. Note when you see this phrase, little children, in the New Testament. It is either obviously talking about little children, so you have, you know, like the ones that came to Jesus and the disciples tried to shoo them away and Jesus said, suffer the little ones to come to me. Okay, so either it's obviously little children or it refers to new believers, okay, baby Christians. And Jesus uses it once in addressing his disciples in the Gospel of John. Paul uses it once in Galatians, but John uses it nine times in this first epistle. And each time it is used, it's an indication that the teaching that is to follow is probably pretty basic, but very vital to your faith in nature. It's also a term of endearment. The speaker is saying, you know, I really care about you, and this that I'm about to say is very important. You are precious to me, I want you to hear this. This is vital for your development. So don't miss what I'm about to say, it's essential. and it's for your protection. That's what it means when you see the little children in the New Testament. So moving on, well, let's just read verse 12 again. I write unto you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you for his name's sake. I write unto you, fathers, because you have known him that is from the beginning. I write unto you, young men, because ye have overcome the wicked one. I write unto you, little children, because you have known the father. I have written unto you, fathers, because ye have known him that is from the beginning. "'I have written unto you young men, "'because ye are strong, "'and the word of God abideth in you, "'and ye have overcome the wicked one.'" You see, John recognizes that there's two phases here. There's children and there's men. There's childhood and there's adulthood. And within those phases, there are other stages. Within adulthood, he recognizes that you have both the young adults and the fathers. perhaps we should say the more well-seasoned adults, maybe, the veterans of the faith. Let's put it that way. But notice that John says to the young adults or the young men, the last part of verse 14 that we just read, he says, I have written unto you young men because ye are strong and the word of God abideth in you and ye have overcome the wicked one. It sounds a little bit more intense than a youth group that always is just eating pizza and going bowling. Now, I don't have anything against good fellowship, like those things are fun. But if that's the focus of, you know, the young people, then they're not following the biblical model because, you know, the young men, the young adults in the faith, they are the strong. The word of God abides in them. They've overcome the wicked one. It's adult stuff. The Bible describes young adulthood as a phase where there is much physical capability and strength and energy to carry out the work of the Lord, but while recognizing the need for the wisdom of the aged ones. I said aged ones, not ancient ones, the aged ones, okay? They recognize that they're in a phase of life where God has given them physical strength and energy, and they've got that vitality, they've got that zeal, okay? And they go forth, but under the direction and employing the wisdom always of the older ones in the faith. Now turn in your Bibles to Titus 2. While you're turning there, I'm just gonna read a couple of other verses that bear out this principle that I'm trying to convince you of, that there's only two phases in the biblical model here of growing in our faith. Proverbs 20, 29 says, the glory of young men is their strength and the beauty of old men is the gray head or their wisdom. Today, we talk about going gray as if it's a bad thing, but it's an honorable thing in scripture and we should look more highly on it today than we do. Joel 2.28 says, and it shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy and your old men shall dream dreams and your young men shall see visions. Again here, without getting into the context of what's going on here in Joel, we see mature adults and we see young adults side by side doing the work of the Lord. And of course, Ray Comfort always says of this passage, he says, if he has a dream and he's telling you about his dream, he'll tell you, I had a vision. And he says, I know it was a vision and not a dream because the scripture says that the old men dream dreams, young men see vision. So I know it was a vision. So hopefully you're there, Titus two, verse three. It says, the aged women, likewise, that they be in behavior as becometh holiness, not false accusers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things, that they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children. The young women and the young men are not to be isolated to learn from each other. No, the older adults are to be teaching the younger adults. Again, not preaching against a program where you have young adults, but the model ought to be that they need to be learning from a healthy-sized cross-section of mature believers, we ought not throw a whole bunch of them in a room with one guy and lock them in there for a decade. That's just not the biblical model for them to learn to grow in their faith. You can have your programs and your young fellowships, but they need to have lots of interaction where the older can teach the younger. The aged women, it says here, plural, teach the younger women, plural. It's not about just one person taking on all the responsibility to teach our young people. And some of these young people belong to me. And frankly, I'll tell you, it's not my responsibility 100% how they will turn out and how they will function in the body. If they're doing something right, that is a tribute to, you know, I mean, the great work that the Lord's doing. And also all of you that also are part of their development in the body of Christ and in their Christian faith. It doesn't all come from me. You all have a part in that work and we ought to take responsibility one for another, and that includes our young people. So I apologize for my soapbox here. But let me show you why I feel so strongly about this. Turn to 2nd Corinthians, or excuse me, here I did it again. 2nd Chronicles, not Corinthians. Corinthians is the one in the New Testament. When I'm not paying much attention to the message and I'm just kind of in the subconscious mind and I hear Chronicles, I'll often turn to Corinthians. Chronicles is in the Old Testament there. 1st and 2nd Kings, 1st 2nd Chronicles. So remember Rehoboam, he was Solomon's son. Solomon had built a brilliant kingdom with magnificent infrastructure. And although at the beginning, he was given much wisdom by God, we know that in his later years, he faltered and some things became a stumbling block to him. And in the estimation of the people, he had to some degree abused his authority by building that empire on the backs of the people. through manual labor and through heavy taxation. This was the way that people felt, right or wrong, it's the way that the people felt. And the people desired a scaling back of the government when Solomon died. And so we're gonna pick up the reading here in 2 Chronicles, reading the story where they have just crowned Rehoboam, who is Solomon's son, as king. And this is what the people wanted. It says in 2 Chronicles 10 verse three, and they sent and called him. So Jeroboam and all Israel came and spake to Rehoboam saying, thy father made our yoke grievous. They're talking about Solomon, the former king. They said, thy father made our yoke grievous. Now therefore ease thou somewhat the grievous servitude of thy father and this heavy yoke that he put upon us and we will serve thee. And he said unto them, that is Rehoboam says to the people, come again unto me after three days. And so the people departed. Verse six, and King Rehoboam took counsel with the old men that had stood before Solomon, his father, before he yet lived. saying, what counsel give ye me to return answer to this people? And they spake unto him saying, if thou be kind to this people and please them and speak good words to them, they will be thy servants forever. But he forsook the counsel which the old men gave him, and took counsel with the young men that were brought up with him that stood before him." There's that isolation that's taking place. It's the young men that were brought up with him and stood before him. "'They were his peers, they were also his counselors, "'but were not qualified to be so.'" Verse nine, "'And he said unto them, "'What advice give ye that we may return answer "'to this people, which ye have spoken to me, "'saying, ye somewhat the yoke "'that thy father did put upon us.'" Verse 10, And the young men that were brought up with him spake unto him, saying, Thus shalt thou answer the people that spake unto thee, saying, Thy father made our yoke heavy, but make thou it somewhat lighter for us. Thus shalt thou say unto them, My little finger shall be thicker than my father's loins. "'For whereas my father put a heavy yoke upon you, "'I will put more to your yoke. "'My father chastise you with whips, "'but I will chastise you with scorpions.' "'So Jeroboam and all the people came to Rehoboam "'on the third day, as the king bade, saying, "'Come again to me on the third day.' "'And the king answered them roughly, "'and King Rehoboam forsook the counsel of the old men, "'and answered them after the advice of the young men.'" You see, Rehoboam should have taken... the advice of the old men. Rehoboam took the advice of the young men that he had been brought up with. He should have been brought up amongst the older and wiser men. I don't know if this is something that Solomon just neglected to do, but it says these men counseled Solomon, you know, before Rehoboam was around, but you know, when was it Rehoboam's time to hang around the wiser, older men? We don't know. This, This is a critical moment in the history of the nation of Israel. And at a critical moment, he forsakes the wise counsel of the elders and follows the advice of his peers. This selfish act alone is responsible for dividing the nation of Israel. When we talk about Israel and Judah being two separate nations, and we're going through the history of the Kings and the Chronicles, this is why. It's because the kingdom split when many revolted against Rehoboam at his aggravated oppression of the people. Rehoboam acted childishly here, but he was not excused from it just because he's young, he's just starting out, you know, he's just part of the youth group. You know, so it's after all, it's okay. No, the stakes were high because he was a young adult. He ought to know better. There are many things that we pardon in our children because, well, they're just a child. If a child makes a foolish remark, you know, does something foolish, they do something clumsy, you know, we excuse it. We say, well, you know, they're only a child. They're, you know, when they, as they grow up, they, you know, hopefully won't continue to act that way. But if when the child grows up and they're still no wiser than they were, we say by way of reproach that he is childish, that he is acting like a child when he ought not to be doing so at this age. They ought to know better. We never say, ah, take it easy. You know, they're just a teenager. No big deal. You know, she's just a college student. You know, we can't expect much yet. Absolutely not. As a young adult, the stakes are high, the consequences are severe. If they have adult privileges and they have adult capabilities, then they have that adult responsibility and they are a young adult. I remember when I was 13 years old, my family made a big deal of the fact that I was turning a teenager. We had lots of fun and caught up in my family when I was growing up. There was a lot of teasing and a lot of joking. And they teased that they had taken my brain or that a fairy had come along and had taken my brain at the age of 13 and would not return to me until sometime when I was in my early 20s. I don't remember what the exact rules of the situation were, but they kind of made a little game out of this. And it was all done in jest, I know. But yet it reinforced a small message that the world had been putting there for quite some time. And that is, you know, everybody goes through this stage of life and pretty much everybody does a lot of dumb things. So really it's okay. It's okay. We expect you to be wild and careless and foolish for a time while you're still learning how to be a young adult. That's the message that gets reinforced. Now, surely I knew that there were higher standards that we attain to. as I had grown up in a Christian family. But we need to be careful what we communicate to our young adults, our young people, by way of expectation when we communicate to them, and how we communicate to them as young people, what those expectations are. Because we don't live, we are in the world, but we are not of the world system that says, there's this free period, there's this time out between childhood and adulthood where you kind of get out of jail free card. It's not so. And it ruins a lot of lives because of the mistakes that are made in that time period. And if nothing else, there's a lot of wasted years when there could be development in growing in the things of God and becoming a productive member of the body of Christ that just simply get wasted during those times. When are we expected to grow up? How long do we get to play on the JV team? According to the Bible, we put away childish things, we start thinking like men and women immediately. It happens in stages, but there's not an in-between phase. It's under the direction and guidance of the older ones, of the wiser ones, but you're still an adult. I think one of the reasons that we lack growing up in our faith is for want of self-control. I'm gonna read something for you here. They only are to be accounted manly who are masters of themselves, who act from reason, not from passion. Remember what St. Paul says, everyone that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. in meat, drink, speech, pleasure, pursuit of earthly gains. The way to self-mastery is to be on the watch against all excess, all inordinate affection, to bring your bodies into subjection to the law of your mind. But how far is this from being the general temper of mankind? Where can we find true manliness and integrity? A steadiness not to be shaken by low passions, a love of truth not to be warped by silly prejudices, and an elevation of mind not to be depressed by the temptations and trials of this world. We now mistake presumption for knowledge, a strange imagination for a sound understanding, and the delusions of passion for the perceptions of truth. As you can probably tell, I didn't write any of that, but I sure sound good saying it. Self-control, temperance in all things. I'll close with this though. No, actually I'm gonna speak it instead. When I was a child, and even as I raise adult, children, well, when my children were still babies, I should say, I hated this explanation because I said so. I thought to myself, I'm never gonna say that to my kids when I have kids, when my parents would say it to me. And my thought was that if I desired for my children to do something, this was still before they were old, If I desire for my children to do something, there's always going to be a valid reason. So the reason never has to be because I said so, because backing up the I said so is always a real valid reason. Well indeed, I found that there's always a reason. I was right about that. But sometimes that reason is a little too complicated for the understanding of the one that you're trying to tell to do something. And sometimes it's not one big reason that's simple in a nice little package. Sometimes it's a hundred little reasons that comprise into one really good big reason. And I have found that just sharing one of these reasons with my children, or now young adults, would result in them excusing that reason away with valid logic. It's time to do something. Well, what about this? Well, OK, you make a good point. So I give reason number two, to which they quickly articulate how the argument could be voided as well. And I start to think to myself. Well, sure enough, I just find myself saying, as my parents did, how about just do it because I said so? Not because that is the only reason, but because I just don't have time to argue the synergistic effect of the other 98 reasons that we don't have time to talk about right now. So how about just because I said so? Part of growing up is learning submission. And even when we are not afforded a proper explanation, we ought to be submissive. God tells us to be submissive one to another. He tells us to submit to the leadership. He tells us to submit to our parents. He tells us to submit one to another. There's often multiple ways to achieve a goal, but when people are working together, they all have to use the same method. So there has to be some kind of order in everybody working together, and there might be more than one valid way to do something, but the Bible teaches us to submit one to another. Now, God's way is always the best way, obviously. But there's some times that we don't understand God's ways. There's some times we don't understand the rules that are given to us in the Bible. There's some times we don't understand why God's allowing something to happen in our lives. And I'm wondering about the times when God just says, I said so. because I said so. Not because there's not a reason, but because it's just not time for us to understand that reason. Sometimes there is just not the time, and sometimes it's not expedient for the Lord to make those things clear to us. And sometimes, you know, just as kids growing up, we had to learn to accept, I said so. as a valid reason. Even though it was frustrating and I couldn't stand it, I still had to learn to submit to, I said so. Whether I thought it was right at the time or not, I had to learn to submit to it. And sometimes as growing up as believers, sometimes becoming, you know, in this stage of life and growing into our faith, sometimes we have to accept from God the I said so, because either we haven't studied it out fully for ourselves and we're not mature enough, we haven't figured it out yet, or sometimes it's something that we're not gonna figure out until eternity, the reasons behind the things God did and the purposes that he did, but we still submit to that I said so sometimes. And that's part of growing up in our faith. Let's pray. God and Heavenly Father, it is our desire this morning and throughout our walk in you that we do learn to put away these childish things and become adults. We thank you for this great thing, this great mystery that you've made first of all in salvation and just bringing us into your family, but then furthermore, sanctification, where you make us fit for your kingdom and adoption, where you place us into that place of really fully recognizing and fully taking advantage of the benefits. And we know there's still more to come, because your word even talks about, you know, waiting for the adoption to wit, as there's even more for us to look forward to. Father, we pray that we would walk worthy of that calling. We pray that you help us to submit to you, even when we don't understand. To submit to each other, even when maybe we think we've got a little bit of an inkling of a better way, or we just desire to have it our own way. We pray, Father, that you would help us in relation to our young people. that we wouldn't put upon them an expectation that the world puts upon them, that we wouldn't mimic a system that the world has for them, but that we would show them the pattern of your scriptures and the expectations that you have upon them. And we pray that we would do so in a loving, respectful way also, realizing that they are your children as well, that they deserve that respect as well, as your children and as members of the body of Christ. So we pray that you would help us in all these things. In the name of your son, the Lord Jesus Christ, amen.