There are two handouts on the table tonight. The first one says the Growing Christian Life Spring Semester 2016. This is just a tentative outline of where we plan to head between now and the time we break for summer. So you'll have an idea of the. kind of material we're going to cover. You'll notice there's 16 lessons planned front and back. There are also some built-in fellowship event nights for our occasional fish fry or whatever. And the spring break is also listed on there. So if you are looking ahead to what we're going to be doing, this is the outline. I emphasize the tentative part You never know when illness or bad weather this time of year or something will hold us up and certainly can be amended. It's not a law of the Medes and Persians which cannot be changed. The other handout is simply the outline for our study tonight. We're going to be looking this term at the subject, the growing Christian life. And the question we're really going to try to answer is, how can I become a more mature believer? How can I deepen my faith? How can I become more obedient to the Lord? How can I become a better worshiper? How can I become a better witness for Christ? And those are the kinds of subjects that we will be looking at between now and May. You will see that this study is a little different from what we've been doing. We'll find ourselves looking at a variety of scripture passages, for example, during each lesson. We'll also be doing things that are a little more informal and a little more of the practical side of the Christian life. So, You'll see, this isn't like what we've been doing in previous semesters, and that's fine. We need this as well. We want a good balanced diet as time goes along. Tonight, we're gonna talk about the beginnings of the Christian life. And if you would turn in your Bibles to Ephesians chapter four, you'll get a flavor for what we're hoping to do, not only by this lesson, but by the lessons that follow as well. Ephesians chapter four. And we're going to begin to read it, verse one. I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you've been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. There's one body and one spirit, just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and father of all who is over all and through all and in all. But grace was given to each one of us according to Christ's gift. And therefore it says, when he ascended on high, he led a host of captives and he gave gifts to men. In saying he ascended, what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower regions, the earth. He who descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heavens that he might fill all things. And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers to equip the saints for the work of ministry. for building up the body of Christ until we all attain to the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes, Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way unto him who is the head and to Christ from whom the whole body joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped. When each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love. In this passage, the Apostle Paul reminds us that There is a sense in which Jesus is building the church on the basis of unity. He has given us all one faith, one calling, one hope. We've all been baptized with the same baptism, Paul writes. We have one God and father of all. There's a great deal that we share in common. But on the other hand, Jesus is also building his church in diversity. He has given to us different graces, different gifts. He has called some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be shepherd teachers or pastor teachers, some to be evangelists. And he's given people different gifts and different offices so that the whole body might grow and attain what Paul calls here mature manhood. That's the goal, that we should reach maturity. And that maturity is defined in this passage as the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. In other words, we are to mature believers when we begin to do things the way that Jesus wants us to do them in every area of life. When we begin to think like Jesus wants us to, when we begin to talk like Jesus wants us to, when we begin to use our time and our resources as Jesus wants us to, that is Christian maturity. And when we grow in this way, we grow up in every way into him who is the head, even Christ. When we grow in maturity, we grow nearer to Christ and we grow greater in our devotion to him. And as Paul tells us in verse 16, we become more useful to the life of the church. We become helpers of other people as they seek to grow. And that's what we should be striving for. Not just our own personal growth, but that we might also be more useful to help others grow. And that's what we're going to be trying to do in this particular unit of lessons. The first question that we're going to look at tonight is a very simple one. Where does the Christian life begin? And we can answer that question in two ways. We can speak in terms of externals and internals. The external right by which we become Christians is what? baptism. The Bible speaks of baptism as the means by which we enter into the covenant with God and we submit ourselves to the terms of the covenant of grace that we studied about in the last semester. By baptism, we acknowledge that God is our Father and that we are His people, and we are acknowledging that we are dependent upon His grace for salvation. In this particular church, when a person is baptized, he or she has to declare that He or she is a sinner, unable to save himself or herself, and depending solely upon the sovereign mercy of God in Jesus Christ, looks to Jesus alone for salvation. And that's, in a very real way, that person is coming into the church, and he's declaring himself to be a Christian, and he is saying, I want to identify with Jesus. So in an external or formal sense, we say that people enter into a relationship with Christ by means of baptism. But we also know that that doesn't necessarily take root internally, does it? There are a lot of people who have been baptized who have no sense of God as Father, who have no real allegiance to Jesus as Savior. They don't live by faith. They don't seek to trust and obey, as we sing in the hymn. They make no efforts to live out the Christian life. They are simply names on a roll somewhere. They get baptized and join the church and you never see them again. And so we realize, even from a practical level, that the Christian life also has to be an internal reality. And that internal reality is described in the New Testament by a variety of different terms. Jesus speaks of it, for example, as conversion. Unless you are converted and become as a little child, you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven. Well, what does conversion mean? Literally, it simply means to be turned around. It describes a person who was walking this way, and they are converted or turned around, so they begin to walk in a different way. Spiritually, we would say they were walking away from God. They were walking in rebellion against God. They were not willing to submit to God's authority. They were rejecting the gospel of the New Testament, but then, At their conversion, what do they do? They turn around, and rather than flee from God, they flee to God in Christ. And they look to Jesus for forgiveness of their sins. They acknowledge him to be the true Son of God in the flesh and the only Savior of sinners. They give themselves freely to Christ in love, worship, obedience, and service. And Jesus says, that is a big change. That's a big turnaround. There's a kind of time in which you go from being anti-God to being pro-God. And that's a real part of becoming a Christian. Now, we need to stop at this point and in a kind of parenthetical statement say, you may or may not know when that happened. Some people go through very dramatic conversion experiences. They can name the date and time when they became Christians. I remember that night when I gave my life to Jesus Christ. And you may have found that experience accompanied by all kinds of extraordinary things. I've met people over the years who were alcoholics and drug addicts, and they gave themselves to Christ in faith. And they said, I was delivered from those habits on the very night that I became a Christian. We'll talk about the great joy and peace that flooded their hearts the night they became Christians. But then I know other very committed Christians who say. You know, I know there was a conversion, but I just don't know exactly when it was. I can't pinpoint the day or night when I became a Christian. I know the Lord worked in my heart. I know he gave me a new faith in Christ. I know that he has enabled me to see myself as a sinner and to place all of my hope in his life, death and resurrection. I know that the Lord has done this, but, I really can't pinpoint when it was. It was a kind of a gradual kind of thing. Thankfully, I also know some people who can say, you know, I was converted at such an early age that I don't even remember a day when I didn't love the Lord Jesus Christ. I don't remember a day when I was walking out estranged from God. I know I was born that way because the Bible tells me I am, but I was led to faith in Christ at such an early age that I almost feel like John the Baptist who leaped in his mother's womb when he heard the presence of the Savior coming. Or like Jeremiah, who was told by God, I knew you while you were still in the womb and I loved you and I called you at that time. We don't always know when conversion takes place, but the Bible is quite clear that to be saved, we have to be converted. On another occasion, Jesus uses a different image. The idea is the same. He tells Nicodemus that he must be what? Must be born again. And we understand that idea that you have a life, but this life is a life of sin and self. And then what happens? The Lord, by the work of the Holy Spirit, comes and gives you a new life. He imparts to you a new heart. And this new heart doesn't act like the old heart does. It wants to know God. It hungers to be with Christ. It longs to live in service to God. It wants to be a slave of Jesus Christ. Oh, it has to grow in its commitment. It has to learn new ways just as babies have to learn a new life. But there is definitely a change. There is a new birth, a second start. And Jesus told Nicodemus that no one can see or enter the kingdom of heaven unless he has been born again. So it is a prerequisite for the Christian life. One must get the fresh start the new birth. And we generally refer to this as again, conversion and regeneration. God turns us around and God gives us a new life. But at some point, the Christian life has to take root inside of us. That's the key. At some point, the Christian faith becomes our faith. It's not just the faith that my parents had and grandparents, it's the faith I possess. I look to Jesus and I find in him my savior and Lord. The second question on the outline is, how does Christian conversion change us? Assuming we were walking this way and God has turned us around and brought us that way, assuming we did have an old life and God has now given to us a new life, what comes with that new life? And there are four terms that you really need to understand if you're going to grasp this new life. And they're not terms we use all the time, but they're not that difficult. So just a little bit of effort and I think you'll grasp them. The first one is justification. The apostle Paul tells us in Romans chapters three, four, and five, that those who believe in Jesus Christ are justified by grace through faith in Christ alone. They are justified by grace through faith in Christ alone. Now, each of those ideas is important. We are justified because God freely wants to justify us. It's a gracious thing. We're not justified because we've earned a new status with God. It's something God graciously gives us. We are also justified by faith. as opposed to works. We're justified by believing what God has said in his word rather than by boasting of things we have accomplished. We are justified in Christ. It is by looking to Jesus that we are justified. And we are justified in Christ alone. We can't put our hope in anyone but Jesus if we want justification. We are justified by grace through faith in Christ alone. Now, Again, what does it mean to be justified? Perhaps in Sunday school you learned to be justified means to be just as if I'd never sinned. Have you ever heard that one? To be justified is to be treated by God just as if I'd never sinned. In justification, God declares us to be righteous in his sight. Now God's not stupid, God's not blind. He knows we're not righteous. He understands our past record. He understands our hearts. The idea is not that God simply turns a kind of blind eye and a deaf ear to what we've done. It's the idea that God treats us as righteous because Jesus Christ has given us his righteousness. It's the idea that God declares us to be good in his sight because Jesus covers us with his goodness and his goodness is sufficient for our salvation. Jesus bestows upon us the benefits of his life, death and resurrection so that we become the heirs, that's another word Paul uses in the New Testament, of his redeeming work. We might choose to say today that we are the beneficiaries of Christ's work. Picture a life insurance policy where and you pay a premium over and over again for some member of your family, or for yourself, and you pay the premium and then you die, and all the benefits of that policy aren't yours, even though you've paid all the premiums. Where do the benefits go? To your beneficiaries, to the ones that you've designated to receive those benefits. And in a sense, that's the gospel. Jesus has paid the premiums for your salvation and mine, if you're a Christian, and he has given you the benefits of his holy living, the benefits of his atoning death, the benefits of his glorious resurrection, so that you can receive what he alone has earned. And because you are given Christ's righteousness and because Christ has taken your sins away, you can be declared as righteous or good or holy in the sight of God and you are justified. When does this happen? When you put your faith in Jesus Christ. At that moment, you are justified. You are already declared not guilty before the throne of God. You are already declared to be righteous in Christ's sight. And that's why Paul begins the fifth chapter of the book of Romans by saying, therefore, we are justified by grace through faith. And we have peace with God. It's not something we're looking forward to in the future. is something we already have because of our standing with Jesus Christ. If you are a Christian, I can tell you on the basis of God's word that you will never be any more justified than you are right now. You'll never be any less justified than you are right now. God has already declared you. to be righteous for the sake of Christ. And he did that when you put your faith in Jesus. The second term that's used is the word sanctification. And it's important that we understand the difference between justification and sanctification. Justification is an act of God's free grace, whereby he declares us to be righteous. And that's a once for all action when we put our faith in Christ. That's when we are saved. Sanctification is a work of God's free grace, and it is a work that accompanies justification and follows justification, but in sanctification, God actually begins to make us more and more righteous. That's the simplest way to put it. Now, it gets a little more complex than that. I hate to tell you that, but it does. The Bibles, for example, speaks of us as being justified now, I mean, sanctified now, as in the process of being sanctified now, and it also speaks of us as one day being sanctified. And the idea seems to be that because we're justified and because God sanctifies everybody who is justified by faith in Christ, there is a sense in which we can already claim to be sanctified, that we can already claim to be set apart for God's purposes. We can already claim to be holy because Christ's holiness is upon us. But then there's also that kind of daily progressive sense by which we become more and more sanctified if we're believers. Every Christian should be able to look back and say, God has been working in my life ever since I was justified. My prayer life's different from what it used to be. My relationship with other people is different from what it used to be. My love of scripture is different from what it used to be. My desire to worship God is different from what it used to be. My speech is different from what it used to be. Jesus is changing me, and that's sanctification. He is making us what? More and more mature. He's growing us up as we read in Ephesians four. He is helping us to put off the old self and to put on the new self as Paul puts it in Colossians chapter three. God is making us to be less of what we were and more of what we ought to be. I remember as a kid, they used to say the simplest testimony every Christian can give is this. I'm not what I ought to be, and I'm not what I'm gonna be, but I praise God that I'm not what I used to be. That's sanctification. It's the idea that God is progressively working in us and changing us to make us the kind of people he's already declared us to be in justification. And one day we're going to be completely sanctified. Don't look for it tomorrow, unless Jesus called you home. Because as long as we're in this world, we're gonna continue to bear the vestiges of sin, aren't we? Even the most mature Christian in this world is sometimes going to embarrass us and bring shame to the name of Christ and commit tragic sins. All of us are susceptible to those things. We all carry within us that body of death that's gonna be with us until the day that We are either called home to heaven or Jesus comes and brings with him the heavenly kingdom. But when we do get to heaven, then we will be fully, completely, and eternally sanctified. We will be holy in every sense of the word. The apostle John tells us that when Jesus comes, we will see him as he is, and we will become like him. What a wonderful thought. There is a day ahead for the Christian when you will no longer have to bite your tongue and say, why did I say that? There is a day coming when we will desire only the things that are good. There is a day coming when we will love God perfectly and completely. And we should be thrilled by that. And we should be thrilled that God's Holy Spirit is working in us even now to bring us closer to that day and to keep us in Christ until that day arrives. So Christian conversion brings us justification. It brings us sanctification. And then the New Testament tells us it also brings us adoption. We understand something about adoption. Adoption is being taken out of one family and being put into a new family. And in case of our conversion, we're taking out of the worldly family that Jesus in John chapter eight describes as the family of the devil. You are of your father, the devil, he says. And we are adopted into God's family and we are declared to be his children by adoption. Jesus is the rightful and eternal son of God. We become children by grace. God simply wants to put us into his family. And when we are converted, we are brought into the family of Christ. He allows us to call him father because he becomes our new father. and we begin to bear his name, and we begin to grow in his image, and we live in his house, and we learn how to live by his rules, and we learn the values and attitudes of the new family into which God puts us. Several years ago, I taught a student who had been raised in an atheist family in Czechoslovakia, but this, Boy, I guess he was probably eight or nine when he was adopted by parents in Hattiesburg and brought to the United States, was put into a Christian family in Hattiesburg. When they adopted him, they gave him a new name. They let him live in a new country. taught him all about the new ways of the United States. They taught him the Christian faith. He put his own faith in Christ and was baptized, becoming a believer. He learned life in a whole new world. And it was hard for him at times because people didn't understand the accent that he carried. And he still could remember what it was like in the old country. and how people lived in small apartments and food was a little more scarce than it was in Hattiesburg and opportunities were way more limited. And now he was living in a place where the home was several times larger than the one he had grown up in and he had new brothers and sisters that talked differently and treated him differently. Sometimes they got exasperated with him and would sort of beat him up a little bit, as brothers and sisters can do. But then they would also stand up for him at school when someone would pick on him for his funny accent. And they would all sort of gather around and say, he's our brother. Don't you pick on him. We can fight on with him all we want to, but you can't. And when we are converted, the New Testament tells us God takes us out of an old way of life and puts us in a new family, his family. And the brothers and sisters in that family sometimes talk funny. And they sometimes do really stupid and mean things, just like brothers and sisters can do. And we learn very quickly that life in the church, the family of Christ, the household of God, as Paul puts it in 1 Timothy chapter 3, is not always pleasant. It's not always easy, because it's made up of sinners like us. But we're still drawn there because this is our new family. And these are people who love the father as we do. And these are people who are being sanctified by the same grace that we are. And we want to be with them. And we might have our days of nitpicking with them, but we want to stand together with them against the forces of the world. We are genuinely, really, not just metaphorically, We are genuinely and really made members of God's new family when we are converted. The fourth idea is glorification. This one's pretty easy for most of us to grasp. It's the idea that there is a day ahead, actually an eternity ahead, I guess is the best way to put it, when you and I as believers are no longer going to be bound by sin. We're no longer going to live in a world of sin and death and sickness and corruption and depravity and evil and chaos and violence. All those things are going to be done away We're going to live in a world of glory and holiness and perfection. And the most amazing thing is that we're going to be part of that. And that life is not going to be a passing life. Remember, we looked Sunday morning at Psalm 90, where Moses talks about a man living 70 or 80 years and it being a life of toil. And then we're done. but it's going to be an eternity in the presence of God. I have frequently mentioned, I think here on Tuesday nights, I know on Sunday mornings, that one of the things that just really boggles my mind as I get older is my inability to grasp how long eternity is. You know, we sing the last stanza of Amazing Grace, When we've been there 10,000 years, bright shining as the sun, we've no less days to sing God's praise than when we first begun. We're no nearer the end after 10,000 years, John Newton says, than we were when we started. Can you grasp that concept? Can you grasp the idea that there will never, ever be an end to the fellowship that we will enjoy with Christ in eternity? There will never, ever be an end to the holiness and the joy and the wonder of living in the new heavens and the new earth. However hard this life is, however short or long it is, it is as nothing in comparison with what God has in store for those who love him. Eye has not seen nor ear heard, the Bible tells us. about the great mysteries that lie beyond this world, and yet that eternal world is the world to which God is taking us, and our conversion is the beginning of that trip. And it will never leave us at any destination other than glory. So we are converted to enter into the Christian life. And as we are converted, we are justified, sanctified, adopted, and glorified. Sounds pretty good so far, doesn't it? Sounds like the kind of life everybody would want to enter into. But then we start scratching our heads a little bit and we say, eh, sort of pie-in-the-sky, by-and-by thinking, isn't it? That's not the life I live. That's not the world in which I find myself. I wish that conversion had been this straight, smooth interstate to heaven. But the world in which I live is more like a pig trail and it's got bumps and holes in it and there's no telling what's looming in the tall grass on the sides that's going to jump out and scare me. The life that I live today is kind of rocky. What does the Bible tell us about that? And it does tell us that there are some things that can hinder our Christian growth. We could probably name a lot of them. Tonight, we're gonna look at just four, though, very quickly. And one of the obstacles that hinders our own growth is what we might just refer to as immaturity. I have a five-year-old grandson who at certain times thinks he knows as much as anybody in the whole world and that he can do anything in the whole world. And that he is really walking on top of the world and everybody else is just sort of dragging him backwards. And that's the way five-year-olds sometimes are. I keep telling his mother, just wait till he becomes a teenager. And then you'll really begin to see I used to laugh at 10th grade students when I was teaching school and say, you are sophomores. I wish you would all go look up what the word sophomore means. And they'd sort of look at you funny and I'd say, well, you know, there's two Greek words behind it. One is the word Sophia, from which we get wisdom. And the other, the more a part is the word from which we get moron. And the sophomores are really people who don't have any wisdom. They think they have lots of wisdom, but they're morons and they fool themselves into thinking that they're smart and educated and got it all together when they're not. And I said, have you ever noticed that 15 years old tends to come right about sophomore time? 15 year olds tend to think that they're smarter than their parents and that they can do anything, that they don't want any kind of rules put upon them and so forth. And they think they're so mature. And we look at them as adults and say, what? That is so sophomoric. That is so foolish. You don't know what maturity is. You are way too immature to make basic decisions like that about the future of your life. And while we laugh at 15-year-olds for doing that, the fact is, as Christians, we sometimes do the same thing, don't we? We like to think we have it all together, and we like to think that we have all the answers. And sometimes our own pride and ignorance really hurt us. One of the things that saddens me more than most things is when I see some well-known person become a Christian and immediately the media begins to ask this athlete or this movie star or politician or whatever, What do you think about abortion? What do you think about homosexual marriage? What do you think about such and such? As if a newborn Christian should really be prepared to answer all those questions. And I keep waiting for one of these new converts to say, hey, I'm just a babe in Christ. I'm new at this. I'm still learning my way. But most of them just say, well, I think such and such. And the media takes their answer to be the Christian answer. And the seasoned saint, the long committed Christian hears that answer and says, oh. Will somebody please tell this person to be quiet? Will somebody please say, you need to grow up. Jesus describes the conversion as a new birth and babies don't come into this world mature and able to think well and communicate well. And they certainly aren't able to present mature arguments for their faith in Christ. And sometimes we need people to just tell us. Remember, you've got a long way to go. Remember, it's not bad sometimes to say, I don't know that yet. There's a place in the Christian life for us to say, Lord's still working on that. I'm still waiting for the Lord to teach me how all this fits together. But instead, in our immaturity, we begin to either pretend that we know all the answers, or we think that what we think must be the right answer, because after all, we're Christians, without ever having taken any time to study the issue, and our own immaturity gets in the way, and it keeps us from growing. Nothing keeps you from growing more than thinking that you don't need to grow. When you think that you've arrived, that you don't need to do any more work, any more study, any more changing, any more repenting, then you're already going to find yourself in a stagnant state. Since we're using the idea of growing and maturing in a new life, the second thing I mentioned there is what I referred to as simply a lack of parental care. If you want good children, the best place to work is by developing better parents. And if new Christians are babies in Christ, but they're brought into the family of God, what's the first thing that an immature young Christian needs? He or she needs mature believers who will teach them mentor them, disciple them, model things for them, encourage them, admonish them. And the Bible tells us that that's part of the role of the church. That's one reason that we need the church so badly. When God saves us, he doesn't put us on a deserted island by ourselves so that he can just give us divine revelation like rays of sunshine and teach us everything we know in some kind of private tutoring session. Instead, what does he do? He puts us in the fellowship of the saints. And he puts us in the midst of Christians who have walked with Christ for a long time and who have learned some of the pitfalls of Christian immaturity. He puts us in places where people can be our shepherd teachers, as Paul put it in the passage we read in Ephesians four at the beginning. He puts us with people who will not only pray for us and pray with us, but they'll model a life of prayer before us so that we can learn to pray. And he puts us in places where we can see Christian love and compassion and maturity in evidence, because we need that. But what happens when you put a Christian in a place where there are no other Christians? Or what happens when you put a Christian in a church that doesn't take discipleship seriously? where the sermon's nothing but a whole string of funny stories and there's no effort to grow people in their walk with the Lord. What do you do when you put Christians in a fellowship where there's no one there that you can look up to and say, that's the kind of believer I want to imitate. That's the kind of person I want to be like when I'm his age or her age. The lack of good care from mature believers is frequently the obstacle that keeps people from growing in Christ. I know a lot of Christians who just sort of reach a kind of stagnation place. They are the world's oldest spiritual fifth graders. And they've reached that place because there's nobody who can teach them things beyond that level. They're not around folks who are committed to walking with Christ and growing in Christ. And they don't have that modeling influence in their lives. Then there are what we've called on the outline chronic and acute illnesses. There are those spiritual diseases that afflict us when we become Christians. You know them, pride, depression, discouragement, worldliness. Those are the kinds of things that keep us from growing in the Lord. The Bible tells us repeatedly that we have to be humble if we're going to grow in Christ. We have to be teachable. We have to not love the things of the world more than we love Christ. Because if we do that, we're just never going to mature. You can't love God and money, Jesus tells us. We also understand that some of these diseases are kind of lifelong diseases, chronic problems. I've known Christians who have struggled for decades with the love of money. I mean, they struggle with it. They understand that there are a lot of times when they love their money more than they love God. And they know that because sometimes for the sake of an extra dollar, they'll do things that they know are displeasing to God and it crushes them and it kills them, but they keep doing it. It's one of those chronic illnesses like diabetes or something that just keeps coming back upon you and you never really get away from it. And they struggled and they grieve over it. But sometimes the illnesses are a little more acute. Things turn bad at home. You begin to lash out at people at home and before long you realize you're lashing out at people outside the home as well. Your whole attitude changes. We like to laugh about the episode from the Andy Griffith show where Andy's going to take the disputing couple at home that fusses and screams and throws plates at each other every morning. And he's going to turn them into a couple that gets up and says, good morning, dear. and that kind of thing. And while they're sort of getting along in order to keep the sheriff out of their lives, they begin to lash out to everybody else in the town and find everybody says, please let them go home and just fight with each other. Please let them go home and go their own ways. But sometimes we have episodes in life where we just get really depressed and we become discouraged about our faith. We wonder why do I not grow more? And why am I not more prayerful? And why do I keep dealing with this same sin over and over again? And we began to focus on those things and it leaves us wallowing in the slew of despair as John Bunyan would put it in the Pilgrim's Progress. We began to wallow in self-pity and we sometimes just give up on trying to grow. And when we do that, we don't become mature. Our development becomes arrested and we become like people who never really mature physically or mentally. The same becomes true of us in a spiritual sense. We become a group of people who are handicapped in a spiritual sense if we're not careful. But then there's also those forces that afflict us from outside. Martin Luther, the Protestant reformer that used to say that he hadn't had the great triad of things he used to warn his congregations about in Germany. He would say, you got to be aware of the world, the flesh and the devil. And by the world, he didn't mean the physical world outside. He was talking about the spirit of the world that's opposed to God. It's everywhere, isn't it? There are all kinds of things, values, attitudes in the world that are contrary to the gospel. And they're always trying to seduce you as a Christian into following in their ways. And that sinful nature in you has a tendency to want to follow, doesn't it? It wants to be liked. It wants to fit in with the crowd. It says, well, this is the way everybody thinks, or this is the way everybody talks, or this is the way everybody does it. And the world begins to hinder us in our growth. But we don't always need the world to do it. We have our own flesh. That's the word Paul uses frequently in the New Testament. If you have the New International Version, it usually translates flesh as sinful nature. But, The idea is that we still have this sinful self that lingers with us even after we're converted. We have what is referred to by the apostle elsewhere as the old man that keeps us from wanting to put on the new man. And we have those old clothes that we're supposed to take off so that we can put on the new clothes of Christ's righteousness. But the problem is sometimes those old clothes are the most comfortable and they're the ones that seem to fit us best. And we like walking in those clothes. We're reluctant to change our ways sometimes, even when we know it's for our good, even when we know that God wants us to do that. And then there is the devil. Most of the people in this room are old enough to remember Flip Wilson. And you remember Flip Wilson getting on TV and his standard line was what? The devil made me do it. And I can remember preachers saying when that was on TV back in those days, rest assured, you don't need the devil. to make you do the things you do. You're perfectly capable of doing them all on your own. That's the way you're made as you're a sinner and you'll be a sinner until Jesus comes back. But the fact is there are this, what John White calls the legion of foes out there. Paul calls them that the powers of darkness and the principalities and powers and authorities of this world. There are these unseen spiritual forces that are at work under the control of the evil one. And they are doing everything in their world to seduce you. keep you from following Christ. Peter talks about how the devil is like a roaring lion, just looking for someone to consume. Now we read those passages and sometimes as Christians, we become frightened. And we think, oh, I'll never be able to fight against the devil. I mean, he's far too wily and experienced at this. He's been doing this ever since the days of Adam and Eve. He knows all the ins and outs of how to tackle me and do me in. The devil is wily and crafty, there's no doubt about it. But I hope you will always remember that when God adopted you into his family, he promised that he would take care of you. and that he would hold you in his hand, and that he would let nothing ever separate you from his love. And the apostles of the New Testament remind us that greater is the one who is in you than he who is in the world. And so while the devil can often seduce you and try to distract you, please know that God's already justified you. He's already promised to take you to glory. He's already promised to do everything necessary for your salvation. He's not going to let you fall from his care. He's not going to turn a blind eye to you. He's not going to let you be devoured by the one who wants to devour you. So don't be afraid. Your savior is with you. He has given you his spirit. He has adopted you into his family. And he is going to grow you. Sometimes the growth will come in big spurts, I suppose. Those mountaintop experiences that all of us sort of look back on. But frequently the growth's going to be rather ordinary and routine. It's going to come slowly and incrementally. It's the kind of growth that's going to be with us day by day after day. And we may not see it until we look back over a longer period of time and say, wow, that's what God has been doing in my life. To give you a hint at how this works, we're going to read one more passage of scripture. This one is from Colossians chapter 3. You were still in Ephesians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, Colossians chapter three. And as we read this passage, I want you to listen very carefully to first what Christ has already done for you as a believer. When you were converted, this is what Christ has done for you. And then I want you to listen for what Christ wants you to do because you are a believer. He wants you to rest in your justification, but he also wants you to grow in your, what's the next big word? Sanctification. And Paul deals with both of those things here. If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. And when Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. So let's just stop there for a second. If then you have been raised with Christ. The Greek language has a couple of different ways of writing if. And one of them is if and hypothetical. Well, if such and such happens, if it doesn't rain tomorrow, and if the temperature is more than 12 degrees, then I'm going to go hunting. That kind of hypothetical if. But there's another kind of if. It's an if of certainty. And you can translate it as the new international version does, since. And that's the if that Paul uses here. Since then you have been raised with Christ or because you have been raised with Christ, if and you really have been raised with Christ. So here's what we are. We're already resurrected in Jesus's resurrection. We are already raised up to new life because Jesus lives as our savior and we are the beneficiaries of his work. Because of that, we can seek things that are above where Christ is. seated at the right hand of God. And we can set our minds on things that are above, not on things of the earth. Because, again, what's already happened to us. You have died. You're not living in that old life anymore. because of your conversion and your new relationship to Jesus Christ. You're not that person. And your new life is hidden with Christ in God. Your standing with God is already in heaven, already assured because that's where Jesus is. Remember those words of John 14 when Jesus told the disciples in the upper room, I'm going to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself that where I am, you may be also. And Jesus is in heaven for us. And that's what Paul's talking about here. Our life is hidden with Christ in God. And when Christ, who is your life, appears again, we will appear with him in glory. That's the glorification we were talking about before. So this is who we are. We're raised with Christ. We are already dead in Christ and resurrected in Christ and seated with Christ in the heavenly places and waiting for Christ's return. Therefore, verse five, we can put to death what is earthly in us. Paul lists some of those things, sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, covetousness, which is idolatry. And on account of these, the wrath of God is coming. And in these two, you once walked when you were living in them before your conversion, but now you must put them all away. Anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, seeing that you put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. Here there is not Greek and Jews, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free, but Christ is all and in all. So put on then as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, patience, bearing with one another, and if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other. As the Lord has forgiven you, so you must also forgive. And above all these, put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony, and let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body, and be thankful. "'Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, "'teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, "'singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs "'with thankfulness in your hearts to God. "'And whatever you do in word or deed, "'do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, "'giving thanks to God the Father through him.'" A whole list of things don't do and a whole list of things to do. Go back and look at those when you go home tonight, perhaps. But what I want you to really see is that Paul tells us in verse five, we are to put to death the old things. And we are to put off the old self, verse nine, with its practices. And verse 10, we are to put on the new self, which is being renewed in the image of Christ. And verse 12, we are to put on certain new characteristics. The Christian life, is a life of taking off old things, putting on new things, putting to death old things, living in new things. And it's a gradual kind of thing. It's a thing that occurs over time, but it does occur typically by certain methods and tools. And that's where we're going to be heading. You'll see with the outline, we're going to talk about how God uses prayer. and how God uses scripture to help us mature. We're gonna talk about our witnessing. We're going to talk about the opposition of the devil. We're gonna talk about how faith works, the changed relationships, how God guides us to grow, what holiness is. We're gonna talk about life in two kingdoms, the kingdom of this world and in the kingdom of God. and how the fight works and where it all ends up. So that's the roadmap for where we're going between now and May. Let's pray.