All right, let's turn to Hebrews chapter number six. We'll get there in a moment. Hebrews chapter number six. Really appreciate the opportunity. Really appreciate Brother David and everything he does and this class. I hope you enjoy it. I hope you soak it up while you're here. I hope you don't take it for granted because it moves very, very quickly. And before you know it, you'll be too old to be in here. And there's a lot you can learn here. So hope you're taking advantage of it all. Let's go ahead and open up with a word of prayer and then we'll get an introduction here. Lord, thank you for this day. Thank you for the opportunity to be here in church today. Lord, many, many people the world over would love to be in a church like this and just don't have a church like this near them or are unable to be in that church due to health reasons. So Lord, we really are thankful that you've given us this church. Thank you for our pastors. Thank you for the people that make up this church and make this church everything that it is. Lord, thank you for the health, the strength, the ability to be here today. We pray that you'd help us. God, we really, really are in need of your help. Lord, we can't preach, we can't teach, we can't learn, we can't grow, we can't apply the truths that we're trying to learn without your help. So Lord, help us to be ever conscious of that fact, help us to realize Lord that we're nothing of ourselves but everything that we do that's right is because of you and through you and Lord pray that you'd just be with us and help us today. Would you help us to accomplish something today that's not by the work or ability of man but it could only be through the help of the Holy Spirit. Lord we are sinful people. And we pray that you would forgive us for that and still be with us and still help us. Thank you for this book. Thank you for this Bible. Lord, if it weren't for this Bible, we'd be so lost. We'd have no idea what's right, no idea what's true. Lord, we'd be left just to make up our own religion, make up our own ideas. So thankful that you've given us this scripture. Help us to be true to it. Help us to, Lord, love it and read it and study it every day of our lives. Lord, thank you for dying on the cross for our sins so we could be saved and go to heaven when we die and be with you. Again, we pray that you'd help us. In Christ's name we pray, amen. What I'd like to speak about today are some biblical markers of spirituality. And specifically, how do I know, how do I know that I'm growing in my Christian life? I think that we all, I hope that we all, let me say it this way, I want to be more spiritual. I want to be a better Christian. And I would assume, I would hope that you want to be more spiritual, whatever exactly spiritual means. I hope you want to be a better Christian. I would hope that every one of us, our goal in our Christian life is to be a better Christian next year than we were this year. I would think that for all of us, if we had our desire, I would hope if we had our desire that we'd be a better Christian in 2024 than we were in 2023. I want to be a better Christian tomorrow than I was today. I want to be a better Christian today than I was yesterday. And that's the goal of the Christian life. The Christian life, according to the Bible, should not be a stagnant life. There's really no plateau. There's really no time in your Christian life where you've reached the highest point and now there's no more room for improvement. There's nothing else I can learn. There's no other ways in which I can grow. We should constantly be seeking for ways to grow in the Christian life. If the Apostle Paul in Philippians chapter number three is pressing towards the mark, I don't think that I will ever get to a place where I can stop improving. And I think if you look around closely at churches and Christians, and maybe this is reading into it, or maybe this is being presumptuous or making assumptions, but I think that there's a lot of Christians who are bored with the Christian life. I think there's a lot of Christians who think that they're living for the Lord, and they think that they're living for the Christian life, and they're honestly just tired of it, and I think the reason is they've stopped trying to improve. They've stopped growing. They've become stagnant. They've become stunted in their Christian growth. They've reached a place that is acceptable in their eyes and maybe in the eyes of their peers. And so they've just kind of put their Christian life in cruise control. They said, nobody's mad at me. Nobody's coming to me to correct me. I'm not doing anything really, really wrong. And so I'm just gonna coast the rest of my Christian life. And that becomes really, really boring really, really quick. People think I got saved, you know, I got married, I had some kids, I don't drink, I don't smoke, I go to church on Sundays and most of the time on Thursdays, and so I'm living the Christian life, and that's all there is to it. And if that is all you have, if that's the end of the matter, then you're not gonna be a very happy Christian. There is always room to grow. There is always room to improve. This Christian life is not something that's supposed to just be, okay, I got saved and I read my Bible every morning and so that's the end of it. You can be better next year than you were this year. You can be better next week than you were this week. That's the goal. Let's look at a few verses to this end. Look at Hebrews chapter number six. Hebrews chapter number six, look at verse number one. Therefore, leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection. not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, of the doctrine of baptism as laying on of hands, resurrection from the dead of eternal judgment. Do you see that in verse number one? The Bible says we're supposed to go on to perfection. There is a goal that is ahead of us and it doesn't end with salvation. We're supposed to go on and add to our faith. Look at 1 Peter chapter number two. 1 Peter two. Look at 2 Peter chapter number one. Probably have the wrong reference there. Look at 2 Peter chapter number one. And look at verse number five. And beside this, giving all diligence add to your faith. Virtue into virtue, knowledge into knowledge, temperance into temperance, patience into patience, godliness into godliness, brotherly kindness into brotherly kindness, charity. For if these things be in you and abound, they make you that you shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. So we as Christians are supposed to not just have that saving faith, we're supposed to add some things. to that faith. And if we add those things to our faith, we'll get to the place where we're not barren and not unfruitful. Look at Philippians chapter number three. Philippians chapter number three, showing you the fact that the Bible says that we're supposed to grow, go on in our Christian life. That's pretty basic. I think you know that. But look at Philippians chapter number three, verse number Start in verse number 12. Not as though I'd already attained, either were already perfect, but I follow after, if that I may apprehend, and that for which I am also apprehended of Christ Jesus. Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended, but this one thing I do. for getting those things which are behind and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus." So Paul says, I'm not going to count myself as apprehended. I'm not going to count myself as having reached the goal. I'm going to constantly be pressing towards the mark and trying to do better in my Christian life. And that's what our Christian life should be like. We should be growing, we should be obtaining, we should be pressing towards the mark, we should have consistent growth in our Christian life. That's the goal. So I think it's clear the Bible teaches that we're supposed to be growing, adding, going on, and continuing in the Christian life. So that brings us to what I'd really like to talk about this morning. How do I know? How do I know if I am growing in the Christian life? What can I look to in my life to see is my Bible reading, is my prayer time, is my church attendance actually having an effect on my life? Is all this making me a better Christian? Are there any markers in the Bible that I can look to to say I've gotten better in this area and the Bible says that is a indication of spiritual growth? I don't think it's a great mystery to any one of us how we grow in the Lord, right? Read our Bible, pray, fellowship with the Lord, go to church, listen to your elders, listen to your teachers, pay attention in church, do the things that you learn. Pretty straightforward. Pretty simple. Things that you've been taught since you were just a child. Maybe not easy to always put into practice because of our sinful flesh. But what I want to consider is how do we know if we're seeing results from our efforts? And I started this study mostly for myself, also to prepare for this. In my life, I'll just be maybe a little too honest with you. In my life, what I struggle with probably more than anything is consistency in any area, spiritual, physical, whatever, doing something consistently every day. And that's really how you're going to be successful in anything is consistency. A lot of people, you know, okay, it's New Year's, right? And I've got my New Year's resolution. And this year I'm going to do something different than last year. And how long does that usually last for most people? Three or four days? Three or four weeks? Usually not all that long. And I am really bad for starting the book and not finishing the book. I'm really bad for starting the exercise program and not finishing the exercise program. I struggle with consistency in my life. And you say, well, that's not very spiritual. That's not very right. You're right. It's not very spiritual. It's not very right. At least I'll admit it. Now, let me give you an example of this. working out. Now, I probably don't have to tell you this, right, but I have started working out. I'm sure you knew that as soon as I walked into the room. And when you go to the gym and you try to improve yourself and you try to, you know, lift more weights and you try to get stronger and you try to actually have an effect on your body or have an effect on your health, there are some things when you go to the gym and work out that you can look to Right? And this is true in any sort of athletic, any sort of sport, any sort of, there are some things you can look to to see whether or not you're improving. And it's very important to look to those things. If you are a runner and you're learning to run a race and you want to run it as fast as you possibly can, you will constantly be looking at your times to see if you're improving. Last month I could run a mile in five minutes and 45 seconds and now I can run a mile in five minutes and 15 seconds. That means that I'm improving in my mile time. Everything that I'm doing, no not me, like hypothetically somebody, like I can't run a mile in five minutes. you're improving. Last time I went to the gym, I could only lift this much, and now I can lift five pounds more. I'm improving when I go to the gym. And the reason why I got thinking about that is because, like I said, I struggle with consistency, and I've been working out a little bit, and I've actually been more consistent with it than I am with most things. And I started thinking, why is that? It's shameful, really. Why is it that I find it easier to get up and go to the gym for an hour, but I struggle to carve out a sufficient amount of time to read my Bible, and to pray, and to study like I should, and to memorize scripture? And one of the reasons, I think, is I found some motivation in being able to look at some specific things that were improving, right? I can lift more weight now than I could before. Before I couldn't lift this and now I could. When I looked to that specific marker, it gave me some motivation. So that's the first reason why I think this is important, to have some markers to tell whether or not you're improving, it motivates you. It motivates you. It's a lot easier to do something you don't feel like doing when you're seeing progress from it. It's hard to go out and jog every day, but it's really hard to go out and jog every day if you can't tell that it's doing any good for you. If you feel the same, if you look the same, if your cholesterol is the same, you're really gonna have a hard time going out and running every single day. It's hard to force yourself to eat healthy foods and to abstain from junk food. It's really hard if there's no perceivable difference in your day-to-day life. If you feel the same, if you look the same, if you weigh the same, you're gonna say, why am I eating this? Why am I struggling through this nasty smoothie when I could be eating something? Good. If there's no change in your life, you're not going to be very motivated. You're going to give it up very quickly. That's why if you're on a diet, you weigh yourself to see whether or not you're improving. And you say, I lost two pounds. I'm going to keep doing this. Right? Number two, having some specific markers you can look to ensures that you're doing it right. Ensures that you're taking the proper steps. There are people that go to the gym every single day of their life, and they're no different in any way today than they were a year ago. You know why? Because this is how they go to the gym. And they're there, they're in the room, they're around the exercise equipment, but they're not getting any stronger. And they say, I go to the gym every day, I don't understand why I'm not getting any stronger, because you're there and you're doing it, but you're not doing it correctly. So having some markers you can look to ensures that you're not just spinning your wheels, that you're not just doing the motions but not getting any benefit out of it. Spiritually, you can say, maybe you're reading your Bible every morning, but if you're not paying attention to what you're reading, is it really gonna help you? Maybe you're going to the church, for church services and sitting in the sermon, but if three minutes after the sermon, you don't even remember what it was about, is it gonna have any impact, any help in your spiritual life? So this all got me thinking, is there anything in the Bible that God specifically says we can look to as an indication of spiritual growth? And I thought maybe I'm just being silly. Maybe it's just, you know, shut your mouth and do what you're supposed to do and just do right because it's right. And that's certainly part of it, whether or not you think you're seeing growth. is irrelevant to whether or not you ought to do what the Bible says. You should still do what the Bible says, but I think, I think it turns out that there are some things in the scriptures that we can look to and measure ourselves up to and say some specific things. Obviously, you could look at it very broadly and say, am I just a better all-around person? But that's a little too broad for me, right? If you're setting a goal, like if you've got a workout goal and you just say, I wanna be healthier, That's too broad. What do you mean by healthier? How are you going to measure healthier? You want to be more specific. I want to be able to lift more weight, or I want to lose X amount of pounds, or I want to, you know, whatever. I want to get my cholesterol to whatever it is, or you want to be a little bit more specific. And I think there's some things that we can look at in the Bible that are specific indicators of whether or not we're growing in our Christian life. We're bad for just saying, I want to be more spiritual. little vague, isn't it? What do we mean by spiritual? And so I think the scripture gives us some specific things that we can look to to see whether or not we are growing in our Christian lives. So hopefully, hopefully this will be helpful to somebody here. Number one, come to John chapter number 13. John chapter number 13. Got quite a few of these, we might get to them all, we might not. There's probably more than I was able to come up with. John chapter number 13. How do I know that I'm growing? How do I know that my Bible reading is having impact on my life, an effect on my life? John chapter number 13, verse number, 35, by this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another. So the Bible teaches that if you are a disciple, if you are a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ, you are going to love your brothers and love your sisters in Christ. If you are growing in your Christianity, if you are improving in your Christian life, if your Bible reading and your prayer time and your personal devotion and your time spent in church is actually having an effect on the kind of Christian that you are, if you are getting closer to the Lord Jesus Christ through those activities, If you were doing those things consistently enough and you were doing those things properly, the Bible says a result of that discipleship with the Lord Jesus Christ will be you loving your brothers and sisters in Christ more and more. The closer you get to the Lord, the more you should love your brothers and sisters in Christ. So much so, look at the verse again. Verse 35, by this shall all men know that you are my disciples. So much so that lost people on the outside looking in will be able to identify that you love those people that you go to church with. That's how much a true follower of Jesus Christ ought to love their brothers and sisters in Christ. So much so that other people But don't go to church with you who will look at you and say, I know that they love, they love other Christians. Look at 1 John chapter number two. 1 John two. Look at verse number 10. He that loveth his brother abideth in the light, and there is none occasion of stumbling in him. But he that hateth his brother is in darkness, and walketh in darkness, and knoweth not whither he goeth, because that darkness hath blinded his eyes. Look at chapter three and verse number 10. In this the children of God are manifest. This is how you can identify a child of God and the children of the devil. Whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth, neither he that loveth not his brother. Look at chapter four. And verse number 20, if a man say I love God and he hateth his brother, he is a liar. For he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen? And this commandment have we from him that he who loveth God love his brother also. Jesus said, God said, the Bible says, if you love God, if you're a follower of God, if you are walking in the light as he is in the light, if you have fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ, then you'll love your brother and sister in Christ. And if the people that you go to church with are becoming increasingly annoying to you, or you're increasingly dissatisfied with them, or you like them or love them less and less, that is an indication that you are not growing in your Christian life. So the question is, do you love your brethren any more now than you did a year ago? Are you growing in the Lord? Or are you stagnant? Are you staying the same? If you're a follower of Jesus Christ, that's convicting stuff to think about. Listen, you can read your Bible every day and not improve, you know that? You can. I know because I've done it. Do you ever read your Bible and just get done and say, I don't even remember what I read? You ever accidentally read the same chapter the next day, not realizing that you read it the day before? Do you get to one word? You're like, that seems familiar. And you just read two or three chapters that you read yesterday? Do you know how pathetic that is? 24 hours ago, I read this and I don't even remember it. Is that having any effect on my spiritual life? Probably not. I know there's some, you know, well, you don't remember what you had for breakfast three days ago, but it helped you through the day. And there's some truth to that. I understand there's some truth to that. But honestly, honestly, If I'm reading the Bible and just thinking about everything else while I'm trying to read it, if I'm praying and I'm just going through the prayer list till I'm done and then going about my day while my mind's on, is that really helping me at all? If you don't love your brother and sister in Christ any more today than you did three months ago, are you growing? Something to think about. Number two, come to 1 Corinthians chapter number three. 1 Corinthians chapter number three. biblical mark of spirituality, a biblical mark of Christian growth, would be victory over strife and division. 1 Corinthians chapter number three, look at verse number one. And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual. Holy Spirit's really, really blunt in this passage. Could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ. I have fed you with milk, and not with me. For hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able. For ye are yet carnal. Why? For, whereas there is among you envying and strife and divisions, are ye not carnal and walk as men? Paul, through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, calls the entire church of Corinth carnal babies. writes him a letter and says, you guys are a bunch of carnal babies, not because they forgot to read their Bible, not because they skipped the midweek service to watch a ball game, not because they went to contemporary with their music program. He says you're a bunch of carnal babies because you can't get along with one another. You're a bunch of carnal babies. You're not spiritual, not because of your doctrine, not because of the amount of times you've read through your Bible in the year. He said, you're a bunch of carnal babies because there's nothing but division and envy and strife among you. You see it all the time in churches. Hopefully nobody here, at least not now or anytime soon. You see it all the time in churches. People who dress right, dress more modestly than you. People that believe right, they believe better than you. People that do right, they do better than you. They're at more ministries than you. They pass out more tracts than you. They are the epitome of spirituality outwardly. And everywhere they go, they're causing strife and division and tearing things apart and arguing with people and can't get along with anyone. The Bible says that is not a spiritual person. I don't care how long their skirt is. I don't care how much Bible they know. They're a carnal baby because they can't get along with anyone. So a biblical marker of being a spiritual Christian is the ability to go to a church with a bunch of other sinful people who don't live up to your or God's standards and still be able to not cause a bunch of strife and cause a bunch of division. I know my Bible really well and you're tearing everything apart. You can't get along with anybody. Nobody likes you and you don't like anybody. The Bible says you're not spiritual, you're carnal. So what would be an indication of spiritual growth here. The Bible says if you're spiritual, you won't cause contention, division, drama, strife. You won't tear things apart. If you're carnal, you'll be that strifeful, divisive sort of person. So the question is, are you causing less division than you did a year ago, or are you always in the middle of problems? Are you the cause of unity or the cause of disunity? Are you the cause of strife or are you the solution to strife? Are you growing in the Lord? A carnal person causes problems, causes strife, unnecessary division, unnecessary contention. A spiritual person will not do that. So are you more involved in that stuff or are you less involved in that stuff? Are you the problem or are you the solution? be a good indication of whether or not you are growing like you should. Look at 1 Corinthians chapter number two. And verse number 13. Number three, the ability to judge all things. Are you a spiritual person? Are you becoming more spiritual? Number three would be the ability to judge all things would indicate whether or not you are growing spiritually. Look at verse number 13. Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him, neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. Verse 15, but he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man. Now the world might say that it's wrong to judge. The Bible says if you're spiritual, you will judge all things. Jesus said we should judge righteous judgment. Did he not? One of the marks of spiritual growth, one of the marks that you are a spiritual person and not a carnal person like chapter three begins to speak about just a few verses later, is the ability to judge and the ability to judge righteously. So what do we mean by judging? The world's definition of being judgmental is anytime you say anything that makes me feel bad about myself or what I'm doing. If you say something that makes me feel bad, then it can't be that I'm wrong. It must be that you're judgmental. And if you say something that makes me feel good, then that's not judgmental at all. You're just a wonderful person because you recognize the fact that I'm as good as, as I really am. The truth about judgment and judging is that judgment is not automatically negative. Declaring a man innocent is just as judgmental as declaring a man guilty. Judging is the ability to look at a situation or look at a truth or look at something and make a judgment call. If I'm going to cross the street and there are cars coming, I make judgment and say I'm not going to walk across that street because I'm going to get hit by a car. When I don't see any cars, I make the judgment that is now clear and I can go across the street. That is making judgment. The Bible says that a spiritual person will have the knowledge of and relationship with God to be able to make judgment calls that are righteous according to the word of God. I have children. Because they are children, they lack judgment. Because they are children who lack judgment, they are actively trying to kill themselves and each other, and I am actively trying to stop them. I have to act as the judge in their life, in their situation, to keep them safe, right? Don't eat that. Don't touch that. Don't stick that in an outlet. Don't let go. Don't push her. Don't climb on that. That's a parent's job. They lack judgment because they're a child. And that's not anything unusual. That's not anything bad. Nobody would say that. That's a terrible thing. The hope is that by the time they're in their teenage years, by the time they're 20, by the time they're 30, I won't need to function in that role. Why? Because they'll be mature. They'll come to a place where they can make their own judgments and they'll be able to know what is right and what is safe and what is, okay, in a physical sense. I'm no longer going to have to do that. Why? Because they're adults now. They're mature now. They've grown to a place where they don't need me to be constantly policing them, constantly making judgment calls for them. That is the goal in your spiritual life. It is not a wonder that a 12-year-old, 13-year-old, 14-year-old, or older, if they're a new Christian, needs somebody to say, hey, that's not right. I know it might look right, it might not look fun, it might not look like that big of a deal, but it's not right. That's why you have pastors, that's why you have parents, that's why you have youth leaders, that's why you have people interested in your life. That's why you have elders and mentors and people to tell you, hey, you're not seeing this thing right. Let me help you judge righteously in this situation. But the goal is that one day you'll be able to make those judgments properly and biblically for yourself. You shouldn't be an older, mature Christian and still constantly needing somebody to tell you, hey, that music's not right, hey, that lifestyle's not right, hey, that way of dressing isn't right, hey, the Bible's against this. The goal is that sometime you'll get to the place in your spiritual life where you'll be mature enough to judge righteous judgment for yourself. And so, are you growing in your Christian life? Are you more able to judge righteous judgment now than you were a year ago? Are you more able to look at situations and weigh them against the Bible and say, okay, that's wrong because God said this here and God said that there than you were a year ago? It's a mark of a child. I just can't see why I can't listen to that music. And then dad has to say, well, the Bible says this and the Bible says, are you able to make that call for yourself? Are you able to look at the scripture and say, God says this is wrong and make judgment for yourself? Are you constantly relying on someone else to teach you judgment or make that judgment for you? The Bible says a spiritual person will be able to judge all things. Number four, spiritual person, a person that's growing, will seek the spiritual improvement of other people. Look at 1 Corinthians chapter number 14. This is super important. Look at 1 Corinthians 14. and also get Galatians chapter number six. Get both of those for me. Galatians six, 1 Corinthians 14. Look at 1 Corinthians 14 and verse number 12. Even so he, for as much as ye are zealous of spiritual gifts, seek that ye may excel. That's what we're talking about, growing, being excellent, going on to something more than we are now. See that ye may excel to the edifying of the church. Your goal, if you're a spiritual Christian, should be to bring other people up to be better than they are now. According to this verse, if you're able to edify the church, you are excelling. You are growing as a Christian if you are able to help other people be what they are supposed to be. Look at Galatians chapter number six. Verse number one, Galatians 6, one. Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, criticize such in one, in the spirit of haughtiness, considering thyself, and how wonderful you are. Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such in one, in the spirit of meekness, considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted. Do you know that the pastors aren't the only ones who can be ministering to other people in a church? That's their main job. They're the ones that are supposed to be leading that. They're the ones that, that's okay. But every Christian is supposed to be a minister. Every Christian is supposed to be a servant to other people. Every time you come to this church, you have the opportunity to help somebody else be more than what they were without your influence in their life. Every Christian is supposed to be involved in that. So when you come to church, why do you come? Do you just come for me, me, me, me learn, me be taught, me have fellowship, you know, I grow in my faith and you know, you can come with the mindset, with the thought process of I have very many opportunities to help other people grow, to help other people become what they could be and what they should be. The Bible says a spiritual person will do that. A spiritual person will find somebody who is lacking in their spiritual life, who is failing, who is overtaken in a fault, and they will attempt to restore them. They will attempt to bring them up. They will attempt to heal them. They'll attempt to do whatever they can to help that person be everything that they can be. Bible says that a man who's excelling in his Christian life will be interested in the edification of the church. Are you helping any more people now than you were a year ago? Are you investing in the lives of your brothers and sisters in Christ? When you come to youth group and youth activities, is your thought process, let me see how I can help my brothers and sisters in Christ be more than what they are now? Are you actively involved in building up your friends and youth group or tearing down the people around you? Is it all, is it all, look, I'm all for fun and games and laughing and jokes and picking on each other and I'm not easily offended and I hope you're not and that's all well and good, but do you ever invest the same amount of thought and time in trying to help people be more than what they are now? Bible says if you're growing in your spiritual life, you'll be more like that and not less like that. So that's something you could look to to see if you're growing. Let's try to get a few more quickly before we, finishing up, increasing the knowledge of God. You can write down 1 Corinthians 14, 37, 1 Corinthians 14, verse 20. Look at Colossians chapter number one. Colossians chapter number one, verse number 10. That you might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God. You know, if you're reading your Bible on a daily basis, and you're paying attention in church, and you're actually learning the Bible school material, you should know more about the Bible now than you did a year ago. You should have more knowledge, just pure knowledge of facts about the scripture than you did two or three months ago. Do you know any more about the Bible now than you did a year ago, or do you feel like you know about the same? Oh, you know, it's not all about learning facts. You can't just have just a head full of facts. I understand you can't just have a head full of facts, but you should have a head full of facts as well as all the other things you should have. Better than a head full of air. You should know things about the Bible and be learning facts about the Bible and be increasing in your knowledge of the Scripture. You should know where more things are. You should be able to show people things from the Scripture, and that should be getting better and increasing. It shouldn't be staying the same. So do you know anything more about the Bible than you did a year ago? Are you growing? Look, if you read through the Bible once every single year, one would think that every single year you would know a little bit more about the Bible. That's the goal. So am I growing? Am I learning anything? Am I noticing in my life, I didn't know that before, but now I do. I didn't know how to answer that question before, but now I do. I didn't know where that verse was before or where that truth could be found before, but now I do. If you're not having any of that, you might not be growing like you ought to be, might not be having the effect it ought to have. Being steadfast in doctrine, let me just give you these and then we'll wrap up. Ephesians 4.14. Bible says it's characteristic of children to believe whatever they're told. Bible says not to be children blown about by every wind of doctrine. You should be steadfast in your doctrine. The goal is to get a Christian to the place where there are no more children and they're able to identify and refute false doctrine on their own. You have the King James Bible. Do you know why? You believe in eternal security, do you know why? You believe in pre-tribulation rapture, could you stand against someone arguing differently? Or you'd be blown away by every wind of doctrine. Those things don't come overnight, but they should come eventually. So are you growing? Are you growing firmer in your knowledge of the scripture? Number seven, speaking the truth in love. This is the next verse, Ephesians 4, 15. Ephesians 4, 15, speaking the truth The Bible says if you're growing up in Christ, you will not only have a knowledge of correct doctrine, but you'll be able to communicate that truth to people who disagree with you in a way that is loving. Number eight, the Bible says your faith will grow. That's 2 Thessalonians 1.3. You should trust the Lord more and more every day, more and more every year. You should be more and more sure of his word and more and more persuaded of the things that you believe. And number nine, you will have a desire and satisfaction in, a desire for and satisfaction in the Word of God. That's 1 Peter 2 and verse 2. That should be growing. That should be coming better. That should be coming more and more. And so the thought is, the question is, Are you growing in your spiritual life? Are you any better this year? It wasn't intended to be a New Year's sermon, but it just kind of worked out, didn't it? Are you any better this year than you were last year? Are you seeing results? If not, then it might be time to get busy. It might be time to get with your pastor, get with your parents and see what you can do to improve. Amen? Amen.