seated. Are you growing? That's a question I want to ask you guys. Are you growing? I want you to ask yourself that question. Am I growing? And as I ask you that question, I want to tell you guys, for me, this whole Christian thing has not been easy. OK, and as a leader, you guys might be surprised to hear that from me. The Christian thing, the growing up in the faith has not been an easy thing for me. And you know, that kind of gets tough sometimes. You know, you want it and you want it now. You want to be mature. You want to grow up. Some of you guys in this seat right now, you can't wait to grow up. Don't be in a rush to grow up, OK? Live it while you can live it. There's a whole lot with growing up you don't want. And you'll find that out when you grow up and when that 18 hits you. Hannah and I were just talking about that she's gonna be 18 in October and she's getting excited about it There's some stuff that comes with that that you might not you might not be aware of yet But I remember when I was in high school guys any of you guys in this any of you men Boys in here like the list like to work out None of you. Okay, well that falls flat. But anyway, I'll tell you about me. When I was in the gym, okay, I was, believe it or not, I was a gym rat at one point. What's a gym rat? That's a guy who just lives in the gym. I mean, I worked out during school because I had a class. I just, you know, I went to class. There was a conditioning class and I worked out. Then after school I had football conditioning, so I worked out again. So I was working out twice a day. And some may say that at one point I was jacked. Okay, I was ripped. Okay, I was I really, in my own mind, maybe, but no. What happened for me, and maybe you guys have seen this, but you know, there's this guy, he's like 16, and he's got this full-grown beard, and you're like, wow, he looks 30. Okay, well, I didn't look 30, but physically, I developed faster than a lot of my friends did. So about the time I was, say, 16, 17, I was kind of outlisting a bunch of guys that looked stronger than me, that appeared to be bigger than me, but they were like, man, You're strong, Michael. You're strong. And I was a little bit proud. I liked that. I felt good about it. And there came a point, though, that when I graduated, everybody else just kind of blew right by me. And I look exactly like I did when I graduated from high school. I have not changed except here. My side profile is the only thing that's changed. A little bit more hair on my face. But the point is, is that then I was growing faster than other people and I kind of enjoyed that, okay? But there are other times in my life where, well, now I don't feel like I'm really growing, right? I'm done. This is it. Okay, I'll add on some pounds. I might shave off a few every now and then, but I'm pretty much grown to maturity. But I'm not talking about physically growing. I'm asking you guys, are you growing spiritually? That's my question that I want to ask you guys today. I'm the kind of person As you may have caught when you heard me talking about how I got a little proud and I kind of enjoyed that, when people were like, man, he's really strong, he's tough. I actually had some people, I'm probably about the most cuddly person you're going to meet when it comes to personality-wise. Do any of you guys know me to be an aggressive and overwhelming? Do you know me to be an intimidator? No, that is not me, okay? I'm not. But I had some people fooled because I was so strong, at least, you know. Put it in perspective, okay? They actually were kind of intimidated by me. Nobody wanted to mess with me. It's kind of like, he's that guy that if you blew up one time, you don't want to mess with him. I don't blow up very often at all. I mean, that just has not happened very many times. But I really, really very much, growing up, and even to an extent now, very much caught up in what people think about me. Any of you there? Others say, I've never cared a rip about what people think about me. Yeah, right. You're kidding yourself. What it looks like is this guy, he says, I don't care what anybody thinks about me. But then he brags about this, or he says, look at me, look at that, because he cares that people don't care what people think about him. Others, you care about everything that people think about you and everything you're doing. You manipulate the situation. You try to be who you need to be for the given situation. You work it. You pull it off. You swing it. But deep down, you know who you are, right? But we are all growing to some extent. And if you're a Christian today, you're growing in a different way. It's not just going through pimples and BO and all the normal stuff that teenagers go through. There's a whole new set of other things. You're finding out who you are in Jesus and what Jesus is doing in your life. That's a whole new thing. And today, I want you guys to check this out. We're going to go through Colossians chapter 1. But I want to tell you, before we even go through Colossians 1, That I know even when I feel like I'm not growing that I'm growing There's not ever a point in my life And there's not ever a point in your life If you've trusted Jesus as your Savior and you are still trusting Jesus as your Savior because that's what he does in you He works it out that you are still trusting him That you will not be growing There's times in my life that I feel like I am not growing. I feel like I'm going backwards. But how do I know that? Flipping chapter 2, verses 12 and 13, and I want you to look at it on the screen. It says, My beloved, those are that's me, people that Jesus has died for, that they have been saved as you have always obeyed. So now he's talking to a group of people. So now not only is in my presence, but much more in my absence. This is Paul speaking. He was there, but he's not any there now. He says, work out your own salvation. He's not saying work for your salvation. He's saying you're saying now work that out, put that into action. with fear and trembling. Then he says in verse 13, for it's God who works in you both to will and to work for His good pleasure. So it's not that I come up with this, I'm growing, I'm doing it, but God who saved me, I know I'm growing because He saved me. And if you have been saved, if He has stepped into your life and done something that no one else could do, including yourself, you are growing. And He's the one that's bringing about that growth. But today, I want to specifically look at What does it look like to be growing and what does it not look like? Because, man, I'm telling you, I bet you guys have all kinds of different ideas about what you think it means to grow in the faith or grow in your maturity when it comes to Jesus, when it comes to God. And people will tell you all kinds of things. Well, growing is this, growing is that. So I think it will help us real quick to look through Colossians and then look at what growing spiritually is not. And then quickly look at some things that growing spiritually is that if you look at it, it's like, yeah, that's growing. That's what growing is all about. So Colossians chapter one, starting in verse one. I want us to look, and we're going to read 14 verses, and I want you guys to just, I want you to read, I want you to read along with me, I want you to see what God is saying, and even in the reading, guys, you will be amazed. If you will just listen, if you will just lock on the Word of God, He will speak to you, even before I make any points whatsoever, because it's the Word of God and that's where the power is. So just follow along with me, Colossians chapter 1. an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God and Timothy, our brother, he's introducing himself. He goes on to say, to the saints and faithful brothers in Christ at Colossae. What are saints? Those are people who are saved. He says, grace to you and peace from our God, our Father. He always opens up with grace and peace because that's the result of grace. You'll have peace in your heart. If you're saved, you have a peace that other people don't have. There's a peace. That's why we sing a song called It Is Well because it is well with me. I have an assurance. When we pray for you, he goes on to say that in verse 4, he says, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and the love that you have for all the saints, that because of the hope laid up for you in heaven, of this you have heard before in the word of truth, the gospel, which has come to you as indeed in the whole world, it is doing what? It's bearing fruit and growing. But look what he says, as it also does among you. It's not just growing outside of the church, it's growing in you. Since the day you heard it and understood what? The grace of God in truth. That is the truth. The grace of God. Just as you learned it from Epaphras, that was a guy who taught, just like Michael's doing right now, our beloved fellow servant. He's a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf. And he's made known to you, to us, your love in the Spirit. And so from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you. Asking that you may be filled with what? The knowledge of His will and all spiritual wisdom and understanding. As to walk in a manner what? Worthy of the Lord. Fully pleasing to Him. Bearing fruit. That's growing. Bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of who? The knowledge of God. May you be strengthened with all power according to His glorious might for all endurance and patience with something that the world does not have. And that's joy. Giving thanks to who? God, the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. Verse 13, He has delivered us from the domain of darkness. That's something to be excited about. And He's transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son. And finally, verse 14, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. That is growth. That is growing. And I want to look quickly, and I want you guys to think about this. Maybe you've heard these, bought these lies, maybe you've heard them, maybe before you came to Jesus, or maybe you still wrestle with these things. Spiritual growth. I want to look at, quickly, six things that spiritual growth is not. Number one, spiritual growth is not being a better person. Okay? Some of you may believe even now that growing spiritually means that you are going to be a better person. That happens, but that is not what spiritual growth is. Because some people think, you know what that means? That you just do less bad things. So that means that you don't cuss, you don't drink, you don't smoke, you don't do all those things that are the bad things. OK, so growing spiritually, you just take all that stuff and say, I don't do it. Well, you didn't do it before. Maybe some of you didn't. So have you improved any? I don't know. Some of you did it before. Now you don't. But is that really the point? I don't know that that's necessarily the point. Some would say just be moral, be good. That is growing spiritually. Some would say getting busy, just being all over the place, doing stuff, doing good things for people is growing spiritually. Number two, some would say that doing all the right things in church. Man, is that the answer? Doing all the right things in church? Who defines what the right things are in church? If you come in here and you stand when we tell you to stand, and you sit when we tell you to sit, we tell you to speak, sing, and you do it on command. No, you shrug your shoulders and you look like you're about to fall asleep. But, you know, when you're following along with everything, you're just doing it as everybody says to do it, Is that growing spiritually? That is not growing spiritually. It is not titles. It is not because I'm Pastor Michael that I'm necessarily, you know, Mac Daddy, top dog, and for you to, you know, climb your way up the ladder. That is not growing spiritually. It's not being a worship leader. That is not growing spiritually, that you have a title or a position, that you hold some kind of situation where people label you or identify you with something. It's not you throwing your hands up. It's not you, you know, because some people would say, man, he's really spiritual. When the worship got going, man, his arms went up. He even did both arms. I'm telling you, he's hyper spiritual. He's really got it going on, right? If your leg starts moving, I don't know about that. That must not be spiritual. That's getting close to dancing. We don't do that in church, right? No, that's not it either. Obviously, that's OK. And another thing, number three, it's not waiting for God. to zap you, okay, or pour the bucket out on you. Because some people believe that, and maybe you've felt this way, I've even felt this way sometimes, that, you know, growing spiritually, it happens all at once. Like God just injects you with this just amazing bucket of, I don't know what you'd call it, a bucket of blessing. pours it out on you. And maybe today when you came, he just he's going to dump the bucket on you all of a sudden. You're going to be super Christian when you leave here and you're going to win every single person in your family to Jesus. And when you go to school, you're just going to say, hey, man, what's up? And he's going to go, how do I know? How do I know I'm going to go to heaven when I die? No, that doesn't happen. God doesn't zap you. It's not like a lightning bolt that comes in the room and strikes you and all of a sudden you just grow. That's not it. That's not it. It's not. Having the right experience. It's not. This is number five. Having the right experience. Because some would say you need to go to this conference like you need to go to Pigeon Forge. OK. And if you don't know you can't grow spiritually. You've got to be there. No it's not. Read this book. Some of you maybe, there's some Christian literature out there. There's different books. There's always this number one best seller. And if you read this book, I'm telling you, you're going to get it. No, that's not it. It's not going to some kind of conference. It's not going anywhere. That's not spiritual growth. Some people believe you can become perfect. That's spiritual growth. Do you believe you can become perfect? What we just read just a moment ago, Talked about growing. But there was nowhere in there at all that it said that you're going to become a perfect person. And you won't find that. The perfection is in Jesus. It's not in you and it won't be. And he had to be perfect for you. And that's where your perfection comes. It's in Jesus. It's not in you. But some people believe you got to be perfect. And they'll say, well, you know, I've actually heard it come from the words of people. from their mouth that they have said, you know, I believe that you can go a full day without sinning. You know, and I went I went a full week without sinning on purpose. And I'm like, dude, you just lied to me. That is a sin. You just now you just now that that's a sin. But people there are some people that believe that. Now, you may think that's silly because you've not ever heard that here. But there are literally, and you may find people, and that's the standard. You grow to a point where you don't sin. You don't sin. But if you read 1 John 1, it says that if you say you're without sin, you're a liar and the truth of God is not in you. That's a big, bold statement. That's my comeback when people say, I think you can live without sinning. That's not what my Bible says. And I think you probably have the same version. At least, let's compare. Let's check it out. Let's see what yours says. Because that's that's garbage. And then finally, some people believe that spiritual growth. They believe you don't need to grow, you don't have to grow. Some people believe that Christians don't have to grow. And you know why they say that is because some would say, well, you know, I mean, you can you can believe that Jesus is your savior, but he's not your Lord. Or, you know, you can there's some people that, you know, that are unsaved and they don't grow because they don't know Jesus. Well, absolutely, that's true. But some people would say, you know, you can trust Jesus as your savior. But then, you know, you don't ever there's no obedience. You just you just you don't have to grow. Bible garbage, that's that's junk, that's that's ridiculous. You trust Jesus as your Lord and savior. He is the boss. He's the master. He's got it all in his hands. And what happens is, Lord, well, that has to do with God. Savior has to do with me. So what people do is they say, I'll have him as my Savior, but I won't have him as my Lord. And he doesn't give you that opportunity. He doesn't give you that option. That's not that's not an option. And we don't like to hear that. But God is master or he's not master at all. And so that is not an option. If you're a Christian, you grow. And it's not a matter of you spin your wheels as hard as you can and as fast as you can. No, God will bring growth in you. God will bring about maturity in you. Because if God is in you, he's going to do something. And that's what we're going to look at here. And that's a big thing to grapple with. And like I said, I'm not growing. I'm a slow grower. Some people grow fast and quick. I'm not like that. And some of you may be. I don't know. I'm learning. Some of you. You grow faster than I would have ever imagined. But I'm not a quick, fast grower. And that's okay, I think. But what is spiritual growth? Spiritual growth is transformation. Spiritual growth is an absolute change over time. It is you not being the same. It's not a better you. It's not about being a better person. That was number one. But spiritual growth, number one, is to be made like Jesus. Because you know what? If you are a better person, you're only a better sinner. You realize that? If you're just a better person, you're a better sinner. The idea God is wanting to transform you into Jesus. He wants you to look like Jesus. And I want to read to you and I want you to hear Romans chapter 8 verses 28 and 29, because that's where that comes from. It says, we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good. Those whom he foreknew, he knew before the time even began, as we know it. He also predestined to be what? Conformed to the image of his son. in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined, he also called. And those whom he called, he also justified. And those whom he justified, he also glorified." So the big idea, guys, he wants you to look like Jesus. He doesn't want you to be better. He wants you to look like Jesus. And better you on the outside is all you're going to come up with if you're going to be a better person. If you think spiritual growth is being a better person, That is simply manipulating your behavior, trying harder, working. I'm not good at this, so I need to work on that. I am good at this, so we're good there. But I need to manipulate my outside so that people will think that I'm growing. It's not a makeover. It's not an outside appearance that's being modified. It is an inside change, a transformation that Jesus is making you look like Jesus. I don't understand fully, but I know that's the process. And if you will look at Colossians 1, you'll see where I'm getting this from. The number two thing that I think is spiritual growth. The second thing that I think, based on what God says right here, is understanding the grace of God. And you see that in verse 6. You'll see that in verse 6 on the screen, and you'll see that in verse 8. But I want you to look at verse 6. It's come to you, the gospel, and indeed it's growing in the whole world, it's bearing fruit. And then he goes to verse 8, he says, you understood, right there in verse 6 he says, you understood the grace of God, and then verse 8 he says, He's made known to us your love. And the grace of God is, that is what it is, it's love. And understanding the grace of God, you guys, If you ever come to the point, and if I ever get to the point where we just say, I got that. I got the grace of God. I got it. I understand it. No, you don't. And no, I don't. We've got to be gotten by it. It's not a matter of you getting grace. It's a matter of you being gotten by grace. It's a matter of you being gripped by grace. It's a matter of you realizing that it's not what you thought it was. And it's not what people talk about God being like and how He works and what He thinks about you. And what this looks like to grow, what maturity looks like, not that I'm a real mature person, but what maturity looks like is that when you guys mess up and when I mess up, rather than, you know what, what our default mode, what you guys would do and what I do automatically, just when we mess up, we feel like God is disappointed with us. So you know what we do? We run from Him. We run as far as we can run. And you know what we do? We try to fix it. We try to work it. We try to make do and figure this out on our own. And you know what we try to do? We try to be just like children do. We try to fix our mess. We try to scrub. We try to, you know, fix the cracks, whatever it is that's messed up. And you can scrub up. You can clean up. I can do all that. And I'm still unacceptable because apart from the blood of Jesus Christ on the cross, you are unacceptable. And so am I. From the moment you got saved, every moment you grow. You are absolutely unacceptable apart from the blood. So when you run to try to clean yourself, when I run to try to hide, that shows my immaturity. That shows how immature I am. And that shows where I need to grow and where I need to understand. Yeah, I did blow it. And that's not to say you can do whatever you want. But God is pleased with the blood. covered all my life. He's pleased with my mess being covered by Jesus. And that's awesome. That's awesome guys. That's maturity. It's knowing God. Randy said it this morning and I didn't realize he was going to say that, but he talked about the difference in knowing God and knowing about God. That is the difference. That is the difference Understanding the grace of God, it's a matter of knowing God. It's a matter of having a real relationship with God rather than knowing about God. Because you can know. Your head learns a whole lot faster than your heart. Do you realize that? Mine too. I know all kinds of things about God because I've been taught those things. And so have some of you. You've been in church maybe all your life. You were in church in your mama's belly. And so even now, you know all kinds of things. You've heard them, but your head learns a whole lot faster than your heart. And so when you hear about grace and when you see people, older people that have been in church, older people that have had a relationship with Jesus and have gone through a whole lot of mess, and they stand up and they shout and they scream and they look like fools, you think, what in the world is wrong with her? Why is he doing that? It's because they understand grace. They've been gotten by grace. They've been gripped by grace. And it shows. You can't hide that kind of thing. You can't. And that's what gets you excited. That's what gets you pumped. And when we're singing about love, that breaks my heart of stone. And you get pumped about that. You think about the fact that your heart is absolutely hard. It was at one point. And it's softened. It's been softened. Amazing. You can't earn it. So how can you unearn it? That's grace. That's grace. And beginning to understand what that grace is. And then verse 4, he talks about love. He talks about love. And that love is not a love... How many of you guys just... Love comes easy. I mean, for you. It's natural. You feel like it's easy to love. I mean, you don't feel like you're a hateful person. Some of you, you know, you're just naturally, but he's talking about a love. Since we heard of your faith in Christ and of the love, guys, faith and love don't come in separate categories. You come to faith in Jesus and love is just a byproduct and you find yourself loving more than you ever have before. And it's not just I love my mom, I love my dad, but it's a love that goes beyond. And Sarah and I this past week, we've just been talking a little bit and I know she wouldn't want me to say this, but she's been asking me what I think is romantic. OK, like what what what are some things that you what's your idea of romance? And what she's really asking me is she wants to see me show her love, you know, because my love when I say I love you and then when I don't show my love, that's like faith without love. And they are not interchangeable. I mean, they are interchangeable words because faith loves. They're not two separate categories. And for me to show her romance is actually showing her that I love her. And when I'm thinking, I don't want to think about romance. I don't want, you know, those things. But what she wants to know is that I love her and that I want to show her that love. And she'll believe that when I say I love you, I mean it because I show what that looks like. And I watch sappy movies. That's not what she wants me to watch, sappy movies. That's not the romance that she has in mind. Those are not the kinds of things she wants me to love on her. She wants me to go out of my way to show her that I'm thinking about her, that I care. And that's what love and faith, faith does that. When you come to faith, when you become a Christian, something changes in you. It's not something you came up with. It's something that God does in you and it grows and that love takes on a different style. It's not a selfish love. It's not always what is in it for you. It goes out of its way. It serves people. We talked about that. It's a love in the spirit. And he says that in verse eight. It's a love in the spirit. It's produced by God in you. It's an outflowing of love. Love moves. Love moves. It takes action. And if you're growing spiritually, you'll find yourself. You'll find yourself growing in love. Growing in concern, growing in compassion, growing in the desire to see people that are hurting, find healing, to see people that are lonely, find that they're not alone. You'll grow in that desire and you'll want that for people. You'll want people to know the peace that you have because you're loving, because Jesus is growing out of you. And guys, there's a power. There's a power. If you're growing spiritually, spiritual growth is power. And it's not the power that you expect, because the power that you expect is not the cross. No one expected Jesus on a cross to be powerful. You don't look at the cross. You don't see torture and death and humiliation. And what he did is he suffocated on that cross. You don't see that as being power. And they didn't either. But what comes right before power? Death. What comes right before resurrection? Death. And you will experience a power. In verse 11 he speaks directly to us and he says there's power. There's power. And he talks about the power and when he says that he says all power according to whose power? Whose might? It's God. It's His glorious might. For what? For all endurance and patience with joy. And I want to focus on that. Endurance and patience. You know why? Because life comes at you. Life comes at you. Saved, unsaved. If you're a Christian, it doesn't matter. Life comes at you and it never stops coming after you. Pain does not stop. Trial does not stop. Challenge does not stop. The heat, the emotion, the drama does not stop. It's not an end-all because you met Jesus. That's not it. And that understanding is growth. That in itself, realizing, That you still live in reality. It's not fantasy now. You still live in a real place, but Jesus meets you in that real place. And that's the growth. That's you understanding. And life comes at you hard. This past week I heard about one of the greatest preachers I've ever known. one of the most powerful speakers I've ever known. He was a campus pastor at our college, Sarah and I was growing up, and we went every Wednesday and got to hear this guy speak, and he's one of the best in the world. And you would think, People put their confidence in people and they think, well, nothing bad will happen to this guy because he's just so spiritual. God takes care of all that kind of stuff because we don't understand. We just don't understand. We haven't grown to understand the maturity. Just this past week, his 15-year-old son committed suicide. They don't have a clue why. There's some speculation coming from outside, but I don't even know that that adds up. How in the world does that happen? Because this guy's grown to such maturity. He is up to the top. I mean, this guy speaks and people get saved every time it seems like. I mean, it's just, wow. But guess what? It doesn't matter. That is not what growth is. Growth is power, but power, the power that endures. The power that produces patience. And you don't endure situations that are not tough. You don't endure situations that are all happy and pleasant and flowery. You don't endure life that's not troubled. You endure and you have patience when you're put to the test. And he's talking about joy in the midst of horrible circumstances. When you lose somebody in your life and you don't know what the answer is, that is God growing in you to produce patience and endurance and there's an opportunity for you to have joy in that because you know what if you think and if I think and this is huge guys this is huge if you think I will grow when this is over I will grow When I'm able to get over this hump, I will grow whenever I get this fixed. I will grow whenever mom and dad aren't fighting anymore. I will grow when my grades are good. I will grow once I get out of this relationship. I will grow whenever. And you just fill in the blank. When you that is not it. That is not it. You grow in the midst. Of that mess that you're in. And Jesus grows you in the midst because he's what he's producing endurance. He's taking you through the fire. And something else I'll add to that, if you're not hurting, if you're not struggling, if you're not having issue, if you are not confused, you're going to have a hard time understanding the Bible. Because this book is filled with people that are hurting. confused, struggling, don't have answers, but they do have a God who they trust. And that's real. That is growing. That is coming to realize that every single person in this room right now has an issue. And you comparing yourself to your neighbor and you wanting to be in a place where they are and you desiring to have a life like they have and you wanting what they appear to have going for them. That's fantasy. That is not spiritual growth. That does not produce endurance and patience in your life. And that does not produce joy in your life. You're looking for joy in the wrong place. In Philippians chapter 3, I love what Paul has to say. And he shares this with us in addition to Colossians. He says in chapter 3, verses 11 and 12, Speaking right here on the midst of storm, whatever this is that you're going through, I don't have a clue. He says in chapter 3, verses 11 and 12, by any means possible, He says, I want to attain the resurrection from the dead. Not that I've already obtained this, not that I'm already perfect. He goes on and says that exactly. Not that I've obtained this or I'm already perfect, but I press on to make it my own. I press on to make my faith my own, not my neighbors, not my friends, not my mom's, not my dad's, not my cousin's, not... Because Jesus Christ has made me his own. He goes on to say in verse 13, Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own, but one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind and straightening forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call in Christ Jesus. And guys. I'm not I've not reached perfection. I've not reached what I would even call maturity. And that's OK, but I'm growing. And you're growing even when you don't feel like you are. And he said, I want to know Jesus in my suffering. If you'll come to realize that, that's growth. You'll realize that suffering is an opportunity to grow. Sometimes that happens for you to grow. You suffer. You don't understand. You don't have the answer. You may not get the answer when you want it. You may not get the answer in this life. Because guess what? YOLO is garbage. You don't only live once. You live forever. But you may not get your answer. like you want it, when you want it. But God's producing in you patience, endurance, and joy. Why in the world do you want to grow? Why in the world do you need to grow? Why? I'm going to wrap it up with this answer. Ephesians chapter 4 says, in verses 12 and 13, and we saw it this morning, those of you who were here, God gives all these different people. He gives positions. I talked about positions. He gives pastors. He gives teachers, preachers, singers, all those different things. He gives those positions, those people in those places to do what? To equip the saints for the work of ministry. But then he goes on to say, for building up the body of Christ, in verse 13, so that we will attain unity, so that we won't be all scattered all over the place, not having a clue what our mission is or what our intentions are, but that we'll have unity in the faith and that We will grow in the knowledge of the Son of God to what to maturity to mature manhood to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. Why. Why. So that we will no longer be children tossed to and fro by the waves carried about by every wind of doctrine. Because you know what guys if your children in the faith you get caught up in just like when you go to the beach and you get caught up in the tide you get carried You don't even know you're getting carried. You look back and you're not where you are. And that's exactly what happens to children in the faith. You get caught up whether it's a friend whether it's a girlfriend a boyfriend and they lead you away by some false teaching. And that teaching is not what you think it is. It's not that you sit under there speaking or that you know like it's not school but it is what they are manipulating you with. That is what's being said here. And kids are messy and they're dangerous. And if you're a child in the faith and you stay a child in the faith, you tear yourself up. You destroy yourself and you hurt people around you. Just yesterday, I watched my little boy. He was, Sarah sat him down in my office for just a second. She said, watch him for just a minute. I'm going to go do something. Vacuum cleaner sitting right there. He goes to grab it. He pulls it towards himself and it falls right on top of his head hard. Cracks him really good on the top of the head. I picked him up, held him for a second. I said, I want to see what he does. So I took him, I put him back on the floor and I held the top of the vacuum cleaner. Guess what? He went right back to it. He was pulling at it, pulling at it, pulling at it. He's going to pull it right back down on his head again. You know why? Because he doesn't get it. He's a kid. He is a child. He doesn't understand that he's making a mess. He doesn't understand that he's hurting himself. And that's what we do if we stay children in the faith. If you choose to be satisfied with where you are right now, guys, I said that God will grow you even when you don't know it. But that does not shortchange your effort. That does not mean that you put in work. But that's something that I have come to find out. You've got to put in the work. God changes you. But it can't be. You want to know what a status, a point, if you want to point out, figure out, am I spiritually immature right now? Am I just, you know, am I way, way, way off right now? Because we go through situations, spurts of immaturity. But we're also growing. If you look at situations and you look at life and you look at this whole church thing and you go, you know what, the point is reading my Bible. The point is coming to church. The point is listening to what's being said. The point is singing when I'm told to sing. You miss it. The point is to know God. If you look at your Bible and you say, I need to be reading my Bible more. I need to be praying more. I need to be in church more. And that's the point. That's not the point. The point is to know God. And those are simple vehicles to get there. And you can't go around them to know God. Those are the means and the methods that he's chose for us to get to know him. That's maturity. It's moving beyond. I'm doing this. And that's the point. Now, the point is to know God. So once you guys stand.