SPEAKER_00: Uh well, when I was in high school and middle school, I played football and I started to get to freshman uh about sophomore year, uh, and I really wanted to make varsity because that's what the best football players did.
SPEAKER_00: You wanted to be on varsity.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, you know, we weren't very good.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, we didn't win a single game my sophomore year, but still, varsity is varsity, right?
SPEAKER_00: The letterman looks cool.
SPEAKER_00: And so I asked my coach, hey coach, what do I need to do uh to make this happen?
SPEAKER_00: What is it gonna take?
SPEAKER_00: And he he told me, he's like, son, you'll make it to varsity when you're ready.
SPEAKER_00: I was like, uh, okay, coach, but how am I gonna know I'm ready?
SPEAKER_00: Like, what needs to happen?
SPEAKER_00: Like, do I need to get stronger?
SPEAKER_00: Do I need to get smarter?
SPEAKER_00: Do I need to study the plays?
SPEAKER_00: Do I need to get faster?
SPEAKER_00: Do I need to get taller?
SPEAKER_00: And he goes, son, I'll tell you this.
SPEAKER_00: I'll know it when I see it.
SPEAKER_00: I was like, Coach, that is incredibly unhelpful.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, that doesn't give me anything to go off of.
SPEAKER_00: Turns out the answer was I needed to be all of those things.
SPEAKER_00: I was not very good at football at that point in my life.
SPEAKER_00: But why am I telling you this story?
SPEAKER_00: Because tonight, as we begin walking through the book of Philippians, we're going to be talking about the spiritual or the topic of spiritual maturity.
SPEAKER_00: That's where Paul goes in these first 11 verses tonight.
SPEAKER_00: And a lot of us feel the same way about spiritual maturity.
SPEAKER_00: We know we need to get there.
SPEAKER_00: We know it's a good thing and it's where God wants us to go.
SPEAKER_00: But the question is, what in the world is spiritual maturity?
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: It's a church term that we don't really know what that means.
SPEAKER_00: We throw it around a lot, but but does it mean that I just have a lot of information?
SPEAKER_00: That I know all my 66 books of the Bible, that I know how many books are in the New Testament.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, I learned that I did not know that at camp.
SPEAKER_00: Sorry.
SPEAKER_00: Is it that I need to be filled with emotion?
SPEAKER_00: Do I just need to have tears streaming down my face every time that I worship?
SPEAKER_00: Or maybe it's about being a part of a certain Bible study, or the one that goes deeper than the rest of them.
SPEAKER_00: Or I go to a certain youth ministry.
SPEAKER_00: Or maybe I use fancy church words.
SPEAKER_00: I wouldn't say it that way, but if I use things like sanctification and uh, you know, soterology or eschatology, like then I'm spiritually mature when I know what those means.
SPEAKER_00: Or maybe we think it's when we're free from certain types of sin or temptation.
SPEAKER_00: And look, none of those things necessarily are bad in and of themselves, but all of them stop short of actually giving us a true picture of what it means to be spiritually mature, to grow in our faith.
SPEAKER_00: And tonight we're gonna see Paul give us a picture of that.
SPEAKER_00: And so, starting Philippians chapter one, verse one, we're gonna walk through the whole book by the end of the series.
SPEAKER_00: If you have your one with you, great.
SPEAKER_00: If you didn't, again, take your notes somewhere else, and we'd love to be able to get you one of those so that you can transfer those notes.
SPEAKER_00: Because I want you at the end of the series to have the entire book of Philippians marked up so you know, hey, I can walk through books of the Bible and I can read the text, and even if I might not might not know what it means, it can be explained and I can learn.
SPEAKER_00: And the goal is that over time, those of you who are with us for a long period of time, you would have many of these by the end of your time in the student ministry.
SPEAKER_00: So, Philippians 1, 1, Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus, to all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi, with the overseers and deacons, grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: I thank my God in remembrance of you, and all my remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine, for you all making my prayer with joy, because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now.
SPEAKER_00: And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And so uh we're gonna keep walking through this.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, and early on, Paul, this this is the basically how this works in letters that Paul writes is he starts with an introduction.
SPEAKER_00: And so he thanks them.
SPEAKER_00: He thanks God for them.
SPEAKER_00: Notice how Paul, you'll never see him thank God for stuff.
SPEAKER_00: He always thanks God for people and the blessing that they've played.
SPEAKER_00: And that begs a question of when was the last time we looked at the people God's placed in our life and thanked him?
SPEAKER_00: Side note, we're not going to stay there.
SPEAKER_00: But moving on, uh, he says, Thank you for for how God has used you in my life and all of these things in the past.
SPEAKER_00: He talks about his grateful heart towards what they've been to him in the past, and then he moves his attention towards the future.
SPEAKER_00: And he says, That I am sure that what God has been doing in you will continue.
SPEAKER_00: He's going to that famous verse, verse six, and I am sure of this that he who began a good work will bring it to completion in the day of Jesus Christ, which begs the question, what good work is he talking about?
SPEAKER_00: You can underline good work if you're taking notes, because we're about to talk a little bit more about that.
SPEAKER_00: And to make it simple, this is where he's talking about spiritual maturity, that good work of growing in your faith, becoming more like Jesus and doing what he did.
SPEAKER_00: And we're going to dig into the practical part of that in a minute, but there's something I want to point out that we can't move past because this, like, hear me now.
SPEAKER_00: If you don't hear this part of the message, the rest is going to sound confusing at best and heretical at worst.
SPEAKER_00: So you need to hear this.
SPEAKER_00: The confidence that he has in this good work being completed has nothing to do with the Philippians.
SPEAKER_00: It's not because they know a lot of the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: It's not because they're holier than thou.
SPEAKER_00: But it has everything to do with God.
SPEAKER_00: He says the one who started the good work is going to finish it.
SPEAKER_00: Not he started it and you'll finish it.
SPEAKER_00: He started it, he'll finish it.
SPEAKER_00: And what he's saying, and you have to understand this to understand his argument, before we came to place our faith in Jesus, for those of us who have, we weren't basically good people who made a few mistakes and had a few bad habits, and that if we clean those things up, then we're good.
SPEAKER_00: No, the scriptures say that sin, anything we think, say, or do that displeases God that's outside of his order, broke our relationship with God.
SPEAKER_00: That scripture says all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, and the wages of sin are death.
SPEAKER_00: Wages are what you earn for doing something.
SPEAKER_00: So if you work at Whataburger, your wage is$15 an hour.
SPEAKER_00: And so when you sin, you earn death.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because God is the source of life.
SPEAKER_00: Adam and Eve didn't have eternal life in and of themselves.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes we just think that or like, oh, they weren't supposed to die.
SPEAKER_00: They weren't supposed to die because they were perfectly connected to the source of life that's God.
SPEAKER_00: Just like this phone has a certain amount of battery.
SPEAKER_00: This phone can't exist in and of itself, though.
SPEAKER_00: It has to be plugged into a source and then it charges and then it has battery to live.
SPEAKER_00: But if you deconnect it from the source, it might live for a little bit, but it's eventually going to die.
SPEAKER_00: And in the same way, we were made to exist to be connected to the eternal source of life that's God.
SPEAKER_00: And so when we unplug ourselves from that charger by sinning and say, God, I don't want you, I don't want your life, I don't want your rules, we choose death.
SPEAKER_00: And so when God found us, we were out of battery, we were spiritually dead, we were separated from God.
SPEAKER_00: Not only did sin break our relationship with God, though, sin broke something inside of us.
SPEAKER_00: And guys, I don't really need to explain this a whole bunch because I know all of you have probably felt this.
SPEAKER_00: We feel it in our greed, in our jealousy, and our lust and our selfishness, how we tear people down so that we can feel better about our own insecurities.
SPEAKER_00: How when we face stress, instead of dealing with it the healthy way, we resort to doom scrolling or objectifying a guy or a girl's body on a screen rather than just deal with what's going on in our hearts.
SPEAKER_00: And here's the thing, we know these things are wrong, but we can't fix it.
SPEAKER_00: We can't fix what's broken inside of us.
SPEAKER_00: You might for a little bit, but eventually you're gonna realize I'm just chasing my tail.
SPEAKER_00: I need help from outside.
SPEAKER_00: Only God could do something to save us.
SPEAKER_00: And that's the message of the gospel, and that's where Jesus comes in, is that Jesus lived the life that we couldn't, where we can't obey, that we're broken from the inside, we can only sin.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus only perfectly obeyed.
SPEAKER_00: And when we chose rebellion, we chose to unplug ourselves from the source of life, and that led to death.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus chose perfect obedience, but at the end of his life here on earth, he died.
SPEAKER_00: Not for his disobedience, but for ours.
SPEAKER_00: Because our sin had to be paid for.
SPEAKER_00: Part of who God is is he's just, he's the perfect judge.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't let bad stuff go off the hook.
SPEAKER_00: But the problem is not just evil and bad stuff out there, it's the evil in our own hearts, and something had to be done.
SPEAKER_00: But he stepped out of heaven and put on flesh and he paid for it himself.
SPEAKER_00: He took our place, died the death we deserved so that we could receive the eternal life that he deserved.
SPEAKER_00: That on the cross, all of the punishment we deserve got put on to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And Scripture says that if you confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
SPEAKER_00: And we know that's true because Jesus didn't stay dead.
SPEAKER_00: They put him in a grave, and then three days later he got up and walked out.
SPEAKER_00: Death had claimed every other human in history, but not this man.
SPEAKER_00: And so we can know, this is a verifiable fact, that they was seen by hundreds of eyewitnesses, that he turned his disciples from cowards hiding in a room to people who are willing to die for this truth.
SPEAKER_00: You don't die for a lie that you made up.
SPEAKER_00: But we know because he rose, if we're in him, we will rise too.
SPEAKER_00: And here's the important point.
SPEAKER_00: This is where I'm going to tie it back together.
SPEAKER_00: If you're a follower of Jesus, that is why.
SPEAKER_00: It is not because you went to church, it is not because you have a Christian family, it is not because you tried hard to be vaguely nice to people.
SPEAKER_00: If you're a Christian, it's because you were dead in your sin and he brought you back to life.
SPEAKER_00: It's not like you're just trying to tread water in the ocean of life and you're starting to struggle, and so Jesus threw you a life preserver and now you can swim yourself to shore.
SPEAKER_00: No, no, no.
SPEAKER_00: In that analogy, you were dead at the bottom of the ocean.
SPEAKER_00: You drowned a long time ago.
SPEAKER_00: This is true of all of us.
SPEAKER_00: This is true of me.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus dove into the ocean of our death and our chaos and our sin and our shame, and he brought us up from the bottom.
SPEAKER_00: And so here's the point Paul's saying that since God is the one who did all of that to save you, you can trust him to keep working in you and shaping you now.
SPEAKER_00: That God initiated your salvation so you can trust him to continue the work of transformation.
SPEAKER_00: That he is the one who saved you, and so you can trust him to transform you.
SPEAKER_00: You're not just desperately trying to hold on to Jesus, but rather Jesus is holding on to you.
SPEAKER_00: You've been forgiven, you've received the Holy Spirit, God's presence literally lives inside of you, and now God is changing you from the inside out.
SPEAKER_00: And your response is not to just try and clean yourself up for God so that he won't get sick of you.
SPEAKER_00: Rather, it's to just respond by walking with him, to live in relationship with him.
SPEAKER_00: And we're going to talk more about what that practically looks like.
SPEAKER_00: So we're going to jump back into verse seven.
SPEAKER_00: It is right for me to feel this way about you all, because I hold you in my heart, for you are all partakers of me, with me, of grace, both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: For God is my witness how I yearn for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more with all knowledge and discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the righteousness that comes through Christ Jesus, to the glory and praise of God.
SPEAKER_00: And so in verses seven and eight, Paul continues by explaining to them why they're so thankful.
SPEAKER_00: And we don't have time to unpack all of that, but it's just more about how God has used them, how God will use them.
SPEAKER_00: But then in verse 9, Paul starts to unpack practically what he means by the good work.
SPEAKER_00: Remember, this is all kind of couched in Paul praying for these Philippians.
SPEAKER_00: And so in this prayer, he says, Hey, I'm confident that God's going to complete this good work, and now let me pray what I'm confident he's going to complete.
SPEAKER_00: And so what we get here is actually a really long, kind of convoluted sentence, but the main point is pretty straightforward.
SPEAKER_00: He's going to show us what God wants to keep developing in their life.
SPEAKER_00: He's painting a picture of spiritual maturity.
SPEAKER_00: And specifically, there's going to be six things that he prays for them.
SPEAKER_00: And because there's six, we're going to have to move fairly quickly, but we will have them up on the screen so you can write them down or take a picture.
SPEAKER_00: So, first, he prays for their love to abound yet more and more.
SPEAKER_00: And let me start by acknowledging this.
SPEAKER_00: We use the word love for everything, don't we?
SPEAKER_00: I say I love my family.
SPEAKER_00: Some people say I love my boyfriend or girlfriend of two weeks.
SPEAKER_00: We say I love Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: I say I love Panda Express.
SPEAKER_00: Or I love that one specific parking lot at HEB.
SPEAKER_00: It's like not the main aisle that's always full, but it's the one right to the left of it, and you got a little extra space, it's great.
SPEAKER_00: Those can't all mean the same thing.
SPEAKER_00: Like if Panda doesn't open soon, like if they push this thing into 2027, I'm gonna be disappointed.
SPEAKER_00: But if something happens to my family, that's a different level of emotional response, right?
SPEAKER_00: If something happens to your boyfriend of one to two weeks, sad, right?
SPEAKER_00: Sorry, different than family, right?
SPEAKER_00: So we have to define what we mean by love.
SPEAKER_00: Well, Paul, when he talks about love, first he's talking about who God is.
SPEAKER_00: God is love.
SPEAKER_00: You read that in first John, actually, the scriptures are clear about it.
SPEAKER_00: And then we also learn that not only it's who God is, but it's how God treats us because of who he is.
SPEAKER_00: God's love is patient, God's love is kind, and we see it most clearly in Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: That's one thing you'll notice throughout Philippians.
SPEAKER_00: This whole thing's about Jesus, guys.
SPEAKER_00: And we see it in Jesus because God didn't wait for us to get our acts together before loving us.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't choose to die on the cross when he thought humanity was kind of getting it together.
SPEAKER_00: No, he died for us while we were enemies, while we were running in the other direction.
SPEAKER_00: He died for the people who put him on the cross.
SPEAKER_00: He gave his life for us, even though we were running in the opposite direction because of his love, his great love.
SPEAKER_00: And so when Paul is talking about love, he's not just talking about some warm feeling or affection.
SPEAKER_00: He's talking about an action.
SPEAKER_00: Feelings, affections, those things come and go.
SPEAKER_00: And a lot of times we mistake what is infatuation or somebody makes me feel good about myself for true, genuine, self-sacrificing love.
SPEAKER_00: Paul's use of love is talking about choosing to value someone and actively seeking what's good for them, even if it costs you something.
SPEAKER_00: And so when Paul prays that these people's love would abound more and more, he's praying that this kind of love would increasingly shape the way that they live.
SPEAKER_00: Not only that they would feel it, but they would they would live it out.
SPEAKER_00: I actually saw a really good picture of this when I was in high school.
SPEAKER_00: I had a friend who she went to a different church than I did, uh, but she was well known as a Christian, but not just because she always carried around a Bible, but because of the way she treated people.
SPEAKER_00: There was one specific teacher at our school.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, her name was Miss Counts.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, I've learned after the fact, real nice lady, and like I get it, right?
SPEAKER_00: You teach biology in a South Dallas high school.
SPEAKER_00: It's hard.
SPEAKER_00: But she was just not the most fun person to be around, right?
SPEAKER_00: We all know that teacher, uh kind of kind of hard to deal with, not really forgiving on grades, kind of mean.
SPEAKER_00: Like sometimes we'd ask a question and she'd just kind of look at us like we were dumb and not answer it.
SPEAKER_00: So, really not great for the self-esteem.
SPEAKER_00: But this girl was so kind to her.
SPEAKER_00: Even though everybody else disliked her, made jokes about her, tried to avoid her, this girl went out of her way to love this teacher.
SPEAKER_00: She would stay after class and help her clean up.
SPEAKER_00: She would ask how she's doing, she would talk to her when nobody else wanted to talk to her.
SPEAKER_00: And I started to see this hardened teacher who who was just like bitter and angry start to warm up to this student.
SPEAKER_00: And when people would ask the student, hey, why do you care about this teacher?
SPEAKER_00: It's a teacher.
SPEAKER_00: Like everybody hates her.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Why are you kind to her?
SPEAKER_00: Her answer was basically, Well, the more that I understand how God has loved me, the more I realize that he loves her too.
SPEAKER_00: And once I see that, I want to love her that same way.
SPEAKER_00: And that's the kind of love that Paul is talking about.
SPEAKER_00: Not just feeling warm feelings of affection towards people who are like you or provide some benefit to your life.
SPEAKER_00: It's seeing people the way that God sees them, as made in his image and choosing to seek their good.
SPEAKER_00: And the more deeply that you know the love of God, the more naturally that love is going to start spilling out of you towards other people.
SPEAKER_00: But there's an important caveat with this love that Paul's actually going to talk about next.
SPEAKER_00: The second thing he prays for is for this to be accompanied by full knowledge and moral insight.
SPEAKER_00: So full knowledge and moral insight.
SPEAKER_00: You can underline each of these as we're going along.
SPEAKER_00: That they would know God and they would know his will more deeply.
SPEAKER_00: Practically speaking, this really means like knowing God's word.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes we overcomplicate what it means to know God's will.
SPEAKER_00: God has revealed his will to us in his word.
SPEAKER_00: So if you want to hear God speak, read your Bible.
SPEAKER_00: It's an old saying.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: And so we we, it's not, yes, there are times where he guides us and he asks us to step out in faith, but we can clearly see what he says in his word.
SPEAKER_00: But not just like memorizing some verses, actually knowing the message.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: Yes, the gospel, the thing I explained to you earlier, that we were dead in our sins, Jesus made a way that we could be brought back to the relationship we were made for.
SPEAKER_00: But also, what does God say about the big issues in life?
SPEAKER_00: What does God say about identity, relationships and sex, money, success, anxiety, fear, friendships, forgiveness, suffering, your future, your purpose.
SPEAKER_00: What does God say about that?
SPEAKER_00: Paul's saying that you want to learn more and more, not just to be a know it all, but to have the wisdom to know what is right.
SPEAKER_00: You know, you hear the words knowledge and wisdom tossed around a lot, but biblically speaking, those things actually kind of mean different things.
SPEAKER_00: Knowledge is just knowing the facts.
SPEAKER_00: It's knowing that gravity does this, the sky is blue, freezing is at zero degrees Fahrenheit, 30 degrees, 32.
SPEAKER_00: No, Celsius.
SPEAKER_00: Whoops.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you get the point, right?
SPEAKER_00: Knowing the facts better than I do, clearly.
SPEAKER_00: But it's knowing the things that work, right?
SPEAKER_00: I do this, I get this, you plant seeds here, you water them, they grow.
SPEAKER_00: Wisdom is knowing how those facts actually fit into real life.
SPEAKER_00: Wisdom is knowing what to do with the facts when it comes to real life.
SPEAKER_00: Because eventually you're gonna face decisions where nobody's just gonna hand you a Bible verse and tell you exactly what to do.
SPEAKER_00: You want to grow in your knowledge and your wisdom to know his word well enough that you actually start to think like he thinks.
SPEAKER_00: You start to know not just what he's had somebody write on paper in the Bible, but you start to know his heart.
SPEAKER_00: And not just because you have to make decisions one day, but but love needs a direction.
SPEAKER_00: If you don't actually know what's good, true, and life-giving, how do you know what you're loving people towards?
SPEAKER_00: I remember early on in ministry there was a parachurch organization in the town where I was serving.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, they weren't connected to a specific church, but their whole goal was to reach students.
SPEAKER_00: And they talked a lot about meeting students where they're at and loving them well, and all of those things were great goals.
SPEAKER_00: But the issue was a lot of their leaders were kind of young and inexperienced, and while they meant well, they didn't always know scripture quite well enough to guide students with what they were dealing with.
SPEAKER_00: And I remember sitting in on one of their meetings where a girl started opening up about all this drama in her life.
SPEAKER_00: Like her boyfriend uh had done something with another guy, and then uh her parents were starting to turn on her because they don't want me to be with this boy, and then my parents, the friends also were like starting to agree with the parents, and uh, there was just a whole dumpster fire.
SPEAKER_00: And for the record, the friends and the parents were very right in the situation, but whole mess.
SPEAKER_00: And she's opening up to this leader about it, and I'm sitting there, I'm like, man, this is great, right?
SPEAKER_00: Like she trusts this leader, she's opening up to this leader, and now let's see where this leader takes it.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm thinking, oh, we're about to get like, man, let me tell you the truth of the scripture.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna quote some Bible verses, all this sort of stuff.
SPEAKER_00: And the leader basically just hits the oogl and just goes into all the gossip and all the, oh, your friend should not have done that, and oh, your parents have no idea, and this, that, and the other, and all this sort of stuff.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, wait, what is going on here?
SPEAKER_00: And look, that that leader genuinely cared about that student.
SPEAKER_00: She she really did love that student.
SPEAKER_00: I'd seen that all throughout other periods in life, but the problem is she she didn't know where to lead her.
SPEAKER_00: Her love didn't have a direction, and that's the danger of love without knowledge.
SPEAKER_00: You can sincerely want what's best for somebody and still lead them somewhere harmful if you don't know what best actually is.
SPEAKER_00: And if love isn't directed to what's actually true, good, and life-giving, if love is not directed towards God, then it's really not love at all.
SPEAKER_00: Paul says that when love is shaped by truth, it gives you something else, it gives you discernment, meaning that you don't just recognize what's good, but what really matters.
SPEAKER_00: And that's the third thing of spiritual maturity.
SPEAKER_00: Paul prays that these Philippians would approve the things that really matter.
SPEAKER_00: Paul wants their knowledge and their wisdom to grow so that they can actually learn the real priorities that exist in the life of a Christian.
SPEAKER_00: That they get better at making wise decisions about what's most important when following Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And this is so, so important, especially here in Bernie, because we have a million options.
SPEAKER_00: Think about it this way.
SPEAKER_00: I was trying to think of a good way to illustrate this.
SPEAKER_00: Think about packing for camp.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, some of you bring like an H E B bag with like three things in it, and I have no idea how you survive on that for a week, and I don't want to know how you survive on that for a week.
SPEAKER_00: I have seen somebody use Dawn dish soup for body wash because if it's good enough for the ducks, it's good enough for me.
SPEAKER_00: It's not good enough for the ducks, and it's not good enough for you.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you, however, act like you are moving to Estes Park, Colorado for the rest of your life.
SPEAKER_00: And I know because I've put you girls' bags on the charter bus.
SPEAKER_00: I've seen you pointing at each other.
SPEAKER_00: You've got six hoodies, four pairs of shoes, a blanket, three things you haven't worn in two years, uh, your pet rock collection, don't know who still has that.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, three computers, two of which don't work, and a bunch of stuff that you think, well, I might need this.
SPEAKER_00: Like, what if we just happen?
SPEAKER_00: I need a I need a poncho, because like what if we're outside and we're playing spike ball and it starts to rain, but like I'm winning.
SPEAKER_00: And so then if the poncho doesn't work, I need an umbrella.
SPEAKER_00: And it's just like all of a sudden, you have all this stuff, but then imagine you get to camp and you realize you forgot underwear.
SPEAKER_00: The problem wasn't necessarily that everything you packed was bad, the problem is, and hear me here you gave too much space to things that didn't actually matter, and you forgot what was essential.
SPEAKER_00: Do you see it?
SPEAKER_00: Life works the same way, guys.
SPEAKER_00: We only have so much time and energy and And attention.
SPEAKER_00: There's a million things you could give them to.
SPEAKER_00: And a lot of them aren't necessarily bad.
SPEAKER_00: Some of them are great.
SPEAKER_00: But true biblical wisdom is knowing what actually deserves space.
SPEAKER_00: And biblical wisdom is going to tell you the first and foremost thing that needs space in your life is your relationship with God.
SPEAKER_00: So if all this stuff is true, then that's priority number one.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus isn't just like number one on the priority list, he is the paper it's written on.
SPEAKER_00: Because what you continually give space to will eventually shape who you become.
SPEAKER_00: And that's where Paul goes next.
SPEAKER_00: Verse, uh, not verse four, but the fourth point, he prays that they might be sincere and blameless when Christ returns.
SPEAKER_00: So he's not just concerned with the decisions they're making, but he's concerned with who the decisions are shaping them in to be.
SPEAKER_00: And this word sincere can also be translated pure.
SPEAKER_00: And Paul is talking about having genuine motives, not loving or serving people for just some selfish reasons beneath the surface.
SPEAKER_00: Really, it's kind of this idea of being the same person on the inside as the person you put forward on the outside, especially in how you treat other people.
SPEAKER_00: Blameless isn't just talking about, that's the other word, right?
SPEAKER_00: So you have pure and you have blameless.
SPEAKER_00: And blameless isn't just talking about, you know, avoiding big issues, you know, don't really screw up your life, but it's actually talking about how you live your life in relation to other people, to not cause them to stumble or trip up or not to live in a way that pulls someone else away from Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And so the idea is to be sincere in your motives and careful that the way you live doesn't lead others away from Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And it can really be summed up with this one question, I think, as I was working through this.
SPEAKER_00: Do you really believe what you say you do?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, think about it.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, one of my favorite preachers is known for how passionate he is.
SPEAKER_00: And people ask him all the time, like, how are you so passionate?
SPEAKER_00: How do you get so fired up?
SPEAKER_00: Like, is it caffeine, right?
SPEAKER_00: Like little pouches, like the grinds pouches, like is it pre-workout?
SPEAKER_00: Pre-workout before preaching, that sounds like a good idea.
SPEAKER_00: Like, how are you so passionate?
SPEAKER_00: And his answer is like, guys, I just actually believe this stuff.
SPEAKER_00: Like, I believe it's real.
SPEAKER_00: And honestly, that makes sense.
SPEAKER_00: Think about your favorite hill to die on.
SPEAKER_00: We all have hills we like to die on.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, a hill that I love to die on is that Pluckers is the best wing place known to man.
SPEAKER_00: I will die on that hill all day long.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because I know it to be true.
SPEAKER_00: I've tasted and seen what is good, I've experienced it.
SPEAKER_00: I have a sincerity of belief that it is better than Buffalo Wild Wings and Wingstop, and especially Wing Daddies who would even go there.
SPEAKER_00: But the serious note is I've actually seen this in a in a much deeper way with a student I had.
SPEAKER_00: He was a quiet kid, well liked, athletic, just good-looking kid.
SPEAKER_00: And he was just very quiet.
SPEAKER_00: He was just fine, not being the center of attention, didn't say a whole lot.
SPEAKER_00: And then slowly something started to change.
SPEAKER_00: He started to ask more questions.
SPEAKER_00: He started to volunteer to pray.
SPEAKER_00: And on some trips we went on, he would start to actually step up and serve, to talk in front of people.
SPEAKER_00: And one time I asked him, I was like, hey man, like what's going on here?
SPEAKER_00: Like, this is great.
SPEAKER_00: Love it.
SPEAKER_00: Don't stop, please.
SPEAKER_00: But just curious, like, like, what's going on?
SPEAKER_00: He says, Man, I saw somebody in my family place their faith in Jesus, and it changed absolutely everything.
SPEAKER_00: I said, Garrett, I know this stuff is real.
SPEAKER_00: I have seen it with my own two eyes.
SPEAKER_00: And he said, Man, if it if it's real, what else am I supposed to do but tell everybody that I can?
SPEAKER_00: And that's what sincerity of faith looks like.
SPEAKER_00: It's when you say you believe something, but but it's not just something you say you believe on the outside, it matches what's actually true on the inside.
SPEAKER_00: You're not just following Jesus because it makes you look good, or because your family expects it, or because church is just something that you do.
SPEAKER_00: You have become convinced that the gospel message is true, that these aren't just words and some old ancient book, but this is the message of eternal life that the God of the universe handcrafted for you and for me.
SPEAKER_00: And when you believe that and you believe that Jesus really changes not only lives but eternity, then that conviction has to start showing up in the way that you live.
SPEAKER_00: How could it not?
SPEAKER_00: Because sincere faith on the inside always finds its way out.
SPEAKER_00: And that's where Paul goes next, moving to our last two.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, the fifth thing he prays is that they are full of the fruit of righteousness in Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: They're full of the fruit of righteousness in Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Righteousness is a big church word that we don't always know what it means, but it simply means uh to exist in right relationship, meaning that I'm relating to something correctly, right?
SPEAKER_00: If I try to brush my teeth with a hammer, I am not in right relationship with that hammer.
SPEAKER_00: If I try to put a nail into a piece of wood with that hammer, I am in right relationship with that hammer.
SPEAKER_00: In the same way, uh, if I have a boss and I'm not listening to that boss, I'm being disrespectful, I'm not uh working hard to accomplish the task they've given me, or for you, maybe it's your parent, I'm not in right relationship with that person.
SPEAKER_00: But Paul's not just talking about checking religious boxes, he's talking about being in right relationship with Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: He's talking about being with him and being close to him and growing to look more like him.
SPEAKER_00: And this looks like the fruit of the spirit.
SPEAKER_00: He uses that word, the fruit of righteousness.
SPEAKER_00: So when you're in right relationship with Jesus, a fruit will naturally come next.
SPEAKER_00: And that's the fruit of the spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.
SPEAKER_00: Putting others before yourself, serving instead of chasing a pedestal or status or the limelight, humbling yourself instead of trying to prove yourself to everybody around you.
SPEAKER_00: So the fruit of righteousness is the visible evidence in your life that Jesus is actually shaping who you are and shaping your character.
SPEAKER_00: But remember, and this is the thing I told you at the beginning of the sermon, you have to know, Jesus is the one doing the shaping.
SPEAKER_00: Paul says that this is the fruit of righteousness in Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is the one who puts you in a right relationship with God.
SPEAKER_00: Not your own effort, not your ability to be holy, not your ability to go to church on time all the time.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus coming and dying for your sins so that you can be brought back into the family of God is why you can be right relationship with God.
SPEAKER_00: And as that happens, then your response is to be close to Him and it produces fruit.
SPEAKER_00: Then, lastly, and this is the ultimate point of everything, for the glory and praise of God.
SPEAKER_00: So the five things we just listed off, Paul prays all of it.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: For the glory and praise of God.
SPEAKER_00: That God would get the glory.
SPEAKER_00: God is the one who started the work in them, God is the one who will complete the work in them, and even the good fruit growing in their lives, it comes through Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And so as they grow in spiritual maturity, as they become more like Jesus, as you become more like Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: The goal is not that people would look at you and be like, man, they're awesome.
SPEAKER_00: Like, man, Michael Coffee, that guy loves Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Like he's great, like Tory Ribel.
SPEAKER_00: That's not the point.
SPEAKER_00: The point is that people would see what God has done in you and praise him for it.
SPEAKER_00: I've seen this in the life of someone I went to high school with.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, she was a year older than most of us.
SPEAKER_00: She was very popular, uh, and she had a very big reputation.
SPEAKER_00: She partied hard, she she was very open about being promiscuous, and she even spent some time identifying as LGBT, uh, was very open about drug use, and she could really be pretty cruel to people.
SPEAKER_00: Like she was your classic mean girl stereotype.
SPEAKER_00: And we graduated, and I didn't really think anything about her after that.
SPEAKER_00: I moved to DBU and I don't know what happened to her, and we move on with life, right?
SPEAKER_00: But like Facebook does, it tends to just bring up things from the past.
SPEAKER_00: And one day I saw a post on social media of her talking about Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Like to the point where I like scrolled past it, paused, and then scrolled back up because I was like, what?
SPEAKER_00: And it wasn't just one post.
SPEAKER_00: Over time, she would keep talking about what God was teaching her, where she was serving, and she'd tell her story and how Jesus had changed her life.
SPEAKER_00: And eventually it became obvious this wasn't just a phase, like something happened here.
SPEAKER_00: The way she talked, the way she treated people, the things she valued.
SPEAKER_00: And at one point she she posted something to the effect of like, guys, if you know me, like I shouldn't be here right now.
SPEAKER_00: And I was like, that's absolutely true.
SPEAKER_00: Like, I knew you in high school.
SPEAKER_00: You should not be here right now.
SPEAKER_00: I I don't know what happened.
SPEAKER_00: And when you see a change like that, you don't think, man, she really somehow cleaned herself up.
SPEAKER_00: You say, no, something, something changed, and it had nothing to do with her.
SPEAKER_00: Because there was nothing about her life or her past or any of that that made me think one day she's just gonna magically decide to stop living crazy.
SPEAKER_00: She spent years of her life, the most formative years of her life, turning into somebody who wanted nothing to do with God.
SPEAKER_00: Oh but God who stepped in the bottom of her ocean, brought her up back to life, and changed her heart.
SPEAKER_00: Only God could do that.
SPEAKER_00: And for me, I didn't look at her, I looked at God, I was like, God, you are so good.
SPEAKER_00: I look at my own life and I'm like, man, I really did a good job cleaning myself up.
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, God, I was a dumpster fire.
SPEAKER_00: And that's the whole point.
SPEAKER_00: God is the one who saves us, God is the one who changes us, and God is the one who gets the glory.
SPEAKER_00: And so if people start to notice a change in your life, good.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes we get weird about that, like when somebody compliments us and is like, hey, you look like you've grown a lot, or hey, you seem to be just so more peaceful or joyful.
SPEAKER_00: Scripture says, actually do your good works before men, not so that they pat you on the back, but so they would glorify your God in heaven.
SPEAKER_00: So it's not a bad thing for people to see the growth in your life, but when they say something, point them back to the one who actually did it.
SPEAKER_00: So to wrap up, let's go back to the original question.
SPEAKER_00: What is spiritual maturity?
SPEAKER_00: Spiritual maturity is God shaping us into people whose love is guided by truth, whose lives reflect Jesus, and whose growth brings glory back to Him.
SPEAKER_00: Spiritual maturity is not perfection, and that's on the screen too.
SPEAKER_00: It's not membership in a club, it's not coming from a certain home, a certain background, or saying words a certain way.
SPEAKER_00: Spiritual maturity is dead people brought to life, transformed from the inside out by Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: It's not something we can do on our own, but as we stay close to Jesus and as we walk with him, he changes us.
SPEAKER_00: And as we do that, we point people back to him.
SPEAKER_00: Because he who started a good work in you is faithful to finish it.
SPEAKER_00: And I do have to end with this as we're about to pray and go to small groups.
SPEAKER_00: That begs one big question Has that work been started?
SPEAKER_00: Remember, we said what makes you a Christian is not the fact that you grew up in a certain kind of home, that you went to VBS one day, even that you said words in a sort and order after raising your hand and walking down an aisle.
SPEAKER_00: None of that inherently is what makes you a Christian.
SPEAKER_00: What makes you a Christian is that you believe in your heart that God raised Jesus from the dead and you confess him as Lord, meaning I place my trust in Jesus, that he is who he says he is, that he did what he said he did, and I'm confessing him as king, meaning I'm surrendering, saying, Jesus, I don't got much, but whatever it is, it's yours.
SPEAKER_00: And if you haven't done that, everything I just talked about tonight is a non-starter.
SPEAKER_00: And so maybe tonight you need to come find me, you need to come find a leader.
SPEAKER_00: Dip out on small groups, come find me.
SPEAKER_00: I hang out down here at the stage for prayer requests, for questions.
SPEAKER_00: That's my rhythm.
SPEAKER_00: I'll do that.
SPEAKER_00: I'll be here.
SPEAKER_00: And I'd love to talk more with you about how to make that decision.
SPEAKER_00: Don't put it off another day.
SPEAKER_00: It has changed my life in eternity, it has changed your leaders' lives in eternity.
SPEAKER_00: There's nothing better than being a child of God.
SPEAKER_00: And you can be one today.
SPEAKER_00: And know that you know that you know that he who started a good work in you is going to finish it.