0007 Preparing for the Family Business

What if the season you’re in right now… isn’t a delay—but preparation?

What if the frustration, the waiting, and even the closed doors are actually part of something God already sees coming?

In this episode of the Biblical Passages Podcast, Brittany and Eric take a deep dive into a powerful and often overlooked moment in Luke 2—the story of Jesus attempting to launch His ministry at a very young age. 

At first glance, it looks like a boy speaking with the elders of the temple while his parents searched everywhere in Jerusalem for him. 

This podcast examines a deeper truth. 

Jesus tried to skip His preparation season.

And not just a short one—
 an 18-year process before His public ministry would ever begin.

In this conversation, Brittany and Eric explore what it means to be prepared for assignment—and how to discern the difference between God’s timing and our own ambition.

Because sometimes we feel ready…
 but heaven says, “Not yet.”

In this episode, Brittany and Eric unpack:

• What it means to have a divine calling vs. a personal ambition
• Why Jesus, even with wisdom and gifting, was not ready for release
• How to recognize when you’re trying to “self-launch” 
• The danger of chasing visibility, approval, or platform before proper preparation

They also break down four essential areas of growth that prepared Jesus:

• Wisdom
• Stature
• Favor with God
• Favor with mankind

These aren’t just spiritual concepts.

They’re foundations.

Conclusion -  before God uses someone publicly, even Jesus, He addresses their maturity. 

This podcast will improve your ability to address your own spiritual preperation and maturity. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:20

What if the season you're in right now isn't random, but preparation for something God already sees coming? Today we're talking about what it looks like to prepare for what I like to call the family business, which is essentially an assignment that God places on your lives. As we're preparing today for today's conversation, we landed on the early years of Jesus, and he was prepared, but he was separated from his parents in Jerusalem. So we're going to talk a little bit about the story today. And I can't imagine how Mary felt through these moments. So I'm excited to dive in. Eric, what do you think about this story? Why do you like this story so much?

SPEAKER_00 0:57

I'm fascinated about it because I like to know the backstory. You know, when you're watching, say, a movie and they're throwing you right in the middle of some dramatic scene, and then the director stops and says, three years ago. And so you're learning the backstory about how these people got to this condition in this position. And so that really helps the viewer to know, okay, and to say, okay, this is how we got here. Now pull me back into the modern day. And so we have in this story Jesus being in the temple at age 12, and yet there's a backstory, and then there's a forward story. We, of course, know uh what eventually happens with him. But this particular part in the in the book of Luke is very instructive, and I appreciate Luke taking the time to provide this to us so that we could learn more about Jesus and his preparation.

SPEAKER_03 1:58

Yes. So Luke 2 is what we're reading out of today. But before we dive into it, let's just paint a picture. We have this whole family, this this whole little, I wouldn't say clan, but this whole little family that's leaving. They're going to Jerusalem for the Passover. They get there, they're done with everything, they leave, they've been on one day's journey, and all of a sudden they realized where's Jesus at? Like we thought he was hanging out in the back, walking with our friends back here, and he's gone.

SPEAKER_00 2:26

Right.

SPEAKER_03 2:27

As a mom, that makes me want to throw up. Like I have a 12-year-old son who has autism. And when I tell you this child sometimes just gets lost in his own thoughts and will walk away and do his own thing, I had him one time walk around the block. He just randomly walked out of the house and started walking on the block. And my friend called me and was like, Your son's on my front porch. He's saying hi to me through the window. And I was like, What? And so I at least knew where he was, but I was freaking out. So I can't imagine not knowing where your child is. Yes.

SPEAKER_00 3:02

As a mom, I'm sure that could just penetrate your heart. And you've got a couple of daughters as well. And just uh, you know, as they grow, they want to kind of demand some of their independence and freedom and chance to make their own decisions. And you've got to evaluate, you know, what to uh let them do and what not to do. Uh that's uh I I uh empathize with your situation. So uh so again, you just painted the picture of Mary and Joseph were leaving Jerusalem and they were gone for a whole day, headed back to their hometown, and yet they discover Jesus is missing. So they go back to Jerusalem and they search for three days. Again, many of our listeners already already know this story, but there's there's something to it if we take the time, and again, our our um our podcast is called Passages because we just love to pause, pump the brakes, take a look at a word, and then uh dive in and see, because I maintain scripture has a reason, the Lord has a reason for bringing these stories to us, and we are wise to stop, look, uh, understand, appreciate, ask for insight, and not just skip over stuff. Okay, so that's uh that's that's beautiful. So let's go back into the early days when Mary was first visited by an angel. She was probably 15 years old, and she was told, look, you know, there's gonna be a this is gonna be an unusual pregnancy, Mary. Yeah and uh like the most unusual.

SPEAKER_03 4:41

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 4:42

And then Joseph gets an angel too, and then he says, and it's told, look, don't be afraid to to be uh to marry Mary that you're betrothed to, because you know that's that's gonna be both good for society to know that it's okay, and then it's gonna be good for the whole earth to know that Jesus is coming into the world. So that's how it started. But again, they decided to raise this child, and then there's something that happens in Luke verse Luke 2 of verse Luke 2.40.

SPEAKER_03 5:14

Yes, in Luke 2.40 it says, and the child grew and became strong in spirit, filled with wisdom, and grace of God was upon him.

SPEAKER_00 5:24

So when we look at the word child, you know, a lot of times we're just using an English language word, but I like to go back into the Greek just to see, well, what which kind of child was this? Because there are five stages of maturity that people grow through according to the scripture. And this was the second level of maturity. Again, you if you have a newborn baby, you take care of it one way. A toddler, you treat a different way, all the way up to just say age 12. It's not a toddler, of course, anymore, but but we use whatever term if you want to use, but there are expectations of a child that's 10 that we don't put on a child that's one year old.

SPEAKER_02 6:05

Right.

SPEAKER_00 6:06

And so, you know, we have di different uh expectations about how they sit at a table and eat a meal or you know, how they clean up their room and so forth. We're we're educating them, we're we're uh uh teaching them how to how to stand on their own two feet. So this happens to be this Pateon. This is that stage of about age two to age twelve. The child grew and became strong in spirit. Okay, so this child is maturing. So this is where we arrive when Mary and Joseph were searching all around Jerusalem looking for this boy. And where did they find him?

SPEAKER_03 6:43

Oh man, they found him where of all places in the temple.

SPEAKER_00 6:49

Okay, and they're saying, son, where have you been? We've been looking everywhere for you. And they've been frantic. It's understandable. You know, any parent is listening to us would can empathize with that level of being frantic. But what does Jesus say to them? Why did you seek me? What are you looking for me for? Don't you know? Did you not know that I must be about my father's business? Okay, what and so I I just want to unpack that. So he the Bible says he was filled with wisdom, which means that he was applied studying and applying Mosaic law. He was hiding the word in his heart. Uh, that's what David said, Thy word of a hidden my heart, thy word of I hid in my heart that I might not sin against thee. So there are um there are ways we get to to have that status of uh or that that uh being able to say we're filled with wisdom. So, okay, and then um they so they find him amongst the teachers, and he says, What you know, why have you done this to us? Okay, they're they were just looking at their own needs. It's like the disciples later said, Don't you have any compassion on us? Jesus is just about his business.

SPEAKER_03 8:07

Yes, I love how they say so. This is in Luke. This is in verse uh chapter two, verse 47. It looks like son, why have you done this to us? Look, your father and I have sought you anxiously. Like they immediately, we always, always as humans, we immediately go to look what you've done to me. Look at the effect you've had on me right when you did this. Okay, forget that you might be lost and we don't know where you're at. Do you see how I feel?

SPEAKER_00 8:33

And forget that you might be the son of God. Yeah, forget that.

SPEAKER_03 8:36

That's trash. Do you know how I feel?

SPEAKER_00 8:39

I feel anxious. Yeah, can you have can you have some compassion on me? Yeah, it is if Jesus is amazed that they're amazed. So what's up with you, mom? You know, I'm on a heaven-sent assignment. And and this is that this then begins to speak to well, how do I know if I'm on a heaven-sent assignment? Okay, I mean, this is a legitimate question. But Jesus is not ready to be released. He was trying to self-release into ministry, but he wasn't ready. He was only 12 years old. Apparently, there was some more maturity that had to take place. And I love the way this the Bible unpacks this. Again, it's a miniature portion of the book of Luke, but I find it to be instructive because many times those of us living in the modern age, you know, we're we feel prepared, we feel ready, but the Lord's like, no, I need to test you, I need to purify you. Blessed are the pure in heart.

SPEAKER_01 9:45

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 9:46

Uh the Lord's eyes look to and fro throughout the whole earth to show himself strong on the behalf of those whose hearts are perfect or him. Not behavior, but whose hearts are perfect, meaning they're pure. They choose to make decisions according to the will of God, not according to their own will. Okay, this is interesting. It's like getting that soul ready, the mind, the will, and the emotions, getting ourselves ready to activate and act on the word of God and go on and on his uh his calling on our life. So it's it's it's very exciting, frankly, to have the confidence, the holy confidence that we're working and living and deciding, making decisions according to God's will. So what do you think about that?

SPEAKER_03 10:35

I I find it interesting, but I think one of the other parts that I find interesting is the way Jesus responded, because he responded as a child would respond. In Luke 2, 49 to 50, it said, and he said to them, Why did you seek me? Did you not know that I must be about my father's business? But they did not understand the statement which he spoke to them. And I really look at that as Jesus was speaking at the age and level of maturity that he had. Because he was just telling them, you know, why are you seeking me? Well, you're 12 years old. Hello? Like you're you're not where you should be. You're not where you where you were supposed to be. You're not hanging out with us, you know, we're supposed to be caregivers over you, and you're trying to wall out and do whatever you'd like to do, and that's not appropriate at this age. I think a lot of times as parents, that you know, maybe our kids are smart and they're, you know, very talented in certain areas and we let them get away with little things, but really we should be parenting them and realizing you are just this age. You don't need all this social media, you don't need all these other things in life because just because you think you're smart or you think you're ready, you're not ready yet. And that's what we're called to do. And I love that they just point this out that even at that age, he's like, Why do you seek me? What do you want? Well, you're not where you're supposed to be.

SPEAKER_00 11:57

Yes, and and he needed to be subject to his human authorities, his parents, until he was released to be just led by the Lord himself. Uh, and that was after his baptism later on at age 30 with John the Baptist, and that's when he heard those incredible words, this is my beloved son, and whom I'm well pleased. That conferred an identity on Jesus, uh, that this is a son of the living God, and that's why he could call God his Abba, his father. And of course, that was horrific to the Pharisees and the other rel religious leaders. Uh, so that's a that's another story, of course. But we see this early on, Jesus had this sense, this knowledge, this cu confidence that I've got a father in heaven and I've got to be connected. Nobody knew what world he was talking about. Okay, nobody had revelation because you know we have Abraham as our father. Okay, they they didn't see God in heaven as their father. That that was Yeshua, that was uh somebody that was different distant from them. They had worshipped him, but they they didn't dare call him their father. Jesus is already s saying, don't you know that I have to be about my father's business? And I'd like to unpack those words if we may, because um Jesus is now transitioning. He was um he had been a this padeon, that's the Greek word, and he's now about to to become he's becoming a technology. That's the third level of maturity, that's the teenager. So I guess I'll ask you, because you're a mom and you've got some teenage children, you know, do they do they test your uh your leadership as a mother? And in I mean, talk to me about being a parent of teenage girls.

SPEAKER_03 13:55

Uh yes. So teenage girls and teenage boys, I feel like my boy tests me more than my girls, but my youngest daughter, she gives me a run for all my money, all of it. Everyone. They will even come up to me and be like, she has got a fiery personality. I'm like, is that what you call it? That's what we're gonna label it as today. Because she is just she believes what she believes, she's said in what she said in. And when she is upset with you, she will just straight up ignore you. She won't talk to you, she'll just look out the window like you're not even saying a word. And so I've gotten out we had a punishment last week because she did that before she got out of the car. And I was like, Oh, we're not doing that again. So I was like, You have to sit in the back seat, you're not allowed to sit in the front seat. And so last night she got mad at me and she's sitting on the couch, and I was like, Do we need another back seat punishment? And she's like, What? I wasn't doing anything, I didn't say anything. I'm like, uh-huh. Because I'm learning what she likes and enjoys, and I'm learning what I can take away. She loves to sit in the front seat.

SPEAKER_00 14:56

I see.

SPEAKER_03 14:56

So it's that relationship learning with her of what how to punish them.

SPEAKER_00 15:03

So here's Jesus. He's a he's a teenager, essentially. He's 12. And and he yet they find him sitting in the temple holding court with the elders, having intellectual conversations, and and uh my gosh, they were unpacking the scriptures, the old testament at that at that point. And and and they were intrigued by this young man. But again, the the the Bible says the Greek word there is that he he was he was a technon. Okay, I just want to point that out that he had moved from being this Padeon level two up to level three. And of course, there's more to come down the road when he says, Be thou therefore perfect, even as I am perfect. Okay, so but let's unpack these these three phrases when he says, I must be about my father's business. So um that that that you say, well, are we just picking on words here? No, I think that they're instructive. And I think that's why we have this special podcast because the the phrase I must is the from the Greek DEI, I don't know how to pronounce that right, Dia. Okay, what it indicates an inner divine compulsion. It's not just a drive, it's not just being hungry, it's not just needing some sleep, it's an inner divine compulsion. He is driven to fulfill his purpose. So showing us that even at age 12, Jesus was submitted to God, he was ready to obey God. And of course, he shouldn't have attempted to launch his own ministry. And some of us are guilty of that, Brittany. We we need to be aware of uh of our of our uh ambitions.

SPEAKER_03 16:53

What was that word?

SPEAKER_00 16:54

What was that word?

SPEAKER_03 16:54

Our ambitions taking away.

SPEAKER_00 16:56

Yeah, our sense of well, yeah, and our sense of autonomy, you know, and again, Jesus says some words in in his Sermon on the Mount. Many will come to me in that day, meaning the last day, and say, Look what I did in your name. Uh I fed the poor, I cast out demons, I I you know took care of the homeless, and you go through the list, look what I did in your name. And he's gonna say to them, What? Be gone. I never knew you, you worker of iniquity. That sounds like kind of kind of an old term, but iniquity, think of it as self-will. You're doing things your way, not according to the will of my father. Jesus later said, I have no will of my own, I only do what I see my daddy doing. Okay, so there's a there's this method for detecting what we're supposed to do. We need to hear from God and to know that we're acting on his will and not our own. So we look at the word I must, just two words rather. Dia. And so he's he wants he's driven to fulfill his purpose, so he was ready to obey God, but he shouldn't have attempted to launch his own ministry prematurely. Okay, just because his intentions are good. Okay, I'm sorry, but the that the road to Hades is is paved with good intentions.

SPEAKER_03 18:13

Right.

SPEAKER_00 18:13

You gotta be cautious about that.

SPEAKER_03 18:15

Oh man.

SPEAKER_00 18:16

This is where we we get in to some challenges, and some of our good listeners would would uh maybe need to hold a mirror up and say, Am I getting ahead of the Lord here? Have I truly sought his will, or am I superimposing my will and calling it holy?

SPEAKER_03 18:36

You know, I think there's a lot of times in life where doors close uh in front of me, or there has been previously, where doors close in front of me, and I'm like, oh, well, that must mean that God just wants me to push a little harder. And instead of sitting and praying about it and being like, Did you close that door? I'm like, no, he must not, he wouldn't have done that. Let me just fix this.

SPEAKER_00 18:57

Oh, that's great. Yeah, that's right. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 19:01

So I think we do have to stop and see if it's our own ambition that's coming through or if it really is God going, Hey, this is your assignment. I need you to push through this.

SPEAKER_00 19:11

Okay. My goodness. That's a great, that's that was a great uh report right there. So the second part of that phrase is be about. I must be about. Uh you say, Well, my goodness, folks, why are you tearing into these ways words? Isn't it obvious what they mean? But Jesus is reminding his parents that his allegiance, his primary allegiance, is to his heavenly father. So he's foreshadowing his future ministry. That a lot of times even his disciples would say, Look, everybody's looking for you back in the town.

SPEAKER_03 19:46

Right.

SPEAKER_00 19:47

And and he turned his back and went off into the wilderness just to go pray with his daddy. Okay. And so his allegiance is to his heavenly father. And when we can default to that, not to our urges, not to our passions, not to our intellect, not to our emotions, not to my will be done, but when we have the discipline to put all of those motivations and urges under the will of God and to submit, then God can use us because he says, now I can trust you as one of my ambassadors. And then we talk about being effective at that point. My goodness. We can we can uh we can move worlds at that point. This is where you can this is where you can say to a mountain, be thou removed and be cast into the sea. Right. It's a level of faith and and um um and accomplishment that occurs at that point that is astonishing. So be about two words.

unknown 20:54

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 20:55

So I must means this divine compulsion, be about is reminding his earthly parents that his allegiance is to his heavenly father first, yeah, and then my father's business.

SPEAKER_00 21:12

Now, there's no disrespect towards Joseph. Okay, he's not dismissing Joseph and his acknowledging that he has a heavenly father and he has an assignment from there. Again, it's premature. He's launching before he's supposed to, right? But uh, but he is acknowledging in there I have a divine origin, and we we all need to agree on this. Now, again, his mother is hiding all this in her heart. Okay, this is uh she's learning. Let's go back and say she got this angelic visitation, and so did Joseph. Okay, that's pretty dramatic. I I I tell you, I I would be in I I would be stunned by that if an angel came through in the middle of the night and right and I would. Like, okay, did I just dream that? Was that for real? But it was in po it was powerful enough that that she was moved by it, and Joseph was moved, and they got started, and they had the baby, and they and Jesus was uh an immigrant when you think about it. He had he was a refugee. He had to run from Herod, who was seeking to kill all the baby boys, and they fled into Egypt and stayed there for a good while. So, you know, we we think about the you know the his at some point he had to run from uh earthly authorities. So they came back, but Mary was piling up all these memories and these ideas. She she was watching and and stored these episodes in her heart. And so here we get all the way to age 12. Jesus at age 12, and he's he's uh he's acknowledging his divine origin, his all his life purpose, and uh so even even the idea that I need to be in my father's house, that's the temple, okay, the temple, and maybe engaged in his father's affairs. So he's ready to start, get ready to launch. Again, but he's just a boy, he's just 12, and so he has some more maturing to do. Okay, so this is the top this is the turning point where Jesus is starting to get into a stronger level of maturity.

SPEAKER_02 23:27

Right.

SPEAKER_00 23:28

But the Lord is not done in raising him. He needs to go home and be with his parents and grow in four ways. Okay for 18 years.

SPEAKER_03 23:39

Right. So that's where I was coming up to next is that you know, after this moment, we have Jesus in the temple, his parents come back, they're like, What are you doing? He says, I must be about my father's business. But all of a sudden, Jesus kind of disappears then into what I would think many would call just ordinary daily life. And 18 years of preparation for his ministry kind of begins at that point. It's like we get a little foretaste of what he's going to do, but yet he still has to be prepared. And I'm just curious on my own behalf here, like what is the difference between like actual preparation versus like our own ambitions? How do we tell the difference?

SPEAKER_00 24:21

Yeah, I and I'm not gonna say it's easy. I'm not gonna say that because but we do have certain struggles that we have to go through. We have these tests that we have to go through, they're not comfortable, and nobody wants to go through them voluntarily. But when once again, when we submit to them and we say, you know what, I'm I'm I'm tempting to to purify my heart, to grow, to figure out how to um how to respond effectively to certain circumstances that come up. And not only that, he had to grow into manhood, and the Bible fortunately teaches us how that how he did it. So we can model our lives after the life of Jesus, and then that helps us to know when we have reached the point where we're ready for release. So at least we can go into the model that he has demonstrated for us, and of course, as you know in uh Luke 2.52, Jesus increased in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and men.

SPEAKER_03 25:32

I love that they tell us this because I got curious in between those 18 years, I'm like, what are you doing? Like, are you building things? What's happening? But the fact that scripture actually tells us that he did mature, that there was a reason why he was held back, that yes, he could have stood and held his own in that temple, obviously, since he was there for three days, but he was not ready and he was being matured. And I think a lot of times in our life when we have things happen and it's like, you know, we're stomping our feet because we thought we should be doing this or be farther along or whatnot. I'm sure Jesus might have felt something like that as being human, of going, you know, I can be here, I know what I'm saying, I know what I'm doing, but he still needed to mature.

SPEAKER_00 26:18

Yes, but imagine in today, today's culture, if Jesus walks in the temple and holds court with these elders and demonstrates such a magnificent insight into scripture, what would what would happen?

SPEAKER_03 26:34

He'd get his own TV show.

SPEAKER_00 26:36

He would exactly. He'd be on God TV, he'd have half a million followers on Instagram. Uh he honestly, you know, his uh his um reputation would blow up, but we now know it would be premature. And it would it could appeal to his ego and to some superficial uh level of approval. Uh but that's that's the approval of man. We gotta be careful. We're not looking for the approval of man, we're looking for the approval of the Lord to let us know when to be released. So we we wanna be cautious about looking for the applause of men. The Bible's clear about that. Uh so we we've we've got to subordinate our will, our intellect, our emotions, once again, the soul, to the will of God. And so this is not this is probably harder today than it was back in in those days, 2000, some years ago, because at least then there was no technology, there was no transportation of any real means. So you know he he kind of had it a little easier than kids might today, because you know, youngsters today demonstrate some sort of uh I was watching recently uh uh uh music uh prodigies, and they were being judged by the best and credible uh experts in the world, and these youngsters, 12, 14 years old, playing violin and piano, and it was captivating to watch. And and these uh remarkable uh Placito Domingo and and others and people who were opera specialists and and uh and and singers and musicians of their own right, and my gosh, they were observing this these these youngsters, and it was a it was a moment of of virtuosity to see them, and there was a contest, of course. But um some of the people were saying to these youngsters, like when I was nine years old playing the piano, and he said, Would you come work with me to to write a Broadway show or something? You know, so already this child is being accelerated. Right, but this is this is something that I make note of that we are wise to since you asked that question a while ago, how do you know when? We are wise to know that we've been through a maturation process that our children have or ourselves. Okay, so let's unpack these words if we can. When we look at wisdom, remember it's wisdom and stature, favor with God, and men, meaning favor with men. So the first word wisdom, Greek, Greek is Sophia, so it's insight into the true nature of things, not the superficial, but the true nature.

SPEAKER_03 29:34

Right.

SPEAKER_00 29:35

Okay. So in and um Jesus was the truth himself. So it was the truth was housed in a in a person. So but he was also a human male. And in that capacity, he studied and meditated upon the law of Moses and the sacred historical and prophetic writings. And uh so he knew his destiny, but he applied himself diligently for many years to acquire the wisdom that he would need to refute the Pharisees and the lawyers and the and eventually the devil himself. That's quite a that's quite a preparation.

SPEAKER_03 30:15

I yeah, I don't like that. That doesn't sound like fun at all.

SPEAKER_00 30:20

So anyway, uh so that's the in uh learning and and uh uh wisdom, acquiring it, being able to um being able to reflex it back out when you know it is written. That's what he said to the devil three times, it is written. He just came back with scripture, he did not debate. That's another sign, because if our tendency is to want to debate with evil, we're we're showing that our we're depending on intellect, we're not depending upon um upon holy uh a holy response. Okay, and and that's a that's an example right there. So let's look at our tendencies when we uh when we're faced with that, because we will be tested in that sense, and the Lord at heaven is watching at that sense as well.

SPEAKER_03 31:16

So if Jesus had these four areas of maturity, this one being wisdom, I know specifically in the Bible that it says uh about you can ask for wisdom and he will give it to you abundantly. So is that what we should be doing?

SPEAKER_00 31:31

Oh, yes, ma'am. Yes, ma'am, yes. Ask for wisdom and ask for the ability in the discernment and the ability to reflex the correct scripture, uh, the correct um analytical process, again, a holy spiritual analytical process. Okay. So that's again, not analysis in the human mind, but I'm saying being able to reason through scriptures to be able to come to the right solution to when faced with a certain circumstance. I was recently faced with a circumstance and uh I reacted, I'll just say soulishly, and then I I stopped texting and I sat still for about three minutes and I could feel the the Lord just dropped a scripture give to them that ask of thee. Okay. And so uh this was a request, somebody had a request for some some uh finances to solve a little problem, and I didn't feel responsible in any way. That was my logic and my will.

SPEAKER_03 32:38

Right.

SPEAKER_00 32:38

But then here comes the Lord saying, Give to them that ask of thee. And so I offered some financial relief, and this individual who was getting hostile in these texts uh uh wrote to me and said, Thank you very much. And it quieted down that I felt honestly, uh uh excuse me, I felt a like a demonic presence with the with this demand uh that was coming my way. And I quelled that demon. I said, I'm not gonna allow that demon to come into this uh into my house.

SPEAKER_03 33:14

Right.

SPEAKER_00 33:14

Okay, I gotta quell this, I gotta squash this situation. And so this is an example of how to avoid reasoning through our mind and our will, but instead allowing the Lord to lead us. Right. Okay.

SPEAKER_03 33:31

So we can ask for wisdom, and during this time of his maturing process for the 18 years, he was growing in wisdom. The next part, though, I think it's interesting because we don't just talk about, you know, spiritual, we talk about physical too. So the next part they said is stature. Jesus also grew in stature, which means his physical life and discipline mattered too. Why is this?

SPEAKER_00 33:55

Well, in a sense, the way he grew, you mentioned earlier about his was he just you he was becoming a carpenter. Right. So he was uh he's using his his skills, his muscles, his he grew as a human being, as a man, and uh and people are watching that as well, frankly. That you know, how does he care for himself? This is this is a form of discipline, and we ought to be aware of uh that when it says stature, helikia, uh it's it's rever it's rever um it's a Greek word that refers to one's height or one's age. And Jesus in Matthew 6.27 in the Sermon on the Mount, he said, which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature? But as as Luke is saying to us, it's obvious Jesus grew up healthy and normally, just as any other young Galilean Jewish man of his era. So in this particular stage of Jesus' life, uh we're seeing him take care of his body because it's the temple of the Holy Spirit, and we need to keep ourselves as Jesus did from an impure life. Okay, so conversely, uh like Jesus, we ought to avoid those things which can adversely affect our health and the ministry we're called to. So this is again, so that when we say the body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, this is another thing that the Lord will be watching to see are we an example, a public example uh that that other people could follow. So I think that uh we're not going to neglect the the physical aspect, not that we draw a lot of attention to it, but we won we want to know that it's still there. So that's that's what we mean by stature. It's all those things referring to one's body.

SPEAKER_03 35:50

Right. So we have wisdom, we have stature where you're physically growing, which is really important because the habits that you create can prepare you for your long-term assignment. If you never take care of your body, you always eat junk, you don't walk, you don't do anything, you're not going to be able to be prepared to go on some long walk or go overseas and visit other countries or whatever God calls you to do if you don't have the stamina to be able to even get up. So your habits do prepare you, but growth doesn't really stop with wisdom and discipline. It also involves grace. And I think that's where we come in with the favor of God next. So scripture says Jesus grew with in favor with God. That's grace, right? That's like a supernatural empowerment.

SPEAKER_00 36:35

Yes. Uh cheris. That's just grace, pure and simple. Grace I think of as the is the fuel supply of heaven. Okay, it's the fuel supply. Grace is is uh there's no uh there's no um God supplies us with an in in continual source of grace if we'll if we'll accept it. Now, if we want to say, well, we're real smart, we're gonna just use emotional energy or stress management energy, then God says, okay, let's shut off the grace fuel supply and let's see how well you you do with that, folks. Just you know, and we can get exhausted emotionally very quickly if we're not careful. So um you can't extinguish this fuel supply of grace. And Jesus was learning favor with God, he was absorbing, he was he was accepting this this grace that the Lord was offering. So it's the power, it's the it's the power and the desire, grace is to do to do things, to accomplish God's will in on his terms.

SPEAKER_03 37:41

How can someone grow in favor with God?

SPEAKER_00 37:48

By one one way to do it is to when he's when he allows a test to come our way, we he sees us respond in a manner that pleases him. And even if it's not perfect, at least it's it's well intended. Okay, Jesus was real big on later on on raising the bar from behavior to intention. So he says, he said, You've heard it said by them of old time, thou shalt not kill. But I say whoever is angry with his brother without a cause is in danger. Okay, so it's a form of murder just to have an in an intention of anger towards another person. So we've got a he raised the bar. And when he did all this, people were astonished at his doctrine.

SPEAKER_03 38:34

Right.

SPEAKER_00 38:34

Because he said, You've heard it said, I'm not here to undermine Mosaic law, I'm here to raise the standard.

SPEAKER_03 38:41

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 38:41

Okay, and it's like, who's gonna who can live like this? Okay, but you can do it when you've got the grace of God.

SPEAKER_01 38:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 38:50

Because you're learning the scripture and you have the power to do things God's way. That's the thing. Just because we know the scripture, if we try to accomplish it on our energy, we're gonna get exhausted. And you see people burn out, and they end up, these are people of God, they may be leading churches, leading nonprofits, leading ministries, and then you we read about them in the newspaper, okay. We read about them in in the news, I should say. So who has newspapers anymore? So uh, but you know what I'm saying. We read about them and they they have stumbled, yeah. Okay, because a lot of times they're not operating on God's grace. So that's that's the way that I um it's a supernatural fuel supply, graces.

SPEAKER_03 39:37

Right. So we have wisdom. We talked about wisdom, with all that wisdom, get understanding, so actually apply that to your life. Then we have stature, so you're growing, whether that be physically or your age, but you need to make sure you're taking care of yourself, favor with God, which is grace, which is knowing that we can't do this alone. We have nothing within us that is worthy of him, and he gives us grace. And then becomes something that I think many believers overlook, myself included. It also says that Jesus grew in favor with people. And this is so important because this means that relationships matter in the preparation. You have to have the right relationships. Tell me a little more about this.

SPEAKER_00 40:19

Yeah, uh we're even though the word is favor with God and men, uh, the same word of favor, Charis is there, and um this is a spirit of kindness and gentleness, compassion. This is how we behave around other people, and it it brings it brings pleasure to other people. It also, you can just see the nine uh fruit of the Holy Spirit emerging on Jesus described in Galatians 5. So they're growing abundantly on him, and it what it does is it wins him a favorable reputation, okay, so that people want to follow him until he started raising the bar in uh you know during his ministry. And he's you know, unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood, it's like, wait a minute, who this is a hard.

SPEAKER_02 41:10

What are we doing here?

SPEAKER_00 41:12

I'm out of here. Okay, so uh but he the this favor with men gave him insight on how to get along well with other people. And he grew in the in this in the uh the fruit of the spirit. And so that's another thing we ought to self-examine. And of course, we have these tools in our in our spiritual strategies toolkit that help us examine how well are we doing, how well are we growing in these, and it gives us a sense of what to pray for uh and what to develop, what to how to mature in our relationship with other people. So uh my gosh, this is uh a spirited conversation, and so we'll be able to bring it to a close. But I'm I'm very pleased to talk about all this with you.

SPEAKER_03 41:59

Yeah, so we see that Jesus essentially grew privately in all four areas before ever even stepping into public ministry, which I think is very fitting for sometimes what we need to know. I think sometimes we as believers, we feel behind no matter our age. Maybe we feel like we're old, but we just haven't gotten into our calling or what we're supposed to be doing, and we could still be in our preparation season. So let the reality sink in that no matter your age, no matter your growth, that there are spiritual levels of growth. It's not just age levels. So we're all being prepared in some way for something bigger if we just be obedient and listen to the calling.

SPEAKER_00 42:38

Yes, amen. Well, thank you for just conversing about this topic. I I just uh I love these backstories so that we can understand the Lord uh a lot better.

SPEAKER_03 42:50

So yes, well, until next time, let's remember God prepares privately what he plans to use publicly. So give it a little bit of time, and he will be using you as well.

SPEAKER_02 43:00

Amen.

SPEAKER_03 43:01

Bye, guys.