You are a son of God now, or a daughter of the king, empowered by his power and his presence to live out the fullness of your calling. Christ in you is the hope of glory and the depth of the gospel.
That is the role of any leader in the church, any apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor, and teacher, Ephesians-4:11, their role is to, verse 12, equip the saints, that's you, for the works of ministry in your daily life, so that you can walk on to maturity. And you know that if you're not walking on to maturity, or if you're stuck, it's probably because you haven't been doing ministry in your daily life, you've just been receiving, receiving, receiving, and not giving out. Well, God just spoke to me 2 or 3 3 weeks ago as I'm praying, and and he said, equip my church. And I knew that, but it was just personal, it was deep, and and it's like a personal mandate now. It's important, and I asked the Lord, well, how?
What do you mean? And he led me to a series, which I think we're gonna start next week, depending on how far I get the message today, called the glory of living. It's a series we did as a church over 3 years ago when we were in the other building at 11 99. I don't think most of you were here. How many anybody remember the Glory of Living series?
See? Like 10 people. It's gonna propel you and and help you to understand the process to walking out the fullness of every aspect of the calling God has for you. 1 of the prayers of my heart is, Lord, do whatever it takes in me, whatever it takes to discipline me, to prepare me, so that I don't miss out on any good work that you've prepared me for. You've prepared me for, and he's prepared you for good works that you should walk in.
He prepared you and prepared these works for you before you were even born. That you should walk in. And man, I don't wanna because of my being distracted or or having a a desire, or a passion for something that's not in line with the way that he created me to walk out in his kingdom. I don't wanna be distracted from something, and miss out on a good work that he's prepared me to walk in, because I probably won't be fulfilled unless I'm completely fulfilling the work that he's called me to. Amen?
Amen. So I'm excited to to lead you into the glory of living, and what that looks like, and what that's all about, but in order to do that, I gotta get us all on the same page. I have to set a foundation for you for this series, and today is the message that is gonna be the foundation for that. Some of what I say is you hear it all the time, and it's gonna be no new information. I encourage you to listen to it, write it down in such a way that you can teach it to others, because until you're teaching it, you don't know that you really know it.
Amen? Until you're living it so deeply that it overflows out of your mouth and out of your actions and impacts the world around you, you don't know that you really know it. You might have a head knowledge, but not a life knowledge. Man, and I want you to have a life knowledge of the word. Everything you think you know, I want you to live it.
So so that your words, you speak about it, have the authority of a life lived. Amen? So I have to set this foundation for this, and in this foundation, we're going to go deep. Because to set a good foundation, you have to go deep. The deeper the foundation, the taller the building you can build.
Amen? Amen. So man, we're gonna we're gonna get into that meat. We're gonna go deep today. Anybody ever hear people come to the church and say, man, just wanna I want the pastor to give me meat.
I wanna go deep. They just always give them milk, milk, milk. I need "meat, meat, meat". I wanna go deep, deep, deep. You ever heard that?
Yes? Yeah. I wanna get into the mystery of God. The problem is when a lot of people say that, they're talking about going to the the back corners and recesses of Ezekiel and Revelation and Daniel to try to get something, some kind of information or knowledge that they've never heard before, so that they can learn it and to go tell somebody else something that they've never heard before and stroke their own ego about what they know about Bible knowledge. So their desire to go deep and get meat is just to hear something they've never heard before so that they can feel better about themselves when they talk to others about the Bible.
And it's a pride and ego thing, and it's not really the meat of the gospel. It's not really the depth of the Bible. And if that's you, and if what I'm saying is cutting because you're realizing, dang it, that's how I've approached church and pastors, and ripped them for not giving me the meat. If that's you, good. I'm glad you're hearing it now, and repent of that mindset, so you never have it again.
Otherwise, you're gonna be so prideful that you're no earthly good in the kingdom. If I'm stepping on your toes, it's because I love you, and I'm stepping in a place your toes aren't supposed to be. So move your toes and never put them back there. *1 Corinthians-3*, verse 1. But I, brothers, this is Paul talking, but I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh.
You know what? I'm gonna read this in the in the NIV, just because I like the way the NIV says that I have the this is the ESV. I read all kinds of different versions. But NIV says, brothers and sisters, I could not address you as people who live by the spirit, but as people who are still worldly, mere infants in Christ. I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it.
Indeed, you are still not ready. I'm not talking about you real church. I'm just reading what what Paul is writing to the Corinthians. Okay? You are still worldly.
For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not still worldly? Are you not acting like mere humans? A little side note, guys, I've said this before, I'm gonna say it again. If you've been born again, then you're not a mere human anymore. You have the spirit of the living God living on the inside of you.
You are a son of God now, or a daughter of the king, empowered by his power and his presence to live out the fullness of your calling, if you're willing and you're surrendered. To the level of your surrender, that's the level of your freedom to walk out the purposes He has for you. Amen? So, infants cannot take meat, and too often, infants in the church are begging for meat. But they can't take meat, because they're not ready for it.
Infants don't have the teeth necessary to chew up the meat, or the enzymes in the stomach to be able to digest the meat. They can't they can't handle meat. And what shows that somebody can't handle meat? You are still worldly, since there is jealousy and quarreling among you. Are you not worldly?
If there's a bunch of jealousy in your life, and quarreling, and fights with other brothers and sisters, or just in general, you may need milk and not meat. Because jealousy and quarreling are are a sign that you're over focused on yourself instead of on Jesus, and instead on laying your life down for someone else. You're over focused on what you don't have, but they do, and are trying to get it, and that's where there's fighting, and quarreling, and jealousy. And if there's fighting, and quarreling, and jealousy in your life, you're not ready for meat. You just need milk until you grow up.
Setting a foundation. I hadn't gotten to the meat yet. I'm just staying in the milk. What is the milk? *1 Corinthians-2*.
And I, when I came to you brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech and wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. Remember in 1 Corinthians-3, he said, I gave you milk, not meat. What is the milk that he gave him? Jesus Christ and him crucified.
What else did he give him? I was with you, verse 3 of chapter 2, in weakness and in fear and much trembling, and my speech and my message were not with plausible words of wisdom, but in the demonstration of the spirit and of power, so that your faith may not rest on the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. So there are 2 things that Paul gave the Corinthians, and those 2 things he defined as milk. What were they? Christ being Christ crucified, and the power that goes along with the gospel.
Miracles, healing, *salvation*, words of knowledge, prophecy, all kinds of power moves. Why? Because it causes a baby to take their eyes off themselves and put it on Jesus. I never wanna get over the power of the gospel because as a mature person, in Christ, I should always be taking care of babies, so I should be living a life of power, helping them to see the power of God in and through my life and put their eyes on Christ. And there's nothing wrong with milk.
As an adult, I drink milk all the time. I like milk. As a matter of fact, Peter writes, hey, like infants, we should crave spiritual milk, so we should always have a craving for milk. We should never lose our taste of milk. We should never grow beyond milk.
We should have a craving for it. I like milk with my desserts. I like milk with certain meals because it's just good. I like milk when I'm just craving milk from time to time. I'm a milk drinker.
Don't judge me. I just am. But before I grew into maturity, I had to drink milk. It was important, and it helped me to grow into maturity to be able to digest other things. Now, what was the milk of the gospel?
It was Jesus Christ and him crucified, and? Power of the gospel. The power of the gospel. Why? I already told you why the power of the gospel was milk, but why is Christ and Christ crucified milk?
Why why why do babies need to feed on that? I'll tell you why. It's a good answer, but I'll tell you why. Babies are focused on themselves. Babies are focused on what they don't have, the pains, the hunger pains, the poop pains, the gas pains that they they have, and they start crying in certain ways in order to express that they're feeling something that's uncomfortable, so that mama or dad or the mature brother or sister around can give them what they need and take care of them so that they're not uncomfortable anymore and have what they need to grow.
Babies are focused on themselves. Christ and Christ crucified, like Robbie was preaching a couple of weeks ago, when we decide we're going to be followers of Jesus, we're following our rabbi to the cross. The cross is about dying to self. If you're going to be a believer, a disciple of Christ, you must first deny yourself. Pick up your cross and follow Jesus.
That's how you become a disciple of Christ, and that's how you grow out of maturity. But first, you have to see that he was crucified for you. He died for you, but then, as a baby, you have to understand that, wait a second, I was crucified with him. I died with him. It's no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me, because I was crucified with him on that cross.
That's why baptism is a part of milk. Let's let me show you. Christ and Christ crucifies makes a baby understand that the life that they live is no longer about themselves. It's about Christ so that they can deny themselves, pick up their cross, grow on to maturity. But until you you understand that, you'll continue to live for yourself and be wah wah wah every time you're uncomfortable.
And you need somebody that's mature to remind you of Christ and Christ crucified. You guys okay? I'm not mad at you. You're a great church. I'm just spurring you forward and reminding you so that you can stay in maturity instead of start whining like a baby again.
Hebrews, I quote this verse all the time. I wanna take it just a little deeper in a different angle. 5 13. Let's start in verse 11. About this we have much to say and it's hard to explain since you've become so dull of hearing.
Remember that vision? I'm not I'm not saying that's you, okay? This is Paul or this is there's a lot of different people who say who wrote Hebrews. We can talk about that another time. Anyway, about this, we have much to say, and it's hard to explain since you have become so dull of hearing.
For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach the, again, the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food. For everyone who lives on milk is unskilled or untrained in the word or the teaching of righteousness, since he is still a child or an infant. So until you understand righteousness, it's impossible for you to grow from infancy to maturity. As an infant, you have to understand that this life is not about you, it's about Christ.
The mark of immaturity is someone that's always trying to prove themself. I'm always trying to prove myself. I'm feeling like I'm not good enough. 1 or the other. Insecurity and insecurity or insecurity that's massive selfish pride.
Always trying to prove myself. But when you understand righteousness, you understand that you were completely proven by Jesus. So you have nothing to prove. You don't have anything to prove anymore. You don't have to live so other people see that you're doing good, or other people hear that you read the word so much this week, or see that you led somebody to Jesus, or that that you went and served, and this and that and the other, and and maybe, just maybe, if they see see that, they'll give me the encouraging word and stroke my ego in the way that I need so I can be fulfilled up and go about my week.
Now speaking like an infant, guys. You're already been proven. God's proud of you because you're a son and a daughter of God. He's credited his righteousness to your account so you can be so full in the pleasure of your father that it doesn't matter what other people say or don't say to you. You're you're already standing firm in what he says about you.
So now, because I'm free from what you say about me, I'm free to serve you and love you despite of what in spite of what you say and don't say. Like, don't matter anymore for me to be able to walk out the calling he has for you because I'm fulfilled here. Which means I'm free to love you. Now, do you matter? Yes.
And does that like, does you walking out your calling help me to walk out mine? Yes. And should we come together and push each other forward? Yes. But if you don't, for some reason, maybe you're having a weak moment, it doesn't affect my relationship with God, my joy, and my peace because I'm satisfied in him.
So I can continue on to *maturity* with or without you because I got Jesus. You understand? Once you understand that, then we can move on from the the basic teachings and move on to the meat, the deep things of God, the mysteries of the Father. *Hebrews-5:14*, but solid food is for the mature, for those who have trained their powers of discernment, their senses, by constant practice or constant use to distinguish good from evil. What's God and what's me, or what's God and what's the enemy.
Amen? Chapter 6. Chapter 6. Therefore, let us leave the elementary doctrines of Christ, This is the milk guys, and go on to maturity. Not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God.
That's foundational. It's milk. Repentance from dead works. Hey, you know what a dead work is? It's anything that Jesus isn't doing, but you are.
Good or bad. You're doing something bad that's not in Christ, it's a dead work. Repent. Change your life. Turn your thinking, and walk in the way that he's walking.
You're doing something that's good that he didn't ask you to do? You're making a sandwich that he didn't ask for. Go sit at his feet. Get a picture of Christ, and hear what he says for you in your life. Get up and go do what he says.
Repentance from dead works. Good things that aren't God things are dead works. A lot of people are busy, busy, busy about a lot of stuff Jesus didn't say to do. And their life's like, they're stressed out. What's going on?
Your lack of peace is because you're living from yourself instead of from Him. Repentance from dead works, that's milk, baby stuff. But we should crave the baby stuff because every now and then we'll get prideful and think we're bigger we got bigger britches than we really do. So we need to be humble enough to crave the milk no matter how mature you think you are. Amen?
I'm getting to the meat here and the mystery in a second. Don't worry. And of so the milk of repentance, dead works, faith toward God, and of instruction about washings, that's talking about baptisms. Like, you were baptized in God's blood when you were born again in the blood of Jesus. He washed you of your sin.
Water baptism is the baptism of repentance that that man, it it it shows that you're you're clean and you understand cleanliness, and it helps you to be delivered because you're stepping forward in obedience in him. And then the baptism of the Holy Spirit, it's it's still milk because what does the baptism of Holy Spirit do? It empowers you to go be a witness, to go outside of yourself and to grow to maturity, start ministering in the harvest field instead of always looking at yourself. All of it, water baptism, the second 1 I talked about, it's showing that I've died with Christ, it's no longer about me, it's about Him. I've resurrected a new life in Him.
It's all showing you Christ crucified, Now you're crucified. Now get out of yourself and into the harvest field. Amen? Still milk. The laying on of hands.
When I lay hands on people, when you guys, you got the Holy Spirit in you, you lay hands on people. You're not gonna see people healed unless you step out of yourself and start laying hands on people. But it's the power of Christ crucified. You declare the gospel in your daily life and live on mission. You're gonna see the power of God attached to the words that you're declaring in order to prove to people that Jesus is real.
That's still milk, guys. Still the elementary teachings. The resurrection of the dead, it's what happens. Eternal judgment, it's real. Those that don't choose Jesus, they're already condemned on their way to hell.
That's why we preach the gospel so we can save them through the life raft and the lifeboat of Jesus Christ to them because God loves them. He's not mad at them and he wants them to choose him instead of themselves because if they choose themselves in eternity, they'll get themselves apart from God. Amen? It's all milk. It's all milk.
Now, are you ready for the deep things of God? You ready for the real meat? The mysteries. *1 Corinthians-2:6*. Yet among the mature, we do impart wisdom, although it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age who are doomed to pass away, but we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God.
Everybody say, I want I want The secret wisdom The secret. Of God. Hey, we're about to go there. Don't worry, this is not Scientology. You don't have to pay for it.
There's not an extra book. Alright. But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glory. Remember the glory of living we're gonna get into? None of the rulers of this age understood this, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.
So it's a secret hidden wisdom that even the rulers of this age don't get. But as it is written, written, what no eye has seen, no ear has heard, nor the heart of man imagine what God has prepared for those who love him. These things God has revealed to us by the Spirit. Capital s, that's the Holy Spirit. He wants to reveal to you His secret wisdom, the mystery of God.
And actually it's already revealed, it's in Scripture, I'm gonna show you. It's great. *Colossians-1*. Are you ready? You sure?
This is it. It's the climax. *Colossians-1* verse 24. Now I rejoice. This is Paul writing to the Colossians.
I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake. Paul's mature. He's going to the cross for the people that he's ministering to, just like Jesus did. I'm suffering in different areas of my life in order to reveal the love of God for you, because it ain't about me, it's about you. That's maturity, guys.
Learning to rejoice in the midst of the pain and the suffering, because it ain't about you. Growing those spiritual muscles. These gym guys over here, always going to the gym, resistance, resistance, growing muscles, growing. Do the same thing in your daily life with Jesus. Obedience is resisting the flesh and growing your spiritual muscles.
I rejoice in my suffering for your sake, and in my flesh, I am filling up what is lacking in Christ's afflictions for the sake of His body, that is the church. Everybody say the church. Church. That's important, we'll come back to that. Of which I became a minister according to the stewardship from God that was given to me for you.
God gives you grace upon grace, and gift upon gift, and Paul said, what was given to him was for the reader, for you. Therefore, what's given to you is to enjoy, and to give out for those God's called you to. To make the word of God fully known, the mystery, everybody say mystery. Mystery. Hidden for the ages and generations, but now revealed to his saints.
To them, God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery. You are Gentiles. I'm a Gentile, unless you are Jewish. Father Abraham had many sons, and many sons had father Abraham, and I am 1 of them, and so are you. So let's just praise the Lord.
Right? Abraham became the father of many nations. First, it was the Jewish guys. Right? Because he was gonna reveal his mystery through through the Jews.
Praise the Lord for that. But now I'm 1 of the other many nations that Abraham became a father of because of faith. So let's start in verse 27 again. To them, God chose chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery. Everybody say mystery.
Which is **"Christ in you"**. The "hope of glory". The mystery, the depth, the meat, the mystery of God. It's Christ in you. That's it.
That's the climax. That's the depth of it. Christ in you, the hope of glory. You your identity in Christ is the depth of the gospel. It's the meats, the tough meat.
Be careful. If you're disappointed, I wanna check your heart right now. If you wanted something deeper, because here's the deal, the Israelites were in the wilderness and God gave them supernatural manna from heaven, and they complained saying it wasn't good enough. The Bible says they called it the worthless bread. They despised the worthless bread, but Jesus said that he was the manna from heaven.
So by complaining about what God gave them, this supernatural bread, they were despising Jesus. And by saying that this isn't in your heart, oh, this is anticlimactic, you may just be being of the same thing, despising the worthless bread, the manna, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. Christ is eternal. There's no end to understanding who He is, which means there's no end to growing and understanding who He says that we are in Him, and it's the hope of glory. Whose hope?
First, it's God's hope of glory. God's hope for glory was putting Christ in you. He God has no hope in you and your flesh. He has hope in Christ that he put inside of you. And through Christ in you, through your life, is the his hope for getting glory throughout the world.
That's His plan A, there's no plan B. He wants to be glorified through your life, but that requires you understanding and walking out more deeply every single day the mystery of Christ in you. *James-1*. Told you we're getting deep, guys. Verse 22, but be doers of the word and not hearers, only deceiving yourselves.
For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. Everybody say mirror. Mirror. Okay. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he's like.
But the 1 who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets, but a doer who acts, he will be blessed. Looks into a mirror, walks away, forget what forgets what he's like. My question is to you, what is the mirror? It's Jesus. It's the word.
The word is the mirror, and the word is Christ. In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God. He became flesh and dwelt among us. The Word is Christ. Christ is the mirror.
Now, what does a mirror show? A mirror shows you who you are. Isn't it crazy that Jesus calls says that he is unashamed to call himself our older brother? He's unashamed to call us brothers? *Ephesians-5:1* says, be imitators of God as dearly loved children.
We're supposed to imitate God. And if Ephesians-5:1 says that, don't you think that he's gonna make it possible? Amen. How? He put the same spirit, the same anointing that was on Christ in us because of Christ.
Christ in us, the spirit of Christ. So that, and here's the mind boggling thing, Christ in us, the hope of glory. The mirror reflects, it is Christ and it's showing us who we are, so that the more that we see who he is, the more that we're empowered by the same spirit on him to be like him in this world. Oh, wait. There's a verse for that.
*1 John-4:17*. I don't think I gave this to you guys in the back. Watch this. By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence on the day of judgment. Because as he is, so are we in this world.
What? That's deep, guys. That's some meat right there. The religious mindset that likes to belittle themselves and say, oh, but I'm just a filthy, rotten sinner is having trouble at this message. How could he say that?
I'm just reading scripture. As he is, so are we in this world. Why? Because he redeemed us, and he made us a new creation in Christ Jesus. It's no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me, and he's empowering me, and I'm living by faith in order to walk out his goodness.
It it helps you. It helps you guys. In 1 John-2, can you tell I'm having fun? I'm sorry. I'm having fun.
Oh, no. Chapter 3. 1 John-3. Watch this. Verse 2, beloved, we are now children of God, and what we will be has not yet appeared, but we know that when He appears, we shall be like Him because we shall see Him as He is.
Remember the mirror? When we see Him as He is, we're empowered to be like what we see. Verse 3, and everyone who thus hopes in him so everyone who hopes in him this way purifies himself as he is pure. That takes away your excuses to continue and your crap, and it calls you forward into maturity. Pursue His word, get into His word, get to know who Christ is, so that it's an it's an invitation for you to live like Him, and you can't do it by your flesh.
You can do it though by the Holy Spirit, the power of God that He put in you that gave you the revelation of who He is. Now He wants to reveal that same revelation to the world around you through you by His power. That's meat, man. Now, are the deep recesses of Ezekiel and Revelation and and Daniel important? Yeah.
Because they show you who Christ is. So they show you what it looks like to live like him as empowered by him. So dive into those places. It's great. But don't stroke your ego thinking you know something that somebody else doesn't know.
Dive in there to see who Christ is. Humbly, I wanna know you more. Amen? Amen. Alright.
What I just shared is not new for this church. It's a reminder. What I'm about to share is new, and it's even deeper. You ready? Ready.
Are you sure? Don't worry, it's not gonna take me 15 minutes. Okay? 7. And then we'll close.
We'll be done. I'm gonna ahead and get my 3 closings out of the way, so you know I'm I'm true. I'm closing, I'm closing, I'm closing. So now you got 7 minutes. *Ephesians-3*.
You guys okay? Yeah. Alright. Watch this. Verse 7.
Of this gospel, I was made a minister according to the gift of God's grace, which was given to me by the working of his power. Grace is God's power empowering you to be and to do what you can't be and do on your own. You gotta walk in it by grace through faith. So you gotta actually be able to hear, believe, obey him, and trust that he's actually giving you his power to be and do what he's called you to do. Otherwise, you'll sit back in insecurity and be all focused on yourself and be an infant ready for milk.
Amen? That's a lot. Okay. That's not what that was not the the deep thing. That was a bunny trail.
Of this gospel, I was made a minister according to the gift of God's grace, which was given to me by the working of his power. To me, though I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ. We'll get into that mystery again. Verse 9, and to bring to light for everyone what is the plan of the mystery hidden for the ages of in God who created all things, so that now, another version says, his intent, this mystery of Christ in people, the hope of glory, Christ in the Jews who received Jesus as Messiah, Christ in all the nations who received Jesus as their Lord and Savior, the hope of glory, His intent, another version says. ESV says, so that.
What is his intent? So that, verse 10, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in heavenly places. God's intent in all of this, in revealing himself, was to be able to reveal his manifold wisdom, his multifaceted wisdom, the multiple aspects of the amazing, eternal, infinite wisdom of God, through the church. Through the church. That's big.
A lot of people don't like that because they want an excuse not to go to church. But but that by denying the church, you're you're denying God's plan to reveal his multifaceted wisdom to the world. Exactly. Not just to the world, but that the wisdom of God might be known to the rulers and authorities in heavenly places. The demons and the angels are waiting to see the wisdom of God as revealed through the church.
Let me give you another little hint. That first that that Colossians-1:27 verse that says, Christ in you, the hope of glory, that's not a singular you. It's a plural you, which means Christ in you together, Christ in the church, the hope of glory. There's aspects of God's multifaceted wisdom that he wants to reveal to the world through my life, and there's aspects of his multifaceted wisdom he wants to reveal to the world through Daniel's life and through Scooter's life, through all of you. But alone, it's only a facet of God's wisdom.
But as we come together unified, the Holy Spirit comes in power because that unity creates 1 of my favorite words, synergy through the body of Christ to reveal more of God to the world around. So man, I want to stop complaining about the church and join in because it's His multifaceted wisdom and His plan. And realize that the church is a hospital for the broken. So when somebody offends me in the church, I'm not gonna blame God. I'm gonna realize that, man, that's they're where they should be.
And I'm I'm not gonna be offended by them because I'm so whole in Him that I'm not gonna let their sin against me create sin in me. Instead, I'm gonna be whole and healed because healed people heal hurting people. And I'm gonna join in and help them to be healed so that they can join in and help to show the world the multifaceted wisdom of God. Doesn't that just take away all your excuses to not go to church? Amen?
I tell you because I love you. The church is glorious because it's God's plan. And man, he wants you to be a part of his plan. It's God's plan for revealing his wisdom to the world, and you play an intricate part in that plan. The church, real church, this is where God's called you to be, or some other church, maybe you're just visiting, will not be what God's called it to be until you plug in and are grow growing and grow mature in Christ, so that the what's in you can synergize with what's in me and everybody else to reveal His plan and His wisdom to Pinellas County.
Don't just sit on a pew or an old Grove Middle School chair. You do that, nobody's seeing God's wisdom through you. But I I don't feel like I'm ready yet. The disciples didn't feel like they were ready. They doubted and Jesus still commissioned them.
As a matter of fact, the only way that you grow mature, Hebrews-5:14 says, is by constant use. Sitting in chair is in constant use. Coming to church on a Sunday is in constant use. Hey, p s, guys? P s.
There's a lot of people, a lot of people who only do devotions for their daily time with the Lord or sermons. You know what devotions and sermons are? They're digested meat given out so somebody else can understand it. Someone that grows to maturity needs to eat their own meat and digest it and give it out for others to understand. Then you just come and enjoy some milk on a Sunday because, man, we enjoy milk together.
You can enjoy some some meat I digested and and give out to you guys, and it's kinda nasty sounding, but but then go out. Be encouraged, then go back on Monday. Get into the word for yourself. I love devotions. Devotions are great.
Don't stop doing devotions. But don't let that be your time in the word. Get it Get in the word for yourself. See Christ for yourself, and do the devotions as a supplement to learn how to do that. Come to church on a Sunday as a supplement to your relationship with the Lord, so that you can grow out of infancy and into maturity and start giving it out to the world around you.
Amen? You guys okay? This is the foundation for the series we're going into because the series we're going into is going to help you to know the process and to walk out the process towards maturity in your personal life so that you can reveal the full glory of God that he's destined your life to reveal, so that together, our church can do that too. So this is the foundation. We're building back up to this.
The end message of the whole series will probably be a reminder that, hey, you know how to walk in maturity. So walk in it so that the glory of God can be shown through your life, so that together the glory of God can be revealed Christ in real church, the hope of glory in Pinellas County. And hopefully other churches are getting it too. So Christ in all of us, the glory of God in Pinellas County, the hope of glory. Amen?