LIFE Church

Ephesians, The Radiant Church Part 3 | Pastor Caleb Thomason

Growing in faith isn't automatic, but requires intentional commitment. The key to this growth lies in trusting God completely, even when His timing doesn't align with our expectations. Just as deep roots are necessary for trees to withstand strong winds, our spiritual roots must grow deep into God's love to keep us strong in life's challenges. Notes for this sermon: https://bit.ly/4d76jLLWebsite | https://lifechurchww.comFacebook | https://facebook.com/lifechurchwwInstagram | https://ins...

Duration:: 43m
Broadcast on:: 21 Jul 2024
Audio Format:: mp3

Growing in faith isn't automatic, but requires intentional commitment. The key to this growth lies in trusting God completely, even when His timing doesn't align with our expectations. Just as deep roots are necessary for trees to withstand strong winds, our spiritual roots must grow deep into God's love to keep us strong in life's challenges.

Notes for this sermon: https://bit.ly/4d76jLL

Website | https://lifechurchww.com
Facebook | https://facebook.com/lifechurchww
Instagram | https://instagram.com/lifechurchww
Vida Music | https://vidamsc.com

- Well, I'm so excited this morning to be able to share the word of God with you today. We are in our series in Ephesians, The Radiant Church. And we've already went through a couple chapters already, so I'm really excited to be able to get into chapter three. And we're gonna jump a little bit into chapter four as well, because as I'll show us today, Paul's gonna start something thematically in chapter three, and he's gonna go through chapter four, and actually he's gonna go through most of chapter five. And here's what he's talking about. This is a little bit of the breakdown. We covered this in the first week, but here's a little bit of a breakdown of what's happening in Ephesians. First he's gonna be talking about the wealth of the church. And then he's gonna go into talking about the walk of the church, which is really a lot of where we're gonna be covering today. And then in chapter six, which we'll get there in a couple weeks, he's gonna talk about the warfare of the church. So I wanna start in chapter three. I wanna read a couple of verses with us, read them together, and then one in chapter four, and then we'll just get in what God wants to speak to us today. But can we do this together? I love this. Can we stand for the reading of God's word? Can we do that? Come on, the Bible says the grass withers in the flower phase, but the word of the Lord will stand forever. So a quick background leading up to the verses we're about to read in chapter three. Paul spends a good portion of verses talking about this immense privilege he has of preaching the gospel, this immense privilege. We all get of sharing the good news of Jesus. He talks about it being a mystery and this mystery being made known and the privilege that he had specifically of giving it to the Gentiles. And then at the end of chapter three, he shares one of my most favorite portions of all of scripture, and he says this. He says this, "When I think of all of this, "all this immense privilege, all that God's done, "all that God's done to reveal himself, "I fall to my knees and I pray to the Father, "the creator of everything in heaven and on earth. "And here's what I want you to get in your mind "for a minute." Paul, the great apostle, he's just talking about all these great things and he says, "So here's what it causes me to do. "I fall to my knees." Not just, "I get down slowly." Like he drops through his knees and begins to pray for this church and for us. I want you to get that in your mind. What is he dropping to his knees to pray? And then he tells us what he prays. He says this, "I pray that from his glorious unlimited, "unlimited." I feel like that's where somebody did unlimited. God's not limited resources. He will empower you with inner strength through his spirit. Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God's love and keep you strong. And may you have the power to understand, as all God's people should. I love this, I love this. How wide, how long, how high, how deep his love is. "May you experience the love of Christ, "though it is too great to understand fully. "Then you will be made complete with all the fullness "of life and the power that comes from God, "now all glory to God who is able, "through his mighty power at work within us "to accomplish infinitely more than we can ask or think. "Glory to him in the church and in Christ Jesus "through all generations, forever, amen." Now he says all of that, this immense love. And he says this, "Therefore, therefore." Somebody say, "Therefore." Anytime you see a "Therefore" in the Bible, you need to find out what it's there for. "Therefore, I, a prisoner for serving the Lord, "bag you, beg you to lead a life worthy of your calling, "for you have been called by God." Now, as you're seated, instead of having you turn to your neighbor and say something, I want you to turn to yourself. I want you to do this, I want you to do this. I want you to say, "Self, time to grow up." Okay, you can be seated this morning in the house of God. I did not want you to turn to somebody next to you 'cause there's too many spouses that would have loved that moment right there. Oh, that's funny, we were just talking about this and then the preacher man gets up and says it too. Must be God. (congregation laughing) Well, I am officially to the age now, okay? I'm officially to the age where having a nice lawn is actually a flex. I'm officially came to that age. Like it used to be, like when we were in school, it was like, who can get facial hair first? I actually won that one. And then it became like who can have like the nicest truck, you know, and I was in on that one. And then I got to the age where it was the grill flex, you know? I was like, oh, you don't have a trigger? Oh, I'm sorry, you know? And then it was, oh, yours is a smaller one. Oh, you need to get a bigger one. And then it was like, oh, you only have a trigger? You don't have a black stone. Oh, what's going on, you know? Let me call my uncle Warren Buffett. See if we can hook you up with one, right? (congregation laughing) But now I'm officially to the age where it's like, you've got to have a nice lawn. And here's a deal, I didn't put this pressure on myself. In fact, society didn't even put this pressure on me. My eight-year-old son has put this pressure on me. This is a totally true story. Since he was a little kid, he would ask my wife and I, hey, one day, can we have a really nice lawn? Like, this picture, I took this picture, it's a little grainy. I took this picture four years ago, okay, four years ago. Oh, oh, oh, grow up to grow down. I won't tell how I'll get to that in a second. Look at this, this is four years ago. This is him, my older son, and my middle son. This is four years ago, this is before the twins are born. This is not our lawn, this is not our lawn. We were on a walk and they randomly wandered into a stranger's lawn, took off their shoes and laid down and said, we want to have a lawn like this. Dad, when can you get us a lawn? Look at the way he cuts it this way. You just cut ours like this, you know, like. And so they're always like, when can we have a lawn like that? And I'm like, come on, sons. And so anyway, so I'm like trying to step up my lawn game. So I brought in some sod, we put laid down some sod at the house we're at now. And the bummer thing about when you put down sod is it's like instant gratification. You're like, I did it, I did it, I have the lawn of all lawns. I did it, I have the lawn of all lawns and then it doesn't become the lawn of all lawns. And so I was doing my best, I was pouring water and I was doing like all the things. I was reading the lawn blogs and everything. Finally, I had to bring in a lawn expert. We called out a lawn guy. I don't know if you have a lawn guy, but I brought out a lawn guy. So don't, after church today, don't try to coach me in lawning, okay? Just don't, okay? I'm just, it's too much right now. I can't right now, I can't. So I brought in a lawn guy and the lawn guy was like, he took a sample of my lawn and he said, well, here's your problem. The reason why your grass isn't growing is because your roots aren't growing deep enough. Paul's gonna say to us, if you want to grow in God, your roots are gonna have to grow down. So my title is that we actually need to grow down so that we can grow up. And what he's gonna say, beginning in chapter three, going on through chapter four and even into chapter five, is he's gonna talk about what it means to mature as a Christian. Now remember, as we learned from the first week, these people had just burned their sorcery books, had given up their ways of witchcraft. And Paul's saying, don't stop there. Don't stop there. Keep growing in God. And he's gonna begin to say things like this. Don't be immature. And he'll say, instead you need to do things like this. He'll say things like, don't be like the world. Don't be like the culture. Don't talk like this. Don't lie like it. He's talking about all these things. And every time he's gonna say things like, but instead you need to. And he gives us characteristics of the mature. And this is what I love about walking with God, is that God loves us and he meets us right where we're at in the midst of our sin and our stupidity and brokenness. But he also loves us too much to leave us there. Come on, can I get a name in? God's like, let's go someplace. Let's keep growing in me, keep growing in who I am. And so this is what Paul's encouragement is gonna be for literally almost two and a half chapters, is let's continue to mature in God. And so in the process of talking to them about what immaturity is like, he's gonna give us a multiplicity of things what a mature walk looks like. But this morning I wanna give us 'cause it's a hot summer. I figure you can remember three. I'm gonna give us three characteristics of maturing in Christ. And by the way, I like to use the word maturing because what I've learned and what scripture teaches us is mature and God is not a point that you get to. It's not an arrival, it's a process. Paul even towards the end of his life says this, not that I have already attained, but I press on. I mean, if anybody was mature outside of Jesus, it's this guy, but he goes, it's not that I've had already figured out, I'm maturing in God. So I wanna look at three characteristics. The first one is this, you gotta trust God. You gotta trust God. Now, as you're writing it down, what's gonna happen in some of your minds is your perceived maturity is gonna begin to creep up right now and you're gonna be able to say, "Oh, that's awesome, you need to trust God." Well, brother, I already trust him. Well, can I challenge your trust a little bit today? Can I do that a little bit today? Because here's what Paul says about trusting God. Wanting our, if we're gonna grow up in God, then we got to grow down. And here's what he says, I pray that from his glorious unlimited resources, he will empower you with inner strength through his spirit. Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. But then look at this, as you trust in him, period. Then look at this, your roots will grow down into God's love and keep you strong. Here's what he's saying, if you want your roots, if you wanna grow up, your roots gotta grow down. And he says, and how they grow down is they grow down as you trust in him. This is a foundational reality to maturing in God is trusting in him, which is so hard when we live in such a self-reliant culture. And I am learning this firsthand so much by dealing with, I have twin two-year-old boys. And so, of course, they've arrived, right? At two years old, they've arrived, they still can't clean themselves after soiling themselves, but suddenly they constantly are telling me, dah, I do, I do, dah, I do. And my kids, I don't know if you're kids of this way, my kids are obsessed with string cheese. If there's a way to invest just in that cheesehead brand of string cheese, 'cause all the other brands are not as good, I don't wanna talk about it right now, but I'm just telling you, I'm a dad, I've learned cheesehead only. So like, dah, they want, see what, dah, ching cheese, what they call it, ching cheese. Couldn't I have said, I'm like, string cheese, you want some? Absolutely, I'll give you some, and I pull it out, you know how you open string cheese, you gotta kind of pull the two sides, right? So I start to do it, dah, I do it, okay? You do it, even though I know they can't do it, right? So I give it to them, and for the next four or five minutes, I sit there patiently, waiting 'cause I'm a patient father, like my heavenly father, I'm a patient father, watching them struggle, watching them thinking, okay, eventually they give up, and they say, dah, you do, and then I open, I do it for him, right? I think we do that same thing with God, like he gives us this new life, and like, dah, I do it, and then he just sits there patiently, and watches us struggle, as we struggle through it, I can do this, I can figure it out, I make myself better, and I can stop acting like this, and all that, and God's like, okay, and he just patiently waits, and finally we say, dah, you do it, and we just give it over to him, and listen, nothing stunts our growth, like self-reliance. Pride will stunt the growth of your roots so quickly, and growing in God is leaning into God, and saying, I want to God, I want to trust in you. Listen, here's a fruit of the spirit is self-control, and I'm like, God, I want to release control to you, so that you can help me in every way, get an understanding of this life being lived in you, but this self-reliance, I want to put it aside and say, God, I trust you in everything. I want to be the kind of person that doesn't trust in anything but God. And look, we do it all the time, yes, amen. We do it a lot. We find ourselves trusting in other things, we find ourselves trusting in our jobs, we find ourselves trusting more in the person who writes our check than in the one who owns a cattle in a thousand hills, we find ourselves trusting in the markets, we find ourselves trusting in a political figure, well, as long as they get elected, then we're gonna be okay, and then they don't get elected and then we freak out. Like, I want to be a person that just trusts in God. Our trust is in God alone, it's on your money, and as believers, we need to believe it, 'cause that's what maturing in God is, is trusting him in all things. And I don't know, maybe it's just me, maybe it's just Paul, but I know personally I have learned this in my life, the importance, the immense importance of how a maturing Christian is one that trusts in God, and here's how I know this, is because when I really grow through things, go through things, I go to people like Pastor Longstokes. People that have walked with God for decade after decade, and when I'm really going through it, I can look him in the eyes and they look me back in the eyes and say this, I know it seems crazy right now, but I'm telling you, son, trust God, 'cause God's gonna get you through it, there's another way, he's gonna make a way, and just believe 'cause God's got a way. Can I get a name, man, for those people in our lives? (congregation applauding) Decades of the Lord's faithfulness, we find it, I'm just sorry if you're a young person in the room, but when I'm really going through it, I don't run to a young person and say, "Can I trust God?" They're like, "Yeah, we gotta trust God." I go to a older person, an older person has been walking with the Lord for a while and say, "Can I trust God?" And they just stare into your soul and say, "Absolutely, you can trust God." Why? 'Cause they've been through it. Ask anybody that's been in the military, combat reveals character, and you find out how much you trust God once you go through something in your life and you learn that through it all, you can trust him. In fact, can I give you a litmus test for how to a test for your maturing in God? Can I give you a question that you can ask yourself? How do you respond when God does an answer in the way and in the timing that you want him to? How do you respond when God does an answer in the way and in the timing that you want him to? Your honest answer to that question says a lot about your maturing in God. 'Cause we just, listen, I'm an instant gratification guy as just as much as anybody else, but what I've learned is that haste and instant gratification, they are characteristics of the immature, not the mature. Like we, they're so good for us to wait on God, like to ask ourselves, like God, when God doesn't do something the way we want him to or the way that we want him to, and our tithe, he's making sure, do you know how much there is to be learned in the waiting on God? And when God doesn't answer in the way or the timing that we want him to, then we all of a sudden just become spiritual eores, like from Winnie the Pooh, you know? Guess I'll go look for my tale now. Like we get all frustrated just because God didn't instant answer our prayers, right? It's like we live in a microwave world but we serve a crockpot God. He's working things out in us. And listen, if it can just, here's a marker of a maturity in our life. How quickly your joy can be stolen will tell you a lot about your maturity as a Christian. (congregation laughing) I'll leave that there. But every time that we trust in him, even though I trust and we want to trust in our own ability and every time we just trust, God, you're faithful. I don't know how you're gonna work it out, but you're gonna work it out. Guess what's happening? Roots are growing down and you are growing up. And I was meditating on this verse this week and it says, "As you trust me, "we roots will grow down into God's love "and keep you strong." And I was meditating on that. I felt like I heard the Holy Spirit say that deep roots are needed for strong winds. That deep roots are needed for strong winds. Just ask those trees along the Oregon coast. Do you know those ones that are permanently bent sideways? I'm like, dude, you guys are savages. Like in the face of constant adversity, you're still there. They'll tell you the importance of a deep root system that I just, I want to be the kind of person that recognizes, I don't want to prophesy it over your life, but if I'm honest with you, the Bible actually does, that we're gonna face adversity, and I recognize that I'm gonna need deep roots for the strong winds that are gonna come against me. In fact, Jesus, He tells His story in Matthew 13. He gives this amazing story. And it's a story about this farmer going out and scattering seed, and He talks about the seed as an analogy for the word of God. And then the soil is our hearts, the conditions of our hearts, and how there's different forms of our hearts and how we receive the word of God. I don't know about you, but I want to trust the word of God and build my life around it. And here's what Jesus says about one of the conditions of the soil, says this. And the seed that was on the rocky soil, the one that trusts God when it's good, and then when it gets tough, we take control. The rocky soil, you ever been in a rocky relationship, right? On, off, on, off again, right? Then see that fell on the rocky soil represents those who hear the message and immediately receive it with joy. Salvation, yeah! But since they don't have deep roots, they don't consistently trust in God. They don't last long. Look, I want to last. I want to last, I do. I want to last. I want to be somebody that the passion and the purpose of God I pursue until my very last breath or until Jesus comes back. They don't last. They fall away as soon as they have problems or are persecuted for believing in God's word. Jesus is saying this, you need the roots for the hard times ahead. And look, here's what Paul also says. So that's the storms of life. He actually talks about these winds in Ephesians chapter four. Look at this, it says, then we will no longer be, what's the word, immature? Immature, but that's what he says is, like children, we won't be tossed and blown about by every wind of new teaching. We will not be influenced when people try to trick us, which by the way, there's a new lie coming out every single day. It seems like every single day, there's a new lie coming out. You know, you want to know the way you don't get tricked? You trust in God. You build your life around the word of God and you trust in God and that those clever, they say with lies so clever, they sound like the truth. This is part of growing up that when the winds come, you don't get knocked over. And what I love about what Paul's telling us towards the end of chapter three, is he's saying that our roots would go down and do you notice what he says they go down into? They go down into love. They go down into love. Listen, he doesn't say they go down into legalism. Performance, trying to perform. Look, we're a presence-driven people. We want to draw close to God, not try to get God's attention. Friend, you can't get God's attention. You already have his attention, okay? But it goes down into love, not religion. Man's attempt to just please God. It doesn't go down, it goes into love. And he says, and that's how you experience this. That knowing that you may know the love of God that he says at the end of chapter three, it actually the Greek word means an intimacy. This is a love that you can experience, not that you can mentally assert to. And he's saying, if you want to grow down and grow deep so you can grow up, you gotta grow close. Turn to your name and say grow close to God. Grow close to God. I love this verse, I know you know it because you have it on the refrigerator in your house. I'm sure you're out of a magnet, okay? You probably even have it in your bathroom. Just to constantly remind you to trust in the Lord with part of your heart, all of your heart. But then how come we give him everything but our finances? We trust him in everything but our finances. We trust him in everything but our parenting 'cause God, I know you love me but I just really don't want to screw up my kids. We trust him in all of it. Trust the Lord with all of your heart. Don't depend on your own understanding. One translation says don't lean on your own understanding. I don't know if you know this or not but you were born with a limp. You were born with a limp and it's meant for you to crutch on God and lean on God and not on your own understanding. It says don't depend on your own understanding. Seek his will in all you do and he will show you which path to take. So I'll ask you again, do you trust God? Like really, like do you really trust God? Well, let me take it a little bit further. Does your finances and how you handle him reflect your trust for God? Does your anxiety level and stress level reflect how much you trust God? 'Cause I know you're a maturing believer in God. Bless God, I trust God, I trust God. Does your prayer life reflect your trust in God or is it a begging and a pleading that God, if it be thine will look upon thine weak servant and bestow upon the tons of money? Please God, please, please, please. Does the way you parent reflect how much you trust in? Good times, of course we trust him. Hard times, listen, the valleys will tell you how much you trust God. I gotta move on, I gotta move on. Brother Randy has given me too many amens so I gotta move on. That's our first thought. Second thought is this, check out these verses. Therefore, I, a prisoner for serving the Lord, beg that you lead a life, lead a life. This is a life that needs to be led worthy of your calling for you have been called by God. Look at these other verses down into chapter four. Then we will no longer be immature like children. We won't be tossed and blown about by every win of new teaching. We will not be influenced when people try to trick us with lies so clever that they sound like the truth instead, instead, meaning this is what you do. This is your choice, this is what you choose. Instead, this is what we're gonna choose to do. We will speak the truth in love, growing in every way, more and more like Christ, who is the head of his body, the church. Here's what I wanna say. Second thought of characteristics of maturing Christians is they commit to growth. They commit to growth. Now, I know this sounds insanely straight forward to us, but I'm telling you, it is a base understanding that if you're gonna grow in God, you have to commit to growing in God. That mature Christians, maturing Christians, make a commitment to grow in God. And here's what I've learned. It's a choice, it's a choice. Maturing is a choice. That's why you'll see in life, you may come across them yourself. Well, you'll find 50-year-olds children. 50-year-old children, why? Because I've learned that aging is not a choice, but maturing is, is there anybody awake today? Maturing is a choice, is a commitment to growth. Look, growing in God is not a supernatural gift given to the Holy Spirit. If it was, I would have laid hands on a lot of people by now, including myself saying, grow up, grow up in Jesus' name. Grow up in Jesus' name, right? I would have done that. But if it was a spiritual gift, it's only bestowed by the Holy Spirit, then Paul wouldn't be writing what he's writing. Look, growing in God is not like Mario from Super Mario, eating the mushroom, blah, blah, blah, that you just instantly grow up after one prayer. It's something you choose to do. Paul's talking about this is a choice that you're making. And when you're, he's making, you've made these choices already, if he's in church, he's saying, you've already stopped doing a bunch of stuff. Now, continue to grow. And here's what he tells him to continue encouraging to do. Since you have heard about Jesus and learned the truth that comes from him, throw off your old nature. Make a choice, throw off your old nature and your former way of life, which is corrupted by lust and deception. Instead, let the spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes. Put on. This is your making a choice here. I'm committing to growth by throwing off that dragging, that weight that weighs me down, my old way of thinking, my old paradigms. And I put on this new nature created to be like God, truly righteous and holy. So he sang all these things, saying, look, you gotta put on this new nature. And I think for sometimes what we do is we like the new life part of God, but we just stop there. We receive his new life, but friend, he also has a new nature for you to receive. Like a lot of times, I mean, we like the new life, but we like the old nature. So we like to be saved, but we like to still be salty. Come on, we like the new life, yeah. But I still wanna be bitter at people, so hang on to my old nature. No, he's saying, don't stop there. Put on your new nature. Don't settle for second best when God has something new for you. Look, nothing stunts your growth, like when we settle. Complacency kills the seed of our heart when God's stirring things in us. Listen, our heart is the danger of complacency. I just say this really quickly. The danger of complacency in our walk with God when we just kinda get complacent, when we just go through the motions, we just kinda punch our time card with God, that sort of a thing. It kills the stirring that God wants to do in us 'cause God stirs us to make sure that we don't settle. 'Cause settling, when it's manifested, it starts to breed neglect, and that's never good, either not in your marriage or your walk with God. And so I don't know about you. I wanna be the kind of person that makes an enemy of anything that tries to come between me and God, anything that would try to bring a mundane to my relationship with God. I wanna make an enemy of it. 'Cause this is something that we choose. Like, I'm in this for life. Like, Paul says this, lead a life worthy of it. This is a life for us. This is not a lease. We're not trying this out for a while. This is a life that we are choosing, saying, God, I'm gonna go all in on you. This is, God is not a fad. He's not a trend. He's not a phase that we're gonna give an option to. This is not some trend that's gonna wear out. It's not gonna go out of, he's not going out of style like your clothes or the mullet that you had in your wedding photo. He's not gonna do all of that. This is like, I'm all in on God. The people that are maturing, they just don't quit. They're saying, God, I'm going in all under you. Is there just anybody else like me that would just say, I've decided in my course, I'm not going back to my old nature. I'm not going back to addiction. I'm not going back to an old way of thinking, this is who I'm gonna be and it's gonna be in God. I feel like this morning, I just wanna say that to encourage somebody that's maybe feeling like they're gonna quit on God. Listen, don't quit on God 'cause he's not quit on you. God's got this if you let him. I don't wanna be a conditional Christian. One that just backs away, slips into my old nature when things get hard. How about this? I don't wanna be a conditional Christian that backs away when God pulls out the pruning shears. 'Cause the Bible's, he prunes those he loves. I don't wanna stop trusting God. I don't wanna stop committing to growth when it gets hard. I don't wanna stop when other people even maybe are backing away. God, I wanna lean, I'm committed to growth. So let me ask you, are you committed to growth or have you grown calloused and complacent in your walk with God? Are you growing? Have you committed to growth? Here's some markers for you. Are you being discipled? Do you have accountability in your life? Are you serving? Does the way that you're leaning into God? Are you choosing, Paul lives, I could sit here most of our morning this morning and just read through all the three and four, but I wanna hit on some more stuff chapter four when we get there next week. And then even into chapter five, he just lists off all these things what this new nature looks like. I could say all those things we could go through, but you can read them for yourself, especially going into next week and you can read chapter four. But he gives this list of things and what he's literally saying is, look, here's a part of maturing, is maturing is taking responsibility for things. Like that could be a definition for matures, the ability to take responsibility, right? That's a reason why you get certain things at certain ages, right? I couldn't wait until I was 16 until I could drive. And then suddenly, you know, you're 18 and you can vote. And then you're 25 and then you can rent a car. And then you're 55 and you can get cheaper things at restaurants or whatever, I don't know. 'Cause you're maturing, right? 'Cause you're maturing. My granddad used to call it the gumber discount. I was like, what's that mean? He just take your teeth out and say, can I get a, I don't even know what that means, granddad. I'm just never doing it. I'm just making, is there anybody where there's making a pledge that I'm just like, I'm just gonna be, even if I'm like super old, I'm gonna be like, no, here's my ID. You better check my ID, like, sir, you look like in your 80s, I am, but here's my ID. Just wanna make sure you know who you're dealing with. I'm young in heart. But to take responsibility for our actions, like does your commitment to growth reflect a level of ownership for your actions? How about for your mouth? Paul says, don't talk like you used to talk. If you go on a read, it says, don't lie. Don't slander, don't gossip. He just says that. 'Cause I love what Galatians, Galatians 6, 5, and don't have a says, for we are each responsible for our own conduct. Does your commitment to the growth reflect an ownership in your life? Last thought is this. It says, oh, look at this verse, Ephesians 3, towards the end. I pray that from his glorious unlimited resources that he will empower you with strength, inner strength through his spirit. Note that. Check out what he says in chapter four. Since you have learned about Jesus and have learned about the truth that comes from him, throw off your old sinful nature in your former way of life, which is corrupted by lust and deception. Instead, let the spirit allow the spirit of God to renew your thoughts and your attitudes, which for me is a daily prayer. Here's what it says to us. Characteristic of a maturing Christian. They're led by the Holy Spirit. They're led by the Holy Spirit. Now, we did a series on the Holy Spirit a couple of years ago, and then this last fall in the U.S. Fort series, we did one on the Holy Spirit. So go back and watch those, talk more about the person of the Holy Spirit and his work in our lives. But you'll notice what Paul says. It says, through his spirit. Like a spirit led life is the life of a maturing believer. Not one that's doing it of their own accord, but saying, "God, I want to do what you want to do." Jesus says this in John, yeah, excuse me, John 16. He says this, that the spirit of God will lead us into all truth, that he guides us, that he leads us, that that's his role. Jesus also talking about the Holy Spirit says that he's our helper, meaning he's the one who come alongside. He's all these things to us where he wants to lead us and guide us and help us. But here's what I've found. He can be all those things, and yet we cannot let him do it. He can be all those things we want, and he cannot do it. I want to grow, and I want to choose growth. And so choosing to grow is saying, "God, I don't want to do it my own way. I want you to have your way in my life." I love these verses out of Galatians. Check this verse in Galatians five. So I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won't be doing what your sinful nature craves. The sinful nature wants to do evil, which is just the opposite of what the spirit wants, in case you're wondering. And the spirit gives us desires. You know that desire, that lustful desire that you don't want to be, now that you've given your heart to God, guess what? If you let him lead you, he'll gift you that desire that are the opposite of what your sinful nature desires. These two forces are constantly fighting each other. So you're not free to carry out your good intentions. But when you are directed by the spirit, not directed by your emotions, not directed by your experience, you are not under obligation to the law of Moses. It's not doing whatever you want to do. It's doing whatever he wants to do. And I wrote these things down for me, and then I put them in here, thinking that maybe they might be something to you as well. His schedule is now my schedule. His agenda is now my agenda. His truth is now my truth. His truth is now my opinion. I'm entitled to my opinion. The day you got saved, your opinion's not your own anymore. Hey, his leading is your obedience. His leading is your following. His preference is now my preference. His ask is now my action. I wanna be the Christian who's maturing and learning to follow him step in step, which means I gotta make sure that my heart stays sensitive to his leading. Like I used to work all these super intense jobs like picking rock and bucking hay bills and all kinds of stuff like that. And even though I'd wear gloves, I'd get these crazy calluses on my hands. And the weird thing about a callus, if you've ever gotten one on your finger or anything before, you can like tap it on stuff and you can't feel like you normally could feel. But if you tear off, if you throw off that thing, it's amazing how there's fresh, sensitive flesh underneath. I wonder if sometimes we allow calluses to build up on our heart. And this, listen, it's a daily submitting of your will, daily submitting, daily surrendering. That's what maturing in Christ says, daily surrendering, submitting, say God, now my will be yours, surrendering to God that we throw off the callus. And I wanna get out of my life anything that jeopardizes the callus from building up. Paul says this in 1 Corinthians. When I was a child, I spoke in thought and reason as a child. But when I grew up, I put away childish things. I think it was a couple of years ago, I spent time with the Lord. I said, God, I just wanna grow. I wanna just know you that talking about that deep and wanna grow you. I just felt like the Lord said, son, stay close. And this is how he spoke it to my heart. Paul would say childish things, but I felt like the Holy Spirit said to me, and put away frivolous things. I don't wanna preoccupy my life with things that aren't developing a closeness to God. I'm not talking about vacations, like those refresh your soul, I'm not talking about, but filling my things in my life that my old nature would be filling its life with. Like, you know what I wanna do? I wanna preoccupy my life today, what I will be doing forever. And what will I be doing forever? I'll be praising, I'll be worshiping, I'll be communing with God. I want to build my life around those things. I wanna do those things. Now, so I put away frivolous, childish things, things that are sons of immature and grow. (gentle music) So are you led by the Spirit of your allowing the Holy Spirit to guide your life or have you grown calloused? When was the last time you responded to the conviction of the Holy Spirit and repented? You know, a sign of a maturing Christian is how quickly you run to God when you sin. That'll tell you how mature of a Christian you are is how quickly you run to God when you sin. When was the last time you allowed them to interrupt your schedule? How often you just sit, listen and wait? I didn't finish telling you the end of my lawn saga. So my lawn guy came out and he took a sample in the soil and he said, well, the reason why your grass isn't growing up is because your roots aren't growing deep. And he said, and the reason why your roots aren't growing deep is because there's a disease in your soil. So if you want your grass to grow up, you need your roots to grow down, but in order for your roots to grow down, you gotta deal with the disease in the soil. Come on, some of you've been at church long enough. I don't even have to tell you where I'm going. (mellow piano music) I wonder if our heart for maturing in God that today the Holy Spirit wants a deal with something that's got in the soil. And here's what I love, you know what this guy said? He said, but that's no big deal. He's like, I got this spray and I'll just cover the whole thing and we'll water it so it gets down in there and it kills that disease. No matter what it is that's maybe infiltrated your heart and disease, I think it's funny that Jesus talks about the soil of our heart. By the way, the disease was not in my grass. It was in the soil. We try to just water the lawn. God's like, you gotta deal with the root, not the fruit. And here's the cool thing. You're like, man, I do, I have pride in my heart. I have bitterness, I have unforgiveness. It's a disease that's stunting the growth that I wanna go and go on. Well, guess what? God has this cover. It's called his blood. And if you let it get down on the soil of your heart, he'll get rid of all shame and all guilt and all pride and everything else that has infiltrated your heart. Can I get a name in? (congregation applauding) I wanna do this today. Can we close our eyes across the room? If you're here today, I don't wanna go a moment further without recognizing there might be somebody here that has yet to put their trust in Jesus. Then maybe you came thinking, I don't know, I'll give God a chance. Well, friend, here's your chance and can I tell you this? Don't give up on him 'cause he hasn't given up on you. In fact, I believe this whole moment is orchestrated just for you to have the opportunity. So whether you're in the room or you're watching online and you would say today, Caleb, I have yet to put my trust in the lordship of Jesus. And you're here today and saying, I don't wanna walk out of here the same way I walked in and you would say for the first time today, yeah, man, that's me. Will you pray with me because I need to make Jesus the Lord of my life. I need to put my trust in him. If you're here today under the sound of my voice and that's you and you would say, yeah, that's me, Caleb, I need to make Jesus the Lord of my life. Will you do this? Will you just look up at me really quick and wave at me just so I know who I'm praying with and praying for? Thanks, sis, thank you. I see that back in this, making my thanks to hand back there, thanks, I see that. Thanks, bro, I see you back there. I'm just kind of making my way across. Thanks, man, great decision. Thanks sis, I'm telling you, a game changer, anybody else today, this is where you go all in on him. 'Cause he went all in on you. Now here's what I wanna do, church, can we do this right? We're out, we're gonna help our friends. We're gonna pray out loud together, this prayer. And if you're praying, if you raise your hand or know you should have, I just want you right now from your seat in the sincerity of this moment, pray this prayer, 'cause the Bible says, if you believe in your heart and confess with your mouth, you will be saved. So come on, church, can we help our friends that are making this decision together today? Can we help them? Can we pray like this? Say, Jesus? Here I am, a sinner in need of a savior. I give up, I give over all that I am to you. I'm sorry and I repent. Will you help my roots go deep in your love? And from this day forward, I'm yours in Jesus name. Come on, can we celebrate with our friends? Can we do that? Oh, it's a big deal. We hope that today's message encouraged you. At Life Church, we believe that wherever you are in your relationship with God, there's always a next step to take, and we're here to help you find yours. If you made the decision to follow Jesus today, or you're simply looking to get more involved in this community, we invite you to check out our next steps page. You'll find all the information you need by clicking the link in the description below. If this message impacted you in any way, we encourage you to do two things. First, share this video with a friend. It's a wonderful way to share the love of Jesus with someone you care about. Second, we'd love to hear your story. Click the link in the description to share your testimony with us so we can celebrate all God is doing in your life. We're excited to be on this journey of following Jesus with you, and hope you have a great week. (dramatic music) [BLANK_AUDIO]