Spiritual Growth

Amen.

Amen.

Would you pray with me?

Heavenly Father, thank you so much for the love that you have.

Thank you so much, Lord, for being the God that you are, for being holy, for being different than anything else in this world.

That's what that word means, Lord.

It means different, and you are different.

And we're so glad, Lord, because we need something different.

We need you.

And right now, we just ask that you would speak to our hearts, that you would open up our minds, that we would be open to what you have for us, that we'd be ready to grow, ready to move forward in our relationship with you.

And we ask this in your name.

Amen.

Amen.

Well, if you are just joining us this summer, we are in the middle of a series called The Most Important Conversation in History.

And we don't believe that this is the most important conversation in history.

That would be very prideful to say this is the most important conversation in history.

But we're having a conversation about the most important conversation in history, which is this conversation that Jesus had over 2,000 years ago in Jerusalem, late one night with a man named Nicodemus.

It's the most important conversation ever because in this one exchange, Jesus completely and totally changes humanity's perspective of God.

He tells us who God really is.

He tells us what God really values.

He tells us how we can engage with God, how we can know God.

And at the time, there was no concept of a relationship with God like the relationship Jesus talked about.

This conversation changed everything.

And so we're spending our summer analyzing it, digging into it, dissecting it.

Because if we want to get God, if we want to get God more, this conversation has what we need.

Now last week we had to hit the pause button because I woke up Sunday morning with strep throat, which was really exciting.

Got my meds on Monday.

I have really large tonsils naturally.

You probably didn't need to know that.

I know it's coming.

I open up my mouth and they go, wow.

I'm amazed you never had your tonsils taken out as a kid.

And I have large tonsils normally, so when I get like strep throat, they should they like close.

It's just this one giant tonsil in my mouth, and I can't even speak.

And so I had a fever.

I called Elon at 5:30 in the morning, and I was just like whispering to her, like, Elan, you gotta give the message.

I'm really sorry.

And I just want to say this real quick it's very hard to get a call at 5.30 in the morning on a Sunday and be like, hey, you've got to speak to a bunch of people about God, and it needs to kind of hopefully change their lives, and you have like two hours.

Um so but she did an amazing job last week.

She really did.

I'm really proud of her.

That is not an easy thing to do, and she didn't just she didn't just do it, she did exceptionally well.

We're really blessed to have her on our team.

Um, two weeks ago, we got to a very important part of this conversation that we're looking at, the part where Jesus starts talking.

It's an important part.

And not only does Jesus speak, he begins his part of the conversation by introducing us to this foundational concept in our faith that's huge, it's massive.

It's one of the cornerstones of our understanding of a relationship with God.

We find it in John chapter 3, verses 3 through 7.

John 3:3–7

It says this, Jesus replied, I tell you the truth.

Unless you were born again, you cannot see the kingdom of God.

What do you mean, exclaimed Nicodemus?

How can an old man go back into his mother's womb and be born again?

Aren't you glad that the Bible doesn't edit anything?

Because that's the grossest mental picture I've ever heard.

But God said, No, we're gonna keep that in there.

And Jesus replied, I assure you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water.

And when he says water, he means physical birth, like when someone's water breaks.

Being born of water and the spirit, humans can reproduce only human life, but the Holy Spirit gives birth to spiritual life.

So don't be surprised when I say you must be born again.

Now, two weeks ago we went in great detail about what being born again really means, how that all kind of plays out, and if if that's a concept that you've you've heard before, you're somewhat familiar, but maybe it's hazy, maybe it's never really been firmly understood in your mind.

I really encourage you to listen to the message from two weeks ago.

You can listen on our podcast, on our website, on our mobile app, however you want to, get a physical copy at the source.

But but the gist of it is pretty simple.

When Jesus says we must be born again, what he's addressing is a fundamental problem that all of us face.

We are born off target.

We're born flawed.

That's a very different message than the message our world gives us.

It seems more negative at first, but if you'll think about it, it's it's accurate.

I grew up being told that I just needed to be me all my life.

Like in school, all our teachers, all the posters on the walls in elementary school said, be yourself.

But every time I got in trouble for something, I was being myself every single time.

And so all the teachers would say, Justin, you just need to be you, but stop talking so much.

And I'm like, but that's just me.

This is what I do.

Me being me has gotten me in a lot of trouble.

And if you think about your life and all the frustrations you deal with and some of your biggest issues, how many of those issues were the result of you being you, or someone else being who they are, and it affecting you in a really negative way?

So the world doesn't address this fundamental problem that we have, but Jesus does.

And he says, you're born off target.

You're not horrible, you're you're not awful.

He's not saying that we're we're just this horrible mess and we're not worth dealing with.

He's saying, no, no, just look yourself in the mirror and admit that something's off.

We're not as we ought to be.

And it's this deep internal problem.

So no external solution can solve it.

No amount of knowledge or earthly wisdom or success or mindset shifts or anything like that.

None of that external stuff can change the internal problem that we have.

The only thing that can change what's internal is internal change.

And Jesus describes this internal change as being born again.

A new birth.

A new birth needs to happen within us.

We need to become a new person.

We need a spiritual birth.

And that happens when we accept Jesus into our lives, when we pray and we put our faith in Jesus, when we say, Jesus, I believe you are who you say you are.

I'm willing to admit that I've got some issues, and obviously I need help.

I want you to be that help.

I want you to come into my life and change me from the inside out.

When we do that, this beautiful thing happens.

Romans 8, 15 through 16 describes it this way: You've not received a spirit that makes you fearful slaves.

Instead, you received God's spirit when he adopted you as his own children.

Now we call him Abba Father.

For his spirit joins with our spirit to affirm that we're God's children.

When you see spirit capitalized, that's the Holy Spirit.

God's actual spirit.

When you see spirit with that lowercase s, that's that's our spirit, that's our nature.

He says that God's spirit, the Holy Spirit, will join with our spirit, and we become children of God.

We become a new creation.

We're born again.

Our spirit comes to life and we're different, we're changed.

The best part about the whole process is that that change, it's instantaneous.

Right?

It's overnight change.

You get saved, you become a Christian, and temptation is a thing of the past.

Right?

No desire to do any of those things you used to do.

Selfishness, what's that?

All I want to do when I wake up is serve the people around me.

That's all I care about.

When someone cuts me off in traffic, I'm like, you know, you probably need to get there first.

It's good for you.

Way to go.

Whenever I order unsweet tea in a drive-thru, because I'm one of those weird people, and I say it very clearly: unsweet tea.

I would like a large unsweet tea with light ice, because I am kind of high maintenance.

When I say that, and I get a sweet tea with a whole lot of ice, no big deal.

Fine.

I'm just blessed to have something to drink.

No, no, no, right?

Let's be honest.

Let's be honest.

Because here at church, we should always be able to be honest.

This has to be real.

One of the deepest frustrations that we face as followers of Jesus is that we believe that we're made new.

We've done what we've been told to do.

We've committed our lives to Jesus.

We pray.

We go to church.

We maybe engage the Bible.

We try to live the life that we're called to live, and we're told that we're a new creation, we're new.

But we don't feel new a lot of the time.

In fact, sometimes we feel just like that old us.

We believe that we're new and we're different, but in our day-to-day lives, we still struggle, don't we?

I mean, how many days do we do we look in the mirror and get frustrated with ourselves because it feels like we're making the same mistakes that we've been making forever?

We keep making the same decisions, we keep dealing with the same stuff, and if we're a new person, if I'm made new, why do I keep struggling with the same stuff I used to struggle with?

I don't feel like a new person.

I feel like a hypocrite.

And if maybe you've come to church before and you said no because you thought everyone here were hypocrites, we are.

We are.

We're just trying to deal with it.

But the reality is we have this deep frustration when we don't feel like the changed person the Bible says we're supposed to be.

And that leads to serious discouragement and it leads to massive doubt.

I mean, how many of us have doubted whether or not we're really born again?

Do I need to get born again again?

When I got baptized, did they not hold me down long enough?

Like what happened?

We work really hard to make the water nice and comfortable, you know, the temperature, right?

Maybe, maybe we're too nice on people.

Maybe people need to get baptized in some seriously cold water.

Maybe it needs to be this jarring experience, right?

No, sometimes we think those thoughts, is something wrong with me?

Because I don't feel like this new person.

I'm still struggling with all this stuff.

This doesn't seem like the kind of behavior that would exist in the life of someone who's been made new by God.

So is something wrong with me?

We have that doubt.

Then that doubt goes on to become doubt about this whole thing, right?

Is this whole church and God thing?

Is this just a lie?

Is this just a pipe dream?

Is this just something we've come up with to make ourselves feel better?

We have all this doubt because of the struggle that we deal with.

This struggle that comes from being made new but not feeling that way.

And this morning I want us to deal with this.

I don't want us to move on from this concept of being born again without addressing the reality of our frustration and our struggle.

And I want to address it in a very simple way.

Three things I want to share with you.

One thing is meant to encourage you, one thing is meant to challenge you, and the other thing is meant to give you something practical, a practical approach to see change happen in your life.

Okay, so let's start with the encouraging thing.

I'm gonna ask for some participation.

One statement, very simple: you're not defective.

Would you mind saying that with me?

I'm gonna say it, just repeat it after me.

If you're new, we don't do this very often.

This is not a cult, right?

You don't need to repeat the things that I say.

But there's something really important, I think, about saying out loud what we believe sometimes.

That's why worship is so powerful.

We declare out loud what we believe about God.

So I want you to say this with me.

I'm not defective.

But I don't want you to say it like you're you're in a cult, okay?

That's kind of how that sounded.

Just being honest.

I want you to, I want you to say it if you want to, with some some oomph.

Like like with passion, like a dot dot dot, dang it, should be able to follow what you're saying.

Okay, like I'm not defective, okay?

So let's do it again.

I'm not defective.

Good.

You believe that.

I think you believe that.

You hope that.

Sometimes we say things like that, hoping that the answer is true.

Like, I'm not, it's not my fault.

I'm pretty sure it is, but it's not my fault.

You're not defective.

What I want you to know this morning is the struggle you face, the struggle you deal with internally, that frustration you maybe feel toward yourself or God because you don't feel as new as you're supposed to feel, that is not evidence that you're some type of defective Christian or you're not a Christian at all.

In fact, it's evidence that you are.

Because, see, if you didn't have this new spirit inside of you, you wouldn't struggle with those feelings at all.

You just do the behavior and you'd be good with it.

There'd be no struggle.

You'd be like, Yeah, this is how I live, this is fun, this is good, this is how it is, boys will be boys, this is the way life is, whatever.

And there wouldn't be that internal battle that you face.

That struggle you feel is actually evidence of the new life that God has created inside you.

See, the struggle is actually part of the process, it's part of the journey.

The Bible talks about it often.

The Bible describes this battle that we face, this frustration between the old and the new, with a metaphor called spirit versus flesh.

Jesus actually brought this up in the verses we read from John 3 a minute ago.

He said that human life reproduces human life, but only the spirit can create spiritual birth.

That's the new living translation, the new American Standard Version of that same verse.

That's the version, by the way, that's the most accurate to the original language, but it can be kind of hard to read at times.

It says this Jesus says, that which is born of the flesh is flesh.

And that which is born of the spirit is spirit.

Remember, when you see that spirit with a capital S, that's the Holy Spirit.

You see that spirit with the lowercase s, that's talking about the new nature that God creates inside of you when you give your life to Jesus.

So we have our flesh, and he's not talking about our biology per se.

He's saying our old nature, our natural human tendencies.

That's our flesh.

That's that selfishness that we all have.

That's the reason that everyone tells a lie by age three, even though no one teaches us to.

Right?

That's the reason that we're like that, because of our flesh, because of our natural human nature.

And then we have the Holy Spirit who comes into our lives when we accept Jesus, and he does this miraculous thing, that's this spiritual thing that's hard to really describe, but it's beautiful none the same.

The Holy Spirit comes into our hearts, recreates us, begins a process, and he creates a new spirit, a new nature inside of us.

A nature that actually craves what God desires.

But see, the the battle becomes really apparent when you realize that the flesh doesn't pack its bags and leave when the spirit comes to life.

It's not like the Holy Spirit comes into your life and your flesh just goes, Oh, cool, you're here now.

I'm gonna go ahead and step out of the way.

I've made a big mess of things.

But I'm I'm just gonna let you do your thing.

No, no, no.

Our flesh, our flesh holds on tight.

Our flesh doesn't want to leave, our flesh goes kicking and screaming.

I've been a Christian for 22 years, and I got a head start.

I got I got saved when I was 10.

10 years old.

So I've been a Christian since I was 10, and you'd think that by this time the flesh would pretty much be gone, but it's not.

I have flesh that frustrates me so badly.

Some of it's kind of laughable, just natural things about me that are funny.

I forget things like all the time.

All the time.

I'm a super forgetful person.

I have people around me that keep me alive and sane.

Because I'm just very forgetful.

I lose my wallet every single week.

I'm not exaggerating.

See, when I sit down somewhere, I don't like the way my wallet feels in my back pocket.

I hate that feeling.

Men agree?

Yeah, okay.

So for Father's Day, if they could invent a wallet that you can't feel when you sit down, that'd be amazing.

I would want that.

That's just that just hit me.

But anyway, I hate that feeling.

So I pull my wallet out.

I put it on a table or on a chair or on a desk.

Wherever I'm at, I just pull it out.

But see, I never remember where I pulled it out.

And I don't even remember if I put it back in or not.

I never remember that.

And so this is a normal, this is a normal like couple days in my life.

Just pray for me.

I will wake up and I will get dressed to go to work, to come here, and I cannot find my wallet.

And so I look in the obvious places at home, the kitchen counter, the kitchen table, where I walk in the door, you know, the pant pocket from uh from yesterday, our bedroom.

I look in the normal places, and if I can't find it, I don't tear the house apart because I go, oh, well, I must have left it at church.

I do that a lot.

So then I'll come here and I'll look in the normal places.

I'll look in the sound booth, I'll look at my desk, I'll look in the office, just the normal places.

And if I can't find it, I don't tear the church apart looking for it.

I go, oh, well, it must be at home.

It's just that I didn't look hard enough.

So I'll go home and I'll tear the whole house apart and I'll separate the couch cushions and I'll do all that kind of stuff.

And if I can't find it, I just go, oh, I guess it is at church.

I just didn't look hard enough.

And so I'll come here and this will go on for days.

It is not uncommon for me to go four days without a wallet.

Which does two things in your life.

It gives you a thrill when you're driving around because you're like, I'm breaking the law.

But and I know we have a lot of police officers that go here accidentally breaking the law.

Okay.

I have my wallet right now.

You can't do anything to me now.

You also save a lot of money when you don't have a wallet.

So there's some good things.

Last year, I couldn't find my wallet for four days.

And then after four days, I discovered the reason was not because I had left it somewhere, someone had stolen my wallet.

And they were spending it at all these different places.

So I went to the police station to report my wallet missing, because you're supposed to do that to report your credit card stolen, whatnot.

And the officer looked me in the eyes and said, Why'd you wait four days to report your wallet being stolen?

And I kind of thought about it and I said, Well, if I came in here every time I couldn't find my wallet for four days, I guess I'd be getting my taxpayers' dollars worth or whatever.

We'd be friends, because I'd be in all the time.

This is how I live.

I don't know why I'm like that.

The worst was last 4th of July.

We got 4th of July coming up, and uh Megan and I were working the info desk for a little while at 4th of July, just sitting there in case people wanted to know about the church.

And so I sat down, felt my wallet, I did that whole, ugh, I hate this, pulled it out.

I thought, no, I'm not gonna leave it at the info desk, because that's gonna that's gonna lead to it being lost.

So I put it in Megan's purse.

That way, when we got home, we'll be good.

So the next day we we leave, and Megan grabbed a purse and said, Hey, would you give me my wallet?

Uh it's in your purse.

She looks and she goes, It's not in here.

I was like, honey, it's in there.

I put it in there last night at 4th of July.

And she said, I did not bring my purse to 4th of July.

So in my defense, she's got a lot of purses.

Like, there's no way to keep up with the purses that she has.

So someone got home and they're like, I think the pastor's testing me.

Put his wallet in my purse.

I wasn't.

So that's my flesh, right?

That's just my nature.

And it's frustrating, but but that that's like a laughable, funny, safe thing to share.

Um, there's a lot of stuff that's flesh in my life that is just, I don't even care about losing stuff.

I want God to deal with this stuff first.

I can be I can be so unbelievably selfish, mostly at home.

Like if it's my day off and my family does not seem to be constantly cognizant of the fact that it's my day off, I can just be really rude.

And I can, I can, like I have moments.

Once a year I have a moment where I just lose it.

And I don't know why.

Nothing will happen in that moment that should stress me out the way it does.

It's like I've been bottling stuff up or something like that.

Men don't do that, but whatever.

Um and I always handle it the same way.

Some inanimate object in my home gets destroyed.

And that's kind of funny.

But not when your son looks you in the eyes and has like a slight bit of fear because he realizes, wow, dad kicked his foot through a door.

That's not good.

I don't feel safe right now.

And I've never I've never touched him.

But he doesn't feel that way in that moment, right?

And when your son's six, he's supposed to think you're his hero.

And when you have those moments where all of a sudden your hero status goes down a few notches in your son's eyes, that's not good flesh.

And then you have to go to Home Depot and you have to buy a door.

And you don't know how to hang a door because you're me.

And you have to buy a chisel.

You some of you have hung doors.

You have to buy a chisel because you have to notch out.

You have to notch out where the hinges go, but you don't know how to really use a chisel, so the chisel gets away from you, and you carve this giant line in your thumb with a chisel, it's definitely gonna leave a scar.

I just have I have flesh that I hate.

I'm just being honest with you guys.

I'm not celebrating any of that.

I hate it.

I I I have a wall in my house where two years ago I was by myself, working on the house, by myself, but I got really stressed out at something.

I was trying to fix something, and that's usually means I break it more.

And I I took the screwdriver in my hand and I just chucked it at the wall, and it went into the wall, and then it fell down in between the studs because I could hear it.

And so I just had to patch over the hole.

Y'all are laughing at me.

But every every time I walk by that wall, every single time, I'm reminded and I go, Why?

I love my life.

I have a blessed life, I love my family.

The things that stress me out, they're nothing.

They're nothing compared to things that other people are dealing with.

So, what inside of me causes me to act that way?

It's childish.

It's definitely not new nature.

You can see Jesus kicking doors down, and if he did, he would have had a really good reason.

Mine aren't good reasons.

Like, I hate that.

And it makes me wonder am I defective?

But let me read something to you.

This is in Romans chapter 7.

Romans 7 · chapter mention

I'm so glad this is in here.

This is in the Bible because Paul wrote this.

Paul, if you're new to church, Paul's like the Christian.

He wrote half the New Testament.

He was used by God to lead more people to a relationship with Jesus than anyone that's ever lived.

If you're gonna make a list of the most influential Christians that have ever existed, Paul's number one.

It's not even close.

Listen to what Paul wrote, Romans 7.

So the trouble is not with the law, for it is spiritual and good.

The trouble is with me, for I am all too human, a slave.

To sin, I don't really understand myself.

For I want to do what's right, but I don't do it.

Instead, I do what I hate.

But if I know that what I am doing is wrong, that shows that I actually agree the law is good.

So I'm not the one doing wrong.

It is sin living in me that does it.

And I know that nothing good lives in me, that is in my sinful nature or in my flesh.

Because I want to do what's right, but I can't.

I want to do what's good, but I don't.

I don't want to do what's wrong, but I do it anyway.

But if I do what I don't want to do, I'm not really the one doing wrong.

It's sin living in me that does it.

Is anyone confused?

And maybe you're confused, but can anyone relate to that?

This is Paul saying, What's wrong with me?

Like, what's wrong?

I'm so glad that's in there.

Because if that's what Paul dealt with, and he was this man that God used to do unbelievable things, that should encourage you to realize that your struggle, your battle between the spirit and the flesh, that does not mean that you don't have a relationship with God.

Don't let Satan lie to you, because he will.

He'll say, hey, look at you.

With the door through the, the foot through the door.

Like that, a Christian wouldn't do that.

And he's actually right.

A mature, healthy Christian wouldn't do that.

But he'll use that to try to make you feel like you're something you're not.

You're not, you're not defective.

The struggle is part of the process, but we can't stop there.

Right?

Because we get in there and I could be like, hey, you know, I kick doors every once in a while.

Just this is how we live.

This is all good.

We're all so just be encouraged.

Yeah, that'd be nice.

But do you want to grow?

Like, I want to grow.

I want to see a whole nation of Christians that want to grow.

And this is a church for people who crave more.

Who don't want to settle for anything less than all of God.

So if you want more, if you want to grow, that's what we've got to do together.

Because I don't want to buy a new door every five years.

It's a pain in the it's just a pain.

Okay?

And I don't want, I don't want who I am in my son's eyes to just diminish over time.

Like I want to be his hero when he's 30 years old.

I want that.

And that won't happen if I don't grow.

So, yes, we're not defective, but number two, you're not done.

Can you say that with me?

Say, I'm not done.

That's right, you're not done.

You're just getting started.

See, we have to make sure that we don't confuse spiritual birth, right?

Being born again, we can't confuse that with spiritual maturity.

Those are two different things.

Sometimes when I look at my life and I see an area where I keep struggling, if I'm going to be honest with myself, that's evidence that in that area of life I'm lacking spiritual maturity.

It doesn't mean I don't have spiritual birth.

It doesn't mean I'm not a Christian.

It means that I'm lacking maturity that I need.

And I need to grow.

I need to grow.

I need to get to a new place.

I need God to challenge me and shape me.

You need to understand this morning that you're meant to grow.

You haven't arrived.

There's more.

There's a whole new experience with God that is available to you.

There's a whole new level of relationship with God and intimacy with God that you can have.

You're not done.

So if you feel discouraged, if you feel like, hey, I've been a Christian all these years and this is what I've got to show for it, you're not done.

God wants you to grow.

He wants your spirit to become so strong that it frequently outmuscles your flesh.

He wants your spirit to outpace your flesh.

He wants there to be a day, and this is totally possible, totally available.

He wants there to be a day where your spirit is so much stronger than your flesh.

That you almost lose sight of the desires of the flesh because you're so focused on what the spirit wants.

And that's what you're meant for.

Listen to what Paul says shortly after what we just read in Romans chapter 8.

Romans 8 · chapter mention

Keep in mind, he just wrote this whole battle thing, this whole trouble with me.

I'm a mess.

I don't know what I want to do, I do what I don't want to do.

He goes on after that to say this.

Those who are dominated by the sinful nature think about sinful things.

But those who are controlled by the Holy Spirit think about things that please the Spirit.

So letting your sinful nature control your mind leads to death.

But letting the Spirit control your mind leads to life and peace.

For the sinful nature is always hostile to God.

It never did obey God's laws and it never will.

That's why those who are still under the control of their sinful nature can never please God.

But you are not controlled by your sinful nature.

You are controlled by the Spirit if you have the Spirit of God living in you.

And he says, remember that those who do not have the Spirit of Christ living in them do not belong to Him at all.

What he's saying there is this.

It's a promise from God.

So you have the Holy Spirit.

There are different experiences where you can experience a fullness of the Spirit separately from your relationship with God beginning, but that's a separate thing than what this is talking about.

He says, Christ lives within you.

And even though your body will die because of sin, the Spirit gives you life because you've been made right with God.

The Spirit of God who raised Jesus from the dead lives in you.

And just as God raised Christ Jesus from the dead, he'll give life to your mortal bodies by the same Spirit living within you.

Therefore, dear brothers and sisters, and hear this: you have no obligation to do what your sinful nature urges you to do.

For if you live by its dictates, you'll die.

But if through the power of the Spirit you put to death the deeds of your sinful nature, you will live.

You'll live.

There's a few really interesting things that he says there.

Number one, he talks about letting either your spirit or your flesh control you.

And that involves choice.

That we actually have the choice in terms of which nature we're going to listen to, in terms of which nature we're going to be influenced by.

We let either the spirit or the flesh control us.

And then he says, you have no obligation to your sinful nature.

That doesn't mean your sinful nature doesn't have any influence in your life.

Oh, it has a lot of influence, but it doesn't have control.

You have the power to tell your flesh no.

You really do.

May not feel like it, maybe really hard, but you have that power because he says the same spirit that raised Jesus from the dead is the spirit that lives in you.

When you accept Jesus, you don't get like the junior Holy Spirit.

You get the real Holy Spirit, the same Holy Spirit that empowered Jesus throughout his entire life.

Every miracle Jesus performed, he did through the power of the Holy Spirit, every single one.

And that's the spirit that lives in you.

We forget that.

We feel powerless, even though we have more power within us through the Holy Spirit than we can possibly imagine.

We are controlled by the Holy Spirit.

But we have to grow.

We have to grow to learn how to live in that, how to recognize that, how to walk that out.

You're not defective because you struggle.

You're not.

God loves you so much.

But you're also not finished.

So don't settle for spiritual birth when spiritual maturity is available to you.

Hunger for that maturity, hunger for that growth.

Don't settle for anything less.

You don't have to.

There's one more thing as we wrap up.

Because I want to give us something practical to help us change the tide, right?

That's what we really need.

We need a shift in momentum.

We need something to happen, some approach that we can take in our lives that lets us shift the momentum away from the old nature to the new.

And so I just want to share with you one practical tip, one thing that I've experienced that's helped me more than anything else when it comes to growing in this capacity.

And it's it's three really simple words feed your spirit.

Feed your spirit.

That may not seem like it's the right approach.

The right approach might be starve your flesh.

Right?

Starve your flesh.

Stop saying yes to your flesh, just starve it.

But have you ever tried to diet before?

And your approach was just say no to the bad stuff, and you went like half a day, and then you find yourself at Quick Trip getting two Chaco tacos.

Is that just me?

It is.

This is a true story.

I've been working out and dieting this year.

I'm trying to make some goals happen in my life, and uh, as I'm sure you can all tell.

But uh the uh had a bad week a couple couple weeks ago, and I know for a fact that I completely cleaned out my quick trip supply of Chaco Tacos.

You ever had a Chaco Tac?

They're awesome.

You should have one if you haven't.

Great summer treat.

They're made by the Klondike Company.

I know this well because I see their wrappers in my car a lot.

Um beautiful little dessert, and and they're in the ice cream cooler at Quick Trip.

And so I would go to the ice cream cooler on my way to work and I'd grab one on the way home from work, you know, grab another.

And I remembered as the week went on, I had to reach my hand further back to find another Chaco Taco, and the day came when I grabbed the only one.

And I thought to myself, did I just eat all of these?

Did I wipe out?

Because Quick Trip's not planning on a guy eating 12 Choco Tacos in four days.

It's not how they've got their supply chart worked out or however that works.

But I did that.

So I told the guy, hey, you're out of Choco Tacos, just so you know.

It's the last one.

See, you know, it's really interesting.

Have you ever stopped to consider the fact that your flesh is so powerful because you've just fed it really well your whole life?

My flesh just has to whisper to me, and I am like, all ears.

I mean, I'm driving my car and I just hear Chaco Taco.

I'm like, yes.

Where's Quick Trip?

I will stop there.

But sometimes it feels like the Spirit has to scream at me to get my attention.

It shouldn't be that way.

I hear people say all the time, I can't hear the Holy Spirit.

Like I want to, but I just can't, I can't hear the Spirit.

I want to hear the Spirit.

I've never heard someone say, I cannot hear my flesh.

I can't hear it, I have no idea what my flesh desires.

Never hear that?

And the reason is you've said yes to your flesh so much, we all have, I have too.

This isn't judgment, this is reality.

We've said yes to our flesh, our old nature so much that we are super, super keyed in on what it wants.

So all it has to do is whisper, and we hear it.

Do you crave the day when all God has to do is whisper to you and you hear him, and you act, and you know that you're led by God.

Do you crave that?

That will happen for you if you consistently feed your spirit to the point where all your spirit has to do is whisper to you and you hear.

You will become just as attuned to your spirit as you are to your flesh.

If you feed your spirit.

So what feeds your spirit?

Yeah, a lot of things, right?

I heard someone yell the Bible.

You didn't yell it, you said it, so I don't want to act like you were all aggressive.

But you could have yelled it, I'd have said yes.

Um, the Bible, the Bible, right?

God's Word.

We we get so quickly discouraged when we read the Bible sometimes.

We'll open it up and we'll be like, oh, I don't understand this.

Hunger to understand it.

Read something in the Bible, and when it doesn't make sense, Google it.

Seriously, if you get online, it's something so simple as saying, hey, Romans chapter 8, verse whatever.

Romans 8 · chapter mention

What I don't understand this, what does it mean?

You will have you'll have more at your fingertips.

All of it may not be accurate, all of it may not be awesome, but you'll be able to read through it and you will you will begin to learn things and find knowledge that informs your understanding of the Bible.

You have people here at this church who would love to come alongside you.

In fact, let me just say this.

This wasn't planned.

I know a lot of you, I see a lot of you that I know really know, really know God's word.

You guys know who you are.

Don't be don't be all you know humble, right?

Um if you're someone that has a knowledge of God's word and you'd be totally interested in someone that needs to know God's word coming alongside of you and you actually helping that person grow, would you raise your hand?

Who would be willing to do that?

Those of you that know it.

Like I'm looking around, I see Betty Hayden.

What's up, Betty?

You do know the Bible really well.

You're always quoting verses.

Um like Betty's amazing.

Betty knows the word.

Betty hears from God.

And if you walked up to Betty on a Sunday morning and said, Hey, I read this, it makes no sense to me, Betty would sit down with you and she would she would talk to you, she would help you.

But you gotta hunger to understand it.

If you would hunger to understand God's word and you would just seek out whatever you need till it becomes clear, you'll have that clarity.

Your prayer.

Like, like pray.

Don't don't pray in that monotonous way where you just sort of pray, like, hey God, bless my day, please bless.

No, no, pray.

I have three children.

I'm reminded of this every day.

Two of them talk non-stop.

And as I drive, I don't remember what it was like to just drive.

As I drive with my children in the back, I just hey dad.

Dad.

Dad.

It's just over and over again in various pitches and volume levels.

Because they're persistent.

They are gonna keep talking to me until I answer them.

We should pray like that.

Like just pray, Dad.

Hey, dad, dad, what dad?

Like we should pray like that.

With like my kids get offended when I don't listen to them.

It's okay to expect God to answer you.

So pray like that and pray honestly and pray openly.

Tell God what you need.

Be clear.

Tell Him what you need over and over again.

Tell God who you're mad at, tell him who you're frustrated with, tell Him why you're so upset.

Just pray.

Because when you pray like that, you feed your spirit.

When you dive into God's word, you feed your spirit.

When you worship God, not just by singing songs, but by serving people, by living like Jesus, you feed your spirit.

And if you will feed your spirit until it is full, your flesh, your flesh is gonna get really scared.

And there'll be this tipping point.

Or one day your spirit is stronger than your flesh.

And that's a beautiful day.

And you'll actually have spiritual momentum to carry you forward.

Do you crave that?

Because if you do, that's yours.

That's yours for the taking.

That's what we're meant for.

Let's be people.

That draw a line in the sand and say, we will not settle for less than all of God.

We will not settle for church.

We will not settle for belief.

We will not settle for attending Sunday mornings and singing a few songs and hearing a few encouraging words with a funny story thrown in the middle of it.

We're not going to settle for that.

We believe that we're meant to know God.

We believe that we're meant to hear from God.

We actually believe what the Bible says, that the Holy Spirit lives in us and we have access to it, and the power that raised Jesus from the dead lives in you and me.

Let's believe that and let's live like we want it.

Because if we do that, if you live like you want it, you'll have it.

If you want what God wants, that's a good thing.

You're amazing people.

I love you guys.

You're awesome.

Father's Day is such a special day to be here.

We're gonna wrap up.

We're gonna worship with one more song.

It's just a song about how God is our Father.

But I want to encourage you.

I just want to encourage you this week to keep going.

To keep hungering.

To keep desiring more and to keep desiring better.

And to never let anyone or anything, even yourself, tell you that you're done.

What was that?

Share him, thank you.

I thought you called me Sharon for a second.

That is not my name.

It's not even close.

Share him, that's right.

And you share him just by living as him.

By saying in the morning, okay, if I have the same spirit in me that Jesus had, then I guess I can kind of live like Jesus did.

That's how we share him.

But believe.

Believe what Philippians 1, 6 says.

I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns.

That means that there will never be a day until Jesus comes back.

There will never be a day that you're not done growing.

Or that you are done growing.

There will never be a day where you can't grow more.

So believe that, hunger for that, want that.

Pray for that.

Feed your spirit.

You're not defective, you're not done.

There is so much more.

Pray with me.

Jesus, thank you so much for this day.

Thank you, Heavenly Father, for being our Father.

You initiated that.

We did not.

You gave us something we could never earn.

Because you're just good to us.

You're a good dad and we love you.

As we worship you with this last song, we just want to celebrate the fact that we're in your family.

Lord, if there's one person in this room right now that hasn't made that step, that hasn't given their lives to you.

I hope that person, whoever it is this morning, I hope that person or those people here and understand us as we talk about our own struggles and recognize the fact that when we begin a relationship with you, it's a journey.

And it has ups and it has downs.

But the one constant in our journey is you.

It's your goodness that we cling to.

It's not our ability to live right, it's your goodness, Lord.

We want to grow.

We want to be the people we were created to be, and we need you to help us with that.

Thank you for giving us life.

Thank you for giving us another day to enjoy.

Just bless us as we uh as we live for you.

We love you, Lord.

Amen.