Shownotes
In this episode of “The Journey”, we talk about the concept of transformation and what it means for our spiritual growth. Robert Carrillo helps us explore how God can transform our lives and how we can cooperate with His work in us. We also learn some practical steps to embrace transformation and overcome the challenges that come with it. Whether you’re feeling stuck, discouraged, or hopeful, this episode will inspire you to trust God and His transforming power in your life.
If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe to our podcast “Deeper Dive” on your favorite podcast platform and leave us a review. We’d love to hear from you and how this podcast is helping you on your journey. You can also follow us on social media for more updates and sneak peeks. And don’t forget to share this episode with your friends and family who might be interested in joining us on this journey. Thank you for listening and God bless you!
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Transcripts
Welcome to the Deeper Dive Podcast brought to you by the OC Church of Christ.
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:The Deeper Dive Podcast is about going
deeper into God's word, learning new
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:insight and taking a fresh look at the
verses that impact our daily lives.
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:Today, we have the honor of
hearing from Robert Carrillo.
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:Robert Carrillo leads the Metro LA region
of the LA Church with his wife, Michelle.
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:Robert is an evangelist, teacher and
was a missionary for years and was also
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:CEO of the nonprofit HOPE worldwide.
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:Robert has his master's in divinity and
currently is completing his doctorate.
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:This episode is the first of a
five part series from Robert's.
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:The Way of the Pilgrim ministry.
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:So get your scuba gear and
let's dive deep into God's word.
12
:Here's Robert Carrillo.
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:Robert: Hello everybody, my name is Robert
Carrillo and I'm very excited to share
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:the first of a series that we'll be doing
on the spiritual journey and how we as
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:Christians grow and develop through the
years and, uh, how all the wonderful ways
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:that God works in our lives and how to
have a richer, deeper, more exciting, uh,
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:walk with God as we grow older in life,
as we go through this journey together.
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:I'm super excited about this because
this is kind of a culmination of, of my
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:own journey, as well as the education
that I've been blessed to have.
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:I've been, um, a Christian now for
almost 41 years, and I've been in the
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:ministry about 37 years doing, um,
mission work around the world, leading
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:large churches here in the United
States, and, um, very importantly
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:pursuing higher education in Bible
and theology, and now in spirituality.
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:I got my MDiv at Pepperdine.
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:And my, um, completing my doctorate
soon, Lord willing, at Fuller Seminary
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:in Spirituality, and have been blessed to
learn so much, uh, not only experience a
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:great deal, but also learn a great deal
along the way through my experiences,
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:as well as being taught by some
amazing professors and learning from
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:other leaders from other backgrounds.
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:And so, very excited
to share this with you.
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:This is the first class.
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:Um, The title of the series is spiritual
journey that part one, this first class
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:is transformation and we're going to
talk about that and focus on that.
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:And that's the 1st step towards this
greater journey that we're going
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:to be on together in this series.
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:So, um, go ahead and get comfortable
and let's jump on in, you know.
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:Um, the title of his spiritual
journey, because I think we all know
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:life is a spiritual journey, right?
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:Oftentimes, you know, we think, am I
a Christian or am I not a Christian?
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:Am I in the kingdom of God
or not in the kingdom of God?
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:Am I in the church or not in the church?
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:And we tend to think very
black and white, in or out.
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:But the truth is, even when we get
baptized, when we make the decision
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:to make Jesus Lord of our life, that's
just, that's just a significant Highly
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:significant step in our spiritual journey.
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:The truth is our spiritual journey begins
long before we're even aware that it's
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:beginning as little children and sometimes
even as as toddlers being taught church
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:songs or being talked to about Jesus or
God and and our journey is, you know,
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:it's from day one, really, as someone
once said, from room to tomb and, um,
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:But we oftentimes don't think of it that
way, you know, and it's kind of funny.
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:I hear people use the term when one of
their kids is not going to church or
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:somebody they love has left the church,
they'll say he's on a spiritual journey,
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:you know, and the truth is we're all on
our spiritual journey and we are all have
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:our ups and downs and we all have our
great times, our difficult times, painful
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:times, joyful times, exciting times.
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:I mean, it's all part of the journey.
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:And what we're gonna look at is how
we go through that journey and how
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:to keep moving forward and how to,
how to help make it better and better
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:and better as God intends it to be.
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:So, uh, let's jump on in the, there's
a quote that I love, I use this a
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:lot 'cause I just, I I love the, the,
the challenge it is to our paradigm.
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:It's Pierre Teilhard de Chardin.
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:He says we are not humans having a
spiritual experience, we are spiritual
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:beings having a human experience.
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:And I think that's really important
to recognize because we tend to
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:think of ourselves as just people,
just bodies with a mind, right?
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:But the truth is we are spiritual
beings and that has a way of becoming
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:evident more and more as we go
through life and becoming more and
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:more important as we go through life.
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:I love how C.
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:S.
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:Lewis said, he put it in very
simple terms, but As always with C.
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:S.
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:Lewis, very profound terms.
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:He said, you do not have a soul.
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:You are a soul.
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:You have a body.
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:And I love that because, because
again, challenges how we think about
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:ourselves and how we view ourselves.
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:You know, we look in the mirror and we
see our bodies and we think that's us.
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:No, actually we just have a body.
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:Us is much more profound.
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:Us is our soul and our souls
hunger, our souls thirst, our
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:souls have needs, our souls are
our true selves, our inner being.
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:And so it's important to learn about
this, to grow about this, and incredibly
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:important to learn to live this way.
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:Paul said to the church in Corinth,
he said, and we all who with unveiled
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:faces contemplate the Lord's glory
are being transformed into His image.
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:With every increasing glory, which
comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.
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:And Paul is talking to the church
about how we grow, how we develop.
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:Another way of putting it is how
we, how we progress on this journey.
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:Right?
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:And he says, and he makes
a reference to Moses.
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:If you remember, Moses covered his face
because he didn't want people to see that
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:the glory that he received from being
with God on the mountain was fading.
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:Oh.
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:And so he hid that the
fact that it was fading.
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:Paul is explaining to us, explains to
us that our glory should be increasing,
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:and he, and most importantly,
he talks about how this happens.
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:He says, we all who with unveiled
faces contemplate the Lord's We who
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:take the time to think about God, to
focus on God, to ponder on God, to,
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:to meditate on God, to really focus
our hearts and our minds on God.
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:We're being transformed, and,
and God transforms us, and that's
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:really, you know, we hear the term
a lot nowadays, spiritual formation.
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:Well that, this is what spiritual
formation is about, is how
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:do we get transformed by God.
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:Because the really fascinating part of
this, you know, in our early Christian
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:life, we set out to be like Jesus,
and we do things, and we don't do
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:things, and we try to be like Him.
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:And we, in many ways, are
transforming ourselves, but as we
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:get older in the faith, as we mature
spiritually and grow closer to
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:God, hopefully we are discovering
that it is God who transforms us.
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:It's actually He who does the work.
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:The Holy Spirit changes us, gives us a
different heart, a different mindset.
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:Well, how does that happen?
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:That's the big question.
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:Well, as we contemplate the Lord's glory.
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:In other words, we learn to focus on
God, to think about God, which is an
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:incredibly difficult challenge in our
times, the world we live in today.
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:You know, Christians of the 21st
century have very unique challenges that
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:Christians in the 1st century didn't have.
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:Of course, they had
challenges we don't have.
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:They were being hunted down by By
the government and being hunted
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:and crucified and fed lions.
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:Well, thankfully, we don't have
those challenges, but we do have some
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:pretty intense challenges ourselves.
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:A lot of that has to do with how busy
our lives are, how distracted we are, all
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:the other philosophies and ideologies and
political movements that are, that are
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:trying to draw our attention, influence
us and form our thinking, form our hearts,
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:how we think and feel about things.
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:instead of being formed by
God, formed by the Holy Spirit.
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:So, this is a call to, or a reminder,
really, that as we contemplate the Lord's
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:glory, we are being formed, or even
more than that, we're being transformed.
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:Into what?
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:Into His image with ever
increasing glory, which comes
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:from the Lord, who is the Spirit.
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:There's so much in this scripture
that we could spend a long time here,
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:and I'm not gonna spend a long time.
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:We're gonna spend all the time it
deserves, but we are going to pull out,
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:unpack some of the important things here.
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:He says that we're being transformed.
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:We're being changed.
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:We're not changing ourselves.
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:Yes, we've done that.
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:We've been doing that as Christians,
but we're also being trained, changed.
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:Kind of a, almost a passive role here.
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:I was speaking to a good friend
of mine, um, who's a doctor.
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:And he was explaining to us, I, we
were talking about this point, he
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:explained to us that, you know, in, in
physical therapy, there is, there is
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:active mobility and passive mobility,
active mobility is the things you
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:can do, the fact that I can lift my
arms, I can move, I can move my legs,
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:I can, I can do things, but sometimes
we get hurt, or we get crippled, or
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:we get damaged in some physical way,
and we can't do it on our own anymore.
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:and, And it's important to note
that our bodies still can, but
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:we need somebody to help us.
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:Somebody maybe that, that moves
our arm because we're not able to
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:at that point, or, or helps us to
stretch our muscles or move our legs.
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:And that's, that's passive mobility.
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:That's passive activity.
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:And, and in a sense, this is kind of
what we're talking about is learning
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:to The Holy Spirit move us, the Holy
Spirit to take action through us,
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:and we're, we're, but it takes, I
believe, a conscious effort to allow
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:God to do that, creating the space
for Him, giving Him the time He needs,
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:focusing our hearts and minds to learn
to allow ourselves to be transformed.
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:It's a little, it's a It's a
slight paradigm shift that can
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:actually be massive in our lives.
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:You know, we think about, we tend
to think about, what do I need
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:to do or not do as Christians?
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:Here is, the call is, what
do I need to allow God to do
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:in my heart and in my mind?
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:God is trying to transform
us and change us.
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:And make us, well he tells us, into his
image, which is a very important concept.
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:There's a phrase that's been used
for thousands of years, the imago
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:dei, it's Latin, the image of God.
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:You were made in the image of God.
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:If you remember back in Genesis
in the beginning, God took the
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:dirt and he breathed into it
and he made it into his image.
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:image, right?
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:He didn't do that with
the trees and the animals.
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:He did it with us.
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:There's a, there's a really great scene
in Jesus's ministry where they're asking
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:him about paying taxes, and he picks up
a coin and says, whose image is on this?
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:In the Greek, it's the icon.
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:And, and they say, of
course, Caesar's image.
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:And he says, we'll give to Caesar,
what is Caesar's, and give to God.
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:what is God's.
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:And of course, we were
made in God's image.
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:We are God's image, but
we lose sight of that.
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:And, you know, growing up in this
world, we get corrupted by the world.
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:We get malformed or even
deformed by the world.
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:And so what God is doing is bringing me
back to what many authors would call our
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:true self, which is The image of God,
what we were made to be, we were made
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:in His image, but we have to learn how
to live that way, how to think, and that
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:comes from learning how to think that
way, and how to feel that way, and He
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:says that we're being transformed into
His image with ever increasing glory,
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:in other words, just as time goes by, it
just becomes more and more who we are,
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:what we are, the image of God, that we,
who we are, what we are, we, we are.
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:Peace.
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:We learn to live that and be that,
but this is what God does in us.
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:And he says, into his image with
ever increasing glory, which comes
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:from the Lord, who is the Spirit.
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:This is the work of the Lord.
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:This is the work of the Spirit.
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:This is not your work.
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:This is not my work.
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:This is the work of the Spirit.
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:He works in us to help us live
and be transformed by God.
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:So, it's an incredible plan.
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:That's the spiritual journey.
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:The spiritual journey is learning
to allow God to transform you.
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:Learning to allow God to strengthen
you and to help you become
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:what you were created to be.
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:A person who is filled with love, who
is pure, who is holy, who is righteous,
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:who love lives in the light and in
the truth, confident in God's love,
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:confident in who you are and what you
are, and goes through this life full of
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:goodness of God, and and, and peace and
joy, which is really what we all want.
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:As you, as all of us know, that's not
naturally who we are, or how we are.
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:We have to allow ourselves
to be transformed.
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:This is the spiritual
journey, is becoming like God.
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:And it comes through knowing God,
contemplating God, being close to Him,
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:focusing on Him, and He transforms us.
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:So a whole lot there.
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:There's some pretty cool
stuff to think about.
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:Uh, he told the church in Colossians,
he is the one we proclaim, right?
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:Jesus, talking about Jesus.
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:He is the one we proclaim, admonishing
and teaching everyone with all wisdom.
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:So that we may present everyone
fully mature in Christ.
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:And I love this because he, he, you
know, in, in the church, we're always
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:teaching, preaching, we're learning,
we're listening to classes, we're,
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:we're getting admonished, we're getting
taught things, you know, and, and,
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:and here he tells us what for, right?
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:We're, we get all this teaching and
wisdom that's given to us, and he says,
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:so that we can be presented Fully mature
in Christ, you know, as a leader, so
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:that we can present the church and
Ephesians 4, he talks about that's the
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:very reason we have leadership is to help
everybody become fully mature in Christ.
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:Here he says, this is why we go through
all, this is why we go to church
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:Sunday, go to church Wednesday, where
this is why we get with each other and
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:pray together and help each other grow
spiritually, what we call discipling.
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:This is the purpose of all of this.
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:It's so that we can present each
other fully mature in Christ.
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:And that word, it's a very
important word, that word mature,
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:it's in Greek, it's teleos.
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:Many times it's translated as perfect.
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:You remember Jesus in the Sermon
on the Mount, He said, be perfect
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:as your heavenly Father is perfect.
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:And the word perfect in Greek, talios,
is not, does not mean flawless,
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:like we think of it in English.
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:We think if something is
perfect, it's flawless.
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:It's not what it means in the Greek.
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:It means it's fully
mature, fully developed.
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:So, we, we do all that we do to present
each other fully developed in Christ
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:or fully mature or fully grown up.
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:And that's our spiritual journey,
growing up in the Lord, becoming the
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:image of Christ, becoming our true
selves, mature in Christ, and, and,
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:and as we do that, we have to detox.
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:From the world and from sin and from all
the garbage that surrounds us what what
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:the scriptures called the corruption
of the world Right, that's what that
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:was Paul's language Um in Colossians 3
10, he says having put on the new self
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:Which is being renewed in knowledge in
the image of its creator and I love this
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:little picture You got that little house
cat I think this is how God sees us.
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:He sees us according to our true
self, and He wants to help us to
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:get there, to arrive there, and
that's our spiritual journey, right?
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:Having put on the new self.
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:The new self is the self fulfillment.
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:That is Jesus, right?
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:That is like Jesus, which
is being renewed, right?
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:Not, not was renewed.
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:It's being renewed.
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:It's an ongoing present participle, right?
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:It's, it's continues to happen.
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:That's our journey.
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:It isn't, we, we, we, we, we
fall into the error sometimes of
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:thinking, Oh, now he's baptized.
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:He, he made Jesus his Lord.
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:He's good.
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:Well, yes, he's good in that.
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:If he died, he'd go to heaven or
if she, she, you know, had a heart
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:attack when she got out of the
baptism, she'd go straight to heaven.
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:Yes.
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:But most of us are going to be around
20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70 years longer.
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:So what happens in that period?
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:Well, we're leaving behind the corruption
of the world and we're becoming our
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:renewed self by being renewed, right?
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:We don't come out of the backstreet Just
love and purity and peace and joy and
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:no sin and no no corruption of the world
No, that takes time I mean we change we
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:repent we stop cussing and doing drugs or
yelling at each other or having fits of
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:rage or or Drinking or getting highway.
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:Yeah, we leave that stuff
But we're not yet like Jesus.
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:We're not our true self yet.
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:That's this lifelong journey.
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:And it's a very exciting journey.
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:And it happens as, as God is
renewing ourselves, renewing us.
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:And He also gives us,
again, this important clue.
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:In the knowledge, right?
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:Being renewed in knowledge,
in the image of its Creator.
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:So it's in knowing God.
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:Earlier it said contemplating God.
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:Here it's knowing God.
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:And that word, another word
in Greek, gnosis, that is not
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:the same as it is in English.
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:It's, here, gnosis or knowledge is
really, it's more than just information.
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:In English we think of knowledge as you
have, you've gathered all the information.
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:You know what it's all about.
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:You have all the facts.
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:But in, in, in this sense, Knowledge
is experiential, it's relational.
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:So like, my wife and I, we know each
other, because we've had years of
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:experience, we have a great relationship.
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:This is why Jesus told those
religious, uh, Christians in Matthew
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:7, away from me, I never knew you.
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:And even though they'd done a lot
of religious stuff, but they didn't
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:have a relationship with Jesus.
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:So he said, away from me, you
evildoers, I never knew you.
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:God, knowing Jesus is incredibly
important, and that happens
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:through spending time with Him.
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:The same way it does, it
happens with any relationship.
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:You spend time together, you share your
heart, you, you You do things together.
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:You build a relationship.
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:You take care of the relationship.
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:You remove the obstacles.
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:You resolve the conflicts.
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:You, you, this is the work that is on
us, not changing our hearts and minds.
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:God does that work.
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:Our work is knowing God, coming to
know Him, and living in that knowledge.
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:And through this, He helps us
to become and live in the image.
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:of our Creator, of God, which is
pretty cool, pretty amazing, you know.
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:And I love how Peter describes this.
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:Peter does an amazing
job of describing this.
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:He says, His divine power has given
us everything we need for a godly life
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:through our knowledge, there's that word
again, through our knowledge of Him who
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:called us by His own glory and goodness.
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:Through these, He has given us His
very great and precious promises, so
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:that through them, you may participate.
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:in the divine nature, having
escaped the corruption in the
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:world caused by evil desires.
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:So this, this picture, this is the
metamorphosis of a butterfly, right?
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:Beginning as a caterpillar,
devouring everything.
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:I mean, if you've ever, if you have
a garden, you know, caterpillars are
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:trouble because they devour everything.
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:So the caterpillar is
just devouring everything.
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:That's like a young Christian, just
reading their Bible, going to church
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:a lot, learning everything they can.
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:But as time goes by, they begin to,
they're going through a metamorphosis
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:and they are becoming something else.
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:They are becoming like God.
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:I mean, I love how Peter says it.
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:He says that we're invited to
participate in the divine nature.
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:That's the butterfly right there,
the divine nature, but he tells us,
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:look, God gives us everything we need.
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:His divine power has given us
everything we need for a godly life.
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:He, not, not us.
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:We don't.
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:Give ourselves what we need.
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:He gives us so we have to look to God.
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:We have to depend on God We
have to ask God for help.
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:We have to stay Connected to God and
that is the key of this whole journey.
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:The key of your spiritual journey
is staying connected to God and
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:becoming really good at that because
Sometimes even the opposite can happen.
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:The longer we're in the, in the
church, the longer we're Christians.
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:We get so good at this Christian
cultural life that we almost
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:don't need God anymore.
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:We just, we get used to it.
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:And the, the, the key of this
spiritual journey is continually
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:growing in our knowledge of God,
staying close to Him as He calls us.
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:We are being called to Him through
His glory and His goodness.
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:And He says, through these He has
given us His very great and promises,
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:great and precious promises.
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:There are a lot of great promises as
Christians, the promise of being loved,
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:the promise of being, uh, strengthened,
the promise of having victory over
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:sin, the promise of, of having a
great marriage and a great family and,
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:and, and being able to overcome all
the garbage that Satan throws at us
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:in this life, all the damage of the
world, to be able to rise above it and.
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:Overcome it.
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:These are amazing promises and we're in
but and how or how do we achieve these?
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:How do we well, it's again It's it's
through our knowledge of God because
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:he gives us these promises and through
them we escape He says the corruption
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:in the world caused by evil desires.
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:These are evil desires that are in
us And sometimes, as we all know,
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:we're our worst enemy, and, and,
and we drag ourselves down, and
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:we get ourselves in, caught up in
corruption, but He gives us the way out.
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:He gives us these promises that we
can cash in on through Him through
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:our knowledge of God, but that is an
intentional way of living, of walking
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:with God, living with God, uh, having a
deep and powerful relationship with God,
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:uh, living in His grace, which if you,
if you ever study out Grace in the New
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:Testament, you'll notice that many, many
times the word power is somewhere nearby,
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:because the two very much go together.
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:And, and so, we're invited
into this transformation.
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:And it's a very exciting, I would
say, the most, I've been a Christian
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:40 years, and the most exciting
time of my Christian life has
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:actually been the last four years.
390
:I mean, it's just been more and
more exciting as I've gotten
391
:to know God more and more.
392
:And it's not just classroom knowledge.
393
:It's not just I'm learning
a bunch of theology.
394
:It's I'm learning how to draw near to
God, to live with God, to walk with
395
:God, to keep my eyes fixed on Jesus.
396
:I'm learning spiritual disciplines
so I can learn how to live this life.
397
:Right?
398
:This, these are all keys, and
this is what's so exciting.
399
:This is what this series is going
to be about, is learning these.
400
:There is absolutely an expectation
of growing and moving forward.
401
:In Hebrews 6, 1 through 3, he
says, therefore, the author says,
402
:therefore, let us move beyond the
elementary teachings about Christ.
403
:and be taken forward to maturity.
404
:Okay.
405
:And notice, okay, he says, we got
to move beyond the first principles.
406
:What in my fellowship, what we
call the first principles, right?
407
:We got to move beyond that.
408
:Not that you leave it
behind or you forget it.
409
:You don't because that's the foundation.
410
:Everything goes on the foundation, right?
411
:And you don't just pull out the foundation
and you don't forget this foundation, but.
412
:You don't live your
life on the foundation.
413
:You build your home.
414
:You build the castle on top
of the foundation, right?
415
:He says, so let us move beyond
the elementary teachings about
416
:Christ and be taken forward.
417
:And I want to point out there,
it's not and move yourself forward.
418
:It's be taken forward to maturity, not
laying again the foundation of repentance.
419
:It's not just about, you know, we
learned about repentance, and that's
420
:going to be a way of life, but it's
not laying that foundation again, or
421
:from acts that lead to death, from our
sins and garbage we did, or of faith in
422
:God, how to trust God, how to obey God.
423
:Those are all incredibly important
things, but we got to keep moving forward.
424
:That's not the sum of it.
425
:Many people think being a Christian
is just leaving behind your sin and
426
:putting your, and having faith in God.
427
:There's a whole lot more to it.
428
:God has a plan for your life, and
that's what He's talking about.
429
:We've got to move forward and allow
ourselves to be taken into maturity,
430
:or perfection, is that word.
431
:It's that word again.
432
:Instruction about cleansing rites,
laying on of hands, the resurrection
433
:of the dead, and eternal judgment.
434
:These are all the basic
foundational teachings that
435
:we learn early as Christians.
436
:And this isn't God
permitting, we will do so.
437
:So God is calling us to keep
growing, to keep learning.
438
:You know, I love this.
439
:You know, just because you're old
and you have a lot of time in the
440
:church, it doesn't mean you're mature.
441
:Maturing is a very intentional process.
442
:It doesn't happen accidentally.
443
:We, if we, if we're not paying attention,
we get deformed or malformed instead
444
:of formed in the image of our creator.
445
:So being old.
446
:Doesn't make you mature.
447
:You could just be an old Christian.
448
:And when you think about it, there are
old Christians, they tend to be dogmatic,
449
:they tend to be grouchy, they tend
to be self righteous, they tend to be
450
:judgmental, because they haven't matured.
451
:But the mature Christian tends to be
gracious, filled with love, kind, and
452
:patient, and, and tends to, to understand
how frail we all are, and lives in
453
:the truth, and walks in God's love.
454
:That's what we're called
to, not just being old.
455
:In Hebrews 2.
456
:10.
457
:He describes not only our journey,
but in Hebrews 2, he talks
458
:about the journey Jesus was on.
459
:You know, Jesus, again, a
reminder, He said, Be perfect as
460
:your Heavenly Father is perfect.
461
:In other words, be grown up,
be mature as God is mature.
462
:But Jesus Himself had to go
through this maturing process.
463
:It says in Hebrews 2.
464
:10, In bringing many sons and daughters
to glory, it was fitting that God for
465
:whom and through whom everything exists,
should make the pioneer of their salvation
466
:perfect through what he suffered.
467
:For this very reason, I
would jump to verse 17.
468
:Well, let me stop there.
469
:So, he says that God, through
whom everything exists, made
470
:the pioneer of their salvation.
471
:Who's the pioneer?
472
:Jesus.
473
:So, he's, a pioneer is the
one who cuts the trail, right?
474
:Who blazes the trail.
475
:Jesus blazed the trail of spiritual, of
this spiritual journey of developing,
476
:of maturing, of becoming perfected.
477
:He says he's the pioneer
of their salvation.
478
:He's the one who blazed the trail and,
and, and says he should make the pioneer.
479
:God made Jesus perfect
through what he suffered.
480
:Did you catch that?
481
:Wait a second.
482
:I thought Jesus came perfect.
483
:No, He was made perfect
through what He suffered.
484
:So, the challenges that Jesus went through
in His life are what perfected Him.
485
:Same for us, the challenges we go
through in life are what perfect
486
:us, what help us become like Jesus.
487
:And in verse 17, for this very, for this
reason, He had to be made like them, fully
488
:human in every way, in order that He might
become a merciful and faithful high priest
489
:in the service to God, in service to God.
490
:And he might make atonement for
the sins of the people because he
491
:himself suffered when he was tempted.
492
:He is able to help those
who are being tempted.
493
:And it tells us that Jesus,
he had to be made fully human.
494
:In other words, he has all the
temptations, the struggles, the
495
:challenges, the feelings that
we get, that you and I get.
496
:And He had to overcome those.
497
:He had to mature through those.
498
:Right?
499
:And it wasn't easy.
500
:I mean, the Hebrew writer says,
with loud cries and tears, right?
501
:It was not easy.
502
:It was hard.
503
:It was difficult.
504
:And in Hebrews 5, 8, 9, it says,
Son, though He was, He learned
505
:obedience from what He suffered.
506
:Did you catch that?
507
:Jesus Himself had to learn obedience.
508
:He learned to do what was right.
509
:He learned to obey God.
510
:That's our spiritual journey, is
learning to seek God's kingdom first,
511
:learning to seek His will, learning to
obey His teachings, to practice what
512
:He taught, even when we are suffering.
513
:In fact, Suffering plays a huge part
in that, and that's, that's a, that's a
514
:tough one to swallow, but it really is.
515
:Think about your best prayers, your
most passionate prayers in life.
516
:Oftentimes it's when we are suffering.
517
:Think about the times you cry out to God,
face down, sprawled out on the floor.
518
:Oftentimes it's when we're suffering.
519
:And Jesus Himself suffered, and it says,
once made perfect, He became the source
520
:of eternal salvation for all who obey Him.
521
:Having suffered, having overcome
this temptation, overcome sin, having
522
:worked through it and matured in His
life, He became the perfect source
523
:of eternal salvation for all of us.
524
:And in many ways, Okay,
He's our pioneer, right?
525
:He's the one that blazed the trail.
526
:Therefore, we're walking the same trail.
527
:We're walking the trail that
Jesus blazed, that He cut.
528
:And our suffering, our obedience,
our devotion, our journey leads
529
:to the salvation of others.
530
:Others see us and learn from us.
531
:And they can follow.
532
:We blaze the trail and there are people
in front of us that we can watch and
533
:learn from, and there are people behind
us that we are inspiring, encouraging.
534
:And who's in front of us?
535
:Jesus is in front of us.
536
:And He overcame, and He walked
this walk, and He lived this
537
:journey that you and I are on.
538
:I love this, um, quote from Hans He
said, what you are is God's gift to you.
539
:What you become is your gift to God.
540
:We all have a life, and we only get
one, and thankfully God blesses us all.
541
:We come into this life, and we
all have many, many blessings.
542
:Sometimes we have to stop and remember
them because we forget, and we think
543
:we're not that blessed, but we are.
544
:We all have blessings.
545
:That's God's gift to us.
546
:Who we are, your strengths,
your weaknesses, even, even your
547
:weaknesses are God's gift to you.
548
:They are His grace, because in
your weaknesses is where you're
549
:going to learn to depend on God.
550
:It's where you're going to
learn to connect to Him.
551
:If all we had was strengths,
we wouldn't need God.
552
:We wouldn't want God.
553
:We'd think, I can save myself.
554
:I can do this.
555
:But in our weakness, we
see our need for God.
556
:In our weakness, we realize how
important God is in our lives.
557
:So we have our strengths, we have our
weaknesses, we have many, many gifts,
558
:and that's, that's our gift from God.
559
:However, it doesn't end there.
560
:God has great plans for our lives.
561
:God invites us to, to participate
in the divine nature, and
562
:that's spiritual formation.
563
:That takes spiritual transformation.
564
:To reach that, to mature, to
grow, God absolutely expects us.
565
:to walk this journey, to move
forward in our spiritual journey.
566
:Why?
567
:Because we discover so many of His great
and precious promises along the way.
568
:And when we don't move
forward, we get stuck.
569
:And as Peter would say, we become
ineffective and unproductive in
570
:our, in our knowledge of God.
571
:We, We, if we're not moving forward,
it's probably because we're not growing
572
:in our knowledge of God, which means
we become ineffective, we have no
573
:impact, our marriage suffers, our family
suffers, our relationships suffer, and
574
:we don't make a difference in our life.
575
:And a lot of Christians get stuck there.
576
:I would say that many Christians
who've just gotten older, but not
577
:necessarily matured, Are, are, are
struggling with that, feeling plateaued,
578
:feeling stuck, feeling like they're
not making a difference anymore.
579
:And some Christians are struggling
with marriage issues and family issues,
580
:and not that we don't all get them,
we all get them, but they get stuck
581
:in them because they're not moving
forward in their knowledge of God.
582
:And it says, what you become.
583
:is your gift to God.
584
:This is how we show our love and
our gratitude to God, by taking
585
:a step forward in our spiritual
journey, by knowing Him better, by
586
:walking with Him, by living with Him.
587
:So, what you are is God's gift to you,
but what you become is your gift to God.
588
:So, I'm going to stop there,
and that's the end of class one.
589
:And thank you for being here,
and thank you for taking the time
590
:and making the effort and being
intentional about your spiritual life.
591
:With that, God bless you, buen camino.
592
:Marcel: Thank you, Robert.
593
:Again, this episode is part
one of a five part series.
594
:Our next episode will be part two titled
The Stages of Spiritual Development.
595
:Thanks for listening to deeper
dive by the OC church of Christ.
596
:If you want to get connected to us
or want to donate to the program, go
597
:to our website, OCChurchofchrist.com
or through social media TheOCchurch.
598
:Join us next time for
part two of the journey.
