Growing Up in the Lord | Ep. 190

Growth is rarely loud or boisterous. It’s usually hidden, slow, and deeply formed, like roots spreading underground before a plant ever breaks the surface. We talk through a message that starts with a striking picture: blood cells sent through the body with life-giving oxygen, then returning to the heart to be refilled. That’s the rhythm we’re invited into as Christians to serving with purpose, then returning to Jesus for renewal so we don’t run on empty or confuse activity with maturity.

From the parable of the seed and the mustard seed to the call to “dig deep” and build on rock, we explore what spiritual growth actually requires: patience, a Christ-centered foundation, and a daily habit of testing what we hear against Scripture like the Bereans. We also get honest about the dangers of hurried zeal, shallow doctrine, and being too busy to develop a real relationship with the Lord. The conversation connects practical discipleship to big biblical themes like foundation, holiness, and what it means for our work to be tested.

We also walk through the tabernacle of Moses as a simple map of maturity, repentance, cleansing, the Word of God, illumination by the Holy Spirit, and prayer and intercession. Along the way, we highlight sober warnings from Hebrews about falling away and willful sin, then land on a hopeful close: self-discipline brings freedom, spiritual gifts need balance, and the greatest aim is love for God and neighbor. 

Transcript

A Vision Of Purposeful Circulation<br>

j - Jesus M. Ruiz 0:03

The vision received was that of blood cells traveling throughout the body, supplying the much-needed oxygen and other nutrients to the differing members of the body to fulfill their purpose. Once the blood cells are spent, they must return back to the heart to be refilled before being sent out again and fulfill their purpose. Before I begin, I'd like to thank Brother Joe, pastor in this fellowship, for giving me the opportunity. But obviously, the Lord has spoken to him, interestingly, about me, and he didn't even know who I was at the time before I ever even got here. So that's kind of a testimony he can share with you at another time. But when he asked me last Wednesday if I had a word in the moment, I said, Well, not tonight. Not right now. But uh it was last Wednesday, and while our sister, which who was just singing, I forget her name, it's Malachi's wife. Amber, Amber. While she was singing, which just happened soon after he asked me, I just received the word. And the word was growth. That's all it was. It was just growth. But I knew in my heart what it was going to be about. I just had to write it down and I had to put some notes down on paper. And so I did so, and it eventually became growing up in the Lord. Uh I know very little about this fellowship. I know very little about the people that are here and and the very few that I've met. Uh, I realize it's a young church. Um there's a mixture of people that came from, I guess, from the previous church, and I don't know what all the details are, but I think over the year, uh, with Pastor Joe being here, it is a young church. And my my first thought as I'm meditating on this all week long is like, well, why should they listen to me? They don't know me. I'm I'm I'm I'm I'm kind of asking the Lord and wrestling with the Lord. And I thought about a very famous man that used to minister in this area in Atlanta many, many years ago. He was shot. He was assassinated. His name was Martin Luther King Jr. And he said, one of the very famous quotes that always impacted me when I heard it is that he had a dream that his four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character. Why do I bring that up? Because I don't want you to listen to the words that I'm sharing with you because Pastor Joe has kind of allowed me to minister to you. Personally, I don't really care who comes up here to minister. It shouldn't be just because they sit on this pulpit that you should listen to them. Honestly, you need to hear the Lord through them. That's who you need to be listening to. I can't tell you how many times I've sat while a minister is preaching and teaching, and he's going and he's fiery and he's passionate, and I'm there, not as passionate about his message, because the Lord has gotten my attention about something else. And he's leading me down another trail that really it had to do with the message, but he it was what I needed to hear, and it's happened all my life, and I'm sure it's probably happened to y'all. And that's important because you need to listen to the spirit of the Lord. And so I want to challenge you today to be like the Bereans. The Bereans were a people that Paul ministered to, and they were more noble than those in Thessalonica, because those in Thessalonica didn't really uh they they heard his word, but they didn't really look into it. But those in Berea, they heard what Paul said and they didn't just take his word for it. It says in the scriptures in Acts chapter 17 that they received the word with all readiness and searched the scriptures daily to find out whether the things that he were saying were so. And that's what we need to do every day. Every day we're listening to a podcast, every day we're listening to the radio, every day we're listening to somebody minister. We need to be hearing the voice of the Lord and looking into the scriptures to see, well, is what he said actually true? Because I gotta tell you, there's a lot of a lot of sincere and genuine ministers out there that are sincerely and genuinely believe that they are right in whatever it is that they're saying, whatever it is that they're ministering, and they are absolutely wrong. So, in this you know, small congregation that's kind of here right now, the Lord said to Zachariah, Who has despised the day of small things? Over the many years that I've walked with the Lord, that is one thing that I have, I guess I've embraced in my heart. I don't despise small beginnings, I don't despise small groups of people meeting together. I'm not that person that needs that mega church, that needs numbers coming in and out, that needs, you know, uh uh uh the the riches and the material and and and all the you know the pomp and circumstance. I I don't need any of that. I I I need that that tight-knit, intimate group uh uh of people to walk alongside with, to walk arm in arm with, because we're all walking in the same direction. And and and so I hope that you don't despise the fact that there may not be as many people as you'd like to see, but the people that are here, God's got a message for and a purpose. So when I want to talk to you about his growth in the Lord, I think of the parables where Jesus spoke about in Matthew chapter 4. He talked about the parable of the seed. And I give you the scriptures, it's Matthew chapter 4, 26 through 32. I'll read some of it. I like to paraphrase a lot because I'm trying to get to a point. Um, so if you want to look up the scriptures, they're there. But he always spoke the parables of the kingdom of God. He said, The kingdom of God is like as if a man would scatter seed upon the ground, and he should sleep by night and rise by day, and the seed should sprout and grow, and he himself does not know. For the earth yields crops by itself, first the blade, then the head, and after the full grain and the head. But when the grain ripens, immediately he's put to the sickle because the harvest has come. So I think about that scripture, and what comes to my mind was he slept on it night and day, and he didn't know what was going on. If you've ever planted a seed, any kind of seed in the ground, you don't just plant it in there and then start staring at it, waiting for something to grow right there in that moment. It doesn't happen that way. So, what this ministers to me most is that growth takes time. It can't be rushed. You can nurture it, you can water it, you can put make sure the sunlight is on it, but you cannot rush the development of that seed. And all the while you're waiting, night and day, night and day, night and day, and it's still not there, night and day, night and day, even though you don't see it unless you were Superman with X-ray vision to look through the ground and see, oh, it's sprouting, it's growing. Oh, what it and it's creating a root system all throughout the ground first. Because if it's gonna grow and it's gonna develop and it's gonna mature into the mighty tree or whatnot, whatever it is that you're growing, it has to have a deep root system first. It can't grow in a shallowness of ground, it's gotta grow down and deep first, and all that while God is causing the growth in the unseen, in the invisible, the things that that that man cannot see. God is doing something underneath the earth. Did we not come from the earth? Yeah, we did. He says in the parable of the mustard seed. Interesting, my wife just taught the kids, and she was giving them a mustard seed and teaching them something about that. I said, Oh, that's pretty interesting because I'm gonna talk about that tonight. So then she said, or then he said, So what shall we liken the kingdom of God? What is the kingdom of God like? With what what picture shall we picture it? He says, it is like a mustard seed. When it is sown in the ground, it is smaller than all of the seeds of the earth. You could barely see it in your hand, in your fingertip. You could barely, wow, it's really, really small. But when it is sown, it grows up, it becomes greater than all the herbs and shoots out large branches so that the birds of the air may nest under its shade. That didn't happen overnight. I guarantee you. The mustard seed don't grow that fast. It takes time, it takes time and patience. That is a picture of our growth in the Lord. Sometimes we come into contact with Jesus and He just blows our mind, He He explodes in our heart. If we've received the baptism of the Holy Ghost, you know exactly what I'm talking about. And we cannot live off that one experience and go running here and there to do whatever we think the Lord is giving us to do, because we can't let our zealousness lead us. Paul was zealous, and he was persecuting the church in his zealousness. The first thing that we need when we come in contact with Christ is foundation. We need a root system. It says in Isaiah 28, 16, therefore, thus says the Lord God, behold, I lay in Zion. Zion is another word for the people of God, the church. I lay a stone for a foundation, a tried stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation. And then look what it says. Whoever believes will not act hastily. That means you're not gonna just go running and start doing stuff. No, no, no. In order for that foundation to be laid, it causes one to not act hastily and put the cart before the horse. Because there's a work that's God's gotta do. And God's not gonna be able to do it if you're running around like a chicken with your head cut off, trying to do all sorts of things for the Lord when you're not letting him lay the foundation in you. You know the other parable build your house upon the rock, right? The wise man built his house upon the rock. The wise man built his house upon the rock, and the rains came a tumbling down. You know that. We all raised in the church, we we should know that. But I'm gonna read the scriptures to you, and I want you to think what pops out at you, what jumps out of you, then I'm gonna share what jumps out at me. So he says in Luke 6:48, he is like a man building a house who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock, and when the flood rose and the stream beat vehemently against that house, and he could not shake it, for it was founded on the rock. But he who heard and did nothing is like a man who built a house on the earth without a foundation against which the stream beat vehemently, and immediately it fell, and the ruin of the house was great. I don't know what jumps out at you in those two simple verses. But what jumps out at me, and it jumped out at me a couple years ago because I I've I've this something that he imparted unto me, and it's just not left me. It's something that to me is very, very important in any person's faith walk. It says, He is like a man building a house, and then I'm gonna use uh Pastor Joe's uh I see one of his little styles, he tri he gets everybody to echo. So everybody say, Dug deep. I say that again, he dug deep. See, that's what jumps out at me. Digging deep came before he laid the foundation on the rock. The man dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And too many times, and I've said this in my Bible studies, you know, you know, that that I carry out in my own house, I said, I want to minister to you the foundation, I want to minister to you the principles of the Lord in your life because I don't want you to have a thin foundation. If anybody is in any type of construction, the last thing you want to do before you build your house, before you build your shed, before you build on top of something is to have a really, really thin foundation. Because as soon as you put some weight on it, as soon as you put a little bit of a pylon here and a and a and a thing down there, it's gonna crack the foundation. And you're not gonna be able to build anything on it. That foundation has to be thick. And I'm not even talking about this thick or this thick. I'm not even, I'm it's gotta be as thick as you can get it. Because if you dig deep, the reason why you're digging deep is because you're about to pour in the foundation, and if it's deep, then it takes a while to fill up to a nice, thick foundation that is immovable, that is unshakable. So you have to dig deep. Now, according to the grace of God in 1 Corinthians 3 10, Paul was ministering as a wise master builder because he said, I've laid the foundation, and you know what? Another builds on it. But let each one take heed how he builds. So when you've dug deep and you've let a very thick foundation be centered in your life, then you can start building on it. But it's not just you, it's other people that are building on it, because there's no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. So we're taking the natural and we're applying it spiritually and realizing that if you're gonna dig deep, it's because you are deepening your relationship with Jesus Christ. I didn't say knowledge, I didn't say verses of the Bible that you can memorize. That's nice to have. But if the foundation is none other than Jesus Christ, then that's the foundation that you need to dig deep, press in deep. It says, as deep calleth unto deep. If anyone builds on this foundation, what are some of the things? Gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble. When you build, those are the type of things, those are the that's what the scriptures use as a metaphor of the type of things that are built upon the foundation. It says, each one's work will become clear when on the day when he will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire. And the fire will test each one's work on what sort it is. If anyone's work which he has built on it endures, he's gonna receive a reward. So the building that we're building on top of this Christ-centered relationship that we're digging deep and getting to know him more and more intimately day by day. Yes, we're gonna build on it, and our life is gonna change, and we're gonna repent, and we're gonna change some of the things, and maybe our look is gonna change, maybe our walk is gonna change, but definitely our walk is gonna change, maybe our talk is gonna change. It should change for me. All things start to change, but there's gonna come a day where there's gonna be fire that comes, and whatever you thought to build upon the foundation of Jesus Christ is gonna be tested, and there's some things that are gonna be consumed because wood, hay, stubble, and fire is burnt up. So there are some things that we're probably gonna do in our life that are in vain, they really are, eternally speaking. But hopefully there are some other things that are gold, silver, precious stones, because if that's in the fire, gold only purifies itself more, silver only purifies itself more, and precious stones, they might get charred up, but then when you clean them all up, they're like find precious stones. Paul said in Ephesians 2, 20, having built upon the foundation of who the ap. Oh, yeah, you you can join in. The ap oh I thought I heard it. Who the apostles? Yes, the apostles, and who else? And the prophets, the prophets, and then it says, of which Jesus Christ is the chief cornerstone. You ever notice that? It started, Jesus Christ is the cornerstone, he's the one you're digging deep with, but then it put the apostles and the prophets are right there with him. You ever thought about why? Are they equal with Jesus? The message that the apostles and the prophets gave out, who did they receive it from? Jesus. So all they were doing was a conduit, like hopefully I'm just a conduit tonight, allowing the Lord to move through me to minister to you the words that you need to hear that are from Jesus, because they're not my bride idea. I guarantee you that. These are not my bride ideas. So when you're digging deep and you're making sure that you're gonna get entrenched in this relationship with Jesus Christ, you do have to come into the knowledge of some things that you didn't know before. You do have to put aside your paradigm that you were raised in. Maybe you were raised in a particular culture, maybe you were raised in particular traditions, maybe you were raised in a particular uh family where they did things, and just because you experienced those things and that's how you were raised doesn't make it truth. It doesn't validate anything, it's just what you went through to become the person that you became. But you always need to check your thoughts, you always need to check your experiences in the light of the word of God. So Paul said in Hebrews 6, he says, we need to leave the discussion of the elementary principles of the doctrine of Christ. What are they? The first one, repentance from dead works, the second, faith toward God, the third, the doctrine of baptism, the fourth, the laying on of hands, the fifth, the resurrection of the dead, and the sixth eternal judgment. These are elementary principles. Sort of like learning your addition and subtraction and multiplication in elementary school. They're just elementary stuff. I'm a high school teacher, I teach ninth grade math. I expect my kids to know their addition and subtraction and multiplication and division and a little bit more fractions, that's a little bit difficult. But I want them to know the elementary principles when they come in. And it's the same with us. But some of us, when we come into contact with Jesus, we get so excited that we just start running. It's just why I appreciate what Joe said. Pastor Joe said last week. Hey, you gotta learn, I think it was his third point, you gotta learn to say, uh-uh. No, you gotta be man enough, you gotta be woman enough, you gotta realize I I can't overextend myself at this point right now because there's something else that God is working out in me, and I can't get all involved in this because it's gonna take a lot of my time, and then all of that time is gonna be consumed, and I'm not gonna be able to have the time that I really want to have with the Lord. I gotta get into his word. I can't be going out and doing this and cooking food for the church to raise funds for this, and and and going out here so that so that we can do this for this reason and that reason, and and and you're just so busy that you can't dig deep. You're just busy. And that becomes wood, hay, and stubble. And Paul said, This we will do if God permits. Digging deep is vital to your eternal destiny in Him. Everybody know the tabernacle of Moses? Okay, so every well, hopefully everybody does. If you don't, I'm gonna walk you right through it. All right, so there's this tabernacle of Moses, it's this big rectangular, you know, shaped area, and there's an eastern gate, and you enter in through the eastern gate, and it's representative of you coming into contact with Jesus and getting a revelation of Jesus, and you are able, and all around the outside of this is these goat skins and these animal skins that are covering up. What's inside, and you really can't see anything that's inside unless you come in through the eastern gate. So if you come in through the eastern gate, that's like you coming into contact with the revelation of Jesus Christ, and all of a sudden you come into the outer court, and you're so excited. I'm inside, I'm inside this tabernacle area, and you start kicking up your heels and you're running around the outer court, and then all of a sudden you see, hey, what's that, Lord? What's that, Daddy? And he looks down and he says to you, Oh, good question. That's the brazen altar. What are you supposed to do with that? Daddy? Well, that's where you need to bring your sacrifices, son. Oh. Oh, oh, I didn't know that. That's because you haven't asked you've been running around. So excited about so many great and wonderful things, but there's some other things you need to learn. It wasn't just coming in the door. So, yeah, there's a brazen altar. And I think of that brazen altar, which is where all of the Levites of the old covenant brought this, well, they didn't bring the sacrifices, the people brought the sacrifice to the Levites so that they can sacrifice them on the altar for their sins. But in Romans chapter 12, it says, present your bodies as a what? A living sacrifice, holy and acceptable, which is your reasonable service. You see, when you come into contact with Jesus and you've realized his love for you and how he's redeemed you and how he saved you, and you come in, you have. anybody know what a covenant is? I don't like using the word Old Testament, New Testament. I understand why it's being used. I like covenant. Covenant is a really duro biblical word, and it means there's an agreement. God has certain requirements of this covenant, and you have certain requirements in this covenant, and they both need to be met by both parties. God has promises all over the scriptures, but nobody likes to talk about the if word. If, then I will do. For the Lord. I'm mortifying the deeds of my flesh. I'm putting away the works of the darkness, I'm turning away from all the things that were wrong in my life before, because I wanted to come into the light as he is into light, and I wanted to dwell with him. So I need to present my body as a living sacrifice. So I'm gonna serve him now. Alright, so there's your sacrifice at the brazen altar. And then you're like, oh, alright. Thank you, Daddy. Hey, what's that, Lord? Oh, that's the brazen laver. Oh, well, what am I supposed to do with that? Well, that's a good question, son. Thank you for asking. That is where you're supposed to wash all that blood that's on your hands and your feet from all the sacrifices that you've been making. Lest you die. Yes, I said, lest you die. Because if the Levites were to put all the sacrifices on the altar and get themselves all bloodied, it says there was a brazen labor, a pool of water that they needed to cleanse themselves with. And he said, lest they die. So yeah, that that brazen altar is that bloody area of repentance. But then you've got to wash in the waters and cleanse that blood off lest you die. And so I think of Exodus 30. Exodus 30 was we're talking about that brazen laver where it says, lest you die. That brazen laver, in our new covenant perspective, is when we were baptized in the name of Jesus. For it says, when you repent and you get baptized in the name of Jesus for the remission of your sins, that bloody sins of all the things that you had done wrong in your life, past, present, and future, he took care of it right then and there. So yeah, you've got to get in that pool of brazen labor. So you're in the outer court, and you're like, wow, uh I brought my sacrifices. I I'm clean, I'm cleansed of all that bloodiness. Hey, what's that tent, Lord? Son, that's that meeting place. That's where we get to meet, you and I. And you come into that that first compartment because it's a it's it's a two-part area, and you come into the first compartment and you see, oh, there's bread. It's called the table to show bread. And you see the candelabra. Oh, it's bringing light. And then you see over yonder, right before this other section, some altar there. And so the Lord is telling you, son, you need to eat the bread. You need to get in my word. You need to be fed. What did he say in the old covenant? Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. So when you get in there, and this is you digging deep, you are starting to develop an ear for the Lord when you begin to eat his word. It's most direct way to start developing an ear for the voice of the Lord, is to get into his word. Can you hear him without having read the word? Yes, you can. I'm not saying that. But God, by golly, in this day and age, if you want to know the heart of God, get into his word, and you will find out what his heart is. Because the same way that he dealt with Abraham, if you didn't know, is the same way he's gonna deal with you. He says, walk in the footsteps of Abraham. What were the footsteps of Abraham? Well, I'll tell you, whenever the Lord spoke to Abraham, he did what? He heard and obeyed. There's your footsteps. So when you get into his word, he starts feeding you his word, and that light, that candelabra, is the light of the Holy Ghost that is illuminating the Word of God so that you can have understanding, so that you can gain knowledge. And the longer you're there, the more you gain knowledge, the more you understand, not to be puffed up, because there's on that far end, there's that altar of incense, intercession, and prayer for yourself, for your family, for your loved ones. And boy, by golly, you're getting closer and closer to the presence of God because if you know the tabernacle of Moses, beyond that altar of incense is another door. And that's where the high priest saw God. That's where the Ark of the Covenant was. There was the very presence of the Lord on the mercy seat of the Ark of the Covenant. But a lot of people don't know that. They can't put that together. It's because they haven't dug deep. I've kind of simplified it for you, there's a whole lot more there. But that is one example of how we need to dig deep early on in our walk with Him. Because if we don't, and this is hard for some people to accept, well, I'm gonna say it anyway, because I believe it's the word of the Lord. If we don't dig deep and create that deep, thick foundation with the Lord, we are risking our salvation. Why is Pastor Joe saying that's true? That's true. Well, if you turn to Hebrews 6: 4, it says, It is impossible for those who were once enlightened, have tasted of the heavenly gift, have become partakers of the Holy Spirit, have tasted. Remember that? Table to show bread, eat the bread, you gotta eat the bread. Tasted of the good word of God and the powers of the age to come if they fall away. What? Wait, what? They fall away. That's possible. Well, the scripture says, if remember, I people don't like to talk about the if then, if they fall away, then what's gonna happen? They can't renew again to repentance like they did the first time. Because what are they doing? They're crucifying again themselves, the Son of God, and putting him to open shame. What? Wait, what? You're telling me we could fall away? I'm telling you what the Lord said. If you fall away, you will not be renewed again unto repentance. Why? Because you were crucifying the Son of God and putting him to open shame. I don't understand that, Lord. Okay. Let's a little bit deeper. You got to dig deep. If you turn to Hebrews chapter 10 and you go to verse 26, here's the explanation of what he said in Hebrews 6: 4 through 6. If we sin willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains that sacrifice for sin. You see the operative word? If we sin what? Willfully. I'm not talking about accidental. I'm not talking about, man, I stumbled and fell, man, I knew better. I should have done better. I didn't do better. But I feel I feel horrible about it. I can't believe I lied. I know not to lie. I can't believe I stole. I know not to steal. I can't believe I omitted what that the full you know truth. I kind of hid that part because I didn't want to be, you know, you don't want to want to be exposed. You know, that that's not what I'm talking about. The scriptures is not talking about. It's as if we sin willfully. There's an intention in the heart of people who have come into the knowledge of God, who have tasted of the powers to come, and they decide, you know what, I don't want to do this anymore. And they turn back like a dog turns back to his vomit, like the pig goes back into that mucky, messy, muddy mire. Yes. God started creation by giving man the most powerful gift of all. Choice. He knew what he was risking. He knew what Adam and Eve were going to do. He gave it to them anyway. Because he made provision. It says, in it doesn't say in his mind, but um, it says, from the foundation of the world, who was slain? The Lamb was slain. From the foundation of the world, that was before Adam and Eve were created. He had already had in his mind that he was going to deal with what he knew they were going to decide to do, which was reject him and listen to a serpent. Listen to his adversary, the devil, which put us all where we're at. But that's no excuse, because we all had that same opportunity to decide for ourselves, and we all fell the same way. It says, for those that sin willfully, there's a certain fearful expectation of judgment and fiery indignation which will devour the adversaries. You can't come into Christ. You can't come into this outer court, you can't come into the brazen labor, the brazen altar, and definitely you can't come into that holy place and start acting any old way you want. Doesn't work that way. And he expects holiness from you. Again, it's the intention of the heart. If we sin willfully, well, now there's a fearful judgment coming for us. Because he said, if anyone rejected Moses' law, what would happen to them? They would die without mercy. On the testimony of two or three witnesses. Well, if that was true back then in the old covenant, what do you think is going to happen in the new covenant? How much more sorrow punishment will be will happen to that person who begins to walk walk in willful sin, and he now thinks it it's okay to trample on the Son of God and the blood that they were sanctified with, and they treat it as, oh, that's no big deal. That's a common thing, that's nothing. And all they do is they step on the spirit of grace. See, if you don't dig deep, you're more likely to fall away. But if you dig deep and and and you begin to know him more and more instantly, I believe that there comes a point in your walk with him where you are so close to him that no matter what anyone says to you, that is a lie, that is a doctrine of the devil, straight from the pit of hell, you will not be persuaded. You will not be led astray. It will not tempt you because you know him so well. But if you don't get to know him, dig deep, you're more than likely to be deceived. Another example in the old covenant. David. You remember David, uh uh he was being chased by Saul, and Saul went into his last battle. And Saul uh uh, well, he died on that battle. He died in battle. But the interesting thing was if you read one book of the scriptures, that's kind of where you leave it. He went to battle and he died because you know that was the final straw, you know, the Lord was done with him. But then you open up another book and you look in 2 Samuel chapter 1 and you get a more detailed version of the story. Yes, he was in battle. Yes, he was thrust through and he was wounded, and he was wounded to die. But there was an Amalekite passing by. And it says that Saul called to him and say, Hey, come over here. Who are you? He said, Listen, I'm gonna die anyway. Just put me out of my misery. So the Amalekite kills King Saul. It wasn't that he died in battle. Now we realize, oh, there was an Amalekite walking around, and he called over to him and he requested that he put the sword through him, put him out of his misery. This is all in 2 Samuel chapter 1. And in his own words, when he finally met King David, he said to King David, So uh he said, Please stand over me, Saul said, and the anguish is upon me, but my life still remains in me. So the Amalekites said, Oh, well, I stood over him, and because I was sure that he wasn't gonna live after this, I took the crown that was on his head and the bracelet that was in his arm, and I brought it here to you, David, but I killed him. Now David heard that, and he was broken, and everybody else was broken. King Saul was still the anointed king of Israel, and he mourned him. He mourned him. It says he mourned and wept and fasted until evening for Saul and Jonathan, his own son, and you know John, Jonathan, David were were were uh, they were very, very close to one another. But then at the end of all that, David said to the young man, Where are you from? He said, Well, I'm a son of an alien. I'm an Amalekite. And he said, How was it that you were not afraid to put forth your hand and destroy the Lord's anointed? You know what David did then? He called one of his servants and he says, Execute him, take him out. You have blood on your own head, for your own mouth has testified against you, saying, I have killed the Lord's anointed. It says he was an alien. We're all alien and sojourners. And if we don't dig deep and really, really get to know the Lord, we may end up falling like this man did, thinking he was doing the right thing. Oh, well, he's about to die anyway. I'm gonna go ahead and put him out of his misery. He's asking me to. How about Uzzah? Anyone remember Uzzah? David had the bright idea. Let's go with the Ark of the Covenant and let's march in there. And and and and you know, they were there, the Ark was being carried, but it was about to fall, it was about to tip over, it was about to go over. And Uzzah thought, let me go catch it. And the Lord struck him dead. Now I don't know what was in Uzzah's heart. I don't know if he felt like he was special enough to carry the Ark of the Lord, but if you know anything about the old covenant, only the Levites could carry the Ark of the Lord. No one else could touch the Ark of the Lord. It was too holy. I don't know what was in his heart. Maybe he thought, I could I could help out, you know, I I could do this. I, you know, we know but for whatever reason, and I can't tell you what the reason was, I can only tell you that God struck him dead. And you look at it from the outside and think, but he was doing a good thing, he had good intentions in his heart. I don't know about you, but I can't judge the man's heart, but I know God can. And all I know is God struck him dead. And it looked like he was trying to do a good thing. I think of another idea where David um he was he was chased by his own son, Absalom, was about to kill him, but there was a battle going on, and he was waiting for word. What was gonna happen at the battle? Absalom died, and Joab said to a Kushite, Go and run and tell David. But there was another person there that wanted to run with the message. His name was Ahimas, he was the son of Zadok, and Joab said, No, you're not gonna take the news this day. You shall take the news another day, but today you shall take no news because the king's son is dead. I don't know for whatever reason, but David did not, it's not David, uh, excuse me, uh Joab did not want Ahimas to go give the message, so he said to the Kushite, Kusha, go go run and tell him. So the Kushite runs, he leaves Joah's presence, he goes running to try to get to David, and then Ahimas runs after him, and Ahimas beats him to give the message. But when he gets there, he can't give the full message. He gives only a part of the message, and then the Kushai comes. Well, sometimes we go running off and we think we've got something to say, we've got something to do, but when we get there, we can't. It's because we haven't dug deep enough, we haven't found out who God says we are in the body. It says he disperses among the body as he wills, and so you we're not gonna find that out accurately until we dig deep. So I hear the music, so I get a sense it's time for me to go, but that's okay. I I've gone through uh I think enough to make the point. And the point is that in a growing church, think of it individually for yourself. Do not just think of it all corporately for the body, think of it first individually for yourself. Am I digging deep? Am I getting really, really close and pressing in, not just into the presence of the Lord, but into the word. Because you have to have a balance in order to grow and to mature. It says of Jesus that he increased in wisdom and what? Stature. His body grew, it formed, it developed, but not just the body, his wisdom also did with it. And that wisdom comes from not reading the word. Did you did you ever notice the Bible doesn't say read the word? It says study to show yourself approved unto God. Study. Anybody went to kindergarten? Elementary school? Middle school? High school? You don't have to raise your hand, uh, college, postgraduate. If you were to go that far, it's about 14 to 18 years of education that you've been in public school, private school, wherever it was, homeschool, right? Have you intently gone into the word like you did, the academics? That's the kind of digging deep is going to take. Because now you're really taking seriously this relationship with God. I want to know your ways, Lord, that I may know thee. Children understand their fathers, their mothers, because they hang out with them so often, they hear them speak so often, they see their behavior so often that their characteristics, the attributes of their mother and father, they they tie to them. They take it upon themselves, and that's why they act like their parents. And when they're older in their adolescence, you know, in their teenage years, they wish they didn't act like their parents, but it really bothers them. But they don't admit it until much later on. They're very much like their parents. Why? Because I've hung out with them for so long. So I challenge you. Let me give you another quick example while he's playing. I had to go to a Catholic church service like within the last week or so. And as I'm sitting there, just like you guys are sitting there, I'm listening to the I've I've never been, well, I've been to a Catholic service, but anyways, I was now raised in the Catholic church, is what I'm saying. So I'm listening, I'm seeing all of the protocol and all the things that they're doing. I'm looking at the statues, I'm looking at all of these things. And I asked my wife, I said, Do they do this every time they meet? She says, Yeah. I said, every day, like Monday, Tuesday, what yeah. But I guess the Lord was speaking to me, and he turned it around and he said, Imagine if you were as disciplined as they were. You ever try to minister to a Catholic? It's hard. Why? Because it's so ingrained in them. And really, any other denomination where that's where you were raised, that's that's what all you knew, it's ingrained in them. It's it's by the grace of God that He lights them up with the revelation of God in the face of Jesus Christ. That's what's gonna rescue them because they are so ingrained that that nothing else is gonna break them out of that. Why? Because they've been so disciplined, so regimented to do that day after day after day after day, and the rosaries and all of that stuff, that that's all they know, and that's all they're gonna hold on to. But imagine if you were to dig deep enough, like they're doing with God and his word, because I know that this church wants to move in the gifts of the spirit, and there is nothing wrong with that. But notice 1 Corinthians was out of control with the gifts of the Spirit, and so all I'm saying is make sure that your life is balanced, that you have a healthy diet of the word of the Spirit of God illuminating and prayer in intercession, and the gifts are just going to flow because you're learning to yield, you're learning to hear, you're learning to discern, so that you can move when God moves, so that you can say, as Jesus said, I don't do, I don't say anything unless I hear the Father say it. He also said, I don't do anything unless I see the father do it. That's because his intimacy as a man was so at one with him that that he was he was our example, he was setting a footstep path for us to follow. How many times did he send away the disciples so he can go on the mountain and pray alone? He was digging deep, and we need to too. Self-discipline brings more freedom than you can ever imagine in your life. I used to weigh a 203 pounds and I lost 30 pounds, and I used to eat, I used to eat these these muffins from BJs and put ice cream on it at night. And I I I thought I was free to do that, but it was causing me to gain weight, and I didn't like myself gaining weight. But right now, after all these years that I've I've worked at losing the weight, it is developed in me a habit of self-discipline. Now I can eat what I want when I want. You might not think that's possible, but I can. I can eat what I want when I want. I just now choose not to. And if I wanted to splurge one day, no problem. There's no problem. It doesn't affect me, it's not gonna change my my my thing overnight because now I'm self-disciplined, and that's bring that's brought freedom to me in a way that I didn't think would ever happen. So let's have a balance. Let's desire all of the gifts of the Spirit. But remember, the greatest of these is love. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, your soul, your mind, your strength. And then love every one of your neighbors as yourself, and let God cause the growth that needs to grow in you and in this body. Amen. If you were blessed and appreciate listening to this podcast and you would like to support us in our efforts, consider lifting us up in prayer first. Then remember these four social media buzzwords. Share, like, subscribe, or follow. Share this podcast link with someone else by text, email, or word of mouth in the hopes that they might be uplifted as you were. Like by leaving a positive rating or review with whomever you listen to our podcast with. Subscribe to support the show monetarily with the link in our podcast description. Follow us on all our social media platforms. May God bless you and make you prosperous in Him as you listen and obey His voice.