Spectators | Hebrews 5:11-14

So often, Christians stay on the sidelines because they feel they need one more piece of information or one more tool before they can make a difference. But God's Word reveals that spiritual practices aren't reserved for mature Christians, but rather, those very practices are the means by which Christians become mature. Join Pastor Ben Kaempfer as we read through Hebrews 5 as he explains that it isn’t simply about the amount of information we gain, but what we do with that information that matters. The act of practicing is what separates a spectator and someone who is on the team.  

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SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hey everyone, welcome to the Downtown Community Church podcast. This Sunday, Pastor Ben concluded our short sermon series called Spectators by diving into Hebrews chapter 5. In this passage, the author of Hebrews challenges believers who have become stagnant, remaining on spiritual milk when they should be eating solid food. Pastor Ben highlighted a crucial truth for everyday faith. The fundamental difference between a spectator and a follower of Christ is in practicing the habits that keep us close to Jesus. So often, Christians stay on the sideline because they feel they need one more piece of information or one more tool before they can make a difference. But God's word reveals that the spiritual practices aren't reserved for mature Christians, but rather those very practices are the means by which Christians become more mature. This ties directly into the heartbeat of DCC to love God, make disciples, and be great neighbors. And living out this mission isn't just about Sunday mornings. It's reflected in how we steward our lives. Stewardship includes tithing and financial giving, but it also means offering our time, talents, and energy to serve others and build up the body of Christ. If you are looking to take your next step, move past being a spectator, and get connected into more community, head over to the church's website to explore more serving opportunities and get involved. And as always, don't forget to follow DCC on social media to stay updated on everything happening in the life of our church. Thanks for tuning in and let's jump into today's message.

SPEAKER_01 1:34

This morning we're reading from Hebrews 5, verses 11 through 14. About this, we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing. For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food. For everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness since he is a child. But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil. Give me seated.

SPEAKER_02 2:17

Ladies and gentlemen, can we give it up for the good Reverend Jake Collie? All right, my name is Ben, and I have the honor of serving here as a lead pastor at Downtown Community Church. Kids, you guys are free to be dismissed. Go ahead on to kids service. We love you guys. See ya, have fun. Oh man, just cute as a day is long. A couple Florida State shirts. Roll what up, big fella. That's my guy. See him in the number one shirt? I bet look at him. When I say roads in illustration, that's the one. All right. Um, like I said, my name is Ben, and I have the honor of serving as a lead pastor here at Downtown Community Church. Um, every year, when we gather together around this time, we do a really similar type of series. And the reason is, is because every single person in this room has a concept of church. And it was formed by a lot of history and a lot of background. And the longer you've been alive and the more church you've experienced, the more kind of width of what you understand and what you think of. But what we know, and one of the really unique gifts that God has given us is the ability to, when we gather, gather people from all different places and spaces, specifically religious backgrounds. Some of you came from a background and you came from a high church, a Catholic, an episcopal, a Lutheran, I mean, and there were robes and there was altars and there was incense and there was incantations and chants and things like that. Some of you came from a background where you don't know a pastor who didn't wear jeans and flip-flops at a non-denominational church, right? Some of you, it was from a Presbyterian background, some a Baptist background. In fact, some of you, you have no really church-religious background at all. Your kind of church and religious background is somebody invited you here, and you have been invited maybe to places, but you've seen church and seen things and seen people. But when we come together, it kind of puts us on the same page to say, what is this place? What are we doing? And what does it look like to be a part of something like this? And last week, we talked about no matter what church background you come from, as long as it's basically somewhere from the church in North America, there's an interesting cultural kind of context and assumption for what it looks like to be a Jesus follower. And by and large, people who comment on just kind of the direction and the things and the thoughts and the ideas, as they try to categorize, how do we kind of group what's happening in the church, specifically in the United States? They'll say something along the lines of it's lukewarm. Churches are full of people who are kind of half in, half out. Churches are places where it's just cultural Christianity. In fact, here's what's interesting: the younger you are, it's actually becoming cool to be a Jesus follower again. It's weird. Ten years ago, it wasn't. And not only that, but there's this kind of component of consumerism that everybody knows about. Right? You come and you show up and you consume and you come up and you show up and you consume and you come and you show up and you consume. And what we've called this, this kind of categorization, in fact, I tried to take kind of like some of the essence of that and the rhythm of that. And it's basically spectators. Spectators. If we were to look at what the expectation is of you to be a faithful follower of Jesus in the church in North America, for the most part, it would simply be be a spectator. Be a spectator. Come show up on Sunday, applaud, that was incredible. Come show up on Wednesday, you know, Wednesday, show up, you know, listen, learn, listen, learn, show up on Sunday, listen, learn, and you just listen, you learn, you go home. And you listen, you learn, you go home. In other words, a spectator, their rhythm is you show up to the event, wow, that was a great event, and you go back to your normal life. Show up to the event, wow, that was a great event, and go back to your normal life. And what's fascinating about that, what's fascinating about that, is almost everybody that I've met with in the last 20 years pastorally, who has been struggling in their faith consistently, the thing that I hear, whether it's the direct, explicit statement or it's kind of the derivative, is this. I feel like, or I wish, or I want to be farther along than where I am. I feel like I should be at this point, but I'm still at this point. I feel like I should be reading more regularly, I feel like I should be praying more regularly, I should, I feel like I should have more verses memorized, I feel like I should be better read, forgiving, I feel like by this point in my faith I should have helped someone come to know Jesus. I feel like at this point in my faith I should be discipling people, I feel like I should be teaching people, but right now I'm just not there. And if you've ever felt that way, I'm so glad that you're here. Because there is in the book of Hebrews, as the writer of Hebrews, potentially Paul, but a bit anonymous, is writing this letter to a group of people who have the common out of that they all come from a predominantly Jewish background. And he's weaving how Jesus is not anything new, how he is the fulfillment, how he is the ultimate of all of these things. In the first four chapters, just point after point after point, and it's starting to get a little bit deep. And then he pauses in chapter five to address the church that should be farther along than what they are. And before I continue, if we can for this morning, just please suspend the religious shame that you aren't as far as what you should be, or maybe feel like you are, because to be honest, from my perspective, for most of us, it's not your fault. You're doing what the church, what leaders have led you to do. In Hebrews, he's talking about He's about to talk about how Jesus is in this order, in this line of Melchizedek. Let me read verse 9 and 10 for you, just to kind of get us a little momentum going to the verse 11 this morning. He said, and being made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him. Talking about Jesus. Being designated by God a high priest after the order of Melchizedek. Now, if you hear that and you're thinking, I'm already lost, uh who is Melchizedek? Who is the order, the priestly order? I mean, what like what does that really even mean? Again, I'm glad you're here because this is what he's about to say. Verse 11. And about this, he says, we have much to say. He's like, man, I have so many, so many things that I want to tell you, so many things that I want to teach. But it's hard to explain. Well, why is it hard to explain? Is it hard to explain because it's complex? Is it hard to explain because it's difficult? He says, No, no, no. Here's why it's hard to explain. He says, It's hard to explain since you have become dull of hearing. It's like, hold on, anonymous writer of Hebrews, you don't even know me. And you're telling me I'm dull of hearing. Now, this is potentially offensive to you, a predominantly educated audience. And what's fascinating is this word that he uses in Hebrews chapter 5, verse 11, is actually the same Greek word that he uses in Hebrews chapter 6, verse 12. And this is what he says. He's basically saying, I want you to have full assurance of hope until the end, until we are with Jesus, we are united with Christ. He says, so that, so that you may not be sluggish, but imitators of those who faith, who through faith and patience, and hear it the promises. Now, that Greek word for dull in 5.11 is the same word sluggish in 6.12. It's just translated because when he's talking in 5.11, he's talking about it locally to the ears, and then he's talking about it generally to the body. And he's pointing towards a trajectory or progression to say, here's what I've noticed is that I teach you things, I teach you things, and he has an assumption of what's going to happen when he teaches them things. But he says, But there's a problem. Is that when I'm teaching you things, and I'm going to assume that you're going to do them, you're just kind of slow. Not slow as in you don't get it, not slow as in that you don't understand it, slow as in you hear it, but you don't do anything with it. You just kind of hold on to it. He's starting to see a trajectory where it's happening in your life. In fact, he says, here is in verse 12, here is the pattern that actually Paul, in verse 12, he says this. Go ahead and pull it up. Oh, not that one. Well, he is gonna say that. 5 verse 12. For though this time you ought to be teachers. Dude, that is crazy how we got both of those up at the same time. But I like it. I can't tell if my ADHD loves that or hates it. Somewhere in the middle. All right. But here's the here's the trajectory. You see, it's this idea, and he's saying you ought to be teachers at this time. Well, here, why? His his assumption is I'm going to teach you, you're going to mature, and then you're going to be able to teach others. It's a simple progression. I teach you, you mature, and you're able to teach others. But here's what he says in verse 12. He says, but you need someone to teach you again the basic principles and oracles of God. So he says, here's my expectation. Teach, mature, able to teach. Teach, mature, able to teach. But here's what's actually happening it's teach, teach again, teach again, teach again. Right? Now, as silly as that sounds, you want to know what's fascinating to me? I think we have a more difficult time than they did with this. Can I tell you why? Just this is just my theory, this is not thus saith the Lord, this is just thus saith the Ben, from studying a little bit of history and sociology. Somewhere in the last several hundred years, there became this layered effect. And here was the effect information, knowledge is power. It's true. Out of enlightenment, somewhat out of the industrial revolution, for a need to have a generalized way to educate the masses in the population, perhaps because of technology, behaps because of a hundred different things. What we became ingrained in the culture is if I learn it, if I know it, if I consume it, it must transform me. Knowing right creates acting right, believing right, understanding creates this. And so what do we do? We go to church over and over and over and week after week, and you know what? We think I'm not being fed. And so then I'm gonna go listen to a podcast. Because one of the great things in today's age is you can listen to the greatest preachers and teachers and communicators of God's word on the planet. Twenty years ago, you couldn't do that. You had to go listen to what Bill said down the road, you know? Shouts out to Bill. There was actually a guy named Bill who's a pastor, and I love that dude. You should go hear what Bill has to say, by the way. I digress. What's interesting is we get in this pathway that I need to know more, I need to learn more, I need to know more. Now, he is saying I do want you to get to that point. But his point is, I can't tell you more information yet. Why? Because you don't know how to handle the information I already told you. And if I continue to handle and hand you, well, what does 1 Corinthians say? Well, knowledge, it puffs up. But love, how you handle that knowledge is what actually builds up. Now follow me on this. He said, you need someone again to teach the basic principles of the oracles of God. Verse 13. For everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness since he's a child. Now, again, unskilled does not mean that the church did not have the proper hermeneutical lens or interpretive lens through which you understand and consistently see, interpret, and apply scripture. His point wasn't that you guys have are have no skill and you don't know what you're doing. In fact, this word unskilled, this word unskilled, it literally meant you haven't practiced. You're unpracticed. Unskilled means haven't practiced. It's really simple, right? And the difference is you can have an information set about something without actually having the skill set of that thing. I can give you informationally how to swing a golf club, but the first time you swing it, you're gonna feel weird. You have the information, not the skill set. In fact, one of my the best examples of this, there was a man who was he was a phenomenal sports commentator. His name was Stuart Scott. Those of you who are a little bit older might remember Stuart. He passed away a few years ago. I loved listening to Stuart Stuart Scott. I mean, he he was just that guy who was so funny and witty, but it wasn't like Zinger, and he always had to have the hot take up. It's just he like when Stuart Scott was on Sports Center in the morning, dude, it was gonna be great. He knew all the information. He knew what was happening in the background, he knows what's happening with the teams, he had personal relationships with the players. In fact, one day, one day he was out at football practice. He was out of the practice. And I don't know which practice he was at, but he was out of practice. And while he was out of practice, um, some guys they were catching some balls, they were doing this thing that's called the jugs machine. If you know what the jugs machine is, that's this if you've ever seen this weird, almost antiquated robotic looking thing that has two big tires that spin, and you somebody puts a ball in it and it just goes, you, like 100 miles an hour, perfect spiral. They can use it in a bunch of different ways. That's a jugs machine. Receivers use it to work on catching balls when they're throwing harder and faster. So if you're going over the middle, bam, you can catch it. Stuart Scott, who had all the information, they said, Stuart, why don't you come and try it? For the rest of Stuart's life, Stuart Scott's career as a commentator on sports, he wore glasses after that day. And the reason is, is because he had a lazy eye. He wasn't born with it. But that day, he had all the information and he had seen, and he knows how you catch a football. And they put a ball in, and it went at him so fast that when it hit his hands, it split between his hands, hit him directly in the forehead and nose to the point where it dislodged his retina to where he had a lazy eye the rest of his life that he had to wear glasses. Now, why do I say that? He had all of the information, more information than we do, but he lacked the skill. And it's as as if Hebrews is saying, here's the problem. Is you thought it was information, information, information, information. But you haven't developed the skill set of this. In fact, you haven't developed the skill set to handle the really basic teachings. And I want to pause because right now there's a lot of us that are like, okay, you know, I'm kind of past the basics in the beginner thing. And I think that, you know, we can kind of ebb and flow. In fact, oftentimes you can be past and you can kind of grow, and then you can get to a point where you're like, man, I've really kind of stopped growing. When he says this, that you're unskilled in the word of righteousness since he's a child. Verse 6.1, he says, Therefore let us leave the elementary doctrines of Christ and go on to maturity. He says, I want us to, I want us to get past this and go on to maturity. So, what does it mean? What does it actually look like to still need milk? What does it still, what does it look like to actually be on the basic things? Not just to understand them conceptually, but understand how that that doctrinal reality actually has its deep basis in the roots of our life. He said, Let me give you an example. Not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works. And to say that because of my own good works, I could get into heaven is the equivalent of saying, yesterday I touched the sun. His holiness, his glory, his beauty, his perfection is so much greater, so much more vast, so much beyond. And he knew that, and he saw that, and he saw the things that we had done, the mistakes, the intentional, the sin, right? He saw that, he knew that, and he said, There's no possible way that they can unsin themselves because the wages of sin is death, and they've all, if nothing, been born into this life of sin, all chosen sin. The consequence of that is death. But God saw that and knew that, and he said, There's no way you can earn it, so I'm going to send my son on your behalf. And let me just tell you that. In other words, you think the reason that you can read your Bible is because you didn't do anything last night and because you read it yesterday. Your works create the basis by which you spend time with Jesus. He's saying that's dead. What keeps us from praying most often is how long it's been since we've prayed last. We feel guilty about it. We feel shame about it. Shame is the enemy of your soul. Jesus hung on the cross, crucified that, and says, Don't live back into that, live freely from me. But we stay away from God. Because of how long it's been since we spent time with God. We stay away from God because of all the things that we've done. He's sitting there saying, Man, you should be beyond this. He continues, he says, You know, just you know, from dead works, are you still trying to hustle? You're still trying to grind, you're still trying to prove your way to God, you still stay away from God whenever you mess up, or do you just go to your father and say, Dad, I love you. I'm so sorry. But I know that that doesn't define me, and you forgive me, and that that the reason I'm with you is not because of the fact that I've done good. Because can I tell you the real lie about that? The real lie isn't that our unrighteous acts are bad, it's that we believe our righteous acts are good and not filthy rags. And if we actually saw our righteous acts as filthy rags, then we would also see our unrighteous acts as filthy rags. Man, I gotta say that diction clear, or else I'm saying a couple words. For those who have their power of discernment. In other words, their ability, their capacity. I don't think that's right. There's a good in that. There's no not so good in that. He said, those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil. He said, This is how maturity happens. Maturity happens. Teach, teach again, teach again. It's teaching and then you practice and train. He said, who has trained through practice? You train and you practice and you train and you practice and you train and you practice. And then as you train and you practice, you grow mature. And then you're able to teach. Now let me explain what that means and what that looks like. I want you to imagine. In fact, you don't have to imagine. For some of you, one of the most difficult things about the whole idea of Christianity is the idea of forgiveness. And if I had your story, I would probably feel the exact same way. Because somebody has hurt you in such a way that the thought of forgiveness, I mean, let me just say it for you, it just feels terribly unjust. And you don't see how in the world or why in the world. And you keep hearing sermons on forgiveness, and it keeps being frustrating to you. And then you meet somebody. And you hear that and think that's that's impossible because of what's happening. I completely understand that perspective. That's why I think this is so important. Because go back to that slide. He says, through training, you've practiced. In other words, it's not that you did it once. Here's what happened. It was difficult. And you brought that to Jesus and you said, Jesus, this is difficult. And you left your prayer closet, and you know what? It was still difficult. And then you went back again. Maybe not the next day, because to do that again day after day after day after day, it's just so emotionally draining. And you learn that maybe there's a rhythm through which you need to go through and process her. Maybe you do it once a week, but you consistently go back and you practice and you practice and you practice and you've gone through the cycle, and over days and weeks, perhaps months, you have continually brought this thing to Jesus. And you have first heard the words where Jesus says, you know, that if I've forgiven this small debt against you, you should for this big debt against you, you should forget the debt of other people's. You should forgive because he forgave. And that feels really difficult. But over time, you know what happens? You realize the fact that no one has ever sinned against you more than you have sinned against God. It doesn't minimize the hurt, it minimizes you the degree to which you realize grace has been given. Because it maximizes the realization of our infractions against God. And every day you come over and you come back, or once a week, you pray, you bring it to God, you pray, you bring it to God. Days, weeks, months, and sometimes years, you get to a place. That thing that happened, you released it. So it no longer controls you. And if you were your heavenly father, you would want your kids. In fact, for anybody who has kids, if you have seen your kids be hurt by somebody else, the last thing you want is for them to live out of that hurt for the rest of their lives. So come on. If you were your heavenly father, wouldn't you want that? And here's what's beautiful. Then a year later, a month later, a decade later, you run into somebody with a story of hurt. You run into somebody with a story of pain. And you run into somebody with a story of hurt and a story of pain, who it seems like in 12 hours just said I forgive them. And you know what you knew? That was cheap forgiveness. It wasn't true. You conceptually forgave, but that heart, that hurt, that anger, that bitterness, that frustration, that injustice, used to be there just opening the cap, and you're able to discern good and bad. Good forgiveness, bad forgiveness, cheap forgiveness, true, costly, difficult, bringing it to the cross, forgiveness, where you continually wrestle with the reality that God, you have forgiven me of so much more. I want to forgive this person, your spirits death, and continue to help me. This is the hammel, hammel, this is possible. And then you're with them. You walk alongside of them. In other words, you have practiced, discerned, practiced, trained, gone through this process, when it shows up, you're able to help and teach somebody else. And here's what he says. Christians? That's maturity. Maturity isn't simply knowing more. Does he want them to know more? Of course. But here's what I'm saying. Here, if you don't hear anything else, in fact, at this point again, if you have like kind of checked out and you're starting to look at all the lights and how many light bars do we have, okay. Here is the thing that if you don't hear anything else, I want you to hear today, because it is so important. In fact, this is the thing that our entire church has started to wrap around. God has been doing a movement in our church, moving us away from spectators. This is where we're based out of. This is the idea. If there's one thing that I've heard, it's that practices aren't just for mature Christians. Because people will say, practices are just for mature Christians. Those are mature, of course, yeah, you pray once you've gotten to a point, you read once you've gotten to a point, you forgive once you've gotten to a point, you make a disciple once you've gotten to a point. He says, practices aren't for mature Christians. They're how God matures Christians. They're not the thing that you do once you get to a certain point. They're the life that you're being invited into. You know how you learn to run fast? You know how you learn to throw hard? So why is it? In the kingdom of God, we're so consumed with hearing. And hearing. And we do need to have that. We do need to have truth. But if you're in here and you're not a Christian, you're trying to figure this whole Jesus, God, church, Bible, Christianity thing out, isn't it true? Isn't this part of the reason? Is because you have experienced so many Christians with so much information and so little application. Isn't it true? That there's something almost inside of you that wishes they would live it. Because what they're saying, grace sounds amazing. Forgiveness sounds amazing. This idea of I can live for God, that I'm that I'm a child of God, that I'm adopted as a son and a daughter and a co-heir with Christ, it sounds amazing. But they look at our lives and say, Is it true? So here's what I want you to do with all this information. If you hear that, you say, that's interesting, that's great, I would love to practice. He's gonna continue on and say a number of things, but he kind of wraps it up. I'm gonna go back to verse 12 of chapter 6. Because he brings us to a conclusion. And this conclusion is the application. And frankly, it's not just an application, it's how we've designed our church. Again, he said in verse 11 that I want to have the full assurance of hope until the end. So that you may not be sluggish, dull, unaffected by your life, but practice, to train, to discern, good and evil. But imitators, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises. In other words, here's what I want you to do, he would say. As you see people in church, as you see people among the community of saints, the body of Christ, the church, I want you to see people who do that thing. That you have a tendency to be sluggish or dull in. And I want you to go learn from them. I want you to be imitators in them. The people who have practiced through faith. They have put their not faith, generalized belief, faith and active trust, right? Faith, I believe the ground is there and it can catch me. Faith is not that. That's belief. Faith is I'm jumping. He's saying, so I want you to see people who have walked this, lived this, and are now able to teach and can disciple you, mentor you, apprentice you through it. Can I tell you, man, my hope and my dream for our church in part? I'm just so tired. I'm so tired of church where where we continually see this sense of just coming around in circles and talking. What does it look like, right, for this to actually happen? To go to a group where where you're gathered with people and you see somebody. Maybe you see somebody who is older, a little bit farther along, and you see how how they've stewarded in their life. You see how how, like in verse 12, they through faith and patience, they've inherited this promise. They've inherited a promise like when Jesus talked and he said, okay, if your heart is where your treasure is. And if your eyes are good, if you're seeing clearly, everything seems clearly, but if not, you're not, because it's going to reveal who you, what master you serve. And you see somebody, you see the way that they live, you see how interestingly they always have enough. You see how interestingly they are incredibly generously, incredibly thoughtful, and you see how they handle the financial life. You see somebody who has brought into the bought into the idea that it actually is better to give than to receive. And they're living generously. They have prioritized it, they haven't continually incurred fixed expenses in their income, of which they have no margin for generosity. No, they've been intentional. And you've seen that maybe what you couldn't see when you were 22, but you can see at 53 a life of financial stewardship and generosity. And how I can either spend my entire life building my kingdom or I can spend my entire life building his. And at first it seems like building his is threatening. Over time, you see somebody in hearing that promise and you want it. You see somebody that was able to forgive. You see somebody that served. You see somebody that, man, they're just so good at bringing people in, they're so good at loving people, they're so good at serving, they're so good at meeting needs. Say, I want to grow in that area. Here's what I'm tired of. Most of you are not going to go into ministry. Most of you are going to spend your professional lives doing something else besides what's happening in this room right now. And we are graduating generations of college students. And adults, we have experienced this because we've probably experienced a deficiency within ourselves. And the deficiency I'm speaking of is the fact that very few people, very few families today are raised in a way where we give people a really great picture of what it looks like to follow Jesus as an adult. And if that was your family, that is amazing. We need you. Can you imagine? You've got somebody who's 19, 20 years old. They're going to be a CPA someday. They're studying for that. They don't really know what it looks like to be a Jesus father, they're still trying to figure out how to read their Bible and pray. They graduate, go off, I don't know, they work for Ernst and Young or something. They try to figure some things out, try to follow Jesus. Versus someone who felt this tension, who felt this tension around my life's calling, but how do I live winsomely for Jesus in this vocational calling that God's called me to? And they're actually able to connect with somebody who's a CPA, who follows Jesus, who knows Jesus, who is an accountant. That's what a CPA is. I should have said that. Certified public accountant, right? Somebody who is an accountant, right? And they're in the accounting world, and all of a sudden they're seeing how they're following Jesus in the midst of credits and debits. They're seeing how they follow Jesus in the midst of filing. They're seeing how they follow Jesus in the midst of their financial reporting. And they see how all those domains that work create competing thoughts and interest for how they love and they serve their family, how they decipher their children, how they give back, how they advance again. And you see how they handle that. They have a template for what it actually looks like to be a person of faith in the world as an adult because so many of us don't. And you know what happens? As we gather together, as we see this template, as we realize that these practices, these things that we are doing, aren't for the mature. They're how God matures us. It's okay to say, I don't know, it's okay to say I'm trying to figure it out. But you go and you graduate. Or you're an adult. And you're here and you're making a difference where you work, you're making a difference where you live, you're making a difference in your family, you're you're practicing, you're engaging with, you're being, you're being discipled, you're being pastored. The reason that we do community groups, and the reason that we do them in a way where we go through the same content that we go through, which by the way, let me just tell you where we're going. Right now, finishing this followers. Next week, we're starting a brand new series. We are going from spectators to followers. Spectators was the last series, followers next series. For the next year, we're walking, we're walking every single week through the book of Luke, through kind of just, I just want us to spend some time following Jesus. Followers. And he's gonna call us to that. My goal and my dream is that as we move into that, and look what it looks like to follow Jesus, to participate, to practice. And every week we come away with this is what I need to do, this is what I'm thinking about, and you go and you talk about it in groups. Because for me, what I read in these verses and then what I spend time reading every single day, that's enough for me to try to live out and practice. And over time, you become mature, and over time you're able to teach, and over time, you become light and darkness. You see, this is the beauty. When we all do this, most of the world's hesitancy around Christianity is simply the fact that they don't think that we actually live what we believe. And we will never be perfect at that. But the reality is this if you're in here and you're not following Jesus, wouldn't this be different? A group of people who followed Jesus were committed to not just hearing, not just listening, and not just saying, tell me more, tell me more, tell me more. But they went through the difficulty. I hope no longer is it said in our church that you can be in a group for five years and not know how to read your Bible, that you can be in your group for three years and not know how to pray. Teach. Practice, train, develop maturity. Now you're able to teach. After this service, we would love for you to join a group. But let me say this: some of you are here and you're checking out churches right now. Don't care what church you end up at, whatever church you end up, you need to be a part of a group. I don't know another way to consistently and predictively see things in people's lives that I look at and say, I want to follow Jesus like that. We have to get out of the information that creates transformation and understand it's practice and training that develops maturity, and that has been the plan and been the format since Hebrews and since Jesus. There is a reason, and I'll finish with this. Jesus invited all of his followers. Eventually he would say, What do you believe in? Who do you believe? But you know what he said? Come, follow. Follow. Let's pray. Jesus. I pray. I pray for our church, Jesus, that though at this time there's many of us who should be teachers. But many of us still need, again, the basic principles and the oracles of you. So many of us we need milk and not solid food. But Jesus, for so many of us, that's because of the fact that we've continually shut it a place and thought that it was the information, and even begin to give in a format of spiritual growth that continued information creates a life transformation. We need milk, not solid food. But please help us to be mature. Knowing that solid food is for the mature. For those who have their faith, their power of discernment, trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil. So, God, would you allow us to do that? Would you help us to do that? Give us the strength to do that, give us the power, the capacity, so that we may not be sluggish, but may be imitators. Help us to imitate you, Jesus, through the lens of imitating those who through faith and patience inherit the promises of you. Jesus, our lives are for you. We want to be exactly like you. We want to be mature in our faith. Help us, help us, help us to not simply stick with information, but continue to live a life of practice and training that develops the transformation, that we would be skilled in handling your word. And that people would come to know you through that.

unknown 42:09

Amen.