Identification Truths Plus 2012

One of the things is last week we talked about position as an overarching concept so that we had a general idea of the concept of position and we talked about condition. I wanted to cover kind of an overview of the topics so that we could connect them this week and talk about practical application. Like I said last week, it was like drinking from a fire hose the first time I was presented with position and condition. And so I wanted to try to break it up into two sections so that hopefully it didn't feel like too much all at once.

But one thing that's been a theme so far in this class, and I think we can all understand, is that we can improve the flesh, right? Isn't getting any better? Everybody's comfortable with that. I found this quote and I just had to share it. I thought it was funny. It says, I just joined a two-step program because I'm addicted to country-western dancing. But one of the things that's funny about, instead of a 12-step program. But one of the things I think is funny about lots of denominations is they really want to encourage us to improve the flesh. We just need to get get our sin nature all polished up. I think last week I used the phrase lipstick on a pig and somebody brought up a politician.

So we won't do that. But let's talk about the definitions that we do have. So who has a definition, even one that you might not have looked up in the dictionary, but who has a definition for principle? Go ahead. Mine is a comprehensive and fundamental law, doctrine, or assumption. Okay. Any other ones? Fundamental truth, law, doctrine, upon which others are based. Okay. Cool.

So I have one here, and this is an extension of Russell's, a comprehensive and fundamental law Doctrine or assumption, the law or facts of nature underlying the working of an artificial device. We're not going to talk about a lot of artificiality this morning, which will be good. Why would we bring up principle? Why do we need a definition for principle? Any guesses? We need a foundation. We need a foundation. All right.

And since we have said before, and we will probably reiterate numerous times, we're not under law any longer. We need to talk about what is the system that we operate under. We'll keep moving though, but let's keep the definition of principle running in the backs of our minds. Who's got a definition of position? When we talked about positional truth last night, or last week, and we had a definition, but it wasn't a dictionary definition.

Since we have two people with dictionary access this week. Got a short and a long. Go ahead. OK. It's an act of placing into or arranging. OK. The short answer is location. Yeah. The long answer is mental attitude toward or opinion on a subject. OK. And you can see the definition I had is very similar to that.

But location is actually key. I wasn't surprised that location would be key. When Mike put this together, he's in real estate. Of course it's got to have location. But location is actually really, really, really important. If we're talking about the fundamental nature of positional truths, why is it important for us to understand location? Come on, we went over this last week.

I know at least half of you were here. Why does location matter? We're seated in the heaven. We're seated in the heaven. That's our location. That's spiritually where we're located. Except for that we also have our condition, which also has a location, right? Okay, so we're going to have to talk about how those relate. And tying those two definitions together, what's the third definition we have? Source. Who's got a definition of source?

Here we go, Pat. The first cause, place, or origin from which something comes. Okay, very cool. A point of origin or one that originates. It's the beginning. Okay, now this is really important because I went over to Mike's house a couple Thursdays ago to go over the notes for this and make sure that I had a general idea of what he was trying to communicate when he put the notes together.

And one of the things he said, and I underlined it several times myself and wanted to make sure that it was a focal point last week or this week, is that where is the source of our life? In Christ. It's in Christ. But the source of our life is positional.

That's really important. If you haven't written that down, do me a favor and do so. The source of our life is our position. That's really, really important that we grasp that concept. So let's ask this other important question since we've just said that for believers. What's the source of life and position for the non-believer?

Just a quick rabbit trail. The flesh. Adam. So it's kind of a bummer, quite frankly. That's a bummer. That's not a great source of life. But it also explains why every politician can promise us the moon, and we vote him in, and then they somehow are unable to deliver the moon. Every time. There's other reasons for that, probably the complexity of things, but there's a fundamental principle that their position is earthly, their condition is earthly, and the source of their life is the flesh, and it's not an eternal life with the rewards that we see as believers. Next question that we've got on the handout, are there any other thoughts on those definitions, questions as to why?

We use those? Nothing? OK. What doctrines must we be firmly established in before we can grow as believers? And this is really key. If you take nothing else away from this class this morning, grasp this. Aside from the, well, this is tied in with the statement I had you write down. Our position in Christ. OK. This is before we can grow as believers. What do you need to become a believer? Faith in Christ. I have skipped a slide in my deck, that's okay. So the first one is Christ's substitutionary work on the cross. It's important that we understand that Christ did the work. And what did we do in response to that? How did we respond to that work on the cross? We believed. So faith was fundamental. And the next thing is that we are entirely justified. That's really important. What's justification? He's got a definition for justification without a definition. Being declared righteous. Alright. Did you do it? No, he didn't.

But you have to respond in faith to that. You have to understand that before you can grow. If you don't, there are consequences for that and it's not growth. And the third thing is that we're identified with Christ. So those are the three things that you need to understand and then we can ask the next question. And that is what doctrines do we grow in? And why? We grow conditionally towards our position.

I've got on here Ephesians 4, 15, and 16, so if you've got your Bibles, flip there with me. And if you get there, go ahead and read it out loud. Well, since no one's here. I'd rather love our lives lovingly express the truth in all things, speaking truly, dealing truly, living truly, am I in the right place? That sounds like good Bible verses, not Ephesians 4, 15 and 16, at least the translation I have.

And speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects unto him who is the head, even Christ. Yeah, and 16. from whom the whole body being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causing the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love." So, what are we growing into? What does 15 tell us we're growing into? So, because you believed in the foundational things that we looked at in the last slide, you can then begin growing into all the aspects that are true of us in Christ, which are on that handout, the 34 things.

I've got a question. Sure. This idea of conforming, being conformed, isn't there a verse that specifically says we're being conformed? It does. In Romans 8, 28, 29. If you look at Romans 8, 28, 29, and we're going to get into that in depth. We just got this big chunk of the schedule figured out, so I'm not sure exactly when it lines up. I don't have it memorized yet, but we're going to get into that before too long. We're going to go through Romans 6, 7, and 8 in depth.

Just an extension of what you just Romans 8 is very explicit about what the Lord is going to do and how we are in His eternal plan to reach that conformity. It's not an accidental thing. 8.29, for those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of the Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren.

And 2 Corinthians 3.18.

Yes, 2 Corinthians 3.18. And we're actually going to look at that. in this morning's lesson. Let's see here. So now that we've said what doctrines we grow in, why do we grow in those doctrines? We already said why we can't grow in the other doctrines, but we talked about it. Why do we grow in these doctrines? Is it because that's what the handout says?

Or implies heavily. Yep. Like, you know, when things aren't always going right, which is. Yeah, well you have a context for the trial. If the trial doesn't come and you go, why God? You know the answer to the why. It's part of this context that he says, oh, I'm going to grow you. I'm going to use life circumstances. The trials and sufferings are there for your growth. So you still may say why God in a very general sense of how this hurts, but you actually know the answer to the why.

So let's ask, circling back, so why do we grow in these doctrines? Why is it that these doctrines are doctrines we can grow in, and not the other ones? Because we can't grow in the flesh. Okay, we can't grow in the flesh. And these are the doctrines that scripture reveals are about us in Christ. I think it again goes from position first, which we're placed in Him. So that's the starting point.

And then it's 2 Peter 3.18 where it's growing the grace and knowledge. You grow in the knowledge of Him. It's knowing who you are positionally in Him. That's how you become conformed.

That's the 2 Corinthians 3.18 being transformed from one to the next, you're going as you know Him. The whole key is knowing Him and knowing who you are because if you know Him, you know who you are. And that's how you grow, is knowing Him.

You just mentioned 2 Peter 3.18, and Peter writes, But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory, both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.

It's important that he mentions Grace, and we're going to go over Grace in this class. When Courtney, Mike, and I got together to talk about this class, all three of us got excited and animated at the table. Oh boy, we're going to talk about Grace. What was that reference again?

2 Peter 3.18. It's the last chapter of 2 Peter, or last verse of 2 Peter. I can never remember the address, I just know where to look.

It's right there. So we understand that we grow in these positional truths. They are who we are in Christ, and we're being conformed to that image. So that answers our why question, which I think is important. Mike led the service, I don't know, this has to be like six or seven years ago, and you were reading something, and it was something from Miles' material, but it's not in the Hungry Hearts, but wherever it was, you had said, or you'd read that it was, what is true of us in Christ.

And I just remember it was the first time I'd been exposed to that concept, and I have no idea what my dad taught about for the main service after that. I spent the rest of the time just meditating on, oh my gosh. I went to seminary because I was going to grow and learn everything. I'd spent several decades of my life going to go and learn all these things, and the positional truths were completely foreign to The things that I could grow in were the things that I did not know. And so that was exciting. I'm sure my dad's lesson was great that Sunday.

I just don't remember it. That nugget really just latched itself in my head. So the idea here is we have a position that is Christ himself. Yes. That we're cemented into permanently. Yeah. But we have a condition that doesn't line up with our position. Position is reality. Condition isn't. It's temporary. So the Spirit of God is, from a conditional standpoint, everyday walking around standpoint, bringing us into, not only experientially, but conformity to who we already are in Christ.

Is that a good way to say it? I think so. You know, after hearing your message, I was reading The Hungry Heart. I actually mentioned The Hungry Heart. That was one of those ones that came up. After listening to the position and thinking about it, it was on last week.

And one part of it was, many believers have gone only as far as justification can take them. Spiritual birth and a bit beyond. There they stagnate in dire need of fresh streams of living water. in Christ. God has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in the heavenly places in Christ.

Ephesians 4 and 3. Always begin with your position, where you are, and then think of your condition, what you are. It's position and where you are. You're in Christ. You're seated in heaven. Your life is His life. And once you get that position, that's where you grow, as you start understanding who He is and who you are.

Well, that's the rest of the lesson right there. That's that's the fundamental point of things. So we grow. Do you need handouts? Matthews. I feel extra. We do. Let's ask the next question here. Yeah. We already looked at that. This can be tri-folded. It's just the 34 things.

Alright, so what happens when believers don't grow beyond the gospel truths? This is really an important question. What happens if you know the gospel, you're saved, hallelujah, I mean that's a good thing, but you don't grow beyond that? You become stagnant? You become stagnant.

But the way I actually, this is from my own personal experience, the way I look at it is that I became a believer as a young boy. Sunday school, the teacher shared the gospel. I thought, well, going to hell sounds like a bad deal. I'll take salvation. And then I had no food for growth. I heard Daniel and the Lion's Den for a decade and Noah's Ark, which are fun stories, but you don't grow in it. Other than, you know, have faith in God. Okay, God's bigger than the whole universe. Okay, now what? There's not growth truths. So what happens?

I think you remain in the nursery. You remain in the nursery. You get discouraged. At least I did. Here I'm wrestling with my flesh. It wants to do sinful things. And I had no way to respond to it. There have been tons of Christian books, or books, I will say Christian air quotes, tons of books that are sold within the Christian environment that are basically psychology books on ways to pretty up the flesh.

One book said, if you think that you're wrestling with sin in a certain area, associate that thing with a pink elephant. Literally they said a pink elephant. I wish I was joking. It said, then when you think of that thing, you'll think of the pink elephant, and the pink elephant will remind you that you shouldn't do that. Now you'll notice Paul never mentions pink elephants in all of the New Testament. He's got some other strategies which are a little bit more effective. That's where I think I go back to the identification truths are so foundational.

Because if you don't understand the switch from Adam to being placed into Christ, you're always trying to find and how to fix Adam. If you don't understand the Roman six truths, you're always trying to fix yourself up, and the flesh is more than willing to try and do only life left is to try and make something, do something, and they spend their whole lives in the nursery trying to fix the flesh, which God already said, I find nothing acceptable in there. Why are we trying to fix up what God has already thrown away, or dealt with? automatically puts you in the realm of legal performance.

Because the question comes up, well what am I supposed to do? What am I going to do? How am I going to respond to this salvation that I have? I've got to live this Christian life so I better find out what the principles are and then I'm going to do them.

We've got to make God happy. Get him off our back. That was one of my things. Well, if I can just get God happy and off my back, I can go do the things I want to do. Which is terrible. That's where the tithe comes in. It always kills me. It's like, we're going to give 10% and then God will be happy. I'm like, really? He has all of your life in here and you think he's worried about 10% of your finances? He has the whole universe and he's really, oh man, that 10% is really going to make me happy. Totally, you negate grace if you don't understand these things.

So the next question we've got here, and this is an important one, is what is the difference between sins and sin, or cynic? If I overly specify, then I've answered the question. Cynically just an S? No. Yes, cynically just an S. Plural and singular. Paul uses the word sin, and he uses the word sins in different places. Why would he use those two vocabulary words differently?

I think that's a good answer. Sins are the acts committed by man via his sin nature. That's the short answer. So did Christ take care of both of those with his work on the cross? The answer to that, heads are nodding, but that doesn't show up on the tape recording. The answer is yes. The next question is, what two aspects of sin were we freed from in order to be born anew?

We have some Bible verses to look at, so let's do that. If you've got your Bible, open up to Romans chapter 8. And we'll look at verses 1 and 2, as well as Romans 8 and 12. So if you're there, go ahead and somebody read out loud for us. You said one and two? One and two.

Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. Alright. So one aspect is that he's separated us from the law of sin and death. That word is principle. Principle.

And then verse 12, he says, So then brethren, we are under obligation not to the flesh to live according to the flesh. So he separated us from the flesh. Not only did he separate us from the principles, but he separated us from the authority that the flesh had previously had before we were identified with Christ on the cross. So we were separated from the principle of the law. and separated.

The way I have it on here is, for us to be reborn, newly created in the risen life of the Savior, God had to free us from the penalty of sin, as Romans 8, 1 and 2 tell us, and the nature of the fallen Adam, as Romans 8, 12 tells us. I won't read all of Romans 8, and we're going to go over that slowly but surely, but I often find I have a relatively emotional response to Romans 8. And I'm not saying that so that you will feel like you should have an emotional response to Romans 8, but it's hard not to read about all the things God has done to unify us with him and not be overjoyed by what God has done. Next question we've got here is, how did God accomplish freeing us from the penalty of our sin and the sin nature we got from Adam? Across. Across, okay. That's good. He died to sin's control. Okay, we died to sin's control through that.

He accomplished this by placing us in Christ on the cross by identifying each one of us as future believers with him. Thus when Christ died unto sin, out of the realm and reign of the principle of sin, we as sinners died unto sin in him. But that only answers one of the questions. That only answers the freeing us from sin. The presence of sin. Our identification with him didn't free us from the penalty of sin, he did that by himself. He paid that penalty, that substitutionary penalty, by himself to free us from the penalty. Our identification with him is what freed us from the power of sin or the sin nature. I think you have to distinguish what he did alone and what he did by including us.

Does that make sense? Well, that's what you've asked before. What Christ did on the cross could have satisfied God's demand for paying for sin, but he didn't have to identify us with his son. He didn't have to re-establish a relationship. Technically, all the father needed was to deal with sin on a technical level, but he chose to go beyond that and draw us into relationship and identify us with the Son. So the next question we've got here is... I've got it on here, it's not on your handout. So what? Why did the last two questions even matter?

Why does it matter that God dealt with sin? And we sort of actually went over that in some of those things. But why does it matter that God dealt with this? Because if he wouldn't have it, we'd still be condemned by the law. How does this impact your life today? What can you do with this? It frees us from our sin nature and identifies us with Christ. It gives us a new life. It gives us a hope.

That was the thing, when I was sinning and I had no idea how to deal with sin, I wanted to just be stronger and better. I didn't even understand what sin was and what authority it had before salvation and what authority it had after salvation. I had no concept of those things. But when I understood more about who I was in Christ, suddenly I had hope. Suddenly, when Paul wrote things like in Romans 6, where he says, hey, you've been crucified with Christ, I realized he was talking about me, actually, not someone else. I always figured he was talking about someone else, because there's no way this could be about me, because I'm still sinning. I still sin, oh no. But when I started to understand these principles, I started to understand how those verses could apply to me. They had shoes, so to speak, and that was important.

Yeah, so if you don't understand or haven't been exposed to the idea of positional truth, then you can't get free. Yeah. Because you're stuck with your experience and your everyday walking around feelings and emotions and responses and sins and that kind of thing. And your position actually goes totally against early on what you're How is this even possible? But it's an important element of growth. At least you have something to grow in, which is obviously important.

Now, we sort of just answered this question, but why do so few believers derive benefit from the identification, excuse me, the identification truths? They have never heard of them. Okay? They've never heard of them. That's an important point. I brought up the identification truths with one believer that I know and he's like, well I knew that. What's the deal? He couldn't see any practicality to being identified with Christ in his material resurrection, ascension, and seeking. What's the practicality? Where is the Where do we end up? We talked about this last week. Where's the last part of the identification? Where does God say we are? Yeah, we're seated with Him in the heavenlies. We're seated with Him in the heavenlies. Positionally. Positionally.

And that gives us something that we've got to deal with. Practically, in our lives. If He says that's true of me, how do I deal with it? And that's of course the focus of this class. See, and that's where I think, you know, when you really look at, I don't know, 140, 160 times, All reference is in Him, in Christ. And when you read these truths or these principles, it's because of our position in Him. He says, you know, in Him, and here are all these truths. In Him, here are all these truths. Once you start looking in Him and where we're placed, these all make more sense now. Because you're in Him, your life is His life.

And you start, what was it? I'm still sinning down here. Well, you understand positionally you're there. And then when you start, you know, the condition, it is, you know, our everyday walk down here. But positionally, it frees us knowing that where we are, we're in Him. That's where God sees us right now. And that changes the whole game. Yeah, we, here's the long form answer for that.

However true our identification with the Lord Jesus is, if we are not fully aware of the facts, we will derive little benefit from them in our daily life. Of course, Russell said, they don't know him. If you don't know him, how can you see any application of him? And this is where we need them. Moreover, unless we realize our need of separation or sanctifying power of our death and life in Him, there will be no motivation for our faith to reach out and receive these truths on a personal level. If you don't know they're there to grasp, you're not going to grasp them.

But you need them to begin to understand that you have a walk with the Lord that's deeper than just being saved. I might say that I realize the need is as important because like your friend said, well what's the big deal? It isn't a big deal until the Spirit of God takes you into a position where you realize that, oh wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me, that I'm serious about this Christian life. The problem is I'm not able to pull it off and so I have a tremendous need to be rescued from the power of my sin nature and then it becomes important to you. Yeah. You have to have that need. And I would say that the Spirit of God is the one who creates that need in a believer, that he just doesn't let him get by with the crap he's been getting by with, you know, and that he's become serious about it and it doesn't, it isn't working.

Yeah, well I know for myself I was desperate. I've got to do something to lick this sin issue. I can't do it on my own and I was hungry for anything. Unfortunately the people I went to for advice at that point in time didn't have any. At least nothing of use. It was advice but it wasn't anything you could do anything.

It was always like sin containment. That's probably the best answer or the best way I could summarize all the suggestions they gave me. You just need to contain the sin. You're going to do it, so you might as well just do it in small, isolated locations. If you grew up a Catholic, they would say, stay away from the occasion of sin. The problem is, I was the occasion. Highly unfortunate for the truth.

Can I say, one of the unique Isaiah passages, Isaiah 53, where it says Jesus will see the fruit I think of that when we talk about Romans 8, and how God is not satisfied when we're breathing through him in the flesh, and how the only way he'd be satisfied is if there's fruit, and that's talking about, I believe, mature believers who are not walking by the flesh, but walking by the Spirit. and have learned to apply the positional truths and are now walking into victory in the faith of the Son of God. When you say satisfied, I'm sorry, because my understanding of satisfaction is that through what Christ did, he's satisfied. Are you just saying as far as fulfillment of relationship. I just want to make sure I'm understanding what you're saying.

The quality of the relationship isn't there if we're not walking in the truths that are there. It's because he's like, I want a fellowship with you in this which is true. I want that truth working out in your life. So the quality of the fellowship is hindered. When you're walking in the flesh, you can't be bearing spiritual fruit.

It's important and I actually, I could immediately move to Isaiah 53. It's probably one of the most decreased part of my Bibles because it's one of my favorite Old Testament passages. It's definitely a powerful place to know. Let's see here, we keep moving in the questions here. Why does position comfort us with eternal security no matter what has happened as part of our condition? Because our position in Christ is immutable? Okay, our position. Awesome. Great answer. Our position in Christ is immutable.

I remember I probably wasted weeks of my life feeling guilty, knowing that I was called to something greater than what I was doing in the flesh. I had no comfort, because I didn't understand my position. But once I began to understand my position, suddenly I had this hope. Suddenly I could stop worrying about trying to make up for the justification that I knew was there technically, but I didn't feel like I had contributed enough. I think with responses to eternal security, that made a huge difference.

You never worry. She's not there. The comfort that I have, when you know the identification truth, that you've been crucified and placed into Him. What more security? There's no doubt now in my mind, because I'm placed into Christ. My life is His life. How do I get out of that? And will Christ's life ever diminish or go away? And if I'm in him, if my life is his life, I have absolutely zero doubt ever again about eternal security once you know about that crucifixion. The old man taken away and positionally I'm placed in him. How do I get out of that? I can't.

The other aspect of that too I think is that you exercise faith. in the gospel, and you're saved. You don't have any idea about position or identification, but when you begin to learn about that, the other aspect of it is God did it all. I didn't do anything. I believed him about one aspect of the gospel message, and he took from there, and he did everything else. He put me into Christ, identified me with his death, burial, and resurrection. So, I'm not responsible, in that sense, for my position. He is. That's the awesome thing. And he also, like Russ says, it's immutable because he's immutable. God did it.

We brought nothing to the table. Last week, one of the questions I asked was, what's some bad theology that's derived from people not knowing position? People have this sense of owing God over and over again. I owe God, like you just got a Jesus loan or something. Worst idea ever. Well, that's when we get into grace, and you think how stupid this is. You realize, in simple faith, He had to provide everything to put us into Christ. But now we're on our own. He put us in Christ, but now you've got to do it. You've got to do it. What is that? It's terrible. Boy, we're just going to have to go in the next week a little bit. I'm sorry. There are just lots of good questions. We want to make sure we go over this.

Can one be very fruitful without being established in the identification truths? We talked about, I'm sorry, it's Mr. Matthews, but I don't know. He brought up fruit. Can anyone be very fruitful without being established in the identification truths?

We've known some good people. That's a hard question because there are people in the body of Christ that seem to do mountains of work way above what you do. And they don't understand these truths. And they're running all over the planet doing all this really cool stuff. But is it really fruitful in the sense that it's God's work?

That's a good question. I had a thought. What did you say? People can strive and almost die trying to be fruitful, but only through the grace of the freedom we have can we truly bear fruit. That's true. It's got to be the Holy Spirit that empowers us to do something or else it's just a good thing on your checklist of things you did in the flesh. It's a John 15 truth. Yeah, that's it.

The vine and the branch, which is really important. Don't you think though that within the Christian community, somebody who's a worker bee, somebody like Courtney, she's a type A, and they're doing all this stuff, you know, it's offensive. When the work of the cross is introduced to them, it offends them. Because they've accomplished, apparently accomplished so much.

Yeah, but I did all this stuff. Instead of identifying that that's the problem. Well, I use that, I mean, I am type A, slay the world, go after it. You know, and that was, you know, I use the example of the old church we were at. building the building and all this. I never wanted recognition from anybody. I didn't want anything that way.

But secretly in my heart, it's like if I'm doing this, God's going to smile on me just a little bit more because of what I've done. In my heart of hearts. You'll earn some extra awards and bonus points. And what a slap that is the guy that says that I have to do something to make him appreciate me more when he's given me his son. And it's, you know, I never want it public, but in my heart, it's that spiritual push-up. It's that old man wanting to do something that, you know, if I just do a little bit, God will smile a little bit on me. How wrong is that? That is totally wrong. It's terrible. You know, it's a slap in his face. I can't believe you do that quote.

I believe it. This is the question. Well, I can totally identify and understand I certainly had that same motivation. The next question we've got here says, read Ephesians chapters 1 and 4. And I wasn't expecting that to do this morning. This is for homework. So since I know all of you did that, we'll pretend everybody read Ephesians chapter 1. If you had to summarize Ephesians chapter 1, how would you do that?

Position. Position. If Paul writes the longest sentence in the Greek that we have from that time period, one positional truth right after another, boom, boom, boom, this is who you are in Christ, this is who you are in Christ, this is who Christ is, and you're in him, over and over.

And that's where he's addressing things. But then, when you move later into the book, starting somewhat in Ephesians chapter 4, he starts talking about things that ought to be going on in the church. Conditional things. Okay, so now here's some things you need to be considering that should be going on in the church. Why does he start out with position and then move to condition?

You have to know your position first, and then, you know, to me it's always, this is who you are, and if that's who you are, this is what you'll be doing. Because that's who you are. And so this is not in the question list, but this is one I always ask. So what if at Holly Hills we're not doing all of those things yet? Does that mean we stink as a church? No, that means we're normal as a church. It means we're normal.

But here's one of the fundamentally important parts of condition. Are each one of us growing in our condition? Hopefully. Let's optimistically say yes. If that's the case, then we know we're not done yet. It means that when we read the latter half of Ephesians chapter 4, since the buzzer was loud, when we read the latter half of Ephesians, starting in chapter 4 or whatnot, we recognize that those are areas that the Lord will grow us in. And we can be praying that the Lord will grow us in those areas as application is concerned. But it allows us to identify imperfection without panic. I think that's an important thing.

When I saw imperfection in my life, I was like, oh, I actually wrote a letter to the elders of the church I was at when I was a teenager, because I was young and arrogant. I'm just not going to read that out anyway. With a list of things that the elders should really be addressing, because I've read Paul, and he says that we need to be doing this, this, this, this, this, and this, and what are you guys going to do about it? And that's embarrassing to say that out loud. But anyways, so that was my attitude.

And I gave it to my dad, who happened to be an elder at the church. And I said, Dad, we've got to do these things. And he's like, yeah, you know, these are things that should be part of the body. And he tried to explain to me that we were all growing. And I just had, I couldn't even fathom. No, no, no, no. We need to be doing these things. But the Lord grows us in the truths.

And then these things are the result of that. We're called to hospitality. Everybody better be doing hospitality now. Do your hospitality jumping jacks. We're called to be giving to one another as we have need. Do your giving to one another as we have need jumping jacks.

Right? No. We're going to grow and the Holy Spirit is going to draw us to those things. Next week, we'll take a few more minutes and we'll wrap up the rest of these questions. You've got an extra week to answer questions. Is there a handout for next week? Yeah. Okay, Kortney's got a handout for next week. Let's close in prayer real quick and then everybody swarm court me and get out.

Heavenly Father, thank you for the truth of your word. Thank you that we are positioned in your son. Thank you that we can rest in that position. We pray that as our condition is being conformed to the image of your son that we would recognize your hand in that and we would Be grateful and humble as we move forward in those things, as we walk in your spirit. And Lord, we thank you for these truths. In Jesus' name, Amen.