Knowing and Growing – Introduction to Gods ongoing processes in the believer

Well, you have this unusually long handout, and the reason is we've got about two and a half pages on the Granville Sharpe rule. There was some question about it last Sunday. We talked in quick summary that Granville Sharpe was the guy who, actually his father and his grandfather were pastors, but he declined to go into that, he ended up being the fellow who was in charge of ordering munitions for all of Britain. When the US Declaration of Independence hit the shores, he refused to order munitions and therefore resigned his post. He actually, a stamp was published over in Britain because he was the most instrumental person in ending slavery in Britain before the year 1800. So it continued to be an issue here when it had been settled long before there. Nonetheless, he used his later years to study biblical languages, and that included developing what became known as the Granville Sharp Rule.

It was something that took a while to get settled, but in fact after almost a century of debate and whatnot, it turns out that his rule, once you take in the exceptions that he noted, so he didn't miss something, his rule fits about 80 places in the New Testament, and some very clear ones are 2 Peter 1.1 and Titus 2.13, both of which talk about Jesus Christ being the great God and Savior, so it points really clearly to the deity of Christ.

We're going to be looking at one that some have mistakenly thought of as a Granville Sharpe rule in today's Acts, and that's Acts 419, where it says, Da Peter and John. And so is that a Granville Sharpe rule or are Peter and John the same person? Are they? No. And the reasons it's not a Grenville Sharp rule construction is because Grenville Sharp had his exceptions and in it he said that two personal nouns, names, like Peter and John, don't fit the rule. So it's an exception, one of several. It also is not plurals.

So in Ephesians 4.11 that we looked at, pastors and teachers do not fit the grandosharp rule because it can't be plurals.

So anyway, you've got some things to read on that if you'd like. I can also pass on much more information. I don't want to overwhelm anybody. But if you're interested, glad to discuss it. Alright, so now we've got an introduction to what God is doing in the life of the believer. And this is something that we rarely at Holly Hills are inclined to look at in such detail.

I first had this idea of what are the processes back in 2010. I had the idea of looking at that and getting some detail. is being transformed and being conformed into the image of Christ the same thing? Or are they two different processes and do they happen differently?

So, on the first page you'll have the schedule there over the next six months. Unless we get some surprise like an April snowstorm, that says no electives, in which case we'll bump everything out. We'll go ahead and follow this schedule. We do have a plan for no electives on Easter or Resurrection Day morning, so that's two weeks from now, no elective. We'll also have a reminder in the bulletin and in the slides. Then the other time will be the August 13th date. We have the Holly Hills camp out, and so since we have people that go to the camp out and whatnot, we cancel the electives for that date. So, those two dates. Otherwise, we're going straight through and looking at this. Now, we talk at Holly Hills a lot about our position and our condition. What do we mean by that? What's our position? Seated with Christ in the heavenly places. Pardon? Seated with Christ in the heavenly places. So, it's a where in, right, in Christ, and then in, again, in the heavenly places. So, because that's where he's at, right?

So, that we summarize that. Now, when does that happen? When we believe. Okay, in other words, it's implemented in real life, real time, when we believe. How come not before? Because the sacrifice is not applied until then. Ah, okay. Notice, the effects of our identification with Christ In those five things, we talk about death, burial, resurrection, ascension, and seeding.

The implementation of it happens when we believe. But when did those historical events occur? How long ago? This is roughly 2,000 years ago, right? So historically it's already happened, but the implementation of it in our lives does not happen until we believe. But when in fact were you in Christ? Before the foundation of the world. This is Ephesians 1, you know,

4. When you were chosen before the foundation of the world, in Him. Very interesting, the identification with Christ and those five historical things was first done before God said, let there be light. And it took place in history in April 3rd and 4th and 5th and 14th. May 14th, 33 AD. May 14th, 33 AD. And so you're identified with Christ in those things.

So does, before the beginning of time, does that include everyone? Does that include non-believers too? But to really get that, you have to believe. Well, you ask a very important question. Because it says we were chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world. So who is in Christ? So listen to this, I say, was Peter, we'll be hearing about him in Acts, was Peter and his co-apostle John, were they in Christ? Yeah. She's saying yes, and I believe she's correct, right?

So how about the thief on the cross? Today you'll be with me in paradise. He didn't say today you'll be in me. So the thief on the cross, why? That was before the church was begun. So interestingly, this being chosen in him only applies to those who are in him. And that's not stated of those who were before the church began, such as the thief on the cross.

So here is Isaiah. Was Isaiah the prophet a believer? Yes. He was a believer. He lived about seven centuries before Christ. Was Isaiah the prophet in Christ? No. No. Now here's something very interesting. We've asked the question, is there an end statement that we can make about the Jews before the church began. Romans 6 says we were baptized into Christ. Galatians 3 says something very similar. In whom were the Jews baptized? before the church began.

Pardon? In Moses, right? 1st Corinthians 10. I believe it's around verses 2-4 in there. So the Jews are baptized into Moses. And it even says there in 1st Corinthians 10, under the cloud and in the sea. So this is their baptism. They're baptized into Moses. We're baptized into Christ. So in answer to your question, it is a unique church statement.

Once we're raptured out of here, will there be believers during the tribulation period? Yes. Will they be in Christ? No. There's no statement that they'll be in Christ. As a matter of fact, it's very interesting. There's very little said in the Bible about what their position is. What we know is they're saved by faith. And that those that survive and believe, Jew and Gentile, will go in and populate the Millennial Kingdom. Yes? So at the time of the crisis on earth, the believers were not in Christ until after his death.

Well, let's say it. Here's Peter and John. They're going in the boat with Jesus. Let's take a historic for instance. Jesus had just fed the 4,000 on the east side of the Sea of Galilee. They get in the boat. There's Peter and John in the boat with Christ. They head over to Magdala. I stood with Nancy and Courtney and Ingrid and I said, here we are right on the shore at Magdala. Jesus had just fed the 4,000 and he's coming with his disciples and landing right here. That's really cool, but where Peter and John at that point in time identified with Christ in that crossing.

Only as his disciples? They were only his disciples, but they weren't identified with Christ in his death, burial, resurrection, ascension and seeding. Did anybody get identified with Christ in his crossing the Sea of Galilee after feeding the 4,000 and coming across the Sea of Galilee to Magdala? No. There was not an identification with Christ in that. even though you have Peter and John with Christ in the same boat. There is no identification in that, spiritually speaking.

If you look at it very specifically, here is the beginning of the church on the day of Pentecost, May 24, 33 AD, 9 AM. the Holy Spirit is given. We know the date, we know the hour pretty close, as much as you can tell with the sundial, right? We know the hour pretty close, and pretty sure about the place, but certainly it was there in Jerusalem, right?

And so we got all that down, but it was that date, and so here's Peter and John who previously were the believers. They were believers. It was Peter and John, and the day before, May 23rd, 33 AD, they were not a part of the church, they were not identified with Christ in his death, burial, resurrection, ascension, and seating. But they were as of the next day, the next morning, about 9 AM. So this is identification that started back before time began, but its implementation in time has a specific day, time, and place when it began. And people who died before that didn't get included. Yeah?

In Matthew, it says that the last will be first and the first last. For many are called, but few chosen. Now does God call every single individual? Here's something very interesting, and the Bible does not explain this, and I think the attempts to explain it are reductionism that's less than the truth. So the Bible talks about us being chosen, the Bible talks about us being chosen in Him before the foundation of the world, and that sounds like certain individuals get picked. On the other hand, we'll have that, and you'll have Christ died for the sins of the whole world, and here's the jailer at Philippi.

I mean, he's right at the edge. He's saying, what must I do to be saved? You better give me a good answer, or I'm putting this sword in me. Right? And so right then, Paul doesn't go, well, you know, I don't know. I don't know if God's chosen you. There's none of this, or even the Lordship Salvation thing, where you don't need to just have pistis, you need to have epipistis. Super faith, right? You have to have this extra, you know, nail it down lordship salvation thing. You've got to make him lord right now or else forget about it. There's none of that. There's none of that. I don't know if you're chosen and elect and if God hasn't given you the gift of faith because you're chosen and elect and you can't believe in it. There's none of that.

So from the one hand, scripture says that Christ died for the sins of the whole world. In that regard, everybody is savable. Is the Dalai Lama savable? The Dalai Lama is savable. Up until the point of his death, was Adolf Hitler savable? Isn't that amazing? He may have been saved.

Do we know if he believed in the end? We don't have any knowledge that he did. In the end, a lot of those things only God knows, huh? But the reality is you think of some horrible guy who led all sorts of awful things. Take just Attila the Hun, right? Christ died for his sins too. So in that sense, everyone is savable.

And the resolution of He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, and Christ died for the sins of the whole world, or even to have many are called but few are chosen, the Bible does not explain the logical resolution of that. And I guess I would have a An analogy, there are some mathematical problems that require a higher level of math than we may know about, right? And so you can't solve some of these problems without the higher level of math. Well, so God's ways are higher than our ways and his thoughts higher than our thoughts.

And so the attempt of people to reduce that down to something that a human being can understand is reductionism. And so you'll have the Calvinists, who are the ones who would say, well, you've got to be elect and chosen, and they're the ones who are inclined to go to lordship salvation. You've got to be elect and chosen, and even some of them go double predestination. God picks those that go to hell. So you've got those on that end.

You've got the Armenians, who will say, well, it all depends on man's will, and God chooses those who choose him. The Bible doesn't say that either. So what happens is we get a situation where the tendency of people is to fall into reductionism, down to something that a human being can understand. But by the time you do that, you have a theological conflict that goes on for centuries.

As we, I think, mentioned previously, the Essenes, the Essenes were not mentioned by name in the New Testament, but were around. Qumran is thought to be their capital. They hid scrolls, including almost all of the New Testament, in what's called the Dead Sea caves there, the Dead Sea Scrolls. They believed in double predestination.

God loves us and God chose us and God hates those Pharisees and Sadducees who are all going to hell. That was their conclusion. The only reference Jesus made to it was oblique. And he said, you've heard that it was said, and he talks about hating your enemy. Well, only the Essenes taught that. The Sadducees and the Pharisees did not. So the Essenes were the first double-predestination Calvinists. More than 15 centuries before Calvin was ever born.

So at any rate, that's kind of a somewhat lengthy answer, but all too quick to your question. The reality is you'll have passages like that, and you'll recall, if you were chosen, you'll have passages that talk about being chosen. But what's interesting is I went through the Old Testament.

Look at the place where God was talking to the Jews. And at just about every place where he talks about God chose you, within the same sentence or very nearby. God chose you and He loved you. So what it seems to me is that the word chosen, we tend to think of a Calvinistic idea of God picked you and not you. That may be a way that God is conveying, I love you. And that love may be more the intent than I picked this one instead of that one.

Well, to me what's difficult about that is that you've got two things going on here. One, it happens in a non-dimensional area, which is eternity, so God knows these things are occurring, but we can't understand that, because we're in this time-space continuum, that it's being worked out here, but he knows it there. So we can't really understand that, because we can't understand eternity and anything that is non... I don't know how to say that.

It is extremely rare in my observation to find someone who claims to hold to Calvinism or Arminianism, who who thoroughly understands our identification with Christ. Because think about this, it's not implemented except for the person that believes. God has chosen people from before the foundation of the world. The actual identification didn't take place until 2,000 years ago. applied to me, who lives now, but it wasn't effective until I believed.

Well, all of a sudden I'm dealing with things about time and non-time and, you know, what does before time mean? You know, I've got things that are way outside of my ability to experience. I take my current experience, including what I have in my, I've got something to keep track of time, you know, and aside from that, this isn't enough.

I've got to look at a calendar and look at, you know, so we're stuck in a time tunnel trying to figure out something that, got all sorted out before God said let there be light, which includes a time formula. But all these are present for God. Yeah, and so God's choosing and God's saying let there be light, and those things that occurred there, four of them right in or near Jerusalem, those things that occurred there, and then it's applied to me here, By the time I reduce that to something I can understand real clearly, I'm messed up.

And that's the thing that people don't understand. They think, oh, I can understand how God does salvation all within my little human brain. Right here, right now. And I've been on this earth less than a century. And I can get it all figured out. Yeah, good luck with that.

So I think there's a certain ignorance and arrogance, with the idea that I'm going to get this all figured out. And so this is really at the core of the theological argument between these groups. And you can fit in there the same mindset with those of open theism. Open theism being that God changes and God doesn't know the future. Think about this.

Okay, so God chose me in Him Before he said, let there be light, and that was the creation of time. And then I was identified with Christ in his death, burial, resurrection, ascension, and seeding, which all happened within less than a two-month period of time, in those five events and not the other ones. And it happened in a certain small space, but those were not applied to me. until I believe.

So it happened back then, God chose me way back when, but the application of it didn't happen until I believe, and God's got to know in advance everything, and He's got to not be constrained by time in order to make all that happen. So does God know the future?

For every single person who's going to believe, that's the only way identification works. Because it only applies to those who believe. So God's able to choose me in Him before He said, let there be light. God's able to say, I know that this Vern guy is going to believe. And I'm going to, among all the other things that I do, identify Vern with this death, burial, and resurrection that happened in some place across the waters, you know, 20 centuries ago. And then reapply that to Vern only from the starting point when Vern believed.

This is a God who is not constrained by time. This is a God who is not constrained by what I can understand. Now, the reason for approaching this, we talk about our position, and the reality is we talk about being in Christ, but the truth is we could say much more about our position. Let's ask this question.

Have the sins all been paid for? For everyone, every single sin's been paid for, and is that permanent? The payment has been permanent. What about the person who doesn't believe? Here's Richard Dawkins writes, The God Delusion, that his sins, he's in his seventies now, on his third wife, are his sins paid for? How about the ones he hasn't committed yet? His sins are all paid for up to the point of his death. They are all paid. 100%. The guy doesn't even believe there's a God. Speaks openly. Writes books and books and books about that. His sins are 100% completely, totally, and irreversibly paid for. Does he deserve it?

Oh no. Now you can close. Right? Neither do I. So we talk about that. So you're in Christ. He's not. Your sins are paid for. Right? He's not in Christ. But you are. Why? Because you believe. And let's ask this other question. You're in Christ. Is Christ in you? Yes. And let's ask this other question.

How about the Holy Spirit? Are you in the Spirit? Yes, Romans 8. Is the Spirit in you? Romans 8, yes. So you're in Christ, Christ is in you, the Spirit is in you and you're in the Spirit. Let's ask about the Father. Are you in the Father and is the Father in you? Yes. John 17 is a good place to start.

So I'm in Christ, Christ is in me, I'm in the Spirit, the Spirit is in me, I'm in the Father, the Father is in me, do those all mean the same thing? They all sound the same, but they mean very different things. Isn't that interesting? Why? Are not the three persons one essence? of identical character. So why is it that those are not the same thing?

We each have a different ministry in our lives. So the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit each have a different ministry and being in Christ and Christ being in you and being in the Spirit and the Spirit in you and being in the Father and the Father in you, those are all different things in terms of what they mean. Because they have different ministries, they're different persons, they're not just different modes of the same thing. Though they have the same essence, and are of the exact same character, their roles and ministries are different.

Do they switch around? Does Jesus say, you know, I'll switch around, take the Father's role for a while, and the Father will take... No. We have no indication that they switch around. It appears to be that the roles that they have are eternally set. Yeah? So, we pray to the Father, but we don't pray to Jesus? Here's what's interesting. There's nothing that says, hey, you can't pray to Jesus, right? There is no verse that says that.

Here is, and I think probably Ephesians chapter 2 is the best putting it together, our prayer is ultimately to the Father through means of Christ as a work of the Holy Spirit. That's probably the best way to put those together. We're bringing things into the throne room of heaven bring things ultimately before the Father.

The reason I bring up Ephesians 2, and it's not the only place, is that Ephesians 2 uses a word, prosegogeo, and it has this, in ancient times, could you just walk into the courtroom of the king, No, not happening. So what's going to happen if you just walk into the courtroom of the king? You're going to get done in, right? You have to come through a guy who is the royal introducer. That's the word that's used of Jesus in Ephesians 2.

He is the royal introducer, the one who has the authority and the role of introducing us to the Father. When we go to the Father, having been introduced by Christ, what relationship, in terms of formality, what relationship do we then have to the Father once we've been introduced? We have great familiarity. We have the privilege of running into the throne room of heaven and saying Papa.

And the Holy Spirit then takes what we say and does what with it? The Holy Spirit actually interprets what we say as it's presented to the Father. So the Father and Son and Holy Spirit all have a part in our prayers. Every single person of the Trinity is involved in our prayers.

And let's put it this way, what evidence do we have as to what value God places on our prayers? This is where the Book of Revelation, on the heavenly scenes, there's 150 verses on the heavenly scene in Revelation, it says that our prayers are kept in golden bowls. And at one point in time, the prayers of the saints are kept in golden bowls which are held by the 24 elders representing the Raptured Church.

So that's our next job, at least part of it. about that. So God highly values our prayers, which are brought before the Father as Papa, with a royal introduction by Christ the Lamb, with the Holy Spirit being instrumental in delivering those prayers with exactly the right content. Isn't that great? I mean, this is phenomenal. So we have this position that gives us great privilege. Why do we need processes like we're going to be looking at over the next six months? Why do we need a process? If we have this position that is just out of this world, it's just phenomenal. Why do we need any processes at all?

As a matter of fact, why doesn't God just say, okay, you believe, I'm taking you home. What happened to that guy? Well, he became a Christian. And that's why his body is at the morgue. He became a Christian. That's what happens to you if you become a Christian.

Be careful. Why doesn't God just take us home the minute we're saved? There's probably lots of reasons. Yes, there are. But primarily, we have to grow into the position. And we have to mature. And in the maturation process, we are witnessing to other people, which is one reason. And I think once you get there, it's not just that you're going to be an entity, so to speak, but you're going to be person who is actually doing something there as well.

So let's ask this question. We have this position in Christ, is that position during the course of our Christian lifetimes, is our position in Christ and all the other aspects of our position, is our position in Christ changing over the course of our Christian life? No. So what's the process for? I think we change because of it. We are changed. But condition varies moment by moment. By condition varies moment by moment.

I was just going to say, again, you have the two different areas. You've got the non-dimensional area. God sees the position never changing. I mean, once you have all these blessings, you've got them. In this dimensional world, things do change. And that's part of this world. And so it's the growing process.

Yeah, and so a part of what we're going to be doing over this next month is looking at, okay, this is my position. We've said I'm in Christ, Christ is in me. I'm in the Spirit, the Spirit is in me. I'm in the Father, the Father is in me. This is my position. I am purchased as a part of the flock. That's one of the ways that my position is described. I've been bought and paid for. So I have that as my position.

So that's great, but there's nothing I can do to enhance my position. As a matter of fact, all I did was believe and God just did the rest. So what have I got going that needs any process? I can't enhance my position. I can't do anything to change it. I can't do anything to improve on it. Let's ask another question. Does the believer still have a sin nature? Can I fix that? No. So why have I got these processes? What are these processes actually impacting? Well, it's what you talked about in the past.

The relationship doesn't change, but the fellowship does. So the more growing that you do, and the more that you recognize, just like you talked about the disciples and the apostles learning all these things over the course of time, and as they learn these things, their fellowship becomes even greater through the understanding and their working out of their faith. You know, even, we'll talk about the Apostle Paul and the unique things that are in his letters.

When he wrote Romans, did he know he was seated with Christ and didn't tell us? Did he know that and hold it back? Was he sitting there kind of smirking and chuckling? I know this, but I'm just not going to tell these guys yet. I'm going to hold off because then that will have them hankering for more. Is that what he had in mind? No. So these guys were learning some things. Even they were learning over time. And so they didn't write about things they didn't understand yet.

So here's Peter. We're going to see this morning. He's standing in front of the Sanhedrin for the first time. He's going to do it some more. So standing in front of this Sanhedrin for the first time, he and John have spent the night in jail, does he understand that he's seated with Christ? Not yet. He won't understand this until later.

As a matter of fact, it is possible, we don't know, it's possible that the Apostle Paul was sitting there in the student's area while this was going on. And he would learn this from Paul later. Pretty astounding, right? At a certain point, let's say when Stephen was being stoned, would Paul like to have stoned Peter if he could?

So here is the truth, this guy doesn't understand anything about the Christian faith really. But later he's going to have things revealed and he's going to learn. And by the way, these processes we're looking at, conform, transform, sanctify, growing, maturing, is Paul going to understand those things eventually? He'll write about them. Yeah. He'll understand about them and write about them, but he certainly didn't at the beginning. And Peter didn't either. Neither did John. Yeah.

And this process, it's interesting because this process did frustrate Jesus at a couple points in scripture because he would refer to you men of little faith and he was expecting mature faith and great faith because that would have been a good thing. But he sees this small faith, immature faith, and it was frustrating when he came off the Mount of Transformation. and he saw the disciples trying to cure this person, they couldn't do it because of their little faith. Here is this being conformed.

Were the disciples back when Jesus was feeding the 5,000? That was at the north end of the Sea of Galilee. There was a slope there, you can see it from the Seda, where Jesus was feeding the 5,000. were the disciples, Peter and John, were the disciples capable of being conformed and transformed at that point? No. And let's ask this question, were disciples as it is used in the book of Acts? Was that even possible for these disciples before the church began? No. Not even possible, right? So Jesus was, you can see his kind of, you know, marveling at their lack of faith. You can see that.

But on the other hand, there were some things that just wouldn't come about until the Holy Spirit was given. So these processes we're looking at are processes explicitly spelled out for us in the body of Christ. But it was not even possible, for example, for the disciples to be disciples of Christ in the church sense. didn't have been dwelling in the Spirit 24-7. No, and that's something we're going to see as we go through this, and as we go through the Book of Acts, is this being a disciple of Christ in the church sense is something very unique. And the same word that you see in the Gospels, the same word as was used before among the Greek pagans, It doesn't mean the same thing. It doesn't apply.

So, let's ask this question. The Bible talks about, the New Testament talks about your old man, and talks about the new man. Are either of those changing over time? The new man is. Pardon? The new man is. We'll take a look at that. That'll be something we'll be looking at over this next month. So you say the new man is changing. Is the old man changing? Hopefully. The position of the old man doesn't change. The way it works out is it expresses more and more corruption. But here you are as the new man. Is the new man simply Christ? You say no. Why do you say no?

It's not just simply Christ. So all of who we are in Christ, including his history, and do we share in all of his history? Only in those five things is death, burial, resurrection, ascension, and seeding. So we don't share in all of his history when he was crossing from having fed the 5,000 in the boat with the disciples over to Magdala. We weren't identified in that. And even the disciples were not identified with Christ in that going across the sea in the boat.

So the new man, all of who we are in Christ, including the definitions of identified with him in his death, burial, resurrection, ascension, and seeding. So that's our new history. Identified with him in those things. How about our new ownership? Our new ownership is a part of who we are in Christ. And what was our ownership? So it's those questions we'll be taking a close and careful look at, because what we want to do is understand when we look at these processes, which are all biblically described, and as we'll see, there's a pattern here.

As we go through them, we'll want to look at what's changing and what isn't. We talk about maturing. Are we maturing the new man? We don't mature it. Is God maturing the new man? So that's something we'll be taking a look at. And then, one of the steps we'll be going through repeatedly is this. After talking about who we were, who we are, and who we are becoming for several weeks, We're going to be then looking, being conformed, what is that process? We're going to define the process. What is it? What does it mean to be conformed? What is the process? The next one, being conformed, what is God doing? What is God's part in that process? And only then do we say what is the believer's part. Why do we do it in that sequence? Why do we do it in that sequence? As a matter of fact, we do it in that sequence every time. Month after month after month. We do it in that sequence. Why? Why would we do that? Okay, so let's think about this.

If I say you're being conformed, what does that mean? What part of you is being conformed? And what does being conformed mean? One thing is it's spiritual, right? When I was in high school, I broke this knuckle. Is that being conformed? No. In fact, it's possible people even lose parts of these things or all of them, right? And that's not a part of being conformed directly. God may use that, but it's not our physical side that's being conformed. It's spiritual. So you're on to a very important point. So being conformed is spiritual. It is biblically described as to what that is.

Next we say, what is God's process and why is that absolutely essential? Once we have a definition of what is being conformed, then I come around to saying, what is God's part? Why do I have to know God's part before I can find out mine? God does the majority of it? Yeah, first of all, God has to do his part in order for us to have any understanding of what our part is. If I try to do God's part, I'll just mess it up.

This is the key. We define what it is so that it's clear what it is. We define what part of me as a believer is being impacted by this process. And I get first a clear understanding of what is God's part in the process because the two dangers Or one, that I start trying to do what God has already done, or God is doing. And I see it as my responsibility. And God says, wait a minute, I'm already doing that.

Earlier we looked at the vine and the branches. Jesus says, I'm the vine, you're the branches, right? And who's the vine dresser? The Father is the vinedresser, right? So you have Christ as the vine, the Father as the vinedresser, so you get some definition there. Is it my job to go and be the vinedresser?

No. So that's important, right? So as I look at these things, I get a real clear sense that this is what God's doing, this is what God is not doing. And so I either can err by trying to do what God's already doing, And God's saying, what are you doing? Right?

This morning, we got in the car and we made a basic decision. Who's driving? Now, so I said, I'm driving. Now what happens if Nancy tries to help me drive? Yeah, this is bad. I used to ride with a fellow whose name was Lyle Luker. Really nice guy. But his wife had the unnerving habit of keeping her hand on the steering wheel while he was driving. And that, I just, whoo!

Uh-oh. And that's a part of the problem, is that if we think we're going to help God, keep our hand on the steering wheel, or if Nancy thinks she's going to help me drive by getting there and occasionally putting her foot on the accelerator or the brake pedal or changing the gear, whatever it is, that's not a good thing. And so the hazard is that we jump in and think we're going to help God. Yes, Stan?

Okay, so conform, you said, is spiritual. Is transform then physical? All these things are spiritual. Okay, what's conform mean? Con means into. Yeah, we'll get into the definition. We'll get into the definition, so we'll get there. We'll take a whole Sunday just to define it.

But then, if one hazard is that I'm trying to do what God's already doing, what's the other end of that hazard? I'm not doing what I should be doing. In other words, if I say, here's what God's doing, but it's all His, then I'm not doing what is my complementary part to that, because I think God's doing it all. And so both trying to do what's God's part and assuming God's doing the whole thing, both of those are hazards. And so what I need to understand in each case is, here's what the process is, Here's what God is doing, and only then, with a clear understanding, can I then understand what my part is. Not duplicating what God's doing, not assuming God's doing it all, but having a clear understanding, this is what the process is, this is what God's doing, this is what God expects for me to do. And he's revealed it. Isn't that neat? In every case, he's revealed, this is what it is, here's what I'm doing, here's your part. It's clearly defined.

So, we'll be going through this starting this next Sunday, we'll take a Sunday off. for Easter, Christ's Resurrection Sunday, and then resume four weeks on who we were, who we are, and who we're becoming. In order to understand what's our position and what is changing. We better pray. I see people out there just eager to come rushing in here.

Thank you, Lord, for your word as we go through this, looking through things in the next six months. We do thank you for what you've revealed. You have revealed it very consistently. You have revealed it very clearly. We thank you for that. Thank you that in everything, in all these things, we can rest in what you have done and are doing. and count on you and depend upon you. We just thank you for that. We entrust the rest of our time and the rest of the time of study in this all to you. We pray in Jesus' name.