Knowing and Growing – God’s processes revisited
Vern Peterman · Sep 24, 2017
Knowing & Growing, No. 36
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/49266708041

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

As we've been going through the sequence, we did early on, we start off with being conformed and then being transformed, and then we looked at being sanctified and growing and maturing, and at this point we have being Christ's disciple. And of course our usual sequence as we go through those is one, what's the definition? We went through that a few Sundays back. Last time we went through being Christ's disciple, what is God's part? And here at this point we have what is the believer's part? What's the believer's part?

This is where it's critical because while we first look at what is being a disciple, and by the way, just to ask the question, why is it possibly an issue if we look at the Gospels and look at what disciples meant in the Gospels and then try to apply that now? Why might that be an issue? Maybe because part of the Gospels has to do with law. Yeah, think about it.

Here was Jesus and he had disciples. By the way, did Jesus act as essentially a rabbi? He did act as a rabbi, he certainly did things and said things that no rabbi would ever do. But he acted as a rabbi, and he had disciples, and there was certainly the twelve, and then there were others beyond that. Remember at one point in time in the Gospel of Luke he sends out seventy, so there are actually a great number of others beyond the twelve.

But that's all in the context of Israel, the people of Israel, and the land of Israel under law. Here's Matthew chapter 10. Jesus sends out the disciples two by two, which includes, by the way, Judas. Two by two, and he sends them out. Do they understand at that point the gospel of substitution, that Christ died for your sins? No, they don't. They don't. They are clueless about that.

So what gospel do they spread? the gospel of the kingdom, and that's it. So he sent them out two by two with the gospel of the kingdom. And did he say go unto Jerusalem, and Judea, and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth? What did he tell them? Go only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. That's it. With the gospel of the kingdom only. And so that whole mold and pattern for discipleship It's the same word, but in context means something different. In Matthew 23, Jesus tells the disciples, you are not to have any rabbis among you anymore. No more rabbis. So they go out, and there's disciples as we see in the book of Acts, but no rabbis. Even when you have Paul, who was most well qualified to be a rabbi. Wasn't he? Right? Trained under Gamaliel?

I mean, it doesn't get any better than that. But no rabbis. So now here you have, in the church, we are to be Christ's disciples, but wait a minute, he isn't here. We're to be Christ's disciples, he's not here physically. So how can we do that? Yes, the Holy Spirit and the rest of the New Testament. And by the way, are we in Israel? We're not in Israel. And are there other rabbis around? No. And the rabbis majored in teaching the law, right? Is that what the real point of being a disciple is in the Book of Acts and the rest of the New Testament? No. So you have a radically different definition of being a disciple here. So you have Christ's disciple where you don't see him physically. Think about this. The most important person of all is someone I've never seen. Isn't that amazing? As Christ's disciple, the most important person of all is one whom I've never seen with my own eyes.

OK, so here we have Christ's disciple, what is the believer's part? We talked last time principally about John 15, where Christ is the vine, we're the branches, the Father is the vine dresser. Now we look at, in this particular situation, notice in the first paragraph of what we have written, what's bolded. We who are believers in Christ are His disciples, personally, intimately, spiritually, knowing Him. So we also defined what the process of being a disciple means for believers in the body of Christ. We said that the aspects of the process of being a disciple are, one, becoming a believer.

Can you be a disciple of Christ without being a believer? No. And why not? Why doesn't that work? What would you be preaching? There's a real disconnect, isn't there? Hey, I'm not a believer, but I'll be a disciple of Christ. I think people have tried. Yes, exactly. Jesus is a great man. Exactly. Here's a great man, a great teacher. He taught us to love and all these kinds of things. You'll hear that from a lot of people. I'm all about Jesus. I just don't like Christians or things like that. I really don't think I sinned.

Isn't there an example of that? preaching Christ, and Paul said that he was doing it because of his stomach or something, but it didn't really make any difference as long as you preach Christ. Yeah, and so in, you know, right into the Corinthians he deals with that, you know, issue.

But yeah, people can get, you know, all into trying to imitate Jesus, and frequently when they do that, they have some distorted ideas of who Jesus was and what Jesus did. He went on teaching about love and peace and all that. By the way, there are things that Jesus never brought up. And so they'll say, well Jesus never talked about that so it's not important. they'll draw all sorts of conclusions just based on sort of a distorted idea of who Jesus is and what Jesus did and what he was here to do.

Those are the people that acknowledge that he was a great teacher. Yes, he was a great teacher, right? By the way, suppose somebody said he just came to teach peace. What would you say to that or what questions would you ask about that? Yeah, he did. Pardon? He did, to a certain extent. Yeah?

What was his primary purpose? Was that his primary purpose for coming here? Sure, and one was that his primary purpose, and that's a big discussion. I guess I would zero in on, okay, what did he mean when he said, I came not to bring peace but a sword? I would also ask even, here they are on the way to the Garden of Gethsemane, Previously, you didn't carry a purse, and you went around and were unprotected.

He says, from here on out, sell your coat and get a sword. So the character of the ministry is changing, and those things are hard to reconcile with a guy that's just teaching piece, piece, piece, and that's all that matters. So people will look at a selective set of verses, oftentimes, in order to create the Jesus that they prefer, rather than looking at it as what does the Bible say. So we look at it here. Becoming a believer, we said this first. Next, involvement of both the individual and the church body as a whole.

Is it possible for me to be a Lone Ranger Christian? all by myself. Every once in a while I'll just kind of hang out individually. Can I do it? Okay, so what happens is, yes it's possible. So in answer to the question, yes it's possible. Is that what God had in mind?

The answer is no, right? So Jesus says, I'm the vine, you're the branches, and you ever see a vine that's got one branch? It's a very sad vine. It's not going to be maximally fruitful. So it's both individual and church body is the involvement. And then third, toward the end that each believer abides in Christ in dependence upon and intimacy with Christ and loves others in the body of Christ based on abiding in Christ. This matches up with, could I abide in Christ and just not have anything to do with the church body?

Some people think so, right? Some people think so. Is the involvement with the church body the way of expressing fruitfulness? That's a big part of it. It's not all of it, but it's a big part of it. So they go together, just like being an individual versus being part of the church body. God intends both. Let's ask the reverse question. Is it possible that I'm just all about the church? And that happens. That happens.

I knew a pastor some years ago, and he says, I want to have the people in my church just constantly busy so they can't get themselves in trouble. Well, guess what? You know what that means? That means that if you're constantly having them come to church and they don't have any individual time with Christ or any other expression, they're really in trouble, right? Because that's not what God intends either. So God doesn't intend lone ranger Christians. God doesn't intend Christians that are just all about church activity. Some of the messages to the seven churches was, I know what you're doing. I know your deeds. You've got lots of them. However, you've lost your first love. Things like that. Alright, so then we get down to here.

We saw in John 15 and 1 through 9 implied that the believer was in his position. in Christ. So we talked about the identification truths, and so that's one of the things that we pointed out is John 15 and John 17 talk about our being in Christ and Christ in us, but don't explain it. It's really the Apostle Paul's letters that explain it. Even 1 Peter has being in Christ, but it's the Apostle Paul's letters that are the primary places where being in Christ and he and us is explained. Alright, so let's look at the middle of page one there is make disciples. So there's no discussion of when Jesus' command to make disciples, not the Teul, ended. So let's read Matthew 28, 19 and 20 and see if we can answer the question here.

Go therefore, and by the way, does it say go? Pardon? It does say go. But as you're going, right? And so, by the way, so there's not a command to go, it assumes you're going. So that's kind of the sense of it. So it assumes you'll be going, right? And make disciples, that's the imperative.

Make disciples. of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you, and lo, I am with you always." How long? To the end of the age. So this make disciples, was that just for the apostles? No. It was to the end of the age because the apostles are not living to the end of the age, right? So this command was given to the apostles with the idea that it was to be carried on in the church because he's with us always.

So, yes? I still have a problem with reading 1 John and Galatians and several of the other books and it says here, all that I have commanded you. Yes. Okay, so doesn't that also include the things that he was giving to the Jews previous to the Church, because there is no definitive dividing line. So would that not include like the Sermon on the Mount and some of the other things that Jesus taught?

I mean, he was giving them out as commands. Yes, and so what you have to look at is what things were in fact outside of what those commands intended. So, for example, this is all that I've commanded you, but don't have any rabbis, right? And then, all that I've commanded you, and now all of a sudden, don't do the Passover anymore, but do what? I think it is. And so the point being that all that Jesus commanded previously was in the context of talking about, you know, he says, I send you out two by two.

Don't go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Did he intend for them never to go, excuse me, only go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel? Did he intend for them to keep that? Right? No. And so what happens is he added a new set of commandments, right? that he had given to them, and that included, okay, you're not any longer limited to going just to the Lost Sheep and House of Israel, where he even told them in Matthew 10, don't go on a road that leads to the Gentiles. Now, what does he say? He's got a new set here, where it says, you'll be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth, right? And in here, of all the nations, they go out to the Gentiles. And so what you have is a new set of commandments in John 13, 14, 15, and 16 are recorded an entirely new set of things to operate very differently.

He told them, for example, Were they to go out to the lost sheep of the house of Israel right away, or were they to wait until the Holy Spirit would come upon them? Wait until the Holy Spirit would come upon them. So what you find is that there is a significant set of distinctions between what he had commanded them before, and what he had told them that was relevant to the church, and what the church was doing. But I would think that the Holy Spirit would not be telling them something that was opposed to what Jesus had commanded earlier.

Because they have to be, well they don't have to, but they are consistent. And so the doctrine or the gospel goes forward in a consistent manner. What we have here is a matter, this is the principle of comparison and contrast. And this is a principle that, frankly, was not put forward adequately when I went to seminary. I've seen it in very few books, but it's one that is critical.

And you can see both Jesus and the apostles using it. And that is, what's the same and what's different? What's the same and what's different? And so that's where you can look at things that he told them in the Gospels. What's the same? And then you look at the things that are at the end of the Gospels, where Jesus is preparing them for the church age ministry, and things that were given while he was resurrected, but before he ascended. So those things are things that have distinctions. So let's take a point of comparison.

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus told them to forgive. And then he says, or you won't be forgiven. So let's ask this, what's the same? Are you to forgive? Yes. And then when you get into the New Testament, beyond the Gospels, what do you find? is, am I still to forgive? Yes. And so you say that's the same. Forgiving is still, from the Old Testament into the New, a biblical principle. Both. So that's the same. So you say comparison, what's the same or similar? And then the contrast, what's the basis for? Do I forgive because if I don't I won't be forgiven? Or do I forgive because I've been forgiven?

Ephesians 4.32. And so this is the principle.

I would say that people err in the greatest degree by failing to look at, compare, and contrast. And a great number of arguments among believers happen because they fail to compare and contrast. And so one, you get the guy who says, everything Jesus said, we've got to do that. And they fail to look at what's different. And then you'll have those who say, oh, that was Old Testament, and so people completely set aside what Jesus said and what was written in the Old Testament, and they'll set it aside because, oh, that was then, this is now. And so they just start over and neglect everything, and that's wrong too. So the errors come from people who are just kind of looking at everything in the Bible as if it were flat, and no distinction. And in truth you can find things, am I to forgive? Yep, that's some common point both. The motivation and the basis for it is now radically different.

You know, all the things where Jesus, you know, go only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, Matthew chapter 10, a Gentile woman tries to approach him and he says, I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, right? tells them, says of himself, I'm not going to do that. Right in the last week before his crucifixion, some Greeks, Greek-speaking people, at best they're Hellenistic Jews, but probably just God-fearing Greeks, come to the temple and they want to talk to Jesus. They talk to one of the disciples, and Jesus completely ignores them. Is that what he wants the disciples to do? No, not at all. Here's Peter, who not that long later is told, you go up and talk to Cornelius. And all that setting aside of, I don't eat this, just push that aside. Just go up to the house of Cornelius and talk to him. So radical different.

Here's Jesus who observed everything that was in the law. And by the way, why did he observe everything under the law? He fulfilled the law and he couldn't do that by just thumbing his nose at it. He had to fulfill it every applicable job. I don't want to belabor this, but it's an important point. It is an important point. I think we have 30,000 different denominations and a lot of it is because of this.

And if you look at it, what's the whole spectrum? It's people fail to compare and contrast. That's the biggest difference. And I suppose that part of the reason for this is because the Holy Spirit has been given and if you have a relationship and if you read the Word and they want you to read the Word, And if you read the word with the guidance of the Holy Spirit, then you should come away with the difference, right? If you look at the various cults, Jehovah's Witnesses, Mormons, it's all about what you do, right? What's the problem? The focus is on you.

The focus is on us, but they're legal, and the reason that they're legal is they don't compare and contrast. And then you look at a bunch of others that may not necessarily get put into the cults, but we've got everything from the Roman Catholic Church to a lot of reformed folks are still nailed into the law. The Heidelberg Catechism, the Westminster Catechism, and a number of other reformed catechisms focus on that we're sewed into the law, and it's written right in their catechism. We've still got law. Do you know that the Jews and the Roman Catholics and the Orthodox and the Reformed folks have four different versions of the Ten Commandments? Every group is different. How much does it matter? None. None of it matters. It's not even worth arguing about. How do I divide this up? But they have those different versions because they fail to compare and contrast.

Yes? I just want to add, sometimes I think that there's legalism and then there's also anti-legalism. And one's almost as bad as the other. Yeah, if I preach legalism, that's a problem. We're actually going to see that in this main service. Peter says, who am I to stand in God's way by imposing the law? Imposing the law is doing what? Standing in God's way. It's a problem. But the other end is what's called antinomianism. It's just complete lawlessness, unprincipled.

And why, if I say I'm not under the law, but I'm under grace, why is that not unprincipled? What controls my behavior if I completely set the law aside? I've died to the law. makes my behavior not just hog-wild, lawless, unprincipled. One is the Holy Spirit, okay, and is that all? God's grace. Grace is a principle in and of itself, and we have imperatives. Ah, imperatives under grace, so that's key. Is that all?

Galatians 2.20, I have been crucified with Christ, it's no longer I who and I'll expand it, who do the living, but Christ does the living in me.

Does Christ need the law to behave himself? No. Christ does not need the law to behave himself. Christ fulfilled the law. He died under the law so that we would be freed from the law. We died with him so that he does the living instead of us, and he doesn't need any help doing and knowing what's right and what's wrong. Because why? He is the definition of righteousness. If I am dependent completely upon him and it's his life living out in and through me, by the ministry of the Holy Spirit, I don't need the law to help. My attempt to introduce law to help fouls up the works. That's what we're going to see in this passage here today. My attempt to introduce law really messes it up.

Now, if anybody would say, what's the best place in town to get a meal. Or maybe you even have several of them and you say, boy, I have really good meals here and there. Where's the best restaurant in town to get a meal? Any ideas? We have so many allergies. We don't eat out very much. You just don't eat out very much. Yeah, I just can't do it. And I could understand that. I do too. I'll go to a place and sometimes there's only one thing on the menu I can eat. But anyway, yeah. So I understand what you mean. But I mean, if we think about it, what's some of the best meals we have eating out?

Now, if the waiter or waitress came and they said, would you like some arsenic with that? How many would volunteer? First of all, you'd probably walk out or something else like that, right? You'd say, nah, I think I'll do it without the arsenic, right?

Why? It's deadly. Yeah, but it's a good meal. It's gonna kill you. It is the most delicious meal you could ever imagine, but just a tad bit of arsenic is all it takes to have it be your last, right? So, and that's the thing, you look at the law, the law is holy and righteous and good. Romans chapter 7.

I can't be a down on the law guy. God inspired it. The problem is not with the law, the problem is I'm not up to it. Is Christ up to it? Christ doesn't need the law, though he inspired it, Christ doesn't need the law to live righteously. If I am abiding in Christ and living by his life and not my own. I've got no problem. I don't need the law. And not only that, but I'm not the hog-wild antinomian who's just going out there living lawlessly and unprincipled.

Because the very life of Christ is the definition of righteousness. And I was crucified with Christ to get me out of the way. So, but you asked a very good question, and this is the insight, this is not, I need the law to keep me from going hog wild, this is not, we're just going to throw the law out and just go hog wild, this is, I've been crucified with Christ, it's no longer I who do the living, but Christ does living in me, completely compatible with John 15.

Okay, so now, Make disciples of all the nations. So make disciples. Now think about this. Make disciples. So what does that mean? What's the first step in making disciples? Teaching the truth. The gospel. That's number one up above there, right? We've got numbers one, two, and three. So the first step is they need the gospel of salvation.

Which isn't, you know, hey, join Christ's team. Which isn't, what would Jesus do? It's not trying your best to imitate him. Galatians 2.20 isn't, you know, Christ does the living and I try to copy it. I try my best to reproduce it.

Galatians 2.20 is, I've been crucified so that he does the living. His life, not mine.

Making disciples begins with evangelism. Now, how many of you have the gift of evangelism? I need to put my hand down because I don't either. There are some people who have the gift of evangelism. Does that mean that the Lord will never use me in the life of another so that somebody else becomes a believer? That's not the case either.

I can look over the years and see both decades back as well as more recently where the Lord has used me as at least a part of a person's coming to know Him. It's not because I have the gift of evangelism, and it's not because I'm anything, but just that that is the first step.

And of course that's one of the reasons why we repeatedly say here at Holly Hill, here's the gospel that Christ died for your sins, was buried and rose again. And we repeat that, so why? So that you'll know what the gospel is, and that you can tell somebody else. Whether you have the gift of evangelism or not. What is evangelism?

It's not like Big Ten. Pardon? It's not like Big Ten. Well, and I think that's the thing. We tend, especially in our modern era, we tend to say, well, evangelism is where you get 50,000 guys in a stadium, giving the gospel and a bunch of people come down.

That may be one way it gets expressed, but that's on one end. If you look at the book of Acts, there would be three or five thousand, as the numbers that we see, in one day who come to know the Lord. But otherwise the numbers grew and spread and sometimes that was one person at a time. And sometimes it might be a repeated time with one person.

So in one instance it's, you know, here's the gospel and the belief, and other times it might be talk with somebody multiple times before they come to believe. And it may be with or without the gift of evangelism. Yes? And I think part of that also is the motivation when you see someone who is not a believer, that you want them to be a believer.

A lot of people could care less. Yeah, this isn't just what's your preference. Because we're talking about the truth, not just my opinion. or personal preference. I would personally prefer that you believe this and that. So it's not that. But you want them to understand the gospel because it's an eternally pivotal issue. Yes?

I believe that, like you said, some people do have the gift of evangelism. And not everybody does. But everybody is called to evangelize. Yes. In other words, we look at it, the gift of evangelism is something where someone is gifted with that. But that's why we don't have, here's our evangelism group. We tell everybody at Holly Hills, here's the gospel, because as the Lord provides you opportunity, you can pass that along. And so everybody has an opportunity to share.

So I can testify in my own case. I don't believe I have the gift of evangelism, and yet I can look over time and see both decades back, as well as in recent years, where the Lord has used me to pass the gospel along. It isn't about me. It's about the truth. So how does one know if they have to give an answer? With that we're getting into a bigger question. And it is a very, very good question. We just won't have time to cover it. But we will be covering it before the end of this year. Because starting next month, we'll be looking at things with regards to the church. And so the gifts will be one of those things we'll be talking about.

Oh no! Well that's terrible! You can't! Okay, alright, okay. So, making disciples continues after evangelism, okay? Is evangelism important? Yes. It has to be first. You can't skip over it, can you? You can't skip over it. It is absolutely essential. But now, what we're doing here is actually just giving you some brief samples because we could actually spend many more weeks on this, and in fact we will, but that's under the church column here.

So one of the things that we see repeatedly in the New Testament, especially, but not exclusively, in the letters of Paul, is three words, and we have them on page two in the upper block there, words in the Greek New Testament that speak of copying the life of another. And so we have one which is translated follow, and you might recognize this sort of mimic term, here from English, mimeo mai, is translated follow. The next one related to it, obviously, mimitis, in the Greek New Testament, is to imitate something about another person in a positive way. And then the next thing is to be or follow a pattern or example. In the Greek word there is tupos.

So the word was used of a stamping die, where they would take something and say, OK, now I've got something here. Maybe it says, all right, I've got 20 metal objects, and I want to stamp my name on it. I would go bang and hit that, and it would put an impression in the metal that it would stamp my name. So that would be a two-pass, right?

And so that is used in the New Testament. And so what do we have? We have directions to follow someone. We have directions to imitate. And by the way, is that an acting job? Is that superficial imitate someone? It's not external imitation. It's not external imitation. So here's 1 Corinthians 4, 14 through 17 at the top of page two.

I do not write these things to shame you, but to admonish you as my beloved children. For if you were to have countless tutors in Christ, yet you would not have many fathers. For in Christ Jesus, I became your father through the gospel. Therefore, I exhort you, be imitators of me. Is Paul being egotistical? Why would he say, be imitators of me, and it's not egotistical? Ah, so here's the next one and it's written to the same people, 1 Corinthians 11 1, be imitators of me just as I also am of Christ. So the only reason that the Apostle Paul can say to follow or to be imitators or follow my example, any of those words, the only reason he can do that is he says I also am of Christ. That's the only way it makes sense.

By the way, is it possible that people can follow somebody else, even in a church, and try to imitate them, and it doesn't fulfill the biblical directive? It's possible, isn't it? And I've seen it happen. I've been at one church where everybody tried to copy one particular pastor, and multiple pastors, they tried to copy a particular pastor, even down to the mannerisms of the hand. As if it would help. Yeah, and that's not what God has in mind, right? So one of the things is, be imitators of me as I also am of Christ, and that is, my imitation is not to imitate them, and that's the end. My imitation is ultimately aimed at Christ. Yes? And I also want to add that false life was evident even though he said it they could see. Like sometimes maybe a pastor or a leader might not be living in accordance to God's word. We don't have to imitate them, but false life could tell.

And in Galatians, for example, here's Paul and he confronts Peter. Peter, you're not setting the right example because you're being separate as if you hadn't dealt with this issue of separation from the Gentiles. You're separating yourselves again. Don't fall into that, Peter. And so Peter says, oh yeah. Is that what he says? Peter responds to him and says, you're right. So let's look at the next one. 1 Thessalonians 1, 6 and 7.

By the way, this was written when the church of Thessalonica was only a few weeks old. It says, You also became imitators of us and of the Lord, having received the word in much tribulation with joy of the Holy Spirit, so that you became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and Achaia. So here's an interesting thing. They've only been believers a few weeks when he writes this. You became imitators of me and of the Lord. And you turned around and became an example when you were only a few weeks old to others in that area.

It's pretty neat. It's pretty cool. These guys, do they have some things to learn? Oh, a whole bunch. But they're catching on. And he's pointing out where they are learning, and they are growing. Here's the next one, 2 Thessalonians 3, 7-9. For you yourselves know how you ought to follow our example. So there's two of those words.

Follow our example because we did not act in an undisciplined manner among you. And by the way, this deals with Stan's question. It's not undisciplined. among you, nor did we eat anyone's bread without paying for it. We weren't being dependent upon people unnecessarily, but with labor and hardship we kept working night and day so that we would not be a burden to any of you, not because we do not have a right to this, but in order to offer ourselves as a model for you so that you would follow our example.

See that? So, and by the way, this I'm bringing out, is this the be all and end all of being a disciple? No, it's one aspect. So as I'm doing this, I'm not talking about all the things that could be involved with being a disciple and learning and being an example for others and all that, but it's part of it.

So what you have here is this table at the bottom on the left of page 2, and it shows all these scripture passages from Paul and then on into Hebrews, 1 Peter, 3 John, talking about follow and imitate and example, and some of them even have two of them in the same passage. So this is a consistent New Testament teaching. The New Testament doesn't just have a couple here and there, but this is a consistent New Testament teaching, and it wasn't just Paul's teaching, it wasn't just Peter's teaching, this was something that many of the authors of the New Testament in different contexts, expressed.

I think that's because it speaks to our human nature a little bit in that we learn so much by imitating. You think about a little baby and they learn an entire language. in the first two or five years of life by imitating. And I think that's our tendency as even adults. Bad company corrupts good morals. By the way, that reference to children and learning, you're right on. That's 1st and 2nd Thessalonians. He makes specific reference to this is a pattern and it's a parenting insight.

What are kids learning from me? And even do the kids recognize when I'm following and trusting and depending upon the Lord and not? It's another plug for being conformed to the, not being conformed to the pattern of this world, but being transformed by the renewal of your mind. It's a quote that you said, if you're not teaching your children the world's is going to with everything that they see, hear, and anywhere on the side.

And frankly the world is really good at communicating their perspectives and values and all that and so we very explicitly need to communicate these things. And even if we don't have kids, we often have nieces, nephews, a lot of times we'll have opportunities for influence there. I know in my case, there were some very influential uncles, aunts, grandparents in my life. That is a big difference. Yes?

I was going to say, I think they understood that sometimes you learn easier from seeing than you do from hearing. Because it seems like in the gospel, they give you the command to hear and to behold. But the one to look and to see and to imitate, that's the important one. Because you learn quicker and probably deeper by seeing something than you do by hearing it. Here's something I would point out. And I don't know if I'll have a chance to get to it.

Philippians 4.9, four different verbs, talking about hearing and seeing and all these things.

So Philippians 4.9 would be an instance where the hearing and the seeing and the learning are all active voice, four verbs, active voice. Those things that you've heard and seen in me, put them into practice and the God of peace will be with you. So it isn't just you go out and do it, delegated, but as you do so, God will be with you in the doing of it. Okay, so let's take a look at this last page here, top of page 3.

The model used throughout Acts and the Epistles was for the apostles and those they trained to use the full range of training approaches once the people had become believers. Teaching, training, counseling, urging them to see and to hear. being examples, instructing them to follow, so the full range of means of getting the message across. And think of it, especially with parents, parents have available to them a full range of teaching and training opportunities. And it isn't just, I'm going to take my kids to Sunday school. It doesn't mean you shouldn't, but I'm just saying that there is a full range of opportunities to convey these things and to get them across. And again, when I talk about kids, certainly the parenting principle is there, but there's also opportunities for grandparents, aunts, uncles to also have an influence. And that's something to consider. Let's look at the bottom of page three. We talk about the vine and the branches.

So what is our discipleship aimed at? If I go to seminary and get a doctorate degree from seminary, have I fulfilled what discipleship is aimed at? No. If I go and say, we have the greatest Sunday school people, everything, and all you've got to do is go to that Sunday School program and when your kids come out, they'll have everything they need. Is that correct? Now, if I have a kid, and boy, they've got their Bible memorized, and they've got everything all put in place in their mind, they've got it all down, will that be sufficient? Is that what we're aiming towards? Now, I might be able to spit out verses, I might be able to do all the right things, I might have gone to church, all that is aimed towards what?

Growing you. Growing you? Becoming you. In other words, here, look at me. Since I'm the vine, you're the branches, abide in me and I in you. That's ultimately what it's aimed towards. My personal knowledge of And that's not just knowledge about. My personal knowledge of Christ Himself. Intimacy with and dependence upon Him. Essentially, even in raising kids, that's what I'm aiming for. I want them to be not just fully functioning adults, but I want them to know a personal dependence upon and intimacy with Christ.

As we look down at Ephesians 4, and this is the Darby translation. Darby had some things, John Nelson Darby, back in the 1800s, had some insights that were really breakthrough, and I think he does well here. In verse 20, but ye have not thus learned This is the verb for disciple, learning as a disciple, the Christ, the Messiah. If you have heard him and been instructed in him, according as truth is in Jesus. So our instruction is just not about him, it's consistent with our position in him and living that way. Colossians 3, 1-4 Therefore, if you've been raised up with Christ, and that's not if, casting doubt, or if, perhaps, but if, and it's assumed to be true, been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above.

Where Christ is, see that the right hand of God set your mind on things above. You may have heard it said, you know, he was so heavenly minded he had no, you know, he did no earthly good. What I would say is the opposite. In order to do any earthly good at all, you have to be heavenly minded. In order to do any earthly good at all, you have to be heavenly minded.

So these are key things, and that's where discipleship is aimed. As we come here to Holly Hills, one of the hazards is somebody gets their head all full of stuff. but doesn't end up with an intimate relationship with the Lord, doesn't end up with intimate fellowship with the Lord. The hazard is that we know a lot of stuff, and we've got our doctrine all down correct. Because discipleship is aimed not at knowing a lot of stuff, and getting our Bible down the path and getting a whole bunch of stuff organized in our head and memorized and all that.

But in the end, it has to do with our personal, intimate fellowship and dependence upon the Lord. Brought up time? Let's pray. Lord, thank you for your Word. Thank you for these very choice words out of Scripture. that certainly direct ways in which we learn and even ways in which we're involved in helping others learn. But always very clearly pointing us toward intimacy and dependence upon and fellowship with you. And we just thank you for that dear and precious and special insight. that you want us all to know and to live out and to understand. We pray in Jesus name. Amen.