The Biblical Formula for Spiritual Change

Brethren, you and I have been greatly blessed by a very gracious, loving father, elder brother Jesus Christ, as they have called us at a time that's best for you and best for me. We come from a number of different backgrounds, different nationalities, different educational backgrounds, social backgrounds, what you name it. We are a mixed group, but there is one unmistakable tie that binds all of us together. Well, there are several. I'm going to talk about one today. One of these ties that bind us together is our heartfelt desire to come to understand, and then once we understand, to live by every word of God, as revealed in the Scriptures. We are, you are, we all are, people of the book. As Christians, God's Word plainly tells us their ultimate nourishment is from God. It's not from a booklet. It's not from this or that other source. It's from God. Jesus Christ said it best over here in Matthew 4. If you would, please turn with me to Matthew 4.

Matthew 4 and in verse 4, but He answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. Every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. As you and I have fully embraced our calling, as we have vigorously acted on that calling, we have personally experienced a great many spiritual highs as we've studied the Bible, as we've lived according to what the Bible tells us we should be doing. So I've got a question for us. Does God give us a procedure or a process in the Scriptures, a special process, a special procedure that will allow us to grow even more as we continue to read His Word and study His Word?

The answer to that question is yes, He has. Today we want to take a look at this particular procedure, this particular process, formula, if you will, and look at the mechanics of it. See how it works. See how you and I can better apply this formula to our life. It's a scriptural formula, and the end result is what we heard today in a sermonette in Jack's message. Jack made a number of points that I want to emphasize as I go through my message today. Let's go over to Ephesians chapter 4. Once again, he was there before. Ephesians chapter 4. To me, this is one of the great Scriptures of all the Bible.

It is so meaty. There's so much here. Ephesians chapter 4, verse 13, "'Til we all come to the unity of the faith." To the unity of the faith. Now, that would include a unity with God, our Father, and Jesus Christ, our elder brother. This is something that we want to be unified, to be at one with them. We read about that. We talk about that every year at Passover, don't we, in other times of the year. "'Til we come to the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God." Brother, this knowledge is not just an academic knowledge.

The knowledge we are looking at here is a knowledge that we experience because we live it. We live what the Bible says. We live it. We breathe it. And we've got a knowledge. You know, when somebody says, do you know so-and-so? Well, you might have an academic guess. This is his name. This is his address. This is his phone number. This is his email address. That's a certain level of knowledge. But when you have meal after meal, when you're there in the good times, in the hard times, in that person's life, then you know them. And that's what this is talking about.

A knowledge of Jesus Christ. A real knowledge, an in-depth knowledge of the Son of God. And then, notice the very end here. To a mature individual, a mature man, a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Jesus Christ. If there is a section of Scripture that gives us our walking orders, our mission, it would be this one for sure. A mature individual, and we're mature as we measure up to the stature of the fullness of Jesus Christ. So, brethren, what is the formula that I see in Scriptures that I want to examine with you today?

Let's turn over to 2 Timothy chapter 3. And as you turn there, please put a marker in your Bible, because we are going to go to that section over and over again. We'll go other places, but we'll keep on returning to 2 Timothy chapter 3. 2 Timothy chapter 3. Let's start here in verse 15. Let me read it, and then we'll take the rest of the sermon to analyze this very special, this very unique formula that God has, the process that God has here for us.

2 Timothy chapter 3 verse 15. And that from childhood you have known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith, which is in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God might be complete, thoroughly furnished for every good work.

So there you have it. There is a lot of meat in that section of Scripture, and we want to take a look at that today. In general, as you take a look at those few verses, you see two major thrusts. Number one, that the Scriptures are able. You see that in verse 15. That the Holy Spirit, which they're able to make you wise. In other words, in a very positive way, the Scriptures enable us. Typically we tend to think about enabling as a negative thing.

This is a positive thing here. The Scriptures enable us. In the word able, able to make us wise. The word able there literally comes from a Greek word meaning powerful. You know, dynamite comes from this word. Dynamic comes from this word powerful. The Scriptures are powerful to make people wise for salvation. Now, as I said, put a marker here. Let's see the same thought over here in Hebrews chapter 4. Hebrews chapter 4 and verse 12. Hebrews 4 12. For the Word of God is living and powerful. It is literally alive, vibrant, full of life.

For the Word of God is living and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit and of joints of morrow and as a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. A lot in that verse as well, but we just want to key in on the idea of the power of God's Word. Now, the word powerful here. The Word of God is living and powerful. The word powerful here, if you were to look at this word in the Greek, it looks just like our word energy.

From Vines' expository dictionary, it says this word means full of power to achieve results. Full of power. God's Word is full of power to achieve results. And what results do we want to achieve? Well, let's go back to where we were reading.

It's in 2 Timothy chapter 3. God's Word is full of power to do what it says in verse 16.

To give us an understanding of doctrine, of reproof, of correction, for instruction and righteousness, that we may be complete. God's Word is powerful to do that. It's full of energy. Now, a second thing we see from this section of 2 Timothy chapter 3, verses 15 through 17, we see, verse 16, that there are four steps here, four different stages.

Doctrine, reproof, correction, and instruction and righteousness. That, brethren, is our formula. It's God's formula. It's not mine. It's not yours. It's not some theologian someplace.

God inspired this book to be written. And just as God inspired this book to be written, God inspired you and I, as we read this book, to be spiritually energized, to be spiritually enlightened, to be spiritually empowered to do the things of God. Let's now take a look and dissect and drill down a little deeper into this whole section. Let's go back to verse 15, 2 Timothy 3, verse 15.

And that from childhood you've known the holy scriptures. The word holy means sacred, means consecrated to God. In other words, the information that God gives us, the counsel that God gives us, the flows from the Bible is unique. It's utterly unique to the great God. It's not any kind of run-of-the-mill sort of counsel. It's sacred counsel. It comes from God. It's God's process. And as you and I employ God's process, we get the benefits of that process. It produces change. God doesn't say he's going to work through any other process, but what he has here in his scriptures. This is the process by which he works.

And he's given us a holy Bible, a whole, the holy set of scriptures, sacred, consecrated to God.

And so that's something that we should keep in mind as we open our Bibles on a daily basis and take a look at what is there. Verse 17, I'm skipping around just a little bit, 2 Timothy chapter 3 and verse 17. That the man of God may be complete. That the man of God may be complete.

The various lexicons I've got available at home say that this word complete can represent fitted or equipped, proficient, and able to meet all demands. You live in a very demanding world. There are a great many demands on you as you go through life.

And as you and I study the Word of God and tap into what we have here, the scriptures are able to properly equip us, properly fit us out, properly help us meet demands that are put upon us on a regular basis. It says there at the very end that the man of God may be complete, but the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped. Again, it says rigged out. Could it be, brethren? I just say this as an example, but could it be as Paul was writing this to young Timothy, realizing all that he was going to be going through in life? He had to go through a number of voyages in his life, traveling by ship to this point, to that point, and as he was traveling he realized that these ships didn't just sail with no backup plan. They always carried spare canvas. They would carry extra lumber in case there was some sort of happening at sea, you know, a storm or something, where they had to make repair at sea. So they stowed on board that which was needed to make repair.

Could it be when Paul was thinking about we as Christians that he was thinking that God has stowed in this book what we need for the various times that come upon us? Good times, bad times. It's all stowed right here. We're completely rigged out. We're completely fitted for life's journey.

And the pages of the Scripture are every principle. Now, not every, you know, the Bible is not a book on aerodynamics or something like that, but the Bible is a book full of Christian living principles. And every principle you and I would need are stowed right here in this book so that you and I can live up to every good work, as it says there in verse 17, every good work.

Let's summarize where we've come to at this point because I've not started even to get to the heart of this section of Scripture. What have we learned to this point? We've learned that the Scriptures are sacred writings. They're unique because they come from God. They have unique power because they come from God. They have unique authority because they come from God. We've realized that these Scriptures are able to make us wise for salvation. They show us in a world that needs a lot of help to understand which way is up. These Scriptures show us which way is up. We don't have to go through life in a fog. We've got God to lead us in His book. The Holy Bible does just that for us. We've come to understand that we can be complete and thoroughly equipped as we understand the Scriptures. And because of that, we're ready for every good work. So now let's turn our attention to the heart and core of these three verses, which is in verse 16. Verse 16, "'Cause all Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable, and four items are made mentioned of here—doctrine, reproof, correction, and instruction in righteousness." As I was doing my research and going through what the words made here in the original tongues, looking at the various lexicons, there's another way you can state these four areas. Number one would be teaching. Number two, convicting. Number three, correction. And number four, instruction in righteousness. The last two are very much the same. But let's take a look at each of these four items one by one. Number one, teaching. It says, "'All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for teaching.'" For teaching. You know, Jack made comment in his message earlier today that, you know, let's study the parables. Let's dig down, drill down deep into what God has for us there. If you've never done it, that's a tremendous study all by itself. I forget how many parts I gave, but years ago, back in Michigan, I gave a multi-part sermon on each of the parables. It took us many weeks to go through all those. Great deal of meat. But when you're going through those, you see the mind of Jesus Christ at work. You begin to see the mechanics of how he thinks, how we should think, since he is our ultimate example. So let's take a look at Jesus Christ now in terms of teaching. John chapter 5. John chapter 5.

Verse 19, Then Jesus answered and said to them, Most assuredly I say to you, the Son can do nothing of himself but what he sees the Father do. For whatever he does, the Son also does in like manner.

For the Father loves the Son and shows them all things that he himself does, and he will show them yet greater works than these, that you may marvel. So Jesus Christ follows God's lead by doing the things of God. If we want to be properly taught and use these scriptures the way they were designed to be used, then we want to study the life of Jesus Christ, the life of the apostles, the life of the men and women of God, and we want to do what they did, understand the principles, employ those principles in our life as they did in theirs. That's proper teaching. That's proper discipleship as we're being taught. John chapter 8. John chapter 8.

And verse 26.

I have many things to say and to judge concerning you, but he who sent me is true, and I speak to the world those things which I have heard from him. They did not understand that he spoke to them of the Father. Then Jesus said to them, When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am He, that I do nothing of myself, but as my Father taught me, I speak these things. And he who sent me is with me, and the Father has not left me alone, for I always do those things that please Him. So again, if we want to be pleasing to God, and we do, all of us do. I know you as much as I can for two months of being your pastor, but in my conversations with you as individuals, I know you've got a heart to want to understand this Word and live by this Word. And so we want to follow God's lead as Christ followed God's lead by doing the things He saw God do. In our case, we want to do the things we see Christ do, and we want to follow Christ's lead by as Christ spoke when He heard the Father speak. We want to do the same thing. How did Jesus Christ approach that? How did Jesus Christ speak to people?

And there in John chapter 8, verse 31, then Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him, the believers, if you abide in my Word, you are also my disciples indeed. If you abide in my Word, if you live in the Word, you live it, you study it, you analyze it, you put it into effect in your life. And, brethren, that's so much a part of the key. This whole idea of educating ourselves and the doctrine of the church and the doctrine of the Scriptures, God wants us to have a hands-on relationship with the truth. You and I have wondered why a number of years ago, 80 to 90 percent of those we were fellowshiping with back in those days left us.

In my life, all of my closest friends in the ministry, every single one of my closest friends, stayed with the other group. And some of these fellows I thought really understood the Scriptures. But you know what? Not really. Not unless God gave them the spirit of deception.

God doesn't want us to have an academic approach to the truth. He wants us to have an interactive approach with the truth, that we study it, that we learn it, that we put into effect in our life. We see the value of it. We see the mechanics in it. We don't want to just relate to our teacher. We want to be like our teacher. We want to desire and deeply crave an understanding and a practical working knowledge of God's way of life. And that can only be done by putting it into action.

So when we're talking about teaching, we're not talking about just sitting down in a room someplace taking notes. Whether it be for you or for me. We're talking about teaching. We're talking about all of us looking at this as we're studying individually and saying, this is going to change my life. Today I'm going to learn something that's going to change the way I think or act or whatever. Galadians chapter 1.

9. Beautiful. There's so much meat in the Scriptures.

Galadians chapter 1 verse 9. For this reason, we also say the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, the power of prayer through the Holy Spirit. We do not cease to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding. How do you get the knowledge of his will? We receive the knowledge of our will as we study the Scriptures, as God allows us to be taught, to be educated. That you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding. And notice, once you have that understanding and have the proper kind of spiritual wisdom, verse 10, that you may walk worthy of the Lord. There's a cycle here. We study, we come to understand, we come to see, we come to see, and then we begin to walk. It's an interactive approach. We take what we've learned and we put it into effect. You can have a beautiful car, the keys to the car. You can put the keys in where it needs to be if your car works that way, or you've got to push a button. But you've got to do something to start and then you've got to put it in gear. Brethren, we need to put it in gear, all of us, you, me, all of us, that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing him. So we learn, we do. And as we learn and do, we please. And then notice the end of verse 10.

Notice the end of verse 10. That you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing him. Now, notice the rest here. Being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God. So you've got this beautiful cycle that takes place here. We learn, we do. God is pleased. God says, just like you with with as you're raising children, and we are God's kids, since they are now learning and accepting and taking responsibility, I'm going to give them more knowledge. And then the whole cycle starts anew. We have more knowledge. We act on that knowledge. God pleases God. We're blessed. He gives us more. Brethren, isn't that the way that you came into the church? That you began to understand one little piece here and one little piece there. And as you began to understand, God gave you more and more until today you're right here. You've been keeping the Sabbath for years, the Holy Days for years, tithing for years. But it wasn't for many of you, not all of you, some of you were raised in the church. But for some of us, that was totally foreign to me. I wasn't raised in the church. Some of you were. That was a tremendous benefit. Okay, so item number one in this formula is teaching or doctrine. We go back to 2 Timothy chapter 3 verse 16.

All scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for teaching or doctrine. Number one, we've covered that. Now, number two, reproof. Reproof.

Strongs would say that word could also be rendered as convict or conviction. Conviction.

Conviction is a deep understanding, a deep acknowledgement that our way is not the correct way. That God's way and only God's way is the correct way.

You and I will never change unless we're convicted of something.

I won't ask for a showing of hands. How many people here have tried to lose weight?

My hand would be higher than all of yours. First of all, because I'm on a stage.

But second of all, because I've tried it so many times.

Sometimes I'm successful. Sometimes I'm not so successful. Before Mary and I were married, she taught me about a particular diet that she was using and to great effect. And I said, well, I'll give that a shot. And I needed to get my doctors okay first, because it could have some effects on the body that may not be the best. So I took some blood work and said, okay, we'll use this as a baseline. Come back in a few weeks. Let's see how you're doing.

So I did that. There was no problem. I continue on with the diet. Five months, I lost 55 pounds.

We got married. Five months, I put it all back on.

So, unless you ever thought your pastor was perfect, not hardly. Not hardly. But, you know, unless now I am convicted right now, you know, they open up your chest, spread those ribs out, stop your heart, put you on a machine. That tends to get your attention. So since the since August 28th last year, when I had my open-heart surgery, where I'm almost coming up on a year now, I've lost 35 pounds. I'm halfway to my goal.

I tell you that because I want you to I'm what do they call that?

Accountability. Whoever said that. I'm being accountable. I'm being accountable. I'm being accountable to my congregation.

And two things will help me lose that extra 35 pounds.

Character or vanity.

One of the two is going to win out. Either way, I'll lose the 35 pounds.

But again, brethren, unless we are convicted, we aren't going to do anything. We've got to be convicted that not only what we're doing is not just bad taste or inconvenient or counterproductive. There are things in our life that you and I have to admit and be convicted that are flat out wrong. Ways of thinking, ways of living, ways of doing. These things just have to go.

Conviction is essential to godly change.

God teaches us where we need to be. He convicts us of where we're at. That's where we are here in the process. He convicts us of where we're at.

Some people, and we all have our blind spots, don't we? Let's take a look at Revelation 3. There's a whole group of people at the end of the age who've got very big blind spots.

Revelation 3.

Revelation 3, verse 14. And to the angel of the church of the Laodiceans, these things says the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God. Verse 15. Revelation 3.15. I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish that you were cold or hot. So then because you are lukewarm and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of my mouth. Because you say, I am rich and become wealthy and have need of nothing. And do not know.

Are not convicted. Do not know.

That you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked. Talking about their spiritual condition. They just weren't seeing it. They had a blind spot. They weren't convicted that they needed to change.

Verse 18. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined into fire. That you may be rich and with white arrangements, that you might be clothed. That the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed. That you anoint your eyes with eyesab that you may see. In other words, we need to take a good look at where we are from the point of view of the scriptures.

Verse 19. As many as I love, I convict.

In the original. It can be reviewed. It could be any number of words. But one of the words this could be is, I can convict. I convict and chasten. Therefore be zealous and repent. Brethren, how do you and I become convicted?

God, in his great love for all of us, has given us a number of ways by which you and I can be convicted. We can be convicted by God's Holy Spirit. I'm not going to turn there, but in your notes you might want to jot down John 16.

John 16, verses 6-8.

Convicted by God's Holy Spirit. We've already read Hebrews 4-12, where we can become convicted by God's Word, the Bible.

We can be convicted by God's servants.

Here in the Chicago area, those fellows who give sermonettes, those fellows who give sermons or split sermons.

We see that in 2 Timothy, chapter 4, verses 2-4.

2 Timothy 4, verses 2-4. And certainly, brethren, we can be convicted by others of God's people.

Some of the greatest correction I've received in my life has been by the hands of God's people. They may not have been ordained to any capacity. You don't have to be ordained to a capacity to be a tremendously spirit-filled Christian, a tremendous tool in the hands of God. I've known plenty of people over the years, in good times and in bad, that boy, when times are really bad, I wanted to get near them, talk to them, make sure that I understood things, especially as I was new in the faith, you know, many, many years ago.

You've got Matthew 18 you can cite there. You've got Galatians chapter 6 that you can cite there.

You know, those who are strong support those who are weak, and so forth. So there's any number of ways we can become convicted.

Let's move on now to the third area, going back to 2 Timothy chapter 3 again.

2 Timothy chapter 3 and verse 16, where it says, All scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine. We said teaching for reproof, or I said convicting, or for correction. Correction is where we're at right now. Correction.

In that particular word, again, as you go through the various lexicons that you may have available to you there at home, I like to use theres quite a bit.

This is very interesting.

When you and I think about correction, there's probably something we've got in mind. But what does God have in mind? When he's using this word correction. The idea behind this particular Greek word is to stand something up.

To stand something up, or to make something stand again. Something's fallen, something's been knocked out of kilter, something's been knocked out of base, out of line, and the idea here is God is going to stand it up, make it upright, make it the way it should be, and so forth. God shows us what we should be doing, number one. Number two, convicts us that we're not there. And then number three says, you know what, I'm not going to just leave you with the problem. I'm going to show you how, with my help, with your study of the word, we can set this situation upright.

God's process for change is very positive. God doesn't just want us to identify our sin and get it out of our lives. God wants us to realize we have his help.

To right the wrongs, to stand us up again, to put us on the proper track.

To put us on the proper check.

God will not only educate us about his will, convict us of our failures, but also, so importantly, God will bring us back into harmony with himself. And that's what this step is all about. Bringing us back into harmony with himself.

And that's what you and I have dedicated ourselves to doing.

Let's take a look at Luke chapter three for a moment.

Luke chapter three.

Starting on verse seven.

Luke chapter three and verse seven.

Then he said to the multitudes that came to him to be baptized by him, brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come. Therefore bear fruits worthy of repentance.

And do not begin to say to yourselves, we have Abraham as our father, for I say to you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones. Notice, verse eight, bear fruits worthy of repentance.

Again, the Greek word there is metanoia.

Don't expect you to necessarily write that one down. It's Strong's number 3341. Metanoia. It's an interesting definition of this word, again, from Thayer's Greek lexicon.

Let me read you the definition of this particular word of repentance.

You know, correction. And see what it says here. This is from Thayer's Greek lexicon. Quote, The change of mind of those who have begun to abhor their errors and misdeeds have determined to enter upon a better course of life so that it embraces a recognition of sin, sorrow for it, and a hearty amendment, the token and effects of which are good deeds.

Now, when you take a look at that definition of metanoia, and you understand where we've come to in this point of the sermon, let's read that definition again.

Repentance. Metanoia. Quote, The change of mind of those who have begun to abhor their errors and misdeeds have determined to enter upon a better course of life so that it embraces a recognition of sin.

That's where the teaching comes in.

We see what God has as his standards.

Number two. Once we see that, we have sorrow for it. That's number two.

A conviction.

And then number three, it says here, a hearty amendment, the tokens and effects of which are good deeds. Repentance. Change. Correction.

This is all what God is looking for us to be doing.

And we want the real deal. We don't want the false deal. Let's take a look at 2 Corinthians 7.

2 Corinthians chapter. You know, when Paul was working with the church there in Corinth, it was a very troubled church.

Very troubled church.

One of the most corrective letters Paul ever had to write was 1 Corinthians.

The reason we've got a 2 Corinthians is a large measure because of what Paul said in 1 Corinthians.

But notice something here in 2 Corinthians chapter 7.

Verse 9.

It says, Now I rejoice, now that you were made sorry, but that your sorrow led to metanoia, that your sorrow led to that kind of deep repentance. For you were made sorry in a godly manner, that you might suffer loss from us and nothing.

For godly sorrow produces repentance, metanoia, leading to salvation not to be regretted, but the sorrow of the world produces death. So, brethren, you've got a gold standard here, and you've got a fool's standard here. You've got real repentance, you've got real metanoia, and you've got what the world would have, where they want to do penance or whatever you want to call that. But it's not from the heart, and their lives are not changed, their lives are not amended.

So we want the real deal, the real thing. How do we know what that is? Verse 11. Verse 11.

For observe this very thing, you sorrowed in a godly manner.

And then the middle portion of verse 11 gives you seven different fruits of what true metanoia is, what true repentance and correction does for the believer.

Somewhere down in the future, I'll give a sermon on that one verse, probably during the days of Unleavened Bread as they come up. We've read this in the past, and it's the short time I've been here. But here we've got seven different fruits. And if you are looking at your life and wondering how much change have you made in certain areas of your life, you take a look at the core of verse 11 there, and you ask yourself on a scale from zero to 100, where you are with these seven fruits.

Diligence.

Clearing of yourselves. Indignation. Fear. Viamite desire. Zeal. And in my new King James says, vindication. If you've got a King James on your lap, it says, revenge, which I feel is a better translation. Revenge meaning you're going to turn your back on Satan.

Notice the end of verse 11. And all these things—what things? Those seven areas. And all these things, you've proved yourselves to be clear in this matter. What matter? The matter of whether you've got proper repentance or not.

So, in that formula, we see that God teaches us, that God convicts us, that God corrects us.

But, you know, if God left us there, we can feel pretty miserable that God doesn't leave us there. Let's go back one last time to 2 Timothy 3, 16.

All scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for teaching, for convicting, for correction, and lastly, for an instruction in righteousness. Or, as some of the other lexicons would have, disciplined training in righteousness. Disciplined training in righteousness. Again, you go back and you go to whatever lexicons you want to use—I've got any number of them in the various Bible programs I've got on computer back. I should say, back in the room, I would say back home, but right now Mary and I are homeless, so we can't say that.

But the idea is, this word here for instruction is the whole training and education of children, or training and cultivating proper action by adults. So the idea here is training, and of course the training for us would be training in righteousness. Proper training in righteousness. If we stopped with this verse, with step number three, then we'd have a void. We've been taught, we've been convicted, we've got out the wrong. But then if we stopped there, people might say, well, God's way doesn't work. God's way is temporary. No. God shows us. He gives us then instruction.

More teaching. This is the way that does work. Here's how we do it.

Here's how we do it. Now, God's instruction for us as His children is seen in a couple of different ways. Let's turn to Ephesians 6.

Ephesians 6 and verse 4.

Here we're going to mine, we're going to grab some of the principles we see here.

Ephesians 6 and verse 4. And you, fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord. Bring them up in the word here for instruction is pidea. Pidea. And that means nurture. So one of the ways God instructs His children, as we see here, fathers are not to provoke their children to wrath, but to bringing them up in the nurturing. You know, if you go to different translations, if you've got a number of translations, many times that's very helpful in understanding what a verse is getting at. In the King James, it would say nurturing. In the Young's literal translation, that phrase would be nourish them up in the instruction. Nourish them up in the Weymouth translation. Bring them up tenderly with true Christian training. So here we see what God is wanting to get across, how He can work with us. How we're going to respond is, you know, then God has got to work with how we respond to Him.

Are we going to accept correction and make change when God nurtures us, nourishes us, works with us tenderly? That's between you and I and our great God. It says here, you know, verse 4, you fathers do not provoke your children, but bring them up, again, from Thayer's, to nourish them up to maturity. Nurture them up or nourish them up to maturity. And admonish admonition of the Lord, putting them in mind of God's way.

Now, that's one way God can deal with us. The second way God deals with us, we find over here in Hebrews 12. I'm sure I understand where I'm going to turn, Hebrews 12. You know, we can either have the carrot or the stick, depending upon you, depending upon the way I handle life.

Sometimes I've allowed God to nurture me. Sometimes God's had to use a stick. Probably the same thing is true in your life as well.

Hebrews 12, verse 5. And you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks to you as the sons, my son, do not despise the pidea, the instruction. Same word we saw in 2 Timothy 3, verse 16. My son, do not despise the chastening of the Lord, nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by him for whom the Lord loves he chastens and scourges every son whom he receives.

If we endure a chastening, God deals with us as sons. For what son is there whom the father doesn't chasten? But if you are without chastening, in which all of us have become partakers, then you are illegitimate and not sons. But notice dropping down to verse 10, talking about human fathers. For they indeed for a few days chastened us as seen best to them, but God for our prophet that we may be partakers of his holiness.

So that's part of the process. Teaching, convicting, correction, instruction. Are we going to take instruction in a nurturing way? Or do we choose the stick? That's sometimes very much up to us. Probably almost all the time up to us. Verse 11, Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful. Nevertheless, afterward it yields a peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.

Brethren, today we've taken a look at a very specific process, a very specific procedure that is outlined in Scripture. We see it in 2 Timothy chapter 3 verses 15 through 17.

If you and I look at that, understand it, live by it, then you and I can be tremendously blessed as God's people. If we neglect it, then we're just simply not going to grow like we would like to grow. If you have asked yourself and times gone by, why aren't I growing like I should?

And as a minister, I get that question quite frequently from people. I remember years and years ago, this was back when I was living in the Detroit area, I was in sales, I was not a minister, I was doing my thing as a salesman. A member came up to me and said, well, Randy, he said, you've been to Ambassador College, I want to ask you a question. I've been in a church 19 years, and I feel after being in a church 19 years, I should be 19 years down the road.

He says, but in my life, I feel like as though I've lived one year 19 times.

I'm not down there. I've done this 19 times.

Haven't all of us felt that way in various areas of our life? There are areas in all of our lives, I'm sure, where we have really grown and excelled and overcome, but then there are other areas in our life, the backwaters of our life, where maybe we just have not applied things like we know we should. Certain things tend to reoccur in our lives and they kind of are a troubling thing to us. Why is that? Well, because maybe we're not taking 2 Timothy chapter 3 verses 15 through 17, taking full advantage of what God gives us. He gives us His Spirit. He gives us His book. He gives us the brethren. He gives us His ministry. He gives us so many things. Brethren, let's take advantage of what God gives us. I read earlier today in the announcements about how a visitor viewed us as a congregation. I was really pleased by that, but we don't want to just stay there. Good congregation?

Wonderful. Let's be even a better congregation. Let's all of us just really strive to grow as much as we possibly can to encourage one another in growth and love and faith and so forth. Because I believe that's truly what we as the Chicago church wants to do.