Full Immersion

There are more coming, likely, in the next little bit. So, brethren, I'd like to start today with a quick question and a show of hands. And before Mr. Penrod shows me his hands, I'm getting the question out there. Because every single time I say show of hands, Mr. Penrod back there goes... Like, hey, look! Here's my hands! See, I preempted it. Quick question, though. How many of you have studied a foreign language before? Would you please raise your hand if you've studied a foreign language before?

Now, keep your hands up, okay? Keep your hands up. What I'd like to know is how many of you have studied it for at least one year? Okay, keep your hands up. At least one year. Two years. Okay. Three years. Four years.

Five or more. Okay. So, as time goes on, as you might expect, you can keep your hands up if you'd like. Okay? Because I have one last couple of questions really quickly. Would you please leave your hands up if you achieved fluency in that second language?

And would you please leave your hands up if you have remained fluent in that second language? Alright. So, the hands... We had a lot of hands up at the very beginning of this, right? We had a lot of people who had studied some language or another, and I would venture a guess that it was probably one of the romance languages. It was likely, you know, Spanish, French, Italian, or Portuguese. Probably. Because that's what most classes offer. But I would also venture a guess that there's probably some folks that studied German, or that their second language was English.

Okay? Or whatever that may be. My foray into foreign languages started probably very much the same as your own. For those of you that may already know this, no, you may not. I've been studying Spanish pretty seriously over the past year. And I'll kind of get into how and why and what here in just a little bit. But my foray into foreign languages really... I probably started much the same way as your own.

You know, you had an opportunity to take a foreign language, or you were required to take a foreign language. Now they suggest that if you're planning on going on to a four-year university, it's not a requirement. But if you're planning to go into a four-year university, the four-year university requires two years, at least, of foreign language. So during a couple of years in high school, I went ahead and took high school Spanish. My Spanish name was Rodrigo. You realize most high school Spanish classes, you adopt a Spanish name from I was Rodrigo. And during those couple of years of high school Spanish, I learned some of the foundational things.

I learned a little bit of vocabulary. But I never really progressed past being able to speak very basic, honestly grammatically incorrect sentences in the present tense only. So whenever I tried to tell someone what I did yesterday, I told them what I was doing right now. Because I didn't know how to tell them what I did yesterday. I just told them, well, I'm doing this right now. And they're like, no, that's not correct. So that's the farthest I went in high school. I went off to college.

I took two quarters of it in college, two quarters of college Spanish. And I can remember the exact moment that I walked into my guidance counselor's office and I told him, I'm never going to need Spanish. Drop the class. I need more science classes to finish my major. Fast forward a few years. I got hired at Waldo Middle School, which has a Latino population of approximately 80%.

Hindsight, huh? If there was any language in this world that would have been helpful to me in my career over the past decade, it was the language I told my guidance counselor that I would never need and never use, ever. Way to go, Ben. By the time I got hired at Waldo, I'd basically forgotten every bit of Spanish that I had learned in school.

And honestly, the extent of the Spanish that I had at that time really served only to entertain the students as they watched me attempt to speak their language. It was pretty bad. What I did manage to learn, though, I learned all the words that I definitely needed to learn working in a middle school. I knew the ones that you listen for and go, hey, that's not okay. You know, and I knew which ones were not okay. And I knew enough to be able to say, that's not okay. And then the kids would always ask me, well, do you know Spanish? And my response is always, pascante, or sufficiente. I know enough, basically.

I know enough. And that would usually stop them in their tracks and go, okay, wait a minute, maybe this guy does know Spanish. But I didn't actually know Spanish hardly at all, but it worked. It worked. I did know enough to get by. But I basically learned enough Spanish to get by, and I operated with this mantra of, you can't teach an old dog new tricks. You know, I believed this idea that you reach a certain age, the neuroplasticity of your brain is gone, you no longer can learn things.

You know what's amazing? Well, okay, you can't learn language. Let's put it that way. Sorry. Interesting thing is, that's not what the research says. Believe it or not, that's not what the research says. What the research says is that adults are primed even more than children to learn languages. They're even more effective at learning languages than kids are, because we have an existing language that we already know that we can hang our understanding on.

Now, yes, we lose a little bit of neuroplasticity as we age, but there's plenty of plasticity left for new tricks. And so, with all that research on my side, a little less than a year ago, my family decided that we were going to go to Mexico for the feast. And if you've not been, Puerto Vallarta, it's a beautiful feast site. If you have a chance, go. Really, truly. The brethren down there are just so friendly and wonderful and nice and patient while you try to speak their language.

That was my favorite thing about them. They were so patient, because I didn't want to go to Mexico and use a translator. I wanted to be able to talk to the brethren face-to-face, to get to know them personally, to be able to try to converse, to understand their culture, to understand their experiences in the Church, their thoughts, their feelings.

I wanted to get to know them as brethren. I wanted to be brothers and sisters. I wanted to get to know them on that level. That was my motivation to learn. And I dove in. I mean, I dove in for the past year pretty hard. I mean, just really studying it quite a bit. And for those that have had your hands raised at the beginning, you know learning a second language isn't easy. It can be incredibly frustrating at times. It can be tough to know what you want to say, but realize you have no way to get the other language to do what you want it to do.

In fact, I've noticed that now especially I'll start a sentence and I'll realize I don't know how to finish it. Like I'm in this place now where I don't know the right tense to close this sentence out. And I have to think from the end in mind from the very beginning. I have to think how I'm going to finish it before I start it.

And that's hard. That's very difficult. I can't think quickly in Spanish. I can't make jokes. I can't understand jokes. I just go right over my head. I can't think quickly. I can't talk quickly. And it's frustrating. I feel like a toddler. In fact, my reading level is about sixth grade.

I read at about a sixth grade level. I read Diary of a Wimpy Kid in Spanish. Occasionally, although I'm jumping into some more serious books than that. But I've seen this exact same progression in my second language students over the past few years. But I'll be honest, I didn't fully understand it or respect it until I experienced it myself. I didn't understand how hard it really was for them to have everything going on in a different language that they didn't know how to manipulate. We've mentioned this before. Some of the students that come to my school that I teach at are part of this newcomer program. They come from all over the world, refugee camps in African countries.

They come from war-torn parts of the Middle East, Asiatic countries, parts of Central America, and in many cases, they come from a variety of countries from around the world that we do not have translators for here in the United States. Find me a Somalian translator. They're just barely out there. There's some in Portland, and they have this special service that you can call up and they can video chat with the parents while you're taught.

It's an amazing service. But tracking down local Somalian translators is very difficult. So what's interesting is they go through a very predictable progression of learning English, or learning any second language, really.

They go through these very specific stages in language acquisition that all students of language go through. These have been identified by researchers, they've been blocked out, there are these certain demarcation lines, essentially, in language learning. And I want you to think for a second, put yourself in their shoes. Take a second, put yourself in their shoes. Pretend you're in a separate country somewhere else. Some other place, you don't speak any of the language whatsoever, and you'll be in this first stage.

The first stage is called pre-production. During this stage, they have very minimal comprehension. Words are flying, but you have no idea what anybody's even saying. Very little verbalization, they may not talk, in fact, they may nod or they may shake their head, and that's the most that they know at that point in time in the other language. Most of the communication comes from drawing pictures or pointing, and this stage can last anywhere from zero to six months, depending on the person and depending on the individual and their desire to learn. Following this stage, they move into early production, which can last anywhere from six months to a year. During early production, they have limited comprehension, limited understanding. They may produce one or two word responses. They may participate in conversations using keywords or familiar phrases. Or, in the case of my students at school, movie quotes. Television show quotes. The conversation is quotes from movies, which is not much different than most of the other people that I know as well, to be honest.

But, actually, kind of a funny story. I had a science teacher that used to teach in my classroom that taught a newcomer science class. It's probably been almost ten years ago. And there was a young man in there who was a Russian student. And somebody would crack a joke or something, and his response, he'd go, HA! FUNNY! And that was his engagement in the language. What was interesting about that was, later, I didn't realize then, but several years later, we watched a DVD of The Muppet Show. And Fauzi Bear, every time he tells a joke, goes, HA!

FUNNY! That's where he got it from! Was from Fauzi Bear. So he was able to access the language as best he could. And it wasn't years later that we finally realized what was going on. But they may repeat things that they see on television, and they may only use the present tense. But for me in high school, that's where I was. I couldn't get past the present tense. That's where I was stuck.

Once they hit a thing called speech emergence, things start moving a lot more quickly. They can understand more fully. They can produce simple sentences. But those sentences have errors. They might misunderstand people's intent. They might read it differently than what the person intended it. But mostly they can understand what's being said. And this third stage can last anywhere from one to three years, depending on the student.

I'm reasonably certain for myself right now with what I'm trying to do in Spanish. I'm somewhere between here and the next stage. The next stage is intermediate fluency. At this stage, a person looks conversationally fluent. They can carry on a conversation with you. There may be some slight errors. There may be some slight nuances that are different. But by and large, they can carry on a conversation with you. This stage can go from three to five years, and I'll be honest, in reality, some of my students at school, they stop here. They get just enough to be conversationally fluent, and they don't worry about the rest.

And so when they look at academic topics, technical topics, start talking about older literature, things that are written in a different way, like the King James Bible, for example, would trip people up because it's a very different style of English. And many people stop right here. They don't go any further to this final stage, which is advanced fluency.

The final stage is when the student has near-native level of speech. So you talk to them, you interact with them, you discuss things with them. They sound just like a native English speaker. You can't tell at all that they ever studied the language. In fact, you might be surprised to find out that English is their second language with these individuals.

They're capable of thinking in the other language. Some say they dream in it. Some say they actually dream in the other language. They can explain difficult technical subjects by all intents and purposes. They would pass as a native of whatever country it might be they were learning the language of. You would honestly believe that they'd never spoken anything else. As you might imagine, achieving this level of fluency is difficult to achieve. And most language teachers agree the most rapid and effective way for someone to get there is to become fully immersed. Become fully immersed. Go and drop yourself into that country, into its culture, into its societal norms, and just soak it up.

And just learn. If you look at most rapid language acquisition programs, they involve immersion to some degree or another over a very short period of time. And if you think about this, it might be similar to how some of you may have learned to swim. It's like being thrown into the deep end. You either figure it out real quick or you're choking on water.

And so, in some ways, immersion is that same method. It forces someone to interact, whether it's listening, reading, writing, speaking, whatever it might be, in that target language. There's no falling back on what they know. There's no falling back on what's comfortable. No falling back on what is normal to them.

It pushes them out of their comfort zone and forces growth in that second language and in that second culture. So what do you do if you're someone like you or me? All of us can't just pack our lives up and go move to Spain for three years, right? I mean, how many of you have the ability to do that right now? Drop everything and move to Spain. I mean, okay, one or two. Maybe. But in reality, most of us have jobs, responsibilities, lives to lead, careers, things like that. Gotta put food on the table.

So does that mean that that's hopeless for us? Does that mean it's hopeless for us? The answer is no. To be successful, you have to create immersion opportunities. And you have to practice, practice, practice. You have to find every opportunity to read in that other language, to talk in it, to think in it, to write in it, all the while still living in your country of origin, in the place of your first language. Would you turn over to John 17, please? I promise we're going somewhere with this. Give me a minute to connect it. John 17.

John 17, on the evening of Christ's betrayal, ultimately prior to the days of Unleavened Bread in 31 A.D., he prayed these words to his father while awaiting his betrayal in the Garden of Gethsemane. John 17, we'll go ahead and begin in verse 14 of John 17. John 17 and verse 14 begins and says, Christ makes the point in his prayer, these individuals are, quote-unquote, not of the world, that they've been called out of it. They've been given an opportunity to be part of the kingdom of God, and Mr.

Beatty talked about that in the sermonette today. You know, we are not of the world, however, we are in the world. We absolutely are in the world, though we're not of it. We are to the ambassadors of this kingdom, the kingdom of God, to this earth. He talks about that in 2 Corinthians 5, verses 19 through 20. Christ said we would have opportunity to be ambassadors of this kingdom to this earth through the words that Paul recorded for us in 2 Corinthians. The disciples were not of the world, but they were in the world, and as a result, Christ prayed that God protect them from the evil one, from Satan's influences.

Kind of his feet of that kingdom was planted, and they were to be sent into the world as Christ was sent into the world. And they were to go out as representatives of that kingdom to a world that did not understand. They were to go out as representatives of that kingdom to a world that did not understand. And ironically, ironically, a world that they were formerly of, a world that they were formerly of, the world in which they had learned their first language, their first culture, their first customs, the way that they lived their life.

Yet, while they were expected to be fluent in a new culture, in a new language, in a new series of thought patterns, they still lived in this world. They still lived in this world. They were immersed in this world. A little further in verse 20, a little further in John 17 and verse 20, says, "...I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in me through their word." So we see that in verse 20, this prayer that Jesus Christ prayed that evening was not just for His disciples, it's for us as well.

Those who would believe throughout the years in His word. It goes on in verse 21, verse 21, that they all may be one, as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they may also be one in us, that the world may believe that you sent me. In other words, we might think, speak, and act like God, or you might say like a native speaker of a second language that we're all in the process of trying to learn. God said that we might be fully immersed in that language such that we would be like Him.

The title of the message this morning is, Full Immersion. We're going to talk a little bit about this concept, because I've been thinking about this a lot lately, and the way that it parallels our spiritual growth, how we all follow a very similar pattern in some ways, in our calling that language students follow as they learn. It's very similar. Let's go over to 1 Corinthians 3. We'll start to kind of build this. 1 Corinthians 3. 1 Corinthians 3. And we'll take a look.

In this particular book, the Apostle Paul is talking to the church in Corinth, a church that was largely populated by Gentile converts, folks that were new to the Word of God, kind of just starting out. Along the lines of some of the individuals like Mr. Beatty discussed in the sermonette this morning, those who had then learned and understood after they had heard coming out of this pagan world around them to now a new truth and a new understanding. 1 Corinthians 3 and verse 1 says, Paul makes the point, I couldn't speak to you as spiritual.

You couldn't understand me. You couldn't understand the words that I was saying. We weren't speaking the same language. You didn't understand. You hadn't developed the language yet. You were still babes. They said they fed you with milk and not with solid food because you're still carnal. You're still speaking your old language. You haven't begun to learn your second language yet. There's envy, there's strife, there's divisions. They said you still need milk.

Hebrews 5, verse 13, talks about this as well. Just jot it down in your notes. Anyone who's still on milk, it says, is inexperienced in the word of righteousness. They just aren't there yet. They're still in pre-production stage of learning the language. They're still in pre-production. Deer in the headlights, so to speak, which is kind of the struggle to articulate. Can't necessarily explain. Maybe they nod yes and nod no. And frankly, brethren, we've all been here. We've all been here. When we were first exposed to the truth of God, we didn't fully understand. We heard all these church-speak things, N-T-B-M-O.

What's that? D-U-L-B. What's that? We didn't fully understand. Once we started to learn, once we started to understand, God began to open our eyes. We needed someone to teach us. We wanted to learn more. We started to really get interested. We wanted to learn more. We wanted to understand fully. And for the first few months, think back. It's soaked up like a sponge. For those that were born in the church, you just don't remember it, because you were little. But you soaked it up like a sponge, too. And probably over a number of more years, as you learned as time went on and as your parents instructed, chances are you don't remember those years.

As far as you know, you've always been in the church, quote-unquote. In some ways, people in this place don't know what they don't know. They don't know what they don't know. But at some point, you begin to understand more, and you start to move into early production. And in early production, a person still has limited comprehension.

It's still difficult to understand. They might be able to describe why they believe what they believe, maybe. There's beginnings of a faith in God. There's beginnings of a relationship, the very early beginnings of a relationship with God. The explanation might not consist of much understanding, but they can repeat back some of the reasons. They can talk about some of the reasons. But they still want to go back to their first language, because their first language is what's comfortable. First language is what they understand. They still struggle with those carnal behaviors. But they know and they recognize there's a vast chasm between where they need to go and where they are.

You start to realize that. Whenever we're going through this stage myself as I'm learning Spanish, you start to realize how much more you really have left to learn. And it's daunting. It is so daunting to look at that and realize, I'm nowhere near where I want to be. And that's the point we hit in early production. Let's go to Hebrews 11, verse 6, as we recognize that there's this vast chasm between where we need to go and where we are currently in this particular stage.

Hebrews 11 and 6. We've used this passage as a memory scripture in the camp program for years. It's a very important scripture. Hebrews 11 and 6 says, But without faith it's impossible to please Him. For He who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. The recognition of the beginning of the relationship is here. Hebrews 11 and 6. We begin to desire to obey God because we love Him and because we want to be like Him. Not only because it's commanded. I want to clarify that real quick, because people get up in arms about this sometimes.

In saying that because we desire to keep God's commandments, somehow we're absolved of our requirement to keep them. That's not true. It's both. We are required to keep them, and we should grow to desire to keep them too. It should not just be because we're scared to death of the consequences. We should desire to keep God's commandments because we love Him, because He's our Father.

Just like you follow your own parents' instructions because you love them. Not because they're going to spank you later. It's both. One does not absolve the other. But yet, for some reason, we get into this place where people seem to think that one absolves the other. It's not true. It is both. We absolutely must obey God. But He also commands our obedience. And that's one way that we can also show our love. A few pages towards the back of the book in 1 John.

Let's go ahead and head over there, briefly from where we are in Hebrews. 1 John. We're going to pick it up in 5. 1 John 5, verse 3, and we'll go ahead and read through verse 5.

1 John 5. Ah, we'll go ahead and pick it up in verse 1. It says, "...whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ, is born of God, and everyone who loves Him, who begot also loves Him, who is begotten of Him. By this we know that we love the children of God when we love God and we keep His commandments." That's a requirement. That's something that we have to do. But it's also something we grow to desire to do. Verse 3, "...for this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments, and His commandments are not burdensome.

For whatever is born of God overcomes the world, and this is the victory that has overcome the world, our faith. Who is He who overcomes the world, but He who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?" The establishment of that relationship, the building of that faith, the recognition of who and what Christ is and what Christ did for us is huge. It's absolutely essential. We end up in a place where we begin to develop a relationship with God, and as we begin to develop that relationship, we begin to desire to please Him.

And in the process of doing that, we want to now begin to desire to be like Him, to become fluent in this language and in this culture. We reach a point where we realize, wait a minute, I don't want to just say, where is the bathroom?

I don't want to just say, you know, can I have a taco, please? Or can I have what? We don't want to get to that point. We want to speak God's language. We want to get to the point where we understand His culture. We understand His customs. We integrate so that when people talk to us, they look at us and they go, why, you're just like God. I can see it in you. I can see it in you. I can see that you are led by God's Holy Spirit. We start to want to desire now, becoming fluent.

We want to think and speak and act like Him. Our carnal human nature, that first language is so easy to fall back into. And that's the symbolism of these days. Putting away that first language and taking on the second. Getting rid of the sin in our lives and taking in the unleavened of Jesus Christ.

And so while we start to then keep God's commandments in this timeframe, at some point in our relationship we begin to desire to become more like Him. We begin to desire and think of ourselves as a potential child of God.

Maybe at this point we start to counsel for baptism. Maybe this is the point where we start to say, all right, I'm in. I'm going to commit. And honestly, at this point of speech immersions, you've reached a new place. You really start to get to the point where you start making leaps and strides in the language. You're using it regularly, as often as you possibly can. And you start to grow rapidly, very rapidly, in this emergence section. We start to recognize the importance of changing ourselves, exhibiting new behaviors, becoming like God.

We take that faith that we've established, we take that relationship that we began, and we start little by little by little by little adding to it. We start to see the places in our life that need work, the aspects of our life that need to go. And this is a time of rapid growth. This way of life starts to make sense. We can piece it together. We can start to see examples everywhere. You know, there was a song that came out a few years back by a guy named Beck.

And most of you probably don't remember the song. It was in the 90s, and it played on 90s alternative radio forever. And in the section, there's a word that, for the longest time, I did not understand what it meant. And I heard that song over and over and over and over. It was in Spanish. No wonder. As soon as I learned Spanish, the obits of peace, I was like, Oh!

Oh, that's what he's saying! You start to see it everywhere. You start to hear it everywhere. You start to pick these pieces up as you go through life. You start to increase in your understanding more and more. Let's go over to the book of 2 Peter, because it's at this point that growth really explodes. 2 Peter.

Peter's second epistle here, and we'll pick it up in 2 Peter 1, verses 5 through 8. Because the Apostle Peter basically encouraged those who were going to read his epistle, those he was writing to, that their spiritual growth would be bit by bit by bit by bit. This added to this, added to this, added to this. 2 Peter 1, verse 5, says, But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith, that beginning, the beginning of that relationship, add to your faith, virtue.

To virtue, knowledge. To knowledge, self-control, to self-control, perseverance, to perseverance, godliness. To godliness, brotherly kindness, to brotherly kindness, love. I wrote in the margin of my Bible a stair step on this, that it starts at the bottom and next each step up moves you closer to that ultimate goal of both God as well as the character of God, which is love. These attitudes build on one another. They're almost like bricks in a wall.

There has to be a foundation first before you can lay the next level. There has to be a foundation of faith before you can add the next level of virtue. There has to be a foundation of virtue before you can add the next layer of understanding, or knowledge, then to that self-control. To self-control, patience, and perseverance. Drit, you might say. To perseverance, godliness, brotherly kindness, and then eventually the goal, love, which is the very nature of God.

That is who He is. That's what He is. This process is one that builds in us as time goes on, but it all starts here. He goes on, 2 Peter 1 and verse 9, says, Peter tells his audience to make certain that there is an entrance to that kingdom that is supplied to them, a path towards fluency, we might say. But they have to take the step. They have to grow. They have to mature. And as they do, they begin to understand what words, what thoughts, what culture, what actions are a part of this second language. It's this stage in the language game in the speech emergence category where you also reach a point where you either need to see it through to the end or bag it.

It's at this point where you are on a precipice of, I'm either going to be fluent or I'm going to stop using this forever and I'm not going to remember it anymore going forward. Many folks who take second languages in high school and college reach this stage. These are our hands. And I'm not picking on any of you guys.

I mean, I could very well go the same way. But I realize that. But, you know, we had just about every hand in this room up at the very beginning and we were down to those who had remained fluent. It was one or two. It was one or two. In the United States, there's only about 20% of the population of those who are quote-unquote American to speak a second language. One in five. Though just about everybody takes it in high school.

You reach a point where you either commit to it fully or you walk away. There's no in-between. Or you're just going to kind of, you know, again, be able to do some of those very basic phrases and not be able to be fluent. Once a decision is made to continue and to see it through to the end, once we consider that baptism, right, the commitment that we would make to see it through to the end, commit to becoming fluent, so to speak, to become part of this kingdom that God has provided to us, we enter the next stage.

But in this stage, there's danger. In this stage, there's danger. This is intermediate fluency. A good number of language students, and I would say a vast majority of the kids at my school, are in this stage. They've reached a point conversationally where they can converse with people. They sound like they know what they're talking about. They look like they know what they're talking about. They act like they know what they're talking about. And by and large, they can converse. They can kind of sort of make their point. And most of them stop at that point and say, you know what?

Good enough. I can talk. They can understand me. I'm done here. I don't need to study this anymore. I don't need to go any further. I don't need to learn all these customs and traditions and other things. I'm good. This is the place where I stop. The problem is, they're still not quite a native speaker. And when you interact with them for any length of time, it shows that to be the case. They do the things they're supposed to do.

They know what they're supposed to know. Their speech, their understanding of culture, never really reaches its full potential, because the attitude of good enough got in the way. Let's go over to Matthew 7. This is one of those passages in the Bible that is extremely sobering. Matthew 7. We'll pick it up in verse 21 here, as we're kind of near the end of the words that Christ spoke during the Sermon on the Mount.

Matthew 7. We'll go ahead and pick it up in verse 21. Keeping in mind this stage where we get to a point where we say, Good enough! We're all good. It's fine. I can converse. I know basic things. I'm pretty good. Everything's fine. Maybe I'm not quite fully there with customs and traditions and the real deep, deep-level culture.

Maybe I'm not there yet, which in our case we'd say the deep-level culture is the very nature of God. Putting on God's love. Putting on His mercy. Putting on those things that are outlined in the Scriptures prior to this in Matthew 5, 6, and 7. Matthew 7, verse 21, Christ says, Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom of heaven. But he who does the will of my Father in heaven, many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in your name? Have we not cast out demons in your name?

Have we not done many wonders in your name? I've done all these things. I've spoken all these words. I've spoken all these phrases. I sound like a native speaker, but I'm not there yet. Verse 23, and then I'll declare to them, I never knew you. Depart from me you who practice lawlessness. Christ tells those that are gathered, there will be those that talk the talk, those that maybe even walk the walk a little bit, but that didn't take the time to push through that and really establish a relationship.

We might say they didn't become like a native speaker. They didn't become like God through the establishment of that relationship. He goes on, verse 24 of Matthew 7, Therefore whoever hears these sayings of mine and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain descended, the floods came, the winds blew, and beat on that house, and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock.

But everyone who hears these sayings of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. The rain descended, the floods came, the winds blew, and beat on that house, and it fell, and great was its fall. And so it was when Jesus did ended these sayings that the people were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority and not as ascribes. When we look at these passages, following through on what we know to be true, living what we read in the Scriptures is essential, because we're all seeking advanced fluency. We're all looking to get to the point where that second language is second nature to us, that it takes precedent, that we can dream in it, that we can think in it, that we can explain difficult concepts, that we can explain it to people.

That's our goal. If we reach a point of intermediate fluency, where it's an ability to basically converse, navigate the church landscape, it's not enough. We're focusing on becoming like God, such that people who interact with us see God working in us. They see his nature in us. And that we might be seen as a citizen of the kingdom of God, despite our dwelling in this world. That we might be a citizen of that second country. Let's go over to Romans 12. Romans 12.

Romans 12 and verse 1. It says, We cannot transform ourselves if we are conforming to this culture. And if we are conforming to our first language, we cannot transform ourselves to the second, if we are consistently conforming to the first. And by conforming, we mean molding in the shape of. It's essentially what that word means. Molding in the shape of. We're molding ourselves according to this world. We can't be transformed. This world and its culture, and that of the kingdom of God, in many ways are diametric opposites. That doesn't mean we isolate, like Mr. Beatty said. It doesn't mean we isolate. It doesn't mean we walk away and do that. We are also ambassadors.

But we are ambassadors to take the language and the culture of our second language and culture to the world of the first. And that's why we're here. So how do we get there while still living here?

How do we get there while still living in this world? But we have to immerse ourselves fully in the other world. We have a few opportunities for full immersion throughout the year. And those of you who have done camp, you'll recognize this. Have you ever noticed how much easier it is to live God's way while you're surrounded by those that speak and do the same thing as you?

The week we can have that we're at camp, the week we can have that we're at the feast. Have you ever noticed how much easier it is to be able to do the things that you do? Why is that? Because you're immersed. You're fully immersed in the culture of the Kingdom of God. You are like you have taken a two-week trip to another country. Everything that you read, that you see, that you hear, that you write, it's in the other language, by and large. It's in the other culture. You've left your country behind.

You've left your language behind. Its customs, its culture. And for a period of time, you've put on another culture. But you also know all too well that camp ends, the feast ends, and you head back home. You go back into, like Mr. Beatty said, the world. Go back into the world.

You go back into the culture that we were called out of. Full immersion is necessary. Full immersion is necessary. For us to achieve advanced fluency in this second language and in this second culture, full immersion is necessary. The Apostle Paul wrote to Timothy in the pastoral epistles. Go ahead and turn over there. Pastoral epistles. 1 Timothy, we'll pick it up in verse 4.

1 Timothy 4 and verse 11. Kind of breaking into the middle here in this particular section. He's telling him to take these particular things, command and teach. It says, verse 12, Let no one despise your youth, but be an example to the believers in word, in conduct, in love, and in spirit, in faith, and in purity. Till I come, give attention to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine. Verse 14, Do not neglect the gift that is in you, which was given to you by prophecy, with the laying on of the hands of the eldership. Meditate on these things. Give yourselves entirely to them. Give yourselves entirely to them, that your progress may be evident to all. Take heed to yourself and to the doctrine, continue in them, and in doing this, you will say both yourself. And notice, this is important, those who hear you. This is not to be a culture that we keep to ourselves. This is not to be a language that we don't share with others. We shouldn't shy away from sharing the hope that lies within us. We should always have an answer prepared for when somebody asks, Why are you so cheerful all the time? Hopefully they're asking, Why are you so cheerful all the time, given the difficulties in life? The full immersion is necessary. We are to give ourselves to these things, continually. And we recognize we can't immerse ourselves in the traditional sense. We can't pack our bags, go to the kingdom, and stay for three years, and then turn around and come back. So to speak, right? So what do we do? What do we do? How do we train while here, become fluent while here, in our lives?

Well, we have to bring the foreign country to us. Foreign country, quote-unquote, to us. One of the things that I've been trying to do, and I'll share a couple of things that I've done this last little bit, I've been trying to find ways that I can consume as much Spanish as humanly possible on a daily basis. So I take some of my normal routine things and I switch them over to Spanish. For example, I listen to Spanish radio in my car. I have no idea what anybody's saying. Because they talk really fast and they talk with very like, and I can't follow it. But I do it anyway, because at some point in time it's just going to click. And I know it's just going to click. At some point in time, I'm going to catch it. I shop at Mexican produce stands where I refuse to speak English, which is really awkward. And it doesn't always work. Sometimes I bought more than I intended to buy. And I just hand them my money.

They tell me how much it is. I try to read articles in the language. I've actually started listening, trying to listen to sermons from the ministry in Mexico and Chile that are online. There's a Spanish-speaking website. I've gone through and listened to some of those. Tried to, at least. Swap my electronic Bible to a side-by-side reign of Valera. So I have the English on one side and I have the Spanish on the other. Kind of basically King James to King James. Thanks to the Feast of the GCE, I have a few connections now with folks in Chile. And twice a week I have a morning video call with Jaime Diaz, who's one of the elders in Chile, where he listens to me blather on over a cup of coffee in Spanish that probably makes no sense as I try to wake up in the morning. But the rule that we have is no English, period. And I tried to break that rule a couple of times and he has upheld it with his strong fist, which I have appreciated. He said, no. Español. Work on trying to put a group of people together that I work with after school occasionally. Get together and just talk. Just converse. Whatever. Just talk. Just converse. It has to be intentional. We have to build times because we're here. We're not there. We're here. We have to build times and be intentional about our immersion into the Kingdom of God. Being intentional about those things. Brethren, how often do we spend time outside a church with others of like minds?

And I'm going to do you one more, talking about faith-related things. Because I'll be the first to admit, I spend a lot of time with folks outside of church. I really don't have many friends outside of the church. I don't. Most of the people that I know are in the church. Most of the people that I associate with are in the church. I don't have a ton of friends that are outside of the church. But honestly, we don't always, even those that get together in the church, we don't always talk about faith-related things. In fact, sometimes that's missing from our interactions. And we just don't. And it's not that we don't want to, it's not that we just don't sometimes think about it. It has to be intentional. It has to be intentional. You know, in that same way, if we think about it, I can have a lot of Spanish friends. I can have a lot of Spanish-speaking friends. But if all we're doing is getting together and speaking English and talking about American culture, I'm spinning my wheels. I'm not getting anywhere.

Likewise, if I go to the feast, if I go to camp, I just go ahead and drag my culture along with me, so to speak, spend my time at the feast living contrary to what God teaches, it'd be like moving to Spain for six months and refusing to speak anything but English. How is that going to help? You're not going to learn anything. Because all you hear is English all the time. You're not going to receive the full benefit of your immersion. Our camp programs, our feast programs, are the chance for us to leave behind the culture we were called out of and to learn about this new culture and to better understand and learn this new language. We have to intentionally create times where we are fully immersed. The Sabbath is a perfect time for this. We get together once a week, every week. Sometimes twice a week, like this week, today and tomorrow. But we get together every week, and we're with people that believe essentially the same thing that we believe. Don't waste that opportunity, brethren. Don't waste that opportunity. Really focus and talk with one another about faith-related things. We have Bible studies, we have activities, we have all sorts of things that are available to us. We have the Internet. There's articles, there's sermons, there's podcasts, there's videos. How often do we take advantage of these things? How often do we take advantage of these things? When you take a look at these days, you take a look at the days of unleavened bread. The symbolism of these days in the New Covenant consists of our taking in of the unleavened. Putting on Christ, essentially. Each and every day, putting sin out of our lives, replacing our first language with our second language, so to speak. Taking on the new culture, piece by piece by piece in our lives, as we work to rid ourselves so much of the other, but to make the other not have precedent. To put on Jesus Christ so that we can take that message to the world. Immersing ourselves in it fully, as often as possible, is what it takes to become fluent. What does that look like? Let's go to 1 John 1. We'll pick it up in verse 3. We'll get an idea here of what this looks like. We're going to go to a couple quick passages here as we start to throw out of a close. 1 John 1 and verse 3. I'm sorry. 1 John 3 and verse 1. I didn't think I was dyslexic, but maybe there's a small transposition there. I apologize. 1 John 3 and verse 1. It says, Brethren, we will become children of God. And it's not yet been revealed exactly what that might look like, but we know that we will be like Him. Fluency looks like becoming like God. Taking on His characteristics. Taking on the culture of His kingdom. That's what fluency looks like in our life today. In Matthew 5, we see the attitudes that are displayed that reveal this kingdom and its culture. The kinds of unleavened attitudes we should be working on putting on each and every day. Matthew 5 and verse 2.

Matthew 5 and verse 2, he says, Then he opened his mouth after going up here on the mountain, it says in verse 1, and when he was seated his disciples came to him. Verse 2, Then he opened his mouth and he taught them, saying, this is that section of the attitudes, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.

Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted, for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for my sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

You know, when you look at this section, these are the kinds of attitudes that we need to be putting on. This, in addition with the section in Galatians 5 that we look at quite frequently of the fruits of God's Spirit, they illustrate what God expects us to be like, what a native speaker, quote-unquote, of the kingdom of God looks like.

A person who is meek, who is merciful, who is pure in heart, who is a peacemaker, who doesn't go out and start wars, someone who is patient, someone who is loving, somebody who has self-control. These are the kind of attitudes that we picture putting on during these days, during the days of Unleavened Bread, putting on the unleavened characteristics of Jesus Christ in our life. And we recognize, too, this doesn't stop when these days are over. You know, sunset tonight, we're all right, right back to it. No. This is the start of a year potentially of incredible growth, if we let that happen, and if we really push ourselves, and if we really work to study what that fluency of that kingdom looks like.

It's a lifelong process, but what's really important to keep in mind—and we'll leave this point today as we close—what's really important to keep in mind is we saw with the hands that came in the very beginning and then went down. If you don't use it, you lose it.

If you do not use it, you lose it. We had a handful of people in here who studied language to begin with, anywhere from one to five or more years, and two to three that were still fluent however many years later. 2 Timothy 1 for our final scripture today. 2 Timothy 1.

We'll go ahead and pick it up in verse 6. During the admonition here that Paul writes to Timothy, he says in verse 6, Therefore I remind you to stir up the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands, for God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. You know one of the things that made probably the biggest difference in my learning a language from where I was before? I stopped being afraid of speaking it. I wouldn't open my mouth before because I was afraid I'd sound like an idiot, and I was scared that I wouldn't be able to stay and I wouldn't be able to put it together.

The spirit that God gave us is a spirit not of fear. It is a spirit of power, it is a spirit of love, and it is a spirit of a sound mind. We should never be afraid to speak what we believe.

Through that process we grow. Through that process we stir up that gift of God. We use it. We don't lose it because, brethren, God's expectation of us is that we will become like Him. Like the example of His Son, Jesus Christ. We will become fluent in those characteristics, in that speech, in those thoughts, in those attitudes, and in our actions. The only way for us to do this is through immersion.

We have to continually put ourselves in that frame of mind regularly, and again, not just using it, but living it. So, brethren, as we come out of the days of Unleavened Bread, ending again this evening at sunset, as we come out of these days, let us all take the time to really recommit, to live and learn more fully this coming year. Hope you all had a wonderful Days of Unleavened Bread. I hope you have a wonderful lunch here in a little bit, and we'll see you in a bit.