The Gorilla in the Room

I was recently sent an email by one of my co-workers. They contained a link to a video. And these videos, we call them viral. We call them viral videos because, like a virus, they pass from person to person to person to person. And each person sees it and decides, you know, this is hilarious. I'm going to forward it to everybody on my list. They think it's funny. They forward it to everybody on their list. And pretty soon, they go worldwide. And there have been some pretty famous examples of viral videos. One recent one, there was a baby whose mom blew her nose, and the baby just lost it. You know, just wasn't sure what was going on, you know, and just got really confused and got kind of freaked out. There's some that I've gotten in the past. Somebody told us, you know, last sermon talked to you about my not particularly excellent fishing skills. Someone sent me a video at one point that suggested that I try this, and it was people fishing in a lake somewhere in, like, Missouri with a remote-controlled boat. So they were trolling behind the remote-controlled boat and catching bass out of this lake. But, you know, that seems like an easier way to do it. I've seen videos of people that have launched themselves down hallways in an office in their chair powered by a fire extinguisher. I mean, just random things that people decide to send you.

Well, I got one. Actually, this happened last year, but then it came up again recently. And I got to thinking about it, and I got to looking at it from a standpoint of where we're at right now in our spiritual journey, especially with the Passover and things coming up. And it was kind of a pleasant surprise. You know, this video was not one of those videos. You know, a lot of times you watch these videos and they're funny, but then you kind of stop and you go, you know, I kind of want my three minutes back. You know, it really wasn't that funny, you know, three minutes of my life that I'll never see again. But what interested me the most about this particular video is it wasn't one of those kind of videos. This video was atypical of the typical videos that people send around. It was interesting. It was thought-provoking. It actually really got me thinking, especially when I revisited it again this last little bit, because it does have a very important spiritual lesson for us during this spring Holy Day season. The video is very short. I'm going to take just a little bit of time today to show it to you. It does require some audience participation, so I have to give you some basic instructions on this, just so that you're aware of kind of how this needs to work. And for those of you that have seen this before, do me a favor. You know, don't tell people how it all goes, because if you do, the point of the video is lost. So if you've seen it, just relax and enjoy. But here's what you've got to do. So you actually need to go through, and the video itself has its instructions, but you're looking at a scene where there are two groups of people wearing different colored shirts. One group of people are wearing white shirts, one group of people are wearing black colored t-shirts, and they're passing basketballs back and forth. Okay, and so your job is to count the number of times that the people wearing the white shirts pass the basketball back and forth. And you have to keep a close eye, because they're moving around. Okay, so it ends up being a situation where, you know, it's pretty dynamic, pretty dynamic video, and there's a lot of movement. So you've got to keep track of those that are wearing the white shirts. Now, real quick, before I start this, after my last sermon, I got quite a few emails and things from people. Apparently, there are people listening on the internet. So for those of you that are listening... thanks, mom, by the way...

but for those of you that are listening on the internet, you can find this original video on YouTube, actually. All you have to do is search Selective Attention Test under YouTube. Selective Attention Test. So I'll go ahead and start it, and then I'm going to get out of the way here so you can kind of see how it goes. Just keep in mind you're looking for the number of times the people in white pass the basketball back and forth. And there is no sound, so it's just a matter of keeping track of what's going on.

Oh, the instructions are on the video. Sorry.

Okay, so real quick. How many passes do people count? 13, 16, 10, 20. Okay, so we've got a lot of different numbers. Okay, we've got a lot of different numbers. Did anyone see anything odd? Okay, so they definitely weren't going back and forth. Absolutely. So they were passing just to their own colored t-shirts. Okay, got a couple people in the back. Hang on a second. I think you may have seen what we're looking at. So hang on, I don't want you to give it away just yet. He's got his hand up. He's very excited. So let me...

Well, I'll let the video ask you the question, actually. So the correct answer was 15. So 15 for those of you that answered. But did you see the gorilla?

Now, what I'm going to have you do on this next go-around, what I'm going to have you do on this next go-around, do not focus on the people passing the basketballs. Step back and watch the whole video in the context of the video. Don't focus on any individual aspect. Watch the whole thing like you would a television show. Okay? And I'll let you see it again.

Now, I got this from a friend at work. I'll go ahead and turn this off. I got this from a friend at work. And the friend at work actually had sent it to me initially because it was something from...

it was a thing that she'd sent saying, hey, you know, when we have kids do science projects, when we have kids think about science, what we have kids do more often than not is do the experiment with a specific outcome in mind. And so what happens is they completely miss any unexpected results that they might see. But the reality of it is this video means so much more than that. And this video has so much more application than that. And not to say that that's not part of the part of the situation, but, you know, there is a lot more to it. So for those of you, how many... just real quick, show of hands. How many saw the gorilla the first time around?

Okay. Of those that saw the gorilla the first time around, had you seen the video before?

No. Okay. Imagine my surprise. I didn't the first time I watched it. And I was so excited to run home and show Shannon. And I push the button, I push the button, and it gets halfway through the video. And she goes, oh, a gorilla! And I just went, oh. Well, okay. Apparently, I'm the oblivious one. But no. The research actually shows that when shown this video, a little over half of the people that watch it don't see the gorilla. Okay. A little over half of the people that watch it. And I was so proud. I counted 13, which was wrong. But I counted 13 fast. I was so happy that I counted those passes. And then the presenter asked about whether I'd seen a gorilla or not. And I thought, what are you talking... gorilla? There isn't a gorilla in this video. And sure enough, the second time, I was absolutely flabbergasted. How in the world do I miss something that walks across the screen, stops in the middle of everything I'm watching, does a little King Kong chest bump thing, and then walks off the other side of the stage? How can I possibly miss something like that? In addition to completely flabbergasting me, it really, really got me thinking. Why is it that we see the gorilla the second time when it's brought up, but not the first time? How could we possibly miss something so unbelievably obvious? Daniel Simons, Dr. Daniel Simons and Dr. Chris Shevres, who are both fellows at Harvard University. They're the individuals who put this experiment together. They designed it to prove a psychological concept called selective attention. And selective attention is the idea that if individuals are given a task to perform, in this case, the task that we gave you was to focus on one specific aspect of the video. It's a very dynamic kinetic situation with a whole lot of stuff going on, but you were focused on just one thing in that video.

And because of that, you miss out on the very obvious aspects of what's going on around you.

We call this in the vernacular, we have a phrase for it, we call it not seeing the forest for the trees. Okay, you're so focused in on the individual trees, you don't see the big picture. In other words, what happens is we become so focused on the details that we completely miss the point.

In order to see the whole image, what we have to do is literally step back and look at the whole picture and examine the whole scene within context. Only then can we see the 350-pound gorilla in the room. You know, this time of year as we approach Passover, God's people are actively examining their lives. We're actively searching through our lives, looking at that picture that our life represents. We're trying to find the sin that we're aware of, we're also trying to find the sin that we're unaware of. We're going to start today by taking a look at the instructions and really the need for examining. So we're going to take a look at the 2-8-Well exam and why we examine. So if you turn over to 1 Corinthians 11, we're going to start there today. 1 Corinthians 11, there are really only a couple of real specific scriptures that give us the instruction to examine. Most of them are located within 1 Corinthians, a couple in the Old Testament as well. But we'll turn over to 1 Corinthians 11, and what we'll do today is take a look at the instructions given to us by the Apostle Paul regarding our taking of the Passover. We'll start in verse 23 and we'll read through verse 32. And just to kind of give you a little bit of background context, you know, the Corinthians at this point in time were doing some things with regards to the Passover that were not appropriate. And they were having some issues with regards to how they were keeping and how they were taking of the Passover. It's 1 Corinthians 11 starting in verse 23. It says, And in verse 24, it says, So Paul gives them a little bit of background, the institution of why this exists. Because again, these Corinthians were having some issues with regards to how they were partaking of the Passover.

So he tells them in verse 27, he gives them a little warning. He says, you know, you are not to take of this Passover unworthily. Okay, you are to take of this Passover in a worthy manner. It says, Therefore, whoever eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord. But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord's body. For this reason many are weak and sick among you, and many sleep. For if we would judge ourselves, we would not be judged. But when we are judged, we are chastened by the Lord that we may not be condemned with the world. So the Apostle Paul here gives very clear instructions that we are to examine ourselves in the process leading up to Passover. There are some extremely important lessons in these 11 verses, and I'd like to spend just a portion of our time today dissecting this passage, taking it apart, and seeing it, really, what we are instructed to do here. And then what I'd like to do is tie in the video from the beginning. So Paul starts out by reminding the people of Corinth that, you know, the Passover observance, okay, letting them know that as often as they're taking it, what they're really commemorating is the death of Christ. They're commemorating the death of Christ until his return. But he goes on to warn them in verse 27, you need to take the Passover in a proper manner. Okay, you're not to take of it unworthily. And you know, that word has given me pause for years as I've read through this section. You know, the concept of unworthily. Now, in the New King James, it says, um, unworthy manner. I believe the Old King James says unworthily, if I remember correctly. But what does that word mean? You know, it conjures up in my mind. What I see is a giant balance. You know the kind from science class where you've got the, you put the standard weight on one side and you add the substance to the other and you add a little bit until they end up balancing out.

But in my mind, what I see is I see a perfect standard on one side, and then I see on the other side, me. And it doesn't matter. On my best day, I'm never going to balance, and I'm never going to balance out. So for me, you know, that word unworthily for a long time was a hang-up. It was a long time it was a hang-up. Because clearly, at my best, there is no way that I'll ever measure up.

So does that mean that I'm considered unworthy of taking the Passover? Well, absolutely not. And we know that. Brethren, our Passover examination is not a summative assessment. Okay, and I'm using some education ease there, but it is not a summative assessment. And I'll tell you what I mean by that.

Assessment is a huge buzzword in education these days. We used to just call them tests. They call them assessment now. Tests brings too much anxiety to the kids, so we call them assessments now.

But education today is a very data-driven field. You've got to have your students' progress assessed. You have to have points and percentages and totals, and you're measuring growth, and you're measuring... I mean, you're... it's extremely, extremely data-driven. But there are two ways of assessing a student's knowledge. We can either assess them with a summative assessment, or the more appropriate manner nowadays, a formative assessment. Okay, a summative assessment is the test that most of you are likely familiar with. Those are the kind of tests that, even when I was in school, we were still doing that kind of stuff. It changed since I was done. But the teacher goes through the curriculum, gives the lecture, teaches the class, the kids do their classwork, they do their homework, they take a test. And when the test is done, you know, it's kind of a Daniel 527 thing. You know, the kids are weighed, they're measured, and unfortunately nowadays most of them are found wanting. But you get the grade, and you move on, and you never come back to it, you never revisit it, you just, that's your grade, hopefully you do better the next time around. That's a summative assessment. It's done at the very end of everything, and the students never have an opportunity to improve. They never have an opportunity to improve. Formative assessment is the opposite side of the coin. Formative assessment, the student is tested, and then the results of that testing is used by the teacher to re-teach the parts the students don't know. Okay, so we actually go through, we look at it, and we say, you know what, this kid doesn't know this. Well, majority of the kids don't know this, so I must have missed something. You go back, you re-teach that information. In addition, the kids are able to see what they specifically didn't understand so that when the material is covered again, they can focus on those areas that they're deficient in.

Ultimately, they are given a summative assessment. At the end of the unit, they do take the same unit test, but the formative assessments are given in the middle of the unit to see where they're at, to give them some progress checks, to see ultimately where their understanding lies.

You know, our Passover examination is a formative assessment. It is not a summative assessment. You ever notice that you're continually tried in the same areas of your life? Seems like it's the same stuff all the time. Now, we know that God doesn't try us directly, but He allows us to be tempted, allows us to be tried, and in those same places in our lives because He needs us to learn a lesson. He needs that re-teaching to happen so that we pick it up and we learn it so that when we do take that summative assessment, we're going to pass. So we're consistently getting that re-teaching. We're consistently having opportunities to turn around this time around and pass it.

We need to be able to work on those changes necessary so that when we do finally take that summative assessment, you know, we hear that well done, good and faithful servant. You know, when that summative assessment does come around. We need to be found worthy. And when we translate that word unworthily, in the Greek it's anti-oxos, which I do not speak Greek, so my apologies for the pronunciation issues, but it's better translated as in an irreverent manner. So what Paul was cautioning them not to do was to take of the Passover in an irreverent way, in a way that was not suitable for what the Passover really represents. And the problem that the Corinthians were having is they were coming to the Passover meal and they were scarfing it down. They were eating to the fill. They were drinking to the point of drunkenness. And so they're eating the body and drinking the blood of Christ in that symbolism to the point of excess. And so Paul was saying, even so much so that in verse 34 he basically tells him, you know, look, eat before you come to this thing. You know, make sure you're full before you show up because that is not what this intent is for. No, that's not what this is for. We know that Passover is a very solemn commemoration, and it's something that we do need to make sure we have a good attitude about. And the attitude with which we examine ourselves, and also the attitude that we take the Passover with, is extremely important. So what is it that we need to do? Well, verse 28 tells us that we must examine ourselves. Okay, verse 28 tells us we absolutely must examine ourselves, and that Greek word is dōkimasu, which is translated as examine in this case, or to test to a say, but it doesn't tell the entire story. We're going to hop over just another book here real quick to 2 Corinthians 13 verse 5. So from 1 Corinthians over to 2 Corinthians 13, 5. And we'll see another aspect of the translation of dōkimasu. So 2 Corinthians 13 verse 5, we'll get a little bit of context here and flesh it out some. So 2 Corinthians 13 verse 5 says, again, examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves that Jesus Christ is in you unless indeed you are disqualified? But I trust that you will know that we are not disqualified.

The word dōkimasu is used there as well as another word, which is pirazzo. And so we take a look at the context here. The word pirazzo means to objectively test. And that's the first word used there. That's the examine. So by examining, we're told to examine ourselves objectively, to test ourselves objectively. In other words, see ourselves as God sees us. Don't have the bias of, well, you know, that's really hard for me, so that happens a lot. No, we need to look at it from how God sees us. But then secondly, the next word in there that test yourselves, okay, the second word is a derivative of dōkimatsu, the other word that we just saw in 1 Corinthians 11. And that actually translates in this case as a much stronger form of that word, as opposed to test its prove, as opposed to test its prove in this. And the context of the word, often where it's used, is as a metal worker might prove metal through the use of heat.

Okay, and so that is where you would see that word used in the regular context would be, you know, a metal worker that would prove a metal's worth through heat. Barnes' notes on the New Testament has a really interesting explanation of this particular Scripture I'd like to share with you today. It says this word prove refers to a saying or trying metals by the powerful action of heat, and the idea here is that they should make the most through trial of their religion to see whether it would stand the test. The proof of their piety was to be arrived at by a faithful examination of their own hearts and lives, by a diligent comparison of their views and feelings with the Word of God, and especially by making trial of it in life.

The best way to prove our piety is to subject it to actual trial in the various duties and responsibilities of life. A man who wishes to prove an axe to see whether it is good or not doesn't sit down and look at it, doesn't read all the treatises that he can find on how well this axe is put together in axe making and on the properties of iron and steel, as valuable as that information would be. But in order to prove the axe, he shoulders the axe, goes into the woods, and puts it to the test. If it cuts well, if it doesn't break, if it's not made dull soon, he understands the quality of that axe better than he could in any other way. So if a man wishes to know what his religion is worth, let him try it in the places where religion is of value.

Let him go out into the world with it. Let him go and to try to do good, to endure affliction in a proper manner, to combat the errors and the follies of life, to admonish sinners of the error of their ways, and to urge forward the great work of the conversion of the world. And he will soon see there what his religion is worth. As easily as a man can test the qualities of an axe, let him not merely sit down and think about his life. Compare himself with the Bible and look at his own heart, valuable as that can be in many respects, but let him treat his religion as he would anything else. Let him subject it to actual experiment. So it is not just a test, it is a proving of ourselves in situations that require us to do what is right. You know, if you're in a situation where you have no option but to choose the right all the time, that's not testing your faith. When you have an opportunity to go the wrong way and you choose to go the right way, now you have proved it, now you have tested it. This is the kind of examination that we need to do before Passover. We need to really dig into our lives. It's not a surface look. Okay, we need to look at every aspect of it in order to ultimately prove whether or not, you know, we're where we need to be. It's a corrective self-evaluation. We examine and we fix what we need to fix. The question we have to ask ourselves is really, are we walking the walk? That's really the question we have to ask. Are we walking the walk? Now we can look at the summation of the section. We'll go back to 1 Corinthians 11. I should have told you to keep your finger in there. I'm sorry. But 1 Corinthians 11, and we'll look at verse 31.

Apologies. I quite took off today. But 1 Corinthians 11, verse 31, says, For if we would judge ourselves, we would not be judged. And when we are judged, we are chastened by the Lord that we may not be condemned with the world. If we would judge ourselves, if we would find the areas in our lives that needed fixing, and then fix them, and fix them right and good and completely, there would be no need for judgment. We would have taken care of it.

Ultimately, we don't do this very well. Mankind has never done this very well. And we probably won't do it very well in the future either. If we can see the direction that we go. In fact, things out there are getting a little bit worse. We've never done well. And the reason we've never done well at actually really fixing the problems in our lives is because we don't see the gorilla.

We don't see the gorilla. Worldwide, on January 1st, the people of the world examine their lives, they take stock of everything, and they decide, they put together a list of the things that they need to work on. That list of things that they put together usually has one primary thing at the top of the list, and then they have their not as high ranked things a little bit lower. But maybe it's eating better, exercising, quitting smoking, drinking less, among a host of whole other things.

Statistics show that most people within about six weeks have fallen off the wagon of that New Year's resolution. About six weeks, and they're right back to the old habits that they vowed to never do again. Do we in God's church treat our examination at Passover like a New Year's resolution?

You know, we cringe a little bit at that question. We're like, well, no, I don't do that.

I'll admit, it hurts to admit it, I've done it without realizing it. I tell myself I'm going to fix something. Sure enough, next year, what am I fixing? The same thing I was trying to fix the year before. Do we treat it like a New Year's resolution, or do we really, really dig deep, and try to fix those areas of our life that need to be fixed?

Why won't we be able to fix it? Why is it that the same things crop up? Because when we examine our lives, we naturally focus on the things that are the big problems in our lives, and that gets our laser-like focus. We get this tunnel vision. You know, for example, while I'm going to stop taking the Lord's name in vain, that's what I'm working on. You know, and there are other things in our life that we're, I won't say ignoring by any means, because you know we're always working on things, but that's our focus. You know, sometimes we can get so focused and so deep in on our energy on that one thing that we completely miss the gorilla that walks from one side of the screen, thumps on his chest, and walks out the other side of the screen. In other words, we're so focused on the symptoms that we don't treat the disease. So we're so focused on the symptoms, we completely miss the disease itself. Now, I want to make sure what I'm saying is clear and that I'm not misunderstood. There's nothing wrong with focusing on specific aspects of our life to fix during our Passover examination. In fact, we need to be making every effort to prune the branches of our life that don't bear fruit. We need to be getting rid of those things. We just need to be very, very careful that we don't focus on the symptoms of the problem to the exclusion of the cause. So focus on the symptoms and miss the cause entirely because if we don't treat the disease, those symptoms are just going to keep on coming back. So from a medical standpoint, someone goes into the doctor because they're having shortness of breath, a tightness in their chest, and radiating pain down their left arm. We all know what that is. In fact, I saw a billboard on the way in today, driving down 97, that giant letters don't drive while you're having a heart attack.

Pull over, choose some aspirin, and dial 911. That was the first we've noticed it, and I just kind of went, whoa, yeah, well, that's a good message. It's hard to drive, I would imagine, while you're having a heart attack. But you know, we know what those symptoms mean. We know that pain reading down the left arm is a heart attack. You don't go to the doctor, and the doctor goes, you know what? Well, here's the deal. I'll give you a couple of times and I'll manage the pain, go ahead and send you back home. Okay? He doesn't treat the symptoms. He digs deep. He finds the root of the problem. He tests. He proves. And when he finds out that that person is having a heart attack, it's either surgery or some sort of a medication regimen to fix it. And sure enough, the cause goes away, and so do the symptoms. You take care of the root of the problem, and the symptoms go too. And sometimes, taking care of the root of the problem will take out three or four symptoms, depending on that root. We need to take a step back. We need to get to the root of the problem by finding what that root is in our examination, figuring out what it is. And everybody's gorilla is going to be a little bit different. Everybody's gorilla is going to be a little bit different. You know, but a lot of the gorillas in our lives, you know, I was thinking about the different things that people work on as I was putting this together, and a lot of them boil down to one thing. Basically, it's two sides of the same coin. A lack of discipline and self-control is what a lot of things can boil down to. A lack of discipline and self-control. For example, do you have trouble taming the tongue? You know, say things you're not supposed to say. Need to spend more time dug into your Bible. Have difficulty bringing thoughts into captivity. Need to pray more frequently. You know, the list goes on, but the cause of those things are the same.

We lack discipline, and we lack self-control. And what those ultimately are, are the two facets of what carnality is. It's a lack of discipline and a lack of self-control. You know, Paul recognized the importance of these two things in probably the most well-put description of the struggle that we face in our spiritual lives anywhere. You turn over to Romans 7. We'll look at it.

You know, it's a dichotomy in his life, and he says as much. He says, look, it's a complete dichotomy.

He doesn't say that specifically. I'm putting words in Paul's mouth that I shouldn't put in his mouth. But I'm actually going to read this from the New Living Translation, just because the New Living Translation tends to be a more easily read thing, and it kind of captures the passion and the wording a little better in this section, I think. So starting in Romans 7, again, in the New Living Translation, it says, so the trouble is not with the law, for the law is spiritual and good. The trouble is with me, for I am all too human, a slave to sin. I don't really understand myself, for what I want, or for I want to do what is right, but I don't do it. Instead, I do the things I hate.

But if I know what I'm doing is wrong, this shows that I agree the law is good. So we recognize, you know, that we do wrong things. Well, we recognize then the law is good. Okay? Verse 17 says, so I'm not the one doing wrong, it's the sin living in me that doesn't.

And I want to know that, or, and I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. I want to do what is right, but I can't. I want to do what is good, but I don't. I don't want to do what is wrong, but I do it anyway. But if I do what I don't want to do, I'm not really the one doing wrong, it is the sin living in me that does it. I have discovered this principle of life that when I want to do what is right, I inevitably do what is wrong. I love God's law with all my heart, but there is another power within me that is at war with my mind. This power makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me. Oh, what a miserable person I am who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death. Thank God, the answer is in Jesus Christ, our Lord. So you see how it is. In my mind, I really want to obey God's law, but because of my sinful nature, I'm a slave to sin. You know, Paul recognized this dichotomy. You know, the things that he wanted to do, he didn't do. The things he didn't want to do, sure enough, those were the things he was doing. And it's that way in our life as well. He recognized, he lacked self-control and discipline. He wasn't able to keep the temptations and the issues at bay. Proverbs 25, 28. Let's turn over there real quick. It paints a very strong word picture, actually, as well. Proverbs 25 verse 28. And we'll see a word picture that meant a lot to people of ancient Israel and people of ancient times. You know, we don't think about it this much now. I can't think of the last time I visited a city that had a wall. But, you know, this meant a lot in the old days. This meant a lot back in ancient Israel. So we'll be in Proverbs 25 and we'll look at verse 28. And in the New King James, it says, whoever has no rule over his own spirit is like a city broken down without walls.

He said, whoever has no rule over his own spirit is like a city broken down without walls. The wall in the days of ancient Israel was the key factor that protected a city. That was the... I mean, you had armies, sure. But we hear of these walls of these famous cities. You know, Jericho had these walls that it took God to destroy. You know, the Assyrians were rumored to have walls that were two chariots width thick. You know, they could just withstand a drubbing. You know, in fact, you know, when it came down to it, if you had a serious enough set of walls and a good supply line, you almost didn't need an army. You just sat there and waited until the other army got bored and went home because they couldn't get through the wall. Okay? So the wall was there to protect the city. The wall was there to protect the city's inhabitants. But a city without walls has no protection whatsoever. Just like a man or a person without self-control is unable to defend themselves against their enemy. And our bodies are the same way. Without that self-control and discipline, we cannot resist the temptations and the things that Satan throws our way. If we take a look over at Galatians 5 real quick, head back. We're just kind of flipping back and forth here. My apologies, but we'll head over to Galatians 5 and we'll start in verse 16.

So Galatians 5 verse 16 gives us the fruits of the Spirit and the lusts of the flesh. So lusts of the flesh and the fruits of the Spirit. We'll take a look at Galatians 5 starting in verse 16 and we'll read through verse 16 through 25. It says, This is what Paul was talking about. This is what Paul was talking about in Romans. Just bashing back and forth. I want to do this, but I don't. I don't want to do this, but I do. Okay, this is these two things. The lusts of the flesh and the fruits of the Spirit warring against each other. But if you were led by the Spirit, you were not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousy, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, and heresies. On the list goes on. Envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like, of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in times past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. So we see this laundry list of things that are the lusts of the flesh. And then now we see the fruits of the Spirit. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.

Against such there is no law. And those who are Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and its desires. And if we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking one another and end being one another. Self-control is listed among those fruits of the Spirit. And this section takes it a little further and says those who can exhibit those things actually will put the lusts of the flesh to the crucifixion. They'll actually put them to death completely. In other words, they will have put to death carnality. Tall order. Very tall order. But it's an incredible promise to those who can overcome these things. Absolutely incredible promise. And if we can exhibit those fruits. You know, self-control and discipline are two sides of the same coin. They kind of go hand in hand. And to be totally honest, they are not problems that you can just solve tomorrow. Okay? They are not something you can just decide, well, I'm going to fix my self-control issues because it's a multifaceted issue. You know, there's an old adage, and I want to say it's... I thought I heard somewhere that it was Kenyan. But, you know, the only way to eat an elephant is one bite at a time. Now granted, we don't eat elephants. They're unclean. But, you know, I would assume that it would also go to reason that the only way to eat a really big gorilla in the room is one bite at a time. Okay? And so we can attack these gorillas, these root causes in our lives with little steps. Okay? Trying to find ways to take care of that. We do have to start small. Okay? We can't bite off huge chunks. We do need to start small. So I'm going to give you three things today in the remainder of time that we have left today. I'm going to give you three things that can help us to establish a little bit better self-control and discipline in our spiritual lives. And those three things are, first, we must establish good habits.

So we must establish good habits. Second, we need to learn to say no. Second, we need to learn to say no. And then number three, when it comes to measuring our growth, we need to use a growth model. Okay? So when it comes to measuring our growth, we need to use a growth model. So we'll start with establishing good habits. You know, Stephen Covey is the man who literally wrote the book on good habits. His book, The Seven Habits of Highly Successful People, has sold over 15 million copies worldwide, translated into something like 38 different languages, and within a lot of some of the top companies in the U.S. and in the world, it forms the backbone of their management style. And a lot of these places have started using it in the office as a management philosophy for their mid-level and their upper-level management. You know, I've read through them, I've looked at the different habits, and really, Stephen Covey, rather not Covey, that's something different, Stephen Covey really knocked the ball out of the park with his habit number three. Okay, habit number three in Stephen Covey's... I did it again... Covey! There we go. Stephen Covey's book is to put the first things first, and his reasoning for that is he says to live a more balanced existence. You have to recognize that not doing everything that comes along is okay. There's no need to overextend yourself. All it takes is realizing that it's all right to say no when it's necessary and to focus on your highest priorities. Habit three happens day in and day out moment by moment. It deals with many of the questions addressed in the field of time management, but that's not all that it's about. Habit three is about life management as well, your purposes, your values, your roles, and your priorities. What are first things? Well, first things are those things that you personally find of most worth. If you put first things first, you are organizing and managing time and events according to the personal priorities that you've established in habit two. So according to Covey, there's no way that we're going to complete everything that we set out to do each day. And for those of us that have tried, it doesn't happen. I've found that I end up living between all of my different commitments. I live a fairly hectic lifestyle, it seems. You're never going to get it all done. You're never going to get it all done. What you have to focus on doing is getting the most important things done. And the most important things we can't put off until the very end of our day and do them right before we fall asleep at night. It doesn't work. Can't count how many times I've fallen asleep trying to read my Bible.

I can't put that off until the end of the day. I just can't do that in my life. Some people maybe have, but I can't do it. So what are our priorities in our life? What are our priorities?

You know, up until recently, like I just mentioned, I never really had a set time where I did my prayer and study. It was kind of where I could catch it, you know, catch five minutes here, ten minutes here, fifteen minutes here, twenty minutes here, and then, you know, Sabbath comes, and sure, you got more time. But I never really had a set time. I would try to do it in the evening, but that wasn't working. You know, I'd end up asleep or I'd end up doing it, and it just wasn't getting done the way that it needed to. So I became increasingly convinced I needed, personally, myself, the way that I operate. I need a set time each day that is period. That's what this is for, and it's got to be scheduled. That time, unfortunately, is before the kids get up in the morning, which is 5 a.m., and my wife and I are finding out that, you know, man is not meant to be awake at 5 a.m. Now, I'm kind of kidding a little bit. We are. It just takes some conditioning. We've both found that we're very, very good at Monday. Monday, 5 a.m., no problem. Tuesday, it's about 5.15, 5.20.

Wednesday's pushing 6. Thursday's 6.30. We just get so worn down as the week goes on. So what we're able to do, what we're able to bring back from that is, okay, we're establishing this bit of control over our life. What that means is we now need to control the other facets that are making us too tired to continue to be able to do this in the mornings. So this is something that, as you take one bite, you'll find that you now need to take another bite and another bite to find all of these pieces. But we do recognize our Bible study has to be daily. It has to be daily. You know, Acts 17, 11 gives us the example of the Bereans who search the Scriptures daily to prove what they are being taught. That example isn't in there just because they sounded like something that would be good to write down. Okay, that example is there so that we recognize, you know, this is what the model is to be. You're to be searching it out daily and proving it to yourself on a daily basis.

In addition, we have we need to make sure we keep the lines of communication open.

Christ set the example of the model prayer, which includes asking for our daily needs. And we need to be praying daily as well. And we recognize that, but sometimes we get lax on things. We get busy. Okay, we let parts of our life suffer that we shouldn't let suffer. Okay, those most important, those first priorities. The biggest benefit from establishing an early morning schedule on this that I found is you start your day so much closer to God. And then as the day goes on, it's easier to stay closer because that's where you started. If by the end of the day, now you're trying to come back, we've had a whole day's worth of things that have happened that you may not have responded well to. So if you start your day out in that way, you have a much greater chance of maintaining discipline and self-control as that day progresses. So according to the research, according to the research, to establish a habit, it takes three weeks. 21 days is the research. You see, 21 days to get a habit established. If you're one of those that is like me, I would encourage you to establish that time if you can because it really is a foundation for the rest of the steps that we're going to look at. The second thing we need to do is we need to learn to say no. We need to learn to say no. And every single day we find ourselves in all sorts of situations that require us to make a decision. One direction down the road leads the path God wants us to follow. The other direction down the road looks easier, maybe not as difficult, and that's the way that Satan wants us to go. And every day we're met with different forks in our road and these different decisions that we can make. We need to ensure that we're making the proper choices. Part of that requires us to be able to tell ourselves no. As we look down that path and as we see the easy way out, we need to be able to say no. You're going to take the straight up the hill. You're going to go hiking today. You're going to do the right thing. We have to learn to tell ourselves no. Mr. Armstrong wrote a short article on how to prevent sin in the January 1968 issue of the Plain Truth. Enid provided some good advice for ways to keep ourselves from traveling down that other path. It says, the way to put a thing out of the mind is to put an opposite thought into the mind. So often have I noticed parents of babies striving so hard to shush the baby when it's crying. I've been guilty of this. There's either something causing pain which should be removed or something is in the baby's mind causing it's crying or it's fretting. Just saying shush or commanding the baby to stop fussing usually doesn't get very good results. Mr. Armstrong goes on to say that he's reared for children and long ago he learned the trick of quieting the baby by getting its mind on something else. Instead of commanding it to stop crying, attract its attention with some other new object. Get it interested in playing with that object and before you know it, the child will completely forget about what it was crying about. Now, sometimes I can assure you that that does not always work, but sometimes sometimes it does. He says try using this same method on yourself, but instead of material or worldly things, a mature person should use self-discipline. There's that self-discipline again, and set his mind on spiritual things. Open up your Bible. Put the study of some spiritual subject into your mind and the next time you're tempted try it. Pray over and ask God to help you and see how rapidly you begin to win the victory over temptation and sin and how marvelous will be your spiritual and character growth.

You know, shutting down the thoughts of our mind before they take hold is crucial, and that is telling ourselves no. You know, somebody does this wrong and you think, well, I just have to tell that person off. That's it. I'm finally, I'm just gonna let them have it. I am just gonna give them a piece of my mind, and you know what you really need to just go, you just really need to stop and tell yourself, you know what? No, it's not worth it. It's not worth it. And just tell your, we've got to learn to tell ourselves no, but you can shut things down quickly that way. That's the ideal.

That's what we're shooting for. Do we have the ability to do that now? Maybe not. I can tell you, I don't. Okay, I'll tell you, I don't. But there are examples in the Bible of individuals who have done it. Let's go over to Job real quick. Job 2. And we're gonna start reading in verse 9.

So Job 2 verse 9, we'll take a look at some of the context before we get started here.

You know, we deal in the beginning of this with the temptation of Job. Basically, Satan says, well, what about, I've been out walking around, I've been seeing things. God says, hey, what do you think about my servant Job? You know, he's a real good guy, real solid. You know, Satan says, yeah, but you know what?

You start taking things away from him, you'll see. God basically gives him complete permission to go after Job. He says the only thing he can't do is kill him. Essentially, the only thing he can't do is really harm Job himself. So we see in the entirety of Job 1, you know, things that start going, things that start disappearing. You know, we have, Job's life is essentially destroyed. Essentially destroyed. We pick up the story here in verse 9 with Job's conversation with his wife.

I always get a kick out of this. It says, and then his wife said to him, do you still hold on to your integrity? Just renounce God and die. Just be done with it. And he said to her, you speak as one of the foolish women speak. What, should we receive good at the hand of God? And shall we not then receive evil? And it says specifically, in all of this, Job did not sin with his lips.

You know, Job's wife had some advice for him. Wasn't good advice. Oh, but she had some advice. Look, just curse God and die and be done with it. Just be finished. You know, Job could have listened. That was the easy way out. That was the thing he could have done. Sure, all the suffering ends. But he knew better. He knew better. He took the look down the path that he knew he shouldn't take.

Look down the path he knew he should, and he decided to go the right direction. He told his wife, no, no, I'm not going to do that. So we have to have the strength to do this, and that takes a strong will. That takes a very strong will, but we have to start small again and work our way up to those big things.

Lastly, we need to make sure that we use a growth model. You know, Mr. Armstrong's article mentioned, every time we overcome sin and temptation, we grow in character. So we grow in character every time, and we need to focus on that growth, because it's important to celebrate the growth that we see. It is important to celebrate the growth that we see. It's easy to get very frustrated with ourselves when we slip up on things that we should know better at. Maybe we let our tongue get away from us and we gossiped over someone, or we made an unfair judgment.

Whatever. Every time we do that, we tend to get upset. And sometimes it feels like we just can't get anything right. We're never ever going to measure up. You know, I just finished the second round of state science testing with my eighth grade students. You know, we have these big, huge end-of-the-year computerized science tests that these kids have to take, and there is a score that is set in stone that those kids must get better than that score, or they do not pass.

Now, there's no, like, they don't not go on to the ninth grade. I mean, there's no punitive damage as if they don't pass the test, but you know, the kids, their anxiety really does go through the roof. And we just got finished with this. It was about two weeks worth. And the test score is set up from the requirements of the No Child Left Behind Act in the federal side of things. And it requires that 70 percent of our students at our school pass this year.

Next year, even if we don't meet the mark, it goes up to 75 percent, and then 80 percent, and then 85 percent. And eventually, 100 percent of the students that attend our schools are expected to pass at this level. Now, I teach at a very, very, very diverse school in Salem-Kaiser.

I teach at a school that there just simply are some students at that school that will never meet that metric. And I hate to say something like that, but it's a language issue. It's a mental faculty issue. You know, there are a lot of students there that have a very, very extreme difficulty with these tests. And a lot of it is, you know, they were born into a household where maybe they spoke Spanish to begin with. Okay, for the first six years, you know, they learned to speak it as a child and then went to an English-only school. So now their instruction for the first two or three years to four years to five years, depending on how quickly they pick up language, is in a language they don't understand. So we're at five or six. They never fully became literate in their first language. Okay, they're kind of sub-literate in the first language. And now, they're sub-literate in their second language. And so now we put them in a situation where we give them a test that is written with eighth grade, ninth grade, tenth grade English, and English is the only option. Or complete Spanish, which they can't necessarily read either, and they're expected to pass it. One of the questions I came around... We're not allowed to see the test. We're actually not allowed to see what's on the test. We can answer kids' questions as they come around, like on definitions, or we can read the words to them. And it was a fairly simple question, asking why Ben's climate is so arid while the other side of the Cascades is a very humid climate. Rain shadow question, basically. The kid got hung up on the question arid. He didn't know what arid meant.

We don't use the word arid very frequently anymore. When we talk about it in class, we use dry. It's dry climate. It's a desert. He had no idea what the word arid meant. Missed the question, because he didn't know the vocabulary word there that now I know that I need to cover. But I didn't know that before. So for some of these kids, that standard and that standard of measure for right now is unattainable. A couple years, some of them may hit it no problem, but right now, they're not going to make it. And some of the districts that have very high ELL populations, now we're starting to move away from the model of Pass or Else to what's called a growth model, where we take the test score at the beginning, we take the test score the second time, and then we take the test score the third time, and we compare how much growth was done from here to here.

That really is a more accurate measure of what that student is able to do versus, well, you didn't make this mark, but boy, you sure gained 30 points. The kids don't see the 30 points growth. They see, I didn't pass. And so I had a couple of students this go around especially that were at like a 203 the first time and scored a 232 or a 233 one point away from passing. And they were so dejected because they didn't hit that score, but they didn't see that they made 30 points of growth.

So we try to celebrate that. We try to say, look, yeah, you didn't make it, but look how much you've grown over here. I mean, really look at the growth that you've done. You know, we have to recognize our salvation is an ongoing process and one that we probably won't be truly completely successful with until Christ's return, until we are changed. You know, it doesn't mean we don't exercise the effort. It doesn't mean we just give up and go, well, I'm never going to make it in this life. So here's hoping for the Spirit. Okay. We have to look at our successes, and maybe the best way to do that is in a growth model. But that's going to require us to set some goals. So we have to set out and set a goal and then measure that goal as we go. So I would give you a challenge for this year for your examination to set a couple of growth goals. Set a couple of goals for yourself in growth and then check in with yourself in six months. You know, three months, six months, just to see how you're progressing. Sure, you may not be there yet, okay? But, you know, if we're making progress, that's what we need to be doing. You know, Lamentations 3, verse 40. Don't go to the book of Lamentations very often, but Lamentations 3, verse 40 has an example of a discussion of what Israel was to do when they fell aside and when they got to the point where they weren't doing it the way that they should. Lamentations 3, 40 says, let us search and try our ways and turn again to God.

You know, we know we're going to slip up. We're not perfect. We know that. When we do, we need to pick ourselves up, we need to dust ourselves off, and we need to do a course correct. Meaning we need to get back on that path that we're supposed to be on, moving in the way that we're supposed to move. The reality of it is it will likely take us more than a single year to achieve a measure of self-control that we could consider growth. It's probably going to take more than a year. But we need to make sure that focus is on the root of the issue and not the symptom, because if we focus on the symptom, we may not hit the root. And that root then doesn't get taken care of. You know, if we can treat the disease, we can control the symptoms. So, brethren, as our Passover season grows ever nearer, we need to be ensuring our examination is complete, that we have asked God through prayer to help see ourselves as He sees us, that objective testing, and that we've then taken a step back and viewed our life in its entirety through God's lens. Once He gives us that ability to really examine our lives, we need to step back and watch it for a little while and see exactly what's going on. But step back and look for the gorilla that's passing through that scene. You know, we need to really resist the urge to make what are what we kind of call Passover resolutions. You know, we need to really resist that urge, but focus on making a more lasting change in our lives by attacking the root of the problem. And that root of that problem, in many cases, can be self-control and discipline. But again, examine the life. Find your gorilla. Find your gorilla that's getting in there and causing issues. You know, Shannon and I won't see you guys again until the last day of Unleavened Bread, but we do wish you a very spiritually rewarding beginning to your spring holy day season, to your days of Unleavened Bread, and the rest of your examination and delavening. We hope Gorilla well.