Our Spiritual Development

Oh, you want to be in the Kingdom of God. That's why you're here. You want to have eternal life. You want to live forever. That's why you're here. You're here because being here is part of the program. What program? The program for development for eternal life and the Kingdom of God. Oh, there's a program for development? Yeah. God has a program for development. Development has to take place.

Each one of us is not born developed. We may be physically, yes. Of course, even there, we've got to grow until we grow up physically. But each of us has to be developed. That's why God calls a person into the truth. That's why God calls a person into the church. That's why God calls us into His way of life. That's why He gives us His Holy Spirit. And also, that's why God gives us time. Time. It's also that we can be developed so that we can be given eternal life in the Kingdom of God. If you have scriptures that you write out sometimes, or just notating the book and the chapter and the verse, and then sticking it on your mirror in the bathroom or whatever, or refrigerator or whatever, so that you can read that, be reminded of that. A good one is Luke 12 and verse 32. That's a good one. Luke 12 and verse 32, fear not, little flock. I think of little flock, I think of Rome. I think of Gaston. I think of Chattanooga. And I think of practically every other congregation of the Church of God, whoever it is. And if you had a meal all together, little flock. Such a small number of people overall. But it's always been that way, and it will always be that way until the Kingdom of God, or until the Kingdom is set up on this earth, and until the Millennial reign of Jesus Christ. And also, in addition to that, the time of the general resurrection. Fear not, little flock. For it is your Father's good pleasure.

The Father takes pleasure. There's things that give Him pleasure. And one of the things that gives Him pleasure is to be able to give you, Christ said, to give you the Kingdom. It's pleasurable for God to give us the Kingdom. He wants us in His Kingdom. He wants us in His Kingdom. What would you do if you want something, and you know that it's moral, and it's legal, and it's okay? You'd work for it, wouldn't you? Wouldn't you work for it? Well, if God wants us in His Kingdom, wouldn't He work for that? Wouldn't He work for you to be in His Kingdom? Notice Philippians 2.13. Philippians 2 and verse 13. Christ said, don't fear it's your Father's good pleasure to give you the Kingdom, and God's going to work for that. And in Philippians 2.13, He says, for it is God which works in you, both to notice, both to will and to do His good pleasure.

If you look at chapter 1, and I realize these are very familiar Scriptures, but they're also the kind of Scriptures that you can go back to them over and over and renew the rejuvenation and refreshing they give us. Because we rise and fall every day physically. We rise, head into the day, and we fall into the bed at night, so to speak. And we rise and we fall in more ways than just one. And so many times, the things we deal with that are troublesome and hard, they're there every day. And we go to bed and we rise into those things again the next day. And we never know what a day we'll bring forth. We are always challenged with something.

And so, these are Scriptures that we can continually go back to. They lose no strength or power with us. In fact, they gain strength and power with us, impact as we go on. Being confident of this very thing, verse 6, Philippians 1 and verse 6. Here's God who works in us to will and to do His good pleasure, and He faithfully stays the course.

He faithfully stays the course. That's what Paul is speaking to. Being confident of this very thing that He which has begun a good work in you, will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. He stays the course. He doesn't quit on us. You know, you read the writings of Paul, and I'm going to go to Hebrews 13.5. You read the writings of Paul, and you find if you take all of His writings, you become familiar with all of His writings, that there are certain, obviously, rightly properly so, certain themes that will flow throughout those writings, or certain things that He will touch upon in various of those writings.

God doesn't quit on us. He stays the course. And we read in Hebrews 13.5, and it's that last part of this verse where Paul says, For He has said, I, God is saying, I will never leave you, nor forsake you. There's no gap. He doesn't leave us. He doesn't forsake us. Once He begins that work in us, He does stay with it. He never abandons the development. God never abandons the development. Remember, Christ is the one who gave the parable of the ninety-nine and one sheep.

If you go back with me to Matthew 18, Christ is the one who gives this example. This example in Matthew 18 verses 12 through 14, this example of leaving the secured ninety-nine and going after the one unsecured lost sheep. Matthew 18 verses 12 through 14, verse 12. How do you think? How thank you! If a man have a hundred sheep, and one of them be gone astray, does he not leave ninety-nine and go into the mountains and seek that which is gone astray? And if so be that he find it, truly I say to you, he rejoices more of that sheep than of the ninety-nine which went not astray.

They're secured. They're safe. They're sound. He's not worried about them. He's concerned. He's worried. He's stressed about the one that's gone astray. Even so, and again notice, it is not the will of your Father which is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish. In the ultimate, anyone that should perish, they don't perish because it was God's will that they perish.

His will, His desire is to see that no little one perishes. Now, what this speaks to, and Christ gave this example, what this speaks to is the nature of the Good Shepherd. You notice John 10, verse 11 and 14. John 10, it speaks to the nature of the Good Shepherd. In John 10 and verse 11, He says, I am the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd gives His life for the sheep. You can't ask more of a shepherd than that. The Good Shepherd gives His life for the sheep. And then verse 14, He says, I am the Good Shepherd.

And know my sheep. I'm not going to go back to the books of Timothy, but we could turn and read a statement where Timothy obviously had certain concerns about God's people and the church and what was going on at that time, because they were already false brethren and false teachers and all, beginning to abound. And Paul makes an interesting statement to Timothy in one of those letters. He says, the seal of the Lord is this. The Lord knows those who are His. Wherever God has His sheep, He knows them.

He knows who His sheep are. And Christ says here, I am the Good Shepherd. And know my sheep. And have known of mine. My sheep know me. They know me. God never abandons the sheep. Never. It's not any. His own nature won't allow it. And He never abandons the development of the sheep, because He wants to be able to give them the kingdom, which is eternal life in His family forever.

This developmental approach of God applies to each of us individually. It's how God approaches me. It's how He deals with me. God has to develop us. It's how He approaches you. It's how He approaches you and how He deals with you, because God has to develop us. Some things are optional. This isn't. Our personal individual development is not optional. It is necessity for eternal life in the kingdom of God.

It is absolute necessity. In the words of Isaiah, these words are there because of this. They're tied to this. They're related to this. Isaiah 64 verse 8. That development of us. Isaiah 64 and verse 8. These words of Isaiah are tied to that development. But now, O Lord, You are our Father. We are the clay. You, our potter, who takes the clay in His hands and molds and shapes it, see? And we all are the work of Your hand.

Now, at the physical level, just being human beings, we're the work of His hand. But just to make us a human being, and that's it, we don't enter the kingdom. We can't. Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom. There is a work of development that has to be done, and then that can be eternalized through resurrection in due time. Also, the words that deal with this development that are connected to it actually are those of Job, also in Job 14.

Job 14 verses 14 and 15. His words here also connect to that development that has to take place. It's that development that truly is what is built in this life and remains when this life is gone. But it's a developmental process that's going on during this life and has to during this life. If a man die, Job said, and of course he was staring death in the face, he didn't know if God was going to allow it to go that far or not.

At the time he said this, he didn't know. He knew God was with him, but he didn't know if God will allow the situation to go to the point of death at this point. But he said, if a man die, shall he live again? All the days of my appointed time will I wait till my change come. He knew a change would come. He obviously knew he was going to be resurrected.

He obviously knew the truth. He obviously knew sufficiently about the plan of salvation. He said, you shall call. That's the call of the last trump. That's the call of the seventh angel, the seventh trumpet. You shall call, and I will answer you.

Notice what he says. You will have a desire to the work of your hands. It is my Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. You will have a desire to the work of your hands. A desire, the work of your hands. That speaks to a motivational pleasure, a motivational pleasure to eternalize the developmental work that has been accomplished. And that's what Job is speaking to. See, that developmental work in us is a work of kinship, kinship with God.

We become kin. I know it's a southern term, but I'm southern, and I'm in a southern area. We become kinfolk with God. It's a work of kinship. We become kin, kinfolks. That's why God looks so forward with pleasure to bringing us into eternity with Him. With those thoughts in mind, let's go to Galatians 4 and verse 19. Galatians 4 and verse 19. This developmental kinship, it must take place. Paul speaks to this in Galatians 4 and 19. What else can we get out of it other than a developmental kinship, identity, likeness going on? When we read these words, my little children of whom I travail in birth again until...

What's the goal? Until. Until what happens? As long as Paul was alive, this is what he worked toward with those he was given to assist toward salvation. Christ beformed in you. Christ. The being that is Christ. That who He is, what He is, what He stands for, what's important to Him, His standards, His values. That that becomes more and more you. That becomes more and more that new man, that new woman, till Christ beformed in you. Which also, by the very way that it's worded, tells me. You can't reach a certain age in this life and say, okay, it's done. You might come to whatever age and say, well, such and such is going on and accomplished and been accomplished and is being accomplished. But there's still a pretty good gap. I've still got to keep reaching forward. And, of course, when he wrote the Ephesians, in Ephesians 4, verse 15, he says the same thing, but he uses different words. And sometimes you can say the same thing and use different words, and it brings additional impact or additional clarity. So in Ephesians 4, verse 15, he says the same essence, but just uses different words to express it when he says, But speaking the truth in love may do what? Grow up. You ever hear somebody say, why don't you just grow up? You ever hear an adult say to another adult, Charlie, isn't it about time you just grew up and we know exactly what they mean? Well, could Christ look at us sometimes and say, my dear brother, could you just grow up?

My dear sister, could you just grow up? Speaking the truth in love may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ. And then, of course, in Philippians 2, verse 5, which we've read many a time and shall continue to read many a time because it's so important. Philippians 2, verse 5, let, which means you have to choose to yield. You have to exercise your will, your free moral agency. You have to make a choice to allow this, which in allowing that also means you're pursuing it. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. You can block this mind. You can diminish this mind. You can close out this mind. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. So, you look at those words. Formed, grow up, mind. This is developmental kinship with Christ. And let me make a side point. There are those sometimes who say, oh, you emphasize Christ too much and not the Father enough. You ever run into anybody that hits you with that? Or, you don't need to be emphasizing Jesus Christ so much. You need to emphasize the Father. It's almost like they think that the Father and the Son are in some kind of a competitive situation and that, well, if you emphasize Christ too much, the Father might get jealous. But if you emphasize the Father too much and never mention Christ, He might feel left out. Do we not remember John 10.30, where He says, I and the Father are one? They don't do things independently of each other. There are two different beings, two intelligences, who can sit down together at the throne or wherever and carry a conversation with each other. But it's a unity statement of perfect harmony. And remember what Christ said? When you honor Him, you're honoring the Father. When you honor the Father, you're honoring Him. But let's just count ascension in one sense here with Hebrews 1.3. You know, talking about form to grow up, mind, the developmental kinship with Christ, which automatically gives us kinship with the Father. How do you not have Christ formed in you and by every bit of that forming that takes place, not make you closer to the Father? Because, say, Hebrews 1.3, and we've read it, that phrase in there that says, "...who, being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person," and those three words, the express image, can be translated the exact character. Because the word image there in the Greek is the word character, spelled almost exactly like our English word, except for a couple of letters or so, difference. Jesus Christ is the exact character of the Father. So, the more you develop in Christ, the more Christ develops in you, you cannot have Christ formed in you, not one bit. You can't grow up into Him in all things in one bit. You can't have His mind in you one bit without automatically being that one bit closer to being like the Father. The exact character, you have automatic kinship with the Father. So, that brings me now to a question. You know, sometimes I ask questions. So, now I will ask the question, Can God do it all for us? Think about that a moment.

Can God do all for us? In other words, is it all 100% on His shoulders?

Does any of our spiritual development rest upon us, upon our personal shoulders? If you want a title, because I've been talking about our spiritual development, and so, just simply title the sermon that way three words, Our Spiritual Development. Our spiritual development. Does any of our development rest upon us, upon our personal shoulders? Okay, when I ask that question, that takes me back to Philippians 2. So, let's go back to Philippians 2.

And somebody answer this for me, if you can. If the responsibility of our spiritual development rests 100% completely on God's shoulders, then why is verse 12 there in chapter 2? I'm a logical thinker. Read it, look at it. If the responsibility of our development rests completely on God's shoulders, then why would verse 12 need to be there? Wherefore, my beloved, Paul says, as you have obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, notice what he says, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. So, if the responsibility of our spiritual development rested completely on God's shoulders, verse 12 wouldn't be there. There'd be no need for it to be there. It'd make no sense. It would be a vain verse. It would be an empty verse that'd have no true, realistic meaning. And if the responsibility of our spiritual development rested completely 100% on our shoulders, guess what? Verse 13 wouldn't be there, would it? See, if God said, your spiritual development is strictly, totally 100% on your shoulders, then verse 13 wouldn't be necessary. For it is God which works in you, both to will and to do, works in the motivational area of will and motivation, and to do, of His good pleasure, there'd be no need for it to be there. See, to will, that's in the mind, that's in the motivational area. Guess what? God helps us there. That's what encouragement is. When God encourages us, that's in the motivational area. When He enheartens us, when He inspires us, when He incentivizes us, that's in the motivational area. Encouragement, inspiration, incentive, and then to do, well, that's in the action area. I tell people, God doesn't bless thin air, could He? I suppose. But He doesn't bless thin air. Do something! Give Him a chance to bless you. Do something! Give Him a chance to bless you. I knew that God had blessed me with the message that I gave on the last great day. I knew that He had blessed me. I'd seen His hand of blessing and inspiration and all.

And I was looking forward to giving it. And the night before, I went to bed early with a bit of a sore throat. I knew that bug was trying to get a hold of me. And I prayed to God, Father, You have given me this message. You have helped me. You have inspired me. It shows Your power, Your love, and Your fairness. Give me the opportunity to give, to share what You've given me. And I did my part. No sugar, no sweets, no desserts. I went to bed early. I did what I could. I took extra vitamins and all. I did what I could. And there were a number of family and all that knew what I was wrestling with, and they were praying about it. I made the efforts within my power, and God blessed it. And that's the way it works. We have to give effort. We've got to do what's within our power. Give something to God to bless. And He blesses our positive efforts with His support. I've seen that over and over in my life and the lives of others. God blesses our positive efforts with His support. Sometimes people say, well, I don't know. There's no way this is going to work. Just know when it's going to work. How do you know? Because look at this, and look at this, and look at this, and look at this, and that. It just can't work. Why don't you go ahead and try anyway? Well, why? It's just useless. Well, why? Do it.

Okay, it's not going to work, but I'll do it. Later, well, I can't believe it. It worked. It worked. And they're amazed. And it's nothing more than God said, do something. Do what is positive and right and good. Make an effort. I'll see to it that it has my support and it'll work. See, God also does for us what we can't that's outside our power. There are so many things that are outside our power. We just can't make work, but God can make things work that can't. We can do what is within our power to do when something looks hopeless, and He can support that and make it work. But also, even when things are truly beyond our power, He can close that gap. See, what you have with Philippians 2, verses 12 and 13 is this. Those two verses put back to back there by inspiration of God shows that the developmental work of God is a joint cooperative effort. It is a joint cooperative effort, and we can never lose sight of that. We've come back from the high of the feast. We've got a long stretch between now and the spring Holy Day season. We're going into the dead season of the year where the trees go dormant, the grass goes dormant, and gray skies many times. We'll have sunshine, too. But, you know, there'll be many days where it's gray skies and gray trees and gray highways and gray rain and just gray, gray, gray. And most people aren't that fond of gray, per se.

A season where things are dormant. And then it's the highlight of paganism for the world. It's their highlight time of lies. You know, a lot of them don't know better. Some do. Some don't. But it's the highlight season for the world following the ways that are not of God.

And so we come back and we have to focus on our spiritual development. Not losing what we gained, building on what we've been given so far, setting our resolve that we're going to apply ourself over this long stretch to Passover. We're going to apply ourself to the development, the growth and development that not only God expects of us, but with His help, with us making the efforts. Philippians 2, verses 12 and 13, we grow.

I go back to that statement I made. God never abandons our developmental work. He never quits on us.

Remember the 99 in one sheet? Christ doesn't forget that He said that. He knows very well He said that. He remembers it. If you are a sheep and you go astray, you're ready, Christ is coming after you. And I mean it exactly that way. If you are a sheep and you go astray, Christ is coming after you. If you are a sheep and you begin to quit on God, you begin to abandon Him, you begin to abandon your development, He is coming after you. Now, if you just happen to be a goat, He's not going to chase you. If you happen to be a tare, He's not going to worry about it. But if you are a sheep, if you are a wheat and you are a sheep, and you begin to quit on Him, and you begin to abandon Him, He is coming after you. Notice Psalm 119 verse 67. Psalm 119, that sheep that went astray, the 99 in one, Christ went after it. Psalm 119 verse 67.

David wrote, Before I was afflicted, he wound up with some affliction, he said, Before I was afflicted, I went astray. I went astray. But now, I have kept your word. David was a sheep. He went astray. God went after Him. He went after Him in what way? He went after Him in a corrective way. God's going after David in a corrective way was a necessary part of the developmental process, and it had a restorative effect. Notice again verse 67. Before I was afflicted, I went astray. But now, after having gone astray and after having been afflicted, but now, I have kept your word. Notice verse 71. It is good for me, David acknowledged, it is good for me that I have been afflicted, that I might learn your statutes. David understood that God's correction is a necessary part of the developmental program, the developmental process. Let's go to Hebrews 12 and let's just read verses 5 through 11. Hebrews 12 verses 5 through 11.

Picking it up in verse 5.

You are now a child of God. You are a begotten child of God. You are a begotten daughter or a begotten son of God. You are a begotten younger brother or sister of Jesus Christ. My son despises not you the chastening or the correcting or the correction of the Lord, nor faint or quit when you are rebuked or corrected of Him. Verse 6 is so crucial.

If your children are partakers, then you are not validated. You are invalid. You are illegitimate. And you are not sons. Furthermore, we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected this and gave them respect. Shall we not much rather be in subjection to the fathers of spirits and live?

We are not truly for a few days. It is a short time. And we realize when we get older just how short these days are, chasing us after their own pleasure. But He for our profit that we might be partakers of His holiness.

Now, no correcting for the presence seems to be joyous but grievous. It feels pretty bad. Nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised therewith. God will not allow His sheep to spiritually wander off. God will not allow His sheep to neglect their responsibility in the developmental process and not take action. Corrective action because He is God. He cannot. He will not.

The next holy day cycle we will go through is the 2020 cycle. I can remember when I was a teenager, I didn't even think about 2020. Because that was so far away, I was never going to see it in this life anyway. See, December the 6th, I will turn 69, which means I conclude 69 years of life. 69 spins around the sign, orbits around the sign, which also means that December the 7th is my first day of being in my 70th year. That kind of shakes me up.

I start into my 70th year of life, December the 7th. Do I think that things will keep rolling along and there will be 2021, 2022, 2023, and right on down to 2035, 2055, 2075, and the year 2100? No, I don't think it will go that far. But here's the thing, I won't go that far. My 20 whatever, if this age goes on long enough, one of these 20 whatevers, that's it for me. But here's one of the basic facts of the movement of time. We are moving closer and closer to the end of the age.

We're moving closer and closer to, and therefore eventually into, the events that will occur previous to Jesus Christ's return. And to the church, to the church, one of the strongest warnings involving the time that we are now in, the times we're in. Let's put it that way, the times we're in. It's what we find in Revelation 3.16. Because again, this is to the church. It's not to tares, and it's not to goats. It can be to sheep that are acting like goats.

It can be to wheat that are acting like tares. But it's to the church. It's to the, quote, children whom God loves, and whom He says, if He loves us, He corrects us. And so we read in Revelation 3, like I said, God will not allow His sheep to spiritually wander off.

He will not allow His sheep to neglect the responsibility in the developmental process. So we have verse 16 here, in this message to the church here, the church of the Laodiceans. He says, So then, because you are lukewarm, neither cold nor hot, I will, and when you look the Greek up, it has to do with expulsion or vomiting. I will spew or vomit you out of my mouth. It's children. It's church. It's sheep that are spiritually drifting before the winds of compromise, the winds of convenience, the winds of whatever that are, you know, they're drifting with those winds. They're spiritually fading, like a photograph for the color, the old photographs, where the color started fading out.

They're fading. They're spiritual development. We talk about people today in this age whose emotional development is arrested. Sometimes their physical growth is arrested. Well, the spiritual development of the Laodiceans, it's arrested. It's arrested spiritual development. They are not exercising Philippians 2.12. They are sheep, but they're wayward sheep. Christ loves them. God loves them. They're sheep. The 99 and 1, what if the 1 is secured and the 99 are going astray?

It doesn't matter what the numbers are. He loves them, and guess what? Just like He said, He's going after them. And He's having to use the direct rod of correction. Notice verse 19. The direct rod of correction. He says, verse 19, As many as I love. It's not an issue that He doesn't love. It's because He does love. He says, As many as I love, I rebuke, and chasten, or correct. Be zealous, therefore, and repent. The corrective measure is designed to serve the developmental process that's got to go on, and to produce a proper kinship. Notice verse 20. A proper kinship. Behold, I stand at the door. Hey, there's a knock at the door. Well, supper's on the table.

Yeah, we're ready to eat, but there's a knock at the door. Well, go see who it is. See if they want to join us for supper. See if they want to sit down and have this meal with us. Okay. Well, again, hey, it's Uncle Henry. Well, ask him if he's eaten. Have him come on in and join us. It's designed to produce a proper kinship. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come into him and will suck with him, will eat with him, and he with me.

It's a kinship thing. It's a spiritual kinship thing. Regarding correction and the developmental process and program, for me, and I think for all of us, here's an encouraging note. Let's look at it in 1 Corinthians 11. You know, we have, again, basically a half-year stretch of no holy days other than the weekly Sabbath.

And we're going into the dead season, physically speaking, and we're going into a long absence of holy days, and we're going into and through the highlights around us of the world's ways. It's kind of a tough time. Well, we can't lose focus on what we've been about. See, when you were baptized into Christ, you signed on for development. When we were baptized into Christ, we officially signed on for development.

We actually were agreeing with God to work with Him and allow Him with our efforts of being reachable and teachable to be developed for His Kingdom. In 1 Corinthians 11 and verse 31, and you could read it two ways. There's a negative way and there's a positive way, and they both can apply because they're both true. If you want to read it on one side of the coin, on a negative side, you can if you want to read on the positive. And it's our choice whether it's the negative or the positive.

I make the decision by whether it's going to be a negative or a positive with me. Verse 31, for if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged. How many people do we know who if judging themselves is left up to themselves, they don't get judged? In other words, if it's left up to them to correct themselves, if it's left up to them to take themselves in hand, if it's left up to them to work out their own salvation, it just doesn't get done.

So they have to be corrected. I mean, a kid sometimes will not correct themselves, and so we have to correct them. But what happens when a kid corrects himself? Then you're spared having to correct them. If they correct their course of action, if they reverse themselves, if they correct themselves, then you don't have to. It's the same with us as children of God. If we are a sheep and we need a course correction and we won't correct it, it doesn't get corrected except God had to step in and correct it.

But if we would judge ourselves, if we would correct ourselves, if we would take ourselves in hand, then we would be spared God having to take us in hand and correct us. That makes perfect sense when you think about it. Here's the bottom line with correction as part of our developmental process. Verse 32, But when we are judged, we are chased and corrected of the Lord. Why? For what purpose? From the one who loves us, that we should not be condemned with the world.

Again, I go back to this. Our spiritual development is not optional. It's necessity. And because it is, even at the very beginning, God is much more aware of what a necessity it is than we are. And as He works with us, He brings us more and more to see how necessary it is.

And because it is not an option, and it is a necessity, God does oversee it. And He does guide it. He does oversee it. He sees at all times what the needs are, and He addresses those needs. And sometimes those needs can be addressed in a very gentle way, and sometimes they have to be addressed in a very hard way. But He works in conjunction with us. And again, that's why Philippians 2 verses 12 and 13 are back-to-back like they are. Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.

You've got your part to do. For it is God which works in you. He's got His part to do too, both to will and to do of His good pleasure. And when both are in play, then, and I do want, as I wrap this up, I do want to read Romans 8.28 and the light of this subject today.

And when both are in play, when Philippians 2 verses 12 and 13 are both in play, then Romans 8.28 is truly the reality. And we know, we know, don't have to guess that, don't have to think, we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose. And the good that we're being worked toward is the Kingdom of God. See, that's the ultimate good for us.

That is the good that we're being worked toward is the Kingdom of God, eternal life, and the family of God. So, just quoting again that first Scripture we started with of Luke 12.32, fear not, little flock. Don't be afraid. Keep in mind, it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the Kingdom. And that is where our spiritual development is taking us.

Thank you.