The Process of Conversion, Part 2

If I were to ask you a question, where are we in Bible prophecy? Some of you, your ears would perk up instantly. And you'd say, oh, good, a sermon on prophecy. He's going to tell us where we are. But if I just change the question a little bit, where are we in the story of the Bible? Where are we in the story of the Bible?

There's a little bit of a difference. We're still in the Bible, but we're not so specifically on prophecy in that sense. But we're in the story of the Bible. And in some ways, I've come to learn over the years, brother, it's better to know where we are in the story of the Bible than where we are in prophecy.

Now, I'm still the managing editor of World News in Prophecy. So I keep up with that stuff, edit those articles, write those articles every month, several times a month. So I'm still watching those things, still very much interested in prophecy, still studying Bible prophecy. But I've come to learn that it's not so much important, not as important to know where we are in prophecy as where we are in the Bible.

If we know where we are in the Bible, all the other things will take care of themselves. And that, I think, is the most important question. Two weeks ago, I began a sermon that I wasn't able to finish here, and intend to finish today, on the subject of conversion. And in giving it last week in Fort Wayne, finishing it up there, and then thinking about it even more through these past few days, and doing some writing on the subject as well, the subject continues to develop, in my mind at least.

And we're going to finish what we began last time. But from that point of view of the matter of where we are in the Bible, and in the story of the Bible. Last time we went into the parable of Luke chapter 19, and I'd like for you to turn there, because this parable is a very key parable to understand in terms of the question of conversion, what conversion is all about, the process of conversion, and to this question that I start off with here today, where are we in the story of the Bible?

Let's go back to Luke chapter 19. I'm not going to go through the parable. I did that two weeks ago. But I do want to start at the beginning of it to at least answer the question and launch into the sermon. Luke 19 is a very important parable dealing with the subject of the reward that Christ will bring at His coming.

This is one of the parables of a nobleman that goes off into a far country. He leaves with his servants' talents, or in this case, minas, representing the minas or talents, or another term for money. That represents the spiritual gifts and talents, the physical and spiritual talents that God gives to each of us, and that are enhanced by the addition of the Holy Spirit, and the effort and the work that we put into increasing the value of that gift, of that talent, is what this parable in Luke 19 is all about.

The parallel parable is in Matthew 25, the parable of the talents, but I chose to work off of Luke 19. Of course, the story is in the parable, when Christ returns, the nobleman comes back. He calls to account all of his servants to see what they have done with what was given to them. Two-thirds of them increased and multiplied their talent, and one didn't, as you remember. One decided to just hide it in a field, didn't even let it draw interest, and that individual comes in for some very, very stern, harsh criticism and condemnation by the nobleman, or by Jesus in the parable.

But the whole parable really is a lesson for us to learn that during this lifetime, we have been given opportunity. We are given talents. We are given certain gifts. By virtue of our calling to the faith, to the truth, and to the knowledge of the Kingdom of God today, and as God has given us his Holy Spirit, and as we go through this process of life that we can term conversion, which is really a lifelong process, we are to grow.

We are to develop character. We are to develop our abilities. And we are to increase what has been given to us, whether it's in the initial germ of the Holy Spirit, that seed that is placed within us at baptism, matched with our own spirit and our own abilities, and the effort that we put in. I explained at the time that our reward of salvation is by grace. Of course, I gave a sermon about that some weeks back to explain the process of salvation and what that is all about.

Salvation is a gift of God. We don't earn salvation. But when we look at this parable, and we put it together with the Scriptures, many other Scriptures, we do see that what we will be doing in the Kingdom of God, indeed, is going to depend upon what we do today in this life with the talent God has given to us.

And we do have a responsibility, an obligation and a duty before God to grow and to develop character, and not just to remain as we were, necessarily, when God called us, when He brought us into the faith. And with that, as a background, let's look then at Luke 19 and look at what is said, and let me answer that question in regard to where we are.

Remember, this parable was given as they approached, we're near Jerusalem in verse 11. And because they, the multitudes around Christ at the time, thought that the Kingdom of God would appear immediately. And this is the real, the whole hinge of the whole issue. Christ knew the Kingdom was not going to come at that time. He wasn't there in that time to restore the Kingdom and to bring in, to usher in the Kingdom. That was not going to happen for a long time. They thought it would happen. Christ knew it wouldn't. So that's why He gave this parable to show this time lapse. And what He says in verse 12 is this, A certain nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom and to return. And Christ is that nobleman, and the kingdom, of course, is referring to the Kingdom of God.

And He called ten of His servants, delivered to them ten minas, and He said to them, Do business till I come. Do business till I come. That phrase is really the answer to where we are in the story of the Bible. We are in that process and in that time where we are doing business, waiting for the nobleman, or for Jesus, to return, to come.

We're doing business, and the business is the business of the kingdom. It is the business of God, of representing that kingdom, living by the principles and the laws of that kingdom in our daily life, seeking first the kingdom of God and its righteousness, as Christ said in Matthew 6, in verse 33, and expecting that all the other righteousness will be added unto us as a result. But to seek first the kingdom and to do the business of the kingdom, that's where we are. That, brethren, is where it is most important for you and I to understand where we are in the story of the Bible.

We can look at and watch other things, and we can study Bible prophecy, and there's a great deal to learn. But sometimes, as you know, we can get caught up on issues of prophecy that are not always profitable. And the way we handle those issues, we can twist certain things and try to introspect your speculations into it by putting a face or an organization or a name onto a certain biblical character. And in some cases, especially when we, from within our own midst, we try to do that.

We always wind up with egg on our face. We always wind up just a little bit short. There are a lot of names that I can put on certain things of prophecy, such as Babylon, Rome, Greece, the Papacy, the Roman Catholic Church. I can put those names on various aspects of the things we see in prophecy and be very confident and be very sure about that. But every time I try to put a face or a name to something like the two witnesses, they usually come up short.

And everybody else that I know about has come up short, too. Or the identity of the man of sin, of 2 Thessalonians 2, just to use another example of how we can get off in certain areas that we can make mistakes. Obviously trying to predict the return of Jesus Christ. As I said a while ago, I'm still the managing editor of World User Prophecy. Because we have this website and anybody comes in and reads, they can leave comments. I always get those comments forwarded to me from a number of interesting different people.

This week I got a link from someone who sent me to his website to show me exactly when Christ will return. And occasionally I get those types of responses from our readership and they, from individuals who can tell me exactly when he's going to return. And I looked at the website and read his article and concluded that he didn't know what he was talking about. And I don't plan to publish that website or give too much attention to it. But those are things that can happen.

Those are the areas that we tend to get caught, sometimes we can get caught up in and make some mistakes. And it's better to learn those sooner rather than later. But to know that we are in the time when we are doing the business of the Kingdom, that's what's important. That's where we are. And this is our life. We're doing that business. And how are we doing?

What's our balance sheet? Mr. Cobb was talking about money and account balances in his sermonette and kind of ties in a little bit. What's the account balance? Is it increasing? Is it just leveled off? Or is it in a deficit situation? It would be one way to look at it. A number of years ago, I've written and talked about this. A number of years ago, we took a trip to a place up in northern Michigan called Mackinac Island. I know some of you have been there. Mackinac Island is one of these places that allows no motorized traffic.

Everything is basically turn of the 20th century. I have to watch myself. It's no longer turn of the century, it's turn of the 20th century. We've got to go back over 100 years. Horse and buggy. Or bicycles. And walking. That's basically the modes of transportation on Mackinac Island. Very quaint tourist place, very nice to visit, very expensive to visit. But when we were there, we were sitting at the front porch of a hotel there called the Grand Hotel, which is this magnificent old hotel.

It has this long front porch full of rocking chairs. You can sit on that porch and look out over the straights of Mackinac there. You can see the Mackinac Bridge that connects Upper and Lower Michigan. One afternoon, we happened to be there just having a glass of tea at a hotel that I can't afford to stay in. I can afford a glass of iced tea or a cup of coffee on its front porch. That's about as far as I can go in that particular hotel.

That's a little trick. As you travel, you go to a place, a very posh hotel. You can't afford a room there, but if you want to experience a little bit of it, go in and have a drink with glass of tea or something else. Just experience something in the lobby or in the bar of some of these nicer places, and at least you can go that far. This one afternoon, we spent there, and I remember it very well, a huge storm rolled in over the lake there and crossed the bridge.

As well as afternoon thunderstorms, it rolled across the lake and the porch and the grounds, and then it was gone and the sun came back out. It was just one of those moments that you just kind of enjoy and you take in and you appreciate. I took a term off of that for a concept that I call life on the front porch.

To express really what we're talking about here, doing the business of life and of the kingdom of God in our world now. Life is meant to be lived and enjoyed on those long, hot, lazy, hazy, crazy summer days when nothing else seems to be going on.

We seem to be kind of in one of those periods, even right now, in the world news. You pick up the newspapers or look on the internet site wherever you go to get your news, and there's not much going on right now. The biggest thing was the Harry Potter release here, was it one a week ago or two weeks ago, whenever that book came out. And then before that, another big news was the release of the iPhone. That was a big news item that was going. And then probably before that, it was Paris Hilton getting out of jail. So when that's your news cycle, and that's what people are really focusing on, those types of items, you know there's not a whole lot going on. And in one sense, you don't want a whole lot going on. We don't want any more terrorist attacks. We don't want anything greater or worse than that taking place necessarily. There's enough bad things as it is. But it's kind of what they call a law on the news cycle. And that's okay. Life is like that. The Bible is like that. Prophecy is like that. There are these long gaps in between when nothing more is going on than what Christ said about marrying and giving in marriage. The business of life. You get married, you have kids. The kids grow up, they move out, they get married, you have grandkids. And just the cycle of life, the seasons of life that come to every one of us. We grow older, things happen, and we have to, in a sense, continue on with the business that has been given into our hands. The business of the kingdom. The business of living righteously. The business of developing character. The business of being converted. And I tend to think about that at this time of year when we get into the late July, early August period where the summer gets into its most intense period of heat and humidity and rain and whatever we might have. The days are long and life just sometimes just kind of hangs. I think about that concept and I use it a little bit to think on these subjects. And when it comes to the business of the kingdom, the story of the Bible, we have to be reminded of what this parable tells us and what the message of the Scriptures is. And that is that we are really in training to rule with Jesus Christ. And that has got to keep us on our toes. That should be enough to help us focus on our duty and on our responsibilities.

Last time we went back to the book of Daniel in chapter 2 and chapter 7 and showed you that the kingdom is going to be given to a different group of people. In Daniel 2 and verse 44, and again this is just a bit of review, as Daniel interprets the dream that Nebuchadnezzar had of this huge image, and he comes down to that period of the tolls represented by the period of the Roman Empire revived in the time of the end, he said, In the days of these kings, verse 44, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom. This is the fifth kingdom of Daniel. And that fifth kingdom is the kingdom of God. In those days, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed. No other force will come along and knock it off its pedestal. It will never be destroyed, and it says, The kingdom shall not be left to other people. It shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever. This kingdom will not be left to other people. It will be left to people like you and I, who are alive today, who have come before us, and who will come after us. It will be left to those who are part of the Church of God and have been doing the business of the kingdom in their lifetime, as they were called. That's who it will be given to. And it will hopefully be given to those of us in this room as well. We will find our part to play in that kingdom, given a reward by Christ when He returns and He judges us. And He looks at us and He determines what we have done with last week, last year, next month, and this life and the decisions that we make. The people we talk to, the work that we do, the character that we build. All of that that we do will make a difference at that particular point in time. It's not going to be left to the kingdom, it's not going to be left to other peoples who have had their day in the sun. Daniel chapter 7 also brings this out, verse 18 and 22. Daniel 7 verse 18.

Daniel 7 verse 18. But it says, The saints of the Most High shall receive the kingdom and possess the kingdom forever, even forever and ever. Those saints are talking about you and I. The saints of the Most High will possess that kingdom. Down in verse 22, it says, These are really the most important verses of Daniel to focus on. Sometimes, again, we focus on these images and these days, and 1260 days, and 1335, whatever else. At the end of Daniel, we try to figure those things out. Really, it's these verses and verses like these in prophecy that we ought to focus on more, spend more time on. Because they really point us to the tangible fruit of our life that really we can make a difference with.

I look at Daniel and realize when it came to the end of the story, there were some things he didn't know any more about than he did in chapter 1. God said, Go your way, Daniel. It's sealed up until the time of the end. But there's a lot of information in the prophecy that is not sealed up. Especially when it comes to what it describes as the role of the saints. God is not going to give the kingdom to people who have already had an opportunity and have not brought about peace. They've not brought about just government. They've not brought about perfect societies. And that's where we come in. And that's where our focus and our calling must always remain. We obey God. We keep the Sabbath. We go to the Feast of Tabernacles every year to be focused on the goal of the Kingdom of God. And that helps us to stay focused on what it is that this life is all about. These scriptures here are so important in that way, along with so many others. Because the Kingdom of God is not of this world. Christ said that when he stood before Pilate. He said that his kingdom was not of this world. If it was, his people would fight for him at that time. He'd already shown the parable of the minas and the talents that wasn't going to happen at that time.

But what is happening is life. And it's the process of salvation and conversion that is being worked out in our lives to this very day in the way that we have to give it. And that's sometimes a bit of a struggle for us. It's one of the matters that we just have to live with when it comes to the Church and the Kingdom and the knowledge we've been given.

We repent, we are baptized, we receive God's Spirit, and then we have to live righteously in a world that can get downright hostile to our efforts. And it can be a problem for us. But we have to endure. We have to move forward. We have to fight ourselves. There are matters that we have to deal with that are part of this process of conversion and building character and matters that we have to fight and to work against. Building character is really a struggle. There's no doubt about that. And the world into which we were born, the world that we even come to a greater knowledge about and a greater perception about after we come to the knowledge of the truth, and God begins to work on our lives, the world we come to grips with is a world in which there is really a struggle and a battle. And that's something, again, that we have to stay focused on in understanding this matter of conversion. We don't always like to focus on that. We will lose that at times because of the distractions of life. Another parable of the sword and the seed talked about that, where it talks about the distractions that snatch away the seed of the Spirit and seed of the Gospel that's sown in the lives of people. And that can happen to any one of us. With all the matters of life, of the things that are a part of our lives, every one of us, we can be distracted about. There are really three fronts that we have to do battle on in this world and understand the realities that are before us. The three battle fronts are, number one, ourselves, our own nature, our own character, weaknesses, and strengths.

You know, humanly speaking, you have X number of talents or abilities just by virtue of who you are, the genes that you were given, the environment that you grew up in. You have certain characteristics. And hopefully those are more good than bad.

But you look around at your life and you look around at what has formed it, and you have yourself to answer to for so much of what you have accomplished in life. We can study hard, we can learn, we can develop ourselves, and we can go as far as that innate talent will take us and some of the training and experience that we've had. On the other hand, our environment and some of our weaknesses can drag us down and keep us from going anywhere at all as well. I mean, over the years, as I've looked at people and dealt with people and talked with them and looked at myself and examined my own life and others, and this job as a minister and this process of conversion and working with people, I recognize that just battling ourselves and dealing with ourselves is enough of a challenge in life. It really is. And a lot of people are born and either have certain opportunities that send them a long way.

I've also seen where people use the calling and the Spirit of God and enhance that as well. But there is a certain matter that we have to deal with when it comes to our own nature that we have to fight and that is a challenge for us. The second battlefront that we have in front of us is this world. The Bible talks about this present evil age, the age in which we live and the world that we have to deal with. There are challenges that come at us from all different parts of life. People have bad days. People have bad weeks. They may decide to take it out on us. Some things happen to us by time and chance. This world has a lot of enticements and the spirit of an age will impact our lives and we have to know how to deal with it. To roll with the punches, to resist it, to work with it, to take advantage of it. So the world is out there as well on a battlefront. The third enemy is Satan himself.

That enemy is a battle that we also deal with in the Scriptures. He is called the deceiver of the world in Revelation 12. He has deceived the nations. He is called the prince of the power of the air by Paul in Ephesians 2 as a warning of how he works in a spiritual manner to deceive and to influence.

His spirit is sometimes directed directly at those who are the saints of God in preparation in their lives for rulership in the kingdom of God. If we ever lose sight of that, we are setting ducks, dead in the water, as they say in the Navy, and we are defenseless. Our shields are down, radar defenses are gone, very vulnerable. If we ever lose sight of that.

The true reality, the hard truths of reality are this. Things are not what they see in this life and in this world. In 2 Corinthians 10.

In verse 3, Paul writes this. He says, He says, He says, He says, We struggle with different weapons because things are not what they see.

There is another dimension to this world and to life. There is a spiritual dimension. The Bible talks about that. I was having a discussion about the immortality of the soul with a person not in the church a few days ago. She was describing what she feels about the afterlife. She had a relative just to recently die very suddenly, unexpected and cut off in the prime of life. It was bothering her. She was discussing it with me. She, of course, believes in the immortality of the soul. She was using the phrase of passing on. How long that takes after death and making sure that the soul passes on. She had some very interesting approaches to it, which I'll say for a sermon on the subject. I'm sitting there and thinking, when is she going to ask me? What do you believe about these things? You ever get in those conversations with somebody and they start talking about their particular faith and you know they're going to ask you what you believe and you are going to have to get into it more than perhaps you bargained for. She finally did. I said, I don't believe there's anything to worry about in terms of getting their soul to pass on.

She looked at me and said, you don't believe in an immortal soul? I said, no. I don't believe in that. You don't believe in an afterlife? I said, no, not really. I know how the questions will go. Then I said, but I do believe that there is a spirit world. Because it kind of got to that point. I had to clarify. Yeah, I do believe there is a spirit world. The Bible talks about that, but there's no knowledge at death. I touched just briefly on the idea of a resurrection. But we believe and we understand that there is another dimension to life. There is a spiritual dimension. Things are not what they seem. We have to realize that. That's what really Paul was hinting at here in terms of our warfare is not after the flesh. There is a spiritual warfare. And really, life is an ongoing battle. In Ephesians 6, he talks about this. Ephesians 6, a well-known section, talks about the armor of God. Life is an ongoing battle. And Paul tells us how to prepare for that battle. By putting on the whole armor of God in verse 11, Ephesians 6. He says in verse 10, Be strong in the Lord, my brethren, and in the power of his might. Paul tells us that because things are not what they seem. And as Christians, we should never forget that. There is another dimension to this world, to life, to existence, beyond what we see, beyond the flesh. And that warfare, that impinges on our life, that does affect us more than we will realize. It is something, quite frankly, if you're not aware of, I would encourage you to ask God in prayer, on a regular basis, or periodically, to help you stay focused, to be able to discern that, in what is going on in your life. Not that you don't start seeing things or hearing things. That's not what I'm talking about. But you want to be able to use God's Spirit to discern that struggle and understand what is behind, sometimes, the things that we deal with in life. Sometimes the attitudes that we have to deal with with other people. Maybe even sometimes our own spirit, our own attitude, that we have to deal with, to understand that there is a spirit world that is weighing on our life, and that is waging as a part of this battle here. And we have to be able to discern it, and to understand it, and then use the Scriptures, use the armor of God to be able, as he says in verse 11, to stand against the wiles of the devil in this battle, in this part of the battle. For he says in verse 12, we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Paul summarizes so much of what we are told from Genesis all the way to Revelation in this brief section here. He summarizes the battle. He summarizes the struggle, and the fact that things are not what they seem, and that life is an ongoing battle. And we can never forget that. We have a role to play. This is truly part of what God has called us to, and this is really at the heart of this process of conversion that we are involved with in our life, day by day, week by week, in the process of salvation and doing the business of the kingdom of God.

And it can be a struggle. It can be a joy at times. It can be a period in various times in our life where we can be having doubt as well. It can also be the source of tremendous happiness. We have to know, we have to always keep in mind what it is that is taking place and what it is that we are working with in the struggle and in the matter of these things in our life. This is what Paul talked about in Romans 7. Let's go back to Romans 7.

Paul shows us here that what we will deal with as we struggle at times, as we go through growth pings. In Romans 7 and verse 14.

We've gone through a number of scriptures in Romans and these sermons on salvation and conversion to talk about what the law of God is, that is spiritual, and how it works in our lives. But then Paul kind of takes a little pause in the midst of the very heavy things. He really brings out a vital truth to understand. Verse 14, he says, we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin. For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice. But what I hate, that I do. Sometimes that could be our epitaph for a week, couldn't it? What I hate, what I don't want to do, what I know is wrong, I still do. And I do things that I don't understand, that are against my will, in that way. Verse 16, if then I do what I will not to do, I agree with the law that it is good. But now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. And he is speaking again of this nature that we have to deal with, but is ourselves, inherently, as much as anything else. I mentioned that we have ourselves in this world, and Satan. One of the tricks of life in this process of conversion is to make sure we can identify all three of those and discern between them.

Satan, I'm convinced over the years, Satan gets far more put on his shoulders than he deserves. Sometimes we put blame on Satan, and we don't put the blame on ourselves. We made the decision, and the devil didn't make us do everything.

So the drill trick is learning to discern between ourselves, the world, and where Satan in need does come in. Because we can use that as a convenient scapegoat and miss the point. Paul here is talking about that sin dwells in me. Verse 18, I know that in me that is in my flesh nothing good dwells.

For to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find. Verse 18, if we just read, took out of context, we could kind of just beat ourselves up and get depressed. And I don't want anyone to do that coming out of this sermon. Paul says about himself, and there is a time and a place, perhaps there is a time and a place to apply that to ourselves, that in us no good dwells.

And what he is really saying is that inherently within us, in terms of fruit for the kingdom, there is not that good. We must have the Spirit of God. We've got to have that power within us. And when we do, then we can put this verse in context. But it's not a verse to beat ourselves up with and to get discouraged and depressed over. That's not how he intended it here, as you put it into the proper context.

Because he says in verse 19, the good that I will to do, he says, I want to do what's right, but I do not do. But the evil I will not to do that I practice. Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. And he understands that principle of human nature. I find then a law that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good. For I delight in the law of God. Very clear what he's speaking of here, according to the inward man.

But I see another law in my members warring against the law of my mind and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin, which is in my members. And this is that human nature that we have to deal with, a law of human nature and inherent inability to obey God. Then he goes on to say again, forcefully in verse 24, O wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death. It's a rhetorical question because he answers it in verse 25 by turning to God, which is where we have to always turn whenever we sometimes get into a trough of discouragement.

And we wonder how will I make it or how will I get through this particular time? Who's going to deliver me? Paul said, I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin. He understood that it was by Christ that he would get through it. And that was where the true effort and salvation would come, even as he had the struggle against the law of God and the law of sin.

This inherent friction that is a part of life. This is where Paul found himself so often. It's where we sometimes find ourselves. When we look at our life and when we think about it. The real antidote to come out of that is found over in 1 John. When we struggle with this, John adds another angle to the subject in 1 John 1.

And it's really not difficult. John begins in verse 1. He says, And truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ. And these things we write to you that your joy may be full. So he begins this in the same way that he began his gospel by pointing to the fact that they had looked upon and handled the Word of Life, which was speaking of Christ.

It was manifested. It bore witness. And he and others had seen it. And now that's what we declare. And it is through that we have the fellowship with each other and with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ. In verse 5, he said, But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another. And the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.

God's emphasis is walking in the light, not in darkness. And understanding that we walk in that light through fellowship with Christ and with the Father. In verse 8, he says, If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we say that we have no sin. Now, Paul in Romans 7 has just written where he understood that he did have sin. And we have to remember that we as well are subject to sin. But he says in verse 9, If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His Word is not in us. The principle here is confession, admission of sin. That then brings about forgiveness and a cleansing. Now, we focus on that when we keep the Passover, the days of the love and bread every year. It's not just during that time that it's going to come to our mind. Frankly, the times when we are going to be more susceptible to it is probably going to be in the periods away from any of the holy days. Periods like right now.

You know, two months of what, six weeks or so, seven weeks away from Pentecost. Still another two months away from the Feast of Tabernacles. These in-between periods of life, or at least on the annual basis, between the holy days. These are the times when we find ourselves struggling. Over the years, again, that's when I noticed that members get into the troughs of discouragement or problems, begin to overtake us and overcome us. It's in times like this, or in the midwinter, between the fall holy days and the spring holy days. It doesn't seem to always be right around the holy day period so much.

It's in this in-between time. It's in this period of time when life goes on, when we still have to be about the business of the Kingdom, on those long, lazy, hazy days of life, and we have to be still overcoming, still living righteously, still dealing with ourselves, still resisting this world and its pulls. Times just like now. And that's when we have to be acutely aware of what is available to us, and the forgiveness and the grace that can cleanse us from sin, and make sure that we don't fall into the category of one who deceives himself, saying that he has no sin.

In chapter 2 and verse 1, the thought goes on. My little children, these things I write to you so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous. And he himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the whole world.

So John puts us squarely facing where we get that help. We have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And he is the advocate not only for us, but for the entire world. In Hebrews chapter 4, this thought is picked up by Paul in Hebrews 4 beginning in verse 11. Let's go down to verse 14. It says, seeing then that we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses. Christ can sympathize with our weaknesses. In the flesh, he experienced enough temptation, enough human weakness to know what it is, to know what we struggle with.

He sympathizes with us. He was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. That's the only difference between his physical life and ours. We've given in. He never did. But he sympathizes. He understands our weaknesses. Like no one else does, not even ourselves. And anytime we get so discouraged and so depressed thinking that we're not going to make the kingdom, we're not worthy of his forgiveness, we're not worthy of being in the church, or whatever we get down in the mouth about, we really are in danger of doing this grace to the grace of God.

Because Christ does understand, and we forget what we are told here. And then he says in verse 16, The process of conversion is knowing that that's where we have to go, and that we do exercise that privilege, that right to go to Christ, to go to the throne of grace, and to find the help we need, the grace we need, the mercy we need, and the time of need, which we have to determine when that is.

That's how we get through these days. That's how we continue doing the business of the kingdom. And we press forward in that way. In Philippians 3.

Beginning in verse 12.

Paul again sums up this whole process of salvation, the process of salvation and conversion. In this business that we continue moving forward with, he says, not that I have already attained. He knew that he had not attained the fullness of salvation. He wrote very eloquently about grace, and living in the grace of God, and experiencing that mercy, and how to live with that, and understanding the work of Christ within us. But he also understood that he said, I have not already obtained, or I'm already perfected. He knew that he had some work to do. Do we know that? I think we do. But he says, I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended. But one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. And that's how he lived his life. This became, it can be a pretty good creed for us, a mantra, if you will, for us to live by, to continue moving forward. There comes a time when we hopefully can forget things which are behind us. After we've repented, made confession, according to what John wrote, and truly changed, or made the effort to change, and when we know that we have, then we forget. I've said this so many times, it bears repeating in this context. The way we forget what we've done, the way you forget what someone else has done, in terms of a sin, is by repentance and change, and by that being put in the past.

The way I, as a minister, forget what someone did five years ago, fifteen years ago, in their life, that was a major transgression that I may have had to be a part of in helping to restore, to discipline, or whatever, in dealing with. The only way I've ever found that I forget what member X did was when member X changed. And member X no longer did those things. And their life was a record of change. I find myself forgetting. I think God helps us in those ways. He can help you forget. And that's what Paul is saying here in verse 13. He says, One thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind. There comes a point where we have to forget. And we have to realize that it's covered under the blood of Christ, and we move forward. But we continue to press for the prize of the upward calling of God in Christ Jesus. And while we're in Philippians, it might be good to turn again to where we were just a few days ago in our little kids' camp here, in verse 8 of chapter 4, where we took the model for our camp you can do this year, of Philippians 4 and verse 8. And this becomes a model for conversion, or a measure of conversion. Remember, Mr. Register was here a few weeks ago with the ABC Choirate. He was talking about the educational goals of his particular role in the church, and to measure the effectiveness of what we are doing with all of our education programs. Sometimes we do need a kind of a tangible measurement gauge or whatever in our lives to see in this area, especially of conversion, that can be kind of helpful for us. You know, it can be hazy and vague and fuzzy. And you look at verse 8 of Philippians 4, this can be a pretty tangible, explicit measurement of conversion for us, to sometimes use and hold ourselves up against. Where he says, finally brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure. Boy, that's tough. Thinking only, dealing only with things that are pure. We could give a whole series of sermons in death Bible studies on purity from the Bible, holiness.

What does God look upon as things that are pure? What is holiness as a measure of purity, but things that are pure. Whatever things are lovely, whatever things are a good report. If there's any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy, meditate on these things.

Think on these things. Reflect on these things. Involve your life with these values, with this measurement. Look on and look at one another. Look at situations. Allow into your life things that are only pure, that are a good report, that are just. All of these things can in many different ways be measurements for us. How we're dealing with ourselves, how we're dealing with others, how we're living our lives, and can give us an ability to measure our conversion. We could look at any number of other scriptures as well, but this has been on our church mind here, at least with our kids, our preteens, and our staff working with camp you can do in both congregations over the last few days with the camp that we had. This was the model. It's a pretty good one. It's a hard one to live up to, but even the kids learned, I think, a few principles in their own life, and some of the six, seven-year-olds did, from even some of the comments that I've already heard back. And all of us as adults, 60 and 70-year-old adults, can use this as a measurement as well. When we do, we might be able then to more concretely answer that question, where are we in the story of the Bible? And when we can find ourselves in that story and understand where we are in that timeline of what God is doing, then all the other questions and other issues of prophecy or whatever else, they'll take care of themselves. We know where we are in the Bible, in the story of the Bible. We know what God is doing with us. We know what we are supposed to be doing. We are to be doing the business that has been placed in our hands. And that's the business of the Kingdom of God. No more important business is on God's mind, and it should be that which we arise each morning and each day and work for in some way, as well as all the other work that we have to do. But representing, working for, living for, and even to the degree that that Kingdom lives within our own lives, living within the Kingdom. As we live by the principles and the values of that Kingdom, we are living within the Kingdom to that degree, in terms of our influence and how it impacts our life, as we wait for the fullness of it with the coming of Christ. We're doing the business of the Kingdom of God, and that's where we are in the story of the Bible. It's a big story, and it's a story that God, by His grace, has put us all into. Let's make sure that we are about that business, staying faithful to it, and looking for that coming Kingdom.