- Well, good morning, everyone. It's good to be with you as we continue in our series, a study through the book of Philippians. Hopefully you've downloaded the notes, you've got a pen in hand, and now I'm gonna ask that you take your Bibles out, if you're not already there, and turn to Philippians chapter three, and locate verse one. Philippians chapter three, verse one. We're gonna look at 16 verses today, but there's one central theme that Paul is driving at, so let me pray for us, and then we'll begin to look into God's word. Father, I ask that you would give us eyes to see your truth and hearts willing to obey today. It's in Christ's name that we pray. Amen. When you think of people who are mature in life or spiritually, what are the characteristics that come to mind? Well, I think eventually, you're gonna draw the conclusion that maturity is not based on characteristics alone, and it's not based on age. It's actually based on a mindset. Yes, spiritual maturity can have external kinds of activities, but those activities never change the heart. It's the heart that's changed first, and then the activities or spiritual disciplines or things that we do to grow in our Christian life actually flow from that initial heart change. As a matter of fact, even the spiritual principles and what is oftentimes called the spiritual disciplines, like reading God's word and memorizing Scripture and praying and all the things that we oftentimes equate with spiritual growth, those things actually continue to formulate the character transformation on the inside. And if the external activities are not connected to internal attitudes and actions, what ends up happening is it actually fuels the very selfishness and pride that Paul has been trying to help us remove from our Christian life, so that we can become more like Jesus Christ. So today, Paul is gonna help us understand some marks of maturity, but they're not boxes that we check. They're actually attitudes in our lives. Let's look down at verse one. Paul says, Philippians chapter three, verse one, "Finally, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord. "To write the same things to you is no trouble to me, "and is safe for you." In other words, these are things he's talked about in the past. He says, "Look out for the dogs. "Look out for the evil-doers. "Look out for those who mutilate the flesh, "for we are the circumcision "who worship by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus "and put no confidence in the flesh, "though I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh. "Also, if anyone else thinks he has reason "for confidence in the flesh, I have more. "Circumcised on the eighth day of the people of Israel "of the tribe of Benjamin, "a Hebrew of Hebrews, as to the law of Pharisee, "as to zeal, a persecutor of the church, "as to righteousness under the law, blameless. "But whatever gain I had, I count it as loss "for the sake of Christ. "Indeed, I could everything as loss "because of the surpassing worth "of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord. "For His sake I've suffered the loss of all things "and count them as rubbish, "in order that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, "not having a righteousness of my own "that comes from the law, "but that which comes through faith in Christ, "the righteousness from God that depends on faith, "that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, "and may share His sufferings, "becoming like Him in His death, "that by any means possible "I may attain the resurrection from the dead." Now, let's go back to the beginning of chapter three and let me explain what's going on here, so we can understand the context. There was a debate that was going on primarily before Philippians chapter three, but it was continuing to manifest itself and show up in the various areas that Paul was planting these churches, and here was the debate. Does a Gentile follower of Jesus Christ, do they need to first convert to Judaism before they can be saved? Does a Gentile who wants to follow Jesus have to convert to Judaism, follow all the rites and rituals, before he can be saved? Now, this was dealt with by the apostles in a council in Acts chapter 15. When Paul came to Christ and he was beginning to communicate the Good News of Jesus around the Gentile world, Gentiles were coming to Christ, and the Jewish followers of Jesus were actually saying, some of them, not all of them, but some of them were saying that you gotta convert to Judaism first, before you can follow Jesus Christ. In Acts chapter 15, the apostles gathered together and said, "No, that is not true. "You don't have to convert to "doing all these rites and rituals in order to be saved." The problem was this. Wherever Paul would go and plant churches in the Roman world, there was a group of Jewish individuals who were in that city, and many of them were actually, I know it sounds kind of crazy, but they were actually trying to say, no, you as a Gentile have to go through the rites of circumcision, you have to go through all of these kinds of rituals. You have to convert to Judaism before you can trust Christ as Savior and Lord. And here was the point that they were after. They were trying to add something to Christianity, and so Paul came along, and here's the point. He was saying, wait a minute, Jesus plus anything is a false religion. In other words, if you add anything to faith in Jesus Christ, it's a false religion. And so in Acts chapter 15, they said, no, that's not the case. However, these individuals, and they were oftentimes called the Judaizers were following Paul wherever he would go and they were actually telling the Gentiles, "No, you gotta follow this legalistic standard "of rites and rituals in order to be a follower of Jesus." So it was Jesus plus something, and Paul is saying, no, Jesus plus anything is false religion. You see, the Old Testament law that is being referenced here was never designed as a highway to salvation. It was designed as a signpost or offering signs that would eventually point to Jesus Christ. Paul deals with this extensively in the book of Romans, and in Romans chapter three, verses 19 and 20, Paul says this. "Now we know that whatever the law says "it speaks to those who are under the law, "so that every mouth may be stopped." That's an important word, and I'll come back to that in just a second. "And the whole world may be held accountable to God. "For by the works of the law no human being "will be justified in his sight, "since through the law comes knowledge of sin." His point was simply this. The law was never designed to give you a platform so that you could build your platform of righteousness by following these external acts high enough to reach God. The purpose of the law was to point out that we can't keep the law. When you looked at the external acts that you were supposed to perform, and how they were supposed to connect with internal attitudes of the heart, a person would come to the realization, "Wait a minute, I can't keep the law," and therefore, every mouth would be stopped, and we would all realize that no human being will ever be made right or justified before God, because of keeping the law. The trouble that was happening, there were individuals that decided to flip it, and back in Paul's day, and back in the life of Jesus Christ, the Pharisees actually took the law, and instead of allowing it to point them to Jesus, the true Messiah, they developed it as a system whereby they could achieve heaven. And Paul says that could never, ever, ever happen. He actually says that if you want to play that game, that somehow these external acts can give you salvation and make you saved, he actually says, "Look at my own life," and he lists several things regarding his heritage and how he was a Pharisee beyond all Pharisees, a Hebrew of Hebrews, and how he was really a graduate from West Point University, back then, or West Point Academy, I should say, or the Air Force Academy, or Harvard University. I mean, he was the top gun of all the top guns, and he says, "Look, in my life, "all of these things that I did, "actually, you could refer to them," and he says rubbish in verse eight. He says, "All of these acts that I performed "could never allow me to have righteousness before God," and he counts them as loss, he says, that they're actually rubbish. Now, the word for rubbish there is actually not rubbish. I mean, they translate it rubbish, and that's one of the things. It could be garbage, or worthless is the idea, but if you want to translate it literally, and it's interesting, the word actually means poop, okay? Now, every parent, look at your kids right now. Their eyes just exploded, and I got everybody's attention. Okay? Yeah, it actually means poop. Paul is saying that trying to earn my way to heaven, all these good works, they mean nothing, and the word that he actually uses is poop. Now, I walk my dog throughout my neighborhood, and so do a lot of other people, and we have two rules. You have to put your dog on a leash, and you also have to bring a bag with you, if your dog is gonna go, because you want to be able to pick up the dog poop and put it in the garbage, so you can discard it. Now, in my case, I don't carry a bag. I did on some occasions, 'cause I want to make sure my dog takes care of that before we get on the trail, but other people didn't, and so when we started this COVID-19 episode in all of our lives, we actually had some kids that went on the paved trail right by where we live, and they actually drew signs on there with chalk that said, "You gotta stay six feet apart." And then there were some individuals that didn't clean up their dog poop on the trail, on the paved trail, and the kids actually circled it, and I think they probably said, "Please pick up poop," or something. Well, you see the point. The point is this. No good work whatsoever can gain eternal life, and Paul says it's worthless when it comes to finding the kind of righteousness that only God can give us. And that's why Paul says that it comes through faith in Jesus Christ, and he actually refers to himself and to those who have faith in Jesus Christ, as the true circumcision, meaning the individuals that truly have spiritual circumcision. Circumcision was a physical act, male circumcision, whereby it was an outside symbol or a physical symbol that would describe how you can have a covenant relationship with Almighty God, and Paul was saying that physical act, which describes the covenant relationship that you're entering into with Almighty God, actually describes the real spiritual act that the law was supposed to point to, and Paul says that you experience a spiritual circumcision. Just like physical circumcision is setting aside the flesh, spiritual circumcision is setting aside the old sinful nature, the old person who you were before you trusted Christ, and that happens to an individual described by somebody who has true worship of the Spirit of God, in verse three, and glories in Christ Jesus. A person who puts their faith and trust in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord has been transferred from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light, and the old life, the old sinful nature has been set aside and they are now a new creature in Jesus Christ. 2 Corinthians 5:17 says everybody who's put their trust and faith in Jesus is a brand-new follower of Jesus Christ. They've been given a new nature. Paul describes it in Romans chapter six, when he says that the old person subject to the penalty and the power of sin has been crucified, discarded, and Paul compares those who are real followers of Jesus Christ in this city of Philippi, in this church, with these Judaizers who are coming in and telling them that they either have to convert to Judaism, or they have to start practicing the rites and rituals again to continue to advance in their Christian life. He actually, if you look back at verse two, he calls them dogs. This was a derogatory term. It meant someone who was unclean, and Jewish people would oftentimes call the Gentiles unclean. Paul reverses it and says, "No, you're the ones that are unclean. "You're not the true circumcised. "You may have the physical act of circumcision, "but that was designed to point "to a covenant relationship with God, "and in reality, we need to have a spiritual circumcision "whereby our sinful nature, our old life has been cast off. "We are a new creature, "and we are a new creature "with a new nature in Jesus Christ." It's by faith on the inside that we trust and find new life and hope in Christ. Paul came to the realization in Acts chapter nine that there is absolutely no way he could obtain righteousness by his good works, and in Acts chapter nine, if you'll read it, it describes how he met Jesus Christ, and when he met Jesus Christ and he realized that He really was the Messiah, Paul began a journey of processing all that he knew, and he began to see that the very laws that he followed, legalistically, on the outside, sure, he could check off the boxes, but he never paused to consider the attitudes of the heart that they were supposed to reflect, the kinds of attitudes that Jesus brings up in Matthew 5, 6, and 7. You see, it's in Matthew 5, 6, and 7 that Jesus actually describes, especially in verse 48, that we need to be perfect like the Heavenly Father is perfect. And when you look at both the actions and the attitudes of our life, no one is perfect. As a matter of fact, Jesus said elsewhere that your righteousness has to exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees. And Paul describes even in 1 Timothy chapter one, starting in verse 12, all the way through verse 16, he describes how he was a blasphemer when he looked at the pride in his heart and his arrogance. He was a persecutor of the church. That was a badge of honor when he started listing his acts on the outside, but when he really started looking at the fact that he was really, in many ways, sentencing people to prison, who would die, he was actually opposing God, and he felt terribly, terribly guilty when he started looking on the inside with his attitudes and his actions. He was chief among sinners, he describes himself, and that's because the lightbulb came on. Now, let's look at two things here. First, religion can keep you from knowing God. Paul is saying, wait a minute. All of these things on the outside never gave you salvation. What really counts is what's going on on the inside. Now, we see this today. You see it with cults like Mormonism and Jehovah's Witnesses and other kinds of false religions. You even see it in things that are classified as christian, with a small C, because if you go through the rite of baptism, if you have a confirmation, if you do all these things, then somehow, that saves you, but it never does. Salvation comes by faith and faith in Jesus Christ, and so simply by doing the acts, that can actually keep you from knowing God, 'cause you think it's the good works, the platform of righteousness that gives you eternal life. The second thing you can do is this. Religion, it can make you look better on the outside than on the inside. Religion, I've always thought of religion as this, that it's man's way of meeting God. A relationship is based on God coming to us, because we can't save ourselves. But religion, the problem is, it's got two real big issues. Number one, it can make you think you've got a relationship with God, but you don't, and then it can also make you think that, well, quite frankly, you're doing better in terms of your Christian growth than you really are on the inside, because you're basing your maturity based upon acts and not an attitude and a mindset and character formation. See, in order to be a follower of Jesus Christ, it happens by faith. Faith in who? Faith in Jesus Christ. It's when you acknowledge your sin before God. God, I'm a sinner. I'm sorry for my sin. And then, in repentance, you turn from your sin and yourself to Jesus, and you believe that Jesus died on a cross for your sin and rose from the grave, and when you turn to Him and say, "Jesus, I believe you died for my sin, "and rose from the grave, "and I'm trusting in you for the forgiveness of my sin. "It is my desire now to follow you." Then you enter into this incredible relationship where there's been a change on the inside. You're now a new creature on the inside, and you can begin to grow spiritually. But here's what Paul is after here, because he's talking to believers here. These are believers, followers of Jesus Christ. We've established this. But they're coming under the influence of these Judaizers, telling them, "Wait a minute. "No, in order to continue to advance, "in order to be saved or continue to advance, "you gotta follow all these rites and rituals." And Paul says, "Absolutely not." If you get hung up on the rites and rituals and external things on the outside, as I said at the beginning, it'll actually fuel pride and selfishness. Paul says no. It's gotta be connected to attitudes of the heart. And so now, let's take a look at those marks of maturity in Christ, and they're really attitudes. That's what he's after here. Now look down at verse 12. He says, "Not that I have already obtained this "or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, "because Christ Jesus has made me His own. "Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own, "but one thing that I do, forgetting what lies behind "and straining forward to what lies ahead, "I press on toward the goal or the prize "or the upward call in Christ Jesus. "Let those of us who are mature think this way." Circle the word mature. "Mature think this way, "and if anything you think otherwise, "God will reveal that also to you. "Only let us hold true to what we have attained." It is here in these verses that Paul says these are the real attitudes, and he's gonna borrow from a couple of verses that we just went through, starting in verse eight, nine, 10, 11, and then he'll get into 12. He's gonna borrow from that whole section, and he's gonna say, "I wanna give you some real thoughts "about what a mindset looks like "that is growing and advancing in Jesus Christ." And it really deals with this issue of maturity. See, outward signs have no power in and of themselves, unless they are a symbol of what is going on on the inside. So let's take a look at what some of those are. Well, the first one is this, a growing desire to know Jesus and experience new life. You want the first attitude that describes a person who's not mature, I like the word actually maturing, growing. You'll see that in just a minute. But it's someone who knows Jesus Christ and is experiencing the new life. Paul is saying, "Hey, my goal here is to know Christ. "Everything is loss." It's really, as we said, it's dog poop. It doesn't matter if it doesn't advance the cause of knowing Jesus by faith and also growing. And Paul's quest was to live as Christ, as we said. Paul's quest was to know Him and understand how to live, and as we know Jesus and learn about how He would live and how He would love, and then we actually do live and love like He would live and love, we're walking in obedience, then it is His power that flows through us, and we're getting to know Him both in terms of how He would live His life, but also experientially, as we join Him and serve with Him. Now, how do we figure some of these things out? Well, two of the best verses to go to are found in 2 Timothy chapter three, verse 16 and 17. It says, "All Scripture is breathed out by God," or inspired by God, "and profitable for teaching, "for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness, "that the man of God may be complete, "equipped for every good work." As we read the Scriptures. See, that is an external act, but it leads to a deeper relationship and character formation. Why is that the case? Because we're gonna discover as we read God's word together things that, well, we need to consider that are truthful. Those are the teachings. We're learning truths about God and how to live the Christian life. There are times when we need reproof, where we've got sin in our lives that needs to be corrected. There's times when we need correction, but we haven't sinned. That's kind of the difference between the two. Reproof means I've sinned, I need to change, okay? I need to get rid of that, 'cause it doesn't make me like Jesus, and then there's times when I'm thinking things I shouldn't think, and I need to have my path corrected, and then training in righteousness means the word of God shows me how to live out this Christian life. Real righteousness is not external, and Paul is saying, "I want to know Christ "and the power of His resurrection, "because as I learn about who Jesus is, "as I live out this new life, "then the old selfish life is dying "and I'm becoming more and more like Jesus. "I'm experiencing the new resurrected life." Well, what's the second thought that describes real maturity in Christ? Well, it's never believing you've arrived. It's never believing that, somehow, you have arrived at this mature state. Paul says in verse 10, "I'm not perfect. "I'm not in the presence of Christ," and therefore, in verse 15, "I need to keep on maturing and growing." And that's why he says in verse 14, "I gotta keep pressing on." He's describing an athlete running in a race. And Paul is saying, "No, there's always more work to do." If we begin to feel that we've arrived, then we're really describing a mindset that is not mature, and it's this sense of holy dissatisfaction in my life. Now, one of the passages that I've given you here to look at is 1 Corinthians 10, verses one through 13. I just want to show you one verse here. Paul says in verse 12, "Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands "take heed lest he fall." So that's the person that thinks that they have arrived, but they haven't. So there's always work to be done. When I look at my yard in the midst of this springtime, which we're in right now, I notice all the weeds. I notice the dandelions in the green grass and the weeds that are found in the flowerbeds, and all that kind of stuff. Now, I'm the type of person that I'm not gonna pay a company to come in and spray my lawn. You might be, and that's great. I know your lawn's gonna look better than mine, because I like to go buy the pellets, and you know, from Fleet Farm or some other store, Menards, and go ahead and put down the fertilizer or the crabgrass controller myself. The trouble is, if you look at my lawn, you'll oftentimes see streaks, because I don't lay it effectively, and then dandelions show up to the left, and then they'll show up over to the right, and then as soon as I get to dandelions over here taken care of, then other ones pop up. Why? Because there's always work to do. Growing in a spiritual life does not mean you're a terrible person, but it means that you can continue to grow to become like Jesus, and this is why, if you are married, we want you to be a part of our marriage mentoring ministry. Why? Because even if you have a good marriage, it could be a better marriage. And even if you're struggling, you can go to our website and click on the box there, and it will help you connect with someone who wants to walk alongside of you in life, to help you grow. If you need somebody to help you grow as a follower of Christ and be discipled, then this is where someone in community can come alongside of you and help you grow. Let's take a look at another one. How about this one. Using the word of God as a mirror not a club. You want to find the mindset that describes someone who is maturing, it's someone who uses the word of God as a mirror and not a club. A mirror helps you see the things that need to change in your life. Now, one of the passages that I want to reference right now is James chapter one, verses 22 through 25. So go from Philippians over to the book of James. If you run into Hebrews, you've gone too far, and I want you to locate James chapter one, verse 22. It's here that Paul actually uses, or not Paul, I'm sorry, but James, the half-brother of Jesus actually uses the word mirror. Look at verse 22. He says, "But be doers of the word and not hearers only, "deceiving yourselves, "for if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, "he's like a man who looks intently at his natural face "in a mirror, "for he looks at himself and goes away, "and at once forgets what he was like. "But the one who looks into the perfect law, "the law of liberty, and perseveres, "being no hearer who forgets, but a doer who acts. "He'll be blessed in his doing." What he's describing is the word of God, as we use it as a mirror, evaluating how Jesus would live and love and how Paul commands us, even within the book of Philippians, how to serve one another and live for Jesus Christ, and we look at our own lives and we realize, wow, there's some things we gotta do here. It's not being discouraged. It's accepting that and then beginning to grow. That's the idea, but we're using it as a mirror, in terms of how we live our life, not a club to judge other people. That's a sign of immaturity. Now, Jesus deals with that one in Matthew chapter seven, verses three through five, and I'll encourage you to go do that this week, sometime, or pull that passage out and look at it. He says you gotta remove the log in your own eye before you start trying to pull the speck out of someone else's. His point is very simple, that you're judging someone else, and so now only do you oftentimes struggle with the same sin or other sins in your own life, now it's compounded, it's even bigger, because now you're full of pride and you're judging someone else. And his point is a maturing, growing person actually looks at the word of God, looks at themselves, realizes they haven't arrived yet. There's work to be done, and they want to continue to grow and follow Jesus Christ. Now, the next one is terrific as well. Recognizes that the right path is not always easy and will involve suffering. Somebody who's growing in a relationship with Jesus Christ will recognize that the path is not always easy, and it might even involve suffering. Paul's talked about suffering. We've covered that already in the book, and it's oftentimes through suffering that God develops our character and helps us grow, because He pulls away during those times the things that don't look like Jesus. He formulates the character inside of us that does. One of the best passages to go to is James chapter one, verses two and four, where James again says, "Count it joy, my brothers, "when you meet trials of various kinds, "for you know that the testing of your faith "produces steadfastness. "And let steadfastness have its full effect, "that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing." There's growth that takes place. There was a study that came out a couple years, well, several years ago, actually. It's been repeated in several different ways, but when I first saw the information on this, it was regarding a study that took place back in 1970, and researchers took little kids, put 'em in a room, sat 'em at a table, and put a bell on that table, and they told the little kids this. They said, "Look, you're gonna leave the room, "and if you ring that bell, "we will come right back in immediately, "and we will give you a marshmallow. "However, if you sit at the table "and you don't ring that bell and you wait for us "to come back into the room, without ringing the bell, "we'll give you two marshmallows." And what they were trying to do was actually evaluate how long would the kids wait for the researcher to come back into the room and give them two marshmallows? They didn't tell 'em how long it would be. Well, some of the kids rang the bell right away, and others waited and waited until they came back in and got the two marshmallows. When they started studying the children over the rest of their life, here's what they found, that the children who were willing to delay gratifications scored higher on SAT scores, and actually were generally more successful in adult life. Why? Because delayed gratification, enduring, staying in the midst of those difficult experiences of life, stretch us and help us grow. Life is not easy, and it requires work. Here's another one. Someone who has the attitude that helps us mature does not believe that success are forever, failures are final. And I've given you a host of passages here. You can look those up during the week, but the point here is this. When you believe success is forever, you get seduced by it, and when you believe that failures are final, oftentimes, you end up feeling like God can't use you anymore, and they sideline us. So what Paul is after here is really a sense of, as one friend of mine says, spiritual amnesia. Paul says, look, if you'll look down here at verse 13, he says, "I want to forget what lies behind. "I want to strain forward to what lies ahead. "I want to keep going forward." Celebrate the growth, but don't stop there. Don't hang up your cleats. Don't go through life feeling like God owes you something, because of the things that you've done. No, the things on the outside always have to connect with the attitude on the inside. But he also says, don't get hung up on failure. Don't let that sideline you. And that's why it's important to go back to 1 Timothy chapter one, verses 12 through 16, because actually goes through the things that he finally discovered about his heart, that he was a blasphemer, that he was chief among sinners. I mean, this is Paul the Apostle saying he was chief among sinners. This is Paul the Apostle who believes he hasn't arrived yet. If Paul the Apostle referred to himself that way, then I need to continue to grow in my Christian life so that I don't feel like I have arrived, and I need to take a look at those heart character qualities inside of me, that oftentimes reflect not Jesus Christ, but my selfishness and pride. So use the lessons we've learned to give us wisdom going forward. Now let's look at just two more things here. We need to have an attitude that allows the freedom to follow God's voice, and not a person's. Where do we get that from? Well, look at verse 15. Paul says, "Let those of us who are mature think," that's the mindset. Again, these are marks, not boxes to check, but an attitude and action. He says, "Let those of us who are mature think this way, "and if in anything you think otherwise, "God'll reveal that to you also." What's he saying here? Well, he's simply saying this. He's extending the hand of friendship and he's saying to them, "Look, these things that I have mentioned "are really, really important." And what he's not suggesting is that they can disagree with him on the majors, and just throw 'em off. No, what he's saying is this. He's giving them the freedom to evaluate what he has presented, and Paul is 100% convinced that on the major issues of the commands that he's been giving, serving one another with humility, living a life befitting of the Gospel, everything he's mentioned in his book thus far and told them personally. Paul is totally convinced that if it is a major area in life, God is going to bring them up to speed. God is going to convince them of the truth of what he is saying here, that salvation's by faith, and sanctification or growth is by faith, not by external activities. And he's also willing to say that the Spirit of God is gonna continue to help them apply it in their life. And so here's my observation. As you walk through the Christian life, in your own life and also in the life of others, major on the majors, minor on the minors. Our denomination has done a wonderful job here in helping us with the evangelical free church. Why? Because we major on the majors so that we focus on the Gospel. We focus on those essentials to orthodox Christianity so we can continue to grow, but on those things where the Bible is not really clear on, in terms of how we oftentimes live out the major commands of God's word, the major doctrines of our faith, we consider some of those things minor issues, and we love one another and walk with one another in community. Allow God's Holy Spirit to change and transform a person. Don't make them like you. Make them like Jesus. And then Paul wraps it up with this final attitude or mark of maturity. This is a person that does not forget his or her story in God's story. See, that's why he says in verse 16. "Only let us hold true to what we have attained." In other words, don't slack off. Don't forget the lessons you've learned. Oftentimes in the Christian life, we take three steps forward and two steps back, but don't forget those lessons, don't slack off, and by all means, keep on driving forward so that you remember the change that's happened in your life and how that fits into God's overall redemptive plan of offering Jesus Christ to those around you. So here are some things I want you to think about this week. I've given you a lot of passages under each and every one of these really attitudes or marks of maturity. This next week, I want you to go back through each of them, look at those verses, and think about them as an individual, or maybe it's even within a small group that is continuing to meet over the summer, whatever that might look like. And then, I want you to find just one area. Don't be overwhelmed. You can't do everything at once. I want you to find one attitude that needs a little bit more work in your life. Commit that to the Lord and begin to set up a plan of steps you can take so that you can continue to strive, press on towards the goal, growing in your relationship with Christ. Let me pray. Father, thank you for this day. Thank you for your word. Change us and use us this week to communicate the message of Christ. It's in His name that we pray. Amen.