Grow up

the May 10th 2012 cover of Time magazine was one of the more controversial covers that they have had in a long time they will from time to time sorry for the pun have its Time magazine something you were kinda slow on uptake but that's okay they will from time to time have some controversial covers but this one was reasonably controversial it was a a 26-year-old mother from Los Angeles who was standing sideways and her nearly four-year-old strapping son was standing on a step stool nursing that was the cover of the magazine now it the article that they were really trying to on talk through the issues they were trying to talk through was one about attachment parenting and uh you know it's kinda that never let your baby cry stuff you know all that if that was what they were talking about and so it was a big you know article and you know about how to parent and all those kind of things and it brought up a lot of other moms into the fray into the discussion into the argument into the conversation into the dialogue and then a whole it didn't just create um some fervor around that particular issue but it also uncovered a number of other things for instance you started hearing stories about not just moms who were nursing their 4-year-old but a 36-year-old woman who is still nursing her 14-year-old son and was not going to wean him until he was 15 just a quick check here he's in high school he's a year away from driving he's three years removed from military service and he's nursing regardless of where you might particularly stand on the parenting continuum I think we can land and in the same place on that one eww right? you see the reason I bring this up is not just a give us kind of a a laugh and a ew even though it gives me both a laugh and a ew its remind us that this is actually a pretty reasonably good metaphor for us to begin our conversation today um because what we have in and I'll just talk about American Christianity is we have a lot of believers who God has called to be mature but still look like fifteen-year-olds who are nursing ultimately what God wants for us is He wants us to grow up this is the point why He's made us in the way He's made us and it's pretty obvious from everything that God's intent for us is to grow up now the culture doesn't help us any doe it we live in a day completely all-access wired world and as a result of that we've got um benefits associated with that and we've got pitfalls associated with that but what are the pitfalls is something that one writer Tim Elmore has coined as artificial maturity that has occurred now by artificial maturity here's what he means he's generally talking about those that are roughly a thirty or early thirties and younger but um it can apply to all of us because here's what's happening in our culture artificial majority can be explained like this that in both directions up the continuum adolescence is increasing let me explain so you have a culture now that's all access in all wired and has access to just about everything so that means that kids at younger ages are being exposed to significantly more then the generations that preceded them they have access to more information they have access to more everything and as a result here's what's happening their adolescence is actually occurring now at an earlier time period than it did back in the day and so you've got adolescence moving further and further backwards with younger and younger children but you also have it on the other end of the spectrum because while this side of the spectrum says well there are younger kids being exposed to much more at earlier ages and adolescence is expanding backwards we also find on this side that more young men and women that are getting into their twenties and their 30's have actually more information than anyone's ever had in the history of the world combined and have less real world experience and as a result adolescence is continuing to creep older and older and older and so what you have is you have this massive continuum of age that all encompasses adolescence young people who are exposed to too much and think that they know more than they do and those that should know better who actually have no real world experience and adolescence is crawling further out this way so you've got this massive pool of immaturity and you can imagine how that affects everything right it affects um people on job pursuits it affects people in the choices that they make for their own recreation or play it affects relationships of every ilk whether they are romantic or not immaturity affects all of these things and when you have an artificial maturity then you're going to see that playing out in a lot of different ways in fact maybe here's a couple ways that you could see it play out take a look hilarious so how's the job hunt going nothing man what? i thought you said your job interview was amazing it was alright you know they offered me a job and stuff and then they told me i was gonna have to work 40 hours aweek man that sucks seriously and they said I was gonna have to spend every day in a cube deal-breaker guys just do what i do let the jobs come to you yes that's brilliant so you just like all putting your resume online and stuff like nah do you like milking those family connections and stuff i dont have any so you're just like kinda waiting it out genius ah yeah we gotta pay whos turn is it im just kidding my dad got this one so tell me why this company well I just really love what your company does I think I'd be a real asset to the team think I'd fit into the culture really well I see you have a wide range of skills tell me about that well I'm good with people I was really good in school I was on the Dean's List with a 3.2 grade point average uh I was captain of my tennis team so I I know a little bit about leadership how to deal with people I'm punctual always punctual tell him I'm good you are with the computers it's a great point mom I'm really good computers you wouldn't believe how fast he set up email on my laptop. It's true. I can work with any kind of software you give me okay well I'll get in touch with you artificial maturity God wants us to grow up and he's made us that way physically he's made us that way right we we have a tendency to grow older we mature uh intellectually we are to continue growing and I realize that there are some that have developmental challenges on both ends of that and that doesn't work out exactly like that all the time I realize that there are exceptions by the way some of those exceptions can teach us a great deal about maturity just sayin think of a young friend of mine who's on who's had some developmental challenges at our church who's around twenty years old who finds me after every single service that is here to hug me every single one I look forward to it I feel like I haven't been to church if I don't see him he's been doing it for years and he is childlike in his love for everyone but he's not childish his childlike in fact he sticks around with his mom and his dad after most every worship gathering that he attends and picks up all the bulletins that those less responsible than he leave behind hmm sometimes we can learn a thing or two about maturity when we look at the natural order of things and sometimes we can look at maturity and see some of the exceptions and what it teaches us God is great with us being childlike in our faith being childish is not we've been called to we've been called to grow up to mature to develop now we know that when we read the book of James as I told you that we would we're reading from the half brother of Jesus he is the writer of this book and he was leading the church of Jerusalem and we begin to read his book we find out pretty quickly that God wants us to grow up so I want us to look in chapter number one in the book of James and we will begin in verse number two and it says this consider it pure joy my brothers and sisters whenever you face trials of many kinds because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete not lacking anything I hope you picked up on what was said there because it reminded us that whenever you face trials of many kinds know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance and perseverance needs to finish its work so that you may be mature and complete now James we know is writing to the scattered believers because he talks about it in verse number one he's writing to all those Jewish believers who have been scattered due to the persecution if you remember when the early church was founded in Jerusalem all those early converts were Jewish people and that as a result of that here's what happened those Jewish people began to be persecuted by um other people who felt like they were selling out on Judaism so to speak and now they were following Jesus Christ it was a it was a bad deal for them because they were saying we will they didn't think he was the Messiah and so there was persecution that ensued in many people were scattered in fact they were scattered all over the nations he says he too he writes to the twelve tribes scattered among the nations they were scattered all over the place and they were facing great persecution and James actually begins his writing here by saying count it joy that you're facing all these trials count it joy that you're facing all these trials because I'll tell you what God is doing in the midst of your perseverance what God is ultimately doing is He is maturing you shaping you into His image if I were to boil this down and kind of take it almost in reverse what we just read here principally what I would be saying to you is simply this: maturity only comes through perseverance and perseverance only comes through adversity. Think about what what we just said here maturity only comes through perseverance and perseverance only comes through adversity. You don't persevere when you don't have anything to persevere through do you maturity comes through perseverance James says but perseverance comes through adversity which means if you're going to mature you're going to have to learn how to walk in the face of adversity from time to time now we know this to be true in just regular course of our development in our regular life right you guys know I'm a baseball fan I may have told you about this before I've coached some and still coach some and I enjoy the game it's kinda of our Gillis name pastime from a sport standpoint we love baseball like watching lots a different sports but baseball's our sport when my oldest son was learning how to become a pitcher it was tough how many have you ever had uh sons or daughters that have played softball or baseball and then when they move out other either coach pitch or Tee-ball or machine pitch and they get into real live pitching you've seen what a disaster that is anybody in his experience that besides me if you have it it's kind of a disaster when kids are just learning you know they just get on a mound after on balls all over the place and it just the games take like four hundred years and it's like please somebody just put it on a Tee it we don't care anymore I'm eighty now I started the game I was 37 and now I'm eighty please finish it's tough so my oldest son was out on the mound um in that kinda first year I've learning how to pitch and he was out there pitching and it wasn't going good in fact it was going worse than not good it was titanicly awful he couldn't throw a strike he couldn't have thrown it in the ocean I mean it was it was bad and when he did end up messing up in throwing one in the strike zone I you know it just gets jacked right so he's out there at this point I think we've given up roughly a thousand runs in this one inning the inning has lasted forever again I'm now picking up social security checks at the end of the this inning right it's forever any out there just alone on an island in its very tough in the in the baseball world it's very tough to be standing out on the mound all by yourself you have the ball you have control it is a tough thing and to put that in the hand of a nine-year-old that kinda pressure and so I want to the coaches on the assistant coach in the head coach kinda looks at me he says I gotta get him out there because he's he starting to cry and you know i mean it's he was he was starting to cry he like this is so bad he's thinking he's just gonna blow up this is not good I gotta go get 'em and in a moment of clarity I grabbed him and I said don't do it don't don't get him it's not like we're gonna win we are losing like a thousand to one right now it's not like we're coming back alright the game is done it has found its way down the toilet into the sewage system a long time ago we're not gonna win leave them there and he is kinda look at me like aren't you a pastor? this is what you're gonna do to this child I'm not coming to your church what was running through my head however maybe not stated as clearly is this: the maturity only comes through perseverance and perseverance will only come through adversity and so I left him out there he knew the conversation we were having cause he's looking out there probably asking Jesus to tell my dad to rescue me right now every parent that is sitting in the bleachers is like get the kid out of there we can't take it anymore we're crying now we're emotionally exhausted now please for the love of all things baseball get him out of the game he's just a child that's what the manager he's looking at me and I just went don't do it and I looked at him there was one out in the inning and I think we got it roughly four hours ago with two more to go and I looked at trace and I went get two more you're coming in we get two more outs come on bud (crying sound) wiping all the snot off his face you know balls all slick in his hand now I'm just like do it so eventually I don't know how long it was which we were measuring with sand dials at this point right but eventually he got out of the inning it's a miracle that he didn't run away he comes walking to like this you know the whole team comes walking in like this I mean kids nine year old kids came in with beards at the end of that inning just come over come walking in like this you know they look like they've been on Survivor for forty days you know just like I just need a steak or something I'm not parched out here because it had been so long and he gets in I just looked and i said buddy I said this is the only way you learn how to handle this it's not easy this is the only way you learn and now as a 16-year-old if you were to ask him he would point back to a time when he was 9 and say that's when I learned how to be a picture right here that's when I learned how to do it right here now it may not always go well right physically you may not always have it or whatever but that's how I learned how to be a picture right here why because maturity it only comes through perseverance and perseverance it only comes through adversity. now we know that to be true in our spiritual lives as well right we know we know to be true in real life and how we have to deal with everything it's that it's a high school student at that college student who in the summertime they get invited by a friend to something in unbeknownst to them they come now to this place where they hear the gospel of Jesus Christ and their life is transformed in the summer but then guess what they have to go back to school and they face those friends and those teachers and those professors who are kinda breathing in there ear that this all this is this is fairy tale or this is silly or this is stupid or this is for the weak or this is for the non intellectual and now all the sudden what happens is their maturity is gonna have to walk them through because maturity is only gonna come through perseverance and perseverance is only gonna come through adversity or maybe it's that young couple that gets married and you see it you know right we first get married for like the first six months every Facebook status is how awesome my husband and how awesome my wife is and that's great I love it but that Disneyworld existence doesn't last forever right they're human beings your human beings and all the sudden that goes way for instance when that young couple um who still love each other deeply but then all the sudden they lose their job and find out they're pregnant all at the same time true stories by the way they did that happen when that happens all the sudden it's kinda like whoa guess what maturity is only gonna come through perseverance and perseverance is only gonna come through adversity these are the things that happen how about when you find out that your health is not what you thought it was going to be you get real disappointing news and your health is not what you thought it was going to be and then the track record for being able to get healthy your expectations of health keep going unmet and you keep facing that over and over and over again it's tough but maturity only comes to perseverance and perseverance only comes through adversity we know this to be true in both of these arenas whether it's just in the the regular course of our everyday existence but we certainly know to be true in the spiritual arena as well but God even though he may not cause all of these things to happen what He does is He uses them to mature us He uses us to uses them to call us up into maturity what I struggle with and I imagine what you struggle with is that the culture that we live in has a very high distaste for pain you see one of the grand virtues of our culture is security and comfort those are like the big virtues that are in our culture security and comfort as a result we have a real high pain avoidance have any type so much so that even things like our own gratification if it is delayed and we feel the pain of that were like its not right I can't believe I have to watch these commercials because my television is now on demand my gratification is instant I don't have to suffer the pain of time in between the show with commercials ew right now part of me loves that I'm not saying it's a bad thing I'm just saying it's a part of our culture what we have we have a desire in our culture for sex we can figure out a way to get that anyway we want to try and figure out a way to get that virtually or real we have desire to buy something we just buy it we don't have to have the money for it your because we got cards it doesn't even matter if we have the money for it we can just buy it because we need it we so need that this'll make our lives complete its a Flowbee you kidding me we've got to have it right and we just buy it even if we don't have the money we can't stand the idea of delayed gratification because there's too much pain involved so we are a pain avoidance type of culture now don't misunderstand me I'm not a *** my desire is not hey we need more pain in our world I want some more pain I'm not thinking that right nobody really wants it but what we have to remember is that sometimes pain can communicate well one of my favorite authors as you guys already knows CS Lewis and in his book the problem of pain he made this statement God whispers to us in our pleasures He speaks in our conscience but He shouts in our paintings it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world sometimes you and I both know that the only time we hear clearly is when we're hurting when we're experiencing some pain all the sudden we can hear very clearly the voice of God now again I'm not advocating for more and more pain but I'm saying this God wants us to mature and the only way you mature is when you persevere and the only way to persevere is through adversity so how do you stay immature if that's what you desire is good news for you I've got some things if you want to stay immature there's some things that I can point out to you in the Scripture that if you'll just do or not do it'll keep you in a state of immaturity if that's what you desire great news I'm gonna help me out today I'm hoping you don't desire that but if you do I've got good news for you hear some ways that you can stay immature here's the first one look for wisdom in the wrong places you wanna stay immature? then start doing this look for wisdom in the wrong places listen to what James chapter one verses 5 through 7 say if any of you lacks wisdom you should ask God who gives generously to all without finding fault and it will be given to you but when you ask you must believe and not doubt because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea blown and tossed by the wind that person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. Isn't it interesting that what we have a tendency to do in our culture is to ask everyone but God what we ought to do? He is the only one who is all wise yet He is oftentimes the very last one consulted about decisions that we're going to make I'll talk to people from time to time it's part of what I do right I interact with lots of different people and I'll hear this commonly pressure really unsure about this situation I've been talking to my friends and they say blank and then I'll talk to some guy you know and he'll be talking he'll say yeah I've been talking to my friends about my marriage and you know they were saying I should probably just dump her what do you think? I mean it wouldn't be it's funny if it weren't so sad right it really happens we literally sometimes put our confidence sometimes in friends that don't know up from down and they're the ones giving us life advice when the all wise God has spoken to so many of the scenarios that we're talking about but work we don't even consult Him and James says this at if any of you lacks wisdom ask God. He would be delighted to give you some any of that are parents if your child comes to you and says mom dad here's what's going on in my life I really need I really need some wisdom some advice from you you would be thrilled wouldn't you some love you have teenagers your begging Jesus that they would do that you like please Jesus would they one-time asked me my thoughts on this I've tried to give it to them they don't listen but I mean that they would willfully wanna come and ask and say would you help me with this this is what James says if any of you lacks wisdom ask God. But instead were often times talking to even friends that no more about the life of Kim Kardashian than they do about the life of Jesus and they're giving us advice on what we're supposed to be doing or you're talking to your buddies guys the same buddies who think that The Hangover is the best movie that's ever been made and that's where you're getting your advice from listen if your friends know more about Kim Kardashian than they do about Jesus and if they think that The Hangover is really sounds like an incredibly cool weekend you need new friends you need some friends who actually know what it means to walk with God because here's what James says if you wanna stay immature been just look for wisdom in all the wrong places and you will stay immature your growth will be stunted but he says here's what you do you ask God and obviously there are other parts of the Scripture the talk about getting counsel from Godly people who are also consulting God right let me give you a second thing if you want to say immature continue to think that God is the one tempting you just continue to think that it's God who's tempting listen to what James chapter 1 verse 13 through 15 says when tempted no one should say God is tempting me how clear is that for God cannot be tempted by evil nor does He tempt anyone but each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed then after desire has conceived it gives birth to sin and sin when it is full grown gives birth to death You see God isn't tempting you because God can't tempt you because God cannot be tempted by evil so God doesn't play those games but even though you may be facing temptation what you have to realize is God is not tempting you but He will mature you through it He's not tempting you but He will mature you through the temptation it's a culture that we live in because if the artificial maturity that exists that we live in a culture of blame it's always somebody else's fault it has to be we've been told how awesome we are and if something happens to us that's not awesome there's no way it could be on us no way now there are some times where things that happen to us happen to us by no fault of our own that happens but it seems like in our culture we have an exorbitant amount of times where things that do happen to us that our by our own design somehow we think are not by our own design that they are are that they could not possibly be our fault and we move that into and I have these conversations with people plenty of times we move that into the spiritual realm and people have a tendency to want to blame God for everything wrong in their life if God I can't God would do this to me why's He doing this to me almost like they're posturing themselves to say at if I were God here's what I would do if you were God I would cry forever if I were God you would cry forever we have no business trying to play God God is good God is holy God cannot be tempted by evil God does not tempt but we still have a tendency to say we want to blame God and we stay infants when we continue to play the blame game don't we isn't that what we try and teach our kids to not do again we do it all the time I'll talk to my son a baseball such a great life teacher because baseball's basically a game of failure if you get out seven outta 10 times at the plate you're going to the Hall of Fame cause you're gonna bat .300 it's like what? yep it's a game about managing failure so when my son my younger son after maybe striking out again he doesn't strike out often but after striking out says that second pitch was outside I can't believe he called out on me um okay but just a heads up the count was three and one before that happened after that happened and you swing at a ball up here that would have been ball four so let me do the math real quick ok your fall it's your fault it's not the umpire fault it's your fault yeah but no buts your fault dude suck it up eat it that's your lunch is your fault what you gonna do now? my boys don't try to give me any of the it was the umpire's fault stuff anymore because I'm like no it ain't. it's your fault. you got a pitch to hit you missed it you swung at a pitch over here you'd be at first base your fault keep it in mind sometimes you have to tell a baseball team after game when they're like I can't believe that call at second base. what do you mean you can't believe the call at second base we lost 11 to two you think that shifted the whole balance of power in that game we lost because it was our fault we didn't field the ball we can hit the ball we didn't catch the ball we lost because it was our fault and because they did a good job we did a bad job why do we always think that it's some would say it can't be us it has to be something else we do the same thing in the spiritual realm and we end up staying immature as a result a bit it's gotta be always somebody else's fault all this temptation i can't believe this is God's fault because God keeps tempting me I can't handle all of this temptation it's too much for me no it's not too much for you God always gives you a way of escape the Scripture says you gonna be tempted beyond what you're able to handle God always gives you a way of escape you just have to be able to find the door or if you don't see the door you gotta figure out where a hammer is and start knocking a hole in a wall God will always give you way of escape by the way with temptation I've heard this too many times from people who have given in and given in given in and they said you wouldn't understand your the temptations just too great for me in really would you say that to Jesus because Jesus is the only one who knows the full strength of temptation because he's the only one that has withstood it completely you don't know the strength of temptation because you give in to it you know the strength of temptation because you've withstood it in fact those who continue to give in to temptation they don't even really understand the full power of temptation because they continue to give in to it when you have experience the full weight of temptation and still have stood that's when you understand strength of it Jesus is actually the only realist that has ever lived he's the only one that has ever fully experienced the completeness of temptation and withstood it and listen it is He that lives in you so we can't continue to just give the blame game right we have to take responsibility for ourselves and trust that Christ in us the resurrected Christ in us can and will give us the strength to overcome in the face of temptation because we know that ultimately what temptation breeds is sin and death and that is not the life that God has designed for us let me give you a third thing if you want to stay immature then treat the good seed of the Word carelessly just treat the good seed of the Word carelessly let me explain what I mean James says this in verses 21 and 22 he says that therefore get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you which can save you do not merely listen to the word and so deceive yourselves do what it says. now James actually uses this phrase about he talked about the word that is planted in you it's the idea it's where I picked up on the idea of the seed the a seed is something that is put in you but it needs to be given proper exposure to sunlight proper water proper tilling of the ground right and sometimes what we have a tendency to do is we treat the Word carelessly the seed of the Word goes out and we treat it carelessly Jesus actually talked about this exact same thing do you remember when he expressed a parable about a man who was walking along a pathway and and there was seed that was being sewn along that place and some fell on on the pathway and some fell on fertile ground in some fell on the rocks do you remember that parable listen to his explanation up the parable in Luke chapter number eight this is the meaning of the parable the seed is the word of God. Those along the path are the ones who hear, and then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved those on the rock are the ones who received the word with joy when they hear it but they have no root they believe for a while but in the time of testing they fall away the seed that fell among thorns stands for those who hear but as they go on their way there choked by life's worries riches and pleasures and they do not what? mature what just pause leave that there for just a second I'm reminding here hopefully you've listened we don't mature because we don't what persevere and we can only persevere through adversity but we don't mature because we don't what? Jesus was on to this already but the seed on good soil stands for those with a noble and good heart who hear the word retain it and by what persevering produce a crop. maturity only comes through perseverance and perseverance will come through adversity we have to remember that our job is to continue to persevere in our faith and when this seed all the Word is planted and sewn we have to be careful not careless with it. I wonder sometimes how careful I am with God's words to me I wonder sometimes how careful you are with God's words to you there are some people who care deeply about what God has to say about certain things and there are other people who basically just give him ear service you really agree you like it you're saying amen to all the truth to what God is saying but you're not acting on it you're not doing what He said you're treating the word carelessly you wanna stay immature great way to do it great way to do it in fact one of the finest ways to stay immature and fake everybody out is to have a real good understanding of the Bible and be able to have those conversations with people and be able to show people that you know your way around the Scripture and not be doing much of what it says great way to fake everybody out and still remain immature but it's not God's design for you how how carefully do you treat the seed of the Word in your own life because what God wants you to do is you want you to grow up this is His plan this is His design He wants you to grow up in fact the writer of the book of Hebrews said it this way anyone who lives on milk being still an infant is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness But solid food is for the mature who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil. in other words spiritually speaking we should stop having in the church fifteen-year-olds who are nursing that's what should not be grow up maturity only comes through perseverance and perseverance is going to happen through adversity but trust that it is God's way of maturing us into the image of His Son so that he would be glorified in the world and we would be able to be a rich reflection of His grace in our lives bow your heads with me we're gone in just a minute I ask if you don't have to move that you be kind enough not to and whether here on this campus so you're at our Lockport campus I wanna say this to you I'm going to pray for you in just a minute for all of us that we would embrace what God has called us to do but if you're here and you've never before entrusted your life to Jesus Christ I would say this there really is no such thing as growing up spiritually apart from Him we've already talked about the fact that he himself is our righteousness He Himself is the one who forgives us of sin He Himself is the one who gives us access to the Father we can't do any of that on our own so we are dependent in that sense and until we come to a place where we humble ourselves before God realize that we are a sinner and we can't save ourselves and we turn our faces to the cross of Christ who died for our sins and paying for it on a cross rising from the dead demonstrating that He has overcome sin and hell and the grave on our behalf and has now given us a new and living way to be reconciled to the Father until we come to that place there really is no such thing as growing up spiritually because you have to have a beginning you have to have a birth before you can have a growth so if you're here and you've never before come to a place of receiving Jesus The Bible says to as many as received Him to then he gave the right to become children of God then we dismiss in just a moment I want to ask you if you are on this campus here in this room or in the East Worship Center to come by the Fireside Room it's just out in the atrium there'll be some pastors in there some folks in there who love to take a moment to talk to you about what it means to have a relationship with God through His Son Jesus tp have your sins forgiven to know that your life is being transformed in that He's come to live within you if you've never come to a place of understanding that and knowing that don't hesitate come by the Fireside Room were dismissed if you're at the Lockport campus Pastor Jonathan as he does each week is going to be able to communicate with you about how to connect with somebody that you can talk to about what it means to know Jesus Christ Father for those of us that have known you for some time I realize that we're all in different places in terms of our knowledge of You and we're all in different places in terms of our maturity in You God what you've called us to and what you've designed in what your desire is is for us to be in a constant state of maturing that we are growing in faith and we are growing in trust and we are growing in love with our Savior Jesus Christ and I pray God that if there are some of us that are stuck in places where we are continuing to perpetuate our immaturity and God I pray that you would rescue us in your grace and the You would allow us the strength by You living in a stew make choices consistent with maturity that we would be a people that chooses to treat the seed of Your word planted in us very carefully and that what we hear and what we learned from Your word we would put into practice and do and that we would honor you and show you are loved by our obedience and Father we wouldn't be a people who choose to blame You You are blameless cause You are good and You are God and holy You cannot be tempted and You do not tempt and God I pray we would not play the blame game even when we don't understand but that God we would trust you and learn that you will through this time mature and grow us God I pray that you would give us a sense that we would be able to move forward in our relationship with you only when we commit ourselves to spending time in your presence and getting to know You deeply an acting out on Your word so Father I pray Your spirit would do what only you can in our midst and in each individual life under the sound of my voice including my own so that we would be a people that would grow up to demonstrate your glory and to show more clearly the image of Jesus in our world that our world so greatly needs we trust you to do this now in Jesus name amen God bless you folks love you have a great week