Colossians Lesson 10 Week 2

Okay, we are in Lesson 10. Everybody got a Lesson 10? And we had gotten down to... We're working on Question 3 and 4. We talked last week about how we began in the Lord Jesus. We talked about what the word received means. We talked about what salvation isn't. We went through a bunch of contemporary sentences that people think today is salvation that really isn't. And we got to talk about how the believer does walk. And one of the things that we were spending some time on is, well let me start by asking a question, how does a believer walk? By faith. By faith. In Christ. In Christ. You walk exactly like you were saved. What was the one element that I brought up that you seemed to neglect to mention? Grace. Grace. We walk by grace. Because salvation is by grace through faith.

And so we had a little bit of discussion about this walk that we're called to do or to live. And it's totally, God has said to us, walk, and we said back to him, no problem, right? We can be doing this walk. It's kind of easy. Right? The guys that understand the question are laughing, the rest of you aren't doing anything. We are called to a supernatural walk. We are heavenly creatures and we are called to walk in a manner that is consistent with who we are, seated in the heavenlies.

Is that possible? Yes, it's possible, but it's not our effort, it's the Holy Spirit's effort. So, there's been a supernatural power provided to every believer to exact and perfect the execution of this superhuman rule of life. And I think it's important for us to realize that the walk of the believer, the life of the believer is, for lack of a better term, superhuman. It's above our capacity to do it. And it's important, I think, early on that we realize that it's like we can't save ourselves.

But the teachings of grace give us the exact information that we need to walk that way. It's there. God wouldn't say do this and not provide the means in which to do it. If you go back to chapter one, verse nine, it gives you the foundation for how you walk. And he says that he prays for them that they be filled with the super knowledge of his will and all spiritual wisdom and understanding so that they will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord. And the manner is a manner worthy of the Lord, not worthy of you or your pastor or your denomination or whatever rules and regulations you've set up for yourself. It has to be worthy of the Lord. That's a pretty tall order, don't you think?

So, and I quoted some things out of Chafer on grace because I think grace is really a big aspect here. Yeah, we walk by faith, but it is under the umbrella of grace. The interesting thing about grace is that as you learn the tenets of grace, you begin to take it and let it be done to you and in you. Does that make sense? What do you mean by canon of grace? The criterias of grace. Well, that's not good. Boy, that sounds like an oxymoron, the criterias of grace. Tenets are the principles of grace, is what I mean.

How does it work? So the question four is describe the walk mentioned here. So describe it. Since I've, you know, since I observe you guys are all walking that way, right? The back row over here went... I have firmly rooted, built up in him, and established in the faith, and walk with him as he did.

Okay. Well, he's probably right then, huh? From Wiest, he says, be consistently ordering your behavior. Be consistently ordering your behavior. Firmly anchored. So what he does here is he compares the walk with how you began, right? Isn't that what he does? As you began, so go ahead and walk.

And so the emphasis is on, I began by finding out the information, by believing the information, and actually allowing the grace of God to implement the information by my faith. Faith is in appropriating. Why is it so hard? I'm not being facetious. Why is grace so hard to receive? Because when you're taught as a kid, if you do this, you'll get down. You have to live by the law. As a child?

Yeah, that's right. Yeah, we have stuck in our brains, I think, this idea that grace is that I got something I didn't deserve. But most everything else I have, I deserved it. Okay. I'm moved again. What? Yes. We prayed last week that you were happy. I'm really happy this week. So, I feel... I talked to Mary about it. I feel like my son said, well, you deserve this. Well, I said, no, I don't. I don't deserve it. But now, how do you...

I have this uncomfortable feeling that things... Grace is hard. I have an uncomfortable feeling that this is too good, that something bad will happen. Because you can't live up to the grace that you've been given? Yeah, grace is, if somebody gives me something, I want to get something.

Well, we're going to make her the poster child now. That's two weeks in a row you've done really well. What's interesting about grace is this, is that none of it is deserved. None of it. Because we've talked about the fact that one of the aspects or one of the principles of grace is that it's unmerited. You cannot merit it. And the moment you try to merit it, you lose it.

It's like that stuff we make for the kids downstairs out of, what is it? U-Buck. Yeah, U-Buck. You hold on to that stuff and it goes right through your fingers. Yet you hit it and it's solid. I don't know how that works. How much of a mindset has to change for us to realize that God is blessing us without any merit on our part? That's tough, isn't it? It really is hard. Because we, I mean, we are Americans after all, and we do live under the Constitution, and we do perform, and we work hard, and we, you know, that kind of stuff. And we resist a situation where someone tried, like the government wants to take over and give us everything. But there's a cost. There's no cost to grace. To you, none. None.

There's another danger though that you can feel so unworthy that you start to kind of take it out on yourself. I'm so unworthy that I'm going to go cause myself more humility. And he's going to touch on it later in chapter 2, in the asceticism of self-abasement. I'm so unworthy that I need to sell everything and live like a pauper because I'm so unworthy of this. Right. There was a guy, what was that guy's name? David Brainerd. Somebody ever hand you his stuff to read? Don't read it. He's the master of self-abasement.

He'd go out in the woods and for hours tell the Lord what a big sinner he was. Well, I mean, Grace, God doesn't say... I brought up last week, remember when I talked to class with the ladies in Parker and I said, you know, let's talk about your forgiveness of sins. Does God forgive you quicker if you're really sorry? Answer, no, he doesn't. He doesn't forgive you based on you. He forgives you based on what Christ did. So it has nothing to do with what your attitude is. or whether you deserve it or not, you don't deserve forgiveness. But you got it. You don't deserve anything that you get.

It's a total mind change, I think, a mindset change to realize I do live under grace and I can stay there. And I can receive and walk with the Lord on a basis where I'm the receiver and he's the giver. Oh, by the way, he gets all the credit, too. Can't steal any of that. It's exactly the same way you were saved. And one of the reasons we went through all of those sentences last week, which are not salvation, is that every single one of them had one element in it of something you did.

And if you got saved on the basis that you did something, then you're going to try to grow on that basis. There's some element of my contribution that's going to make God look more favorably on me, and I'm going to grow. Whereas growth is like you begin. You begin under this umbrella of grace, and what you do is you believe. And the value, obviously, of your faith is in what you believe, not the fact that you did. I've gone through that same thing, where in blessings, when is the big stick going to come? When is it going to teach me a lesson? That's what I'm here for. I realize that's why God has put you as my stick. I started to realize that. Two things.

One, I thought, how silly is that? He loves me. You know, I'm waiting for the, you know, things are really good. When is it going to fall apart? And I thought, that's really, if he loves me, that's a silly attitude to have. And I've been exactly where you're at. Think about that. When something's really good, and I think, how silly is that? He loves me, and whatever he does, he does it in love.

And he's not there with a big stick to hit me when I'm doing well. And it took me a long time to get out of that mode. And the other thing is, I think when you start feeling that, the only thing he's identifying is the old nature. Because the old nature is the one that is worried about that, and being good enough. And when I go through that, I think, well, he's trying to identify me, that old nature, so I can put it down and have the new nature as the one that I walk in. And it really helps to think when you have those desires like I'm not worthy enough, like Brian was saying, or any of these things, it's the old nature that wants that.

And we laugh because as we teach the grace class, Mike and I, I think we brought this up several times, it's unmerited and what does the world teach is paybacks and all this. Great teachers that we are. We go out to lunch and pay less because we need to pay. You know, I'm going to let him pay. Yeah. He's done that forever now. So it's the old nature that is the one that wants to do something of paybacks and all that. And I think. When he takes you through that, that's to identify the old nature that's still rampant in you.

Okay, but I'm better. Better? You're totally the best. Okay, I got that. Hey Mike, what is that scripture that says something about he'll bless you above whatever you ask of him? Yeah, it has to do with, I think, Philippians in prayer. He's able to do way beyond what you ever think or ask. Right. By the way, what's he doing? What is God up to in your life? Conforming me to be like Jesus. He's conforming you to the image of Christ.

How good are you at doing that? You can't do it. It has to be Him. It has to be Him. To be conformed to the image of Christ is a superhuman effort. You cannot do it. And if you find out what the goal is, then the next thing is to find out, well, how am I going to get there? And you find out, I can't get there unless He does something. It's like salvation. I can't get saved unless He makes a move. You know? I'll tell you a secret. There are times that I have said to God quietly, it's your move. It's your move. I can't do anything. I'm stuck. It's your move. It's always His move. Okay. Five.

Is it enough? for believers just to receive Christ. I probably should have rephrased that instead. Is it enough for believers just to be born again? That's one of my favorite trick questions. No it's not. What do you mean by not? I'll get to that in a minute. I wrote down kind of a progressive answer. I said for salvation, yes. Okay, that's pretty good. Here's what I was after.

The problem with being saved and walking by grace is that it introduces a whole new problem in your life, as if you don't have enough. The new problem is that it's totally foreign to law system. You know, I work to be rewarded. The problem is the adjustment of my heart and your heart to the presence of the Holy Spirit and the maintaining of an unbroken attitude of dependence on Him.

That's a new thing. When you begin to think, oh wow, this is a whole new principle that's been introduced, And so achievement in my life consists of accomplishing, and I'll read it, it's probably better. The new principle of achievement consists in getting things accomplished in the believer's daily life and service by trusting the power of another rather than trusting the energy of the flesh. That's a new idea when someone is saved.

How is this going to work? So the revelation concerning this new problem of life under grace constitutes a major part of the teaching of all the epistles. That's what Paul is trying to teach them and us, is how does this work? I'm a guy who loves doctrine, but I'm also a guy who wants to know, how does this work? What's it look like in shoe leather? I'm walking down the street every day, what's it look like? What's happening?

I know as a believer I'm not to have my head in the clouds, but my head is to be in the heavenlies. And there's a translation, a walk here, that I am to live and I can't live it out of my own energy. I've got to learn to live it in dependence on somebody else. We don't function like that initially.

You agree? You agree? So faith is a principle that is taught in the epistles, which is a fairly new principle, although the Old Testament saints walked by it. But grace is the thing that's brand new, and that's why it's not just enough for a believer to say, well I believed in the person and work of Christ, so I'm born again and I can sit down. Because this life we have, this superhuman life we have, needs expression. The problem is we can't do it, so we learn, we must learn that it functions and operates on a moment by moment basis by my being dependent on the Spirit of God to do it. We just don't normally think that way.

Do you agree with me? Courtney even agreed with me. You know that question sounds like when it says is it enough to just believe in Christ? It sounds like you're asking are you believers up to doing more? I think if you take Christ you don't have to do anything. Well you know there was kind of a Another issue, the reason I phrased it the way I did, there's a movement in Christianity now called free grace. Have you run into it? What free grace teaches, and I'm trying to think of the guy who said it, what free grace teaches is that if you just have faith in Jesus, you're saved. Is that enough? If I just believe Jesus, I'm fine. Believe in him or believe in him? Don't you think it's important to believe the whole gospel?

The person, yeah. But you can't swallow that all at once. People start with saying, I believe in Jesus. And I believe in what he did. Yeah. And I believe he died for me. What these people do is they eliminate the what he did. and just focus on Jesus. Jesus is my Savior. He'll save me. Not enough. Well, if you believe Christ has died and you're in Him, He's in you, you don't have to do anything. For salvation. And that's right. Is that enough?

And then you will automatically walk with Him if He's in you. You quit making all the decisions. He's making them. It's coming from you. I mean, not coming from you, it's coming from Christ. I would say that you are involved in the decision-making process, because He does everything with your agreement. Your will exercises faith. That's what you use your will to do, is to believe. There's nobody in the Christian walk in the grandstands. Everybody's down in the field. We're all moving and shaking. We all are.

So it isn't a, you know, get in the lounger and wait for them. Although I must say I have seen folks who have run to the end of their rope, so to speak, by trying to live the Christian life and they run out of gas. And I always say, gee, that's great. You think I'm crazy, but it's good. It's good to get there. Because I don't think you really learn dependence until you have to. And you learn it in so many different ways, but the way that you're learning it is specific for you, and specific for you, and specific for me, but we're learning to be dependent on Him.

Where is the will? Is the will in the person, or the thin nature, or the new nature? Will's in the soul, I think. Here's the thing about the will. If you're under a law system, you think that the will, if I can will to do it, I can do it. Right? Isn't that kind of the way that goes? But really what the will is designed for is for you to believe. You use your will to believe, not implement. And when you study Paul's epistles, you begin to find out, oh yeah, there's nothing I can do to implement, but I can believe and I can trust him and let him do what he says he's going to do. That's the exercise of your will, I think.

Let's define some words. The verse says, rooted, grounded, and established. The word rooted is a, we'll do a little grammar here, is a perfect passive participle. So what is the perfect tense? It's already done. And? Perfect, it's done, and yours. And? And it continues on into the future.

So when he says rooted, he's saying you've already been rooted and it continues on in the present. Okay? And it's passive voice. What does that mean? It means it was done to you. You were the receiver of the action. And it's a participle. So the past experience is that they were firmly rooted, pointing to a completed action with abiding results. It's a reference to the initial salvation, I think, experience. And the idea is that you're settled down now. Okay? Now, this isn't true of all believers. Do you agree with that? But it was true of the Colossian believers, and it's true, I think, Well, most of you guys in this class. Do you see how the idea of grace operates in the word rooted? Who's doing it? It's the Spirit of God who's doing the rooting.

We built this, hopefully it works, self-watering planter. And so we got plants going, right? And the roots are moving hopefully down, getting rooted so that they won't get blown away and they'll produce what we planted them to do. Rooted, okay? Now, built up. Question. You mentioned, are all believers firmly rooted? Yeah. So is this a positional or... Oh, great, great question. Everybody hear the question? Say it again. So are all, the question is, are all believers firmly rooted? Yeah, are all believers firmly rooted?

And is this a positional or a conditional truth? And really, is this a positional statement or a conditional one? Conditional, positional. You can't both be right. What do you think it is? Positional. You think it's position? Perfect tense means it was done in the past, abiding results into the future. So the answer is yeah, I think it is a positional thing.

Do you agree? So then I would say that it is, the built up is not necessarily true of every believer, but the firm learning is. Yes it is. Did you hear that? No. The built up that we'll do next is not necessarily true of every believer, but the establishment is.

The rooting is. I should take that back. The rooting is established. Brian? When I was in high school, my coach would always tell us Whatever I do for you guys, instruction and all that, is to put you in a position to win. A position to succeed. And the rooting here... That's a great example. Everybody hear that? Too bad if you didn't.

Well, I know you're my wife, but don't get ahead of me. We'll have a discussion at Fusion 5 when we get home. Let's go to built up. Built up is present tense. What's that mean? It means it's going on all the time. It's happening right now. So like it or not, this building up process is going on right now. So what voice do you think it is? Is it active, passive, or middle? Active. I don't even know what you're talking about. No, I'm glad you said that because it's important to understand this here because I could ask it this way.

Who's doing this thing, this building up? Am I doing it? No. Is the Holy Spirit doing it? Or have we got a partnership going between him and me? Which is it? The Holy Spirit. So it's passive then. Is it the Holy Spirit only? Or is it him and me kind of working this out together? It's the Spirit. That's what passive voice means. It's being done to me. To me. By the Spirit of God. He's building me up. Didn't you say that built up is in the present tense? Built up is in the present tense.

Yeah. Passive voice. Okay. So passive voice, I need to go back and take it. Voice is a very interesting thing. Passive voice means now? No, passive voice means who's doing the action. If it's active voice, I'm doing it. If it's passive voice, it's being done to me. If it's middle voice, I'm involved in the action.

In passive voice, the subject receives the action of the verb. That's right. The subject receives the action. What did Joanne say? The subject receives the action of the verb. So it's something done. I think what's exciting, passive whatever, is the fact that you're not doing it. No. That's the important factor. Yeah, under grace you're not responsible for the action. Could I use the word responsible? Could I say you're not responsible for this action to be done? Yeah, I can say that. It's the spirit of God's responsibility.

Doesn't he need my help? No. Oh, by the way, he's building on a foundation that's already there. What's the foundation that's already there? The rooting. When you're saved, the foundation is there and you have a position. But now we're talking condition. Building up is a condition that goes on moment by moment, going on all the time. Most important thing is the passive voice or the actions being done to you. Now, how about established? It's also present tense going on right now. What voice do you think it is? It's got to be passive. That is passive.

And what's interesting in it is, you know, there's a lot of construction going on in Denver right now, and you see the foundations going in, and then out in the Tech Center, they build these buildings. They build that concrete core in the middle, and then they expand it out from there. Well, the foundation, the concrete core is kind of the build-up thing, and then the establishment is putting all the rest of the building together.

Why do you think in verse 5 he tells them, I'm rejoicing to see your good discipline and the stability of your faith in Christ, and then he tells them to walk in him, and to establish literally means to stabilitate. He just told them they're stable. I think he switched from stable positionally to unstable conditionally. keep going. Well, I'm just thinking, he says, I'm rejoicing to see your good discipline and stability of your faith. I mean, the word stability means, you know, it's like the phalanx to lock arms and walk.

So I mean, I'm seeing that more as a conditional thing on your faith. Well, and would you say that there's a difference in the body of believers in Corinth or in Colossae, and then now we're talking about individual believers? and how their walk is, their personal walk. Do you understand what Brian is talking about? No. You don't understand. The verse that he mentions, read the verse and listen.

It says, For even though I am absent in body, nevertheless I am with you in spirit, always rejoicing to see your good discipline and the stability of your faith in Christ. The good discipline. and the stability of your faith. And what's interesting about that is if I received that letter and I read that, I would think that you put a period and say, see you later after that. Why would I need the rest of the epistle? Because there was a danger coming. And those two compliments were not enough to circumvent the danger that was heading their way, which we'll talk about in the next couple of sessions. It should be, but... It should be, but it wasn't.

And even though they were walking in lockstep, the word used for walk there is like a Roman cohort where the guys are shoulder to shoulder and locked and the shields are on the outside and they're moving. And they're moving as a unit. That's what he's saying to them. You guys are working just like a Roman cohort does. But now he's talking about a build up kind of a thing, and I think it's individually.

And I think that there's a danger coming, that we'll talk about in lesson 11, that that wasn't enough to protect them from. And we'll see what that is when we get there. So the believers are to be not moved, rooted in a foundation so that they can be built upon and eventually be completed. Do you see that? I mean, this isn't a process that has no end. There is an end. And the completion is a conformity to Christ. And verse 7 is redundant because we've already talked about it.

The reason that it's a passive voice is that the Spirit's doing the work. Let me ask you this. Would you say that the Spirit is equally active in every believer's life? Or he's only really active to those who come around more, study more. There is quenching of the spirit, supposedly. What's that? Which we would cause. We can do that.

Does that mean, he says, okay, you're in time out for two days? You're asking, does the spirit take a break? Yeah, or you didn't respond and so he's just going to shelter. Yeah, you're done. Wouldn't that have to do with what you referred to earlier? I mean, the spirit is the same no matter where you are, but it's where your will is maybe? I mean, whether you're going to yield to the spirit? I'm asking, I mean, is that what you're meaning?

Yeah, well, you know, the question was, If we live under grace, and these things are in the passive voice, the works being done to us, do I have a responsibility here? And if I don't live up to my responsibility, does the spirit say, well I gave you a chance? Does he slow down or stop working because you didn't respond?

It seems to me like the Spirit is always working. Yes. But if you are out of fellowship, He's working in a different way. That's good. The Spirit of God has two main jobs. You know what they are? The one easy one is He's working to conform you to the image of Christ. What's the other job He has? To restore you when you sin. Do you grow when you're sinning?

Q. I don't think you do.

A. Well, yes. Yes, you do. I do. I mean, you know, something bad happens to you. I don't mean happens to you. You do something that, or maybe somebody gets sick, and you, there's nothing you can do. Then you sort of Well, you prayed for him? Oh, sure. But it's like that peace you had about that person goes away. Sure. My attitude about that, and this is my opinion, that the Lord himself orchestrates every aspect of your life, every second, every, every. And you can respond by faith or not, but you don't ever surprise him. He knows what you're going to do. It doesn't mean that he gets tired of working on you, but he brings need in your life.

And it can be brought in with a difficulty, physical, mental, financial, relationship, the whole spectrum. But I was talking to somebody on the phone the other day and they were complaining about the harassment they thought they were going through from the dark side. And I said, The most important thing to the Lord Jesus Christ right now is His body. He's focused on that all the time.

And nothing comes to you that doesn't pass through Him first. And if it shows up at your door, it's got His permission. If it's going to enhance and grow you and conform you and build you up, it shows up. If it's not, it doesn't show up. Do you see that? We don't have opposition that has free reign. And the Lord Jesus is the one who gave himself for us. And everything that goes on in your life is filtered through him. And it's designed for you to do what? To suffer through it? No. It's designed to grow you up, to establish you, to build you up in the faith.

Right? And what is actually the conforming process? You know what it is? Most of us think that it's the trial that is the thing that actually conforms us, but the Word of God says it's something else. What is it? We're not in control. Now think about this. There's something in the Word of God, there's an activity in the Word of God that specifically states how the conformity process happens, the conformity to the image of Christ. How does it happen?

2 Corinthians 3.18, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord. What's the mirror? It's the Word. I'm beholding the Lord Jesus in the Word. What happens to me when that activity is going on? I am transformed or conformed from one state of glory to another state of glory into His very image. And then at the end of the verse it says, who's doing it? It's even us by the Spirit.

So I think that the difficulties in your life are brought to get you to the point where you go to Him in the Word and you begin to behold the Lord Jesus Christ and the conformity happens. But if you're like me, it was kicking and screaming to get me there. you know, or I learned through the process, I have nowhere else to go but there. There is no place that I can go except to the Lord Jesus Christ. I want to know him.

Okay? Well, that's... I could shut up. You could. That's what I said. I mean, we learn. I think that's the hardest lesson to learn for some of us. I am not in control, no matter how much I want to be. Yeah, that's right. And at the same time, you learn the intensity with which Christ loves you and thinks only thing of blessing for you. And you can trust Him. He has to teach us to trust Him. Because we are taught from the time we're this big to trust ourselves. Take any two-year-old in the nursery there, how much trust do they have in mom and dad?

As long as everything's comfortable, not so much. They get in trouble, they run to mom and dad. So how important is it to get right instruction for both salvation and walking? Not very, a little bit, a lot? Do you think that the Lord, that walking as he's describing here is something that you kind of just do with your head in the clouds? As long as you feel good, everything's okay? Do you think believers need to be instructed? They need to be informed, well acquainted? Yeah, they do. Yeah, they do.

That's why, I mean, you read the Word of God all the time, you know, to see how it works and to behold the glory of the Lord Jesus. But you find out. And so if you spend all your time reading the Old Testament, you never find out how grace really works. Grace is talked about and amplified in Paul's epistles. That's where you learn it.

So yeah, it's really important because back to the original thing that we talked about. We have been called to live a life that's totally impossible for us to live out of our own strength. So when we start finding out about that life, if you have any intelligence at all, pretty soon you're saying, wait a minute, I can't do this.

I've done some premarital counseling and I sit down with the guys and say, okay, here's your job as a Christian husband. You're to love your wife as Christ loved the church and gave himself for it, so that you can present her holy and blameless to the Lord at the end of the day.

Now the guy that's got his head in the clouds says, ah, no problem. But the guy who's serious says, wait a minute. What? That's what God says. That's what you're supposed to do as a husband. You're to love your wife as Christ loved the church and gave himself for it. How's that working out for you? Is God kidding about that? Or is He just giving you a goal to reach? Or is this just a pious platitude? What is He talking about? He's talking about reality.

This is how life works in a Christian marriage. It works that way. But the other aspect is, as the Spirit of God enables the life of Christ to be lived through you, guess what? That's the way it is. It will be that way. So when you turn to the prospective wife and you say, now your job is to submit yourself to him, and she looks at him and says, are you serious? It's really pretty funny when you see it. They look at him and think, huh? Which is proper in the Lord. But if that guy understands what's happening and he is dependent on the Lord to accomplish that in his life, has she got anything to fear? Nothing. Nothing. Not a thing. That's how it works.

Donna has a question. Donna. Can we just go back a minute because when you talk about God blessing us, it seems like there's such a tendency to think that that makes us healthy, wealthy, and wise. And that Wanda's being blessed because she's in a really nice place. But my dad is suffering, so he's not being blessed, whereas both of them are.

Great point. Because of the conformity, right? Yeah. Everybody get that? No. Some of the greatest blessings we have had in our life were suffering. I know, that's true. That's what's so scary about not suffering. You know, that is a great point. That is a great point. Because, you know, I've had a thought in my life where I've got a few days where I'm cruising and everything's working, and I think, Lord, are you on vacation? You know, pretty soon, here it comes. Here it comes, whatever it is. Yeah, that's right. You begin to discover that the trials in your life are incredible blessings. Because without them we wouldn't move. If I'm comfortable, why do I get up and move? I don't. I don't. I need my needs.

And so do you. You can look at the circumstances, whether they be good or bad, or however you interpret them, and it's always going to shift and change. But if your thoughts are above, on Christ, then regardless of what that trial is, the learning is the same. And so while there's shift and change down here, when you're abiding above, your mind is set on Him, you're just learning more about Him, and growing in intimacy with Him.

And so the trial is really the wrong thing to look at for us, and that's hard. It's really hard. But the trial is there only to cause us to look above where things do not change and where we grow in fellowship with him. So the process that he's using, whether it be a good trial or a blessing or whatever, are all for the purposes of fellowship with him. And that never changes. So when our mind is there, there's a consistency that never shifts and never moves.

First bell or second bell? Second. Okay, I'm going to steal one more minute because there's a closing in these verses. The last part of the verse is rejoicing with thanksgiving. Is rejoicing active or passive voice? Where do you see rejoicing? What does your verse say? Overflowing with gratitude, rejoicing. Is that active or passive?

It's you that's doing it. So you're doing it, right? Why are you doing it? Because of all the stuff that happened to you before. So what happens, Jim's just describing the value of the trial. And at the end of the trial, what do you do? You rejoice. You're doing it. The rejoicing is a really cool thing. It's a result of the work of the Spirit in you. Isn't that cool? So how's your rejoicing going?

The results of the grace being acted upon you is so that you would rejoice. That's what grace is designed to do. It's designed to keep you from sinning. It's designed to grow you up in the Lord Jesus Christ so that there is a response. The response is overflowing. Pretty cool how the Lord does it, huh? You do get involved at the end. That's kind of cool. All right, let's close.

Father, we thank you for your grace. And we thank you for the Lord Jesus and the intensity with which he and your Spirit work on us and are involved in our lives every second of every day. And we're so thankful for that as we continue to grow in the knowledge and grace of your Son. And we can rejoice. We pray in his precious name. Amen.