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Introduction: Mike Tyson

Scripture text this morning is Hebrews chapter 5, verses 11 through Hebrews chapter 6, verse 3. If you have your Bibles turned there or scroll there, whatever your preference may be. Reading from the ESV this morning, these are the words of God:

“About this we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing. For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food, for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. 

But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment, trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil. Therefore, let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, and of instructions about washings, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. And this we will do if God permits.”

We have come now to the end of Hebrews chapter 5, going into Hebrews chapter 6. Quick reminder, many of you probably already know this, but the chapters and verses in our Bibles weren’t there in the originals. So we Christians throughout the centuries added those later. And so when we’re going through the book, we want to use the natural movements of the original author, which may not necessarily match up with our chapters and verses. Before we look at Hebrews, I want to tell you a little bit about something from my childhood, and that is this.

When I was a kid growing up way, way back in the 1980s, I grew up in a household that was a heavy sports household. Not a total surprise to anyone, right? My dad loved basketball, baseball, football, and boxing. Those are the four big ones in our home. So my dad didn’t watch college sports at all. Later in life, I added my love of college sports because I needed to figure out more ways to waste time. So I added that to my life. But we grew up watching those sports. We watched a lot of boxing when I was a kid. We watched the no-name guys, we watched the famous boxers, and everything in between.

My parents were big boxing fans, and in the late 80s and into the early 90s, as I was a kid watching lots of boxing, there was one particular figure who was most dominant in that era, and that was Mr. Mike Tyson. We were big Mike Tyson fans in the Ortiz home, like, maybe a little more than we should have been.

We loved Mike Tyson. The thing that made Mike Tyson so devastating was a combination of speed and power that we’ve never seen in boxing, either before him or after. The combination of speed and power for Mike was unreal. And the move that he would do, his original manager called the 6-4 combination, was the right hook to the body, followed up with a right uppercut.

You knew it was coming eventually, but even though you knew it was coming, the opponents were still never fast enough to defend it. They’d watch film of Mike Tyson. They’d watch the video to figure out when it was going to come, but they could rarely ever defend against it. So he would give a right hook to the body, and the person, the opponent, would get hit and would lean over. Just as they leaned over, he was so fast, he would bring his fist underneath and quickly come with the right uppercut, the 6-4 combination. Again, even though they would look for it, they could never defend against it. He was just too quick. It was too strong, it was too harsh. 

In some ways, that’s exactly what we see here at the end of Hebrews, chapter five. As we’re traveling through the opening chapters of Hebrews, the book of Hebrews, we’re going through. We know that this is coming. We know that in a moment, he’s going to turn his attention and he’s going to issue a harsh rebuke. The right uppercut is coming for the writer of Hebrews, but even if you look for it, you don’t really quite realize it until it’s there. You’re going through chapter five, through chapter four, chapter five. It’s so encouraging. Jesus is great. He’s greater than Moses. He’s greater than Aaron. He’s our great high priest. He sympathizes with us. He understands us. He welcomes us to come to him with kindness, confidence. It’s encouraging. It’s loving. He’s drawing you in.

Right before you know it, verse 11 comes. Bam. It’s the right uppercut. But if you’re looking for it, you knew it was coming. See, up to this point, throughout the first opening chapters, he’s been giving these encouraging insights, but he’s been weaving in these warnings. Throughout the book of Hebrews, there are these warnings being woven in. But they’re kind of broad. They’re for all Christians. All of us should be concerned about these things. All of us should be concerned that we pay close attention to the things we’ve heard about Jesus. Like we see in chapter two. 

All of us should be concerned that we’re not disobedient like the generation in the wilderness. As he says in chapter three, all of us should be leery of the fact that we do not have to ensure that we don’t have unbelieving hearts. As he says in Hebrews chapter three. There are these broad warnings that all of us would be concerned about. But you knew it was only a matter of time before he honed in on this particular church, and he gave them one specific rebuke that was applicable to where they were. 

He’s been talking about this, and all of a sudden it’s going to come. The right uppercut is going to come. And there it is in verse 11. He lays it on him, and he lands it cleanly. Because it’s in the midst of a teaching that would have been drawing them in. He’s saying, yes, there is potential judgment for all of us, generically speaking, if we do not believe in him, if we do not keep on believing in Him. But there’s a specific thing that he has for them that we’ll see in verse 11. I’m going to pray one more time, and we’ll look at it together. 

God, Father, in heaven, would you give us understanding? And may the writer of Hebrews, may his right uppercut land on us this morning as well. I pray in Christ’s name. Amen. 

 

Graduating to Solid Food

Throughout the course of chapter four, he’s been talking about Jesus, our high priest. Then, throughout chapter five, he begins to unpack the priesthood of Jesus. In verse 10, he tells us that Jesus is like Melchizedek. He’s not like Aaron in the Old Testament. He’s like someone who lived hundreds of years before Aaron, this guy named Melchizedek. And then he says this in verse 11 about Melchizedek. 

“About this we have much to say.”

He’s like, there are so many things to say about Melchizedek. Jesus was a great high priest, not like Aaron, he’s like Melchizedek. I want to tell you about Melchizedek. There are so many things we can learn about Jesus by studying and looking, and examining the ministry and life of Melchizedek. But here’s the uppercut. He says this in the second half of verse 11, speaking of the things about Melchizedek, 

“But it is hard to explain since you have become dull of hearing.” 

Bam, there it is. I want to tell you, you know what the problem is? You’re dull of hearing. Lands it clean. The English word dull, the Greek word that we translate, can also be translated as sluggish or lazy. Typically, when this word is used, it’s used elsewhere in the Bible and classic Greek literature. When this word is used, it’s most often referring to someone who is stubborn and refusing to do what they ought to do.

So these readers, they should be sharp of hearing, they should be clear in their ability to hear, but they have stubbornly refused to do what needs to be done, to be able to hear from God properly, to learn the things that God would want them to have them learn. They’ve been sluggish. They’ve been lazy, and they are unskilled. They ought to be skilled, but they are refusing to do what needs to be done. They have refused to do what needs to be done for them to get good at obeying God. That’s the rebuke he lands here. He continues to describe them. Look at Hebrews 5, verse 12. He says this,

“For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God.” 

By this point, you guys should be teaching the things, but you still need someone to teach you the basic principles of the Christian faith. You still need someone to teach you that. Although by this point you should be an expert and you should be teaching other people these things, because you guys still haven’t even mastered the basics of the Christian faith. Then he says this, the last phrase in verse 12, he says this,

“You need milk, not solid food.”

You should be eating steak, but you’re still drinking milk. You need me to give you milk. I can’t give you the meat that I want to give. I want to tell you about all the great things about Melchizedek, the glories of Christ we see in Melchizedek. But you’re so dull of hearing, and that’s meat. You can’t handle solid food. You can’t handle Melchizedek because you still focus on the basic doctrines of the Christian faith. When are you going to grow up? This is not the harshest moment in the Book of Hebrews, but pretty close. It’s very pointed. He’s like, I want to give you something. God wants to give you something. And yet you haven’t moved on from the basics.

Now, milk is not a bad thing. Milk is actually good. In fact, back in the 80s, there was a slogan, ‘Milk does a body good’. A lot of 80s references this morning. Early in my marriage, I came to dinner. I came to the dinner table one night with a tall glass of milk. My wife said to me, my lovely bride, Malaina, she said to me, You’re going to drink milk with dinner? Yeah, because milk is delicious. So it’s not unusual for me to drink milk with a meal. Oh, white milk, almond milk, soy milk, chocolate milk, strawberry milk. Doesn’t matter. I like it. It’s delicious.

Milk is a good thing. But if all you drink all the days of your life is milk, you’re going to miss out on the nutrients that are available in other things. It’s good to drink milk, but you need to add some meat to that, right? He’s like, you know, the only people who go their entire life only consuming milk, you know what they are? The very last phrase there in verse 13, the person who only drinks milk, he says this about him. 

“He is a child.” 

So the Christian who only consumes the basics of the Christian faith and never moves on is like a child who only drinks milk. That would be weird. Can you imagine a high school boy who still breastfeeds? We would all think that’s really weird and gross. That’s how the writer of Hebrews feels. You guys are still on the basics of the Christian faith. What’s wrong with you guys? When are you going to move up? When are you going to grow up and do? When are you going to get to Melchizedek? But these Christians refuse to grow in their faith. They refuse to put the work in, to do what it takes, so that they can grow up in the faith to get better at obeying. Our obedience to God is kind of like a muscle. You’ve got to strengthen it, and you’ve got to do something. You’ve got to do something to strengthen that muscle. You need to work it out. You’ve got to do what it takes to make your muscles strong. 

Similarly, the spiritual muscle of obedience has to be worked out. And he’s saying, guys, there’s so much to tell you, but you’re still a bunch of children drinking milk. I want to tell you, the glories of the priesthood of Christ, we can’t get there. He continues, he says this. Look at verse 14,

“But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment, trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.” 

You notice who are the ones capable of eating milk? It’s those who have trained by constant practice. You don’t learn to eat the meat of the Christian faith by accident. You have to train. You have to have constant practice. You’ve got to work at it. It takes effort. There are teachings of the Christian faith that so many American Christians I’ve interacted with over the years don’t understand, and are not willing to engage with. They often blame the teachers or the preachers. Oh, those preachers, they just talk that theology stuff. It’s over my head. And, you know, to some extent that’s true.

Preachers and teachers, we have to work hard to make it accessible for people. That’s on me. That’s on us. Most of the time, I want to just say to the person, like, have you done what it takes to work hard to be able to learn from those kinds of preachers? Like, if the only kind of preachers you can learn from are the ones that craft the sermons perfectly and use the perfect vocabulary and the perfect accessibility, you’re not going to learn much in the Christian faith. 

I remember years ago, I interacted with someone, and they said to me, I was so encouraged. I said, Kenny, you’re easily edified. You listen to even bad preachers, and you still get something out of it. I just said, honestly, that is the grace of God in my life. It’s like, you gotta work at it, man. Then, once you work at it, he says, you’ll be able to distinguish good from evil. This is remarkable. Spiritual growth doesn’t just happen. If you don’t work at your spiritual growth, you will not be able to distinguish good from evil. 

Remember last week, I was at an event, a pastor’s training conference in San Diego. I lived in San Diego over 20 years ago. I lived on a little island called Coronado Island, right across from San Diego. I would drive over the bridge every morning from Coronado over to San Diego. Into the mainland. When I was driving over the bridge, you could see the training facility from the bridge of the Navy SEALS, one of the primary training facilities. So it was not unusual to be driving over the bridge, you can see in the distance these dudes training out there. Sometimes they would be in the ocean, swimming and training, and doing various exercises.

I remember just always thinking to myself, those are the best of the best. Like in the crazy situations we send those dudes in, and they’re training. Those guys don’t become the great Navy SEALS that do all the awesome things by accident. Those guys are out there every morning in their full gear in the ocean, running up and down the beach, doing all sorts of training exercises. It doesn’t happen by accident.

I remember last week, I was driving around San Diego, being a little nostalgic, and I drove over the bridge and looked over. There was no training that day. But I remember thinking back to those Navy SEALS and thinking to myself, this is what you’re calling us to be. You’re calling us to work hard. Spiritual growth doesn’t just happen. It has to be cultivated. That’s what he’s calling us to do here. The writer of Hebrews is saying, You guys haven’t done the work. You’ve been lazy, you’ve been sluggish, you’ve been stubborn, and you’ve refused to do what you need to do. You’re reminding me of that generation in the wilderness who came out of Egypt but refused to get good at obeying God. So they never entered the promised land. Let’s not be like them.

 

Milk: The Basic Doctrines

With this idea in mind, he gives them this exhortation. Look at Hebrews 6:1. He says this, 

“Therefore, let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity.” 

So what is this milk? Milk is elementary doctrines. He says earlier, the basic principles of the oracles of God, the basic teachings of the Christian faith. Kind of the entry-level teachings. That’s the milk. And it’s good. We like milk. It’s really helpful, right? When a child is born, the milk is extremely helpful. Toward the end of verse one, he actually lists what some of these doctrines are. 

He says the repentance from dead works, faith toward God, instructions about washing, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. These are all the elementary entry-level doctrines. Those are great. They’re important. They are foundational to our faith. They are the fundamentals. If you don’t get those down, you’re going to struggle in the Christian faith. But at some point, we should master those, and we should master those so well that we can teach them to others. Now he’s not just talking about head knowledge, he’s not just talking about understanding the doctrine, the data. The doctrine is saying you should understand these teachings and understand how they apply to your life, so that you can teach others how they apply to their life. 

These basic doctrines, these basic principles of the oracles of God, we should master them, we should train in them, we should constantly practice them. That, as we do, will transform us into people who can genuinely distinguish good from evil. Then he says this, he tells us that it’s that kind of person, the person who’s been transformed, the person who can distinguish good from evil, that’s the person who will be ready for the meat. 

The concept of being able to distinguish good from evil is interesting to me. It’s actually remarkable because I’m always a little bit shocked when I interact with some Christians. Over the course of my life, I’ve interacted with believers who sometimes will say things or do things that just sort of shock me. You’re like, you’ve been a Christian for 20 years, and you still believe that? You’ve been a Christian for 15, 20 years, and you think that behavior is still okay? Like that’s the paradigm you’re working under. Like, wow, yeah, I can’t give you any meat because you’re not able to distinguish good from evil. 

I’m always shocked in our society how frequently I see Christians post things on social media, and I think to myself, you think that’s okay? You think that’s acceptable for the Christian? You can’t distinguish good from evil. You haven’t done the work to understand the basic doctrines and how they apply to your life, you’re never going to get meat. We’ve got some work to do. And although my initial reaction in the moment is usually surprise, my follow-up reaction, emotion, is almost always sad. 

So many believers are missing out on the glorious meat that God has for you. Church, I implore you, for all of us, myself included, let’s not be that. Let’s do the work, let’s train, let’s constantly practice the basic principles, and make sure we are applying those to our lives so that we can then move on to the meat that God has for us. 

So here’s the process of the Christian life. God gives you milk. The basic teaching of the Christian faith, we consume that, we work really hard to understand that, and make sure that we’re applying that to our life, that we’re living that out. As we do that, we grow spiritually. The Holy Spirit grows us and develops us. Then once we get strong, we get so strong that we’re able to genuinely distinguish good from evil. That moment, that’s the moment that we are then ready to move on to the next stage, where we get the meat, the glorious meat. The meat is the rocket fuel to the Christian life. The meat is the thing that propels us. 

 

Applying Advanced Doctrine to Our Lives

So, what is meat? What is the meat? If milk is the basic doctrines that lead us to have the ability to distinguish good from evil, milk is the basic doctrines that helps us understand, gives us discernment. Well, then that’s milk. Basic doctrines lead to discernment. Then, meat is the advanced doctrines that lead to even greater discernment. Milk, basic teachings. Once we understand that, it gives us discernment, and then we move on to deeper things, more complex doctrines. We apply those to our lives, and it gives us even greater discernment. What does this practically look like? How do we actually do this? What is training in this?

Let me give you a couple of things, give you five quick things that I think are helpful. None of these are going to be brand new. None of these are going to be profound. 

1. Be excited and prepared to hear preaching. 

One of the best examples of this, in my opinion, I’ve used in a previous sermon, mentioned this in Acts, chapter 17, the Bereans. Paul goes into the city of Berea, and it says that the people who were there welcomed his teachings with eagerness. They were enthusiastic. Then they went home and they studied the Scriptures to make sure what Paul was teaching was in line with what the Scriptures teach. The Bible says that they are nobler than the others. 

God thinks it’s noble to hear preaching enthusiastically. Not hostile, not critical. Not with the side eye wondering, is the preacher gonna get it right? No. Enthusiastic. I’m eager. Come on, Kenny, give us what you got. Come on, Daniel, give us that exhortation. Eager. I’m enthusiastic to get the teaching. I can’t wait to do what needs to be done so I can be enthusiastic and eager to hear your teaching. Then I’m going to go study the Scriptures, and I’m going to study what you said and make sure it lines up.

I’m going to be excited to do that. That is a noble thing. One of our three core values is that we make much of teaching. We make much of teaching. In the 1950s, the average American evangelical received approximately eight hours a month of preaching and teaching from a local church. Today, it’s about an hour and 15 minutes a month. The average American evangelical today receives approximately an hour and 15 minutes. That’s a big drop. It was 8x that in the 1950s. We shouldn’t be surprised if the theology and the lifestyle of our Christians have run amok. Shouldn’t shock us. All right, be excited, welcome preaching, eagerness, and then study it. 

2. Pray and read your Bible every day. 

Pray and read your Bible every day. I know that sounds simple, I know that’s obvious. But if you’re not praying and reading your Bible every day. The idea of having a Bible in your home has only existed over the last 140 years. If you go back 150 years ago, no one had a Bible in their home. Like very few people, the very wealthy had Bibles in their homes. I’ve got 67 English Bibles on my phone right now. We have no excuse. 

3. Memorize scripture. 

This is something I’ve really been convicted of recently. Going to try to memorize some scripture, you know, I think it’s about memorizing scripture. Psalm 119. The Psalmist says, 

“I have hidden your word in my heart so that I might not sin against you.” 

I took your word, O God, and I put it in me.  And that’s going to keep me from sinning against you. 

4. Prioritize corporate study.

 We have a small group that’s running on every other Friday night. We’re going to launch some more, God willing, in March. Prioritize corporate study, getting together with other people, and studying the Bible. Don’t wait for us to do it. You don’t have to wait for me. You can call up your buddy and say, Hey, I want to study Revelation. You want to study with me? See you tomorrow at Starbucks, 7 am. Be there and just get together with someone. Let’s study. Maybe not Revelation, maybe don’t start there. Grab lunch with someone and say, Let’s study the Scriptures together. Prioritize it. 

5. Find good resources in your life.

The number of podcasts and YouTube channels, things that are available to us. Feel free to come up and ask me. Hey, I’m looking for a good resource on this. This is why I’m really big on the resource table. We put a lot of energy and money into giving resources. We’re giving books. We do this because I want to give good resources. I do this every week, I send out the Looking to Sunday email. Most of you are on my email list. So I sent out an email, Looking to Sunday, and here are the scripture verses that we’re gonna look at.

Then every week I try to find at least one or two good articles that I found online that I think are helpful and think apply to the sermon. I put that in the email. Our average click rate on those is about 13%. 13% of the people who get the emails click on the links. But I’m thankful, you know, we got 300 people on the mailing list. A lot of people who don’t even attend here click those links regularly. The reason I do that is, I really believe it’s on you to do some work. I’m gonna make it as easy as I can for you.

I went and found the good articles I think are helpful. Check them out. I went and I’ve done a lot of the work for you. You’re like, what book should I read? They’re right there. They’re free of charge. Take them and we’ll get you more. We want to make it as easy and accessible as possible, but you’ve got to do some work as well. Jesus said in the Gospel of Luke, to whom much is given, much is commanded, much is expected. 

There have been more Christian books written from World War II to today. So from the mid-1940s till today, more books have been written in that period of time, that 70-80 year period, than all of Christian history before that combined. So you got almost 2,000 years of writing versus 70, 80 years of writing. There’s in this time period that we live in than all before. The vast majority of that is in English. 

Church, we have no excuse. We should be expert theologians, and we should know how to apply every doctrine to our lives. This church in Hebrews, they’re about 15 years old, ish. He’s expecting that, without 21st-century resources, within 15 years, they should be teaching these things. How much more would he expect of us?

Let’s put in the work. Let’s be Bereans now. Just to be clear, we’re not talking about just head knowledge. We’re not talking about just data. We don’t want to just be theology nerds to win a debate on Twitter. That’s dumb. That’s not what we want. All right? We want to understand the doctrines and understand how they should transform our lives, how they practically apply to our lives. How do they practically apply to our marriage, our relationships, our generosity, our hospitality?

 

Renewal of Our Minds

We don’t merely want head knowledge. However, true long-lasting Christ-exalting maturity starts with the head knowledge. That’s where it starts. If it ends there, we’re not doing it right, but it certainly starts there. Matthew 22. Jesus says this,

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your mind.” 

Use your intellect to show God’s love. I quoted Psalm 119 a moment ago. Later in that same chapter, he says this. The psalmist says, 

“Give me understanding, O God, so that I may keep your law.” 

I need to understand because that will help me be more obedient. If I’m not understanding, I’m not going to be obedient. Colossians, chapter 3. The apostle Paul says this. 

“You have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge.” 

We have this new self, this born-again spirit that has been given to us. It’s new. You know the way it’s renewed? The way it’s strengthened, the way we continue that. The strength of that spirit is through knowledge, biblical knowledge, and theological knowledge. Romans chapter 12. Leon read it for us earlier. Romans chapter 12, verse 2. The apostle Paul says this. 

“Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed.” 

So don’t do what the world is doing. Don’t live like them, but be transformed. And here he tells us how we are transformed 

“By the renewal of your mind.” 

That is a remarkable thing. You know how you transform your life? Step one, change the way you think. Get more theological biblical knowledge into your brain. That’s step one. It’s not the last step, but it’s the first step. We renew our minds. Then he says this later in the verse. Once we’ve renewed our minds, we’ll be able to do this. We’ll be able to 

“Discern what is good and acceptable to God.” 

Going back to the idea of distinguishing between good and evil. If you’re not renewing your mind, growing in knowledge and understanding, you will never be able to genuinely distinguish what is good and acceptable to God. This is why so many Christians struggle to understand what is truly right or wrong. 

So, Church, I exhort you this morning, do whatever must be done in your life to ensure that you are growing in your knowledge of God, you are growing in your understanding of the Bible and its doctrines, and that you are growing in your understanding of applying them to your life. We want to acquire more biblical knowledge, more theological knowledge. We want to have a thorough mastery of the principles of the Christian faith. As we do that, that will be a part of God strengthening us and giving us the ability to be better at obeying him. 

I want to be better at obeying God today than I was a year ago. I want to be better at obeying God a year from now than I am today. I want my obedience muscle to get stronger day by day by day. If my ability to fight sin is the same as it was five years ago, what have I done the last five years? If my understanding of how the Gospel transforms my marriage is the same a year ago as it is today, man, what I’ve been doing the last year. I want to grow continually in my knowledge, and I want to grow stronger in my ability to obey him. 

Do whatever needs to be done in your life to ensure that’s true for you. Whatever needs to be done in your life to ensure that you are growing in the knowledge of God, do that. Don’t wait till tomorrow. Do it today. 

 

Closing: God, Permit Our Souls to Grow

Last thought this morning. Now we know that sometimes the more we learn, that can make us prideful. In fact, the apostle Paul specifically calls us out. First Corinthians 8, verse 1. The apostle Paul says,

“Knowledge puffs up.”

It’s a strong warning. It’s a very real problem. The more we learn, the more the potential to be prideful or haughty could step in. Rather than allowing doctrine to fuel our love and our good deeds, that doctrine could fuel a know-it-all all attitude. We become a bunch of arrogant jerks. 

Those of us in the Reformed world are experts at being arrogant jerks with our doctrine. Sometimes this is particularly true for those of us who are in Reformed circles. How do we stay humble? How do we not take pride? How do we not boast well? The writer of Hebrews gives us the antidote to that in the last verse we’ll look at this morning.

So he starts by saying, I want to tell you about Melchizedek, but I can’t because that’s meat. You can’t handle meat. You’re still drinking milk. Milk is good. There are lots of great doctrines, but we need to move on from them. Let’s move on from them. Let’s do what it takes. And then he says this in verse 3, Hebrews 6: Verse 3 says this, Speaking of moving on, 

“This we will do if God permits.”

You could do everything right. But if God doesn’t permit the growth, it doesn’t happen. Ultimately, you can only grow if God sees fit to say yes. If God gives permission for your spiritual growth to happen. The best illustration I can come up with is that of a farmer. A farmer could do everything right. A Farmer works the land. Whatever farmers do. I don’t know what they do. I should have googled it. They till the soil, they prepare the stuff and get the seeds in, get the fuel, the food, and they can do everything, all the things that a good farmer can do.

But at the end of the day, the farmer needs rain. The farmer needs the land to do what only the land can do. There is a process outside of the farmer’s control. That’s sort of the lifestyle we all have. That’s how we look at it. I’m going to do everything I can to cultivate the farm of my heart. I’m going to till the soil. I’m going to get the seed, I’m going to get the food. I’m going to protect it from the enemies. I’m going to get all the work that I can do and that needs to be done. Then I put it before the Lord, saying, Lord, I can’t make myself spiritually grow. This is the work of the spirit. I know this will only happen if you permit.

So, God, would you permit my soul to grow? Would you permit this work I’ve done, that’s so minuscule compared to what you’re capable of? Would you take my fragile work and the work that feels so futile sometimes? Take my finicky heart, my overly emotional, irrational heart? Would you take it? Would you grow it? Would you permit it to grow as you see fit? We can do all that we can, but ultimately it is a work of the spirit. So that when I grow, I can’t boast, I can’t brag, and say, look what I did.

I can only say, look what God has done. Because, yeah, I tilled the soil. I did the stuff. But without God shining down, it would have meant nothing. It would have accomplished nothing. I am who I am today because he permitted me to be who I am today. So he gets all the glory for that Church. Let’s do our part. But ultimately, we rely on him to do what only he can do. Let’s pray. 

Father, we thank you. We thank you for the book of Hebrews. I love this book. I love the right uppercut from this author. I pray it will land on us this morning in a profound way. Would you help us? Would you help us, Lord, as we take inventory of our own lives? I pray that we will do that this afternoon. Over the next few days, may each one of us just pause and take inventory of our own life and examine where we are? Am I really doing the right stuff? Am I doing all the things I know to do? 

Am I reading my Bible? Am I excited about teaching? Am I putting in the extra work like those Bereans? Am I receiving the teaching with eagerness? Am I checking it in the Scripture to make sure it aligns with what you’ve taught? Am I doing those things, Lord? If I’m not, would you forgive us? And would you give us the grace and the confidence, the boldness to do it? 

Lord, if anything is in the way, I pray you would give us the courage to get rid of the stuff in our lives that is getting in the way. Sports, Netflix, or certain friendships or certain things we’re a part of, whatever it may be. If there’s something getting in the way of us engaging with you so that we could grow and mature, that we could go from milk to meat, if there’s anything getting in the way of that, Lord. 

Would you, Holy Spirit, would you gently point that out to us this week and give us the courage to get rid of it? Give us the grace we need to grow in those ways. I pray. Would you say, Lord, we want to be like you? We want to be all that you called us to be. Would you help us? And, Lord, I ask that you would permit us to grow. We ask for your permission and for you to do what only you can do in us and through us. In Christ’s name, I ask all these things. Amen.