Ken Boa Reflections Ministries

Ken Boa: Well, let's begin with a word of prayer and we'll start a new series. Lord, we give you thanks and praise for your presence in our midst and where we are gathered together in the name of Jesus, there you are in our midst and we ask that we would honor you and walk by your Holy Spirit. In Christ's name, Amen.

Before I begin, I'm showing a little photo, an image of a book that's coming out in a couple of weeks. This is of an old guy, and this book was my very first book that came out in 1975, in July of '75. And in July of 2025, I'm bringing it out, and so it's the 50th anniversary edition as you can see.

It deals with... I was 29 when I wrote this book and then it came out when I was 30. It's still hard to believe all that. Charles Ryrie was close to me and he wrote the foreword to this thing. The topics, though, were mysteries in scripture: the God-man, the Trinity, divine sovereignty and human responsibility, even the resurrection body being a mystery, time and space, and transcendence versus immanence.

It's heady kind of stuff, but it's practical applications for these principles. I called it Exploring the Mysteries of Scripture. I'm going to be making that available very soon. But today, I want to begin a little series, and this series is something that's very near to me.

In fact, if I were to give a testimonial and say this is what my life is about, what my life is about, this is a summary of what I believe, here's what they would be. So I've developed 36 of these principles. It's a series of 12 principles on pursuing God, first of all. Then after those 12, 12 principles on pursuing godly character.

Then third, 12 on the highest good of others. So it starts with God and then goes to self and others. Remember my little trilogy: loving God completely, loving ourselves correctly, and the third one, loving others compassionately. It's that sequence.

I like the number 12. It's a great biblical number, and it just worked out very well for me to do it in this way. So what I'm going to be doing then in these principles and values to live by is just walking you through several of them each Sunday. I'll try to do about six each time and make it a short series of pulling things out.

Today I'm going to be zooming in on a few: grow in faith, hold fast to hope, deepen your love for God. So faith, hope, and love. And then value the eternal over the temporal, grow in grace, and commit to the centrality of Christ.

So let's begin with this and I'm just going to give you scriptures. I'm going to go back and forth and pull out these scriptures that mean something to me. So if I were on my deathbed, for example, this is what I would want people to hear. This is what I'd want people to convey, to communicate to people. These are the principles that have come to really summarize the essence of what I'm after.

1 Thessalonians 1:3 is an interesting text. Paul talks to the Thessalonians, "We give thanks to God always for all of you, making mention of your prayers, constantly bearing in mind your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope." You see the three: faith, hope, and love are all in that text of scripture.

What I'm doing with this then is to say that biblical faith is radical trust in the sovereignty and goodness of God. That God is sovereign and nothing escapes his grace and his grasp. Nothing can happen by accident ultimately. It might appear that way to us, but at the end of the day, for those who know him and love him, he's working all things together, not in isolation, for good to those who love him and are called according to his purposes.

This is why Romans 4:21 speaks about this radical trust and that being fully assured, as Abraham was, that what God had promised he will also perform. I actually have a book called A Handbook to God's Promises. I did a thing called the Life Promises Bible once and then we summarized and put it into a handbook.

It's a list of these promises of God because you never put your hope in anything other than the promises of God. You can hope for various things, but never put your hope in anything other than what God himself has promised because you're basing it upon his character.

That's the assurance we have. So it remembers that God is in control and has your best interests at heart. Remember I've said this before: there are two things you must believe in order to actually trust God enough to obey him. And that is number one, he's in control and you're not. Although we have the illusion of control every day.

You don't even know this day on your drive here whether some nutcake was looking down and just missed you. You can't be sure. Your life is held together on the thinnest of gossamer threads. You do not know. You're not in control of a day, even an hour.

Secondly, but God is. But the other thing is he has your best interests at heart. Now, this is a harder one for people to grasp. We are convinced we know better than God what our best interests look like, or at least we think we do. That's why we pray certain prayers.

As I've often liked to describe it, prayer for many people is a strategy session between themselves and God in which they tell God what their best interests look like and then give him generous hints as to how to pull it off. It's amazing.

So it's not a matter of thy will be done, but rather it's my will be done and I'd like you to approve it. But how do you know that that's a good thing to do? Only God knows what your best interests look like. And there are many times I've had prayers and if they had been answered the way I wanted them and when I wanted them, I'd be ruined.

There's an old country western song, "Thank God for Unanswered Prayers," because a lot of times you realize if your prayers had been answered the way you wanted it, it wouldn't have been so good. You don't know because you'd have to know the future to know what your best interests look like, wouldn't you?

It appears that this is the best course of action, but God is actually in your future as well as in your past. For him, there is no past, present, and future. All time he sees at once. And so he is the only one who knows what your best interests look like and he's committed to them in the end.

And that is the important principle then. So Romans 4:20-21 was the text about Abraham. Speaking about Abraham and the promise that he had that he would actually become a father of many nations, it didn't look so promising, though. It didn't look like it was going to happen and he's getting older and older.

Then he tries to help God out. Remember that? When he was 86 years old, he tried to help him out and Ishmael was the result of that. Only when he was at the end of his tether, he waited until he was about a hundred years old, then he finally would give up. That's when God acted, you see.

And that's why Sarah said she laughs because it was amazing. He gives life to the dead. I love this text. He gives life to the dead and calls into being that which does not exist. He has the power to do that. In hope against hope he believed so that he might become a father of many nations according to that which had been spoken: "So shall your descendants be."

Without becoming weak in faith, he contemplated his own body, now as good as dead since he was about a hundred years old, and the deadness of Sarah's womb. Yet with respect to the promise of God, he did not waver in unbelief but grew strong in faith, giving glory to God.

And this is the text that I want you to think about: being fully assured that what God had promised he was also able to perform. God tested him and he came to know that voice and he listened to him. And so it was credited to him as righteousness.

His belief was... he was saved, as you know, no one was saved by works in the Hebrew Bible or today. It's always the basis of salvation has always been the same: that the basis of salvation is the blood of Christ, the work of Christ on our behalf. And the means of salvation is faith and it's by grace through faith in all times.

So it was credited to him for righteousness and it was the same for us as well to whom it will be credited, as those who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. He was delivered over for our transgressions and was raised because of our justification.

So this is the picture. Now Hebrews 11:1, many of you may know what that says: "Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen." And that's a very important principle and you realize right away he's saying there are two qualities about biblical faith.

"Hoped for" means you don't have it yet. Because if you had it, you wouldn't hope for it. But if you don't have it, you hope for it. And this is an important principle with this because when I think about faith, hope, and love, I think about the idea of faith. Our task is faith, hope, and love.

It's intriguing, two of these are not permanent. One is. So ultimately, faith in our life today, we have to turn our task in this world is to turn fear to faith, doubt to hope, and selfishness to love. Wouldn't you agree? That's a great summary of the spiritual life in many ways.

But here's what's interesting. Faith will one day become sight. You won't have to have faith when you see him face to face. Would you agree with that? That makes sense. And then hope will be had. You see, faith means that you don't have it yet, but you ultimately you can't see it.

But love will endure and I love that. So faith, hope, and love, these three, but the greatest of these is love because that's going to go on forever. So think about a time when you're going to see him face to face and you will have him fully and you will know him fully as you are known. And that's a wonderful thought.

So that's my thought here, as he has your best interests at heart. So the risk of faith then is to actually trust God enough to treasure the unseen over the seen and the not-yet over the now. And that, I assure you, takes risk. And the only way you're going to grow in your walk with Christ is to grow in risk, take more risk-taking. And that's how it works.

Let's look at holding fast to hope. Moving from faith to hope, anchored in the promises of God, our hope rests in the person and work of Jesus Christ and in the promise of eternal life for those who believe in him. So biblical hope is more than simply wishful thinking. It is sure and steadfast. It enters within the veil.

If I look at Hebrews chapter 6 and verses 18 to 19, you see this beautiful image of this faith. He says there are two unchangeable things, speaking about God's promises to us. Men swear by something greater, but God gives a promise based upon his own character. So that by two unchangeable things in which it's impossible for God to lie, we who have taken refuge—because that's what you're doing, you're taking refuge in this world of uncertainty in the arms of Jesus, are you not?—we who have taken refuge would have strong encouragement to take hold of the hope set before us.

Beautiful picture of hope because he says this hope we have is an anchor of the soul. You see, imagine that you're in turbulent waters in a violent storm or in the ocean somewhere and you don't see shore and you're not sure. Your boat... the ocean is vast, your boat is small.

And what can we cling to as an anchor of the hope? Is there anything that can hold onto? And here is something that holds us steadfast. It's a rock. It's a hope both sure and steadfast and one which enters within the veil where Jesus has entered as a forerunner for us, having become a high priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.

And so in that sense, then, Hebrews becomes very clear. And then also I would also say in Hebrews chapter 10 and verse 23, "Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful." So we're looking then at this idea of holding it fast, clinging to hope, and living in a world in a way that makes great sense.

I just saw two films yesterday written by Horton Foote. One was Tender Mercies, Robert Duvall's Tender Mercies film. It's really... he raises the question at the end of the film about how is it that God has been so good to him, but also there are questions he can't understand as to why did this happen, why was I spared, why was that happen?

And then the other one was A Trip to Bountiful. In both cases, films and stories, of course, there's a deeply Christian understanding, but they're wrestling with God about things they cannot understand and they acknowledge... they're forced to acknowledge that we live in a mystery and we do not understand our purposes but we have to cling to Jesus.

So the idea of believing that at the end there is a hope and there is a purpose. And so hope is a huge thing. When we lose hope, we lose everything, we begin to die. Romans 8:24-25 is also relevant to this because here is a hope that's an anchor of our soul.

In Romans 8 we see, in hope we have been saved. But as I said before, if you see hope, then you're not hoping for it. Hope that is seen is not hope, for who hopes for what he already sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, with perseverance we wait eagerly for it.

So you and I are called to live in faith and hope and love, to walk with perseverance and to cling to God's promises in the midst of the pains of this world. And that, as I think, is a real call.

Then we go to love. So we go from faith to hope and to love. And deepen your love... so grow in faith, hold fast to hope, and deepen your love for God. We're to love the Lord our God how? With all our being: our mind, emotions, will, and our action. And that's the great commandment.

Love the Lord your God with all your heart, your soul, your mind, and your strength. And you notice it goes from the inside to the outside, you see, because your strength are your choices, your action. So the whole process is loving God from the inside of your being, your inner being, and letting that manifest itself until the way you think and also in the way you live, the way you pursue people, the way you serve them.

So it's a manifestation of this love that you are in fact called to be an agent of love and you're to manifest the love of Christ. And so as we love God, then we allow him to define us. And you remember how I've often put it: if we love God completely, which is to love him with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength—loving God in that fullness of being—the more you do that, the more you allow him, not the world, to define you.

When God defines you, not the world, you have security. If the world defines you, you don't have any security because it's based upon what you do and how you perform. What have you done for me lately? But God says no, worth is assigned. And so that who you are is more critical than what you do.

But who you are will energize and animate what you do. So that now you have a security that you can grasp and you have a grasp of how you have a hope for him. So here we love God completely and loving ourselves correctly means to choose to believe that what God says about us is true in spite of our feelings and experiences to the contrary.

We have a secure basis letting him define me, not people or the world. Which makes me secure enough when I do that to serve other people. I can now serve people even if there's no reciprocity, it doesn't destroy me because I'm not basing my identity on their opinion. I'm basing my identity on God's view, not others.

And that's a liberating thought. We find it hard, we keep going back to the opinions and being bound to that, to the opinions of others and try to impress people. But our call is really to pursue God's desires and have a greater fear of God than we do of men.

To value the eternal over the temporal is the third one. But before I go there, any comments about faith, hope, or love that you want me to pull out? Yes?

Guest (Male): Wait, the difference between hope and wishful thinking.

Ken Boa: Yes, the difference between hope and... all can hope for various things, but hope is only as good as the object in which it's placed, you see, as faith is as well. So if you're hoping for something that only you can make happen, but if you're hoping for something that God has promised.

So wishful thinking would be then based upon what I would like. But what's the warrant? What's the basis for saying it's going to come to pass? I can't be sure because I'm not in control and I don't even know what my best interests are. So maybe what I'm wishing for isn't even my best interest in many times.

So a lot of it has to do to allow God to guide me and to modify my views and to actually embrace what he's teaching me and to cling to his character even though things are not going the way I would want. And so it's instead of wishful thinking, it's based upon the promises of God and that is a sure hope rather than wishful thinking, "Every day in every way I'm getting better and better," you know, that's a kind of wishful thinking with the power of positive thought and positive confession.

No, this is founded on the character, unchanging character of the absolute. And that is the difference. It's founded on his promises. Remember I said the difference between hoping for and hoping in? You all get that, don't you? To hope for is perfectly fine: to hope for someone to be healed, or hope for a job to take place, or this to work out well.

But don't put your hope in something God didn't promise. You hope in him, but you may hope for other things. There's an important distinction. Any other thoughts? Yes?

Guest (Male): Just following up with that, sort of our agency is to really understand what those promises are. Go deep on that promise rather than just sit around like, "Well, whatever happens happens."

Ken Boa: That's correct. So yes, so therefore becoming more familiar with those promises of God, which means becoming more familiar with scripture. And there are tools, as I've mentioned. I've lists of these promises that we can look at, but it is important for us to see that God has made certain promises to those who know him and love him.

I can cling to that in spite of the appearances to the contrary. The world will often challenge us and say, "Are you sure about that?" And so you have to continue to renew your mind. A lot of it has to do with what I'm zooming in on, what I'm focusing on, and what I'm hoping for.

Okay, let's move on to the fourth one because I'm trying to do about six each time. That's my plan if I can do that. Value the eternal over the temporal. This is a huge motif in my teaching, having an eternal perspective in a temporal arena. And that requires, again, a measure of risk.

The text that comes to my mind is often Luke 16:15. The things that are highly esteemed among men are despised in the sight of God. And that's a hard word because it means a lot of people can give their lives, their one life, in exchange for what God says is trivial pursuit.

You see, and by the end of the day, then it's too late. But rather we're to treasure things according to their true value. But who defines value? Is it the world or is it the Word? So having an eternal perspective tells us what are the things that are going to matter, what are the things that are going to last, what are the things that are going to endure.

Having that perspective... and so the text that I find to be so valuable for me as I do this is 2 Corinthians 4:17-18. Let me find it for you and show it to you. So in verse 17, "We do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day."

And so even though our bodies may wear down, there's something that's in us that's forever young in your inner man. You see, so as your inner life of Christ is eternal, it's eternally young and you'll always be there then. It's being renewed day by day.

So your deepest self, although the body wears down—and you've heard my phrase so often, "Age conspires with God to transfer our hope from the temporal to the eternal"—there's something that we're putting our hope in that's going to not die but will live.

And so he goes on to say, "Our inner man is being renewed," you're forever young in that way. "And momentary light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, while we do not look at the things which are seen but the things which are unseen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal."

And so I draw a contrast between that in 2 Corinthians here where you notice the affliction is momentary. It's there. It's not denying that this is a painful world to live in, but it's also light in comparison with the glory of God, which is eternal and has weight, the weight of glory. My favorite sermon, the C.S. Lewis sermon on that, is all about this idea of recognizing then that the affliction...

And you can be sure that all those who desire to be godly in Christ Jesus will suffer adversity, but at the same time we realize we have an eternal weight of glory that's far beyond all comparison that transcends all of this. And so this concept of pursuing and treasuring the unseen over the seen, the not-yet over the now.

In 1 John 2, "Do not love the world or the things of the world." So in 1 John 2:15-17, there's another contrast that's I think very helpful. And we see that this world system is something that's passing away. Many people give their lives though in exchange for what the world is promising.

But don't love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. All that is in the world—and he summarizes them—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the boastful pride of life is not from the Father but from the world.

The world is passing away and also its lust, but the one who does the will of God abides forever. So cling to that which is going to endure, not that which is passing away. The system, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the boastful pride of life—which is interesting, isn't it? Those were the three temptations of the first Adam.

And by the way, the second Adam was tempted in the same temptations: the hunger and then the pride and so forth. All these are things, but it's something that's passing away. But the one who does the will of God abides forever. And that is why this eternal thing is to pursue the question of how long is it going to last.

The significance of the thing is the answer to that question: how long will it last? Is it just going to be ashes in your mouth at the end of a few decades, or are you building into something that's going to go on forever? And that's what I mean by treasuring the eternal over the temporal because it makes more sense for us to do that.

It's a rich picture of that whole idea of temptation and recognizing we're going to be every day tempted to pursue and treasure the seen over the unseen. So I have to constantly review that and revisit that.

Grow in grace. This is a very important principle here. We're not just saved by grace, we grow by grace. Many people grasp the idea of salvation as by grace through faith, but then they think that sanctification is by works. No, the same principle that led you to faith in Jesus that gave you a new life is also the same principle by which you will grow in him.

And so a mark of a disciple is an increasing awareness for the need for grace in all things. So we grow by that. And we see this understanding of discipleship and what that means. Being saved by grace... and so I have a little chart that I sometimes use about sanctification. I've shown you this before, but it's relevant in here.

And it has to do with this here: you were saved and you're being saved and you will be saved. Interesting thought, isn't it? You have been saved—that's the past, you see—from the penalty of sin. And that's the work of Christ on your behalf.

But even now in the present tense, you are in a process of becoming who you actually really already are in Christ. That's over the power of sin. And so there's a process and then ultimately, and I love this, we're going to be removed from even the presence of sin.

When will that happen? It's an interesting thought. Do you know when that'll occur? When... because this thing called the flesh that Paul talks about in Romans 7—"The good that I want to do, I don't do; I find myself doing the very thing I don't want. But if I do the thing, it's no longer me but the sin which dwells in me. I find that evil is present in me, the one who wishes to do good. For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man, but I see a different law in my inner man waging war against the law of my flesh and making me a prisoner of this law of sin. Who will deliver me from this wretched death?"

So he calls himself like a wretch. Notice he's got this inward-outward struggle. Haven't you had that? Haven't you ever said something you didn't want to say? Surely you have. How about haven't you ever thought something you hadn't wanted to entertain, or done something?

We've sinned in thought, word, and deed, and we've not done those things which we ought to have done, and we've done those things which we ought not to have done. So now you have sins in thought and word and deed and sins of omission and sins of commission. We're nailed, you see.

What is this thing that Paul describes as in Romans 7 as this thing called the flesh? You see, it's... I call it the power of sin in our members. It's the remnant of Adam. You see, because although you now have a new nature—and it's the nature of Christ who's living in you, so you have been made a partaker of the divine nature, 2 Peter 1:4 says—you've got a new nature and your deepest self is now different than what you formerly were. You're a new creature in Christ.

And yet at the same time, although we have this new nature, there's still the remnant. He didn't erase the tapes. The memories are still there. We've all heard lies and false scripts, haven't we? Give me an example of a script that maybe people have embraced from something their father told them.

Guest (Male): "You're not good enough."

Ken Boa: "You're not good enough." Another one?

Guest (Male): "You'll never amount to anything."

Ken Boa: It's like you've heard these, Jeff. I have. "How come you can't be like your brother?" or "You're just stupid, aren't you?" or something like that. It's astonishing, these lies we've picked up from our parents and then from our peers and then from our society.

And if you're not careful, you're going to live in those narratives because the memory is still there, the remnant is still there. That's not the deepest you, but he didn't remove that. The flesh, as I put it, is neither improved nor removed. You're not going to make your flesh better.

Some people have better flesh than others, I can't figure that out. Some people are nicer people, but it's still walking by the flesh and walking by the spirit. And that's the way it works. Well then, how will it be removed if it can't be improved or removed in this life?

Because you know your only option now is to choose to walk in the spirit or in the flesh. You have a choice every day. And so our desire is to train ourselves so that we become more spring-loaded to the spirit and less to the flesh. And that is how we overcome the pull of the flesh, not by trying to do it but by turning to him and trusting in the spirit, walking in the power of the spirit.

And he's given us that power. Well, the more frequently you do that, the more that becomes the part of your disposition. Your character is changing consequently, but you'll never get rid of the flesh, neither improved nor removed. When is it going to happen? When will we get rid of it?

It's going to be the judgment seat of Christ himself. When you stand before him, there you... because you could not endure his presence. It would be overwhelming, you'd be undone. So there, in some mysterious way, he's going to, as 1 Corinthians 3 describes it, he is going to get rid of the wood, hay, and the stubble. Burn it off.

And the gold, silver, and precious things, the things that were done in the spirit as opposed to things that were done in the flesh. The gold, silver, and precious things will endure and they'll be now perfected. And if... and that's the foundation's Christ, and the superstructure is your what you're building on.

And it's all an amalgam: we've some of this, some of that. When it's all stripped away, what... if anything remains, he will be rewarded. But if it's all stripped away, he'll be saved, but yet so as through fire. So he's saved us from the penalty of sin, but even now he's saving us from the power of sin.

And we can choose to do that. But I'm looking forward to the judgment seat of Christ because I want... and yet I'm terrified of it at the same time. Imagine for the first time seeing all your sin as God saw it. And imagine for the first time maybe even seeing the sin of unused potential in a moment.

And I suspect that time will be dilated and you'll see your whole life in a moment, but he'll go through everything and it'll all be dealt with. But once it's dealt with and burned off, you'll never be able to think sin again. Think of that for a moment. That's a lovely thought. You'll never be able to think sin after that.

So that's the presence of sin. So we... there's terms for this: positional sanctification for the past, the penalty. You're a new... you have a new position. Progressive, that's your practice, you see, and that what you're being present tense delivered from the practice... the power of sin as you choose to walk by the spirit.

And then third, though, and what I love and long for that is ultimately you're not even going to be able to think sin. You'll be delivered from its presence. And that's ultimate sanctification. Any questions on that? Because that's an important thing. Yes?

Guest (Male): Ken, so the flip side of the "you're not good enough, you'll never amount to anything," the flip side is also dangerous, that "you can be whatever you want." That can be more dangerous to...

Ken Boa: Yes, yes. We are... true freedom is not to be as we want to be. True freedom is to be as he wants us to be. People tell me just to be yourself, but at the same time they talk about these meditative... being your true self is really what's going to work. But that's going to happen only as you walk in the power of the spirit and dependent upon God.

But the training is what makes that more real for us in our lives. So I threw that in because I wanted you to see this whole idea of growing by grace. The same principle that brought you to salvation, grace through faith, is the same principle that causes you to grow in sanctification: grace through faith. It's not by your works, but by dependence upon him.

So that's a very important principle for us to see. So it's the Galatians 2:20-21, you know, and we all know that text, but let me just show it to you so you can see it. In Galatians 2:20 we see, "I have through the law I died to the law that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. The life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself up for me."

So you can see it's a new quality of life. It's not me but Christ in me. That's the genius of the spiritual life then, is that Jesus is doing it in you and through you as you, and that the Holy Spirit then gives you the power to become what you are called to be.

So it's more than just being yourself, it's being your true self, but you can't do that on your own. You need the spirit of God. So I have this triple formula as you've heard me say many times: trust the Father, abide in the Son, walk by the Spirit.

And when you're trusting the Father, you are abiding the Son, and when you're abiding the Son, you're walking by the Spirit. But as you're doing that, the things that you are thinking and doing will then be pleasing to God because it's him who's guiding you and empowering you. You're walking in the Spirit.

So when you do that... so this life, the crucified life, it's no longer I but it's Christ lives his life in me and through me. So in a very mysterious and real world, you are called to be a manifestation of the grace of God. You are called to become a... the word becomes flesh.

In a very real way, the word becomes flesh and dwells among us. So the logos, the word of God, now lives in us and through us as us. So I'm sharing principles that are so critical for us to hear. I find I have to hear them again and again. I don't know about you, but these are principles that you don't get the first time.

Any more than you get the gospel the first time. You have to hear the gospel and it requires multiple exposures, but the same way to hear the gospel of grace is... but this is the gospel of sanctification. So my call is to become more in my practice who I already am in my position. And that to me is a very critical notion.

So these texts of scripture are critical because we need to see what that looks like. And 2 Peter 3:18 is a great summary of what Paul is... Peter is trying to describe in that epistle because he says, "Grow in grace and the knowledge of our Lord and Savior."

So growing in grace is a great and high and holy calling. So that you're not just... it's not a matter of just being where you are, but he always wants us to go further up and further in. He doesn't want us to be just reach a certain plateau, but always further up and further in because there's so much stuff under the iceberg of our lives.

And when we respond to the light and some of it is then... goes up, then new material is revealed. So I believe that we're always called to grow and when we stop growing, when we stop learning, we start dying. So that the... you need to maintain a vitality and a suppleness that's related to this.

That brings to mind one of my favorite texts in the Psalms. If I go to Psalm 92, I believe it is. Now with 150 Psalms, I better be right. You're not going to just get this by... yeah, "The righteous man will flourish like the palm tree. He will grow like a cedar in Lebanon, planted in the house of the Lord."

In this interesting image, a cedar planted in God's house in this temple. "They will flourish in the courts of our God. They will still yield fruit in old age. They will be full of sap and very green to declare that the Lord is upright; he is my rock and there is no unrighteousness in him."

I love this text because it means that you can stay supple, not brittle. You see, our big challenge when we get older is that we start... stop being teachable. But then when you stop learning, you start dying. So you must always... in fact, and grace, you've heard me mention many times what I call the second naivete.

The first naivete is childishness, and Paul says I put away childish things. But don't put away... but go to the next one. Very few adults in comparison, I think, have attained what I called childlikeness, the second naivete. A childlikeness is what he's describing here.

You're supple, fluid, you're always asking new questions, always amazed, always surprised by grace and joy. You're always looking at new things and learning and realizing more and more how little you know. So the more you... that's why I've often said that the best scholars that I know are the ones who know how little they know.

You have to know a certain amount to know your... be aware of your abysmal ignorance. And when you realize that, you stop being a know-it-all and you become a person who's curious and wonders and is amazed and surprised by the mysteries around them. I use nature for this as an amplifier for that because the more I'm learning about the oddities of the natural world—and there are so many marvels on every level with the insects to the clusters of galaxies—we don't know these or being more and more is being revealed and filled with mystery.

So being a learner all your life means that you're not going to succumb to what I call the hardening of the categories, which is worse than the hardening of the arteries. Hardening of the categories. When you become rigid and ossified, you're not able to think about a new thing.

Guest (Male): Yeah, and actually turning to validate what you were saying about having your life pass before you. It's a true life example. There's a man named Casey Diaz, and there's a book called The Shot Caller. He was an Salvadoran immigrant, awful upbringing, turned into the worst possible criminal ever.

He ends up finally being caught and put in prison for 12 years of solitary confinement. And this little old lady in a nearby church insisted on going and visiting the prisoners. And when they said, "No, you don't want to see this one in solitary confinement," she said, "Yes, I'm going to."

She gave him a Bible. He threw it back at her and said, "I'm not interested in you, I'm not interested in any of that." He'd never heard about Jesus. Well, it was within a short amount of time, he's suddenly in his solitary confinement cell, suddenly looked and on the wall his whole life passed before him from the very first crime he ever did—stealing some gum from a little shop—to the worst thing involving killing people.

And then he saw Jesus walking away from him with the cross. And he came to faith at significant risk to his life in the prison and then ultimately was released by miraculous circumstances. And he is today a pastor to prisons around the country. So you're giving a story about a person who has had an experience of his whole life passing before him.

Ken Boa: I've had a few of those in near-death experiences, especially when I was drowning on the Sea of Galilee, about to drown in the Sea of Galilee. That was one weird experience like that. But that people report those things, you see, and sometimes you realize you see the whole thing in front of you and time has dilated.

And that's exactly what God can use as well. Amazing stuff. Well, we're just about out of time. Well, we've gotten pretty far and we'll continue next time. But I hope this is of value to you, though. So we've looked at five, I'll try to get the rest of them next week, of these pursuing God components.

But I think it's helpful to recognize faith, hope, and love, treasuring the eternal over the over the temporal, growing in God's grace and committing to the... and that really... and then ultimately, we're going to be talking about centrality of Christ.

But it is this spiritual life is the grace of God that's manifested in us and through us as us. So you are called to be a living epistle, known and read of others. You're called to be an agent of the King and to walk in the age and the power of the resurrected life, which is really what is that?

That's the power of the age to come in this present darkness. Lord, we give you thanks and praise for your love and grace toward us, and we ask that you would guide us in faith and hope and love, that we would become people who cling to your promises over the fleeting promises of a transitory world. In Jesus' name, Amen.