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The Wake-Up Call
Growth Is a Game of Degrees and Inches
00:21:17
Our physical bodies grow by inches. The Bible indicates our souls grow by degrees
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Hey. Good morning. It is Friday, March 20th in the year of our Lord 2026. I'm John David Walt and this is your wake up call. Yep, it's going to be a good day today. Friday is always a good day and we've got a good meeting together this morning with Jesus privileged to get to start the day off so many of you. So let's dive right in. We are moving now closer to the cross. Every day in this 40 days season, we're going to begin with consecration. You ready? Wake up, sleeper. Rise from the dead and Christ will shine on you. Jesus, I belong to you. I lift up my heart to you. I set my mind on you. I fix my eyes on you. I offer my body to you as a living sacrifice. Jesus, we belong to you. And we're praying in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Well, today's entry is entitled Growth is a game of degrees and inches. And Our text is Second Corinthians, chapter 3, verses 18, verse 18. Hear now the word of the Lord. And we all with unveiled face beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit, the word of the Lord. Now consider this. Between my two sisters and me, we have eight children, four of them from me and two each from them. We love it when we can all be together. At my parents home, they call their place on the Arkansas River Camp David. It's my dad's name. Of course we call it Cousin camp. One of the steadfast rituals over their growing up years was the practice the cousins called measuring. In my parents home the chimney from the downstairs fireplace is fully exposed in the upstairs great room. It's kind of the bunk room area up there, so don't get the idea that it's super great. On each side of each corner of the chimney is a series of marks with measurements written next to them. There are eight measuring rods, one for each cousin. I want to make sure you get the picture here. Picture a fully square chimney on each corner there's a board on one side and running right up to it, a board on the other side. Kind of about a one by four I'd say and on. So that makes eight boards all around this chimney, one for each grandchildren. Now one by one each would back up to their particular board, their names written at the top. And someone, usually me, put a ruler next to their head and marked their current height with a mark, a black mark. Now the measuring was not a contest against each other to see who was the tallest, but a way for each one to assess how much they had grown since the last measurement. Everyone was always so eager to see how much they'd grown. It brings the first transformational question into sharp focus, doesn't it? Am I growing? I wonder what measuring might look like when it comes to growing in our faith and maturing in our Christlike character, the fascinating thing about both physical and spiritual growth is how slowly it actually happens, and yet at the same time, how dramatic it can be. Over lengthy intervals of time, from year to year, the growth of any given cousin was pretty small. But over a five year period, the growth could be quite dramatic. Our physical bodies grow by inches. The Bible indicates our souls grow by degrees. Watch for it. And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed, metamorpho into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit. What does one degree of glory look like? How might we attempt to measure it? I can already hear the objections. Growth and the grace of God can't be measured. We live in an age where everything in the universe, from white blood cells to light years, can be and in fact is measured. Surely we can find a meaningful way to measure transformational growth. The real question is, do we have the will to measure it? Do we really want to know? Let's pray. Our Father, thank you for your son Jesus and Lord Jesus, you are the glory of God and you are every degree of it. By your spirit would you begin to reveal to us what growing by one degree of glory could look like in ordinary people like us? And beyond that, how might such growth happen? Jesus, we're praying in your name. Amen. Our general prompts today, I wonder, will you grapple with this matter today? We'll dive in deeper tomorrow. But I wonder how you might define a degree of glory and how you might go about measuring it. These are. These are big questions. Excuse me, Jesus asking, right, I love that great hymn, Love Divine, all love's excelling. There's a line in there Charles Wesley writes, changed from glory into glory till in heaven we take our place, Till we cast our crowns before the lost in wonder, love and praise. You know, in our, in our faith, in our life, growth does happen slowly. You know, we sing hymns like, I once was lost, but now I'm found, was blind, but now I see. And truth be told, that rarely happens. All of a sudden you just quickly grant it. Granted you, you come to Jesus and you put your faith in him in an instant. But transformation takes time. It has to be worked out over a long period of time. It's, like I say, almost imperceptible to watch happen. You can't see it happen at the time. But then you, over periods of time, you can see, you can see definite growth. Like, you know, I used to be a very critical person. I'm. I'm telling you the truth. I used to be a very critical person. I'm not critical anymore. I used to be a somewhat angry person. But over time, I've. Jesus has worked with me. He's. He's given me grace, he's had patience with me. He's brought me into various means of, of growth. And I'm not really angry anymore. I'm not the same. I'm not who I used to be. And there's not, there's not a board somewhere. But what if there was? Wouldn't that be a good thing? We have those boards and most people have them in their home where their kids were measured over the years. What if we had a board that, that just said joyful, patient kindness, generosity, faithfulness, goodness, self control. What if we started not. It's easy to get down on yourself with this kind of thing, but that's not necessary because as we'll see this thing unfold, we're not assessing ourselves, we're assessing the work of God in us. Big difference. Anyway, you'll get. You, you, you get the point. We're, we're into it now. Am I growing? I tell you, I've been growing in my own experience and expression of joy. It has been such a long road for me on that. And the Lord's been patient and he's taught me to be patient. And I'm not changing myself. That's the thing. That's self improvement. Doesn't work. I'm no longer trying harder to do more, to be better. I'm learning to put myself in the place of consecration where Jesus can come. I'm participating, but I'm not in control. I'm not in charge. I'm not running this show anymore. I'm following. I'm being led. I'm learning to surrender. I'm learning to be submissive to God. I'm learning to slow down. Well, are you ready to sing today? Got dad with me. It's going to be a good one. Here we go. All right, everybody, it is Friday. You know what Friday is a good day to do? Sing a hymn.
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Amen.
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So tell them what we're singing today.
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We're going to sing oh love that will not let me go.
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Oh, love that will not let me go. What's Our number?
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Number 92 in our great Redeemer's Praise Hymn Book.
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All right.
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Number 92.
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Today, dad, in the. In today's wake up Call. The title of it. I love the title of it. It's. Jesus likes you. We always talk about Jesus loves you. Yeah, but it's kind of next level, you know, You. There's a lot of people that you love because you kind of feel like you got to love them, but you don't really like them. Yeah, but is something. When you like a person, you'll eventually love him. That's right. And Jesus. Love is so full that he won't let you go. And that's what we're singing about here.
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Yeah.
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And some of you just need to know that. Some of you. You know, truth be told, a lot of people don't feel like they're lovable. They don't feel like people like them. And it's. It's a lie.
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Well, there, there could have been some incident in your life that caused that. So just forget that. Wipe it out.
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It's forgiven.
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Yeah. God forgives things like that.
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Just tell him. Just say, I. I just want to confess it to you, Lord. I've not always been lovable. I've not always been likable.
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I know it. He just. And, and that's. God wants to hear that, because he does. He wants us all. He doesn't want just a few. Few of us.
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He wants us all. He doesn't just want a few of us. That's good. And his love, it's a durable love. It's a forgiving love. It's a reconciling love.
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It's a peaceful love. You know, if you. If you have God's love for somebody or anybody, you're going to be happy. And, and that person will feel it. Whether he knows it or not, he'll feel that love.
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And when you have the love of Jesus in you, the love that will not let you go, when you love other people, they're like, you know what? They're not going to let me go.
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Amen.
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They're going to stick with me.
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Yeah.
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They're going to be with me. That's the kind of friends we need. That's the kind of friends we want to be. So we're going to sing all four verses. We tried to remember our pitch. Was it.
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Oh, was that it. Oh, oh. Love will not let me go. I rest my slavery soul on thee I give thee back the life I owe that thine thine ocean depths is low May richer fuller be. O light that follows all my way I yield my landing to thee My heart restores its borrowed say that in thy sunshine's blaze it's day made brighter fairer
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Number three.
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O joy that seekest me to vain I cannot close my heart to thee I trace the rainbow through the rain and feel the promises not vain that morn shall tailless thee O cross that
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liftest up my heart
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I dare not ask to my mom. Thee I lay in this life Glory din and from the ground their blossom dread life that shall endless be.
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I hadn't sang that song in a while.
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That's a good one.
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That's in the section of the hymnal. What's the title of it?
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Oh, Love that Will not let God's Love.
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Oh, that's the. This.
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There's a whole section of hymns in here on God's Love. Well, what did I want to remind you? Oh, I have a reminder today. A P.S. we got a new series coming up on the Wake Up Call and I think you're going to like it. It's called Unpuzzled, and it's starting the day after Easter, April 6th. We're going to work our way through the letter, Paul's Letter to the Ephesians. It's one of the most important letters in the New Testament because this was a circular letter. I mean, it went around to all the churches. It was core teaching from Paul, six chapters. We're going to cover it verse by verse. We're going to take six weeks to do it and I'm looking forward to it. It's a great opportunity to invite new people to join us. We're going to open the barn door wide and we have. I'm very excited. I've never. I haven't been this excited about a book. Well, actually since Jesus asking. But this one, what I'm so excited about, our producer and director, Nick Perot has designed a journal. It's got all the entries that I've written. It's got the scripture, it's got journaling pages every single day. It has a weekly discussion guide and then there's a QR code in there. And if you click on that, it'll take you to a little video teaching I'm doing for each week of the series. So it's. It's the next level. We're calling it a Wake Up Call.
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Workbook and when does it start?
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April 6th. And I got a book for you so you're not going to have to order it.
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Is it on the radio?
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It's going to be on the radio. That's what the Internet is today, is the radio. It's the new radio. And maybe someday I'll be on a real radio. Who knows? But I'm just happy to be on this channel with you today.
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I'll get Susan to find it for me.
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All of you, so thanks for joining us today. It's going to be Friday. People are going to be in a good mood, especially the ones living for the weekend. You just come alongside them and encourage them. Just come alongside them and be a blessing to them.
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Amen.
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And I'm getting my seeds, dad. You get your seeds for The Awakening. I'm J.D. walt.
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I'm David Walt.
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We'll see you on the field.