Sermon Central
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The Higher You Climb
Contributed by Austin W. Duncan on Apr 17, 2026 (message contributor)
In college I was certified in belaying at Texas Tech's rock climbing wall, and we would go and climb there many times a week. Many of the routes, when you're at the bottom looking up, you might think, "That doesn't look so bad. I bet I could climb that pretty easily." But as you start climbing, you realize how much more challenging it is than you thought. The higher you climb, the more you realize how high the wall actually is.
That's what spiritual maturity is like.
Paul says in Philippians 3:12, "Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on." This is the apostle Paul, the man who wrote most of the New Testament, who had been caught up to the third heaven, who had planted churches across the Roman Empire. And he says he hasn't arrived yet. He's still pressing on. Still climbing.
That might seem discouraging until you realize what Paul is actually describing. True maturity isn't thinking you've reached the top. It's recognizing, the more you grow, how much more there is still to grow. The closer you get to Christ, the more clearly you see how far His character exceeds your own. That's not failure. That's progress. You only see how high the wall is once you've climbed high enough to see it.
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