Acting Grown

I thank God for the willingness to overflow my cup.

I don't know if you've ever needed it, but sometimes in my life I've been through the desert.

There's nothing like a hot day and all of a sudden a refreshing, cool rain comes, and it doesn't just get you a little damp, it saturates.

That's what I think God has for us right now, in this moment in time that we've got to stop hoping for rain and believe that God is going to pour it down when his people call on his name.

But see, here's the place where it usually stops.

Sometimes when we begin to thank you worship team, sometimes when we begin to allow God to pour into us, we forget to stop being selfish with the overflow.

God wants to fill your cup, but he also wants you to give it on everybody around you.

When my dogs get a bath and I got some big dogs they shake it off and it gets on everything around them.

When God pours it out on you, do your best to get it on everybody around you.

We're so glad you're here today.

Those of you joining online, we love y'all too.

We're so glad that God has protected our church.

We haven't had to shut down one time so far.

I count that as a praise report because some churches have.

That is a praise report because some churches have.

So I want to say thank you to my dad for coming today.

He came all the way down from Missouri.

I think one of the first times he came here was shortly after, I think, we started coming here and of course Pastor D was getting used to Tristan, and then she had a conversation with my dad and she was like, oh, that's where it comes down the line.

Well, I can't deny it, might as well lean into it, right?

So if you missed, yesterday we had Josh couldn't be there, he said it wasn't good enough, but we had a men's breakfast.

I'm just kidding, he had to work and we have fun.

We go, we relax, we chill out.

As of yet we haven't really had a Bible study.

We're just getting to know each other better.

We're building a foundation for a body of believers that can depend and trust and lean on each other, that knows that when they call, someone's going to answer.

I think sometimes we as the church members let people go out and float and we don't ever come back for them.

So it's important to build community, especially in the body of Christ, because that's what was the blueprint laid out for us, so it was fun.

If you don't know, every first Monday of every month, I'm sorry, every first Saturday of every month we do have men's breakfasts at Butcher Shop.

It's at 815.

I don't know why they told me 815.

I'm like that's weird.

All right, cool, so 815, they told me 8.15.

I'm like that's weird.

All right, cool.

So 8.15 or some of you, nine o'clock, it's whatever.

I get it Just kidding, mostly.

So, and if you don't know, the September growth track has already been filled.

We're in September.

The October growth track.

If you don't know what that is, it is a class that talks about us as a church where you can get to know us, because it's important that every member of the body knows what the mind of Christ is all about here.

Well, you need to know what flows through the bloodline of this church, and so it will be our core beliefs, our core values.

And then the second week we're going to get to know you a little better.

On the first week you're going to get to know you a little better.

On the first week you're going to take a little booklet home.

It's about that's not that thick, you don't have to do any.

For those that don't like homework, it's really fun.

So it's like a 200 question.

That sounds like a lot, but it's just like really basic questions, kind of like a personality test, but it's talking about gifts of the spirit.

So it's really cool just to kind of see and some things you may be like.

Oh, I knew that and some things you'd be like oh, I didn't really.

And then it kind of opens your eyes to who you are.

So it's important to know who your church is and where we stand in the Bible, and it's important to know where you are and where you fit into the body of Christ.

And so that's what this whole growth track is for.

It'll be a couple of it.

We'll go class to class and see what's going on, and it's free.

You can tip if you want, but it's fine, I'm just kidding, calm down, ladies.

There you are.

Come on now.

I was about to say I've heard y'all yeah, y'all are louder than that.

Just kidding, just kidding.

There will be pretty soon, probably at the end of the month, there will be a ladies meal coming up.

Sister Jessie is going to put a poll out there to kind of see what kind of food y'all like, what kind you don't like.

It'll be probably in the Team Connect.

If you don't know what that is, it's a Facebook group.

If you don't have that, it's okay.

We will get in contact with everybody who comes here.

So don't worry.

So your day is coming.

We're going to have something for the ladies.

Why are y'all getting so happy, y'all get everything else.

You go in a woman's bathroom.

You got couches and flowers and everything else.

We got toilets.

Y'all get everything.

Go to a shoe store and tell me y'all don't get everything.

I got an hour and a half and y'all got the rest of it.

Clap on me like you ain't got nothing.

Anyway, now that I got that out of my system, I feel better.

All right, let's read some word.

You guys mind standing for the reading of God's Word today?

Can we do that?

Normally, like Pastor Aaron said, we will have slides and stuff up here and you'll see the Scriptures.

But just trust that everything that I did was amazing, trust me.

If you don't believe me, ask me, I'll tell you.

If you don't believe me, ask me, I'll tell you.

Today we're going to be.

If you need some serious correction in your life, which I believe all of us do as Christians, we have to, and people in relationships we have to constantly be self-evaluating.

If we want to keep growing, you have to keep going through the growth, and so in James you need to read some of James.

James will get you right and it will show you how you're not.

So we're going to start at the very beginning James 1.

If you have your Bibles or your phones, you can look at James 1.

We're just going to read the first, technically two verses.

We're going to start at verse 2.

The first one before that is just a greeting, so we're going to start.

Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.

The testing I don't know how y'all were in school, but I didn't like tests and I didn't really study.

I wish I would have, but I didn't know how y'all were in school, but I didn't like tests and I didn't really study.

I wish I would have, but I didn't.

I don't like tests.

I don't like being tested because it starts to show me what I don't really know.

Let this verse 4, let perseverance finish its work.

It's doing something so that you may be here's another bad word mature.

That's got to be a word from the devil right, mature and complete, not lacking anything.

Let's pray, Father, we thank you for your presence here today.

I ask a special protection over those in this congregation right now.

Speak through your servant today, as I bring the word that you have given me.

Let me bring it forth with accuracy and with conviction In your name, we pray Amen, amen.

You may be seated In the presence of the Lord.

The Lord is good, christmas is great and I love the gifts, but there's nothing like God's presence.

You like that playing words?

I just came up with that.

I'll do it again at Christmas time.

So can we give it up for the worship team just one more time?

They they put in so much work and sometimes you may not know this, but if you put a few, even a few number of different people in the same room for too long, they'll end up butting heads, but they still get up here and worship in unity is so cool to me.

That's how church is.

You got a bunch of different people, a bunch of different backgrounds, raised different.

Nobody in here is probably raised the same.

It may be a similar raising, but even me and my brother had it different.

I was punished.

He got everything.

They won't, they won't admit it.

We couldn't have TVs in our room.

My brother was the first one.

What in the world?

Anyways, we're not going to get on that.

I'm going to get off that again.

We are blessed here so much with the leadership of this church Staff and volunteers.

If you don't tell those people up there you appreciate them, be quarantined for 14 days and you'll start to appreciate what they do.

They kill it up there and they do it with excellence.

So my title of today's message as you can't see behind me is acting grown.

You ever heard somebody step up to something?

Usually a mom.

Oh, they're trying to act grown.

We've got that problem in the church house.

If you weren't here, last week we did talk about salvation and I didn't talk about the world being saved.

I talked about the church house getting in order and how that we, when we treat each other, we produce a fruit that attests to God being real and the true love of God.

You see, I was talking with it.

May have been Pastor Aaron or somebody else, I don't remember.

It may have been actually Brother Dale.

We're talking about the fruits of the spirit.

If you don't know what those are, get studied up, because we all got some work to do.

It begins with love and ends with self-discipline, I thought, or self-control.

I thought that self-control should have been up there with love.

But then I realized that once you cover all of the fruits of the Spirit in love.

Once that is covered right there, all of those other things then lead up to that self-control when you start yourself.

If something is done in love, it will be done right and it will lead to the other fruits of the spirit and then lead you to self-control.

That's why it's at the end because it's one of the hardest ones to obtain, just like the tongue being so small, but it's like the rudder of a ship that one little will put you off course and you'll end up in a place that you never imagined, that you never, that you didn't set out for that to be your destination.

That was all free.

That wouldn't even have been enough.

But I think that in the church, guilty as charged, we get on this kick to where we look at everyone.

I've said this multiple times and I'm going to keep saying it until the day that I die we are so good at seeing other people, but I can't see me.

I cannot see myself, but I can see you all day long.

I can tell you what you're doing wrong.

That's why, when you dig in the word of God, the closer I get to God, the more God reveals that I need him, that I need his salvation more than ever before.

I need his correction, I need other people's correction.

I need people around me that will lift me up and encourage me and to help mold me and get me to where, when my rudder gets a little off and my mouth shoots off, they'll say, hey, man, that's not right.

How many people love for someone to correct you?

It's not easy, but if you want to start to grow in maturity, you have to embrace this, and you know that there's a difference between endure and embrace.

Endure means you're just trying to get through it.

When you embrace it, you are willing to take on that load to get to where you need.

I almost brought a box up here because I actually was going to use another message, but I'll do it now because I'm on this.

So when you have correction, okay if you hold a box.

I used to work at the Walmart warehouse over in Palestine and so one of the training things that they said to you is when you pick up a heavy box, you do not hold it out from you, you bring it in close.

If you're carrying a heavy load this morning, stop trying to hold it out from you and start bringing it close.

If you're trying to carry something heavy.

Stop extending your arms and embrace it, because if you hold it out from you and you don't try to hold it into you, you're going to end up hurting yourself.

But when you embrace it, if you have the proper form, you will build your endurance and you will become stronger.

You will build your endurance and you will become stronger.

So, acting grown.

I am so glad God is in charge.

Have you ever tried to take that from him for a second?

Good luck.

Sometimes we are guilty.

I am guilty of taking God out of the driver's seat.

I want to be in charge.

I like control.

When I want to turn the channel on the TV, somebody better leave the remote where I last put it or I get upset.

I know this is stupid, this is petty, but this is everyday experiences that I have in my house.

For instance, in our bedroom we got a TV.

We have a little Roku thing, a little remote about that big.

I constantly find it up where the TV is on the dresser.

I said, baby, I'm not there.

Well, it makes sense, right when you sit down to watch, it should be right there.

But she, she takes it, she, she'll do something.

She sets it up there because she was by there.

But she takes it, she'll do something.

She sets it up there because she was by there.

And every time I'm like baby, neither one of us sit there and my control issues create stupid little petty arguments that I should have just shut up and quit being lazy and got up.

Remember the days, anybody, that you didn't have a remote, that your kids were the remote?

My dad, when we were young, he was like he would say go change the channel.

He had the little one you know, click.

Every time he did it it had certain numbers on it.

Then you have the bunny ears.

He said Stephen, go change the channel or go turn up the volume.

Had a little knob when you turned it up.

Dad, stop telling me this every two seconds.

Why do you think I had you?

I feel the spirit over there.

But when we do this, we begin to, and spiritually, when we start to do this, we begin to neglect and don't put God in his proper place in our lives.

He has to be Lord of all.

He has to be in that rightful place that causes us to have to start to submit.

So when we become calloused and we don't trust, is anybody having issues right now trusting anything that you hear or see, guess what it bleeds into us, not believing what God tells us, because we become an untrusting people, because you can't trust anything that you see or hear anymore.

And so when God speaks or things happen in church, we're like, oh, that can't be.

God, shut up, god will take care of that.

We have to allow God to be God and you learn your place.

And when I say you, I'm talking to me.

I've been guilty of shooting my mouth off when really I should have just kept quiet.

Maturity begins to grow this in us.

I can't trust anybody.

Begins to grow this in us I can't trust anybody.

We have a wealth of knowledge that is not even facts flooding into our little phones, our little computers we carry around with us and no one knows what's true.

And we have issues in our marriage due to trust issues.

We put our man-made problems and we paste them on God, our almighty God.

When he doesn't answer to us, we answer to him.

We cannot put our judgment and understanding on who God is.

The closer I get to God, the more I begin to see that in his majesty and glory, I understand more in his word that I understand that I don't understand in glory.

I understand more in his word that I understand that I don't understand, and I realize how much I truly need him.

Now.

Once we understand God's rightful place in our lives and we begin to put him in that proper place of authority, we really begin to understand that we are not as grown as we think we are.

When I was a child, you did this too, I guarantee it.

When I was a child, you did this too, I guarantee you.

I always wanted to be perceived as older than what I was.

Anybody ever do that.

I'm 13 and a half.

Are you driving Almost?

It's always that next up.

You never go the other way.

It's always you want to round up.

Are you 18?

Yet I'm 17 in three years.

It's like we always want to go to that next level and so we do this in our spiritual walk.

We pad who we really are in Christ to make us look better in front of other people.

I give God everything, but I don't tithe Money.

No one likes to talk about that.

I give God everything, but I won't serve on the outreach Any of you did Then God ain't done.

We make these little gaps and we fill in the gaps and we forget that we are not as grown as we think we are.

So when I was a child, I thought, like a child, I'm going to tell you a story and don't judge me.

So now my dad's here, he can verify I was younger than Tristan because at 12, so now my dad's here, he can verify I was younger than Tristan because at 12, we actually moved to Texas.

When I was 12, we moved to Texas and I was at that age like 10, 11, maybe even 11 and a half, and I wanted to be older.

So it was a smaller church in Archie Missouri.

Look it up, it's about that big on the map, not even a thousand people there.

And so they allowed me because I was kind of the only one that age, you know, you kind of have that in between.

Tristan's kind of there.

Right now he's in the seventh grade but he's still not as mature.

And then he got the older kids.

So there's this huge gap.

But they let me in there because there are benefits to being the pastor's kid.

And one Wednesday night the town was small enough and this was back in the day where, at least not in that town you didn't have to really worry about anything.

My dad would let us ride bikes across town over to the park and then back.

We would go to the other side of town on our bikes.

We'd take our little skateboards and do whatever.

He didn't know what we were doing, but it was all right.

I'm sure he had eyes everywhere, but he was a pastor there in the town, so everybody knew who he was and knew who I was.

I did not understand this.

They left me and went to a church over in Adrian which is up the street, and when I say up the street I mean it was seven miles in a car.

That's 12 minutes and I thought, because it only took a few minutes in a car, it was going to be the same on my bike.

In my mind I'm thinking I have made this trip a thousand times with my parents.

This is nothing.

So anybody heard of 79 Highway.

That's the main road that went through the outside of town.

So I got my bike.

They already had left the church and I rode down to the on-ramp and I got on and started heading in the way that I knew.

Adrian was A few minutes later, after sweating really hard.

Did you come to pick me up or did Mom?

I guess my criminal record goes back further than I thought If you didn't hear that online.

He said the police, but someone knew my dad and saw me and called him and said I think your kid's out on the main highway on a bike.

In my mind I was mature enough to handle that trip.

In my mind it wasn't going to be anything.

I did not have the mental capacity and the maturity to understand that.

This was a trip that I had been on before, but not in this way.

They called my dad and they told him a bunch of snitches, but I thought in my mind that I was grown enough to do this.

The short little bike ride is what I thought.

I don't even think I made it halfway.

The short little bike ride is what I thought.

I don't even think I made it halfway.

I had been on this road a thousand times, but I had never been in the driver's seat.

I had never taken the journey on my own before.

I wasn't big enough to handle the knowledge that I thought I had.

I lacked in wisdom to fully understand the danger.

I knew the road.

I'd been down it before, but I was only acting grown.

I didn't have the wisdom I needed to properly make the trip.

But maybe, maybe you don't pray like this, but sometimes I'm like God.

Where are you, god?

Why in the world am I here?

Why have I prayed so hard and you have not shown up yet?

Why am I here?

Why are you not here?

These are bare real prayers that David himself prayed.

God, where are you?

Why do I not feel you, god?

What are you doing?

Could you allow me just for a second to see behind the curtain, to peek at your plan?

Just for a second?

Show me a little glimpse.

Anything, god?

Are you sure?

I'm sure my wife said that while we were dating, you ever been on a trip with a kid?

Are we there yet?

Are we there yet?

As a kid we went on trips that were kind of far away.

So if you I looked up from archie, missouri, over to uh myrtle beach over 17 hours of a trip you know how many times I probably asked are we there yet?

How much further?

How much further?

Thank god that God has grace and mercy and patience for his children.

I would have drove him nuts by now.

Are we there yet, god?

Have we not reached our destination?

And sometimes the answer is no, moron, you've made some wrong turns.

And then sometimes it's you're not who you are yet to reach the destination that I have for you.

You have not yet reached that level of maturity to handle the blessing that I'm about to pour down on you that you right now are in the refining fire that one day you will reach your destination, but right now we got some pit stops because you got some refilling to do.

We'll reach your destination, but right now we got some pit stops because you got some refilling to do, and I believe that's why God tells us to start to repeat your first fruits If you start getting stale in God or you start going back the other way and you feel yourself doing it, first of all you need to let somebody who can be an accountability partner that will speak into your life truth.

If they never tell you you do anything wrong, get rid of them, because they will not do you good.

They will make you feel good but they will not do you good, because the trying of our faith is what produces perseverance, and when we allow that into our lives, when we submit to that, then we begin to really grow and have true growth.

Sometimes God is like you know, I'm bringing you to a new place of maturity.

Sometimes the place that you are in in the difficult season it's not for you.

Sometimes where God has brought you to is not for you.

We've got to stop looking at where God is bringing us and what he's bringing us through and saying, oh yes, lord, bring it on, but we're not ready for the mature part.

And then we're like God, where are you at?

What are you doing?

He's like moron, it's not for you.

I am bringing you here so that you can be a testimony of who I really am to somebody else who needs me, because if we do not have trials, how can we have a testimony?

If we don't have difficulties, how can we really get to our destiny?

Every road has potholes.

Every road has bumps, turns, weaves and winds All these things that God is trying to say.

Listen, if you would just let the Holy Spirit direct you, I will produce in you something that you can't even fathom.

But the road to get there is tough.

It takes testing, but it produces the perseverance to get you to your destiny God has for you.

I like to prove things to people by Scripture, so we're going to talk a little bit in Genesis, joseph and the coat of many colors, a beautiful story of a daddy's boy.

They can pretty much get away with anything.

You may be the youngest child, and I'm sorry if this offends you, but younger kids get away with more.

The firstborn are the ones, that's, the test subjects, and our family wants us to be perfect.

And then they realize that that is impossible.

And then the last one's like eh, it's alive.

We didn't kill the first one.

The second one's probably a breeze, sorry, oh, my brother, all right.

So Joseph and Joseph can be a very confusing story, because guess what, if you ever read the Bible like this.

It'll open your eyes to a depth of things that you never have thought about before.

Every story in the Bible.

They did not have it to read, to know where to go.

They were living it out as it was happening to them.

You ever been somewhere and you feel like that everybody around you has sold you out happening to them?

You ever been somewhere and you feel like that everybody around you has sold you out, that all they wanted from you is what they can get from you.

And then they were done with you.

Joseph's flesh and blood sold him into slavery His own family, the brothers he grew up with, family, the brothers he grew up with.

And once they sold him, it took over 20 years for God to bring him to the place to where then he was able to rescue and be his destiny.

He actually rescued the people who came against him and sold him.

What I believe is that, yes, god brought Joseph into a place that he wouldn't have been in any other way, but have you ever fought against that before?

Where you're in the middle of the test and you're like God, take this from me.

And he said if I rob you of this test, I am robbing you of your destiny.

If I take you out of this place in time right now and I restore everything to you, you will not appreciate what you're going to get.

You will not be able to understand the blessing you have unless you have the lack in the first place.

If you don't go through the desert, you will not understand how to thirst.

Have you ever been in a dry spell between you and God?

But God, where are you?

What are you doing up there?

You know your questions don't scare God.

You know your desperation doesn't deter him from his will that when we ask and we seek, god answers and he shows up.

It's never in our time frame.

If you've ever had God come through, it's not when you want it.

Have you ever thought about how much it takes to get exactly everything right for what you're praying for, the different weaves and the different stuff that has to come together to line it up perfect.

So just trust in God that he knows what he is doing, that he is the great and almighty orchestrator.

It seemed like Joseph's story in the middle of it.

If you read it, it seems like there's no plan.

He was betrayed by the people he loved and trusted.

He went to a foreign land that he felt like he didn't belong.

Have you ever been in the middle of somewhere and you're like God, I don't belong here?

This does not feel like home to me.

God, why have you brought me here?

Let me speak into someone's life today.

God is bringing you and has brought you to where you are because you are not done, has brought you to where you are because you are not done.

Make sure that, while you are still and waiting on God, that you are not lazy, waiting for him to make it happen.

God has not called anybody to sit and watch.

He has called for workers in the field.

We have to be busy while we wait and along the lines, every single time, god shows blessings along the way.

It's like little drops of like.

Just keep on coming, keep on coming, keep on pushing.

Romans 8.28 says this we know that God makes things, all things, work together for the good of those who love him and are chosen to be a part of his plan.

God has a plan and a destination for each and every person in here.

Paul knew this because he had been on the other side of the fence.

He was the Bible's day ISIS.

He sought after and killed those who proclaimed the name of Jesus Christ.

Sought after and killed those who proclaimed the name of Jesus Christ.

We have to stop being angry at the people and start prophesying and believing and rebuking the spirits over them.

You can pray yourself until you're blue in the face over people, but when you start rebuking and grasp a hold of the authority given to us by Jesus Christ and realize that it's not them, but it is a spirit over them, then you understand how to truly fight the battle and that's what progress will happen.

You have not been abandoned, you have not been forsaken.

To think this way, it brings a great level of maturity, because I had to understand it wasn't in the middle of when my dad was spanking me that I knew it was for my good.

I thought he didn't like me.

Up in Missouri we had basements which worked a little bit in my favor.

I don't know if I've ever told him this, so I'm going to confess now in front of y'all, so I have witnesses in case I disappear.

Listen, he had an office downstairs.

He was a pastor my entire life.

He had an office downstairs and he would say go downstairs and ask God for forgiveness.

All right.

You know how creepy it is to go down in a dark basement.

You're not supposed to go down there and find God.

I didn't think God was down there.

I went in his office and I remembered I was really crying.

There were tears, but I would every time scream out oh God forgive me, I've done so wrong.

I knew that the vents were down in the basement and they led up to the floor in the house, or down in the basement and they led up to the floor in the house.

I was going to put on a show so that my dad would go easy on me.

I don't know if he had the vents closed or not, but he never went easier.

But in the testing I persevered.

I think I did it every time.

I don't know if he lightened up or not, I don't know.

But I didn't understand the punishment until I became the parent and then I realized it wasn't punishment, it was correction.

I'll use it for another time when he's not here.

I don't want the cops to come, but can you call CPS when you're grown?

Is that a thing?

It should be so sorry, sorry.

My dad was a good dad.

He still is.

He still is.

But I did not fully understand until I was in a level of maturity where I began to have a kid of my own, that it wasn't for my bad, it was for my good.

And so if we believe that all things work together for the good of those who love the Lord, does that mean that even the correction Is that grouped in with even the valley, that when we don't feel God, that it is for our good.

Have you ever noticed that when you don't feel God, you start looking for him?

If everything is good and right in your life, you don't need God.

People come to God and drink.

I was talking to somebody the other day it may have been Brother Aaron's dad.

He said man, after 9-11, the churches were full.

Six months later they're gone again.

It's so easy that when everything is bad but God, I believe God allows things so that we will be tested, we will be tried and we will be purified and that the chaff and the wind and the body of Christ will be blown away and the substance will remain.

You can drink on that.

Isaiah 55, 8 through 9, says for my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways.

My ways, declares the Lord.

As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.

When we were kids we had very little understanding of this, but the more I grew, the more I understood.

So let's break this down a little bit the more you grow, the more you allow maturity to be a part of your Christian walk, the more you will begin to understand who God really is.

So now listen, maturity is not something that happens by accident.

It is a daily pursuit to be mature.

Has someone ever fired off at you something that you probably didn't deserve and you go firing right back because now it's war.

It is hard to bring that maturity in.

I think we were talking about it at men's breakfast.

He's like man.

I can't bless my sometimes my enemies.

I want to punch them in the face.

That's facts.

They're your enemies, they're not your friends.

When they rise up to you and they step up, you say, okay, let's go, and you square up.

That's our human nature.

We have to get in mature stature in our spiritual walk and say you know what?

I said this before.

I stopped cursing because I stopped saying things.

When I would hurt myself, I would stop saying things.

If you can't stop cursing back at someone else, when you get cursed at, you need to stop speaking, because in your silence God begins to speak.

I didn't understand until I began to truly grow and accepted that that is immaturity is the milk when you start to want to eat on maturity.

That's the meat.

You will not grow and mature by accident.

How to be grown.

The path to maturity, step one realize you're not.

Realize that you are not mature as you think you are.

That's one of the first rules, and I think it's AA or something like that.

You have to realize that you have a problem.

You have to understand that we can sometimes be immature and petty.

If you've been married for any extent of time, you understand that you can find something stupid to get mad about and it'll just blow up the rest of the day.

If you can't get through this first step, you will not grow in Christ.

You will not grow as a person.

You'll be immature and petty the rest of your life.

You'll get so upset about some of the dumbest stuff that doesn't even matter to anything.

Has anyone ever been guilty of that?

I've been guilty.

We are not enough on our own.

That's why we need an outside source, the Holy Spirit, to lead and guide and lead us to a place that we cannot get there unless we allow the Holy Spirit to lead us.

You will not get to the level of maturity in God and in your word if you do not allow the Holy Spirit to lead you.

The Holy Spirit is a comforter, he is a helper If he is not on the forefront of where you go to to draw from, you will dry up.

We are not made and designed to do any of this alone.

God did not create us and pat us on the head and say, okay, good job, good luck.

He created us to have a one-on-one relationship with us, with you, with me.

If you can't admit that you need help, you won't be able to put God in his rightful place.

You won't give him that authority over your heart and in your mind and you or we will not be able to do it.

It'll be a constant battle and struggle for you because you can't say God, I need you.

Step two is recognize the enemy.

We tested this a minute ago.

Recognize that the enemy is not the person next to you, it's not the person at your job, it's not your mom, it's not your dad, it's not your spouse, it's not your child.

Ephesians 6.12 says this.

For we are not fighting against the flesh and blood of enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world and against evil spirits in the dark and heavenly places who you are having issues with Right now.

God is trying to mature and prune in your life, but they are not the enemy.

The Apostle Paul understood this, that this is the way that you must see things, that we often overlook the basic principle that you are not my enemy.

When you start making this journey through the valley of maturity, you start seeing things through different eyes.

It's when you really begin to grow.

We begin to grow physically, spiritually, emotionally.

We start to see things different.

You know what the definition of grow is.

There's two parts to it to undergo natural development by increasing in size and changing physically.

Progress to maturity.

When we begin to grow, we have to understand that Things will look different Our personal growth and others' growth.

No one grows at the same pace Nobody.

So here's what I have been guilty of.

I'll just bare my soul for a minute.

I have been guilty of basing my growth and saying that someone else should be in that spot too.

Maturity is not something that just all of a sudden and everybody's perfect.

That's a fairy tale.

We grow all differently.

So when we do that, look in kids, look.

I think that God and he uses it throughout the Bible.

I think that God designed us the way that we are physically so that we can understand things spiritually Kids when they grow.

Tristan came back from school like the first day in athletics he's playing football this year and he was like all the kids are so much bigger than me.

I was like, are you scared Because he's playing football?

He's like I don't know.

He was being honest because nobody grows the same way.

We have all kinds of different shapes and sizes throughout the human race.

Nobody is exactly the same.

Nobody looks exactly the same.

Even Calmer and Daytona have a little bit of difference.

If you don't know, that's Winter and Mickey's twins.

Nobody really knows their name, they just say the twins.

But even they have a slight difference that you can look at them and you can tell they are identical twins and they still have differences.

We have to understand that we as a church body, we as a body of believers, we all grow differently.

We're all in different stages of our spiritual growth.

So what does that mean?

That means we have to handle each other with the same mercy and the same grace.

That I also require that I have to understand where you are in your growth.

Once I was there that.

And then, when we don't understand that and we start judging other people's maturity and level of growth.

Do you know that?

Then you go back to where you started and then you start acting petty and immature and then, guess what?

God's got to do a work on you and then, well, now you're behind them the mercy and the grace that we share with each other.

I said this last week that Jesus said the new commandment that I give to you is love each other and and God and God will be shown through that love to the world, that how we treat each other and the grace and the mercy that we show each other.

People will understand that grace and mercy, because if you talk to somebody who is far from God or has never accepted God or doesn't want anything to do with God, they don't understand what mercy and grace is.

We are to be that light and example by how we treat each other.

That, yes, you are messing up, yes, you're not doing right, but guess what?

I once messed up, I once did wrong.

I have to pray every day for forgiveness because in the dark crevices of my heart, god is still changing me, because we are sinful creatures.

I know people like to say oh well, I'm a good person.

When you talk about God, they say I'm a good person.

But actually the Bible says that all of us are born into sin, that the heart of man is evil.

You do not have to teach a toddler how to lie or punch someone or to say that's my toy and be selfish.

That is something that is naturally instilled in them.

That's why we all need the grace and mercy of God, because some of us right now are still toddlers, we're still drinking the milk, but guess what?

God has more for you?

Start to dig and to pray every single day.

I have trained myself.

Every morning, when I wake up, I am on the throne room with God.

I am praying immediately when I wake up.

Why?

Because I want God's presence to set the tone of my day.

I want the word of God.

If I have time in the mornings, every morning I work out and I don't watch something on my computer like I normally do, like I normally did.

Now I am having my Bible read to me.

I'm going through devotions.

Why?

Because I think that we need to get back to the Bible.

It's basic stuff.

You accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior and then you're on your way to get off the milk.

Because we got to start having some meat-filled Christians, because our immaturity will ruin the message of Jesus Christ.

The way we treat each other can make somebody not want to come to church.

I said last week I don't know who knows somebody, but I'm sure we all do that has been hurt in the church house.

That comes from immaturity, and if you hurt someone, the Bible says that you are to go right then Stop.

You can be at the altar, stop what you were doing and go find them and make it right.

Because he said that if you do not forgive them, you yourself will not be forgiven.

And you have to understand that sometimes in their immaturity, where they are right there, they will not be asking for your forgiveness.

But that release, that forgiveness, is not for them, it's for you.

You have to let that go.

You have to release that into the air and give it to God.

You have to say Holy Spirit, come and swipe this clean, make this new God, renew me, refresh me, and the very person that you had issues with you can be the witness and the love that they needed.

When you go through something, especially trauma or issues with somebody, you end up getting closer to them than you ever had before.

1 Corinthians 13, 11 says when I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I understood like a child, and now I'm a man, I do not act like a child anymore.

Write this on your heart.

So let the harmony with each other be a part of your growth process, because it is a process.

This does not happen overnight.

Nobody just wakes up and they're six foot tall, except for, maybe, brother rusty.

I don't know what happened.

I'm still praying for my growth spurt.

Step three is we have to yield to transformation.

Philippians 1.6,.

It says this I am sure that God, who began a good work in you, will keep on working in you to the day that Jesus Christ comes back.

You know what that means.

That means it is a constant process.

Means that means it is a constant process that we need to keep pursuing a level of maturity and love, with grace and mercy towards each other, so that the people out there can see who God really is, that we are the testimony of what God is, that, no matter what we go through, we bind together tighter than ever before, and that strengthens the testimony of Jesus Christ.

That means we're all constant processes.

Allow the Holy Spirit to do a full and complete work, like we read in the first verse A full and complete work.

Here's what's happening.

We want all the benefits of change without the growth pains.

I'll say it again we want all the benefits of the change without the pain of actually experiencing it.

We have a generation Now.

I say generation a day you read in the Bible.

They had the same issue that everybody wants stuff done for them and they don't want to have to work for it themselves.

This has been an issue since the beginning of time.

We want the benefits without the issue, without the trouble.

Does anyone remember as a kid you had growth pains, growing pains.

My cousin's son, he was telling me a couple of years ago he would get like in his legs.

He just would get like.

It felt like cramps.

He would be crying because he was growing too fast for his body to keep up and it was causing him serious issues.

He had to go to the doctor.

The doctor said it's just growing pains.

I can give you something for a little bit for the pain, but I mean it's just your body's growing.

You can't have growth without the pain.

You can't.

It's impossible.

We must trust and allow God to take his rightful place on the throne of our hearts to make him Lord of our lives.

We must submit to his will, to his way, and yield to his transformation, submit to his will.

Submit to his will.

Here's something that we do a lot.

We want the salvation of Jesus Christ, but we don't want to allow the lordship.

What's the difference?

Salvation, saved, all right.

Yes, bless the Lord.

Now I can go do what I want.

No, you have to now set your crown down at the feet of Jesus and give him the lordship of your life.

Submitting to God, that means we have to humble ourselves.

Humility is extremely significant in this process.

With this, you will understand that he is just like the good father lyrics, that he is perfect in all of his ways.

Though God made us in his image, we are not equivalent to him.

Only through the grace of God we are able to be saved.

Without him, we will get what we deserve death.

We must increase, but I must decrease.

John 3, 30.

We must yield to God's transformation so that true growth can happen.

Turn from who you used to be and chase after God with all of your heart.

When you start to mature, you begin to understand that there is a pruning process that needs to happen in your spirit and sometimes physically, that you need to cut the ties to who you used to be.

When Jesse and I got together, I got out of jail and I had some.

I had my own Facebook page and I had I don't know whatever the max is for Facebook.

I had 4,000, whatever it was friends on Facebook.

I got out of jail and the guy that I was in jail with, he sent me a message hey man, where's the party at?

So he had gotten out.

As soon as that happened, I said not today, devil, you ain't pulling me back.

I have been, on purpose, intentional about God pruning who I am, because if you hold on to the weight, if you let things weigh you down, the process for pruning is so that you will be able to grow.

If you keep that weight and you don't allow God and the Holy Spirit to prune you, you will be drugged down.

There has to be a pruning process.

There has to be Chase God with all that you got and never look back.

This is the part that is very difficult.

Step four stop seeing others as competitors.

We have in this, longview, texas and most other places too that I have been a part of and seen that churches see each other as competition.

I believe 100%.

That is against the word of God.

If you believe that Jesus Christ is the way, the truth and the life, then we're on the same side.

We are a team.

We are an extension of the body of Christ.

We need to be working together and stop worrying about stupid denomination.

We build up walls between churches.

The body of Christ is building up walls between each other.

This is immaturity.

This is selfishness.

We want our church to do this?

Oh, we're doing this.

Then we become us-centered instead of God-centered.

We have to decrease so that he can increase.

Stop looking at people as competitors.

You cannot run your race if you're focused on somebody else running Period.

Here's what I want everyone to really grasp that we are additions to each other, not subtractions.

If you are constantly in your growth process and you're looking at other people's growth process and seeing them as competitors, you will not grow the way God wants you to.

You can't look at others in the body of believers as competition.

We have to view each other as complementary.

It's so important that we know the difference.

We have to celebrate what God is doing in your neighbor's life, even when you don't feel like God's doing anything in yours.

That's hard to do.

It's hard to praise when you see other people just wallowing over in their blessings and you're like, lord, why not me?

Anybody ever got a new car, new house, new job?

All of a sudden they're not single anymore.

They go, hey, I got me a man, you know all that stuff.

And you're like, oh, it must be nice, must be real nice.

That's immaturity.

Stop focusing on what they got and dance with them.

I guarantee you, when you start getting happy and praising God for what someone else is doing, you forget about your own junk.

Then you start focusing on how good God is and then, before your eyes, the blessings that God has already given you have been restored and you can see, wow, I've got a lot more to be thankful for.

You want to stay in negativity and stay immature, start focusing on what you don't have.

But I guarantee you, every single person in here has blessings beyond what we deserve.

Beyond what we deserve because, because of our sinful nature, we deserve death.

Because, because of our sinful nature, we deserve death.

God is not.

God is not.

He wasn't created to give us things.

We were created to give him praise and glory.

We were created for his purpose, for us.

I thank god every day that he allowed me to be a part of that, because I do not deserve anything that God has blessed me with.

I don't deserve my child from a previous marriage to be living with me.

Do you know how rare that is For the father to have the child?

Do you know when that happened?

After we bought our first house, god set us up to where we wouldn't kill each other.

When Tristan moved in in a little apartment he had room to run around and guess what?

It's still a work in progress.

Our family is not perfect, but I know that in the depths of me being upset, confused, hurt I can start praising God for what he has given me and it will restore my joy every single time.

Romans 12, 15 says this Rejoice with those who rejoice and mourn with those who mourn.

It's time for the people of God to get off the milk, stop acting, grown and start eating some protein and become grown, being mature in Christ.

This is what I want to leave you with.

When you start maturing, you really start to understand that what you see is not always what's there.

Your eyes start seeing different, your heart starts feeling different, your eyes start seeing different.

Your heart starts feeling different, your mind starts thinking different.

The best example I can give of this?

I love Paul and the Bible and everything, but the best example I can give of this is when Jesus Christ was on the cross.

He was there because the people he loved put him there and, even through all of the pain and all of the suffering, and the people that he had been loving on and discipling didn't even come to see him die His closest people, his confidants.

And in his last moments he still chose to save someone he had on the one side.

It's like you ever heard the phrase you got the devil on one shoulder and the angel on the other shoulder trying to tell you what to do.

It literally was in this very last moment.

You had this guy just blasting Jesus, well, if you're really, really a son of God.

But then you had the other one that was saying Lord, I'm not even worthy, if you can just remember me.

He didn't even ask to go into heaven.

He said just remember me Just after you pass, just let me be on your mind.

In his last moments, the level of maturity, the level of love and compassion to, while in the midst of your destruction, he still loves you.

In the midst of your mess-ups, in the midst of your trials, he still cares and he still, wherever you are.

He still will come to you and he won't just remember you.

He will restore you, he will renew you, he'll give you your joy back.

If the devil can rob your joy and your purpose, he can destroy everything God has for you.

God wants to restore your joy.

God wants to renew your mind to where you can think clear again, to where you can really be who he's called you to be.

In his last moments, in his last moments, we were on his mind and even though he knew me, even though he knew who I was going to be, he still went and did it.

Someone so unworthy, with so much darkness, with so much hate.

I hated God, I hated my family, and he knew this and he still called me.

I don't care what your life has turned out to today.

God is not done with you.

I don't know where you are right now, but God is not finished, because I know that if he can remember me, he can remember you and that in the depths of our desert, he will still pour out that water every time and he will restore what the devil has tried to take and he will renew what the devil has tried to rob you from.

Devil has tried to take and he will renew what the devil's trying to rob you from.

He loves you that much that today he brought you here to hear this message.

He loves you that much that, no matter what you did, if it was up to last night, if it was this morning before you got to church, he loves you that much that he says all you have to do is say I'm sorry, please forgive me.

I want you to really start looking through the eyes of maturity towards those that are lost, and there's no more humbling experience for me to think about who I am or who I was, that I don't deserve it.

Who am I to say that someone else doesn't?

We have to be a church that goes out of our way and gets in uncomfortable positions to allow God to lead us to our purpose, positions to allow God to lead us to our purpose.

Stop looking at the circumstance.

Jesus had every right to look at the circumstance where he was at and he still was fulfilling his purpose to his last breath.

I want to challenge you.

Don't allow the devil to rob you of your purpose.

Sister Barbara, come up With every head bowed In the depths of my sin.

Sin in my lowest of lows was when God, really when I opened myself up and allowed God to do his work.

It took that for me.

Whatever you have done, wherever you have went, whoever you have hurt, ask God to forgive you.

Today, jesus Christ, his sole mission and purpose was to save that which is lost, to bring hope to the hopeless, life to the dying.

If you're under the sound of my voice here today and you do not know Jesus as your Lord and personal Savior, or maybe you have been slacking and you need God to restore who he has called you to be.

Whether you're here in person or online right now, I want you to just slip up your hand and say that's me, that's me, that's me, that's me, that's me.

I need that restoration.

I need God to come in and refill me, to renew me.

Lord Jesus, let your spirit fall in this place today.

I have an open altar policy as pastor of this church and if you ever need to come, it doesn't matter what time it is.

If you ever need to come to this altar.

You can come If you want to come down and you want us to pray with you up here at the front.

Come now, come now.

Don't allow one more moment for you to stay the same.

Allow Jesus to do his work.

Let him restore you, let him renew you.

God, we're so undeserving of you.

Yes, Jesus.

Yes, yes, jesus, yes, if we could ask people to come in front and pray.

If you don't believe, you're uncertain yourself, don't come up here.

We're going to pray with her.

If anybody else needs to come up for any reason, these altars are open.

Doesn't have to be for salvation.

If you just want to get some things right, or you're having trouble forgiving, or you need God to do a real work in you that you haven't let him do in a while.

God wants to bring us into a new season and a new level of maturity, but it starts with healing of our hearts, healing in our spirits and healing in our minds.

God, I pray over this church right now.

Lord, take us to new depths and new waters.

Let us trust in you, god, let us step out of the boat, willing to follow you wherever you lead.

If there's someone here, lord, that has not accepted you or is struggling with your salvation, lord, I pray that, holy, you reveal that to them right now, in the name of Jesus.

Reveal yourself to them right now, in the name of Jesus.

Let them open their hearts and their minds to you for correction, salvation and your love.

Lord, jesus, lord, we trust you, we believe in you.

We honor you today, lord.

There is no one like you, god.

Yes Jesus, yes Jesus, yes Jesus.

If you need something from God, don't let your pride hold you back.

Don't let your pride hold you back from what God's trying to do in your life.

Bring it to the altar of God.

Yes, Jesus, yes Jesus.

Yes, lord, do your work.

Holy Spirit, do your work.

Lord.

While the waters are stirring, we want to pray for those in the hospital.

Brother Vernon has COVID, sister Katrina and them.

They have family members that are sick, mateo and Jacob and we have other people that have family members that go to this church.

The doctors are not giving hope, but we serve a God that still heals.

We serve a God whose ears are not closed from his people's cry.

I want you to.

I want you today to not worry about anybody else, but cry out to God to heal our land.

He said, if my people will turn from their wicked ways, we have to have repentance in the church.

God, we cry out to you right now for Brother Vernon and for Odyssey.

Lord, I pray for all the families attached, for Kelly and Larry right now in the hospital.

Holy Spirit, come down, I rebuke that sickness that is trying to plague our land.

This land right here does not belong to the devil.

It belongs to the Lord.

And we declare right now, as it is in heaven Lord, let it be here, bring your Holy Spirit down, wrap your healing arms around them in the name of Jesus.

Let it be a miraculous thing that the doctors don't even understand, they can't figure it out, but we know that our God, once again, has stepped up and heard the cry of his children.

We are standing in the gap for them today.

Lord, let them be healed now, in the name of Jesus.

In the name of Jesus, we bind those spirits over them.

We cast them out.

In the name of Jesus.

We bind those spirits over them.

We cast them out.

In the name of Jesus.

Devil, you're a liar, you're a deceiver.

Lord Jesus, do only what you can do by your stripes.

We are healed, not we might be, not we could be, but we are healed.

I declare right now a wave of healing coming over Longview, texas, that we believe, right here at this church, that it was because your children cried out and we spoke out against this evil.

We rebuke it in the name of Jesus.

You don't have a place here anymore.

We rebuke it and you don't have a choice but to flee God.

We trust you even when we don't understand.

We trust you even when we don't understand.

We trust you even when we don't see you.

We trust you even when we don't feel you.

We know that your purpose is above anything we can fathom and that your will will be done.

We stand on your word and your promises.

Yes, your word and your promises.

Yes.

Yes, if anybody else needs anything.

The Bible says that if we gather together and we ask anything in his name, it will be done, and I believe it.

I'm foolish enough just to believe that God's going to do exactly what he said.

I believe that whatever the Bible says, it is God inspired word of God, and God is not a liar.