Spiritual Growth Part 5: When God Calls You to Uncomfortable Growth

Welcome to the Lone Star Church podcast.

Pastors CF and Nicole Rady are here to share the Word of God with you each week, helping you grasp the fullness of God's plan for your life.

We hope you'll be blessed by this week's message.

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I go back to and I shared this story first service, and I've shared it before.

And so when, oh boy, maybe 12 years ago, nicole and I and the church has really grown in the last 10, 12 years, and so the church wasn't what it is today, and so we weren't in a place that I felt comfortable financially to make certain decisions, to step out.

And so we had a lady in town, her son and daughter-in-law had had a house built and they were moving actually to go on the mission field.

And so she called me it's back when your phone number was in the book and they could call your phone.

We sat down.

We got a phone back there at church and we sat down Chad goes, I haven't seen one of those things in a long time, right.

And so she called me and she said CF, I was just, I had you and Nicole on my heart.

She goes, you know the kids are moving.

I said yeah, I heard that she goes.

Would you guys be interested in buying their home?

And I asked what they were offering and she told me and I said you know, I just don't think we're in a place we could do that.

And so we did Fast forward eight years or whatever it was eight, 10 years we bought that home, the very home she called me about and said I had you on my heart, would you be interested?

I didn't think we're in a place financially that we could do it.

I look back on that Once we bought that home.

I look back and I see God was trying to get me not to take a foolish step, but a step of faith.

And if we would have stepped out I mean, when God tells you to step out, just like Peter out of the boat, when he tells you to step out, there's what Provision he will provide where he tells you to step, but sometimes it's a step of faith and it's uncomfortable on your flesh.

But sometimes it's a step of faith and it's uncomfortable on your flesh.

So let me tell you I didn't step out in faith.

I did.

Years later.

You know what that cost me $40,000.

Got anyone else in here made $40,000 mistake Not stepping out in faith.

I know that's a pretty big chunk of change.

I'd like to know what my mortgage would be if I would have stepped out back then, $40,000 less.

And so I shared that with that woman I saw at Walmart this last week.

I said.

I just want you to know.

That made an impression in my life and I've used that story numerous times to tell people about stepping out in faith.

And she started to tear up and just thanked me and shook my hand and I was glad I had an opportunity to see her and share that with her.

But the reason I share that story is we all need to understand there are going to be times God's going to ask us to get a little uncomfortable in what we do, whether it's in our giving, whether it's in our serving, whatever it is.

There are times, right, andrew works out with Bo, right, and Andrew it was great we shared some stories at their wedding and their parents shared and Andrew's mom had spoken that they knew.

Gracie was the one when he started missing workouts and eating cheat meals because he likes to exercise and take care of his body and everything.

Well, how do you know?

You can't look like Andrew lifting two and a half pound dumbbells.

There's got to be what, right Cole majored in this.

There's got to be some resistance, and so if you want to grow spiritually, we're going to continue talking about that day.

There are times you've got to push the limits a little bit right, you've got to push your spiritual muscles to the point of exhaustion, to the point where you think it's going to fail, because you'll never get bigger, stronger spiritually, just like you won't, naturally, if you're never stepping out and pushing the envelope sometimes Amen, out and pushing the envelope, sometimes Amen.

And we are talking about growing up spiritually, right, and it's interesting when we talk about growing up.

You know, when you're younger, you always want to grow up and I think, especially if maybe you're the youngest right, there's just something maybe about that youngest child.

Right, I've got a 12-year-old and she wants to be 20, right, she wants to be like her older sister.

Well, lucy could do this, and it's like Lucy's 17 years old.

She wasn't doing this when she was 12.

And right, those young ones, they want to grow up and kids always want to grow up.

You remember when you were a teenager.

Anyone remember?

Can you remember that far?

Maybe you are one now, but, right, if you're an adult and you remember when you're a teenager, you remember gets point like I can't wait till I grow up, I get out of this house, I'm going to have my own place, I'm going to have my own food, I'm going to have my own stuff.

Well the thing, when you're thinking about that, you know what you don't think about.

I'm going to have to pay for my own house.

I'm going to have to pay for my own food I'm going to have to pay for my own gas.

I'm going to have to pay for my own insurance.

You want to grow up.

Until you realize what comes with growing up, how many kids don't have.

What A care in the world it.

That's why my kids just look at stuff and, like all of them, just walk in she goes.

I think we should go here for vacation.

Okay, where is that?

Oh, the Greek Isles.

Yeah, we should take a yacht out there.

Okay, all right.

Yeah, or Branson Right, okay, that's good.

But kids don't think about that, right, they never think about money.

When you were a child, did you ever think about money other than you just wish you had a little more to go do something, but you don't think about what anything costs.

With growth and maturity comes responsibility, and the same is true spiritually.

As we grow spiritually, there are responsibilities.

And the thing is just, as you were never meant to be a child, the rest of your life, naturally you are not meant to be in that childhood stage spiritually.

So what comes when I grow spiritually?

Responsibility.

Responsibility as a believer, responsibility at my church, responsibility to things of God, to what he's called me to do.

And what does your flesh not like?

Responsibility?

I know your flesh doesn't want responsibility.

Your flesh just wants to push it off on other people.

They'll do it, someone will take care of it.

There's got to be maturity, amen.

So let's go over to Ephesians, chapter 4.

Ephesians 4 · chapter mention

And this is where we have been reading, talking about growing up, ephesians 4.

And I believe we will start in verse 11, ephesians 4, 11.

So Paul, writing to the church at Ephesus, and he says and he himself if you notice those, he and himself are capitalized.

So he's talking about Jesus gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, pastors and teachers.

So these are the five ministry gifts that we see mentioned in the Bible.

And it says why were ministry gifts given?

Verse 12 tells us for the equipping of the saints.

How many know you need equipped.

You need equipped right If you were to join the military.

Right, if you were to join the military.

You don't go in.

They're like so did you bring all your stuff?

What?

You got your boots, you got your gun, you got your helmet, you got your.

No, what happens?

And I've watched some of those videos where they go into basic and everything.

Man, one of the things they do that first day is they go through this room and they're getting all their equipment, they're getting all their clothes, they're getting all the stuff they need.

Well, you need equipped to do what God's called you to do.

And so for the equipping of the saints, that's why pastors exist, teachers, prophets, evangelists and apostles, to equip you not only that, to equip you for the work of the ministry, but for the edifying or building up of the body of Christ.

Till we all look at this, come to unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.

So the Bible says right, you need to grow up.

Why?

So you can be just like Jesus.

I remember when I was a kid I wanted to be just like my dad man.

I'd see my dad do stuff.

I'm like man.

I want to be like my dad, my dad.

He wasn't a tall man, but my dad was a big, big like.

His hands were huge.

He worked with his hands when he was younger and he wasn't big, but he had just these.

If he shook your hand he could break your hand.

And at Christmas time my mom would always have these bowls of nuts and my dad would pick up walnuts and just crack them with his hand.

He didn't need the little fancy nutcracker, he just cracked them with his hand.

I remember my sister, ramona right, she was a few years older than me and one time a boy was over and he was a big football player, big right.

And he's sitting there at the table.

My dad's just eating nuts.

I think he did it on purpose, right?

Just cracking these nuts with his hand.

Letting that kid know this would be your head.

You mess with my daughter.

I saw that boy.

I'll never forget.

I saw that boy.

He's got both hands and he could never crack those nuts.

I remember when I was a kid I'm like man, I'm going to be like my dad.

I get older, I'm going to crack nuts.

I don't have my dad's hands.

In fact I inherited one of his rings.

I could take his ring, put it on my thumb and turn it over and it'd fall right off my thumb.

So I've never been able to do that, but I always wanted to be like him.

I'd see him do things.

It's why I wave at every car I pass, because my dad waved at every car he passed.

I ride with my son.

You know what he does he waves at every car he passes.

So, as a Christian right, I want to be just like my father God, just like Jesus.

He says that's our measurement that shows growth.

Am I like Jesus?

Remember back in the day?

However many years ago I think it was back in the 90s it started the WWJD, little Bracelets.

What Would Jesus Do?

What's that saying?

I want to be just like Jesus, I want to be just like my Savior.

So he says that's part of growth, trying to be like Jesus.

But then look at what it says in verse 14, that we should no longer be children tossed to and fro, carried away with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, cunning, craftiness and deceitful plotting.

You know what's sad?

That there are people that still try to trick you today and they'll come, sometimes in the name of Jesus, saying they're Christians, saying they're in ministry, saying they're doing something, and it's all about trying to trick you.

But guess what?

Grownups aren't as easily tricked as children.

That's why you need to have spiritual growth Verse 15,.

But speaking the truth in love, that you would grow up, everybody say grow up, grow up in all things, into him, right in Christ, who is the head.

And so we see Paul gives us this edict that there are ministry gifts in this world and they exist to help you grow up Because you, just like you, were born naturally.

You were born again spiritually, but you were never meant to stay a baby Right Again.

If you could see in the spiritual realm, could you imagine if you could see the spiritual maturity of people, if you could just look and see it, how amazed would you be that some people would be like, look at that guy.

He came into church, he's got a pacifier, he's wearing a pull-up.

You can see that naturally, whether people grow up or not, but spiritually we're supposed to grow up.

You would think it strange if someone walked in.

We've got all the crazy stuff going on in the world today, but you would think it strange if someone walked in and they had a pacifier in their mouth and they're an adult.

You'd be like, hey, check that guy out.

They had a pacifier in their mouth and they're an adult, right.

You'd be like, hey, check that guy out, right, if you're out somewhere you're at the mall or you're somewhere you're like you've all done that, right, you've seen some straight check that out, what.

That 30-year-old guy's got a pacifier in his mouth.

What is wrong with you, right?

And he bends over to tie his shoes and you're like he's wearing a pull-up Winnie the Pooh, right?

You'd be like there's something wrong with that guy, right?

Not the pins.

He's got like Winnie the Pooh pull-ups on.

You're like there's something wrong.

Well, the same thing is true spiritually.

There's something wrong with us if we, after being born again for a number of years, are still so spiritually immature that someone always has to take care of us.

Someone has to feed us, someone has to pat our back, someone has to comfort us and all those things.

And so we're supposed to grow up, and one way we do that is we take care of what we're eating, what our diet is.

Again, people that are into health and fitness and my son is one of them he is very careful on what he puts in his body.

He has lived such a boring two years of college.

He doesn't eat pizza late at night.

I'd be like, oh, bo, now you're somewhere you can get pizza delivered late at night.

Do you do that?

He goes no, you haven't done that.

Like once, just once, bo, just once.

No, I eat chicken.

I eat rice, right.

I eat potatoes, right.

It's that I got home yesterday from being gone and he'd been home fixing food and on my counter was his little scale that he measures his food with.

He is very particular on what he puts in his body.

As Christians, we need to be very particular on what we're feeding on.

Jesus, you don't have to turn there.

But in Matthew 4, verse 4, you know this.

Matthew 4:4

This is the temptation of Jesus.

Jesus, when tempted by the devil, said man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.

Right, so man does not live by bread alone.

So what are we supposed to be?

Living on?

The Word of God, you've got to get the right diet, and so the right diet is, of course, the entire Word of God.

But in particular as believers, especially as we're growing, one place we probably need to spend a lot of time feeding is in the New Testament.

So the Old Testament was written for us.

The New Testament, especially the epistles, those letters that come after Acts, are written to us.

They're the only books of the Bible that were written to born-again, spirit-filled believers, and Paul especially.

And we also see Peter and James and John and Paul especially, and we also see Peter and James and John, but those gentlemen spend a lot of time teaching people that are born again how to live by the Spirit, how to grow spiritually, how to do these things that we know we're supposed to do, and so they're great instruction to new believers and so a good place to spend time.

If you really want to say, okay, I'm going to start getting in the Word, a good place to feed on is 1 Corinthians, chapter 13, and the whole book of 1 John, which is a very short book.

1 Corinthians 13 · chapter mention

So both those places 1 Corinthians 13 and 1 John talk a lot about and you see this one word in those passages love.

And so when we say, what would Jesus do?

Well, what Jesus would do is he would walk in love, and so we're called to walk in love, and if I want to walk in love, then we need to be able to feed on those chapters and those writings about love.

So let's go to 1 Corinthians 13.

Praise the Lord.

This is scripture in a passage.

I read it at the wedding last week.

Right, you hear this at a lot of weddings, you hear this around Valentine's time, and verse four is where we'll start and it says look at this, look at how it starts.

Love suffers long.

How many of you are excited about suffering long?

How many of you are like you?

Know what I really want to do this week?

I want to suffer long.

That's a New King James word.

What it means is love is patient.

Other translations say love is patient.

I'm sure no one in here, because you all right, you go to church at Lone Star and you really are in your work.

I'm sure no one in here has ever lost their patience, right?

You ever lost your patience with anything, with your kids, when you're driving.

I'm pretty good with my patience when I drive around Bethany.

When I get in Kansas City Sometimes I got to check my love walk Right.

Love is patient.

Love suffers long.

Love is kind, it's nice.

Love does not envy, does not parade itself, it's not puffed up.

Love does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, not provoke Thanks, no evil.

Verse six love does not rejoice in iniquity but rejoices in the truth.

Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Then verse 8 says love never fails.

And so we'll look at this.

Let's go ahead and look at this in the amplified version.

So let's look at those same verses in the amplified.

So the amplified version.

Pastor Mark says it's the woman's version because it's a lot wordier than the other versions.

He can say those things.

So look at this in the Amplified, verse 4.

Love endures long and is impatient and kind.

Love never is envious nor boils over with jealousy.

It's not boastful or vainglorious.

Does not display itself haughtily envious, nor boils over with jealousy.

It's not boastful or vainglorious, does not display itself haughtily.

Love, it is not conceited arrogant or inflated with pride.

It's not rude or unmannerly, does not act unbecomingly Love God's love in us does not insist on its own rights or its own way, for it's not self-seeking, it's not touchy or fretful or resentful, takes no, no account of an evil done to it.

It pays no attention to a suffered wrong.

And so let's concentrate right.

We talk about being patient, being kind, not being rude, not being unmannerly.

But let's look at this there in verse 5 in the Amplify Love does not insist on its own rights.

Other translations talk about love always puts the other person first.

So think about this.

I think Americans may struggle more with this than people in other countries.

Why?

Because we have rights that people in other countries don't have.

How many times have you heard someone as American say man, you can't make me do that.

I got rights, brother.

Let me tell you I got rights.

I'm an American.

I know the First Amendment.

You want to be like okay, quote it to me.

I know I can say stuff.

That's all I know it says.

I know the second I can have a gun right.

Those are my rights.

And so we always want to say something.

You know something else you have the right to do.

You have the right to remain silent.

Sometimes love remains silent.

Amen.

Because just because you're an American, just because you can say something, doesn't mean you should say something.

Anyone ever got in trouble because of their mouth?

Oh yeah, I was glad to see Carrie put her hand up.

I know she did Right.

We've all been there.

We've all gotten in trouble because of words we say.

And so many times, how about this?

The older you get, have there been times when you're like in your mind, you're like I probably just shouldn't say anything back, I should probably just walk away from this.

And then what do you do?

That American blood starts boiling right around the 4th of July.

You start thinking about it.

You're like man, I'm going to throw some tea in the bay, we're going to fire shots.

I'm going to fight because I'm an American and you just say that little something You're like oh, how do you know?

Sometimes a small little word can light a fire.

That's why the Bible says your words ensnare you.

James said right, your words steer your life Like the rudder on a ship, like the bit in a horse's mouth, when you all go to leave.

Think about this Mature Christians watch their words when you go to leave.

You go to leave today.

If you went out and got in your car and someone had taken your steering wheel out, would you still start it and try to go home?

Man, I'm just going to mash on the gas, see where we go.

You wouldn't drive a car without a steering wheel.

Why?

Because you never know where it's going.

Well, if you don't watch your words and make sure they're in love, you're like driving a car without a steering wheel.

Look at this.

Love takes no account of an evil done to it, pays no attention to a suffered wrong.

It's not touchy, it's not fretful.

What's that mean?

It means love is not easily offended.

If you are easily offended, if you are easily offended, can I tell you something?

You are spiritually immature.

Let me read you.

Just in the last couple weeks, some friends of mine that are pastors their wives have put something online talking about offense, and I took screenshots of both of them because I was thinking about this chapter in the Bible talking about growing up spiritually.

Love doesn't.

How many of you know you have to take offense.

To be offended.

Just because someone says something to you doesn't mean you have to take offense to it.

You still have to take offense to it.

Someone can walk right up to you and go you're ugly.

Okay, I don't like you.

Okay, right, you can choose not to take offense to those words.

If anyone ever walks up to you and says this hey, I don't mean to offend you, but the words that follow that are always going to be offensive.

No one says I don't mean to offend you, but your hair looks great today.

I don't mean to offend you, but, man, have you lost weight?

I don't mean to offend you, but I like your shoes, those are not the words that follow.

So if someone walks up to you and says can I tell you something?

Okay, I don't want to offend you, but get ready.

Right, get ready.

I had a guy I hadn't seen in a long time and I saw him.

I mean it had been a long time and I saw him and he goes man, you've gained some weight.

I mean it'd be like 15 years.

I'm like I'm not 30 anymore.

I have gained some weight.

He goes, man, you've really gained some weight.

Yeah, I go, I appreciate that.

So I've also lost a little hair.

I said can I tell you some things about yourself now?

Right, how many don't right you?

You can get offended about that.

I'll never forget the first time I started to get a little thin.

Back here I was coaching junior high boys basketball and some kids were behind me.

They go hey, coach, you're starting to get a little bald spot back here.

I said I appreciate that, fellas, get on the line.

Right, we're going to run, but right, you can choose not to take offense to things.

And the older I've gotten, the better I have gotten at not taking offense to things.

And so listen to these words.

So my friend Pastor Ray Goodgian, his wife Kim, put this online.

How many of you know, there are still good things online every once in a while.

She put God never leads through offense.

Right Offense Decisions we make based on offense will be wrong and keep us out of the will of God.

And so this is what offense is it's annoyance or resentment brought about by a perceived insult.

It's perceived insult.

And then she said offense will make you hear things that aren't said and believe things that aren't true.

Offense will make you hear things that aren't said and believe things that aren't true.

You ever hear something that isn't what someone said and then you get offended by it.

Someone says something you're like you call me fat, you call me stupid, you call me ugly, you call me like.

No, I wasn't saying that at all.

But what happened?

You heard something that wasn't said.

You thought something that wasn't true.

And so then another friend of mine, jody Carsten he and his wife Tanya passed her up in Michigan.

She had wrote this a few weeks ago.

She said what happens if someone allows offense, anger and bitterness to camp out in their heart.

They become a prisoner of their own making.

They let the emotions call the shots.

They block the flow of what God wants to do in their life.

So if you allow offense to happen in your life, you block the flow of what God wants to do in your life.

Too many people are addicted to self-pity, always talking about their problem, always finding a reason to complain.

You know anyone like that.

Hopefully it's not you, but that shouldn't be right.

If I'm a mature Christian, I should not be addicted to self-pity, always talking about my problems, always find a reason to complain.

I was talking to a dad yesterday at the softball games and he'd been, his younger daughter had been playing and he came.

He said oh, I'm a little late because I was going to the car and one of the umpires was there.

And I just said hey, how are you doing today?

He goes.

The guy talked to me like 10 minutes about all his problems.

Don't get addicted to self-pity.

Don't spend all your time talking about the problem.

Here's the thing, and I like what she said.

She said guess what?

Everybody has a story, everyone has a problem.

Everyone has been hurt.

I know you are not the only person who's ever been hurt at church, who's ever been hurt by a spouse, who's ever been hurt by a friend.

You're not the only person who's ever been hurt in life.

You're not the only person that has a problem.

Here's the amazing thing, right?

You ever tell your kids something like that.

What are you trying to get them to do?

Grow up?

Hey, what's going on?

You're not the only person that has a problem.

What are you trying to get them to do Grow up?

Hey, what's going on?

You're not the only person that has a problem, man.

We have had those discussions with our children.

You're not the only person.

Guess what we don't tell you.

Mom and dad are dealing with stuff.

What do you got Grow up right?

You're 17, you're 20, you're whatever she goes.

Here's the truth.

Truth self-pity is a trap.

Complaining is a limiter.

Bitterness is a thief.

God wants to elevate you and not just comfort you, but God can't bless what we refuse to surrender.

God can't bless what you refuse to surrender.

She, she goes.

Instead of saying look what they did to me, say, look what God is doing in me.

Instead of repeating the pain, declare the purpose.

Instead of staying stuck, stand up and move forward.

Your healing starts where your complaining ends.

Your breakthrough begins when bitterness ends.

What's that mean?

Grow up?

We want to wallow in all the stuff that's been done to us instead of just saying, okay, and here's the thing.

Can I be honest with you?

A lot of the stuff that's been done to us, a lot of it has come because of our own choices in life, because of things we've initiated, because things we've done.

I'm going to tell you something right now.

I'm going to tell you something right now there is no time machine.

There is no going back and changing what you did, but there is an opportunity to say from this day forward, I'm going to choose to do it this way.

You cannot change the past.

You can't alter what you said yesterday.

Have you ever said words and wish you could have just grabbed them when they updated the iPhones not long ago?

You can unsend a text If you catch it quick enough.

You can, and I've had some of those pop up on my phone Before I could read it.

It disappears.

Usually it's because someone's and I've been there.

Have you ever been sending five people texts and you send the wrong one to the wrong person?

You always hope it's benign.

Right that it's not serious.

Most of the time my thing is like picking up something at the store and I'll send it to someone.

They're like why did you just text me bananas and milk?

Oh, that was meant for Nicole.

I'm sorry, I didn't right.

Hopefully it's not some deep, dark secret that you text.

I'm going to say right now, just don't text deep, dark secrets.

In fact, bo, the other day was filling out financial aid material and he texted me.

He goes hey, I need your social security number.

And so I called him.

He goes I knew you'd call me.

I said that's right, I'm not going to text you my social security number.

I don't know where your phone's going to be the next few weeks, so take care of that.

But we have to realize offense, taking offense to things, is a sign of immaturity.

Mature people can realize I'm going to choose to walk in love.

I'm going to do all these things.

When it talks about love here it's talking about the God kind of love.

I'm going to choose to do all those things.

We're going to read a few more scriptures in 1 John.

So let's go over to 1 John, chapter 3, and then we're going to close out here and then next week we're going to continue talking about growing up.

1 John 3 · chapter mention

We'll see if we can wrap it up next week.

1 John, chapter 3 and verse 14.

1 John 3 · chapter mention

I like what he says here.

He says we know how many of you can know some things.

Amen, we know that we have passed from death into life.

Why, how do you know that you're born again.

How do you know you've passed from death to life?

He says because we love the brethren, because we love each other, because we walk in love.

Amen, that's how I can know that I'm a Christian.

That's how other people, in fact Jesus, in the Gospel of John, jesus said people are going to know you because you love each other.

He didn't say people are going to know that you're a believer because you have one of those Jesus fish on the back of your car, because you have an I love Jesus bumper sticker, because you wear an I love Jesus t-shirt, because you have I love Jesus bracelets, because you wear an I love Jesus hat, but because you have an I love Jesus profile picture on your Facebook or whatever.

He says no, they're going to know you're one of my followers because you walk in love.

You know what's amazing about that.

That shows maturity, but it shows you that there are going to be times in life that people are looking and you know how they're going to know if you're a Christian or not, how you respond to a situation.

Did they respond in love or did they not respond in love?

Let's all be honest.

Are there times that we should respond in love that we don't Yep.

What do we do?

We ask forgiveness.

If we can go back and mend that situation, we do it.

Brother Hagin used to say it this way, and I've told numerous people this you can't control anybody else.

I can't control whether anyone else walks in love towards me.

I can't control my wife.

I can't even and I'm not saying this in a bad way I can't control whether my children respond in love to me or not.

I can discipline my children.

I can do things, but I can't control whether my children respond in love to me or not.

I can discipline my children.

I can do things, but I can't control whether they respond in love.

But who can I control Me, brother Hagen?

You say it this way I don't care what anyone else does, I'm going to choose to walk in love and you'll see great growth in that.

Amen.

In 1 John 2, verse 5, what's he say?

1 John 2:5

He says but he that keeps his word in him is the love of God perfected.

The love of God is perfected in that person.

So you see that throughout 1 John talking about God's love, you know the Bible says if you're a born-again believer, the love of God has already been shed abroad in your heart.

So guess what you don't need to do about a situation God, just give me more love.

To love this person at work, or to love this person?

No, you don't need more love.

What you need to learn to do is to walk in the love that's already been placed on the inside of you and then grow in love.

How many of you can grow in love?

Here's the amazing thing.

You know what Andrew and Gracie would probably tell you right now we couldn't love each other any more than we do.

Right, just got married, just got back from their honeymoon, we couldn't love each other anymore.

Can I tell you something?

Almost 30 years of marriage, nicole and I have grown in love.

Why?

Because you realize you get to the point where that love you have at the beginning that is so full of all these emotions and all this other stuff, you get to the point you realize we can't live off that kind of love.

Why?

Because there's going to come a time.

There's going to come a time he's going to walk in and she's moved something in the house or done something different.

She squeezed his toothpaste right from the middle.

Oh man, you know how Nicole and I walk in love with our toothpaste.

We have separate tubes and mine looks like it just came from the store.

There's no toothpaste, gum stuff around the end and it's perfectly flat.

Hers looks like the Incredible Hulk just came in and squeezed it right in the middle.

There's toothpaste everywhere Probably not even a cap on it in her drawer.

But I love her.

But you know what that emotional, feel-good kind of love fades when things start happening.

Worst thing you can ever do, andrew, I'm gonna give you a little marriage advice today.

Worst thing you can ever do as a husband is look at your wife when she's doing something, probably in the kitchen or with the house, and say you know, my mom didn't do it that way, that's not how my mom fixed that, that's not how my mom did things.

My wife let me know pretty quick, she is not my mother.

Praise the Lord.

But you grow in love.

But you've got to feed on love and so God's nature is love and as his child we're supposed to have that same love nature in us.

Brother Hagin said this.

He said I'm thoroughly convinced that if every Christian would read in first Corinthians, chapter 13, and the book of first John and live there, stay there for a little while he said it would only be a little time until they'd be so different they'd have to pinch themselves and say is that even me?

1 Corinthians 13 · chapter mention

But if we don't walk in love right?

Love seeks not its own way.

Babies always seek their own.

How do we know?

Naturally and spiritually speaking, a baby's always saying mommy, johnny took my toy, susie took my doll.

I was at the ball fields the other day and little kids just run up to their parents they took my ball, they did this, they did this.

All that is is strife and quarreling.

And guess what?

Quarreling in your home doesn't bring any kind of peace.

The babyhood condition in the church can be remedied only by the study and the feeding upon and putting into practice the Word of God.

And a good place to start is in those epistles and especially reading about love.

And so if God is love and we know he is love, so when we read that chapter and we hear things like love is patient, love is kind.

So could we also say God is patient, god is kind.

What if we did this?

What if we put our own name in there?

Cf is patient, god is kind.

What if we did this?

What if we put our own name in there.

Cf is patient, cf is kind.

You know what that does.

When I read the Bible that way, when I read 1 Corinthians 13 that way, it really starts to get me in the mindset of I can walk and walk, I can be patient, I can be kind.

Your personality, just because you're like, oh, my personality, my flesh tends to this, doesn't mean that's who God created you to be.

Who'd God create you to be like Jesus?

Jesus came in the flesh.

He didn't just come down as God and he was just perfect and like.

Oh, of course, jesus never lost his temper.

He was Jesus, jesus never.

You read some of the things Jesus, he's with his disciples and he's telling them hey, this is what's going on.

They're like Jesus, you're going to do this.

He's like I, literally just, I mean, if I was Jesus I would say it differently, right, because he'd tell them things He'd spend all this time.

He'd say, hey, this is God, love you God.

This They'd be like but what about this, jesus?

Right, if it was us, we'd be doing these faces, fellas.

Hey, let's look, john.

Pull up what you wrote yesterday.

Get your notes out, john.

Did I not say that yesterday, fellas?

Pay attention, fellas.

This is important, but Jesus never did that.

Do you ever see?

We see correction at times we see him correct the disciples, but it's always done how In love?

In fact, peter denies him three times, says he doesn't even know who Jesus is before he goes to the cross.

And as soon as Jesus gets resurrected he comes back and he restores Peter back.

He doesn't say Peter, you're a horrible person.

I wish I could use you to do ministry now, but I can't use you because you made a mistake.

You told people you didn't even know me when they arrested me.

You ran and hid, be gone.

Can't use Peter, mark, peter can't use him anymore.

Nope, he came back and he forgave him and he loved on him and he restored him.

And who preached the message on the day of Pentecost?

Peter did?

Head of the church in Jerusalem, peter, what would love do?

That's the question you need to ask yourself when you're dealing with situations.

What would love do?

Amen, amen.

When you're dealing with situations, what would love do?

Amen?

Thank you for tuning in to the Lone Star Church podcast.

We hope this week's message strengthened your faith in God's word.

Remember, if you live in Northwest Missouri or Southern Iowa, we invite you to join us in person on a Sunday morning.

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