1 John 2:12-14 | Your Spiritual Growth Plan

This is City Post Church, we're about three things, build

equipped and send all under the lordship of Jesus Christ, a

small Church Plant in Fort Worth Texas, who decided to do things

a little differently. I would almost I had to Crystal,

I love City Post because of the people.

It's where I belong, we truly preach the word.

I love City Post because of the community.

We've been able to build to do ministry.

Like Jesus perlite to push back Darkness.

This is City, Post podcast. We see that John pretty much

tells us like if you hate your brother then you don't have

light in you but if you love your brother and sister then you

do have light in you. So there's something wrong with

you that if there's something that there's something in the

family of God or somebody you hate, then you're not really

showing that light that you claim to have.

So before we jump into verse 12, you know, one of the biggest

differences between Rachel and myself.

I know Rachel just gave me that look.

Is that Rachel? Prefers Walmart pick up and I

prefer to go inside a Walmart. Anybody else one more pick up,

people kind of sort of Yeah. Like rachhloves.

Walmart, pick up. So she's like Rica.

I need to go. Pick up warm right now.

I'm like I can't stand it because you wait.

I'm like, by the time I go inside, get all my stuff pay for

it. Leave this little boy is coming

out with my bags and he got half of it wrong.

You know what I mean? Like, like would you prefer?

I was like, man. Just get in the car.

I don't know, I didn't order this so I don't mind like going

inside like I actually prefer to go inside the craziness.

So, I'm the guy that Parks far away from like everybody and I

like, take you to write. I like taking Livy with me,

because everybody is likely be so cute.

So it brings a lot of attention to us and your legs and your

baby is like, yeah, thank you, baby.

And then we go, I'll buy aisle, I give Livy the stuff that we're

going to buy. She looks at it, she throws it

in the back. I mean this is like Game.

And there was one instance, he was one time where we were at

Walmart and like I said, we like we just go through the aisles

and we see a child kind of not getting his way, you know, like,

there's a little change from storming up here.

I'll have you guys ever seen this in public somewhere.

Last my kid, right? And, and I do what every normal

person would do. Stop.

Now they go. What's going on?

And I turned the car with Livy and I pretend I'm like shopping

because I want to see this thing go down and like I don't even

need soy sauce, I'm just like pretending and I was like, I got

to see how this thing pans out, because this kid is brewing and

I he's mad because his mom won't let them buy some, I don't know,

they were Oreos or something like that and then he starts

crying and he starts kind of yelling a little bit and mom is

like, Do you want a consequence? And I was like, you kind of tell

the race, right? So so it's like she's trying to

like negotiate with the child to stop making a scene.

And I'm standing there and I'm like watching this whole thing

go down. Yeah, exactly.

We're going to the bathroom real quick, right by and and the

whole time, this kids crying and live.

He looks at me and he and living is like, kind of like freaked

out a little bit and leave, he's like, Daddy.

Crying that he crying and I was like I know living but you're

not like that, you're better. And I was like so but what's

Wild is I stopped to check it out because I want to see what's

going to go down. But like nobody else did people

just kept walking and they just like, minding their own business

except me and like just going around and I realize that, you

know, tantrums and stuff like that way kids, it's kind of

normal. Why?

Because they're kids, they're toddlers.

You know, they're learning to deal with their emotions their

they're trying to figure that stuff out.

And as parents, we help them walk through that.

We help them manage their Tantrums, we help them say no,

no, don't do that. Do this instead?

Now what if it was an adult doing that?

Hold on a second real quick, I got to see what's going on.

Can you imagine if there was like a grown woman or man?

Getting upset with somebody that they couldn't buy cookies and

they start just crying. And like, this is not fair, I

want to talk to the manager, you know, all that stuff.

But like that's, that's weird. And that causes people to stop

and stare a little been like, are you okay?

Like this is not a, this is there something wrong here,

what's the difference? Because for a child, it's kind

of normal because of their age. Their developmental cognitive

structure at that moment. But for an adult, it's odd, you

should act that immature, you shouldn't throw a tantrum over

cookies. And what we're going to see in

first John, is that John is saying.

Listen, I know you guys are believers.

I know you guys are saved, but there's levels of development

when it comes to our spiritual lives.

So you don't just stay a baby Christian for all of these

years. Like that's not normal, there's

something wrong there. If you're like, five ten years

in and you're still drinking milk of the word and you're not

eating meat yet, there's something wrong.

And John is going to hit a pause button in the book of First,

John, and say. Okay, let's do a quick Vibe,

check here. Let's, let's see where you guys

are at. Let's see where everything is

kind of falling in line. So this is where we're starting

off with. Look at verse 12.

So verse 12 John is giving this verse of reassurance.

So until from first John chapter 1 till now it's all been black

1 John 1 · chapter mention

and white it's all been either. Walk in the light are you

walking the darkness you're either part of the family of God

or the family is saying you either.

You do what Jesus says or you don't you're either a believer

of Jesus or you're not a Believer.

There's no light gray area. It's like if you do, if you

believe in Christ, you do what he says, is that simple?

You Yo, and if you don't believe in Christ, you don't do what he

says. Now, I understand now, John here

is giving this verse of reassurance because we know that

you cannot live out the word of God.

You cannot leave everything perfectly because we live in a

sinful World. We're still in our sinful

nature, but is the holy spirit that lives in us and through us,

if we are believers of Christ. So what John is giving us here

in verse 12, he's giving us some reassurance.

How do we know he's talking to Believers?

Well, look what it says in verse 12.

I am writing to you dear children.

Now we got to look at some definitions because the the

Greek word here in children is Tech Nia Tech.

Nia actually means born ones, so he's calling those who are born

of. So he's talking to those who are

born again, John is going to use the word children again.

In verse 14, but he's used. He uses a different Greek word

and we're going to get into that here in a sec.

So who he's saying is, I'm writing to you now.

John says the word I'm writing to you in the book of First John

like 13 times so he's he's being super intentional, he's like,

hey, I'm writing to you those who are born again.

The born ones, those who are in Christ.

So this is for those who are in Jesus and he gives us this

reassurance because of your sins.

You have been forgiven on account of his name, man.

So listen. If you can't live the Christian

Life, perfectly congratulations, you've taken the first step of a

meeting that you can't do it, but he can write.

So we we rely on Christ to live perfectly through us but he's

letting you know like man. Listen, your sins have been

forgiven. You know, this word forgiving is

actually the same Greek word that they use for divorce.

The word divorce means to separate to disassociate to be

removed from, or taken away. And what he's saying is that

your sins have been removed away from you, how is that on the

account of whose name, the name of Jesus?

Why does John add that on account of his name?

So that way you can't take credit for it because it's not

on your own Merit or your own worthiness.

Only Jesus has the name that is able to forgive sins, his name.

Yeshua actually means Lord, I my salvation.

So what he's saying is that Jesus Removed our your sins,

he's taken the sins away. First Peter to I'm just going to

spit these out. So we could just move first.

Peter to chapter verse 24, says he himself bore our sins in his

body on the cross, so that way so that we might die to sins and

live for righteousness. But his wounds by his wounds,

you have been healed in First Corinthians chapter, 15 says he

made. Who knew no sin to become sin on

our behalf. So that way he might do that

way. We might become the

righteousness of God, see Jesus on the cross.

Did not become a sinner, don't get that Twisted.

He never sinned in his life, he became actual sin.

He became your sin and my sin. He bore our sin on his shoulders

so that way we can be forgiven on account of his name.

Praise God. So we go to verse 13.

So he's giving us this reassurance.

And then what Paul is going to? I mean what John is going to do

is he's going to give us three stages of spiritual growth in

these next. Couple of verses, he's going to

use the examples of fathers young men and little children.

Now, when he uses these terms, he means men and women.

He's just using those as an example.

So we want to make sure that we keep that in mind because he's

using these two to identify the three stages of spiritual growth

in God's family. Now, before we dive into

spiritual growth, I want to give us a couple of things so that

way we kind of tackle a few nuances, so under screen there's

like six The things that I want us to know about spiritual

growth real fast and I apologize that it's not up here if not you

can just just listen so quick, something quick about spiritual

growth so that way we know where we're going.

Number one, spiritual growth does not determine the believer

standing in grace before God. So if you are a born again,

believer, if you have faith in Jesus, That doesn't change God's

grace on your life, depending how mature you are or how

immature you are spiritually. You know, Isaiah 53 says that

when when Jesus was crushed on the cross, I believe that we

were then crushed by his grace. All of us are covered by the

grace of Christ, because of his work on the cross.

Number two, it does not affect God's love for believers, no

matter how mature or immature you are in your faith because

you surrendered your life to Christ and Christ lives in.

You, you are forever forgiven and God will forever love you.

There's nothing that you can do. That will separate you from the

love of God. That's Romans chapter 8.

Romans 8 · chapter mention

Nothing number three growth is not measured by a calendar.

So there's no timeline. When we talk about spiritual

growth, there's not hey, you've been a Christian for about two

years. You should be right here.

Like that's not how this works. So, there's no, that it doesn't

rely on a calendar number for its unrelated to the amount of

theological information. Believers know, it's unrelated

on the amount of theological information that Believers, no,

listen. I know a lot of people in

seminary that are still spiritual babies and just

because you took a systematic 1, 2 or 3 class, does it mean that

you are a father in the faith? So don't ever think just because

I don't know what these big terms are.

What this means that I'm spiritually malnourished, that's

not true. Number five has nothing

spiritual growth. Has nothing to do with outward.

Success in Ministry. Activity has nothing to do with

outward success in Ministry activity.

I actually look back in like Hebrews chapter 11.

Hebrews 11 · chapter mention

Where he, you know, and Hebrews 11 talks about the Hall of

Faith. But then he says that there's

some people who were sodden to, who were like, living in holes

were running who were persecuted, and then there were

some people who healed, who brought people to life, who did

these amazing things for Christ? And what God does.

He looks at both of them. He says, and both of them were

faithful. It doesn't matter what your

ministry outwardly. Looks like, it's not about

numbers. It's not about influence.

Spiritual growth has nothing to do with that.

And then, the last one spiritual growth is not mystical.

It's not sentimental and it's not psychological has nothing to

do with emotions as nothing to do with.

You know, I'm able to cry during the service or I raise my hands,

but he don't raise his hand. So I'm more spiritual than he is

or like, have you heard how he prays during dinner?

He's more than mine. Ricky, doesn't pray a long time

for food. He must not be that ritual.

Any trying to get spiritually, we're trying to eat, you know,

like praying the morning. Pray at night, you know, like,

like, chill out. I know.

I was like, you finally got a crowd or what, like, so it's,

you know, so has nothing to do with those items.

So then let's look at spiritual growth.

So there's three words that I think will help us to remember.

And what we're going to do is we're going to start at the top

based on chapters. I mean, verse 13.

So look at verse 13, he begins, he goes, I'm writing to you

father's because you know who, you know, him who is from the

beginning. So we're starting from the top.

So, this stage, I like to call intimacy, the intimacy, the

intimacy, stage, the intimacy stage, these are the spiritual

fathers. Like these are like the

spiritual. Oh, geez.

You know? Like, they've been around.

They've, they've like, have some experience.

Some of them walk with a little bit of a limp because of life,

these are the ones that have followed Christ.

So they're not merely understanding Doctrine at this

level. They've actually gone past the

intellectual understanding of Doctrine, and they've gotten to

know, Christ, intimately. They spend time with Jesus.

They follow the lord, they walk in faith.

They stand on an island by themselves.

They look at God's word and they're like, man, you know

what? Like, if I want to be great, I'm

going to serve. If I want to be wealthy, I need

to give, I need to. So, they live their life.

Based off of scripture, they manage their families.

Well, sin bothers them. See.

These are all signs of a father. How do we know this?

Because look at verse 3, he says because you know him who is from

the very beginning and John chapter 1, he brings it all

John 1 · chapter mention

back, he goes in the beginning was the word and the Word was

God and word was with God. Genesis 1 in the beginning.

God. You see that's different than

I'm getting to know this being. No, this is God from the very,

very beginning. So they have anchored their

lives on biblical Doctrine. But also with that comes

experience because of severe trials and tribulations and they

still find joy in the Lord. See for them, like they're not

all about just chilling through life, like they don't rely on.

Like I need. I need a job in Ministry in

order to mature. They don't care about that.

All they care about is being with Jesus.

That's the intimacy level right there.

That's getting to know. And and what John is telling us,

he's like, this is the top level.

This is where we want to strive to be an in biblical leadership,

all Elders strive to be this level.

Ville as a pastor. This is the level I need to

strive to get to. We all need to strive to this

level. So the first one is intimacy

stage. These are the fathers.

The second one, I like to call the Infantry stage.

These are the young men infantry stage.

We like manrique. Why do you say infantry?

That's kind of like War. Well, yeah, because they're

ready to fight. Look what it says.

I'm writing to you young men because you have overcome the

evil one. So what he's telling them there

is, yeah, he overcome the evil one, but then further down, he

says, I write to you again. Young men, because you are

strong, the word of God lives in you, and you have overcome the

evil one. So how do you overcome the evil

one? The word of God Lives in You?

And if you want to overcome the evil, when you don't just sit

around and you just wait for him to come get you.

You're not setting up booby traps.

Like this is not Goonies. When you overcome the evil one,

you are on the offense. You are going, you are going and

blowing. You're fighting, you are looking

to push the darkness back. So, what John is telling us,

he's like, man, this stage because you're strong and the

word of God Lives in. You, You have overcome the evil

and listen. These are all welded together,

they're not separated. So, if you are in this middle

stage, you are in this info infantry stage, that means that

God's word is in you and because God's word is in, you, you are

then strong and you have overcome the evil one.

If God's word is not in you, there's it's impossible for you

to do any of this. So you've got to know God's word

and that's what he's getting too.

So you might not have experienced some, some pretty

interesting stuff, maybe your experiences have not been

mature, maybe, you don't know like super sound Doctrine.

But what you do know causes you to move and it causes you to go

forward and it causes you to want Christ to more.

See at this level, you have outgrown your childish,

self-absorbed absorbtion of like my feelings, and what I want in

life and what God owes me, like, that's something that a child

says in this level, it's more. We're pushing this thing.

Forward. I'm ready to defend, I'm ready

to like get to work like you should be out of love at this

level. You should be at a point where

like just going to church is not enough.

Like I need more. I want to get involved.

I want to serve. I want to do something like,

there's got to be something in you that stirs.

And if that's you, then you're at that infantry stage, you're

ready to go, you're in the game. And then you last thing, I'll

say about this is that you refute error and you guard the

truth. The way that you were a few

errors and guard the truth. How do you think you overcome

the evil one by accepting everything?

You know, somebody who said and this stuck with me, you know

that saying if you give someone an inch, they take a foot.

Looks like if you give Satan an inch she'll take your legacy.

Skim a little bit and watch your life get destroyed right before

your eyes. See, that's why you're on the

offensive. So that way you fight the evil.

When you overcome the evil one, you don't give them an inch.

You don't give them a foot, you don't give them any ground in

your life and the way that you guard.

That's what truth. And then the last one is the

infancy stage. So we have an intimacy stage,

which is for the father's. We have an infantry stage, which

is for the young men or women. And then we look at the infancy

stage, which is for children. So, where do we get this from?

Look at verse 13. And I'm sorry, verse 14 and

verse 14. John says I write to you dear

children because you know the father so that word for children

is different from the word in verse 12.

This word is actually Padilla which denotes more specific more

specifically, young children. So these are the kids, these are

the toddlers in verse 14. These are the ones that still

need. Parental instruction.

And, you know, like with Elena and Livia, I don't just let them

choose their dinner. I don't let them decide whether

they want to take a shower or not.

I don't let them like decide what time they want to go to

bed. I don't let them have the phone

whenever they want it. That's up to the uncles and the

g. India whale has they get to do

all that, but Mom and Dad don't Why?

Because we have their best at, at him, we want to see them grow

healthy. We want to see them do great

things and they're to Padilla in order to make those decisions.

They're too ignorant or Too Young.

They don't know. So, little children in the

faith, they have a basic awareness of God.

They know that they're in a relationship with God, but they

don't know what Dad's doing. It's like Livi.

She doesn't know what I do for work.

She knows that I goes to work. When I get home she's like hey

so how was your direct reports meeting today?

That's wonderful. Did the budget to come out.

Okay. How's the interviews?

Like she don't know. She's like that is home.

Let's play like, that's all she knows.

She knows that I went to work and I came home because she

doesn't have that cognitive understanding it because she's

Padilla, she still Sooyoung. And for believers that are still

in their infancy stage. They know God, they gave their

life to Christ their young in the faith, but they don't know

everything that Dad does yet. They're still in that wondering

like man. How are the characteristics of

God? How do these things work?

And hear me? There's nothing wrong with that.

Listen, you gave your life to Christ.

You have been forgiven and freed.

That's what you need right now. But our hope is that you grow in

your faith and you don't just stay in one place.

Now, there's two reasons. Why Believers are in the infancy

stage. Number one, you just came to

know Christ. So these might be folks that

might have just like gotten baptized or just about to get

baptized maybe made a decision a while ago, but you're still

trying to like figure out what to do next and listen That's

okay, this is good. But number two is kind of sad,

another reason. Why Believers stays in this is

because they just never been under Biblical teaching Maybe

you came from a church that did a terrible job teaching the

Bible. Have the T-shirt, maybe?

You just haven't been discipled yet so you don't know what God's

word says. You don't know what this looks

like. You have no idea what it looks

like to do missions. And you don't know what it looks

like. The pray for people and you're

still trying to figure it out and listen if that's you good.

Like, this is great news. Because there's room to grow.

So, you must grow as a Believer, but I will say, if you've been a

follower of Christ for a long time, and you're still in this

infancy stage, you know, the great tragedy here is that if

you're failing to grow and mature spiritually, you're

missing out on all of God's blessings, There's some things

that that you get to experience when you walk in faith.

There's some blessings and privilege that God has reserved

for those who will take him on, who will get intimate with him,

who will like, put everything else aside and say, Lord, I am

going to follow you regardless of what people said, my family

might hate on me. My job, my hate on me.

I might get made fun of somebody might break up with me, but God,

I'm, I'm following you now. In that moment right there.

There's some blessings that you're going to experience that

a younger believer will never ever ever experience because

he's too scared to step out. So we want to get to that level.

We want to get past that level. So number one, we want to get to

that intimacy level. Those are the fathers of the

faith. Those are the grown, the O G's

of the faith and you can't get that without experience.

That's years of following Christ and getting to know him because

he's from the beginning. Number two is the Infantry stage

that young man like you know, just enough to be dangerous and

you're ready to go. You're ready to push, Darkness

back. Back.

You want to like tell everybody about your faith, you want to

get busy, you want to get involved and then you have the

infancy stage where you're still a baby Christian, you're still

trying to figure it out, you know, that you belong to Dad but

you don't know really what that does yet.

And for some of us, we just need to kind of take that step and

say, man, I need to grow, I need to get discipled, I need to to

get into Bible study, I need to do things.

So as we end I was thinking about growth and and I want to

leave you with three words that will help our awareness.

When it comes to growth, just three quick words, that will

help Tantrums Transitions and trials.

So I want you to be aware. So now that we are aware like,

hey, there's levels to this spiritual growth stuff.

So number one, be aware of spiritual spiritual Tantrums, be

aware of spiritual Tantrums. Usually, this happens in the

infancy stage, when you're young in the faith.

What our spiritual Tantrums. Well, what happens when a kid

doesn't get what he wants. They throw himself on the floor.

They make a mess. They're loud about it.

Well we had what we tend to do spiritually when we don't get

what we think we deserve or we don't think God came through for

us. We throw spiritual spiritual

tantrums and we say things like fine.

I'm just not going to go to church anymore then.

You know what? Like my life's not going.

The way I want to, so why should I come into this thing?

That's a spiritual change room, so you don't get your way you.

Stop going to church, you stay things like that.

Like God owes you something you might say like.

Well, God, like my kids are a mess Church didn't work.

So you know what? I'm done with it.

I'm like, no, your kids are a mess because you didn't work.

Because you were not in the Infantry.

You were not a father You ran away from it.

So your kids are not confused. And they're looking for guidance

and they don't know what to do all.

So childish behaviors in the spiritual infancy stage are

things when we start talking about the body of Christ, when

gossip comes when assumptions. Hit when you start ignoring,

those are things that kids do like, oh, she said this about

me. Oh, he said that stuff.

Childish childish, that's so childish.

It's not bad but it shows where you are spiritually and we got

to be careful because God is not the one that's not faithful.

He's always faithful. Our faith is just flaky.

There's a difference between us and God is faithful, and my

faith is flaky. That's an infancy stage.

So be aware of Tantrums. When you feel something inside,

we feel like upset, or like, something's not making sense to

you, instead of, just kind of dumping it out.

So Steven said, pray bring your anxieties to God, bring your

issues to God. There's so many times in life

where I'm like, Lord, I do. Don't get it.

Why in the world would you do this?

Why would you allow this to happen?

But it does not change how I serve him.

So bring your cares to Christ, bring all your worries, bring

your concerns. When there's people that do

stuff to you and you're not sure of men pray to God about them

and you're going to see God, do some amazing things.

So number one Tantrums be aware that number to be aware of

transitions. Be aware of Transitions listen

growth and development happen in the transitions of life, and

that means spiritual as well. If you notice Paul, I mean John.

So I talked about Paul weekend John.

There's transitions from father. I mean, from child to young,

man, to father, The growth happens in those Transitions and

we need to be careful that we don't miss manage our

transitions because that will impact where we land in our

growth. Like you can't overcome the evil

one until you have God's word in you that's a transition.

If you try to overcome the evil one without God's word and

without being firm in God's word, who do you think's going

to win? Not you, you're going into a

fight without training and you're not going to come out.

Well, you will not experience the Holy Spirit unless you start

taking a step of Faith, you can't experience the comforter

unless you're uncomfortable. Those are transitions. and when

we miss growth and we miss manage this, We end up stunning,

our growth. You can't jump from one extreme

to the next. You can't be like, yeah, I'm

safe. I'm going to go ahead and be a

missionary in South Africa, like Asia, I'll take will hold on.

Like, let's get you some training.

Let's get God's word in your life so that way you are

equipped to go. So we got to let God form us and

develop Us in Seasons. So that way you're able to

continue to move forward, And because for some of us, if God

were to give us that blessing, he has in store for us right now

and we're not prepared for it. That blessing would crush us.

Quickly. So, you have to let him

transition you into a season where you'll be ready to receive

what he has for you, but you got to let them do it.

You got to let him do it. So be aware of Tantrums

Transitions and the last thing is Trials.

Beware trials. You know what trials are I was

thinking about this trials are tools for sanctification.

Trials are a tool that God uses for sanctification.

You talk to these old-school men in the fade women in the faith

guys, I've been around. Many of them will look back in

their life and they're going to look at some really hard times

and they're not going to tell you how much how terrible that

was or not going to tell you what they're going to say is how

faithful God was during that time of trial.

I lost my family but God was faithful.

I lost my job, but God was awesome.

I got stabbed in the back, but God came through.

I didn't know how I was going to pay this bill but I stayed with

it and God provided I was about to quit in my in my struggle but

I stayed with it and look at my life now because of what God did

not anything you did. In the more mature, we are in

our faith. We start looking as trials, as

opportunities for God to shape us, and mold us instead of times

for we retreat. And there's times in our lives

where we need to run to him instead of us running away, you

know, Romans 5, we learned this in our Bible study, not only so

but we this is Romans 5:3 through five.

Romans 5:3

But we also glory in our sufferings because we know that

suffering, produces perseverance, perseverance

character and character hope and hope does not put us to shame

because God's love has been poured out into our hearts

through the Holy Spirit. Spirit who has been given to us?

See whenever suffering comes, when you have been in the faith,

you don't look at that situation.

Be like, man, this sucks right now.

I'm leaving. No, you look at that situation.

And you say, Lord, what are you doing right now?

This makes no sense. Help me understand?

And gods going to start building.

You informing you in a way that you would never ever experienced

him unless that happened. And then the last thing I'll say

will pray and be done. You know, I was thinking about

this. So for many of you guys man, I

got the other day. I was looking at my foot like, I

have a little limp right now and my heel is like super swollen.

That's not a good thing for you guys that are wondering.

So like it hurts like you just stepped on a Lego this whole

time. And I realize there's a

difference between growth and a swell because both of them are

big, both of them, come up. Both of my look, nice

physically. But growth requires resistance

requires tearing of the muscle. It requires replenishment

nutrition, that develops growth. And also, you know, what helps

with growth recovery? You got to let that thing, rest,

you know what causes a swell. Is when something is pulling on

your ligaments, but even though you see growth there, it doesn't

function properly. I see growth on my foot.

That's great, but I can't even walk straight right now, that's

not how I should function. I can't run it hurts.

But you see the difference is one is created by health and one

is created by her. And if you don't manage growth

correctly, you're going to think that you're growing.

You're going to think that things are big, but honestly,

you don't have girls. You just got to swell and it's

not going to be healthy. And there's going to be hurt

tied to that. And guys, I'm not just talking

about normal life. This is ministry as well.

The amount of pastors that I've seen, leave the church, leave

the faith. This last couple of years has

just been astonishing and here Ministries are growing like

they're driving, their churches are huge, but you see, they

didn't have girls, they just had a swell because it wasn't

healthy, but the ones that stay in the game, the ones that are

long, the that stayed the the sustainability.

That's a Healthy Growth right there.

So I was trying to encourage you this with the last slide so

Stevie go and throw it up there, why don't we just grow together?

You don't have to do this by yourself.

That's we have a church so whatever level you're at whether

you're in the baby steps, why do you know the young man?

Hey I'm here to tell you we're all going to do this together.

All going to grow together. So we're going to get through

the pain together. We're going to call out the

swells together. We're gonna we're gonna grow

together. It's gonna be awesome.

And we're going to celebrate it with each other once, we hit

those levels of spiritual maturity, it's going to be

great. Let me pray for us and then

we'll have a time of worship and response.

Father, we love you and we thank you so much Lord.

We thank you because you have been so faithful to us.

And Lord, I pray for those in this room, whatever level

they're at. God, we praise you because they

found you, we praise you because they've been forgiven and we

praise you because you are at work.

So Lord, I pray that you help us to manage our spiritual growth.

That we don't see things through the eyes of the world, but we

see things through our spiritual lenses.

Help us to manage growth father and Lord, I pray that you help

us to manage. Our Tantrums are transitions and

our trials. So Jesus, we praise you your

name. We pray all these things in