Sunday Service

Take a hike. Amen.

On the 21st of June, that's a Saturday, you can see my wife, Sister Lorraine, for more information. She'll let you know. All women are encouraged and invited to come out. Okay? So, make sure you do. That's going to be awesome.

June 27th, it's a Friday night. It's going to be a couple's dinner right here at the church. You can see Sister Georgina Martinez for more information on that. She's right back there for the times and what to expect, but we're inviting all couples to come out and enjoy this night of fellowship and food with one another and the Lord.

And then lastly, June 29th, Sunday, June 29th, is our annual Royal Ranger barbecue. Amen. So, there's going to be some burgers, some dogs. I heard through the grapevine that they're having hot links this year as well. Praise God. So, I'm excited for that. So, on the 29th, come hungry and be ready. Make sure your wallet is full of money so that you can purchase this good food because when you do, it supports our Royal Ranger program. In fact, you don't even have to wait till that Sunday to pay for your meal. Today, after service, out under the front awning there, out the front doors, our rangers are going to be set up and you can do pre-orders right now. Okay? And what we're going to be praying is that what you pre-order, God multiplies upon that. And when you come on that next Sunday, you're so hungry that you have to buy more. Praise God. Hallelujah. Amen. You know somebody who can't afford a burger, buy one for them. Fill their belly, right? Be a nice brother or sister, a good godly brother or sister. And at the same time, you're pumping finances into our Royal Ranger program. That is a viable ministry in this church that raises boys into men of God. Can we give our Rangers a round of applause? Come on. Hallelujah. Amen.

I don't know if the crew got my text back there, but okay, you got it. Praise God. Amen. Folks, I am blessed. I'm tired, but I'm blessed. Yesterday, a bunch of us were here all day and we were here for about half the day on Friday. But like I said, it was an amazing reason for us to be here. This is a good tired. It's like the tired that you feel when you spend all day at the beach with your family or all day walking around doing like 12 million steps at Disneyland, right? It's a good tired that next day when you wake up. In fact, this is a better tired than any of those things combined because when you're ministering for the Lord, right? And you experience that, oh man, it was hard to get up this morning and you just can't. You just keep yawning. You know that what you did the day before was worthy because it was for the kingdom. It was for the kingdom.

So again, continue praying for our young adults and get involved. If all you can do is pray for our young adults, you're doing a great thing. Because that right there, it's not all you can do. That's the best you can do for them is to pray for them. If you want to do a little more, talk to our young adult team. Talk to Josh or Jocelyn and see what you can do to help out this generation to rise up and take the reigns. Because you know, Pastor Wood used to say that people call them the church of tomorrow. They're not. They're the church of today. I mean, look at where our young adults are. They're working actively. We got a young adult upstairs watching our toddlers. We got young adults manning the booth in the back, running slides, running sound. Amen. We got young adults all over this church doing the work of many. They're not the church of tomorrow. They're the church of right now. And like Jason said, he feels lifted by them. We need to lift them up. That's our responsibility. The older men are to train up the younger men. The older women are to train up the younger women on how to be the men and women of God they're called to be. Amen. Amen. Praise God.

All right, that was your last commercial for the day. Let's jump into the word of God. Amen.

We started last week the series growing in grace. This is not a new topic. This is a topic that we need to be confronted with often. It is something that we need to have ever before us. Just like our mission and our vision that needs to be in our face, growing in Christ needs to be a constant thing that we think about and that we're active in. Growing in Christ, and the good thing is that we grow in the grace of Jesus Christ. We grow in the grace of God, which means that we have a covering over our lives to grow in. We are growing in an environment where we are protected from the things of this world by the Savior who died for us. Amen. And we're not only doing that, but we're growing in grace as a superpower. Because grace isn't just an environment that we live in. Grace is a power that we use, we utilize. The grace that was given to us through Christ, we give to others. The grace that Jesus had to have in order to die for a bunch of sinners, messed up knuckleheads like us. Now, we are empowered by his grace to utilize that grace to see others saved and brought to him. That's what we're called to do. We grow in his grace and we grow in the use of his grace.

Last week, we began talking about the church's desperate need for growth, not in size or numbers, but in scope and in strength. We talked about the importance of spiritual birth. Salvation is a beautiful and necessary thing. It's a beautiful and necessary event, but it is not the end all and the be all of our Christian experience. It is a starting point. It is a means to an end. Salvation leads to two very important things. Growth and maturity. Say that with me. Growth and maturity. One more time. Growth and maturity. That is important. Salvation opens the door for you to do those two things, to grow and mature in Christ. Salvation is beautiful and it's necessary. It's wonderful and it's an event that we will always remember. However, it is a means to an end. Why? Because growth and maturity is God's plan for our life. God sometimes uses natural things. We talked about this last week to reveal spiritual parallels, right? So we see this spiritual plan of birth, growth and maturity in the physical lives of living things. For example, our kids, our children. We see this parallel in their lives. We expect a certain progression of growth in their lives. We even do our part as nurturers and caregivers to promote and fortify growth in their lives. We feed them good healthy foods. We make them get plenty of rest. We give them vitamins and supplements. How many of you grew up eating Flintstone vitamins? Remember those Flintstone kids, right? We're Flintstone kids, right? We grew up doing those things. Why? Because our parents cared about us. They didn't just throw a bunch of slop in front of us. They gave us good food. And on top of that, they gave us supplements, vitamins to enhance and to supplement. That's why they're called supplements, right? To add on to what we get from our foods. We sought out caregivers. We sought out pediatricians and doctors to ask what would be good for our kids, right? We kept them ever before doctors, getting them regular checkups because we would make sure that they're okay. We took them to the dentist so their teeth don't rot out of their head before they grow their adult ones, right? If their teeth are all crooked, we make them wear braces. We spend thousands of dollars to make sure that our kids are growing healthy and are doing well. We do everything we can to make sure they're growing. And here's the thing. I wish we cared that much about our spiritual growth as we do about our physical growth. Come on, folks. I mean, let's think about that. Most of the time, Christians in the 21st century, especially in the American church, what we're trying to do is survive. We're trying to just maintain the status quo. You're not called to maintain the status quo. You're not called to merely survive. You're called to thrive. Thriving is growing. Growing is thriving in the things of God. Amen.

It's real quiet in here. Did you guys give it all up during worship? I feel like I'mma fall asleep, but if you do, I'mma call you out. Praise God. Amen. My f Hey, you better be glad I'm not Pastor Aliano. My father and I used to call people out for falling asleep, walking out, going to the bathroom. Hey, hey, no, no, come back. Come. You can wait. You can wait. You better watch out. No, I'm just kidding. But here's the thing. I wish I really wish we cared that much about our spiritual growth as we do our physical growth. It seems that we put so much emphasis on physical growth, but we do the bare minimum when it comes to growing spiritually. There are folks who got saved years ago but have remained infants because either they chose not to grow or they don't know how to. That's not something that's really taught a lot in our churches. You know what's taught a lot in our churches? Prosperity. But it's the wrong type of prosperity. Churches have just become another pyramid get-rich scheme. It's all about you praying hard enough and being good enough for God that he blesses you with stuff. You know, you want to know what true prosperity is? Drawing ever closer to God and becoming more like Jesus. If that's the type of prosperity that needs to be preached, that's the type of prosperity I'm preaching. You want to call me a prosperity preacher, that's the prosperity I'm preaching. Drawing close to Jesus, becoming more like him, becoming rich in the things of God, not in the things of this world. Amen. But here we are doing the bare minimum. And we see folks who were saved years ago still remaining as infants because either they chose to or again they don't know how to grow. It's not taught as much as it should be. If I'm gonna say this, we, me and brother Dan, had a conversation about this the other day. In fact, we just talked about it this morning. If your knowledge of God today is the same as when you got saved, that's a problem. I know we don't like to hear stuff like that. I got like a half-hearted Amen. Amen. Right. If our knowledge of God is the same today, then when we first got saved, we're not growing. We're maintaining. We're surviving. We're doing the bare minimum so we can remain saved without growing into the disciple that we're called to be. Because that's what it's about, becoming disciples of Christ. God does not want to have his kingdom filled with a bunch of babies. Amen. As much as we love babies, and that's what we're going to talk about today. Babies are great. He does not want a kingdom filled with babies. Babies are cute, but they don't make good warriors. Babies are cute, but they don't make good teachers. In fact, if your baby's teaching you, there's a problem. Amen. Babies are cute. They're great. They bring us so much joy, but they are not good at doing things that mature adults are supposed to do. Could you imagine if babies filled our military? If babies filled our steel plants? If babies were making our cars? Are they making them out of tinker toys and Legos or what? No, sorry, not Legos. Those are too small. They might choke on them. Duplo. They're using Duplo. The big old chunky blocks, right? Lincoln logs. Come on, man. We don't want babies running the show. Babies, like salvation, is a starting point. One for physical life and the other for our spiritual life. We were designed to grow and mature. That's a fact. That process begins with salvation, with our spiritual birth, and it's perfected in discipleship. We were never meant to camp out on our salvation. It's not what we're supposed to be doing. We were always meant to move onward and upward from that point.

Need biblical proof? Well, let's look at it. We looked at it last week. This is our biblical standpoint. Our base scripture for this whole series. It should be right there up on the screen. It reads like this. Then we will no longer, everybody say no longer, we will no longer be infants tossed back and forth by the waves and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people and their deceitful schemes. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow. Everybody say, "We will grow." We will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is Christ. It's Ephesians chapter 4 and 15. Why am I using this scripture, folks? Jesus said, "Beware who you lend your ear to in these last days." Jesus said in these last days there's going to be a lot of false preachers and a lot of false prophets. I just talked about the fact that preachers are preaching more about prosperity in worldly goods and worldly things than they are in spiritual things. We've got churches that are just trying to get bigger in numbers. They're trying to grow in numbers and they're not really focusing on growing the people that God gave them. They're wanting to build something wide instead of build something deep. It's happening. And my man, my trust in the American church in the 21st century, and don't get all scared, I'm not becoming a deconstructionist or anything like that. I still put my faith in Jesus. I will always put my faith in Jesus. But the church, I don't even want to call the church of Jesus Christ because it's looking less and less like the church that Christ started in Acts. The church in the 21st century is failing and fading. We are losing rather than gaining. And that is not good. Why? Because we're not growing people. We're not growing Christians into mature men and women of God who are who are who know how to use the sword, who practice it daily, who are talking to God, who have an open communication with the Lord, not just in their prayer closet, but even in their daily times, even just throughout their day, they're walking and talking with the Lord. We're not growing people like that. We're focusing more on programs than we are on people. And people more and more are going to these churches because they have great programs for their kids, great programs for their youth, great programs for that. But are they growing? Are they growing? We need to grow. And it's my responsibility as the shepherd to also be a gardener. Now, I'm just going to let you know, I am not good at growing plants like real ones. That's my wife. But I'm good. God has called me to grow people. If I'm not growing you, then I am not doing my job. If I'm not preaching and educating you the way that God intends so that you are growing in your faith instead of just remaining stagnant and still, then I'm not doing my job. But if I'm doing that, then there's no excuse. There's no reason why we shouldn't be growing. Amen. That's what we're called to do. To grow. Growth is imperative in the Christian life. That means it's necessary. You can't do without it. It's an important journey that everyone should take. And the first step for us today is going to be one of self-discovery. So, I'm going to have you look in a mirror today as we discuss the indicators of immaturity. Right. A lot of times we don't like looking in the mirrors, right? We don't like looking in mirrors. We pass one and we purposely don't look in it because we know if you're the type of person like I am, you'll look you'll go exactly like straight to your flaws. I was talking about my workshop yesterday for the young adult conference was identity crisis, right? And I talked about, you know, who we think we are, who we are according to God, and who we're called to be once we realize that. Amen. And I am counting on you not to run away from your reflection. Listen to me. Do not run away from what's reflected back. If you don't like what you see, that means there needs to be a change. So what do you do? Instead of running away from the reflection, cry out to God and say, "Lord, help me change what I see." Come on, somebody. There should have been more amens than that. If you see the reflection and you don't like it, it reflects spiritual infancy and immaturity. You don't like that, don't run away. Cry out to Abba, Father, and say, "Help me change, God. Spiritual baby. You learning and growing. He's filling up your well that you can water out of. So when you get saved, you're supposed to be self-centered in a sense, not in a negative way, but a positive way. You're supposed to be feeding on God, being watered by God, growing in Christ so that you can then in turn give those things away. Amen. Everyone, he's a baby. Oh, it's a baby. Oh my god. Look at his tiny little fingers and his toes. And you smell them. Oh yeah, it smells like a baby. You know, babies have that smell, right? Don't make it creepy, but you know, right? Can I smell your baby? Can I please, please, please smell your baby? But you know when you hold the baby, the first thing you want to do is you just want to smell. They smell new. Anybody ever got drove a new car, you bought a new car, and you try so hard to keep that new car smell, and your kids come in with chicken nuggets. You're all, "Get them out of here. I like chicken nugget smell, too, but not in the car. I'm trying to hold on to the new car smell." Right? Babies are like that. You just they they give off this scent. You're like, "Oh, Pastor Matt, that's the Johnson and Johnson baby lotion." No, dude. Kids. It turns into that, but they just have this newness about them where everybody just feels drawn to them. Now, you see their chubby little legs and you just want to pinch them, you know, and you just you see yourself just falling to pieces with a little baby. I know I've said this before, but when I see babies, I always think of my dad. My dad loved babies. He liked them, too, when they were toddlers, but he liked them more when they were babies. There are so many pictures and so many images and so many videos of my dad with a little baby on his knee bouncing them and seeing my dad was hard. My dad literally, you've heard me talk about it if you peel back his cracked skin. Worked years as a mechanic. He worked in apricot cutting machines, tomato cutting machines. He was in the service. He worked on vehicles and machines within the army. His hands were basically destroyed by the time that he left this earth. I talked to you one time about him teaching me how to tie a silk tie. There was all kinds of silk threads coming all over because his rough old hands just ruined that tie. I still have it today. It's my favorite tie. But my dad was a hard guy. He was stern most of the time. He was talking through his teeth because we were doing something wrong. Boy, you better not do that right. You better stop that. I go, can dad even open his mouth? Right. But you put a baby in my dad's arms, he became the biggest goo-goo ga-ga in the world. He would melt like wax because he loved babies. We love babies. Think about how happy folks get when a person becomes born again. Let's talk about a spiritual baby. When somebody gets saved, born again, everybody in the church rallies around them. They congratulate them and they're offering themselves to help. You need a Bible. You need somebody to pray with you. Hey, if you're going through things, I'm available. Right? We're giving them our numbers and stuff like we want to be active with their growth because we're drawn to that newness of spiritual life. All those years of sin and heartache and all the prayers that have now been answered and this person who was once lost is now found. And we cannot help but be overjoyed in that. And the same is true for natural birth. All those months of pregnancy and the hours of labor labor has paid off. And here's this beautiful bundle of joy that everybody cannot stop just gushing over, right? Even the hardest person comes unglued when there's a baby to be pinched, right? Or there's a baby to be seen. So, we love babies. And what do babies

Do? Well, babies crave and require attention. They crave and require it. If you do not give attention to a baby, that baby will not grow healthy. In fact, some babies will perish if you ignore them. There was studies done on this, sadly. But babies require it. They don't just crave it or desire it. They absolutely need it. They eat up attention like milk in a bottle.

Sometimes we can give too much attention, right? You know what that's called? Some people like to say it's pampering. No, no, no, no, no. That's not pampering. When we give too much attention to a baby and they become toddlers and we continue that amount and maybe increase it, there's a word for that. It's called spoiling.

Isn't it funny how we will go overboard to spoil our kids, but if I took a milk carton from the back of your refrigerator that is months old and I asked you to drink it because it's spoiled, you don't want it. You turn your nose up at it. What do you do with spoiled milk? You dump it down the drain and throw the carton away. Maybe burn down the house if it's really bad, right? You don't want that. But yet, you're turning your kid into that rotten carton of milk. Come on, [Music] somebody. Right? We don't drink spoiled milk, but we love to spoil our babies. So, it's not called pampering, it's called spoiling. And it always ends up with the same result. You're busting your tail to keep that baby happy. And as a result, you create a little monster. You give that kid everything that they want. And when you run out of funds or you can't afford it, and you finally say no, they flip out on you. Come on.

So, yeah, some of this we can laugh at because we see them on the floor in Target and they're crying. The mom's dragging them by their arm like this, you know. Come on, little Johnny. Please stop crying. And they're uh, what was it called? Um, I forgot the name, but it's instead of telling your kid to get up, stop crying, you go now, what you're feeling is validated. I'm like, lady, I'm about I'm about to validate right now, right? When we finally say no, they don't even know what that word means. They just know that it means that they're not going to get what they want. And they throw a fit. They they they are creating we are creating little monsters. And that's not what we're supposed to do.

When we spoil our babies, right? We hold them all the time. You find yourself walking the floor night after night, baby in arms, because that child is used to being carried. You can't take a moment for yourself because that baby is used to being right next to you. If they can't see you or feel your arms, they start crying. You start keeping the baby in your bed. Can I tell you something? That is not good for your marriage to have a baby in your bed. I know I'm breaking some some some cultural norms here. Your baby, listen to me. I know your baby should not be in the bed with you. Number one, it's dangerous. Well-intentioned. Want to have the baby next to you? My wife's looking at me and she's giving me eyes right now. You can roll over on that baby. There's a story about it in the Bible with King Solomon who threatened to cut a baby in half because the two mothers were fighting over whose it really was. And the whole problem started when one of the mothers rolled over on her baby. You're doing it with with intentions that are good. But can I tell you something? Having a baby in your bed isn't just dangerous for the child. It's dangerous for the intimacy that you're supposed to be having as a husband and wife. I know we make sacrifices and we do those do those things, but you got to work towards making that baby independent as far as where he or she sleeps. I know some I may be getting some emails tomorrow. Are you an expert? You're not an expert. Who said it? You can tell me how to manage it. Save it. Call Dr. Phil. Okay. But I'm just telling you as a five-time parent, okay? I got some uh experience in this. It it it it's rough. And you start to create this child who needs to be right where you are every moment. And you never put that baby down in fear that that baby will cry and never stop.

There are some kids who cry and you feel like they're never going to stop. Anybody have any of those kids? I did. Right. You're too afraid to raise your hand. I see. I see you. But I see your looks. I see the gray streaks in your on your temples, right? See, you know what I'm talking about. You can't put that child down because if you do, they are going to freak out. And so, what you do is you perpetuate that problem. What's sad is that some Christians are the same way. They're constantly in need of someone to step in and take care of them. Now, don't get me wrong, we all need help sometimes. Even the most mature Christian adult needs help. That's where that's a true test of maturity, whether you ask for and receive help freely. Because remember, we're part of a body. The old saying goes, no man is an island. We're not called to do this by ourselves. We're called to be the body of Christ, and we are called to rely on one another when we need help. But a mark of immaturity is that you need somebody to do it for you all the time. All the time. If you've got 13-year-olds who cannot put two pieces of bread in a toaster and turn it into toast. If you've got a 13-year-old, and yes, my son's 13, but I'm not talking about him. I promise. I promise. Or maybe I am. No, I'm just kidding. If they can't make a simple grilled cheese, that's a problem. Mom, make me some cup of noodles. Make it yourself. You don't love me. Yes, I love you. That's why I'm telling you to make your cup of noodles yourself. I don't know how. Send them out in the backyard till they figure it out. Amen. Lock the door. Let me in. All right. We have to make moves to to to getting our kids to mature. We have to do that. We have to do that. It is imperative that we we we have our young Christians in an environment where they will grow.

Spiritual babies need someone there constantly to do everything for them. And when you don't, they get emotional. And here's the third subpoint over this first point here is that babies have little to no control over their emotions. Think about a an actual baby. Babies cry all the time. Babies giggle for no reasons. They grunt. They make all kinds of noises. Sometimes in the middle of the night when they're supposed to be sleeping and when you're supposed to be sleeping, they'll cry out in the middle of the night because they don't care. They don't have control over their emotions. They know that they need something and they're going to make noises and do whatever they can to get a hold of what they need. Babies also tend to get upset over the littlest things. Spiritual babies are the same way. Now, these are the ones not that are freshly saved. They're so focused on the newness of life in Christ that bad things are just they're just like things are falling apart. They're like, I don't care. I got the Lord, right? But babies who are spiritual babies on purpose, they get upset over everything. Everything offends them. Some kid some Christians must be handled with kid gloves, meaning they must be handled with more care than is usually required of somebody who's been saved as long as they have. They get offended over the smallest and dumbest things. And it seems like we're living in the age of offense. And it's not that people are going out of their way to offend others. It's that people are going out of their way to be offended. You can't say anything today without offending somebody. And then they take it a step further. They go on social media and tell everybody in the world about it. And then that person who was the offender, the big bad devil, they get, here's the word, cancelled. Amen. I can say whatever I want cuz I have nobody to get cancelled. Cancel me. I live canceled. Praise God. But you can't say anything. Folks, right now in jolly old England, there are literally laws to where if you post something that could be offensive to somebody, the police will show up at your house. On the low end, they will find you. On the higher end, you will spend time in jail in England. And don't sit here thinking, "Shit, I'm not in America because we have freedom." Let me tell you, it'll come. It'll come when one day you cannot say, "Well, we're we are protected by the Constitution." Are you kidding me? Do Do you Do you not know? Do you not have your ears to the ground that that some of our politicians who are up there in DC are actively working to remove certain things from our Constitution that gives us those protections? They're actively working. Right now there are people through media and you know what happens when you're when you are are are uh convicted in a court of public opinion. Sometimes it's even worse than being convicted by a judge, right? You could be deemed innocent by the law, but you're guilty through public opinion. You're still guilty. So there are people actively on social media talking about how the Constitution is for old times. These things are meant to be revised and and to a certain extent, yeah, but not like that. When it starts to etch away at the freedom that we have as citizens, that's where it gets dangerous. I'm not trying to jump into politics, but this is just an analogy, right? This is an analogy. So there are laws actively in in England. You think they're not going to come here to where you can't say anything to offend anybody without being threatened to spend time in jail or pay a fine that you can't afford. John Bevere, he wrote a book called The Bait of Satan. Anybody ever read that that book? I encourage you to read it. It's a good read. What is the bait of Satan? You know what bait the bait of Satan is? It's offense. Did you know that offense is relative? Offense is about you. It's about who you are and what you believe and how you feel about a certain thing. Some of you really, really, really love tacos. I love tacos. Al pastor. My favorite. Cababesa. Tacos. The caba. Conto meo. Cilantro. Right. All I love it. Some of you, if I said, "Tacos are horrible." You'd be like, "What'd you say? You'd be offended. You'd be offended. You would get upset." Now, I know that's like a trivial kind of I'm playing around with that, but there are certain things where if somebody said that they didn't like it or they felt a certain way about it and it was negative and you felt a certain way that was positive, you would get offended. So, what? I don't like Pastor Matt's preaching. Can I tell you something? I don't care. And I'm not trying to be mean. I'm not trying to be mean. And if you didn't like my preaching, you wouldn't be here, right? So, you're here. Praise God. So, I'm not talking to you. I'm talking to other people. No. But it doesn't matter. There's a part of me that'll go, "Ouch." Right? But then there's the rest of me that goes, "As long as I'm preaching Christ and him crucified, as long as I'm preaching Christ and him crucified and making a way straight for the people of God to come in contact with Christ and to follow him as I am, then I don't care if you like my preaching. I'm doing what God called me to do. I'm not here to entertain. I'm here to educate and enlighten through God's word." So, so, so I'm not going to get offended if you don't like my preaching. That's fine. If you can do a better job, please come. I'll share my pulpit with you. I'd love to do that. Right? But we get offended at everything. People are going out of their way to get offended. Listen, when you get offended, can I tell you something? Nothing really adverse happens to you. You don't wake up the next day with leprosy. Offense doesn't cause you to bleed. You don't bleed out and die. It's not going to give you a heart attack. Oh my god, I'm dying. They offended me. Who cares? Offense is the bait of Satan. Why? Because when we take offense, it gets in the way of us growing in Christ. It gets in the way of us drawing closer to our brother and sister who offended us. So, you know what the best thing you could do when you get offended? Give it to the Lord. Forgive and keep moving forward. Here's here's how you do that. They offended me. Did they do it on purpose? Did they know that what they said offended you? May maybe not. Or or maybe they're just upset today. Maybe they had a bad hair day. I don't know. I'm going to give them a wide margin of error today. I'm going to give them a margin of error. I'm going to I'm going to I'm going to act as if it was just a one-off thing. Now, if it continues, what are you supposed to do? Biblical uh conflict is handled by you going and talking to your brother and your sister and handling it. If that doesn't work, you bring it to the leaders. If that doesn't work, you bring it to the man of God, and the man of God helps you handle it. If that doesn't work, then you agree to disagree, and you love each other from a distance, but continue to work together because that's what Christ wants, right? Anything after that, get over it and keep moving forward. But see, Satan loves to dangle offense before you because he knows that if you bite, he's got you hooked. And that's all you can think about is being offended. I'm offended. I'm offended. So what? Are you dying? That's the favorite thing that dads say. Are you bleeding? Then you don't need a band-aid. Yeah, my mom gives me a band-aid. I'm not your mom, right? So, we got to get over it. Amen. We've got to spiritually mature.

So, here again, as we said, babies have little to no control over their emotions. You could see it, too. They live dual lives, folks. Right? You see them at church and they're like the Christian guy. And they get home and they're impossible to live with, impossible to deal with. At church, they're always praising, but at home they're always pouting. Right? At church, they're Mr. Good Guy. At home, they're Mr. Grouch. And the list goes on and on and on. We're not supposed to live dual lives. We're not supposed to not not be in control of our emotions, right? There's something called emotional intelligence that we all need. Self-control. Babies are naturally selfish. Did you know that? Now, babies, of course, that's okay because they can't do anything for themselves. They are naturally only concerned with self. I need to be fed. I need to be held. I need to be burped. I need to be changed. Like, yes, you do. You do need to be changed. They don't care who you are, what you do for a living, how old you are, what your status is, how experienced you are, and whatever it is you do. They need something, and you need to provide it. Babies do not care about your schedule or whether you feel like it or not, or whether you're having a bad day or a good day. They need and you provide. And if you don't, they cry. And some of them cry and cry and cry and cry. Babies are set to receive, not to give. Think about it. The only thing they can't do anything for themselves. The only thing that they can do is only a byproduct of their being. Babies provide joy. Again, everybody comes unglued. Oh, it's a baby. You know, they don't even do anything. They're just sitting there going, "All right, that's all they're doing. That's it. It's not a skill. Oh, I can move my arms. Look what I can do." And everybody's going, "Oh my god, look at it." The joy that you and I get from babies is a byproduct of them existing. I exist and people go, "Ah." Could you imagine if that still remained? You walk into a room, every that's what spiritual babies want. But these babies, they have to it has to be taken care of. Everything that they need needs to be handled by somebody else. But spiritual babies stay perpetually a baby or attempt to so that everybody can do everything for them for them and they have to do nothing which means they don't grow. They don't grow. If they're newly saved, then of course we're helping them to grow. But if they they've been saved for 10 years and they're still requiring constant care and provision from you, that's a problem. That's a sign of immaturity. Amen.

Point number two, spiritual babies emphasize arguments over action. The spiritually immature will constantly cause issues instead of do things to help. They will hinder rather than help. They will argue rather than cooperate because they're immature. They don't know how to cooperate. They've remained a baby who can't do anything for themselves. Envy, division, and strife are their main drives. It's like they cause problems wherever they go. Divi, let's look at that. Envy. Envy is a desire to have a quality, possession, or other desirable attribute belonging to somebody else. They want what that other person has, but they're not willing to do the work to get it. Ever seen that? The spiritually immature, they want to have what mature Christians have, but they're not willing to work to get it. So, what do they do? They talk smack about the ones who did the work. They talk ill against those who have what they wish they had. Division means disagreement between two or more groups typically producing tension or hostility. We know what division means. The spiritually uh immature spiritual perpetual spiritual babies wherever they go they cause division. They cause division. They get mad. And instead of talking to the person that they're having issues with, they go around that person and talk with everybody else. There's a word for that. It's called gossip. And that is a sin. Amen. And they don't think it's wrong. No, no, no. I was just going around asking to pray for the situation. Yeah, sure you were. You were going around gathering teammates to back you up. So when you come to the rumble, you got a whole bunch of warriors behind you. You weren't asking for prayer. You were gathering teammates. That's not right. That's division. And then strife in this context. It's the most underestimated sin in our lives. And what does it mean? Bitter, sometimes violent conflict or dissension. You dots. That's what strife is. Church. The spiritual spiritually immature will constantly vie for position. The spiritually mature will be like, "I don't care what my office is. I just want to serve the Lord. I don't care what I do. Whether it's cleaning toilets or picking trash up off the floor outside, I will do it for the kingdom of God." The spiritually immature says, "I want to be that guy." What guy? You know, that one. The one that calls the shots and sits back and watches everybody do the work while I kick back. That's what the spiritually immature does. Envy, division, strife. Now listen, here's a reminder so that we we remember. Length of salvation or popularity in the local church does not guarantee you a position of leadership. We'll say that again. Length of salvation doesn't matter how long you've been saved or popularity in the local church does not guarantee you a position of leadership within the church. You could be saved forever when that time you should have matured, but here you are still a baby. All you keep doing is shaking that rattle angrily at people who make you mad. And you think that you're called to be a leader. It doesn't even matter if you have tons of gifts that would make you qualified in any other circumstance as a leader. You are not emotionally intelligent. You practice no self-control. So that renders all of your giftings of leadership inert, powerless because you're still a baby. You're still a baby. Solid leadership capabilities, maturity, emotional intelligence, and ultimately God's call on your life. Those are the things that qualify you for leadership and for ministry. If you do not have those things, sit down. Amen. I know this is hard. It's hard. But we need to hear it. We need to hear it. Negative strife has no place in the kingdom. Notice how I'm talking about strife and there's a duality there, right? There's a dichotomy to strife. There's a there's a bad strife and there's a good strife. Usually when we say strife, it's the negative. The opposite side of that is to strive. Right? That gives you an idea of working hard. Strife is working against. Striving is working towards. So negative strife, listen. Negative strife has no place within the kingdom of God. We are not supposed to be fighting each other and vying for position. We're not supposed to be challenging our

Leaders: Every at every turn, questioning their authority and talking to other people. Why do they think, why, why are they in charge? They don't deserve to be in charge. Oh, if I could be a fly on the wall when I hear discussions like that, because I would quickly jump off the wall and fly up in their face and go, "Who are you? You think you have the qualities to be a leader? Then why aren't you leading?"

Pastor Woodard always told me, "You want to know if you're a leader?" Turn around and see if people are following you. If everywhere you go, people get behind you, they rally behind you. If all you have to say is, "You know what? I think we need to do this," and people are like, "Yeah, do it, man. Let's go. I'm with you," you're called to be a leader. Because they see in you somebody that they can trust. They see in you that when you take a step forward and they follow you, they're going to be all right. In fact, they may even prosper. Turn around and see if people are following you. If they are, then you're a leader. And then you got to ask, what kind of leader am I? Am I going to lead them to good things or am I going to lead them to bad things? Because you may have the gift of leadership on your life, the call to be a leader, but it's up to you to determine what kind of leader you're going to be. We all have the potential for great things. Some of you are called to be a leader, but you have to decide whether you're going to lead people to good things, to growth, or you're going to lead them to bad things, to immaturity. Amen.

So again, negative strife has no place in the kingdom. Vying, fighting for position is never good for the body. It only leads to disagreement, dissension, and division. When strife, in the negative context, occurs in the body, it's literally like watching little kids fight over shotgun in dad's car. I know this because my kids would almost resort to blows to sit in the front seat. I remember going to restaurants when my kids were little. They would literally fight for the seat next to me. "I'm sitting next to Dad." "No, no. I said in the car, I said I was sitting next to Dad." I'm like, "Why do you want to sit next to me? I'm the one who gets mad at you when you act up, until you better knock it." And I, I'm talking through my teeth like my dad. Oh my gosh. Right. "Why do you guys want to sit? Why you like me so much? Your mom's nicer than I am." Right. They want to sit next to me, fighting for position, shotgun position in dad's car. Now they don't even care. Whatever. But you would see them like pushing each other. "Dad, tell them." And I'm like, "Guys, if you guys don't get in this car right now, I don't care where you sit. I'm driving off. I'm going to leave you behind." Right? That's how we were. When we see that kind of strife in the negative, vying for position, trying to be this person and that person and fill this role and that role, it's like watching little kids do that very thing, trying to push each other out of the way.

For the spiritually mature, it's always easier to be a part of a negative faction than to get into some positive action. Oh, I like that. Should have been a rapper. Amen. It is m— Stop it, Noah. You're supposed to affirm me. I'm your father. Greatest rapper in the world. Amen. For the spiritually immature, it is so much easier and it's actually even more enjoyable for them because they're immature to get into some mischief, right? To get in some negative factions rather than be involved in positive actions. Actions that are going to cause growth. The spiritually immature doesn't know how to grow. So how are they going to positively affect somebody who does want to grow? A baby cannot teach somebody how to grow. A baby should not be in charge of teaching the parent how to parent. But you know what's happening in these days? Those babies are teaching us. They cry and we come right. Sometimes you got to let the baby cry for a little bit. It's their nap time. They're crying. Let them cry until they fall asleep. But I can't. "Do you hear them? They're terrified." And you come in and the baby's like, "Gotcha." Trained. Parents can be trained by their kids. Parents should not be trained by their kids. Parents should do the training. Babies should do the learning. Babies can't teach. The spiritually immature cannot teach maturity to other Christians. It doesn't work that way. So that's why it's easier for them to complain and and to get involved in that negativity and factions rather than do something that is positive and moves towards growth. It's always easier to complain about what's wrong and whose fault it is rather than to be a person who acts to make the situation better. Do not be a part of the problem, be a part of the solution. How can I be used to fix this negative circumstance instead of sitting back going, "Oh, I love to watch these things just crumble and fall like a villain." We're not villains, man. We're supposed to be in this together. And instead of nipping at each other, we're supposed to be building each other up and aiding each other, helping each other.

According to Galatians 5, chapter uh, chapter 5, 19-21, strife is an indicator of a life lived according to the sin nature. This is the chapter that we get the fruit of the spirit from. Before it talks about the fruit of the spirit, it talks about the sin nature. And strife is one of those components to an immature life, to a life lived for and by sin. Strife, negativity. Now, striving in the right context is something we should be doing together. What is the right context? Let's look at Philippians chapter 1:27. Right there on the screen, it says, "Whatever happens, I like that. Whatever." Everybody say, "Whatever happens." That means good or bad. Whatever happens, conduct yourself in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ. And then it moves on a little bit later on during that scripture. It says, "Standing firm in the one spirit, striving together as one for the faith of the gospel." Whatever happens, good or bad, we're supposed to strive together for what? For the sake of the gospel. We are not supposed to be at odds with each other. We are not supposed to be fighting against each other, striving against each other. We're supposed to be striving together for the sake of the gospel. Whatever happens, I love the next two words. Conduct yourself. Nobody else, nobody else can conduct you. You only have the power to conduct yourself and conduct yourself in a manner worthy of the gospel.

Let's look at Romans 15:5 and 6. It says, "May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you the same attitude of mind towards each other that Christ Jesus had, so that with one mind and one voice you may glorify the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ." Right here it gives you a mandate. That's a mandate. Look, look what it says. Let's go back to it. May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you the same attitude of mind towards each other that Christ Jesus had. You're supposed to think about each other and interact with one another the way that Jesus did, fueled by the love that Jesus had for you. This hearkens back to the scripture that Jesus said, "Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another." And it's by this love that the world will know that you are my what? Disciples. So God through Christ is telling you that you must be working with one another, striving together towards one holy goal rather than strife amongst you, working against each other. May the God who gives you endurance and encouragement give you the same attitude of mind towards each other that Christ Jesus had so that with one mind and one voice you may glorify the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ. It's all for his glory. When we strive against each other, that's anti-glory. You know what that calls on us? That calls ridicule on the family of God, on the body of Christ of which Christ is the head. When we fight amongst ourselves, we are marring the reputation of Jesus Christ who is supposed to be our Lord. Listen, anytime we fight against each other like this, we are marring the good name of Christianity. This is why people don't trust us in the 21st century. This is why. Because we've learned to fight against each other. Why? Because we're spiritually immature when we're supposed to be the opposite.

Last point this morning. Spiritual babies, this is the last indicator. Spiritual babies follow people rather than God. Spiritual babies follow people rather than God. You know, you have your favorite person in your church. You know, you have your favorite leader and in your mind, even though you don't want to say it with your lips, or maybe some of you have, you, you know why they're the best leader in your mind. And you know what? That's okay. Like we, we, we, we gravitate towards some people. Now listen, it doesn't make them the best leader. It just makes them the leader that you like for whatever reason. But see, that's what we do. We get that in our minds and we make them the best person. That is my leader. I remember somebody came to me and they said, this is when Pastor Woodard was still the pastor here. And they told me, "I follow you." And I go, "Oh no, you don't." They're like, "Well, you're my pastor." I go, "No, no, he's your pastor." I pointed to Pastor. He was preaching on the platform. I go, "That's your pastor. I'm your associate pastor. You want to follow me, you follow me because I'm following him and I'm following him because he's following Jesus." So, in essence, we're all following Jesus together. But I ain't nobody. He's the man of God and I'm his armor bearer. "You just told that to the wrong person. I'm telling on you." No, I'm just kidding. I didn't do that. I didn't do that. I never said anything like that to Pastor. I kept his confidence. But I, I use that as a, as a moment of instruction. This is not about factions. Somebody had the audacity to come to me and tell me that when they listened to my pastor preach, they didn't get fed. "I'm just not getting fed. I'm going to come to to your service." I go, "No, you're not." "Well, why not?" "Because you're not a young adult." This is when I was over the young adult ministry back in that with a young adult service called the Journey. I go, "These are, this is for young adults and young families, and you're not one." She was in her senior years, well into her senior years. She goes, "Yeah, but, but, but I, I, I'll get fed by you." I go, "No, you won't. You get fed by your pastor. He is the man of God. I said, "Sister, it's not that you're not being fed. It's that you're choosing not to eat what's being served to you. You're on a hunger fast. So, get your fork and get your knife and put your bib on and dig in." "I don't like broccoli." Too bad. Eat it. Right. My mom did an excellent job with us growing up. We ate what was on our plate. There was no menu given at dinnertime. There was no kids menu. Pizza was not an option unless we were all having pizza that night. "I don't like combination." Too bad. Pick it off if you don't like it and put it on my pizza. I'll eat it. Right. We got what my mom made. You get what you get and you don't throw a fit. Right? That's what we did. So guess what? I was, we were made to eat our peas, to eat our onions, to eat our spinach. I hated spinach. Now I love spinach. I don't care if it's steamed or or or cooked or raw. I love it. I love everything. There is rarely anything that you can slide in front of me on a plate that I want to go, "Oo, I want to try that." I will eat fish eyeballs, folks. I have no problem. You ever had a cricket? Crickets are good. Some people can't even handle menu though. Oh my god, that's gross. That's good. Chicharón. Oh, man. Come on. I love it. I love it. Why? Because I was taught the value of the food on my plate. This is what we got to eat. We prayed for our food. God is good. God is great. Let us thank him for our food. Amen. Thank you, Lord, for the food on my plate. And now I love everything. Right? Some people look at me, they go, "You're going to eat that?" Yeah, I'm going to eat that. It's good. "No, it's not." Hey, it's good to me. But see, this is what we do. We follow these people. Getting back to what, what the point is about because I know I just chased a rabbit down a hole. Anyways, "I follow this guy. Oh, I follow him. Oh, I follow her. She's the best leader in the church. No, this guy is. That's why I'm following him. I follow this person or that person. I'm on his team or her team." This happens. This has happened in the Bible as well. Let's look at 1 Corinthians chapter 3:4-6 right there on the screen. For when one says, "I follow Paul," and another says, "I follow Apollos," are you not mere human beings? What after all is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants through whom you came to believe as the Lord has assigned to each his task. I planted the seed, Apollos watered the seed, but God has been making that seed grow. God ultimately is the one that we follow. So it doesn't matter who he put over you as a leader, follow that person because they follow Christ. And if they're not following Christ, do not follow them at all. But do not try to pit those leaders who are following Jesus together in their own way. Don't pit them against each other by saying, "I'm of him and I'm of them." There are no factions or tribes within the kingdom of God. We are one people who serve one God and work by one spirit. We're under one name and that name is Jesus. Amen. That's who we are. We're not supposed to be of anyone other than God. This is the age of followers. We're always following somebody. Go on social media. Oh, I follow them. Please don't. Half the people we follow are not deserving of us following them. Be a follower of Christ. Be a follower of Christ. He will put leaders over us, those that we are called to serve under. And that's a good thing. There are people who will teach us what it means to be under authority. We serve God by serving under them. We honor God by honoring those he has placed over us. But our ultimate authority is God. I'm going to ask the worship team to come and help me close this morning.

Listen, the infant's world is all about mommy or daddy. Mommy and daddy. They look to those who they follow for guidance and direction. Now, just to clarify, it's okay to be called to serve under someone. We need that. We need direction. We need to be grown. In fact, it's necessary. Again, we can never be good at discipling others until we become disciples ourselves. Nobody in this room can ever or should ever attempt to disciple anyone without themselves being a disciple first. We have to learn to follow so that we can be a good leader. Remember the centurion whose servant, who was like his son, was sick at home. He came to Jesus. Could you imagine what that was like? Talk about factions. There was the Jews. There was Rome. There was these Christians. And this centurion, who's the enemy of the Jews and therefore the enemy of Christians as well, came to the leader of Christianity, Jesus, and said, "I heard you can heal. I have a servant who's like a son at home. I need you to heal him." And Jesus said, "Let's go." And the centurion said, "No, I don't need you to come. I wouldn't do that to you." He wasn't doing it out of fear for himself. He was doing it out of respect for Jesus. Could you imagine? He's thinking, could, could you imagine Jesus's followers or those who might become his followers seeing him going to a Roman centurion's house? They might think he's working with the enemy. He wasn't scared for himself. He was watching out for Jesus. And he says, "No, no, no. You don't have to come to my house. Listen, I'm a man of authority. I know that when I tell a legion of men to go here, they go. When I tell this other legion to do this, I can guarantee you they're going to do that because I have authority. You have authority. And I know that from here you can say that my servant would be healed at this moment and I know he'll be healed." Can I tell you something? There's not a, there's not very many times in the Bible where Jesus is floored. Jesus was floored, even called it out. Turns around and looks at his disciples and goes, "I haven't found such faith in all of Israel. I've never seen this kind of faith in anyone." And it comes from a Roman centurion. It's almost half to kind of shame them and say, "Guys, come on." And then the other half is to give him kudos. He said, "Your servant at this hour is healed." And that centurion walked home with the confidence, not just believing, but knowing his servant had been healed. And when he got home, there was his servant, his son, whole and well. Because he trusted in God. He trusted in God. He didn't need anything at that moment but the word of his leader, but the word of Jesus, and Jesus gave it. If we can't function as a follower of Christ without those we follow, then there's a problem with our maturity.

When I was under my pastor, I did not need my pastor to go with me wherever I went so that I would be successful in the things I was called to do. In fact, my pastor is gone now from here. He's in Sacramento and I'm doing the thing that he trained me to do. And I don't need him to be right in the front row going, "Good job. Good job." I don't need that. I don't even need to hear him call me and say, "Matt, you're doing an acceptable job." Oh, thank God. I was wondering, right? It feels great when Pastor Woodard calls me and goes, "Son, I'm, I'm Matteo. I'm proud of you." Feels great. But you know what? He raised me to not need that. He raised me to be a spiritually mature leader of which that's what we're called. So if we constantly need that from those that we follow, there's a problem with our maturity. And lastly this morning, when we look at spiritual infants, spiritual infants need people to feel validated. They always need to hear that they're doing a good job. "Look what I did, Dad. Is it good?" Kids do that. Babies do that. That's something parents hear dozens of times a day. Children are looking for validation and they should because it's good for their, their mental growth, their, their mental health. They're looking for that validation when they ask that question. "Do you approve?" is what they're really saying. "Am I good enough?" Children need that. It's necessary for them to grow as a human being. But there's a point where we shouldn't have to ask that question anymore, especially spiritually. Again, it is good to hear from your leaders that you're doing a great job. It is good when somebody comes up to you in church on a random Sunday and says, "Hey, I just want to let you know you're such a blessing." Sometimes that person will say that you didn't know you needed to hear that and you just crumble. You start falling to pieces crying because you needed that. It is okay. That's fine. We do need from time to time somebody to check in and say, "You're doing great. I just want to let you know I'm so proud of you. You blessed me." That's great. But if we constantly need that, there is a problem with our maturity. There is a point again where we shouldn't have to ask that question anymore. We definitely shouldn't have to ask it. "Am I doing a good job?" In fact, if we find that we're doing these things and the things that we do more for man's approval than we are for God, listen, if you're doing what God's called you to do, know that God is up there smiling and happy because you are walking in obedience and you never have to hear a peep from another human being ever again. If you can say that right now today, "I don't have to get approval from anybody, even my favorite leader, even my own pastor, but I know I got God's approval," I'm going to be better than okay. I'm going to be blessed because I know God is for.

It's not against me, God is behind me, and I can continue to march forward. Amen. That's what we need to be. That's how we need to be. We should not do the things we do for man, but for God. His is the only validation that we truly need. We should not do these things for anyone else but him. All we need is God's approval.

We need to learn how to function in Christ apart from those we follow because there will come a time when they will be nowhere to be found. That will be our true test, whether we can stand and do what we're called to do. Remember 1 Timothy 2:5 tells us that we only have one mediator between God and man. Pastor Whiter is not going to stand with me when I stand before the Lord one day. And I won't be there for you on that day. I'll be standing in front of my own judgment seat. And so will you. Amen. It's not what we did together. It's what you did with Christ that will be tested. So we need to remember that he's the one that that we truly follow. He's the only one that we need in order to succeed in who he's called us to be and what he's called us to do.

I'm going to ask you to stand to your feet this morning. Well, this afternoon. And folks, let me just say one more thing before the call to this altar goes out. As revival approaches, and I feel that it truly is, and when I talk about revival, I'm not talking about dancing and crying and falling out into the power of God. That's not the revival that this church needs. That's not the revival that this city needs. That's all an emotional response. It is a response spiritually to to the presence of God. It's not bad. It's a good thing. But if that's the extent of our revival, then we're doing it wrong. Revival is dead things coming back to life. Revival starts right here where God revives his church that have been walking around like zombies. And it's not what we do up here as a result. It's what we do out there as we carry the gospel to broken and hurting people.

I believe that revival for this church is coming. It's been coming for a long time. And if all that revival is is encapsulated at this altar with people having an emotional experience, we're doing it wrong. But I believe revival is coming. And as time grows short and the urgency to preach the gospel and witness to the lost and win souls intensifies, let's not get caught sleeping. Let's not get called caught sleeping. God needs a people who are ready at the drop of a hat to do what needs to be done according to fulfill the great commission to preach the gospel, make disciples, baptize in the name of the father, son, and the holy spirit, and to teach everyone what he taught us. And he's not sending us out alone. He says, "I will be with you even till the end of the age."

Spiritual babies will travel great distances to hear their favorite Christian singer or hop churches to hear an acclaimed speaker or do whatever it takes to attend a popular conference or convention, but try to get them to come to a prayer meeting at their own church and it's like pulling teeth. Oh, I got stuff to do. People will go to a different state to attend a conference and you can't even get them to come [Music] out and plant seeds at home. You want to talk about spiritually mature? How are we called to be gardeners? And we're going out and trying to plant beautiful plants and greenery in other people's homes and our home is dried up. Your roots are here. The kingdom of God where you're called to be is here. That's why you're here. You're not here by accident. You're here by design. And what you do here matters more than what you do out there. What you do in this community where you're called, the community that you're part of, what you do here is more important than any conference or speaker or worship night that you attend somewhere else.

You may not like the fact that God has called you here, but you do have to deal with it. And you might as well unpack your bags while you're here. You might find that you'll grow to like it, even love it. Especially when you see God do amazing things through the work that you do here. The spiritually mature person knows what's important and will do what needs to be done in order to get the job done, no matter the time, the condition, or how much it inconveniences them.

So, let's get real with ourselves today, right here and right now and ask ourselves the tough the tough question. Do I possess any of these immature qualities in my life? As I ask you to look in the mirror today, does any of these things are they staring back at you? That's the question. Only you can answer it and only you can handle it.

Let's pray. Father, in the name of Jesus, we thank you so much for your word. It truly is a mirror put up before us. And what we see is what we are. But what we do, that's up to us. What we do with that reflection today, God, is is up to us. I pray today that if the mirror has been held up and what we've seen there has has in the immaturity, spiritual immaturity has been reflected back at us, that God will handle it today right here at these altars. Cuz that's all it takes is for us to acknowledge it, to take responsibility for it, and to do what it takes to fix it. So God, if that's us today, if we've seen something in that mirror that reveals spiritual immaturity, then God, we want to take care of it right now. If if you have looked in that mirror and you've saw what reflected back at you, there was some immaturity there. I don't want you to feel ashamed today because shame will keep you from making it right. Shame will keep you from forgiveness. Shame will keep you from correcting your path. Don't let shame get in the way. If anything that reflects it back to you today, there's there's spiritual immaturity in that, be courageous. Come to this altar and lay it down at the feet of Jesus. Amen.

Right now, if that's you and what you got back from that reflection today, there was there was some evidence of spiritual immaturity. Bring that down before the Lord. Let him deal with it right here at this altar. You and him together. You opening the door to your heart, opening the door to your mind, and God coming through and helping you write the wrongs. If that's you today, bring it. Bring it right here to this altar and let God work in you. Whether you stand on your feet, whether you kneel here at the altar or lay flat on your face, whatever posture you choose today, do it here at this altar. Take that step of faith past your shame in courage to receive that cleansing today. Come on in Jesus name. The worship team is going to lead us this morning. They're going to they're going to sing some worship over this time and I want you to really press in. I'm going to ask our prayer partners to just come and just hover. Just pray for these folks who are here at this altar. If if you're up here and you need prayer, you need somebody to to lock arms with you to pray today, grab one of these one of these prayer partners and they'll pray with you. But but but I want you mostly just to hover and pray. Pray over these folks who are at this altar because this is this is a thing that only them and God can fix today. We're just standing in solidarity behind them praying.

Folks, I'm going to pray one more time over this group. And if you have to leave today, we want to release you. We're going to pray to release you as well. But if you want, you can stay. You could pray with these folks or you could come to this altar as well or stay in worship as the team leads. But let's pray right now. Father, in Jesus name, we thank you for those who have stepped out in courage and in faith, took that long walk down that aisle to this altar. They've admitted taken responsibility for some discrepancies in their life as far as maturity, spiritual maturity is concerned. They're doing the work at this altar. And I'm so thankful, God. I'm so grateful because they're allowing you to do what only you can do. Now, God, take them by the hand and lead them through it. Father, help them to lay those things down. Lay all the reasons, lay all the excuses, lay all the things that they have in front of them that are stumbling blocks keeping them from maturity. Father, take them by the hand and see those things gone. Remove those things from their hearts and minds and let all that remains be aimed towards that spiritual maturity. Bless them now. Those who must leave. God, we pray a blessing upon them as well as they leave this place. Go with them. Let them take this message. Let it let it let it feed and nourish their souls this week. And they may not be at this altar praying this prayer, but at any point during this week, they feel the words of this sermon. They feel the words of your scriptures, Lord God, urging them to let go of immaturity and to grab a hold of maturity. Then God, you lead them right where they are. But bless them as they leave this place. Give them safety. Give them rest for the rest of this day. And give them a great week to come. We thank you for it right now in Jesus name. God bless you. Worship team, would you lead us? Folks who are at this altar, continue pressing in, praying for that maturity this morning. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] He is jealous for me. Loves like a hurricane. I am a tree bending beneath the weight of his wind and mercy. Long love is sudden. I am unaware of these flicks by glory. And I realize just how beautiful you are and how great your affections are for me. Yeah. He loves us. Oh, how he loves us. Oh, how he loves us. Oh, how he loves [Music] He is jealous for me.