Thanks for checking out the Anchor Faith Message podcast
from St. Augustine, FL.
Now enjoy this message. And this brings us to Part 2, A
Spiritual Growth. I did a started a series last
week, will conclude tonight. But God's will is for you to
grow up. Hallelujah.
So this is Spiritual Growth and Development Part 2.
I was blessed. I had several people that told
me they did their homework assignment and I like the
overachievers. Those that did, read it every
day and in multiple translations.
If you read it once, that's all that I was asking you to do If
you're with us last Wednesday. But Ephesians, chapter one or
chapter 4, verses one through 16?
I ask you to read that. And so it was good to get
feedback. One person read it in the
Amplified Bible and he was just really, he actually had it
printed out and showed me tonight.
And he obviously, the Amplified Bible really magnified those
verses for him. So we're going to launch out
tonight from that verse since I gave it to you for homework
assignment, and just receive everything that God wants to
give us. I will say this before I start
reading is, you know, there's a lot of parallels in the Word of
God between the natural and the supernatural.
And Jesus gave, you know, simple parables to relate things.
And when it comes to spiritual growth and development, it's
it's much like spirit. It's much like natural growth
and development. You start off as an infant,
right? And then you develop and grow
from there. I was thinking about this as we
was worshipping. I, you know, he said the way
maker. I want to say he's the growth
maker. Amen.
He is the way maker. But he wants you to grow up.
I was thinking about this. It's it's one thing when a baby
spits up on you when they're an infant.
You know it's not the greatest thing, but it's not disgusting
now if you throw up on your spouse at 42.
That's disgusting. God wants you to grow up.
So what I'm saying if you're spitting up gossip division, you
know, we can we kind of kind of expect that from infancy to
childhood. But if you're 42 and
complaining, you're throwing up on somebody and that's gross.
Are you with me? Just smile.
God loves us, but he wants us to grow.
Amen. He cares about us and He's given
us this incorruptible word, this love letter, which is Our Daily
Bread. What?
To help us to grow up. Amen.
So let's start off in Ephesians chapter 4, verses one through
16. It says I, therefore the
prisoner, Lord, I beg you or I beseech you to walk worthy.
We could say, to walk honorable, distinguished with excellence of
the calling of which you were called, right.
So there's a there is an individual call that
collectively and corporately advances the body of Christ.
And it is your personal responsibility to walk worthy
and and honorably towards God for the purpose and the
assignment that he's placed in your life.
I like verse two. It says, with all lowliness and
gentleness, with long-suffering bearing with one another and
love, endeavoring, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit
in the bond of peace. You see, that's a mature verse
right there. I'm not trying to create
division. I'm endeavoring to keep what?
The peace. That doesn't mean I don't
confront, but I do it in love. Why?
For reconciliation. So we could be restored.
All right. If you don't repent, it'll lead
to root rebellion, which leads to ruin.
Meetings, communication and confrontation happen.
Why? To bring you to place of
repentance 'cause if you repent, then guess what?
You can be reconciled. And you can be restored, and
that's God's heart. So a true man of God, a true
woman of God that's in love, is going to confront or challenge
some things if they see something out of alignment,
right? And that's that's not to bring
condemnation, that's to bring the conviction of love in the
Holy Spirit. You don't want to be on the
wrong pathway 'cause it leads to death.
And so repentance is the first word in the Kingdom of God.
Repent, for the Kingdom of God is at.
And so God's saying, if you just change, if you just take
responsibility, then guess what? We can start the process of
reconciliation and there can be absolute restoration.
Now when a car's restored, you know, some of the older cars,
they're very valuable, right? And your life is very valuable
for God. So he wants to see it in a
constant state of restoration. Paul goes on to say in verse 4
there's one body, one spirit, just as you were called in one
hope of your calling 1 Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and
Father of. Above all, who is above all and
through all? And in you all?
And then it goes on verse #7. But to each one of us, to each
one of us, to each one of us, this is written to the spirit
filled church at Ephesus, right? So to everyone of us there's a
grace given according to the measure of Christ's gift.
God has deposited something on the inside of you.
Amen. And there's a grace to do it.
Now Paul said in First Corinthians 15 that I labored
more abundantly in the grace of God.
So you realize the grace was there, but it's interesting, he
said. I labored in the grace.
So there's a grace on the inside of you to do what he's called
you to do. So it's just not of your own own
effort, your own energy, but it's through Christ that you can
accomplish what he's put on the inside of you.
Therefore he says when he ascended on high, he led
captivity captive and he gave gifts to men.
Now that he that he that ascended, what does that mean by
he also first descended into lower parts of the earth?
He who descended is also the one who ascended far above all the
heavens, that he might fill all things, and he himself gave
some, not all. This is what we call the
fivefold ministry. There is parallel passages
within the Bible, and so in in Ephesians chapter 4, Romans
chapter Romans chapter 12 and then First Corinthians chapter
12, there is these are parallel passages if you read that in the
Bible. Now, Ephesians 4 highlights a
little bit more of the fivefold ministry and the fivefold
ministry of those that God has called and graced and equipped
to actually be full time in the ministry to minister to his
church. Not everybody's called to be an
apostle. Not everybody's called to be a
prophet. Not everybody's called to be a
pastor. Not everybody's called to be a
teacher or an evangelist. But it's the grace of God.
It's the call of God, right? And there are no insignificant
members in the body of Christ. Matter of fact, in comparison to
the whole body of Christ, there's a lot less of the
fivefold ministry than there is of the whole other body.
Think about the 12 tribes of Israel, right.
The Levites were the only one assigned to the Tabernacle, the
other 11 tribes. But we're doing duties right?
So you you have a great significance, matter of fact.
It should be a joy for you and a journey for you because you're
going to get a a great download tonight and you get to go into
your world tomorrow and you get to be a representative of Jesus
Christ. You are ACIA agent, a Christian
in action when you go to work and there's an assignment there,
and you need to be wise as a serpent, harmless as a dove.
I I like Devon Hicks. I like a lot of people, but I
love my wife. But he works at Carlisle, right?
And and it's just amazing what God can do as you're following
him, he said. Seek first the Kingdom of God
and his righteousness and all things will be added to you.
Devon heard Devon is Pastor Brandon's brother.
If everybody knows Pastor Brandon, he and his wife are the
youth pastors, right? They, and they all lived in
Kentucky. But obviously, Pastor Brandon
April moved to Florida, got connected with anchor Faith
Church, but then, you know, he's telling Devin about it.
So Devin made a decision that, hey, and prayed about it, we're
going to move to Florida. He ended up getting a job with
Carlisle, right. And God just, I mean, it's just
amazing what God does when you're following him.
He worked hard. Obviously.
He was a giver to the church, still a giver today, but God
just promoted him. You know, he started kind of on
the ground level, worked his way up, actually, They want him to
take over as plant manager even though he didn't have a college
degree. And they said we'll actually
position you as that and then you got to get the degree.
And I don't even think they made him get the degree after a
while, if I remember right. I don't know if he's here
tonight, but when he's at work, he's ACIA agent.
I've had some conversations with him because he's he's, he's
thinking obviously about doing a good job for the Lord and how he
can be a blessing to the company.
And that's why he's at where he's at the the pay has has
increased and the title has increased, but also the
influence has increased. And so he was talking one with
one of the employees. You got to be very careful in
the secular Society of what, preaching the gospel, you know,
somebody solicits you, That's one thing.
But a lot of companies have restrictions on you actually
saying something about Jesus. So he is ACIA agent, right?
Because one story was telling me was that.
He went through Mighty Men 318 Ed Cole has a lot of powerful
one line quotes so he uses he's in leadership without preaching
the Bible. He's using godly principles
right And so one of the guys coming he said man you got so
much good stuff where do you get that from?
He said well it's from the philosopher I that I follow and
really what what philosophy who what's his name.
He said. Jesus, you open the door.
I'm coming in. So there's a calling on each of
us, but you get the you have the excitement to go into your war
world tomorrow, Friday, Saturday.
Your job shouldn't Your job is where you go, but not who you
are. It's a place where you literally
go and you get paid to really be Acia agent.
You see what I'm saying? You got to change your your
perspective. I was reading over in Psalms the
other day from the Passions Translation and it jumped off
the page to me. It said that the the distorted
perception had vanished. So if there's a distorted
perception in your life, truth will make that vanish.
And you need to get up with passion every day to the
assignment that God's called you to and and tackle it with an
enthusiasm unknown to most mankind.
Amen. So there's a call.
On all of us. But some are in the fivefold
ministry, meaning they make their living by the gospel
right? So these are full time ministers
assigned and why did God place him in the body?
Verse 12 is very important for your spiritual growth and
development. Verse 12 gives a threefold
reason or a threefold trajectory of why the fivefold ministry was
given by God. You could say this way.
It's God's love gifts to you. God loved you so much that he
called certain people. So we can collect together upon
the same place as a family of God.
But to be equipped is the first thing right?
Why is the fivefold ministry given?
You'll see in verse 12 for the equipping of the Saints, the
furnishing, the supply, the fitting.
A pastor may see a gift in you and say man, this would this
would be a great fit for you. So when you come to service on a
Sunday or a Wednesday or a a men's discipleship or a women's
discipleship man, that's a great time to get fueled.
Just 'cause you filled up your your tank yesterday doesn't mean
you don't need to fill it up again in three days, right?
So this is like a this is like 93 octane, let me go to ethanol
free that you're getting right for your for your journey and
your race and life. And so it's for the equipping of
the Saints, Why for the work of the ministry.
So all of us are called to a ministry in some capacity,
meaning there's a service that we do.
Ministry is just not behind the pulpit.
Ministry literally means serving, right.
So when you go to work, guess what you are serving the.
Lord at that job on assignment to be a light and to be sold.
And then it says the third thing that's going to happen is the
edifying of the body of Christ or the building up of the body
of Christ. Verse 13 says, Till we all come
to the unity of faith and the knowledge of the Son of God, to
a perfect man, to the measure the stature of the fullness of
Christ, that we should no longer, that we should no longer
be children. There comes a point when you
need to grow. Up and develop.
He goes on to say, tossed to and fro, carried about with every
wind of doctrine by the trickery of men and the cunning
craftiness of deceitful plotting.
So guess what a children does? They're tossed to and fro.
Guess what A a pastor represents a shepherd that's going to help
guard your your life. A real shepherd is going to
guard. A hireling's going to flee
because he doesn't care. A hireling's just about money.
A true shepherd's going to say what you're listening to maybe a
little bit off or or yourself talk, maybe a little off,
whatever the case is, what but children can be tossed to and
fro. 1st 15 says. But speaking the truth in love,
that we may grow up in all things unto Jesus or him who's
the head, Christ from whom the whole body.
Join and knit together by whatever joint supplies
according to the effect of working by which every part does
its share, every part does its share, Hallelujah, every part
does it. It'd be a shame if your foot
wasn't working tomorrow. That's the part not doing its
its job. Causes growth of the body for
the edifying of itself in love pastoral.
As says this during our vision partnership meeting.
There's no insignificant members in the body of Christ and this
is what this verse is communicating and God's desire
is for us to grow. So let's look at First
Corinthians Chapter 9. This is review that I'm going
through. First Corinthians Chapter 9
verses 24 through 27. Spiritual growth and development
is much like much like natural growth and development.
Amen. So it says this.
Do you not know that those who run in a race all run but one
receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may
obtain it and everyone who competes for the prize is
temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a
perishable crown, but we for an imperishable crown.
Therefore I run thus, not with uncertainty.
Thus I fight not as one who beats the air, but I discipline
my body and bring it into subjection, lest when I have
preached to others, I myself should become disqualified.
So what's he doing? He's doing a parallel between
their Olympic Games and spiritual growth and
development. Let's look at this.
In the message it says you've all been to the stadium.
And seeing the athletes, athletes, race, everyone runs.
One wins. Run to win.
I like that. Run to win.
You're in your own lane. There's no competition in the
body of Christ, First Corinthians says.
It's a You're a fool if you measure yourself against
somebody else. God's too creative and unique to
make everybody the same. There's nobody else like you on
the planet, so don't compare yourself or measure yourself
with somebody else. But you're running your race and
run to win. Run to win.
All good athletes train hard. They do it for a gold medal that
tarnishes and fades. You're after one that's gold
eternally. I don't know about you, but I'm
running hard for the finish line.
I'm giving it everything. I've got no lazy living for me.
I'm staying alert and in top condition.
I'm not going to get caught napping telling everyone else
about it and then missing out myself.
The New Living Translation says it like this.
Don't you realize that in a race everyone runs, but only one
person gets the prize? So run to win.
All athletes are disciplined in their training.
They do it to win a prize. That will fade away, but we do
it for an eternal prize. So I I run with purpose in every
step. I'm not just shadowboxing.
I discipline my body like an athlete, training it to do what
it should. Otherwise, I fear that after
preaching to others, I myself might be disqualified.
So just like an athlete has to have a program in place what to
reach their potential, so do we. So do we.
We need to have a program in place, a strategy in place, so
that we continue to grow. Now when it comes to the
natural, I've been training since I'm thirteen years old
with weights turned 48 this year.
Amen. And feeling great, but I've
grown a lot over the years. Hosea 4/4 says people perish
because of a lack of knowledge, not just information.
Information may mean you Get the facts, but knowledge in the
Hebrew mind meant that you actually applied it.
When you know something, you're intimate with it.
You're experiencing it right. You know, when I was young I
used to read muscle and fitness books and you know, that was
obviously at that time and an an encouragement inspiration.
But just reading those is not going to do anything for me.
I actually had to what apply, so I had to get a strategy in
place, right. So I was thinking about this
tonight with spiritual growth and development.
There's a lot of parallels between the natural and the
spiritual. And you know, my number one, I
have 5 pillars when it comes to getting in shape physically, and
I transferred those over to spiritually, #1 is nutrition.
I used to think I could just work out really hard, eat, eat
whatever I want, do no cardio. And results would come.
Well, you know what, That didn't work out.
And it kind of was like, man, I'm working really hard but not
going anywhere. And we can say about God, I'm.
I'm applying your word. But I'm not getting the results.
Well, God's truth will always work.
The question is what? What don't you know that you're
not applying to get the results? So I realized, you know, when I
started learning about nutrition and macros, and you know
proteins and carbohydrates and fats.
And I started getting a knowledge base on that.
Guess what? It really helped my body
composition, my stamina and my energy.
And the results were more forthcoming.
Then I understood, you know what?
There's this thing called cardio training or aerobics.
Glory to God, who wants to run 10 miles?
Not me. But I realized, you know what?
That I realized there's 3500 calories in a pound of fat.
Yes, 3500 calories. That means if I want to lose
£2.00 a week I need to be a 7000 calorie deficit.
Hallelujah. The problem with that though is
you need to know some things. People go on yo-yo diets and we
do this spiritually and it's never going to set your
metabolism, it's going to starve you.
Where do I get my results from Michael Phelps?
Who knows Michael Phelps, Great Olympic swimmer, athlete, gold
medalist. You know, when he was at his
peak training, he was eating 10,000 calories a day.
But he he put such a demand on the regimen that if he didn't
eat that much, he was catabolic, not anabolic, meaning his body
was breaking down. Now, the recommended day
allowance by the United States is 73 grams of protein per day.
That's for a sedentary person that's not doing anything but
playing video games. But when it comes to an athlete.
And then Paul said, if you got a what train like a athlete, if
you're putting a lot out but not putting a lot in, guess what?
You may be missing your nutrition value spiritually if
you keep on running hard and not reading the word of God.
Why do you think Pastor O Marcy are so passionate and and
adamant about church attendance and reading the word of God,
church attendance and reading the word of God, church
attendance and reading the word of God, church attendance and
reading the word of God? Why?
Because you're never going to grow or be anabolic spiritually
and being a perpetual state of growth if you're not getting the
right diet. Think about if you eat one meal
a day physically. You could be grumpy and deplete
of energy, Hallelujah. But if you get, if you get the
right balanced diet, all the sudden what?
You have an infuse of energy? Well, spiritually speaking, if
you're feeling weary, if you're feeling down, do you have the
right plan in place to continue to grow and develop?
And if you're putting out a lot, guess what, You better put a lot
in. I took on more responsibility
this year. With the ministry and in that
transition in May, I was just talking to God.
And I have a goal that I've set per year of study time, per
week. And when that transition
happened, which meant more work, he told me to double my study
time. I said, OK, Lord, which is OK We
went from this to this. How am I going to do that with
more? But you know, I've steadily done
that because he said it. And he realized that the more
that goes out, the more needs to come in or I'm going to break
down, dry out or get weary and I monitor and measure my Bible
reading. I just don't.
Check the box off. You know I I write down every
day on my daytime or what I've read.
I have a little more aggressive reading plan than one time a
year but I could tell if I'm getting off a little bit.
I could look back. I may have read a huge chunk 3
days ago, but maybe I went two days and all of a sudden, OK,
all that's what's wrong. I'm not getting the spiritual
diet to natural to match the natural output.
Are you with me? So nutrition's the number one
factor. If if you're going to recover,
if you're going to have energy, just like naturally Michael
Phelps, he he recovered because he got a the right amount of
protein, right. The right amount of
carbohydrates. You know he wasn't eating
Twinkies, Hallelujah and Ben and Jerry's every night.
Hallelujah and and McDonald's. I guarantee you that wasn't in
his diet, right? He would have been sluggish,
correct? So these these athletes, a lot
of them even hire a nutritionist.
Why somebody who has more knowledge than they do that's
feeding them what they need so they can grow and develop.
Kind of like coming to church feeding you so you can what grow
and develop? Did they win?
Hallelujah. Sorry.
Sydney came in. The Flagler girls had a game at
6:00 and they won. Hey, Speaking of that, there's a
game this Saturday. At six PMA home game, let's show
up and show out. I don't like go, you know
there's something when there's a crowd in a sports environment
and they're rooting you on. And I've been many times to
Flagler where the girls game specifically is lower in
attendance but we have enough vision partners on a Saturday
night it's free. If you're a Saint Johns County
resident it's a great day night. Take your family.
You know, get out, show outlet's support em.
Amen. And rally em on.
So let's get there on Saturday night.
Amen. If you don't have any plans,
plan to do that and then you can.
Yeah, right downtown you go. Night.
See, that works out perfect. So nutrition's the number number
one thing. Rest is another thing.
That's my second pillar when it comes to physical growth, but
also spiritual growth. And I'm just not talking about.
I'm talking about the appropriate amount of sleep, but
I'm also talking about a worry free life.
You know, there's stress. There's U stress, stress and and
and hyper stress. U stress is a positive stress.
It's like, you know when somebody has to make that last
free throw shot at the end of the game to win it, they've
trained for it, they've practiced it.
You know if they're at the opponent's, you know, court,
they're they're trying to be a distraction.
But what they they block everything out and that that's a
positive stress. But then there's stress which is
a negative and then there's hyper stress, which at a
molecular level you're aging prematurely.
And first, Peter 5 says what? To cast all your cares on the
Lord. You realize you these I'm I'm
giving you some things that will actually stunt your spiritual
growth. If you're stressed out, it's
going to slow down your spiritual growth and stagnate
it. So not only resting, not
worrying, not fretting, resting in your mind.
Jesus said, Come unto me, all you that labor and heavy laden I
what? Give you rest?
He said. Learn of me.
Take my yoke upon you for its gentle and lowly in heart.
The next thing that I have in with my physical training is
anaerobics, which is resistance training.
Same thing spiritually, right? If you're going to get stronger,
there's going to be some resistance.
Hallelujah. And you got to know what you're
doing. I've seen some weird things at
the gym. You know your your purpose in
life is where your passion and your pain intersect.
And I've. I've seen some painful things at
the gym. I mean they people have
revelation on equipment that I don't That's actually an arm
machine. No.
But you you got to you got to know some things right or you
can get hurt if you miss train or try to take on too much too
quick. See spiritual growth and
development same as physical growth and development.
I can't just if I just started lifting I can't throw 315 on the
bar and try to bench it. I'm going to crack my sternum
and be in the hospital, probably be dead.
But there's got to be gradual progress.
You know, God gave the fivefold ministry, and Donald G made this
powerful statement when it comes to church, He said There should
be steady growth within for powerful witness without.
So the fivefold ministry provides that.
You come to church, steady growth within, so you have
powerful witness without. And it reminds me of Notre Dame.
Everybody's heard of Notre Dame, right?
I'm a guy, so I'll do some football.
I did this in my Ki class and a lot of ladies looked at me
blank. Well, actually just one.
I won't name her name, but so then I really mess with her a
lot because I use a lot of analogies just to pick on her
butt. In the Notre Dame locker room,
they have a sign as you exit, it says play like a champion today.
You know, it's tempting not to put a sign on the door that says
live like a Christian today. When you walk out, you know,
touch it, slap it, you're ready to go into the world.
The coach is just giving a great pregame speech, right?
You've had a pregame meal. You've been practicing all week.
Now it's time to go out and do it right.
Hallelujah. So resistance training.
And then there's there's also, and my my fourth thing is
aerobics, which is stamina. You know, you're not in this for
just a good time. You're in this for a long time.
And so this is not a Sprint. This is a marathon journey, a
lifetime commitment with Christ. And there's things for the long
haul that you need to take care of yourself, right?
And then the the last thing I have is flexibility for my it's
something that I've just instituted a couple years ago
literally for the physical side of it.
But the ability to adapt, you realize there's going to be
interruptions and distractions in life.
Don't get, don't plan your your your time so strenuously and
strict that you don't leave a little time for interruptions.
There's 168 hours in a week and if you try to plan down to the
minute, you're going to be disappointed.
Amen. So continue to grow.
God wants you to grow. Change is not change until it's
changed. This life is not static, it's
dynamic. And change is the only constant
in life. You're either progressing or
regressing. There's nothing that stays
static. Everything that happens to us as
a result of choices we make. You either choose to
procrastinate, believe, or doubt.
Help or hinder? Succeed or fail, but the choice
is yours. Joshua said it this way in the
24th chapter of his book. He said choose this day whom you
going to serve As for me and my household, we choose to serve
the Lord. So guess what?
We're going to win the minute we get rid of all excuses and kick
out self pity. The proverbs one translate says
if you wait for the perfect conditions, you'll never get
anything done. There's another verse in the Old
Testament says don't despise a day of small beginnings.
God loves to see the work be begun.
So many times we're waiting for it to be built.
Well, where your life is really built minute by minute, choice
by choice, day by day, You're never going to arrive if you
just don't, if you just don't choose to start.
Right. So the devil loved to steal your
identity, kill your destroy, kill your dream and destroy your
life a little at a time. But God wants to build your
life. He came to give us life and to
give it to us more abundantly. I said this last week, if you
can continue doing in the next 5-10 and 20 years what you've
been doing the last 5-10 and 20 years, will you be pleased with
who you are and where you're at? You know that we say insanity's
doing the same thing over and over again.
Expecting what different results?
It brought me to this quote too, that the average person goes to
work every day because that's what they did yesterday.
If that's the only reason for going to work today, you'll
probably be no more effective today than you were yesterday.
The sad thing is, many people have been with a company five
years, do not have five years experience.
They have one year's experience five times, and no specific
plans for making anything of a change.
But next year is going to be a repeat performance.
Right, so we we need to be aggressive in life with getting
in a good spiritual game plan in place and doing it be a doer of
the word of God, James One says. Blessed are those that do the
word of God. Time is an equal opportunity
employer. Each human being has exactly the
same amount of numbers or same amount of hours per week.
So those that are doing the most, or the Kingdom of God, or
those that are doing the least, guess what the difference is how
you use your time. Are you prioritizing your time?
Success depends upon using your your time wisely and planning
your time wisely, setting priorities.
The Bible likes time to money. You invest time and spend time.
You don't kill time. And time's really more important
than money. So you need to be offensive in
life. 20% of all the points scored in it in in the NFL
scored in the last two minutes of the 1st and 2nd halves of the
game. And does the prevent defense
work? The answer The offense scores
three times as fast against the prevent defense as it does
against a regular defense. The point is, if you're playing
but the offense is playing to win, the defense is playing not
to lose. Why am I telling this 'cause
we're to run to win. So you need to be offensive, not
defensive. With God are you with me?
So let's go to 1st John chapter two, first John chapter two, and
first John chapter 2. The Apostle John really outlines
3 stages of spiritual growth. So in First John chapter 2,
verses 12 through 14 he says this.
I write to you little children because your sins are forgiven
for his name's sake. I write to you fathers because
you have known him who is from the beginning.
I write to you young men because you have overcome the wicked
one. I write to you little children
because you have known the Father.
I've written to you, fathers, because you have known him who
is from the beginning. I have written to young men
because you're strong and the word of God abides in you and
you have overcome the wicked one last week, the very first one
that we covered. He talks about children, he
talks about young men. He talks about fathers.
Same thing with spiritual growth.
There's children, there's young people, and then there's fathers
or mothers of the faith. Right.
And so the first one we talked about last week was children.
I will say this. Wisdom has taught us that
mastery of fundamentals is critical to success.
Wisdom teaches us that mastery of fundamentals is critical to
success. You know, when it comes to
anything in life, it always comes back to fundamentals.
Guess what? Those that are in the NNFL and
in Peewee, guess what? They're still teaching them the
Peewee league. Is fundamentals how to catch the
ball? How to block your stance, Right
Fundamentals never go away. If you want to grow, you have to
apply fundamentals from the word of God.
If you want to grow spiritual gifts, do not validate or
measure spiritual maturity. First Corinthians We read this
last week. Just because of time.
I'm not going to go through it again in the chapter, I'm going
to highlight some other ones. 1st Corinthians 3 we talked
about. Paul called them carnal.
He said they didn't. He didn't say they're natural
men. First Corinthians 2, he talked
about the natural man receives not the things of God, but in
verse three, their verb is changed.
It says you're yet carnal. So they're born again, but their
flesh ruled and flesh dominated their babies.
And Paul, from the first time he wrote this, the first time he
visited them and established the church to the time he wrote the
letter was the scholars will tell us this period of between
four to seven years. So there was an expectation from
the Apostle Paul. After four to seven years, you
should be grown up. But you're not.
And he's basically saying I have to still give you the bottle,
and it shouldn't be like that. But also in First Corinthians
chapter 12 we get the gifts of the Spirit.
You know the three power gifts, the three Revelations gifts, and
the three Inspiration gifts. But in First Corinthians 14 he
starts talking about how to operate those in the body.
But it's amazing because he identifies that church as
immature. So just because they were
flowing in the gifts does not mean you're mature.
And just because you see a minister flowing in the gifts
does not validate or measure if they're actually mature.
You're Christ like character. Measures your maturity.
There could be wonderful people of God that are being used, you
know, sick bodies being healed, words of wisdom being given.
And sometimes a Christian Church will flock thinking this is
somebody I want to emulate or follow, but their life is in
shambles. God will use people in his body
and any state of growth to help deliver other people, but it
does not mean that you're mature, just cause the gifts
flow through you. God used a donkey in the Old
Testament. Hallelujah.
Just saying. So here's a couple positive
characteristics just to review of children.
They're innocent. They're they're pure.
And there's really nothing. No records are wrong.
I mean, when you think of an infant, it's a fresh start.
And that's how we are in Christ, right?
Second Corinthians 517 says if anyone's been in Christ, he's a
brand new creation. Old things have passed away.
Amen. So that's a brand new start.
I call it Etch A Sketch. You know, it's Etch A Sketch.
You have all these lines. But when you shake it with the
blood of Jesus, you get a brand new start in Christ and all the
squigglies are gone. Squiggly wigglies.
Are gone. But that's how it is.
You get a brand new start. There's an innocence, There's a
belief in infants, right. They just believe.
And so there's some things as an infant that we want to carry as
a fundamental as we grow, which is we want to be pure, We want
to believe, right. They're hungry too.
Amen. I mean, the bottle will get them
quiet. Hallelujah.
So we need to be hungry too. But then there's some things
that we don't want to carry over from childhood, First
Corinthians, 1311, says. When I was a child, I thought
like a child. I spoke like a child.
You know, I acted like a child. So the the Bible promotes
childlikeness, but it condemns childishness.
Hallelujah. And so maturity don't come with
age. It comes with the acceptance of
responsibility. And a child is just not very
responsible. Amen.
So some negative characteristics of a child is #1.
They're selfish. They are the center of their own
universe, right? If they don't get their way,
they will cry and throw a temper tantrum.
A second thing I point out, they'll put anything in their
mouth. You know how it is with your
first kid if the pasty drops on the ground and they go to pick
it up, you know you you got to sanitize this by the 2nd kid.
You're just sticking in your own mouth, putting it back in,
right? But they'll put anything in
their mouth. And as a pastor A5 fold
minister, guess what? There is a guarding that takes
place. We don't want you getting
mesmerized with somebody who's healing bodies, but they're in
pornography and their credibility don't line up or
their character doesn't line up with their call.
That's not somebody that you want to follow.
You want the gifts to flow through you, but that doesn't
mean you're mature. Another thing is they're
unsteady, right? They need a lot of attention.
And so we understand coming in, there's going to be some people
that they're babies and guess what, those that are more mature
in the faith. As time goes by, we'll start to
bring some correction gently. But they're going to say some
things and there's going to be some gentle correction along the
way. But after time, you know the
accountability level is going to go up, right?
Because now you should know a little bit more and your speech
should be changing and the way you think should be changing and
your actions should be changing and there should be a better
steadiness about you. Another thing I said about kids
is, you know, infants and young children cannot reproduce.
They don't have everything's there, but they're not mature
enough to be able to produce. And gods in his Kingdom, he's
said to be fruitful and to multiply.
So this is one stage. And guess what?
There's no shame at all about being born again, man.
I started my journey in 1997 and I remember there I didn't have a
cell phone at that time, you know, but taking notes, just
like a sponge, absorbing everything.
I was so frustrated in one service because I came out of a
religion, a Catholic Church, where we didn't really, you
know, open the Bible, you know, And so I come into a Pentecostal
church and in Columbus. OH, and thank God for that.
Were they really taught? That's one thing I'm really
thankful for is God always, always assigned me to a good
Bible, believe in spirit filled church.
And I remember sitting there one Wednesday night taking notes.
I was just so frustrated, like, where's this been my whole life?
I couldn't write fast enough. I literally stopped writing, you
know, 'cause it was like I was trying to keep up.
And, you know, your, your, your hand can't keep up with the with
the mouse. So it was kind of frustrating.
But, I mean, I had cassettes back then, cassette tapes, and I
would buy those out of the bookstore.
And then, you know, I there's 3 by 5 index cards on my in my
car, you know, on my my bathroom mirror.
I'm listening to tapes constantly.
I'm in the word, well, that's fundamentals.
You can stagnate your growth if you get away from that.
But there was a hunger there, and that's a good thing.
We always want to continue to grow in and to develop in, Amen.
But then we get after after you're growing, guess what?
You become a young person. We could say a young man or a
young woman. And there's a couple things that
the apostle John points out about young men, or we'll say
young women too. He says #1.
They're learning how to overcome.
You know, when you're an infant, guess what?
Somebody's got to do everything for you.
Change the diaper, get the get the bottle ready right.
Make sure they're put proper boundaries around the house.
You know, put the things in the outlet so the the baby doesn't
stick their finger in the outlet, All that stuff.
You know, you put the locks on the on the cabinets, right?
So they don't get into things right.
And good parenting is going to get them to start responding to
a word. No Amen.
You realize you start young. New construction is always
easier than reconstruction. If you train them from when
they're young, then they're not going to depart from the faith.
Amen. So And the husband and wife need
to be unified to have the greatest success in the home.
So one of the characteristics of a young man is they start to
learn how to overcome. I I'm you know obviously in
pictures I was picturing Superman.
Anybody's seen the movie Superman before.
No some have. So when he's learning how to fly
he's he's got these fine now he's got this great power on the
inside of him and he doesn't know all the capacity or
potential but he's starting to tap into it.
So young person's starting to understand, man, I'm developing.
There's some things I can start to do and overcome, right?
And so the great thing about young people is they're
developing, They're strong, they're getting stronger,
they're passionate and they're energetic.
The apostle John says that they're not only overcomers, but
they're becoming strong too, right.
So young people in the church are those that are.
They're energetic about serving. You can see the strength and the
potential starting to be developed in them.
You're starting to see them win some victories and overcome, and
you're excited. But it's kind of like riding a
bike sometimes. They're guys.
You're training a, you know, a child how to ride a bike.
There could be an accident or a wreck, right?
So what do you do? You help pick them back up, but
you don't stop. You keep going, right?
So a young person's going to bring that passion, bring that
strength. The negative side is there's a
thing called self-awareness. As body parts start to develop
along with raging hormones, short sighted vision, and they
start to think they know it all. That's true.
Hallelujah. You know, when it gets to the
teen years and the natural, there could start to be some
resistance against mom and dad's guardianship and parental
authority, right? They start to think that they
know it all so they can start questioning some things, right?
Well, they don't have the reality of what it takes to
survive. We have our own life support
system at the house. It's called the refrigerator.
And if you're under my roof, you're going to follow my rules.
Or if you think you're that, great, go ahead and try.
It's going to be a JOB, right? A job.
And are you going to do, you know how much insurance cost?
But I mean, they, the great thing is they think they can
tack with the world. But one thing with they, they
think they know everything too, is they're really lacking
knowledge and experience. They really don't know.
You know, I was when I was younger, I did some pretty
stupid things, and you kind of think you're immortal When
you're young. You can't die, won't die, and
you're not. Subject to death, right?
I mean, it's like doing 100 miles an hour in the car like
I've done. Well, this seems fun.
No, that's stupid, right? When you start to mature, you
realize, oh that wasn't the best choice.
And a lot of parents say wait till you get my age cuz then
you're gonna realize what I'm telling you is true.
Just like the pastor says, keep growing.
Where you're at is not where you're gonna stay, but stay
teachable. If you come from the children's
stage to the young Men's stage, with all that passion, all that
development, you start to overcome.
You're starting to learn your authority in Christ.
You're starting to, you know, learn about confession, right?
You're starting to learn about the gifts of the spirit, right?
You don't. You don't put a novice in office
before it's time because they get lifted up in pride.
So you can become proud at that age, thinking I know it all and
I could do it all by myself. And really, it's short sighted
because you're not long term and a lot of a lot of kids in that
age, they really don't have a long term vision and a lot of
them don't know exactly what they want to do.
They have a thought, but they really don't have that long term
vision to sustain. How am I get going to get from
where I'm at to where I need to go with God, right?
So at this stage, you need to make sure that you stay humble.
If you start saying things like, well, I've heard that word
before or I've heard that subject before, watch out.
That could stunt your growth. The word of God is alive and
active and a a lot of what's received or given during service
is based upon the congregation pooling on whoever's
ministering. It's not about a person, it's
about the word of God. Jesus and John four said if you
would have known the gift of God, you would had AI would have
given you living water. But so don't get familiar.
Some teenagers take for granted their parents.
I know when my my son went to the Florida Youth Challenge and
we were telling him a lot of things about discipline and life
and man, he was real resistant to us.
And this is like a military style program.
And you know, he's not liking us when he's at the house, 'cause
you guys put so much restrictions on me, you know, I
I'm just bound up in chains. Give me a break.
Go to India and eat some chicken Curry.
Well, one week at the Florida Youth Challenge, when he's
having to get up at 5:00 AM, five AM, and they're making make
his bed military style. Guess what?
A week later, we're the best parents on the planet.
He got rid of that distorted perception real quick.
When he's got somebody in his face, tell him what to do,
right. So by what?
There was a resistance. You start to get hard, you start
not to receive. So we want to make sure that we
don't get in that position. We can see this in the story of
Jacob. Jacob comes on the scene in
Genesis 25 through about chapter 35.
But obviously, you know Jacob has, as he's growing from his
infancy to his childhood to his teenage years.
Obviously he has some hard relations with his brother Esau.
Remember, he steals the birthright and then he steals
the blessing, and then his own brother wants to kill him.
And then mom, mom intercedes, sends him off to her relative's
house, right? Well, there.
There's a lot of maturity that happened with him because he
responded to God and didn't react to the situation.
And in Genesis 32, he, after he's gone for 21 years, he's
coming back. And when he left, Esau wanted to
kill him, his brother, he's having to come back in that
situation here. He, he heard that Esau's coming
at him with 400 men. So in his mind, he's really, you
know, obviously concerned that he's going to annihilate him
because the last time he left, he wanted to kill him.
So he starts devising a plan. He starts separating the tribe,
the flock, and, you know, put certain people in certain
places. But then he spent one night
alone with God, and it's the Bible said he wrestled with God
and and he said, I'm not going to let go unless you bless me.
And in that verse in Genesis 32, then in chapter, God said you're
no longer be called Jacob, which means trickster or con artist,
but your name will be Israel. For you have prevailed with man
and with God and Jacob to us. Abraham's the father of faith.
Isaac's the son of submission. But Jacob's the son of of
transformation. And you, you transform as you
grow and your identity becomes more secure.
Amen. The parable of the prodigal.
We know this story in Luke, Chapter 11.
Remember, there was two sons, the younger one, that thought he
knew it all, he said. Father, give me my inheritance.
Now I know how to use this thing.
You don't, Right? So the Bible says that he went
away to a far country and guess what?
He squandered all the resources because he left before the time.
And the Bible says he found himself in the pigpen or the
slop and he finally cave him came to himself.
You know the four powerful words in that story for you to
continue to grow and develop #1 if you always have a give me
attitude because that's what he said.
Give me, give me, give me. You're not going to grow like
God wants you to grow. When he got to the position,
when he said in the pot, in the in the pig slop, he said, make
me, he said I'll go back to my father's house.
He had a humble heart and a willingness to learn.
Amen. And that'll make all the
difference in your spiritual growth if you stay hungry and
humble. Ignorance is the most
destructive force the world knows.
It's the number one enemy of life.
It's defined as the quality of condition, of little knowledge,
education or experience or unawareness.
And that's where the prodigal was that he thought he knew a
lot and can make it on his own. But the fact was he needed more
training before he was released to do his assignment.
I was in Nautilus, I think it was last year, and actually
Titus Clay quoted me this verse. Proverbs, chapter 12, verse #1 I
thought, surely out of the mouth of babes and sucklings, there's
perfected praise. He said Whoever loves
instruction and correction loves knowledge, but he who hates
reproof as like a brute, be stupid.
He said if you don't like instruction, you're stupid, is
what he told me. And indiscriminating.
Why do I bring this up? Because as in the young man
development or young woman development, if you start to
think you know it all, guess what?
Don't be stupid. Continue to learn and grow to
learn. You must want to be taught.
When you through learning, you're through.
Hebrews chapter 12 Starting to verse #6, the Amplified says
this. For the Lord corrects and
disciplines everyone whom He loves, and he punishes even
scourges. Every son whom he accepts and
welcomes to his heart and cherishes you, must submit to
and endure correction for discipline.
God is dealing with you as with sons.
For what son is there whom his father does not train and
correct in discipline? Now?
If you are exempt from correction and left without
discipline, in which all of God's children share, then
you're an illegitimate offspring, and not true sons at
all. Moreover, we have had earthly
fathers who disciplined us, and we yielded to them and respected
them for training us. Shall we not much more
cheerfully submit to the Father of spirits, and so truly live
for our earthly fathers, discipline us for a short time
or period of time, and chastise us to seem proper and good to
them. But He disciplines us for our
certain good, that we may become shares in His own holiness.
For the time being, no discipline brings joy, but seems
grievous and painful, but afterwards it yields the
peaceable fruit of righteousness.
To those who have been trained by it, a harvest of fruit which
consists in righteousness and conforming to God's will and
purpose. Thought action, result in a
right living and right standing man.
Discipline and instruction is necessary for growth.
We are we are very independent in America, but don't be
independent in the Kingdom. We need one another.
I talked about spiritual spotting last week.
Listen, we need somebody to say you can do it.
We need somebody to help us get through the sticking points.
We need somebody to help our technique.
We need somebody to help our fundamentals.
You don't want to get hurt. I've seen people squat horribly,
knees past their toes. I know it's going to cross a lot
of pain longevity wise. Really, the way the PT tells you
to squat is to face your your put your face against the wall
with your knees against it. So your knees.
Have to your your your glutes have to go back first, not your
knees forward. But these are the kind of things
that you can get coached through.
Why? So you don't hurt yourself or
injure yourself. Amen.
So we need to lead. We need to be willing to receive
correction and to be trained. The greatest state of growth is
coming to a fatherhood or a motherhood state.
How far do you want to go with God?
I tell you how far God wants to take you.
He wants to take you to fullness.
He wants to take you to maturity.
His desire is for everybody to grow up and fulfill their
purpose and plan that he has for your life.
But it's going to take a regimented plan, discipline and
instruction to get where God wants you to be.
Fathers know that life is about significance and not just
success. A father's not just thinking
about themselves, they're thinking about pouring out for
the next generation. You know, Goodman leaves an
inheritance to what is children's children.
Inheritance is what you leave. But a legacy is who you leave.
And a father's is pictures himself in a in a relay race and
he wants to pass the baton off to the next generation.
An immature selfish person is only thinking about my life and
my time. And they're not planning for or
preparing to pass off what God has put.
We want others to get 10,000 where you got 1000.
That's the mentality of a father is to pass off to the next
generation and to those of the discipline so they can go
further and there's no jealousy. Saul became jealous because
David was said to have killed 10s of thousands where he was
only attributed to thousands. And that's immaturity.
A father says, man, you go for it and gets excited when they
see you advancing further than what they ever did.
And we're called to ignite the city, impact the nation,
influence the world. So what are you doing to grow
and develop? So you cannot not only be part
of that, but help develop others in that.
You know what the father Paul said?
A father knows this is an the greatest attribute of a father.
They he, they said they they have known the father.
They have known the father. That means you have such an
intimacy with God. Through long association of
time. Fathers develop because they
meditate on the word. They do the fundamentals.
They practice the word listen, another attribute of a father.
They have resources. That's a problem with young
people. They think they know it all, but
they don't have the resources. And that's just not money,
although that includes money. That's wealth.
Wealth is wisdom, understanding and knowledge working together
to produce transgenerational solvency, security and
stability. So resources include wealth,
which means I have godly wisdom, understanding and knowledge to
produce transgenerational or multi generational solvency,
security and stability. So a father has resources.
They may point you to good books, they may point you to
good patterns in life, they may point you to good disciplines.
A Father's patient, too. Amen.
There's a steadiness about them. They could be counted on.
An immature person you can't count on.
I'll be there at 8:00. But the Father, guess what?
He keeps His word. Just like Jesus.
He's the same yesterday, today and forever.
So there's a steadiness. They have developed character, a
Father. There's a purity about them.
They've been tested. They've been tried.
They've gone through some things.
I don't want to read about somebody who thinks they know
something about lifting Hallelujah.
I've read some articles about standing on a a bouncy ball with
1 foot and barking like a dog. I added that.
I'm thinking, what does that do? I go back to fundamental squat
bench press. Deadlift have worked for
generations and they're going to continue to work for
generations. Confession, forgiveness, mind
renewal has worked for generations, is going to
continue to work for generations.
You getting somebody laying hands on you is not going to
transmit spiritual maturity. Is laying hands a doctrine?
Yes, but it does. It's not a fundamental As far as
you growing church, attendance is never going to go away.
Devotional guess what? Fundamental.
First Corinthians chapter 4, verses 14 through 17 says.
I do not write these things. This is the Apostle Paul to
shame you. But as my beloved children, I
warn you for though you have 10,000 instructors in Christ,
you don't have many fathers or mothers.
I will say, listen, there's 10,000.
There's so many ministries out there.
Some of them are great, but there's so many ministries you
can run to my question are they really fathers and mothers in
the faith? Are they growing to that great
or they do they just want the title and the praise of the
title? I'm not criticizing or judging,
but you need to have discernment.
There's many. Voices in the world, right?
But there's one voice where to be fallen, he said.
You have 10,000 structures but not many fathers.
For in Christ Jesus, I've begotten you through the gospel.
Therefore, listen to what Paul says.
I urge you, imitate me. That's one thing a father,
mother can say is your What if it is your life worthy of being
imitated? Can somebody come and follow you
in private and say this is a person that's mature and I can
literally follow them around and learn a great testimony like
Pastor Marcus and Josh who came from Oklahoma with pastor when
they started. The vision is they not only they
get to see him do sermons on Sunday, but they will testify
they pastor and Marcy opened their house when they moved to
Florida. They got to see them in the
private setting and watch them live it out.
And so a real father and mother said, you can actually imitate
me, not emulate me, because you have your own God-given
personality, but you can follow the pattern of my life and the
disciplines of my life and the model of my life, and that
qualifies you and vets you to be a father and mother.
Somebody could actually imitate and grow.
So Paul said, imitate me. For this reason I sent you
Timothy, who is my beloved and faithful son and Lord, who will
remind you of my ways. What does Timothy do?
He reminds him of his ways, not his message necessarily, but how
he conducted himself, how he carried himself, how he lived
the journey that he was on. Right.
So he said you need to be able to be imitated as we close.
I want to go to Hebrews chapter 5, verses 12 through 14.
The word says this and this is a sad indictment, because what?
Guess what? God wants us to grow and we need
the right plan and right goals and place to to to grow.
But the author Hebrews says this starting to verse #12 of Hebrews
5. He says for though by this time
you ought to be teachers. You need someone to teach you.
Again, you should be teachers, but guess what?
You should be a father or mother.
But you need someone to teach you the first principles.
Again, you've come to need milk. Milk's good as a baby, but when
you're adult you can't live off that alone.
And not solid food for everyone who partakes of milk is
unskilled in the word of righteousness.
As long as you stay an infant or in the young man stage, there's
an unskilled character about you, which unskilled means
you're without experience. There's still an ignorance about
you. You understand you're growing,
there's you're learning the word a little bit, but you're still
not skilled in the word of righteousness.
And Paul says the remedy of that is to get solid food.
And how do you do that? Everyone who partakes of or he
says for, he's a babe. Everyone but solid food belongs
to those who are of full age. That is to by reason of use, by
reason of use, by reason of use. Use means.
There's a habit. There's a practice.
You're practicing the word of God.
You're practicing what you what's being communicated and
sermons. On Monday or on Wednesday and
Sunday, you're practicing what you're learning in your
devotional time. Listen.
If you sow a thought continually, you reap an action.
You sow an action continually. You reap a habit.
You sow a habit. Continually you reap a
character, you sow Character. Continually you reap a destiny.
But it's by reason of use. It's the habit.
It's the practice. Listen, I didn't work out three
times when I was 13 and said that did it for the rest of my
life. You realize if I stop, I lose
everything. You quit coming to church.
You lose a lot. You quit reading your Bible.
You go to atrophy, which is loss.
So, so don't have the American mindset to put your life on
cruise control or to go in to prevent defense.
We need to continue to grow and develop.
And how do we do that? We exercise our senses.
We practice them. We exercise them to discern both
good and evil, right and wrong. There's a purity about a father
and mother man. They stay away from a young man.
I got this today as as I'm closing right now can get into
be setting sins. What I mean about that?
They could get hooked up on the wrong things.
You know, a born again believer could get into drugs or
pornography or wrong thought patterns.
But guess what? As you grow there's a repentance
and a seriousness and a psalmist that says I want to live a holy
life to God. That's when you start maturing.
We take acceptance of responsibility and you repent.
Sins will keep you from developing, and I'll close with
this my final close. They're sins of Commission, but
they're sins of omission. Which means you know what to do,
but you're not doing it, and that'll stunt your growth.
Commission is easy to point out. I'm doing the wrong thing.
I'm I could be cussing, I could be thinking the wrong thing,
right? But omission means I know what
to do. But I'm not doing it.
Which means I should have a daily confession.
One of the things that stunts growth and the devil is a master
at this more than anything, is unforgiveness.
That'll stunt your growth. You choosing not to forgive Luke
17, one says woe to offenses, for they will come.
Woe to who they come through. But all of us are going to be
tested in this. This could be a great time for
you to develop your spiritual muscles, and the one thing that
overcomes offense is a thing called love.
Love never fails 1st Corinthians 13 and the agape love of God
that keeps no records of wrongs. So.
So don't let the devil infiltrate your mind or your
life and get you into a place where you get offended.
Make that a time where you actually can strengthen your How
do you do that? How do you strengthen your
spiritual muscles when things happen?
How do you think a divorce happens because you get offended
or in unforgiveness with your spouse?
How do you think an employee or an employer?
An employee leaves an employer because it becomes an offense or
they get sideways? How do you remedy that?
You go to prayer and Matthew 5 it says pray for those, not only
those that like you and love you, but those that talk about
you, that persecute you, that mean to do you harm.
The Bible says to pray for them. That's how you flex your
spiritual muscles. So to speak is when you can on
your on your knees say father I forgive so and so.
Ephesians chapter 4 says be angry but sin not.
There's a humanity to us. You're going to have emotions,
but don't let emotions dictate. A teenager does that.
They are led by their emotions. I feel like I'm in love you.
You know this, in adulthood, there's a feeling to love, but
there's a lot more action to it, 'cause you could feel in love
and then you can fall out of love.
So there's emotions, but don't let emotions be the deciding
factor, determination of ultimately how you handle the
situation. Mark 1122 through 25 says to
have the the God kind of faith and to speak to the mountain.
You can tell it to be removed, but it goes on.
In verse 25, it says when you stand praying, if you have
anything against anyone, drop it, release it, let it go.
I'm ending with this because God wants you to grow up, and
there's some in this sanctuary tonight that have become
stagnant just in this one area of forgiveness.
And let me qualify this too. You may think that and have
forgiven others, but here's another question.
Have you forgiven yourself? Psalms 103 says that he's able
to remove your transgression or your your your failure.
As far as the East is from the West and when you repent of it,
meaning it'll never touch again, if God can release it and let it
go, then you need to release it and let it go.
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