You have your Bibles turn to Ephesians chapter 4.
We're going to talk about actively press and actively
press. We are living in a society,
especially in the United States, that is rebellious to the things
I'll speak about today. And I say that because of the
word press by itself, OK? Our culture through technology
has put us in the position where we want to do less.
We have we have taken this idea of, you know, doing less so that
we can enjoy more of our own life.
Well, when I made Jesus the Lord of my life, my life cease to
exist. So if I'm trying to do anything
for my own life, I'm already in heir for John the Baptist said I
must decrease and he must increase.
And Paul said I've been crucified with Christ.
It's no longer I who live. It's no longer I.
It's no longer I who live, it's no longer I who live, but the
life I live in the flesh, meaning this new created being
that I am in Christ. I live for one purpose and
that's to follow Him. Amen.
And you know what? Who I follow will train me to be
able to go at His pace. That's the whole point of a
pacesetter is that they're there to pace you so that you can run
your race. The problem is, is we are trying
to tell the Lord of glory, the Creator of heaven and earth, of
how we want to pace our own lives when he's like, no, you're
going to have to kick it up a notch.
Now here's the thing, He created you and He knows what's in you.
And again, as I've already used Coach Hurley this this morning,
you know, a lot of times when you're around players and you're
around them and you begin to see them develop and grow, you
bigot, you, you, you can learn pretty quick whether they're
giving their all or not. You know, when a player shows up
in your life, they're not, they're not just they're not,
they don't have it today. Now, it's not because they don't
physically have it. They're not mentally having it.
And So what you have to do as a coach is get them past their
mental fatigue. Are you hearing me now?
Again, in that sector of society, we have no problem
because it is one of the greatest idols we have in the
United States. And that is the realm of sports,
OK? Because there are tons of men.
I'm talking what what we call men, right?
Burly men that they will get absolutely indignified in what
they look like at a game when their team is winning or is
coming from behind or does something great.
They will get in. They will.
They will even get more indignified than this when the
ref makes a call that they do not agree with and it is costing
their team to gain. And they are not short of words.
Are you hearing me? If they win the championship,
they will cry with joy at the release of the pressure of all
that they've done. Have you seen some of these
greatest athletes win that championship?
When they hold to that trophy, it's a trophy now.
Then all of a sudden they'll breakdown and cry because what?
What are they releasing? All of the sacrifice to finally
obtain this and winning is not it.
It is continually going for the goal because if winning was just
enough, then the minute you won, you would stop.
But it's not enough. That's why they chase
championships. Are you hearing me?
And so we find ourselves in a culture where in the United
States specifically, and the United States has a great
influence on the rest of the world of where, you know, we're
trying to do less. Trying to figure out how we can
kind of get out of when there's a press that has to take place
and there's a pacesetter in your race that knows you've got more
in you. And if you'll get outside of
your mind and get into the mind of Christ, you'll find yourself
doing some amazing things. Amen.
All right, everybody, all right, in Ephesians you talk to me, it
helps me. Ephesians 411 to 16 says this,
and he gave some as apostle summers, prophets, summers
evanges summers, pastors and teachers.
Why? Verse 4 four.
Verse 12. Excuse me for the equipment of
the Saints, for the work of service to the building up of
the body of Christ. All right.
Verse 13 until we all attain to the unity of of the faith of the
knowledge of the Son of God to a mature man, to the measure of
the statue which belongs to the fullness of Christ.
As a result, we are no longer to be children tossed here and
thereby waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by
the trickery of men, by craftiness and deceitful
scheming, But speaking the truth and love.
We are to grow up, say grow up in all aspects into him who was
the head, even Christ, from whom the whole body being fitted and
held together, say, held together by what every joint
supply, say I have a supply according to the proper working
of each individual part causes the gross a growth of the body
for the building up of itself in love.
Now we know here, according to this passive Scripture, we've
written a book concerning being equipped that God never intended
for the church to only educate. We do not have the system of the
world of education. We have the system of the
Kingdom which is equipping, and in order for you to be equipped,
education is a part of the process.
But it doesn't stop there, because if all you ever do is
educate the body, the best you can produce.
As a Pharisee, what we want to do is we want to be an equipped
body. We are ready for the work of
ministry to have the endurance and longevity to accomplish
everything God has assigned to every one of us individually,
but as a team, as a team. And so your individual gift was
never for you and God alone, and it's to be deployed as a whole.
So we know that he gave gifts. Those are the fivefold ministry
to help pull those things out. As I was saying to someone
before service, the most unused and misused gift in the church
is the ministry gifts. Now the church loves the gifts
of the Spirit because the gifts of the Spirit, when we open them
up, when we yield to them, it's the Holy Spirit coming upon you
as He wills, where He'll bring 9 gifts that can flow through you
and man. We desire those.
In fact, we are to earnestly desire those.
But again, a gift is only good if you open it and if you're not
yielding to the gifts of the Spirit, even though He may move
on you to give a tongue, an interpretation of tongue, a word
of knowledge, give you the gift of faith for something or the
working of miracles. If you do not act on it, it is a
gift that's come upon you, been presented to you, but you never
open. The same thing is with the
ministry gifts because in the church the ministry gifts is to
equip you to help you understand that you are a new creature in
Christ and the Holy Ghost lives in you and you can hear the
Spirit of God. And you are to be led by the
Spirit of God and to train you on how to be led by His Spirit
and then to train you how to discern between good and evil.
But what happens is, is once the process starts, then all of a
sudden the Saint decides I don't need the gifts anymore.
The ministry gifts, I can hear God on my well, you understand,
this is the problem that happened with Miriam.
This is the problem that happened with others in the
wilderness. They're like, we can hear God
for ourselves and they want to discredit Moses.
Well, that was a problem. Say that's a problem again.
The ministry gifts cannot control you.
They are there to assist you and to equip you.
And there's some things you will not be equipped in if you do not
open the gifts. A lot of times people are coming
and telling the gift. This is what God told me without
asking the gift since I've been assigned here.
Am I hearing right? Because if we're all pursuing
unity, we'll come to the same conclusion.
Say Amen. The remedy.
Verse 13 says this because this is what I want to key in on
today until we all reach true unity of heart, methods, motives
and principles in harmony with the knowledge of God as revealed
in Jesus and become say mature, mature and develop Christ like
character. Another translation of verse 13,
the ISV says it this way until all of us are united in the
faith and in the full knowledge, say full knowledge, the full
knowledge of God's Son, and until we attain mature adulthood
and the full standard of development in the Messiah.
One more of verse 13, it's the amplified.
It says it this way until we all reach oneness in the faith and
in the knowledge of the Son of God, growing spiritually to
become a mature believer, reaching to the measure of the
fullness of Christ, manifesting His spiritual completeness, and
exercising our spiritual gifts in unity.
Hallelujah. What I want to talk to you today
about is maturity, because salvation alone is not maturity.
And these verse 13 tells us that we are to come to the full
knowledge of God's Son. You know what?
There's something else to know about Jesus besides that He died
on the cross. He rose from the grave, that the
blood he shed and put on the mercy seat in heaven forgave us
of all of our sin, and that if we call on his name, we'll be
saved. You know, there's more about Him
than that. And if that's all, you know, you
are a babe. In fact, if we were to go on
into verse 14, which we won't, other translations say leaving
immaturity. So when it says leaving, you
know, child being a child, it's in in essence, it's saying we
are not to stay immature because verse 14 tells us what happens
to immature believers. They're tossed to and fro.
They are easily deceived. They jump with every wind of
doctrine. Now, why are they this way?
Because they're not allowing themselves to grow, say grow.
God never intended when Jesus Christ died and rose from the
grave that we as a church in the earth would only be concerned
about the salvation of man. He never intended that.
In fact, there is no context of Scripture that that is the sole
responsibility of His church. In fact, in Matthew chapter 16,
as you know, Jesus said I will build my church, which means he
did not delegate church building to the apostle, the prophet, the
pastor, the teacher and the evangelist.
They have a part to play with him.
We are Co laborers with Christ. He's building the church and if
he's building the church, the church he's building has the
pathway to maturity. It is not a pathway to salvation
alone. It is not just accepting Jesus
as your Lord and Savior. So you know, or you'll go when
you die. In fact, Jesus never once said
go into all the world and make converts.
He said go into all the world and make.
Now a disciple by definition is to enroll as a student.
A student is to learn, to grow, to be equipped, not educated
alone, so that they can have the completeness character of Christ
in whom they've been created in. Can I get an Amen?
Oh, I'm going to roam a little bit more.
So we see here that God always intended that the church would
mature. In fact, He's coming back for a
mature church. Now, I don't have time to preach
on this, but I do want to give you a little insight.
The Bible talks about the former rain and the latter rain, and
that is a farming scenario that has to do with the Holy Ghost or
the outpouring of His Spirit in the last days.
The former rain happened on the day of Pentecost when the Holy
Spirit was poured out and the sons and the daughters began to
prophecy. All of us became the temple of
the Holy Ghost. Glory to God, it's no longer God
up there and we are trying to do something in our own self to
maintain some layer of righteousness until Jesus pays
the pride. No, it's Christ in us, the hope
of glory. Our spirit.
Man has been recreated in the likeness of God.
The Holy Ghost now lives in us. He came down to dwell with man.
Wow, how awesome is that? And now in these last days, he
poured out his spirit on all flesh.
And what a day it was. But the latter rain, say the
latter rain, is even more than the former rain.
But in the realm of agricultural terms, a farmer plants a seed.
The farmer doesn't want the seed, the farmer wants what's
within the seed. So in order for a farmer to have
what's in the seed, the seed needs to be water, needs a early
rain, 'cause then when the Holy Ghost comes upon that which is a
seed or that needs to die, it says unless a seed dies.
Jesus said unless a kernel of wheat falls into the ground and
dies, it will not produce. So in essence, the early rain
was all the seed of the Word placed within the disciples and
humans, humanity of the Word of God, that when the Holy Ghost
came, it called that seed to finally die.
Where we died, we broke forth and we produced the plant.
We became a plant, we became in Christ.
That's conversion. When you see a plant come up out
of the ground, it's no longer a seed, although it has the
potential to bear seed now. Are you hearing me now?
The farmer doesn't want the plant because a plant without
fruit is failure. What farmer wants to plant in
Hastings? A bunch of potatoes and have a
bunch, a lot of green, lush green foliage.
But everyone they pull up, there's no potatoes on the roots
or have all these stalks, but no corn ever shows up.
It may be beautiful and green and wave when the wind blows
through it and everybody drive by and go, my gosh, look how big
this field. There's so much corn in there.
We don't even call it a plant. We call it by its fruit.
However, we don't even see the fruit.
And the farmer, when he goes to harvest, he's not there to get a
plant, he's there to pick the. So the latter rain is for the
maturing of the crop. It's so that the fruit that's
being produced can be ripened, because what good is corn if you
pull it before it's ripe? What good is any fruit for that
matter, if you pluck it before it's time to eat?
Because if you pluck a fruit too early, it's bitter, it doesn't
produce what it or it doesn't produce more seed so that they
can go on generationally. So the latter rain that we are
looking for, although it will have a harvest of the lost, the
intent is more for his church. I'm going to say that again,
this latter rain has more of an intention, not for the lost,
although they will have a benefit from it, but it's for
the church. And it's so that there'll be a
reigning church, a church that matures, that walks in unity,
where all the gifts come together in harmony as a mature
man and man, when we do this, when could the lost come in and
find us backbiting, gossiping, slandering.
They're trying to get us. And you're like, I can't find
one person to say something bad about another person.
I can't get anybody to go crawl. I can't see anyone getting
offended. And man, I could have been
offended this service, but nobody is getting offended.
Everybody's walking in forgiveness.
Everybody's walking in love. Everybody is producing the
fruits of the spirit. My gosh, I mean, I'm trying to
get this thing to Jack up, but I can't do it.
Why, 'cause they've matured the world at that poem must say
there must be a God. There must be a God if who I am
as a human can put down their flesh at that level.
Amen. And honestly, my assignment as
an apostle is to put the demand on maturity as one guest came
one time, attends a different church, met with them one time
for coffee because the things we are doing in government really
excites them. And they were looking for that
church. They just happen to go to a
different one that they thought was in that vein, but not like
we're in that vein. And so they were, you know,
conflicted and said, you know, do you mind if I come on
Wednesdays? I said, let me just say this.
You can come on Wednesday. However, you're going to have to
choose because you cannot serve in two visions.
Can't do it. God is assigning you to a local
vision that you need to be loyal and run with.
So you may come some, but at the end of the day, you're going to
have to answer that question. They're not here, so.
They're assigned to the other as far as I'm concerned, and praise
God for it, have no problem with that.
Why? Because who's assigned here is
assigned here. Who's assigned somewhere else is
assigned somewhere else. For those who are assigned here
going somewhere else, they'll never produce the fruit.
They should hear. For those that are that are here
but are assigned somewhere else, you're never going to produce
the fruit and that's why you get frustrated.
So just go ahead and pack your bags and get to the place you're
supposed to be. You're not you're not affecting
me. You're affecting yourself if
you're not where God placed you because again, you've already
made the mistake in your American gospel that you get to
pick church when we know First Corinthians 12/18 says and God
has placed you in the body as it pleases him, each individual
member. And if he knows how much hair is
on your head and he knew you before you were in your mother's
womb, then he sure don't get it wrong at what body he wants to
plant you in so that you can grow.
He doesn't. We just have to be confident
enough to say you I yield control.
I know of many church plants right now and startups that I
know that I know people are called to throughout the United
States, but they don't go because they evaluate how does
it affect their family When if you would go, then you would
help release what they don't have.
Well, they don't have this for my child.
Well, maybe you're the one to release it, but we want instant
gratification, instant spiritual maturity.
There is no such thing as instant spiritual maturity.
But in the last days you can mature quicker.
I will say that. But that's not without the tests
necessary to mature you. Are you hearing me?
So salvation is not maturity. Let's look at Philippians
chapter 3, verse 12. Y'all doing all right?
Amen says this, Paul saying this, not that I've already
obtained it. OK, now this is Paul when he
wrote the Philippian letter. This is not Paul when he's
writing to Timothy and he says I've poured out my life.
See, I got to help the process because what happens is the
Saints will jump on certain scriptures and then live in that
and not take full context of the scripture.
So what Paul is saying, I'm going to go ahead and let you in
on the secret. He he arrived, I'm just going to
tell you that he arrived because when he told Timothy, I have
fought the good fight, I have run my race, I have finished my
course. What he has not obtained yet he
does obtain which allows him to release because it's the exact
same letter that he says this. I am betwixt between two places,
whether to go on and be with the Lord or to remain here with you.
And he realized I have not done all that I need to do.
And why is he at this place? Because of the circumstance.
It's weighing on his mind because it's weighing on his
body. See, he's in jail.
In fact, if you read the scholar Rick Renner in the his Greek
account of Paul's Philippian imprisonment, he will tell you
that he was in the lower part of the prison where all of the
bowel movements of the other prisoners rolled down into.
Do you like that? PG131 there, All right.
And he was chained on a wall. And tradition happened, has it
that it could get so deep that those prisoners could be waist
high. Rats would be running through.
And because they're in a place where there's no sunlight, that
the walls are claiming clammy and that the iron bars are
rusty. And the next thing you know,
because they were chained to it, then they would develop sores
and the rats would find them at night, begin to eat on their
sores and you'd hear scream. Now that's pretty.
And now if that was happening to you, you might want to go on and
be with the Lord too, right? You understand, Like Lord Jesus,
take me now. Right now, Paul is at this place
because of what's going on in his life.
Yet the prisoner guard says, Paul, come here, you got a
letter. And he receives this letter from
this church that he planted with money.
And they said, when you get out, come see us.
We're praying for you. So every thought he's having is
in this condition he's in. You understand?
You know, the enemy's like son, what good was it?
Do you planted that church? Come on, you just got you in
trouble with the authorities. Now you're thrown in prison.
What's it good to follow the name of Jesus?
Look what you're in now. You should just quit.
You should just stop. You should just give up.
This church plant and stuff is crazy.
Don't even think about it. And man, it weighed so much.
He said I am stuck between these two place.
The only thing that got him over was the thought of someone
beyond himself. Oh, you don't that he actually
had to overcome his comfort because there may be another
human, although they may betray me, I still should get in front
of are you hearing me? Oh my gosh, so he's saying here
he says now this verse 12, not that I've already obtained it.
This goal of being Christ like or I have already been made
perfect, but I here it is actively press on so that I may
take hold of that perfection for which Christ Jesus took hold of
me and made me his own. Now before I finish reading,
know this that Paul is making a decision in this same letter
that you know what I realize I'm not all that God needs me to be
yet and this this thing that I'm in is actually helping train me
to become who I should be. Now in the Spirit, he's in
Christ. He's the righteousness of God in
Christ his spirit man's perfection.
However, his spirit man is having to continue to grow.
Now we're talking about a Paul who has already been set apart
for 14 years, and Jesus Christ was a personal mentor to the
mysteries that he's about to unload on everyone.
That nobody has this revelation and thinks he's a crazy guy
because he's preaching doctrine they've never heard before.
Yet because of that encounter with Jesus, he knew that he was
preaching true doctrine. But here he is.
He wants in his soul. He wants in his whole nature of
man to reflect a Christ likeness, maturity.
So he says, not that I've been made perfect.
That's the same Greek word for mature.
So when we hear perfect because we've been stuck in the King
James a lot of time, well, you know, you just can't be perfect.
The Bible's not asking you to be perfect.
The Bible's asking you to be mature.
So wherever you see perfect in your Bible, quit seeing it as
perfection, see it as mature. And maturity is a requirement.
It is considered something to be obtained to and you are actually
without excuse to obtain to it. In God's eyes, maturity is a by
product of your salvation. Should you give to the training,
it can't help but show up just like the right now.
A minister friend of mine, Josh and and Hope Wyatt gave birth to
twins and in those boys that they gave, she gave birth to
last night is in them naturally to mature the manhood.
It's going to happen, but now their soul and their spirit,
that's a whole nother part of their being that's got to be
dealt with. Are you hearing what I'm saying?
Once you're in Christ and your spirit is made alive, it is just
natural for it, if you will allow it to retrain your mind to
grow to maturity. But if you suppress it, you
create an abnormal thank you abnormality in its manifestation
of something that just wants to supernaturally mature.
So Paul says, look, I actively press, which means this is not
something I get just because I was saved.
I have I have the ability to attain to it because I am saved.
But if I don't do my part, I'm not going to get there.
He goes on and says, brothers and sisters, I do not consider
that I have it all, that I have made it my own yet.
But one thing I do forgetting what lies behind and reaching
forward to what lies behind. Notice these words actively
press reaching forward. You know, 10 today.
Everybody's like, oh, they just push and push and push and push
and push. You understand, if you're a
believer, you should be doing that on your own.
That's actually a believer's philosophy, a way of living no
different than Coach Hurley when he's like, OK, let's do another
round. All right, let's hit it and let
me throw you 10 more balls for you to hit.
Let's here's some more grounders.
How many times I got to do a coach?
I know how to feel the ball. And you just keep doing it and
you just keep doing it and you just keep doing it.
Why? Because you're trying to get to
the place. Like Mick here, who played
baseball with the major leagues. I mean, he attained to a place.
Why? Because of training, right?
Training, training, training, training.
Not everybody in the room can. Just like Coach Hurley got you
the majors. Just like right here got you the
majors. Because of practice.
Jake. Yes, I came to the area.
Jake didn't look like he wanted me to call his name out.
You know, he kind of like, so I was being sensitive.
But since my wife ratted you out, Jake, Jake's a little more
shy than the rest. And I know that about Jake.
You know, Jake's not here to please don't ask for his
autograph, all right? Although he could have given
them out. My point is, is that there was a
time they realized if I'm going to get there, I'm going to have
to do more because it's within them.
Well, you're a believer and don't bother lie.
This is why the immature accepts.
Oh, well, don't. I don't have to do anything.
You know I don't. I shouldn't have to be pushed so
hard. I shouldn't have to do that.
I shouldn't have to do nothing. I mean, Jesus did law.
Jesus did everything so you could qualify to be able to come
into the Kingdom. Now, once you're there, he
expects you to do what he did and that is to actively move
towards maturity and press on. I mean, why does Paul have to
press and you don't? Why do we think the five fold
ministry has to press but the Saints get a free ride?
Like I supposed to come and just bring grapes while you sit in
these comfortable chairs. Tony, let me give you a grape.
Can I massage your feet? I don't want you to do a thing,
bro. I mean, we've picked up this
idea and then the enemy's winning because the church stays
immature and has is not threatened by it.
He's not threatened with your soulless praise.
He's not threatened with your daily devotion that you don't
actually apply. He's not intimidated by those
things and he sure isn't intimidated by your cry because
even the Lord has plenty of scripture that when people
ignore to grow. He's like, I hear him crying,
but I'm not coming. And those are part of scriptures
too. Now, I don't know when it is
that God makes certain shifts, but all I know is he expects us
to move forward. He goes on and Paul says again,
verse 14, Nick, look at this word.
He says I press on towards the goal to win the heavenly prize
of the upward calling of God in Christ Jesus man.
You see these words actively press reach forward.
I press verse 15. He says all of us who are who
are what say it louder, say it louder.
Now the amplified qualifies. What mature is in the next
statement, all of us who are pursuing spiritual perfection or
maturity. So maybe I'm not talking to
everybody in the room right now because those who do not want to
press are saying I want to be immature.
They're acknowledging their immaturity.
Don't tell me what to do. Don't tell me how many times I
got to be here. Don't tell me I have to study.
Don't tell me that I always want you to be up at the church.
I always want you to be up at the church.
I don't want you to be up at the church.
I want you to be with a head of the church, and the head of the
church has a church, and it is a physical manifestation of people
assembling together that are jointed and fitted together.
Now, if you want to be an amputee, go ahead, but that's
your immaturity talking. All of us who are mature,
pursuing spiritual perfection should have this attitude.
So if you don't have that attitude, you're just
confessing. You want to be immature.
I'm not doing that. I want to press, man.
I want to press. I want to keep pressing on.
I want to keep moving forward. I want to keep striving for the
goal. I want to accomplish all that
God has placed within me and discover the things I hadn't
even discovered yet because I hadn't been faithful.
What he's told me to be faithful with at this point.
But once I get faithful there, then he'll give me another
thing. Because if you're faithful with
little, you can be faithful with, which means the assignment
grows and the opportunity stretches you and the capacity
expands. There is no such thing as
vacation. There is rest, but man, I rest
really well in the will of God. I do because I know when the
Holy Ghost says, OK, I need you to press into praying in the
Spirit because I need to recharge you.
He'll tell me get 8 hours of sleep.
OK, we'll get 8 hours. Why?
Because he knows what I can take.
A lot of us we if we don't watch out, it's our immaturity that
says stop. That's too much.
There's times I've looked at my wife and I'm like, I know.
Yeah, I know. Yeah, I don't like it.
I don't want to do this. I don't want to, man.
I get it. But His grace is sufficient, and
I know this about my King. He'll give this and He'll do
this, and He's not asking me to do something that I can't.
So let me not hear what the immature says.
Well, there's a bunch of workaholics out there.
Well, there are workaholics, tons of workaholics, people who
work for not God's purposes. That's true.
But I strive to only work for His purpose, and I'm not made
His purpose. My God.
He is my God, So His purpose is honoring Him because I know I
can look at my wife and say the Lord said we're getting away.
Yeah, but we have all this going on.
Doesn't matter. He's building it.
I'm out. It's his church.
If this thing falls because I left for six months, which I'm
not, but I'm just saying if it did, well, you know what, then
he has that problem. I didn't have it.
And if you fell apart because I wasn't here then that means you
were following the wrong voice because you're not supposed to
be here for me. You're supposed to be here for
the assignment and whether I'm here or not see relevant because
your assignments here because anchor Faith Church is not you
doing the vision God gave me. It's you doing the vision God
gave you and you show up. Are you hearing me verse 15.
All of us who are mature, pursuing spiritual perfection
should have this attitude. And if if in any respect you
have a different attitude, that too God will make clear to you.
Meaning if you don't have this attitude, God's going to say you
need to get this attitude. He'll say, you know, you don't
have this attitude. You've been a little lazy.
You kind of want it your way. You want me to come and whine
and dine you. You want me to wait on you hand
and foot, which I've empowered you with my name to go do
something again. The Bible says we are Co Say
that again. Say it one more time.
I don't know how you define labor, but labor's work.
This is consistent with we equip the Saints for the not the
retirement of service, not the vacation of service, not that I
don't have to do anything now that I've been born again.
It's not Co relaxing, it's Co labor.
And labor is not a dirty word. The only time work is a dirty
word is when you're telling God how you're going to do it and he
has to accept it. That's called works.
But when God tells you how to do it and you obey it, that's
called a work of faith. And that work is blessed because
it's not you doing it as much as you obeying what He's asking to
be done. And then He empowers you to do
it. You do have a part to play, but
it's under His grace, which means you do things that are
beyond your capacity or your or your natural ability.
And you look back and go, wow, but for the grace of God, yet
you are part of the process because you actually showed up.
Grace doesn't even work if faith isn't applaud, it is by grace.
How through faith. If faith's not there, grace
doesn't work. Well, I'm in grace.
Well, are you in faith? Because faith is calling those
things that be not as though they were and allowing it to
govern your life and act a certain way, live a certain way.
Come on y'all doing all right and I want to shut this down.
Help me out. OK so he goes on and says all of
us who mature we're going to have this attitude.
Then he says in verse 16, this is very powerful verse only let
us stay true to what we have already attained.
Now this verse is very telling, which tells us that maturity has
to be maintained. It doesn't just come and it
stays without effort. Paul is letting us know now.
I am pressing. I am actively pressing.
I'm reaching for it. I press on to get to this mature
state in Christ that I have the virtues, the the morals, the
reflection, the attitude, the way Christ walked.
I walk as he said, imitate me as I imitate Christ.
But then he said, now we, we got to stay true to what we've
already attained. You know, when I was in the
Baptist Church, I sang Baptist songs.
I sure sang them. And you know what?
They were applicable based upon what I knew, based upon what I
knew they were applicable and I sang them.
I sang them well. Then I got filled with the Holy
Ghost, whatever is Speaking of tongues and assembly God.
Well, there became some new songs that I didn't sing when I
was in the Baptist Church. I didn't sing about the power of
the Holy Ghost, didn't sing about that.
So I had a new song. Right now, if I just went back
to the Baptist hymnal, I would never acknowledge the Holy Ghost
in this power. I would never sing about it.
In fact, if I didn't watch out, what I would do is I would begin
to act like the Holy Ghost doesn't do what I experienced,
so I can't go backwards. I got to keep well, then I went
out to Bible college and found out that there's this authority
that the believer has. Man, when I found out about the
authority of the believer, I found out there was a lot of
songs I could no longer sing because I had attained to a
place that that song was only about my feelings.
That was the song of someone who doesn't know that they have the
name of Jesus and that demons tremble now that we walked in on
the sea and that sickness and disease will bow.
So there's a lot of songs that I had to cut out because and
anytime we listen to anything that's popular, they're great
for those churches because some of those churches are preaching
A theology that is perfect for what they sing.
But they can't make it to this house that way because I've
attained to something now that doesn't say I'm better.
What that says is this house is looking for the full counsel of
God to move to maturity. And what I didn't know in one
time, I now know now, God forbid I go back and sing about
something that I now have. Revelation is different.
So I have to change the one song we just sang today.
I changed the word Hallelujah to the one who came in made a way.
I'm like he didn't make a way, he made the way.
Now I'm not you, you out last critical bro.
I'm just letting you know right now, A&D are two different
thoughts and somebody that's come to this church lost and
think that there is more than one way and we're saying he made
a way. Well, that reinforces there's
more than one. So I went back, I said change A
to V. The song's awesome.
Love the song, but I'm like we can make it a little more clear
because he didn't come and make a way.
Now he made a way, but it's not like there's an others.
He made the way. Jesus didn't say I am a truth, I
am a life, I am away. He didn't say that.
Now you know what the immature will do in this context.
They'll act like in all you're just getting critical.
No, I'm trying. I am working hard to rightly
divide the word of truth because I don't want to be ignorant of
the devil's devices and I don't because I've had experience with
people who have been in the coexisting environment.
I have been to India where I've looked at people in the face and
told them about Jesus Christ as Lord and they are ready to
accept him as Lord. But they're thinking is I will
put Jesus on the shelf with the other thousand gods we worship
here in India. That's why I have to say, would
you put you in jail? I have to say, now listen, you
have to denounce all other gods that are here in India because
Jesus is the only God. He's the only God.
And everyone else you have, you're not adding Jesus.
Jesus is the only way you must denounce.
And when I said this to one couple, the lady, her eyes
rolled back and hit the ground. I had one of the nurses come up,
you know, and I'm like no, no, because I knew something
spiritual happened. A spirit had left her.
In essence she had an N word. I denounced this and that spirit
left. They confessed Jesus as Lord and
her their daughter was crippled. Their daughter was crippled
because of the spirits in her house.
I looked at them. I said when you go home, I want
you to find every idol God you have.
I want you to take it out of the house.
I want you to throw it away. I want you to.
I don't don't give it to nobody. Burn it.
The next year I came back. The child wasn't crippled
anymore. Come on, say Amen.
So, you know, you may scrutinize between A, A and AV, but I've
been in a place that A&V are a whole world apart.
Because when you attain to a place you are passionate about
reflecting the true nature and calling of God, you don't make
it semantics anymore. You make it purity of form.
You're passionate about that because equipping the sanctions
for that purpose. Paul went on to say this in the
Hebrews. I'm gonna have to shut down.
Maybe I won't even finish this today unless I do a speed round.
Hebrews 511 says it's concerning him.
We have much to say and it's hard to explain since you have
become dull of hearing, which means you used to hear one time
but now you don't for though by this time you ought to be
teachers. You have need again of someone
to teach you the elementary principles or oracles of God.
You have come to need milk and not solid food.
The Bible says to desire sensitive milk that you may grow
by milk is for infants. So in essence he's saying you
used to be mature. You should be serving steaks
today, but you're not because you've lost the ability to to
eat steak yourself. You yourself have gone back to
maturity. This is why Paul said in the
Philippian he said only stay true to what you've attained.
I've seen many people, this is the danger.
This is a danger to come to Anchor Faith Church because I'm
going to teach about being born again.
I'm going to teach about the baptism, Holy Ghost, whatever,
speak in the tongues. I'm going to teach about the
healing power of God. I'm going to teach about the
authority of the believer. I'm going to talk to you about
the prosperity of God, but I'm almost also going to talk to you
about the Kingdom of God. Not everybody's talking about
that. And if you attain to the
teaching of the Kingdom of God, which is what's who's coming
back? The king suffering, servants not
coming back, the King's coming. If you learn that and then you
decide you want to go back to a non emphasis, you're going to
become dull and hearing because you're not staying true to what
you attain to. I've talked with some of our
board members, he said. They said, I cannot believe
someone could abandoned the message.
Now that doesn't mean they don't love Jesus, but you can go from
maturity to immaturity. You can die and go to heaven and
mature. Although once you were mature,
well, it's quiet in this Baptist Church now, he said 4 verse 14
but solid food is for what? The mature.
So you know what it's the most frustrating thing for a fivefold
ministry is when the Saints demand meat and they know they
can only take milk. I need something more solid.
You're not even you're not even acting on the milk, right?
Not even acting on the milk. Teens, I'm going to talk to you.
You look at your parents. You want more responsibility,
more things to do this, that and the other.
Yet you struggle with just a simple basic principle of
obeying your parents, of acknowledging them as your
spiritual lead, that you can discover God without him.
I can tell you right now there's some in our elementary and
middle school that are chewing meat more than people in this
sanctuary right now. And it doesn't matter about
their bodies, their spirit man, they are obeying God and they
talk to their parents. Well, how come such and such and
why did this and how come this and how come the world's doing
this? How come that person looks like
that? Because they're already doing
verse 14. They've they are actually had,
they've already had their senses trained to discern good and
evil. But those who drink milk can't
do that. So there are plenty of believers
who cannot discern between good and evil, even though their
spirit man's been changed. This is why back to Ephesians 4,
they're tossed to and fro, not because they're not alive to
God, but it's because they're immature.
So being born again doesn't make you spiritually discerning.
It gives you the opportunity that only comes through training
and then maintaining your training.
Pastor Mike could tell you if you do not stay in it, you lose
it. Period.
This does it in the natural. It's definitely do it in the
spiritual. The cool thing about the spirit
is the spirit can work faster than the natural in building,
but it works the same way. You can lose it faster.
Oh, you don't want to hear that? You can lose it faster.
If you can build spiritual muscles faster, guess what?
You can lose them faster. Just take a week off from
reading the Word and see how fast your flesh starts talking.
James chapter 3 verse 2. James chapter 3 verse 2 says
this. I'm going to give you these
three and we're done for. We all make slip mini slips.
If anyone never slips in his what speech he is a man of, he
can control his whole body too. So the sign of spiritual
maturity is your mouth. Come on now, come on now.
It's your mouth. And James here, although he goes
on and talks about taming the tongue.
What are you saying is, is that unlike man who can tame beasts,
I cannot tame your tongue. You have to tame it yourself.
A man can tame other beasts, make them submit, but nobody can
make your mouth submit but you. And he's saying the minute you
get your mouth under control, then maturity will manifest.
And that is not just saying nice things.
That's refraining from saying things.
It's not I'm mature. Look, I'm going to quote
scripture. I'm believing God, yet you'll
talk about somebody and run them down.
That is an immature believer because the devil quotes
Scripture. Your Scripture quoting doesn't
mean you have a mature mouth. Your fruits of the Spirit and
walking in love and then keeping your mouth right in every
situation shows your maturity. Say Amen.
Anyway, the minute you do that then you control it all because
it doesn't matter what happens in God will vindicate the rest.
Matthew 548 says this. Jesus, you therefore be perfect
again. What's that word mean?
It doesn't mean perfection. It means mature.
Therefore we you therefore will be perfect.
Growing into spiritual maturity both in mind and character.
Actively integrating godly values into your daily life as
your heavenly Father is perfect. Jesus says this.
He says you are to mature like your daddy's mature.
Say maturity is obtainable. Let's just mature, Amen.
Let's be a church that matures. Let's do this.
So don't cry when somebody is saying, hey, that's not
necessarily a mature response. I want to be mature.
Let me get that right. Are you hearing me, coach?
Coach Hurley says that may be working in high school, but son,
that pitch is never going to get you in college.
Never going to get you in college.
I'm glad that everybody thinks you all that, but unless you
start doing this training and you start doing this and you let
your arm mature and you let your muscle mature, then you'll
finally get to this. I know you may want that pitch,
but that pitch ain't for you today because we need to get you
here. Because if you don't do it
right, then you can hurt yourself so that you never get
to the next level. Last verse is this Colossians
chapter one verse 28 says this. We proclaim him warning and
instructing everyone in all wisdom that is with
comprehensive insight into the word and purposes of God so that
we may present every person completing Christ mature, fully
trained and perfect perfect in him the anointed.
This is as Paul's heart writing to the church as the apostle of
Anchor Faith Church and my wife Apostle Marcy, our job is to
present you mature, not born again mature.
That's our assignment is to mature you and that's why we can
handle your crime, just like Coach Hurley does with his and
Coach Jake and Coach Luke. They handle the whining and
they're not moved by their crime because they're going after
their potential. They want them to mature as an
athlete and that's what we're doing to mature you.