Grow Up: From Instability to Mature Faith

Grow until chaos stops controlling your decisions. Grow until pain stops dictating your behaviors. Grow until your spirit becomes steadier than your circumstances because mature faith is not the absence of storms. Watch this. It's learning how to stay anchored while the storm is happening. And so some of us need to hear this today. Being loud is not the same thing as being mature. Being emotional is not the same thing as being deep. [00:53:10] (40 seconds)  #SteadyNotLoud

If every headline steals your peace, you need to be growing. If every disagreement destroys your stability, you need growth. After these sermons, if every criticism ruins your day, you still need growth. If your whole emotional state changes every time life shifts, you need growth. And we laugh, but but some of us, we wake up saved, But by 09:15, just driving to work, you need a full deliverance ministry in your car with you. [00:50:04] (40 seconds)  #PeaceOverHeadlines

Being reactive is not the same thing as being righteous. Mhmm. Grow until your spirit becomes steady. Grow until your emotions start running. Your life grow until your peace is no longer controlled by people. Grow until your convictions become anchored deeper than your circumstances. Mhmm. Because emotional peep immature people are easily tossed, but grown people become rooted. [00:53:50] (27 seconds)  #RootedNotReactive

Because mature people stop asking, what can I get from the body? They start asking how can my growth strengthen the body. So after we preach these last few weeks, after all the stretching, all the challenge, and all the confronts, and all the growing, here's the question that God is asking the mount and the mount's friends and family. Will you finally grow up? Not get louder, not grow more emotionally, not be more performative, grow deeper, grow steadier, grow wiser, grow stronger, grow up. [01:12:29] (33 seconds)  #GrowDeeperNotLouder

Grow until your family feels safer because of your stability. Grow up. Grow until your presence brings peace instead of chaos. Grow until your wisdom starts holding somebody start helping somebody else survive, you need to grow until your healing interrupts generational dysfunction. You need to grow up. Grow up so much that when you walk in a room, people don't say, oh, lord. They say, thank you, lord. [01:11:56] (33 seconds)  #BeThePeace

And so you gotta grow. Grow until you hear truth without needing to escape it. Grow until accountability stops feeling like attack. Grow until correction no longer threatens your identity. Grow until honesty becomes healing instead of humiliation. Now mind you, because I know some of you sitting there salivating, telling me, oh, I can go tell folk off. Remember, I said truth with love. [01:02:53] (28 seconds)  #EmbraceCorrection

And some of us are asking God for for growth while resisting truth. Truth about your attitude, truth about your wounds, truth about your pride, truth about your habits, truth about the ways that you sabotage yourself and others. Some folk want prophetic words, but can't handle honest feedback from anybody. You want God to take you higher to another level, but you get offended every time somebody corrupts you. [01:01:35] (33 seconds)  #HandleHonestFeedback

You gotta cut it out because mature people stop running from the truth. Mature people can't apologize. Mature people can say I was wrong. Mature people can hear correction without falling apart emotionally. Mhmm. About eight claps. Mature people can stop running from the truth. Mature people can apologize. Mature people can say, I was wrong. Mature people can hear correction without literally falling apart. [01:02:09] (44 seconds)  #MatureCanApologize

Paul's not talking about gifts. Nope. Charisma. Charisma didn't make the cut. Influence double checked it. Nope. Not there. Truth. Speaking the truth in love. And that phrase sounds simple until you actually try to live it because people lean one direction or the other. Some people love truth with no love. Some people love truth with no love. They're harsh. They're cutthroat, always telling you like it is. [00:57:05] (41 seconds)  #TruthInLove

But liberation happens through community, shared responsibility, collective care. That's why the church became more than just a place of worship because the church took on the responsibility of community care. That's why churches fed people and educated people and protected people and buried people and organized people, mentored people, raised them because mature faith understands that my growth should benefit somebody besides me. [01:08:01] (35 seconds)  #GrowthForCommunity

Mature people, third point, become responsible for others. Now Paul takes this thing even deeper because after talking about instability, after talking about truth, Paul shifts to responsibility. He says the whole body is joined and knit together. In other words, growth is never just personal. Real maturity eventually moves beyond what is happening to me to how am I helping other folk grow. [01:05:04] (30 seconds)  #MaturityMeetsResponsibility

Paul uses body language intentionally, ligaments, connections, joints. This is the language of community because in Paul's theology, Christian maturity is never about the individual alone. The body only functions properly when every part accepts responsibility for the whole. Christian maturity is not just individual. The body only functions properly when every part accepts responsibility for the whole. [01:05:34] (39 seconds)  #OneBodyOneMission

And our theology, which is driven by liberation here at 6 Mount Zion, ought to teach us that systems of domination survive by keeping people like us reactive instead of reflective. Because emotionally unstable people are easier to distract. I'm a keep saying it. Easier to control, easier to divide, easier to manipulate. That is why throughout black history, formation matters so deeply in the church because the black church held a space that was more than just worship. [00:47:28] (38 seconds)  #FromReactiveToReflective

And there are moments when I realized growth was no longer about me feeling inspired. Growth became about responsibility, about showing up consistently, about loving people even when it's hard, about remaining steady when everything around you feels emotionally heavy. And I've learned something. Real maturity is not when life becomes easy. Real maturity is when you stop making everything about yourself because grown people learn how to carry others, carry responsibility, carry vision, carry community, carry truth, Carry people through difficult seasons because immature people disappear every time life gets hard. [01:10:20] (43 seconds)  #GrowthIsResponsibility

One disagreement is suddenly they need a break. One difficult situation, and now they're protecting their energy. No. Mature people learn endurance. They learn consistency. Mature people understand everybody gets tired, but everything can't fall apart every time you feel pressure or stress. Some people waiting to feel motivated before they become responsible, but maturity teaches you there are things you do because people are depending on you. [01:11:04] (37 seconds)  #PracticeEndurance

Because there are seasons when people look at the leaders and assume strength means you don't get tired. My my my. But leadership stretches you. Trying to preach while carrying your own burdens? Stretching. Trying to encourage people while processing your own disappointment? Stretching. Trying to hold vision while watching people struggle, grieve, leave, break down, lose hope, stretching. [01:09:49] (31 seconds)  #LeadershipIsStretching

Because many of the the much of the preaching that I hear is not really about us. It's not about the community. It's about you and what you're gonna get. And sometimes I believe that's why people run to it because they don't wanna do anything beyond themselves. They wanna stay shallow, and they wanna do personal inspiration. But god says, listen. Just because you reduce spiritual growth to personal inspiration doesn't make it right. [01:06:42] (31 seconds)  #BeyondPersonalInspiration

Because what he shared was when young black men are constantly surrounded by instability, whether it's through, economic pressure or over policing or underinvestment violence, reaction becomes easy. But he made the decision to start this mentoring group for young black men because he said, I refuse to let chaos shape who I am. So instead of reacting to pain, watch this, he started building discipline. But instead of reacting to pain, he started mentoring. [00:52:00] (32 seconds)  #BuildDisciplineNotChaos

Some of us, we wake up saved, but all it takes is one bad email and got you questioning your whole purpose in life. You get on Facebook arguing with folk, and suddenly you're done with everybody because immaturity reacts immediately. Immaturity speaks before thinking. Immaturity explodes before discerning. But maturity maturity develops restraint. See, stuff like posts that happen while you're immature will make you do something before you process. [00:50:44] (39 seconds)  #RespondWithRestraint

Everybody branding themselves, protecting their image, curating perception. People want influence without responsibility, visibility without accountability. Everybody talking about protecting their peace while abandoning the community at the moment relationships become difficult. Mature people learn how to carry responsibility without running every time things become inconvenient. And I told you, you gotta you gotta grow. Pastor in itself has forced me to grow in ways I never expected. [01:09:16] (33 seconds)  #ResponsibilityOverVisibility