You Are Still Here, But Are You Growing?

Growth looks like your emotions don't run you. Your situation doesn't control you, and what used to shake you doesn't shake you the same way. Because when you're growing, life doesn't stop being hard, but you stop falling apart. Because if everything still disrupts you, you ain't growing. If every situation still dictates your mood, you ain't growing. If you're still easily thrown off a balance from everything, you ain't still growing. [01:06:35] (37 seconds)  #StopFallingApart

You can build a routine that hides the fact that you have not grown. You can feel productive and still be spiritually stagnant. You can build a life that looks full and still avoid becoming better. And watch this. Nobody checks it because you've learned how to function at a level that does not require growing at all. But here's the truth. God is not impressed with how long you've been around. God is looking at who you are becoming. [00:35:24] (38 seconds)  #GodSeesBecoming

You already know where you've been settling. You already know where you've been avoiding growth. You already know where you've been making excuses. And here's the reality. Growth is not gonna happen by accident. It's gonna happen by decision. And so I need you today to decide, am I gonna stay this version of myself, or am I gonna grow into who God is calling me to be? Because hear me. God is not adjusting God's plan to match your comfort. God is expecting you to grow to match God's purpose. [01:08:54] (42 seconds)  #DecideToGrow

Some of us don't need more words. See, that's the problem. Many of you out here trying to chase more word all the time when you ain't even applying the words you already have. You don't need another sermon on patience. You just need to practice it. You don't need any more messages on faith. You need to live it. You don't need another word about discipline. You need to do something with it. You've heard enough, seen enough, experienced enough. It's time to become something. Growth begins when you stop pretending. [00:54:47] (35 seconds)  #PracticeWhatYouPreach

Alright. Here's the third point. Growth shows up in what you can handle now. The writer says, solid food is for the mature who, by constant use, have trained themselves. Now don't miss that because the writer says, by constant use. That means growth didn't happen in a moment. It didn't happen because they heard something once. It happened because they practiced it over and over and over again. They trained themselves. [01:01:29] (33 seconds)  #TrainByConstantUse

So when he says you should be further along than this, he's not being harsh. He's being accurate. He's saying with everything you've heard, everything you've seen, everything you've been through, there should be evidence. There should be fruit. There should be development. There should be something to keep you stable by now. Now I'm not saying you gotta be perfect, but at least be progressing. I ain't saying you gotta be flawless, but be forming. [00:52:06] (26 seconds)  #EvidenceOfFruit

God help me. Y'all missing it. Teaching it, modeling it, living it. But instead, he says, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles. The Greek there means the elementary building blocks a b c level faith. So what he's really saying is you've been in this long enough to be building others, but you're still rebuilding yourself at the most basic level. Listen. Regression is spiritual formation, not neutral is threatening because it means you've had exposure without transformation, truth without embodiment, and that creates a believer who can articulate faith but cannot demonstrate maturity. [00:51:24] (42 seconds)  #RegressionIsDangerous

You can be active and still stand still. You can be present and still make no progress. You can stay involved and still be unchanged. You can keep on showing up and still be stuck in the same place. You can learn more and still live the same as you did when you didn't know it. You can have more information, no transformation. You can participate in everything and still evolve in nothing. I'm trying to help you today. [00:34:53] (31 seconds)  #ShowUpButGrow

Growth starts when you get honest enough to say I should be further by now. Once you admit that, now you've got to deal with the next problem because growth is not just about honesty. It's about what you're willing to endure. Growth will disrupt what feels comfortable. That's the second point. Growth will disrupt what feels comfortable. The writer says you need milk, not solid food. Now you don't read that too fast because that's not just about content. That's about capacity. [00:55:27] (28 seconds)  #GrowthDisruptsComfort

And I realized prior to resurrection that I felt like God was calling me to preach what I feel is a series that is very needed, not just for us, but for the Christian church in general. It is something that we don't talk about much. So let me start here. What is growth? Growth is the process of becoming more than you currently are. It goes beyond outward change. It is development within. It is the steady shaping of your mind, your character, your discipline, and your capacity. [00:32:06] (45 seconds)  #DefineGrowth

Growth means that you think differently, respond differently, and handle life differently than you once did. It means something in you is evolving. Something in you is stretching. Something in you is strengthening. Something in you is maturing. And the truth is, god growth, I'm sorry, requires intention, consistency, and a willingness to be uncomfortable. Because anything that truly grows has to be stretched beyond where it is. [00:32:51] (42 seconds)  #GrowthNeedsIntention

But when growth starts happening, you become steady, grounded, hard to shake, not because life got easier, but because you got stronger. And hear me, y'all. I'm I'm wrapping this thing up. God is trying to develop a version of you that can handle what's next. Because where God is taking you, it requires maturity, more discipline, more stability than where you are right now. I need you to suck that in, take that. God is trying to take you somewhere. [01:07:13] (45 seconds)  #SteadyNotEasy

God help me. It's like going to the gym and just lifting the 15 pound weights knowing you should have been at 50. But you only do the 15 because you know you can do it. See, some of us have built a spiritual life that only works when it feels good. As long as it is encouraging, you engage. As long as it's lifting, you present. But the moment it challenges you, you pull back. [00:57:09] (30 seconds)  #SpiritualWeightlifting

And here's the line. Since you have become dull of hearing now that word dull in the Greek, nauthors, doesn't mean they lack intelligence. It just means that they become sluggish, slow, unresponsive, not able to grow, but unwilling to engage at the level required to grow. So the issue is not their capacity. It's their posture, highly of sitting. They lost their sharpness, lost their attentiveness, lost their hunger for depth, and now the writer has to pause deep teaching, hear me, because they can't handle it. [00:50:14] (33 seconds)  #DullOfHearing

God help me. That's frustrating. Because he's saying, wanna take you deeper, but you won't come with me. I wanna stretch you, but you keep resisting. I wanna build you up, but you're comfortable where you are. So when he says this, by this time, you ought to be teachers, that's not just about time passing. That's about expectation violated because in the early church, growth was assumed. Exposure to the word was supposed to produce development in believer, and the believer to the point where you didn't just receive truth, you became responsible for carrying it. [00:50:47] (37 seconds)  #CalledToTeach

It's been a week, and it requires some growth to deal with it all. Because I'm not even talking about the quiet and heavy stuff that you're dealing with. I'm not talking about the fact that you you're not thinking about vacations this year because you're thinking about just surviving. I'm not thinking about whether or not you pull up to the gas tank and decide whether or not you're gonna put a half tank in or full tank in because you gotta ration out the rest of that money. I'm not talking about do you pay the bill this week, or do you push it and hope that nothing shuts off? [00:43:16] (33 seconds)  #HandleDailyHardness