A Recipe For Growth

Praise God. every breath that I breathe. I am so thankful that Jesus Christ is and I don't say this glibly, Lord of my life. He is the Lord of my life. He is the dominant factor in everything that I do and he should be in all of our lives.

And so I'm going to uh teach a lesson tonight. You all can go on down if you like. Brother Reaver contacted me some time ago and uh he did a very dangerous thing. He said there's no topic. And and and that's always with a loose cannon like me, that's always a kind of a dangerous thing.

So, I'm going to teach and and we talked yesterday evening. If if anybody didn't know any better, they would think that Pastor Brad and I have just shared our notes. But I think it's this reiterative quality of God when he speaks something more than once. He's trying to get a point through. He's trying to take us somewhere.

He wants us to understand this. And so, uh, I'm going to teach my lesson and and it so dovetales, not just dovetales, but it overlaps much of the the things that you preached about on Sunday. And it's a simple title. It's just about growth. Growth.

You may be seated from Ephesians chapter 4. by now a very familiar portion of scripture. Till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the son of God unto a perfect man unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ that we henceforth be no more children. Paul reiterated this several times in his writings and we would say it in common vernacular. We would just say grow up.

Grow up. Grow up. That we henceforth be no more children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the slight of men and cunning craftiness whereby they lie and wait to deceive. But speaking the truth in love may grow up into him and all things which is the head, even Christ. And from first Peter chapter 2 and verse two, it says this.

says, "Newborn babes desire the sincere milk of the word that you may grow thereby." So, we're talking about different levels of of understanding, different levels of of uh maturity, spiritual maturity. And then from finally second Peter 3:1 18, he said, "But grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and forever. Amen." So, I pray tonight that I I bring um just a bit of a new element to your understanding. I've never seen or convinced anything to grow by yelling at it.

You can go out and and years ago they talked about you need to talk to your plants, an talk to your plants. If you talk to your plants, they'll grow. Play music for your plants. Well, plants are not sentient beings. They don't they don't have this quality of cognizance.

They don't understand things. So, you can go out there. Don't let your neighbors see you. They might they might call for help uh when you're out there in your garden talking to your flowers and your plants because I can promise you it just doesn't work. They won't grow simply because you talk to them.

You have to create an environment. The only thing that makes things grow is to create the environment for growth and then give it the things that it needs to grow. It's a simple process. And so as it is in the natural, so it is in the spiritual. Growth is a natural process.

It's a spiritual process. And and I want to say this, it's not optionals. It's not optional. We must grow. That's the expectation of God.

Spiritual growth development is or should be a natural experience both corporately and personally on a church level. I want to tell you something. It is not hard to grow a congregation. It's not difficult. Practically anybody with any charisma, any ability, they can grow a congregation.

you can get people to follow. Uh Jesus found this out. He He said, "All I got to do is feed them and they'll show up." Over 5,000 people show up on a hillside just because Jesus was feeding them. So it's not hard. PT Barnum said, "The noblest art is that of making others happy." And he built a circus empire on that kind of philosophy.

uh uh there was a famous figure that we have all heard of probably that summarized his life in this manner. I have spent the best years of my life giving people the lighter pleasures and all I get is abuse and the existence of a hunted man. That paragon of altruism that that that great virtuous man his name was Al Capone. He just gave people what they wanted. One of the most notorious gangsters of the 20s.

He just gave people what they wanted. They wanted liquor during a time when it was a dry season. He provided that for everybody. So, he gave them what they wanted. It's not hard to build a congregation.

There are churches 20,000 plus, and I have heard them get up and say, "You want a shopping mall? Just ask Jesus. He You ought to be able to have a shopping mall. Just pray the right prayer and he'll get You want a helicopter? I've heard this from the pullpit.

You need a helicopter. You want a helicopter? Just pray the prayer and and you should have a helicopter, Brother Mike Duel. You need a helicopter. Just pray that prayer and you'll get a helicopter.

You can get people on board by just saying the right things. But when you examine, did Jesus really come to make us successful and happy or saved and holy? Successful and happy or saved and holy. Now they are not mutually exclusive concepts but growing a church and Pastor Brad is stepping into this uh responsibility of growing not just a congregation but a church a people who are prepared for eternity prepared to meet God and live in this life godly according to godly principles and and it's not easy and it's not simple to do that I can tell you from from my background of pastoring people, it's like as someone said, hurting cats. They just want to go every which way and and trying to get people to conform not to just standards but to to the image of Jesus Christ.

Growing a church is not an easy thing to do. Now, I want to illustrate some things today. Pastor, would you bring me that that bottle of water? Um, I forgot to bring it up with me. I want to talk about a couple of things here.

U first of all, I want to talk about types of growth. First, there is and and maybe you've heard this stuff before. I have not, so you should have told me a long time ago. But there is a a growth that is a linear growth. Everybody say linear growth.

Everybody see what I've got in my hand. What is it? A balloon. Okay. What is it now?

It's just a bigger balloon, but it's still a balloon. That's linear growth. It got bit bigger. It increased in size. something when it's a quantitative measurement.

When you have this type of growth, something something simply uh gets bigger. It increases in side in size, but it still is the same. It's still a balloon. Nothing changed about this. And so when we read the parable of the talents when Jesus talked about the man who was traveling to a far country and he turned to his servants and he gave them one five talents, he gave another one uh two talents and he gave another one one talent.

The the expectation was that he was investing in them so that they would increase what they had only make it bigger just linear growth. So it was an investment in them so that they would increase the amounts that he had given them. But they still remain talents. If you put money in the bank, it'll draw interest, but it's still money. It's not going to become something else.

Now the other the other type of growth, let me just say this, that linear growth is about giftings and ministry. Giftings and ministry. The reason that God gives us gifts is an investment so that we will in turn minister. Okay? He wants us and everybody has gifts.

I'll get into this in a minute. There's another type of growth though that is organic growth. Everybody say organic growth. It's a qualitative measure and it means to develop or to grow up. Can you imagine if you bought a packet of seeds and and you went out and you planted them in the ground and you wait watered them and you wait for about uh I don't know a week or so and you go out there and you look at it and say that's wonderful my seed is getting bigger and all that happens is the seed that you put in the ground it just gets bigger and finally you just end up with a big old seed on the top of the Great.

That's not the intent, right? You didn't put a seed in the ground for it to remain a seed. It doesn't just increase in size to become a bigger seed, but it grows by becoming a what it was intended to be. And that is fulfillment. Growing up into something that it was intended to be.

There is a progression. It's a seed. It becomes a seedling. There is a root. Then there is a chute.

There is a plant. There is a stalk. There's a trunk. There are branches. There are leaves.

And finally, there are fruit that produce more seeds. Right? It's a progression. It's a progression. So, I'm going to just illustrate this.

I I need an assistant. Really? Uh Gabe, come up here and help me out. I I just want to drive this point home about organic growth. Everybody see what I've got in my hand, right?

What is it? There you go. Okay. Now, I just added to what everybody here witnessed to as water. I added just a powder tea.

So, what do I have now? You just told me it was water. By the addition of that powder, it became something else. The water is now obscured. Its identity has been obscured by the fact that we don't call it water anymore.

It's tea. Hang on to that. I have also I've got a packet of sugar because that tea is unsweet tea. Shake it up. As the Beatles say, shake it up, baby.

Now, what do we have? Well, now we've got sweet tea. So, I've changed the nature and the character by everything. Thank you, sir. You can drink that if you want.

I've changed the character and the nature and even the identity by simply the addition of other elements into what we started with as water. Where' the water go? It's still there. The basis of everything is still the water. So this it's not if if I add raspberry flavoring to it now it's raspberry tea.

everything that I add to it, it becomes something different, an enhancement, and it becomes something better hopefully. So, organic growth, while linear growth is about giftings and ministry, organic growth is about our personal development. It's about it's about learning and becoming what we're supposed to be. Okay? So, I'm going to talk about these things in in the world.

Here's what the world says. Be the best version of you that you can be. That's in the world, right? Anybody ever heard that? You should be the best version of you that you can be.

That doesn't fly in the kingdom. In the kingdom, you're supposed to be the best version of him that you can be, not of you. The best version of Jesus. We heard it Sunday that he is the the the measuring rod. He is the benchmark for all of us.

I'm not to I I am to lose and recede. My identity should be lost when I have added Jesus Christ into my life. My identity becomes obscured by every attribute of Jesus Christ that I add to my life. And so while we we uh in the church we aim to be the best version of Jesus that we can be and he talked about again I'm going to reiterate these things perfection. We we shy away from perfection sometimes because many times in the Bible it does the word tleas it it denotes completion and and it does that that's on the one hand in Colossians 2:10 it says and ye are complete in him you are complete in him which is the head of all principality and power the fundamental idea is to bring to the goal set by God for a person or thing completion.

Bring it to the fulfillment. And it does absolutely when we're talking about Jesus Christ doesn't just mean completion. It means perfection because he was perfect. He was examined on all points yet without sin. He was totally perfect and he became the benchmark.

In Hebrews 5:9 it says, "And being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him." Less than perfection would not have worked. The requirements of God demanded perfection in every aspect of Jesus life. And I I coined a phrase I don't I I I even asked AI have is is there a is this quote out there? Because I've been saying it for years and it's this. It's only in the pursuit of perfection that excellence is ever achieved.

You'll never reach excellence unless you've got a mark of perfection that you're striving for. and then you will hit that mark of excellence. You may not hit perfection, but you're going to have excellence in your pursuit of that. So, what my admonition to all of us is tonight, don't settle. We hear the phrase, well, it's good enough for government work.

Not in the kingdom. Don't settle for less than the best when you are bringing it before the Lord. When you are presenting yourself, we are progressively taking on the attributes of Jesus Christ. We are being transformed by the spirit. Listen, I'm old.

Gretchen told me she felt old. I said, "Stand next to me. Hold my drink." Let's do a comparison here. I am old, but I am still being transformed by the spirit of God. I'm still saying with Paul, I have not yet attained, but I'm pressing toward that mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

And it'll be a pursuit until I go to the grave or get raptured out of this world. Amen. Paul said to the Galatians in 4:19, "My little children of whom I travail in birth again until Christ and be formed in you." What a strange statement. He was saying, "I am travailing in birth until Christ be formed in you." And this was the ultimate goal and it still is that Christ be formed in you, brother Fred. That Christ be formed in me.

That Christ be formed in every one of us. This is the goal and this is what we are striving for. For Paul, it was not just an abstract concept. For many of us, we sometimes we make things an icon. Jesus didn't come just to be an icon.

He came to be a transformative power in our lives and to make us more like him. We sing the song to be like Jesus. To be like Jesus on earth. I long to be like him. Don't settle until he be formed in you.

It wasn't just an abstract for Paul. It was such a complete idea for him that he would say in Philippians chapter 1 verse 21 for me to live is Christ. Woo. How many of us can say that for me to live is Christ? For him to live his life through me as he would live.

We are told to be transformed. That word there in Romans chap 12 and verse two. Let me read this from 1 and two of Romans. It says, "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service, and be not conformed to this world. Don't let the world put you into its mold and pressure you and shape you, but be you transformed.

The word there is more metamorphus. It it's a metamorphosis. We get the English term from be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. It it's expected that we will undergo when we receive the power of God in our lives. when we receive the greatest experience on this side of eternity and that is the baptism of the spirit of God, the Holy Ghost coming to live within you.

It is expected that we will undergo a radical radical transformative development like that of a caterpillar that weaves its cocoon and emerges as a butterfly. What a transformation. That which was earthbound now has wings to fly and can get above the beggarly elements of the world. This is what faith in Christ does for us. It lifts us.

It transforms us by his spirit to be above the things that would literally destroy us in this life. Psyche. If you go back and you look at Greek mythology, Psyche was the goddess of love and Venus was the goddess of beauty. Venus was jealous of psyche. But psyche, the the Greek term psyche means soul.

Venus was beautiful outwardly but psyche was beautiful inwardly. That's why this term developed into when you read the word soul in the New Testament, it's psyche because the soul becomes transformed by the spirit of God. There should be it's a place of transformation. It it's a place where we change to become like him. Like him.

In prayer meeting one time, I taught a lesson called Jesus and Billy Joel. Don't go changing to try to please me. Right? That was Billy Joel. Here's what Jesus says.

If I can't change you, you can't please me. The contrast is that while he loves us as we come to him, the expectation is he is going to change us and transform us and make us conform into his image. So let me hurry on. What is and how do we achieve this linear growth? The things that we should grow more bigger.

First, the Bible says this about gifts and callings. Romans 11:29, for the gifts and callings of God, you can say this, are without repentance. The word there is metamel melami. It it's not the same as metaninoia. The same thing that Peter's preached on the day of Pentecost about repent and be baptized.

This metamelami was a it's remorse. It's the kind of it's the kind of repentance that Judas had. He was remorseful in the deeds that he had done and he was sorry about the things he had done. But it it still carries the connotation of changing and turning away from. But but the fact is when God gifts people with gifts and callings, he's not sorry about it.

He'll never be sorry about it. And he doesn't expect them to be sorry about it or to turn back on the gifts and callings. They are without repentance. They are not rescended. Neither is their remorse.

When God calls, anoints and empowers. You are here for a reason. God has called you out of darkness into this marvelous light for a reason. You are not an accident. You are not here because of some coincidence.

You have been called of God and you responded to that call of the spirit. Don't met Metamelami. Don't repent. Don't have any remorse about that because God doesn't. And so when God anoints and empowers and grants us gifts, he doesn't take them back.

And I don't care where you go or how far you run. God, when he gifts somebody, when he calls somebody, you never get away from that gifting and that calling. Moses on the on the back side of that desert, he was arguing with God. And if he had won that argument, you know what would have happened to Moses? He would have been an anointed leader leading only flocks of sheep on the backside of a desert because God put that gift upon him of leadership.

And if he had rejected that or run from that calling, it would no less have mattered because he would still have been an anointed, chosen vessel of God that was now living outside of his calling and his gifting. Mori, as a matter of fact, said this to Esther. Said, "You you've been put there for a reason. for such a time as this, you've been brought to the kingdom for the deliverance of your people. But if you do not respond, if you don't, God has gifted you with this.

God has put you in that place. But if you don't respond, God's going to get somebody else. You'll be sitting on that throne because that's where God placed you, but God's going to get somebody else. And he said, "Deliverance will come from another source." The gifts and the callings of God are without repentance. He doesn't rescend them.

David, this was one of the striking things about David when he came upon Saul and he could have killed Saul because Saul was now a reprobate king. But David said, "He's still anointed. He's still anointed and he's still the king." This was God's appointment and this was God's anointed. And he said, "I will not touch this man because the gifts and the callings of God are not rescended. He still is what God called him to be.

even though he has become unqualified and become reprobate because the gifts and the callings of God are determined by the will of God according to 1 Corinthians 12 11. But all these workketh that one and self-same spirit dividing to every man severally as he will. That word there severally means individually. So, I'm going to throw this out here. Everybody here's got a gift.

Everybody here is gifted. I used to I used to train people corporate level and uh we would have retraining sessions sometimes for employees who had been there for a while and I would always lead with this statement when I got a class together. I would tell them, "You know more than you think you do. You're more valuable because you've been here for over a year, maybe two years, maybe five years, you're more valuable because of the experience that you have. Even though we're going through this retraining process, it's a matter of growing.

But you are, and I'm going to talk to the church, to people of God. You've been in the church anytime at all. You are valuable. You are gifted. You know more than you think even that you know you you know and can do more than you give yourself credit for sometimes.

Sometimes I think that God has more faith in us than we have in ourselves. But he gifts the people of God. And and and and so while he gives each person gift giftedness individually, it says in 1 Corinthians chapter 12 and that 31st verse, "But covet earnestly the best gifts, and yet I show you a more excellent way." I did a provisional translation of this and and and I translated it like this. be zealous for the greater gifts. And further I show you an exceptional way to attain those greater gifts.

And then he launched in to the greatest of these is love. Everything that we do, the motivation is love. Love for him, love for others. That's what motivates us with the gifts of the spirit and the gifts of ministry. And so it all has to be motivated by a love.

I used to I I pastored a small congregation to start with. We we grew over years. But the thing that I always kept in mind was I'm not doing this for you. I'm doing this for him. So when I stepped behind the pull pit and I preached or I prepared a sermon or a lesson or anything else, it kept the levels of everything that I was doing up because I was doing it for him and the people became beneficiaries of what I was doing for him.

So the gifts that you have and the callings that you have, God has granted them to you, but not for yourself. It's for others. It's for the body. It's for the ministry to the body. Let me let me go on.

What is your gift? I want to I wish I had you write this down, everybody. What is your gift? You answer this yourself. What is your gift?

What is your gift? Don't overstep the boundaries here. You know, sometimes we overestimate what we could do. But but in this, what is your gift? What is your calling?

Because your gift is what will determine your purpose in the kingdom. I used to stand next to one of my friends when I was growing up in church. APC 13th gra. He sang a monotone. Tony, his voice never changed.

If you've never heard anybody sing in a monotone, it's the strangest thing. It's like a Gregorian chant or something. We are all singing when we all get to heaven. He's singing when we all get to heaven. What a day.

And and the pitch the the the tone nothing ever changed. And he wasn't doing it on purpose. It was because he just was a monotone. It wouldn't have helped to make him the choir director. He wasn't gifted that he could play a trumpet.

Brother Jim, he he could play a trumpet, but he read notes, but he couldn't hear. I mean, he had no musical ear. So, your gift your gift is going to determine your purpose. Your purpose. There are nine major categories of manifestation gifts in 1 Corinthians the 12th chapter.

There are divine revelations, which are knowledge, wisdom, and discernment. There are supernatural miracle gifts, faith and healing and miracles. There's divine speech, tongues, and interpretation and prophecy. I can tell you that from my standpoint, I know what my gifts are, Pastor Brad. I know what my gifts are.

And I've been used in many of those gifts, but they're not my giftings. It's because probably somebody else didn't respond. And so, God just spoke it to me instead. Right? Because just like Esther, if you don't respond, somebody else is going to step up and do what you're supposed to be doing.

So there are nine manifestation gifts. There are also five ministry gifts. Apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, teachers, all of these that are gifts to the church. There are also subcategories that I call motivational propensity gifts. things that you have a propensity for.

Romans 12:es 6-8 says this, "Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, whether prophecy, let us prophesy according to that proportion of faith, or ministry, let us wait on our ministering. Or he that teacheth on teaching, or he that exhorteth on exhortation, or he that giveth, let him do it with simplicity. He uh that ruleth with diligent. He that showeth mercy with chill uh cheerfulness. So there are propensity gifts.

You may not recognize them as that, but I'm I'm fixing to Can I say that? I'm fixing to I'm fixing to show you that you are gifted and you may not even have recognized it yet. But you need to understand this because it it pertains to the place that you fit into the body of Jesus Christ. These these gifts of propensity. You may have a bent toward one of these things.

Ministry, which is a gift of serving. Some people it it suits them. They they enjoy just serving other people. And you find them in this ministry teaching is one of those propensity or motivational gifts opening people's understanding. Aquilla and Priscilla fade out into obscurity except for their names are recorded in the book of God because they showed more fully the way of the Lord to a man by the name of Apollos and they and they became partners with Paul.

Come on. You have a gift. Exhorting, consolation, encouragement. I wish Amber was here tonight. It's a gift.

You can't do this without being gifted. grief share, helping people push past their their grief and their it's counseling and it's it's ex exhortation and it's and it's this kind of ministry exhorting them and encouraging them to to move forward. There is a there is a gift, believe it or not, of giving. Some people make a lot of money. The reason you make a lot of money is to give.

The reason God gives is so that you will give back. Come on. These are not big glaring gifts that you that you parade across the platform, but you sit quietly in the pews and you're sitting there with a gift that God has blessed you with maybe of giving. That's sharing or impartation, ruling. You know what that means?

Leadership to be placed in front. Some of you have a gift of leadership. Not everybody does. I'm going to tell you that right up front. Our CEO in the company that I work for, he used to he used to say, "Everybody's a leader." I said, "Do you have you met the people that I work with?" Not everybody is a leader.

It is a gift. So when it says ruling, it means to be placed in front. If God leads you in that direction, don't don't push it aside. Don't brush it aside. Don't deny it.

Because it's if you do it with the proper motivation, it will be effective. And that's another thing that I want to emphasize is that when God gives you these gifts, you will be effective in what he's given you to minister. Amen. There are people who are the Bible says merciful, compassionate, empathetic. You know, sometimes and thank God for all of you people because you sit there and listen to me.

I hope that's empath, you know, that's that's listen with a sympathetic ear. you you listen and and I have found I used to travel quite a bit around and I would meet a variety of people, amazing people in the most unusual places and and and all I had to do was listen and and people want to share with you about who they are, about what their accomplishments are. Sometimes all we need is an ear. Sometimes all we need to do is be a listener. And some of you have been gifted with that gift to be a listening ear because sometimes that's all somebody needs is for you just to listen without forming a response before they're finished talking.

Right? Listen, compassion, being empathetic. All of these things that I just mentioned, they're investments in you to be reinvested in the body by you. All the gifts of miracles, all the gifts of supernatural utterances, all of those gifts, they're not for you to go home and speak in tongues and interpret the message for yourself. It's for the body.

It's for the body of Christ. All of these gifts that God gives us, these particular ones are for the ministry to the body. the entire body of Jesus Christ. And I'm going to tell you something. As in the parable of the talents, you're going to be accountable.

I'm going to be accountable for what he's given me. The investment that he's made in me if I have not reinvested that. Paul said, "Yeah, you can be saved, but your whole life is going to be burned to the ground. wood, hay, stubble, just burned up because because what was invested in you was not reinvested in the kingdom of God. Is this making sense to anybody tonight?

Growing. I'm talking about growing. You've got a gift. You just got to you just got to recognize that gift and acquies to that gift. And so th this was this is linear growth.

If God gives you a gift, you develop that gift. But you don't develop it for yourself and you don't develop it in yourself. You develop it for the ministry to the body. That's linear growth. If you're a musician, that's not just for you.

That's for the ministry of the body. If you're a singer, there there's an old guy in the the Old Testament. His name was He-Man. H E M- He-Man. And most of the time all it says about him it says heman a singer.

He was one of David's mighty men. He was a singer though. And it's recorded in the word of God that He-Man was a singer. What a great testimony. If you're a singer, sing.

Sing to the glory of God. Give your gift back to the church. And in doing so, glorify the Lord. It may sound so simple but it has such an impact. Let me hurry on.

What about organic or transformational growth for this Simon Peter gave us seven progressions to consider if we are to be de partakers of divine nature. This this verb in second Peter chapter 1 verse 5 it says uh five and uh through 8. Let me let me just read this. And beside this, giving all diligence and you know the passage. Add to your faith virtue to your virtue knowledge to your knowledge temperance to your temperance patience patience godliness.

Godliness brotherly kindness and brotherly kindness charity. For if these things be in you and abound, they make you that ye shall neither neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. Just keep adding stuff in. It'll change you. It's not a that's not talking about ministering to the body now.

It's talking about your personal growth. You and and this this verb translated add it carries the meaning of exercising one characteristic in order to develop another one. Brother Jeff, you talked about him lifting weights, right? You can you can lift weights, you know, if you do bench presses, they're primarily for your pectoral muscles, for your chest, to develop your chest. But in the process of that, your bicep or your triceps get developed, too, right?

You're developing, you're focused on one thing, but another thing's getting developed while you're focusing on that one thing. This is what Peter is telling us. When you add to your when you add to your faith virtue, you're exercising faith, but you're achieving excellence. And and when you achieve excellence and you start exercising that, you start gaining knowledge. And and and there's an addition there.

You're exercising one thing, but you're developing something else at the same time. And he said in chapter 1 of second Peter verse 10, "Wherefore the rather brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure. For if you do these things, you shall never fall. You don't want to fall, do you? You don't want to fall.

I don't want to fall." And he said, "You don't have to fall if you give your calling. If you make your calling and election, sure you plant your feet in that gift that God has given you." Listen, all the things that I just mentioned are personal building blocks to be like Jesus. Exercise. Exercise. We used to sing a song said, "I have a long way to go to be like the Lord." Let's stand.

I have a long way to go to be like the Lord. I just have to keep exercising, brother Fred. Because if I exercise, there's a development that takes place. And they will produce something that's called in Galatians 5, the fruit of the spirit. The fruit of the spirit, love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance.

Remember the story when Jesus came to that tree and he and he came to it and he came looking for fruit on the tree, the fig tree, right? And it says he found none. What a hypocrite. A tree that looks mature, but it don't have any fruit. It appears to it professes one thing, but it doesn't really possess the fruit that would identify it as being a mature tree.

And we say that he cursed the tree. You can read it in some of the King James version says that he cursed the tree. He really didn't. He made a predictive statement and he said, "Henceforth, from this point on, you're going to be barren forever. Nobody's ever going to eat fruit from your your branches ever." It was predictive.

It wasn't it wasn't necessarily a curse even though the fig tree died. But but the fate of that fig tree was that it appeared to have grown but it did not have even a single product to show for all the years that it had been planted in the ground. Not a single fig. If that's how you've grown, professing to be a fig tree but not possessing the fruit of the fig, you may never again. Listen, we're all capable of more than we think when we yield to this process of growth and transformation.

You can do greater things in the spirit of God than you even think you can. Hebrews the 11th chapter is filled with examples of ordinary people. Ordinary people who were forever recorded in the word of God because they were willing to yield themselves to a spirit that was greater than they were. Who through faith subdued kingdom. Listen to this.

subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of life. Ordinary people quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword. Out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in the fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens. Women received their dead raised to life again, and others were tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection. you.

You have that better promise that lives in you tonight. And you're capable of so much more than you have given yourself credit for. I feel the Holy Ghost calling us and drawing us, calling us to a place of surrender and saying, "Why? Why would you go any further being barren and unfruitful when I've given you everything that you have need of to produce the fruit of the spirit in your life? Pastor Brad, come.