It's Time to Grow Up

Thank you, Brother Arthur. Appreciate that. Well, can we give the Lord a big hand clap of praise? Now, I know it's early in the morning, but can we forget that, and let's give God a great hand clap of praise, and lift our voice.

It is a privilege to be here. I'm very thankful for that. I consider this a high honor, and I just thank you. Thank you, Brother Jordan, Brother Carter, whoever had anything to do with me being able to speak today. And I'm very, very thankful for it. I give honor to Pastor and Sister Harpole. We thank God for what they have meant to us. I thank God Melanie is here today. Brother Tony last night was talking about a rabbi on retainer that he and Brother Woodward have to have. I married a Bible scholar, and so that is a great advantage. And I am very, very thankful to be here. All — many, many friends. And we've not been in Indiana that long, and everyone has just been so, so very, very nice to us, and I'm very thankful.

Can we just pray that God will give us personal revelation today? Can we do that? Father, we thank You for Your many blessings. We thank You for Your goodness. We thank You for Your mercy. We thank You for the power that we have felt in this tabernacle the last few hours. God, we're asking that even right now, in this session, that we would have personal revelation. You know where we are. You know the next step we need to take in our lives. And I'm asking You to help us now. Let it be done, in Jesus' name. Can everyone say amen? Amen. God bless you as you're seated.

We can be very clear today on the audience. It's a Thursday morning camp meeting, like, early. And so, obviously, this is not a new convert class. This is not a new believer class. This is not a new worshipper. A lot of veterans. A lot of veterans. And when I say veterans, I'm not even talking in particular about elders. I mean just people that have been born again for, man, five years, ten years, fifteen years, twenty, thirty, forty — decades now. If you are here and you are kind of new to this, let me just tell you: the word — in the Bible, it speaks about the milk of the word and the meat of the word. And I'm going to tend more toward meat today. I'm going to talk to those of us that have been a part of this for a very long time, because I believe that there are some things that we need to consider.

Now, I had the privilege of being born and raised in an apostolic family. I thank God for that. I was unplanned. And so then, when I finally was born in West Virginia — I was like two weeks old; they were just waiting for me to be born to move to Fort Smith, Arkansas. And we were talking — and, wow, this could be dating me, and this is not always a good thing to do — but we were talking, Brother Arthur and some of us were talking in the green room last night, and Brother Anderson came in, and so we were both from Arkansas, and we were talking about different things. And we were going back to when the tabernacle, you know, had the doors that opened. It was not air conditioned. And then they started talking about when this was not air conditioned. And speaking of Arkansas and the Razorbacks — Brother Gaddy, good to see you walking in right now. And so it goes back that far. I remember all of those years. I could reminisce and reminisce. That's not the point of this right now.

But here's my point. I have heard revelation given. I have heard words. I have heard prophecies all of my life. I have heard bold proclamations that have been proclaimed at very high decibel about what all we were going to do, and how we were going to win our world, and how we were going to take our cities. And honestly — and I had this in my notes before I even realized that Brother Gaddy was going to be speaking; I didn't even see his name until yesterday. So, being that he is going to be ministering, he is going to be teaching, I've shortened what I was going to say right here, in case — I don't want to get into any of his business. But I've heard "we'll win the world, take our cities," and all of that. And the only neighborhood that I've ever heard that could even be close to being taken — and I know that I don't have all of the stories — would be his story. And so I'm going to stop right there, because that may be part of his teaching.

And so, when I look at that, and I realize that I've sure never been part of taking a neighborhood — and I'm not proud of that at all. In thinking about this, several years ago I received a personal revelation regarding words and prophecies. And I realized that many of them reveal the opportunities and intentions of God, but are not guarantees. A word can go forth, and it can be a prophecy, and sometimes it's a guarantee. Now, there are things in the Word of God that God's Word says it's going to happen. Now, whether or not we're a part of it — that's going to be on us — but it's going to happen. But I believe there are other things, that words are spoken, and what the word is is an intention of what God wants us to experience. But it depends on our obedience and our action.

I believe that we need to consider the children of Israel. They were told they were going to a promised land. Who told them that? God. Did they get there? No. Why did they not get there? Because of their lack of obedience, their unbelief, and their lack of action. I come here today, and I say that we need to heed what it says in 1 Corinthians 6, where it tells us, "Consider the children of Israel. They are our examples." They are examples. Look: they did not have the advantage that we have. We have the Bible. They could not read all of the stories that we can read now. So I personally believe that our lack of fulfilled promises has much to do with our individual spiritual immaturity. Individual — let's get this right now. I know that we live in an untoward generation. I get that. I am aware that we live in a very immoral day, and I get that. But I believe that the biggest thief today, that is stealing what has been promised — but many things we have not possessed — is not the untoward generation, and it's not the immoral world that we live in. I believe it is my individual spiritual immaturity. I believe that's our biggest battle. I'm not blaming it on anybody else. I have to look in the mirror, and I'm praying that you will do the same today. And the key word is individual.

So I would like for us to turn our attention, for a text, to Ephesians 4:14-15: "That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to—

—deceive; but speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ."

And so, to this veteran audience, I bring this word today: It's time to grow up. It's time to grow up. I'm saying it to me. I'm saying it to you. I'm saying it to anybody that is here on this early Thursday morning, a veteran audience. I'm saying it's time to grow up.

Now, we need to not miss this very important statement that is written: "grow up into him in all things." The Word says "him," not "them." Him is Him. Him is King Jesus. Them is anyone who is not Him. We've got to get this. It's not grow up into whoever your favorite person is. It's not grow up into the greatest human spiritual authority you've ever had in your life. That is not what the Word is saying. I am for spiritual authority. I am for leadership. Don't get me wrong. I am for all this. But it's time that we elevate, and we start looking at who the real example is. And the real example is Jesus Christ, in our individual lives. The real example is Jesus Christ. In our leadership lives, the real example is Jesus Christ. In whatever area of life, whatever role we have in life, we had better elevate Jesus to the top of it. That's what we better do.

And there are a lot of people that the king zone is so crowded in their life that they can't even hear. They're not even thinking about Jesus. And what we've got to do is we've got to make sure that there are no humans in the king zone. I'm not saying don't respect. I am saying to respect. But we've got to clear out the king zone. "Well, my grandmother — she was right up there with Jesus." No, she wasn't. "Well, my pastor — that was right up there with Jesus." No, he wasn't. No, she wasn't. No human is up there with Jesus. Jesus Christ is the King. He is the top. He is the example. He is the one that we must be using as our ultimate example.

So I would say that it would be a good idea to do a slow read through Ephesians 4, 5, and 6. A slow read, because it sheds much light on growing up.

So let's bring it home to our present-day religious structure. So in our religious structure, we have UPCI global, and then it would go national, then it would go district, then it would go section, then it would go local church. Most local churches have classes, and then there are families or groups — I could say group/families — and then there are individuals. And so, as I have studied this — and I have studied those eight groupings that are very predominant in a group like this, our world — I would ask you to consider the fact of where can real change really happen and be lived out. And for the most part, that happens in the bottom two. That would be our group/family, or us individually.

As I thought about this, the words of Joshua 24:15 rang out in my spirit: "If it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell." So he was widening out. It was that wide approach. But then he said, "But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD." And so Joshua realized that he could not change the nation. He realized he couldn't even change his tribe. But he realized he could change himself, and he could change his family. But he would only change his family if he started with himself. And so this is one of the reasons that I say: until there is significant change in the home, the church is stuck. It's stuck. Yeah. And for the most part, we could add: until there is significant change in the man, the home is stuck.

Now, this is the reason why, for the last year, about every opportunity I've had, I've held this book up. It's an old book, put out by Publishing House. I don't even know that they know I'm even pushing the book. I did not write this book. I do not get one penny for pushing this book. But a year or so ago — a couple years ago — I was praying in my office, and the Spirit of the Lord led me to this old book that I had. And then God started giving me a vision of what could happen if we could have a global revolution of men walking in dominion. And so I'm saying to every man — I'm holding it up everywhere I can go — get this book. I'm saying to every woman: get this book for your husband. It's only $11. You can get it at Pentecostal Publishing House. And I believe there are four lessons in that book that can help every man. And if there's any pastors in here that want more information on that, give me your email address, and I'll email you an entire plan, practically, to lay all of that out. Why am I saying that? Because until there is significant change in the home, the church is stuck.

And so here's what I'm seeing. I am seeing team pastors and teams run themselves crazy, trying to create something at church that can't be fixed at church. There are things we are trying to do in a local church that cannot fix it. It will never be fixed until individuals grow up. It's not going to be fixed. I've seen it. I've been a part of it. I've spent hours trying to make the local church experience better. And there have been many times that the local church experience is better, but there's no change in the individual. So I've come to realize something about humanity, because of what I know about me: All I really need to resist needed change is to be convinced of a good excuse. That's all I need. All I need in my personal life is an excuse that I'm convinced of. All I need is justification. That's it. That's all I need.

When you have a problem with overspending, all you need is a good excuse — that you need this, or you deserve it. In overeating, all you need is a good excuse: that, well, I'm a stress eater, and I'm under a lot of stress; or it's too far gone now; or, well, at my age there's really nothing that I can do about it. And that's it. That's all you need. Convince yourself of that. Convince yourself that you need it and you deserve it, and you can spin yourself crazy. Convince yourself that, hey, you know, I should have changed it back then, and I can't change it now — and then you won't change it. Or, all we really need to excuse ourselves for not investing in the key relationships that we know we should is that the schedule is just too hectic, and my responsibilities are too much, and there's going to be a better day. And there's on and on and on — topics that you could just name up. All we need is a good excuse. That's it. If we can just justify it. Why can I talk like this? I have realized this because of me.

And so we read things like, you know: how in the world can terrorists just go blow people away? How can they kill people in cold blood? They're just convinced. They're convinced that they're pleasing God. Saul was like that, before he became Apostle Paul, before the great revelation. Why? Why could he — he was convinced he was—

—convinced of the wrong thing.

And so I come here today, and I am convinced that I have learned, and I now clearly see, a couple of huge excuses that's empowering spiritual immaturity. And I believe that the first excuse is the pastors, and the second excuse is the local church. Let's talk about it. The hard truth is: if we can read, and we have a Bible, we have no excuse for our individual spiritual immaturity. We have no excuse. Quit using the pastor. Quit using leaders in the church. Quit using the local church. Quit using it. Quit using your family. Quit using your spouse. Quit using your children. Quit using your parents. Quit using excuses for individual spiritual immaturity.

If you need a place to begin a pursuit — or resume a pursuit — of spiritual maturity, I would say that Hebrews 6:1 and 2 is a great place to start. It talks about, "Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not laying again—" Okay, wait now. Not "let's make sure we got this before we go on." And it speaks of repentance from dead works, faith toward God, doctrine of baptisms, laying on of hands, resurrection of the dead, eternal judgment. I'm talking to veterans. I'm talking to veterans today. That these would be great topics to make sure that we have shored up in our mind.

And then it would be good — another great consideration for veterans pursuing maturity — would be to go to the consideration of what Jesus read from Isaiah, whenever He said, "This day is this fulfilled," in Luke 4:18 and 19: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord." So, veterans, why don't we make sure that we are solid on those basic doctrines? And then why don't we start putting our focus on: okay, if the Spirit of the Lord is in us — it's upon us, it's in us — why don't we start saying, "I really need to preach the gospel to the poor. I really need to get involved in healing the brokenhearted, and preach deliverance to the captives, recovering of sight to the blind, and set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord." Why don't we shift into what we expect out of ourselves?

Mark 16:17 and 18: "And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; they shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover." That's a good one to shift to: that if I am a believer, if I am a mature— if I— then is this part of my life? But then Matthew 20:28 — you talk about a life-changing Scripture, when Jesus said, "Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many." Can you imagine what could happen in our individual lives, if, before we allowed ourself to gripe about one more thing that is happening in the church, or one more thing that we don't like that the pastor's doing, or one more thing we don't like that the leaders are doing in the church — can you imagine what could happen to the church if we would shift that aside and say, "Whoa, hold on a second. I'm going to look in the mirror of the Word, and I'm going to align my life to this. It's time to grow up. What we need to do is we need to minister like that. And then, when we do, not put it on the internet." There are things — there are pictures I see sometimes, and I'm like, I wonder if the only reason why they even did this was to post it.

Now, we're going to have to come to grips with something, when we're speaking about maturity. This is very important. Because there are a lot of people today that are following the cloud, but it's the wrong cloud. It's the internet cloud. And what we need to do is we need to shut a lot of that down. And we need to get into: what is the Word of God saying for me? What is the Spirit directing me to do in my life, right now, where I am, with the resources I have, with everything I have in my hand right now? What can God do through me, through His leading?

So I believe that growing up demands that we elevate the Word and prayer above all else in our lives. I believe the first answer to a challenge in our life is us seeking God through the Word and prayer — and not calling 1-800-PASTOR [spoken digits: 1-800-727-867]. I'll give you the interpretation of that: that's 1-800-PASTOR. We really have a major issue, because we're going to the wrong source first. Y'all — no. I know I'm right. I know I'm right. I'm not trying to be ugly, but I know I'm right. Folks, we've got to grow up. We've got to grow up.

The last two years I pastored, I started doing something I wish I would have done when I started, but I didn't have the wisdom to do it then, or the guts. But the last two years I had the wisdom and the guts. And when someone came in to me for counseling, before we ever — before I even listened to what they had to say — I looked them in the eye and I said, "Before we start talking, would you explain to me your daily God connection?" That's right. The Word and prayer. I wanted to know: am I dealing with a dead person that's acting like they're alive, or am I dealing with someone? I wished that the Spirit of God would have given me the ability to have seen a DTE — distance to empty — [reading] of the spirit on their forehead, but I couldn't see that. So I just had to ask. I had to know: are you in the Word? Are you praying? Because I had already made a major mistake, by dealing with people assuming they were spiritual.

And so what we've got to do is — it'd be a great idea to get that God-connection thing right. The Word and prayer. We have to have that. We have to have it. If you need help with that, go to kqministries.net and get one of Melanie's books. It's a God-and-me journal. You say, "You're making a personal advertisement." Sure am. I've seen it change people's lives, and it breaks down how to meet with God every day.

But I travel a lot, and I travel globally, and I will tell you the biggest concern that I have, by far: I hear people talking much, much more, all over the globe, about the pastor and the local church than the king and the kingdom. I'm worried about this. I'm concerned about this. I'm seeing what it's doing to people, and I'm seeing what it's doing to pastor couples and leaders. We've got to get this thing shifted, folks. It's the king and the kingdom that is above the pastor and the local church. The pastor did not die for you. He is not your savior. On their best day, they will never be your savior. They're the guide. We need them in our life. We have to have them. But there are people that have made some human god. And that's why you're so disappointed when things go wrong. There are no perfect humans. There are no perfect humans. We've got to elevate the king and the kingdom.

This does not diminish the role of the pastor. This does not diminish the role of the local church. Because as we elevate the King and kingdom to its rightful place, the pastor can move from the buddy, emotional-support-pet, ringmaster role in our lives. Our pastors are not to be our buddies. They're not our emotional support pets. They're not some ringmaster that is over making a service so entertaining that we will just love being there. Go to a circus. We've got to elevate the King and the kingdom. And when we do this, when we allow this to happen, then the pastor can be in the undershepherd role, as they lead us to green pastures and still waters. They will be able to lead us to green pastures. What's that? That's where it's Word-based. Word-based. Word-based. That's what you should be begging for. "Give me the Word. Give me the Word. I need the Word." "Well, what do you think about — well, what do you think about homosexuality?" It doesn't matter. What does the Word say about homosexuality? "Well, what do you think about abortion?" It doesn't matter what I think about abortion. It doesn't matter what anybody thinks about abortion. What does the Word say? And so, when we do this, then we can have green pastures and we can have still waters. That's where we're eating the good food in calm environments.

We need to elevate the King and the kingdom to the point that we expect our leaders to operate in this manner. And the only way that we're going to have still waters and calm environments is when every drama king and every drama queen in the church is dethroned. And whenever we elevate the King to the point that the King needs to be, and the kingdom to where the kingdom needs to be, and we allow the ministry to minister where the ministry should be ministering, then we, as the flock, are in green pastures and still waters. And it will only be then, whenever we are mature enough to understand that we can be comforted by the ministry of the rod and the staff. I'm talking about spiritual maturity. I'm talking about: it's time to grow up.

And as we elevate the kingdom above the local church, the local church can actually become a kingdom-life equipping center, instead of a performing arts center. There is a major difference. And our churches are to be kingdom-life equipping centers, not performing arts centers. And I've got to watch my time, and I know my time's getting away, but I don't want to leave that hanging, because there's a lot of people that will think, "Well, yeah, that's it. Blast those musicians, and blast those singers and people." Oh, no, no. It's a performing arts center whenever men stand at the door every Sunday morning, and smile, and open the door for people, but they don't open it for anybody else during the week. And it's a performing arts center whenever we have hostesses that are nice and cute, and they're all put together, and they're handing things out, and they're being very helpful, but they ain't helpful to nobody else during the week. And we have people that come and teach every week on Sunday, but they're not teaching anybody else the rest of the week. And we have worshippers who praise and worship on Sunday, but they're not praising and worshiping during the week. Performing arts center.

And this is the reason why we must elevate the King and the kingdom above everything else, so our churches — so our expectation of a church is for it to be a kingdom-life equipping center. We have to hunger for this. But it starts with being connected with God every day. And if we're not, we are done. Any day without the Word and prayer is a wasted day. Any day. Any day. And we must understand that we're never going to be spiritually mature under our own power. Willpower is not going to be the answer to this. His power is.

And it's very clear in Jeremiah 17:5: "Thus saith the LORD; Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the LORD." It says that. John 15:5 says, "I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit." Let's get this. If you don't have the rest of it, get this: "For without me ye can do nothing." I've said many times: we need a revelation of nothing. We need a revelation of nothing, because what we've done, in our spiritual immaturity, is we've changed nothing to something. And we're thinking that, without Him, we can do something. And we've got to mature to the point that we know: without Him, we can do nothing.

So what we need is we need people with a passion to grow up in Him. And I speak to myself along today, with everyone else, because I guarantee you I've got a lot of room to grow. And I'm not just trying to say that before I say some other stuff. I'm serious as I can be. The more I read the Word, the more I realize how much I stink. The more I pray, the more I realize I need to pray.

So I would like for you to consider a few challenges to individual spiritual immaturity. I repeat: until there is significant change in the home, the church is stuck. So quit expecting the church to do what the church can't do. Significant change will not happen in our churches until it happens in us individually. We must mature to where we desire meat above milk. That's an individual decision. We need to lovingly add iron-sharpening-iron into our private conversations. I've talked — you know, I've mentioned I hate that the Indiana Pacers lost. I wanted them to win. When Haliburton went down in the first quarter, I thought, "You've got to be kidding me." Okay. I don't mind having those conversations at all. But is that it? Is that all we can talk about? I mean, in our conversations, is it just going to be sports, politics, fashion, trips, wishes? Is that it? No. It's time. It's time for us to have some iron-sharpening-iron conversations in our individual lives. I don't think we're challenging each other near enough there.

Listen, there have always been issues in life. There are issues today in life. And I hate to tell you, but there's always going to be issues in life. We're going to have to learn how to have iron-sharpening-iron conversations. Speak the truth in love, but speak it, and let's deal with things in a mature fashion. It's time to grow up.

We must grow up enough to where we elevate truth above all humans, no matter who they are, or what it costs us personally. And I promise you, it will cost you. But grow up, and do it anyway. Grow up and do it anyway. Elevate the truth. Whenever you have an issue in your life, erase the names as quick as you can, dig for what's the truth, and then lovingly deal with whoever is on the wrong side of truth, even if it's your family member. I'm talking about maturity. I'm talking about it. I know we can keep spitting and hollering and prophesying about what all is going to happen, and we're going to have a great revival and a great influx of souls and all that. I mean, I hear all that, but we're not even thinking about what that's going to mean, because there's no way we can build buildings to house it. I mean, when we're talking about growing up into Him, into all things, to be able to be a part of what He sees and what His vision is — not our vision, what His vision is — then everything's going to change. It's going—

—to put pressure on everything. So I'm sitting here today saying: we've got to grow up. We've got to grow up. We need to seek out an opposing view, to test our thinking. We must grow past the trap of self-deception that is exposed in James 1:22: "But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves." And the revelation of that Scripture has shown me that some of the most deceived people are the most faithful to church. Because hearing: "Good, good Word, Pastor." I mean, I'm absolutely blown away. I guess everybody else in the church is a genius except me, and they can remember everything that's put out. I have to write some things down. Whenever I'm hearing a word, I at least have to write down the title, and some verses, and some thoughts. And, man, I look at people — I go teach. We were teaching a global leadership meeting, and we looked out, and it was like two people taking notes. And I'm like: why did you come? Does this even matter? Do we just kind of go through our thing, and, yeah, okay, now it's time for somebody else to come up here? Yeah. Do we even believe it's the Word of God? Do we even believe anybody prayed and fasted? Do we even believe anybody heard from God? Do we even believe that what they're saying is worth remembering? It's time to grow up.

So, speaking of the local church, let's be mature enough to answer these questions correctly. And I ask it — I'm asking it all over the place: How many coats of wax does the tractor need in the barn? How many coats of wax does the tractor need in the barn? How clean do the tools need to be in the barn? How organized do the tools need to be in the barn? Is the barn for the barn, or is the barn for the field? It's time for us to grow up. So then I ask the question: are we more concerned about the lost being saved, or the saved being happy? We have to deal with this. We have to — what are we doing here? We've got to grow up, and we've got to mature enough to expect our local church to be a kingdom-life equipping center, instead of a performing arts center, where every Sunday is relegated to Halloween, where we dress up different, go act like somebody else. I'm talking about us growing up. We've got to mature enough to see it move beyond entertainment and enablement, to equipping.

We've got to be mature enough to desire the Word to have free course, and do its full work, as spoken of in 2 Timothy 3:16. We've got to mature to where we come in agreement with 2 Timothy 3:16: that all Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable. All Scripture is profitable. "Is it in the Word of God?" It's profitable. "Well, but it went against me." Well, it's still profitable. And then it goes, and it says: for doctrine, reproof, correction, instruction in righteousness. And church, please hear me — and I'm hurrying — mature enough to where pastors could stand in the pulpit and read the Bible for a while, and then open the altar for us to allow the Spirit to confirm the Word. I contend that until a church is at a point to where the pastor could just walk to the pulpit, open the Bible, and spend 15, 20, 30 minutes just reading the Word, and then closing it, and saying, "Okay, right now what we're going to do, we're going to give an opportunity to allow the Spirit to confirm that Word. Come" — until our churches are on that level, I doubt they're really even an apostolic church. Because what we've done now is: man, we've got to have a service production. Every service has got to be a production. Where's this leading us? How far is this going to go? At what point is the Word going to be enough? And until — at the end of a message, when the message is coming down to the end, and you can tell: if you're not leaning toward the altar, you're immature. If you're walking in and setting it by the clock — "Man, we've got to get out of here. We've got more important things to do" — you're immature. And the church has got to get to where the Word of God is enough.

And we've got to mature to where we move past thinking that evangelism is answered by inviting someone to church. The Bible does not say, "Go therefore everywhere, and invite people to church." God help us all. It has its place. I'm not saying don't invite people. Mature enough to realize that true ministry is not answered by being on a rotation on a ministry team. Of course, the ultimate is being on the platform rotation, where unfortunately many platforms have become stages. And when this happens, instruments and microphones become intoxicating. And those of us ministering on the platform better invest more time in being good than sounding good. And mature enough to know that that gray hair is only a sign of where wisdom should be found, but it's no guarantee. Come on. We've got to grow up, people. We've got to grow up. There's a world to win. Prophecies have been given. Words have been given. It's there. It's an invitation. But it's saying: we've got to grow up.

And for the elders: the elders need to be mature enough to focus more on the present and the future than the past. And got to be mature enough for there to be more fruit of the Spirit with age, instead of less. Mature enough to not allow the worms to eat the vision, and reduce elders to complainers that are fixated on some place in their heads called the good old days. We all have good old days. Everybody's got good old days. All kinds of decades have good old days. And what we need is: we need people to get mature enough, as we age, to shift to Caleb, who somehow landed at age 85 still saying, "Give me this mountain." That's what we need. We need to mature enough to keep principle elevated above method. Haven't we seen enough families and churches explode over people elevating method above principle? Can we mature enough to elevate principle above method? And the list is endless, and there's not enough time to continue.

But how about this? Mature enough to actually do what He said. And in Matthew 10:7 and 8, He said: "And as ye go, preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand. Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils: freely ye have received, freely give." You say, "Well, I couldn't do that." Well, have you tried? Have we tried? And so, what I realize, as I look at all of this — what I realize — the fact is that I've still got a lot of growing up to do. And I'm not going to be one that just continues to spit and holler about the great revival that's coming. And I believe it, going to say it, but I just like to say: we really need to have some individuals that are maturing, to be able to handle the babies.

And let me say one more thing that could be highly offensive, but I ask you to — it's the Word of God. At least consider it. First Thessalonians 5:23 talks about us being sanctified holy — wholly, not "holy," right? And it says: spirit, soul, and body. Right? Spirit, soul, and body. That's what it says. There's a progression, and a reason why it is listed like that. It's one of the most misquoted and mislived Scriptures, because people say body, soul, spirit. Body, soul, spirit. It's not — spirit, soul, body. There's a reason. Here's the reason. We need to understand this. We need to get it in our—

—spirit. Because until there is a work done in somebody's spirit — until they're born again, until they have the Spirit of God — until their soul, their mind, is showing that — until there's some buy-in, and until they're opening themselves up, with the Spirit, in their soul — would you leave their body alone? I'm talking about a great revival. I'm talking about a great influx. Can we mature enough?

Listen: the sinners and the new converts are not holding the church back. It's veterans that are acting like sinners and new converts. And so what we have the opportunity to do is: we have the opportunity to grow up.

And I can tell you right now: the air is better. The air is better, because there's something about maturity. Man, it was great whenever I was mature enough to drive my own car there. There was so much more I could do. I mean, the more mature I got, the more decisions I could make. Same thing spiritually. There is fulfillment in the zone of spiritual maturity.

And so I just say: please, have a passion to individually — thank God for your pastor. Thank God for your church. Support your pastor. Be involved in at least one ministry of the church. Blah, blah, blah. I've got all kinds of stuff I can say there. All right. But let's — why don't we just think: you know, I have criticized my pastor the last time about what we ought to do. "We ought to do this. We ought to do that. Why are we doing this? Why are we doing that?" Well, on social media, somebody else did. Okay, I'm going to do that. Okay, my church. Okay. No, no. I'm going to look in the mirror, and then I'm going to take the Word of God, and I'm going to start trying to match all these things. I'm going to start living up to all these things, before I have one more negative opinion to say about the organization, about the district, about the section, about the local church, about the whatever, whatever, whatever.

Let's get this down to the Joshua. Joshua knew spiritual maturity, and he said, "As for me and my house." Why don't we put it there, and why don't we start growing? We're talking about churches, right? And we're talking about daughter works, and we're talking about preaching points, right? Well, we're missing a foundational one. It's teaching points, and that's our home, and that's what would feed it all. And we're missing that block, and we've got to step into that and answer that.

Not going to ask you to come to the front. There's not time. We've got more services today. But would you just please stand? And if the Spirit of God has quickened anything — maybe just a little nugget — would you just close your eyes, and lift your hands to heaven, and just tell God, "I'm going to grow up here. Now I'm going to grow up here." And it's not going to be somebody else. I'm not looking for anybody else. No more excuses. No excuses. "I am going to grow up." Why don't you talk to God right now? Let's lift our hands all over this place right—