SPIRITUAL GROWTH

The speaker discusses the role of the Holy Ghost in bringing our flesh under subjection and how we first need to submit to God. The Holy Ghost seals us until the day of redemption, like a king's decree, and helps us make right decisions. They also talk about spiritual growth and how it is an ongoing process that requires effort and serving others. The speaker emphasizes the importance of starting the growth process at home and building strong families. People, I'm going into the Bible study, but I've got to say this. Many people blame bringing your subjection on the Holy Ghost. They put that work on the Holy Ghost, but that's not his job. It's not his job to bring our flesh under subjection. It's his job to keep us under subjection. But we first have to submit to God. And then the Holy Ghost will seal us, is what the Bible says, until the day of redemption. And that seal just simply means, like a king would issue a decree. He'd put his stamp on it, and everybody knows that this came from the king. That's all. So the Holy Ghost seals us, the Bible says, until the day of redemption. All right, let's go into our study. I'm going to go back and talk about, we want to go back to spiritual growth. All right. I'll put these notes on the app. The notes from last week about the spiritual growth are on our app as well. All right. So let's share some keys of spiritual growth, because we want to look at being mature, or growth outside of the church. And the person is considered to be mature when they behave in a manner consistent with their age. As people grow older, they are expected to behave more responsibly. We wouldn't expect a fully developed teenager to act like a toddler, or anything of that, you know, nature, or a breastfed baby to act as if it was a 14-year-old child. So in a singular manner, we, as the body of Christ, are considered to have been born again. Now, does that mean, as Nick Demas asked the question to Jesus, he said, well, does that mean that I have to enter into my mother's womb a second time? And the question is that, no. But it simply means that we access keys to spiritual growth when we choose a new way of doing things. All right. We access our keys to spiritual growth when we choose a new way of doing things. Go back to what I was talking about when I said bringing our flesh under subjection. Okay. Everything that we do in our life is done by choice. But then it first starts with a thought. Okay, nothing that we do is done on impulse. And if anybody say that, they're lying. And the reason why I say that is because God made us just like him. When he stepped out into nothing, and he looked at the void world, he said, let there be. Okay. So, in other words, it started as a thought in the mind of God first. Even you and I, if you look at our foundation of scripture for our ministry, Jeremiah 29 and 11, I know the thoughts that I've been taught you. In other words, it starts in the mind of God. So everything that we do, being made in his image and after his likeness, we're just like him. He's our father. All right. So we carry the DNA, the spiritual DNA of our father. So everything we do, it begins with a thought. So you have time to process decisions that we make. Now, sometimes we ignore the fact that it's time to break down and it's time to analyze because the world moves so rapid. And sometimes we make decisions and we don't really sit down and think it through to the end. But bringing our flesh under suggestion is we got something and somebody that can bring us to a place where when we try to make the wrong decisions or we're about to make the wrong decision, that's when discernment comes in and the Lord will begin to show you that, okay, so this ain't the way I need you to be going. I need you to get back, come on back to the wheel, get back on the right path, because that path is going to lead to something that you don't want to have to deal with. All right. Sometimes we ignore those, the little, still, small boys that's in our mind that's called our conscience. Okay. Some folks say it's the Holy Ghost, but it's your conscience. All right. So your conscience has been taught that something is wrong. All right. And so when we go to make a choice or a decision, it's the conscience that comes to let you know, you know, you shouldn't be doing that. All right. So it's the nature that's in us. All right. This is, this is okay. Now, you know, you tripping. You shouldn't be, you shouldn't go here or you shouldn't do this X, Y, and Z. All right. Y'all got me? Yes. All right. Yeah. So let's go here. So our foundation of scripture is going to come from 1 Peter 2 and 2. You just jot that down. I'm going to read it. So the NIV version says, and I don't, I normally don't use other translations. I like the King James translation, but in the, but in the sense of this, the terminology that's used in the NIV gives us a better sense of understanding. Better sense of understanding. So it says like newborn babies crave spiritual milk so that by it, you may grow up in your salvation. Other words, so just like newborn babies crave milk, um, when they begin to get hungry and so everything that they need to move, everything they need to help them to mature and to develop is in their milk. So here Paul is saying, or Peter is saying that, um, just like babies, then we are to crave spiritual milk so that we may grow in our salvation. All right. There are certain keys to spiritual growth and I don't know if I said this last night, I probably, I mean last week on Thursday, where that went Sunday. I'm getting my days off. So there are keys to spiritual growth. Number one, we got to understand it is an ongoing process. Okay. None of us are going to arrive and say that I'm all the way grown or I'm all the way mature in God. When you find that person run from them or get away from them as fast as you can because there is no way that we can mature in God so much to the point that we stop growing and proof of that is every time you open your Bible and you can read the same scripture every day, three times a day and every time you read it, there's going to be a different revelation to that scripture. It's like God opens up, he opens up, he opens up every time and you'll find something in that scripture that causes you to grow. Now, how do we grow? How do we grow? You take a child, many of you mothers that have children and you know, you know what I'm saying? And us being, all of us have been children at one point before we started walking, we learned to start scooting, you know, how babies scoot because they trying to figure it out. I know there's something, you know, I'm something going on in me. I don't want to be held. I want to put me down on the floor. Uh, you know, let me scoot. Then they start pulling up. Then when they start pulling up, they, you know, um, I'm picturing the baby walking around the coffee table, trying to get strength in their legs to begin to walk. Then sooner or later when they start building up the strength in their legs and they can trust their legs, see when they learn how to get the strength in their legs and they trust their legs, you come on baby, come on. They start taking steps. But when they start taking steps, what happens? They fall. You can't grow if you never fall. That's what, that's, that's the point I'm trying to make. In other words, mistakes are going to be made. That's how you learn how to grow. But the growth in the mistakes is when you make the mistake, you recognize you made the mistake and you do better. Okay. Don't make the mistake and give an excuse to keep making the same mistake over and over. That ain't growth. That's being stagnant. But growth is, you know what? I did this. I realized I did it. The Lord showed me where I made my mistake. I'm growing from there. Let's move on to another stage. But you're going to constantly be at that stage where you're going to make mistakes. Okay. Now I'm making an habitual mistake. You got an issue. You got, you need to pray. All right. Next thing it takes effort. You got to put something forward. In other words, you got it. I used to say this a lot. Um, and, and it makes perfectly sense. You got to give God something to work with. If he, if he ain't got nothing to work with, how can he help you grow when you hadn't given him nothing to work with? So you got to put an effort forward in order for God to be able to take your small, whatever you bring to him and let him multiply your growth. Okay. No one has ever accomplished great things without some effort. Amen. If you want to grow in your faith, we got to do the work. Okay. And we'll deal with that later. So that means spending time and prayer, communicating with the heavenly father and, and, and, and spend time wrestling with the scripture. And, and, and being the last thing we got to spend time serving others. Oh, okay. Now that, that not have the church, uh, at the box right there. I'm talking about the body of Christ at large, because we spend more time serving the man of God. We spend more time serving ourselves until we don't serve others. Okay. One of the visions we have for this ministry, I share with sister Georgina is we want to be a ministry that's people oriented. We don't just want black folk. We want white folk. We want Hispanics, uh, whatever their, their nationality is. We welcome that as long as they accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and savior, or, you know, we cool with, I don't care about age, but I mean, about race, but in other words, um, we want to be, uh, um, uh, a church, um, or a ministry that is people oriented. All right. We want to read, we want to help rebuild families or help to build families to a point where, uh, uh, that this growth process can start at home. And then we give, um, families the tools to do what they need to do in their homes. And then when they come to worship and we collectively get together, it makes worship flow all the more easier because it started at home. We can't start at church and then take it home. We can teach that church how to start it at home, but the root of it has to begin at home because this is where your true worship is. All right. Y'all hear me? Your true worship is in your home. What you do in your home is going to reflect what happens when you make it to worship collectively with the, with the believers. So if you do nothing at home, when you come to worship, you're going to be, it's going, you're going to be on empty. You ain't going to have anything. Worship starts in your home. That means as Joshua said, as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. In other words, we're not going to bring anything in our home that's going to cause us to be in offense to God. As for me and my house, I don't care what nobody else is doing. As for me and my house, we're going to serve the Lord. That could be your household, um, naturally, and then your household spiritually, your, your body, because the Bible says that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost. Next thing, and then I'm going into my points. I'm just, this is just the introduction, but it has nothing to do with how long you've been a believer. You know, some people like to brag about how long they've been a believer, how long they've been preaching, how long they've been saved, how long they've done this. Who cares? And you know, next time somebody tell you, Oh, I've been saved 90 years. Just ask them who cares? Because within that time, you had to go back and like sister Georgina said, she's praying for a refilling of the Holy Ghost. You can't run 90 years and never come back and get refilled. You done ran on empty somewhere. Okay. Look at your vehicle. You ain't going to drive your vehicle and just drive and just drive and just drive it and not stop and refuel it. Because I'm going to tell you something. It's going to stop on his own. You ain't got it. You don't have to put nothing in it. It's going to stop on his own. And it was the same way with our spiritual lives. We, we can run and we can run and we can run, but sooner or later we're going to have to stop recharge and refill because going through life circumstances, um, as believers, and then, um, being defenders of the gospel of Jesus Christ as believers, um, tending to the needs of our family and our friends as well as tending to the needs of people in our community will make you run on empty. So you're going to have to come back and recharge. Let's rebuild so we can reset and go out again and empty out, come back, reset. It's a constant thing is what I'm saying. So it has nothing to do with how long we've been believers, but it has everything to do with, um, um, uh, uh, uh, our relationship, our effort and our ongoing process, uh, uh, with, with Christ Jesus. All right. So let's talk about some keys to, um, spiritual growth. So 2 Timothy 3 and 16, this is the new King James version. And this is a version, uh, the Bible that I love. And I, if you read your Bible, read the new King James version, it's the closest translation to the original Greek text versus the King James version. Here it is. All scripture is given by inspirational God and is profitable for doctrine for reproof or correction for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, fairly equipped for every good work. All right. Let me go here. So one of the key things that would help us grow spiritually is prayer. All right. James tell us that if we lack wisdom, we should ask God and, and God who generously gives it to us without showing partiality, which means God has no respect of person as to who he gives this wisdom and this knowledge to stay away from folks that try to make you think that they are the eight wonders of the gospel. And that they are the only one that God deals with as it relates to, um, having the wisdom of God, because God shows no respect or a person when it comes to having wisdom. King Solomon could have had everything he wanted from God. He could have had all of the riches in the land. He could have had anything he desired, but you know what he prayed for? He said, God, give me wisdom. Because if you have wisdom, you, I mean, you can, I mean a multitude of things is afforded to you just by having wisdom. Okay. And so he prayed for wisdom. Jesus said this, uh, uh, he modeled, he gave us a model of what the prayer of what prayers look like when he gave us, um, the, um, Lord's prayers, what they call it. And so, um, what we should do is we should ask God for wisdom to grow spiritually as a believer. And we look at, and we should ask him for the ability to understand his word and his will for our lives. This is stuff that you have to really take time. Let me say this. If, if the doctor, um, you know, if the doctor gave us a diagnosis and it was something that was life threatening, you'll do all the research in the world to try to find out is there another cure? Um, can I find a second opinion? Where can I go to get help? What can I do? Anything that you could possibly do to help sustain your natural life on earth? Why can't we put that same effort forward when it comes to our spiritual life, because the natural life will end, but the spiritual life will continue to live on in heaven or where in hell. I ain't but two places to go. Ain't no purgatory, no in between, no rest in place. And we ain't waiting on nothing. Whoever you belong to when you leave here, that's where you're going. That's simple. Ain't no easy way to put it. All right. Whomever you belong to, when you close your eyes, that's where you're going. All right. The saints are going to reign with the Lord and they're going to come back and judge the world. Then they're going to live forever. Those that belong to the enemy, they're going to be tormented in hell. And when judgment day comes, hell and death going to be thrown into the lake of fire. So the devil will be able to torment you until judgment day. On judgment day, him and everything in hell going to the lake of fire. That's the revelation. So wherever you, whomever you belong to, when you close your eyes, that's who coming to get you. That's where you're going. Ain't no waiting. All right. Let me throw that in there. All right. So I don't know how I got there, but let me, let me digress from there. So we ask God for understanding of his word and for his will concerning us as believers. There's no separate will for you and a separate will for me. All right. That's not, that's not how our believers walk is designed. All of us are under the same covenant. Okay. So whatever's in his will concerning our life as believers, it was given to us all. All right. So the will of God, stuff like, you know, and I say healing, because that's, that's the most, you know, the most important thing that we need in the land is healing. So healing is the first thing that comes to mind when I talk about the will of God. But stuff like salvation, redemption, the promise of the Holy ghost, these things are given within the will of God. Anything natural that comes with that is just an added, it's just a bonus. You get a new car. That's just a bonus. It's added to the will. Cause he's like, you know, that's sort of like when you have a child that's been good and you had, you know, and you don't have to be good to get blessed. But this, this is, I'm trying to bring this to layman's terminology. So, and, and you say, well, you know, I'm gonna go get my boy a car and you, you get him a car, you know, and you bless your child because you know that there are things that they need to help to sustain them in college or in their marriage or in a natural life. So you do things as a parent to make sure you're true and straight. So God does the same thing in slang terms. He don't do what it takes to make sure we're straight. Some of us, he gives us abundance. Some of us, he just sustains us. But however he chooses to do it, he takes care of his own. All right. That's what I just wanted to let you know. All right. So the next thing is we got to learn how to abide in Christ. Jesus Christ reminded his disciples before the crucifixion that they have to abide in him. And if they do it, they could bear much fruit. John 15 five through seven. If you look at that, the translation it talks about when we abide in Christ, it means to be kept by Christ, to continually, to press, not to leave, not to depart. Then when you abide in something, that means you're bound to it. That means if it becomes a part of you, you become a part of it. This is why Jesus prayed the prayer concerning the disciples. He said, Lord, make them one because they, he saw the division. And if you go to, um, the life application app, the first thing on there, it talks about the vision among the believers. There's something on there y'all could read, but let me go here. What Jesus was saying, he saw the division among them before they became apostles. But because before they became apostles, they were disciples. He had to discipline them. He had to teach them. He had to train them, but he saw some things in them, among them that he was like, Lord, make them one. He told him, I'll pray for y'all that God would make y'all one. Y'all run right here talking about who the greatest and who got more power and who doesn't is Lord. Just make them one. All right. The manifestation of Jesus's prayer can in the upper room. Cause I told y'all God, Jesus saw some things in them. They didn't even see in the upper room. They got up there and they stayed up there so long because they couldn't get it together. They was up there trying to do their own thing. But the Bible would say when they got with one accord, when they finally became one, that's when the Holy Spirit came and it came as a Russian model and they all began to speak in tongues. Folks thought they was drunk, but they were filled with the Holy Ghost. All right. Because Jesus prayed that prayer, Lord, make them one. Let me tell you something, my house is right against itself. It can't stand. If you pull in one way, I'm putting another way. We ain't going to have no nothing in common and we're not going to agree. And if anything with two heads is a monster. So we have to, how can two walk together except they agree? We cannot walk with Christ or in Christ, except we agree with what he says concerning his word. You can't have your own will. I can't have my own will. I can't have my own way. And then think that I'm going to take my way and intertwine it with Christ's way. That's what submission comes. Okay. I, you know, take my way, take my will, Lord, give me your way. I don't want to think about, I don't want to just give me your way. And the way to do that is we got to, we have to learn how to take on the mind of Christ because Christ's mind was that he would fulfill the will of his father. That was that. That was it. Like Jesus had no other purpose but to fulfill the will of the father. Now, did that come with some challenges? Yes. Because when he went to get seminary and he prayed that prayer and told them disciples said, y'all watch here. I'm finna go pray. And he went up there and he prayed and was like, Lord, you know what? The God, I feel some stuff and I don't like what's going on. So if it's your will, just, you know, let it pass. Now, I don't know if that let it pass was helped me to gain some strength so I can continue. We don't know what the translation to let it pass was, but he prayed that prayer because he felt something that he had never felt before. He was on his way to die for us and he had to take on another nature that he wasn't used to taking on. This is what he was feeling. He was going to die and the weight of everything that he was doing and why he was doing it finally was on his shoulders. And so that's why he prayed the prayer, Lord, if it's your will, let this cup pass. Now what they, what, what, what he was saying, we can't, we don't know, but we do know that him doing the will of the father, it came with, um, some, you know, some challenges. He was challenged. Now, we would not grow in faith unless we keep showing up and putting the effort that is required. And when it's hard, when we get tempted, we can't give up. So if so, Paul said in Philippians 3 and 14 about growing about pressing toward the mark and that word press means to continue to grow, um, for the high calling, um, in Jesus Christ. All right. Now another way that we grow is that we learn how to test the scriptures. Other words, we take what's being said in the word of God. And we work to show ourselves approved. So we don't take anybody's word or anybody as the final authority other than God's word. My word can't be the final authority in your life. That's why you have to go back and I challenge you all the time to take what I'm saying. Go back and you search it out in the word of God, to make sure that what I'm saying is truth to you. You see what I'm saying? Because people can give you their ideology, their revelation. All right. But we want to make sure that what we're teaching is in line with the word of God. And see, I have no hidden agenda. I'm not trying to manipulate your mind. I'm not trying to manipulate you. I'm trying to help all of us grow. So that's why I challenge you to go to the scripture, write these scriptures down, go to the life application app, get those scriptures, make sure those notes are lining up with what God's word say. That's the only way you can grow. Okay. And so, um, I said that to say that sometimes when we're testing the scripture, the word of God says, try these spirits with an S by the spirit. Okay. Now, why would he say, try the spirits by the spirit? To see if they be of God, that comes back with your discernment. Cause sometimes there are some things and there's some people that are around you that, and everything that glitter ain't gold. All right. Everything that is blue ain't the ocean. Sometimes we got to stop and we got to say, okay, so, um, all right, God. So, you know, and sometimes you don't have to ask the people right then. Uh, uh, you know, you may be in a situation where somebody be trying to get you to, you know, be friends or get you to go somewhere or get you to, you know, whatever the circumstance may be. You say, okay, well, let me, let me, let me, let me think about it. Let me pray about it. Cause sometimes your discernment don't kick right in. Uh, especially if it's somebody that you're familiar with. So you're okay. Let me pray about it. You go and you say, well, and you say, well, God, you know, if I do this and the, the, the ways to, to, to measure if it's going to be, uh, uh, oh God is how can this benefit me and my believers walk? That's the first question. Or the first question should be, how can this benefit them and their believers walk? Then number two, how can this benefit me and my believers walk? Then the third question is how can this glorify God? You weigh every situation in your life by those three scriptures. How can this person grow from this? How can I grow from this and how can God be glorified in this? And if though, if, if, if your answer doesn't measure up to all three of those questions that I would say, use wisdom and don't, don't, don't do it. That's the only thing. So it takes something to take a little bit of time and you can't always respond to things on impulse is, and this is, this is a part of growing and maturing as believers. Now have I always done this? No, no, I haven't. When I get it in my mind, I'm going to do it. Ain't nobody stopping me. It's there. I'm, I'm one sided all the way. Um, and, and many people that know me, they know this about me. And even when it comes to ministry, when I get it in my mind, we're going to do it. I'm straight. I'm one way. I don't see nothing. No, I don't see nothing else. I'm, I'm one way. And so, um, a lot of times the, uh, the wrong decisions, um, can be made because you got your eyes on the prize, but you ain't really looking at the circumstances or really weighing the situation out all the way to the end is basically what, what, what I'm trying to get us as believers to do. Sometimes you got to count up the cost, what Jesus said, weigh it all the way to the end. And those three questions that I just asked, how can this benefit their believers? How can this benefit my believers want? And how can God be glorified through this? And if, again, if those three questions, if your answer can't measure up to all three, not two out of three, not one out of three, but three out of three, then I would not make the decision. I will use the wisdom and I would just decline or do whatever, however, the circumstance may come. Because let me say this, what we do is going to either affect or infect somebody. All right. It's going to either help them grow or it's going to stop their growth. All right. And so we don't want to be found guilty of causing somebody to stray away from the way of God by our actions that we do or by, by agreeing because watch this. Um, I'm going to give this example, and this is my apostle. My pastor taught me this. He say, um, he said, man of God, you shouldn't go out to eat with everybody. And I'm like, what are you talking about? Cause you know, there were times I thought my apostle was crazy. I just got to be real with y'all. Um, and I told him, I say, you know, man of God, you flip the, you your birds have gone. I told him he laughed, but, but the stuff he was teaching me, um, later on as I started walking into a pastorship and started walking as a prophet, I started to see it. He said, you shouldn't sit down and eat with everybody. Okay. Okay. So this is, this is doing one of our, you know, he and I would talk 10 and 12 hours a day. He's teaching me on the phone. He said, because when you sit down at the table with somebody and you eat bread and you eat bread or eat meat with them, whatever they are doing in their personal life, whatever they are connected to, you are saying I'm in agreement with it. And I'm like, Whoa. So the important thing is what I'm, what I'm trying to teach is right. Connections is what's going to help us grow wrong. Connections may not necessarily hurt you in the beginning. Notice the trick of the enemy. It may seem like it's okay. It may seem like it's going good. It may seem like it's the right thing to do, but in the end all turmoil breaks loose. Why? Because it's what's called being unequally yoked. The wrong connection that's in your friendship, in your relationship, in your marriage, wherever, even down to the church that you attend, you got to make sure it's the right connection. Number one, how can this person grow from this? What are their motives? What are their intentions by me getting involved in this? And then how can this benefit me? And then how can this help me glorify God in what I'm doing? All right. When we get to that point, we know we're growing. All right. We know we're growing. And that's the point that I think all of us need to go have. Am I put it there? No, I'm transparent. I'm just going to tell you, no, I'm not. So as I teach things, things come to me, you know, because the word of the Lord comes to the prophet first. We can give words and we can teach all day long, but the words that come from God, we have to first examine ourselves by the word before we can. That's why when I find myself saying you are always changing and say, we are us, because I'm not trying to preach at you. I'm trying to help all of us learn. All right. And so these words that come are, you know, are words to help us grow together in our spiritual world. And it ain't many leaders that's going to tell you I'm growing with you. All right. But I'm growing with you all. As you grow, I'm growing. We're growing together. And I think that our bond and our relationship be more genuine because we're growing together. I want to be the leader that, oh, you know, I'm on the high pedestal and y'all got to come up to where I am. That's a dangerous person to be around. I'm going to tell you right now, but a leader that can be honest with you and say, I'm going with you. Or like I say, I'm just learning this, you know, a lot of times y'all hear me say, well, I didn't even know that. I'm growing with you. And I think that it helps you all as believers and as well as myself as a believer, it helps us to mature together because if we mature together and we grow together, then there is no limit to what God could use us to do. And it's a part of humility because a lot of leaders and I don't bash, I'm not a church basher. I'm not, I'm not a leader basher, but I'm just saying that, you know, a lot of leaders that we've encountered in church, they have not operated in humility. They won't say when they're wrong, they won't come back and fix the things when they're wrong because I'm the leader and I'm right. Well, there are times that I make wrong choices. There are times that I make wrong decisions. And so what I have to do, come back and acknowledge it and let's rebuild, let's rebuild, let's rebuild, let's do it together because we have a mission. Okay. We, we have an assignment that we got to be on. We can't spend time believers fixing ourselves. It's sort of like, um, on the job training, you get hired for a job and they tell you, well, you know, we're going to show you a little stuff beforehand, but we got two weeks of on the job training. So we got a, we got a lifetime of on the job training and while we're on the job training, we got to be busy completing our assignment that God has placed into our hands. All right. So our assignment is to help rebuild the total man. We're going back to that. If y'all remember that it's about the total man. Sister Georgina gave the analogy and I'm closing. I got four minutes. Gave the analogy that I always give a person is starving. You're going to talk about Jesus and come out there, but they're going to look at you like you're crazy because number one, if you want me to believe in this Jesus that you talking about and hooting and hollering and spitting out in my face, then go get me a sandwich. All right. Other words, we have to make Jesus real to people. So you do that in deed and you do that in actions. Again, I go back to, I go back to this and I say this quite often. People are going to look at how you live versus what you say because you can say all day on this and that. They ain't going to listen to what you're saying, but they're going to sit back and secretly, some of them do it publicly, but they're going to secretly watch you. And sometimes just by you doing the right thing, just by you having the right attitude when you're being treated wrong, just by you exemplifying godly character, somebody sitting back saying, I'm going to be just like her. I want to be just like him. How he do that? How she do that? Oh, I couldn't do that. But how she do that? We don't know how we do it because we got something different inside of us. Now I'm not saying you ain't going to get angry because you are, you're human. And there's just some things that just going to get under your skin. That's going to make you, you know, act out. And you know, that's why the Bible says don't provoke folks to anger. You know, if you don't want to see the other side, then you keep it where it needs to be. Don't, don't, don't cause me to come to a place that I don't want to be in because a lot of times it's not that you intentionally just got a bad attitude. Somebody just push you to a point where you just like, you know what? I've just got to get them told. I ain't going to cuss her out, but I just got to get her told. I got to get him told, listen, whatever this is, da, da, da, da, da. And you tell them that. And you say, listen, now, so now how are we going to, how are we going to fix this? Because this is unacceptable. And once you do that, that's a sign of your growing. Because once you get down on their level, you lost them. I was like, can you all hear a pasta? No, I can't hear now. Can y'all hear me now? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You come back on now. Okay. I'm sorry. I don't know what, what part y'all heard, but I was talking about, um, exemplifying, um, godly character, um, because godly character is what helps us to, um, be that beacon light to the world. Um, as I, as I say, and I'm closing, um, people are probably never come to our ministry. They probably won't ever go to any other ministry in the world, but you'll be the point of their contact, um, um, between them and the kingdom of God. Um, we take the smack over, um, area. Some people will come, some people won't, but if we could just be that point of contact between them and the kingdom, then our job, I ain't going to say it's done, but we'll be on, on the path. I don't ever want to say our job would be done because I don't ever think that winning souls for Christ could ever be accomplished. Um, and, and whether we're alive or whether we, um, have passed away, I believe that, um, as Paul said we'll be constantly winning souls for Christ because you're going to leave a legacy behind that people can, um, continue to come to Christ. Even after you're gone, Paul's legacy is here for us today. He's dead and gone, but we still come into Christ based off of what he wrote and what he said. All right. So the important thing is that we mature and that we grow as believers. And, um, you know, main thing is don't beat yourself up if you fall short or you make a mistake. All right. The key thing is learn from what you, where you fail, pick yourself up and do what? Keep going. All right. Cause God understands when you, when you're honestly putting forth an honest effort to change and to work toward your growth, the Lord knows that there's going to be some times that you just ain't going to make it. You're going to miss it. But in order to make it, you got to miss it sometimes and, and hang around people that, that can, that can keep you encouraged in the Lord. You know, you, we need to be around people that when we, when we fall short at times to say, Hey, you know what, brother? It's okay. I'm going to pray with you. And we're just going to pray that God gives you strength that when this comes again, you'd be able to handle it better than the type of influences, uh, that we need around us to help us grow. Not somebody that's going to make you feel like you doomed to hell. And when you lay down the night, you finna go to hell. I don't want that kind of friend. I'm sorry. And some people are like, I'm just going to tell you the truth. Well, you know, the truth is, uh, we need somebody around us to encourage us to help us do better, not doom us, um, uh, with doom, gloom and destruction, especially if you're honestly trying is what I'm saying. Now, a person ain't trying, you know, I'm not, I can't.