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Microwaved Maturity (January 4, 2026)

• Organic Church • Season 3 • Episode 1

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Ever felt the pressure to grow fast, be seen, and do more before you’re ready? We get real about the myth of instant spirituality and why sustainable faith looks more like a slow roast than a flash fire. Drawing from Hebrews 5:12–14, we contrast milk and meat, showing how discernment is forged “through training,” not through viral moments or borrowed platforms. The throughline is simple: you cannot microwave maturity, but you can cultivate it with steady habits that no one applauds.

We talk practical: how to seek wise counsel when you want quick answers, how to honor spiritual authority without sliding into people-pleasing, and how to shut our mouths when gossip tempts us. We also name a hard truth about hype—fast fires impress and then burn out. Like seeds in shallow soil, recognition without roots wilts under heat. Instead, we lean into service at the low places—shoveling sidewalks, fixing furnaces, cleaning bathrooms—because the pathway to healthy leadership always runs through hidden faithfulness.

You’ll hear stories about resisting clout, waiting for confirmation before stepping into roles, and learning to stay planted even when growth feels slow. We connect these choices to a broader pattern: trials that build trust, consistency that builds character, and daily practices that keep the flame alive when emotions fade. Galatians 6:9 reframes the timeline—“at just the right time” comes to those who refuse to give up. If you’re hungry for deeper roots, lasting fruit, and a faith that endures beyond the weekend, this conversation will meet you where you are and nudge you toward steady ground.

If this resonated, follow the show, share it with a friend who’s craving substance over sizzle, and leave a review to help others find it. What’s one small, faithful step you’ll take today?

SPEAKER_00:

Hallelujah, hallelujah. Look at that line of kids. Good lord. We're gonna pray for those classroom workers. Glad it ain't me. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus. I went back and I asked Pastor Roger if he had counted how many people were here today. Because the the kind of joke is that when the sanctuary when the kids leave the sanctuary, like it's half the people are gone. Right? And so I was looking around, there's a lot of kids here. We gotta make sure we got enough people to handle all that, because you back in kids' ministry, things go sideways fast. Right? Turns into a mutiny pretty soon. They're running the show. We don't know what's going on back there. Kidding. Well, I had a I had a message prepared for today. I was all geared up for that message, and I got into the church this morning, and I was just praying about it, and I was like, Lord, if this isn't what you want, change my heart, change the word, Father. And he did. And all because of a situation that recently happened. And one thing, I don't know if you know this about pastors or not, but a lot of times we preach out of life experience, right? So things that happen to us, we pour out into you, sometimes ambiguously, though. Like, right? I'm not gonna tell you exactly what happened in order to deliver the message because it's not necessary. But this thing happened to me earlier this week, and I thought, Lord, I don't know what you want from me. And so I sought wise counsel, and that's hard for me, right? Because I like to just I like to pray about it and then just know the answer, and I didn't just know the answer, so I sought wise counsel in this situation, and all three responses were exactly what my heart already knew, and so I was thankful for that. But they all gave me a piece of advice, each individually, that built this sense of confidence in exactly what I'm gonna share with you this morning. And I need you to realize something that in a world that requires things quickly, right? We want our news immediately, we want our Amazon delivers deliveries immediately, all of those things. Listen, I moved to Janaton, I get my deliveries in seven days now. When I lived in Dover, it was next day, baby, right? So I order something, I'm trying to ship it to somebody else's house to see how fast they can get it. Right? I don't want to wait, right? Is that true? We don't want to wait for anything, we want things instantaneous, and I've talked about this a million times. But the message that I was given this morning was that we cannot microwave maturity. Do you hear me? So listen, we we I love a good hot pocket, right? Anybody else like hot pockets? If you don't, I'm sorry to hear that because it is one of the best microwave foods available. How about chicken patties? In the microwave is far better. I don't want them in the air fryer because they're crispy. In the microwave, they're a little bit soggy, easier to eat that way. Plus, you don't have to cook it all the way through. I like mine to still be a little bit frozen in the middle. I know, I know, but it's true. Ask my wife. I won't even cook a cheese stick all the way through. I want that cheese stick to still be a little bit hard in the middle when I eat it. But I realize something that we microwave everything, everything immediately, as fast as we can make it, right? If we want it to be quick, we want it to be instantaneous. But maturity, spiritual and physical and emotional maturity, cannot be made whole quickly. You cannot mature yourself through short or quick. It's like getting rich quick.

unknown:

Right?

SPEAKER_00:

Anybody ever tried to do that? You sign up for something, and guess what? You find out real fast you lost more money than you made. Right? I've never seen anybody get rich quick. See, we live in a microwave world. We want fast food, we want fast Wi-Fi, hallelujah, praise Jesus. We want fast shipping, and we want fast answers. We want the response to be instantaneous. And so when I went into prayer and I was asking the Lord to guide me in this moment, I expected instantaneous. And instead, what he said to me was seek wise counsel. Now I I've had this thing that I've been I've been working on myself with because in my life I have found this, I'd found this weird pocket where, you know, I I managed a huge company. I had two hotels and 75 Airbnbs, and so I was the end-all be-all inside of that company, and then I had uh the church where I was the senior pastor, and then I was the head of my house, and I really didn't have accountability to anybody but God. Do you know what that'll do to a person? It will wreck you, right? Because you think in the moment, like I can handle this, and then you realize real quick you can't handle that. Now I want to take this a step further because each of us have parents in our lives, right? And we love our parents, and and the Bible tells us to honor our mother and our father, but the problem was my dad serves under me in ministry, and my parents both worked for me in my job. Do you want to talk about complicated? Right? I didn't have anywhere to go where I was accountable for anything, and so it was hard for me to be held accountable. Are you hearing me? Because some of us are sitting in our seats, impossible to be held accountable, right? We sit there and we think, well, if if somebody said to me, I can handle it, no, you can't. Because it's been said and it's happened, and you've gotten mad. And you've been you've been blaming other people for what's happened in your life, and that tells me that our level of maturity as a church, as a whole, as a people is incredibly low, spiritually, emotionally, physically. And so I've prayed about it and I really thought about all of the things that that you can microwave, right? You can microwave all the leftovers you want, just don't put aluminum foil on them. Right? Not everything gets to go in the microwave. Anybody have a coffee mug that you can't put in the microwave? Ever put it in a microwave on accident? Ever found out the hard way? Spark City, baby. And if you don't catch it soon enough, that microwave is shot. Right? I never really thought about all of the things that cannot be done quickly. You know, there is no 30-second prayer that will replace a lifetime of faithfulness. There is no, there is no way, there is, there, there is no way to get an overnight anointing. Right? Listen, I I was I was put in a situation that was a little bit uncomfortable. Steph, I'm gonna talk about this for just a second, and you'll forgive me, won't you? She doesn't know. She'll have to forgive me for it. I was put in this situation where I was asked to do something I was a little bit uncomfortable doing, and so I just said, if that's what you want, I will do that for you. Right? That's what I said. And they're like, okay, fine, we want you to do it. Wonderful. Well, they ended up going with somebody else, and that was fine. But this person had microwave maturity. Now, here's what they had they had this little certificate that said that they could perform certain things that they ordered online, right? Didn't require any training or any skill. And really quickly, when you watch this unfold, you realized it was microwave. Right? It was textbook, it was by the book, it was about 45 seconds long, and there was nothing to it of substance that told you who Jesus was or what Jesus wanted from you, right? That is microwave maturity at its finest. Because as a church, we want to come in, we want to sit down and we want to hear prosperity gospel, right? You guys want me to tell you that you can get rich quick with Jesus. Can I promise you you can't get rich, get rich quick with Jesus? Right? It comes with a lifetime of servitude. See, the greatest will always serve, and the least will always desire to lead, right? Now, what I'm saying to you is when we look back at the people who lead large ministries, oftentimes they're lining their own pockets, right? You know, I I was I shared this online and Lord, it broke my heart. It actually I I didn't even know how to process it, but you know, Elevation Church, and I know we love elevation music, right? I and I'm not trying to, I would never speak ill of God's anointed. I think their music is fantastic, and I think Pastor Stephen Furtick is probably a great guy behind the scenes. But my problem is, is their church lost seven million dollars last year. What could we do with seven million dollars? Right? It's not about a building. I don't care about building a new building. What I care about is serving those who need to be served, right? If you're losing seven million and going, oh, we had a rough year, how much money you got? A$200 million stock portfolio. You guys ain't giving enough. Still open, all right, y'all? If you feel led to give halfway through, listen, we had to fix one of the furnaces. Cost us a thousand dollars to fix that furnace, and immediately we start praying, Lord, give us the funds. Lord, just just just apply your your blessing to the finances, Lord, so that we can take care of that furnace. Stephen Furrick just put a new furnace in. He don't care.$15,000 to us, we wouldn't be able to survive. Right? Here's the problem: he's selling people what they want to buy.

unknown:

Come on, tickle in their ears.

SPEAKER_00:

He's all he's doing is telling them, I'll give you more. God will bless you abundantly financially if you just give to his house. I'm gonna tell you the truth. God may not bless you financially when you give of your finances. He may He's gonna bless you, He's gonna pour out blessings that you can't contain, but you don't know what those blessings will be, right? He's gonna send you good health, he's gonna send you a good spouse, he's gonna send you obedient children, right? God is gonna do something great, but it's not always gonna be what you expect of God to do. And I just need you to understand something that when we get stuck in that moment, we need to stop and think and realize that growth takes time, not hype. Right? There is no way to get so excited about growth that it happens instantaneously. Because remember, when we all get saved, we're on fire. Right? I remember when I got saved, I wanted to do everything. I will do whatever you need me to do in order to serve this ministry because I am on fire for God. And then when I realized that it took discipline and it took follow-through, and it required me to do things that I felt like I was above because I was called. Right? I did. I just said, listen, I'm here every Sunday morning, I am here every Thursday night, I am here every Wednesday night, Saturday morning for prayer, whatever you want, I am here. And I realized real quickly, that's not what I wanted. What I wanted was clout. What I wanted was recognition. And it didn't take long before the Lord said, if that's what you desire, you won't have it here. You can go in the world and get that all you want, but you will not get that in kingdom relationship. Alright, uh, let's go to Hebrews chapter 5, verse 12. Hebrews chapter 5, verse 12. You have been believers so long now that you ought to be teaching others. Hear this. Instead, you need someone to teach you these, teach you again the basic things about God's word. You are like babies who need milk and cannot eat solid food. For someone who lives on milk is still an infant and does not know how to do what is right. Here it is, you ready? Solid food is for those who are mature, who's who through training have the skills to recognize the difference between right and wrong. I want you to go back to that first piece for me. It says, you have been believers so long that you ought to be teaching others. Some of you have spent your entire life in church. You've been in church your entire you've been you know the scripture forward and backward, you can quote the Bible, you can do all of the things, but you still cannot teach others. Because your life actions don't reflect the scripture that you know, right? Because you've you've put in some of the legwork, right? You've heard it, you can quote it. We write scripture on our heart so that it transforms our lives, not so that we can regurgitate it to the people around us, right? Because when we regurgitate it, we weaponize it. Fair? Because I can pick scripture all day long that will make you look like the bad guy. Listen, as we found out last week, even the devil can quote scripture. Exactly. And listen, just because you can sit in your seat and quote scripture, it doesn't mean that it is etched on your heart to change and glorify your life. Amen. And so we're looking for this instantaneous way to get recognition. And so we go through our Bibles and we write down all the little quotes in the scriptures, and then we post on social media all the while we're doing things we know we ought not do in our lives. Right? Treating people a certain way, acting a certain way, doing a certain thing. And listen, there's a ton of it, right? There's a ton of it. Listen, I'm not gonna judge you for the things that you do in your life. I'm gonna tell you to work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. Right? I want you to go to the Father in prayer and say, Lord, if this is causing me to stumble, take it from me. Lord, if this is stopping me from growing in your in your desired way, take it from me. Remove it from me. I'm not trying to beat anybody up because guess what? I'm falling short of the glory of God too. Right? There's things that happen in my life that I'm not proud of. Sometimes I talk about things that I ought not to talk about. And as soon as I do it, I'm like, Lord, why didn't you shut my mouth? And he said, I tried, but you opened it anyway. Can I tell you something? Can I tell you something? When Daniel was in the lion's den, God shut the mouth of the lion. That lion was more obedient than I am. That lion, a creature who is designed to kill, could keep its mouth shut. But when God says, muzzle it, I'm like, maybe tomorrow. This story deserves to be told. Amen. Listen, that is not what God has called us to do. That passage tells us something important. It says, by the by this time you ought to be teachers, but you still need milk. Right? You ought to be at this level and in service time, should be prepared to teach other people. Yet, you still need milk because you are not mature in what I have called you to do. I want to be something, I want to tell you something very, very clear. Write it down. Just because time is passing, just because you're sitting in a seat, just because the clock is ticking, it does not mean that growth is taking place. You can sit in church all your life. You can sit in church all your life and still be broken sinners and have not repented of those sins and have not turned to the Lord. Amen? You can spend your entire life doing it. Listen, you can be in church for a long time and still be spiritually immature. You can know the songs, the language, and the routines, but still struggle with discipline and obedience. Now, I want to be clear because oftentimes when pastors preach about obedience, we're saying what people hear us say is, we want you to submit to us. I don't want you to submit to my flesh. I want you to submit to the spiritual authority that God has placed upon my shoulders. The same with Pastor Holly, the same with Pastor Roger. He has called us to serve this house, right? To shepherd these sheep. And so when I say to you, hey, I really don't feel like that's a good idea, or hey, we should really probably reconsider that, I'm asking you to go to the Father in prayer. Have you prayed about that? And if the answer is no, then don't do it. It's that simple. I can beat you over the head with a club if you want. But what I've learned, you ain't gonna listen anyway. Right? You're gonna do what your flesh wants to do because you still need milk. You are not prepared for meat. You are not prepared to eat a real meal. All you want is bottle fed. Spiritual maturity doesn't come from moments of hype. It's a consistent habit. Right? It's saying to myself, I can't talk about that anymore. It's saying to myself, I can't do that anymore. I can't go there anymore. You guys ever had a place you love to go, but you know what it does to you every time you go there? Right? Some of us, it's our job, right? We go there and we talk a certain way with the people at work. Listen, I got one guy that I work with. Love this man to death, nicest guy I've ever met. He would do anything for anybody at the drop of a hat. You think you have never met anybody with a mouth like his? And I mean, he just does it. And then I'll go sit in his office because we're working together, and he'll say something to me, and I'm immediately like, I can do that too. Right? Because that's that's what the world wants us to believe is okay and that it's right. But the the thing is, is it requires consistent change of habits if we want to make consistent change in our life? Growth takes time, not hype. We have to learn to pray when no one is watching, right? So I and I don't I don't mean to pick, but we come up front on Sunday mornings and we lift our hands and praise, and we're like, oh Lord, we worship you, we give you everything, Lord, and then we go home and we don't really give him everything, right? And we're not really worshiping him. We're only here on Sunday morning, and I'm not saying you're doing it for a show because you might genuinely mean it in your heart, but the problem is you lose sight of that the minute you walk out of here. See, it is consistent habits that will change that. Listen, ready? You have to be faithful when it's boring. Because, see, this is something you guys have learned. I'm always on the move, right? I was talking to Pastor Holly the other day. She says it sounds like your gears are turning. Yep. Always. There's always something on the horizon, right? I believe that God has called this place for something greater than I than I will ever be able to take it to be. It's He will be the only one that can take this place to where I believe that He has called it. Now, here's the thing I have to learn to be faithful even when it's a little bit boring. I was talking about that furnace, right? Do you think I want to spend a thousand dollars to fix a furnace? Do you know what a thousand dollars will do in this building? A lot. Right? A furnace? Really? That's what we're spending money on. But I have to learn to be faithful even when it's boring. Because sometimes he's saying, Hey, listen, I know you really want to do that project. I need you to slow down. I'm not calling you to that place at this moment. I am calling you to this place. And sometimes things will happen, big things will happen that change your life immensely. And you very quickly realize that if you don't listen and aren't obedient to what he's calling you to, bad things will happen to people around you. Because you are not listening to what God is telling you. And so then you start to wreck all of the things that God is trying to do because you will convince other people not to be obedient, right? Because when I talk to you and I say, Oh, can you believe that person said this? You don't look at me and go, you know, you should really shut up. You go, oh my gosh, really? Don't tell anybody, okay, I won't. And by the time I've walked away, you've already texted it to somebody, right? Talking to myself here? Okay, as long as I'm not, I was like, I'm feeling a little guilty now. I'm feeling a little convicted over here. Oh Lord. You have to learn to be obedient. Here it is. When you're uncomfortable. Right? So that means when somebody says to you, hey, you said this and that's not appropriate. The word of God tells us that we should act, be obedient to that, be obedient to the word of God, not submitting to necessarily that person, but obedient to the word of God. Amen? Even when it makes you uncomfortable. I sat through a meeting one time where I was basically told that you're the reason we've done all of this, but now we don't need you anymore. And when I heard those words, I thought, how dare you! Right? You just said you wouldn't have anything without me, and now you don't need me. Oh, you'll learn. Place is gonna burn to the ground. I'll show you, right? And then I left and I got in my car and I thought, Lord, that is not what you wanted for me. Lord, I'm praying blessings over these people. Lead them, guide them, direct them in the season of unknowing. Father, give them all of the things that you desire for their hearts. And then I got mad at myself for doing it. Right? Because it's hard to understand. But maturity does not come quickly, it comes in seasons of pain. Maturity, you can talk to people all day long about when they learned their life lessons. Not often do they learn a life lesson in a good time. Right? I didn't learn how to save money when I was rich. I learned how to save money when I was poor. Right? Because I didn't have it, and so if I wanted to pay the light bill, had to save money. Right? I didn't get to go buy whatever I wanted. I didn't get to order DoorDash. I'm gonna tell you something. That's one thing that people tell me, we're broke. Well, I don't have any money. DoorDash coffee three times last week. You Instacart your groceries? You know how much that costs you? You ain't broke. You're you're irresponsible. You're immature. You're stupid. I'm just saying that sometimes the problems that we have in life are not the enemy coming after us. Sometimes the problems that we have in life are us being so immature that we are not willing to submit to what God has called in our lives. And sometimes God tells you, just stop. Listen, I am speaking to you, and you still cannot hear his voice because you are so wrapped up in the things that the world would have you hear. Look, listen, I love milk, especially with five Oreos right before bed. Right? Love a big tall glass of milk with some Oreos, but here's the problem I cannot grow by drinking strictly milk. Right? Milk is for babies. And I'm looking around this room right now, and I'm not seeing other than a couple physical babies. Right? But when I look around the room, I see spiritual babies. Listen, that's okay for a season in life. But you can't sit in church for 10 plus years. You can't be in church every Sunday and not understand that God is calling you to something greater. Just because you've been saved for a while, it doesn't mean you've been shaped for a while. Just because you've been saved and sitting in church, it doesn't mean that you understand God's calling on your life. Amen. You have to learn to make a difference through your actions. Alright. Before I read this passage of scripture and before I move on to my next point, can you put up that slide that I gave you this morning? And I'm sure many of you have seen this. But this spoke to me this morning. Now I've made turkeys like this. Alright? Anyone ever made a turkey like that? You did a goose? Whoopsie. See the difference here is this turkey was cooked for one hour at 900 degrees. This turkey was cooked for three hours at 300 degrees. It's still 900 degrees. It's still the same temperature and time and all of the. But the difference is this took consistency over time. And this was rushed. You cannot rush perfection. You cannot rush your calling. Do you remember when I said to you that I wanted clout, I wanted something, I wanted something that God was not willing to give me? And he said, okay, you can have it, but you're not gonna have it here. Listen, he moved me out of worship, he sent me to Columbus for a couple of years. I lived there with my wife, joined three worship teams. Every time I would join a worship team in a new church, guess what? It'd fall apart, burn to the ground. And it was because God said to stop and wait, to listen and be obedient. And I could not do that. Instead, I wanted to cook for one hour at 900 degrees. I wanted to run right through it. Listen, this was the this was the moment that I realized that while I had a calling on my life, that calling didn't count if I didn't do it for the right reason. Okay. We moved to Newark, Ohio. Anybody ever been to Newark, Ohio? It's technically pronounced Nurk, if you're from there, Nerk, N-E-R-K, Nerk. And when we got there, the first thing we did was we looked up a four-square church because we came from a four-square church. So obviously that was the natural planting place. And we found a beautiful four-square church. Now, when I say beautiful, I mean the people were beautiful. The building was a double wide. Worship was in the garage. And the house still existed as a house. No, nobody lived there, but it was the fellowship hall. It was a little strange. But we got there and they just immediately were all over us. Oh, where are you from? We're so happy to have you. We quickly realized we were the youngest two people in the building. You know, that's a scary thing to be. Because you're fresh meat. It's true. Because when you look around that ministry, you start to think, is this ministry dying? And they want to bring in young people just like that's our heart's desire to save young families, right? And so we showed up. I told them who I was. I told them I had led worship for Pastor Florence for years, and I shared all of my heart and all of the things. And you know what they said to me? You ready? Can you lead worship this morning? And I did. And it was miserable. Because God said, wait, stop and wait. And I refused to listen. From the very beginning, I refused to listen. And it was so fascinating to me because in that moment I realized I wanted it to be about me. I wanted it to be about. I was trying to microwave my own spiritual maturity. I was trying to force myself into ministries that I had not been actually called into. Are you ready? Are you ready? Some people get saved on Sunday. They expect to preach by Wednesday. And they're offended by Monday. Right? Because when they come, Pastor Michael, you know, I'm really on fire for the Lord, and I really feel led to deliver this message that God has given me. And I say, no, we're not gonna do that. We're not gonna happen. Well, if you're not gonna let me do it, I'll go somewhere else that will. Peace out, Girl Scout. I don't know what to tell you because I will tell you this. If God had called you to preach in this house, he'd have told me. Because that's called confirmation, and that's how God works in all things in ministry. I can't tell you the number of times Pastor Holly comes out of the prayer room. Pastor Michael, I have to tell you. When we were in the prayer room, God said this to me, and I can simply pick up my iPad and flip around my notes, and whatever it is that she has just said to me is the title of my sermon for the week. That is called confirmation, and that's what we count on in ministry, right? We believe that God will speak to multiple people and share his heart and his vision for whatever it is that is coming. Listen, it is not easy to look at somebody and say, that's not where you're you're meant to be. That's not where God has called you to be. God has not called all of us to intercession prayer, right? It's true. God has not called all of us to preach. Listen, some of y'all think you can sing, but God has not called you to the worship team. Thank you, Jesus. I hear you. Listen, when worship started this morning, I said to the tech team, I'm like, we clap on the two and four, not the one and three people. Come on, let's get it together. Listen, it's okay. I love you guys, and I love that worship is ugly sometimes, right? Because let me tell you, when I come to the Father, sometimes it's ugly, right? I'm screaming and I'm yelling, and I'm Lord, why? Why are we doing this? Why are you putting us through this? And every time he says the same thing, because you cannot grow when you are comfortable. Your maturity does not come when you sit in comfort. It comes in times of stress when we're growing and we're being we're being stretched to new horizons. Uh, it's we're gonna go to Matthew 13, and we're gonna look at five and six. This is a story you guys know this isn't new. It says, Other feet other seeds fell on shallow soil with underlying rock. Those seeds sprouted up quickly because the soil was shallow. But the plants soon wilted under the hot sun, and since they didn't have deep roots, they died. That's what happens when we try to to race to position. Right? Because position equals clout, and we think that when I say, Oh, I I I'm the senior pastor to read, I don't even tell people. Now I'll tell them I'm a pastor. Oh, where do you pastor? You know, the biggest question that I get from people well, how many people attend every Sunday? Don't know, don't care. Do you know why I don't care? Because there'd be five of you here, I'm gonna give you the same message. Be 300 of you here, I'm gonna give you the same message, and here's the reason because it's what God has told me to do. Right? God didn't ask pastors to compare congregations, right? Because this body is different than bodies everywhere else. I will tell you the one thing that this body was called to do was to love the unlovely. It doesn't matter how you come through that door, it doesn't matter what you look like when you come into worship, we are gonna love you just the same because we believe that each and every one of us have a place in the kingdom of God. Now, it doesn't mean that I'm gonna tolerate bad behavior. Okay? You come in one Sunday, you looking bad, you smelling bad. I'm gonna I'm gonna give you a hug and that's gonna be fine, right? By Sunday three, I'm gonna be like, hey, listen, love you. Can you shower before you show up next week? Put on a clean shirt. Can you change underwear? I was getting ready to say that one. Can you like listen? I just need you to just, and and it's not because I want you to look the part. It's not, that is not it at all. I don't want you to show up here looking like you're a church person. What I want you to do is respect what God has called you to be, right? If He has called you to be a child of God, children of the Almighty, don't show up looking ratty, right? We put our best foot forward in all things that we do. Listen, God has blessed us, and so we should honor the kingdom of God, right? Okay, sorry, that was not in my notes, but we got there anyway. Listen, a fast fire will always look impressive, right? Listen, you ever been to one of those bonfires that like when they light it, like melt your face off? Right? Anybody ever been to Winter Jam? Skillet comes out on the stage and those fire flames shoot up, and you can feel your eyebrows melting off your head. You could be up in the nosebleed and you still feel the flame. Listen, it's impressive, isn't it? But it's not long lasting. It is not possible to sustain that fire for very long. Listen, um, for those of you who didn't know, I love to do kids' magic for Easter and things like that. And I have this stuff, it's called flash paper. Okay? And the idea is that when you light it, it lights really, really fast and it's a great big bright flame, but it burns out immediately. And that's what happens to new Christians when they walk into ministry expecting to be put on a pedestal. See, the flame gets hot and it gets really, really big, but the minute that they find out that that pedestal is not accessible because they have not become spiritually mature, it fizzles out real quick. Because nobody's willing to clean toilets. Nobody is willing to clean toilets, nobody wants to vacuum carpets. Instead, everybody wants to preach. Right? Everybody thinks that they should be whatever. Nobody is willing to serve at the lowest of levels. I need you to understand something that because we have people that are willing to serve at that level in this building. I talked a lot about the furnace. This furnace really got me going today, guys, y'all. And this is really hard for me to swallow because I'm like, Lord, I want to do so much more, I don't want to be stuck dealing with a stupid furnace. And when we got to the second purchase, the second buy at$450, I was like, Lord, you gotta be kidding me. And I was talking to my dad on the way home, and he said, I want you to think about it for a second. We were blessed that we could do it ourselves. Because if I would have called a service tech to just come out and look at that, probably would have cost me$500. The part that we paid$300 for would have probably cost us$500. And then they'd had to come back a second time to put it on, and once they put it on, realized the other part was bad, and we would have gotten another service call call, plus paid for that part and another service call when they came out to fix that. Amen? We'd have probably been in$2,250 fixing that furnace that we fixed for$1,000. Thank you, Jesus, for people who are willing to serve in the kingdom of God. Now, I do just want to say this if that furnace explodes, Blaine did it. I didn't touch it, I had nothing to do with it. I'm gonna tell the insurance company that all day long. I'm kidding. Kidding. So we're blessed because we have people who are qualified to do those things. But the problem is we don't always look at that as a calling. Right? Sometimes we look at that as well, I just get all the junk work, I just have to do all the things that nobody else wants to do. Let me tell you something. That is not the case. Pastor Roger, I I love that man to death. Hard headed. That dude. Let me tell you. Did you hear Linda? Amen. Linda's like, Praise you, Jesus. Here's the thing. I sent him a text the other day and I said, Hey, do you know if the sidewalks are shoveled at the church? He said, I'm actually going there today. I'll let you know. He goes to the church, he texts me later. He's like, Hey, I'm going home. My back really hurts, but the sidewalk is cleared. I didn't tell you to shovel the sidewalk, Roger. I asked you if the sidewalk was clear. And I told him that. I said, I can come and shovel. I just needed to know if it was clear or not. Right? Because he and I are always in and out of the building for other things. And I realized he is willing to serve even in the lowest of places, which allows him to lead in the greatest of places, right? But we can't get people to do that. Because listen, I can send out a text and be like, hey, the sidewalks really need shoveled. Can it does anybody have time? And it's crickets. I don't hear from anybody. No, but I was just it's I'm like, all right, Pastor Roger, I'm gonna go shovel the sidewalks. And he's like, okay, I'll be there too. Right? Pastor Holly, she's gonna clean the building, she's gonna scrub every toilet. She's gonna make sure everything in this building is spick and span for you guys. She doesn't do that because she gets something from it. She does it because it's glory to God. It is time to serve. Now I'll tell you this one thing about her. When she comes in here, that's her time with the Lord. She doesn't want your help. She doesn't want you interrupting her. Right? There's nothing wrong with that. But so few people are willing to actually serve in such a capacity. Why is that? It's because we're spiritually immature, right? We can't understand that sometimes we serve in the lowest of places in order to be raised to the highest of places. See, when I was trying to make worship work, when I was trying to lead in my own way, all I wanted was for God to give me honor in that and say, yes, we're gonna have you do that. It wasn't until I was willing to submit to him in all things that I was able to come to what he had actually called me to do, the calling that he had put on my life. I didn't even know the calling. And when I heard about the calling, I didn't believe the calling, right? But it was because I had been so obstinate for so long, I couldn't possibly think that God would use me in such a way. In such a way. Trials produce trust. Can we agree on that? So when I'm going through something hard, when I'm sitting in the fire and I'm looking around, I realize very quickly that I am in that fire because God is trying to get me to trust him more, to give him more of my heart, more of my life, so that he can do great and mighty things. But if I don't trust him in the trial, I will never trust him in the good things. It's easy to say, oh, God, God is good all the time. See, we could do that, right? We can say it. But but yeah, right, but do we really believe it? When God really does something good in our life, we're like, well, look what I just did. Look at that. Look at that. I didn't even know I could do that. You can't. You can't. You can't. God can do that, though. I I have this, I have this rule. I do a lot of electrical work here in the building. Again, if anybody ever asks, I'm gonna say that's not true. But a lot of electrical work in this building. And I have a rule. If you get shocked more than three times while doing it, you shouldn't be doing it. Right? Now, with that being said, I also don't turn off the electric for anything that I do. Because a 110 zap isn't that bad. Right? It's just a little zap. It doesn't hurt that bad until your arm's shaking and you can't move. But but I realize that that rule is a little bit irresponsible. Amen? Because do you know how fast it is to go over there and shut off the breaker and then never risk the electrocution? It seems like a no-brainer, but honestly, in our own spiritual maturity, we're doing the exact same thing, right? We're working with the live wires and we're like, oh listen, this isn't gonna hurt that bad, right? And you touch the two wires together, God blows you across the room, and you're like, why did he do that? Because you're stupid. Because you don't listen to what the Holy Spirit has told you to do. You don't take a moment and look out for what. Hey God, if I do this, what are the consequences? Lord, I want you to have your way in my life. I don't want to do it my way, I wanna do it your way. The problem is, is we don't oftentimes Spend time with the Father before we make decisions like that. Sometimes we wait and we hate it, right? But can I tell you that if God is taking his time, it's because he's doing it right? He wants you to do it right. And so like good things come to those who wait. But explain to me then how the early bird gets the worm. Doesn't I'm gonna wait. Right? I'll sit in that season of waiting. I'll sit in those moments of quiet. But I also have to understand that I have to continue to plant seeds in that time. Because planting those seeds will allow a fertile harvest. A harvest that I may never see. A harvest that this church may never see, but it will in fact create a harvest. Galatians 6, 9 is our last passage of scripture this morning. And it so says, So let's not get tired of what doing what is good. At just the right time, we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don't give up. And so we need to remember that slow and steady will always win the race, that we can always look to God in all things. Listen, the harvest doesn't, it doesn't sprout all in one day. You know, they always this is something I always heard. I'm not a farmer, so I don't know if this is true or not. But they always say about corn knee high by the 4th of July. Oh, everybody knows that. Good. So is that true? Like it's good corn if it's on schedule. It's on schedule. Okay, I like that. It's on schedule. Doesn't mean it's good, it's just on schedule. Because the rain could come and ruin that, right? It's on schedule. I like that. Woo-hoo! There's a whole message in that one. It is on schedule. Whew, thank you, Jesus. Harvest doesn't come from intensity, it comes from the consistency. Show up even when you're tired. Can we point out the fact that Beth Jarvis is here right now? Woman just had a back surgery. Jarve, do your hair for you this morning? She told me when she was in the hospital. She said, My hair is a mess. I said, I'm gonna get Jarve to send me a picture. You guys pick on me for my bad hair, I'm gonna put that bad boy up on the screen. Pray even when you don't feel like it, and read the word even when it feels dry. Because the word sometimes feels dry, but I want to tell you something. The word is not dry, your perspective is dry. Right? Because when God is speaking to you, there is fruit in that in that word, there is there's revelation in that word, but our spirit is not willing to hear what God is speaking to us today. So we need to learn to read even when it feels dry. I want to I want to encourage you to one last thing. I got two minutes to wrap this bad boy up, okay? Subway's calling. I know. We have to learn to stay planted because that fruit is coming. Amen. See, if you pull up your roots and you move it somewhere else, you're gonna kill it. Remember that tree I told you guys about? That tree is dead as a doornail. I didn't know. Well, actually, I did know. I didn't care. Right? I wanted what I wanted in that moment. If I would have listened to what God had said, I would have never made that decision. I want you to hear this clearly. You don't have to rush, you don't have to compete. You don't need to burn bright just so you burn out. Amen. Listen, the fire that's inside of me, sometimes it's a flicker. Sometimes it doesn't feel like much. But I'm gonna tend to that flame every day.

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Because sometimes that flame will roar. Listen, when God really gets a hold of me and he starts doing something wild, I'm like, Lord, I want this fire all the time. And he says, you cannot be sustained in this season. This will never last forever. You have to take the highs and the lows. You have to take the good with the bad. Listen, you cannot microwave maturity, you can only cultivate it, right? Prepare your heart just as we would prepare land for planting. Listen, I'm not a farmer, I don't know what it takes to plant anything, right? My wife got these beautiful flowers, but they have to be planted with the eye up. It doesn't blink. How do I know where the eyes are at? Right? I don't know anything about that, right? I have no idea what you're talking about. I'm when you say eyes, I think about those crusty things that grow on potatoes. You know what I'm saying? Is that what is that called an eye too? I thought, so this, you know what I'm talking about. There's great big shut up. I'm getting off topic. Anyhow. One prayer at a time, one act of obedience at a time, one faithful step at a time. Let God grow you slowly. Allow God to move in your life each and every day. Don't wake up and say, Lord, here I am, use me, and not let him use you. When you wake up and say, Lord, here I am, use me, and he only uses you a little bit. Celebrate that use. Celebrate that win. Lord, I thank you that you have moved in my life today. Father, I thank you that you have given me great strength and wisdom. Amen. Church, this is what it's about. This is not about speed running through salvation. It is not about trying to find a way to be saved more than the person sitting next to you. Your salvation is yours. Your relationship with Christ, it is yours. It doesn't belong to me. It doesn't belong to the person sitting, it doesn't belong to your spouse or your children. It belongs to you. You have to cultivate it, you have to allow him to grow you. It's not going to happen overnight. Amen. Heavenly Father, we thank you and we praise you for a move of the Spirit in this house. Lord, I pray that as these words were delivered, that they fell upon cultivated hearts today, Lord. Lord, that there is a renewed strength and focus on our commitment to you this day. And Father, that we are not expecting you to raise us to the highest pedestals, but Lord, we are preparing ourselves to serve at the lowest. Father, that we can look at those who are different than us and still love them. That we know what we are called to do in your house today, Father God. Lord, I pray that you bless each and every person in this house. Lead them, guide them, direct them. Bless us abundantly as we pour out our love into the world. We thank you and we praise you. We give you honor and glory in the mighty name of Jesus. And the church says, Amen.