Maturity & Mission - Into the Deep Series - Week 6

What if spiritual maturity isn’t what you know but what you multiply? We open with honest prayer for those wrestling with anxiety and depression, then pivot to a bracing challenge from Luke 19: you’ve been entrusted with something real—now invest it. No hype, no shortcuts—just a straight call to grow up in Christ and go out for Christ.

I share why “milk to meat” isn’t a slogan but a shift in appetite, how a simple five-five-five rhythm can rekindle hunger, and why the Kingdom measures faithfulness over flashiness. We talk about gifts that aren’t meant to be hoarded, a church that cannot rest on one person’s shoulders, and the kind of unity that survives preference clashes because it’s welded by purpose. If you’ve ever felt “not enough” or feared failing, you’ll hear how fear can masquerade as humility—and how the Spirit equips you with power, love, and self-discipline to move anyway. Availability beats eloquence; God handles the heavy lift.

We look at accountability and reward through the lens of a returning King who asks one question: “What did you do with what I gave you?” That urgency reframes our relationships too—less condemning, more protecting each other’s calling, fewer cracks for the enemy to widen. Expect practical, real-life steps: discipling the new believer, serving without being asked, guarding unity, and building what God told you even if no one claps yet. Hit play if you’re ready to trade spiritual inertia for obedient motion and turn belief into blessing for the people around you.

If this resonates, follow the show, share it with a friend who needs courage today, and leave a review telling us the one step you’ll take this week. Your story might spark someone else’s obedience.

Ending

Transcript

Covered by the Blood

SPEAKER_02 1:02

We used to have a whole side when I do it. Well, something would happen if there was a sickness in the cab. I put it. Oh, y'all be raised on the Pentecostal now. I put it. Because when the blood is covered.

SPEAKER_05 1:25

When the blood does it shop. When the blood is put, where is it supposed to be put?

SPEAKER_02 1:36

Where is the blood? Some of you have a shot.

SPEAKER_05 1:44

Some of you have a lot of people.

SPEAKER_02 2:14

Well, they took the lamb's blood. And death was about to come through the camp. If you apply the blood. If you think about it where they applied it, they covered the coming and goes.

SPEAKER_00 2:40

We got to apply the blood to what coming up. We got to apply the blood.

SPEAKER_02 2:49

We're gonna be resting here for a while.

SPEAKER_01 4:24

With depression. With anxiety.

SPEAKER_02 4:35

If you want to give it up. You know, a lot of times we spend our entire life up for the gift takes up. And then we ask how why hasn't he delivered us?

SPEAKER_01 4:44

Because if we didn't worry, we wouldn't have control.

Prayer for Freedom from Anxiety

SPEAKER_01 4:50

Today we're gonna pray the blood over you.

SPEAKER_02 4:53

That every anxious thought be held captive, made subject to Christ. Every attack of depression that gets you in the depths of life where you can't even sleep, and even tries to haunt you in your dreams, that you think you have to go back to your life. I'm gonna rebuke it in the name of Jesus. The same power that raised Christ from the Dead is here today to save the captives free. The same power! If we

Luke 19 Parable Framed

SPEAKER_02 5:41

move in a order of service, Luke chapter 19, verse 11. The crowd was listening to everything Jesus said. And because he was nearing Jerusalem, he told them a story to correct the impression that the kingdom of God would begin right away. He said, A nobleman was called away to a disaster or to excuse me, to a distant empire to be crowned king and then return. Now, before he left, now pay attention to what he's comparing this to. If you are following Jesus at this time and he's saying I am the Messiah, they're expecting him to go like this story to the kingdom, have the crown, and be Lord over the land. That's what they are expecting. But he said this: A nobleman was called away to a distant empire now. He's framing himself as the nobleman. Come on, somebody. To a distant empire, to the heavenly places when he resurrected, he said, Don't touch me yet for I'm not ascended to the Father. To be crowned king, and then to return. How many of you know if you have been paying attention? We've got a king that's about to return. I don't know if you've been looking around lately, but there's a king about to return. Before he left! Now listen to this. Before he left, he called together ten of his servants and divided among them. Ten pounds of silver saying, invest this for me. Father. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for your mercy and your grace. Thank you, Lord, for your evidence of the Spirit being here today. I pray, God, that we that we move aside every agenda. That we step aside and get out of the way so that you, the loving God who has compassion for those who are hurting, that has love for those who are in pain.

SPEAKER_00 7:53

That you desire to heal us mentally, physically, emotionally aspers. Father, I pray that this church be that place. God, we just want you to trust. God, you're so worthy of all the praise. In your name we pray.

SPEAKER_01 8:30

Amen. I didn't know I was gonna be a baby this morning.

SPEAKER_02 8:49

Last Sunday, I sat right there in my holy seat. And the entire time uh my minister friend Earl was walking around, I was just crying the whole time. And I don't know if you know this. But we didn't come here for a paycheck, we came here for the people. And sometimes I need somebody else to pray for my people so that I can cry for them.

Heart Check: People over Programs

SPEAKER_02 9:30

And just lift up each one of them. I was praying over him, Lord, lead his words and lead who he needs to go to. And I believe it happened. I don't ever want to get caught up in our programs and our order that we just move on, and we just get caught up in what's next, what's next, what's next. And I think sometimes we do this in our life where we forget that what God has given us, we need to bask in it for a minute. We need to let it fill us up so that we can pour out on others. And and you've heard me say this before, but if we want to be a church that's effective, we gotta be a church that's broken before God so that when God pours out, we can't help but it go through the cracks and get on people. Now you gotta understand that some of the people you're next to ain't gonna like it. They ain't gonna like you because of how you believe, they ain't gonna like you because of your little chipper attitude. They're gonna say you're faking it. Like, tell them that's all right. I'm gonna make it.

Deeper Series: Maturity & Mission

SPEAKER_02 10:31

So we're on week six into the deep series. If you've been following along, and if you haven't, uh the church is on anywhere you listen to podcasts, the church puts out the the services now. And so if you want to go back and listen to that or our YouTube channel, you can catch up on week by week. Obviously, last week uh Minister Earl and Angie was here and they they delivered a word that God gave them, and so we skipped that week. So some of y'all think we're crawling through it, some of you think we're probably going too fast, but we're gonna find a happy medium. And today we're gonna talk about maturity and mission. What's the mission and vision of this church? Spiritual? People in the church house need to get our junk together and our attitudes in life where we go out there and try to touch on people and minister to them. If we're gonna go out there and pray for them, we can't do it if we have attitude. We won't have compassion for them. All right, some of y'all got that. That's okay. So we're gonna be resting in Luke chapter 19, verses 11 through 27. This whole parable. We're gonna go back and forth in this, but the theme of today is maturity isn't just what you know, it's what you do with what God has entrusted you with. I can preach all day long maturity, and I can have it in every service, which I do. We even have five, five, and five trying to help you grow maturity. Just give God five minutes a day of the word, five minutes of prayer, five minutes of praise in his name, and watch your hunger grow. Some of y'all have got uh no nutrition in your life, so it's hard for you to eat nutritious things. Come on, somebody. If you've ever tried to change up your diet to lose a few pounds for the summer season, you know a taste change must occur, or you will not make it. The same with consuming the nonsense we have consumed our entire lives, a taste change must occur, or we will consistently be consistent in malnourished Christianity where we fake it till we make it and we have no faith. We just look like we know. I want substance, I want meat. Some of us have been sitting in the church five, ten, fifteen, twenty years, and we get we choke on the meat when it is fed to us. Get the bottle out of your mouth. It's time to go deeper, it's time to go further. It's time for you to stop worrying about the things that you should already have down. The problem is we get saved, but we don't have change. We want to say we know God. Excuse me, I know God, but the question is, does he know you? People in the Bible, this is one of the scariest verses to me. I can't remember exactly where it's found, but but they say, Lord, Lord, we prophesied in your name, we cast out demons, we did this, we did that. They did holy, heavenly things, and they did not make heaven because they knew God, but God had no clue who they were. It matters if God knows who you are. We don't we don't serve a God of hyper grace. Some of y'all don't know what that is. You can do anything, and it's

From Milk to Meat: Grow Up

SPEAKER_02 13:50

okay. Just say a little prayer. Prayer is important, and that's a good starting point if you're on the bottle. But you need to turn from the direction that you used to go and the way you used to look and how you used to act. You know, when somebody comes to Christ and they really get their life right, their heart right, their mind right, it actually makes an external change. It's the craziest thing I've ever seen in my life. I used to, I can I wish I had the picture I'd show you. And it wasn't just a haircut, I used to look like the world. I looked like I partook of the world every day because I did. But once I started partaking of the word, I started partaking of a healthy church.

SPEAKER_01 14:39

If we can get the church members off the bottle, we'll start getting a healthy church.

SPEAKER_02 14:45

That first word is maturity. Now let's talk about the mission. The deeper life isn't just personal, it's missional. You understand? A deeper walk with God isn't about how you feel about it, it's about doing it in spite of how you feel. Many believers think spiritual maturity is about accumulating knowledge, and that's great to do. Having titles, most of you that know me personally, I'm not a title guy. I will never introduce myself as Pastor Stephen or Pastor Tillman, because I don't care what you call me. My job and my gift and my responsibility is to get you in the word and get you hungry for God. I don't care what you call me. Now, if you're gonna spell my name, it's with the PH and ain't with the V. It ain't Stephen either. Read the Bible, it's in there. Just in case y'all needed some help. It's not about accumulating years in church, but it's God's kingdom. Maturity is measured in multiplication. Jesus told this story to correct false expectations of what was going to happen when the kingdom of heaven is at hand. He said this a lot. The kingdom of heaven is at hand. So he's trying to tell them what that looks like and that it's not happening right now. His followers thought the kingdom would come immediately and relieve them of the Roman rule that was over the land. But Jesus made it clear you have a mission to fulfill in the meantime. How many of you know it's so fun when God says, Oh, not right now? Wait, you're telling me I have to wait for a minute? You know, I never thought of this until right now. Then I think in the upper room there was only 120, give or take, because most of them didn't want to go wait. You ever think about that? There was a lot more followers, but they didn't want to go wait. I get it. This is what going deeper looks like. It's not a retreat into spiritual isolation, which you need to get away. You need to separate yourself from all distractions. That's why I recommend getting a paper Bible. Since I have dove into this head first, I have not gotten one notification. Hello. What are we willing to lay down and put aside so that we can truly give God all of our attention? That was so deep, y'all didn't even catch it. I'm

Maturity Measured by Multiplication

SPEAKER_02 17:30

not just talking about this. What are we not willing to lay aside and walk away from so that we can do what God has called us to do? Most of us haven't even found our purpose later in life because we won't stop doing what we want to do. Let's get back to my notes. Y'all ain't ready for that. Going deeper means growing up in Christ and going out for Christ. So if you got the sermon notes that we texted out yesterday, look at point number one. It says, Spiritual maturity, listen to me. We started this series talking about going deeper. It has to cost you something. Salvation should cost you. The Bible says, if you do not pick up your cross daily and follow me, it's not a glamorous road. Spiritual maturity requires investment. Luke 19, 13, invest this for me while I am gone. The master gave them something of value. You hear me? The master gave them something of value and expected them to do something with it. Not sit on it, not admire it, not wear it as a badge of honor so that we can get glory. He didn't give gifts to us to hide. Maturity doesn't hoard. So we need to take that in life practical application right there. Mature. Come on, there's a lot of old guys in here, and y'all are hoarders. I know, I ain't gonna look at you. God didn't give us his spirit to hoard it, salvation to hoard it, the gifts to hoard it. He wants us to multiply it. First Peter 14, it says, God has given each of you a gift from his great variety of spiritual gifts. Use them well to serve one another. Not one time does it say, use your gift to serve yourself. Most of us won't use our gifts unless we benefit. Let me just let me just stay on track because I'm about to about to go ahead first in this. If you've been filled, you must pour out. If you've been taught, you must teach. Did you know? And listen, if you if you don't know, take notes, write this down or write it, put it in your little phone. The pastor is not meant to reach out to every single person and make sure that everybody gets touched during the week. Because when this happens, you have a pedestal that a single person or family sits on, and when that person disappears, the place that was built on man's shoulders will fall. We're not building this place on man's shoulders, we're building it on God's word. And so that means when you feel like you're supposed to reach out to somebody, do it. When you feel like you're supposed to give, do it. If you're supposed to go take something to somebody, do it. If you're supposed to strike up a conversation, do it. We as people that are eating on the meat of the word should already have this down. That we are to serve each other. If you've been taught, you must teach. If you've been healed, you must minister. Mature believers don't wait to be asked, they look for ways to serve. Let's go ahead and say that one again. Mature believers, you shouldn't be waiting for someone to come ask you to serve somewhere. If you're if you're really here, what that means is that if the wind of discontent and we change something you don't like or somebody made you upset, you don't jump churches, you're actually here for life until God moves. Now, if God moves you, I ain't gonna stand in that way. But I'm not gonna let sin and preference rob me of my purpose. So we've got to be on guard because sometimes the enemy will try to get between us to distract us so that we cannot do our assignment that we're supposed to

Invest This For Me

SPEAKER_02 21:40

do.

SPEAKER_01 21:41

Move, devil, get out the way.

SPEAKER_02 21:44

Some of y'all know that song. Don't repeat that or tell anybody else what that means. It just slipped out. But you understand. You are not responsible for what you haven't been given. Let me say that again. You are not responsible for someone else's gift. You are not responsible for someone else's position. They understand mature believers understand this. Every gift, every opportunity and resource was given for kingdom impact. We are called to serve not only the body of believers with our gifts, but the community out there. And then when we go out there and serve alongside each other and they see that we actually love each other and like being around each other in spite of our differences, we should be able to get in an argument inside of the car and get out and serve somebody. Some of y'all laughing because you don't know if you can do it. It's tough. But it's how we should be. Our love forgives a multitude of sins. If something is done wrong to you, hope for the best, expect the best out of the circumstance. I can tell you firsthand, if I go into a situation and my brain is already twisted up from arguments that I ain't had yet. If my brain is twisted up on what they're gonna say, oh, and then I'll say this, oh, and then they're gonna say, and then I'm gonna say this. And it's just a little one-upper attitude issue. Nobody gets anywhere and it brings cracks into God's house. And the devil is good at finding the cracks. So we've got to make sure that we allow the Holy Spirit and the Word of God to bring us closer together. The closer we are, it's almost literally impossible for the enemy to get through. Because you're not only trying to protect yourself, you're not only trying to protect your family, but you should be trying to protect your church family. Let me just throw this in there since I said it.

SPEAKER_01 23:58

I'm not even in point two yet.

SPEAKER_02 24:02

What is church family? Let me don't let me reverse this. Family is somebody you see every day, whether you like it or not. You know what I mean? Now, our kids, we didn't choose them. They didn't choose us. You didn't pick your grandkids, you didn't pick any of them except your spouse. That's on you, boo-boo. So what does that mean? If when you come here, you try to figure out if you should stay, right? You're dating the church a little bit. You know? Then you want to go through growth track, and then you want to become a member, and then something happens and all of a sudden you run. You wasn't true to the covenant. If it's your church family, you shouldn't just see them on Sundays. But you are a hundred percent responsible.

Stop Hoarding Gifts, Start Serving

SPEAKER_02 25:10

You're a hundred percent responsible for your gifts. I tell my teenager this all the time. Son there's gonna be sometimes I'll do things just to like get him stirred up and get him upset. And he and his first response, and everybody son, I'm not calling you out, but this is a story about you. Most people in here will do the same thing, is that when someone gets you upset, instead of trying to solve the issue inside of you and hold your tongue, you blame them for how you acted. You are responsible for you, and so you can't let other people that maybe are harder to deal with. But this is a church of a bunch of different types of people. You ain't gonna find any. Listen, if they were all like you, you'd hate them anyways. Ah, come on, yes, Jesus. I heard that. Holy Spirit, speak. Hallelujah. So let's go to point number two now that you wrote that down. Fear and misunderstanding, they sabotage the mission. Luke 19, 20, 21. But the third servant brought back only the original of money, amount of money, and said, Master, I hid your money and kept it safe. I was afraid. Notice what kept him from obedience fear and a distorted view of the master. Fear says, I'm not good enough. Been there, done that, got the t-shirt. I'm too used to be used. That is one of my favorite sayings because that's how I felt before I ever had a microphone in my hand to minister the gospel to anybody. That I never was going to be able to do anything effective in the kingdom because of how dirty, nasty, and disgusting of a sinner I was. You could tell probably if you've opened your eyes for the last 30 seconds, God had a different plan. And the way that we measure how somebody can be effective is not the same way that He measures it. Or what if I failed? Y'all, in most of the the seventh, we're gonna have a meeting for all volunteers and staff. That meeting is about multiple services. The first question in my head being the pastor, if it all goes wrong and messed up, it's my fault. What if I failed? Very realistic mindset. I'm not saying I let it control me, but the thought crossed my mind, what if it fails, I will be the problem or I will be the reason. Anybody else thought that way or am I the only one? You're worried to step out in faith and do what the next step is because you feel like you might fail. If it matters to you, failure sometimes will cross your mind because you want to do it right. You don't want to mess up, and you got a lot of other people that depend on you. So making a step of faith, oftentimes, if you do it wrong or you're not listening correctly, you can step wrong, and other people will pay the cost. But fear isn't humility, it's disobedience dressed up in religious caution.

Unity, Conflict, and Church Family

SPEAKER_02 28:22

Let me do that again. Fear isn't humility. Oh well, I can I can't do that. I can't, I'm I can't do that. It's not humility, it is disobedience dressed up in religious caution. This servant thought preserving was enough, but Jesus didn't call us to preserve the gospel, he called us to proclaim it. Second Timothy 1 6 through 7. Fan into flames the spiritual gift of God that God gave you. For God has not given us a spirit of fear or timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline. Come on, somebody, we like that power, we're okay with that love, but we don't want that self-discipline. Fear silences your voice, fear buries your gift, fear kills your mission. But the Spirit of God empowers us to move boldly forward in the direction God has called us to go to. Point number three maturity acts on the assignment. Every person under the sound of my voice, whether in this place or watching online, you have an assignment. Luke 19, 16 and 17. The first servant reported, Master, I invested your money and made 10 times the original amount. Well done, the king exclaimed. You have been faithful with the little I entrusted to you. Jesus honors faithfulness, not flashiness. The one who worked the mission didn't make excuses. They didn't compare their portion. They took what they had and they moved in opportunity. James 1 22. But don't just listen to God's word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you're only fooling yourselves. You're pretending. Let's just go on. Spiritual death. Spiritual, being a spiritually mature person doesn't have to be a complicated thing. Because a lot of the spiritual depth that we say we desire in the Lord is really just practical application from the Word of God. You disciple the young believer, you raise your kids in the Word, you start serving in a ministry God laid on your heart. You build what He told you to build, even when no one sees it. If you've ever read the story of Noah, you understand that sometimes God will call you to something that nobody else will understand.

SPEAKER_01 31:07

When Paul was on his way to Rome, they told him, You are going to die. Paul didn't care. He said, I know God has directed my path on the path that I am.

SPEAKER_02 31:28

And even the scare of death, and it happened, they were right. But even the scare of death, scare of death, did not stop Paul from doing the mission God put on his heart. The calling on his life was not going to be manipulated by other people's preference, even though it was a word of knowledge, even though it was prophecy into his life. And even though they were right, think about it, they were right. But he knew what God called him to do, and he was going to fulfill that calling. Real maturity moves from just sitting in services to stepping into service. Point number four: accountability and reward are coming. Luke 19, 15. After he was crowned king, he returned and called in the servants and whom he had given the money. He wanted to find out what their prophets were. So he came back expecting there to be prophet. Jesus is coming back. And when he does, he will not ask how popular we were, how big our platform was. He will not ask how popular we were, how big our platform was, or how impressive our schedule looked. He'll ask, What did you do with what I gave you? I say this a lot. If you're not dead, God is not done. Romans 14, 12. Yes, each of

You’re Responsible for You

SPEAKER_02 33:00

us will give a personal account. Actually, you know what? I'm gonna scratch that because I got something. I got something. Hold on. Here we go. Alright. So if you got your Bible, I have 14, 12. We're gonna go back to 10. Okay. So Romans chapter 14, verse 10. All the way to 13. Can you guys handle that much scripture? Romans chapter 14. Starting at verse 10, it says, So why do you condemn another believer? Why do you look down on another believer? Remember, we will all stand before the judgment seat of God, for the scriptures say, As surely as I live, says the Lord, every knee will bend and every tongue will declare allegiance to God. Verse 12, yes, each of us will give a personal account to God. So let's stop condemning each other. Let's stop fighting in the church, let's stop putting on each other's issues, and let's get on the same page. Decide instead to live in such a way that you will not cause another believer to stumble or fall. This is not a word of condemnation, but we should be on the mission of the kingdom that our differences do not stop us from declaring the goodness of God. It won't mess up our testimony because of how we treat each other. It won't mess up the glory of God, the anointing of God because we have issue with each other. Because I don't know about you. It takes me about five seconds to point something out wrong with you. And I guarantee you probably take you about two seconds to find something in me. I'm a little slower than some of y'all. The point is, these are small, minute things that the devil will try to find his way in so that he can divide us. And if he can divide us, if there's trouble in the camp, he can conquer us. And the very thing we set out to do, which

Fear Isn’t Humility

SPEAKER_02 35:15

is get people to Jesus Christ and then help them come become mature believers, they can go from the milk to the meat. We can't do that if we're turned at each other. As I said in the very beginning, if you look around, you can tell that the king is gonna return very soon. And my dad said this my entire life when he was preaching. And I'm like, you know, I'm young.

SPEAKER_01 35:41

Okay, dad, alright, calm down, bro. And I look around today and I'm like things are coming out faster and faster and faster.

SPEAKER_02 35:58

Things that when my dad would preach it wasn't yet possible. And now we're living in a day where I believe everything that is about to lead up to the trumpet sounding is happening or will happen very soon. And if not happening yet, it is where it can. Do you understand how urgent that is? So, as believers, God has given us the ability to use our mouths. You know, a lot of people they'll say, Well, I don't know what to say, I don't know how to say it. I'm not very well spoken, or I'm not very well read, I don't know the scripture like some people do. I can't quote scripture off the top of my head. God ain't asking you to be a scholar, he's asking you to be a servant. He's not asking you to go to theological seminary where you learn all the hermeneutics of everything, and you can say all the fancy little words from Greek and Hebrew and Aramaic and all these other things. He's not concerned about that. The thief on the cross had none of these things. He didn't even get baptized in water. I didn't know you can go to heaven if that didn't happen. He didn't even speak in tongues that we know of. So all the things of the spirit, let the spirit be concerned with those, unless be the hands and feet of Jesus, and everything else will happen. We don't have to try to trick God into moving in the services. We don't we don't have to try to fan the flame and get come on, you got it. We're not cheerleaders, we're servants. And when we're hungry, the food is served. So come hungry, be hungry, thirst for his righteousness, seek after what he desires for you to do. I have this pattern every single morning. I usually do it when I'm brushing my teeth, and I'm just I'm standing in the mirror, and this is the moment where I'm seeing myself. I'm staring in my eyes. I'm like, you make sure that you give God today. Then I say, Holy Spirit, whatever you want me to say today, whoever you want to lead in my path, help me have the courage. Give me the words to speak. If you're worried about saying something dumb, let me go ahead and ease that up real quick. You will. It ain't about you. You just be available. How do I know this? Well, when the church broke out on the day of Pentecost, if you read Acts chapter 2 very carefully, it did not say that they spoke in everyone's native language. It said they were speaking and they heard. So if the Spirit is speaking through you, you can say the dumbest thing in the world. And by the time it gets to their ears, it won't matter what you said, he just flowed through a vessel. And what they hear is exactly what they

Faithfulness Over Flashiness

SPEAKER_02 39:15

will need to hear. I've had people the next Monday or Tuesday, they quote something out of my sermon, and I'm like, I don't remember saying that. Because it don't matter. At the end of the day, if you're just being a will and vessel and you're just being a mouthpiece for God, you just speak what he says, speak, don't no more, no less. Whatever flows out of you will be of him, and it's all his business. As we close. For us to be healthy people in the body and make a difference, if we want to be effective in the community, we've got to stop waiting to be ready. You know, I can talk myself out of doing things quicker than I talk myself into. Some of the the most used people in the kingdom are those that think the least. Those who are used the most to advance the kingdom are usually the ones that don't outthink God. That you just do what you're told. Don't don't give space for your brain to talk you out of it because you will. Do what you're called to do. Maturity doesn't mean perfection, it means obedience. The goal of spiritual depth is missional impact. The goal of maturity is kingdom multiplication, and the goal of intimacy with Christ is fruitfulness.