Touré Roberts - Putting Away Childish Things

The title of this message is «Putting Away Childish Things.» It says, «When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I even thought as a child. But when I became a man, I put away childish things.» When I was a child, I spoke as a child; that’s fair. I understood as a child; that’s fair. Why? Because I was a child. I thought as a child; I have no problem with that because I was a child. But when I became a man, let me interject something there: I made the conscious decision to put away childish things. Now, I looked up some of those words real quick. One of those words is «understood,» as in «I understood as a child.» Let me tell you what that word means in Greek; I wrote it down. It means to exercise the mind, to entertain, or to have a sentiment or opinion. A sentiment or opinion! People and their opinions—I have so much fun on my YouTube page! Oh, I mean, look at the comments; the comments are so, so, so fun! Renee, they are just fun because people have awesome opinions, and they swear! They swear that their opinions are truth. And the crazy thing is, we see here in the text it says, «When I was a child, I had the opinion of a child, but when I became a man, my opinion surely changed.» Oh, it’s so fun on YouTube! You have to go and read my comments; it’s hilarious! I mean, people are having flat-out arguments, some for me and some against me on my YouTube page. They are having big fights! So, that word, «When I was a child, I spoke as a child; I understood"—that’s to have an opinion, that’s to exercise the mind. In other words, it’s how your mind works. The way that your mind works as a mature believer should be different from the way your mind worked as a baby believer. So, if your processing is not changing, something’s wrong. When I was a child, I spoke as a child; that’s fair. Well, babies can speak in tongues; we don’t have any issue with that. But if you are 36 years old and you are still speaking in non-biblical tongues, something’s wrong! In other words, how you speak—my dad got a great word on this—but how you speak should change. If you’ve been attending one church for years and you still talk to people and treat people the same way you did years later, something is wrong. Your patience should increase, your love should certainly increase, your longsuffering should increase, your peace should increase, your prayer life should increase, your worship should increase, your knowledge of the things of God, your hunger for the things of God should increase. If they are not increasing, something is broken. I’ve got about two more levels. If you can, let me finish here and we’ll go two more levels because it holds me to remember that something is wrong! Kevin, help me, because, you know, I’ll digress and I’ll forget it; we’ll be closing the church! But okay, you can bring me back to that. When I was a child, I spoke as a child; I understood as a child; I thought as a child. I looked at that word too; I wanted to understand because I like to understand. So that word «thought,» if you break that down, it says to take an inventory—your ability to assess, to estimate, to conclude. To take an inventory! Wow! How you think: to process, to calculate, to estimate, and to draw a conclusion. There’s one way to do it as a child and another way to do it as a man. That means that what you see as a child in a situation is different from what you see as a grown-up in God. Oh, I feel Heaven; I feel Heaven! So the fruit of maturity is in how I take inventory of my situation, of your situation, and of life in general. I change when I grow. And here’s the crazy thing: it says, «When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child.» Watch this: here’s the shift. But when I became a man, it says I put away childish things. That means that you can be of full age and still be childish. If he had to put away, it didn’t say that the childish things just went away; it says that he decided, «Because I’ve been in this long enough, because I’ve been exposed long enough, I cannot justify my childish ways anymore because I’m grown.» I feel God right now! Two more gears—I’m just in second, but I’m winding, I’m winding about six or seven RPMs. Second gear! I have to make a decision. One of the things that keep grown people childish is their inability to face their giants—their inability to face their giants! Scary giants! «I don’t want to fight you, giant; can we just coexist?» This big old 15-foot Goliath, and you’re just saying, «We both can live here.» As long as you refuse to fight your giants, you will always be childish. There’s something about carrying the giant’s head over your shoulder that manifests your manhood! Back in the old days, the kings would kill the kings and they would display their heads. You follow what I’m saying? Some of you need to do that right now!