Speaker 1: For real.
Speaker 1: We're going to be in Galatians, chapter 4 this morning.
Speaker 1: Galatians, chapter 4.
Speaker 1: You ever met somebody that had a really tough surface, like they looked like they were strong, but then they got put in certain situations maybe maybe around a little kid or maybe around their dog, and they were gentle, like Donovan, and they were tender and you're like I didn't know that person had that in them.
Speaker 1: I thought they were so tough and strong and big, but then in this situation they're gentle and they're tender.
Speaker 1: I think we've all met people like that and seen guys like that, the gentle, giant type.
Speaker 1: You know, the reason why I bring that up is because we've been going through a series the last few months called Paradigm Shift and we've been going through somebody.
Speaker 1: Tell me we've been going through the book of Galatians Awesome, the book of Galatians.
Speaker 1: You guys remember the book of Galatians and we've seen Paul the writer seemingly tough.
Speaker 1: I mean he didn't even come across as mean.
Speaker 1: He's used strong language.
Speaker 1: He's told people you need to straighten out.
Speaker 1: He got in somebody's face like he was a weigh-in for a UFC fight or something.
Speaker 1: This is what he did and the reason, as we've been discovering the last couple months now, is these people had drifted from the gospel.
Speaker 1: They understood that Jesus came, he died, he was buried and he resurrected.
Speaker 1: They understood they need to put faith in Christ.
Speaker 1: But they were thinking they got to do all these other things to get God's acceptance and God's love.
Speaker 1: And Paul says, no, you don't got to do this.
Speaker 1: And he's strong and he's very clear.
Speaker 1: There's no doubt what he's thinking, because he's telling it like it is, you know.
Speaker 1: But today we're going to see a side of him that is compassionate and it's like he has this nurturing heart, this heart of a well, this heart of a spiritual leader, and today what we're really going to see is we're going to see the heart of a spiritual leader.
Speaker 1: Now, no, no, no.
Speaker 1: I want to talk to a few of you for just a moment.
Speaker 1: It's just us here.
Speaker 1: No, no, no, no.
Speaker 1: I want to talk to a few of you for just a moment.
Speaker 1: It's just us here.
Speaker 1: Some of you have been hurt by a spiritual leader before.
Speaker 1: Maybe somebody misused their leadership or maybe they did something that was just wrong, that they shouldn't have done.
Speaker 1: I want to say to you that I'm sorry and I would acknowledge that you experienced some things that you shouldn't have experienced I also want to say to you is that just because somebody is in the position of spiritual leadership doesn't mean that they're a spiritual leader.
Speaker 1: Just because somebody is in a spiritual leadership position, that doesn't mean that they're a spiritual leader.
Speaker 1: And for those of you that I've been talking to for the last 60 seconds or so, I think today can be very significant for you.
Speaker 1: It can be very recalibrating for you and for your heart, because we're going to look at scripture and we're going to see some of what a true spiritual leader is.
Speaker 1: But before we get there, in Galatians, chapter 4, paul is going to be reminding these people of some things he's already been telling them.
Speaker 1: So we're going to pick it up in Galatians, chapter 4, verse number 8.
Speaker 1: Galatians 4, 8.
Speaker 1: If you're ready for the word, would you say amen, amen.
Speaker 1: Hey, I'm excited.
Speaker 1: This is like my first full-length message here in like over a month, so I'm excited to be back.
Speaker 1: I know that's right.
Speaker 1: That means it's going to be about an hour and a half guys.
Speaker 1: No, just kidding, making up for last time.
Speaker 1: I'm really excited for this summer here at FCC.
Speaker 1: I really believe by God's grace, we're going to have a summer jump and not a summer slump and I just believe that God has great things for us this summer.
Speaker 1: Galatians, chapter 4, verse 8, it says but in the past you didn't know God.
Speaker 1: You were what's that word?
Speaker 1: You were.
Speaker 1: You're enslaved to the things that, by nature, are not God's.
Speaker 1: Before you'd put your faith in Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, some of you were enslaved to this religious system, keeping all the rules.
Speaker 1: No doubt, in this context, some of these people were enslaved to this religious system, keeping all the rules.
Speaker 1: No doubt in this context, some of these people were enslaved to mysticism and astrology and all of these.
Speaker 1: There's got to be this spirituality gods out there.
Speaker 1: They were enslaved to some of these things.
Speaker 1: This is before Christ, verse 9, he says.
Speaker 1: Verse 9, he says but now, since you know God, or rather have become known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and worthless elements?
Speaker 1: Why would you go back to that when you have Christ now?
Speaker 1: Do you want to be enslaved to them all over again?
Speaker 1: You're God's child.
Speaker 1: You don't need to go back to these things that you were holding, to, all these religious things that I had to do this.
Speaker 1: I had to do that.
Speaker 1: No, you have Christ.
Speaker 1: Christ is enough.
Speaker 1: And Paul, he's just repeating these things over and over and over again in this book in different ways.
Speaker 1: One way that these people are doing it verse 10, is he says you're observing special days, special months, seasons and years.
Speaker 1: I am fearful for you that perhaps my labor for you has been wasted.
Speaker 1: So, these people, they were observing certain days and months and seasons and years, and there was nothing wrong with that, but what they were saying?
Speaker 1: Because the Jews had all kinds of different feasts.
Speaker 1: But what they're saying is like you have to do these things or you are not a follower of Jesus.
Speaker 1: You have to keep these things In another place.
Speaker 1: Paul would write about different celebrating, different seasons and things.
Speaker 1: He says in verse five one person judges one day of Romans Romans 14,.
Speaker 1: One person judges one day to be more important than another day.
Speaker 1: So you think this day is important wonderful.
Speaker 1: Someone else judges every day to be the same.
Speaker 1: Let each one be fully convinced in his own mind Whoever observes the day observes it for the honor of the Lord, okay.
Speaker 1: So you think you should worship on Saturday?
Speaker 1: Great.
Speaker 1: You think you should worship on Sunday Great.
Speaker 1: Let each one be convinced in his own mind.
Speaker 1: And what Paul is saying is Paul is just repeating again and again what he's been saying is that it's not these other things that give you acceptance with God, it's your faith in Christ.
Speaker 1: And he's been teaching these people the truth and he's been being very clear with people because he loves people enough to tell them the truth.
Speaker 1: He loves these people enough to speak hard truth to these people.
Speaker 1: And then we get to verse 12, and now we're going to start seeing this compassion, this nurturing heart of Paul coming out.
Speaker 1: He says I beg you verse 12, brothers and sisters, become as I am, for I have also become as you are.
Speaker 1: You have not wronged me.
Speaker 1: Let me explain this.
Speaker 1: Become as I am, for I've become as you are.
Speaker 1: Paul says I'm someone that's fully following Christ.
Speaker 1: I just want to know him.
Speaker 1: I'm resting on my identity in him.
Speaker 1: I'm living.
Speaker 1: He's going to say in verse 5, I'm living in this freedom in Christ, or chapter 5.
Speaker 1: I'm living in this freedom in Christ.
Speaker 1: He's saying become like I am In Christ is satisfaction.
Speaker 1: He says I've become as you are.
Speaker 1: What does that mean?
Speaker 1: Well, 1 Corinthians, chapter nine Paul would talk about how he would go to a place and he would become like these people so they could better receive him.
Speaker 1: Now, this doesn't mean that Paul would jump into the sinful things they would do, but he would jump into the cultural things and he would do things like they did culturally.
Speaker 1: For example, have you ever been to another country?
Speaker 1: And they just do things that are kind of different.
Speaker 1: I'm not used to this, right?
Speaker 1: Maybe you are in a family, and you grew up in a family, where taking your shoes off in the house wasn't a big deal, but maybe you go to somebody's house and it's like you have your shoes on in their house.
Speaker 1: That's being rude.
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying, right?
Speaker 1: What Paul would do is Paul would go to certain places and Paul would just say whatever the culture is here, I'm going to become like these people so I could try to point these people to Jesus.
Speaker 1: This is what I'm going to do.
Speaker 1: I'm going to maybe look a little different, maybe dress a little different.
Speaker 1: I'm going to do these things so people can know Christ.
Speaker 1: 1 Corinthians 9,.
Speaker 1: He talks about this.
Speaker 1: And Paul says I have become as you are.
Speaker 1: I've done some of the things that I thought was a little bit weird, but I did it because I became as you are and he says you have not wronged me.
Speaker 1: What does he mean by that?
Speaker 1: Verse 13,.
Speaker 1: You know that previously I preached the gospel to you because of a weakness in the flesh.
Speaker 1: You did not despise or reject me, though my physical condition was a trial for you.
Speaker 1: So Paul had some physical issue.
Speaker 1: There was something that, when he came to Galatia, it affected the people.
Speaker 1: We don't know what it was, but there was something that he had.
Speaker 1: Now we think we know it is based on the next verse, but we're not going to get there yet.
Speaker 1: On the contrary, you received me as an angel and a messenger of God, as Jesus Christ himself.
Speaker 1: Verse 15.
Speaker 1: What Do y'all get that?
Speaker 1: Torn out your eyes and given them to me?
Speaker 1: No, we know Paul had some type of a physical limitation.
Speaker 1: We believe it was his eyesight.
Speaker 1: Many people do because of this verse and then also because of later on in chapter I think it's six, maybe it's five, but we think it was his eyesight.
Speaker 1: But regardless whether it was his eyesight or not, this is what we do know.
Speaker 1: These people loved him enough that they were willing to give him their eyes.
Speaker 1: Man, that's some love Like I know a lot of y'all love me in here, but I don't think y'all love me that much.
Speaker 1: I know I don't love y'all that much.
Speaker 1: You give me your eyes.
Speaker 1: They loved him, he loved them.
Speaker 1: So then, verse 16, he asked them a question.
Speaker 1: So then, have I become your enemy?
Speaker 1: Because I told you the truth?
Speaker 1: You love me, I love you, I have told you the truth.
Speaker 1: Now am I your enemy?
Speaker 1: We live in a world.
Speaker 1: We live in a world that says if you don't affirm everything about me, then you don't love me.
Speaker 1: We live in a world that's confused acceptance with affirmation.
Speaker 1: Watch this Jesus accepted everybody, but he didn't affirm everything.
Speaker 1: This is what Paul says.
Speaker 1: Paul says I'm not your enemy because I told you the truth and I love this.
Speaker 1: He just asked them the question because they know Paul cares about them.
Speaker 1: They know Paul loves them.
Speaker 1: Paul's like hey, listen, listen, listen, listen.
Speaker 1: I've told you the truth.
Speaker 1: I've been strong, but he's leaning into the love, like he's leaning into the relationship here.
Speaker 1: Verse 17,.
Speaker 1: He says they court you eagerly, but not for good.
Speaker 1: Now, these people, these are the.
Speaker 1: What we've talked about is the Judaizers, people that say you need to be circumcised, you need to do all these different things to have God's acceptance.
Speaker 1: These people have courted you eagerly, but not for good.
Speaker 1: They want to.
Speaker 1: What's that word?
Speaker 1: They want to Exclude.
Speaker 1: Exclude you from me so that you would pursue them.
Speaker 1: So these Judaizers, they want to get you away from me.
Speaker 1: They don't want you to be taught the gospel, they don't want that.
Speaker 1: Scripturally, can I just say watch out for people that are trying to remove you from the flock, from the body.
Speaker 1: Watch out for people that are saying, yeah, yeah, you don't need spiritual shepherds in your life, you can do this thing on your own.
Speaker 1: Just come over here.
Speaker 1: This is what they're doing here.
Speaker 1: Paul tells them very clearly.
Speaker 1: He says they want to exclude you from me so that you would pursue them.
Speaker 1: This is what's happening.
Speaker 1: Verse 18, but it's always good to be pursued in a good manner and not just when I am with you.
Speaker 1: And then verse 19,.
Speaker 1: We see the heart of spiritual leadership.
Speaker 1: Spiritual leadership.
Speaker 1: He says my children, I am again suffering labor pains for you until Christ is formed in you.
Speaker 1: My children, I am again suffering labor pains for you until Christ is formed in you.
Speaker 1: Whoa.
Speaker 1: First of all, let me talk to the ladies real quick.
Speaker 1: Some of y'all ladies just thought Paul's writing that he's a dude.
Speaker 1: He has no idea what suffering labor pains is like Some of y'all are like some of you ladies are like you're like rolling your eyes.
Speaker 1: Like Paul, you don't know what that's like, right, obviously he doesn't.
Speaker 1: But here's what Paul's trying to do.
Speaker 1: Paul's trying to emphasize and trying to communicate that, like a loving, devoted mother goes through the suffering of labor pains for the birth of her baby, paul says listen, I love you and I'm devoted to you and I'm willing to suffer so Christ can be formed in you.
Speaker 1: Like I'm willing to go through difficulties and hardships so you can mature spiritually, so Christ can be formed in you, so you will value what God values, so you will see yourself as God sees you, so you will prioritize spiritual things.
Speaker 1: Paul says I didn't come to Galatia because I was trying to get a big following.
Speaker 1: Everybody come, follow me.
Speaker 1: Hey, here's my social media number, or whatever.
Speaker 1: Like, follow me.
Speaker 1: Here we go.
Speaker 1: Paul isn't doing that.
Speaker 1: Paul's not like I need to feel good about myself, I need status.
Speaker 1: No, paul's like I just wanted Christ to be formed in you.
Speaker 1: And then, in verse number 20, he says this.
Speaker 1: He says I would like to be with you right now and change my tone of voice because I don't know what to do about you.
Speaker 1: He's writing them, but he's not talking to them in person.
Speaker 1: He's writing them.
Speaker 1: He's saying I just don't know what to do.
Speaker 1: He said I know I've been really strong, but it's because I love you, I just don't know what to do.
Speaker 1: And what we see here in this text is we just see the heart of a spiritual leader, number one.
Speaker 1: I mean.
Speaker 1: He said I want Christ to be formed in you, christ to be formed in you, christ to be formed in you.
Speaker 1: Now, sometimes people can step into a role, a position of spiritual leadership, for misguided reasons.
Speaker 1: Sometimes what can happen is people can step into a role of spiritual leadership because of, maybe, some insecurity, for example, maybe there's insecurity and before we can see the heart of a spiritual leader, there's some reasons why misguided reasons people step into a role of spiritual leadership.
Speaker 1: It could be insecurity, maybe there's some insecurities that somebody has and they think that if I'm in this position of leadership, I'll be able to feel a certain way about myself, whether those insecurities are understood and realized or whether we don't even realize them.
Speaker 1: It's if I can step into this role, I'll feel a certain way about myself.
Speaker 1: That's a misguided reason to step into a role of spiritual leadership.
Speaker 1: Sometimes people step into the role because of expectations.
Speaker 1: Maybe there were people that were in your life growing up that were in roles of spiritual leadership.
Speaker 1: Maybe there are people in your life around you right now that are spiritual leaders and what we can think and what people can feel is, whether it's said or unsaid, there's just like this expectation.
Speaker 1: That's like because they're in a role of spiritual leadership, because they were a deacon, a teacher, a growth group leader, a whatever a pastor that I should be.
Speaker 1: It's a misguided reason.
Speaker 1: Sometimes it's out of obligation, like nobody's there, I'm just going to do it, I just feel obligated to do it.
Speaker 1: Misguided reason Sometimes and this is ugly, but this is real, it's just us, we talk real here Sometimes people step into that role because they want control.
Speaker 1: I just want to make decisions.
Speaker 1: I want to be in power In my company over here.
Speaker 1: I never had any authority, so I'm going to try to get an authority in the church to make decisions.
Speaker 1: Sometimes people step into leadership because of personal wounds.
Speaker 1: This happened to me in my past, where I was raised in this environment, and I have this wound in my life and I think if I can just step into this role over here, it's going to take care of this wound and I'm going to feel better.
Speaker 1: Sometimes what can happen is people can seek a leadership position, expecting a leadership position to do for them what only Jesus can do for them.
Speaker 1: And sometimes people can seek a leadership position where what they really need to do is seek a godly counselor or a godly therapist that will allow them to work through their emotional needs and wounds and hurts.
Speaker 1: Because this is why Because church leadership doesn't make someone whole, it just exposes places where they lack wholeness.
Speaker 1: Church leadership doesn't make someone whole.
Speaker 1: It just exposes places where they lack wholeness, so, like an insecure leader or somebody that is leading from a place of deep personal woundedness, their leadership is going to expose some of those things and how they respond if they don't get healed, things of this nature.
Speaker 1: And what can happen is leaders can hurt people and can misguide people because the motives aren't right and the motives aren't pure.
Speaker 1: Now I just want to stop and say for a second I'm really, really thankful that I get to be a part of a leadership team here and with leaders here that love people well and serve people well and care about people and are not leading from some of these positions.
Speaker 1: I'm really thankful for that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you can clap for that.
Speaker 1: You can clap for these people.
Speaker 1: Okay, I love it.
Speaker 1: I love it.
Speaker 1: The 9 am service they clapped about it too.
Speaker 1: Didn't clap about anything else in the message, but they clapped about that, it's true.
Speaker 1: Though and you know, I do want to talk to just our ministry leaders here.
Speaker 1: There's about 30 of us, which is awesome as far as if you're a growth group leader or a coordinator or a Kingdom Kids leader or a deacon, there's about 30 of us here, which is awesome, right.
Speaker 1: I kids leader at Deegan there's about 30 of us here, which is awesome, right.
Speaker 1: I want to say this.
Speaker 1: So this is just to talk to the rest of you.
Speaker 1: You're just sitting into our conversation, okay?
Speaker 1: We have to regularly ask ourselves what is our motive for being in our role of leadership.
Speaker 1: We have to be ruthlessly self-aware with our hearts and we have to say why am I doing what I'm doing right now?
Speaker 1: Am I doing this to people, please?
Speaker 1: Am I doing this because of other people are doing this?
Speaker 1: And this is what can happen sometimes.
Speaker 1: Sometimes, our motives are maybe drift a little bit and what we do in those moments is we don't quit and walk away.
Speaker 1: We just pray and repent and we say, hey, hey, I want to come back like Lord, purify my motives.
Speaker 1: Before I ever pray for any of you guys on my prayer list, I pray for me first, because I need to pray for me, and I have like five or six prayers I personally pray for myself and one of them is this I pray that God would give me purity in my motives and purity in my thinking, because this is a daily heart check for me, because this is what I know about me.
Speaker 1: This is going to surprise everybody.
Speaker 1: I'm normal.
Speaker 1: It's funny.
Speaker 1: Somebody walked in this morning and I think this is like their second or third time and they looked at me like out of the corner of their eye, like you can tell they knew I was the pastor.
Speaker 1: It was like don't talk to him.
Speaker 1: I was like man.
Speaker 1: I guess I got the cooties or something.
Speaker 1: You know, I'm a normal person, so my heart can drift from God and I can get misguided in my motives and this is why myself and us as leaders this is what we need to pray Lord, search my heart, lord, like what are my motives?
Speaker 1: Right, because our motives can get bad.
Speaker 1: And while these are misguided reasons for spiritual leadership, there are some right reasons for spiritual leadership.
Speaker 1: Here they are, and I love these and I'm thankful I get to serve with people that have these One, you love God.
Speaker 1: Two, you want Christ to be formed in those who are leading.
Speaker 1: And three, god is leading you to be in that role.
Speaker 1: That's why.
Speaker 1: That's why you want Christ to be formed in people.
Speaker 1: And when these are our motives, this is what we're going to do.
Speaker 1: We're going to care more about how people are doing than what people are doing.
Speaker 1: When these are our motives and this is our, why we can truly help people take steps of growth, because growth happens one step at a time and we won't need people to grow so they'll do something for us.
Speaker 1: We want people to grow because we genuinely care about them and we want Christ to be formed in them, and we won't use people to do something for us.
Speaker 1: We will do things for people because we love people and care about people and want Christ to be formed in them.
Speaker 1: This is when we're leaders that will actually pray for people.
Speaker 1: These are when we'll be leaders that are not looking for accolades and notoriety and reserve parking.
Speaker 1: We'll be leaders that are willing to pick up the towel and wash feet and serve and clean the restrooms when nobody's looking.
Speaker 1: And spiritual leadership is praying and sacrificing and serving people so Christ can be formed in those you're leading.
Speaker 1: Can we get that next slide up on the screen?
Speaker 1: This is what it's about.
Speaker 1: It's about this heart and it's so interesting that this was the heart of Paul.
Speaker 1: He says Christ formed in them and my goodness, paul went through a lot of stuff so Christ could be formed in these people.
Speaker 1: Man, leadership is tough, especially at that time, especially in 2024, because you love people and you want God to grow people.
Speaker 1: And Paul said this is my heart here.
Speaker 1: But I can't get away from something in the text.
Speaker 1: It's just kind of like gnawed at my heart this week as I was going through it is that Paul was willing to be a spiritual leader and make Jesus known to these people despite some physical limitations that he had.
Speaker 1: He had limitations in his life and there's a paradox to trials, setbacks and limitations.
Speaker 1: Everybody say the word paradox together Ready, okay, you guys know what.
Speaker 1: That is Great, I got the answer for you.
Speaker 1: It's something that seems to contradict itself, but it's actually true.
Speaker 1: So I'm going to give you this paradox in just a minute.
Speaker 1: Just a minute.
Speaker 1: I'm not giving it to you yet, but it seems to contradict itself.
Speaker 1: But in the kingdom of God it's true.
Speaker 1: Here it is the path to strength is paved with weakness.
Speaker 1: Now hold on, because in America, weakness is to be avoided at all costs.
Speaker 1: I don't even want to bring up my weaknesses, I don't even want to think about them.
Speaker 1: Only the strong survive.
Speaker 1: I'm strong, I can do it on my own, I don't need anything.
Speaker 1: I got this.
Speaker 1: But in the kingdom of God it's not the case.
Speaker 1: In fact, this paradox, this kingdom of God paradox, will revolutionize the way you view trials and setbacks and limitations.
Speaker 1: It will.
Speaker 1: It'll revolutionize the way you view trials, setbacks and limitations.
Speaker 1: In 2 Corinthians 12, paul talks about some of this stuff he says concerning this what is this?
Speaker 1: It's his trial, his setback, his physical limitation.
Speaker 1: I pleaded with the Lord, so he prayed.
Speaker 1: I believe these were seasons of prayer.
Speaker 1: I prayed, pleaded with the Lord.
Speaker 1: How many times he did it?
Speaker 1: How many times?
Speaker 1: Three, that it would leave me.
Speaker 1: So he had something going on.
Speaker 1: Eyesight, I don't know, eyesight, I don't know.
Speaker 1: God, take this away.
Speaker 1: Now we're thinking if Paul prayed it, you know God's saying yes to that.
Speaker 1: I mean, this guy's Paul.
Speaker 1: You think Paul prayed?
Speaker 1: God's like Paul.
Speaker 1: What are you praying?
Speaker 1: Yes, yes, yes, it's your thing.
Speaker 1: Paul said I pleaded with the Lord, not once, not twice, three times.
Speaker 1: But he said to me guys looking at the verse, but he said to me the answer is yes, I'm going to allow that to leave you.
Speaker 1: Did it say that yes or no?
Speaker 1: No, that to leave you.
Speaker 1: Did it say that yes or no?
Speaker 1: My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is perfected in weakness, and that's not the answer that Paul wanted.
Speaker 1: That's not the answer that I want when I pray.
Speaker 1: Therefore, paul says what's he going to do?
Speaker 1: I'm going to gladly boast all the more about my weaknesses so that Christ's power may reside in me.
Speaker 1: So I take pleasure in weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions and in difficulties.
Speaker 1: He's listed all of the things for the sake of Christ, for when I am weak, then I am strong.
Speaker 1: What?
Speaker 1: And I am strong what Paul says?
Speaker 1: It was in my weakness that I found strength, because it caused me to rely deeper on Christ, because it caused me to understand what his grace can do.
Speaker 1: Now, when it comes to trials and setbacks and limitations, a lot of us, most of us we have one or two views.
Speaker 1: Okay, one or two views.
Speaker 1: You gotta get this one or two views.
Speaker 1: One view over here is that if I'm in a trial, a setback, a limitation, it's because God doesn't care about me, or because God is mad at me Because God doesn't care about me, or God's mad at me, or else, of course, I wouldn't be going through this.
Speaker 1: I mean, you know God's trying to get me because of what I did, but sometimes, oh, this is really uncomfortable.
Speaker 1: This is really uncomfortable.
Speaker 1: I'm going to say it, though Sometimes the reason you're having to trial this, to back the limitations, is because God actually does care about you, because God actually does care about you.
Speaker 1: So the thing that we think is the reason why God doesn't care is actually a source of his care sometimes.
Speaker 1: Now, sometimes we experience these because of the brokenness of the world and those things.
Speaker 1: We understand that, but sometimes it's because God cares about you, because God wants you to mature, because God wants you to experience what Paul talks about, like this strength, because God wants you to understand he is a stronger identity than any of these other things that we often hold to.
Speaker 1: It reminds me of a story.
Speaker 1: There was this young preacher, this up-and-coming preacher why are you laughing?
Speaker 1: I ain't talking about me, y'all, please.
Speaker 1: No, young, up-and-coming preacher, and I'm an old preacher man.
Speaker 1: I've been doing this for like five years now in a lead pastor role.
Speaker 1: Okay, man, I tell you what I'm losing my hair back here because of you guys.
Speaker 1: Now there's a young preacher and somebody went.
Speaker 1: Somebody had heard him, and then they went to this older, wise seasoned pastor and they said hey, you got to go hear this guy.
Speaker 1: He's great, you need to hear him, he's inspiring, he's a great Bible teacher.
Speaker 1: The wise seasoned pastor said, okay.
Speaker 1: So he showed up first Sunday, sat in the service and took notes Because there's a special place in heaven for note takers.
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying, just kidding Took notes and after the service, the person that invited the old seasoned preacher to come here's the young preacher.
Speaker 1: What you think, wasn't he great?
Speaker 1: The old, wise seasoned pastor says I think he can be, but he's going to have to deeply suffer before he ever will be.
Speaker 1: And what that old, wise seasoned pastor understood and knew is that it's in the trials and the setbacks and limitations that God does his deep work in us.
Speaker 1: And can I just say, like, as your pastor, like, if you're in a season like that, let God do his work in you.
Speaker 1: And I know it's painful and like I know it's hard and I know there might be times you're like what in the world is happening right now?
Speaker 1: God might be doing a work in you in the season that you're in that you don't realize.
Speaker 1: And if you're anything like me, when I'm in the moment of one of these things, I don't have clear vision and I don't understand what God's doing and I ask him and he seems to not talk back to me.
Speaker 1: You know what I mean?
Speaker 1: I don't know, but when I'm in the rear view mirror and when I'm in the future and I'm looking back hindsight's 20-20, and I can see so much of what God was doing in that season, but I had to let God do his work in that season, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: And sometimes what can happen is we can view this situation as God doesn't care about me, when it may be God doing his deep work of care in you.
Speaker 1: That's one view, another view, and I think it can be just as dangerous as this is that we can think that because I have a setback or limitation or a hardship, I'm not able to do what God wants me to do.
Speaker 1: I'm not willing and I'll say this a little bit stronger I can't obey God.
Speaker 1: I'm not willing, and I'll say this a little bit stronger I can't obey God.
Speaker 1: So, because of this, because I'm experiencing this, I can't do what God wants me to do.
Speaker 1: And I want to say a word to you.
Speaker 1: Okay, god isn't limited by your limitations, right, like God's calling in your life isn't limited by your limitations.
Speaker 1: So what we can think is we can think, because I have this issue, because I'm going through that, because I'm experiencing this, I can't do what God's word clearly says.
Speaker 1: I can't do that right now.
Speaker 1: Or God might have put something in you and you're like I just can't do this right now because, well, you know, I mean I have this over here and then, before we know it, it's like one year, five years, 10 years, 15 years, and God's calling is back here and God wants you to do something.
Speaker 1: And it's like we spent years before we followed God's calling.
Speaker 1: The calling of God is without repentance.
Speaker 1: Sometimes what we think is we're like man, it's summer, it's like whatever.
Speaker 1: Like you know, I'm gonna kind of take it easy on my faith.
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna take it serious about my faith, you know.
Speaker 1: So I can't really obey God and fully follow God in the summer, because I'm just chilling all summer.
Speaker 1: It's like no, no, no, no, no, no.
Speaker 1: God's calling is limited by your limitations.
Speaker 1: You think about some of the great heroes of scripture that we talk about.
Speaker 1: You think about people like Job.
Speaker 1: Job lost everything.
Speaker 1: If I was Job, I think I would have just crawled up in the fetal position and just cried and then looked for something to end my life.
Speaker 1: Honestly, he lost everything, but he still said I'm still following God.
Speaker 1: Think about King David.
Speaker 1: You read the Psalms.
Speaker 1: This bro was depressed.
Speaker 1: He had some emotional things, he was working through some heavy emotional things.
Speaker 1: He still said I'm going to see God and pursue God all the days of my life.
Speaker 1: You think of Mary, mary, the mother of Jesus, in a world where there were women, were marginalized, mistreated and aside, mary's a teenager and God says Mary said at your word, I'm going to believe you.
Speaker 1: You think of Rahab.
Speaker 1: Rahab had a sketchy past.
Speaker 1: Y'all.
Speaker 1: She had a real sketchy past.
Speaker 1: But God spoke to her of what she was supposed to do and she obeyed.
Speaker 1: She didn't say God, you don't know what I did last summer.
Speaker 1: She was supposed to do and she obeyed.
Speaker 1: She didn't say God, you don't know what I did last summer.
Speaker 1: She got, I'm following Right.
Speaker 1: And here's why I bring this up.
Speaker 1: Here's why I bring this up.
Speaker 1: It's because every one of us have limitations, trials and setbacks in our life, and what the enemy wants us to do is he wants us to say because of this, I can't follow God and do this.
Speaker 1: Can we get that next slide up?
Speaker 1: And this is what I want you to do.
Speaker 1: I want you to think right now.
Speaker 1: I'm going to give you permission, permission, permission, permission, pastor's, giving you permission right now of why you can't follow God.
Speaker 1: Go ahead and put it right there.
Speaker 1: Go ahead and do it.
Speaker 1: You've thought about it, some of you.
Speaker 1: You've already decided why you can't follow God.
Speaker 1: Go and put it there.
Speaker 1: I know it's hard.
Speaker 1: You don't have the resources.
Speaker 1: You did that thing.
Speaker 1: You don't have the knowledge, you don't have the experience.
Speaker 1: Somebody told you that when you were a kid, this happened to you At that previous church.
Speaker 1: This happened to you.
Speaker 1: You can't, but can I show you something?
Speaker 1: Can we get that next slide up there?
Speaker 1: It's actually because of the thing that you just put in the blank that you just thought about that very real thing that you can now rely on God in deeper ways.
Speaker 1: Very real thing that you can now rely on God in deeper ways.
Speaker 1: That's it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you can now rely on God in deeper ways than ever before.
Speaker 1: Follow him by whatever his word's telling you, whatever his spirit is putting on your heart and leading you, whatever the calling of God is in you.
Speaker 1: It's that very thing and the thing that was once a limitation and a setback, an excuse.
Speaker 1: That can be the very thing that God uses to be a springboard, to spring you into what God wants to do, to spring you into new life, to spring you into relying on God in deeper ways than you ever have before.
Speaker 1: And some of you might say God, I want to grow in my faith.
Speaker 1: God, I see these other people growing in their faith and what God's done is God says I've given you this setback, I've given you this limitation, I've given you this hardship because that's going to be the very thing that's going to cause you to grow, because, you're going to see, it's not you, but it's me doing my work in you to grow, because, you're going to see, it's not you but it's me doing my work in you, and now you're going to do great things than you've ever done before, and it wasn't that the setback and the limitation stopped you, but it allowed you to be used by me in greater ways.
Speaker 1: Maybe I'm so passionate because I've been wrestling with this guys.
Speaker 1: Maybe I'm so passionate because these are things that I've been wrestling with in my own life as a 35-year-old single pastor, and this is what I know, because I have blanks, things to put in that top blank, right there.
Speaker 1: Why I can't?
Speaker 1: But I know I don't always feel, but I know In the kingdom of God, the path to strength is paved with weakness.
Speaker 1: So this is what I want you to do, something I've had to do.
Speaker 1: I want you to have a moment with God and I want you to do something I've had to do.
Speaker 1: I want you to have a moment with God and I want you to talk to God about this right here.
Speaker 1: You know what it is.
Speaker 1: I don't, but you do.
Speaker 1: And would you just pray and talk to God and give it to God and say God, here it is.
Speaker 1: Here's my setback, here's my limitation, but I want to rely on you and I want to follow you.