Setbacks are an inevitable part of life that come from an imperfect world, imperfect people, and imperfect choices.
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Setbacks are an inevitable part of life that come from an imperfect world, imperfect people, and imperfect choices.
Steps for Recovery:
Thanks so much for listening to the Believers Center podcast!
Service Times:
Sundays at 10AM (online + in-person)
Tuesdays at 7PM (in-person only)
Follow us on Instagram @believerscenter
To learn more about Believers Center, visit https://www.believerscenter.com
To submit a prayer request, or to get connected with a pastor, visit https://www.believerscenter.com/prayforme
John 5, beginning in verse 1, says this Sometime later, jesus went up to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish festivals. Verse 2,. Now there is in Jerusalem, near the sheep gate, a pool which in Aramaic is called Bethesda and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. Here a great number of disabled people used to lie the blind, the lame, the paralyzed. I always say we need a new word for the lame. This guy's so lame Just because they're totally lame. Verse 5,.
Speaker 1:One who was there had been an invalid for 38 years. Invalid means disabled. When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked do you want to get well? Do you want to get well, sir? The invalid replied I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me. Then Jesus said to him get up, pick up your mat and walk. At once the man was cured, he picked up his mat and he walked.
Speaker 1:Can somebody give me a good amen? Amen. So my title this morning is this if you're taking notes, I would like you to write this down Surviving setbacks, surviving setbacks. And now. Father, we are so grateful to be here today. We thank you for this amazing church. We thank you for the word of God. We ask that you help it to come alive to us, not just in our heads but in our hearts, and that you help us to receive it with open hearts, the words that you would have for us today, lord. We say thank you for that and everybody said amen.
Speaker 1:Well, we are in a series called spiritual stability. Will you say that phrase with me? Spiritual stability and it comes from an observation that I've noticed as a pastor which is this is there's far too many people that come to the Christian faith with passion and excitement, only to fizzle out and to fall away. But I want to say this that it's not going to be that way with you, in fact. In fact, I want to say this by faith, you are going to make it, and the weapons that the enemy has formed against you aren't going to be successful. You're not going to let the enemy or other people or yourself get in your own way, right, but you're going to make it. But if you are going to make it and because it's true that you're going to make it you are going to have to adopt some character traits that cause you to become spiritually stable as opposed to spiritually unstable, and let me hit you with just a few examples, a couple of examples that I wasn't able to get to in the series, but I want to just touch on real quick.
Speaker 1:If you want to be spiritually stable, you are going to need something called integrity. Integrity is something that benefits the people around you Listen to this because it limits the number of people that become victims of your imperfections. Right, because what you do doesn't just impact you, it impacts other people, right. So your integrity or lack of integrity doesn't just affect you, it affects the people around you, but it also benefits you. I've heard it said that integrity is like an insulator. Integrity protects you in your absence. Right, and so when people, for whatever reason, become interested in discrediting you or hurting you, well, integrity causes them to become unsuccessful. Right, you'll be like in the book of Daniel. We read about Daniel, and people were trying to accuse Daniel, but it says that they couldn't find anything. Why? Because he had integrity.
Speaker 1:And so if you want to be someone who is spiritually stable, you need to be someone who has integrity. But you know what you also have to be someone who has wisdom. Will you say that word with me? Wisdom, because it's possible to be a good person and still live a bad life. It's possible to be a good person but still live an unsuccessful life, but wisdom stops that from happening. And wisdom is the thing that helps us. We could say it like this it helps us apply scripture practically. Right, because some questions that life presents to you is not a yes or no question. Would you agree with that?
Speaker 1:Sometimes, the answer, that, or the answer to the question that life presents to you, is this it depends. Should I help this person? It depends, should I help this person? It depends. Scripture teaches that if you're dealing with someone who is dealing with a situation that they can't fix themselves, that we have a biblical I would argue, a biblical and a moral obligation to help them. But if you're dealing with someone who is dealing with a situation that they won't deal with themselves, well then you don't have a biblical or moral obligation to help them. It's up to your discretion, right? And so should I help this person. You can't always say yes and you can't always say no. It depends on who, it depends on why, it depends on when, and so you're going to need wisdom if you want to make smart decisions with your time, with your money and with your resources.
Speaker 1:And even if the answer is yes, you ought to help them. It doesn't necessarily mean that you're going to help them in the way that they want, right, because sometimes the way that you help is by saying no and praying Right. Sometimes the way that you help is by letting them stay at your house. Other times, the way to help somebody is by kicking them out. There's some lessons you only learn in the pig pen, right, so it takes wisdom. But how do I apply that? Should I kick my son out of the house or should I not?
Speaker 1:There's not a verse to answer that for you, and so what you need if you want to be spiritually stable is you've got to have wisdom. Should I keep this person in my life or should I kick them out of my life? Well, it depends, right. Is the person a Judas or is the person a Peter? Right? Judas had a bad heart. Peter had a bad day, right, and so you're going to need wisdom to know the difference between someone who has a bad heart and someone who's just having a bad day Right. There's not going to be chapter and verse to tell you that it's going to take wisdom. And so integrity is important if you want spiritual stability, and wisdom is also important if you want spiritual stability.
Speaker 1:And I'm going to hit you with a third one, which is what we're going to talk about today, which is, I think, less discussed in church, and it's this If you want spiritual stability, you have got to have resilience. You say that word with me, resilience. So you think, okay, what is resilience? I've got a little definition for you. It's this resilience is the ability to recover from difficulty. The ability to recover from difficulty, and I'll tell you this right off the bat.
Speaker 1:Like when I knew I was going to do this series, I asked different pastors and different leaders and different people what they considered the causes or the determining factors between people who have stability and people who don't. And any pastor who's been pastoring actual people for the last six months or more will tell you that one of the primary causes for people to become spiritually unstable is their inability to recover from setbacks. Something happens and they don't stop living, but they're never the same. The thing that takes them out of their purpose, the thing that takes them out of their calling, the thing that takes them out of their destiny, is that something happened and they didn't have the ability, the toughness, the resolution to keep going. Everything is going great, they're doing great, and then they suffer a loss in the family and they never recover. They're doing great and they have like an ugly breakup and they never recover. They're doing great and you know their feelings get hurt at church and they never recover.
Speaker 1:And so let me just say this, like I understand this message, I fear, is going to be a little bit more serious hopefully not really serious, but I think it's important for everyone to understand how it is that you recover when you experience a setback. And you might be thinking, well, this message isn't really for me because my life's really pretty great right now, like that's super cool. This message is still for you because God wants to reveal to you the possibility of recovery before you ever deal with the reality of a setback. And so you just put it in your pocket, young people, right, because everyone in life is going to experience setbacks, everyone in life is going to experience disappointment, everyone in life is going to experience hardship and, of course, like the super spiritual people in the room are going to be like I don't receive that. It's cool, you haven't got to receive it. It's still happening. In fact, scripture even teaches us that hardship is going to happen. Look at this. Jesus says this in John, chapter 16, verse 33. Jesus says in this world you will have trouble, right, but take heart, I have overcome the world. David, the Psalmist, says this many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all.
Speaker 1:Life happens right and setbacks in life, no matter how perfectly you live it, are inevitable and unavoidable. And the way that I figure it, I like to think of it is I think that setbacks in life come from one of three places. Are you ready? The first one is this an imperfect world. Life happens. It's nobody's fault, it's just life happens. Man. What happened to you Life? Anyone ever been there? What happened to you? You know, life, it's not anybody's fault, it's life. That's one. Here's another place the setbacks come from imperfect people. People happen right. Man, what happened to you People? That's me, that's me when I go home. Man, what happened to you People? People happened. So it's an imperfect world, imperfect people, imperfect choices. I happen, man. What happened to you, me, I happened to me right, and so it's gonna come in your life. It's gonna come from all three of those places, and so your ability to recover is essential if you want what we're talking about spiritual stability and this interaction that we see with Jesus.
Speaker 1:He has in John, chapter five. Jesus has an interaction with a man who's at the pool of Bethesda, and it's a well-known story, but I think in this story a lot of people miss that there are very practical steps that Jesus gives us in how to recover from a setback, and so, if you're taking notes, I've got five little points for you this morning and I want you to write them down. Number one is this do you want to get better? Do you want to get better? Again, verse five says this one who was there had been an invalid for 38 years. When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him. Here's the question do you want to get well? Right, do you want to get better? Look at your neighbor and, hopefully in a nice way, ask do you want to get better? Yeah, do you want to get better? Do you want to get better? And, of course most people were going to say like, of course, right, who doesn't want to get better? You don't want to get better, I want to get better. Everyone wants to get better, we all want to get better. But watch this man's response in the story. He doesn't say, of course I want to get better. You know what he says I can't. He says I can't.
Speaker 1:This man has been an invalid means disabled for 38 years. He's been unable to walk for 38 years, right, he's been a beggar for 38 years. And Jesus asks him this question. That seems almost I would say, does it seem like this to you rude and inappropriate? You know what I mean? Like go up to a wheelchair, a person in a wheelchair, and say like, do you even want to walk? Right? And he's like I don't think you can do that. But the obvious answer would be, of course, right.
Speaker 1:But the longer that I've been a pastor, the more I understand the question right, because there are a lot of people who have been broken for so long that that's how they see themselves and there's a part of them that wants to get better and there's a part of them that doesn't Right, and I hope you can see this in yourself too. It's like, well, that's just how I was raised, okay, I said. But do you want to get better? Or are we just like done here? Right, I know I was wrong, but I don't care. Okay, so do you want to get better? Or like we just done with this conversation? Right, it's like that's just how I am, okay, but do you want to get better? Or are we just done with this conversation? Right.
Speaker 1:And so Jesus, the first thing he goes up, he goes up to the man and says this do you want to get well? Right, and the man doesn't say yes. The man says I can't. I think it's interesting, though, because notice that Jesus did not ask if the man could walk right. He asked if he or if he could be healed. He asked if he wanted to be healed, right, but the man says the man says I can't, I can't do it.
Speaker 1:It's interesting because I look around this room, right, and, like all these, the lights are bright, but I can still see your faces for the most part, and I see all these cool people that I've grown up with and that I love and that are passionate about people and how to help people, and they want to do good and you want to leave this world a better place than you left it. Is there anybody like that? Right, that you're like interested in helping people, and so it's important for me because I know that you're motivated by that. It's important to me that you know that not everyone wants to be better. Right, because people can live in dysfunction for so long that they get comfortable with it, and it's one of the reasons, I think you know, for it looks like for Jesus to change one thing in your life. Right, a lot of other things are going to change too, and that's why some people don't get free, because they don't want God to come and help them on his terms. He wants. They want him to come and help them on their terms. Right, it's like God, I want you to fix this one thing specifically that hurts and leave everything else the same. But when you say, like Jesus is Lord, you're not just saying help me in this one area where I'm hurting. Right, you're saying you have access to every part of me. Right, you can change any part of me. It's like.
Speaker 1:It's like if you invite someone to be a guest at your house, but if we're going to have you over for dinner. Let's say, me and Jordan, you're coming over to our house. Let me tell you what we're going to do. We're going to clean up the areas in the house that you're going to see, right, but the but the rooms that you're not going to see, right? We just throw all the junk in there. You know, all the clothes in there is like five feet high and you can't go in there. Right, because what you do when you're going to have company is you clean up the places that you know that they're going to see, and that's what a lot of people try to do, unsuccessfully, with God, right, but?
Speaker 1:But oftentimes, when God comes into our life, it starts a chain reaction. He helps you with one thing, but then that one thing starts to change something else, and that starts to change something else, and that starts to change something else. So the question is not do you want the pain to go away? The answer is, of course, yes to that. The question is do you want to be better and so so like, do you want to do what it takes for your marriage to be better, or do you just want the pain to stop? Because what we're about to see in scripture is that if you answer Jesus' question yes, I do want to be better Oftentimes the next sentence that he gives is instruction Right, do you, do you want your marriage to be better?
Speaker 1:Jesus says, and you say yes, and he's. You have to be prepared for what he's going to say after that. Right, because it might be go to counseling, right, anybody, right? Right, it's like do you want your marriage to be better? Yes, well then, eliminate unhelpful voices in your life. Right, eliminate every voice that's trying to separate you from your spouse, and that could be your friend, that could be a family member. It's like bro, I love you, but we can't talk about my marriage.
Speaker 1:Right, it's like Jesus says do you want your marriage to be better? You say yes, and it's like well, then, learn to apologize. What a crazy thought. Right, apologize. And like actually apologize, not just well, I'm sorry you were offended, man, I'm sorry if you're sensitive. No, actually apologize, right, but do you actually want it to get better or do you just want the pain to stop? Right, jesus comes and asks do you want to grow your business? And you say yes, well then, maybe he'll say well, then, get a mentor. Right, like, find someone who is the desired destination for you and ask them to lunch and pick their brain and express gratitude, and bring a notebook right and ask intelligent questions Right, but there are steps.
Speaker 1:When Jesus says, do you want to get better? And you say yes, oftentimes it's followed by instructions right? Do you want your emotional health to be better? Yes, well then. Stop listening to depressing music all day. Stop scrolling Instagram all day. Right, start a gratitude journal, go to counseling.
Speaker 1:The question is not. Do you want the pain to stop? The question is are you willing to do what it takes to get better? Do you want to be free from the addiction? Yes, well then. Go to a support group, right, like. Go to celebrate recovery. An incredible Christian organization meets all around town. Right, then. Cut off your toxic friends, because oftentimes addiction is perpetuated through social enabling Right, so you're going to need some new people. If you want to be free, you're going to need new people. Get some new hobbies. If you're struggling with drinking too much, like, going to the bar on Fridays is probably something that you're going to have to swap out.
Speaker 1:Oftentimes, it's not just enough to repent. You have to replace Right, because if you just repent and you don't replace, it's only going to work as long as the emotion is there. A lot of people repent on Sunday, but they don't replace on Friday. So do you want to get better, right. Do you want to get healthier? Right? Okay. Well, then change some patterns, right. Change your diet, change your daily routine, right.
Speaker 1:The point is this that a lot of people think and say that they want to be better, but very few people are willing to do what it takes. And, at the end of the day, if you're not willing to do what it takes to get better, than all the tips and the tricks and the sermons and the podcasts and the books, like, aren't going to help you, because step one, when Jesus is presenting recovery to someone who's in the middle of a setback, it's a middle of grief, in the middle of loss, in the middle of struggle. The question is this are you willing to do what it takes to get better? It's like man, I don't want to, I don't want to forgive, I don't want to move on, I don't want to change, and I totally get it. But until you can honestly answer the question do you want to get better? With a yes, then all the other steps aren't going to help, right, because all of them are predicated on you being willing to do what it takes to get better. And everyone thinks like, of course, I want to get better. It's like, well, make sure that's for sure. True, because a lot of people identify so deeply with what's happened to them that it becomes who they are and they say they want to get better, but they really have found comfort in the place that they are. You know what I'm saying. So number one is that do you want to get better? Number two is this abandon excuses, abandoned excuses.
Speaker 1:Verse six says this when Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been a long time in that condition, he said to him do you wish to get well? Okay, the sick man answered him. Look at what the response is, sir. I have no man to put me in the pool when the water is stirred up, but while I am coming another steps down before me, okay, are you following the story? Now listen to me. Everything this man said was true, but it was still an excuse, right, it was still blaming his dysfunction on other people.
Speaker 1:And I've said this before. I'm going to put it on the screen. This won't be the last time I say it. I think it's important for you to know we can't catch blessings if we keep casting blame. That's a fishing metaphor.
Speaker 1:I do my best, y'all and I've told you this a lot of times that if you're going to be spiritually stable, if you're going to last in the Christian faith, then you're going to need to learn the difference between a reason and an excuse. A reason and an excuse Listen to me just because the reason is real doesn't mean the excuse is right. The reason says something about the situation. The excuse says something about me. Just because the reason explains why I'm here. Well, why are you here? Well, I can explain it to you. That's the reason. But that doesn't mean that I have to use that as an excuse to keep me here.
Speaker 1:And when we develop this habit and that's what it is, it's a habit of turning your reasons into excuses. Well then you're adopting what this great guy, dr Henry Cloud, calls learned helplessness. Can you say that phrase with me? Learned helplessness. You know, some helplessness is learned, and I just think I don't know if you're like me at all, but this is my take I just think it's the easiest thing on the world to blame somebody else for why you are the way that you are, people think it's such an interesting and compelling thing to do. We can all do that. We can all find reasons, and I don't know who that is for you. Maybe it's a parent or a family member, or an ex-wife or an ex-husband, or Donald Trump or Joe Biden or whatever.
Speaker 1:It's so easy to blame other people for why you are where you are and why you respond the way that you respond and I'm not trying to be insensitive, I'm sure that's how I'm coming across. I don't mean to and I'm not saying what happened to you wasn't wrong, but you can recognize that you've been victimized and at the same time, refused to have a victim mentality Right. You don't have to deny that it happened and in fact I'll say this you shouldn't deny that it happened. Point number four talks about this. Talks about why keeping it around is actually useful. But just because it explains why you're here doesn't mean that you should use that as an excuse to stay where you are.
Speaker 1:So I'm not saying toughen up, I'm not saying get over it, but I am saying, by the grace of God, you can move forward. I'm saying, by the grace of God, there are better days ahead for you. This isn't the end for you, right, there's more life for you to live. What God has for you is bigger than what they did to you, and so, if you want to get better and if you want to be stable, you're going to have to not let your reasons turn into excuses. Number one do you want to get better? Number two abandon excuses. Number three is this get up, get up.
Speaker 1:I don't know why, when I said get up, it felt like I was talking about an outfit. You like this? Get up. Verse eight this is the first thing, jesus. This is the first instruction that Jesus gives him. Then Jesus said to him get up. It's the first thing he says get up. And again it seems insensitive. Right, go to a person in a wheelchair. Right, try to do the John five method. Do you even want to stand up? Stand up. Here's the thing about this particular situation. Jesus knew he could do it, even if the man didn't know he could do it. And the message from Jesus to the man was simply this get up. And I don't know who this is for. I just feel like when I was praying about this message, I just feel like it's for somebody in here. It's time for you to get up. It's like I'm sorry it happened to you, we're all sorry it happened to you and we're not rushing you, but for our take is this it's time for you to get up.
Speaker 1:Grief is natural, grief is healthy. Jesus is with you in the grief. But listen to this. I've got it on the screen. Someone should write this down Grief is a season, not a lifestyle. Grief is a season, not a lifestyle. Pastor Shirley taught me that, and you know, grief is certainly not an identity. But some people adopt grief as part of their identity and I think it's a huge mistake. And when I'm talking this, I wrote these notes. I feel like I'm probably coming across as a jerk. I don't mean to, but grief is not supposed to last forever. It's a season that comes and goes. So it's a season that you enter into and it's great, but it has an expiration date. And if you think, man, that's mean, it is mean. But I just want you to know.
Speaker 1:Jesus says, or God says, the same thing in Scripture First Samuel, chapter 15, verse 16, like to read beginning in verse 34, then Samuel left for Rehma, but Saul went up to his home in Gabea of Saul, until the day Samuel died. He did not go see Saul again, though. Samuel mourned for him and the Lord regretted that he had made Saul king over Israel. Chapter 16, verse one the Lord said to Samuel listen to this how long will you mourn for Saul Since I have rejected him as king over Israel? Fill your horn with oil and be on your way. I am sending you to Jesse of Bethlehem. I have chosen one of his sons to be king. Isn't that amazing? He says this how long will you mourn for Saul?
Speaker 1:In the NLT, which Cindy read earlier, it says this you have mourned long enough. That's what God says. And it's like how can you say that? How can you say that to someone who's mourning that you've mourned long enough? But he does, and in this particular case, I think it's important to notice that, for Samuel, mourning over the past was keeping him from his future. And so God says to Samuel hey, you've mourned long enough, it's time for you to get up, because I have something already planned that's even better for you.
Speaker 1:God doesn't say get over it, samuel, toughen up. All the crying is bothering me. He's not saying that, but he is saying let's start working our way through this, because I've got something even better for you, and until this season comes to an end, you're not going to be able to enter into the new season and I want to get this balance right. I think young preachers are probably not going to get this balance right because they forget they're talking to real people. So I understand my job. I spend more time in the ICU than most of the people in this room. I spend more time with grieving families than most people, so I understand grief. So I'm not trying to be insensitive or rush you or anything like that, but I just want to find this right balance and this is what I wrote to hopefully hit that balance.
Speaker 1:Grief can be healthy and it can even be godly, but at some point grief can become a lifestyle and keep you from your miracle. And I can't be the one to tell you when, marshall can't be the one to tell you when Cindy can't be the one to tell you when. But, like when the time is right, god is going to come in his own way and say it's time for you to get up, not because I'm bothered by your mourning, but because I have something more for you still to do. Right, there's still life on the other side of loss, but there's still life to live on the other side of disappointment. Right, that job didn't work out. That that I mean. It's like man. My life is over and God's telling you to get up, not because he's insensitive, but because he has something even better in mind for you. Can someone say amen to that? All right. Number one is this Do you want to get better? Abandoned excuses. Number three get up. Number four and I'm almost done is this number four carry your testimony, carry your testimony.
Speaker 1:Verse 8 says this. Then Jesus said to him get up. What's the next thing? He says Pick up your mat. So what's the mat in this story? What is the mat? Well, the mat, of course, is your testimony. Some of you all know that the mat in this story represents what God does in your life. And so Jesus doesn't say to the man leave it. He says nah, keep it, keep it. It's a reminder to you and other people where you were. He says keep it, remember it, tell your story to the next generation so you don't have to pretend like what happened didn't happen. You keep it, and that sounds really cool and it sounds really pretty. But listen to this To turn your story into a testimony.
Speaker 1:You have to change the way that you see it, because it used to be like, when you think back, all you can think of, your whole heart is filled with oh man, that was just so painful and so hard and so unfair and so awful and all of that, and that will always be true. But now, because you've reframed it, when you see your past, you say that's where I was, but look at what God has done. It's about reframing. So if you want your testimony or if you want your past to reach other people, then you have to see it in a healthy way. Instead of exalting the hardship you don't deny the hardship, but instead of exalting the hardship, you exalt the God that was there with you in the hardship. And that can become a lot.
Speaker 1:People come to me all the time and they're like I don't even know how to preach the gospel. Look, your testimony can be the launching point for you to spread the gospel. That's the way to do it. How do I do it? It's your testimony, right.
Speaker 1:Someone comes to you and is like oh man, I was having such a hard time. My wife Alva and they're complaining about something and you can say something to this effect. I used to feel that too, but my faith has really helped me and they might say nothing and no problem. But they might say this oh really, how, just like that. You're talking about Jesus. But in order to do that, you have to reframe what happened to you and put the attention away from circumstances back onto God. This man was carrying a mat and he's saying this I'm carrying the thing that used to carry me. This thing used to be the master, but because of Jesus, I'm up and people say what's up with that mat? Oh, oh, you see this mat, oh cool. And it becomes a launching point for him to share his story. You say it like this one of the best ways to get over a setback is by turning it into a testimony.
Speaker 1:One of the best ways to get over a setback is by turning it into a testimony. Point number five I'm done is this take steps, take steps. Verse 8,. Then Jesus said to him get up, pick up your mat and walk. Get up, pick up your mat and walk. Ok, so here you are. You've received the call from Jesus to get up and here you are and you're standing on your legs for the first time and they're like a little wobbly and you're out of your comfort zone, but you're doing it. You've got your mat, you've got your testimony here and you're thinking, well, now what? And now you walk, you take daily steps of faith that enforce your victory and you start to walk out what God has given you, even when sometimes you don't feel like it. I'm healed and I'm healing, so I'm going to walk like a healed person.
Speaker 1:And when I was writing this, I was thinking I don't want you to think I'm talking about the people that's like oh, I'm not sick, talking up a lung, nobody can, no germ can touch my body and live. It's like, yeah, you know you'll die. That's the case. You need germs. So I'm not talking about some like I'm not sick, I'm not sad. I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about steps, taking steps of faith, doing things, taking steps of faith that enforce what God has done in your life. I'm delivered, so I'm going to walk like a delivered person. I'm forgiven, so I'm going to walk like a forgiven person and my own mind is going to try to convince me otherwise. The enemy is going to try to convince me otherwise. But I'm just taking daily steps, every step. I'm making small choices, small choices that enforce that victory in your life.
Speaker 1:Isaiah, chapter 30, verse 20, says this whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you saying listen to this, this is the way, walk in it. This is the way, walk in it. So you've had your miracle. Now starts the hard part. You've had the event and that's great. Now comes the hard part, the process, the obedience, the changing your patterns, the making small choices, the getting up and doing it anyway, the getting back to church, the going to a support group, the getting your coffee and starting like a Bible reading plan.
Speaker 1:And it's important that you know that the steps of faith that you take are appropriate to the season that you're in. And some people, some people, the steps they make are really small. And don't let anyone, especially not the devil, convince you that your steps are less impressive than other people's steps. Some people, it's like your step tomorrow is this Ready, get out of bed. That's it. That's all I can do. But I'm following the call of Jesus to get up by getting up and I'm like man. Praise God for that and don't think that's small and insignificant.
Speaker 1:Maybe for you it's like saying the tiniest prayer. You're like man, I don't pray and you're wanting to do that. It's like I'm going to say the tiniest prayer when I wake up in the morning. Are you ready, hi God, and you can say how you doing. And you can be like that's a dumb question, because I'm sure you're good, because you're God. Just like the tiniest little thing, right? Hey, good morning God. Whatever. It could be something super, super small, but maybe it's something big because that's like where you're at in your story, right.
Speaker 1:Maybe it's like taking that step of faith in your business. Maybe it's you breaking off from that relationship that you know is not helping you, but whatever it is, it's about taking daily steps of faith that enforce the victory, to say I'm healed and I'm healing and so I'm going to start moving forward. I'm not going to stay in bed all day, because that's what broken people do and I'm not broken. So I'm going to take small steps, small steps. I'm going to tell you for me, like it's funny Sometimes, at least for me I don't know if it's funny to you to see me up here.
Speaker 1:Like, if you go, we have, like you, flip through old pictures of the youth group. I've been to this church my entire life. I was dedicated as an infant at this church by Marshall. But, like man, you flip through pictures of the youth group and, like you're scanning the kids, you're not like, oh, that kid with the purple mohawk that's going to be a pastor someday. Maybe my mom saw it coming, but that's it. These guys didn't see it coming. I didn't see it coming and it's amazing that it's like man. I don't know what it was For me, but I can tell you this is that there was no big event for me, there was no like. And then I was prophesied at a youth group and my life was changed forever. Like I went up to the mountain and my face shone like the sun, like it wasn't any of that for me.
Speaker 1:But here's what it was. It was about taking daily steps of faith for me and having resilience. You know, there's a lot of people that came before me that would be standing here and I'd be sitting in that chair if they had resilience, but they didn't. And so the reason that I'm here is because I stayed when everyone else felt like it was too hard Taking daily steps right, oh, a setback. Oh, that hurt my feelings. Oh, somebody left the church because something I said, or blah, blah, blah. It's like, man, all of those things can take you out, right? Oh, it's a tragedy in my family, there's a tragedy in someone else's family, somebody hurts us about all of those things and it's like it still hits. It still hits me, it still hits them, it hits everybody.
Speaker 1:But the choice is not whether or not it's going to hit. The choice is what are you going to do about it? Like, are you going to take the steps to get back up and to get moving Daily steps right, trusting God with your life, trusting God with your future, offering your talents up to God to see what he would do with them? I'm like. I'm so not perfect in a million different ways, but I am like a testimony that God can take you to incredible places, like, if you're willing to abandon your excuses, to recover from dysfunction, to take daily steps of faith, you just might be amazed at what God can do in you and through you to other people.
Speaker 1:Here's my closing statement. Setbacks are an inevitable part of life that come from an imperfect world, imperfect people and imperfect choices. It's happening. People, steps for recovery, one desire to get better and be willing to do what it takes to improve. Two abandon excuses and blame, recognizing the difference between a reason and an excuse. Number three get up and move forward, understanding that grief is a season, not a lifestyle or identity. Number four carry your testimony, reframing your story to focus on what God has done in your life. Number five take daily steps of faith that enforce your victory.