Jason Daye 
Welcome to FrontStage BackStage. This week, we have a hand-picked highlight that we believe you will find valuable. If you do, we invite you to listen to the full conversation. You can find the link to the complete episode in the description. As always, please Like, Comment, Subscribe, and Share so we can continue to bring you meaningful ministry content, helping you, pastors and ministry leaders just like you, flourish in both life and leadership. Are you ready? Let's go. And as we look at the life of Jacob, and as we reflect on our own lives, Max, we've all experienced times in our lives, in our ministries, where things really do not turn out the way that we think they should, right? I mean, that's just that's part of it. And in those seasons, we may look up to God and say, Hey, listen, I did my part. Where were you? You know, where were you? Why didn't you? Why didn't you show up? And we can almost get in this mindset, I think, where want to pull God down onto a level playing field with us and try to work it out right, try to broker a deal, try to negotiate. And we see this in Jacob's life, and you write about this in the book, Max, as he attempts to really bargain with God. So Max, I'm curious what can we discern from this? How can we grow in our understanding of God during these times, in our ministries, where we will find some disappointment, and we'll be tempted to want to negotiate with God or pull him onto our level?

Max Lucado 
Well, the context for what you're describing is the story of Jacob in the wilderness, a fugitive from his own family because he tried or he cheated Esau, his brother, out of the birthright, and he swindled his father, and Esau was so mad at him, Esau pulled out the dagger he was going to kill his brother, and so Rebecca, the mother, tells Jacob to hightail it, To hide out in the land of Laban, the uncle Laban, that would be a great part of this story as well. Already with just those few introductory sentences, Jason, we say this is no typical hero of Scripture, right? A guy who cheats, who lies, who's running for his life, but there he is in the desert near a village. The village is called loose, l, u, Z. We're not told why. He doesn't go into the village, but he does sleep that night on the barren floor. Remember, Abraham was wealthy. Isaac was wealthy. He came from a from a family of abundance, and yet he doesn't even have a pillow for his head. He has to put his head on a rock, and that's the night that he has the vision of God descending angels descending and ascending on a ladder from heaven, a beautiful picture of God meeting him in that terrible, heartbreaking time. God met him there to encourage him. But then there's always a but then story in the life of Jacob. But then he prays. Now, he starts out as a person of faith initially, but eventually he falls back into the old Jacob. Initially, he, you know, creates an altar. He anoints it with oil. He consecrates the place. He worships. He worships. But then he prays, and he says, God, if you will, then I will. It's a negotiated prayer, if you will take care of me, if you'll watch over me, if you'll make it, make it, make certain I get back home, eventually, Sunday, to Bethel. Then I will call you my God, and I will give you a 10th of everything that I own, which, by the way, he doesn't own anything. It's a negotiated prayer, transactional theology might be the word for it. This is a this is potential pitfall for all of us. I remember, and I mentioned this in the book, my first second assignment in ministry was in Brazil, and my father had been diagnosed with ALS. I offered to my dad that I won't go, but my dad really wanted me to go, so I went. I got called back several times on emergency trip because he nearly died, and eventually he did on one of those trips. I had just left the emergency room, I drove out to the West Texas oil field, where my dad made his living and raised his family, and in the middle of the night, a dark night, dark night. I was marching back and forth on the desert floor of my own life, and I was telling God, God, I did this. I did this. I went to Brazil. I gave up my time with my family. I'm raising my kids in South America, don't you? Don't you think you could heal my. Father, I did this. Don't you think you could do that? Of course, the sky was silent. The prayer was unanswered, because God doesn't have to answer to that prayer. That doesn't have to answer to that prayer. Now, theologically, and in our training as pastors, we know that God is never going to be reduced to our level. But even as pastors, we can forget that. We can forget that we can say, Okay, I'm going to step out in faith, and I'm going to build this church building, and I'm going to expect you to give me the money to do it. Well, either that's faith. Could be presumption, you know, yeah, or God, I'm going to, I'm going to start a church in the inner city, and I'm going to be so sacrificial, and I know you'll bless it. I know you will. Well, maybe he will, or maybe that blessing will come in a way that we're not privy to, you know, right? Maybe it'll be a small, bless, small harvest instead of a great one. So, we've got to be careful. We've got to guard ourselves against disappointment with God that comes out of our attempted efforts at negotiating with God. We've all talked to people who said, I asked God to give me this, and he didn't do it. So there must not be a good God in heaven, and they've made their relationship, or their perception of God, contention upon a certain answered prayer. That's called transactional theology. That's quid pro quo, that's tit for tat. That's when we're bringing God down to our size. And we dare not do that. That borders on heresy. We must let God be God. Well, yes, we make our requests. Yes, we ask God to heal our father. Yes, we ask God to bless our church. But yes, yes, yes, we trust God to respond in the right way, and we humbly submit ourselves to that and never think for a moment that we can reduce him to our size and negotiate with him like Jacob.

Jason Daye 
FrontStage BackStage is a ministry of PastorServe. Here at PastorServe, we love walking alongside of pastors and ministry leaders. If you'd like to learn details on how you might qualify for a complimentary coaching session with one of our trusted ministry coaches, please visit PastorServe.org/freesession. Now, FrontStage BackStage is more than just another podcast. In fact, we create an entire toolkit that complements every single conversation. You can find this toolkit at PastorServe.org/network for this episode and for every episode in the toolkit, you'll find a number of resources, including our ministry leaders' growth guide. In the growth guide, you'll find both questions and insights that are pulled from the conversation that you and the leaders at your local church or ministry can process together to consider how this content relates to your particular ministry context. Again, you can find the toolkit at PastorServe.org/network. Now we hope that you are finding this content valuable, and if so, we'd love for you to share, comment, like, follow, subscribe. That engagement is incredibly important, and also, please take a moment to give us a review on your favorite podcast platform. Your engagement and your reviews help other pastors and ministry leaders help find this valuable content. I'm Jason Daye, and encouraging you to love well, live well, and lead well. Thank you, and God Bless.