Ep 26 - Growing in Stability

• Romans 5:1-5 ESV  Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
• PSALM 21:7 – For the king trusts in the LORD, and through the steadfast love of the Most High he shall not be moved.
• Isaiah 54:10 (NIV): "'Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken...' says the LORD, who has compassion on you".
• Eph 3:17-19 that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height— to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. 
  • (NLT says Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.)
• 1 Peter 1:3-9 NKJV Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials, that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ, whom having not seen you love. Though now you do not see Him, yet believing, you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, receiving the end of your faith—the salvation of your souls.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Speaking the truth in love, let's grow in every way. Welcome to the Let's Grow There podcast. I'm your host, Holly Star Jackson, and I'm so excited to grow with you today. Are you ready? All right then, let's grow there.

SPEAKER_01 0:24

Hi there and welcome back to the Let's Grow There podcast. I'm so glad you're joining me today. You know, last week we talked about he restores my soul. And as I was listening back to the podcast, preparing for this week's podcast, I just really, you know, I just really wanted to just talk a little bit more about restoring our souls. Because this this last week, as I was reading in some books that I'm reading, and as I was reading the word, there were several things that came to me that just really underscored some of the stuff that I talked about on the broadcast last week. So I just want to quickly do a little bit of a recap and then I want to share with you out of this book that I've been reading and go into today's today's message, kind of tying into last week's. So we talked about Psalm 23, 3. He restores my soul. And to restore means to bring back to or put back into a former or original state. And it's important to realize that your soul is your mind, your will, and your emotions. So it's this the psalmist saying that God wants to restore us in our mind, in our will, and in our in our emotions. And I talked about a situation that I'd been through recently that caused some hurt and some, you know, wounds and some things that caused me to need to be restored. And it wasn't just one area that needed to be restored, it was all three areas because my mind was affected, my will was affected, I didn't want to do the things that I needed to do, and of course my emotions were affected because it was a kind of a hurtful situation. But, you know, and like again, like I said last week, it wasn't a huge deal, but it was just something that I noticed was affecting me, and it was affecting me in my soul, and I felt the Holy Spirit just remind me of this psalm that says that he restores our soul. And you know, if it's available to us to be healed and to be restored, why would we not want to be healed and restored? Why would we not want to receive that? And um, oh, that made me think of something else, but I don't know if I want to go there and get get off subject so so quickly today. Um, you know, I'm gonna go there real quick. It's kind of like with comfort, you know, um in the Bible when in the story of Joseph and when his brothers made it look like he had been killed, and they gave the coat, uh Joseph's coat of many colors to uh to Jacob, and he's he was convinced that a wild animal had destroyed and killed his son and that he would never see Joseph again. And the Bible says that he refused to be comforted, and God wanted to comfort him. God always wants to comfort us, he is the comforter, it's one of his names, he's the comforter. And but Jacob refused to be comforted, and he spent all of those years that he was away from Joseph, even though Joseph wasn't dead, he didn't know that, but he thought he was dead. So Joseph was alive and well and living in Egypt, and he was there by God's design, but Jacob was over at home and he was suffering and he was he was mourning, he was grieving, and he was without hope of ever seeing Joseph again. And part of that was because he refused to be comforted, he refused comfort. And sometimes we do that when we get wounded, when we get hurt, sometimes we refuse to be comforted, or like we're talking about restored. It's it's kind of the same thing. Sometimes we refuse to be restored. We don't, you know, we don't realize we're refusing it, but sometimes we're refusing it just by the simple fact that we do not accept what God wants to do in us and how he wants to help us, and how he wants to um make up to us in the places where we're hurt, where he wants to bring healing, where he wants to bring wholeness, where he wants to remove the pain or the trauma or the sadness or the uncertainty or whatever it is that we're needing that's causing us to need restoration in our souls. And we so, you know, I talked about it, it we have a part to play. God wants to restore our souls, but we have to receive that restoration. We have to cooperate with the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives, and we have to yield to his working in our lives so that we can be restored and so that we can walk in the fullness of all that God has for us. So the ways that we do that is just like salvation, anything that we receive from God, it's by the power of God's grace, but it's through our faith receiving that grace. So again, faith is an action. Faith takes action. So if we believe that the grace is available to us to be restored in our souls, then we have to by faith act on whatever leading that God gives us that you know that He wants to uh help us to restore us and to make us whole again, to return us to our original state, to how we were before we were needing that restoration. So we receive it by grace through faith, and we come boldly before the throne of grace to receive that help. And so that's what we talked about last week, and we talked about the practical ways of doing that are getting in the word, putting your hope in him, praying, pouring out your heart to him, and letting him fill you up with his love, with his holy spirit, with his comfort, with his grace, with everything good that you need to take out the bad, to take out the hurt, the pain, the confusion, you know, the trauma, whatever it is that's that's in there that's keeping your soul from being restored, and to let him have that and then let him fill you up with his love and his goodness and his grace and his mercy. And that one, we also talked about the weapon of praise, how praise is a weapon that we do not use enough, and that kind of goes into what I want to talk about today after I share with you from this book that I've been reading. Um, praising and rejoicing. I want to talk today about rejoicing. I've got a lot of scriptures on that because it just ties in so well with this, and I'm gonna show you how. So this week, as I was reading in this book by Frank Hammond, um, I came across some parts of it that really went along with what I talked about last week and also, you know, with just some things that I've been walking through in life and growing in and learning more. And um, so I just want to share with you guys. So here it says the entire purpose for your life in God's eyes is to see you come through victorious with your feet planted firmly upon the rock, his son, to become stable in his love. The father and the son have expressed their will towards us, and that is for us to become established and settled. Y'all, I love that. You remember my word for the year is established. I love that. And so that wherever we are, and in whatever situation we are in, that we would be sorry, I lost my, I lost my place. For us to become established and settled wherever we are and in whatever situation we are in. That's why Jesus is called the Good Shepherd. If the ground is fallow and there's no provision for his flock, he'll work to move us on to better pastures. Through all of this, though, he wants us to trust, to be stable in our personality, and to live out the unique creation of his Holy Spirit that he created us to be. Ah, I love that. He wants us to be established, stable, rooted, and grounded in his love. And what this guy is talking about in this book, um, he talks about stabilizing in God's love. And I'm gonna read a couple more sections out of it here in a minute, but I wanted to share with you from Romans chapter five. This was also in my reading this week, and I just, to me, I just see how it all goes together, and I love it because, you know, not only does God want to restore our souls, but whatever it is that caused that restoration, he turns, I mean, that caused that need for restoration, he turns it for good in our lives. We know that. Romans 8 28 says that he works all things together for the good of those who love God and who are called according to his purposes. So in Romans chapter 5, it says, starting in verse 1, it says, Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. I love that. That goes perfectly with what we've been talking about. And then it goes on to say, not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame. Another translation says, hope does not disappoint, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. I love that. And I felt like God was showing me that, you know, in these things, these these things that wounded me in this recent thing that was going on, you know, I'm like, God, why is this like this? Or why, you know, asking him questions, you know, or really just thinking, why why am I why am I dealing with this? You know, why is it like this? And I felt like, you know, first of all, he restored me. So it it's okay because I have the restorer, I have a good shepherd. He restores my soul, he leads me in paths of righteousness, he leads me beside the still waters, he makes me lie down in green pastures, he takes care of me no matter where I'm at. But also he turns it for my good, and I can know that I am, I have the opportunity to grow. Now, whether I'm growing or not is up to me. But that situation was an opportunity for me to grow, and it was an opportunity for me to recognize where I needed to stabilize in the love of God more than I have been, and continue to grow in that, to continue to grow in his love being enough for me, and in his being being content, being stable, being rooted and grounded in his love, so that no matter what's going on around me, I know who I am and I respond with the love of God from the love of God because I'm rooted and grounded in the love of God. And I just saw between this book that I'm reading and the scripture and even just what I shared last week in listening back to the show. Sometimes I listen back to the show and I'm like, wow, I said that because sometimes when I say it like that, I think it's like when I talked about uh a while not long ago, when I talked about when you teach something, it's like you understand it more as you teach it. And that's what's that's what happens for me, even listening to my own teaching on this podcast. It's like, ah, yeah, that I I'm getting it more. I'm more even myself, I'm more rooted and more grounded in the love of God, in the knowledge of the love of God and in the in what I'm teaching you, I'm living it out, I'm hearing it, I'm telling you about it, I'm showing you how to do it, I'm telling you how to do it. And then when I listen back to that to prepare for the next week, I am, you know, I'm it's like it's confirmed more and more. It's like it's solidified more and more. It's sealed in me. So I love that. I love how God works, I love how he's working. And so it showed me in this situation that I can grow some more in the love of God and in responding from the love of God to people in situations that are less than ideal, that are less than perfect, that are hurtful, or whatever. Whatever it is, I can, as I become more stable in God's love for me, I will handle those things differently. And and I'm on my way. I'm doing better than I was yesterday, but I'm not as good as I'm gonna be tomorrow because in Christ we are always growing, we are always coming higher. And um that's the best thing. I love that. That's what the show is about. It's growing, always growing, growing, and growing. So I want to read. I want to read a little bit more from this book. He talks about stabilizing in God's love. And I really love this the way that he says this because it's very clear and it's very understandable. And it's some of what I was trying to say in some shows a little uh a little while ago. I don't remember what the title, I think it was the ones when I talked about growing in God's love. And and this is this is why, because it stabilizes us. So um I love this. It says, Stabilize in God's love. This is one of the things that we must do. Jesus was despised and rejected of men. He was called a rock of offense, yet he did not suffer from a disturbed personality. Jesus didn't lose his peace. He didn't, he didn't lose his, you know, he didn't sometimes when we are rejected or we're suffering from it from people, from from things like that, sometimes it causes us to withdraw. It causes us to, you know, suppress who we really are because we feel rejected or we feel unwanted or we feel like we don't fit or we don't, you know, like people don't like us who we are. And sometimes we need to grow and we need to change. And, you know, that's one thing. But sometimes we are we are actually suppressing our God-given personalities, our God-given self because we want to be in, or we want to fit in, or we want to be liked. And that's always a tactic of the enemy because he doesn't want us to be our true, authentic self, the way that God created us to be. And he'll use any tactic that he can to get us to be anything except what God wants us to be, because God gave us exactly what we need to fulfill the purposes and plans that he has for our lives. And if the enemy can get us to back off of who God made us to be, and he can get us to back off of the things that God has equipped us with, then he can succeed in keeping us from doing what we're created to do and doing what we were called to do, and finding that abundant life that we were created to live, that Jesus came for us to have. So that's always a tactic he tries to use. And Jesus didn't that didn't work on Jesus. Jesus always knew who he was because why? Because he was secure in his father's love. He knew where he came from, and he knew that God, his father, loved him, and he spent time with the father, and he he lived out of that knowledge, out of that knowing. So he didn't suffer from a disturbed personality, he did not allow the enemy a foothold in his life to disrupt his soul. That is, Jesus remained stable through all of the wounds of rejection because he was secure in the father's love. And this is the goal for us. This is this is what we want to get to. This is what I've been talking about. I love that I read this this week because this is what I've been talking about the last several weeks in a nutshell. So he was able to yield to the Father's will even unto death on the cross because he knew how much the father loved him. This knowledge and experience of the love of the Father stabilized Jesus through all the trials and tribulations of his earthly ministry. Through intimate knowledge of the love of the Father, Jesus dealt effectively with all of the terrible rejection from men. He was anchored in the Father's love. John 3.35 says the Father loves the Son and has given all things into his hand. And John 5.20 says the Father loves the Son and shows him all things that himself does. It's the faithfulness of God, our Father, and his unconditional willingness to love us that provides security and strength to rebound from hurts and wounds. Jesus gave the following words of assurance so that we too can remain stable in spite of the adversities suffered in the hands of others. Jesus said in Hebrews 13, 5 tells us that Jesus said, Never will I leave you and never will I forsake you. And right before he ascended, he said, Behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. So make a conscious decision to reject the belief that when human love has failed, God's love has also failed. There can never be a full guarantee of lasting human love from anyone, not from our family, pastor, church, or community. All may eventually fail us or disappoint us. That's the nature of a fallen world. There's nothing perfect about life. There's only one love that is incapable of failure, and that is God's love. Let that thought stabilize your heart, let it stabilize your personality. Trust in God's love, creates stability in the inner man and opens us up to the success in our attempts to forgive others and to reach out to others. Wow. That was so good. When we're stable and confident, secure, and resting in, rooted and grounded in the love of God, then we can be stable no matter what we're going through because we're not tossed to and fro. Oh, oh, this bad situation means God doesn't love me. Why doesn't God love me? Why, why, why, you know, what's wrong with me? Why doesn't God love me? Well, does God love me as much as he loves them? What's going on in my life? All of those questions, those are questions of someone who is not stable in God's love, who are not rooted and grounded in God's love enough yet. And again, we always are growing. We're always in a process, we're all all in a journey. But the more rooted and grounded we are in the love of God, the more we know it intimately, not just in our heads, but in our hearts, in our souls. We know the love of God, the more stable we will be through every situation in life. And stability is something that, you know, the world is lacking. There's so little stability in people these days. People don't want to commit to things, people don't want to commit to their families. People, you know, parents walk out on children, husbands, wives walk out on each other, people walk out on friendships, on relationships, you know, even in the church, you see it all the time. You see quote unquote church hurt, you see situations where there's offense, where there's um separation, where there's strife, where there's fear, where there's uncertainty, and where there's people that just they leave because they don't, they aren't rooted and grounded in God's love and trusting in that love. When you know your father loves you, and you know he is God, and you know he is Lord of your life, he's working things out for your good. When you're secure and stable in his love, you won't be blown, you know, here and there and tossed by every wind and every wave that comes your way, every storm that comes will not, you know, toss your boat, will not sink your boat, will not cause you to go to shore and never, never go out on the water again. No, because you know God's love and it's your anchor in the storms of life, it's your anchor that you hold to, and it keeps you from, you know, going crazy. It keeps you from lashing out. Because if you know God's love and you do, like we've been talking about a couple of shows back, you you receive God's love, you know God's love, and then you give God's love. You love Him, you love the Father, you love you love Jesus, and then you love others, then you have a much more stable and firm foot. To live from. And so you're not gonna be you're not gonna be tricked by the enemy to leave the place that God's assigned you to be so many times. I have seen people that I know without a doubt that they're supposed to be in a certain place and there's or a certain per uh certain church or a certain even I've seen people leave jobs because of because of this kind of a thing, because they're not stable in the love of God. They don't trust that God loves them enough and he is good enough and he is capable enough to take care of them, to work out his plans for their life and to take care of them no matter what's going on around them, to get them where they need to be. And so they make their own plans, they make their own way, they they leave a church or they leave a job or they leave a relationship because they were challenged, or you know, sometimes people do get hurt, legitimately get hurt, but it doesn't always mean that the person that did the hurting is bad. It just means they're growing too sometimes. And and yes, sometimes there's bad situations and you have to get out of those situations, but you have to do that because you're led by God and you're led by peace, and not you're led by your feelings or your wounds or your offenses or your instability. And you know, you can live life like that, just running from here to there and and seeking your comfort and not seeking growth or not staying put where God puts you no matter what. But if you do, then you're always uprooting and you're not gonna grow to be all that God's called you to be, to be all that He's created you to be. That's why this says here in Romans that God, you know, that suffering, not that God, but that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character in us. So it's not saying that God wants us to suffer, but it's saying when those things come along, that those things can produce endurance in us, and that endurance will help us to have this character, the stability. And when we have that in our lives, then we are better able to help those around us. We are better able to love those around us, which is what we're called to do first and foremost. After loving God, we're called to love people, and we can do that so much better if we are stable, you know? So we want to be stable, so we want to grow in stability, and we do that by stabilizing ourselves in the love of God, growing in the knowledge of the love of God and in receiving that love. In, you know, I didn't I didn't talk about this much last week, or maybe at all, I didn't mention this because I I went really long last week and I ran out of time really. But, you know, another thing that you can do that really helps in restoring your soul, it's my favorite thing, is just to be in God's presence, to get in his presence. Sometimes, you know, when there's no serious thing going on and I'm just like been going and going and going and giving out and doing and you know, doing all the things, I just have this feeling of, oh, I just need to get to church. I am so ready for church this weekend, and you know, I go to church all the time, but yet I still have this feeling because it's so good to sit in God's presence among God's people and be ministered to by the by the pastor or by the speaker or, you know, just by the people of God, just in God's presence. And yes, we get in God's presence at home. I do want to talk about that too. I don't know if I will today or not, but we can get in God's presence at home every single day. We don't have to wait to go to church to do that, but there's something special about being in God's presence in the house of the Lord, and you know, just being participating in the in the worship and the praise and you know, just getting your eyes on Jesus and the old the old song came has been running through my head lately. Forget about yourself, concentrate on him and worship him. And um, I'm not gonna sing it for you, but that that song, those lyrics have just been going through my head, you know, in the last couple of weeks. Just forget about yourself, concentrate on him and worship Christ the Lord. And you know, that's one of the ways that we can receive that restoration for our souls. It's one of the ways we can receive God's love. As we worship him, we receive his love. We love him and he loves us, and we receive that love, and we're giving that love, and that love stabilizes us and it restores us and it strengthens us. And it it's just like it's refreshing. It's like a breath of fresh air. So I wanted to say that because that's one thing that we can do that I didn't talk about last week, besides besides the word prayer, pouring out your heart to him and praising, just spending time in his presence. And you can do that at church, you can do that at home, and it's good to do it both, you know. Go to church, get in his presence, go to a spirit-filled church that lets Jesus be Lord, lets the spirit of the Lord be Lord, because where the spirit of the Lord is allowed to be Lord, there's freedom. And when there's freedom, it's all good, right? We're talking about the freedom of uh liberty and freedom of the Lord. That's freedom from all of the bad things, it's freedom from darkness, it's freedom from from oppression, it's freedom from captivity, it's freedom from all of the works of the enemy. And so that's where we want to be. We want to be sure that we are putting ourselves in that kind of an environment regularly, every week. And it's important to do that. So um stabilizing in God's love. In Psalm 21:7, it says, For the king trust in the Lord, and through the steadfast love of the Most High, he shall not be moved. So, what is that? That's stability. When you're stable, you're not moved by petty little things that happen. You're not moved by the devil's tactics, you're not moved by bad news, you're not moved by the storms of life because you're anchored, you're steadfast. And it says the king trusts in the Lord, and through the steadfast love of the Most High, he will not be moved, or he will be stable, he will have stability. Isaiah 54, 10 says, Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken, says the Lord who has compassion on you. So we can trust God's love, because this word says here, the word of God says that his love will not be shaken. It will not be removed. It's stable, it's steadfast, it's steady. So we can count on it, and we can be stabilized because we are anchored in that love. Ephesians 3, 17 through 19 says that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height, and to know the love of Christ, which passes knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. The NLT says there, then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life. That sounds like that abundant life we were talking about a couple weeks ago, and the power that comes from God. That power gives us the ability to stand strong, to be steadfast. That's why the apostle Paul was praying here in Ephesians, and also he did in Colossians and several other places when he's writing to the churches. He prayed that they would come to know the love of God. And that is my prayer for you. That's my desire for you. That's why I keep teaching on it lately. I feel like we've been here some in some way, shape, or form the whole the whole year so far. I feel like we keep going back to the love of God because it's important, it's foundational, and we're gonna keep hitting away at it until it's in us and we're living from it and we're rooted in it, and we're grounded in it, and we are just going further and higher and bearing fruit in it. So I want to read you one more little bit out of this book because this is this is great. This tells you how you know when you have stabilized. And of course, there's always, you know, stages and processes, and and when you when you get to a place in something, you can always get to a higher place in that. But this, these are the indicators that you have stabilized in the love of God. So it says, How will we know we have stabilized in love? There are certain tests we can make to see if we're truly stabilized in heaven's kind of love. First, we'll know that we've stabilized in heaven's kind of love. That's that agape love we talked about a couple weeks ago. When we can pour God's love into the lives of others without demanding reciprocation or pressuring others for a response. So without expecting to be loved back the same way. When we can do that, that's the first indicator that we're stabilized in the love of God. Consider that God is more than capable of loving without being loved. That goes back to that he loved us when we were still sinners, when we were really and truly unlovable and unloving, he loved us enough to give Jesus for us then. Jesus loved us enough to give his life for us then. And if if he can do that, and and Jesus said, you know, to love others as I have loved you. So if he loved us without expecting, without us being worthy of it, we can love others, whether they're worthy, whether they reciprocate that love, whether they return it or not, that doesn't even matter to us because we're loving like God loves. So that's the first uh indicator that we are stabilizing or have stabilized in God's love, that we can love without demanding reciprocation. Second, we'll know we're stabilized when our confidence in ourself and our worth to his kingdom is restored. Now, I bet you weren't expecting me to say that because you're like, what? What do you mean by confidence in myself? What does that have to do with being stabilized in God's love? But it does have something to do with that because when you know God's love, you know God loves you the way that He created you to be. You know that He made you on purpose for a purpose with your exact uh personality, with that your exact attributes, with everything that you have. He did that on purpose. And he considered you valuable enough to give Jesus for. Jesus considered you valuable enough to die for. And when you know that and you are living from that place of that love, of receiving that love, then you know that you're valuable in a good way. Not like you're thinking more highly of yourself than you ought, but you're thinking of yourself as God's beloved child. And you know, it sometimes it's even uncomfortable to talk like that because we don't see ourselves that way, because we're taught that that's prideful to think, to think that you're something, to think that you matter, to think that you're worthy. But that's not what God says. God's God doesn't call that pride. God calls it pride when we say that we're no good. That's actually pride. It's it's deceptive because when we say that we're no good, we're saying that God didn't know what he was doing when he made us. That's prideful. Now to say, I am amazing because I made the image of Almighty God, and he is amazing, and he is awesome, and he made me to be like him. When you have that understanding, and that's what you're living from, that's actually humility because you're saying, I am who God made me to be, and I am like him, and I am striving to be more like him every day. Now, of course, there's always the there's always the things that are that that are in our lives and in our our personalities because of sin and because of our um, you know, living in the world that we live in and in, you know, different things. We always have to be growing in our personality because sometimes if we are very, like for example, if you're a very strong leader type person, if you are not managing that personality trait that God gave you, and you're just running over everybody, and you're taking over when it's not your place to take over, and you're bossing everybody around, and you're demanding, and you're you're um unkind and unloving in that, that's not a personality trait that God gave you. That's a personality trait that you are letting run wild, you're not managing that, and so it's becoming a weakness in your life, and that is a whole nother subject, uh managing your personality traits, but it's an important one, and hopefully we'll get around to talking about that someday. But, you know, just to summarize that you're in um in one personality training that I did when I worked at another church when I was on staff, they had all of their staff do this. It's a Christian-based uh personality profiling thing, and it wasn't so that you could use your personality as an excuse, it was so that you could understand your personality and the personality of your coworkers so that you could work together the best, so that you could be in unity, you could understand each other. And the main, the main thing that they taught in that class that stuck with me is that your greatest um your greatest strength can become your greatest weakness when it's not managed. And but when it's managed well, then you are strong in the areas that God made you to be strong in without there being any pollution to that or any perversion to that. Because, like I was talking about before, like being a leader, when you are, when that's out of control and it's not managed well, then you can run over people and you can be rude and demanding and bossy and take over when you're not supposed to. But, and then you know, then that's a weakness. So it becomes a weakness when it's meant to be your strength. But when you're submitted to the Lordship of Jesus Christ and listening to and following the Holy Spirit, he will help you in that and he will keep you the fruit, you know, the fruit of the spirit. One of the one of the fruit of the spirit is temperance. That's self-control. That's where, yes, I'm a strong leader, but I have the spirit, the I have the fruit of the Holy Spirit in my life, and I have self-control. So I don't have to run over somebody else to be me. And I don't have to boss people around to be me. I can be a leader and I can do what I'm supposed to do. I can be a strong personality under the control of the Holy Spirit, under the Lordship of Jesus Christ, submitted to and walking in love. And then I'm not gonna be bossy even though I'm a leader. I'm not gonna be demanding even though I'm a strong uh personality. I'm a take charge kind of person. I'm not gonna be overstepping my bounds because everything that I do is tempered by the Holy Spirit. And I love that because that's that's perfect. That's exactly right. God gave us our personalities, but our personalities can get distorted through life experiences, through, you know, lack of self-control, through not walking by the spirit, through fulfilling the lust of the flesh, being led by the flesh. And, you know, a lot of times it can become uh it can be that way because we need to be restored in our souls, because we've been wounded, we've been hurt, and we've not received the restoration of God in our souls. And so our mind, our will, and our emotions are out of control and out of balance, and that shows itself in our unbalanced personalities. And, you know, there's no good or bad personality. Every personality has pros and cons. Every personality has strengths and weaknesses, and you know, we need all of the different kinds of personalities. We need the people, everybody can't be the strong leader, take charge type person. There will be nobody to lead if everybody's leading, right? But everybody can't sit back and be chill and you know, just follow the follow whatever and and not not lead. Somebody has to lead. So we need all those different things, you know, we all those different, all the different aspects of personalities. And that's something I love the subject of personalities in, but I don't, I I love it because I look at it from the viewpoint of understanding and of improving, not from the the viewpoint that so many people have done where you just use it as a cop-out. Well, that's just how I'm in, and you just have to get over it. No, that's not the way it works. That's not the way it works for Christians. It might work that way in the world. They might tell you that, but that's not how Christians are supposed to be because Christians are kind and they're loving and they're full of the love of God. At least they're supposed to be. That's what we're working on, right? So we live by love and we don't live by, well, that's my personality. Get over it. That's that's not love. That's not that's not how God created us to be. So that's a distortion of who God created us to be. And I better get back to the book, or we're not gonna get through this. Okay, so we we we boy, I got way off, didn't I? Second, we will know we're stabilized when our confidence in ourselves and our worth to his kingdom is restored because we are sons and daughters of the king, and therefore we are worthy. In fact, we are royalty. First Peter 2 says, we are a royal priesthood. We are we were made to rule and reign with Christ. So we have to see ourselves that way, and we can't, if we are stable in the love of God, we will see ourselves that way. So as our sense of worth to heaven manifests itself in our hearts, we'll be able to meet occurrences of rejection with forgiveness. We'll not find ourselves reacting in unhealthy ways to those who act against us through old patterns of outbursts of anger, smoldering resentment, holding grudges, or descending into self-pity. If you're doing those things when opportunities arise to be offended and hurt, then you can know that you are not there yet, stabilized in the love of God. And you can use that as an indicator. Hey, I need to be restored in my soul, and I need to stabilize in the love of God again. And, you know, sometimes we can we can be stable for a season, and then we kind of get a little lax and in in an area of life in in spiritually, and we can get to where we kind of regress a little bit because we have we can't ever be passive as Christians. We have to always be aggressive in our walk with Christ. We have to always be pushing forward. The apostle Paul said he was pressing forward, always he was pressing forward, forgetting what was behind, forgetting that he how far he's come, and reaching to go further, reaching to grow more, reaching to know more of Jesus, to be more like Jesus. And so if we find ourselves slipping into old patterns, outbursts of anger, resentment, grudges, or self-pity, then we just need to get back in the love of God and get stabilized in the love of God. We need to see if we need some restoration in our souls, and if we do, then we receive it and we get things, you know, cleaned out and purified and healthy again in there. And when we do it so much better. And you know the difference. You know the difference when you're living this way or not. So you will know when you're delivered from the bondage of the enemy when you have a light heart. That doesn't necessarily mean jovial and you know, based on folly and destruction, but it means like light, like the air around us. When the heavy oppression of the enemy lifts, we feel fresh air of the Holy Spirit again in our hearts. The word for the Spirit in the Bible is breath. The Holy Spirit's reign over our hearts is like a gentle wind of fresh air. So these are some of the ways that we know that we are stabilized in the love of God, or that we need to work on it some more. And I mean, I think honestly, we can always go higher, even if we're stable, just like for myself in this situation. Um, you know, people have told me you're so stable. And I I sense stability in my own life compared to where I was five years ago, ten years ago, even three years ago. I sense there's more stability in my life, and I stay through situations when I want to leave because I know I'm where I'm supposed to be. And in the past, I maybe might not have done that. And so I know there's more stability in my life, but I also know I'm I can still I I still need to go deeper. Deeper in this stability, my roots need to go even deeper so that I can withstand all the storms of life and not be affected by them and not be wounded easily and not wound others. Because that's really, you know, that's the flip side of the coin. We don't want to go around, and I said this last week, hurting people hurt people, healed people can heal people. So we don't want to go around being the ones hurting people. We want to be the ones bringing healing. And the more stable we are, the more stabilized in the love of God that we are, the more healing we can bring to others. The more good fruit we'll produce, and that good fruit will bring health into our lives and into the lives of those around us. So, my goodness, I have not gotten very far. Um, so that's not text. We're gonna go on a little bit longer. I want to read in 1 Peter one. I might not actually get too rejoicing today, but that's okay. We can talk about it next time, maybe. Let's see, 1 Peter 1, verses 3 through 9. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials, that the genuineness of your faith being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ, whom having not seen you love, though now you do not see him, yet believing you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, receiving the end of your faith, the salvation of your souls. I feel like that really just kind of ties it all together. It ties it, it brings everything together that we've been talking about with restoring our soul, with loving God, with receiving his love, with going through things that are hurtful, but growing through them. Not just going through them, but growing through them, growing through adversity, growing through offenses, growing through trials and adversaries, and you know, from adversaries and through suffering, like it said in Romans, and now it's the same thing first Peter's talking about. Those things can cause us to grow into the fullness that of who we were created to be, a fullness of character, fullness of strength, fullness of endurance, so that we can run our race well and not give up and not quit early and not get sidelined because there's so many opportunities in life to get sidelined, to get uh, you know, knocked out of the game. And we don't want, we don't want to get knocked out of the game. So we want to be strong, we want to be full of character, full of the Holy Spirit, bearing the fruit of the Holy Spirit in our lives. We want to be stable. And we're gonna do that when we know the love of God and we're living in and from the love of God, receiving it for ourselves and giving it out to others. And as we do that and we grow more and more stable, more rooted and grounded, the storms of life can blow all around us, but we're gonna stand and we're gonna bear fruit, and we're going to still be here when the storm stops. And you know, not only that, but we can become a shelter for others. We can become a big old oak of righteousness, like Isaiah talks about, that we can provide shelter for others that aren't there yet, that aren't so strong, that aren't so rooted and grounded in the love of Christ. And when we when we get to that point, we truly find the abundant life that Jesus came to give us that we started talking about several weeks ago. So I'm trying to decide if I want to go on a little bit or if I just want to stop there. I was really going to talk about rejoicing, but I feel like the stability was what I was supposed to talk about today. So I'm just gonna I'm gonna leave it there. Maybe next time we'll talk about rejoicing, but maybe we'll just we'll see. We'll see what we do. But I hope that this show blessed you today, and I hope that you got something out of it that will help you where you're at in life to to understand that the the problem isn't what's coming against you. That's not, I mean, that might be the problem, but that's not what you need to focus on. What you need to focus on is that God loves you, and because he loves you, you can love others no matter the situation. Jesus did it. Jesus showed us how to love, he loved well in spite of being treated so horribly, because he knew the love of the fathers. He was stable in the love of the father. And he told us in his word that as he loved us and giving our himself for us, that we are to love others. And we can only do that if we are rooted and grounded and stable ourselves in the love that God has for us. So that's my prayer for you today that you will come to know his love greater and greater every single day. Thank you for joining me today. I hope to see you next week. God bless you.