WEBVTT 00:00:04.799 --> 00:00:06.559 Hey, I'm Pastor Steve Hole. 00:00:06.879 --> 00:00:11.119 I want to empower you today to walk in your true identity as a worshiper and warrior. 00:00:11.279 --> 00:00:14.400 Embrace the power of God's Word and the Holy Spirit. 00:00:14.640 --> 00:00:17.920 Today be encouraged with a word from my guest speaker. 00:00:18.160 --> 00:00:21.280 Welcome to the Born for War podcast. 00:00:26.480 --> 00:00:43.039 Well, in true form and fashion, I don't know if you guys have checked your news and sound bites today, but the bad news, even though it's beautiful and the frost has worn off here, that Arnry Critter in Pennsylvania saw his shadow, and so we're gonna have a long and enduring hard winter, right? 00:00:43.119 --> 00:00:47.520 So that little groundhog thing got scared and went back wherever he goes from. 00:00:47.600 --> 00:00:51.840 And it's funny because I was reminded about these big traps we had. 00:00:51.920 --> 00:00:53.280 We used to kill those things, man. 00:00:53.439 --> 00:00:56.240 And it's like now they bring it out, they pet it, it's a pet. 00:00:56.560 --> 00:00:59.119 They named it Phil, but we had these big spikes. 00:00:59.200 --> 00:01:01.759 I don't know if some of you see it, like they would tear up the ground. 00:01:02.000 --> 00:01:11.040 My dad's birthday is on Groundhog's Day, but was funny because the animal that came to symbolize his birthday was something that was a bit of a like his arch enemy. 00:01:11.200 --> 00:01:16.239 And so I would see him in the summertime planting these traps all over the ground, trying to snare these things. 00:01:16.480 --> 00:01:17.120 You pull them out. 00:01:17.200 --> 00:01:21.040 I remember the first time I saw one, I was like thinking like it's a little ground squirrel. 00:01:21.120 --> 00:01:21.920 But these things are big. 00:01:22.319 --> 00:01:25.760 They're pretty beefy, like they truly are like hogs that live underground. 00:01:25.920 --> 00:01:27.920 So, anyways, that's my side note. 00:01:28.079 --> 00:01:30.719 If you guys have your Bibles, turn to John 16. 00:01:30.879 --> 00:01:33.599 We're gonna be in 33, verse 33. 00:01:34.560 --> 00:01:38.079 And today we're gonna talk about tackling the tough. 00:01:38.400 --> 00:01:45.280 It's gonna be a parody we're gonna be talking about habit number two in Pastor Steve's new book, Breakthrough Courage. 00:01:45.519 --> 00:01:50.400 In John 16, 33, Jesus writes these things to us. 00:01:50.719 --> 00:01:55.439 These things I have spoken to you that in me you may have peace. 00:01:56.079 --> 00:02:02.319 In this life you will have tribulation, but be of good courage, I have overcome the world. 00:02:03.200 --> 00:02:07.120 Jesus here telling us that in him we will have peace. 00:02:07.280 --> 00:02:11.759 We will need peace in Jesus because we are going to have tribulation. 00:02:12.719 --> 00:02:13.840 And how do we have that? 00:02:14.000 --> 00:02:16.080 How can we be of good courage? 00:02:16.560 --> 00:02:22.879 He hasn't completely done his full work yet, even though as he's writing and penning these words, he hasn't gone to the cross. 00:02:23.039 --> 00:02:28.719 He knows where he's headed, he's in his preparation for that, but he hasn't yet arrived. 00:02:28.960 --> 00:02:33.439 But he knows where he's gonna end up, and he knows how he's gonna finish and how he's gonna conquer and he's gonna do it well. 00:02:33.599 --> 00:02:38.479 So he's leading into that with these promising words that we can build on. 00:02:38.879 --> 00:02:51.199 Jerzy Grigorigak, four-time world weightlifting champion, quoted this statement: Easy choices, hard life, hard choices, easy life. 00:02:51.439 --> 00:02:54.400 Here's a visual aid for you that I think captures that. 00:02:54.560 --> 00:02:56.000 I like visual aids. 00:02:56.560 --> 00:03:07.439 I will say that I've probably been on both spectrums of that diagram, but as you kind of take assessment right now, kind of checking your dashboard, where are you in that picture? 00:03:07.680 --> 00:03:10.319 Are you taking the easy slide down right now? 00:03:10.639 --> 00:03:15.599 Because that ends, and then you're gonna have to start climbing back up at an inverted degree. 00:03:15.919 --> 00:03:22.719 Or are you summiting the hard, are you facing the hard to where it will eventually level out and plateau? 00:03:23.120 --> 00:03:24.319 That's the payout. 00:03:24.479 --> 00:03:26.080 That's the work that we're trying to do. 00:03:26.240 --> 00:03:33.280 That'll be the focus of today's message as we talk about tackling the tough things in our life and how that works. 00:03:33.599 --> 00:03:36.800 The hardcore truth is that life is hard. 00:03:37.039 --> 00:03:43.599 There's a purpose and a plan by God for the heart in our lives, and he uses it to build us and shape us. 00:03:44.560 --> 00:03:52.560 Habit number two involves embracing hard things, the hard decision making in our relationships, in our setbacks. 00:03:52.879 --> 00:03:57.919 We do this on a belief system that these actions will eventually lead to a better life. 00:03:58.240 --> 00:04:09.919 Embracing hard is the breakthrough courage to believe God can use struggles to develop the spiritual and emotional sinew that transforms us into brave people. 00:04:10.879 --> 00:04:16.319 As we pause and we think about habits, good and bad, we all have habits. 00:04:16.639 --> 00:04:32.639 Hopefully, especially with the dawn of the new year, we're faced, we take the resume, we look to our goal sheets, we look to our habits, and we say, Here are habits that I want to completely cut off, and there are habits that we want to build and strengthen in our lives. 00:04:32.879 --> 00:04:40.319 The wages of bad habits are bondage and death, but the wages of good habits are freedom and life when we build with Jesus. 00:04:40.639 --> 00:04:48.639 Bad habits, by their very nature, seem to be acquired easily, while good habits bring challenge and resistance from within ourselves. 00:04:49.279 --> 00:04:52.079 They take work and they are hard. 00:04:52.480 --> 00:04:56.399 We are at war with our flesh on this one. 00:04:56.720 --> 00:05:03.759 Our default setting is to embrace comfort and lethargy, the easy things. 00:05:04.079 --> 00:05:07.120 We came out this way after we were evicted from Eden. 00:05:07.279 --> 00:05:12.720 These are things that we all face, regardless of gender, man or woman, because there's only two, right? 00:05:12.879 --> 00:05:14.399 Trump to reaffirm that for us. 00:05:14.480 --> 00:05:14.800 Thank you. 00:05:14.879 --> 00:05:15.600 We appreciate that. 00:05:15.759 --> 00:05:16.079 It's God. 00:05:16.319 --> 00:05:16.720 Praise God. 00:05:16.800 --> 00:05:17.519 Yeah, that's right. 00:05:17.680 --> 00:05:18.319 Amen. 00:05:19.439 --> 00:05:20.959 Are we a true seeker, right? 00:05:21.040 --> 00:05:28.399 So we want to be true seekers, and some of that is looking at our lives, taking assessment of where we're at in our habits. 00:05:28.560 --> 00:05:36.480 Have we been shirking and taking the short road around versus maybe the long road that God is calling us to endure for our benefit? 00:05:36.560 --> 00:05:44.879 Because he has a purpose to build in us endurance and resilience for the life that we face, for the war that we are in. 00:05:45.360 --> 00:05:51.680 I love how Paul writes about conquering his body, the flesh, subduing it, and making it his slave. 00:05:52.079 --> 00:05:56.800 Turn with me to 1 Corinthians 9, and we'll pick up some of his narrative here. 00:05:57.040 --> 00:06:08.480 And the thing about Paul that I love being a recovering athlete is that so much of his scripture is in that narrative of athletes and what we have to do to train, to compete. 00:06:09.199 --> 00:06:16.000 And this is um this is one of those famous verses where he's talking about running the race, striving for a crown. 00:06:16.240 --> 00:06:20.000 Do you not know that those who run in a race all run? 00:06:20.480 --> 00:06:22.560 But one receives the prize. 00:06:22.879 --> 00:06:25.680 Run in such a way that you may obtain it. 00:06:25.920 --> 00:06:30.160 And everyone who competes for the prize is temperate in all things. 00:06:30.480 --> 00:06:37.279 Now they do it to obtain a perishable crown, but we for an imperishable crown. 00:06:37.439 --> 00:06:52.720 Therefore I run thus, not with uncertainty, thus I fight, not as one who beats the air, but I discipline my body and I bring it into subjection, lest when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified. 00:06:53.040 --> 00:07:06.160 Paul is replacing the tangible earthly prize, the crown, the trophy that we run for, and he's replacing it with a focus towards an eternal crown, an eternal prize that is far lasting. 00:07:06.720 --> 00:07:08.240 And it gives us a different focus. 00:07:08.399 --> 00:07:09.600 It gives us a different purpose. 00:07:09.759 --> 00:07:16.959 In fact, might I say it gives us the theme in which we should be living our Christian life, not as a sprint, but as a marathon. 00:07:17.680 --> 00:07:25.439 To experience the freedom of building good habits, we must first subdue and conquer our own flesh, nailing it to the cross with Christ. 00:07:26.160 --> 00:07:40.319 We're only able to go so far in our own strengths, our own skills, and our own character before we run against a brick wall which we cannot overcome until we have amputated the things that are holding us back from ourselves. 00:07:40.480 --> 00:07:41.439 We do that to ourselves. 00:07:41.519 --> 00:07:46.240 And I'm going to get into some of those things a little bit later in the message that hold us back. 00:07:46.480 --> 00:07:50.959 But first we must identify with Christ and put it on the cross. 00:07:51.120 --> 00:07:52.480 He's invited us to do that. 00:07:52.639 --> 00:07:59.600 Now we give him glory, we give him praise because none of us in this room are going to walk the road to Galgotha and actually get nailed to Calvary. 00:07:59.680 --> 00:08:00.720 He's taken that for us. 00:08:00.800 --> 00:08:05.920 We don't have to endure that kind of pain, that kind of death, that kind of shame. 00:08:06.160 --> 00:08:09.759 In fact, he invites us, because he's done that, to give it all to him. 00:08:10.560 --> 00:08:20.720 No one revels in hardship, but there are those who, through understanding its value, can embrace the transformation of our character that results from dealing with it. 00:08:21.279 --> 00:08:22.959 Some of us are stuffers. 00:08:23.199 --> 00:08:26.639 We stuff it and we think we'll just deal with that a later day. 00:08:26.800 --> 00:08:27.439 It's fine. 00:08:27.600 --> 00:08:28.399 You know who you are. 00:08:28.480 --> 00:08:29.040 It's fine. 00:08:29.199 --> 00:08:31.439 I can relate, I'm looking at you, I'm looking at the guy in the mirror. 00:08:31.519 --> 00:08:33.519 So we stuff it down and we don't want to face it today. 00:08:33.679 --> 00:08:35.200 We just think it's going to work itself out. 00:08:35.279 --> 00:08:46.879 But when left unchecked and unresolved, it festers, it becomes cancerous, tumor-like, and will ultimately take us completely out of the game and sign light, sideline us permanently. 00:08:47.440 --> 00:08:50.639 Hard choices usually involve delayed gratification. 00:08:50.720 --> 00:08:54.240 That's the hard part because in today's culture it's instant gratification. 00:08:54.399 --> 00:08:55.600 Have it your way. 00:08:56.080 --> 00:09:07.440 We get upset, we get frustrated when we're in a line to get our coffee at a drive-thru, and it takes more than the 3.5 minutes that we gave ourselves to get that item. 00:09:07.679 --> 00:09:09.440 You shouldn't even be in that line, to be honest. 00:09:09.600 --> 00:09:10.639 Let's be honest with ourselves, right? 00:09:10.720 --> 00:09:13.440 We should take ourselves out of the fast food line. 00:09:14.799 --> 00:09:16.559 I'll let you wrestle with that where you are. 00:09:16.639 --> 00:09:17.679 Where are you at on the graph? 00:09:17.759 --> 00:09:20.159 Are you sliding down the hill or are you climbing the mountain, right? 00:09:20.399 --> 00:09:21.039 All right. 00:09:22.399 --> 00:09:25.519 Interdiscipline and good habits, which result in a better life. 00:09:25.600 --> 00:09:30.559 It's hard to exercise each day, eat clean food, but it makes us healthy. 00:09:31.200 --> 00:09:41.440 When we feel physically healthy, there's this beautiful correlation of strength in our spirit, man or woman, that builds resilience, strength, and character. 00:09:42.240 --> 00:09:48.960 I had moved from my parents' house into my grandparents' house when my parents were trying to figure out their marriage and things were kind of getting rocky over there. 00:09:49.039 --> 00:09:53.279 But I wanted some consistency, some stability, so I moved in with my grandparents. 00:09:53.360 --> 00:09:55.679 And I knew my grandfather was a man of discipline. 00:09:55.840 --> 00:09:57.679 He was a former Navy boxer. 00:09:57.759 --> 00:10:02.639 He was a UDT guy who went in underwater, blew up the hedgehog so they could land on Groundhog Day. 00:10:02.879 --> 00:10:06.960 He would later go on to not Groundhog Day, D-Day. 00:10:09.840 --> 00:10:11.200 Thank you over here. 00:10:11.840 --> 00:10:12.720 Thank you. 00:10:13.360 --> 00:10:16.320 I saw him blow up groundhogs too, to be fair. 00:10:17.039 --> 00:10:19.759 He also had a uh adversity to those critters. 00:10:20.000 --> 00:10:25.519 Um but he had a discipline in his life where he would wake up every morning. 00:10:25.759 --> 00:10:28.159 The morning had its own routine and the evening had its own routine. 00:10:28.240 --> 00:10:34.879 In the morning, I would wake up, and our doors were across from each other, and he would be watching the morning news before we knew it was bad for us. 00:10:34.960 --> 00:10:39.039 And he would be, you know, stretching, calisthenics, and going through his whole routine. 00:10:39.120 --> 00:10:41.440 And it was probably a 30-minute process. 00:10:41.679 --> 00:10:49.360 Then we'd go and have our day, but he was warming up the body, warming up the machine, and he would go and do his shot of olive oil, lubricate the system. 00:10:49.600 --> 00:10:50.639 He understood these things. 00:10:50.799 --> 00:10:52.960 I was like, that's gross, man, but it's cool. 00:10:53.039 --> 00:10:54.399 I didn't understand it as a youth. 00:10:54.559 --> 00:10:55.600 I get it now. 00:10:55.840 --> 00:11:00.879 But then in the evenings, after the day had been done, we were watching news, which led to mash, right? 00:11:00.960 --> 00:11:02.639 So you had to, you know, you had to have temperance. 00:11:02.799 --> 00:11:03.600 There was balance here. 00:11:03.679 --> 00:11:08.559 You know, you had to watch the news, and then you had to get some humor with mash. 00:11:08.720 --> 00:11:12.720 But then at the end of that, so he's then he gets the weights out at night and he's exercising. 00:11:12.799 --> 00:11:14.399 And he did this as long as I knew him. 00:11:14.480 --> 00:11:18.320 And he did this well into his early 80s, and that was his routine, that was his habit. 00:11:18.480 --> 00:11:29.279 And he knew that he had to do that to keep his machine, his body, working in the way that he needed to work because he was a man of action, he was a man of purpose, and he was a man of discipline, and so he would do those things. 00:11:29.440 --> 00:11:32.320 And it was not lost on me what that looked like. 00:11:32.559 --> 00:11:35.759 It's interesting when we pair this with the writing and work of Karen L. 00:11:35.919 --> 00:11:37.840 Jacobs, PhD. 00:11:38.080 --> 00:11:42.639 She's a program director of a residential treatment facility outside of Boston. 00:11:42.799 --> 00:11:51.840 She said this working, the actual physical job of working, has been shown to help stabilize people struggling with mental health conditions. 00:11:52.000 --> 00:11:56.639 A critical aspect of recovery involves regular work at a job. 00:11:56.879 --> 00:11:58.720 Going out, having purpose. 00:11:59.039 --> 00:12:01.279 We were made to have purpose in our day. 00:12:01.440 --> 00:12:03.440 We are healthier when we are working. 00:12:03.759 --> 00:12:12.879 I have some extended relatives, one in particular, who I don't think they've ever had a job, and they absolutely struggle from mental illness. 00:12:13.679 --> 00:12:15.919 I've seen them be divisive in our family. 00:12:16.000 --> 00:12:23.759 It's been very frustrating for a lot of us, but we're always like, you should just maybe think about a job that's foreign to them. 00:12:23.919 --> 00:12:25.360 And they've been very resistant. 00:12:25.600 --> 00:12:30.000 What's interesting though is that my father got this. 00:12:30.159 --> 00:12:31.519 He came home one afternoon. 00:12:31.679 --> 00:12:34.320 I'm in the summertime, and I'd moved back home. 00:12:34.480 --> 00:12:38.080 He was at his job, and it was the summertime, and I he came home and I was not up yet. 00:12:38.159 --> 00:12:38.879 He came home for lunch. 00:12:38.960 --> 00:12:43.679 He lived close by and he found me yet to meet the day, meet the sunrise. 00:12:44.000 --> 00:12:49.360 Being a recovering farm boy himself, I'm sure he thought something like, Well, this just won't do. 00:12:49.759 --> 00:12:55.039 He woke me up, stirred me from my slumber, says time to get up, mow the grass, and when I get home, I'm gonna talk to you. 00:12:55.120 --> 00:12:55.919 I have some ideas for you. 00:12:56.080 --> 00:12:56.960 And I was like, ideas? 00:12:57.039 --> 00:12:58.799 I didn't ask, I didn't even ask a question. 00:12:59.039 --> 00:13:00.159 What's the I don't know. 00:13:00.240 --> 00:13:01.600 What are we gonna talk about? 00:13:01.919 --> 00:13:06.080 And little did I find out he had made some calls when he went back to his work. 00:13:06.159 --> 00:13:08.080 And then when we came home, we had dinner that night. 00:13:08.159 --> 00:13:09.279 He goes, Hey, here's the deal. 00:13:09.440 --> 00:13:15.840 Tomorrow I want you to wake up, ready for work, dressed, you're gonna go out, get water, long sleeves, pants. 00:13:15.919 --> 00:13:16.720 I'm going, it's summer. 00:13:16.799 --> 00:13:18.159 He's like, You're gonna want the long sleeves. 00:13:18.240 --> 00:13:19.679 I didn't know what he was up to. 00:13:20.080 --> 00:13:24.080 But he's like, But be prepared, we're gonna get up early because I got to take you in early before I go to work. 00:13:24.159 --> 00:13:25.440 I'm like, oh, here we go. 00:13:25.600 --> 00:13:27.120 I think he's up to something. 00:13:27.360 --> 00:13:28.559 So then he drops me off. 00:13:28.639 --> 00:13:36.399 He delivers me to one of his farm friends, and I would spend the rest of my summer, not in lethargy with my friends in trouble, but baling hay. 00:13:36.720 --> 00:13:37.840 And that was awesome, right? 00:13:37.919 --> 00:13:42.559 So I'm like, okay, my dad's teaching me and building into me hard work, resilience. 00:13:42.799 --> 00:13:46.000 And I thought, like, I'm on the back of the tractor, I'm grabbing hay bales off. 00:13:46.080 --> 00:13:46.960 I'm like, oh, this is great, man. 00:13:47.120 --> 00:13:47.679 Bust the shirt off. 00:13:47.840 --> 00:13:50.480 I'm like getting a suntan, pumping the guns, getting good, man. 00:13:50.559 --> 00:13:53.360 I'm like, look good, gonna look good at the pool this summer. 00:13:53.600 --> 00:13:57.200 Well, for those of you that bailed hay, you know that that's only part of the process. 00:13:57.360 --> 00:14:07.679 The real work begins when you go back to the farm, to the barn, and they put the skid loader up to the top, and you climb up into the barn, and you're up there in the heat, and it's hot, and it's dark, and the hay starts going everywhere. 00:14:07.840 --> 00:14:14.159 Now that's when you realize that you were grateful for your long shirt because it starts going down your back and you start to feel in complete misery. 00:14:14.320 --> 00:14:21.360 And I'm thinking in that moment, I'm like, what would it have been like had I just woken up 15 minutes before Dad came home for lunch? 00:14:23.519 --> 00:14:25.360 But there was a greater lesson there. 00:14:25.519 --> 00:14:30.799 When Cornelius Vanderbilt died at the end of the 19th century, he had left a fortune bigger than the U.S. 00:14:30.960 --> 00:14:32.320 Treasury at the time. 00:14:32.559 --> 00:14:38.399 When his grandkids met less than a century later, there wasn't a millionaire among them. 00:14:38.879 --> 00:14:43.840 See, church, what can be built in two generations can be lost in two generations. 00:14:44.320 --> 00:14:50.960 In my banking career, my trust career, we had a term for those who just truly were living from trust check to trust check. 00:14:51.039 --> 00:14:52.799 We called them trustafarians. 00:14:53.279 --> 00:15:09.120 And literally it was sad because there was this idea that grandma, grandpa, mom, or dad had built this legacy for them to live and step and really like kind of use that as the standing stone or the stepping stone to level up and go to the next level in their life. 00:15:09.360 --> 00:15:28.480 But in many cases, uh, we found it to be the case where they actually leveled down two or three or even four rungs on the ladder and lived check to check in sometimes appalling conditions in almost destitute situations because they refused to go to work, they refused to do anything because they had this consistent handout, and it was hard to watch. 00:15:28.559 --> 00:15:33.360 And I'm sure that it was not the intent or the desire of their benefactor. 00:15:33.600 --> 00:15:37.440 Each generation church must learn hard work for their own strength. 00:15:37.679 --> 00:15:47.840 They must learn the value of calloused hands and how to embrace the heart in their lives so that they can rise to meet the purpose and value God has placed over their lives. 00:15:48.799 --> 00:15:53.200 The direction of being a brave disciple of the kingdom of God is the cross. 00:15:53.440 --> 00:16:15.919 There's an invitation from Christ at any point in our lives where we get invited into this journey of exponential growth, complete inheritance, and we're able to level up in our discernment of the kingdom of God and embrace and discover what's available to us as sons and daughters of the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. 00:16:16.399 --> 00:16:20.399 Never did Jesus proclaim you would have an easy life. 00:16:20.879 --> 00:16:25.120 He says, What you are looking for is the authentic life. 00:16:25.679 --> 00:16:28.639 But such a life comes only through death to self. 00:16:29.039 --> 00:16:31.440 Death in Him leads to life through Him. 00:16:32.080 --> 00:16:36.720 If you're going to walk in courage, you will have to face fear and difficulty. 00:16:37.120 --> 00:16:46.639 There was an invitation in my own life about six years ago that would begin a journey with me where I was comfortable with the stuffing that had happened. 00:16:46.960 --> 00:16:53.360 But God was not comfortable, and there was an invitation, and I could have ignored it and it would have cost me everything. 00:16:53.840 --> 00:17:00.000 But he goes, if you're willing to unpack this and walk through this with me, I want to heal you. 00:17:00.159 --> 00:17:12.240 I want to heal your heart, I want to heal your mind, I want to show you a deeper reality of what freedom can look like because you're suffering under the weight of your fear, your bondage, and ultimately your shame. 00:17:12.319 --> 00:17:21.119 And by the way, I've already taken your shame and I've nailed it to the cross with my son, so you're carrying something unnecessarily that you don't need to, but I want to heal you from that. 00:17:21.359 --> 00:17:30.079 But I had to take the invitation with my bride, with my family, and step into something that I didn't know what it was gonna look like. 00:17:30.160 --> 00:17:31.599 I didn't know how long it was gonna take. 00:17:31.759 --> 00:17:43.039 All I knew was everything that I had done in my life, the things that I thought mattered, the hard swim practices, the hard work on the farm, the hard things that I had done, just put my nose to the grindstone, right? 00:17:43.200 --> 00:17:51.200 Just all of that resilience and endurance that had been built in me, God was gonna use the leverage to just put one foot in front of the other. 00:17:51.279 --> 00:17:53.599 And there were those early days where that's all that was happening. 00:17:53.680 --> 00:17:56.960 It was one foot in front of the other, and I was renewing my mind in the gospel. 00:17:57.279 --> 00:18:00.799 Romans 5, if you have your Bibles, turn to Romans 5, 1 through 5. 00:18:00.880 --> 00:18:06.240 I want to read this passage because I think Paul concentrates and kind of crystallizes this. 00:18:06.319 --> 00:18:07.759 And this has been so meaningful for me. 00:18:07.839 --> 00:18:14.720 I have this framed and I see this uh scripture daily in my daily um routines. 00:18:15.519 --> 00:18:17.279 And it blesses me every time I read it. 00:18:17.359 --> 00:18:28.400 And there's always some new nugget that I'm encouraged in my spirit to engage, to fight, to pick myself up with Christ and keep moving forward in the hard times. 00:18:29.680 --> 00:18:35.680 And it says this therefore, since we have been made right in God's sight by faith, we have peace with God. 00:18:36.480 --> 00:18:38.240 First of all, that's such a huge revelation. 00:18:38.400 --> 00:18:39.440 I have peace with God. 00:18:39.599 --> 00:18:41.920 I'm not at war with him, he's not at war with me. 00:18:42.480 --> 00:18:55.599 Because of what Jesus Christ our Lord has done for us, because of our faith, Christ has brought us into this place of undeserved privilege where we now stand, and we confidently and joyfully look forward to sharing God's glory. 00:18:55.920 --> 00:19:09.759 We can rejoice too when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance, and endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation. 00:19:10.079 --> 00:19:12.480 And this hope will not lead to disappointment. 00:19:12.799 --> 00:19:18.559 For we know how dearly God loves us because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love. 00:19:18.880 --> 00:19:25.839 We were created with the ability, church, to grow in strength and endurance when we face hard things and we push ourselves to new limits. 00:19:26.160 --> 00:19:37.759 This very thing has been hardwired in us, God's catalyst from the Holy Spirit, to build greater endurance and resilience in this life as we face the hard, as we tackle the tough. 00:19:38.000 --> 00:19:39.279 And here's the beauty of it. 00:19:39.519 --> 00:19:50.160 1 Peter 5 10, after you have suffered a little while, God of all grace, the God of all grace who has called you to this eternal glory in Christ, will restore himself. 00:19:50.880 --> 00:19:56.079 Will himself, sorry, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. 00:19:56.319 --> 00:20:06.960 The way that I think about this is that as a swimmer, and there's a lot of other sports, whether it's track, wrestling, um, even gymnastics, and Steve's talk about this, you go into a season of taper. 00:20:07.039 --> 00:20:15.680 You work all season long, super hard, pushing your limits, breaking your body down, coming into that next practice with really nothing left to give. 00:20:15.839 --> 00:20:23.599 But then as you start to move towards the big races, towards the end of the season, you start to rest your body, and there you get to see what growth you've made. 00:20:23.759 --> 00:20:30.400 You know, you can get actually pretty discouraged, and I would oftentimes in the middle of a season where I'm not pushing past a certain mark. 00:20:30.480 --> 00:20:38.079 I'm not breaking a certain time, and I'm just going after it and after it, and I'm just like putting my guts into it, and nothing's happening that's discernible. 00:20:38.319 --> 00:20:39.680 But then taper comes. 00:20:39.839 --> 00:20:48.880 You rest, you restore, you allow yourself to heal, your body heals, and then you level up, and now you're like, sometimes, in some cases, three and a half seconds, which is huge in my world, right? 00:20:48.960 --> 00:21:04.640 In swimming, like that's big movement, and you see that kind of gain, and you're going, whoa, okay, so true in our spiritual walk where we're facing the hard, we're enduring, and we go in, God moves us into a time of taper, and we can rest, and he brings us into the green pasture. 00:21:04.720 --> 00:21:09.759 He takes us to still water, and then he's going to level us up where the voice of God is more discernible. 00:21:09.920 --> 00:21:15.359 The power of the Holy Spirit and his wisdom is engaging us in a new way that we'd never even experienced before. 00:21:15.519 --> 00:21:17.440 And that's what Peter's talking about right here. 00:21:17.680 --> 00:21:20.000 We have to allow ourselves to come into that place. 00:21:20.079 --> 00:21:24.880 It's not just you're going to face hard until you exit and enter eternity. 00:21:25.039 --> 00:21:30.160 There's going to be moments where God is going to restore you and heal you and level you up. 00:21:30.480 --> 00:21:35.279 In an interview explaining how he would approach a race, great American middle distance runner Steve P. 00:21:35.519 --> 00:21:45.839 Fontaine was quoted with the following A race is a work of art that people can look at and be affected in as many ways as they're capable of understanding. 00:21:46.079 --> 00:21:49.440 A lot of people run a race to see who is the fastest. 00:21:50.000 --> 00:21:59.440 I run a race to see who has the most guts, who can push themselves into an exhausting pace, and then at the end punish himself even more. 00:22:00.480 --> 00:22:03.839 I'm going to work so that it's a pure guts race at the end. 00:22:04.000 --> 00:22:06.880 And if it is, I'm the only one who can win it. 00:22:08.319 --> 00:22:17.920 We could take that same posture and our mental discipline and our spiritual alignment into the things that we're facing right now. 00:22:18.480 --> 00:22:24.160 You were built to endure, you were built for the hard, and you're not alone in that process. 00:22:24.400 --> 00:22:27.039 The Holy Spirit is here to engage. 00:22:28.079 --> 00:22:38.880 The National Institute of Health reports, and this is what we have to fight against, the core desires of the human brain are first to seek pleasure, avoid pain, and preserve energy. 00:22:39.359 --> 00:22:41.119 That's what we're all hardwired with. 00:22:41.200 --> 00:22:43.200 That's what we're facing, that's what we're up against. 00:22:43.920 --> 00:22:47.039 Seek pleasure, avoid pain, preserve energy. 00:22:47.759 --> 00:22:53.279 So, with that in mind, we need to ask God for a total kingdom system reboot on our frontal cortex. 00:22:53.920 --> 00:22:54.160 Right? 00:22:54.319 --> 00:22:58.960 We have to say, I need to step out of my normal operating system that I was born with. 00:22:59.119 --> 00:23:03.839 I need to step into the hard and embrace those things and retrain my brain. 00:23:04.960 --> 00:23:07.279 Freshman year in high school, I went out for the swim team. 00:23:07.359 --> 00:23:10.160 I'm gonna keep using this illustration for a second, and I was awful. 00:23:10.400 --> 00:23:17.920 My first race looked much like the last race of the season, where there was I was finishing with two or three laps behind the last guy who finished. 00:23:18.079 --> 00:23:25.039 And even in the middle of that season, I was trying to figure out a flip turn, and I turned one time into the wall on the deep end, of course, not the shallow end. 00:23:25.119 --> 00:23:26.640 It didn't work out that way for me. 00:23:26.799 --> 00:23:36.799 Um, and this was a deep pool, and I cracked my head, like I turned too late, and I like looked at the wall and it's like bam, split my head open, and I'm like hemorrhaging in the pool, got a hazmat issue. 00:23:36.960 --> 00:23:40.559 They're like, this guy, I don't know, I don't know if it's gonna work out for him. 00:23:40.799 --> 00:23:43.599 And I'm like, okay, but in my heart, I really wanted this. 00:23:43.759 --> 00:23:46.400 Like I wanted, I wanted to be good at this. 00:23:46.480 --> 00:23:52.720 And and so I resolved in myself that I'm gonna have to do some things that maybe my friends and other people aren't willing to do. 00:23:52.880 --> 00:23:57.039 And so that summer, when my friends were out having fun, I committed and joined a club team. 00:23:57.119 --> 00:24:01.039 And I got up in the mornings, we swam outside, it was cold, even in the summer in Illinois. 00:24:01.200 --> 00:24:06.400 But we went and we did morning practice and then we would do evening practices, so there were two a days. 00:24:06.559 --> 00:24:17.039 And so in between, all my friends were waking up and having fun, but I was having to rest and have energy for the afternoon practice because it was so like exhausting, and I was not efficient yet. 00:24:17.119 --> 00:24:19.279 I was terrible and was getting better. 00:24:19.519 --> 00:24:32.480 But um worked it out that summer, put some things on the table, and said, I'm going to sacrifice fun, adventure, lethargy, all the things, and I'm gonna commit to this, I'm gonna commit to myself to achieve my goal, and I'm gonna face the hard. 00:24:32.799 --> 00:24:41.359 And so by that fall, or by the time that swim season came around again, my coach was um who had also been my summer coach, had moved me up from varsity. 00:24:41.599 --> 00:24:53.440 And so to see my freshman year performance into sophomore year was night and day, and it paid off, and it would continue to pay off for me, and it was something that I was able to build on in myself and be able to pull back to. 00:24:53.519 --> 00:24:57.839 I want to give you five practices to tackling the tough in your own lives. 00:24:58.160 --> 00:24:59.279 How do we do this? 00:24:59.519 --> 00:25:02.640 How do we take tools into this next season? 00:25:02.799 --> 00:25:08.160 How do we face the things that every one of us showed up today with our own hard thing, our own tough thing? 00:25:08.240 --> 00:25:12.480 We're looking at, we're trying to engage the kingdom of God, engage his throne room. 00:25:12.559 --> 00:25:15.279 I need the playbook, I need resilience, I need endurance. 00:25:15.440 --> 00:25:21.599 God, strengthen me today because I'm not able to do this on my own, nor should you, nor do you need to. 00:25:22.319 --> 00:25:26.400 First of all, our lives and futures are often shaped by comparing ourselves to others. 00:25:26.480 --> 00:25:27.119 This is huge. 00:25:27.519 --> 00:25:30.880 Instead of comparing yourself to others, take the challenge to compete against yourself. 00:25:31.039 --> 00:25:33.200 Let me just pause since we're at the beginning of the month. 00:25:33.440 --> 00:25:35.119 I challenge the first service to it. 00:25:35.200 --> 00:25:36.799 I'm gonna invite you guys to it. 00:25:37.279 --> 00:25:39.759 Take the month of February off from social media. 00:25:40.319 --> 00:25:41.039 Just saying. 00:25:41.440 --> 00:25:46.240 Give yourself a palette cleanse, do a mental reboot, and just take social media off. 00:25:46.319 --> 00:25:47.359 I don't even have it in my life. 00:25:47.440 --> 00:25:52.720 When it first came out, um, I was looking at it and it would come up, and my friends would be like, Oh, look at how great my life is. 00:25:52.799 --> 00:25:53.359 This is where I'm at. 00:25:53.440 --> 00:25:54.079 Look at the beach, I'm cool. 00:25:54.160 --> 00:25:55.119 And I'm like, I'm driving to work. 00:25:55.200 --> 00:25:56.000 I'm like, that sucks. 00:25:56.160 --> 00:25:58.240 Like, that doesn't make me feel better about myself. 00:25:58.559 --> 00:25:59.200 It never has. 00:25:59.279 --> 00:26:05.599 And so I'm like, I don't, I don't want social media, I don't need it, and it's never like given anything back to me of any great meaning. 00:26:05.759 --> 00:26:11.599 So I just want to encourage you, invite you to take February off, do a little reset, check the dashboard at the end. 00:26:11.680 --> 00:26:13.440 Maybe you're feeling a little bit better about yourself. 00:26:13.599 --> 00:26:17.039 There's gonna be some tangible things that you're gonna be able to discern. 00:26:17.359 --> 00:26:25.440 And if not, spend the first part of March binging all the things you missed out on because it's still gonna be there, and the little shorts and all the stuff that's making you ADD, anyways, right? 00:26:25.519 --> 00:26:29.680 So, you know, I'm trying to find something, and it's like these things come on and they change the channel so fast. 00:26:29.759 --> 00:26:31.200 I'm like, I can't even watch this, man. 00:26:31.440 --> 00:26:32.480 My kids, I'm like, okay. 00:26:32.559 --> 00:26:34.240 Anyways, there's the there's the challenge. 00:26:34.880 --> 00:26:35.839 Take a fast. 00:26:36.000 --> 00:26:40.319 Ask yourself these questions as a barometer to how you're doing and comparing yourself. 00:26:40.400 --> 00:26:41.279 These are great. 00:26:42.079 --> 00:26:43.680 Am I living up to my own standards? 00:26:43.839 --> 00:26:46.240 First of all, have I defined standards for myself? 00:26:46.480 --> 00:26:49.680 If you haven't, step forward, define some standards for your life. 00:26:49.839 --> 00:26:51.359 Am I keeping my promises? 00:26:51.519 --> 00:26:52.319 This is a biggie. 00:26:52.559 --> 00:26:57.680 As a dad, I'm looking in the mirror and I'm thinking to myself, okay, I promised some things today to my kids. 00:26:57.839 --> 00:26:58.799 I didn't live up to those. 00:26:58.960 --> 00:26:59.920 I'm letting them down. 00:27:00.079 --> 00:27:01.279 How can I repair that? 00:27:01.359 --> 00:27:06.960 Because I heard early on in parenting, be careful the promises you make because your kids will remember those. 00:27:07.119 --> 00:27:08.960 And they remind you of those, right? 00:27:09.039 --> 00:27:09.839 And mine do. 00:27:09.920 --> 00:27:11.200 And I'm like, yeah, you're right. 00:27:11.279 --> 00:27:12.640 I I did, and I've had to own that. 00:27:12.720 --> 00:27:23.680 I've said, okay, yesterday I said I was gonna do that, and we missed the time, the window, and I prioritized it the next day because I don't want them to think that they don't matter and my promises are hollow and I don't mean what I say, right? 00:27:23.759 --> 00:27:26.480 Because they're building something in themselves by watching this. 00:27:26.720 --> 00:27:27.920 Am I telling the truth? 00:27:28.079 --> 00:27:29.519 Are we truth seekers? 00:27:29.759 --> 00:27:31.200 We should be truth seekers. 00:27:31.359 --> 00:27:34.400 This is the key, this is probably a core pillar of the road. 00:27:34.480 --> 00:27:41.440 Um, it's what's drove us through COVID and been and created our narrative and our operating system as we align it with God's scripture. 00:27:41.519 --> 00:27:43.920 What should we be doing right now when the government's saying this? 00:27:44.079 --> 00:27:45.599 Well, this is what God's kingdom says. 00:27:45.759 --> 00:27:53.200 We're gonna be open, we're gonna be a hospital, and we're gonna be a triage to God's people because we need community, we need each other, and we need a place to worship. 00:27:53.359 --> 00:27:55.519 And that's what our uh litmus test was. 00:27:55.599 --> 00:27:56.559 That was our azimuth. 00:27:56.880 --> 00:28:00.640 In which areas of my life and character do I need to change? 00:28:01.039 --> 00:28:03.039 This is the good habits versus the old habits. 00:28:03.200 --> 00:28:06.079 There's some things that follow us from last year into this year. 00:28:06.319 --> 00:28:10.640 Time to totally amputate those things and move in and start building better habits. 00:28:10.799 --> 00:28:12.960 Quit focusing on what other people think about you. 00:28:13.119 --> 00:28:22.240 Instead, ask God what he thinks about you, and then what I would do in this season of restoration, and I would I would say this was happening almost daily. 00:28:22.400 --> 00:28:26.160 I had to renew my mind with what God was saying about me. 00:28:27.119 --> 00:28:33.839 Because when I understand what the triune God of the universe says about me, I can cement those truths as a firm foundation of my heart. 00:28:33.920 --> 00:28:34.720 You need to do the same. 00:28:34.799 --> 00:29:01.599 And I would read Romans 8, top to bottom, sometimes many times a day, but then it got to be a place where um it would be a combination of that, and then also the whole armor of God and what Paul is saying about the human condition, about the way God loves us, even how he closes out the chapter, that there's nothing in everything that he's created, including myself, which he created, that would ever separate me from his love when I'm really to receive his love through his son and the cross. 00:29:01.759 --> 00:29:02.000 Right? 00:29:02.160 --> 00:29:08.640 So I step fully into that and we let God's word rewire our brain, rewire our identity. 00:29:09.200 --> 00:29:12.079 This is where you stand on it and you live from it. 00:29:13.039 --> 00:29:21.839 You walk into this day with a new boldness, complete confidence that you are beloved, made for his purpose, and created to be more than a conqueror in Jesus Christ. 00:29:22.799 --> 00:29:26.079 Practice number two, you are unique. 00:29:26.240 --> 00:29:28.880 And not in the mean way the kids used to say on the playground. 00:29:29.599 --> 00:29:30.480 You're special. 00:29:30.720 --> 00:29:31.359 But you are. 00:29:31.519 --> 00:29:33.119 And God's like, be yourself. 00:29:33.359 --> 00:29:34.960 All other roles are taken. 00:29:35.920 --> 00:29:38.640 Comparison is the death of identity. 00:29:39.039 --> 00:29:42.240 I think this is the trap of maybe the social media thing. 00:29:42.480 --> 00:29:48.640 God made you uniquely, and he expects you to be the person he had in mind when he created you. 00:29:48.799 --> 00:29:52.880 He wants you to live from this imagination that he had about your life. 00:29:53.359 --> 00:29:55.599 God formed you for a unique purpose. 00:29:55.839 --> 00:30:00.319 He knows the unique hardships you will and have already faced. 00:30:00.640 --> 00:30:08.160 He's given you natural talents and spiritual gifts that will help you accomplish the plan and purpose he has designed for you. 00:30:09.440 --> 00:30:13.200 See, church, hardships are not happening to you, but they're happening for you. 00:30:14.160 --> 00:30:20.880 Hardships, setbacks, and disappointments meld us into the men and women who become courageous and brave. 00:30:21.440 --> 00:30:24.799 Practice number three, you are hardwired. 00:30:25.200 --> 00:30:28.880 In that, God wired you for hard things. 00:30:29.359 --> 00:30:34.319 You're stronger than you think you are, you have more resilience than you think you have. 00:30:34.720 --> 00:30:37.039 You can go further than you think you can. 00:30:39.119 --> 00:30:40.400 You were born for this. 00:30:40.640 --> 00:30:46.000 God has wired you for the fight, so run the race and fight the good fight God has set before you. 00:30:46.720 --> 00:30:48.559 1 John 4, 4. 00:30:48.960 --> 00:30:56.960 You dear children, are from God and have overcome the world because the one within you is greater than the one who is in the world. 00:30:57.279 --> 00:31:04.400 John reminding us about the strength that we have that we can embrace, that we can engage in to overcome the hard things in life. 00:31:04.559 --> 00:31:17.119 Not because of our own natural skill sets, talents, and character, because those do eventually run out, but because we have Christ in us when we've invited him to be the king of our lives and sit on the throne of our hearts. 00:31:17.680 --> 00:31:22.160 The power of the Holy Spirit within you is greater than any earthly power. 00:31:22.720 --> 00:31:29.279 The power of the universe, the living God of creation and his kingdom, dwell within your heart through Jesus Christ. 00:31:30.400 --> 00:31:39.920 Angela Lee Duckworth, a math teacher in San Francisco, in her extensive research, writes this about predicting success among inner city students. 00:31:40.480 --> 00:31:44.000 One characteristic emerged as the best predictor to success. 00:31:44.240 --> 00:31:51.200 It wasn't social intelligence, it wasn't good looks, it wasn't physical health, and it was not IQ. 00:31:51.680 --> 00:31:52.720 It was grit. 00:31:54.319 --> 00:31:57.279 Grit to passion and perseverance. 00:31:57.599 --> 00:32:01.680