SPEAKER_00: This podcast is the Ministry of Grand Parkway Baptist Church.
SPEAKER_00: For more information on our church, please visit grandparkway.org.
SPEAKER_00: My prayer for us today is this is that not only does God always win, but very practically today, that we know that God's word is said to be living.
SPEAKER_00: And I pray today as we go through various passages of scripture that the first of all the Holy Spirit will lift some of the words of God's living word off the page to you.
SPEAKER_00: That it does that at times.
SPEAKER_00: If you're open to what God is wanting to show you, as we read a passage and as we stop and look at it, sometimes He'll just kind of lift it off and put it there for you to pay attention to it.
SPEAKER_00: So I pray that that God's word would be irresistible to you today.
SPEAKER_00: Also pray that God's prompting for what he asks you to do with his word would be irresistible today, that that you cannot fail to do what he asks you to do with it.
SPEAKER_00: Hope that happens for you.
SPEAKER_00: Because God always wins.
SPEAKER_00: So if he always wins, if we believe that, then we got to go with what he says.
SPEAKER_00: You know what I'm saying?
SPEAKER_00: All right.
SPEAKER_00: Now I live in uh Blue Springs, Missouri, which is east of Kansas City.
SPEAKER_00: Um I love sports.
SPEAKER_00: My favorite time of the year is August and a few months following because in August we have the run for the playoffs in Major League Baseball.
SPEAKER_00: I think God's favorite sport is baseball.
SPEAKER_00: We will play that forever.
SPEAKER_00: Just like in the movie Sandlot.
SPEAKER_00: If you ever saw the movie Sandlot years and years ago, they just kind of played and played and played until it was time to eat.
SPEAKER_00: I think that's what we're gonna do in heaven.
SPEAKER_00: So if you're not a baseball fan, I would encourage you to become one.
SPEAKER_00: In August, the playoffs, there's a playoff run going on in Major League Baseball, but at the same time, football is beginning.
SPEAKER_00: I love football as well.
SPEAKER_00: That's just my favorite time of the year.
SPEAKER_00: And one of the things that God has blessed me with an opportunity with is that where I live, one of our high schools, Blue Springs High School, for the last 12 years I've gotten to be the unofficial chaplain for the team.
SPEAKER_00: I can't be an official chaplain because they can't really say those things.
SPEAKER_00: But through a relationship with the head coach there, I get to be their chaplain, which means I get to come out to practice every day.
SPEAKER_00: I get to help them run drills from time to time.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I get to spend time with the players, the coaches.
SPEAKER_00: He just kind of tells them, hey, Joey's here.
SPEAKER_00: He's a pastor at a church in town.
SPEAKER_00: Just get to know him, he can help you.
SPEAKER_00: I get to leave the devotional time to the team every Thursday after their walkthroughs before the game on Friday.
SPEAKER_00: And it's always fun to be around that team, especially when the football season is going on, because when I go out to practice every day, there's something that happens every single day before practice.
SPEAKER_00: As the players are coming down out of the locker room, bringing down their helmets and their shoulder pads and all that kind of stuff, and they're gathering up on the field.
SPEAKER_00: I'll be there a lot of times while they're doing that because it gives me uh just some casual time to talk to the players.
SPEAKER_00: Well, while they're doing that, there's always something that happens every single time.
SPEAKER_00: The big uglies, the offensive linemen, they're called big and ugly because they're usually the biggest guys and they do the ugliest work on the field.
SPEAKER_00: They always grab the footballs from the quarterbacks.
SPEAKER_00: And before the coaches arrive, the offensive linemen are always out there running around like they're a quarterback.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, they want the ball, they take the ball from the quarterbacks before conditioning starts, and they get out there and they start acting like quarterbacks.
SPEAKER_00: And they want wide receivers to go catch their passes and things like this.
SPEAKER_00: But all the linemen are out there with all the balls and they're acting like quarterbacks.
SPEAKER_00: Well, that lasts for a few minutes, and the coaches start coming down the hill and they get on the field and they start kind of, you know, doing their little jazz talk with each other.
SPEAKER_00: And the coaches will eventually get to a point to say, okay, offensive linemen, put the balls down.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna remind you, you're not a quarterback.
SPEAKER_00: You know what I'm saying?
SPEAKER_00: You're not the quarterback.
SPEAKER_00: Because if you ever watch these guys throw a ball or try to move around, I mean, when they throw the ball, they don't spin it like a spiral.
SPEAKER_00: It's kind of like a duck flying through the air.
SPEAKER_00: And their footwork is very slow, it's very ugly.
SPEAKER_00: They're terrible looking at a quarterback, and a coach just always laughs because the linemen during conditioning, when the coach is walking around talking to the players as they're kind of doing their calisthenics and their stretching and things like that, offensive linemen are always going, hey coach, I could run this play if you just let me do it.
SPEAKER_00: Could you put in a play for me where I get the ball?
SPEAKER_00: I could throw the ball, I could run the ball, whatever.
SPEAKER_00: He goes, No, that's not who you are.
SPEAKER_00: That's not what we ask you to do.
SPEAKER_00: But it's hilarious to watch these guys go through this every single day before practice.
SPEAKER_00: They think all these offensive linemen think they're a quarterback in this big mound of a body.
SPEAKER_00: You know what I'm saying?
SPEAKER_00: That's what they think.
SPEAKER_00: But somebody has to remind them every day that's not who you are.
SPEAKER_00: That's a little bit on the humor side of identity, but there's things that God shows us every day about identity that we need to pay attention to.
SPEAKER_00: That identity is so critical for us to understand who we are.
SPEAKER_00: And God is all the time trying to get our attention either in Scripture or through life experiences or circumstances, that He wants to tell us, this is who I am, and this is who you are.
SPEAKER_00: That God wants us to understand that who we are is defined in who He is first.
SPEAKER_00: Like when we sing songs about when it says, God is victorious, he goes, You will be too if you're mine.
SPEAKER_00: Our identity is shaped in who God is.
SPEAKER_00: Then that tells us who we are.
SPEAKER_00: Now, those offensive linemen having a little bit of fun with them, they think they're a quarterback.
SPEAKER_00: Someone has to remind them you're not one.
SPEAKER_00: But God does something more serious to us a lot of times in life, and he goes, Are you paying attention to me?
SPEAKER_00: Are you trying to be something I didn't ask you to be?
SPEAKER_00: You need to stop and ask me, what do I say about you?
SPEAKER_00: Who are you listening to?
SPEAKER_00: But when it comes to your identity, when you when you if you had to answer the question, who am I?
SPEAKER_00: How would you define that?
SPEAKER_00: What how would you answer that question?
SPEAKER_00: Who am I?
SPEAKER_00: Would you base it upon, well, I'm a football player, I'm a teacher, I'm a mom, I'm a dad, I'm an engineer.
SPEAKER_00: How would you define that question?
SPEAKER_00: You see, God has an answer for us in scripture.
SPEAKER_00: And when we go with his answer, that answer is always victorious for us.
SPEAKER_00: That's always going to give us meaning and always gonna anchor us and hold us strong in the midst of no matter what's going on.
SPEAKER_00: But many times, many of us sitting in this room will base that question on something of performance.
SPEAKER_00: For many years in my life, many years in my life, I was a baseball player.
SPEAKER_00: That's how I answered that question.
SPEAKER_00: My identity was based on performance.
SPEAKER_00: If I had a bad game, oh my gosh, I was a wreck until we could play again.
SPEAKER_00: You know what I'm saying?
SPEAKER_00: You ever been like that?
SPEAKER_00: Maybe performance in the classroom for you, to where I get my identity on my grades and say you took a test or you didn't score as well as you thought.
SPEAKER_00: If your identity is based upon your scores, you're a wreck until you can take another test.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe your identity is based upon an image about your personal appearance.
SPEAKER_00: I don't get it because, well, I guess I just believe scripture that scripture teaches us in Proverbs that beauty is fleeting, which means that means the word is running from you.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, physical beauty.
SPEAKER_00: So it started running for me, and I it just got so far out in front, I just quit.
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
SPEAKER_00: But you know, there are people that they're they're not gonna quit, and they will do all kinds of things to make themselves look better because that's where their identity is based on, it's about what they look like.
SPEAKER_00: And they'll do all kinds of things to kind of fix themselves.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm sorry, but you know, Jerry Jones, I know he's the Cowboys owner, but to sit here denying he hasn't had plastic surgery.
SPEAKER_00: If you put a picture of him up ten years ago, what it's like now it's like someone grabbed his skin, like some he saw some whore flick, and his skin went back and it just kind of stayed.
SPEAKER_00: You know what I'm saying?
SPEAKER_00: All because someone's concerned about what they look like.
SPEAKER_00: Is that where your image is based upon?
SPEAKER_00: Is some kind of physical appearance or whatever it is.
SPEAKER_00: The issue is that when you have to answer the question, who am I?
SPEAKER_00: Is it based upon who God is and what he says about you?
SPEAKER_00: Because Scripture is full of hundreds and hundreds of references where God says, This is who I am, now this is who you are.
SPEAKER_00: And he does that to us all the time.
SPEAKER_00: He reminds us all the time.
SPEAKER_00: One of the things I will challenge you on today, a little bit later this morning, is for you do you have a statement to that question that's based upon scripture, not your opinion, not what somebody else says about you, but what God says that holds you.
SPEAKER_00: It's true, it's a strength for you because you're gonna need that.
SPEAKER_00: Because God's gonna show you who he is all the time, and he's gonna show you then here's what you are in relation to me.
SPEAKER_00: God has shown me that a lot of times in my life, and Neil referenced a situation that's going on with me that this uh past December 20th, the week of Christmas, um that Monday on December the 20th, was things happened to me physically that had never happened before in my life.
SPEAKER_00: Never.
SPEAKER_00: So I end up in an ER room late in the night, and eventually we're told that I have cancer.
SPEAKER_00: I have a a tumor the size of a football on my kidney.
SPEAKER_00: So the first thing that happened is I'm sitting there in an ER room, laid on a bed, my wife is sitting there next to me, and this is my wife, by the way, this is Dawn right here.
SPEAKER_00: The first thing that God said, Okay, now I'm gonna tell you something about who I am and who you are.
SPEAKER_00: Jeremiah chapter 18, if you're there.
SPEAKER_00: This is the first thing he told me.
SPEAKER_00: This is the word that Jeremiah, this is the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Go down to the potter's house, and there I'll give you my message.
SPEAKER_00: And the first thing when you're looking here at this scripture is this pay attention to all the things around you, your location, everywhere you're at, every circumstance, because you never know when God's about to say.
SPEAKER_00: Are you paying attention?
SPEAKER_00: Because I'm about to show you something.
SPEAKER_00: Because you would think that in Jeremiah's case, as a prophet, that God would say, Well, if I'm gonna get a word from the Lord, why not go to the temple?
SPEAKER_00: How many of you sit here today and you think, well, I'm going to church today because this is where I'm going to hear the word of God?
SPEAKER_00: Well, yes, you will hear the word of God, but that's not the only place the word of God will show up through your week.
SPEAKER_00: You know what I'm saying?
SPEAKER_00: So you need to pay attention that when you go to work, and if you are a mechanic and you go to your shop, you need to be ready for God to show up at your shop and show you something.
SPEAKER_00: If you're a carpenter and you show up at your workplace to build something, pay attention because the word of the Lord may come.
SPEAKER_00: That's something I think a lot of believers don't pay attention to when we're looking for how God revealed Himself to us.
SPEAKER_00: Where are you?
SPEAKER_00: Because he told Jeremiah to go to the potter's house.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Go down to the potter's house, and there I will give you my message.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you're a school teacher, and God says today, hey, tomorrow, when you get to your classroom, sit down and listen to me.
SPEAKER_00: Well, he sent Jeremiah to the potter's house for his message in verse 3.
SPEAKER_00: He says, So I went down to the potter's house, and I saw him working at the wheel, but the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands.
SPEAKER_00: So the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him.
SPEAKER_00: Then the word of the Lord came to me, O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter does, declares the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel.
SPEAKER_00: The very first thing, when I'm sitting in the ER room, the very first thing God said was, Alright, I'm the potter, you're the clay.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm gonna shape you as I see fit.
SPEAKER_00: Not your intentions, not my grand scheme of how I want to orchestrate my life and all the plans that I have and all this kind of stuff like that.
SPEAKER_00: God made it very clear look, I'm the potter, you're the clay, and I'm gonna shape you as I see fit.
SPEAKER_00: You okay with that?
SPEAKER_00: Right off the bat.
SPEAKER_00: That's one thing I'd say to you today, all of us sitting in this room, one thing you better get a hold of is that God's the potter and we're the clay.
SPEAKER_00: We're in his hands, and that was one of the next things God said about that passage right there.
SPEAKER_00: I'm it, I got you.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not gonna let you go.
SPEAKER_00: Nothing can take you away from me.
SPEAKER_00: We know that in other passages of scripture.
SPEAKER_00: He goes, You're in my hands, I got you, nothing can take you away from me.
SPEAKER_00: But here's the deal I'm gonna shape you.
SPEAKER_00: And I want to shape you in a way that I can use you the way I need to use you.
SPEAKER_00: It may not be what you want, but I'm gonna make something of you, and it's gonna be good.
SPEAKER_00: Now, I don't know if you've ever watched someone make pottery, but if you ever get a shot, that'll be one of the things you put on a list of things to go watch is watch someone make pottery because they're shaping things, they're making things, and then all of a sudden, as that thing's spinning on its wheel, sometimes they'll just boom, stick their thumb in it and just make it all wobble.
SPEAKER_00: And they took something out of it and they started to shape it a different way because they needed something out of it to shape it a certain way, and sometimes that's kind of like what I felt that night in the ER room.
SPEAKER_00: It's that everything's kind of rocking along in my life, and it's like God just said, boom, now you're in my hands, I got you, but I'm gonna shape you.
SPEAKER_00: You see, because later in scripture, go with me over to Second Corinthians in the New Testament.
SPEAKER_00: Second Corinthians chapter four.
SPEAKER_00: Verse five, and following.
SPEAKER_00: Apostle Paul teaching here, starting verse five of chapter four, second Corinthians, he says, For we do not preach ourselves, but Jesus Christ is Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake.
SPEAKER_00: For God who said, Let light shine out of darkness, made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Then verse 7, but we have this treasure, this light, in jars of clay.
SPEAKER_00: We want to shape you.
SPEAKER_00: You're the clay.
SPEAKER_00: We have this treasure, this light of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: He goes, You're in my hands, I'm the pot or you're the clay.
SPEAKER_00: I got you.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm gonna shape you, and I'm gonna put something in you.
SPEAKER_00: But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that all this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.
SPEAKER_00: See, God is shaping us, and we're in his hands, and he's shaping us in a way to be used, in a powerful way, in a very powerful way, but he wants everybody to understand and wants you to understand that it's not about you.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't come from you.
SPEAKER_00: That this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.
SPEAKER_00: We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed, perplexed, but not in despair, persecuted, but not abandoned, struck down but not destroyed.
SPEAKER_00: And you talk about a very encouraging, powerful passage.
SPEAKER_00: God says he's the potter, we're the clay.
SPEAKER_00: And we have this great treasure within us that God wants to use in a very powerful way.
SPEAKER_00: Are you gonna let him or you're gonna fight against him shaping you?
SPEAKER_00: So part of your identity today needs to be is that how does God want to shape you?
SPEAKER_00: What's he shaping you to become?
SPEAKER_00: How's he want to use you?
SPEAKER_00: Are you letting him dictate that, or are you trying to orchestrate everything?
SPEAKER_00: If it helps you today, it helps me every single day, because I'll never forget that night.
SPEAKER_00: When God reminded me, once again, in a very real way, I'm the potter, you're the clay, I'm gonna shape what I do with your life.
SPEAKER_00: The next thing, a few days after that, what God showed me was this.
SPEAKER_00: He reminded me if he gave me the Psalm chapter 46.
SPEAKER_00: Psalm chapter 46, starting in verse 1, very classic verse in scripture.
SPEAKER_00: Many of you probably already know it.
SPEAKER_00: Says that God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way, and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam, and the mountains quake where they're surging.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 1 of that of that chapter, in verse in chapter 46 of Psalm, it says, For God is our refuge and strength and ever-present help in trouble.
SPEAKER_00: You see, God is ever present.
SPEAKER_00: We are not fearful then.
SPEAKER_00: See how that works when you look at scripture about when you start with who God is, then what does that mean we are?
SPEAKER_00: God is ever present, then it says we're not, we're not to be fearful.
SPEAKER_00: And when you think about things in life, about when you have fear, a lot of times when we have fear is when we forget Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Think about it.
SPEAKER_00: A lot of times when you start to have fear, when you start to feel fear sense up, you know, creep up in your life, it's because in that moment you have forgotten Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: But he says, Here, I'm an ever-present help.
SPEAKER_00: There's no need for fear.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, you guys saw the news this morning in Italy, there was an earthquake.
SPEAKER_00: Because see, here in this verse right here, I would imagine some believers in Italy this morning are going to Psalm 46, going, Well, God is our refuge in strength and ever-present help in trouble.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, we will not fear, though the earth give way.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, they're living that today, having to claim that, hey, you know, God is ever present, we're not fearful.
SPEAKER_00: And if in this room, if you struggle with fear, you need to ask yourself the question about an identity statement, about an identity piece about is God ever present with you?
SPEAKER_00: Do you believe that?
SPEAKER_00: And when we have fear, a lot of times it's because we forget the promises of God.
SPEAKER_00: We forget to cling to them, we forget that He's ever present.
SPEAKER_00: And that's one of the things God reminded me of is that when we found out that I had this incurable cancer, excluding a miracle from God.
SPEAKER_00: It's like you start thinking about all these things that need to be worked out.
SPEAKER_00: This and this and that and that.
SPEAKER_00: And one of the first things that God said was, is this He goes, Do you know that I love you?
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
SPEAKER_00: And I will show you that love every single day.
SPEAKER_00: First John chapter 4, verse 18, where it says, The love of God cast out all fear.
SPEAKER_00: I know what that's like.
SPEAKER_00: Because a lot of times people will come to me and go, dude, aren't you afraid?
SPEAKER_00: Aren't you angry?
SPEAKER_00: No.
SPEAKER_00: Why is that?
SPEAKER_00: Because God is present.
SPEAKER_00: And I have no fear.
SPEAKER_00: I have no anger.
SPEAKER_00: He shows me every single day a demonstration of his love.
SPEAKER_00: From his spirit straight to mine, a reminding me that I'm loved.
SPEAKER_00: He does it through the body of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Through these people that are sitting on this road right here, they're willing to drive who knows how many hours to get here just to be with us.
SPEAKER_00: Now, of course, they also want to know if Neil's really married.
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: Because Neil's been to our church a few times and he talks about his wife, and we think, surely, can someone really commit their lives to that man?
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
SPEAKER_00: So the first thing is that when we went out to eat last night, they wanted to see this phantom wife, and she really does exist.
SPEAKER_00: And they were thrilled to death that there's actually someone that would be committed to Neil for the rest of his life.
SPEAKER_00: But what happens is that because God is ever present, I'm not fearful.
SPEAKER_00: Because God has not only brought himself to me, and he's present with me, but he's also brought the body of Christ with people that God stirs to do things that show the love of God that you just can't you can't describe.
SPEAKER_00: It's timely.
SPEAKER_00: You don't even have to.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, you start to even think about something that you think, well, God, what about this?
SPEAKER_00: And next thing you know, the door ring, the doorbell rings, or you get something in the mail, or somebody comes by for a visit, or you have a wife that has not moved from your side.
SPEAKER_00: We've sort of joked some of the times.
SPEAKER_00: She goes, now could you do for me what she's been, I mean, could I do for her what she's been doing for me if the roles were reversed?
SPEAKER_00: I said, you know, I don't know.
SPEAKER_00: You're you're you're too good.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe it's the best this way.
SPEAKER_00: God's presence in my wife.
SPEAKER_00: God is ever present.
SPEAKER_00: I am not fearful.
SPEAKER_00: God is ever present in your life.
SPEAKER_00: You don't have to be fearful.
SPEAKER_00: And then we found out, well, we're going to Houston to do stuff at MD Anderson.
SPEAKER_00: I think, my gosh, to Houston?
SPEAKER_00: Really?
SPEAKER_00: We got to go that far.
SPEAKER_00: I call Neil and kind of tell him what's going on.
SPEAKER_00: And dude, we love coming to Houston because we get to see Neil and Marcy and all the people that they introduce us to.
SPEAKER_00: And God is ever-present here.
SPEAKER_00: Through Neil and Marcy and the people that we get to meet through them, and how you guys are so generous.
SPEAKER_00: God's presence.
SPEAKER_00: If you're sitting out here today and you're struggling with who am I?
SPEAKER_00: You can start with is that, well, God is present in your life and you don't have to be fearful.
SPEAKER_00: You can start there.
SPEAKER_00: God says you don't have to fear.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know another way to put it to you, but maybe this is an analogy that helped for you, just how great God can be to take care of you.
SPEAKER_00: In recent weeks, God's allowed has prompted me and allowed me an opportunity to connect with a former student when I did student ministry years ago.
SPEAKER_00: Found out in recent weeks that what he's doing now is that he's on Navy.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, he's uh he's uh Navy SEAL team six.
SPEAKER_00: You guys have heard about some of the things they've been doing, right?
SPEAKER_00: Navy SIL Team Six.
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, so I just started immediately started asking questions, and he's like, well, I can't really confirm or deny any of that stuff.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, you're talking about some of the baddest guys on the planet.
SPEAKER_00: So we get to talking about his life, and he says, it was very interesting that I called when I called because he's like, you know, I've been thinking about God again in my life.
SPEAKER_00: And here you go, you call.
SPEAKER_00: I said, why are you thinking about God?
SPEAKER_00: And he goes, Well, I'm about to get married in June.
SPEAKER_00: I just, I just, we need to be connected to God together.
SPEAKER_00: I need, what would you have to say about marriage?
SPEAKER_00: So we've been trading messages back and forth, send him a care package of resources and stuff.
SPEAKER_00: We've been talking back and forth.
SPEAKER_00: And I was sitting here thinking, I was telling him about, you know, here's how to serve your wife and take care of her.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm thinking, I've never met her yet, but we're going to meet her sometime this summer when they come through town.
SPEAKER_00: But I was thinking, you know, if I were her, I would think, I would have no fear being married to this guy.
SPEAKER_00: What could ever happen to me?
SPEAKER_00: I got Navy SIL Team 6 lying in the bed next to me.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, you would you would think at least part of her identity would have no fear involved in it because of who she's connected to every day.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, what could possibly happen that he couldn't rescue her from?
SPEAKER_00: Same thing with God.
SPEAKER_00: You got better than Navy SIL Team 6 with you.
SPEAKER_00: You know what I'm saying?
SPEAKER_00: So God is ever present.
SPEAKER_00: We're not fearful.
SPEAKER_00: The next thing that God showed me was this is that He reminded me again that if you go with me to Jeremiah chapter 10, and we'll start moving kind of quicker.
SPEAKER_00: In Jeremiah chapter 10, starting with verse six.
SPEAKER_00: Jeremiah 10, starting verse six.
SPEAKER_00: No one is like you, O Lord.
SPEAKER_00: You are great, and your name is mighty in power.
SPEAKER_00: Who should not revere you, O King of the nations?
SPEAKER_00: This is your due.
SPEAKER_00: Among all the wise men of the nations and in all their kingdoms there is no one like you.
SPEAKER_00: They are all senseless and foolish.
SPEAKER_00: They are taught by worthless wooden idols.
SPEAKER_00: Hammered silver is brought from Tarsus, and gold up from Euphaz.
SPEAKER_00: What the craftsman and goldsmith have made is then dressed in blue and purple, all made by skilled workers, but the Lord is the true God.
SPEAKER_00: He's the living God, He's the eternal King.
SPEAKER_00: And one of the things God has been reminding me of again these last few weeks and months is that He says, I'm eternal.
SPEAKER_00: God is eternal.
SPEAKER_00: That means He's forever.
SPEAKER_00: Just forever.
SPEAKER_00: Try to get your head around that.
SPEAKER_00: Forever.
SPEAKER_00: God's eternal.
SPEAKER_00: And he offers us eternal life.
SPEAKER_00: But for this period of time that we live here, God is eternal, but he says, we were temporary residents here.
SPEAKER_00: Go with me to first Peter chapter two in the New Testament.
SPEAKER_00: In First Peter chapter two, verse nine.
SPEAKER_00: God's word says, But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God.
SPEAKER_00: That you may declare the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.
SPEAKER_00: Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God.
SPEAKER_00: Once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
SPEAKER_00: Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world.
SPEAKER_00: See, God's eternal, but we're temporary residents here.
SPEAKER_00: This is not our home.
SPEAKER_00: He goes, live as aliens and strangers in this world to abstain from sinful desires which wage war against your soul.
SPEAKER_00: Live such good lives among the pagans that though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.
SPEAKER_00: When we find out the news that boring a miracle from God, that I'm gonna die at some point.
SPEAKER_00: They don't know when, can't give us a timetable, but boring a miracle, it's gonna happen.
SPEAKER_00: But you start thinking, and you start, oh my gosh, oh my gosh.
SPEAKER_00: And then you start realizing, well, God's eternal.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: And he's giving me eternal life, and I have that.
SPEAKER_00: And now he says why you live here, God's eternal because we're temporary residents, which means that this is not your home.
SPEAKER_00: So the one big thing that he's been showing me about how to productively live is that live with urgency.
SPEAKER_00: This is not your home.
SPEAKER_00: Get ready for your home and get as many people as ready as possible to go with you.
SPEAKER_00: You know what I'm saying?
SPEAKER_00: And he goes, live as aliens and strangers in this world.
SPEAKER_00: This is not our temper, this is not our permanent home or temporary residence.
SPEAKER_00: So don't take up ownership here.
SPEAKER_00: And many times in our identity, we start thinking, well, my identity is wrapped up in what I own right now.
SPEAKER_00: I gotta have this, I gotta own this, I gotta own this, I gotta own this.
SPEAKER_00: And God says, you're just temporary residents.
SPEAKER_00: Live with urgency for the home that's permanent.
SPEAKER_00: The eternal home.
SPEAKER_00: Live as an alien and stranger in this world.
SPEAKER_00: This is not your home.
SPEAKER_00: Live with urgency.
SPEAKER_00: Take advantage of every opportunity you get, every restaurant you go to, every neighbor that you have.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't matter.
SPEAKER_00: Live with urgency.
SPEAKER_00: And when God, when I when I've been asking God, God, how long do I have?
SPEAKER_00: He hasn't given me an answer.
SPEAKER_00: He just keeps saying, live with urgency.
SPEAKER_00: Live that way.
SPEAKER_00: And I start thinking, well, we should all live like that.
SPEAKER_00: This is not our home.
SPEAKER_00: Live with urgency.
SPEAKER_00: Every opportunity you have, every relationship you have, take advantage of it.
SPEAKER_00: So that's what I've been trying to do.
SPEAKER_00: I could not have orchestrated the conversations I'm getting to have with people just because of what's going on with me.
SPEAKER_00: People I would have never thought about.
SPEAKER_00: That God would give me a chance to share my faith or to share Christ with or encourage them or whatever it is.
SPEAKER_00: It just happens all over the place.
SPEAKER_00: Whether it's nurses in ER rooms, whether it's you know players and coaches, you know, we're in the offseason and they're calling me going, hey, can you can I talk with you?
SPEAKER_00: I know what's going on with you.
SPEAKER_00: I have questions about my life.
SPEAKER_00: You know what I'm saying?
SPEAKER_00: Live with urgency.
SPEAKER_00: Take advantage of every shot you got today.
SPEAKER_00: You never know what God wants to do with it.
SPEAKER_00: And keep this in mind: when God's the potter and worthy clay, we don't dictate when he wants to shape us.
SPEAKER_00: We don't dictate the circumstances because in the Bible it teaches us that God's spirit moves like the wind.
SPEAKER_00: And how many of us can control the wind and predict the wind and tell you where it's going to go next?
SPEAKER_00: We don't.
SPEAKER_00: So when God prompts you, so like today, what I asked you at the very beginning, when God prompts you to do something, go do it.
SPEAKER_00: Because you're not guaranteed another prompting to do the same thing.
SPEAKER_00: When God prompts you, go.
SPEAKER_00: When God moves you, go.
SPEAKER_00: You're not in charge of your schedule and who you impact.
SPEAKER_00: God's a potter, we're the clay.
SPEAKER_00: He's shaping us.
SPEAKER_00: When he asks you to move, move.
SPEAKER_00: Now that'll make your heart beat fast.
SPEAKER_00: Because a lot of times when he's going to ask you to move, you're like, well, I didn't plan on that.
SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
SPEAKER_00: But he did.
SPEAKER_00: He'll make great things come of it.
SPEAKER_00: All day long.
SPEAKER_00: Today, maybe the issue for you today is who are you?
SPEAKER_00: And is it based on starting with who is God?
SPEAKER_00: I've told you today that God's the potter, you're the clay.
SPEAKER_00: God is ever present.
SPEAKER_00: You're not fearful.
SPEAKER_00: God is eternal.
SPEAKER_00: We're temporary residents.
SPEAKER_00: And there's hundreds of things in the scripture we could get to where God says, you know, He's the vine, we're the branches.
SPEAKER_00: He's the shepherd, we're the sheep.
SPEAKER_00: He's the father, we're the child.
SPEAKER_00: And that's a great one to kind of get connected to in your identity because how many of you guys like country music?
SPEAKER_00: Get your hands up, huh?
SPEAKER_00: I don't mean embarrassed.
SPEAKER_00: Here we go.
SPEAKER_00: You're in Texas.
SPEAKER_00: All right.
SPEAKER_00: Now there's a song out recently by Rodney Atkins called He's Mine.
SPEAKER_00: How many of you guys heard that song?
SPEAKER_00: You know what I'm talking about?
SPEAKER_00: If you haven't heard it, go look it up.
SPEAKER_00: It's a cool song about this father and son relationship, and toward the end it kind of talks about the father because his son's kind of been in some trouble.
SPEAKER_00: And the father goes, I'll take the blame.
SPEAKER_00: Because I'll claim him every time.
SPEAKER_00: Because he's mine.
SPEAKER_00: Is that I'll take the blame, I'll go to the cross.
SPEAKER_00: Because you're mine.
SPEAKER_00: I'll claim you every time.
SPEAKER_00: You're mine.
SPEAKER_00: And when that becomes part of your identity, when you recognize that God is Father and I'm his child, and he's taking the blame, and he claims me every time because he says you're mine, that I'll just motivate the heck out of you.
SPEAKER_00: See, when our identity is based in the scripture, when that alarm clock goes off every morning, boom, I'm up.
SPEAKER_00: Because I know who I am, because I know who God is.
SPEAKER_00: I know what he has in store for me.
SPEAKER_00: God is, you are.
SPEAKER_00: And you go through Scripture all the way through finding things like that.
SPEAKER_00: Just one of the passages we read earlier in 1 Peter chapter 2, it says, Hey, you're a holy nation.
SPEAKER_00: You're a people that belong to me.
SPEAKER_00: You're a royal priesthood.
SPEAKER_00: It's full of it.
SPEAKER_00: And I'll say this to you.
SPEAKER_00: The people that I get to spend time with that struggle in life, most of them they struggle because they're not locked in to what God says about them and who God is.
SPEAKER_00: They're basing their life on something else other than what God says about them and who God is.
SPEAKER_00: Every day, yeah, get up and start thinking, God is, we are.
SPEAKER_00: I'm just telling you a little bit what's going on with me.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, every day now I think God says I'm the pot or you're the clay.
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to shape you.
SPEAKER_00: Because I want to.
SPEAKER_00: And it's a good thing.
SPEAKER_00: Because I could not have, I could not have orchestrated all the people now that God is using me to share my faith with.
SPEAKER_00: I could not have orchestrated that.
SPEAKER_00: But God has.
SPEAKER_00: Who would have known he would have done it through cancer.
SPEAKER_00: So now I'm part of this club, I've been told.
SPEAKER_00: This cancer club.
SPEAKER_00: And some of you out there may have it.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you have your own trials, but God's shaping you.
SPEAKER_00: He's the potter, he's the clay.
SPEAKER_00: He's got something good for you because in these jars of clay, we have this treasure, this light that's powerful that God wants to use.
SPEAKER_00: I want to do that, not my own plan.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know what God has placed in your mind, but I'm going to encourage you to begin this journey of answering the question, who am I?
SPEAKER_00: And that'd be based on what God tells you about Scripture, about Himself.
SPEAKER_00: God wants to reveal Himself to you.
SPEAKER_00: Because then He wants to tell you who you are and have a life that just makes your heart beat fast.
SPEAKER_00: For me, here's how I've answered that question for years.
SPEAKER_00: Because long ago, God had me work through an identity statement.
SPEAKER_00: So when people ask me, who are you?
SPEAKER_00: I'm a redeemed child of God.
SPEAKER_00: Renewed every day in Christ, like Isaiah 40, 31 says.
SPEAKER_00: I can be renewed and sore on wings as eagles.
SPEAKER_00: I'm a redeemed child of God.
SPEAKER_00: And why child of God is so important to me is because my parents divorced when I was young.
SPEAKER_00: And I felt like no one wanted me.
SPEAKER_00: But God says, No, you're mine.
SPEAKER_00: He's mine.
SPEAKER_00: I'm a redeemed child of God, renewed every day in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Like Joseph of the Old Testament, my life is shaped by adversity.
SPEAKER_00: So when we got the news that I have cancer, it made sense.
SPEAKER_00: That's how he's always shaped me.
SPEAKER_00: Like Joseph, I'm shaped by adversity.
SPEAKER_00: And like Nehemiah, God has called me to build people.
SPEAKER_00: And God has given me more opportunities to build people the last few months than probably the previous four or five years.
SPEAKER_00: Who am I?
SPEAKER_00: I'm a redeemed child of God.
SPEAKER_00: Renewed every day in Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Like Joseph, the Old Testament, I'm shaped by adversity.
SPEAKER_00: And like Nehemiah of the Old Testament, I'm called to build people.
SPEAKER_00: Now, when you get asked that question, who are you?
SPEAKER_00: What are you gonna say?
SPEAKER_00: That statement drives me every day, motivates me every single day.
SPEAKER_00: Because God has made it clear about who He is, and therefore who am I?
SPEAKER_00: And that's how I live.
SPEAKER_00: So my prayer blessing over you today is this.
SPEAKER_00: My prayer is that God's word would be irresistible to you.
SPEAKER_00: The identity that He gives to you is irresistible to you.
SPEAKER_00: And that you will live with urgency and see the great power and redemption that God does in your life.
SPEAKER_00: I pray that that happens for you today.