Archive for the ‘Personal Development’ Category

They said to me, “Those who survived the exile and are back in the province are in great trouble and disgrace. The wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates have been burned with fire.” When I heard these things, I sat down and wept. For some days I mourned and fasted and prayed before the God of heaven.
Nehemiah 1:3-4

Countless people struggle with discerning what God has called them to do with their lives. This is true whether you’re in college and choosing a major, or in your mid-forties and wondering if you’re wasting your life on a job you barely want to wake up to, much less give your life to.

If you’re ever in this position, ask this question to help yourself:
What is the brokenness in the world that produces a brokenness inside of me?

For Nehemiah, it was his people’s condition and the broken down walls of Jerusalem. What is it for you?

Injustice?
People who are far from God?
Poverty?
The state of the educational system?
The lack of honor in our world?
Child abandonment?

What is broken down that breaks you down?

Once you’ve figured that out, your next step is simple: build it back up.
That was Nehemiah’s calling. And that’s your calling. To build up the brokenness that produces a brokenness inside of you. Neither brokenness will go away until you do.

For some of you, that will mean leaving what you’re doing and giving yourself completely to it. Starting a new career. Moving to a new country. Leaving the ministry and going to work for a church so that you can empower others in theirs (that sounds weird, but trust me, that’s how it’s supposed to work).

For others of you, it will mean you’ll keep doing what you’re doing but you’ll need to go about it with a brand new purpose. Open up your eyes to see that you’re not just collecting a paycheck. Be an agent of change at work or in your school where you already are.

Whatever it looks like, there’s definitely one thing God hasn’t called us to do: nothing. God hasn’t put us on this earth to have a front row seat to a broken down world. Or complain about how broken it is. He’s put us here to build it back up.

So let’s find our place. And get to work.

This entry was originally published on: March 3, 2011

Samuel’s word came to all Israel.
1 Samuel 4:1

That’s what we all want.

Sometimes for the right reasons. To build the Church.
Sometimes for the wrong ones. To build a crowd.

But I believe that ultimately, like Samuel, we should all want to see the Word of God flow through us to every possible person within our sphere of influence. Our entire city. Our entire country. Even the entire world.

If you’re a pastor and that’s not the desire of your soul, it’s time to find another line of work. If you’re not a pastor and it’s not the desire of your soul, it’s time to realign your perspective. Or your heart. Your profession is your pulpit. And it’s one that God wants to use to reach the people in your workplace that your pastor may never have an opportunity to preach to.

But there’s necessary groundwork that needs to be done first before God’s Word can flow through us. In the immediately preceding verse in chapter 3, it says:

The LORD continued to appear at Shiloh, and there he revealed himself to Samuel through his word.
1 Samuel 3:21

Samuel’s preparation was getting God’s Word to flow to him. God’s Word has to flow to us before it can flow through us. Before we reveal God to others, it’s essential to get a revelation of God for ourselves. And it has to happen through His Word. There are no shortcuts to 1 Samuel 4:1. You have to go through 1 Samuel 3:21 first.

Some people try. They skip to and try to go to through immediately. Their impact is minimal. Even if sometimes their numbers are great. Because then it’s just their word. And no one needs that.

In 4:1, it says that it was Samuel’s word that went out to all Israel. It sounds appealing. But it’s actually horrifying. Israel did not need Samuel’s word. They needed God’s.

And that’s just what they got. Samuel’s word was God’s Word. But only because 3:21 had happened. That’s why Samuel reached and changed the entire nation.

No ministry of any eternal significance throughout history has ever thrived without the Word flowing to it. None. Whether you’re a pastor, a business executive, or a temp, yours isn’t going to be the first.

So before you try to get the Word to flow through you, get it to flow to you. Do whatever you have to do.

Read your Bible for fifteen minutes a day.
Memorize the passage you’re preaching.
Go crazy and read through the Bible in 90 days.

Let the Word flow to you. You’ll be amazed at what happens when it then flows through you.

It is the glory of God to conceal a matter.
Proverbs 25:2

There’s a reason God’s will in specific situations is so difficult to know sometimes. There’s a reason that not everything is black and white. It can be difficult to discern God’s will for a lot of situations.

Who to date.
Where to go to college.
Who to marry.
Where to move.
What job to take.

And it’s not because you’re not praying. You’re probably praying a lot. It’s not because you don’t want to know His will. You probably aren’t lacking that desire.

But according to this verse in Proverbs, it’s because God conceals.
But why? After all, that seems counterintuitive to God’s purposes and using you in them.

The reason isn’t because God doesn’t want you to know His will. He wants you to know it more than you want to know it. God has something so much greater for you instead.

Him.

God’s not up in heaven hiding His will, hoping you’ll never be able to find it. But He does play hide and seek. He doesn’t just want us to find His will, He wants us to find Him in the process. Because if His will was in plain view, we would seek it instead of seeking Him.

That’s why he conceals it. That’s why it’s so hard.

The point isn’t for God to make His will plain. His will isn’t the main objective. He is the main objective. He wants you to discover Him above all else.

As you run after God and his good, pleasing, and perfect will, remember these two truths:

God isn’t the shortcut to your best life. He is your best life.
God doesn’t want to give you the guide for your life. He wants to be your Guide.

The scariest possibility for your life isn’t getting God’s will wrong. It’s getting God’s will right but barely coming to know God in the process.

You could love the right woman but lose your first love.
You could find the right career but then make it your god.

That’s why He doesn’t just write His will for you in the clouds. At the end of the process, He wants you to know something far greater than what you should do next with your life.

He wants you to know who He is.

*This post was adapted from Hide and Seek, originally posted February 16, 2011.

It’s inevitable. No matter what line of work you’re in or how much you love it. No matter how good you are at what you do. Sooner or later, you’re going to get into a funk.

It happens to everyone. The best authors experience seasons where they hate writing and are lucky to have one good sentence in a hundred pages. The most passionate musicians have days where they don’t even want to pick up their instrument.

While funks are unavoidable, we don’t have to resign ourselves to them. From my own experience, I have identified four responses we can take to combat being victims to these times of low inspiration.

1. Don’t extrapolate your future based on your funk. 
A natural tendency is to think that your funk is permanent. It’s a sign of a major change in performance or motivation that will never correct itself. It’s not. Don’t mistake momentary moods for permanent paradigm shifts. Your funk is only a small part of your story. Just turn the page and start your next chapter.

2. Give yourself the advice you’d give someone else.
Many times we know just what to say to other people when they’re in their own funks.

Go outside for a while. Escape from the prison of your own mind and emotions and do something nice for someone else.

And these things worked for them. That’s because they work for everybody.  Including you.

3. Don’t justify your funk.
Trying to find the source of your funk won’t make you feel any better about how you’re feeling. In fact, it will only lead you to wallow in self-pity, which does nothing but create a cycle of funks, which only leads to more self-pity and even deeper funks. If you let the same stories of funk repeat themselves, your overall story will never progress.

4. Work, don’t worry.
I’ve been saying this for a long time now—stop wasting time wondering whether or not your normal level of motivation will ever return. Work harder than ever, whether you feel like it or not. You can get back the motivation you didn’t have while working. You can’t get back the work you missed out on while you were waiting to feel motivated to do it.

If you’re in a funk right now, stay faithful to the work God has given you today. And praise Him the second your motivation catches up.

About two years ago, I completed a personal evaluation exercise in my journal. I wanted to uncover the 3 main factors that keep me from moving forward and embracing new paradigms in my life and leadership. In other words: why do I stay stuck?

From my journal to your computer screen, here’s my short list. I blogged it in 2009, but felt like it may be appropriate to share as we begin this new year…to help somebody go forward in God.

1. Complacency
Change is hard. Positive change is just as hard as negative change. Sometimes it’s easier to stay stuck than to move forward. Often it’s more comfortable to stick with something that’s tolerable and familiar than to embrace something that’s preferable and unknown.

2. Regret
I really don’t know how to explain this, except to say that my regrets often overpower my ambitions, causing me to remain in a state of paralysis. But I’m learning that there’s nothing productive about what I wish I would have done then, unless I use it to inform what I’m doing now.

3. Distraction
It’s hard to tell how many major adjustments I’ve avoided making because I was busy tending to insignificant side items. It’s tempting to divert attention from the big thing that God wants me to change by obsessing over something that ultimately doesn’t matter at all.

I don’t want to stay stuck. I don’t want the storyline of my faith to be eclipsed by a shift I was unwilling to make.

If you’re feeling stuck, as I so often do, here’s a prayer to pray today…

God, help me move forward at the speed of your direction and intention,
no matter how painful the transition may be.

As 2011 comes to an end, I’ve decided to revisit some of my top viewed blogs of this year. This post seemed to challenge and encourage people to act in faith. Check it out.

Shut Up and Get Moving

14 “The LORD will fight for you; you need only to be still.” 15 Then the LORD said to Moses, “Why are you crying out to me? Tell the Israelites to move on.”
Exodus 14:14-15

Exodus 14:14 is by far one of the most misinterpreted verses in the Bible.

Most of us, including myself, have looked at it as a faith infusing verse of what we should do when we need help or a breakthrough. When we’re looking for God to do something big. Or when we’re waiting to see God bring something into our lives.

Be still. Let the Lord fight the battle for you. Let go and let God.
In short, do nothing.

There’s just one problem with that: verse 15.

In verse 14 Moses tells the people that God will fight for them and to be still. But in verse 15 God comes in and immediately contradicts Moses. He doesn’t tell them to stand still. He tells them to shut up and get moving. Into the sea.

Moses was wrong. In isolation, verse 14 is wrong. Yes, God’s going to fight for them. But it won’t be while they’re standing there and doing nothing. It’s in the parted sea. It’s while they’re moving that God will be fighting.

Sometimes it can be easy to mistake patience for what’s really passivity.
Faith for what could be laziness. Or even faithlessness.

Sometimes it can be easy to think that we should stand still and cry out when God’s actually looking for us to shut up and get moving. Not to do everything on our own, obviously. But to realize that faith isn’t necessarily sitting and waiting for God to do everything on His own for you. God fights while you move.

For example, if you’re unemployed it isn’t faith for you to stay at home and watch the Price is Right while praying during commercial breaks and expecting God to throw a job into your lap. Faith is updating your resume. Getting your butt out the door. And applying for jobs. Let God fight for you in your job search.

You could apply this to pretty much every area of your life. Relationships. Finances. Major life decisions.

Faith isn’t passive. It’s active. If you don’t believe me, go read Hebrews 11. I defy you to find me one verse that says, “By faith, they watched.” It’s always by faith, they moved. By faith, they did.

That’s because faith is knowing who God is and acting accordingly.
And then watching Him act accordingly.

Looking back at 2011, I’ve decided to post some of my top viewed blog posts of the year that really seemed to make an impact in people’s lives. Check this out.

Stop the Hop

One of the things that really troubles me about the church today is the phenomenon of church hopping and church shopping. It’s a consumeristic mindset towards the body of Christ that grieves the heart of God.

It’s time for us to stop the hop. This isn’t Christianity. Jesus didn’t die so we could sample different churches like varieties of meat on a party platter. Jesus died to establish His church as the most powerful entity on the planet.

We are alive at the greatest time in history for the advance of the gospel. We have so much going for us.

We have the ability.
We have the resources.
We have the people.

What we don’t have is them committed to a place where they can actually be used for their God-ordained purpose.

If this generation doesn’t make the impact it should, it won’t be because it didn’t have the resources. Or even the passion. It will be because it was too busy hopping to different churches to stop and commit to one where its resources and passion could actually find an outlet.

The church is the change the world is waiting for. God help us if we keep the world waiting for us while we try to find the perfect church for us.

If you’ve fallen into the trap of church hopping, let me encourage you: embrace your place somewhere where God can use you. At the end of your life, God’s not going to be impressed or pleased that you saw what He was doing at ten different churches. He’s going be more pleased that you were a part of what He was doing at one church.

And you’re never going to find the perfect one, so give up looking. If the church you’re visiting doesn’t have what you’re looking for, it might be because God wants you to provide it.

Let’s all commit together to begin a campaign to stop the hop.
Find a place to get planted. Embrace it. And start changing the world.

The question of our day isn’t if God wants to do incredible things through the church. The question is will we be in place to experience it?

Whenever I get back from traveling to preach or do ministry in another city, I often tell our people a quote I heard a few years ago:
 Everywhere I am, you are.

What I’m saying is that even though they weren’t there with me physically, I wouldn’t be there without their investment in our ministry and my life. And so in a sense, they were there.

They were touching lives.
They were making an impact.
They were there with me. Doing ministry with me.

You see this same sentiment from Paul when he’s speaking to the Philippians and their investment into his ministry:
I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now… It is right for me to feel this way about all of you, since I have you in my heart; for whether I am in chains or defending and confirming the gospel, all of you share in God’s grace with me. (Philippians 1:3-5,7)

But I want you to know that this isn’t just true of pastors and ministries. It’s true of every person you invest in. Whether it’s your children, your boss, your staff, the people in your small group, or the waiter at your table.

Every person you encourage.
Every person you mentor.
Every person you’re generous towards.
Every person you believe in.
Everywhere they are, you are.

Let’s be people that other people thank God for every time they remember us and the deposit we’ve put into them. Let’s be people whose reach extends beyond ourselves because we have invested in other people beside ourselves.

Yesterday I wrote about a caveat I give to people who ask me about the mechanics of my relationship with God:
You need to find your own rhythm with God.

Today I want to give one caveat to my caveat:
It’s good to occasionally knock yourself off rhythm.

Athletic trainers will often tell you that you need to shock your body by varying up your training regimen. Otherwise your body will get stuck in a rut and your gains will be minimized, even though you’re still working hard.

In the same way, I think it’s good to occasionally shock your spiritual system by doing something outside your rhythm. Engaging in a spiritual practice that’s unfamiliar to you or simply varies up the routine you’re accustomed to.

If you’ve been in the New Testament for a while, spend some time going through the prophets. If you love free-form prayer, try praying according to a pre-set structure, or maybe even write out your prayers.

Fast.
Spend 24 hours in silence.
Read the Bible in 90 days.
Study one word of a verse per day.
You get the idea.

Find the God-given rhythm that works for you.
But don’t let that rhythm become a dull drumbeat of predictability.

I get asked all the time about how I approach my relationship with God. The specifics of how I pray, read the Bible, and other disciplines like that.

How often? How long?
Do I read an entire chapter at a time? A few verses? How do I choose what I read?
Do I have a set formula in prayer? Do I keep a prayer journal?
Etc. Etc.

I’m always glad to answer, but I’m also always quick to offer this one caveat:
You need to find your own rhythm with God.

When it comes to the mechanics of engaging with God through spiritual disciplines, I don’t think there’s a one-size-fits-all spirituality out there that suits every person. God has hardwired each of us so differently, with unique ways of learning, growing, and connecting with Him.

Some of you are morning people who don’t feel like you’ve really met with God if you’re not up at 4:00 a.m. with a cup of coffee in hand. Others of you are convinced that Jesus is more of a brunch kind of guy who doesn’t even answer prayers until after 9:30.

Some of you like to read whole chapters or books of the Bible at a time. Others of you like to focus on a verse or two at a time.

Some of you have to have marathon prayer sessions with God. Others of you work best in short 3-minute bursts.

Some of you prefer silence. Others of you prefer the Braveheart soundtrack in the background.

None of these are right. None of these are wrong.
None of these are good. None of these are bad.

They’re just different rhythms. Each of which might suit some people beautifully. Or feel like Saul’s suit of armor to others.

Don’t think you’re inferior if your rhythm is different.
Don’t think you’re superior if yours is different either.

There is no wrong rhythm with God. Except a non-existent one.
So find the rhythm that works best for you and get in sync with it.

A while back a friend of mine told me about a guy named, Sasha Dichter, that he had seen on a TED video. I want to introduce him to you today because I think he could radically change your life over the next 30 days.

Sasha does more to change the world in a week than many of us will in a lifetime.  Through his post directing the innovative non-profit Acumen fund, Dichter has investors all over the world pouring resources into parts of India, Pakistan and East Africa where the average income is less than $4 per day. They have a goal to make 100 million in investments, touching 50 million lives.

That’s amazing. But it isn’t the part of Sasha’s story that fires me up.

See, Sasha has spent much of his life saying ‘no’ to people, professionally and personally.  When you direct a large operation looking for maximum impact, saying ‘no’ goes with the territory. But after a while, it started getting to him. It seemed to clash with the generous nature his company was built on.

One night, everything changed. Just after boarding a train to go home, a man approached him saying he needed money. Sasha met him with the standard autoresponse ‘no’ he had become so efficient at providing. Only, it was the last ‘no’ he would say for the next 30 days. He went home, and before cooler heads could prevail, went public on his blog about his intentions.

A 30 Day Generosity Experiment. For 30 days, he would give money to anyone who asked of him. Whether that was his spare change, or millions of dollars of resources that his firm controls.

He knew everybody wouldn’t think this was a great idea.  He knew people would say giving to a guy on the train wasn’t the smartest way to give—that he should give to a homeless shelter instead.  But Dichter realized his generosity experiment was about him.  If he really wanted to see broken places and people in the world healed, he had to start by being more open himself, being willing to take risks. He was “tired of hiding behind what was smart instead of doing what was right.”

The experiment changed his life. Sasha now has a ‘yes’ bias to his calling that gives purpose to every encounter. He is trying to live life as a ‘yes man’ in response to the issues that grip his heart.

The vast majority of us aren’t about to venture into microfinance in the next 30 days. But we could learn a lot from the spirit of Sasha’s experiment. It could be life changing to make a commitment to God: God, for the next 30 days, if I see a need, emotional, physical, spiritual, financial, I’ll do my small part toward meeting it. I’ll start saying ‘yes’ to every prompting I feel from your Spirit within my sphere of influence instead of saying ‘no.’

A 30 Day ‘Yes’ Experiment.

How much difference do you think it would make in the world if you had that kind of availability to God? That kind of intentionality towards others?

I’ll answer that for you: it would make a huge difference. Consistent obedience, a heart that’s open to give God back everything he’s placed in your hands, is enough to change everything.

Make the commitment. 30 days. If you see a need, do as much as can to meet it. If you hear from God, say ‘yes.’ I can’t promise you’re going to end up changing 50 million lives. But I can promise you’ll change the lives of the people God wants you to.

And you’ll be changed in the process.

There’s a secret to listening to sermons that dramatically affects what you will get from them. I call it the perception principle.

I’ve preached about this before and share it with our staff regularly, but I’ve never blogged about it. I want to give it to you because I believe it will revolutionize the way you listen to sermons and exponentially increase their impact on you.

The perception principle goes like this:
I can only receive someone on the level that I perceive them.

This is true for God, and for every human relationship you have. The way you choose to see someone determines how you will treat them and how you will receive whatever they have to give you.

Negatively, this means that if you perceive your wife to be a nag, that’s the way she’s always going to sound to you. Even when she really isn’t being one. If you perceive your husband to be a loser, that’s how you’re going to receive him. No matter what he does.

Positively, it means that if you perceive someone to be wise, what they say will sound wise. And you’ll give it more weight. If you perceive someone to be ‘cool,’ everything they do will look cool.

Here’s how this matters when you’re listening to a sermon. How you perceive the person preaching will determine what you’re able to receive from them. And ultimately from God.

If all you see is a guy with good ideas and not a guy with a message from God, that’s all you’ll ever get. If you go into a sermon with an attitude of bless me if you can, you’re probably not going to be blessed. If you go in skeptical of every word, you’re probably going to find fault. And only find fault.

On the other hand, if you perceive your pastor to have a message for you from God, you’re probably going to be a lot more attentive and engaged. If you go into a sermon expecting to hear a word from God, you’re probably going to get one.

I’m convinced that what someone ‘gets’ from a sermon has nothing to do with the skill level of the person preaching. It’s how they perceive the person preaching. It’s how they decide to engage. When people tell me, ‘that’s the best I’ve ever heard you preach,’ I always want to respond: No, it’s the best you’ve ever listened.

I don’t care who your pastor is or who is preaching to you. Whether their podcast is downloaded by millions or their sermons are heard by five people, the principle is the same. Perceive them to have a message from God for you, and that’s what you’ll get.

Show up ready to hear from God, and don’t be surprised when you do.

It is a sabbath of rest, and you must deny yourselves; it is a lasting ordinance.
Leviticus 16:31

Yes, I did open the blog up today with a verse from Leviticus. But the verse lines up with the idea behind Labor Day, so it fits.

God equates rest with denying yourself. That’s kind of weird because denying yourself is usually something we don’t like. We associate it with not being able to do things we want or love to do. Who wouldn’t like a day off? It actually sounds like you’re indulging yourself.

How exactly are you denying yourself by not working? You’re denying yourself the illusion that you have to work to keep the world working. And the truth is, that’s a hard illusion for many of us to let go of. We’ve been programmed to believe that everything rises and falls on our own productivity. That maybe God even needs us to keep going to get done what He wants to get done.

But the truth is, He doesn’t.

Have you ever considered the fact that God is ok with the fact that you are asleep for 1/3 of your life? And therefore useless to Him for 1/3 of your life? Yet none of His purposes are thwarted. I’m pretty sure He’s ok with you taking a Sabbath every week. And even an extra Monday off once a year in September. The world will keep working. God’s purposes will not be put on hold.

So enjoy your Labor Day. Spend some time with your family. Watch a movie. Enjoy the things you work so hard to have but never have the time to actually enjoy.

Take advantage of your day off today.
Then get back at it hard tomorrow.

All of us have problems. Few of us ever take the time to put those problems in perspective.

So God will sometimes do it for us. Every once in a while you’ll have experiences in your life that will reshape your paradigm and perspective forever.  Irreversibly.  I had one of those in Cuba in 2004.

I was on a short-term mission trip and was assigned to work with a pastor named, Daniel. His church was not very big but he had given up everything that he had to move to an impoverished island off of mainland Cuba. He makes $12 a month. Drives a moped 15-20 miles just to minister to people. And in the short time that I was there, he wore the same clothes almost every day.

BUT he loves his kids, loves his wife, and is winning half the island he lives on to Jesus Christ. He couldn’t be happier. Really. He even told me once not to feel sorry for him. Why? In Daniel’s own words:
In America you have stuff and trust in your money. We trust in God. You think that a man can be elected and save the world. We know better. So do not feel sorry for us. We feel sorry for you.

Try responding to that.

Daniel has learned something we all need to. He’s learned it’s more about your mindset than it is about your money. It’s more about your perspective than about your problems.

After spending some time with Daniel, I see my problems differently. Now, any time I’m tempted to feel sorry for myself or complain, I tell myself, try telling that to Daniel in Cuba.

I encourage you to do the same. It will give you a quick perspective check.

I don’t make enough money.
Try telling that to Daniel in Cuba.
$12 an hour vs. $12 a month.

I have to buy a used car because I can’t afford a new one.
Try telling that to Daniel in Cuba.
You could be driving a moped.

My clothes are so last season.
Try telling that to Daniel in Cuba.
He’s wearing the same clothes he did last Monday.

I (insert problem)…

Try telling that to Daniel in Cuba. Who despite the fact that he has bigger problems than most of us will ever have, chooses to not even see them as problems at all.

That’ll help us put our so-called problems in their proper perspective.

There’s a lot of different strategies that the enemy uses to get us off track in our walk with God. But I think one of the enemy’s greatest tactics is a sequence I call, yesterday, today, and tomorrow.

Here’s how it works. The enemy gets you to think about your past, present, and future in these three ways:
Yesterday – Remember when.
Today – Live for now.
Tomorrow – Do it later.

The enemy wants to keep us stuck in yesterday. And so the way the he talks to us is by saying, “remember when.” In other words, the enemy comes to you and tries to get you stuck in yesterday’s memories. Dependent on yesterday’s successes. Reminded of yesterday’s failures.

Or the enemy will get you stuck in today. He’ll tell you: “live for now.” It’s all about present pleasure and satisfaction. Like Esau, the enemy will get you to sell your birthright for a bowl of beans. Trade something far better later for something inferior now. Maybe it’s by having sex before marriage. Or selling out on your God-given dream because there’s an easier path you can take right now.

And then there’s tomorrow. The enemy will tell you to live for now, but when it comes to the great things God wants you to do, he urges you to “do it later.” Delay your obedience.

If you’re not careful, you can easily fall prey to this yesterday, today, and tomorrow sequence. And your growth in God and what He has for you will be paralyzed.

Here’s how I think God wants to flip the script and have you look at it from an eternal perspective:
Yesterday – Remember who.
Today – Live for later.
Tomorrow – Do it now.

Whereas the enemy says “remember when” about your past, God says, “remember who.” Don’t stay stuck in yesterday’s success. Instead look at yesterday’s success and remember the God who gave you yesterday’s success. Or who can help you overcome yesterday’s failure. Take David’s cue and recall God’s past faithfulness so you can forge on into your future endeavors.

For the last two elements of the sequence, rearrange the enemy’s thinking. Where the enemy says “live for now, do it later,” God’s says “live for later, do it now.” Instead of living for the moment that you can see and the pleasures that you can touch, live in the present with a visionary mindset about your choices, realizing that your present bad decisions affect your future possibilities.

And instead of deferring obedience, obey now. Don’t live in the land of lofty aspirations. Whatever God tells you to do, do it. Immediately.

Refuse to look at yesterday, today, and tomorrow from the enemy’s perspective. As often as you have to, tell yourself:
Remember who (not when). Live for later (not now). Do it now (not later).

Right memory. Visionary mindset. Immediate obedience.
Yesterday. Today. And tomorrow.

I think one of the greatest hindrances to the development of our full potential is the curse of the immediate and the obvious.

We’ve conditioned ourselves to believe that the best wisdom, the best way of life, the best anything, really, is something that you can recognize right away. Or is helpful to you right away.

I call it the pearl of wisdom way of thinking.
Think of the expression, a pearl of wisdom. A saying or sentence that immediately and succinctly sounds true. That’s what we want. Pearls of wisdom. Or really, just pearls, period. Things that have immediate and obvious value and impact.

A marriage that you can put on the shelf and show off.
A job where everything is always easy.
A church with supersonic growth from day 1.

The problem is that God doesn’t always work that way. God will sometimes give you pearls, and when He does, be thankful. But from my experience, God’s wisdom and God’s work usually comes in the form of a seed, not a pearl.

A seed has to go into the dirt to develop. It takes time. It doesn’t have the obvious value that a pearl does. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t significant. A pearl may have immediate and obvious value, but a seed has latent and potential power. It doesn’t look like much immediately, but over time its true worth shows itself.

So:
Maybe you go through a rough season in your marriage.
Maybe you’re reassigned at work to a department where your talents aren’t used to their full potential.
Maybe your church is just barely puttering along.

And your first thought is that maybe you’ve made a mistake and it’s time to bail. Maybe it’s no longer God’s will for you to be in the marriage. At the job. In your church. Maybe you’re just not cut out for this.

Maybe.

Or maybe your problem is that you’re looking for a pearl. God, on the other hand, is trying to give you a seed in the form of the experiences He is giving you. The opportunities He is putting before you. The challenges He is throwing at you.

Maybe if you would just wait and let that seed sprout, what you’re going to come away with will be better than the pearl you’re looking for. Maybe God has something better for you on the other side – a marriage that can go the distance, a better appreciation for your job, a stronger church – that you’ll only get if you’ll just be patient and let the seed come to life.

Don’t uproot what God is trying to plant in you. Don’t just wait for a pearl that you can set on a shelf. Let God put the seed in the ground. And let Him grow it in His time. Believe me, you’ll love the harvest when it finally comes.

Going a little farther, he fell to the ground and prayed that if possible the hour might pass from him. “Abba, Father,” he said, “everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.”
Mark 14:35-36

It’s interesting that Jesus can still call God, “Abba, Father,” considering what’s coming. After all, the cup that He’s asking God to take from Him only involves…

Getting beat within an inch of His life.
Having thorns jammed into His skull.
Having the flesh ripped off His back.
Nails being driven through His body.
And bearing the wrath of His Father.

This doesn’t exactly sound like the kind of loving, protective person that you’d want to call, ‘father.’ Yet Jesus does.

I think it’s because Jesus knows His Father better than we do. He knows a truth we have to keep in mind if we don’t want to become jaded when we’re experiencing seasons of suffering and pain. And it’s even something all parents should keep in mind as well:

God is a protective father. But he’s not overprotective.

Overprotective fathers try to keep their children from ever getting hurt. They shield them from anything that could potentially harm them or bring them any measure of emotional distress. As a result, their children are ill-prepared for the realities of life. And the growth of their character is stunted.

While no parent likes to see their kids in pain – even when it’s a minor thing – any good parent knows that pain is unavoidable. It’s the soil in which the seed of anything good and lasting grows.

That alone would probably be enough, but God isn’t overprotective for yet another reason. He doesn’t just let us experience pain because it develops us. God allows His children to feel pain because He can use it for a purpose.

He allowed Joseph to spend over 13 years in slavery and prison so He could save a nation and His people.
He allowed the early church to be persecuted so the gospel would spread outside Jerusalem.
He allowed Jesus to take the cup and suffer for our salvation.

God is more concerned about preserving His purposes than preventing our pain. He’s not overprotective. But we also need to know that even our pain can be used for His purposes. And therefore be redeemed. He’s very protective.

That’s what made Jesus be able to say, “Not my will, but yours be done” in His darkest hour. It’s what makes you able to say it in your darkest hours, too.

A man’s wisdom gives him patience; it is to his glory to overlook an offense.
Proverbs 19:11

We’ve all experienced it. You’re on your computer and a program, usually from Microsoft Office, encounters a problem and has to close. And then a little message appears on your screen:
Do you want to ignore this problem or report it?

I vividly remember a time when this happened to me in college. I was working on a project and the program I was using crashed. And then the message appeared: ignore or report? I got angry and wanted to report the problem. My roommate, who knew way more about computers than I ever will, stopped me and said:
“What’s the point in reporting it? It’s not worth your time. You’re still going to be angry about it after you’ve pushed that button. It’s not going to fix what happened to you. And it’s probably not even going to fix the problem for the future. Just click ignore.”

He was right. And recently I’ve come to see that this same line of wisdom is true about many of the wrongs that are done to us in our lives.

When an offense comes in your life, you have a choice to either click ignore or report. To let it go or hold onto it. Our first instinct is usually to report it. But here’s what you need to know before you do that. Reporting the problem may not fix the problem. It probably won’t even make you feel better. All you’re doing is giving oxygen to an offense that should have been taken off life support long ago.

Now there are definitely times where you need to address things. There are serious offenses that should be reported. And I don’t just mean to the people who did them to you. But to the police. Immediately. Things like abuse, rape, or serious wrongs along the same lines.

But there are also offenses that we need to overlook. Wrongs that in the grand scheme of our lives aren’t really worth the time and energy it will take to address them. I’d probably argue that 80% of the things that are done to us fall into this category. And we have a choice with them. We can either waste our time and report them, or ignore them and move on.

The more you refuse to be offended, the less power you give to the wrong people and the wrong offenses. Forgiveness is strength. So someone hurt you…failed you…turned on you…I dare you to release them from the offense. Click ignore.

It will set YOU free.

A common phrase you often hear from people is, “I don’t do details.” Usually they mean they’re more big picture people. They don’t like to get bogged down in minutiae.

In His own way, God doesn’t do details either. At least when it comes to His commands to people in the Bible. In fact, He can often be painfully vague.

He told Abraham simply, “Go to the land I will show you.”
When He beckoned Peter to walk on the water, He simply said, “Come.”
On His command Moses to free the Israelites from the most powerful nation in the world, He merely commanded him, “Go, I am sending you to Pharaoh.”

God didn’t use any detail. He didn’t lay out a step-by-step plan. He just issued the command and expected obedience.

Sometimes people wanted more detail. Moses wanted to know how it was going to happen. What should he tell the people? But God didn’t fill in much detail here either.
I will be with you.
Tell them, I AM has sent me to you.

That helps.

On the one hand, you would think God was kind of winging it. On the surface, it would seem that His plan was just to deal with the details as they came about. And that’s not very reassuring. Not when you’re being asked to step out on faith.

On the other hand, when you read on in the stories, God had every detail covered. Abraham’s journey. The plagues. The Red Sea. Even Peter’s ability to walk on water. And that’s very reassuring.

God is extremely meticulous. He is all about the details. Far more than you’ll ever be. He has everything already figured out. Every pitfall and possibility accounted for. Every detour arranged to get you to your final destination.

So God definitely does the details in terms of His plan and working it out.
But God doesn’t do the details in terms of what He communicates to you.

That’s because He knows there are some details you’re simply not ready for.
And ultimately it’s because He’s more interested in your full obedience than your full understanding.

Don’t worry. God has every detail in your life covered.
He just doesn’t need you to know them first to follow Him faithfully.

Eli’s sons were wicked men; they had no regard for the Lord…they were treating the Lord’s offering with contempt. But Samuel was ministering before the Lord.
1 Samuel 2:18

A difficult situation for any Christian is when they find themselves working under ungodly leadership. Or in an ungodly environment.

This can be true in your business.
Unfortunately, sometimes even in your church.

The hard thing is knowing what you should do.
Should you leave?
Should you put forth your best effort?
Is it even possible to serve God faithfully in this kind of situation?

Samuel found himself in this kind of dilemma. Eli’s sons were abusing their priestly duties. And Eli was doing nothing about it. It wasn’t the ideal situation to serve God in. But it was the situation Samuel found himself in.

What’s interesting is that when Samuel enters the story, there’s no comment about his attitude towards his leaders. No hint that he wrestled with what he should be doing. It simply states that unlike Eli’s sons, Samuel was ministering before the Lord.

He was simply doing what God had called him to do.
He was doing what he was supposed to be doing.

I think that should encourage you. You can serve God acceptably under ungodly leadership. Like He did with Eli and his sons, God is going to deal with your leader and coworkers in one way or another. In the meantime, focus on your own faithfulness.

Are there times when it’s acceptable to leave? Of course. But the conditions you’re working in don’t have to be perfect for you to do what you should be doing. God isn’t going to judge you based on the faithfulness of the leader you serve under. Or the people you work around. He’s going to judge you based on your faithfulness to what He has called you to do.

So regardless of what kind of working situation you find yourself in today, go do it. And do it as if you’re ministering before the Lord. Because you are.

Paul and his companions traveled throughout the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been kept by the Holy Spirit from preaching the word in the province of Asia.
Acts 16:6

The Holy Spirit prevented them from preaching the Word.

This doesn’t seem to go together. The Holy Spirit is the one who inspired the Word. He’s the one giving them the power to preach the Word. But now He is keeping them from preaching the Word?

The key here is that little phrase, “in the province of Asia.” Paul wanted to go to Asia to preach the Word. It was one of his goals, his dreams. And in a few chapters, he would. But not now. Instead the Holy Spirit stopped him and led him to other cities to preach first. And the response was incredible.

Sometimes God will prevent us from a certain goal at a time that does not coincide with His will. It’s not that we’re not doing what’s right. It’s just that we’re not doing it with the right timing.

He’s not saying not ever. He’s just saying not now.

Maybe it’s because we’re not yet equipped for it.
Maybe it’s because the eventual environment God is going to have us in isn’t fully developed yet.

Whatever the reason, you’re not ready for it. Or it’s not ready for you.  You always have to remember: what you think is good timing is not always God’s timing.

If you feel like your dreams are stalling or your goals are in a holding pattern, don’t assume you’ve made a mistake and it’s not going to happen. Paul eventually went to Asia. You’ll eventually get to your goal or dream too.

In the meantime, you’ll just have to trust that if God is preventing you from getting somewhere, it’s because you’re exactly where you need to be. For now.

If you look throughout the Bible, you’ll notice a striking trend:
God has an affinity for the overlooked and unlikely.

He likes to take somebody that no one else has noticed and raise them up. He likes to take somebody who’s felt a little underwhelmed by their own personality and appearance and overwhelm the world with how great He can make them by His glory and for His glory.

Noah.
Abraham.
Moses.
David.
The disciples.
Paul.

Fewer people were ever more unlikely to be used by God powerfully. And few people have ever been used by God more powerfully.

But then you have people like Uzziah. An incredibly able and successful king in Israel who enjoyed the favor of God for a season. He won countless battles. Built numerous buildings. But then in one of the most haunting and terrifying verses in the Bible, everything turned:
His fame spread far and wide, for he was greatly helped until he became powerful. But after Uzziah became powerful, his pride led to his downfall (2 Chronicles 26:15-16).

It seems like the more human resources of human power you accumulate, the less likely you are to see the miracle power and potential of God in your life. And that’s because the likelier you become, the more unlikely it will be that God will get the glory due Him.

Now that’s only bad news if you’re perfect. But if you feel under resourced to do what you know God’s called you to do through your life, that’s good. If you feel like you don’t have the education you should have, that’s good. If you feel like the town you’re from would make Nazareth look like a booming metropolis, that’s good.

You are at the top of His list as a kingdom candidate for kingdom usefulness.

When all the smoke clears and the dust settles in your life, if you’re overlooked and unlikely, then everybody has to blame God. Everybody has to blame Jesus. Everybody has to look to Him because it only could have been Him. And that’s a good place to be.

Don’t become too likely. Jesus likes using the unlikely.

There’s a simple exercise that can reorient your perspective for any struggle or temptation you’ll ever face.

One of Satan’s greatest weapons is to get you stuck in the moment. The moment of your pain. Your trial. Your temptation. He freeze-frames your current situation and makes you forget everything that you have to gain from it. Or everything that you have to lose from it.

When you face these situations, the best thing you can do is get out of the freeze frame and fast forward to the end. Take a moment and play it out.

Play out your struggles:
If I suffer…I’ll get more reward.
If I experience pain…it’s not worth comparing to the glory awaiting me.
If I die…I’ll be with Christ.

Or on the negative side, play out your temptations:
If I do something unethical…I’ll lose my job.
If I look at porn…I’ll lose my ability to see God clearly.
If I have an affair…I’ll lose my family.

Yes, it’s simple. But it can make a profound impact on nearly every circumstance you’ll ever face in life.

Start taking your situations or temptations to their conclusion. See what incredible possibilities might be in store for you because of Jesus. Or what horrible ones might be in store for you if you neglect Him. There’s more potential in your pain than you can possibly imagine. There’s also more travesty that can come out of your temptation than you can possibly understand.

Don’t let the limited perspective of a moment dictate your life. When you find yourself in a moment of struggle or temptation, stop for a moment. Play it out. And then move forward towards the conclusion God wants for you.

Nobody likes boundaries. Fences.

They’re constraining. They give us a line we can’t cross. They cut against the grain of our culture that says the best life is one in which we can say whatever we want. Have sex with whomever we want. Cheat whomever we want. Essentially, do whatever we want. As long as it makes us happy.

Basically, we feel like boundaries limit our freedom. And freedom is everything.

It seems to make sense. And on the face of it, it is kind of true: boundaries constrict us. But this viewpoint also ignores an ironic, but essential truth:
Fences bring freedom.

This is obvious enough in real life. A few years back we put a fence in our backyard for Elijah and Graham. The purpose wasn’t to keep them in. It was actually to keep what could harm them out. Did the fence set a boundary they couldn’t go past? Yes. But it also gave them the freedom to play in the yard and enjoy what was theirs.

In the same way, boundaries give us the ability to enjoy the blessings of God in our lives. A lot of times we think that God puts fences up in our lives and puts things off limits in order to keep us captive. He just wants to limit our happiness. But in effect, He is giving us the ability to enjoy what He has given us. He is actually trying to put us in a position where we can be happy.

For example, the reason God doesn’t want us to have sex before marriage isn’t because He doesn’t want us to experience pleasure. It’s because He wants us to experience the unique pleasure of completely giving ourselves over to another person in purity.

I think the reason we have a problem with boundaries is that our operating mindset is “how far can I go?” rather than “how free can I be?” The first mindset has its eyes on getting as close to the border of God’s blessings as possible. The second mindset has its eyes on actually enjoying them.

We claim we want freedom, but we don’t. Freedom isn’t having the ability to do anything you want. Freedom is being able to enjoy what you have.

God has already given us everything we need to be happy in this life. We’ve got a bigger yard than anyone else in the world. The fences are just there to make sure we have something to enjoy.

Boundaries are a blessing, because what we value, we protect.
So stop focusing on and resenting the fences that God has put around you.
And start doing what they’re there to enable you to do:
Play in the yard.

The most important skill that you’ll ever develop as a human being is the skill of hearing God. Knowing His voice. Being able to discern what He wants you to do in any given situation.

But that’s easier said than done. In a world full of competing voices and distractions, it can be hard to tell what God’s voice sounds like. It can be easy to mistake it for something else.

It reminds me of watching a movie in surround sound. Every time a phone rings, I usually think my phone is ringing. Sometimes it is. And sometimes it isn’t. When you’re surrounded by sound it’s simply hard to tell what noises are real and what noises are not.

We have the same dilemma in hearing from God. We live life in surround sound. Most of us operate at a near frantic pace. We’re surrounded by literal noise all day long. We hear messages that directly compete with what God is trying to tell us. And in the midst of this environment, it can be hard to tell what’s God’s voice and what’s the voices of others.

Right here is where I might come in and say something like, “the problem is you need to turn off your surround sound so you can hear God’s voice.” But I won’t say that. Because surround sound is the world we live in.

In other words, we can complain all day that our lives are really busy. That there’s too much noise. But guess what, that’s not changing. Yes, we can and should hit the off button on the surround sound and periodically take breaks by spending time in silence or taking a vacation. But these are short-lived moments at best. After they’re over, we’re right back to the 95% of our life that is spent in surround sound. With real noise, real demands, and real distractions. And it’s the place we really need to hear from God.

Many Christians think that in order to hear God, they need to spend a week in the mountains. Or maybe go real crazy and take a short-term vow of silence at a monastery.

I have news for you, the same God who speaks in the mountains and monasteries is also speaking to you in the middle of your crazy, noisy day.  If we want to hear from God, we’re simply going to have to learn to be able to filter out all of the noise and all of the static and tune into God’s frequency.

Don’t confine yourself to the mountains or the monastery. God is speaking to you in the middle of you surround sound life. Even today. Even right now.

Yes, it’s difficult. But that fact should not lead you to think it’s impossible to discern God’s voice in the midst of all the noise around you.

It should lead you to tune in and pay attention more than ever.

I was recently listening to a pastor I love and respect talk about childlike faith and how the Bible teaches us that we need to be like children. You get this from verses like Matthew 18:3:
I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

I was flowing with him. But then I also started thinking about all those verses where we’re told to be mature. Verses like Hebrews 5:13-14:
Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. But solid food is for the mature.

That seems a little bit contradictory. We’re supposed to be like children. But we’re also supposed to grow up and be mature. How do we handle this tension?

Here’s where I’ve landed:
Be a childlike grownup.

When it comes to your faith and your prayers, be naïve. Never lose your sense of wonder. Never get to the point where you know better. Always come before God with the belief that He’s your Father and is ready, willing, and able to do anything you need Him to. That the only limit to His power is your ability to believe Him for it.

But when it comes to things like your decisions, your ambitions, and what offends you, be a grownup. Continually increase your responsibility. Continually grow in wisdom. Make sure the development of your character keeps pace with the advancement of your years.

Far too many Christians have equated maturity with what is really cynical unbelief.
Far too many Christians have equated childlike faith with what is really juvenile immaturity.

While increasing in your maturity, never decrease in your faith. Or vice versa.
Do what the Bible tells you. Increase in both.

Be a childlike grownup.

Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.
Colossians 3:13

Forgiveness is one of the most central and essential elements of the Christian life. And it’s also one of the most difficult.

I think one of the biggest stumbling blocks to forgiving other people is the feeling that they need to express remorse or repentance before it’s possible. What they did was wrong. Unjust. Maybe even brutal. And they need to admit it and ask for my forgiveness before I can give it.

It sounds logical. Fair even.
But it completely misses the heart of forgiveness.

Forgiveness doesn’t start with the other person. It starts with you and Jesus.

Forgiveness is far more about your response to the gospel than it is about the repentance of the person who hurt you. It’s about believing that the cross of Jesus Christ is a sufficient payment. Not only for everything you’ve done. But also for everything that’s been done to you. It’s about daring to believe the sometimes scary but unchangeable truth: Jesus Christ loves and died for the person who hurt you just as much as He loves and died for you. No exceptions.

Repentance isn’t the necessary prerequisite to forgiveness. Jesus’ blood is. This truth sets you free to rid yourself of the weight of what’s been done to you. Their sin against you has already been punished on the cross. There’s no need to punish yourself by carrying it any further while waiting for them to make the first move.

Reliving what someone did to you won’t make it better. Hating them won’t make it better either.

The person that’s really being hurt by you withholding your forgiveness isn’t the offender. It’s you. Refusing to forgive someone until they ask for it is like refusing to breathe to prove a point.

It is only going to harm you in the end.

Today we’re wrapping up our short series on signs that we still don’t get it. I hope it has been helpful for you. If you’ve found that you still don’t get it in different aspects of your walk with God, don’t beat up on yourself too much.

Neither did the disciples. But Jesus stuck with them, and eventually it clicked. Jesus is far more patient with you than you’ll ever be with yourself. He’ll help you get it. And He’ll stick with you until you do.

Here are the final two signs:

3. You’re still driven by the approval and affirmation of others.

You’ve made yourself believe:
If I get another promotion.
If I buy another pair of shoes.
If I have sex with another person.
If I do another favor.
If I lose another size…

…They will approve of me.

Or:
If he would just tell me I’m beautiful.
If my husband would just notice me.
If my coworkers would just acknowledge my contribution.
If anyone would just affirm who I am and what I do…

…My life would be complete. My life would have meaning.

But it’s not true. The affirmation you want will always be just beyond you. The approval you crave will only last for a moment. You’ll have the thing you thought you needed, but you won’t feel the peace you thought you’d feel. And as I’ve said before, he who lives by the approval of others will die by the absence of the same.

Many people spend most of their lives trying to achieve the approval that can only be received. Stop trying to chase down from people what God has already given to you in Jesus. Instead live life with the knowledge that in Jesus, you’re already affirmed. You’re already approved of.

When you have the approval of your Father, you don’t have to prove yourself to anyone.

4. You’re still trying to put God first.
I know, it sounds weird. Shouldn’t this be the exact thing you should still be trying to do?

On the surface, of course we should. Jesus is supreme over everything. He is first in importance. And so in that sense, we should always be trying to put Him first in our lives.

But my question is, what does this actually look like when you get down to the grind of everyday life? For example, what does it even mean to put Jesus first before my family? Do I ignore my family to spend more time with Jesus? Or with my career, do I stop working to put Jesus first?

In many people’s honest attempt to put God first in their lives, they end up segregating Jesus from the different priorities of their lives. And this is the exact opposite of what Jesus wants. He doesn’t just want to be first before your priorities. He wants to be first in them. The center of them.

Don’t worry about putting God first, then your family. Put God first in your family.
Or God first, then your career. Put God first in your career.
Or God first, then your finances. Put God first in your finances.

If you do that, you won’t have to worry about trying to put God first in your life. He already will be. The thing that is at the center of your life is the thing that is ultimately first in your life.

High mountains can be just as difficult and challenging as low valleys.

Most people tend to associate difficult times in their lives with the idea of being in a valley. Maybe it’s a time of depression. Maybe you’ve lost your job or are struggling financially. Maybe your job performance is just suffering. Or maybe you have neglected your walk with God and now you feel distant.

And it’s true. These seasons are hard. Terribly hard. You don’t know if there will ever be a light at the end of the tunnel. And if it’s coming, it can’t come quickly enough.

But there’s a truth no one ever seems to mention: climbing the mountain is also challenging. The light at the end of the tunnel isn’t a mountaintop you suddenly arrive at with no work involved. It’s the base of the mountain that you now have to climb. And one that you’ll always be climbing.

The times of success in your life and the times when God is blessing you can be just as challenging as the times in the valley. Just in a different way, because now you’re going uphill.

And even when you make it to the so-called mountaintop, it isn’t easy there either. For example, this past Christmas, we saw over 1100 people receive Christ in three days. A definite mountaintop. And then we had to follow up with them and maintain our momentum to reach even more people. Still challenging.

Here’s the truth we want to avoid at all costs:
It’s all hard.

The valleys and the mountains. The low points and getting to the high points and staying at the high points. In the valley you’re trying to survive. And in the mountains you’re trying to thrive. Neither is a walk in the park.

That’s not very encouraging. So why share it?

Because it’s reality. Because it confronts an inane line of thinking that many of us cling to: that life is going to one day get to the point where it’s easy. If that’s what we’re waiting for, we’re going to be waiting a long time.

The goal of life isn’t to make it to a point where we can breathe easy. It’s to get to heaven breathless. Tired because we’ve been faithfully and passionately following God – through valleys and mountains.

So yes, it’s always hard. But our reward in the future makes it worth it. We’ll rest then. And we’ll push on now.

Besides, God is doing more in you and through you in your mountains and valleys than you can possibly imagine. That alone should give you joy. No matter where you’re at.

When Jesus asked the disciples what people were saying about him, they gave a laundry list of responses.
But then Jesus turned the question on them:
But what about you? Who do you say that I am?
Matthew 16:15

For Jesus, what other people say never has the final word. And so the question He’s always asking us in the midst of conflicting messages that we hear about God and ourselves is, can you see beyond what people say? Can you look past that to what God has said?

Peter could:
16 Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” 17 Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven.

And his life was never the same. He became the leader of the early church and left his mark on the Kingdom and the world forever.

Similarly, if you’re going to accomplish great things for God, you’ve got to see beyond what people say.

Can you see beyond what people say about God to what He has actually said about Himself?

Can you see beyond what people say about your limitations to the fact that you serve a God who doesn’t even have that word in His vocabulary? To the God whose capability doesn’t rise and fall with your own inability?

Can you see beyond what people say about your dreams and plans to the God who has actually given them to you and is fully competent to bring them to pass?

Can you see beyond what your own insecurities are saying about you to the God who has given you everything you need to accomplish everything He’s asked you to do? To the God who knew about your weaknesses, hangups, fears, and baggage long before He ever called you, but called you anyways?

Can you see beyond what people say?
Answer carefully. Your response to that question will determine the entire trajectory of your life.

Before you freak out about the title, follow me to the end.

You can take a cursory look through the New Testament and come to the conclusion that for Jesus, it wasn’t about Him:

He had that attitude coming into the world.
6 Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, 7 but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.
Philippians 2:6-7

He had that attitude while He was in the world.
28 The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.
Matthew 20:28

And shockingly, He even has that attitude about when the world ends.
37 It will be good for those servants whose master finds them watching when he comes. I tell you the truth, he will dress himself to serve, will have them recline at the table and will come and wait on them.
Luke 12:37

Yes, everything is for Jesus’ glory. But Jesus gets His glory by being a servant and a giver.

So the title of this post isn’t what scares, angers, intrigues or confuses you. It’s something deeper than that. Something that you’ve known deep down all your life but haven’t wanted to embrace.

There’s a harder truth to get your mind around and accept than the concept that it can simultaneously be not about Jesus and all about His glory at the same time. And it’s this:

If it wasn’t about Jesus, then it definitely isn’t about you.
Or me.
Or anyone.

Our selfish desires.
Our glory.
Our comfort.
Our pleasure.
Our anything.

If Jesus had every right to say it was all about Him but gave it up and made it about everyone else, then how can we, who don’t have any such right, not do the same?

Your life will only be as great as the impact it makes on the lives of others. And the measure of the impact you make will only be as great as the level to which you understand and embrace the truth that it’s not about you.

That’s hard to accept, but if you do you’ll be in good company.
It wasn’t about Jesus either.

Certain body parts need to be covered.

Straightforward enough. No elaboration required, or wanted. It’s just commonly known that it’s shameful to leave certain parts of the body uncovered. Exposed for the world to see.

Unfortunately it’s not always so straightforward and obvious in the church. In fact, what’s considered shameful with our own bodies is often considered sport with the body of Christ.

When another church has problems, issues, or experiences failure, we’re very good at exposing it. The same is true with leaders of other churches. Or people in our own churches.

We highlight and broadcast others’ failures. Their missteps. Their issues. Their sins. Our disagreements with them. Our differences with them.

Sometimes the church seems to be the only place where we want to publicly expose the private parts of the body.
We leave each other exposed. Naked for the world to see.
On Facebook where we can “like” other peoples’ shame.
On Twitter where our differences can become a trending topic.
In private conversations where we can spread judgement, hate, and discord through a grass roots campaign.

God knows why we do it, because it doesn’t seem to be helping in giving us credibility with the world. It’s really just embarrassing.

Perhaps the reason is that we like to practice justification by disassociation. By exposing others, we cover ourselves. We create distance between us and them. We put ourselves above them. Out of reach. Out of touch.

And therefore in the perfect position to pass judgment. To further assassinate their character instead of restoring it. To exalt our viewpoint or methods above theirs. To expose them instead of covering them.

Obviously I’m not talking about covering up the sins of other churches, Christians, or leaders. Obviously there have to be consequences for our actions.

But we’ve got to get better at covering each other. Protecting each other. Rescuing and restoring each other. Speaking well of each other in public.

Why?
Because God has a history of covering up nakedness (Genesis 3:21).
Because God has called us to carry each other when we fail (Galatians 6:1-3).
Because the world isn’t attracted to us throwing each other under the bus.
Because no matter how much you try to disassociate yourself from “them,” you’re not all that different.

One day you’re probably going to need to be covered too.

It is the glory of God to conceal a matter.
Proverbs 25:2

There’s a reason God’s will in specific situations is so difficult to know sometimes. Why it can be so hard to know what God wants you to do.

Who to date.
Where to go to college.
Who to marry.
Where to move.
What job to take.

It’s not because you’re not praying. You’re probably praying a lot. It’s not because you don’t want to know His will. Many of you really do.

According to this verse, it’s because God conceals.
But why? After all, that seems counterintuitive to God’s purposes and using you in them.

The reason isn’t because God doesn’t want you to know His will. He wants you to know it more than you want to know it. It’s because God wants something more for you than that.

Him.

God’s not up in heaven hiding His will hoping you’ll never be able to find it. But he does play hide and seek. Not because He doesn’t want us to find His will but because He wants us to find Him. If He put it out in plain view, we would seek His will instead of seeking Him.

That’s why he conceals it. That’s why it’s so hard.

God’s not trying to make His will plain. His will isn’t the main objective. He is the main objective. He wants you to discover Him most of all.

God isn’t the shortcut to your best life. He is your best life.
God doesn’t want to give you the guide for your life. He wants to be your Guide.

The scariest possibility for your life isn’t getting God’s will wrong. It’s getting God’s will right but barely coming to know God in the process.

You could love the right woman but lose your first love.
You could find the right career but then make it your god.

That’s why He doesn’t just write His will for you in the clouds. At the end of the process He wants you to know something far greater than what you should do with your life or what you should do next.

He wants you to know who He is.

14 “The LORD will fight for you; you need only to be still.” 15 Then the LORD said to Moses, “Why are you crying out to me? Tell the Israelites to move on.
Exodus 14:14-15

Exodus 14:14 is by far one of the most misinterpreted verses in the Bible.

Most of us, including myself, have looked at it as a faith infusing verse of what we should do when we need help or a breakthrough. When we’re looking for God to do something big. Or when we’re waiting to see God bring something into our lives.

Be still. Let the Lord fight the battle for you. Let go and let God.
In short, do nothing.

There’s just one problem with that: verse 15.

In verse 14 Moses tells the people that God will fight for them and to be still. But in verse 15 God comes in and immediately contradicts Moses. He doesn’t tell them to stand still. He tells them to shut up and get moving. Into the sea.

Moses was wrong. In isolation, verse 14 is wrong. Yes, God’s going to fight for them. But it won’t be while they’re standing there and doing nothing. It’s in the parted sea. It’s while they’re moving that God will be fighting.

Sometimes it can be easy to mistake patience for what’s really passivity.
Faith for what could be laziness. Or even faithlessness.

Sometimes it can be easy to think that we should stand still and cry out when God’s actually looking for us to shut up and get moving. Not to do everything on our own, obviously. But to realize that faith isn’t necessarily sitting and waiting for God to do everything on His own for you. God fights while you move.

For example, if you’re unemployed it isn’t faith for you to stay at home and watch the Price is Right while praying during commercial breaks and expecting God to throw a job into your lap. Faith is updating your resume. Getting your butt out the door. And applying for jobs. Let God fight for you in your job search.

You could apply this to pretty much every area of your life. Relationships. Finances. Major life decisions.

Faith isn’t passive. It’s active. If you don’t believe me, go read Hebrews 11. I defy you to find me one verse that says, “By faith, they watched.” It’s always by faith, they moved. By faith, they did.

That’s because faith is knowing who God is and acting accordingly.
And then watching Him act accordingly.

This past weekend we had Christine Caine in the house to continue us in our Get Back series. She spoke on the simple, yet profoundly powerful idea of getting planted and embracing your place in a local church.

I don’t remember the last time I heard a sermon that I knew so specifically was the exact thing God wanted to say to a group of people. And I think it’s what He wants to say to the American church as a whole.

One of the things that really troubles me about the church today is the phenomenon of church hopping and church shopping. It’s a consumeristic mindset towards the body of Christ that grieves the heart of God.

It’s time for us to stop the hop. This isn’t Christianity. Jesus didn’t die so we could sample different churches like varieties of meat on a party platter. Jesus died to establish His church as the most powerful entity on the planet.

We are alive at the greatest time in history for the advance of the gospel. We have so much going for us.

We have the ability.
We have the resources.
We have the people.

What we don’t have is them committed to a place where they can actually be used for their God-ordained purpose.

If this generation doesn’t make the impact it should, it won’t be because it didn’t have the resources. Or even the passion. It will be because it was too busy hopping to different churches to stop and commit to one where its resources and passion could actually find an outlet.

The church is the change the world is waiting for. God help us if we keep the world waiting for us while we try to find the perfect church for us.

If you’ve fallen into the trap of church hopping, let me encourage you: embrace your place somewhere where God can use you. At the end of your life, God’s not going to be impressed or pleased that you saw what He was doing at ten different churches. He’s going be more pleased that you were a part of what He was doing at one church.

And you’re never going to find the perfect one, so give up looking. If the church you’re visiting doesn’t have what you’re looking for, it might be because God wants you to provide it.

Let’s all commit together to begin a campaign to stop the hop.
Find a place to get planted. Embrace it. And start changing the world.

The question of our day isn’t if God wants to do incredible things through the church. The question is will we be in place to experience it?

You know, brothers, that our visit to you was not a failure.
1 Thessalonians 2:1

But it had looked like it at one point. Apparently Paul had faced strong opposition when he had first preached in Thessalonica. People had accused him of preaching from false motives.

He was just after money.
He was just trying to tickle ears.
His teaching was heretical.

When the opposition was actually happening, most probably would have called Paul’s visit a failure. A waste of time even.

But we know it wasn’t a failure. And we know because this letter exists. Paul is writing to the church he established on that visit. Apparently the gospel had taken root and the church had even expanded after he left. Paul’s work wasn’t in vain.

Many of the things that we consider failures in our lives really aren’t failures at all. They’re just stepping-stones to God’s purposes in our lives.

It doesn’t feel this way immediately. In the middle or immediate aftermath of a failure, it can feel like our efforts and time were wasted. But this is not a necessary truth. We serve a God who can work all things for our good. Who can turn failures into successes. Or use them for successes.

I’ve seen this repeatedly in my own life.

One of the most discouraging days of my pastoral career was when our church was scheduled to sign a contract to occupy a facility as an additional campus. Everything looked promising, but then we were shut down at the last minute. On the surface, it looked like a failure. But a year later we ended up getting the building when we were more ready and better positioned for optimal impact. We’ve now seen hundreds come to Christ in that building.

It wasn’t a failure.

There have been sermons I have preached that I thought I did a terrible job delivering. And then hundreds of hands would shoot up during the invitation.

It wasn’t a failure.

I’ve had speaking engagements where I had no clue why I was there. It felt like a waste of time. But then I would meet someone who years later has now significantly impacted my life.

It wasn’t a failure.

I’m not saying things don’t go wrong or according to plan. Or that you’re never going to experience failure. Because you are. Plans are going to fall through. Expectations aren’t going to be met.

But you have to keep the perspective that there is no failure in your life that is beyond God’s power to use for good and turn into a success. Your screwups can become God’s setup for what He wants to do you in your life. Your greatest disappointments can become God’s greatest display of His power to work redemption.

Your failures might not turn out to be failures after all.

I was recently reading the story of Jesus’ encounter with the Samaritan woman at the well and a detail caught my attention:

Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did.”
John 4:28-29

No He didn’t. Not everything she ever did.

This woman wasn’t having to give an account of her entire life. Jesus hadn’t spent hours, weeks, days, or years laying out everything she had ever done. Bad or good. It was just one encounter that on face value probably lasted a few minutes.

But apparently her life was so revolutionized by what Jesus spoke in those few minutes that she blew it out of proportion. For her, the grace that Jesus had shown her was so life changing that she couldn’t find words that even approximated her experience. So hyperbole was her best option.

You hear the same kind of things today. Many people say that if Jesus had not saved them they probably wouldn’t be alive. Occasionally it’s true. But usually it isn’t. They probably would have gone on living. It’s just that they wouldn’t have lived a life worth living.

Grace blows things out of proportion. It takes an ounce of life change and exaggerates it in our minds to the point where it is a miracle on par with the parting of the Red Sea. And it should be this way. We should be so overwhelmed by God’s grace in our lives that if anything, we exaggerate its effects.

Sadly a lot of times we do the opposite. We downplay it. We minimize God’s miracles in our lives. We act and speak as if Jesus has made our situation only marginally better. If that.

But it isn’t true. God’s grace has revolutionized your life much more than you realize. And you should speak about it in such a way that if anything, people are going to overestimate its effects.

Obviously I’m not advocating lying about what Christ has done in you. This isn’t about creating a compelling testimony from scratch because you believe yours is too boring. It’s actually about recognizing your story is more compelling than you give it credit for.

Don’t be afraid of exaggerating the impact Jesus has made on your life. God’s grace is bigger than you think it is. Sometimes you just have to blow its effects out of proportion to realize it.

One of the greatest threats to the things we love is the curse of familiarity.

When it comes to waning love, we usually talk a lot about losing your passion. You don’t love something as much as you once did. But a lot of it really comes down to losing your reverence. You don’t view it the way that you once did.

There is a strange dynamic that occurs any time something new is introduced into our lives. Initially we approach it with a great deal of reverence and care. Almost awe. But then we become familiar with it. Comfortable. What was once special becomes commonplace. And before you know it, you’re taking it for granted.

At first no food was allowed on the new furniture. But as time went by you made exceptions. Now you’ve had to flip the cushions to hide the stains.

When you first got your present job, you thanked God for the fact that you got to wake up and go to work.  Now you have to wake up and go to work.

You used to light up when your spouse walked in the room. Now you barely notice.

When you first started walking with God you had a lot of reverence for Him. You couldn’t believe that you got to pray to the God of the universe. But then you became comfortable with Him. Now prayer is just a conversation you have to catch up with a friend you haven’t talked to in a while. Or a box to be checked off every day.

You haven’t lost your passion. You’ve lost your reverence. You’ve succumbed to familiarity. And familiarity in turn has killed your passion.

In one sense, this seems inevitable. Your job is going to be there when you get up. Your couch and spouse are going to be there when you get home. And God is always with you.

But it’s not inevitable. Familiarity has an antidote, and it’s gratitude.

Gratitude sustains reverence. Gratitude is the perpetual reminder that what you have is special because it is a gift from God.

Every time you sit on your couch, it’s a gift to be thankful for.
Every time your spouse enters a room, it’s a gift to be thankful for.
Every chance you have to pray to the God who knows the stars by name and yours as well is a gift to be thankful for.

Don’t lose your reverence. Fight familiarity. Be grateful for every gift from God that you have. And remember, whether you’ve had something for ten days or ten years, everything you have is a gift.

Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult, but with blessing.
1 Peter 3:9

Forgiveness is the central element of the Christian life, not a side bar issue. Or as I’ve said before, it’s the operating system of Christianity, not an app.

This is obviously true of our relationship with God, but it is just as true with the people around us. The reality that you are going to be sinned against is as inescapable as the reality that you are going to sin against God yourself.

And when someone hurts you, you really have two options. You can give them back what they gave you. Or you can give them back what God gave you.

Your natural inclination will be the first. You will want to return the pain they caused you with pain. Hate. Bitterness. Revenge. You’ll think that by doing so it will get rid of the weight they placed on you.

It won’t. If anything, it will probably increase it.

In order to be free of the weight of your sin you had to receive the forgiveness of Jesus. In order to be free of the weight of someone else’s sin you must give the forgiveness of Jesus.

If you’re in a position right now where you need to forgive someone, it isn’t easy but the best option you have is to give back the better gift. Graciously give back to them what Jesus has already so graciously given to you. And then move on in freedom.

There is a big misconception that most people have about cockiness. Cockiness is not overconfidence. It’s misplaced confidence.

You can never be overconfident in God’s ability to work through you. Never.

If God could use a stuttering shepherd to free a nation, he can do anything through you.
If God could use a small boy to defeat a giant, he can do anything through you.
If God could spread the gospel through the most ragtag collection of men in history, he can do anything through you.

Christ-centered confidence doesn’t start with us. It starts with God and having the correct assessment of what He can do through us. Since He can do anything, you can never be too overconfident. In fact if a few people don’t mistake my confidence for cockiness, my audacity for arrogance, then my confidence and faith in God is probably too small.

But your confidence can be misplaced and find itself relying on your abilities and achievements. That’s when it becomes cockiness. The second you begin believing that you can do anything worthwhile apart from God, you’re heading in the wrong direction. Any step towards self-sufficiency is a step away from the Savior.

I think this mentality got the best of Joshua after he defeated Jericho. He had won a major victory, so he reduced his forces and strutted into Ai without his best men. He wasn’t commanded by God to do this. He did not even consult God about it. He presumed God’s future blessing because of his past success. He was confident a small group of men could handle it on their own.

His confidence was misplaced. And he got his tail handed to him.

Gideon on the other hand was specifically commanded to reduce his forces. And the reason was clear: “in order that Israel may not boast against me that her own strength saved her” (Judges 7:2). Gideon didn’t hesitate, and by the end of the day his army of 32,000 became a small band of 300. He wasn’t confident this small group could handle it on their own. He was confident God had it covered.

His confidence was well-placed. God got His glory.

You can never be overconfident in God’s ability to work through you. But you can be overconfident in your ability to do anything for God. Or apart from God.

If God could use a stuttering shepherd to free a nation, a small boy to defeat a giant, a ragtag collection of men to spread the gospel, an army of 300 to defeat an army of thousands…He doesn’t need you to do it for Him. And you can’t do it without Him.

There is a thin line between confidence and cockiness. Everyone knows this. Especially when it comes to relationships or sports.

But the same is true in the life and calling of every believer.

If you want to be used greatly by God, a Christ-centered confidence in your calling and equipping is essential. You won’t accomplish half of what God intends for you without it. This is true whether you’re a pastor or a teacher. A high-powered lawyer or a stay-at-home mom.

On the flip side, if you want to see the favor of God leave your life quickly, let your Christ-centered confidence become self-centered cockiness. You won’t accomplish half of what God intends for you precisely because you have it.

The problem is that the two can be difficult to distinguish. What one person sees as cockiness might genuinely be God-infused confidence. What another person sees as bold confidence might actually be brash cockiness.

The consequences for not walking on the right side of this thin line can be significant. So over the next few days we’re going to be examining the difference. Specifically through two similar men, Gideon and Joshua, and two almost identical stories in their lives:

Gideon reduces his fighting forces to fight the Midianites. God is with him. Israel wins. God is glorified.
Joshua reduces his fighting forces to fight the men of Ai. God is not with him. Israel loses and is humiliated.

Two situations that are almost identical. From the outside, both men could equally be accused of confidence or cockiness. But there was a difference between the two. One was confident. The other, cocky.

The difference made all the difference in the world for Joshua and Gideon. And it will make all the difference in the world for you and me.

The LORD blessed the latter part of Job’s life more than the first. After this, Job lived a hundred and forty years; he saw his children and their children to the fourth generation. And so he died, old and full of years.
Job 42:12, 16-17

When most people think of Job, the first picture that enters into their minds is of a man marked by misery. That’s natural, considering it’s the theme of Job 1-41. But it’s also misguided because it doesn’t take into account Job 42.

Job’s story doesn’t end on a note of misery. The final word on Job is not on his pain. His loss. His questioning. Or really anything on the forty-one chapters that precede. It’s an affirmation that Job lived a full life. An affirmation that despite appearances, God never for a second abandoned Job or changed His mind about Job’s final destination.

The story of Job is more than a story about a guy who lost everything he cared about. It’s also about a man who regained it. A man who ended up dying the way he wanted. The way any of us would want.

But not the way he or any of us would have planned.

He died surrounded by family. But it was a family that God had to recreate after he lost his first.
He regained all of his possessions, and even had them doubled. But not before he had to lose everything he had worked his whole life for.

Job’s final destination did not come without detours. And it’s the detours that have the chance to derail our lives more than anything else. Not because God is incapable of handling them or can’t see them coming. But because we cling so tightly onto the path we think we’re supposed to take to get to where God wants us to be.

The single greatest thing standing in-between you and God’s plan for your life is not just your preconceived notion of what that life itself should be. It’s also your preconceived notion of the road you should take to get there.

And it’s a notion you have to let go of.

You might lose your job. You may go through a period of marital unrest where it looks like everything is going to unravel. You may have to move to a place you hate for a season. And you may even have to face an unforeseen illness that threatens your life or the life of someone you love.

Whatever it is, detours are inevitable.

But just because God takes you on a detour, it doesn’t mean He’s changed His mind about your destination. The final word on your life is not going to be the detours you experience. It’s going to be the destination God uses them to take you to.

A few weeks ago I talked about the importance of celebrating the gifts and successes of the people we work alongside. Then it was about creating momentum and establishing the expectation of progress. But there’s something else that happens when we celebrate and encourage the gifts of others and when they use them with excellence.

God is glorified.

That might sound a little weird, but it really shouldn’t. Most Christians don’t have a problem praising God for the beauty of creation. In fact, we’re often told that creation should drive us to worship. And this is true.

But God didn’t do his greatest showing off when He created Mt. Everest. Or any one of the billions of galaxies in our universe. It was when He created us.

That might sound arrogant, but it’s biblical.

Nothing else in all creation was made in God’s image. Nothing else was made the caretaker of the rest of creation. And if you’re a believer, you have claim to something even greater than that: God’s Spirit within you.

The Psalms tell us that “the heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands” (Psalm 19:1). But they also tell us that those same hands knit us together in our mothers’ womb and to praise God because of it (Psalm 139:13-14).

And God didn’t just make bodies when He knit us together. He also gave us gifts. Each person has been custom tailored with a specific composition of talents and abilities that find their source in God. And were designed to be used for His glory.

So if we can maintain a posture of worship in the mountains, or at the beach, or looking up at the stars. If God is glorified when we can see that the creation points back to a Creator and praise Him for it. How much more is He glorified when we praise Him for His prized creation and the gifts He has given them?

When you celebrate someone else’s excellence, you’re ultimately celebrating the excellence of the One who created them.

I was recently listening to a great teaching by Geoff Surratt of Seacoast Church about ways people can serve their leaders and I began thinking in a similar vein about what it looks like to honor our leaders.

One of the core goals of my ministry is to reinstate the virtue of honor back into the body of Christ. And although I believe honor is something that we should give to everyone, including those beside us and below us, the most natural place for most of us to start is with the people above us.

My generation has done a phenomenal job at obliterating the concept of honor, especially in regards to those who hold positions of leadership. We have confused it with respect and come to believe it’s something we can withhold based on the performance or likeability of the person we’re ascribing it to.

But that’s not biblical honor. In the Bible, honor is weight. Honor is value. While respect must be earned, honor can be freely given from the heart based on the calling and potential God has placed inside of a person and the position God has given them in your life.

To show honor to leaders is to treat them as being special because in reality that’s what they are. God has placed them in a unique position over you. He has given them the responsibility of casting vision and coordinating the efforts of the people they lead to achieve it. And that includes yours.

What your leader needs and deserves then is for you to ascribe to them the weight God has already given them. To set them apart as special in your life and be willing to do whatever it takes to help them succeed. And you’ll find that by setting them up for success you’ll by extension be setting yourself up for success.

If you’re at a loss as far as what it looks like to practically honor those above you, ask yourself the following questions for a good start:

1. What is your leader’s favorite way to communicate?
-Adapt to it. Even if it’s not your favorite way to communicate.

2. What makes your leader’s day?
-Do it.

3. What does your leader dread?
-Nuke it before it ever gets to them.

4. What is the thing you can do for your leader that only you can do?
-Keep doing it and do it better.

5. What sets my leader back?
-Do everything in your power to make sure it doesn’t happen.

If you’re still struggling with honoring and serving those God has placed over you, one of the greatest things you may need to realize is that God hasn’t placed your leaders over you to make your vision come to pass. He has put you under them to make their vision come to pass. And God isn’t going to hold you accountable for their vision. He’s going to hold you accountable for your support of their vision.