Whispers in the Wilderness with Pastor Chase Glisson

So I'm going to jump right into it today.

I'm going to be talking about Whispers in the wilderness.

Whispers in the wilderness and we're going to start in Luke 41.

I'm going to read a chunk and then we're going to kind of jump

back into some stuff. But I want to read it and kind

of set precedent first and then we'll kind of go through it.

So Luke 41 says Now Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned

from the Jordan and was being LED around by the Spirit in the

wilderness for 40 days, being tempted by the devil.

And he ate nothing during those days.

And when they had finished, he was hungry.

And the devil said to him, If you are the Son of God, tell

this stone to become bread. And Jesus answered him, it is

written, Man shall not live on bread alone.

And he led him up and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in

a moment of time. And the devil said to him, I

will give you all this dominion and its glory, for it has been

handed over to me, and I give it to whomever I wish.

Therefore if you worship before me, it shall all be yours.

And Jesus answered and said to him, It is written, You shall

not worship the Lord. It is written, you shall worship

the Lord your God and serve him only.

And he led him to Jerusalem, and had him stand on the pinnacle of

the temple, and said to him, If you are the Son of God, throw

yourself down from here. For it is written, He will

command his angels concerning you to guard you on their hands.

They will bear you up, least you strike your foot against a

stone. And Jesus answered and said to

him, It is said, You shall not put the Lord your God to test.

And when the devil had finished every temptation, he left him

until an opportune time. And Jesus returned to Galilee in

the power of the Spirit and news about him spread through all the

surrounding district. And he was teaching in their

synagogues, being glorified by all to set a little story and

what we're going here. Obviously Jesus got baptized and

then right after he got baptized, being full of the

Spirit was then LED into the wilderness by the Spirit to be

tempted, right? So Jesus didn't get baptized and

then run straight into ministry. He got baptized and then was led

into the wilderness to fast and then ultimately be tempted,

right? So every destiny begins with a

test. Before Jesus ever preached A

sermon, healed the sick, walked on water, or did all those

amazing things he did, he spent time in the wilderness growing

in his relationship with God, right?

And what we have throughout this passage is 3 real layers of

temptation that I want to go over today.

Because the same 3 layers of temptation that Satan tried on

Jesus are the same three things he uses against us all the time,

right? And so the first one was

cravings, right? It was the test of the flesh,

his desires, right? He had been walking around and

and fasting for 40 days in the wilderness.

And the first thing Satan does is say, hey, why don't you turn

these rocks into bread, right? The very first temptation was to

just get you to fall for the most simplest of desires.

Jesus was hungry, right? The most natural craving you can

have is being hungry, right? Most of you right now are

probably on the verge of getting hungry, right?

You woke up, you got ready, you ate some breakfast, then you got

here and there's prayer, there's worship, there's all this stuff.

It's 1117 and we're thinking, man, I got about 45 minutes

until I really start needing some food, you know?

And so we have the most natural desire is wanting food.

For those of you who know that I've been running, I started

running a lot. It's something I've really been

enjoying. But through that, it kind of

like changed my metabolism. And so now I've realized, like,

when I'm hungry, I need food like quick.

Like there's no like real waiting.

It's like when it hits, it hits and I start to feel like my

stomach starts falling. I mean, I felt start to feel

faintish. I'm like, I need to get food in

right now. I don't have time to wait for

anything. Matter of fact, one day I went

and worked out and then did a run and then went to my sister's

house to have breakfast and she started cooking the pancakes.

And I was like, man, I can't wait for these pancakes to get

done. The amount after we feed the

kids and they get all cooked and all that kind of, I'm talking 45

minutes before I eat like I'm going to have to do something.

I had to go grab a protein shake and just go ahead and down it

cuz I'm like, I need something now, right?

But the first temptation Jesus was dealt with was the most

natural one. It was his hunger, it was his

appetite. It was something he craved

after. It was a flesh test.

And if you let your desires Dr. you, right?

Will you let your desires Dr. you or will you let God's Word

sustain you right? We have to ask the question,

will we let our desires drive us or do we let God's Word sustain

us? And if we're not careful, then

we can just fall into this craving mentality.

I need something now, therefore I grab what I need now.

The flesh is all about the instant.

It's about responding instantaneously, right?

It's all about what I need in this moment to help me right

now. This is where we get ourselves

in the most trouble because we're presented with a problem

and we try to solve it quickly, not just solve it the way God

needs us to. We jump into I can take care of

this when maybe God needs you to do it a certain way, right?

So are we led by the our desires or do we let the God's word

sustain us, right. So during this temptation, one

thing I do want to cover real quick is obviously Satan was

present himself with Jesus, right?

Satan was there, this temptation was there.

But Satan is not omnipresent, right?

So when we talk about this number one thing of cravings in

our flesh, a lot of times if we're not careful, we try to

over spiritualize what is just a flesh battle and we act like,

oh, Satan's attacking me. No, your fallen state is

attacking you, right? Your flesh is trying to get you

to do something. Satan himself isn't whispering

in your ear, right? He, we, we, if we're not

careful, we make Satan way more powerful than he is.

We start to try to take the attributes of God and apply them

to Satan. That's not how that works at

all, right? So our flesh battles that we

deal with are our battles to deal with.

This is why, like in James 114, it says, but each one is tempted

when he's carried away by his own lusts, right?

You're tempted by your own lust, you're tempted by your own

desires, by your own cravings. And This is why we have to be

able to conquer our cravings, our self, right?

In Galatians, it lets us know that the flesh sets itself

against the spirit. It doesn't want the things of

God. Those are natural things that

occur in your body as a state of the fall, not Satan just being

there whispering at you. And I need you to understand

that because if we try to pin this on Satan, then we try to

make we eliminate ourself from the equation like, well, it's

just because I'm just no, you have the ability to overcome

your cravings. You have the ability to overcome

your flesh. You have the ability to walk by

the spirit just like you say, No, I don't need this now.

I will let the word continues to sustain me through this moment.

I think it's very interesting that this was the first Test

from Satan because he knew if I can just get him to eat right

now, he will automatically be easier to deal with later.

If I can get him to fold in his own flesh, there's no way I'll

need to mess with any of the other callings.

There's no way I'll have to go into anything else because if he

can't manage his flesh, he can't manage the rest, right?

Until you learn to manage your flesh, you'll never step into

everything God has for you. You'll never step into the

fullness of God. First Corinthians 927 says, But

I discipline my body and make it my slave, so that after I have

preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified.

If you can't master your cravings, your cravings will

master you. If you cannot master your

cravings, then your cravings will master you.

What you spend your time feeding is what will fill you.

And if I continue to feed my flesh, the spirit cannot take

place in my life. It cannot fill space that I

don't make available for it. And if I keep myself full of

everything the world's going on and all my problems and I just

kind of try to take my flesh and say, well, that's just, you

know, that's just my personality.

No, your personality of being born again is the fruits of the

spirit, right? This is why it says, hey, become

born again and made new. It's saying, yeah, you might

have had that personality, but once you accepted Christ, you've

entered into the ability to walk in every fruit I've given you

and have the personality that's in the Word.

So your flesh can no longer control you if you don't allow

it to. But the more I feed to it, the

stronger the craving for it becomes.

When I was in high school, I used to drink Mountain Dew like

every day, like multiple times a day, like all the time.

I had one in my back pocket, so much so that some of my teachers

would buy them for me and set them on my desk before I showed

up so that I wouldn't leave their class, right?

Like it was like I drank a lot of soda, just like a ton.

And then, you know, I got married and my wife was awesome.

And she did like the awesome wife thing, which she's like,

I'm going to make her home cooked meals.

I'm going to have all this nice stuff.

And then like, I went to a pool party one day and I saw myself

and I was like, I got to make some life changes like country

fried steak, gravy, mashed potatoes, fried okra is

definitely sustaining me maybe a little too well, right?

And so it's like I got to make some changes here.

And so one of the first things I did was like, I'm going to cut

out soda so that I'm not drinking calories.

And so there was these drinks. They're still around.

They're called like Zebias, right?

Has anyone had a Zebia before? They have a very distinct taste

and it's like 1. Like the first one you try is

disgusting. I don't drink them anymore

anyways, I just drink water. But the first one you try is

gross. It should, it's not good.

But once you make it through like a whole case, you're kind

of like this ain't too bad. Well, this is fine and then

you're like used to it. But the minute you drink a

normal soda after that, you realize like this is garbage.

Why am I drinking this right? So if you allow yourself to just

become accustomed to something, then your body will want it.

Meaning my flesh wants the things of the flesh, my spirit

wants the things of the spirit. The more I feed one side or the

other, the more my body will continue to align with one or

the other. And the minute I try to step

back into the things of the flesh, your desire then comes

back even stronger, because you know better, right?

So we have to master our cravings and not let them master

us. If you can't starve the craving,

the craving will starve your calling.

If you cannot starve the craving, then the craving will

starve your calling. Philippians 317 says Brethren,

join in following my example and observe those who walk according

to the pattern you have in us for many walk, of whom I often

told you and now tell you, even weeping, that they are enemies

of the cross of the of Christ, whose end is destruction, whose

God is their appetite, and whose glory is in their shame, who set

their minds on earthly things. When we allow our minds to be

set on earthly things and we allow our cravings to dictate

everything we do, we become an enemy to Christ because you

cannot walk out all of the things of Christ while trying to

take the path of the world. You can't do it and This is why

it was the first temptation because it's the one everyone

deals with right out the gate. The very first thing you'll do

is you'll get born again. You'll accept Jesus into your

life. I confess with my mouth and I

believe in my heart that He is Lord.

Lord means supreme and authority.

Lord means I am now saying I will do your way and your way

only. See, when I called the youth

down to get born again, I don't just say confess with your

mouth. Believe in your heart that he's

Lord. I explain what Lord is because I

think that's the the key that so many people missed in salvation

was they're like, well, I did confess and I do believe.

But then we didn't adapt the mindset that no, now I have to

change the way I think about everything and apply the word in

my life daily and walk that out daily.

Because if I don't think he can't be Lord because Lord means

he rules and reigns over my life.

It's not my life, it's his life, and I'm just doing the things

he's told me to do right? And so those paths don't cross

the world my way never crosses into.

He's still Lord. You can either make Him Lord and

follow His Word, or you can try to continually do things on your

own, on your own path. And what feeds your flesh can

starve your faith. What feeds your flesh will

starve your faith. And when we get into the

mentality of problem arises, I can solve it.

I've eliminated needing faith in my life because if I'm always

the one trying to take care of situations myself, where's the

faith? The Bible tells us to go from

faith to faith. When I'm talking to young adults

and people, they ask me like yo, I'm trying to decide what's next

in my life and say, OK, what are you believing God for in that

direction? Well, what do you mean God is

not going to call you to something that won't require

faith to achieve it. Because we are to go from faith

to faith, which means I'm always looking for my next step to

require more God than the last step.

Because God's not building me up to accomplish things on my own.

He's building me up to trust Him so that when the next step

comes, I trust him even more. That's faith to faith.

But if I'm always feeding my flesh, then I'm eliminating

opportunities to feed my faith. Often times we think when a

trial situations or a bump comes, we're like, oh man, this

stinks. When the truth is, no, this is

your chance to enact your faith. This isn't a problem.

This is an opportunity for you to grow in the things of God,

for you to look back and say, look how God was faithful so

that when the next situation arises, we look back and go,

look how God was faithful and we continue to grow and grow.

And if we don't conquer this, if we don't conquer our cravings,

we'll never step into Our Calling, which is why the second

temptation is callings. It was the test of purpose.

The first temptation was cravings, the second was

callings and Luke 4/6. He says, I will give you all

this dominion. If you worship before me, it

shall be yours. Satan offered Jesus a chance at

the crown without the cost of the cross.

Satan said, hey, you were sent here by God to, to get all, to

become king, to get all this dominion back.

I can give that to you now. Just worship me.

Hear me out. Satan's second temptation was so

that Jesus could fulfill the thing he was sent to do.

The second temptation was, hey, God called you to do this.

I can give it to you. I can make this happen.

It was to to achieve your calling through your own means.

It was authority without obedience.

It was purpose without the process.

And This is why we get people who who can walk in the gifts on

the wrong path because the gifts and callings are not to be taken

away. Meaning God has provided you

with things to accomplish to do. He's give, you give.

This is why he got so many secular music artists who

started in the church. Then they started singing on

their own. They didn't all of a sudden

start sounding bad just because they're no longer singing for

the church. No, God gave them a gift.

They then chose to carve out their own path.

And if we're not careful, we can conquer our cravings.

And then God's like, I'm ready to appoint you to something.

And then we go and try to find our own way to get that

appointment. Well, I mean, man, if I take

this job, I'll be able to make more money.

I'll be able to make my own hours and then I can sow more

than ever. And the next thing you know,

you're working so much to keep up with something.

It's pulled you out of the church because there's the

thing. Satan has no problem giving you

something that doesn't advance the Kingdom.

This is why we get to the situation in the Bible where it

says, Lord, Lord, didn't I call out your name?

Why? Because they were under the

impression I was doing something for you.

But God says you did something in my name on your path.

You tried to operate in your destiny yourself, and Satan has

no problem paving a path that looks glorious, that looks

amazing, that makes it look like you're doing anything, and he

doesn't even mind if you give credit to God as long as it's

not actually advancing his Kingdom.

Because often times the ones who do that think they're giving

glory to God, but the truth is they're giving a fake

representation of what Christianity should be in the

1st place and you're leading people astray thinking you can

do whatever you want and still make him Lord.

No, Christ has a standard to obtain to and to live by.

And if you try to accomplish your calling without walking in

the standard, you'll fall away. But falling away, oftentimes I

think we think in our minds that that means, well, you're going

to look at someone's life and be like, look how rough their life

got. Look how rough their life is now

once they left the church. That's not a representation of

just going out. Because in the end, like we've

said, there's so many successful people not in the church because

they're not doing anything. Therefore they're not a problem,

right? We don't.

When you set out to to make waves, if you're wanting to

break up, something's working. You don't go around picking off

the ones that aren't actually doing anything, right?

You let them continue to do whatever they want.

They're not a problem anyways. You go after the ones making the

most impact, you go after the stuff that's going to affect you

the most, and let the little things work themselves out on

their own. So if you aren't careful, you

can start to walk in the gifts and callings God placed in your

path on a path he didn't pay for you right?

That's why you got people who can be talented but toxic.

They can be called but compromised because you've got

gifts, you've got abilities, but then you don't live the

standard, so your life can't produce anything of the Spirit

because there's no spirit in it to produce.

Proverbs 131412 says there is a way which seems right to man,

but its end is the way of death. There's a way that seems right

to a man, but it's end is the way to death.

This scripture is great because I feel like this does speak to

all men because most most men are problem solvers.

Most men do want to try to take care of things pretty quickly,

and we can always find a way that seems right to us pretty

fast. But the question is, do we step

back and say, is this the path that God actually wants me to

take? Right?

Because when we try to take shortcuts to just get something

done, that's when we end up making them way worse in the

end. You know, a lot of times we get

rushed and we're like, man, I got to take care of this.

So we try to do something quick, but then we create a way bigger

mess on the back end that has to be cleaned up later.

But because we're not cleaning up it now, it seems like we're

OK. And then when we get to the new

problem, we don't always associate it back to the fact

that we shortcutted the problem. We think, oh, this is a new

problem now. This is the consequences to the

shortcut, right? And a lot of times a shortcut to

like your calling is just a long road to compromise.

And the more shortcuts you try to take in what God's place in

you, eventually you just find a life of compromise.

You start to allow little things that you would have never at one

point, all of a sudden they're OK.

That's how justifying things works.

Little by little, we let things creep in.

And if we aren't careful, they'll ultimately cost us Our

Calling. John 1010 says the thief comes

only to steal and kill and destroy.

I came that they may have a life and have it abundantly right.

So the enemy will offer you the world if it costs you your

worship. Satan's second temptation, man

was I'll give you everything God placed on your heart.

Just worship me. Just do it my way.

Now, when we read that, we think, oh, I would obviously not

do that. Like, I mean, we're all like, we

all can read this thing. Like I would obviously not do

that. It's obviously never presented

like that. We're reading the story of the

temptation of Jesus with Satan there.

That's not how your life is going to play out.

Your life is going to play out with I feel that I have a gift.

I want my gift to be used. That church isn't using my gift

right now, but this place will. And so they obviously are the

place I need to be. Right, Well, this place values

my gift more so clearly they're the ones that I should be giving

it to. OK, say law, right?

Those are those little things that we with our flesh and

ourselves here, not Satan sitting up there going you

should leave that the church. But if we're being honest, half

the time it really is that obvious.

We've just let so many little things go by that we miss how

obvious it truly is. And then someone comes here and

like, man, that's so obviously not the calling for you.

And you're like, oh, you don't know me.

Right, if we're not careful and we don't fully walk in the

things God's called us into and we don't stand firm in the

calling of God and firm in the calling that's placed on our

life and realize easy doesn't equal like the right path.

No, the right path will always require faith, which means the

right path will always have a level of unknown.

Because faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God.

Faith is the substance of things what hope for the evidence of

things not. Which means it's when I don't

see the outcome of something that my faith is now enacted to

work. I don't see the path, but I have

to trust it's there. I'm sorry.

My wife, I love her, has the worst night vision in the entire

world. Like I'm talking we we get in

bed, I cut off the light, I get in bed, she goes and does

something. She'd come back and she opens

the door and she's just like, where is everything?

I can't see? And here's I can see perfectly

fine. So from her perspective, pitch

black from my perspective, you got like these baby steps of

like, I'm completely lost. But I always kind of in my mom,

like you've walked from that door to the bed every night for

years. How do we not just like, we just

walk like like I, I don't really honestly think about it at night

in the house. I just walk.

And it would be if something was not where it was supposed to be,

that would catch me off guard. My faith in God becomes so

strong that like, hey, I don't have to see the direct path.

I trust that you'll keep it clear and make it plain as I'm

walking and if I hit something that shouldn't be there, then

I've got to assess. Did I misstep or is this just

another battle for me to overcome to strengthen my

placement? Faith is through the unknown.

Your calling should take you into the unknown.

We always like to read these amazing historical accounts in

the Bible and then a lot of times we try to apply and well,

how would I do this? And you're like, well, Moses was

called and he just left and had, but Moses had a direction, but

he did just leave, right? And then we look at like all the

disciples were like, man to walk with Jesus.

Those guys left everything and then walked with them.

No promise of salary, no 40 hours of vacation, no health

care, no anything but a word and a calling.

All I need is a word and a calling.

And Jesus responded to all these temptations with a word because

he knew his calling. He said no.

I know that that's exactly what I'm here for, but I also know

that's not how I'm supposed to obtain it.

And if Satan can't confuse your calling, then he'll attack your

convictions. The third temptation was

convictions. The third temptation was a test

of belief, a test of his theology, A test of do you truly

believe God's character? Do you truly believe God will do

what he says he will do? It was no longer about appetite

or ambition. It was about do you trust God at

his word? And we see that Satan twists the

Bible itself. He says, for it is written, you

know, if you throw yourself down, they'll pick you up

quoting Scripture. This is why we have to be

studiers of the word rightly dividing, because we can give

flowery scriptures to try to convince something of something.

You can. Well, I can, I can, you know.

Well, God said, you know, he works a mysterious way like, no,

he works exactly like his word says he'll work.

There's nothing mysterious about it but you.

But you said faith is going into the unknown.

Yeah, that's not mysterious because God called me there and

I know when I believe it, He will reveal what is to come,

right? We have to understand the Word

so much that when we hear it presented wrongly, we can go.

That's not it. This is why some of you haven't

heard sermons before. And then something hits you and

kind of like that just feels a little wrong.

Like just feels a little wrong. And maybe you can't perfectly

place me like that just seems just a little.

That's your spirit saying, hey, you should probably study this

out more. This is why I love that Apostle

Earl says, don't take anything we say at face value.

Study it for yourself. It is our job to present a word.

It is your job to study it out and then apply it to your life.

You are not obligated to believe anything about my message today,

but you are obligated to go home, look at this scripture

again and say man does this line up because if it does then I

should probably apply it. This is a church that believes

in the studying of the word for yourself.

This is not a church where we just want to get up here and

just throw things at you and say don't challenge me.

No, you think you got something, You can schedule a meeting.

We can talk about it. We can go through Scripture

together, but bring Scripture because I'm not about opinions,

I'm about Word. If you want to have Word

conversations, we can have Word conversations, but let's bring

the Word and then we'll rightly divide it.

Faith doesn't demand proof. It demonstrates obedience.

Your convictions should demonstrate through obedience.

I believe God at His Word so much that I will do exactly what

He says every time, because I believe the rewards and I

believe what happens when I don't.

Because I am firmly persuaded that if I do the Word, it will

work in my life. I'm firmly persuaded that God's

Word works always. And if something is not adding

up in my life, then I've gotten off somewhere and I'm going to

figure it out, James, 16, says. But he must ask in faith,

doubting nothing. For the one who doubts is like

the surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind.

We need to come to a place in our belief in the word that we

stand on it without doubt. Now this doesn't mean that there

might be opportunities to doubt that arise.

And it might not mean that you might not have a thought that

goes, hey, this isn't going to work.

And you go, no, what? No.

And we cast them down. No one's saying that that

doesn't mean something won't try to attack you.

At every level, no matter how strong your word, faith and walk

is, things will present themselves that seem contrary to

the word. But your conviction is tested

when you're walking through something that seems contrary to

the word. Because do I believe it even

though I'm not seeing it walked out right now?

My true convictions are tested in that moment.

And my faith isn't proven by miracles.

It's proven by my obedience. It's proven through my obedience

to continue to walk and apply and do the Word no matter what

the situation around me looks like.

Throughout all three of these temptations, Jesus could have

found a different way out. He could have done something

else. He could have folded to his

cravings. He could have been tempted by

his calling. But he knew the Word won't be

with me in that solution. The Word is only with me in the

path God placed for me. The Word is only with me in the

path God place for me. Hebrews 11/1 says now faith is

the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things

not seem so. Conviction is trusting God when

proof is absent, right? So if the devil can't take your

calling, he'll try to shake your convictions.

Once he realizes, no, this guy knows what he's placed to do,

he'll try to say, do you really believe what you say you

believe? Are you really going to walk in

what you say? You'll you'll walk in because

you can be walking in your calling.

You can be putting down your cravings.

And then situations can arrive that you're like one of my like,

what's going on? Why is have I stepped off?

No, this is just another moment to increase your faith to

prepare yourself for more things to come.

A battle presented does not always mean you've done

something wrong, right? This is why we can't make

everything about personal Satan. Because just because there's a

bump in the road doesn't mean the devil placed it there.

Some roads are just a little bumpy.

And the more we learn to deal with them and handle them, the

more we grow in our faith, the more faith is then required for

us in the next season. Which means I'm always knowing,

hey, if I want this come, if I really want to do things for

God, the minute I do, that next phase that comes is going to

require even more. And so you want to add a lot of

times I think we were like, oh man, I'm just ready for the next

season. If it's truly the next time

you're getting into, if it's truly the next phase you're

walking into, make sure you are ready.

Because if you thought the last one was hard and you're hoping

to get to the next one just so, it'll be easy.

No, what makes it easy. What makes it easy is my

conviction, knowing that I don't really care what's presented.

I know God's going to take care of it anyways.

It's not the lack of battle that makes it easier, it's the

strength and the fullness of power you begin to walk in of

the Spirit that makes it easier. This is why I want to look at

this one thing that I thought was really great when I was

reading it and Luke 4/1 Jesus was baptized and it says Jesus

full of the Spirit was led by the Spirit to be tempted.

He goes through the temptations, He conquers everything and it

ends in Luke 414. By saying Jesus then return in

the power of the Spirit, He went from full of the Spirit to being

in the power of the Spirit. So power comes after fullness,

but only through faithfulness. Power comes after fullness, but

only through faithfulness. What I love about these kind of

passages that were placed is they become easy check markers

in our life. We can assess our self and see

where we at. Maybe some people are like man

I've been born again. I'm trying to figure out what's

my next step and what is God now that I'm boring him, what am I

supposed to be doing? So if we don't like man, I just

don't feel like I know yet. So then ask myself, am I dealing

with all my cravings properly? Have I put down the flesh enough

that I'm ready to step into something?

Or am I still in this season of needing to put my flesh

underneath me so that when I step into what God's placed me

to, this won't become an issue? We can check and see what's

going on. Maybe I'm not where I want to be

because I'm just not putting down everything I need to.

Or maybe I've put down everything and I'm starting to

do good and I'm starting to walk in this thing and I'm winning

way more than I'm losing. And now God's called me to

something and I'm walking in it. But now I've got so many

opportunities that look good. Now I've got so many options in

front of me. Which one is the right one?

This one pays more. This one works at a great

church, but it's going to pull me to a different state.

This one does whatever this one does and we can start listening.

OK, so then do any of them require me to be in faith once I

get them? Or am I just looking for the one

that sets me up the best? Now don't get me wrong, God

wants to bless your life and God will bless your life, but that

doesn't mean you won't still be walking in faith.

It's our faithfulness and our faith walk that brings the

blessings. I, I love what I do.

I, I love working in creative. I love being a part of the

ministry here. I love all these things.

And before I married my wife, I was, you know, at that same

place was like, you know, what's going to be next?

And I kind of, you know, toyed around like joining the Air

Force or the Coast Guard or something.

But like the like, the dream goal was like, man, what if I

could like be a photographer for National Geographic and like

travel the world and take photos of just like the whole world and

all this beauty and all this, like this would just be like

prime right to be paid to travel.

And I remember ultimately I heard a call to ministry.

And so I just was like, you know, this is a path.

And this is what we went down and we went.

We did. And then one day me and my wife

went on our big anniversary trip.

It was awesome. We went to Ireland and I'm

sitting there and I'm taking a bunch of pictures and I'm

posting stuff on my Instagram and somebody reaches out to me

and they're like, hey, saw your photos.

I love them. Could we buy some?

And so I was like, sure. So I just sent every good photo

I thought I had. They bought every single one of

them. So much so that it paid for our

entire trip. And I remember vividly for

myself, I'm sitting at the cliffs of mower.

I'm walking down this path, which end up being way longer

than I thought. And I felt bad because my wife

was like, yeah, go finish it. And I was like, yeah, it looks

like it's like 2 miles. It was like 7 wasn't even close.

And I but I was like, I'm, you know, I didn't really realize

that till about 3 1/2. And I was like, well, I got to

finish. Like I'm going to, got to make

it to the end. So I'm walking and I'm chewing

on this thing. And I just sold those photos and

they sent me like a PayPal and I'm just like kind of walking

and God just kind of remind me said, hey, you follow my path,

I'll cover the rest. And in this moment of thinking,

how cool would it be to be paid to travel?

I realize I just got paid to be here.

Like I'm actually going to walk out of this trip with more money

than I put into it. I somehow managed to make a

great 12 year anniversary investment, but it was through

just walking out those things in a, in a, a path I didn't even

consider anymore. I've gotten to travel with a

church I love going to missions I love taking.

I've always taken that in consideration.

Man, God's given me the ability to do photography around the

world for the church to continue to show you guys what all we're

doing here, which is all great, but there's still a whole nother

level when it just becomes this whole personal side thing.

But now I realize, like since then, I've gone on multiple

trips that have sold photos from continually and it's just got to

be like, hey, this wasn't what I called you to do, but it was a

desire in your heart. It's something you love.

And I'll continue to provide for you and be faithful for you as

long as you're faithful for me. You do my word, I'll take care

of these things. Those of you who know me, no, I

don't. I'm not gone a whole lot.

I really work. I mean, I, I end at US HR.

I end every year with plenty of vacation left in the bank

because I just, I love being here And when I'm gone, half the

time I'm like, I'm ready to get back. 12 days was a lot.

Now I love my kids. I miss my kids, but I was like,

I'm ready to get back to some purpose.

I'm ready to get back to what God placed me for.

I'm ready to start completing serving my vision, right?

And so when we walk in the things of God, man, he'll

continue to bless the path he placed in front of you.

So there's plenty of blessings. And so Jesus entered full, but

then left in the power. And it wasn't until after this

wilderness testing and this proving of faithfulness that

ultimately Jesus ministry came to life.

It didn't begin at the baptism. It began after the testing.

So victory there proved his character, his obedience, and

his readiness. It proved his character, his

obedience and his readiness. It wasn't wasted time, but it

was time where the Holy Spirit was able to refine Him and

continue to show through Him and be with Him, then ultimately

allow Him to walk in the full power of Him.

If we feel like we're lacking power in our lives, we have to

ask ourselves, am I conquering my wilderness tests?

Am I having wilderness victories?

Have I presented my life as a living sacrifice?

Have I walked faithfully through everything He's called me to?

Jesus resisted every shortcut and in every single situation

just said no, I'm going to stand on the word.

Your Christian walk isn't supposed to be about easy.

It's not supposed to be about easy, but the reward of the

victory is the power of the Spirit, and the reward of

walking in the power of the Spirit is worth any battle.

You can go through anything that's faced in front of you.

Man, when you overcome those things and step fully into what

God's place on your life and you have the power flowing with you

and you're able to continue to walk out those things, you

realize everything else really doesn't matter.

I just want to be in the fullness and the power of God in

every step and direction of my life.

I just want to walk in everything God has for me and do

everything God's called me to and continue to be exactly where

He's placed me because trials will come.

But you have the one who's overcome everything living

inside of you in every situation.

These are three temptations, cravings, callings, convictions

that everyone's going to face, everyone's going to go through,

everyone's going to deal with. But when those moments come, we

allow the Holy Spirit to continue to refine.

And the refining process isn't just once.

This doesn't just happen once because you're going to be

refined to get to a level and then to get to the next one.

There becomes more refining. But after every time I step into

what God's called and I continue to let go more of me to have

more of him, I'll continue to walk even more in the power He's

placed and I'll continue to have everything God's called me.

If we truly want to say, well, greater is he that's in me than

me, you know, or he's greater than I.

And all these kind of lovely Christian cliches we love to

say. They all require me letting go

more of me. This concept we have like, well,

you know, this is what makes me unique.

You are unique in what God has called you to do.

You are not unique in the fact that you should be walking in

something the Word hasn't said to walk in and that it's just OK

for you. Well, it's just OK for me to do

this. No, it's not.

The Word has a standard. That is the standard we walk in

now. It may be OK at the phase you're

at, but eventually you'll find if I want to get here, what I

thought was once OK can no longer be OK.

What I once did and was acceptable is no longer

acceptable. I let my younger kids do a

little bit more than I let my older kids do because I'm still

training and developing. But there becomes a time where

what you're doing is no longer OK.

And my daughter's can't look at me like, well, but, but I used

to do it, but she gets to do it. But she's still learning.

And when you were her age, it was there, but now it's not.

And in my walk with Christ, I'm going to get to the next place

and the next place, which means I'm going to look less and less

like the chase you knew. And I'm going to look more and

more like what God's fully placed me to be.