I Love You For Trying | Chad Bruegman

Man, so uh I lived in Denver, Colorado for 18 years, and I have uh one wife of 22 almost uh next month we'll be 22 years old in our marriage.

She is my best friend.

She is a thanks for the three people that appreciate marriage.

No, I'm just kidding, I'm kidding.

And uh I have uh four kids.

I have three boys and one girl.

I absolutely should have just had two kids, but that's on me.

We're keeping them all, we love them all, but that's just a stewardship issue.

I can't afford them and I don't know what I'm doing, but we love them all.

We have four kids.

Uh we had this tradition, I don't know if y'all in Ohio have it, um, but in elementary school, at our schools in Denver, there was always uh uh once a year a daddy-daughter dance.

You guys ever have that at any of your schools here?

Okay, yeah, so you know what I'm talking about.

And with only having one daughter, these were very sacred to me.

Some of our best photos we have ever taken together, some of our best pictures, and by far some of our best memories that my daughter and I share is at those daughter, uh daddy-daughter dances.

And what they did at our school though was to balance it out, is they would have every year a mother-son sports night.

And what's funny to me about that is we have three boys, and my wife is amazing on so many levels, and I don't know a nice way to say this, so I'm just gonna say it, but she's not athletic, but she's a faithful mom.

Come on, moms, you guys doing so much better than you think you are right now.

I promise you that.

Motherhood is no joke, and so my wife would show up, she would show off as best she could, she would be present at these things, and she would go all in.

Well, the last year of our last kids uh mother-son sports night, they had this blow-up thing, uh, bounce house, and it was called the gauntlet.

And I guess it was called the gauntlet for a reason.

And one of her besties told me that that night my wife went all in, and she said, I only counted three other moms that did the gauntlet all night.

The rest of it was just the kids because of how difficult it was and how uh embarrassing it could potentially be.

And I don't know what spirit came over my non-athletic wife, but she chose to be one of the four women that got into that thing, and I am so absolutely grateful to one of her good friends for pulling out her iPhone and filming it.

Watch this, wait for it.

She said, uh, I hate you and you owe me a date night.

And so I'm like, great, sounds awesome.

If uh you're the note-taking type, I've titled this message, uh, I love you for trying.

If you have your Bibles, go with me to Matthew chapter 14.

Matthew 14 · chapter mention

This is uh an incredibly personal and special moment in Scripture between Jesus and his disciples because it has had such a profound effect on my life.

It has been an accountability partner to me and a challenge and encouragement to me in so many ways because Matthew chapter 14 is like the quintessential I love you for trying moment between Jesus and one particular disciple.

Matthew 14 · chapter mention

I want to, if you'll allow me, I want to set this up before we start reading the text.

I want to set it up with uh something that happened a few years ago.

This message is uniquely personal to me.

Every message I get to preach is a privilege and it's sacred.

Make no mistake about it.

But this one's a little more personal than some of the other ones.

Uh because what was happening was in 2021, I was having what I would say was the most difficult and darkest year of my life.

Now listen, this is a part of life.

I I love the fact that the Bible doesn't run away from the fact like Jesus himself said, in this world you'll what?

You will have trouble.

And I'm so grateful he puts a comma there and doesn't finish there with a period.

He says, comma, but be of good cheer, like we sang about today, because I have overcome the world.

You are more of an overcomer, one church, than you walked in, probably thinking you are.

But man, I was in some trouble and I was in a dark season.

Long story short, uh, I had helped plant a church in Denver, Colorado, and was there for almost 15 years, and it was the best, I think, 15 years it felt like of my life.

God just did something unbelievably surprising and special at that church, and I couldn't believe I got to be a part of it.

Um, but early on in my teen years, I started noticing that I had some like chronic depression issues.

Um hopefully not a lot of you, but some of you, you're with me on that, and that can really drive darkness into anybody's season.

And if you don't struggle with it, it's really hard to explain because it just makes no sense on paper.

Depression is this thing that just eats away at hope.

And if I read the Bible correctly, hope is our anchor, right?

It's just like trying to take that anchor out so the wind and the waves of life kind of dominate the season and situation.

I I was going through that and I was still trying to make a living, and the only thing I've ever learned or known to do is to be a pastor, and so I just until God told me what was next, I just went and did what I've always done, which is preach the gospel.

Anybody that would have me, kind of like them having me here this weekend.

And so I was preaching, but I was walking through a deep and dark season of depression while being on stages with microphones and trying to act like I knew what I was doing and hold it all together, and that was just too much for me.

And I'll never forget it.

I was in room 22 at a hotel outside of Chicago, and I was getting ready in a few hours to have to preach at a conference, and I was doing my normal thing, and I was doing it with no zest, no energy, or a Bible term, no anointing.

I was in my hotel and I was trying to pray my prayers and get my heart right and look over my notes and make sure that I was feeling in my heart what I was about to preach to them about Jesus, and and there was just nothing there, man, an empty tank in my soul, and I finally just stopped doing my normal preparation and I started pacing faster and I started praying to God, well, whining to God.

You ever been there?

It's okay, you can raise your hand.

There's precedent.

It's called the book of Psalms.

That's what they always do.

They just start whining.

They don't end there, but they start there, right?

And I'm whining to God and I'm talking about how tired I am.

I'm depressed, I feel like I failed.

I feel like I was a quitter by leaving our church.

I felt like my best days were behind me, and I'm just having these talks.

And as I kept talking, the emotions got bigger and bigger.

And then finally, I looked up in my hotel room to God, and I wasn't shaking my fist at him, but I was just so passionate, and this was the realest I was in that whole prayer moment, and I just looked up to God, and just like this, I went, God, I'm trying.

You ever been there before?

Like, come on, moms and dads, with teenagers, right?

God, I'm trying, and it doesn't feel like any of it's making sense to them, or they don't trust me, or they think I'm too easy on them, or they think I'm too hard on them, or I'm not this or I'm not that.

Like parenting, man, it's real, and you're like, I'm trying my best.

It doesn't feel like it's enough, or you're you're you're in a marriage and it's it's on the rocks and you're fighting like everything because you took those words serious till death do us part.

For rich or for poor and sickness and health, and you're like, God, I'm trying, but I'm not sure they're trying, and I'm exhausted, and I'm I'm wanting out.

Or you're working so hard in your career, and you're just trying so hard to maybe maybe not live month to month, but to get ahead of ahead for once, and you're you're you're starting to see some maybe light, and then life starts lifing again, and it takes all of those reserve funds immediately, and you're back to square one, and you're like, God, I'm trying.

That was life for me in the career context, in my calling and in ministry.

And I finally, after I said that, I was exhausted, and I just laid on the bed, and it's like I had quit.

And I just put my arms out on the bed laying like this.

And I I you may be much more spiritual than me, but I I've never heard an audible voice uh from God.

But the closest I've ever been was in that hotel room outside of Chicago.

And here's exactly the response I heard from God when I finally just got brutally honest and just bared my soul to him.

Here's what I heard him say, and I'll never forget it.

He said, Son, I love you so much for trying.

Like, that is worship.

The problem is we were born in a capitalistic culture that gives no credence to trying.

We have a spectrum.

It is failure and it is a success, is it not?

We don't make movies about people trying.

Those don't sell tickets.

We make movies about abject failures and we make movies about great success.

But what I'm learning, 51 short years into my life, what I am learning is that the majority of life is not experiencing failure, and it's not experiencing success.

The bulk of life is us trying.

Like discipleship by its very nature, trying to be a follower of Jesus.

Do you know what it is?

It's this endless exercise of simply trying.

Now, the beauty of the gospel is the work has already been finished.

So we have been given more permission than you think right now to just keep trying.

Trying is worship.

You fail sometimes and you start again smarter, or you succeed sometimes and you do it with the humility of Christ.

But most of your life is just a big experiment.

Trying.

See what works, see what doesn't.

But man, we didn't grow up in a culture like that.

Every time I talk about trying, man, all I hear is Ricky Bobby's dad's voice in the background going, if you ain't first, you're last, right?

Like that's how we think of it.

We want those stories.

But I just came a long way from Houston, Texas this weekend to say nothing else than I hope you hear the voice of God before you walk out of these doors, because a bunch of you need that today of him saying, Son, daughter, I just love you because you're trying.

That is sweet worship to me.

That is sweet aroma to my nose is that you are trying.

And so let's do this.

Let's go to the text.

This is Matthew chapter 14.

Matthew 14 · chapter mention

What had just happened prior to us reading what we're going to read, he did that big miracle.

The disciples, all of them had just seen one of his coolest miracles when he had taken uh five loaves of bread and two fish and fed fifteen some thousand people.

Then it was time to go on to the next town.

Let's pick up.

It says immediately after that moment, Jesus made his disciples get into the boat, go on ahead of them to the other side.

Well, he dismissed the crowd.

After he had dismissed them, he went on the mountainside by himself to pray.

Later that night he was there alone, and the boat was already a considerable distance from the land, and the boat was buffeted by the waves because the wind was against it.

In other words, there was a storm.

Now, shortly before dawn, Jesus went out to them.

This is pretty cool, walking on the lake.

When the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified.

Now don't get all self-righteous two thousand years later.

You would have absolutely been terrified.

I would have been terrified.

This is a one-off.

This is the one time in history that the creator of the universe came into the world and was breaking the laws of physics and started walking on water.

So they did what we would have done.

It's a ghost, they said, and cried out in fear.

But Jesus, I love this, this is the voice of God immediately when fear comes into your life.

Just know that.

If you hear any other voice when fear seems to be winning and it's not immediately what Jesus is about to say, just know it's not the voice of God.

Immediately he said to them, take courage, it is I, don't be afraid.

And then I love Peter, man.

I have studied the Apostle Peter as much or more than any other human that's written about in the Bible because I on so many levels resonate with him.

Not the amazing parts about the Apostle Peter, the knucklehead moments about the Apostle Peter.

He's impulsive, he's impetuous.

I'm the same way, man.

He's uh most people are ready, aim, fire.

He's ready, fire, aim.

Like that's Pete.

And I I do I feel that.

But Pete would be called to be what?

The first leader of our church.

And it wasn't because he was any better than the rest of the disciples or anyone else, it was just because he had this knack to go first.

And to me, that's the simple definition of leadership.

Whether you're a good leader or a bad leader, leaders just go first.

There's just this instinct in them to go, I'll do it.

And this is this is what Peter does.

The minute he says, Don't be afraid, here's Peter's response.

Lord, if it's you, Peter replied, Tell me to come to you on the water.

And I picture the disciples that he's known for a long time just dropping their heads and going, Not again, Pete.

Come on, bro.

You literally just asked the creator of the universe that if you could defy the laws of physics with him right now.

Like, stay in your lane, dude.

Are you kidding me?

But I love that because do you know what Peter's saying when he says, Lord, if it's you, tell me to come to you on the water?

Do you know how what I hear him saying?

Can I try?

Right?

You know what that sounds like?

A little kid?

Come on, moms and dads.

When your little kids see you doing something, what do they, without any thought of the implications, without any thought if they're capable or not, without any thought of the repercussions of them asking to participate, what do they just naturally want to do?

Can I do it too, mom and dad?

They're not thinking about fear.

They're not thinking of if it's possible, if they're not thinking about it being probably uh impossible or uh for their age.

They're just like the people I trust most are doing it.

I want to try too.

And if I read the scriptures correctly, come on, we know this.

Jesus said, if you really want to participate effectively, if you really want to enter my kingdom, you've got to become like what again?

You've got to become like a child.

Peter's having this childlike faith moment.

If he does it and he asked me to follow him and help him do his thing, why wouldn't he want to teach me to do it too?

He says, Can I try?

But then I think Peter wasn't fully expecting the response he got from Jesus because here's what Jesus says.

He says, Come on.

I picture Peter going, wait, wait, wait, what?

Oh, shoot.

You weren't supposed to say that, right?

Like, are like, are you are are you kidding me?

And he probably had one of those moments we all have when we get in over our heads where it only lasts like three seconds, but it feels like a minute-long conversation, you know.

And I picture him doing a risk-reward type deal in his head, you know, like Siri, what's the uh definition of risk reward?

Thank you, Peter, for asking.

Uh, if you will refer to the Gospel of Matthew in chapter 14, you will grab a great example of what risk and reward looks like.

Thank you, Siri.

My pleasure.

No?

All right, I won't do that again next service.

Okay.

Thought it was great.

But I just I just wrote here, when when we're in a room full of a bunch of triers, I just wrote here the risk rewards for Pete.

Risk.

It doesn't work.

Okay.

Reward though.

What if it does?

Well, the same's for you.

Well, this might not work.

And then fear starts to get the loudest voice.

Yeah.

But what if it does?

Risk.

It doesn't work, and now I'm forever the butt of jokes with my 11 friends, and I'm gonna hear about it the rest of my life.

Reward, it works, and I now have a newfound honor and respect and influence with my 11 friends.

Big risk.

What if what I do actually disappoints Jesus?

That's real.

Reward, what if what I'm about to do, whether I sink or I swim?

What if I please the heart of Jesus?

And then I wrote biggest risk, and this is just practical, what if I drown?

Literally.

There was a storm that day, remember?

Biggest reward though, what if Pete goes, today was the day I felt most fully alive?

Risk reward.

Do you know what faith is?

It is a massive risk reward proposition.

Let's be honest in church today.

But here's the power of faith.

In the book of Hebrews, it says, without it, it is impossible to please God.

And Peter's doing that in this moment.

Can I try?

But the minute he put his faith out there like that, there was immediate risk reward kicking in.

And I want to talk about that.

Faith is just going to ask you sometimes to risk it, but faith is never, the Bible tells us, blind.

Let me put it this way: faith will sometimes, at different key moments in your life, kind of like when I decided I was supposed to leave my church, when that looked so stupid on paper.

Faith sometimes will ask you to throw some caution to the wind.

But here's the cool news faith will never ask you to throw wisdom to the wind.

Ever.

Do you remember what Peter said before he got out of the boat?

Lord, if it's you, tell me to come out on the water.

I'm not doing this until I'm prayed up.

I'm not doing this until I've had a conversation with the one who could actually allow me to walk on water.

I'm not doing this without a conversation with the Lord, like a counsel from God.

Pray about it.

This isn't me going, if you're a faith person, be stupid.

Make dumb decisions.

No, talk to God about it.

Birth your dreams in prayer.

When you're gonna step out and do something and try something for the glory of God, of course, get wise counsel and put wise people around you.

But at the end of the day, faith is a risk-reward proposition.

The Bible goes on to say this.

So Peter gets out of the boat.

Here's the big moment.

What's gonna happen?

And then he what?

Walked on water.

I've looked in the history books, I have found zero other recorded evidence of any other human being apart from Jesus besides the Apostle Peter to have ever done this.

And I don't care if it was one step, two steps, twelve steps, thirty steps.

He is the only human in the history of the world that we know about besides Jesus to get out and actually start walking on water.

And do you know what we Americans call that moment?

A huge success.

But are you ready for the next sentence?

Because it starts with a bad word in the Bible.

But it says, but when he saw the wind, he was afraid, and beginning to sink, he cried out, Lord, save me.

Do you know what we call that in our culture?

Failure.

Let's say it was 30 feet total.

In 30 feet, he went from huge success.

One of one human beings ever to break the laws of science and walk on water to what we would typically go, oh, you failed.

You didn't make it any further.

Oh, as soon as the wind and the waves got too much, you started getting your eyes off of Jesus, right?

We see the metaphor in the story, right?

The wind and waves, do you know what that is for us?

It's called life.

Life started lifing, and he starts to look to the left and look to the right, and he starts to do all the things that could go wrong because of fear, right?

And he starts to sink.

But Peter does another brilliant thing without realizing it.

He what does what next?

He cries out, Lord, save me.

And I love that because uh what does Romans, I think, chapter 10 say?

All who call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved, right?

Of course, that's talking about that one time crossing over from life to death moment between us and God, but man, how many, how many hundreds and hundreds of times have I in the last 30 years cried out, Lord, save me?

And it wasn't about my salvation eternally, it was about my salvation in the moment because I was trying and the trying wasn't going very good.

He cries out, Lord, save me.

And I love what Jesus does next because now we're getting the gospel implications.

There's that word again, immediately.

Everybody say immediately.

Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him.

This is the gospel.

You are a heart's cry away from getting the not only attention, but the sovereign help from God.

The Bible says he is an ever-present help in times of trouble.

That is the power of calling upon the name of the Lord when you are in distress or in a difficult season, kind of like I did in that hotel room.

And it says immediately he saved him.

I I'm a parent, and I sometimes catch myself not parenting the way Jesus discipled us.

Which I think's probably not right.

Because in my mind, uh I I'm thinking, okay, that's cute.

My son wanted to do what I do, but he needs to learn that he's too young to do it so he doesn't get himself hurt or in trouble.

So I'm gonna give him a little moment where I'm gonna let him I'm gonna let him get maybe three, four feet under the water.

You know, if I was Jesus, I would do that with Pete.

You know, Pete, Pete's lungs can hang for about 40 seconds, and then on second 39, I'm gonna pull him up right away.

Way, and then I'm going to leverage some of that PTSD and some of that trauma to go see.

Uh don't do that.

Stay in your lane.

That's for the creator of the universe to do.

That makes sense to me as a parent, right?

Like, like, use the moment.

Teach your kid.

Jesus does none of that.

His heart was the minute Peter cried out for help, immediately Jesus reached out his hand and he caught him.

This is the gospel that we live under, the gospel of salvation over everything we do.

But then when they finally get back to the boat, Jesus then does what he lovingly does next after salvation, which he starts to disciple him.

He has a teaching moment.

And I'll be honest with you, when I was new at reading the Bible, this next thing Jesus says when he has a teaching moment with Peter, it used to not sit right with me because I didn't think I really understood what was going on.

Because here's what he says to Pete when he gets in the boat You have little faith.

Why did you doubt?

It's almost like Jesus didn't take any time to high-five them or chest bump or anything like that for the fact that he walked on water, for the fact that unlike the 11 other guys, he had the guts to get out of the boat and just try.

There's no talk or celebration.

It used to bother me because Jesus immediately goes into you of little faith, why did you doubt?

But the reason that doesn't bother me anymore is because the tone of what Jesus is saying over the years has changed.

You ever notice that as a Bible reader?

Like the longer you do it and the more you become intimate with the true heart of how good God is, like we sang today, you start to attach different tones to what you're reading.

Because when I used to read that, all I heard was my coaches.

Like, come on, Brugman, you're better than that.

Why'd you start doubting?

Why'd you start doing uh things that we taught you not to do?

Why'd you get away from the game plan?

Come on, Brugman.

That's the voice I would hear.

But as I've gotten older and just trying to get a little more like you, uh uh mature and intimate in my relationship with Jesus, do you know what I hear Jesus saying now when I read this?

It's like, you have little faith.

Like, look, Peter, what you just were able to do with just a little bit of faith.

Don't stop now, son, because I've got so many bigger things than what you just did for you in store.

Do not stop now.

Remember when Jesus said, if you give me just a mustard seed of faith, I can make oak trees out of it.

I can part seas and I can move mountains.

If you just give me what you got, not what someone else has, not what you wish as a Christ follower you could have.

If you today walk out of here and this week say, God, I don't got as much as I had a year ago, or I don't got as much as my friend in my small group that's so spiritual that I want to be like someday, you know, goals.

But I'm gonna give you every bit of this mustard seed that I currently have, and you will watch God surprise you because giving him what you have is worship to God.

When we just keep trying, I hope you hear God again saying, son and daughter, I love you for trying.

I love you for persevering.

I love that when you sank, your first instinct was to call dad.

I love you that when it stopped going well, you knew that you were fully dependent on me.

It was my honor to immediately pull you up and help you.

You of little faith.

Why did you doubt?

Do you not see if you can keep your eyes on me?

Because what is what does uh Hebrews, I think, 12 say?

Fix your eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of your faith.

Can I tell you some good news today, one church?

You are not the author of your faith, you are not the perfecter of your faith.

You can take that mask off, you can take that weighted backpack off.

Jesus has finished the work and perfected the work for you in your place.

That's why his yoke is easy, and that's why he said his burden is light.

If you feel the heavy pressure of God's not proud of me, I'm not doing enough, I'm not a good enough Christian, if you're playing the nonstop comparison game, can I say to you today in the name of Jesus, take that weighted vest off?

God never put that on you.

I don't know who did, but I know the enemy loves for you to constantly be walking around and until there's success, you don't feel like you've done enough.

That's not true.

If you showed up today and you're still persevering and you're still trying, you have blessed the heart of God.

You have.

Period.

Full stop.

Book of James says, Blessed is the man or woman who has persevered under trial.

For after they have stood the test of time, they will receive a crown that will not fade.

Persevering, not giving up, crying out for help when you're desperate, continuing to try when you've got so little in the tank.

That is some of the sweetest worship you will ever give to God.

Quit dreaming up of some world of discipleship where someday you're getting so much more right that you think you and God will be content and good.

God loves you so much that 2,000 years before your story even started, he says, I'm willing to go to the cross and pay the price for them and take their righteousness so they can have my righteousness.

God loves you simply for trying.

I promise you that.

I wrote in my notes here and I think it's worth putting up on the boards.

Failure in the kingdom of God is no longer an indictment, it is a classroom.

If we had been saved by anything else than grace, I would not be able to say that statement with integrity.

Failure in the kingdom of God is not an indictment, it is a classroom.

When Pete, quote unquote, started sinking because of doubt, Jesus did not indict him.

He pulled him into the boat and taught him.

Because Jesus knew something Peter didn't even know at the time.

When he said, You have little faith, why did you doubt?

He's preparing him for a few decades later when it wouldn't be walking on water anymore.

It would be going into the middle of the town square with a cross on Peter's back.

And in 67 AD is when the historians believed his martyrdom death happened.

He didn't just die on the cross.

They believed that he looked at the people and said, If you're going to crucify me, would you please turn the cross upside down so as not to be crucified in the same manner as our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ?

See what Jesus was teaching?

Like, you think this three steps you took on water is your big moment?

No, this is this is just a setup to show you that you're a trier.

And God's in the business of using triers.

God's in the business of taking people that never felt like they're enough, but they just don't give up and they keep persevering.

And when they fail, they use it as a classroom to start again smarter instead of an indictment to play small and hide out.

To my friends that might be hiding out right now or punishing yourself, paying some penance that God never asked you to pay because of your last failure.

Can I just tell you you have an opportunity to just start again smarter?

Let me let me quote a verse to you that's changed my life and kept me in my faith, persevering.

It's so important.

It's the book of Hebrews and it's chapter four.

And the writer says this after some really important thoughts, the writer says this conclusion says, Therefore, now you do not have a high priest talking about Jesus.

He says, You do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with your weaknesses.

You're sinking.

And he said, Here's why.

Because he came to earth and was tempted in every way that you and I were, except was perfect, without sin.

And it says, because of that, you now get to approach the throne of grace.

What's the throne called?

Grace.

What's the throne called?

Grace.

You get to approach the throne of God's grace to do what?

Receive mercy and help in your time of need.

That's the heart of the Father.

It's a father that says, I know what it's like to want to sink when the wind and the waves of life get really big, to play small, to back down, to give up, to write yourself off, to live in the good old days mentality.

And he says, No, no, no, no.

When you feel like you've sunk or are sinking, cry out to me, approach the throne of grace.

You will receive mercy and strength and help in your time of need.

Failure is not an indictment in the kingdom of God unless you let it be.

It's a classroom.

So I want to end with a story that is personal again to me, and it was so beautiful.

And I hope it maybe means something to you on your way out.

Maybe you can remember this part, but um after I got back from that hotel room and that trip in Chicago, I debriefed with my wife as I always do, and I kind of broke down and she saw that I wasn't doing as good as maybe I had tried to make her think I was doing, and she was just uh an incredible strength to me in that season.

And I had to preach the next weekend, because that's what I did every weekend.

And I was still empty, and I was like, God, I gotta prepare a message.

I need to pray to you, I need to hear your voice so I can be your voice to some people, but I got nothing in me.

So I was trying to preach, I was trying to prepare, and then it wasn't going anywhere.

So I did what some of us knuckleheads do that we shouldn't when we should be working.

I started doom scrolling on uh socials, and at some point, somehow, I found myself on YouTube and I was just randomly scrolling, and I saw the caption that says, Will Farrell delivers commencement speech at his alma mater.

And I immediately was like, Will Farrell giving it a commencement speech?

I have a duty to watch that.

When I should have been working, it was 25 minutes long.

He spent the first 20 minutes just being Will Farrell, just being stupid and silly and giving anecdotal moments uh back from his time at USC, and it was as you would expect.

It was hilarious, but then the last five minutes something switched.

The tone switched, and Will Farrell started to get serious with the students, and he started to tell them failure after failure after failure after failure, trying to get commercials turned down, trying to get into different sketch comedy groups turned down long before he would ever be famous on Saturday Night Live.

All of the different parts, big and small, that he tried to get, failure after failure after failure.

He says, You guys see a Will Farrell now that has done all these different things, but man, there were so many failures behind some of those successes.

And he said, Here's what I just did in those early seasons.

He said, I just kept throwing darts at the dartboard.

He goes, most of them didn't even stick.

They hit the wall and fell to the ground.

Some of them hit the wall, but it wasn't on the dartboard, it was on the drywall.

That was his metaphor.

He said, But what I found was if I just kept trying, if I just kept throwing darts at the dartboard, eventually, statistically, even if you're bad at darts, you're gonna eventually hit the dartboard.

And he goes, statistically, if you even keep throwing them long enough, randomly, eventually, you're even gonna hit a bullseye, and those are fun.

He goes, I eventually just kept trying, and most of it was failure, but eventually I hit the board, and then a couple things like setting it alive.

I I hit the I hit the bullseye, man.

And here we are, I'm delivering a commencement speech, one I should not probably be giving.

He goes, just keep throwing, students.

When you walk out of this college with your diploma, just start and then keep throwing darts at the dartboard.

Eventually, I promise you, the right one will stick.

Saying, just keep trying.

Because we are a community right now of triers, y'all.

That's it.

Some successes, some failures.

Most of life trying.

So I called my wife in because it literally felt like the Holy Spirit was speaking to me through Will Farrell, which I never had on my bingo card, but it felt that way.

It felt holy when he started using that analogy.

So I brought her in and I fast forwarded, I gave her context, and I said, just watch this.

This is so for me.

And I was so excited, and she watched it and she tried to share in my excitement as much as she could, but it was for me.

And I was like, Well, she didn't appreciate that quite as much as I did.

Good talk.

We'll see you later.

Well, fast forward about four days later or so, and I'm working again in my office, and I hear the doorbell ring in the afternoon when the kids are at school, and I immediately know exactly what that means.

Husband's trigger warning right now.

Uh it was Amazon.

Yeah.

It's crazy in my house, y'all.

We have an we have a don't ask, don't tell policy now.

I just pick them up at the porch and I just walk them to the kitchen, and I'm just thinking, how many more jobs do I have to have to pay for this addiction or affliction, whatever it is.

But it had my name on it.

And y'all, I don't order anything from Amazon.

That's my wife's lane.

It had my name on it, and I'm like, what?

I didn't order anything.

So I open it up and put that picture up.

That's that's what my wife ordered on Amazon and had sent to me.

That is a patent from 1935 of when the dartboard was invented.

And I at first I was like, okay, what?

And then I started to read the note, and it started by saying, in quotes, babe, just keep throwing darts at the dartboard.

Sorry, I get emotional because that was such a pivotal moment for me.

My wife was the voice of God in that moment.

Because I had never felt the forces of hell telling me to quit more, telling me my best days were behind me more, telling me I don't qualify or I'm worthy to be a pastor anymore.

You gotta bring more oomph, anointing pizzazz.

You can't run on empty and keep getting up there and preaching with integrity.

All these voices, which I now know were lies, it was the enemy desperate, you know.

The enemy screams, God whispers, right?

Desperate people scream, calm people whisper.

And the whole time the devil's screaming at me, God's whispering through the Will Farrells and the Rachel Brugmans of my life, going, just keep throwing darts, just keep trying.

There is worship in your try.

And I will never forget, wives, this is a side note, but nothing fuels your man's soul more than encouragement.

Nothing makes your man feel more respected than when you, his best friend, his covenant partner, speaks life over him.

It is fuel to a man's soul.

And the least season I deserved for her to send that to me and write that incredibly beautiful letter was ironically when I needed it most.

And there was a line in the sand when she wrote me that letter.

Everything a man's supposed to be rose up in me that day and said, I'm gonna keep going.

I'm gonna be brave for my family.

I'm gonna step it up for my family.

I'm gonna keep providing for my family.

I'm gonna keep preaching the gospel of God with everything I have for the glory of God and see what he does with it.

I got inspired, I start to feel my soul get more energized, right?

And it was just keep throwing darts at the dartboard, and so that hangs up in my office, and I look at it at least once a day, and I just remind myself, you keep trying because trying is worship to God.

And so I end by simply saying, Yeah, I gotta get us out of here, or the parking team's gonna kill me.

Sorry, Greg, if you're watching.

Um, some of you in here are trying so much harder than you walked in giving yourself credit for, because you're using culture's template for what success and failure look like.

And I'm saying in the name of Jesus, God brought you here today to remind you, son, daughter, you do not know how much I love you because you just keep trying, you just keep showing up.

And I pray that some of you that walked in heavy today would receive Jesus' invitation to take his yoke, which is easy, and his burden, which is light, because that is what God wants for you, and it costs Jesus everything to offer you that.

And listen to me, you deserve to walk out of here lighter than you walked in, in the name of Jesus Christ.

So I end with the blessing, not my own words, the blessing straight from number six.

One church, may the Lord bless you.

May He keep you in the grip of His grace.

May He cause His face this whole week to shine upon you until we meet again.

May He be radically gracious to you and your family.

May He turn his countenance towards every single one of us this week.

And I pray more than anything you walk out of these doors today with a peace that passes understanding, that guards your hearts and guards your minds.

In Christ Jesus, we pray this.

And everyone said.