ReCALIBRATE | Strength When Life Hits Hard

Good morning.

All right.

Well, I'm looking forward to giving you a little bit of a building update this morning.

We're making progress.

Things are still on track.

March 1st is a move-in weekend.

March 8th is our grand opening.

That's still the plan.

And uh yeah, it's really exciting.

I'll tell you something that's really exciting.

There's some paint on the walls.

Come on.

Like, yeah.

Yeah, that's right.

I you're like, what's the deal?

Paint.

You don't know, okay?

You just don't know.

Okay.

That's amazing.

There's paint on the walls.

It's the right color, too.

That's a wind right there.

Yeah.

It's the right color.

So anyway, I don't have any pictures for you today, but uh, I'm just telling you, this is what's happening.

So it's moving and we're progressing.

Uh, next week, uh, we're gonna have some dates for you.

Just there's some things that we got to do between now and then.

So we're gonna have some open houses.

We've got um specifically for our serve teams.

Um we we're we gotta get you in the building, gotta get you acquainted with the building.

This is your new home.

So on March 8th, when all these people show up who don't go to our church yet, and it's our home, we ought to be able to tell them where to go.

Like we got nowhere to go.

So, yeah, so you'll we'll give you, we'll show you around and show you uh what your new uh church home looks like.

And so, anyway, uh that'll be next week.

So I'm looking forward to telling you a little bit more of that.

Maybe we'll even have some probably have some new pictures too, because it's it is progressing pretty well.

And so anyway, I know you're excited.

I'm excited too.

I'm actually excited more, but it's not a competition.

I'm just saying, okay.

I was thinking back, we're we're we're continuing our series today.

We we started a series last week called Recalibrate, talking um all about um we're going through the book of Philippians.

I was thinking um about a story almost I don't know, maybe 20 years ago now.

There's a friend of mine.

Um he couldn't have been more opposite of me, like way opposite.

I played sports all as a kid, all through high school, even in college, and then and then he did not, he was an artist, like and legitimately, he was a good, he was good.

But we we founded some some like mutual ground.

We liked uh reading a lot of the same books and stuff, so we kind of we can we became friends.

And I remember he was like, Jay said, I'm I'm tired of being small.

I want to get bigger.

Now he's talking to a guy who's not that big, so but I at least knew my way around, a gym, at least.

So he's like, let's let's go to the gym.

I was like, Yeah, sure, let's go to the gym.

So we go to the gym.

He's like, I know I need I want my arms to be bigger.

And I was like, okay, you know, I'm not an expert in that part, but you know, sure, let's do that.

So we get to the I'm about here at this machine.

So we go to this like tricep pull down machine, okay?

And he gets up there and I and he's like, I don't, I don't know what to do.

I'm like, here I'll set you a weight.

I set you a little weight.

And I'm when I say a little weight, I mean a little weight.

Just give him a little weight right there.

I'm like, now you should tell him what this he gets going.

He starts pulling down, he gets down to the bottom, and he just lets go of it.

Clank, and ow! I kid you not.

This is what he does.

Ow! That hurt.

I was like, um, it's supposed to.

It's called resistance.

It's a muscle.

You've never used this.

He's like, I didn't know it's got.

I was like, what did you think?

This is how do you get bigger?

If you're gonna grow, it's gonna require some resistance.

Okay, and this is not just the gym, this is all parts of life.

If you're gonna growth requires resistance.

You know, if somebody was gonna teach you something or show you something or or speak into your life, and then you find out they've never actually done anything hard in their life, they've never had to go through anything, they've never had to overcome, they never had to trust when it doesn't make sense.

They just don't have a lot of credibility, do they?

Why?

Because you know that through pressure and through difficult things, we grow.

And when somebody says they haven't ever experienced something, you just kind of wonder, have you really have you really grown?

Do you really have the right to speak into my life?

Now, you're probably a better Christian than me, but this is one of the things I think about some from time to time.

You know, pressure comes, and then I start playing out my mind.

I start thinking, man, maybe along the way I went left and I should have gone right.

Right?

You ever think that?

You start playing, how did I get here?

Maybe I should have done something different.

Down now here, uh here I am.

Maybe I could have avoided this.

Try to avoid adversity from time to time.

But here's the thing life just has pressure, and just because you experience pressure right now doesn't mean that you even did anything wrong.

Why?

Because that's what life happens.

That's the that's life.

You you go through life, you're gonna experience hard things.

There's no way around that.

There's no way around that.

In fact, um, really, I and this is what we're gonna read today because we we started this series off last week and we talked all about Paul.

He's he's in prison writing this letter.

In prison.

And he's writing a book that later becomes known as the Book All About Joy, which is really ironic considering the guy who wrote it is in prison.

That's called moral authority.

He has the right to speak on the topic because he's been able to find the joy of Jesus in really difficult situations.

Say, okay, he probably has something to say uh about this.

And what you're gonna find, we're gonna see this today, is that Paul just thinks about adversity different than most of us.

He just thinks about it differently, he has a different perspective.

You can see it as an obstacle, you can see it as an opportunity.

Either way, you can't avoid it.

In fact, this is even what Jesus says.

Jesus says this in John 16.

He actually says, you can have peace when you go through adversity, when you go through a hardship in your life.

That's actually possible to have peace as you go through it.

But he but he doesn't say this in some weird Christianese echo chamber where everybody just paints a smile and pretends like everything's awesome every day.

He actually says, no, you can have peace, and even though in this world you're gonna have a lot of trouble.

Like fully aware that your life's gonna be hard.

And in fact, who he's even talking to in John 16, it ends really poorly for some of them.

And yet he says, in the middle of that, you and I can actually have some peace.

Yeah, I every now and then I'll talk to somebody that they'll tell me like they're wondering, they're wrestling with why they're having to go through something as hard as what they're going through.

They though it'll usually go something along the lines of I started following Jesus, I I gave my life to Jesus, I've I've been going to church.

Pastor, I even started giving.

I'm like, I'm like super Christian, I'm all in.

I don't understand why I have to go through this.

And I don't, and I don't, and I've heard this, I've heard this many times over the years.

And I don't know what, I don't know if there's like somebody out there, I don't know what what message that is.

There seems to be some brand of Christianity that says if you follow Jesus, then you can you can avoid hardship, you can avoid adversity.

That's not the gospel.

There there is no there is no pathway of following Jesus that leaves you exempt from difficulty.

Let me tell you what you can tap into.

You may not be exempt from difficulty, but as a follower of Jesus, you can tap into divine power to navigate your way through adversity.

And that's what Paul's talking about.

That's what we're gonna talk about here today.

You know, it's actually possible.

I'm actually gonna talk, we're gonna we're gonna pull some stuff out of here, and what Paul, we're gonna finish chapter one of Philippians, and we're gonna see ways to properly respond to adversity.

It's actually possible to respond incorrectly.

Like this isn't just uh, well, we'll see whatever happens.

You know, God's gonna do whatever God's gonna do, and maybe I get it right, maybe I don't.

No, no, no, no.

You you can respond incorrectly.

And we're gonna talk about this here in a minute.

But but I listen, the grace of Jesus, I I I will preach the house down about the grace of God in your life and in my life.

I am saved by the grace of God.

Nothing gets me more excited, to be quite honest with you, than talking about the grace of God.

If you're not excited about your salvation, then you haven't gotten a revelation to the depths of the grace that God has extended you.

I'm not but here's the thing yes, grace covers a multitude of sins.

It covers a multitude.

But it doesn't mean that your decisions don't have consequences.

And so when we're faced with adversity, there's a way to respond that leads us to life, and there's a way to respond that has the potential to negatively affect you and the people around you.

So if you're if you're like me, let's let's figure out how to respond correctly.

Okay, I got four ways to respond correctly.

That's not some, that's not because that's not exhaustive.

I'm sure there's more we could pull out of here, but I'm hoping you'll remember one of them.

So here we go.

I got four, and we're just gonna kind of make our way through the text here in uh in Philippians.

Here's the first one.

First one, reframe adversity.

You need to reframe adversity.

I I love this.

We're gonna see here just how much different Paul views his circumstances compared to what might be normal given his situation.

Look at this, verse 12.

He says, I want you to know, brethren, that the things which happened to me have actually turned out for the furtherance of the gospel.

Notice he doesn't get stuck in the trap of why.

No, don't get me wrong.

Life's difficult.

I'm I'm not opposed to asking the question, why?

Why is this happening?

I don't I think that's a fair question.

In fact, I think I got a lot of why questions for God one day when we actually get to ask him face to face.

Nevertheless, it's a trap that will get you stuck in a loop and you can't stay there forever.

I love how Paul does it.

He doesn't get stuck on why, he just moves right past why and he goes, listen to what this has accomplished.

That's what he's talking about.

Look at what this adversity in jail, chains on, unjustly jailed on top of that.

I mean, you gotta you gotta you gotta put yourself in the situation here.

And he says, Hold on a second, look at what is happening because of the adversity that he's facing.

Here's another element that we gotta we gotta address if we're gonna navigate adversity well, is that many of us have just bad theology.

What's theology?

What's theology?

Theology is your ideas and beliefs about God.

Some of us just got bad theology.

We don't have any problem with a God up there, and then there's us down here.

But for most of us, for many of us, I should say, that's the extent of it.

No, no, hold on a second.

First of all, there's a good God up there, there's us, and there's a bad devil.

A lot of us don't account for this.

We got a good God, we got we got us here, but there's also a bad devil.

I I'm I'm telling you, adversity, there's an intention for the adversity that you're facing.

The intention for the adversity, the devil has an intention for the adversity you're facing in your life.

It's to get you off course.

You gotta understand, God loves you, the devil hates you.

The devil hates you.

And he has he has a plan for your life, and it comes by way of adversity.

Now, it doesn't mean that God can't use adversity.

I'm just telling you, the devil would love nothing more than to get you off course.

Now, here's what I won't say: just because you lost your car keys doesn't mean the devil's attacking you.

It's like, oh my goodness, it's the devil.

That was your memory.

That's the problem.

Sometimes adversity just comes because you're living on assignment.

I mean, think about that.

I mean, I it's one thing.

I remember being a kid, I was just like, God, wherever you send me, I'll go.

I just want to follow you.

That's a great, that's good.

There's nothing wrong with that.

That's great.

That should be our heart posture.

God, I'll go wherever you send me until you find out that the places He wants to send you actually comes with some hurdles.

Like, well, I didn't mean that way.

I'm just sometimes adversity can could just be the assignment you're on.

Sometimes it's our own making, and other times there's a bad devil who actually wants to wants you to shipwreck your life.

I love this.

I think I think for a lot of us, we need to be like Paul.

We need to move on from a why and we need to start asking what now.

You find yourself in a difficult situation.

I mean, we can lament that we're in it, we can lament that it's gone this way, but I think for a lot of us, we gotta we gotta we gotta take a step back and we gotta move on from why and we gotta go, okay, what now?

What do I do from here?

Murmuring, complaining, I get it.

I'll complain with the best of them.

I get it.

I've been there, but listen, I'm just gonna say right now, we can't stay there.

You can't stay there when life's not going the way that you that you planned it.

You can't control everything that comes your way.

You can't control all the things that happen to you.

You can control the story that you tell about it.

We got to start reframing the adversity.

Here's the next one we we see Paul do is he just stays on mission.

Paul just doesn't, he just isn't phased by this thing, the things that are going on.

He's in chains, he's chained to others, and he still leads people to Jesus.

I mean, I don't know about you, but if I'm unjustly jailed, I I mean, I'd like to think I'd be like Paul, but there's a part of me that's kind of going, I might be going, I'm at the end of my rope.

This is as far as I go, Jesus.

Like it's over.

Like I what do I gotta do to get home?

Right?

Not not Paul.

He just says he's just moving on.

He stays on mission.

Don't don't think, don't think that your decisions only affect you.

I know this isn't a popular message in in our culture because we like the hyper individualistic message.

It's it's my time, it's my money, it's my resources, it's my life, it's my choice, it's my decision.

Hold on a second.

Hold on a second.

Good or bad, the way you will respond will affect not just you, but the other people around you.

I want to let's read this.

This is uh verse, we're in Philippians chapter 1, verse 13.

Philippians 1:13

Look, look how look how Paul refuses to get off course.

He says it's become evident to the whole palace guard and to all the rest that my chains are in Christ.

Basically, it's become evident that I am unjustly locked up.

That's what that's what he's saying.

And everybody realizes it.

I'm here because I'm zealous for Jesus.

He says that most of the brethren in the Lord, having become confident by my chains, are much more bold to speak the word without fear.

You gotta love that.

Looking at Paul, and they're over here going, you know, this is really feeling I'm feeling a lot of pressure preaching the gospel, and then they see Paul, who's actually locked up, he's actually been caught, and and he's still not quitting.

It's just like courage just comes over them.

If if Paul's good to go, my goodness, I'm definitely good to go.

Nothing's gonna stop him.

He keeps he keeps going.

Some indeed preach Christ even from envy and strife, and some also from goodwill.

This is a wrench in some of y'all's worldview.

Just because, this might surprise you, just because somebody is wanting to teach you the Bible doesn't mean they always have great intentions.

I some we said this last week.

Some of us need to monitor, we need to, we need to guard our inputs a little bit better.

I'm some of us are way too quick.

If it's produced well, we just sort of accept it and listen to it.

Well, I know my pastor said this, but this really well-produced YouTube video, and this guy, it's pretty compelling.

He says that.

Listen, you need to stop lending credibility to people who have zero relational equity in your life.

I'm saying, you wonder why we're confused.

Well, it's like, well, I've been following Jesus for 10 years, but you still aren't don't know virtually anything about the character of God.

It's like, well, it's time to get back on course.

I'm just saying.

Here he is.

There's actually people in Paul's life who are preaching the gospel with the sole intent of actually harming him.

Let's see how he what he thinks about it.

He says, the former preach Christ from selfish ambition, not sincerely, not sincerely, supposing to add affliction to my chains, but the latter out of love, knowing that I am appointed for the defense of the gospel.

What then?

Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is preached, and in this I rejoice.

Yes, I will rejoice.

You gotta love that.

He just says, you know what?

At the end of the day, Jesus is being is being preached.

I'm good, I don't care.

He's just not even gonna give it a second thought.

You gotta love that.

They're literally trying to harm him.

He just goes, Hey, if you're doing it in the name of Jesus, he's just like, I'm I'm gonna let Jesus work that out.

You gotta love that.

That's a great perspective.

Man, that's I that's that's amazing.

Staying on mission, in jail or out of jail.

Paul's like, I'm I'm not getting off course.

I'm telling you, the enemy has an has an intention for the adversity of your life, is to get you off course.

Same adversity, God has a different perspective for adversity that's in your life right now.

He says, get close to me, and I'll strengthen you.

This is this is the this is Jesus.

You draw close to me, I'll he'll draw close to you.

He will when you you get low, he says he will lift you up.

He says, you get close to Jesus, you get close to God, He'll He'll strengthen you.

Same adversity, by the way, just a different perspective.

I I hope you're I hope you're seeing that.

Listen, don't let don't let adversity get you off course.

You know, if I you're sitting here and you're you're kind of trying to figure out what do you mean by off course?

What am I doing with my life?

Listen, it the Bible says that he will work all things out for the good of those, don't miss this part, who are called according to his purpose, who love him.

What's that?

Called according to his purpose.

It means this.

It means that you're not just arbitrarily meant to just live your life right now.

That there's actually things that you have, you're on assignment.

You have things that you're on assignment for.

And it doesn't always have to be, it doesn't mean you gotta be me and you gotta preach from a from a pulpit or a platform.

It could mean for a lot of us, it's you need you're called to be a certain type of friend to people.

You're called to be a good father, a good mother, a good husband, a good wife.

You're called to do these things.

You're called to, you're called to be a good employee, a good employer.

You're called to honor people wherever you go by honoring God with everything that you do.

I'm just saying, like these are things, like that's your calling.

That's what you're called to do.

And there's something about adversity that tempts us to throw off restraint and to compromise.

You get a layoff that you didn't see coming.

The job, the job promotion didn't come through, the deal didn't come through, you find yourself financially in a place you didn't expect to be, and you just have this, what now?

God, why?

Why?

Why do I have to go through that?

What is what is going on here?

Some of you are in the middle of navigating relational breakdown, you got family conflict, mom said this, dad did this, brother, sister, extended family.

Some of you have put way too much stock in a romantic relationship.

Way too much stock.

The person's betrayed you, hurt you, done something, broke your trust, and you just have this temptation to go, you know what?

What's the point?

And you're tempted to compromise.

And I'm just telling you, don't.

Don't compromise.

Don't don't get sidetracked, don't allow adversity to get you off course.

Stay on course, stay on purpose, and stay on mission.

I'm just telling you, stay on mission.

You know, one of the things that'll help recalibrate our thinking around this whole topic of how do I stay on mission, is that a lot of us, we think that people are the problem.

We're convinced, if that guy would just stop doing those, and if they would do that, and if they would get this right, and they would they would actually start acting.

I mean, I'm gonna tell you, you don't really hear that in Paul's writing.

No, no, no.

There's there's a bad devil who wants to who wants to throw you off a course.

It's not people.

It's not people.

You need to recalibrate.

The devil wants you distracted.

I'm just telling you right now, God wants you steady.

And it's possible.

You can actually be steady even when you're going through really hard things.

All right, here's the third one.

Take the long view.

Some of y'all need a new perspective on life.

You need a long view.

You need an eternal perspective.

So as we're just so consumed, we just think that what we're doing right now, the here and the now, this is it.

You need a longer view for your life, for life with Jesus.

Look at this, verse 19.

He says, For I know that this will turn out for my deliverance through your prayer and supply and uh the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ.

You gotta love that.

He says, He's saying, I he's not howing it.

You ever been in a meeting like that?

If you're a dreamer, you you you know that maybe you're you're the person who hows things.

Here's what it looks like.

Somebody dreams with you, they say something big, and then you always got the person in the meeting, they're always like, Yeah, but how?

You ever been in that meeting before?

That sounds good, but how you gonna do that?

And then everybody just hows your dreams to death before you like you're not even dreaming anymore.

You're like, you're right, it's impossible.

You ever been in you what I'm talking about?

How?

Oh, that's a big dream.

How are you gonna do that?

How, how, how?

That's always happening here.

He just says, I know, I know this is gonna end well for my deliverance.

He says, I know prayer works, and I know that I know the Holy Spirit is real.

He says, I know it's gonna work out because I know those two things.

He doesn't say how.

In fact, look at what he look at how he he talks about this.

He says, according to my earnest expectation and hope that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ will be magnified in my body, whether by life or by death.

He said, He's not even looking at whether he's gonna make it out of prayer.

He's going, whether I live or die, I'm gonna be delivered.

Whether I live or die, I'm not gonna be put to shame.

I'm just telling you, that's a different perspective.

That's a long view perspective, that's an eternal perspective.

For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.

But if I live on the f live on in the flesh, this will mean fruit from my labor.

Yeah, what I shall choose, I cannot tell.

I love that.

He's like, I don't even know.

I think I might rather just die and go be with Jesus.

I mean, that's what that's literally what he's saying.

For I'm hard pressed between the two to live or to die, having desire to depart and be with Christ, which is far better.

Nevertheless, to remain in the flesh is more needful for you.

Oh, that's interesting.

He recognizes that his life isn't just about him, it's actually for other people.

And being confident of this, I know that I shall remain and continue with you all for your progress and joy of faith, that your rejoicing for me may be more abundant in Jesus Christ by my coming to you again.

He's like, I'd rather go be with Jesus, but I know it's gonna be way better if I stay and I come back to you.

He's not done.

He's not done with his purpose.

I got to go hang out with some other pastors this last week.

And uh we flew in to somewhere in anyway.

One of the one of the guys there, one of a friends of mine, I was we were talking, he was talking about the plane ride in, and he said as he was flying in, he brought his son with him.

And his son don't really fly a lot.

So they got all this turbulence going in the plate, and and he said he was just sitting here, he's kind of dozing off.

He said he looked out the corner of his eye, and his son was a little bit worried.

And so he kind of goes, he's like, Dad, dad, he knew what he was gonna say, and he just goes, he just goes, he goes, Don't worry about it.

He goes, I still got plenty of work left to do.

I still got plenty of work left to do.

He was serious.

I love that.

You know, don't worry.

I don't, it's it's likely not going down because I'm not done with my mission.

I still got plenty to do.

That's a different perspective.

That's a that's real, by the way.

That's a that's it, it's possible to have that kind of perspective over your life.

That's a piece that doesn't really make sense unless you can get a hold of an eternal perspective.

Here's what Paul understands, and uh that you can get a hold of too.

Is that if you want strength right now in the present, you need to get a hold of hope in your future.

Hope for your future.

I mean, think about the lies that come your way.

Think about the lies that come our way when we experience adversity and things don't go our way.

What's some of the first things we start thinking?

Oh my goodness, this is never gonna change.

Oh my goodness, it's always gonna be like this.

I can't believe this.

Oh my god, what's gonna happen?

I can't believe this.

I'm never gonna get, I'm trapped.

We have all these thoughts.

Hold on a second.

You need it, you need you need renewed hope.

You need an eternal hope.

And I'm just telling you right now, you get a hope for your future, it will create strength right now in your presence.

In your present.

I I think I think we we put too much stock.

I'm not I'm not minimizing.

I would never want to minimize the difficulty and the pain of life right now.

No, I would, I would never want to do that.

However, it's temporary.

I think we need we need a fresh perspective.

It's it's actually temporary.

It and it's moving actually quite rapidly.

Life actually goes by at a pace that you you you probably don't even realize.

It's actually, I know it feels slow now, but it's not.

Uh, my son plays basketball, and uh a few weeks ago they um they were supposed to scrimmage on a Saturday, and the other team canceled because of snow.

And so they just sent the coach sent out a quick text and he was like, hey, we're gonna do a scrimmage.

The dads are gonna scrimmage against the boys.

And I was like, okay, it sounds good.

I immediately started having like visions of how this was gonna go.

I was just like, man, this is gonna feel good.

I'm gonna I'm gonna get up there and I'm gonna boom, you know, I'm gonna dominate some little kids today.

I don't care.

I was like, I don't even care.

I'm just I'm gonna snuff a couple, I'm gonna, I'm gonna drive, I'm gonna show them how to play ball, you know.

This is gonna be fun.

You know, no homes bar, just boom, you know, I said I was ready.

And uh and then I got out there, and I kid you not, I get out on the court, I'm walking out there, feeling real good about myself, and I hear this little kid off on the sideline.

He's like, oh man, the old guys are here.

I was like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

See, I remember when I was that age, and I remember when the parents came out, and I remember thinking these old guys are out, and now I just realized, oh my goodness, I'm one of the old guys.

I'm officially, I'm officially one of them.

No, I'm one of the old guys now.

So I started playing, we started playing.

I was like, I'll show you how an old guy plays ball, you know?

So we start playing, and woo! I was tired.

I was way tired than I thought I was gonna be.

I started doing the old man basketball plays.

You know what those are?

Those are when you see a guy fast break, you don't dribble down with them, you just throw it to him and you go, you shoot it, I'll wait here for you.

That's what you do right there.

I'm gonna do the one, I'm gonna play half court today for just a few minutes, just a few minutes, you know.

It's like, what happened?

Because I remember I wasn't always the old guy.

Now apparently I am.

Why?

Life's moving a little faster than I realized.

Life is moving right along.

It's temporary.

This is temporary.

Life is happening fast.

We say this to our kids and our teenagers here.

You don't you don't have to wait for some arbitrary age down the road, some arbitrary line down the down the road to actually decide that you're gonna get serious about your relationship with Jesus and do something significant with your life.

You don't have to wait to do that.

You can be a great kid right now.

You can decide right now.

You can do you can do great things right now.

You can I don't care that you're in middle school, you can go to school and do great things right now.

High school, it doesn't matter.

You can be a great kid right now.

Why?

Life's too short to stop and go, oh, I'll wait till then.

No, no, no, no.

It's moving far quicker than you're giving it credit for.

And if you'll get an eternal perspective for your life, if you'll get the long view, it'll start sinking in a little bit.

I said it earlier.

Other people need you to stay on course.

It's not just all about you.

Other people need you.

Like you, you stepping into to purpose, stepping into your mission may be the key for other people to step into theirs.

I look around right now, I can see faces right now sitting down in the room with us right now.

I can see some of your faces here.

You you came here and you didn't know Jesus, but somebody invited you.

You you gave your life, you surrendered your life to Jesus, and now you're faithfully following Jesus.

Hold on a second.

Did you miss it?

That means that somebody else was living on purpose, on mission, staying on mission, and decided to extend you the invite to come along and get on mission with them.

You said yes, and here you are.

And I'm just telling you, your decisions aren't just shaping you, they're shaping other people.

Other people need you to stay on mission.

I I said it a minute ago.

I I would never want to minimize, just because life's temporary doesn't mean that life doesn't hurt.

Just because it's temporary doesn't mean that life isn't hard.

In fact, I I would even say it's it's detrimental to you to try to dismiss how to downplay the difficulties of life.

I I we I've said this before.

If you want to, if you downplay the difficulty of life, you you also have to downplay the redemption that God is gonna do in your life on the other side of eternity.

And I would just say it's way better than you think.

So I there's nothing wrong with acknowledging life's hard.

Just redemption is just way better.

It's just way bigger.

It's gonna be better.

Look at look what he says in Revelation.

He says, he says, there's gonna be a day when he dries up all our tears, when he when he rights all the wrongs, when there's no more death and there's no more mourning, like that's coming.

Like there's a vision for that that's coming.

God has that.

Pain and loss.

I remember in my early 20s, I went to way too many funerals, it seemed like part of that was being in the Navy, plus some others, just uh friendships and stuff.

And and I I'm gonna I'll be I'll shoot straight with you.

The Bible's really clear.

If you're a follower of Jesus, we don't mourn like the unbeliever.

We don't.

No, we'd mourn.

It just doesn't, it just means we mourn differently.

Why?

Because there is hope that this isn't over.

I'm gonna see them again.

I'm gonna see her again.

Like we just we don't mourn, we we don't mourn in a way that says it's all our No, but why?

Because as a Christian, as a follower of Jesus, we understand the long view, we understand the long game that it hurts now, but there's there's a way better, there's a way better prize on the end.

And guess what?

Just because we're separated temporarily, it's just temporary.

It hurts.

Life loss, they're they're real, but they're temporary.

I'm gonna say this too, and you may not like me for saying it, but I'm just gonna I'm gonna be honest with you.

There's some of you you love the world way too much.

You do, you just love the world way too much.

I'm not talking about a Jesus kind of love that results in self-sacrifice for the world.

I'm I'm talking about uh some of you love the world way too much.

You like your comforts, you love what you got, you love what you get out of the deal, you're wrapped up in the systems of the world and it's working out in your benefit.

Some of you love the world way too much.

When you love the world way too much, I'm gonna tell you right now, you find it nearly impossible to do things like be generous, to be selfless.

You will inevitably make this world all about you.

Get the long view.

That's the remedy.

Get an eternal perspective.

You ever had a moment?

Maybe it's just me.

You ever had a moment where you get you you're tired in life and you're like, I need a vacation.

Anyone?

Just me?

Okay, thank you.

I'll just preach to myself now.

Yes, I've been there too.

Yes, thank you, Jason.

I need a vacation.

You want to know real what's real?

Some of us we think we're tired, we're not tired, we're just short-sighted.

Yeah, we need it, we need a long view.

We're too wrapped up in this right now.

Here's the last one stand firm in grace.

Now, this listen, stand firm in grace.

This isn't in any particular order because I'm just reading the text and I'm just kind of going through and pulling them out as we go in the text.

But if I was going to put them in order, I'd probably put this one right at the top and I'm gonna show you, I'm gonna show you why.

Look at this Philippians 1, verse 27.

Philippians 1:27

It says, only let your conduct be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or I'm absent, I may hear of your affairs, that you stand fast in one spirit with one mind, striving together for the faith of the gospel, and not in any way terrified by your adversaries, which is to them a proof of perdition, but to you of salvation and that from God.

Let me let me summarize that for you.

It means this there's people that maybe there's friends in your life, maybe there's people in your life that are opposed to you, or maybe just mocking you, think this whole Jesus thing you're doing is a little bit silly.

Here's the proof that God is on your side, God wants to save you.

The fact that you don't quit, the fact that you can stay the course, the fact that you stay on mission.

He says, You can stay on mission, you can stay on course.

He says it's a sign to those around you that God's going to deliver you.

The fact that you don't back down.

Because see, that's not normal.

That's not normal.

It would make sense to cave.

It wouldn't make sense to bow down to the adversary to the to the adversity that comes your way.

But when you don't, he says, actually, that's a sign to them and a sign to you about what God thinks.

Verse 29, for to you it's been granted on behalf of Christ, not only to be to believe in him, but also to suffer for his sake, having the same conflict which you saw in me and now here is in me.

What's he saying?

He's saying, Don't be scared.

Don't be scared of adversity, don't be scared of even people who would come against you, people that would oppose you.

Don't don't do that.

You know what?

We live in a cultural moment where everybody feels like they have to share their opinion.

Anybody else know this that?

It's like, you know what, we we may only have five people on social media who actually read our stuff, but my goodness, they're gonna read what we gotta say about it, right?

It's like, oh my god, put it on there.

Say what we think all the time.

We just feel compelled to say, let me, let me, let me, let me give you permission and and and tell you something.

Do you want to know what a an incredible act of faith is in this cultural moment?

Don't say anything.

Don't respond.

It's monumental.

Okay, what's your first instinct when somebody comes and wrongs you or you see something you don't like?

You feel you gotta do something, I gotta do something, I gotta say something.

Hold on a second.

You know what an act of faith is?

Back up and just go, I'm not gonna say anything.

Why?

I trust Jesus.

I'm not saying there's not a time to speak.

Don't read into what I'm saying.

Of course, there's a time to speak.

Most of our speaking, though, it's not the time.

Let's just be honest.

Act of faith.

There, I know for some of us in the room, we got some type A personalities in the room.

You're the you're a str you're strong.

We've got some strong type A, very self-reliant people in the in the room.

We can we appreciate that.

We we love movies and books about about people that have that kind of disposition.

Let me be really clear because what we're talking about today is how do I tap into divine strength to navigate adversity in my life.

Listen, I'm talking to you right now.

Listen to me.

Divine strength only comes through acknowledging your limitations.

It only comes through acknowledging your limitations.

This is why so few people will actually tap into it.

Because we don't want to let anybody know that we don't got it.

We don't want anybody to know that.

I'm just saying, that's not how you tap into that's not how you tap into divine strength.

Look how Paul says it in 2 Corinthians 12.

He says, My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.

That's not just some cliche, that's not just some some trendy little Bible verse to read.

That he's saying it's in my weakness, it's in my inability, it's inside my limitations that I'm actually able to tap into divine strength that actually enables me to do what I need to do so I can navigate, stay on mission, stay on course.

He says, I'll boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses so that Christ's power may rest on me.

This is the entryway.

Don't miss this.

You want you want divine power to navigate the adversity in your life?

The entryway, the front door, is acknowledging your own limitations.

Grace is the power source that allows you to tap into this.

I mean, how did Paul carry on?

I mean, my goodness, Paul's, how does Paul carry on with this?

How does he do?

I'll tell you what, I'll tell you what it's not.

It's not human bravado.

Paul's not just walking around with his chest all puffed out, just oh, I'll tell you what, I'm gonna do, and I'm gonna do this, and you don't know my he's not dying that he's not doing that.

It's very different.

And I know for some of us, we we we struggle with this idea, we're really not sure how we feel about this message.

We're like acknowledging weaknesses, this feels weak.

I don't really like this.

I'm gonna tell you right now, you you you think you're strong until life doesn't go your way.

Do you know what that's actually called?

That's not called strength, that's called comfort.

You're strong when you're comfortable, and you're not so strong when you're not.

And I'm just telling you, God says, I you can be steady, full of peace, and full of joy, whether it's highs or whether it's lows.

But it only comes through acknowledging your limitations and your weaknesses.

You ever gone through something?

You ever gone through something where it should like, it should like shipwreck you?

Like you shouldn't be good, but you are good.

You ever been in one of those situations?

You're like, man, I know from the outside looking in, this should like have me in knots and I should just be a mess right now.

But I'm not.

I'm like steady.

You ever had one of those kind of like that's that is possible.

I was thinking about, by the way, I'm not even, I'm not trying to posture myself as some example for this.

Like, I'm not saying, like, oh, I got I'm the hero of my own story.

I was thinking about Bethany and Bethany here, she like sins like maybe once or twice a year, okay?

You know, for me, I repented on the way to church this morning, okay?

Come on, somebody can relate to that, okay?

I'm not like yeah, it's like I'm not, I'm not, I'm not where I'm gonna be, like God, it's taking me somewhere, but I'm definitely not where I used to be.

You can relate to that too, okay?

I that's not that's not what we're talking about.

What we're talking about.

So you can actually tap into that kind of like steady life, divine power, and divine strength by getting low through humility, through acknowledging your own weakness.

It's it's in that moment that Christ's power is made perfect.

That's the way.

It's the way of Jesus.

Get low.

Let's end on let's end on this note right here.

This is 2 Corinthians 4.

Look how Paul says it in this in this letter.

He says, For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.

If that doesn't hit, if that doesn't hit, I'm gonna tell you your prayer, and we're gonna pray it here in a little bit, here in just a minute.

You need God to give you a revelation of his glory on the other side of eternity.

You need God to give you fresh revelation.

How in the world can you call what you're going through light and momentary when you get a revelation of how good his glory is on the other side of eternity?

We're gonna pray for that in a moment.

So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen.

Since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

Let's pray.

Father, we need your help.

What that's the prayer.

That's that's the prayer.

We're talking about straight.

That's the prayer, Lord.

That's our first prayer to you.

We need help.

I want to pray for a few groups of people here this morning.

There's those of you in the room, you I'm talking about grace.

I'm talking about glory on the other side of eternity and it's not hidden.

And it's not hidden because you need a revelation.

Father, we ask for fresh revelation.

Would you open our eyes?

Would you give, would you help us to get the correct perspective so that we can find ourselves like Paul calling our current adversity light and momentary?

We need your help.

Would you give us fresh revelation for how good, how good your glory is and how good heaven is.

Thank you.

We need help.

I also want to pray for those of you you're going through stuff right now.

Maybe even quietly, nobody even knows what you're going through.

But it certainly doesn't feel light and it certainly doesn't feel momentary because it hurts and it's heavy.

I want to pray for you right now.

We just we bring it to you, Lord, and we just say we can't navigate this on our own.

We need your help.

So we acknowledge our inability, our limitations.

We acknowledge that we can't do this on our own and we need you.

We thank you that you became weak so we could become strong, Jesus.

We acknowledge that you, that you took this on yourself so that we wouldn't have to carry it.

And so we release it and we give it to you and we just say, we need your help.

Thank you for sending your Holy Spirit to help us, to lead us, to guide us.

Thank you.

Thank you for helping us and making us strong in the middle of our adversity.

I also want to pray for those of you that have never committed your life to Jesus.

We can talk about divine power and we can talk about having strength to navigate adversity in life, but if you but if your life isn't committed to Jesus and He's not the Lord of your life, we're just talking about positive mental attitudes and stuff that quite honestly will not last, that will not go the distance.

What we're talking about is something that's only made available through Jesus Christ.

He died for you, he took your sin, he took your brokenness, just like we said a minute ago.

He became weak so that you and I could be made strong.

His body was broken so that you and I could be made whole.

And if you've never committed your life to Jesus, you never asked him for forgiveness, you never trusted him to be the Lord of your life, then this is your moment.

I'm gonna pray and I would just encourage you to make this prayer your own.

Just tell him in your own way, Jesus, I give you my life.

I trust you, I believe you that you died for me, that you rose again, and your word says that if I follow you, you would raise me to a new life with you.

And so from this day forward, I'm yours.

Be my Lord.

I'm all in.

I will follow you wherever you take me.

I love you.

Thank you for loving me.

And it's in Jesus' name we pray.

Everybody said, Amen.

Amen.

Hey, like we mean, I think we tell Jesus thank you.

Just put your hands together.