Colossians 1:24-29 | Christ in You, the Hope of Glory.

And somebody wants in your teens.

When you're in your teens and your 20s, you have lots of time,

lots of energy, but no money. In your 30s and 40s, you have

money and energy, but no time. And then when you're in your 50s

and 60s, you have money and time, but no energy.

And I think for many of us, if we were to look at this from a

ministerial standpoint and serving the Lord, many of us

would kind of use those types of excuses.

Like, man, I want to serve the Lord, but I don't have time.

I have the energy. I have the want to, but I don't

know the how to. I want to serve Jesus, but I

don't know enough. I want to serve Jesus.

But I had a really rough week, so I don't know if I'm going to

be able to make it today. And many of us have these kind

of we, we, we have these compartments in our lives that

we tend to stick ministry into. And what I want to look at today

is Paul. Paul at the end of chapter one

in Colossians is going to kind of give us a small window into

his life, Like what makes Paul tick?

What makes what makes him do what he does?

How does he keep moving? How how does he get beat down,

get right back up and go back into the same city where they

whipped his tail to keep talking about Jesus?

How what is it about Paul? What makes him tick?

And what I want to challenge us is with that same question, what

motivates you? What is it inside that keeps you

going? Now for many of us that played

sports, we're we're used to that going beyond that pain point

like we, we've done that physically for many of us who

grew up, you know, always working, We're used to that

mentally, We know how what it is to grind.

But I think when it comes to ministry, there's got to be

something deeper where our want to comes out of and our

motivations come out of because ministry is hard.

Serving Jesus is not always going to be pleasant.

There's going to be attacks on our lives.

There's going to be push backs from the enemy.

So it's got to come from somewhere deeper, something

else. Paul's attitude when it comes to

ministry is one word, joy. He didn't see ministry as

unbearable. He didn't see it as annoying.

Yes, there might have been some seasons or circumstances where

he felt a little discouraged, but he always maintained his

joy. He's the guy that wrote this in

Second Corinthians 489. I'm just going to read it for us

if you want to look it up later. Paul says this.

He says I'm afflicted in every way but not crushed.

Perplexed but not despairing, persecuted but not forsaken,

struck down but not destroyed. That's Paul.

And as I was looking at these last couple verses in

Colossians, one, I was like, man, this dude, he's like, he's

like the David Goggins of faith. Like it doesn't like nothing

bothers him. He just, he, he, he embraces the

suck. He loves it.

Like where does that come from? And Paul's going to say, no, It

it comes from this joy I have from the hope that's in me in my

prayer for us today in these next couple of moments is that

you leave here inspired and motivated, but also

understanding where your joy comes from.

And if the, the more you get that man, the more you're going

to see God do some amazing things in your lives.

But before I dive into the text, let's pray together.

So Jesus, thank you for today. Father, I pray that you are with

those who are unable to make it. Lord, we know that the storm

came through last night. It impacted a few folks, but

God, I pray that you be with them.

And Lord, those who are watching at home, Lord, continue to bless

them and speak to them as well. So Jesus, help us to see your

word. Lord, help me, God, to collect

my thoughts. Help me to remember everything

that was studied. And Lord, I pray that you used

me this morning. You name, we pray all these

things, Amen. All right, so let's just dive

into the text. Look at verse 24 in Colossians

1, Immediately we see a connector word.

So it says, this is now I rejoice in what I am suffering

for you. I fill up my flesh.

What is still lacking in regard to Christ's afflictions for the

sake of His body, which is the church.

All right, So what are we connecting what Paul is saying

here with that word now? Now remember last week in verse

23, the way he ends it, he says that this is the gospel that I

have become a servant to. So he shares the supremacy of

Christ. Then he talks about the fullness

of Christ, the fullness of God, which is found in Christ.

And because of the fullness of Christ, we're able to become

reconciled through his blood to all things back to God.

That is the gospel that I have been made a servant to.

This is what I do. Then in verse 24 he goes, now I

rejoice in what I am suffering for you man.

That is encouraging Paul. Now remember in Colossae, he

wrote the letter to the to the city of Colossae Colossae.

And he's sitting in a Roman prison right now.

So Paul is going through it. Also.

We see in Second Corinthians where he talks about all the

things that he's been through. He's taking the 40 negative 1,

which are like the lashings on his back.

He's done that three times. He was shipwrecked.

He was left for dead. He was beat down, he was

stranded. He's been hungry, naked, cold.

Well, name it, Paul's been through it.

And what Paul is saying is like, listen, in all of my suffering,

I rejoice. How many of us can say that in

all of the things that I'm going through in life, I rejoice.

And what Paul is saying is I rejoice.

The reason I rejoice is because the gospel is moving forward.

It's because it's building up the body of Christ.

So I want to show you guys just five quick things when we talk

about suffering, when Paul talks about suffering, so it'll be on

the screen. 5 things that I want to for us to remember that when

Paul talks about suffering in the New Testament, these are

some points that he makes. So as believers, this is what

he's talking to. As a believer, suffering brings

us closer to Christ. Paul even said that he's like, I

want to, I want to know your resurrection, but I also want to

be in your sufferings #2 suffering is sure is the

believer that he belongs to Christ.

If you are living for Jesus, if you are sharing the gospel,

there's going to be some pushback, but you know that you

belong to Him and in your suffering God presses down with

grace. Suffering brings future reward.

We know that our reward is not here on earth.

Our reward is in heaven. Our inheritance is in heaven.

But the things, the more that we suffer for the name of Jesus

here on this earth, the bigger our reward is going to be in

glory. Suffering can result in

salvation for others. Man, that's something that many

of us don't think about. Man, when you suffer for the

name of Jesus, when you go through some things, when things

are uncomfortable for you, you don't know what's on the other

side of that. You don't know who's being

impacted by your message, by your example, and by the gospel

that you took to them. It could bring people to Jesus.

And then last one, my favorite suffering frustrates the mess

out of Satan because as Satan tries to harm us and destroy us,

God brings good out of it. That's out of Romans, for God

makes good for all of those who love him.

So whatever suffering you're going through, if you are rooted

in the faith and you stay strong and you don't move from it, God

will use that. And he will use what Satan wants

to use to destroy you, but he will use that for his glory.

And you get to be a part of that.

So Paul sees suffering in a way different light than we do.

And he says, I rejoice. Now this next part of the verse

in verse 24 is, is a little funky.

It's hard to understand for some people.

Look what it says. And I fill up in my flesh what

is still lacking in regard to Christ's afflictions.

What does that even mean, Rick? Are you saying that Christ

didn't suffer enough? Like what?

What is what is Paul trying to say?

Now, some of our Roman Catholic brothers and sisters actually

use this text to try to explain purgatory.

So there's a belief that if someone passes away and they

didn't do enough here on this earth, or they're not sure if

they're in eternity, they go to purgatory.

And in purgatory they continue to work out and suffer a little

bit more in order for God to look at them and say, OK, now

you could come to eternity. And even the, some of the church

down here, the Roman Catholic traditions are like, you know

what? And you want to help that person

out, just pay us a little bit more money.

That's great hustle, but you know, before we kind of like wag

our finger at that. How many times have you given up

something thinking that that's going to bring you closer to

God? Guys, it's the same mindset,

it's the same thing, it's for the same purpose.

Now my problem, my argument with that whole like purgatory thing,

number one, I don't see that in scripture anywhere.

I thought purgatory was just a club in deep element in the

early 2000s. Oh, y'all been there All right,

I wouldn't know. I'm that's what I heard.

I'm just saying. But really that my argument for

this and why it doesn't work is because what Paul says in

Colossians 120 through 23, because he says that because

Christ has the fullness of God all in him, he is all sufficient

and his blood covers everything. So Paul cannot contradict

himself and say that he must continue to suffer, so that way

Christ's work is completed. And that that makes no sense.

But what Paul is saying here is that even though Christ died,

even though like the Pharisees, everybody came after him because

he claimed to be the Messiah, even after Christ ascended,

those who proclaim the gospel are going to receive that same

suffering, that same push back, even that same way that they

wanted to kill Jesus, they might want to kill you as well because

of the message that you have. It's going to continue.

And what Paul is saying is I fill my flesh up with that.

Here's another way in our culture, the way that you could

kind of describe it is Paul saying, listen, I want all the

smoke. He said, I want it all.

You guys want to come at me, Come on.

I fill my flesh with what's lacking in regards to Christ's

afflictions. So the same way that they came

after Jesus, the same way that the Pharisees pushed back, man,

listen, I want all that smoke from the culture because the

gospel is real. So bring it on.

If you're going to kill me, kill me.

Bring it. And that's what that's what Paul

is alluding to. And then he says, and it's for

the sake of the body. He goes, man, the reason I

rejoice and the reason why all this, the suffering, everything

that's coming at me is because of the body.

The body of who? The body of Christ, who is the

church. And remember last week we talked

about that Christ is the head of the body.

So Paul's like saying, man, listen, the church is growing,

the gospel is moving, people are coming to know the Lord, praise

God. So my suffering, I rejoice in it

for the sake of what's going on. See, Paul's motivation for

enduring suffering was because it benefited building Christ

Church. So that means that his

perception, his mindset was different.

Now I also asked myself, why would Paul mention that?

Because remember, one of the isms is asceticism where you're

supposed to suffer if God is going to be pleased with you.

So what Paul is saying, he's like, no, this has nothing to do

with the focus of their holiness and and their spiritual growth

and their perfection has nothing to do with me suffering for the

body of Christ. So God will look at me and say,

awesome, I'm so proud of you. No, He says, it is my joy to

serve Christ, and if suffering comes with it, so be it.

My joy is not going to go away. It's not about suffering.

So God looks at me and says, yes, he's better than all the

other Saints. That's the work that Jesus did

on the cross. My suffering comes because I'm

trying to bring out the name of Jesus to a world that doesn't

know him, and there's going to be conflict.

Now look at verse 25. Man, this gets great right here.

And I think that this is something that we could learn

from. 25 after that translates 25 says I have become its

servant by the Commission God gave me to present to you the

word of God in its fullness the mystery that has been kept

hidden for ages and generations, but is now disclosed to the

Lord's people. Now a better translation is Paul

says I have become, it's not it's servant, but it's a

minister. So we see servant because we

also just saw that in verse 23. The word servant here in the

Greek actually translates as a minister commissioned or a

ministered in God's stewardship. A lot of us see that term

minister and we're like, OK, that's got to be somebody that

just preaches and listen. To be a minister has nothing to

do with platforms, has nothing to do with popularity, has none

to do with sizes of churches, all that stuff.

That means that's not what it means to be a minister.

You know what minister means? I'll go and put the definition

up. It's going to blow your mind.

To be a minister means that you are a chosen servant for the

body of Christ. Keyword servant.

Remember, the church only has one head, that is Christ.

So as a minister you serve Christ as you serve others.

If you want a platform, go sell ice cream.

Go do something else. To be a minister of the gospel

means that you die to yourself every single day for the purpose

of God's will for His people. You feed the sheep, you love,

you serve others, you be with them.

That's what being a minister is. It's not about preaching.

It's not about all of this stuff that means nothing if it's not

for Jesus. So Paul says, listen, I became a

minister. And then he says, and and you

know what? I didn't choose this life.

This life chose me and and we saw that early on how we are.

God commissions us, we're qualified by God.

And then he says by the Commission, a better word is

stewardship. So I am a minister because God

chose me and he's given me the stewardship.

Now, why does Paul use stewardship here?

Because in those days a steward was a bond servant or a slave

who managed his master's household.

Like Joseph in the Old Testament, he was a steward for

Pharaoh. That means that Pharaoh gave

Joseph the go ahead and the name and the seal.

So Joseph could manage the position, the possessions of

Pharaoh, the wealth of Pharaoh. He could make the decisions in

Pharaoh's name. And what Paul is saying is that

yes, I am a minister of the gospel.

I'm a servant of Christ and to the church.

And then I've done this by Commission, by stewardship.

So that means that my role is I supervise everything that

belongs to Jesus. I dispense his resources, I

handle his business. Everything that belongs to God,

I steward that. That is my role.

So I serve others, I serve him. I die to myself daily.

I look at by God's Commission. He's the one that chose me.

I didn't sign up for this. I didn't go on LinkedIn to look

for this job. It came to me.

He's the one that picked me out. And I'll be real with y'all.

I read that and it hit me because if you ask most pastors,

hey, when, when you were 10 years old, did you want to grow

up and be a pastor? Absolutely not.

I want to be a wrestler. My parents said no.

There are so many other things in my mind that I wanted to be,

but God chose me. And when God calls you to

something, you say yes. It's not partial yes, it's a

yes. You jump all in and then it's

every single day. It's a daily surrender to his

will and his way and his truth. Now what is Paul a steward of

what? What's he supposed to be doing

in verse 25? I mean, this thing walks itself

out. He says it's a servant by the

Commission of God, which he gave to, to present to you the word,

the word of God in all its fullness.

The role that Paul is saying, I need to present to you every

single thing that God's word says.

The stuff that feels good and the stuff that don't feel good,

the stuff that's easy to understand and the stuff that's

not easy to understand. We teach God in the fullness of

the Scripture. That's why at our church we just

walk through the text. That's why we try to explain the

text as best as we can because it is my role.

So that way you guys eat God's great fullness.

And then in verse 26, the mystery, now that word mystery

is not secret. Like oh, it's a secret.

Oh, only a certain people can know this.

No, that's not what Paul is saying.

Because in the fullness of God's Word we find the mystery that

has been kept hidden for ages and generations, but is now

disclosed to the Lord's people. What is that mystery?

What is Paul talking about? It's found in verse 27.

To them, God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the

glorious riches of this mystery, which is the 7 words, Christ in

you, the hope of glory. What's the mystery that Paul is

trying to tell everybody? Listen everything in the New

Testament. Everything that came when the

Messiah showed up and when the Messiah ascended, and now we

have the text and the Scriptures how everything all points to

Jesus. That's the mystery that people

weren't understanding. They heard about the Messiah.

They heard about this coming king.

They heard that he was going to save them of their sins, but the

one thing that they didn't understand or know was that this

Messiah was going to send his Spirit to live inside of us.

How does that work? It's the mystery, the incarnated

God, Emmanuel, Christ, God with us.

What else is the mystery? The lawlessness and the unbelief

of Israel. How in the world does that work

with the with Jesus coming? It all ties together the unity

of being Jew and Gentile made one in the church, the rapture

of the church. These are all things that are

now made present because of the word of God that we have.

That's the mystery. But the biggest mystery is

Christ in you, the hope of glory.

How in the world can a Sinner, someone with a rebellious

nature, someone that wanted nothing to do with God, how in

the world can God give his life so that way I could be

reconciled back to him and now be known as a son of God?

Absolutely makes no sense. That's the mystery.

And Paul is saying, man, like God, the chosen people, he's

made known to not just the Jews, but to the Gentiles, the

glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope

of glory. Now he's going to walk us out a

little bit more, right? He's going to talk a little bit

about like what he finds joy in. This is why I suffer for the

church. And now he's going to talk about

this is how we build the church, right?

He says, so I got to teach the fullness of God's word.

And then in verse 28, he shows us how to do it.

Look at verse 28. He is the 1.

He is being Jesus. He is the one we proclaim,

admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom so that

we may present everyone fully mature in Christ.

All right, so we got to walk this thing out because if you

are a believer of Jesus, this applies to you.

This doesn't just apply to Paul being a minister.

This applies to all those who are found in Christ.

So we so the first thing he says is we have to do what proclaim.

The word proclaim means to declare in completed truth.

That means that you verbally declare something in its

fullness and it's true in all of its truth.

So that means you don't give half truths.

That means you don't suppress the truth.

I know some people like I didn't lie, I just didn't tell you

everything. That's called intent.

So what we're saying is we proclaim the full truth of who

Jesus is. How do we proclaim it?

Well, So what Paul does is that he's like, listen, proclamation

is not just preaching, proclamation is declaration

anywhere you go. So I could be at work, I could

be at school, I could be at home, I could be hanging out

with people on the street. We can have an event here.

Whoever you're talking to, you're supposed to proclaim the

fullness, the full truth of Jesus to that person.

And then he gives 2 aspects to, to proclaiming.

How do I proclaim? There's two things.

And then Paul connects a negative aspect and a +1.

And this is, you see this all through Paul's letters.

What's the negative aspect? Admonishing.

Now if you guys like me, I was like, what does admonishing even

mean? I don't know.

So admonishing speaks to encouraging counsel in view of

sin. So admonishing is I, because I

love you, I'm going to call you out on your sin.

I'm going to say, hey, man, I, I see what you're doing and it's

hurting you. I don't think it's a good idea.

And there's a difference between admonishing and judging.

Judgment is you in your assumptions, calling somebody

out thinking that you're correct.

Admonishing is you in the wisdom of God and biblical knowledge,

calling somebody sin out because you love them and you want to

see them do well. Admonishing is hard, but The

thing is, when somebody's in their sin, they usually can't

see that they're in their sin. They've been blinded by their

sinful nature, so they don't think anything is wrong.

So it's going to take you as a brother and sister in Christ to

approach that individual and encourage them to seek counsel

for their sin. And you do it with love and you

do it with care, and you do it with biblical guidance, which

we're going to see here in a second, which is wisdom.

You don't do it with hey man, I did that last time and it didn't

work good for me. No, it doesn't matter your

experience because your experience could be subjective.

It might have impacted you, but it ain't going to impact me the

same way. So what are you talking about?

No, it's about what the scripts, the Scriptures say.

Second Thessalonians chapter 3, verse 14 and 15.

2 Thessalonians 3:14

If anyone does not obey our instruction in this letter, take

special note of that man and do not associate with him so that

he may be put to shame, and yet do not regard him as an enemy,

but admonish him as a brother. And I think what we've done as

believers is we have, we have kind of blurred the lines with

admonishing A believer and kind of like correcting them and

admonishing you are helping them out of that sin and correcting

them, you're trying to do it for them.

So you have to point to why, why the sin is there and listen, and

I love what Paul says here in Second Thessalonians.

He goes and don't regard them as an enemy.

If someone is living in their sin, you don't look at them as a

plague. You don't look at them as like,

Nope, I'm done with. Listen, I don't have to allow

you to speak into my life. I don't have to go hang out with

you, and I can still be your friend and I can still love you,

but I don't have to allow you to pull me away from what I'm

struggling with. So what do you do?

So they're not our enemies. People are not your enemy.

They're actually your mission field.

And if we start looking at people who are in their sin, who

want nothing to do with God, and we start looking at them as a

brother instead of as an enemy, so we start to admonish them,

let them know about their sinful ways, their sinful nature, and

you bring it to them by the proclamation of the fullness of

Christ. So it means it all comes from

the Scriptures. And then we teach, and I love

that word, teach. So you admonish and teach.

They go hand in hand together. What teaching means is teaching

is imparting positive truth. That means that you are making

the word of God applicable for everyday life.

That's that's all teaching is. And you know who's supposed to

be teaching? Everybody in here.

You're like what? Because Jesus says this Matthew

2819. Therefore, go and make disciples

of all nations, baptizing them, them in the name of the Father,

Son, Holy Spirit, and teaching them everything that I've showed

you. Who's supposed to be teaching

all of us? What do we teach people?

Everything that Christ showed us.

So I'm proclaiming the fullness of God's truth.

I'm just telling people what the Bible says.

I'm just showing them and I'm admonishing, yet I'm also

teaching at the same time. So that means like, hey, I'm

helping people with their sin, the things that are ripping them

away from Christ with love. But I do it with all wisdom.

That word wisdom means biblical wisdom.

That means that you ask for the help of the Holy Spirit.

You don't do things on your own. So you could ask the Spirit,

like Spirit, help me to help my brother Spirit, help me to

understand your word. And someone's like man Ricky,

but I don't know what to do. I don't know what to teach.

And then my response to you is read the Bible, spend more time

in God's Word, know it more, and the Holy Spirit is going to use

that. So you don't have to be a

professor, you don't have to be this amazing teacher in order

for you to teach people about God's Word.

Open the book, read what it says.

You're helping people understand biblical principles for holy

conduct. So you are teaching for

transformation, not just for knowledge, because the Word of

God is alive. So I'm admonishing my brother

and sister. I'm teaching them God's Word.

I'm doing it in the full wisdom of God.

So that way that word begins to transform their hearts and

begins to transform their lives, and we see true transformation.

What does true transformation look like?

It's at the end of the verse. So that way we may present

everyone fully mature in Christ. That's what transformation looks

like. Our role as we disciple people

and grow people. And your role of people in this

church is to help lead them into full spiritual maturity.

It's called sanctification. Now when will we ever be fully

mature in Christ, whom we are with Him in glory?

We will never achieve perfection until we are with Him, but in

the meantime, while we're here, we are to present people mature.

Paul says we present them perfect, which kind of means the

same thing. And in the last verse is this.

To this end, I strenuously contend with all the energy

Christ so powerfully works in me.

Man, that verse, when I read this first, I wrote that thing

down and put it at my desk at work.

I wrote man, this verse like his minister to my life.

What does it mean to this end? So I'm going to do this.

What I all I just talked about, I'm going to continue to do

this. And then he goes and I

strenuously contend. All right.

So there's a there's a couple of Greek words here that are really

important. The word striving is Agonazi

Mai. Agonizei Mai means to compete in

an I'm sorry, to compete in a athletic event.

That means that I'm going to play like I'm trying to win the

championship game. I'm going to, I'm going to leave

it all out on the field. That's what Paul is saying.

He goes like, man, to this end, I'm going to play.

I'm going to serve the Lord like I am trying to beat the team

across from me. I'm going all out.

And then he uses another word here called capayo.

Capayo means to labor, but not just to labor.

It also means to labor to the point of exhaustion.

So what is Paul saying? He's like, did this end?

I am going to go all out. I'm going to go all hard.

I'm going to compete to the point of exhaustion till I can't

go no more. Some other people might say I'm

going to Rep it out. I can't say bro, you got 30

fives. I did 50 reps That means that I

repped out to the point it's it's to burn out.

I can't do it anymore. Now some of you are like, man,

Ricky, that sounds crazy. How in the world like Paul is

saying this? So you think you're doing a lot.

You think like you're busy. Look at his brother.

He's saying I'm not busy enough. Did missionary journey three

times. How does Paul do it?

Look what he says. Look at the text with all the

energy. Christ so powerfully works in

me. Did you all catch that?

You know how you go all out for the gospel?

You know how you go hard in ministry?

You don't do it on your own strength.

The reason why people burn out is because we do it on our own

strength. The reason why we get to a place

in ministry and in life. Some of your like men, we can't

call to that. Yes, you are.

We're all called to ministry because we're all sons and

daughters of Christ. And the reason why sometimes we

get burned out is because we're doing it on our own power, own

energy. So it is Christ energy and in

love, he says so powerfully works in me.

That means that the power of God is so potent, is so strong, that

there's no other way that this could work except Christ in you,

the hope of glory. You know, sometimes people ask

me like, man, Ricky, like, how do you do it?

Like don't you ever get tired? Don't you ever?

I'm like, yes, I do. So what do you do when I'm

tired? I sleep.

If I need to get away, I'll get away.

I have rhythms. If I need to shut everything

down, I shut everything down. Like I know my soul, I know my

body. I know that there's times in

ministry where I'm just like, man, I'm so sick of this right

now. But then I have to take a step

back and say no Lord, like I need, I need you to feel me.

Shut that thing all down. Let's, let's get together with

God and let him power me back up.

So 5 quick things and we'll be out.

I got 5 minutes to share 5 things.

So just some observations. And listen, my prayer is that

this encourages you as it encourages me based off what

Paul was saying. So #1 any day I get to serve

Jesus is a good day. Come on man.

Like how many of us can act like we need to start this mantra?

Like, any day that I get to serve Jesus is going to be a

good day. And I didn't RIP that from Ice

cube. Any day that I serve Jesus is a

good day. So when do I serve Jesus?

Every day, Not just every day, every minute, every hour, every

day, every week, every month, every year I serve Christ.

Why? How does that make sense?

Because in first in Colossians one verse 15, it says that

everything is made for Christ through him and to him, and he's

the one that sustains everything together.

So if that's true, the supremacy of Christ is true, that means

that everything belongs to Jesus.

And if everything belongs to Jesus, that means everything

that I do in life as a follower of Christ belongs to him as

well. I serve Jesus every day with

everything I do. Listen, whether you clean in

toilets, setting up chairs, sending emails, whatever it is

that you're doing and like studying, you do it for Christ.

And we're going to see that Paul's going to tell us that in

Colossians 3. It's all for him.

It's all for the Lord. So if I get to serve Jesus, if I

get if I have breath in my lungs and I wake up, that means that

every day is a good day. Why is that so important?

Imagine if we truly understood this, how much less mental

health issues we would have in our country.

How when we operate in the spirit and say, man, you know

what, it's all that belongs to the Lord has nothing to do with

me. How much lighter our burdens

would feel. How much less stress and anxiety

would leave our bodies. Knowing that what I do is for

the Lord and not for man, and definitely not for myself

because I can't handle it. We're broken people, which

leaves me to #2 There's joy in suffering for Christ.

There is joy. When things are hard and I'm

serving the Lord, there are joy. It's a joy to suffer for Christ.

You know, a few years ago, man, I had the opportunity to go to

India as a board me, You know, we wanted to check on the

basketball court. They wanted me to go some some

board members and and I know I shared the story with some of

you guys already, but the night before I ate some bad Wingstop.

Now having quit Wingstop, right? Isn't that how church hurt works

anyway? All right, so Wingstop never

again. No.

So I had some bad Wingstop and I was up and I mean, it was like

Montezuma's Revenge. It was like both sides.

It was rough. And I had to get on a 14 1/2

hour flight the next day. And in my mind, I'm like, how am

I going to do this? And I'm at the airport early

drinking some Powerade, eating some crackers.

And but, but hear me out. There wasn't one thought in my

mind that said I'm not doing this.

It's going to be, it's going to be rough, Rick, but you could do

this because we have to go and listen on that 14 1/2 hour

flight, I sat next to the biggest dude.

I sat next to him and behind him.

You know what I mean? I mean, it was like, bro, I had

a pillow on the shoulder right there.

Just he's a big dude. So I had that and then I was

getting up every two hours to use the bathroom that whole

entire flight. And we got to India and it was

amazing. And I remember in Mizaram, they

took me to a hospital, to the ICU because one of the kids had

meningitis. They didn't know she was going

to make it. That's like going there with

Lucy and prayed for all these kids that were dying.

And this little girl, we saw her last year at Miserable, Healthy,

kind of stuff like that. There's stuff like that, that if

we give into our suffering, we miss out.

And there wasn't one time, and I'll be honest with you, let's

just be real, it sucked. The flight was hard, but there

wasn't one time where I was at Miserable or where I was here in

Texas where I said I'm never doing that again.

I'm never going back to misrom again.

That was way too hard for me. Never.

There wasn't 1 inclination in my body instead it was opposite.

Instead it gassed me up to go back in June and I was like guys

this flight was difficult but it's so worth it.

And listen, when you suffer for Christ, man, there is a joy that

is birthed out of that, that if you could just get over yourself

and you get over your little like comforts, you're going to

find it and you're going to see it.

And you're going to be like, man, I get to experience this

joy even in my suffering. Why?

Because when I get to serve Jesus, that day is going to be a

good day. So where does that hope come

from #3 my motivation, my hope? What do I do?

Christ in you, the hope of glory.

Why am I able to get through suffering?

Why are you able to get through suffering and serving the Lord?

Because you have Christ in you. That's the hope that we have.

That's the hope of glory. Man, I just wish sometimes, like

there's, there's, there's people that want everything so easy.

And it's not easy and there's times that knowing that Christ

is with me, knowing that I get to serve the Lord is all I need.

Even made me think back. Like I have some pictures here.

Even thinking back, man, like preaching at a school.

So there's some schools, man. It didn't matter where it was, 7

people or 10 people, I prepared the same way.

And that's Eric's back. It's not the screen to say I

know y'all thinking that. Joking joking.

Some broad shoulders bro. But even when it was in a gym at

a school, I still prepared the same.

I still found joy in preparing the same way.

Even when I was preaching in front of a camera during COVID

where I had no idea who was on the other side of that, I still

prepared the same way. I found joy in just getting in

God's Word and getting ready to deliver God's Word.

I didn't know if there was one person.

I didn't know if there were 50 people.

It didn't matter. You still do it.

And even preaching at a church that is brand new have no idea

what's going on. You still prepare the same way.

Ricky, how do you do that? How do you do that and not get

discouraged or give up the the secret sauce is right there.

Christ in you, the hope of glory.

Just remember that when you're called and doesn't go the way

you wanted to, Christ in me, the hope of glory.

When nobody shows up, when nobody reacts, whenever it's not

what you expect, Christ in you, the hope of glory.

I'm serving Christ, He called me to this.

I'm excited, I'm happy, and there's joy that gets to come

out of my life because of it. The last two and we'll be done.

We need to start shifting our mindset here.

We need to go from work life balance to work hope balance.

And many of us have this idea of ministry being a job that I

don't like. Now listen, I've worked at jobs

that I don't like and it's terrible.

Time goes super slow. You're like, I have to be here.

It's not fun. We see ministry is different,

but wait a second. If every day I serve Jesus is a

good day, If Jesus is supreme over all things, that means

everything belongs to him, even the position that he put me in.

Maybe the way I think about things should not be work life

balance. Maybe the things I should think

about work hope balance, focusing on the hope that's in

me first. That way I could prioritize

everything and not worry so much about things that don't matter

and serve Christ and it all. And then last thing and then

we'll pray. Christ is the source of energy

for all ministry. Christ is the source of energy.

The reason why you do ministry is because you get the power of

Christ in you and that's how it works.

Listen, if you do not have the right source of power, that

means that you are going to struggle hard.

And last thing I'll say, man, when I when I turned 40, we went

to Mexico and for you guys that don't know is I love the water.

Just give me a beach, a pool, whatever, I don't care.

Anything else, the food could be terrible.

It don't matter to me. We'll make it work.

I live off sandwiches, so whatever.

But I remember like one of the things I love to do is go

snorkeling. Take me to the ocean, drop me

off. Let me just look at all the

fish. It's great.

Maybe I might say I had a shark or something.

We went. To Playa de mujeres or.

Isla de Mujeres on this boat and it was super choppy.

And as we're on this boat, like I'm looking out and there's

other boats as well, like like there's fishing boats and

there's like canoes and all that stuff.

And in my mind I'm just thinking like bro, like that.

That would be really. Hard.

To use paddles in this water, I'm like, we're like on a

speedboat. They're on like a paddle boat.

What's the difference? They both float, they both have

people on it. They're both going to get you to

the destination that you want. The difference is 1 has a source

of power that's different than the other one.

One it's with human power, the other one has a motor on it

that. Humans use.

That power in order to get to where they need to go.

Guys, the difference in ministry.

Is your power source. What source of power are you

taking from? It's the same thing we're all

going to get. To the same destination, but if

your power source is off, you're going to be tired.

Exhausted. And you know what?

You're not going to want to get back in that boat and go back

again. You're going to be like, I'm

out, but no, because our power. Source pushes.

Us more than what we can do on our own power.

It's going to be an enjoyable. You can't wait to do it again,

and we pray for us and we'll worship.