Being A Doer Of The Word | Pastor Kelly | The Calling Church

Hi, calling family.

This is Pastor Michael, and welcome to our church podcast.

I'm so grateful for you tuning in today, and I believe today's message is gonna strengthen your faith in Jesus.

All right, well, let's start with this question.

Would you like to be successful in life?

Okay, about half of you.

That's all right, though.

Okay, the rest are like, well, I'm not really sure.

I kind of like just muddling by.

Okay, let me try that one more time.

Do you want, would you like to be successful in life?

Okay, now we're on board.

Now we're ready.

All right, we're gonna talk about that today.

Here's what the Bible says.

Well, actually, let's talk about some areas where we would like to be successful.

Maybe in our finances.

How about that one?

You know, where you're getting promoted at work, where new opportunities are opening up, that you have more than enough income to cover your expenses, and you're able to save for the future.

You're not just living paycheck to paycheck.

Amen, somebody?

Is that what we want to see?

We want to see prosperity and provision from the Lord.

How about in your health, right?

That you are successful and living a healthy lifestyle, that you're not struggling and constantly going to the doctors and having all of these ongoing maintenance things, that there's health and blessing uh in your life physically.

How about relational success?

All right?

Yeah, let's believe God for that.

That you would be successful in your relationships, whether it's in your marriage or with your kids or with your parents or with your siblings.

Um, let's see who your friends, everybody in your life, having successful relationships.

Uh Michael didn't mention it, but as many of you know, one of the things that I do now, in fact, the main thing that God has has me doing after serving as a pastor at a church in West Covina for 35 years is that I do marriage coaching.

So I'm meeting with couples on a regular basis and just so blessed how God brings these couples to me and they find out about me on YouTube and then you know connect with me.

And really it's seeing them move from a place of brokenness and hurt and pain to a place of health and reconciliation.

And I'm just so grateful for how God is using that.

But success in relationships, and then of course, it's this ability to withstand the storms of life, right?

I think that's success, as well as purpose and vision and having a real reason to live and making a difference in this world.

Here's what the Bible says.

This is one I thought of this morning, so I don't have it on the screen.

But Joshua 1:7 it says this be strong and very courageous, be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you.

Joshua 1:7

Do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go.

You see, this is God's plan for you.

And really, when we think about it, throughout the Bible, there are several scriptures that I think we need to really hang our hats on and remember on a regular basis.

Jeremiah 29, 11 is a great one.

The Bible says, For I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord.

Plans to for you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

And then I love Genesis 12, too, where he said to Abraham that I want to use, bless you, and through you I'm gonna use you to be a blessing to all the world.

And that's what God did there.

So, really, God's plan for your life is to bless you and then use you to be a blessing.

That's what we're talking about, is how to be successful.

And then, of course, I think my favorite when it comes to talking about the blessings of the Lord is what Jesus said in John 10, verse 10.

John 10:10

This is by far my favorite verse in the whole Bible.

And I love God's word, and I hope you do too.

But if you had to say, Pastor Kelly, what's your famous favorite verse?

This is it.

John 10, 10.

The thief comes only to steal, kill, and destroy.

But I have come that you may have life and have it to the full.

Or some translations say abundant life.

Several years ago, I was uh we were on vacation, uh, my wife and our kids, we were visiting some friends in Hawaii, and we were talking to them, and on their coffee table, they had this thing called the Jesus Book, D-A, the Jesus Book.

And what it is, it's the New Testament in Hawaiian Pigeon English.

All right?

So I'm flipping through it, and I'm like, wow, this is awesome.

Because it's kind of, well, anyways, here's how it goes: John 10, 10 in Hawaiian Pigeon.

The steal a guy, he come only for steal, kill, and bust up the place.

That's what it says.

I'm not lying, I'm quoting it to you.

But I come so that you have life to the max.

That, my friends, is God's plan for your life.

But along with that, we have to recognize that we live in a broken world.

And there, because here's the challenge that I see, and one of the other things about my resume, and still to this day, I have been uh honored, and for the last 13 years, coming up on 14 years to serve as the chaplain for the Westcobina Police Department.

And um it is an incredible honor, by the way, to walk through them.

But what I see in that role on a regular basis is how good people have bad things happen to them.

Amen?

Yeah.

And maybe in your life, it's like, okay, success, awesome, blessing.

But what about this?

God, where are you?

My son has cancer.

God, where are you?

My marriage is falling apart.

God, where are you?

My, you know, whatever, husband just died.

So, where is God in the hard times?

If his plan for us is abundant life, blessing, and success.

Well, let me tell you, he is there with you in those moments.

And it is part of what God is doing in your life.

And here's how I want us to see it.

Because on the one hand, we need to realize that God's plan for blessing does not mean that he wants to give us or that his plan for us is a problem-free, pain-free life.

Right?

And if you ever think that, well, serving Jesus and all your problems go away, I got news for you.

It's not true.

It's not true, it's not in the Bible.

But here's what we can believe and expect God to do that God is with us in the trials and problems and challenges and pain of life.

Can I hear an amen?

And I think that's what it really means to be a follower of Jesus, that we walk in the blessings of the Lord.

And then, along with that, recognizing that life really is painful, and that bad things really do happen to good people.

And there's, as I've taught here before, let me just do a quick review.

There's three sources, I think, of the pain in life.

One is our own choices.

How many of you guys ever made a mistake and had some negative consequences in your life?

Yeah.

The rest of you are lying, that's okay.

You're pretending.

You don't want to admit it.

But yeah, we've all dumb done stuff.

Done dumb.

Yeah, you get it.

I don't have to repeat that.

We've all made bad choices.

And it's like, oh, okay, gotta deal with that now.

Or then pain comes because of the choices of others.

It happens, you know?

You're trying to be a good husband, trying to be a good wife, and yet everything is really difficult because your husband or your spouse is making some choices that impact you, that is causing you a significant struggle and challenge, right?

The third thing, though, that we got to realize is that we live in a broken world.

Right?

That's why it says the thief comes to steal, kill, and destroy.

Because the devil does want to take the pain of this life.

And that pain in the broken world is everything from natural disasters, you know, like earthquakes and floods and all these kinds of things that are just kind of out of our control, but it's just part of life that we have to deal with.

And then, you know, the uh just the fact that accidents happen.

You know, you're driving down the freeway.

This happened to us.

My wife and I were on our way to church about three years ago.

We got rear-ended on the 60 freeway.

It's like, what the heck?

Of course, I guess you could say, well, that was her choice.

The other driver, yeah, this lady hit us.

So it's like, okay, now we got to deal with that.

Get the car fixed.

Anyways, my point is that in the times of loss, we need to realize that God is with us.

When you've experienced challenges and pain, you need to remember what the Bible says.

Matthew 5, 4, Jesus said, Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.

So when loss and pain, trials, problems and challenges come into your life, all right, how does this match with the success?

I'll tell you how.

First off, God is there to comfort you and be with you in the pain.

And to help you, I should say, process it so that you can heal from it and move forward.

But then, the other thing that Scripture promises us is that God uses the pain.

How about this, somebody, to make us stronger?

All right, let's take a look at what it says in James chapter 1.

James 1 · chapter mention

And I got ahead of my notes here.

James 1 says, consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.

And let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.

Okay?

So we need to understand that this is God's plan and this is how it works together.

Romans 8:28.

Romans 8:28

God works all things together for those who love Him.

Not all things in life are good, but God uses those things and He brings good out of it.

Agreed?

See what I'm saying?

Okay, so now, where how let me pull all of this together.

Success, blessing, problems, trials, what happens?

God uses it to make you grow in your faith, in your relationship with Him, in your and in your strength and ability to withstand the trials of life, you know?

And then here's what also happens: God gives you wisdom.

Wisdom, so that you can make better choices.

And here's the thing I want you to catch.

Knowing Jesus makes life better, but it also makes you better at life.

Right?

And there's three ways.

This is where I'm going with all of this.

This is all just kind of introduction, laying the foundation.

There's three things that God has given us to put all of this in practice so that we might walk in the blessing of the Lord, that we might grow, not just go through, but grow through the trials of life, the walk in his comfort, as well as then gain wisdom, and so that God would not only bless you, but use you to be a blessing to someone else.

So three things that we need to activate in our life.

Are you guys ready for this?

This is gonna be really helpful, I think.

All right.

The first thing is his word.

God has given us his word.

Here it is.

I brought mine today.

Pastor Michael challenged us.

Bring your Bible to church.

Anybody bring their Bible today?

Hopefully, hey, there you go.

I got some people.

Bring your Bible to church.

Absolutely.

Here's what Jesus said in Matthew chapter 7.

Matthew 7 · chapter mention

He said that everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock.

You see that story there, and I don't remember in Sunday school, they taught us a song about the wise man built his house on the rock.

Anybody remember that?

If not, don't worry about it.

By the way, I'm not one of those preachers who sings to you.

Uh-uh.

Preachers need to preach, singers need to sing.

And I ain't a singer, so don't ask me to, so don't worry about that.

But I do remember that song as a kid in Sunday school.

But, anyways, the story goes, Jesus told this that a foolish man built his house on the sand.

And the wise man built his house on the rock.

And then the storms came.

And what I would like you to remember out of that story is that the storms came to both.

See, once again, he's not promises pain-free, problem-free, but he promises to give us wisdom and strength so that our house is built on the rock.

And how does that happen?

When we hear and embrace and then do what God tells us to do in his word.

So that's why we need the word of God.

So what has God given us?

He's given us his word.

But the second thing he's given us is his spirit.

John 14, it says this.

It says that the advocate, the Holy Spirit, by the word, by the way, that word advocate can also be translated comforter or counselor.

The advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and remind you of everything I have said to you.

So, this is a relationship.

It's not a religion.

It's not just about read the book and then follow the rules.

Although reading the book is really important, but I'm gonna get to that in a moment.

But it is, we have, as believers in Jesus, the opportunity to have a conversation with God.

Isn't that amazing?

You see, people in the world, I get this every once in a while.

People in the world, when you say, Well, I'm gonna talk to God, they're okay with that, right?

But then when you tell them, and you know what?

God is gonna talk to me.

They look at us like we're crazy.

But let me remind you that that's what this is all about, that we serve a living God who has given us his Holy Spirit to speak to us and to lead us and guide us in everyday choices.

Aren't you glad for that?

That you are not alone, that you can come with your challenges, you can come with your problems, and you say, God, show me what to do.

And God will speak to you as you listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit.

So it's good, it's His Word, His Spirit, and then here's the third one His people.

Think about that.

Why is it important to come to church?

You know, why can't you just stay home?

Why can't you just do this on your own?

Well, I'll tell you why.

It's because God wants you to build relationships with your brothers and sisters in the body of Christ.

Because it is through them and through you that his blessings are gonna flow into your life.

Not so sure about that one, are you?

All right, think about it.

But here's what I want you to catch: God is going to bless you through people.

So if you isolate yourself, if you say, well, I'm just gonna, me and Jesus, that's all I need.

It's not biblical and it's not true.

We need each other.

And when we open ourselves up and build relationships, if for nothing else, that hey, I'm really struggling today, would you pray for me?

Right?

And then somebody prays.

And then God answers their prayer.

Not because he didn't want to answer your prayer, but because Jesus said, when two or three are gathered in my name, there am I.

And if you agree in prayer about anything, it will be done for you.

All right.

Well, let me give you an example.

I remember a friend of mine, or uh a guy that I knew, owns a uh auto repair shop.

And and one day he said, Hey, you know what?

The um there's a lot of people stealing catalytic converters.

I have a thing that I could put on your car and make sure nobody steals your catalytic converter.

So I thought, okay, cool.

So I take my car to his shop and he looks at me and he's like, you know what, you don't need it.

Ford explorers, they're in good shape.

All right, anyways, a plug for Ford Explorers.

That's what I drive.

But then he said this, but you need new tires.

Okay, well, he said, bring your car back and you know, we'll take care of it.

I said, Okay, well, how much is that gonna run?

And he says, Well, I don't know, we'll figure it out.

So, anyways, I drop off the car, come back later that same day, have to leave it all day.

And I'm like, Great, how much for the new tires?

Because I figure, you know, well, he's gonna take care of it.

And you know what he said?

He said, It's on me.

I'm like, wow, the last time I went and got tires at Costco, it was like a thousand bucks for that car.

You see, what happens is that God blessed that guy and then spoke to him and said, I want you to bless Kelly.

And guess what?

God speaks to me and he says, I want you to bless somebody.

And so you see how it flows.

But when we're connected in the body of Christ, we have support, we have encouragement, and God blesses us.

So that's why we need his word, we need his spirit, and we need his people.

It's kind of like this as I was thinking about it.

Imagine, if you will, that you had a rich relative.

You just found out maybe that you're related somehow to Bill Gates.

Wouldn't that be cool?

Okay, long lost relative, whatever.

Bill Gates is like your cousin, third removed on your mother's side, whatever.

Somebody, somehow you find this out.

And you're like, yeah, that's kind of cool.

And then Bill Gates sends you a letter.

Hey, how you doing, Kelly?

What's going on?

Just want to introduce myself.

I hear you're one of my relatives, you're part of my family.

Bill Gates tells me, or Bill Gates tells you.

Now, would you let Bill Gates know if you needed help paying your rent?

Come on, somebody, let's be real.

I would.

I'd be like, you bet.

Hey, Bill.

Hey, can you spot me a, you know, some money here?

I need some help.

Or I need to find a job.

Can you help me find a job?

See what I'm saying?

But what do we do?

Because guess what?

We are part of someone's family who is has way more money than Bill Gates.

Come on, somebody, you see where I'm going with this.

We are part of the family of God who owns the cattle on a thousand hills, right?

Who has riches and glory and everything beyond measure for what we need in our lives.

And yet we fail to take advantage of the three gifts he's given us that will make us successful: his word, his spirit, and his people.

Because what do we do?

Well, I'll figure it out.

I don't need God.

I'm okay.

I'll deal with it.

It'll be alright.

No.

We got to realize we have a rich relative who really does want to bring and bless you and bring his blessing into your life and make you successful.

All right, so in a few minutes, let me let me tie this all together.

Because Pastor Michael right now is doing a series on the importance of God's word in your life.

So, picture this.

You come home from work, and you can tell your spouse, gentlemen, maybe it's your wife.

And you can tell she's kind of angry at you.

Uh-oh, what did I do now?

Anybody relate to this?

Or, ladies, you could tell your husband's mad at you as soon as he walks in the door.

You're like, uh-oh, what did I do now?

Nobody?

Okay, well pretend.

All right, we'll just pretend.

It's all those other people that Pastor Kelly helps.

It's not me, right?

It's those people.

All right.

So they come home from work and it's kind of tense.

So your spouse confronts you.

Hey, you know what?

Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

You did this, you didn't do that, or you said this, you said that, and they're angry at you.

And then you get angry.

Why?

Because you feel attacked.

So now you're defensive.

So now we have two angry people, and it starts escalating, and now it's in a huge fight, you start arguing, and it doesn't end well.

Anybody relate to that?

All right.

So afterwards, you're like, oh Lord Jesus, help me.

What do I do?

How do I deal with this?

Well, let me give you a few suggestions.

First thing, why don't you go apologize?

Just a thought.

Ask God to forgive.

You and then ask your spouse to forgive you.

But then let's say I need to really get a handle on my anger.

I need to know how to get this thing tamed because right now it is out of control.

Anybody?

You're with me?

All right.

Well, where do we need to go?

His word, his spirit, his people.

So you go to the word.

By the way, I would suggest you read the Bible every day.

Read it consistently.

Get a pen and highlight it and write about, you know, just get in that habit of daily things that you're going to get from God's Word.

But then what you can do is you can look up topics.

Now, back in the day, when I was just starting to follow Jesus, we used to have these things called a concordance, or then they had this thing called a topical Bible.

All right?

And so you could go to this topical Bible and you could look up anger, because that's your struggle, right?

And then you'd be like all these Bible verses on that.

Guess what you can do now?

It's called.

That's right.

Somebody shouted it out.

Exactly.

Now, you don't need to go to Google for biblical advice, but here's what you can do.

You can ask Google or Chad or Claude or Gemini, whoever you want to go to.

And you could say, tell me all, or give me a list of what the Bible has to say about anger.

Anybody ever done that?

And guess what?

Within seconds, you get a list of God's word around anger.

And one of those verses is probably going to be James 1.19, which says, be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry.

See how this works.

So we got to read the word of God and then look for the things topically about the struggles you have.

That's how we activate his word.

Alright?

Now, second step though, you've got to read it.

Second step, you got to learn it.

In other words, not just what does it say, what does it mean?

Alright, so be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to become angry.

Wow, that's a good verse.

What is that all about?

So think about it, journal about it, spend some time reflecting on it, meditating as Pastor Michael challenged you last week.

Because the Holy Spirit's going to speak to you.

And he's going to show you how to put that into practice.

But here's another thing you could do.

You could go to YouTube.

Come on, somebody.

And you could type in, what does Kelly DuPay, marriage coach, say about anger?

That's my name, by the way.

I don't know if you knew that.

And guess what?

All my anger videos show up instantly on your feed.

Or you could talk about Pastor Michael and the calling church.

What does Pastor Michael teach or about, or what does the calling church teach about anger?

And you've got his videos.

Now, obviously, there's a lot of people saying a lot of junk on YouTube, so don't believe everything.

But look for trusted sources.

Henry Cloud is another great guy, a Christian psychologist, and I've been I've basically read all of his books, really helped me out, and a lot of things.

He's another source.

But you can look up my stuff, you can look up Pastor Michael's stuff, and then now you get information on what it means to be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to become angry.

Right?

So now we know what it says, and now we've got an idea of what it means.

But you're not done yet, are you?

What else you gotta do?

Anybody?

Huh?

Yes, you gotta put it into practice.

You have to apply it.

And here's where part three comes in.

Now, I understand what is it?

Tuesday night.

Men's group, right?

Every Tuesday?

So now, okay, I gotta put this into practice.

Gentlemen, there is a men's group every Tuesday night.

You can ask Pastor Michael how to get there.

And you show up to the men's group and you say, hey brothers, I need some help.

Man, my wife and I, we're constantly just going at it.

And I don't know how to handle this anger in my life, and she just pushes my buttons, and it's all her fault.

And no, no, no, it's never her fault.

You see what I'm saying?

You're filled with defensiveness, and I feel attacked, and I don't know what to do, et cetera, et cetera.

And they say, Well, let's pray for you.

And they do.

And then the next time you get in a conversation, you hear the Holy Spirit remind you quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry.

And now you make better choices.

You hold your tongue, you listen to the complaint or the crit or whatever, the concern.

And it might sound like a complaint, and who cares if she's angry and she feels like you're attacking, you remind yourself, I'm not being attacked.

I don't have to get angry.

I need to understand what she's going through.

So you listen.

And then, as I teach couples to do, when you're done listening, show that you understand.

And how do you do that?

Repeat it back.

Just say what you heard them say.

Add the emotion.

I can see you're angry because when I promised that I would do this, I didn't do it.

And is that what's going on?

And then instead of getting angry, there's reconciliation, there's forgiveness, there's relationship.

You deal with issues and then you let them go so that you can then walk in the unity and successful relationship that God has for you.

But can you see how his word, his spirit, and his people work together to bring you success?

Is this helping anybody today?

You think maybe you might want to put this into practice?

All right.

Let me close with one last scripture, and then we're gonna pray.

And that is this.

In um where is it on my notes?

There we go.

James 1.22.

It says, do not merely listen to the word and so deceive yourselves.

Do what it says.

Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror and after looking at himself goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like.

But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom and continues in it, not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it, they will be blessed.

What do you think?

See how this all works together.

Yes, life is hard.

Yes, life is painful, but you are not alone.

You have his word to tell you what to do, and you gotta read it.

By the way, one other thing about God's word.

It really is the owner's manual of life.

That's the way I look at it.

There is uh very few times do I look at the owner's manual for my car.

Do you know why?

I know how most everything works, but there are two times a year that I need to look at it.

Anyone want to guess what those times are?

Time change.

Exactly.

I always forget, how do you change the clock in this stupid car?

You know, when the and it's coming up, right?

So I gotta dig out the manual.

Well, the same thing.

The manual to my car tells me how to make my car work.

This, my friends, is the manual to tell me how to make my life work.

So get in the word.

And then don't just hear it, but do it.

And if you don't know what it means, ask the Holy Spirit to guide you.

Connect with others, get their interpretation, talk to your pastor, join a group, look up good Bible teachers on the internet.

You see what I'm saying?

Learn it and then do it with the support of the body of Christ.

And then the other thing I think is really cool is that we get to ask God to remind us.

Like, Holy Spirit, this is gonna be hard, but I need you to remind me to do better the next time I'm talking with my spouse.

And if you need help with putting all that together, well, let me know if I could help you as well as a marriage coach or relationship coach.

Let's pray.

Lord Jesus, we thank you so much for your goodness.

We thank you that you died on the cross and rose again so that we could have relationship with you and forgiveness of sins, so that we could really see the truth of your word, that you want to bless us and make us successful in life.

And Lord, I pray that we would embrace the three gifts you've given us your spirit, your word, and your people.

So, Father, help us, Lord, to apply this to our lives and lead us into your blessing.

And right now, as we're in an attitude of prayer, I just want to ask this question: Are you walking with Jesus?

Are you following him?

Are you living for him?

Is he your Lord and Savior?

Maybe at some point he was.

Maybe you kind of got off track, maybe you started making different choices.

Maybe you fell out of church, you stopped going to church, I mean, and just kind of got away from God.

But somehow you're here today.

Before I end, I want to just give you an opportunity to make a new commitment of your life to Jesus.

Or maybe you've never, ever done that.

And here you are at church, and now you're thinking, maybe how do I connect with this God who loves me and cares for me?

Well, the Bible says that Jesus knocks on the door of our heart, and he says, Open up and let me come in.

Jesus died and rose again so that you could be forgiven of your sin and receive the gift of eternal life.

And not just heaven when you die, but as I talked about, his blessing in your life, day to day, right now.

But you need to make a choice.

You need to open that door and let him in.

Like I said, for the first time or maybe for the hundredth time.

But before I end today, I want to give you an opportunity to do that.

I want to lead you in just a simple prayer.

But I want to know who I'm praying for.

So if you could just look up at me while everybody's kind of still in an attitude of prayer, just hold up your hand for a second, just real briefly, and say, Pastor, pray for me this morning.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yes, yes.

See those hands all over the place.

Hallelujah.

Yes, ma'am.

Alright, you can put it down now.

I see you.

Let's all say this prayer together.

Let's all just reaffirm this together.

Would you all repeat this after me, please?

Lord Jesus, thank you for loving me.

I ask you to forgive me of all my sin.

I give my life to you.

And I ask you to lead me and guide me.

I choose to put you first and obey you and live the way you want me to.

Help me, Lord, to grow strong in my relationship with you.

Thank you, Lord, for your forgiveness and for the gift of a relationship with you.

I love you, Jesus.

Thank you for loving me.

Amen.

Oh, come on, somebody, give the Lord some praise.

Hallelujah.

Thank you so much for tuning in to today's message.

Our mission as a church is choosing Jesus, chasing freedom, discovering our gifts, and serving Jesus.

I have a question for you.

What is your next step with Christ?

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