Waters Church

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Live Me on Purpose. Part two.

Speaker 2 (00:01):
Here we go God's commencement address. It's graduation season. That
means graduation ceremonies.

Speaker 1 (00:08):
And commencement addresses.

Speaker 2 (00:11):
And I like that word commencement because commence means to
what to begin. It's not the conclusion addresses. The commencement address,
meaning that when you get that diploma, young people, that degree,
that masters, that doctorate, you're not You're not finishing, You're starting.

Speaker 1 (00:28):
That's why I make a joke out of it. I
said it last week. I hope you won't offend it,
but I did say.

Speaker 2 (00:33):
Congratulations, graduates, You've accomplished nothing.

Speaker 3 (00:36):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (00:37):
I say that tongue in cheek, because what that means
is what are you gonna do with what you've got?
That's what matters. And everybody here is hoping that you
take what you have learned and what you have grown
in and what you've developed over the last year or
four years or however many years you've been doing it,
and you use it to God's glory? Can I get
a good amen in all locations? And I was thinking

(00:59):
of about commencement addresses because I like commencement addresses.

Speaker 1 (01:04):
I am weird like that.

Speaker 2 (01:06):
I went to my son's graduation a couple of weeks ago.

Speaker 1 (01:08):
And I was really looking forward to the commencement address
I want to hear.

Speaker 2 (01:12):
I like speeches because I'm a public speaker, so that's
kind of in my wheelhouse, and I like to learn
from the public speakers.

Speaker 1 (01:17):
And so I spent an enortamate amount of.

Speaker 2 (01:20):
Time yesterday for you scouring YouTube for commencement addresses. And
now the algorithm is all jacked up and all I
get is suggestions of new commencement addresses in my YouTube page.
But anyway, I looked up a few and I thought,
there's a bunch of interesting commencement addresses, like, for instance,
did you know that Conan O'Brien went to Dartmouth in

(01:42):
twenty eleven Conan O'Brien, who is from Massachusetts, did you
know that? And now you know, very successful comedian, late
night TV show host podcast now And I love what
he said because there's that big thing about him and
the Tonight Show. How do you remember back in the
dark ages when they were going through that between him
and Jay Leno and Jay Leno promising to this night

(02:03):
show and then he took it back because the ratings
were low, and then he kind of got squashed out
of the whole deal and the contract, you know, they
bought him out.

Speaker 1 (02:10):
Anyway, he talks.

Speaker 2 (02:11):
About that and he says, it is the failure to
become a perceived ideal that ultimately defines us and makes
us unique.

Speaker 1 (02:17):
And I like that.

Speaker 2 (02:18):
Because he's like he always wanted to be David Letterman,
and the moment that he didn't become David Letterman, he
realized who he was. I liked that, like commitment addresses
can be filled with good advice, not gospel truth, but
good advice, and I wanted to share some funny ones
because I didn't know this. Amy Poehler was asked to
do the commencement address at Harvard in twenty eleven, and
she said, the following will put this on the screen

(02:39):
hold someone's hands, because it's much more fun to try
and fail with other people. Then you can blame them
when things go wrong. I like that one Ed Helms
from the Office actually went to Cornell and did the
commencement specie. If you're an Office fan, you know that
his character went to Cornell. He said this, as long
as your desired to explore is stronger than you desire
to not screw up.

Speaker 1 (03:00):
You're on the right track. Like that line too.

Speaker 2 (03:02):
And then in nineteen seventy five, Muhammad Ali went to
Harvard University and he said the following words. If they
can make penicillin out of moldy bread, they can make
something out of you.

Speaker 1 (03:15):
Tony and Ahmer say you got a chance. Yeah, yeah,
you got a chance. Commencement address says, I don't know.

Speaker 2 (03:21):
It's just a weird, little like thing of mine obsession
about I just like them, and I want to I
like to.

Speaker 1 (03:27):
Learn how to speak through them.

Speaker 2 (03:28):
And I think that they're very powerful motivational speeches. And
they're all filled with the same nonsense, aren't they. You're wonderful,
You're amazing. There's no one like you.

Speaker 1 (03:36):
You could be whatever you want to be. A dream,
big love.

Speaker 2 (03:40):
Everybody, climb the mountain and achieve your dreams.

Speaker 1 (03:44):
Blah blah blah, And everybody who's.

Speaker 2 (03:48):
Been out of college for at least four years said blah.

Speaker 1 (03:52):
Because we know it's not true.

Speaker 2 (03:53):
We know one of the greatest commencement speeches of all
time was not by a celebrity. It was actually by
the son of a celebrity, a son of a noted
historian and novelist. His name was David McCullough junior. David
McCulloch Junior is an English teacher in Wellesley, Massachusetts, and

(04:18):
in twenty twelve he got up to the podium to
deliver the commencement address to upper stratosphere kids in well
I mean talk about privileged of the privileged people.

Speaker 3 (04:33):
And this is twenty twelve, right at the boon of
millennials graduating from high school, kids who had been told
from Bert.

Speaker 1 (04:45):
That they were awesome.

Speaker 2 (04:48):
And this guy gets up and he annihilates everybody. It
was fantastic, and it's in one of the best.

Speaker 1 (04:57):
Speeches I've ever heard. You gotta go watch is on YouTube.
Can go watch it, But I want to give you
the opening line. I love what he said. This is
not on the screen. I'm gonna read this. He says,
contrary to what.

Speaker 2 (05:06):
Your U nine soccer trophy suggests, your glowing seventh grade
report card says, despite every assurance of a certain copulent
purple dinosaur, that nice mister Rogers and your batty at Silva,
no matter how often your maternal create cape Crusader has
swooped in to save you. Your nothing special.

Speaker 1 (05:29):
Man.

Speaker 2 (05:30):
The the housfah to say that to Wellesley High School graduates,
millennials of all people, and he went on and on,
and the video has garnered on YouTube three million views
to date. He got primetime interviews from this speech. Good

(05:54):
Morning America had him on, The Today's Show had him on.
He was asked to speak at head conferences TED, where
ideas are shared with the world.

Speaker 1 (06:05):
What was his idea.

Speaker 2 (06:07):
How to tell millennials to stick it, that earns you,
that earns you, TED level conference speaking privileges. I mean,
that's just an amazing boldness. And then he went out
to write a book called You're Not Special, and it
was a really powerful speech because it was contrary to

(06:30):
the messages every child in that audience had heard their
whole life. And sometimes, man, you need to hear something
that you don't want to hear.

Speaker 1 (06:41):
Sometimes you need to hear.

Speaker 2 (06:42):
The opposite of what this culture is constantly telling you.

Speaker 1 (06:47):
That's why I love doing what I do.

Speaker 2 (06:50):
I love doing this job because I get to get
up here every week and annihilate the messages of this
world so that I can elevate the messages of our
Lord and you can live different and proudly in Jesus' name.
And if you get offended, don't you realize that that
just gets me more excited to do it again. I

(07:13):
get this weird, sick, twisted pleasure out of that stuff.

Speaker 1 (07:16):
Man. Some more lines from David McCullough.

Speaker 2 (07:19):
He said this, He said, selflessness is the best thing
you can do for yourself.

Speaker 1 (07:24):
I like that.

Speaker 2 (07:25):
Not quite right, but it's nice. You know, selfish is
actually one of the best things you can do for others.
But nonetheless is a good point. And then he said
this astrophysicists, sirs assures that the universe has no center.
Therefore you cannot be it. Neither can Donald Trump, which someone.

Speaker 1 (07:41):
Should tell him.

Speaker 2 (07:43):
And again that was in twenty twelve, talk about being
ahead of your time. And then he said this, we
have as of late, we Americans, to our detriment, have
come to love accolades more than genuine achievement. That's good too,
That's good for the Facebook TWI talk TikTok Instagram generation.
Then this line, climb the mountain, not so that you

(08:06):
can plant your flag, but embrace the challenge, enjoy the air,
and behold the view climate so that you can see
the world, not so the world.

Speaker 1 (08:14):
Can see you. I like that.

Speaker 2 (08:20):
And I was thinking about this as I was watching
all of these commencement addresses this week. Where where would
we find in the Bible God's commencement address. Now, a
commencement address has to be inspiring, it has to be emboldening.

Speaker 1 (08:41):
It has to give you a sense of courage, and it.

Speaker 2 (08:44):
Has to give you the confidence to take risks and
try new thing.

Speaker 1 (08:49):
That's really what commencement sp be tested.

Speaker 2 (08:50):
Because again, commencement begin, begin, do it, go for it.

Speaker 1 (08:54):
And you know where it is.

Speaker 2 (08:55):
It's in Romans chapter eight. Romans chapter eight, I think
this is just my opinion, is the greatest chapter in
the Bible.

Speaker 1 (09:06):
The greatest.

Speaker 2 (09:06):
I mean, I have been going through the Book of
Romans on my YouTube channel YouTube dot com slash Tim
Hatch Live like and subscribe, like and subscribe, and I've
been going through the Book of Romans to teach you
the gospel. I hope you're taking to helpe, you're taking
advantage of the materials that we're putting out there for you.
There is a dearth of Bible knowledge in our culture.

(09:28):
That's because we've got CNN, Fox News and all these
other sources pumping stuff into our brain.

Speaker 1 (09:32):
We need to let God pump his truth into our brain.

Speaker 2 (09:36):
Take advantage before you turn on Tucker Carlson, turn on
the truth of God's word.

Speaker 1 (09:43):
Amen.

Speaker 2 (09:45):
So anyway, Romans eight, we got to it, and I
called it during the Bible study the greatest, the greatest
chapter in the Bible. It begins with there is therefore
now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.
That means that if you are a fan follower of
Jesus Christ, if you have confessed your sins and turned
to Him for your forgiveness of sins and your new
life in God, then good news, good great news. Actually,

(10:09):
your sins will never ever, no matter what be counted against.

Speaker 1 (10:14):
You by Almighty God. God sees you as justified.

Speaker 2 (10:19):
God sees you just the same way as he sees
his son Jesus Christ. And nothing could be more encouraging
than to know that my failures don't define me with
my Father in Heaven.

Speaker 1 (10:32):
Amen.

Speaker 2 (10:33):
Talk about giving courage to people to try new things.

Speaker 1 (10:35):
Well, then he talks about the fact that.

Speaker 2 (10:37):
The spirit is in us right, the spirit of Jesus
Christ has set us free from the law of sin
and death. What do we see in the world, laws, rules, ordinances,
people try to control other people, laws, laws, laws, religious laws,
irreligious laws, secular laws, Christian laws, all these kind of things.
But but Christ didn't come to establish new laws. He

(10:57):
came to give us the Holy Spirit, wherein we fulfill
the true heart of the law within, not from external
pressure without amen.

Speaker 1 (11:06):
And so we talked about that the Spirit bears witness
with our spirit that we are children of God, powerful,
powerful stuff.

Speaker 2 (11:13):
And then he turns the page to where we're going
to read today in Romans chapter eight on And when
I want to give you today from these passages, is
I believe the five secrets that Christians need to know
in order to live their purpose. Would you stand with
me for the reading of God's Word Romans chapter eight.

Speaker 1 (11:30):
We're going to begin at verse eighteen four.

Speaker 2 (11:34):
I consider that the sufferings of this present time are
not worthy to be compared with the glory that has
to be revealed to us. For creation weights with eager
longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For
the creation with subjective futility, not willingly, but because of
Him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself
will be set free from its bondished to corruption and
obtained the freedom of the glory that child have of God.

(11:55):
For we know that the whole creation has been growning
together the pains of childbirth until now, not only the creations,
but we ourselves. We ourselves do what we who are
the first reads of the Spirit, grown inwardly, as we
wait eagerly for adoption as sons and daughters, the redemption
of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. Now,

(12:16):
hope that is seen is not hope, for who hopes
what he sees.

Speaker 1 (12:20):
But if we hope for what we do not see,
we wait for it with patience.

Speaker 2 (12:23):
Now the next these next three verses, you're gonna know
these verses, says likewise, the Spirit helps us in our weaknesses,
for we do not know what to pray for as
we ought, But the Spirit himself interceeds for us with
groanings too deep for words. And he who searches the
hearts knows what is the mind of the spirit. Because
the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will
of God. And we know and I love that. And

(12:46):
because we so often take this verse away from all
the other verses before, and we shouldn't but listen to
what it says, and we know that for those who
love God, all things work together for good, for those
who are called according to His purpose.

Speaker 1 (13:04):
Here's the word for those.

Speaker 2 (13:06):
Whom he fore knew he also predestined to be conformed
to the image of his son in or that he
might be the first born among many brothers. And those
whom he predestined he called, and those whom he called
he justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.
This is God's word. Let's pray together, heavenly Father. I

(13:26):
asked that the Spirit has his way in our meetings,
and we see Jesus in his name, we pray, and
everybody said, Amen, God, bless you have a seat. Paul
is really known for some great verses in the Bible.
We talked about it from Philippians last week. Well, Romans

(13:47):
chapter eight. It's amazing how much we quote from that
one chapter and this one verse, Romans eight twenty eight.
How many of you have comforted yourself for someone else
because of Roman Through Romans eight twenty we know that
in all things God works, or we know all things
work together for those that love God right, and this.

Speaker 1 (14:08):
Is one of those verses too.

Speaker 2 (14:09):
That gets taken out of context so often it actually
gets what I call dumbed down versified, dumbed down versified,
which means we just take certain words of the verse,
eliminate the contextual constraints of the verse, and then just
slap it up against any problem. So people will say, well,
I just know that all things work together. Well, that's

(14:30):
not true. That's not what the verse says. And then
some people say, well God works in all things. Well
that's kind of true, but not totally true, not in
context of the verse. And we tend to dumb down
this verse and take a few words out of context
to apply to any problem. But there are some qualifiers
to this verse, and there are some contextual insights that

(14:52):
have led up to this verse. That's why we backed
all the way up to verse eighteen to tell you
what is Paul talking about when it comes to our purpose?
And what I think is five secrets are brought to life,
five secrets that only Christians know, only Christians, And so
if you're not a Christian today, you can know.

Speaker 1 (15:09):
These by the time we're done today.

Speaker 2 (15:12):
And so here we go. Number one, write this down.
I got five points. Pray for me that I can
get done in time. Number one, we know that there
is suffering now, but glory later. We know there is
suffering now, but glory later. The Christian is not caught
off guard by struggle, or at least the biblically literate

(15:34):
Christian is not caught off guard by struggle, by pain,
by worries and stresses, by hate, by rejection, by people
not liking us. And really, what it comes down to
is we have to understand what suffering is. What is
suffering at the end of the day, let's boil suffering down.

(15:54):
Some people think suffering is bleeding or dying or you know,
being tortured. What is really at the of the day suffering,
suffering is very simply this something or someone is taken
away from you.

Speaker 1 (16:08):
That's what suffering is. Suffering can be the loss of a.

Speaker 2 (16:12):
Loved one, the loss of a spouse heaven forbid, the
loss of a child, the loss of a parent. Whatever,
suffering is, someone taken away or someone backstabs you, walks
out on you, dumps you, divorces you. Not suffering, someone's
being taken away from either their own volition or something
else that's making it happen, and then, or suffering could
be you lose you lose income, you go bankrupt, you

(16:35):
lose the house, you lose the whatever, and you just
lose something. Suffering can also be the loss of health,
whether through intentional acts of other people or how creation
can do that. Through tornadoes, hurricanes, torrential rains, all kinds
of things can bring great suffering upon your life because
it can take lots of things away from you. But

(16:55):
really the end of the day's suffering is just losing things.
And here's a big one. Suffering is using health sometimes.
And here's the reality about that one. There's no stopping
that one from happening. You can't stop losing health. That's
just gonna happen. And I'm really digging in here because
I'm mid forties now and I'm losing health. And I

(17:19):
eat kind of right, like I eat one good meal
a day and two bad ones.

Speaker 1 (17:23):
I think I'm doing pretty good. Amen. And I work out,
I get to the gym, I try my best. Well.
I used to love running.

Speaker 2 (17:31):
I used to love running, you know, running, get outside,
you run around the neighborhood, you get put the earbuds in,
and you just rock out to Jesus music.

Speaker 1 (17:40):
While your run's great.

Speaker 2 (17:41):
And around thirty five I started to develop all kinds
of problems from the waist down from running. I developed
water on the knee, and this knee I developed plantar
festitis and this foot. Now I've got this enormous like
growth down here on my ankle. I look like an
alien is coming out of my ankle. I don't know
what's going to happen at anymore. Was gonna be a
out of my Eaico is gonna come up and eat

(18:03):
my face.

Speaker 1 (18:03):
I don't know what's gonna happen. It's scared, won't go down.

Speaker 2 (18:06):
I've been to the doctor and they're like, well, there's
nothing you can do except stretch.

Speaker 1 (18:08):
I'm like, seriously, that's it. That's all you have. Stretch.

Speaker 2 (18:12):
I've anointed oil on it, I've prayed for it, I've
had nothing's fixing it.

Speaker 1 (18:18):
There's no stopping the fact that I've lost.

Speaker 2 (18:19):
And what I realize is that when when I love,
what I love is being taken away from me.

Speaker 1 (18:24):
And that is a reality of life. And so it
is with you.

Speaker 2 (18:28):
And why is it important to your understanding of your
purposes to know this that you can't stop suffering from happening.
And if you don't have this perspective, you will throw
up your hands at the least sign of trouble and
give up God's ultimate plan for you.

Speaker 1 (18:45):
You can't do that.

Speaker 2 (18:48):
You can't let the suffering now blind you to glories that.

Speaker 1 (18:54):
Are to come later. And this is what Jesus modeled
for us as well.

Speaker 2 (19:00):
He said was to suffer and then enter into his glory.
And First Peter chapter two tells us that Christ in
his suffering, set for us an example that we should
walk in his steps. And so Christians listen to me
very carefully. Suffering does not mean that your calling is gone.

Speaker 1 (19:19):
It's just a reality of life. And one of the
things that.

Speaker 2 (19:23):
I forget that I well not forget, but I remember
when I used to run, is that I used to
love running and the dark better than in the light.

Speaker 1 (19:33):
Anybody know what I'm talking about here? That runs?

Speaker 2 (19:36):
No one runs anyway. This is the health problem with America.
Right here there, you go, right there, was like, what,
what's running? I've never heard of that? Anyway. I used
to love running at night bytter than of the day.
And the reason why is because when I run at night,
I can only see the light of the street lamp,
and I would do this little exercise with myself where

(19:58):
I would run into the street lamp and I would
make the next three goals and other you know, and
the next next three lights my goal.

Speaker 1 (20:03):
They can get those three goals done.

Speaker 2 (20:04):
But what I loved about is that when I when
I ran at night, I only saw the coned illumination
of the lamp.

Speaker 1 (20:10):
I didn't see the whole path.

Speaker 2 (20:14):
When you running the day, you see everything, and when
you run the day, everything's a distraction. And when you
run the day, somebody might see you on the road
and honk, hey, hey, hey, and before you know it,
you're off, or you're stumbling, you're tripping, or you're expraining
your ankle.

Speaker 1 (20:30):
And when I loved about the fact that.

Speaker 2 (20:31):
At night, I only got a slice of the story.
You know why God doesn't give you everything up front.
You know why it doesn't front load your mind with
what you're gonna do in life. Listen to these young people,
especially recent grades, because if you got the whole picture
of what you're gonna have to go through to get
to where you're going, you wouldn't run at all. He'd

(20:55):
be like, forget that, I'm playing PlayStation. That's it, all right,
I'm gonna go downstairs. You've you've got to realize that
God unfolds his purpose step by step. I remember when
I got out of college and I thought, I want
to plant churches.

Speaker 1 (21:08):
That's what I wanted to do. But nobody. Who's gonna
hire a twenty one year old church planter. Nobody. And
the only job that I had opportunity to have was
up in our Norward location.

Speaker 2 (21:18):
Pastor Geyser gave me a job to be a youth pastor.

Speaker 1 (21:21):
And I didn't even like teenagers.

Speaker 2 (21:24):
I right, that was the only job that I had,
but I took it because that was all that was there.
That was the light poll for that season of my life.

Speaker 1 (21:32):
And you run, and here's what you gotta do.

Speaker 2 (21:35):
You gotta run through the season you're in or you
will never get to the season you're headed to.

Speaker 1 (21:43):
Because this is life.

Speaker 2 (21:44):
Life will never go accord to your plan. Life will
never work out the way you imagine. You cannot do
whatever you dream of. You've got to do what has
been put in front of you. And some of that
is suffering. And so I suffered for six years as
a youth pastor. Suffered with teenagers from other He wasn't

(22:08):
the teenagers, it was their.

Speaker 1 (22:09):
Parents staying with the problem. Couldn't take it anymore.

Speaker 2 (22:15):
And one day pastor their guys who assistant down, he says,
we're planting a location. We're planting a church in north Anyborol.
Do you want to stay with the youth or do
you want to go and pastor that church.

Speaker 1 (22:24):
I want to pass the.

Speaker 2 (22:26):
Lamppole, then we start the church. But I didn't realize
that when I was going to.

Speaker 1 (22:30):
Be a pastor.

Speaker 2 (22:31):
I never realized that preaching the word of God to
God's people, and studying all week and preaching good sermons
and doing what I do up here, I never realized
for a second that some people wouldn't.

Speaker 1 (22:45):
Like it, the audacity of these table and they called
themselves Christians. And one of the first people that came right.

Speaker 2 (22:55):
Off time after a service, just right after my facing
with bad breath.

Speaker 1 (22:59):
All the complainers have bad breath. All the complaints have
bad breath. You know why because they never floss. That's why. Okay,
there's from a couple of weeks ago.

Speaker 2 (23:09):
If you remember anyway, Friday, why don't you why don't
you use the king James don't you realize that the
King James is the only inspired text. Don't you realize
that the Bible talks about the King James the book.
I want to sit down with you and talk to
you about the values of the King.

Speaker 1 (23:22):
And it's just breath.

Speaker 2 (23:23):
I'm just like, I can't hear anything he's saying because
I just I smell hell coming right out of his breath. Yeah,
just get me out of here. Hey, he's stayed with
archery for about three years then he left. Really, I
never I never pictured people leaving a church.

Speaker 1 (23:41):
That I pastored. How could you leave this?

Speaker 2 (23:47):
You know?

Speaker 1 (23:48):
Say, But that's life, friend, Life.

Speaker 2 (23:51):
Is people leaving you, suffering, his people.

Speaker 1 (23:54):
Leaving you, walking out on.

Speaker 2 (23:56):
You, backstopping you, getting on Facebook, can vilifying and demonizing you.

Speaker 1 (24:02):
And I say this in my book, and I want
you to make sure you never do this. Don't ever
retaliate with writing. Never write it down, never write back,
Never respond to the haters.

Speaker 2 (24:13):
Never get into the Twitter back and forth.

Speaker 1 (24:15):
Don't do it.

Speaker 2 (24:16):
It's a waste of time. You run the race God's
marked out for you. It's suffering now, it's glory. Leader
to skip a little bit here. I want you to
write this down. Suffering does not negate your calling. It
usually substantiates here calling. It substantiates your calling.

Speaker 1 (24:36):
You know what you're called to do. You know what
you're called to do. You're called to do.

Speaker 2 (24:39):
Whatever you're willing to suffer through. That's what you're called
to do. You're called to do whatever you're willing to
suffer through. So if you're not willing to suffer for it,
it ain't your calling. You know what I'm talking about.
You got to be willing to put the fight in.
You've got to be willing to not give up. You've

(25:01):
got to because Jesus never said it's gonna be easy.
He said in John sixteen thirty three. In this world
you will have tribulation. But take heart, somebody say, take heart.
I have overcome the world. He says, I am in charge,
and I love that.

Speaker 1 (25:20):
I got this.

Speaker 2 (25:21):
He says, we know the end is certain, the war
has been won. We're just in the middle of a battle.
We're in the middle of a skirmish, and that's to
be expected. And so young people who have just reasoned
the graduated, or you're you know, a couple of years
out of college, and you don't have your dream job,

(25:41):
or you look at the older generation and you get
so worked up over what they got compret to what
you got, and you're not careful, you'll start.

Speaker 1 (25:48):
To blame everybody and point fingers. You can't do that.
It's a waste of time. You gotta start owning your suffering,
owning your struggle, because.

Speaker 2 (25:58):
Even if you don't get any forward movement in what
you want, hey, at least you're developing some muscles in stamina.
I think this is a huge problem with their work.
Put five minutes in doesn't go the way we want,
so we give up. It's called having no stamina. And
God is in the business of developing stamina. His best

(26:20):
men and women went through years of struggle. Moses was
forty years old in Egypt and wanted to deliver the Israelites.
Then at forty and I understand because at that age
he could still run amen, and so he wanted to develop.
So he went out and he killed an Egyptian and
he thought, now they're going to realize that I'm here
to save them.

Speaker 1 (26:40):
And they reported that to Pharaoh and he ran because
he was forty.

Speaker 2 (26:44):
He read for his life, and he ended up being
the caretaker of his father in law sheep for forty years,
and it was like God was weaning them away from
all the things that he thought made him powerful and
what made him great.

Speaker 1 (26:58):
And at eighty God comes and says, now you're ready.

Speaker 2 (27:01):
Now you're ready. Some of you need to learn that something.
You need to know that you're not ready. When school
says you're ready, You're not ready. When college says you're ready,
you're ready when God says you're ready.

Speaker 1 (27:11):
And some of you are not ready. That's why you're
struggling right now.

Speaker 2 (27:14):
And some of you keep taking the same life course
over and over and over again because you keep flunking it.
You're not learning take you're taking how to treat your
spouse one oh one, and you don't treat them right.
You wonder why your marriage stinks. So God just keeps
putting you back in the class. He's the registrar of life.

(27:35):
You just put you right back in the class.

Speaker 1 (27:36):
Amen.

Speaker 2 (27:36):
And that's a life you got to learn how to
learn through the struggle and grow because it's struggle now
suffering now, Glory Leader number two.

Speaker 1 (27:43):
Secret, we know the real reason life is so challenging.

Speaker 2 (27:47):
Christians are not oblivious to the to the problems of
this world because we expect it, because our Bible teaches
us to look at the grand arc narrative of God's
created purposes.

Speaker 1 (27:58):
Here's what it says. In Romans chapter eight, verse twenty.

Speaker 2 (28:01):
He says, for the creation was subjected to futility, the
creation circle creation and circle subjected. The creation was subjected
to futility, not willingly, but because of him underlying him?

Speaker 1 (28:14):
Who is him who subjected creation to futility?

Speaker 2 (28:19):
He or him is Adam, Adam, our great ancestor, our
great father of our biological selves.

Speaker 1 (28:28):
He says this, it's that the creation itself will be
set free from his.

Speaker 2 (28:33):
Bondish decurasied and entertained, the freedom of the sons and
the other glory of that Jodan of God. So we know, Christians,
we know why life is hard. That's what this book reveals.

Speaker 1 (28:45):
It teaches us.

Speaker 2 (28:46):
There's a grand narrative here. How did the book start?
Genesis Chapter one? God creates everything. God creates everything perfect,
And he says, let us make man in our image,
in our likeness.

Speaker 1 (28:55):
And let them have what's the next word, Let them
have what dominion?

Speaker 2 (28:59):
You know what dominion means, authority, rule, power, power, of
the fish, over the birds, over the livestock, over all
the earth.

Speaker 1 (29:08):
Somebody say, all the earth. We were create.

Speaker 2 (29:11):
Mankind was created to have power and dominion over all
the earth. And then in verse twenty eight it says
God blessed adamant and the woman her name wasn't even
to Genesis three. So God blessed Adam in the Genesis four,
and God blessed them. He said, be fruitful, multiply ut
fill the earth, and subdue it. In other words, take authority,

(29:31):
take authority, have dominion. This is what God intended for
you to have. But what happened was Genesis three comes
along the talking snake, Eve has a conversation, and before
you know it, their sin. And what happened was the
first man or woman listened to the devil and subjected
all of us to frustration. So God shows up, and

(29:54):
he doesn't go first to Eve. He goes to Adam.
Because there is a federal headship in the home. Males
must cover their wives and take responsibility for their homes.

Speaker 1 (30:03):
Amen. So God doesn't come to Eve and say what
you do wrong? He comes to Adams says, what did
you let happen?

Speaker 2 (30:09):
You didn't rule you didn't subdue You didn't take authority
that I gave you. You subjected authority to the devil
who came after you and friends. This is why I
say to you and again and again, this is why
I'm passionate about leading men to lead their families. You've
got to take authority in Christ, over your home, over
your children, over your household, over your life. Because this

(30:31):
is a serious battle we're in. It's a fight to
the death, and you cannot play it safe with the devil.
You can't make peace with the devil and war with God.
God gave you the Holy Spirit so that you gonna
make war with the devil, because you have peace with God.

Speaker 1 (30:46):
Anyway. He says, this is the curse, because you've listened
to the voice of your wife.

Speaker 2 (30:51):
You laid down your authority, and you listen to your wife,
and you're e in the free tree of which I
com manage.

Speaker 1 (30:56):
You shall not eat of it. Curse is the ground.
The ground is cursed. This world is under a curse.
And it says this pain. You will eat of it
all the days of your life.

Speaker 2 (31:05):
Thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, it says,
And you shall eat the plants of the field.

Speaker 1 (31:10):
By the sweat of your face, you shall eat bread.

Speaker 2 (31:12):
So you return to the ground, for from dust you came,
and to dust you will return.

Speaker 1 (31:17):
This is what we are living with right now. The
creation is groaning.

Speaker 2 (31:21):
Paul says, it's groaning for redemption, and then a little
interesting line there says, the redemption of the suns. I'm sorry,
obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.
So what happens for the Christian And this is so
important that.

Speaker 1 (31:35):
You get this. This is good theology. We are born cursed,
we are born again blessed.

Speaker 2 (31:47):
Understand that or you will always be frustrated with life
outside of Christ. Curse, what curse? Adam's curse. You're just
going to struggle. You're going to have thorns, thistles. The
world's barely gonna work out for you. You gonna put
hours in and get an hour back. I mean, that's life.
Because this world is under the lordship, or not the lordship,

(32:09):
but the rule of Satan, because Adam surrendered his authority
to Satan. Every child, and this is some point that
you get this right now, Every child is born wrong.
Every birth is instilled with a sinful nature. The Bible
calls it iniquity. It's something that's woven into the fabric

(32:30):
of every portion of our being.

Speaker 1 (32:32):
That's why we don't eat right. We don't do what's
good for us. We do what's evil for us.

Speaker 2 (32:36):
That's why the pleasurable things are always harmful and the
helpful things are always horrible. Right, no one takes their
kids out for broccoli? Anybody know what I'm talking about. No,
let's go out and have.

Speaker 1 (32:47):
Broccoli, kids, Yay broccoli. Nos.

Speaker 2 (32:50):
Let's go out and have an overabundance of sugar and
milk and freeze it. That's what we're gonna do, and
we're gonna give our bodies immune deficiency by having all
this sugar and dairy pumped into our bloodstream. Let's go, kids,
Let's go kill ourselves and have a good.

Speaker 1 (33:04):
Time doing it.

Speaker 2 (33:05):
And beyond ice cream, there's a whole host of other things.
Let's go have a bunch of drinks. Let's inebriate ourselves
and make some poor decisions until three am and meet
up at the waffle house afterwards.

Speaker 1 (33:17):
How many know what I'm talking about? This is the
natural course of being, because we are.

Speaker 2 (33:21):
Born cursed, and no matter what we try to do
to fix it, we always struggle through and we never
arrive at a chance at an answer. Because the Bible
story is not not about how you pick yourself up
by your bootstraps, dust yourself off, and keep going on. No,

(33:42):
the Bible story is you are lost and cursed in
sin and transgressions, that God is against you.

Speaker 1 (33:49):
This world is again.

Speaker 2 (33:50):
Anybody ever feels it's the world against me, Yes, it's
against you. The spiritual realm is against you. Everybody's again.
The world's against you because the world is cursed. But
if you know the Bible star, you know that God
sent us a hero, and his name was Jesus Christ,
and the scripture calls him in the Book of Romans

(34:11):
our second atom. The first atom brought cursing, the second
atom brought blessing. There's only two people in the Bible
referred to as the son of God, Adam and Christ.
And so what Adam did wrongfully, Christ did rightfully, and
he brought us out of our bondage and into redemptive
purposes through the Holy Spirit. As Romans chapter five seventeen says,

(34:32):
if because of one man's trespassed death reign, somebody say.

Speaker 1 (34:36):
Death reigned death, reigns. That's the world against you through
that one man.

Speaker 2 (34:41):
Much more with those who receive the abundance of grace
in the freak at the righteous reign in life. Somebody say,
reign in life. Reign in life through the one Man,
Jesus Christ. You're not called to flounder through life. You're
called to reign in life. If you're a Christian. So
you understand, however, that we are in the present not

(35:04):
yet reality of redemption, the present not yet reality of redemption.

Speaker 1 (35:08):
What does that mean?

Speaker 2 (35:09):
That means that while our hearts are right with God
and our spirits are right with God, the world is
still cursed. So what is this?

Speaker 1 (35:17):
What does this matter about purpose?

Speaker 2 (35:19):
It matters about it matters this way, you're not caught
off guard by the challenges around you, and the frustrations
around you, and the and the enemy who's against you.
You know the story, you know the end from the beginning,
and and and so we look at what he says
here in Romans eight twenty two. He says, for we

(35:39):
know that the whole creation has been growing together in
the pains of childbirth until now the creation is waiting
for us. Look at what it says for we ourselves
who have the first fruits of the spirit. That means
the present first fruits of the spirit.

Speaker 1 (35:51):
Grown inwardly as we eagerly await our adoption. It says
the redemption of what our bodies.

Speaker 2 (35:59):
Every time you figure out in the morning that something
your body could do the night before no longer can, it's.

Speaker 1 (36:09):
A reminder that there's more to this story. This is
not the last chapter.

Speaker 2 (36:17):
There's a longing and every time, and this is one
important because it says we ourselves, you're an inwardly eagerly
waiting for this.

Speaker 1 (36:26):
Every time you look at the world or you look
at your life, you say, that's not right. I don't
like that reality. I don't like that result.

Speaker 2 (36:32):
It's just a reminder that God has planted in you
a vision for something better that will ultimately be fulfilled
when Christ returns. So ultimately, when you think that your
purposes are struggling because it's not what it should be,
or when you think to your life is a mess
because it's not where it should be, and you have
this inward reality, this inward longing, and the external realities
are not even close to being a line with it

(36:55):
is a reminder that you're not done yet, and God's
story still has a final chapter. That final chapter is
when Jesus Christ cracks the sky and returns as Lord
of Lords and King of kings. So you don't get frustrated,
you don't get you know you don't resemble and this
is the heart of the matter. You don't resemble the world.

(37:20):
You don't get mad and angry and bitter and resentful
like the world does, because you know there's still a
final chapter coming Roma eight twenty four. In this hope,
we were saved. In this hope, we were saved. We've
got hope. But hope is not what we see. Who
hopes what he sees? But if we hope for what

(37:42):
we do to see, we wait for it with patience
number five number three. Sorry, we know we're prayed for.
The secret to your purpose is to know that you're
being prayed for right now. I always love it when
people tell me that they're praying for me. I always
say keep going because I need it. And I think

(38:06):
that there's this false image of pastors that we haven't
nailed and you guys need work. That's not true. Pastors
need work, pastors need prayer. But here's the thing, and
I love this. No matter who's not praying for you,
God is praying for you. Here's what he says in
verse twenty six. Likewise, the Spirit helps us in our weakness.

(38:30):
He says this, why because we don't know what to
pray for. We don't know, but the Spirit himself. I
always loved when the Spirit says himself or Jesus himself,
the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep
for words.

Speaker 1 (38:44):
That's how people say that, Oh, that's tongues. That's not
necessarily tongues.

Speaker 2 (38:47):
It's just the Holy Spirit speaking into our spirits, groaning
with us for us through the struggle that we're in.

Speaker 1 (38:54):
This is what the hope.

Speaker 2 (38:55):
This is the hope of the Christian that you're never alone.
And the hope of the Christian is that there are
gonna be moments when you don't know what to pray for.

Speaker 1 (39:08):
How many of you have ever been there? Eh, I
got my hand up. I don't know.

Speaker 2 (39:12):
This is so confusing, this is so crazy. I have
no idea what I should be praying for. And this
is the best part of this text. Then it doesn't
matter even if you know.

Speaker 1 (39:21):
What to pray for, because.

Speaker 2 (39:22):
God's Spirit is gonna pray for you with Coroni's two
deeper words.

Speaker 1 (39:27):
When you don't know, God knows.

Speaker 2 (39:30):
And then he says, this is verse twenty seven. And
he who searches the hearts knows what is the mind
of the spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints
according to the will of God, which means that if
you're a Christian, whatever pops up in your life, you
know that God has been praying for that already. A

(39:52):
lot of people obsess about what's God's will from my life,
what's the will of God?

Speaker 1 (39:57):
Well, you don't know the will of God. What you
know is the word of God.

Speaker 2 (40:00):
Do God's word, live God's truth, walk in God's path,
and understand that the Holy Spirit is praying God's will
into your life. And this is why there will be
unexpected twists and turns in the story. I didn't pray
for this Lord, That's all right, The Holy Spirit did. Moreover,

(40:24):
not only does the Holy Spirit pray for us, did
you know this, Jesus prays for us.

Speaker 1 (40:30):
In Hebrews chapter seven, verse twenty four, it says this Jesus.

Speaker 2 (40:33):
Lives forever, Amen, Amen, His priesthood lasts forever, Therefore he
is able and forever, once and forever to save those
who come to God through faith. He lives forever to
intercede with God on their behalf. The scripture tells us
that Jesus is at the right hand side of God
the Father, and he is interceding for us.

Speaker 1 (40:56):
And you know this about Jesus. His prayers are heard.
You've got Jesus praying over you.

Speaker 2 (41:02):
You've got the Holy Spirit interceding in you with groans
that are too deep for words. So it's not about
your five year plan, your ten year plan. It's not
about the degree that you just attained. It's about what
God has planned for you, which leads me to number four. Ready,

(41:23):
five secrets. Number four. We know it's actually God's purpose,
not ours. What's my purpose? What's my purpose?

Speaker 1 (41:31):
It's not yours. It's not your purpose. You don't get
to call the shots about your purpose.

Speaker 2 (41:42):
So I hope all that money spent on higher education
was worth it because it's not actually yours, it's God's.
Here's what that great verse that we take out of
context actually says. Let's take it moment by moment. I
love this and we know, and we know, so there's
a knowledge that the Holy Spirit has departed in us

(42:05):
through Jesus Christ, that for those qualifier here who love God.
Not everybody gets this promise. Not everybody gets his promise.
So there should be moments, loving Jesus Christian where your
life works out and unbelievers kind of get bitter about it.

(42:27):
Why is it all we work out for you? Well,
I tell you, but it's not gonna help. I love
the Lord. It changed my life. He's made me new,
He's given me a heart for him. Right, So for
those who love God, all things work together for good
for those who are called according to what's that next line?

Speaker 1 (42:52):
His purpose?

Speaker 2 (42:53):
It's not my purpose, it's his purpose. You say, well,
what if I make a bad move, That's all right.
The Holy Spirit will pray for you, Jesus will intercede
for you. They'll get you on the right track again,
and God's Spirit and God's purposes will prevail over you.

Speaker 1 (43:08):
So does this mean we don't plan?

Speaker 3 (43:10):
No?

Speaker 1 (43:11):
Does this mean we don't aim at things?

Speaker 3 (43:13):
No?

Speaker 1 (43:13):
Not not at all. Ultimately, what we do is we aim,
we plan, we try, we go, we get educated, we
do all those things.

Speaker 2 (43:19):
Yes, better ourselves, strengthen ourselves, develop ourselves.

Speaker 1 (43:21):
I'm a big believer in all that, but we ultimately
know that at the end of.

Speaker 2 (43:24):
The day, we lay it down and we say God,
all these things that I've.

Speaker 1 (43:27):
Tried, that I've accomplished, that I've acquired for myself, right now,
I lay them down at your feet for you to
do what you want with me.

Speaker 2 (43:36):
Have this degree, have this cooling, have this family, have
this child, have this marriage.

Speaker 1 (43:42):
It's all yours for your purposes. I'm telling you you're
gonna struggle in life.

Speaker 2 (43:48):
You don't let this happen at some point so that
when you hit that brick wall and it's unmovable, and
you think, Man, all my dreams over there on the
other side of this brick wall, all my plans, all
the thing that they told when I was growing up.
They told me I was a snowflake, I was one
in a billion, and all the things I dreamed of
I could do if I put.

Speaker 1 (44:06):
My mind to it. They told me, who told you that?
Not God? God did not tell you that.

Speaker 2 (44:16):
God said you are my child, and I have my
purposes to accomplish in your life as.

Speaker 1 (44:22):
I see fit.

Speaker 2 (44:24):
You think that David signed up to run from Sault
Spears and attacks for thirteen years. You think he was like,
let's see, I'm going through the process of registering for
college here and look at this course on running from
Saul Spears. I think I'll take that course. You think
Daniel was like, let me see what interests me. Let
me see lions Den spend two days, two nights in

(44:47):
a hole with lions I'll take that course. You think
Peter was like, Hey, you're gonna be jailed by Herod
and he's gonna cut your head off the next morning.
How about that, I'll take that course. You know no,
Oh see, that's the Lord working through all that junk
to bring about his glory through your life. You you

(45:09):
sign up for what you hope for, but but God
gets done what he purposed you for. That was so
good you should tweet it. You signed up for what
you hope for. But God, what did I say?

Speaker 1 (45:21):
I forgot it, rewind it on YouTube and tweeted. Somebody
tweet it and tag me. Amen. Okay, now, now here's
what's your here's your here's.

Speaker 2 (45:30):
Your only qualifier In the text, I love it for
those who love God, for those who love God, so
Psalm ninety one fourteen. Because he holds fast to me
in love, I will deliver him. I will protect him
because he knows my name. Now that's your that's your.

Speaker 1 (45:50):
Job here here. Just keep loving the Lord. You know,
we have a stupid phrase that we throw out as Christians,
let go and let God. That's just stupid phrase, let
go and let God. Don't let go love God and
let God. Love God and let God. That should be

(46:11):
the phrase. That's the biblical phrase, okay.

Speaker 2 (46:13):
Because the only requirement for your life to accomplish God's
purposes for you is to keep your love for him primary.
So that's where you start to eliminate the things that
take you away from the love of God. And this
is where we stop playing games with what sin and
what's not sin. Sin is anything that keeps you from
loving God fully. Now, there is definitely sin. I'm not

(46:36):
saying that you can make up your own rules. That's
not what I'm saying at all. But understanding the nature
of sin is nature of sin is that it takes
your heart away from God. God. I don't want to
do this because I know if I do that, it
will stain my heart. I want to keep my heart
right with you. This is where confession comes in. This
is where community comes in and our life group process
comes in. Where you have someone that you can tell

(46:56):
your problems, to confess your sins one to another and
pray for each other that you might be healed.

Speaker 1 (47:02):
James Chapter five. That's where we get cleansing.

Speaker 2 (47:05):
Confess your sins to God, and He is faithful and
just to forgive your says it cleanse you all and
righteousness since you can live, you can live right with God.
Some of you are like man, I've really ruined my
life this last week.

Speaker 1 (47:14):
Okay.

Speaker 2 (47:15):
Confession, confession, repentance, and receiving the washing of water through
the Holy Spirit. You've got a brand new start today.
The Bible says his mercies are new every morning. Okay,
so forget yesterday. Let's start today. Keep love for God. First,
get up in the morning and open up your Bible
app on your smartphone.

Speaker 1 (47:35):
Get up in the morning and open up your Bible.

Speaker 2 (47:37):
Get up in the morning and tell God today is
your day, Lord, this is the day that you have made.
I will rejoice and be glad in it. Number five
secret is this. We know God's ultimate purpose is to
make us like Christ. We know God's ultimate purpose no
matter what we are experiencing going through that's really just
being used to make us more like Jesus. So don't

(47:58):
stop at Roman's eight twenty eight. We do that too, again,
very often taken out of context. He says this, that
you are called verse twenty nine for those whom he
fore knew he predestined. Now, if there is one word
that gets Christians all up in a tizzy, it is

(48:19):
the word predestination.

Speaker 1 (48:21):
So you know what side are you on? Are you
on the predestination side or are you on the other side?
What side you gotta?

Speaker 2 (48:27):
All right, you know what, I'm pro pretestination. But understand
what it says here, not just predestined to be saved,
predestined to be conformed to the image of his son.
So it's not once saved, always saved. It's not put
your hand to pray the prayer and go and live
however you want. No, I'm not in favor with that

(48:50):
predestination at all. I am, however, fully convinced and totally
wonderfully with peace in my heart because I know that
the Lord who called me is going to shape me
through everything that comes at me, to be more like

(49:12):
Jesus Christ who died for me. See, that's my predestined
to not just get deafern, I'm predestined to become more
like Jesus. So I can look at my enemies and
I can say, welcome to the story.

Speaker 1 (49:28):
I don't have to hate you, I don't have to
attack you, and.

Speaker 2 (49:30):
I don't have to vilify you, because I know that
God has sent you into my life to make me
more like Jesus. And I can look at my failures
and I can say welcome to the story. Because I
know that God knew it was gonna happen before he
even made me. He had all the days of my
life planned out for me before I was born. And
so I can look at failure and say, welcome to
the story. You are helping me become more like Jesus.

(49:54):
And I can look at the struggles and the trials
and the setback, and I can say welcome all this
stuff that everybody else throws the out their hands and
say I give up to and like I say, no,
God's just getting started in my story. The best is
yet to come, and this is being used to make
me more like Jesus, hey man. And I can even

(50:15):
look at the things that I keep doing so stupidly
and say, God, use this to make me more like Jesus,
humble and dependent on you, so that I might be
the promise fulfilled one of the brothers, or in the
women's case, one of the sisters of Jesus. If Asians

(50:38):
won three to four, a great promise. He chose us
in him before the foundation of the world, that we
should be holy, not just to get to heaven, so
that we should be holy and blameless before Him.

Speaker 1 (50:52):
So sermon in a sentence, Christians know.

Speaker 2 (50:57):
There's a real struggle that's before us us, but that
God's purpose is over us, so that Christ's character is
formed within us. As long as Christ is being formed
in me, I can look at the challenge, I can

(51:19):
look at the setback. I can look at this season
in which I'm losing, suffering, getting hated on, attacked and.

Speaker 1 (51:28):
Vilified, and I can say, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait,
wait wait wait.

Speaker 2 (51:32):
That's not necessarily what I think it is that's being
used by God to make me more like Jesus, make
me more like you. I want you to stand with
me all of our locations, and I'd like you to

(51:55):
bow your heads and close.

Speaker 1 (51:56):
Your eyes at all locations.

Speaker 2 (52:01):
And I want to welcome some of you here into
an opportunity to receive Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of
your sins. See none of these secrets of yours unless you're.

Speaker 1 (52:12):
In Christ Jesus. This word is for Christians.

Speaker 2 (52:16):
But the good news is to become a Christian, one
thing is required to confess you're a sinner and to
receive the death of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of
all your sins.

Speaker 1 (52:32):
And if you receive that you're a Christian, that's it.
That's it. No jumping through hoops.

Speaker 2 (52:38):
Now, there's a lot to learn going forward, but it's
so very simple to trust in Jesus