The Heart Of A Good Pastor

January 11, 2026

Episode Transcript

SPEAKER_00 (00:00):
Do today.
Our meditation text comes from 1Corinthians 3, verse 6 through
7.
And if we can read thattogether, these are the words of
the Apostle Paul himself.
Let us read.
I planted the seed, Apolloswatered it, but God has been
making it grow.

(00:20):
So neither the one who plantsnor the one who waters is
anything, but only God who makesthings grow.
Amen.
Amen.
I hope you would meditate onthat during the week as you do
your fast.
Hold on to it, it'll bless you.

(00:41):
Then our main text, I want toencourage you to read all of
Galatians chapter 4.
But we're going to focus in onverse 19 and this narrative that
Paul shares with the churches inthe Galatian region.
This one verse really stands outas his purpose statement for his

(01:05):
life.
And here's what he says My dearchildren, for whom I am again in
the pains of childbirth untilChrist is formed.
And I want to talk about theheart of a good Catholic.

(01:26):
Again, I'm not trying to toot myown heart, really not.
But I am trying to show you mygoal.
And what I believe God hascalled me to do, what my
assignment is, for Christ'scommunity for each and every one
of you.
I do want to talk about the onework that I am confident that
God is doing in all of us here.

(01:46):
From the pulpit to the pew, fromthe oldest in the faith to the
newlyborn.
God's priority for all of us isfound in the words of the
Apostle Paul.
And I want to help us get itwith this story.
Most of y'all know, if you'vebeen with me for a while, that

(02:09):
Pastor has a brown thumb.
Lisa is the horticulturalist inour family.
Plants flourish under her care,whereas plants come to die under
my care.
Lisa can create an oasis whereasI will create the Mojave Desert.

(02:32):
And so while Lisa was on hermission trip to Ghana last
month, she took a step of faithand left me in charge of her
plants.
She wanted to ship them out tosomebody else.
But she trusted me.
And to be honest, I wasdetermined to get this thing

(02:52):
right this time.
Previously, I did everything Iwas supposed to do, but I forgot
to do one thing.
I forgot to open the blinds andgive the plants sunlight.
Gave them water, gave everythingthey need.
They didn't have any sunlight.
And so this time I said tomyself, I am not gonna make that
mistake again.

(03:13):
So Lisa left her instructions,and I was determined to get it
right.
So every day while Lisa wasgone, first thing in the
morning, I opened thosecotton-picking blinds.
I told those plants, you aregoing to thrive under my care.
Every day I made sure thoseblinds were open.

(03:36):
Well, does Lisa still look bad,y'all?
Well, by the sixth day, theplants began to look a little
skimpy and a little wretched.
Of course, I said, that's onyou, I'm doing my job.

(03:58):
When Lisa got back, she took onelook, she just looked at me and
said, What did you do?
I said, Slow your roll.
I did everything you told me todo.
I opened the blinds, I dideverything.
And then she asked that oneJohnny Cochrane question that
ensured my conviction.

(04:18):
She said, But did you waterthem?
And of course I said, I don'tremember you saying anything
about water.

(04:42):
Of course, she just turnedaround and walked away.
Next year, thank you, thank you.
Tell somebody that's stillGrace.
Truth is, she cares about plantsmore than I do.
But I must admit I learnedsomething since.

(05:02):
Lisa immediately began to carefor her plants again.
To me, they looked like it wasover.
It looked like they were readyfor the trash can.
But Lisa didn't give up on it.
Because she recognized thatthough they looked wretched and
haggard on the outside, therewas still something striving,

(05:23):
dry, uh, I'm sorry, thriving onthe inside.
Underneath the soil, for whatshe could not see, she knew
there was life trying to bud.
And even last night as we weretalking, you can see she was
there in front of her plants,caring for her plants, and they
were thriving as if they hadnever been through anything.

(05:46):
Of course, they tremble when Ipass by them.
But that taught me something.
I learned very quickly.
How do we know a pastor has agood card?
And here it is, a good pastorknows that God is doing
something underneath the soil ofall of our lives.

(06:07):
That we may not look the way weought to look on the outside.
But aren't you glad God doesn'tfocus on the outside?
And he's always looking at whatis on the inside.
And a good pastor, if he's agood pastor, he works with God,
with the work that God is doingon the inside of his own people.

(06:32):
A good pastor doesn't force,doesn't cajole, doesn't threaten
God's people, but supports andpartners with God in the work
he's doing in their hearts.
That's why I think ourmeditation text is so
appropriate here.
Paul said, I planted Apollo'swater, but it is God that causes

(06:54):
the growth.
Neither one who plants norwaters is anything.
We're just servants in thekingdom.
But at the end of the day, Godis behind the scenes of our
lives causing the growth.
And I don't know what God is upto specifically in your life.
But I can say this mostconfidently: God is doing

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something underneath the soil ofyour heart.
He's growing and nurturingsomething to life.
That's what Paul's trying toconvey to the Galatian churches
here.
Paul is a good pastor.
He has a heart of a good pastor.
He wants them to know look, I'mnot after your money, I'm not

(07:38):
after your praise and accolades,I'm not ego chasing.
I simply want what God is doing.
I see God has planted somethingin you, and I'm trying to nurse
it.
I'm trying to birth what God hasplanted in your heart.
When he writes this letter, hewrites it out of frustration.
He writes it out ofbewilderment.

(07:58):
There's a little bit of back andforth in the letter going on
between Paul and thiscongregation.
Paul here in the first threechapters, he kind of sets the
record straight.
And there's a sense that hedoesn't apologize for what he's
been preaching to the churches,that the gospel he preaches is a
gospel of grace.
He said, I love you, but I ain'tgonna apologize for that.

(08:21):
This gospel doesn't come byworks, it's a gospel of grace.
And then in chapter 4, his toneshifts to the relationship he
had developed with theGalatians.
He had been there on all threemissionary trips.
He had spent time there.
There was a kinship there.
And he reminds them of hisoriginal purpose in verse 19.

(08:45):
He said, I was there because Iwanted to see Christ formed in
you.
And I like the two metaphors heuses in this verse.
The first metaphor is a pictureof a woman in labor.
What Paul says, with great pain,I brought you to spiritual life.
You're saved because of myministry.
He says, like a mother thatlabors in pain to bring a child

(09:07):
into the world, I labored, Iworked to bring you to faith in
Christ Jesus.
But look what he says.
He says, I am again in labor.
And I'll deal with that a littlebit later, but Paul is saying, I
got to start all over with youagain.
I got to go back over the ABCsof the gospel.

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All my work has been destroyed.
That's why I'm frustrated.
That's why I'm bewildered as towhat happened to you.
Like a mother cares for theirchild.
But then he uses a secondmetaphor to describe what God
has done in them.
On the one hand, he describeshow God used them to bring them
to faith.

(09:48):
On the other hand, he flips themetaphor and shows them how God
is nurturing their faith andwhat faith is.
In the word he uses their form,it has the image and the picture
of an embryo.
And Paul here says God hasplanted an embryo in you, a
Christ-like embryo.

(10:10):
And that embryo is growing.
In a word, God is doing a workof incarnation in every single
one of us.
That every believer has its ownadvent reality.
And if we're not careful, we canabort what God is trying to
bring to life.

(10:31):
That's what Paul is concernedabout.
He says, I'm trying my best tobring the full term what God has
planted in your life.
And here's my thesis statementthis morning.
God is more focused on what isin you rather than what he has
for you.
How do you know God is workingin your life?

(10:53):
He's more concerned with what hehas in you rather than what he
has for you.
Why?
Because if you can never getright what is in me, he knows
he'll never have a problem whenhe gives something for me.
And the reason why we mess upwhat God has for us, because
we're not focused on what God'strying to do in us.

(11:13):
Y'all don't hear me today.
And I really think this is areal issue, church.
Hear me, hear me well.
I think sincere Christiansmistake the Christian faith as
something like joining the localgym or like joining some social
club.
We think Christianity is likejoining a fraternity or joining
a sorority or becoming a memberof a wholesale shopping club.

(11:38):
The Christian faith at its coreis about a God who has planted
his life in our hearts.
The life of God lives in us.
And that life is not meant to bestagnant.
Just as Lisa understood thatthose plants want to thrive, God

(11:58):
has put something in our heartsthat wants to thrive.
It wants to grow.
That's what Paul means when hesaid, if any man be in Christ,
he's a whole new creation.
That means is on the outside, hemay look like a new uh the same
person, but on the inside, Godis recreating something brand
new.

(12:20):
John said something similar.
He said in John 1, verse 12through 13, yet to all who did
receive him, to those whobelieved in his name, he gave
the right to become children ofGod.
Children born not of naturaldescent, nor of human decision,
or a husband's will, but born ofGod.

(12:41):
We have the life of God livingin us.
That's what Paul, not Paul, butthat's what Jesus meant when he
was talking to Nicodemus.
Nicodemus, we would say, was thestandard bearer for a good
person.
Nicodemus was the standardbearer for religiosity.
But Jesus said, no, that's notenough when it comes to a

(13:02):
relationship with God.
He says, no, verily, verily Isay unto you, you must be born
again.
Born again is not adenomination.
Born again is a reality that Godprocures in my heart when I
place faith in him.
To convert to the Christianfaith is not to join a new
religion or to find friendshipsor a new community.

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To convert to Christian faith isto be born of God.
The very life of God lives in myheart.
And God is working in my life tonurture and bring that to full
term.
Tell your neighbor, you'repregnant with Jesus.
If you know Jesus.

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So a couple things I'm gonna geton out your way.
Here's the first one.
Number one, what does a goodpastor do?
He sees our detours.
That's what a good pastor does.
He sees the detours of life thatcan bring harm and damage to the
Christ that lives in us.
Paul says, just like there'ssome things that are not good
for pregnant mothers, there'ssome guitars that are not good

(14:20):
for us who carry Christ.
That's what Paul means when hesays, I am again in pains of
childbirth.
I gotta do this whole thing overagain.
Oh, I'm preaching too much,ain't I?
I gotta do this whole thing overagain.
Give me a minute, y'all.
Here we go.

(14:40):
All right, here we go.
We're good.
Digital technology, here we go.
He said, I gotta do this wholething over again.
Verse 9.
But now that you know God, orrather are known by God, how is
it that you're turning back tothose weak and miserable forces?
They were saved by grace, butthey were trying to grow based

(15:04):
on the law.
They started on the right pathand then they changed course.
And they misunderstood grace.
Paul says, look, if grace savesyou, grace has to keep you.
They left grace.
Grace is the one that holds youand grows you and matures us.

(15:27):
We like to talk about how gracesaves us.
But how many of y'all know gracewill keep you if you let it?
So when we talk about grace,here's what we mean by grace.
The test of whether I've reallyreceived grace is how I respond
to grace.
It's not whether grace has beengiven to me.
The question is, how is myreaction to grace?

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So many of us grew up with amother that said, if somebody
does something for you, what areyou supposed to say?
You're supposed to say thankyou.
But if somebody does somethingfor you and you don't ever say
thank you, guess what?
You don't know anything aboutappreciation.
That's what grace is.
Grace is, I recognize you'vedone something in my life,
therefore, the natural responseis to show some kind of

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appreciation.
That's why we worship.
We're not worshiping trying toget something out of God.
No, we're worshiping because Godhas already been good to us.
We're responding to the goodnessof God.
In Luke 17, there were tenlepers.
And they cried out to Jesus,have mercy on me.

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And Jesus said, Go on on yourway and show yourself to the
priest.
And while they were going ontheir way to show themselves to
the priest, all ten of them werehealed.
All ten were walking in onedirection.
But one leper said, Wait aminute, wait a minute.
God's been good to me.
He turned completely around andcame back to give thanks to the

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Lord.
And even Jesus was baptized.
He turned into the disciple.
Now, wait a minute.
Did I hear ten lepers?
And only one came back.
I think God says the sunny thingagain.
I've been blessed so many folk,and only one came back.
But if you know the God has donesomething in your life, are you

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the one that turned around andsaid, I'm coming back to
blessing?
I'm the same thing for whatyou've done in my life.
Tell your neighbor it's notenough to receive grace.
You gotta respond to grace.

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So let me let me let me let melet me let me let me walk
through this this rough patchright here.
I gotta walk through this.
Fasten your seat belts.
Trade tables in the uprightposition.
What's our detour, Pastor?
Here it is.
We struggle with effort.
That's our struggle.

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We think effort is opposed tothe gospel.
A lot of Christians make detoursin their faith because a lot of
Christians won't put any effortinto their faith.
Now watch this.
Don't confuse effort withearning.

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I'm gonna say it again.
We confuse effort with earning.
God is opposed to earning, buthe's not opposed to effort.
Oh, I wish I had some women inhere, some mothers that can
testify that when it came timeto give birth to that child, you

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had to put forth some effort.
That the doctors was on yourside, the nurses were coaching
you, the husband was holdingyour hand, and you were thanking
God for the epidural in yourbody, but even with all that,
you still had to put some effortto get that child out of your
body.
And I'm here to tell somebodythe same thing.

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If God's gonna do something newin your life, it's gonna take
some effort in your life toproduce what God is trying to do
in your life.
Oh, I'm gonna preach this thing.
So hear me well.
Prayer requires effort, worshiprequires effort.

(19:28):
The word requires effort.
Ministry requires effort.
Giving requires effort.
Compassion requires effort.
Love requires effort.
Forgiveness requires effort.
Reconciliation requires effort.
Repentance requires effort.

(19:48):
Confession requires effort.
Conflict resolution requireseffort.
Family requires effort.
Penance requires effort.
Making a difference requireseffort.
Singleness requires an effort.
Marriage requires effort.
Close requirement effort.

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God and the woman holdingrequirements and effort.
God is opposed to money.

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Tell your neighbor, put yourback into it.
Put your back into it.
Good pastor sees the detours.
Number two, a good pastorenvisions Christ formed in you.
That's what he said.
He says, until Christ is formedin you, spiritual formation is a

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process.
Faith, you've heard me say it athousand times.
Faith is not perfection, butwhat?
Y'all done heard me a thousandtimes, and y'all remember that.
Faith is not perfection but aprocess.
Too many churches expectperfection out of people.
I can't change you.

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The Lord is the only one thatcan change you.
That's why I gave you themeditation text.
I can water, I can put somethingin the soil, I can I can put you
in the sunlight.
But how many of y'all know Godis the one that does the change?
So faith is not perfection.
God already knows you and Ican't be perfect.
But we do have to put someeffort in the process.

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It's a process, and the tensionin the process is that we can
rush it or we can stall it.
And as pastors, many times we'reguilty of rushing the process.
They tell me that that when arose buds, when a rose buds
Blooms, that's what gives itsbeauty.
But if you take a rosebud andyou try to make it bloom before

(22:08):
it's time, it'll die and neverbloom.
And a lot of times as churches,we try to rush this process.
We rush it.
But then also, too, we got torecognize God knows the pace
that we need to be at.
Some of us need a littlepushing, amen.
But there's something about slowcooking the process.

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Anybody know how to cook collardgreens up in here?
I'm just asking.
You can't rush collard greens.
Not good collard greens.
Come on now.
You gotta slow cook them badboys.
Cook them all the bitternessout.
Cook them all the toughness out.
Put some flavor in them.
Y'all don't hear me today.

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See, that's what God's trying todo in my life.
He trying to fast cook me inmicrowaves, but he's trying to
slow cook me.
Y'all don't hear me.
And when he slow cooks me, he'sslow cooks with the bitterness.
He slow cooks all the elementsout of my life.
He looks like in the process.

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He knows how to do it.
Here's what I'm talking about,y'all.
We have to have a rule of life.
Or better, a routine of life.
It's called in the spirituallife a rule of life.
And John Comer, he defines itlike this a rule of life is a
schedule and a set of practicesand relational rhythms that
create space for us to be withJesus, become like him, and do

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as he did, as we live inalignment with our deepest
desires.
It's a way of intentionallyorganizing our lives around what
matters most, God.
John Comer.
Just like many of us got aroutine every morning.

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Every day.
Anybody on here got children?
Mine are grown, but still.
They need attention how often?
Every day.
Somehow, if Christ is gonna growup in us, every day you gotta
feed.

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And trust me, he's hungry.
And some of us, he's starving.
Tell your neighbor, you catchthat on the way home.
So let me share, and these arethese are not, I got a few
minutes.
Okay.
Let me share some practices thathelped shape me.
I was gonna share somepractices, and then the Lord

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said, No, just share what I didin your life.
Then the Lord is good.
I said, That show is a whole loteasier.
So I'm gonna share how God, fromthe moment I trusted him years
ago, when I was in my early 20sto today, how he continues to
shape me, how he began to shapeme, and how he shapes me.

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But it is God that gets in theseprocesses.
And the reason why I'm sharingthem, because they're gonna be
different for every person.
I share mine, you say, okay,some of them may work for me,
some of them may not work foryou.
But you need something everyday, every day that shapes your

(25:26):
life.
So obviously, number one for meit was prayer.
And I always took the heart,I've never been a real prayer
warrior, but I've always beenimpressed.
My goal was Daniel 6, where heprayed three times a day.
So once in the morning, oncebefore I go to bed, and one time
during the day.

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It took me years, say neighbor,long years to get to three times
a day.
It was hard, but it wassomething I had to do every day.
Even the days I didn't feel it,y'all.
I had to do it, do it every day.
And over the years, it began tobecome a part of who I am.

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And that's how it shaped me.
Sometimes prayer is talking toGod.
Sometimes I would journal.
Sometimes prayer is simplylistening to God, hearing his
voice.
Sometimes prayer is talking withGod.
And here is not even talkingabout my own priorities, it's

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talking about what hispriorities are.
His priorities for the world,his priorities for this country,
his priorities for the church,the universal church, his
priorities for Christians.
Praying about that.
And then sometimes just beingwith God.
Just relax my mind.
Because these folk are gettingon my nerve, anybody know the

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Lord will relax your mind if youjust let him?
That was prayer.
That helped me.
The second one, people.
God had a way of just bringingpeople in my life that knew how
to advise me with godly wisdom.
A lot of good people.
So many good people.
On this one, I really missed myfather.

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Because when my dad was calledto preach, he never ever
pressured me to be a Christian.
He just accepted me for who Iwas.
And that did more to convert methan anything.
He reaffirmed his love for me,his support for me, but he never
pushed me into being a Christianor even to be a minister.

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You got to do what God calls youto do.
So people, as iron sharpens,iron sword, friend sharpens
friend, Proverbs 27:7.
The third one, the scriptures.
And here's what I mean by this.
You gotta read the word foryourself.
We we we too much social mediastuff out there about the word.
I'm gonna say how Pastor Haynesused to say it.

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He said, the problem with thechurch is we have fallen in love
with chewed up food.
What do you mean by that?
When the preacher preaches, I'mregurgitating what I've been
chewing on all week.
So really, you getting it secondhand.
He said, What God wants for allof us is to get it fresh and

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firsthand.
That means stop running toYouTube, stop running to
Instagram and find out what thispastor said or that pastor said.
And you do need preachers tolead you and help you in your
understanding.
But at some point, you gottaread the word for yourself.
And for me, when I read it formyself, I could hear God for

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myself.
I didn't need anybody to tell mewhat God was saying.
I don't need the preacher togive me a revelation.
No, I said it like grandmama.
No, he walks with me and talkswith me and tells me I'm on his
own.
Well, this is what God told meto tell you.
What he didn't tell me today.

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And when you know his word, youknow when folks uh God has
talked to them and when God hasnot said a word to them.
And I'm telling you, 99%, not Ishouldn't say 99, 90% of the
stuff out there, God ain't saida word to these people.
But you ain't gonna know thatuntil you read it for yourself.
And I ain't gonna go through allthe programs.

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There are plenty of programsthat'll help you through that in
terms of getting into the wordfor yourself.
And here what I mean by that isI'm not talking about academics.
Because academics can make youarrogant.
And there's a lot of pride andarrogant that masquerades
Christianity in the church.
Just flat out arrogant.
You just think you know morethan somebody.

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How is it that you can read theword and be meaner than the
devil?
I never understood that.
No, the word is not aboutacquiring knowledge more than my
brother.
The word is about getting wisdomon how to live life.
I don't study the word to masterthe word.

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I study the word to be masteredby the God of the Word.
So the Word is not only a placein which I learn, I am gonna
learn Bible history and theologyand all that, but it helps me to
see God's wisdom over time.

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And as I discover God's wisdomover time, I discover how God is
working in my life.
For solitude.
This is more recent, not in myearlier years, but in my latter
years, where I just get away andjust sit silently before the
Lord.
Some will call it prayer, I callit solitude.

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It could be prayer, and just sitand allow God to speak to me.
Means I gotta put that phonedown.
Turn it off.
I challenge you during the fast.
Can you turn the phone off forone day?
If we can't, there's somethingwrong, y'all.
And don't fool yourself.
Every routine is shaping yousomehow.

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So if your routine is toconstantly pick up your phone
every day, you're being shapedand formed by your phone.
Imagine if you picked up prayeror the word the same number of
times you pick up your phone.

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Some of y'all putting it downnow, turning it off.
Fasting.
And I'm not a pro-faster.
Um, I I don't like this time ofthe year every year.
I'm being honest now.
Damn, Lisa just laughs.
How you gonna be a pre- I don'tlike it.
I don't.
Shoot.

(32:00):
But every time I do it, God justhe man, he speaks to me.
And and I come out focused and Icome out closer to him.
Because it takes some sacrifice,it takes some surrender, it
takes some denial.
Um, community.
Um John Oberg said it well, mywe sin alone, but we heal

(32:24):
together.
Um here's the oxymoron aboutcommunity.
Your deepest wound can happen inchurch.
Most of us will say amen tothat.
But your deepest healing canalso happen in the same place.
I don't know what it is about,gathered community by the Spirit

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of God.
It'll heal a broken heart everytime.
And so community has shaped me.
Witness, anytime I talk tosomebody about the Lord, it
seems like God is doingsomething in my life.
Don't matter.
Uh generosity, whether I give ofmy resources or my time, or I
make a sacrifice in any form,it's like a divine encounter for

(33:12):
me.
I'm just saying for me.
And then, of course, service,ministry, um, serving, um,
serving and meeting the needs ofsomebody else.
Those are those are thepractices that have been habits
that have been formed in mylife.
And I haven't done like all atthe same time.

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Sometimes I do four or five, andI may do the other four and
five.
It just depends at differentforms.
But but we all need some kind ofroutine in our lives every
single day that God uses toshape our lives.
Let me give you the last one andI'm out of here.
Good pastor remains patient withus.

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And that's what I think Paul hadto learn more than anything.
We see his patience come out ofthis in verse 20.
Now I wish I could be with younow and change my tone because I
am perplexed about you.
I'm confused, I'm bewithered.
But we see his patience, and hegoes on in chapter 5 and talks
about what it means to liveunder grace by walking by the
Spirit.

(34:15):
And so here, Paul understandsthat in the same way God is
patient with us, we need to bepatient with one another.
And as a pastor, many times aspastors, we we rush the vision.
We we we want to see it happenbecause we know what God has
shown us.
Now, some do it out of ego.
Amen.
I'm not gonna deny that, it'sjust what it is.

(34:36):
But sometimes we can beimpatient about what God is
doing, and we have to rememberthat God has been patient with
us.
But I share this because I wantus to know what it means to
handle God's business.
It's the business He's put ineach and every one of us.
And it's the business that Iwant to focus on the most

(34:58):
discipleship, nurturing theChrist that is in us, that we
might be fully formed and madelike him.
That's really all that matters.
Because when we get Christ inus, we can take over the world.
Can't nobody stop us.
So I want to, I want to really,I want to really close this out

(35:19):
so that you hear my heart onthis.
And I came across a story of aprofessional violinist who was
giving a concert.
He was renowned and well known,and he gave this concert, and
when he finished, the crowd justjumped to their feet.
And I mean they gave him a15-minute rousing ovation,
somewhere yelling encore.

(35:41):
But the violinist bowed onetime, walked off the stage in
tears, as if he was defeated.
Afterwards, somebody came up tohim and he said, Why did you run
off the stage in tears?
Why did you walk off the stagein tears?
That has to be by far the bestperformance that we've ever

(36:02):
seen.
He explained to him, he says,Yeah, a lot of people were
jumping up and it was receivedwell by the community.
He says, But there was one manthat was sitting in the audience
and he didn't stand.
He was my trainer and he was myfather.
And if he wasn't happy, nothingelse matters.

(36:28):
If my father's not happy withme, none of this ever matters to
me.
Lord.

(36:54):
Still amazes me that this iswhere I am.
Forgive me for the times thatyou've been incredibly patient
with me.
And I've been impatient withyou.
Thank you that you didn't giveup on me.
Because you saw the Christ thatyou had planted in me.

(37:20):
I want to deal with Christ'scommunity.
I want to deal with the men inthis church, the wonderful godly
women in this church.
Students and the children.
Because Lord, I believe justlike Lisa, you planted something
underneath the soil of ourhearts.

(37:43):
And even me, I sometimes don'tunderstand.
But I know you do.
And so lead us, Lord, to be achurch where Christ is formed in
us.
Lead us to be a church where wehandle your business, which is
that spiritual formation in ourlife.

(38:05):
We might really give glory toyou.
That the world may see Christ inus.
In Jesus' name.
If you would, as the Lord leadsyou, just take a moment before
the Lord's supper.

(38:26):
Bow your head and pray aboutwhat the Lord has ministered to
you.
This point in your fast.
Not fasting.
This is how God is speaking toyou.
You can finish the seven days ifyou'd like.
Love for you to join it.
Let God just minister to yourheart.
Ask him how he wants to grow theChrist that is in you.

(38:52):
What is he doing in your life?