August 18, 2024 • 49 mins
Welcome!
Do you ever struggle with regret? How easy is it to get stuck reflecting on the same mistakes and memories, over and over again, only to find yourself stuck-- rooted and rutted in the same problems, paradigms, and patterns?
Well, listen to this encouragement from Noah! You'll be glad you did.
This episode is a precursor to a series on Hope. This Fall (and into 2025) we'll be focusing on God's hope for His people! Be sure to SUBSCRIBE and like and SHARE to get the most out of this episode and this upcoming series.
God bless!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hello and welcome to the InRest podcast with Noah
James Wiebe.
I'm your host, noah, and todaywe are going to be talking about
regret and the adverse, whichis fulfillment.
So let's talk about that.
So I'm really glad you'rejoining me today, because this
is actually a super importanttopic.
(00:22):
Today I'm in my church, or inone of my churches that's a
weird thing to say.
Anyway, I'm in a church where Iwork as a kids, youth and
family pastor.
We're just in the sanctuary.
We just finished a vacationBible school program and it's
pretty awesome.
One of the things I love aboutvacation Bible school is the
opportunity to see not justyourself but other people shine
(00:45):
in their gifts and to do exactlywhat they feel is the best
thing for them to do, accordingto their spiritual gifts, their
aptitudes, their passions thething that gives them the most
zeal.
The thing that I findchallenging about Vacation Bible
School is when it's over andeveryone's exhausted and when
you look back on some of thestuff you had missed
opportunities for, you know.
(01:06):
So I debriefed with myco-director and we kind of
talked about some of thedifferent ideas we could have
done, not just for the VacationBible School but also for the
other summer ministries that wedid and one of the problems with
looking back too much on stuff.
Although debrief is superhelpful, kind of like the
practice of examine, which we'vetalked about before, if you
(01:28):
haven't listened to the podcastepisode in which we talked about
examine, go back and listen tothat one.
It's a really good episode, forsure.
However, the problem withdebriefing, or constantly
ruminating, maybe on missedopportunities, missed options,
missed roads that you could havetaken, is that regret begins to
(01:51):
pile up as you ruminate.
Regret piles up as you ruminate, ruminate or rumination is when
you constantly mull over thesame problem over and over and
over again.
Rumination usually is referredto in the context of something
(02:12):
negative, so in depression.
If you know someone who hasobsessive-compulsive disorder,
the word rumination is going tocome up.
If you've ever listened to NF,the Christian guy who happens to
be a rapper, you would hear inhis music his meditations on
ruminations.
And the problem with ruminationis that it appears reasonable
(02:37):
on the outset, but the more thatyou engage and really indulge
yourself in rumination, youbegin to experience regret with
compounding degrees of severityas a result of just constantly
investing your thought life intothat.
(02:59):
We're actually going to look atsomething from the book of
Colossians.
It's in Colossians, chapter 4.
Paul has written a letter tosome pretty intelligent people
who they've got some issues andyou know they've got conflicts
between different people.
You know the Bible doesn'tspill the tea completely on what
is specifically going on, butwe do get the impression that
there is something that Paul hasaddressed with some of his
(03:22):
friends.
In addition, there's someonethat really does his ministry
well in that particularcommunity that Paul acknowledges
, and then another guy who hespeaks to and it kind of seems
like maybe he's challenging himor maybe just encouraging him,
and it's kind of open-ended.
We don't really know what isreally being said specifically
(03:45):
to this guy.
We don't know fully thesituation.
We just know that Paul startstalking to this dude and says,
hey, do your job.
And we don't know fully what hemeans.
But we do know is that this isactually a helpful passage for
helping us understand thistension between regret and, you
know, fulfillment, this tensionbetween living in our best,
(04:09):
living in our gifts, living inthose things that we're truly
passionate about, and living insuch a way in which we
experience regret down the road.
So let's look at it.
So, colossians, chapter 4, paulhas just written one of the most
fire letters that he's everwritten.
It's thick with theologicalnuance.
(04:30):
It addresses some apologeticalconcerns where Paul starts
talking about you know, hey,don't get lost in really weird
stuff that has nothing to dowith Jesus and specifically,
don't listen to people who tryto deceive you about Jesus and
twist your knowledge of him.
You know, continue to live yourlives in Jesus, rooted and
(04:53):
built up in faith, yada, yada.
He says some pretty amazingthings about Jesus.
Specifically that in chapterone sort of sets the tone for
the rest of the book and it's areally good read.
I'd encourage you to go fromchapter one to four and just
listen to the whole thing in onesitting to get a more, you know
, get a more clear picture ofwhat Paul is trying to get
across in this letter to hisfriends in Colossae.
(05:16):
But in chapter four he's tyingup loose ends.
He's finishing up his letter tohis homies, and this is what he
says.
He says up loose ends.
He's finishing up his letter tohis homies, and this is what he
says.
He says devote yourselves toprayer, keeping alert in it,
with an attitude of thanksgiving, praying at the same time for
(05:38):
us as well, that God will openup to us a door for the word, so
that we may speak forth themystery of Christ, for which I
have also been imprisoned, thatI may make it clear in the way I
ought to speak.
Conduct yourselves with wisdomtowards outsiders, making the
most of the opportunity.
Let your speech always be withgrace, as though seasoned with
salt, so that you will know howyou should respond to each
(06:00):
person.
So just to pause there and sayPaul is talking about some
really important applications towhat he's already written, and
one of those applications isprayer, an attitude of
thanksgiving and godly conductin the context of gospel
proclamation and day-to-dayconversation day-to-day
(06:28):
conversation.
With that, he gets into somespecific stuff to the people
there.
So let's dial in.
As to all my affairs, tychicus,our beloved brother and
faithful servant and fellow bondservant in the Lord, will bring
you information, for I havesent him to you for this very
purpose that you may know aboutour circumstances and that he
may encourage your hearts, andwith him, onesimus, our faithful
and beloved brother, who is oneof your number.
(06:49):
They will inform you about thewhole situation here.
Aristarchus, my fellow prisoner, sends you his greetings, and
also Barnabas's cousin, mark,about whom you received
instructions.
If he comes to you, welcome him, and also Jesus, who is called
Justice.
These are the only fellowworkers for the kingdom of God
who are from the circumcision,and they proved an encouragement
(07:12):
to me.
Epaphras, who is one of yournumber, a bond slave of Jesus
Christ, sends you his greetings,always laboring earnestly for
you in his prayers that you maystand perfect and fully assured
in the will of God, for Itestify for him that he has a
deep concern for you and thosewho are in.
So he had already mentionedlike conduct yourselves with
(07:35):
wisdom, make the most of everyopportunity.
Let your conversation beseasoned with salt.
And then he starts jumping intoall these people that we have
no context for.
And then he starts jumping intoall these people that we have
no context for other than Paul'swork in ministry and his
personal relationships with themas it pertains to this
particular group here inColossae.
So Paul starts talking aboutTychicus, who is this awesome
(07:57):
man, who's a faithful servantand fellow bondservant in the
Lord, meaning like he is anamazing guy.
We love this guy, tychicus.
Okay, and he's.
I just wanted to let you guysknow he's on his way with a
message, just to give you awhole rundown as to what we're
going through.
So maybe Tychicus was actuallytaking this letter with him or
(08:18):
he had been told afterward tocome and by then this letter had
already been sent.
We're not sure.
What we do know is thatTychicus is pretty cool.
We also know that Onesimus isalso pretty cool, who has gone
along with Tychicus, kind of tobe his you know, his travel
buddy as he gets to where he'sgoing.
(08:39):
Aristarchus, barnabas, orBarnabas's cousin, rather named
Mark Barnabas, or Barnabas'scousin, rather named Mark Jesus,
who's called Justice, andEpaphras Bunch of guys that he
lists.
Basically just saying, thesedudes are super huge
encouragements to me and I'mvery, very grateful for them.
I'm very grateful for whatthey're doing.
(08:59):
I'm very grateful for howthey've impacted me and
encouraged me and been a helperto me in the work of the gospel
and the work of spreading thekingdom of God, which is awesome
.
So these dudes, they all did areally, really great job.
But the guy we want to zero inon here right now is Epaphras,
who is one of their number, okay, so a guy who has come up out
of this community.
He's been launched out intoministry somewhere else and now
he's coming back and he saysthat he's sending you greetings
(09:22):
from where they're at and thathe's always laboring earnestly
for you in his prayers that youmay stand perfect and fully
assured in the will of God.
So take a look at that, okay.
So there's these guys who aredoing an amazing job, who are
just working really hard for theministry, that are obeying
God's call in their life,they're saying yes to Jesus.
That are just amazing, you know.
They're just doing an amazingjob and they're not giving up
(09:45):
and they're sticking out,sticking it out with Paul, even
though it's difficult, andthey're traveling with him and
all this stuff, and they're justproviding for him.
Right now Paul is in prison.
I'm understanding, and so inthis moment, okay, we see all
these dudes who are justfulfilling what God's laid on
their heart to do.
They're fulfilling theirpurpose, they're acting in a way
that's consistent with godlycharacter.
(10:06):
They're doing the things thatGod needs them to do to support
Paul in his ministry, as well ashonor God's call in their own
life.
So pay attention to that as hemoves into this prayer, because
he says this guy, epaphras, whoyou know, he is praying for you
all the time, literally laboringearnestly for you in prayer.
So I have no idea what this guyis doing specifically to labor
(10:27):
earnestly, other than justspending extra time praying for
these people in Colossae, whichis something to say.
Maybe we should pray more oftenand labor more earnestly for
each other.
But why is he doing that?
Well, the why is that he'sdoing it so that you, the
Colossians, may stand perfectand fully assured in all the
will of God.
Stand perfect and fully assuredin all the will of God.
(10:49):
So what is he praying for?
He's praying for them not to beperfect from the flawless
perspective, because that's notattainable, and the Bible never
calls you to be flawless.
Okay, but what the Bible doescall us to do, what Jesus is
leading us to do, is actually tobe fully mature and to be
well-rounded in the way that weapproach love and to be fully
surrendered to God as well.
(11:09):
And that's how we attain towhat we would actually call
Christian perfection, which isnot actually flawlessness, it's
perfection in the sense of justa whole, complete surrendering
right and living accordingly.
And so Paul goes on and, as hecontinues, he says I have
testified for him that he has adeep concern for accordingly.
And so Paul goes on and, as hecontinues.
He says I have testified forhim that he has a deep concern
for you, and so there's a senseof a way that God loves him and
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he loves, and this man now lovesthese people and, as a result
of this love, this whole cycleof love is being complete by him
praying that they be completein their love, and so on and so
forth.
And so this cycle of love thatGod wants to bring about is only
possible or I shouldn't sayonly possible, but I should say
it's attainable through ourobedience to him in fulfilling
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what God's called us to do,because there's a real urgency
for us to do that.
And God does not force us to dothe right thing, but he does
call us and plead with us to sayand do and live in accordance
with his word, just to say whatis right and do what is what
he's called us to do, all thatstuff.
So he goes on Luke, the belovedphysician, and also Demas, or
(12:17):
Demas.
He goes on to say Nympha andthe church that is in her house,
blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
And then he says this last thingat the end, and he says this
say to Archippus, take heed tothe ministry which you have
received in the Lord that youmay fulfill it.
Take heed to the ministry whichyou have received in the Lord
(12:40):
that you may fulfill it.
This is a really short episodeand this is why that you may
fulfill it.
This is a really short episodeand this is why God's call on
your life is not going to befulfilled without your
cooperation.
God's call on your life is notgoing to be fulfilled without
your cooperation, and is Godgoing to do a lot of amazing
things through you.
Is he going to bless peoplewithout you even realizing it?
Is he going to fulfill hispurpose in and through your life
(13:00):
?
Is he going to superintend thecircumstances and the minuscule
details of you and yourcircumstances and your choices
to work out for his, for yourultimate good and his ultimate
well, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.
But God's call on your life isnot going to be fulfilled
outside of your cooperation.
(13:20):
He's not going to force you toobey his word.
He's not going to force you topray.
He's not going to force you to,as Epaphras did, labor
earnestly in the Lord for others.
He's not going to force you tohave conversations that are, as
Paul said, salted with grace,right Meaning like they're
constantly full of favor andkindness and goodness and like
(13:45):
just love, really Like.
But God's not going to forceyou to do that.
God's not going to force you toconduct yourself in a way
that's consistent with his wordand with the kingdom of God.
So how are you going tocooperate with God's call in
your life?
Because Paul's very urgentthing, in contrast to all of
these very faithful people andnot there's nothing with a,
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there's no scolding here.
I don't feel that I don't get asense of that in the tone of
what Paul is writing, but what Ido get is that, hey, just
mention to Archippus okay, takeheed to the ministry which
you've received in the Lord,that you may fulfill it.
So what do you mean?
Take heed, pay attention, youknow, listen to the call.
Well, he might be thinkingabout the Hebrew word shema,
which is to hear, but it's alsoto listen in action, right?
(14:32):
So if you were to speak to achild and say, hey, excuse me,
could you please pass me yourbowl of cereal so that I can,
you know, give you a refill, orsomething like that, if that
child is listening to you, it'snot just that he's hearing what
you're saying or she's hearingwhat you're saying.
It's that that child is like,oh yeah, sure, here's my bowl of
cereal and then I'll followthrough.
Same thing with God, with us.
You know, if God's calling youto do something and you're like,
(14:53):
hey, no problem, let's do it,that means you're listening,
because that would be the actionthat you're taking as a result
of him speaking to you.
That would be the Hebrew wordshema.
I have kids I've got four kidsand they don't all listen well
and they don't all listen wellall the time.
Even the ones that do listenwell don't always listen well,
and that can be very frustratingfor me as a dad, because
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sometimes I need something donea certain way, but other times
it's just because I actuallyneed them to cooperate so that I
can bless them, so that I cangive them a really special treat
, or maybe I need to keep themsafe from something.
And so sometimes we think aboutus fulfilling God's call in our
life and we get into theruminations of all the times
where we weren't listening.
And I do this all the time.
(15:36):
I was doing it.
Today, I'm thinking about youknow the way that I spent my
time a few months ago.
I'm thinking about the mistakesthat I made three years ago in
a different job.
I'm thinking about some of thethings that I've said to people
that I wish I didn't, and someof the things I did in
situations in which somethingelse was needed, and I would
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totally go back and undo them ifI could.
And I've literally said outloud God, I wish I could go back
, I wish I could go back, I wishI could go back, I wish I could
go back, but you can't.
Regardless of the fact that youcan't, you think that that's
reasonable to keep thinking that, but it's not.
And the reason why it's notreasonable is because it's not
attainable.
(16:18):
Right Like God doesn't call youto be perfect, meaning flawless.
What he's calling you to isfull maturity, flawless.
What he's calling you to isfull maturity.
Grow up, live into the form inwhich God has made you you know,
live into who he's called youto be and listen to him in that
right.
And so I ruminate.
And what happens?
Well, the more that I ruminateon this or that problem, this or
that mistake, this or thatissue that I should have done
better, should have donedifferent, should have said,
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should have not said, I begin topile up regrets in my mind and
I begin to think that really,god's looking to condemn me.
What God is actually doing ishe's not punishing you for
making the wrong decision.
God is not punishing you formaking the wrong decision, even
if it was like blatantlyhorrible and, a lot of times,
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god's punishment in our life.
We misunderstand that God'spunishment has been laid on
Jesus' cross, like Jesus diedfor us so that the punishment
that we should have endured as aresult of our sin would be laid
on him instead.
That's why God sent Jesus, partof the reason that he sent
Jesus and because of Jesus'resurrection, we get to live in
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a way that Jesus does and we getto live in God's love, his
perfect love.
And, by the way, that wordperfect, for God's perfect love,
does not even mean flawless,although God's perfect love is
flawless, it's full, it'swell-rounded and it wants to be
fully fulfilled in your life.
God's love, and it wants to befully fulfilled in your life,
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god's love being fulfilled inyour life does not look like you
trying to measure up to a godlystandard as a result of oh well
, god's punishing me, right as aresult of condemnation, as a
result of feeling guilty orashamed.
God doesn't want you to buildyour life on shame.
God wants you to build yourlife on his love.
God doesn't want you to buildyour life on guilt.
God already paid the price foryour guilt.
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God doesn't want you to buildyour life on fear.
God already put Jesus on thecross and condemned your fear
and has given you the power byhis Holy Spirit to put to death
those bad choices that you make,so that, as it says in Romans 8
, you will live, really live,live well, live fully in the
Spirit and live in accordancewith your identity as a son or
(18:29):
daughter of God through Jesus.
God's intent is not to make yousuffer as punishment for your
wrong choices, but our wrongchoices often lead us into
circumstances that otherwisecould have been prevented if we
had obeyed.
But God doesn't want us toruminate on that.
God doesn't want us to getstuck on those circumstances.
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God doesn't want us to getstuck on those things.
There's a guy named OswaldChambers.
I quote him a lot.
Sorry, not sorry.
Oswald wrote in my most for hishighest our circumstances are
not our responsibility.
Our responsibility is whatwe're going to do in our
circumstances.
I'm paraphrasing there in thesecond half, because what Oswald
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is trying to get across.
What Chambers is trying to sayis that we can't control even
look, we can't control how ourchoices impact us.
We can't control that.
You know.
Sometimes you might make a badchoice and the consequences are
minimal.
And sometimes you might make agreater or lesser bad choice and
the consequences are greater orlesser.
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You're not able, you're notable to control your
circumstances that you'represently in, in this moment.
You can't.
Two weeks ago, you could havemade choices that would have
resulted in differentcircumstances, but even those
choices, you wouldn't have knownwhat kind of circumstances you
would be in today had you madethem, had you made those good
choices.
Consequently, the choices thatyou think you're going to make
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tomorrow are not going to impactyou right now.
That's tomorrow.
So the only thing that you haveto do is focus on what you need
to do today, what you need todo now.
Okay, yes, that happened.
I made that choice.
Here's the circumstances thatI'm in.
What am I going to do?
What am I going to do?
And us listening to God is notabout us avoiding punishment as
(20:15):
much as it is living in hisperfect will, which is what
Epaphras is preaching andpraying.
I shouldn't say preaching butpraying, when he says, when Paul
says, epaphras sends you hisgreetings, always laboring
earnestly for you in his prayersthat you may stand perfect and
fully assured in the will of God.
So, fully fulfilled,essentially right and fully
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assured, have confidence thatyou're in God's will, right and
you're like well.
How can anybody have confidencethat we're in his will?
Obviously, that's a much biggerquestion and we can address it
in another episode.
But what I want to land ontoday is that for you to get out
of this cycle of rumination andregret, you need to step out of
that and step into action.
Step into.
Okay, what am I going to do?
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What am I going to do?
Yes, that's true, that's thetruth.
What am I going to do?
My mother-in-law recently saidto me there's two truths.
Okay, there can be two truths.
You know, maybe you'reevaluating your background and
you're evaluating, you know, thechoice of car you drove, or the
person you married, or thecareer you ended up following
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that career path and you can saythat career path was good or it
was bad.
Maybe you can say that careerpath or that car was a bad
choice, but it also met my needsright.
So you got a job and it paidyour wages and you paid your
bills to provide for your familyor yourself, and that worked
out great.
That's a truth.
But it also was a bad job andyou probably shouldn't have done
it, because it impacted you andyour mental health in a way
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that probably wasn't good.
You made a choice on a car thatwas way too expensive and
impacted your finances later,but it was more reliable and got
you to where you needed to go,right.
So two truths at the same time.
It was a bad choice and it hadgood consequences, right, or had
you know?
There's good and bad about it,right?
So, okay, that's great.
So there's two truths.
(22:00):
Okay, yeah, so you made amistake.
There's your rumination.
There's your temptation to getstuck in the indulgence of
misery.
Okay, indulging in misery isvery easy to do.
It's easy to get stuck, goingback to rumination.
So here you go.
That's a wrong choice.
What are you going to do aboutit?
Well, okay, I can make adifferent choice today.
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This choice doesn't define whoI am, because if you're a child
of God, like if you've put yourfaith in Jesus, you're a
different person now.
So you're dead to yourtrespasses and sins.
You're dead to them.
So, yeah, you made a choicethat was bad, but that was a
dead choice.
That happened and I don't haveto go backwards.
I don't have to get stuck inthat choice.
What the enemy does with regretis keep us stuck.
What the enemy does with regretis keep us rooted in the
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situation that we had before.
Keep us rooted in the samehabits, problems, thought
processes, paradigms, if youwill, and rutted so the enemy
wants to use your rumination andregret to keep you rooted and
rutted.
Rutted isn't.
I don't even know if rutted sothe enemy wants to use your
rumination and regret to keepyou rooted and rutted.
Rutted isn't.
I don't even know if rutted isactually a word, but I know a
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rut right is like when you driveover something or walk over
something many times, over andover and over again, and you get
stuck in that pattern becauseit's so easy to be there and you
know wheel carts.
Back in the day, you know whenyou would have a horse and buggy
, the wheel of your cart wouldget stuck in those ruts and it
could actually break the wheel,depending on how you know how
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deep it was or whether or notyour horse decided to go a
different direction or whatever.
We have this problem moreexpressed in like potholes,
right?
So there's driving on the samestretch of road over and over
and over again a potholedevelops.
Next thing you know your car,just kind of you know, maybe
it's in a rainstorm, maybe it'sjust you know, maybe in the
middle of the night or whatever,you're driving along a road
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that's like deeply rutted, evenin the asphalt it's like deeply
rutted.
Next thing you know you've hita pothole and you didn't even
know where it came from.
It's just there, right?
So we get stuck in a rut and weget broken as a result.
And so Satan's results out ofyou being rooted and rutted in
your problems and mistakes, yourhabits, your bad, sinful
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actions, through the ruminationand regret that you keep going
back to the result that he wantsfrom that is your brokenness.
Let me say that again because Isaid a lot of R words, okay.
So the result that Satan wantsto get out of you being rooted
and rutted in your regretsthrough rumination and
(24:32):
reflection on negative things,is your brokenness.
He wants to break you and ifyou're already broken, he wants
to keep breaking you even more.
He wants to break you and ifyou're already broken, he wants
to keep breaking you even more.
He wants to create anxiety inyou, which the Bible says you
know cast all your anxieties onthe Lord, because he cares for
you.
But the word anxiety literallymeans pieces, so he wants to
(24:54):
keep you broken.
He wants to keep you crushed ordepressed and he wants to keep
your mind in pieces.
He wants to keep your life inpieces.
He wants to make your lifeanxiety instead of peace.
Jesus' intent is to get you outof all that and into rest and
restoration, and he's going todo that by letting you rest on
(25:15):
the promises of God in the cross, the promises of God in the
three words that Jesus said onthe cross, which is it is
finished.
The work that Jesus came to do,that he lived his whole life to
do, it is finished.
He didn't come to the cross sothat you could go backwards.
He came to the cross so thatyou could walk with God.
So what does this have to dowith calling?
What does any of this have todo with fulfilling our call?
(25:37):
Well, it's impossible to fulfillyour call, which is forward
moving.
You know, like God is nevergoing to tell you hey, let's go
back to the past and pretendthat you're the person that you
were two years ago.
Like God's not going to do that.
Like, sometimes, like God willput us into situations that are
from our past in order to teachus something, to return us to
something, in order to maybecommunicate something about that
(26:00):
space, that place or that pastexperience, in order for us to
move forward and grow.
But the intent is always tomove forward and grow.
Like God doesn't have anyintention of this world in which
we live ever going backwards intime, and even the Garden of
Eden.
Like, yes, god does want us togo back, in a manner of speaking
.
But like, every time you look atthe Bible and it looks at, you
(26:22):
know, the renewal of all things,what it's talking about is a
Greek word, which is perigenesis, which is literally genesis
again, genesis again.
But like he's not goingbackwards in time, he's going
forwards and making thebeginning again.
He's making a new beginning andthe glimpse that we have of
that in our lived experience isthis new beginning that we have
(26:44):
when we're born again asfollowers of Jesus.
We put our faith in Christ andthe Holy Spirit washes us of all
our sin, washes us of whoeverwe were before, claims us and
names us with a new name, a newidentity, and then launches us,
and it's always forward, moving,always forward, moving.
When God finishes this part ofthe story and we get to the
(27:05):
point where Jesus has returned,there's never going to be a time
again where Jesus goes back toheaven somewhere and then leaves
us alone and he's never left usalone.
He sent the Holy Spirit to bewith us, right?
But there's never going to be asituation again, after Jesus
returns, where we're going tohave to go back to living the
way we are now.
That's the overall narrative ofhistory.
(27:28):
Now in your life, thisexpresses, or this is expressed
and this is lived out in youmoving forward based on the
promises of God, based on whathe's done, based on the it is
finished work of Jesus.
There's a work, or there's aGreek word, another Greek word
that Jesus uses when he's on thecross.
Okay, that is the Greek wordthat we're talking about.
(27:50):
Like the three words that Jesussaid on the cross is actually
one word, and it's tetelestai,tetelestai, which sounds like
you know that thing you get inyour eyeball when it's just like
it's really uncomfortable andyou just want to keep rubbing it
because you think there'ssomething in your eye but it's
not.
There's something in youreyelid and it's like pressing on
your eyeball, that thing.
You know.
It kind of sounds like the wordstye, like it's like a super
(28:12):
stye, like it's like an infectedstye or something that's like
all big and bulged out orsomething like that, or like you
know, I don't know.
But that's not what it is.
Tetelestai, okay, tetelestai,okay.
Tetelestai is when the debt ispaid, the thing is done, this
debt is covered.
That's what it means,tetelestai.
It means it is finished, it'sover, okay.
(28:32):
So in John, chapter 19, jesusdies on the cross.
He says it is finished,tetelestai, and passes away,
releases his spirit and then islater laid in a tomb.
So why is that relevant to thepursuing of our call?
Well, it's like hello Jesus'work is done, which means that
the only thing left for you todo is to continue living in the
(28:53):
truth of what he's accomplishedfor you on the cross, making
your whole life about him andmoving forward in the call to
which he has given you, the callto which he has given you, the
call to which he has given you.
That's what you do now.
Okay, because that other stuffis done Like you're like.
Oh my gosh, lord, look at allthese sins from my past.
I wish I did somethingdifferent when I was, you know,
seven years old.
I wish I made a differentchoice when I was 18.
(29:14):
I wish I went to a differentcollege when I was 22.
Blah, blah't, uh, marry thisother guy.
I wish I didn't.
Um, I wish I didn't choose thiscareer.
I wish I didn't.
(29:35):
I wish I didn't neglect tovisit my family member when they
were passing away in thehospital and I thought I had
more time.
I wish I had.
I wish I didn't.
I wish this would not havehappened.
My friend, with regards to yoursin, it is finished.
And with regards to your sorrowand suffering, you have a
(29:59):
bright hope and a future.
God works all things out forthe good in the present moment.
Ultimately, all things willwork out for you.
If you continue to put yourheart and set your heart on the
Lord.
All the other stuff that you'reworried about is going to come
to pass or it's going to come toa favorable result in your life
(30:20):
.
That doesn't mean that some ofthe things that we, that we
deeply hope for, are all goingto be accomplished.
What we do know is that thecore hope that we have as
followers of Jesus is going tobe fulfilled.
A hope deferred makes the heartsick.
So you might be going throughsome heart sickness right now
because you hoped that you wouldhave made a different choice
(30:41):
and it didn't happen.
Now your hope has been deferredand your heart is sick.
Well, god wants to meet you inthat sickness and he wants to
bring you back to moving forwardin your call.
He wants to get you out ofbeing rutted and rooted in
rumination and regret, so thatthe enemy cannot get you into
the result of brokenness againor keeping you in brokenness.
(31:03):
God has a plan to help yourepent and return and be
restored, and ultimately, thoseof us who follow Jesus will all
be restored.
Nothing will be wasted andeverything will be made right,
and for most of our mistakesthey're redeemable.
Most of our mistakes they'reredeemable.
(31:23):
Most of our mistakes areredeemable.
So God is not outside of therealm of possibility here when
he's saying hey, take heed, payattention, listen to the call
that I have for you.
So I started off on part ofthat, because I was talking
about the fact that God doesn'tintend to punish you for all
(31:47):
your mistakes.
The consequences that you'reliving in today, whether or not
he removes you from them, is notthe point.
The point is what you're goingto do right now.
I love a quote in the Lord ofthe Rings, the Fellowship of the
Ring.
I'm not sure if it actuallymakes it in the book, but in the
film Frodo is played by ElijahWood and Frodo looks to Gandalf
(32:09):
and he is, you know, talkingabout another character, and the
phrase that he uses is I wishthis other character had been
put out of his misery.
It's a pity that he had notbeen killed Now.
This character was evil andchaotic and caused problems and
was a creepy little thing calledGollum.
(32:29):
And then Gandalf, this wiseother character, speaks to Frodo
and says pity, that is whatstayed Bilbo's hand, the man who
had the chance to kill him.
And then he goes on to say hey,don't be so quick to dole out
(32:52):
death and judgment.
Many people who live deservedeath.
Many people who die deservelife.
Will you give it to them, frodo?
And then they go on in theirconversation and they're sort of
reflecting on the evil times,and Frodo responds to Gandalf
and he says to him I wish I hadnever been born in this time.
(33:14):
I wish I never had to see thishappen.
And then Gandalf says well, sodo all who live to see such
times.
But that is not the choice forthem to make.
The only thing they can do anyperson could do is decide what
to do with the time that's beengiven to them.
(33:35):
So I botched a lot of that.
Okay, let's paraphrase.
But the reason why I mention itis because so many of us think
that we have to live innegativity and sadness and
sorrow and misery because of ourpast and because of the
circumstances we are in as aresult of the past, whether they
(33:55):
were in our control or not.
But what God wants us to do isA listen to him, listen to his
call.
B he wants us to beacknowledged for honoring his
call.
You notice that most of thenames here are people who have
honored God's call in their life, and they were acknowledged by
name in a letter in which mostof the people that would later
(34:19):
go on to read it would have noidea who these people are Like,
even Luke.
I mean, we know that Luke wrotethe Gospel of Luke, or have
confidence that Luke wrote theGospel of Luke and the Book of
Acts and traveled with Paul anddid a number of things.
We don't know much about Luke'sbackground, what happened to
him.
We don't know much about Demas.
We don't know about Tychicus,we have no idea.
(34:40):
These guys are unknown to us,but they're known to God and it
mattered to him for the HolySpirit to lead Paul to write
them in.
It's not a coincidence and it'snot an accident that those
guys' names got in there,because Paul has one of his core
values, I think, is publicacknowledgement for hard work.
(35:01):
Acknowledgement because therewill come a day when all of us
will be acknowledged for all thegood things that we do, and so
it's only fitting that God'speople today would rightly
acknowledge those among us whowork really hard.
So, a.
God wants you to listen andtake heed to his call on your
life.
B.
He wants you to be acknowledgedfor honoring his call on your
(35:22):
life.
B.
He wants you to be acknowledgedfor honoring his call.
There are days when we arealone in the call of the gospel,
but there are days when we arealone in honoring Jesus.
But God wants you to beacknowledged and honored for
doing what's right, and you willbe, even if there's going to be
a long time.
Maybe there is somebody thatshould have acknowledged you and
(35:44):
they didn't.
But God's intent in love foryou is that his intent for you,
out of his love for you, is thatyou be acknowledged for
honoring his call.
And finally, god wants you toearnestly pray for, advocate for
and participate in othersheeding their call.
(36:05):
You notice that Epaphras, inalmost like a crazy full circle
sort of way, epaphras isacknowledged for honoring God's
call in his life by prayerfullyworking on behalf of others so
that they will fulfill theircall on their life.
(36:26):
Get that, say that 10 timesfast.
Epaphras is acknowledged forjust praying for people to get
their call fulfilled.
You know what I mean.
Like, epaphras is honored inthis letter and by God because
he's earnestly, out of concern,praying for others to be fully
mature and fully assured andconfident in God.
(36:51):
That's pretty awesome.
Finally, god wants you to beassured.
God wants you to be assuredthat you're in his will.
You know, too often we forgetthat God does have a will for us
, like he does have an intentfor us.
And there's like all this talkabout God's permissive will and
(37:12):
his perfect will and yada, yada.
That is sometimes helpful andsometimes it's not, but what I
want to land on with this isthis that is sometimes helpful
and sometimes it's not, but whatI want to land on with this is
this God wants you to haveconfidence that you are in his
will and that you're on theright track.
God wants you to know when youare on the right track, and
sometimes we ask questions andwe're like God, I don't
(37:33):
understand, I don't know, andsometimes what we need to do and
we don't know and we'reconfused and we're concerned and
we need to be assured and we'relike Lord, help me, is wait and
rest, you know.
So for those of us who haven'thonored God's call in our life,
so A God wants you to answer thecall, god wants you to listen,
god wants you to hear it becausehe wants to bless you, he wants
to keep you safe, he wants toprovide for you, he wants you to
(37:55):
say yes and move forward.
For those of us who have nothonored God's call in our life,
we need to hear this as a callto repentance and reception.
And repentance meaning not outof guilt and shame, only Like we
should sometimes feel a littleashamed for doing wrong things.
That's okay.
It's okay to feel bad, like theBible tells us that the Lord is
(38:17):
close to the contrite in heart.
So there's nothing wrong withfeeling bad for doing something
wrong.
It's okay.
But God doesn't want you tostay there.
That's the idea.
And so when we repent and weturn to the Lord, we do that
sometimes quite emotionally, andthat's totally appropriate.
That's totally appropriate.
So, regardless of why you'rechoosing to repent, even if you
(38:40):
feel nothing, even if you'rejust acknowledging, like in your
own mind, oh my gosh, I havenot lived the way that God's
called me to live, I'm going todo that now.
You know, even if you are notparticularly an emotional person
, that doesn't mean that you'renot going to repent.
It doesn't mean you don't haveto, and it doesn't mean that
when you repent it doesn't countor that it's not valid.
You know so.
Not everybody is, you know, aparticularly emotionally
(39:03):
sensitive person.
But if it's really not, if it'sdeeply like not affecting your
heart at all, and you're feelingapathy there, pray to the Lord
and ask him to help you feel theway you should feel about
certain things.
Lord, help me me interpret thisfor me.
What is your word on thissubject?
Help me to feel the way thatI'm supposed to feel about this
(39:24):
and help me to be affected bythe fact that I'm sinning.
If that's what you're at, ifthat's what you're doing, you
need to repent.
So you know, repent, turn.
It's not a complicated thing,it's just.
It's a complex thing sometimesdepending on what you're
repenting of, but generally Godjust wants you to turn to him.
You know he can sometimes takeover from there or he can guide
(39:44):
you in the next steps of whatyou need to do to get out of
that situation, to get out ofthat sin even, and get out of
that habitual sin.
I want to share a story about mymom.
My mom was an amazing woman, isan amazing woman and she has
followed Jesus faithfully formany years.
But there was a season in herlife in which she did not, and
(40:04):
God gave her a dream in whichshe saw something and it was
this face and it vomited bloodin the dream I know we're
getting kind of grotesque here,but bear with me.
She wakes up from the dream andin her heart she knows exactly
what the dream is about.
It's that she, even though shehad accepted Christ, is now
(40:26):
living as if God is not evenreal, and she felt mortified,
just awful and terrible, thatshe had insulted the Lord and
lived in a way that was totallycounter to how he wanted her to
live.
That wasn't her fearing, justpunishment, you know there was.
There's, obviously, justice andjudgment that comes to us when
we continually choose not to doGod's will on purpose.
(40:47):
But that wasn't what she wasgoing through.
She was experiencing shame froma from an ashamed kind of
perspective, and what she neededwas just to turn to the Lord,
and so what she did was sheprayed, and at the time her
boyfriend, who she was livingwith, was sick and she prayed
for him and she said God, if youheal my boyfriend of what he's
(41:08):
going through, I'll take that asconfirmation that you're
intending to call me out of thissituation and I will leave him
and I will go on and live thelife you've called me to live.
Well, what do you know?
He got better, completely,cancer healed, restored, boom
miracle.
And my mom goes to him and shesays I'm so happy that you're
(41:33):
well, but I got to go becauseGod has laid it on my heart that
I have been living in sin and Ineed to repent.
And I know you're going tothink that I'm crazy.
And that's what he said he'slike you're crazy.
And she said I know you thinkthat I'm crazy, but I got to do
it.
So she moved on and that's howshe eventually met my dad and I
was born.
So thank you, jesus, forhealing that other guy long ago.
(41:54):
Now here's the deal.
What does that have to do withanything?
That other guy long ago.
Now, here's the deal.
What does that have to do withanything?
Listen to the call Repent, okay,and receive it.
Sometimes it's just aboutreceiving.
It's not about necessarilyrepenting because you've been
doing something really bad.
Sometimes it's about, in themiddle of your feelings of
reflection and regret.
Turn to the Lord and thenreceive from him.
(42:15):
The Bible tells us, inreturning and in rest, you shall
be rescued.
And then receive from him.
Bible tells us, in returningand in rest, you shall be
rescued and in quietness andconfidence will be your strength
.
So, okay, cool, that means yourepent.
Cool, that's awesome.
And then you receive.
You just let God pour his loveinto your life.
Let him do it.
Let God love you the way thathe wants to love you.
(42:39):
Let him do it.
Say yes, jesus, I'll do it,I'll let you love me and just
let him do it.
The reception also, you know.
Part two is to let Godacknowledge you, trust him with
the timing and let himacknowledge you.
Don't force yourself to beacknowledged, don't even try to
(43:01):
vindicate yourself.
Oswald Chambers says one of thebiggest weaknesses we have in
the Christian, as Christians, inthe Christian life, is that we
always feel the need tovindicate ourselves.
To be vindicated just means toget what you finally have
deserved out of all of themisunderstanding and the wrongs
done to you, and to be restoredfrom those wrongs and to have
(43:23):
them paid back in a good way andto have justice be done to you
in a good way.
Sometimes we demand justice forour own account, but we miss
out if we try to get revenge ortry to get ourselves
acknowledged for good work.
So God doesn't want us to dothat.
God doesn't want us, in ourregrets, to give in to
(43:44):
retaliation and vindication.
Let the Lord remove you fromsinful ruminations, evil stuff,
even bad choices that you madein the past or bad choices that
were done to you, and putyourself in a position of
reception and say, jesus, I letgo of the steering wheel and I
release and I want to receive, Irelease it, I release control
(44:07):
and I want to receive.
And also, for those of you whodon't typically like to be
acknowledged, you know God wantsto acknowledge you because he
loves you so, so much.
So if you're going to let himlove you, just allow him to love
you.
Allow him to love you in a waythat's appropriate because he's
going to do the best thing foryou.
(44:28):
No matter what he's going to dothe best thing for you, let him
love you the way that he knowsyou need to be acknowledged
because he wants to do it,because it's a value, because
you've you are valued by God,and so let them do that.
Number three is you know, reachout, reach out in prayer to the
Lord so that others can receivetheir fullness.
Just pray God.
(44:49):
I pray for blank, blank, blankthat they would, that they would
have what, that they would havefull maturity in you and have
full confidence that they're inyour will.
And let God give you that too.
Pray that and ask for thatright, as we say okay.
Number four right, be assured.
God wants you to haveconfidence and assurance that
you're in his will.
So say God, I repent, I receive, I'm reaching out to you on
(45:15):
behalf of others and I pray thatyou would help me to have
confidence, help me to rest inconfidence, knowing that I'm in
your will, in repentance andrest, right, quietness and
confidence.
So let him move that into you.
That's from Isaiah, chapter 30,verse 15.
I'd encourage you to read moreof that, but that passage
unfortunately lands, of course,because it's in the context of
(45:37):
the people of Israel resistingthe Lord.
And Isaiah, chapter 30 says orchapter 30, verse 15 says those
words in repenting and rest, youshall be saved or rescued, and
in quietness and confidence youshall have your strength.
But you would have none of it,but you would not have it.
So are you going to resistGod's call in your life?
(46:00):
Are you going to hear it andnot listen to it?
Are you going to defy him?
Or are you going to do whatPaul said to Archippus, which is
take heed, listen, payattention to how God has called
you and fully live it out.
Fully, do what God has calledyou to do, fully, obey him in
(46:21):
every way.
That's what I want to do, and Idon't want to just be a wannabe
kind of guy who just wants to bethis and do that I don't want
to live in intentions only.
I really want to be intentional, and that's what I've been
challenged by lately, and I'mstruggling with it because of
regrets, and I'm struggling withit because of regrets and I'm
struggling with it because ofruminations.
You know God doesn't want me toget stuck.
He doesn't want you to getstuck.
(46:41):
So listen homie, release,release it all.
Let God take control, let Godtake the steering wheel.
He's got you and he loves youso much.
Be assured and be encouraged,because God is with you in this
whole journey.
And I want to be anencouragement to you too.
If you follow inrestinsta onInstagram, you can see some
(47:05):
Bible encouragements, differentverses, every once in a while.
I might go live, if I have theability to do that.
You can follow this Facebook orYouTube channel, depending on
what you're looking at YouTube.
It's a great way to connectbecause you can leave comments
and ask questions and stuff likethat, and also leave prayer
requests in there too.
And if you're listening to thison Spotify, thank you so much
(47:29):
for being a listener I'dencourage you to be a listener
and a viewer too.
Follow the socials, getsubscribed on YouTube so you
don't miss a video, so you don'tmiss the encouragement.
And finally, please, if youfeel inclined, leave a like on
this video, share it withsomebody you think would be
helpful for and if you'relistening to this on Spotify or
(47:50):
some other platform that you'regetting your audio, would you
please leave a five-star review,because I want people to hear
what it means to be a followerof Jesus and that's what we
explore on this podcast.
I'm gonna have some amazingguests this this year and I'm
really encouraged and reallyexcited about it.
I got pastors, I've got changemanagers, I've I've got coaches,
(48:11):
I've got business leaders, youknow I've got I've got
non-profit CEOs that are comingup on this podcast to share and
just, you know people, justordinary people living their
life.
You know single moms and so onand so forth that I'm really
looking forward to having onthis podcast, because I want to
hear their heart and I want youto hear their heart as to what
(48:31):
it means to be a follower ofJesus in a crazy world like this
one.
So I hope that you can rest inJesus' finished work for you and
live well as you continue toturn to him and receive from him
all that he has for you.
So I say to you, just as Paulsaid to Archippus take heed, pay
attention, listen to the callthat God is giving you that you
(48:54):
may fully fulfill it, so thatyou may be fully fulfilled and
fully assured in the confidencethat God gives you as you're in
his will.
I love you, jesus loves you,and I hope you have a great,
great day.
Peace.
Hello and welcome to the InRest podcast with Noah
James Wiebe.
I'm your host, noah, and todaywe are going to be talking about
regret and the adverse, whichis fulfillment.
So let's talk about that.
So I'm really glad you'rejoining me today, because this
is actually a super importanttopic.
(00:22):
Today I'm in my church, or inone of my churches that's a
weird thing to say.
Anyway, I'm in a church where Iwork as a kids, youth and
family pastor.
We're just in the sanctuary.
We just finished a vacationBible school program and it's
pretty awesome.
One of the things I love aboutvacation Bible school is the
opportunity to see not justyourself but other people shine
(00:45):
in their gifts and to do exactlywhat they feel is the best
thing for them to do, accordingto their spiritual gifts, their
aptitudes, their passions thething that gives them the most
zeal.
The thing that I findchallenging about Vacation Bible
School is when it's over andeveryone's exhausted and when
you look back on some of thestuff you had missed
opportunities for, you know.
(01:06):
So I debriefed with myco-director and we kind of
talked about some of thedifferent ideas we could have
done, not just for the VacationBible School but also for the
other summer ministries that wedid and one of the problems with
looking back too much on stuff.
Although debrief is superhelpful, kind of like the
practice of examine, which we'vetalked about before, if you
(01:28):
haven't listened to the podcastepisode in which we talked about
examine, go back and listen tothat one.
It's a really good episode, forsure.
However, the problem withdebriefing, or constantly
ruminating, maybe on missedopportunities, missed options,
missed roads that you could havetaken, is that regret begins to
(01:51):
pile up as you ruminate.
Regret piles up as you ruminate, ruminate or rumination is when
you constantly mull over thesame problem over and over and
over again.
Rumination usually is referredto in the context of something
(02:12):
negative, so in depression.
If you know someone who hasobsessive-compulsive disorder,
the word rumination is going tocome up.
If you've ever listened to NF,the Christian guy who happens to
be a rapper, you would hear inhis music his meditations on
ruminations.
And the problem with ruminationis that it appears reasonable
(02:37):
on the outset, but the more thatyou engage and really indulge
yourself in rumination, youbegin to experience regret with
compounding degrees of severityas a result of just constantly
investing your thought life intothat.
(02:59):
We're actually going to look atsomething from the book of
Colossians.
It's in Colossians, chapter 4.
Paul has written a letter tosome pretty intelligent people
who they've got some issues andyou know they've got conflicts
between different people.
You know the Bible doesn'tspill the tea completely on what
is specifically going on, butwe do get the impression that
there is something that Paul hasaddressed with some of his
(03:22):
friends.
In addition, there's someonethat really does his ministry
well in that particularcommunity that Paul acknowledges
, and then another guy who hespeaks to and it kind of seems
like maybe he's challenging himor maybe just encouraging him,
and it's kind of open-ended.
We don't really know what isreally being said specifically
(03:45):
to this guy.
We don't know fully thesituation.
We just know that Paul startstalking to this dude and says,
hey, do your job.
And we don't know fully what hemeans.
But we do know is that this isactually a helpful passage for
helping us understand thistension between regret and, you
know, fulfillment, this tensionbetween living in our best,
(04:09):
living in our gifts, living inthose things that we're truly
passionate about, and living insuch a way in which we
experience regret down the road.
So let's look at it.
So, colossians, chapter 4, paulhas just written one of the most
fire letters that he's everwritten.
It's thick with theologicalnuance.
(04:30):
It addresses some apologeticalconcerns where Paul starts
talking about you know, hey,don't get lost in really weird
stuff that has nothing to dowith Jesus and specifically,
don't listen to people who tryto deceive you about Jesus and
twist your knowledge of him.
You know, continue to live yourlives in Jesus, rooted and
(04:53):
built up in faith, yada, yada.
He says some pretty amazingthings about Jesus.
Specifically that in chapterone sort of sets the tone for
the rest of the book and it's areally good read.
I'd encourage you to go fromchapter one to four and just
listen to the whole thing in onesitting to get a more, you know
, get a more clear picture ofwhat Paul is trying to get
across in this letter to hisfriends in Colossae.
(05:16):
But in chapter four he's tyingup loose ends.
He's finishing up his letter tohis homies, and this is what he
says.
He says up loose ends.
He's finishing up his letter tohis homies, and this is what he
says.
He says devote yourselves toprayer, keeping alert in it,
with an attitude of thanksgiving, praying at the same time for
(05:38):
us as well, that God will openup to us a door for the word, so
that we may speak forth themystery of Christ, for which I
have also been imprisoned, thatI may make it clear in the way I
ought to speak.
Conduct yourselves with wisdomtowards outsiders, making the
most of the opportunity.
Let your speech always be withgrace, as though seasoned with
salt, so that you will know howyou should respond to each
(06:00):
person.
So just to pause there and sayPaul is talking about some
really important applications towhat he's already written, and
one of those applications isprayer, an attitude of
thanksgiving and godly conductin the context of gospel
proclamation and day-to-dayconversation day-to-day
(06:28):
conversation.
With that, he gets into somespecific stuff to the people
there.
So let's dial in.
As to all my affairs, tychicus,our beloved brother and
faithful servant and fellow bondservant in the Lord, will bring
you information, for I havesent him to you for this very
purpose that you may know aboutour circumstances and that he
may encourage your hearts, andwith him, onesimus, our faithful
and beloved brother, who is oneof your number.
(06:49):
They will inform you about thewhole situation here.
Aristarchus, my fellow prisoner, sends you his greetings, and
also Barnabas's cousin, mark,about whom you received
instructions.
If he comes to you, welcome him, and also Jesus, who is called
Justice.
These are the only fellowworkers for the kingdom of God
who are from the circumcision,and they proved an encouragement
(07:12):
to me.
Epaphras, who is one of yournumber, a bond slave of Jesus
Christ, sends you his greetings,always laboring earnestly for
you in his prayers that you maystand perfect and fully assured
in the will of God, for Itestify for him that he has a
deep concern for you and thosewho are in.
So he had already mentionedlike conduct yourselves with
(07:35):
wisdom, make the most of everyopportunity.
Let your conversation beseasoned with salt.
And then he starts jumping intoall these people that we have
no context for.
And then he starts jumping intoall these people that we have
no context for other than Paul'swork in ministry and his
personal relationships with themas it pertains to this
particular group here inColossae.
So Paul starts talking aboutTychicus, who is this awesome
(07:57):
man, who's a faithful servantand fellow bondservant in the
Lord, meaning like he is anamazing guy.
We love this guy, tychicus.
Okay, and he's.
I just wanted to let you guysknow he's on his way with a
message, just to give you awhole rundown as to what we're
going through.
So maybe Tychicus was actuallytaking this letter with him or
(08:18):
he had been told afterward tocome and by then this letter had
already been sent.
We're not sure.
What we do know is thatTychicus is pretty cool.
We also know that Onesimus isalso pretty cool, who has gone
along with Tychicus, kind of tobe his you know, his travel
buddy as he gets to where he'sgoing.
(08:39):
Aristarchus, barnabas, orBarnabas's cousin, rather named
Mark Barnabas, or Barnabas'scousin, rather named Mark Jesus,
who's called Justice, andEpaphras Bunch of guys that he
lists.
Basically just saying, thesedudes are super huge
encouragements to me and I'mvery, very grateful for them.
I'm very grateful for whatthey're doing.
(08:59):
I'm very grateful for howthey've impacted me and
encouraged me and been a helperto me in the work of the gospel
and the work of spreading thekingdom of God, which is awesome
.
So these dudes, they all did areally, really great job.
But the guy we want to zero inon here right now is Epaphras,
who is one of their number, okay, so a guy who has come up out
of this community.
He's been launched out intoministry somewhere else and now
he's coming back and he saysthat he's sending you greetings
(09:22):
from where they're at and thathe's always laboring earnestly
for you in his prayers that youmay stand perfect and fully
assured in the will of God.
So take a look at that, okay.
So there's these guys who aredoing an amazing job, who are
just working really hard for theministry, that are obeying
God's call in their life,they're saying yes to Jesus.
That are just amazing, you know.
They're just doing an amazingjob and they're not giving up
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and they're sticking out,sticking it out with Paul, even
though it's difficult, andthey're traveling with him and
all this stuff, and they're justproviding for him.
Right now Paul is in prison.
I'm understanding, and so inthis moment, okay, we see all
these dudes who are justfulfilling what God's laid on
their heart to do.
They're fulfilling theirpurpose, they're acting in a way
that's consistent with godlycharacter.
(10:06):
They're doing the things thatGod needs them to do to support
Paul in his ministry, as well ashonor God's call in their own
life.
So pay attention to that as hemoves into this prayer, because
he says this guy, epaphras, whoyou know, he is praying for you
all the time, literally laboringearnestly for you in prayer.
So I have no idea what this guyis doing specifically to labor
(10:27):
earnestly, other than justspending extra time praying for
these people in Colossae, whichis something to say.
Maybe we should pray more oftenand labor more earnestly for
each other.
But why is he doing that?
Well, the why is that he'sdoing it so that you, the
Colossians, may stand perfectand fully assured in all the
will of God.
Stand perfect and fully assuredin all the will of God.
(10:49):
So what is he praying for?
He's praying for them not to beperfect from the flawless
perspective, because that's notattainable, and the Bible never
calls you to be flawless.
Okay, but what the Bible doescall us to do, what Jesus is
leading us to do, is actually tobe fully mature and to be
well-rounded in the way that weapproach love and to be fully
surrendered to God as well.
(11:09):
And that's how we attain towhat we would actually call
Christian perfection, which isnot actually flawlessness, it's
perfection in the sense of justa whole, complete surrendering
right and living accordingly.
And so Paul goes on and, as hecontinues, he says I have
testified for him that he has adeep concern for accordingly.
And so Paul goes on and, as hecontinues.
He says I have testified forhim that he has a deep concern
for you, and so there's a senseof a way that God loves him and
(11:32):
he loves, and this man now lovesthese people and, as a result
of this love, this whole cycleof love is being complete by him
praying that they be completein their love, and so on and so
forth.
And so this cycle of love thatGod wants to bring about is only
possible or I shouldn't sayonly possible, but I should say
it's attainable through ourobedience to him in fulfilling
(11:53):
what God's called us to do,because there's a real urgency
for us to do that.
And God does not force us to dothe right thing, but he does
call us and plead with us to sayand do and live in accordance
with his word, just to say whatis right and do what is what
he's called us to do, all thatstuff.
So he goes on Luke, the belovedphysician, and also Demas, or
(12:17):
Demas.
He goes on to say Nympha andthe church that is in her house,
blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
And then he says this last thingat the end, and he says this
say to Archippus, take heed tothe ministry which you have
received in the Lord that youmay fulfill it.
Take heed to the ministry whichyou have received in the Lord
(12:40):
that you may fulfill it.
This is a really short episodeand this is why that you may
fulfill it.
This is a really short episodeand this is why God's call on
your life is not going to befulfilled without your
cooperation.
God's call on your life is notgoing to be fulfilled without
your cooperation, and is Godgoing to do a lot of amazing
things through you.
Is he going to bless peoplewithout you even realizing it?
Is he going to fulfill hispurpose in and through your life
(13:00):
?
Is he going to superintend thecircumstances and the minuscule
details of you and yourcircumstances and your choices
to work out for his, for yourultimate good and his ultimate
well, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.
But God's call on your life isnot going to be fulfilled
outside of your cooperation.
(13:20):
He's not going to force you toobey his word.
He's not going to force you topray.
He's not going to force you to,as Epaphras did, labor
earnestly in the Lord for others.
He's not going to force you tohave conversations that are, as
Paul said, salted with grace,right Meaning like they're
constantly full of favor andkindness and goodness and like
(13:45):
just love, really Like.
But God's not going to forceyou to do that.
God's not going to force you toconduct yourself in a way
that's consistent with his wordand with the kingdom of God.
So how are you going tocooperate with God's call in
your life?
Because Paul's very urgentthing, in contrast to all of
these very faithful people andnot there's nothing with a,
(14:10):
there's no scolding here.
I don't feel that I don't get asense of that in the tone of
what Paul is writing, but what Ido get is that, hey, just
mention to Archippus okay, takeheed to the ministry which
you've received in the Lord,that you may fulfill it.
So what do you mean?
Take heed, pay attention, youknow, listen to the call.
Well, he might be thinkingabout the Hebrew word shema,
which is to hear, but it's alsoto listen in action, right?
(14:32):
So if you were to speak to achild and say, hey, excuse me,
could you please pass me yourbowl of cereal so that I can,
you know, give you a refill, orsomething like that, if that
child is listening to you, it'snot just that he's hearing what
you're saying or she's hearingwhat you're saying.
It's that that child is like,oh yeah, sure, here's my bowl of
cereal and then I'll followthrough.
Same thing with God, with us.
You know, if God's calling youto do something and you're like,
(14:53):
hey, no problem, let's do it,that means you're listening,
because that would be the actionthat you're taking as a result
of him speaking to you.
That would be the Hebrew wordshema.
I have kids I've got four kidsand they don't all listen well
and they don't all listen wellall the time.
Even the ones that do listenwell don't always listen well,
and that can be very frustratingfor me as a dad, because
(15:14):
sometimes I need something donea certain way, but other times
it's just because I actuallyneed them to cooperate so that I
can bless them, so that I cangive them a really special treat
, or maybe I need to keep themsafe from something.
And so sometimes we think aboutus fulfilling God's call in our
life and we get into theruminations of all the times
where we weren't listening.
And I do this all the time.
(15:36):
I was doing it.
Today, I'm thinking about youknow the way that I spent my
time a few months ago.
I'm thinking about the mistakesthat I made three years ago in
a different job.
I'm thinking about some of thethings that I've said to people
that I wish I didn't, and someof the things I did in
situations in which somethingelse was needed, and I would
(15:58):
totally go back and undo them ifI could.
And I've literally said outloud God, I wish I could go back
, I wish I could go back, I wishI could go back, I wish I could
go back, but you can't.
Regardless of the fact that youcan't, you think that that's
reasonable to keep thinking that, but it's not.
And the reason why it's notreasonable is because it's not
attainable.
(16:18):
Right Like God doesn't call youto be perfect, meaning flawless.
What he's calling you to isfull maturity, flawless.
What he's calling you to isfull maturity.
Grow up, live into the form inwhich God has made you you know,
live into who he's called youto be and listen to him in that
right.
And so I ruminate.
And what happens?
Well, the more that I ruminateon this or that problem, this or
that mistake, this or thatissue that I should have done
better, should have donedifferent, should have said,
(16:39):
should have not said, I begin topile up regrets in my mind and
I begin to think that really,god's looking to condemn me.
What God is actually doing ishe's not punishing you for
making the wrong decision.
God is not punishing you formaking the wrong decision, even
if it was like blatantlyhorrible and, a lot of times,
(17:02):
god's punishment in our life.
We misunderstand that God'spunishment has been laid on
Jesus' cross, like Jesus diedfor us so that the punishment
that we should have endured as aresult of our sin would be laid
on him instead.
That's why God sent Jesus, partof the reason that he sent
Jesus and because of Jesus'resurrection, we get to live in
(17:25):
a way that Jesus does and we getto live in God's love, his
perfect love.
And, by the way, that wordperfect, for God's perfect love,
does not even mean flawless,although God's perfect love is
flawless, it's full, it'swell-rounded and it wants to be
fully fulfilled in your life.
God's love, and it wants to befully fulfilled in your life,
(17:47):
god's love being fulfilled inyour life does not look like you
trying to measure up to a godlystandard as a result of oh well
, god's punishing me, right as aresult of condemnation, as a
result of feeling guilty orashamed.
God doesn't want you to buildyour life on shame.
God wants you to build yourlife on his love.
God doesn't want you to buildyour life on guilt.
God already paid the price foryour guilt.
(18:07):
God doesn't want you to buildyour life on fear.
God already put Jesus on thecross and condemned your fear
and has given you the power byhis Holy Spirit to put to death
those bad choices that you make,so that, as it says in Romans 8
, you will live, really live,live well, live fully in the
Spirit and live in accordancewith your identity as a son or
(18:29):
daughter of God through Jesus.
God's intent is not to make yousuffer as punishment for your
wrong choices, but our wrongchoices often lead us into
circumstances that otherwisecould have been prevented if we
had obeyed.
But God doesn't want us toruminate on that.
God doesn't want us to getstuck on those circumstances.
(18:51):
God doesn't want us to getstuck on those things.
There's a guy named OswaldChambers.
I quote him a lot.
Sorry, not sorry.
Oswald wrote in my most for hishighest our circumstances are
not our responsibility.
Our responsibility is whatwe're going to do in our
circumstances.
I'm paraphrasing there in thesecond half, because what Oswald
(19:12):
is trying to get across.
What Chambers is trying to sayis that we can't control even
look, we can't control how ourchoices impact us.
We can't control that.
You know.
Sometimes you might make a badchoice and the consequences are
minimal.
And sometimes you might make agreater or lesser bad choice and
the consequences are greater orlesser.
(19:33):
You're not able, you're notable to control your
circumstances that you'represently in, in this moment.
You can't.
Two weeks ago, you could havemade choices that would have
resulted in differentcircumstances, but even those
choices, you wouldn't have knownwhat kind of circumstances you
would be in today had you madethem, had you made those good
choices.
Consequently, the choices thatyou think you're going to make
(19:55):
tomorrow are not going to impactyou right now.
That's tomorrow.
So the only thing that you haveto do is focus on what you need
to do today, what you need todo now.
Okay, yes, that happened.
I made that choice.
Here's the circumstances thatI'm in.
What am I going to do?
What am I going to do?
And us listening to God is notabout us avoiding punishment as
(20:15):
much as it is living in hisperfect will, which is what
Epaphras is preaching andpraying.
I shouldn't say preaching butpraying, when he says, when Paul
says, epaphras sends you hisgreetings, always laboring
earnestly for you in his prayersthat you may stand perfect and
fully assured in the will of God.
So, fully fulfilled,essentially right and fully
(20:35):
assured, have confidence thatyou're in God's will, right and
you're like well.
How can anybody have confidencethat we're in his will?
Obviously, that's a much biggerquestion and we can address it
in another episode.
But what I want to land ontoday is that for you to get out
of this cycle of rumination andregret, you need to step out of
that and step into action.
Step into.
Okay, what am I going to do?
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What am I going to do?
Yes, that's true, that's thetruth.
What am I going to do?
My mother-in-law recently saidto me there's two truths.
Okay, there can be two truths.
You know, maybe you'reevaluating your background and
you're evaluating, you know, thechoice of car you drove, or the
person you married, or thecareer you ended up following
(21:18):
that career path and you can saythat career path was good or it
was bad.
Maybe you can say that careerpath or that car was a bad
choice, but it also met my needsright.
So you got a job and it paidyour wages and you paid your
bills to provide for your familyor yourself, and that worked
out great.
That's a truth.
But it also was a bad job andyou probably shouldn't have done
it, because it impacted you andyour mental health in a way
(21:40):
that probably wasn't good.
You made a choice on a car thatwas way too expensive and
impacted your finances later,but it was more reliable and got
you to where you needed to go,right.
So two truths at the same time.
It was a bad choice and it hadgood consequences, right, or had
you know?
There's good and bad about it,right?
So, okay, that's great.
So there's two truths.
(22:00):
Okay, yeah, so you made amistake.
There's your rumination.
There's your temptation to getstuck in the indulgence of
misery.
Okay, indulging in misery isvery easy to do.
It's easy to get stuck, goingback to rumination.
So here you go.
That's a wrong choice.
What are you going to do aboutit?
Well, okay, I can make adifferent choice today.
(22:21):
This choice doesn't define whoI am, because if you're a child
of God, like if you've put yourfaith in Jesus, you're a
different person now.
So you're dead to yourtrespasses and sins.
You're dead to them.
So, yeah, you made a choicethat was bad, but that was a
dead choice.
That happened and I don't haveto go backwards.
I don't have to get stuck inthat choice.
What the enemy does with regretis keep us stuck.
What the enemy does with regretis keep us rooted in the
(22:46):
situation that we had before.
Keep us rooted in the samehabits, problems, thought
processes, paradigms, if youwill, and rutted so the enemy
wants to use your rumination andregret to keep you rooted and
rutted.
Rutted isn't.
I don't even know if rutted sothe enemy wants to use your
rumination and regret to keepyou rooted and rutted.
Rutted isn't.
I don't even know if rutted isactually a word, but I know a
(23:08):
rut right is like when you driveover something or walk over
something many times, over andover and over again, and you get
stuck in that pattern becauseit's so easy to be there and you
know wheel carts.
Back in the day, you know whenyou would have a horse and buggy
, the wheel of your cart wouldget stuck in those ruts and it
could actually break the wheel,depending on how you know how
(23:29):
deep it was or whether or notyour horse decided to go a
different direction or whatever.
We have this problem moreexpressed in like potholes,
right?
So there's driving on the samestretch of road over and over
and over again a potholedevelops.
Next thing you know your car,just kind of you know, maybe
it's in a rainstorm, maybe it'sjust you know, maybe in the
middle of the night or whatever,you're driving along a road
(23:50):
that's like deeply rutted, evenin the asphalt it's like deeply
rutted.
Next thing you know you've hita pothole and you didn't even
know where it came from.
It's just there, right?
So we get stuck in a rut and weget broken as a result.
And so Satan's results out ofyou being rooted and rutted in
your problems and mistakes, yourhabits, your bad, sinful
(24:12):
actions, through the ruminationand regret that you keep going
back to the result that he wantsfrom that is your brokenness.
Let me say that again because Isaid a lot of R words, okay.
So the result that Satan wantsto get out of you being rooted
and rutted in your regretsthrough rumination and
(24:32):
reflection on negative things,is your brokenness.
He wants to break you and ifyou're already broken, he wants
to keep breaking you even more.
He wants to break you and ifyou're already broken, he wants
to keep breaking you even more.
He wants to create anxiety inyou, which the Bible says you
know cast all your anxieties onthe Lord, because he cares for
you.
But the word anxiety literallymeans pieces, so he wants to
(24:54):
keep you broken.
He wants to keep you crushed ordepressed and he wants to keep
your mind in pieces.
He wants to keep your life inpieces.
He wants to make your lifeanxiety instead of peace.
Jesus' intent is to get you outof all that and into rest and
restoration, and he's going todo that by letting you rest on
(25:15):
the promises of God in the cross, the promises of God in the
three words that Jesus said onthe cross, which is it is
finished.
The work that Jesus came to do,that he lived his whole life to
do, it is finished.
He didn't come to the cross sothat you could go backwards.
He came to the cross so thatyou could walk with God.
So what does this have to dowith calling?
What does any of this have todo with fulfilling our call?
(25:37):
Well, it's impossible to fulfillyour call, which is forward
moving.
You know, like God is nevergoing to tell you hey, let's go
back to the past and pretendthat you're the person that you
were two years ago.
Like God's not going to do that.
Like, sometimes, like God willput us into situations that are
from our past in order to teachus something, to return us to
something, in order to maybecommunicate something about that
(26:00):
space, that place or that pastexperience, in order for us to
move forward and grow.
But the intent is always tomove forward and grow.
Like God doesn't have anyintention of this world in which
we live ever going backwards intime, and even the Garden of
Eden.
Like, yes, god does want us togo back, in a manner of speaking
.
But like, every time you look atthe Bible and it looks at, you
(26:22):
know, the renewal of all things,what it's talking about is a
Greek word, which is perigenesis, which is literally genesis
again, genesis again.
But like he's not goingbackwards in time, he's going
forwards and making thebeginning again.
He's making a new beginning andthe glimpse that we have of
that in our lived experience isthis new beginning that we have
(26:44):
when we're born again asfollowers of Jesus.
We put our faith in Christ andthe Holy Spirit washes us of all
our sin, washes us of whoeverwe were before, claims us and
names us with a new name, a newidentity, and then launches us,
and it's always forward, moving,always forward, moving.
When God finishes this part ofthe story and we get to the
(27:05):
point where Jesus has returned,there's never going to be a time
again where Jesus goes back toheaven somewhere and then leaves
us alone and he's never left usalone.
He sent the Holy Spirit to bewith us, right?
But there's never going to be asituation again, after Jesus
returns, where we're going tohave to go back to living the
way we are now.
That's the overall narrative ofhistory.
(27:28):
Now in your life, thisexpresses, or this is expressed
and this is lived out in youmoving forward based on the
promises of God, based on whathe's done, based on the it is
finished work of Jesus.
There's a work, or there's aGreek word, another Greek word
that Jesus uses when he's on thecross.
Okay, that is the Greek wordthat we're talking about.
(27:50):
Like the three words that Jesussaid on the cross is actually
one word, and it's tetelestai,tetelestai, which sounds like
you know that thing you get inyour eyeball when it's just like
it's really uncomfortable andyou just want to keep rubbing it
because you think there'ssomething in your eye but it's
not.
There's something in youreyelid and it's like pressing on
your eyeball, that thing.
You know.
It kind of sounds like the wordstye, like it's like a super
(28:12):
stye, like it's like an infectedstye or something that's like
all big and bulged out orsomething like that, or like you
know, I don't know.
But that's not what it is.
Tetelestai, okay, tetelestai,okay.
Tetelestai is when the debt ispaid, the thing is done, this
debt is covered.
That's what it means,tetelestai.
It means it is finished, it'sover, okay.
(28:32):
So in John, chapter 19, jesusdies on the cross.
He says it is finished,tetelestai, and passes away,
releases his spirit and then islater laid in a tomb.
So why is that relevant to thepursuing of our call?
Well, it's like hello Jesus'work is done, which means that
the only thing left for you todo is to continue living in the
(28:53):
truth of what he's accomplishedfor you on the cross, making
your whole life about him andmoving forward in the call to
which he has given you, the callto which he has given you, the
call to which he has given you.
That's what you do now.
Okay, because that other stuffis done Like you're like.
Oh my gosh, lord, look at allthese sins from my past.
I wish I did somethingdifferent when I was, you know,
seven years old.
I wish I made a differentchoice when I was 18.
(29:14):
I wish I went to a differentcollege when I was 22.
Blah, blah't, uh, marry thisother guy.
I wish I didn't.
Um, I wish I didn't choose thiscareer.
I wish I didn't.
(29:35):
I wish I didn't neglect tovisit my family member when they
were passing away in thehospital and I thought I had
more time.
I wish I had.
I wish I didn't.
I wish this would not havehappened.
My friend, with regards to yoursin, it is finished.
And with regards to your sorrowand suffering, you have a
(29:59):
bright hope and a future.
God works all things out forthe good in the present moment.
Ultimately, all things willwork out for you.
If you continue to put yourheart and set your heart on the
Lord.
All the other stuff that you'reworried about is going to come
to pass or it's going to come toa favorable result in your life
(30:20):
.
That doesn't mean that some ofthe things that we, that we
deeply hope for, are all goingto be accomplished.
What we do know is that thecore hope that we have as
followers of Jesus is going tobe fulfilled.
A hope deferred makes the heartsick.
So you might be going throughsome heart sickness right now
because you hoped that you wouldhave made a different choice
(30:41):
and it didn't happen.
Now your hope has been deferredand your heart is sick.
Well, god wants to meet you inthat sickness and he wants to
bring you back to moving forwardin your call.
He wants to get you out ofbeing rutted and rooted in
rumination and regret, so thatthe enemy cannot get you into
the result of brokenness againor keeping you in brokenness.
(31:03):
God has a plan to help yourepent and return and be
restored, and ultimately, thoseof us who follow Jesus will all
be restored.
Nothing will be wasted andeverything will be made right,
and for most of our mistakesthey're redeemable.
Most of our mistakes they'reredeemable.
(31:23):
Most of our mistakes areredeemable.
So God is not outside of therealm of possibility here when
he's saying hey, take heed, payattention, listen to the call
that I have for you.
So I started off on part ofthat, because I was talking
about the fact that God doesn'tintend to punish you for all
(31:47):
your mistakes.
The consequences that you'reliving in today, whether or not
he removes you from them, is notthe point.
The point is what you're goingto do right now.
I love a quote in the Lord ofthe Rings, the Fellowship of the
Ring.
I'm not sure if it actuallymakes it in the book, but in the
film Frodo is played by ElijahWood and Frodo looks to Gandalf
(32:09):
and he is, you know, talkingabout another character, and the
phrase that he uses is I wishthis other character had been
put out of his misery.
It's a pity that he had notbeen killed Now.
This character was evil andchaotic and caused problems and
was a creepy little thing calledGollum.
(32:29):
And then Gandalf, this wiseother character, speaks to Frodo
and says pity, that is whatstayed Bilbo's hand, the man who
had the chance to kill him.
And then he goes on to say hey,don't be so quick to dole out
(32:52):
death and judgment.
Many people who live deservedeath.
Many people who die deservelife.
Will you give it to them, frodo?
And then they go on in theirconversation and they're sort of
reflecting on the evil times,and Frodo responds to Gandalf
and he says to him I wish I hadnever been born in this time.
(33:14):
I wish I never had to see thishappen.
And then Gandalf says well, sodo all who live to see such
times.
But that is not the choice forthem to make.
The only thing they can do anyperson could do is decide what
to do with the time that's beengiven to them.
(33:35):
So I botched a lot of that.
Okay, let's paraphrase.
But the reason why I mention itis because so many of us think
that we have to live innegativity and sadness and
sorrow and misery because of ourpast and because of the
circumstances we are in as aresult of the past, whether they
(33:55):
were in our control or not.
But what God wants us to do isA listen to him, listen to his
call.
B he wants us to beacknowledged for honoring his
call.
You notice that most of thenames here are people who have
honored God's call in their life, and they were acknowledged by
name in a letter in which mostof the people that would later
(34:19):
go on to read it would have noidea who these people are Like,
even Luke.
I mean, we know that Luke wrotethe Gospel of Luke, or have
confidence that Luke wrote theGospel of Luke and the Book of
Acts and traveled with Paul anddid a number of things.
We don't know much about Luke'sbackground, what happened to
him.
We don't know much about Demas.
We don't know about Tychicus,we have no idea.
(34:40):
These guys are unknown to us,but they're known to God and it
mattered to him for the HolySpirit to lead Paul to write
them in.
It's not a coincidence and it'snot an accident that those
guys' names got in there,because Paul has one of his core
values, I think, is publicacknowledgement for hard work.
(35:01):
Acknowledgement because therewill come a day when all of us
will be acknowledged for all thegood things that we do, and so
it's only fitting that God'speople today would rightly
acknowledge those among us whowork really hard.
So, a.
God wants you to listen andtake heed to his call on your
life.
B.
He wants you to be acknowledgedfor honoring his call on your
(35:22):
life.
B.
He wants you to be acknowledgedfor honoring his call.
There are days when we arealone in the call of the gospel,
but there are days when we arealone in honoring Jesus.
But God wants you to beacknowledged and honored for
doing what's right, and you willbe, even if there's going to be
a long time.
Maybe there is somebody thatshould have acknowledged you and
(35:44):
they didn't.
But God's intent in love foryou is that his intent for you,
out of his love for you, is thatyou be acknowledged for
honoring his call.
And finally, god wants you toearnestly pray for, advocate for
and participate in othersheeding their call.
(36:05):
You notice that Epaphras, inalmost like a crazy full circle
sort of way, epaphras isacknowledged for honoring God's
call in his life by prayerfullyworking on behalf of others so
that they will fulfill theircall on their life.
(36:26):
Get that, say that 10 timesfast.
Epaphras is acknowledged forjust praying for people to get
their call fulfilled.
You know what I mean.
Like, epaphras is honored inthis letter and by God because
he's earnestly, out of concern,praying for others to be fully
mature and fully assured andconfident in God.
(36:51):
That's pretty awesome.
Finally, god wants you to beassured.
God wants you to be assuredthat you're in his will.
You know, too often we forgetthat God does have a will for us
, like he does have an intentfor us.
And there's like all this talkabout God's permissive will and
(37:12):
his perfect will and yada, yada.
That is sometimes helpful andsometimes it's not, but what I
want to land on with this isthis that is sometimes helpful
and sometimes it's not, but whatI want to land on with this is
this God wants you to haveconfidence that you are in his
will and that you're on theright track.
God wants you to know when youare on the right track, and
sometimes we ask questions andwe're like God, I don't
(37:33):
understand, I don't know, andsometimes what we need to do and
we don't know and we'reconfused and we're concerned and
we need to be assured and we'relike Lord, help me, is wait and
rest, you know.
So for those of us who haven'thonored God's call in our life,
so A God wants you to answer thecall, god wants you to listen,
god wants you to hear it becausehe wants to bless you, he wants
to keep you safe, he wants toprovide for you, he wants you to
(37:55):
say yes and move forward.
For those of us who have nothonored God's call in our life,
we need to hear this as a callto repentance and reception.
And repentance meaning not outof guilt and shame, only Like we
should sometimes feel a littleashamed for doing wrong things.
That's okay.
It's okay to feel bad, like theBible tells us that the Lord is
(38:17):
close to the contrite in heart.
So there's nothing wrong withfeeling bad for doing something
wrong.
It's okay.
But God doesn't want you tostay there.
That's the idea.
And so when we repent and weturn to the Lord, we do that
sometimes quite emotionally, andthat's totally appropriate.
That's totally appropriate.
So, regardless of why you'rechoosing to repent, even if you
(38:40):
feel nothing, even if you'rejust acknowledging, like in your
own mind, oh my gosh, I havenot lived the way that God's
called me to live, I'm going todo that now.
You know, even if you are notparticularly an emotional person
, that doesn't mean that you'renot going to repent.
It doesn't mean you don't haveto, and it doesn't mean that
when you repent it doesn't countor that it's not valid.
You know so.
Not everybody is, you know, aparticularly emotionally
(39:03):
sensitive person.
But if it's really not, if it'sdeeply like not affecting your
heart at all, and you're feelingapathy there, pray to the Lord
and ask him to help you feel theway you should feel about
certain things.
Lord, help me me interpret thisfor me.
What is your word on thissubject?
Help me to feel the way thatI'm supposed to feel about this
(39:24):
and help me to be affected bythe fact that I'm sinning.
If that's what you're at, ifthat's what you're doing, you
need to repent.
So you know, repent, turn.
It's not a complicated thing,it's just.
It's a complex thing sometimesdepending on what you're
repenting of, but generally Godjust wants you to turn to him.
You know he can sometimes takeover from there or he can guide
(39:44):
you in the next steps of whatyou need to do to get out of
that situation, to get out ofthat sin even, and get out of
that habitual sin.
I want to share a story about mymom.
My mom was an amazing woman, isan amazing woman and she has
followed Jesus faithfully formany years.
But there was a season in herlife in which she did not, and
(40:04):
God gave her a dream in whichshe saw something and it was
this face and it vomited bloodin the dream I know we're
getting kind of grotesque here,but bear with me.
She wakes up from the dream andin her heart she knows exactly
what the dream is about.
It's that she, even though shehad accepted Christ, is now
(40:26):
living as if God is not evenreal, and she felt mortified,
just awful and terrible, thatshe had insulted the Lord and
lived in a way that was totallycounter to how he wanted her to
live.
That wasn't her fearing, justpunishment, you know there was.
There's, obviously, justice andjudgment that comes to us when
we continually choose not to doGod's will on purpose.
(40:47):
But that wasn't what she wasgoing through.
She was experiencing shame froma from an ashamed kind of
perspective, and what she neededwas just to turn to the Lord,
and so what she did was sheprayed, and at the time her
boyfriend, who she was livingwith, was sick and she prayed
for him and she said God, if youheal my boyfriend of what he's
(41:08):
going through, I'll take that asconfirmation that you're
intending to call me out of thissituation and I will leave him
and I will go on and live thelife you've called me to live.
Well, what do you know?
He got better, completely,cancer healed, restored, boom
miracle.
And my mom goes to him and shesays I'm so happy that you're
(41:33):
well, but I got to go becauseGod has laid it on my heart that
I have been living in sin and Ineed to repent.
And I know you're going tothink that I'm crazy.
And that's what he said he'slike you're crazy.
And she said I know you thinkthat I'm crazy, but I got to do
it.
So she moved on and that's howshe eventually met my dad and I
was born.
So thank you, jesus, forhealing that other guy long ago.
(41:54):
Now here's the deal.
What does that have to do withanything?
That other guy long ago.
Now, here's the deal.
What does that have to do withanything?
Listen to the call Repent, okay,and receive it.
Sometimes it's just aboutreceiving.
It's not about necessarilyrepenting because you've been
doing something really bad.
Sometimes it's about, in themiddle of your feelings of
reflection and regret.
Turn to the Lord and thenreceive from him.
(42:15):
The Bible tells us, inreturning and in rest, you shall
be rescued.
And then receive from him.
Bible tells us, in returningand in rest, you shall be
rescued and in quietness andconfidence will be your strength
.
So, okay, cool, that means yourepent.
Cool, that's awesome.
And then you receive.
You just let God pour his loveinto your life.
Let him do it.
Let God love you the way thathe wants to love you.
(42:39):
Let him do it.
Say yes, jesus, I'll do it,I'll let you love me and just
let him do it.
The reception also, you know.
Part two is to let Godacknowledge you, trust him with
the timing and let himacknowledge you.
Don't force yourself to beacknowledged, don't even try to
(43:01):
vindicate yourself.
Oswald Chambers says one of thebiggest weaknesses we have in
the Christian, as Christians, inthe Christian life, is that we
always feel the need tovindicate ourselves.
To be vindicated just means toget what you finally have
deserved out of all of themisunderstanding and the wrongs
done to you, and to be restoredfrom those wrongs and to have
(43:23):
them paid back in a good way andto have justice be done to you
in a good way.
Sometimes we demand justice forour own account, but we miss
out if we try to get revenge ortry to get ourselves
acknowledged for good work.
So God doesn't want us to dothat.
God doesn't want us, in ourregrets, to give in to
(43:44):
retaliation and vindication.
Let the Lord remove you fromsinful ruminations, evil stuff,
even bad choices that you madein the past or bad choices that
were done to you, and putyourself in a position of
reception and say, jesus, I letgo of the steering wheel and I
release and I want to receive, Irelease it, I release control
(44:07):
and I want to receive.
And also, for those of you whodon't typically like to be
acknowledged, you know God wantsto acknowledge you because he
loves you so, so much.
So if you're going to let himlove you, just allow him to love
you.
Allow him to love you in a waythat's appropriate because he's
going to do the best thing foryou.
(44:28):
No matter what he's going to dothe best thing for you, let him
love you the way that he knowsyou need to be acknowledged
because he wants to do it,because it's a value, because
you've you are valued by God,and so let them do that.
Number three is you know, reachout, reach out in prayer to the
Lord so that others can receivetheir fullness.
Just pray God.
(44:49):
I pray for blank, blank, blankthat they would, that they would
have what, that they would havefull maturity in you and have
full confidence that they're inyour will.
And let God give you that too.
Pray that and ask for thatright, as we say okay.
Number four right, be assured.
God wants you to haveconfidence and assurance that
you're in his will.
So say God, I repent, I receive, I'm reaching out to you on
(45:15):
behalf of others and I pray thatyou would help me to have
confidence, help me to rest inconfidence, knowing that I'm in
your will, in repentance andrest, right, quietness and
confidence.
So let him move that into you.
That's from Isaiah, chapter 30,verse 15.
I'd encourage you to read moreof that, but that passage
unfortunately lands, of course,because it's in the context of
(45:37):
the people of Israel resistingthe Lord.
And Isaiah, chapter 30 says orchapter 30, verse 15 says those
words in repenting and rest, youshall be saved or rescued, and
in quietness and confidence youshall have your strength.
But you would have none of it,but you would not have it.
So are you going to resistGod's call in your life?
(46:00):
Are you going to hear it andnot listen to it?
Are you going to defy him?
Or are you going to do whatPaul said to Archippus, which is
take heed, listen, payattention to how God has called
you and fully live it out.
Fully, do what God has calledyou to do, fully, obey him in
(46:21):
every way.
That's what I want to do, and Idon't want to just be a wannabe
kind of guy who just wants to bethis and do that I don't want
to live in intentions only.
I really want to be intentional, and that's what I've been
challenged by lately, and I'mstruggling with it because of
regrets, and I'm struggling withit because of regrets and I'm
struggling with it because ofruminations.
You know God doesn't want me toget stuck.
He doesn't want you to getstuck.
(46:41):
So listen homie, release,release it all.
Let God take control, let Godtake the steering wheel.
He's got you and he loves youso much.
Be assured and be encouraged,because God is with you in this
whole journey.
And I want to be anencouragement to you too.
If you follow inrestinsta onInstagram, you can see some
(47:05):
Bible encouragements, differentverses, every once in a while.
I might go live, if I have theability to do that.
You can follow this Facebook orYouTube channel, depending on
what you're looking at YouTube.
It's a great way to connectbecause you can leave comments
and ask questions and stuff likethat, and also leave prayer
requests in there too.
And if you're listening to thison Spotify, thank you so much
(47:29):
for being a listener I'dencourage you to be a listener
and a viewer too.
Follow the socials, getsubscribed on YouTube so you
don't miss a video, so you don'tmiss the encouragement.
And finally, please, if youfeel inclined, leave a like on
this video, share it withsomebody you think would be
helpful for and if you'relistening to this on Spotify or
(47:50):
some other platform that you'regetting your audio, would you
please leave a five-star review,because I want people to hear
what it means to be a followerof Jesus and that's what we
explore on this podcast.
I'm gonna have some amazingguests this this year and I'm
really encouraged and reallyexcited about it.
I got pastors, I've got changemanagers, I've I've got coaches,
(48:11):
I've got business leaders, youknow I've got I've got
non-profit CEOs that are comingup on this podcast to share and
just, you know people, justordinary people living their
life.
You know single moms and so onand so forth that I'm really
looking forward to having onthis podcast, because I want to
hear their heart and I want youto hear their heart as to what
(48:31):
it means to be a follower ofJesus in a crazy world like this
one.
So I hope that you can rest inJesus' finished work for you and
live well as you continue toturn to him and receive from him
all that he has for you.
So I say to you, just as Paulsaid to Archippus take heed, pay
attention, listen to the callthat God is giving you that you
(48:54):
may fully fulfill it, so thatyou may be fully fulfilled and
fully assured in the confidencethat God gives you as you're in
his will.
I love you, jesus loves you,and I hope you have a great,
great day.
Peace.
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