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Arise in Calling and Grace
Ever feel like your life looks fine on the outside while chaos brews underneath? We all know what it’s like to manage appearances, hoping our hidden mess will just stay tucked away. But as Pastor Kevin reminds us, God isn’t looking for perfection. He’s after transformation in the places we’d rather keep locked up.
We can rest in His goodness as He tends to the wounds, disappointments, and stubborn habits we'd rather ignore. Because when calling and character collide, we don't need shortcuts. We need the deep maturity that comes from deep growth and healing.
Stop hiding and start letting the light in. Join the honest journey from maintaining an image to becoming whole, grounded, and ready for what’s next.
Scriptures Referenced
Ephesians 4:1–13; Romans 11:29; 1 Corinthians 15:10; Isaiah 6:1–8; 2 Corinthians 12:9; Romans 5:1–5; Revelation 3:20.
Key Insights
- God’s call on your life is irrevocable, but maturity is a choice.
- Real growth begins when you address what’s hidden, not just what’s seen.
- Grace both opens and closes doors to shape you—not to punish, but to form.
- Character, not talent, is what sustains your calling.
Key Sections
00:00:00 - Dependent Not Driven
Think you need to have it all together before God can use you? Discover why dependence, not self-sufficiency, is the real mark of a mature believer.
00:10:16 - Character Over Calling
Hidden flaws won't stay hidden forever. Learn why your greatest gift won't take you further than your spiritual maturity.
00:17:15 - Embracing the Grace Gap
Ever feel left behind or overlooked? See how grace works in the wait—healing what ambition alone cannot touch.
https://springhouse.captivate.fm/episode/arise-in-calling-and-grace
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Gathering Times
- Sundays, 9:00 AM
- Sundays, 11:00 AM
- Thursdays, 6:00 PM
Contact Info
Springhouse Church
14119 Old Nashville Highway
Smyrna TN 37167
CCLI License 2070006
Transcript
Well, good morning again.
Speaker:God is always so good and we're going to jump right into this
Speaker:today. I believe God has something for us before we do. Real quick,
Speaker:next Saturday, there is a motorcycle and car show that's going to,
Speaker:that's going to help our food ministry. And so we'd invite you to be a
Speaker:part of that $20. There's going to be food trucks and events and
Speaker:different, different things. You can take part, be a part of this.
Speaker:And again, it's gonna go. The proceeds are gonna go to help our food ministry.
Speaker:It'll be over here on May 2nd over here in our parking lot. If
Speaker:you're interested in like antique cars and motorcycles, it's gonna be a good day, so
Speaker:come and be a part of that. Okay, if you'll stand with me, we're gonna
Speaker:go to Ephesians chapter 4. As we continue to nudge along in
Speaker:the next part of our series. Here arise. So let's read with some
Speaker:gusto today. Here we go. As a prisoner for the
Speaker:Lord, then I urge you to live a life
Speaker:worthy of the call. Be
Speaker:completely humble and gentle. Be patient
Speaker:bearing with one another in love. Make every
Speaker:effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the
Speaker:bond of peace. There is one body and
Speaker:one Spirit. Just as you were called to one
Speaker:hope when you were called one Lord, one
Speaker:faith, one baptism, one, one God and
Speaker:Father of all, who is over all and through
Speaker:all and in all. But to each one of us
Speaker:grace has been given. As Christ appointed,
Speaker:so Christ himself gave the apostles, the
Speaker:prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and the
Speaker:teachers to equip his people for works of
Speaker:service so that the body of Christ may be built
Speaker:up until we reach unity in the faith
Speaker:and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become
Speaker:mature, attaining to the whole measure of the
Speaker:fullness of Christ. Father, I thank you for your word. I thank you that it
Speaker:brings life. I pray, Lord that it would transform us from the inside out
Speaker:today. God, we love you and we thank you for the gift of your Holy
Speaker:Spirit in Jesus name. And everybody said amen. Amen. Well,
Speaker:we are continuing along and real quick, Nick, I just wanna say I'm so glad
Speaker:you're here today, brother. God is so good. He is so good.
Speaker:Our protect.
Speaker:We are continuing along in this three part series of the year
Speaker:under the banner of Abide. Our first section of the series is Abide.
Speaker:And we are in week two of this second section which is
Speaker:Arise. And so in the Abide section, one of the things that
Speaker:we majored on and identified was that Jesus is
Speaker:our source. He is the source of everything we do.
Speaker:He's the source of our life. And the Word tells us that he is the
Speaker:vine and we are the branches where the branches.
Speaker:And in that dynamic, there's some budding that begins to happen on
Speaker:those branches. And this section of arise is addressing
Speaker:that little budding that starts to happen on the branches as we truly
Speaker:submit our lives to the Source who is Jesus
Speaker:Christ. You know, I often tell the students at the
Speaker:school that I really don't prefer them to take tests
Speaker:using just Cliff notes because one day they're gonna
Speaker:be raised up to be heart surgeons. And does anybody wanna go under heart
Speaker:surgery with somebo who just read the cliff Notes to get there? No.
Speaker:There's a journey. We want them to know the whole thing. And so if you're
Speaker:anything like me, I have a propensity to go from the abide
Speaker:section of this source drawing from the Lord. And I wanna
Speaker:jump right over a rise into advance and I wanna start doing something
Speaker:I always wanna get out there and start doing. But there's this section in
Speaker:the middle. Before we get to the privilege of going out and doing things that
Speaker:we must address and we must lock into. And so
Speaker:that's kind of where we are. So
Speaker:the Source he is. And faith is revealed by how much you
Speaker:depend. And so we are drawing from this idea that
Speaker:dependency readily recognizes. I am not
Speaker:ready in my own strength. I am not
Speaker:ready in my own strength. The Lord never
Speaker:puts you in a position and says, now I want you to draw on what
Speaker:you brought to the table. You alone, your strength. And I want you to
Speaker:go and accomplish X, Y and Z. No, we draw
Speaker:from the Source and he is the one who gives us.
Speaker:And I believe that this is the first
Speaker:response with regard to maturity for
Speaker:believers. This is the first response that we have if we're maturing
Speaker:in the Lord, we understand. I cannot do this on
Speaker:my own. Now the world around us teaches us a very different
Speaker:story. It says, build upon your life, grow in
Speaker:stature and might learn all the lessons and go out and be independent
Speaker:and do yourself. Some of you got teenagers, 17, 18, 19 year old, and they
Speaker:cannot wait to get out of your house. They cannot wait to run out the
Speaker:door. But if you've been around for a while, you'll
Speaker:notice that around maybe 21, 22, 23, they start
Speaker:realizing, man, I had some things in that teenage
Speaker:stage that I don't have anymore. You know, when that telephone bill starts coming,
Speaker:that house bill starts Coming. When those things, those grocery bills start coming, all of
Speaker:a sudden, they start knocking at the door. Then let them start having kids.
Speaker:And the apology start happening. Mom, I am so sorry that
Speaker:I treated you the way I did. Daddy, I'm so sorry for the things that
Speaker:I put you through. We want to sit with God and then
Speaker:immediately go do something for God. But there's this middle space
Speaker:that we cannot skip. Does anybody have one of these in their house?
Speaker:This is called a messy drawer. This is called
Speaker:a dump drawer. A messy drawer.
Speaker:This is the place where we put those random items that we find,
Speaker:but we can't quite get rid of them and get them to the trash. Cause
Speaker:they're not quite trash. But I don't know exactly what. Where to put it. So
Speaker:it goes into the messy drawer. We have one of these and six
Speaker:more. And the kitchen
Speaker:can be completely clean. The counters can be wiped down, the dishes put
Speaker:away. Everything looks right. And then you open
Speaker:that drawer and it's chaos. It's batteries, rubber
Speaker:bands, it's nails, it's cords,
Speaker:it's old receipts, it's things you forgot you even had. And
Speaker:even in a completely clean kitchen, you have this messy
Speaker:drawer. Because the mess is hidden and it's not dealt
Speaker:with. It's just contained. And a lot of us will live our
Speaker:lives in the exact same way. The external portions of
Speaker:our life look clean because we've worked hard to make sure
Speaker:that anybody comes into that environment, they see a clean
Speaker:life. But really what's happening on the inside
Speaker:is there's a mess. Listen, when you come to Christ
Speaker:and you get to the part of surrender where you say, you're my source, it
Speaker:doesn't mean that you have holy amnesia. In all of the mess of your life
Speaker:just disappears. The mess is there. And the mess
Speaker:needs to be addressed. The mess needs to be
Speaker:addressed. And so we've become really
Speaker:good at managing appearances while avoiding
Speaker:transformative work. We've been really good about
Speaker:managing our appearances while avoiding the transformative
Speaker:work of the Lord. God can call you, he can
Speaker:anoint you, he can even use you. But if there are areas
Speaker:of your life that remain undealt with,
Speaker:eventually that drawer is going to fly open.
Speaker:From the pressures of leadership, responsibilities
Speaker:and pressure arise is a space where
Speaker:God deals with you. He
Speaker:deals with me. Not just what people see, but. But what
Speaker:actually is happening underneath the surface and in the
Speaker:drawer. I believe that if you have professed your
Speaker:faith in Jesus Christ, that the God who breathes stars has a
Speaker:calling on your life. Every Person here has an
Speaker:assignment. And my call is not the same as Deanne's call. My call
Speaker:is not the same as Barbie's call. My call is not the same
Speaker:as Hannah's call or Sam's call. We all have
Speaker:different calls in our lives, different things,
Speaker:different assignments that the Lord has given us. And pertaining to our
Speaker:call, Romans 11 says this. God's gift and his call
Speaker:are irrevocable. So the great thing about this is that the call
Speaker:on your life, despite your actions and your attitude and what
Speaker:you do, what God has designed you to do, is locked in. It's
Speaker:irrevocable. You know, we used to sing a song that said, I fall down and
Speaker:I get up. I fall down and I get up. The saints are just sinners
Speaker:who fall down and get up. Anybody fell down and got up this past
Speaker:week? Anybody willing to admit that? Anybody fall down and
Speaker:get up this morning? Anybody fall down
Speaker:and get up within this worship service? Okay, yeah. I mean, we fall down
Speaker:and we get up. But here's the thing. His call on your life is
Speaker:irrevocable. That means what he's determined to do in the call
Speaker:on your life. It's not changing. That's good news. The bad
Speaker:news is this. While calling is guaranteed, maturity
Speaker:is not. While calling is guaranteed,
Speaker:maturity is not. And calling doesn't cover up your mess. It
Speaker:exposes. Exposes it. This is why Paul says
Speaker:this. He says, walk worthy of the
Speaker:calling you've received. This is an action
Speaker:point. We are supposed to proactively walk
Speaker:worthy of the calling that we've received
Speaker:on our lives. It's not just about what's visible and what others can
Speaker:about what's happening on the inside of our lives. And here's what I want us
Speaker:to really zone in on today. Your character
Speaker:carries your calling. Your character
Speaker:carries your calling. So let's look at a definition of
Speaker:character. Character is the inward maturing of
Speaker:Christlikeness that is evident in our outward
Speaker:obedience to God. So it's the inward maturing
Speaker:of Christ likeness. And this entire portion of this series
Speaker:that's gonna carry us through the summ with the messages that the
Speaker:people are going to bring from this platform are going to be catering
Speaker:to this maturing in Christ, this maturing
Speaker:of what's happening on the inside, which is what is this arise
Speaker:section. So character is who you are when nobody is
Speaker:watching you. Character holds you when the pressure
Speaker:hits. Character is what determines whether you can sustain
Speaker:what God gives you. Now we'll celebrate calling all day long.
Speaker:But God is Developing our character on
Speaker:the inside. And here's what I want us to really understand. A
Speaker:big calling paired with immature character is a dangerous
Speaker:combination. A big calling paired with
Speaker:immature character is a dangerous combination.
Speaker:I mentioned this last week. I believe that there is a
Speaker:boldness rising up in the church. Large C. Okay,
Speaker:possibly small C. There's a boldness. And that boldness that's rising up
Speaker:right now is not a bad thing. It's actually a really. A really good thing.
Speaker:But if that boldness is not rooted in spiritual
Speaker:maturity, it becomes dangerous. I
Speaker:believe by and large what we are lacking in
Speaker:the church is maturity. We can see
Speaker:what the outcome should be, but we have little idea of how
Speaker:to really actually get there. So rather than wait and respond
Speaker:from a place of spiritual maturity, we knee jerk
Speaker:respond and lack the spiritual discipline of restraint
Speaker:and end up doing a lot more harm than good.
Speaker:Here's the thing. Some of us are not able to come up to the same
Speaker:standard that we project on other people.
Speaker:So let me give you an example of this.
Speaker:The question that we're dealing with in our culture
Speaker:I put up last week is, will I be formed,
Speaker:world I live in, or will I be formed by the
Speaker:kingdom to which I belong? So
Speaker:here's a microphone that I speak into. But if I do this.
Speaker:Okay, you want me to do it again? No. Okay,
Speaker:here's the thing. When we
Speaker:amplify voices that are not spiritually
Speaker:mature, then all we do is create
Speaker:resounding noise that makes nonsense.
Speaker:When we elevate and give a platform to people
Speaker:who have not walked through the process of sanctification
Speaker:and walk through, are not actively walking through the process of
Speaker:sanctification, they begin to
Speaker:handle truth and begin to try to lead people in a
Speaker:direction that they themselves don't have a handle on.
Speaker:In other words, listen. Is the
Speaker:clarity of the lies that the world
Speaker:is giving? Is the clarity better than the
Speaker:confusion and the distorted truth that we try to give as believers in
Speaker:the church? All because the
Speaker:packaging and how it's delivered is
Speaker:not done with a degree of spiritual maturity.
Speaker:I don't want us to be a people who go out and
Speaker:use our platform. And when I say platform, I don't mean church
Speaker:on Sunday stage. That certainly is a platform.
Speaker:But I'm talking about your job. I'm talking about that thing the
Speaker:Lord's called you to, the place you're going, the people you rub elbows with,
Speaker:your family, these platforms that God gives you. If
Speaker:we are not allowing the God of the universe to do a work
Speaker:within our lives to transform us into levels
Speaker:of spiritual maturity, then we will not be ready to
Speaker:render the truth in the right way. If we're not
Speaker:careful, we will cause damage and destruction to believers all around us.
Speaker:Then there's confusion and chaos. God is not a God of confusion
Speaker:and chaos. He does not birth it, but his people. Certainly
Speaker:with meddling things, they can cause chaos. We can cause chaos.
Speaker:So this is. Is. It's crucial. Now, it's true that God
Speaker:is not looking for ability. We say he's looking for
Speaker:availability. But availability is not just saying,
Speaker:here I am. Availability is saying, lord, change
Speaker:me form me. Help me.
Speaker:Who needs the help from the Lord Jesus Christ, who needs help from a
Speaker:gracious God. Look around the room. We all need help. Everybody say, help me.
Speaker:God did not just call you to do something. He's committing
Speaker:to growing you in him so that you look more like Him.
Speaker:We must recognize that the only reason that we have been
Speaker:given a platform to do anything in the kingdom is
Speaker:because of his grace. This is what Paul says about his
Speaker:position in first Corinthians. He says, but by the grace
Speaker:of God, I am. So
Speaker:all of those things you read about Paul, how he was able to stand
Speaker:up boldly and to proclaim and write those letters, it all
Speaker:was. It was all a derivative. It was derived from this
Speaker:grace that God gave him. But here's what we we like to read the letters
Speaker:and we take things from the letters, but we forget the position
Speaker:that Paul was in when he was writing these letters. Paul was
Speaker:under great levels of persecution. He was in
Speaker:chains, in prison when he was writing a lot of these letters.
Speaker:Guys, you want to say, here I am. Send me. Are you ready for the
Speaker:dispensation of grace in your life to handle the persecution and
Speaker:suffering that's going to come your way? Or are you just
Speaker:wanting to be cushy and comfortable as a believer
Speaker:and just pout off little one nugget truths that you just think
Speaker:these things make sense to me and have illuminated my life and I poo poo
Speaker:the rest of the Word away while he's not doing anything in my life.
Speaker:Y' all are quiet today. Grace is not what just
Speaker:saves you, it's what sustains you. In other words, listen to this. Look here.
Speaker:You are not saved by grace and then sustained by effort.
Speaker:You're not saved by grace and then sustained by how good you do,
Speaker:how well you perform. We're saved by
Speaker:grace so that then we can pull from and
Speaker:draw from that same grace in order to do the things
Speaker:that God's called us to do. And in that big picture of grace, he's
Speaker:doing spiritual surgery on the inside of
Speaker:our lives. Let me give you a picture of this in the Scripture. If
Speaker:you are on our reading plan this week, you read this. But this is Isaiah,
Speaker:chapter six. It says this. In the year that
Speaker:King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne,
Speaker:high and exalted, with the train of his royal robe
Speaker:filling the templ above him seraphim stood. Each
Speaker:one had six wings. With two wings he covered his face. With two
Speaker:wings, he covered his feet. With two wings he flew.
Speaker:And one called out to another, saying, holy, holy,
Speaker:holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is
Speaker:filled with his glory. And the foundations of
Speaker:the thresholds trembled at the voice of him who called out. And the temple was
Speaker:filling with smoke. Then I said, woe is me,
Speaker:for I am ruined because I am a man of unclean
Speaker:lips and I live among a people of unclean lips. For my
Speaker:eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts. Then
Speaker:one of the seraphim flew to me with a burning coal in
Speaker:his hand, which he had taken from the altar with tongs. He
Speaker:touched my mouth with it and said, listen
Speaker:carefully. This has touched your lips. Your
Speaker:wickedness is taken away and your sin is atoned
Speaker:for and forgiven. Then I heard a voice
Speaker:of the Lord saying, whom shall I send and who will go for
Speaker:us? Then I said, here I am. Send
Speaker:me. Okay, let's look at this. Okay. Isaiah is
Speaker:here, and he is witnessing the glory of God right before
Speaker:him. And he acknowledges the sovereignty
Speaker:of God. This is why he says, woe is me. He's acknowledging,
Speaker:this is powerful. This is glorious. This is
Speaker:illuminating. And in the illumination, he
Speaker:recognizes, you are God. I am not God. I
Speaker:am standing before you with unclean lips.
Speaker:In other words, I am not worthy to do
Speaker:anything for you. And the angel of the Lord takes
Speaker:a hot coal and touches Isaiah's lips.
Speaker:Have you ever had a hot coal touch your face?
Speaker:Okay. What would be the natural response if a
Speaker:hot coal touched your face? What is it?
Speaker:Ouch. That hurts. So
Speaker:this tells me that in this section of Arise,
Speaker:one of the reasons why we jump from abide to advance is
Speaker:that we're not willing for the hot cold to touch us in places
Speaker:that we need to grow in and that we need to mature in
Speaker:and that we need to get frank. And so
Speaker:Isaiah is saying, I'm a man of unclean lips.
Speaker:And the seraphim comes and touches him with the coal and says, your sin
Speaker:has been atoned for. You have been forgiven.
Speaker:So that when the Lord says, who will we send? Isaiah is
Speaker:in a place now to say, here I am.
Speaker:Send me. Are you with me? We have to
Speaker:recognize that he is God and he is glorious
Speaker:and that we need transformation in our own lives before
Speaker:we try to go out and change other people.
Speaker:God is good.
Speaker:Before Isaiah said, send me, God dealt with his lips.
Speaker:Calling came and then the cleansing.
Speaker:Here's what I want us to understand. God wants you
Speaker:to be healed and he wants you to be whole.
Speaker:Arise is not about doing more, it's about becoming
Speaker:whole. This is where God begins to illuminate the places in
Speaker:our lives that do not look like him. Do you have any places in your
Speaker:life that don't look like Jesus? The areas
Speaker:where we're insecure, the areas where we're wounded or
Speaker:driven by pride or we're trying to prove something. Guys. We so
Speaker:often want to go out and conquer things and there's so many
Speaker:deficiencies and inside us, but dependency readily
Speaker:recognize. I can't do it on my own strength.
Speaker:And so we're broken. Does God use broken people?
Speaker:Yeah, he uses broken people. But it was never about
Speaker:the broken vessel becoming the victor. It was always about
Speaker:Jesus being the champion. Jesus is the
Speaker:champion. He is the one that is exalted. He is the one
Speaker:that is glorified for whatever take takes place in our lives.
Speaker:And here's the grace in the process of the
Speaker:Lord using broken vessels, he
Speaker:simultaneously heals them as well. He's restoring
Speaker:them and making them whole. This is what 2 Corinthians says.
Speaker:My grace says the Lord is sufficient for you.
Speaker:For my power is made perfect in weakness.
Speaker:His power is not made perfect in your strength.
Speaker:So if you have been trying so hard to do things in your strength.
Speaker:His power is not made perfect in that realm. His power is
Speaker:made perfect when you acknowledge I've got weak areas that need some
Speaker:help. And guys, I have to tell you, you're rubbing elbow's right next to
Speaker:somebody who has some weak areas that need help
Speaker:and he's willing to do it. He says my grace is
Speaker:sufficient for you. How? Okay, you ready for this? How
Speaker:arrogant of us. How
Speaker:arrogant of us to believe anything else rather
Speaker:than his grace is sufficient for us.
Speaker:How arrogant of us to believe that he's not
Speaker:big enough, insufficient enough to come in
Speaker:and do a mighty work in our lives to
Speaker:transform us and to heal us and make us whole in the world.
Speaker:I'm talking about those Things that are buried in the back of that messy drawer.
Speaker:I'm talking about those things that you don't want anybody to see or know about.
Speaker:How dare us be so arrogant to think that the God of
Speaker:the universe is not sufficient enough to come into
Speaker:our lives and to heal us and make us whole in those
Speaker:ways.
Speaker:I knew at an early age that I had a calling on my life for
Speaker:ministry. When I was 18 or 19, Pastor Wayne took
Speaker:us to a conference in Atlanta. And I was there, and I
Speaker:knew I had a calling on my life. I was working with kids ministry here,
Speaker:and I was fresh out of high school, and I just knew I had a
Speaker:calling on my life. And I started dancing at this conference.
Speaker:And I can't really dance, but I tried to hang with them,
Speaker:and I danced. And this one pastor saw me dancing, and he
Speaker:came to me, said, you're a great dancer. Why don't you come be a youth
Speaker:pastor at my church? Now, don't ask me how the
Speaker:connection happened between, you're a great dancer and become a youth pastor. But I
Speaker:heard, why don't you come be a youth pastor? Well, this makes a lot of
Speaker:sense to me. I'm called into ministry, Barbie. Somebody's coming to
Speaker:me. Thus saith the Lord. Here I am.
Speaker:I went and got in my car, drove to South Carolina. They gave me a
Speaker:platform to speak from on a Sunday. And I'll tell you, I was the only
Speaker:white guy in the church. And I'll tell you this much,
Speaker:there is a videotape evidence of this message. I can't find it. It's probably
Speaker:buried in one of my messy drawers. But if you watch
Speaker:this tape, I've watched it. There ain't nothing coming out of my
Speaker:mouth that makes any sense whatsoever. But every
Speaker:time I said something, the congregation went hallelujah.
Speaker:Praise the Lord. Amen. Do you know that you can
Speaker:have a crowd shout amen and you not be speaking truth
Speaker:propelled by the crowd in the congregation? Man, I thought I was the cat's
Speaker:pajamas to that stage, I'll tell you that much. I thought I was bringing real
Speaker:solid truth. So I drove back, just so excited. And I went to
Speaker:Pastor Meek's house, Ronnie Meek's house that night. And I went right up
Speaker:to him, and Ronnie's like a dad to me. And I was like, hey, listen,
Speaker:I'm moving to South Carolina to be a youth pastor at this church. And you
Speaker:know what he did? He laughed in my face.
Speaker:He laughed in my face and said, no, you're not.
Speaker:Sometimes you need People to love you enough to look at you and
Speaker:laugh in your face and say, no, you're not. Now, that
Speaker:hurt. Wait a minute. You're supposed to champion me. Aren't
Speaker:you supposed to be saying all the positive things? You know, Ronnie's known for
Speaker:loving people. Really? Well, I don't understand why the. I don't understand the words that
Speaker:are coming out of your mouth. Okay? I'm like, what is going on here?
Speaker:But do you know that I needed in that moment, basically,
Speaker:somebody to look at me and say, you don't go from abide
Speaker:to advance. There's some things that you need, some equipping that you
Speaker:need. I had no idea what my. What the. What the trajectory
Speaker:the Lord had for me in terms of positions. I knew I had a call
Speaker:in my life, and the Lord said, I want to mature you. And I'm so
Speaker:grateful that I have people in my life who love me enough to say, slow
Speaker:down. Let the Lord do his work.
Speaker:Listen, Grace will close doors just as frequently as it
Speaker:opens them. Grace will close doors
Speaker:just as frequently as he opens them. I will
Speaker:counsel people sometimes that will come into my office and they'll say, listen,
Speaker:I'm waiting for God to open a door, and I don't know what to do.
Speaker:And you know what I say? I say, the steps of the righteous man are
Speaker:ordered. And so here's what I
Speaker:advise you to do. Take the next step. Because I believe in
Speaker:a God who opens doors, but I also believe in a God who slams them
Speaker:in your face. And let me tell you, as somebody who's had many doors slammed
Speaker:in my face, that begins to refine your path real fast. Real
Speaker:fast. So you step out in faith and say, lord, I just trust you that
Speaker:you're gonna slam this door in my face and be ready for him to do
Speaker:it if he's gonna do it. Or we wait and see if he'll keep the
Speaker:door open. But Grace knows how to close doors. It knows how to close
Speaker:doors. And sometimes the most spiritual thing in is not the opportunity to
Speaker:step into, but it's the one that God keeps you from.
Speaker:God's not looking for strength. He's looking for surrender. And
Speaker:the development of your character is a major part
Speaker:of your equipping. The development of your character
Speaker:is a major, major part of your equipping.
Speaker:What God builds in you determines what he can trust you
Speaker:to do and what he can do through you. God's not just preparing you
Speaker:to go something. He's preparing you for who you're going
Speaker:to be. Now, I selected David and Saul to talk just a little bit about
Speaker:today because I believe that they're famous enough and most people know these stories. But
Speaker:there are a slew of characters in the scripture that you could
Speaker:go to, and you'll find this exact same prescription. It sounds like God
Speaker:kind of knows what he's doing when he's teaching us in his Word. So
Speaker:David and Saul both had the exact same call. It was to
Speaker:be king of Israel. Now, Saul, he
Speaker:was chosen, he was anointed. But here was the problem. He
Speaker:was elevated quickly. He was elevated quickly.
Speaker:And because he was elevated quickly, he was insecure,
Speaker:he was impatient, and he was driven by the opinions of people.
Speaker:In contrast to Saul, David was also chosen. He
Speaker:was also anointed. But he had time to develop and
Speaker:mature. And let me tell you, that development and that maturity, what did it look
Speaker:like? It looked like. It looked like his adversary coming after him. It
Speaker:looked like waiting in caves. It looked like having to be extremely
Speaker:patient and waiting on the Lord. It looked like running
Speaker:for his life. How many have been told, God
Speaker:says, this is what. Here's a promise. This is what you're going to be doing.
Speaker:But, man, in that season from A to B, there's a lot of stuff
Speaker:that takes place. And in all of this time in David's life, what's
Speaker:happening is he is becoming a surrendered person, he's becoming a
Speaker:faithful person, and he is becoming secure in his identity
Speaker:in the Lord. David embraced the grace process
Speaker:of maturity before he ever touched his platform.
Speaker:David had to hide in the caves. He had to wait. He had pressure. He
Speaker:had all of these things. Here's what Romans chapter five says
Speaker:to us as believers. Therefore, since we have
Speaker:been justified through faith, we have a peace with God through our Lord
Speaker:Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith
Speaker:into this grace in which we now stand.
Speaker:And we boast in the hope of glory of God, of the glory of God.
Speaker:Not only so, but we also listen to this glory
Speaker:in our sufferings because we know that
Speaker:suffering produces perseverance,
Speaker:perseverance, character,
Speaker:character, hope. And hope does not put us to
Speaker:shame because God's love has been poured out into our hearts through the
Speaker:Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. And so the starting
Speaker:place is suffering. The starting place is this suffering
Speaker:and the suffering. In other words, I want to fulfill God's
Speaker:call of my life, Keith. And so, guess what? I've got
Speaker:a mess inside my drawers. I've got. I need. I need. Boy, that sounded kind
Speaker:of funny.
Speaker:The next thing I was going to say is, I want you to see my
Speaker:mess in my drawers, but that didn't sound too good either. So
Speaker:anyway,
Speaker:hey, some of you are walking around smelling like you got some mess in your
Speaker:drawers. I mean, that's just. This is the fact of the matter. But here's
Speaker:the thing, brother. I need somebody who loves me enough
Speaker:that can rumble around in that drawer of all of those things that I
Speaker:just. I've held onto. What things? I'm talking about the people who've walked out
Speaker:of my life. I'm talking about the rejection that I've struggled through.
Speaker:I'm talking about the coping things, mechanisms that I tend
Speaker:to gravitate to. I'm talking about the people who've
Speaker:walked out of my life. I'm talking about the opportunity that I was passed up
Speaker:on. I'm talking about that platform that was promised me, but I never got to
Speaker:do it. I'm talking about all of these things that I have cataloged in my
Speaker:brain and I've kept in this drawer. I need somebody who
Speaker:loves me enough, who will walk alongside me to say, God
Speaker:has truth to render for all these lies that you're believing
Speaker:that are coming out of this drawer. And so part of the
Speaker:idea here is that we have got to be willing. We've got to be
Speaker:willing to be exposed, to walk through that suffering. And it
Speaker:doesn't feel good, guys. Does it feel good to revisit old pain and
Speaker:hurt? It doesn't feel good. But that's where perseverance
Speaker:kicks in. And so I need somebody alongside me that will help me,
Speaker:Doug, to persevere and say, no, keep taking the step. Because guess what?
Speaker:He has a high call for you. And guess what? As you
Speaker:persevere, what they say it's shallow in their
Speaker:opinions compared to the source that you chose to draw from. Are you with
Speaker:me? Are you seeing the pattern here? You start with the source so that he
Speaker:obliterates every lie. You expose the things that are going inside because
Speaker:he wants you to be healed. He wants you to be. And
Speaker:then when perseverance takes on its work, guess what happens? Your character
Speaker:starts to develop. Your character starts to develop. And as you're
Speaker:walking forward in this character, you begin to see hope arise in you,
Speaker:that he is who he says he is. He is the God. And you from
Speaker:that position, when you do get an assignment and you do get to advance all
Speaker:of this stuff, this foundational work has been done in your life
Speaker:so that you have something to actually stand on when you're
Speaker:delivering the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Christ, he
Speaker:wants to do a work in your life.
Speaker:And so the arise season of our lives is where
Speaker:God slows you down. He exposes things, he heals things, and he
Speaker:removes things to prepare you for what's ahead.
Speaker:Ephesians 4 says that he's given leaders to the church. To do
Speaker:what? To equip the saints until we all
Speaker:reach maturity. To equip the saints until we
Speaker:all reach maturity. Another word used in that scripture is
Speaker:unity. We reach unity. So
Speaker:the job of leaders. Now, I want you to first know that leaders are not
Speaker:exempt from this. The leaders that you
Speaker:are following should be practicing believers who are
Speaker:also walking through the rise section. The other thing I want to say is it's
Speaker:not like arise is a start and then finish. I have done the arise
Speaker:section, and I am done. And I am just out here in advance. It is
Speaker:a cycle. You go back to the source, and guess what? Another peel
Speaker:of that onion layer comes to fruition. And then you walk back
Speaker:through this sanctification process. And then you go into the advanced section,
Speaker:and guess what? You go back to the abide, and you're in the source again,
Speaker:and you're drawing from the source. And then guess what? Then you have this arise
Speaker:section where he's identified another layer. Are you with me? It's a
Speaker:continual cycle. And part of the job of leaders is to
Speaker:equip you until we reach a sense of maturity. That
Speaker:means you need somebody in your life who's going to say, no, no, no, no,
Speaker:no, no, no, not yet. You need somebody in your life that says, you know,
Speaker:what a good idea would be here. And it's not just my idea. It's actually
Speaker:biblical, is that you actually rest. Slow down.
Speaker:You're doing too much. You're saying the wrong thing. You know, I
Speaker:understand that you want so much to speak and have a platform, but maybe God
Speaker:needs to do some internal work first, some internal surgery. We need people
Speaker:in our life that will help us to tell you this
Speaker:portion of maturity. God's goal was never just to call
Speaker:you. His goal is to grow you up, to move you from
Speaker:immaturity to maturity. Guys, at the first start of this, you're drinking
Speaker:milk. He wants you to eat meat. The goal is to get to a place
Speaker:where you're eating meat. From instability to stability, from
Speaker:independence to complete dependence on him.
Speaker:God is not building a crowd. He's not into fanfare.
Speaker:He's building a mature body of believers. Maturity is what
Speaker:allows Calling to function, function in the way that it was designed.
Speaker:And so when it comes to this messy drawer that we all have,
Speaker:there's a reason why we hold on to these things.
Speaker:And the honest answer is, most of it is actually not trash.
Speaker:It's useful. We just don't know where to put it and how to
Speaker:apply it. And when you look back on your life, you
Speaker:will see a thread. The Lord has me in a season of watching his
Speaker:steady hand thread a tapestry, a story together. Can I
Speaker:tell you, it's not just the glory good stuff. There's bad
Speaker:and ugly in that thread that help make a beautiful picture. He
Speaker:is a God who knows how to take ashy situations and make them
Speaker:beautiful. Anybody testify to that?
Speaker:So when you look back on your life, you watch this
Speaker:thread, moments that didn't make sense, seasons that
Speaker:felt like they were on delay, people who hurt you
Speaker:and you don't understand why. The closed doors, the hard
Speaker:conversations. And we don't know where to put all that stuff. But
Speaker:God was using all of that to heal you,
Speaker:form you, and mature you into who he wants you to
Speaker:be. Now, I don't believe inerrantly
Speaker:that we have a truth problem as believers. I don't.
Speaker:I do not believe. Listen to me. I do not believe that we have a
Speaker:truth problem because truth stands on its own.
Speaker:This truth is going to prevail, whether my voice is attached to it or
Speaker:not. Jesus is the way the truth,
Speaker:whether I say or do anything, has nothing, is not.
Speaker:My involvement is not a prerequisite to this truth being true.
Speaker:I don't believe we have a truth problem. I believe truth is going to stand
Speaker:without our voice. I don't believe we have a truth problem. I believe we have
Speaker:a maturity problem. People are
Speaker:speaking the truth without being matured by it. And when truth is carried by
Speaker:immature people, it lacks compassion, it lacks
Speaker:wisdom, it lacks endurance, it can even lack love. We love
Speaker:to go to those places in the Scripture where Jesus is turning tables and he's
Speaker:saying sharp truth. All of that is true. All of that is right. But do
Speaker:you pay attention to the embodiment of the same
Speaker:truth, the actions of the same truth, the character of
Speaker:Jesus Christ, not isolated in that moment.
Speaker:But do we pay attention to the character of Christ in his entire
Speaker:ministry that we know of? I see a Jesus who is
Speaker:clothed in compassion. I see him clothed in love. He doesn't
Speaker:shy away from standing for the truth or speaking the truth. But what we like
Speaker:to do is parcel out that section of his attribute and Apply it into
Speaker:places instead of using the whole thing.
Speaker:I believe that when we package the truth
Speaker:as immature believers and we deliver it, the non
Speaker:believers decide to create their own truth and their own
Speaker:reality, because those who are rendering the
Speaker:truth to them do not look like, act like, or
Speaker:actually live like the truth that they are saying out loud.
Speaker:John the Baptist said, he must increase.
Speaker:I must decrease. Paul said,
Speaker:I die daily. And what we're going to learn when we
Speaker:get to the advanced section is that if you guys
Speaker:remember Kevin Oday's face more than
Speaker:you remember the word that was proclaimed, then there is an
Speaker:issue. There is a problem. The personality
Speaker:should not usurp the truth. The
Speaker:program, the lights, the sound, the beauty, all of this,
Speaker:all of this is just a stage and a foundation to
Speaker:leverage the truth so that it can be presented in an excellent way. But
Speaker:if it gets lost in all of this, if it gets lost in
Speaker:the personality and in the person, then we are doing something
Speaker:devastatingly wrong to the commission that we have. It's not about
Speaker:me. I must decrease. He
Speaker:must increase. These guys, John the Baptist and
Speaker:Paul, they were not driven by a platform. They were surrendered to the
Speaker:point of death. And I would suggest if you are not willing
Speaker:to die for the message you carry, you're not in a position to
Speaker:carry it. How do I get to a position of wanting to
Speaker:die for the message? I've got to walk through this season where he's doing
Speaker:surgical, spiritual surgical, ser. I've got to
Speaker:get to a place where I'm willing to say, woe is me.
Speaker:My lips touch my lips. Lord, I am
Speaker:unworthy to be in your presence. I'm unworthy to carry
Speaker:the truth to this dying world. So that when
Speaker:he then says, who will go
Speaker:send me, Lord, because you've healed me, because you've
Speaker:touched me, because you've refined me.
:20 says this. It says, here I am. I stand
:at the door and I knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door,
:I will come in and eat with that person and they with me.
:And here's the picture. Worship team, you can come on back out. Here's the picture,
:guys. I'm standing at this door. Jesus is here, and
:he's knocking. And so many of our lives look like this.
:A closed door. I've got this figured out. I don't need. I don't need
:a savior. I don't need Jesus. But when
:he's knocking at this door, the heart position should be
:this one that invites him in. But
:notice what this scripture Says it's not just
:about salvation. It's about inviting him in
:to sit down and eat. Listen, if you come over
:my house and we sit down and eat, we're going to share
:stories. We're going to share intimate connection together.
:In other words, Jesus says, let me in. I've saved you.
:Now let me get into the details and the depths of your
:life so that I can heal you and make you whole.
:He's knocking. Will you let
:him in? About 12 years ago or so,
:the Lord gave me a dream, and I've shared this dream before, so hold on
:if you're hearing it again. I don't get
:dreams very often, but this one stuck with me because it was a part of
:my equipping. I was in the backyard, there
:was a shed. And I remember walking into this shed. And when I walked into
:this shed, there were some windows at the top of the shed, and there were
:light beams coming down. And you know how you can see the light beams coming
:through a window where there's dust laden. There was dust all in the air because
:there was a woodworker in this shed and he was fat
:at work. So I went into this shed, and I was curious to see
:what was going on. And when I walked into the shed, there was a table
:and there were these little figurines about this tall. And I was curious
:to know, what is this little figurine? What is this little statue here that I'm
:looking at? So I go there, and I look at this statue, and I see
:all the intricate details of the statue, and I go, whoa,
:Whoever created this, man, they're pretty good.
:I mean, they're awesome. I mean, that's great. And I looked over at the next
:statue and I noticed something. The next statue was
:completely different than the first statue that I saw.
:And the next statue, completely different. Same
:intricacy, same attention to fine detail.
:And I was mesmerized. And
:as I would go forward in looking at these statues, and I would go down
:the path, these statues, these figurines would get larger and
:larger and larger. And the larger they got, the more
:fine detail was a part. And I thought, this is
:fabulous. I would stay moment by moment
:staring at them. Well, after about
:six, seven figurines or statues, I started to
:realize, based on some of the detail, that these
:statues represented some predominant people in my
:life. I mean, I'm sure Pastor Barbie was in there.
:I'm sure that Hal was in there. I'm sure that Ronnie
:was in there. I mean, I'm talking about like pillars of my life are, like,
:there. And in this most awesome
:intricacy of all this detail. And I go, wow, this is amazing.
:And all I wanted to do was stay and watch. But in the. In my
:ear, I heard this woodworker, he's at work. And I
:turn. And my amazement and enthrallment of all
:these statues turned into a great curiosity, because I
:thought to myself, if there's this much detail on all of these
:statues, there must be a statue of me here somewhere.
:And so I go over to the table and I say, hey,
:excuse me. Where. Where's my statue? Where am I?
:And graciously, the man working at the table looked up as
:he continued to work, and he nodded his head toward a corner that was around
:the way. So I turn around, and I'm excited because I'm about to
:see my statue. And I turn around, and every other statue
:I looked at had disappeared. And larger, more
:massive statues appeared. And I was just
:absolutely undone and in awe of what I
:was seeing in the. And the detail, scope of every
:statue and every person in my life. And I was
:applauding, and I was so excited for what I saw in every person.
:But as I went further and further toward the direction that the man was
:pointing at, my curiosity, as it turned into
:excitement and joy, then turned into frustration,
:turned into anger, because I could not find myself.
:Has anybody ever been looking for yourself and you can't find it?
:And so I rush back to the table, and I'm
:upset. And what I noticed about turning around and going back to the table is
:all of a sudden, when I'm trying to find myself, I paid no attention to
:any of the statues around me. I was locked in and trying to find
:myself. And I was frustrated and angry, and I went back to the table, and
:I pounded the table, and I said, where am I?
:And the woodworker put down his tools, and he took his
:hand and he pointed in the same direction with which he nodded. This time
:I followed his arm. I followed his finger, and I made a
:beeline straight to the corner to which he pointed. I walked over to the
:corner, and I got to the corner, and when I got to the corner, I
:stopped, and I looked down, and in that corner
:was a small, little wooden trash can.
:So I knelt down and I picked up this wooden trash can
:about this big. And I turned around,
:and with big alligator tears in my eyes, I went and set
:this on the table because I had remembered all of the
:intricate details, all of the things that everybody else had in their
:statues. And here I am. And I went and I placed, placed that
:trash can on the table and I looked at that woodsman and I said,
:of all the things in this place, I'm a
:trash can. And without
:hesitation, this woodworker put
:down his tools and he took this wooden
:trash can and he held it over by the side and he took his
:arm and he piled up all the scrap, scraps and
:all the settling and all the dust and all the residue from all the
:other statues and he scooped them into the trash can
:and he set the trash can back on the table. And he looked
:at me and he said, you see trash can?
:I see refuge for broken people.
:And I just dropped because in that
:moment I needed the voice of the Creator to
:change my perspective on the thing that I saw, the
:way that he saw it. The reason I tell you this story
:is because there's some of you that go from abide to advance.
:And the reason that you can't be in the advanced section is because you're in
:the advanced section thinking that you're a trash can. But
:the part of the rise matures things in you, pulls
:things out of you so that you can actually know who you are and
:whose you are. God has an amazing plan for your
:life. He's not forgotten about you. But let me tell you that the
:reason that you exist is he wants you to look like him and you don't.
:He wants to heal you in those places that you don't even know that you
:need healing. He wants you to slow down enough and draw from the
:source that he can say, I see you. And guys, some of you need
:to be seen in a way that you never thought possible.
:He has some incredible things to say about you. But
:it's going to start with the acknowledgment of God. I
:need you. I recognize your sovereignty. I need to draw
:from your great glorious source. Would you guys stand with me this morning?
:For those who are going to minister, come forward.
:I believe that there are some people in here who have become
:calloused and who have become numb to the move of God in their
:life. You've been around the
:platitudes and the Christianese loud long enough
:that it's just become numb. And you need
:a God, a real God, the
:God who breathes stars to come and speak
:radical truth in your life. Have you been in a place lately
:where you go, God, I don't see. I don't even know where you are. Have
:you been in a place where you've been executing the assignments. You've been giving
:on your own strength. Are there
:places in your heart that need to be healed?
:Are there places back in the the deep past that you need to
:seek forgiveness? Or you need to forgive someone for that? You just thought, I'm just
:going to bury this under the rug and keep moving forward? No. God
:wants to heal you and make you whole on this journey.
:And he is available today to do just that.
:You got needs. He's a star breather. He owns the cattle on the hill. You
:can come as well. Let's worship as we come before our Father
:in heaven.
