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#13 - How Do You Measure Faithfulness? (with Pastor Austin Young) · The Extra Mile Podcast

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: We don't see this physical evidence that we're making a difference.
• 0:02
  SPEAKER_00: We start to think we're not making a difference.
• 0:04
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, one of the things I challenge the staff with is we're not called to be successful, we're called to be submitted.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_00: We have to come back to what did Jesus call.
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_00: If Jesus called me to have a smile on my face and hold the door for first-time guests, like they may walk by me and ignore me.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_00: But if I'm doing what God called me to do, there's something powerful about just coming back to the main thing of being faithful.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_00: Hey, welcome everybody to the X Mile Podcast.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_00: Today is going to be a little bit different because I didn't preach this past Sunday.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: I'm on a little bit of a people saying, Pastor, are you on vacation?
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_00: Like the only thing I do is preach.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_00: And uh, but we've had some incredible messages and excited Pastor Austin, you're up this weekend at Faith Church.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_00: Um But what I did today was had a conversation with our staff.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_00: And so I thought it would be beneficial to those who listen to this podcast because most of you are Christians, and this isn't a Christian-only podcast, but it has a lot of Christian content.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_00: And the conversation we had is basically when people begin to question the impact of their call, is what I do in church, is it making a difference?
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_00: Because I think all of us go through these seasons where we begin to question the impact of our call.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_00: And so this really shakes out for anybody who's a pastor and we know this that uh Kerry Newhoff, which I know you're a big fan of.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I mean, the guy is really, really smart in a lot of ways.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_00: Um he has shared content and you can cross-reference this, but basically, about one to one and a half percent of all Protestant pastors in the United States quit every year.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_00: So there's a mass exodus of people walking away from ministry.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_00: Now, there's lots of reasons, uh, burnout, you know, financial challenges, church conflict.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_00: But one of the things that is recognized is the same thing that I think a lot of us deal with.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_00: And it's looking at the time you put in, the effort you put in, the preparation you put in, and at the end of the day, looking at what you do and saying, does it matter?
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_00: If I walked away right now, would anybody miss me?
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_00: Would the impact I'm making like it wouldn't disappear because it maybe it's not there in the first place.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_00: So I had that conversation with my staff because I want my staff to know the same thing I need reminded that what we do matters.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_00: And sometimes we measure metrics, we measure growth the wrong way, and that's what causes us to walk away.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_00: So that was a conversation that we had this morning with staff, and I want to have with people watching this, whether they're pastors or whether they serve in their local church, we all need reminded that what we do matters.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_01: I have a lot of thoughts.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_01: Like obviously, when you were speaking about this morning, I was thinking that through the lens of being a pastor, but as I've started to think about it more as like a father, and you know, the first 10 years I was in ministry, I worked secular jobs, so I waited tables, I worked at an elementary school.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_01: So I've kind of been trying to think about it in that way.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_01: And I think, especially even as a parent, so I have a seven-year-old and a five-year-old girls, and I think sometimes I'm like, I'm messing this up pretty bad.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_01: Like I was supposed to be a good parent.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_01: Like I'm I'm I had good parents, like I'm a pastor, like I'm supposed to be pretty good at this.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, I am not always very good at this.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_01: And uh you just kind of ask yourself those questions like, am I making a difference in my kids' lives?
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_01: And um, I think every once in a while God gives you a little nugget.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_01: And like this past week, um my oldest daughter was going through her little memory verse cards from church, and she read, and she's been in our elementary program, she's going into second grade, so for two years, and she got to one and she read it, and she goes, This was the first one I ever learned when I was in kindergarten.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, Wow, look at the Lord.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_01: And then she saw it somewhere else.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_01: She goes, Hey, that's the first verse I learned in Faith Kids.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_01: And I was like, Okay, like even just the consistency of having them in church, and they're in more than most because they're pastors' kids, but like that of just going, okay, like God is going to do so much through what I can offer him.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_01: And and I've seen that through, you know, when I was waiting tables and, you know, I had friends that didn't know Jesus, and by the end of working at the restaurant for a couple of years, I ended up being like the godfather to one of their kids.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_01: So it's like, you you kind of just go, like, what am I doing?
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_01: I'm just like, I'm trying to sell barbecue and like trying to make ends meet.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_01: Is this making a difference?
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_01: And I think um that question comes up in a lot of areas.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_00: Man, I appreciate the way you're, you know, you're already kind of um kind of stretching this again.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_00: The context of my conversation this morning was the church staff working full-time church positions, but you're right.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_00: Our call is, you know, what God has called us to do, how he's called us to live, the impact he's called us to make.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_00: And the statement I opened with this morning was we all question the impact of our call.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_00: And, you know, I'm there, I'm present, but am I being a good dad?
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_00: Am I being a positive husband?
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_00: Am I leading my family well?
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_00: Am I doing what I'm called to do in church?
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_00: And again, when we don't see immediate results, when our kids aren't obeying us, but we feel like we're doing what we need to do, or man, there's so many scenarios.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_00: Again, I just want people to not, to not tap out.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_00: Pastors are walking away.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_00: I think church people, um, I think they serve in positions where they're needed and they question, does this matter?
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, if if me, the lead pastor, sometimes question, do what I do is what I do, does it matter?
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_00: I think certainly the average person serving in church sometimes questions, does this matter?
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_00: And uh so I want to dig into this, you know, and I think this is a big conversation like that's happening with millennials, conversations that we've had with them and uh even down to Gen Z, this conversation like this, that they want a purpose, not a paycheck.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_00: Now, not with not that they don't need money to pay bills, but they would rather be part of something that's making a difference in this world than just make a lot of money.
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, they don't want to make money, um, they want to make a difference.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_00: And so this conversation really is a big deal, a big idea, a big deal.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and so I gave our staff three things.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and the first thing I said was just be faithful.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_00: I think sometimes when we get discouraged and we want to tap out and we want to quit, it's because we're measuring the wrong things.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_00: Our eyes are on the wrong direction, and we just have to come back to being being faithful.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_00: When when you hear the word faithful, like, what do you hear?
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_01: I think I think about consistency.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_01: So, like, you know, I'm still I'm just kind of live trying to translate this.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_01: Like, every job that I've had, I think that's kind of been my goal is like be the guy that shows up when he's scheduled, be the guy that does his job when he's there.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, your bosses see that.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_01: And if you have, if you're in a good workplace, your bosses reward that.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_01: You get more responsibility, like that happened at the restaurant I worked at.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_01: Like you, you're you're showing up and just going, like, you know, I'm just I have a three-table section.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_01: But if I do really good with these three tables in a few months, I got five tables because my bosses were happy with how I was doing.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_01: And it's like, I think that's what I think about of being faithful is like showing up and doing the work.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_01: And it's that's sometimes hard, especially when you don't think it's making a difference, when you're not getting the raise or the promotion.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_01: Or again, I I can relate your kids don't obey you, right?
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_01: You're like, why am I still even doing this?
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_01: Like every few weeks, Sarah and I are just like, okay, how do we like try to raise these kids better?
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_01: We're like, let's restart something, you know.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_00: I um I've been blessed, man, as long as I've been been in ministry, which is 33 years, um, have always been a part of a growing ministry.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_00: From my first youth ministry to my second youth ministry, the first church I led as a lead pastor went from 35 people to about 500, you know, leading here.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_00: We've seen continual growth.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_00: And so in my mind, it's just easy to make this connection that, hey, success is growth.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_00: And the reality, and that's just not true.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not saying we shouldn't want to grow or we shouldn't hope to grow.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, we do.
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_00: But again, I think when when we don't see this physical evidence that we're making a difference, we start to think we're not making a difference.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_00: And um, you know, I one of the things I challenge the staff with is we're not called to be successful, we're called to be submitted.
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_00: We have to come back to what did Jesus call?
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_00: If Jesus called me to have a smile on my face and hold the door for first-time guests, like they may walk by me and ignore me.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_00: But if I'm doing what God called me to do, there's something powerful about just coming back to the main thing of being faithful.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_00: And um, so yeah, this idea of obedience, of diligence, of, and we see this throughout scripture, you know, if uh if we remain faithful, the Bible says in Revelations 2, Jesus says, if you remain faithful to the end, you'll get the crown of life.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_00: We all hope one day to hear Jesus say, Well done, good and faithful servant.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_00: Not successful servant, but just be faithful.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_00: Just show up, be diligent, don't count numbers, don't look at metrics, just look at what am I doing what God called me to do.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_00: And again, I I'll be the first to say, man, I often get caught up in the metrics and lose my focus from what really matters most.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_00: And that's just my obedience to what Christ has called me to do.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I think that's such a good thing.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_01: Because I mean, one of the things that I hear about our church, people's first impressions, like, everyone was so friendly.
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_01: Well, who is that?
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_01: That's the team in the parking lot, yeah, waving, that's the people at the door smiling, and then like I did not do anything for my daughter to remember that memory verse.
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_01: I didn't make the cards, I didn't hand her the card, I didn't teach her the motions, I didn't do any of that.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_01: Volunteers at our church worked with her, and she remembers a memory verse from the Bible from two years ago because there were people that would show up every week and go over it with her.
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_01: Like it's that simple.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_01: Like, and sometimes it stinks because I think sometimes the being faithful is like you have to do really boring stuff and to get an incredible result.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_01: You don't get to do something heroic.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_01: You like show up and give a kid an index card, and then two years later they know the Bible because you did that boring thing.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_00: You know, there's this um, I'm sure you can relate to this.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_00: You know, you're not the lead, not a lead pastor in this place, but you have an important position in our church.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_00: You've been in ministry for a long time.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_00: But at least the lead pastor, you know, I go through sometimes like this Monday morning self-mutilation.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_00: Like when I hear the offering, I'm like, oh no.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_00: You know, or I hear how many visitors we had, or more importantly, how many visitors we didn't have.
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_00: Or and so I'm measuring my success and really my joy on how many people showed up, how big was the offering, how many people served.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_00: And at the end of the day, I'm called to preach the gospel and to lead this staff.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_00: And if I did that, man, I was faithful.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_00: And that's that's what I have to keep my mind on, that's what I have to keep my focus on is coming back to am I being faithful to the call up God of my life?
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_00: And again, man, I just find myself measuring the wrong thing.
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm not the first one.
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_00: We talked about there's, you know, and we can name lots of them, but four failures in the Bible.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_00: And I say a failure, if they're measuring the way a lot of us measure, am I looking at visible change, which we want to see it?
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_00: I'll keep saying that, but that's not our focus.
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_00: It's faithfulness, you know, not success.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, we talked about Noah.
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, here's a guy that preached for 120 years and had zero converts.
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, man, if I don't see people give their life to Jesus in a month, I'm ready to quit.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_00: 120 years.
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so he's out there preaching every night after building the building the ark every day, 120 years, nobody repents.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_00: Um, we talked about Moses.
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, a lot of us look at Moses and say, Man, I wish I was the leader Moses was, but I wonder how did he feel?
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_00: Um, he did everything God called him to do.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, he struggled for sure, made made some made some uh bad decisions, which we all do, but overall was a leader that we look up to.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_00: But if you measure by the metrics that most of us do, a million people came out of Egypt into the wilderness, and only two out of all of those adults made it.
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_00: Two out of a million?
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's not great.
• 11:39
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's that's failure.
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, you know, uh two out of a million, that's failure.
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, we talked about Elijah, one of the greatest prophets in the Old Testament.
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_00: He felt like nobody was following God.
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_00: He felt like he was the only one.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_00: And God said, No, I've reserved 7,000, but still 7,000 out of probably a couple million people in the nation of Israel, those are not great odds.
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_00: And then the one that we exemplify our life after, Jesus himself.
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_00: Three and a half years of miracles and preaching like nobody ever heard, and you know, um ministering to people, out of all he did when he gets to the end of his ministry.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, if it wasn't Jesus, I mean I can't say Jesus was a failure, but because that would be blasphemous.
• 12:21
  SPEAKER_00: But measuring the way we do by metrics, I mean, he should have had a mega church by three and a half years of that, but only 120 was in the upper room.
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_00: Three and a half years of incredible ministry to 120 people, but again, that's measuring the wrong things.
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_00: And so metrics matter, but measuring our obedience, or am I faithful to our call?
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_00: So I don't know, man.
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_00: It's it's it's a is it's it's just a weight that man just has to come off of us if we're gonna continue doing what God's called us to do.
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_00: Definitely.
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_01: And I think that's the thing is um, I even think about it like I would say my health journey, but I'll use your health journey as a better example because you've actually lost weight.
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_01: I just talk about trying to lose weight.
• 13:02
  SPEAKER_01: But like it didn't happen because you did like this really amazing, heroic thing.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_01: It's like I've seen it over the last two years.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_01: I see you at the gym, if I'm ever there, and you eat differently.
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_01: Like, that's what's happened.
• 13:17
  SPEAKER_01: And because of that, you have a result that two years ago you've been like, that's my goal, but I want it in three days.
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_01: And it's like, no, it takes yeah, it takes two years of being faithful to see something come to fruition that matters.
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_00: Now, this is a total side note, but I don't know if you've had um Skylar Scoops ice cream.
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, we're talking about trying to get them for some events for church, like for young adults and stuff.
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_00: Golly, you know, here's what's funny is if we do, I never get in line for the food trucks because I want our Faith Church family serve first.
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, they just need to hear it.
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_00: I'm getting in line.
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_00: I'm cutting it.
• 13:47
  SPEAKER_01: Just tell me which gallon you want, and I'll just have them put that one off to the side.
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_00: Their ice cream is cookie too stuff because they use bluebell.
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_00: I was there, we were there uh just two nights ago, and you know, when you're looking in the ice cream cabinet and there's always too deep, and I had mistaken the label, and he already had most of the ice cream in the cone, and I didn't want I didn't want that.
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_00: And he's like, Don't worry, and he just scooped it back out.
• 14:07
  SPEAKER_00: And so I actually got a little bit of what I didn't think I wanted, layered underneath what I did.
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_00: Perfect.
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_00: We're off we're off the rails, but ice cream just grabs my attention.
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so again, this idea, I just would challenge people to ask, what has God called you to do?
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_00: What's what is the burden he's given you?
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_00: What is the call that he's placed on your life?
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_00: What is the position that he's put you in?
• 14:26
  SPEAKER_00: And if you know what that is, um, fight discouragement with faithfulness.
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_00: Man, just find yourself going back to the Lord of your call.
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_00: Again, I hope you're making a difference in the way you might measure it.
• 14:39
  SPEAKER_00: I, you know, I always hope people respond to the message I preach.
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_00: I love to hear a good amen.
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_00: I love to hear people clap, but if people sit in total silence and nobody responds, but I preached what God called me to preach, that's what success is, and that's what I have to stay faithful to.
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_00: Second thing I said was being to be fruitful, which sounds like be successful.
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_00: But we measured fruitfulness the way that God does it, that it's not measured by um numbers, it's measured by nearness.
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_00: Uh Jesus said in John 15 that he is divine and we're the branches, and that if we stay connected to him, we'll bear much fruit.
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_00: So it's this idea again that man, we just get caught up in what is our right now impact.
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_00: But Jesus said, Hey, you're only going to really have a true impact in a relationship with me.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_00: Um I think there's way too many of us that are trying to make a difference in the world we live, in our own strengths.
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_00: And um, not that we shouldn't use our wisdom and not that we shouldn't use our muscles, but being godly people, we have the spirit of the Lord on the inside of us.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_00: And if we're not tapping into and trusting and relying on the strength of God, we really will accomplish nothing.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_00: But if we are trusting and relying on and staying near to Christ, I mean, with God all things are possible.
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_01: When when you were telling that us this this morning, what I immediately thought of when it said you will bear much fruit, it was like the nearness is the key.
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_01: But even you go, okay, so then if I'm near to God, I will get success.
• 16:03
  SPEAKER_01: That's what my brain does.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_01: It's like, okay, so near to him, that'll unlock it, and then I'll get the number.
• 16:07
  SPEAKER_01: But it's like the only other place I can think of in scripture that talks about fruit is the fruit of the spirit.
• 16:13
  SPEAKER_01: So the fruit that's going to be born by the nearness to God is love and joy and peace and patience.
• 16:19
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, well, those are the hard ones.
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_01: Just give me like tithe and offering and amens and and like volunteers and the kids' ministry.
• 16:27
  SPEAKER_01: Those are the that's the success.
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_01: I'm that's the fruit I want.
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_01: And God's like, why don't you just be kinder and more patient with your change.
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_01: I want them to change.
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_01: I'm like, why don't we just get rid of calories and ice cream, things like that, important things that people should be working on.
• 16:41
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I you may not know this.
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_00: This uh I think this happened before you got here, but for five or six years in a row, we got recognized by Outreach Magazine as you know, one of the fastest growing church, one of the top uh 100 fastest growing churches in the nation.
• 16:54
  SPEAKER_00: And uh, you know, every year to have them send us a form, we'd fill out our metrics because we keep track of how many people visit, how many people get saved, how many people get baptized, because those metrics do matter.
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 17:06
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, it's always just like, yeah, we won again, you know, and there's lots of churches and lots of pastors and lots of people serving in lots of positions that don't get that recognition.
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_00: And the enemy wants them to believe that, hey, you don't matter.
• 17:21
  SPEAKER_00: If you're not getting plaques, if you're not getting awards, then you don't really matter.
• 17:25
  SPEAKER_00: And when that weight comes on you, um, you know, again, I I said this earlier this morning that if the devil can't get you to quit on your faith, he'll get you to quit on your faithfulness.
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_00: If he can't get you to not believe in Jesus, he'll get you to believe that Jesus can't use you.
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_00: And man, we matter in the body of Christ.
• 17:41
  SPEAKER_00: We Jesus said that he's the light of the world, then he said, No, you're the light of the world.
• 17:45
  SPEAKER_00: So when he lives in us and we're close to him, man, that's where the difference comes from.
• 17:49
  SPEAKER_00: And so he's changing us as we're impacting our world.
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_00: And so be faithful, man.
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_00: What is the call God's called you to?
• 17:55
  SPEAKER_00: Be fruitful.
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_00: And sometimes we start thinking it's about us and it's not.
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_00: I want to read this.
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_00: This is um, you know, I we still have these conversations today, like, hey, who's the best pastor out there?
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, we drop Stephen Furtick and Joel Osteen Red Young, or whoever your favorite speaker is.
• 18:10
  SPEAKER_00: I know that um Philip Anthony Michael, he's the guy now.
• 18:14
  SPEAKER_00: Um but during the first century church, everybody had their favorite speaker, who their who their favorite pastor was.
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_00: Like he's the one building the church.
• 18:21
  SPEAKER_00: No, you know, it's it's it's Apollos, it's Paul.
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_00: And Paul catches wind of this and he really narrows down where where real change comes from.
• 18:30
  SPEAKER_00: And he says in 1 Corinthians uh chapter 3, he says in verse uh verse 8 and verse 9, he says, After all, who who's really Apollos and who is Paul?
• 18:40
  SPEAKER_00: We are only God's servants through whom you believe the good news.
• 18:43
  SPEAKER_00: Each of us did what did the work the Lord gave us.
• 18:47
  SPEAKER_00: I planted the seed in your heart, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow.
• 18:51
  SPEAKER_00: So my call isn't like I can't change people.
• 18:56
  SPEAKER_00: I can't save people, I can't help people be holy, righteous.
• 19:00
  SPEAKER_00: I can't as much as I want you to be a good father, and I can encourage you and pray for you and give you books, but at the end of the day, it's it's God that's doing it through us.
• 19:09
  SPEAKER_00: So if we want to make a difference in this world, God's not gonna do it without us.
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_00: So don't tap out, don't give up.
• 19:15
  SPEAKER_00: And we can't do it without God.
• 19:16
  SPEAKER_00: We have to stay near to him and connected to him.
• 19:19
  SPEAKER_00: And so I would just challenge pastors, church leaders, church people, Jesus lovers.
• 19:24
  SPEAKER_00: Man, if you're not spending some consistent quality time with the Lord, it's gonna be really hard to be the husband, wife, mother, father, um, incredible staff member.
• 19:34
  SPEAKER_00: It's gonna be hard for us to do what God's called us to do in our own strength.
• 19:37
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 19:37
  SPEAKER_01: It's that same thing as like the fruitfulness and that impact that you're making, or like people that are working a secular job and they're like, none of my coworkers are coming to church with me.
• 19:48
  SPEAKER_01: None of my coworkers are getting saved.
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_01: Like they're still living, you know, rails off every weekend or whatever.
• 19:55
  SPEAKER_01: But it's it's about that going back to that faithfulness and that nearness to God.
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_01: And then as you bear the fruit of peace, when their life hits rock bottom, they're gonna be like, you know who's like a super like grounded, happy, joyful, like peaceful presence, you know, like maybe they might have something.
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_01: And I think that's kind of what you have to be looking at too is that consistency and the nearness to God is what will over time see things grow.
• 20:25
  SPEAKER_00: I'm sure you know, you probably have heard stories like this.
• 20:27
  SPEAKER_00: I have, I can't think of a person specifically off the top of my head sitting here, but I've heard over and over again about grandmothers or mothers that like just kept praying.
• 20:39
  SPEAKER_00: Say, like would tell their son, you know, they were in rebellion or never served the Lord or was a prodigal that had walked away from God.
• 20:44
  SPEAKER_00: But man, for not days and not weeks and not months, and sometimes not years, sometimes decades, just daily prayed for their loved one.
• 20:53
  SPEAKER_00: And man, years down the road, they ended up coming back to Christ.
• 20:56
  SPEAKER_00: And I mean, I'm I would imagine, you know, I've I'll be I can be honest and say I've never prayed for somebody that long.
• 21:03
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you know, but praying, I've prayed for people that haven't been saved yet.
• 21:06
  SPEAKER_00: And sometimes it's like, Lord, come on, when is that gonna happen?
• 21:08
  SPEAKER_00: But our role is to pray.
• 21:10
  SPEAKER_00: It's God's role to answer the prayer.
• 21:12
  SPEAKER_00: We can't change that person, but God can.
• 21:14
  SPEAKER_00: And again, you know, discouragement has just a way of getting us out of God using us.
• 21:20
  SPEAKER_00: And um, you know, our goal is not just to get saved and go to heaven, our goal is to get saved and then be a part of other people going to heaven.
• 21:26
  SPEAKER_00: And we do that by being greeters and serving in the parking lot, loving kids and holding babies and teaching teenagers and uh being great staff members on whatever pla wherever place we work, like we can be a light wherever we are, but we got to stay faithful to the call on our life.
• 21:42
  SPEAKER_00: We got to stay fruitful by staying near to Christ.
• 21:44
  SPEAKER_00: And then the last one I said is be flexible.
• 21:48
  SPEAKER_00: And now this sign's contrary, like, hey, just sit back and let God do it all.
• 21:52
  SPEAKER_00: But to me, this is where wisdom comes in.
• 21:54
  SPEAKER_00: This is where us being insightful comes in.
• 21:57
  SPEAKER_00: This is God giving us wisdom where sometimes we have to look at what we're Doing and realizing that we're not getting a great result.
• 22:02
  SPEAKER_00: And we love Jesus and we're staying close to him.
• 22:05
  SPEAKER_00: We're doing what he's called us to do.
• 22:07
  SPEAKER_00: But if we're not seeing change, maybe it's because something you're doing needs to change.
• 22:11
  SPEAKER_00: So I said it this way: you know, that life change happens when when the lens changes.
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_00: That you have to look at what you're doing different.
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_00: One of the things that I think God's gifted me to do that I've seen a lot of success in, again, measuring by just metrics, but is systems.
• 22:25
  SPEAKER_00: Like when a first-time guest comes in or a visitor comes in, or a first-time giver, or if someone gets baptized, what do you do with that person?
• 22:32
  SPEAKER_00: And if you're strategic and intentional and helping them take steps, you can see them grow.
• 22:37
  SPEAKER_00: And so, you know, this idea of being flexible, or as a dad, your example, there's probably things you learned from your parents that worked well with you.
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_00: And there's probably some things that maybe they did that didn't work well with you.
• 22:50
  SPEAKER_00: And if you're not willing to change some of those behaviors, you're just gonna keep getting the same results.
• 22:55
  SPEAKER_00: So I don't what do you what did you hear when you heard be flexible?
• 22:58
  SPEAKER_01: It can mean something different.
• 23:01
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I'm very inflexible as a person.
• 23:05
  SPEAKER_01: Uh say my wife will attest to that.
• 23:08
  SPEAKER_01: I'm very much like like uh a little story.
• 23:12
  SPEAKER_01: So I when when I was a teenager, when my friends would come over, what they would do to mess with me is they would move my shampoo and my face wash in the shower, and then they would see if I put it back where it belongs.
• 23:26
  SPEAKER_01: And they would and I would every time.
• 23:28
  SPEAKER_01: And then they told my dad that they were doing it, and my dad started doing it to me.
• 23:32
  SPEAKER_01: So every day my my body wash would be in the wrong spot, and without even thinking about it, I'd put it back where it belongs.
• 23:38
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm like, I'm that inflexible.
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_01: Like things have like if things aren't how they're supposed to be, I'm gonna change them.
• 23:43
  SPEAKER_01: It's a problem.
• 23:44
  SPEAKER_01: I'm working through.
• 23:46
  SPEAKER_01: But when I when I think about that flexibility, I think it's you know, you referenced Paul of becoming all things to all people.
• 23:55
  SPEAKER_01: And that doesn't mean compromising your convictions, but it does mean maybe you're going to get yourself out of your comfort zone.
• 24:03
  SPEAKER_01: That's really what it I think it is to me.
• 24:05
  SPEAKER_01: It's like, hey, if you're if your coworkers are always asking to go out after work and they're gonna go and get sloshed and you're not, you could probably go out for the first 45 minutes and drink uh Coke Zero, because it's better than Diet Coke, and drink a Coke Zero with them and hang out for an hour and just be like, man, it was so good to hang out with you guys.
• 24:27
  SPEAKER_01: All right, I'm getting out of here.
• 24:28
  SPEAKER_01: Like you putting yourself in an environment that's out of your comfort zone without compromising your convictions, you're able to enter into their world a little bit more and the guards down a little bit, but you have to be smart with it.
• 24:40
  SPEAKER_01: You have to have that wisdom you're talking about to navigate those things.
• 24:44
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 24:44
  SPEAKER_00: So to me, being faithful is what are you called to do?
• 24:47
  SPEAKER_00: Being flexible is how are you called to do it.
• 24:49
  SPEAKER_00: So you can say, man, I'm there's, I think there are a lot of preachers that get up every Sunday and really they spent time with the Lord, they crafted a message and it doesn't land really well.
• 24:58
  SPEAKER_00: Well, they're faithful and they're trying to be fruitful by staying connected to Christ, but they're not having an impact because maybe they just need to adjust some style or some presentation.
• 25:08
  SPEAKER_00: So there's room for all of us, man.
• 25:10
  SPEAKER_00: We want to be successful, but um sometimes we got to change what we're doing.
• 25:13
  SPEAKER_00: And I I gave a man just such an incredible example this morning of a man named Hudson Taylor.
• 25:19
  SPEAKER_00: This generation, man, we have just forgotten so many incredible missionaries and the impact they've made in our world.
• 25:25
  SPEAKER_00: And real quick, Hudson Taylor, if you don't know his story, he was called at age 17 to be a missionary to China.
• 25:30
  SPEAKER_00: At that time, there were no missionaries to China, so it was odd for even him to even want to go.
• 25:36
  SPEAKER_00: But that was his call.
• 25:37
  SPEAKER_00: So he was gonna stay faithful to his call.
• 25:39
  SPEAKER_00: So he goes and man, he faced so much persecution.
• 25:42
  SPEAKER_00: Um, the missionary uh organization that was financing him pulled their financing.
• 25:47
  SPEAKER_00: He had to come home and kind of regroup.
• 25:49
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, he went over, his son ended up dying, got sick and died.
• 25:52
  SPEAKER_00: Another son drowned in a river in China.
• 25:56
  SPEAKER_00: Um, his wife got pregnant, and uh um I think the child died maybe the next day, and then she died 17 days later from tuberculosis, lost a daughter.
• 26:06
  SPEAKER_00: So he's lost finances, he's lost um income, he's lost family, and he's just tried to stay diligent.
• 26:14
  SPEAKER_00: Finally, he kind of reorganized and kind of here's what I want people to hear.
• 26:17
  SPEAKER_00: Here's a guy that was staying faithful to the call.
• 26:18
  SPEAKER_00: He kept, kept on the mission field.
• 26:20
  SPEAKER_00: He loved Jesus, but he wasn't seeing the Chinese people impacted.
• 26:24
  SPEAKER_00: One of the things he realized was when he was out preaching that they would scorn him and throw stones at him because he was dressed like a Westerner.
• 26:30
  SPEAKER_00: He was from England, he had that accent, that was his entire comfort zone.
• 26:34
  SPEAKER_00: That's how he decorated his house.
• 26:35
  SPEAKER_00: And he decided to do what Paul said.
• 26:37
  SPEAKER_00: Hey, I'm gonna become all things, all people, that I might win some.
• 26:40
  SPEAKER_00: And he began to dress like a China person, like a Chinese person.
• 26:44
  SPEAKER_00: Um and then the people back home began to scorn him and make fun of him.
• 26:47
  SPEAKER_00: But Hudson Taylor made such an impact on the nation of China, not just the people he was preaching to, but schools were built, pastor training schools were built, all because of Hudson Taylor's willing to be willingness to be flexible.
• 27:00
  SPEAKER_00: And so, you know, I think there's something in all of us we just have to pull back and uh maybe reconsider how are we doing what we're doing.
• 27:06
  SPEAKER_00: So don't quit your don't quit your post, don't walk away from your role, uh, don't abandon your calling, don't give up, don't tap out.
• 27:13
  SPEAKER_00: Um, stay faithful, man.
• 27:15
  SPEAKER_00: Stay committed to what Christ has called you to do, stay close to the one who's called you to do it, and maybe just just reconsider how you're doing it.
• 27:22
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe God will give you some wisdom to just adjust something small and you can become more effective in being the person that God has called you to be.
• 27:29
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's so good.
• 27:30
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, what's maybe I'll give you the closing thought.
• 27:32
  SPEAKER_00: Oh man.
• 27:33
  SPEAKER_01: Um Yeah, I think I think it just depends on where you're at, which one of those resonates the most.
• 27:40
  SPEAKER_01: I think for me, I think I get caught in the fruitfulness and I and I work a lot harder than I pray.
• 27:46
  SPEAKER_01: And I think that's where I get caught.
• 27:48
  SPEAKER_01: So I think um there's probably one of them that really resonated with people today.
• 27:54
  SPEAKER_01: So I think you just kind of start with that and just go, okay, well, if I'm if I'm not being faithful, if I'm not working my hardest at work, you need to change that and start doing what you're supposed to do.
• 28:05
  SPEAKER_01: If if you're not pursuing God, if you're not having time with Him, do that.
• 28:10
  SPEAKER_01: And if you are so stuck in your ways and you've been doing those things forever and nothing's nothing's changing, and then maybe you need to take a step back and and look at a new lens, look through a new lens.
• 28:21
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 28:21
  SPEAKER_01: But um, yeah, that's that's my encouragement.
• 28:23
  SPEAKER_01: Is there's there's one of those areas to start with today, I'm sure.
• 28:26
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I we don't normally do this, man, but I want to pray for those who are hearing this because uh again, hearing the number of pastors that are tapping out, and that just I think it explodes down to volunteers and other staff pastors and people in marriages and homes.
• 28:39
  SPEAKER_00: And so uh man, I just want to pray for people that don't want to quit.
• 28:42
  SPEAKER_00: So, Father, we come in the name of Jesus.
• 28:44
  SPEAKER_00: And um, the simplicity and the foundation of who we are as Christ followers is Jesus' Lord.
• 28:50
  SPEAKER_00: And so, Lord, will you help everybody that has um has a desire to quit, has a frustration and a question of whether they're making a difference?
• 28:58
  SPEAKER_00: Lord, will you remind them at the end of the day that their success is not the strength of what they're doing, it's not the numerics of what they're doing, it's not the metrics of what they're doing.
• 29:08
  SPEAKER_00: Lord, it's simplicity of just am I doing what God you've called me to do?
• 29:11
  SPEAKER_00: And so, Holy Spirit, I pray, remind us of our call.
• 29:14
  SPEAKER_00: Let it burn deep in our heart, God, to do it well, to do it with excellence, and God, to do it in your strength and not our own.
• 29:19
  SPEAKER_00: And then, God, give us the wisdom, Lord, of where we possibly need to adjust to be more effective.
• 29:23
  SPEAKER_00: But God, I pray in the name of Jesus, God help us to stay faithful to our race in Jesus' name.
• 29:28
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 29:29
  SPEAKER_00: Hey, thanks again for joining us.
• 29:30
  SPEAKER_00: We'll see you next week for the extra mile.