So I'm going to jump right into it today.
I'm going to be talking about Whispers in the wilderness.
Whispers in the wilderness and we're going to start in Luke 41.
I'm going to read a chunk and then we're going to kind of jump
back into some stuff. But I want to read it and kind
of set precedent first and then we'll kind of go through it.
So Luke 41 says Now Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned
from the Jordan and was being LED around by the Spirit in the
wilderness for 40 days, being tempted by the devil.
And he ate nothing during those days.
And when they had finished, he was hungry.
And the devil said to him, If you are the Son of God, tell
this stone to become bread. And Jesus answered him, it is
written, Man shall not live on bread alone.
And he led him up and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in
a moment of time. And the devil said to him, I
will give you all this dominion and its glory, for it has been
handed over to me, and I give it to whomever I wish.
Therefore if you worship before me, it shall all be yours.
And Jesus answered and said to him, It is written, You shall
not worship the Lord. It is written, you shall worship
the Lord your God and serve him only.
And he led him to Jerusalem, and had him stand on the pinnacle of
the temple, and said to him, If you are the Son of God, throw
yourself down from here. For it is written, He will
command his angels concerning you to guard you on their hands.
They will bear you up, least you strike your foot against a
stone. And Jesus answered and said to
him, It is said, You shall not put the Lord your God to test.
And when the devil had finished every temptation, he left him
until an opportune time. And Jesus returned to Galilee in
the power of the Spirit and news about him spread through all the
surrounding district. And he was teaching in their
synagogues, being glorified by all to set a little story and
what we're going here. Obviously Jesus got baptized and
then right after he got baptized, being full of the
Spirit was then LED into the wilderness by the Spirit to be
tempted, right? So Jesus didn't get baptized and
then run straight into ministry. He got baptized and then was led
into the wilderness to fast and then ultimately be tempted,
right? So every destiny begins with a
test. Before Jesus ever preached A
sermon, healed the sick, walked on water, or did all those
amazing things he did, he spent time in the wilderness growing
in his relationship with God, right?
And what we have throughout this passage is 3 real layers of
temptation that I want to go over today.
Because the same 3 layers of temptation that Satan tried on
Jesus are the same three things he uses against us all the time,
right? And so the first one was
cravings, right? It was the test of the flesh,
his desires, right? He had been walking around and
and fasting for 40 days in the wilderness.
And the first thing Satan does is say, hey, why don't you turn
these rocks into bread, right? The very first temptation was to
just get you to fall for the most simplest of desires.
Jesus was hungry, right? The most natural craving you can
have is being hungry, right? Most of you right now are
probably on the verge of getting hungry, right?
You woke up, you got ready, you ate some breakfast, then you got
here and there's prayer, there's worship, there's all this stuff.
It's 1117 and we're thinking, man, I got about 45 minutes
until I really start needing some food, you know?
And so we have the most natural desire is wanting food.
For those of you who know that I've been running, I started
running a lot. It's something I've really been
enjoying. But through that, it kind of
like changed my metabolism. And so now I've realized, like,
when I'm hungry, I need food like quick.
Like there's no like real waiting.
It's like when it hits, it hits and I start to feel like my
stomach starts falling. I mean, I felt start to feel
faintish. I'm like, I need to get food in
right now. I don't have time to wait for
anything. Matter of fact, one day I went
and worked out and then did a run and then went to my sister's
house to have breakfast and she started cooking the pancakes.
And I was like, man, I can't wait for these pancakes to get
done. The amount after we feed the
kids and they get all cooked and all that kind of, I'm talking 45
minutes before I eat like I'm going to have to do something.
I had to go grab a protein shake and just go ahead and down it
cuz I'm like, I need something now, right?
But the first temptation Jesus was dealt with was the most
natural one. It was his hunger, it was his
appetite. It was something he craved
after. It was a flesh test.
And if you let your desires Dr. you, right?
Will you let your desires Dr. you or will you let God's Word
sustain you right? We have to ask the question,
will we let our desires drive us or do we let God's Word sustain
us? And if we're not careful, then
we can just fall into this craving mentality.
I need something now, therefore I grab what I need now.
The flesh is all about the instant.
It's about responding instantaneously, right?
It's all about what I need in this moment to help me right
now. This is where we get ourselves
in the most trouble because we're presented with a problem
and we try to solve it quickly, not just solve it the way God
needs us to. We jump into I can take care of
this when maybe God needs you to do it a certain way, right?
So are we led by the our desires or do we let the God's word
sustain us, right. So during this temptation, one
thing I do want to cover real quick is obviously Satan was
present himself with Jesus, right?
Satan was there, this temptation was there.
But Satan is not omnipresent, right?
So when we talk about this number one thing of cravings in
our flesh, a lot of times if we're not careful, we try to
over spiritualize what is just a flesh battle and we act like,
oh, Satan's attacking me. No, your fallen state is
attacking you, right? Your flesh is trying to get you
to do something. Satan himself isn't whispering
in your ear, right? He, we, we, if we're not
careful, we make Satan way more powerful than he is.
We start to try to take the attributes of God and apply them
to Satan. That's not how that works at
all, right? So our flesh battles that we
deal with are our battles to deal with.
This is why, like in James 114, it says, but each one is tempted
when he's carried away by his own lusts, right?
You're tempted by your own lust, you're tempted by your own
desires, by your own cravings. And This is why we have to be
able to conquer our cravings, our self, right?
In Galatians, it lets us know that the flesh sets itself
against the spirit. It doesn't want the things of
God. Those are natural things that
occur in your body as a state of the fall, not Satan just being
there whispering at you. And I need you to understand
that because if we try to pin this on Satan, then we try to
make we eliminate ourself from the equation like, well, it's
just because I'm just no, you have the ability to overcome
your cravings. You have the ability to overcome
your flesh. You have the ability to walk by
the spirit just like you say, No, I don't need this now.
I will let the word continues to sustain me through this moment.
I think it's very interesting that this was the first Test
from Satan because he knew if I can just get him to eat right
now, he will automatically be easier to deal with later.
If I can get him to fold in his own flesh, there's no way I'll
need to mess with any of the other callings.
There's no way I'll have to go into anything else because if he
can't manage his flesh, he can't manage the rest, right?
Until you learn to manage your flesh, you'll never step into
everything God has for you. You'll never step into the
fullness of God. First Corinthians 927 says, But
I discipline my body and make it my slave, so that after I have
preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified.
If you can't master your cravings, your cravings will
master you. If you cannot master your
cravings, then your cravings will master you.
What you spend your time feeding is what will fill you.
And if I continue to feed my flesh, the spirit cannot take
place in my life. It cannot fill space that I
don't make available for it. And if I keep myself full of
everything the world's going on and all my problems and I just
kind of try to take my flesh and say, well, that's just, you
know, that's just my personality.
No, your personality of being born again is the fruits of the
spirit, right? This is why it says, hey, become
born again and made new. It's saying, yeah, you might
have had that personality, but once you accepted Christ, you've
entered into the ability to walk in every fruit I've given you
and have the personality that's in the Word.
So your flesh can no longer control you if you don't allow
it to. But the more I feed to it, the
stronger the craving for it becomes.
When I was in high school, I used to drink Mountain Dew like
every day, like multiple times a day, like all the time.
I had one in my back pocket, so much so that some of my teachers
would buy them for me and set them on my desk before I showed
up so that I wouldn't leave their class, right?
Like it was like I drank a lot of soda, just like a ton.
And then, you know, I got married and my wife was awesome.
And she did like the awesome wife thing, which she's like,
I'm going to make her home cooked meals.
I'm going to have all this nice stuff.
And then like, I went to a pool party one day and I saw myself
and I was like, I got to make some life changes like country
fried steak, gravy, mashed potatoes, fried okra is
definitely sustaining me maybe a little too well, right?
And so it's like I got to make some changes here.
And so one of the first things I did was like, I'm going to cut
out soda so that I'm not drinking calories.
And so there was these drinks. They're still around.
They're called like Zebias, right?
Has anyone had a Zebia before? They have a very distinct taste
and it's like 1. Like the first one you try is
disgusting. I don't drink them anymore
anyways, I just drink water. But the first one you try is
gross. It should, it's not good.
But once you make it through like a whole case, you're kind
of like this ain't too bad. Well, this is fine and then
you're like used to it. But the minute you drink a
normal soda after that, you realize like this is garbage.
Why am I drinking this right? So if you allow yourself to just
become accustomed to something, then your body will want it.
Meaning my flesh wants the things of the flesh, my spirit
wants the things of the spirit. The more I feed one side or the
other, the more my body will continue to align with one or
the other. And the minute I try to step
back into the things of the flesh, your desire then comes
back even stronger, because you know better, right?
So we have to master our cravings and not let them master
us. If you can't starve the craving,
the craving will starve your calling.
If you cannot starve the craving, then the craving will
starve your calling. Philippians 317 says Brethren,
join in following my example and observe those who walk according
to the pattern you have in us for many walk, of whom I often
told you and now tell you, even weeping, that they are enemies
of the cross of the of Christ, whose end is destruction, whose
God is their appetite, and whose glory is in their shame, who set
their minds on earthly things. When we allow our minds to be
set on earthly things and we allow our cravings to dictate
everything we do, we become an enemy to Christ because you
cannot walk out all of the things of Christ while trying to
take the path of the world. You can't do it and This is why
it was the first temptation because it's the one everyone
deals with right out the gate. The very first thing you'll do
is you'll get born again. You'll accept Jesus into your
life. I confess with my mouth and I
believe in my heart that He is Lord.
Lord means supreme and authority.
Lord means I am now saying I will do your way and your way
only. See, when I called the youth
down to get born again, I don't just say confess with your
mouth. Believe in your heart that he's
Lord. I explain what Lord is because I
think that's the the key that so many people missed in salvation
was they're like, well, I did confess and I do believe.
But then we didn't adapt the mindset that no, now I have to
change the way I think about everything and apply the word in
my life daily and walk that out daily.
Because if I don't think he can't be Lord because Lord means
he rules and reigns over my life.
It's not my life, it's his life, and I'm just doing the things
he's told me to do right? And so those paths don't cross
the world my way never crosses into.
He's still Lord. You can either make Him Lord and
follow His Word, or you can try to continually do things on your
own, on your own path. And what feeds your flesh can
starve your faith. What feeds your flesh will
starve your faith. And when we get into the
mentality of problem arises, I can solve it.
I've eliminated needing faith in my life because if I'm always
the one trying to take care of situations myself, where's the
faith? The Bible tells us to go from
faith to faith. When I'm talking to young adults
and people, they ask me like yo, I'm trying to decide what's next
in my life and say, OK, what are you believing God for in that
direction? Well, what do you mean God is
not going to call you to something that won't require
faith to achieve it. Because we are to go from faith
to faith, which means I'm always looking for my next step to
require more God than the last step.
Because God's not building me up to accomplish things on my own.
He's building me up to trust Him so that when the next step
comes, I trust him even more. That's faith to faith.
But if I'm always feeding my flesh, then I'm eliminating
opportunities to feed my faith. Often times we think when a
trial situations or a bump comes, we're like, oh man, this
stinks. When the truth is, no, this is
your chance to enact your faith. This isn't a problem.
This is an opportunity for you to grow in the things of God,
for you to look back and say, look how God was faithful so
that when the next situation arises, we look back and go,
look how God was faithful and we continue to grow and grow.
And if we don't conquer this, if we don't conquer our cravings,
we'll never step into Our Calling, which is why the second
temptation is callings. It was the test of purpose.
The first temptation was cravings, the second was
callings and Luke 4/6. He says, I will give you all
this dominion. If you worship before me, it
shall be yours. Satan offered Jesus a chance at
the crown without the cost of the cross.
Satan said, hey, you were sent here by God to, to get all, to
become king, to get all this dominion back.
I can give that to you now. Just worship me.
Hear me out. Satan's second temptation was so
that Jesus could fulfill the thing he was sent to do.
The second temptation was, hey, God called you to do this.
I can give it to you. I can make this happen.
It was to to achieve your calling through your own means.
It was authority without obedience.
It was purpose without the process.
And This is why we get people who who can walk in the gifts on
the wrong path because the gifts and callings are not to be taken
away. Meaning God has provided you
with things to accomplish to do. He's give, you give.
This is why he got so many secular music artists who
started in the church. Then they started singing on
their own. They didn't all of a sudden
start sounding bad just because they're no longer singing for
the church. No, God gave them a gift.
They then chose to carve out their own path.
And if we're not careful, we can conquer our cravings.
And then God's like, I'm ready to appoint you to something.
And then we go and try to find our own way to get that
appointment. Well, I mean, man, if I take
this job, I'll be able to make more money.
I'll be able to make my own hours and then I can sow more
than ever. And the next thing you know,
you're working so much to keep up with something.
It's pulled you out of the church because there's the
thing. Satan has no problem giving you
something that doesn't advance the Kingdom.
This is why we get to the situation in the Bible where it
says, Lord, Lord, didn't I call out your name?
Why? Because they were under the
impression I was doing something for you.
But God says you did something in my name on your path.
You tried to operate in your destiny yourself, and Satan has
no problem paving a path that looks glorious, that looks
amazing, that makes it look like you're doing anything, and he
doesn't even mind if you give credit to God as long as it's
not actually advancing his Kingdom.
Because often times the ones who do that think they're giving
glory to God, but the truth is they're giving a fake
representation of what Christianity should be in the
1st place and you're leading people astray thinking you can
do whatever you want and still make him Lord.
No, Christ has a standard to obtain to and to live by.
And if you try to accomplish your calling without walking in
the standard, you'll fall away. But falling away, oftentimes I
think we think in our minds that that means, well, you're going
to look at someone's life and be like, look how rough their life
got. Look how rough their life is now
once they left the church. That's not a representation of
just going out. Because in the end, like we've
said, there's so many successful people not in the church because
they're not doing anything. Therefore they're not a problem,
right? We don't.
When you set out to to make waves, if you're wanting to
break up, something's working. You don't go around picking off
the ones that aren't actually doing anything, right?
You let them continue to do whatever they want.
They're not a problem anyways. You go after the ones making the
most impact, you go after the stuff that's going to affect you
the most, and let the little things work themselves out on
their own. So if you aren't careful, you
can start to walk in the gifts and callings God placed in your
path on a path he didn't pay for you right?
That's why you got people who can be talented but toxic.
They can be called but compromised because you've got
gifts, you've got abilities, but then you don't live the
standard, so your life can't produce anything of the Spirit
because there's no spirit in it to produce.
Proverbs 131412 says there is a way which seems right to man,
but its end is the way of death. There's a way that seems right
to a man, but it's end is the way to death.
This scripture is great because I feel like this does speak to
all men because most most men are problem solvers.
Most men do want to try to take care of things pretty quickly,
and we can always find a way that seems right to us pretty
fast. But the question is, do we step
back and say, is this the path that God actually wants me to
take? Right?
Because when we try to take shortcuts to just get something
done, that's when we end up making them way worse in the
end. You know, a lot of times we get
rushed and we're like, man, I got to take care of this.
So we try to do something quick, but then we create a way bigger
mess on the back end that has to be cleaned up later.
But because we're not cleaning up it now, it seems like we're
OK. And then when we get to the new
problem, we don't always associate it back to the fact
that we shortcutted the problem. We think, oh, this is a new
problem now. This is the consequences to the
shortcut, right? And a lot of times a shortcut to
like your calling is just a long road to compromise.
And the more shortcuts you try to take in what God's place in
you, eventually you just find a life of compromise.
You start to allow little things that you would have never at one
point, all of a sudden they're OK.
That's how justifying things works.
Little by little, we let things creep in.
And if we aren't careful, they'll ultimately cost us Our
Calling. John 1010 says the thief comes
only to steal and kill and destroy.
I came that they may have a life and have it abundantly right.
So the enemy will offer you the world if it costs you your
worship. Satan's second temptation, man
was I'll give you everything God placed on your heart.
Just worship me. Just do it my way.
Now, when we read that, we think, oh, I would obviously not
do that. Like, I mean, we're all like, we
all can read this thing. Like I would obviously not do
that. It's obviously never presented
like that. We're reading the story of the
temptation of Jesus with Satan there.
That's not how your life is going to play out.
Your life is going to play out with I feel that I have a gift.
I want my gift to be used. That church isn't using my gift
right now, but this place will. And so they obviously are the
place I need to be. Right, Well, this place values
my gift more so clearly they're the ones that I should be giving
it to. OK, say law, right?
Those are those little things that we with our flesh and
ourselves here, not Satan sitting up there going you
should leave that the church. But if we're being honest, half
the time it really is that obvious.
We've just let so many little things go by that we miss how
obvious it truly is. And then someone comes here and
like, man, that's so obviously not the calling for you.
And you're like, oh, you don't know me.
Right, if we're not careful and we don't fully walk in the
things God's called us into and we don't stand firm in the
calling of God and firm in the calling that's placed on our
life and realize easy doesn't equal like the right path.
No, the right path will always require faith, which means the
right path will always have a level of unknown.
Because faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God.
Faith is the substance of things what hope for the evidence of
things not. Which means it's when I don't
see the outcome of something that my faith is now enacted to
work. I don't see the path, but I have
to trust it's there. I'm sorry.
My wife, I love her, has the worst night vision in the entire
world. Like I'm talking we we get in
bed, I cut off the light, I get in bed, she goes and does
something. She'd come back and she opens
the door and she's just like, where is everything?
I can't see? And here's I can see perfectly
fine. So from her perspective, pitch
black from my perspective, you got like these baby steps of
like, I'm completely lost. But I always kind of in my mom,
like you've walked from that door to the bed every night for
years. How do we not just like, we just
walk like like I, I don't really honestly think about it at night
in the house. I just walk.
And it would be if something was not where it was supposed to be,
that would catch me off guard. My faith in God becomes so
strong that like, hey, I don't have to see the direct path.
I trust that you'll keep it clear and make it plain as I'm
walking and if I hit something that shouldn't be there, then
I've got to assess. Did I misstep or is this just
another battle for me to overcome to strengthen my
placement? Faith is through the unknown.
Your calling should take you into the unknown.
We always like to read these amazing historical accounts in
the Bible and then a lot of times we try to apply and well,
how would I do this? And you're like, well, Moses was
called and he just left and had, but Moses had a direction, but
he did just leave, right? And then we look at like all the
disciples were like, man to walk with Jesus.
Those guys left everything and then walked with them.
No promise of salary, no 40 hours of vacation, no health
care, no anything but a word and a calling.
All I need is a word and a calling.
And Jesus responded to all these temptations with a word because
he knew his calling. He said no.
I know that that's exactly what I'm here for, but I also know
that's not how I'm supposed to obtain it.
And if Satan can't confuse your calling, then he'll attack your
convictions. The third temptation was
convictions. The third temptation was a test
of belief, a test of his theology, A test of do you truly
believe God's character? Do you truly believe God will do
what he says he will do? It was no longer about appetite
or ambition. It was about do you trust God at
his word? And we see that Satan twists the
Bible itself. He says, for it is written, you
know, if you throw yourself down, they'll pick you up
quoting Scripture. This is why we have to be
studiers of the word rightly dividing, because we can give
flowery scriptures to try to convince something of something.
You can. Well, I can, I can, you know.
Well, God said, you know, he works a mysterious way like, no,
he works exactly like his word says he'll work.
There's nothing mysterious about it but you.
But you said faith is going into the unknown.
Yeah, that's not mysterious because God called me there and
I know when I believe it, He will reveal what is to come,
right? We have to understand the Word
so much that when we hear it presented wrongly, we can go.
That's not it. This is why some of you haven't
heard sermons before. And then something hits you and
kind of like that just feels a little wrong.
Like just feels a little wrong. And maybe you can't perfectly
place me like that just seems just a little.
That's your spirit saying, hey, you should probably study this
out more. This is why I love that Apostle
Earl says, don't take anything we say at face value.
Study it for yourself. It is our job to present a word.
It is your job to study it out and then apply it to your life.
You are not obligated to believe anything about my message today,
but you are obligated to go home, look at this scripture
again and say man does this line up because if it does then I
should probably apply it. This is a church that believes
in the studying of the word for yourself.
This is not a church where we just want to get up here and
just throw things at you and say don't challenge me.
No, you think you got something, You can schedule a meeting.
We can talk about it. We can go through Scripture
together, but bring Scripture because I'm not about opinions,
I'm about Word. If you want to have Word
conversations, we can have Word conversations, but let's bring
the Word and then we'll rightly divide it.
Faith doesn't demand proof. It demonstrates obedience.
Your convictions should demonstrate through obedience.
I believe God at His Word so much that I will do exactly what
He says every time, because I believe the rewards and I
believe what happens when I don't.
Because I am firmly persuaded that if I do the Word, it will
work in my life. I'm firmly persuaded that God's
Word works always. And if something is not adding
up in my life, then I've gotten off somewhere and I'm going to
figure it out, James, 16, says. But he must ask in faith,
doubting nothing. For the one who doubts is like
the surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind.
We need to come to a place in our belief in the word that we
stand on it without doubt. Now this doesn't mean that there
might be opportunities to doubt that arise.
And it might not mean that you might not have a thought that
goes, hey, this isn't going to work.
And you go, no, what? No.
And we cast them down. No one's saying that that
doesn't mean something won't try to attack you.
At every level, no matter how strong your word, faith and walk
is, things will present themselves that seem contrary to
the word. But your conviction is tested
when you're walking through something that seems contrary to
the word. Because do I believe it even
though I'm not seeing it walked out right now?
My true convictions are tested in that moment.
And my faith isn't proven by miracles.
It's proven by my obedience. It's proven through my obedience
to continue to walk and apply and do the Word no matter what
the situation around me looks like.
Throughout all three of these temptations, Jesus could have
found a different way out. He could have done something
else. He could have folded to his
cravings. He could have been tempted by
his calling. But he knew the Word won't be
with me in that solution. The Word is only with me in the
path God placed for me. The Word is only with me in the
path God place for me. Hebrews 11/1 says now faith is
the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things
not seem so. Conviction is trusting God when
proof is absent, right? So if the devil can't take your
calling, he'll try to shake your convictions.
Once he realizes, no, this guy knows what he's placed to do,
he'll try to say, do you really believe what you say you
believe? Are you really going to walk in
what you say? You'll you'll walk in because
you can be walking in your calling.
You can be putting down your cravings.
And then situations can arrive that you're like one of my like,
what's going on? Why is have I stepped off?
No, this is just another moment to increase your faith to
prepare yourself for more things to come.
A battle presented does not always mean you've done
something wrong, right? This is why we can't make
everything about personal Satan. Because just because there's a
bump in the road doesn't mean the devil placed it there.
Some roads are just a little bumpy.
And the more we learn to deal with them and handle them, the
more we grow in our faith, the more faith is then required for
us in the next season. Which means I'm always knowing,
hey, if I want this come, if I really want to do things for
God, the minute I do, that next phase that comes is going to
require even more. And so you want to add a lot of
times I think we were like, oh man, I'm just ready for the next
season. If it's truly the next time
you're getting into, if it's truly the next phase you're
walking into, make sure you are ready.
Because if you thought the last one was hard and you're hoping
to get to the next one just so, it'll be easy.
No, what makes it easy. What makes it easy is my
conviction, knowing that I don't really care what's presented.
I know God's going to take care of it anyways.
It's not the lack of battle that makes it easier, it's the
strength and the fullness of power you begin to walk in of
the Spirit that makes it easier. This is why I want to look at
this one thing that I thought was really great when I was
reading it and Luke 4/1 Jesus was baptized and it says Jesus
full of the Spirit was led by the Spirit to be tempted.
He goes through the temptations, He conquers everything and it
ends in Luke 414. By saying Jesus then return in
the power of the Spirit, He went from full of the Spirit to being
in the power of the Spirit. So power comes after fullness,
but only through faithfulness. Power comes after fullness, but
only through faithfulness. What I love about these kind of
passages that were placed is they become easy check markers
in our life. We can assess our self and see
where we at. Maybe some people are like man
I've been born again. I'm trying to figure out what's
my next step and what is God now that I'm boring him, what am I
supposed to be doing? So if we don't like man, I just
don't feel like I know yet. So then ask myself, am I dealing
with all my cravings properly? Have I put down the flesh enough
that I'm ready to step into something?
Or am I still in this season of needing to put my flesh
underneath me so that when I step into what God's placed me
to, this won't become an issue? We can check and see what's
going on. Maybe I'm not where I want to be
because I'm just not putting down everything I need to.
Or maybe I've put down everything and I'm starting to
do good and I'm starting to walk in this thing and I'm winning
way more than I'm losing. And now God's called me to
something and I'm walking in it. But now I've got so many
opportunities that look good. Now I've got so many options in
front of me. Which one is the right one?
This one pays more. This one works at a great
church, but it's going to pull me to a different state.
This one does whatever this one does and we can start listening.
OK, so then do any of them require me to be in faith once I
get them? Or am I just looking for the one
that sets me up the best? Now don't get me wrong, God
wants to bless your life and God will bless your life, but that
doesn't mean you won't still be walking in faith.
It's our faithfulness and our faith walk that brings the
blessings. I, I love what I do.
I, I love working in creative. I love being a part of the
ministry here. I love all these things.
And before I married my wife, I was, you know, at that same
place was like, you know, what's going to be next?
And I kind of, you know, toyed around like joining the Air
Force or the Coast Guard or something.
But like the like, the dream goal was like, man, what if I
could like be a photographer for National Geographic and like
travel the world and take photos of just like the whole world and
all this beauty and all this, like this would just be like
prime right to be paid to travel.
And I remember ultimately I heard a call to ministry.
And so I just was like, you know, this is a path.
And this is what we went down and we went.
We did. And then one day me and my wife
went on our big anniversary trip.
It was awesome. We went to Ireland and I'm
sitting there and I'm taking a bunch of pictures and I'm
posting stuff on my Instagram and somebody reaches out to me
and they're like, hey, saw your photos.
I love them. Could we buy some?
And so I was like, sure. So I just sent every good photo
I thought I had. They bought every single one of
them. So much so that it paid for our
entire trip. And I remember vividly for
myself, I'm sitting at the cliffs of mower.
I'm walking down this path, which end up being way longer
than I thought. And I felt bad because my wife
was like, yeah, go finish it. And I was like, yeah, it looks
like it's like 2 miles. It was like 7 wasn't even close.
And I but I was like, I'm, you know, I didn't really realize
that till about 3 1/2. And I was like, well, I got to
finish. Like I'm going to, got to make
it to the end. So I'm walking and I'm chewing
on this thing. And I just sold those photos and
they sent me like a PayPal and I'm just like kind of walking
and God just kind of remind me said, hey, you follow my path,
I'll cover the rest. And in this moment of thinking,
how cool would it be to be paid to travel?
I realize I just got paid to be here.
Like I'm actually going to walk out of this trip with more money
than I put into it. I somehow managed to make a
great 12 year anniversary investment, but it was through
just walking out those things in a, in a, a path I didn't even
consider anymore. I've gotten to travel with a
church I love going to missions I love taking.
I've always taken that in consideration.
Man, God's given me the ability to do photography around the
world for the church to continue to show you guys what all we're
doing here, which is all great, but there's still a whole nother
level when it just becomes this whole personal side thing.
But now I realize, like since then, I've gone on multiple
trips that have sold photos from continually and it's just got to
be like, hey, this wasn't what I called you to do, but it was a
desire in your heart. It's something you love.
And I'll continue to provide for you and be faithful for you as
long as you're faithful for me. You do my word, I'll take care
of these things. Those of you who know me, no, I
don't. I'm not gone a whole lot.
I really work. I mean, I, I end at US HR.
I end every year with plenty of vacation left in the bank
because I just, I love being here And when I'm gone, half the
time I'm like, I'm ready to get back. 12 days was a lot.
Now I love my kids. I miss my kids, but I was like,
I'm ready to get back to some purpose.
I'm ready to get back to what God placed me for.
I'm ready to start completing serving my vision, right?
And so when we walk in the things of God, man, he'll
continue to bless the path he placed in front of you.
So there's plenty of blessings. And so Jesus entered full, but
then left in the power. And it wasn't until after this
wilderness testing and this proving of faithfulness that
ultimately Jesus ministry came to life.
It didn't begin at the baptism. It began after the testing.
So victory there proved his character, his obedience, and
his readiness. It proved his character, his
obedience and his readiness. It wasn't wasted time, but it
was time where the Holy Spirit was able to refine Him and
continue to show through Him and be with Him, then ultimately
allow Him to walk in the full power of Him.
If we feel like we're lacking power in our lives, we have to
ask ourselves, am I conquering my wilderness tests?
Am I having wilderness victories?
Have I presented my life as a living sacrifice?
Have I walked faithfully through everything He's called me to?
Jesus resisted every shortcut and in every single situation
just said no, I'm going to stand on the word.
Your Christian walk isn't supposed to be about easy.
It's not supposed to be about easy, but the reward of the
victory is the power of the Spirit, and the reward of
walking in the power of the Spirit is worth any battle.
You can go through anything that's faced in front of you.
Man, when you overcome those things and step fully into what
God's place on your life and you have the power flowing with you
and you're able to continue to walk out those things, you
realize everything else really doesn't matter.
I just want to be in the fullness and the power of God in
every step and direction of my life.
I just want to walk in everything God has for me and do
everything God's called me to and continue to be exactly where
He's placed me because trials will come.
But you have the one who's overcome everything living
inside of you in every situation.
These are three temptations, cravings, callings, convictions
that everyone's going to face, everyone's going to go through,
everyone's going to deal with. But when those moments come, we
allow the Holy Spirit to continue to refine.
And the refining process isn't just once.
This doesn't just happen once because you're going to be
refined to get to a level and then to get to the next one.
There becomes more refining. But after every time I step into
what God's called and I continue to let go more of me to have
more of him, I'll continue to walk even more in the power He's
placed and I'll continue to have everything God's called me.
If we truly want to say, well, greater is he that's in me than
me, you know, or he's greater than I.
And all these kind of lovely Christian cliches we love to
say. They all require me letting go
more of me. This concept we have like, well,
you know, this is what makes me unique.
You are unique in what God has called you to do.
You are not unique in the fact that you should be walking in
something the Word hasn't said to walk in and that it's just OK
for you. Well, it's just OK for me to do
this. No, it's not.
The Word has a standard. That is the standard we walk in
now. It may be OK at the phase you're
at, but eventually you'll find if I want to get here, what I
thought was once OK can no longer be OK.
What I once did and was acceptable is no longer
acceptable. I let my younger kids do a
little bit more than I let my older kids do because I'm still
training and developing. But there becomes a time where
what you're doing is no longer OK.
And my daughter's can't look at me like, well, but, but I used
to do it, but she gets to do it. But she's still learning.
And when you were her age, it was there, but now it's not.
And in my walk with Christ, I'm going to get to the next place
and the next place, which means I'm going to look less and less
like the chase you knew. And I'm going to look more and
more like what God's fully placed me to be.