1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:02,200 Within the critical journey, we started out week one, 2 00:00:02,200 --> 00:00:05,040 if you were here, and it's like, there is a natural, 3 00:00:05,040 --> 00:00:07,840 there is a natural progression to your faith. 4 00:00:07,840 --> 00:00:11,640 Like you growing is a natural process, so much so, 5 00:00:11,640 --> 00:00:13,680 that I bought a picture just to remind us 6 00:00:13,680 --> 00:00:15,920 of what this natural growth looks like. 7 00:00:15,920 --> 00:00:17,920 And so, this little guy, 8 00:00:20,600 --> 00:00:21,800 yeah, he's the best. 9 00:00:21,800 --> 00:00:24,400 He was four months yesterday, by the way. 10 00:00:24,400 --> 00:00:28,160 But this little guy is doing things that are natural. 11 00:00:28,160 --> 00:00:31,120 Praise God he's healthy for a little healthy, 12 00:00:31,120 --> 00:00:34,600 four month old, thriving little boy. 13 00:00:34,600 --> 00:00:38,520 For example, I'm pretty sure he said grandpa the other day. 14 00:00:38,520 --> 00:00:39,880 Right? 15 00:00:39,880 --> 00:00:42,440 Don't tell his parents, don't tell his parents. 16 00:00:42,440 --> 00:00:44,640 But no, he's doing things that are natural. 17 00:00:44,640 --> 00:00:46,520 Like he's got his fingers in his mouth. 18 00:00:46,520 --> 00:00:48,880 He is a drool machine right now. 19 00:00:48,880 --> 00:00:49,720 Right? 20 00:00:49,720 --> 00:00:51,320 Like I was with him yesterday. 21 00:00:51,320 --> 00:00:53,520 He's just covered in drool right now. 22 00:00:53,520 --> 00:00:55,880 Because that's what he's supposed to be doing. 23 00:00:55,880 --> 00:00:57,880 That's a natural part of his growth. 24 00:00:57,880 --> 00:00:58,720 Right? 25 00:00:58,720 --> 00:01:00,800 And another part is that when you look at him, 26 00:01:00,800 --> 00:01:02,200 he has facial recognition now. 27 00:01:02,200 --> 00:01:04,760 So he will make noises back to you. 28 00:01:04,760 --> 00:01:05,600 Right? 29 00:01:05,600 --> 00:01:07,600 Which makes you feel affirmed. 30 00:01:07,600 --> 00:01:08,440 Right? 31 00:01:08,440 --> 00:01:10,000 It makes you feel like, oh, he actually knows who I am. 32 00:01:10,000 --> 00:01:12,920 Probably got no clue who I am, but we'll get there. 33 00:01:12,920 --> 00:01:13,760 Right? 34 00:01:13,760 --> 00:01:15,840 But there's this part of it where he's making sounds. 35 00:01:15,840 --> 00:01:17,960 That's what he should be doing. 36 00:01:17,960 --> 00:01:20,600 There's a natural part of his growth 37 00:01:20,600 --> 00:01:23,200 where he's now trying to roll over. 38 00:01:23,200 --> 00:01:24,560 Right? 39 00:01:24,560 --> 00:01:28,800 Now the same is true for you in the critical journey. 40 00:01:28,800 --> 00:01:29,640 Right? 41 00:01:29,640 --> 00:01:31,560 That within the critical journey that we've been talking 42 00:01:31,560 --> 00:01:32,920 about, critical journey is not ours. 43 00:01:32,920 --> 00:01:33,760 Somebody wrote a book. 44 00:01:33,760 --> 00:01:36,800 We're using it to talk about how do you map 45 00:01:36,800 --> 00:01:37,960 the spiritual journey? 46 00:01:37,960 --> 00:01:41,680 We can do it from a natural perspective of, 47 00:01:41,680 --> 00:01:42,760 hey, he's four months. 48 00:01:42,760 --> 00:01:44,360 At six months, he should be doing this. 49 00:01:44,360 --> 00:01:45,200 At eight months, this. 50 00:01:45,200 --> 00:01:46,480 And so on and so on. 51 00:01:46,480 --> 00:01:48,000 Within your spiritual journey, 52 00:01:48,000 --> 00:01:50,160 there should be benchmarks to your spiritual journey. 53 00:01:50,160 --> 00:01:53,760 There should be stages that you find yourself in. 54 00:01:53,760 --> 00:01:55,320 And so what we've been talking about 55 00:01:55,320 --> 00:01:57,680 within the critical journey is, 56 00:01:57,680 --> 00:01:59,480 what does it look like to map? 57 00:01:59,480 --> 00:02:02,480 It's called a journey because it's not just steps. 58 00:02:02,480 --> 00:02:04,080 You don't just jump from one to the other. 59 00:02:04,080 --> 00:02:04,920 It's a journey. 60 00:02:04,920 --> 00:02:06,720 It's a meandering with God. 61 00:02:06,720 --> 00:02:08,280 You may find that you're in one 62 00:02:08,280 --> 00:02:11,160 and you journey back to another and journey forward, 63 00:02:11,160 --> 00:02:12,560 but you'll find that, hey, 64 00:02:12,560 --> 00:02:15,000 I think I'm in this space right here. 65 00:02:15,000 --> 00:02:18,640 And so within that, we created just kind of a graphic 66 00:02:18,640 --> 00:02:20,920 to kind of help us process this. 67 00:02:20,920 --> 00:02:24,040 And so within this then, the natural progression 68 00:02:24,040 --> 00:02:25,400 is you meet Jesus, right? 69 00:02:25,400 --> 00:02:29,120 Like you give your life to Jesus as Savior. 70 00:02:29,120 --> 00:02:32,360 And when you do that, you, at some point, you go, 71 00:02:32,360 --> 00:02:35,320 and I also need to give my life to him as Lord 72 00:02:35,320 --> 00:02:36,240 because he owns it all. 73 00:02:36,240 --> 00:02:38,320 And so there's this process of growth 74 00:02:38,320 --> 00:02:39,760 and the recognition of God. 75 00:02:39,760 --> 00:02:42,280 And within that, if you've met Jesus as Savior, 76 00:02:42,280 --> 00:02:44,720 you're like, I wanna know more about him. 77 00:02:44,720 --> 00:02:46,120 And as you know more about him, you go, 78 00:02:46,120 --> 00:02:48,880 wow, Jesus was often praying. 79 00:02:48,880 --> 00:02:50,840 What would it look like to pray like Jesus? 80 00:02:50,840 --> 00:02:53,120 I wish somebody would teach me. 81 00:02:53,120 --> 00:02:54,360 I wish somebody would show me. 82 00:02:54,360 --> 00:02:56,000 And so there's this life of discipleship 83 00:02:56,000 --> 00:02:57,360 that naturally develops. 84 00:02:57,360 --> 00:02:58,480 I wanna know how to pray. 85 00:02:58,480 --> 00:03:02,320 I wanna know how to value the scriptures like Jesus does. 86 00:03:02,320 --> 00:03:04,000 So I wanna know how to read the scriptures. 87 00:03:04,000 --> 00:03:08,120 I wanna know what it looks like to fast and hold a Sabbath 88 00:03:08,120 --> 00:03:09,920 and all these things that are part of the life 89 00:03:09,920 --> 00:03:12,400 of discipleship that help you grow 90 00:03:12,400 --> 00:03:14,240 into further intimacy with God. 91 00:03:14,240 --> 00:03:17,560 But what they do is they also frame up who you are. 92 00:03:17,560 --> 00:03:19,640 And so as you begin to understand who you are, 93 00:03:19,640 --> 00:03:23,080 you go, wow, God has packed me full of gifts and abilities. 94 00:03:23,080 --> 00:03:24,680 He's given me a purpose. 95 00:03:24,680 --> 00:03:26,720 And now you go, I wanna live that purpose. 96 00:03:26,720 --> 00:03:28,480 And you step forward into stage three, 97 00:03:28,480 --> 00:03:30,680 which is the productive life, right? 98 00:03:30,680 --> 00:03:32,840 You're gonna do work for God. 99 00:03:32,840 --> 00:03:35,240 And so now you become busy for God, so to speak. 100 00:03:35,240 --> 00:03:39,160 Somewhere in that process, you hit a wall. 101 00:03:39,160 --> 00:03:41,480 It might be that you enter stage four, 102 00:03:41,480 --> 00:03:44,000 which stage four is this journey inward 103 00:03:44,000 --> 00:03:46,600 where you begin to ask all kinds of questions, 104 00:03:46,600 --> 00:03:49,840 where you begin to wrestle with who is God. 105 00:03:49,840 --> 00:03:51,080 And as you begin to wrestle, 106 00:03:51,080 --> 00:03:52,920 there's something called a wall that's a pain 107 00:03:52,920 --> 00:03:55,640 that you can't get around that forces your will 108 00:03:55,640 --> 00:03:57,680 and God's will to come face to face. 109 00:03:57,680 --> 00:04:00,240 And as that happens, it pushes you deeper. 110 00:04:00,240 --> 00:04:03,480 And for some people, what they talk about is God's so absent. 111 00:04:03,480 --> 00:04:05,240 I feel like I'm losing my faith. 112 00:04:05,240 --> 00:04:07,680 I feel like I don't even know who God is anymore. 113 00:04:07,680 --> 00:04:10,760 And there's this journey, you get to a point, 114 00:04:10,760 --> 00:04:12,880 you get to a point where maybe you wanna give up, 115 00:04:12,880 --> 00:04:17,080 but what is actually happening is you are dying to yourself. 116 00:04:17,080 --> 00:04:20,560 You are dying to the things that you once held onto. 117 00:04:20,560 --> 00:04:21,960 And as you step forward, 118 00:04:21,960 --> 00:04:24,560 and today we're gonna talk about stage five. 119 00:04:24,560 --> 00:04:27,880 Stage five is the journey outward. 120 00:04:27,880 --> 00:04:31,800 Words that kind of clarify stage five are this, 121 00:04:31,800 --> 00:04:35,960 that surrender is a big part of stage five. 122 00:04:35,960 --> 00:04:39,560 I surrender my life to the will of God. 123 00:04:39,560 --> 00:04:44,560 I surrender what I thought I wanted for what He wants. 124 00:04:45,360 --> 00:04:50,360 I willingly accept who God is and what He has for me. 125 00:04:50,960 --> 00:04:53,880 There's this dying to self that's happened. 126 00:04:53,880 --> 00:04:57,360 And now this feels like a rebirth 127 00:04:57,360 --> 00:04:58,760 that the world is now new 128 00:04:58,760 --> 00:05:00,560 and you begin to step out and serve God. 129 00:05:00,560 --> 00:05:05,560 And you've got all new ambition and vigor, right? 130 00:05:05,560 --> 00:05:09,520 Another word that would kind of capture this time 131 00:05:09,520 --> 00:05:11,160 is sacrifice. 132 00:05:11,160 --> 00:05:15,520 That you feel like your life is just a living sacrifice 133 00:05:15,520 --> 00:05:19,560 to God where you are sacrificing everything on the altar 134 00:05:19,560 --> 00:05:21,560 of what God wants and who He is 135 00:05:21,560 --> 00:05:23,560 and what He has for those around. 136 00:05:23,560 --> 00:05:25,160 Your motivation has completely changed. 137 00:05:25,160 --> 00:05:27,960 Here's what's confusing or can be. 138 00:05:27,960 --> 00:05:30,160 Stage five, which is the journey outward 139 00:05:30,160 --> 00:05:32,160 and stage three, which is the productive life. 140 00:05:32,160 --> 00:05:33,560 I'm doing work for God. 141 00:05:33,560 --> 00:05:36,960 They can feel and look very similar. 142 00:05:36,960 --> 00:05:41,360 So for example, you may have held a role in stage three 143 00:05:41,360 --> 00:05:44,760 that in stage five, you picked that role back up. 144 00:05:44,760 --> 00:05:47,560 But what has changed in you from the journey inward 145 00:05:47,560 --> 00:05:50,160 is your motivation is entirely different. 146 00:05:51,160 --> 00:05:53,880 Before it was, oh, God has put these gifts in me 147 00:05:53,880 --> 00:05:55,880 and packed me full of purpose 148 00:05:55,880 --> 00:05:57,120 and I gotta go live that, right? 149 00:05:57,120 --> 00:06:00,560 And so it's all about me using what God's done, right? 150 00:06:00,560 --> 00:06:03,560 Well, in stage five, that doesn't exist anymore. 151 00:06:03,560 --> 00:06:05,960 The motivation is everyone else around you. 152 00:06:05,960 --> 00:06:07,480 The motivation is the heart of God. 153 00:06:07,480 --> 00:06:10,160 The motivation is what God is doing in the community. 154 00:06:10,160 --> 00:06:12,760 And it's no longer about me and what I've got. 155 00:06:12,760 --> 00:06:15,360 And often what happens in stage five, 156 00:06:15,360 --> 00:06:18,160 these are the people that you don't even recognize 157 00:06:18,160 --> 00:06:20,080 because they are just behind the scenes. 158 00:06:20,080 --> 00:06:22,960 They are in spaces where they are just serving God, 159 00:06:22,960 --> 00:06:24,760 not because they're getting anything from it, 160 00:06:24,760 --> 00:06:26,160 not because they're trying to go anywhere, 161 00:06:26,160 --> 00:06:28,360 not because they're trying to perform for anybody, 162 00:06:28,360 --> 00:06:31,280 but simply because God has moved them 163 00:06:31,280 --> 00:06:33,760 and led them to sacrifice. 164 00:06:33,760 --> 00:06:37,160 There's a beautiful story that kind of captures this 165 00:06:37,160 --> 00:06:41,560 in Samuel, Samuel chapter one, first Samuel chapter one. 166 00:06:42,880 --> 00:06:45,680 And the context is a lady named Hannah 167 00:06:45,680 --> 00:06:48,880 who has not been able to have children. 168 00:06:48,880 --> 00:06:52,160 And so there's deep, deep, within this culture, 169 00:06:52,160 --> 00:06:55,360 there was deep embarrassment, shame attached to that. 170 00:06:55,360 --> 00:06:59,960 There was the idea of God's blessing not being on you. 171 00:06:59,960 --> 00:07:02,680 And so within this marriage, 172 00:07:02,680 --> 00:07:04,680 and we can talk about this another time, 173 00:07:04,680 --> 00:07:07,560 but within this marriage, there were two wives. 174 00:07:07,560 --> 00:07:10,960 And the other wife would kind of pick on Hannah 175 00:07:10,960 --> 00:07:13,960 and would belittle her and provoke her. 176 00:07:13,960 --> 00:07:16,360 It said that she was a rival. 177 00:07:16,360 --> 00:07:18,280 And so then it says in verse nine, 178 00:07:18,280 --> 00:07:22,480 once when they had finished eating and drinking in Shiloh, 179 00:07:22,480 --> 00:07:23,960 Hannah stood up. 180 00:07:23,960 --> 00:07:26,560 Now Eli the priest was sitting on his chair 181 00:07:26,560 --> 00:07:29,160 by the doorpost of the Lord's house. 182 00:07:29,160 --> 00:07:33,560 In her deep anguish, Hannah prayed to the Lord, 183 00:07:33,560 --> 00:07:35,760 weeping bitterly. 184 00:07:37,560 --> 00:07:42,560 That language, maybe just for help within the stages, 185 00:07:42,560 --> 00:07:47,560 that's a wall where there's such a pain that you face 186 00:07:47,560 --> 00:07:51,160 and she is expressing it through weeping bitterly. 187 00:07:51,160 --> 00:07:54,160 She's asking questions of God. 188 00:07:54,160 --> 00:07:57,160 It carries on, verse 11, and she made a vow, 189 00:07:57,160 --> 00:08:02,160 saying, Lord Almighty, if you will only look 190 00:08:02,160 --> 00:08:06,160 on your servant's misery and remember me 191 00:08:06,160 --> 00:08:11,160 and not forget your servant, but give her a son, 192 00:08:11,160 --> 00:08:13,160 then I will give him to the Lord 193 00:08:13,160 --> 00:08:14,760 for all the days of his life 194 00:08:14,760 --> 00:08:16,960 and no razor will ever be used on his head. 195 00:08:16,960 --> 00:08:21,560 So the language again captures this stage four, 196 00:08:21,560 --> 00:08:23,960 this journey inward where she's wrestling with God, 197 00:08:23,960 --> 00:08:24,960 would you remember me? 198 00:08:24,960 --> 00:08:26,360 Don't forget me. 199 00:08:27,760 --> 00:08:30,160 God, don't leave me behind. 200 00:08:30,160 --> 00:08:32,360 You're distant, but please step in. 201 00:08:32,360 --> 00:08:36,360 And she asked specifically for a son. 202 00:08:36,360 --> 00:08:39,560 Verse 12, as she kept on praying to the Lord, 203 00:08:39,560 --> 00:08:41,560 Eli observed her mouth. 204 00:08:41,560 --> 00:08:44,160 Hannah was praying in her heart and her lips were moving, 205 00:08:44,160 --> 00:08:45,760 but her voice was not heard. 206 00:08:45,760 --> 00:08:48,160 Eli thought she was drunk and said to her, 207 00:08:48,160 --> 00:08:50,660 how long are you going to stay drunk? 208 00:08:50,660 --> 00:08:52,560 Put away your wine. 209 00:08:52,560 --> 00:08:54,760 Verse 15, not so, my Lord, Hannah replied. 210 00:08:54,760 --> 00:08:57,660 I am a woman who is deeply troubled. 211 00:08:57,660 --> 00:08:59,860 I have not been drinking wine or beer. 212 00:08:59,860 --> 00:09:02,960 I was pouring out my soul to the Lord. 213 00:09:02,960 --> 00:09:05,060 Do not take your servant for a wicked woman. 214 00:09:05,060 --> 00:09:10,060 I have been praying here out of my great anguish and grief. 215 00:09:10,960 --> 00:09:13,960 Eli answered, go in peace and may the God of Israel 216 00:09:13,960 --> 00:09:16,460 grant you what you have asked of him. 217 00:09:16,460 --> 00:09:19,460 She said, may your servant find favor in your eyes. 218 00:09:19,460 --> 00:09:22,560 Then she went her way and ate something 219 00:09:22,560 --> 00:09:26,960 and her face was no longer downcast. 220 00:09:26,960 --> 00:09:31,660 What does it feel like to move from stage four 221 00:09:31,660 --> 00:09:33,160 into stage five? 222 00:09:34,060 --> 00:09:36,460 Nothing has changed for Hannah. 223 00:09:37,860 --> 00:09:40,460 Right, like she, at this point, 224 00:09:40,460 --> 00:09:42,060 she's poured out before the Lord. 225 00:09:42,060 --> 00:09:45,560 She's wept, she's gone through the deep questions, 226 00:09:45,560 --> 00:09:47,660 and at this point, God has not moved. 227 00:09:47,660 --> 00:09:50,260 God has not told her what he's going to do. 228 00:09:50,260 --> 00:09:54,060 God has not changed her situation. 229 00:09:54,060 --> 00:09:56,660 The same pain that it caused from the situation 230 00:09:56,660 --> 00:09:59,360 is still there, but notice her posture. 231 00:09:59,360 --> 00:10:01,960 She's no longer downcast. 232 00:10:01,960 --> 00:10:06,560 She's no longer looking at her weakness as weakness. 233 00:10:06,560 --> 00:10:08,960 She's looking at her weakness as opportunity 234 00:10:08,960 --> 00:10:10,860 for God to do something. 235 00:10:10,860 --> 00:10:13,060 Her weakness is no longer something 236 00:10:13,060 --> 00:10:14,960 that is holding her in a posture 237 00:10:14,960 --> 00:10:16,760 of asking questions and working. 238 00:10:16,760 --> 00:10:18,060 She has now come to the point, 239 00:10:18,060 --> 00:10:20,660 remember, the end of stage four is that you accept 240 00:10:20,660 --> 00:10:22,360 the hand of God with joy. 241 00:10:23,360 --> 00:10:26,860 And she walks out in peace and she's no longer downcast, 242 00:10:26,860 --> 00:10:28,160 but nothing has changed, 243 00:10:28,160 --> 00:10:30,960 only what has happened on the internal side of her. 244 00:10:30,960 --> 00:10:39,960 It reminds me of the apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians. 245 00:10:39,960 --> 00:10:41,760 And Paul's had visions, right? 246 00:10:41,760 --> 00:10:44,960 Like he's had these visions and he could boast 247 00:10:44,960 --> 00:10:47,160 if he wants to, and he begins to get into that. 248 00:10:47,160 --> 00:10:52,160 In verse six, even if I should choose to boast, 249 00:10:52,160 --> 00:10:55,460 I would not be a fool because I would be speaking the truth, 250 00:10:55,460 --> 00:10:59,860 but I refrain, so no one will think more of me 251 00:10:59,860 --> 00:11:03,660 than is warranted by what I say or do. 252 00:11:06,260 --> 00:11:10,660 Okay, so you want to know what language sounds like 253 00:11:10,660 --> 00:11:12,160 when you reach stage five? 254 00:11:13,360 --> 00:11:15,360 I could boast, I could tell you, 255 00:11:15,360 --> 00:11:18,160 I could make myself the center of the story, 256 00:11:18,160 --> 00:11:19,260 but I'm not going to. 257 00:11:20,660 --> 00:11:22,060 I could make this moment about me 258 00:11:22,060 --> 00:11:23,960 because I've seen some pretty great stuff that God's done, 259 00:11:23,960 --> 00:11:26,360 but I'm not going to, why? 260 00:11:26,360 --> 00:11:28,660 Because I don't want you walking away going, 261 00:11:28,660 --> 00:11:31,960 hey, I have an inflated view of Paul. 262 00:11:31,960 --> 00:11:33,960 He's going, I don't want you to have that. 263 00:11:34,960 --> 00:11:36,960 He's like, I actually want you to walk away 264 00:11:36,960 --> 00:11:39,560 and have a different view, which then he continues. 265 00:11:40,760 --> 00:11:42,960 Verse seven, or because of these surpassingly 266 00:11:42,960 --> 00:11:45,160 great revelations, therefore, in order to keep me 267 00:11:45,160 --> 00:11:47,960 from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, 268 00:11:47,960 --> 00:11:50,060 a messenger of Satan to torment me. 269 00:11:50,060 --> 00:11:51,860 Three times I pleaded with the Lord 270 00:11:51,860 --> 00:11:52,860 to take it away from me. 271 00:11:52,860 --> 00:11:54,260 There's that inward journey, right? 272 00:11:54,260 --> 00:11:56,360 That pain that you can't get past. 273 00:11:56,360 --> 00:11:58,660 Verse nine, but he said to me, 274 00:11:58,660 --> 00:12:02,660 my grace is sufficient for you, 275 00:12:02,660 --> 00:12:07,660 for my power is made perfect in weakness. 276 00:12:09,060 --> 00:12:10,660 So Paul's making the connection. 277 00:12:10,660 --> 00:12:14,060 He's going, wait, the power is actually found 278 00:12:14,060 --> 00:12:16,160 in the thing that I'm ashamed of. 279 00:12:16,160 --> 00:12:18,260 The thing that I'm weak by, 280 00:12:18,260 --> 00:12:20,560 that's actually the thing that God is using 281 00:12:20,560 --> 00:12:23,060 to make himself great, right? 282 00:12:23,060 --> 00:12:24,660 And there's grace for me to get through it, 283 00:12:24,660 --> 00:12:26,460 but God's actually using that thing 284 00:12:26,460 --> 00:12:27,960 that I don't like about myself. 285 00:12:27,960 --> 00:12:29,960 He's actually using that. 286 00:12:29,960 --> 00:12:30,960 And then it carries on. 287 00:12:30,960 --> 00:12:35,960 He says, therefore, I will boast all the more gladly 288 00:12:36,660 --> 00:12:41,660 about my weaknesses so that Christ's power may rest on me. 289 00:12:44,560 --> 00:12:47,960 That is why for Christ's sake, I delight in weakness, 290 00:12:47,960 --> 00:12:52,560 in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties, 291 00:12:52,560 --> 00:12:54,960 for when I am weak, then I am strong. 292 00:12:54,960 --> 00:12:57,560 He's going, hey, I could boast about all this stuff, 293 00:12:57,560 --> 00:13:01,960 but it's gonna take your view off of Jesus. 294 00:13:01,960 --> 00:13:03,360 He goes, in fact, what I've learned 295 00:13:03,360 --> 00:13:05,660 is I'm actually gonna boast about my weaknesses 296 00:13:05,660 --> 00:13:08,660 because it's actually in my weaknesses that I'm strong. 297 00:13:08,660 --> 00:13:13,260 It's actually in this thing that I'm vulnerable about. 298 00:13:13,260 --> 00:13:14,960 It's this thing that I don't think 299 00:13:14,960 --> 00:13:17,960 that I've got much to give in. 300 00:13:17,960 --> 00:13:22,460 And for Paul, he was self-conscious about the way he talked. 301 00:13:22,460 --> 00:13:24,360 That he didn't think he was very eloquent, 302 00:13:24,360 --> 00:13:27,360 that there were better communicators than him. 303 00:13:27,360 --> 00:13:30,860 And he says, yeah, inside of all these things, 304 00:13:30,860 --> 00:13:33,160 I'm not gonna boast about these things. 305 00:13:33,160 --> 00:13:35,760 Instead, I'm gonna welcome weaknesses. 306 00:13:35,760 --> 00:13:37,160 I'm gonna welcome sufferings. 307 00:13:37,160 --> 00:13:38,360 I'm gonna welcome, 308 00:13:38,360 --> 00:13:40,760 you wanna know what the language of stage five is like? 309 00:13:40,760 --> 00:13:42,060 I'm gonna welcome those things 310 00:13:42,060 --> 00:13:44,360 if they make more of Jesus than they do of me. 311 00:13:45,360 --> 00:13:47,260 If somebody has come to the point in their life 312 00:13:47,260 --> 00:13:49,960 where they go, sacrifice is worth it. 313 00:13:49,960 --> 00:13:53,960 And so you jump back to Hannah's story and 1 Samuel. 314 00:13:56,560 --> 00:13:58,960 And so Hannah leaves, no longer downcast, verse 20. 315 00:13:58,960 --> 00:14:02,360 So in the course of time, Hannah became pregnant 316 00:14:02,360 --> 00:14:03,960 and gave birth to a son. 317 00:14:03,960 --> 00:14:06,360 She named him Samuel, saying, 318 00:14:06,360 --> 00:14:10,160 because I asked the Lord for him. 319 00:14:10,160 --> 00:14:13,760 When her husband, Elkanah, went up with all his family 320 00:14:13,760 --> 00:14:16,760 to offer the annual sacrifice and to fulfill his vow, 321 00:14:16,760 --> 00:14:17,960 Hannah did not go. 322 00:14:17,960 --> 00:14:19,460 She said to her husband, 323 00:14:19,460 --> 00:14:21,160 after the boy is weaned, 324 00:14:21,160 --> 00:14:24,960 I will take him and present him before the Lord 325 00:14:24,960 --> 00:14:27,760 and he will live there always. 326 00:14:27,760 --> 00:14:31,160 Do what seems best to you. 327 00:14:31,160 --> 00:14:33,760 Her husband, Elkanah, told her, 328 00:14:33,760 --> 00:14:35,960 stay here until you have weaned him. 329 00:14:35,960 --> 00:14:38,160 Only may the Lord make good on his word. 330 00:14:38,160 --> 00:14:41,760 So the woman stayed home and nursed her son 331 00:14:41,760 --> 00:14:43,960 until she had weaned him. 332 00:14:45,060 --> 00:14:46,060 24. 333 00:14:46,060 --> 00:14:48,560 After he was weaned, she took the boy with her, 334 00:14:48,560 --> 00:14:51,460 young as he was, along with a three-year-old bull, 335 00:14:51,460 --> 00:14:53,960 an ephah of flour and a skin of wine, 336 00:14:53,960 --> 00:14:57,260 and brought him to the house of the Lord at Shiloh. 337 00:14:57,260 --> 00:14:59,160 When the bull had been sacrificed, 338 00:14:59,160 --> 00:15:01,460 they brought the boy to Eli. 339 00:15:01,460 --> 00:15:04,460 And she said to him, pardon me, my Lord. 340 00:15:04,460 --> 00:15:06,060 As surely as you live, 341 00:15:06,060 --> 00:15:08,760 I am the woman who stood here beside you, 342 00:15:08,760 --> 00:15:11,060 praying to the Lord. 343 00:15:11,060 --> 00:15:12,360 I prayed for this child 344 00:15:12,360 --> 00:15:15,660 and the Lord has granted me what I asked of him. 345 00:15:15,660 --> 00:15:19,860 So now I give him to the Lord for his whole life. 346 00:15:19,860 --> 00:15:21,560 He will be given over to the Lord 347 00:15:21,560 --> 00:15:25,160 and he worshiped the Lord there. 348 00:15:27,360 --> 00:15:32,360 I don't know if you have ever had the privilege 349 00:15:33,060 --> 00:15:35,560 of walking alongside someone 350 00:15:35,560 --> 00:15:37,560 who has been unable to have children. 351 00:15:39,860 --> 00:15:42,860 It is an immensely painful journey. 352 00:15:42,860 --> 00:15:45,260 It is one that there aren't answers to. 353 00:15:46,760 --> 00:15:50,260 It's one that all you can do is be present 354 00:15:51,660 --> 00:15:53,760 and remind them that God sees them. 355 00:15:55,360 --> 00:15:58,260 And I say that to say, sometimes when we read this, 356 00:15:58,260 --> 00:16:00,960 we can miss the human element. 357 00:16:03,260 --> 00:16:07,760 Hannah's in a culture where she has been put down. 358 00:16:09,460 --> 00:16:10,860 She has been put down. 359 00:16:10,860 --> 00:16:15,260 She has been looked upon that God does not like her. 360 00:16:17,460 --> 00:16:19,660 She has been provoked by somebody, 361 00:16:19,660 --> 00:16:21,560 bullied by somebody because of it. 362 00:16:23,260 --> 00:16:26,360 Her longing is for this child. 363 00:16:28,560 --> 00:16:31,560 And yet what you find in this story 364 00:16:32,560 --> 00:16:34,660 is because of this journey with God, 365 00:16:34,660 --> 00:16:36,360 where does she arrive to? 366 00:16:36,360 --> 00:16:40,060 That there is now a calling on her life. 367 00:16:40,860 --> 00:16:43,060 That she doesn't view this as sacrifice. 368 00:16:43,060 --> 00:16:44,660 She views it as calling. 369 00:16:45,560 --> 00:16:47,360 It's completely changed. 370 00:16:48,160 --> 00:16:50,460 The thing that she had longed for, 371 00:16:50,460 --> 00:16:51,960 the thing that she was holding onto, 372 00:16:51,960 --> 00:16:53,660 the thing that gripped her heart, 373 00:16:53,660 --> 00:16:57,360 the thing that had her, no longer had her, 374 00:16:57,360 --> 00:16:59,460 to where she could be open-handed with, 375 00:16:59,460 --> 00:17:01,860 yes, even her child before the Lord, 376 00:17:02,760 --> 00:17:05,960 to where the thing that she'd wanted so bad 377 00:17:05,960 --> 00:17:10,960 that she could go, I am choosing, 378 00:17:11,060 --> 00:17:16,060 I am choosing to sacrifice this to God. 379 00:17:16,860 --> 00:17:18,660 I no longer hold it. 380 00:17:18,660 --> 00:17:19,960 He's not mine. 381 00:17:21,260 --> 00:17:25,260 It's this beautiful moment of recognizing calling, calling. 382 00:17:26,260 --> 00:17:28,460 It's this beautiful moment that in stage five, 383 00:17:28,460 --> 00:17:31,060 what actually happens is you're kind of rebirthed 384 00:17:31,060 --> 00:17:34,460 into this new life and you start to ask new questions. 385 00:17:34,460 --> 00:17:37,660 You start to find that things that once held your heart, 386 00:17:37,660 --> 00:17:40,060 they just don't hold your heart anymore. 387 00:17:40,060 --> 00:17:42,760 They just don't matter as much. 388 00:17:42,760 --> 00:17:44,660 I mean, this is a dumb example, 389 00:17:44,660 --> 00:17:49,660 but in my 20s, my wife and I had this pattern. 390 00:17:50,060 --> 00:17:51,560 And the pattern went like this, 391 00:17:51,560 --> 00:17:54,460 that there was a Best Buy in Wisconsin, 392 00:17:54,460 --> 00:17:56,060 or similar to Best Buy, 393 00:17:57,060 --> 00:18:00,460 and I would convince her we needed to stop there, 394 00:18:00,460 --> 00:18:03,060 just to look, you know? 395 00:18:03,060 --> 00:18:04,860 And we would get there and every time, 396 00:18:04,860 --> 00:18:06,460 it would be the same song and dance, 397 00:18:06,460 --> 00:18:09,060 just with a little different spin. 398 00:18:09,060 --> 00:18:10,860 Baby, you don't understand how much 399 00:18:10,860 --> 00:18:13,460 this new gaming computer would change my life, 400 00:18:14,660 --> 00:18:18,460 to which my poor wife in my 20s had to become my mother 401 00:18:18,460 --> 00:18:21,660 and tell me why we can't get that, right? 402 00:18:22,860 --> 00:18:24,460 But here's what's interesting. 403 00:18:26,460 --> 00:18:29,060 Now I'm the most boring person when I go to Best Buy. 404 00:18:29,060 --> 00:18:30,260 They must hate me. 405 00:18:30,260 --> 00:18:32,260 I walk in the door, I look at everything, 406 00:18:32,260 --> 00:18:34,260 and I walk out and rarely buy anything. 407 00:18:35,460 --> 00:18:38,460 It just doesn't have my heart the way it once did. 408 00:18:38,460 --> 00:18:41,660 This thing that I was like, oh, I gotta have it. 409 00:18:41,660 --> 00:18:43,660 Now it's like, I don't really care. 410 00:18:45,860 --> 00:18:47,860 And there's so many things within my life 411 00:18:47,860 --> 00:18:50,060 where I've seen God move my heart. 412 00:18:50,060 --> 00:18:51,260 The closer I get to Him, 413 00:18:51,260 --> 00:18:53,460 the less I care about that thing 414 00:18:53,460 --> 00:18:54,860 that I really cared about. 415 00:18:56,460 --> 00:18:59,060 You might be wondering about my pants. 416 00:18:59,060 --> 00:19:00,460 Why they're so baggy? 417 00:19:00,460 --> 00:19:02,860 I don't care. 418 00:19:04,460 --> 00:19:06,660 I just don't care anymore. 419 00:19:06,660 --> 00:19:08,260 There was a time in my life where it's like, 420 00:19:08,260 --> 00:19:09,260 what's the latest fashion? 421 00:19:09,260 --> 00:19:10,260 What's the latest? 422 00:19:10,260 --> 00:19:11,060 Let's go to the mall. 423 00:19:11,060 --> 00:19:12,060 Let's go shopping. 424 00:19:12,060 --> 00:19:13,460 Let's go, right? 425 00:19:13,460 --> 00:19:14,860 I just don't care anymore. 426 00:19:14,860 --> 00:19:17,060 To the point I got home a month and a half ago 427 00:19:17,060 --> 00:19:18,860 and I walked, I think it was about a month and a half ago, 428 00:19:18,860 --> 00:19:20,860 maybe a month, I walked through the door 429 00:19:20,860 --> 00:19:22,660 and my wife looks at my butt and she goes, 430 00:19:22,660 --> 00:19:24,260 you got a hole in your pants. 431 00:19:25,860 --> 00:19:27,260 And I was like, how long has that been there? 432 00:19:27,260 --> 00:19:29,260 That's a little embarrassing. 433 00:19:29,260 --> 00:19:32,060 But I've been telling her for about two and a half months, 434 00:19:32,060 --> 00:19:34,260 babe, I really need to buy some jeans. 435 00:19:34,260 --> 00:19:36,660 I'm down to only a couple of pairs. 436 00:19:38,660 --> 00:19:40,660 Because I just don't care anymore. 437 00:19:41,460 --> 00:19:43,060 And I'm not saying that's gotta be your journey, 438 00:19:43,060 --> 00:19:45,660 but what I'm saying is the Lord released my heart 439 00:19:45,660 --> 00:19:47,060 from something that had it. 440 00:19:48,060 --> 00:19:51,260 I just don't have the same drive that I had for that stuff. 441 00:19:54,060 --> 00:19:57,660 It's interesting that what you find within this story 442 00:19:57,660 --> 00:20:02,660 is you find that the beauty of what we get to do 443 00:20:02,660 --> 00:20:06,060 is not build my kingdom, but build his. 444 00:20:07,060 --> 00:20:09,660 The beauty of as you journey longer with God 445 00:20:09,660 --> 00:20:13,260 and you grow into who he's wanting you to be, 446 00:20:13,260 --> 00:20:17,860 what happens is I relinquish this world more and more. 447 00:20:19,060 --> 00:20:21,860 I wish the world didn't have a hold on me the way it does. 448 00:20:23,660 --> 00:20:26,260 I can't wait for the day that I stand here 20 years from now 449 00:20:26,260 --> 00:20:29,060 and have some more dumb examples. 450 00:20:29,060 --> 00:20:32,060 Because there's things today that God will release from me. 451 00:20:33,060 --> 00:20:35,260 And the sacrifice will be more and more. 452 00:20:35,260 --> 00:20:37,060 And that's where this is going, 453 00:20:37,060 --> 00:20:41,060 that your life would be a living sacrifice. 454 00:20:41,060 --> 00:20:43,260 You guys, if I could take you back to youth, 455 00:20:43,260 --> 00:20:47,260 I have so, there's so much pain in my heart around youth 456 00:20:47,260 --> 00:20:49,860 because God did so much. 457 00:20:49,860 --> 00:20:52,260 But the older I've gotten, the more I realize 458 00:20:52,260 --> 00:20:55,660 that if it is probably another weird example. 459 00:20:55,660 --> 00:20:58,260 But everything we got to do, as good as it was, 460 00:20:58,260 --> 00:21:00,460 as robust as youth ministry was, 461 00:21:00,460 --> 00:21:02,260 as many lives that were changing, 462 00:21:02,260 --> 00:21:04,860 you know what I feel like today? 463 00:21:04,860 --> 00:21:07,860 You know the signet ring that a king has? 464 00:21:07,860 --> 00:21:10,060 And he puts his seal on it. 465 00:21:11,260 --> 00:21:13,860 If there was a signet ring and you went back to the youth 466 00:21:13,860 --> 00:21:16,860 events and the youth things we did and you look at it, 467 00:21:16,860 --> 00:21:19,260 it's got a signet ring that has my initials on it 468 00:21:19,260 --> 00:21:20,460 and not Jesus. 469 00:21:21,460 --> 00:21:22,860 And I regret it. 470 00:21:22,860 --> 00:21:25,260 I wish it was different. 471 00:21:27,460 --> 00:21:30,060 Right, but at that time, what serving looked like 472 00:21:30,060 --> 00:21:31,860 was all about John. 473 00:21:33,260 --> 00:21:34,660 It was about me impressing you, 474 00:21:34,660 --> 00:21:36,260 it was about me building something, 475 00:21:36,260 --> 00:21:38,060 it was about an ego, it was about, 476 00:21:38,060 --> 00:21:41,460 and what God's had to do is strip it out. 477 00:21:42,660 --> 00:21:45,460 Why? Because sacrifice on this side, 478 00:21:45,460 --> 00:21:49,460 surrender is to him and the motivation has changed 479 00:21:49,460 --> 00:21:51,060 because God's changed. 480 00:21:51,060 --> 00:21:55,260 The motivation has changed because now it's about others. 481 00:21:55,260 --> 00:21:58,860 That's what this stage does is your life becomes 482 00:21:58,860 --> 00:21:59,860 about others. 483 00:22:01,660 --> 00:22:03,660 Think about Hannah for a second, right? 484 00:22:03,660 --> 00:22:08,260 So she goes and she's gonna take her child to the temple. 485 00:22:09,860 --> 00:22:11,860 You know what's amazing about her sacrifice, 486 00:22:11,860 --> 00:22:15,260 this living sacrifice, living boy, 487 00:22:15,260 --> 00:22:17,460 it's a picture of this living sacrifice, 488 00:22:17,460 --> 00:22:19,060 her taking him to the temple. 489 00:22:19,060 --> 00:22:21,460 She had no idea what God was gonna do. 490 00:22:22,860 --> 00:22:27,660 Samuel is the one that anoints David, King David. 491 00:22:27,660 --> 00:22:30,860 Who's in David's line? Jesus. 492 00:22:30,860 --> 00:22:32,860 She had no idea. 493 00:22:32,860 --> 00:22:36,060 She's just living the moment with God and going, 494 00:22:36,060 --> 00:22:39,660 my response before the Lord is this calling, not sacrifice. 495 00:22:39,660 --> 00:22:41,060 You know what's interesting in stage five, 496 00:22:41,060 --> 00:22:43,660 it doesn't feel like sacrifice anymore. 497 00:22:43,660 --> 00:22:47,260 In the earlier stages, it feels like such a sacrifice 498 00:22:47,260 --> 00:22:49,460 that you're showing up and keep doing what you're doing. 499 00:22:49,460 --> 00:22:50,860 And when you get to this one, 500 00:22:50,860 --> 00:22:53,860 it just doesn't feel that way anymore. 501 00:22:55,660 --> 00:22:57,660 I heard this recently that one of the ways 502 00:22:57,660 --> 00:23:00,060 that you can tell somebody who is in stage five 503 00:23:00,060 --> 00:23:04,660 of the critical journey is you just look at how they dress. 504 00:23:06,460 --> 00:23:07,860 They just don't care anymore. 505 00:23:10,260 --> 00:23:11,860 They're not here to impress you. 506 00:23:11,860 --> 00:23:15,860 They're not here to gain some status. 507 00:23:17,660 --> 00:23:20,860 And it's this beautiful journey where God, 508 00:23:20,860 --> 00:23:24,460 God allows us to take our life and put it on the altar. 509 00:23:26,460 --> 00:23:31,460 And Romans chapter 12, Paul captures this 510 00:23:31,460 --> 00:23:32,660 with language for us. 511 00:23:33,860 --> 00:23:36,460 Romans 12, one, therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, 512 00:23:36,460 --> 00:23:39,860 in view of God's mercy, in view of God's mercy, 513 00:23:39,860 --> 00:23:42,460 what that is is in view of what God has not given you 514 00:23:42,460 --> 00:23:43,460 that you deserve. 515 00:23:45,260 --> 00:23:48,260 God's withheld what you actually deserve. 516 00:23:48,260 --> 00:23:50,660 And because of his mercy, because of his mercy, 517 00:23:50,660 --> 00:23:53,060 what's my response to offer your bodies 518 00:23:53,060 --> 00:23:57,060 as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God. 519 00:23:59,060 --> 00:24:02,060 What a picture, this boy that gets taken to the temple, 520 00:24:02,060 --> 00:24:05,860 he is going to spend his entire life in the service of God. 521 00:24:05,860 --> 00:24:07,060 Now, please don't mishear me. 522 00:24:07,060 --> 00:24:08,660 I don't think that means everybody should work 523 00:24:08,660 --> 00:24:10,660 for the church, but I do believe whatever you do 524 00:24:10,660 --> 00:24:11,860 should be work for God. 525 00:24:13,260 --> 00:24:14,860 I do believe that your entire life, 526 00:24:14,860 --> 00:24:18,060 including your vocation, should be a sacrifice to God. 527 00:24:21,460 --> 00:24:24,260 As a living, holy, pleasing to God, 528 00:24:24,260 --> 00:24:26,060 living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God, 529 00:24:26,060 --> 00:24:28,060 this is your true and proper worship. 530 00:24:28,060 --> 00:24:30,460 Do not conform to the pattern of this world, 531 00:24:30,460 --> 00:24:33,460 but be transformed in the renewing of your mind. 532 00:24:33,460 --> 00:24:35,860 Then you will be able to test and approve 533 00:24:35,860 --> 00:24:40,460 what God's will is, his good, pleasing and perfect will. 534 00:24:40,460 --> 00:24:42,860 Do not be conformed, how do you not be conformed? 535 00:24:42,860 --> 00:24:45,460 Guess what the critical journey from the start 536 00:24:45,460 --> 00:24:48,460 all the way through to where we are, guess what it's doing? 537 00:24:48,460 --> 00:24:50,660 It's taking, because you can be spiritual. 538 00:24:50,660 --> 00:24:52,460 You can be spiritual, what do I mean by that? 539 00:24:52,460 --> 00:24:54,460 Oh, you can have your rhythms of spirituality. 540 00:24:54,460 --> 00:24:56,460 You can show up to church every time the doors are open. 541 00:24:56,460 --> 00:24:58,460 You can serve in this ministry, right? 542 00:24:58,460 --> 00:25:00,460 You got your prayer, you got your prayer rhythms, 543 00:25:00,460 --> 00:25:02,460 you got all your things in place, right? 544 00:25:02,460 --> 00:25:04,460 That's your spiritual life. 545 00:25:04,460 --> 00:25:08,460 But what God is looking at is a holistic life 546 00:25:08,460 --> 00:25:10,460 that is centered on the person of Jesus. 547 00:25:10,460 --> 00:25:12,460 What that means is that your mind, 548 00:25:12,460 --> 00:25:15,460 you can have a spiritual life and your mind 549 00:25:15,460 --> 00:25:17,460 not be connected to your spiritual life. 550 00:25:17,460 --> 00:25:19,460 What do I mean by that? 551 00:25:19,460 --> 00:25:21,460 Where you make your decisions and your will exists. 552 00:25:21,460 --> 00:25:25,460 Your soul can be disconnected from your spiritual life. 553 00:25:26,460 --> 00:25:29,460 And so here's what's amazing, throughout this journey, 554 00:25:29,460 --> 00:25:31,460 what God is doing is he's connecting you holistically. 555 00:25:31,460 --> 00:25:32,460 Why? 556 00:25:32,460 --> 00:25:35,460 So that you would not be conformed to what? 557 00:25:35,460 --> 00:25:36,460 To this world. 558 00:25:36,460 --> 00:25:40,460 That the things that you live for would be different. 559 00:25:40,460 --> 00:25:43,460 The way that you live for them would be characterized 560 00:25:43,460 --> 00:25:45,460 by surrender and sacrifice. 561 00:25:46,460 --> 00:25:49,460 That your motivation wouldn't be about you and your life. 562 00:25:49,460 --> 00:25:52,460 Your motivation would be about others and people around you. 563 00:25:53,460 --> 00:25:55,460 That I wouldn't be taking from them, 564 00:25:55,460 --> 00:25:57,460 I would be giving to them. 565 00:25:58,460 --> 00:26:00,460 And I love that when you go back to Hannah, 566 00:26:00,460 --> 00:26:02,460 one last thought on Hannah and we're done. 567 00:26:03,460 --> 00:26:05,460 But when you go back to Hannah in chapter two, 568 00:26:05,460 --> 00:26:08,460 which by the way, if you wanna hear language 569 00:26:08,460 --> 00:26:11,460 of what stage five sounds like when you pray, 570 00:26:11,460 --> 00:26:13,460 chapter two captures a prayer of Hannah. 571 00:26:13,460 --> 00:26:15,460 It's the longest prayer, 572 00:26:15,460 --> 00:26:18,460 it's the longest prayer by any woman in the Old Testament. 573 00:26:19,460 --> 00:26:20,460 That's incredible. 574 00:26:21,460 --> 00:26:23,460 It's beautiful. 575 00:26:23,460 --> 00:26:25,460 And it speaks of how big and how great God is 576 00:26:25,460 --> 00:26:27,460 and what she's learned about God 577 00:26:27,460 --> 00:26:29,460 through this whole journey. 578 00:26:29,460 --> 00:26:31,460 And then in the midst of that, 579 00:26:32,460 --> 00:26:33,460 verse 18 says, 580 00:26:33,460 --> 00:26:36,460 but Samuel was ministering before the Lord, 581 00:26:36,460 --> 00:26:38,460 a boy wearing a linen ephod. 582 00:26:40,460 --> 00:26:41,460 Each year his mother, 583 00:26:41,460 --> 00:26:46,460 each year, each year his mother made him a little robe. 584 00:26:49,460 --> 00:26:52,460 And took it to him when she went up with her husband 585 00:26:52,460 --> 00:26:55,460 to offer the annual sacrifice. 586 00:26:55,460 --> 00:27:00,460 Each year, each year she made him a little robe. 587 00:27:02,460 --> 00:27:05,460 He was gonna be the best looking little boy priest, right? 588 00:27:06,460 --> 00:27:07,460 And mama was gonna make sure of it. 589 00:27:07,460 --> 00:27:09,460 What I love about this, 590 00:27:10,460 --> 00:27:13,460 it wasn't begrudgingly that she brought her offering 591 00:27:13,460 --> 00:27:16,460 to the Lord, the living sacrifice of her son. 592 00:27:16,460 --> 00:27:17,460 It wasn't begrudgingly. 593 00:27:17,460 --> 00:27:18,460 How do you know that? 594 00:27:18,460 --> 00:27:21,460 Because you don't year after year make him a robe 595 00:27:21,460 --> 00:27:23,460 and go up and make him a robe. 596 00:27:23,460 --> 00:27:25,460 You don't year, make him a robe and go up 597 00:27:26,460 --> 00:27:29,460 and still step in and still give 598 00:27:31,460 --> 00:27:34,460 when it's given from a place that is not, 599 00:27:35,460 --> 00:27:38,460 that is not the work that God has done. 600 00:27:40,460 --> 00:27:41,460 We get frustrated 601 00:27:42,460 --> 00:27:45,460 when I thought he would only be there for a year, God. 602 00:27:45,460 --> 00:27:49,460 We get frustrated when I sacrificed, 603 00:27:49,460 --> 00:27:50,460 but I didn't get the return. 604 00:27:50,460 --> 00:27:51,460 That's language of stage three. 605 00:27:51,460 --> 00:27:54,460 Stage five goes, Lord, my life is a living sacrifice 606 00:27:54,460 --> 00:27:56,460 because it's a calling. 607 00:27:57,460 --> 00:27:59,460 And I don't care what comes back 608 00:27:59,460 --> 00:28:04,460 because I'm already overwhelmingly, abundantly blessed by you. 609 00:28:07,460 --> 00:28:08,460 It's a difference. 610 00:28:08,460 --> 00:28:12,460 The way you hold your work in stage five, 611 00:28:12,460 --> 00:28:14,460 you'll see a lot of people when they reach the stage five 612 00:28:14,460 --> 00:28:16,460 of their critical journey, they'll switch work 613 00:28:16,460 --> 00:28:18,460 and they've done that work forever, but they're like, 614 00:28:18,460 --> 00:28:19,460 I'm not supposed to do that anymore. 615 00:28:19,460 --> 00:28:21,460 I'm supposed to do this. 616 00:28:21,460 --> 00:28:22,460 And people around them go, you know, that pays less. 617 00:28:22,460 --> 00:28:24,460 They're like, well, well, okay. 618 00:28:27,460 --> 00:28:28,460 They hold their finances different. 619 00:28:28,460 --> 00:28:31,460 They're not building the same things they once were. 620 00:28:32,460 --> 00:28:35,460 All of a sudden their finances are for the kingdom of God. 621 00:28:35,460 --> 00:28:37,460 Their family, they hold different. 622 00:28:38,460 --> 00:28:40,460 They once held their family closed. 623 00:28:40,460 --> 00:28:44,460 And now it's no, my family is to build the kingdom of God. 624 00:28:44,460 --> 00:28:49,460 And so we're gonna end by remembering. 625 00:28:50,460 --> 00:28:51,460 And the remembering is not a somber. 626 00:28:51,460 --> 00:28:52,460 Please don't feel like it's supposed to be 627 00:28:52,460 --> 00:28:54,460 this somber remembering. 628 00:28:54,460 --> 00:28:59,460 The remembering is like, hey, I have seen God move and work. 629 00:28:59,460 --> 00:29:01,460 I've witnessed it. 630 00:29:01,460 --> 00:29:03,460 You're speaking to your own soul right now. 631 00:29:03,460 --> 00:29:06,460 How have you seen God show up in your life 632 00:29:06,460 --> 00:29:09,460 and you're declaring to your own soul, I've witnessed it. 633 00:29:09,460 --> 00:29:11,460 And then as you declare it to your own soul, 634 00:29:11,460 --> 00:29:14,460 we're gonna sing and declare it together. 635 00:29:14,460 --> 00:29:17,460 Hey, he's good and I've witnessed it. 636 00:29:18,460 --> 00:29:20,460 Can you imagine if Hannah was here today? 637 00:29:21,460 --> 00:29:23,460 What Hannah would tell you? 638 00:29:23,460 --> 00:29:24,460 Oh, I've witnessed it. 639 00:29:24,460 --> 00:29:25,460 What have you witnessed, Hannah? 640 00:29:25,460 --> 00:29:29,460 Oh, I've witnessed, I've witnessed the goodness of God. 641 00:29:29,460 --> 00:29:32,460 I've seen him do the impossible. 642 00:29:32,460 --> 00:29:34,460 I've seen him write a story with my life 643 00:29:34,460 --> 00:29:37,460 that I never thought I would be a part of. 644 00:29:37,460 --> 00:29:42,460 All I was doing was being obedient and taking my sacrifice, 645 00:29:42,460 --> 00:29:44,460 right, and taking my boy to the temple. 646 00:29:44,460 --> 00:29:45,460 And what did God do? 647 00:29:45,460 --> 00:29:50,460 He uses that boy and he creates inside of that boy's life 648 00:29:50,460 --> 00:29:52,460 the narrative that brings you Jesus. 649 00:29:53,460 --> 00:29:55,460 She didn't know that. 650 00:29:56,460 --> 00:29:58,460 But she stood today going, hey, I've witnessed him. 651 00:29:58,460 --> 00:30:00,460 I've witnessed him and he showed up this way, 652 00:30:00,460 --> 00:30:02,460 this way, this way, this way. 653 00:30:02,460 --> 00:30:05,460 So if you would, right where you are, just stand up. 654 00:30:05,460 --> 00:30:07,460 And if you want to, you can close your eyes. 655 00:30:07,460 --> 00:30:08,460 You can keep them open. 656 00:30:10,460 --> 00:30:14,460 But on the inside, as you take a deep breath, 657 00:30:16,460 --> 00:30:19,460 just let it out, allow your body to relax. 658 00:30:20,460 --> 00:30:23,460 How have you witnessed the goodness of God in your life? 659 00:30:23,460 --> 00:30:26,460 How have you witnessed the consistency of God in your life? 660 00:30:26,460 --> 00:30:28,460 How have you witnessed the God who heals? 661 00:30:28,460 --> 00:30:30,460 How have you witnessed the God who saves? 662 00:30:30,460 --> 00:30:33,460 And so the next moments are yours to remind your own soul 663 00:30:33,460 --> 00:30:38,460 I've witnessed it.