Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 1: There are a lot of changes in life, but I
Speaker 1: want to look today at the kind of changes that
Speaker 1: you can't control. And of course everybody would agree that
Speaker 1: the world is changing. About the only thing you can
Speaker 1: predict accurately about the future is this. It's going to change.
Speaker 1: Tomorrow will be different than today. We don't know what
Speaker 1: it's going to be, but we do know for certain
Speaker 1: that change is an inevitable part of life, and nothing
Speaker 1: stays the same on this planet.
Speaker 2: Everything changes. And God even told.
Speaker 1: Us this was going to happen way back in the
Speaker 1: first book of the Bible, in Genesis, chapter eight, the
Speaker 1: Bible says this in verse twenty two. As long as
Speaker 1: the earth remains, it's going to be springtime and harvest,
Speaker 1: cold and heat, winter and summer, day and night. In
Speaker 1: other words, God instituted change. Things don't stay the same.
Speaker 1: It gets hot, it gets cold, it gets summer, it
Speaker 1: gets winter. There are seasons in life. Things change day
Speaker 1: and night every twenty four hours. Change is inevitable.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 1: Of course, in the past thirty years here at Saddleback,
Speaker 1: I've probably seen more change on a personal level than
Speaker 1: than many people have in life, and so I want
Speaker 1: to share it today almost like a testimony. Lessons I've
Speaker 1: learned on how to not just cope with change, but
Speaker 1: how to grow through change, how to be better, how
Speaker 1: to grow through it. And I'm talking about the changes
Speaker 1: I didn't ask for, I don't like, and I don't want,
Speaker 1: and many of you are in them right now. These
Speaker 1: are principles I've gleaned from Scripture all throughout Scripture Number one,
Speaker 1: look for God in the change. Look for God in
Speaker 1: the change that.
Speaker 2: You're going through.
Speaker 1: Mother Teresa, when she used to be asked, why do
Speaker 1: you help the poorest of the poor, she said, because
Speaker 1: I see the face of Jesus in the poor, and
Speaker 1: I want to help him.
Speaker 2: You know she's right.
Speaker 1: But what I've discover is you can find the face
Speaker 1: of Jesus anywhere if you look close enough, even in
Speaker 1: the worst situations, even in something that God created that
Speaker 1: has been perverted, if you can look and see the
Speaker 1: original intent, you can see the face of Jesus around you.
Speaker 1: Jeremiah twenty nine says this verse thirteen. If you look
Speaker 1: for me in earnest, God says, you will.
Speaker 2: Find me when you seek me.
Speaker 1: If you look for me in earnest, you will find
Speaker 1: me when you seek me.
Speaker 2: Well, you know what our problem is.
Speaker 1: When change comes, we look for everything else except the Lord.
Speaker 1: We look for a quick fix, We look for an
Speaker 1: easy solution, We look for a way out, We look
Speaker 1: for comfort, we look for relief. What you need to
Speaker 1: look for is the Lord. You need to look for
Speaker 1: God when you're in the middle of a problem. You know,
Speaker 1: me just going well, you know what's the quick fix?
Speaker 1: How do I get out of this? How do I
Speaker 1: save my skin? I turn things around? That whole way
Speaker 1: is missing the point. You look for the Lord. Don't
Speaker 1: seek the comfort, don't seek the relief. Seek the Lord
Speaker 1: and you'll get all these other things, the solution, the
Speaker 1: answer to the relief, the comfort, the strength, and all
Speaker 1: that that you need. You look for God in the change.
Speaker 1: Number two, ask God for wisdom. You ask God for
Speaker 1: wisdom when you're going through a change that you didn't plan,
Speaker 1: you didn't want, you don't like you say, Lord, what
Speaker 1: do you want me to do? What do you want
Speaker 1: me to do in this situation? You know, Lord, this
Speaker 1: didn't work, My plan didn't work out. It's obviously going
Speaker 1: the way I intended. So what do you want me
Speaker 1: to do? How do you want to redirect me. How
Speaker 1: do you want to correct me? How do you want
Speaker 1: to inspect me? How do you want to perfect me?
Speaker 1: In this situation?
Speaker 2: Now?
Speaker 1: The reason you need to ask for wisdom is because
Speaker 1: in a change, your thinking has to change.
Speaker 2: Now follow me on this.
Speaker 1: To do what you've never done, you've got to think
Speaker 1: like you've never thought. To do what you've never done,
Speaker 1: you got to think like you've never thought. Old way
Speaker 1: of thinking, stinking thinking, That won't work. You're in a
Speaker 1: new situation, a new time, a new relationship, a new energy,
Speaker 1: a new development, a new commitment, a new circumstance. What
Speaker 1: you've never done, You've got to think in new ways.
Speaker 1: So you say, Lord, what do you want me to think?
Speaker 1: James one to five says, if you need wisdom, if
Speaker 1: you want to know what God wants you to do,
Speaker 1: ask him and he'll gladly tell you he will not
Speaker 1: resent your asking. And Jesus said, you know you have
Speaker 1: not because you asked that.
Speaker 2: You need to stop. Say Lord, what do you want
Speaker 2: me to do?
Speaker 1: In a situation Number three, Listen for God's whisper. Listen
Speaker 1: for God's whisper, And you've got to be quiet because
Speaker 1: he's not going to s it to you. God speaks
Speaker 1: to those who take the time to listen, but you
Speaker 1: have to be quiet and you listen. A good example
Speaker 1: of this is in First Kings, chapter nineteen. It's the
Speaker 1: story of Elijah. Elijah was up on the mountain nursing
Speaker 1: his wounds, having a pity party, hiding in a cave,
Speaker 1: and God needed to get his attention, and it says
Speaker 1: in verse eleven, then the Lord passed by and sent
Speaker 1: a furious wind, let's flit the hills and shattered the rocks.
Speaker 2: But the Lord was not in the wind.
Speaker 1: And then there was an earthquake, but the Lord was
Speaker 1: not in the earthquake. And after that there was a fire,
Speaker 1: but the Lord was not in the fire. But after
Speaker 1: the fire, there was a soft.
Speaker 2: Whisper of a voice.
Speaker 1: And when Elijah heard it, he covered his face with
Speaker 1: his cloak, and he went out and stood it the
Speaker 1: entrance of the cave. He knew this was God talking,
Speaker 1: And the voice said to him, Elijah, what are you
Speaker 1: doing here? Good ever said that to you, what are
Speaker 1: you doing here? How'd you ever end up here? I
Speaker 1: didn't plan for you to end up here? What are
Speaker 1: you doing here? I don't want you here hanging out
Speaker 1: in the cave in the mountains, saying, poor me. Everybody
Speaker 1: hates me, nobody loves me. I'm gonna go eat worms.
Speaker 1: You have a little pity party on yourself. No, God
Speaker 1: speaks in the still small voice, in the whisper. So
Speaker 1: what you need to do when you're going through change
Speaker 1: is you need to slow down your mind. You need
Speaker 1: to slow down the RPMs and say, Lord, is there
Speaker 1: anything you want to say to me? And you sit
Speaker 1: and you just listen, and you be quiet, and you
Speaker 1: let your mind slow down, and you read the word
Speaker 1: of God, and you talk to him in prayer, and
Speaker 1: you stop and you just be quiet.
Speaker 2: We need to learn to be We need.
Speaker 1: To learn to be still, get quiet, look for God
Speaker 1: in the change, Ask God for wisdom, listen for God's whisper.
Speaker 2: And number four, the.
Speaker 1: Fourth thing I've learned about change is this, don't ask
Speaker 1: why but what? Don't ask why but what? What do
Speaker 1: I need to learn? That's the question you need to ask.
Speaker 1: Don't ask why, that's the question of explanation. Ask what
Speaker 1: what do you want me to learn? That's the question
Speaker 1: of education. In fact, you might write this down. Every
Speaker 1: situation is an education Every situation is an education. It's
Speaker 1: an opportunity for you to grow and you'll either grow
Speaker 1: better or you'll grow bitter depending on your response. And
Speaker 1: what you need to do is don't focus on the circumstance,
Speaker 1: Focus on your character. Don't focus on the problem, focus
Speaker 1: on your personality. Don't focus on what's going on around you.
Speaker 1: Focus on what God wants to do in you. That's
Speaker 1: the difference. You've heard me say this many times that Earth,
Speaker 1: your time on Earth, is a character development school. God's
Speaker 1: number one purpose in your life is to make you
Speaker 1: like Christ, to grow you up, to develop true spiritual
Speaker 1: maturity character. He doesn't want you to be a spiritual
Speaker 1: baby all your life, and so what He does is
Speaker 1: he allows circumstances that teach you in the school of
Speaker 1: hard knocks. Some things you only learn through difficulty. Some
Speaker 1: things you only learn to experience it yourself. And you're
Speaker 1: not taking your career to heaven, so that doesn't really
Speaker 1: matter to God. You're not taking your cash to heaven.
Speaker 1: That doesn't really matter to God. You're not taking your house,
Speaker 1: or your clothes, or even your reputation, but you are
Speaker 1: taking your character into eternity. What you are, what you became.
Speaker 1: You're taking that into eternity with you. Far more interested
Speaker 1: is what's happening in you than in what's happening around you?
Speaker 2: How is it changing you?
Speaker 1: As I told you earlier, pain is a good thing
Speaker 1: because pain is a teacher. It teaches us what's wrong
Speaker 1: in our lives. It teaches what needs to be changed.
Speaker 1: And I can tell you from personal experience. The greatest
Speaker 1: lessons I've learned about relationships I've learned from relational pain.
Speaker 1: The greatest things lessons I've learned about finances I've learned
Speaker 1: from financial pain. The greatest things I've learned about health
Speaker 1: I've learned from physical pain.
Speaker 2: The things that you're going through.
Speaker 1: When you get a pain in any air of your life,
Speaker 1: it's say, hey, warning sign, something's out of whack here.
Speaker 1: Emotional pain means something's out of whack with your emotions,
Speaker 1: and God is saying I want to get your attention.
Speaker 2: Don't ask why but what.
Speaker 1: God doesn't owe you an explanation for everything that happens
Speaker 1: in your life. In fact, you're not going to get it.
Speaker 1: If you had an explanation for everything, you wouldn't need
Speaker 1: any faith. Some things that happen in your life. You're
Speaker 1: never going to understand until you get to heaven. And
Speaker 1: when you get to heaven, you go, oh, okay, now
Speaker 1: I get the whole picture. I see the beginning to
Speaker 1: the end. I see the whole thing. I see what
Speaker 1: was happening here. But I will tell you this. If
Speaker 1: God has called you to do something and you say, Okay, God,
Speaker 1: I know you want me to do this, so I'm
Speaker 1: going to go do it, you need to expect opposition.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of people that don't like God and
Speaker 1: don't want God's work done. So if you try to
Speaker 1: do what God wants you to do, I guarantee you
Speaker 1: you're going to have opposition. Duh, Satan's going to oppose you. You're
Speaker 1: going to have opposition if you try to do the
Speaker 1: right thing. So what do we need to learn in life? Well,
Speaker 1: there's lots of things we need to learn in character.
Speaker 1: One thing we need to learn is contentment. Look at
Speaker 1: this next verse Philippians, chapter four. Paul says in verse twelve,
Speaker 1: I have learned this secret so that anywhere, at any time,
Speaker 1: I am content.
Speaker 2: Whoa anywhere?
Speaker 1: Anytime he says, I'm content, whether I'm full or hungry,
Speaker 1: whether I have too much or too little. I have
Speaker 1: the strength to face all conditions by the power Christ
Speaker 1: gives me. We like the second part of that verse.
Speaker 1: I can do all things to Christ is streaming with me.
Speaker 1: We don't like the first part. Learning to be content
Speaker 1: with too little or when I'm hungry. We don't like
Speaker 1: that part because contentment and character is something you learn.
Speaker 1: It doesn't come naturally. I am not by nature content.
Speaker 1: You are not by nature content by nature, I naturally
Speaker 1: want to take care of my needs.
Speaker 2: I'm not thinking about you.
Speaker 1: I'm thinking about me, my needs, my hurts, my once.
Speaker 1: How am I comfortable? Am I happy? Am I getting
Speaker 1: the pleasure I want? What's it all about me? That's
Speaker 1: natural for you, that's natural for me. You have to
Speaker 1: learn to be content. That's a spiritual development. And that's
Speaker 1: why God says, I'm going to use it all to
Speaker 1: teach you. Romans five says this verse three and four.
Speaker 1: Even in our trials and troubles, these very things will
Speaker 1: develop mature character. The trial, the problem, the circumstance, the
Speaker 1: change you're going through right now. God wants you to
Speaker 1: grow up to develop mature character. Now have you ever
Speaker 1: wondered why life is so hard. I mean, let's first
Speaker 1: just admit it. Everybody agree life is difficult. We all
Speaker 1: agree with that it is not easy. Life is not easy.
Speaker 1: It is difficult. God never said it would be easy.
Speaker 1: This is not heaven, this is earth. This is the testing,
Speaker 1: the school, this is the trial period, the warm up back.
Speaker 1: So life is not easy. Wherever there's sin, there's going
Speaker 1: to be problems. It's difficult. But why even after I
Speaker 1: give my life to the Lord and I'm really trying
Speaker 1: to do the right thing.
Speaker 2: Why is life such a struggle? Why is that? I'll
Speaker 2: tell you why.
Speaker 1: Because God wants to change us and we don't want
Speaker 1: to change. That's the real reason for all the struggle
Speaker 1: in your life. God wants to change you. He wants
Speaker 1: to grow you up. He wants you to quit being
Speaker 1: a spiritual baby. He wants you to become a godly
Speaker 1: man or a godly woman, and we.
Speaker 2: Don't want to. We want to do our thing.
Speaker 1: We want to be selfish, self centered, we want our plans,
Speaker 1: our agenda. We don't want to go with God's plan.
Speaker 1: And that's the struggle. Now, since I know that God's
Speaker 1: going to use it all for my good, what should
Speaker 1: be my response?
Speaker 2: Look to the next verse.
Speaker 1: The Bible says in First Thessalonians, chapter five down in
Speaker 1: verse eighteen, give thanks in all circumstances, for this is
Speaker 1: God's will for you in Christ Jesus. Now people say,
Speaker 1: I'm in this transition right now. I lost my job,
Speaker 1: or I lost my health, or I lost my family,
Speaker 1: or I lost this or that.
Speaker 2: What is God's will for me right now? There?
Speaker 1: It is, this is God's will for you, that you
Speaker 1: give thanks in all circumstances. To wait a minute, How
Speaker 1: in the world can I give thanks for what's happened
Speaker 1: to me?
Speaker 2: I didn't say that.
Speaker 1: Notice the Bible does not say give thanks for all circumstances,
Speaker 1: give thanks in all circumstances, not for in big difference,
Speaker 1: it says, in all circumstances, give thanks. I'm not giving
Speaker 1: thanks for the circumstance. I'm giving thanks for what else.
Speaker 1: I can give you A hundred things to be thankful
Speaker 1: for in a circumstance. I can be thankful that God
Speaker 1: is in control, that God loves me, it's not changing
Speaker 1: his plan for my life, that he will help me out,
Speaker 1: He'll give me strength, that He'll use everything for good
Speaker 1: in my life. There are all kinds of promises. I
Speaker 1: can give you one hundred things to be thankful for
Speaker 1: in the situation, not for it, but in it. And
Speaker 1: that's how you grow. That's how you grow by learning
Speaker 1: to give thanks.
Speaker 2: Lord.
Speaker 1: I don't like what's going on right now. I'm out
Speaker 1: of work, I've got no income, i got a health
Speaker 1: problem that's coming up right now, I'm in a marital conflict.
Speaker 1: All these things are happening right now. I don't like this,
Speaker 1: but I'm going to give thanks in this circumstance because
Speaker 1: I know you love me, you care for me, and
Speaker 1: all these other things that we can be thankful for.
Speaker 2: I'm still breathing, I'm alive.
Speaker 1: The fifth thing you need to do when you're facing
Speaker 1: a major change is focus on what never changes. Don't
Speaker 1: focus on the situation. Focus on what never changes now,
Speaker 1: what never changes. Three things God's love, God's promises, God's purpose.
Speaker 1: God's love for you is never going to change. God's promises,
Speaker 1: His word is always true. God is not a liar.
Speaker 1: It's never going to change. God's purpose for your life
Speaker 1: is never going to change. These three verses there on
Speaker 1: your outline. Jeremiah thirty one, I have loved you with
Speaker 1: an everlasting love Psalm thirty three. His plans endure forever,
Speaker 1: His purposes last eternally Isaiah forty. The word of God
Speaker 1: shall stand forever. God's love, God's truth, God's purposes for
Speaker 1: my life are never going to change. That's what you
Speaker 1: focus on when things are flying through the air. Number six.
Speaker 1: Don't face it alone. Don't face the change alone. Accept
Speaker 1: help from others. Now, friends, This is the exact opposite
Speaker 1: of human nature. Our tendency when we're in pain is
Speaker 1: to pull into a shell. Our tendency when things aren't
Speaker 1: going well in our lives we retreat in fear to
Speaker 1: our castle. We pull up the drawbridge, fill the moat.
Speaker 1: Really the alligators, turn on the electric fence and say,
Speaker 1: I don't want to let anybody get near me.
Speaker 2: Big mistake.
Speaker 1: That's not how you get through the change, and that's
Speaker 1: not how you grow.
Speaker 2: Through the change.
Speaker 1: What you need to do is tell other people what's
Speaker 1: happening in your life.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 1: You don't have to tell everybody, but you need to
Speaker 1: tell a few close friends so well. I don't want
Speaker 1: anybody else to know that's your problem. Because there's a
Speaker 1: word for that. It's called pride. Pride it's ego, it's arrogance.
Speaker 1: I don't want anybody else to know what I'm going
Speaker 1: through right now.
Speaker 2: That's arrogance. That's pride.
Speaker 1: The Bible says God resists the proud. You're on the
Speaker 1: opposite side of God every time you get full of pride.
Speaker 1: But it says God gives grace to the humble. What
Speaker 1: you need to get through this difficult time, what you
Speaker 1: need to get through this major change in your life
Speaker 1: is God's grace. And there's only one way you get
Speaker 1: God's grace. Humble yourself. And how do you do that
Speaker 1: by sharing your need with somebody else. The Bible commands
Speaker 1: you to do that fifty one times. That says love
Speaker 1: one another and bear one another's burdens, and care for
Speaker 1: one another, pray for one another, share with one another.
Speaker 1: You're breaking the laws of God if you're not sharing
Speaker 1: your pain with anybody else. Now, you need to get
Speaker 1: a couple of Christian friends who will pray for you
Speaker 1: and encourage you.
Speaker 2: Get in that small group.
Speaker 1: You don't even have to share it with the whole group,
Speaker 1: maybe just a few people in the group. If you've
Speaker 1: got a group of you know, ten people will or more.
Speaker 1: But you need people to share it with. The Bible
Speaker 1: says this. You probably ought to have this verse memorized
Speaker 1: by now. We've dealt with it so many times Ecclesiastes four.
Speaker 1: Two are better off than one because if one of
Speaker 1: them falls down, the other can help him up. Two
Speaker 1: men can resist an attack that would defeat one man alone.
Speaker 1: If you go through this crisis by yourself, you're going
Speaker 1: to be defeated. You will be defeated. You need other people,
Speaker 1: and you're like God wired us in such a way
Speaker 1: that we need each other. No man is an island.
Speaker 1: No person ever made it on their own. And when
Speaker 1: I humble myself and I share what's going on in
Speaker 1: my life with some other people and they can pray
Speaker 1: for me and encourage me, a burden that is shared
Speaker 1: is halved, and a joy that is shared is doubled.
Speaker 1: Happens every time. Number seven, this is a real important one.
Speaker 1: Become a promise person. Build your life on the promises
Speaker 1: of God. There are over seven thousand promises in the
Speaker 1: Bible and they're there waiting to be claimed. They're like
Speaker 1: blank checks where God says, if you do this, I'll
Speaker 1: do this. If you do this, I'll do this. You
Speaker 1: need to memorize them, you need to bank on them,
Speaker 1: you need to claim them. I have been walking with
Speaker 1: the Lord now for almost fifty years, and in those
Speaker 1: fifty years I have become a promised person. I build
Speaker 1: my life on the promises of God, not the way
Speaker 1: things seem, but the way God says they will be.
Speaker 1: And when you build your life on those promises, you
Speaker 1: can handle enormous levels of stress because you're not looking
Speaker 1: at circumstances.
Speaker 2: You're looking at the word of God.
Speaker 1: One of the great promises of the Bible is the
Speaker 1: promise that God says, I'm not going to give up
Speaker 1: on you. I'm not finished with you. What I start
Speaker 1: in your life I'm going to complete. In Philippians chapter one,
Speaker 1: it says this verse six, I am sure of this
Speaker 1: and the confident. It's not a hope, not a dream,
Speaker 1: not a wish. I'm sure of this that God, who
Speaker 1: began this good work in you, will carry it on
Speaker 1: until it is finished, until the day of Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1: What God starts, he finishes in your life. God did
Speaker 1: not bring you this far just to leave you where
Speaker 1: you are. The story is not finished. The last chapter
Speaker 1: has not been written. You're still in the middle of
Speaker 1: the movie. God did not bring you this far just
Speaker 1: to leave you where you are. He says, what I've
Speaker 1: started in your life, I'm going to complete if you'll.
Speaker 2: Let me do it. One Peter five seven. Look at
Speaker 2: this verse up here on the screen. You can throw
Speaker 2: the whole weight of your.
Speaker 1: Anxiety for me. That's a whole weight, that's a lot.
Speaker 1: You can throw the whole weight of your anxieties upon him,
Speaker 1: for you are his personal concern.
Speaker 2: Did you know that? Did you know that?
Speaker 1: You are God's personal concern? And he says, you can
Speaker 1: take all that stress you're feeling, all that worry, all
Speaker 1: that anxiety, all that insecurity, just dump it on me.
Speaker 1: Philippians Chapter four talks about and the peace of God,
Speaker 1: which transcends all understanding, will keep your hearts and minds
Speaker 1: in Christ Jesus, the peace that passes all understanding. How
Speaker 1: would you like to have that kind of peace? I
Speaker 1: want that kind of peace in my life, so no
Speaker 1: matter what happens, the peace that transcends understand How do
Speaker 1: you get that kind of.
Speaker 2: Peace in your life? Here's how you get it.
Speaker 1: By trusting God in the situations you don't understand When
Speaker 1: you trust God in the situations you don't understand, you
Speaker 1: get the peace that transcends understanding. When you say to God, God,
Speaker 1: I don't get this, I don't like it, I don't
Speaker 1: understand it, but I'm going to trust you, then you
Speaker 1: get the peace that transcends understanding, because instead of looking
Speaker 1: for an explanation.
Speaker 2: You get strength.
Speaker 1: You get the strength of God, and you live each
Speaker 1: day in such a way that you're bound to fail
Speaker 1: unless God bails you out, unless God helps you. Trusting
Speaker 1: always requires risking. These are verses that I've used in
Speaker 1: dealing with change for the last thirty years. One of
Speaker 1: my favorites is this one Psalm one twelve seven. The
Speaker 1: righteous man does not fear bad news nor live in
Speaker 1: dread of what may happen, for he is settled in
Speaker 1: his mind that God will take care of him. I
Speaker 1: want you to be a godly woman. I want you
Speaker 1: to be a godly man, a righteous man, a righteous woman,
Speaker 1: so that you don't fear bad news. My happiness doesn't
Speaker 1: depend on the stock market, or the job market or
Speaker 1: anything else. I don't live in dread of what may happen,
Speaker 1: for I've settled in my mind that God is going
Speaker 1: to take care of me. Here's the last step, and
Speaker 1: it's the most important one of all. When I'm going
Speaker 1: through a change I don't like, I tell God I'll
Speaker 1: trust him no matter what, even if it's not the
Speaker 1: storybook ending, even if it doesn't turn out the way
Speaker 1: I want. I'm going to trust God no matter what.
Speaker 1: Because God is a good God. He loves me. He
Speaker 1: made me, He knows what's best for me. He created me.
Speaker 1: He has a plan for my life. Job did this
Speaker 1: when Job lost everything in his life and Job thirteen
Speaker 1: he says, though.
Speaker 2: He God slay me. Yet will I trust him? He said, God, even.
Speaker 1: If this is the end of the road, even if
Speaker 1: I don't live another day, even if I don't make it, God.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna trust you God.
Speaker 1: If you decide to take my life right now, if
Speaker 1: it's over, if my life is over, I'm still gonna
Speaker 1: trust you because I still have Heaven. That's the ultimate
Speaker 1: test of faith. Hold everything God gives you with an
Speaker 1: open hand. Anything you grab onto is going to kill you.
Speaker 1: Anything you grab onto is going to stress you out
Speaker 1: because it becomes an idol. Even good things can become
Speaker 1: an idol. And the first two commandments are no other
Speaker 1: gods before me, and no idols. And anything you grasp
Speaker 1: onto and you can't hold it with an open hand
Speaker 1: that God has given you is an idol. If God
Speaker 1: has given you something in your life and you couldn't
Speaker 1: give it up, you don't own it.
Speaker 2: It owns you. If God said to.
Speaker 1: You, I want you to break up with your boyfriend
Speaker 1: and you said I couldn't do that, you don't own it.
Speaker 2: He owns you. You need to hold it with an
Speaker 2: open hand.
Speaker 1: And when God can put one job in your hand,
Speaker 1: he could easily put another job in your hand. And
Speaker 1: if he turns on one faucet, he can turn off another.
Speaker 1: And if he turns off one, he can turn on another.
Speaker 1: And if he closes one window, he can open another window.
Speaker 1: And he closes one door, he can open another.
Speaker 2: You belong to him.
Speaker 1: And you come to the point of maturity where you say,
Speaker 1: my identity is not in my job, my identity is
Speaker 1: not in my relationships, My identity is not in my wealth.
Speaker 1: My identity is in you, Jesus Christ, and that can
Speaker 1: never be taken from me. Job one one the Lord
Speaker 1: gave and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the
Speaker 1: name of the Lord that's power heads. Would you pray this,
Speaker 1: Dear God, I realize there's no growth without change, no
Speaker 1: change without loss, no loss without grief, and no grief
Speaker 1: without pain. But I thank you that in all things
Speaker 1: you're working for good in my life. Even when people
Speaker 1: have intended to harm me, you meant it for good.
Speaker 1: I thank you that the purpose of what I'm going
Speaker 1: through right now is to test my faith. So I
Speaker 1: want to look for you Lord in the change. I
Speaker 1: want to seek you, not a solution, not a quick fix,
Speaker 1: not a way out. I want to ask you for wisdom. God,
Speaker 1: I need your wisdom. Forgive me for being too busy
Speaker 1: and too noisy to hear your whisper. I want to
Speaker 1: be quiet. I want to spend time with you on
Speaker 1: a daily basis. Read your word, be quiet, listen to you.
Speaker 2: Pray.
Speaker 1: Lord, help me to stop asking why and to start
Speaker 1: asking what do you want me to learn? Help me
Speaker 1: to give thanks in all circumstances, not for them, but
Speaker 1: in them, because this is your will for me, develop
Speaker 1: mature character and me grow me up. Help me to
Speaker 1: focus on that which never changes. Your love for me,
Speaker 1: your purpose for me, your promises to me, forgive me
Speaker 1: for my pride and not willing to share what I'm
Speaker 1: going through with others. You've told me you don't want
Speaker 1: me to face this alone. Help me to get into
Speaker 1: a small group and help me to share with a
Speaker 1: few people what's happening in my life so that they
Speaker 1: can bear the burdens with me. I want to become
Speaker 1: a promised person. I thank you that you who began
Speaker 1: work in my life, are going to finish what you start.
Speaker 1: That the story is not finished, that what you start
Speaker 1: you complete, that you will have the last word, and
Speaker 1: your word is good. I want to throw the whole
Speaker 1: weight of all my anxiety on you right now. Thank
Speaker 1: you that I am your personal concern. I want to
Speaker 1: be a godly man. I want to be a godly
Speaker 1: woman that is settled in my mind that you're going
Speaker 1: to take care of me. Father, I want to say
Speaker 1: to you today, no matter what happens, I'm going to
Speaker 1: trust you. No matter what the ending is. I'm going
Speaker 1: to trust you because you are a good God. You've
Speaker 1: never invited Christ in your life. Say Jesus Christ, come
Speaker 1: into my life right now and be the manager of
Speaker 1: my life.
Speaker 2: I want to learn to trust you and love you
Speaker 2: in your name. Amen,