Patient Incubation | Shawn Bolz | Expression 58

before I go into the message I just wanted to honor the last Sunday we have of Black History Month and it's just such an incredible time to honor african-american people I was reading the voice of persecution organization from 2016 an article they put out during February there's an African Americans outnumber every other race in America in regards to faith in Jesus as a people group they've done more for lobbying peaceful protesting rallying for the cause of faith in any other people group in America and that's not per capita the observation of the voice of persecution organizations that they are used to the challenge of their rights and so their challenge for the practice for the right of faith has been no different and so they've been championed people group in America that we just wouldn't have been this far in advance in our spirituality if it wasn't for them and I just want to talk about William Seymour real fast because he's a he's a Los Angeles an Angeleno he wasn't from here but he had his ministry based here who was such a great representation of the african-american community and also as a person of faith who is literally one of the most important figures in modern history in the church so l is most successful export is not Hollywood but Pentecostalism according to economists in 2006 and it would be an african-american itinerant preacher that drove its expansion through Seymour though Seymour never really spoke out against segregation directly he did suggest that race class or social status had little to do with connecting to a higher power no instrument that God can use is rejected on account of color or dress or lack of education moreover AFM's diverse gatherings of people shocked many Angelenos who believe such racial mixing should not be taking place whites living near the church often called the police or filed complaints within the city Williams seemed wort started revolution now populated by over seven hundred and seventy million people who are charismatic or Pentecostal faith Thank You african-american people we love you we honor your menthe of history because your history is our history and we are a better America because of who you are not just in a nice sentimental way but in an actual reality and so we're so grateful so I just wanted to go over that and just be just have us on an attitude of gratefulness these last few days of celebrating and I want to encourage you we have YouTube's the youtubes is now on and you can look at Black History information on the youtubes and every year there's a theme and there's a lot of videos that are presented really well about the theme of several organizations who helped had this and share this up and the person who started Black History Month was an ex-slave and he did it so that there could be an understanding of what this beautiful community has brought into at the time where their history wasn't being told now we have more history being told than ever before but it still doesn't share the the fullness of what God has done through this people group in America so I'm so grateful for you african-american people in our church we love you and we're so grateful for the community in Los Angeles so we think that one of the greatest outpouring is a revival will happen as african-americans stand in the community and say yes and it's happening to Hollywood right now the most predominant people face in Hollywood that are had been given a position by God or african-americans we have everyone from Devon Franklin to David O yellow of Viola Davis and we know Finley so many people are being given a position of prominence and they're standing for in the correct way and it's just a place of faith and it's you look at Jewish people and you see like just people on banking and producing and all those areas there's like a blessing on the Jewish community to rule and reign in certain areas of society around the world well for us in Los Angeles one of the places that African American have literally just recently come into a place of grace as far as people of faith who are giving us an incredible witness in the church is an entertainment of street so we're so grateful and I just wanted it I didn't want to not say something this morning again just because we're so so grateful so that's not my message that was the freebie just out of a place of honor I want to talk today about patient incubation and this is going to be kind of a message I put together based on two themes that are in my heart right now for us as a church and I want to share some scriptures and some thoughts with you that I think are gonna be this isn't a traditional teaching this is more of just just a philosophical theological talk about like how do we actually come to a place of true teach ability where our faith is actually measured and how we walk out our lives we know that the statistics in the church in America are the same with secular and church based people meaning we have the same divorce rates we're a little bit lower in the church but we have the same alcoholism rates drug addiction rates the same suicide rates all these things are the same and a lot of this is because some of the the largest Christian statistical organizations have studied out the way Christians have taken on their faith and seven out of 10 Christians in America don't actually apply their faith to everyday decisions and so I believe that a lot of this comes from an attitude where we don't know how much we're invited into when we think about this amazing God and I know our church is a little different because we have a lot of mature people here and that's not always true of all churches a lot of churches have people who are less than three years in the Lord and I'm as a matter of fact the average American Church is less than five years of salvation as far as our average church member well we have a higher average than that but at the same time a lot of people don't realize that God has such a beautiful dream and there is the best version of ourselves that he intended us to walk in on this side of eternity and the gospel itself and then His Holy Spirit are given to you as relational tools to help you become what he dreamed of in the first place we're on this journey of not just you know getting rid of stuff but actually becoming something as well I want to read out of Matthew 13 11 this is Jesus saying you've been given the intimate experience and this is the the passion translation sorry it's a little different translation you've been given the intimate experience of insight and the hidden truths and mysteries of the realm of heavens Kingdom but they have not for everyone who listens with an open heart will receive progressively more revelation until he has more than enough now our relationship with God and the way that we relate to him is always progressive and there's a place inside of us that should be looking and measuring and wanting to hear and know more from God I'm in the season of like I think the greatest time of self-awareness of what I need to grow into that I've ever been in in my entire life I have self diagnosed and I've also had a wife whose help diagnosed my friends or therapist who diagnosed that I need growth we've been diagnosing each other we need growth you know it's not like I'm in this bad place from breaking down I'm in a great place where anymore when you have a miracle you need miracles when you've heard from God you need to hear from God more so it's not just out of a place to break down that people need more it's also a place of health people need more and the revelation of what God does in your life is progressive there's always more added steps and I started this podcast last year at the end last year it's only been on for three months and I've been asking people really intense questions about like how does God speaking to you change the world around you like tell me some stories so I've been asking outside of the normal like some of you have been on so far have been some of the ministers we've known and stuff for them and asking people who aren't the normal so some NFL players and some some social justice people on some just different people who I'm asking really intense questions of like how did your hearing from God change the world around you and I brought this up already expression before it's about to come out in March one of the episodes was with a friend of mine who leads a helps lead a church up in the North called Mission Church in Vallejo and they actually had a group of their their church members who were going to like a prophetic class and they said you know it says in the Bible that God has helped by his voice responded help find kidnap victims so we want to see if God will do that for this woman's kidnapped daughter or granddaughter we want to see if God will give us indicators or clues to help the local police force an FBI to find her and he's like okay let's do it so they began to pray and they got signpost and they get they saw a truck and they saw his part of the license plate number they started to see visions of some of this and they ended up finding the kidnap victim when everyone thought they were dead because it been so long they found the kidnap victim well now they're on their seventh kidnap victim and when you think that's just one small area when you think that God cares so much for each individual on the earth and wants to talk to us about his plan for people's lives and kidnapping as the total violation of his plan and so why wouldn't he talk to us it shouldn't just be psychics and mediums who are known for giving clues and indicators it should be Christians who actually are saying there's a God who cares more about this person than even their parents and wants to help find this person like I just love that so like for me I've been expanding and growing in my expectation not that I want to start a kidnapped victims group or whatever but I mean like I'm just been expanding in my heart going God you came for such a full measure of a kingdom of love and justice on the earth and I'm seeing a very limited perspective based on my own life experience and my own anticipation some of the stories I've heard I want to grow into a whole new thing and I was I was looking at Matthew 18 verse 2 through 3 that says Jesus called a little one to aside and said to them learn this well unless you dramatically change your way of thinking and become teachable and learn about heavens kingdom reality with a wide-eyed wonder of a child you will never be able to enter in whoever continually humbles himself to become like this gentle child is the greatest one in the kingdom of heaven let me highlight two things unless you dramatically change the way you think why are only seven out of ten people living a Christian lifestyle who proclaim Christ because they're not willing to dramatically change the way they think or they don't know it's available you know a lot of times we read the Bible we get saved just for like basically a self-help book with a little bit of history we're not actually looking at it as being a living transformation agent where God will change us from the inside out then who actually change our options they'll change our ability to think I was sharing the first service how like one of my things that I've had all my life is in patience but I've grown in character but then you have a wife and you think you have character and you don't have as much character as you thought you did in areas he's like I can and I had kids and like I'm not a morning person and I wake up every morning to one of my children in my face going dad dad dad dad you know like super excited like I can't wait to spend the day with you and I'm like go away I don't have coffee you know Harper now makes my coffee she's I'll make your coffee for you it's pretty gross but but it's like your Keurig and she was pressed as the smallest one to put honey in it because that's how she gets this bizarre but you need coffee the more you don't even care like I just need it for that the drug of it not for the taste right now but I mean you learned what you don't have character and a lot of times we think we've grown in a measure of character where character is even progressive because you growing in character at different levels shows your reveals to more of Christ in you and so it's always a maturing grow a journey now to overcome something that's like a a bad form of character to overcome the lack of character is one thing but to overcome into character you're always growing in peace you're always growing in love you're always growing in these virtues it doesn't stop and so many of us are grossed has been stunted because we're okay with where we're at and I'm looking at like my my daughter Harper who also comes to me and she's like a sponge right now for information she watches YouTube and she wants to know about surgeries and she wants to know about like crazy stuff like where does where do horses come from like how do they live how what do they eat I want to know everything about them or you know she's like learning what's real and what's not so or kitty unicorns real they're not I want to know everything about real unicorns are they real I'm like I think they were I heard something a long time ago they were before the fall I don't know like maybe I'm wrong I don't know let's look it up and investigate together because it was in the Bible once I don't know again I'm not thinking of these kinds of things but she's a brilliant sponge and she comes with wide-eyed wonder like it says here like she's thinking of everything because it's her first time she's discovering it I've already made resolutions on most of the things she's discovered but her wonder has caused me to reevaluate a lot of the things I used to think were just solid like this is what I believe you know my parents have come into different eschatology because of us taste my mom was like a rapture evangelist she would get people saved based on that might not go to heaven when the rapture comes and they came into a totally different viewpoint because of us you know in just in their eschatology and and they would have never come into a viewpoint if it wasn't for their own children there's a teach ability that happens when when you come with a child like this or where there's child like this around you and I think one of the greatest strengths we can have is to say I have a progressive revelation of Jesus growing inside of me and so instead of being the stubborn people who have an opinion about everything we actually become the people who are okay with the questions that are being asked you know Romans 12 verse 2 it says don't become so well adjusted to your culture that you fit in without even thinking instead fix your attention on God you'll be changed from the inside out readily recognize what he wants from you and quickly respond to it unlike the culture around you always dragging you down this level of maturity God brings the best out of you develops well for maturity in you now I have a bone to pick with how we've been taught devotional time because most the time we've been taught devotional time repent of all your sins and get your devotional list of things you have to pray out and then read at least one chapter of the Old Testament one chapter to the New Testament and then sing a song and to me like I'm not a ritualistic person so that would kill me I'm more of a creative person now some of you are diligent in that part your personality is to be more of a ritualistic person that's great I think a lot of liturgy and these kind of things can be beautiful but I'm actually a relational guy so like it for and I'm not saying that other people aren't who are more ritualistic but I'm more of a relational guy stuff for me I need to come into a place of like God you're forming me right now and so I'm coming to you not with a list of prayers and things I preconceived I need to come with a listening ear and say okay I'm gonna read something until it makes sense I'm gonna ply it and I'm gonna pray for how you would have me apply scriptures into my life I love proverbs because you can read three or four of them and you could ask God to show you in your week how to do that better one of the things about patience with me that I'm not very patient it the lack of patience is a thief you know God wants us to grow into virtues because we actually become more present in our lives right if you have anger it's the thief from you I remember one of my friends she smoked and every time she would go off for a smoking break it was a thief from our relational time so if we are going out for three hours she'd go at once every hour and a half to go for a 15 minute smoking break and we'd miss her we'd miss her presence because she was gone and she would miss some of the best conversation because she couldn't be present for more than 45 minutes to an hour at a time and then she'd have to go smoke now I'm not picking on smokers my impatience did the same thing anything that causes you that's not a well develop maturity and we'll actually begin to cost you relational time it'll cost you the benefit of what you could have if you didn't have that in your life so for me patients why it's like I'm the type of person if I get in the line at a coffee place I was at alfred's the other day in Studio City I'm in line there was like five people and I'm like in crowd anxiety because there's so many people in little space until I get to the final line and then I'm just there to order coffee and get out and I already have you know all my other goal set and I'm not present at all in that and I'm impatient I'm frustrated the lady who takes too long to order because she's already been staying there for five minutes beats behind three other people she had all that time to order the boards right there what is her problem you know and and for me though like what what that tells you is that I haven't learned how to look at the people around me actually I have now but learn to look at the people around me and go I get to be president as a Christian in every environment i go to and i get to be aware I get to be aware of who people are the beauty of the space I'm in what God's doing there what God's not doing there I'm gonna be aware and it doesn't mean have to be on all the time I don't have to like be a minister all the time I don't have to always evangelize all the time but I get to be aware and I get to look at what God calls beautiful and I get to be present in that beauty in a way that I'm if you're impatient you're just trying to get the goal oriented miss done then then you're not gonna have a good time and you're actually gonna be in anxiety like I used to find myself and anxiety all the time in places like lions at the music park one of the greatest things about going to musical park is hanging out with your friends in the line cuz you know like I don't know if you used to complain about lines and I went to Disney Tokyo and I was like I'll never complain to get about a line there's like 3,000 little people this big in the same line as me and you're gonna wait three hours for ride and I'm like what am i doing like what this is the worst at least I could see where the end of the line is but that made me more impatient you know I'm six foot four sorry it sounds bad I'm very tall but what what that little area of impatience did and not growing and allowing God to grow in that area of my life as it robbed me from being personal and it brought me from being present that each one of us has certain things like I'm not focused on the sin part the impatience I'm focused on the actual beautiful part of patients and what patients does for me I rarely focused on the effects of sin other than I want to grieve the effects of sin I want to grieve and go yeah that's the stick that's stealing for my life but I want to look at what what the effective that is doing in my life like there's a there's an optimal version I was made to be in my life a best version I mean that was made to be on this side of eternity or I'll see what a saved me and killed me he called me to be something where the world looks at me likes today the Queen as she becomes a psalm and it goes man who you are so amazing it proves that God loves his people because you're ruling over them and she got saved through it there's many people who here who are more introverted you won't necessarily preach on a street corner I don't preach on street corners it scares me I love the people in our church who can I love the evangelists who are like I will go out and talk to anybody I'm like I don't want to talk to anybody I only do because I'm motivated by love where you do even if you're not motivate my love you'll still talk to anybody I'm like I I have the gift of gab for my friends that's it you know but there's this place where when you have the love of God working inside of you your life begins to preach and people begin to get drawn to you because you're answering questions over is you Plus got equal something in your marriage in your family and how do you resolve issues like we're you know six out of ten kids in school now I said phorid attend the first one was the six out of ten kids according to California junior high and high school six out of ten kids are on some form of medication to to wrestle with different issues in their life and I think that's okay when Christians do that and when things happen it happens well I think medication is fine but what happens when you start to have a fully form God in your life and you can talk to people about those issues whether you're on this taking medication or whether you're on the side of not needing to take medication you could talk differently about those issues to people because people are looking at your labs and go wait how come your family loves each other I remember I've told this story here before but it's one of my favorite stories we had a woman who car and her husband got into a fight next door I was just a little kid like ten years old and they got in a fight next door and they were beating each other up and they have two little toddlers so the toddlers were put into foster care for a couple days or whatever that is emergency care the husband was taken to one of the generals houses to live because we were on Air Force Base and the wife was taking her house and my dad was a lieutenant colonel at the time and so she was staying with us and they were and she was she my mom had asked her going to church several times and she hadn't gone she wasn't interested in Jesus at all but she really was intrigued by our family because we really we were nice to each other we loved each other like we were respectful she just hadn't seen that before my parents and find my dad adored my mom and women would get mad at my dad sometimes because they get jealous of my mom because my dad just how he looked at my mom made women go why doesn't my husband look at me that way I was decades in their marriage right so she comes she decides she wants to go to church with us she invites herself she gets in our van and we're all the way to church we start to fight about where we're gonna go to lunch after church and it was a very common family fight and and it was very heated but not very passionate and I forget who got to pick the last time but I was convinced it was my turn my sister was convinced it was hurting it was just it was a big fight and at one point in the car she's crying and she's in the behind my mom my mom was in the front seat she's behind my mom she begins to cry and my mom gives us the evil mom I like you better shut up oh you're in trouble you know you know like we broke the broken lady type thing you know like for years your guys's fight that has done this even though she was fighting too and so we're all like hi and my mom's like oh we're so sorry we don't normally fight like this we fought like that on the way to church every Sunday but she's like we don't really fight we're so sorry we're so sorry and she saying no it's so beautiful it's so beautiful and my mom was like what's so beautiful you know like what are you talking about she said I've never seen a fight when the heaviness of like separation or divorce was on the table by a family like you all love each other so much you love each other so much God is real and she got saved but it's so it's the example that isn't to say fight on the way to church example that is to say that when you love with true commitment when you love and there's a character of your love even when you're just manifesting a human moment people are like going wait a minute your humanity my humanity is different because when you love as a Christian you have different options and one of the options is to actually take certain options off the table like divorce and say when we get into a heavy fight when I actually want to separate my heart from you I'm gonna choose and Jesus to say I'm not gonna let that come out of my mouth because he's bound me to you in a healthy holy way and so you're mine and I'm yours to stay in that place to actually have two people who choose that when you know how hard any kind of commitment is is such an example and a witness to people around you who are like I've never had that before in my heart I'd rather have the divorce than the relationship or whatever over my heart my kids don't I don't know my kids I don't know what's in their heart it's been so long since my kids are talking about their heart I can't believe your kids are even talking to you about their heart even if it's the same kind of conversations if they know their kids would have at least your kids are having the conversations the world's looking for this kind of display of God's love and affection and I love you know Maya Angelou one of the things she was famous one of her most famous quotes was out of all the intelligences that are important one of the most important is self intelligence why is this important for the church because we're so not self-aware in self intelligent and we have the opportunity to be some of the most self intelligent self-aware people because a lot of people who look the self intelligent self-aware actually narcissistic or egotistical but as a Christian we're not about us we're about him so we can be self-aware without being egotistical we be self-aware and have a right estimation of our self not too low but also not too high because it's about him so we could have great self-esteem without it violating somebody else we could have great sense of gifting and talent and skill without running over someone else with our estimation of ourself we have a great progressive reality where everyone else who's in our class for whatever it is or everyone else who's in our business everyone else is in the same level as us might feel like that's their end that's as far as they're gonna get they're not sure how to get further and we're looking at with all hope saying this is a stage I men knowing I'll progress further because I have a God in me who is the one who's put me on the journey in the first place and I think of like my parents you know I came from a healthy mom and dad and so when you come from a healthy mom and dad there was times they would take us away for the weekend and they wouldn't tell us where we're gonna go we're gonna go away for the weekend we went often usually once a month once every five weeks we go somewhere we lived here in Southern California or Central California at times and so we go somewhere like solving they would take us to solving and we've been solving a little Germantown the only thing I like there was fudge but you know when I was a kid but but like it was fun just to go there I'd be like we're in Germany all of a sudden you don't like work this is so crazy but they would take us throw random places and for me it was an adventure and excitement I remember having a friend and I was around 12 years old and I was like yeah we're gonna go some of this weekend where I don't know and you're okay with that he was 12 yeah I love my parents gonna surprise me oh I'd hate that it's I'd be so bored with my parents when I did they picked the worst places and then I could know I need to know and I realized like as it over I realized he gets anxiety because his parents aren't basically good for him and good to him so he gets anxiety with their surprises but my parents are basically good to me all the time I come from a healthy parents you know healthy place so I couldn't wait to see what they'd surprise me with even if it wasn't like my most favorite thing I got to be with them I got to be with my family I don't have you ever saw that commercial where it's from another country but it played all over the place on it was like one of those viral videos where they asked all these parents if you can spend time with the most important person in the world who would it be and all the parents say who it is you know it's like Bono or whoever you know and then they ask the kids if you can spend that time with the most important personal world who would you want it to be it was all their parents and the parents are watching the kids answer us and just weeping like they wouldn't spend dinner with me they would have dinner there's weaving about this and I'm just thinking like when you come from a place where you love your parents when you come up from a place where there's not a father run but you're actually going I actually want to spend time with you there's this place inside of it it's like my devotional time is gonna rock today it's gonna set me up for my day my time and God is progressive I'm growing I love to see the growth of me we all love to be celebrating our growth we all love to see those milestones happen and a lot of our devotional time the reason why it sucks for you is because there's no milestones and I think it's like we have to be big-picture people Jesus was teaching them how to be teachable and one of the ways was to become as a child well child looks at life circumstances and asked their father give me the bigger picture like I'm stuck in the what I can see but you can see what you can see explain this to me Harper does that to me all the time like she's like hey why are we going to this ice cream place I really like this one better what we've never been here before and I wanted to see what what would be here like it wasn't it fun to have a new life experience and see what's in our neighborhood like we have that one but let's try this one what do you think she's like oh I really like that the other one I'm like but what about the adventure of going somewhere new and even if we don't like it it's a fun experience she's like oh I like that and so I'm like let's go taste like four ice creams and if you don't like him we don't have to stay here she's like four ice creams are gonna taste for us because I wanna do this yeah like that's amazing but my child who's not adventurous and as a child of routine decides to be adventurous because she loves the thrill of being together and connected and she's getting a bigger picture cuz she's like if I have to stay in my own perspective I would stay here why are we doing this again is that what your relationship with gods like wait God if I had to do my own thing I wouldn't be choosing these choices but you're helping me choose and I'm not sure why you're choosing if I was stuck without hearing God if I was like oh you're just a Christian the Bible said he never speaks he only spoke then I'm a cessationist whatever I would probably give up but we have a living active relationship with the logos which is the written word and the Rhema which is the spiritual Word of God coming just interpreting life for us giving us a lens that we wouldn't see without him and when you hear him in some of those areas that that you would have never led yourself in certain journeys like I'm working at this job why am i working at this job god I came here for this and I'm doing this what's going on in the Lord's like I train you in some areas here that I couldn't have done in this other area I'm gonna give you a gift right here and maybe it may be for you you're giving me the surrender of your time for 10 or 15 years but for me I'm gonna give you the benefit of what you would have got through three lifetimes in one lifetime and it's not about the actual thing you're gonna do anyways it's about the people you get to love I'm gonna expose you some people who when they come into their Kingdom they're gonna remember you because the way you love them you know some of the the greatest things that have happened to me before I had a season of greater ministry and I don't I don't look at myself as a great person but I mean as far as greater impact that we've had in the last few years before that I taught pretty much the same message to love people well go after justice and it was pretty simple you know pretty simple I get to speak in front of youth group story easily and so but at the same time I'm being invited to churches with ten twenty thousand people regularly it now but back then if there's a season where I was like teaching the same basic message and a lot of people were like you know when I emerged into a kind of a greater it was like what was the message that branded you that made people want to listen to you and I said no actually the prophetic branded me and it made me people listen to my message because my message is just there's a version of you that God paid a price for let's become that and there's a world out there worthy of his love let's go love well that's been my message the whole time since I was 20 years old that's been my message and it's interesting to me because for a lot of people were looking to be more profound than we need to be and we're looking for a stage of life when we're gonna get promoted we're gonna become this awesome super human strength person there's always superhero movies out we're gonna become the super version of ourselves you're just gonna become the empowered version of who you already are there's a good you a version of you that God created that he loves that is investing into now and if you're trying to become something else you'll never become it he likes who you are now there's the sinful carnal nature we have to die to but there's the you that he loves and dr. Seuss has done a better job of defining that to the church sometimes you know there's only one you only one you who will do what you do you know like I read these books to my daughters and they're like yeah yeah you know they love it if you read the church they're like but I have to die to myself and become a little jesus clone you're a beautiful you and we're looking at you know the version of ourselves that we are now and a lot of us are like and if I could just press Delete and start over Harper does that to me a lot she's like if she gets upset at something she's like let's start over and she wants to go like five steps behind so we're gonna go out to the car and she trips and falls she's like once we go all the way back in the house sit on the chair and then come out back and do it again I'm like that won't change anything for you for her it's a reset I'm like that won't change anything for you for real you're still to you that fell it's okay that you fell we all fall but she wants to read is in her mind if she read does it'll get a better outcome you know and if like that's how we are we're like let's just redo me let's read it you know gods like no I'm really proud of you I really love you I'm proud of you despite what your not doing right I really love you I really I really choose you I really want to spend time with you if we could just get the way he spends time right with us cuz it's different for each one of us if you can just spend the time with God the way that he wants to spend time with you have you ever spent time with somebody who's really fascinating have you spent time with somebody who really knows how to do quality time and so trees like those sweet gets with you and quality time we went on a date last night my wife the first thing she does is like what's God doing in the deepest parts of you right now for real look what's going on here here's what's going on with me let me tell you first just sorry to put out there on the table how vulnerable we're gonna get so she potholes vulnerability this is what was going on with me this one night when you were gonna do bye it was one of the hardest nights and God showed up this is what he did in my heart now what now you match that when you spend time with somebody who really knows how to do one-on-one it pulls it out of you it makes you like the next time you get together your your next conversations gonna be like this is what I'm dreaming about and gods really good at spending time with you he's really good he's not boring at all he's not the god who's far away who's like I want you to figure this out so I've put ten mysteries around you you're in a panic room now or an escape room and you have to figure out all the clues you can't get out of the season he's not like an escape from God we know we're progressing from that progressive revelation when we come to the world with wonder and discovery and we also know that we're coming at it when we have patients in our incubation process each one of us is incubating a certain version of ourselves and certain things that we know are gonna be the greater things that he's called us to be and it's not just things we'll do you know if it was this things we'll do those wouldn't be satisfying enough it's things we get to embody and become Jesus and body and became like the father and it was so satisfying that he told the disciples I don't even need to eat right now this is so satisfying like I love this if you've been a really healthy striving relationship there's times when you're flying where people are like you know people will ask me sometimes do you ever get lonely on the road and I'm like no I love I love the road but I I don't get lonely because I'm still present with my wife and kids like my wife is like super fun to be present with she's just even if I'm gone for it you know I was gone for a week I just felt so connected with her that I'd it doesn't make me lonely it just makes me yearn to be back with her Oh in your head if you guys are all I god that's true though like we have a great marriage I like really love being with her she really loves doing with me and our marriage isn't one of the complicated things in our lives thank God but it's really hard when you're not looking relationally you start to look at the details instead of the big picture you get stuck in details right now many of you know and I hate to bring it up again that we're renovating a house because it's been 18 months and we're not done yet and people ask me all the time when are you gonna move in I'm like two weeks they used to be two months that was the answer now it's two weeks every time so if you asked me like two weeks ago was two weeks or two weeks away again and there's always something that takes two weeks you know whatever so we're in this process and we've had some good contractors and subcontractors but we've had some really bad ones too it's like why is that counter broken oh the subcontractor they dropped their tools on it's broken now brand-new huge expensive counter broken awesome so like there's stuff that happens just in the process and my wife and I have walked in a few times and looked at everything that's going wrong because that's where your mind goes as a human and got stolen from the beauty of what was right and we've had a step outside of what's wrong and the little areas that are wrong are really little they're really little bit easy to fix we're gonna step out of what's wrong and look at the whole picture God gave us a house to devote in Los Angeles first miracle number two it's a beautiful house second miracle it's not gone oh and number three because you know it's LA and number three we like it that's a huge miracle I know many of you have been given houses they've secretly told me they don't actually like the house that they've you know that they're living in and so we're like looking at this beautiful beautifully well designed house and you can get stuck on this little thing that has this here and the injustice of the contractor who didn't do right by you the sub or whatever that didn't do right or you can look at the big picture and go I can deal with this still I can compartmentalize where that goes but that's not the whole picture most of us let something be the whole picture in ourselves or in someone else that takes away from the beauty of the whole picture it's God's job as a good god to lead you to keep seeing the big picture because when you see the big picture of his beauty when you learn how to look at life on the hardest days and go this happened this happened this happened this happened but the overarching theme is still goodness and love this isn't my story this is my story these aren't the details I'm gonna be surrounding my entire life with these are it's kind of like a woman when she's pregnant and there's moments when it's like get this out of me most of my close friends who've been pregnant they've they literally put my hands on them and said get it out and we pray it out of me right now like you know when it's time it's time you know like get this thing out of me and you lose yourself and what being possessed by something like a baby and we're doing it with the house even the house project and a tree's first house to renovate I've done some renovations and houses so I know like once you get into it you forget all the renovations for the most part there's so few nightmares you might have but you know for the most part you're just like that's awesome but she's never been in renovation which is very much like pregnancy it's painful painful painful painful awkward awkward awkward awkward and then you're in and you forget all that and babies are mostly like that - sure you still have some memories but of the process but but babies are most like that - but but it's so easy when you're when your life container as being possessed by something that God's given you or put in you to get focused on the pain in the back the weird hunger the throw-up all the stuff that happens in that season instead of the actual object of the affection of a God impregnate with you you with in the first place it's the same in our lives there's things that God's given you to be impregnated and you're incubating right now then it's so easy to go but I'm working at Starbucks that's okay for some people that's a great job for a lot of people but if you have something else in your spirit but I'm a creative entertainment person and I'm working here and that's everyone's story and that offends me and that affects me and that's awful I'm just picking on you whoever that is for but that's an incubator a season of incubation where Starbucks is part of your story maybe it's a growing pain maybe it's a matter of birth pain maybe it's something else in your journey it's just a season of the journey that God can train you in if it was just be present and patient in it you're gonna learn from it and people will benefit from your world their people will benefit from God in you just because you said yes to God in that space you know inpatient incubation I don't know if you realize this but we work so hard when we're working towards our promise sign that we don't realize how hard the work is in a promised land I always tell people like when they're not in their promise that I'm like rest a lot because it's all work once you get the promised land it's like full capacity all the time the rhythm of rest changes enjoy yourself right now it's like whew I tell people who are pregnant for their first pregnancy sleep and watch Netflix as much as you can because there will be no sleep after I tell the husbands and the web so that's how the husbands sleep 10 hours a day for nine months the wives sleep as much as you can because after the baby's born neither one of you sleep and unless you can afford a night anything that's la that's the one person in less than 1% but it's the same with patiently incubation incubating something enjoy the process and rest in it don't don't let it cause a striving in you where you're not present with God we're you're not present with your relationships we're you're not present with the people around you come as a learner wherever you have child like Wonder and everything speaks to you everything trains you everything touches your heart everything's showing you more of God because when you get into another season where it's more a season of maybe fulfillment of some of the promises of God you don't have the same time a capacity to learn you're learning from on-the-job training you're not learning from actually having space and time and a different way than you have assumed you can relate to that some of you can in business you spend 60% planning and 20% implementing and 20% evaluating if you have a successful business that's most successful business models which means 60% of the time you're dreaming 60% of the time you're envisioning you're imagining if you're gonna build something you don't just build it right away if you're gonna build it well you actually dream of it the people I've talked to have legacy businesses that have been passed down from generations and I've actually talked to several billionaire people who have billionaire legacies and I've talked to people who are multi millionaires with multi-million dollar businesses that are well-known businesses that were passed down those people when they dream of their business they're not thinking of how do I hit the market right now like let's do what Best Buy is doing and cut back on stores and just too oriented stores towards the people who live in that neighborhood they're not thinking of just the moment of the market they're thinking of how do my children's children and inherit this in the nation's how do I plan something that's so beautiful and so big and their parents did that I mean their parents plan that for them I think the Rockefeller Foundation rockefeller was the richest man in history so far and they have a foundation now that can do human justice and humanitarian stuff that still has the most money of any other organization minus one and the entire and there's no Rockefellers running it anymore it's a foundation because they plan that their wealth would affect humankind it's part of their core value they dreamed about it as a family now some of you think they're Illuminati but I'm telling you just kidding fuzzy weird Pentecostals Joe of 23 verse 14 this is Jobe I love this because it gives an insight into his heart he said for he will complete what he appoints for me and many such things are on his mind the father himself is thinking about you he wants to complete what he's put inside of you and it's not just this stuff you're gonna do it's the who who you are he's gonna complete you there's a version of you that he's gonna fully form inside of you you'll just cooperate with him you're gonna be coming anyways in eternity at some point we think we get through eternity and all of a sudden we take off our Clark Kent clothes and become Superman but the reality is it's a progressive revelation where you become more because you take on more of him you become more because you see more of what's available for you you can do it on this side of eternity you become an incredible version of your of your spiritual self now that the world like I think of people like Bill Johnson and if you get to know pastor bill from Redding California and I've got to know him really well he's a supernatural being and he's so normal he's supernatural because he does family well his marriage like his family and his grandkids has his wife they adore him for the right reasons not because he's passed her bill but because he chooses them well he has a grace a rhythm of life that's a beautiful rhythm for his family that includes them he's he's he's honored them so well there's people who were around him and the way he makes choices just inspire his team all the time what he focuses on inspires his team I've been around him since 2006 I've never heard him gossip and when people bring up politics about other churches and ministries i watch bill figure out a way to deflect it so he doesn't have to know not because he's afraid of gossip or slander because he's afraid of like negativity but because he doesn't want to entertain it because he loves people so well and I've watched it I'm just like you your character is so strong in so many areas and I've and I've even watched it for me even more as I've been around for ten years it makes me know it's 12 years it makes me just say God how much more do I get to grow when you around some people who've taken on the nature of God and they've changed in their humanity who they were and they become a better version of themselves and therefore other version was already good do you guys have someone like that in your life you could think of if you don't get someone surround yourself with those kinds of people try and become friends with those kind enough to be major leaders become friends with some of the people in our church we have some incredible people in our church who are godly they're actually like dexing like holiness it's crazy like they actually don't make bad choices to sin all the time it's it's awesome in LA it's us to the contrast you know would you last night I don't remember you know just to end this time I believe we're called to thrive and not just that a Christian II like we're gonna thrive I mean like really that you wake up most days even on hard days where maybe circumstantially there's some hard things where your appointment over your own emotions your spirit your will your life that you just you feel hopeful you feel like anything can happen you feel like God is good you feel like you are good you feel like your world is good that we're supposed to wake up most days that way we're supposed to we're supposed to marshal our energies and our life energies in a way that we can see progressive growth in different areas of our life and the world around us that's who we're called to be the only way to become that is to disciple yourself and the Word of God in the spirit and all that means is you just start spending time with God and you ask him you know show me your big picture show me what's in your heart show me what you know you created for us and for me and tell him what you really loved like I had to reset myself with three three or four times over our 18 months in the house process and every single time it was easy I didn't have to have a revelation God spoke I just looked at it and said you're good you're doing this I see what you're doing and I'm not gonna focus on what you're not doing any longer for the next week I'm fasting from what you're not doing I'm not gonna look at what's wrong I'm not gonna get how far we have to go I'm just gonna every time I come in the house I'm gonna go that's beautiful that's amazing that's identity that's stunning I can't believe we get to live here I love this location I love what we're at I'm gonna bless what you're doing and you have the power to reset the big picture in your life because you know how to come into agreement with the good but you have to practice it and it means you have to give up your ability to whine and that's one of our favorite abilities it's nice to be able to complain to somebody it's a self gratifying it's immediate immediately gratifying if you find yourself in relationships where you talk about your back issue and you talk about you know the thing that work that's happening to four or five people and every social circle you're using that you're getting gratification from that you're getting attention from that because you're not getting positive attention somewhere else so let's go after the positive I don't think don't be vulnerable with your weakness do that too but when you're spreading it over a lot of people versus actually being really intentional with a few that you're using that wrongly so what we get to do is focus on who he is and who we are and who is in the world around us as we do that we come into a childlike wonder where we go we don't come into the fearful wonder of a child that says what can torment me where's the monsters under the bed we come to a childlike beautiful wonder where we say how big do you get God like I already thought you were huge but man you're amazing we kind of the childlike wonder where my daughter Harper told me that I could be any Pokemon dad sea oxen you could be arson you could be her onyx you could be honest ed he's the biggest Pokemon he's a huge you could beat him because in her mind I've gotten bigger I keep graduating from great to greater to greater she watched me pick up a big lizard and she's like that's brave my jacket do anything it's the same with us we watch our God do things that in our mind we're discovering for the first time that his mind is laughing on hey I do have it was but great you're discovering me I love the discovery process so let's all stand I want to read Matthew 18 233 over you again Jesus called a little one to assign and said to them learn this well unless you dramatically change your way of thinking and become teachable and learn about heavens kingdom realm with the wide-eyed wonder of a child you will never be able to enter into it whoever continually humbles himself to become like this gentle child as the greatest one in the kingdom Rome let's just pray this I want you to put your hand on your heart Holy Spirit make us teachable make us teacher we'll change our mind Lord open our mind to be trainable and teachable God if there's any areas we're stuck in or there's any areas we haven't seen progressive growth then if there's a foundational life we haven't seen progressive growth god I pray that you would help us to grow good I just I think of even how so many things you've called me to do in my past I thought in my head I would never I could never do that I would never do that but even even you put people in our lives where they encouraged us past what we would normally want to do or think we could do they're part of the faith conduit when we entered a healthy relationships gone I pray Lord that you give us courage to pursue church relationships again I pray for it specifically for some of you who are newer to us that are trying to figure out am i part of this am I not part of this do I do this to not do this I pray that God will give you the courage to find people here who would be part of your real-life journey part of your real family heart journey Lord use the the live groups in a way we've never even seen used this time this round we pray that you just bless the Life Group Scott Lord to use the tools that that are happening here at expression to be huge tools for our faith monuments for our faith gun and I speak over your hearts and your minds I pray that you would just observe yourself that you'd have self awareness for areas you get to grow in not the negative where you have to grow it through some things because you don't like yourself but areas where you already like yourself and you get to grow into those things more you get to become you don't have to become a different person you get to become a different version of yourself he loves you he wants you he chooses you amen

Channel: Expression 58

Views: 34,712

Rating: 4.7708335 out of 5

Keywords: shawn bolz, jen toledo, jennifer toledo, patient incubation, patience, incubation, jona toledo, expression 58, e58, expression58, los angeles, glendale, church, be the salt, salt la

Id: X6V0zMLoN8c

Length: 48min 55sec (2935 seconds)

Published: Tue Feb 27 2018