Survival Skills - Ben Stuart

it's my privilege to introduce our speaker tonight Pastor Ben Stuart Ben Stuart is the pastor passion City Church Washington DC and author of single dating engaged married kind of covered the full gamut there Daniel brother prior to joining passion city church been served for 11 years as the executive director of breakaway ministries a weekly Bible study attended by thousands of college students and I might add even some of the Yarborough kids on the campus of wait for it's Texas A&M there we go Ben earned a master's degree in historical theology from Dallas Theological Seminary in 2012 and Ben and his wife Donna lived to inspire and equip people to walk with God for a lifetime Ben it's always good to have you home welcome would you please join me in welcoming Ben Sira [Music] all right how Dave I just wanted to try that they they don't say howdy back in DC so I had to ditch it but I just had to try it it is so great to be here with you if we haven't met my name's Ben left Texas to pasture in Washington DC it's been an enormous privilege to be up there DC is a city of young people a third of the people in the city are between the ages of 20 and 35 so I don't know if that encourages or terrifies you that the government is run by 20 year olds but it is and it is an enormous privilege to minister among them and my wife and I love it it's been incredible powerful very lonely city and so what's beautiful about that is the church is growing very fast because people are hungry for what we got we have Grace and we have truth in the world needs it and it's a beautiful place to be but it's always fun to come back it is good to be home it was amazing to just wake up this morning and thinking about being on this campus I realized I loved my wife on this campus when I was supposed to be studying for finals I was like I think I'm in love right and got married and you know had nine of the best years of our lives uh getting getting through my Master's here and that was not a joke that was not a joke some of you're like you can't even do that can you well some of us can talk me through the nine year masters Ben we don't have time but what that means is I've been around and so I've been around seminary I want to talk about some of the survival skills of seminary but before I do I do just want to say and I don't want to go too dark here on the front end but it's amazing as I woke up this morning just thinking about how many people in the world don't care about what you do about who you are about whether you win or lose or what you're into and so when you find people that actually do care about you want to see you flourish want to see you be what you're meant to be under God and want to help you get there and then celebrate when you do that they're invested in you winning when you meet people like that that's a treasure and I think sometimes when we're young we can expect of course it's supposed to be like that it is supposed to be like that but the world's a sad broken place and so when you meet people like that the older I've gotten I've just had an increasing level of gratitude for the people that cheer me on and invest in me and love me and the professor's here at Dallas Theological Seminary have been that to me and my wife my family so many people I love they have been people that every year goes by I'm deeply grateful that they equip me to do what God built me to do they've helped me be the man I want to be and so thank you mark thank you to every professor around the room George thanks for getting me through this I mean literally would not have made it out of here if you hadn't intervened but very grateful for this school so let me read to you a couple verses from Genesis we'll pray and then jump in Genesis chapter 1 I'm gonna jump a little bit but it's gonna give us context and then we'll dive in Genesis 1 verse 1 it says in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth and the earth was without form and void and darkness was over the surface of the deep and the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters and God said let there be light and there was light and God saw the light was good and God separated the light from the darkness and God called the light day the darkness he called night and there was evening and there was morning.the first day let me jump to chapter 2 verse 7 then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living creature and the Lord God planted a garden in the eat in Eden in the east and there he put the man whom he had formed and out of the ground the Lord God made to spring up every tree that's pleasant to the sight and good for food The Tree of Life was in the midst of the garden and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil let me read verse 15 the Lord God took the man put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and to keep it let me pray for us father thank you for these to gather around your word together and be sharpened by it I pray God that the best of all outcomes from that endeavor would happen for everyone in this room that their affections would deepen as a result of their time here Lord that knowledge can puff up it can become arrogance or it can become affection rescue us from the former because you oppose the proud oh but God give grace to the humble and may we be a room full of humble servants and so to that end I pray use me in these few minutes to help equip us with the skills to survive skills to survive seminary skills to survive ministry help us God as we think together about what it is to walk with you in a broken place and I want to invite you if you're willing to come in and pray and ask God to use us use me and use this time for his glory and aren't good well father we love you and we trust you use this time we pray in Jesus name Amen well when I was a college student there was a field that on sunny days girls like to go and study and lay out and so guys like to go to that same field to hit on those girls and the play a lot of would do is they would get the cutest dog' possible preferably a puppy so that as they walked among them women would go oh my gosh look at that puppy and the guy was go I know he's a rascal but he's loveable kind of like me and then on it would go so I had a roommate that wanted to be one of those guys because he wanted to date one of those girls and so he needed one of those dogs and we discouraged him as his roommates like he was the kind of guy that could barely seed and clothe himself we're like don't bring an animal into your chaos but he had a vision he was undeterred and so he brought home a gorgeous animal and I say animal because she was 3/4 wolf which I don't even know how you do that turns out it's not legal by the way but she was gorgeous and so I remember when the first sunny day came he came kind of prancing into the living room in shorts and a t-shirt holding a leash in one hand tennis ball in the other and he went we're going to the park and then I'll see ran and dog went with him and a couple minutes later pretty fast I heard the door open and saw the wolf coming and smiling and saw my roommate stumble in covered in sweat and flushed and just collapsed into a chair I was like dude what is going on and he started to relate to me what happened at the park so he showed up there sure enough just pretty women as far as the eye could see and so he unleashed the wolf took the tennis ball kind of lobbed it out there and was like go and so she ran out pass the ball into the bushes it's not really the plan but this is her first go and so while that was happening someone next to him goes wow that's a beautiful dog and he turns and turns out as a guy that's just like a big dog lover and they start talking about breeding and it wasn't really his goal but so they're having this conversation about dogs and while they're doing that all of a sudden from across the field of dreams he hears screaming and so he turns in there in the midst of the women is the wolf and she's carrying in her mouth not the tennis ball but yeah like a cute fuzzy bunny that's that's bleeding and the wolf had come up with a new game called throw the bunny in the air and when it lands and struggles for life pounce into it and rip into it and so all of a sudden what was this gorgeous scene becomes a horse show women are crying hiding their faces in each other's shoulders hugging each other to not see the carnage and so my roommate to run out there finish off the bunny mercifully pick up the wolf and run away in shame and not long after gave the wolf away to a wonderful family for question what went wrong what went wrong yeah the wolf yeah it's not hard questions tonight's wolf look like a dog four legs four teeth right but it wasn't a dog and so not only did it fail in his endeavor right it was destructive now why bring that up because I want to talk about survival skills for ministry I want to talk about survival skills how we're gonna make it through seminary but here's my warning it might concern for many of us if we're not careful there's there's a version of spirituality that looks like the real thing but it's not and not only will it fail you its destructive its destructive and so I want to talk about it but but I'm scared cuz whenever I say that people like oh we're gonna talk about spiritual disciplines and I don't think those words are evil but I've never liked him because I think when you talk about spiritual disciplines people instantly go oh yeah disciplines those are things that you get in your life to build up to a goal and so the goal becomes what that I'm a discipline person that I can pull off events like and meet a goal like fitness goals or feet eating goals and you know if I can pull it off I'm a fit person and discipline becomes an end rather than a means that I'm a disciplined person I arrived at it but our goal is not to be disciplined people our goal is not to be educated people look how much I can read look how much I can study look at the grades I can get look what I can accomplish look at me the rest of you try harder maybe you'll get here someday we can sort of become that person right but the goal was never discipline it's not discipline is important and that's why I want to talk about it but discipline is an important means it's never meant to be an end discipline is not an end devotion is an end that the activity is not the end intimacy is the end that was Paul's concern when he talked to Timothy and first Timothy 1 he says the goal of our instruction is love he says the whole reason I'm teaching you and so it becomes affection love for God and love for people and if the way you're engaging with information isn't becoming affection you're doing it and yet it's very context he says there's certain people who are swerving from these things they've wandered into vain discussions desiring to be teachers of the law but what they're out understanding he said that's the dangerous thing they're studying the law but the way they're doing it's twisted and so the way they're coming at instruction is destructive not constructive we got to get this right our goal is intimacy that's why we're here is to love God more love people more the goal of our instruction is love so Paul was concerned for the Corinthians he says I'm afraid the way the serpent deceived Eve that you will be led away from the sincere pure devotion to Christ that's the goal he warned the Colossians about that if you died with Christ don't submit to regulations do not handle do not taste in a touch according to human teaching they have the appearance of wisdom and promote a self-made religion but they have no value stopping the indulgence of the flesh I don't want you to become discipline people for the sake of discipline in your heart grow cold I don't want you want to get good at exegesis but not very good at loving the person who authored the book I don't want you to be that guy right and yet when I say that I want to talk about this because discipline is not an end but it is a means to an end spirituality is not the execution of disciplines it's the cultivating of intimacy but disciplines are a mean to get there to get to devotion that's why I like the word devotion better it carries the idea of being good being close beside that I'm devoted to something our goal here is to be devoted people to the Lord so when I talk about survival skills for ministry and survival skills for seminary I feel like I just got to set this out at first my goal is not to make you a more disciplined person so you can say you're more disciplined and my goal certainly isn't to give you tips on how to build your platform because that's evil my goal is to help you be somebody who's good at loving Jesus Christ cuz the world is cold and it needs people who are lit ablaze with a passion for His name and they're good that's what the world needs so I want to help you do that but here's the reality the pursuit of intimacy occurs in the context of adversity life is hard so I remember when I was young in seminary I watched a minister who's a hero of mine idol of mine I watched him transition out of a ministry he built into being a pastor of a church and I watched him do it really well and what he did was masterful and so I called him as someone he was mentoring I was like man just impressed with the way you did it I was like tell me what this feels like as you're closing a chapter well done and entering a new one what does that feel like and I'll never forget he said to me man I'm just so glad I made it I was like what like I thought he didn't talk about all the people have come to Christ all the people he's launched into ministry and the seminaries he's filled with students and stuff like that he's like dude I'm just so glad I didn't punch a kid I'm glad I didn't fool around with some girl and I was like what are you saying that's the weirdest thing but then I started thinking about my own life I thought about in high school the guy who taught me about grace literally taught me about the concepts of grace I watched him walk away from his wife and his five kids for another man I thought about the guy that opened the scriptures for the first time that I understood how to break down a text I would weep when he preached and I'd never done that before the man who's who watching him preached made me want to do it for a living I watched him lose his ministry because the infidelity I watched another hero of mine break and lose years of ministry because of a schedule that was unsustainable and dropped him into depression in my first five years of ministry I watched five guys I know personally lose their ministries because a moral failure and I realized I start to understand what my friend was talking about sometimes it's just hard to make it I need some skills to survive I need some skills to make it and not just survive to succeed we have a great goal it's a lost world we need to get forward we got to figure out what are some things we can do to cultivate devotion and to be people who make a difference in the world that's kind of where I'm headed tonight does that make sense somebody on board with that awesome so I'm gonna give you four tonight and three tomorrow depending on how much time we got right I want to talk about some things I've seen because it became a passion of mine how do I stay white-hot in love with Jesus for ministry how do I journey long with him how do I be a person who survives and succeeds and so I made it a study I started watching guys sorry interviewing people it's a passion of mine and I isolated about seven things I think you got to have right and it's not like I'm a solid four like no you need seven out of seven if you're gonna make it right so we'll hit four tonight but the first one I want to give you is a productive schedule a productive schedule surprise I think that scares a lot of people they don't understand that one what are you talking about a productive schedule what do you mean you need a plan of attack when you enter a day right and here's the reality it's that lack of preparation opens up the dual attack of unproductivity and stress I've watched it administers all the time they wake up and go how are you doing man I feel busy I feel overwhelmed so they show up at work go oh my gosh I feel so stressed I feel so busy I don't know what to do and they sit at the desk I go I'm not sure what to do and so they sit there and like so they check their email 20 times and it's almost like I need help with the copier I guess that's me I'm closest to it and then you help them someone else like you want to go to lunch okay so you go to lunch with no strategic purpose it takes two hours you sit back at your desk oh man it feels overwhelming I don't know where to start at the end of the day you get to the end of day you go man I felt so busy day but I look at my to-do list and I didn't get anything off of it and I've watched ministers do that that when they're supposed to be studying for a sermon their stress because I got a tech return texts and phone calls and so when they get to the texts and phone calls they're resentful because they're not planning for their messages and they're meeting with people with no strategic purpose then they get to the end of the day and it's Saturday night and the writing sermons and neglecting their family and you look at you know I'm failing as a teacher failing as a leader failing as a father and all that failure in the midst of that frustration and guilt the enemy will open up a doorway to an oasis and you're set up for a moral failure it happens all the time that's how it works and so it starts here it starts with a schedule that just might save your life and here's the thing it's biblical right that's why I read Genesis at Genesis what do you have at the very beginning you have a negative situation right now the world was formless and void what is formless mean there was no form there was no structure and there was void there was no fullness there was no life right these are the two words that he used it was like saying there's no vase and there's no flowers in the vase there's no structure and there's no life and then God enacts himself upon the chaos and what does he do God begins to speak into the chaos and separate and make order in the first three days what does he do he creates the teleological support structures for life sea air and land he builds as life support systems that we need to survive and the first day that's solved and then in the next three days poetic way he fills it ethos the sky with birds he fills the sea with fish and he feels the land with animals in US and you see he had solved formlessness and now he has fullness he built structure but not a stifling structure he built a structure conducive for life that's what he did that he built forms for the sake of fullness and then you give Genesis to and what happens in Genesis 2 you get a negative situation there was no shrub in the field no plan of the field there was no rain on the earth because there was no man no no no no no shrub no field no grass no man so God builds the man and what does he say to the man cultivate and keep it what does that mean exert yourself on this garden Adam step in there and what do you do when you exert yourself on a gut you take raw materials you're not taking nothing you take raw materials and you take out the things that are harmful and you put in the things that are good and you organize them in the way for maximal flourishing that's what you do with a garden you don't tie that little tomato plant to a stick to torture it let's see what happens if I do this my god no you don't do that what do you do you put structure for the sake of flourishing I'm gonna create order but not a stifling order an order that's conducive to life do you see that so when I say you need a productive schedule I'm not just kept coming up with something cute this is your creative mandate that you are called to take the raw materials God's putting you in charge up you have a certain amount of time a certain amount of money and a certain amount of energy God gave you and he says take that stuff and use it make the most of every opportunity organize it in a way that allows for maximal flourishing that's what a husband does I take the authority in the institution and the materials I have as a man and I organize my time money energy and resources so my wife can maximally flourish under God that's my goal that's a parent's goal with kids I take my resources and I organize them in a way so my kid can flourish under God that's what a boss does for a company I organize the materials I'm in charge of so all these people can activate their gifts so the world's a better place because I exist that's what we're supposed to do bill forms for the sake of flourishing structure for the sake of life do you see it that's what Moses did that's what Kings do that's what Jesus did that when the world unraveled because of sin he stepped into the chaos and made a kingdom I'm coming into the lack structure and I'm building a structure what for the sake of good not to spy for you to set you free so for many of you the most freeing thing you're gonna hear maybe all semesters what I'm telling you now is you need to get a structure for your life this begins with you because some of you you are like an octopus on rollerskates it's a lot of movement but it's not forward or some of you you're like a lion I read an article on lion tamers and I was trying to understand in the article what the chair was for you know they hold a chair out in front of lions and you're like I understand what the whip is for and I understand what the gun is for that's if things aren't really working out what is the cheer for and what the article was saying is you hold that stool out in the Lions face because what happens is the lion attempts to focus on the forelegs at once and in attempting to focus on four things at once it gets confused and it paralyzes the lion and it doesn't do the one thing lines are built to do namely eat the soft chewy guys for me and so it confuses them and they sit there and they're unsure and so you just crack the whip nerve huh little and they just kind of do dumb stuff but not what they're built to do and for many people when I see them enter into its ministry there's not a lot of structure to minister and there's a lot of structure to your seminary life and so they enter into that and they don't have a lot of structure and so they wonder why they feel guilty and frustrated busy and unproductive and it's because you've not taking up this created mandate that's why the first thing I want to give you is get a productive schedule people say it all the time man Jesus ministry was a Ministry of interruptions no no it wasn't watch him watch Jesus that is he's walking right hey Jesus I want to finally fox f holes I don't but right hey Jesus everyone's looking for you go back in city no I'm leaving but he's moving Jesus is walking past people all the time son of David have mercy on me yeah bring him here because that's in accordance with my strategic priorities Jesus ministered by priority not just proximity and some of us we just do whatever's closest we wake up and go home man today so busy right oh man right and we look up and go I'm not sure what I did today and Jesus took hold of his life said I'm gonna make a profit right the one who slack is the brother to one who destroys and I'm gonna be a builder and so what am I gonna do I'm not gonna be a victim to my schedule and I want to challenge you to believe that I want you to say it maybe need to say it out loud I am NOT a victim of my schedule can you say that with me I am NOT a victim of my schedule I'm the master of my schedule and the master of it and why reason I'm saying that is because God made you that God made you the master of that he said you were in my image I made this world and I built structure so it was full and I created humanity and say you cultivate create a structure that allows for flourishing so for me what I started to do early in ministry is I would take a piece of paper and I would write out all the roles I had been given under God what are the priorities God has given me I am a teacher I am a leader I'm an administrator I'm a pastor and I would take these different roles and then I would write out every obligation underneath him I would just fill up the page I'm thinking about this I gotta call that guy I do this I gotta write this sermon in a preacher and I would put them under these categories of who I am under God and then I would take a piece of paper that had a week with each day broken up in 30-minute increments and what I would do is I would shade in my class schedule because like I said I was here for a solid nine years and so I do just put those in and then for me I was like those are the fixed points and then I would see all the white space and I would say okay these are the titles have been given under God these are the things I need to do to be the person God called me to be where are they gonna fit that's what I started to see is there's some things need to go into my schedule there's some things they need to get uprooted from my schedule there's some things that need to shift around but I'm gonna live a life by priority not proximity not just doing whatever's close with no purpose I'm gonna create a garden it flourishes do you see it that's the kind of person you want to be I would challenge you to try that I did it with my interns the first time when I was a youth pastor I've hired interns they had no strategic purpose and our internship was a mess by the end of it I just took the five purposes our of our ministry and said hey these five purposes take them every week and put down goals underneath each one and then put them into a weekly schedule and I got to tell you these young people would come to me and they said under the goal of evangelism I wrote people's names and next to each name I would write down one thing I was gonna do I'm gonna just ask them their spiritual journey today I'm gonna do that I'm not gonna take them to a movie and sit around talk about nothing I'm gonna ask them something about their spiritual story I'm gonna take the next step I'm gonna ask them did that sermon make sense to you can we ask I'm gonna go on a journey and at the end of every week they'd say I'm advancing I'm doing the work of an evangelist I am deciphering people I am training people I am who God made me to be and I'm like that right because you're the master of your schedule you're not a victim of your schedule God has built you to cultivate and you're doing it if I beat that horse it's officially dead I think I have all right so with that said the second thing I think you need is a positive sanctuary a positive sanctuary I think the first thing you need to put in your day is a devotional time with the Lord that's the first thing he gave the first people their first full day was a Sabbath day of rest what the Lord I'm gonna cultivate an intimacy with God so for me when I create my schedule every time I did this when I was a student and now even its adult I look at my schedule and go man what's in front of me where am I gonna put the times to steal away with God and I think you need a consistency to it and a creativity to it of a positive release of where I come alive and it looks different in different seasons for me when I was a college kid man I was just so passionate about reading the Bible and getting into it and then when I got out of it and got into ministry I would write out books in the Bible cuz I just wanted to learn it's so bad and I would write them out by hand because it helped with memorization and then I got here and would read like 50 books a semester and it destroyed my devotional life just killed it and I don't know if any of you've ever felt that where I started to do that thing where it seems sad for me to have to tell seminary students cultivate a vibrant devotional life but you've done that where you just open up the text and you start going oh I'm gonna break that down that's a participle build on that okay that'll preach someone needs to hear that I'm gonna say that to that guy and suddenly you're working on the text but it's not working on you and you're breaking it down for somebody else and I realized I'm letting me work on the text I'm not letting the text work on me so in seminary I got different color pens and I would write out the verses in one color I would write out observations in a different color and then I would write out Ben's emotional response and color because that color never made on the page I realized I wasn't being honest and so I had to have a Benz emotions pin which sounds so silly but I did they were green and they were blue the green were what commentators wrote the blue was Ben's feelings because I used the colors from Star Wars the older Jedi's had green it was just a psychological humbling of myself I don't know if I've ever told anybody that but it's the evening chapel it feels loose but I realized I need to get it into me I realized in seminary it broke up my rhythm of studying first thing in the morning so I realized for me before I enter into studying anything for seminary I will pray and seek the Lord devotionally because I don't want to come in with a cold heart and I don't want to make him something I rip apart like a specimen so for me my devotional time in seminary was every time I sat on a study so I would leave class go back to my room take a nap wake up work out shower grab the books sit somewhere and then I would push them all aside and I would take my journal out and I would just begin to write out prayers and I would pray and I would just invite God into the moment and it kept study devotional alright because I need a vibrant devotional life and for me I tethered it to study now it looks different now it is first thing in the morning I wake up and the first thing I do in the morning is I attach a little monitor to my ear that monitors heart rate and I sit silently in breathe for five minutes which sounds super weird I know some of you're like uh-oh this thing took a hard left what is that about well so let me quote a Puritan kids Jeremiah Burroughs said this he said you don't pour liquor into a shaky glass which I think it's funny that he used clickers as an illustration he says you don't pour liquor into shaky glass he said you still the glass and then you pour into it he says God has blessings he wants to pour into your life through his word but if you're too erratic you can't get it calm down and then let him speak to you so that's what you do with your kids he said your kids will come to you with requests that you want to give them dad can I do gurgaon yoga Gaby ogres whoa breathe breathe count four blue things okay all right now speak to me with some sanity I would love to give you yogurt right I just need you to be calm because you're calm honors me and so much of us put our anxiety and just put a dear Jesus and a name in on the other end and it doesn't really honor him so to me I slow down and I write in my journal how do you feel which sounds so stupid to have to ask yourself that but I have to ask myself that how do you feel cuz I don't know and then I write out I'm anxious about this I'm worried about that I'm stressed about this and I write out me and all I'm trying to do is live into Philippians 4 don't be anxious about anything but with everything with prayer and supplication with Thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God and I love that verbs in the past but just let them be known it's like they want to be let him be let your anxiety rise to the surface I'm worried about this I'm concerned about that I'm scared about that I let it rise up I write it on this page I trust gone through it and then when I'm still I turn to his word and whatever is true and honorable and justice pure I think about those things I'd dwell on those things right I'm trying to live into Philippians I cast my cares unto Him and then I take up his word into me and I cultivate an intimacy that's how I do it you know you can do it in different ways but I do that consistently and then I add in creativity once a month we have a day with the Lord as a staff where we just go away someplace beautiful and sit with the Lord and pray just because that's fun that's what I would do here there was one day a week when I was a student here where I would just go and have breakfast with Jesus me I went to a place I liked I didn't have a lot of money but I went to a place that was awesome I got breakfast I got coffee and me and Jesus met there and it wasn't about finishing off a lot of score and it's about just being in love with him so find that place where you come alive with him and go do that and it'll look different in different ways but find a positive release find a positive release with him and find a positive release in the world that's what I mean about positive Sabbath is you need rest because here's the scary thing you will seek pleasure it's how the human machine is built you will seek pleasure and if you don't find a way to enjoy God the enemy will give you a different Oasis I promise you and you will build a little sinister world in the background and I've watched too many ministers do it and you're not made to the 23rd psalm says he makes me lie down in green stirrers he leads me beside cool waters he restores my soul if your journey through life never finds you next to cool waters or in green pastures then you're not letting the Lord Shepherd you I don't care how many books you've read when he's leading you he will make you lie down and if your schedule doesn't involve that cuz you're too busy you need to repent because our Shepherd will lead you through seasons of busyness he'll lead you through the valley of the shadow of death but he'll let you lay down too and some united to find that place you lay down with him for me it was reading his word it was also exercise it made me come alive when I was in seminary I would ask guys that all the time what do you do different guys had different stuff people played basketball one guy gardened I was like yeah all right it's not what I'm gonna do but it's great you find the positive release that makes you come alive with him I got to enjoy it I love that when he created the guard one of the first things he said was a delight to the eyes he said I wanted to look awesome and I wanted to taste good it wasn't just functional and efficient then he wanted us to love it as we left him and the first day was rest enjoy what I made and enjoy me one of eve's first mistakes was to take eat eat and diminish it to eat don't don't lose sight of the joy of the Lord that's where your strength comes from so get a productive schedule and get a positive sanctuary around you and then get protective Saints people around you that will support you in God Adam and he's first failures that they weren't there for each other one of God's greatest gifts he's given us is us a people around us who can support us can love us that flow of the world drifts towards isolation we all know that loneliness is an epidemic now we don't know how to talk to each other outside of screens right we see that in DC was recently rated the second loneliest city in America that's a lonely world out there but one of the greatest gifts God's given us is us it'll keep you in ministry I've watched so many people lose their ministries lose them you have to in the news and as I've watched different guys lose their ministries a common denominator with all of them even though the way they do it might be in varied ways a common denominator as they didn't have a group of people that they were completely honest and accountable with right they weren't willing to humble themselves within us to come to others when they come to a decision they just do what Eve did I cancel my eyes my stomach and I go for it and no we're meant to consult us right there's wisdom and many counselors we need in us you need people who will make you happy in God for me when I was in seminary I tended towards a melancholy disposition and I needed a mark lozer who would just make me laugh at myself and not take myself very seriously I needed that guy right and he needed me to help him kind of get his life together but we need people like that right I needed Mentors and so do you and I would encourage you to seek them out and when you seek out a mentor can I just say this just side note for free if you decide there's someone whose life I want to be like come up ahead of time with what the questions you have that you want to ask them respect their time and keep an eye on the clock as you ask them said questions and then offer to pay for whatever meal they agreed to go to with you okay that's just a free tip when you ask someone to mentor you for me when I enter ministry whenever I met somebody I wanted to learn from them I asked them for some of their time and if they said yes I came with questions ready let me ask you these questions thank you for your time I want to honor that can I pay for the meal they almost never let me but I always tried and that kind of thing honors Mentors what happened to me over time is as I got into ministry so many young people come to me and be like hey man I think what you're doing is great can you just like be my disciple and call me and help me process every problem in my life and be there for me always no matter what happens young god no and it's too much too much but what I did is I would meet with different mentors ask some advice little notepad up a pop can I ask you this and after a while there was some of them that I would say hey do you mind if we meet again no I don't mind okay and that would meet what I mean yeah hey thank you for your time do you mind if we meet again and over time as I was moving through somebody there a couple of them they were like hey call me anytime just text me anytime and when I got in to break away I started adding them on to my official board of directors now many of them they are the board of directors a breakaway and when I moved to DC I don't have an elder board we're a year into the ministry but you know what I kind of do because I have Ben's board and I call these men and they know everything about me and they know my decisions and they keep me alive in God I mean they just keep me safe you need people around you like that above you people below you you're investing in people around you that will support you you need him here in seminary for me when I was in seminary you know Paul says it man observe those who walk according to the pattern that has been given to you and and imitate their faith I would observe people at seminary and I would watch who are the people I need to run with who are the Johnathan's that will strengthen my hand in God who are those people and we are are the people that are earnest for God not cynics and I saw in seminary there were people here that had a fire in their eyes because they knew why they were here and they knew they wanted to make a difference for Jesus wherever they were called back to and I wanted to be around those people I scoped them out sought them out gotten near them because I need them in my life to help me be strong when I stumble you need protective Saints around you to keep you strong every new city I've moved into I've asked God who are the men who are gonna stand with me fight with me protect me the David's and Jonathan's around me you need that and the last thing and is you need the presence of the Spirit of God that's the last thing I love that in the creation account that the Spirit of God is hovering over the surface of the water bringing that form and bringing fullness in life and when God animates humanity he breathes his very spirit into us right and so for us we're gonna get the Word of God right but we need the Spirit of God to spark it into life you can take all the logs of thoughts about God and you're meant to load your mind with thoughts of God but they can just be fuel for your arrogance we are like Elijah I can load up all these thoughts about God into a pyre but I need the Spirit of God to light it up right the great tragedy in Genesis was what when we were made from dust in the very intimate breath of God and then what happened God said you dust to dust you returned but the great gift was what when the prophets began to tell us one day the wind will return when John said there's another one coming and the Spirit of God will be with him that intimate presence of God we lost is coming back again the very breath of God the very Spirit of God animating us again that's why when Jesus team ever won John told us he resurrected from the dead what's the first thing Jesus did is when he saw his disciples he breathed on them Jesus you're alive and as eccentric as ever do you think they understood if they didn't he made it plain he blew on them and said receive the Holy Spirit that intimate presence of God that was with you in the garden that you lost I brought it back because I took on the chaos and buried it and I'm building a kingdom and I am rebuilding a family and I'm putting my very breath in you and bringing you to life that's what you need and so we can have all the tools we can have the Word of God we can have the People of God and some of you have all those tools but you go bin spring break is over and there's still so much in front of me my heart is cold to the things of God it's all right to be weak and it's all right to struggle but you get around with us and you get around the Word of God and you find positive places to release and then when you land in those places you say but the Holy Spirit will you make me alive in you and I'm just gonna breathe that prayer all the time for me and ministry whenever I'm done preaching I'll often have people come up to me and I know I don't love them the way I want to or should and so I ask God will you give me love for them well your spirit fill me with love for them will you manifest your fruit the fruit of the Spirit is love joy and peace is not my fruit I can't grow it I need you to grow it I need you to help me I need you to bring me alive I know for me there was a time when I was a young man I had the opportunity to climb Longs Peak in Colorado wonderful opportunity a buddy of mine wanted to do it and so we decided to go for it we said man let's do it was climb this mountain together so we got up there climbed all the way up past these boulder fields all this stuff all these people were falling off around us they couldn't handle it we had trained though we were ready me and Ben scaling the highest peak and America and we got up to the keyhole which was this area that man there was a big drop off at the end into an abyss and I remember I looked at Ben I was like I don't think we can make it any further he's like I think we can do this I'm like I don't think we can do this he's like I think we can do this I don't think we should do this and while we're debating this these guys walk up and they were from Germany and it flown over and trained in order to climb this mountain and then they looked at us they're like so are you guys gonna go to the top and we're like of course we're gonna go to the way if so they start pulling out their gear the spikes on their boots their pickaxes and we were like should we suit up to so I kind of read tied the laces on my timberlands and my sweat pants was like see you guys later when we started across this snow-covered ledge that dropped off into nothing but there were some footprints in it and little holes where there had been a pickaxe before and so Ben and I would put our feet in those flippers our fingers and those heels so and make our way across and then this thing went on a steep incline through the snow and we climbed these little footprints and snow like a ladder but as we got out there it got hard to breathe started getting nauseous I remember at one point Ben just buried his face in the snow and I was like man you can do this he's like I can't do this I'm like I need you to dance like a very stressful place we finally make it up past this ravine and we're both exhausted completely depleted I mean just completely exhausted and we're like we got to be close so we turned this corner and there's another corner we turn that corner and there's another corner we turn that corner while roundest is mounted we turned another corner and it goes straight up to the snow again and Ben just collapses on a rock that's like come on man we can have forget it we both sat there and I remember one of us started praying I think it was Ben and he just said God we are so stupid and I remember as he was praying that I I was looking out going like how long till they file a missing-persons like can helicopters get this high I was like cuz we can't get down but while I'm thinking that I seen this little head pop up from behind a rock and then slowly over time I'm like I'm hallucinating but this guy around the corner is this guy any walks Riley sees us he was like hey guys he said have y'all been at the top yet we're like no wait a second you're the college guys who came up here with that equipment he said we're in all of you you're crazy and then he started saying something about God protecting the ignorant oh we weren't really paying attention he's like you gotta make it to the top and I was like man I don't think we can do it he's like you gotta go and I could tell you it was annoying Ben sounds like let's slide bar and I was like man were uh or wrecked like we're just where we feel horrible we're super done and I remember he looked down at my hands till they were covered in water cuz they were in snow and had him curled up my t-shirt he's like well hang on a second and he gave us these gloves that wrapped up around our arms I was like oh I can feel my hands and then he was like you're breathing wrong up here oxygens different start teaching us how to breathe and our head started to clear he says come on man let's go to the top and start a walk my legs were still shaky and he was like hang on he pulled these awesome pickaxes out and handed them to us we're like oh yeah let's go when I took a step though and my leg gave out I looked at him and I was like I'm sorry man I'm just some done and I'll never forget he looked at me and this is true by the way he looked at me and he said here's the deal he said hold on to my belt I'm gonna stamp out a footprint and snow and he was hanging on I'm taking you to the toughest film so I held onto him Ben held onto me a couple other people were there at the moment and he would stomp out a footprint I would steady myself with the pickaxe he gave me he took a step in on step he took his steppin on step and by the end of it we were looking down on clouds it's beautiful amazing interaction with the skies a missionary turns out incredible guy started to hit noon and he I got to get off the mountain before noon cuz there's lightning showers in the afternoon that are common my buddy Ben had been struck by lightning as part of his testimony you know some people use it as a metaphor like I was living crazy it was like a bolt of lightning for him was just legitimate he was like I wasn't crazy God literally hit me with a literal bolt of lightning I didn't die he's like I still want to do that again so so we got off the mountain and start going down get to that Traverse that we thought was gonna kill us and I never we got to it that that like long descent I was like Ben and I kind of started crying a little bit and I looked at he seems like oh come on guys the best part and we were like what he's like yeah you don't climb down you just slide with your feet in front of his mine let's go well he would slide down oh my god and they all looked at me myself I hate you guys and I went next and I started sliding down I gotta tell you there's almost fun things I've ever done in my life it's amazing he told us if you ever lose control spin around your stomach through your elbows and snow you'll stop on a dime I did it stop it was like say my name flip back around Kemp slidin saw he stopped right where that cliff went over and so I realized I got to stop I flipped over through my elbows down looked up right in time to see Ben's smiling face and his feet as they hit my face [Music] and we tangled up and started tumbling backwards out of control and very dangerous place to do so and on there forget is we've slid face-first uncontrolled descent right towards this cliff the guy looked up at us pulled two pickaxes out of his back through man snow wrapped his knees around him and went and caught his bow and we were like that's the coolest thing I've ever seen and we ran the rest of the way down the mountain and we're like do you think it was an angel why tell you that and I went way over time so I apologize but why I tell you all that for this reason you need to be organized you need a productive schedule you need time some respite you need people to hike with you need equipment to get up there but even if you get all your elements right you're gonna run out of gas that's the way life goes and that's when the Spirit of God comes and the wind of God blows and begins to equip us with what we need give me the joy I need give me the love I need give me the peace I need it equip me command me but give me what you command outfit me with what I need to keep me warm strengthen me and stable my weak knees carry me so I can arrive places I can't get on my own we organize ourselves but we do it and constant dependence upon him step by step and he leads us to places that are impossible to get on our own that's how we're going to survive in peace with him and peace with each other productive in the way we live our lives positive in the way we seek release protective of one another as saints and children of God and relying on the power of the Holy Spirit to lead us where we could never get on our own amen amen thank you Lord Jesus that you love us thank you that we're not alone thank you that we can sing and celebrate a God who came for us to forgive us and who continually comes to empower us by his spirit for your glory god I pray we would not grow weary in doing good but we'd reap a harvest of righteousness god I pray that would be true of us I pray we'd be people who strengthen our hands in you that love each other well so that all this study becomes affection all of this instruction becomes white-hot devotion to you and we pray that in Jesus name Amen you

Channel: Dallas Theological Seminary

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Length: 47min 28sec (2848 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 12 2019