When Your Calling Gets Confusing | Shawn Johnson

[Applause] [Music] [Applause] let's go you feel good my gosh welcome to red rocks church if this is your first time buckle up because we're not playing around today i can tell already it's going to be a good day of church if you're visiting we're glad you're with us if you're family we're glad you're with us hey can you help me and say thank you to the band they're so good they're so talented church speaking speaking of our unbelievable band um i just got in case you don't know our very own corey miller just dropped a single this week called let go if you haven't gotten it you need to go get it it is absolute fire you're gonna love it can you help me and i want to welcome i want to welcome all of our campuses around denver brussels austin texas we love you all but but there's three that are that are just so near and dear to my heart and i just got to say to our three god behind bars campuses men and women we love you so much you're every bit as much a part of this family as the people in this room right now we love you we believe in you god it's an absolute honor and privilege to be able to get together as a family some of us in buildings a lot of us through technology god is wearing offices and cars and on hikes and mountains and bikes and treadmills and everywhere else i pray that you would remind us that it is not the presence of a building that changes our lives it is the presence of our god that changes our life and you are with us right here right now ready to speak and we just open up our our ears we open up our hearts to what you want to say to us today in jesus name and everybody said amen amen go ahead and have a seat [Applause] if you have a bible flip open to first samuel chapter 17. i'm going to read a verse somewhere else first if you got a phone there's no problem but if you've got a paper bible it's going to take like six minutes to find first samuel so i want to give you a little bit of leeway and i just want to welcome you to red rocks church if if you're just joining us for the first time we like to say this all the time but i want to make sure you know it we're a bunch of imperfect messed up broken people but we love to get together and pursue a perfect god and so no matter what's going on in your life we're so glad you're here and you're not crashing someone else's party you're the guest of honor at this party so welcome welcome to church so i wanna i have about three jokes uh to make fun of ronnie and doug to start the message but i just don't have time today because i got so much i want to say and and god knows they deserve it but i don't have time and so just pretend that happened and mock them a little bit in your spirit hebrews 12 1 and then we're going to go over to first samuel therefore since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses i want to stop right there um because too many times in church we read verses and we go oh yeah and then we don't have a clue what that means and we just keep going and i want to make sure you know what that means real quick because if you don't it kind of takes away from what's being said when he's talking about great cloud of witnesses right there you won't know what he's talking about unless you've read the chapter before hebrews 11 the the author spends a good amount of time talking about a bunch of men and women that truth be told are just like us they they didn't know what was going to happen next in life they found themselves living in times that felt real confusing a lot of uncertainty a lot of questions around their calling a lot of questions around is god paying attention what is god going to do in my life is he even got plans for me because look at me and i'm kind of a mess and and i don't really have what i thought i'd have at this point in life i'm not really at where i thought i'd be at in this point in life like that's the kind of people that he's talking about in hebrews chapter 11. but they started to every one of them they started to embrace who they were how they were created where god had them and then they just started to take little small steps of faith going if this is where you got me and this is what you're asking me to do then okay god today i'll say yes and then and then all of a sudden they blink and they turn around and god's used them to do incredible things to change their lives their families lives and eventually all of us um we are changed we are different we are gathered today as a church because of what the people in hebrews chapter 11 did and he starts talking about he names a bunch of them abraham and isaac and jacob and joseph and moses and and rahab and sarah and they're people like us that decided i'll embrace who i am and where i am and just try to trust god and god did some great things and and that's what we're talking about today uh a while back ronnie sent out a questionnaire a questionnaire on social media and he's like hey church family what are you struggling with these days what's happening these days what could we as a church speak about to serve you better and and one of the top things that you guys said you were struggling with right now is understanding your calling which is church lingo for like what's god got for me and 2020 has caused us to question everything hadn't it but it's definitely got us to start questioning our calling and so i want to talk to you in fact when you're when you're looking back for this message the title is when my calling gets confusing when my calling gets confusing so so therefore since we're surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses he said everybody in chapter 11 they did some great things because they took small steps of faith but they're now dead they're watching from heaven they're peering over at us out of the grandstands of heaven that's the great cloud of witnesses they now are watching us and the next two words just got me this week got me all fired up the next two words are let us he says look they did a bunch of great things god did a bunch of great things through them but now let's talk about us it's our time it's your time it's your time to figure out what god has in store for you it's your time to start walking in that confidently it's our time he says now let us let us start to understand what god has in store for us he says for that to happen he says this we're gonna have to throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles and he says again let us it's our time it's about you and me now let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us and four things sort of begin to jump off the page to me as i read this verse and we're gonna stop there excuse me the first one is and go ahead and put that up here's my cliff notes for that verse number one god has a plan for you and that verse he calls it a race a race marked out for you sometimes we call it our calling sometimes we say i just want to know god's will we're all referring to the same thing god has a plan for you you're going to have to persevere through some stuff to get there you're going to have to throw off some stuff to get there and at some point you're going to have to decide i'm going to be me and run my race amen i don't know if you know this but god has a plan for you and some of you i know 2020 has rocked all of our worlds right but some of you you're tuned into this and the truth is if someone put you on a polygraph test right now you'd go i don't think that's true you begin to disqualify yourself in your own mind because you look at your own gifts and your own talents you go just not enough or you look at your own mistakes can we be honest today i look at my own mistakes my own sins my own habits and i just kind of figured god's probably done with me and if he he might have used to had a plan for me but probably not anymore and 2020 man that's wrecked all the plans i thought i understood the plans he had for me and now i have no question now everything's in ques right it's it's just confusing and i want you to know that god has a calling on your life and that's not just fancy church talk that's not me having good intentions for all of us this is the creator of the universe go ahead and put this up speaking to us about our lives today go ahead and put that verse up that's what god says to you would you just let god speak to you forget that you're listening to a podcast or sitting in a church building or wherever you're at just let god speak to you for a second he says this i know the plans i have for you god knows everything he knows what you've been through he knows what he knows what you're going through he knows how confusing life is he knows the things you're struggling with and he says i still even though i know everything i still know the plans i have for you declares the lord plans to prosper you and not to harm you plans to give you a hope and a future i i want every single one of us to be operating off of the same foundation as we get into how to see them happen is god has a plan for your life no matter what's happened to you no matter what you've been through no matter what you're struggling with today no matter what you may think about yourself your god loves you values you accepts you wants to redeem you restore you and he has a plan for your life today i want you to know that now we're going to pop over to first samuel 17 because we're going to read a story that really illustrates how we start to experience what god has in store for us we're going to see the persevering through some stuff we're going to see the throwing off of some stuff we're going to see that i got to choose to be me and run my race stuff and we're going to see it in what is honestly the most famous fight mono amano in the history of fights this fight is is is more famous than than conor and khabib ronnie this fight's more famous than conor and diaz iii if it happens it's more famous in the rumble in the jungle it's more famous than tyson when he bit evander holyfield's ear off like it's more famous in all of them it's a fight between a shepherd boy that nobody had any faith in that nobody believed in nobody thought he had a future and a soldier that stands almost 10 feet tall with the most amazing armor known to mankind the most powerful weapons known to mankind and he's he's he's such a ba best attitude that he can step out into the middle of a battlefield and he looks at the entire nation of israel and he says we're the philistines you're the israelites we don't need to line up in battle anymore i'll step out here in the middle i'll fight anyone in your entire country if you can kill me we surrender like you're the man when you can call people out like that i don't even know what that's like and and so that's what's happening and so almost on the daily he'll come out in the middle of the battlefield and be like who wants me pick anyone in your entire country he kills me our whole country surrenders to you let's roll and everyone in the nation of israel's army goes i'm messing with that dude that's a big old boy right there he's got a crazy look in his i don't trust that guy you can't trust a guy he's got to look look at his eyes i ain't fighting that dude nobody will fight him and and david is at home watching dad's sheep because they think he's too young and too weak and too unexperienced to even be a part of the battle and so dad says hey i need you to run some food up to the battle lines and a lot of you grew up here in this story so i'm gonna give these quick cliff notes quickly once you run up to the battle lines and get your give your brother some food so now david is driving grub hub up to the battle lines and he gives his brother some food and he hears all the commotion and he sees that there's this giant man with all this crazy armor on calling out the whole nation of israel mocking everybody including his family mocking his god and david's like bro i'll get out of this car and fight this dude right now like he just starts going like i'll fight him and and as everybody's like what who are you where'd you come from and all of a sudden his oldest brother hears david asking questions about goliath talking about i'll do something if nobody else will and watch what his older brother says when eliab a you shouldn't be making fun of david because look at your name how you gonna name two of your kids like people name their kids like kind of similar right like david mike john eliab when eliab david's oldest brother heard him speaking with the men he burned with anger at him and he asked why are you even here bro like what are you doing here with whom did you leave those few sheep in the wilderness come on he's digging at his brother isn't he who's watching what you got three who's watching those three sheep i know how conceited you are and how wicked your heart is you came down here only to watch a battle he's already getting insulted and criticized by his brother and and first he attacks his character right like i know your heart i know your motives you're not here because you care about this fight you're not here because you care about our country you're not here because you care about our family you just want to watch you just want some entertainment i know your heart i don't trust your motives come on you know the deal you can insult a lot of things about a person but you start insulting our character and that that hurts doesn't it he's getting his character insulted he's getting his potential insulted you notice what his brother said he didn't say go home and watch all the sheep he said go home and watch the few what do you got like three nobody in this family even trusts you to watch a bunch of sheep like everybody knows being a shepherd sucks and that's all you get to do and you're not even good at that you don't even get to watch a bunch of sheep you get to watch a couple because you can't handle much because you got no potential nobody trusts you with anything like what are you even doing here nobody can insult you like your siblings is that true right because your siblings they know they know what you're afraid of they know your insecurities they know what you wish you were good at but you're not they know what hurts you the most like i have three boys i watch this they can insult each other at like an olympic level his brother's completely just tearing him down and in front of people insults his character his potential his integrity his abilities his future like it's one of those you'll never amount to anything talks why don't you take your three sheep watching butt home and get out of our way because you don't have a future brah that's what he's saying and then king saul finds out king saul the most powerful and important and followed man on all of israel's instagram accounts he finds out that there's a little shepherd boy talking about fighting goliath and he's like bring the kid over here what's going on and david starts going bro sir if i didn't call him bro sir king lordship whatever they call him i'll fight him watch what saul does you can't kid you are not able to go out against this philistine and fight him you're only a young man you're a kid you're a boy and he's been a warrior from his youth i picture his brothers laughing because his brothers are already annoyed right i picture some of the other soldiers like what's your little brother what's your mouthy little brother doing up here anyways we're putting our lives on the line this little mouthy punks talk and now king's put it put him in his place and now they're laughing you ever been publicly criticized you ever been sitting in a just a group of people and somebody insults you and it just it hurts more right because now it hurts and i'm embarrassed for some of you that happened in school on a team at your office in a small group on social media you ever been insulted on social media you have had somebody say or post or comment really mean hurtful insulting things and it's on social media it's for the whole world to see and like it hurts at a different level he's now being criticized and insulted publicly and it hurts at a different level but watch his response i love this see david's gonna have to persevere through some stuff if he wants to walk in the calling that god has for him his calling may seem confusing he might be watching dad's sheep and driving grubhub today and nothing feels important but he's gonna have to persevere through some stuff see too many times us christians we start to face some perser some things that we're going to have to persevere through and we start to make it spiritual and we walk away and use spiritual language like it must not be god's will because look how difficult it just got we were never promised a calling from our creator without difficulties church so so we get called we get an idea i think this is what god wants me to do and all of a sudden it gets hard all of a sudden it gets scary all of a sudden 2020 happens and we go well i guess it's not god's plans anymore because look how difficult it is and i just don't have a peace maybe you need to look for less peace right now start grabbing on to some perseverance and going i'm supposed to go through some things if i'ma chase down the calling and the the more the more your calling is going to build god's kingdom the more satan's going to fight against you you're going to become a marked man a marked woman you got to get ready to persevere through some stuff it's not supposed to come easy we're in a fight david said to saul with all due respect sir i know i'm just a servant and i know i'm just a shepherd i've been keeping my father's sheep but i'm gonna tell you straight up i'm a good shepherd when a lion or bear came and carried off a sheep from the flock you know most shepherds let them go not me i went after it struck it and rescued the sheep from its mouth and when it turned on me i seized it by its hair i struck it and killed it that's right me your servant has killed both the lion and the bear and this uncircumcised philistine will be like one of them because he has defied the armies of the living god the lord who rescued me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will rescue me from the hand of this philistine and the king doesn't know what to do with them picture him saying this in front of everybody i go i'll watch god bless that's what he says you know what david did that day he just felt like this this is where god god's got me here for a reason and i can't figure it out but i feel like he's calling me to get involved and of course it's scary and i know you don't believe in me and you don't believe in me and you don't believe in me and you don't believe in me and king you don't believe in me but i just decided today that i won't be criticized out of my calling not today you could criticize me all day long you cannot criticize me out of my calling i'm going to persevere david had to persevere through criticism and i'm telling you church so will we if we ever want to do something impactful for the kingdom of god we will have to persevere through criticism and the larger your influence gets the more critics you will have it just comes with the territory i've just had to learn this the hard way if your game can't handle some criticizing your game won't go far no matter what industry you work in no matter what line of work you do i'm talking about being a doctor a lawyer a dentist a plumber a stay-at-home parent whatever whatever you're called to do if your game can't handle some criticism your game won't go far i've learned that the hard way and the more the more influence you start to get the more the critics will come it's just part of it that's okay because we can persevere through criticism in a few months january of 2021 i'll have been the senior pastor of this church for 16 years is that crazy 16 years i've said the words i quit like a thousand times i've only meant it about five times but in 16 years there have been probably four or five times you could ask my wife where i've come to her and said i'm i'm absolutely done usually tearfully i'm absolutely done and i started thinking about all those times this week and almost every single time what brought me to the point of wanting to walk away from my calling was somebody criticizing me i couldn't hack it and just hurt my feelings and then i'm tired and i'm doing my best and you know the deal and i'm trying to be me and i'm trying to do what i'm called to do and i'm not i'm not like that person and i'm not like that person and i'm sorry this isn't like your last church and i know i'm different than that that preacher and i don't do things and we don't and i sometimes just couldn't take it and it just killed me 14 years ago we had what i thought was the beginning of revival in denver we had 500 people come to our easter service i was like i told my friend chad who helped us start the church i said chad it's gonna work god's gonna it's gonna happen this is gonna be an actual church chad can you start paying me i'm like no not yet but i'm telling you it's going to happen 500 people i was the happiest pastor on the planet until i got home that night and read an email and i got an email from someone that i don't even know because that's where a lot of our criticism comes from today doesn't it invisible people that you don't even know with an opinion and a keyboard and we give it way too much weight in our lives i'm telling you right now he broke down my message point by point this is what you said during your first point and this is why it wasn't really you didn't really communicate what the bible's communicating and i don't think anyone really got the spirit of that passage and then he went on to the next point he said that point you you were so emotional but you had no content and and he he literally broke down my message line by line by line by line and and in the in four in the last 14 years of this journey thousands and thousands of people have gotten saved gotten baptized we've got countless testimonies of people going this is how god changed my life i can barely remember him 14 years ago i could almost quote this email to you that's what criticism does to us if we hold on to it and i'll never forget how he ended the email he said your lack of preaching ability will be the reason why this church will never be what it could be he said and this was the lat this was the closing line your lack of ability will be the ceiling for red rocks church you should resign and it crushed me and here's the truth satan has reminded me of that email probably a thousand times in the last 14 years because every time something doesn't go right he gets in my ear and goes maybe that dude was right i mean who knows look you didn't do very good today did you maybe he was right critics will cause you to walk away from your calling if you're not careful and see you do the same thing i do somebody from your past has said something to you and you've held on to it some of you for years i don't think satan like can work people like a puppet and get someone to criticize you but he'll darn sure remind you of it non-stop he'll cause you to want to give it more weight than you ever should and some of you that's what's happened somebody from a school somebody from your family a friend an enemy someone you thought was a friend said something to your face behind your back something about you a post and you're letting it have so much weight in your life that it makes you not even want to pursue the plans that god has for you i'm telling you if you're going to walk in the plans god has for you if you're going to do what the author of hebrew says run your race and experience that calling we're going to have to persevere through some criticism there has to be a day in every single one of our lives where we go you know what i'm just not going to be criticized out of my calling i'm going to listen to what my creator says over what my critic says every time because what my creator says trump's what my critic says every day of the week and when i say that i i want to challenge you to begin to shut down and stomp out some critical voices in your life for a whole bunch of you one of the main voices you need to shut down and cover over with the word of god is your own i know people who spend their entire life trying to make sure that nobody ever has anything to criticize them about i just make everybody happy and i'll do right by everybody and i can't stand if somebody's mad at me i don't want anyone to ever be able to criticize me and then they get alone with themselves and destroy themselves in their mind i don't like the way you look i don't like the way you act you're worthless you're no good at this you're no good at this you're no good at this god can't use you you don't do anything important you're not significant we destroy there's a critical voice in our head that oftentimes comes from our own soul and our own insecurities and satan will pour gasoline on it and we got to start putting the word of god on top of every critical voice in our head including our own go ahead and put that screen up with all those verses you guys know i like to do this take a screenshot of that real quick because we're going to take it down there's five verses i want you to start using to start diminishing the critical voices whether they come from a person come from the enemy come from yourself because we need to start listening to what our creator says about us not our critics and so i want this let this help get you started all right you can take that down and put them up one at a time please for you were for you for my innermost parts you knit me together in my mother's womb i will give thanks and praise to you for i am fearfully and wonderfully made so many of us today have grown up with this idea that i was probably a mistake let me tell you something you may have been a surprise to your parents you were not a surprise to your god he knit you together in your mother's womb on purpose exactly the way you are the way he created you was not accidental he created you exactly the way you are for a reason put that next verse up would you for we are god's masterpiece he's created us anew in christ jesus so we can do good things he planned for us long ago god says no no you i didn't just create you and go ah decent no you're a masterpiece you're perfect i created you like this for a very specific reason and i've had plans for you for a long time and i know some tragic things have happened and i know some mistakes have happened i know 2020 happened that does not change the fact i created you the way you are on purpose you're a masterpiece and i got a plan for your life go ahead and put that next one up i mean let this one free you up so many of us think i'm trying to work so hard maybe i wiggled my way into this calling and god doesn't really want me here you can't wiggle your way into any place that god does not want you let me free you up you know what god god goes listen i know how you feel listen you didn't choose me i chose you let that just free some of you up you are where you are for a reason you didn't choose god he says you didn't choose me i chose you i created you perfectly and then i chose you and now i'm calling you and i'm going to equip you and so yes you can now just push through some criticism and let's go change the world and put that next one up the one who calls you is faithful and he will do it yeah but what he's asking me to do i don't feel qualified for and it's i mean way over my head yep that's usually how it works that's why you got to persevere through some stuff but he says don't worry everything that you can't lift i'll lift for you everything that you can't carry i'll carry for you and every now and then i'll pick you up and carry you through but i'll do it i called you i created you i'll do it for you when necessary and that last one is this for god's gifts and his call are irrevocable and some of you have been dealing with so much guilt and shame maybe it's been years maybe it's just been months and we get this feeling every now and then like because of what's happened he probably he i think he did have a call for me i think he did have a plan for me but i bet he's done because look look what i did look what i kept doing look what i didn't do and i believe the the creator of the universe wants to look at some of you today and go no no no you didn't choose me i chose you and i know everything about you and i still have a calling on your life and that calling is irrevocable let's start persevering through some stuff and let's go change the world we're gonna have to persevere through some stuff okay we have to throw some stuff off aren't we we're just going to read and i'm going to talk for a sec let's get back in verse 38. david convinces saul remember he said i'm crazy enough to go fight him and so i was like all right whatever god bless you may the lord be with you well now he's getting ready to actually go do it he's like no no i'm not just talking about doing it i'm going to do it so saul says well if you're gonna fight let me get you my armor if you're gonna if you're gonna fight this dude you have to fight him like i fight him and saul dressed david in his garments he put a bronze helmet on his head and put a coat of male armor on him and then david fastened the sword over his armor picture it and tried to walk around but he could not because he was not used to him picture little shepherd boy and he's got the king's armor on and he's trying to walk around and he's like bro i can't even bend my elbow like i'm a slingshot guy like i can't even like what am i supposed to do with this david said to saul i cannot go with these because i'm not used to them and so here it is david took them off david threw off the king's armor 99.9 of every soldier in that army if you ask me 10 out of 10 times since the king's giving me his armor absolutely throw it on because if it's good enough for the king it's good enough for me it's the best armor we make and if that's how the king goes into battle that's how i go into battle let's go and david had the courage to go it just doesn't fit me i just can't do it that way that's not who i was created to be got to get it off me he took his shepherd's staff in his hand picture the whole army watching this dude take the king's armor off and he chose for himself five smooth stones out of a stream bed picture the whole army watching this like what's this crazy kid doing he just took off all the armor look who he's fighting is he grabbing rocks he can throw rocks at him he took his shepherd staff in his hand and chose for himself five smooth stones out of the stream bed and put them in his shepherd's bag which he had that is in his shepherd's pouch and with his sling in his hand he approached the philistine picture this story you guys everybody thinks he's crazy because if the king fights that way that's how you fight and david has the courage and the understanding at a young age to throw off not just the king's armor he's throwing off comparison i wasn't created to fight how you fight i can appreciate your calling king i just can't walk in it and i'm telling you instagram is killing us with this stuff and i'm not saying you got to get off all social media you got to decide for yourself i am going to tell you this last year i got off of it for six months and my soul had never been healthier now i'm on it right now because it's one of the best ways i can keep in contact with the whole church but i'm just telling you the six months i was completely off instagram oh i missed a couple birthdays but my soul was healthy because instagram has made it so possible now for us no matter what industry you're in is is you just get your phone and go like this and you go that's what it looks like that's that's how being a mom's supposed to look that's how being a dad's supposed to look oh they're so happy they're so engaged they're so much better than me that's what success looks like that's what success looks like that's what success looks i i don't think i've ever gotten off instagram and felt more secure about myself but so last summer it was killing me and i was in a dark place and every night i would get on and for me i'm a pastor so i'm looking at other pastors and i'm going in that that guy does that and i don't when he does that i can't oh he gets invited to speak at that i guess i better start saying yes to all these anyone who asks because that's what a pastor does if you're going to be successful you got to be invited to a thing and you got to be invited to a thing and you got to be in the club and i don't think i'm in the club yet so i must not be successful and it was just like it was killing my soul this comparison and with some counseling i started to realize actually i spent seven weeks as a bunch you know in anti-anxiety counseling last summer and i can't tell you how many sessions were were built around sean you're bringing so much anxiety and depression into your own life by comparing your calling to people around you he's like you got to stop it's not just for like peace and joy it's killing you and it made me it did make me want to quit i wanted to quit my whole job i wanted to quit everything i couldn't take it it was it was comparison because i just thought if i'm going to be significant i got to be like the guys who've got a bazillion followers and they go to all the events and speak at all the things and i don't do that i just pastor our church so i just must i haven't arrived yet and god did a work in my soul in one of the craziest situations and it was a day when i finally just made a choice to go you know what god i'm just gonna be me and i'm gonna embrace how you created me and i'm gonna embrace where you put me and i'm just gonna be faithful with what i think you're asking me to do today a friend of mine was at my house this was a couple years ago installing a uh a garbage disposal and then he wouldn't charge me and i'm like that's not cool i'm not trying to take advantage of you i'm going to pay you and he goes well if you want to pay me then do his wedding and he points to a young man who works for him who i had not met yet and i'm like okay so i'm gonna do a wedding and and i i don't know the bride or the groom and so we put it on the calendar it was gonna be a long ways off okay so all of a sudden i get an invitation that kind of made me feel like maybe i'm not insignificant maybe i am going to be a legit successful pastor because i just got an invitation to go do something with like 10 other pastors and they all have a gazillion followers and they speak at every popular conference and they're like the famous guys and i don't know why i'm invited maybe it's because somebody canceled but i'm taking it and i'm gonna get to go hang out with all the guys truthfully that i podcast and listen to and kind of look up to and we were gonna go hang out in one pastor's living room for the evening and just talk and kind of be boys and and then but here's the cool thing we're going to go to the university of alabama and we were going to sit in the locker room the next day and get a leadership talk by nick saban is that he's the university alabama is that right one of the one of the most premier leaders and football coaches to do it ever and we're going to go sit in the locker room and listen to nick saban give us a leadership talk i'm like i have arrived i'm i'm somebody and all of a sudden my administrative assistant calls me and we already booked the hotel we booked the plane tickets everything she calls me and she goes oh sean you're not going to believe this i don't know how we missed this it was on a tuesday night in a wednesday that all this was supposed to happen she goes you're doing a wedding on tuesday i went what who does weddings on tuesday where was the wedding that i said i would do several months ago and again we don't even know each other like we've met but we don't know each other and then i find out there's only going to be like five people at the entire wedding it's the bride the groom the groom's parents a sibling and a photographer that's it and the wedding's outside on a mountain up in evergreen and it's going to be in a blizzard i'm like and the hits just keep on coming i'm like i can't i can't like i i have pastors from literally around the country calling me going you have got to get out of that wedding and come to this this is a once in a lifetime opportunity they will understand you can help them get a pastor at the church you're not it's not like your longtime friends they'll understand you can't miss out on this this is a chance of a lifetime and there's just and i called i called the individual and i said hey i messed up and double booked myself i'm 100 doing your wedding i just want to make sure we're going to go through with it because i heard it's going to blizzard and if you're going to cancel it i just want to know now because i messed up my schedule and i'm going to do something else but if you're not he goes he goes you you don't have to do our wedding we understand um but come rain shine snow we're gonna do it that day for sure and i just had something in my heart that's like you're supposed to do this wedding and so i was like no you know absolutely i'll be there i'll see you there and so i drive up to the mountain and i'm not kidding i'm looking at instagram not safe don't email me whatever i'm looking at instagram while i'm driving up the mountain and i'm seeing these guys posting pictures of their experiences in the locker room they're throwing football passes out on the field they're all together they're all so cool good for you i'm going to evergreen to do a wedding in a blizzard and i got out of my car and i walked down this long dirt trail which it's dirt unless there's rain and snow and now it's mud and so there went my dress shoes and so now i'm walking through the mud and i get to the thing and we do the wedding it's about a 15-minute ceremony and they're gonna stay and do pictures and i'm gonna go back to my car and so i'm walking back to my car down this mud path and the groom's dad comes up to me and he's like hey um i know the kids probably weren't able to to to pay you for the wedding um can i make it right and i'm like absolutely not i'm like no uh i go i it's my honor to do this absolutely not you're not paying me a penny because i just want you to know it's so it's so special to have you doing the wedding you know because of her story and i was like oh i'm i'm sorry i don't know her story he said oh well her father committed suicide and and then one day when she was 17 years old she walked into her house and her younger brother had a manic episode he had some mental health issues and he had a manic episode and he shot and killed their mom in the kitchen and then he started chasing her and her sister around the house and they ran upstairs and he was shooting at the walls and shooting at doors and her sister jumped out of a window and got on the roof and jumped off to escape and broke her back and became paralyzed and and then she was hiding in her room and her brother was shooting at the lock trying to break through the door when the police officers arrived and so then he just committed suicide and he said so in in one day she was 17 years old and her dad's dead and her mom's dead and her sister's paralyzed and her brother's dead and she's 17 and she has nothing and nowhere to go and and and um someone invited her to red rocks church and she was a complete atheist she would wake up every single night with night terrors and she would picture herself being chased and shot at and she was having a hard time just like living day to day and completely began to hate god if he existed but kind of figured he didn't exist or this stuff wouldn't happen but she came to red rocks church and and god moved on her soul and she gave her life to god and she went public with her faith through baptism at red rocks church and she got this dream in her heart that maybe one day pastor sean would do my wedding and and the wedding was on a tuesday because today is her mom's birthday guys it wrecked me it wrecked me and i just started bawling and i drove the whole way back down the mountain just like god i'm so sorry god i'm so sorry i let this comparison game get so out of control that i almost missed out on one of the most purposeful moments i think i've ever experienced to go hang out with some famous people because i thought i wanted to be like him and here's what's crazy not one of the famous pastors that i wanted to be with could have done that wedding and it would have meant anything to that couple only i could be me in that moment god has created you on purpose exactly the way you are and only you can be you and nobody else can there's people that nobody else can reach but you there's things that god wants to do to advance his kingdom that nobody else can do but you we're gonna have to push through some criticism to get there that's for sure and we're going to have to start throwing off this comparison we got to stop letting the idea of how do you do it how do you do it how do you do it how do you do it because here's what satan will do if he can't get you to walk away from your calling he'll try to just steal all the joy from it but we can choose to focus on what our creator says not on what our critics say even when we're one of the critics we can push through criticism we can stop comparing ourselves to everybody else and then we can begin to embrace this is how god made me and this is where god has me and so today what do you want me to do i'll just say yes to that and pretty soon you're going to blink and realize you're running your race you're walking in god's plans and you're in the middle of your calling and that's the sweet spot let's pray god i thank you for this moment i thank you that you're speaking to every single one of us about our lives even right now in this moment this is stuff that that tries to to trip up every single one of us and so god i pray right now in the name of jesus that you would set some of us free from criticism that you would set some of us free from some things that have been done or said about us or to us in the past i pray god that you would begin to set some of us free from that critical voice that comes from ourselves on the inside that we would begin to cover ourselves with the word of god and that we would begin to preach to ourselves the truth of the word of god and our soul and our emotions and everything about us would start to accept it i am who he says i am not who i think i am in my mind not who they said they not who they said i am i am who he says i am and he chose me and he called me and he created me perfectly and i can be me in this moment and i can actually walk in my calling in jesus name if you don't have a relationship with god right now is your time no matter if you're in a building or if you're watching this from some platform online wherever you're at if you don't have a relationship with god right now is your time because this is how it's this is where it begins you want to know the plans he has for you it begins with saying i want to commit my life to you god i put my faith in your son jesus now with your spirit begin to live inside of me and begin to guide me into the plans you have for me it starts with i choose you jesus if you have never done that and you know right now this is my moment i want to put my faith in jesus and i want to submit my life to him i just know it this is my time god forgive me of my sins and be the lord of my life if that's you right now raise your hand wherever you're at if you're in a building raise your hand if you're on a platform where it's available click that raise your hand button on that platform second question is this what we've talked today about today has resonated with you and you know whether it's criticism or comparison i gotta get some things out of my life but the truth is though is if you could do it on your own you already would have and so today you're saying god i need to get some criticism out of my life i need to get some comparison out of my life and i need your strength and your power and your grace to do it if that's you right now raise your hand and i'm just going to say a prayer for you and we're going to agree together for some freedom god i thank you so much that you've brought us together through technology all around the world in this moment to speak to our hearts about exactly where we're at and exactly where you want to take us we pray against criticism right now in the name of jesus we pray against comparison right now in the name of jesus we invite freedom into our lives right now in the name of jesus we start to claim your victory we start to claim your truth god remind us minute by minute if necessary that you created us perfectly for what you've called us to do and we can walk in that with some confidence in jesus name and everybody said amen church at every location let's stand up and let's worship

Channel: Red Rocks Church

Views: 4,895

Rating: 4.9459457 out of 5

Keywords: redrockschurch, Red Rocks Church, RRC, sermons, messages

Id: BK9d6MspoLQ

Length: 46min 54sec (2814 seconds)

Published: Sat Nov 14 2020