Loading summary
Transcript1 lines
- [00:09]
A
Couple housekeeping details. One a lot of you have said, hey, how do we stay in touch? Take your workbook. Let me give you my email address. Just write it in the front there. And it's just, it's simple. It's just Phil P h I l@walkthrough w a l k t hru.org phil@walkthrough spelled the short goofy way. Phil@walkthrough.org and especially if I've thrown out some prayer requests this week. Just got an update on the deal in the Middle east we were praying about with sat7 this afternoon I got a text from our international VP says hey, pray for Hussam. He's at the airport in Beirut flying home to Amman. In the last week and a half he's recorded 3:33 episodes which is six complete series from the biblical character series and he's going to do another four in July. And he goes, he is, he is beyond exhausted. He doesn't know Elijah from David right now. But those will start showing in September. We got a couple pictures. Were you able to load those pictures or not? Yeah, here he is at that shoot. That's Hussam. And his not only better looking than I am, his Arabic is far superior to mine. Shokran. That's all I know. It means thank you. So there he is teaching chiseled the series on Simon Peter. A lot of those before ambush talks tomorrow. I'll be over there and if you still want to get some of the resources and take them home, I'll be able to help you with that tomorrow. Did you catch the subtle. And Phil will be up for a shorter lesson tonight. It was like he was not talking to any of you. He was only talking to me. So you've heard of Walk through the Bible. I want to welcome you to Fly through the Bible. It's a new ministry was just incorporated about 7:30 tonight. The final session in Rooted is called Rooted in Vision. And go ahead and find that in your workbook. I'll try to hit all the fill ins. We may have to because of time. Oh no, skip some. But they're actually in the back of your workbook so save you an emergency counseling appointment if I happen to skip one. My mentor and friend Dr. Howard Hendricks used to say this. Like archers, we stand a far greater chance of hitting our target if we can see. Kind of goes without saying our son's a bowhunter. You know, I don't think he does real well if he just goes, there's gotta be a deer in that woods someplace. You know, there's no way you're going to do that. That was actually Prof. Hendrix was quoting Aristotle when he did that. My dad always told us he called him Uncle Aarus and we thought his name was Aris Tuttle. It was, like, embarrassing how old I was when I found out who this guy was. He was a philosopher way back in the day. Here's the exact quote he said. It concerns us to know the purposes we seek in life, for then, like archers aiming at a definite mark, we shall be more likely to attain what we want. Or as my favorite Prof. Said, like archers, we stand a far greater chance of hitting our target if we can see it. That's what we're after tonight. Paul gave Timothy a lot of words. I mean, a lot of words. You can summarize the two letters that he wrote to him. Second Timothy, two verses one and two. This is the mission of walk through the Bible. In many ways, this is the mission of Gull Lake. You then, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. It's strength, but it's not your own strength. And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses, entrust to reliable people who will also be qualified to teach others. That's what Walk through the Bible is. It is in some places, places in the world, down to the 10th generation of people training people who train other people. Multiplication is God's plan and it really works. Most people stop reading there, though, and they miss just absolute gold. In the next verses here, Paul, after giving Timothy lots and lots of words, he's going to stick three pictures in his mind of what our lives ought to be like. What serving Christ. Christ really looks like. He's going to give him three word pictures or metaphors. See if you can spot these as we go through this. And long after you've forgotten a lot of my words, my prayer is that you will walk away after tonight and you'll never forget these three pictures. And there will be things that trigger memories of Gold lake from you from this first of all. Second Timothy 2, 3, 4. Endure hardship with us like a good soldier. Notice it's bolded there. That would be the first one. Soldier of Christ Jesus. No one serving as a soldier gets involved in civilian affairs. He wants to please his commanding officer. How many of you are veterans? You served in the military? Stand up, please. First order of business, or you may still be serving. You ought to be on your feet too. Stay up. Step, step, step. Thank you most of all. But show the people around you. A proper salute, would you please? Ready? Here we go. Notice it's full body. Their heels came together, they came up. Unless there's something wrong with your right arm, don't salute left handed. Correct. We have to drill that into our left handed instructors. It's got to be this way. Unless you're British. It's not this, you know, so do that. Everybody make a salute and say soldier. Say it like you're thankful for these guys. Service. Okay, ready? Here we go. All right, have a seat. Thank you. Thank you very much. Paul uses this picture to warn us against the first danger, and that is the danger of distraction. Say distraction. I don't very often alliterate things because this stuff goes into like 30 languages. And our global leaders used to think alliteration was holy and they would like twist the meaning to make everything start with the letter Q. So we don't do that anymore. These accidentally alliterate. Notice here it says, endure hardship like a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No one serving as a soldier gets involved in civilian affairs. He wants to please his commanding officer. New American standard goes, no soldier in active service. I like that little twist on it too. You know, I know people who serve in the reserves and they're like, reserves is pretty awesome. It's like boy Scouts or girl scouts on steroids with live ammunition. It's pretty cool. And then you get called up to active duty. And I've asked these men and women, how does your life change? They're like, ask me how it stays the same. It would be quicker. You eat differently, you dress differently. More importantly, you think differently. Most American Christians view themselves as in the reserves. I don't see that category in scripture. You've heard my thoughts already this week. I don't think I'm in full time ministry and you're in part time ministry. I don't view it that way at all. So the danger here is distraction. My dad didn't have much of a temper, but some of my memories when he would get the most angry where if he came home and found us watching Hogan's Heroes, he'd like, he'd like just because he fought In World War II, he was in the foxholes all through France, landed a while after D Day, was there during victory, was there during occupation. He knew what went on in the POW camps, he knew what came on in the death camps. And he just, he saw no humor at all in Hogan's Heroes. And he's like, I better never see you watching that again. So we would Take turns listening for him to come in the driveway and turn the TV off. God's warning to us is don't drift. The reason he didn't like Hogan's Heroes is they're not doing what they're supposed to do. They're supposed to be looking for opportunities to take the enemy out. They're supposed to be trying to get out of there. It's not a country club. God's warning to us is don't drift. I get to speak at a fair number of pastors conferences. I can't tell you how many pastors have told me. I started out so focused on making disciples, and now I feel like all I'm doing is cranking programs. I'm just keeping the machinery going. I'm spending way too much emotional energy trying to keep different families happy. And everybody just sing Kumbaya and get along, talk to parents all the time. And it's like one of the reasons we come to Go Lake is because it recalibrates us of what really matters with our kids, because we're trying to provide them a good living. We're trying to give them opportunities maybe we didn't have, and all those things are fine. But I realize I've delegated the discipleship of my kids to other people. And when I come to Gull Lake, I feel like we take it back and we're the prime movers in that. God's warning to us is don't drift. Our ultimate goal should be to please the commander. I've asked my dad, you know, when they were at one place called Suicide Hill, they were in the Battle of the Bulge. And after that, they were at a place called Suicide Hill. His unit had about 35% casualties in two weeks. I said, so when they said, okay, we got to go. We got to take that hill over there, what got you out of your foxhole? And he says, I never really analyzed it. And I said, were you thinking about Mom? He goes, no, I didn't meet her till I processed out at the draft office. Oh, that's right. I forgot that. Nice time to meet your bride. I said, were you thinking about, like, liberty and, you know, delivering us from fascism and stuff like that? He goes, that all was way too vague. He goes, we knew. I knew if I did a good job, my buddy had a lot better chance of going home, as did I. And he says, one reason why I think we won the war is the authority structure in the American military is a lot more decentralized. And so he ended up being a sergeant, but he goes, we loved our sergeant. We'd have charged hell with a squirt gun if Sarge said to do it because we knew he really cared about us. The goal is to please our commanding officer, which of course is Jesus Christ. So what's the first word? Picture. That is weak sauce, my friends. What is the first word? Picture. And you can't just say soldier without saluting because your hands obviously have a better memory than your brain does. So what's the first metaphor? Soldier. Very nice. Good salutes. Very nice. Let's jump on to the next one. We've been warned about the danger of distraction. Don't drift. How do you stay focused? Think about trying to please Jesus. Second picture. Second Timothy2.5. Similarly, if anyone competes as an athlete, he does not receive the victor's crown unless he competes according to the rules for an athlete. I mean, if you're comfortable, just point at me for that. That's a joke. We need a hand sign for an athlete. What should we do for an athlete? What was that? Let's do running. Right, like that. Ready? Everybody say athlete. Athlete. And notice what it says here. Similarly, if anyone competes as an athlete, he does not compete. He. He does not win the victor's crown unless he competes according to the rules. There's some verses in there for Corinthians. We're going to skip those. Paul warns Timothy about the danger of disqualification. It's not just crossing the line. First, you have to compete according to the rules. In fact, in the early version of the Olympic Games that go clear back to like Bible times, you know, you had to come in the last few months of your training, you actually trained within sight of the judges. So it wasn't just how you did on game day, it's how you prepared. It's a long way from saying, I'm so awesome. I really don't need to put much effort into practice. Come game day, I'll be ready, Coach. Just chill. That was not how they rolled back then. Seems to happen every Olympics. My first memory of this happening is 1988, the Seoul Olympics. Hundred meter dash, fastest human on earth. Ben Johnson, running for Canada, just explodes out of the blocks. And he just accelerated and accelerated. It was like he was running on a trampoline and everybody else was running on concrete. Gold medal. Can Canada. Instant national party. The next morning, the news hits. His metal has been taken away. Why? Because he tested positive for anabolic steroids. It's the first time I personally heard the name steroids. I know it was right then, because a Few weeks after that, I had a sinus infection that I just could not shake. I'd been through two rounds of antibiotics, went to the doctor, and the doctor goes, we gotta try something else. I'm putting you on steroids. And I'm like, doc, my Olympic career, I mean. I mean, come on, think about this. Different kind of steroids. Don't worry. And what event are you going to be in anyway? I don't know, maybe gymnastics. He goes, don't see it, Phil. Take the pills. The danger is disqualification. The warning to us is don't cheat. Don't cut corners. Seems every month, sometimes every week, another mega church pastor is trending online on social media because you find out they've cheated in their marriage. They've been super authoritarian in their leadership, and they're relieved of their service. They're gifted as can be, but they're not doing it according to God's standards. And it's tragic when that happens. You don't need to be famous to do a whole lot of damage. Every one of us in this room, men and women, we can do untold damage to other people by little compromises in our lives. You tell your kids we're going to actually take a vacation this year. Follow through. Unless there's, like, a big change in your life, honey, I'll be at your soccer game. Questions in the Q and A. Some of you are asking how we balance travel and all that. And it was harder when the kids were young, but our kids were saying, when dad was in town, he was there at the Games. I remember Philip one time says, dad, don't ever leave in the middle of a game. He was out in right field before they discovered he was an awesome first baseman and a good lefty pitcher. He. He was in right field, and probably he was like 9, 10 years old. And I had to go catch a plane, and he just started crying in the outfield. And I go, I'll never leave in the middle of the game again. We'll schedule that better. Keeping our vows to our spouses, but also following through what we say we'll do with our kids. God's warning to us is don't cheat. I found some deductions on my taxes that are so creative, the IRS has not even heard of them. Well, great. Don't cut corners. Don't choose the easy path. Our ultimate goal should be to what? Win the prize? When is the prize passed out? Not in this life. Not in this life. I heard the story about a missionary couple that served a long time, even Did Bible translation, which is tough, tough work. They came home to the Philadelphia area. They landed at the airport and they really thought there would be like maybe a couple hundred people there to greet them. And there was nobody there. The guy was kind of ticked about it and he voiced that and he's like, we gave 35 years of our life to this one tribe. And she goes, yeah, do you remember the sendoff they gave us? They're so appreciative. I know, but all the people have support us. I thought maybe they'd be here. And he said his wife turned to him and said, honey, we're not home yet. We're not home yet. The prizes get passed out later. That's two. What's the first one? Soldier, Soldier. What's the second one? Third one farmer, Verse six. The hard working farmer should be the first to receive a share of the crops. First time I preached this message was in that little country town. And that guy was telling you about Wes Ravens, who is my favorite elder, is a cattle feeder. He comes up to me after church and he's like, master pastor. He goes, two thirds of that message was really great. He goes, you didn't have a clue what you were talking about about the farmer, did you? And I said, I said, you guys are hard working. He goes, yeah, some of us are, some of us aren't. That's how I knew you had no clue. And he goes, do you understand what Paul is trying to say? And I said, I thought I did. And he goes, let me explain it to you. I'm like, I would have paid you $100 for this an hour before church. And he's telling me in the lobby, I used to hate that when they would tell you, too late. It's a simple verse. The hard working farmer should be the first to receive a share of the crops. Here the danger is not distraction. It's not disqualification. It's discouragement. Paul's warning Timothy and us about that. He told me, he says, you've only been here one year now. You probably haven't realized the rhythm of this place. He said, when is your counseling load the hardest at our church? And I said, like January, when the bills hit after Christmas. And he goes, yeah. He goes, when else is it heavy? I go, it doesn't make any sense. It's like during the summer it gets really bad. And he goes, you know why that is? And I go, because people, I don't know, maybe it's too hot or something. He goes, no. He goes, you prepare the ground, you Put the grain in the ground, you know, you fertilize it, you put your herbicides on it and all that. And now you gotta wait. And waiting stinks. And harvest always takes longer than it should. And there's so many things that can go wrong between planting and harvest that most of us have no control of. And so what do you do? That's when couples go at it. Wow. Don't remember learning that one in seminary, but it's absolutely true. The danger is discouragement. If that's the case with growing crops. How about growing people? Used to drive me nuts in our church. We'd get a young couple, and, man, they'd start growing, and they're in the word for themselves, and. And sure enough, they'd get a job someplace and they'd move far away. We had other people in our church. I used to pray for God to give us a blessed subtraction. We had this one elder who's like, your job's to make changes, right? Your job's to hit the accelerator. I'm going to ride the brakes because I'll probably be here after you're gone. And so whatever you say, you need to know I love you, but I'm probably going to be against it. Wow, this is going to be fun. I would have traded that guy to the Lutherans for a future draft pick and a player to be named later in a heartbeat. He just died a couple years ago. Lived there way longer than I. Eventually, God gave us a love for each other, and it got better. But growing people is hard. Moms of preschoolers, can I get an amen for that? But here's the deal. I thought if we can just. Well, I thought once we finally got through five years of infertility and got that solved and Ellen's three surgeries and Emily was born and Phillips was born, it's like, hey, we're done. We did it. Boy, was that stupid. Ellen's like in the first Top Gun movie, You know, when Maverick just kind of freaks out and he's flying off by himself, and they're going, maverick, engage. Maverick, engage. That was my wife yelling at me on the couch, going, phil, you got to engage. I thought if we just get through toilet training, nothing will be hard again. If we just get through middle school, those mean years, well, when they become adults, they're no longer our problem. Our kids are 38 and 35. We're still actively parenting, only now we're not coaches anymore. We're not even primarily cheerleaders. We're consultants. You Know, the hard part of being consultant is you're asked to be a consultant and you speak when asked. And the rest of the time, you better keep your opinions to yourself. And you, you heard Ambush say it. I quit consulting with camps because they don't do what I say. There's no commitment on the part of our kids to listen, even when they ask advice. Parenting never ends, does it? The opportunity to become discouraged is so real. We'd go out to my Uncle Leroy's wheat farm and he'd take the wheat and he'd grind it in his hands like this and blow the chaff away. And then he just pinched between cheek and gum. And we'd all be like, we're city boys and girls, but we can do this. Tasted like nothing. The dust would about choke you. He goes, ain't that sweet? I discovered you're not supposed to chew it. It's not, you know, ready to be chewed yet. You will go to the dentist if you do that. And then we go, uncle Leroy, is that like, does it look like it might rain tonight? And when he looked at the clouds, we'd spit it all out, but we'd keep our tongues in our mouth so he thought we were cool. To him, it tasted sweet because he had planted it. The hard working farmer ought to be first to receive the share of the crops, my buddy Wes explained to me. He goes, you know, there's some of us that have had our land a long time. Our machinery's paid for. And he says, I'm getting old. I got some young bucks who are doing my work for me. You enter a deal with them, you're given a certain amount of what gets harvested. And he says, there's good owners and there's bad owners. The bad owners go, okay, you're getting 30% of everything we bring in. But the bad owners will say, I'll tell you, by the way, which 30 acres are yours. And it's always the worst acres. A bad owner will say, well, we're going to harvest my 70% first, then hope yours doesn't get hailed out in the meantime, but we'll do yours last, so hurry on mine, would you please? Good owners go, we're going to pot it all together. And the hard working farmer who's doing the work gets their cut along the way. I don't know that that's exactly what the Bible means, but it made a whole lot more sense to me than the explanation I tried to give on that Sunday morning. I was trying so hard to be country. The first Year we were. There was a Wednesday night prayer meeting and Bible study. It was harvest. It was only Wes and me and probably about 20 women. Because Wes had people working his ground. Everybody else was out in their fields. I'm trying so hard to be country. You can edit this out of the recording, but that actually happened. It was pretty hilarious. And I said, wow, look at. It's a unique crowd tonight. I didn't know why it was all women and just Wes and me. And so I turned to Wes. I go, wes, I guess you and I are the only two roosters in the henhouse tonight. Now you got city people here. You're like, oh. And I'm like. The women went. And I went, wait a minute. I said that, right? And I looked at Wes like the roosters are the boys, right? And he goes, master Pastor, do you ever think about why old Mr. Rooster is always a smiling. What do you think that old boy's job description is? And what do you have planned for our prayer meeting tonight? And I just turned 19 shades of red. It was terrible. Dear Esther comes up, takes my hand and goes, just. You'll get countrified. It's going to happen. It'll take some years. Don't push it so hard, honey, but I'm praying for you. God's warning to us is don't quit. One time I was at my uncle's house and I woke up in the middle of the night to the worst racket you can imagine. He still has. Well, he just died about a month ago in the same house he was born in. That was one of his goals. He didn't move outside that county probably 100 miles in his whole life. That was just his calling. He had in his freezer softball sized hail. You know how big a softball is? Bigger than a baseball. He lost about 80% of his wheat crop that night. I heard this noise. I went downstairs. He's sitting at the end of his table, kitchen table. I didn't know him to be a man of the Bible. He'd go to church. He didn't talk about his faith much. I go, leroy, what are you reading? He's reading Habakkuk 3. 17, 19. Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines Though the olive crop fails, fails and the fields produce no food Though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls Yet I will rejoice in the Lord I will be joyful in God my savior the sovereign Lord is my strength he makes my feet like the feet of A deer and enables me to tread on the heights. Paraphrase it for yourself, though. Our second child, who we faithfully took to church and even brought to Gull Lake and years ago even served as a counselor. But when she hit her mid-20s, she walked away from everything we valued and held dear. Discouragement is overwhelming. Yet I will choose to praise God because the last chapter has not been written yet. She can come back. It probably will not be your words, your job. My job is to love her, to love him. Somebody else will deliver the truth. Most likely. Not always. Most times. Our ultimate goal should be to enjoy the harvest. So you get excited when one of your kids shows the fruit of the Spirit. When one of your kids borrows a sweater from another child and the other child takes it back and then goes, you know what? That really looks good on you. You can use it. You fall to your knees and go, I've just observed a miracle almost as great as the Resurrection. And you have a party in your soul about that. Here's this message summarized on a chart. I love to make charts like this. We need a hand sign for farmer, don't we? Let's take some grain and just throw it out there. The Bible says, if you sow sparingly, what can you expect? A little harvest. You sow bountifully big harvest. But be aware, the distance between planting and harvesting is always longer than we think it should be. And so don't get discouraged. I have three more minutes. That's a miracle. If God brought you here for only one of these sessions, which one of the five did you most need to hear? If you go? I needed these five and about nine more. I knew there were eight things I was doing terribly as a parent. I found out this week there's 81. Thanks for sharing your gift of discouragement, then. You're not listening to the Holy Spirit. That's Satan, the accuser of the brothers and the sisters. Look through the list. We talked about family. Our roots go deeper by learning from and prioritizing our families. We talked about mentoring. Our roots grow deeper through healthy relationships with godly mentors. We talked about trials when we were over here Monday night or. Yeah, Monday night. Our roots grow deeper by facing our trials by faith. This morning we hit Rooted in the Word. Our roots grow deeper by faithfully studying, applying and sharing God's word. And tonight, our roots go deeper by pursuing the Christian life with focus, integrity and perseverance. Circle one of those in your notebook. I don't always do this, but I think I'LL do it tonight. If you circled number one and said it was the family deal that hit me. Will you stand up, please? Just real quick. Doesn't mean you're a terrible dad. Doesn't mean you're a terrible mom. Just means thank you, Lord. That's what I needed to hear. Encouraging thanks. How many of you. It was the talk on mentoring, maybe being thankful for those who spoke into your life, but also opening your minds that, hey, you're a little older. Might be your opportunity now to speak into some others lives. Wow. Almost the same size group. How many said trials you stand up. Remarkably same size group. How many was this morning? The importance of God's word in your life. You want to be more a man or a woman of the book? Stand up. All right, have a seat. And how many of you? It's like, I'm glad I didn't skip the last night. I needed the talk on vision. I needed these three pictures. The soldier, the athlete, the farmer. Okay, those weren't all evening even, but they weren't more than 10% off from being 20, 20, 20, 2020. My friends, that's not me. And that's not the curriculum designers who worked on. That's the Holy Spirit of God, because he cares that much about each of us as individuals. I will say to you, a lot of you have been saying, hey, when are you coming back? They got to see your evaluations first. So please exercise your gift of mercy and encouragement because we'd really love to come back here. But I've been around this place enough to know that any week you come and any speaker you get. The speakers only are a small part of this. The time to decide whether you're coming to Gull Lake next year is while you're at Gull Lake this year. Because if you wait, not only is it hard to get housing when it opens up, you got to be. You got to be ready. And when you think it's in your cart, watch out, those grabby Christians. I mean, you'd be ready to go. Just go, honey, where's my wallet? You're dead. But not only that, complications come up, schedules get busy, budgets get tough. So maybe even before you leave, you grab your spouse's hand if you're here or a close friend and go, hey, let's do this again next year. Father, thank you for this place. Thank you for those two incredible, those incredible testimonies we had from that young guy and that young lady. Lord, that is why this place exists. I pray that you would provide for every need financially, but also the personnel needs. Because it's the people that make this place. God and Lord, thank you for honoring your promise that your word doesn't come back empty. It accomplishes what you send it out to do. Now may we be hearers of your word. Not just that, Lord, but also doers as well. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.