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Mariners Church Weekend Messages
November 16 - Perseverance: Fighting and Trusting He is Fighting - Eric Geiger
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Welcome to Mariners Church Weekend Message Podcast, inspiring people to follow Jesus and fearlessly change the world. Discover your purpose and get connected by visiting MarinersChurch.org or click the link in the show notes.
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If you're new to Christian faith, that song may be like, what are we singing? Are we singing that he. That Christ is coming? He's returning? What do we mean? So those of us who are Christians, we look at the whole story of the Bible and we see that Christ came the first time he entered this world humbly as a servant. He absorbed our sin in his flesh. He made himself weak so that he could die on the cross for our sin. He promised to do that. So he kept his promise to enter this world as the promised one, to be your savior, to make you his own. But he's also promised that he's going to return. And when he returns, he's not entering this world in a weak manner. He's not coming as a humble servant, but as the conquering king who rules and reigns over everything and makes everything brand new. So there's moments in your life, and some of you are in this season right now, when things are really challenging and difficult. You're in the midst of a trial or some pain or someone's betrayed you or you're in hurt. Those are moments when really those words mean more to us. We're like, please come now and fix this. The reality is, though, even on our best moments, we should still be please come now and fix this. Because nothing here compares to what's going to be there. Nothing here compares to that. And he is going to keep his promise like he always does. All of his promises, according to the scripture, are yes and amen. He's going to keep his promise, promise to his own, which is to return. And we're excited to be able to worship together today. I'm so glad that you are with us. Some of you, I mean, you, like, you braved the rain to make it to church today. Like, deep, like, I mean, so passionate. You had to, like, go through just torrential downpour to be here. I'm joking. I'm so glad you're here. Regardless, let's pray and let's jump in. Jesus, thank you for the time that we have together to worship you. And I pray that you'll meet us with your word. In your name that I pray. Amen. Amen. You can grab a seat. I'm so glad that you're with us today. The clock. Russell says I only have 30 minutes. Are you guys cutting my time? It says 30. I'm taking extra time. I don't know why it's set. There's a little clock right here. If you always wonder, how does he always end on time? Because the clock tells me to end on time. All right, two things that I want to tell you before we jump into the scripture today. Last week, amazing week at all of our congregations. We invited people to place their faith in Jesus, believe in him, receive his forgiveness, and we saw 748 people stand up and confess faith in Jesus. It was amazing. And some of you, it was. That was you last week. And I want you to know that our church is so proud of you. We want to walk alongside you and care for you. We do not view ourselves as, hey, we have it figured out. And you're new. We're more experts at the Christian faith than you. That's not how we view each other here. All of us at all times realize that every one of us needs God's grace. So welcome to the group of people who need God's grace all the time. We are so glad that you're here and with us. Second thing I want to mention is last night we had a really special time of commissioning. We are launching two new Mariners congregations. We now have nine throughout Southern California. But at Christmas time, we'll launch Mariners San Clemente and Mariners your Belinda and. And we had on the platform last night people who are helping launch those volunteers from those cities, who live in those cities. But they love this church. They're a part of our church, and they are launching a Mariners in their city. And it's just going to be awesome. So we're going to have 11 congregations in January throughout Southern California. I can't wait to see what God does in these cities. We are joining him. He's clearly moving in Southern California. And we are playing one small part. Our church is just one small part of all that God is doing. But we're so grateful to be able to. To be a part of what he's doing here in Southern California. But I want us to take a moment and pray for those people in our church who are launching a new church. A new congregation. Will you pray with me for them? God, thank you for all of these volunteers who are going to serve their cities and launch a new congregation in their city. I pray that this will be such an amazing season in their life filled with great joy, filled with that you will bless them, that you will meet all of their needs according to your riches and glory. I pray that they will experience the joy of you. Working through them to serve others. And bless them, Lord. Bless them in big ways where they know that you are pleased with their obedience and that you're working through them. I'm excited to how these churches are going to serve people. And I pray that people who don't know you yet and your Belinda San Clemente will encounter your grace and that their lives will be changed and that you'll use our church to serve people in these cities. And it's in your name that we pray. Amen. All right. I'm really excited about that. All right. I want to jump into our message. We're walking through the Book of Nehemiah in this teaching series, how to lead. Some of you still don't view yourself as a leader, and I'm trying to help you see yourself as such. Because if you are a Christian, Jesus has not only saved you, but he's also sent you into the world. So into your profession, high school students, into your school. He sent you wherever it is that you live, and he has you there as a person of influence, which makes you a leader. Now, some of you know you're a leader because of your job title or because of your career path. And we're learning from the Book of Nehemiah some really incredible insights on how to lead effectively. John Maxwell has said that there's no two great days back to back in a leader's life. That essentially leadership is so challenging that you're not going to have. If you're having a great day today, it's not going to be awesome tomorrow that you're going to have challenges. I had a mentor who was in the ranching before he went into other types of roles. And he. So he grew up with, like, lots of cows and horses, and he had the saying that leadership is like a big bowl of sugar and horse manure. You never know what bite is next. It's all mixed together, and that is true. Leadership is the thrilling and the troubling all mixed together. And I know that from personal experience, leading in ministry, but also in the marketplace. Thrilling and troubling, all mixed together. I remember the day that it was announced that I got this major promotion. I had been leading one division, and the CEO of the company asked me to lead another division to integrate the two divisions. And so there was this big announcement in the morning. It was a major promotion. It was thrilling. But by the afternoon, as I was looking at all of the data and. And the challenges in front of us as we would integrate these two divisions, it was troubling. The Thrilling and the troubling all mixed together. I remember one thrilling division meeting when we announced that we hit this major goal. That was in the morning. In the afternoon, I found out that one of my key team members was poached by another company. And on the way home, I wasn't thinking about hitting the goal. I was thinking about a loss of a key team member. The thrilling and the troubling, all the mixed together. I remember one day celebrating that we had had this great quarter of results in the morning and in the afternoon, the CEO of the company called me into his office and letting me know that somebody was trying to work around him to go to the board to have me fired. The thrilling and the troubling all mixed together if you're a leader, does that sound familiar? It's both. All of the time, I have thought, I wish that we could segment the two. I know there's gonna be troubles. I get it. I know there's challenges. As a leader, can we have all the challenges on one day? And then the rest of the week I would be able to enjoy the thrilling aspects. Can we silo the troubling to one segment, absorb it, and then have the thrilling? But that's not how it works. It's the troubling and the thrilling altogether. And life is this way as well. In this last season of my life, it's been thrilling and troubling. I've been able to write this devotional with my teenage daughter, Eden, my oldest daughter. This. This publisher asked Eden and me to write a devotional together for teenagers. Oh my gosh. It was the dream come true. I was able to sit down with her and talk about every single day that we were writing. It was awesome. It was thrilling. And there wasn't a day that I didn't think, I wish my dad was still here to see this. The thrilling and the troubling all together, that's the reality of life and the reality of being a leader. We talk about this on the if I Had More Time podcast. This week I sit down with Rob Palinka, who's the general manager of the Los Angeles Lakers and the president of basketball operations. He's actually plugged into our church, a godly man, full of lots of wisdom. I enjoy this conversation so much. We talk about how to persevere when things are really challenging. So I encourage you to listen. But we're going to look at Nehemiah today and see what he did with challenges. So page 72, if you're following along in our magazine, I hope you Are we'll also be able to look at the scripture on the screen. Nehemiah, the first three chapters, which we've spent the last three weeks walking through, everything's going pretty awesome. There's challenges, but it's mainly thrilling. Nehemiah, Chapter one. He receives this burden from God for the broken walls in the city of Jerusalem, though he's never been there, that's where his ancestors are from. But he also has a belief that God can fix the walls and bring the people out of disgrace. The burden and the belief form a vision. He goes to Artaxerxes, the king of Persia, and he says, I want you to send me to Jerusalem to rebuild the wall, and I need this authority and this money. And the king gives him everything he asked for. The pagan king who doesn't worship Yahweh, the same God that Nehemiah worships, gives Nehemiah everything that he asked for. Things are going great. Nehemiah, Chapter one. Nehemiah, Chapter two. He gets to Jerusalem. He walks around. He sees that the wall is broken down. And he says to the people, hey, come, let's rebuild this wall so we're no longer in disgrace. That's Nehemiah 2:17. The people say, let's do it. We're. Oh, my gosh. Everything is going exactly like Nehemiah planned. The king, Artaxerxes, a Persian, agrees. The Jewish people In a city 850 miles away, they agree. They start building the wall. This is all going pretty awesome. Then Nehemiah Chapter three, which we looked at last week, all of these people from different backgrounds, they all line along the wall and they start to rebuild. And then this week, turn the page, Nehemiah chapter four, and boom, tons of challenges. Now, if you're a leader, you aren't surprised at all because Nehemiah 4 is your reality. You're not surprised when you read the book of Nehemiah. You're actually surprised that it takes till chapter four to be a whole lot of challenges. But Nehemiah 4 is filled with tons of difficulties. Let's see how Nehemiah responded to all of these difficulties. Verse 1 of Nehemiah chapter 4. This is God's word. When Sanballat heard that we were rebuilding the wall, he became fur. He mocked the Jews before his colleagues and the powerful men of Samaria and said, what are these pathetic Jews doing? Can they restore it by themselves? Will they offer sacrifices? Will they ever finish it? Can they bring these burnt stones back to life from the mounds of rubble? Then Tobiah, the Ammonite who was beside him said, indeed, even if a fox climbed up what they are building, he would break down their stone wall. Let's stop here for a moment. You see, the first challenge that Nehemiah faces is verbal insults and verbal assaults. And if you're a. You've had this. You've had people criticize you. And oftentimes some of the criticism is not even true, which is the case here. This is untrue criticism. The cruelty of the language used against Nehemiah and the people who are building are. It's comprehensive. They, they. They complain about the people who are doing the work. These are pathetic Jews, they say. They rebuke the tools they are using. They are burnt stones, and they rebuke their finished work. This wall, if a fox walked on it, it would fall down. So they're comprehensive in their cruelty. You've heard the cliche, sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never harm me. A completely foolish and untrue cliche, because words are very harmful and very damaging. And these words were really painful for Nehemiah and the people he was leading. And the people who were giving those insults and giving those rebukes. The reason they were giving them is these people were filled with insecurity and immaturity and anger and bitterness. And often people who were the fiercest with their tongue in terms of their criticism and rebuke. They criticize and rebuke from a place of deep pain in their own lives. And the target of their criticism often is. This is painful for you to realize if you're a leader, but the target of their criticism is often leaders. And there's another cliche that you've heard. There is a kernel of truth in every criticism, also a cliche that is completely untrue. Sometimes there's truth in criticism. There's been times where I've been criticized or challenged or rebuked and there has been truth within the criticism that I should heed and listen to and seek God and ask him to change me and make me a better man and a better person. Yes, there's times where there's truth embedded within criticism, but not always, not always. Not here. There was no truth within this criticism. These weren't merely pathetic Jews. These were God's people who were living on God's mission to rebuild the wall. And they had never said that they could rebuild the wall in a day. And it wasn't true that a fox could knock down the wall. This was all inaccurate. And so if you believe the lie that there's a kernel of truth in every criticism. You could be enslaved, enslaved by criticism, when sometimes the criticism has no truth in it at all. Understand that your accuser, Satan, the devil, is the father of lies. There's nothing he says about you that is against you, that is true. Nothing. And so if you're a leader, there's times where. When you will be criticized, there's times where there'll be truth, and you should listen and try and learn. But there's times when there won't be truth at all, where there'll be accusations or statements made against you that are completely untrue. So what do you do? What nehemiah do? Verse 6. I love verse 6. It's one of my favorite verses in the entire book. You see decisive action. Nehemiah responds to criticism with construction. He builds verse six. So we rebuilt the wall until the entire wall was joined together up to half its height. For the people had the will to keep working. He responded to criticism with construction, realized that most of the people who criticize the way that these people criticized, they've never built anything in their life. And so it's much easier for them to criticize than it is to construct. It's much harder to construct than it is to criticize. And these people were just criticizing the construction that Nehemiah and the people were doing, but they kept focused on what they were doing. But it didn't end here. It's never one and done. When you face a challenge as a leader, you know this. It's not just gonna be one challenge. It's a series of challenges. And I love Nehemiah chapter four because it's so raw and honest about all of the challenges that Nehemiah faces in this season in his life, really, in just a couple of days. Look at verse seven and eight. You see more challenges. When Sanballat, Tobiah and the Arabs, Ammonites and Ashadites heard that the repair to the walls of Jerusalem was progressing and that the gaps were being closed, they became furious. They all plotted together to come and fight against Jerusalem and throw it into confusion. So at first they were just attacking verbally. Now they want to show up physically and actually confront those who are building the wall. Now, who are these people? We're introduced to the first three in Nehemiah chapter two, and the fourth is brand new. This is the first time we read of the Ashadites, but here's who they are. You can take a picture or write this down. It's like Bible nerd, trivia but it also helps you understand how complex the challenges were for Nehemiah. Sanballat is a Babylonian name. He's the governor of Samaria, about 40 miles away. And he does not want Jerusalem to thrive 40 miles from where he's in charge. Tobiah is a Jewish name, but this is interesting. He doesn't represent the Jewish people. He's chosen to rise through the ranks of the Ammonites. Maybe he just thinks he can get a better job there, a better role of prominence there. So Tobiah is representing the Ammonites, Geshem is the Arabic. And he ruled over the tribes in Moab and Edom and Ashadites. They're a brand new group that's joined against Nehemiah. So at this point, when you look at a map, if you look at an old school map of Israel and you look at these people groups, you see that Nehemiah is completely surrounded. If you worked for Nehemiah and Nehemiah asked you, hey, can you give me a SWOT analysis of the threats? Can you draw up on a sheet of paper how challenging this season is? You would probably draw something like this for Nehemiah. Nehemiah, this is you. And you're completely surrounded. To the north is the Samaritans, the Arabs, to the south, to the east the Tobiah and to the west the Astradites. I mean, you are surrounded and all of these people want to ruin you and destroy you. They are saying things with their words, but they're now threatening to show up with their presence. They all want this to stop. Some of you, this is how you feel right now. Completely surrounded, completely boxed in. And so what do you do when things are so challenging? Verse 9, this is what Nehemiah does. So we prayed. I love this. What do you do? We prayed. So we prayed to our God and stationed a guard because of them day and night. So Nehemiah prays, but he also stations. He doesn't only pray, pray or only work. He prays and works. He prays and plans. But the day is really bad. Some of you know a day like this where you get an email when you first wake up, that's going to change the whole trajectory of your week. You have a mid morning meeting, you have to bring in lunch to have this lunch meeting. And then there's a whole separate set of reports that come in the afternoon. The day is just one stop, day of bad news. That's Nehemiah's reality. Look what happens next. Verse 10 In Judah, it was said, the strength of the laborer fails. Since there is so much rubble, we will never be able to rebuild the wall. So now the people are starting to get discouraged. The people are saying, we can't do this. We're never going to be able to rebuild the wall. So the people in Judah say, we can't do it. Verse 11, the enemies said, they won't realize it until we're among them and can kill them and stop the work. And then verse 12, when the Jews who live nearby arrived, they said to us time and again, everywhere you turn, they attack us. So people on the inside were fatigued and. And losing hope. Enemies were saying they're going to kill them. And people from the outside who came to visit said, there's no way this is happening. Everyone was telling Nehemiah, this is not going to work. Let's stop the foolishness of rebuilding the wall. But Nehemiah doesn't stop. He doesn't stop. He doesn't even pause. He continues for the glory of God. In the mission, the vision that God had given him to rebuild this wall, that the. The threats and the taunting from the outside was impacting the people on the inside was wearing people down. But Nehemiah did not stop. Now, Nehemiah loved the people, so he adjusted to the reality of the current situation, but he didn't slow down the vision. Here's how he adjusted. If you read the rest of Nehemiah 4, he knew everybody was worried and fatigued, and so we said, okay, guys, here's what we're going to do. When you hear a trumpet sound, everybody converge to where the trumpet is and be ready to fight. And I'm gonna ask you, who live on the outskirts of Jerusalem, to come and spend the night in Jerusalem so that our neighboring enemies will see that we have a city that is populated. And from now on, here's how we're gonna finish the wall. Half of you are gonna work and half of you are gonna watch. And then you're gonna switch. You're gonna work and you're gonna watch and you're gonna stay armed the entire time. So Nehemiah wasn't callous towards the people he was leading. He adjusted, but he didn't stop. He didn't slow down on the vision that God had given him. When you read Nehemiah, chapter 4, the perseverance is incredible. How. How could you persevere through so many challenges? I think if you step back and you look at Nehemiah, these two verses really jump out. Verse 14, Nehemiah tells the people, fight for your countrymen, your sons and daughters, your wives and your homes. Let's fight. But then look at verse 20. Our God will fight for us. So he believes it's good news. I love the 1130. You're the only ones that clap for that. And you're just clapping for the Bible. You just clapping for the Bible. That's how awesome you are. You're just clapping for the Bible. Yeah, it's both. It's believing I'm gonna fight because God gave me this vision, but I'm not fighting alone that I believe that God is fighting for us. So perseverance is both. It's fighting and trusting that God is fighting for you. It's both. If you want to persevere and everybody wants to be a person of perseverance, you want to continue in the vision that God has given you, you want to be someone who perseveres. If you want the fruit though, of perseverance, then you need both the intermingling roots of fighting and knowing and trusting that God is fighting for you. So here's what Nehemiah was able to say to the people. Listen, everyone's around us. We're going to fight. You fight for your own lives, your homes, your wives, your children. You fight, but listen, you are not fighting alone. The God who watches over Israel never sleeps or slumbers. You fight, but you're not fighting alone. I know it feels like there's enemies all around us, but greater is he that is in us than he that is in the world. I know it feels overwhelming right now, but if God is for you, who can be against you? And so you fight. But as you fight, you trust that God is fighting for you. This is the secret to Nehemiah's perseverance. He believes both. I'm going to fight. I'm going to keep going, but I'm not going alone. He fights for me. Now, when Nehemiah gives this epic challenge to the people in Nehemiah chapter four, that's not even the end of the challenges. And you know, this is a leader. You don't expect one message or one inspirational quote to just end all of the challenges. No, there's more. You turn the page to Nehemiah chapter five, and there's even more challenges. In fact, Nehemiah chapter five, the challenges are more painful to Nehemiah. You're going to see Nehemiah just be transparent in the Bible that the challenges in Nehemiah 5 bother him more than the challenges in Nehemiah 4. Because the challenges in Nehemiah 5 are internal. Among God's people. He expected opposition from people outside. He did not expect opposition from people within. And some of you, this is really painful for you. Listen, I know some of you, you coach. You coach a team of high school students or college students. I'm so. I love that you do that. I love that you invest in that generation and you care not only about the wins and the losses, but about their character. And as a coach, you know that you have an opponent on Thursday night. You expect the external opposition. What you don't expect is that there's going to be a rift on your team that you have to spend the week dealing with. That's what makes you more angry. Some of you are in the corporate world, and you know that there's headwinds with the external competition. You know that there's customers that you're fighting to serve. What you don't like, what bothers you more than anything is how much time is wasted on internal conversations about who gets the sales credit for this customer and who gets the FTE applied to this P&L statement versus this P& L statement. And there's all of these comedians. You're like, why are we spending so much time time fighting with ourselves? This is not our mission. That frustrates you more than anything. And you're just like Nehemiah. Nehemiah is so frustrated because he knows there's enemies on the outside that want to stop the wall from being rebuilt. But now there's enemy within. Let's see the enemy within. Nehemiah, chapter 5, verse 1. There was a widespread outcry from the people and their wives against their Jewish countrymen. So these are Jewish people complaining against Jewish people. And the reason they are complaining, you'll see in a moment, is there's a famine, there's an economic downturn, and they're really struggling. Some were saying, we, our sons and our daughters are numerous. Let us get grain so that we can eat and live. Others were saying, we're mortgaging our fields, vineyards and homes to get grain during the famine. Still others were saying, we've borrowed money to pay the king's tax on our fields and vineyards. We and our children are just like our countrymen and their children, yet we are subjecting our sons and daughters to slavery. Some of our daughters are already enslaved. They had sold their kids in slavery because they were in debt. But we are powerless because our fields and vineyards belong to others. Nehemiah, notice what he says in verse six. I became extremely angry when I heard their outcry and these complaints. He doesn't use this angered language against the external enemies. He uses about a problem that he has internally among God's people. And here was the problem. This was God's covenant community. These were Jewish people. These were God's people, Israel in the Old Testament. And God had given them a covenant commandment of how they treat one another within the covenant community. And they were not to sell their children in slavery to one another or to accept a slave of a fellow Jewish countryman. No, this, they were not caring for each other in the midst of a financial crisis. And Nehemiah was livid. He called, called the people together. You'll see this if you continue to read the book of Nehemiah. He rebukes them and challenges them, and they repent and they turn back to God. They ask for forgiveness, and they bring about restitution. So there's a beautiful ending here. But this all shows that there's challenges inside and outside. And Nehemiah, in the midst of having this beautiful vision from God, has deep, deep challenges that he must persevere through. And you, as a leader and as just a follower of Jesus in this life, you are going to have challenges to persevere through. In fact, there's going to be challenges in your leadership. No matter what role you're in now, no matter what season of leadership you're in, no matter where you are in your career, you are in a season where there's going to be challenges. And the next season you're in is going to be filled with challenges, too. Challenges did not end with Nehemiah. They didn't begin with Nehemiah, nor did they end. In fact, Nehemiah lived and served in the city of Jerusalem. And we know those of us who are Christians, that 400 years after Nehemiah had the city of Jerusalem rebuilt, that God the Son, Jesus the Christ stepped into this same city, the city of Jerusalem. And he, just as Nehemiah was mocked and rebuked and treated with scorn, Jesus was mocked and spat upon and hated and treated with scorn. He faced challenges, and he's perfect. And you're gonna face challenges, too. In fact, Jesus told his early disciples, the world hated me before it hated you, and it's gonna hate you. You're gonna have challenges. And in fact, one of Jesus disciples, a guy named James, who wrote the book of James in the Bible from Jerusalem, he lived in the same city of Nehemiah and the same city of Jesus. James wrote this in James, chapter one, verse two and three. It's a very famous verse about the trials we face. Consider it a great joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you experience various trials, because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance. It's a beautiful verse. But this verse has likely caused pain to some of you in this room because it's been thrown over you in a trite way. You've said to somebody that you're going through a trial, maybe you've been very vulnerable and said, man, I'm really struggling. Can you pray for me? And someone has looked at you after you've shared something very dark and personal and painful in your life. Someone has looked at you and said, ah, consider it a great joy. And you're thinking, I consider you a great jerk right now. Sadly, this verse has just been sprinkled over people's pain. But I don't. I want you to know, when James wrote this, this was not just like this, you know, cookie cutter, nice little saying on Instagram verse. I mean, this has a lot of weight to it. I want you to see it. The phrase consider it a great joy. The word for consider is not about how you feel, but how you think. The word consider is in the original language, the word for calculate. Essentially, James is saying, do the math. Hey, I know it feels really painful. I know the trial feels perplexing and overwhelming. The trial does not feel like joy at all. But do the math. Consider that on the other side of this trial, you're going to be more mature and more developed and more equipped for the next challenge. Consider what's going to happen in your life in the midst of the trial. And at the end of the verse, he says it. The testing of your faith produces endurance. And so when you're in the middle of a trial, in your leadership or whatever season of life you're in, you're in the middle of a painful season. James is saying, you can consider it to be joy not because the trial feels joyful, but because you know God's going to hold on to you in the midst of the pain. And on the other side of the trial, there's going to be great fruit in your life. You're going to be more mature and more developed and more prepared for the next trial. So you can step back. I'm not saying feel the joy. No, it's really painful. But you can mentally tell yourself that there's joy on the other side of the trial. You can consider it a great joy. That's what he's Teaching now, there's gonna be challenges in your leadership, and there's gonna be challenges in your life that have nothing to do with your leadership but impact everything about your leadership. What I mean is there will be challenges in your life that do not have anything to do with the role you're in, but because they're so deep, they're going to impact how you treat the role that you're in. I wrote down just several that I've experienced that had nothing to do with my job, but impacted, of course, my approach to everything in life. Kay and I were married, and then after several years of marriage, we decided that we wanted to start having children. We didn't realize when we wanted to start having children that there was a four year, very painful season of infertility in front of us. It was really painful. It was really painful. Some of you couples are living through that right now. It is so painful. We lived through that. When Eden, our oldest daughter, was a child, she was diagnosed with pandas, which is a pediatric autoimmune neurological disorder affected by strep. It's essentially strep to the brain. I'd never even heard of pandas. Many of you had never even heard of it. I never even heard of it until she was diagnosed with it. But it was a very painful several year period of life in her childhood that obviously impacted us. There's no pain like kid pain. There's no pain like seeing your kids in deep pain. And then after we moved here, my wife Kay was diagnosed with chronic pancreatitis, and we went to doctors here in Southern California. By God's grace, got in touch with a doctor in Stanford and flew there multiple times. And then watching my dad's body deteriorate from als, none of these had anything to do with my job, but they sure impacted me. They sure impacted everything about me. By God's grace, he used the trials and the pain in my life to where I can look back and consider a joy. Because on the other side, I don't. I don't want the pain ever again. But on the other side, I identify with you more than I could have before with people who were in pain because of pain that I've experienced. But you know, what will take out a leader more than internal. I'm sorry, what will take out a leader more than external challenges? You're gonna have external challenges. I will as well. There's more coming for all of us. But you know, what takes leaders out? You've seen this is not external challenges. It's the Internal ones. The leaders that you have seen topple or implode and make an absolute mess of their life. It's typically not some extern challenge that took them out. It's the internal lack of character. It's the erosion of their integrity over time that causes them to implode on top of themselves. What takes leaders out more than anything, just like Nehemiah was so frustrated with the internal fighting among God's people, what takes leaders out is our internal sins that we harbor and that we keep a secret and that we don't repent of. What will take you out more than anything is isn't some external attack. We spend so much time thinking about all of the external attacks. But what takes most leaders out, leaders who were taken out is the internal sins that they carry. Leaders are often up for a fight. They're up to fight for their career or fight for this entrepreneurship or fight to flip this business or fight to start this. But if you want to be a wise leader, what you're going to fight the most is the internal sins that threaten to destroy you. Which is why the famous theologian John Owen said you should be killing sin, because sin is killing you. You want to fight the lack of integrity in your life. You want to fight the pride. You want to fight the lust. You want to fight the selfishness, because those are the things that will take you out more than any external battle or fight at all. It's the internal sins that we nurse and keep alive within our own lives that will destroy us. So you up for a fight? Fight the internal sense. And some of you like fighting. Why are you talking about all this fighting? Fight. CS Lewis said it this way. Christianity is a fighting religion. It thinks that God made the world. That space and time, heat and cold and all the colors and tastes and all the animals and vegetables are things that God made up out of his head as a man makes up a story. But it also thinks that a great many things have gone wrong with the world that God made and that God insists and insists very loudly on our putting them right again. So God insists that we fight and he puts leaders in positions of authority to fight. So I want to challenge you to fight. Fight for the vision that God has given you. If God's given you a vision, a burden and a belief that this must happen, you fight for the vision. You fight for it. You don't quit. You keep going. You fight for the vision that God has given you. You fight through the trials and the opposition, and there will be trials and opposition. God Gives you a vision for your family. You fight for that vision and you fight through the trials. But most importantly, you fight against the sin that threatens to destroy you. And you do all of this fighting knowing that your great God fights for you. That God decided loved you first, entered this world, fought your sin and your shame by placing himself on the cross. And his death is the death of death. That he fought for you. That he fought for you because on the third day, he walked out of the tomb as the conquering king and the victorious one. And he's now seated at the right hand of the Throne of the Father. And he watches over you and he cares for you. And there's nothing that ever happens in your life that he doesn't see. See. And there's not one moment in your life, not one detail in your life that he doesn't care about because he loves you more than you've ever even thought of loving Him. He's more committed to you than you'll ever be committed to Him. He fights for his own. He fights for you. And so you can fight knowing that your great God is always fighting on your behalf. He's always fighting for you. So you fight for the vision he's given you. You fight through. You fight, fight through the challenges, but most importantly, listen. You fight the sin that threatens to ruin you. But all the while you can rest knowing that your gracious king of the universe is also your dad who fights for you and loves you and cares for you. This is your great God who's always fighting for you. Some of you, when you saw that picture of Nehemiah completely surrounded, you're like, that is me right now. Nehemiah wasn't the only one. You're not the only one. The apostle Paul wrote this in the Book of Second Corinthians. We are afflicted in every way, on every side, but we're not crushed. We're not crushed because Jesus was crushed in our place. We are perplexed. We're confused. It's so difficult. But we're not in despair because Jesus is our life. We are persecuted, but we're not abandoned. We are struck down, but not destroyed. You will never be abandoned because your gracious Father is always with you. He'll never leave you or forsake you. He's your rear guard. He has your back. Greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world. He is with you, and he's never, ever forsaken you. Ever, ever. He's with you. So you fight knowing he's fighting for you. That's true in leadership. It's also true in life. For the last several months, it seems like every week, there's a young adult guy in our church who will come to me and say, man, I'm struggling, man. Can you pray for me? Let me know what's going on? It seems like almost every week, man, I'm struggling with lust and pornography and, man, I just. I want more for my life. Hands on the shoulders, I say, bro, listen to me. Do you know how big of a deal it is that you just told me that. That you are actually asking God to change you? I just want you to know that this is really sacred and holy, that you didn't just wake up and think that God's going after you, man. God wants you to be fully his. He's working in you. I am so proud of you right now, man. I'm so proud of you. But I need to ask you, man, are you up for a fight? Are you up for a fight? What do you mean, man? It's really hard. And you're gonna have to fight. You're gonna have to fight against the addiction, the sin, the shame. You're gonna have to fight. You're gonna have to fight for righteousness. You have to fight for purity. You're gonna fight for the life that God wants for you, the vision that he's gonna give you. He's given you a vision for your life. You gotta fight against what's destroying you and fight for what God wants to give you. Are you up for a fight? It's so funny right now. People are, I wanna fight. I wanna be bold and courageous. I Do you skip church when it rains, brah. I mean, how courageous are you really? It's raining and you really want to find. But not you. You're here. Come on. 11:30, you're here. But if you're going to have a life that is meaningful and a leadership season that's meaningful, you're going to have to fight. You're gonna have to fight against what destroys you and for the vision God has for you. But people of God, young man, good news, my man. You're not fighting alone. You have a savior king who's fighting with you. Let's stand and let's worship him. All right, Extend your hands, please, and let me pray a prayer of blessing over you as we go. Jesus, I pray you'd bless your sons and daughters this week, that you would remind them that you were gentle and approachable and that you love them. Cause your face to shine on them. I pray they will experience your mercy and your joy this new week. In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, Amen. Go in peace. Have a great week.
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Thanks for tuning in to the Mariners Weekend Message Podcast to support the ministry of Mariners Church. You can click the link in the show notes or download the Mariners app at your favorite app store. If you've been navigating God's wisdom with us through this year's annual read and would like to hear personal reflections from pastors in your community, check out the Gospel Every Day podcast. Imagine feeding your heart, mind and soul with the kind of practical wisdom that will change your life. If you haven't picked up the annual read yet, visit MarinersChurch.org or download the Mariners app for more information on where to find it.