If you want to lose endurance, lose sight of JESUS!

If you want to lose endurance, lose sight of the CROSS Jesus died on to save our sinful and hell-broken souls!

If you want to lose endurance, fixate your eyes on your FAULTS instead of Christ’s FORGIVENESS!

If you want to lose endurance, worry about your past mistakes, instead of worshiping the Prince of Peace!

If you want to lose endurance, bury yourself in guilt, instead of believing and receiving God’s grace!

If you want to lose endurance, be more afraid of what everybody else thinks of you, instead of what God thinks of you!

If you want to lose endurance, forget about the fact that Jesus is still changing you, you are still a work in progress and HE STILL LOVES YOU NO MATTER WHAT!

If you want to lose endurance as a pastor, focus more on BUILDING A BIG CHURCH, than BELIEVING IN A BIG GOD!

If you want to lose endurance, try to do everything in your own strength, covering up all your own faults, instead of relying on Christ’s redemptive power to change you and empower you!

Oh yeah, and one more thing, if you want to lose endurance, STOP LISTENING TO JESUS and start ignoring His promptings, avoid His convictions, don’t get under His authoritative Word, and certainly don’t gather with His Body.

The Bible really is a straightforward book, God is not beating around the bush.  He says it like it is.  God says what He means and means what He says.

Jesus is so powerful that He can transform sinners into saints!  Just think about that, just imagine for a moment that without Jesus Christ we are all filthy, dirty, broken, and hell-bound.  BUT…because of Jesus Christ’s perfect work on the cross – we can be cleansed, we can be made holy, we can be made right with God!

I was once (and yes still do struggle with sinful desires) was indulging in sexual sin, worshipping idols, committing adultery, stealing, cheating, drugging, abusing.

The bottom line is that I was hell bound…BUT JESUS HAS CHANGED ALL OF THAT AND IS STILL CHANGING ME!

When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, the results are very clear: sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these. Let me tell you again, as I have before, that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the Kingdom of God. But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things! Those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful nature to His cross and crucified them there. (Gal 5:19-24 NLT)

If you want to lose endurance pretend that you don’t need anyone else or ever require assistance in this life, like you’ve written the manual on life.  Actually, that manual has already been written, its called the Bible, and guess what I didn’t write it and neither did you:-)

The best way to prevent growth is to pretend that you are already fully matured or fully grown; that you are perfect.

Pretending to be perfect is the perfect way to prevent Christ’s perfecting work in my life (try saying that 3 times real fast:-)

Every believer must have some kind of “conversion” experience, a time when they confessed (openly admitted) their sin and turned from their sin to follow Jesus.  This could happen at a young age or an old age, but it must happen (John3:3).

Before I met and gave my life to Jesus Christ I was exactly as the Scripture above states: I enjoyed immorality and lust, feasting, drunkenness, and wild parties, and my terrible worship of idols (things I obeyed more than God; things I was enslaved to other than God).  For me I was a slave to addiction, to fear, to selfishness, to immorality, to lust, to self-absorbed sex, to lying, to cheating, to secrecy, to shame, and to guilt.

BUT…JESUS HAS CHANGED ALL OF THAT.  I still struggle in plenty of ways, BUT…JESUS IS STILL CHANGING ME.  I find that the more I admit my own sin and my need for the Savior, the more He redeems me and takes the “pressure to be perfect” off of me!

The Gospel really is good news!  I really am forgiven, and as a leader, WE MUST BANK ON THAT MORE THAN ANYONE!  Often times I don’t pause to really reflect on the very message I preach every week – THE GOSPEL REALLY IS GOOD NEWS!  Thank you, Jesus!!

If you want to lose endurance and leak joy – then spend your life pretending to be perfect, pretending that you don’t need any help, pretending that you don’t need accountability, pretending that you don’t need to set goals, pretending that you have all the answers.

I always find it puzzling when someone who calls him or herself a believer but never actually admits to any kind of life-change or confession of sin.  Seriously, if we can’t confess, then we can’t be saved.  If you are the same person now that you were before you accepted Jesus Christ as your Forgiver and Leader then something is “off”.  When Jesus steps into your life, He changes you. PERIOD.  This doesn’t always looks RADICAL, but it should REVEAL the supernatural work that only Jesus Christ can perform!

The power of the cross comes through confession.  The power of heaven comes through our weakness.  When we admit that we are weak, then Jesus can be our strength.  When we stop pretending to have it all together, then Jesus can step in and put it all together.  God deserves the glory for this work, and really only God can change our insides anyway.

As a pastor, I am done trying to be perfect.  I am done trying to have all the answers, and I am done pretending that I don’t have any insecurities, faults, and struggles.  To admit that is to accept freedom and the opportunity for real life change.

To admit defeat is to discover freedom (confession is the road to healing)!

Seriously, if you just want to remain stagnant and never grow, don’t ever set goals, invite accountability, and confess your failures to others!

FAILURE: We must own it, if we are going to overcome it.

FAULTS: We must confess it, if we are going to conquer it!

SIN: We must bring it fully into the light, if we are going to experience life to the fullest!

We all start to lose endurance when we start pretending.  It’s tiring work pretending to be someone else.  It is draining.

You owe it to yourself and more importantly to God TO BE YOURSELF!  God doesn’t want you to be anyone else; but He does want you to become like Jesus in the process of being yourself.  And so that means admitting failure, struggle, and sin.

When I first invited Jesus Christ to be my Forgiver and Leader the biggest transformation in my life was this, I went from “chasing my own desires, to chasing God’s desires.”  I didn’t become perfect (possibly perfect hair, but definitely not perfect in any other area:-).

God doesn’t require perfection, only continual motion toward Jesus.

In my life, I want to listen to Jesus and then DO exactly what He says.  At The Dialogue Church we talk about “listening, living, and leading” – that is our path of discipleship (or becoming a fully developing follower of Jesus).

But, I admit that I don’t always DO exactly what He says, I am not even sure that I always listen – thank God my salvation (grace) & sanctification (growth) is not dependent upon “my work being perfect” but “Christ’s perfecting work” on the cross.

One of the best ways to start growing in a certain area is to admit that we struggle in that area…This is so hard for me, especially as a pastor; I want be the leader, but being the leader doesn’t mean I have to know everything or be perfect in every area.  In fact, my staff and my church need me to be “pursuing Jesus” more than they need me to be “having all the answers.”

If you want to lose endurance in ministry (in life) start chasing your own desires, and forget about God’s desires.  If you want to live a life of depression and discouragement let your desires trump God’s desires.

BUT…if you want to be renewed with supernatural courage and energy then start CHASING GOD’S DESIRES ABOVE EVERYTHING ELSE!

In this blog series I am going to unpack for you some of what I have been learning about endurance (of course pirating the notes I took from Pastor Josh and my life-long mentor Pastor Anthony Milas

But you should keep a clear mind in every situation. Don’t be afraid of suffering for the Lord. Work at telling others the Good News, and fully carry out the ministry God has given you. As for me, my life has already been poured out as an offering to God. The time of my death is near. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, and I have remained faithful. (2Ti 4:5-7 NLT)

Keep a clear mind. If we are going to keep the course, we must keep a clear mind. We can’t become distracted by “good things” and miss out on the “best things”. Leaders stay focused in the midst of distractions.

LEADERS FOR GOD STAY FOCUSED ON THE GOSPEL!

The fastest way to lose sight of Jesus is to focus on everybody else.  If you want to lose endurance, just start comparing yourself to every other leader, every other church, and every other pastor.  Nothing will kick your butt faster than playing the comparison game.

Most men never leave the locker room because they are too busy comparing themselves.

My story is not your story and it shouldn’t be!  If my story was your story, then God wouldn’t need me.

This doesn’t mean we should learn from others.  If we want to go to the next level then we must learn from those at the next level.  We must put ourselves at the feet of those further ahead.

GOD CHOOSES NOT TO REMEMBER MY SINS . CAN I DO THE SAME WITH OTHERS?

God chooses not to remember your sins.  Can you do the same with others?

I have a hard time with the part “NEVER THINK OF THEM AGAIN”. I want to hold onto them; that’s a grudge.  A grudge is when we harness our hurt to hurt others.  Hurt people, hurt people.  Resentment means to re-think. We are thinking of this hurt over and over again. When GOD FORGIVES HE TRULY FREES US AND HE DOESN’T THINK OF IT AGAIN – INSTEAD HE GIVES US GRACE, or ROOM TO CHANGE.

GOD DOESN’T ACCIDENTALLY FORGET – HE CHOOSES NOT TO REMEMBER – THAT’S INTENTIONAL; that’s a CHOICE!

Forgiveness is a choice, not a feeling.  If you wait till you feel like forgiving it will never happen.  Nobody wakes up one morning thinking, “GEE, I JUST CAN’T WAIT UNTIL SOMEBODY BACK-STABS ME, SO I CAN TURN AROUND AND JUST RELEASE THEM.”  Nobody feels like forgiving.

The MIRACLE is not FORGETTING THE OFFENSE – the miracle is OPTING TO FORGIVE!  When we opt to forgive, healing starts to happen!  We want God to heal us in order to forgive, but God says healing happens when we choose to forgive!