610. Pressing Through The Challenges

[00:00:04] Welcome to today's broadcast of Lead To Serve, A Leadership Podcast with Ed Taylor.

[00:00:10] Hey, welcome again to another episode of the Lead To Serve Podcast at Calvary Church in Aurora, Colorado.

[00:00:17] In studio for season number 6 is Pastor Bob Klaykamp. Welcome, Bob.

[00:00:22] Yeah, it's good to be here.

[00:00:23] Glad you're back. I know it's a big investment of time, but we're grateful that you're with us.

[00:00:28] And the response to our podcast has been great.

[00:00:30] Thank you guys for your reviews, your emails, your voicemails, your text messages.

[00:00:35] It is a dialogue, of course, in studio here, but the dialogue extends to you as well.

[00:00:42] We want to hear from you. We want to hear your feedback.

[00:00:45] We want to hear your questions.

[00:00:47] We want to be a support to you, a resource to you.

[00:00:51] The way that you can do that is either by email or you can text us.

[00:00:56] The number to text is 720, that's the area code, 720-608-0012.

[00:01:04] Or you can email Bob at bob at bobklaykamp.com.

[00:01:10] That's Bob at bobklaykamp.com.

[00:01:15] Sounds like it, it spells like it sounds.

[00:01:17] And you can email me at ed at edtaylor.org.

[00:01:22] It has to be .org for me, because as you well know, Santa Claus Ed Taylor owns my domain.

[00:01:29] And he doesn't want to sell it for a reasonable price.

[00:01:33] So he gets to keep it.

[00:01:36] And he doesn't forward me my email anymore.

[00:01:39] He used to do that, but he doesn't anymore.

[00:01:42] So you got to hit it right.

[00:01:43] Ed at edtaylor.org.

[00:01:44] You know our goal?

[00:01:46] Our goal for the podcast is to help you grow in your servant leadership so that you'll glorify God in all that you do.

[00:01:53] The better servant you are, the better leader you will become.

[00:01:58] New topic today.

[00:02:00] Kind of building on the previous weeks, Bob.

[00:02:03] But the topic today, as we come to episode number 10, is pressing through challenges.

[00:02:14] Pressing through challenges.

[00:02:16] As we're recording it, I don't know what the title of it will be, but this is the essence.

[00:02:22] Because challenge is a part of servanthood.

[00:02:25] Challenge is a part of leadership.

[00:02:27] Leadership, if we don't learn how to press through, we won't find faithfulness in our lives.

[00:02:36] Or as we defined it, we won't find success.

[00:02:40] You've been around a long time.

[00:02:42] I'm going to assume because you're here today with me, you have pressed through challenges.

[00:02:48] What's one of the first things that pops into mind as you think about pressing through challenges?

[00:02:52] Well, sometimes, because things become difficult, you think, well, is this the Lord or is this Satan trying to just put a stopstick in front of me?

[00:03:04] And you have to be careful how you process a challenge, a situation in life that all of a sudden has turned extremely difficult or has tons of drama in it.

[00:03:17] Sometimes, sometimes, it's the Lord trying to slow us down.

[00:03:24] Sometimes, it's the Lord trying to protect us.

[00:03:27] And sometimes, it has to do with his timing.

[00:03:30] Maybe what you endeavored to do wasn't wrong in and of itself, but it wasn't his timing.

[00:03:36] And yet, so quickly we go, well, because it's hard, it must be the devil.

[00:03:40] Stop it.

[00:03:41] You can't, just don't go there at first because the Lord is the one who is sovereign over your life, not Satan.

[00:03:49] And so, just because something is challenging and difficult does not automatically equate to it being of the devil.

[00:03:56] It's so easy to do that.

[00:03:58] Sometimes, you just made a bad choice and now you're suffering some consequences because of it.

[00:04:04] But it's not the end of the world.

[00:04:06] It's not the end of the day.

[00:04:07] The Lord is still in charge.

[00:04:09] Because the difficulty is being used by the Lord to develop within you and within me strength of character.

[00:04:18] The things that I have worked through, so many different things that have come up as I've served the Lord with my family, with my ministry and all.

[00:04:29] You look back and then you get the perspective.

[00:04:32] But sometimes, you don't have the perspective in the middle of it.

[00:04:37] You just have to say, God, I'm trusting you, but I am afraid or I don't understand or I am in pain or I am so angry I can't even spit.

[00:04:51] And so, I don't know what to do.

[00:04:54] What is angry you don't know how to spit?

[00:04:56] Like how, what does that describe?

[00:05:00] I don't think I forget how to spit.

[00:05:02] So, what does that describe?

[00:05:04] What's that illustration?

[00:05:05] It is, you can't even express anything.

[00:05:09] It has grabbed a hold of you and consumed your thought life as well as brought all the emotion to the surface.

[00:05:18] Yeah, you guys know, you guys listening in, just as a side note from our episode today, having Bob around here, as he has been for the few, we learn a lot of phrases from Bob.

[00:05:28] He always gives us new phrases to think about, new things that he says.

[00:05:34] It's quite fun.

[00:05:35] I mean, it's a great angle as he offers his perspective.

[00:05:38] But there are those times where we go, wait a minute, Bob.

[00:05:41] Bob, sometimes we say, Bob, did you really just say that?

[00:05:46] But most of the time, it's a new angle.

[00:05:48] Let's put those aside, okay?

[00:05:49] That's a different podcast.

[00:05:51] Another episode, the sayings of Bob and when we tell him to stop.

[00:05:55] But I think that the challenge is, first of all, you got to, if you're thinking about serving God, you're thinking about making progress in anything in life, it's going to come with a price.

[00:06:08] It's going to cost you something.

[00:06:10] It's going to be challenging.

[00:06:11] Nothing in life, I believe, that's worth it comes without challenges, without resistance, without the challenge of spiritual warfare, because it could be the resistance of the devil, the challenge of discipleship, because it most likely is God stretching you and leading you by faith.

[00:06:30] It's the situation itself.

[00:06:32] It's the people that are involved.

[00:06:34] It's where you live.

[00:06:35] It's the financial aspect.

[00:06:37] It's the need for response in faith.

[00:06:42] You know, sometimes these things are directly from God that he's actually, when you kind of use God and the devil, sometimes it's both.

[00:06:51] God is using the devil like he did with Job or like he did with the disciples.

[00:06:56] Remember, he was bringing them, hey, we're going to go to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, all for the whole purpose of showing them their lack of faith and being in the storm and watching the power of Messiah steal the storm and use that in their lives.

[00:07:11] But the reality is, if you're stepping into doing anything for the Lord, you're stepping in and wanting to be the husband that God made you to be.

[00:07:22] You're stepping up to be the parent that God wants you to be.

[00:07:25] You're stepping up to start reading your Bible.

[00:07:28] Everything about life is going to come with challenges.

[00:07:32] Don't be surprised.

[00:07:34] Don't be shocked.

[00:07:36] Don't shy away.

[00:07:38] God is working in your life.

[00:07:40] My favorite, favorite, favorite verse when it comes to this topic is in Hebrews chapter 10 in verse 36.

[00:07:50] He said, I believe Paul is the author of the Hebrews.

[00:07:53] He says, you have need of endurance so that after.

[00:07:59] So the endurance is going to take you all the way to the end.

[00:08:02] You have need of endurance so that after you've done the will of God, you may receive the promise.

[00:08:08] And that Greek word is hupomone.

[00:08:10] It's one of the few Greek words that I have repetitively taught our church.

[00:08:15] I want them to remember it because it's kind of fun to remember it.

[00:08:18] But that's what we need.

[00:08:19] You want to quit today?

[00:08:21] And that's the word of the Lord to you.

[00:08:22] You need endurance.

[00:08:24] You want, well, you know, I think I need to go somewhere else.

[00:08:27] Well, I mean, there's a difference between God leading you somewhere else and you're just so frustrated and so challenging and it's so hard.

[00:08:34] I think of the church planter.

[00:08:36] Every single church planter has felt this way to some degree or another.

[00:08:41] You know, it's just not working here.

[00:08:43] I think I need to go somewhere else.

[00:08:44] God didn't really call me here.

[00:08:46] I don't know if God called you there or not.

[00:08:48] I don't know.

[00:08:49] It's something you discover.

[00:08:51] But running away and quitting is not a way you're going to find out.

[00:08:54] Like, that's not the right way to find out.

[00:08:56] You went to Exeter.

[00:08:57] Do you ever feel that in Exeter?

[00:08:59] After about three or four years.

[00:09:01] Three or four years.

[00:09:31] Yeah.

[00:09:32] And so you just start, it's like pulling on a bad string from a sweater.

[00:09:37] All of a sudden the sleeves are falling off because you're pulling things and you're not waiting on the Lord and saying, wait a minute.

[00:09:42] Are you doing what God directed you to do?

[00:09:46] Yeah.

[00:09:46] Good.

[00:09:47] That's success.

[00:09:49] Like we talked about earlier.

[00:09:50] Faithfulness.

[00:09:51] Faithfulness.

[00:09:51] Like I was thinking here in Colorado, I certainly had my moments that I'm just like, I don't know if I got this right.

[00:09:58] I don't know.

[00:09:59] It was, I had enough faith to leave California.

[00:10:02] I had enough faith to come here.

[00:10:03] Like God gave me the enough faith in each area that, that where it was needed.

[00:10:07] He led me, gave me the grace to steady on.

[00:10:11] But then you feel you, you face hardships.

[00:10:13] You face people, hardships, money, hardships, marriage, hardships, kid, hard.

[00:10:19] You face all these challenges and you begin to doubt that what you did was the right thing.

[00:10:25] Because I, the part of the doubting is if I step out in faith, it's all going to be fine.

[00:10:31] Like that's what God wants.

[00:10:32] He, but he could take you out.

[00:10:34] He could take you from a place where it was difficult because we had our own challenges in California.

[00:10:38] Then we came here and we have our own challenges here because you can't outrun your challenges.

[00:10:42] You don't need to be removed from your challenges as much as we want it.

[00:10:46] We need to learn how to endure them.

[00:10:48] And that Greek word hupomone has the idea of bearing up under the weight of something.

[00:10:55] It's not even the people part of it.

[00:10:57] Just something, just the circumstance that people create.

[00:11:00] I'm in a situation right now, 11 years, 11 plus years.

[00:11:03] People have created it.

[00:11:05] People are behind it, but it's the situation.

[00:11:09] Because the Lord's going to deal with the people, but I have to deal with the situation.

[00:11:13] And I'm like, okay, Lord, I want, and I'd love to end it.

[00:11:18] Sometimes I feel like I could end it, but I really have no power over it.

[00:11:22] So I need to learn to endure.

[00:11:24] And I've learned that over and over and over again, to endure, waiting for God, waiting for the sun to rise, waiting for the situation to pass.

[00:11:33] But until then, I'm waiting on the Lord.

[00:11:35] What is he doing?

[00:11:36] Renewing my strength.

[00:11:37] He is giving me fresh vision to fly.

[00:11:40] I can start running again.

[00:11:42] Renewing my eyes are off the circumstances, off the people, off the situation.

[00:11:47] And my eyes are back on the Lord.

[00:11:49] And it's amazing the strength that he gives when we look to him by faith.

[00:11:53] One of the biggest challenges I had was almost six years ago when I had my heart attack.

[00:12:01] It wasn't something I thought would ever happen, never came into my mind.

[00:12:06] I thought it was just acid reflux, but it changed everything.

[00:12:09] It was a catalyst that pulled me away from my lane.

[00:12:16] Yes.

[00:12:16] And there wasn't anything I could do about it.

[00:12:19] Yeah.

[00:12:19] And you're trying to process it, and it's happening to you, and you can't deny it, and it dissolves all of your plans.

[00:12:29] But the Lord, through it all, the Lord showed his plan little by little.

[00:12:37] Let's back up a little bit, Bob.

[00:12:38] That's a great illustration.

[00:12:39] So you got a health situation.

[00:12:41] So we know people listening, we're all going to have health situations.

[00:12:44] Right.

[00:12:45] One degree or another, one extreme or another.

[00:12:48] We know now, looking backwards, that this health episode altered the course of your life, quite literally.

[00:12:56] It's what brought you back to the States.

[00:12:58] Right.

[00:12:59] Let's go back, if you can, in your mind and memory a little bit to the laying in the hospital bed, not knowing it.

[00:13:06] You don't know how it's going to turn out.

[00:13:08] No.

[00:13:09] You had this episode.

[00:13:10] It's not acid reflux.

[00:13:11] It's pretty serious.

[00:13:12] You got all these tests.

[00:13:14] What kind of challenges did you face, and what kind of endurance was given to you?

[00:13:19] Like, you don't know this.

[00:13:20] You don't know that you're changing the whole course of your life.

[00:13:23] You don't know that yet.

[00:13:24] So what do you know, and how do you respond to it?

[00:13:26] Well, the only thing, I mean, such a vivid memory as if it was yesterday, laying in the hospital bed in the ICU unit after the stent was put in, just talking to the Lord.

[00:13:40] And the thing that came to my mind was Hezekiah begging for his life.

[00:13:44] And the Lord gave him 15 years, but he had Manasseh during those 15 years, which ruined everything.

[00:13:51] And so I told the Lord, I don't want to have a Manasseh in my life.

[00:13:57] And so I'm not going to be begging for my life.

[00:14:00] If it's my time to go, that's your call.

[00:14:03] If it's not, that's your call.

[00:14:05] I'm going to leave that to you and not try to figure it out.

[00:14:09] So whatever happens.

[00:14:10] And then over the next two months, I was so weak.

[00:14:14] I couldn't even talk with people.

[00:14:16] I couldn't, I couldn't last five minutes.

[00:14:18] I couldn't go to church.

[00:14:19] I couldn't even go to my church.

[00:14:21] And so we had to find fill-in people to do it because we didn't have a lot of resources.

[00:14:25] How did you find fill-in people?

[00:14:26] Like you, you're not able to talk.

[00:14:28] You don't have any energy.

[00:14:29] Well, Jeannie called.

[00:14:30] Jeannie was helped.

[00:14:31] So you had a partner.

[00:14:32] Yeah, Jeannie was helped.

[00:14:32] Yeah.

[00:14:32] And then one of my elders, he called.

[00:14:35] He could fill in when he could, but he was flying long distance for British Airways.

[00:14:40] And so, you know, he wasn't always there and available.

[00:14:43] So it was a challenge.

[00:14:44] And then during that time of rest, a lot of rest, I just knew that I needed to let go of the church.

[00:14:54] And the pilot who was our elder, Andy Lay, he was the one.

[00:14:59] He was in a long-term transitional process, he and his wife.

[00:15:02] But it was time to shorten that and see what could be done.

[00:15:07] And then, I mean, as a pastor, you can't think of, I can't even go to church.

[00:15:11] I mean, it was just a shock.

[00:15:14] But through it all, I did end up reading all the novels from Charles Dickens that I was supposed to read in high school.

[00:15:20] Okay.

[00:15:21] Plus, we were living in England.

[00:15:22] I mean, I knew where all those places were.

[00:15:24] So, a side note, looking back, God was so in charge of every single part of it because of what he wanted to do that I could only go step by step.

[00:15:37] Yes.

[00:15:38] And he gives you the faith to take the step, the next step.

[00:15:42] And, you know, just do the next most important thing became the mantra of my mindset.

[00:15:50] God, give me the faith to take that step and help me not overthink it.

[00:15:56] I think of Jesus back to that illustration of telling the disciples to get into the boat, go to the other side, that he knew full well there would be a storm that arise and that that storm would teach them a lot about themselves.

[00:16:11] I got this originally from Pastor Greg Glory.

[00:16:15] I've adapted it into my own teaching, but he gave me the idea of how God uses storms.

[00:16:20] And he uses them in at least three ways, correcting, protecting, and perfecting.

[00:16:28] There's probably a lot of other ways that you could list, but, you know, God will allow these challenges to come in to correct us, to discipline us, to change us, to reveal things to us that we don't know.

[00:16:42] Here we are desperate to get out of it.

[00:16:45] And I'm listening to your story.

[00:16:47] I can learn a little bit more every time you share.

[00:16:50] And I'm like, yeah, I think, I think I would probably want to get me out of this.

[00:16:55] Get me out of this.

[00:16:56] I can't, I mean, I can't even talk.

[00:16:57] I could get me out of this.

[00:16:58] I'm so weak.

[00:16:59] I get me.

[00:17:00] But God was correcting.

[00:17:02] He was bringing about dependence and change in you and what he would want to do.

[00:17:07] The protecting storms.

[00:17:08] We don't always, we don't always think about this challenge today.

[00:17:12] That's got me stuck here.

[00:17:13] If even want to use that, that, that, that word, I'm not really stuck.

[00:17:19] We're following the Lord, but it's got me here.

[00:17:21] I'm in point A so that I'm not at point B.

[00:17:24] And who knows what God is keeping me from?

[00:17:27] Who knows how he used the situation to stop me or a situation to move me so that I'm in, I can only be in one place at one time.

[00:17:35] And he may want me somewhere and he may create environments so that I will be in point A to avoid point B.

[00:17:43] And all I see is I don't get that.

[00:17:45] I want that.

[00:17:46] I said, I want to be in point B so much.

[00:17:48] And the Lord goes, you want it so much that it's only going to be a challenge that keeps you from it.

[00:17:55] And then the final one is perfecting, which I think are most storms.

[00:17:59] Those discipleship, most, those discipleship, spiritual growth, that the challenge that you and I are in, it's not designed to get us to quit.

[00:18:09] And I would just say today, don't quit.

[00:18:12] It's always too soon to quit.

[00:18:14] And there is a difference between quitting and the Lord leading you on and moving you on.

[00:18:20] Those are two different categories.

[00:18:22] Quitting is more, and I'm defining them this way.

[00:18:25] Quitting would be, I don't want to do this anymore.

[00:18:27] I don't want to be here anymore.

[00:18:29] I don't think, and it's all about you, your feelings, assessing the situation.

[00:18:34] Whereas the Lord leading you on is very clearly like wisdom from above, right?

[00:18:41] Pure, peaceable, willing to you.

[00:18:44] Like it's, yeah, there might be some challenges and things that God got your attention, but because he got your attention, he's beginning to speak with you.

[00:18:51] I think that there's a sense where in Exeter, it illustrates it really well.

[00:18:57] You didn't quit, but you did move on.

[00:18:59] And the Lord used your health scare to get your eyes on something to accelerate a process a little bit more, to say, I don't know that I could do this, or I think God might be moving.

[00:19:09] And you begin to pray, and wow, I have endured this challenge to the point where God has brought it to an end, and now he's going to take me to another challenge.

[00:19:20] Sometimes we forget that our life has seasons, just like in a place where, like in Phoenix, you didn't have a season, you just had hot and hotter.

[00:19:31] Yeah.

[00:19:32] But in a place where you have the four seasons, we're used to those seasons.

[00:19:37] Yes.

[00:19:37] And there is a season where the leaves turn colors because things are changing, and it's so glorious to see, and then they all fall off.

[00:19:48] Yeah.

[00:19:48] And so we don't like those seasons where everything falls off, and we forget that it is just a season, and it's during those seasons when all the leaves fall off that the roots go down deeper.

[00:19:59] Yeah.

[00:19:59] And so, I mean, as I'm listening here, there are some of you who are listening right now, and you're watching your leaves fall off, and you're freaking out.

[00:20:10] And you're trying to pin them back on and tape them back on and all, and you're just supposed to let it go because the Lord is bringing you through this to have your roots go deeper.

[00:20:23] It's not that you're doing something wrong.

[00:20:25] It's not even that, you know, it's the devil and all that.

[00:20:29] It's a season.

[00:20:31] And so take a look at just like Jesus drew upon the things of life and the things of nature around to show that God is still in charge.

[00:20:41] And so some of you that, you know, you've watched your leaves fall off.

[00:20:47] Maybe your leadership has moved away.

[00:20:50] You've planted.

[00:20:51] You've worked with them.

[00:20:52] You knew they were the ones.

[00:20:53] You needed their help.

[00:20:55] And all of a sudden, they got a job transferred to another place, and you're back to square one.

[00:21:00] It's like the leaves are falling off.

[00:21:02] That's how you see it.

[00:21:03] But that's not how it is.

[00:21:06] It's a season, and it's a challenge that you will get through, although it's going to be harder.

[00:21:13] Yeah.

[00:21:13] But it was hard when you started.

[00:21:16] So let's just look to the Lord, pray for strength.

[00:21:21] What's the next most important thing to do and do it?

[00:21:24] We do have the world's mentality in us, whether we realize it or not, Bob.

[00:21:28] Like, we think the longer we're doing something, the better it's going to be, the easier it's going to be, the bigger it's going to be, the most successful.

[00:21:35] So we have that ingrained in us.

[00:21:37] We have that ingrained in us in the general workplace.

[00:21:40] The longer I work, the more seniority I have, the less work I have to do, the more leadership I might be conveyed, the better I'll be at my job.

[00:21:47] I mean, I think of us as pastors, especially those of us that have been doing it for a while.

[00:21:53] You just described a situation where a friend of mine who pastors a church in Texas was letting me know about some challenges where he has all these openings again.

[00:22:03] And he's been there forever.

[00:22:04] Now he's got all these openings again.

[00:22:05] And I don't know why he has those openings.

[00:22:07] Most likely it's people moving on or moving out.

[00:22:11] But it could feel like, like I've been doing this all these years and I feel like it's, yes, it's like the first day.

[00:22:17] And I don't think it's supposed to feel that way.

[00:22:19] And the reality is it's perfectly normal.

[00:22:23] It's not good.

[00:22:24] I mean, it doesn't feel good.

[00:22:25] It could be good.

[00:22:26] Like that's another, it could be a storm that you're just being protected from something too.

[00:22:30] You don't know what God wants to do in bringing this change.

[00:22:34] But what I do know this, whatever we're facing, endurance is going to be how you'll get through it.

[00:22:41] That's how the Lord will graciously give us strength for today and hope for tomorrow.

[00:22:48] And that's how we're going to make it.

[00:22:50] Hupomone.

[00:22:51] Don't forget that.

[00:22:52] Bearing up under the weight.

[00:22:54] It speaks of a constancy under suffering or challenge.

[00:22:59] It speaks of a constancy in your faith with duty.

[00:23:04] It has the idea of waiting on the Lord, cleaving to the Lord.

[00:23:08] And isn't that the case?

[00:23:09] Challenges come.

[00:23:10] We're going to run somewhere.

[00:23:12] We're not going to run.

[00:23:13] Like I always tell you, don't quit.

[00:23:15] Don't run away.

[00:23:16] Because there is, you have that fight or flight mentality with difficulty.

[00:23:23] And the answer is not to run away, but to run to the Lord.

[00:23:28] It also has the idea of this definition of a brave resistance that honors God.

[00:23:34] And endurance, hupomone, is at the center of our lives as spiritual leaders, spiritual servants.

[00:23:42] With endurance, you won't cave in.

[00:23:44] With endurance, you won't quit.

[00:23:46] With endurance, you won't fall to the schemes of the wickedness of the enemy.

[00:23:49] Anyone of the enemy won't run away in fear.

[00:23:53] And as I teach Bible study with this included, because part of all the challenges in my life,

[00:23:59] part of all the difficulties, God has added a layer to my personal ministry where I talk

[00:24:06] about suffering and grief and difficulty and steadying on.

[00:24:09] And it's given me a heart to do that, right?

[00:24:11] 2 Corinthians 1, whatever you've been comforted in, you want to comfort others.

[00:24:15] And whenever I teach this or share this or minister this, even to our own congregation,

[00:24:21] it's like, this is how we've made it.

[00:24:24] It's the endurance of the Lord.

[00:24:26] It's not been me buckling up and that's okay.

[00:24:29] Put your boots on, Ed.

[00:24:30] Put your big boy pants on.

[00:24:31] You can get through this.

[00:24:33] No, I mean, it's because of the Lord.

[00:24:35] It's because of his strength.

[00:24:37] It's because of his help.

[00:24:39] It's because of his hope that gets us through another day.

[00:24:45] You know, the storm that Jesus was asleep in the back of the boat was right before the

[00:24:54] exorcism of the demons.

[00:24:56] Yeah.

[00:24:57] And so it was like Satan trying to discourage.

[00:25:01] God allowed it.

[00:25:02] Yeah.

[00:25:02] Because Satan doesn't have power on his own to do things without God's permission.

[00:25:06] And so God allowed this, Satan trying to discourage, Satan trying to sink it, Satan doing all

[00:25:14] these efforts.

[00:25:15] But that's because there was a miracle about ready to happen.

[00:25:19] And every miracle in the gospels that Jesus did was at a point of desperation in the lives

[00:25:25] of those people.

[00:25:26] There was no miracle without a point of desperation.

[00:25:29] We want a miracle life.

[00:25:31] We want to see miracles in our life, but we don't want to be desperate.

[00:25:34] We don't want to get to that point.

[00:25:36] I mean, but you look at the common denominator and that was the absolute common denominator

[00:25:41] of every situation.

[00:25:42] We want the end.

[00:25:44] We don't want the process.

[00:25:45] I think that's true in discipleship.

[00:25:47] It's true in leadership.

[00:25:49] But we have a tendency to forget, especially when more responsibilities conveyed to us,

[00:25:55] more opportunities given to us.

[00:25:57] We forget that the process, all of this is a part of our own discipleship.

[00:26:03] So you could serve five people.

[00:26:05] You could serve 500.

[00:26:06] You could serve 5,000.

[00:26:08] And that's wonderful and great.

[00:26:09] And it's the multiplying work of the Lord.

[00:26:12] But when you serve five and when you serve 500 and when you serve 5,000, God is serving

[00:26:18] you like he's discipling you.

[00:26:20] We can never forget the internal work of the Lord.

[00:26:24] Always happens before the external work through us.

[00:26:28] Well, it's the end of another episode.

[00:26:30] They go by very, very quickly.

[00:26:32] We try to keep them bite-sized in a smaller chunk of time so that you'll finish.

[00:26:38] You'll go all the way with us and they'll be encouraging, really concise.

[00:26:43] Remember, we don't script these.

[00:26:45] We do have topics and we have a couple of scriptures written down and such, but we don't

[00:26:49] script them.

[00:26:50] They're like conversations that you get to be a part of.

[00:26:53] We want to hear your feedback.

[00:26:55] Text us at 720-608-0012.

[00:27:00] You can leave voicemail there.

[00:27:01] You can text us.

[00:27:02] You can always email us, ed at edtaylor.org, ed at edtaylor.org.

[00:27:08] Bob also has an email, bob at bobclaycamp.com.

[00:27:13] Yes, it's two different endings.

[00:27:15] So get them straight, ed at edtaylor.org, bob at bobclaycamp.com.

[00:27:20] We'd love to hear from you.

[00:27:21] If Bob gets anything, he forwards it to me.

[00:27:23] If I get anything, I forward to Bob.

[00:27:25] But we're so grateful, really, as we come toward the end of a season here.

[00:27:30] We count it a great privilege to be a very small part of what God's doing in your life,

[00:27:35] being able just to talk things out.

[00:27:37] And if you learn anything from us, great.

[00:27:39] If it stirs conversation, great.

[00:27:41] If you have a different point of view, great.

[00:27:45] We're in the body of Christ together.

[00:27:47] We all get to be used.

[00:27:48] So until next time, this is the Lead to Serve podcast.

[00:27:51] The Lord bless, encourage, and strengthen you.

[00:27:54] Thank you for joining us for this episode of Lead to Serve with Pastor Ed Taylor,

[00:27:59] a leadership podcast from Calvary Church in Aurora, Colorado.

[00:28:02] If you have a leadership question you want to hear answered on a future Lead to Serve podcast,

[00:28:07] please email it to pastored at calvaryco.church.

[00:28:11] And if you like our podcast, please subscribe, rate, or review us on iTunes,

[00:28:15] and share us with your friends on social media.

[00:28:17] Thanks again for joining us, and we'll see you next time right here on the Lead to Serve podcast.

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