Laguardo Baptist Church

I remember being in high school, when my youth pastor at the time came up to me and asked me to preach to the students a night that he was going to be away. I was shocked that he would choose me to fill in. Thoughts like, I’m not the best speaker, I didn’t even regularly attend Wednesday night services, and I was only in high school went through my brain. Despite this, I felt a calling to do this and wanted to make him proud. Because of this, I studied and prepared hard before going in front of my classmates and youth family that night. As I was about to step up to the front, I felt sick with anxiety. However, once I started talking, I felt a peace flow over me, and a confidence start to dwell within me.

After the service, I was amazed at the positive feedback I received from my peers and the adults in the room. I later realized that my youth pastor saw the raw God-given potential in me, even if I didn’t notice it at the time. After that night, I went on to get a Master’s in Theology and have been the Next Generation Pastor at Laguardo Baptist for almost 3 years. Despite this, I often times still find myself feeling inadequate to do the job God has called me to. I’m reminded of all the times I have failed in the past; I look around and see others more gifted, and I question if everything I’m doing is really making a difference. However, in these moments, I remember the story of Moses.

Moses was up in age and had a hard time speaking. One day, God called him to be the next leader of the Israelites. When God told Moses this, he refused. He looked at all the things he could not do well and thought God was making a huge mistake by choosing him over someone else. However, God insisted that Moses be this leader and that he would equip him along the way. Moses finally trusted in what God could see that he could not. Moses became one of the greatest leaders in history and lead the Israelites out of slavery in the land of Egypt and toward the Promised Land.

What this reminds me of is that we all have raw God-given potential inside us to do something great for the Kingdom of God. The devil will always remind us of our past failures and our shortcomings because he doesn’t want us to see that potential God has embedded within us. In these moments of doubt, we need to look to God for direction on what He wants us to do and trust that He will equip us along the way. God knows us better than we know ourselves and can see the potential He has gifted within us that we can be blinded from by the world. Sometimes, God uses those around us to show us this potential and push us out of our comfort zones to reach it. Just like my youth pastor did to me when I was in high school, if someone is pushing you to lead or do something that you feel inadequate to do, stop and think about the fact that may be seeing the God-given potential in you that you haven’t seen yet. Trust that God knows the greatness that lies within you and may be using those around you to bring it out and step out in faith. When you do this, you’ll be amazed at how God will use you and equip you along the way.

“For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.”

Ephesians 2:8-9

Living in Tennessee, we usually do not expect to have a lot of snow in the winter. Sure, temperatures will get below freezing for a few days, but a big snowfall is, most times, out of the picture. This year, unexpectedly, a large winter storm covered multiple southern states. In just a few days, we now have snow everywhere. Walking outside, you cannot tell what was the street from the sidewalk or yard. Everything in sight seems to be turned to white. While this is a beautiful sight, it is pretty funny to see everyone going out to their cars to try and get the snow off before it piles up too high.

The reason this is so funny is because people have tried all kinds of tactics to get the snow off the windshields of their cars, but to many of their surprises, no matter how hard they tried to blow the show off or push it off, their windshields were still covered. See, what most people likely did not realize was that under all the snow was a thick sheet of ice. They could snow blow the snow off their cars all day long, but that ice underneath was not going to budge. This meant that their windshields would still be covered. It was only when people started attacking the ice first with the scrapper that visions of the windshields would start to come into focus. Because the ice was so thick, it would take quite some effort to scrap that ice off the windshield and it took some dedication.

Thinking back on this, the Lord taught me a valuable lesson. Many times, in our lives today, when we are struggling with something, we want a quick fix solution. We try and snow blow off our issues by taking some medication, reading some books, or just getting some extra sleep. Although these things are effective at helping the side effects of what we are struggling with, the root problem is still there. The ice will not budge.

The only way to break the ice and truly be set free from our sins and issues is to give them to Jesus and to ask Him to break the ice in our life.

This is not always a quick fix and may involve a good deal of scrapping. Jesus will dig down into root of our issue/sin which may be scary and take time to understand and handle. He will convict us of what we truly need to change in our lives and then lead us to the truth. This process of scrapping out the ice in our lives is not always fun or easy, but in the end, we are set free from our sins and our issues. Jesus restores our vision and guides us on the path to victory. We are able to move on from the ice holding us down and walk into the warm light of His grace and truth. Allow Jesus to scrap the ice out of your life today and be set free once and for all from the sins and issues you are struggling with.

“Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!”

Psalms 139:23-24, ESV

I struggle with intrusive thoughts on a daily basis. I could be walking outside of my home enjoying the fresh air when suddenly, BAM! Intrusive thought flies into my brain. Instantly, my mind is shaken from the peaceful state it was in and thrown into a full blown panic. I question if this thought is really true about me and/or if this thought means something about who I am as a person. So, for a while I just tried to not think about the thoughts that flooded my brain and I just let the questions I had about them float around in my brain. I thought that the more I tried to just not think about these thoughts and avoid the questions, they would naturally just go away.

This, however, was not the case. The more I tried to not think about them, the more I ended up thinking about them. The more I tried to push the questions away, the more I kept pondering about them. Then, God laid this thought upon my heart. This thought was that I need to stop putting these intrusive thoughts that flood my brain into a garbage can in my brain and take the trash completely out.

Here’s what I mean by that. When you have some garbage in your house that stinks, you can’t expect to throw it in your kitchen trashcan and never expect to smell it again. This may temporarily take care of the problem of having your smelling trash out in the open, but over time even though that garbage is in a garbage can, the smell will return and be even worse than what it was originally. The only way to completely get rid of that trash is to bag it up, walk it outside, and toss it in the dumpster far away from your home.

The same rule applies to our thought life. When we get that intrusive thought that says we are unworthy, incapable of doing something, especially like sharing our faith, or even that intrusive thought that seems totally contrary to what we actually believe, if we just push it aside and never actually deal with, it will come back even stronger in the future. It is only until we take time to deal with it, bag it up, and totally remove it that we find freedom from it. So, how do we do that?

The devil will always throw thoughts in our mind that are contrary to who we are and that seek to pull us away from God’s plan for our lives. When these thoughts come in, we need to stop and examine the thought. If that thought does not align with what God’s Word says about us and who God says we are, we need to bag it up. We have to assure ourselves that that is not an indicator of who I am or what I do. I am defined by who God says am I, which is fearfully and wonderfully made, and God sees my heart. He knows who I am truly am despite what the devil tries to flood my brain with. It doesn’t matter what flows into my brain, it matters what and most importantly who is in my heart.

Lastly, we need to spray some air freshener in our minds to rid it of any lingering smells by spending some time in prayer that God restores our confidence in who He says we are and that He would help us move forward and continue to experience His joy. We should spend time in God’s Word each day soaking up the truths He says about us to remind us of who we are in Him and to bring our thoughts and focus back on His truth. Then, the last thing to do to truly rid our minds of any lingering smells from those thoughts is to talk to someone else about them. Share your struggles with a trusted Christian friend, pastor, therapist, or mentor. When we have others who can listen, pour truth into us, and pray for us, that gives us the extra power and motivation to completely move on from those thoughts and start living the life God desires for us to live again.

“For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them. How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them! If I would count them, they are more than the sand. I awake, and I am still with you.”

– Psalms 139:13-18, ESV

“Stretch out your hand from on high; rescue me and deliver me from the many waters, from the hand of foreigners,”

Psalms 144:7

One of my all-time favorite movies is The Guardian. The whole movie follows a class of recruits on their journey into the United States Coast Guard. They met their instructor early on in the movie and are in for quite a treat. The instructor of the class was a famous rescue swimmer himself. His main role as a rescue swimmer was to dive into rough waters and save those drowning in the ocean or stuck on a sinking ship. This is an incredibly dangerous job, even life threatening. He would have to walk through fires, move barriers, and dive deep into the ocean to save people. One thing he told the recruits early on was that if you want to be in the United States Coast Guard you have to be willing to save people who do not want to be saved. Whether that person wants to be saved or not, their job was to do everything in their power to save them.

In real life, when rescue swimmers attempt to save people stranded in the ocean, many of those needing rescued fight with the rescuers, push them under the water, or refuse to move. We may think to ourselves how could this ever happen? Why would these people not want to be saved? I think there are several reasons for this. People are scared, they feel like no one can save them, they feel like they are better off not being saved, or they are too prideful to allow someone else to help them.

The sad reality is that people do not respond like this in only their physical lives, but they also respond this way in their spiritual lives. By ourselves, we are sinful, broken, and hopeless. People have tried for centuries to fix their own lives only to discover that they more they try to fix their lives, the more broken they become. We need someone to rescue us. We need a Savior.

The great news is that we have the perfect Savior. The God of the universe sent His only Son, Jesus Christ, to come into this world and save us from our sins. He lived a perfect life, died on the cross for us, and rose again three days later. He is alive today, reaching out His hand for us to grab onto. All we have to do is let go of ours sins, fears, and pride. We turn to Him and ask Him to save us. When we do this, His mighty hand restores our brokenness, and one day He promises to bring us to eternal safety and peace in Heaven, away from the rough and dangerous waters of this world.

The sad news, however, is many people will never grab hold of His outstretched hand. No matter how deep the waters become around them, they will refuse to be saved. They may refuse this because of fear, pride, or doubt. They believe they are not worthy to be saved or they still believe the lie that that can fix all their problems on their own. When the storm ends for these people, instead of arriving in a perfect, peaceful place, a new storm in their lives will begin.

The truth, however, is that if you are still living, the Savior’s hand is still outstretched for you. No matter how many times you have pushed Him away, ignored Him, and tried to handle things on your own, He is still swimming after you. All you have to do is let go and let the Savior of the world rescue you and save you from all your sins. As soon as you give your life to Him, a new life in you will begin. The Savior has arrived, now it is your turn to allow yourself to be saved.

Are you willing to let the Savior rescue you? Why don’t you ask Him to come into your life today, thank Him for forgiving your sins and ask Him to direct your life from this day forward. The following is a suggested prayer:

Lord Jesus, I want to know you personally. Thank you for dying on the cross for my sins. I open the door of my life to you and ask you to come in as my Savior and Lord. Take control of my life. Thank you for forgiving my sins and giving me eternal life. Make me the kind of person you want me to be.

The rescue starts now!