Welcome to Keep It 100 podcast with Sean and Christa Smith. Join us in this space where we take on real issues with real insight and real inspiration. This podcast is for those not looking for temporary relief to change circumstance but revelation to forever change lives. Hey, welcome everybody. This is your boy Sean. Hey everyone, it's Christa here. Hey, we just want to welcome you guys to another episode of Keep It 100.
We're super excited for this episode as we are talking about this theme called Choose Your Heart. But before we do that, we just need to let you know we have a healing and deliverance masterclass coming up July 28th and 29th in Oakland, California at Sequoia Community Church, 4292 Keller Avenue. But this is going to be amazing as we are going to have some profound folks with us. We're going to have Joanne Moody and Jeremy Nelson. Joanne Moody is used phenomenally in the area of healing.
She's associated with Randy Clark's ministry. She is an equipper that is literally being called upon to minister and teach and equip by the Christ in healing all over the globe, Brazil, Latin America, UK, all over. Jeremy Nelson is holding deliverance and healing crusades in Africa, Asiatic nations. He's used profoundly to see people get free, to minister deliverances, to expel the demonic and he is going to come and equip. So this is a masterclass. So you want to be there for that.
You know, we're really passionate about people getting equipped and trained specifically in the area of healing and deliverance because we recognize this is something that the church is going to have more and more of. And so we really want people empowered and confident in having tools in order to know how to navigate situations specifically in partnering for healing and facilitating deliverance of people's lives. We want people walking in their freedom.
And so we want you confident on how to pray someone through that. And so that's something we're really, really excited about. So grab your seat today. Go to Seanacrisesmith.com and register. There is only so many seats. And so we really want people to get in the room because there's something about when you get that hands-on practical training. So there's going to be seven training sessions, a Q and A, some hands-on activation, opportunity to pray for people and minister to people.
So we're really excited because when we've done these masterclasses, we've had incredible feedback and testimonies that people's lives were not only changed, but people really felt empowered in that skill set to be able to move forward in it. Hey, Christa, too, I want to share with our listeners. We just was recently in the New Jersey area and a guy walked up to us before we jumped into this Holy Spirit Conference. Her name was Carly.
She had some friends with her and then she immediately got tears in her eyes. She talked about how I prayed for, called her out and prayed for at actually another conference that was in Pennsylvania and that she had cancer. I remember she had a head scarf and wrap on it at that time and the cancer was pretty advanced. And I love this. They actually were trying to get another person to come pray for them and that person was in there and they go, okay, go get Sean's. I love it.
I kind of was a second choice. Make a long story short. She walks in and shares the testimony just recently. In fact, this is the last weekend that she went back to the doctor. They're going inside doing the exploratory surgery stuff with the cancer and it's already been diagnosed, already advanced stages. And they said the cancer had turned on itself and this never happens in the natural. The disease cells were eating up the disease cells.
So it's like what happened if you would curse cancer and command it to wither and die that literally she came back, no cancer in her body whatsoever, whatever the levels were. She knew the medical talk. I didn't know she starts crying. She's completely healed of cancer. And I say that because all of us probably perhaps known someone that has battled that disease and many of us know people that have lost that battle as we've prayed. And so it's so awesome to know.
Number one, Jesus is still a healer. He still intends to release healing virtue in this day and age. And when you get a testimony like this, it is a breakthrough moment that you can latch on to and see breakthroughs for others. So let's just continually believe for healing and that God would use you and I more greatly as it relates to cancer in other areas because he is the healer.
You know, it's so powerful because just seeing even her share the testimony, the journey you just saw, obviously the emotion that went with that, but how that's going to impact so many lives because so many people unfortunately are battling cancer. But what a victory and what a win and what a story of hope because what I love is after prayer and just her faith partnering with what God was already doing in her life. Just seeing that promise come to pass and she's going to be able to share that.
That's a testimony that will go through her community, through her family, through the church and our testimonies always impact much more than us. And so that's why I love the power of testimonies. So awesome. All right, we ready to dive in for this conversation today? Let's do this. So y'all, we're bringing a really cool topic. It's a little bit different, but I'm excited to talk about it because I think it's going to be a paradigm shifting conversation for many people.
I think they're going to hear this and go, okay, I like that. I like the shift in my paradigm that this causes me to have or challenges me to have. And that is this, you and I have the choice to choose our heart. So let me start with a quote that's from unknown. It's not my quote, but I found it. I thought it was really good. Marriage is hard. Divorce is hard. Choose your heart. It's hard. Being fit is hard. Choose your heart. Being debts and hard being in debt is hard.
Being financially disciplined is hard. So choose your heart. Communications hard, not communicating is hard. So choose your heart. Life will never be easy, but we can choose our heart. Pick wisely. So I found that quote again, author unknown, but I thought it was such a powerful statement and it's such a truth and a reality of this. I was in a conversation with my best friend recently on Marco Polo.
Any other Marco Poloers in the world here of keep it 100 tribe, but my friend and my friends and I, we stay in touch via Marco Polo and she was making a statement in one of her Marco Polo's and she's talking about, we got to choose our heart. And I walked away from that conversation and I was challenged because it's really true. When you recognize that you're actually owning and choosing, no one's forcing it upon you, but you're like, I'm intentionally and choosing that hard.
It kind of shifted on how you view your heart. And so I think kind of like what I just said, any area that you want change in your life in is going to be hard, right? So working for someone can be hard, but being a home, you know, your own business owner, an entrepreneur, that's hard. You know, I think like we talked about being in debt, that's really hard. Getting out of debt really hard.
You know, it's like parenting is hard, but not having kids is really hard, you know, and having that mundane life is hard, but then going after the dreams and taking a ton of risks to live out the call of God in your life. That's hard. So it really comes down to you get to choose what your heart looks like. And I don't know about you, but our hope today is that you choose the God hard. You don't choose the you heart. You choose the God hard.
And so I want to talk to you just kind of about a little bit of a myth that I had. And my myth was, I think I kind of grew up thinking that when I followed Jesus, things were going to be a little bit easier, right?
But I quickly discovered life is hard, you know, Sean and I joke around and Sean will kind of share his thoughts, but Sean and I kind of joke around like, you know, it's like, I have to, I have to make the choice of what kind of hard I want and the decisions we're making at this point in our life is really, really, really, really key.
And so Sean, what do you feel like for you has been kind of that you've chosen that hard thing just so we kind of give an on ramp into our story for the listeners today? Well, first of all, I just like to say, I think this is going to be exciting theme. And I love the way you started off that quote is phenomenal. I think, you know, when you're a kid, at least when I was a kid, I couldn't wait to shed adolescence. And that is exactly the apropos term. I was trying to shed adolescence.
I was tired of being told when to go to bed, when you had to do this, when you had to make your bed, when you had to. So I just envision this utopic thought in my head to where I'd get to this like nirvana place where I can set my own rules. The term now would be adulting. But you know what? No one tells you how hard it is to be an adult. And I know I got some people snapping fingers with me there with me, shot me down. I am.
Because as you get through your childhood years, you don't realize those are the easiest years of your life, you know, you, you get to be an adult and all of a sudden reality can kick your booty, right? You got to pay bills. True. You get to live with people at work. All of a sudden your car broke down. You get unexpected bills. You get around people that try to be critical of you in a different way. And you have people that will speak against your faith.
Even if you stand for God, they'll try to limit, limit God in you. They're disappointed. And so all of a sudden you realize that as you get older, life becomes hard. It doesn't become more easier. But I think the bottom line is it's a fallacy to think that Jesus Christ got up out of a tomb on the third day, went through what he went through so that we would just be playing harps and floating on clouds. Like that's just not real realistic.
So I love this whole theme of you've got to choose your heart. There's going to be a hard, but you have to choose and it's part of growing up. It's part of living on a fallen planet, dealing with fallen people. But I also believe there's a genius in there of what God wants to do to grow us up. I think it was Paul that says when I was a child, I did childish things. Because I grew up, I put childish things away.
And so it's a challenge that even in the spirit, there's a place of adulting as a spiritual person who has found, obviously truth in the Lord Jesus Christ, that you've got to make decisions and choose wisely. I love that phrase. Yeah, it really is true. And Sean, you nailed it. I mean, adulting is not easy, right? There is a difficulty that comes with adulting. There's a responsibility and a reality and it's hard. It's not easy, but it's worth it.
Because I think when you find out your end result is what your goal is, you're going to choose that thing that gets you that end result. And something that got on a very personal note that we've experienced where we've really had to choose hard this year, but it's absolutely worth it because it's the God hard. The Lord led us in last September to do a prophetic masterclass.
We weren't quite sure the fullness of what these gatherings were going to begin to look like locally because we had primarily been itinerant up until that point. And then there was such success and just so many God testimonies that happened from the prophetic masterclass this last September that we really felt the Lord lead us to do momentum in January. And again, just kind of walking that plank of faith with God and it was hard. It took time. It took money. It took resources.
We had to put ourselves out there. And had we not done that though, we wouldn't have experienced all that God has for us. And so it was hard. It was sacrificial, but we knew it was God. So it was the God hard, right? So we choose that God meets us in a spectacular way, way more than we thought he was going to move. He moved. It was beautiful.
And we really felt like we were supposed to begin to have these like regular gatherings and they haven't made this, they've been every month, but they've been pretty consistent. We're having a regular touch base now gathering here in the Bay and we're doing that intentionally here in the Bay. And our calendar for 2023 was already set before God moved. So where our year is already set on a travel level before the year begins, right? And so here we are in the middle of this God moment.
We feel like God's like gather the people and we're like, we already have a full calendar, but we have like one weekend off a month, you know, and God's like, I felt, I really felt God on it. And so I have felt the sacrifice of it. I have felt the push of it, but I've also felt the God in it. And I have felt like it's, I'm, I'm consciously and intentionally choosing this hard because I want a generation to experience and move a God. I want a generation to experience revival here in the Bay.
And so you have to really weigh what is the hard that you're choosing, but are you choosing the God hard? Because there is a spiritual component that is necessary that when you have the word of the Lord, it's worth that push. It's worth that hard. And yeah, there is a moment in times where it's sacrificial, but you recognize it and result is the promise of God. You know, it's so true because the question is, we're all going to leave this planet at certain point.
The question is, are you going to leave a mark? If you're going to leave a mark, chances are you're not going to be able to do that from a sedentary spiritual position on your couch. You're going to have to step out. And you know what you were saying, Christa, just about the whole aspect of from our momentum conference, we didn't have a vision immediately to do momentum nights.
So we did our big conference in January, which we're going to have one again next January that we're excited about, but we saw the momentum and we made a decision and it was taxing, but we're seeing fruit every single momentum night. We're seeing people get saved, get healed, get filled, baptized in Holy Ghost, people get radical, but you could feel the water level rise in hearts of people that are saying, I'm hungry for the more of God. And we're seeing younger people.
I mean, we're getting the generations in terms of the bandwidth of so many age groups, but predominantly the younger generation are latching onto these meetings, but it's again, back to that thing. We're all going to leave, but are you going to leave a mark? We're all going to check out, but will you check out leaving a reference point for the following generation? I love that. You choose your heart. I love that. And you're so right. In order to leave a mark, it's not going to be easy is it?
Right? I mean, no mark is left in history from an easy process and an easy choice and easy path. And so I think there's just the reality of when you're making that mark, which Sean pointed out really well, you know, I think we have to understand there is a hard in leaving your mark. I think the great biblical reference to this whole thought of choose your heart is in Matthew seven, 13 and 14.
And if I could say it this way, before we even kind of talk about that passage is your entire life is really going to come down to this decision. Jesus gave us an example and gave us a metaphor. There's a subtext within this thought. And it is the question that when you answer it will set your life apart. It will either ring for eternity in the most positive way, or it will be a classroom to the next generation as to what not to do. Here's the passage Matthew seven, 13 and 14.
Jesus said, enter by the narrow gate for the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction. And those who enter by it are many underscore that many for the gate. This is now speaking of the second gate. The gate is narrow. This other gate and the way is hard. Remember, we're talking about choose your heart that leads to life and those who find it a few Jesus is basically finishing this brief teaching by telling us that few find this road. I believe that few find this road. Why?
I mean, let's, let's play psychologists here. Why do few find this road? And I think it's because so many people are satisfied in this life with the easy. They're satisfied with the no effort, low effort. Just give me a partition, participation trophy in the spirit for life. And they just get satisfied where they're at. And so if you never become divinely dissatisfied, you don't begin to realize you need more of Jesus. And even once you come to Jesus, you need more of Jesus.
And they begin to think the world is kind of the cotton candy. It's kind of the glitter. It's all that stuff. It's not if they, it's not until they realize that the life, Kona Co found in the world only leads to their demise. Whereas the life found in Christ has victory over death and that gate is narrow. And so is it an easy gate to walk through? No, there is no easy road to walk. It's not easy because the narrow gate demands, and here is the hard part.
It demands that you leave self at the entrance. Take up your cross, walk down the narrow road. You surrender everything you do, everything you say, everything you are to Jesus. But when you're passionate, when you've found the pearl of great price and you sell out, it doesn't matter the cost. And once you make that decision, that hard becomes the most enjoyable life you could ever find. But Jesus said, there is a broad way that's easy, broad as in wide road. There is a narrow road that's hard.
Jesus is saying, choose your heart. One starts off easy, but ends up in the worst hard position ever. The other one starts off hard, but it leads to glory to heaven. And so it's a very interesting metaphor, but actually illustrates a powerful, profound truth. And you said it so well. I love what you share, the narrow road versus the wide road.
And I think it's the believer that's really what it comes down to on the hard, because really everything we're doing is filtering through that place of living a life that is surrendered to Jesus, requiring us to surrender our flesh at times, surrender our appetites that are ungodly or our desires that are ungodly and becoming more Christ-like.
There's a narrowness that happens in our life, but you nailed it right when you get a hold and have a clarity and understanding of your passion for Christ. When there's a passion because you've had an encounter, you've been marked by God. When you've had that moment with God that we've had, like many of our listeners have had, you've been marked by God. You're like, there's no going back. There's no plan B. Nothing else is going to satisfy. It's only Jesus done deal.
Like passion is like sealed, signed, delivered. That is what makes the narrow road doable. That's how you're able to actually walk it. It's because your passion for Christ makes it possible. And I think that's really what's so important because in this wide road versus narrow road, really understanding, there's going to, that crowd that was with you in the wide road isn't going to make that journey to the narrow road.
So there is a diminishing factor that happens in your life that is of God and it's not a bad diminishing, but there's a diminishing at times of people in your life that you were able to do life with at one season. But when that passion, when that marking, when the invitation, even the beckoning of the narrow road happens in your life, all of a sudden you realize, I can't actually just hang with them. I can't just go to the party and like be wall candy.
You know, I just, I can't even associate with that stuff and not that, not from a place of legalism, but a place of passion. Like I'm so devoted to Jesus. And when that happens, what could look hard to the world? Man, you don't do that stuff anymore. You don't, you're not participating in that. You're not going to the party. You're not hanging out. That stuff actually isn't hard anymore. Can we just put it on the table?
It's actually not hard when you've actually encountered and tasted genuine love because the counterfeit stuff has a bitter taste. You know, you're right. It's important to distinguish there's a right hard and a wrong hard from an eternal perspective. Exactly. This is what Jesus was saying. It's going to be hard, but there is a right heart and a wrong hard.
And I think when you're on the right hard, just an encouragement to keep it when under tribe, it's important to understand this world is not our final destination. You don't hear too many people preaching on that right now and talking about that at length. This life is, this world is not our home. This isn't the final destination. All of the hoops and the brass rings to be grasped at the world puts before a generation. You can't take any of that stuff with you. It's gone.
You're going to leave the Gucci bag behind. You're going to leave the Tesla behind. You're going to leave the six figure annual income behind. You're going to leave behind the wife, 2.3 kids and your French Bulldog is costing $6,000 behind. You know, when I was young, my wife's laughing right now. When I was young in the Lord, the Lord just really breathed on me a scripture.
It's second Corinthians 417. Paul says, for our light and momentary troubles are achieving in us an eternal weight of glory, which far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but what is unseen. And Paul says, this is it. When it comes to hard, it's about perspective. He calls them light and momentary troubles. But when you're going through, it didn't feel light and momentary. It feels hard and forever.
But he goes on to say, they're achieving in you an eternal weight of glory. So all of us, you know, the term today, hashtag grind. No, we'll grind if they know that at the end of it, they'll glow. And that's kind of my phraseology. If you'll grind, they'll, they'll come a glow. And so what, what do you mean by hard things?
I think, you know, one of the things I think about when you think about hard things as it relates to kingdom, walking with Christ and being a follower, is that you got to do things outside of your comfort zone. When Jesus saying go down the narrow path, he was basically, and it's comfortable to go down the wide road. The wide road is the path of least resistance. So that means you're going to do what you find easy and natural.
But when you're asked to go down the narrow road, you're invited to come down the narrow road, you got to step outside your comfort zone. And some people fear stepping outside of their comfort zone. Some people fear rejection. They feel fear, the opinions of others. But you think about Moses, I love that Moses, God calls Moses Exodus 3, 11 and 4, chapter verse 10. He calls him to do one of the greatest works of all time. And Moses' response was, who am I to do this?
Like a lot of times when God calls you into stuff, you start thinking of all the reasons why you're disqualified. He says, I'm not eloquent. I'm so a speech, all that kind of stuff. But then Hebrews 11, the faith, all the fame, Moses makes it. And I love it. It says, he chose the ill treatment of the children of Israel over an paraphrase in the plush lifestyle being born in Egyptian royalty. And I think talk about choosing the hard.
This dude could have stayed with Egypt, but nobody, Charlton Heston would not play him in a movie had he done that. No one would have known. He would have been the dude in the Bible that failed, but instead he chose what was hard. He chose to identify it with people who were on the bottom end of what was popular in Egyptian culture. And as a result of that, he literally changed an entire nation. And obviously he was used to lead a nation of Israel out of servitude.
It's incredible, but you got to do things outside your comfort zone. No, it's really true. And I think when we really apply this to our walk with the Lord and really as Christians, we understand that God's actually called us away from the easy path of least resistance. And that, you know, we have to understand that that easy path is actually not our call. It's not our destiny. And he's actually called us to walk a higher road. He's called us to walk the hard road.
And he's called us to even do hard things. I think I love this. Havala wrote a book called, you know, I can do hard things. I think it's something of that effect. And I love that idea that she took that on. It's like, and I've even preached that before. Like God created us in the midst of a global pandemic. I saw the church cowering. I saw the church afraid. I saw the church intimidated full of fear. And the Lord had me begin to preach prophetically. Like you were created to do hard things.
You were created to thrive in crisis. You have the spirit of God and you have the same spirit, the raised Christ from the dead in you. You can do the hard things. We have a God that makes the impossible possible. And so when we understand who dwells within us, we understand we can do the hard things. And the hard things actually shouldn't make us afraid or intimidate us. And even if they do, that's okay. We understand Jesus is in us.
But I think that we really understand that choosing to do the hard things is going to strengthen our weaknesses and our current strengths are going to become even stronger. And I think we just keep doing things we're uncomfortable with because we recognize it just makes us better and it makes us more Christ-like. You know, it's like, you know, is it uncomfortable for you to share the gospel? Well, that's okay. Keep doing it.
You know, is it uncomfortable to invite people over to your home and build communities or invite people out to coffee and put yourself out there to build new friendships in your church? Okay, do it anyway. You know, are you uncomfortable praying for someone and asking someone if you can pray for them when you see that they're sick or they're on crutches or they have a cast? Well, that's okay. Do it anyway. It's like, if you only do what's comfortable, you'll never grow.
I have to share this story and some of you have heard this. But when I started doing Krav Maga, I had the decision within that first month, I was literally learning a completely different culture, verbiage techniques, all the things. And it was really important because I remember I said, they're going, I don't really like this. And I remember God saying, Christa, when's the last time as an adult, you intentionally chose to do something you were terrible at?
Seriously, because as an adult, we always choose to do things we're, well, we're good at. We always want to be successful. So we're always going to navigate to our strengths. We're already going to lean into our strengths. We're always going to choose the thing that we're going to thrive at and be our best at. That is human nature. But the Lord said, I want you to do this because it's a parallel picture of a spiritual journey that I want to take you on.
I didn't know that journey was going to be five years deep and I didn't know was going to lead me to my black belt.
But what was so important in that journey was all these small steps of making hard choices, week in and week out, when I didn't feel like it, when I came home from a plane, excuse me, when I got off the plane, came home from a ministry trip and I didn't want to go to class or I wasn't in the mood or I had all the excuses, but I looked at my husband, he was already packed up, he's going to class and I had the choice every single week. If I was going to go or not.
And then here I am at the face of my black belt, which came at a really busy season this year. We had a packed schedule. I didn't get a train leading up to my test as much as I'd wanted to. I was able to do some of it and even on that some of it, I was cramming in bike, a bike ride on my one day off when I just wanted to be home resting. I had in my mind fully deserved rest and it was like, but I made a commitment.
I chose what was hard and I did it because I felt like I created a goal for myself. My goal was to be a black belt. And so going into that, I had to make the choice that I was going to continually choose the hard thing and all my little hearts led to a big win.
And so I just want to tell the listener today that you might be in the middle of your own Krav Maga process where you're not really liking it, but you feel like God's invited you in it, but I became strong at something I was terrible at at the beginning. But as an adult, I've now see myself differently because I did something I didn't think I was going to do. I've now become a new goal of mine to continually do things I don't think I can do. I want to break down my own boxes of how I see myself.
That's going to continue continually require me to do things that I would view as hard, but I choose hard because I want to grow as a person. You know, Paul talked about, I learned to be content in plenty. I learned to be content in less or lack. And yet right after that, he says, I can do all things that Christ who strengthens me. The actual context of that verse is not like, Oh, I could be an astronaut. I'll go to the moon. I will invent, you know, AI at a whole another level.
Yeah. But actually the context is, is that you could be content in the toughest of circumstance or you could be blessed in the most amazing circumstance. I love that. So good. You know, and it's like, when you start thinking about hard things, what is another facet of that? And I think in really choosing to do hard things, you have to do things that go beyond what's even expected or required. And I think in a world that's always kind of looking for the bare minimum.
Remember in school, there was always a students that were like going for the extra credit and like in the college prep classes. And then there was always those kids that were just like, what can I do to get a D plus and pass? And there's this spectrum in our society. You can really choose your place in that. But I think that mentality can go into every sphere of our life. And I remember like even at the end of my black belt test, I know I keep using it, but it just happened in April.
So it's like a new example in my life. But at the end of it, I ended the black belt test doing one exercise that I had to do a ton of burpees and pushups. And I didn't like the way I did it. I didn't, I didn't feel like I was able to do it in my fullest because I was in so much pain in my shoulders. I was so exhausted after three days. I just, I felt really good about my test, but that was one thing I wanted to change.
So the day after my three day black belt test, I literally got up, Sean's still sleeping. I went downstairs. I don't even know if you know this baby. And I did a ton of burpees. Just for myself, I redid them.
I didn't do the full of them, but I probably did about half of the set that was required because I just wanted to do it right to know that I can do a proper formed burpee even when I'm tired, even when I'm sore, even after a three day test, I got up and I went downstairs that morning, not for anyone else, but for myself. And that's because I'm not going to just do what's required and I'm not even going to do what's expected and I'm not even going to do what's good enough.
I'm actually going to do more than that. It's not for anyone else, but God and me because it's like, I want to live at a place where I know like I'm giving it my best and your best looks different in different seasons and I'm a big believer in that truth. But I'm also going, you know, I woke up that day and I just wasn't happy with it and I was like, I can't fix it. And then I had this idea, yeah, I can. I can go downstairs and redo it to myself.
No one else is going to see it, but I feel better about it. And I think there's something that changes your mentality when you begin to go, I can do better. I'm actually going to expect better and I'm going to get out of the, this is good enough mode and actually be like, no, I have more to offer. And it sounds silly, but even when I'm in public restrooms, like I always make sure like I throw away my stuff. Like, or I'm in, you know what I mean?
Like my napkins or different stuff, I'll like, you know, my tab paper towel, you know, I'll throw it and if I miss it, I'll go pick it up. It sounds simple, but I genuinely have a mentality that God created me to make things better than how I found them. And it sounds simple, but I just have this mentality that I clean up messes. I put stuff away. I make stuff better in the natural, but I also do it in the spirit.
And I think when you just have this parallel life that your natural matches your spiritual, that's when you begin to have a convergence and that's when you take on the hard things, but you take it on with passion and intentionality. You know, older and that's, that's profound. I love that analogy. And it's so true. I think so often if I could take what you said in academics, people just trying, what can I do just to barely pass?
I think there are a lot of people that are looking for the bare minimum spiritually. That's the least I could do to get to heaven. I think the mindset that we have currently in modern North American Christianity and other advanced nations, I think it's totally different.
Like in Fox's Book of Martyrs, there's some dude that literally Nero was torturing him and then martyred his wife, martyred his kids because they wouldn't deny Jesus and confess Nero this wicked bloodthirsty king as the sovereign. So the story is in there. One dude is about to be executed and the guy says, alas, but I have but one life to give for my savior. And it's like, stop, what? This dude has seen his wife killed because she would not deny the Lord Jesus Christ.
His children come on, your dad, you've seen your wife, love of your life, your children. And now, you know, most people would have long before that been in the midst of being angry at God and they would have written a blog and they would do some sort of crazy stuff and just be blasting Christians on social media. This dude rises up and says alas, but I have but one life to give for my savior. And I just think, man, you know what? The grace of God isn't for the comfortable.
The grace of God is for the grind. The grace of God is a path of growth. You don't need grace if you're doing the bare minimum. Grace, great grace comes upon a person that's willing to step in the great sacrifice. And a great example of this is Philemon, which is who was actually a contemporary of Apostle Paul. Philemon, it says in the only, there's only one chapter that Paul wrote as a letter to Philemon.
And Philemon 121, he says, having your confidence in your obedience, I write to you knowing that you will do ever more than I say. So here's Apostle Paul, right into this guy Philemon. He says, I know you're going to do more than I say. So whatever I'm telling you, Hey, this is what's required to walk with Christ. Man, I know you're going to do more. And I say that is the Christian mindset to do the hard things that whoever you're going to go beyond was expected or required.
I remember they told me as a baby believer. I should share my faith. And in week three of being saved, I stood up in front of my entire student body as a student, University of Pacific, and I preached the gospel. And I'm not even trying to break my hand, pat myself on the back over that. I just felt like, well, if I'm supposed to witness, I'm not just going to witness just to people I know, I want to witness to everybody. And that led down the way to where I would stand up at UC Berkeley.
It was not easy. I could see there was the hardcore atheists over there on the other side. It was the LGBTQT. On this side, it was just the party fraternity sorority folks over here. It was the people like, what are you doing bringing that out here? Even religious types that was mad because I was preaching destiny and grace, calling people to repentance. But I wasn't angry enough as some of the religious types would want me to be. And I just thought, wow, this is wild.
And I did it without a big, huge Christian backing. I would go over there and support a guy I was mentoring that was doing a Bible study at the time. And I thought I want to let this campus know about Jesus and it was the hard, but I felt great grace. And I can't tell you how many times it led to people making commitments to Christ.
And as I would do that in front of the masses, I didn't know that years later, I would stand in front of a thousand people on what they call Renovate Berkeley on a night. Jesus culture artists came and led worship at a thousand people on a weeknight as we saw a bunch of people get saved. Keylings, a girl took off a brace, a guy was a Muslim guy, literally walked forward, dropped his subway sandwich, gave his life to Christ.
But I think to get there, you got to go beyond what's expected or required. And I would add to this too, Boo, is it when I think of hard things, you got to do things against the grain of cultural narrative. You can't follow the cultural norm or cultural narrative. You know, it's like in the book of Revelations, the seventh church, Laodicea, it was a lukewarm church because they were only halfway on fire for the Lord. It suggests that they were influenced by their surroundings.
And it's kind of like, you know, if you get coffee, you know, the way you get your ice coffee is it's hot coffee and then they throw ice in it and it meets the temperature of the air around it. The Laodiceans had let the culture do that to them.
And so hard thing is you got to go against the grain of cultural norm and you got to understand that you don't want on one end to become the super judgmental, angry at everybody, religious person, but at the same time, you don't want to become the licentious, compromised person on the other. You got to do things that go against the grain of cultural norm and that's part of doing the hard. It's really true. When you are going against the cultural norm, the world isn't going to understand, right?
I mean, I think there's a reality where we choose to read our Bibles, we pray when we could be watching television, when we're going to that church service, when all our friends, they maybe used to party with, you're not going to party with them, you're going to church, you're, you know, you're going to your home group, you're going to your prayer group, you're, you're getting connected, you're building community relationships, you hang
out with all your church friends and your family and friends who may not be serving God or maybe casually serving God, they're not going to understand that because they're like, why are you with all those people all the time? But they don't understand how life giving it is because they haven't experienced that and it's, there's a hardness in that, right? Cause there's, there's that element and I kind of talked about it earlier.
It's like where you go deeper in the things of God, the world's not going to be able to go with you. And so there is that natural misunderstanding that's going to happen that will feel initially hard, but when you walk in the God hard, there is a God grace.
You know, William Barkley is a Bible scholar and he points out many reasons as to what's the difference between the two roads, going back to Jesus metaphor of the wide road and the narrow and he brings up multiple differences, but I think it's important that maybe we hit a couple. And when I was thinking about, he talks about the narrow road is discipline. The wide road is undisciplined and I just think nothing great is ever achieved without discipline.
You know, the root word when we say we're disciples of Christ, the root word there is discipline and I, it's just observation. There are untold millions of people that have squandered their lives by being undisciplined and literally not being disciplined in terms of just devotional life, prayer life, just disciplining your thoughts, disciplining what comes out of your mouth, disciplining who you hang with, a lot of different things. But the key thing is that there has to be disciplines.
And so I feel like, you know, people say, are you disciplined or they will say to me, Sean, you seem like a very disciplined person, disciplined, disciplined, disciplined. But one of the things, and we had this conversation earlier, I think you create rhythms in your life and those rhythms ensure that you remain disciplined. You know, it's really true because I see that, you know, there is a discipline that's required, which I think is really interesting.
I think when you again kind of compare that wide road versus the narrow road, something else I would observe is the narrow road would be something you have to be intentional about. And the wide road, I would say is aimless. You know, you don't really have to think about it. You have to give no thought, no intentionality if you're just going to live your life and you're not concerned about salvation. If you're just like, I'm cool if I go to hell, doesn't matter. I don't really care.
You don't have to give any thought to it. You don't have to actually think about what's right or wrong, what's moral or immoral. You don't have to think about consequences. You don't have a conscience. You have no moral compass within you. And you're not having to think about whether God approves or disapproves. You're not thinking about like the impact of your words, your actions, your priorities. You're just living for you. You're not giving it any other thought beyond that.
So there's not an intentionality. It's very aimless, right? You're just, you can do whatever you want to do if you're not concerned with going to heaven and giving your life for Jesus, being forgiven of your sin, Jesus Christ being your Lord and Savior.
There's an aimlessness, but as soon as you ask Jesus Christ to be your Lord and Savior, as soon as you make that decision to follow Jesus and become a disciple of Jesus, there's an intentionality that is immediately required once that prayer and that decision and that life is surrendered to Jesus. And that intentionality is actually what causes you to go on the narrow road, right? The intentionality is actually that entrance point to the narrow road.
And the intentionality is now you have a filter. It's called an unseared conscience. It's called a conviction of sin. It's called a moral compass from the Holy Spirit where you are actually running things through God. You're beginning to dialogue through a prayer life, reading the word and having the word of the Lord wash over you, filter you, refine you, heal you, transform you.
And that whole process, whether it's reading the word of praying, worship in relationship with Jesus, that begins to create an intentionality that shifts everything on how you live your life because it's really easy to go to hell, but it's an intentional life that gets to heaven. You know, I'm impacted lately. There's been a lot of ex-Bose's and they're looking at different ministers and denominations or movements.
And I just think about, you know, this thought, you have to check the finished product of your philosophy. What is the finished product of your philosophy? Like if it's just partying, if it's just making money, it's just being popular. If it's just having more junk in your trunk than the next person.
I mean, if it's a married person, not really thinking through what happens if I just go get with this person and hook up with that person and I'm not married to, how's that going to tear my family apart? What's that going to do to my destiny? How will my spouse, if they stay with me, how will they look at me from that point on? Yeah, you can be forgiven if you genuinely repent, but you've sacrificed something.
And in that moment, I believe the devil wants to hold up your spiritual carcass before God and say, look God, I got another, what's the finished product? Hey, the Bible says there's a way that seems right to a man, but it's end is destruction. Like you have to be intentional. I love what you're saying with this because without that, so many people, they just get in the moment, live for the moment and they lose sight of eternity. You got to be intentional and you got to understand that.
Hey, I just want to take this moment as we're going to begin to wind down and just give you a couple of thoughts on why you choose your heart or what keeps you in the grind, spiritually speaking. I would say one of the things is that you have to move from Kronos to Kairos. And it's kind of like what I was talking about earlier is that you can't just live for the moment, be in the moment. Yes, you want to be in the moment, but you don't live for the moment.
You got to live for eternity and you got to understand that some moments are more valuable than other moments. And I think what that helps you do is you got to steward your season. My understanding is that if the Bible often likens the Christian walk to agriculture, that was the common occupation of Jesus day. And you understand, you have to till the soil. You have to break up the fallow ground.
There is a season where you do that and there's a season where you plant, but then down the road, there's a season where you read. And so in the world that we're in today, you got to understand in Kronos, nothing lasts forever. Everything is going to come to an end. Every season brings a new challenge, new opportunity. And you might be in a different place than a month from now, but the Bible says redeem the time for the day is evil.
It's another way of saying, move from Kronos to Kairos, move from just, whatever the clock is saying, I got to do, I do, move out of that to a Kairos to understand the unique positioning and strategic-ness of where you're at. And when you recognize that, it gives you a why in your choosing your heart. Like, whoa, this is a Kairos moment. This is a unique window of opportunity. You know, what is it?
Leonard Raymell says, the opportunity of a lifetime must be seized within the lifetime of the opportunity. That's a man that understood Kairos. So I would say kind of one of the thoughts of what keeps you in the spiritual grind or why you choose your heart is you understand that you're moving from Kronos, which is a word that just describes the 24 seven clock, just what the calendar says, Greco-Roman calendar to Kairos. That's a God appointed time.
So you got to move from the Kronos to the Kairos. I love that. It's so good. And you know, I would say why you choose your heart and really what keeps you in the grind. For me, it would be that why it's the God why that keeps me going because the why is really essential in order to motivate you. It's not maybe the only motivating thing, but for me, the why is actually what helps me stay disciplined, what helps me be intentional, what keeps me motivated.
And it actually helps me keep showing up, keep pushing through, keep praying, keep preaching, keep prophesying, keep praying for the sick, you know, keep loving, keep shining, you know, really just keep worshiping, keep, you know, in my word, you know, it's like, keep leaning into Jesus be why, because I'm believing for revival. Why? Because I want a generation to experience the move of God. Why? Because I want our nation and the nations of the world to be different. Why?
Because I know that my life is short, but I want my life to have a mark. And if I want my life to have a mark, then I have to understand there's a hard that I've got to choose every single day. I got to keep showing up, I got to keep preaching, I got to keep prophesying and not out of my strength, but out of the spirit of God within me. But every day I'm just leaning into the intentionality of who God has called me to be for this hour.
And my hope and prayers is you're here in this podcast today that Sean and I, prayerfully, hopefully have challenged you guys to really evaluate what's the hard you're choosing and is it the God hard? Because that to me, friends, is really why God put you on this earth is to spread the gospel, to release the kingdom of God and to go make disciples, right? And that is the why that keeps me going. And that's the why in which I believe God has us here on this earth.
And really to sum it all up too, I think this, when you're talking about choose your hard, when you choose your hard, you have to understand that your friendship base and who you fellowship with will play a big part. You have to decide what kind of person you want to be in God, that you want to be all out, peddled with a medal. You have to decide what attitudes you're going to have and then as I read in one blog, someone said, you have to hold up the destination sign.
And when people come around you, they know where you're going. So you don't accidentally get quote unquote wide friends in a narrow walk. You know, the Jesus talk about there's a wide road and a narrow road. You can't take wide friends on a narrow path. And so you have to understand, make sure you're showing up for the right kind of hard, the kind that will lead you to exactly where you want to be. Thanks so much for tuning into the keep it 100 podcast.
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