Life.Church with Craig Groeschel - The Best of 2022

Episode Date: December 29, 2022

Sometimes, in order to move forward, it’s helpful to remember where you’ve been. In The Best of 2022, we’re taking a look back at the best of Life.Church messages this year and looking forward to what’s next in 2023.ABOUT THIS MESSAGESometimes, in order to move forward, it’s helpful to remember where you’ve been. In The Best of 2022, we’re taking a look back at the best messages of the year and looking forward to what’s next in 2023.NEXT STEPSHave you made a decision to follow Jesus? You may be wondering what’s next on your journey. We want to help! Let us guide you to your next steps in your walk with Christ: https://www.life.church/nextABOUT LIFE.CHURCHWherever you are in life, you have a purpose. Life.Church wants to help you find your next step. Our hope is that your journey will include joining us at a Life.Church location throughout the United States or globally online at https://www.live.life.church. Find locations, videos, and more info about us at https://www.life.church or download the Life.Church app at https://www.life.church/app. FIND US ON SOCIAL MEDIAFacebook: http://www.facebook.com/life.churchInstagram: http://www.instagram.com/life.churchTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lifechurchCONNECT WITH PASTOR CRAIGYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/craiggroeschelFacebook: http://www.facebook.com/craiggroeschelInstagram: http://www.instagram.com/craiggroeschelTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@craiggroeschel#lifechurch #craiggroeschel #thebestof2022 Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Welcome to Life Church. My name is Ryan. This is Britain. We get to be some of your pastors here. Yeah, we're so glad that you're joining us today. And we're breaking them all here today. We take a look at the best of 2022, where we're actually taking some of your favorite messages from the year

and stopping to take a look back at all that God has walked us through. It's going to be special today. And if you're here with us and you're thinking, I haven't seen any of these messages, what I know is that God is going to speak to you in a specific way today. Whether this is the first time you're seeing it or you saw it, before, we want you to pick your one, meaning what's the one that's most impactful for you? What's your takeaway from here?

Right. What do you say? Let's get into the first one. Let's get into it. This is from our series called Peace of Mind where Pastor Craig talked about mental health. Yeah, on this one, this message we're about about the message we're about about the message we're about the message we're about. It's actually the top-viewed message on our life church YouTube channel, which just shows the need

for this type of message when we talk about silencing our negative thoughts. So what do you think made this message so impactful? Yeah, well, you said it. Silencing our negative thoughts is the title of this message. And I think that's just so relatable to so many people. I don't mean myself, I have struggled with negative self-talk in the past. And it's because I've intentionally leaned in and through God's help, improve my mental health that it's helpful.

And I know it's been so helpful to so many people out there. Yeah, what I hear you saying is that our thoughts are powerful. That's right. But what Pastor Craig is about to teach us in this clip is that we can have power over our thoughts. So let's lean in as we go to this clip right now. And I want to give you a tool to help you encourage yourself. And one of the greatest tools I can give you is to start acting like a cow. Start acting like a cow.

Eat more chicken or whatever the cow commercial would say. You know, I don't know. But what does a cow do? One of the things a cow does is something called ruminates, which is really, really cool. What does a cow do? A cow takes a mouth full of grass and choose it, and choose it, and then swallows it, and then throws it back up in his mouth, and choose it, and choose it, and swallows it, and throws it back up in his mouth, and choose it some more.

Besides being really cool, that's really gross. Why does the cow do that? He wants to get every bit of nutrition out of that grass. It's to ruminate. And the same Hebrew word in the Old Testament translated as meditate can also be translated to ruminate. Ruminate, meditate, chew and joy. Get every bit of spiritual nutrition from God's word

over and over and over and over and over and over and over. over again. So when you find yourself in a tight situation, you don't have to look for a verse. You've already got one hidden in your heart. And David said, the Lord is slow to anger. He's compassionate. He's gracious because he's been meditating on that. And I want to help you learn to meditate on God's word. I told you in the last few weeks that I hit a very low spot. incredibly low spot. Occupationally burned out is what the diagnosis was. And my mind started to break down,

like mental, real mental challenges. And in this time, what I did is I ruminate, I meditated on Romans 1513. May the God of all hope fill you with joy and peace as you trust in him so that you may overflow with hope by the power of His Holy Spirit.

over and over and over again. May the God of what? May the God of hope. Hope, he is a God of hope. May the God of hope, fill me. I need the joy. The joy of the Lord is my strength. I need his peace, the peace that surpasses all understanding. May the God of hope fill me over and over and over again. As you trust in him, trust in the Lord with all your heartily, not on your own understanding, but in all your ways acknowledge him. He said he'll make your path straight. May the God of hope, fill me with joy and peace as I trust in him. And as I meditated over and over and over and over again, what I'll tell you and Amy will tell you that today is like I'm different,

changed, healed, whole, full of joy, full of power, full of strength, full in victory. My mind is different. My mind is different. The mind governed by the flesh is death. And I was caught up on all the negativity and all the external pressure trying to perform instead of taking the strength of God from the inside and letting it flow to the outside. I'm different by the power of God's Word. And what I want to do is I want to give you a potential spiritual truth to ruminate on.

What I like to do is I like to take scripture and I like to put them in power thoughts. So it's God's Word in something I can remember and say over and over and over again. And so I created four, for these four categories. If you want to take a photo of one, you can. If you take a photo of a different one for your friends, you can. If you're going to take a photo of all four for yourself, you can do that. But I'll show you some power thoughts, and you can ruminate on these. If you find yourself battling with cynicism, you may say this over and over again.

With God's help, I will get rid of all bitterness and skepticism. I choose to believe the best about others and be kind, compassionate, and loving. I will love and forgive others as Jesus has loved. and forgiven me. Over and over and over again. If yours is negative filtering, you might say this. God, by your power,

I take every thought captive and make it obedient to the truth of Christ. Because you're good, I choose to think on what's good, right, true, helpful, and worthy of praise. As I trust in you, your peace will guard my heart, soul and mind in Christ Jesus.

If you find yourself lost an absolute thinking. Everything's black or white and all these people or this or that, you tell yourself, as Jesus loved and accepted me, I will love and accept others. This is God's word. Rather than always being right, I'm called to always be loving. Rather than just making a point, I choose to make a difference. In humility, I choose to love others above myself. And if you find yourself always a victim, always blaming, you just declare the truth that God has given me a life and a mind of my own. By His grace, I will own my choices and choose God's best for me. I've been given everything I need to accomplish everything God wants me to do in Christ,

by His power, by His blood, by His stripes, by His spirit. I will overcome. I am an overcomer by the blood of the Lamb and by the words of his testimony. We have power over our thoughts. You have power. over your thoughts, that message, and that simple tool alone of what it means to ruminate over scripture and what that means that God shows us ways to renew our thoughts where we can have power. I mean, that may be my one for today. And what we know is that God is going to show you what your one is as we continue throughout the messages today. Yeah, so this next one might be your one. It's from our pre-decide series, and this series has been especially helpful for me.

In fact, the sticker, you remember the sticker, Britain? All the I-N statements. That's right. That's right. It's still on my mirror. It's the first thing I see when I get up in the morning. And so, will you test me, see if I can remember all of those? We're all testing them.

There's six of them. Okay. Let's see. All right, here we go. I'm ready. I'm consistent. I am devoted. I am generous.

I am faithful. And I am a finisher. Yes. I love those I-N statements. I hope you do, too. If you haven't gotten to see all those messages, we're actually going to link some of these full messages today later in the service. But the title of this message we're about to go to is the power of consistency. We know that consistency in lots of areas of life matters in our faith,

finances, relationships, health, marriage, whatever it is. Because we know that when we're consistent, that God is going to move in a powerful way. So let's go into this message right now. It's not what we do occasionally that makes the difference. It's what we do consistently. So how do we grow in our consistency? And if we want to be an encouragement to our spouse, but every time he walks in the door, we pick them apart. How do we grow in our consistency? And I want to give you a game plan today

with three important thoughts, and we're going to pre-decide that we are consistent. Three big thoughts would be this. The first thing we're going to do is we're going to start with the why. Everybody say start with the why? Second thing we're going to do is we're going to plan to fail. Everybody say plan to fail. Third thing we're going to do is we're going to

fall in love with the process. Everybody say fall in love with the process? What are we going to do all together now? This is no fun without you at all of our churches. What are we going to do? We're going to start with the why plan to fail and fall in love with the process. Let's start at the top. Number one, if we want

to grow inconsistency, we're pre-deciding that we are consistent. We're going to start with the why. Answer the question. Why? Did Daniel pray consistently? And I'll tell you, it was never about an outward show. It wasn't like the Pharisees.

He went, look how spiritual I am. I'm praying on the street corners, long prayers, so you'll think I'm spiritual. Daniel went to his closet, privately knelt down three times a day because he was devoted to his God. That's why he did it. He was devoted to his God. He pre-decided that three times a day, he connects with the heart of God. It was born out of devotion.

And this is the very reason why so many New Year's resolutions fail. Let me tell you why. Because the result of desire, not devotion. Oh, come on, somebody. I'm preaching good right now. You're being kind of quiet. It's a result of desire, not devotion. There's a big, big, big difference.

If you just have a desire, you might not have a why, but a why pulls out the devotion. If you don't have a compelling why, you're not likely to succeed. And the reason why I know most New Year's resolutions fail is because you waited until January 1st to do it. That's just stupid. You don't really have a why. If you've got a real why, you're not going to wait until, hey, I'm going to start eating goods. So for the next two weeks, I'm eating everything. January 1st, oh, look, a salad.

Okay, that's stupid. You're not a player. You're going to go back to chocolate cake, chocolate, ice cream, chocolate cocoa puffs for breakfast in about three days because your why's not compelling enough. If you have a real why, you're not waiting until January 1st, right? If your doctor tells you in October, hey, you need to quit smoking or you're going to die? Oh, okay, I'll wait until January 1st to stop smoking cigarettes. No, you got a strong why, which compels you to start now. If you want a growing consistency, you start with the why. Where do you want to be more consistent?

Where do you want to grow? Some of you might say, well, I want to be closer to God. Thank God for that. You might say, I want to have a better marriage. Great. I want to have financial stability. I want to quit this bad habit. I'm going to say, why.

Why? What is your why? If you say, well, I want to be closer to God. Well, this is a right thing to do. That's what church people do, right? No, your why might be because I'm sick and dang tired of the devil distracting me. I believe I'm created by God for his glory, and I want to serve him wholeheartedly with everything in me.

So generations to come would know his grace and his goodness. That why drives devotion, right? I want to have a better marriage. Why? Because my spouse is a jerk. Sick of them. Pray for him. Pray for my spouse. No, no, no, no. Because my why is I want to honor God with the vows that I said before him. And I want to show my children a godly example of what marriage can be

and leave a spiritual legacy. for my grandchildren that we are people of faith and we have a marriage of faith. What's your why? What's your why? Well, I want to have financial stability. Why? So I can buy a purse

so I can get them shoes. I can go on vacation. No, no, no, no, no. What's your why? Because I am sick and tired of living paycheck to paycheck. Because I'm not going to worry if I pay this bill, I can't pay that bill.

I want to be financially free so I can be generous and make a difference in the lives of other people. Which is your why. The why moves it from desire to devotion. You might say, well, I want to quit this bad habit. Why? Because it's expensive.

Because it's bad for my health. No, no, no, no. This has been maybe something that's been in my family for generations, and this generational curse stops with me. That's a why. That's a why. That's a why. I'm not talking about willpower.

I'm talking about Y power. Come on, somebody. This brings out devotion. This is when the king says you can't pray. No, I got my why. need my God three times a day, I seek God in prayer. Because I promise you, when you want to be consistent, you're going to have some obstacle, some resistance, something that's hard, you're going to be a lack of support from friends,

and you're going to say, I don't feel like it today. I don't want to do it today. But listen, when you know your why, you will find a way. We're talking about why power, why power. And there is a why that Amy and I pray consistently. We didn't before, because we didn't have a why. My why then was, well, you're a pastor, so you're probably supposed to. I've been a pastor long enough to know that the devil don't take a day off.

And so I better be seeking God together with my bride every single day. What I know is that everything that we do depends on the spirit of God, the presence of God, the power of God. Our marriage needs the grace and work of God. We need leadership for our kids. I need wisdom to lead the church. Why would I ever not seek God with my bride? So when the why becomes, when your values are clear,

your decisions are easier. If you want to become more consistent, define your why. You start with the why. Daniel knew his why. His faith wasn't built in the Lions Den. It was built in the prayer closet. You start with the Y. That was so good, Britton.

Man, I just think of what are my values? And then how can I define my why through those values? He said it's not about willpower. It's about Y power. That's great. Yeah, for some of you, the timing of this message lines up with where we're at in this year for you to sit down and determine what is your why? What are some of those values that are going to drive your decisions?

And if this is your why, I think this is going to be a great one to land on. Yeah, is this your one? This is actually my one. So far, at least, pretty. Okay, we'll check back in later. We'll check back in. Well, this next clip that we have from you is from a more recent series titled Overflow. And this was actually a moment in my year that sticks out to me as I reflect on the year.

Because during this series, I was just reflecting on the character of God, how he is a generous God and created us to be generous and to reflect that. abundance and generosity in the lives of others. And I know that's how I want to live my life in a posture of knowing that every good and perfect gift comes from above. And I know that this message is going to encourage you. So let's jump into the clip titled More Blessed right now. So what do we know? We know that we need to change our mindset, right, from not enough to more than enough. And we need to change our mindset from my resources to God's resources. And lastly, we need to change our mindset. We need to change our mindset from I'll give when to I'll give now. If you read in 2 Corinthians and go on in chapter 8 to verse 11, it reads, and this is Paul

again talking to the church in Corinth. Now you should finish what you started. Let the eagerness you showed in the beginning be matched now by your giving. Give in proportion to what you have. You see, what's happening here is Paul is just talking to the church in Corinth, a year year earlier, the Corinthians actually committed to give. They were eager to give. They gave a little bit, but they were really eager, and they're the first ones that want to give to help support the church in Jerusalem. But they didn't follow through. And what Paul is saying is that you need to match your

eagerness to give with giving. If you want to experience the overflowing joy of generosity, like the Macedonian church did, you can't just have the intention of giving. the plans to give, the thoughts that one day I'll give, or maybe I'll give in the future, but you actually need to give. You need to step into it and be obedient and do it now, not later. And there's a story that inspires me in this regard, and it's about a man named Orville Rogers. So Orville Rogers was born in 1917. When he was six years old, his father actually abandoned their family, and he didn't grow up with much, but he developed two passions while he was a teenager. One passion was for Jesus because he became a follower of Jesus.

He was passionate about his faith. And the other was for aviation, for airplanes. He saw Charles Lindbergh across the Atlantic and he was passionate about aviation. Those things I can relate to because I'm a pilot, Jesus and airplanes. When he got to college, he went to the college at the University of Oklahoma and he got a degree in engineering. And he actually learned how to fly airplanes while he was in college. well he graduated college and he signed up for seminary because he thought i want to give a lifetime of service to the lord because of his passion for jesus but before he could make it to seminary

he got called to serve our country in world war two so he actually had the unique responsibility of training and teaching people how to fly bombers so during war war two he was teaching the pilots that were flying the bombers at world war two when he left the military he then went to work for Braniff Airlines as a commercial airline pilot. And he had a long career of 32 years as a commercial airline pilot flying some of those really cool planes that they had back then. Well, when he turned 50, he read a book about health. And it inspired him to be a runner at 50 years old. So he started picking up running and through the rest of his life, he ran a total of 42,000 miles. And at the age of of 99, he actually became the world champion

in the 60 meter dash beating out the 92 year old that he's running with, come on, by 0.05 seconds. The guy that lost said, I should've leaned in, you know, and people attribute it to his inexperienced since he was younger, not only 905 seconds. too. A few months later, I actually met Orville for the first time. And I met him at a Bible translation fundraiser. And I got to hear about his passion that he has for Bible translation. And I said, where did this come from? And he learned early in his life that even though he had the Bible in

English, in his language, his heart language, that there were thousands of languages around the world that are yet to receive the Bible in their own heart language. And so he said, I felt like he could contribute to help make that happen. And though he's not a Bible translator, he's a pilot. And so he began to fly airplanes from the U.S. and move them over into position and mission fields so that people could fly missionaries into remote areas so that they could get where the tribes were and the people that spoke these languages to learn the languages and learn how to translate these languages. And there's so many remarkable things about Orville Rogers.

that inspire me. But the number one thing that inspires me about Oval Rogers is this. In the 40 years that he worked both in the military and as a commercial airline pilot, the total of all of his wages and all of his salary over those 40 years was $1.5 million. Now, that sounds like a lot of money, but if you do the math and divide $1.5 million by $40, you'll realize that that was a pretty modest salary. Airline pilots back then didn't get paid as much. But get this, over the course of Orville's lifetime, by the time he was 101 years old, he gave over $35 million away. Yeah, it's incredible. You see, a couple of things I learned from Orville. One is, it's not too early to begin. And I also learned it's never too late to start. He modeled that through his life. And that's actually what I want for you,

because I want you to be able to have a life that's so abundant and full that you can live in the overflowing joy of generosity. Pastor Bobby's right. It's never too late to start. Yeah, and I want us to actually take a moment right now and offer a time for us to respond. Some of you may feel called to give. Some of you, even for the very first time. And what we learned is that we don't give from our resources. We give knowing it's his resources. We give out of the abundance of what we've been blessed with. So I want you to just take a moment and pray and ask God right now, what is it that you have blessed me with? And how would you have me respond right now? Shift from all give when to all give now and watch how God's going to

honor your faithfulness and show you how he's going to provide as you take that step. Yeah, thank you for trusting in God of the call of God on your life and all of our lives to be generous. Now, Britain, today has been so special. We learned about silencing negative thoughts. We learned about the power of consistency and about the abundance of God. What's your one so far? So far, I'm going to have to go with the first one silencing negative thoughts. Just such a powerful tool for me. What's your one? Put it in the chat right now. What's your one so far? However, we got one more. So this next one might be your one.

It's from doubting God, that series, all about how God's not afraid of our doubts. Yeah, let's go to a clip right now, title Dealing with Your Doubts. If there is anyone here who's been hurt or you have doubts, let me applaud you because guess what? You showed back up. You're here.

You're watching online. Sometimes you just show back. up. The doors were locked, but suddenly as before, Jesus was standing there, peace be with you, he said. Then he looks at Thomas and says, hey, put your fingers here. Look at my hands. Put your hand into the wound of my side. Don't be faithless any longer. Believe. And Thomas shouts out, my Lord! And my God. What did you? Jesus do? How did he respond to a doubter? Jesus came to Thomas and gave Thomas exactly what he needed, and one moment he was doubting, and the next moment he was shouting, just like some of you will do

when Jesus touches you, proving to you that God is not distant in your doubts. Somebody needs to hear this. Jesus is not a standoff. Savior. He's willing to be touched. If he feels far away, reach out to him because he's reaching out for you. You can ask questions. You can take your frustrations to him. You can wrestle with him. You can complain. You can tell him that you don't understand. And I hope you feel this. When you have questions, when you have doubts, your doubts don't disqualify your faith. Your faith is a journey. It's never a destination.

And so what's going to happen at some point in your life and the life of a friend, a classmate, a child, a brother, a sister, there's going to be a question. You're going to have a doubt. You're going to have a moment of insecurity. You're going to want some details. You're going to want an answer and you don't have an answer yet. And your spiritual enemy, the devil, is going to try to use. your doubt to drive you away from God. It's going to tell you're not a real believer. You don't have

perfect faith. This stuff's not real. Church doesn't care about you. God's not involved in your life. He's not good. He doesn't love you. He's not with you. He hadn't really forgiven you. You've been too bad. You've been too filthy. After what you said, after what you did, after what you think, after how you act, after how you behave. He doesn't love you. And the devil is going to try to use your doubt to drive you away from God, but I came to tell somebody today that God can use your doubt to draw you to himself. God is so good. Jesus came to Thomas in the middle of his doubts. And this is hard for me to tell you because I am your pastor, but it was only three years ago or so when I was about to preach in my spot on song number two, standing right here, trying to worship and feeling nothing.

And I don't know why. I don't know why then. But at that moment, this panic came on me. What if this isn't real? What if it's just like emotional? What if it's a crutch? What if you die and go back to the ground? What if this isn't real? And I'm telling you, I couldn't. breathe, my heart was pounding. I started shaking, the tears started coming, and I looked right at the exit sign, and thought, maybe I can just escape. I mean, I'm minutes away from preaching.

I'm overwhelmed with doubt. Sat down, started crying, put my head in my face and prayed, God, if you're there, show me something. and I had a vision. It wasn't like a weird guy vision. It was like a very normal preacher guy vision. It was a, I just, I saw myself back in college reading in the Gospels for the first time about this Jesus.

I'd never really understood this Jesus that loved people as broken as me. And I remember reading that it's by grace through faith that you're made right with God. in the moment I thought the word faith, I thought, okay, faith. It takes faith. It's always going to take faith. And if there's any proof at all, what Jesus did in me is proof. I was lost, and then I was different. Faith.

I have faith to believe. And I discovered that faith is not the absence of doubt. but faith is the means to push through doubt. You can't get over how impactful that is. What I know is that for you in this moment, that could have been the word that you needed today, that Jesus comes to you in your doubt for whatever you are walking through.

What I know also is that God is speaking to us individually on what our one is, on where we need to continue focusing. And I want to pray for you right now over our messages today. God I thank you for this time and how you're speaking to us. if our one was working on silencing our negative thoughts, God, and taking power over those with God's help, may we pray that you would do that in this moment. If it was the power of consistency and inviting you into that in our lives, or maybe it's recognizing the abundance of God or dealing with our doubts, whatever it is, God,

we just commit that to you in this time. We thank you for how you're speaking. We ask for your continued direction. It's in Jesus' name. Amen. Britain, I love that for our community. community. We're all picking our one of what's impacted us the most this year. And I want to talk to another group of you. Maybe today is your day that your life will forever change. I want to go back

to what Pastor Craig said a little earlier, that it's all about faith. It's always going to require faith. Maybe you spent your whole life doubting God and you're not sure where to go. And maybe when you think about potentially serving him, you're surrounded with these doubts and you want to take a step of faith, but you're unsure of when and how. Today could be your day to put your trust in Jesus Christ, who is Jesus. Jesus is the sinless son of God who came down to earth, lived a sinless life, died on the cross for you and for me, so that we could be made right with God. He lives again on the third day after his death, he raised again from the death, defeating death, hell, the grave for you and for me.

So today, if that's you, if you want to accept Christ, no matter where you are, who you are, no matter what your background is, you can be made new in this moment right here, accept Christ. If that's you, I want you to go into the chat and type, I'm giving my life to Jesus right now, and we're celebrating with everybody around the world who is taking that step right now and community. Let's pray alongside those who are making that decision today.

Let's all pray this together. Jesus, thank you for giving your life for me. I'm putting my faith in you. I'm leaving my doubts behind and I'm looking to you. Jesus, fill me with your spirit so that I can serve you for the rest of my life. Jesus, I love you. I thank you in your name. Amen, amen. We are excited for those who are taking that step today. Yes, we are celebrating that decision with you. That is the best decision that you could ever make. You are brand new. You are forgiven. You are loved and you are on a journey of what it looks like to follow Jesus from this day forward.

We want to be a part of that journey. And the best way you can let us know is just filling out a quick 60 second form that's on your screen or in the chat. when you do that, it's going to allow us to partner with you with some resources and get to hear your story and celebrate this decision with you today. So again, congratulations for that. Absolutely. Hey, if you want to go back and look at all the great messages that you heard today, go to life.church slash best of 2022 to reminisce on what just happened and to choose that one if you haven't yet chosen that one. Yes, and we can't wait to start the new year with you. 2023 coming at you. We're going to see you here. Same time, same place.

Because we know that whoever finds God finds life. What was your one? Everyone had to be still. It was that one to be. I'm pretty sorry.