Life.Church with Craig Groeschel - The Father’s Voice, Part 1: The Father’s Voice

Episode Date: April 24, 2016

Some voices are loud and full of authority. Others are soft and comforting. Some are kind, some make us laugh, and some we’d rather not hear. We’re surrounded by so many voices, it may seem impossible to tell which one’s right. But you’ll always h... 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, where we are one church meeting in multiple locations and reaching around the world through our network churches and church online. If you have any questions you'd like to learn more about us, you can always visit us online by going to life. Today, Life Church welcomes back our friend and stand-up comedian Michael Jr. As he teaches us to weed through all the voices in our life and listen for the one that truly matters. And his message, the Father's Voice. Hey everybody at Life Church and all of our network churches, those of you all over the world at church online, you're going to be extremely excited to hear great news today. So many people are still talking about earlier before we had Michael Jr. come and minister to our church and you guys absolutely loved him. Well, guess what?

We are thrilled to have him back again today before you welcome him. If you're new, maybe you've never heard of Michael Jr. before, this guy is one of the greatest comedians alive. I don't know about you, but I love to laugh, and I think it's okay to laugh in church as well. I'm thrilled today to introduce one of the greatest men of God I know. He's a fantastic husband to his wife, an amazing dad to five kids. Michael Jr.'s been on the Tonight Show, the Late Late Show, Jimmy Kimmel, Comedy Central. He's played in clubs all over the world, and he's ministered to our church in an amazing way. What I love most about Michael Jr.

Is his passion for Jesus. His comedy has a message. Would you please join me and welcome me again to Life Church, Michael Jr. All right. That was fun. Thanks a lot. Pastor Craig, or as I call him, puk. So it is really, really cool to be here.

I'm excited. Pastor Greg is a good dude. I remember, I don't know if he can recall this or not, but I actually remember, first of all, every time I'm calling me at the gym, for some reason. I'm like, calm down, dude. Anyway, so I remember the first,

because he wanted me to, he approached me. We actually did a selfie together the first time we made. I think we have a selfie, the picture of it. Yeah, there it is. I think I got that picture of us together. Yeah, just memories. So cool, man. I'm glad everyone is here.

I'm glad you guys are out at all the other locations. I'm so pumped to be a part of this. You've decided to actually. come and get fed this morning, and hopefully we'll laugh as well. We're going to have a great time. It's going to be fun and stuff. This is the saying I love to say is, if you buy a man of fish, he'll eat for a day.

But if you teach him how to fish, then you've got to buy him some bait, some tackle, fishing pole, you got driving back and forth to the lake, get him a license. Sometimes you just get that dude a fish sandwich. It's okay. But if you show him his reason for fishing, He'll probably figure it out himself. See what just happened?

It got deep in laughing. That's a snapshot of what could go on today. So let me tell you about me. I got five kids. Yeah. And I travel a lot, you know, so I can see them all. Yeah. So I'm just playing.

I don't see them. I don't see them. I do have five kids. And when you have a big family, I have to figure out ways to save money. Pastor Craig knows this. So what we did, we wanted our family. our family pictures taken

and that stuff was really, really expensive. So we did to save money as we all got in the front seat of the car, looked both ways, and ran a red light as we did. Two weeks later, the picture came in the mail but my son blinked so we had to do it again. That stuff was crazy.

My youngest is now five years old and she every Tuesday we go out and we get hot chocolate together. But there's one Tuesday in particular that I had a meeting after I didn't want to rush it. So I went to her.

This was when she was three years old. I said, listen, can we go today, which was Monday, instead of Tuesday because I don't want to rush her time together? And she said, so do you want to get hot chocolate today? She said, yes, get hot chocolate. So I took her to get hot chocolate. And on the way there, I gave her life lessons. We actually stopped to feed the ducks.

And I was like, ducks are like bad friends. As soon as you're out of bread, watch what's going to happen. Anyway, so we get the hot chocolate. Next day rolls around. She wakes up. Dad, what's today? I was like, it's Tuesday. She's like, we get hot chocolate? I was like, no, remember we said we're going to get, we already got hot chocolate. And she looked at me for real and she said, I changed my mind. So we got hot chocolate again. My daughter, she had a hamster at one point. I say had a hamster because we were in the backyard playing and a hawk or something.

She's like, dad, where did Mr. Jacobs go? I was like, um, he went hang gliding. We were We're gonna pick him up later at the pet store. He might look different when we pick him up, though. My kids just want to, they want an animal, any animal, because we didn't have a, we didn't, we didn't, we didn't, we didn't, we didn't, we didn't, a dog when I was a kid, but we didn't like, some people loved a dog. And then, and we just had a dog. Like, we don't even know where he came from.

It was just a dog, man. So they want a dog. This was our whole relationship with our dog when I was a kid. This was our whole relationship. We had a dog, took him to the vet, got the bill, left him there. We never saw that dog again, man. I don't care about no dog, man. Cats, though, they're awesome. I'm just...

So I think it's okay if you love your dog, as long as you know, your dog don't love you back. It's just the dog, people. I know, so she got hurt. She's like, oh, my dog loves me. I had a lady standing an autograph line for like 45 minutes because she wanted to prove to me her dog loved her. She started reaching her purse. I was like, you got a love note? What are you going to show me?

And she pulls out an article where it talks about her article where it talks about her talks about how the dog saved her life. Apparently her house caught on fire. And the dog, she said, would not leave her side. It kept barking and barking and barking until finally she woke up and they got out the house safely. I was like, man, that is amazing. I'm just saying, I think the story would have been a little different

if the dog knew how to turn a doorknop. Never put that doggie door in, did you? Yeah. Procrastination saved your life. So what I'm talking about today, a lot of times I get a lot of comedians from different places and ask me about doing comedy and what they need to do to pursue a career in comedy. Or people, no matter what the profession is,

I'm sure Pastor Craig is people who walks up to him on a regular basis say, hey, what can I do to become a pastor? People are always asking what can I do. The key isn't what you do. The key is why. People always want to know their what, but the truth is, all you have to know is your why. When you know your why, you have more options as to what you do.

An example is this. I am actually called to comedically, my why is to comedically inspire people to walk in purpose. My what looks like stand-up comedy. It looks like movies. It looks like being on late night TV, having my own TV show. I have a lot of options for what, but my why never changes. And when you understand, clearly, when you understand your why, your what has more impact. I have an example.

One of my what's that I'm currently doing is I have a web series out called a microdial Michael Jr. Break Time. It's on YouTube. We throw them out on Wednesdays. And basically what break time is, it's one of my live stand-up comedy performances, whenever I'm doing a concert anywhere in the country, in the middle of my show, I will stop doing what I'm doing and just talk to audience members. And comedy just kind of happens. Well, we're in Winston-Salem. I'm about to show you a clip. We're in Winston-Salem, and this guy, I talked to him and he said he's a teacher. And it's break time. We're sitting down. He said he was a teacher and he teaches music. And I was like, well, you know, can you sing? And check out what happens. So you're a musical director. Yes, sir. All right, so let me get a couple, let me get a couple bars of like Amazing Grace.

Can you do the first part of that? Go ahead. Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that says, a wretch like me. That bro I could sing, you know what I'm saying? I want you to give me the version as if your uncle just got out of jail, you got shot in the back when you as a kid. I'm just saying, let me see the hood version real quick if you know what's what I'm talking about.

Just see if that exists. Let me see what you got. Amazing. So the first time I asked you, asked him to sing, he knew what he was doing. The second time I asked him to sing, he knew why he was doing it. When you understand your why, your what has more impact because you are walking in or towards your purpose. The key is to understand the why. So now I'm doing new sports these days because, you know, after a certain age, you got to, for instance, growing up in the hood, the only sport we play was water polo and stuff. So, so, um, so, so, um, so, um, so Now I'm doing new sports. Some friends took me ball hunting. You ever go ball hunting? Some people call it golf or whatever.

First of all, it took all day. And then my friends lied to give me to gold. There's like, yo, the greens are awesome. I was like, cool. I showed up with some cornbread. I was like, all right, man. Something y'all don't get that joke. You need to turn to the black person in your section.

Like, hey, what does he do with the cornbread? I don't understand. So I'm doing new sports. Now, I actually went to a baseball game recently. I had some friends who played Major League Baseball, and I had never been to a baseball game before ever. I just hadn't been. And first of all, there was some things I didn't understand.

Like when I get there, I notice everyone in the stands, it seems like they might be a little tipsy. I'm not sure, though. I'm not positive, but it seems like it. We get to the seventh inning, and everyone starts singing a song. What's the song? Take me out to the ball game.

we are at the ball game you don't know where you are you're drunk for sure kids sports is a lot of fun coaches are hysterical coaches all over the place the good coaches always say something like this you've heard this before they look at you to look at the whole team and they say listen the stuff I'm teaching here

is not just about this game you can apply it to life it's not true at all check it out straight out high school I got a job parking cars One of the cars was really nice. I took it for a little spin. The company found out, and my boss lost the account. He was yelling at me, screaming.

I didn't know what to say or do. I thought back to my high school football coach. I looked at my boss, I was like, you know what, man? You win some, you lose some, man. You can't let this one loss get you down. The important thing is, I went out there and I had fun. Then I got fired. Then I got fired right after that, so that worked out just on it.

I think what's so cool about Life Church is how you guys are just, I think it's just way different from any church that I had grown up around. Like, I remember going to churches and they wouldn't, are you ever go to a church where they won't let you in while people are praying? Like, you try to walk in and they're like, you can't go in right now. They're praying. I'm like, is God going to lose focus? I don't understand why I can't.

This makes no sense whatsoever. And I'm actually on the prayer team at my church, which I'm excited about, A couple weeks ago, this dude came down for prayer, and I was like, yo, what you want to pray about? I didn't say, yo, that's unprofessional. I was like, what's on your mind? Would you like to pray about?

He said a phrase I'd never heard before. He said, unspoken. Have you heard that before? Unspoken. I didn't know what to do. I'd never heard before. So I was like, all right, God, please forgive this man for this unspeakable thing he's done, Lord.

I hope it's not contagious, Lord. I love seeing comedy, funny stuff like that. I just make it up like this next thing. I met a family from Africa who came to America to adopt a white kid. Yeah. Her name was Emily and they changed it to Ubente and they don't know how to do her hair. It's crazy. Some people are extremely politically correct.

I'm not that good at it, but I notice it when it happens. I'm at a coffee shop and there's a white guy in front of me and he orders a coffee and the lady is like, how do you want it? And then he looked back at me and was like, African American. I was like, cool, let me get the Caucasian mocha.

Cool with that. That'd be great. I'll get the Caucasian mocha. I'm also an early person. I love getting up early. At least 11.30 or so, I got to be up. Can't be sleeping around,

missing the whole day, man. So I know some people get up earlier than that. And they always got those sayings, too. It's the early bird that gets the worm. You know what? I don't even like worms. Yeah, I'm going to get up. up later and has some sausage. Let's think about that phrase for a second. It's the early bird

that gets the worm. You know what? The worm got up early too. Look what happened to him. Or you hear sayings like, I hear this a lot. Boy, I wish I could have been a fly on the wall. Every time someone says that, I look at it and I'm like, and then what? No, no, no, no. You want to be a fly on the wall so you can hear the information that was in the room. Well, guess what? I did the research. Flies don't have ears. There could be a fly on a wall that could read lips. And then when you get the information, what are you going to do with it? Nobody listens to a fly.

Yeah, a bird, maybe, a fly, no. You're making bad choices. Some people predict the end times. Why would you ever predict it in times? Because if you're right, you can't be like, see, I told you, like it's over. I'm on social media. There's a book out that's really cool. Like one of my favorite messages that has ever come out of Life Church is the Struggles

message. like a really good, hold on one second. Okay, yeah, that's a really good message. Like, it's, like, it's on my favorite. I'm actually, I'm on social media, but not too much, because I got five kids. My kids come way before anything socially outside of the crib.

But I am on social media, and I do notice that some people have a really hard time communicating when they're on social media too much. This guy walks up to me after an event, and he said, excuse me, Michael Jr., can you like me? I don't know, man. Do anybody else like you?

He was like, well, not as many people as I want. I was like, it might be your approach. He was like, well, can you like me when you get home? I was like, if I don't like you now, why would I like you when I get home? Are you going to follow me or something? He's like, I will if you like me. I was like, that's why I don't like you.

That's why I don't like you. And I'm going to do a public service announcement just because I feel like I should every once in a while. This is mainly for all my. my white friends. And when I say white friends, I'm talking about you guys. And I do jokes about different nationalities. I want to be clear. I'm not racist. Some of my best friends are black. Just want to throw that out there. So this is a public service announcement. There's something that my white friends do that I want to release you from having to do it anymore. Sometimes you do it

because you don't know what else to do. It's weird that you don't know what to do. Or sometimes you do it and you don't even know you're doing it. So I want to let you know that it exists and and I want to free you from ever having to do it again. Okay, here it is. This is for my white friends. The next time you meet a black person for the first time, you don't have to let that black person know that you know another black person.

It's okay, really. You don't have to do it. You don't have to do it. You try to slip it in like we're not going to notice. We always notice. This is great weather we're having. My friend, Chiquita would love this weather. I'm excited about the fact that, I'm going to share this with you guys.

I'm excited that I can stand here and tell you guys. It's been over two years since I've had a cigarette. So, yeah, I'm excited about that. Actually, you know what? It's been a little longer. I've never had a cigarette before. So I just want to throw it out there. Interesting how everybody can clap for two years.

But nothing for a lifetime. Awesome. Great. Thanks, Christians. And my comedy, that's what I do. I always sit back and pay attention to people, mainly because when I was a kid, I had such a hard time reading.

I would struggle with my reading. My friend bought me this book called Reading Fidumi. I'm like, what you want with that? What's that gonna do? I'm married. There's a few things that I don't understand about women. I'm gonna mention one in particular. Heels.

I think wearing heels is kind of like doing drugs. Hear me all, ladies. First of all, you do it to get hot. You feel great while you're up there. When you come down, it hurts. You regret it. But then you do it all over again, don't you? I really think you have a problem.

I really do. You ever go shopping at a second-chance store? Not a second-hand store, a second-chance store. A second-chance store is like Ross or T.J. Max. Let me explain why I call it second-chance store. The items there used to be at the mall, but nobody wanted them. Now they're at Ross, and they get a second chance. You can find a few guys.

good things at Ross, but you got to be careful because there's always something a little wrong, like just a little, like something's not quite like I bought a Nike shirt there, the back of his head, just try it. It was a size, extra medium, actually. Being kid, just having kids is really, really phenomenal. I didn't share what you got. I just told you I have five kids, but I have five kids because I used to be like a single dad of three. Yeah, let me explain to you how I got my kids. Well, you know how I got them. I don't got to explain that part. But I used to be a single dad of three, and what happened was my, the kid's mom. God just told me to go get my kids.

He was like, you need to go get your kids. And I lived in California. They were in Michigan. And he said, go. And I just went and got him. And I got a little hostile at first. Everything is great now. But I was like, oh, yeah, why don't the kids come live with me?

And then she said, okay. And I was like, okay. And being a single dad, any single parents out there, wow. That stuff is a lot, a lot of work. I got much, much love for single parents. Like a whole bunch of love. My son, four years old, we're sitting in the doctor's office,

and his lady across from her, she starts nursing her baby. And my son is looking at her and he looks at me. He's looking at her and he's looking at me. And I know it's not going to be cool because he don't know how to whisper. And he looks at me, and he's like, he said, Dad, what is the lady doing to the baby? Like, why are you so loud?

right now, but I tried to explain to him. It's natural. See, what you saw was completely natural. See, women have these breasts. And he said, what's the breast? He lower your voice a little bit, dude. I said, it's like a container that holds milk. And for real, he was like, you mean a jug?

I was like, no. That is not what I mean. That is not what I mean. But I wrote it down, no. I was like, I'm going to write that down. Because that is hysterical. And in math, my daughter would come home with math homework, and she's like, and I didn't know how to do, like, in it,

we had multiplication and subtraction and all those really complex things. She came home, she was like, Dad, I got calculus. Calculus, this sounds like a disease. I was like, no, you don't. We're going to pray. You also got this from your mother's side of her family. I love, love, love, love, love, love being a dad. So I put some comedy in between some truths because this is what I want you understand.

A moment ago, we talked about how most people are trying to figure out their what. When the truth is what you need to do is figure out your why. But the only way you can know your what is by knowing your why, but you don't get any of that unless you know who. The who is the key to all of this. So not too long ago, me and my wife, we were looking at some video footage. of our youngest daughter, she's five now, being born. And I had never seen this footage from this perspective before, like ever. I took the video myself, but I hadn't looked at it and absorbed it in this way.

So what I'm about to show you, it's a clip. She's probably two minutes old at this point. She's crying, she's on the table, the nurse is about to take care of her. And I want you to pay attention to what happens when she hears my voice. Look, I'm right here. It's okay. It's okay. I'm right here. We're doing just fine. It's okay. It's okay. I'm right here. Right here. Yeah. It's okay. So when I saw that, I was overwhelmed. Wow, awesome that is. So it's a few minutes later. The nurses cleaned her up a little bit and she stopped crying. But then about three minutes or so into that, she starts crying more. and then I speak up and she stops crying again. But I want you to notice, I want you to notice how she responds when I tell her, I love her.

Portland. Portland. It's okay. It's good. It's good. It's good. I'm right here. I'm right here.

I am right here. I love you. I love you. I love you. Yeah. I'm right here. I'm right here. It's okay. It's okay. So there's going to be times when you're trying to figure out what your what is and what your why is. There's going to be times where things are not comfortable, even to the point of tears.

The key thing to do in those moments is to just be still and listen for the father's voice because he is talking to you. And what he wants you to know is that he loves you. all you have to do is open your eyes. I'm Michael Jr. I love you. You guys are awesome. Thank you so much. It's a great message today at all of our churches. Let's take a moment and absorb that truth and prayer.

Father, thank you so much that you show us your love in so many different ways. God, if we can see you in the beauty of creation, we can find you even in moments of laughter. and God, I pray today that everyone who's in your presence would be very sensitive, God, that you would not only show us the what, but God, show us the why. Why it is that you have allowed us to go through what we're going through, why you've given us the gifts that you've given us. And God, even more than the why, I pray that we would embrace the who, God, that you are with us, that you love us, and that you're calling us to use our gifts to make a difference in this world.

and all of our churches, those of you, I want to just pray today, especially for those who may be going through a difficult time. I just have this on my heart. I know that there are different seasons in life. And some of you right now, you may be in a more difficult season. And if that's you at all of our churches, just between you and God, would you slip up your hands right now if you're going through something that may be a little bit difficult? There are so many of you. And I just, I want to pray especially for you. Father, I lift up every person that's hurting right now or facing some challenges. And, God, I know that you know the intimate details of everything that they're going through. Sometimes, God, we know that in the middle of challenging seasons, we just simply don't understand the why. And we may not, or we may experience those in hindsight.

But I pray, God, right now, that the who, that you, your presence would bring comfort to those who are hurting. God, we thank you that you are a good God, that you can take what the enemy meant for evil, and God, that you can use it for good. So I ask God now that your Holy Spirit would minister to those who are going through a trial. And God, even today, that a little bit of laughter would be a gift from heaven to be a blessing to them. More than even laughing, God, we pray that your presence would be everything that we need, that you would give us the mind and the peace of Jesus Christ,

that we would experience a supernatural peace that goes beyond our human. human ability to understand. As you keep praying today at all of our churches, here's what's amazing is that you've just opened up your hearts today to laugh a lot in an amazing way, and we believe with all of our hearts that joy is a gift from God. But the reality is there are some of you, you came here for a deeper purpose, and that is because it's time for you to get to know the who. As you look at your life right now, you may have tried in all different ways to find meaning, say, hey, I want to go make a name for myself. or I want to make some friends, or I want to have a good time, or I want to make some money.

And yet at the end of the day, you still find yourself searching and longing for something more. Why is that? Because you're not looking for a what. You're actually searching for a who. Someone said that we're all created with a God-shaped void in our lives. Until we know God, until we understand His love, will always be searching. At all of our churches, there are those of you you recognize, yes, you've been on a search. your entire life. And today, you're going to meet the who, the one who loved you so much

that he gave his son Jesus so that your sins could be forgiven and you could be made completely brand new. It was the who. It was Jesus who changed Michael Jr.'s life. It was Jesus who changed my life. And it's Jesus who can change your life. And all of our churches, those of you who say, yes, I've been on a search, a quest, a longing to find something that what, whatever that is that I'm missing. And you're recognizing, it's not a what that you're missing. it's a who you're missing a living relationship with a loving God and today you say yes I want it Jesus forgive my sins by faith I want to surrender my life to you that's your prayer would you lift your hands high right now at all of our church and say yes Jesus I want to know you those of you

at church online if you'll simply click right below me I would love to invite all of you to join your hearts and praying with those around you simply pray heavenly father I want to know you I want to know you personally. Forgive me of every sin I've ever committed. Make me brand new. Fill me with your spirit. So I could know you and so I could live for you. My life is not my own.

Today I give it to you. Thank you for new life. God, you have mine. In Jesus' name I pray. Would you all worship big and worship last. today. Thanking God for his work and new life in Christ. At Life Church, we are honored to play a very small part in all that God is doing in and through your life, and we would love to continue with you on that journey. To find out what your next steps are, just go to life.church

slash next. Here at Life Church, we believe technology is something to be used to reach the world for Christ. And one of the ways we've done that is through the U-Version Bible app that's been downloaded well over 200 million times around the world. We recently had the chance to sit down with Grammy award-winning hip-hop artist Lecrae and hear how he sees technology and the Bible app changing the way people engage with God's word. Use my music to explicitly just share the gospel, share the story of it, and I've used my music to demonstrate the implications of the gospel in my life and in the lives of others and also to demonstrate why we need the gospel by pointing. out, you know, the brokenness of this world.

I think technology has helped within the church by just the spreading of information faster. You know, the Bible being digital is a huge game changer. It's convenient, but then I think about even places where it may be illegal to carry a Bible or have it, but you can now have it on your phone or something and look at it. For me, personally, there's never now a reason. for me to not have access to my word. You know, when you're trying to find something, you're trying to look something up,

or you need to reference something, you have it right there at your fingertips. You know, the beauty of art is art gives you the opportunity to tell a story and people connect and are drawing the stories. And, you know, the gospel is a part of a story. It's a story of the creation, the fall and the redemption of mankind.

Man, just grateful for Life Church, making the Bible available all over the world. It's beautiful. The accessibility of the Word of God, it's a beautiful thing. To download the Bible app to your mobile device, just go to Bible.com slash app. Here at Life Church, it's our mission and our passion to reach people who don't know Christ because we believe whoever finds God truly finds life.