What’s Next – Part 2: Episode 137

Because this here’s what I think. It’s because I think purpose trumps position. Purpose trumps position. So you see, this is my position in life here, Daron. I’m just. I’m just a stay-at-home mom. I’m just a student. I’m just an accountant. I’m just whatever. No, you’re not. Right? Because remember last episode we talked about your purpose gives you vision. Your purpose is this. Here’s what’s true about it. I don’t care what your job or position is created on purpose and for purpose.

Hey, welcome back to the Daron Earlewine podcast. Daron Earlewine, your host. Thanks for joining us. We are in this series about what’s next, and I love the idea of looking out into the future. That’s always where we find hope. We do not live life through the rearview mirror, right? We’re moving forward into what God has for us because we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which he’s prepared in advance for us to do, which means we’re out in the future. So the question is, what’s next for you?

What’s next for me? So welcome to this episode. So glad you’ve downloaded it means so much to me. Those of you that have subscribed to the YouTube channel, I ask you specifically to do it. I know the majority of you, mass majority of you guys just listen audio, and that’s no problem. I’m not asking you to change your listening habits. All I would ask is, would you follow suit in what hundreds of others of people have done? Head over to YouTube and subscribe to the YouTube channel. Just search my name, Daron Earlewine. And we’ve got a few more hundred to go.

We might get to the special place where we can maybe start monetizing what we’re doing here on YouTube and help pay for the nonprofit that we run. And I just love that you guys are part of this podcast community. Hearing from you always makes my heart so happy, getting a chance to pray specifically for what you’re going through in your life. As always, you can reach out to me in a variety of ways. You can email me, Daron@Blackbirdmission.com.

You can also send me a text 317-550-5070 or please reach out on any of the socials and would love to connect with you there. So quick plug. Before we get going, I want to let you know that The Death of a Dream, Resurrecting Purpose When Life Doesn’t Go As Planned. Audiobook is out. It’s live on audible.com Go download or send it as a gift. Christmas is just around the corner. Hello. Send them an audiobook that’s out, as well as our small group curriculum.

Get together with a group, put a book study together. You can watch or listen to sessions for each chapter with reflection and discussion questions. All the information is at Daron earlywine.com. Go check it out. All right, let’s jump in, talking about what’s next. Last week we talked about the first question we ask Is this, what could be? That’s all about what we see as we look at our life, as we look at the life around us, as we look at the world around us, as we look at some of the biggest problems that don’t look like the kingdom of God, we have to ask ourselves this, what could be?

It’s about imagination. It’s about vision. It’s about the future, and it’s connected to the purposes of God, right? You’re created on purpose and for the purposes of God. Next question we have to ask Is this, what should be? This is the progression that Andy Stanley talks about in his book, Visioneering. And here’s the difference. Could be you see it should be you feel it when you move from the step of asking God, what’s next for my life? And he begins to open your eyes for you to see something that could be different.

What happens is he begins to stir in your heart to the place where you move from a could to a should. This is something you start to feel that needs to happen because it should happen. We look at this progression of the life of Nehemiah. We’re looking at his story here in this series. And it’s interesting because he goes in chapter two, and he goes before the king to bring him his wine. And the King asks, he says, what’s wrong? Are you sick or something? I don’t think you’re sick, but I’ve never seen you look sad like this.

What’s going on with you? And Nehemiah says this, I had not been sad in his presence before. So the king asked me, here it comes. Why does your face look so sad when you’re not ill? This can be nothing but sadness of heart. Nehemiah says, I was very much afraid, but I said to the king, may the king live forever. Why should my face not look sad when the city where my ancestors are buried lies in ruins and its gates have been destroyed by fire?

Here’s a question. What evil in our world right now makes you sad or mad? Like if you’re looking at the world and you’re saying, God, what’s next? What are we going to do together? So you say, what could be? The way you begin to pay attention to what should be is, where do you get emotionally invested in either sadness or anger? What makes you sad or mad? When you look at the world now here, possibly your answer is, not much.

Here’s why I think that is. I think at least in North America, we do our darndest to make sure that we avoid anything that really makes us mad or sad about society. I think most of the time we’re trying to figure out how to make ourselves happy and at ease. Hey, what’s up? I want to invite you to join us for a global day of generosity called giving Tuesday. This year, it’s on November 20, eigth, and you may not know, but Blackbird Mission is the nonprofit that runs everything that’s connected with everything we do.

So if you’ve read the book and it blessed you in some kind of way, maybe help God begin to resurrect a new purpose in your life. If you’ve gone through the spiritual DNA workshop and took the steps to become a you were born to be, maybe you’re just a faithful podcast listener. And each and every week the podcast is something that reminds you that God’s for you, not against you, that he’s near you, not far from you, that he’s created you on purpose and for purpose.

All of that, as well as the Pub Theology ministry do and many other things, is everything that is a part of our not-for-profit Blackbird Mission. This year we have a huge goal. Here’s what we’re trying to do. We’re trying to raise $100,000 to fully fund the ministry for the next year. And here’s the cool part. We’re going to give away 20% of it. Last year we set a goal to raise $75,000 and we exceeded it, and we gave away 10% of what came in last year.

We want to be a conduit of God’s generosity. So this year we’re giving away 20% of everything that comes into Blackbird to other smaller nonprofits. One of the ones we’re going to give to is we’ve got a great counseling ministry that works with mental health, with people up out of Michigan, and they need some scholarships to help people go through a day-and-a-half counseling intensive that need it to unlock their roads of addiction and difficult behavior patterns. And they say, hey, we’ve got some people that can’t afford to do this and would you guys be willing to partner and scholarship a few people through this? That’s going to be one of the things that we give to this giving Tuesday. But we need your help.

 Anything would be appreciated. If you can make your gift monthly, maybe $30 a month or something would be huge for us. You pray about it, see what God would have you do. And here’s what you do. You just go to blackbirdmission.com givingTuesday. You go there, there’ll be a campaign set up and we would love, love for you to join us this year for GivingTuesday. Our goal is to raise 100,000 and give away 20 to other smaller nonprofits. Please join us.

If we have blessed you, help us bless others and keep this ministry fully funded for the next year. We appreciate it. GivingTuesday November 20, eigth Blackpromission.com GivingTuesday thanks again. And I’ll be the first to admit, right, if you go through spiritual DNA, you’re going to discover some of your motivations. For me, when I discovered in spiritual DNA, I’m a type seven on the Enneagram. I’ve talked about this before in the podcast, meaning I don’t like painful emotions.

I reframe everything naturally. My head just does it. My brain, I reframe everything in a positive light. I’m always looking for the silver lining. The glass is always half full, if not brimming over in my brain. So I’ve noticed what I do is when I see something in the world that would make me sad or mad, I just keep scrolling because I guarantee you, a couple of thumb pushes, I’m going to get one of the cat videos or those like voiceover videos, right, where the guy, the comedian, is voicing over like the crazy emu that’s freaking out by the car backfiring. Have you seen that video?

I literally almost wet myself, right? I mean, the cat ones are the greatest. I got this one guy that I follow, I think his name’s, I can’t remember what his name is, Tony Baker or something like that. And he has cats. When they smack each other and he says Skibbity Pat. It’s hilarious. So I see something sad that could be different and probably should be different, and I skip past it so I can go find a Skibbity Pat video.

How about you may not be Skibbity Pat, but I guarantee you, I can’t guarantee you maybe you are unbelievably more holy than I am. I hope you are. But my guess is there’s something you’re using in your life to at least quiet down the feelings of should be in your life. Here’s what I want to encourage you to do, and me too, is to become courageous enough to ask God to give you a greater outpouring of His Holy Spirit. Because the Holy Spirit gives us a power.

It’s not a spirit of fear, which really, that’s what that is, right? We’re afraid that God might invite us to do something about that. And we either feel inadequate or unprepared or whatever it would be. But we don’t need that because what we need is a spirit of power and love and self-discipline, which is what God has promised to give us. Another thing that possibly keeps you from kind of squashing the feelings of should be where something starts to become passionate within. Okay, could be this is you saying, what am I going to do about it? Right?

I’m just a fill-in-the-blank. In Nehemiah’s case, could have said, okay. SO somebody comes to him and says, hey, guys. Hey, Nehemiah, I don’t know if you know about Jerusalem, but it’s burned down, the walls are smashed, it’s in shambles. And he could have said, man, that could be different. This is the city of God. It could be different. You know what? This should be different. Somebody should do something about the walls of Jerusalem. And then the next sentence that would have made total sense for Nehemiah is this.

But what am I going to do? I’m just cupbearer to the king, right? I have an expendable job, expendable life. My job is to make sure there’s no poison in the king’s wine that’s not exactly a mover and shaker. So I don’t think I’m going to go be a revolutionary and rebuild the walls of the city when I’m the cupbearer to the king. How about I just shut up, sip the wine and hope I don’t would have. If you were his friend, you’d have been like, you know what, Nehemiah, bro, you’re right.

Don’t get too worked up. I just hope you don’t die tomorrow. Here’s what I find, though. Throughout all of Scripture, what’s really cool is it seems like God always likes to take the underdog or the person that no one would think would be involved in actually being heroic in the story and uses them in powerful, powerful ways. Because this, here’s what I think. It’s because I think purpose trumps position.

Purpose trumps position. So you see, this is my position in life here, Daron. I’m just a stay-at-home mom. I’m just a student. I’m just an accountant. I’m just whatever. No, you’re not. Right, because remember last episode, we talked about your purpose gives you vision. Your purpose is this. Here’s what’s true about it. I don’t care what your job or position is. The reality about who you are is that you are made in the image of God. You’re an image bearer of God. Not only that, but you are redeemed and saved by the grace of God, the blood of Jesus. Right? You’re empowered by the spirit of God, which actually gives you power and love and self-discipline, and you are actually involved in seeing God’s kingdom come and his will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

So it doesn’t matter what your life position is. You have a purpose, and you are created on purpose and for the purposes of God. So trust the Holy Spirit to move you from could to should. It would be amazing to see an uprising of people that are passionate about the things of God that should be in their neighborhood, in their school, in their workplace, and they begin to join God to create the future.

Because here’s the deal. I want to wrap it up with this. We’re not a movement of just what could be, right? We are a movement of what could be to what should be. And next week, we’ll talk about this, what must be. But this is what the movement’s been about. And we’re a movement of visionaries and dreamers that God begins to entrust with visions of the future that are on his heart and his mind. Check it out. When this movement called the Church that we’re a part of, if you’re a follower of Jesus, started, here’s how it was described in the last days. God says, I will pour out my spirit on all people. So cupbearers, baristas, accountants, stay-at-home moms, fill in the blank, whatever it is, he’s going to pour his spirit out on all people in these last days, which is these days.

He says this, your sons and daughters will prophesy, right? They will speak of the future. What is that? That’s what could be. That’s what should be. How does it happen? Check it out. Well, your young men will see visions. Your old men dream dreams. We are a movement of could be and should be. We’re a movement of visionaries and dreamers that actually are given visions of the future that is on God’s heart and mind. And then empowered with his spirit to do these things, he’s going to pour a spirit out. Even on my servants, both men and women.

I will pour out my spirit in those days, and they will prophesy. I will show wonders in the heavens above and signs on the earth below. Blood and fire and billows of smoke. The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and glorious day of the Lord. And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. What should be. What should be is peace and love and joy and patience and kindness and goodness, bringing relationships back together from every tribe and tongue of the world.

That’s what should be. And here’s the good thing. That’s what God wants to do. What he’s looking for is children of God, like you, like me. That would take the time to go, God. What could be different that would open their heart to the Spirit, to the heart of God, and say, God, take me to a place where I actually am feeling that this should be. I feel it. And if we get there, we might just have enough courage. We’ll talk about it next week to move to the place where we say, this must be.

All right, friends, stoked that you joined us again. Would love to hear maybe what ideas God’s given you right now. What are some could bes and should bes that are happening in your life? Reach out to me. Email me, Daron@blackbirdmission.com Text me 317-550-5070 and or reach out on the socials and can’t wait to hear what God’s doing in your life. Go check out the audiobook if you haven’t yet, get the small group curriculum for The Death of a Dream.

And yeah, we’re going to keep cruising together. Hey, listen, thanks so much for downloading this episode. I appreciate it. Before we talk again, remember, God’s for you is not against you. He’s near you, not far away, and he’s created you on purpose and for his purposes. See you next time right here on the Daron Earlewine podcast.