Dealing with Criticism and Rejection

TRANSCRIPT

I don't know about you, but have you ever had, some families that you live with or your people you grew up with and You kind of they were kind of like your family and their family and you all kind of shared the same Values and maybe you went to the same school and then maybe same church and you all kind of just hung out together It's like wow, this is just awesome And then for whatever reason their family has to move away And it's devastating, but then what happens is you, you bump into him like 10 years or 15 years later and you're, you're listening and you're grappling and you're going, who are you?

You have changed so much and I don't think you've changed that much for the better. In fact, you, you seem to have forgotten everything, everything that we had. Well, did you know that Hollywood helps us a little bit with this? It teaches us about a little boy called Peter Pan. Peter Pan, the little boy that should never grow up.

He would always stay in Never Never Land. He would look after the Lost Boys. He'd fight Captain Hook and protect the Lost Boys. And Peter was marvellous. But then one day, Peter got distracted. And he found someone called Moira and he fell in love with Moira. So he left Never Never Land and he went into our world.

And then he got consumed with the things of our world and he grew up, and then they got married, then they had kids. And meanwhile, back in Never Never Land, Captain Hook is waiting for this big war with his adversary Peter Pan, and he can't have his war. So what he does is he plots a way to steal the kids.

from Peter and get them back to Neverland so Peter would have to come. What a great plan. And it works. They get Peter back there, but Captain Hook is stood there and Peter is brought in. And they go, here's Peter. You go, what? Peter? This is Peter? No, surely not. This is not Peter. Not this pasty, bloated codfish I see before me.

No. Come on, Peter. And he's going, come on, Peter. Stop the charade. Break out. Come on, fly. Anyway, Peter's struggling. He's really struggling. And Captain Hook is so... What is going on here? And then the little guy, Captain Hook's associate Smee, he points out to Captain Hook what the problem is. So just have a quick watch of a few seconds of the movie.

He's just been away from Neverland so long his mind's been jantified. He's forgotten everything. Oh. He's been away so long. His mind's junctified. He's forgotten everything. This series is only going to have one word. Outlasters. Outlasters. We need to be outlasters when it comes to our faith. We gotta not forget.

By the time you reach the end of this race of life, you want to make sure that when you pass through the doorway of death, you hear, well done, good and faithful servant. Not, depart from me, I never knew you. So this is a really important series. Peter's not doing so good at the moment. He has forgotten everything about who he is.

But when you become an outlaster and you follow the master, you go further and you go faster. Not as in faster as in a flurry of activity, but faster as in spiritual development and maturity. But it happens as you follow the master. But this race that you and I are born into, it's not a sprint. I was a really good sprinter.

I ran 100, 200. I won the States when I was about 15 years of age, about 20 years ago.

You heartless people. No. But I was good at the 100, 200. I was lousy at the 4 and 8. But then I kicked in again at the cross country, and it's a small marathon. When you're running a marathon, it's very, very different the way you approach it, the way you have to lean into it, and the way you prepare for it.

So there was a guy in 1968, it was a Mexico Summer Olympics. His name was Stephen John Stephen Aquara. He's from Tanzania. And he was sent to this marathon, and he's in this marathon, he's running, and he gets about halfway round. Halfway around, and he stumbles on a curb, and he falls over, and he damages, knocks his head, damages, dislocates his shoulder, lacerates his leg, I think we got a bit of footage, and you can have a look at.

And, he ends up down there, and they send the ambulance to him, and the ambulance just gets down there, and then they're patching him up, and they said, John, you're going to have to come to hospital, and he says, no, no, no, I am going to finish the race. He goes, no, John, you're going to have to come to hospital.

I said, no, no. I haven't finished in the race and he goes on and he hobbles on and he limps on and he finally gets to the stadium and it's late at night there's hardly anybody left in there there's just a few people anyway he comes walking into the stadium and he staggers his way in and he's limping across and he's walking out and he's finally get and he gets to the line and what's left of the crowd, which is probably the cleaner or something like there's a few left and they cheer and there's a standing ovation and they say to John, John, why, why didn't you go on the ambulance, man?

You had a concussion, man. You could have been in serious trouble. Why did you? keep going. You should have just stopped. And he said an interesting thing. Very interesting. He said, my country did not send me 5, 000 miles to start the race. They sent me 5, 000 miles to finish it, to finish the race. That's what they sent me to do.

John was an outlaster. He overcame, he outlasted, he stayed in the race. Now all of us know that it's much easier to start a race than it is to finish it. In races you always have setbacks. And in life you have setbacks. You have trials, you have tribulations. Being an outlaster doesn't mean you don't fall down, it means you get back up again.

And it doesn't matter how many times you fall, as long as you get back up again. It doesn't even matter if you completely wreck your life and you blow up in spectacular style. As long as when your feet hit the ground, they're pointing towards Jesus, and you're looking towards Him, you'll have all the grace, and all the life, and all the strengths.

To finish the race cause his strength is made perfect in our weakness in the book of james Now james was jesus half brother. You know, I Sometimes I think about this and I spend a hard time convincing your brother that you're the messiah, you know It's like yeah, i'm the messiah man. Oh, you're right.

Give me the cheese, you know, you know, but in the end He has to because Jesus makes this declaration and he says, I'm going to die upon a cross and I will rise again. So when you predict your death, burial and resurrection, and you pull it off. Your brother will pretty much go with whatever you say. He'll go with whatever you say you're on, man, particularly when you come back and hang out for like six weeks and tell him about the kingdom.

So James goes on and he becomes a leader in the church in Jerusalem, and this is what he writes. He says, blessed is the man or woman who perseveres under trial for when they have been what approved they will recede the crown of life, which the Lord has promised to those who love him. So in this race, we have to be approved.

Everybody gets approved. Everybody gets tested. That's what it means if you're going to be an outlaster. Peter Pan's not doing so good at the moment. He's forgotten everything. He's forgotten who he is. And he's forgotten the fact that we have a spiritual enemy. And you have to understand, being an outlaster and going through life as this marathon that it is, you have a spiritual enemy.

It comes in lots of different names, comes Beelzebub, Prince of the Power of the Air, Devil, Satan, you've got a number of different titles, different things. But he's there. He's there and his main objective is to help you blow up, is to tempt you, and help you do something stupid and ace yourself out. Jesus had to face him on the Mount of Temptation.

He withstood the tests and he became an outlaster. All the heroes of the Bible that you look at as you go through this book and you read all these different ones, they had one thing in common. They did not have outstanding character. They were not great. They were not very influential, but they were all outlasters.

They outlasted betrayals, they outlasted setbacks, they outlasted sickness, disease, suffering, defeat, financial breakdown, even loss of loved ones. They were all outlasters. They outlasted in this marathon of life. They never forgot who we are, who they were. And we're not going to forget either. So across this series of outlasts, we're going to follow a few different ones and just see how they outlasted.

We can take a look at the life of Joseph, and how he was betrayed by his family, betrayed by government, 17 years forgotten in a jail, and yet he's an outlaster. Daniel. He had to outlast four ungodly kings, ungodly governments, and still was an outlaster. You can look at Ruth, and Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, and then David.

All these ones were outlasters, but they weren't perfect, and they blew up at times, but they became outlasters. But the one I want to share on just for a little while this morning is I think this one is in a league. He's in a whole league of his own. What I'm hoping out of today is you'll realize and come to understand that your best friends, your divine mentors, your coaches, they're in here.

They're here. They're written down. Paul actually wrote to the church in Jerusalem to say, in, sorry, in the church in Rome and said, these things are written down so that you might know how to handle things. Because things are going to get pretty ugly, things are going to get pretty dark, and you need to understand, people have gone through the same things that you've gone through.

They've gone through the same stuff. There's a way navigated. It's written down for you. This is how you become an outlaster. But I also want to point out to you this morning, who your greatest critic is, also who your greatest encourager is. So the guy we're gonna look at when I say he's in a league on his own is Job.

Job. Not job, you're not getting a job, but Job. Now this is a very interesting book. It's in the middle of Bible around Psalms but it's actually dated from written way earlier. But it's very interesting about Natlaster. There's some stuff that's going on in here. Do I have to do that, do I?

The deal is with Job is that there's a conversation that starts in the beginning and it's really fascinating. It's really fascinating. God calls a few of the angels together. I don't know, maybe they're having a board meeting or what, I don't know. Anyway, Satan turns up and so, They're having a discussion there and God says to Satan, Hey, listen, have you checked out Job?

Man, he's blameless. This guy is amazing. Mate, he loves me. He worships me. He cares, man. This guy is so faithful to me. And Satan goes, Oh, yeah, yeah. But of course he is. Man, you protect him. You put a hedge of hedge projection around him. You take that away, you know, mess with some of his stuff. And then, you know, he'll, he'll curse you.

He'll leave like everyone else. And it's not written in there, but I reckon God said to Satan, listen, not everyone's unfaithful like you, but I hear what you're saying. So what you're saying, Job's faith might not be genuine. It might not. He might not have, might be true character, might not have true faith.

All right, let's put him a bit of a test. So I'll let you, you can't kill him, but you can mess with him a little bit. And let's just see how he goes. So this is amazing because Job is one of the wealthiest people in the east. Now wealth wasn't, You weren't wealthy in the East because you had a lot of money, net per se, or because you, you had some stocks on Amazon or Facebook, or a huge Twitter account, or something like that, I don't know.

But you were, you were wealthy because of resources. You had resources, and you usually had a big family. So Job had 10 kids, so he was very fruitful in his family. He had 7, 000 sheep, and all the Kiwis went, Amen, for that, you know, like, Amen, brother. 3, 000 camels. 3, 000 camels. Man, one camel is enough. They are nasty animals.

They have nasty, big, chunky teeth. And they spit. And I mean really spit. You're not safe in the back road around a camel. Don't deceive yourself. But anyway, he had 3, 000 of these things. 500 oxen, 500 donkeys, and 100 employees. So, yes, God's been protecting him. God's been blessing him. Okay, so I wonder what the test is.

Well, we've all suffered a bit of loss at times, we've experienced the loss of a loved one or, you know, had a failed venue, maybe invested in Bitcoin and got bit on the somewhere else. So the story begins. Now what I'm going to share with you now, I... I do want you to read the book of Job, but I don't want you to read it before you go to bed.

Because it's not a good, it's not before bed. So anyway, Job is having breakfast with the missus, just a normal sort of a day. And in comes one of his servants, and he's panting, and he's going, Man, Job, you're not going to believe what's happened, man. The Sabians, these ugly dudes up there, they've come down, and they've taken all your donkeys.

And Job's going, well, hang on, I've got 500 donkeys, man. Yeah, he's taken them all. All gone. All gone. No, they can't be. Yeah, they're all gone, man. And everyone's dead. I'm the only one that's here. And he's still talking. It's he's still talking and another one comes in and says, Joe, man, you know all this big storm that's going on here.

Yeah, it's a wild storm. Yeah, yeah. Well, they were all dead. All your servants are down in their barracks and in their homes and and there's all this lightning and there's it's striking and there's and there's fires and fire has consumed. Everything. All your sheep, all your servants. What? Are you sure, man?

I got 7, 000 sheep. That's a lot of racks of lamb out there cooking. 7, 000 sheep. Are you serious? And all your servants are gone. So he's just reeling through all this. He's reeling and then this one hasn't finished, then another one comes in. Three parties of the Chaldeans came down and stole all 3, 000 of your camels and killed the rest of the servants.

Man, this is a bad day. This is the worst breakfast you could ever have. And then when you think things couldn't get any worse... His wife decides to speak. She decides to encourage her husband in the midst of this very, very dark time. So she says, Job, why don't you curse God and die? Wow. So we're going to have this conversation now, are we?

Why don't you just curse God and die, Job? And do you know what his response was? It says, Why weren't you visiting the kids last night? No, that wasn't what he was saying at all. You know what he says? He says, Woman! I like that. You can always tell it's a problem in a marriage where it's like, woman. Yeah he says, Why should we accept good for God and not adversity at times?

Wow. And then he goes on and says this, Through all of this, Job did not sin. Job did not sin. He did not blame God. Wow. Through all of that, try and grapple with that. He's got complete and utter financial ruin. He has lost his entire family, and it says he did not sin, and he did not blame God. Now, I don't know about you, but if that happened to me, I think I'd blame God just a little bit.

I think I'd blame him just a little bit, you know, particularly about the lightning coming down, and the fires, and the burning everyone up, you know, but he says, no, Job did not blame God at all. See? Job was not like Peter Pan. Peter Pan had become consumed with the things of this world and forgotten who he is.

Even though Job owed a lot of stuff, he still knew who he was and who he belonged to and who he worshipped. Made no difference whether that stuff was there or whether that stuff wasn't. Now you would think for Job, that is bad man, it couldn't get any worse could it? Well, yes, we're only in chapter one.

And then in chapter two, his friends turn up. Fun, wonderful people alive. It's Bill Dad and Sofa. And they're very, very critical. Yeah, Sofa. Someone should have sat on him. Now, of course, they're very critical friends. Well, if you had a name like that, you'd be critical. It's cool, you know? So, they come in and they criticize him.

For, wait for this, 40 chapters. 40 chapters! There's only 42 in the book! So after first one, they have to deal with all these guys and they're saying things to him like this, Oh, Joe, man, you must be bad. Man, you must be bad. If this has happened to you, you've got to be bad. God doesn't like you, man. He really doesn't like you, Job.

Well, you must be stupid, Job. Something is very, very wrong, Job. I don't know what's going on. You got sin in your life, something. Something is really, really not right. Something in your life is not right. Job, you're not a good man. And this goes on for 40 chapters. And Job outlasts the critics. He outlasts them.

I have no idea how, but I'll show you soon. He outlasted them. And how did he do that? Hmm. I don't know, but he was so impressed the heart of God that God dedicated a whole book to him to show us what an outlast that looks like to show us where our identity needs to be settled in, not in things, not in stuff, but in him.

And then you do get to the end and Job actually has more God real establishes him and has more blessing than what he had before that whole thing started. See outlasters follow their master and that means they go further and they go faster. Not in a flurry. But in their spiritual development. So let's talk a little bit about how to deal with critics.

Now, You'll all recognize one of these. Reminds us of a joyful time in life. You know, put it round your face and basically sweat. And then everything fogs up, and then you went in there to get one operation and came out with something else. Never mind So what happens is, this is kind of like your belief window.

It's a nice and clean belief window, but we all have a belief window that we look through. We see the world through it, we see God through it. And we see ourselves a little bit through it as well. So what happens is, your critics will come along, and they'll start writing, they'll start writing on your window.

And you've got to understand, you will have critics. When it came to Jesus, people either loved him, they hated him, or they were suspicious of him. And it's the same with you. They'll love you, they'll hate you, or they'll be suspicious of you. And if you're remotely successed, they'll find a way to tear you down in order to try and elevate themselves.

But sometimes critics can be a little bit helpful too. Can be a bit helpful, you know, like, I think it was the theologian E. Stanley Jones that said it this way. My critics are my unpaid guardians of my soul. What they do is they force us to think things through to clarity. They get, they make us think things through.

Like when we started to rethink church at each... At each portion, at each junction, when we're unhitching from the Old Covenant to the New, there were critics at each one. Some were critics because they just want, didn't matter what it was, they weren't going to change, that's it. There's only a few of those, but most of it was because it just doesn't make sense.

It's not clear. Can you go back? Can you pray? And can you bring clarity to it? So, it helped me to force me to clarity. So, they do have a place, but you do have to be careful with them. Because on this shield, The world, here, you get a good thing, my assistant. On the, on the outside of this shield, people will come along and they'll write things like, you're ugly, you're stupid, you're unloved.

You don't have to write all of them. Insignificant, fat, dumb, whatever it is. So what happens is, they come along and they write, your outside critics write things on. No, don't go away. And then what happens is, so now I start looking at through this. And it's kind of confusing to me because I've got all these words on the outside.

And then what happens is we go to this great church called our church. And then someone will love you and love you and love you. And then they do things like this and, Oh, you're not dumb. You're actually really lovely. You're awesome. And then what do you know? It's clean again. Fantastic. But then what happens is you leave and you go outside and then they write it all back on there again.

You're dumb. You're stupid. You're irrelevant. You're right back on again. You're not getting, you're not getting away that easy. Come on. Come on. I'll dock your pay. And they write it on again. Now here's where the danger part, because the critics are on the outside, but what you can do is after a while, like you say, look through the things he goes, man, I am dumb.

I am stupid. And then what you do is you write it on the inside. Could you put those on the inside to feel those words on there? Now you have a real problem because that which has been projected from the outside Has now moved to the inside. Thank you. And once it's on the inside and the outside it gets really messy It's very very confusing But then what happens is you come to family gathering and you see Tim and Tim's such an encourager and oh, man You are just so awesome.

You you're so smart. God loves you. And then you walk away again. I'm dumb Why? Because no matter how hard he tries to rub it off the outside of your belief window, you've actually written it to the inside. And once it gets on the inside, it's very, very hard to remove. For you. Job spent 40 chapters fighting the critics because he didn't want them, he didn't want them and what they were saying to make its way inside of him, so it ended up being written.

So whatever you do, don't let... outside critics be written on the inside of your window. Now they can't write it there. You write it there. They can keep promoting it. They can keep pushing it. They can keep moving it, but it's you're the ones that writes it there. Now I just heard a little whisper. in the Spirit, and it went like this.

Oops, too late. You've already written some stuff on the inside of your belief window that's just not true. And you know it's there, and you've been trying to figure out how to get rid of it, but you can't seem to get rid of it. And we're going to follow a little journey with Jesus to help us understand that, because you have to go through the Mount of Temptation.

We all have to go through it, but you're going to have to do some things now. You're going to have to step up and engage in the race. You're going to have to start to encourage yourself. David. Encouraged himself when he got in trouble. It says he encouraged himself. He talked to himself. He spoke to his own soul and said, why are you so disquieted?

Come on. Why trust in God? He spoke to himself. He spoke to his own soul. Some of us need to start speaking to ourselves more. Now come on, hands up, who talks to yourself? Come on, let's be honest, who talks to yourself? Okay, keep your hand up if you argue with yourself. Great, and online, how many lose your argument with yourself?

We've got therapy for that. We've got some therapy for that. Yeah, that's what happens. But you've got to start talking to yourself. Once it gets inside, You're the only one that can change it, and you can only do it with God's help. So let's have a look at following Jesus. I'm going to work through a lot of scripture here, so that we can just walk through, because this is how you handle the things that are trying to be written on the outside of the window, and this is how you stop them from getting to the inside, and it's also how you deal with what is on the inside.

So it's in Matthew chapter 4. It says, Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. Does that look familiar? We've already talked about that. Isn't that what happened to Job? Hmm. Interesting. Okay. The tempter came to him and said, if you are the son of God, go straight after his identity.

Tell these stones to become bread. He's done that for a reason because Jesus has been fasting 40 days and 40 nights and he's hungry, and that's the first thing he's going after. Okay. Jesus answered, it is written, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth. of God. He didn't argue with him, didn't debate with him, didn't try and like let's negotiate.

No, no, he just thought it was. Then the devil takes him up to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the town. Apparently the devil doesn't mind coming to church with you. You're not really worried about that. So anyway, he takes him up there, and then what happens? If you are the son of God, he said, throw yourself down.

What's this? For it is written. How cunning is the devil. Jesus used, it is written. So he's gone, oh, for it is written. And then he goes on. He will command his angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone. Jesus responds, It is also written, in other words, You only gave me half the scripture.

Thank you very much. You manipulated that. Don't put the Lord your God to the test. So you could have watched him. Okay, we're learning a lot here. Okay, keep going. Then the devil took him up to a high man and showed him all the kingdoms of this world and their splendor. See, the devil's going to offer you everything to do with this world.

He says, all this I'll give you if you will what? Bow down and worship me. What's he after? He's finally tipped his hand. He wants the worship that belongs to God for himself. But it took a while to get there and serve him only. And here's Jesus response. Hopefully is Jesus response. That's it. Oh, yeah, there is.

Sorry. Sorry, it's pinned. Jesus, never mind. Jesus said to him, away from me, Satan, for it is written, worship the Lord your God, serve him only. Amazing. See, outlasters follow the master, and so therefore they go further and faster. Scripture is what is used to defeat the enemy, to stop the enemy from writing on the outside of your belief frame, but you'll have to keep using it because he will keep writing it and he'll come at you from all different sorts of angles.

It's the application of the scriptures, the word of God, which is why we always get you to serve devotions that helps you stop the continual writing, cleaning off on the outside, but it stops it permanently from getting onto the inside. And you've got to understand. You are going to be hungry at times. We all do.

You'll be hungry for attention, you'll be hungry for love or promotion, or something like that. And you will suddenly, in that moment, be in your mound of transfiguration. And it'll be like, can I get this person to do this? Can I get them to do that? Can I get you to write that on the inside of your sign?

Can I make them write that on there? And if you step off and you write it in there, you will outwork it, and then you blow yourself up. Which is why you have to know the scriptures. If you don't know what it says, you won't be able to say it is written when the temp comes, and then you will listen to the nonsense, and you'll listen to the world, and you listen to all the error, and then the next thing you'll know, you will adopt something to the inside of your window, and then you'll be going, I'm in big trouble.

I'm in big trouble. So you've got to know the scriptures. If you don't know it. You're not going to be able to guide yourself. You're not going to be able to protect yourself and you're going to end up stepping into areas like a minefield. So this is how it works. I get up Monday morning, man, I'm ugly, I'm useless.

And this thing goes, no, no, no, no. Ephesians 2. 10. I'm the workmanship of Christ, created for good works. Oh, man, I can't do it. I just can't do it. Yes, you can. Philippines 4. 13 says, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Oh, man, but I'm just... Stupid. No, no, no, you're not. 1 Corinthians 2, 16 says you have the mind of Christ.

Oh, the devil's going to come after you and he's going to get you. No, no, no, no. 1 John 4, 4. Greater is he that's in you than he that's in the world. Don't worry about him. He's got no power except power you give him. God doesn't really care about you. He wouldn't choose you. I don't even know why he'd choose you.

You wouldn't choose you. No, he wouldn't choose me, no. And you have this argument and then he goes, hang on, boom, no, no, no, no. Wait a minute. John 15, 16. You've not chosen me, but I've chosen you. I've chosen you, Kevin. You dare? You Laura, I've chosen you and I've appointed you To be fruitful and bear fruit that are man.

Oh God does this God really have plans for you? Yes, he does. Absolutely He wants you to be holy as he's holy. He wants you to go make disciples the way that Jesus went and make disciples He's got a plan. He's got a future for you. Yeah, but if I do there's gonna be lots of trials Yeah, but James 1 2 12 says bless the man who perseveres under the trials Then when they're approved, they receive the crown of life.

Even though you walk through the valley of the shadow of death, you fear no evil for he's there and he comforts you. He looks after you. You are stand in his presence. See if you know the it is written. When the temptation comes to write something down, you guard yourself and it stops it from getting it is written, changes everything.

It is written. When you understand it and you apply it, it keeps wiping off the front of your belief window, but it also wipes it off the inside as well. But you have to encourage yourself. You have to encourage yourself. You have to talk to yourself to make this happen. You're not going to be able just to be neutral in it.

You are going to actually have to get engaged. Could you imagine how differently our world will be if everybody's, I would normally wipe that clean, but pretend that's clean. Okay. If that was all clean, both sides, if everybody lived from who they understood they were in Christ. Can you imagine how the dynamic of families would be different?

Businesses would run differently. Workplaces, even churches. Because nobody would be trying to skill up, get after someone else up, whatever that word is, up there somewhere. That worked out far better in my head. Nobody would be trying to sort of like get one on someone else. Just like, everyone's content in who they are in Christ.

I know who I am. Oh, but you just lost all that. Surely something, surely something's gone wrong in you. What sin's in life? There's no sin. It's just life. It's the marathon. I have to be approved. I have to be tested. And, you know, I guess this is where, this is the test. We find out, am I really worshipping God?

Do I really love God? Or am I really just about the stuff that's around me? Never let the critics... Never let them write on the inside of your window because they can't, but they'll make you write on the inside of the window. If you get desperate enough and you don't know what to do, you'll listen to them long enough that you will write what he tells you to write.

And now he gets access and he gets control. Peter Pan eventually figured out who he was. He learned how to crow, he learned how to fight, and he learned how to fly. And he beat Captain Hook. But he had to remember who he was. And that's why we have to be outlasters. Because they go further and they go faster.

Listen, remember throughout this series, your best friends are in this book. Your mentors, your coaches are in here. Every situation you're going to face, someone faced it, someone worked through it, and someone has the answers there for you to follow. And your greatest critic, here's it is, your greatest critic is you.

If you write what the enemy puts on the outside, on the inside of your belief window. But here's the bonus. Your greatest encourager is you. If you learn what it says about everything that you're going to face in life and you can go, it is written, man, you become an outlaster. Devil has no authority to make you do anything.

He can't make you jump off the cliff, but he'll just keep disorientating you enough, throwing stuff on that belief window until you get so close to the edge of the cliff. And then he'll go, nice little temptation now. And then you stupidly jump off. Because you didn't know how to handle the critic when it came.

You didn't know what the scripture said. We're designed, everything about us is designed to go further and designed to go faster when it comes to God. Look in the mirror. Which way do your eyes point? Forward. Why? Because you should be looking forward all the time. Which way do your ears? They're on the side, but they're kind of slightly leaning forward.

Listening to your future. How do your arms work? Mine work way better going forward than they do going backwards. And you look at your ankles. Which way are they pointing? Forward. Everything about you is geared up to move you forward. You know, I don't get to fly very often, but occasionally I do, and every time I do, I keep going around the airplanes, and I look at the planes, and I go inside, and I kind of run inside, and I look in the cockpit, and I'm trying to find something, and I never have been able to find it, and it's very disturbing to me, because I have discovered that pilots that fly jet airplanes don't have any rear vision mirrors.

They don't have any rear vision mirrors. It's very disturbing. So how do they look up the left to see if something's coming? You know, you don't need rear vision mirrors. When you're travelling at 900 kilometres an hour that way, who cares about what's behind? It's the same thing with us. That's why not much of us is geared to looking backwards.

It's geared to going forwards. Don't anchor your life to your past. Don't anchor it to your past. Anchor it to your future in Christ. Don't anchor your life to your problems. Your situations, the things that's going on, anchor your life to his promises, his promises. Let me finish this morning with a poem by a guy called Kent, Kent Key, and I think it's important I just make a comment about this.

So, what do you do with critics? the ones that are around you in your world, because you can't really hate them, because Jesus says love your enemies, but then you can't let them control you, and you can't let them get inside. So what do you do with it? And he wrote this poem, and it's just called Anyway, and I'll just read it to you.

It says, People are unreasonable and logical, and they'll be self centered, but love them anyway. If you do good, they'll accuse you of selfish motives, but do good anyway. If you're successful, you make false friends, you gain true enemies, but succeed anyway. Honesty and graciousness might make you vulnerable, but be honest and gracious anyway.

The good you do today may very well be forgotten tomorrow, but do good anyway. The biggest people with the biggest ideas can be shot down by the smallest people with the smallest minds. But think big anyway. Give the Lord your best. Yeah, you might get kicked in the teeth sometimes. But give the Lord your best anyway.

You might get betrayed. But give your Lord the best anyway. People might say bad things about you. Give Him your best anyway. You might not be seen as coming in this world in first place or second place or tenth place. You might not win the rat race. But give the Lord your best anyway, outlasters follow their master, which means they go further and they go faster, not in activity, but in their spiritual development and their spiritual growth.

Let's pray. Father, I just thank you for this series. I'm very grateful for Pastor Wayne who wrote the original series in new hope. And I thank you that all the examples. All the examples that we have in the scriptures, Lord, they're all there. Divine mentors, divine coaches to help us navigate this marathon of life that we're in, and they're our best friends.

But there'll be critics everywhere. There'll always be critics. But we want to outlast them like Job, and we'll outlast them because we will be our greatest encourager. We will figure out what the Word of God says, and we will hold on to that. We will hold on to, it is written through every season of our life.

We will not be dictated to by what's going on in the circumstances around us, but our belief window will be clean, and no matter what, we will say, I will worship you regardless. Because no matter what we get in or attain in this world, we cannot take it with us. We leave it all behind. And you, our God, are way beyond that.

Some of us have forgotten how to fly. We've let some of the things of this world just take over control. And my prayer is that across this series, Lord, that you would just help us to focus in and put our trust in you and become the outlast that you want us to be. I You know, I don't know where anyone's, everyone's at here.

And maybe some of you never even started your journey. That's one of the things around here. We, we teach is that faith is not a one off. You pray one prayer and then you carry on. Faith is about you choosing to accept that you're broken, choosing to accept. You can't fix yourself and choosing to let God.

Help you by receiving the gift of Jesus Christ, who was the greatest outlaster that came to earth for us to help us break free of the sin that holds us. So father, I pray that across this season and across this series, we may discover you in new ways. So we become the outlasters you need us to be in this generation, following the master, going further and faster.

We thank you in Jesus name. Amen.