Second Wind Leadership Podcast
The Second Wind Leadership Podcast is the perfect resource for anyone who wants to take their leadership skills to the next level. Whether you're a seasoned leader or just starting out, this podcast is designed to help you renew your heart, mind, and soul so that you can lead and live differently. Hosted by James Wilson Jr., a campus pastor and leadership student, this podcast features practical tips and engaging stories from everyday leaders who have found success in different arenas. You can expect new episodes every 2nd-4th Tuesday of the month, and James is always happy to answer any questions you may have. So, if you're looking for a second wind in your leadership journey, be sure to tune in and visit www.jameswilsonjr.com for more information.
Second Wind Leadership Podcast
Leadership Fuel: Finding Your Second Wind
Welcome to another inspiring episode of Second Wind Leadership. In this episode, we journey through the life of David in 1 Samuel and uncover profound leadership principles that will recharge your passion and purpose.
When you're at the point of exhaustion, questioning your strength to continue, remember that it's time to experience your second wind. David's unwavering trust in God amidst unpredictable circumstances will kindle your faith and invigorate your spirit.
But that's just the beginning. We'll explore the role of faith-stirring relationships, drawing from David's unique bond with Jonathan. Discover how such connections can mirror God's work in your life and elevate your leadership to new heights.
Leadership is indeed a marathon, not a sprint, and unwavering faith in yourself and God's divine plan is the ultimate key to success.
Join us for this episode and you'll be equipped to catch your second wind and lead with renewed energy and conviction. Subscribe today and share with fellow leaders on a similar journey.
You can learn more about me at www.jameswilsonjr.com Or Follow me on instagram or facebook @jwiljr.
What's up y'all? Welcome back to the second-win leadership podcast. This is your host, james Wilson Jr. The second-win leadership podcast is dedicated to everyday leaders who are in the verge of burnout, breakthrough or looking for ways to become better. Our goal here is to share practical tips, engaging stories and Transformational messages that will revive the heart, mind and souls of everyday leaders. Family leadership it's not just about where you are, but it's about where you're going, and we want to help you get there.
Speaker 1:I hope that during our time together, you will experience a second win. So if you've been enjoying the content, if you love what's been happening, would you go ahead and share this episode, rate this episode, review this episode, so that we can continue to share the word and spread the world so that people can experience their second win? One of the things that's been so helpful for me in my second-win journey has been my faith. It's allowed me to experience a second win in both my leadership and my life, and so I wanted to share this episode Just me sharing the sermon or talk that I'd given a few months back at the church where I'm a pastor at, and I just Wanted to be able to encourage you, and this one is about trusting God, and so maybe you're in a spot right now where you're not even sure about faith, so I'd love to have more conversations about that. You know, hit me up at James Wilson, junior calm or find me on Instagram or Facebook at J Will JrJ W I L J R. But this episode is dedicated to those who are trying to figure out their second win and Listening for the journey of faith and trusting in a higher power, trusting in God. So, regardless of where your faith journey is, take a listen to this, let me know what you think, and I'd love for us to be able to connect more about it. So here it is. Y'all go ahead and have your seats if you can, if you're joining us online. I am so, so excited to be with us or be with you this weekend. My name is James. Welcome to freedom life church. I am one of the pastors here, the Hampton campus pastor. I'm just excited to be here and I'm excited to be diving back into our series.
Speaker 1:We've been on this journey, talking about what it looks like to be moved by God, and Move by God is such a an interesting thing because we've been looking at the story of David and what I want us to understand is that, as we look at the story of David, the goal is not for us to try to attach ourselves to the personality of David, because he was a frail man just like the rest of us, but the goal is for us to look at this story and begin to see Lord. What are the principles that we can gather from this? And so I want us to journey together, because last week we talked about Move by God to stand, and before that we talked about move by God to choose, and this week I want to journey us a little bit more and talk about move by God to trust, move by God to trust. And so, if you have your Bibles available, would you meet me? And first Samuel 23, 14 to 18, and then first Samuel 24, 47 be quick, little verses, but something that I hope that you can digest. And I don't know about you, but I don't know if you've ever read God's word and you were like man. That was just for me. So I'm gonna just be give you, I'm gonna give you guys, a disclaimer. I'm not sure how this message is gonna land for you, but I know that these verses are just for me, and so hopefully we'll be able to digest them together. But let's turn there and look at what the Lord is saying.
Speaker 1:First, samuel 23, verses 14 to 18. It says that David Stayed in the desert strongholds and in the hills of the desert of Zeef. Day after day, saul searched for him, but God did not give David into his hands. Some of you need to underline that and highlight that in your body. While David was in Horesh in the desert of Zeef, he learned that Saul had come out to take his life, and Saul's son, jonathan, went to David at Horesh and helped him find Strength in God. Don't be afraid, he said. My father Saul will not lay a hand on you. You will be king over Israel and I will be second to you. Even my father knows this. The two of them made a covenant before the Lord. Then Jonathan went home, but David remained at Horesh.
Speaker 1:And I want us to jump over to first Samuel 24, verses 5 through 7. What's happening in this context is that David is on the run, and he's running from his captor, and the captor, the person who's trying to kill him, just happens to be the king. And so the king decides to find himself in a place where he uses a cave to go to the bathroom and David has an opportunity to take the king's life. He cuts a piece of his coat, and here's where we are, it says. He cut the piece of his coat and right afterwards it says, after word, david was Conscious, stricken for having cut off a corner of his robe. He said to his men the Lord forbid that I should do such a thing to my master, the Lord's anointed, or Lift my hand against him, for he is the anointed of the Lord. With these words, david rebuked his men and did not allow them to attack Saul, and Saul left the cave and went his way.
Speaker 1:I want us to journey back in and, as I told you, I want us to be focused today, this weekend, on Move by God to trust as we pick back up into David's story. It's fascinating because David has gone from being a shepherd boy to now a national name. He's gone from being just this guy in the field. He gets a dinner reservation made by God. The prophet Samuel comes to his house, he anoints him and now David goes into service of the king, david's in service of the king. He's working with the king, but also with the father's sheep in the field and you. If you watch pastor Freddie's message last week, he talks about that just working and being in process. And so what happens is David is now in service to the king and his service is to play the harp for the king. He was a musician, he's playing the harp for the king.
Speaker 1:You fast forward a little bit more now. This little shepherd boy is in the house of the king. He's a national name. And then we saw last week that David has now even fought a giant name, goliath, and Everybody's loving the fact that he defeated this giant name Goliath. He's a national name now. Everybody's talking about him. He's got a great reputation. They even made songs about him. They would say that Saul slain thousands, but David slain 10 thousands. He's a national name. Not only that homeboy, his whole family is set now they don't even have to pay taxes anymore. Like his whole family is set. This little shepherd boy is on the come-up. Everybody knows his name and it's so fascinating that he actually becomes best friends with the king's son. He marries the king's daughter. Homeboy is doing well for himself. Shepherd boy to a national name.
Speaker 1:And what we see in David's story is that there's this theme that's written all throughout the Texas. If you read from a first Samuel Like 17 to 24, all throughout the text we see these little words that says and God was with David. What was interesting is that the success that he had wasn't because he was going after it. The success that he had is Because God was making a way for him. And it's interesting because David what we would say is that David was being successful Because he was trusting God. Right, he was trusting God.
Speaker 1:Let me give you a quick definition. Trusting God means to move towards God. Very simply, I don't want to, I don't want to over complicated for you. What it means to trust God is to move towards God, to move towards his presence, to move towards his plans, to move towards his way, to move towards his word, to move towards God, to move towards his people. Trusting God, very simply, is to move towards God. But here's the problem it don't just happen Like it just don't happen to trust God.
Speaker 1:In fact, my wife and I were sitting on the sofa the other day and we were talking. I was on vacation last week and while we were thinking about church and thinking about service, I'm like you know what. There's some areas in my life where I don't really trust God. I'm just being honest with you. The reality is like here. I am a pastor and there's some areas in my life where I don't really trust Him. With that, let me tell you what I'm talking about. See what I've realized as we were sitting there.
Speaker 1:I realized that it's easy to trust God when things are on yes, come on now, you know what I'm talking about. Like when things are on, when it seems like when I pray to God, he shows up on time. When things are on, where, like my relationship with God, every time I read the Word, every time I come to church, I feel like man, I'm on point, like I'm feeling it. Today, you walk home, you're spoused, everything is on and popping, like everything is happening good, your kids. You walk in the door and you're like, yeah, I'm on, I'm a good dad. You walk on your job and you just know that you're walking on purpose, doing something. It's easy to trust God when things are on.
Speaker 1:What I've realized that what stops me from actually following Jesus like I'd like to, what keeps me from walking with Jesus and trusting Him the way I want to, is when things are on. Let me tell you what I mean, like when things are just on you know what I'm talking about. Like those unmet expectations, the things that are on, like I thought, god, because I had prayed to you and you showed up this way last time, I kind of thought that you would kind of show up that same way again, like when you're going to show up and do it, lord, maybe for you and for me it's not just the unmet expectations, but it's the unresolved issues. I thought I was a little further along than that, like I thought I'd healed from that. Lord, I remember the experience. I remember the hand that was placed on my chest, like I thought I was done with that. Or maybe for you it's the some of you, it's the unanswered prayers. Lord I, I assume that you were going to heal this thing already. I thought that you were going to make that situation better. Already I've been praying to you, doing what I know to do, but I'm finding it hard to trust you when things are on.
Speaker 1:And what I'm trying to get us to see family is that it feels easy to trust God when things are on, but we have to train to trust God when things are on. Here's what I mean. There's something that's so phenomenal. There's a Greek philosopher. He says that we don't rise to the level of our expectations. We fall to the level of our training. In other words, trusting God doesn't just happen, it requires training. Nobody just wakes up as a spiritual giant. You don't just wake up like, oh, everything is good, I'm feeling good, you have to train. And it's in those moments, it's in the middle of the uns, it's in the middle of all the tension points that you don't rise to the level of the song you used to sing, that you don't rise to the little scripture verse that you know, you don't rise to all the things that your mama said and your daddy said, but you rise and you fall to the level of your training. Are you training to trust God? Are we training to trust God? I'm not just pointing to blame at you. I'm telling you that here I am one of your pastors and one of the things that I struggle with is how do I trust God in my training?
Speaker 1:I want to bring it back to David, because it's important for us to understand that David had to trust God in training. When we've been looking at the stories over the weeks, what we find is that David, he learns to trust God's heart. In the field, as he trains to be a shepherd, he learns patience. He learns peace. He learns humility. In his training David, he learns to trust God. We talked about this last week. He learns to trust God's holiness on the battlefield. As he trains to be a warrior, he says, hey, there is nobody like this God. Who is really? Who's talking about what? Philistine can come out and talk about the Lord Almighty, he's holy. There's no one like him.
Speaker 1:David is learning how to be a warrior, but here's why I want us to go today is that now David has to learn to trust the hand of God in the wilderness, and it's in the wilderness family that he's training to become king, like I know nobody ever signed up for that. Like, in order to become who God has called you to be, there's wildernesses that you have to go through. There are some uns that you've got to deal with, and I want to just show us this really quickly. Let me kind of expose a few of the things. These are some wildernesses that we often find ourselves in and that we actually look at David's story. He was in the middle of these as well, and if we're not careful. These uns will be the barriers for us trusting God. Let me give you a few.
Speaker 1:Number one it's unpredictable. Think about David's story for a second. All of a sudden, oh boy is the servant of the king. He's doing well, he's playing the king, he's playing the harp, he's doing all of the things. And all of a sudden the king gets so angry at David because of who God called David to be, that he throws a spear at his head. And all of a sudden, this thing happens that David did not expect. He went from being the servant of the king to public enemy.
Speaker 1:Number one unpredictable Anybody going through any unpredictable circumstances. I never saw this coming. I never saw that diagnosis coming. I never saw that divorce coming. I never saw that mental disease coming. I never saw that problem coming. I never saw the success coming, because sometimes success throws us off too. I never saw that promotion coming. I wasn't even ready for it.
Speaker 1:Unpredictable, but David also had to navigate the uncertain. Here's what I want you to understand that David was in the middle of hiding in fields, wandering in deserts and living in caves. Here's the future king of Israel on the run, no place to lay his head. He's in uncertain territory. What David doesn't know is where he's going to get his next meal from, and some of us know what that feels like. He didn't know how things were going to be taken care of, he didn't know if he would be safe. And some of us are here saying I'm actually not sure where I'm going, that when you look at your life you probably look around and you're like I don't really know. I heard what you said, I hear what they're saying, but I don't know. It's uncertainty.
Speaker 1:But I want us to go a little bit more in these uns, because what happens that David experienced that really threw me off is that things were unfair for David. Think about this that David was in service to the king. All he was doing was showing up in the field. This prophet named Samuel came to his house, decided to call him in for dinner, anointed him. He never asked for any of this. Now he's anointed and service to the king. He's showing up for work one day. Now the king hates him, not because of anything that David has done, but because of what David represented, that he hates David because God's hand is on his life.
Speaker 1:It's important for us to understand that you and I are in a training ground, and sometimes in the training ground of our lives, there are people who don't like us. Not because of what we do, because sometimes we do some things that deserve consequences, but that's just. That's another story. But what happens is there's some things that we don't even do, but people hate us because of what we represent. Yes, yes, jesus says they all hate you because they hated me. There's a sense that some of this was unfair, though David never acts to be treated this way. You never asked to be treated that way by your parents. You never asked to be treated that way by your boss. You never asked to be treated that way by the people in your life. You never deserve to be treated that way. It's unfair. But I need you to understand that you're in training.
Speaker 1:Here's the other piece and I'm almost done here, but it says that things were unsafe. In other words, david could not go back to his family. He had gotten married to the king's daughter and now the very fact that she was married to David made things unsafe for her. He couldn't go back. He's friends with Jonathan. That's his best friend. He can't even hang out with his best friend because his best friend is the king's son, and every place, as you watch this journey of David, everywhere that he goes, people are dying because they're connected to him.
Speaker 1:What I need us to understand is that sometimes, when we've been called by God, sometimes when we are walking and what God has called us to do, there are situations that are not comfortable for us. We're the people around us, like I know that sometimes we come and we sit in church and we expect that because we've prayed a certain prayer, that we'll magically get this force field of Christianity. But the reality is, as you walk through life, things are not comfortable all the time. It's not comfortable to live differently, it's not comfortable to follow God most times, but things were uncomfortable. And here's the last piece that things were untimely.
Speaker 1:Let me spend some time here. David was anointed as king, but he wasn't king for some years. I don't know the timeline in all of this, but he's on the run from the king and now he's supposed to be king but all of a sudden, like it's not making sense. Because here's this guy who you would assume that he would have been in a very cushy leadership training program. You would have assumed that he would have been in a management training program that he would have been set up to be the next king. But he's on the run and we don't know for how long. Some of us are in that space where it feels untimely. How long is this going to happen? How long will I have to stay here? When will they see me? When will they promote me? When will things move forward? How long will I have to deal with this thing? When will things change?
Speaker 1:And here's what I want us to see that you and I are in a training ground, that we have to train to trust God. But here's the secret that you're in a training ground, I'm in a training ground and the difference between there's a difference between retreating from God and running to his presence. It's important for us to understand that In training, you're still going to experience the challenge. Whether you run from God or run to God, you are still going to experience the ons of life. But one direction will leave you hopeless and defeated. The other direction leaves you hopeful and victorious. You've got to determine which one you're going to choose. Are you going to move towards God or will you move towards the way that feels easy? And I know I've kind of made this thing that it feels so easy. But let me dive into.
Speaker 1:If David is in this training ground in the middle of the ons, let's go back to the scripture that we read. How then do we trust God in the middle of the ons? Here's what I saw as I looked at this. Here's a first principle is that we've got to look for God in the day to day. If you're gonna trust God in the middle of everything that you're going through, you've got to learn how to look for God in the day after day.
Speaker 1:I wanna take you back to that verse. It was verse 14. It says that day after day, saw search for David. But it also says but God did not deliver David into his hands. What I'm trying to get us to see is that sometimes, when you are walking with the Lord, it is hard to see and you can actually overlook what he's doing. But what we see in this text is that, day after day, saw was out to get David. But while saw was out to get David, do you know what else was happening? Day after day, god was providing for him. It says it right here that day after day, saw was out to get him, but also day after day, god was showing up.
Speaker 1:So what I'm saying is that the enemy was showing up day after day to try to get David off of the path that God was making and creating for him. But it was also day after day where God would say Nabra, I got you, naw, son, I got you. Like you think that he's gonna get you? I mean, if you just read the story, there's so many random occurrences that can only be explained by God's hand showing up. What I'm trying to get us to understand is that David had to understand that he needed to pay attention. It's not that God's not moving, it's not that God's not speaking. The issue often is are we paying attention? Are we paying attention? Let me show you this illustration and make. Hopefully it makes sense.
Speaker 1:So recently I've started taking up golf and I say recently just to let you know that I'm terrible at it. I am trash in this sport. But I was out there with my coach the other day and he's telling me like you gotta get your hand positioned right, you gotta get your feet right, and with golf, if you've ever played golf, there are so many rules, there are so many things that you've got to figure out and it's sometimes overwhelming. Do I have my knees bent the right way or my hands positioned the right way? Can I get my swing the right way? I don't know if I can even stretch that far. Is my left leg moving? Is my right leg moving? I mean there's so many things. And so my coach, he says to me James, all you gotta focus on is making contact. So I swing and I'm terrible at this, mind you and so here I am, I get my swing, I bring it up, and he said, good, I'm like really that was terrible. But he said you made contact. You made contact. Let me stay here.
Speaker 1:The reality is is that you have to understand that day after day, there's gonna be so many things that is going on in your life that is gonna try to get you to stay stuck in the land of the uns, but all you've got to do is make contact with the Lord. I just need you to stay for a minute and make contact. And what I mean by that is that David had this posture, that he would even say in the Psalms that God is my refuge. In other words, whether I am in the cave, whether I'm in the wilderness, whether I'm in the desert, whether I'm in the field. God is still with me and every day I can make contact.
Speaker 1:I know that sometimes we get so full of ourselves and so full of ministry and so full of doing all the things, all the churchy things, that we actually forget to make contact. All I'm inviting you to do is pay attention to what the Lord is already doing in your life. That's why I spend some time in prayer, because when I look around and I see my three daughters in church with their hands in worship man, I'm undone, because it shows me that the Lord is making contact for me. Yes, yes, yes. I want you to be reminded that it's important that you make contact. How can you make contact? And here's what I'm saying that God is big enough to handle all of you. We often think that God only wants to hear our good prayers, but family David. He sometimes will say Lord, this don't make sense. Lord, save me. Lord, I'm drowning. Lord, I'm dying Sometimes.
Speaker 1:David was dramatic, but it was real for him and the reality is will you actually have the courage to make contact in this season of your life? Pay attention. Here's the other piece that David did. I love this. He was aware of God's present. He was looking for God in the day after day. But what we also see with David is that you've got to find some people to stir your faith. You've got to find some people to stir your faith when you are in these moments of tension, when you are in these moments in the land of the uns. You've got to find some people to stir your faith.
Speaker 1:Here's what happened. David is in the middle of the desert. He had just finished having conversation with the Lord. He's running from Saul, running for his life, and all we see is that Jonathan comes down and what we read is that Jonathan helped him find strength in God. Strength in God, jonathan. Remember who Jonathan was? Jonathan was the son of the king, so Jonathan was risking his life to come down and meet his friend and stir his faith. I need you to understand that Jonathan didn't. He didn't come down to try to fix David's problem. Jonathan didn't come down and give David a cliche answer. Jonathan didn't try to come down and give David advice. In fact, he didn't even try to change any of the circumstance that was happening. All he did was he came down and he stirred up David's faith. He said he helped him find strength.
Speaker 1:Do you have some relationship in your life that helped you find strength in God. See, here's what. I know that all of us have relationships and everything and all relationships are valuable. Not all relationships are beneficial, because you are in some seasons, at times, where I don't need the friends who's gonna just kinda give me the pity party. I don't need the friends who are just gonna oh yeah, james, I know you're a pastor. Yes, you deserve to feel sad about yourself. You deserve to be on the. You're working so hard, yada, yada, yada. I don't need those friends at times. What I need is a friend that's gonna stir my faith, and here's how we look for our faith stirs. Here's what they look like. Let me give you a profile. Number one is faith stirs that give you courage.
Speaker 1:Jonathan walked down to David in the middle of the wilderness, in the middle of everything that he was going through, didn't offer him any advice. All he said was hey, bro, don't be afraid. You gotta know that God is with you. You need some folks in your life who are going to remind you of who God is in your life, cause some friends we go to, let's admit it, some friends we go to help us forget where we are. I just wanna be with them, cause I can he, he, ha, ha all day long and never be going about the purpose God has for me. Need some friends that give you courage.
Speaker 1:But he also says you gotta have some friends that remind you of your calling. What Jonathan said to David is you shall be king over Israel. My daddy won't get you. Listen, let me tell you. Jonathan said I got you. You shall be king over Israel. You need some folks in your life that remind you of what God called you to do. God remind you of what you signed up for. We say yes to Jesus, but we need some good reminders of what it means, because things are uncertain, things are unpleasant at times, but I've got to be reminded of what he called me to do. Sometimes I have to go and listen to the tapes. I've got to listen to things to remind me. I've got to listen to these friends.
Speaker 1:Here's the thing that he also offered David covenant community. In this covenant community, david was fully known and he fully knew Jonathan. You have any friends that fully know you. They don't have expectations. I need some spaces and I have some spaces in my life where I can show up and not be Pastor James. You need some spaces in your life where you can actually show up and let your hair down if you have it. But you decide who are the face stirrers in your life? Here's the last one who are the face stirrers in your life?
Speaker 1:Third thing is this this is my favorite part that if you're going to trust God in the middle of the uns, you've got to remember what God has already done for you. Come on, guys, yes, come on. See, in the middle of the uns, it is very tempting to walk away from what God has called you to do. In the middle of the uns, it's very tempting to walk away from God, but also to walk away from the church. In the middle of the uns, it is very tempting to shortcut your destiny. Here's David In the middle of the uns. He's in the wilderness.
Speaker 1:The guy who's out to take his life now decides to go to the bathroom in the same cave that David's living in, and what he decides in that moment is that David cuts the bottom of his coat and he has an opportunity to shortcut his destiny. I can become king in one motion. But David said now there's something sitting right here. I can't do this. His boys are saying go for it, david. Like here's your opportunity. The Lord brought him before you. David says no, no, no, no, I can't do this. And see what happened was what David was doing is it did not make sense to the natural eye, but when he started to look through the eyes of faith, oh, now it makes sense, because this is who God had already anointed. This is not what David, what God called David to do. David had already knew what God was calling him to do. He understood that God had a promise for him. He understood that God had a purpose for him, and it was in that moment that he also understood that God would protect him from there on out. So he says I don't need to do this, I don't need to give in to the shortcut.
Speaker 1:Some of us are willing to give in to the shortcut because it feels like the easy way. But all that easy way does is bring us into the land of more unns Unsatisfying, unbearable, unnecessary pressure, unexplainable trauma. Here's what I love about this. Let me bring it to our level that we have to remind ourselves in the middle of the uns. We've got to remind ourselves of the history that we have with God. We've got to remind ourselves of the history.
Speaker 1:I was thinking about this the other day. There's this woman growing up and I'll never forget her name. I won't say her name because maybe she's still alive. I don't want to embarrass her, but I remember this woman who would show up at our church and I grew up in church and I would show up at church and this woman would show up and every week she showed up. I'd roll my eyes Because I knew for a fact she was going to share some testimony and I knew it was going to be a long testimony with this long song. And at the time I'm saying to myself this woman has got to be kidding me. She'd show up with her purse, her little finger, and she had a crooked finger. And she would show up every Sunday and she'd begin to sing this song and she'd say we come this far by faith. And I'm like, oh my God, here we go, leaning on the Lord. I'm like, okay, okay, okay, trusting in His holy word. And she would do a little sway. He never failed me, yet this is her favorite part. She said, oh, can't turn around. We come this far by faith. And sometimes I look at this woman like she has lost her mind, and then she say something else that would get me. She says I don't feel no waste time, come too far from where I started from. Nobody told me the road would be easy, and I don't believe he's brought me this far to leave me.
Speaker 1:The idea is that sometimes you've got to go back to the tapes, sometimes you've got to go back to the journals, sometimes you've got to go back to the receipts, sometimes you've got to go back to those songs that you've forgotten about, to remind yourself of who God is in your life. Remind yourself of what he's already done, that he's faithful, that he shows up, that he's trustworthy. Even when things are ungodly, god is still on. Would you stand on your feet? Let's stand, let's stand up. Let's end here. While you're training, don't forget that God is trustworthy.
Speaker 1:I want to invite our prayer partners up here. I want to invite our band to come on up too. They'll be making their way, but as they make their way, invite our prayer partners, and I want us to get this moment just for a second, because I want to share something that the staff was sharing with me. They just blew my mind, but the idea is we have to understand I mentioned earlier that it feels easy to trust God when things are on, but it feels hard to trust God when things are on. And as we begin to kind of unpack this a little bit, what we realize is that God is always on, that he's an on-time God. God is always on, god is good and all the time God is good. The reality is that God has plans for you, that God has good plans for you. He's got good purposes for you. He's got good thoughts about you. He's got good love for you.
Speaker 1:But what happens in the midst of our journey of life is that we have a real enemy, and the enemy's job is to still kill and to destroy, and so what he does is that he tries to use the uns in your life to take your eyes off of God. He tries to take the uns in your life to get you from, to stop moving towards what God has put his hand on. He tries to use the uns in your life to discredit God's power and God's hand in your life. He may be trying to use the uns in your life to try to discredit the journey that you've been on. I don't feel good enough. I don't feel worthy enough. I'm unworthy, I'm unloving. He's trying to use the uns in your life.
Speaker 1:But here's something that blew my mind God has a bigger plan for the uns. Listen to this, pastor, cheryl. She said she dropped a nugget on us. I'm like wow. She said you know what Jesus and his resurrected body carries the scars of unanswered prayers even through and past the resurrection.
Speaker 1:What she was sharing is that Jesus actually carried the uns even after the cross. In other words, he did not get rid of his scars, he did not replace the uns. In fact, if you're looking at it technically, the reason that he was on the cross is because of you and I. The reason that he was on the cross is because of all the uns the unloving, the unworthy, the unrighteous, the unbelievable, the unforgivable. The reason that he was on the cross is not because he had to be, but he chose to be, and he's wrestling with his father in the garden of Gethsemane. Lord, if it be, that will take this cup for me. God doesn't take it away. And Jesus now has to go into the resurrection. He has to go to the cross and even after the resurrection now the disciples get an opportunity to see his scars because he carried the uns even past the resurrection.
Speaker 1:Here's what I'm saying God does not replace our uns, he redeems them. Here it is. I mean, throw this slide up and I promise I'm going to sit down. Here's this last slide, because God is so amazing that when we begin to move towards Jesus, what happens in our lives is that he doesn't just he doesn't replace the unpredictable. But we start to find out that, in the middle of life being unpredictable, that Jesus is so understanding, that he cares for us, that he knows us, that in the midst of things being uncertain, I can trust in his unfailing love, that he will not leave me or forsake me, that when things are unfair in my life, I can be reminded that there's now no condemnation for those who love Christ Jesus. And now I can walk in my life unashamed. Unashamed, regardless of what they say to me. When things feel unsafe, I can be reminded that my King is undefeated. When things are untimely, I can be reminded that his love, his power, his grace, his mercy, his truth is unconditional.
Speaker 1:I hope that you enjoyed the Second Wind Leadership podcast. Thanks for being a part of our community. I just want to let you know leadership is not just about where you are. It's about where you're going, and we want to help you get to new heights. If you found this episode valuable, would you consider subscribing, leaving a review, sharing it with a friend? That needs just an extra dose of leadership, inspiration and also family.
Speaker 1:Don't forget to connect with me. Connect with us on social media that's J Will Jr or connect with me online at JamesWilsonJrcom For more leadership insights and things that we've got going on. We've got some upcoming episodes. I've got my first international episode with a TEDx speaker and a breakthrough coach, and so I can't wait for you to dive into those things again. That's JamesWilsonJrcom. Or find me on Facebook or Instagram at J Will Jr. So, family, keep pressing, keep striving, keep leading with your heart. Your leadership is a marathon, it's not a sprint, and I want to be here. We want to be here to help you get your second win. So until next time, stay inspired, stay motivated, keep making a lasting impact. As a leader, you're doing better than you think you are. This is James Wilson Jr signing off of the Second Win Leadership Podcast.