Don’t Quit Before God Moves

• I decided to set this sermon up by giving you a  little personal anecdote from my life experience.   I have never coached one of my children in sports.  I just decided that my enthusiasm about being   their dad shouldn’t punish the other children  on the team with my lack of expertise in sports. I think you know what I’m talking about.
• I think you’ve all had that coach,   cussed out that coach, and complained about  that coach. I always coached them personally   on the sidelines. Graham said something so  devious the other day, because he’s a good   little wrestler now. A good big wrestler now.  He’s not little. He’s the same size as me. He said, “I thought you were so OP  as a wrestler when I was little,   but now that I look back and realize how  little you actually knew about wrestling, it’s   amazing to me how much you coached me, knowing  almost nothing about the sport.” That’s funny.
• I try to coach my kids for the  challenges of their life. Of course,   you know they didn’t sign up to be on your  team, so they don’t care much to listen   to your advice, and you can’t kick them  off, so you are limited in your coaching. But, all joking aside, I have found it to  be one of the greatest and most stretching   challenges and privileges of my life just to  be there for them, especially in those moments…   My oldest son Elijah called me from college  last semester. This is one of those moments.
• I think in the transition of being a freshman  in college, he just wanted to hear my voice on   a few things, but I could tell he was down  and he was low. That happens to all of us. After we pushed past that a little  bit, I said, “I’ll tell you what. Do   you want to call me back at, like, 3:00 and have  something to write with, and I’ll coach you up a   little bit? I’ll coach you as if you paid me to do  it.” He said, “I would love that.
• ” So he called me   at the scheduled time of the appointment.  We did. We set up an actual appointment. I said, “Okay. What I think you’re feeling  right now is you are feeling like all of   the resources you relied on when you  lived at home… You’re still resourced,   and you still have us at college, but everything  is new to you.
• When I get in that place where,   in my personal life, I feel like I have reached  the end of my resources, and I get in that funk… You know, the Devil starts telling me the same  things he’s telling you as a college student,   but he tells me them as a grown man, that  I have nothing really to offer or that my   best is behind me or that I’m no longer  relevant or that the things my critics   have said about me are right. You know,  the list goes on and on.
• I don’t want to   bore you with it. When I get in that  place, I’ve learned to make a list.” So I told him, “I’m going to take you through  this today of how to make a list when you feel   low.” I said, “One list that I, of course,  make that I’ve taught you about is gratitude,   things to be grateful for.  You’ve heard about that.