Greg Ford - The Process of Change
Welcome to the power of one. Today, I wanna talk to you from a series of messages called «The Master’s Degree». We’re going to look at how Jesus trained the disciples to be leaders. It’s well known that Jesus spent a lot of time with people who were down and out, people who were sick, or lame, or who needed help, and yet, Jesus also spent quite a bit of time with leaders that would carry on his legacy, his teaching, and ultimately execute the great commission. And so, today, we’re going to look precisely at how Jesus trained them, and we’ll learn how to be better followers and better leaders. Let’s dig in together.
Today what I wanna talk to you about is the change test. The change. The process of change. The power of change. The change test. We’re gonna start in Mark 1, start reading at verse 16. If you have your Bible, you can go to Mark 1. If not, it’ll be on the screen. Mark 1:16 says, «One day as Jesus was walking along the shore of the Sea of Galilee, he said to Simon,» now, when you see Simon, think Peter. It’s probably the name you hear more often. Simon Peter. «He saw Simon and his brother Andrew throwing their nets into the water, for they fished for a living. Jesus called out to them, 'Come, follow me, and I will show you how to fish for people'»!
Verse 18, «And they left their nets at once and followed him. A little farther up the shore Jesus saw Zebedee’s sons, James and John, in a boat repairing their nets. He called them at once, and they also followed him, leaving their father, Zebedee, in the boat with the hired men». We’re gonna talk today about change. Change. You know this, change is inevitable. It’s like the one constant. I’m not asking you to love change, but you are going to have to embrace it. Change is coming whether you like it or not. And so, you can decide what sort of relationship you wanna have with it. You can make it an enemy. You can make it a friend. It can make you mad. Or you can make a change. What are you gonna do with change? And we just read Mark 1 and it’s a fairly well known, you know, story or portion of Jesus' relationship to his disciples. It’s told by all four gospel writers.
But Jesus goes to the first four disciples, and he says, «Put down your nets». They’re fishermen. «Put down your nets and follow me, and I’ll make you fishers of men». I’ll tell you why I like Mark’s account the best is because, you know, Mark is actually John Mark, and he was in close relationship to Peter. In fact, in the book of 1 Peter 5, Peter refers to Mark, the author of Mark, as his son. Now, it’s not his literal son. It’s not his biological son. But he’s talking about the intimacy and the connection of their relationship, and he’s saying that this is familial. So, they were that type. As Mark is writing about Jesus calling Peter, so Simon Peter, this is a firsthand account. This is him telling, «Hey, write this down. This is what it was like when I met Jesus».
And of course, when you see this, he quotes Jesus in verse 17, it says, «He called out, 'Come follow me and I’ll show you how to fish for people'». One sentence. Was it one sentence? I don’t necessarily know if it was one sentence. Did he give 'em more than that? We don’t necessarily know but here’s what we know, that’s what Peter heard. Verse 17 is what Peter heard. «Come follow me and I’ll teach you how to fish for people». That is a massive change. «Put down your career. Put down your nets. Everything that you’re secure in. Put down your identity and follow me». Follow you where? So, Jesus, according to Mark 1 and according to the hearing of Peter, Jesus gave him no detailed explanation as to where this train is going. «'What do you mean where'? 'Physically, geographically, where are we going'? 'Don’t know'. 'Where is this whole Messiah thing, Jesus thing, where is all that headed'? 'Don’t know'. 'No explanation. How are we gonna eat? What’s gonna happen to my business'»?
In fact, you see, you know, the next two guys, James and John, leave their dad and their business behind and follow immediately. And we see that Jesus is giving them the first of many tests that he was going to give them as leaders which is this, «What is your attitude toward change? Are you willing to change»? Not, do you love change? Most people don’t love change. But like, what is your attitude? Are you willing to change? Do you value change? Because when we fly up to 10,000 feet and we look beyond the gospels, beyond Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, even into the historical narrative of the Book of Acts. And we’re gonna, I don’t wanna get ahead of myself. We’re gonna get to some of this in a few weeks.
But you are going to see that Jesus is going to use these disciples to make massive, prolific and painful changes. Painful changes. They were painful to society. They were painful to their nation and their culture, and they were painful to them as individuals. In fact, in the Book of Acts 10, Peter would be going through such a painful change that in the middle of that change, he would see a vision from heaven and hear an audible voice from heaven instructing him to do something that he didn’t wanna do so bad, he tells an audible voice from heaven, «No». You gotta wanna not do it pretty bad to say «No» to an audible voice.
This is how difficult a change. It all starts with a test in Mark 1, «Put down your net». It would be the first of many changes. But if you can’t pass the put down your net test in Mark 1, I can’t use you to the ends of the earth in Acts 1 and all of the necessary changes in the new covenant that are coming down the pipe, Jesus didn’t give them all that. They couldn’t handle all that. But first, I wanna find out, are you the kind of person that will respond to change? As Dr. Richard Doblin said, «Most people won’t change until the pain of staying the same is greater than the pain of change». That’s human nature. That’s what most people do. It’s gotta hurt so bad. It hurt so bad to stay here that I’ll finally change 'Cause I can’t take it anymore.
That’s how most people think. But friend that’s not how you and I should think. Is that what you’re gonna do? You gonna go your whole life only changing when the pain is unbearable? Is that wisdom? It’s certainly not leadership. See, God will use leaders who are willing to proactively embrace change before they have to, before it hits their pain threshold, they’re actually anticipating, and valuing, and looking for change because the work that God does in them ultimately will end up through them. «You’re going to change me, Lord, and then you’re gonna use me in being a change agent». I think one of the things that keeps us from change and keeps us from sustaining change is really understanding the process of change.
So, here’s what I wanna give you, a very realistic process of what change really, really looks like. Alright? Starts with this. I’m just gonna call this normal, alright? So, you’re going along your normal life and something changes. We’ll represent that with like addition, subtraction. Something was given to you. Something was taken away from you. That’s a change. Something’s given to you. Maybe it was something given to you that you didn’t want. Maybe it was something given to you you did want. Even good things in your life, blessings are stressful. It’s change. Blessings are change and they’re stressful. You get a promotion, it’s more responsibility, it’s new territory, it’s change. Stressful.
Get a new member of the family, it’s a blessing, it’s wonderful. Stressful. It’s change. You get more money, it’s good in general, it’s good. But more money, more problems. A great theologian, biggie smalls. Stressful. Subtraction is stressful. Something taken away from you. Sometimes, it’s addition by subtraction. It’s okay to lose some stuff. It’s okay to lose some people or something. It’s okay. There’s some things, time is okay to lose, but it’s a change. It’s different. And sometimes, you had something pried out of your hand or something tragically changed in your life. You lost something. So, there’s an addition, a subtraction, good or bad causes the process of change to be introduced into your life.
The next phase after the change is actually what I’m gonna call it «Disorientation». Disorientation. I’m disorientated by the change. Something’s changed. Something’s lost. Something’s gained. Something’s new. And the disorientation is just not clean and neat. You know, I’m going up and down, and sometimes I’m going backwards, and it sometimes feels like being lost in the woods and chaos. It’s like, «Man, I think I’m going in circles here». Alright?
And this can be anything from, you know, changes that you’re making in your physical body, changes that are happening in your career, or this could be actually deeper than that. This might be emotional trauma. Something has been unearthed. You learn how to suppress it, you learn how to cope with it, to push it down. Something now, an event in your life, an addition, subtraction, brought it to the surface. It bubbled out. And so, now I’m gonna try to deal with it. They told me I needed to talk to a counselor. They told me that I needed to rip off the scab and to suss out the wound, and to do all of that. And now, I’m in the state of disorientation.
Here’s the problem with this phase, is that the process of disorientation doesn’t feel anything like growth. It doesn’t feel holy. It doesn’t feel like discipleship or leadership development. It doesn’t feel like anything good. At best, it’s confusing, at worst, it’s excruciating. And so, what happens in the disorientation process is most people conclude, «I gotta get out here». And so, what they do is they look for an off ramp, okay? An off ramp to try to get back this way. «I’mma try to get back to normal».
Now, this could show up as something like this, «I’m trying to change my health habits. So, I’m changing what I eat and I’m changing how I work out, and it’s getting tough. And I’m not feeling it anymore, and my body hurts, and, you know, and da da da. And I don’t enjoy it. And you know, I worked out and I flossed with, you know, quinoa. And I did like everything they told me to do. I ate kale. I ate a kale smoothie, okay? And I gained the pounds. I’m done. I’m out. I’m going back. I’m quitting».
So, it’s everything from quitting like that, or let’s say you start digging up some real stuff, some real stuff, some serious pain you have maybe for decades just sort of done your normal, and something brought it out and now you’re talking about it, and now you’re dealing with it, and «I’m not getting anywhere. I’m looking for an off ramp». The off ramp provides momentary relief, but what it really is is taking reality and pushing it down, and it’s called denial. I’m denying. And I’m gonna tell you, you start taking the denial off ramp, there’s no end to how much denial you can do. Not only am I denying it’s a problem or denying it, I’m denying all the trouble it’s creating both in and through me. I’m in denial of how much I’m hurting other people. I’m in denial on all of it.
So, you push it down. You just gotta know it doesn’t work. If you push those things down, they go subterranean, they become volcanic. They are coming out. They will come out. They come out all kinds of ways. Addictions, okay, depressions. All these different things. You push it down, it’s disorienting off ramp. You can do that, it’s a free country. You’re a grown up, you can pick the off ramp, you can try to live there. Sometimes, you gotta go, by the way, I get it. Sometimes, you gotta take an off ramp to catch a breath but you gotta understand, I gotta get back into disorientation. What in the world do you do with the disorientation? How do I get out of there? 'Cause I can’t spend the rest of my life there.
Three things you do in the disorientation. You pray, you process, you persevere. You pray, you process, by process I mean you talk it out with wise, mature, godly people. Pray, «Lord, give me the strength to make it through the day. Lord, help me see what I can’t see». You pray, you process, and then you persevere. And then, after you persevered, you pray, and then you pray and then you process. I gotta process my prayer, and my reality, and then I just keep going. I keep persevering. And if you’ll pray, process, and persevere, and keep doing it, ask, seek, knock, stay in the chaos. I know it doesn’t feel like growth, but it’s a part of the process. Stay in there and the more you do that, eventually you’ll start getting Revelation. God will start showing you things. And that Revelation will lead you now to this, orientation.
So, I went from disorientation to now orientation. I’m starting to ask good questions and I’m starting to get some answers. «What do I believe? What did I believe? What do I believe now? Who was i? Who am i? Who do I even wanna be»? You start to come to some answers. And through this process of Revelation, you start to orient, and as you orient you start to stabilize, and as you stabilize, you start to stabilize around things like this, peace. I said peace, not bliss. This isn’t Disney. This isn’t «Then they lived happily ever after». No, no, no. This is peace like sometimes you come to peace with «I don’t have the answer». «I’ve been asking the question. I release some emotion. I’m wrestling with God. I told God what I really think. I had a dark night, a sleepless night, a painful night but the sun came up and I got back into the disorientation. I took an off ramp. I sat there for a little bit, then I got back on the disorientation».
And what happens is you start to come to peace with sometimes ambiguity, sometimes, grief, and loss, and reality, and you start to get now into a new normal. And that new normal starts to stabilize into words like peace, like this, healing. Healing. Maybe it wasn’t all restored to you, maybe your heart was healed in the process. Getting to a healthy place. It’s stuff like this, maturity. Stuff like this, wisdom. Okay? Stuff like this, strength. I start to develop strength. This is a muscle. James, the book of James 1 says this in verse two through five, it says this, «Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know the testing of your faith produces perseverance».
Okay. This right here, disorientation, this process, is a testing of your faith. Because when I’m here and when I’m here, I can’t see this over here. I can’t see it. And frankly, I’ve been in the spot where I was here, where I imagined all of the possibilities of what this could be and none of them felt worth it. The testing of your faith. I don’t know what’s here. What is faith? The substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. I can’t see all this. What gets me in here? Well, you got like, three options I can think of. One, is you just, you could give up altogether. That is an option. Some people take that, and they end it all. Another option is to wait to go there until the pain of staying the same is totally unbearable and I wait that long, and I go in there. Or the third option is by faith. To believe that even though I can’t see all of this, I believe that it’s better than here.
And so, I’m going to go there. Most of the time, the first time you do that, it usually takes, it’s gotta be that painful. But some people have the wisdom to go, «You know what? I’m gonna walk the process 'Cause God, I’m gonna trust you. That the peace, and the healing, and the wisdom, and the strength, and the maturity, and the new normal, although it’s not bliss, it’s better than where I am and I’m not gonna end it all. So, I’m gonna go in here and I’m gonna go through the disorientation, and then I’m going to get Revelation, and I’m gonna be reoriented, and then I’m gonna get this new normal».
Now, the first time you do that, okay, it says, «The testing of your faith develops perseverance». But what did it say before that? It says this, «You do this enough, consider it joy». What? How would I consider this joy? The way you consider this joy is when you walk this process of disorientation, orientation, new normal, and you start to see these things, these Revelations come to you, the growth come to you, you start to instead of being terrified of steeping into disorientation or terrified of taking this journey, God’s faithfulness showing up in your life, the strength that’s being produced, you start to consider it joy. You see opportunity. I see changes in opportunity. I actually see this as an opportunity for growth. The process of change is a huge instrument that God will use in your growth. What does all of this mean? You know what all of this is? It’s a story. It’s your story.
And here’s the truth, this is not a one time thing. This isn’t like the boy scout, girl scout, like, «I got the badge, man. I did the change thing that one time». He said, «The testing of your faith develops perseverance». And then he says, «Let perseverance finish its work so you’ll be mature and complete, not lacking anything. If anyone lacks wisdom, you should ask God». Pray, process, persevere. And so, when we think about the disciples in Mark 1, Jesus is inviting them into the training ground of change. And we’re gonna see in the next few weeks, I’mma show you how disoriented they’re about to get. And he’s gonna take them into disorientation and through the process they’ll eventually be reoriented, and then they’ll come into a new normal.
But what I’m gonna tell you is when you see somebody who is strong, it’s somebody who has story after story after story, year over year, situation over situation of walking this journey. 'Cause here’s what I’m gonna tell you. This whole process, this is what this produces. It produces strong, empathetic, strong, empathetic leaders. This is a muscle. You do this over and over again, you become strong. Empathetic, you know how hard this is. Whether I’ve walked a mile in your shoes or not, when I see in disorientation, I know how hard it is to stick around in disorientation. I know how hard it is to come off the off ramp and to go back into the disorientation, to come out of the denial into bringing the truth back up.
So, what does it create? It creates an empathy. Now, here’s what I’mma tell you, and I’m almost done. I’mma tell you this. Not everybody has the gift of leadership. Some people have the gift. Bro, born leaders. I’m telling you, they came out the birth canal, they walked out the delivery room like this, and the doctors and nurses were like, «Where’s he going? Where’s she going»? Alright, some people, they just have it, man. They just have a gift. You know what? But not everybody’s gonna be a CEO. Not everybody’s gonna be the big-time manager. There’s a bunch of you in this room don’t even wanna be leaders. But here’s what I’m gonna tell you, God has wired you with a deep desire for your life to positively affect at least one other person. You can’t go through life as a hermit, completely isolated and be fulfilled. Can’t be done.
God hasn’t made you that way. You may not need the masses. You may not even like attention. You may not want tons and tons of people. At least one other person. One other person. God has given you a purpose to be an agent of change both in yourself and in other people. To affect one other person. In fact, one of our greatest fears is that we would die having made no difference. That’s a terrible thought to think, «If I died today, nobody was affected». Why? That’s something God put in you. A desire to positively affect at least one other person. How do I do that? I allow God to take me through this process of normal, disorientation, orientation, new normal, peace, healing, maturity.
How do I get out of the disorientation? Pray, process, persevere. When you get done praying, process. When you get done process, persevere and then pray. And just keep doing it. And you do that, you come through, and what happens? God does a work in you, and then eventually you start recognizing people who are standing here or people who are parked up here and you start showing them before and after pictures. Say, «Come on with me. Come on with me. Come on with me».
Jesus had a huge plan for these disciples. He was gonna turn them into strong empathetic leaders. He was gonna use them for seismic change. Change beyond anything they could have fathomed, and yet it all started in Mark 1 with one change, «Will you put down your net and follow me? Will you follow me when you don’t know where this is headed? Will you follow me when you don’t even know what the new normal’s gonna be? Would you put down your net»? 'Cause if you can’t put down your net in Mark 1, you can’t do Acts 1, and you can’t do Acts 10, and you can’t do all the stuff, the good work that God’s planned for you to do. It can get a lot better than where you are now. I can’t tell you exactly what it’ll be, 'Cause I don’t know, and neither do you, but God does.
So, you can wait until the pain of staying the same is so great, you can give up hope, those are all options. But today, I wanna give you a third option that I think is way better. Take a step of faith. Come out of the off ramp. Go back into the disorientation. Let God bring Revelation in due time. Get back to a new normal. For some of you today, for some of you today you’ve been through this, and today you have an opportunity to decide, will you do it again?
For some of you, it’s to change your attitude about change. You’ve just been seeing it as all a bad thing, and yet to actually realize that this is where the greatest work both in you and through you is gonna happen, through this process. For some of you, you’re in the disorientation and the voice in your head is telling you, «This can’t be good. This is not growth. This is not development». But you’re actually right in the middle of the process. Stay in the disorientation, keep processing, praying, and persevering.