Hey, what's going on everybody? How y'all doing today? Y'all good. All right. All right, John. I just want to personally thank you for allowing me to be here, man. I'm just, I'm just encouraged. I'm fired up. What mission Grove is doing? Can I get an Amen? Hey man, man, this is, this is great. This is great. Like he said, uh you know, I was drafted by the Seattle Mariners. I played with the University of Minnesota Golden Gophers. I did, you know I did a lot of cool things. I accomplished a lot of dreams but you know, that doesn't necessarily mean that I had a fulfilled heart. Ok? So like I think a lot of times in life we get what we want. Like we we we get some things, we get some titles, we we we get the position that we wanna go to, right? But are we really getting what we need? And I think there's a huge difference between the money, the cars, the fames, the dreams, the desires and the visions and what Jesus is trying to do in your life and what you really need and how your, how your soul needs to be transformed. So I, I'm just blessed and honored to be here and speak. Like he said, I, you know, I travel the valley, I travel uh the country to go and speak um schools, to churches, you know, anywhere that, that God is planting me. Um I really just, I'm honored to always be there. So today's message is actually after my book that's coming here soon is called, you are being planted, not buried, ok? Like Christ has planted you in a position that you're in. He hasn't, he hasn't buried you in the location that you're at. Like he's planted you for a purpose. He's planted you for a higher calling. And that's truly what I believe in this life and for you to understand, you know, my, my, my story for you understand the pain that I faced, you know, later on in my career, I gotta take you a little bit further back. You know, I gotta take you back to when I was a kid. Like how many of you guys all I had a had a really big dream for your life. Yeah, a few of you. Yeah, me too. Me too. And it's not often that, you know, we get all the things that we want in life, am I right? But what can happen is even though we're not getting everything that we want, like God can transform us, right? And, and for me, like my whole identity was placed in this game called baseball. Like my whole identity was placed in this position and this title that I need to go to. And I think for some of you, you've done the same thing you said I wanna be, I wanna be this, I wanna be that I wanna be, have this business. I wanna have this much success, this much money, this much car, like all of those things, all these external things. And at some point, maybe you've clung to that more than you've clung to Jesus. I did, I did. And for me, I was clinging to baseball and that was on the throne of my life. And Jesus wasn't like I, I knew who he was. I knew who God was, but that doesn't mean God was in me like I did the church thing growing up in Minnesota like I was, I grew up Lutheran, my parents took me to church. I got confirmed. I did all of those things. But I used God like I, I used him as a genie like it wasn't a God. I was serving, it was a genie. I was asking for a request from like I would say God like I'll do these things for you. I'll, I'll be nice to people if you could just give me the major leagues like I would, I would pray these things in my past and the only person that my prayers were affecting was me and may maybe you need to analyze how you pray right now. Like if your prayers got answered today, I, I, if your prayers came true, would they change anybody else's life? But yours? Hm. For me it was no, all my prayers were about this man right here. They weren't about anybody else. And it was taking me to the major leagues and I had this identity in the game because of these, you know, this, this, this weight that I placed on the game and it kinda started when I was a young kid, me and my dad, we would be driving, um, you know, across town, we'd be going to different States and we would have, you know, these car rides, right? I'm sure you guys have all experienced that where you're just sitting there with your parents, sitting there with your dad. And what we would do is we would game plan for the future. Like I'm always so grateful for my parents because they saw greatness inside of me, not necessarily in baseball, but in my whole life. But what I saw in me was baseball only, I thought that's the, that's the only purpose in calling I have on my life. Like I think some of you have thought that, that you've put yourself in this box of what you're trying to do. You think this is your purpose in calling? But like God's not calling you to check this box off like he's calling you to walk through some more doors like he's calling you to something bigger like God cannot be contained by your dream and your vision like it is so small compared to where He wants you to go like that. I just need you to know that like the thing that you're chasing after it is small compared to the glory of God and the doors that He needs you to go through. Y'all feeling that. All right. All right. So for me, for me, I, I was checking these boxes, you know, with my dad, we were like, ok, if we wanna go to the major leagues, we gotta do some things to get there. We would have these conversations like Lance, you need to at least start on your varsity team. Like Lance, you need to at least be throwing 90 MPH. I was, I was a right handed pitcher. You need to at least, you know, go to college and then you have the opportunity to, to get drafted and make it to the majors. So there was all these stepping stones that I knew that I had to take. But inside these stepping stones, I was finding my identity, man. I don't think I'm the only one here who said that scholarship, that position, that title, that grade, that amount of money is where I'm gonna find my worth and my value. I don't think I'm unique in that. That's what I was doing. And as I went along throughout my career, my mind would teeter totter based upon my success and failure. Like as long as Lance, the player was going good, Lance, the person was going good. And maybe you guys have felt like that too. Like as long as my external circumstances and my results are going good, then I'm going good. And somewhere along the line I had become all tied up to Lance the player and I've forgotten about this heart and I've forgotten about this mind and we can mask our success for a little while. Like we can mask our identity with success for a little while. I think a lot of us do that. I did, I did as I got better and better. That was able to cover up my issues inside my heart that was able to cover up this identity construct that I had created. That was faulty, this identity that said what I do brings me value and worth. But Jesus says the opposite. He says who you are and me brings you value and worth. But I didn't know that yet. Mm mm And I started, I started to experience some failure as I got to college for the first time. I really failed my first year at the University of Minnesota got that scholarship like I was pitching really well. I was old enough to be draft eligible. I had all these scouts calling me, hey, Lance, you're gonna go in the top 10 rounds, you're on the top 10 players to watch list in the entire big 10 conference. And I was just like, man, this is a dream come true, but as our expectations get greater, so does the pressure as our expectations for our life, as we get closer and closer to where we really wanna go, the pressure only mounts if you don't know Christ, if you haven't truly given him your life. And I remember in 2014, I came out for that season. I was draft eligible. And like my, all my, my scouts and these agents were telling me, Lance, all you gotta do is what you did the year before. And you're a shoe in to be a top 10 draft pick. You're a shoe in to the MLB draft and then you're, and you're just one step away from the major leagues. I said, all right, let's go. And I remember that season, I came out and everything went horrible. I didn't pitch very good. The coach took me out of the game like I wasn't a contributor to the team in regards to the stats. I wasn't contributing to the wins and losses. And that was the first time that I had realized that my mindset was a little bit jacked up that maybe I got a little bit of an issue here with the game. Maybe I got a little bit of issue here with my title or position that however, my title or position goes is how I treat my family. However my title or position goes is how I show up for my friends. However my title or position or my success goes changes how I act. Mm. I guess I'm the only one. Oh, man. But as I kept going, I just, I just realized, you know, I got a little bit of a jacked up mindset. My identity is in this game too much and that led to a lot of self medication. I remember that season where I wasn't doing very good. Like I was having all this failure like this failure kept on stacking against me and I didn't know who I was as a person. And so I would find ways to self medicate like any way that we cope without Jesus is self-medication. Like when things are going bad, when things are going wrong and you, and you choose to do whatever that is for you, Xy and Z before you turn to Jesus, before you turn to God, that's self medication. And I was the king. Like if I wasn't going good in my dream or my success, what I was doing then is, is I was working out more. I said, if, if I can't do it on the field, I'm gonna do it off and I'm gonna work out two times a day, I'm gonna build my body because that's gonna build my self worth because then I'll be getting closer to my dream and I overworked myself that led to injuries down the road. And then when I had all this fear and anxiety about where I was going and where I was headed, that if I didn't make the major leagues, then my purpose in calling was falling. That if you don't get the title or position or the place that you wanna go or the destination that your purpose isn't alive, I believe that I believed it. So I had all this. I, I was so scared that I would use alcohol. I, I didn't think I was an alcoholic but I was using it in a way to drown out my fears. Like I was still a productive human, but I was using that like, I don't think I was ever addicted. But what I was was I used it for self medication to cope with all my anxiety instead of turning to Christ eventually, you know, I was able to get through this season all these ups and downs. And then a really cool thing happened to me after all these ups and downs, I did enough to perform for, for major league scouts to want to take a chance on me. My dream came true. June 10th, 2015, the Seattle Mariners called me and they drafted me, I was throwing, you know, 90 to 95 miles an hour. I was up to 97 at that point and they, they drafted me. Dream came true. I went out 2015 for the Seattle Mariners and their minor league system and I crushed it. Like I was like, this, is it like a couple more years of this? I'll be in Seattle. Couple of years of this. I'll be in the major leagues. 2016 came around. We're in Peoria, Arizona. This is where we train full time with the Mariners and I was living at my parents' condo at the time just around the street. And I'm three days away from breaking camp, three days away from going to play in the minor leagues. And I'm, and I'm out there pitching in the game. Boom, boom. And then whack tore my elbow to shreds. Tommy John, like I was gonna need surgery and there it goes. But had had, listen, this is, this is, this is the craziest thing because I should have been gone. Had I had I not been hurt. I should have been in the minor leagues living out my dream. But instead I was self loathing in a bar in Tempe, drowning out my fears and my anxieties of where I'm gonna go. And as I'm doing that, there's an angel that comes into my life and she was described as a really attractive blonde on the dance team. I met my wife and I met her at this bar in Tempe and her mom forced her to go out that night. Mm Had I been healthy. I wouldn't have her today and we're expecting a second child here soon. Little baby boy, little boy coming here. We got a little girl named Radley. She's almost two. She's just a spitfire. Now, we got ranger coming, we got ranger coming. I'm so excited about that. But the, the point is like God is working in your life even when you can't see it like he is doing things in the background when you're not paying attention. Like we think God, where are you, God, where are you God, where are you? He's saying he's saying to you. He was saying to me, son, I'm moving, I'm moving. You just can't see it yet. You just can't see the fruits of my labor yet in your, in your real life. And he had planted my angel inside of this, this blonde girl and we got to know each other. We got to develop this relationship. I eventually went to Seattle, got Tommy John surgery that was gonna put me out at least for 12 months. And I and I came home from that surgery. I'm sitting on my parents' condo of uh 64th and Joe Max and I'm sitting there and I got my sling on, I'm all alone. My parents weren't there. They only lived here half the year. My, my, my girlfriend at the time, Kaylee, my wife, now she was working and it was just me 630 at night. I'm watching Netflix. And I remember like this, a spirit came over me and said, like, turn that off started asking me this question. Who are you? Who are you, who are you, who are you, who are you, who are you? And I didn't have an answer to that question because I was gonna be without the thing that I had worshiped for at least 12 months. And I remember being prompted to go down to the church, which was just down the street, that church was called Northridge. Now it's Scottsdale Bible. And that's where John used to work. And I go down to this church and I got my, my dad's car that he had parked here and I drove it down one block and I get out and I'm looking for a, for a Bible study and I walk up looking for a bulletin board and this man named Tom comes up to me. He goes, can I help you? I said, yeah, I'm looking for, you know, I'm looking for a pamphlet for a men's study. Maybe like, maybe I get involved and do something cool. And he's like, no, no, no, no, we got one going on right now. He's like we got a men's study going on right now. I hopped into that men's study afterwards. He said, why don't you come tomorrow? M why don't you come on Saturday? We got, we got a whole men's uh, men's group way bigger than this. I was like, all right, I'll be there. Pastor met me on Saturday night. His name is Dan King. He said you should come to church on Sunday. I said, all right, I'll be there after church on Sunday. He comes up to me. He's like, Lance. You should meet me tomorrow at a coffee shop at 6 a.m. I said. All right, I'll be there, Dan. And that's when the transformation started in my life. That's when everything changed for me. And I rededicated my life to Jesus. It only took about a week before I was rededicating my life to Christ before I was trying to change who I was. I was trying to change. I said, God like take my life if, if it's baseball great, if it's not baseball great, but just show me open up some doors for me. I'm tired of checking off these boxes like they don't lead me to anything but self loathing and self worth and pity and anxiety and fear of me, not getting the next one like I want what you got God. And then my life changed my life changed forever. But what happened? And this is the best part about my story, even though I changed and my life changed everything in my career got worse. Everything. Tommy John didn't go right. 12 months in stress fracture, 18 months in loose fragmented bone, three seasons went by Tommy John stress fracture, pr P stem cell loose fragmented bone doctor, doctor, doctor, doctor, doctor, like and I literally was being locked up in Peoria, Arizona so that God could set me free. Like I thought I was rehabbing my elbow. I was really rehabbing this heart like God needed to transform me. Some of you might feel like when is my location gonna change? When is God gonna do something new? He's trying to get you to live differently before he takes you to your promised land before he takes you to what he's really calling you to do. And that's what he was doing in me. He said, Lance like you can't change. You can't be a different person if you're still in Minnesota like everybody knows the old you like I want them not to be able to recognize you anymore and that's what those three years were meant for. So I want to encourage some of you today. If you're in a season of waiting, you're in good company. He's trying to change the way you live before he promotes you to a different location. You're in that season. I was too in this verse, this one verse changed my life. Matthew 1039. It says if you cling to your life, you will lose it. But give up your life for me and you will find it. If you cling to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for me, you will find it. Mm mm mm I remember reading that at my condo before I went to rehab one morning and thinking this is it. And I started praying these prayers. I started saying God, if you heal me, if you heal me, God, like I'll shout your name from the major leagues. Like I'm done clinging to my old life. When I get to the major leagues, I'll shout your name. That prayer was not answered in the way that I thought like that's what that's was praying to him. But what, what really what he was saying to me. And now six years later, five years later, I know. So I'll heal you. When you shout my name from the minor leagues, son, I will heal you when you shout my name from the minor leagues. And I think so many of us, we want to go to the mountain top before we put, proclaim God, like we want all this success to happen to us before we start talking about his name. Before we start talking about what he's doing in us. That was me. I said, God, I'll shout your name there. He said, I need you to shout it in the valley where people where there's an echo, there's an echo in the valley. There's a, there's an echo in your pain. There's an echo in your circumstances because you're gonna be able to relate to more people. When you go through that pain, that trial, that divorce. When you go through all of those things, your injuries, your bad grades, your abuse, verbally and physically, all of those things that you've had to deal with losing the money. Like there's gonna be more people around you that are experiencing that lance than there are at the mountain tops that can't relate to you. So take heart when you go through tough times because what that means is your voice has a reason. It has a purpose, it has a calling and there's more people that you can gather for the Kingdom of God in the valley than there are at the mountain tops. That's what he was trying to show me in this verse. I have one point. Then I have two ways to change and I have three questions. So for, for, for three or four years now I've been speaking and it started with eight kids a couple of weeks ago. It was 1000. I didn't open these doors. But God, did you guys know that song, right? But God did you know what? Um and I've just been very humbled and blessed. I've been speaking this one verse and this is the, this is the only verse I probably have on Pastor John like John, like he's been called the priest, this whole Bible. Like all these messages I've been called to preach one verse and I'm thinking like, oh but this one verse and here's what I'll say about scripture is like it, it is going the depths of it are gonna grow as your character does, like you are gonna read this thing. I encourage you to keep reading it, keep reading it before I prepare a message like this. I go and read Matthew 1039 again. I go and read Matthew 10 again. And like for three or four years, it's been saying the same thing. But like this week preparing for this message, this verse changed. God unveiled a new depth to this verse to me. And I was literally on my like crying three times this week preparing for this. I remember I was out for a run and like I was listening to Jyra and like it just hit me. I like I couldn't even keep moving. I was like, oh my God, I get it now I get it. You are enough. Like you are already enough. And I was like, OK, what are you trying to tell me, God if you cling to your life, you will lose it, give up your life for me and you will find it like, because for so long, I thought if I give up baseball, if I give up my old life, I'm gonna get a new destination. I'm gonna get a new life. And that's how I preached it for so long. And I believe that's, that's true. Like God will take you to a new destination. He will take you to a new place like I promise you he will do that. But what he's showing me now is Lance. You think this is an external destination? It's always been an internal dialogue. Like this verse is about your internal dialogue with yourself. It's about forgetting the old Jew like that, that, that, that boy, that 22 year boy that walked out of that car. I don't recognize him anymore because that was before Christ. There's a little boy, a little girl, a grown man, a grown woman inside of you that you don't recognize anymore. So don't go back to that old mindset. Give up your life for me and you will find it, give up your life for me and you will find it, your life and you will find it. Finding it is about how you live. Now, it's about how you think about yourself. It's not about your location, it's how you live. So two ways to do that is you gotta one, you gotta separate your stat sheet from your soul. You gotta be able to draw a line in the sand and say no more, no more. Am I gonna live on my title? My accolade, my award, my GPA. My bank accounts, my money that I have my title or position, but I am gonna live and operate from my soul. I'm gonna live and operate from who God says I am. Because your, your stat sheet in life, you guys, that's what people can see. They can see all those things that you do, but your soul, your soul is felt. And I want you to focus on how your soul is felt and it's not your responsibility, how people feel about you. But how are you showing up as a new creation in Christ as somebody that surrendered their life and given up their life to God? Like how do you show up? Like, how is your humility? How is your kindness? How is your joy? How is your smile? Like how, how are those qualities that can't be seen? But they're felt like these qualities on our stat sheet? Those are measurable. Like we can measure your statute, we can measure your money, we can measure your grades, but you need to operate within your soul, which is immeasurable because you can't measure your value. You can't measure your worth. You can't measure like how much how, how amazing God is that he gave you Jesus like you can't even fathom or measure that like how loved you are, how fearfully and wonderfully made that you are. So we need to operate from our soul instead of our statue. Point number two is we need to be able to separate and dissect our passion, our purpose and our profits. Ok. So III I can remember after I got healthy with the Seattle Mariners, I'd finally come back. I was finally doing the things that I wanted to do for this short period of time. Mariners, Seattle Mariners released me once I got healthy after three years of rehab, that threw me for a loop. Why did you keep me? Why did I go through this if you're just gonna cut me anyway. But God's hand was on that process. God knew what he was doing then and I go out to New Jersey, I go out to New Jersey and I get signed by this independent league, blow up my elbow again and I retire at 25. This is in 2020 18. I finally say I'm done. Side note, I've been speaking for three or four years now, I've turned it more in, in, into my own business within the last year, the last year and a half. And the place where my career ended in baseball was where my calling started. So the first time that somebody paid me to come and speak was in New Jersey. Oh, it gets steeper than that. This is crazy. I remember they had a pretty limited budget and they said Lance, can you come out and do it for this? I was like, ok, I can. And what I used to write on my glove was Colossians 323. Do you work hardily as for the Lord rather than for men? I put that on my baseball gloves and after I tallied up what this school paid me, minus my expenses was $323. Hm. When my baseball ended, my calling began in New Jersey. The first time somebody paid me, I can't, I couldn't even believe that God is so good. Like he is moving in your life when you don't know he's moving. He really is moving y'all. And I came home after I retired in New Jersey and I said, God, why are you taking away my purpose? Why are you taking away my calling? And what he's showing me now is Lance. I wasn't taking away your purpose in calling. I was taking away your passion. But the beautiful things about passion is it can be renewed. Passions can be restored. Passions are what you like to do, what you love to do and what you're good at. And those can be remade. But your purpose in calling is much bigger than your passions. Lance your purpose in your calling is much bigger than what you're going through. Your purpose in calling is much bigger than what you like to do. And your purpose in calling is much bigger than what you have success at or what you make money at. Can your purpose in calling be your passion and you profit from it. It can. But God's gotta get you to start living, right? God's gotta get you to start living the way that He's called you to do and forget that old mindset that you have before you were reborn before you were remade before you came up out of that watery grave before you came up out of that water and I got three questions for you. Are you living differently while you wait on your new location? Are you living differently while you wait on your new location? Like some of you want, you wanna go new places? You're, you're sick and tired of the boxes that you've been checking and you wanna start walking through God's doors and you want to go to a new place. But before you can go to that new place, you gotta start living differently, living with that old mindset, thrown away and live your new mindset, living your worth and your value being tied to Jesus, being tied to the rock, not your external circumstance. It's not about where you're at. It's how you act, it's how you behave. Your purpose in calling is 24 73 65 every single day that you wake up. You can live the life that you wanna live. You can live the life that God is calling you to live no matter what's going on in your environment, no matter the circumstances that are going on. He's got something big on your life, but you gotta start acting different. You gotta start living in this new calling. You gotta start living with the blood of Jesus washed all over your life. And number two, the question is, what still has you locked up? What old sin? What old pain, what old marriage, what old relationship, what old friends, what old thing that you said. What old thing before Christ are you still hanging on to that? You haven't allowed the blood of Jesus to wash over your life yet? You've let him in. But you still got this hole that he needs to fill. Like there's something in your life that you haven't let the blood of Christ wash over. What still has you locked up? He's gonna set you free. He wants to set you free. But you gotta adopt that mindset that he can and he will. But give that thing to him, give him that pain. Give him that sin. Say Jesus, this is it. Take it, I can't handle it anymore for real. And lastly, the last question I have for you, are you trying to take your old mindset into your new mission field? Are you trying to bring your old mind before Christ into your new mission? This is a mission, a mission growth. This is, this is so big here. You get to be a part of it. And I know a lot of you have prayed for mission grove. I know a lot of you have prayed for a new mission. I know a lot of you have prayed for something new in your life and what God, what God has been telling me this week is you're asking for a blessing to be sent here so this church can grow. You're asking for somebody to do something in your life. So that you can go to your new mission. But what I, what I, but what I've been hearing God telling me and he's telling you is you're praying for a blessing. You're praying for something new. But what I hear Him saying is you are the blessing. You are the one. You've been praying for a circumstance. You've been praying for somebody else to do something. You've been praying for a blessing but you are in, you are already a blessing. You are already fearfully and wonderfully made. You are already whole. You are already n you're already born to live like you are already meant for this life. Like it is, it like it is finished, it was finished on the cross. It was finished when he did it. You've got a mission but you gotta leave your old mind behind. You gotta leave it behind. Because what I believe in, in this life and what I've been put on this earth to do is tell people that they're being planted. They are not being buried. I thought I was being buried, forgotten, lonely, lost and afraid before Jesus when things didn't go my way. But what, what he's telling me now, his son, I was planting you and he's planting you and you and you and you, he's planting you for a higher cause. He's planting you for a purpose in the deeper that seed gets planted, the deeper the seed goes into that soil, the more nutrients are down there, the more water is down there that causes a deeper root to grow. And that root's name is Jesus. And he's been planted so far deep within your soul. He wants to unveil a new harvest in you. But you gotta start living that way. A seed that's planted that only gets sunlight. It dies. But a seed that's planted, that gets more rain, that gets more nutrient, that gets more pain. That gets more strife. A seed that's planted, that gets all of those things. It's gonna have a huge harvest and sometimes that harvest isn't gonna look the way that you thought it was gonna look. I thought I was gonna come up out of that ground as a major leaguer. Uh uh uh uh I didn't come up out of that ground as a major leaguer. I came up out of that ground as a major believer. A believer in me, a believer in you and a believer in Jesus. You got this. I know you're calling. I know it's bigger than any location that you're trying to go. It's how you live. I'm blessed and I'm honored to be here today. Thank you for your time. Let me pray Jesus, these souls, they're yours. Help them to look into the mirror and see you Jesus, help them to see you and them, help them to give their life and rededicate your life to you. If they haven't helping them get rid of that old sin, that old desires and have them step into their new mindset and their new mission field, take them where you need them to go even if it's in the same place. But with a different mind in Jesus name, we pray. Amen.