SAGE ADVICE

Can saying a practical 'yes' to God's plans transform your life's journey? Join Nick Koopalethes on a thought-provoking exploration of personal growth and spiritual fulfillment, inspired by the wisdom of General George Patton. Together, we will unravel the significance of actionable commitment in following divine assignments, preparing ourselves to enter and sustain our roles in the God-given arenas of our lives, even if it means enduring significant losses. Nick shares insights on the importance of personal transformation, drawing parallels with biblical figures, to inspire listeners to embrace growth and success in their unique divine purpose.

In this compelling episode, we confront the 'tyranny within'—the internal struggles that can sabotage our identity and purpose. Discover how personal weaknesses can undermine our strengths and impact our relationships, such as in marriage, and how the Holy Spirit can guide us in overcoming these challenges. Nick emphasizes the importance of acknowledging these internal tyrants and the grace of God in maintaining our growth. Listeners are encouraged to stay steadfast in their personal evolution, becoming the individuals their loved ones and communities need, and fully embracing the freedom granted by Christ. Tune in for a journey of transformation, commitment, and spiritual enlightenment.

Chapters

• 0:00 Journey of Growth and Transformation
• 10:28 Confronting the Tyranny Within
• 16:10 Embracing Growth and Becoming Better

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

The Koopalethas Podcast. Welcome to episode number 27. I am Nick Koopalithis, your host, and I am so glad that you are here with me right now. Today, we're going to talk about sage advice I have learned in the last year, and so I'm going to take a little time and talk about that, but I am so glad that you are here. I know, I know that you have been through things, I have been through things, and we are learning and growing. We have committed ourselves to be people of growth, and so that's what I'm going to share with you today Three different things that have changed my heart and my life so I could grow.

Speaker 1: 1:08

General George Patton said this I am a soldier, I fight where I am told and I win where I fight. Every single one of us listening right now, god has a purpose for your life, every single one of us here. There is an assignment that God gives you to fulfill that purpose, and that assignment is not because you are a general, it's because you are a soldier, and the great general, king Jesus, says I need you here, fight here, love here, build and establish the kingdom here. You do not get to choose where God drops you off, for how long he drops you off. You get to choose a yes to the Lord, and when you say yes to God, that means you say yes to his plans, his purposes, his direction. That means the obstacles and the challenges that are in front of you when you say yes are obstacles and challenges that he has called you to break through, to go over, to go under, to go around. He has called you to confront and defeat those dragons that are waiting for you on the other side of the yes. The yes has to be more than a philosophical yes, an idea yes, a feel-good yes. Really, at the end of the day, your yes to the Lord is a very, very practical yes. That's what it is. It's a practical yes, meaning I can say yes to the Lord all day, but I have to go out and actually accomplish what he has called me to accomplish. It is not just on paper, it is in your actions, your truth. Not your truth, but the truth that you are proclaiming. You must be active in that. So the yes is not just a philosophical yes or a feel-good yes, it is. How do I walk this out? Yes, here I am. Send me is more than just that's a great idea, it's actually I'm available physically, mentally, emotionally, relationally to go and bring the kingdom of heaven to earth. So here is the first thing I've learned in the last year of learning, when I've given God my yes. This is what I'm learning from the great sage Number one to step into the arena, one must prepare diligently.

Speaker 1: 3:51

To stay in the arena, one must be prepared to suffer great loss. Preparation is everything. The way that you prepare is everything. The way that you focus is so important. Preparation is needed to step into the arena. What's the arena? What is the place that God has called you to step into? What's the ring that God has called you to step into and to fight and to love and to be who God's called you to be? What is that place? And once you understand that assignment, prepare diligently, become a master in the skill that is needed to walk out the call of God. But it's one thing to step into the arena, it's another thing to stay in the arena. The longer that I have walked with the Lord, the more I've seen people step into the arena, but I've seen less people stay in the arena. Because here's the thing to stay in the arena.

Speaker 1: 4:55

One must be prepared to suffer great loss when you understand that when you are called by God and have an assignment, the very basis of that assignment, the very bottom line of that assignment, is to bring the kingdom of heaven to earth, so that's great. Well, that can be in a lot of different arenas and spheres of influence, but this is what you have to understand. Okay, there is a dominion of darkness filled with evil and wicked beings who work through what Ephesians 2 calls the sons of disobedience, and they have one objective to destroy the kingdom of his son, which you are trying to establish. And to go forward, you must be willing to suffer great loss, and I pray and I hope that you're spared as much as you can be spared. But you must be prepared, and I don't even know how you really prepare to suffer great loss, and I don't even know how you really prepare to suffer great loss, because when you go through great loss, it might be the loss of close relationships, it might be the impact of being in that call long term. There's so many different dynamics to great loss. It's not just somebody dying, it's the impact on relationships, it's the impact on your soul, it's the impact on the world around you. There's so many things.

Speaker 1: 6:36

And to stay in that arena, you must learn to be prepared for great loss. And I would say how do you prepare for great loss? Is that you realize who you run to when that great loss confronts you? Where do you fall? Do you fall forward, into the arms of the Lord, or do you fall backwards and run for your life? To step into the arena, one must prepare diligently To stay in the arena. To stay in the arena, one must be prepared to suffer great loss.

Speaker 1: 7:18

Number two to become what is needed, a man must become what he is not. To become what is needed, a man must become what he is not. And how's this? You can prepare for that arena. You can step into that arena. You can fight to stay in that arena. But to overcome you must become someone that is not who you are in the present moment. You must allow the Holy Spirit and the transformational power of God to change you into and transform you into the image of his son in the midst of that arena.

Speaker 1: 7:50

I think of. Like King David, he was a shepherd and he's tending flock, but for him to accomplish what God had called him to accomplish, he had to be anointed with the Holy Spirit. And when the Holy Spirit came on him, he was then able to be the warrior that God had called him to be, taking lions and bears and ripping them apart with his very hands, taking a sling and defeating a champion warrior in Goliath, and then going forward and learning what it was to rely on God and draw his strength from the Lord in difficult and hard times. I want to tell you this to become what is needed as a husband, to become what is needed as a father, to become what is needed in the assignment that God has called you to, you must learn to become what you're not. You must learn to allow the transformation and growth processes that he has you in to take effect, because the only way that you're going to have eternal fruit is when God transforms you.

Speaker 1: 8:58

But when God transformed me? I'm preaching up in here, I feel like I'm feeling preachy, but here's the thing when God transforms you, that's where success lies. When God transforms you, that's where success lies. That's where it needs to be. When I planted a church 14 years ago, I wasn't the man yet who God needed me to be in order to pastor a revival, to pastor the church, to reach a region I needed to become and still am becoming the man he needs to be. Number two to become what is needed, a man must become what he is not.

Speaker 1: 9:44

I just wanted to take a moment and say thank you. Thank you for listening to this podcast, thank you for being a part of this journey with me. I would love to hear from you. You can email me at cupolithus at gmailcom. That's cupolithus at gmailcom. I would love to hear from you. And if you would like to support this podcast, you can go to thecupolithuspodcastcom and give a tax-deductible donation there. And so that's thekupalethispodcastcom. But again, thank you for taking the time. Thank you for being on this journey with me. Let's go forward.

Speaker 1: 10:28

Number three, number three Number three, number three goes like this To live in freedom, one must confront the tyranny of his own soul, but do not kill the tyrant, only keep him in chains. To live in freedom, one must confront the tyranny of his own soul, but do not kill the tyrant, only keep him in chains. There's a lot of things that have a tyrannical reign in this world, but the most evil tyrant of all is the one that is within your very soul, the one that seeks to rule you, the one that seeks to destroy you, one that seeks to sabotage you, the purposes of God in you, and sabotage your identity in the Lord, and to get you twisted and down the wrong path. That is a tyrant, an old nature, a depraved way of thinking, and you must confront that tyrant. I heard somebody say that there are really no marriage problems. There are individuals who have brought problems into the marriage.

Speaker 1: 11:50

You must confront the tyrant of your own soul. You must realize those weak areas in your life. They will seek to rule the strong areas in your life. You say well, if they're strong areas, they'll rule over the weak areas. This is what I mean.

Speaker 1: 12:14

Let's say you're gifted in compassion, you're known as a compassionate person, and that's such a wonderful gift and such a wonderful place of strength, but yet you are weak in boundaries. And so every little crumb of need you want to come and meet and heal and be compassionate, and yet you have no boundaries. And so, since you have no boundaries, maybe your own soul wears thin, you're tired. The relationships that should have priorities in your life, they're not as strong as they should be. Why? Because you're just helping everyone all the time. Not even Jesus helped everyone all the time, and there was times he walked by people who were sick in order to complete the assignment that God had called them to do. He had boundaries. Those boundaries was the active will of the Lord in his life.

Speaker 1: 13:07

And so you can have places in your life that are strong, but if there is a tyrant that is ruling over you in your soul, it will impact your whole, entire being. And so, to live in freedom, you have to confront that. Now, if you've given your life to Jesus, what they call it, you're positionally right before God. God sees you as whole. I believe that that's what justification is that, just like you've never sinned, but behaviorally I have to grow up in the Lord. Behaviorally, I have to confront these weak areas with the help of the Holy Spirit. We never do it without God's help.

Speaker 1: 13:46

But I must confront the tyranny and the tyrant of my own soul in order to partake and live in freedom and behave in freedom and behave in nobility and be who God's called me to be. But the last half of that is but do not kill the tyrant, only keep him in chains. This is what I mean about that. This is for me. It might not be for you, but every now and then I want to walk down into the deepest recess of my heart and I want to go to that jail cell in which that tyrant lives in chains. And he's in that jail cell why? Because I live in freedom now. I'm not that guy anymore, I'm not his subject anymore, I'm not his slave anymore.

Speaker 1: 14:36

But I want to peer through those bars and look straight into his eyes and I want to remember what I was before he was locked down. And you know what that's gonna do? That's gonna magnify the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ in my life. That's gonna remind me that don't slip back, nick, into the old ways. Don't let this tyrant loose. Enjoy the freedom. Don't forget where you've come from. Don't forget what you've been delivered out of. See, I don't believe that we're sinners who are just saved by grace. Yes, we were a sinner, saved by grace. That's not who I am Now. I'm a saint, I'm holy because of the Lord. But even Paul was referred to himself as the chief of sinners. And I just wonder maybe I don't know, maybe his motive was to say I'm not going to forget where I came from, because when I remember my own depraved soul, I remember the infinite grace and mercy of God. I'm not going to return to that yoke of slavery anymore, as he tells the church in Galatia, but it is for freedom. Christ set me free. I'm going to stay free, but I'm going to remember where I came from. So to live in freedom, one must confront the tyranny of his own soul. But do not kill the tyrant, only keep him in chains. Only keep him in chains. Only keep him in chains.

Speaker 1: 16:10

Well, over the last year, I feel like I've been learning so many different things about myself, about God, about the people around me, and I want to be someone who steps into the arena but stays in the arena. I want to be someone who steps into the arena but stays in the arena. I want to be somebody who not only has the ability to be available but also to become what I'm not, and I know what my wife and what my kids and what my friends and what my church what they might need from me is someone. I'm not yet, but I'm committed to becoming that person. When I'm not yet, but I'm committed to becoming that person Because, at the end of the day, I want to live in the freedom of the Lord. All right, I love you. God bless you. Let's get after it.