Keith Battle - Verified - Part 4

All right, all right! Take a break, get a drink. Great job! What’s up, y’all? I’m Coach Keith, and today I’m going to be your host for Verified, part four. Verified is our new singles series. It’s a series for singles! How do I keep tongue-tying myself? Anyway, this is part four, and what Verified is all about is the world of social media. When you reach a certain status or fame in your career or persona, you get verified; they give you a blue check. The reason we call this series Verified is that, in society, many single people don’t get the respect they deserve if they’re not in a committed relationship. In our culture, that kind of verifies you once you’re booed up. But I don’t believe that’s true! I believe you’re verified because God says you’re verified. God says you’re so verified that He would die for you! Whoo! You thought I was going to die for—

Hey, y’all, like that? Yeah, I wrote that song! I co-wrote that song with Anthony Brown, and I thanked him for it via email.

Anyway, in the first two parts of this series, we looked at how to navigate the dating and relationship space—how to avoid pitfalls, ask the right questions, and make the right moves so you don’t end up in a situation you’ll later regret. Then, last week, we explored not relationships, but how to maximize yourself as a single. Today, as your coach, I’m going to give you coaching tips on all things single. We’re going to discuss everything about being single, but before we dive in, we’ll start with some warm-ups because you shouldn’t practice without warming up. I’ve got to warm you up by getting your mind right! Just like sports are mostly mental, being single is really about having your mental state right.

One of the things we need to get right in our minds, especially as singles, is understanding the difference in life between 'this' and 'that.' I really mean that—I’m serious when I say it! You need to understand there’s a science behind understanding this and that. Check this out! All right, let’s do our sprints now. Verse 13: Accept the way God does things. Everybody say «accept!» Accept the way God does things. Who can straighten what He has made crooked? Look at the end of verse 14: Remember that nothing is certain in this life.

Okay, let me do it like this: I’m going to show you why many of us live with a level of depression that we might not even be aware of. Every single person listening to me—whether you’re watching this broadcast, this DVD, or wherever you are—every single human being has what I call a 'this' in their life. 'This' is something medical, something financial, something relational, something personal, something spiritual—whatever it is, it’s something wrong with your life—it could be a painful thing or an illness. It’s something you wish were different. How many would agree you’ve got a 'this' in your life? Right? Everybody has one. The ones who didn’t raise their hands—your 'this' is that you have a lying problem!

Now, here’s the thing: We are praying that our 'this' will become 'that.' So, even though it’s sick, I’m praying that God will heal it. Even though it’s broken, I’m praying that God will fix it—that’s our 'that.' Right? Now, the Bible says a wise man accepts what God allows because nothing is certain in this life. But what we do, and I’m not including myself in this, I’m saying we get it wrong—what we do is because we’re so upset with how this is, and we’re focused on God making it that. Even when there’s incremental progress in our 'this, ' we still don’t change how we feel about it because it’s not 'that' yet. I know I’m helping somebody.

So, your child, until they graduate from college and get a job—well, that ain’t 'that, ' but even if they just stop smoking so much, we don’t thank God for that! We don’t thank God for this because it ain’t 'that'. So, even—yeah, I’m not falling for the okie doke because this ain’t what I prayed for. We’re missing that every life is going on under our noses while we’re waiting on 'that' to happen. You understand what I’m saying?

So, here’s my question to y’all. Here’s a serious question: What if this never becomes that? Oh, he doesn’t cross the line, he won’t cross the line! Now, that’s why I’m never coming to this church. I ain’t crossing the line. Now, how are you going to tell me this? This is where it gets conflicted for Christians because we are people of faith, and we believe that God is able to change this to that. Won’t He do it? That’s what He’s said! Won’t He do it? We only say, «Won’t He do it?» after He’s done it, by the way! So, because our God is capable of making this that, we don’t want anybody telling us, «What if this never becomes that?»

Because you aren’t about to tell me to just say what you’re talking about. We’re supposed to believe God for miracles! We are to pray and ask God for the unexpected! We’re supposed to pray, «God, ” and I’m saying yes!