Staying Out of the Performance-Evaluation Ditch

0:00Hey, good morning, Sowers. It is Saturday, March the 21st. In the year of our Lord, 2026, John David Walt, and this is your wake-up call, well, our Saturday is getting off to a good start, which is to say it's getting off to a Jesus start, which is always a good start. We don't know what this day holds, but we do know it holds Jesus and that Jesus holds us. So I'm thankful to get to be here with you together in God's Word. And let's see what He has for us today. Let's open with consecration. Wake up, sleeper. Peace from the dead and Christ will shine on you.

1:05Jesus, I belong to you. I lift up my heart to you. I set my mind on you. I fix my eyes on you. I offer my body to you as a living sacrifice. Jesus, we belong to you. And we're praying in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen. You know, just in these days that we've been together, walk into the cross, I've just had my own kind of awakening, praying this consecration prayer. You know, we're not just going through the motions on that prayer. That prayer is a movement.

2:07It's a movement of all of us into the heart of all of God. And as we've prayed it, and I've said, I offer my body to you as a living sacrifice. Do you know what's happened to me? I've started exercising more, and yet my exercising has taken on a different quality. It's not just been the sort of grind it out, get through it, dread it, be glad you're done with it, approach as usual. I have felt like my exercise has come into the worship of God. It's my body, worshiping God. I don't know how to explain it, but it feels like a level of devotion. Okay, physically embodied my body, praying, like doing my planks and doing my dumbbells

3:16and my squats, my don't do a lot, riding on the stationary bike. I don't know. I just thought I'd share that with you. I've been encouraged by it, and exercise has changed for me. I'm growing, I think. And so if you've got any stories like that, I'd love to hear them. Well, today's entry, it is Saturday. Our entry today is entitled, you're going to like this one, staying out of the performance evaluation ditch. Our text is Ephesians chapter four, verses 22 through 24. You're now the word of the Lord. You were taught with regard to your former way of life to put off your old self, which

4:20is being corrupted by its deceitful desires to be made new in the attitude of your minds. And to put on the new self created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. The word of the Lord, man, that's, that'd be a great text, just a copy over in your journal. That is so profound. What is being revealed there? Now consider this. Do you remember your last performance evaluation? Sometimes employers call them annual reviews to soften the edge. They rank right up there with wisdom teeth removal and cleaning out the refrigerator for most of us. We work hard, do our best, show up early, stay late, and answer emails on the weekend.

5:26Even like clockwork every year, the dreaded day comes when we sit awkwardly across the desk from our boss or supervisor. We receive a few obligatory affirmations and recognitions and then comes the list of places where we didn't quite measure up and the things we need to improve on. No matter how great the accolades were, we walk away hyper focused and often on the defensive about our shortcomings. I think this is why we shy away from the whole notion of measuring transformation. We think of it as a divine performance evaluation. We know we missed a mark and dropped a lot of balls and we would rather just not go there

6:27and push the God loves us anyway. This is a tricky path we're walking now. Maybe that's why Jesus said it was a narrow way and that few find it. That's Matthew 714. But what if few actually find it because they perceive it as too narrow and they just don't want to go there? Okay, one more question. Could it be that we fundamentally misunderstand the whole process and dynamic of transformation? You were taught with regard to your former way of life to put off your old self which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires to be made new in the attitude of your minds

7:32and to put on the new self created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness? Measuring degrees of glory is not a performance evaluation but a transformation review. Now what if I told you that you are not the performer, the one being evaluated? Measuring degrees of glory is a review of the transformational work of Jesus in you. This is not about where you have measured up or missed the mark. It is about how Jesus has transformed you from one degree of glory to the next.

8:39I repeat, this is not your spiritual performance evaluation. It is an assessment and analysis of Jesus' transformational process in you. Translation? The pressure is off. The power is on. Let's pray. Our Father, how we thank you for your son, Jesus. In Lord Jesus, you don't just bring the transformation. You are the transformation. What a relief. We don't need to perform. We do need to learn more about how to yield to your presence in us, the new self created

9:47to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. That's what we want. Come Holy Spirit and make it so. We are praying in Jesus' name. Amen. Our journal prompts today, maybe there's a little extra time on this Saturday to do a little journaling, hardly recommended. Are you ready for the new self, the one created to be like God? How about the new way of receiving the new self as opposed to the old way of trying harder to be better and do more?

10:47Some tells me you're ready for that. Well, I don't know, as I was working through today's entry, that's the question I want to come back to is, I asked it, could it be that we fundamentally misunderstand the whole process and dynamic of transformation? I just want to go back to that text in 2 Corinthians 3, right there at the end of the chapter, I think it's verse 18, starts off by saying, whenever anyone turns to the Lord, talking about Jesus, the veil is taken away. Okay, the mask, I see old self.

11:51We've really turned to Jesus, the mask is taken away, the old self. And then it says, maybe getting it backwards, it either says this right before or right after this, it says, where the spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we, who with unveiled faces, all beholding the glory of the Lord, here it comes, are being transformed. Okay, that's Metamorpho, that's Mount of Transfiguration Word. We are being transformed. It's not something we're doing is something's happening in us and to us and through us. Here we're participating, we're staying turned to the Lord, okay, are being transformed from one degree of glory to the next, it says, I'm going to go amplified here, with ever

13:02increasing glory, in contrast to Moses, whose glory was ever fading, as soon as he steps out of the presence of God, starts fading, he puts the mask on to keep people from seeing that it's fading. Okay, that mask is the old self, it gets taken away when we turn to Jesus. And then the verse closes by saying, and this comes from the Lord, who is the spirit. This is working in us. Okay, this is not some external behavior modification program. Now, this is the transformative grace of God in our life, the presence of the person of Jesus by the power of the Holy Spirit. That's the process and dynamic of transformation. This is the shift we must make.

14:02All right, I went on maybe too long there, sorry, got carried away, it happens. How about we sing to get today? That's not with me today. And by the way, I sure appreciate your love for him. You know, he's struggling, his memory is fading fast and he knows it and it bothers him and he gets down about it. But boy, he loves to come over here to Gillette and sing with you and me. And so many of you have been so affirming. And I just want to appreciate you for that, I want to thank you. I tell him every word that comes in and it just surprises him. It moves him every time. He's encouraged, you know, he'll forget about it pretty quick, but I'll keep telling

15:04him because you keep telling me and you know, that's what we're doing here, gang. We're all walking each other home. So it's a joy to walk together, isn't it? All right, we're going to sing a chorus today. It's not in our hymnal and you'll probably know it. It's a little bit older. Dennis Jernigan, great worship leader back in the, I'd say 90s. He wrote this song called All in All. I put the words in the email today, but if you don't have that email handy, if you're watching this on YouTube, you can, you can pick it up. You may remember it, we'll sing it through twice. You are my strength when I am weak. You are the treasure that I seek. You are my all in all.

16:11Seeking you like a precious Jew, Lord to give up, I'd be a fool. You are my all in all. Jesus, Lamb of God, worthy is your name. Jesus, Lamb of God, worthy is your name. Just behold him as we sing, taking my cross, my sin, my cross, my shame, rising again, I bless your name. You are my all in all.

17:15When I fall down, you pick me up when I run dry, you fill my cup. You are my all in all. Jesus, Lamb of God, worthy is your name. I can hear you. Jesus, Lamb of God, worthy is your name. Even better he can hear us. Let's sing that first verse again. You are my strength when I am weak. You are the treasure that I seek. You are my all in all.

18:21Seeking you like a precious Jew, Lord to give up, I'd be a fool. You are my all in all. Jesus, Lamb of God, worthy is your name. Jesus, Lamb of God, worthy is your name. Amen. You know, that's, that's beholding

19:24as in a mirror, the glory of the Lord. It's beholding that leads to becoming. I mean, we just need to let go of all the performance. We need to let go of the whole concept of how we think about being measured. This is about him. I love how that text and second Corinthians, it keeps going in chapter four, it says, we have this treasure, it says in jars of clay. So it'll be clear that this transforming power doesn't come from us, but it comes from God. It says, but God who said let light shine in the darkness, going all the way back to Genesis one, has caused his light to shine in our hearts,

20:26to give us the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. That's transformation, that's coming from the transcendent God, who has become like us, so we could become like him. Are you, I should say, am I growing? And then I just want to turn to Jesus, and I want to say, yeah, Jesus is filling me with love. He's filling me with joy. He's filling me with peace and patience and kindness. I didn't use to be these ways. He is becoming his own glory inside of me, inside of you. I'm growing, and something tells me you are too.

21:30Well, it's time to hit the fields gang, forget my seeds, at least throw them the last few days. I got them here, you get yours, that's the thing, when this is in us, it just comes out of us everywhere we go, everyone we meet. Love of God, power of God, the goodness of God, that's what sewing is about, allowing him to be you in the world as you're becoming like him through his presence in you. Okay, get him ready, it's Saturday, let's walk a little slower today, let's breathe a little deeper, let's love a little more. All right, I'll see you on the field for the awakening I'm JD Wall, bam!