Sometimes we give our best effort, and things don't work out. Other times they don't work out because we don't give them our best effort.

I've honestly never known which was harder to deal with. On one hand, you have to deal with regret when you know you could have tried harder. But on the other, when your best wasn't good enough, it's a downright humiliating thing to have to accept.

Both are hard to live with, but neither can outrun God's grace. God's grace far exceeds our best efforts or our failures. More than our effort, God desires our hearts, to put our faith in Him and know that His best efforts always work out.

There's a scene from an old baseball movie called Moneyball. In the scene, a player hits a ball deep into the outfield and immediately runs as fast as he can towards first base with no regard for the ball.

As he rounds first, he trips over the bag into an embarrassing 15-foot barrel roll. Crawling frantically back towards first base, he looks up to opposing players and his own coaches' playful laughter at his expense. More embarrassing than his fall, was that he hadn't even realized that he'd hit the ball 60 feet over the fence.

It's easy to get so caught up in our search for God's will that we forget that, by accepting His salvation, His will for our life is already fulfilled, and we've received His ultimate gift. Our search should now be for how we respond to the grace He has shown us.

Contentment isn't about being satisfied with what God has given us. It's about realizing that He has already given us the only thing that matters.

The more we wrap our hearts around this concept, the less we see value in anything but Him and Him alone, and the more we rest in Him calling the shots from here.

What did Paul mean when he said "to live is Christ"? Charlie Kirk knew.

Very few people exemplify Christlikeness as well as Charlie did. He spoke the truth with more grace and love than most can manage these days.

He stood firm teaching the word of God courageously, never alarmed by the many opponents to his purpose. He worked fearlessly, and patiently, to try to unify a crooked and perverse generation.

He didn’t lay down his life voluntarily, but he was obedient to the point of death.

We lost a bright light in a dark world yesterday, but his life didn’t end. Charlie’s life was eternal from the moment he surrendered it to Jesus. Our loss was his ultimate gain, and I am grateful for his faithful service to the Gospel.

• (00:00:02) - Living on a Privete
• (00:02:44) - I Didn't Read The Flashpoint
• (00:03:54) - How Do We Live As Christ?
• (00:07:20) - Corinthians, Galatians and Ephesians
• (00:09:28) - Too Good to Be True
• (00:12:25) - Tongues tied in the seminary
• (00:14:12) - Reverend Kenny on Communion
• (00:16:32) - When You Can't Plan Your Life
• (00:18:53) - What's Your Lesson for Today?
• (00:20:59) - The Too Good to Be True
• (00:24:02) - Jesus on Personal Responsibility
• (00:26:21) - John 11:1-2
• (00:31:14) - Bradley on God and the Creationist
• (00:38:10) - God's Truth in One Verse
• (00:40:29) - The Man Who Missed Ben's Sermon
• (00:43:38) - Good Samaritans on Facebook
• (00:47:36) - If God Were One of Us
• (00:51:51) - Paul's attitude toward Philippians 2
• (00:52:31) - Being Nice to Non-Believers
• (00:54:40) - John 8: Don't Forget How Much He Loves You
• (00:57:42) - There's Still Plenty of God's Beauty in Your Neighborhood
• (00:59:27) - A Lesson on the Nones
• (01:05:05) - Deception of the Good News
• (01:08:46) - How Much of the Country attends Church on a Regular basis
• (01:12:50) - Creeper Creep in Southern Baptist Church
• (01:18:38) - Protecting the Fabric
• (01:20:23) - Contentment in Psalm 18:1-3
• (01:23:24) - In the Elevator With Grading Homework