Pastor Mark Carter: Hey, what up?
Pastor Mark Carter: It's Mark Carter on, the pastor of Fierce Church.
Pastor Mark Carter: Welcome to our podcast.
Pastor Mark Carter: I'm so pumped that you're able to join us today.
Pastor Mark Carter: I hope this encourages you, inspires you, strengthens you, gives you hope to keep pressing on, and it's my prayer that this sermon gives you a more expansive view of God's love for you.
Pastor Mark Carter: Enjoy the message.
Pastor Mark Carter: I want to talk to you today about what to do when our heart breaks.
Pastor Mark Carter: We've been in this series called Marriage Medicine And this is the very last message of this series.
Pastor Mark Carter: We've got a ton more online, a bunch of stuff on our YouTube channel.
Pastor Mark Carter: If you want to go search marriage, you'll find a bunch of marriage stuff.
Pastor Mark Carter: But this is the last one for a while.
Pastor Mark Carter: But it occurred to me that I've never preached on what happens if the medicine doesn't work.
Pastor Mark Carter: What happens if it doesn't work to take the medicine anymore?
Pastor Mark Carter: What if it's too late?
Pastor Mark Carter: What if that relationship is over?
Pastor Mark Carter: What if the divorce has already happened?
Pastor Mark Carter: What if the promises that we were hoping for and maybe even believing for and doing everything we knew to do for, what if those are gone?
Pastor Mark Carter: now And now all we have is a broken heart and an empty heart.
Pastor Mark Carter: I want to make you two pitch two ideas to you as we go through this message.
Pastor Mark Carter: The first one is this a broken heart doesn't mean that you're damaged goods.
Pastor Mark Carter: A broken heart doesn't mean that you're damaged goods.
Pastor Mark Carter: I encounter people all the time who you know they've been through some kind of relational turmoil and something on the inside kind of wilts, and they begin to shut down And they start to see themselves as like well, you know, i'm kind of like a damaged thing now, like I've got issues.
Pastor Mark Carter: I'm messed up And let's be clear, we all got issues And nobody not got issues.
Pastor Mark Carter: But they begin to like, categorize themselves differently.
Pastor Mark Carter: Okay, well, i don't know if that is really for me.
Pastor Mark Carter: I don't know if I can believe anymore, i don't know if I can have any optimism, but I want to encourage you today.
Pastor Mark Carter: A broken heart doesn't mean you're damaged goods.
Pastor Mark Carter: Here's the next one.
Pastor Mark Carter: You can still achieve your purpose, even when your dreams can't come true.
Pastor Mark Carter: You can still achieve your purpose even when your dreams can't come true.
Pastor Mark Carter: We've all got a picture, don't we?
Pastor Mark Carter: We've got a picture of what life is supposed to be like or was gonna be like, or should be like.
Pastor Mark Carter: And you know, maybe that's well, you know, here I'm gonna graduate and then you know we're gonna get married and then the kids, and then on the way we go all the way to retirement.
Pastor Mark Carter: And sometimes our dreams come true And it's awesome.
Pastor Mark Carter: And sometimes it's just gonna take a long time for our dream to come true.
Pastor Mark Carter: Sometimes it's a lot of hard work.
Pastor Mark Carter: It's more work than we thought.
Pastor Mark Carter: Sometimes it's more perseverance, more patience.
Pastor Mark Carter: We got to push through.
Pastor Mark Carter: We need some other people's help.
Pastor Mark Carter: One of the greatest Bible examples of this is Caleb Caleb.
Pastor Mark Carter: His dream didn't come true until he was 80 years old And I just believe that gives all of us hope Like, hey, man, there's still time.
Pastor Mark Carter: He was 40 when he didn't get his dream to come true And he waited 40 more years And it was just as strong.
Pastor Mark Carter: He and Joshua, they're the only ones that lasted And he saw his dream come true.
Pastor Mark Carter: But then sometimes the thing you thought was gonna happen just it's not gonna happen because that's not what God wanted to happen.
Pastor Mark Carter: That's not what's going to happen.
Pastor Mark Carter: And there's something in us, there's a dream that begins to die.
Pastor Mark Carter: And what do we do when that dream begins to die?
Pastor Mark Carter: And we find ourselves?
Pastor Mark Carter: we say I didn't picture this.
Pastor Mark Carter: I didn't picture finding myself at this point in life alone, and you've seen this For some people this begins to fester And it begins people get angry And they're like I'm irritated, i'm frustrated that this didn't go the way that I want.
Pastor Mark Carter: And sometimes they're even a little bit frustrated with God.
Pastor Mark Carter: Sometimes they're themselves a little bit to blame, sometimes it's somebody else.
Pastor Mark Carter: You know they were involved and they were a part of it and they didn't do their thing And they kept oh, they just wouldn't stop and they wouldn't leave it alone.
Pastor Mark Carter: And then they just let go.
Pastor Mark Carter: And sometimes that that was partly our fault And sometimes it wasn't our fault at all.
Pastor Mark Carter: Sometimes it looks really promising But then they never texted back And they never called back, they never wrote a note, they never did anything like that.
Pastor Mark Carter: And then when you asked them about that, like oh, i think maybe you misunderstood or you know that wasn't my narrative, you know like it was pretty much your narrative when your hands were all over me.
Pastor Mark Carter: I don't know what happened there.
Pastor Mark Carter: And yet somehow it's just not coming together like we thought it was And sometimes even when we took vows, it's not ending up the way that we thought.
Pastor Mark Carter: Nobody as a little kid dreamt someday I'll be divorced, like they didn't think about that.
Pastor Mark Carter: But that's where some of us find ourselves.
Pastor Mark Carter: And what's even more infuriating and difficult is when it seems like everybody else is getting their thing.
Pastor Mark Carter: For everybody else it's coming true, so like they have my dream.
Pastor Mark Carter: Like how did she get with him?
Pastor Mark Carter: She is such a.
Pastor Mark Carter: What is he doing with her?
Pastor Mark Carter: You know, like I'm doing it right, i did it good, i was doing it by the book, but they didn't do it by the book.
Pastor Mark Carter: Or even though we both did what we could, for some reason, man, it just one thing led to another and then we were kind of out of control.
Pastor Mark Carter: And then you're not even paying attention.
Pastor Mark Carter: Everything's so hard.
Pastor Mark Carter: It's like being in a cage full of knives.
Pastor Mark Carter: And then it was.
Pastor Mark Carter: Here I am and I'm all cut up and my heart's all cut up and I Don't even know if I can move forward anymore.
Pastor Mark Carter: And if that's you, i Just want to say I'm sorry.
Pastor Mark Carter: I'm sorry that that's where you are and I don't know your specific pain.
Pastor Mark Carter: But we can all imagine each other's pain.
Pastor Mark Carter: I mean, you hear about somebody.
Pastor Mark Carter: You can imagine what that's like, even if it's only for a few minutes.
Pastor Mark Carter: You can imagine the difficulty and the hardship of that.
Pastor Mark Carter: But I want to let you know That the people that came before us, the people that followed Christ, the people that were used by God to write down the inspired words of scripture, and they passed it on to us How you can bring that out, thanks.
Pastor Mark Carter: And they passed it on to us and then, down through the centuries, they passed it on to us.
Pastor Mark Carter: Every one of those people Had dreams that didn't come true.
Pastor Mark Carter: Every one of those people had stuff that they don't, maybe this and then no, then it didn't happen.
Pastor Mark Carter: See, god uses people whose dreams don't all come true.
Pastor Mark Carter: Now we want to be like Caleb, we want to push forward.
Pastor Mark Carter: I mean, i really believe this is this is New Testament.
Pastor Mark Carter: I mean like we should believe every chance we get.
Pastor Mark Carter: We should know I'm taking this, i'm digging in, and even the New Testament points out that there's some things you're you're just not gonna get because you You're not willing to believe God again.
Pastor Mark Carter: But then there's the other version, where it's just not what God wanted to happen And we're like God Do you know about my dream?
Pastor Mark Carter: He's like oh, i know, i just had something else.
Pastor Mark Carter: Every one of those people down through the centuries that lead right up to us.
Pastor Mark Carter: They weren't cursed, they were chosen.
Pastor Mark Carter: They weren't broken, they were blessed, even though not all their dreams came true.
Pastor Mark Carter: They didn't like the hand that they were dealt, but they decided.
Pastor Mark Carter: Somebody online say decided, type, decided.
Pastor Mark Carter: In the chat They decided I'm gonna trust the dealer even though I don't like the hand that I've been dealt.
Pastor Mark Carter: Let's look at some examples.
Pastor Mark Carter: We'll start with Mary.
Pastor Mark Carter: Many remember Mary, the mother of Jesus.
Pastor Mark Carter: Okay, her life is totally turned upside down.
Pastor Mark Carter: She's like a teenager and she gets this news.
Pastor Mark Carter: You're going to have this on.
Pastor Mark Carter: It's gonna change everything.
Pastor Mark Carter: You're gonna be rejected.
Pastor Mark Carter: Your reputation is gone.
Pastor Mark Carter: Man, like, everybody's gonna be talking about you, probably for the rest of your life.
Pastor Mark Carter: And then, once she even has the child, she's told get this prophecy.
Pastor Mark Carter: Yeah, how would you like to hear this one?
Pastor Mark Carter: This one is gonna cause the rising of and falling of many in our country.
Pastor Mark Carter: And, by the way, a sword is gonna pierce your own heart.
Pastor Mark Carter: How'd you like to read that in the fortune cookie?
Pastor Mark Carter: That's what's spoken over her.
Pastor Mark Carter: Oh gosh, i saw.
Pastor Mark Carter: A sword is gonna pierce my own heart And yet she's called to walk through it.
Pastor Mark Carter: And this what she says Luke 138 Behold the Lord's bondservant may be done unto me.
Pastor Mark Carter: According to your word, it wasn't her dream, but she embraced it.
Pastor Mark Carter: Then there's John the Baptist.
Pastor Mark Carter: Remember this guy?
Pastor Mark Carter: 400 years, he was prophesied.
Pastor Mark Carter: For 400 years, this forerunner to the Messiah was supposed to come and he finally comes.
Pastor Mark Carter: And I'm thinking he might, he probably.
Pastor Mark Carter: It's gonna go Pretty well for him.
Pastor Mark Carter: I mean, this whole time everyone's been waiting for him And he has, like you know, 20 minutes of fame.
Pastor Mark Carter: And then one of his disciples come up to him and they're like hey, man, um, yeah, everyone's starting to follow Jesus.
Pastor Mark Carter: And just you know, like John, he doesn't know this yet, but he's, he's just a few steps away from getting his own head cut off.
Pastor Mark Carter: He's gonna be violent.
Pastor Mark Carter: That wasn't his dream.
Pastor Mark Carter: But even when people start to not follow him anymore, he says John, 3, 27.
Pastor Mark Carter: A person can receive not even one thing unless it's been given to him from heaven.
Pastor Mark Carter: He's like, look, this came, this didn't come from me, and so God wants to take it away now.
Pastor Mark Carter: Let him do it.
Pastor Mark Carter: And then, most important of all, jesus, he's in the garden to get some any.
Pastor Mark Carter: He's about to be arrested, he's about to be tortured and crucified And bear the sin of the world and he says I mean I think it's important that we know that he said this.
Pastor Mark Carter: He says, father, if you're willing, remove this cup from me.
Pastor Mark Carter: I mean he asked for this, not that he's asking.
Pastor Mark Carter: Just like you've asked for some things to not happen, jesus asked for something to not happen.
Pastor Mark Carter: That Was it.
Pastor Mark Carter: He's like this dream, but if it's your dream, god, if it's what you want Yet not my will, but yours be done.
Pastor Mark Carter: And here's what happens.
Pastor Mark Carter: We see people you've seen them, i've seen them, we see.
Pastor Mark Carter: But we see people begin begin to when they Begin to sense, oh, i'm losing control again, oh this isn't gonna go the way that I wanted it to, and they just begin to panic and they begin to resist and they begin to push back and they just go into kind of like flight mode or fight mode, and What they're really doing?
Pastor Mark Carter: they don't mean to do it, but they're trying to control their circumstances.
Pastor Mark Carter: They're just trying for this to never happen again And sometimes they reject everybody and other times they, because their their worth has been so attacked, they just say yes to everybody And they just give themselves away and they don't respect what God made them And they do this thing that we all do To a degree, and it's we try to manipulate, we try to control, we try to control the outcomes of our life In such a way that we're not even really listening, we're not even caring whether or not What God wants is actually about to happen.
Pastor Mark Carter: But then we see other people, and you know these people.
Pastor Mark Carter: These people Are in our church.
Pastor Mark Carter: There's people Yeah, their dream did not come true And it hurt, just like it hurt you, but they decided You know, i'm still gonna believe God for opportunities.
Pastor Mark Carter: I still think God can do something.
Pastor Mark Carter: I didn't, i didn't plan on this, i didn't want this, but I think God can still do something.
Pastor Mark Carter: I think there's more to the story.
Pastor Mark Carter: Maybe I think maybe God is so in charge that he saw this coming And that maybe he knew my dream.
Pastor Mark Carter: But he has a better dream And he's gonna use the pain, just like the Messiah experienced, to bring me into his perfect will.
Pastor Mark Carter: And so they remain open and they don't allow themselves to become cynical and they don't allow themselves to become bitter.
Pastor Mark Carter: Now, something that takes folks out when it comes to this Is they just have some wrong presuppositions.
Pastor Mark Carter: There's a phony deal that is made sometimes.
Pastor Mark Carter: When my wife Kenzie and I were in college, we were together.
Pastor Mark Carter: We did a summer of summer stock, okay.
Pastor Mark Carter: So we stayed at our, our school.
Pastor Mark Carter: We were both acting majors at the time and we decided, hey, we're gonna stay and do some shit.
Pastor Mark Carter: That means you do a bunch of shows really fast, okay.
Pastor Mark Carter: And so all this, this group of people, were all living together off campus and they were all living together Off campus and there's no campus foods.
Pastor Mark Carter: You got to go and you got to go to places like Aldi and you got to buy this nasty Knock-off stuff.
Pastor Mark Carter: Okay.
Pastor Mark Carter: So it's stuff like Dr Thunder and not a Coke.
Pastor Mark Carter: Okay, and I had one taste of this Dr Thunder.
Pastor Mark Carter: I'm like never again.
Pastor Mark Carter: And I threw it down and in Jesus name, I've never had that again.
Pastor Mark Carter: Like I will not touch that junk.
Pastor Mark Carter: Okay, now, if you like that, hey, it's America, you can like whatever you want to like, but for me it was a vow.
Pastor Mark Carter: I'm never doing this again.
Pastor Mark Carter: Those ones are easy to tell, though It's so bad that it's like oh, that's pretty easy, that's not the original deal.
Pastor Mark Carter: But there's other things that are ah, they're close though, okay.
Pastor Mark Carter: So, right here, i've got crisp rice.
Pastor Mark Carter: It's not rice crispies, it's not, but my kids like it Like they eat it.
Pastor Mark Carter: You know, it's not even like we've given them knockoff cereals that they spit out.
Pastor Mark Carter: They don't.
Pastor Mark Carter: They don't like this stuff.
Pastor Mark Carter: They're like yeah, we'll eat that.
Pastor Mark Carter: It's close enough to rice crispies that they're like eh, might've fooled me, i don't know.
Pastor Mark Carter: There's a problem, though, when we get to a version of the gospel, a version of the message of Jesus.
Pastor Mark Carter: When it's really it's just a fake thing.
Pastor Mark Carter: It came in a wrapper that we thought that looks like the gospel, but it's not really the gospel.
Pastor Mark Carter: And here's what characterizes that particular gospel It's since I did God must, since I did, since I did this and I tried this and I went after this and even my heart was right And I made a deal.
Pastor Mark Carter: Since I did God must, and we just gotta understand I get that.
Pastor Mark Carter: I've made that deal.
Pastor Mark Carter: We've all gotta know that's in us.
Pastor Mark Carter: We'll make deals that God is not making, but that that even tastes a little like it, because you're still trusting Christ for forgiveness.
Pastor Mark Carter: But that is not the gospel.
Pastor Mark Carter: That is gospel adjacent.
Pastor Mark Carter: There is no God that says I'll never allow good things to happen or bad things to happen to good people.
Pastor Mark Carter: You say, why does God allow bad things to happen to good people.
Pastor Mark Carter: Well, just consider this The best person there ever was.
Pastor Mark Carter: The worst possible thing happened to him.
Pastor Mark Carter: That's the nature, that's the way of the gospel.
Pastor Mark Carter: And see, when Jesus invites us, he doesn't invite us.
Pastor Mark Carter: Hey, if you do, god will do.
Pastor Mark Carter: He invites us.
Pastor Mark Carter: Hey, come to me with your broken heart, and if you lay down your life, i will give you a version of life that you've never experienced before, and I'll make your whole life count.
Pastor Mark Carter: You'll trade in some of your plans, some of your plans, some of your plans and some of your plans, and you'll be able to do that.
Pastor Mark Carter: You'll trade in some of your plans, some of your dreams, some of what you want.
Pastor Mark Carter: You trade that in and I'll give you something better.
Pastor Mark Carter: And sometimes it's just a consolation of more of his presence, and sometimes it is it's open doors and it's rewards and all that kind of stuff.
Pastor Mark Carter: But Jesus says here's the deal about the deal.
Pastor Mark Carter: The deal is, yes, you give me your sin and I'll forgive your sin, but there's more to the deal.
Pastor Mark Carter: The deal is when my plan isn't your plan, you choose my plan.
Pastor Mark Carter: When my plan isn't your plan, you choose my plan.
Pastor Mark Carter: That's the deal.
Pastor Mark Carter: That's the deal that Jesus is making And he said if anyone would come after me, let him deny himself, pick up his cross daily and follow me.
Pastor Mark Carter: Well, deny himself.
Pastor Mark Carter: So we didn't reckon that that included some of our dreams.
Pastor Mark Carter: That included some of the stories that we wanted to be told about us.
Pastor Mark Carter: So let's spend the rest of the message talking about three different scenes in David's life.
Pastor Mark Carter: This is a lifelong lesson, man.
Pastor Mark Carter: We gotta learn this over a lifetime, because you'll get it now, but five years from now you'll get it deeper.
Pastor Mark Carter: We get it, but then we gotta get it again.
Pastor Mark Carter: David, he's kind of like he's a young celebrity man.
Pastor Mark Carter: Okay, so here's the guy.
Pastor Mark Carter: He ran up to the line He took on Goliath, the enemy that's taunting the entire nation of Israel, calling him putzes He is talking smack dude.
Pastor Mark Carter: And David, he's just basically a kid.
Pastor Mark Carter: He runs out there and he says this is in God's name, in the name of the God of the armies of Israel, today I'm gonna cut your head off.
Pastor Mark Carter: And he's not afraid, not because he's powerful.
Pastor Mark Carter: He runs at him with a slingshot right in the head, cuts his head off and things are going pretty good for him for a while.
Pastor Mark Carter: Then he marries a princess.
Pastor Mark Carter: Can you believe that?
Pastor Mark Carter: He kills the giant and marries a princess.
Pastor Mark Carter: That's like a true fairy tale.
Pastor Mark Carter: But then it gets not so good because the king, his father-in-law, is starting to get jealous because people are singing David's praises.
Pastor Mark Carter: And so the king, the mad king, begins to chase him down.
Pastor Mark Carter: He starts to throw spears at him and David is freaking out.
Pastor Mark Carter: And David, the one who trusted God so greatly, he goes on, the run man.
Pastor Mark Carter: He's running, he doesn't know where to go.
Pastor Mark Carter: And so he goes to his friend, a Himalek.
Pastor Mark Carter: He's the high priest.
Pastor Mark Carter: He comes up to the high priest.
Pastor Mark Carter: He's like hey, man, i'm kind of on a special mission.
Pastor Mark Carter: I don't know why he lies, but maybe he doesn't want a Himalek, maybe Himalek's in it, he's gonna turn me in, we don't know.
Pastor Mark Carter: But David's, some of his men are with him.
Pastor Mark Carter: And here's where we pick it up 1 Samuel 2, or 1 Samuel 21, 8.
Pastor Mark Carter: David said to a Himalek now is there no spear or sword on hand?
Pastor Mark Carter: For I brought neither my sword nor weapons with me because the king's matter was urgent.
Pastor Mark Carter: I can't imagine to like some of David's entourage.
Pastor Mark Carter: You know they're like what is David doing?
Pastor Mark Carter: Why is he lying?
Pastor Mark Carter: David doesn't lie.
Pastor Mark Carter: David's the Psalm writer man.
Pastor Mark Carter: What is he.
Pastor Mark Carter: That's not who he is.
Pastor Mark Carter: I mean, that's who we are sometimes, but that's not who David is.
Pastor Mark Carter: I wonder why he's doing this.
Pastor Mark Carter: The priest said the sword of Goliath the Philistine whom you killed in the valley of Eila.
Pastor Mark Carter: Behold, it's wrapped in a cloth behind the ephah.
Pastor Mark Carter: If you would take it for yourself, take it, but there's no other except it here.
Pastor Mark Carter: And David said there's none like it.
Pastor Mark Carter: There's none like it.
Pastor Mark Carter: Give it to me.
Pastor Mark Carter: David's trying to manipulate the outcome.
Pastor Mark Carter: I mean, i could see.
Pastor Mark Carter: Maybe you know.
Pastor Mark Carter: That was the sword that he grabbed And after he threw that, slung that stone and the Lord made it hit dead on.
Pastor Mark Carter: He took it and cut off Goliath's head.
Pastor Mark Carter: And so maybe he looks at that and there's maybe some identity in there.
Pastor Mark Carter: He's like that's the sword that reminds me I can do this, even though the king is chasing me.
Pastor Mark Carter: I got this.
Pastor Mark Carter: This'll help David.
Pastor Mark Carter: What are you doing, man?
Pastor Mark Carter: He's like this proves my worth.
Pastor Mark Carter: And we all like that.
Pastor Mark Carter: We go back and forth Like one day we're full of faith and another day we're like, ah, we're freaking out.
Pastor Mark Carter: What am I gonna do?
Pastor Mark Carter: And I gotta arrange the situation, i gotta save the day and I gotta find a way to get the dream to not die, cause David had a dream.
Pastor Mark Carter: He was prophesied Samuel came, you're gonna be king, you're gonna be fine.
Pastor Mark Carter: And David says, no, the dream's about to die, cause I'm about to die.
Pastor Mark Carter: Saul's gonna get me.
Pastor Mark Carter: And so he's taking it into his own hands.
Pastor Mark Carter: And this is a real moment of shame, cause everybody sees it, everybody watches it.
Pastor Mark Carter: Well, david takes the sword, and then Saul and his army show up And they're like a Hithifal did you help David?
Pastor Mark Carter: And he's thinking that was a good thing.
Pastor Mark Carter: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, help them, give him that sword.
Pastor Mark Carter: And they proceed to kill the entire village, including 85 priests and all their wives and children.
Pastor Mark Carter: They kill them all.
Pastor Mark Carter: And David hears about it, and so he's.
Pastor Mark Carter: Can you imagine what that's like?
Pastor Mark Carter: You, taking that sword, got 85 people and all their families killed.
Pastor Mark Carter: That's heavy, that's dark, that's a weighty thing to carry.
Pastor Mark Carter: His decision to try to control the situation led to bloodshed and humiliation.
Pastor Mark Carter: Well, david, he comes out of it.
Pastor Mark Carter: It's cool as you read his story.
Pastor Mark Carter: He comes out of it and his conscience begins to get pricked again and he does things God's way And he's letting God fight his battles.
Pastor Mark Carter: He's like I have the chance to kill the king a few times, and I'm not even gonna do it, i'm gonna trust God.
Pastor Mark Carter: God will get me where I'm supposed to go at the right time.
Pastor Mark Carter: But then he becomes king, and he's getting a little bit older and he's got so many skills.
Pastor Mark Carter: He got so many organizational and emotional and administrative powers.
Pastor Mark Carter: Like he is putting the nation together, he's getting rid of a lot of their enemies.
Pastor Mark Carter: But one spring he's like you know what?
Pastor Mark Carter: I'm good, i'm not going to war this spring, y'all go.
Pastor Mark Carter: And he hangs out and has an affair.
Pastor Mark Carter: He doesn't just have an affair, though.
Pastor Mark Carter: Instead of running to God and trying to help you know, get God's help to get out of this messy situation he's in, or somehow remedy it or make restitution or something.
Pastor Mark Carter: He has the husband killed, and he hardens his heart toward the Lord, and he's got his fingers in it again.
Pastor Mark Carter: He's like well, i'm just gonna have to fix this.
Pastor Mark Carter: This isn't the dream.
Pastor Mark Carter: The dream's about to like, get off the rails.
Pastor Mark Carter: So I've got to fix it.
Pastor Mark Carter: I've got to get in on this and make sure we're all good, and of course that doesn't go well, and he is convicted.
Pastor Mark Carter: But, man, it's a tragedy from here on out.
Pastor Mark Carter: The story of David was all up And the Lord speaks to David and he says I would have done much more, haven't I already given you all this?
Pastor Mark Carter: But I would have done much more if you would have just obeyed me.
Pastor Mark Carter: And so the rest of David, like David, is still king.
Pastor Mark Carter: But there's this judgment that is coming, this impending doom that is coming.
Pastor Mark Carter: David doesn't know necessarily exactly what it's going to look like.
Pastor Mark Carter: Well, years later, david's son, absalom, raises an army and marches on the city And he's trying to break in to kill his old man because of some failures that he legitimately did have as a father.
Pastor Mark Carter: And so here comes Absalom into the palace And David's got some of his friends and some of his crew with him.
Pastor Mark Carter: David's like we can't beat these guys, let's just go.
Pastor Mark Carter: And so they're on the run again.
Pastor Mark Carter: Here he is again, probably in his 60s about this time, and he's a fugitive again.
Pastor Mark Carter: And it's dark.
Pastor Mark Carter: His future is looking dark.
Pastor Mark Carter: Second Samuel, 1523,.
Pastor Mark Carter: While all the country was weeping with a loud voice, all the people were crossing over.
Pastor Mark Carter: The king was also crossing over, the book key drawn.
Pastor Mark Carter: So they're about 20 miles away from Jerusalem.
Pastor Mark Carter: They're going over this little body of water And all the people were crossing over toward the way of the wilderness.
Pastor Mark Carter: Now, behold, zadok that's a high priest also came And all the Levites these are the people that they have to be around to carry the ark, carrying the ark of the covenant of God, and they set down the ark of God And Abiyathar came up as another priest, until all the people had finished crossing over from the city.
Pastor Mark Carter: See, before they left, they're like, oh, we got to grab the ark.
Pastor Mark Carter: And in their mind, the ark is kind of like it's got power, man, the ark is going to give us a victory.
Pastor Mark Carter: In fact, if you go back to the beginning of first Samuel, this was the major first problem, as the Israelites were treating the ark of the covenant as some kind of a lucky charm, some kind of a talisman.
Pastor Mark Carter: And it really was.
Pastor Mark Carter: You know, it's a piece of furniture, it's a box where God's presence was supposed to dwell when he's in the midst of the temple.
Pastor Mark Carter: But they're treating it just like, hey, if we got this, it's kind of like enemy repellent And it'll just kill all of our enemies.
Pastor Mark Carter: And you know, god's not going to be down with that.
Pastor Mark Carter: And sometimes we do that.
Pastor Mark Carter: We're like, hey, if I just do a little bit of this Jesus stuff.
Pastor Mark Carter: God just got to have my back And we're carrying him around like a talisman.
Pastor Mark Carter: Well, i did this And even sometimes in marriage or in a relationship, we're like, oh, i don't even know why.
Pastor Mark Carter: We went to church a little bit And we even tried the Bible study And we gave, and I don't know why God didn't.
Pastor Mark Carter: And we're starting to think well, because you were thinking about him like a talisman.
Pastor Mark Carter: You were thinking if you just gave yourself a little bit of Jesus, he'd just make everything OK.
Pastor Mark Carter: And that wasn't the deal.
Pastor Mark Carter: David's been trying to manipulate these outcomes all this time.
Pastor Mark Carter: He's seen bloodshed on account of his attempted situational rearranging.
Pastor Mark Carter: He's been completely humiliated before.
Pastor Mark Carter: Check this out verse 25.
Pastor Mark Carter: And the king said to Zadok return the ark of God to the city.
Pastor Mark Carter: If I find favor on the sight of the Lord, then he will bring me back and show me both it and its habitation.
Pastor Mark Carter: But if he says I have no delight in you, then here I am.
Pastor Mark Carter: Let him do to me as seems good to him.
Pastor Mark Carter: Can you imagine?
Pastor Mark Carter: They're carrying the ark And David's looking at him and he's just like guys, set it down.
Pastor Mark Carter: Set it down.
Pastor Mark Carter: Who are we kidding?
Pastor Mark Carter: That's not God.
Pastor Mark Carter: Yes, that is the holy piece of furniture, but that's not.
Pastor Mark Carter: We can't force God to do what we want him to do.
Pastor Mark Carter: God is going to do what God wants to do.
Pastor Mark Carter: God has his own plan.
Pastor Mark Carter: He is God and we are not God And he's going to do what he wants to do.
Pastor Mark Carter: And so he used to get sick of it.
Pastor Mark Carter: on the third try, after a lifetime of trying to get this lesson, he's like what are we doing?
Pastor Mark Carter: We're trying to control this situation again.
Pastor Mark Carter: Why don't we just let God have the day?
Pastor Mark Carter: Why don't we just take our dream and say I wanted this And I don't know why we're here.
Pastor Mark Carter: I don't know why my son is raised up an army to kill me, but here we are, but I love him.
Pastor Mark Carter: Verse 25, he said if I find favor in the sight of the Lord, if I find favor in the sight of the Lord, have you found favor?
Pastor Mark Carter: Because, even though David is wishing and hoping and believing, maybe he's found favor with God.
Pastor Mark Carter: You have found favor in that God has brought you to Jesus.
Pastor Mark Carter: I'm going to say it again because it's way deeper than the amens I got.
Pastor Mark Carter: You have found favor.
Pastor Mark Carter: David wanted favor.
Pastor Mark Carter: You have found favor.
Pastor Mark Carter: It is here.
Pastor Mark Carter: You have found favor if God, the Father, through the Holy Spirit, has brought you to Christ.
Pastor Mark Carter: And Jesus himself declares this John 6, 44,.
Pastor Mark Carter: No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him to me And I'll raise him up to life on the last day.
Pastor Mark Carter: Jesus says unless God gives you the privilege, unless he alerts you, awakens your understanding, awakens your understanding that you need me, you won't even know you've truly found favor If you're beginning to realize I am a sinner that needs a savior.
Pastor Mark Carter: There's a penalty due for my sin and I have nothing to pay it with.
Pastor Mark Carter: And there's someone who loves me so much he willingly wants to pay it if I found favor.
Pastor Mark Carter: There's this old illustration, gosh.
Pastor Mark Carter: It's probably from the early 2000s.
Pastor Mark Carter: It's a Kirk Cameron illustration, so maybe you've heard it.
Pastor Mark Carter: Just flow with it, man.
Pastor Mark Carter: There's these two people going onto an airplane and they're both given these giant packs for their back And they're told hey, man, why don't you just sit in the normal-sized, you know seat and wear this pack, and it's gonna make all the difference, alright?
Pastor Mark Carter: So the first one.
Pastor Mark Carter: He's like oh great, so something's cool gonna happen because I have this pack.
Pastor Mark Carter: And he sits down and he's trying to get comfortable, but he really can't.
Pastor Mark Carter: He's knocking the people next to him and they're like what do you do, man?
Pastor Mark Carter: Other people begin to ridicule him because he's like what are you, you moron, why do you have that?
Pastor Mark Carter: What are you trying to do?
Pastor Mark Carter: He can't go to the bathroom and so he just he's kind of steaming for almost an hour, like why do we even have this stupid thing?
Pastor Mark Carter: And he gets up and he smashes it down.
Pastor Mark Carter: I don't even know why he took that.
Pastor Mark Carter: This isn't what I signed up for.
Pastor Mark Carter: I thought it was gonna have a better flight.
Pastor Mark Carter: Well, the other man who's given the backpack it was the same size, same backpack, only he was told.
Pastor Mark Carter: Just, you know, this plane is going down and there's a parachute in there.
Pastor Mark Carter: It is your only hope to survive this plane ride.
Pastor Mark Carter: So that man, he's got the same pack on him.
Pastor Mark Carter: He's sitting there and he's delighted.
Pastor Mark Carter: He's like yeah, it's a little uncomfortable, but I don't care, because I know what this is really for.
Pastor Mark Carter: It's not to give me perks, it's not just to make my life awesome, it's not to be extra cushy and extra comfy.
Pastor Mark Carter: It's to save my soul is what this is for.
Pastor Mark Carter: And when we treat Jesus like Jesus, why didn't you do the thing?
Pastor Mark Carter: Why didn't you come through for me?
Pastor Mark Carter: And I'm not saying there's not legitimate things to be discouraged about and ask God those questions, but when we're demanding and we're hardening our heart toward God because he didn't do the thing, precious, could it be possible that you are wearing the parachute because you thought it was supposed to make the plane trip easier and it's actually supposed to save you from the eternal penalty?
Pastor Mark Carter: do your sin?
Pastor Mark Carter: That's what Jesus is for.
Pastor Mark Carter: That's why Jesus came.
Pastor Mark Carter: It wasn't to give you a great life.
Pastor Mark Carter: It wasn't to give you everything your heart could ever desire.
Pastor Mark Carter: It wasn't to get you out of every jam.
Pastor Mark Carter: You're going to keep some of those jams.
Pastor Mark Carter: And Jesus said I came to save your soul.
Pastor Mark Carter: That's why you put me on, so that your sin is covered.
Pastor Mark Carter: And see David.
Pastor Mark Carter: He begins to realize he's like guys, what are we doing?
Pastor Mark Carter: And he finally begins to rest.
Pastor Mark Carter: You can almost feel him exhale in the passage.
Pastor Mark Carter: It just leans back.
Pastor Mark Carter: You know what?
Pastor Mark Carter: Let's just all rest in God, who is powerful and sovereign.
Pastor Mark Carter: And yeah, it's a messy situation.
Pastor Mark Carter: Maybe he'll take us out there like Moses.
Pastor Mark Carter: Maybe we'll just be out for the rest of the time in our lives, in the desert.
Pastor Mark Carter: I don't know.
Pastor Mark Carter: We'll see what he does, i don't know.
Pastor Mark Carter: But I've got to trust that even when God interrupts my dream, he's not forsaking his own good plan.
Pastor Mark Carter: Even when he interrupts my dream, he's not forsaking his own good plan.
Pastor Mark Carter: So he tells the guys why don't you take this ark back?
Pastor Mark Carter: And they do Verse 29,.
Pastor Mark Carter: Sozatic and Abiyotha returned the Ark of God to Jerusalem and remained there, and David was going up the ascent of the Mount of Olives, weeping as he went.
Pastor Mark Carter: His head was covered.
Pastor Mark Carter: He was walking barefoot, of course, okay.
Pastor Mark Carter: So one son was killed.
Pastor Mark Carter: His next son, absalom, is about to be killed.
Pastor Mark Carter: He's been kicked out of his own palace.
Pastor Mark Carter: He kind of feels responsible for all these people that are with him and who knows what's going to happen to them.
Pastor Mark Carter: And he's being legit, okay.
Pastor Mark Carter: So he's not just being hard about it.
Pastor Mark Carter: He's not like well, what are you going to do?
Pastor Mark Carter: I shouldn't have demanded so much of God anyway.
Pastor Mark Carter: I should have just trusted his plan.
Pastor Mark Carter: No, he's being human and real and he's freaking out a little bit, but he's doing it unto the Lord and before the Lord.
Pastor Mark Carter: His heart's broken, he lost his kingdom, lost his dream.
Pastor Mark Carter: But then there's something else about him that's composed because he's not looking for Goliath's sword anymore.
Pastor Mark Carter: He's not calculating what plan can I do to get out of this thing, like I did with Bathsheba.
Pastor Mark Carter: He's not putting anything in his hands at all.
Pastor Mark Carter: He's giving himself to the wisdom and the sovereignty of a good God And he says God, here's my dreams.
Pastor Mark Carter: I really wanted this And I want to invite you to join David.
Pastor Mark Carter: He's God, here's my dreams.
Pastor Mark Carter: Some of them were really.
Pastor Mark Carter: They were good dreams, they were really good, and I'm sorry that so and so didn't do whatever.
Pastor Mark Carter: But they're yours, god.
Pastor Mark Carter: These are your dreams.
Pastor Mark Carter: You can do whatever you want with them.
Pastor Mark Carter: I'm tired of trying to control the situation.
Pastor Mark Carter: I'm tired of trying to move this way or get them to do or talk them into.
Pastor Mark Carter: Ah, ah, ah.
Pastor Mark Carter: I know, god, you know what to do with my dreams.
Pastor Mark Carter: I'm not bargaining with you anymore.
Pastor Mark Carter: Some of you lost some big stuff.
Pastor Mark Carter: You did lose a marriage, you lost some kids Or you lost you know proximity to them.
Pastor Mark Carter: You lost money.
Pastor Mark Carter: Maybe some lost an inheritance, some of us, man, you've lost legit stuff and my heart breaks for you and with you.
Pastor Mark Carter: That mount evolves.
Pastor Mark Carter: It's so, it's so trippy.
Pastor Mark Carter: This mount that David is running up crying is the same mount, a thousand years later, that Jesus is pleading in the garden Through great drops of sweats coming down his face that are blood.
Pastor Mark Carter: He's saying God, i want you to deliver me, but if you don't man, your will be done so that you are glorified.
Pastor Mark Carter: A broken heart doesn't mean that you're damaged goods.
Pastor Mark Carter: God knows all your desires.
Pastor Mark Carter: If there's somebody's keeping you from you, dear heart, he's doing it because he's your friend.
Pastor Mark Carter: That's why he's doing it.
Pastor Mark Carter: He's so wise that he sees all ends and he knows when we mess with certain things, it's just it's going to miss.
Pastor Mark Carter: It's not what he wants.
Pastor Mark Carter: And here's just as good a news You can still achieve your purpose.
Pastor Mark Carter: Even when your dreams can't come true, you can still achieve your purpose, isn't?
Pastor Mark Carter: this?
Pastor Mark Carter: blows my mind, okay, so listen to what it says in Acts 13, 36.
Pastor Mark Carter: This is written a thousand years later and it's writing about David and it's inspired by the scripture.
Pastor Mark Carter: And it says for David, after he had served God's purpose in his own generation, fell asleep and was buried among his fathers and underwent decay After he had served God's purpose.
Pastor Mark Carter: David still served God's purpose.
Pastor Mark Carter: David, the one who ran from Saul.
Pastor Mark Carter: David, the one who committed adultery and then murdered David, the one who was such a crappy father sometimes his own kid wanted to kill him That one, that one that didn't do everything right, that one who had some dreams that died, that one was still able to fulfill God's purpose in his generation.
Pastor Mark Carter: That's pretty deep man.
Pastor Mark Carter: That gives me hope, because I jack stuff up all the time and I don't want to think that I'm disqualified from fulfilling God's purpose.
Pastor Mark Carter: And even if you've been through hell and you've been through a marriage wreck and you've been through all kinds of other health problems, you've been all through all kinds of difficulty.
Pastor Mark Carter: I just got to tell you I know that it's hard, i know you didn't expect it, i know that this was not the dream, but you can still fulfill God's purpose, even if not your dream, and we're in good company.
Pastor Mark Carter: Let me say this one thing and then we'll close in prayer.
Pastor Mark Carter: Here's something we forget sometimes Our dreams and our stories.
Pastor Mark Carter: They are supporting cast to God's story of Jesus.
Pastor Mark Carter: They're supporting cast only They're not the main character.
Pastor Mark Carter: They don't get to get all the best stuff and win in the end.
Pastor Mark Carter: Jesus' story wins in the end.
Pastor Mark Carter: Our story is supposed to highlight God's grace.
Pastor Mark Carter: That means it highlights the fact that when I did wrong, god forgave me, and when I obeyed, god blessed my obedience and opened new doors for the gospel to go through.
Pastor Mark Carter: But it always highlights Jesus' story.
Pastor Mark Carter: So I just want to challenge you today.
Pastor Mark Carter: One challenge is take your story and really ask and really reflect, and I know it'll take many more years of reviewing it, but let's do it today anyway, really ask and really reflect.
Pastor Mark Carter: Are my dreams… Am I thinking about them as these are for the purpose of glorifying Christ?
Pastor Mark Carter: They're about him, which means he gets to not use them if he doesn't think they're the right ones.
Pastor Mark Carter: Am I doing that?
Pastor Mark Carter: And then for others of us, or maybe the same people, god is going to be faithful to glorify himself, but he's also going to be the very thing that he is.
Pastor Mark Carter: He is the Comforter, and so, even though there's dreams that can't come true and there's ones that you're really disappointed with, still he will meet you in that, and so I just want to have a time Right here at church.
Pastor Mark Carter: You can follow us along online, you just do it wherever you're at.
Pastor Mark Carter: Take some of those dreams and we're going to bring them to Jesus, or say Jesus, i like this, it's pretty, it goes the way I want it to go.
Pastor Mark Carter: But if this doesn't look right or is this off a little bit, it's yours And I relinquish any right to see that come to pass.
Pastor Mark Carter: In fact, i'm even going to invite those of you who want to, if this is helpful to you, if you want to come down during the next song and just kind of like kneel by the stage and that's where you want to do business with God.
Pastor Mark Carter: Maybe there's like a physical expression that I want to bring God my thing.
Pastor Mark Carter: No one's going to bother you and no one's going to think different if you come or don't come, but I want to invite you in this time.
Pastor Mark Carter: God is a real person and He wants to be our Comforter.
Pastor Mark Carter: Let's pray Man Lord.
Pastor Mark Carter: There are some really good dreams that we really wanted to see And we don't like all the ways that this goes.
Pastor Mark Carter: We're also tired of living a life where we're trying to control everything and we're trying to, in panic, sidestep everything And we just say God, I'm setting it down like the Ark, i'm just setting it down, let God do what God is going to do.
Pastor Mark Carter: I don't need to control it, i don't need to make it come to pass.
Pastor Mark Carter: Even with my faith, i can't pull it off.
Pastor Mark Carter: So, god, we give these things to you and we ask for healing.
Pastor Mark Carter: As we give them, we'd have the consolation of your spirit and really your better thing anyway, as we lose our lives.
Pastor Mark Carter: You promise Jesus that we'll find it.
Pastor Mark Carter: So here we are, lord in Jesus' name.
Pastor Mark Carter: Hey, thank you so much for joining us today.
Pastor Mark Carter: If you don't have a home church and you're looking for a Bible preaching community that has its heart set on passionately knowing Jesus and being his witness in our generation, check out Fierce Church.
Pastor Mark Carter: We'd love for you to join us, either digitally or in person.
Pastor Mark Carter: Also, if you're looking for leadership development related content, don't forget to check out the Fierce Leadership Podcast, available wherever you get your podcasts from.
Pastor Mark Carter: Special thanks to those of you who give generously to support this ministry.
Pastor Mark Carter: It's because of you that this is possible.
Pastor Mark Carter: You can click on the link in the description to give now, or visit Fierce Church for more information.
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Pastor Mark Carter: Whatever challenges you're facing, i know you can make it.
Pastor Mark Carter: Don't give up.
Pastor Mark Carter: Hang on to Jesus.
Pastor Mark Carter: He won't let go of you.
Pastor Mark Carter: Jesus loves you so much and we love you.
Pastor Mark Carter: I hope someday we get to meet in person.
Pastor Mark Carter: Thanks again for listening.