Fierce Church Sermons
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Fierce Church Sermons
Grow Into It | GPS
Are you navigating a challenging season—whether it’s school, work, or relationships? 🌱 Growth often comes from two things: pushing past comfort zones and surrendering to God’s will. In this powerful sermon, Pastor Mark Carter unpacks 1 Samuel 2:10-15 to reveal how God uses both pushing and surrendering to transform us through the Holy Spirit.
✨ What you’ll take away from this message:
Push: How perseverance through difficulty strengthens your faith and character.
Surrender: The freedom that comes from trusting God with the outcomes.
Why balancing both is key to spiritual growth and navigating life’s tough seasons.
Whether you’re heading back to school, starting a new job, or tackling a fresh challenge, this message will equip you to thrive—not just survive.
Hey, what up? It's Mark Carter. I'm the pastor of Fierce Church. Welcome to our podcast. I'm so pumped that you're able to join us today. 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. Enjoy the message.
Speaker 1:So we started a series kind of started the year series last weekend, called GPS, and it's really about goals and planning and systems and all that kind of thing as we get ready for the new year. And here's one of the things we said. We said that the best kind of goals to have are goals that are in alignment with God's goals and, as we do, that that brings advantages into our life. And as we have goals and then we begin to plan, we plan in faith. We said we plan in faith, believing that if I make plans, god is sure to bless some of them as I'm trying to honor him with them. And then, finally, we said and as we pray, we're kind of refining the plans. We're saying, well, this is what I think, lord, what do you think? As we would try to execute some of this? And we said there's a couple more, though, so we want to finish those this week.
Speaker 1:Some of you made some great goals. I'm sure you've got some goals, whether you've talked about them to anybody or not. Some might be like, hey, I'm going to try to run a marathon or I'm running another marathon this year, and that is a goal for you. For others, it might be that you're going to sign up for the Bible recap, just like so many in the church have. You're going to go to fiercechurchbiblerecap and try to read the Bible within a year. We're all doing it together. You're welcome to jump in any day at all, so just go ahead and do that if that's one of your goals. Some of you, you just want to read more than just look at screen all day. You want to get more books, like physical books, in your mind.
Speaker 1:Some maybe you got a side hustle that you're like this is the year, man, I'm going to add some bank with my side hustle. Others, you just this is the year to pay. I want to get out of debt. Let's do this. I'm tired of this. Let's do whatever we've got to do. For some, it might be this is the year you're going to be planning a wedding. For some, it might be that you're going to be traveling.
Speaker 1:Whatever those advantages, the scripture said when we plan those with God. And so let's go right back to that text Proverbs 21, 5. The plans of the diligent lead surely to advantage, but everyone who is hasty we said everyone who is hasty, not just lazy, but hasty comes surely to poverty. See, the problem is in our haste sometimes we under-consider just how many trials and how many hardships are going to be on the way before we reach that goal. Some goals, dude, you're going to reach them by next week, like you're going to have a goal, boom and it's done. You're just knocking them out.
Speaker 1:But there's other goals. There's maybe spirit-produced goals, there's things that God wants you to take hold of that are a little bit harder. Honestly, it takes a whole lot more walking, it takes a whole lot more fighting, it takes a whole lot more trial. And you get into some of these things and you're like, golly, I just did not expect that it was going to be this long, that it was going to be this challenging, that there was going to be this much opposition. I just did not see that coming.
Speaker 1:And you can start out with a lot of zeal, but when it's zeal only for a human plan. It's not that you can't still get stuff done, but we're missing the advantages that God wanted to bring. Sometimes, in our zeal to even get God's agenda done, we can have misplaced faith. We can have faith in people that we probably shouldn't put our faith in. We can have faith in self and we probably shouldn't put our faith in that. It's misplaced faith.
Speaker 1:And so today I just want to talk to us about growing in grit. There's some things we got to grow into. You can't just go take them, unless you're taking them like over 15 years, or you're taking them over even a year. You're just taking it slow because it comes slow. It doesn't all just happen fast, because one of the things we talked about last weekend was dude. Most of the time God is doggone slow, like he just is slow. It takes a long time, and that's not that he can't go fast, but a lot of what needs to happen to us on the way to the goals takes time because there's inner surgeries that God is doing. It's rarely about the goal for God. It's about who he's making us on the way to the goal. That is really the most important thing. So let's jump back in. So we said goals and planning and prayer. And now here's number four push, goals and planning and prayer and push.
Speaker 1:So David starts out with a fantastic, it's a gold dream that God has given him. I don't mean literal dream, I mean this thing out there that God says this is going to happen. He sends the prophet, samuel, and Samuel I mean it's like a whole kind of secret family thing. He finally gets to David and says David, I don't know how to tell you this man, but you are going to be the king of Israel. And that's a little problematic because there's already a king of Israel and I don't know he's going to like that. And David is just, you know, he's a teenager and he doesn't really know what to do with that and he doesn't really do anything except he keeps living for God. That's his whole plan. I'm going to plan to live for God. And for some of us, as you think about the goal that's out ahead of you, maybe the best plan, the first plan at least, is whatever I do, I'm just going to plan to live for God. I'm going to do my day-to-day life. I'm going to keep going to work, I'm going to keep going to school. I'm just going to live for God. That's what David did. That's when he ran into his challenge. That took a lot of courage. Let's jump forward a thousand years.
Speaker 1:The apostle Paul is in prison, he's scheduled to be executed and he writes this very encouraging, very optimistic letter to his protege, timothy, who tended to be a little bit timid. And he says, timothy, here's what you got to remember, man and I get it because I'm about to go die here pretty soon, probably 2 Timothy 1.7, for the spirit of God. The spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power and love and self-discipline. He says, timothy, you weren't called to step back, you were called to step up and you need the spirit's power to take action, to take charge, to take whatever you need to take, to keep moving forward, to push, to push with love for others, to push by the Spirit's power, to have concern, selfless concern for others. Well, that's really what David spent most of his early life doing was by the Spirit of God, taking ground, loving others, expressing concern for others.
Speaker 1:So one day he just happens to show up. His father sends him on an errand and there's this giant there, goliath. You know about him and Goliath is taunting the entire nation, including the king. He's like you guys are puds, I will smoke any one of you, bring it on. And people are just like they're trembling. And David's like.
Speaker 1:David rolls up. Who is this Mook? What's he doing? I'm going to come in there and I'll tell you what I don't like him talking about my God or my God's people. And so, by the spirit of God, david, he's full of faith. He's already fought the lion and the bear, you know, protecting the little lambs, little sheep that God had given him. And so he's like here's what we're going to do. Just let me go, I'm going to go out there and I'm going to shoot a sling in his head and then cut off his head, which is exactly what he did by faith. And it's a whole big scandal, man. It's a whole big to-do that happens in 1 Samuel 18.
Speaker 1:And then, like it's so dope, it's so awesome that spontaneously, people write a song about him right there and gals start singing. They're like hey, man, saul, he's our king. He's slain his thousands, but David's slain his ten thousands. There's really only one guy, but they're just. They're like he's so awesome, everybody loves him. He did what even the king wouldn't do. There's a great big song about it and so he's kind of famous.
Speaker 1:There's a celebration and he's pushing through the fear and now he's into a time of celebration and sometimes, sometimes on our way on as we're pushing, there's celebration times, there's times where you won, you did that, that was really good, that's a success, fantastic, well done, way to go. But people are tested by the praise that is given them. Sometimes we can focus a little bit too long on everything we did right and we're starting to miss what we could be doing right and we're getting a little high on ourselves. We're getting to think that we're all that and it's time to say, hey man, great, great celebration. But I don't want to be tricked into thinking I'm better than I am, because that's what can happen with pride.
Speaker 1:When you overthink about how great you are. When you overthink about how great you are, you pick a fight with somebody you can't win. When you overthink about how great you are, you swim into the deep end where you can't keep swimming. You do stuff that is foolish because you're overinflated in your sense of yourself. So David pushes through that and he gets to this place of disappointment.
Speaker 1:The king is kind of like excited and jealous of David. And so he says I'll tell you what I'm going to do. I'm going to give you my daughter in marriage, david, because you're so awesome, you can have my daughter. But then he messes with him and takes her back and gives it to another person. And David at first he's all humble, he's like, wow, I mean, who am I that I would be in the king's family? It's a princess. Oh, oh, oh. I guess that's not real anymore. Can you imagine, like, how disappointed you might be. The whole journey is full of disappointments. And so this other daughter, michael, she's in love with David. And so Saul says I tell you what I'm going to tell him that he can marry her, but I'm going to give him a challenge that might get him killed first, because I kind of want him dead. See, king Saul's, the mad king Dude is crazy and he's crazy with jealousy and he's just pushing, trying to get this guy killed.
Speaker 1:Ultimately he starts trying to get this guy killed. Ultimately he starts trying to murder the guy. Can you imagine, like, how that feels? You're people they sing songs about and really you're delighted to be in the family. There's something about you know, when you join a family, you want everyone to like you, don't you? You want people to think you're at least worth, you know, being around and loving and mentor. He's probably looking to the king for mentoring, like, oh man, this is going to be great, and yet this dude is trying to kill him.
Speaker 1:There's a lot to push through. There's a lot of rejection. You have any rejection to push through. There's a lot of people dismissing you. You have any of that to push through. It happens all the time.
Speaker 1:Many of you know the story 1996, a gal named JK Rowling is on welfare and she's sending her manuscripts to different publishers. And we know what happens Ultimately. Eventually one picks her up and now she's one of the most successful authors in the history of the world. But there were real days when she wasn't, that She'd received the rejection again. Oh my gosh, what am I doing? Am I stupid? Like is everyone else get it that I'm a moron and I shouldn't be doing this. Have you ever felt like that? But she pushed through and there's a lot that God will call us to push through. So let me just ask you whatever you're going to do this year or the next five years, there's stuff you got to push through. What do you got to push through? Because we all get it. We all get something to push through.
Speaker 1:We're talking next weekend about the 15-year vision and I don't know everything about the next 15 years, but I can tell you this whatever we do, it's not just going to happen. It's going to require a lot of push. If we're going to seek to be an impact on the coming generation that is losing its grip on truth and impart spiritual wisdom and courage and passion, that's not going to come easy, man. That's going to require some fierce people that are ready to fight and ready to push, and so folks that are ready to check it out here's our bottom line ready to grow into it. I don't know that we like that idea, grow into it, but it's a real thing.
Speaker 1:You ever notice that dogs don't just have dogs, they have puppies. It doesn't come out a dog, the puppy has to grow into it. Right, you didn't come out a full human, like fully ready. You came out a human that had to grow into all the things that you can do. Now. No one's just like I'm going to be good at music and then they are. No, if you've got a goal. You want to grow in your musical power this year. You're going to have to grow into it. Nobody just has dude listen. Nobody just has an incredible marriage. Can I get an amen from the people who've been married a long time? You don't just have it, you have to grow into it. It's something that takes time and work. And so, david, what he's doing, we're going to see him. He doesn't know it yet, but he's growing into it.
Speaker 1:Right now in our story. He's panicking. He's like what is going on? He's telling his friend, jonathan, jonathan, you got to save me, man, your dad, your old man. He's trying to kill me. And at first Jonathan resists it and then he's like no, yeah, he is trying to kill you, man. Yeah, that's real.
Speaker 1:And David goes on the run and he's panicking. He's really. It's strange he's not doing what he did at first. See, at first he was just a young kid full of faith I'll kill that stupid giant. But now there's relational tension, now there's attachments, now it's like I'm not walking in the same faith that I once was.
Speaker 1:Now he starts scheming, he starts lying, he starts doing all kinds of stuff that it's like David, what are you doing, man? Why do you feel like you need to do this. Well, the king is sending assassins into his bedroom. He this. Well, the king is sending assassins into his bedroom. He barely escapes through the help of his wife. And then he goes to see a priest. He's like maybe I need to get out of town. I'll tell the priest some lies so that he'll think I'm sent on a mission from the king. He picks up the very sort of Goliath, the guy that he killed. But he lies to this priest and, honestly, this lie ends up getting like 85 people killed because of the lie that David tells. And then he moves on to he says hey, man, the enemy of my enemy might be my friend, so maybe I can go be a mercenary for the Philistines. You know the guys that were taunting us with Goliath. So here let's pick it up First. Samuel 21, verse 10.
Speaker 1:So David left, fleeing from Saul, and he went to King Achish of Gath. The king's officials said to Achish isn't this David, the king of his country? This is the man about whom the women sang as they danced. Saul has killed his thousands, but David his tens of thousands. Now, they weren't totally right, he wasn't the king yet, but he just has that way about him. Maybe, maybe they look at him.
Speaker 1:Him and David didn't expect this. They don't know that he was on TMZ that morning, but people just they're starting to recognize him and they're like what is this guy doing here? He was hoping that he'd just be another guy showing up for maybe some mercenary service, but nope. Their words made a deep impression on David and he became very much afraid of King Achish. So whenever they were around David listen to this he pretended to be insane and acted like a madman. When they tried to restrain him, he would scribble on the city gates and dribble down his beard. So Achish said to his officials look, this man is mad. Why do you bring him to me? Haven't I got enough madmen already? Why bring another one to annoy me with his daft actions right in my own house? So in some ways you could say it worked. He's proven. Yeah, I'm not a threat, I'm a maniac.
Speaker 1:And at the same time, this is a very undignified moment. David, what are you doing? Weren't you the guy that told Goliath in front of everybody I'm going to come out there and I'm going to cut your head off? Isn't that you In front of the entire Philistine army. Why are you doing this now? Why are you reverting? Why are you going into these places that it's like that's not character becoming of the king.
Speaker 1:What's interesting is, during this very time Psalm 34 and Psalm 52 are songs that David pens during this time and as you read those Psalms you see, wow, his heart is really connected to the Lord, like he really is fearful. He's really crying out I'm in danger, I need God's help. He's really you get the sense that he has a relationship with God. That is very real. And yet he's behaving in ways that seem to demonstrate are you sure you and God are on the same page about this kind of thing? And yet aren't you so glad that God doesn't wait till you're all grown up to be close to you? I'll say that again Aren't you so glad that God doesn't wait until you're all grown up before he'll be close to you?
Speaker 1:Man, I remember some of the stupid stuff I used to do, some of the stupid stuff. I would even say thinking I was saying it for Jesus. But you know, he was still close to me. He would still draw me near, he'd still speak to me through his word. He's like man, this poor guy. But I see the end from the beginning and I know eventually I'm going to help him grow up.
Speaker 1:And the truth is, guys, we all act like mad men. Sometimes we're all that way. We all do something less than we should, we all behave, and sure, we have our famous moments, like David did, but then we have our most undignified moments, and do you know that God is with us? In both of them, jesus looks and he sees the good. He says, yeah, I know, but I see what she's going to become. I see what this is going to do for her. I see the future. When she regrets this and makes wiser decisions and she kind of reprograms herself and becomes the queen or the king that she was supposed to be, aren't you glad that God sees it and God is still with us?
Speaker 1:You know, what I'm doing right now is really what my wife and I set out to do when we were 21. Like it was some version of this. This is what we wanted. We wanted to be leading a church, wanted to be preaching God's word all the time. This is what we want to do. I tell you what man we didn't it was. It was way less direct route to this than I thought at 21.
Speaker 1:Sometimes we just think everything's going to be up and to the right, it's all linear, man, it's just like yep, there I go. But how many know? It's really not like that at all. It's like three steps forward, one step back. You fall down into a pit, you start to cry, you get up, you climb a ladder and fall off that. Then you go back a mile, then you maybe scoot forward two inches and then slowly you're like Jesus is just like dragging you the whole way and you're getting there. But, baby, it don't feel good and it's definitely not a straight journey.
Speaker 1:You know, we started and at first there was a leadership failure in the church that I was pastoring as a very too young man, and so that like hit us and then we're out of real ministry. For like seven years I was sick and all these up and down disappointments, and then finally, as I'm finishing up school, I'm finally just a little door opens for me to do some kind of a ministry. And years are going by and I'm like God, I feel like I'm getting too old, I'm not going to be able to do anything. And he's quiet. Just trust me, just keep going, just keep walking, and then you'll finally we get to do some real ministry. And then there's disappointments, and then check this out. There's theories that were just wrong. There's theories we have that we make mistakes with and we're like, oh, that was dumb. Now I have to go undo the very thing that I thought was so smart when I was younger. And then we keep going and finally, you know, finally we get to plant a church in 2009,.
Speaker 1:And yet that's filled with. It is filled with a lot of fun. It's also filled with a lot of frustration, because no one knows how to do anything. You can't tell anybody to do anything because nobody works for you, and so everyone's just trying to hammer this thing together. And then there's betrayals. And then there's people that you bleed for and they come up and kick you in the shins and slap you and walk away Not literally, but that's what it feels like, all the way God is bringing us, and the test I didn't see that was there was hey, man, can you grow into it?
Speaker 1:You don't have to be there right now. Can you grow into the character of the man you want to be someday? Can you do that now? Can you get that in your spirit as something that needs to happen. Can you grow into it? So I mean, can I ask you, can you grow into it? Can you grow into this year? Maybe it's not just the goal, maybe it's the healthy boundaries that it's time to grow into, maybe it's the yeah, you've got these really cool dreams and they really are cool and they really are God, but there's a consistency that you lack that makes everybody question your integrity. Maybe it's this year that you want to start to grow into that. To grow into my word is yes, yes, not, yes, no, yes, no. Maybe it's whatever I say is going to happen. That's really what I'm going to attempt to do.
Speaker 1:Is there a space in your marriage? You're thinking you got a dud. You're like I just got the wrong marriage, man, that's all it was, and it's really not that at all. It's just that the Lord was you thought it was supposed to be ever after the movie right there on day one, and it's really no. You have to grow into this again and again and again. Can you grow into it? Can you just decide how many think we should grow into it? I think that we should Goals, planning, prayer, push. Okay. So we got G and three Ps, g, p, p, p S. Here we go. Number five G P, p, p S Surrender.
Speaker 1:So David keeps going. He keeps going a little while and one day he finds himself he's on the run from Saul. Saul's chasing him with his entire army. He finds himself in a cave and it just so happens that Saul says I need to really relieve myself. So he goes back into this cave and there's David with some of his boys and they're right there and it's within like stabbing distance. It's like oh my gosh, is this it now have? I ran all this time and snuck around all this time and lied all this time, and now I'm finally ready to do this.
Speaker 1:Listen to what it says. Verse four now is your opportunity. David's men whispered to him Today. The Lord is telling you I will certainly put your enemy into your power. Do as you wish. And it's so great when people, well-meaning people, tell us the Lord is telling you to do this wicked thing. So David crept forward and cut off a piece of the hem of Saul's robe. But then David's check it out First. We see of this for a while. Then David's check it out First. We see of this for a while.
Speaker 1:David's conscience began bothering him because he had cut Saul's robe. He said to his men the Lord forbid that I should do this to my Lord the King. I shouldn't attack the Lord's anointed one, for the Lord himself has chosen him. He's saying, guys, this might even be. This is kind of like it's the right goal, but it's the wrong way and I'm finally starting to realize no, sneaking around is wrong. I just walked right up to Goliath, hiding and deceiving and all that stuff, and stabbing someone in the back and killing them when they're not looking.
Speaker 1:That's just not the way. It's not the way I tell you what I want to do. I want to just surrender to the way. I want to just do it God's way. Why don't I just get over my own human plans and just do it God's way? And we see finally, okay, now he gets it. He's growing into it. He's saying there's something on the inside that has to catch up to what's possibly happening on the outside. So he lets go and we need to let go, we need to surrender. In all of our planning and all of our goals and all of our prayer and all of our push, there also comes a time of okay, now surrender. And this is really hard because surrender feels like the opposite of push. Push is like, dude, you better give it all. You got Sweat bleed, do it all and at the same time, surrender it's a surrender, push it's a. I'm going to give it all like it's going to happen, and also I'm going to surrender like God really has to be the one to do it. So I'm going to surrender to his timing.
Speaker 1:Ecclesiastes 3.1,. You all know that there's a time for everything, a season for everything, every activity under the sun. Steve Jobs faced a lot of challenges when he was kicked out of his own company and he could have just gotten bitter and he could have done everything in his power to prove everybody wrong. But instead he said you know, I'm going to take a season of learning. I'm going to grow, I'm going to reflect, I'm going to see if I can't learn stuff in this season that would improve me. And then many of you know the story Apple ended up begging him to come back, which he did. And iPod, iphone, yada, yada, yada. The rest is history. He said to himself something like I'm going to trust that there's a process here and we need to say something to ourselves. I'm going to trust that I'm in God's process and he knows what to do to me. And just because it's not happening on my time doesn't mean it's not happening rightly, because God knows the plan, he knows what to do.
Speaker 1:Delight yourself Such an important verse, psalm 37, 4,. Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart. You know there's a million. There's a million times, excuse me, at least in my life, where the Lord has shown me something I want. But really the question is, do you want me more than that thing, or am I just your genie? Am I just here to get you stuff? Is this about you or is this about me? And so we constantly have to recalibrate our hearts. I've got to make it about the Lord. I want to delight myself in the Lord and he will then give me whatever it is my heart really wants, whatever I'm really after. He'll make sure I get it. Commit your way to the Lord, trust in him and he will act. Okay, I'm going to push, but I'm going to commit the way when I'm disappointed.
Speaker 1:Men are going to make their plans, but the Lord directs their steps. I'm going to submit the way there to God and what that means for every one of us, practically, guys. It means make awesome plans. Make plans that you're ready to crush the goals. Make plans that you're ready to pray really hard. Make plans that you're ready to oh my gosh, you're ready to push. But also then take all your plans and put them in the recycle bin and say if my plan doesn't happen at all, blessed be the name of the Lord, because he knows what he's doing.
Speaker 1:If I get a Job type situation for those that are in the Bible recap right now, I'm going to say blessed be the name of the Lord, give the whole doggone thing to the Lord. And here's why, see, because God is the great potter. Let's see that picture of the potter up there. He's the great potter and you're on the wheel. And see, he doesn't ask you what do you think we should do for this design? He doesn't ask, he doesn't solicit your advice. He just says don't resist my shaping. I'm going to shape it the right way, I'm going to make it beautiful. And you don't see what I see of what this thing is supposed to be when we resist the way of God and we demand it's got to be my way of my time. Right now, the way I would do it. We're resisting the potter's wheel and all it is doing is really it's postponing and it's demonstrating that we don't really trust.
Speaker 1:So when people, man they got the house way before you got a house you don't even have one yet. I know it's hard to submit to the way. God knows the plan for you. He knows how to shape you. When, man, I wish I can't believe the awesome retirement package they got. I don't think I'm going to get anything close to that.
Speaker 1:Submit to the way of God and the timing of God. He knows what to do. You look at someone else's family and you say, man, yeah, it must be nice. It must be nice to have all that love. It must be nice to have all that opportunity, all those open doors. It must be nice.
Speaker 1:When you're tempted to think that I know that that's probably very hard to have all that opportunity, all those open doors must be nice. When you're tempted to think that I know that that's probably very hard to not think that sometimes, but then think I'm going to go ahead and submit the way to God. God knows the way for me. He hasn't dealt with everybody but me. He's got plans for me and really it's just a trust thing. And then, finally, for me, and really it's just a trust thing, and then, finally, this is the last step we surrender the what. We surrender the what.
Speaker 1:What was the goal? What was it that you wanted to do? The ultimate test is to say, jesus, I'm going to surrender the end, I'm going to surrender what happens here. I've been pushing for this and some of them you gave them to me and gave them to me right away, and others that took me five and 10 years, and others of them it looks like I'm going to die and I'm not going to see that goal fulfilled and I'm surrendering the end. I'm going to say I don't know how this ends and none of my business from here on out.
Speaker 1:Jesus, you know the end. And Jesus isn't trying to hurt anybody. He's not trying to communicate to you that he doesn't care, but he's also he's not communicating to anybody hey, I'm accountable to you with what I do with your life. That's not anything he's ever said. He says I am God, trust me, I know what to do, trust me, so let it go. What do you got to let go of? See, one of the things you're going to have to let go of. You're not always going to get a vote with God On the way to your goals and dreams. You're not going to get a vote. Your opinion it's not that he doesn't care about it, but it's not has no bearing on what he's going to do. Your ideas, as brilliant as they are, your ideas, as brilliant as they are, don't matter, at least as far as what he knows is right.
Speaker 1:And for some of us, it maybe is good to just say I'm going to put this on the altar and I want it, and the Lord knows I want it. I'm going to delight myself in the Lord and if he wants to bring it back, he'll bring it back. But it might be that I'm going to be in heaven before I see what this was really about. It might be that there's things that only resolve there. They don't resolve here. I felt it and it seemed real because I'm experiencing a kingdom that is happening both here on earth and in heaven. So I'm getting ripples of it.
Speaker 1:But I don't totally understand. And I won't understand until I see it right next to Jesus, when he says hey, look at this, see, this Wasn't this awesome? Aren't you glad I waited? Aren't you glad I had your back when you were whining to me, when you were cursing me, when you were saying why are you doing this this way? God, aren't you glad I didn't do it your way? And I didn't do it because I love you, because I know what is right. And, guys, we got to admit you think you're right sometimes and you're dead wrong. Well, jesus knows all those places and so, in his mercy, he shapes your life. He says no, we're not going your way because my way is smarter.
Speaker 1:And here's the great thing about Jesus. Jesus understands what it's like to surrender John 6, 38, for I've come down from heaven to do the will of God, who sent me, not to do my own will. He says you know, my job here is to be the example human that always does what the father wants. So my question to us today is can you trust that he knows the way and that he's going to get you there, without necessarily revealing to you all the steps and all the paths? But he's going to get you there because he knows what to do and, best of all, he's not going to abandon you, because here's what he felt. If you've ever felt this, jesus has felt this too. Father, if you're willing, please take this cup of suffering away from me he's got.
Speaker 1:I don't like this route. I don't want to go here. This is not the one I would choose. I don't like this. I would love for you to find just another way to do this. But not my will, but your will be done. I want your will to be done, not mine. Oh man, dude, I feel like I'm hungry to take goals, but I know that there's a piece of life that sometimes is like the most obvious piece of you. Got to let your goal into the hands of Jesus and trust he'll get you what's yours. Somebody say God gets me what's mine.
Speaker 1:So I wonder, if we can do this, can we surrender all of it, the whole life, the everything, all the plans, all the hopes, all the dashed hopes, all the things that didn't come true, or maybe they just didn't come true yet because you were still growing into it. Let's do it together. Let's bow our heads, god. We're so thankful that, because you see everything, you call us to grow into it. I thank you that you don't just leave us when we act like a madman. You don't just be like, oh, they blew it. Thank you that you don't leave us and you keep us close to your heart. You keep us on the way to the best plan for our lives.
Speaker 1:God, there's a bunch of dreams that we've got or we're going to get in the next year and we think they'd be awesome, and I think many of them would be awesome. We want to ask for strengths to chase them, to have great plans, great counsel, to have open doors that don't even make any sense. And in the disappointing times when it's not going our way and there's rejection to push through and there's maybe even too much applause to push through, god, we're asking for your mercy to hold on tight to us, because we're not strong enough to keep hold of you all the time. God, grow us into it and we thank you that, just as Erica said at the very beginning, you are going to complete the very good work that you began in us right up until the day of Christ Jesus, and it's in that awesome, beautiful, precious name we pray Amen. Hey, thank you so much for joining us today.
Speaker 1: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. We'd love for you to join us, either digitally or in person. 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. Special thanks to those of you who give generously to support this ministry. It's because of you that this is possible. You can click on the link in the description to give now or visit fiercechurch for more information. If you enjoyed this podcast, why not subscribe? Share it with your friends, click on the share button, take a screenshot and share it on social media or wherever you would share such things. Whatever challenges you're facing, I know you can make it. Don't give up. Hang on to Jesus. He won't let go of you. Jesus loves you so much and we love you. I hope someday we get to meet in person. Thanks again for listening.