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Fierce Church Sermons
Try Not To Run | There's No Pain Like Church Pain
đ Youâve been hurt. By the people who were supposed to love you, protect you, and walk with you in faith. Maybe it was leaders, friends, or the system itself. Youâre not alone. Jesus was hurt by âchurch peopleâ too.
This sermon in the No Pain Like Church Pain series speaks to those who feel like giving upâto the ones who are done with the pain. But God isnât done with you. Trials may be painful, but theyâre not pointless. Hebrews 12 reminds us that God disciplines those He lovesânot to punish us, but to shape us into something holy, useful, and eternal.
đ„ Donât run from the suffering. Thereâs a deeper work happening, one that will transform you into someone stronger, freer, and more like Jesus. If youâve ever asked, âWhy is this so hard?â or âWhy didnât God protect me from this?â, this message is for you.
âš Thereâs purpose in the pain. Thereâs life on the other side. Thereâs healing, even after church hurt.
đ Connect with us, share your story, and donât suffer in silence. Youâre not forgotten. You are fiercely loved.
Scripture Focus: Hebrews 12:5â11
We've been talking about church pain. We've been saying there's no pain like church pain. For those who have had church pain, it is possibly the most painful pain you can have, maybe other than family, and part of the reason for that is because there's something about church that we're supposed to like. I trust you guys to not hurt me. Like aren't you guys supposed to be sweet and kind and do all you can to help people? Yeah, that's true. And yet, as we've been talking about church pain, we've realized a few things. We've realized we said this the first week God grieves with those who have been hurt by corrupt leaders. People really do get hurt, even though we wish they wouldn't. We said God warns harsh, selfish, negligent leaders. He says heads up, through his word that's not going to end well for you. You should turn around now. And we also said God sent, because he's so awesome, a perfect shepherd to heal and to feed his flock. If you missed some of the church pain series, you can go to our website, fiercechurch. There's a little logo down on the lower right. You can watch all the messages right there if you haven't seen them yet. But today I wanna talk to you about in the midst of church pain or just pain in the context of church. People try not to run. Try not to run. It's very tempting to just I'm out, I'm bolting, get me out of here and I just want to plead with you for a little while. Try not to run, because there's a further complication in this whole process and the further complication in addition to all the pain that people experience at church unintentionally and intentionally. The further complication is that Jesus not only allows, but sometimes even brings pain into our lives to purify us, to take corrosive stuff off of us, to make us more into the image of himself. And if we don't see that coming, we're going to be really confused and we might run, we might bolt, when it was really. Yes, there are people around, yes, there are even people involved, but it was Jesus trying to do it. That might sound far fetched to you, but we're going to talk about it. I want to reassure everybody. God doesn't want to hurt you any more than the surgeon wants to hurt you. But the surgeon though, they're going to try their best to not hurt you at all. They're willing to hurt you in order to remove what needs to be removed or fix what needs to be fixed. And that's the way God thinks about it too.
Speaker 1:In about 500 BC, there was a prophet named Malachi. He's talking to the people of God. They've grown a little bit sluggish, they've rebuilt the temple and there was a moment of revival, but now they're just weak sauce. They're bringing like poor offerings and they're telling God hey, we don't really. You know, we're doing this perfunctory kind of worship, but it's not really real for us. And Malachi warns him someday the Messiah is coming and you need to know how he deals with people. And he's not just telling them, he's telling us hey, if you want to know who Jesus really is, he's all the beautiful, gentle things, loving things that you know about. But here's what else he is. Malachi 3, verse 2,.
Speaker 1:But who will be able to endure it when he comes? Who will be able to stand and face him when he appears? For he'll be like a blazing fire that refines metal or like a strong soap that bleaches clothes. He will sit like a refiner of silver burning away the dross. And this is where we can get in a little bit of trouble. See, we're in a little bit of danger If we would get confused by the idea that Jesus might be allowing difficulty in our lives.
Speaker 1:He might be bringing it meaning. It's not just happenstance, it's not just happening. God is he's. He's saying I'm going to fulfill my process of sanctifying you and I'm allowing pain into your life. I have good purposes for it. But if you don't, if you don't know that, you're going to be tremendously confused, like what is going on here. You might even get, because of discomfort because he allows discomfort, because you start to get a little bit rejected by somebody, because you didn't necessarily get the thing that you expected from God, you might say I'm out, that was it. I thought this was going to work one way and it seems like it's not working this way. And you didn't know that Jesus actually brings hardship. He allows difficult stuff into our lives for the purpose of pruning us, for the purpose of growing us closer to his heart. He'll not only allow it in your life. He allowed it in John the Baptist's life. Did you know this? John the Baptist was in prison. He was, we know. Eventually he was going to get his head cut off.
Speaker 1:But he's wondering hey, my cousin is the Messiah, why hasn't he gotten me out of here by now? He sends word. There's some of his disciples. They come to Jesus and they say hey, jesus, we just want to. Can we just make sure? Are you the one? Because?
Speaker 1:John's like, why aren't I not out of here yet? I thought you were going to come in real triumphant and you would have just like blown away your enemies by now. I'm getting a little nervous because I have this expectation what I think the Messiah is going to do, and you haven't done it yet. And Jesus says this. He says blessed haven't done it yet. And Jesus says this he says blessed is anyone who has not stumbled on account of me. Or some translations say blessed are those who are not offended by me.
Speaker 1:John, you've got an expectation and I love you, but you need to let that expectation go, because the truth is you're not getting out. The truth is you're going to die in there. Now. What's also true is there's something greater coming. You're going to enjoy in there. Now. What's also true is there's something greater coming. You're going to enjoy your reward. It's going to be worth it.
Speaker 1:But John, don't be offended at me. And he tells us go tell him. The kingdom is coming, everything's going according to schedule. This is the right things are happening. Go tell John try to just trust God, even in the midst of this difficult circumstance. Well, mary and Martha are the same way and it's even more obvious with them. So they sent word to Jesus.
Speaker 1:Jesus, come and heal our brother Lazarus. You love him. He's going to die soon and Jesus holds back. He doesn't come, waits four days, because he knows it's more powerful and more God glorifying if I raise somebody from the dead than if I just heal him. So he waits, but Lazarus dies, and so they run out to him. They're like Lord, lord, if only you'd been here he wouldn't have died.
Speaker 1:They're offended that their friend Jesus could help and he didn't help. What is he doing? They had an expectation, but it didn't come in that way, and so now they're a little bit offended. And what was Jesus doing? He was setting them up. He's like you understand me one way, but I want to give you a larger revelation of who I am. But to do that I've got to allow a little pain, a little bit of uncertainty. I've got to go away. You didn't expect in order for you to understand who I really am. But if we get disillusioned, guys, let's be careful. When we start to get disillusioned, let's check our expectations. Okay.
Speaker 1:So you might have had a dream. I thought God was going to do this thing. I thought he was going to help me out. I thought I'd be here by now, or I thought I'd be around way better people than this, or how am I still in this stupid job? You might've had a dream and you start to think I guess God doesn't love me. It's not that I don't believe him, I guess he just doesn't like to help people like me. And you had an expectation. Now you're starting to believe something that is not. He does love you, but what's he trying to do? He's trying to teach you well, trust, trust, longer trust when what you want to happen is not happening. But also, maybe he's trying to shift your identity out of whatever that dream is and into just being his, and he could give the dream anytime he wanted. But he wants you separated from that thing a little bit longer, so that you are more and more his.
Speaker 1:Or maybe you come to church and you're like all these people, man, they just misunderstand me. I can't. They told me not to go to church, but then I went, and now there's people that they just don't get me, they don't draw near to me, god, I shouldn't have even come to church. I was watching fierce online and I said I'm going to give it a try. And then I gave it a try and I was disappointed. You won't be disappointed by the way you should come, but is it possible? Jesus has a purpose even there and he's trying to teach you. Let go of having to defend yourself in front of people. You do that everywhere you go. I want you to sit pretty while you feel like people are not coming to your defense, not coming to your aid, and let me be your defender and really just learn humility. Maybe he's saying would you just go for me? Forget about all the people, would you just go? Because I'm asking you to go, because I want my word in your brain, because I gotta tell you and many have heard the stories I'm not gonna go through a lot of stories right now, but there was just.
Speaker 1:There was a lot of years where I had to experience a lot of rejection, just losing friends, feeling a lot like people betrayed me. And I look back now and it was. It hurt, baby. It hurt and it was church people. It hurt. And yet I would tell you there, it hurt and it was church people. It hurt, and yet I would tell you there was some great work that God was doing and one of the things he was helping me do and I've still got a long way to go, but there was a like Carter, if you need everybody to like what you do, if you need everybody to agree with you, if you need everybody to applaud you following Jesus, you're just not going to be able to follow me very far and you're not going to be able to help anybody, and that's like a concept that I was like yeah, I get that now. Yeah, well, it took, though, about 10 years of rejection and no, sorry, get out of here. That you're going to have to. That's how we actually learn. So, since God sends trial to advantage our future, that's why he sends it. He sends it to advantage our future. He's doing it because, future, you will need it and we'll love it and we'll bless his name for it. We gotta not run. Try not to run. Try not to run when you're in the press. Try not to run when you're. It's all you can do to just stand there. Come on, somebody we're going to talk.
Speaker 1:Today's passage is about the Hebrews, and this might be my new favorite book of the Bible they're all my favorite but just to let you know some of you know about this book we've just gotten through the hall of faith. This is where the author is telling everybody hey, man, you got to stick with the plan of God. You is where the author is telling everybody hey, man, you got to stick with the plan of God. You're beginning to neglect Jesus, honestly, and I want you to look at these models of faith, these Abrahams, these Moses, these Davids, and check it out. They didn't know the plan of God completely. In fact, they had promises to them that they never even saw totally fulfilled in life. I want you to look at them and see their model, and then the very best one, the very most important one, the very most awesome one is Jesus. That's where we start.
Speaker 1:He says let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on somebody say it Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith for the joy. Somebody say joy, pioneer and perfecter of our faith for the joy. Somebody say joy, the joy set before him. He endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured to such opposition from sinners Whoa, whoa, whoa Such opposition from sinners. Who did Jesus primarily get opposition from? Pharisees or church people? Have you thought about that? Like Jesus had church pain Jesus, the very people who most should have loved and accepted him. They did not and they radically opposed him.
Speaker 1:Consider that so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. Now we're going to jump down to verse five, and have you completely forgotten this word of encouragement that addresses you as a father addresses his own son and I was going to do a throwback to Proverbs, chapter three, verse 11 and 12. He says don't you remember this in your scriptures, my son, do not make light of the Lord's discipline and do not lose heart when he rebukes you, because the Lord disciplines the one he loves and he chastens everyone he accepts as his son. These people are in, they're in difficult circumstances, okay. So I want you to imagine. This is what's going on with these people that are receiving the.
Speaker 1:It's a letter, it's also really like a sermon. They're receiving this and what's happening with them is there's beginning to be difficulty for people that claim the name of Christ. So imagine, imagine it's you. Imagine that, okay, you now can't shop at the market because people turn you away because if they look like they're in cahoots with you they might be punished, and so now you're having a hard time getting food. Or now you're having a hard time like even keeping your job because it's becoming worse and worse for Christians. And so you're starting to think I don't know hard time like even keeping your job because it's becoming worse and worse for Christians, and so you're starting to think, I don't know, man, like when I was just Jewish, there was no problems. Maybe I should just lean off the Jesus a little bit, maybe I just don't. Can we do this without Jesus? Can we just do all the things without Jesus? And there's others saying, no, you can't.
Speaker 1:Jesus is the preeminent and most important piece of the plan of God, and God has given you this light and don't neglect it. Lean into it, and he says so in the midst of that. Endure hardship. Yeah, you're receiving hardship. Endure it as discipline. God is treating you as his children. For what? Children are not disciplined by their father, and if you're not disciplined and everyone undergoes discipline then you're not legitimate. Not true, sons and daughters at all. Moreover, we all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the father of spirits and live? They disciplined us for a little while they thought best. But God disciplines us for our good, in order that we may share in his holiness.
Speaker 1:No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful later on. However, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have trained by it, even Even when it's church pain. Even when it's church pain, try not to run. Wake your neighbor up, slap them on the pain. Try not to run. Wake your neighbor up, slap them on the knee. Say try not to run. Try not to run. Notice this Number one the discipline of God is painful and sorrowful. It is. It's painful and sorrow. Verse 11,.
Speaker 1:No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. There's a trend among younger folks and I love all the younger folks and I was a younger folk a little while ago but there's a trend that is beginning to question hey, if I'm suffering at all, that means something's wrong. Something's wrong with the system. There's someone who's causing my suffering. We should just be able to get out of this. We should be able to solve this socially somehow. And can I just encourage you. That's just not true. Like, suffering is a part of life. You can't sin caused suffering. Sin is still here. We should try to leave it all suffering. We can, but you can't get away from suffering. And it doesn't mean that something is wrong necessarily. Say it a different way. Not all negative emotions equal harm. Not all negative emotions equal harm. Pain can be redemptive, pain can be great, pain can be really good. Pain alerts you. Hey, pay attention to this, something's got to give.
Speaker 1:When I first came to know Christ, dude like I probably only thought about like the problems I wanted God to solve. But I found out real quick he does dude and he's solved a bazillion since then. But also there's certain problems. If you're going to stand for Jesus in a culture that doesn't like that, you're going to get some new problems. And if you're going to be one of the ones that Jesus takes a scouring sponge to and has to work on a little bit, you're like, ah, problems, I have problems. Now, yeah, you got problems because you said yes. You said God, use me, god, teach me, god, form me. You said yes and now, yeah, you get some scouring baby Back in 2014. So this church for those of you who don't know is really two church families that came together Torch Church and Faith Church Back in about 2014,.
Speaker 1:Torch Church, the church that I was leading. We were really excited. We've been a church plant for about five years and we didn't have a building. We were meeting in a movie theater and some other places and you know, after about five years you're just tired of that. Like the winter, snow is hard at 5am and it's just hard to do that all the time and load in and tear down and all that kind of stuff.
Speaker 1:And we were looking for a building and we became aware of a building that might be available and so we went to check it out and I was just dreaming, man, I'm like, oh, this is going to be it. It's going to be so dope. I even brought some folks there. I was like, let's walk through this. Isn't it going to be awesome? We'll put this over here and this will be great. And then we invited some contractor friends, some friends who can see the bones a little bit better than us, and my buddy, jim, pulled me aside. He's like, carter, you do not want to do this Like. This is going to be a lot of money to fix that, that, that and that. Don't do it, don't go yet, wait for God.
Speaker 1:And it was hard, man, and it was a heartbreaking thing, because I had to meet with all those people again and be like, sorry, no, that's not going to happen, let's get back to the theater. But I felt like the Lord communicated this to me you think you need this, you only need me Now. I knew that, the doy, I knew that, but you got to go through. Ah, why? Because you only need me. You think you need this, but you only need me. See the. You need this, but you only need me.
Speaker 1:See the discipline of God. It's loving, yet painful pressure the Lord applies to remove sin, to remove folly, to remove in my case sometimes, stupidity. And he does it so that we can come closer to one another. Now, what does he say? He says hey, man, there's a danger here. Remember what he said. He said don't make light of God's discipline, meaning, take it seriously, don't be like. Ah, he probably doesn't mean it. Okay, I see that you're warning me about that, god. Ah, I'll wait for the next warning. Careful now, because God can crank up that. He's probably giving you the bare minimum of pain in order to get you to grow in whatever way he wants. But if you just kind of shuck it off and be like, god's pain don't matter. The writer says watch out for that. But also and this might be more relevant right now for many of us, don't lose heart when God disciplines you.
Speaker 1:When I first, like, began to put this together, I was probably 18. I'm putting this together. Oh, like God corrects me. And I probably felt something like oh, I can't believe this. I'm so stupid. Anyway, of course God's going to correct me. He's so disappointed in me, I'm such a yutz. Why wouldn't he correct me? Because that's losing heart. Now he's treating you like his own children. That's why he's doing and it might be, my friend for you.
Speaker 1:You're in a season of discipline right now, but the greatest fruit is just on the other side of it. You just got to keep going. Just don't run, just try to stay put. Let him do his thing and let it run its course. It really is in your best interest because, see, he's not just like a disciplinarian. What is he? Remember what it said he's your father. And we're going to talk about our old mans for a second. Okay, he's not like your old man. However awesome your old man was or however bad your old man was, he's not like him. See, he's better in quality as a father. He's going to just produce better stuff Like. He knows the better ends. He knows the right stuff to do and he knows the right amount to do, the right pressure to apply. He knows just what it's going to take in order to bring you where you need to go.
Speaker 1:Some of you heard the story before, but when my kids were a little bit younger, I'd be upstairs working on something in my office room and I'd hear them downstairs and they begin to yell and they begin to like and I'm hearing this and I'm just starting to like fume, these kids being so loud. And now they're fighting, tearing each other down. So I, I come down the stairs and you hear me coming. I'm like all right, you kids quit doing this. And Kenzie's like yo, bro, they're playing a game, they're playing dude. Why did I do that? Because I'm a crappy father compared to God. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1:Like he never does, he never gets it wrong. He's never like, applies the wrong thing. He knows exactly what we need and he gives the right amount toward the right ends. He'll even just take us to the right place that we're supposed to go if we'll try not to run. So the discipline of God is painful and sorrowful, but check this out.
Speaker 1:God's motive is love and faithfulness. He disciplines the one he loves and he chastens everyone he accepts. If you trust Jesus, you're going to be occasionally disciplined by him, and the key is to remember he's not rejecting you. This is actually a sign that he accepts you. It's not a rejection, it's actually a value statement. See, when he gave his life for you, he was saying you're worth this much to me, I value you this much and I just don't throw away my stuff. Do you know that about God? Like, if you're his, he doesn't throw that away. He doesn't like oh crap, this did turn out bad. No, he saw the end from the beginning. He says I'll tell you what I'm going to do. What is he going to do? I'm going to fix it, I'm going to shape it, I'm going to get it better. No-transcript, he doesn't just tolerate you, he delights in you. When I tell my kids, hey, who wants to go for ice cream? None of them have ever been like well, I guess I'll tolerate that. Oh dude. They sometimes almost lose their minds, like, yes, let's go now, can we go now? They're excited about it, they're accepting of that, they're delighting in that idea. When God thinks about you, do you know that he delights in you. You're like getting ice cream to him, like, yes, I love that, I want that.
Speaker 1:There's a book by it's a kid's book, but it's pretty deep by Max Lucado, called you Are Special and it's about Punchinello and the little wooden Wemick people. Now, these Wemicks, they're kind of strange man, okay. So they, they walk around and they give each other stars or dots. So if they see you doing something good, or they think you're talented or you're great at something, or give you a star. But if they think you're you're not so good or you're clumsy or do something wrong, they give you a dot. And so these little we mix, they get stars and dots all over themselves. Well, little Punchinello only had dots. Nobody thought he did anything good and so he's super depressed.
Speaker 1:One day he meets a friend that doesn't have any stars or dots and he's like what did you do to get rid of all your stars and dots? And she says I go see Eli. Now Eli is the carpenter, the maker who lives very nearby, and she says I go see Eli. Now, eli is the carpenter the maker who lives very nearby. She says I go see Eli every day and he teaches about my value. I don't need stars from WeMix and I don't need dots, they don't matter, because all that matters is what Eli thinks. Well, punchinello goes to see Eli and he begins to understand I'm going to come see Eli every day and he's going to slowly remove my dots because he's going to teach me that I am special. My friend, you are Punchinello.
Speaker 1:And this is what he says as Eli's leaving, or sorry, as Punchinello's leaving Eli's workshop for the first time. He says remember, eli said, as the Wemick walked out the door you are special because I made you and I don't make mistakes. I made you and I don't make mistakes. So what do we do when we're feeling like we got a lot of dots? Well, we focus on the fact of God's love. We focus on the fact I know that you've been maybe in a really hard season. That doesn't mean that you're a failure. It means that he's forming you like Eli. Are we hearing that? Just because you feel like, yeah, it's been rough and tumble, I hear that I feel for that. I'm sorry for that. You're not being punished. You're being parented by someone who doesn't ever going to give you up.
Speaker 1:He doesn't throw away stuff that is his, he just fixes it. Somebody say try not to run. Is this helping anybody? Let me hear an amen. If you think this is helpful today, I know it is. It's God's word, of course it's helpful.
Speaker 1:Here's number three. God's aim is sharing in his holiness. God's aim this is trippy yo. What is God trying to do with this discipline? Well, one of the good things he's trying to bring about is greater union and unity with the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. He says I want you to be so much like Jesus that you feel more and more at, you are one with me and you think and act just like him. And I'm going to sometimes turn up the gas a little bit on that burner to get you there.
Speaker 1:You might've missed this in Romans 8, 28. Many are familiar with this passage, but let's go there, because we need to learn something about what God is trying to do. You might've missed this verse 28. And we know that in all things, god works together for the good of those who love him who've been called according to purpose. That's a true verse. That's like, hey man, hold onto that when you're in trouble, like, yes, this is hard. God's going to work it together for my good. But let's read where else that goes.
Speaker 1:For those, god foreknew. He predestined to be conformed to the image of the son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. He foreknew them. He's working it together for good. If you've trusted him, he's working all your stuff together for your good. He foreknew you. He predestined working all your stuff together for your good. He foreknew you. He predestined I'm going to work all this stuff together for good. For what? To be conformed to the image of God. All the things he's trying to do is to make you like Jesus. Now here's the good news Once you get on the Jesus boat, you're going where that boat goes.
Speaker 1:Okay, where it's going is like Jesus. You cannot get on the boat. But the boat only goes one way. It only goes toward Christ-likeness, it only goes toward conformity to the Son of God. That's the only place it goes. So you can take courage. It doesn't matter what's going on. God is using this. He's going to work it for my good and I'm going to turn out. It's a fact, it's a real day. I'm going to just turn out. Boom, that worked, that worked. I am just like Jesus. Now I'm seeing him face to face Super dope. Let's do one more If you'll try not to run, because there will be a good outcome.
Speaker 1:Endure and submit that doesn't sound fun, yeah, feel you, dude. There's no other way, though, because there'll be an out good outcome. Endure and submit. Endure hardship is discipline. How much more should we submit to the father of spirits?
Speaker 1:Let's start with submit. It just means be subject to or come under, or or really. You might think about it like it. It's just a yes, lord. In my spirit, it is saying I don't want to do this, I don't like this. I want out of this stupid thing as soon as humanly possible. But not my will be done, god, but your will.
Speaker 1:Let me just submit to this. Let me just say yes, meaning it's appropriate, as a creature made by him, for us, as creatures, to get down on our knees and say you get to do whatever you want to do, and I will submit to it as hard as it is. Yes, lord, you're not going to do it perfectly. You probably get up and run around a little while and then you got to get back down. But what you can be assured of is just remember Jesus taught this if you give up your life for my sake, you'll find it. The death will lead to life. What's the hard thing in your life right now? What's the difficult thing? Check it out. God is going to use it to produce spiritual life in you If you'll submit to it, if you'll say yes, lord, this is where we accept and believe.
Speaker 1:God is doing this out of love for my advantage. He's doing it for me. I'll try to let go and then endure. Endure means dude, you don't really have to do anything, just take it. You know what I'm saying? Like, just get up another day, just keep breathing. Just don't stop here. Just don't try to run, don't try to get away. Sit in the pressure cooker, let it do. Let the pain run its course, because it will end. Instead of run, endure. How do we do it?
Speaker 1:Verse two said it, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and the perfecter of our faith. The pioneer, he's the perfecter. It was already. He did it right, but you and I still need perfecting. We need our stars and dots to be tossed out. We need our corrosive materials that have barnacled themselves to us to be scrubbed off. He's the one, aren't you glad it's him. He's the one that's perfecting you. You can trust him. Okay, I say a lot of weird stuff up here, but this one's pretty weird, so I'm just probably embracing myself.
Speaker 1:You guys ever do this. You ever take a secular song and you know it's not really about Jesus, but you can make it kind of about Jesus, like there's just lyrics, like that kind of applies, you know, and the rest is like about sex and drugs or something like that. But this part, you know this is about Jesus for me. Yeah Well, I do that too. And there's there's a particular part of a song called chasing cars from snow patrols about 2006 to 2008. We were in the end of what the Carter family calls the dark times. This was the hard stuff. This is when we were believing God and nothing had happened yet and everything was still hard and we were still poor and everything was just a challenge. And there's a lyric in that song If I lay here, if I just lay here, will you lay with me and just forget the world and what I pictured when I would think that and sing that to the Lord is he's putting me to death on the cross, for I've been crucified with Christ and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me and the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the son of God, who loved me and gave himself up for me.
Speaker 1:So I'm picturing me there, I'm laying on the cross and I'm looking over and Jesus is right there with me and he's holding me and I know I'm not even really being crucified. He was actually crucified. I'm saying, lord, there's nothing I can do to get out of this. I've tried a zillion times. I can't get away. I'm just gonna lay here. If this glorifies you, if I lay here, if I just lay here, jesus, will you lay with me so I can just forget about the world for a little while? And you know he always said yes and it was always a comfort to sustain me. It still is.
Speaker 1:Anytime I hear that song, do you have to do a little dying? Jesus will lay there with you and he will be with you while that thing is put to death and he himself will pick you up and raise you to whatever life you've got coming. He'll do it. How did he do it? Here's what he did For the joy set before him. He endured the cross, for the joy he said. You know, this is where I am right now. It's the most horrific thing ever got to happen in the universe, but there's something coming after it and it fills me with joy to think about it.
Speaker 1:My friends, he believed that this will be worth it. So can I ask you the question Can you just grab his hand, lay with him and just believe whatever? You don't know how, somehow this will be worth it. This, there will be joy after this. I will trust this makes sense to future me. Will you do it?
Speaker 1:We're gonna go into a time of worship. I just wanna encourage you to whatever you gotta do. Man, if you need to just hang on, you can come down here to the altar and just like hang on to it and hang on to God. If you feel like you need somebody right near you to pray for you, just ask him, just do it. But whatever you do, focus on that.
Speaker 1:God Dude, he'll lay there with you, he won't move, and maybe just the response is yes, lord, yes, lord, let's pray. Oh, my word, god, there's so many people that they're just in it. They're just in it and God there's, like they've been in it for a long time. It's like a whirlpool of lava, like it just doesn't get any better, and I'm asking you to strengthen them right now and I'm asking you to help them. Try not to run and, when they run, to come back, to come back to Jesus and let him dissolve and remove the barnacles that are jacking up our life.
Speaker 1:God, would you come, give us great faith today that this makes sense. Give us strength to keep carrying on. And we're trusting, we're praying and believing and saying, in Jesus' name there is great redemption after this. It's going to be worth it. It's going to make sense because of Jesus, amen. Hey, thanks for tuning in today. If God has used the ministry of Fierce in your life, please consider paying it forward with a financial gift at fiercechurchgive. If you want more resources like this, check out all of our channels at YouTube, tiktok and Instagram. Check out our podcasts and check out our blog at fiercechurchblog. If you haven't already, please consider sharing this to help people you know take their next step. We'll see you next time.