How to See the Goodness of God Through Surrender

On today’s episode of The Morning Charge, Joshua talks about the goodness of God and why true surrender is the doorway to recognizing His faithfulness in everyday life. Through a simple morning walk, a surprising moment with a chicken, and a deeper look at Scripture, this episode challenges listeners to stop singing about surrender while still holding back parts of their lives from Jesus.

This teaching is a practical reminder that God’s goodness is not just something we sing about on Sunday. It is something we learn to see, recognize, and walk in as we lay down our will, our timelines, our control, our hidden compromises, and our future before the Lord.

Key takeaways from this episode:

• God’s goodness is real, constant, personal, and active in everyday life.
• Surrender is not an emotional moment; it is a daily decision to follow Jesus.
• Partial surrender is not surrender, it is negotiation.
• A yielded life becomes more aware of the goodness of God.
• Jesus must be both Savior and Lord, not just the One we call on when life gets hard.

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Real Talk. Real Jesus. Real Life.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Welcome to the Morning Charge. This is your moment to slow down, breathe, and get your spirit aligned before stepping into the day ahead. Life moves fast, responsibilities pile up, voices compete for your attention. But before the noise of the world takes over, this is where we come back to what actually matters. This is a place for honest conversations about faith, life, purpose, and everyday battles we all face. No pretending, no religious performance, just the truth. Because following Jesus was never meant to be complicated. It was meant to be real. So whether you're driving to work, you're getting the kids ready, or simply taking a quiet moment for yourself, you're in the right place. This is Real Talk, Real Jesus, Real Life. This is the Morning Charge. This morning, he uh I got up early and I was just spending time with him, and I just started singing that song, you know, the the goodness of God. You know, the your goodness, you know, the I love you, Lord. Your mercy's never failing. All my life, all my days. I'm held in your hands. I just started going through that through that that song in my in my in my mind, and I just began to sing uh, you know, that song, and I started thinking about his goodness. And then he began to speak to me about the goodness of God, but yet the call to surrender everything. See, if you want to see the goodness of God in your life, there has to be surrender. See, there's a thing that there's a thing that's required of you and me, according to the word, that has to come forth first before we see the goodness. And there's a lot of people who's like, I don't, I think he's forgotten about me, and I think he's, you know, he he he doesn't see me and he doesn't hear my prayers and he but but he's calling us back to a lifestyle of surrender. See, we have to be surrendered. If we truly want to see the goodness of God in our lives, we have to come to a place where we where we lay down our lives and we begin to surrender everything to Jesus. Cindy, good morning. Anyone who's jumping in, good morning. Nothing left over. I'm not talking about a little of this and a little of that, not parts of our life. I'm saying all of the areas, even the ones that we're not comfortable releasing, there has to be a surrender to Jesus because the goodness of God is not something that we just sing about. We have a lot of songs about that, but but the goodness of God is something that we should walk in even when our lives are fully are fully yielded. Our lives have got to be fully yielded to Him to begin to walk in the goodness and in the fullness of God. And this morning, as I was walking, I was taking my early morning walk, and I'm just talking to the Lord, and then I'm listening because that's important. Hello, if you're just doing a whole lot of talking and going on and not listening, that's not a conversation. That's a monologue. God wants to have a conversation with you. He wants to show you some things that still small voice has got to come alive in your life, and you need to sharpen yourself to hear that voice. Okay. And the only way to do that is finding yourself in the secret place and spending time with him so that he can begin to talk to you. You begin to walk some things out. You see it confirmed over and over again so you know you're hearing his voice. And people are like, How do I hear from God? I don't hear that. But you've got to find yourself in the secret place or you won't hear that. You won't see that. You won't sense that. I've gotten to a point now where I see God in everything, even the little things. You, he is everywhere. He is my everything. All right, but this morning I'm walking around, I'm talking to the Lord, and I'm listening, trying to look to see what is it, what is it you want to show me today? What is it you want to say to me? And everywhere that I looked, I was just reminded of his goodness, just his goodness in my life. Is everything perfect in our life? Absolutely not. Nobody has the perfect life. But his goodness always shines through, through thick and through thin. But the one thing that really drove home the goodness of God to me today, this morning, it was a chicken. Nobody was probably expecting that. There's this, there I know it sounds funny, uh, but stay with me. There is this, there's this chicken when our friends, where we're staying right now, when our friends moved into this place, I guess whoever was here before them uh must have had chickens at some point, because there was a couple of chickens left. Well, now we're just down to one chicken. All right. So there's the lone chicken, and this thing follows me around. It follows me around everywhere that I go every single day. It tries to get in the RV. It's almost like we're like his adopted family or her adopted family, I guess I should say, at this point. But this thing follows me around everywhere. It's almost like having a pet, like a, like, like a dog that would follow you everywhere you go. But this morning, I'm walking and I'm thinking about the goodness of God. I'm thinking about all that God has done in our family. And I was reminded of that song, The Goodness of God, like I was telling you. Well, if you get to the bridge part of that song, it says, Your goodness is running after, it's running after me. Literally, as I was thinking about your goodness is running after, I turn around because I hear something, and the chicken is running after me. And this thing is trying to keep up with me because I they have a really long driveway. So I'm I usually walk that back and forth and back and forth. I'm looking at the pasture in the sky, and you can see some mountains off in the background. It's just, it's beautiful. Well, this chicken is literally, I'm singing, your goodness is running after me. And I was like, oh my goodness, there is the chicken. So once again, I'm thinking about, I know, but some people just think I'm just nutty. But I see God in everything. You guys have to understand that. Yes, Anya. God's got a sense of humor, and the things that he uses is hilarious sometimes if you're really paying attention. But right there in that little simple moment, God was showing me something deeper. Yes, he's reminding me about his promise and his goodness. Now I'm thinking maybe we should name the chicken promise, or maybe we should name him name her goodness. You know what I'm saying? Maybe goodness, promise, maybe goodness. I don't know. But what God was really reminding me, the deep things he was reminding me, is his goodness, it really has been running after us. Just like that song says. The moments when I when I didn't deserve it, the moments when I didn't even recognize it, in those moments when maybe I was a little distracted or maybe I was being really stubborn about something, or no matter what was going on on the inside of me, even though I wasn't even fully surrendered at that moment, but his goodness has always been running after me. And in that moment, it's just like the bridge of that song just came alive. But here's the thing if you know that song, it doesn't stop right there. Your goodness is running after, it's running after me. What is the next part that song says? It said, With my life laid down, I'm surrendered now. I give you everything. Uh-oh. And that is where it really hit me this morning. And I just I just stood there and just had this moment with God because that is how he, that is how he was speaking to me this morning. He was talking to me through this situation. You want to know the many ways of how God talks to you? He can talk to you through a chicken, through a song, through his word, through many different things. But are you paying attention? Are you looking? Because that hit me this morning. If we want to live in the goodness of God, we first have to understand what it means to lay our lives down and surrender everything. Yeah, through a donkey, Paul. You got that right. But we got to learn how to surrender everything. With my life laid down, I'm surrendered now. I give you everything. So, in order to be surrendered now, means I have to give you everything. And I don't think we truly, truly understand how to do that anymore. I don't know if we truly understand how to give him everything. So the Lord, of course, naturally is talking to me. He's taking me to different scriptures. So I'm researching and writing things down. But the goodness of God is it's real, it's constant, it's a personal thing. See, there's a lot of people that know the phrase, God is good. And we've sang songs, God is good all the time. There's a song of praise in this heart of mine. We know how to sing about the goodness of God, but do we really know how to live with the awareness of his goodness? Do we know how to live a surrendered life? The goodness of God is not just a nice little song that we sing. It should not just be a cute little phrase that we say on Sunday mornings. God is good. God is good all the time. You know, we all we all know to finish that. Anyone who's grown up in church for any length of time, God is good all the time. We know how to say it. But the goodness of God is the real, active kindness, his mercy, his faithfulness, his patience, his provision, his protection and love. That is what his goodness is, and how God is at work in our everyday lives in Psalms 23 and 6. As I read that this morning, surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life. Goodness and mercy should be running after you, should be following you all the days of your life. That is a promise. It does. See, goodness follows. Mercy follows. What is it? What is it following? It's following you and your life laid down and your surrender to God. That is what it is following. It's following a life that is surrendered. James 1 and 17 says, every good gift and every perfect gift is from where? Is from above. The goodness of God is not something that you earn. The goodness of God is something that He reveals in your life. And it runs after you, it comes in right behind you. But a surrendered heart will see and recognize and notice the goodness of God every single time. Every single time. And that is where He is moving. That is where He is going. We sing about surrender. More than we practice surrender, more than we put surrender in motion in our life. Once again, we know how to say it. We know how to sing it. What about that song? I surrender. I surrender all to thee, my blessed Savior. I surrender. When we sing the song, when we go down to the altar, when we're dumping it all off, are we going to leave it there or are we going to take it with us? Do you truly surrender it all? Have you surrendered your marriage to him? Have you surrendered your children back to him? I look at children like this. They're on loan to me for a while, but they're his children too. That is God's creation that he has stewarded you parents, us parents, with for a length of time to show them the way, to teach them, to train them, to spend time with them, to show them how to live a godly life. And then once they move on, they make the decisions to follow him and move in the ways that they have been taught. But it's up to us to teach. If you are not teaching, you know there's a lot of people that will say, uh, well, one day they'll make up their decision. How are they going to know the difference between good and evil if you aren't teaching them? How are they going to know the difference between a God-driven and a God-led life than one that's out here in the world? How are they going to know if they don't see the examples at home, if they don't see you reading your word and you praying, how are you ever going to expect them to read the word and to pray? They are going to do as you do. The old saying that just do as I say, that no, that's that's I don't know who came up with that, but they need a serious talking to. They will do as you do every single time. I know you see daddy doing this, but don't you do that. Don't you be one that, oh, well, they're seeing it. You're their example. What are you doing that you need to stop doing to be a better example? I know it hurts right here. I speak to myself too, y'all. I'm not just picking on anybody in this room. I'm speaking to myself too. What do we got to change so we can be the better example? Not just for our children, maybe for our spouse, maybe for our community, maybe for those. Maybe you're in leadership and you do some things you shouldn't be doing. What are the things you've got to lay down and surrender now and give to him everything in order for his goodness to be running after you? So we can say, Lord, have your way, have your way, I surrender all. We can sing all the great songs, but do we mean it? Do we honestly mean it? Are we putting together action behind our words? We know how to lift our hands, we know how to worship, we know how to cry in the midst of a good service, in the midst of his presence, right there. We can say God is good, like I said, but surrender is proven after we're done singing. We feel his presence in the moment. But don't let yourself be so emotionally driven in that moment. You felt like you did something, but you did nothing, because your actions afterwards speak louder than in the moment with God. In the moment is just where it starts. Luke 9 and 23 says, if anyone desires to come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow me. That seems to be a staple of scripture here on the morning charge. But notice what it says. If anyone desires to come after me, so his goodness is running after me, but I gotta run after him. If I want the goodness to run after me, I gotta run after him first. And it says if anyone desires to come after me, you got to deny yourself and take up your cross and follow me every single day. This is a choice you make every day. It's not a one and done type deal. That is surrender. Surrender's not the emotional moments I talked about. Surrender is the daily decision to follow Jesus to the very best of your human abilities. And that means laying down everything. His ways are higher than my ways. My thoughts are not his thoughts. So I gotta surrender all that and put on the mind of Christ as I walk forward. I gotta put on the armor every single day. Laying your life down means laying it all down. Not this piece of life and that piece of life. And I'm gonna continue to do this over here because I have to. Why do you have to? You're compromising at work. Why? So you keep your job, then you better go find you a new job. I have been one that has left when my character and my integrity was on the line. Didn't know where I was going, didn't know what we were doing. I just knew it was time to go. And God had a release there. I prayed with my wife about it and was released. And I released myself. Now, I don't ever give the advice to anyone to willy-nilly life and just say, just drop it and go. But if your character and your integrity is on the line, if you feel like you're having to lie to keep your job, that ain't the job for you. That's not the place for you. God has a better way for you. Now that was a little bit of a rough season after that, but God had us every step of the way. I'm still here, I'm still breathing. Uh, kids didn't miss a meal, and we and we continue to follow God where He where He led us in that moment and in that time. And by stepping out, that is when the Lord gave us the courage to step in to what God had called us to. We started a cleaning company. We began to go and we begin to grow. We begin to follow the Lord. I'm just saying, somebody needs to hear that today. Don't you ever, ever, ever compromise any area of your life. And if you're having to do that or you've been asked to do that, see you later. I gotta go. Because I can't live like that. Your conscience won't let you live like that. Amen. Quit. Never comply with evil. That's right. You you gotta go. Sherry, that's right. You gotta go. And good morning, Sherry. I don't know if I've said hello, good morning to you. Good morning, friend. But laying down your life means laying down everything. We've gotten used to this whole partial surrender thing. This, like, well, I'll surrender these things, but this, not ready to surrender that yet. Lord, you can have this, but I'm not quite ready for this yet. Or you can you can touch my Sundays. How about that? You can touch and move, and we'll do all the Christian things on Sundays, but but the rest of my schedule, that's mine. See, we got this, some of us have this distorted view of what God is doing. That is not surrender. That, my friends, is negotiation with the Holy Spirit. And there is no negotiations. There's no negotiation place. It is what it is. It says what it says, and it is what it is, and I gotta stand on it. If I'm gonna stand on some of it, I'm gonna stand on all of it. Amen. And understanding all of it. See, we have to understand what Jesus came, why Jesus came and what he did, and why his why he was so significant for him to unalive on that cross for my sins. Jesus did not call us to negotiate, he called us to follow. I mean, if we go back to the scripture in Luke, if anyone desires to come after after me, let's negotiate, you know, between what I need and what you need, and then take up your No, no, no. It said deny yourself. Deny himself. We've got to do that. In Romans 12 and 1, present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. A sacrificed, fully laid-down life. You have to do that. And that's what you do. You have to unalive to the flesh every single day and be acceptable to God. Become holy, which is your reasonable service, is what Paul tells us. You cannot be fully surrendered while still keeping control of things. You've got to be able to lay that down. If you want the Luke reference, Luke 9 and verse 23, Luke chapter 9, 23, and what I just read was Romans 12 and 1. A lot of these we put on repeat in the morning charge because it's important to hear the word and hear the word and hear the word and hear the word. And eventually y'all are gonna be able to spit this stuff back out. There's a reason that I do some of the same scriptures over and over every single day. There will be a time when I move on to other ones. But for now, there are some that I come back to every day. Why? Because hearing, the more you hear it, the more you get it. The more it's in your mind, the more it gets on your heart, the more you're able to speak it forth. You know what? Yeah. We've gotta, we've got to, we've got to uh deny ourselves and take up our cross daily cross daily and follow him. Luke 9 and 23. And then you'll be able to pop this stuff off whenever God wants you to call it back. You should be reading the word on your own. Don't, don't just do it here on the charge either. You gotta, you gotta get in the word every single day. You need to spend time in the secret place every single day. Yeah, Sherry, a lot of people try to rush through the Bible to say, I read it in a whole year. Hey, I'm all for it. If you can get it and you can glean from it, but don't just stop there. Don't go through in a whole year and be like, I read it. This is an everyday thing. This is a I gotta go back and find that scripture to recall this about what God is saying in our lives right now, and then I'm able to speak it forth, and then I'm able, I'm able to stand upon his word because he is the solid rock. The importance of life. But we gotta lay down our lives fully. A lot of believers, oh, they want the goodness of God without the surrender, and they're wondering why they haven't seen the goodness of God, because they're not willing to surrender. You have to position yourself in your walk with Him for the blessings to flow. If you're not under the spout where the blessings pour out, you have nothing to receive. You're over here doing your own thing. God wants you over here doing this and just understanding who you are. First and foremost, your identity is the most important thing. You gotta know that you're a son or a daughter of the King of Kings. If you don't know who you are, you're already a mess. You gotta get that part right. You've got to understand who you are and the authority that God has given you so that you can walk and talk like a son, or walk and talk like a daughter, and you have confidence on the inside of you because you know who you are. There is no compromise in your life when you know who you are, and when you know whose you are, it's really hard to try to compromise at that point. A lot of people who are compromising have. Have an identity crisis because they want to be this thing to these people, but they know they got to be this for the Lord, and then they go home and they got to be this way, you know, for their spouse and their children, and then they feel like at church they got to be this. What a mess. Get those veils, rip all of those veils off, and stand upon the one identity, the one identity of who you are, and then be that person everywhere that you go. And if you're not accepted over here, I gotta go. I'm gonna love you from over here and I'm still gonna pray for you, but I can't hang out with you. So what if you get fired for what you're standing up in? All right, that doesn't mean go get a bullhorn and go through the halls and be shouting scripture all day, but you are to be the truth, you're to be the light, you are to be uh those that will pray with those, and you should be known by your fruit. I never had to, when I was in the corporate world, I never had to march up and down the wall, the halls shouting, I'm a Christian, and here's who Jesus is. I just had to be one that would live out the word every single day by my actions, and people knew to come to me and say, something is different about you, what is it? See, and I'm not I'm not saying that to toot my own horn by any means, but what I'm saying is is you have got to be able to bear fruit in your life. And if you walk with him daily, you will bear fruit in your life, and then people will look at you and they will see Jesus in you, and they will know, hey, you know how many, you know how many employees used to pull me aside? Hey, will you pray for me? Will you pray? I'm going through the situation, I'm going through these things. Will you pray for me? Be one that stands up and prays, but be one, and they know they can come to you and that you'll pray. They know that there's something different about you. So many doors have opened. I mean, I even went back and freelanced uh not too long ago uh from a place I used to be at. And one of the one of the guys there, of course, used to, I mean, remembered me and was just like, hey, I'm going through the situation. Will you will you pray for me? Be one that bears fruit. And even if you're gone and you come back, they still know the fruit that's in your life. Be one that they can count on. Be one that they can show them Jesus. Surrendering means laying down your will. Surrender sounds beautiful, sounds great. And it's all good and wonderful until God's when you when you say you surrender and he comes down and he starts he starts touching those areas of your life, and then it kind of feels like, hmm, I don't know if I want to deal with that. See, that's the thing. You want to surrender, but then he begins to come and start doing a work on you, and you don't like what he exposed. You don't like what he showed you in your life. And a lot of times you'll live in denial over that. If you want to truly surrender, you have to be vulnerable with the Holy Spirit. You have to be vulnerable with God so he can come and show you the areas in your life that need improvement. Amen. Yeah, Brandy. No one cares what you know until they know that you care. They don't, that they don't, they that, yeah. If they know that you care about them, of course they're gonna come to you. Genuinely care about people. If you're in leadership in the workplace, care about your crew. I know they probably irritate you sometimes. I know they probably give you a hundred million phone calls sometimes. You're like, why does this person keep calling me? But you love them through. You continue to teach them and you be their guidance and be there for them all fronts. Yeah, we got a job to do. Absolutely. But the mental well-being of your crew is gonna help with everything else. The spiritual well-being of your crew is gonna help with everything else. Be one that is the light in the workplace. Don't just be a Christian that goes to work. I'm a good little Christian. Be one that goes and is the thermometer and you begin setting the temperature in the atmosphere in that place. Watch how things work and how things go. Amen. But surrender is beautiful until God starts moving, until he starts touching some things. You're like, oh, I don't want to deal with that. Ah, no, there's no way that's in me. And uh, that's not my problem. He will come and he will begin to rearrange your plans. He will come and be, he will, he will rearrange your relationships. He will come and he will change how you spend your time and spend this stuff right here that comes in, you know, weekly, bi, weekly, monthly, whatever you got going on. He will come in and he will show you areas of your time when you're not spending your time wisely. This goes beyond just like hurts and pains from the this is like stuff that you're in right now. All right. He comes into your thought life and is like, hey, those things that you continue to think, that's not very good. That's not very holy. We should think on things that are lovely and pure. And he begins to bring the scripture alive in your life. All your ambitions, maybe you got a little bit of pride in certain areas. You're a little kind of prideful to let some things go or to tear down some walls to say that you need some help in some areas. Hello? The enemy will make you think you're a man and you you ain't providing enough for your family. Don't you go tell people you need food. Don't you go tell people you need help with rent. Don't you go tell people that he'll try to keep pride and just eat you up on the inside. Nobody even knows you have a problem. We should be the body of Christ that comes together, that partners together, that helps one another. But nobody's gonna know if you don't ever say anything. The enemy will try to keep you bound in your situations and your things. He may, the Lord may come and he might say, oop, there's an area of unforgiveness. You'd be like, I said, I forgave that person. But here's an area you didn't forgive, and you continue to dwell upon and you continue to hold on to. You have to trust him daily with these things. You may have some hidden compromises. You didn't even realize that was a compromise. And he's gonna begin and shine his light. He's gonna come down and shine his light on those areas. He's gonna show you your need to stay in control. God begins to move. Oh, it's getting outside of my comfort zone. Nope. We're gonna reel that in. We're gonna do it like this because this is how I'm comfortable doing it. You gotta allow him to come in and show you all the things in your life where you have been, where you've been slipping.

SPEAKER_00 28:19

Amen.

SPEAKER_01 28:26

Matthew 16 and 25. Whoever desires to save his life will lose it. Whoever desires to save his life will lose it. Whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. Some of y'all just need to, I mean, you just need to lose your life. You need to throw it in a bush and run the other way and then forget which bush you left it in. You need to get away from some of the things you've been doing, some of the things you've been thinking, some of the things you've been saying, some of the ways you've been acting. There's some things you need to get away from. You need to lose that life. You need to dump it and then lose your life for his sake. He gave his life for you. Now he wants you to drop your life and what you've been doing so that you can find your true life in him. Have you ever thought about script? Have you ever thought about that scripture that way? He wants you to lose what you thought life was and all the things that you thought you needed to do and all the ways that you were taught incorrectly, maybe growing up. Some things that that you that was said were to be a priority, and if you didn't do it this way, you weren't a real man. Or if you didn't do it this way, you're not going to grow up to be uh that that young lady that you need to be. That's not, listen, that's not that. And there's a lot of people that'll put the way they grew up and the way I mean, hey, our parents parented the way that they were parented, and they did the best they could. I mean, so you I mean, you can't blame them. They did what they saw. You do what you saw done. Jesus did what he saw the father do. I'll do some of the things I saw my father do. My father's a great man, but if I'm not careful, there's some of those ways where he wasn't maybe quite with Jesus where he needed to be. So he did it this way. I gotta be careful and do it this way. And I gotta make sure everything I do is filtered through this. But I got to, I gotta lose my life and all the things that I thought so that I can find the true life that Jesus has for me, so I can find the true life in the Lord that He has for me. You gotta lose your life to find the real one. Dump that thing off. Go get the real one from Jesus. You know, Jesus modeled this himself in Luke 22 and 42. Luke chapter 22, verse 42, for those writing things down at home. He says, Not my will, but yours be done. Jesus said that to the Father. Not not my will, but yours be done. You think he really wanted to go endure the agony on the cross for your sins and all of those things? Well, really, just stop there before we even get to the why he did. It's the what he had to go do. Do you think you really wanted to go do that and go through the agony? Nail pierced hands, feet crossed, nail-pierced feet, crown of thorns on his head, bleeding, can't breathe. I don't know if you've ever researched out what crucifixion is and the act of crucifixion. It's a very gruesome process. And the way it shuts your body down slowly and the agony and the pain that goes along with it. Do you think he really wanted to go do that? Just saying.

SPEAKER_00 31:48

But not my will, but yours be done. I mean, he's just asking us to lay our thoughts down.

SPEAKER_01 31:58

This is he's like, hey, here's here's the cross in your life. You're gonna pick up your cross daily, surrender your thoughts to me. Surrender your life to me. Lay down everything that you thought was truth, lay all of that down and walk with me today. Because I want to show you a better way. We a lot of us have a hard time laying down those things. Imagine if he asked you to go to the cross. Oh my gosh, all of humanity would be doomed if he had asked any 323 of us to go. This is real talk, real Jesus, real life. And I'm looking back at myself when I'm talking to you guys. I'm just saying we can stay here and be like, yeah, the emotion of the moment. I go do that. And then when it actually came, you'd be like, Well, uh, I don't know about that. That seems kind of I don't think we'll do that. But Jesus did it, and he did it for you, and he did it for me, so that we could surrender everything we thought we knew and run with the life that he actually gave us. The goodness of God is seen by those who are yielded. What does that mean to yield? You see a yield sign. What does that mean? That doesn't mean come to a complete stop, but that means you can go when you can go. When things are clear. If you just kept well, that's what it's what a yielded life with the spirit is. A yielded life is if he says to stop, you stop. If he says to go, you go. We're stopping and we're going. We're staying and we're moving. When he says to stay and when he says to move. You're yielded to him. Yielded means you're moving with him. You're going with the flow, so to speak. That's what you do when you get to a yield, a yield sign. You're going with the flow. There's a lot of people that are missing out on the goodness of God because not and it's not because you're not a good person, okay, but it's because you're so full of yourself you can't recognize it. You're so full of your things, full of all the ways that life is for you and what you've built and what you have done, and all of these things. You can't even see the goodness of God because all you see is the goodness of yourself and the things you've built. You're busy? You're so distracted by all the good things that you have going on in your life. You're busy having to control this piece and control that piece and to do this, and then but but then maybe you're too bitter over these situations and things that didn't go quite your way. So now you're you're concentrated on that, and then you know, you're you're you're you're one that's just like, I don't have a problem. I don't know what you're talking about. I'm fine. We all have things we need to work on. I cannot sit here and just be like, I'm good. You can look at somebody's demeanor. You can hear the words that come out of their mouth if you let somebody talk long enough and you can see where they are. Anyone that's like, yeah, I'm good. I'll be fine. It's okay. Maybe we should talk about some things. There's some walls in your life that need to come down. You've got to be vulnerable to the Holy Spirit if you want change to come in your life. If you're sick and tired of being sick and tired of the way that your life has been going, then you have to come before the Lord and just be real. Just be real. Be, be have that Job moment in your life where you just lament and lay it all out and say, I am crushed and I need you, Jesus. Lord, I don't know what to do. I need you, Jesus. Until you get to that moment, life will continue to be the same. But when you lay your life down, you begin to see some things occur when you live a laid-down life and you stop being so focused and distracted on everything else that you have going on. You can begin to see how he has kept you in those moments and in those times and even in your life where you're at right now. You can see how he has provided for you. When you begin to really step back and assess that God is the one that brings these things and God is the one that does these things in your life, you can see what he has done, how he has protected your life, and how he has brought you to the point you're at right now. So you can only see how terrible it's been and how bad it's been. And it's been this: if you'll take a step back, you can see how God has been moving in your life, how he has carried you through the hard times, how he provided for you even when you thought there would be no way, and how his goodness really has been running after you. But you'll never see that until you surrender, until you have a life that is surrendered. Michelle, thanks, my friend, and welcome in. Anybody I've missed, thanks for being here this morning and welcome in, y'all. A surrendered life to God. I give you everything. A surrendered life becomes more aware of the goodness of God that is around us. When's the last time you took for a moment and you just and you just stopped and you just looked out over a field? Or you stopped for a moment just to clear your mind if you're living the city life. And you're just like, Lord, thank you for life. Thank you for air. Thank you, God, for giving me uh shelter. Thank you, Lord, for giving me food today. Thank you, Lord, for for my wife or my or my husband or my children or whatever you have going on in your life, stop and think about the good things and then thank him for the good things and say, Lord, teach me how to be more surrendered to you. I want to be more aware of the goodness that you are bestowing upon my life. Because when you learn how to yield and how how life needs to slow, this all comes back to this point, how life needs to slow down just a bit. His faithfulness is going to be easier to see when you learn to abide and you learn how to how to let the peace of the Lord that surpasses all understanding settle upon you and your life and how you assess your schedule and see what in the world am I doing? What am I doing with my life? Where are we going? Are we just going through the motions because this is what they said I had to do? Who are they? Let's start doing the things that he said we needed to do. If we started doing that, we'd be living life a little differently. A lot of us don't understand surrender anymore because we've been trained to protect ourselves. When something comes up, we just protect ourselves. I got this, I'll take this, I'll fix this, I'll do that. Men, we have a big problem with that. We just want to be the fixers of everything. If it breaks, we fix it. There's something on the inside of us, men, that just we just feel like we got to be the fixers of of everything. But everyone, everywhere, instead of pointing them to Jesus, that he is our source of everything, we're out here teaching people how you protect yourself. How do you preserve yourself? How do you how do you build yourself? How do you how do you promote yourself? This is how we do things for self. Self, self, self, self, self. There's a lot of self-taught, self-help self things out here. And then I go to the word and I look in here and I said, Well, but the gospel tells me I have to unalive to self. I mean, what do I do? And I look in Galatians 2 and 20, it says, I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ that lives within me. So instead of, instead of all the things that are, you know, protecting self, preserving self, building self, promoting self, then I have got to, I've got to do, I've got to do something else. I've got to, I've got to find myself in the shadow of his wings, which is where my protection comes from. I've got to keep myself attached to the vine because I'm a branch and he is the one that that supplies all of my needs. I've got to be one that points people to Jesus because I can't do a thing for you. I cannot do anything for you other than teach you the word of God, the other than to hold your hand and show you the way. That's all I have. That's all Joshua can do for you. I can't heal you, I can't save you, but I can lead you to the one that can save your life. I can take you to the one who can heal you from everything because that is his will for your life. But you got to be willing to go the journey for yourself. You want to get self in here, you got to take it upon yourself to find Jesus and find yourself in his presence and be crucified with him. Because it's not you that lives anymore, but you that lives in him. Are you abiding in him? That is that is that is true surrender when you give up self. 1 Corinthians 6, 19 and 20, it tells us that you're not your own. And it also goes on to say that you were bought with a price. You are not your own. You were bought with a price. That means that your life is no longer your own to run however you want to run it. Going out here doing whatever it is you want to go do. A life surrendered and laid down to Jesus will bring you more than you could ever get out here and possibly try to pull together yourself. His ways are higher than your ways. And you out here wondering why you're struggling. Why I'm always broke, busted, and disgusted, why I'm always out here trying to figure out why this ain't going this way and that ain't going that way. And I keep trying to pull all this together and I'm working my tail off. Well, maybe it's time to back up and maybe it's time to punt. You cannot follow Jesus. Somebody needs to write this down. You cannot follow Jesus and stay at the center of your own life. If you don't make Jesus the center, if everything centered and revolves around you and what you want, what you desire, and what you think, and what you feel, and you're gonna be gonna stay right where you're at. It is time to let go of yourself, and it is time to get in the presence of the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. It is time to rid yourself of all the junk that you have decided to carry your whole entire life because mom and daddy put it on you, aunt and uncle put it on you, teacher put it on you, the the the the boss put it on you, whatever somebody's putting some things on you. If they ain't putting on this for you, then you need to shed all of that stuff off. You need to get all of that stuff off, and you need to put the armor on, and you need to begin to walk uh rightfully the way that he designed you to walk. Somewhere along the way, us Western church people, you know, the place that needs the missionaries I talked about earlier. We got real comfortable. And we got really, really comfortable with just waiting, or I'm sorry, with just wanting Jesus as this as the savior of our life without letting him be Lord of our life. We've gotten real comfortable with saying, Lord, be my savior, but don't be Lord of my life. You come and save my life so I can keep doing the things that I'm doing more freely. He's got to be Lord of your life. He is both. He is your savior, he is your guide. He is everything to you. So at this point, you're probably like, well, how I I I see some things and I kind of get this, and I'm sort of. I mean, we talk about this in some semblance or another quite frequently. But how do we actually lay our lives down? What does that look like? How how do what do I need to be laying down now? All right, let's look at some things. Maybe there's some things you have never even thought about before, okay? Because surrender is not just a few little things. It is everything. All right. First, you got to lay down your will. What does it mean to lay down your will? That's where you stop insisting on having your way. You've got this famous fast food restaurant mentality. Try not to use brand names when possible. But you keep insisting on having it your way. Well, I didn't order it like that. God will try to bless you and you say, Well, that's not what I asked for. That's not mine. Can't be mine. He's tried to do some things in your life and work out some situations and bring you some things. And because it didn't look the way that you thought it needed to look, or it didn't come the way that you thought it needed to come, that can't be God. Now you're like the person that's up on the roof because the floodwaters are rising and he's praying to God and God says, I'll save you. And a helicopter comes by and drops down the rope and he says, Nope, I'm good. God's going to do it. And a boat comes by and says, Hey man, jump in. He says, Nope, God himself said he's going to save me. All these different actions and things came by. Floodwaters rose and the man drowned. He gets to heaven. Now he's mad. God, you said you were going to save me. And God said, I sent you a helicopter and I sent you a boat. But because it didn't come in the way that he thought it needed to come, he drowned. The moral of that story is: God brings you what you need. Now be appreciative of what you now hold in your hands. Just because you don't have everything you want doesn't mean that he hasn't brought you what you needed. And until you start appreciating what he has given you and what you have needed, he cannot bring you anything else. Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and then all these other things will be added to you. So if you haven't been seeking first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, in other words, you are my savior and you're my Lord. That's the same two things. We're an heir of the kingdom. And his righteousness, you are Lord over my life. Am I truly going to begin to see the things? Can he truly entrust me with the things that I so desire? You got to lay down your own will and get yourself out of the way. And you better lay down your timelines while you're at it. God will speak specific times for you, and there will be specific seasons for you. But sometimes you have got to, well, every time you have got to stop demanding God to do everything on your time. This is when we're going to do this. This is the deadline, God. You better move by this day. Don't box him in. Don't put him in. Allow him to speak his timelines to you. If he tells you that it's, if he tells you a year to be somewhere, then you just go forward. You ain't going to feel like it every day, but go and be that place at a year. If that's what God said, you've sharpened yourself, you hear from the voice of God. God tells you to go somewhere and then he begins to speak things to you. Could be days, could be months, could be years. He may not give you a timeline. He may say, I just step forward and do it. I mean, you're the one trying to figure out how long is this going to take. And he says, I told you to just step in here. And I will show you step for step, every day, what it is that you're doing. But you got to be willing to let him do it the way he wants to do it. We have our own thoughts and desires. We're putting all that out of the way and allowing him to lead us and guide us. Lay down your timelines and lay down your control while you're at it. Stop acting like everything rests upon you. Stop that. A lot of people, we just we get in here. God calls us to do something, we're feeling the weight of it. I feel like I'm the only one, and I feel like I'm alone, and this is on me and that. My gosh, just do what you can do and then be still and let him do what he can do. It's not all upon you. Okay? And if you'll be faithful in just doing what you can do, no matter what it looks like, no matter what it sounds like, no matter what's happening, you do everything you can do and trust him with the rest. If you need more people to come alongside the vision God has given you, then you do everything you can do. And when you get to the part where you need folks, trust God, He's the one that's going to send them. Glory to God, because this is a team effort. Amen. Because I want God to send the right people to walk alongside me. I don't want to just pull anybody. See, when I get my hands in there and start pulling and snatching and grabbing, things don't go so well. And then we have friction and then things ain't working out right because now we have people in positions that ain't supposed to be in them, because we needed a warm body to fill this. See, that's what's wrong with this Western world church thing. We feel like we've got to have all these programs and all these things, and they're all good things. I'm not saying they're bad things, but if we're not careful, we just begin to pull in anybody who who I mean, maybe it's that do we have any volunteers? And someone coughed in the back. All right, we got your name on the list. Is that the guy that's supposed to be? Are you supposed to be doing this? Did you seek the Lord about doing this? I mean, my goodness gracious. We've got to do this. We feel like we got to have this, and we feel like we got to do it this way, and we feel like we got to, and because this is what everybody else did, and this is what worked for so-and-so, and this is nobody has consulted the Lord. You do everything you possibly can and trust him with the rest. If he says to go and do this or to go and talk to this person, maybe he wants to tell you the person that's supposed to help with this, that, or the other, and you're so busy trying to pull it together yourself, he can't even say anything to you. Real talk, real Jesus, real life. And the things that I have really seen my entire real life with him. Amen. Lay down your control. Another one that hits home, if we really want to talk about surrender while we're here, and I haven't really mentioned this yet. Lay down your hidden sin, what you do behind closed doors that you feel like nobody else knows, and you can put on a big old smiley face and get out there and just continue to be the good Christian that you are, you're forgetting one huge thing. He is omnipresent. He is always there with you. He sees you in everything. Why do you think things get exposed the way they get exposed? Why do you think certain things have come to light in the news and the different things and all of this? Because God will give you chance after chance after chance after chance after chance. And it's not a matter of if. It's a matter of when this gets out. When, because God's light is always shining. He is very gracious and he allows us to be able to come before him and say, you know what? I'm not living this way no more. I'm following after you. Whatever measures we got to put in place, whatever we have got to do, I'm gonna trust that you would bring me into a place of repentance with you so that I can walk fully with you. He gives you the chance to do that. But when it begins to affect lives and it's affecting other people, his light will shine bright. It's not a matter of if, it's a matter of when. Amen. Lay down your hidden sin. Stop protecting what Jesus went to the cross to want a lie for and to free you from. You don't have to live in that mess anymore. Find you an accountability person, start praying through some things, start walking and talking with somebody, and start spending time in the presence of God. Whatever you have got to do in the desperate times in your life, find Jesus and find some accountability and let them walk with you. There's somebody out there that can walk with you. I'm all about having your accountability people. You got to be willing to trust God with your future. Brandy and I are ones that trust God with what's next. We plan our ways. He orders our steps. We trust him with what is next. If I sat here and I tried to think about all the things that were coming in the future, it would probably, it'd probably scare me to unalivingness. It would probably be like, ah, do I want to, and what if? And see, that's what happens when you sit down. Your mind, the battlefield of your mind, when you keep saying, what if, what if, what if, what if, what if. And Brandy said, You got that right, because the next steps look pretty scary. When God begins to show you what he's entrusted you with, when he begins to give you visions of things that you should be stepping into, when he has a better life for you, when you've truly surrendered your life and now you're picking up his life. You can plan your ways, but you better trust him with your steps. Because I want to be step for step with him. And if you start dwelling too far into the future, you're going to get way overwhelmed. And now you're not going to take care of anything you need to do. And can I be honest, the little steps you take today is what's going to prepare you for what's to come. Be one that takes the little steps today so you can be prepared. You need to be one that is prepared. You need to lay down everything you're unsure of coming in the future, the things that could scare you. Proverbs 3, 5 through 6. Trust to the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways, acknowledge Him. You should be acknowledging Him. Trust Him with all your heart. Lean not on your own understanding. Surrendering is trusting God enough to release what you want to hold in your hands and control. But there's a lot of people you've had to control things your whole life. There's a lot of people that have had to take situations and carry them yourself. Be very careful. Jules, good morning. Good to see you this morning. Amen.

SPEAKER_00 54:03

Good to see you, friend. Welcome in. We gotta surrender our lives.

SPEAKER_01 54:12

Stop partially surrendering to Jesus. Luke 14 and 33. I'm gonna leave you with this because this is something you need to think about today. Whoever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot be my disciple. Jesus kept it real, he kept it honest. Luke 14 and 33. If you don't get any other scripture from today, write that down. Luke 14 and 33. Whoever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot be my disciple. Catherine, that said, he doesn't like lukewarm. Jules always lifting you up in prayer, my friend. Everything that you need in the name of Jesus, I pray that it would come into your hands. Every situation, every fear, every doubt, let that go right now in the name of Jesus, and we speak a refreshing over you right now. And we stand in faith on that word today. Right now in Jesus' name. In Jesus' name. Thank you, Jesus. Luke 14 and 33 tells us that. It tells us that nothing can own you more than Jesus does. Whatever is controlling you, you better take a look at that. I gotta give Jesus my all. I want to follow him. I want to walk with him. I want to talk with him. But whoever of you doesn't forsake all that you have cannot be his disciple. I want to be one that's a disciple of Jesus. Nothing. Nothing can own you. Not your money, not your relationships, not the comfortable life maybe that you've built yourself. Not your repetition of everyday life and the things that you're in and the things that you continue to do. All the plans you got. Or on the flip side, all the fears that you have. That cannot that cannot own you, that cannot rule you. Jesus is bigger and he is higher than any of those things. And so many more things I could sit here and list. Because if he is, if he really is Lord of your life, that means you got everything out on the table. And you say, okay, what are we touching? What are we doing? Where are we going? How is it going to be done? And you allow him to speak forth his blueprints and his plans. Pastor B, good morning. Good to see you this morning. Everybody else who's jumping in, thanks for your heart meet. Y'all don't forget to get up here and get your heart meet while you're in the room this morning. Amen. But we've got to get back to trusting him. Again. Thank you, Jesus. Making sure I don't leave anything out. Some questions you need to ask yourself today. What areas of your life have you not fully surrendered to Jesus? What areas of your life? All the things that I've mentioned, all the things that we've gone through, what areas have you really not surrendered yet? And where are you still trying to stay in control? What areas of your life are you still trying to stay in control because you haven't quite trusted him with that area yet? What do you need to let go of today and trust him with and just be a good steward? See, this is control, this is stewardship. Stewardship are things that you hold in your hands that he has entrusted you with. Being in control is when you have your hands on the top of things and you're the only one that can move things and do things. What are you trying to stay in control of? And then I want you to ask yourself one third thing, last thing. How has the goodness of God already been running after you? How has the goodness of God been running after you in your life? And list the goodness of God and how and how He's already been it's been running after you. And then put in the final part behind that. My life laid down. I surrender now. I give you everything. And from here on forward, I am going to see the goodness of God that is running forward in my life. Father, I thank you, Lord, for this teaching this morning. I thank you, Father, for reminding me of your goodness today. I thank you, Father, for reminding me that I hold things in my hands, but I don't put my hands on things, God. Father, we remove ourselves today. We fully surrender to you our schedules, our times, our thoughts, our ways. Lord, if there be any hidden sin in us, God, Father, come and shine your light on our hearts this morning. Father, show us the areas in our lives that we can uh that that we need to improve in. Father, this the things that we need to turn over to you, God. Lord, come and even shine your light on the on the hurts and the pains and the wounds and Father, the wrong thoughts, Father, about about how we uh how we live our lives and how we treat our spouses and how we discipline our kids or how we treat our kids or how we teach them, God. And Father, Lord, show us, Father, Lord, how to be better leaders in the workplace, Father, whether we're bosses or supervisors or whether we're just employees and coworkers, God, doesn't matter the role that we're in, Father. I ask, Lord, or even if we're kingdom business builders, Father, Lord, whatever level we're on, wherever we are, wherever you have placed us, God, Lord, show us how to walk out your word so much that fruit is on our limbs that people will be able to look at us and know that we are connected to the vine because what they see is Jesus on the inside of us, and they too want to know why we are so different, God. Let us walk different so we can be seen different. We don't want to look like the world. We don't want to sound like the world, God. We want to be ones that are set apart, the wild ones, the burning ones, the ones that have been so revived that we're able to walk into the workplace. Oh, Father, and we're able to revive those that are around us, that we're able to even walk in our churches, God. Oh, and Father, that we are ones that are help, that help lead people to you, God, so you can change their lives, God. Oh, Father, that we can be better leaders in our homes, God, in our communities, Lord, and all the places that you call us. Show us how to walk with you. Jesus, let us be. You are our example, Father. Let us be in tune that when the Father says move, we move. And when he says to stay, we stay. When he says to speak, we speak, and when he says to be quiet, we're quiet. We want to be so in tune with you, Father, that we're able to know you're leading and you're guiding. And I ask, Father, right now, that you would just be right here with us right now. Holy Spirit, come and move. And we thank you for your goodness in the name of Jesus. Amen. That's today's morning charge. Before you move on with your day, take a moment and let what you've heard settle into your heart. Faith isn't just something we talk about, it's something we live out in the ordinary moments of everyday life. Wherever today takes you, remember this: you don't walk into it alone. God is already ahead of you, working in ways you may not even see yet. Stand firm, walk in wisdom, lead with love, and don't forget who you belong to. Until next time, keep your heart anchored, keep your faith strong, and keep living out real talk, real Jesus, real life. We'll see you on the next morning charge.