Surrender Is Not the Finish Line - It’s the Starting Point

On today’s episode of The Morning Charge, Joshua continues the conversation on surrender by asking a simple but powerful question: What happens after you lay your life down before Jesus? Surrender is not the finish line. It is the starting point for daily obedience, renewed thinking, spiritual discipline, and real-life discipleship.

This episode challenges listeners to move beyond emotional moments with God and begin building a life that actually reflects surrender in daily habits, priorities, speech, relationships, money, time, and obedience.

Key takeaways from this episode:

• Surrender is not proven by one emotional moment, but by how you live afterward.
• A surrendered life has to be maintained daily.
• Renewing your mind is necessary if you want to stay surrendered.
• True surrender will shift your priorities, speech, habits, relationships, and private life.
• The fruit of surrender grows over time through consistency, obedience, and abiding in Jesus.

Join The Morning Charge LIVE Monday-Friday at 7:30 AM CT on TikTok.

Want to go deeper?

Join the Branjo Circle for teaching notes, discipleship resources, live classes, and community.

Learn more at branjocollective.com

Real Talk. Real Jesus. Real Life.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 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, as I was praying, the Lord began to speak to me, kind of a part two from yesterday, about what happens after surrender. We have to learn how to walk this thing out daily. So what so when we truly do surrender, what do we do when we begin to walk this thing out? Because surrender is surrender is not the finish line. Surrender is where it starts. Surrendering your life and making that commitment to live a surrendered life, that is the starting point. And there's a lot of people that know how to have those moments with God. You know, we talked about those good moments and maybe on a Sunday morning service or or or uh at a conference, or if we can we can have all the goosebumps and have all the moments we want with the Lord with the Lord right there in that place. But there's far fewer people that know how to build a life with God after those moments. And that's where we have failed. We have failed in discipleship after the moments. We have the conferences, we have the things, we we we are we are learning, we're getting more head knowledge, but we haven't allowed any of this to go here. We haven't allowed the practicality of this to cause our feet to begin to move and to cause our hands to begin to stretch forth and to actually walk things out. All right, so so in laying things down, what we talked about yesterday, surrendering everything to Jesus, that is just the starting point. Today we've got to talk about what happens next. What happens next? Because a surrender a surrendered life, it's not proven by one emotional moment, by by one, by one touch from the Lord in that one place. Surrendered life, a surrendered life is proven by how you live past the moments. We've got to learn how to live past the moments. There's a lot of people that are, and I'm just gonna say this, Lord forgive me. I'm gonna try to say this the best way I possibly can, because I don't I don't mean anything ill by it, but there's a lot of people who are addicted to church services, and they're addicted to having a ton of conferences and having a ton of meetings, and they're they're more about quantity over quality because the only place they find themselves is there. The church should be where you have quality over quantity. It's not about all of the this and all of the that and all of the planning. Yes, there are times for conferences and there's times for coming together and equipping, but we have got to be able to equip the saints in the moments like here on the morning charge. We should be equipping iron sharpening iron here in this place. So when I say I'm going to have a good day and we'll see you later, what you do the rest of the day should matter more than what we do here early in the morning. Does that make sense to anybody? But there's a lot of people who are addicted to these church services, so they have a whole bunch of them and they have a whole bunch of programs and a lot of things, and they're all good things. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with them, but what I'm saying is if if you're coming from the heart, if you're coming from the heart motive that's wrong, and you can only find yourself in that place, something's out of whack because that's not your identity. Your identity is in Him. When we come together, it's like a celebration for the Lord to go live life the way that God designed you to live your life. Amen. I think they mean well. But they're blind, yeah, they're blinded by the enemy. The enemy comes to distract, and that can honestly be a distraction in your life. Don't let anything become a distraction between you and the Lord. Nothing. Your personal relationship with the Lord in your life is the very most important thing. You are cut you are connected to the vine. We are the branches. You want your branch to continue to grow and stay green and produce fruit. You got to stay connected to Him. Amen. Jessica, welcome in. Tony, welcome in. Good morning, everyone. Jessica, thanks for your heart, me friend. So, here we go. We're jumping in this morning in those moments when you're waking up the next day. We're going to talk about the moments that when life starts to get busy again and things start to pile up on you again. You had your moment with the Lord, and you I surrender all and you're singing it and you're laying it down. If you're not careful, you begin to just pick all of that back up and let it all just, instead of just, okay, there's a lot to do. We need to prioritize because today only has so much time involved in it. God, what do you want me to do today? Yesterday, I'm I'm I'm working on uh this Branjo collective stuff. All right, plus we're also in the midst of doing the end-of-year testing with our children. All right, we homeschool our kids, but we still do the the testing and stuff at the end of the year. So I'm taking care of that and I'm working on that. Plus, I'm working on some other things we have going on. So I'm juggling all of that. Well, I clicked off of what I was working on here to go do something else. When I came back, it was gone. I was like, oh my gosh, I just spent three hours working on this. And in that moment, I could have got frustrated. I was like, you know what? We're just gonna pack up for the day. I'm just gonna go. Brandy sent me off to the store, which is a fun adventure in and of itself. And so I went and did those things, and I was like, you know what? I was determined, y'all. I got home. I was like, you know what? I'm gonna open that. We're gonna go, I'm gonna go back and rebuild what I was working on. We're gonna do this today. And I was like, Lord, just give me the strength to do this. I opened it up, I logged back in, and I looked before me, and it had actually saved everything that I had worked on. I only had one little piece that I had to put in there. And I heard the Lord in that moment say, I got your back. Now it was not there when I was sitting there at the coffee shop working on the things that I was working on. I looked, I logged out, I logged back in. It was gone, y'all. But when I logged in from home, God said, I got your back. He was reminding me in those moments how I reacted to that. And I said, You know what? I'm just gonna say we've done enough for today. He's looking at how I was going to respond in that moment. And then God came and redeemed the moment. God's gonna come and redeem your moment, but you've got to live a surrendered life. We have got to live surrendered lives to him. How we walk, how we talk, how we respond, how we do everything, like how we speak, how we carry ourselves. Just saying, y'all. What happens when life gets busy again? What happens when you wake up the next day after having those moments with God? What happens when those old thought patterns try to creep back in? Those familiar spirits try to come and torment you. And you thought, I thought, I thought that God had, I thought, no, no, no. You in those moments you've got to arise and say, no, devil, you have no place in my life. You were under my feet. I am a new creation in Christ, and he is the one that gives me strength, and you ain't got no place in my house. We have got to stand up and know who we are. This comes back to the know who you are and who's you are thing. You got to know who you are in Christ. If you don't know who you are in Christ and you don't know the power that lives on the inside of you in the scriptures, we're gonna read some very familiar scriptures. I'm gonna review some of uh what we had yesterday. We'll go a little bit deeper on a couple of them, but you need to get these. Okay, yes, and Luke 9 and 23 is the first one I'm going to. Surrender's a daily thing. Luke 9 and 23, anyone? If anyone desires to come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow me. You've got to deny yourself, take up your cross and follow me. That will always be a staple scripture on the morning charge, because if we're gonna live life right today, then we have to deny ourselves. We got to take up our cross every day and follow him if we desire to go after him. He says, if you're coming after me, there's some things you got to do. That's what Jesus says. Daily. Daily. Jesus didn't say deny yourself, you know, this one time, and that's it. He didn't say take up your cross just when you're at church, you know, take up your cross and follow me there. No, this is a daily thing. This is a thing that we have to do every single day. What was surrendered yesterday has to be fully surrendered again today, and will have to be fully surrendered again tomorrow. Every single day, surrender your life. That's what you have to do. A surrendered life is maintained every single day. You have to do it every day. And make sure that you do that. You surrender your life and you put on your armor, and then you go forward into the day. When you get up in the morning, I symbolically do that in my own life. It's just what helps me every day. I've surrendered, I quote that uh Luke 9.23. Lord, I am going to deny myself. I'm picking up my cross and I'm following you, and I put on the whole armor today, and the enemy is under my feet, and I am covered in the blood of Jesus. And now we can go out and we can begin to get our day started because I got to get this right. And if I get this right long enough, it gets this right. Whatever you think on, whatever you dwell on, eventually makes its way down. Amen. Betty, thanks for your heart, me, Jonathan. Welcome in, brother. Thank you for your share this morning. Mrs. Roach, welcome in. Good to see you this morning. Oh, if it is, hang on. There you go. Maybe that'll stop the freezing up, I hope. If some of you guys are freezing up. Good morning, y'all. A lot of people also mistake those I just call them spiritual moments. Those, those, those really intense moments with God. Jay Gilbert, good morning. You mistake those moments for some sort of a of transformation. But what those moments when the Lord comes and he touches you is the start of the transformation. Now, God can radically come and heal, he can come and move, he can come and do whatever he wants to do, but he will come and touch you in those moments, take those things from you, and begin that transformation process in your life. But that's a part of just beginning the transformation process because in John, in John chapter 14, see, in John chapter 14, this is where this is where Jesus promises us to uh to have another helper. And he says starting in verse 15, If you love me, keep my commandments. And I will pray the Father, and he will give you another helper that he may abide with you forever, the spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive because it neither sees him nor knows him. The spirit of truth. Did you hear that? This is something the world can't receive because it doesn't know him, and it doesn't see him. The world does not see the spirit of truth. And that is just you can see the fruit of that one. But you know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans, I will come to you. He didn't leave us as orphans. There's a lot of people still walking around out here with that orphan-like spirit. You feel like you've been lost and you have been abandoned. He left you the spirit of truth. The spirit of truth should be helping you get deeper into this. In other words, discipleship has to be the next step here. If you love me, keep these commandments. Follow these things. I'm leaving you a helper, and that's the spirit of truth. And it's going to help you. You're not an orphan. You're a part of my family, is what Jesus is saying. And Jesus ties love here to obedience. This is not about how much, how much you can try to look the part. This is not where you try to be perfect. All right. This is where a lot of people fail. You try to just look the part and try to muddle through. That ain't it. You got to deal with things. You got to, you got to get past those things and move into the life that Jesus has for you. And a lot of people are trying to just be perfect. Well, now that Jesus has touched me, I got to be perfect in this and perfect in that. And I got to make sure I do this. And I got to, and now you're concentrating, you're coming from a place of fear when you're trying to be perfect. I got to be perfect, or he's not going to love me anymore, and he's not, he's going to leave me, and uh, I can't be left. And now you're getting all stressed out and you're worried and you have these mental doubts and all of these things coming at you. It's not about being perfect. I say this all the time. Stop trying to be perfect. Keep your eyes on Jesus. He's the way to holiness. Perfection is going to get you to a point where you fall again because you're doing it all in your strength. When you're trying to be perfect, you're doing it all in your strength. It's not all on you. Surrender sounds like a real beautiful thing, but obedience, that is what gives it the substance that it needs to be sustained. Being obedient to Jesus every single day. If I say Jesus is Lord, but I keep doing life my own way, then He's not really Lord of my life. So when you say things with this, yes, we have to get this right, we've got to speak rightly, but your actions have to follow everything that you say. If you believe God is going to pay those bills, then you have got to step out and truly believe and trust God that He is going to help you pay what needs to be paid. If you are terminally ill in your body, then you have to say, I am healed of the Lord and I'm going to walk it out. And then you have to trust, you have to surrender, you have to give that thing to the Lord, and you've got to be obedient. What your feet and your hands do after you say matters the most. Surrender comes when you are obedient to God and doing the things he's asking you to do. When you align yourself with where he is calling you and what he is speaking of you to do. You have got to do some changing, some things on the inside. You've got to be willing to allow the Lord to come in and do some open heart surgery and to begin to clean out some old faults, but you're the ones that's got to partner with him in getting that done. You've got to start walking different, you got to start thinking differently if you truly want to be surrendered. Because it's proven by your obedience in him and doing what he's asking you to do. And your mind, speaking of a renewed mind, it has to be renewed if you're going to surrender. The way you think about things, the way that your thought life is, this has to be renewed if you really want to surrender and you really want to step out in all the things of the Lord. I mean, if we take a look at Romans 12, and we look here, of course, y'all know, this is another one we go to quite a bit. Romans 12 and 1, beloved friends, what should be our proper response to God's marvelous mercies? I encourage you to surrender yourselves to God to be his sacred living sacrifices and live in holiness, experiencing all that delights his heart, for this becomes your genuine expression of worship. I'm reading this out of the Passion. Stop imitating, this is verse 2, stop imitating the ideals and opinions of the culture around you, but be inwardly transformed by the Holy Spirit through a total reformation of how you think, a total renewing of your mind. This is a total reformation. A reformation goes beyond just renewing something. Reformation means a total overhaul of how you think. This will empower you to discern God's will as you live a beautiful life, satisfying and perfect in His eyes. Present your bodies as a living sacrifice. Be transformed by the renewing of your mind. A living sacrifice has to keep staying on the altar. You are a life that is always up on the altar. See, that's a challenge for some of us. But a surrendered life is one that is always on the altar. That doesn't mean you're laying on the physical altar all day. That means you have laid down your life in every area and every aspect all day, every day. You're making a choice to do that. You lay it down, but the next day your flesh is going to try to crawl back to the altar and pick all of that up again. Stay on the altar. Stay on the altar and leave all of that stuff and that junk at the feet of Jesus. That's why your mind has to be renewed. Because if you go pick all of that back up again, or you get yourself off the altar for some reason, that means there was a thought that got you to do that. Renew your thinking. A surrendered heart with an unrenewed mind is going to struggle to stay surrendered. Because if you continue to think the way that you've always thought, and you have that stinking thinking about your life, one little thing happens, and now you're down this big spiral turmoil thing again, and you're down the wrong road again, that means you are not fully surrendered to Jesus. You have to be fully surrendered to Jesus. And it starts with a surrendered heart and a renewed mind. After surrender, not only do you have to have a renewed mind, but your priorities in your life also have to shift. If Jesus is truly Lord of your life, then he doesn't need to just get the things that you say, but you don't do. You need to begin to speak and then you begin to line up your life with his word and what he has for you. Get your priorities back in order again. This means that once you surrender, you got to start changing some things. There is action on your part. He can't do it all. You can't do it all. It is a partnership with him to get done in your life what needs to be done. You need to be better stewards over your time. I'm sure there's a lot of things, and there's a lot of ways that all of us waste our time. We all waste our time. Some people sit around and worry about things they have no control over. That's wasting your time. Sitting on your phone and you and doom scrolling, doom scrolling, goodness gracious, doom scrolling. Maybe I can English again. That is wasting your time. Yes, there is some great things out there. I even put content out there for people, but it's so it can break up the monotony of whatever has been going on in front of you. When I'm sitting there, I'm hoping I have a little nugget of wisdom that's coming your way to make you think about something. And usually it's about getting your priorities in order. Hello? Having an ordered life is a very, very important thing. And things will not change until you start getting things in your life in order, partnering with God to do so. You have to be able to do that. But you need to be, you need to change up things in your time, be good stewards over your time. You need to watch your speech. Maybe you need to watch how you're speaking. Maybe you saved, but you ain't got so saved yet. Well, now it's time to press into the next chapter of your journey and watch how you're speaking. Watch what you're saying. Watch your habits. What do you spend, once again, that goes back to your time. What are you spending your time doing? What are your habits in your life? Maybe you need to shake some things up. Some things need to shift in your habits. What do you focus on all day? Maybe you need to start changing your relationships and the people that you are associated with because you are number six of the five people that you are around. Amen. Brandy, I don't know what you need this morning, Brandy Welch, but I pray right now in the name of Jesus that God would meet you in the midst of everything that you have going on, and that he would meet every need, and that he would come and move in your life like he's never moved before, and that today would be a new day for you right now in the mighty name of Jesus. Brandy, go forward in all that God has for you and go forward in faith and in boldness. Amen. Thanks for being here on the charge this morning. Amen. But maybe there's some things you need to be changing. Maybe you need to change your money habits. Maybe you need to change the way that you're reacting to things. Maybe you need to start responding. I had an opportunity to react yesterday. I chose to respond. And think about this too. What's going on in your private life? What's going on in the moments when nobody's watching, no one's paying attention, it's just you. Because it's never just you, it's you and the Lord. I'm just saying. What are you doing? Where are you going? What is happening? Assess everything in your life. Matthew 6 and 33. You already know, seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and then all these other less important things will be added to you. All these other things will be added to you. A surrendered person stops trying to fit Jesus into their schedule, and they start building a life around him and what he has for you every single day. Of course, you have obligations. You've got, maybe you've got a spouse and you have the children and you've got school things going on and you have work and you have all of these things that you have going on. But are you stewarding your time well? Have you asked the Lord, is this the schedule we should have? Or did you just build a whole bunch of good things? Jenna, thanks. Thanks for that. I appreciate that, friend. We don't want to ever just build a whole big life and ask God to come over and bless it. Betty thanks. We want to make sure that we start building our life around him because he is my source of everything. If I'm going to sing that song, Jesus at the center of it all, Jesus at the center of it all, is he? We sing these songs, but is he? We got to make sure that he is. If nothing in your life changes after you surrender, then surrender has not gone as deep as it needs to go. And you're not really truly surrendered. Let's just be 100% honest. I mean, I tried to make it sound better than that, but you're not surrendered. If nothing in your life changes after you surrender, you haven't surrendered. You need to go back and truly surrender. After you surrender, God is then going to come in and he's going to begin to deal with the specifics in your life. What does that mean? All right. That means we love to say, Lord, I give you everything. But then God comes in and he starts to be really specific with things. We kind of touched on this a little bit yesterday. This is the deal. Are he's going to come in and he's going to say, hey, you need to forgive that person. Huh? I can't forgive them. You know what they did to me? And then you start making those inner vows. I will never forgive them for what they did. And I can't believe that they. And now you're dwelling on this and you're eating yourself up again, and now you're not being very surrendered. But be ready when you say, I surrender all. Because he will come say, hey, you need to forgive that person. Hey, hey, you need to, you need to cut that relationship. You need to cut that off. What? But but you don't understand this. No, no, no. You need to cut that relationship off. The Holy Spirit will come in and he'll be like, hey, you don't need to talk like that. I don't know what you're saying, I don't know what you think you're doing, but you don't need to speak like that. There's going to be some thoughts that come up in your head, and God's going to be like, hey, you need to stop entertaining that thought. That's a thought you need to cast down. And you're going to begin to feel these things. The closer you walk with God and the more you walk life out with him, these things are going to begin to come to you. And when you begin to push those things back, he begins to back off. It says, okay, you're not quite ready. Why don't we want to be ones? We need to be ones that are ready to step in all that God has. If you're tired of the way life is, you got to make some changes. The definition of insanity is continuing doing the same things, expecting a different result. You're doing the same old things again. There's somebody or somebody's in here this morning, you're doing the same old things again. And you're expecting a different result. That's not the way that that's not the way that works. Michelle, good morning. Anyone that I've missed jumping in this morning, thank you for your heart me in jumping in this morning. But he's going to tell you to cast those thoughts down. Stop entertaining those things. Hey, that thing that you're doing right there, we need to deal with that. Maybe you got a bad habit of something in your life. He's like, hey, we need to work on this. Hey, you need to trust me in that area. You get all, you get all frantic over your finances when you're looking and you feel like money's like slipping through your fingers, and like, where are we going and what are we doing? And I don't quite understand what's going on in my life right now. He says, Hey, I need you to trust me. And then he reminds me in those moments that this life's not about you. Here you are over here getting all frantic about this, that, and the other. This ain't about you. This is about you trusting me. This is about me. And the Lord begins to, he begins to refocus me upon him again because he is the giver of life. He is the source of strength. He is Jehovah Jireh. He is my provider. It's not just a fun thing we sing about from time to time. No, he really is Jehovah Jireh. He really is my provider. I could not make it without him. I put so much faith in man, so much faith in what I can pull together for so many years till he had to break me down. And he said, I am Jehovah Jireh. I am the one that supplies your needs. If you'll follow me and if you'll surrender and be obedient to what I tell you to do, he'll tell you to do some things that make no sense. He'll tell you when you're trying to save up to pay this bill over here, he'll be like, I need you to give that over there. But Lord, he's like, Whose money is that? Is that your money or is that my money? Who are you going to trust? I'm going to trust my accountant. When he says to do something, I'm going to trust my accountant before I trust myself, because his ways are higher. His ways are better. And anytime he's ever said give, he always brings back more. He'll come and meet your need if you're helping meet the needs of others. If you're helping, uh if you're helping give where he says to give and do what he says to do, he is going to give and do for you. I say that all the time. There's some things that you're holding on to at your house. There's some things you don't even need, and you're keeping it because you might need it one day. I challenge you to go out to that garage or that that building, that shed you have in the backyard or wherever, that junk room, as you call it, maybe even the junk drawer, and you need to go dump some things out, and you need to go through some things, and you'd be like, Lord, Holy Spirit, who needs this stuff? Because it ain't doing me any good. I mean, it's not doing me no good. Who needs it? And then keep your eyes and your ears out because he might speak to you or he might show you, you're going to hear somebody say, Man, we really need a well, I just happen to have one of those. You go with a cheerful heart and begin to give that away. And I promise you, and once you begin to make room and get rid of the stuff you don't need, God will bring you exactly what you need. But you got to make room first. My children from miracle restoration healing mind, body, and soul, right now in the name of Jesus. We pray over our friend. Lord, you see every need. And God, we say come and supply every need that's needed right now. Healing right now over the mind and over the body, right now, inside, outside, all the way through right now, in the name of Jesus, Lord. We lift our friend up this morning, Father, that you would come and that you would make a way, Father. Father, I pray right now, Lord, that you would come and that you would move in a mighty way, Lord, in their life right now. Father, for them and their children, right now in Jesus' name, Lord. Supply every need. Every need. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Lord. He is a miracle-working God. And we just partner in faith. You begin to speak out those things that you need. You begin to say what needs to be said. Amen. But yeah, if you got some things that you're holding on to that you don't need to be holding on to, you need to get rid of that stuff. Get it out of there. And when you begin to clean up and you begin to simplify, it never fails. When we go through and we clean and we get out the clutter and we simplify, we bless those with things we may have, and then we all just go donate the rest. When you begin to make room, he will then bring in what you need. This also is a part of having a surrendered life. You're surrendering not just your own life, but you're surrendering all of your life. That's the things you have, that's the money sitting in your bank account or in your back pocket or in your front pocket. That is whatever you have. I surrender my wife. I surrender my children. I surrender our businesses. I surrender the ministry. I surrender the morning charge. I surrender all the things that we have. I surrender. I surrender all means all. Amen, Tim. You just let him keep working on you, man. Holy Spirit is definitely he's working this morning. Y'all just let him continue to do what he does. Amen. But surrender is daily. We've already talked about that this morning. Remember, this is a daily thing. We have to renew our mind. We've got to make sure our priorities are shifting. We've got to be ready when God comes in. He starts talking about all the specifics. We've got to learn to unalive to ourselves, our lives every day. What about that Galatians 2 and 20? I've been crucified with Christ. It's no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. If I'm a surrendered, truly changed life and I've truly accepted Jesus as Lord and Savior of my life, then that means it's no longer I who live, but Christ that lives within me. Once you surrender your life, then my feelings don't lead me around. My opinions, they don't matter anymore. My flesh doesn't get to sit on the throne of my life anymore. The surrendered life is a life where self keeps losing its grip. See? And you have to allow it to just let it go. Just let it go, just let it go, and just give in to what God is doing. When we say less of me and more of you, Lord, this is what we mean. Less of me and more of you. Less of my self-will and more of your obedience. Less of my reactions and more of your restraint to help me respond instead. Less pride in my life, Lord, and more humility in my life. You have got to change things inside of you if you want to see the results. And you've got to unalive daily pick up your cross. Follow him. And you need to be consistent. This is an everyday thing. Be consistent. You ain't gonna feel like it. There's gonna be some days you just want to just lay in bed and call in. I ain't feeling good. I ain't coming in today, and I'm just gonna lay around and do nothing. That's not the life that God has called you to. Now you should take time every single week to unplug from everything. A lot of people use their day off to do all the things that they did while they were working. You really do need a day to spend time with the Lord. Spend time with you should be spending time with him every day, but spend time with your family. Spend time with your children. Find time to be together and enjoy the Lord together. But our daily walk is built upon faithfulness and it's about consistency. This means after after we surrender, we keep showing up every day in prayer before the Lord. We keep showing up every day in the Word. This is what a consistent, surrendered life is, where you show up consistently in the Word every single day. In obedience, you're showing up in obedience, in repentance, in worship, and faithfulness. Oh, and you're showing up in your integrity and your character, and you're allowing fruit to grow upon your tree that people will be able to see. And you don't have to go around with a bullhorn saying, I'm a Christian, I'm a Christian, I'm a Christian. You should not have to go around with a bullhorn. People should look at you and be like, Wow, that's a follower of Jesus. Living the examples of Jesus. James 1 and 22, once again, tells us that we are to be doers of the word and not just hearers only. Was that 1 and 22? Don't just listen to the word of truth and not respond to it. That's the way the passion says it. For that is the essence of self-deception. So always let the word become like poetry written and fulfilled by your life. That is amazing. Let his word become like a poetry written and fulfilled by your life. In other words, what is written here should be walked out in your life. There's action that needs to be taking place. The surrendered life is not sustained just by hearing the word. You can't just hear it and move on. No, it is sustained by the daily habits you put in place and by being faithful by walking out his word. There's a lot of people that are chasing another big moment with God. I need another big moment, I need another prophetic word, I need another feel-good service, I needed this, I needed that. But God is waiting on you to be faithful in your everyday life. He is waiting on you to be faithful right now, today, not just chasing the next big thing. I love having those moments together with my brothers and sisters where we are celebrating the Lord together, where lives are getting radically touched, people are getting changed. And I love those moments. But those are moments. What you do when you leave those moments with Jesus, that is what matters the most in your life. This daily walk is what matters the most. And you're going to be tempted to go pick that life back up. That old life that you had, trust me, you're going to be tempted to go pick that old life back up. And this is just being honest with you. Even after you have really surrendered everything and you're being consistent in your walk with God and you're in your word and you're going and you're moving, there's going to be moments where you want to come back in and you want to take control of some things again. There's going to be those moments things start slipping, it gets really unfamiliar, and you're not quite sure where you're going and what's happening. You're going to want to come back in and grab a hold of that thing. You're going to want to go pick up things and you're going to let anxiety come back on you, and stress and worry just begin to filter on back in again. You're going to go pick up my right to be offended. A lot of people just be like, well, that you let that spirit of offense start rising up on the inside of you again. Or maybe you're stepping into something. You allow fear to grip you and you go running the other way back to where you came. You're going back to Egypt again. Because at least they, I mean, they fed us there. I mean, they sure did work us, but really that's where you want to go back to. You don't want to step into what God's called you to. Don't let fear, don't give into fear today. Those old ways and those habits you had in coping with things before Jesus. All those addictions and sins and all those things you feel like I'm good because you've done it all yourself, and then one little thing happens, and no, you ain't because that slippery slope you've done slid on back down in there again. You gotta keep your eyes on Jesus to be able to get past that. His ways are higher. Hebrews 12. As for us, we have all these great witnesses who encircle us like clouds. So we must let go of every wound that has pierced us. And the sin that we so fall easily into, see the sin that so cleverly entangles us, you see. The Aramaic actually says the sin that is ready and waiting for us. The enemy is always ready and waiting. Don't ever let your guard down. That doesn't mean you're in defense and spiritual warfare, and I'm just agony and whoa, you know. But there's sin that is always ready and waiting for you. And it so easily entangles you. See, that's what the scripture is trying to tell us. If this is speaking of one sin, the context would point to the sin of unbelief and doubting God's promises. Hello, those are sins too. Now, I believe this deals with all sin, because sin is easily to slip into, but the biggest things that we even overlook, because we're thinking of all these other really bad things. But we forget sometimes the point of sin of unbelief and doubting God's promises. Have we ever stopped to think about that for a minute? And we run the other way, what we have said in that moment is God can't do it. He can't. He can't. That's what you've just said. You didn't may not have said it out of your mouth, you can't do this, but your actions showed that he can't. That's why it's important to speak rightly, walk rightly, and continue on because he can. And he will if you let him. What you lay down before God today, do not pick it back up tomorrow or later today. Because you just might. Walking out a surrendered life means you have to leave those things at the altar. And you have to allow Him to burn those things away. You gotta be surrendered. You gotta be surrendered. But then we move into the point of, and I'm landing the plane, don't y'all worry. We're moving into the point of how a surrender life will produce fruit over time. See, one reason that people get discouraged is because they expect instant visible change in everything. You're expecting all areas of your life, zip, zipity, zap, zap, and it's all going to be restored and renewed and done, and and it's it's all it's all gonna be done. But but many of the deepest works of God, the deep, deep, deep works of God happen over time as you continue to walk with him. This is a this is a daily walk-it-out thing with him. And if you want to see true results, you have to keep walking. John 14, 4 through 5. That's exactly where it talks about you abide in me, and he who abides in me bears much fruit. Fruit grows, fruit starts to develop, and then fruit will mature. And the fruit of God is going to be something sweet in your life. The proof of surrender is not your instant or his instant perfection in your life. The fruit or the proof of surrender is the steady fruit that continues to come season after season after season after season after season. That is what you call the proof of surrender, the fruit that you bear in your life. And as you continue to walk with the Lord, you will begin to experience more peace in those moments when you used to get really stressed out. If you truly trust God and you're truly walking with him and you're truly surrendered, you're gonna, you're gonna be like, wow, I don't feel stressed out in this moment. This is this is different. This is new. God, thank you. Thank you, Lord. I thank you, Lord, that you've given me peace in the midst of this tragic situation. There's gonna be more discipline in your life. You're not gonna do the things that you used to do. You're walking a renewed mind and a renewed life, and you're walking this out. You're gonna begin to see more humility in your life. You're gonna see yourself uh giving when you used to not give and doing things that you used to never do. You're you're gonna you're gonna see yourself begin to recall scripture and you're gonna be like, where did that come from? How in the world did I remember that? That's the Holy Spirit activated, excuse me, activated in your life. And that's Him moving and recalling the things, but it only comes by staying in the Word. If you stay in the Word and you read the Word and you allow it to get on your heart, then you're gonna be able to be able to recall those when you need to. You're gonna find yourself loving people in moments when you used to not, and seeing things with his eyes instead of the way you used to see them through the veils of hurt and disappointment. You're gonna see more self-control in your life. You're gonna feel more stable. A lot of things are gonna continue to happen, and that it happened in your life, and that is what comes from daily surrender. And that's what daily surrender will begin to produce in your life. You know, there's For some of you, you've had these real moments with God and they were they were real. You had a real touch from God. And while those moments were real, it's now time to start really walking it out. Those moments that you had with God. Those miraculous healings you might have had in your in your in your in those moments and the maybe the uh the restoration that took place in those moments. It's time to start walking things out. It's time to stop living out of that surrender from that moment. And it's time to begin to walk out and begin to change patterns in your life. Thought patterns, actions, your schedule. You gotta make some changes to be able to continue to surrender to the Lord. A lot of us, we do we just we we can't we can't get that point of this takes some work on my part. Because when God touched us in those moments, we feel like everything is on him. No, he is partnering with you, he's giving you a fresh start in that moment, but you got to go forth and do some things now. You got to do some things now. You gotta let surrender become the structure in your life. You've got to let surrender become the new habit in your life. Well, you surrender daily. You've got to let surrender become obedience in your life. Because surrender is not proven in what you said when you felt God so strongly in that moment. Surrender is proven in how you live when nobody is watching. How do you live your life? How do you live your life when sir when nobody's watching? So ask yourself, what did I surrender to God that I'm tempted to pick back up today and take control of today, or to fall into today, or whatever that looks like? What have you surrendered to the Lord that you're struggling with again? How about that? And has my surrender changed the way I live my life every day? Or was it just that moment? And I have there's been no other change since. You need to look at those things, see what you need to do, and ask yourself what priorities need to shift. If Jesus is truly first in my life, what priorities need to begin to shift? How do I need to rearrange my schedule? And what things do I need to get rid of so that God can bring what it is that I need for my life? What do you need to get rid of so that God can bring what you need in your life? And that is how we begin to walk out a surrendered life. Walk out a surrendered life. You want to walk out a surrendered life, then walk it out. It didn't say to talk out a surrendered life. It said you need to walk out a surrendered life. So, Father, I thank you, Lord, for all of those that have jumped into the morning charge this morning. Father, I just say right now that in those moments where we have surrendered things to you, in those moments when we have given everything over to you, I say, Lord, now we begin to put feet to the fire. We begin to put on our boots, put on our backpack, and ride with you, Jesus, because we need to be ones that put action behind what we have said. We need to be those that begin to put action behind those. Those things you've promised. I'm going to put feet to that today. From the places that you took me to where you've placed me now. Father, I have put in the safety measures, Lord, to be able to maintain my gaze upon you, Jesus, and begin to press into all that you have and let your word be etched upon my heart today. What do you need to change in your life? Ask the Holy Spirit, Holy Spirit, what do I need to change in my life? What do I need to do differently today? To begin to walk this life out with you. And I speak a blessing over you. Lord, bless every household and every person that is represented here on the morning church today. Father, I pray, Lord, that those that may be in lack, Father, that there shall be no more seasons of lack in the name of Jesus as they arise and as they shake off the dust of yesterday and as they begin to get a different mindset of life and what you have for them, God, I pray, Lord, they would rise above their circumstances as they begin to rise with you. And that, Father, you would come and that you would supply every need right now in the mighty, mighty name of Jesus. 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.