Giving Up (Tyler Nichols, 07/22/23)

Good morning church. I

Am happy to be back here. I went to church here for 20 years and then

Move to Atlanta and join a church out there

But I'm happy to be here. I'm glad that I got the

Text from Anthony to ask me to preach because like my mother said I did always want to do this

And so I'm happy to be still doing it

The title of my sermon today is giving up

Not because I'm telling you to give up

But sometimes we need to give up

Because there are times when we want to take things into our own hands and because we think we know best

And so there are times that we need to understand that God knows best and we need to give it up to him

So I'm going to open up with one more word of prayer just to ask the Lord's presence here, and then we'll get started

Dear Heavenly Father, I come to you again today Lord. I pray that you

Bring your presence to this to this room Lord. I pray that you play put your hands over me Lord that these words be your

Words are not my words. I pray that we all listen myself included not only with our ears, but with our hearts Lord in Jesus name amen

So during the time of Jesus first advent the expectations of the Jewish leaders and consequently the people of Israel

Was that a Messiah would come defeat the Roman Empire

and make Israel a great nation unfortunately for the Jewish leaders and the Messiah came and when the Messiah came Jesus brought a whole new

And yet internal concept about the kingdom of God all that humans have learned about power and kingdoms was now upside down

Jesus teachings were clear that if we wanted to be part of his Kings we need to follow his rules that go against all human understanding

Paul describes things of God as foolish foolishness as he writes

I know very well how foolish the message of the cross sounds to those who are on the road to destruction

But who are we who are being saved recognized the message as the very power of God

And as the scriptures say I will assure human wisdom and discard the most brilliant ideas and that's found in 1st Corinthians chapter 1 verses 18 and 19

Not only the message of God who became a man and died on the cross for sins is foolishness and some of the human's minds

But his teachings as well some of Jesus teachings were the opposite of human understanding

Listen to this written by Leonard Sweet in his book Jesus drives me crazy

The way first is last the way of success is service the way of attainment is relinquishment

The way of strength is weakness the way of security is vulnerability the way of life is death

The way of life is death the way of life is death

The way of security is vulnerability the way of life is death

So sometimes it seems like we have all the teachings that God came to the earth to teach

We know all of it it's right here in our Bibles but still even with all with these lists of guidelines we still think that we know best

We still think that we wake up and you know I know how I'm going to map out my day every single day and this is exactly how I'm going to do it

But God gives us the guidelines and sometimes it seems when we read this book in my personal life it's like this doesn't apply to me today

But it could apply to you tomorrow or the next day or previously you could have been like I wish I had some way of helping me get through this moment

And it was right there in the Bible but we still in our minds as humans we all do it we all think that we know best

It seems that in the spite of his teachings we still struggle to let go of the cinch of our lives

The idea of being in power is a big part of our lives

We are we are human in many areas of our lives we always try harder to keep it all under control

Don't we all do that? We all love to say that I handled it myself I had no help in this

I woke up and I conquered the day myself with no help but did you have help?

If you really think about it did you have help? Who woke you up that day?

Who gave you the strength to get out of bed that day?

Who gave you the strength when things got hard to keep pushing on? It wasn't yourself

If we don't lie to ourselves we know who really gave us that strength to achieve all those things that day

We struggle for power in the workplace

We want so bad to keep moving up

We're like hey boss look what I did

It's something that I'm struggling with now in my workplace

It seems like I'm doing all the work and I want to be recognized for it

I want someone to look at me and be like you know what I appreciate you and all the things that you do

But is that what really matters?

Work achievements, work raises, now those things are lovely

I mean we all want more money at work right?

But in the end there's a bigger goal that we're striving for

And this is just the road to that goal

We struggle for power financially

Like I said we want more money

We're willing to do anything for money

We're willing to put ourselves above other people for more money

But like this says up here strength is in vulnerability

We struggle emotionally

We want to keep it all together

We want people to look at us and be like that person has it all together

That person has no problems

But behind closed doors you have all the problems in the world that you're facing

And same way when you look at somebody else

They have problems too that they're struggling and they're as big as your problems are to you

We struggle for power in church

We want so bad to come to church and say

I give the most in tithe

I dress the best

I'm at church every single week

I'm in Sabbath school every single week

Look at me, look at me

But who are we really supposed to be looking to?

Are we drawing people in the church to look at us?

Or are we supposed to draw people in the church to look to God?

Many times that grip comes in different forms of manifestations

Such as frustration, greed, disappointment, anger, harsh words and so on

I believe that one of the greatest struggles we Christians have to let as today

Is to let go of the facts of life

The fact of life is we are Christians

Everybody out there is not Christian

It's our goal to bring them to Christianity

But we can't go out there and expect everyone to act like us

Because some of them don't know

Some of them don't know even what goes on in front inside those doors out there

So who are we to be like, you know what, I'm doing my best

And that's all I was told to do

No, one of the last things that Jesus said on earth was to go and teach

And sometimes we don't know everything either

That's why he gives us this book to go back and reference to

Our script reading today is the greatest advice we can find in the Bible about this subject

As far as letting it go and understanding that God knows best

And Caleb read it perfectly, thank you Caleb

Be still and know that I am God

I will be exalted among the nations

I will be exalted on the earth

Think for a few seconds about a moment in your life where you took matters into your own hands

And made all that was possible to have it done your own way

Do you have moments like that?

Where you achieve something in your life and you're like, I did it my way

Nobody helped me, nobody gave me advice, nobody counseled me on it

But I did it my way and I succeeded

It's hard to think back at a time if you truly think about it and say that I did it myself

In my own life I have advised God, I have counseled God

I have given him instructions on how to work the things I need in my life

I have given him instructions on how to tell him how I want things to be done

When we moved to Atlanta we struggled to find a church

We've had previous things happen in the past where it was like

We were scared to join a new church just off the fly

And that's normal going from one setting personally for my life

Going from a church where you were around the same people for 20 years

To a whole different place you've never lived in

And trying to find a new church where you don't know anybody

It can be scary

And it was hard, it was hard to put yourself out there

Me, myself, I'm a very shy person

I'm a very introverted person

My wife on the other hand, if you know my wife you know she's not shy

But it was hard finding a church

And so me and Angelica thought that you know what, we'll start our own thing

We'll make a church available for everyone

So we started an online church where she sang a couple songs

And then I gave a light word of something that we learned throughout the week

And it was a good idea

And we were like you know what, we're going to make church how we want church

And God had other plans

It didn't work out

It just became too much

It just became, there were those weeks where we didn't learn anything

Where we thought we didn't learn anything

It was just a hard week

And we're like now we have to go in front of these people, all these people who are watching

And be like I love everything

And that's not true

So we just, if I'm being honest we just stopped going to church

And it was probably the worst decision I've ever made in my entire life

To stop going to church

Because the church is the people

This building is just a building we can meet at

But you need the people of the church too when you're feeling down to encourage you to keep going

Or maybe you're called to a church to encourage somebody

And that's what church is about

Church isn't about being here at 9 o'clock to go to Sabbath school

It's not ending church service exactly at 12 o'clock because somebody's going to rip your head off because they're hungry

That's not what it's about

It's about coming here and understanding that we're all trying to achieve this goal as to get to heaven

Every single last one of us

And we're all equipping each other with the knowledge and these words to go out and to bring people along

And so when we stopped going to church it seems like everything just fell apart

Nothing was going right

We were struggling financially, emotionally, with power

We felt like nothing was in our control

And so Angelica's TO was preaching at the Alpharetta church

And he told our family, you guys should come out, I'm preaching, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah

And so we went and it was a lovely church

Those people there are like, God is in that church for sure

And so when we went, we just went, had a good time, had potluck, which is always good

And so a few weeks later we didn't really go back to church

But we felt something moving

We felt something stir up inside of us like how amazing was that feeling to be in church surrounded by people who have the love of God in their heart

How amazing is that feeling?

And so we finally decided to go back and the moment we stepped in the doors

Now this was three weeks prior

We stepped in the doors and people remembered our first names

And I just took that as a sign from God, I'm supposed to be here

You're supposed to be here

And so as a lot of you know, we moved our membership over there

And it is amazing being back in church

Let me tell you, God knows exactly what he's doing

And the fact that some, and even myself, the fact that I can wake up some days and say

You know what, God, I got this one

The fact that I can wake up and say that for all the things that he's done in my life is crazy to me

It's crazy to me to think that I think any kind of thought that I know better than him

We take control of our lives and rely on our own understanding

But when we do that, we take away the sovereignty of God and having control over our lives

A quick look in the Bible as you can find out that God has always been in control over everything

The very first verse of Psalms 46 begins this

God is our refuge and strength, always ready to help in times of trouble

Do you think that Moses was in despair when the people of Israel were cornered between the Red Sea and Pharaoh's army?

Do you think that Moses took time to advise God and tell him what to do?

Of course not

Moses stayed still for he knew God

When he asked God who he should say, when he asked God who he should send, God sent him

God told him, I am who I am

Another great example of staying still is found in the life of David

As Saul was persecuting him, David has Saul's life in his hands twice and both times he decided to spare the king

One time he said to Saul, may the Lord judge between you and me

and may the Lord avenge the wrongs you have done to me, but my hand will not touch you

Be still and know that I am God

That was the attitude of Job also when the whole world came tumbling down on him and he lost everything

He even came down with a terrible disease

This man went through everything you could possibly imagine, some things that we couldn't even imagine

However, one of his well known phrases at the book in Job chapter 19 verse 26 it says

Job 19:26

And after my body has decayed, yet in my body I will see God

How many of us can say that?

When we look at our lives and think of the worst time in our lives

How can we sit there in that moment when everything is going wrong and be like

I'm still looking to God

What is our mind going through?

This is it

I give up

It's too much

I can't take it anymore

Now we don't say I can't take it anymore, I give it to you God

We just say I'm giving up, I can't take it

And we just let everything go

But Job, he says, yet in my body I will see God

That is amazing

In retrospective I feel that God has never forsaken us

Just like the Red Sea, he waited at the last minute and he was still

Brothers and sisters, I don't know exactly what you're going through in your life

But I can tell you this, we serve a God who is mighty

A God who is able to deliver us though it may not be the way you expect

But it will be the best way you could ever desire

I encourage you to be still and let go of the control of your life

Even when things won't work out the way you want, remember the words of Paul

And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good

For those who are called according to his purpose

There are things in life that I wish I could go back and change

That's my initial first thought when I think back on those things

But now I know that it was the journey that God put me through

I know that he allows us to go through moments of where we need to be taught

Because like I said we like to take control of our things

And God gives us free will doesn't he?

And so he's like, okay go ahead

He's like, go ahead, if you know best really truly take it

But he's always right there when we come back to him

When we know that we're wrong and we know that we messed up by thinking that we have it

He's like, come to me and I'll give you rest

That's another thing that I've been going through myself is giving it all to God

And that's why I wrote this because I had a moment two weeks ago

Where I was in my work truck and it was the end of my day

And I had pulled back into the warehouse and I was just sitting there

It's 97 degrees outside and I've been delivering packages in the heat all day

And my boss doesn't seem to think that the trucks need AC

And I'm sitting there just pouring sweat and I'm just like, is this really for me?

Is this really what I want to be doing in my life?

Is there something greater that I could be doing at this moment?

And I just remember thinking like this is the moment where I'm going to take my life into my own hands

And I'm going to do what I want to do

And I don't know if I told you this Angelica, probably not

But as I was walking out of the warehouse I was stopped by one of the

He's the guy who drives the cars to clean up all the boxes and stuff

And he stopped and looked at me and he was like, hey do you live around here?

And I was like, yeah I live in Marietta

I'm actually looking for a church, is there somewhere that you recommend?

And I remember telling him there's a Marietta and I told him that I was an Adventist

And we got into a conversation about what that is, you know the whole rigmarole of that

And he was like, because initially he first came up to me and he was like, you know I'm really busy on Sundays

And I was like, well I got the place for you then

I remember telling him there's a church in Marietta, Marietta Seventh-day Adventist Church

I said, this is where the pastor of my church came from

But if you're willing to drive to Alpharetta, it's a little bit of a trek

But this is where I go to church

And I promise you, you will feel the love of God in this church

And in that moment as I was walking out to my car I started to cry

Because as my family knows, my mom knows, she raised me to be a very emotional person, as she is

And I started to cry and I was like, I'm exactly where I need to be

God put me in this place for a reason

He opened up the doors for this job so easily, how could I deny that that was him?

How could I deny that he isn't leading my path?

How could I deny that he isn't the light under my feet?

How could I?

A lot of times the reason we want to hold onto things ourselves is because of fear

Fear of things being different, fear of things not going the way that we want to, fear of things changing

But there's this famous song, it's called Fear Is Not My Future

And this song, every time I listen to this song, again I cry, let's all, you know

And these are the lyrics of this song, this is the chorus of the song that gets me every single time

And I want you to apply this to you, whatever you think that your future is right now

I want you to apply this to your life and think that this is not the end

It says, Fear Is Not My Future, you are

Fear Is Not My Future, Sickness Is Not My Story, you are

Heartbreak Is Not My Home, you are

Death Is Not The End, you are

And as I listen to those words I think back of all the times that it felt like I couldn't go on

And I felt like I was doing everything wrong and I felt like this is going to be the end

This is where my life, I've done all that I can do

God says this is not the end

You have nothing to fear because I got you in my hand

And the Bible says when you're in His hand nothing can pluck you out of it

So as we leave today, I want all of us, even including me, to think back at the time

Or in the future times that we think that we have it, that we know what's best for us

We can think, I know someone who has it best

And we can share these words to other people because people out there, they don't know like we do

They don't know that we have someone that we can turn to no matter what

And He always knows what's best, they think that this is it for them

They think that this is their future

And so we have these amazing words to tell them that that fear is not their future

God is their future if they will allow Him to, God will help you in ways that you can't even imagine

In ways that you didn't even know that you had a problem

God will fix that problem before you even come to that problem

I was talking to a friend, I was actually talking to Sam the other day

And this friend of ours, he's kind of been hinting that he wants to get into church

Or kind of hinting that he wants to talk about God

But then when you talk to him about God, he makes it a joke

But the other day I had a really good conversation with him, he was talking to me, he's like, you go through a lot

He's like, you wake up at 6.30 every single day, you have back pain and you work

And then you come in here still with a smile, he's like, how do you do it?

And I was like, if I'm being completely honest, it is not me putting a smile on his face

When I see people and I know that people need encouragement and people need love and people need happiness

God is the one who puts a smile on my face

Because you never know who's looking at you

You never know who's looking at you when you're down and you're somber

And you have this face on you that says, I can't do it anymore

There could be someone looking at you right now that's saying, I need encouragement

And if you allow God to put a smile on your face and give it to him

They're going to be like, I want what that person has

This person is going through a lot but I want what that person has

The strength to put a smile on their face and be happy and be joyous

Isn't that what we all want? We all want to be joyous and happy

Well, God is love

And love inherently makes us all happy, does it not?

Whether that's when people cook for you

Whether that's when people give you gifts

When people spend time with you

When people give you words of affirmation, whatever it is

Love inherently makes us happy

But worldly love makes us happy temporarily

Because then we're looking for the next way to feel that love

We're looking for the next way to feel that void of like, I need something

But God says, I have something way better for you

I have my love and that's eternal

So as I close, I want us to remember that God has it for you

And I'm sure you've probably seen it in like a hobby lobby or somewhere on Facebook

They say let go and let God, right?

But it's true, we need to let go

And that's why the title of my sermon is giving up

Because we need to give up

We need to give up on our own understanding

And lead into his own understanding

Amen? Let us pray

Dear Heavenly Father, we come to you again, Lord

We thank you for these words

We thank you to know that you are a God of love

And that you are a God of understanding what's best for every single person

Not just a wide span of like, this will help everybody

But you know us individually and what we all need individually, Lord

I thank you for this moment to come back and be with the people that I grew up with

And giving me these words and putting these words on my heart

Not only that it will help other people learn about the things that you've taught me, Lord

I hope that we can leave this church and understand that we give everything to you

And we understand that you will know what's best for us even when it's scary

You know that nothing will harm us and that you won't give us more than we can take, Lord

Amen