How to Face Challenges You Didn't Choose | The Road Up 4

Hey, what up?

It's Mark Carter.

I'm the pastor of Fierce Church.

Welcome to our podcast.

I'm so pumped that you're able to join us today.

I hope this encourages you, inspires you, strengthens you, gives you hope to keep pressing on, and it's my prayer that this sermon gives you a more expansive view of God's love for you.

Enjoy the message.

Hey, what do you do when you get unexpected antagonism?

What do you do when things go from bad to worse and you didn't even see it coming?

You thought this is as bad as it's going to get, and then it gets a little bit worse.

What do you do when you're Clark Griswold and your in-laws are already in town for Christmas and then Cousin Eddie shows up?

What do you do at that point?

Or, to make it a little bit more real, what do you do when you were talking to the boss and it was a sure thing you're going to get the promotion, and time's going by and it's, hey, just a few more days, a few more days, and then somebody else gets it?

Or what do you do when, man, you're working on the deal and you're promising the client it's going to come through, it's going to be six months, and it goes from bad to worse.

What do we do?

Last year we started a series called the Road Out.

It was a series on the first chunk of the book of Exodus and really one of the big ideas was that God himself comes and saves the Israelites, just like God himself comes and saves us.

They didn't do anything right.

He just loved them and delivered them out of bondage.

We didn't do anything right.

It's not because we're good people, it's not because we're extra religious.

It's because God sees us and loves us and sends Jesus Christ to die in our place to be the forgiver of sinners.

How many sinners we got?

Yeah, those who didn't raise your hand.

You're just, you're just wrong.

It's okay.

It's okay.

Maybe it's maybe you're new to it, it's okay.

Maybe you're new to it, it's okay.

Yeah, everybody's a sinner.

Everybody needs Jesus, everybody needs forgiveness.

Somebody needs to cover that penalty.

But we looked at this idea of we're kind of like the Israelites and we're brought out of an Egypt of sorts, and I gotta tell you I was brought out of an Egypt of sorts.

You know, there was a time when I didn't really know Jesus and then, you know, at that point I was pretty self-centered, I was pretty short-sighted.

I was pretty into myself.

I was into the way of the world, the way that's the way it's going to work.

I'm going to buy into all that.

And then Jesus Christ captured my heart and began to show me his heart.

I'm going to put himself in front of me and say this is what you're trying to do, man.

This is who you need to be.

You need your sin forgiven.

You need a new heart, reborn from within.

You don't just need religious classes, you need to be reborn and then you need to do life with me instead of just maybe some religious way for me.

Well, we're going to see today that things go from bad to worse for the Israelites.

I had a little bit of a bad to worse experience this past week or two weeks ago, so months ago.

My pastor friend Gary, called me up and he said hey, are you good at golf?

Now you got to know that when he said that, what I heard was do you know how to play golf?

That's what I heard.

What he meant was hey, randomly, are you an expert at golf?

And you would want to go to a place where lots of experts are playing for long periods of time.

So I didn't really know what I was getting into, but I was like sure I'll go on that pastor's retreat.

That, weirdly, is a lot about golf.

I show up guys, and the first day I'm quickly aware, oh my gosh, these guys are good.

Like.

I know how to play.

I can complete a game.

Okay, I know sometimes what.

You know what pole to use.

These guys were really good.

So the first day, guys, first day, it dawned on me this is bad.

Not only that, I'm with a group like pastors are supposed to be really nice, right.

Well, I'm with a group that was particularly annoyed and didn't mind letting me know that they were particularly annoyed, okay.

In addition, it begins to rain and it's cold.

Man, I'm like doggone.

It's supposed to be almost summer and now it's raining.

My shoes are filling up with water.

It's going from bad to worse, baby.

And then it's seven hours long.

I don't do anything for seven hours, but I'm out in the cold sucking with these guys that are really really good and annoyed with me, and I'm cold and I'm wet and I'm like, wow, I didn't think it could get worse, but it just did.

You know what that's like?

Hopefully not.

You don't know what that's like, but hopefully you know what it's like for things to be a little bit rough.

That's what we're going to talk about today.

With regard to these Israelites, let's review some of the lessons they learned already in this series.

I know we're skipping around a lot.

We did the Connect Class series.

We've done some other stuff.

Now we come back to this.

Part of that is just to keep it fresh for me.

Part of it is because we need to do other series throughout the year.

But now we're back.

I'm super excited about Exodus.

We're doing the second chunk.

The first message we said was if you skip the test, you to teach the Israelites.

He was trying to teach us.

You need to pray for your needs.

There's going to be certain needs.

If you don't pray for them, you're just not going to get them.

And God was teaching the Israelites like he teaches us.

There's certain places in the wilderness, in the places where we're confused and things are weird you can't even really get out of until you start to obey.

That was one of the lessons.

Here's the second lesson from the second message Trial is training to do you good in the end.

Trial seems unexpected to us.

It's training to do you good in the end Trial is that thing that it only makes sense in reverse.

As you're going forward, it doesn't make sense why this is happening.

As you look back on it, you're like, ah, now I see, and God promises I'm going to work this together for you good.

And it's really about developing your character, not forgetting you, everything you want out of life.

But you're going to see and you're going to go off on me, because I did it.

Then we learned complaining keeps me in the wilderness.

Everybody loved this one.

Complaining keeps me in the wilderness.

And we saw how.

This was the last message right before today's.

And the Israelites.

They're at this place called Rephidim and they're out of water and they begin to complain.

And part of the lesson was God's like don't complain about me, don't complain about one another, just don't complain.

You can complain to me, you can tell me how bad it is, but that's about intimate relationship.

That's not blaming me for everything that's wrong in your life.

I want to teach you to worship through difficult stuff.

That was the point of that message.

Well, today we're going to see that adversity that impedes our progress teaches us to pray and push Adversity that impedes our progress.

We're trying to progress somewhere.

It's being impeded by adversity.

That's supposed to teach us to pray and push.

I want to dedicate this weekend's message and next weekend's message to the men.

Next weekend is Father's Day, but this is kind of a two-part message.

Okay, I kind of believe.

I think you know men, nobody does everything right.

Men seem to be in a season where we get blamed for a lot of stuff, and sometimes this is real.

Guys don't even know if it's okay to be masculine.

They don't even know if it's okay to be like, to grunt and to do manly things.

They think if any kind of aggressiveness, any kind of a push or adrenaline, it might be wrong.

So I just want to invite all the men to take a look at scripture, because scripture's got the perfect man.

His name is jesus christ and he's gonna use a lot about what it means to be a man and uh, we don't.

We don't want to uh applaud evil man things, but we want to applaud noble man things.

So that that's what we're going to do.

Every man needs both prayer and push, want to learn from Jesus what he would think would be a man.

Jesus prayed a lot.

Every man needs both prayer and push.

That push means fight, man, you were fashioned for a fight.

You were put together because God knew there would be battle and he wanted you to be ready for it.

These original hearers are going to hear the message that Moses has written down for us and for them.

They're looking back and they're understanding.

Oh, god wants to teach us he's been teaching us this lesson, especially through the first chunk of Exodus that God just sometimes has to come in and save you.

There's nothing you can do.

You're out of luck.

You're out of options.

God himself is going to come.

You're out of luck, you're out of options.

God himself is going to come, and he's going to do it by grace, through faith.

But now there's another lesson.

See, the road out was about getting free.

The road up, which is the series we're in, is about growing up.

It's about we go into the wilderness to mature, to grow up, and for us to grow up.

The lesson they've got to learn, the lesson we've got to learn, is, while there, of stuff that he does through participation.

He wants us to participate in order to get where we're going.

He'll give us power, he'll give us wisdom, but he wants participation.

The adversity that impedes our progress teaches us to pray and to push.

Let's start 17.8.

While the people of Israel were still at Rephidim this is the place they were complaining and didn't have any water the warriors of Amalek attacked them.

These Amalek people, these are the descendants of Esau and the text isn't super clear why they attacked them, but it might be because they were just in the land and they were afraid what these guys were going to do.

Deuteronomy 25, 17 gives us a little bit more insight.

Reflecting back on that moment, never forget what the Amalekites did to you as you came out of Egypt.

They attacked you when you were exhausted and weary and they struck down those who were staggering behind.

They had no fear of God, so they didn't fear what God had done to the Egyptians on behalf of his people.

They're like who's that guy?

We don't care.

But they're also kind of like they're not noble warriors because they're just attacking the stragglers.

They're not even like facing these people.

They're just attacking the stragglers.

They're not even like facing these people.

There's like let's just start taking them out from behind.

And God says that wasn't fear of me.

And it's a lot like, sometimes, tests that we have we're going through and things are not great and then suddenly another tidal wave comes in.

It's like God, how can you expect me to deal with this?

This is already bad.

Moses commanded Joshua choose some men to go out and fight the army of Amalek.

For us, tomorrow, I will stand on top of the hill holding the staff of God in my hand.

So Joshua did what Moses commanded and fought the army of Amalek.

Meanwhile, Moses, aaron and Hur climbed to the top of a nearby hill.

As long as Moses held up the staff in his hand, the Israelites had the advantage.

But whenever he dropped his hand, the Amalekites gained the advantage.

Moses' arms soon became so tired he could no longer hold them.

So Aaron and Hur found a stone for him to sit on.

They stood on each side of Moses holding his hands.

So his hands held steady until sunset.

Somebody say reinforcements, reinforcements.

As a result, joshua overwhelmed the army of Amalek in battle.

After the victory, the Lord instructed Moses write this down on a scroll as a permanent reminder and read it aloud to Joshua.

I will erase the memory of Amalek from under heaven.

It's interesting that he keeps pointing out Joshua See, joshua's going to be the next leader of Israel, but nobody knows that yet except God.

It's interesting that he keeps pointing out Joshua.

See, joshua's going to be the next leader of Israel, but nobody knows that yet, except God.

He's pointing about he's giving him responsibilities, making him a general.

He's saying, hey, you're going to want to write some things down to remind him of the way God is powerful, of the way the same God I was to your fathers I'll be to you and my friend.

That's true.

If you do the same stuff in this generation that he's done in every generation, he's the same God yesterday, today and forever.

He'll be just as powerful for a generation that will believe him.

Well, it's true.

At the same time, these guys are getting tested.

And see, jesus himself said in this life, in this world, you will have much trouble, but take heart, I've overcome the world, but you will have much trouble.

God says, hey, it's not that you're not gonna have hard stuff, it's that I'm gonna be the same God I was to your fathers.

I'm gonna be that God to you.

I'm gonna be as you participate with me.

I'm going to help you win a lot of battles that you would have been smoked from otherwise.

Verse 15,.

Moses built an altar there and named it Yahweh.

Nisi, which means the Lord, is my banner, which means the Lord helps me win.

We're going to come back to that at the end.

He said they've raised their fist against the Lord's throne.

So now the Lord will be at war with Am, generation after generation.

How to face challenges?

You didn't choose Number one pray with reliance on God.

Did you get a challenge?

You didn't choose.

I want to pray with reliance on God.

The first message in the series was about prayer for needs met.

Now we're talking about if you're going to grow up and grow up into maturity.

Yeah, you got to pray for a lot of stuff.

You got to pray to get your needs met and you got to pray just to oh my gosh respond to adversity.

Suddenly, this thing came up from behind you.

You didn't see it coming.

What do I do, god?

Well, pray, turn around and pray.

Pray with reliance on God.

Okay, so this staff of God?

It's true, moses wasn't praying.

Moses was doing something else.

He was holding up the staff of God.

This is the staff.

I don't know if you remember this is the staff that he had when he first went out and met the Lord at the burning bush.

It was kind of nothing, it was not a big deal, it was not anything powerful.

And God said look at that staff.

I'm going to use that thing to show Pharaoh my wonders.

It's going to be that thing that you raise up and the Nile turns to blood.

It's going to be that thing that you raise up and the ground is covered with gnats and frogs and all sorts of other stuff.

It's going to be that rod that you raise up and the Red Sea splits.

That is my trigger mechanism, moses.

As you raise that thing up, I'm going to direct my power right through it.

I'm going to pull off what the day needs to be pulled off.

Well, we don't have a staff, but we got something better.

We get the Holy Spirit of Jesus inside of us and we're triggered to use the power of God through prayer.

That's where we get our power.

Prayer can do anything.

God can do.

You think about Elijah.

He shut up the heavens for three and a half years and then the heavens poured down rain again, because he prayed both times.

Think about Jesus.

Even Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead after prayer.

He prayed and raised Lazarus from the dead.

Guys, prayer is the secret ingredient.

In the New Testament, we're severely warned about prayer.

Okay, the church, the young church is not praying for one of their leaders, james, he gets taken prisoner and his head's cut off.

Peter's also a prisoner and they're like, oh, maybe we better pray.

So they start praying and Peter gets out because they learned hey, dude, if you don't pray, there's going to be some stuff, some Amalekite's going to sneak up behind you and they're going to get you.

Now, god will still be with you, but there's just some trial.

Maybe you don't need to go through or you can get out of quickly.

Maybe you do need to go through it.

But you takes his stand.

He says Joshua, you've got a role to play out there and I've got a role to play over here.

And my role is I'm going to manage the power of God.

I'm going to put the power of God on stuff.

We talked a little bit about this before.

When God first created man and woman, he made them to be managers of his power.

They're supposed to take care of stuff and they would walk around and they would put God's power on anything on earth and God would bless it.

It was like a miracle girl.

For anything that they touched, they were the managers of his power.

We're the managers of his power still.

We're still that.

We just don't know it.

And we manage his power by putting prayer on everything.

Let me give you an example.

When I was a young man probably 13 or 12 or something like that my dad took me out in the garage and he showed me how to wash the car.

It's his car, it wasn't my car, but he still wanted me to know ahead of time.

And so we got out his suds and he gave me a little sponge towel thing and I would get down on my knees and I would wipe the sides of the car back and forth.

I get suds all over it.

Man, get it real clean.

And my father was right there.

He would coach me.

He would say well, that's close, but do it this way, so you make sure that you get it right.

You get it clean.

Guys, prayer is the suds.

Our father is saying I want you to clean things on earth with prayer.

I want you to put my will on those things.

And what's awesome about God is he'll stick with you.

He doesn't just go back in the house.

God says I'm going to kneel down next to you and, as you're intimate with me, I'll teach you where your prayers are maybe misguided, where they're wrong, where you need to pray more about that particular thing, I'll be your personal mentor.

So if you say, well, carter, I don't know, I mean it wouldn't hurt.

But what's awesome about Jesus is you don't need to, because Jesus will be your personal mentor in prayer.

We all need to go to the school of prayer and because he's a personal God, he'll get with you and he'll cater his instructions to you.

So if you can only pray five minutes a day, he's probably.

Your next step is probably not three hours.

Jesus knows where you are.

He says hey, let me just show you how to pray.

Talk to me instead of at me.

Talk to me and slowly, as you listen and as you're quiet, I'll teach you where I want you to put my power.

And that's where we're in the subtleties and the ebbs and flows of interaction with the Holy Spirit.

He'll teach us himself.

He'll take us to school, and one of the reasons he needs to take us to school is because everyone in our lives is fighting a battle.

Everybody's in a battle, just like those Israelites are.

Everybody's getting a sneak attack, everybody's getting wounded, everyone's getting beaten down, and everybody knows what it's like to be in a battle that's not finished.

See, the battle wasn't finished.

Moses had to go up, had to raise up the staff.

His friends had to come reinforce, hold up his arms, because the battle wasn't over.

Just like that Took all day, and sometimes the battle for us, gosh geez.

I'm still in this and you know what I need.

I need reinforcements.

I need God to send reinforcements.

That's why we call in friends.

You know, that's really another plug for stuff like going to the grove, coming to church at all, Because, baby, you need friends.

For when you need reinforcements, you say I don't need reinforcements, oh, you don't need them now, but it won't be long.

They come in handy, baby.

So we send reinforcements.

And let's just talk about the men for a second.

You can pray for men.

You can pray for your brothers, you can pray for your fathers, you can pray for your sons.

You can pray this for all the ladies as well.

But I'm talking to men specifically.

So you can pray for them.

God, give them strength against lust, reinforced God.

Give them strength, strengthen their heart to not take shame for the mistake that they made earlier in the week.

Reinforce them, God.

God, I see the way that they could be more loving to their spouse.

Reinforce them, God.

I'm sudsing their life over there.

Give them power, clean that thing off, make it more like Jesus would want it to be.

I'm gonna reinforce them, God.

They're scared because they made a mistake in the past.

They failed and now they're afraid to step out.

They're afraid to trust you again.

But, god, you could fix it if I get some suds on them, if I come and reinforce them.

They could do it.

If they just had reinforcement Just a little bit longer, just a little more power, and they could do it.

God, I'm asking you.

I'm asking you maybe more importantly, most importantly for men, god, I'm praying that their heart wouldn't give up.

See, men can fake a lot of stuff when their heart has already given up.

And what we need to pray for each other, our fathers and mothers and brothers and sons, more than anything, is God.

No matter what happens, no matter what they did, no matter what they got wrong, strengthen their heart to not give up, because they were fashioned for a fight.

They were born to push and fight.

God, help them, because if they give up on themselves, man who knows what's going to happen?

God strengthened their character.

I send reinforcements through prayer.

God strengthened their patience.

They're getting impatient, lord.

They're in danger of compromising.

I can see it coming, but I'm not going to let it come.

I'm going to get some suds on that thing.

I'm going to reinforce that thing, I'm going to take some responsibility for the battle that's going on waging in front of me.

You know, I found, when we think about prayer, see, sometimes somebody asks you, hey, what can I pray for you about?

And you almost, like you, freak out a little bit, you get paralyzed.

You're like, geez, I don't know what this might be.

This sounds really important.

And you're trying to think do I have a wishlist of things I want God to do?

For sure, you can bring God a wishlist, that's fine.

But can I give you a different little?

Ask the question okay, where do I need reinforced?

What snuck up on me lately?

What is trying to take me out?

Where am I fighting that maybe nobody knows about?

Reinforce that, how about that?

Send me some reinforcements in that area so I don't have to stay in that trial all doggone day.

And I found that when we get the ministry, when we get it in our heads that we have the ministry for one another, of reinforcing the power of God in one another's lives.

It's really hard to judge folks after that, because when you see them making a mistake you say you might've said I can't believe.

There they go again making that mistake.

Or you can say, oh, doggone, I have not reinforced that yet.

Maybe this is on me, maybe they could be doing better.

But I'm not praying, I'm not helping my father, sons, brothers, mothers, sisters.

That doesn't mean everything's on you, but it does mean we're still our brother's keeper, we still have a responsibility toward one another and we have access to the power.

So why don't we just suds it on some things?

Come on somebody.

The adversity that impedes our progress teaches us to pray and to push.

Here's number two Fight like God is helping you win.

Fight, fight, fight like God is helping you win.

You see what he said.

Moses commanded Joshua choose some men to go out and fight.

Fighting is an interesting thing because before we really come to know Jesus Christ relationally, before we become a Christian, before we give our hearts to him and invite him to forgive us and fill us and begin to live through us, the Bible teaches that we're actually in a fight with God.

We're already in a fight.

The fight is with God.

He's against our sin and he's for us and he's trying to get us to forsake it and turn to him and be forgiven.

That's what's trying, but we're still in a fight with him.

Once we trust Jesus.

Now the fight turns, and now it's us and Jesus against sin, difficulty, hardship.

It's a fight that now is empowered by the Holy Spirit.

Now God is helping us fight and we need his help to keep fighting.

Is helping us fight and we need his help to keep fighting.

What we really need is both of them together.

We need prayer-fueled action.

We don't just act and we don't just pray.

And some of us are good at one or the other.

There's some who are like honey, I got time to pray, I got to get out there and do the thing, come on, somebody, let's go.

And there's others like well, you know, hey, let's be careful, let's just pray a little bit longer.

And we need both.

We need the actions to be filled up with the fuel of prayer.

That's how it's going to work.

That's how we're going to get the victory.

It's prayer and action together.

I looked at some places in the New Testament where we're commanded to fight.

You want to hear what they are?

Here's one.

1 Corinthians 6.12 says we're to fight the fight of faith.

We're to fight for it.

That means if something traumatic happens to us, maybe we get really discouraged, maybe something happened that we just never expected to happen and we're kind of wounded and we're carrying that around and we've got some shrapnel in us and, man, it's just hard to even keep going and part of us begins to wonder gosh, should I even do this at all?

Is this what I get for following God?

And it's that moment we need to fight the fight of faith.

We say no, I'm going to step back into Jesus.

I'm going to believe when everything tells me not to believe.

And I'm going to get his help to get this shrapnel out and not just live with it in.

I'm going to forgive, I'm going to overcome, I'm going to press on and press in.

I'm going to fight the fight of faith.

I'm not just going to give up.

I know they let you down.

Well, he didn't let you down really ever.

So let's fight the fight of faith.

1 Corinthians 9.25 says we fight for self-control.

Got to fight for it.

Our world right now says don't fight any kind of like freedom, just give yourself to anything, every impulse you've got.

Jesus says I've given you a spirit of self-control so that you stay out of danger.

There are things that if you just on a whim wander into dude, you can do that in 10 minutes.

It can take 10 years to get over that thing.

So, careful, let's fight for self-control and that might even be something as simple.

As you know, you begin to notice at work.

You know, if I just if I was a little unethical in this area, I could make more money on this.

There's a way for me to leverage this.

For me it's a little bit unethical, but who's going to know?

Who's going to care?

No, fight for self-control in that moment.

And self-control really is spirit control, asking the Holy Spirit to fill us.

2 Timothy 4, 7,.

Fight to finish the course.

Fight to finish the course.

There's a lot of courses.

There's the course of.

You know, maybe you're a student and you're about to finish your course in school.

You're about to graduate.

Well, finish well, don't just finish.

Finish strong in Jesus.

Do it that way.

Maybe you're about to finish a job.

You know you're about to.

You know you're going to move soon and there's an opportunity to just relax.

Or you can finish.

Well, you can do this thing, baby.

Maybe you're on the last stage of parenting with a certain kid and we want to say, man, I want to, you know, get them on.

I want to finish well what I started.

I want to pay attention.

And then, of course, life.

Maybe some of us are getting closer than we think.

Others of us can see it coming Wherever we are.

Hey, listen, you've come all this way, you've come so far.

It's just a little bit longer, faithful by the power of Jesus, a little bit longer.

Hang on, fulfill the calling, fulfill, finish the course, end well.

Luke 13, 24 says fight to go the narrow way.

Fight to go the narrow way, baby.

The path is wide that leads to destruction.

Fight to go the narrow way.

I mean there's all kinds of hell that breaks loose when we just go any which way.

Fight to go the narrow way.

I mean there's all kinds of hell that breaks loose when we just go any which way.

Fight to go the narrow way.

Maybe you're gaining influence on social media and you know I can do certain things that will trigger likes that God might not approve of, but I know more people will like it.

I get monetized, I start to make more money, I become more and more like it.

I get monetized, I start to make more money.

I become more and more of an influencer.

That's a good thing.

Now, instead of that, choose the narrow road and say I'm going to do things God's way and God gets to raise me up if he wants to, because that'll be the best doggone will for my life.

How about helping others grow?

We fight to help others grow, according to Colossians 4.12.

That means I see an opportunity where somebody would benefit from my influence and I could just say well, you know, god will send somebody else.

Or I can fight and say no, I'm here, I'm fashioned for a fight, I'm here to help.

I'm here to make sure somebody else knows Jesus, either the way somebody helped me or the way somebody didn't help me, but I wish they would have.

We step in and help and once we've done all that pray, fight, we raise up the staff, which was not just a tool of power.

It was a representation.

It was a banner.

Moses built an altar there and named it Yahweh Nisi, which means the Lord is my banner.

Now, in Moses' day, we think of cloth banners.

That really wasn't what they meant.

Necessarily, you could lift up anything and say I'm fighting in the name of this thing or this God.

If I held up Thor's hammer, I'd be like we're going to win in the name of Thor.

You know I'm waving the banner of Thor.

You're not going to win in the name of Thor, by the way, but if I did, that would be me raising the banner saying because of Thor's power, of his hammer, that's how we're going to win.

Moses raises up this altar and says God did it.

God did it.

We don't take the credit for it, god did it.

Sometimes we need to do that for ourselves because we forget that God did it.

I've got this one particular note that I put in various places in my Bible.

So as the year goes by, I'll hit this like four times, and it's just a list of the major trials that I've been through in the last 20 years and how God delivered me from each and every one.

And they were the kind of trials that's like, oh, this will probably be time.

Those things stack up and then you read those and you're praising God to yourself.

Remember what God did.

Remember this altar.

Remember what God did over here.

Are you psycho?

You think he's not going to come through again?

You don't think he's the same God.

And then we build an altar for everybody else and we hold up the banner and we say, by the way, if someone's given you props, someone's given you compliments, you know you kept going, I think that's really awesome.

Or I can't believe you get to do that, or isn't that awesome your marriage looks so great.

When they do that, you say I appreciate that, but can I just tell you I would have been lost if it wasn't for God, like God did that.

So just so you know, I don't want all the credit because, jesus, if the Lord had not been on my side, we would have completely been in despair and destroyed.

But the Lord was on my side.

And, guys, you don't have to be a kook, but I really think it's time, it's the day and age where it quits censoring that thing.

Man, if someone points out something that's going good, say hey, man, I'm not trying to be weird to you, I'm just telling for me, that's God, for me, god did that.

That's the God I know and I'm super pumped about him.

Give him the praise that he deserves.

The adversity that impedes our progress teaches us to pray and to push.

Next week we're going to dive into the wisdom that everybody needs to share and the wisdom that everybody needs to hear, especially men on Father's Day, but also all the ladies.

So we've got some choices here, guys.

We can face unexpected difficulty, with anxiety, with exhaustion, or we can step in with faith-filled prayer and prayer-fueled action and see what God won't do.

Remember he didn't say there wouldn't be challenges.

He says I will be who I've been to your fathers and your mothers.

I'll be that God to you.

So let's make the decision today.

I think some of us need to invite Jesus into the prayer time.

Maybe you've been kind of praying at Jesus.

It's not that he doesn't appreciate that, but that's a level before you get to intimacy with Jesus.

Jesus, teach me to pray, teach me to rub on those suds.

Teach me who you want me to reinforce and how.

Make it relational, not just some kind of rote experience that I do, and give me power in this fight.

Show me the battles to fight.

Show me the things that you want to conquer now.

You want me to remember that you want to conquer now.

You want me to remember that I'm a new man, I'm a new woman.

We can do this.

I invite you in Lord and then, when he does it, lift the banner high and say you know who it was.

It was Jesus.

Jesus did it for me and Jesus will do it for you.

Let's pray.

Hey, it sounds good.

Jesus man, we so want to be people.

We don't want to just be people that are doing stuff we don't want to do.

We want you to teach us how to pray and how to love it.

We want you to teach us how to grow closer to you when the adversity comes, so that we come out the other side with character, with greater intimacy with you and also delivered from the thing.

I want to invite you into every one of our current battles right now.

Jesus, we cannot win without you.

Would you come and be the God to us you've been to others throughout the centuries?

Show your power on behalf of Jesus, your son and God.

Teach us Some of us, our tongues aren't loose enough.

Open up our mouths and give us a spirit of celebration for all that Jesus does in our lives.

In Christ's name, amen.

Hey, thank you so much for joining us today.

If you don't have a home church and you're looking for a Bible preaching, community name, amen.

Don't forget to check out the Fierce Leadership Podcast, available wherever you get your podcasts from.

Special thanks to those of you who give generously to support this ministry.

It's because of you that this is possible.

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Whatever challenges you're facing, I know you can make it.

Don't give up.

Hang on to Jesus.

He won't let go of you.

Jesus loves you so much and we love you.

I hope someday we get to meet in person.

Thanks again for listening.