When I Feel Stuck Part 2

For the last several weeks, we have been in a series called When I Feel.

When I feel.

And what we've been talking about are these sort of deep-seated feelings and emotions that sometimes we can't shake.

And they often fight against our ability to experience the joy and the fulfillment that God wants us to have in life.

We're often fighting negative feelings.

And some of those feelings, the answer is just ignore them.

Just ignore them.

Get over it.

Move on.

So what?

You're offended or annoyed or upset.

Just that's life, just let it go.

Some emotions aren't like that.

Some emotions are just deeper.

They're more deeply rooted in our hearts.

And if we don't deal with them, they will deal with us.

And in Genesis chapter 4, there's this interesting exchange that God has with a man named Cain.

Genesis 4 · chapter mention

And Cain is fighting through some of these deep emotions, and they're wrecking him.

I mean, it's jealousy, it's insecurity.

And God can see that it's manifesting in some really unhealthy ways.

And so God says this in Genesis chapter 4, verse 7 to Cain, he says, watch out.

Genesis 4:7

Sin is crouching at the door, eager to control you, but you must subdue it and be its master.

Sin sometimes is characterized and sort of personified in Scripture.

There's the idea that sin, which just means to miss the mark, it's something that we do, we all make mistakes, we all have issues, big deal.

But then there's this sort of active force that the Bible will describe, that sin is, it's like it's something external trying to control us.

Trying to master us.

And very often it's its vehicle for that is these deep emotions and feelings that we just can't shake.

Now, unfortunately for Cain, he doesn't end up taking God's warning seriously, or at the very least, he's unsuccessful in trying.

And so there's tragedy that ensues.

But it's this example of how there are certain things in life that either we deal with them or they deal with us.

And I'm not saying this to make you afraid or paint a grim picture, because when Jesus is involved, we never have a grim picture.

2 Peter chapter 1 puts it so simply: By his divine power, God has given us everything we need to live a godly life.

2 Peter 1 · chapter mention

Some of us grew up in very religious environments, and what we learned in that religious environment is that we've got to muster the strength to do the right thing.

That we've got to find some strength within ourselves, some discipline within us to give us the ability to conquer all the temptations and stay on the right path.

But that is not what this says.

It says by his divine power, by the very power of God at work within us, God has given us everything we need to live a godly life.

When you have a relationship with Jesus, you have the Holy Spirit in your life.

You don't always feel it, you're not always aware of it, but God's actual presence lives within you, and you are perfectly equipped to overcome anything that tries to overcome you.

We just have to learn how to do that.

We have to learn how to recognize what needs to be recognized.

We have to learn how to lean into those movements that God's Spirit is doing inside of us, where it's directing us, where it's telling us to go, what it's reminding us.

And so over the course of these last few weeks, we've looked at some of these deep emotions.

We've talked about what we do when we feel empty.

We've talked about what we do when we feel afraid.

Last week we talked about when we feel stuck.

When we feel stuck.

One of the things I've learned in life from my own experience and interacting with a lot of people for a lot of years is that everyone at some point in time gets stuck.

And when you're stuck, maybe the passion and the energy that you used to have in a certain area of your life sort of dissipates.

And what used to bring you so much joy and excitement, it's just not there anymore.

And you get to this place sometimes when you're stuck for a while where you just don't feel anything.

You're sort of numb.

You just don't feel anything.

And life can become really sad when you're just going through the motions and you're kind of pretending to be happy, but you're not.

And you're trying to find some passion that used to be there but it's not anymore.

What do you do when you're stuck?

When people get stuck, very often they're tempted between one of two choices that can be disastrous.

Not always, but very often.

One is to quit.

When that passion goes away and you're stuck and you don't have any of that anymore, you can quit.

And I'm not saying there aren't times where quitting is necessary.

Sometimes you have to quit the job.

Sometimes you might be in a relationship that isn't, it's not good.

And you gotta quit that.

But know this: if you quit every single time the passion fades in life, you will quit everything.

If every time the passion dissipates, if every time you feel stuck, you quit.

You will end up quitting everything in your life.

Because the passion always fades at some point, at least for a season.

Or if you don't quit, when you're stuck, you're tempted to do something drastic.

You know, because you panic a little bit when you don't feel anything.

And so you're like, uh something drastic has to happen.

I'm not gonna quit, I'm just gonna, I'm gonna do something big, something intense.

You try to sort of make something happen by doing something really extreme, and look, sometimes there's a place for that.

But very often, when we do something drastic, make some crazy change in our life, just because we're not feeling it, we look back and go, that was a mistake.

That was a mistake.

What do we do when we feel stuck?

Now, last week we started this conversation by simply saying, go to God, ask him for help.

I have a child who gets stuck at home a lot.

He climbs things, he gets stuck in trees all over the place.

And very often we hear him say, Help, I'm stuck.

And sometimes we need to be like that with God.

We just need to go to God, our Father, and say, Hey, God, I'm stuck.

Can you help?

We've got to remember that God likes to help us.

Psalm 46.1 says that God is our refuge and strength.

He is always ready to help in times of trouble.

God, some translations say, is an ever-present help.

So it's important that we started there last week because sometimes we can skip that step.

Sometimes when we're stuck and we're not feeling it, we can skip the whole go-to-Go thing.

We try to do it our own way.

Very often that doesn't work.

So it's important if you're stuck today, and whatever you're stuck in, have you gone to God and have you said, Help, I'm stuck?

That's where we start.

But I want to pick up where we left off last week and answer another question.

What do we do when we're waiting for God to do something?

Because many of us find ourselves in this situation where we're like, yeah, yeah, I've done that.

I've gone to God, I've said, God help, I'm stuck, and here I am.

And maybe you prayed that a week ago, still stuck.

Maybe you prayed that five years ago, and you're still stuck.

What do we do while we're waiting on God to do something?

Do we just sit around and do nothing?

Stay miserable?

Or is there something we can do to sort of partner with God in getting us unstuck?

I don't know if you've ever had the experience where your car gets stuck and like the tire for whatever reason is spinning.

Maybe it's in mud or something like that.

And if you haven't had this experience, you may have seen it on TV or in a movie.

Has anyone actually been in that experience where your car is stuck, tires spinning, can't get out?

Right.

So this actually happened to Megan and I about a year ago.

We went to a wedding, and it was one of those weddings that you don't really want to go to.

You know what I'm talking about?

Like, where you can make a case why not being there would be fine.

Because you're not super close to the people getting married.

And if you're not there, like I don't even think they'll notice.

But you're close enough to them or their family that someone's gonna notice.

And you feel guilty as a human being and a Jesus follower, at least for me, because you're like, I should be so excited for them, but I'm just not.

Because it's, I don't want, I don't want to go to their wedding.

But we're going, and we bought them a gift, and we'll never see them again after they get married.

That's the way it goes sometimes, right?

We've all been to, have we all been to those weddings like anybody else?

Yes, okay, you know what, you don't have to feel guilty, but it's it's just how it is.

And so we're at one of those weddings.

I didn't want to be there.

I didn't want to wear a suit, I didn't want to do it.

And and a lot of people were there, so when we parked, we had to park in this makeshift parking space that was in grass and it was on a hill.

And I looked at Megan at a certain point, and it was when like the dancing began.

I didn't want to dance.

And she didn't want to dance either, so just no.

And I was like, that's this is this is our chance.

It's our chance to slip away unsuspected.

You know, let's go.

Come on, we've done our duty.

And so we decided to leave.

And uh, and unfortunately, just because of where our car was parked in the grass, it was kind of wet, that started to happen.

You know, we get in, we back up, tires spinning, nothing.

And so what do we do?

Well, like I get out of the car.

You know, it's a great spectacle for everyone at the wedding to see.

Like I'm trying to leave, not being noticed at this wedding, I don't want to be at in the first place.

And now I'm outside my car, my minivan, right, trying to push it while Megan hits the gas, and we're trying to coordinate, and I'm like, give it some gas, and she's pushing it, and eventually we got it.

Eventually we got it out.

You know, I've got mud all over my suit.

It's great.

I didn't want to be there in the first place.

This is fine, this is wonderful.

And then, like, five minutes later, I realized that when I parked, because it was on a hill, I'd put my emergency brake on, and I just never disengaged that, so didn't even need to do that in the first place, but you know, the mental picture still works.

I'm grateful that it happened because sometimes that's where we find ourselves.

We're stuck.

And there might be moments where you're stuck and God is pushing, but he still needs you to hit the gas a little bit.

Like it's a team effort.

And the only way to get you unstuck, and look, maybe you're stuck because you did put the emergency brake on and forgot it was there.

Like sometimes it's our fault that we're stuck, but whatever.

To get you unstuck, it's gonna be a combination of God doing something, God pushing, but also you responding in some way.

So let's talk this morning about how we can partner with God when we're stuck.

To move forward in life in a way that's healthy and constructive, in a way that's good.

I want to give you three words.

Three words, and this is a little cheesy because they all start with the same letter.

My brain thinks like this.

I do this from time to time.

A few weeks ago we talked about when we're empty, how we have to deal with leaks, lids, and lesser things.

This is just something I do.

I'm working on it, okay?

So bear with me, because I want to talk about three simple words.

Prepare, patience, and plow.

Prepare, patience, and plow.

I don't know if you're someone who typically prepares well for things.

I am not.

I don't think anyone's ever described me as someone who's incredibly well prepared.

I'm usually prepared enough.

But but one of the interesting things in scripture is that God prepares for things.

God prepares.

Classic example, Ephesians chapter 2, verse 10.

Ephesians 2:10

It says that we are God's handiwork, some translations say masterpiece, created in Christ Jesus to do good works which God prepared in advance for us to do.

That God planned in advance for us.

If I was God, I wouldn't plan anything.

I wouldn't prepare anything if I was God.

I have all the power, all the knowledge.

I would just roll with it all day long, every single day, just knowing that I'll just figure it out, I'll make it up on the spot, and I'm God, it's gonna be great.

But God prepares in advance.

And he prepares things for us.

That's an incredible thing to think about.

Just in and of itself.

If that's all you left with today was the knowledge that God has prepared something for you, that's powerful.

God prepares.

Jesus, you look at his life, it's a constant life of preparation.

Luke chapter 2, verse 52 tells us that from the time Jesus was 12 until he was 30.

Luke 2:52

30 is when he started his public ministry.

It says this that Jesus grew in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and all the people.

For all that time, those 18 years, Jesus, he's preparing.

He's preparing, he's maturing, he's growing, he's getting ready for what God is going to have him do, so that when the moment comes, when it's time for him to do what he's been put on the earth to do, he's ready to do it.

There's a story in Luke chapter 19.

Luke 19 · chapter mention

It's toward the end of his time on the earth, Jesus says to his disciples, Go to that village over there, and as you enter it, you'll see a young donkey tied there that no one has ever ridden.

Untie it and bring it here.

If anyone asks, Why are you untying that colt?

Just say, The Lord needs it.

So they went and they found the colt, just as Jesus had said, and sure enough, as they were untying it, the owners asked them, Why are you untying that colt?

And the disciples simply replied, The Lord needs it.

So they brought the colt to Jesus and they threw their garments over it for him to ride.

Now, I've joked before that I used to read this, like, this weird Jedi moment, where they just sort of say, like, the Lord needs it.

And the people go, The Lord needs it.

Like, that's how I always read that.

This must be some miracle.

But more than likely, here's what's actually happened.

This this donkey is owned by someone that Jesus knows, and he's told these people in advance, hey, there's gonna be a day I'm gonna need that donkey.

And so when that day comes, I'm gonna send my disciples to you, and they're gonna tell you the Lord needs it.

And these people have been setting this donkey aside for who knows how long.

And when they see someone coming to take it, they're like, whoa, what are you doing?

The Lord needs it.

Oh, okay, this is what Jesus told us to do.

It's something that Jesus prepared in advance.

When Jesus dies and he's resurrected, what does he do after that?

What is he doing right now?

Well, Jesus gave us a hint about that.

When he was eating with his disciples at the Last Supper in John chapter 14, he says this don't let your hearts be troubled, trust in God and trust also in me.

John 14 · chapter mention

There is more than enough room in my father's home.

If this were not so, would I have told you that I'm going to prepare a place for you?

When everything is ready, I will come and get you so that you will always be with me where I am, and you know the way where I am going.

What does that mean, like theologically?

Honestly, I don't know.

It's kind of vague.

But the idea that right now Jesus Himself is preparing a place for us.

That's incredible.

So God the Father prepares.

He prepares things for us in our lives, and Jesus spent his life in preparation.

And sometimes when we're stuck, what we have to realize is that we're stuck.

And while we're stuck, we have this opportunity for some preparation to take place in our lives.

That while we're in this place that we're in, that God wants to use the situation that you're in right now, you feel stuck.

I know, like, for example, high school students, you're with us this morning.

Love you guys.

Glad that you guys are with us today.

Some of you guys definitely feel stuck at home right now.

Like you're like, I love my parents, but I've been here for a while and I'm ready to leave.

Right?

I'm sure that's actually none of our students, but you know, you can see where a high school student might think that.

Um wherever we're at, wherever we feel stuck in, there's something for us to learn in that place.

You read the stories of scripture, you find person after person who finds themselves in a place they don't want to be for a lot longer than they'd like to be there.

And while they might want to get out fast and move on very often, God uses that exact situation to teach them things that they need to know so that they're ready for what God has prepared for them.

So if you feel stuck right now, ask the question, Lord, what do you want me to learn while I'm here?

What do you need me to understand while I'm here?

Teach me, prepare my heart.

I can't answer that question for you, but that's a question for you to ask God.

God, what do I need to learn?

How can I prepare for what's next while I'm stuck right here?

Ask that question.

See what God says to you.

When we're stuck, we we use it as an opportunity to prepare.

But if we're gonna prepare, we've got to make sure we do it with patience.

Patience is a virtue.

You've heard that.

If you have it, now you have.

It's an old saying, patience is a virtue.

Is anyone like good at patience?

Like naturally, isn't it?

I mean, like, I want to know because I've never met someone.

Is anyone be like, I am naturally incredibly patient?

Nobody?

There's gotta be one person.

Just raise your hand.

No, no, hey, you, it's okay.

You raised your hand, a couple people were yes.

Great job.

We need, we need to talk.

I need to learn from you because I don't, I've never been a patient person.

Patience is it's so tough.

Like, can you imagine how hard it must have been for Jesus those 18 years to be the Son of God?

And to like, I mean, just think about Jesus sitting in church.

Like he went to the synagogues and he listened to people teach the wrong thing.

And he just sat there.

And like he knew.

Nope.

Mm-hmm.

Not even close.

Like way off.

And he just sat there for years.

That had to be hard.

I mean, one of the crazy things about Jesus' life is to understand that very likely, sometime between he was 12 and 30, his father on this earth, Joseph, passed away.

Because we don't see Joseph anymore after Jesus starts his ministry, and Joseph is clearly a good man, very involved in his family's life when Jesus is born and up to when Jesus is 12.

And that means that Jesus, who had the power to raise people from the dead, watched his earthly father die, and didn't use his power to raise his father from the dead, saving his family so much pain, so much anguish, because it wasn't the right time.

That had to be hard.

Patience is so, it's so powerful, it's so important, and it's so rare in our culture.

Because everything that we have, we have access to right away.

But in life, if you want fulfillment, like if you want real fulfillment in life, you're gonna have to be patient.

Think about it like this.

Think about it like cooking.

I do more cooking than I used to do.

I'll be at home with the kids, and and you know, Megan works here, and sometimes she's doing stuff late at night, and vice versa.

So we do a lot of trading off right now, that's the stage of life we're in.

And sometimes I find myself in the position as the one who has to cook without the skills.

I did not prepare, like I should have, to be in this place.

And I've learned that when you're cooking something, you always have a couple choices.

You look at the back of the box or the instructions of whatever you're about to cook, and there's always a fast option that involves your microwave.

But then there's always a slower option that takes time.

But let's be honest, like, it never tastes better after you microwave it.

That's just that someone clap for that.

Okay, that's the first applause we got was microwaves.

Okay, cool.

Um but seriously, like it never tastes better in the microwave.

Like every time I microwave it, I'm disappointed.

It's hot, but it's always like mushy, and the flavor's gone, and I always find myself going, I wish I would have just waited and put it in the oven and let it like let it really cook.

Fulfillment is not something you microwave.

Fulfillment is a slow-cooked meal.

It takes so much time to be in a place where you can just appreciate what's happening in your life.

That's why Proverbs tells us that an inheritance obtained too early in life is not a blessing in the end.

Sometimes we want things fast, we want it now.

But God takes his time.

God did not invent the microwave.

He did not.

We did that.

Romans chapter 8 says that if we look forward to something we don't yet have, we must wait patiently and confidently.

Romans 8 · chapter mention

That word confidence is interesting because in scripture the idea of hope is very different than our idea of hope.

It's not like, gee, I hope this happens, but it probably won't.

It's I know this will happen, I have hope, I have confidence.

But it's amazing how often confidence in God and patience go hand in hand.

In fact, in the Hebrew language, the word for hope and the word for wait are interchangeable.

In some of your translations, you might read someone say, I my hope is in the Lord, and other translations will say, I'm waiting on the Lord.

To truly have hope in God showing up and doing something very often means waiting and waiting a while.

So You look at stories in the Old Testament.

There's the story of Jacob, for example.

He's the grandson of Abraham, the father of the Jewish people.

And Jacob meets this girl, and he loves her.

It's like, it is like a love at first sight.

He's like, That one, I want to marry that one.

And he talks to the father-in-law, because in those days in that culture, you gotta go through the dad.

It's not even like a formality, it's like a necessity.

And he ends up working at a deal with this woman's father that he'll work for seven years.

Seven years.

And then he can marry his daughter.

And so he does that, seven years.

But then the father-in-law tricks him, and it's a crazy story.

You should read it.

And he ends up having to work another seven years.

Fourteen years for a girl.

Like that's a lot.

That's that's a lot.

But you know what?

Maybe that relationship is the thing that you feel like is missing in your life, and you've been waiting for a long time.

Hey, fulfillment is a slow-cooked meal.

That was the love of his life, and he waited 14 years and he loved her so much.

He had a son named Joseph, and Joseph is an incredible character, character, incredible person.

When Joseph's really young, he has this dream.

He's the youngest of his brothers at this time, or one of the youngest of his brothers.

And in this dream, he's out in a field, and in front of him are all of his brothers, and they all have a bale of hay, and all of their bales of hay bow down to him.

And he has the audacity to tell his brothers about this dream.

Like he goes to his brothers and says, I had a weird dream last night.

All of your bales were bowing down to me.

Gee, I wonder what that means.

And they hated his guts.

They did, they hated him.

He was his father's favorite, it was obvious, and that dream kind of put them over the edge.

And so they end up faking his death, selling him as a slave to Egypt.

He lives as a slave in Egypt, ends up getting accused of a crime he did not commit, goes to prison, and he's there for all this time until finally God does this incredible, miraculous thing, and it pulls him out of prison.

He actually becomes second in charge of all of Egypt.

And when he's in that place, 14 years after he had that dream, his brothers come to Egypt for food, and not recognizing him, they all bow before him, and it's like his dream has been fulfilled.

But it was over a decade.

When God talked to Moses at the burning bush and gave Moses this incredible mission that changed not only his life, but his entire people's lives and history, he was 80 years old.

He was 80.

And God was just getting started with him.

God is patient.

And I think sometimes we like the fact that he's patient with us, we just don't like the fact that he's patient in general.

Like I'm grateful that God is patient with me.

But I just want him to only be patient with me and not patient with anything else.

Like, God, give it to me now, right now, right this second.

Bless me, heal me, fulfill everything in my life.

Give me the answer.

I want it now, right now.

But he doesn't work that way.

He just he just doesn't.

Real fulfillment comes slowly.

And so if you're stuck right now, whatever you're stuck in, okay.

Be patient.

It doesn't mean that God's gonna keep you there forever.

It doesn't.

But be patient.

Give him time.

Are you willing to wait?

14 years?

Alright, answered.

Done.

He said it for all of us.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I will give a quick caveat.

Caveat?

Caveat?

I don't know how to pronounce it.

Be patient, but don't waste time.

There's a difference between being patient and being indecisive.

It's like, you know, if you pull up your GPS and it gives you three routes to get somewhere.

And they're almost always kind of the same.

But maybe you can save three minutes with this one, two minutes with this one.

If you spend five minutes trying to pick which one you're gonna use, you've wasted the opportunity.

It's like this is pointless.

Just pick the one and go.

Being patient does not mean that when God makes it clear that it's time to go, that you don't like go.

Sometimes you just you gotta move.

Because it's obvious.

There's a friend of mine that uh texted me this week and reminded me of the movie Castaway.

You remember Castaway with Tom Hanks?

How many of you saw Castaway?

I just want to know, because it's kind of an older movie.

Some of you are okay.

Castaway is a movie that answered a question no one had ever asked.

I wonder what Tom Hanks looks like with his shirt off.

Like that's a question no person ever asked.

None of us cared to see it, let alone like an hour and a half of it, but we got it with Castaway, which is great.

Now we know.

And that movie is such a it's such a good movie.

And my my friend texted me, he reminded me of this moment in the movie where he's been stuck on the island for four years.

I'm spoiling the whole thing if you haven't seen it, but you know.

Um, it's a good enough movie that you can know the whole plot and it's still great.

He's stuck on this island, he has no way of escaping.

But then one day this thing washes onto shore that can work as a sail.

And he realizes I have my chance.

And he only has a few months to build a raft because the wind conditions are going to be right to get him off the island, but he's got to act now.

Sometimes, guys, when we're patient, he's been on that island for four years.

Sometimes when we're patient, we're waiting for God in that moment, that season of life where we're stuck.

But when the moment comes and God does something, be patient, but don't waste time.

When he answers, when he shows you what to do, you gotta do it.

So be patient, but but don't waste time.

Let's move on to the the final plow.

I know that's a weird one.

About five or six years ago, I was I was praying, and I'll just be honest with you, I was I was kind of stuck here.

So I am 39 years old, and I have worked at his hand since I was 23.

Now, growing up, my family moved a lot, like like crazy.

Moved all the time.

I was born in Missouri, lived in Wisconsin, Tennessee, Georgia, Missouri again, Georgia again.

We moved all the time.

So I've never been a person who stayed in one place for very long, but I've been here for like a third of my life now.

And one day, if I stay here, which I'm planning to, it'll be like half my life.

And then one day it'll be like all my life.

Like the part before his hands won't even matter.

It'll just be like, yeah, pretty much my whole life I've been here.

But you know, I'd be a liar if I told you that every season that I've been here has just been this like, wow, exciting thing.

I've given like 700 messages.

Not that many of them were good.

Like, you know, not good enough to be remembered.

Like, people they don't remember what I talked about a month ago.

It's fine.

You're not supposed to, it's for now.

I'm half joke.

Like, I I enjoy this.

But but I'd be a liar if I if I sat here and said, like, oh no, every every day has been as exciting as the last.

There's times where I've felt stuck.

And so five or six years ago, I was in that place and I was I was stuck here.

I just felt like I got nothing.

I'm just going through the motions.

Another Sunday, another thing, another season.

And I prayed very, very desperately.

God, I need you to do something.

Like, tell me what to do.

I need some, I need something big.

I need I need something exciting to get me out of this funk.

So, Lord, please give me something.

And it's one of the few times in my life where I heard from God in a way that I would almost describe audible.

God speaks all the time.

And the longer you walk with God, the better you get at discerning his voice.

And very often that voice, it's it's like a thought in your mind that you know is not yours.

But this was different.

This was so clear.

And here's what I heard.

And remember, I'm in this place where I need something exciting, I need something interesting.

I want God to do something big.

I want flashing lights, I want fireworks.

And God says to me, work the plow.

Your reaction is about the same as mine.

So work the plow.

I'm like God, I want something big.

I need something like juicy to get me going, like give me some excitement, and you tell me to plow.

Very often, when God speaks, what happens for me at least is he may only say a word or a few words, but in that moment, my eyes are open to all kinds of thoughts.

Like things, it's like truth just clicks.

And I understood that what God was telling me was essentially like asking the question, Justin, are you going to be a person who always needs something new and exciting to motivate you?

If you're going to be the pastor of this church, do I always have to do something crazy and cool and give you some type of emotional kick just so that you can be motivated to do what's next?

Or can I trust you to be the person who will do the work?

He said, work the plow.

Do the work.

Sometimes when we're stuck, we're looking for excitement.

That's why we can make really stupid decisions when we're stuck.

Because very often exciting things aren't good for us.

No one's ever gotten excited about working a plow.

At least no one I've known.

I've never seen a farmer going like, woo! It's time to plow.

I've never seen that happen.

And I grew up around farms.

I grew up in Missouri around a lot of Amish people.

I've actually been in a McDonald's drive-thru behind an Amish horse and buggy.

It's a very strange experience, but it's a part of my life.

No one gets excited about working the plow, but something we've got to understand, and this is something our culture does not teach us, no matter if you're in your 60s, 70s, or you're a high school student, our culture teaches us that excitement is required to do the work.

That you gotta find that excitement, and you use that excitement to motivate you to do the things necessary.

But it's the opposite of that most of the time.

You do the work that's in front of you, and you do it as well as you can with as much passion as you can find.

And even if that passion's not there, you do it well anyway, and very often what you find is that when you do the work day in and day out, excitement begins to develop.

Do the work.

You know how amazing it is how how often in Scripture God shows up in people's lives when they're just doing their job?

Said, work the plow.

We'll use this as an example.

And worship team, you guys can go ahead and make your way out because we're about to wrap up and do some baptisms, which is awesome.

1 Kings chapter 19.

1 Kings 19 · chapter mention

It says, Elijah went and found Elisha, the son of, I want to say Snapchat, but that's I know that's not what it is.

Plowing a field.

I don't even have Snapchat.

There were 12 teams of oxen in the field, and Elisha was plowing with the twelfth team.

Elijah went over to him and threw his cloak across his shoulders and then walked away.

This was a sign in their culture.

Elijah was a prophet, and he was choosing Elisha to be his protege.

Elisha left the oxen standing there, ran after Elijah, and said to him, First, let me go and kiss my father and mother goodbye, and then I'll go with you.

And Elijah replied, Go on back, but think about what I've done to you.

So here's a man plowing his field, just doing it, doing his job.

And a prophet shows up and says, You're the one.

The disciples, many of them, they were just doing their job when Jesus showed up.

They were fishing, they were collecting taxes, just another day at work, and then there's Jesus, and he changes their life forever.

Last week we looked at the story of the woman at the well.

What was she doing?

She was chores?

I don't know.

She was just going to a well to get water, something you do every day in their culture.

And there's Jesus, and he changes her life.

Time and time again, you find people in Scripture whose lives are completely and totally set on a different course.

God shows up, he does something amazing, he does something undeniable, but he does it in the most mundane setting possible.

He's at their job, he's at a well.

And if they would have quit, said, you know what, I'm not feeling it.

I just don't feel it anymore.

The passion's not there, I'm not going to work today.

They'd have missed Jesus.

My point is that if you're stuck and you don't know what to do, maybe you just need to work the plow for a while.

Maybe you just need to do the work that's in front of you.

Don't quit.

Don't do something drastic.

Just do what God has set before you and do it really, really well.

Because you never know when the moment is going to come when God shows up and gives you exactly what you need.

And he might do it in the very place that you feel the most stuck in.

In the most mundane way, on the most random day, because that's happened, that's happens in scripture all the time.

So if you're stuck, plow ahead.

Plow ahead.

Move forward.

Do what you're supposed to do.

When we're stuck, while we're waiting on God to do something, we we prepare, we're patient, and we just plow ahead.

Trusting that if we do that, God's gonna give us what we need.

And I will tell you this: He will, and He does.

As we wrap up, I just want to remind you: this is not us doing something to move God's hand, to make God show up.

You can't force God's hand.

I'm not saying do these things and then God will show up.

I don't know when God is going to answer your prayer.

I don't know when he's gonna show up in your life.

I just know that he will.

Because it's what he does.

And I hope for you it doesn't take 14 years.

But what if it does?

Like honestly, what if it does?

What if it takes 20 years for God to show up and do something great?

I mean, do you know how few people live life with the ability to say, look what God did?

Boom, that happened.

That was God, that was undeniable.

And I've never known a person who had an experience like that where God showed up in an undeniable way and you talk to him and you're like, man, tell me what God did.

And they're like, man, it was amazing, it was awesome, but you know what?

I'm mad that he didn't do it sooner.

I've never heard someone say that.

So if you're stuck waiting on God, do what's necessary.

Prepare, be patient, plow ahead, but be expectant because God is going to show up.

And when he does, when he speaks to you, when he answers that prayer, there's nothing like it.

So that's just what we do in the meantime.

We prepare, we're patient, we plow ahead.

Let's pray.

Father, thank you so much for this day.

Thank you so much for this awesome family, this church, Lord.

And thank you, Lord, thank you that you give us something to do while we wait for you.

Lord, we want to be people who are prepared to partner with you.

We want to be people, Lord, not just passive people who are sitting around waiting for you to do something, complaining that it's not happening fast enough.

We don't want to be those people, Lord.

We want to be people who are eager to see you move, who are eager to see you show up in our lives.

But in the meantime, while we're waiting, Lord, we want to be people who you can trust to partner with you.

You can trust to do whatever's necessary to put us in that place that when you show up, when we experience that answer to our prayer, we are prepared in our hearts to do something useful with that.

So, Lord, prepare us, give us patience, help us plow ahead.

We pray all this in your name, Jesus.

Amen.