Overcoming Being Stuck // God's Not Done - Pastor Bryan Carter

right where you are you ought to begin to bless god you got to begin to give god praise right where you are as you think about god's faithfulness and god's work in your life you think about all the craziness of last week all the mess at the capitol all the stuff that's going on in our world and yet you and i can have a confidence in the midst of all this because as they just sung he knows he knows our name as they just sung earlier he is a waymaker because despite all the craziness despite all the confusion despite all the disorder we serve a god that is with us we serve a god that is for us we serve a god that will never leave us nor forsake us and because of that you and i can have a confidence in this moment we can be grieved by what we've seen grieve by what we watch but we know that our hope does not come from anything any elected official our hope does not come from this world this nation these issues our hope comes from jesus christ that has promised to be the same yesterday today and forevermore yes we stay engaged and we stay involved and we do everything we can but at the same time our hope rests in him let's pray family lord we thank you that you know our name lord we thank you that you are a waymaker we thank you that there is no situation outside your reach no situation outside your ability we thank you lord that we cannot out ask your ability to respond that you are god that you are faithful that you are mighty that you are strong and so even in these moments even in these crazy times in which we live we continue to look to you we continue to lean on you and we continue to trust you father now as we open your word i pray that your word may minister to our hearts today i pray that your word will remind us and we'll reveal to us and will show us how to live more faithfully for you we thank you god we honor you in this moment we lift up our nation we lift up our world we love our city and our communities and we pray and we linger to you more and more every single day we say thank you lord in jesus name we pray amen amen amen amen amen amen we thank god for you and uh we are we are always thankful to be able to spend time with you on sunday morning listen i hope you found your rhythm you know what i mean i hope you found your rhythm as you make time every sunday for worship to be able to connect with us to be able to spend time with us as we continue to to minister and and love on each other digitally we we thank god for you we look forward uh to this moment every time we get to spend some time together to start our weeks in the right way last week we started a season of prayer and fasting and friends who who knew that we would need to be praying and fasting like we have been in this season with all the things happening in your life in my life our theme has been god is not done that's right i want you to hold on to that because every day let that be the center of your focus in this season in this in these circles that god is not done friends i want to also remind you that our church at our church concord our mission is this people growing people by connecting them to their next step with christ that that's the mission of our church which means that every day what you're doing and what we're doing as a team is that we are seeking to connect people to jesus christ and we do that in four different ways one is through worship do you realize every time you gather for worship that god is staring you and growing you we do that through our grow groups all right through our grow groups through our classes we had a class this past week how to study the bible we've got our girl groups launch it in february why because it's important for you to grow in your work relationships but also in the word of god then we serve we believe in serving our cities serving our community we believe in making an impact for jesus christ and so when you serve you help us to live that out then finally by giving every time you give you allow us to impact our city our community and fund the mission and the vision that god has given to us i want to say thank you because just a few weeks ago we were able to bless a family we blessed a number of families but this is one of the families you'll see that picture up on the screen this family was so incredibly grateful they were so grateful for our love for them we were able to bless them taking care of 90 days of rent for them and their family just to bless them in this season as we face so many challenges along the way so we want to say to you thank you concord when you give you help us to bless others and show god's love to others and we are so so appreciative all right family let's jump into our text for today let's jump into our text for today i want to encourage you to meet me in first samuel chapter 16. we have been working our way through this series god's not done and i want you to meet me there first samuel chapter 16. first samuel chapter 16 and i want to read just that first the first two verses as we continue on our thing god's not done today here it is the lord said to samuel how long will you mourn for saul since i have rejected him as king over israel fill your horn with oil and be on your way i am sending you to jesse of bethlehem i have chosen one of his sons to be king amen first samuel chapter 16 verses 1 through 2. for a few moments i want to talk about overcoming being stuck overcoming being stuck for the christmas holidays one of the habits our families have or traditions is to watch these christmas movies so we work our way we try to watch as many as we can home alone all the different movies we try to get together family and watch these movies together sometimes we vote on them but that doesn't go well because everybody likes something different but that's part of how we celebrate the holidays this past december one of the movies that we watched together was a movie called jingle jangle this movie jingle jangle with a with a cast predominantly made up of people of color starred forrest whitaker as the key character he was the uh the inventor in this particular movie in this movie uh it was about this inventor played by forest whitaker who who who had an incredible ability to create new and innovative things that he his list and litany of what he could create was enormous he had this incredible gift the whole city and town appreciated his ability to invent new innovative creative things it brought so much joy and fun to the entire city because they knew that he had this great ability as the story goes on he went through some difficult times he went through some unexpected events in his life including being betrayed by his assistant and as you watch the movie you begin to to get this sense that he becomes stuck he becomes stuck in his past to such a degree that he cannot embrace his present or his future because of how great his past was because of all he had accomplished somehow or another you leave the moving with this idea that he was stuck that he could he got stuck in a point where he missed what was happening now what was happening in his future because he was so focused on his past friends this position and posture being stuck can happen to any of us when you get stuck what can happen is you can begin to believe that god is done yeah it can happen to any of us that we can get in a position or a circumstance of life where we can begin to believe god is done we can become stuck just like he did in the movie it can happen to us matter of fact it happens right here in samuel's book right here in second samuel we find sat in first samuel 16 samuel is stuck he's stuck in a posture in a position and god has to show up in his life and to help him to understand that god's not done and perhaps that's your story today that what you've gone through in life what you faced in life what you've been through in life has caused you to get in a position of being stuck now maybe god is sending me to you today to encourage you that god is not done the first thing we discover out of this texas this is simply this this idea be careful of thinking god has done just because your plans don't work out be careful of thinking god is done just because your plans don't work out when we meet samuel in this chapter 16 what's interesting that the samuel has been you have to you have to read the chapter prior to get a sense of what's happening in samuel's life samuel is a prophet of god he he is a person that speaks on behalf of god he talks to god and god tells them what to tell the people and samuel has been faithfully serving god's people for many many years but when you read the verses before you will discover that part of saul's samuel's role was to advise and help lead with the king in this particular text king saul is there and when you read chapter 15 king saul has now been rejected by god because king saul has rejected god he's been disobedient he's he's been he's been he's rejected god over and over again so god then says that you may have the position of king but the kingdom has already been taken from your hands samuel who has been working with saul been coaching saul now mind you samuel had his moments with saul too where he was frustrated and and disappointed with saul's continual disobedience of god yet when this moment happens that god rejected him for whatever reason samuel gets stuck samuel probably had plans to watch this thing play out over time but here now samuel has to deal with it when his plans don't work out matter of fact it's so hard on samuel that the scripture says to him he said god comes and says how long are you going to mourn that saul has been rejected friends there are chat times in all of our lives where our plans don't work out you've been there well you had plans you had everything mapped out you had everything scheduled you had everything laid out in the way in which you thought it would happen and in those moments where our plans don't work out it's easy to think that god is done this is what happens with samuel samuel's plan and what he thought and how things would happen didn't turn out and so samuel is struggling in this moment when his plans don't work out and guess what friends it happens to us you you plan for your business to expand and to grow and to take on more customers and then 2020 happen and now you're struggling even to keep your business alive you had planned to marry that person you guys were in a good relationship going somewhere but then it happened whatever it was he cheated or cheating it or something came out and then that relationship that you invested so much in did not turn out like you thought it would the job that you put your time and energy in and you gave things and then you ended up being forced to retire there are moments there will plan you plan to finish some things together you plan for things to end on this point on this day there are always plans that we have and just because our plans don't work out be careful about thinking that god is done there's a young couple in our church who have who who have been expecting a baby we've been praying for them but their baby came baby aliyah came two two months early the baby was due at the end of january 28th and baby aliyah decided to come early at 28 weeks and two and a half pounds and they had they were still planning still getting the room together still arranging things and baby elia came early and so now for the past six weeks they have been been they have been at home while the baby's in the hospital and and they have had to adjust and she's doing better and better keep praying for her and hopefully she will come home at the end of the month but their their their what plans didn't work out there are sins in each of our lives where we have been in those very places where our plans where what we thought would happen when we thought would happen how would happen we can we can easily begin to believe at that moment that god has done or that something is not working out but i want you to know be careful be careful when your plans don't work i'm a planner if you have my wife i i love to map out five ten twenty i love the plan i love to to navigate through things matter of fact we had a plan last last last last summer last summer we had a plan we had a plan we had already bought all our items for our daughter's room preparing to to move her into college we had everything laid out i had booked the tickets had reserved the car and everything and then two weeks before school start they say no students on campus and there we had to adjust because listen be careful of thinking god is done just because your plans didn't turn out like you thought they would it can be incredibly discouraging it can be incredibly overwhelming it can be incredibly difficult in times but that that here let me let me remind you something first friends listen that plan may be done but it doesn't mean all the plans are done that plan may not have worked out but it doesn't mean god has done that plan that that plan that option that strategy may not have worked but that doesn't mean that god's plan listen you serve a god that has a plan a a plan b a plan c a plan d a plan e a plain f you serve a god that is so faithful that just because your plan and my plan and our plan doesn't work out it does not mean that the god that we serve is not able to have a plan to build still be able to accomplish his purpose his will and his plan and our lives friends i want you to understand just be careful be careful about thinking that god is done just because it doesn't happen according to your plan here's another one friends be careful be careful of putting a period where god is putting a comma be careful be careful of putting the period where god is putting a comma you you you remember that don't you those moments in in elementary school when your teacher my fourth grade teacher was miss rubel i i remember you remember those moments when they were teaching you grammar and and structure and punctuation and in that punctuation lesson that though that teacher would always teach you a variety of quotation marks a variety of punctuation marks and often they would teach you they would teach you that that that that there was a couple of basic ones but one is is the period the period means conclusion appearance means stop the period means the end the period means termination but then there was another remark that another punctuation mark there that looked like a period but but it had a had a hook on the end of it and whereas a period meant the conclusion the end termination the the comma meant pause it meant slow down it meant pause catch your breath because we're about to go on to something else friends sometimes we can get stuck and begin to believe that god's plans are done this is what happened to samuel samuel samuel samuel is stuck in his grief and samuel tries to put a period here samuel has been here for some time how do we know because verse 15 chapter 15 when you read the concluding verses samuels in the same place he was at the end of 15 at the beginning of 16 in the same place he's stuck in his grief now mind you we don't know how long happens between chapter 15 chapter 16. scholars say it is it could be as many as months could be as many as several years we don't know but we know it's long enough that god shows up and god says samuel how long you going to stay in this place how long how long how long he he's not saying that grief is bad all of us must grieve when our plans don't work out yeah all of us must grieve when our when our plans when our business plans and our plans for our family and plans for our lives and the visually plans for our relationships and plans for our careers and plans for what we're going to do for god and ministry plans all of us there are points we all must grieve when our plans don't work out there is nothing wrong with grief we need to cry we need we need to be frustrated we need to be disappointed we need to allow the hurt and the realness to hit our hearts and our lives we need to be honest about how we feel we need to go through the anger and the frustration and the disappointment of what we went through and what we faced and what happened to us and what he may have done or what she may have done so samuel is is perfectly okay for samuel to be here in this place in this moment where he is disappointed where he is stuck where he has stayed for quite a while but the problem with grief grief is to the express but grief is not to be extended grief is healthy it's healthy to grieve it's healthy to be honest it's healthy to struggle it's healthy to be real about how we felt and how difficult it was and how hard it was but when god shows up to samuel he says samuel how long are you going to stay here he says he says it's okay he says grief is a good place to visit but it's a bad place to stay he says it's okay to go through your moment but then he says how long how long how long he said he says you can you can pass he says here it is grief needs a temporary parking sign that is a you can park there for a moment but you can't live there you can't live there and that's why that's why that's why that's why god shows up and says how long you can't live there because you can't live there cause i know what happened i know it was hard i know he said you can't you can't he says you can't you can't live there you can't you can't live there you can't live at they let me go you you can't live that he cheated on me you you you can't live at i can't believe this happened to me you can't live that i lost income i lost my job you you can't live at i can't believe they did that to me you can't live that i lost mom i lost dad you you can't live that i've got a felon on my record you you you can't live at how could this happen to me listen we got to grieve but we can't live there that's why god shows up to samuel and says how long are you going to stay in this place he tells them that because any time we get stuck in a place anytime we live in a place where god intended for us to move through we can begin to believe that that single moment that single situation has defined our lives and the enemy will use it to make us think that god is done the enemy will have us there and begin to believe that what we went through what we face the difficulty we went through he will lead us to believe that god is not bigger than our disappointment that god is not bigger than our challenges that god is not bigger than our sickness that god is not bigger than our parenting challenges that god is not bigger than our singleness that god is not bigger than a breakup that god is not bigger than a lost job that god is not bigger than a disappointed family that god is not bigger than me not having this by 30 and this by 40 and this by 50 that god is not bigger than me not being able to do what i'm used to doing he will convince you that god is done because your circumstances may be difficult but i came by here to remind you that you serve a god that is bigger than what she said bigger than what you went through bigger than cancer bigger than your difficulties bigger than your pain bigger than your broken heart bigger than a loss of a loved one bigger than sickness bigger than doubts bigger than our children bigger than our families bigger than health bigger than all of that he is bigger he is bigger he is bigger and just because it's hard you got to learn sometime to look at that moment and it may look like it's the end it may look like you may not recover it may look like this is it and you got to look at that period and in your sanctuary in your mind put a hook on that period and say listen god it was it may have been meant to be appeared by the enemy but i am trusting you that it's a comma and i'm living on this i am i am living on i am moving on i am pressing on why because god you are not done god you're not done with me you're not done you're not done so that may have happened and that may have impacted me and that may have done but don't you put a period there yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah who am i talking to today friend i came by here to tell you don't you put a period there yeah yeah yeah you may have went through a divorce but don't you put a period there your plans may not have happened the way you want them don't you put a period there you may have cancer in your body but don't you put a period there your marriage may be going through a hard time but don't you put a period there you may be dealing with loneliness and depression and difficulty but don't you put a period there you may be going through a season having to take on extra work and you may be unemployed but don't you put a period there he or she may have broken your heart but don't you put a period there you may find yourself wrestling looking at somebody else's life and saying i want that listen don't you put a period on your life i don't care what season what moment what occasion because god is not done if you don't believe me all you got to do is read your bible and when you read your bible you find a history of people that are willing to testify and affirm that god is not done that you serve a god that is faithful in seasons and moments and sometimes when we don't even see what god is up to it reminds me of that famous poem by that queen maya angelou in her poem she writes these words steal i rise she says out of the huts of history shame i rise up from the past that was rooted in pain i rise i'm a black ocean leaping in wide welling and swelling i bear the tide leaving behind nights of terror and fear i rise and to a daybreak that is wonder is clear i rise bringing the gifts from my ancestors gave i am the dream and the hope of the slave i rise i rise i rise god is not done here it is be careful of thinking god is done just because your plans don't work out be careful of putting the period where god is putting the comma here's the last one and i'm done be careful of focusing on you and not focusing on god be careful be careful focusing on you i'm not focusing on god it's easy to think god is done when we get caught up in ourselves i'm not saying that we all have our own dreams and ambitions and goals and we all want to honor god and serve god but friends it's easy easy easy it's so easy to so easy to get caught up for brian to get caught up in brian it's easy for keisha to get caught up in quiche it's easy for felicia or tony to get caught it's easy for you to get caught up in you this is where samuel is samuel is called up in samuel because samuel has this mission has this work and samuel knows that god has called him and moved to him but something happens here in samuel samuel's stuck here but i love that god's signature is all on verses one and two in first samuel 16. i want you to read that text we look at the text slowly do you see him where the text says i have rejected him i am sending you i have chosen you see those three eyes in the text but notice the verse starts with the word uh lord and lord is in all caps which is the word yahweh which is the covenant keeping god so four times god signs his name to the text because god wants samuel to understand some samuel i know you're going through this thing samuel i know this is hard samuel i know this is difficult samuel i i hear you samuel but he says samuel i want you to understand that god is still working in this thing and he knows four times he signs his name as though to say i rejected him i have i'm sending you and i have chosen him this is god reminding us that despite our own best planning despite our own best desires despite our own opportunities to honor and serve god god said i'm still working in this thing that i that i am still working and i am still moving he said saul remember i i i removed him i i i that was my doing saul i know you're upset about it though you didn't necessarily like it samuel but but but that was my decision because i'm the one that told you to anoint him and i'm the one that told you that his time was up he said listen he says i want you to make sure that you understand that i'm the one that's that's calling you and working and sometimes we can get so bent out of shape out of our plans and our desires and our works that sometimes we act like it all depends on us watch god talk to sal samuel says listen samuel i i removed him i'm sending you he says i want you to know he says god is saying remember my ways are working in the midst of all of this even when we don't understand even when it doesn't make sense there is a popular app that's navigation app called ways now i'm terrible with directions and so i i i've been i lean on on ways heavily because i can i can get to a place and i can't get back i just i got the gift of getting lost and so i can i can get there but i can't get back i can't navigate that thing and so um ways may have been invented for people like me and others that are directionally challenged and and so this ways as it works the way it works is that on one occasion i was i was using it to get to a destination downtown and that i was headed to for a meeting and as i was headed there for a meeting i had a had a series of meetings there and and what happened is it kept every time i went to the meeting for this particular week it would kept giving me a different route to get there and i was a little frustrated because i felt like listen stop giving me different routes i i know how to get there if you just let me do it i'll i'll do it and do you know that every single time i would get an argument with ways and i would say you know what uh i'm gonna do it my way i know where i'm going and do you know that the moment i would decide to do it my way i would be stuck in traffic i would be there longer than i was intending to be but i wanted it my way so bad that i said listen ways you don't know what you're talking about and it got to the point where i began to realize that i had better listen to ways because waves had some technology in its place and it's in a system that allowed it to see further than i could see allowed to to see construction allowed to see congestion and and cars that would stop and i just said listen forget i'm just gonna trust you ways because listen i've tried my way enough times and every time i try to do it my way i kept getting stuck kept taking me longer and i was frustrated because i didn't follow it i hear isaiah saying my ways are higher than your ways and my thoughts are above thoughts and as high as the heaven is above the earth our god ways above man friends listen sometimes we got to just trust that god's ways are going to be best despite what we may desire or despite how we may desire it this is what he says he puts it he says i did that i i rejected i i i'm sending you and he said then he says this he said samuel fill your horn get on go go go go go go go to bethlehem 10 miles away he says leave rama fill your horn it's time for you to go i've got an assignment i've got i've got a mission for you samuel go go go pick the next king matter of facts he says i've already picked him i've already seen him i've already designated him and i need you to move somebody today that's god's word to you fill your horn time for you to move to where god wants you to go but this season of prayer and fasting could be the season that god wants to use in your life to move you to where god wants to take you listen 2020 has taken so much from us for some of us it's taken our our plans and our dreams and our businesses and and and our careers and for some and it's blessed but it's taken our normality but you can't live in 2020 all day long you can't live in yesterday no no no you're gonna have to fill your horn and be on your way why because god is not done god has an assignment god god saw didn't work out but but but but god's work didn't stop with saul god's business didn't stop with saul god's work doesn't hinge on one person god's plan doesn't get disrupted no no no god's plan continues on because god's not done for somebody here today you've put your hope in the wrong thing and i came by to tell you fill your horn god's work god is not done god god god god god's signature is not just on this text his signature is on your life his signature has been on your life his signature was with you in your 20s with you in your teens with you in your 30s and your 40s and your 50s god's not done it may look a little different but don't you stay stuck where you are don't you act like what you've seen and what you've done dismay no no no no no you serve a god that's not done one man don't stop god's plan one situation doesn't disrupt his plan no no no god got a whole bench god is omniscient god is omnipotent god is omniscient god is on the benevolent god it's in the beginning god is in the end god is god was and god will be god it's god and because god is god the capital may have some chaos but god is still god my life may have some challenges but god is still god god is not done enemy get behind me satan you cannot allow what happened to me or what people said or what somebody else says make me doubt or disbelieve what you're up to no no no god is not done you don't believe me there was another season where something challenging happened and it looked like god was done there was a season where god sent his son to reach out to mankind and god sent his son jesus christ and he lived a sinless life and he died on a cross on friday he died on friday and it looked like god was done it looked like it was over the the sun went black and the tail that in the temple the the temple was written into and it looked like it was a done situation and it looked bad on friday night it looked bad on saturday day and it looked bad on saturday night but early you at home you ought to shout early sunday morning god proved that god's not done i said he's not done directing your life i said he's not done healing your body i said he's not done healing your relationship i said he's not done with your career he's not done with your children hallelujah somebody ought to praise god with me this morning and tell god thank you god that you're not done hallelujah you're not done with me you're not done with my journey you're not done with my walk hallelujah god is not done yes i said yes yes yes hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah god is not done yes yes yes [Music] hallelujah hallelujah he's not done i said he's not done i said he's not done somebody ought to get with me in the chat and declare he's not done i said he's not done i said he's not done you may have to move in with your mother and father but he's not done you may have to take on another job but he's not done you may have to delay your decision but he's not done you may have to close your business but he's not done you may have to go through treatment but he's not done you may have to stay at home but he's not done you may have to keep on working but he's not done hallelujah god's not done hallelujah i said hallelujah i said hallelujah i said hallelujah i said god's not done yes yes you may not have the final word yet but god's not done thank you jesus come on family pray with me right now come on pray with me right now come on pray with me right now would you be getting to bless god in your home right now wherever you are in your bedroom wherever you are at the kitchen table while you're working out wherever you are would you begin to just bless god right now and then begin to declare god's not done come on begin to declare it right where you are come on begin to declare it right where you are come on declare it declare it declare it declare it come on declare it come on declare it come on declare it declare it in your house come on declare it declare it over your children declare it over your finances declare it over your situation declare it over your mother declare it over your father declare it over your life come on declare it in your house by yourself declare it over your house declare it god's not done i may be here for a minute but he's not done he may be tight but he's not done i may lose somebody but it's not done father we come to you right now we declare but you are able thank you that we can identify with samuel we know what it's like to get stuck we know what it's like to long for some things but things not to happen in our plan didn't happen as we intended it didn't happen in the moment didn't happen our plans we know what that's like we know what it's like god to want to put a period there we we tried to put a period in 2020 we acted like 20 21 was gonna magically be different but the truth be told lord it's we we it's no period there's a comma we're still going through some stuff and so father but here's what we know like samuel you told sammy sam you can't stay there you said samuel how long you going to keep going over that over and over again how long are you going to keep talking about how long you'll keep rehearsing your regrets you say salmonella man get your horn put some oil in it because there's another person i need you to go anoint there's another there's another king there's another leader there's another move there's another there's another work you you told samuel samuel i'm not done with my nation and i'm not done with you so father thank you for reminding us to get our horns put some oil in it because there's more work for us to do there's another relationship there's another season there's another another job there's a there's another worship there's another person there's another work you have for us that you're not done you're not done you're not done so lord we trust you we trust you we lean on you we we we rely upon you because we don't have any other help but you lord we we we don't we don't have any other way but you you are not done father we thank you and we honor you in jesus name we say this prayer and somebody at home ought to shout amen in your house somebody at home ought to give god the glory in your house listen this is not for you this is not for them this is for you and god just between you and the lord listen this between you and god you ought to just give god a praise right where you are right now you ought to just give god a praise you ought to magnify him you got to give him glory listen you don't you don't need a whole crowd you don't need nobody else just you and the lord just giving him praise in your house you ought to just thank him for the moments that you had in your life and where you are today and what you've seen and what you've gone through and you can declare god's not done hallelujah god hallelujah hallelujah listen

Channel: Concord Church

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Keywords: concord dallas, concord church, gods not done, we grow people

Id: KBbEMODi2oQ

Length: 41min 4sec (2464 seconds)

Published: Tue Jan 12 2021