Wild Horses
In this sermon we focused on the theme of being "wild horses" for God, drawing inspiration from the book of Jeremiah. The message emphasizes that God doesn't tame us but trains us to fulfill His purpose, using biblical examples like Moses, David, and John the Baptist. The sermon highlights the importance of trusting God and others as foundational steps in this training process. Trusting God involves being rooted in His Word, wrestling with doubts, and relying on His faithfulness. Trusting others requires being truthful, transparent, and teachable. The sermon encourages listeners to embrace this journey of trust and training, ultimately leading to a life that runs with God and impacts the world.
Transcript
Well, hello, Rock Church. It is so good to see you today.
I want to take just a second and welcome you to the Rock. No matter what campus you're at, you might be at our Conway location, our South Strand location, our Aynor location, J. Rubin location, or online, whatever campus you might be joining from today. Thank you for coming to church. I know there's a lot of things you could do with your time, but you've chosen to say that you want to connect with Jesus and connect with others, so we're thankful for that, man.
Before I dive into today's message, I gotta just look back just for a second and just give God praise for everything he did over our Easter weekend, man. Just huge crowds, baptisms happening, people really connecting with Jesus and others as we wrap up that series called Undecided. And you know, it was a long series. I've never done a series that long, but I thoroughly enjoyed just walking through the book of First Corinthians. And I hope it was beneficial for you as well.
All right, now, now we're jumping into a new series. And if you can tell by my get up, it's got a little flavor to it. And I gotta start by by going back to that question that, that you were asked earlier. See, earlier you got up and you shook some hands, you said hello to people and, and while doing so, you were supposed to answer this question. When it comes to animals that are wild, which one comes to your mind, right?
Like when you think of a wild animal, which one comes to your mind? And hopefully you shared that with some people around you. And my guess is some of you said things like this and, and if you want to raise your hand if I say it out loud, you can. And if this was you, maybe you said a tiger or a lion, like anything from the cat family. Maybe, maybe you said a bear, maybe you said a wolf, maybe you said a coyote.
Maybe, maybe you said bison or, or maybe you went to the water area and you started this talk about sharks, right? Some of you got a little crazy and talked about your domesticated animal, like your dog or, or your cat, like you might have went that direction. I know for me, like, when I think about animals in the wild, when I think about wild animals, I can't help but to think back to this past summer when I was at Yellowstone. It's my first time being at Yellowstone. And while I was there, I I saw bison just kind of roaming through the field.
I saw a bunch of elk, we saw some moose. While I was out west, I also saw some long, long horned ram. And when I see animals like that, I'm blown away by their, just by who they are or what they are and how they navigate and how they herd together and how they run. One of the animals that, that I haven't, I haven't gotten as close to as I really want to, but, but I really want to check out wild horses. Like, I've seen some wild horses out west, but, but if I could tell you what I really want to do, I want to ride a wild horse.
Like I want to get on that horse. You know what I'm saying? That's me. Because, well, if I can admit it, I'm just a little wild myself, right? See, a wild horse is.
Well, some people call them mavericks. It comes from a guy who owned a, a ranch and he wouldn't brand his, his horses and he let him just roam free. So the horses became known as mavericks. So, so there's horses that run wild and, and so you could call it a wild horse or you could call it a maverick, but, but I'm blown away by him because if you've ever seen them out west, primarily, if you've ever seen a man, they're just beautiful creatures. And like I said, my goal is I would love to ride one and I would love to feel that exhilaration.
Now, I say that for this reason. See, I've never rode a wild horse, but I've been one. You know what I mean? Like I, I haven't just been one. Can I say it this way?
I am one. I know that about me. See, what I know about wild horses is they want to run free, they want to run fast, they don't want to be pushed into a corner. And if you try to tame a wild horse, then oftentimes they will kick, they will buck, they will snort. And I can just be honest with you, that's me.
I am a wild horse. I am more of a maverick style. And my guess is there's many of you who are just like me or you're married to somebody who you might say is a little bit of a wild horse, a maverick, or maybe you're dating somebody or you're friends with somebody or you have kids that you would say, well, they're definitely a wild horse. Well, what do you do with somebody who's a wild horse? See, our culture would say you got to tame them.
Our culture would say that, that when you have a wild horse, when you have a maverick, then you've got to tame them. But again, don't try to tame me because I'll buck, I'll kick, I'll snore. Right? Because when I see myself, when I look at scripture, I don't see God taming wild horses. I see him training them.
I mean, think about Moses. I mean Moses was a wild horse. Oh sure, he grew up in a palace and, and he had all the, the fancy things of life. But, but he, he was created to be a leader. And as he tried to lead that, that his first reaction was to kill somebody.
And God said I, I need you to lead a little bit better than that. So he took him out into the desert and he trained him as a shepherd. And then he's sending back to Pharaoh to lead. And notice when, when he went back to Pharaoh, he didn't go back tamed. He didn't go back like, oh Pharaoh, you need to do this.
No, he went back trained on how to stand with God and stand with God and tell the Pharaoh, let my people go. I mean, think about Jeremiah the prophet. Here's a guy who was called at a young age and he did all these things through life not as somebody who was tamed, but as somebody who was trained. Think about David. David, like nobody is tame if they're willing to run after a nine foot giant and kill them.
He wasn't tame. He was trained while he was out working with the sheep on how to kill the lion and kill the bear. Think about John the Baptist. If anybody wasn't tame, it was John the Baptist. I mean, here's a guy wearing camel skin, eating locust and honey, calling people out.
He wasn't tamed. He was trained on how to follow the will of God. I think about Simon the Zealot who was a disciple that, that Simon was trained before Jesus on, on how to kill people. He was a zealot. So he either did kill people or he was willing to kill people.
And then Jesus took him and didn't tame him, but he trained him on how to save people. I think about James and John, sons of thunder, that God didn't tame them. He trained him. I think about the apostle Peter who was always putting his foot in his mouth, always saying, call me out on the water. The first one to pull a sword and, and swing in on the, the night that Jesus was arrested.
Jesus didn't tame him, he trained him. Or let's just look at Jesus himself. If anybody was Ever a wild horse, a maverick, man, It's Jesus. Jesus who went through his life and no one ever tamed him. But he was trained to run after God and to fulfill his will.
And that's what I want to see in your life. That's what I want to see out of the people at all of our campuses. Because when I look out at all of us across our campuses, I see, see a bunch of wild horses, I see a bunch of mavericks who don't need to be tamed, but they do need to be trained so that you can run with God for the long haul. In this series, we're gonna go to the book of Jeremiah just for three weeks, and we're gonna see how Jeremiah, how some lessons that Jeremiah teaches us that will help train us. The first one is Jeremiah, chapter 12, verse 5.
You'll see it right there on the screen. It reads like this. It says, if racing against mere men makes you tired, how will you race with horses? Other translations say, how will you run with horses? Man, I want us to run with Jesus.
I want us to go the long haul. It goes back in scripture that it says this, if you stumble and fall on the open ground, what will you do in the thickets near the Jordan? Like, what will you do when you come across difficulties? So, so here's what we need to do today is we need to figure out, man, how do I run with
Jesus? How do I run with Jesus, how do I run towards Jesus for the long haul through the ups and downs of life?
Well, here's what I'd say. First thing you got to do is you got to trust him. See, each week for the next three weeks, we're going to hit a different, different aspect on how to train ourselves to run with God, how to train ourselves to, to walk with him, to run with him, to go the distance, how to train people in our life. Because again, we might have some kids that we need to train up and we're going to look at how do we, how do we train the wild horse in us? And, and we're going to do it for three weeks and we're going to hit a different aspect each week.
This week it's all about trust. Because if you want to train a wild horse, the first thing you have to do is build trust. This series is actually born out of a book I read over the summer called Think Like a Horse and what it is, it's a world renowned horse trainer who goes and, and takes wild horses and he learns and he, and he trains them horses. That that can be rode, that can be worked. And as I was reading this book, it's just a leadership book.
The guy who is the trainer, he definitely has a faith background, but the book is just a leadership book. But as I was reading it, I was like, man, this is a sermon series, because this is us. And in his book, the first thing he said is, if you want to train a horse, you have to build up trust. Where there's no trust, there's no training. And that's the way it is with our walk with God as well, that it's all built on trust.
That trust has to be week one, because if we don't learn to trust God and others, well, we'll never really be trained. We'll just run wild. So I want to start by talking about this idea of just trusting God, that I want us to trust God. And if we go to scripture, back to Jeremiah, it reads like this. It said, but blessed are those who trust the Lord and have made the Lord their hope and confidence.
But blessed are those who trust the Lord. Blessed are those who. Who have put their confidence in the Lord. That if we want to train this wild horse in us, if we want to train the wild hors and those we love, then we have to build it on this first idea of trusting God. And Jeremiah got this.
The. The guy who wrote that book, he's. He's a prophet. And he became a prophet when he was a young kid, a young teenager. We'll talk about that next week.
All right. But throughout the course of his life, and he had to learn to trust God. Like, look at some of the things that happened in his life that Jeremiah was beaten, he was put in stocks, he was thrown into a cistrant, he was put on trial, he was betrayed. He was told by God to never marry or to have kids. And he questioned God because he felt like he had been misled.
Like, when you see all that, you'd go, man, his life was tough. It was because no one ever said, following Jesus is going to be easy. And for Jeremiah, following the will of God was hard. But whether he was beaten or put in stocks or thrown in a citizen or put on trial or. Or betrayed by his family, didn't matter.
Through it all, he kept his trust in God. And that's how you make it through the mountaintops and valleys. Because here's the bottom line. I think we all get this. We're all going to deal with mountaintops and valleys.
So you've got to trust God. Well, how do you do It. How do we. How do we trust God? Well, we.
We get rooted. Let me give you three things real quick. You want to trust God, the first thing is, is you got to get rooted in Him. It says. This is Jeremiah, chapter 17, verse 8.
It says they are like trees planted along the riverbank with roots that reach deep into the water. Such trees are not bothered by the heat or worried by long months of drought. Their leaves stay green and they
never stop producing fruit. That the first step in trusting God is to get rooted in him, plant yourself deep into Him. Now, how do I do that?
How do I. How do those roots down deep into my faith, deep into God? Well, yeah, I gotta dig into God's word. I gotta spend time with Him. I gotta open up like what we give to you all the time.
I gotta open up that rock reading plan and I gotta spend time in your word. That as. As we root ourselves down deep, here's what happens. When the difficulties of life come. Your roots are down deep and they're strong.
When you have no root, you get blown over easy. But when your roots go down deep, then you can stand. When difficulties of life come, you can stand when you're tired. You can stand when you're going through problems that you can stay upright because you're rooted. So if you want to trust God, the first step is you got to be rooted.
The second step is you got to be willing to wrestle. Too many times we're unwilling to wrestle with God. Listen, in the wrestling with God, in the tension of that, that's where growth happens. So I challenge you. Wrestle with God.
Don't be afraid of it. Don't be afraid to take your doubts to him and wrestle. Jeremiah did it. Don't be afraid when life is a struggle to go God, like, like. I'm not understanding this.
Wrestle with it. And I'm willing to wrestle with God because I'm rooted in Him. That, that when I wrestle, it's not like I'm like, forget you, God. No, I wrestle with him because I'm rooted in Him. And you'll see guys all through scriptures that constantly wrestled with God.
And what it did is it built their trust. So get rooted in him. Wrestle with him and then rely on him when you're in doubt, when you're not for sure, just keep the faith. Rely on him. Rely on His Word that you're rooted in.
Rely on. On the experiences that you've had when you've wrestled with him. And then rely on him to be faithful, to fulfill his promises or to do what he's done in the past. See, to me, that's a big part of trust is I just look back to where God has moved in my past, and I say, God, if you've done it there, then I'm going to rely on you to do it again right now. God, if you did it for Jeremiah, I'm going to rely on you to do it for me today.
God, the. The. The way you did it for David, I'm going to rely on you doing it for me today. God, the way that you did it for Peter, I'm going to rely on you doing it for me to. Today, God, the.
The way that you did it for. For Gideon, I'm going to rely on the way you did it for Josh. You see what I'm saying? Because I'm rooted. I can look back at times I've wrestled or others have wrestled.
And I can see God was faithful then, so God will be faithful now. You want to train that wild horse, well, you got to have trust. And the first step is trusting God. The second step, which might be even harder, is trusting others. And to talk about that, I'm going to ask our communicators to come up and dig into trusting others.
Trusting others, Trusting people is, frankly, really difficult, right? It is a challenging thing. We've all put our trust in people, and they have failed us in one way or the other. But trusting people is essential to growth. It's essential to who we are.
It's essential to what we're trying to do here on Earth. Because if you look at the horses, the wild horses don't run by themselves. They run with a herd. In the same way we were designed to run in a herd, we were designed to be in community. That is how we find success in life.
You look at the musical artists, they aren't by themselves. They have a producer. The tennis player has a coach. The golfer has a coach, the writer has an editor. People are always working together to create something better.
It's the same way with us. God designed us to be in this community. If you look throughout the Bible, you will see people together. You'll see Adam and Eve. You'll see Cain and Abel.
You'll see Joseph and his brothers. You'll see Moses and his dudes. You'll see David and his family. You'll see Jesus and the disciples. You could go on and on.
We were designed to be together because it benefits us. Scripture says this. Ephesians 4, 9, 10 says two people are better off than one, for they can help each other succeed. If one person falls, the other can reach out and help. But someone who falls alone is in real trouble.
And then Proverbs 27:17 says, as iron sharpens iron, so a friend sharpens a friend. When we are with people, when we are connected to people, when we are trusting people, we are better off. But unfortunately, people break trust. All those biblical characters that I spoke of a moment ago, they had issues. Adam and Eve sinned with Cain and Abel.
There was murder. Joseph's brothers wanted to murder him, but they decided to put him into slavery instead. Jesus was betrayed by one of his disciples. And I think we could look at our lives and go, man, there are people that I'm afraid to trust. There are people that have broken trust my life, or I'm afraid to trust people because of things in the past.
So how do we build trust or how do we rebuild trust? Well, just like Fink did, I've got three quick things for you on how to do this. And I believe that these apply for marriages, friendships, relationships, teammates. Whatever kind of relationship you are in with someone, I think it applies here. And the key to this is you doing your part.
Okay? This is a massive aspect of this. A lot of times when we look at trust and we look at building this trust with other people, we only focus on what the other person is doing. You have to look inward. You have to look at what you are doing, saying, how can I be better?
How can I help this process out? So the first thing is this. To be truthful, Ephesians 4:25 says, so stop telling lies. Let us tell our neighbors the truth. For we are all parts of the same body.
We should be speaking truth at all times. We should be open, and we should be be honest. We should make sure there is no falsehood in the words that we say. But here's where I think is interesting about being truthful. I think it's pretty easy to be truthful with our mouths, with our words, and very easy to live a lie.
We have to be truthful not just with our words, but with our lives. Because there's a lot of people that say, yeah, I love Jesus, but I'm cruel online. Yeah, I care about the team. I'm a team player, but I only care about my stats. I say God comes first, but he's last on my schedule.
I say that I support you, but secretly I'm competing with you. I say that I trust God, but I panic every time life gets hard. I say that I'm a loyal friend, but I disappear when things get messy, I say that I want to be great, but I refuse to be coached. I say I love my spouse, but I won't serve them.
It's really easy to say a truth and live a lie. It's challenging, it's convicting to live truth. Will you do that to build trust or rebuild trust? So we have to be truthful. And the second level of this is to be transparent.
James 5:16 says, Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results. This scripture is so fascinating to me because I do think, as we continue to talk about truth, I think it's very easy to say a specific truth to get what you want.
I saw a quote recently from a data analyst and they said they would go to tell companies and say, hey, what do you want the data to say? And they would find a way to twist the data to support that company's claim. I think there's a lot of times where we are truthful, but we're not transparent, where we have this hidden agenda, where we have this secret life where we're hiding something away. If we want to build trust or rebuild trust, we can't do that. We need to be transparent, open and honest about every single thing in our life.
Be real about what you're struggling with, be real about what you're trying to get done. Be real with each other, with what you're going through, and as you do that with each other, confess those sins and confess those struggles with God and say, God, this is what's going on in my life and let him begin that work, bring it to light. Too many people try to hide things away.
So we have to be truthful, we have to be transparent. But then this is really difficult. We have to be teachable. Proverbs 19:20 says, get all the advice and instruction you can so you will be wise for the rest of your life. To be teachable means that you are choosing to be humble and to listen, to listen to God and to listen to the other person.
Remember I said this is a two way street. Part of the two way street is involving the other person is bringing them in, is trusting them enough to learn from them as well as learn from God. Where I struggle, when I have conversations with people, and I see it a lot in culture today, it's just because you feel something, just because you say something, just because you believe something doesn't necessarily mean it's true. You have to have the humility to go, man, maybe that other person's right. We have to have the humility to go, okay, God, what are you teaching me right now?
Too many people aren't teachable. They're not coachable. They don't have that humility. And that's where trust is. Because if I actually have trust for you, if I have trust in you and trust with you, then I'm going to listen to what you say, whether that's the other person or that's God.
I'm listening right now, and I'm applying it to my life. Have the wisdom to realize when it comes to trust, you don't have it all figured out. Because when you admit that you're going to be able to have some better conversations with that other person, you guys will grow together in a way that you didn't know was possible. But what's frustrating about trust is that we want it to be quick. But trust isn't built overnight.
Trust takes time. So every single day, you gotta show up, you gotta make the decision to be truthful, to be transparent, to be teachable every single day. But on the other side of that, there will be a great reward, and there will be great trust with God, and there will be great trust with people. Galatians 6. 9 says, so let's not get tired of doing what is good at just the right time.
We will reap a harvest of blessing if we don't give up.
And that's true, whether that's trusting God or trusting people. So I want to ask you this question as we wrap up today. Are you willing to be trained? And if the answer to that is yes, then my second question is this. Are you willing to trust?
Are you willing to make the decision to trust God and to trust others?
Some of you guys, you've never trusted God, and you go, why would I want to do that? Well, Jesus saw us running wild.
We've been running wild all over this earth, and it's led us to a life of sin. And that has led us to a position where we deserve to get punished for our sins. But Jesus came down from heaven to earth and died on the cross for each of us so that we have the opportunity to put our trust in him. So we have the opportunity to give our lives to him, so we have the opportunity to spend eternity with Him. And all we have to do to experience that is say, God, I trust in you.
I'm giving you my life.
So maybe some of you guys need to do that today because you've never done that before. Others of you may need to make the decision. That's time to trust others to take those steps. Maybe you haven't been truthful. Make a decision today to be truthful.
Maybe you haven't been transparent. Get transparent. It's gonna be hard, but do it. Or maybe you just haven't humbled yourself enough to be teachable. Do that and then keep showing up day after day after day.
It will be a great reward and you will no longer be running wild. But you'll be a trained horse, goes and changes the world. So why don't you go ahead and stand with me? We're going to go into a time of response and during this time, maybe you want to talk to someone at one of our connect corners. Maybe you want to maybe take the step of baptism.
Trust in God. That way, whatever it is, we have a great opportunity to respond. So let's trust in God right now because God wants to work in our lives. Jesus, we love you and we trust you. Let's respond.
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Small Group Curriculum: Trusting God**
Connect and Share
- As we begin, let's connect with one another by sharing: If you could be any wild animal, which one would you choose and why? How do you see yourself connecting with that animal's characteristics?
- Reflect on a time when you felt like a "wild horse" in your life. What was the situation, and how did you navigate it? How did you connect with others or with God during that time?
Discover: Breaking Down the Sermon
1. Wild Horses
- The sermon discussed the idea of being a "wild horse" or a "maverick." How do you relate to this concept in your own life?
- What are some areas where you feel God is calling you to be trained rather than tamed?
2. Biblical Examples:
- The sermon mentioned several biblical figures like Moses, David, and Jeremiah. How did these individuals demonstrate being trained by God rather than tamed by the world? - How can their stories inspire us to connect more deeply with God's purpose for our lives?
3. Trusting God:
- Jeremiah 17:7-8 was highlighted in the sermon. What does it mean to be "rooted" in God, and how does this help us trust Him more?
- Share a personal experience where trusting God led to growth or transformation in your life.
4. Trusting Others:
- The sermon emphasized the importance of community and trusting others. How can we build or rebuild trust in our relationships?
- Discuss the three aspects of trust mentioned: being truthful, transparent, and teachable. Which of these do you find most challenging, and why?
Respond: Practical Steps to Live Out the Sermon
1. Root Yourself in God:
- Commit to a daily practice of reading Scripture and prayer. Consider using a reading plan to stay connected with God's Word.
- Identify one area in your life where you need to deepen your trust in God. Share this with the group and pray for one another.
2. Build Trust in Relationships:
- Choose one relationship in your life where you need to build or rebuild trust. What steps can you take this week to be more truthful, transparent, or teachable in that relationship? - Set a goal to connect with someone in your community this week, whether through a coffee meeting, a phone call, or a simple act of kindness.
3. Embrace Being Trained:
- Reflect on an area where you feel God is training you. What practical steps can you take to embrace this training rather than resist it?
- Share with the group one way you plan to apply the sermon’s message in your life this week. Hold each other accountable and pray for strength and guidance.
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coming soon