I Have Decided To Keep Fighting | Pastor Adam Peterson

Come on, somebody, we are in week four of our series called I Have Decided. Before we jump into the message, let me look into the camera. Welcome, our online family that is with us. We are so grateful for you. I got on during the last song just to check out how many of you there were. There's a lot of you, and so we're so grateful for you. If you are tuning in from outside of Jacksonville, come on, let's go. It's nice and, it's not sunny, but it's warm over here right now. And then if you're from Jacksonville and you're watching online, we're so glad you're here. Guess what? We want you in the house if you're able to be here. We hope to see you next Sunday, but we're grateful for you. And then come on, Rise Church, help me welcome all the men and women in the correctional facilities. Come on, you are our church family. We're so grateful for you. Hey, so my name is Adam. That was my wife, Rebecca. Together, we pastor and lead Rise Church. If you're new, a lot of new people in the house today. So grateful that you're here. We teach through series at our church. And the start of this series for this year

has kind of been one of those things that, man, like we wanna follow Jesus. Like we wanna run after him and hope that you want that in your own life. Nobody clapped, but that's okay. We wanna run after Jesus. But if we're gonna do that, we gotta make some decisions in our lives. You made a great decision by being in church this morning. You could have stayed home like the online crowd, but you got here, okay? And we're grateful that you made a decision to watch us today. You could make multiple decisions in your life. But for all of us in here, if we really, truly want to pursue more of God, we gotta decide in our heart that we're going after him. So that's what this series is all about. And today, I wanna preach on this topic that God has just burned on my heart. I hope it brings some encouragement to you. It's this, I have decided, come on, to keep fighting. Now, we're on the west side of Jacksonville. Many of you grew up in here. Come on, I know this is probably gonna be at least half the crowd, and half of those are probably gonna be women in here. But raise your hand if you've ever been in a fight in your life. Come on, raise your hand if you ever won that fight.

Raise your hand if you lost that fight. Yeah, won some, lost some, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Today, we're gonna talk about fighting, fighting, fighting. I ran into somebody that I hadn't seen in a while on one of the last days of 2025. I think it was like December the 29th, just getting caught up with them. And I just said, hey, how are things going? They looked back at me and they said, I just can't wait for 2026 to get here. I'm ready just to leave all of that stuff behind and enter into that new year. And I wanted to look back at them, because I understood what they were saying, but I wanted to look back at them and go, that's not how it works. It's not like there's this force field, right? That on December the 31st, it's just like all of the problems of 2025 just magically stop, right? All of your problems from 2025 follow you into 2026. And then guess what? A whole bunch of new problems are gonna happen in 2026. And if you're like, well, pastor, why don't you be a little more positive? Okay, I'm positive. You're gonna have a whole bunch of new problems in 2026. That's just a reality.

And so how do we keep fighting when all of this stuff is coming at us? As I was preparing for this message, the word aftermath kind of popped into my head. And if you don't know what that word means, it's not a mathematical term. It means this. It's the consequences or the after effects of an unpleasant event, meaning something happened and there's consequences to the thing that happened. Some of you are living in the aftermath of, catch this, somebody else's bad decisions. Some of you are living in the aftermath, hello, of your own bad decisions. A lot of us, many of us are living in the aftermath of just things that are going on in our world today. And we find ourselves in these places from time to time. And if we're not careful, we can start to blame things. We can start to blame God. Raise your hand if you've ever blamed God for something in your life. And if your hand's not in the air, that just means you're a liar. And we're so glad you're at our church today. We created it for liars. If you've never looked at God and be like, this is your fault, that just means you haven't lived long enough. If we're not careful, we'll start to blame others.

Raise your hand if you've ever blamed others. Okay, some of you still haven't raised your hand. You're just staying steady, consistent, not raising my hand, just gonna keep lying, okay. We'll blame God, we'll blame others, and then the blaming will actually start to turn into what? Complaining. So now I've got blaming and I've got complaining. And I heard a pastor say this, blaming and complaining are the exit ramp to quitting. That's good stuff, isn't it? I wish I came up with that, that's a great quote. I'm blaming all the things that are happening in my life on God, others, situations. Now I'm complaining about all the consequences that I'm facing. And if I'm not careful, if I stay in that. state, I'll quit, I'll give up because it's not worth it anymore. What's the point? And if you find yourself in that place right now where, come on, anybody want to just be real and just go 2026 has already brought some new problems. I'm already walking through some stuff. Yeah, I'm right there with you. If you find yourself in a fight right now, if you find yourself in a place where life is not easy right now, this message is for you, but everybody else needs to grab a hold of this because odds are you're going to walk through a fight. You're going to have a battle.

There's going to be a storm that comes your way. And when you're in that place, catch this. Jesus himself has an invitation to you. Oh, this is so good. This is our King of Kings and our Lord of Lords. This is what he says in Matthew 11. Hey, are you tired? Anybody tired today? I'm not talking about physical tired. We live in a state of physical tired, right? I'm talking about just mentally, emotionally, just exhausted. Are you worn out? Are you burned out on religion? Here's what he says. Come to me, get away with me, and when you do that, you'll recover your life. I'll show you how to take real rest. Jesus says, are you exhausted? Are you frustrated? Are you annoyed right now? Are you worn out? There's only one place you need to go. When you find yourself in that state, you need to come to me. Stop scrolling on social media. Stop binge watching shows on Netflix. Come to me. Turn off the news and come to me. If you feel tired, I got you. And then he goes on to say this. Walk with me and work with me.

Watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. And I love that phrase, which just means this. Following Jesus isn't something you have to do. It's something you get to do. I hope that you all get to a place in 2026 when you open up God's word. It's not something that you go, I guess I have to read this because I'm a Christian. I don't have to read this. I get to read this. This is a joy and a privilege to open up this book because the words in here are full of, whoa, sorry, Lord. Life. I lay anything. He says, I won't lay anything heavy or ill fitting on you, meaning all the world's going to throw this stuff at you. But that's not from God. He says, keep company with me and you'll learn to live freely and lightly. I highlighted all the me's in the eyes because the invitation that Jesus is saying is, if you're tired, the only way for you to get real rest and the only way for you to make it through the battles and the fights that you're facing is through him, you can try to do it on your own. You don't have enough strength. Life is hard. Can I get an amen? It's a lot harder without Jesus. And maybe some of you are in this place and you've been

trying to do it on your own, and you're like, I'm exhausted. Welcome to the club. This is what Jesus is saying. I know you're going to get tired. I know you're going to get worn out. That's why I'm here. The invitation is to come to me. Aren't you grateful Jesus didn't just look at us and go, figure it out, get it together. He goes, no, no, no, no. I know you're going to walk through some tough stuff. I got you come to me. So let me just give you some encouragement today. How many of you want to be encouraged? Let's go. And if you didn't raise your hand, that just means you're consistent. You haven't raised your hand all morning. So glad you're in the house. Let me give you some encouragement this morning. If you find yourself in a fight right now, Romans eight, this is Paul telling us if God is for us, here's the good news. Who can ever be against us? All right. We got work to do. We got work to do. This is Paul. My man got thrown the majority of his adult life. He spent in prison for preaching about Jesus.

He was cast away, shipwrecked, whipped, beaten. One time they tried to kill him by throwing rocks at him. Had a hard life. And he makes this statement. All of that stuff can try to come against me. But if God's for me, that's all I need. Now, it might feel like from time to time that all of life is coming against you, that nothing's going right. But in that moment, God's like over here. I'm still for you, and that should matter for something. Because if God's for me, man, it doesn't matter what's trying to come against me. Now, that preaches really good. It's a lot harder to apply to your life, though, isn't it? Because when you're in the middle of the fight, sometimes you wonder, God, where are you? Are you here? And God wants to remind you he is right there with you. Every step of the way. Not only is he with you. who he's for you. And then Paul goes on to say this in the later verses. He says, and I am convinced. That word convinced means this. It means he is certain of something. You ever been certain of something? My wife and I are 20 years into our marriage right now. Here's what I'm certain of. She's smarter than me. I am 100%.

She's better looking than me. I'm certain of it. But I'm a better driver than she is. So that kind of weighs things out a little bit, right? Come on, let's go, man. You know what I'm talking about. Paul says, I'm certain of this. I am convinced of this. It took me a while to get here, but I'm here now. I'm on board with this thing that nothing, somebody say nothing. Nothing. Nothing can ever separate us from God's love. Isn't that good news this morning? You know, sometimes as a preacher, you think you're gonna get up here and you're gonna read a Bible verse and you're like, when I say this, they're gonna lose their minds. I'm gonna say nothing can separate and they're gonna go, whoa! Somebody's gonna throw something, you know? And then you just sit there. But I know in your heart, you're just like, yeah! Can we try it one more time and just kind of, come on. Can we hear this verse? Maybe some of you grown up and you've heard this verse a thousand. Can we hear it like it's the first time ever? And can we just grab a hold of how amazing this is?

Paul says, I'm convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God's love. Yeah, there we go, okay, all right. It doesn't really count when you have to tell people to do it, but I'm gonna take it anyways. And then Paul just goes, and let me just make a list of the things that can't separate you. Hey, if you die, it can't separate you because now you're gonna be in heaven. Hey, if you keep living, nothing can separate you because I'm here with you on earth and my love is for you. Hey, some angels might try to do it, probably not, but if they did, can't. Some demons are definitely gonna try to come along and do it, but good news is they can't, neither can rulers. And he's not talking about like the 12 inches rulers, like he's talking about like ruler, like people rulers, all right, that was a joke, you didn't laugh, that's okay. 830 didn't laugh either, must not have been a great joke. Neither are fears for today, can't, nor are worries about tomorrow. And you can't control tomorrow anyways, but even if you could, you don't need to worry about it because God's love's with you. Not even the powers of hell, all of hell itself, and all of hell, trust me, is trying to come against you. All of hell is trying to make you think that God doesn't love you. All the powers of hell, they have no power

because they can't separate us from God's love. Hey, there we go. And I would have stopped there if I was Paul, but he was like, actually, I need to talk about the power in the sky, so I don't know what that means. No power in the sky above or in the earth below. Let's keep reading. Indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Meaning this, meaning this, no matter what you walk through in life, God is with you. No matter what you face in life, you can take comfort in, this is the darkest days I've ever walked through. This is the hardest thing I've ever experienced in this world, but God, here's the one thing I can keep holding onto, your love. This is why, and I'm gonna try to hold my Bible this time. This is why this word is so precious to us, because this is truth. And when you're in the middle of things sometimes, when you're walking through the battle, when you're in the fight, sometimes it might appear that God is nowhere to be seen. And you might feel that God's not with you, but you can't go off of what you feel because your feelings are fickle and they'll change. We have to go off of what we know to be true. And God's truth of his word says this,

it doesn't matter what you face, my love is for you. Can I get a better amen? Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Psalms 23 says this, verse four, a popular psalm. You probably have heard it before. If you've never heard it, it's six verses. Go read it, it's powerful. He says this, even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for you are with me. You're rod and your staff, they're not here to beat me. God's not trying to get you. They're there to comfort me. He's beating the devil down to protect you. Come on, somebody. Raise your hand if you feel like at some point in your life you've walked through a dark valley. Raise your hand if you think you might be in one right now. Yeah, I walked through one this week. Over the summer of 2025, we were driving home from school and our family's dentist is kind of on the way home. from their school to our house. And as we were driving by, I saw things happening in the parking lot of the dentist and I remembered, oh, I remember them telling us that they were gonna be giving away some stuff and that we should stop by. So the kids were like, can we go in?

Turns out they were giving away like cookies and brownies and all kinds of stuff. I'm like, this is a scam, man. They're trying to get us to eat the sweets so that we have to keep going back to the dentist. You know what I'm talking about? And so anyways, you know, we stop in and we get the sweets because they're free and if it's free, it's for me, let's go. And so we got it and then they said, and now come over here and write your name on one of these raffle tickets because we're giving away a free teeth whitening $1,000 value to one person. I'm like, yeah, boom, fill it out, pull it out, drop it in there. They call me a couple of weeks, they go, Mr. Peterson, you won the free teeth whitening. Okay, all right, that's, hey, listen, you're not happy for me, that's fine, okay? You're like, must be nice. I don't win anything, okay? And I won and I was excited about it. And they said, yeah, so they said, we're gonna get you on the schedule, we're gonna bring you in, we're gonna get your teeth looking good. I said, all right, let's go. So Tuesday afternoon, I went in for a teeth whitening. Now I like my teeth, my parents paid for braces

when I was younger, I try to take good care of them. I floss once a week or so, you know what I'm saying? Like, they get me in there and they go, we're gonna, man, we're gonna make you look good. So they put this thing in my mouth and then they start painting my teeth with this whatever it is. And then he goes, all right, we've got three 15 minute sessions that you're gonna be in where we put this light on your teeth, this ultra, I mean, just bright light, I had to wear sunglasses, the whole thing. And he goes, and when you're there, you can't move. So I got this big old thing in my teeth. 15 minutes, 15 minutes goes by, done. He comes back in, paints my teeth again with the thing. He goes, all right, we're gonna do another 15 minutes. The last few minutes, I start to feel some sensitivity in my teeth and it starts to hurt a little bit. He comes in when it's done and he goes, how you feeling? I go, it kind of hurt a little bit. I can't talk because the thing's in my mouth. He goes, what? I said, I think it's sensitive. He goes, oh, it's gonna be a little sensitive. That's what the light does, blah, blah, blah. And I was like, oh, okay. He goes, these last 15 minutes, you're probably gonna feel it a little bit more. And I was like, all right.

So he paints the teeth, puts the light. I kid you not, some of the most pain I've ever been in, in my life, I'm in that chair and I am, ah, ah. I let out a, ah. He comes in and he goes, do you wanna take a break? I'm like, yes, yes. He pulls away. He goes, we got about four and a half minutes left. You can stop now, but you really wanna finish because you're gonna get the full effect if you finish it fully. He goes, do you want me to do it in minute increments? And I just put it on. I just do the whole thing. He put it on and for the next four and a half minutes, I sat in that chair, gripping the arms, ah, ah. And he would go, three and a half minutes. And then he would say, I'm with you, my man. Ah. Two and a half minutes, I'm with you, my man. Ah, ah. I am crying by the end, crying. I looked at him, I said, why would you do this to people? I would never have said yes to that. I don't care if it's free, I don't never. If somebody ever goes, we wanna give you a free teeth whitening, you go, no, I'm not doing it. I'd rather have yellow, brown, green teeth. I don't care, never. The darkest valley.

But I'm here to tell you, I made it. Woo! Still hurts, still hurts. You ready? Can I tie it in? This is a preacher story, you ready? He says, even though I walk through. Meaning I'm not stopping in it and I'm not quitting in it. That last four and a half minutes. Ah! Listen, listen, you are in a valley right now or you're going to be in one. And you're gonna walk through it. Meaning you are going to make it. You are going to come out the other side. You already probably have a testimony of another dark valley that you made it through that you didn't think you were gonna make it through. But God brought you through it. You're gonna walk through it. You're gonna walk through it. You're probably stronger because of it, but you probably would look back and go, I wish I didn't have to, but God, I see that you were with me. He kept saying, I'm with you, my man. Like, no, you're not. You don't have the light on your teeth right now. You're not screaming, you're not with me, my man. Jesus knows.

You know, the dark valley he walked through cost him his life. He died for your sin. He died for my sin. He knows what it's like to walk through a dark valley. And here's the good news. We're not stopping, we're not quitting. We are gonna make it through, not because we have strength to make it through, but because our God is with us. Come on, and he's gonna bring us through. And I don't know if your teeth are gonna be whiter, but that light of Christ is gonna shine brighter in you every step of the way. And so when we hear the voice of God today say, I'm with you, and you're gonna make it. Don't stop. We're walking through the valley, amen? And here's just what I've learned. Pastor Jonathan, you can join me on the stage. One of the best ways to keep fighting, hear me when I say this, is to get in a stinking group. I literally, like, you guys drive me crazy. I seriously, I love you so much, but you drive me crazy. Because I have stood up on this stage for 13 years, and I have said to you, you like what we do here on Sunday morning? The best thing we offer are groups. And you go, nope, not gonna do it.

I'm not gonna do it. Here's what I'm trying to say. Life's hard, man. You wanna get through the battle? You wanna get through the fight? You need some brothers and sisters who will fight with you. It doesn't mean they can take your problems away from you. It means they can step in and go, you're not alone. Because that's what the devil wants you to think. He wants you to think, you're the only one going through this. You're not. We're all walking through hardships. It's not a competition of who's having the worst day. It's us going, we all need each other. You need a big brother that'll throw some haymakers in the devil's face for you. You need a sister who will come along and bring some encouragement to you. We need each other. And you're like, no. I'm actually having the best year I've ever had. I'm like, everything's great in my life. Guess what? You need to be the encouragement for the person that's having the worst year of their life. It's not about you. It's about each other. We're the family of God. So I'm gonna get up here and I'm gonna preach

and I'm gonna tell you, you're in a fight. You need people. Sign up for a group. And you know what you're gonna do? Not. You're not gonna sign up. And I'm gonna be like, what more can I do? So we got all of our ugly safety guys in the parking lot. They're not letting you walk to your car until you sign up for a group today. We've thought about it. But I'm just, it is the challenge I wanna bring to you. In a group, listen, you feel like, oh, I can't get in a group. I'm not very spiritual. Half the people in our church are very spiritual. That's why we need you in groups. It's where we grow. Listen, it's where we grow together. Don't be intimidated. I know men and women deal with insecurity. Because you're like, what am I walking into? I don't know. I promise you this, it's gonna be good. Not gonna push you away from Jesus. It's just gonna push you towards him. Because the last thing I want is for you to find me in six months and go, Pastor Adam, I gotta sit down with you.

I gotta talk about some things going on in my life. And I'm gonna look at you and go, whose group are you in? And you go, I'm not in a group right now. That's why you need to meet with me. You know who the people in our church with that never ask for a meeting with me are? The people in a group. They don't need to meet with me. They got brothers and sisters. That's what I want for you. But you gotta decide it. Listen, I'm a great preacher. Even my best preaching can't get you to get in a group. You have to decide if it's worth it for you. I promise you it is. In closing, Joshua 24, let me give you a little context on this. People of God, Israelites, they've done what all of us do. They've lost their way. They've taken their eyes off of God. They've fallen back to some practices of worshiping false gods that aren't real. And Joshua, this man of God, gets up and he kind of preaches to him. And he says to him, hey, remember the Lord. And he starts from the beginning. Remember Abraham and the promise that God gave him. Remember Moses.

Remember how you were in Egypt as slaves and God set you free. Remember the Red Sea that God. departed and you walked across on dry, do you remember the Lord? Do you remember that when God was faithful, even when you weren't faithful, do you remember him? And he's just unpacking the goodness and the strength and the faithfulness of God. And then he says these words. Hey, if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, like if you don't wanna follow him, then choose yourselves this day, yourselves. Decide for yourself, whether you're a teenager in the house, a young adult, or a grown adult, decide for yourself. Nobody else can do it for you. Decide whom you're gonna serve. Hey, you wanna go back to those little G gods that your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates? Go for it. He goes on to say this. If you wanna go back to the gods of the Amorites in whose land you're living in, go for that. And then he makes this declaration. And he goes, I don't know what you're gonna do because I can't make the decision for you. But as for me and my household, there's only one choice for us. We're serving the Lord.

As for me and my household, we're not quitting. We're not giving up. We're gonna keep fighting. We're gonna keep running after God. Doesn't mean I'm gonna get it right all the time. I'm probably gonna fall down. I'm gonna fall back into some sin. I'm gonna take my eyes off of God, but I'm gonna remind myself of his faithfulness. I'm gonna get back up and I'm gonna keep serving him. This is the word. Who are you gonna serve? You're gonna keep fighting? You're not strong enough, but he's strong enough for you. If God is for us, and he is, and there is nothing that can ever stop us. Can I pray over you? Nobody moving around, holy moment. Presence of God is in this place. You're convicting us, which is a phenomenal thing because it always draws us back to you. You're speaking to our hearts to drive a stake in the ground today. We're not gonna waver. We're running after you. We're not gonna give up. We're gonna keep fighting because you've given us the strength to make it through. In Jesus' name, amen.