Podcast: Download (Duration: 37:07 — 34.0MB)
May 18, 2025
- 1 Samuel 16:1
- 1 Samuel 8:19, 22
- 1 Samuel 16:1
- 2 Chronicles 7:14
Pastor Gene Bebee challenges us to examine how our personal preferences can become prisons that keep us stuck—emotionally, spiritually, and relationally. Drawing from 1 Samuel 16, where God tells Samuel to stop mourning over Saul and anoint a new king, Pastor Gene reminds us that sometimes we cling so tightly to what we want that we miss what God has for us.
Using the cultural reference of the show Love Is Blind, he illustrates how letting go of our typical preferences can lead to unexpected blessings. Just like the show’s participants choose connection over appearance, God invites us to choose obedience over comfort.
Pastor Gene addresses the emotional toll of being stuck—whether in grief, disappointment, or unmet expectations—and emphasizes that God continues to speak even in our stuck seasons. He shares personal stories of how God’s voice broke through when he was clinging to his own plans and preferences.
The heart of the message is this: clinging to preference can cause us to miss God’s promise. Like the Israelites who demanded a king before God’s timing and ended up with Saul, we risk trading God’s best for our short-sighted desires.
Key takeaways from the sermon include:
- Don’t confuse your preference with God’s promise.
- God sometimes closes doors to open better ones.
- Obedience requires surrender—even when it’s uncomfortable.
- There’s a time to mourn, but also a time to get up and move forward.
- We must consistently turn toward God, not back to our past.
Pastor Gene calls us to surrender our preferences to God, just as Jesus did in the Garden of Gethsemane, saying, “Not my will, but Yours be done.” Only by submitting our will can we walk in true freedom and fully receive what God has in store.