In It Together | Jud Wilhite + Central Live | Central Church

well welcome to central where it's okay to not be okay i'm nikki and thank you for watching this experience today be sure to connect with us by dropping a comment below or you can always go to central.family for events going on right now now don't forget we go live every weekend right here on youtube so you can hit that subscribe button and get notifications for when we go live and when we upload new content for now we have an incredible experience in store for you so check it out what's up central family we're so glad you guys joined us here this weekend this one invites you all to stand let's sing together let's get our hands going [Music] i will sing to you [Music] is i will sing to you [Music] you're faithful to me every day is [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] is [Music] faithful to me every day [Applause] you're thankful to me every day [Music] [Music] all right let's keep our hands moving [Music] i heard [Music] you showed me oh [Music] is [Music] [Music] [Music] is [Music] [Music] you're [Music] and i don't care [Music] oh [Music] [Music] [Music] i got married in 2008 already had my company um was making a lot of money and everything was great got married a stepdaughter and then basically things hit bottom i tried to keep all my staff on and paid them and just wanted to keep it figured it would you know last a certain amount of time and then move on um obviously that didn't happen and i ended up uh going to court and i've gone to prison for three years it was a tough three years i do what i had to do i got divorced in prison my wife came ex-wife so that's what we did and when i got out i came out to zero and obviously because i was so thick headed i just thought i could do it on my own and it would come to a point where i just wanted to say that's it done i went to the hospital and they said i'm a few hours from just everything shutting down i was like 135 pounds i didn't drink or eat for like six days and then after that i'm like what more can i even think about who saved me i mean the doctors were there but who do you think put them there i made it there how do i get there from church and then look where i am right now [Music] you know for the first few weeks it was going up and down up and down take about all day 24 hours a day not knowing what's going on and sleeping on the curb behind whatever it may and i couldn't even sleep much there were times i was just walking late at night and just yelling and screaming you got to help me please i need help i can't do this by myself it's impossible [Music] always believe that there is somebody there and all you got to do is cry out to them i can't even believe sometimes my family will ask me some of my friends i go i don't even know how i made it i have no clue but how the man upstairs that's the only way i could have made it i was sleeping skid row on and off for months and i mean that is not a place to be [Music] basically my story is really is no matter what you can get through things if you believe in god you believe in jesus christ and you know he's there to help you but there's no way i should be here right now sitting with you absolutely not and i feel i become a better person and to be a stronger person a better person to help other people besides myself i mean it's all about giving almost every day i see something that he did for me and i think that's when you really believe like wow okay i see it like actually see it without god i was an okay person but with god i'm an amazing person and i am complete i got everything there's nothing else i need i'm a happy guy i'm blessed [Music] beautiful story you know robert had a radical encounter with the grace of god and you know it's that same grace that's available to every single one of us each and every week and i'm just so thankful for the life changing that happens here in fact i got two people up here with me today that have experienced life change in a significant way and this is russ and elena and they've been coming to central for about four years could you please give them a hand and welcome them here today we're so thankful for you both being here and just sharing a little bit of your story with us and i know you've been married for about 13 years five kids i'm sure that keeps you busy and um elaine is part of our pre-k team that serves in one of our kids environments as a ministry partner so we're thankful for that all you guys do and they're also part of our legacy team but one of the things i wanted to ask you about is you know it's been a journey for both of you kind of coming into faith and what does that you know what that looked like what was it early on for you that helped you moved into that relational connection with god well for me it was the community groups i always felt left out lonely moving here from no family no friends and so this past year going through covid really made me push myself to join a group of women and stay connected how did that help you as you were starting to face some of the challenge that a lot of us have been through this year how is community like a lifeline for you well like every morning rina is one of my favorite she will always text us what can i pray for you girls this week or for today and they keep you accountable and and do bible studies together and it's been amazing just knowing that you got people praying for you on a regular basis is huge russ how about you when you uh became a christian and kind of started following a relational connection with god what was that like for you so for me personally you know i uh grew up catholic and to be honest i didn't quite understand it it was a little different it was it was like sit stand neal and for me that didn't didn't jive i just didn't understand it so went through interesting times and came out on the other side and met my wife and at some point i actually helped build a church and so i'd work night shift and the church was on my way home so i just i'd get off at seven in the morning i would drive there and i'd literally work until i would just drop and then i'd go home and sleep and so i did that for about three straight months and you know we finally opened the church and i realized you know wow like being the hands and feet of the church was something that i i didn't understand until you you do it and so i actually ran the lights at the church and so i got to be in the back and see people raising their hands and like almost be the experience because the lights are a big part of the experience so for me it was like seeing the response of that was really something that made me grow big time that's awesome let's give it up for russ on that that's awesome you know one of the things that the bible talks about is that we're the body of christ and we are the hands and feet of jesus in so many different ways and so sometimes it starts by serving sometimes it starts by giving sometimes it starts by doing the lights we've got to have all of those things so i know for both of you giving has been part of your journey as well but it didn't start there how did your giving journey kind of work for you guys well this one this is how it started for me because honestly financially like i learned how to give with my hands right and give back by doing which was a big step for me personally um but realizing that like god gave you what you have so giving it back is something that isn't even like it's something you don't think about you just say oh you gave me this and it's not mine so when you give it back you know when you're you know i don't know the verse but when you when you read through the bible you'll see where it says trust me in this this is the only thing that he like actually basically says you have to be tested in this and the testing is something that i do i'm a feely touchy kind of person so just believing something is really hard for me so it's like test me in this so i i went down that path of like testing and uh you basically pushed me along with the the you know understanding that more and realizing that when you're faithful with little you will be given more and you can give back more and just it's just an unbelievable experience when you actually start it but it was a real challenge for me personally to start giving financially i love that perspective though that you began to recognize that everything you have comes from god anyways so to give back to him as a natural response to the gratitude that we have for all that he's given us and so i know you guys have experienced a lot of blessing as a result and uh even though it's been some challenging times there's also been a lot of blessing with us tell us a little bit about that um gosh there's been so many there's been times where this is back in cali where we lived and we were coming home from church and going you know if you're on the 465 heavy traffic going 80 miles an hour like how do you dodge something and god did that night where there wasn't a single car on the side of us and he just kept our car in control the whole time it was just incredible our coved year actually hit before covid um so during covid um you just heard all of these stories of just sadness of job loss no one having food and then here's russ and i where it's been our most prosperous year and you almost felt guilty um so when we had a legacy meeting it was so good to hear other people feeling the same way that it was okay to feel that way like i wasn't the only one but we've just had blessed income job like my husband's job is basically a dream in my mind for him so it's just been an amazing year well i think you guys have found that we're blessed to be a blessing and that's what you guys have done so we're just so thankful for both of you and just all that you bring to the church your time and your talent your resources everything that you do and i just want to make sure you know from the bottom of our hearts you are making an eternal difference in the lives of people and thank you so much for all that you guys do let's give it up for us thank you guys so much thank you very much we're so thankful for both of you so what an incredible story of god's faithfulness in their lives i know many of us could probably share a similar story of what god has done in our lives and so if you want to be a part of our generosity team you want to be a part of what god is doing in this church week in a week out there's several ways you can do that if you want to make a financial contribution you can simply go to central.family or at the end of the experience our ushers will have buckets at all the exit doors if you want to give that away or if you're at one of our physical locations just go to somebody in the lobby that's wearing a red apron and they would be glad to help you by swiping your debit or credit card but just know that every time that you give is going towards change lives and we're just so thankful that we get to partner together in making a difference in the lives of people so let's take a moment pray and just ask god to bless this time father we just thank you so much for the opportunity that we have to come together and to worship you god we know that this is a place where we say it's okay to not be okay and that we can come as we are but god we know that you want more for that than us and you want to bless our lives in significant ways and i just pray god that is we're faithful in all that you've given us lord that you would continue to show your faithfulness back to us and so lord bless these gifts bless these offerings that we're about to receive use them to continue to further your work that you're doing in this world god we love you and we praise you in jesus name amen [Music] let's all stand and sing together [Music] cause every time my you're the one who always [Music] me you never let me [Music] and i can walk through shadows [Music] always leads me [Music] is [Music] you never let [Music] me go you never let me go [Music] sleep [Music] give me faith to teach this generation how to live a legacy [Music] you never let us go [Music] you never let us [Music] [Music] [Music] oh [Music] amen when we come to a time in our experience that we would love to just pray with and for those who are in need i think it's so easy to constantly run away from what we're facing and run away from what scares us but what if instead we stopped running from something and started running to someone and started running to god in prayer you know he might not remove the problems we face but he promises to reveal his presence when we simply just put our trust in him so maybe that's you right now and you just want to run to god with everything you've got maybe you feel like your problem's too small or maybe your problem's too big there's no problem too big or too small for god's grace so if that's you and you just need prayer right now i just ask you to just slip your hand in the air if you're not raising your hand right now i encourage you to just reach out to someone who is you don't to touch them but let's just lift them up in prayer right now god thank you so much for those reaching out to you god i just pray that we would continue to run to you with everything that we're facing god with all that we've got we would know that your grace covers every situation god i don't know what everyone's facing right now but you do you know each and every heart in this room each and every heart of those who are joining us online god i pray that you would bless those reaching out to you right now god that you would give them peace and understanding in their situation god we love you and we thank you and we lift all these things up in jesus name and everyone said amen [Music] god bless his face shine upon you be gracious [Music] is [Music] i [Music] bless you and make his face shine upon you be gracious [Music] is [Music] me me [Music] and your family and your children and their children [Music] [Music] and [Music] in he's for you [Music] [Applause] [Music] um [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] every all around you for you [Music] [Music] [Music] good to see you guys today so glad you are here with us we're wrapping up this teaching series we've been in called we are family which is just a mashup of the word friend and family we've been learning about the church from the book of acts in the new testament and how that applies to us in our lives today and one of the most powerful stories that i've hung on to for years that reminds me of the purpose of the church actually comes from an organization called the life-saving society and this is a group that operated in the early days of the founding of america on the east coast by nantucket island and basically what they would do is in that area ships would be coming in to the east coast and the water was very rocky and it was rough and they'd get in really tough situations and so they would send a flare up and these people these individuals just like you and i would volunteer and they would set up little huts along the coast they called them huts of refuge and they would look out on the water for these ships when they got in trouble and they send a flare up and they would go out and rescue these people and bring them in and so there's a whole museum on nantucket island dedicated to them it's called the museum of life saving and uh it's amazing that people did this they had a slogan that they recruited with the slogan was you have to go out you don't have to come back can you imagine that like recruiting with that it's like okay so there's no money involved there's no life insurance policy here this is all volunteer just because people are worth it and if a flare goes up and you're in a hut of refuge you have to go out but you don't have to come back and these people thought human life was worth enough that their fellow citizens were worth enough that they would volunteer to man these little huts of refuge and sit and look out at the ocean for that flare to go up of somebody who was in trouble and then they would go out and risk their lives to save them and to bring them back it's an amazing story and over time the u.s coast guard came in and they began to partner with the life-saving society and they would do it together and then eventually the coast guard entirely took over those duties and the life-saving society was no longer doing what they were doing but they didn't disband this is what's fascinating they continued to meet they still exist they have dinners they have educational functions they do all kinds of things they get scholarship money that they give to certain people right they're just not in the life saving business anymore and i think about that story because that can happen not only to an organization that can happen to a church as well the church is supposed to be in the life-saving business we're in the business of connecting people to the grace love and mercy of god through his son jesus christ we believe that christ can change our lives can give us hope can help us find freedom can help us find strength and move forward and we are in the hope dealing business where we connect people to god but the temptation is over time to start getting more focused on ourselves than on those who are not yet in our church buildings to start getting more focused internally than we are externally to have great fellowship and have great dinners and hang out and enjoy one another but no longer search the coast if you will for those who are in need no longer look for those flares going up when people are hurting with a commitment that says we run to the battle listen our mission as a local congregation across our location central is simply this to introduce people to jesus and help them follow him it's that simple and i want you to know covet hasn't changed that mission a pandemic didn't change that mission the last 18 months has not changed that mission all the things we've gone through as a church as individuals all the things we've been through that mission is has not changed we are still about introducing people to jesus and helping them follow him and the natural energy the natural energy in a church is to pull away from that and to pull back towards our own comfort to pull back towards sort of our own uh zone of who we know and what we know and we as a church i want to make you a little uncomfortable i want to keep pushing us out there to say we've got to go to the need we've got to go to our community in fact i want you to look around at all of your locations i'm so glad that you're here if you're attending one of our locations but just look around i want you to start praying for those empty seats around you that god in his grace would use you and i to reach people with his redemptive love so that they would come and fill those seats until every seat is full for the fame and glory of jesus christ our job is so far from done everybody look around we look done no we're not done we have work to do jesus gave us a great commandment and he gave us a great commission the great commandment was love god and love people the great commission was go into all the world and make disciples baptizing in the name of the father and the son and the holy spirit and so that's what we do we introduce people to jesus we help them follow him we're a family but we're a family on mission god has rescued you to be a rescuer he's rescued you to be a rescuer he has blessed you and blessed me to be a blessing we can't forget that i want you to remember where you were when god got a hold of you come on i want you to remember just go back with me right some of you are already clapping you're like man i don't have to be there long no that was a miracle right just go back look i washed up into a church like some you know messed up fish out of water 17 years old strung out on everything four years addicted to drugs my life upside down and thank god there were a group of people who had prayed that somebody like me would rock up at their door there was a group of people that were didn't judge me they didn't look down on me they just accepted me and helped me and walked with me and i have often said look jesus saved my life right but but god but he used the church the local church people like you and me to do it we're in the life-saving business and just by our gathering by our actions by what we do god can use us to impact other people so let's go to the book of acts chapter three i want to look at one final story in acts acts is like the history book of that first church community and we've already seen that there were several thousand who were gathering in jerusalem they would gather in larger groups in the temple they were meeting in homes they were devoting themselves to the study of the bible the apostles teaching to fellowship together they gave generously they supported the needs of the community this is what we see that first church doing in acts chapter 3 uh peter and john two guys that were apostles of jesus peter would go on to be a huge influential leader in that church in jerusalem they're walking along they're going to the temple they're probably going to meet with some other believers in a larger group gathering and there's a man there who has been set by the temple gate this man has been lame since birth and he's begging i mean in that time and in that culture it wasn't like there was benefits there was no disability uh you know you had to be able to work take care of yourself there was no safety net beyond that so you can imagine how hard it would be for this guy his whole life's been reduced to this mat his friends pick him up they carry him to the temple they set him down by the temple gate um in hopes that his people walk by he can beg and he can get some money from them and as peter and john are walking by these leaders in that first church community here's what we read help me out say it real loud when we get to the red word here it says the lame man looked at them eagerly expecting some money he's like come on help help a brother out right expected some money but peter said i don't have any silver or gold for you but i'll give you what i what have in the name of jesus christ the nazarene get up and walk now there's a lot here but one thing i want but this is one of the and as you read on in the story the man gets up and he walks it's one of the incredible miracle stories in the book of acts peter heals him um and you leverages his supernatural gift of healing and then we'll see leverages that moment to share the good news of jesus but what i've often missed when you look at the story is you kind of jump right to the miracle and you kind of miss this moment right here peter could have gotten shut down in this moment this guy's asking for money and peter's like i don't i don't have any money and it could have been like he could have felt defeated he could have felt you know kind of pushed back in that moment like you know i don't have what the guy wants i don't have what the guy needs but he knew he could give what he did have which was worth so much more than just money if you want to be rescued to be a rescuer peter's going to give us a challenge from his own life and that is give what you have give what you have not what you don't have and we're all unique we're all different in fact i saw this on social media i thought it was just a pretty funny little representation of uh our many many differences that we have in our lives let's bring this up um so here we go it's on the right there someone added uh about the right uh someone asked about the right way to cut toast and this is now the whole internet's fighting check it out how many of you how many you say triangles and then how many of you say rectangles no okay and then i don't know what that other one is exactly the truth is like we're all unique we're all different even in how we cut toast even how we look at life and have you ever thought about this god can use you in your uniqueness to rescue somebody else god can use you in your uniqueness to introduce somebody else to jesus a lot of times we think it has to be the pastor up front delivering the message that leads people to jesus but let me just ask you like show of hands how many of you came to faith in jesus christ because you saw billy graham do a crusade on tv how many of you came to faith in jesus because of the influence of a friend or a family member in your life i mean just look around god can use you in your everyday life to be that person for somebody else you don't have to have everything just leverage what you have think about it you have we all have different gifts the bible says when you come to follow jesus god's spirit comes and dwells within you and he brings certain spiritual gifts the bible lists up to 20 different spiritual gifts in its pages i don't think it's an exhaustive list there's likely even more faith the gift of hospitality there's the gift of teaching there's a gift of generosity like there's all kinds of gifts there's gifts of healing all kinds of gifts that god gives to his people you haven't been left out you haven't been passed over you have gifts somebody like well i don't know what my gift is man how am i supposed to find that out look the way you discover your gifts is you just jump in and start serving somewhere anywhere and you'll start figuring out like just by doing things oh that's not it right or or maybe maybe maybe i'm called to do this listen the first message i ever gave the first comment i ever received after that message i worked really hard on it i was really young and i preached this message i delivered this message and this lady comes up to me and this is the first thing first comment i ever received after the first message i ever gave this lady says you have the widest teeth of anyone i have ever seen she was like annoyed about it i'm like well i'm i'm sorry they're fake i grew up on well water you know but i knew in that moment there was something there not from the feedback but from what it did in me i knew god had a plan and a purpose for me in that moment look all i'm saying is you may jump into something and you may not be the greatest at it but that doesn't mean it's not a part of your gift you got to grow into your gift you got to practice your gift you got to let that that passion lead you forward in your gift but we have different gifts we have different personalities some of you can fix anything it's amazing my dad was like this anything breaks you could just jump in and fix it you love to work with your hands there's no project that's too difficult you're not afraid i mean then others of us like me we're just wannabes and we're stubborn enough to think that that's who we are but we're just not you know i've been all year working on this car project and let me just tell you man buy an old car first of all it costs way more than you ever thought it would and it takes so much longer to actually i watch these youtube videos and it takes me like days it takes them like 10 minutes it's amazing i've decided i'm not very i can do this but i'm not good at this this is not my ability it's like a while back lori and i we were going to redo our kitchen and we were going to put new door new knobs on the kitchen uh drawers and and cabinets and i knew i should have hired it out come on guys you feel me here that moment you're like i should pay somebody to do this but but you're like i can do it i got it i'm a man and so we leveled it all out we did all the things and it was mostly straight if you weren't looking too closely but what i'll remember is at the end you know like when we're all done i'm like this is so cool and i go to open this one drawer to put some things back and i didn't realize when i put the the hardware on this drawer over here it now blocked this drawer over here which was now never usable again just pushed it back in that drawer will be empty we all have different gifts we have different experiences different experiences some of you you've been through some really hard things you've been through loss and difficulty and hardship and god can use what you've gone through to help somebody else with what they're going through god can use what you've gone through to help somebody else with what they're going through people have asked me over the years so many times like like judd pastor what why do you why are we going through this and i confess i don't know why but i do know that on the other side of our pain god can use that to bring encouragement to others when they go through their pain lori and i have navigated depression in our marriage and in our lives and i feel like we can walk with others who are who are trying to navigate that in their lives we we face miscarriages we've raised two kids hello and in all the ups and downs of that you learn some things you can sympathize with some things i've i've buried two parents that i love dearly fact just today i was talking to a lady and telling her about central and explaining who we were and inviting her to come along and she goes you know i've been taking care of my parents i've been taking care of my uh my family as they age and you know she's been going through some challenges and she was the only one in the area all her other family was spread out and she goes you know but i'm doing it i'm taking care of them because that's just what you do and i stopped her and i said no that's not what everybody does but that is what you're doing and i want to thank you for it because it makes a difference and i just kind of threw this out there to her i didn't know where she was on the spiritual like spectrum but i said you know the bible says if you honor your father and mother it will go well with you and you will live a long life and she smiled she put her hand on my on my arms she's like thank you listen we all have different experiences we can leverage those for somebody even if it's just that we know how to be an ear we know how to walk with them and we have different passions different interests god can use them if we'll allow them you may not feel like you have a lot of extra resources right now maybe the budget's tight but maybe you have time maybe you have attention maybe you can offer a sympathetic ear to somebody in your life give what you have you may not have a ton of bible knowledge but you've been through some stuff nothing surprises you you can relate to the struggles of somebody else so give what you have maybe you've been born and raised in church and maybe you hear all these stories of radical life change and you think to yourself man i just don't really have a testimony i was born in church i never really rebelled i've always gone to church never did all that crazy stuff i don't really have enough look everybody has a testimony turn the person next to you everybody turn the person say i have a testimony you have a testimony and for some of you you grew up in church you never rebelled you never went crazy you never did all that stuff that's a miracle that may be the biggest miracle of all and you have a testimony that other people don't have your testimony is going to speak to somebody who thinks all those other people that went off the road needed god but your testimony is hey i needed god but i didn't do any of that stuff god can use you and your story maybe you know how to pray for someone maybe you have some stability in your life that others could find attractive maybe you know where powerful and encouraging verses are in the bible uh you know when and where church is hello give what you have right just give what you have god's blessed some of you with the ability to make money or the ability to have influence or the ability to have a spacious home just just give what you have it's not your job to give what you don't have or to give what others have or even to give what others are asking for you're called to give what jesus has given you to give and here's the thing givers always have enough givers always have enough people that bless others they always have enough god has a way of showing up so give what you have use what god has put in your life and just be open with it second thing we see in peter is to offer a helping hand offer a helping hand everybody needs a helping hand at some point i saw this little clip on instagram i thought this was pretty funny it says upon arriving to help get my keys out of my car the aaa guy locked his keys in his car and had to call triple a [Applause] come on somebody does that sound like you're weak we all need help sometimes so here's this guy he's sitting there he needs help he asked for help peter says in the name of jesus get up and walk and then check this out acts chapter three beginning in verse seven when we get to the red word uh say this out loud here with me it says then peter took the lame man by the right hand and what helped him up we see a stop right there how many times over the centuries have christians had a reputation for not helping people up who were down how many times have we gotten a reputation for kicking people when they're down rather than offering them a hand and helping them up let me just stop here and say we want to be the kind of church god help us be the kind of place where when people are down we don't kick them we extend our hand and we help them up when people are hurting we don't hurt them more we extend our hand and say how can we help you up when people are struggling we say how can we be there for you to pray for you and to help you up check it out he helped him up and as he did the man's feet and ankles were instantly healed and strengthened he jumped up stood on his feet and began to walk and then walking leaping and praising god he went into the temple with them peter does this amazing miracle in this moment and he extends his hand and he helps him up and god shows up but don't miss this jesus really did the me the miracle peter offered a hand jesus provided the healing that's our role as a church right we offer a hand but only jesus can do the healing you know we offer to help but only jesus can make somebody whole not only that and jesus in this case you see there's like this amazing miracle it's it's dramatic the other thing i want you to think about is that not all miracles happen in an instant i mean healings still happen i believe miracles still happen and this is this dramatic example of it it kind of highlights real that's meant to show jesus power but don't miss this sometimes god sometimes he does these highlight reel miracles but man sometimes god does what we might call slow motion miracles and there are slow motion miracles happening all around us i believe jesus is still healing marriages he's still healing families he's still healing addictions he's still healing broken paths he's still still healing those who've lost something precious he's still healing emotional damage he's still healing rebellious spirits he's still healing dislocated destinies look he's still healing our homes our communities our countries and our world one person at a time over time through his people in the church it may be a slow motion miracle but it's still a miracle full of truth and grace and god can use you to be a part of that it'd be easy to look at this story and think oh man well that was peter peter was an apostle you know he's in the bible he's a bible dude peter can do that stuff but god can't really use me but don't forget peter was the guy that just a shortly before when jesus was arrested and was before he was crucified peter three different times stood in this courtyard and he was asked hey aren't you like one of the jesus guys you know don't you aren't you a follower of jesus and peter's like no no no i don't know i don't know who that guy is then somebody else comes along and they're like hey hey aren't don't you follow jesus the bible says he's he's warming his hands by a charcoal fire peter says no i don't know him i don't know three different times he denies christ which is why it's so significant in the latter part of the gospel of john when jesus after he ascends and begins to make some appearances to his disciples shows up on the shore with peter and some others and basically makes them breakfast he takes the fish they've caught and starts to make breakfast and the bible says that it was a charcoal fire just to take peter back to the moment to the denial and jesus looks at him and peter's had these days and weeks to think about his denial to think about his failure all his big talk and you couldn't even like stand your ground in that moment jesus looks at him and he could have said a lot of things he could have said peter you feel real bad because you should because like you didn't come through when i needed you man how bad do you feel right he could he could have come at him and said like i can't believe you i can't believe you betrayed me in the courtyard in that mama like what were you thinking but jesus doesn't do any of that jesus looks at peter and asks one question the only question that really matters and he asked it three times for the three times that peter had denied jesus he said peter do you love me peter says yes lord you know i do jesus says feed my sheep in other words take care of my people then again peter do you love me not peter do you feel bad not peter will you never do that again not peter will you get it together for the rest of your life no there's only one question that jesus asked do you love me and when you answer that question however imperfectly in the affirmative i believe you're positioned like peter to be restored and released to help others in the name of jesus so many people i talk to they feel like god they could never be used by god they don't know enough they are moral enough um you know they they've got too much in their past they aren't smart enough or gifted enough or talented enough or righteous enough but those are not the questions that jesus is asking you the only question that matters do you love me do you love me and you don't need to twist that love into a need for perfect performance peter went on to make all kinds of mistakes he was far from perfect but he went on from that confession of love to be used in so many ways by god and god can use you in the same way listen martin luther once said this god can draw straight lines with crooked sticks that's good news because we're all a little bent god can draw straight lines with crooked sticks i love church history it's one of my past times to study it i won't nerd out on you like i do on my wife i'll spare you but here's what i can tell you just about everybody you love or admire that becomes a hero in the faith down through the centuries so many of them when you dig into their lives you realize oh they were crooked sticks but the good news is those are the only kind of sticks available to god to use and god can draw very straight lines with very crooked sticks none of us are perfect none of us have arrived i'm the first paul said i'm the chief of sinners i'm right there with him i'm the chief of sinners i'll be the first in line to say i'm a crooked stick but by the grace of god he can draw a straight line through you and through me we just have to be willing listen the same grace that covers your salvation covers your serving so god doesn't call the gifted he gifts those that he calls god doesn't simply call the powerful he empowers those that he calls every time you give a hand to somebody hey look every time you give financially a church you are extending a helping hand every time you encourage somebody you are offering a helping hand every time you take time to really listen you're extending a helping hand every time you share a story of what god has done in your life you're extending a helping hand every time you care for somebody every time you serve every time you see a need and you respond you're extending a helping hand look you do the helping and jesus does the healing and so small acts done with great love can make a big impact god can use you to rescue others if you'll just be willing to give what you have and be willing to offer a helping hand and then thirdly point people to god just point people to god look at what happens in the very next verses so good let's check it out acts chapter 3 beginning in verse 12. it says peter saw his what opportunity now this guy's just been healed everybody's like whoa man what happened there's like commotion it's like a fight broke out you know everybody kind of like whoa what's going on they don't know what's happening something went on everybody sort of gathers around and peter looks around and goes opportunity he was looking for an opportunity to point people beyond himself to god and so he addressed the crowd people of israel he said what's so surprising about this and why stare at us as though we had made this man walk by our own power or godliness peter's like it wasn't us y'all we're crooked sticks but he says for it is the god of abraham isaac and jacob the god of all our ancestors who has brought glory to his servant jesus by doing this he pointed beyond himself to jesus friends we want to be the kind of church that continues to point beyond ourself to jesus and your friends and your family when you're at the gym when you're working out when you're shopping everywhere you go be looking for opportunities to point people to jesus everywhere you go and you'll be surprised i just today i was able to point somebody that that i was interacting with unto jesus somebody i had never met before uh earlier this week i talked to a lady she's like oh yeah you're a pastor i said yeah she goes you know i i haven't been to church or done anything with church since covet and i'm like well we're open and she's like really i'm like oh yeah we've been oh you know but it was great right no judgment i was able to just explain to her yeah she's like what's it like you know i'm like it's like normal and you know we sort of talk that through and but you know everywhere you go you can it's an opportunity right to point people to god she may be here right now sorry if i didn't get that right it's an opportunity leverage that opportunity i talked to a friend of mine this week he was traveling and he was going to singapore and he had a central live hat and this was all he did he's a simple prayer right he put this hat on it's got two arrows some of you all remember this hat one arrow kind of pointing up one arrow pointing down and and he prayed god i pray that somebody will see this hat and start up a conversation with me and i can point them to you that was his prayer and he said would you believe i got off the plane and we got situated in singapore and i don't know where he was but he was walking in and this guy looks at him he goes that's an interesting hat what does that mean and my friend said he looked at him he goes well it's a biblical reference it means he must increase and i must decrease and this guy leaned in and he goes i'm a pastor in south africa and the holy spirit had told me i'm going to meet somebody today that i needed to talk to and listen to and learn with and he goes you are the person i'm supposed to talk to and they said they sat down for six hours and shared together you can how do you explain these things he said they're still friends they text each other this guy pastors a huge church and say show me pictures of him i was like wow but that's just somebody who's open right they're just open to say god just give me an i'm looking for an opportunity god i'm your servant i'm here i'll do it i'm not afraid i'm ready give me an opportunity and you may be surprised what god could do something like i'm afraid to post about an invite to church or anything on social media people think i'm weird you know go down that whole rope somebody i've heard some people say well i might lose some followers well you know jesus lost followers just saying you don't have to cram it down anybody's throat but every now and then it might be okay to just be like you know i can lose a few followers it's okay because the good news is somebody may lean in and that might make an eternal difference in their life my favorite poems is by a guy named samuel shoemaker he was uh really involved in the early days of alcoholics anonymous before it became all that it was and was sort of pastorally one of the early people helping shape the 12 steps and what they would ultimately come to be but he wrote this poem called i stand at the door and uh i've hung on to it for years because it's a reminder to me of the importance of pointing people to god and doing what we can to help others experience god and part of this poem goes like this he's speaking of the spiritual life and the door to god and he says you can go in too deeply and you can stay in too long and forget the people outside the door he's saying when when you come to faith you can you can dive all into your faith but don't forget the people that are just like you were and he says as for me i shall take my old accustom place near enough to god to hear him and know that he is there but not so far from people as not to hear them and remember that they are there too where outside the door thousands of them millions of them but more important for me one of them two of them whose hands i am intended to put on the latch so i shall stand by the door and wait for those who seek it i'd rather be a doorkeeper so i stand by the door friends i'd rather be a door keeper too i'll stand by that door and i know you will as well in hopes that we'll have an opportunity to help put somebody's hand on that latch and that door is the door to god and faith that can lead to such transformation in their life just like it has in our own lives that's the kind of church we want to be people say why why do you do that music feels more like a concert than church well we stand by the door why do people you know dress so casually around church you know well we stand by the door why why do people bring their coffee in the auditorium we stand by the door friend of mine who spoke a while back she goes you know i was surprising to me i was in the book lineup she goes never seen more beer shirts in a book line at a church in my entire life i want you to know i wore that as a badge of honor we stand by the door there are a lot more important things than what you're wearing just wear something we don't want to forget who we were and even who we are just sinners in need of grace we just want to be there to help other people we're not better than anybody we don't have all the answers i certainly don't have it all figured out but look i feel like i'm just a beggar who found out where the spiritual bread was and now i want to help other beggars experience that bread in their own lives i want to stand at the door and help put some hands on some latches i'm fired up for this year you guys this is going to be one of the greatest years in our church's history i believe it with all my heart not because of big amazing things that may happen but listen because i think people have had 18 months to think about their own mortality and i'm believing that we're going to see people with an openness for god begin to lean in and friends let's be the kind of people that are right there to say hey let me pray for you let me help you let me point you to god a couple ways we can do that right here coming up next week i'm going to kick off a brand new teaching series called happier together if you know people going through marriage challenges dating challenges and who isn't relationship kinds of things this will be a great series for them two weeks we're gonna do a thing around all of our locations called a back to church bash we're gonna have a lot of family fun a lot of things going on but even more than all the fun stuff will be the faith and the hope and the love that people can experience in their life when they lean in let's pull on that same rope together help people take those spiritual steps in their life maybe you're here today and maybe you've never crossed that line of faith i'd love to give you that opportunity as well so would all of you bow your heads and close your eyes and if you'd like to become a follower of jesus today you can begin that journey by repeating a simple prayer after me just to open your heart to god to say dear god i thank you for loving me thank you for sending jesus into the world i believe he died on the cross for my sins i believe he rose again forgive me for my sins give me the gift of eternal life and help me face the challenges that i'm up against god i surrender my life to you in christ's name friends with every head bowed and every eye closed wherever you're at today will you just slip your hand in the air if that's your prayer just slip your hand in the air just make eye contact with me if you can just slip your hand in the air and acknowledge you're going to follow god in your life you're going to trust him god bless you guys just reach out to him today [Music] god i thank you for your love i thank you for each one of your people just reaching out to you i pray you'll fill them with your spirit with your purpose and with your goodness we thank you for this moment in christ's name amen let's put our hands together for those who made spiritual commitments in their life today if you made a spiritual commitment we'd love to for you to go to central.family just click i've decided to follow jesus we want to send you a resource we'd love to know how we can pray for you or any way that we can connect with you well i'm going to throw it now to our locations so let's put our hands together for them as they take us through the rest of their experience [Applause] and here at henderson i'm going to ask you to stand we're going to do a little reprise here and let's close out with a moment of worship [Music] [Music] the children [Music] he is for you [Music] um [Music] what an incredible experience remember that we go live every weekend and it's a great way to meet and interact with so many of the central family for now as you go on throughout this week remember to hold on to romans 8 that says if god is for us who can be against us we'll see you next time

Channel: Central Church

Views: 1,163

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: central church, central online, central live, drew bodine, it's okay to not be okay, pastor jud wilhite, jud wilhite, Sermons, online church, easter at central, christmas at central, first step, celebrate recovery, groups, central youth, cy nights, cy, mancave, girls night out, me time, hope for the city, central academy, faith

Id: LTNv8EmR940

Length: 71min 9sec (4269 seconds)

Published: Sat Sep 04 2021