King of my Identity | Pastor Jud Wilhite | Central Church

well Happy Father's Day everyone I hope you dads get spoiled a little bit today and you're appreciated for all that you do you know my teenage daughter asked me what I wanted for Father's Day and I said only that she watched with me the movie of my choosing come on so Father's Day for me is gonna include a classic guy movie I think I'm gonna introduce her to like rocky or Braveheart try to educate her on some of the more important movies that have ever been made so we're gonna have a great time on Father's Day you know Mother's Day may be the day when the most calls happen all year but Father's Day is the day where the most collect calls happen all year it's like I love you dad but I need you to pick up the bill well Father's Day makes me think of the two kinds of people in the world that exist when it comes to recreation there's outdoorsy people and there's indoorsy people I know a lot of you dads are outdoorsy people I'm more of an indoor Z person I appreciate the outdoors but it's not really my thing you know I'm more with like Jim Gaffigan who said this he said if it's so great outside then why are all of the bugs trying to get in my house that's what I'm saying so yes but I know lots of people who are more outdoorsy I mean they want to hike they want a camp they want to get away from it all and and when they're in there out outdoors they really thrive you know and so the ultimate kind of outdoorsy person has got to be this guy named Aron Ralston he was hiking in Utah when an 800 pound boulder shifted pinning his left hand to the canyon wall and he was trapped there for five days he went through every emotion that you could imagine he begged God to do something miraculous he hoped that someone might find him as he yelled for help but eventually he realized nobody was coming his water was out and there was only one way that he could get free and survived he had to free himself from the boulder that was pinning his hand that's when he decided to break his own arm and he said when he broke his arm it made a popping sound that echoed through the whole Canyon he said it hurt which truly that's got to be the ultimate understatement of the century right it hurt a lot and if breaking it wasn't bad enough then he began to cut his hand off his arm off slowly with a dull pocketknife now can you imagine cutting your own arm off with a dull pocketknife come on sir but that's next level right there and after he cut his arm up and freed himself he began to hike at one point he had to rappel down a 65 foot drop with one arm he hiked for seven miles through the canyon until someone eventually helped him and you may remember his story because it was highlighted in the movie 127 hours and in his autobiography which is called between a rock and a hard place it's an amazing story of grit and survival and Aron Ralston is still an outdoorsman to this day well a lot of us find ourselves today in our own way stuck between a rock and a hard place and what hit me most about Aaron's story besides the fact that this guy is made of way tougher stuff than me is that that moment of decision he made when he was stuck so you'd wanted to be unstuck for a hundred and twenty-seven hours but everything changed when he moved forward despite the fear and despite the unknowns I mean it seems like every year we hear about hikers and other outdoor enthusiasts who get lost in a snow storm or a dense wilderness and between when they go missing and when rescuers are able to reach them many times their survival depends not on the efforts of search parties but on their own ability to survive see how adept are they building shelter at starting a fire that's staying warm at identifying edible vegetation how resilient are they how hopeful are they so the key to staying alive for those who get desperately lost isn't just kind of knowing how to be found but knowing how to survive until you're found and the same is true for us when we're between a rock and a hard place some of us are there right now emotionally or physically or even spiritually it could be with your job it could be in your marriage it could be in your relationships it could be as a parent as a grandparent in your life it could be in your relationship with God you feel like you're stuck and and you're waiting and waiting and waiting you're waiting between chemo treatments you're waiting between checks you're waiting between conversations to figure out where things are going you're waiting to see how the coronavirus plays out and in the midst of the waiting it's very easy to just start falling back on the why questions we say God why why me why now why am I going through this why am I in this situation why am i suffering listen why is a very important question and it's a good question but sometimes it just spins us around and around without answers we could get paralyzed there and I want to encourage you today because if you're stuck between a rock and a hard place there is a huge reservoir of hope that is available to you if you are willing to trust if you're willing to have the courage to embrace a different question see instead of spinning around with why a better question may be who who will I trust in this situation who is worthy of my trust who can help me who or what is supreme in my life who's my king even in this situation and the good news today from the book of Colossians is that Jesus is a king that will help now Paul wrote this book to believers who really found themselves between a rock and a hard place many of them felt stuck in their lives as well and he reminds them that Jesus is king of life and he supreme over all creation we can trust him because he has it all under control we can trust his love because ultimately his love and his acceptance define our value not other people's opinions he can give us value and worth that cannot be taken away by a pandemic he can empower us to survive and thrive in the midst of the waiting and so Jesus has already defeated whatever is trying to defeat you let's check this out we'll bring it up on the screens Colossians chapter 2 I like to kind of highlight a one word in the scripture and then I just like to ask you at home or where whichever location of ours you may be watching from that are open I just like to ask you to say the word out loud with me when we get there it's kind of how we make sure everybody's awake as we go along here so here's what we read Colossians chapter 2 beginning of verse 9 says for in Christ bring for in Christ lives all the fullness of God in a human body so you also are what complete through your union with Christ who is the head over every ruler and authority it's an amazing section of the Bible Paul says Jesus is the fullness of God and we can experience God's fullness through faith in Christ he says that we're complete through our union with Christ so I want to look at how we can survive in the waiting that we're in and I want to look at how we can experience more of that completeness through our union with Christ and my first stop for you today is simply this look up to rise up look up to rise up now I've got a $100 bill up here check this out how many of you when you see a hundred dollar bill you wouldn't you wouldn't mind having this right how many of you at home would mind having this make some noise in the living room somebody like yes who wouldn't want a hundred dollar bill right crisp clean it's got great value we know what it can do two hundred dollar bill but how about now not in the AIDS of coronavirus y'all I'll just blow on it you still want it yeah but you do cuz you know you can Lysol that sucker and it'll be just fine right how about this still want it still take it yeah how about this how about now still a $100 bill right I know everybody at home everybody in our locations in our meeting I'll be raising their hand right now saying yeah I'll take the hundred dollar bill I'll figure I I figure out how to sanitize it it'll spin just fine I want you to think about this listen you may feel crumpled up you may feel wrinkled stomped on you may feel dirty chewed up and spit out but life for you is your life is still valuable because your worth comes from God you're loved by God it doesn't matter what you've been through it doesn't matter what you've experienced it doesn't matter how much you've been stomped on you are still valuable to God Paul says you are complete through your union with Christ even if you are battle weary in your life a lot of us kind of feel weary right now fact I put together this little chart just to help help us kind of frame up some of the things we may be feeling I mean we like being in situations where at least to some degree we can understand control and fix I mean before you have kids you may think that that you'll be able to understand control and fix whatever your kids face then you'll just sort of raise them right and everything will be fine or you meet a guy or a girl you'll fall in love and in the early days of love you think you understand him or her and and you don't you know if whatever you don't like you think you can understand it you can control it you can ultimately fix it for you leaders you may not always know exactly what to do but you're used to getting a pretty quick understanding of the situation and then having a clear path to influence and control in whatever way you can and then to be able to fix the situation that's what leaders do if you're a successful businessperson you understand and you control and you fix that's what you do that's what's kept you successful you know in life if you get a tough health diagnosis you know what do what do you do the doctor says cancer will you throw yourself into research you try to understand and then you start doing the things that you can do to control maybe you change your diet maybe you start to exercise you know you take medication whatever and and you try to ultimately fix and get better but life happens it happens in all of these situations I mean you treat all your kids the same with the same love and guidance but they're all different and pretty soon every parent realizes that there is so much about our kids that we don't understand and there's things that we can't control and there's things and challenges in their individual lives that we don't know how to fix you get married and the longer you're married the less you understand right come on somebody there's some things about that person that you love that you will never understand you realize that that you aren't in as much control as you thought and you are less able than ever to fix them as a leader or a business owner coronavirus hits and now we're in an in an era where we still don't fully understand exactly how to move forward we feel very out of control and we don't know how to fix things in our life the health situation it continues to worsen that despite your best efforts and so you know we want to understand control and fix but so often we find ourselves in a situation where we're actually uncertain were powerless and were insignificant that's how we feel and I think this is where we may want to be but this is where a lot of us are in our lives I don't know where you're at in your life but when you find things you can't understand control and fix the likelihood is that you come to the end of yourself I mean what do you do when you come to the end of you strength when all of your parenting efforts fail when all the pivoting that you've done at your workplace doesn't work when your marriage hemorrhages under the quarantine when your bank account continues to suffer when you can't see the options anymore when you run out of medical choices what do you do when your battle-weary when you feel crumpled up and stomped on by life when the fight goes out of you this is the terrain many of us have been navigating this week I was working out at my house where I have this old-school squat rack and barbell set up and it's been a while since I worked out so like yay for me and I've been thinking about kind of just my own desire to understand to control to fix and as I was working out I looked up at this picture on the wall that's a scripture and I've read it a million times but this time when I read it it just struck me like a ton of bricks it just hit me I stopped what I was doing I got huge tears in my eyes and I felt like God was speaking to me in a fresh way from a scripture I had read so many different times and I've been thinking about understand control and fix and so when I read this scripture which is proverbs chapter three verses five and six here's what hit me it says trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding in all your ways what submit to him and he will make your paths straight and it just laid over this so beautifully when we can't understand we have to trust when I can't control I have to submit to God what I can't fix I have to trust him to make straight I stood there in the gym this last week tears in my eyes been so frustrated as a leader been so frustrated trying to to figure out the way forward trying to understand control and fix for 90 plus days then it was just such a powerful reminder to me to stop to trust just to submit and to believe that God will make it straight don't lean on your own understanding it says instead lean on something way more steady and secure lean on God trust God with all of your heart submit to him give control over to him go of your need to control he will make your path straight he will fix what you cannot fix see if the need to understand control and fix has left you battle-weary may I suggest that God has you and me exactly where he wants us to be and so when the question moves from why we can't understand or control or fix to who we can trust in the unknown we find this new resource of strength in our lives we begin to ask like what is God trying to teach me listen just because we are facing global problems that doesn't mean God isn't trying to teach you individual things what is God trying to teach you right now what lessons can you take from this season God's been teaching me that the first step to moving forward when you're stuck between a rock and a hard place is a pretty counterintuitive it begins with surrender it starts with not leaning on your own understanding to trust to submit and to let God fix what we cannot fix to surrender to remember who we are and who's we are we're not complete because our kids are getting along this is for somebody today listen we're not complete because you know our kids are making great grades or they don't have challenges we're not complete because our marriage is is rockin and the romance is flowing and our life looks like a rom-com we're not complete because our bank accounts are flush we're not complete because our businesses are doing well we're not complete because our health situation is secure we're not complete because we know exactly what to do in this season we're not complete because we have the strength in ourselves we are complete Paul says through our union with Christ who is the head over every ruler and every authority listen Jesus is king and as believers you are united with the king you are complete in Christ he was willing to sacrifice his life for yours your values set by his decision not your performance your values set by his sacrifice not your selfishness your value is set by the depth of his love not the level of your achievement your value is set by the by the gift to receive the grace of God not by something you earn through your own effort and performance your value is set by his actions and not others options and listen others cannot steal what God has given come on somebody at home others cannot diminish what God has established others cannot reduce the price that God was willing to pay because he set your value on the cross and it was the highest price that he could possibly pay and so in Christ today you are more than a victim listen in Christ you are more than a casualty you are a conqueror in Christ you're more than your circumstances you're an overcomer in Christ you're more than your failures you are forgiven and free in Christ you are more than your abilities you are filled with God's Spirit and Christ you're more than you're paid you are healed by God's love in Christ you're more than your weakness you are empowered by God in Christ you are not simply stuck you are being sanctified listen in Christ you're not paralyzed you're filled with this purpose in Christ your life is not your own you belong to the king of kings and the Lord of lords I'm speaking to somebody today listen you're so tired and worn out you don't know which news feed to believe which way to turn which way to look but only Jesus is big enough to lead us forward only Jesus is big enough to unite us only Jesus is big enough to give us the way forward only Jesus is big enough to remind us of what truly matters in life and to orientate our lives around that only Jesus is strong enough to get us through the dark night listen only Jesus is compassionate enough to see you through your loss in your pain only Jesus is powerful enough to calm the raging storm you got to look up to him even if you feel stuck and then you will begin to rise up you got to look past the newsfeeds look past the divisive rhetoric look past the fear and the uncertainty and look to Jesus Jesus is already Jesus has already defeated whatever is trying to defeat you look up to rise up and then step in to your victory step into your victory every Father's Day I think about my dad he was born a week before Father's Day on June 10th and passed away just before Father's Day on June 14th 2011 he was 87 years old and I remember when I was 14 years old I once got banned from Sears stores until I was 18 because I got caught stealing a cassette tape this is a long time ago friends and I we used to listen to music on these things called cassette tapes okay hang with me here so they took me to the back room and they called my dad who I found out later asked him to call the police and take me to the police station so the police come and they get to Sears they cuff me they walked me out right through the whole department store right out the front door in can't handcuffs and they put me in the in the squad car thanks dad appreciate that he's like I'm gonna teach my kid a lesson they drive me down to the police station where I wait and what really killed me was my dad when he came to pick me up I mean he picked me up at the police station and I wasn't sure what he was gonna say but he just didn't say anything we we got in the car he didn't say a single word the silence was so deafening so we you know we get out of the car we go into our house we go into our kitchen area and what I remember is my dad says sit down now you got to know ma'am my dad was a World War 2 vet and a master sergeant in the army and so when he said like sit down you sit down so he sits and he looks out the window forever I don't know how long it was but I can still remember the sound of the clock ticking behind my head now feeling smaller and smaller as time goes on and finally he says Jud I don't understand why you would do that you know better than that you are better than that that's not who you are and then he began to talk to me about Who I am based on who God says I am that I had a purpose that I had a calling that there was a reason I was here that I had meaning in my life listen when he was done with this conversation what really struck me the hardest was not only the words that he said but then he just got up and left he was so hurt and so heartbroken that he didn't even discipline me I mean I was expecting to be grounded for a year right y'all come on like I'm never gonna go to the mall again but he was so hurt he stood up and he just walked away I would have preferred to have been punished but instead I was just deeply impacted by his lack of punishment I went on to do a lot of other dumb things in those years stealing wasn't one of them but the only way that I pulled through those years was my parents love its consistency and its faithfulness even when everyone else had given up on me and written me off they never did and when I think about them I think about God that's how God loves us we make mistakes we fail but God's love and is consistent and in Christ we can step into spiritual victory we're not our past or our mistakes we're not our failures listen I don't know what your earthly father was like but whatever your earthly father was like or if you even knew your earthly father your heavenly father is good and perfect your Heavenly Father loves you and the Bible calls him the father of the fatherless the father of the fatherless and he has given you victory in Christ look at this Colossians chapter 2 beginning in verse 13 help me out when we get to the red word here he says you were dead because of your sins and because your simple nature was not yet cut away then God made you what alive with Christ for he forgave all our sins he cancelled the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross God made you alive with Christ Paul shares with us - sort of beautiful truths that we must kind of always keep at the forefront of our minds in our hearts when we're weary and when we're stuck he says first of all our sins have been forgiven and secondly we have been resurrected to new life that phrase a record of charges that Paul used it was it was used in the culture to refer to a certificate of indebtedness that had been hand written by the debtor in acknowledgement of his debt and all of us Oh God a debt because we've sinned and we violated his law it's you know way worse than getting banned from Sears our sin has separated us from God and Paul says this debt this quote record of charges was cancelled by the cross which literally means to wipe off like erasing a blackboard now listen ancient documents were commonly written either on papyrus or this paper like material or vellum which was kind of made from an animal's hide and what was fascinating to me is that the ink that was used had no acid in it and so it didn't really soak into the writing material so since the ink just remained on the surface it could be wiped off if they wanted to reuse the material Paul says here that God has wiped off our certificate of debt come on man he's wiped off our sin and our shame he's nailed it to the cross not a trace of it remains to be held against us our forgiveness is complete Jesus didn't come to simply make bad people good listen he came to make spiritually dead people alive he didn't come to simply give us new rules he came to give us new life God took our rap sheet and he nailed it to the cross that certificate of debt that's in that past that shame that thing that you did that thing that you didn't do all of that has been paid for by Jesus Christ it's taken care of by Jesus Christ and so we get to Colossians chapter 2 verse 15 he Paul goes on even more he says in this way he disarmed the spiritual rulers and the authorities and check this out help me out help me say this word out loud with me he was shamed then publicly by his victory over them on the cross so what was God doing through the cross he was shaming his spiritual rulers and authorities publicly by his victory I mean have you ever seen a parade that the winning team of the Superbowl does each year you know the pearl or the parade that the MBA championship has after winning the championship they parade their victory and in a way they like publicly shame the other team they're declaring their superiority over every other team and a victory parade is exactly what Paul's alluding to here like a victory parade that a nation would have after the victory of a war see in the cross Jesus held a victory parade he robbed evil spiritual powers of their power listen he disarmed them the crosses were Jesus publicly shamed the powers of evil and declared his superiority he literally shamed the evil forces that want to shame you he condemned the forces that want to accuse you Jesus has already defeated whatever is trying to defeat you the victory has already been won by Christ and one day in heaven we will be the ultimate recipients of that victory but even now we can step into our victory see we may be stuck but we're not finished we may be struggling but we are forgiven and free in Christ we may face the unknown but we can step out in faith and we can trust in the one who knows it all we may face things that we can't control but we can just surrender to the one who is in control in our lives we may feel there's no way out but we can look up rise up and step into our victory today so today you can make a decision to move forward the day you can step into your spiritual victory and you can live from that you're more than a conqueror in Christ and maybe for some of us that means meditating on spiritual truths that lead to freedom more than allowing our negative thoughts to run wild maybe it means taking a break from social media maybe it means less news feeds for a season in our life maybe it means stepping out of the same old conversations that lead to the same old frustration maybe it means acknowledging that you're at the end of your own power and ability that you can no longer know how to really understand control and fix your situation or your kids or your marriage or your life listen except today that this is exactly where God wants you to be the end of yourself is exactly where God wants you to be right now so surrender and begin to pray this week God what do you want to teach me it's been my prayer I've been praying you know and maybe like me you'll have your own moment where you know you you're working out you're just going through life and all the sudden God just begins to challenge you and to reveal himself to you in powerful ways for some of us you know we're still wrestling with the old sin and shame from our past and our mistakes we're like that crumpled up stomped on 100 dollar bill but Christ has given us victory we are not our past today we're not our feelings we are who God says we are and so today will you step into that victory even if nothing changes in your life everything can change as you live out of that place of victory in Christ our identity is secure in God's love so this week you can choose to smile and and I love those close to you and focus on bringing joy to others this week you can resolve to take life one day at a time that is breathe to remember whose you are and who you are you can start your day with a prayer or a scripture or a worship song you can reset yourself spiritually you can trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding you can submit to him and acknowledge him and he will make your paths straight for us as a church in a time when there are so many divisions and opinions and conspiracy theories you name it maybe our commitment is to simply look up again to Jesus to come to him with open hands and open hearts and to commit to stay unified in Jesus see our agreement in Jesus is way bigger than all of our disagreements in the world our love for Jesus is bigger than all the things that are trying to pull us apart Jesus has already defeated whatever is trying to defeat you and so I'd like to give some of you just an opportunity today to reach out to Christ and trust him in your life he's been calling you he's been tapping some of you on the shoulder everywhere you go you just since God is trying to bring you to a place to return home to him and I'd love to just give you a simple opportunity to reach out to Christ and to trust him would you repeat this simple prayer after me as a way of just opening your heart and beginning to follow God in your life you can do it out loud or you can do it in your own heart and mind God knows but I'm gonna ask everybody to please 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 after me just 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 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 if that's your prayer today if it's your commitment I want to ask you to just slip your hand in the air just to acknowledge your gonna trust Christ in your life you're not gonna try to do it alone you're gonna lean on his understanding when you can't understand you're gonna lean on his power when you can't control you're gonna trust him to make your paths straight when you can't fix it in your own strength let's reach out to him [Music] god I thank you for each person reaching out to you I pray you'll move in their life and fill them with your love your spirit your goodness your forgiveness your mercy God may all of us grow as we begin to follow you this week and as we make space for you in our heart and in our life we thank you for all you've given us in Christ that's his name we pray amen

Channel: Central Church

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Keywords: central church, central online, central live, drew bodine, it's okay to not be okay, pastor jud wilhite, jud wilhite, sermons 2020, online church, series, jesus is king, king of my identity, covid-19, city of grace, faith, online, bible, church, sermon, message, teaching only

Id: VBo0Pc8gkGc

Length: 31min 39sec (1899 seconds)

Published: Sat Jun 20 2020