Lie #2 “I’m On My Own.” | Jud Wilhite | Central Church

all right good morning everyone nice to see you today glad you're here and if you're joining us online thank you so much for being with us big shout out to each of our locations as well as those joining us in different prison facilities and our partnership with god behind bars we're grateful for you let's put our hands together for them thankful to have you guys joining us today hey uh do you remember like the little white lies that you know our parents and family members would tell us to get us to make wiser choices when we were little kids things like if you sit too close to the tv it will ruin your eyes any of you hear this growing up like i heard this all the time which the funny thing is now we all have these devices right that are like literally six inches from our faces all the time but that's what we grew up with another one is uh hey if you pop your knuckles you'll get arthritis and not like when you're 90 like right now you know which i wish my wife would have believed that because she's always popping her knuckles and it drives me crazy um another one was this if you go number one in the public pool the water will turn red any of you ever hear this this this is yeah no not very many okay that's that's not very encouraging for what's happening in the public pool then you know what i'm saying but but if it was that if that was only true the one that my grandma used that i believed wholeheartedly that marked me my whole childhood and she said judd if you cross your eyes too long they will get stuck that way and they'll be stuck that way the rest of your life and so i believed her i was terrified i remember i never crossed my eyes again i was always kind of trying to be careful about crossing my eyes because i was just afraid of what this was going to mean going forward into the future and so i just want to take a moment right now i want to show you friends this is what freedom looks like okay are you ready here we go here we go can you even tell oh yeah feels so good from the time we're little kids we get told little white lies that may be innocent enough but then we get older and we start to believe bigger lies and things that take root in our hearts and in our lives that um can have huge damage because when you start to believe a lie then the danger is you start to live like you believe the lie and it affects not only you it affects your friends your family members it affects in many ways the leadership lid that you experience in your own life how far you can go in many things in your own life our thoughts have tremendous power and so last week we kicked off this teaching series called out of my mind because a lot of us know what it feels like to be going out of our mind right now in this season but our spin was this we got to face the lies that we tell ourselves we got to get some of these things out of our mind before we go out of our mind and so last week we talked about the lie i'm done sometimes it's it's easy to just feel like we're done we're finished and we talked about how we approach that lie how we deal with that in our own life and we said even when you feel like you're done god isn't done with you this week i want to talk about the lie i'm on my own i'm on my own and i think right now in this season it's tempting for us to maybe even believe that lie that we're just on our own maybe you feel like you're alone when it comes to your finances or you feel like you're alone when it comes to work right now you feel like you're alone when it comes to dealing with unemployment issues you feel like you're alone when it comes to a relationship or a marriage some of you single parents just feel like you're on your own as it relates to your kids so you feel like you're on your own as it relates to anxiety or depression in your life and nobody knows sort of what it takes for you to get through the day and you're just on your own you can sit in a in a family room around other people you could sit in a church community around other people and you can still feel completely alone in that moment i think we all know what it is to begin to buy into the lie that i'm on my own we all struggle with it but here's my encouragement to you today god has not disappeared just because you're disappointed god didn't leave just because things are hard god hasn't abandoned you just because you feel lonely or alone right now in your life feelings are not facts feelings or feelings and you may feel one way but that doesn't make it true so i want to talk to you today about how we can get that lie out of our minds and move forward in faith with what god has put in our lives and to do it i want to look at this amazing biblical story of gideon in the old testament gideon's in the book of judges judges is a book that kind of comes right after the israelites finally get to the promised land we looked at that in this series that we did call god in the wild and they get there and they're all settled and and they don't really have a king over them at this point um and so what inevitably happens is god was supposed to be their king god was to be the ruler and they were to follow god and be faithful to god but the israelite people did what a lot of us do they were blessed by god god did a lot in their life they had comfort they had peace and then they started to kind of go their own way and so there's this cycle that you see that runs again and again throughout the book of judges and it's usually teed up by this phrase everyone did what was right in his own eyes in their own eyes so the israelites start going their own way they start to leave god behind they worship other gods they do and then god removes his hand of protection another group comes in and conquers the israelites they get humbled they're desperate they cry out to god again and what does god do god would raise somebody up that would then lead the israelites back into peace and prosperity and freedom and that person that he would raise up was called a judge that's what the book of judges is it's all these different judges that god raised up and so this happens again and again and again then the israelite people drift from god again god removes his hand of protection they're destroyed by another enemy and then eventually they cry out to god and humble themselves and then a new judge gets raised up and that judge leads the israelites in victory so when we land in judges chapter 6 we meet this judge named gideon and at the moment gideon is um he's in a wine press uh this old stone wine press and he's basically hiding out trying to harvest grain trying to put food on the table and the the challenge they have is the midianites for seven years the surrounding people have come in and just and conquered the israelites they've they take their food they raid they take all of their crops whatever they grow they just come through and and take what they want right so gideon's hiding out laying low just trying to get food on the table the bible says the angel of the lord comes to him it's kind of fascinating the angel of the lord when he shows up in the old testament sometimes it's like this supernatural amazing thing right the angel of the lord and they know it immediately and then sometimes it's like the old testament people aren't always clear what's happening in in the initial and that's what when you see gideon it's almost like he doesn't understand really who this person is initially that's talking to him angel of the lord just shows up and says mighty hero the lord is with you which is kind of funny because right now gideon's hiding out in a wine press not very mighty and not very heroic trying to get food just to put on the table afraid that if he did it out in public the marauders and raiders would see him and they would steal it for themselves but god still shows up and says mighty hero the lord is with you and gideon kind of pushes back on this check this out judges chapter six beginning of verse 13 when we get to the highlight of redwood here let's all say it out loud together but but here's what gideon says sir gideon replied if the lord is with us why has all this happened to us you ever felt like that in your life i mean come on if god is really with us why are we facing the coronavirus if god is really with us why did i get furloughed or laid off at work if god is really with us why do i feel like right now i got more mess than miracle in my life i got more burden than blessing in my life why are things so hard right now if god is really with us then why is all this happening in the next sentence and where are all the miracles our ancestors told us about you ever felt that way like you're like reading the bible and you see jesus do all these miracles you're like man that's amazing you know raise the dead make the lame walk make the blind see that's awesome god i'm just praying for you know a small just a little miracle not even a big one not even significant just a small one gideon says wait you know where are the miracles and didn't they say the lord brought us up out of egypt but now the lord has what abandoned us and handed us over to the midianites what's gideon saying i'm on my own i'm on my own and i think a lot of us know what it is to feel like we're on our own it's okay to ask these questions god why is all this happening to us it's okay to wrestle with where are the miracles you know that i read about in the bible when i'm just holding on for a miracle in my own life it's okay to navigate the feeling or the sense that we've been abandoned but what god is going to encourage gideon with can be a huge encouragement to us in our lives today and that is that god is with us no matter how we feel no matter what we're facing no matter what we're going through in our lives so how do we kind of deal with the lie i'm on my own first thing that we can do is reclaim our calling reclaim your calling in your life because you have a calling god has a purpose for you he has a plan for you he's created you in his image he loves you he's brought you this far listen come on somebody he's brought you this far he will take you the rest of the way he didn't bring you this far to just leave you you know he didn't bring you this far to just abandon you god's gonna see you through now by every estimation 2020 has been a brutal year so far and it's we're you know not close to over i saw this uh picture of uh babies born in the year 2020 and just check out some of these little babies can you see look at that look at that baby and she's like dude what have you done to me right you know and then you got this guy over here he's just like uh i don't know but my favorite is this little winston churchill looking baby right down here you see that look at that face it's just like man what is happening in the world i just got born into right this is what 2020 may have felt like so far 2020 may mark us but it doesn't have to destroy us 2020 may be challenging but it doesn't have to define us because god is still with us even in the midst of the problems and in the midst of the difficulties in the midst of the challenges he hasn't left us he hasn't turned his back on us he hasn't abandoned us look you may feel like you're on your own but that's just a feeling your faith tells you that god is with you even in the trouble even in the difficulty even in the situation and you got to lean into your faith in that moment you got to remember your calling i mean the angel of the lord comes to gideon and says mighty hero the lord is with you and here's gideon hiding out laying low not acting very heroic god sees him not as he is don't miss this but as he created him to one day be he sees not his past he sees the potential that he can have through faith in him when god looks at you and i believe god looks at some of you today and what he wants to say to you is a similar message mighty hero you say i don't i don't feel very heroic i barely got out of bed this morning a mighty hero i don't know i've been doing too much netflix time y'all not very heroic mighty hero you're a mighty hero because the lord is with you and it's not about you it's not about your past it's about your potential and god listen your potential is determined by uh it is not determined by the problems you face but by the god that you serve god is with you and working in you and because of that he can call out what he's put in you he says mighty hero the lord is with you and then check this out judges chapter 6 verse 14 gideon kind of comes back and um and then this is what it says then the lord turned to him and said go with the what strength that you have and rescue israel from the midianites i am sending you go with the strength that you have now if you read that some of you're like that's not very encouraging like i don't have a lot of strengths right now you know that's why i'm in church you know i have a lot of strength right now that's why i'm trying to lean into god i need more strength you know what i'm saying like go with the strength that i have but there's this interesting dynamic you see it come out in the bible again and again which is god often calls his people to go with the strength they have and then he meets them along the way with the strength that they need he rarely gives you the strength you need before you go with the strength you have you know somebody's waiting around like i don't know god man if you gave me the strength then i'd get out and do it if you gave me the strength then i would take that step of faith if you gave me and i think god's saying no you go with the strength you have and i'll give you the strength you need in the moment when you need it and so here's gideon he's like hey man i'm just out here trying to put food on the table god's like you're gonna go god often raises up the most unlikely people and the angel of the lord says you're gonna free you're gonna be the next judge you're gonna you're gonna rise up and be the one who will free my people go with the strength that you have god's calling in our lives comes with a filling and he will fill us in the moment in fact second corinthians chapter 12 beginning in verse nine this is the apostle paul in the new testament he says my grace is all you need my power works best in what in weakness and you know i used to read this and i used to think man that's cool so god's power is going to work best in my weakness so when i'm weak god's gonna make me strong and i'm gonna feel strong and i'm gonna be strong and i'll be like superman like the rock but there's another way of kind of reading this which is god's grace is what i need my power works best in weakness i may continue to feel weak in fact my feelings may not change at all and yet god's strength is what sees me through in the moment in other words god's power doesn't take away the experience of feeling weak god's power helps me get through it even though i feel weak listen the very thing that makes you feel weak can become a doorway to god's strength in your life he sees you through that season it's how god works it's what he does in our lives and so for many of us we just got to go back to our calling right now we got to remember kind of who god is and and what he's done and how he's moved and how he's worked listen he's called you to a better future he's called you to a friendship he's called you to a greater life he's called you to be an overcomer in a world that is overwhelmed right he's called you to be a forgiver in a world that condemns he's called you to be a light in dark times he's called you to be his representative he's called you to a living hope in your life he's called you to a spirit of boldness he's called you to a life of gentleness he's called you to share his good news he's called you to experience his joy he's called you to be his witness he's called you to to make his name great he's called you to live as an outpost of his love listen he has called you to be a blessing in a world that is buried in burdens right now he's called you to stand up for those who can't stand up for themselves he's called you to care for those who've been forgotten he's called you to be an example of his overwhelming grace he has called you to be an object of his compassion and he's called you to a life that gets better as you follow him in faith and until that day comes when he drives every tear from our eyes right until that day comes he's called you to be filled with his strength and power even in the midst of your weakness you have a calling and some of us right now we feel so alone and i get it and we've been through so much and we just feel like we're on our own but we got to remember god is always with us and not only is he with us there is a calling on our lives there is a mandate on our lives there is a mission on our lives and it is bigger than the coronavirus friends it is bigger than this year and this month and what happens in our life and our family it's about god's name and his fame and his name will live forever god isn't finished we said it last week you're not done this isn't the final you know of the final page of the book this is just a chapter as you're moving along and someday we'll look back on it and maybe we'll understand it differently but god has not disappeared just because you're disappointed reclaim your calling remember who you are and then remember who is with you remember who is with you years ago i remember i was standing in the lobby at our henderson location and um there was a man that had had walked in and he had never been to our church before uh he wasn't mentally stable and especially in that moment he he just showed up and he had an agenda he was angry and he wanted to stir up trouble the guy was looking for a fight literally so i see him kind of irate in the lobby so i walked up to him and start having a conversation with him and this guy's yelling he's he's cussing he's literally like one inch from my face his hands are balled up and fists and i'm thinking at any moment he is gonna just lay just go after me right like it's this about to go down and i'll be honest with you what i remember thinking in the moment is judd if he hits you you cannot hit him back you cannot hit him back in the lobby of the church that you pastor because you all know man i haven't always been on this side of the road you know what i'm saying like so i remember like just you know just stay calm just stay calm whatever happens you can do not strike back don't don't flip that switch you know and uh this guy we just went on and on and on i just kept smiling let's try to stay calm try to defuse the situation and i remember finally i got him to calm down enough and by the grace of god he turned around and he left and i'm standing there i remember i looked down and my hand was totally shaking i mean it really shook me up this moment and i turned around and what surprised me what i just hadn't really thought about in the moment because i was just right here with this person is that three of my friends had sort of positioned themselves real real casually around me one of them was an off-duty police officer one of them was an off-duty police officer who was a member of the swat team and one of them was like this biker dude that you do not want to meet in the alley at night if he's upset and they were all like super chill man they're all just like leaning just like positioned about six feet from me in every direction and i turned around and i'm sort of shaking and all these guys just did was they all just sort of nodded at me and uh one of them said hey we got your back another guy said if that guy would have taken a swing at you it would have been the last thing he did you know and i'm just standing there and it was a moment for me to realize where i thought i was alone there was a whole group of people that had my back that saw from a distance we got we got a friend in trouble and just came around to be there some of you right now you feel like you're you're alone you're facing issues and situations in your life right now that cause you to feel like you're on your own but i want to encourage you today that we the people of central your church family we have your back whether you can see us there or not we're there we're praying for you we'll walk with you we'll help you however we can you are not on your own don't believe the lie that you're on your own when you got a whole community of people that are standing behind you right that are there if you need them that's what the church is supposed to be that's what we do for one another right and it doesn't have to be official and from the one of the things i love is how our church family takes care of each other without permission we don't ask permission we just ask forgiveness you know like so somebody needs hurt somebody needs help we help them right you know somebody goes without we slip them some money somebody doesn't have food we get groceries we take it to their house we don't need a commercial run on that that doesn't have to be a life story video nobody has to know about that that's just god working and he does it every day through thousands of people in their lives we take care of each other that's what we do and how much more does god have our back in those moments when we feel all alone now look at this judges chapter 6 beginning of verse 15. here's what gideon says but lord gideon replied how can i rescue israel my clan is the weakest of the whole tribe of manasseh you ever felt that like you know who i am i'm the weakest of the whole tribe of nasa and i am the least in my entire family any of you like i i'm the last kid in my family i'm the last of four kids any babies of the family in the room the babies of the family you know like if you're a firstborn in the family there's pictures of you there's video of you like when you were born it was a huge deal it's like no we've got a baby our first child when you're the last kid of four there's like two pictures of me from my entire childhood you know it's like parents are over it you know it's like anyway we got three other kids to deal with right some of you know that feeling in your own family whether you were born first or last you're like man i don't know god i i don't have it in me to do what you're calling me to do i'm the last i'm the least i i'm insignificant i don't matter i'm just trash i'm a loser like god god you can't use me in the way that you envision but look at what god says to gideon he says i'm the my tribe is the weakest i'm the least in my entire family and the lord said to him look at this i will be help me with you i will be with you i will be with you turn the person next you just say i will be with you listen this is huge because when it comes to god and his mandate on your life and mine it is not about you or me it is not about our background it is not about our past it's not about our mistakes or our failures or how much we watched netflix last week listen what it is fundamentally about is the presence of god you see that what he says what's the answer for gideon i'm the least i'm the last i can't do it you know god says it's not i'll be with you it's like shut up son i will be with you and that changes everything right in fact gideon had kind of gotten into a mindset that i think a lot of us can be tempted to get into and uh i just sort of put it this way that we start to think the presence of problems equals the absence of god which then equals i'm on my own right because of our problems we look at all the things going on in our life some of you you're not sleeping well at night right now all you see are your problems and they're overwhelming and it's caused you to feel like god has abandoned you or disappeared in your life elvis not only left the building god left the building you know like you're not sure what to do with that and it makes you feel like you're on your own but there's another way to look at this and i bring this up here instead of starting with the presence of our problems you start with the presence of god some of you when you get up in the morning and you've been spinning around all night long thinking about all of your problems and your problems seem all-consuming i want you to remember this where you start has everything to do with where you finish so if you start with your problems you can end with i'm on my own but when you start with the presence of god then you realize he gives you the strength to face your problems and then you realize i'm never alone i'm never alone i'm never alone because god is with me in the midst of it all when our kids were little i remember how hard it was to put them to bed some of you remember this in your life some of you are living this right now some of you are going to have no idea what i'm talking about but your day is coming but i remember you know so hard to put them to bed at night and and uh my little son ethan he never wanted to go to sleep we'd have to sit outside of his door for like an hour two hours to get him to go to sleep and we'd have to rotate turns every other night you know for who did it was like such a glorious little thing when it wasn't my turn to sit out in front of the door and put ethan to bed at night um my daughter emma she went to bed really easy but she would wake up different random times i remember once in the middle of the night she just wakes up screaming just ah and you know i woke up like immediately because you have that sort of parental thing now in you and you just you hear things with like superhuman power that you never heard before you know and i run into the room and i turn the light on it's middle of the night kind of or two in the morning kind of thing i hit the light and there's my daughter and she's she's sitting laying in bed with her finger just like this in front of her face and no lie when she looks at her finger when the light comes on she goes booger booger get it off me get it off me she's like paralyzed i'm like really you woke me up in the middle of the night because you got a booger on your feet now if it's my son you just eat that thing go right back to sleep right come on boys boys be like that's no problem girls that's a whole other thing but i remember with my kids those moments when they would wake up not long after we put them to bed and lori and i would be in the living room but we hadn't gone back to bed yet and they would get up pretty soon and they wouldn't know what time it was they hadn't been asleep that long but they didn't know like how long they had been asleep and they just expected to walk into our room and find us there and they would walk into the bedroom and mom and dad aren't there you know like they're not in the room and i remember those moments when they were really young when they would have a total meltdown come on parents remember this like fear tears shaking trembling because it's like mom dad they're gone they're gone and i'm alone and they're scared i remember going in and sweeping my daughter up and just telling her look emma i'll always be here for you you don't ever have to be afraid i'm just because you may not see me right here in this moment i'm here i got you i'm your dad i love you no matter what happens i'll be with you i think how much more does god want to relay that message to us in this season for some of you right now it's dark the lights are off and it's scary it feels like a bad dream you're not sure like am i awake am i dreaming and you wonder where god is in all of it and what he's doing in all of it and i think he wants to tell you what he told gideon i will be with you i will be with you look just because you know you're you're disappointed you're frustrated you're hurt that doesn't mean god has disappeared he's still present he's still moving and he has your back and so some of you right now in your life you may feel like you're just too weak you're too weak for what you're facing you're too weak for what you're up against uh you're too weak for what's coming at you morally spiritually physically god says i'll be with you some of you right now you say god i have no skills or or talents i'm i'm totally unqualified god says i'll be with you somebody says god i'm not smart i never did well in school i never met a test i couldn't bomb come on somebody but god says i will be with you somebody says today i'm i'm not bold i'm not brave i'm an introvert i make everything awkward god says i will be with you somebody says i'm totally overwhelmed i'm tired god says i'll be with you somebody says god i don't know if i can handle it god says i will be with you it's the answer it's the presence in the midst of our problems it doesn't make the problem go away it gives us the strength to face the problems it doesn't even always make us feel strong it gives us the strength to go forward with what we have and god meets us along the way somebody says listen what if i make a huge mistake god says i'll be with you what if i can't get back all that i've lost god says i'll be with you what if no one helps me god says i'll be with you what if i end up alone i'll be with you what if i'm rejected i'll be with you what if i let everyone down i'll be with you what if everyone lets me down i'll be with you what if the weight becomes too much to bear i'll be with you what if i'm too tired to move on i'll be with you and if god is with you it doesn't matter who is against you because where the spirit of lord is the spirit of the lord is listen there is victory where the spirit of the lord is there is joy where the spirit of the lord is there is peace and where the spirit of the lord is there is freedom so i get it i get it it's easy right now to think i'm on my own but it's a lie you're never alone and god is with you and the fact that he is with you you can live as the mighty hero he created you to be you can live in your calling your purpose your future and you can redeem it today reclaim your calling remember who is with you and flush that lie out of your mind that you're on your own maybe some of you you're here today and maybe you're at a place in your life where god has been tapping you on the shoulder where he's been calling you to come home to him and if that's where you're at today i would love to lead you in a simple prayer to just surrender your life to jesus christ and begin that spiritual journey with god so would all of you bow your heads and close your eyes if you'd like to become a follower of jesus today you can begin that journey by repeating this prayer after me to say dear god i thank you for loving me thank you for sending jesus into the world 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 wherever you're at just make eye contact with me if you're here in the room slip your hand in the air god bless you guys thank you god bless you thank you just reach out to him today thank you god we thank you for your love i thank you for each person just trusting you reaching out to you today and i pray you'll fill their life with your goodness your purpose your joy your forgiveness your grace thanks for the privilege of knowing you and coming together and worshiping today we ask all these things in christ's name amen

Channel: Central Church

Views: 1,445

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, im done, lies, crazy, madness, over, outta my mind, im on my own

Id: -sDPJWmKh04

Length: 33min 23sec (2003 seconds)

Published: Mon Aug 31 2020