Stay Strong (Week 2): Believe God’s Best (Teaching Only)

well central family thank you so much for joining us and being with us I hope you're staying safe I want you to know I'm praying for you every day I miss our gatherings dearly but I'm so thankful that we get together in this way and I want to talk to you today it just pour some encouragement into you about staying strong in your life you know as a few weeks ago it was Mother's Day and Lori and I kind of made an agreement going into Mother's Day that we would we would have a kind of a pandemic Mother's Day and and what a pandemic Mother's Day meant was we were gonna celebrate her we were grateful for who she was but I wasn't necessarily gonna be able to buy her a gift I mean we've been busy there's so much going on at church so many things happening I had a birthday during the pandemic lots of celebrations were getting postponed and we just said hey little just postpone this one it'll be cool she was gracious even though like gift giving and receiving is her number one love language she was so kind about it and so Mother's Day comes around and we were we were really busy on Mother's Day we served at the food pantry together and so we had the privilege of providing food to our friends and neighbors in our community and then Lori delivered this amazing Mother's Day message that just was so so good and so we get home that astir afternoon and and we've all told her that we love her and expressed how much we we care about her but but it kind of stopped right there and and I was sort of oblivious I haven't been on my game y'all it's it's been like pandemic world and quarantine and all the things and so III just admit I wasn't really thinking because I've been kind of having this other thing go on in my life which is when the quarantine first started and the shutdown happened my headphones broke now listen you watching at home you know man every meetings now on zoom' everybody wants to talk technologically you had every one of those calls and zoom calls and meetings requires headphones and my headphones were broke so my only option was to run upstairs and grab Emma's headphones my teenage daughter and use those and the challenges she continues to not know where her headphones are so I'm always like Emma where's your head I got this call in like three minutes I mean there were times when the central family we were doing a live stream and I was from my house you may have seen some of those what you don't know is that behind the scenes is I'm looking under my daughter's bed five minutes before the call trying to get the help and then I get them and I have no idea how long they're charged you know I put them in and I'm sitting there in the whole time in the back of my mind while we're doing the live stream I'm wondering when are these headphones going to die when is this gonna happen right so I'm gating all of that side of things - so Mother's Day comes around it's the afternoon I'm I walk in and I finally had decided even though we had not made a single non-essential purchase in our lives since the shutdown in quarantine like I got to get some headphones I cannot keep looking for have it's for the church y'all it's for the ministry it's because you know like I got I can't keep trying to find him as at the last minute so I buy some on Mother's Day online and in my brilliance I walk in and I'm not even thinking that it's Mother's Day and your wife just preached an amazing message and she served food in the backs of people's cars and on top of all of that gift receiving is one of her top love languages and you didn't get her a gift for Mother's Day and I said Laurie guess what I finally broke down and made a non-essential purchase I bought these headphones and I could tell as soon as I said it on Mother's Day that it dropped like a rock boom I was in trouble guys come on I it was bad it was really bad and she looked at me and she and then to make it worse I found out later she was already planning to get me those headphones for Father's Day but I just jumped the gun I was in trouble for about 36 hours I mean it was it was a long haul to dig out of that that situation but the good news is my wife Laurie she believes the best because otherwise she wouldn't have made it with me for 23 years right she knows I would never do anything intentionally to hurt her she knows I would I would never sort of hold out on her on Mother's Day if I was in my right mind of banking which I'm usually not like like she knows D down I love her with all my heart I would do the right thing she's got all of that and she also knows whenever we're through this season however long it is whenever we get to whatever the other side looks like it's on and I'm gonna be making up for the pandemic Mother's Day listen the habit of believing the best about others and about your situation and about what God can do is a powerful thing in our lives because it's so easy that just imagine the worst isn't it I mean I saw this Instagram post this week and somebody said this people who say what's the worst that can happen seriously underestimate my ability to imagine worst-case scenarios how many of you agree with this at home go ahead and just raise your hand you're like yeah that's me as well I mean there are many times in my life when I let my imagination kind of spin up the worst case scenario it could be about something a person said it could be about my health I could be about any number of things and the more I imagine the worse I feel right my attitude becomes worse my energy becomes worse how I see other people becomes worse how I interact with others becomes worse I mean the way you live today is highly affected by how you see the future and when you subtract god from your future you start to lose your joy and you lose your peace in the present and this is why what one of the practices that we need to hang on to in our lives to stay strong is simply the practice to believe the best to believe the best about God and about others and about our future in fact let's look at these practices that we or let's look at Ephesians chapter 6 and let's lean in a little bit we started in Ephesians chapter 6 last week we started looking at the power of standing firm in our lives and here's what we see when we get to the red word at home I'm gonna ask you to just shout it out loud real out let everybody know around you that you are awake so here we go says therefore Paul's writing he says put on every piece of God's armor we talked about that last week every piece of God's armor so that you will be able to resist the enemy in the time of evil and this is important to resist the enemy he's reminding us that we are in a battle and friends make no mistake about it we are in a battle right now and it's not just a battle with the coronavirus we're in a mental battle we're in a spiritual battle we are in a struggle he says resist the enemy in the time of evil he says then after the battle you will still be one standing firm standing firm and that's what we want to be in our lives we want to be standing firm even though it's hard even though there's so many unknowns even though things are so uncertain we want to stand firm in our faith so we've been talking about putting on the armor of God and we basically said last week we could look at four key practices they could be super helpful for us in experiencing how we can stay strong the first is this to stand on the truth we talked about that last weekend that if we stand on God's truth we can stand up under life's challenges and how important that is today we're gonna talk about believing the best looking forward with expectation trusting that God isn't finished that he's still moving that he's still working this is very important next week we're gonna talked about about doing good because one of the most powerful ways to deal with negative emotions is through positive actions and we're gonna talk about how doing good helps us where God's armor and experience his strength in our lives and then the last week we're going to talk about the power of prayer praying for power and how God can pour that out in our lives so we're gonna have a lot of meaningful moments over the next couple of weeks today I want to talk to you about believing the best in our lives and in our hearts in fact look at what Paul says in the very next sentence just down a little bit Ephesians chapter 6 verse 15 he says for shoes he's talked about the belt of truth last last week for shoes put on the what piece that comes from the good news so that you will be fully prepared put on the piece the shoes of peace that come from the good news let's turn to somebody in your living room and just say peace peace y'all maybe you're thinking right now I just this quarantine if it doesn't end I'm like peace out I just wanna I just want to get on to another place but here's the thing we could put on the shoes of peace in our life even when things are hard usually when we think about peace we're all focused on on getting rid of conflict in our lives we could just get rid of conflict then everything gonna be good but the challenge here is to put on the shoes of peace even in the midst of trouble and conflict Paul says you can put on peace it's not just any peace it's the peace that comes from the good news now what's the good news well the good news is the news that God has for you it's the news that God loves you that he is in control that he's still working and moving it's the good news that through Christ we're not just forgiven and free but we have much to look forward to in our lives it's the news that his spirit can fill us and give us strength and guidance it's the good news that God is with us and these are the things that shape what we believe about the future see future expectations affect today's experience you got to put on the pair of shoes of peace and wear those in your life often we just think peace is the absence of other things it's the absence of war or the absence of conflict or trouble but that's not the kind of peace he's talking about here the peace that he's talking about is a solid presence in the midst of your trouble it's something that you can put on and you can lace up so the first thing that we can do when life is more than we can handle is we can put on the shoes of peace put on the shoes of peace now you know when it comes to shoes like we're in the midst of Quarantine dress codes right and things have changed a lot over the last few weeks I mean a lot of jogging pants and shorts and whatever you have kind of lying around fact I saw this I thought it was funny it says people who are quarantine in jeans just what are you trying to prove and that's a lot of what we're facing right now in our culture and then we got-we Laurie and I we have our own sort of quarantine gear going on especially when it comes to shoes you know like um lorries quarantine go to shoes over the last several weeks have been these right here these are house shoes and I mean she's she's just wearing these every day everywhere she goes my quarantine go to shoes have been my classic bands cuz they're sort of like house shoes but they're still cool y'all come on I'm just saying it's so I got the band's going on but you know what the number one quarantine shoe is right now this is what I've read it's these guys right here Crocs Crocs I mean horrible ugly but so comfortable and who cares right it's the quarantine and so we got our quarantine gear we know all about our shoes and we're wearing these different kind of shoes or pulses thee no matter what kind of shoes you wear this is what you've got to put on when you think about the armour of God you got to put on the shoes of God's peace in your life let me bring this peace sign up on the screen check it out I want to talk to you about three different ways we can experience God's peace in our life and the first is simply this peace with God every day when you get up you got to remember that through Jesus Christ you can have peace with God listen before we become Christ's followers we are under God's judgment our sin and our failures they separate us from God's goodness and we need His mercy and His grace in Jesus to be reconciled to God sometimes you just you know you got to get to the end of yourself to discover a new beginning in God and so what happens is we resign as the CEO of the universe we put God in charge and through faith in Christ we move from being under his judgment to being under his grace this means we have God's like undeserved favour that God delights in us but he starts to work in our hearts to produce good things in our life it means that we're no longer an enemy of God but a child of God we now have peace with God in our life and he begin to basically turn us away from the choices in the habits that ruin our lives and turn us toward what expands our lives that's what's called the gospel it's God's work from the start to the finish it's good news now one of the things that's fascinating about the armor that Paul describes in Romans chapter 6 is it was based off of a Roman centurions armor and it's interesting because this armor the soldiers wore them everywhere in the Roman world and they didn't wear them to win a war because the Romans had already conquered so much of the world the war had already been won see they were there to simply keep peace and hold on to the territory that had already been claimed in victory and that's how God's armor functions in our lives listen he has already won the battle it's not your hold on Christ that saves you it is his hold on you you don't need to win the victory you just need to stand in God's victory you don't need to put on the shoes of peace so that so that you know like in your life you can somehow achieve or earn God's favor no no you put on the shoes of peace because God has offered you His grace through faith in Jesus he won the battle that is it all we're trying to do is stand in God's peace and live in it each day in our lives God has made peace with you in Jesus but have you made peace with him so when it comes to peace in our lives every morning we can put on the shoes of peace and remember that we have peace with God but not only that we also have peace in our trials we also have peace in our trials and in our problems and you know I want to say that this is an area I think a lot of us struggle with it's easy for somebody to just come along and say hey you know don't worry be happy Hakuna Matata you know everything's gonna be fine no no problems but I just a moment of transparency when we struggle with worry in my house we struggle with stress in my house we struggle with anxiety in my house and here's what I like to be in control trol of things I care about come on somebody at home you know what I'm talking about but there's a distinction here that I have to make some things I can control and other things many things I can't control in fact dr. John Delaney issued put out a chart that I thought was really helpful and I wanted to just bring it and share it with you today he talked about how in our lives we've got a we've got two different things that we that we we could focus on and we've got to distinguish these we've got things that are what he calls above the line these are the things that we can actually control and then we have things that are below the line and these are the things that we can't really control and when it comes to peace in the midst of our problems we've got a zero in and focus on the things that we can't have an impact on and then let go of the things that we can't control otherwise we will never have peace so here they are the things that are above the line the things that we should focus on my thoughts and actions you know no matter what happens today in your life friends you and I we have a choice to focus our thoughts in our actions how I plan my day we have an option right we can control how we plan our days how I lead my family or my friends I can put my energy and my effort there how I treat others that's something that's within my control what I watch or read that's in my control my attitude is something I choose in my control these are the things I gotta focus on because if you're like me you keep wanting to get pulled into these things below the line and these are the things that we need to let go of to live in God's peace other people's motives you know we always want to judge other people's motives talk about other people's motives predicting the future hello somebody right and we see that happening everywhere products shortages you know I mean I just read an article today that there were still shortages of toilet paper I'm like really I mean what does it take to figure out how to get toilet paper everywhere anyway I don't know anything other people's actions you know this is something else other people's actions but you know we'd love to kind of think about it and critique it how long this will last right other other people's reactions all of these things are technically really outside of our control and we will experience way more peace in our trials if we will focus on the things above the line and this surrender the things that are below the line that just draw it just takes you to a place it's not necessarily healthy listen if you want peace you've got to release your grip on what you cannot control so the gospel gives us peace not only in our trials but let's go back to that peace sign it also gives us peace for others peace for others and this it's interesting this word there's like this tricky Greek word here in this verse which is translated fully prepared and Popolo said that this is what happens we put on the shoes at peace that we will be fully prepared and depending on which way you spin the translation it means that you're either prepared by the peace of the gospel or the good news it's what makes you stable or you're prepared with the Peace of the gospel to go out and to share it and I sort of say hey why one way or the other I mean here's the truth the more you experience God's peace the more you will share his peace with others experiencing his power moving in your life is what prepares you to share your faith with others and so the gospel gains power in your life when you share it with another life listen the more peace you have with God and with your problems the better your relationship will be with others so put on the shoes of God's peace each morning when you get up just slip into your quarantine shoes and remind yourself that through faith you have peace with God you have peace even in your problems and you have peace for others give thanks for that peace God gives his peace even in the midst of a storm and realized that every step you take today you're walking in God's peace he goes before you in your life he makes a way when there is no way he's still working and moving and he isn't finished believe the best put on the shoes news of peace and listen when you believe the best you become your best when you believe the best you become your best so put on the shoes of God's peace and then hold up the shield of faith hold up the shield of faith I mean have you ever met somebody that that you know just our culture we call lucky somebody that's just naturally lucky I mean they're always like running into someone famous so they're always getting some amazing opportunity or they're always having some incredible breakthrough in their lives Richard Wiseman he's known for his scientific study of luck and I just met so many people who seem to be either naturally lucky or or naturally unlucky that he wanted to see if if they were if there were any real reasons behind it know what he found in his research is that lucky people basically create their own luck but they're skilled at creating noticing and acting upon chance opportunities that come their way since they expect good fortune they see it when it arrives and it becomes like a self-fulfilling prophecy they literally create their own luck because they're open to it and when something bad happens they don't dwell on it they learn from it and they move on because they know something good is on the way so the end result is someone who seems to live a charmed life but in reality it's all about their built-in assumptions and their expectations I don't really believe in random luck I believe in being blessed by God that's God's favor on our lives even when it appears that it isn't the case and as hard as as we may try we got to remember that that being blessed and walking in God's blessing is something God gives us a gift to his people I want to work hard I want to stay faithful I want to prepare myself to be blessed and to walk in a blessed life and I believe I will which is why I think the Bible is often challenging us to look forward to the future with hope and with optimism because on the other side of whatever challenges we're up against on the other side of what for darkness we may be facing and we're certainly facing some right now but on the other side of that God always remains victorious and he's actually victorious even in the middle of it and so we need to be hopeful we need to have faith in our lives because when we have faith it releases something within that makes us more aware of the opportunities that God is putting before us listen if you aren't looking for them you won't see them if you don't make it a practice to believe the best you tend to get lost in the worst of what is happening and you can't build a positive life undefeated thoughts somebody that was good let me say that again you can't build a positive life undefeated thoughts one of the ways we believe the best is to put up our shield of faith check it out Ephesians chapter 6 beginning in verse 16 it says in addition to all of these hold up to help me out of home hold up the shield of faith to stop the fiery arrows of the devil he's saying take that shield of faith now listen the imagery that Paul uses here was borrowed from a large Roman shield and these things were were huge in the ancient world they were four feet high they were two feet wide and they were basically big enough that a full-sized man could crouch behind it and he would be fully protected and so groups of soldiers could even huddle together and make like an impenetrable shield Paul says that through faith we set up this huge shield that can stop the fiery arrows of the devil and what are these arrows we'll check it out I just put a few of them up on the slide here temptation temptation is something that we could be wrestling with doing something that we know we shouldn't do or not doing something we know we should do but man in this season in this kind of stress and pressure isn't it true that that there's so much temptation flying around and flying at us in our lives doubts doubts about who God is about his goodness doubts about his plan or his purpose for our lives doubts about our hope and our future all of this are part of fiery darts that the enemy the fiery arrows the enemy could shoot at us fears fear that we'll never be okay fear that things will never work themselves out fear that we'll never get back to normal accusations just the little voice that often plays in our head that says if you're not good enough and and you'll never be good enough and you're just like so-and-so and you'll always be a failure and you'll always be an addict and you'll you'll always be whatever fill in the blank and you start to kind of carry those accusations around listen these are some of the ways the enemy comes at us and we got to take up the shield of faith because make no mistake about it friends we are in a battle we're in a battle right now arrows are flying at you and at me and we've got to take up the shield of faith usually these arrows show up as voices in your life the words that are the words of somebody you know maybe or just thoughts that pop into your head and so we've got to confront them with the Bible and with truth so when that little voice says hey things are bad and they're never gonna get better listen put up the shield of faith and say my God is good and he is making all things new when that little voice says hey just compromise your standards no one will ever know you got to put up the shield of faith it's a god it's doing a great work in my life and I don't want the decision of a moment to hinder me on the way to my destiny I will not give in to that temptation listen when that voice comes back it says you aren't strong enough you got to put up that shield of faith and you got to say the Bible says submit yourselves to God resist the devil and he will flee from you listen when you fail morally or in some other way yeah and that little voice says see you haven't changed you'll always be the same guy can never use you listen you got to put up the shield of faith and you got to say His mercies are new every morning and he who began a good work in me is faithful to complete it listen when that little voice comes along and says only a fool would believe that God would actually show up in your life you got to put up the shield of faith then you got to say anyone who trusts in the name of the Lord will not be put to shame when our little voice comes along and starts to whisper in your ear hey the worst is on the way you got to put up the shield of faith and say no eye has seen and no ear has heard what God has prepared for those who love him he's moving he's working he's still blessing he's still here he won't abandon us he's not moved on he won't be hindered his best is still to come and so faith is your shield it protects you from the flaming arrows of the devil that come your way so friends we are in a battle but this week every morning when you get up and you start to put those Quarantine shoes on I want you to remind yourself hey I have got the peace of God it's part of my armor I have peace with God I have peace in trials I have peace with others and peace for others and I'm gonna walk with shoes of peace on I'm gonna focus on what I can control today I'm gonna focus on what is above the line but I'm not gonna get too distracted about what's below the line all the things I can't control I'm gonna surrender those to God and then I'm gonna take up my shield of faith when doubt tries to come into my life when temptations come when accusations come when I feel defeated and depressed and stress I'm taking up the shield of faith because I'm not alone God is moving God is working and he hasn't finished with me in this moment I mean when I think of the shield I think of this story I read recently about Bono singer of u2 and apparently years ago they were about to do a concert in Tempe Arizona and there had been some death threats on Bono that were very specific in fact there was a death threat that when he's saying the second verse of a song that they wrote called pride in the name of love which referenced Martin Luther King jr. and his assassination it was a racial threat where this person said look out I'm gonna be in the stadium I'm gonna have a high-powered rifle and I'm gonna take you out if you sing that song when you get to the second verse and it was significant enough that the FBI got involved there was even questions around the table of should we cancel the concert should we even go forward because what do you do when you have tens of thousands of people in an arena and you know any you just don't know right a lot of things could happen but bono said you know what we're not gonna cave to this the band decided we're not gonna give in we're gonna have a concert and you know come what may and so in the midst of this moment he goes out and he gets to the second verse of that song and you can imagine if you've ever been in that kind of a moment of at any point in your life where you're afraid and you're terrified he was there bono said what he did is he just closed his eyes and just surrendered in that moment to God and his will and purpose and he's saying that second verse of that song what I love is he said at the end of the verse when the song was all finished he opened his eyes and what he didn't realize is his bass player and lifelong friend Adam Clayton had walked over in front of him no announcement didn't say anything had took his position in front of Bono and said you know I'll take the bullet for my friend if that's what it comes down to Bono said he just opened his eyes there was Adams back and he realized wow that's a brother that's a friend that's what a friend does and you know that's what Jesus did for us but at a whole new level he literally took the bullet for us he shielded us we talked about the shield of faith it's Jesus who went first it's Jesus who went to the cross and died for us and took our place and took our punishment upon himself so that we can have peace with God and so that we can take up this yield of faith he literally did it for us the reason that we can stand in victory that we can hold up that Shield of faith is because Jesus already went ahead of us the Bible said that God was willing to give up his son for us so will he not also be willing to give us everything else we need listen is so easy to imagine the worst but the gospel the good news is the story of God taking on the worst that the world has to give so that he can give us the best that he has to give so don't fall for the lies put on the shoes of God's peace put up the shield of faith when you believe the best you become your best maybe some of you are in a place in your life right now where you sense that God has been drawing you to him he's been using all of the crazy stuff we're facing to get your attention and now could be an opportunity for you to just reach out and place your faith and your trust in him so I'd love to give you that opportunity the Bible says that if we believe in our heart god raised Christ from the dead that's the Easter message if we confess with our tongue that Jesus is Lord we will be saved it's through simple act of faith that were able to put on the shoes of peace and experience God's peace in our lives and he wants to be a peace with you he's already made peace with you have you made your peace with him it'd be my honor and privilege to just lead you in a simple prayer to open your heart to God to make peace with him through your faith in Jesus Christ so if you're ready to take that step wherever you're at today I want to encourage you just bow your head and close your eyes and just repeat this prayer after me either out loud or in your own heart just say dear God I thank you for 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 but your commitment I want to ask you to just slip your hand in the air just acknowledge you're gonna trust him in your life and you're gonna follow him just reach out to him today slip your hand in the air kind of thank you for each person reaching out to you today I pray you'll fill them with your love your goodness your mercy I thank you for all that you've done for us and I pray that your peace and the shield of your faith will protect us each day as we walk in faith we ask these things in Christ's name Amen listen if you made a spiritual commitment at home I want to tell you congratulations and we want to serve you we've created some resources including a great resource called how to follow Jesus and in just a moment our host will tell you how you can get that and other resources that we offer that can help you on the spiritual journey to all of you I want to thank you for being with us I pray for the central family I pray for you every single day I want you to know I love you with all my heart stay safe stay strong friends it won't be too long we'll be back together but until then let's walk with God and lean into his power so send in your love and blessings and we'll see you next week

Channel: Central Church

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Length: 34min 3sec (2043 seconds)

Published: Sun May 24 2020