The Good News about Growth | Nick Bodine | Central Church

welcome everyone so glad that you're here with us this weekend i was thinking this last week just how much i love this church i love that we get to gather from different locations all over the world i love that we get to gather with central family inside their living rooms on mobile devices i love that we get individuals who are incarcerated a part of the central family through our partnership with god behind bars thank you so much for being with us i i love that we get to grow together we get to worship together we get to embody this statement it's okay to not be okay and all of us are just running after jesus together right do you love this church as much as i love this church so incredible hope you had a great week i had a really good week partly because i got to watch a lot of olympics this last week does anybody else love the olympics the olympic games so incredible i love having it on in the background of the house the second that that olympic anthem drum gets going that boom boom boom boom like i'm inspired i'm ready to go like let's do this watch these athletes that i get to live vicariously through they've trained their whole lives for this one moment this one race and they are incredible athletes but i will say it's hard to know just how incredible they are when they're racing just as incredible athletes from around the world right like when these races come down to just milliseconds separating them it's hard to know just how incredible each individual is i saw this social media post going around that i have to agree with that said i wish every olympic sport i wish every olympic event had just one average person competing so we could have some context on how incredible these olympians are right like just give me that one average guy so i know just how fast just how strong these olympic athletes are james corden the host of the the late late show he had a similar idea he wanted to know how fast the fastest man in the world was in context and so does anybody remember usain bolt usain bolt fastest man in the world he invited him out to his studio out to the parking lot of his studio and he had him do a hundred meter sprint against his friends and his co-workers i have the video of the race right here check this out just how fast usain bolt is so it starts out he's automatically in the lead he looks like he's slightly jogging he's not even taking this seriously he's not even in a full sprint even though everyone else is wins by a mile here comes james corden up in the very back but it gives us context right just how fast the fastest man in the world is but these olympians they're incredible they really are incredible athletes and this last week i kind of wanted to research just how they got their start i kind of did a deep dive into how olympic how olympians just get going how how they get started what were the first steps that they took so if you've ever wanted to be an olympian yourself today you're in luck because i'm going to give you your first five steps into becoming an olympian the very first thing the internet says is that you need to assess your physical fitness so for many of us we're already out right like i am not in olympic shape so i'm out number two choose your sport it says many of these athletes have been in their sports since they were in elementary school since they were in primary school so it says if you're over the age 30 consider archery shooting or curling you have three things that take no cardio no endurance so if anybody wants to start a curling team i'm in with you let's do it let's go the olympics number three prepare for long-term training they say 1100 hours a year if you took no days off that's three hours a day of training of working out that is a lot of preparation number four keep your job you have to keep an income coming in because you have to pay for coaching equipment travel so three hours a day training also keep a good job good luck with that and number five have the dream i thought this was funny the very last thing is have the dream don't you feel like have the dream should be the very first thing if you're gonna go through all of that so there you go you want to start the path to becoming an olympic athlete i've given you your first five steps but it's a lot of work right these athletes have to put in the money the hours the training and ultimately the pain the changing and the growing and their sport or craft their growth to the olympics is a long and it's an extreme process but growth in general is a process and today we're going to talk about just that the good news about growth but don't stress out i'm not trying to get you ready to be an olympic athlete i'm not going to shame you on your fitness level today today we're going to be in romans 12. and romans 12 is where we will conclude this summer series journeying through romans because romans 12 is a graduation chapter it's a growth chapter and to set us up on the big idea of romans 12 i want to start by looking at romans 12 1. the verse is going to come up on the screen and when we get to the red word say them out loud now every once in a while i like to throw you a curveball i like to put the red words right up front just to make sure you're with me so romans 12 1 says and so dear brothers and sisters i plead with you to give your bodies to god because of all he has done for you let them be a living and holy sacrifice the kind he will find acceptable this is truly the way to worship him so out of everything we could have focused on in this verse why do i have and so as the redwoods why are we focusing on and so right now well i think it's important when we're reading the word that we put into context everything the bible says every word the bible says that we look at the intentionality behind words i know when i'm reading my bible i could quickly just skip over an answer and just get to the rest of the verse right so why is this and so here this and so wouldn't be here for just any reason this and so is here because it refers to something previously said right that's the only reason you would start a sentence with and so so what's paul the author of romans referring to well he's referring to the previous 11 chapters he just wrote about he's referring to all the good news that we've covered over the last several weeks throughout this good news series the good news about jesus the good news about life change the good news about faith and joy and freedom the good news about our future the good news about god's love and last week lori wilheit brought an incredible message about the good news about redemption and this whole series has been about how god's grace changes everything and if you missed any of that good news you can go on our app you can go on our youtube channel you can watch all of them on demand but paul says and so based on all that good news god's given us when you take everything into account that i've written to you in the previous 11 chapters he's saying church i'm pleading with you i'm urging you i'm begging you out of all the things we've covered you should be graduating to a new level now present your life to god the one who can change your life yes here's what i don't believe i don't believe that when it comes to jesus that any of us just like standing still we like doing nothing we have a desire to grow right we want to grow but here's the deal to grow we have to be willing to change because you can't grow without change now you can change without growing but you can't grow without changing it's all about moving forward it's all about growing so how do we do that how do we grow into the person that god made each of us to be well you start by letting him change your mind change your mind one of the not so fun parts of my summer that i got to deal with was my landscaping and just to give you a little journey on my landscaping a little background the previous home that we came from had a lot of high maintenance landscaping and what do i mean by that it had a lot of bushes and trees that were made more for a tropical environment it had real grass not this fake turf stuff it took a lot of fertilizer it took a lot of watering to keep it alive in fact this whole yard took a lot of water to keep alive here in the desert in fact my water bill was just always out the roof just trying to keep these plants alive so when we got an opportunity to move into a different home and we got the opportunity to choose the landscaping for this home i said i want low maintenance i don't want to bring this high maintenance landscaping over to the next house i want low maintenance i want easy i want a lower water bill i don't want to be paying this high water bill anymore so that's what we did we talked to families and family and friends and everybody suggested you go with desert landscaping just go with desert landscaping it makes sense you live in the desert get plants that are native to that area it'll be lower maintenance well our front yard doesn't have a whole lot of opportunity for different plants it's a lot of concrete sidewalk there's not a whole lot of plant opportunity but there's this one spot there's this focal point that just was right for the perfect cactus like if you just picked out the perfect thing to go right in that focal point just a strong tall beautiful cactus it would just make the front yard look great so laura and i we went cactus hunting we wanted something strong something beautiful hopefully something not a whole lot of money and we could put it right there in the front yard and the idea was that it would be low maintenance well we bought we went out we found it the perfect cactus got it home i didn't plant it myself because i don't have a green thumb and i wanted this thing to outlive me so i called a buddy over that's a landscaper and i just said i need your help getting this planted he helped me plant helped me get the soil all right help me get the sprinkler timer adjusted and off he went well two months go by and this plant this cactus does not look like it did on day one it is starting to look weaker starting to look a little feeble so i'm i'm like well based on my last yard i just need to give it a little bit more water than it's currently giving so every single day or not every day two times a week i went out and just gave it a little bit more water i hand watered this cactus well a couple months go by it's starting to look worse so i called my landscaper buddy up i said you need to come over here i need some help this thing is not looking great i need your help fixing the direction this cactus is going he came over he's like i think you have a watering problem i'm like that's what i thought so he went to the sprinkler box he made some adjustments and off he went well i'm thinking we have a watering problem i'm going to increase my hand watering to three or four times a week we're just going to pick this up a little bit a couple months go by same drill still looking bad i call him up he comes over still a watering problem make some adjustments i pick up my hand watering to once a day at this point because this thing is not low maintenance it's taking a lot of water this is a thirsty cactus a couple months go by we're now into the winter and this thing isn't looking great at all i call my landscaper buddy up he comes over apparently cactus don't like the desert winters they don't like the cold so you have to wrap it in a blanket when it gets cold are you kidding low maintenance and i have to give this cactus a blanket in the winter this is not the idea we had in mind oh and we still have a watering problem so we made some adjustments he left i picked up my hand watering to two times a day once in the morning once at night thinking i'm gonna help save this cactus spring comes along this cactus is dead like it is awful it looks awful it's making the front yard look awful i finally concede i call up my landscaper buddy i'm like you got to come over we got to switch this thing out we got to dig this one up we got to put a new cactus in and he comes over he's standing on the front driveway with me and we're looking at this cactus and he's like i just don't get it i'm like you don't get what he's like the last time i was here i shut the water completely off to this thing and it's still getting too much water wait it's too much water i was the one unknowingly responsible for slowly killing this cactus i was trying to take the growth the health the future of this plant into my own hands i wasn't relying on the much more qualified landscaper to be the caretaker and i ended up killing it well romans 1 and 2 it gives us similar advice when it comes to who we put in charge of our change a similar warning when it comes to growth in our own lives let's pull back up romans 12 1 and this time let's look at it with romans 12 2 says and so dear brothers and sisters i plead with you to give your bodies to god because of all he has done for you let them be a living and holy sacrifice the kind he will find acceptable this is truly the way to worship him don't copy the behavior and customs of this world but let god transform you into a new person by changing the way you think then you will learn to know god's will for you which is good and pleasing and perfect paul gives us such incredible insight into growth and change in these two verses in fact he gives us three big ideas that we can take away here when it comes to change the very first thing he says is give your bodies give your bodies to god that's to say this is a personal thing change is personal how is it personal not because we do the changing because god does the changing but what's the personal part we give our bodies to him to do the changing the next thing he says is it's a process by changing the way you think i want you to notice that paul didn't say let him change the way you think he said changing the way you think other translations say the renew wing of your mind it's a process you don't all of a sudden just arrive at a brand new way to think just because you name jesus your lord and savior doesn't mean you all of a sudden arrive at a new level of spiritual maturity it is a process and the last thing he says is that it's possible it is possible you will learn to know god's will for you which is good and pleasing and perfect it is possible for you to know god's will for your life which by the way is good it's pleasing it's perfect so the big idea we have to understand from these verses is that change is personal it's a process but it's possible and here's how it looks when applying these verses to our own lives to our own growth first it's personal not because you're doing the changing like i just said but because you're allowing god to do the change paul is saying don't let the world mold you into itself don't let it suck you in and make you who it wants you to be allow god to do the changing give him your growth your transformation your change give it to the one who is the perfect caretaker the expert god can transform you but you have to be the one to present yourself to him it's a personal decision next is a process change takes place in your mind your mind and your heart they're so connected aren't they in fact they're so connected that sometimes the bible will use the word mind and it will use the word heart to mean the exact same thing proverbs 23 gives us an example of this it says as a man thinks in his heart as a man thinks in his heart if we want change to happen in our lives we have to saturate our minds with his word it's the reason we don't just go to the bible when we're struggling we don't just dive into the word when we're going through a hard time no we're to dive into his word daily so that we continue to renew or to change our mind another way we can saturate saturate ourselves in the word is to gather together weekly we gather for worship we gather for teaching it's one of the big reasons every single week we say keep showing up just keep showing up we gather together weekly to encourage one another and to saturate our minds on a message of hope it's all a part of how we renew our thinking together how we renew our minds we saturate ourselves in god's word and then lastly this verse is telling us that change is possible and his will for our lives is good it's pleasing it's perfect i think sometimes we think god is withholding the things that we want right if i'm single he probably just always wants me to remain single he just wants me focused on him he doesn't care that my desire is for love and for that other person in my life he just wants me focused on him he wants me to remain single or i'm stuck in this boring job god just wants me to be me to be miserable this is my punishment i'm going to always hate my job i'm never going to have other opportunities because god doesn't want me to have them he's punishing me no god knows the desires of your heart and he wants to fulfill those desires for you he doesn't want you to be unhappy he doesn't want you to be unfulfilled he wants you to live a life of joy of happiness of fulfillment so many times we wonder like what's god's will in my life right have you ever asked yourself that question what's god's will how do i know what god wants for me how do i know the right answer well we have it right here in romans 12 1-2 we present ourselves to god allowing him to do the changing we recognize it's a process and the process starts by renewing our mind we need to saturate ourselves in the word and keep gathering together weekly and it's in that where he will reveal to us where we will know his good his perfect will for our lives church i can speak firsthand that the heart of pastor judd the heart of this staff team the heart of the volunteer team here at central is they want you to know that this place this church this should be the number one place you hear that change is possible no matter what you've done no matter where you've come from no matter how life's gotten a hold of you it doesn't matter how too far gone you think you are this should be the number one place that produces hope inside of you that you can change right why because we're teaching from here and that's the whole message here that's why we keep showing up we keep renewing our minds together pushing each other encouraging each other towards growth and change and we celebrate together the story of god's good and perfect will unfolding in our lives in fact you don't want to miss this next weekend pastor judd's going to be back and he's going to be preaching and kicking off a brand new series called we are family just show up for that get back here next weekend and then guess what show up the weekend after that and then show up the weekend after that we keep showing up together leaving our past in the past and focusing together on god's future for us right i'm gonna give you the the secret to growth and change and this is actually was socrates secret to growth and change here it is the secret to change focus all of your energy not on fighting the old but on building the new if you want to change don't put your energy on fighting the old put your energy on building the new and how do we build the new we let him do the changing we give our lives fully to him we don't get too hard on ourselves we realize it's a process but we stay hopeful that in him change is possible so present your life to god the one who can change your life which leads us to the next way to help us grow and that's to use your change use your change after paul gives us the way that god can start transforming us in verses 1 and 2 of romans 12 he starts to give us the way god can start using us in verses 4 5 and 6. check out what these verses tell us it says just as our bodies have many parts and each part has a special function so it is with christ's body we are many parts of one body and we all belong to each other in his grace god has given us different gifts for doing certain things well basically what paul's saying what he's implying is that church this church this community of faith it's like a human body and just like the body has eyes it has ears it has fingers and all the parts each have their own jobs they also all work together he's saying the church is just like that we all have different talents we all have different abilities that god has given us he has uniquely given each of us spiritual gifts some of us would form the function of an eye some of us would form the function of a hand or a foot but each one of us in this body has our role in furthering his kingdom and the body cannot not function well without all of its working parts another analogy i like to use is i have this toolbox with me on stage and if you know anything about tools and toolboxes a toolboxes toolbox is only as effective as the tools that you have in it because every job whether big or small comes down to using the right tool for examples of some tools i have in this toolbox which i keep in my office as a metaphor an example for these exact verses right here one example is i have a hammer i have a level here i have a screwdriver now if you wanted to unscrew something you wouldn't reach for the hammer right no you would reach for the screwdriver the hammer has its specific function that it was created for the screwdriver has it the screwdriver is made to unscrew things the hammer's made to hammer if you were going to hammer something you wouldn't grab the level would you to hammer it well this could be a bad example because maybe actually you would have you ever gone to ham or something you already have that nail in place the right spot the hammer's either too far or you're too lazy to go get the hammer so you just use a water bottle a book a level whatever it is well so we all know though that a level is at its best when it's leveling things when it's being used for its specific function and so on for each one of the tools in this toolbox so if we want to be used specifically for the reason that we were created for we use our abilities that we were created for right each one of us who have committed our lives to jesus we have spiritual gifts god's given to you them to you this is good news you have gifts and abilities you are a tool in the carpenter's toolbox and he wants to use you you weren't deemed unworthy you weren't left out you have god-given gifts you have god-given abilities and here's the deal the only way this church will ever reach its full potential it will ever reach its full potential is if you use your unique gifts and talents you use them in your life you use them in your job you use them in your family and you use them in this church there are things that you can do that us hammers just cannot do there are things that you can do that those of us who are screwdrivers we can't do god has specifically gifted you you to serve a purpose furthering his kingdom and as we all use our talents god's glorified and amazing things can happen it's how we grow i also think it's important to realize and remember that imperfect people use their change oftentimes i think after uh we hear that we can use our gifts we can use our abilities we often have the thought you know when i get my life together then i'll use my change once i get perfect then i'll be ready for god to use you to for god to use me and i'm here to tell you that's not the case that's simply not the case god is ready to use you right now you look through the bible and god uses imperfect broken hurting people all throughout the pages of the bible and they do some pretty incredible things this pastor wrote this piece on some of the characters of the bible and their perceived flaws and you might not recognize all the names but you'll at least get the point he said moses stuttered and struggled with anger hosea's wife was a prostitute solomon was too rich and abraham was too old david was too young timothy had ulcers peter was afraid of death lazarus was dead john was self-righteous naomi was a widow paul was a murderer jonah ran from god miriam was a gossip gideon and thomas they both doubted jeremiah was depressed and suicidal elijah was burnt out john the baptist was a loudmouth and martha was a worrywart god has used and will always use imperfect people because guess what there is no such thing as a perfect person so disqualifying yourself because you think you're not ready to be used that's not god god's not whispering that that's the enemy the enemy says you're not worthy jesus says so what i am i am worthy and i have them covered growth is being used by god regardless of where you find yourself right now he can use you as you are in your brokenness in your messed up situation he can use you to make make an impact on other people do you know the greatest lesson that we can learn when it comes to our unique gifting in the body of christ how we're used in the church body is that it's not really about us at all it's about god and if you really believe that then you realize that it's not about us in the sense that it's not about how talented we are it's not about how good we are or how perfect we may feel or not feel it's not about us it's about him it's about those around us that don't know him yet our responsibility is to leverage our gifts for god's glory to make a difference in other people's lives for his glory that's how we grow if you feel god putting on your heart that you want to be used to serve others through this church if you feel god tugging at your heart right now that's the holy spirit trying to get a hold of you saying use your change and don't miss this don't miss this opportunity in fact we want to give you an opportunity to jump in and be able to serve here at central and we made it really easy this week all you got to do at some point throughout your week today whenever just go to central.family this is for those at live locations this is for those online there's lots of ways you can be used just go to central.family and hit the quick link volunteer with us and right there you can sign up and start being used start using your change right here in this in this church to serve others to make it about him and making about them we are given amazing opportunities in our life but if we don't act they're only wasted lessons we're given amazing opportunities but the problem is often we don't act so they're only wasted lessons we're to act we're to use our change we present our lives to god because he can change our life and then we are to use that change to serve him and to serve them to conclude today i want to read an article i ran across this last week when i was doing my olympic deep dive of an olympic athlete named yusra mardini yusra grew up in damascus syria where she learned to swim her father was on the national swim team where yusra had a passion and a dream to follow in his footsteps while she was competing in local swim competitions a civil war broke out in syria yusra continued to practice for competitions but it became more and more difficult to get ready due to the constant fighting that was going on all around her her family's home was destroyed her father was arrested and beaten but the breaking point was when an unexploded shell fell into a nearby pool she knew it was time to go in august 2015 yusra and her sister sarah they left the country and fled through turkey outside of turkey they boarded an overcrowded small boat bound for greece's aegean islands in hopes of achieving asylum then during the trip the motor of that boat suddenly cut out the small boat started to sink facing certain death both sisters jumped out and pushed the boat toward shore for three hours it says due to their quick thinking and users swimming training 20 people survived and were able to find new life in europe they saved 20 people and even through all that trauma all that suffering that that yustra went through she did not give up on her dream of becoming an olympic swimmer last week she competed in her second olympic games on the refugee olympic team she made it to the olympics that's amazing but here's the thing you throw will probably never be known for her gold medals at the olympics she will probably never be known for being the world's fastest swimmer the gold medals they're they're not her purpose because she had a bigger purpose her will to never give up her hours of training her dreams her gifts her talents can all be summed up in a moment when her talent was more about others than it was about herself her purpose was to rescue our purpose can be to rescue growth is about going from a mindset of what's in it for me to one of how do i help them it's time to graduate church it's time to take it to the next level how do we start growing earlier i gave you the first five steps to becoming an olympic athlete let's look at the first five steps and how we can grow first we assess our spiritual gifting assess your spiritual gifting how has god uniquely gifted you what gifts and talents has he given you specifically next choose to let him renew your mind it's personal not because we do the changing but because we give our lives to him to do the changing prepare yourself that it's a process you don't all of a sudden arrive at a new way to think be easy on yourself changing and growing is a process but keep your hope that he has the best for you and his will is perfect and good and pleasing and it is possible for you to know that will and then lastly have a rescue mindset it's about him and it's about them it's not about us it's not about us isaac newton said it best in his first law of motion he said everything continues in a state of rest until it's compelled to change by forces and pressed upon it everything continues in a state of rest until it is compelled to change by forces impressed upon it let me ask you what's impressing upon you is it the world there's a lot that can be impressing upon us right addictions struggling marriages broken relationships depression hurt bad habits hang-ups the world will try to oppress impress itself upon us and squeeze everything out of us but we don't have to let it we can let god impress his perfect will upon us to shape us to grow us and not only grow us but to use us if we want to see god's will his perfect will played out in our lives it's right here it's right there present your life to god the one who can change your life and for some today you're ready to start growing in jesus you're ready to start having him change your life you're ready to start the process by giving your life to him by naming him your lord and savior maybe you've never had this opportunity before maybe you've resisted this opportunity in the past but right now you're ready to say god i'm ready for you to start changing my life or maybe you're ready to rededicate your life to him right now if you're ready for god to start doing the changing in your life i'm gonna give you the opportunity to right now so if everyone would bow their heads close their eyes and all you have to do is just say this prayer after me just say god i love you i know that i'm a sinner but i know that you sent jesus into this world to forgive me of those sins he died a death on that cross he didn't deserve for me but he rose from that grave and now i want to ask forgiveness of those sins i want to name you jesus my personal lord and savior come into my life and start transforming my life in church i want to ask you if you prayed that prayer for the first time if you just named jesus your lord and savior or you rededicated your life to him would you just slip your hand in the air just saying before me making it all the more real to yourself that you're going to start living for him that you named him your personal lord and savior thank you for those hands thank you thank you for that bravery just slipping your hand in the air just naming this moment before him god i thank you for these hands i ask that you just pour out your love on their lives father showing them that change is possible through you and you do that for everyone in the room everyone online right now father that's hearing this message that you just pour out your love on them father we're so thankful that we don't have to do the changing that you do the changing for us transform our lives and let us use our change to make a difference in your kingdom we give it all to you it's in your name we pray amen well church family let's give it up for those that made decisions today for those that recommitted their life to christ hey if that's you we want to let you know that here at central we have a tool just to help you get started it partners with the bible and it's a as a guide a how to follow jesus guide all you have to do to access it it's free it's just go to central.family hit the quick link i've decided to follow jesus

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, online church, easter at central, christmas at central, first step, celebrate recovery, groups, central youth, cy nights, cy, mancave, girls night out, me time, hope for the city, central academy, faith

Id: gBEBWUR4ZWM

Length: 35min 40sec (2140 seconds)

Published: Sun Aug 01 2021