The Good News About Life Change | Jud Wilhite + Central Live | Central Church

well welcome to central where it's okay to not be okay i'm nikki and thank you for watching this experience today be sure to connect with us by dropping a comment below or you can always go to central.family for events going on right now now don't forget we go live every weekend right here on youtube so you can hit that subscribe button and get notifications for when we go live and when we upload new content for now we have an incredible experience in store for you so check it out [Music] a wave of light is moving is me [Music] [Music] the darkness is is [Music] [Music] is hey if you know this about central church we like to have fun around here right all right so here's what we're gonna do i need you to get your cell phones out and i want you to turn your flashlight on we're gonna create one giant lightweight right here in this room in fact i forgot mine backstage can i borrow your ears real quick thank you all right so hold them up like this and you're waving back and forth come on let's bring this together come on [Music] here we go [Music] [Music] here we go let's put our hands together i am always [Music] oh [Music] [Music] foreign me come on [Music] [Music] oh [Music] breathe [Music] [Music] oh [Music] the community of central academy was huge to me um not just those that i went through it with the ones that were at my table my study buddies and those helped me with quizzes and but really truly the alumni too friends that let me books and proofread papers for me and said hang in there you got this it was just great to have that whole community around me to support me through that journey the community is something that i never expected so when i went through the first bible track i did that without community and it wasn't until i did the leadership track that i you know started community and then i even took the bible track a second time and i started leading a study group so the community has met a relationship with with people that will last a lifetime people from all across central all walks of life they know what they've been through so much and they can help you through so much that you're going through and before central academy i was lost basically and after central academy i was found it was the best you know you go in there and you may know one or two people and when you leave you're like a family and you're studying together and you're laughing together and you rely on each other you know it's just such a good feeling to know that you've made more connections here you know because it makes you even feel that the church is even smaller than what you really see every day when you come here so i really enjoy meeting new people and learning more from them that you know you never know what the experience is what you're going to learn from somebody else the best part about central academy is the community because no one there is just doing it alone i never had any idea how amazing central was you know i i know being a christ follower how amazing that is but going through the leadership and finding what central does and just realizing that not only am i a part of central but i'm a part of christ's kingdom and one of his children it just made me so proud to consider myself one of those people that graduated from leadership academy oh it's so great to see all the great things god's doing through our academy and people's lives if you'd like to learn more about our academy go to central.family there you can learn more hey help me welcome libby and stacy this weekend will you love this couple and their story especially god has been working overtime in their life in fact stacy or excuse me libby was the first person to come as a couple they were dating but she started attending central and like every dating relationship guys let's face it most of the time our significant other in our life is the one who encourages to us to take that spiritual step as it was in stacy's life he took that step because of libby's influence there they went to first step libby got baptized but they saw all the great things that god was doing here through god behind bars and our food pantry and all the different things that he was working in that they wanted to plug in deeper and so they went to edge of commitment and started working on their relationship got into a couples group started attending cr started serving in cr started serving in first step and when they started serving that's when their life and their relationship began to be transformed and out of that they felt this prompting or stirring that there was more and especially in the area of generosity and so they took a step because of all the things that they saw god doing they felt like maybe god wanted them to be a regular giver and give on a regular basis and so they signed up and became a generosity rock star and then took another step in their generosity as time went along and god has especially showed up and transformed them in a special way when i think of a couple that's all in i think of libby and stacy they are all in they love jesus they love you they love people you can see it on the countenance of their face their lives have been transformed tell us like what's that like you know because there came a point in time when you realized that god didn't want something from you but that god had something for you tell us about that libby well for me i had grown up in the church and was always a sometimes giver um it wasn't until i came to central and went through first step that god really started to open my eyes and my heart to generosity so i stepped out in faith i saw the good things that central was doing with god behind bars and the homeless ministry and i just really wanted to be a part of that change i was seeing so i became a generosity to rock star like you said we took another step from there and god has just really grown my heart for generosity since then love that and you know you guys are are exemplifying generosity with your time your talent and your resources you're everywhere in this church you're making such a huge impact in people's lives the food pantry you know i know stacy was near and dear to your heart 24-hour church you guys just plugged right in during the pandemic and obviously you've you were ready for something like that because you saw the blessings of all that god was doing in your life what was that like to take that step and see god just show up in a powerful way i mean god has blessed us in so many ways it's uh it would take all day to tell you but during the pandemic like a lot of businesses mine took a hit it came basically to his stands though so we had a lot of difficult discussions a lot of plans got changed but one thing we never stopped doing is giving we always trusted god we had to because god had always come through and he did even during the pandemic not only did he look out for us financially he provided for us there but he also got us more plugged in with 24 hour church with celebrate recovery with central groups all over the place and we were able to hear stories through those ministries that really built our faith and encouraged us gave us the certainty in god that we were looking for even when the world was uncertain love that yeah i love that right church well thank you for the difference you're making in people's lives you know we celebrate like the knights who won a game you know but it was just a hockey game right but so many times we overlook the real champions in this world and that's those that are making a difference in other people's lives so in a way that you would if you were at a knights game would you help me celebrate big libby and stacy come on hey maybe you're here this weekend and you're thinking you know what i could really use help i show up at church i'm hurting i'm experiencing something in my life maybe it's a food insecurity or you need encouragement you need prayer i don't know what is going on in your life but we want i want you to know we are here for you and any way we can help and serve you we want you to know just let us know we'll help you or maybe you're here this weekend and god can do something special through you with your time talent and financial resources to bless others i want to encourage you to take that step you'll never regret it god doesn't want something from you god wants something for you if you'll take that step he'll show himself to be true in that area of your life and it's easy to plug in financially central dot family central online dot tv right after our experience you can find one of our ushers in an offering bucket give by check or cash or find our generosity team member wearing a red apron tell them you want to give by credit or debit card and you'll be blessing others but listen church here's what i want you to know we see it every week first hand front lines you're putting a smile on people's faces because of your generosity you're giving them hope and you're being a blessing to others and god is using you to change lives every week just this week people came to faith because of your generosity so thank you thank you thank you for stepping up in a powerful way well let's go to god in prayer will you join me jesus we so love you god you're so good you're so good we recognize just how awesome you are how loving you are how merciful you are how caring you are god you want to be a part of our lives you desire to encompass every aspect of our life and so right now we take a step of faith towards you jesus we desire to draw near to you and you promise as we do you will draw near to us as we lift your name this weekend on high i pray that our worship would be pleasing to you and that you would pour yourself out on us take our gifts and use them so others will know how awesome you are for we ask these things in jesus name amen [Music] are we feeling today's central family if you were around central church back in the pandemic back in may um we had this big night of worship plan called central live nights and we had to cancel it i'm really excited to announce you today that on august 25th at 7 p.m we're gonna have a night of worship right here in this room it's gonna be an amazing night we've got all kinds of new music coming out over the summer this friday our single tomorrow comes out i want to encourage you to listen to it it's on all streaming platforms we've got city of grace our album that we released last fall we're doing a reimagined version of that album it's going to come out this summer as well and we've also written 15 new songs that we're going to sing all summer here with the hopes that this fall we're going to record a live album and get that out to the world so i want to encourage you to stay tuned you can always follow central live on social media but we have a new song we want to introduce you today are you guys okay if we we sing it for you today this song is called dead in the water [Music] there is [Music] flowing within [Music] when mercy is found this hurt for tomorrow where yesterday's so come with me [Music] [Music] is [Music] there is [Music] [Music] there's always [Music] is [Music] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] you said [Applause] [Music] a little bit deeper now all saints and all sinners let's wait a little bit deeper now [Music] there's grace in this river let's let's read it a little bit deeper down is me the water wow [Music] romans 6 23 says for the wages of sin is death but the gift of god is eternal life through our lord and savior jesus christ church you might have come in here a little bit messed up today but i want you to know you don't have to stay that way because god has a great and perfect plan for your life he's going to do something incredible today i believe lives are going to be changed for all of eternity every weekend right here at central church we take a moment and we just pray for our church family and we want to stop and do that today we know many people walk through our doors hurting every week and so if we can pray for you in any way possible would you just boldly slip your hand up in the air raise your hand upon if we can pray with you church family if you're next to somebody with their hand raised i want to encourage you to just stretch a hand out towards them you don't have to touch them let's just pray and ask god to do what only he can do [Music] god thank you for the opportunity to come in these doors today to gather with fellow believers and just to sing about your goodness and your greatness many of us today walk into the doors hurting i just pray in this very moment god that you would just meet us here that you would just overwhelm us with your goodness lord for those of us who are in pain i just pray that today god you would just take that pain away god and trade it for your joy and your peace thank you for being a good god thank you for loving us unconditionally we thank you for it's in your name we pray and every person in this room said together [Music] amen [Music] caught up in your presence and i just wanna sit here at your feet i'm caught up in this holy moment and i never and i'm not here for blessings jesus you don't owe me anything more than anything that you can do i just want you and i'm sorry when i've just gone through the motions i'm sorry when i just sing another song to take me back to where we started to you [Music] and i'm sorry [Music] when i've come with my agenda i'm sorry when i forgot that you're enough to take me back to where we started i open up my heart to you if you feel comfortable just lift your hands and declare this today come [Music] on [Music] [Music] [Music] oh [Music] [Music] nothingness [Music] [Music] i just want you to [Music] nothing else [Music] nothing else nothing else nothingness come on search it's going to be a great day in church i want to know if our god is for us who could ever be against us there's nothing greater than the love of god come on somebody let's look up a shadow good to see you guys thank you so much for being here with us today we are in this teaching series called good news who doesn't want some good news in their life and the bible is filled with good news in fact the whole message of jesus is called good news and so we've been digging into the book of romans we kicked it off last week and i'm excited to continue doing that with you today you know a lot of people we all come from different perspectives and backgrounds we're all different for example how many pepsi people do we have uh here today pepsi people all right how many coke people there you go right those two rarely mix you know what i'm saying unless you get married um how many night owls who are the night owls yeah all right it's still the early service for the nighthouse uh how many uh early birds morning people okay yeah that's very good how many of you just feel like an exhausted pigeon right you don't know what you are but you're tired all the time uh how about cat people we have any cat people all right cat people yeah there it is cat people then there's dog people who are the dog people yeah all right there's even snake people like this guy right here the snake people do their own thing they got their own thing going on here's the deal we're all different we all come from different perspectives we all see life from a different angle and i think that's a beautiful thing i actually think god designed that and created that and while we love our own uniqueness and we want our own uniqueness to be celebrated we don't always enjoy other people's uniqueness right they can start to drive us crazy and we can even start to view other people as those people you know those people that drive slow in the fast lane those people that talk in movies those people that are always tearing up the road those people that watch a particular news channel those people that vote for a particular candidate those people you know they got vaccine those people that didn't get vaccine those people that ask people if they got vaccinated don't be those people right we can go down the list and and it's so easy to start putting people in boxes and these people belong over here and we're over here and let's be honest we live in what has been called the age of offense everybody everywhere is offended all the time and if you and there are some things that are legitimately offensive don't get me wrong but if you want to be offended if you look to be offended you will find what you're looking for and so everywhere we look it's polarizing there's all these issues that are right up in our face and it's so easy to start putting people in to boxes but today the bible is going to challenge us to remember that when it comes to people's value before god there are no those people and us people there's just people it's just people and we've got to resist the temptation to put people into categories and into boxes and what motivates that is not only god's love for them it's the fact that people can change people could look i know it's still sort of popular out there to think that you know people don't change people can't change that guy's this way he'll always be this way once a crook always a cook right once a well fill in the gap but you can't really be i don't see how you can be a follower of jesus and kind of not believe that people can change because god's love can come in and change your life because we've experienced change in our own life and let me suggest this is why that's so important because those people whoever they are can change as well by the grace of god so we're going to talk today about the good news of life change for those people and for us in our lives and that good news is fueled by god's grace god's grace gives us what we need to grow now last week we talked about romans chapter one some people say romans is the greatest book in the entire bible paul sort of lays out the case for the bad news and the good news the good news is through faith in christ we can be forgiven we could be set free the bad news is we often rebel we go our own way we reject god and we end up in all kinds of difficulty and and sin patterns and destruction and he kind of lays it all out in romans 1. and in romans 1 he actually uses this language he talks about those people those people you know the the wicked sorry like that's my ex you know those people the evil oh i know that guy right those people and then when he gets to chapter two he kind of he does a little switch on us because he comes into chapter two and he moves from talking about those people which was real comfortable yeah those people they're bad and then he says you people check it out he kind of baited us romans chapter two beginning in verse 1 when we get to the red word if you'll read this out loud here with me this is how we make sure everybody's awake romans chapter 2 verse 1 paul paul says this look at how the language shifts he says you you may think that you can what condemn such people those people you may think you can condemn them but you are just as bad thanks paul and you have no excuse when you say they are wicked and should be punished look you are condemning yourself for you who judge others do these very same things you know some people are clapping and some people aren't sure what to do with all that look he's saying look we have a tendency to want to judge we have a tendency to want to look around and point the finger but it just comes back to bite us because we have our own list of things that we do we're bothered by other people's issues but we're pretty good about accepting our own and so paul says listen don't judge don't condemn life change is possible not only for them but also for us so we're going to grow in that one of the first things paul is going to challenge us with is this simple idea to lean in to god's kindness lean into god's kindness in your life now um i don't know how many of you've ever been to the gym and worked out so hard that you couldn't move the next day anybody had this kind of experience some of you you got to hey you got to have this moment i went to the gym this last week with my wife lori and she was like set up to take a class you know it's a group thing and so i went in support i didn't go to the class y'all i went did my own thing she went to go do her class thing and then she comes and finds me about 15 minutes into it and she's all sweating and panting and she's like oh my gosh it's so hard it's unbelievable i see your black spots i think i'm going to throw up i'm going to die in there there's only three other people everybody can see me it's humiliating and she's breathing heavy and she goes i had to excuse myself to get a bottle of water and it's not like a twist cap and i don't have my glasses and i can't see how to open it can you open my water for me i just took her bomb like really we're not even that old it's come to this like you can't see to open the bottle of water you will walk all the way across the gym so i can open your water for you i started laughing just like you like laughing and i'm just gonna tell you that did not go over well she shot me the look and i was like oh here you go she went back she finished her class up but i knew then she's not going to be able to move tomorrow she probably isn't going to be able to get out of bed tomorrow because when you overdo it like that man you are so incredibly sword sure enough the next day she could hardly move at one point she dropped some stuff on the floor and she didn't even try to pick it up she just waited till i came through to ask me to pick it up because she knew if i get down there to pick it up there's no guarantee i'm going to get back up and i actually had a lot of compassion for her because it wasn't that long ago after covet and all of that i kind of you know i was like all right i'm getting back i'm getting back in shape you know after and i jumped in there i got on the squat rack hello i'm like bring it i used to could do this watch me now oh man the next day i literally it wasn't like i couldn't go up the stairs i couldn't go down the stairs it's like oh oh my gosh oh it's unbelievable so i had compassion for her in that moment because i remembered what it was like because i just did it not too long ago and paul's going to remind us when it comes to those people remember all that god has done in your life remember the kindness that he has shown you and let that help motivate you to show compassion and understanding towards others look at this romans he breaks it down chapter 2 beginning in verse 4. he says don't you see how wonderfully kind tolerant and patient god is with you that's a word right there he says does this mean nothing to you can't you see that his what his kindness is intended to turn you from your sin it's god's kindness that motivates us to change and so paul's saying look remember god's like you want to condemn others you want to judge others you want to categorize those people over here but it's remember god's kindness to you listen god has been so kind to you he has forgiven you in jesus christ he has not counted your sins against you when you were lost in sin and self-destruction he was kind when you believed all kinds of foolish crazy things he was kind when you wanted to go your own way and live your own life he was kind when you were self-absorbed and foolish god was kind when you were lazy and unwilling to change god was kind when you traded the truth of god for a lie he was kind and when you came to your senses and wanted to make a change and wanted a new life god was kind don't forget it when you needed help and wisdom and self-worth and self-respect god was kind to you he gave you grace so you could grow and so then paul said he asked this question he says does this mean nothing to you does this mean nothing to you we would all say well the kindness of god means everything to us but the implication is that when we judge and criticize others we're acting like god's grace means nothing to us when we condem and point the finger we trample on god's kindness because we've done our own things just like those that we're judging and so paul is going to challenge us to step back and remember the kindness of god to us in our lives romans chapter 12 verse 10 a little later in the book of romans paul will say this he says love each other with genuine affection and take delight in what honoring each other see rather than judge and condemn our posture should be honor what do we do in a in a cancel culture you know it used to be that people got canceled and they were celebrities or big sports figures or whatever and and they would be canceled for things they said or things that they had done but but you know the cancel culture is now starting to devour itself so it starts to trickle down and now everybody can be canceled soccer moms can be canceled everyday people you can get you can be canceled for a tweet you made 10 years ago or something you said a lifetime ago or and don't we all look back and look if you believe fundamentally people can change that is a big belief then you can't lock them into something they did 30 years ago and say well that's who you are forever you're out right we can change we can grow and as f what do we do as followers of jesus our first impulse should never be to cancel our first impulse should be to honor to honor literally it could be translated out do one another with honor what would happen if everybody we saw this week we saw them from the perspective as beautiful diverse individuals created in the image of god that i am called to outdo with honor when i honor somebody when i honor somebody across socioeconomic lines across countries uh geographical lines when i honor somebody across racial lines when i honor somebody across gender lines i have almost never not seen that honor be reciprocated when you honor it sets a whole different culture and he says i don't judge you i'm going to honor you as somebody created in god's image you know i'm just gonna love people and let god sort them out right it's not like those people and us people we're just people and grace gives us what we need to grow my friend pastor craig rochelle talked about the power of honor he said he and his wife amy were in a marriage counseling session with this couple that they had known for years and they were sitting there and this woman just kept going off on her husband all the bad things about him and and finally uh amy stepped in and she goes you're just you're saying terrible things about your husband you you've got to stop dishonoring him like this and she fired right back she said well maybe if my husband was one-tenth the man your husband is i would honor him and amy didn't miss a beat she said maybe my husband is who he is today because i've honored him since the day we met that's the power of honor right and let me challenge you with this thought honor is not earned it's given it's not about whether they're honorable it's about whether you're willing to honor anyway and god has shown us kindness and honor so we can honor others here's another thought not only to lean into god's kindness because god can change other people but then to let your heart be changed let your heart be changed i know in my own life so i've lived with a heart condition since i was like 17 years old and it's mostly managed with medication but every now and then my heart will get out of what they call sinus rhythm and it'll be like all over the place and i've lived with this my whole life but when it happens it totally drains my energy it's exhausting it's like your whole electrical system is kind of out of whack until it gets sorted out again and um i remember when i was when this first happened when i was like 17 i went to the doctor and i'm terrified i go in and you know the doc's looking at me and i said am i gonna die and this was an old literally i remember this guy was a field doctor in vietnam and he looked at me and he goes yeah you're gonna die he just let it sit he goes this probably won't kill you but something will kill you [Music] so there you go aren't you glad you came to church because you're gonna die too but the good news is in our lives when i think about like my own heart my heart can be all messed up but on the outside you would never know i've done whole sermons where you know you never know like what's going on on the inside and on the outside everything looks great and in the jewish culture at the time paul in romans 2 addresses some of this there was a tendency in the in there's always a tendency in our lives to reduce the commands of god to external things and bypass our own hearts what god really wants in the old testament of the bible and in the new testament is a changed heart in our lives what he really wants is a changed heart but we have a tendency as people to move everything to the external to the outside and so the jewish people they would get all focused on hand washing and did you eat kosher foods and did you observe the sabbath and were you circumcised which wasn't just like a medical procedure when you were born but was like what marked you as the people of god right like all of these external things and paul comes along look at what he says romans chapter 2 beginning in verse 29 this is how he breaks it down he says no a true jew is one whose heart is right with god it's about the heart and when the heart is right everything else gets right when the heart is wrong everything else gets kind of messed up he says a true jew is one whose heart is right with god and true circumcision is not merely obeying the law or the letter of the law rather it is a what a change of heart produced by the spirit what god wants to do in our lives is produce a change of heart by his spirit it's not only possible for others to change it is possible for us to change by the grace of god paul's saying it's not about your race or your culture to the jewish people it's not about how you look or about how big your bible is or you know it's not about how many verses you know or how many rules you follow or how well you manage your image it's not about how many these and thou's you put into your prayers it's not about where you live or what you drive or what you wear the true evidence of god's work and blessing in your life is a changed heart it's a changed heart and that's not to say that the law or the moral choices we make don't matter they do but the law and the law is good but it's more about the laws the outflow of a changed heart in our lives rather than something we strive to do to earn god's love and approval so the question becomes how do we allow god to change our hearts right how do we allow god to change our hearts and i want to share several thoughts with you today uh kind of rapid fire the first thought is this from romans two focus on your heart not someone else's what i mean is how do you experience life change well start with yourself ask god to change your life ask god to help grow your patience or help you face an addiction or help you face temptation or whatever ask god to move and work in your heart and get less concerned about looking around at what everybody else is doing and more concerned at looking to god for what he is doing i saw this real on instagram i don't really know how you end up on the reels on instagram you ever have like i'm just like whatever and then somehow i'm like how did i get to this video i don't know what's happening right now there's this old man he's hobbling along this camera guy walks up to him he goes hey i'm a documentary filmmaker i'm i'm shooting a film and i just wanted to know if i could ask you a question the old guy's like uh what he's like can i ask you a question he's like yeah he says are you happy a guy thought about it he goes am i happy are you happy he goes yeah i'm happy he said why are you happy and he goes well i'm alive i'm happy because i'm alive great answer right so i'm happy because i'm alive and so the guy says well if you could say one thing to the to to everybody what's your one piece of advice that you would give to the world this old man didn't miss a beat looked right at the camera and he goes calm down and live your life calm down and live your life and then he like you know just kept walking i remember watching i'm like oh that's good that's good right there in a in the age of offense where everybody's enraged all the time there's some wisdom to say hey calm down and live your life and run the race god has called you to run there's some wisdom to say i'm going to focus on my heart and my life and be less concerned about all the other things other people are doing and more concerned about allowing god to transform me so the first thought about how we allow god to change our hearts is focus on yourself surrender your heart and your life to god here's another thought be patient with yourself be patient with yourself i used to think spiritual growth kind of looked like this image right here when i first came to faith i sort of thought that my spiritual development would look like a staircase and i would just get better and better and better and the top of the staircase was like becoming like christ and so i became a follower of jesus and and now i was gonna like i was gonna be more patient and more kind and more loving i was you know i was gonna know my bible more and have more fruit in my life and be amazing and just keep going forward and forward and forward and in like two years i'm like boom jesus status it doesn't really work that way does it at least it didn't for me i'm like three steps up and i fell off the stairs all together this is what i was this is this is what i've learned i think when it comes to spiritual growth and development that it looks less like a linear staircase and more like a spiral set on its side so i want you to think about this if this is where we start when we come to faith in christ and this is the goal of being cry ultimately christ like in our lives we're on a journey and when you start man maybe you go through a credible spiritual high and and man you first come to faith god is awesome and you can't wait to get to church and you're like oh worship is amazing you know you're just you're growing it's incredible and then like you know i don't know your girlfriend breaks up with you and and uh you know like you get you start facing temptation and you slide back and you you burn out and somewhere in this first season you have a down spell hmm it won't be the last but then over time god grabs ahold of your heart because you're his now and the bible says he who began a good work within you will carry it on to completion in christ jesus you can't just get away because you're god's now so he grabs a hold of you and he brings you coming all of a sudden you're back in church you're reading your bible you're growing in your faith again right you're a little more mature now you're a little more damaged you know from this journey but but i want you to notice like like you're back up things are good and then you're going to go down again and then you're going to go up again and then you're going to go down again but here's what you got to remember the spiral is moving forward even though there's ups and there's downs you are becoming more like christ like like for me in my life i will always struggle with impatience okay always and uh i know i mean my dad was impatient i got it from him i blame him i i don't doubt that i will be impatient on my deathbed lori says i'm a terrible sick person so i'll be like can we wrap this up which is exactly what my dad did on his death bed in the hospital he kept getting shocked by this defibrillator it kept going off and it hurt him and he thought it was like restarting his heart it wasn't but that's what he thought like this thing is keeping me alive and at one point my dad sits up and he's angry because he just got zapped and he says to me you better get that heart doctor in here right now he better turn this thing off i paid him a lot of money and i should be dead by now he lays back down i'm like got it dad love you i'll always struggle with impatience and if you see me in my worst moments you may think i haven't made any progress at all but when i look back over my life i still struggle with impatience but i'm different than i was 20 years ago i'm more patient today than i was 20 years god has done a work in my life and there are seasons where i've had highs and lows but when i look back over 20 30 years i have made a lot of progress to becoming more like christ sometimes you can see somebody in their low moment and not realize where they even are on this journey and all that god may have done in their lives that's why i think it's always interesting how spiritual conversations can come up in the most unlikely places with the most unlikely people you know how many you know how many times god's used some people sitting at a bar they may be at a lower point in their life maybe not but maybe they're at a lower point in their life maybe if you just saw them in this season you wouldn't realize all that god had done in their life in this season and god isn't finished with them yet there's going to be new seasons for them in the future god's moving and working it's just messy y'all it's messy and that's why we don't judge people that's why we give people the grace to say i don't know where you are on your journey you may be losing your mind right now but your story isn't finished god isn't done he's still moving and working in fact let's bring this up uh henry cloud and john townsend i got this from them years ago i thought it was a simple way to think about spiritual growth and life change they said look life change involves truth plus grace plus time that's what equals growth and you need all of these if you just have truth the truth of god's word the bible and we need god's truth we need god to call us out we need god to call us out on our selfishness on our sin on our addictive patterns on the junk in our life sometimes we need god to just straight up sit us down and take us to school all right we need the truth but if all you have is the truth what are you going to do when you keep failing and you keep going through downward seasons and your life feels overwhelming you need grace as well and grace is the undeserved faith and favor and forgiveness of god you need truth and you need grace and then you need time it takes time for truth and grace to work for us to experience growth so be patient with yourself focus on your heart not everybody else's be patient with yourself one more thought is to focus on training more than trying i think you know we often want to try i'm going to try harder i'm going to try to be more faithful i'm going to try to get my act together i'm going to try to follow god but here's the thing i could try to run a marathon tomorrow but it's not going to go well because i haven't trained to run the marathon the only way you run to the marathon is you got to train for weeks and months and then when you get to the marathon it's not about trying it's about my training when it comes to life change and spiritual growth and development it is less about trying and it is more about training and doing the things god's called us to do to open our hearts to him so that he can change our hearts what i mean by that being committed to pray every day and asking god to move and work in your life and surrendering to him that's training you're in god's gym now right opening up god's word and learning about it and growing in your faith and exploring new things you're training you're in god's gym now coming to church and being faithful in community right being insane i'm going to keep showing up whether i'm feeling it or not what am i in god's gym now and when we do the training kinds of things when you get to that i don't know moment of temptation or crisis situation in your life or dark period in your life when you go through a pandemic your whole world doesn't collapse because your training prepared you to walk through the season right so focus on training more than trying one more thought is to live for god's praise look at this romans chapter 2 beginning in verse 29 this is how he closes out the chapter he says a person with a changed heart seeks praise from who from god not from people seek your praise from god run the race that he set before you like say it's easy when you're running that race to to get all caught up in in the perspective of others or the crowd right don't get too caught up in the booze of the crowd while you're running that race because you'll get distracted and fall don't get too caught up in the cheers of the crowd when you're running that race because you'll get distracted and fall run for the glory of god and his praise one translation says this recognition comes from god not legalistic critics look you're going to have your critics somebody may lie about you online you keep seeking praise from god somebody may be rude to you at work you keep seeking praise from god somebody may disagree with your beliefs keep seeking praise from god somebody may criticize your actions somebody may try to tear you down and destroy you keep seeking praise from god because listen you will never be good enough or pretty enough or strong enough or talented enough for your critics anyway so seek your praise from god live toward him the good news about life change is it all comes back to him and his grace and the power is we can lean into his kindness because god can change anybody's life there's no those people in us people we're just people all have sinned all have fallen short of the glory of god all can be redeemed all can experience forgiveness and restoration in jesus christ we're all somewhere on that journey so build others up and value them and believe the best even when they're at their worst honor them honor isn't earned it's given and when we honor people tend to live up to the honor that we show them and then let god change your heart life change is messy it's full of ups and downs so have grace for yourself in the process is all it's a it's a journey but keep going and don't quit keep showing up and let god's grace give us what we need to grow maybe you're here today and maybe you've never crossed that line of faith in your life and i'd love to just give you an opportunity to come to christ receive his forgiveness and restoration in your life would all of you bow your heads and close your eyes you can begin that journey by repeating a simple prayer after me either out loud or in your own heart you say dear god i thank you for loving me thank you for sending jesus into the world i believe he died on the cross for my sins i believe he rose again forgive me for my sins give me the gift of eternal life and help me face the challenges that i'm up against god i surrender my life to you in christ's name friends with every head bowed and every eye closed if that's your prayer today if it's your commitment i'm going to ask you to just slip your hand in the air just make eye contact with me just to stay before god to say to me you're gonna follow him and you're gonna trust him in your life god bless you guys thank you thank you guys god bless you just reach out to him today bless you guys thank you thank you god we thank you for your love i just thank you for each person here today just reaching out to you i pray you'll fill their life with your goodness your kindness your forgiveness your joy we're so thankful to follow you and to know you empower us to honor one another and to experience your kindness in every way in our lives we thank you in jesus name amen let's put our hands together for those who made spiritual commitments in their life today i want to ask you to remain seated for just a moment if you made a spiritual commitment huge congratulations we'd love to connect with you send you a resource we've created called how to follow jesus just go to central.family just click the link i have decided to follow jesus we'd love to connect with you there well this time i'm going to throw it over to our lead pastor at this location pastor nick so put your hands together for him he's got a few final thoughts well what an incredible experience now remember we go live every weekend and it's a great way to meet and interact with so many of the central family now as you go on throughout this week make sure you hang on to rome

Channel: Central Church

Views: 1,455

Rating: 4.8571429 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 2021, Online Church, The Comeback, Nick Bodine, Better Family

Id: EoTsp2xsEjU

Length: 65min 20sec (3920 seconds)

Published: Sun Jun 13 2021