The Secret to Your Future

i am so excited to share a message with you called the secret to your future the secret to your future one of the most felt needs right now people are asking the question what about my future what does my future look like some of your teenagers are asking what does my future look like college students are asking what is the future going to look like retirees are asking what will my future look like empty nesters are starting to wonder what will my future look like and so for the next few minutes i want to talk to you about the secret to your future now the reason i wouldn't use the word secret is because i think secrets are defined by either a lot of people don't know about it or a lot of people don't act on it and so what you're going to discover is what i'm going to share with you is like well that's not really a secret except that it seems like it is because very few people walk it out and live it and i want to encourage you today in the next few minutes if we walk out of here into 102 degrees and we live out what we're going to talk about i think you can be confident in all that god has for you in your future and everybody said [Laughter] amen you already sound just hot and fatigued um also i want to talk to you a little bit let me just say a couple of opening statements before we get going here's the plan going forward for those that don't know um the world has changed as we know it you can look around and figure that out national attendance in local churches is uh 30 of physical attendance is back in the church in the united states of america which which means it's it's really a small fraction only because life has changed people are on their computers more people are spending weekends on the lake or whatever by the way you know me 11 years of pastor and 12 years a pastor in this church when it is sunny you've been in those services where i'm like why are you not on the lake get the app get on the lake watch the sermon and be with your family and have a barbecue that's awesome too but i'm so glad um that you're here here's what i'm gonna do for we've been praying about this i've been asking god god what do you want me to do um in case you haven't noticed there is a lot of people that don't know the love of jesus and don't know the forgiveness of jesus and so we're going to keep living life on mission chelsea and i are going to be live once a month here at kirkland we're going to let you know when that is i'll let you know what services i'm preaching live so we can gather we can celebrate the other times during the month here at the kirkland location there's going to be a great sermon there's going to be a great kids ministry youth ministry but we're also encouraging you if you're not able to drive and come to a facility you can use the app you can do church at home you can have a barbecue you can connect with neighbors by the way a really big part of our lifestyle as jesus followers is to love your neighbor and so i'm so serious about this these days like go over knock on the door bring him a fruitcake make strawberry shortcake like you know take take over some barbecue and let's meet our neighbors and let's care for them and let's listen and and laugh and love and serve and so uh and by the way um the most committed people are part of the church come about once a month so if you want to gather once a month and celebrate you want to come every week there's going to be services here's what i'm really excited about much has been made of um you know are judah and chelsea in seattle anymore yes we are now we were in quarantine in los angeles and by the way where you were quarantined you stayed i've had several people running to me like so you moved to la and i'm like no i was quarantined in los angeles and if you've been to l.a a quarantine in is it's pretty populated and dense and difficult and challenging but this is home the seattle seahawks are the only football team that matters in the whole wide world in the whole wide world and the team that matters the least in the whole wide world is the san francisco 49ers um red is the color of hell blue is the color of the sky so you do the math i think it's pretty obvious um but this this is home and we have never been more in love with the city but you know we actually have um our the almost our entire staff lives in this city pastors live in this city in fact today if you have not met a pastor or if there's something we can do to serve you or help you or support your family out in the lobby there's going to be pastors in the lobby waiting to shake your hand meet with you pray with you talk with you anything we can do for you there'll be pastors identifying those pastors will be done oh maybe a name tag colbert are the pastors going to be wearing name tags all of the pastors will be wearing name tags that's amazing louis vermont but all of the pastors i'm kidding i'm kidding i'm kidding um so you can uh you can meet up we're here to to serve you all right you ready to jump in ready to jump into the scripture i have so much to say about life and culture and stuff that's going on and i'm just super excited about it but um i'll just work it in to the sermon i'm gonna preach for the next two and a half hours i'm kidding i wish in my dreams for those that did come on easter i did set my personal record and i think i preached one sermon 83 minutes yeah how many are grateful that's not going to happen today how many just feel really oh no hands go up two two colby put your hand down oh man all right let's jump in ben thank you so much um if you guys don't mind coming back at the end it's a boy band today look at these guys this is a good looking boy band mustache of the day right here tattoos ooh those are evil those are bad who let the guy with tattoos on the stage that's unbiblical all right things we used to care about in church so we're like i still do sorry okay if tattoos bother you we have just begun okay so so oh man okay um have you seen this tracy morgan commercial that's out right now uh it's pretty hilarious tracy morgan is a stand-up comedian i'm not saying that you should listen to all his contents and we're like i think he cusses in his stand-up okay all right but tracy morgan who is a very popular comedian has this commercial and uh i think it's like on mortgages and stuff i won't say the brand because you know we're not gonna this isn't about advertising um but uh the the commercial goes i think he's in like the bathtub of these people's home or the home that they're walking through and the wife asked the husband can we afford this home and he goes i'm pretty sure and tracy morgan who i think is eating berries sitting in the in the tub it's hilarious he's like pretty sure pretty sure you need to be certain he's like let me just let me tell you about pretty sure and all sudden it cuts to like they're in the woods and they're hiking he picks up a flower he's like i'm pretty sure this isn't poisonous and he like eats the flower have you seen this commercial or he's like driving in a car and they're about to do one of those jumps shout out to fast and furious have you seen that trailer by the way vin diesel drives off a cliff hooks into a rope that takes the car and swings him across like the grand canyon i'm like what i love about fast and furious is how realistic it is it's it's actually based on a true story i don't know if you knew that but anyways tracy morgan is like about to jump this bridge and he's got the whole family in this like car and he's like i'm pretty sure we're gonna make it you know they just like take off um pretty hilarious right and the whole point of the i think there's actually multiple vignettes multiple commercials is you need to be certain you need to be certain i kind of think that's how we feel right now about our future i'm pretty sure like i'm pretty sure like you're kind of driving your proverbial car going like i'm pretty sure 2022 is going to be good here we go you know and and i guess i want to be tracy morgan today and i want to say you need to be more certain than pretty sure right like you you you when you look into your future what's left of your short stay on earth i don't think pretty sure is good enough i'm i'm i'm pretty sure i think there needs to be some certainty and some conviction about your future now if you're like me you're thinking well judy that's that's a great concept but but i'm really actually not in control how many have figured out in the last couple of years like we are fragile we are finite we are not in control last night i was in miami florida having dinner with rich wilkerson junior and dawn cherie who pastor a great community called vue church which you helped to start by the way that church in five years is thousands and thousands of people it is incredible and while we were having dinner tears filled our eyes and we began to cry realizing that 10 minutes down the street 156 people are still missing in rubble i mean if we haven't figured out anything if you're like me i can't keep up with the tragedies right now i just can't keep up it seems like every day someone's like did you hear and i'm like and did you hear used to be an exciting statement to me what now i'm like uh what right another catastrophe another tragedy it's overwhelming right so we have figured out very quickly that uncertainty seems to be a predominant part of the human experience so maybe you're listening to me going judah you're asking for certainty about our future but if we've learned anything in the last you know 16 18 2 years months years said life is very very uncertain i'm so glad you said that because i want to read to you one of the most quoted verses in all of the bible jeremiah where do you think i'm going 29 11. okay if you're sitting next to a good christian they just said it out loud to impress you jeremiah 29 11. it's 29-11 it's 29-11 i have that one memorized 29-11 okay we get it we get it by the way good to see the kapoozies here this morning i love you guys susie capuzzi used to teach me in sunday school by the way chelsea susie kapoozie she taught us in like in in in junior high is that a true story am i making that up portland oregon susie kapoozie was my middle school sunday school teacher so if you don't think my theology is good blame suzy capuzzi that's her name by the way that's her married susie kapoozie tell me that's not the best name you've ever heard in your whole life okay no one has a better name susie cabuzi i love you i just want to keep saying it you know listen to this in the message jeremiah 29 11. i know what i'm doing wow that'd be worth coming to church for that in the air conditioning i know what i'm doing i have it all planned out plans to take care of you not abandon you plans to give you the future you hope for i want to underscore this statement this morning i know what i'm doing let me be real clear there is not a preacher or a pastor right now who knows exactly what they're doing you need to know that something like a lot of change has been going on in church home guess what a lot of change has been going on in the church and if the church doesn't change the church isn't going to be nearly as effective as she can be let me tell you there is a lot let me talk about real estate agents i got friends i know a lot of real estate agents that are like the market is so wild and so crazy i don't even know how to keep up there are a lot of industries there are a lot of kind of roles and professional posts that people are holding right now and they're like i don't really know what i'm doing the world has changed as we know it right the price of lumber just dropped but it's still really high if you've been keeping track right i mean it's i've talked with people who tell friends we're building a house right now and friends are like offended wow you must have a lot of money to be building right now and it's like you can't even build a house without being offensive right now right like it's like it's just it's a very uncertain time i want you to know that i don't know everything i'm doing i just told you i'm coming once a month live and something like judah i don't know about that well neither do i but i know that god has told us to do this and this is what we're going to do we're going to try to reach more lost people but i don't totally know what i'm doing is it fair to say that i've never been 42 before i've never been this old i've never been this far in history before i've never been through a pandemic and i've certainly never been in seattle in 111 degrees i can tell you that much that has never happened in my lifetime i i don't really know what i'm doing one of my favorite things right now and i'm not sure it's a it's a really good practice but it's become a habit is i end pretty much most sentences now with going ah you know i don't know are you like me like i think about you know maybe at least in a car i i don't know thinking about getting a little blizzard tonight you know i was like oreo blizzard i don't know you know thinking about watching reruns of fresh prince of bel air tonight but i don't know you know like should we start should we travel a little bit i don't know i was gonna maybe wear a mask but i don't know i was gonna go say hi to those people but dude i don't know are they gonna be mad if i get too close yesterday at this funeral um i it's been so long since we were all masculine now you you go to florida there's a lot of masklessness going on okay different cultures come on somebody and so this sweet man who loved jesus and most of the people the people didn't know jesus which is one of the reasons i went because i wanted to tell them about the hope we have in jesus and he got right here and i was shocked i could smell his breath and he was like because he was telling me his testimony he was addicted alcohol and jesus set him free and two years ago he gave his life to jesus but he was right here and i tell you sam it's the truth i kept doing one of these i was like oh man that's that's incredible oh man and then you could see on his face he was like that's weird and he would just like keep moving closer and i'm like bro we're just coming out of this thing man and to be honest i don't like this in any situation you know like i don't i don't know i don't know if that's necessary but there's a lot of uncertainty and i don't know and yet jeremiah 29 11 the reason i read to you in the message is it starts with i know what i'm doing i know what i'm doing i know what i'm doing that's a quote from god i know what i'm doing god i know what i'm doing jesus i know what i'm doing holy spirit i know what i'm doing creator of heaven and earth i know what i'm doing the star breather and the ocean maker i know what i'm doing and i sit in the heavens and i laugh at all who oppose me for the the earth is my ottoman it's my footstool i hear somebody trying to help me preach might as well it's 102. right like i know what i'm doing that's that's really all you needed to come for this morning i mean you can get out some lipstick and write it you can get out a permanent marker and write it on your mirror what's that it's a quote from god what's i know what i'm doing with your life i know what i'm doing with your future i know what i'm doing with your past i know what i'm doing with your trauma i know what i'm doing with your loss i know what i'm doing with that death of a loved one i know what i'm doing i i know what i'm doing god says and by the way with his knowledge look what he does with his knowledge we'll put it up on the screen again i know what i'm doing i have it all planned out i mean just those two statements could set you free i know what i'm doing i have it all planned out let me tell you about me i don't really know what i'm doing and i definitely don't have it all planned out by the way don't have it planned out if you don't know what you're doing right this isn't this isn't like we're not even exegeting original language here okay we're just making obvious assumptions to the text if you don't know what you're doing don't plan it out a lot of people are making plans but they don't know what they're doing plans will not make up for your lack of knowledge but there is one who knows what he's doing this isn't my sermon these are opening statements he knows what he's doing and he has it all planned out he has it all planned out it's amazing to me how convinced we are that god knows what he's doing and has it all planned out when his plan mirrors our plan and we feel really good about it have you noticed that like i feel you know it's amazing how god starts changing our plans when our plans don't line up with his plans and so we're like i think god is actually changing his plans to more match up with my plans you have to know this about god you have to i'm gonna come right down here you have to know this about god um his plans wait for it are not your plans well but my plan sometimes can be yeah yeah parts and pieces yeah but he knows what he's doing he has it all planned out he knows who has it all planned out the difference between you and me the difference between us and god is we don't really know what we're doing and god forbid we have it all planned out the just shall live by faith faith what's faith divine persuasion you know what i wish faith was i wish faith was um god's showing us the whole plan how good would that be what do you want to walk in by faith me too best life ever what's the walk of faith when god shows you everything you're gonna do in your 20s and your 30s and your 40s and your 50s and your 60s and your 70s and your 80s and you're like what are you doing i'm following jesus it's the best except he he usually doesn't do that and then like bad stuff happens to good people and then good stuff happens to bad people that's one of the worst parts of it all god they're they're not good and it's kind of like oh yeah that's right neither am i but we we don't we look in a mere dimly the bible says we don't see it all even the prophets prophesy in part they don't see the whole picture they don't see everything that's going on but there is one who does i know what i'm doing one of my favorite statements lately is um god is really good at being god you know what you're not good at being god let me say something like i'm not trying to be god you that's offensive fair enough you know what you're not good at being the commander of your own life you know what you're not good at you know what i'm not good at being in control you know what god's great at commander in chief control lordship leadership destiny direction purpose planning architecting he's like been doing it a long time so we all gonna sit here and start acting like god doesn't know what he's doing darris daniels a friend of mine who passes a great church a couple of churches actually in different locations he said faith is acting like god means what he says i just i think god means what he says i again this isn't this i haven't gotten a sermon yet but this i got it all planned out i know what i'm doing do you think that 2020 and 2021 got god thinking maybe i don't know it all maybe i don't have it all planned out isn't it funny in our finiteness we project don't we so we superimpose on god all the time god you must feel a little bit how should i say anxious like me right now you must wonder if this is going to work out he's like oh you are so cute you're the cutest you're like a little goldfish swimming around and you just you know you're just tiny and you think the whole world is your little bowl and you don't realize it's on like one little table in one little room of an entire house and you're like this is my bowl and here's my little rocks at the bottom and my fake little tree this would anybody have a goldfish i killed more goldfish than i can even count because i was like let's let's let's feed them a ton that's what i did with my gold fishes i'm like ah they're hungry my dad's like you're gonna kill him i'm like no i'm gonna make him big right like we're down here swimming in our little bowls going you must be really nervous because my bowl is pretty shaken right now and god's like you're so cute and adorable and i love you so much and i'm not trying to be patronizing but no no oh and my least favorite part of this sermon this spontaneous unprepared preliminary sermon is um the world doesn't revolve around me ah but what if it did that'd be kind of fun do you know what i mean like but let's pretend it does because that's how we started life let's just be infants forever the world is all about me and i determine what god's doing in the earth based on me um the earth is the lord's and the fullness there of i want to show you another famous passage and i want to give you um three thoughts that i think function a lot like a secret that'll unfold for you and unpack for you a level of confidence and conviction and assurance for your tomorrow but have no fear for tomorrow will never come for when it does it will only ever be today which leads us to the very simple thought that life is only ever today it's all it is it's just right now it's just today yesterday's gone tomorrow will come and it will be today jesus says just just be focused on today and so i want to give you a gift today in the form of a couple of scriptures to help you just embrace today you you you can't live your career for the next 10 years all you can do is live today some of us are so worked up about the next three months you can't live the next three months today you can just live today and you know love about god he is our ever present help in time of need today today isn't it amazing the eternal one cares about your today he architected linear time and space it was his idea to help our little brains our goldfish brains if you will to kind of just like not get overwhelmed and you know why we get overwhelmed is because we pretend that we're not the finite limited beings that we are and we try to play god for our future and we try to live out the next three months and we don't just live out the next three minutes some of you your consternation your pain and your anxiety has nothing to do with what's happening in this room right now or even what's on the docket for today it's something that hasn't even happened yet you've already had the conversation it didn't go so well so you're even more anxious you've already had the meeting you've already you've already filed for divorce in your mind you've already filed for bankruptcy in your mind and you've forgotten that god between now and then god can do a miracle let's just do let's just do today and that bring that brings me to matthew's gospel matthew chapter 16. everybody still with me matthew 16. i love you so much this is so much fun matthew 16 then jesus said to his disciples if any of you wants to be my follower you must you must that's imperative language that's imperative you must okay so jesus is not suggesting this he's saying that this is like essential you must give up your own way take up your cross and follow me if you try to hang on to your life you will lose it but if you give up your life for my sake you will save it what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own souls anything worth more than your soul for the son of man will come with the angels and the glory the father will judge all people according to their deeds that is a lot to cover in the next two hours but we're gonna do it i'm kidding i'm kidding i'm kidding um three things i want to identify for you we're gonna try to unpack them very briefly jesus says give up your life point number one give up you put that up there thank you give up point number two take up your cross and point number three for my sake if you can begin to understand these three concepts it's going to give you the ability to let go of your next three months or three days that you're all worked up about that you actually can't live in and it'll help you live today and trust god for your future i treat a lot a lot like a secret because as you'll discover as we unpack these three statements a lot of people don't apply them don't walk in them don't utilize them only because it's natural normal not to these are not intuitive now the holy spirit helps us live like this but we naturally wake up as the captain of our own ship have you noticed that do you wake up thinking that you hold the steering wheel do you wake up thinking you hold the controls that you are in the control you know you're in the tower the proverbial tower at the airport like you are directing traffic you have to control the future of your kids you have to make sure your marriage works you have to make sure that your business gets off the ground you have to make sure everybody's happy with you you have to make do you wake up like that because i do most days right i don't wake up and be like oh my god lord i give you everything i am like so yours i am your servant here's my life like i usually don't wake up like that right i usually wake up and i'm like all right it's gonna be a great day i think i hope right welcome to 2021 no no 111 right like we prayed our whole lifetime for nice weather in seattle we didn't mean this much lord you know like we want hot we want heat we want sun oh god sun rain right how fickle are we if one more seattlite complains to me oh this weather stop we are so confused we are the most confused state in the union right we don't know what we want right okay so i don't think we want 111 though to be honest we don't live in phoenix for a reason right for a reason okay so we we i will say that first statement i want to look at give up give up and i want to say if you get nothing else from this particular segment get this there is a a lifestyle that i'm going to try to kind of summarize in a statement and this lifestyle is this it's giving living or living by giving but let's call it giving living because that kind of feels good giving living is the secret you're looking for now why you buy into giving living we're going to talk about it because i think you got to buy into giving living not for the results that it yields but for the person who demonstrates it and gave you everything but giving living is the secret you're looking for it's giving living it's giving living now that is not the mentality of our culture right now at all in fact it's quite the opposite our culture now is training us every day through technology and other means that we should ask what will be given to me what will be given to me now i'm not saying that in some cases that is not relevant and all these things but we we for those of us that follow jesus it's imperative for us to understand that his teaching is quite opposite often times from the cultural norms he promotes giving living acts chapter 20 in verse 35 jesus is quoted in the early church by saying you will be far happier giving than getting so giving is the key to happiness not getting let's just set the record straight that's really helpful right now isn't it talk about your future and maybe you're thinking what am i going to get in my future what am i going to get at my job what am i going to get in this marriage what am i going to get through my kids what am i going to get through what am i what what what am i are you like me like one of the most discouraging parts of my life right now is surfing netflix or one of the other platforms looking for a shell that will give me what i want have you noticed this and by the way there's a whole trend right now in content creation and that is you have to capture the audience like within two to three minutes they say because there's so much competition and content and so basically by the way this is shaping our brains and our priorities and our emotions and our thoughts we are being trained every day and i'm listen i love content i love shows i love movies don't misunderstand me nothing inherently wrong we just have to be on guard and be aware that a lot of this content is created to serve up and tantalize your desires and what you want very very fast so that you stay in the show in the movie and you watch it through so the views will go up and the money will be made now back in the day do you remember movies used to start slow anybody remember those days movies usually be like there's just like somebody in the field reading a book and somebody rides up on a horse like how are you hey you know it's like what's this it's the man from snowy river right like it just it started out slow one of my favorite movies of all time is glory watch glory with denzel washington right and it's like there's whole like 15 20 minutes where it's like i don't know if anyone's talked in a while in this movie right but nowadays it's like hey hey how are doing you know right because we're being served what we want got to click i don't like that fast forward a couple episodes nah something else let's go right and if you're like me like you spend two hours later you're like we still haven't watched anything why do i feel so empty and hollow and so used this feels gross because the whole thing is oriented around what you want what you want what you're looking for and that's not how god set up the universe you will be far happier giving chelsea i just signed a deal we're going to start a podcast i hope that you listen to it okay we're going to record next week our first few episodes we're going to have guests on that sort of thing and for those that get offended with these things the the the podcast will not be me preaching i won't be necessarily quoting scripture because we're going to try to trojan horse this thing i'm going to try to get the message and love of jesus out to more and more and more and more people we're gonna have lots of guests that don't know jesus and we're gonna talk about jesus and they won't know we're talking about jesus but it's gonna be it's gonna be really really awesome but but one of the themes on this podcast is we're going to we're going to teach people that you got to live live a life of giving and then when they ask why we're going to tell them about the one who gave everything but life's about giving we we've been at home wondering what we can get world's opening back up again and we've got to ask ourselves what can i give what difference can i make where can i go and who can i serve now you're like judah here comes the preacher he wants to up the attendance and get you know up the giving no no no no this is about living life on mission this is about your happiness and your fulfillment and your future and the pathway to your future of fulfillment is giving not getting jesus says if you want to follow me you gotta give up your own way i know this sounds odd but one of the most remarkable themes that keeps surfacing in my heart post i don't know if you can even say post covid right now okay but we're we're trying to right we're trying to and i mean no disrespect by the way i literally have a friend right now who has covid vaccinated and one of the four percent that actually contracted it again so this is very real we need to be very careful i want to be sensitive this is still something that we need to be aware of and prayerful and careful so please hear me right and that's it's one of the reasons probably a lot of people are still unsure of even to to come back to public gatherings like this and i respect that there is no shame by the way right i was in the airplane last night for five and a half hours and i was thinking something about this doesn't feel right okay and we're sneezing and coughing and i'm like i don't think the masks are helping here folks okay the lady next to me is blowing her nose and her nose is running and i'm like i don't i don't know i don't know like and it's not that i'm afraid i'm just like i really don't need to be quarantined for another for two weeks like that wouldn't be productive for for raising my teenagers who need my attention every single second do you have teenagers who talk a lot so do i okay anyways you're like judy you talk a lot i know the sins of my youth have come back to haunt me in my adult years hey dad hey dad hey dad hey dad stop talking please i know i named you judah i didn't literally mean to be me you know like i can't stand to be around me but anyways that was funny you gotta here's the thing that keeps coming up give up give up son give it up let give up your own way i think quite literally means a number of different things but one of the means is to to give up and here's what i think give up could mean for you stop keeping score in life you need to stop stop keeping score it's not how god works stop keeping score by the way marriage never works when you keep score friendships never work when you keep score that's how you end friendships and end marriages when you keep score well you know i i do a lot of stuff for you around this house and you do nothing for this family that's score talk you know my friends i'm always there for them they're never there for me that's score talk that's not inherently wrong it's normal actually but jesus asked us to live a whole nother different kind of life give it up stop keeping score another thing give up means is stop comparing yourself oh we don't have a problem doing that except we do it nonstop every day as we scroll compare compare compare compare and even for those of us that are not like comparison is not my it's not a norm for my personality my personality my addiction is codependency and so i went to therapy for like four days and i was hoping it would be like you know just some sexual addiction or or substance addiction like i don't want those but i was like just tell me and they're like oh you're so cute your addiction is codependency and i'm like what's that mean you're not okay until people are okay i'm like isn't that what pastoring is i don't know you know is that what we do and they're like no that's unhealthy right so i want everyone to like me so comparison isn't my norm my norm is like do you like me i think you're amazing tell me more about you you're incredible oh my gosh oh wow i love that shirt you're incredible wow have you lost weight on my worry this is incredible right so that's my so different personalities have different kind of things but comparison no matter your personality is touching us all now because it's just built into our technological systems give up let go give up quit keeping score quit comparing yourself and we'll talk more about how to do this i think give up also means like like give it i want you to what's it you and god know what it is isn't this a bummer part of the sermon but what's he saying you know what i'm saying that one thing you don't want to give up it stinks doesn't it i want you to i mean i just i enjoy myself every now and again with this that and the other but but did god ask you to stop i don't know which usually means you do around this topic i've been doing this a long time guys i've met with some more college men than you can imagine and and here's the best way to start by the way if you want to be a pastor here's a great way to do coffee with someone sit down and be like is there one thing god's asking you to give up i have a word for you you need to give it up it works every time that and to college men do you have temptations with pornography like it works every time right like those were the two things i would do like pornography and something you need to give up maybe it's the same thing you know whatever but like i pastored guys for a long long time and still do but there's always hey i'm talking to christians for a moment there's always there's always it and god's like hey just trust me with that trust you with dessert trust you with like my day off trust you with my entertainment trust you with my beverages god these aren't a big deal i know but i want it see i think we like give up your own way and we're like yes i will god [Music] we'd rather sing and worship then god say i want you to stop eating sugar and we're like what that can't be god it doesn't matter to god i'm his [Music] he's like you are i'm so proud of you listen i i don't i don't want you to drink coffee anymore coffee somebody like i rebuke that in the name of jesus so do i i'm not stopping that i'll tell you that right now but i just threw it out there in case the shoe fit but come on some you've been walking with jesus long enough to know sometimes he'll just ask for the simplest of things but they're so simple it's the last thing we want to give up hey i want you to stop spending so much time in the morning getting ready and looking at yourself and making sure you look perfect and i just want you to comb your hair and get dressed and trust me go to go to work got it 30 40 minutes to get ready yeah but you can do it in 10. and that's what i want you to do be good for your soul i'm telling you guys it's he's actually a real person who has a real relationship with you and if you have ever been married or dated someone for a long time how long you get ready in the morning seems to come up and in our relationship chelsea and i it's this guy who takes twice as long as my wife and that's the truth and you're grateful for it because look how handsome i am like i'm saying that i'm getting up kidding you're like this takes you a long time bro shut up it can be anything give up give up and then i would say it also means give in give in paul was saul and he has this conversion and i'm done we're not going to be able to get to the whole sermon today but this was the whole sermon i had to trust god with that but um give in you got to give in do you remember what the voice from heaven says to saul before he comes becomes paul and writes half of the new testament do you remember how that goes he's riding his donkey and god just pushes him out of his toyota basically like he he the honda breaks down on the road and he has to pull off and he's like what's going on and god's like it's hard isn't it to not give in what do you mean to like me you think you're serving me you don't even know me i want you to give in give into what i'm doing on earth you're going to play a really key role on my team i want you on my team it's hard to kick against me isn't it saul give in what do you mean give in give in to what i'm doing i'm not drawing lines in categories like you i'm trying to get all my kids to see me for who i am and i want you to play a part and it's not just about the jews saul it's about the whole earth it's not just about your religious sect the pharisees and sadducees saul it's not about the ten commandments saul it's about my grace and my forgiveness and my love i want you to give up i.e give in give in so [Music] trust me and i end with this with the music playing softly and then we're gonna sing some songs together with all of our heart luke chapter 15 jesus is criticized for having friends that don't go to church and don't smell right and smoking and and have tattoos like our drummer i gotta pick on our drum report guy he's like i'm a volunteer man um it's true um hey why do you have these non-church people as your friends jesus he says let me tell you a parable with three parts and we get maybe the most famous parable of all we've got a lost sheep lost coin and a lost son i want you to see something a lot of people believe that these parables are about a number of different things but every single parable please hear me every single parable ends with a party every single parable ends with a celebration every single parable ends with an illogical celebration i can prove it to you the woman with a 10 coin collection loses one coin she still has 90 percent of her income 90 of her collection but the bible says she turns up all the cushions and all the chairs and rips her house apart looking for one coin and then how ironic is this when she finds the one coin she gathers all her neighbors and throws a party for the one coin i'd like to suggest i think she spends the nine coins celebrating the one she found [Music] the shepherd in the story before in the first part he counts up his sheep not to know how many are in the church but to know who's missing you better give in church we better give in to what god's doing we better step back and know that he knows what he's doing and he has it all planned out maybe god has a plan and a purpose to take what the enemy means for evil and work it together for our good so we can see more of our neighbors and our loved ones know the forgiveness and grace of jesus i don't want to fight what he's doing i want to join what he's doing and so we're going to count the people in the church not to pat ourselves on the back but to see if we can tell if anybody's missing and when we find out if somebody's missing we'll leave the 99 to go find the one i say no every month to three to five invitations to speak at conferences and conventions but when my friend in west palm beach said will you come and do my funeral for my mom that just passed away everything within me which was god said you're gonna go and so i go on a plane and flew a red-eye to west palm beach been on the plane for i don't know a lot of hours and i landed because there was 60 people at a funeral and probably 90 of them don't know jesus and god said that's where you're going to go and i got to give in i'm not going to fight this we got to give in we got a city that doesn't know jesus it doesn't i'm not i didn't say it doesn't know church i didn't say that no customs or traditions or commandments or concepts i'm talking about a city that doesn't know there's a god who's a man and his name is jesus and he is the shepherd who counts his children and loves the 99 as much as the one but i got three babies and i'm telling you right now if i count three and i only count two i'm gonna leave the two safe and secure in my home but you better believe i'm gonna go looking for that one until i find my baby my baby so we got babies that god wants home let's give in let's give in the rest of church home will not be counting attendance and auditoriums the rest of church home will be counting to see who's missing and whoever's missing we're going to go find them we're going to give in so it's hard for you to kick against my plan you know saul had a plan and his plan was a religious plan his plan was a traditional plan his plan was the making of men it was to control people with religion there was a whole financial system everything and god said it's hard isn't it saul i have a whole new way of you viewing your life and your world i'm gonna blind you as a picture to everyone who reads this story then when i capture a heart i change you how you see i need you in 2021 to change how you see your neighborhood i need you to change how you see your children i need you to change how you see yourself this church does not exist to give me what i want or give you what you want it exists to serve at the leisure of the king the commander-in-chief and his name is not joe biden of the whole earth or donald trump his name is jesus and he is king and he is in charge and i know what i'm doing i have it all planned out what could he be doing [Music] can i tell you what he's always doing he's always doing whatever is possible whatever is necessary for his children [Music] i'll watch the tv show lately and on the tv show a mother lost her daughter how do you think that mom acted they it was a true depiction it was they were trying to make it realistic and the mom couldn't sleep she couldn't eat she couldn't function and she called everybody she knew she started asking people to join the search party she said i got and you know what she had a son and that son was safe it didn't mean she she let she loves her son any less doesn't mean she loves her son any less she just knows that her one son is safe and her daughter isn't and so she was tearing up the towel looking for her baby so that's what we're going to do that's what i'm going to do we are going to give in why why is all of this happening well the earth is subject to futility and there's brokenness all around us but but i have to believe that god knows what he's doing and he has it all planned out and um i don't know what i'm doing somebody like we can tell judah i'm like all right and i i don't have it all planned now so so what's the secret to my future um to find the one person in the universe that knows what they're doing and has it all planned out and attach yourself whatever you ever you ever had babies or friends or nephews or grandkids come up and grab your leg and then hold on back in the day i used to go on trips sometimes and you know my son would grab my leg and i'd be like you know doing this whole funny thing i'm like a half daddy has to go come on buddy that's what i'm talking about you ain't going without me god cause i don't know what i'm doing and i don't have it planned out but you do and and i'm i'm done with this the plan was to drink some water but i'll get to that later [Music] he says um do it for my sake anyone loses his life for my sake don't hold on to him for your sake [Music] hold on to him because it's him [Music] it's the desire of all nations he's the fulfillment and the fulfiller he is the plan he is the centerpiece he is the focal point he is what you crave and long for he's what you're looking for he's what you desire don't hold on to him for what he will do for you hold on to him for him because i can tell you in 42 years i've never met anyone like jesus anyone so come what made my brothers and sisters wherever jesus is that's where i'm gonna be so what do you do yeah that's exactly what i wanted to do let's go you ever had one of those friends you're like hey man i'm gonna i'm gonna take off oh i'm gonna take off too you're like okay i need a little bit of space here all right well actually i'm gonna stay oh i'm gonna stay now too okay all right i can't shake you that's right god what are you doing that's what i'm doing that's what i'm doing give him give him give up give it that's the safest place in the world when you just go [Music] what a lot of people forgot about this church and forgot about the way i was raised i've been here since i was 13. can i just say this as much has been made about how judah lives in l.a now and chelsea lives in la this church has never been about jude and chelsea by the way it's always been the point has been about jesus but people have said i'm i left seattle i'm i'm i'm i'm leaving i you you act as if i'm in charge of my own life i blame you church for trusting me to lead this community i blame you i sat where you sat and still do i'm just a part of this church and my dad was facing what he's facing my mom and the board of elders said you need to lead and i'm like okay i'm going to leave one way i'm going to lead one way i'm going to lead one way whatever he says that's what we're going to do and i'll know that he's speaking because i will talk to the board of elders the lead pastor counsel and the doctrine council which numbers about 15 mature men and women who trust jesus read their scripture pray and love god and i will check with all them this is what i believe god's saying this is what i believe unto you and if all of them concur then we'll know that's what god's saying and that's where we'll go guess what we're still doing that and you know what the results are oh those are gods those aren't mine those are gods who just do what he says and some will say well see you shouldn't have done that because the because isn't really my job just do what he says i just gave in just do what he says how many are parents in here you know what i'm talking about just do what he says we're supposed to raise human beings god are you serious i can't raise myself what do you want me to do with these humans trust me boy have i learned trust as a parent of a teenager somebody in here who has teenagers say amen these are your babies what do you want me to do do this okay what now do this okay i i've never been a parent before maybe you thought i had i've never been a parent before i never lived in 2021 before have you we're all walking around like we know what's going on how bishop jake said to me recently he goes do you know why we're all afraid is because we know we're dying and we've never done it before we all act like we're doing stuff we've done before we're talking about 102 and 11. come on somebody we've never done this before so what's imperative give up give it give in your will be done what an honor what a thrill and what a privilege it is to follow in the footsteps of the king of kings and the lord of lords the alpha the omega the beginning and the end he is full of grace and truth and he burns with love for his people jesus we thank you you said and i quote back to you [Music] you will build your church [Music] and the gates of hell will not prevail against her so we are your church [Music] and we declare that you are building our lives you are the architect you are the builder you are the leader you are the king and so we say again and again and again we give up we will give it and we give in your kingdom come in seattle as it is in heaven here's our life do with it as you please jesus if you're here today with every head bowel and every eye closed before we take just the next several minutes we're going to use music as a platform of connection with god but before we do that if you're hearing you say judah i would like to receive the free gift of forgiveness that only jesus offers i want to give you an opportunity to do that right now you know who you are god is talking to you god is speaking to you you don't earn it deserve it warrant it you just receive it and unpack it like a gift because that's what it is it is the gift of righteousness it is the gift of forgiveness it is the gift of acceptance and you are forgiven forever all your error wrong in sin past present future is totally and completely forgiven in one moment of faith if that's you and you want that forgiveness and you want that relationship with god on the count of three i want you to raise your hand one two three you know who you are just shoot your hand up and say that's me thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you amazing amazing amazing amazing god i thank you for every hand in this room that represents the priority of heaven that represents your passion that your children would know you with no relationship with you and forgiveness with you may that be the passion of church home may that be the priority of our homes and our hearts and i thank you for giving every single man woman boy and girl who've raised their hand or opened their hearts to only what you can do and god we thank you if we haven't thanked you enough lately we thank you for what you're doing in the earth we thank you for what you're doing in our church we thank you for what you're doing in our families we thank you for what you're doing in our brain and our body and our soul and we say don't stop god don't stop god we want to go where you go we want to love what you love we want to say what you say we want to see what you see we love you jesus we love you jesus we love you jesus would you join me and stand and let's join the band and with all of our heart come on let's sing out our praise and our worship to our king

Channel: Churchome

Views: 8,619

Rating: 4.8828454 out of 5

Keywords: Churchome, Judah, Judah smith, church, message, anxiety, depression, how to, elevation, Steven, Hillsong, oceans, sermon, the city church, church home, Chelsea smith, bobby Houston, td jakes, pastor, pastor preaching, carl lentz, Jesus, conference, guest speaker, sermon jam, worship, Justin Bieber, la Hillsong, Selena, preaching, Judah message, performance, future, secret

Id: -nc8EX6ohyo

Length: 59min 26sec (3566 seconds)

Published: Mon Jul 12 2021