Treasures of Darkness with Kay Warren

[Music] [Music] hey good morning anthem good morning to all of you thanks for joining us today at anthem church my name is Colin I'm one of the leaders here and we are so glad that you're joining us for church this morning whether you're somebody that joins us regularly or maybe this is the first time or second time you've checked us out want to say thanks for coming out we broadcast this every week on Facebook live and on website anthem Church life so we're glad you're here as as I'm coming online this morning and watching this it's great to see just so many people from our anthem community that are that are walking in walking in the door you know and a part of this from from the word go at 10:30 in the morning it's a little bit different isn't it - when we used to do church in real life you know and people would you know have to get their coffee and check their kids in and make it across the parking lot off and wherever you're coming Jan I see you coming all the way from Concord you made it on time Michelle's here Liz there's just so many people that are just checking in as the feed is scrolling and it's lovely to see you all this morning we're excited to worship together we're excited to have Kay Warren with us this morning this is going to be a great time together and I want to say thanks for joining us you know we we come together not because we've got it all together ourselves but because we believe we need the the impact of a Savior in our lives because we've got parts of our lives that are broken that we are slightly messed up and that we need help not we don't have it all together and so as we come together to worship God we don't come as people confident because we've we figured it all out we come as people in need of a savior but we come to a Savior Jesus Christ as somebody who is in the habit of doing miracles and who is in the habit of bringing dead things back to life and that's the experience that many of us have had in our lives and it's the experience that is open and available to all who trusts in the name of Jesus so I want you to I want to encourage you this morning let's let's worship together and somehow I know you're looking at this on a device or on your TV but somehow let's experience this together this morning as we sing and like he's gonna lead us today [Music] I searched the world [Music] the treasures that fail No you [Music] satisfied [Music] [Music] [Music] your mercy grace won't buy me [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] you turn [Music] [Music] [Music] I'm not afraid [Music] to show you my weakness my failures oh you've seen them all you still call [Music] yeah [Music] yes you find me [Music] you [Music] [Music] see you was for is party [Music] because [Music] the ground began to shake the stone was it's perfect [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] please sing ha we see we see huh [Music] we see easy [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] let's pray together response to those songs Lord we thank you this morning that is because you're alive that we can have life it's because you are alive forever that we can be in Christ and we can be alive spiritually as well and I thank you that you've raised us out of the dead situation that we were in and you brought us back to life and we give you praise and thanks for that this morning it's in Jesus name that we pray amen amen well again for those of you might have just joined us my name is Colin and it's great to have you join us anthem online this morning we love to connect with people who might not have joined us before or just kind of checking anthem out from a distance and to see what we're all about on the front page of our website at anthem church life there is a place that you can connect with us and you'll see that the little tab if you scroll down it says connect with us and if you fill that out and send that back to us we would love to mail you a gift for you the old-fashioned way right sending stuff in the mail and so we've got something for you that we'd love to do in return for your contact info so we can stay in touch and we can let you know how the anthem community continue to serve you and help you on your spiritual journey thanks to those of you who are continuing with your giving during this time I know that none of us take our finances lightly and especially now and I just want to remind you and thank you that those of you who are giving you're helping you're continuing to help people find and follow Jesus through anthem as you give to God through the church and so I just want to say God bless you for that and if those are those of you watching this morning that would like to give you can do that anthem church life /give and all the information to help you do that is right there now this is the time in our service where we just announce all new babies that have come into our community in the last few days joking we did this last week and now we're doing it this week because we're like popping out babies every week here and thumb church this week on Monday Sean and Rebecca Harrington a good friend Sean and Rebecca were able to bring Ivy Claire Harrington into the world she's gorgeous of course she's gorgeous anyway but then her parents are both photographers so that kind of helps with the photos doesn't it but welcome to Ivy to the anthem community growing at church the old-fashioned way and and we welcomed her into Anthem and my wife got the opportunity to drop food off at their house last night and to meet her in person so that was that was great for us and welcomed ivy that was my mom's name so I'm specifically glad that you're here now over these next few weeks we're beginning a new series an anthem which we're calling uncomfortable and I'll say a little bit about that in just a minute but before I do just watch this okay so the idea of this is that we learn what it is to be in that uncomfortable place of being the kind of Christ centered community that we're supposed to be somebody once said that Jesus comforts the disturbed and disturbs they're comfortable and I think that's a one of the truest pictures of what the church is supposed to look like and you know what what tends to happen is often as we as as time goes on it's very easy for us to move towards a place of comfort in our experience in the church whereas I think the more and more we move towards the mission and the vision of who God's calling us to be the more oftentimes we'll find that it gets uncomfortable and difficult and so I hope that over these next few weeks we can bring that challenge to us that we become that camp that community of people that is experiencing discomfort because we're actually following the mission of Jesus as he called us to so join us over these next few weeks as we dive into that now over the over the previous few weeks we've been in this series that we've been calling how to get through what you're going through and some of the original ideas for this series came to us from Rick and Kay Warren from Saddleback Church who did a series with the same title seven or eight years ago shortly after losing their son Matthew who took his own life after a long struggle with mental illness and we just kind of saw this title and we thought wow that applies specifically for now as well and then we're also blessed enough to have Ashley picking on our team and for Ashley Kay Warren has been a friend and mentor to her for a number of years and so Kay was willing to join us this morning and share a message at Anthem that she had shared during that season when they kind of were getting through what they were going through and so I want you to welcome Kay Warren to be with us to to anthem this morning we're so grateful to have her with us she's an inspiration to so many across the country and across the world and it's a privilege to welcome her to anthem this morning to bring a very special message to us so let's watch this together hi anthem church it's so good to be with you I really appreciate the invitation from your pastors to speak to you today this has been an extremely painful and emotional few weeks in our nation and we need God and we need each other I'd like to start with a true confession it's pretty embarrassing but it's really true I am afraid of the dark like terrified of the dark I have always been afraid of the dark as a little kid I have the typical fears of monsters and aliens and bad guys who come out in the dark you know the ones that jump out at you from your closet or they're hiding under your bed and I don't really know where that deep fear comes from I speculate that when I was really young I was super nurse itíd and I couldn't see well without my glasses or maybe I just read too many scary stories I really don't know but this fear is real and the fear of the dark has made me fanatical about light I have flashlights everywhere I have them in every room of my house I have them by my bed I have them in my car I even have a little tiny one on my keychain I like light because light makes me feel secure and safe but it's not just physical darkness that makes me uncomfortable I feel almost as badly about emotional darkness as I do about physical darkness I live with a low level of depression I have my entire life and I really don't remember what it's like to not have the weight of the world on my shoulders there's actually quite a long line of depression on my father's side of the family that goes back several generations so there's a really strong genetic bent in that direction well one of the things that physical darkness does is it distorts everything we look at but so does emotional darkness and when that darkness starts to distort what we're looking at and we can't see clearly anymore it can become frightening and I wonder how many of you watching this message could say I understand something about emotional darkness I have that feeling and feeling lost and it's very uncomfortable I just want you to know that I hear you a few years before my son Matthew died his depression his very serious depression became even more intense and as his mom I was worried I was fearful he had talked about taking his life for a long time and I lived on the edge of panic every single day and one night after a particularly difficult season that he was going through and a really hard conversation that I'd had with him I was sitting alone in my home office in front of my computer late at night Rick had already gone to bed and it was just me and my fearful thoughts and I decided to use a computer Bible program that I have to search through the entire Bible for every verse that uses the word dark and darkness and within seconds I had 20 pages of verses that use those words and I found verses like second Samuel 20 to 12 talking about God he wrapped himself in a trench coat of black rain cloud darkness and I said yes god that's exactly how I feel I feel like you are hidden in impenetrable darkness and then as I was continuing on I came to Jobe 19-8 that says God has blocked my path and turned my light to darkness and I said that back to God yes I feel like you have blocked us at every turn I don't know what to do for Matthew I don't know how to help him and then I came to Psalm 13 3 in the desperate cry of the psalmist who said answer me O Lord my god give me light in my darkness lest I die and then I came to Isaiah 45 3 and it was so startling that I actually gasped out loud Isaiah 45 3 says I will give you treasures in darkness riches hidden in secret places so that you may know that I am the Lord God of Israel who summons you by name now I had three instantaneous reactions to that verse the first was this I don't want to be in the darkness of suffering God I don't want to be in this darkness the second reaction that came almost right on top of the first was wait a minute could there really be treasures in the darkness and then my third reaction was if there are treasures in the darkness then back to point 1 I don't want to be in the darkness because if that's where I have to find these treasures let me remind you god I just told you I don't want to be in the darkness let me give you the context of this verse Isaiah 40 begins a section of Scripture that tells of Israel's coming release from bondage to Babylon and in chapter 45 God gives a promise about a Gentile King Cyrus who is going to deliver Israel from captivity God makes a promise that he's gonna make this Gentile King wealthy he says Cyrus you're going to find buried treasure and riches that have been hidden and as a result you're going to become very rich and that's exactly what happened King Cyrus finds all the treasures that the Jews had tried to bury and hide in the ground as they were taken away into captivity and the amount of gold and jewels he gained from his conquest is legendary in history he became the king that delivered the Jews from captivity and he became rich at the same time it's awesome to see God fulfilling a promise of deliverance to his wayward people that's good but I have to tell you that when we're in the depths of suspec to spare Cyrus Milan and the captivity of Israel don't instantly lead to comfort that night when I was searching the Bible for comfort for my fearful hurting heart Cyrus's wealth did not make me feel better I needed to know what God was promising me in that moment what I found and what I hope you will come to see as well is that God is the same God then as he is now the same God that he was then he is with us today he enriched a physical king with physical wealth so that he could fulfill God's calling and I believe he wants to do that for us spiritually he wants to enrich us with spiritual treasures so that we can fulfill his calling on our lives and like Cyrus who found treasures hidden in the darkness we too can find treasures in the unexpected places of darkness those places of suffering those painful places we would very much not like to be in so I want to look quickly at four phrases in Isaiah 45 3 that tell us what we can expect from God in our dark times so look at that phrase The Treasures of darkness well evidently God has hidden treasures in the darkness of our suffering and maybe your first thought when you hear that is similar to what mine was but I don't want to be in the darkness it's scary and I hate it I just want out of this dark place I want my family out of this dark place and maybe you too like I did doubt that this is really so I mean it sounds really nice and spiritual but is it true and you might also be thinking if there are treasures in the darkness have not sure I want them because they probably only come because I'm in pain the very first challenge to our faith here is to believe that these treasures exist that they can be found that they are available to all who seek and that on top of that there Yubel they are worth seeking and yes it seems clear from this verse that there really is a specific category of treasure only seen when conditions are the darkest treasures that are not found in the light and happier times so right away we have to make a decision I had to make a decision that night I had to decide will I surrender myself to God in this darkness well I stopped fighting and resisting him he has allowed me to be in this dark place he knows I'm here and he's speaking to me in the darkness will I listen will I embrace this time as something he has allowed I have to ask you will you stop fighting him will you stop resisting will you begin to believe that he knows you are in this dark place and that he says that there are treasures in this dark place that he's going to give you that's a decision that you and I have to make the second phrase that stands out to me is the phrase riches hidden in secret places it's really important to know that God is not talking about giving us trash dressed up like treasure you know worthless items that will only make us think we found a treasure kind of like when you did a scavenger hunt as a kid and you got bits of rubber bands and paper straws from your neighbor and you've got a treasure no that's not what God's doing he makes it clear that he is talking about giving us something of extreme value treasure something that will make us spiritually rich fabulously wealthy like King Cyrus was going through treatment for breast cancer 15 years ago I kept thinking about job 23:10 that says he knows the way I take and when he has tried me I shall come forth as gold now I didn't take that verse as a guarantee of physical healing I mean if God wanted to do that that's what I wanted to but I didn't take it as a guarantee he didn't know that me but I did see the potential for producing gold in my life if I would go through that trial in a way that was honoring to him I I began to long for the suffering of cancer to give birth to something lovely something of lasting value something as rich as gold first Peter 1:7 from the New Living Translation says these trials are only to test your faith to show that it is strong and pure it is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold and your faith is far more precious to God than mere gold so if your faith remains strong after being tried by fiery trials it will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world in my life gold was produced in the fire of cancer and it is being produced now in the fire of the suffering of the grief and the loss that engulfs me in the death of Matthew through breast cancer I gained a new ability to relate to people who suffer life-threatening illnesses I stared death in the face and I just wasn't as afraid anymore I gained a new appreciation for the brevity of life how short how precious it is and was more committed than ever to living every single day that God gives me with passion and purpose in the grief and devastation of losing Matthew I have gained a more intimate walk with Jesus as I have learned how to trust him in the darkest places that have ever been it has created in me an increased longing for heaven the resurrection of Jesus Christ where he conquered death and then promises eternal life for all who believe in him that is my dearest hope and I long for the restoration of broken bodies and broken Minds that will take place in heaven and in this suffering I have learned how to comfort people in theirs suffering with the comfort that God has given me this may sound strange but one of the hidden jewels one of the hidden treasures in suffering is the recognition of emptiness my friend Nancy Guthrie who has lost two of her children to a metabolic disease says emptiness can be good when in our emptiness we come to Jesus to be filled so my friends he promises there are treasures in this darkness can you believe it I want you to ask yourself what is the gold that God is producing in my darkness what treasures have I gained what riches has God given to me in this time that I have not recognized or valued the third phrase that I really want to emphasize here in this verse is so that you may know I am the Lord God of Israel I say a45 three reveals God as the Lord and one thing I know for sure is he uses the darkness to reveal himself as the creator the sustainer master ruler deliverer the Almighty the everlasting one the source of all life he is huge this God is big he's transcendent he's bigger than the universe we live in and he's way more powerful beyond any Marvel superhero and because we know that because he is so big we know that he has the power to intervene in our darkness some of you could tell stories of seeing this big God at work in your life you could tell stories of marriages saved people restored to health financial ruin averted friends who were hostile to God finding Jesus as their Savior the people that you never thought would come to Jesus but they have and these stories are thrilling and they give us goosebumps we asked him for miracles every single day as we know he's God and we're not and you and I must be sure that we are asking him for miracles every day because he is that big but this huge transcendent God is also very small Isaiah 43 45 3 closes with this phrase who calls you by name who summons you by name this Almighty God who is transcendent is also imminent he's intimate he's personal he reveals himself as helper healer Savior friend lover of our wounded souls and so we know just as we know that that big God intervenes sometimes in miraculous ways because he has the power to do it this small personal intimate God will be as close to us as our next breath he will not leave us in the darkness acts 17 Paul's doing this long riff about what God has done and and talking to people about you know the temple of the unknown God and kind of like right in the middle of it he breaks in in verse 27 in the message paraphrase and he says so that we could seek after God and not just grope around in the dark but actually find him he doesn't play hide-and-seek with us he's not remote he's near this God this big God knows me by name and I'm fully known by him first Corinthians 13:12 says and how we see but a poor reflection but then we shall see face to face now I know in part but then I shall know fully even as I am fully know you guys there is nothing more intimate than being fully known with all of our weirdness our weaknesses what makes us laugh what makes us cry to be known for our fears to be known our hopes our dreams but nobody on earth will ever fully know you it's just impossible the veil of flesh makes it impossible but God is the only one who can go into the depths of who you are through the layers and layers of your personality to the core of your being and this is the God who calls you by name what a treasure that night ten years ago when I felt swallowed up by darkness by the darkness of pain and suffering when I felt like God was hidden from me that he had a trench coat of black darkness around him where I was groping for comfort in the inky darkness of the night in my distorted emotional state that night changed me I saw for the first time with complete clarity that I needed to change my perspective I needed to make a choice not to stay stuck in the pain of the darkness seeing only the losses the grief the fear everything that I have found in the darkness but then instead I need to make a choice to seek beauty and light to believe that there is treasure in the darkness that would enrich my life and the lives of people around me that night I came to a new realization that God is still a big God who has the power to intervene but then he was also small and personal and that he would be with me as I searched for hidden treasures and riches knowing these four truths will bring hope to you and will bring meaning to any suffering and purpose in your pain Psalm 1820 says Lord you have brought light to my life my god you light up my darkness Isaiah fifty ten let him who walks in the dark let her who walks in the dark who has no light try in the name of the Lord and rely on her God let me just pray for you father I'm so grateful that your word reveals you to be a God who is not only huge and transcendent and hold the world in place by just the breath of your mouth you're also a God who is as close as our next breath that you never leave us in our darkness God there are some folks watching this today who are just in the deepest darkness they can imagine life has thrown them curve after curve time of kovat 19 the time of complete turmoil and injustice and pain in our society has brought them to their knees and they are feeling overcome by that darkness they can't find you they're searching as I was that night 10 years ago and many have felt that complete despair god I ask that you would bring light to our lives in the way that you did for me that night that you would be the light in our darkness that you would help us to look for seek the treasures that are hidden in our suffering then we would not be overcome by our suffering but actually we would yield them to you so that you can produce gold something of deep value that will benefit us and benefit everyone around us thank you God thank you for revealing yourself to us not leaving us trying to figure it out by herself but you are a good God and you are with us and we can trust you I pray a blessing on my friends at anthem Church do your best work in them Jesus do your best work and in your name I pray amen it's good to be with you [Music] in the choir in the Kwai in a quiet it's you in the choir you have a quiet in the quiet [Music] you you are there know you're there you are in the choir [Music] in the choir [Music] [Music] [Music] cry in the choir [Music] Emma quiet in a cry [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] you one of the things I want to encourage you to do if you need it is to reach out to us for prayer we love to connect with people whether it's through a website through Facebook telephone calls to our phone line at church office we would like to connect with people whether you're near or far and you want to have somebody to pray with during this time it's so important for us to support one another so that we can just remind each other that God's present during times of darkness and I want to let you know that we're here and we're available to those who might need prayer so please if you're somebody that just feels like I need some support I need to pro reach out to us and we'd love to connect connect with you in that way anthem thanks for joining us this morning big thanks to K for bringing us such an encouragement and such such conviction to recognize God in the midst of our darkness and I want to encourage you to follow K on on Facebook or Instagram find her follow her cause she's a continual support and inspiration to thousands across that country in our world thanks for joining us we'll see you again next week god bless you see you soon anthem [Music] [Music] you [Music] [Music] did [Music] [Music] yeah [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] you

Channel: Anthem Church

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Id: abf7ZHWNf84

Length: 54min 4sec (3244 seconds)

Published: Sun Jun 07 2020