Uncaged (Week 1): Freedom in Faith (Teaching Only)

all right well nice to see everybody glad you're here with us today I want to say a special welcome to each of our locations big shout out to central Summerlin and sunrise Mountain Southern Highlands to our central Kingman family in Arizona as well as those who are joining us in different prison facilities through our partnership with God behind bars and those who are watching online thank you guys for being with us today I'm super excited we're kicking off this brand new teaching series called uncaged released to live in the freedom of god's promises and we're gonna be talking a little bit about the promises of God I want to share just very personally about how eight particular promises of God have been transformative in my life and really made a huge impact and a huge difference and it's all sort of been expressed in this book that I just released called uncaged and it's all anchored in this story I read about years ago that became a powerful symbol for me for my own life I was a story that Gary Richmond tells about a time when he worked at the LA Zoo and he said that he was in the in the back one day and he noticed there's this small cage and inside the cage were 15 California red-tailed hawks and they were just kind of trapped in there they couldn't go anywhere they could really do anything they're just locked up in the cage and so he asked his supervisor at the dru at the zoo like what's going on with the red-tailed hawks he said all they're tied up and some legal poaching case and you know they're probably never gonna be free this thing he's gonna drag on and on and on and he said it just drove him crazy that you know hear these birds who had been poached were in a cage and the poachers were free and so he thought about it for a while and finally he couldn't shake it anymore and he decided that he was going to do everything that he could to set the birds free are you get in trouble for this so he was gonna make this look like an accident and he said he went around one day wait until all of his supervisors it was a Tuesday were gone for two hours at a special meeting he knew they'd be and he goes around and he takes the padlock off the cage and he opens the door to the cage and any leaves and he thinks okay they're gone you know I did it and it's gonna look like an accident which I'm like I'm not sure that's gonna look like an accident he waits for an hour he goes back and all the birds are literally still in the cage and he's like oh my gosh you know the doors open what's going on he's just kind of flabbergasted that the doors open they're free to go and they're staying in the cage and so he charges the cage like a bear ah you know and the birds kind of start making a lot of fuss and a few of them got scared and flew out of the cage about ten or fifteen feet and then they turn around and they look longingly at the cage and so he starts to yell at them he talks to them and and literally he says you know you were made to fly go fill your god-given purpose all the birds just kind of look at him so he leaves again and he comes back when he's got 15 minutes before his supervisors all get back on the property you know time is up right and he walks around and he said some of the birds found their way back into the cage and a few of them were just sort of frozen about a few feet from the cage but all of them were still there so he finally just gave up time was running out he herded them all back into the cage and locked the cage back up I read that story and it's stuck with me because I think in my own life I can have a tendency to be a lot like those birds those birds per day.the they traded predictability over purpose and they traded boredom over bravery right they traded all of the options that they had to fulfill their god-given purpose in the moment for what they knew and what they were comfortable with and what they were surrounded by and in many ways I can remain sort of trapped in the cage of my past or the cage of my fear or the cage of my own circumstances when I believe God has opened the cage door through Jesus Christ and his work for my life and that God's promises are available to me and if I will just step into those promises believe them claim them and live as if they're true in my life then I can reach my God give potential and I believe you can as well I believe the cage door is unlocked but you and I have to make the faith decision to step out and be free so over the next several weeks we're going to be talking each week about a particular promise of God in the Bible that can allow us to step in to freedom when it comes to life I think you know a lot of us when we think about our life I've got the word life up here on the platform you think about your life you think my life would be great we all want a happy life we all want to productive life the challenge with our lives is problems right we all have problems in our lives so as much as you may want to have a happy life and a productive life you know you get arguments disagreements haters critics give drama to your life as soon as you think things are all squared away financially the check engine light comes on right I recently had the AC guy over at my house and he's like yes so these units are well over 15 years old and guy goes I don't think we can fix them I'm like bro find a way find a way it's just life right as soon as your car gets fixed all of a sudden you have a medical situation in your life and health starts to take a turn and then you know on top of all that we have our own financial challenges and this is the stuff of life and a lot of times we think look if I can just get my problems taken care of my life will be good right if these problems will just go away then I'll be happy if I could just get rid of all this stuff everything will be cool again everything will be kosher but here's what I want to suggest you today if you ask anybody who's older and wiser been around a while you know what they'll tell you they'll tell you the problems never go away now you just trade one for another oh you got the car fixed good but here comes the washing machine right you know you you got the rent paid good you know but but but here comes the next bill I mean you you just life is fill with problems and if you think finding peace and life is about the absence of problems you're gonna be frustrated in your life for a very long time I want to suggest that something else happens in our lives when we make God the number one factor in our life and we begin to hang on to his promises and it's not that God comes along and takes all the problems away it's not that all that you know a lot of us I'm gonna be awesome right but God never promises to take all of our problems away you know we talk about the promises of God think about this all we can really expect from God is what he's promised and so the more we lean in and learn about what he's promised and hang on to what he's promised the more we can be equipped to deal with life's problems god never promised that we wouldn't have problems in this life fact Jesus himself said we would have trouble expect it you're gonna go through difficulties you're gonna go through tough circumstances but if we will put God first in our lives in spite of the problems here's what we find God's presence can give us peace even in the middle of the problem right God's presence can bring us peace even in the middle of the problem so the problem doesn't go away the car still messed up the health still sketchy situations still tough with kids things are still hard at work but God's presence moving and working in our life is what ultimately can lead to peace in fact God's presence is the promise that leads to peace not the absence of problems the presence of God in the middle of the problems it's a huge promise in the Bible in fact I would suggest to you that the number-one promise of the Bible if you're to read the whole Bible what's the biggest promise of the Bible what's the most important thing the Bible tells us that God has promised us in our lives it's his presence and you see it from the very beginning the Bible talks about God walking with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden the idea was his presence was there with them they had a relationship they had a they have this connection together and then you go all the way to the end of the Bible and you see this whole journey throughout the Bible and it shows up again in the tabernacle that the Israelites moved around why because the presence of God was there and then the temple why would they build the temple and go through all the stuff with the temple because the presence of God was there and then with Jesus died on the cross there was a veil that was torn in the temple that separated the Holy of Holies from the rest of the temple why because now the presence of God would dwell in a unique way in believers and then you get all the way to the last chapter of the last book of the Bible right there at the end and it's and you and you see the promise again it's the promise of heaven listen the promise of heaven isn't just no more suffering and no more tears and no more crying it isn't just that we live forever the promise of heaven is this God says they will be my people and I will be their God it's the presence of God that's the promise and it's his presence that can help us no matter what we're up against in our life no matter what difficulties were going through in our life it's his presence that can sustain us in our lives in fact let's check out this Scripture together Isaiah chapter 43 beginning in verse 1 listen to what God communicates in this scripture first of all he says do not be afraid said do not be afraid for I have ransomed you I have called you by name you are mine when you go through deep waters I will be what read with me with you see that I will be with you that's the promise of God's presence you didn't notice the promise isn't that you won't go through deep waters right no he says when you go through the deep waters you don't have to go through them alone I will be with you when you go through rivers of difficulty you will not drown again God doesn't promise that we won't base rivers a biblical tee but he says in the midst of it I will be with you the promise that's mentioned more than any other in the Bible is simply the promise of God I will be with you and the command that's mentioned more than any other in the Bible is a command mentioned over 33 times and it's simply this do not be afraid do not be afraid why because the presence of God is with us in our lives do not be afraid 30 of the 33 times the Bible says do not be afraid it's connected to the presence of God so it's always about God it's about his presence it's not about hey look if I could just get the problem to go away everything would be awesome and it might be and I hope all your problems go away but my hunch is even if they all go away tomorrow that'd just be new problems you got rid of that one quarterback but then you got it you got another quarterback right you you you got it out rid of that one basketball player but now you got I know you got rid of that one team and now you're great now you've got another team and you just trade one set of problems for the next so let's talk about how we can increase our faith step out of the cage of our own fear and walk in faith and trust God and His presence first principle is simply this to rest in God's presence rest in God's presence maybe remember anybody remember the movie Jaws back in the day remember jaws you know I remember years ago when I was a teenager I was swimming we were on a family vacation down in South Texas and I was swimming in the Gulf of Mexico and I realized that the tide had taken me out a little further than I should have been and so I was trying to swim back and all of a sudden I looked over and I noticed a fin was sticking up out of the water and this was like the era of Jaws people dun dun dun dun dun dun you know I'm here in the song I'm hearing the whole thing all my worst fears start coming out in this moment like I'm gonna die is gonna be blood in the water it's gonna be nasty it's Steven Spielberg at his best and so I start swimming as fast as I can and I'm completely panicking and my older sister was on an air mattress floating a little ways away and I'm swimming as fast as I can and I'm thinking if I could just get to the air mattress I could just get to the air mattress everything's gonna be okay if I can just get to the air mattress and all the sudden I get it right up there and I climb up on the air mattress and then it dawns on me I'm on an air mattress I'm dead and this spin starts swimming in circles around us no jokes like full-on circles around us you know 20-foot circles around our air mattress I'm like this is jaws coming to life so we're panicking and we're paddling and we're going as fast as we can on the air mattress because we're not about to get in the water you know trying to get to the shore and we're yelling at people shark shark Ron get out of the water and we finally get close enough to the shore people can hear us in this buff surfer guy he comes out and he's like hey man what's going on you know we're like shark there's a shark watch out I'm like bin bin you know I'm pointing right there and he starts laughing he goes that's not a shark that's just a dolphin and then he says and the dolphin just wants to play and then he starts playing with the dolphin I'm like dude I just went from being a you know a character in Jaws to watching the hero of flipper right here you know on the beach it's like crazy but you know psychologists will tell you that jaws isn't primarily about the fear of sharks it's about the fear of the unknown right because it's the fear of the unknown that drives so much of our own concern and worry and anxiety and so when God comes along and again and again and again tells his people hey I will be with you you don't have to be afraid it's a it's a it's a promise that helps us realize we have his presence and even though we face an unknown future we do it with a God who knows the future so as Corrie ten Boom says we trust the unknown future to the God who knows the future and we let him carry the weight of that in our hearts and in our lives now look at this let's go back to the first part of Isaiah chapter 43 beginning in verse 1 let's look again at what it what it says he says do not be afraid for LeBron is now wearing yellow oh wait is that is that what it said no do not be afraid right cuz I can't even say anything about the Cowboys right now I'm very afraid do not be afraid he says for I have ransomed you that's good now ransom is a word that will come up again and again in the latter part of the Bible the New Testament of the Bible where it talks about Jesus and his sacrifice for us that God literally ransom the idea is bought us back paid a ransom price for us and bought us back and here God says I've ransomed you to his people he says and I've called you by name you are mine and God saying look I'm with you that's all you need to know right now some of you right now you're in the middle of a health challenge you're not sure where it's gonna go what's gonna happen and I sympathize when it's scary and when you're terrified and maybe the only thing the Lord wants to communicate to you right now is simply this that he is with you in the middle of that Valley that you're not alone some of you don't know what's gonna happen to your son or your daughter and you're praying for them and you're you're asking God to show up and move and work in their life but but God is reminding us that whatever happens he will be with us in that situation fact you know the Bible what we just read it talks about the waters of of difficulty chaotic waters often water in the Bible is symbolic for chaos and for the gut for the unknown the beginning Genesis chapter 1 it says the Spirit of God hovered over the waters before God kind of brought creation into being the idea was he hovered over the chaos and God brought order out of chaos okay so this is a Hebrew idea runs through the Old Testament into the New Testament and I tell you that because I want to talk to you a little bit about one of my favorite stories in the New Testament which is a story of Jesus walking on the water and you know I read this story and little children's Bible to my kids when they were little and there was a little picture of Jesus walking on the water and that children's Bible he was always like you pristine and happy Jesus and you know like his robe was never wet and the waves were like glad I was like glass was like yeah madam chillin I'm walking on the water but when you read the text in Matthew that recounts the story of Jesus walking on water it tells us that the wind was strong that the waves were crashing listen when Jesus is walking on water he's walking on water like full-on storm whole deal waves crashing right this is this is the idea Peter sees this and he's like you know Peter cool man dude Jesus walking on water I'm in and he's like can I come and Jesus come on out you know so so he jumps out of the boat right you know this story and and he's like man I mean what happens look at this Matthew chapter 14 verse 22 we'll get to the read word read it out here with me Matthew 14 22 it says but when he Peter saw the strong wind and the waves he was what he was terrified he became afraid and he began to sink save me Lord he shouted and Jesus immediately reached out and grabbed him you have so little faith Jesus said why did you doubt me now this is there's a lot here but what I want you to notice is this Peter looked around at his situation and when he looked around at his situation he allowed his fear to begin to overcome his faith he allowed his situation to blind him to Jesus who he had been looking at before as long as he was looking at Jesus he was able to get out of the boat he's cruising on the water things are good but all of a sudden look if you allow your fear of a situation to overcome your faith in Jesus you will begin to sink and faith I don't think is the absence of fear I think faith just acknowledges there's a lot we may be afraid of but faith says I'm gonna keep looking to God who's number one in my life rather than just looking at my situation listen the same God that saved you from your sin can sustain you in your situation [Applause] the same God that saved you can sustain you if you'll look to him and trust him and rest in his presence and so sometimes we pray God I don't understand I pray I don't understand oh I got lots of questions lots of things I don't understand but the fallback for all of us as people of faith is even when I don't understand I believe God is with me and I have the promise of his presence it's the presence that's the promise that leads to peace not the absence of problems God's presence in the middle of our problems here's another idea that's just to rely on God's presence to rely on God's presence each day in our lives now I don't know if you follow this or not but I was cracking up because there's a lot of different restaurant chains and food chains that are on Twitter and social media and often they'll go after each other on social media and one of the best at this is Wendy's is particularly the way they attack McDonald's it's just so good so so we'll bring up some these are some tweets here so McDonald's tweeted today we've announced it by mid 2018 all quarter pounder burgers at the majority of our restaurants will be cooked with fresh beef awesome here's what Wendy's then replied to that McDonald's so you'll still use frozen beef in most of your burgers in all of your restaurants asking for a friend so then people like started commenting about this right you know like people start diving in so here's here's here's some of the comments Wendy's how much does a Big Mac cost once these Wendy's replies look at this your dignity all right one more Wendy's can you find me the nearest McDonald's look at that classic classic it's funny when it's Wendy's and McDonald's it's not so fun when it's you right you've been burned by somebody at work gossip somebody shared about you may be a hater that attacked you on Facebook or social media maybe people that spread things about you that weren't necessarily true maybe you found yourself in a situation where you know you feel like you've been for your background or your pastor or your mistakes or your color or your finances and and all of that sense of oppression that you may feel in your life that sense of being burned is tangible and it's real look at what Isaiah says Isaiah chapter 43 beginning in verse 2 it says when you walk through the fire God speaking when you walk through the fire of oppression not if but when when you walk through the fire of oppression you will not be burned up the flames will not consume you for I am the Lord your God the Holy One of Israel your what your savior again who do we look to when we're burned when things are going sideways in our life he says you look to me I'm the God God that this is the only solution we see in Isaiah 43 again and again God says me I've ransom you I bought you I've purchased you you're mine I'm the Lord God I'm your Savior you just got to look to me stop looking at the situation and sinking and start looking at me and walking in faith stop looking at the situation and being paralysed and start looking at me and trusting me I am with you I am with you I am with you I am with you do not be afraid I am with you do not be afraid don't be afraid of the unknown future don't be afraid of what could happen to your son or daughter instead believe and trust that God is with them don't be afraid of what could go on at work just believe and trust that God is with you don't be afraid of what could happen with an addiction and a family member just believe and trust that God is working now it doesn't mean beer goes away it means our faith rises above our fear and helps us move forward in spite of our fear it's rely on God's presence fact one of my favorite stories of relying on God's presence when you feel burned is a story in the Old Testament about Shadrach Meshach and Abednego three Jewish boys who found themselves serving a king King Nebuchadnezzar who was not Jewish and not necessarily a follower of God the King Nebuchadnezzar set up an idol and wanted all the people in the kingdom to bow down and worship this Idol and these three Jewish boys who served in his court basically were like a man we're not doing that like we'll go a long way but we're not doing that and so Nebuchadnezzar is frustrated and he's he's upset and he gets the word that there that they were refusing to bow and he calls them into his court and never Nebuchadnezzar gives him one more chance to bow down to this Idol or he says you know what God's gonna save you from my power he's like you're about to get it and here's what we read so good Daniel chapter 3 verse 16 says Shadrach Meshach and Abednego replied o Nebuchadnezzar we do not need to defend ourselves before you now listen that just read like a very foreign sentence in our culture and day and age where we all feel this tremendous need to defend defend defend and these Jewish boys say we're not even gonna defend ourselves do whatever you got to do look we do not need to defend ourselves before you if we are thrown into the blazing furnace the God whom we serve is able to save us they do not say he will save them they just say he's able he's able he will what rescue us you see that he'll rescue us from your power your majesty but and this is why I love this verse even if he doesn't even so we believe God can but that doesn't mean he will he's a mystery right we believe God can heal but that doesn't mean he always heals not in the way we think sometimes you know he gives us the the strength to take it one day at a time and to push on even in the midst of illness we believe God can show up financially provide and sometimes he does and other times he gives us the perseverance to push on even when finances are really tight and things are really hard look we believe that God can show up and do miracles in our lives and sometimes he seems quiet and they're like we believe God can rescue us if you throw us in the fire but even if he doesn't we want to make it clear to you your majesty that we will never serve your gods or worship the gold statue that you have set up so there like this is where we stand right here we're relying on God's presence we don't know what's gonna happen things are heating up we're about to get burned okay so Nebuchadnezzar has them keep the fire up seven times hotter than normal he heats it up so high that when the guards opened the gates to to throw the three Jewish boys into the fire some of the guards who opened the gates died from the heat exposure and so they throw Shadrach Meshach and Abednego in the fire now that's getting burned right talk about like what God could have showed up long before they got thrown into the fire man like this could have happened another way but again the promise isn't that you'll never walk through the fire the promise is even in the fire I will be with you and many of you may remember this story if you grew up around Church at all but they get thrown into the fire and the fire doesn't consume them burns the ropes off and Nebuchadnezzar comes and he he looks because they realized that there's people in there look what it says Daniel chapter 3 verse 25 look Nebuchadnezzar shouted I see four men unbound walking around in the fire what unharmed and the fourth looks like a God so here's these three Jewish boys that get thrown into the fire right and then the King looks in and he sees four people in the fight and the principal is this even if you're in the fire you're not alone in the fire even when things heat up you're not alone in that situation and so God's presence is the promise that leads to peace not the absence of problems his presence in the midst of our problems and so the challenge for us is to rely on his presence each day and to realize that he is there and available do not be afraid says I've ran some do you do not be afraid I have bought you do not be afraid you are mine God loves you and you can rest in his love and his care and his concern and this for me became very important several years ago I kind of hit a wall on my own life just sort of emotionally spiritually burning out got to a place where I knew something was wrong you ever just kind of know well I know everyday something's wrong and I'm not alright but that's that's it you all know that we all know that but that's a that's a different that's a different conversation there is a brokenness to our world that we all experience and I think we all know it in our own hearts and lives yes but I'm not talking about that it was a fatigue going on in my heart and in my mind and I remember we did this big baptism celebration and a lot of people were getting baptized and that's always the thing that I celebrate the most and just love seeing in people's hearts and lives when we when they take that step and I remember during this baptism celebration I was excited for people intellectually but I was just numb like I just didn't feel anything and the truth was like I hadn't felt anything in a long time some of you know you've been there in your own life for whatever reason you get to that place where you're just kind of shutting down you're going through the motions now feelings we talk a lot about feelings around here at Central and how they don't dictate our faith and feelings don't dictate our life we let our faith influence and impact our feelings as much as our feelings impact our faith but none of us can escape our feelings and feelings are an indicator of something going on in your life and in my own heart and life I was um you know at a place where I was really close to burnout and I don't mean burnout like I need a nap I need to take two weeks off I mean burnout like you hit the wall and you you sort of like Humpty Dumpty fell off the wall but you never get put back together again the same way you know burnout and it's scary because I've seen too many my pastor friends go through that and blow up their marriages their churches implode make moral decisions all kinds of things right so I sat down with our Board of Elders I began to have some really honest conversations about just my own kind of what was going on in my heart and my soul and made some changes in my life one of the most important things I did was get my wife Lori and we came up this was several years ago with it with a stop doing list right because I'm really good some of some of you you're really good as start doing lists but every year now as a discipline I create a stop doing list this is what I'm not gonna do this year that I did last year so that I can do these five other things that I really wanna really feel that to do and it took me about 18 months of changing my schedule being honest with what was going on in my life seeing a Christian counselor studying my Bible praying 18 months until I kind of woke up ever I woke up on a Saturday morning and I was like I felt like myself again for the first time in as long as I could remember and the most important thing for me in that season in my life became the promises of God fact I did a year-long devotional study for my own heart that year which became the book uncaged because it was really about what can I hang on to well all I can really hang on to is what God has promised so what does God promised say well God's promised forgiveness yes God's promised eternal life yes but all of that is means to an end and the means to an end is this what God really wants is a relationship with you and me his presence in my life forgiveness allows his presence to be in my life eternal life allows me to experience his presence forever but the presence is the promise that leads to peace and so over the next several weeks we're gonna be looking at some of these promises but I want you to hang on today to the simple promise do not be afraid for I with you goddess with you and his presence will see you through it maybe you're here today and maybe you've never really crossed that line of faith in your life listen I believe with all my heart that God loves you that he cares about you you don't have to be have it all together you don't have to have it all worked out you don't have to be perfect you don't have to know which ways up right now if you're willing to believe and trust in him I believe God will show up and move and work in your life in awesome and powerful ways and so friends if you're here you'd like to become a follower of Jesus if you'd like to accept them into your heart and life I'd be honored to lead you in a simple prayer to just open your heart and your mind to Christ today would all of you please bow your heads and close your eyes and you can begin that spiritual journey today just by repeating a simple prayer after me there out loud or just just in your heart where you're at 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 help me face the challenges I'm up against God I surrender my life to you in Christ II friends with every head bowed and every eye closed if that's your prayer today if it's your commitment I want to ask you to just slip your hand in the air just to acknowledge before God you're gonna follow him in your life just wherever you're at whatever location you may be at slip your hand in the air if you're watching online you slip your hand in the air that's your prayer to thee god I thank you for your love I thank you for each one of these individuals just reaching out to you today I pray we'll fill them with hope and purpose God may we all fly free in the purpose that you've created us for we thank you for Christ and it's in his name we pray amen

Channel: Central Church

Views: 3,860

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: central online, central live, central church, jud wilhite, uncaged, book series, series, message, experience, life change, teaching, lights, production, central production, drew bodine, feature

Id: fw6ECqPLDv8

Length: 34min 18sec (2058 seconds)

Published: Sun Oct 21 2018