What You Thought You Lost: Security

so the smith family recently went on another hike now for those a part of our community in our church you know that my wife of 21 years loves hikes i do not i'm not a hiker my concept of a hike is going to a very large mall and walking between my favorite department stores that seems like a really purposeful hike but chelsea likes to actually get out in nature and go into these undulating hills mountains and valleys and actually hike amongst the animals amongst the elements so we get on this hike we park at the bottom of the hill and the kids are just so they're bemoaning begrudging i don't know if that's the term we should use but they're complaining okay and they're just talking we finally we shut it down we say listen we're gonna go on a hike it's gonna be fun but the truth is it was not fun it was not fun at all nothing about it was fun the only thing fun about it was learning how many calories we burned in what seemed like 122 hour long hike let me explain we started hiking and no we started to notice that this hike is it's got some hills right and most of it was was uphill and so we we continued the hike and of course i'm trying to encourage my 16 14 11 year old this is good for us i'm trying to be supportive demonstrate a unified front in our marriage and our family and we keep hiking and we keep hiking and we keep hiking and mostly gone uphill the entire time and so naturally speaking now this is one of those hikes where you know the way you go up and into the hike is not the way you go back down or towards the car from the height so it's like this big this big loop and people would be like walking that way while we're walking this way and we'd be like hey it's a beautiful hike and they're like huh you know we didn't really get any kind of real reassurance in this particular hike every corner eventually we got to the point like dad can we go home and i kind of look at chill i'm like yeah all right we're gonna we're gonna kind of make the loop now i think this is the way it goes when we're trying to follow signs and it's not like a remote hype but there wasn't a lot of people out there so we took a turn and you know when you're kind of ready to be done with the hike and head back down and get to the car and so we just keep thinking this is this is gonna get easy we're gonna start going downhill as opposed to uphill for the last two hours true story so we take a corner and we're like okay here we go down no it's it's uphill again okay go uphill kids are complaining come on we're almost there we'll be fine one of those things we're almost there we'll be fine get you out of the corner ready to go down it's up hill two okay kind of uphill kid's like dad at one point my daughter's like she lays down and the dust and the dirt and the rocks she's like i can't do it it's like that's exactly how i feel but because i'm 42 i'm not allowed to lay on the dirt and the rocks and the dust and tell my wife i'm done it's over i quit i quit our family you know so she's there and i'm like trying to talk her into it but i'm like i want to be her because it's exactly how i feel you know like come on baby girl we're going to make it i'll push you up the hill and i'm like i don't want to push her up the hill i want somebody to push me up the hill right so we i'm like one i think just a couple more corners we're going to be there we're going to be all downhill from here we turn another corner here we go come on baby girl here we go it's uphill again about five or six corners that went uphill and i finally lost it right i'm out and i'm yelling chelsea's ahead of course she's a better hiker and i'm like this is ridiculous i hate this i want to go home you know now chelsea has four children r3 and her husband right and i'm yelling i'm done right and it seemed like every corner we took never went downhill until finally we come up on this crest we actually could see the parking lot it was just like directly downhill and the smith family kind of calmed down and all four children including me started to relax but that hike is a lot like what life has been like do you know what i mean like like like this phrase recently a friend of mine said i just can't catch a break in other words i just can't get any downhill momentum in my life like when is my path gonna get enjoyable when is my walk gonna be fun you know it seems like since since the end of 2019 or the middle of 2019 life has just been one perpetual uphill climb wherever you turn up hill all right here we go we're gonna come around this bed it's it's uphill all right all right we're going to get through this week weekend uphill all right we're going to be we're going to make it our marriage is going to be uphill right and everything seems like an uphill climb and what ends up happening is you start to get a little unnerved you start to get right the first turn that went uphill on the hike i was like no problem come on kids we can make it second turn i'm like we can still make it third turn i'm like yeah come on we can do this fourth turn i'm like oh my goodness by the fifth or sixth turn that went uphill like i said i am yelling like a child babe i can't do this do you feel like that in life do you feel like i can't do any more uphill weeks i can't do any more uphill weekends my path feels unsure feels unsafe i feel exhausted i feel weary i feel undone i feel done i can't keep going and here we are it isn't amazing from 2019 to the beginning of 2021 it's like it's all kind of like a year it's all been like that one year but like it's like kind of multiple years and so how history records this is going to be interesting but it's just been such a challenging extended season of life it has felt uphill and i think i think it is left us feeling insecure it's left us feeling like i'm generally an optimistic kind of person not really because my faith in jesus but just my personality i'm like come on the glass is half full here we go right i'm like it's going to work out but eventually even your optimism wears out and you're just like well maybe this is life life's just going to be uphill life's just going to be hard life's just always going to be difficult painful the injustice the senseless murders the it is unprecedented astronomical painful challenging and now it's like you know you always felt like a brighter day would come you always felt like just around this corner it's gonna get good and yet every corner in your life and mind seems to afford us with new challenges new loss new pain new difficulty and so if you're anything like me you're like i don't know if i'll ever be as sure oh or as secure as i once was you know people are always like yeah the best is yet to come here we go god's good is there something in you because there isn't me right now that's kind of like not always i don't know if that's always true sometimes the best isn't ahead sometimes the best is behind us and all that's ahead is uphill all that's ahead is just insurmountable obstacles pain loss challenges and the only answer is to go home and watch netflix right the only answer is just to escape what are we going to do well i'll tell you what christians do right what christians are taught to do is when times are hard and your path is painful you ask god to improve your path right so this is what we do we right and guys like me preachers guys and gals like me teachers and preachers and bible scholars and writers and thinkers they're they're they're like okay come on church let's pray that god will break through let's pray that god will change our path let's pray that our path will go from here to just like some smooth sound there'll be some peace and there'll be some enjoyability and there'll be some fun and there'll be some come on let's let's ask god for help well maybe you're like i don't dude i'm a christian but i don't i don't pray in fact my prayer is tired like i'm tired of praying tired of asking god tired of talking to god so then right there's another you're like kind of tired of praying so now i just kind of like hope or more specifically kind of just have this feeling that maybe it'll get better or maybe it's gotten worse for you you're like i i don't want to hope anymore because hope deferred makes the heart sick and so like i don't i keep getting disappointed so now i'm just going to be like that is what it is yeah life's hard and you kind of become one of those people but you're like i never thought i would be i thought i'd just be kind of a positive faith-filled person but now i'm kind of like ah that's probably gonna get worse that's all right right so all of a sudden you're like what are my options now i've kind of lost my confidence in in the security and sureness that god is the path of the righteous goes brighter and brighter with the ever-increasing day right i mean these are scriptures and you're like not every path not every year not every season what are we gonna do and i wanna talk about three levels of security and here's where i'm gonna end this sermon it's ten minutes in and i've already used the word end in my sermon right this is this is incredible this is miraculous but the rest of this presentation is going to be dedicated to what i call three levels of security the three levels of security that jesus offers and i want to show these levels of security to you in a story with the closest family unit to jesus other than his own family and it's a family made up of mary the oldest sister martha the youngest sister the middle child and lazarus the little brother now they live in a town called bethany which is approximately two miles from jerusalem and as a story in luke chapter 11 or i should say excuse me john chapter 11 unfolds what we find is lazarus has gotten deathly sick jesus has sent a memo or a note that his friend lazarus almost like a little brother to him is sick and on death's doorstep mary and martha are imploring jesus to make the two-mile journey down the road from jerusalem to bethany to heal lazarus or be there for lazarus or do something for lazarus says everyone is starting to kind of realize jesus is a miracle worker he's incredible like i think he can do this this is wild this is amazing and so everybody gets their hopes up in bethany and jesus never shows wait what he never shows well he shows but extremely late in fact his lateness can't be underscored enough because he comes on the fourth day after their request or more specifically i should say the fourth day after he had already died now to you and me that's no big deal except in this ancient culture they truly believed that the body or i should say the spirit of the person hovered over the body for approximately three days and on the fourth day the spirit would leave and the body would truly be dead now one of the reasons for this is actually an ancient culture they would consider people dead but then they would be revived they would be like in a coma for instance and they wouldn't know that because of ancient medicine and then they would be revived in the day after or two days later three days later so so part of it was actually practical as well that there were some people that they would even like put in a tomb and they would visit them in the tomb and they would wake up and it wasn't so much of a miracle as much as it was just the body hadn't actually died so by the time jesus shows up lazarus is truly quite literally pronounced dead jesus shows up on the scene you can find this in luke chapter 11 for or john chapter 11 and for sake of time i'm just going to summarize he he shows up and almost immediately the oldest sister martha runs to jesus and says really if he would have been here i don't think he would have died i think you can i think you could have kept him from dying and then she says but i know if you were to ask god for anything he he'd do it for you and jesus says in verse 23 of john chapter 11 your brother will rise and live she replied yeah i know he'll rise with everyone else on the resurrection day the last day and jesus is martha you don't have to wait until then i'm the resurrection i need to eternal one anyone who clings to me in faith even though he dies he he will live forever martha do you believe this and she said yes lord i do i've always believed that you're the anointed one the son of god who's come into the world for us and she left and heard off to her sister mary martha says she believes but if you fast forward by the time they bring jesus to the tomb after he has wept and he is he's wept openly he's cried over the death of lazarus he gets to the tomb and jesus says roll the tomb roll roll the stone away from the mouth of the tomb and martha says it's been more than four days the body's already rotting so maybe she didn't believe maybe this is a story that's full of really normal natural people just like you and me now what's interesting to me about this story is that the point of this story was just that lazarus would live i think the story would go very differently i think if the point of this story is that jesus can save people from dying physically in this life i think that the whole story would have been different but the story is very odd it's very mysterious particularly if you look at it from this side of eternity and time the time space continuum you kind of go like why is jesus delayed why would he wait four days why would he kind of talk mysteriously why would what what is the point of this story and i think what mary martha and lazarus are looking for is what you and i are looking for and that's to catch a break that's that our path would wind upward excuse me downward instead of upward meaning it wouldn't be uphill challenging painful difficult but that god would restore lazar's life and body god would keep lazarus from dying that the family would be restored that circumstances would improve their life would get better and they'd be wonderful meals and healthy bodies and all the things we want in this life and by the way by no means am i lessening or diminishing your need and my need for an enjoyable life for our families members to all be alive for us all to enjoy wonderful meals and conversations and worship moments and right i mean life is to be lived and to be enjoyed but it's not lost on me that in this story that doesn't seem to be paramount where for you and i often times our relationship to jesus is where have you been had you been here covet wouldn't happen where have you been how are these senseless in injustices in the streets of america happening where have you been what is happening and if we're not careful our whole context and definition for security assurance confidence is ideal circumstances no death and dying no loss no pain no sickness no disease no injustice no dictatorship no the abuse of power none of that like jesus fix all that change that make everybody the best make everybody good make everybody but hold on a second we not to lessen at all the urgency of the hour that we find ourselves in not only in this country but around the world and the regimes and the governments and the leadership and the policies and the legislation that absolutely categorically have to change and we've got to grow and understand that we are each other and we are one another and we are one race the human race around the world we have so much work to do but let us for a moment look back at human history and get honest the honesty tells us there has always been evil division hate abuse manipulation powers that be that are corrupt so is the goal of our life to appeal to god and say fix all of our humanness is that the only thing we attach our security to is that what we're saying that we've lost well what i need is i need god to fix my life i need god to and sometimes we treat this life like a cartoon we treat this life like a board game we treat this life like monopoly like god needs to come and kind of put everything in its place and we just gotta the puzzles puzzles got to be perfect and i need to have boardwalk on my and i need to have everything and then i'll be happy if god will make my life perfect but while there remains human beings on the planet imperfect is our reality not in any way to lessen our passion for progress growth and development as human beings and loving one another but i look at this story and i'm like sometimes i wonder if the perspective and priorities of god are different than ours because clearly the priority here of mary martha and lazarus is we just don't want our little brother to die period that is the priority don't let him die and then when jesus shows up late they're like you let him die you let him die you ever felt like that you let him die god where are you what are you doing where have you been why were you in jerusalem it was happening in bethany what's going on what was so important what kept you where god what what did what are you doing down here and so our security is suspended until our circumstances improve and all of our questions are answered and there is quite literally a tangible resolve when i receive that i will be confident and secure again and i would like to appeal to you from this passage that there is a level of security i call it level three security that actually is anchored to the person of jesus and it transcends conditions climate and circumstances here's the levels of security all three very valid but i think the goal is level three here's the first one first level of security with jesus is what jesus has done and so we get security this way we say jesus has done it before he can do it again come on we all heard great sermons like this jesus can do it right what he's done before changed nations healed the sick open blind eyes restored marriages healed children healed cancer cured aids god can do it again boy i think we should have whole shirt services anchored to level one security we find security in a god who's what he's done he can do it again and i celebrate that i think there's a place for that i think it's beautiful i think it's one of the reasons we have this narrative we have this storybook so that we can go he did it before he can do it again he's the same yesterday today and forever but this book also tells me there's a level two security and the level two security is not just what he's done he can do level two security says he can do a new thing that's a good one isn't it hey can't god do what's never been done can't we believe in a god who though we've never read about it though we've never heard about it he can do a new thing isn't there scriptures like god can do exceedingly abundantly above all we can ask think or imagine translation even what he's done what you're aware of what you've heard of what you can see or what you can touch or what you can feel god could go past that god can do something you never heard about god can do something you've never seen god can do something you've never read about god can do the unprecedented the miraculous the supernatural the unheard the undone the unseen hey he can do a new thing right and that's when the preacher starts preaching and everyone's like yes oh man that's so exciting god can do what's never been done before and he's doing both of those things level one security says if he's done it he'll do it again level two security says god can do what's never been done but here's level three security and it's what i want to give to you today as a gift wherever you are and whatever you believe about jesus and god in the scriptures here's level three security and i would like to suggest that john chapter 11. the the the the the main impetus point is level three level three security level one security what he's done he can do level two security in this life god can do what's never been done number three level three security is who he is there it is the security we find from a person from a person i'll prove it to you listen to this very odd thing that happens in this story tears stream down jesus face he weeps openly he goes to the tomb with intense emotion he says roll away the stone martha says it's going to be smelly he said didn't i tell you if you'll believe me alan i'll unveil god's power they rolled away the heavy stone jesus gazed into heaven now listen to his public prayer listen to his public prayer listen to his public prayer it could be the point of this whole scene it could be the point of this whole story listen to his public prayer father thank you thank you that you have heard my prayer for you listen to every word i speak i watch this he tells us what he's doing now so that these who stand here with me now hear me and believe that you have sent me to the earth as a messenger i will use the power you have given me wait what i thought this whole thing was by lazarus i thought this whole thing really oh it is about lazarus but it ain't mostly about lazarus ain't is probably not the word my mom would want me to use there it is not just about lazarus because in his prayer if it was about lazarus he would have said now lord i'm praying so that everyone knows the relationship and friendship i have as lazarus i'm praying for my little brother i'm praying so people know everybody but he says i'm doing this right here right now this whole thing so that everyone knows who i am i want everyone to know who i am come on let's talk for a second do you know lazarus ended up dying not now not in this story he actually comes out right all mummified in a rap and they have to kind of unravel him and he he he lives right and this is where the preacher you know banks into his sermon and kind of starts lifting in the whole church and the whole room feels el lazarus is alive god can resurrect your dreams he can resurrect your children he can resurrect your marriage he can and he can but there's another level to this that we don't want to talk about [Music] because here's what happens do you know lazarus ends up dying you know lazarus is still not alive so the ultimate goal of this story can't just be that lazarus is going to be alive as a human being on earth forever for he's not i don't know how lazarus died maybe he died of old age i imagine that's probably how he went maybe he was in his late 80s or 90s and he laid there and his grandkids and great-grandkids were around the table and there's miracle band lazarus you know what happened with lazarus you know how close jesus was to lazarus lazarus got a great story but he still died church and we all will so is the goal just to hold on to our stuff is the goal to ask god for more toys is the goal to say god i need you to help me for my retirement listen i'll pray for your toys i'll believe god for your retirement i believe god for the cure of your cancer but is that the goal is that where we find our security is that what we're trying to recover are we so frustrated and agitated because our regularly scheduled program has been disrupted are you struggling with the impetus and inclination that you hope that all this pain just goes away so you don't have to deal with it and face it and chat wait what [Music] so are we are we still just going god done it before do it again do it again do it again do it again fix my finances fix my body fix my family fix my career fix my he's he's a good father of course if you work the fathers know how to give good gifts to your children how much more will you a heavenly father give the holy spirit and things and stuff to anyone freely who asks but is that where we find our security are you like me after five bends in the hike that keep going uphill do you finally go i'm done god forget it you're not really not there you're not true if you're like me i i level one security just makes sense level two security is like whoa god can do a new thing but level three security we often are incredibly unfamiliar with [Music] how you i'm doing good you can't be doing good your wife left you your kids won't talk to you your business shut down during the pandemic you can't be good i think i am how you got a new business you got a new bank account you got it no no i don't know if i'll ever have a business again why are you okay um [Music] i feel like i know jesus like i've never known him before what do you mean well there's the scripture in the bible goes something like this what does it profit a man to gain the whole world but in the process lose its own soul [Music] see the truth is our endless [Music] our endless pursuit of ideal conditions it's very misleading because we think that's what gives us confidence i'll be honest with you church home i didn't know jesus the way i know him now in the beginning of 2019 i didn't i just didn't i didn't know my fellow man the way i know my fellow man now i didn't [Music] i have black friends and brown friends and [Music] friends of asian descent that i i didn't know the way i know my friends now like your family like your circumstances things have never been more unsure for the smith family i'll be honest i think that's a pretty true statement um i'm sure i'm gonna stay married in case you were wondering i'm sure i'm gonna keep being a dad these three it's gonna say babies but they're not babies much anymore but i i want this to be over with but the thing that we don't really know how to celebrate in church very much is that um i've seen parts of the person of jesus i would have never saw and i'm i feel like i feel like and i'm sorry to make this so personal but i feel like i'm at the beginning stages of level three security where it's like um if i have somebody used the word presence we use it so much in church we forgot what it is if i have his person not his teachings not his stories not secondhand information from those who know him but i'm talking about when i have him in the room i have a security that is by definition transcendent [Music] jesus says one of the greatest revelations of jesus is in this story did you know that he says i have it in yellow he says jesus said you don't have to wait until then martha anytime he says i am i am i am look at the revelation of jesus i am the resurrection i am life eternal i am in [Music] i love what he does but i want to know who he is does that make sense and you know what's wild is sometimes not always sometimes you go through stuff that you hate [Music] stuff that no one should have to go through [Music] but in the process here comes the way [Music] the woven way of god and before you know it in the middle of the most excruciating pain of your life you start to move in to level three security and what you cling to now is not a retirement fund or equity in your home or love from a human but eventually little by little you start to cling to i am the resurrection and the life [Music] and i think one of the practical inclinations that level three security is moving into your life is things like waking up in pain and you're still grateful waking up in the mess and still saying i love you [Music] you are wonderful you know what we never do is we never talk about what what old man lazarus must have thought or said upon reflecting on this miraculous day we don't know so i'll just use my imagination as i'm coming to a close like can you imagine lazarus is an old man saying things like it was wild he healed me [Music] here i am i remember oh sure that was all in there [Music] but come on can you see that man with wrinkles on his face years of his life lived that he otherwise wouldn't know he was going to die a young man but he probably died an old man can you imagine old man lazarus saying you should have seen his eyes you should have seen by the time i came out of the tomb i could see where the tears had stained his cheeks he loved me like no one ever loved me i don't think lazarus wanted to talk much about the nuts and bolts of coming out of the tomb and how they took his grave clothes off i think at the end of his life he wanted to tell his grandkids and his great-grandkids about the one who loved him like nobody else loved him maybe i'm missing the point but i'm not so sure this life is about just staying physically alive [Music] i think this life oh sure it is and we will put at this church we will protect the dignity and decency of every human life and for lives that are taken unjustly we will stand and we will not be silent but let us not get lost in this short brief stay on earth and think that the goal is to hold on to this life like it is all we have for home is where we're headed not where we are i think lazarus the old man couldn't stop talking about the god man i think i think i think if you shared a meal with old man lazarus i think it would be filled with the wonder of who jesus is who jesus is friend of mine i'm done i'm done close to crying but i'm done a friend of mine recently told me about a great man of god that he had the privilege of sitting by at his bedside for eight hours but right before he died and he kept saying to my friend in and out of consciousness as he was slipping from time and space into eternity he kept opening his eyes and he told my friend i just appreciate the lord and i didn't ask my friend because i didn't need to but i didn't say well did he say anything about his cars did he say anything about his vacation home did he say anything about how young he looked did he talk about how hot his wife was all of those things are valid but there was no mention of that the thing that kept coming up over and over in this older godly man's life as he was slipping to eternity was i appreciate the lord it's who he is and you know some have said about this kind of preaching it's not practical enough judah we want we you got to give the listeners stuff to do and steps to take and really is that the goal of preaching it can be but i don't know if that's the priority i think what i'm committed to for the next 20 years of this church is to show you the person and then provoke you to encounter him and know him in your room right now in your country right now in your family right now in your marriage right now in your business right now we need a person we need a person i need the resurrection and a life in the room with me that's what i need and i pray with you that god will help you cover the rent you better believe that [Music] but oh what you need more than money for the rent [Music] is an encounter with the life the person of jesus judah are you saying what i think you're saying everything that can be shaken will be shaken so that what cannot be shaken will remain and i got a sense in my soul that god is working this together for our good so that what we're left with is level three security the old saints used to pray give me jesus just give me jesus that's what i need and that's what i want for your family and that's what i want for you more than another business i want you to have jesus and um i think the days ahead there might be more shaking there might be more deconstructing but may the confident ones emerge with level three security and confidence that though i walk through the valley of the shadow of death i will fear no evil for he is with me let me pray for you jesus i thank you for churchill i thank you for the privilege and an honor it is to be a teacher and a communicator here in this sacred space and this collection of invaluable human beings [Music] thank you god i am asking in ways that only you can produce that you would go through lenses and cameras technology projection power cords and electricity and you would meet people right now as i'm speaking directly in the middle of what they're facing and going through in jesus name in jesus name if right now you would like to receive the free gift of forgiveness that only jesus offers you can do it simply and easily it is not hard to be forgiven it is not hard to join the family of god he loves you he's chosen you all it takes is one moment of receptivity preachers will say you should say it out loud raise your hand whatever it is all of those moments of raising your hand or saying it out loud is just an outward indication of an inward reality that it's happening so if you'd like to receive the free gift of forgiveness that only jesus offers through the death burial and resurrection you raise your hand i receive the forgiveness for my heir my selfishness my wrong and my sin forgiven forever right with god forever relationship with god forever his person is in that room right now he loves you he loves you and come what may you're gonna live with the security that only the person of jesus can give you i believe that amen

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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, security, loss, confidence, lost, identity

Id: AbXejiBAMFE

Length: 42min 54sec (2574 seconds)

Published: Mon Mar 29 2021