Unstuck - Week 3

[00:00:00] Speaker A: Hey, good morning Christ Church. Welcome. We're so glad that you're tuning in with us. My name is Chet, I'm the campus pastor here and if we haven't had a chance to meet, I'd love to meet you in person. So if you're watching and you're exploring Christ Church, I just want to encourage you to come check us out in person 9:30 or 11 and I would love the chance to meet you. And we have a lot of exciting things coming up this month. First and foremost is our Connect class. If you are looking to take the step in our church and to serve, to get to know people, to understand more about the church, I always say our Connect class is the best first step. It's a six weeks, six week class and it meets during our 9:30 service. And you'll hear about who we are as a church, what we believe about God, what it means to serve and be part of the dream team here. And we would love for you to go through that. You can sign up on our Christchurch Ohio it be starting in the next couple weeks. We also this fall are putting a huge emphasis on our life group ministry. Life groups are smaller groups of people, like 10 to 12 people that meet together in homes or paneras and they study the scriptures together, they pray, they support each other, they build relationships, they do life together because one of the things that we know for sure is that God does not want us to do this alone. We need each other and we are at our best when we are serving and growing together with each other. And that's what life groups are all about. And so this fall we want to start a bunch of new life groups. We want to re engage life groups that have been going and we want to make that a huge point of emphasis. And so I bring all that up to say if you are interested in maybe leading a group, maybe it's something God's putting on your heart and you're you know, thinking about man that that's something I want to do. Maybe you're a little bit intimidated by doing it, a little bit nervous to do it, that's okay. We have a training, a three week training that is coming up and I want to encourage you if this has resonated with you to sign up for it and we'll equip you, we'll support you through the journey, we'll have your back, we'll coach you, we'll be there for every leg of this. And I believe that man, God is calling some of you to lead a group this fall, and it is going to be a huge blessing to, to our whole church. So if that's you again, make sure to go on our website and sign up for our life group. Regroup, Express. That's what our training is called. You can find it there. And lastly, we have our annual golf outing happening this month. I am so proud of our golf team. That puts us together. It's a lot of work. And this year we have spots for 90 golfers. We have a little bit over 70 signed up right now. I want to hit the full 90. So I need you to sign up if you're thinking about it, because here's the deal. All the money we raise this year is going towards our Night to Shine Special Needs Prom. My prayer is, is that this golf outing would fund that whole event, which means we need to raise about 10 to $15,000. It's a big goal, but I'm praying we could do it. And you could help by signing up, by being part of that day, by golfing and having a great time. And this all goes towards an amazing cause. I think there are few causes as noble and as good as our Night to Shine Special Needs Prom. So sign up. If you're busy that day, cancel your plans and come do this. This is going to impact lives. It's going to glorify God, and you're going to have a great time as well. So anyway, thank you for tuning in. Thank you for hearing me out. And today you have the privilege of hearing our old Brooklyn camp campus pastor, Jovan Anderson, bring a powerful word to us as we continue our Unstuck series. [00:04:20] Speaker B: Well, good morning, west campus crew online family. Thank you guys for joining in with us. For those who may not know, my name is Javon. I get the opportunity to serve as the campus pastor over at our old Brooklyn campus for a lot of you. You know that I've been here and been at West Campus for several, several years in the past. And so this is home away from home. I'm glad to be with you guys. I'm glad to serve you this morning, and I'm glad to pick up in this sermon series that you guys have been in called Unstuck. I've been watching it. I've been listening to it, been enduring through Pastor Chet's corny jokes that he's been talking. But I'm excited to continue this conversation of a life that when we feel unstuck, how to persevere. Persevere and to be resilient in and through it. But before we begin Will you bow your heads and let's pray together? Dear Heavenly Father, I thank you for the wonderful reminder that when we are stuck, we look to you that when life is overwhelming, when we are full of despair and confusion, we come to you to find clarity and endurance. In those times. You are what we need and you always will be who you say you will be. We love you and we thank you. In Christ's wonderful name is who we pray. Amen. Amen and Amen. Well, before we jump into today's passage, which is Colossians chapter three. Before we jump into today's passage, I want to tell you a little story about a time where I almost got into some pretty. Some big trouble. Let me just go from there. What I mean by that is I was on the turnpike and I was driving to one of our campuses. I was running late to this meeting and I just had a lot on my mind, right? That morning, my kids were a lot, which they always seem to be. They woke me up at 5am I didn't have the food that I wanted to have. They ate all the food. And it just wasn't the greatest morning for me. So I'm heading to work, I'm on the turnpike, and again, a lot is on my mind. And little did I realize, little did I know as I'm getting off the turnpike, as I'm approaching, approaching the toll booth, I just drive all the way straight through. It didn't stop. Did not stop, right? And I didn't realize it until I see people out of my rear view chasing after me and I'm like, I think I just went through the toll booth. I think that I just committed a federal offense. Like I, maybe I should stop, get out of the car and go pay the toll. And it just. It was just all bad. And I remember turning around and having to go through the booth again. And the lady was super frustrated and annoyed at me. She looked at me, shouldn't do that. You need to pay attention. What if you would have caused an accident? I said, listen, Karen, relax, okay? I didn't mean to do that. It was. It was just. I have a lot on my mind, right? And when I think about that moment, I think about the moment where I was experiencing mental overload, right? And for a lot of us, we've all experienced mental overload because we have a lot on our minds, right? And mental overload is nothing where you are carrying so many thoughts and worries because of responsibilities. You may have the decisions you need to make, the things that you need to care for it just becomes taxing on you. It's almost like having 40 tabs open in your brain. If you go on my MacBook, you can see right on the browser, I got like 40 tabs. That's kind of what my brain looks like on a daily basis. As, as things begin to pile up, you know, I begin to emotionally check out. I throw what I like to call adult tantrums, where I'm overreacting, constantly putting things off that are important, avoiding things that need special attention. But here's what I want to help encourage you today. If that's you, if you are experiencing mental overload. Mental overload, friends, it's a signal. It's a sign, right? Not just that you are overwhelmed, not just that you are stuck, but that your soul needs renewed, that. That your soul needs renewed. And it needs a reminder that, that. That in the midst and in the middle of all of that, we need to seek Christ. Right? We need to seek Christ. And today we're going to talk about in the book of Colossians that Christ invites you to trade your chaos for his peace. That's as simple as it is today. Christ is going to invite us and call us to trade our overwhelm, our mental overload, our despair, our seasons of stuck for his peace. And that's what the Apostle Paul is going to walk us through in Colossians chapter three, in verses 15 through 17. So I'm going to read the verses, give you a little bit of context, break this down, and then we can continue in worship. So it begins like this. Colossians chapter 3, beginning at verse 15, it says this. Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts. I love that. Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts. For to this you were called as members of one body. And be thankful. If you see the consistency going on here, hold on to that word thankful. It's very important. Verse 16. Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom. And as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual psalms with gratitude, there's that language. With gratitude in your hearts towards God. Verse 17. And whatever you do, very familiar verse. Whatever you do in word, or indeed do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. I love this passage. This is the Apostle Paul writing to a church, to a church that. That needs to hear this special reality, this special message about the peace of Christ, the word of Christ and a life of gratitude. Let's start with the. The very first part verse 15, Paul says, Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts. Now the first thing I want to do is I'm going to look at this word heart. This is where in the Greek where we get the word in English, cardio. It's in Greek, cardia. And it's more than just the, the actual, you know, your, your physical heart. This is the, the whole interior life within your feelings, your decisions. But more importantly, I think what Paul is trying to hit towards is the spiritual life beginning in your mind. Beginning in your mind. And it's been famously said by a lot of well known theologians that say the body flows where the mind goes. If you think about that, the body flows where the mind goes. And most of our inconsistencies and bad habits in seasons where we feel stuck is due to unhealthy rhythms. And unhealthy rhythms is because we have unhealthy patterns of thinking. You know, I, I, I, I've been in a season lately where I feel like the Lord has really been convicting me, that I'm always having a victim mindset. I don't know if you're like me and you're a broken sinner in need of grace, but I constantly find myself focusing on my defeats, focusing on the misfortune, focusing on the lies. And then I start to start to get to this place where it's, I'm thinking about self and I'm saying, well, why is this happening to me, right? This is unfair and all of that. And little do I realize that that pattern of thinking is consistent in my every day life. I am ruled, catch the catch the theme. I am ruled by that way of thinking. But Paul says you need to be under a different rule. Now notice he uses this language, let the peace of Christ rule your hearts. In this word rule, Paul borrows more of an athletic term. I'm pretty convinced the Apostle Paul was an athlete, right? More than just a missionary, more than just apostle. The man had to be a runner or wrestler like your pastor is he, he had to be, he had to be doing something in sports because he's always using sport and athletic analogies. And here he does the very same thing. This, this word means arbitrator, or to make it more modern, umpire, official, meaning one who has authority. If you can think about a sports game, if you can think about sports game, you know, every sports or every athletic event has an umpire. It has an official, it has a referee, right? There are good referees and then there are referees that aren't so good. Right? Right. And they all have authority, right? And here's what Paul is trying to emphasize. Paul wants to emphasize this. Christ is meant to umpire your inner life because he's your champion. Christ is meant to umpire your inner life. And I've noticed in my own life that I get stuck because I'm governed by the wrong things. I'm governed by my fears more than faith. I'm governed by shame more than forgiveness. I'm governed by bitterness, governed by my ego, my. My selfishness and all of that. And I've noticed, friends, in. In order for us to. To. To experience this reality, we, we must. This reality of peace, we must look to Christ to be our source and our substance of peace, right? Because here's the thing. If we don't do that, will be prone to govern our lives and misinterpret every season of it, right? We'll be prone to govern our lives in the wrong ways and interpret life and not interpret life the way Christ intends for us to. Which means this true peace isn't found in how you feel or what you face, but it's trusting in the one who is true. Inner peace isn't found in how you feel. Even though I know a lot of us, we chase feelings, right? And feelings come and go. I feel one way one hour, and I feel a whole different way another hour. And we allow that to kind of dictate and determine and suede this peace. Our peace, right? But the Scriptures point to this reality that true peace isn't found in how we feel nor in what we face, but it's trusting in the one who is true, the peace Christ offers. Because here's the thing. Christ wants you and I to be people who are governed by his peace. This is why in the gospels, in John 16, Jesus tells his disciples, peace I give you. And then he says, my peace I give to you God. Christ Jesus himself desires that you will become a person of peace. And this peace is when you experience security, assurance, safety. See, here's the thing, friends. Jesus, he's more than just helpful. He is enough. He satisfies the core longings of our hearts, our identity, purpose, love, forgiveness. He alone guarantees our well being. Meaning this, meaning this. We, when we learn to look to Christ to be our peace and to give us peace. When we do that, we learn to interpret the moments of dread, confusion, disappointment and worry through the context of our relationship with Christ. Last month my wife and I, we took our boys to Cedar Point into the. The water area, the. For all the kids. And it was the worst decision ever in our lives. Two kids, two toddlers, let me add that, two toddlers. And this was that time where we were going to do that heat wave. So it was like 139 degrees outside. And so we're outside and we were there for like five hours. And we get to the, to the part of Cedar Point where we get to the wave pool. You guys remember the wave pool, right? When I went to Geauga Lake back back in the day, just showing my age, the wave pool was the place to be. That means every five minutes the waves are coming. And I remember fighting a wave. They would come, I would try to jump over it. It was so cool. But it's not so cool watching your kid try to endure these waves. And my five year old, my five and a half year old, he keeps getting further and further in the pool and the waves get stronger and stronger. And here he is, he's trying to jump over, getting a waterfall, a mouthful of water, and it's just, it's just all bad. He's coughing and I'm like, stop going so far. Like going so far. Come back, let's go back. And you know, he, he doesn't want to listen and he keeps jumping in the water and the waves keep getting stronger. And I asked him, I said, dude, why do you keep doing this? Right? Can we just go back? Why do you keep fighting these waves? And then he simply says this, because you're next to me, because I know you're right here. And I remember kind of stopping in that moment and I was like, that's not a good enough answer. I remember just saying to myself, how true is that? Right? Right. His willingness to continue to move forward was because he knew who was with him. His continual jumping over the, trying to jump over the waves was because he knew his Father was present. And here's the thing, friends. The peace of Christ is always available because Christ is always present. The peace of Christ, it is always available for us. It's not a piece we, we perform for and we achieve. It's a peace that is available and accessible because Christ is present. It's a type of peace that removes resentment and it fosters patience. It's a type of peace that produces self control rather than being consumed by emotions. A peace that even teaches me, and I know you're not going to like this, you might log off after this. A piece that teaches me to even forgive others instead of holding on to a grudge. You know, a lot of the reasons why peace may have been absent in My life, it was my unwillingness to forgive, my unwillingness to let go, right? My unwillingness to be reconciled in certain relationships. Because sometimes what can cause a lot of stress and stuck in our lives is the constant attention we have in our relationships, right? But the peace of Christ leads me to forgive, to be reconciled and to love others as Christ has loved me. So as we, as we close, I want to close with verse 16. Because verse 16 really lands home this reality of experiencing peace in Christ. Look what he says, Paul. It's Colossians, chapter 3, verse 16. He says, Let the word Logos, let the word of Christ richly dwell within you as you tease, admonish one another with all wisdom as you sing songs and hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God. This, this, this word, lagas, it means the, the utterance or the teachings and the preaching of Christ himself, right? And I, and I realize this to become unstuck, our souls need to be nurtured by the voice of Christ and his voice alone. And actually, in the Scriptures, Jesus teaches us that he is the shepherd and we are the sheep. And the shepherd knows the sheep. And he calls the sheep by name. And the sheep listen and they follow. And it also says this, I believe. John, chapter 10, verse 5. I believe it is, they said, a stranger's voice. They will not follow because they don't recognize its voice. Now, friends, for a lot of us, the season where we feel stuck is due to maybe the voices we are feeding off on. The voice of lies. The voice of I'm never going to make it. The voice of I don't know if I have what it takes. The voice of I am too messed up. We are often, we often feed on the voices of fear, shame and discouragement. But the Scriptures point to this great reality. There is a true voice, there is a better voice. One that speaks life, not death. One that doesn't condemn, confuse nor crush, but rather calls and calms and leads. A voice that says, you are mine, I am with you. A voice that reminds us that you lack nothing. And the more in tune we are into his voice, the more peace and clarity we find. Paul uses the language again. Richly dwell. For something to richly dwell or to make habitation. For something to dwell within or make habitation. It involves deep meditation and concentration. Paul connects this, that this living out this piece or experiencing the peace of Christ, it is by constant exposure to the words of Christ, to the promises of Christ. If you were to meet my 5 year old, you would instantly realize he acts just like his dad, right? He acts like me, but also he talks and uses almost every word and language that I use, which is a little bit scary because I have to be careful what I say around him. He's starting to call my wife bro now. Like, it's just. It's just crazy, right? He says, bro, I got this. I'm like, who are you talking to? You call her bro. Don't do what I do, okay? And it's just. It's just all bad, right? But. But it's because he's constantly around me, right? He. He begins to adopt and to know the my very words, know my very life know movement, right? He's imitating me. He's his, his. His. His whole being is because of his. His presence around me. And I believe Christ wants to make that same impact in our lives. That constant exposure to him helps us to adopt his very life onto us. Right? Right. The foster of peace. We must feed off the truth found in Christ. And peace is hiding his word in your heart. Hiding his word in your heart daily and often to be led by a better voice, by a truer voice in your life. As we close, I want to give you four takeaways and four action points that you can practice this week so that the peace of Christ can be real and experience in your life. Number one, guard your peace. Guard your peace. So often I allow small, minor things that kind of define the day or even the week. I can get cut off in traffic, somebody can send me a nasty text message, and then I'm prone to send one back, right? Another nasty one back and. And whatnot. And you're right. And I allow little small offenses to get into rob the prize of peace Christ wants me to experience. Right? Guard your peace, friends. And how do we guard our peace through and by his word. Guard your peace. Number two, gather with others. Now, if you didn't notice in the text, Paul used this communal language quite often, from verses 15 to 16, he talks about with one another. You were called to members in one body. And I've noticed that the, the. The. The people I surround myself with will either lead me closer to Christ to experience peace or to try to find sufficiency outside of Christ. Right? And, and I want to encourage you, friends, that this is the time and a season, whether you are new to church or you haven't yet visited or whatever it may be, to join a life group. Join a life group. Come and be a part of this community life. Right? Life is already hard. We make it harder by doing it alone. I Want to. I want to encourage you to join a life group, right? To be a part of the group life we have here at Christ Church. Number three, choose gratitude. Choose gratitude. Did you notice Paul uses the language thankful gratitude three separate times in these passages? As a matter of fact, it's Paul's great theme in Colossians. If you take the time and read it, the man mentions it over 10 times. Thankful, thankful, gratitude, gratitude, right? All of that, right? And I've noticed that I'm really good at acknowledging the bad in my life. Are you like me, you're really good at acknowledging the negative, right? If this were to be like this, then we would be able to. If this, if that, or whatever it may be, right? But I want to encourage you that every good and perfect gift that you have comes from above and thankfulness, what it does, it produces a sense of joy and peace in our lives when we choose to look at the good God has provided for each and every one of us. Right? And number four, humility produces peace. Here's what I mean by that. Some of the reasons why the peace of Christ is absent in my own life is because I'm trying to write my own narrative of my life. I'm trying to be the author instead of trusting the true author. I'm trying to be the editor. I'm trying to make life the way that I want it and I intended. And when it doesn't go my way, I'm. I'm prone to try to take control, right? But peace isn't taking more control, but peace is giving up control and surrendering, surrendering and submitting it all to the one who fully is authoritative. So my encouragement to you friends, it guard your peace. Gather with other people, God's people. Choose gratitude, but also choose humility in your life. Let's pray. Dear Heavenly Father, I love you and I thank you. I thank you for this reality and this very truth that you want to give us a peace that surpasses all understanding. You want to give us a peace that is not mere based off circumstances, that is not based off our feelings, but it is based off the presence and the person of Jesus Christ. So, Father, I pray that today that wherever we are in our lives, the moments of confusion, the moments of dread, moments of desperation, we would look to Christ to give us clarity and peace because he alone is the source of our peace. I pray that we have a sense of assurance this week knowing that we are cared for, looked over, guided in all that we are and where we are going. Lord, I love you, and I thank you. I pray that you bless your people, and I pray your people are blessed because of what you want to encourage them with experiencing your peace. So your son's perfect name is who we pray. Amen. Amen. Amen. Well, thank you, West Campus. May the Lord be with you. God bless. We'll see you guys next week.