Sometimes you expect things to go one way and life has other plans. You just want to go to work but your car won’t start and you freak out. You just want your kids to go to school but someone gets sick and you freak out. You can barely handle demands of life as it is. You are so tired, you are so busy, and then comes an illness, a family emergency, or overtime—and you freak out. You just want to save a little, get a little financial margin but there’s some unexpected repairs; a tax bill, braces, you name it—life is full stuff ready to break you—and you freak out! Here’s what’s at the core of most of the times we freak out: the fear of not having enough. Not enough money, not enough time, not enough energy, not enough patience, not enough connections, not enough skill or talent or whatever it is we need to feel like life is good. We freak out, wondering, how will there ever be enough to deal with what I’m dealing with? These moments shake us up, but here is the good news today: God has made a promise: if we seek Him first, He’ll provide all we need. He may not do it on our timetable, or in the way we expect, but He is faithful even when our faith is failing. What can you do today to seek God first in the midst of what has you shaken up?

We’ll face rejections in life, but we are not rejects. You are chosen and that means you can live with great expectation. You are chosen for joy, peace, mercy, protection, inclusion, heaven, provision, and strength. You are chosen for God’s favor, chosen for God’s correction, chosen for God’s guidance, chosen for God’s love and chosen for God’s glory. You are not forgotten, you are not worthless, you are not overlooked, you are not unloved, and you are not second-class. You can reject that rejection because you are CHOSEN. God knows you and He chose you. That’s why you can hope again. You are chosen for hope, not despair. You are chosen for a better future, not a lesser future. You are chosen to live with great expectation in your great God who has chosen you for great things! Have faith in that today!

Grace is the undeserved favor and forgiveness of God. It’s God’s grace that gives us all the opportunity to know God, be forgiven, follow Him and live in the greater purpose He has for us. God doesn’t treat us as we are, but instead as we could be through faith in Him. He has a purpose for you--a calling for your life. Hang tight to that truth!

If you want more of God’s blessing in your life, be faithful with what He puts in your hand. Right now, some of you are praying for a better job. As you pray, focus on being faithful with the work you have until God opens a door. Jesus said if you are faithful with little you will be faithful with much. It’s how you handle the little now that determines how you might handle the much later. If you’re praying for a date, focus on being the most dateable person you can be. If you’re praying for more money, be faithful with the little money you have, tithe, give back to God, manage your expenses diligently, and try to make your little grow. If you’re praying for more growth spiritually, look at all God has put in your life today and be faithful with it. If you pray for more impact, be faithful managing the impact you have today. If you’re praying for more responsibility, be faithful with the things you are responsible for today. If you’re faithful with little, you will be faithful with much.

Don’t let anyone call you worthless when God has made you worthy in Jesus. Your calling and gifting comes from God. Other people don’t get an opinion on the matter. They don’t get to judge God’s calling on another person’s life. Don’t think less of God’s calling on your life. At the end of the day, you are the only one who can write off your calling. Other people can talk all day long. They can accuse and ignore. But only you can ultimately deem worthless what God makes worthy. When we doubt God’s call, we doubt God. We doubt His work in our life. We doubt His worth in our life. And pretty soon we feel lost and overwhelmed. Your gifts matter and God has made your gifts worthy.

The more you entrust your time, heart and mind to God the more He is able to make you rich in wisdom, grace, mercy and peace, and the more you are able to have an impact on others. God wants to make you rich in Him so that you can be rich toward others. Make time to meet with God who is able to build you up! What can you do today to make time with God?

Check out what Paul says in Ephesians 1:19-20 (NLT): “I also pray that you will understand the incredible greatness of God’s power for us who believe him.” This is the same mighty power that raised Christ from the dead and seated Him in the place of honor at God’s right hand in the heavenly realms.” Paul doesn’t pray that we will get God’s power; he prays that we will realize we already have it.

Check out Colossians 3:15-16 (NLT): “For as members of one body you are called to live in peace. And always be thankful. Let the message about Christ, in all its richness, fill your lives. Teach and counsel each other with all the wisdom he gives. Sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs to God with thankful hearts.” He’s describing what happens every week here at Central. The message of Jesus is shared. We teach and counsel each other with wisdom from the word. We sing together. We express thankfulness together. That’s why we always say; keep coming back each week, every week. It’s not just church. It’s not just an event. It’s a place where you encounter the power and the presence of Jesus. It’s a place where you are together with others as a body, and you are an essential part. It’s a place where you are not merely encouraged and lifted up, but given riches than fill you up so you can pour out all week. You cannot miss church any more than you can miss a gas station or meal or that nightly charge on your phone. You miss this, and you miss out on connecting to God’s body. You miss out on what God wants to give you and what you can give others. So, start your week with us. You never know what the week will hold!

Check out Deuteronomy 5:15 (NLT) “Remember that you were once slaves in Egypt, but the Lord your God brought you out with His strong hand and powerful arm. That is why the Lord your God has commanded you to rest on the Sabbath day.” Here’s a powerful idea: in commanding a Sabbath, God is categorically forbidding slavery. A slave cannot choose to rest. And here’s what God knew…even after He sets us free, we tend to fall back into slavery. We can fall back into a performance mindset. We can become enslaved to things that demand our attention and our effort. So, God lays down a test. He says, I command you to rest. And when you obey this command, you declare your freedom from whatever is trying to master you. Once a week you get to declare: God has set me free. I have no master but Him. And if someone has a problem with you taking some time, you just tell them, “Take it up with God!”

To follow Jesus is the true meaning of the Sabbath. When you are stressed you can rest in His care. When you are worried, you can rest in His power. When you feel rejected you can rest in His acceptance. When you feel overlooked you can rest in His presence. When you feel overwhelmed you can rest in His provision. When you are hurt, you can rest in His comfort. When you are confused, you can rest in His plans. When you’re at the end of your rope, you can take His hand, and He will save you. Keep company with Jesus. Learn how to be free.

All of us have stuff from our past we would like to forget. Like if our life was a movie, there are whole parts we’d like to edit out. Let’s just skip over that month, that year, or that decade. Sections of our life feel pointless. They weigh us down with shame and bitterness. We want to forget them. We’re tempted to think that the dark parts of our story don’t matter. Or that our whole story is bad because of all of the dark seasons it contains. But God is using your whole life to tell His story. All of your story matters, because God’s story matters. And as you look back on those dark spots with the eyes of faith, you start to see God’s light was there even in the darkness. God was working in your life even though you couldn’t see Him.

One reason people sometimes resist community, especially a faith community or a small group, is because they are worried about ending up with people who are different. What if they are on the opposite end of the political spectrum? What if they have different interests? Different beliefs. Different incomes. Different ages. Different ethics. Here's what I think Jesus would say to people who close their hearts to community:  “You were called into a personal relationship with God, but also a shared faith.” No matter what separates you from another person, the desire to meet Jesus and follow Him has tremendous unifying power—power that is released into our lives when two or more gather in His name. Power to help you learn, grow and experience joy.

It’s a powerful thing to pray for another’s dream. Now, here’s my question to you: don’t you want something like that in your life? Wouldn’t you love to have someone praying on your behalf for what matters most? Wouldn’t you like to be alert to what your friends and family feel? The word for alert literally means “to keep oneself awake,” but it was used as an expression to mean “to be alert, to be on the lookout for, to be vigilant.” We don’t just look out for ourselves but others. Check out how the Message Bible translates this verse: “God’s Word is an indispensable weapon. In the same way, prayer is essential in this ongoing warfare. Pray hard and long. Pray for your brothers and sisters. Keep your eyes open. Keep each other’s spirits up so that no one falls behind or drops out” (Ephesians 6:17-18). Who can you be praying for today?

When you’re frustrated, or feel guilty or unworthy, remember your rescuer. When you feel like you can never measure up and never get it right, remember your rescuer. When you feel nervous talking about the Ten Commandments, remember your rescuer. When you think you have it all together, you know best, and that the rules don’t matter, remember your rescuer. God rescued you from slavery. He does not rescue you into slavery. We are on the way to a greater blessing, so God has given us some rules—some statements of reality—to guard all the blessings He is giving us. You don’t have to live with constant emptiness and disappointment. The Ten Commandments are not about getting in good with God, they are about keeping the good life He has already giving us through grace. We can find the happiest place on earth by putting God first in our hearts.

When you’re frustrated, or feel guilty or unworthy, remember your rescuer. When you feel like you can never measure up and never get it right, remember your rescuer. When you feel nervous talking about the Ten Commandments, remember your rescuer. When you think you have it all together, you know best, and that the rules don’t matter, remember your rescuer. God rescued you from slavery. He does not rescue you into slavery. We are on the way to a greater blessing, so God has given us some rules—some statements of reality—to guard all the blessings He is giving us. You don’t have to live with constant emptiness and disappointment. The Ten Commandments are not about getting in good with God, they are about keeping the good life He has already giving us through grace. We can find the happiest place on earth by putting God first in our hearts.

Success and accomplishment are good things. But when you make them the ultimate thing, and failure is not an option, you can never miss a practice, never let someone down, never get anything less than an A, never get passed over for promotion, never let a ball drop…you’re now enslaved to success. The main problem with this idol is that it makes people very busy. They are always running so hard and hustling to feel like they matter that many times they’re too busy for church. ‘I’d love to be there, but we have soccer, I gotta work late, gotta study, gotta get the house clean, gotta hit the gym.’ When you make achievement an idol, it can’t save you. You will never be able to do enough. Jesus is the only one who can save. 

My friend Judy is in her 80’s and used to be a nun. Then she was a corrections officer after that. Through that whole journey she talked about how after 75 years of searching for love and acceptance, God grabbed a hold of her one weekend. She happened to be sitting at Central Church. She began to experience His love in her heart for the first time. This is how she put it: “I can finally rest in the fact that I know I’m not good enough for God but He is absolutely good enough for me. It is a gift I hope everyone will receive. I just hope it doesn’t take you 75 years to figure out.” Judy is kind. She is gentle. She is good. She is joyful. But it did not happen because she kept the Ten commandments. I think she’d tell you that led to guilt. But that day she learned that God is good. Good enough for her. That goodness saved her and transformed her. She saw that God is the only one who can rule in her heart. The only one who can rule in her life. The only one who can save. After that, she kept the Ten Commandments without even thinking about it much. She was too busy thinking about how good God is.

Jesus said that whoever comes to Him, trusts Him and follows Him will never be hungry. Why? Because when spiritual hunger strikes, you will get the bread that satisfies and enough will finally be enough. Don’t try to feed spiritual hunger with non-spiritual things. The result is not satisfaction, but depletion. The result is worry, anxiety and a constant drive for the more that is never enough. Worldly excesses can never make up for spiritual malnutrition. Turn to Jesus for security. Turn to Him for adventure. Turn to Him for intimacy, true riches, true glory and true significance. Your satisfaction in Him will become the baseline for your life. You will finally be able to enjoy what you have because your spiritual hunger is satisfied. You won’t need the extra attention, the endless affirmation, or the constant acquisition--enough will finally be enough. Jesus will be enough. 

When we begin to live our lives filled with rage, malice, greed and impurity, do you know what it does? It drains the life and the energy out of you. You can’t get ahead because you are too busy putting people down, or letting them put you down. You need a new power from which to love and relate to others. That’s why Paul says, “Begin to put these different things on – mercy, kindness, patience, gentleness.” What do these powers look like? Mercy means compassion. It’s the power to let the needs of another person move you. Jesus was always responding with mercy and compassion. He offers that power to you. Another power is kindness. This is an attitude that we take towards other people. We don’t see a lot of kindness in our world. We see cruelty and indifference. Those are defaults. But god’s power makes you kind. Humility. This is the power that does not think less of itself, but thinks of itself less. It’s the power to be free of your ego (which is always competing with others). You can see that others are important without feeling less important yourself. Last is patience, which literally mean big-souled. The idea is that there is so much of you, there is plenty of room for others nonsense. You have fewer and fewer buttons to push. You have been chosen to be the holy people God loves, so put on your new power.

We are hunted down, but never abandoned by God. No matter how much we may feel hunted—by the past, by our sin, by creditors, or by the enemy…we are not deserted. God doesn’t abandon His kids. He doesn’t abuse His kids. He doesn’t turn His back on His kids. God is still working. The final chapter hasn’t been written. We haven’t missed the miracle. Our destiny has not been derailed, because we serve God whose hand stretches across the expanse of the universe and He has not left us.