Sarah Thomas - When all is stripped away, we still have Jesus - Sunday, May 3, 2026

So good morning.

Some of you will um remember this story.

I have shared it before, but I'm gonna share it again because it just it it means a lot to me.

Some of you will know uh that back in March I spent time uh visiting family overseas.

I was away from my husband, I was away from church, I was away from everything that was familiar.

And at one point I found myself in a situation where I was uh being being mocked.

It was awful.

I left the situation and I drove away, but really I had nowhere to go.

I was so far from home, I was completely alone.

I was so far from anyone who was able to comfort me in that exact moment.

So I parked the car that I had borrowed for the time that I was there, and I drove away and I parked the car near a beach and I put music on, uh music from worship music from a set from this house.

And I remember praying, Jesus, I've just got nowhere to go.

So I'm running to you.

I chose in that moment to run to Jesus because that's all I knew to do.

So I ran to Jesus.

I cried at the unfairness of being the recipient of such anger and mocking words, and I told Jesus all about it.

I groaned under the weight of such cruel words and really lonely circumstances.

And all I had in that moment was Jesus.

And that was enough.

It always is.

Again.

He's good like that.

In Psalm 34, starting in verse 17, it says, Yet when holy lovers of God cry out with all their hearts, the Lord will hear them and come to rescue them from all their troubles.

The Lord is close to all whose hearts are crushed by pain, and he is always ready to restore the repentant one.

Even when bad things happen to good and godly ones, the Lord will save them and not let them be defeated by what they face.

God will be your bodyguard to protect you.

When trouble is near, not one bone will be broken.

God allowed me time to be outraged by the unkind words that had been spoken to me that day, and I cried to him with my whole heart.

And Jesus heard all my cries, he saw all my tears.

I cried out to God and he heard me.

And the good news is that God is close to all of us whose hearts are crushed.

God is close to all of us who feel defeated.

God is close to all of us who need rescuing.

He isn't distant, he isn't far away, he's right here.

The Lord is close to all of us, and he's always ready to love us, he's always ready to protect us, he's always ready to restore us, and he's always ready to save us.

There's a worship song that Matt Redmond wrote many years ago.

I've always loved it.

It's called The Heart of Worship.

And it has starts with these three lines.

When the music fades, all is stripped away, and I simply come.

I'll read them again.

When the music fades, all is stripped away, I simply come.

And I think they're perfect.

I've always loved them.

I love that song.

If you don't know it or haven't heard it in a while or ever, look it up, listen to it sometime.

When the noise of all that is going on around us fades, we still have Jesus.

When the busy fades, we still have Jesus.

When we have nothing left, we still have Jesus.

When we face uncertain circumstances, we still have Jesus.

When nothing around us makes any sense, we still have Jesus.

When all is stripped away, we still have Jesus.

When we when all we have is Jesus, we simply come.

I often pray that I come to God with empty hands, with nothing to offer but open and empty hands.

They're his to use, they're his to fill.

None of me and all of him.

And last year during the conference that we had here, a lot of you will know that I spent the majority of the three days just face down right here.

I became kind of useless in the sense of any sort of practical thing.

Even though I was meant to be overseeing and kind of leading the logistics team during the conference, I wasn't even able to stand.

I still don't fully understand what God did within me during those hours that I was face down here at the altar.

But I know my life changed forever.

Galatians 2, verse 20 says it better than me.

Galatians 2:20

My old identity has been co-crucified with Christ and no longer lives.

And now the essence of this new life is no longer mine.

For the anointed one lives his life through me.

We live in union as one.

My new life is empowered by the faith of the Son of God who loves me so much that he gave himself for me, dispensing his life into mine.

I feel like I know absolutely nothing.

I feel like I'm empty of anything other than my yes to Jesus.

I feel like so much of Sarah got stripped away and I was left with so much more of Jesus.

It's impossible to comprehend what he did during those hours that I was lying here on the ground, just with him, no agenda, just being in his presence.

I've learned that when I'm stripped away, when I focus on Jesus, that's all I need.

When he is all I have, that's enough.

Everything else fades in comparison to Jesus.

In 2 Corinthians 4, verse 16 to 18, it says, Therefore, do not lose heart.

2 Corinthians 4:16–18

Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.

For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them.

So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but what is unseen, since what is temporary, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

When all is stripped away, we find Jesus.

When we allow the noise and distractions to fade, we find Jesus.

When we find him, the work he does is eternal.

Proverbs 8 says, I love those who love me, and those who seek me find me.

And I know I want to find him every day.

I want to seek him and be loved by him every day.

In Joshua 13, verse 33, it says, But to the tribe of Levi, Moses had given no inheritance.

Joshua 13:33

The God of Israel is their inheritance, and he as he promised them.

The God of Israel is their inheritance, as he promised them.

I read this verse while I was sitting in the car that day with Jesus, and I knew in that moment that when I had have absolutely nothing and absolutely no one, the Lord, the God of Israel, is also my inheritance, just as he promises.

I realized that all I need is Jesus and His inheritance.

And this is true for all of us.

Because his inheritance is our hope, his inheritance is our joy, his inheritance is goodness, his inheritance is our peace.

And all we have to do is allow the music to fade, the distractions, the fear, the outside noise to fade and simply come.

At this stage, I was staying at a relative's house, so I eventually went back there.

And I sat outside in their garden.

I was still so hurt, still listening to worship music from this church.

I had my eyes closed, all was stripped away, and I was just sitting with Jesus.

And they were my mum's parents' handbooks.

They had taken them to church every Sunday.

It was well before the days of technology, before overhead projectors and whatever these things are called that we use today.

They had books filled with hymns that they used to sing from.

And this person who obviously saw my anguish placed them in my hands in an attempt to comfort me.

They had found something that they thought might help.

They wanted me to make me feel better.

So they brought me ancient worship songs that my grandparents had treasured and worshipped Jesus from when they were alive.

They were bound in soft leather, and their names were written in their own handwriting inside the front covers.

And as I held them, I remembered the soft, capable hands of my grandmother.

I imagined her singing in church.

All of us in a row alongside her.

But she always sang the most beautiful and the loudest.

Because she too loved and worshipped and served Jesus.

And in that moment, Jesus started to remind me who I really am.

Because I wasn't alone.

I am the granddaughter of Hazel and Arthur, and they love Jesus.

I am the daughter of Hazel and Richard, and they love Jesus.

And I am the daughter of my Father God, and I love Jesus.

And I'm grafted into his family, and he is my inheritance.

And nothing else matters.

Don't matter.

Because I follow Jesus, I trust Jesus, I'm rescued by Jesus, and I run to him.

I find my hope in him.

He is my joy and my salvation.

Says so in Psalm 51.

Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.

Do not cast me from your presence, or take your Holy Spirit from me.

Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and grant me a willing spirit to sustain me.

This is true and possible for each of us here today, too.

He adores each of us here equally.

If we choose to run to Him, not just when all else fails, but first, also when all else fails, He will meet us.

He will comfort us, He will rescue us, He will restore us, He will provide for us.

After my mother's funeral, a cousin came up to me and she said that while my brother, sister, and I were taking turns talking and sharing about our mum, she could see in each of us different traits of mum that stood out for her.

We all have different things that reminded her of our mum.

And I thought it was such an incredible observation.

And it made me wonder if I am close enough to Jesus to start to reflect and resemble him too.

And that's what I want for all of us.

For all of us to know and follow Jesus so closely, to run to him at all times in all circumstances, and that when people see us, they also see Jesus.

These are some of the things people should see in us.

If we are spending time with Jesus, there's more things than the things that I've listed, but here's a few of them.

They should see how we love each other.

They should see how thankful we are at all times.

They should see us going into the world and sharing the good news.

They should hear the good news from us.

They should see sons and daughters who love their neighbor.

They should see the goodness of God through us, his kindness, his generosity, his beauty.

They should see that when our world is rocked by grief or loneliness or hardship of any kind, that our heart that our faith stands.

Because we stand with Jesus, our cornerstone.

We put our trust in Jesus, not in people.

Not in good times, not in our jobs or wealth or any number of other things, but we trust fully in Jesus to not only save us but to keep us steady.

When all is stripped away, he stays.

When all is stripped away, he doesn't leave us.

We can run to him because he is our inheritance.

In Acts 4, it says, Jesus is the stone you build as rejected, which has become the cornerstone.

Salvation is found in no one else.

For there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.

No other name.

Jesus is our unshakable cornerstone, our anchor, our steadfast, unmoving, unmovable rock.

He is who we can depend on in all circumstances.

In Hebrews it says that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

Let's always choose to run to Him, whatever else is going on.

Let's surrender and run to Jesus.

A few Sundays ago during our pre-service prayer here, Rowanna prayed these words.

Our strength is in our surrender.

And I've been thinking about them ever since.

It was Jesus' surrender on the cross that saved us.

It is our surrender to Jesus that gives us life and strength.

Just going to read a story from Mark 5 that speaks about various people running to Jesus.

I just want to read it to you.

Starting in verse 1.

They arrived at the other side of the lake, at the region of Gadderenes.

And as Jesus stepped ashore.

Now let me just pause because the reading that I've done, this region that Jesus stepped foot on, the Gadarenes, was a region of non-Jewish people who were pig farmers.

And pigs are considered unclean according to Jewish law.

Here is Jesus stepping ashore amongst unclean people and unclean pigs.

He isn't afraid to get close to things, situations, and people who are considered actually and actually are unclean.

So as Jesus stepped ashore, a demon-possessed madman came out of the graveyard and confronted him.

And so here's our first instance of someone running to Jesus in this story.

The man had been living there amongst the tombs, and no one was able to restrain him.

Not even with chains.

For every time they attempted to chain his hands and feet with shackles, he would snap the chains and break the shackles in pieces.

He was so strong that no one had the power to subdue him.

Day and night he could be found lurking in the cemetery or in the vicinity, shrieking and cutting himself with stones.

It just sounds like a nightmare to me.

This is the character that ran to Jesus.

This is who met Jesus and his disciples when they came ashore.

And this is straight after in Mark 4, where they'd been caught in a massive storm, and they thought they were all going to die.

Well, the disciples said Jesus didn't.

He was asleep, sleeping peacefully.

What a dramatic few hours.

And now they're confronted by this guy.

The story goes on, and he healed the man, he sent the sent the demons into a herd of nearby pigs, and they all drowned themselves.

So in verse 14 it says, at this time the herdsmen ran to the nearby villages, telling everyone along the way what had happened.

And the people came out to see for themselves when they found Jesus.

See, here are more people who ran to Jesus to come and see and hear for themselves.

Turns out they didn't like it very much what they heard and what they saw, and they asked Jesus to leave.

I imagine the sight of two thousand or so dead pigs bobbing about in the lake can't have been very pleasant.

Not to mention the loss of income for them.

When they found Jesus, they saw the demonized man sitting there, properly clothed, and in his right mind.

Seeing what had happened to the man possessed by many demons, the people became afraid.

Now they were afraid of Jesus, but Jesus wasn't afraid of them.

Those who had witnessed this miracle reported the news to the people and included what had happened to the pigs, and then they asked Jesus to leave.

And as Jesus began to get in the boat to depart, the man who had been set free from demons asked, Can I go with you?

Here again.

This now free and healed man wanting to stay with Jesus, not wanting Jesus to leave without him, wanting to continue running with him.

Jesus answered, No.

But said to him, Go back to your home and to your family and tell them what the Lord has done for you.

Tell them how he had mercy on you.

So the man left and went into the region of the Jordan and parts of Syria to tell everyone he met about what Jesus had done for him, and all the people marveled.

He ran to Jesus, he was set free of demons, and he was sent on his mission.

From what I understand, he went to ten cities.

Ten cities worth of people heard about Jesus because he ran to Jesus in the first place.

I can't even imagine how out of his mind he must have been when he was filled with demons that then had the power to drown 2,000 pigs.

That is a lot of evil to be inside one human body.

How desperate he must have been for any sort of help.

This story tells us that we can go to Jesus however we are.

We can run to Jesus at all times and in all circumstances.

The man in this story was desperate.

He had absolutely nothing to offer.

His hands were not only empty, they were completely broken.

Jesus will meet us too.

However, we are, he will restore us.

The townsfolk turned away too afraid.

I know we didn't read the story from Mark 4 about the storm that Jesus calmed, but in that story it says that the disciples were afraid, and so they woke Jesus up.

So he would help them.

In their fear, they went to Jesus.

Yet, in contrast, when the townsfolk and farmers in the story that we did read in Mark 5 were afraid, they asked Jesus to leave.

They asked him to go.

I love, though, that the man who had the true encounter with Jesus then went and shared his testimony of good news to people in ten cities.

His strength was in his surrender to Jesus.

And I know who I want to be like.

When I'm afraid, I want to seek Jesus.

I want him nearer, right beside me, not far away.

Because you'll notice in both stories, Jesus was never afraid.

In the storm he was asleep, unafraid.

In the next story, he walked and ministered among people and animals considered unclean.

Again, unafraid.

When the man rushed at him.

He loved him.

He healed him.

He wasn't afraid.

And I would love for us to spend some time this morning running to Jesus, being in Jesus' presence.

I know we've worshiped.

But I want to worship again.

On Friday afternoons, we have what we call soaking here.

I share a tiny word, a very small devotional in scripture.

And then we sit down or lie down or lean back in God's presence.

And we're just in Jesus' presence.

And we just be present.

Sometimes he shows us things.

Sometimes we just marvel at his goodness and mercy.

But without fail, every time he shows up and he hovers.

He does unseen eternal things for each of us.

So I know the house lights are already dimmed.

But I've asked Joel to come and play some just instrumental music, no singing.

Just let the Holy Spirit hover.

Let's spend a few moments now in God's presence.

You might think about one of the scriptures that I've already shared or something else that's on your mind.

But let's all just focus on Jesus for the next few minutes.

You can sit, you can stand, you can lie down.

Whatever you're happy doing.

My power finds its full expression through your weakness.

So I will celebrate my weaknesses, for when I am weak, I sense more deeply the power of Christ living in me.

So I'm not defeated by my weakness, but delighted.

For when I feel my weakness and endure mistreatment.

When I'm surrounded with troubles on every side and face persecution because of my love for Christ, I am made yet stronger.

For my weakness becomes a portal to God's power.

Father, we come this morning, we come empty-handed, and we say we need your strength.

We need your courage.

We love you, Jesus.

We love you.

Come meet us face to face right now as we seek you.

Be with us, Jesus.

Be the such of us.

We want to encounter you this morning.