Raise Up: Protege Sunday | Part 1

Welcome to the Awakening Church podcast.

We pray this message encourages you and provides the hope and light of Jesus Christ.

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Hi, I'm Alyssa.

Some of you may know me as Ali.

I have been serving on the production team, meaning I'm usually hiding in the back, panicking about slides or lights.

But during these nine months, God has really been taking me on a journey, addressing my fears.

And I want to take you with me in case that is you here today, because we all have fears.

God has really been teaching me to exchange my fears for rootedness.

My fears have been, some of them are like fears of the unknown, fears of public speaking, fears of disappointing people, fears of having to give up on my dreams, fears of losing the chance to create a future for my family here in the US, fears of having to go back home to South Africa, failing in my dreams.

And these fears really had a chokehold on me for sure.

Our last topic that we did in Protege was theology.

And one of our assignments was to do an exegesis on a verse.

And for those of you who don't know, an exegesis is a technical process of studying the text systematically to discuss the original intended meaning.

And Nassim told us we could pick any verse.

I immediately started panicking because there are 31,102 choices to choose from.

I knew I had to narrow it down a little bit, so I thought, okay, let's relate it to Protege somehow.

That did not do much.

So I decided to do what I thought anybody would do.

I compiled a list of every verse we discussed, taught on, referenced, and systematically worked through that list.

Still nothing jumped out at me.

I then decided to reread every single one of my protege notes, every discussion we ever had.

And I landed on the verse from our very first protege night.

We were all in Nassim's backyard.

We had these little name tags, and I was being socially awkward like I always am.

And we were just getting to know each other.

And Nassim was reading this verse over us as a warning and an encouragement for when spiritual warfare comes as we lean into God during these next nine months.

The verse is Jeremiah 17, verse 7 to 8.

Jeremiah 17:7–8

Now, to give you some context on the book of Jeremiah, Jeremiah was a prophet to Israel, and they were a nation severely backsliding into destruction, once again.

And he was writing this book to them to warn them about what would happen if they continue down this path.

But not only that, he was giving them tools to get off of this path of destruction.

And Jeremiah 17, 7 to 8 is one of those tools.

So let me read it for you.

But blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in him.

They will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream.

It does not fear when he comes.

The leaves are always green.

It has no worries in a year of drought, and never fails to bear fruit.

Now, when I was reading this and doing my exegesis, I had two main thoughts.

Specifically in verse 8, when he Jeremiah talks about the tree sending out its roots, it led me to my first thought.

Roots take time to grow.

Now, I don't know about you, but I know nothing about plants.

They don't last very long, they're always dying.

But I know that roots don't just magically appear overnight, right?

They take time to grow.

And it's the same with our relationship with God.

And as our relationships with each other here on earth takes time to build trust.

And so it takes time to build trust with God.

Now, during my younger Christian life, um when it came to the topic of trusting God, it was something that people always talked about.

It just dawns on you.

You know, like you make the decision and it just like descends on you from the heavens when you rise through the waters of baptism, you know?

And I always struggled with trusting him so easily, and it made me feel inadequate.

Um and then I realized that it takes time to grow.

Just like roots take time to grow, it takes time to build trust with God.

And Jeremiah says that it's worth it.

It says, blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord.

Now, blessed is not blessed as in, I'm gonna get everything I prayed for.

It's blessed as in, I will be happy and content in regardless of the situation I'm in.

Um roots take time to grow.

Trusting God takes time.

It is a daily decision we make.

For me, honestly, it's more like an hourly decision, but it's still a decision we make all the time.

But the good news is that it's never too late.

God always gives us an opportunity after opportunity to trust him first and invite him into our situations.

The second part of that same line, it says that the tree sends out its roots by the stream.

Now, my second fact about plants is probably the only one I know, is that water is a source of nourishment for the tree, right?

So it led me to my second point, which is the direction of your roots matter.

And it got me thinking, where do I get my nourishment from?

What are you doing to refill your soul?

Are you throwing yourself into work?

Maybe you're a thrill seeker like me, always looking for the next adrenaline rush.

Maybe it's spending time with friends or family.

There's nothing wrong with these things, but they're finite sources of water.

They will grow, dry up in drought seasons.

Luckily for us, the Bible refers to God as our living water.

In verses like Psalm 36, verse 9, or Jeremiah 2, 13, it says, God is our living water.

Psalms 36:9

He is our nourishment and our infinite source of nourishment.

Therefore, we can lean into him and send our roots out to him.

Just like a tree, our roots keep us grounded and stable in a storm.

I mentioned one of my fears was losing my visa and having to go back to South Africa.

For a short period of time, that was a reality for me.

I got to a point where I was going to have to go home if I could not make another plan.

But my roots were strong enough, and I decided in that moment to trust God first.

Doesn't happen often, but I did.

And I came out on the other side stronger, happier, and content with the situation I found myself in.

It might not have been the outcome I wanted or thought it would look like, but it's what I needed.

And it's still hard.

I still struggle to exchange my fears, to be rooted in God.

But knowing He is there when I do stumble helps it be a little easier for me.

And I come out on the other side more content and happy than I usually would be.

And so can you do it?

And my wife, Amy, our daughter Lily, and I have been coming to Awakening for a little over a year now.

And it's an honor to be able to share a piece of my story with you all this morning.

So just to set expectations, this is definitely more of like an eight-minute talk.

If there's one thing that I've learned through the process of preparing this, it's a lot of empathy for pastors who are always whining about the time they get to speak their message.

So to start things off, uh my question for you all is if you look back over the course of your life, what are some of the activities or things that have been around in your life for the longest period of time?

So I was born and raised in Minnesota, so true to stereotypes, I've been ice skating since I was three years old.

And I'm sure for most of you, if something immediately came to mind, you're probably thinking of something similarly fun and lighthearted.

But I'm wondering, if we look past some of these light-hearted examples, are there other things in your life that have been around for a while that you're less proud of, such as a long-standing pattern of sin in your life?

To give another personal example, from the time I was 14 until a little over three years ago, so almost 20 years, I had another activity that loomed pretty large in my life, and that was my addiction to pornography, which admittedly is a lot less fun to talk about than three-year-old me learning how to ice skate.

Now I think for those of us who are caught in these long-standing patterns of sin, there's probably a whole sermon series worth of reasons why we stay stuck in those patterns even when we're desperately trying to break free.

But the one I'd like to focus specifically on today is shame.

And I want to be clear that when I talk about shame, I'm not talking about the conviction that we may feel from time to time that what we're doing is wrong and we want to change.

I think that's a healthy part of our Christian walk as we seek to become more and more like Jesus.

Now I think shame is different.

It's this lie from the enemy that because of your sins specifically, God's grace somehow isn't enough for you.

Where it makes you feel so small and degraded that your only instinct is to run and hide, like Adam and Eve in the garden, so no one knows how broken you truly are.

And I think if we don't address our shame, if we just let it sit and fester, what we're really doing is allowing our sin to maintain its hold over us.

So then the question becomes, how do we deal with and confront our shame?

I think as usual, the Bible has some pretty interesting things to say about this.

So the main scripture that I want to look at today is in Paul's second letter to the Corinthians.

Now, the city of Corinth was the largest city in the Roman province of Greece.

It was a large trading hub, and because of this, it attracted a ton of people from all over the empire, so it's this big melting pot of different nationalities, cultures, and religions all living side by side.

And because of this, it was very cosmopolitan, but also pretty morally decadent.

So a big theme of Paul's letters to the Corinthians are how we as Christians should live when we're in a decidedly non-Christian context, surrounded on all sides by temptation and alternate ways of living, which I think should probably sound a little familiar to those of us living in present-day Silicon Valley.

So in 2 Corinthians 4 2, Paul writes, Rather, we have renounced secret and shameful ways.

We do not use deception, nor do we distort the Word of God.

On the contrary, by setting forth the truth plainly, we commend ourselves to everyone's conscience in the sight of God.

I also really like how the message translation writes this, which says, We refuse to wear masks and play games.

Rather, we keep everything we do and say out in the open, the whole truth on display, so that those who want to can see and judge for themselves in the presence of God.

I think in both of these translations I see a big theme of stepping out of the darkness of shame into the light of truth.

I really like the message's concept of hiding behind a mask, because I think so often when we're not living as we should, we often wear these masks to try to project this image that we're living this good Christian life, fully living out God's call on our lives.

But I think there's no way we can be fully walking with God if there are things in our lives that we feel the need to keep hidden from Him.

And it's only by throwing away the mask and stepping into the light of truth that we can fully live out God's will.

So now the question is: if shame wants us to dwell in darkness, but we're called to live in the light, how do we do that?

And one tool that I found to be particularly powerful in my own life is exchanging shame for confession in community.

Now I know some of you probably recoiled a little bit when I said the word confession for a couple reasons.

I think in the Protestant tradition, it's not something we talk about nearly as much as we should.

It's sort of this thing that Catholics do that we don't really fully understand.

And I think also when you're living in shame, the last thing you can imagine doing is admitting your sin and shortcomings to anyone.

But, and apologies uh to those of you who expect your sermons to have three points.

Um, I just have two reasons why I think uh confession uh can be such a powerful tool.

So the first uh point is that I think confession gives us support and accountability in bearing the burden of our sin.

So there's a couple more uh verses that I think do a really good job of illustrating this point.

Um in another of Paul's letters, this time to the Galatians, he had this to say in Galatians 6, 1 and 2.

Brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in a sin, you who live by the Spirit should restore that person gently.

But watch yourselves, or you may also be tempted.

Carry each other's burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.

Additionally, James, the brother of Jesus, writes in James 5 16, therefore, confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed.

I think oftentimes, despite what our pride might tell us, our own strength isn't sufficient to overcome the power of sin in our lives.

We really need to lean on the strength of God, and I think that can be expressed often through our ties in Christian community.

In some addiction literature, there's a saying that the opposite of addiction isn't sobriety, it's connection.

And I found that to be very true in my own life.

But our community can't help us if they don't know what's actually going on in our lives, which I think is why there's such an important need for truthful confession.

And the second reason I think confession is so powerful is that confessing our sin breaks the power of shame.

I think there's something incredibly powerful about naming our sin, speaking it aloud, and setting forth the truth plainly, as Paul writes to the Galatians.

When I was finally forced to fully confront my addiction to pornography, I ended up confessing to my wife, some close friends, our pastor at the time, and I got involved with the Christian accountability group with other men who were facing similar issues.

And in the beginning, it was frankly one of the harder things I've ever had to do.

I had to come face to face with the fact that I was not the man that I wanted to be, the man that I had been projecting to all these people around me for so many years.

I also had to confront the fear that all these people around me whom I loved would either look down on me or abandon me when they found out who I really was.

But what I actually found was an incredible amount of love and support in bearing the burdens of my sin.

And I also found that the more I talked about it and the more open and truthful I was in my confession, that the easier it became to talk about, the less shame that I felt, and probably most importantly, the less desire that I actually had to return to that pattern of behavior.

After literal decades of trying to do it on my own strength, it was only when I truly confessed my sin and leaned on the strength of my community that I was able to find freedom.

When I started this process, telling even one person about this was a mortifying prospect for me.

Um and now I'm up here in front of you all talking about it, which while I can't say it's enjoyable to admit to a couple hundred people that um you had a pornography addiction, I no longer feel the depth of shame that would have uh prevented me from sharing my story with you all.

So just to wrap up, I really just want to leave you with this image.

Jesus, after a mob drags a woman who they caught in adultery in front of him, expecting him to pass judgment, instead disperses the mob with this famous line Let him without sin cast the first stone.

And when they're gone, turns to the woman and says, Neither do I condemn you.

Go and sin no more.

Your Savior does not condemn you.

Lean on his strength and on the strength of this wonderful community that he's built.

How's everyone doing?

Oh my gosh.

Alright, here we go.

Alright, for those of you who don't know me, uh, my name is Elliot.

Uh, you'll find me normally in my natural habitat back there behind the drums.

Um, but it really is an honor to be here before you today.

Um, not just me, but for the rest of us here to be able to share our heart and what we've received from the Lord.

Um so it's it's really a privilege to be here today.

Since coming to awakening, I've grappled with a lot of theologically challenging questions.

And yet I feel like I've had the space and the freedom to unravel some of these conversations with our spiritual leaders.

For me, unanswered prayer is one topic that comes to mind.

I've had a lot of discussions, uh, long-winded conversations with my wife and in our small group, um, but it brought to mind a concept called shameless audacity, and which is the title of this sermonate.

This phrase is actually seen in Luke 11:8, after Jesus taught the disciples the Lord's Prayer.

Luke 11:8

But let me read to you verses 5 through 8 just to provide you the proper context.

Then Jesus said to them, Suppose you have a friend and you go to him at midnight and say, Friend, lend me three loaves of bread.

A friend of mine on a journey has come to me, and I have no food to offer him.

And suppose the one inside answers, Don't bother me.

The door is already locked, and my children and I are in bed.

I can't get up and give you anything.

I tell you, even though he will not get up and give you the bread because of friendship, yet because of your shameless audacity, he will surely get up and give you as much as you need.

And this is the NIV translation.

But when we look at ESV, the phrase shameless audacity is translated as impotence, and an NLT is translated as shameless persistence.

The Greek equivalent of this word is called an idea, which means lack of sensitivity to what is proper.

It describes being without respect or modesty.

Now Jesus is calling us to go boldly before the Father, for he is more gracious than any friend or neighbor.

Friends, my hope with this sermonette is to provide you with two applications that can help us exchange our hesitation for with persistence and prayer, and hopefully encourage you all to go deeper in your dialogue with the Lord.

Alright, the first point is to pray for the impossible.

Oftentimes you might hear people saying that God only puts us in situations that we can handle.

But on the contrary, I believe that God puts us in situations we cannot handle by ourselves.

What might prompt you is the passage from 1 Corinthians 10 13, which says this.

But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.

God is saying that we will never be tempted beyond what we can bear, but it doesn't mean that we're immune to suffering, because he will be the only one to provide a way out.

I'm sure a lot of us think it's offensive to God when we ask for the impossible, but I believe that God is offended by anything less.

I think that maybe perhaps he's offended when we ask him for things that we can do ourselves.

It's a silly story, but when I was at San Jose State, I had to take a physics EM class.

I'm sure all you STEM majors know the pain and turmoil of those classes.

But I bombed my first midterm and I had to take the second one and pass that if I want to make it through to my next aberratives.

And so I was studying, preparing all night.

I was doing my best to just be as prepared as I could.

And so the day of, as I was walking uh to the classroom to take my exam, I was praying real hard and just hoping that God would just do something.

And I felt like God was prompting me and asking, Do you trust me?

And hesitantly I said yes.

Um, but as we all know, God is good and God is gracious.

Um, not only did I pass that exam, but I was able to walk out of there with a 95.

And it exceeded my expectations.

And honestly, I could have gotten 100, but the only reason why I didn't is because I didn't put units down.

So for all you college students, pro tip, all you college students and people still in academia, don't forget to put units.

Doesn't matter if they're wrong, just put something down and you'll get credit.

But I digress.

My point is this our impossible prayers honor God because they reveal our faith and allow God to reveal his glory.

Second point is ask, seek, and knock.

We must be persistent in prayer.

Prayer is what moves the heart of God, but counterintuitively, our prayers aren't answered based on our continued persistence.

If that were the case, then it would be by works and not by faith.

God answers prayers to bring glory to his name.

About a month ago, my wife and I were in New York for a wedding and we had a very engaging conversation with a friend, and he brought up this very interesting point regarding prayer.

He said, Are we only praying for the end result, for our own gain, for what we want, or is prayer more about the change that happens during the process?

Every prayer is a calculated risk, but God calls up to calls us to rise up to the occasion in faith.

And without faith, it is impossible to please God because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.

Hebrews 11, 6.

My mom and I prayed for my dad for about 10 years before we saw him come to Christ.

And um that being said, I don't know if there's some, I don't believe there's a secret formula or some magical, I don't know, certain cookie-cutter method for answer prayers, but I know that God knows our heart and our intent.

My brothers and sisters, whatever you're going through right now, whatever you're currently facing, do not lose hope, do not despair.

God hears our deepest cries and he honors those who seek him earnestly.

Let us continue asking him in faith and pray the impossible into reality.

Thank you.

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