Unshakable: Finding Strength When Life Gets Hard | The Wild Work of God

Well, good morning.

How are you today?

It's good to see you.

Welcome to Westside if you're here in person.

For those of you that are joining us online, my name is Steve Brady.

I'm the outreach pastor here.

And I am so excited to be sharing with you part four of our series, Wild Work of God.

And we've learned some pretty cool stuff so far.

And today's not going to be any different.

In fact, today's message is titled Unshakable, Finding Strength When Life Gets Hard.

Now, have you ever noticed in life how easy it is to be afraid of something before you've even done it?

See, no one has to knock me off this ladder for me to be scared.

I can already do that in my own mind when I think about climbing this thing.

And that's the thing, right?

When we start to get on something like this, I think often we treat life kind of like this ladder where God's calling us to something, where he wants to bless us with something different in our lives, but but but we're too afraid to even go, oh, I'm not sure that I can take that next step because things get in our mind, right?

Like, what if I fall?

What if I lose my balance?

Uh what if this doesn't actually go the way that I planned and I actually come crashing down off stage, right?

That's a that's a real fear I have right now.

Um you know, maybe in your life it's it's uh a text that says we need to talk, or it's uh a phone call that you don't want to answer, or it's a conversation that you've been avoiding having, um, maybe a doctor's appointment, a financial decision, or even the unknown or the uncertainty.

And here's the thing about fear: fear doesn't need facts, fear just needs possibilities, and our mind does the rest, right?

So sometimes the hardest part in life isn't the climb, it's actually taking that first step, right?

It's it's actually trusting and and and moving.

See, you you don't have to be fearless to take that step.

You just have to be faithful and trust.

So I think what happens though is when fear starts taking over, it can actually seed in and start leading some other questions in our lives, or we start questioning our faith.

We start questioning our foundation, we start questioning God.

God, what are you what are you doing?

What's going on?

Can I trust you?

See, here's the thing and the truth about fear is courage isn't the absence of fear, right?

It's not the absence of fear, it's faithfulness why fear is still in the room or why our ground is still shaking.

Now, this weekend has been a weekend of remembrance.

As 25 years ago, the ground of our nation shook.

Some of you in this room weren't old enough to remember that.

Some of you have just read about it.

For the rest of us that are in this room, we know the exact moment where we were the day that tragedy happened.

Some people got up that morning thinking it was a normal day, that they were just driving to work.

And within minutes, the world changed.

Thousands of families received the devastating news that their lives would never be the same.

But here's the other thing.

In the middle of the unimaginable fear, we saw something remarkable happen.

Ordinary people took extraordinary steps.

The brave first responders, the firemen, the police officers, while everybody was running away from the danger, they were running to it.

Regular people were running to it.

Even though they didn't know what was coming and they didn't know how the story was going to end, they just knew they needed to do something.

And so they acted.

And that matters because courage doesn't always look like the feeling of being brave.

Sometimes courage looks like taking that next step that God's calling you to do, even while you're scared to death.

And that's where Acts 4 meets us today.

Because the early church in Acts 4 was facing a similar moment.

Their ground was shaking.

And the question was not, are you afraid?

The question to the church was, what will you do when you are afraid?

So I want to remind you if you're if you uh weren't with us last week, we talked about Acts chapter 3.

Acts 3 · chapter mention

Luke was telling us what was going on, and so I want to kind of recap that.

What had happened was Peter and John had just healed a man.

They were following obedience to God.

Peter was preaching about Jesus, and thousands of people responded by trusting in him.

But here's what happened.

And this is kind of crazy.

The religious leaders got angry.

They grabbed Peter and John.

They took them, they interrogated them, they arrested them, they questioned them.

And you know what they were told?

The religious leaders told them to quit talking about Jesus.

But I love Peter's response.

Look, you can beat us, you can do what you're gonna do, but we cannot stop talking about the things that we saw and the things that we heard.

And so Peter and John were both released at that point.

And here's what they did is they actually ran back to the other believers.

They didn't go hide, they went back to the church, and here's how we saw the church respond.

It didn't break under the pressure, it actually revealed how powerful the church is and what God designed it for.

It revealed community, it revealed worship.

Bart talked a little bit about why we clap and why we worship, trust, prayer, and it revealed generosity.

See, these weren't separate ideas.

Acts chapter 4 didn't just go one and then the other.

Acts 4 · chapter mention

This was a combination.

See, the believers stood together, they worshiped together, they prayed together, and they received the Holy Spirit's power together, and then they lived generously together.

And that's why Acts 4 is such the perfect example of how we become unshakable people.

So you want to grab your notes right now because we're gonna we're gonna go along.

There's some verses, you can fill this in, and the first thing that Acts 4 helps us discover is where do I go when I'm shaken?

So the first thing is this unshakable people stand together.

Verse 423 says this.

As soon as they were freed, Peter and John returned to the other believers and told them what the leading priests and elders had said.

See, they just experienced one of the most intimidating times of their lives.

They just went through it.

But here's the thing they didn't isolate when they had every reason to go disappear.

And what they understood was they shouldn't carry that pressure alone.

So when life shook them, they actually ran to God's people.

In fact, notice that it says their own.

They knew where they belonged and they knew that they needed the church.

Think about this.

Think about when you're climbing the ladder of life.

It's like having someone holding the ladder.

It doesn't make it any less scary, it just makes it a lot more stable, knowing that someone's right there.

And that's what the church provides.

See, the church doesn't climb the ladder for you, but they encourage you.

They don't take every step for you, but they cheer you on.

And when the ground gets shaky, there's somebody there.

Ecclesiastes reminds us of this: that two are better than one.

Because when one falls, the other can help him up.

In fact, Galatians even says this.

Excuse me.

Galatians says, carry one another's burdens.

So from beginning to end, God never intended his people to walk alone through life.

Now, I think some of us sometimes treat church like our gym membership.

We sign up, we are enthusiastic when we first start going, and then we quit showing up when life starts challenging us, or when there's an NFL football game on anyway.

So here's how we apply it to our actual lives, though.

We have to quit pretending things are okay.

In fact, those days when we feel like, oh, I just can't face it, that's the day you need to make sure you get into church.

That's the day you have to tell someone, hey, I'm not okay.

I need help walking through this with someone.

See, what happens with fear is it grows in isolation.

But courage grows in community.

So when life shakes you, run to God's people, not away from them.

Don't hide.

Don't carry alone what God designed the church to help you carry.

Because here's the here's the great thing about what we learn in in with this church is they didn't just gather and talk about the pressure.

They worship together.

Because being unshakable doesn't mean you don't feel shaken, it means you know where to go when you do.

So the number two thing in your notes is this unshakable people look to God.

That's who we have to look to when we're shaken.

Verse 24 says this when they heard the report, all the believers lifted their voices together in prayer to God.

O sovereign Lord, creator of heaven and earth, the sea and everything in them.

That's a powerful verse.

Because what happened was when the people around Peter and John heard what had happened, they lifted their voices together.

Unity brought them towards prayer and worship.

Before they looked at the threat, they looked at the throne.

They didn't begin with, oh, what's Herod doing now, or what's Pilate doing?

They didn't even begin with the Sanhedrin.

They began with God.

Even though those people were powerful, they were not ultimate.

Rome was powerful, but it was not ultimate.

You know who was ultimate?

God is.

God is ultimate.

And their prayer and worship reminded them how big their creator was.

See that word sovereign that they talk about in the verse?

Means God's in control.

God remains in control even when the rulers have opposition against him.

See, here's the thing: God never called an emergency meeting in heaven.

Gabriel never took off and said, Hey, God, guess what?

You're not gonna believe what happened.

And guess what?

God's never done?

God's never responded by going, what, wait, tell me?

No, because he already knows.

He already knows what's going on.

He already knows what your problem is, he already knows what you're facing.

There's not a thing in life that you have that isn't bigger than him.

So you have to start asking your question in your own mind.

What have you allowed to become bigger than God?

What's the thing that you're staring at?

Is it a diagnosis?

Is it a financial decision?

Is it your bank account?

Is it a strained marriage?

Is it uncertainty?

Is it what someone said about you?

See, fear when it creeps in has a way of magnifying the problem.

But I want to take us back to just a few minutes ago when we worshiped together.

When we were lifting our voices to God, were we thinking about our problems?

No, because worship magnifies God.

So when pressure rises, we have to look up before we look around.

See, their circumstances didn't change in the church, but their perspective had.

It says, God is our refuge and our strength.

Now notice this.

Always ready to help in times of trouble.

Notice that word in.

It doesn't say that God's ready to help after you've gone through the trouble.

It doesn't say that that God's ready to help in that moment that you're trying to handle it on your own once you've tried to go through it.

No, God's promise is that He's there.

He's present in our uncertainties, He's present in our waiting, and He's present in the middle of our storm.

They remembered how big God was.

And they remembered what God had already done.

And that's what brings us back to Jesus.

See, fear wants to keep us staring at the problem, at the threat.

Where worship teaches us to look to God and put our trust in Him.

So the number three thing that you're gonna write down is this unshakable people trust God's purpose.

What do we do when we don't understand what's happening?

In fact, verse 27 through 28 says this.

In fact, this happened here in this very city.

For Herod, Antipas, Pontius Pilate, the governor, the Gentiles, and the people of Israel were all united against Jesus, your holy servant, whom you anointed.

But here's the cool part.

But everything they did was determined beforehand, according to your will.

See what happened there?

Even though Herod opposed Jesus and Pontius Pilate opposed Jesus and the Gentiles opposed Jesus, yet God was still accomplishing his plan through it all.

See, the believers didn't deny that evil was real.

They didn't deny that the opposition was there, that there was pressure against them.

They didn't deny what humans were doing.

They recognized that even through all of that opposition, God was fulfilling his plan through Jesus Christ.

See, to some the cross looked like defeat, but God turned it into victory.

God was working through what looked like the worst moment in history when Jesus was crucified.

And here's the thing if God can work through the cross, I promise you he can work through the problem that you're facing.

Romans 8 28 reminds us of that.

It says God works in all things for good.

Notice what it doesn't say there.

It doesn't say everything is good.

Cancer is not good.

Betrayal is not good.

War is not good.

But God can redeem everything that was meant to harm us because God remains faithful and true to his word even when we don't understand what's going on around us.

I've had it happen several times in my life where I thought I was doing the right thing in my career, in ministry, even as a parent.

There were times, how many parents have been there going, God, what is going on here?

Right?

You kids are like looking at your mom and dad, really.

But I I've been faced with those moments.

I've been faced with that uncertainty where I just didn't understand what was happening.

Everything that I tried seemed to fail.

But looking back now, I can see God's hand in it.

I can see where he was developing me, where he was teaching me dependence on him, where he was preparing me for this very moment.

Just as he's preparing you.

See, I think some of you have either joined us online or here in this room because you're tired.

And I don't mean physically tired, although the band was complaining they were up late.

But I mean that your soul is tired.

You've been praying, that you've been waiting, that you've trusted, and you've been asking those questions.

God, are you still working in my life?

Here's what I want you to hear.

If you hear nothing else, that God's silence is not God's absence.

He is working in those moments.

You may not always see his hand.

We may not always see what he's doing.

We may not always see the progression in the moment, but we can trust in God who has remained faithful and proven himself time and time and time again.

See, if Friday had the final word, there would be no Sunday morning.

Our confidence isn't in God will definitely give me what the outcome is that I want.

No, our confidence is this, just as we learned in Daniel 3 with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego when they were thrown in the fire.

They said, I know God can, but even if he doesn't, he is still God, and I will still trust him.

See, faith trusts God's character when it cannot see or trace God's plan.

So what do we do when we trust God, but we still feel afraid?

We pray.

Number four is that unshakable people pray for courage.

So, how do we move forward when we're scared?

We ask the Holy Spirit for boldness.

But I think here's what happens is we tell ourselves one of the biggest lies is I'll finally feel brave, then I'll obey God.

See, here's the thing: courage rarely comes before obedience.

Biblical courage is not the absence of fear, it's faithfulness while you're still scared.

It's saying this, God, I don't know how this is gonna work out.

But I'm gonna trust you in it.

In fact, verse 29 through 31 says this, and now, O Lord, hear their threats and give us your servants great boldness in preaching your word.

Stretch out your hand with healing power.

May miraculous signs and wonders be done through the name of your holy servant, Jesus.

And after this prayer, the meeting place shook and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit.

Then they preached the word of God with boldness.

See, those believers' prayer tells us and shows us what spirit-shaped courage looks like.

And I love this prayer because the thing they didn't ask for was, hey, God make the opposition disappear.

They didn't ask for God make life easier.

And they what they did ask for is they asked God for courage to take that next faithful step.

Because that's what it's like in life.

That's the difference between faith and fear.

Fear says, wait until you're sure.

Faith says, take the next step because God's got you.

And you don't need enough faith to see the top of the ladder or the top of where God's intending you to go.

You just need enough faith to step on the next rung.

He'll show you after you've taken that step.

See, God didn't remove every threat, but they asked him for help in the middle of the threat.

Because they easily could have prayed, hey, God, get us out of here.

God, silence our enemies, or God, make this whole thing easier.

Honestly, I know how I pray.

Lord, please remove all the obstacles in my life.

Somehow it translates different to God.

Somehow he hears, oh, Stephen needs a new opportunity to grow.

He's got a funny sense of humor like that, doesn't he?

But 2 Timothy reminds us of something beautiful.

It reminds us that God hasn't given us a spirit of fear or timidness, but of power, of love, and self-discipline.

They prayed, give us boldness.

They asked God to make them stronger, even why they were still afraid, even why they were under pressure, even why they were facing opposition.

And Isaiah 41, 10 says this.

Don't be afraid, for I am with you always.

Notice that God doesn't promise removal there.

His promise is his presence.

That he's there with you in it.

So that's where our courage comes from.

Not in confidence in our situation, but in confidence in our Lord and Savior.

And here's what's really interesting where it says in that verse, the building shook.

You notice who didn't shake?

They didn't shake.

Even though the opposition was real, their faith became anchored.

Because being unshakable doesn't mean that you're not going to face trials in this life.

It means your foundation is stronger than the thing that's shaking you.

See, they were filled with the Holy Spirit, and then they went out and spoke God's word with boldness.

The people became stronger.

Courage is obedience in the face of fear.

See, the the ladder of life didn't become less real.

The height that God's calling us to doesn't be less real.

But here's the thing: the thing I know is you can't have all the blessings that God wants for our lives when we stay standing on what's comfortable.

We have to step in faith.

So don't pray, God changed my circumstances.

Change, God strengthen me in my circumstances.

Give me boldness in the face of it.

And that's exactly what we learn in Acts 4, 31.

Because we know the Holy Spirit had changed them because of what happened next.

The Holy Spirit gave them courage in the room, and it was evident in how they lived life outside that room.

So number five is this unshakable people live beyond themselves.

So what happens when God strengthens us?

Acts 4.32 says, all the believers were united in heart and mind, and they felt like what they owned was not their own.

So they shared everything that they had.

See, the Holy Spirit produced a work in their life.

It flowed through them.

It created a united people.

It created a people where their possessions no longer mattered more than someone else's needs.

After they prayed, they became united.

They became other focused.

And the Holy Spirit didn't just make them bold in that room.

It made them bold in how they lived their lives beyond themselves.

It changed the way they lived.

We talk about our JCM slide.

We talk about Jesus and community and mission.

And that's exactly what happened in Acts 4.

They went to Jesus, they found Jesus, they got together in community, and it made their mission so much more easier because they were together, they were united, they lived generously, they gave.

It changed them.

Their courage transformed into compassion, their faith became generosity, and their love for Jesus became visible in everything that they did.

See, Luke could have ended the story there, but he continued.

Their generosity wasn't forced.

It wasn't a performance.

It wasn't a, hey, look what I'm doing.

It was a practical result of their lives being changed by the Holy Spirit and their focus centered on Jesus.

So ask yourself this question.

Not what can God do for me?

Ask this question: what can God do through me?

See, what happens is when we let fear rule our lives, it often clenches our fist.

We tend to protect the things that we have, we tend to hold on to the things we were never meant to hold in the first place.

But you know what faith does?

God, I can trust you with this.

It releases it.

There was a man named Barnabas, and I love that Luke gave this example.

See, Barnabas' real name was Joseph, but the apostles nicknamed him Barnabas.

And here's why.

Because Barnabas means the son of encouragement.

Can you imagine living your lives in such a way that your nickname becomes what people see?

Oh man, I gotta do a much better job.

Someone's gonna nickname me the guy who talks too much.

Barnabas encouraged, he served, and he pointed others to Jesus with his actions.

That's a nickname I want.

Because what God put in us was never intended to stop here.

The Holy Spirit wasn't supposed to be just kept here, it's supposed to flow through you.

Our eyes are supposed to lift to him.

See, we've we've talked a lot about what made these believers unshakable, their trust in people, their prayer, how they lived beyond themselves.

But here's what we can't miss.

None of those things saved them.

Jesus did.

They weren't unshakable because they were naturally strong.

They were unshakable because they knew who they belonged to and that they were a child of God.

See, Jesus lived the life we could never live.

He died for our sins, he took our place on the cross, and he rose again.

See, our hope is not in our strength.

Our hope, our courage, our strength comes from the one who saved us, Jesus Christ.

See, Jesus doesn't just teach us how to teach us how to stand.

You know what Jesus does?

He gives us a reason to stand.

So you don't have to clean yourself up to get to Jesus.

He wants you to come to him just how you are.

You don't have to do your dishes in your house to invite him in.

He'll overlook him, he'll overstep your sockpile.

He doesn't care.

Because he loves you, he wants you to trust him, he wants you to surrender to him, and he wants you to receive his grace.

So where is life shaking you right now?

And then are we asking God what the next faithful step is that we need to take?

See, maybe today your step today is towards people.

Maybe you're still living a COVID lifestyle where you isolated yourself, where you've tried to make everything look good, even though your one tick on the blood pressure monitor for your ears exploding.

Maybe your step is this that you need to look up because you've forgotten just how big our God is.

Maybe your your step is to trust in God's purpose because you don't understand what he's doing in your life, you can't see it, but you're gonna choose to trust his character anyway.

And maybe it's to pray for courage, or it's to live beyond yourself.

Because someone that God's put in your life needs your encouragement, someone needs your help, someone needs you to show up, or maybe you're here or you're online, and your next faithful step is to simply surrender to Jesus, to quit trying to do it on your own, to accept him as your Lord and Savior and let him come provide your courage.

And if if that's where you are right now, we're gonna bow our heads and we're gonna say this prayer.

So let's bow our heads.

Dear Heavenly Father, thank you.

God, I want to give my life to you, Jesus.

I give my life to you.

Thank you for saving me.

I believe in you, your life, your death on the cross, and your resurrection.

Forgive me of my sins.

Fill me with your Holy Spirit.

Lead me and teach me to follow you.

Now, while all our heads are bowed and all our eyes are closed, for those of you online and those of you that are in this room, if you just said that prayer for the first time, would you raise your hand?

Would you be bold enough to let me know that you just said that prayer?

Amen.

God, we're thankful for each one of the lives that just made that step, recognizing that you are the one that's in control, that you are the one.

God, they just made the best decision they could ever make.

In Jesus' name I pray, amen.

See, maybe life feels shaky to you right now.

Maybe you don't know what's coming next.

Maybe you've been laid off.

You don't know where your next job's gonna be, you don't know how the situation's gonna be, and maybe you're just afraid, and that's okay.

You don't have to pretend that you're fearless.

All you have to do is you don't have to see the whole ladder.

You just have to be confident enough to take that step.

You just need to take that next faithful step because maybe it's the phone call that you need to have.

Maybe it's a conversation, maybe it's forgiveness, maybe it's trusting God even when you don't see it, and you just need to go, God, you got me.

I want your blessings.

You don't have to know everything that's gonna happen next.

You don't even need to plan it, you just need to know who's asking you to take that next step.

Because the people in Acts weren't unshakable because they were braver than anyone else.

They were unshakable because they knew the person that they belonged to.

Pressure came, but the church didn't break.

Life is a climb.

But our confidence is found in Jesus.

Amen.

Take that step, take your next step.

Let's pray.

Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for today.

Thank you for this message, this timely message, God, in our lives, that we can hear your word, where we can discover how you want us to live, and we can discover how we can be courageous in you.

God, thank you for bringing us together today and letting us hear your word, gathering and worshiping you, Lord.

In Jesus' name I pray, amen.