The Security Principle | Jud Wilhite

All right all right good to see you guys today welcome everybody want to say a huge welcome to those of our Central family locations joining us welcome to Central Sunrise Mountain and Central Summerlin our Central Kingman family and Central Aliante we love you guys good to have you with us today I can remember I was working on my message this week and I remembered a time years ago when my daughter was a teenager and she was really into the band 21 Pilots and so she asked me to take her to a 21 Pilots concert or rather I inserted myself come on dads I said all right you can go but I'm taking you right so we go to this 21 Pilots concert and this was back they had this hit song called stressed out and so they're singing this song and the lyrics are all about like when you were a kid and life was fun and everything was great and then you grow up and it's crazy it's stressful and at one point it says used to dream of outer space but now they're laughing in our face saying and the whole crowd like like thousands of people start yelling back wake up you have to make money and you know then the lyrics go on like we wish we could turn back time to the good old days when our mama sang to us to sleep but now we're all stressed out and I remember this being in that arena and everybody yelling up you know wake up you have to make money and this is kind of how life feels isn't it when you're a kid you don't worry about money you don't worry about stuff it all just sort of flows everything's fine then you get a little older and man money becomes necessary then you get a little older and money becomes stressful and it's one of the number one things we stress about in our lives they asked people recently what are the most stressful things in your life and I'm going to show you a list of their answers number one was money yep number two was work which when you think about it that's how you make money number three was the economy which is what everybody else does with their money number four was rising prices which was where all your extra money goes then number five was AI which is the fear of AI taking over all of our jobs and how we make money then relationships these are the people you spend all your money on and the people you fight with about money and then health which is not helped by all the

stress about money right like stress in our life so much of it does go back to finances to money to things and really I think to a bigger question which is where do we find our security where do you find your security in life we every year at Central we typically in January or February will take three or four weekends and we will stop and do kind of a financial series this year I'm doing something a little different this year I just want to look at what Jesus said about money I just want to try to clear off the deck and just go back to what Jesus said and here's why I think that's so important because as a follower of Jesus I believe Jesus was the greatest teacher to ever live like full stop I think he was the greatest teacher to ever live and I want to know more about what Jesus says about money than what somebody else says or even what a pastor says or even podcaster or youtuber or a social media influencer more than anything I want to know what Jesus said about money and so we're trying to just clear the deck and go back and look at Jesus teaching about stuff and money and here's the thing about money in Jesus it's not super practical Jesus doesn't give you five steps to get out of debt Dave Ramsey can do that Jesus doesn't really doesn't really do that like when you look at Jesus teaching it's more about your heart it's more about your relationship with stuff it's more about treasuring the things that ultimately are most important and one of the things he teaches us when you begin to peel it back and today we're gonna look at this particularly is you're only gonna really find security in a relationship with God I would put it this way only a rich relationship with God will give you lasting security all the money in the world can't do that all the stuff in the world all the square feet under roof in the world it can't do that but a relationship with God that is rich can give you that lasting sense of security so let me just kind of overview where we were where we are last week we talked about the treasure principle and Jesus says wherever your treasure is there your heart will be also that's the treasure principle we'll bring it up here on the TV and you know we looked at this last week Jesus says basically we need to treasure the things that matter

most he says don't store up all your treasures here on earth where moth and rust destroy you know all of it ultimately ends up in a landfill anyway he's saying treasure things that are more significant that matter more treasure God above all else in your life store up your treasures in heaven This week we're gonna look at the security principle and I've already shared it with you. Only a rich relationship with God will give you lasting security. Let me give you a little commercial. Next week we're gonna talk about the faithfulness principle, which is if you're faithful with little, you can be trusted with more. This comes out several times in Jesus' teaching on money. And then week four we're gonna talk about the generosity principle that with your life, your stuff, you can't really outgive God. He's the giver of all blessings and as you pass them on and use them to benefit others, God can bless you even more. And so this is what we're looking at, but today I wanna lean in on the security principle here. And to do it, I wanna go to Luke chapter 12, where Jesus is walking along and this guy interrupts him and he begins to have a conversation about money and stuff. Luke chapter 12, verse 13. Help me out when we get to the red word here. It says, then someone called from the crowd, teacher, please tell my brother to divide our father's estate with me.

And Jesus replied, friend, now that word is translated there, friend, but in the original language, it's not really the word for friend. It's more like a distancing kind of word. It's like, hey man, hey man, who made me a judge over you to decide such things as that? And then he said, beware, what? Guard against every kind of greed. Life is not measured by how much you own. Last week, I told you that I thought we were looking at one of Jesus' most profound statements about money and stuff when he said, where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Can I tell you that we just read what I think is one of Jesus' other most profound statements about money and stuff when he says, your life is not measured by how much you own. Your life is not measured by how much you own. Let me say it one more time for the people in the back. Life's not measured by what you own. It's not measured by the size of your bank account. It's not measured by the square footage of your house. It's not measured by how much stuff you have or whether you got a Louis Vuitton bag or whether you're working in closets that's the size of two rooms. Like, whether you have all that stuff or not, fine, great. That is not the estimation of your value. Life cannot be measured just by what you own

or what you don't own. And in our culture, I feel like this is a message we really can't say enough. And so Jesus is gonna challenge us to find our security, not in stuff, but in God. And he says here to this guy, he says, hey man, like, it's not really a friendly term. Jesus usually says, calls people friend or child, but this guy's like, I don't know, it feels like he's kind of rubbed them the wrong way, right from the beginning, right? He comes up and he's like, hey, tell my brother to basically divide up the inheritance and give me my share. So typically people will come up to teachers or religious leaders and ask their advice or their input, but he doesn't do any of that. He wants a judgment from Jesus. Like, tell my brother to fork it over. And Jesus is like, hey bro, like, what makes me the judge in all of this between you guys? And it's like, Jesus is saying this, you don't really have an inheritance problem here. You don't even really have a money problem. You have a heart problem. You have a heart problem. And then he says, beware. Guard against all kinds of greed. That idea of guard means to put a sentry at the gate and to guard and protect as an active measure against the ways greed can creep into our life

and help us lose focus. And one of the number one things greed does is it causes us to trust money for things that only God can do. Only God can really give you security about the future. Only God knows what the economy's gonna do. Only God will be there no matter what the stock market does. Only God will be there as we follow him in faith. So we trust him for our security in our lives. So how do we maximize this sense of spiritual security? Well, the first principle from Jesus, just guard against greed. I read this story this week of a guy in Chile who worked for a cold cuts factory and they deposited his check and they made an accounting error. True story, you can look this up. They paid this guy 286 times more than his paycheck should have been. And he got paid monthly. So this was like 23 years worth of salary. Cha-ching. And when they realized their accounting error, they tried to call the guy, but when they realized, you know what the guy ultimately did? Boom, he vanished. He's like, I'm out, bro. And he went on the run. And there were some funny comments after this news article, but this one meme, it just made me laugh.

I had to share it with you. Somebody put this meme up and it said, Jesus. I see what you've done for other people, and I want that for me. Can I just tell you, going on the run after an accounting error is not a good move in your life. This is not going to end well for this guy, right? But Jesus is going to tell a story about a guy that kind of hits it big and has a bumper crop and all of a sudden has all this wealth. Look at this. Luke chapter 12, very next sentence, he says, guard your heart against all kinds of greed. Then he tells this story, which Jesus often did. Then he told him a story. A rich man had a fertile farm that produced fine crops, okay? He said to himself, I want you to notice that because that would have been kind of interesting to these original hearers. They would have heard, you know, he had fine crops, it was great, he was rich, awesome. But then it says he said to himself, which in a Middle Eastern culture would have stood out because you didn't decide things by yourself. You decided things around a table with friends and family. Even the smallest things got hashed out and talked about and discussed. So they would have noticed, like, this is kind of weird, he's talking to himself, right? He said to himself, like, what should I do? I don't have room for all my crops. And then he said, I know, I'll tear down my barns and build bigger ones. Then I'll have more, then I'll have room enough to store all my wheat and other goods. And I'll sit back and say to myself, my friend, you have enough stored away for years to come. What? Now take it easy, eat, drink, and be merry. Now take it easy in your life. Now you finally have enough. And so Jesus is going to call out several things here. One is in this guy's story, which by the way is not going to end well for him. If you don't already know this story, you know this is not going to end well for this guy. This guy, he makes sort of no concession for God

anywhere in the story. He's not concerned about anybody but himself. He talks about himself about a dozen times in this story. Me, myself, and I. Me, myself, and I. Me, myself, and I, right? It's all about his relationship with himself. He doesn't have friends. He doesn't have community. He doesn't have family. There's nobody for him to talk to. This would have like stuck out in the original hearer's mind of like, that's kind of weird. The dude just is alone. He's really lonely. And he's trying to get to this place of enough. Where is that place where you finally have enough? Is it when you have a million dollars saved up? Is it when you have a half million dollars saved up? Is it when you have five million saved up? I saw this show of entrepreneurs and, you know, people with $10 million are on this show and they're all saying, that's not enough. You know, it's not enough. Like, when do you get to enough? And he says, well, this now, I'll finally have enough. But here's the thing. Greed creeps into our heart in so many different ways and corrupts our ability to really rest, corrupts our ability to really be secure in God and in what he's provided for us in our lives. Now, is it wrong to desire things? Absolutely not. Is it wrong to work hard and save money and have goals? No, absolutely not. You should do that. But Jesus is challenging us. Here's a way to think about greed. Greed is what happens when you look to money to do things that only God can do. Greed is what happens when you look to money to do things that only God can do in our life.

So he challenges us, beware, be careful, guard your heart. Here's the thing about greed. We can see greed in everybody else, but we rarely see greed in ourselves. Like, we can easily sit back today and talk about all the greedy people, right? The greedy corporations, the corrupt politicians, even the corrupt pastors and religious leaders. We could go down a list of all the different people and how greed has destroyed them, right? Corrupted them. We see it all around us. You look on your Instagram, you know who your greedy friends are, come on. All those living better than you, right? Whatever it is. But can I tell you, in 30 years as a pastor, I've never once had somebody pull me aside and say, hey, Judd, man, I just wanna confess to you, I've got a problem with greed. Never once. And let me just tell you something. I've had people confess just about everything under the sun to me, right? But I've never had somebody tell me, I have a problem with greed. This is the thing that we see in everybody else, but we don't see in ourselves, right? And I don't say this as a judgment to you. I say it over my own life as well. I have to check my heart.

Just because I don't think I have a problem with greed, doesn't mean I don't have a problem with it, right? That's why Jesus is saying, beware, guard your heart. Do you know Jesus talked more about greed than he did about sex? Like this is one of those things that creeps in and lives in our hearts. We don't recognize it can do a lot of damage. So how do we deal with greed? Let me just talk to you as a fellow struggler, okay? I started just thinking about what are some things that I try to do and that I can do to help push back on this in my own life? And here's three different thoughts on how we can beware of greed in our life. The first is simply to seek contentment, to seek contentment. The Apostle Paul says, I have learned to be content in any and every circumstance, whether with plenty or with little. It's something he learned. And I think life is the school where we're always learning contentment, right? You can be content and still strive for more. You can be content and still pray for more. You can be content and work for more. But that contentment is gratitude to God for what he's already given you and a recognition that God ultimately is enough in our lives. Seek contentment in God.

Here's another thought, and that is get perspective. Get perspective. We always, when it comes to greed, we always wanna compare it to people that have more than we do, and then we strive to catch up. But a lot of times we need to stop and look at people who are struggling and wrestling with less than we have and keep perspective on all that God has given us. One of the most powerful ways that you can do that is to basically go out, and I think we had those in the wrong order, basically go out and serve in our food line. Go serve in our Hope for the City food line. Go get out there and put some food in the back of a car, when I do that, what it does for me is it gives me a joy that money can't buy. It allows me to just participate and do something for somebody else. It reminds me that I may have my own struggles, but a lot of people are struggling even at a more difficult level, and it gives me perspective. And then the other thing that I try to do is practice generosity. I shared with you, we can drop that slide. I shared with you last week that I started practicing generosity as a young follower of Jesus,

began tithing, giving back to God. You can check that message out if you want, when I hear me kind of talk about that journey and what it looked like. And I began that process, and I've continued to do that through my entire adult life. And here's the thing about generosity, financial generosity, it pushes back on greed in my heart. It reminds me that God has everything, that God has blessed me, and that I'm here to be a blessing to other people, right? It could be financial, it could be time, it could be talent. It should be all of that in our lives. Generosity flows through us. We've been blessed to be a blessing to others, and it can make a difference in the life of somebody else. But the biggest difference it makes is in my own heart and in my own life. And I try to do this with my kids. Those of you that are parents, like when my kids were too little to really earn money, I would give them money and tell them to give this at church, at the offering. I wanted them to learn from a young age, like be generous, give back to others. As they got older, I'd be like, hey, are you giving back from your allowance money and all of that? And they would give me this the stink eye,

like, mm, you know? But it was so good for them to learn, even as kids, to be generous and to give back. And it's good for all of us. It reminds us that there are more important things in our lives than just accumulating and having stuff in our lives. So generosity is a way that we push back on greed. Now, let me do a little commercial. This is my moment to do a commercial as your pastor at Central, because there's a lot of ways you can be generous. And there's a lot of, you can support people, help people, help your neighbor, help family members. There's a lot of ways you can be generous. I wanna do a commercial for why I think it's important to be generous to your local church. If you're here today and you aren't a part of Central, you're a part of another local church, then my commercial is for them. You should be generous to that local church. And if you're here today and you love Central and this is your church home, you should be generous to this local church. And being generous to your local church does several different things. One thing, it ties you more into the mission and the vision of the church. Generosity fuels the mission. Our mission is to introduce people to Jesus,

to help them come to know Him. And as we said, where your treasure is last week, there your heart will be also. So I wanna encourage you to lean in and allow God to grow you in your life when you give to the local church. If this is your church, if you love what God is doing through this church community, if you look around like I do and you celebrate all the ways we're able to be generous with our community, whether it's distributing 3 million pounds of food last year or working in many different prison facilities or the amazing work in our ministries with families and individuals, our 24-7 care and prayer that we offer to thousands of individuals throughout the year or the amazing Celebrate Recovery. Ministry that helps people deal with hurts and habits and hang-ups or whether it's high school ministry our kids ministry Can I just let me just this is my commercial? Okay, just give me a minute Let me just tell you there is nothing like the church. There's nothing like it Where else do you go and serve people like this? Where else do people come together and give and contribute and pull on the same rope like this? Where else do we come together? No matter our background. No matter our race. No matter our Ethnic framework where else do we come together at the foot of the cross and we're unified because Jesus did it Gave his life for us He doesn't see you as black or white or brown or what he sees you as his child Fully made in the image of God. That's the church. It's a beautiful sacred thing Look, look I mean New England fans and Seattle fans can all come together at the foot of the cross and Especially those of us who could care less about either one of these teams and what happens to them in the Super Bowl

It's hard when you want both teams to lose what do you do with that? But we come together in This special community called the church. I love it. I've given my whole life to it. I love you I love what we get to do and I just want to say to you man If this is your place and you love it as God blesses you bless the house so that it can bless others bless your church And in that spirit, I just want to celebrate last weekend 72 new individuals or families took a step to give back to their local church community 41 individuals or families chose to increase their giving as an act of trust in God Let's put our hands together for that because that's amazing We as a church are able to move at the speed of our generosity We're able to move at the speed of our generosity The more resources we have the more we're able to do the more people were able to help the more we're able to introduce People to Jesus and help them follow him. So that's my commercial support your local church, but whatever you do Whatever you do if you've never taken a step in this I would just go back to what I said last week Make a commitment to give something to give it regularly and to grow Just to give something give it regularly and to grow whether it's prayer Bible study Serving any spiritual discipline if you do it and you do it regularly You will grow and you'll push back against greed Now here's a second thought from Jesus teaching today and that is to be rich in God to be rich in God Everybody wants to tell you how to get rich quick. I'm about to tell you To be rich in God. You're already rich and when you recognize it, it can transform your life Jesus is gonna finish this story in kind of an unexpected way. Check it out Luke chapter 12 He says but God said to him. This is the this guy that had the bumper crop and he's like, man I'm gonna build bigger barns. I'm gonna store everything away. I'll be I'll eat drink and be merry He says but God said to him you fool You will die this very night. Hello Then you will get everything then who will get everything you worked for Yes, he says a person is a fool. Here's the point a person is a fool to store up earthly wealth But not have a what rich relationship with God I

Don't think he's saying you can't have any earthly wealth I think he's saying what matters more than earthly wealth a rich relationship with God That's the point that God can work powerfully in our lives as we trust him and as we follow him and we need to have a rich Relationship with him. In fact when you think about it like God has already Given us so many of the things that we long for that We pray for that we often trust money to do for us. For example God's richly provided for us. He's given us love We long for love and Romans chapter 5 verse 5 states the love of God has been poured out within our hearts Through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us already. It's already been poured out Look we did we want peace Jesus says in John 14 27 my peace I give you right and My peace I leave you we search for joy and happiness and Jesus says in John 15 11 these things I have spoken to you that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be made full We need strength and endurance Paul says in Romans 4 13 that we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us We need power and the Bible says in second Peter 1 3 that God's divine power has granted us Everything pertaining to life and godliness through the true knowledge of him who has called us by his own glory and excellence It's not that God will give us everything that we need but that he's already given us Everything pertaining to life and godliness the Bible says in Ephesians 1 God has already blessed us in the spiritual realm with every Spiritual blessing and that means we are already rich in God and we can be rich towards others in our life Elon Musk is a pretty You know firestone figure he is the richest person in the world by Hundreds of millions of dollars and some think that by the end of this decade he will be the first trillionaire in the world This week. This is something he tweeted that somebody sent me Whoever said money can't buy happiness Really knew what they were talking about

That's the richest man in the world Because let me tell you something Money can't buy you love money can't buy you security money can't buy you peace Money can't buy you the things that we want the most but God can richly provide those things When we put him first and have a rich relationship with him Only a rich relationship with God is going to give you that lasting security that you really want Money can't do that. Only God can do that When I think about having a rich relationship with God as I was thinking about this message, I just I just went back to my father So my father was like a master sergeant in the army. He fought in World War two He when he got out he was a small business owner and kind of operated Will Heights refrigeration are kind of a small business his whole life and I just started thinking about my dad because my dad modeled for me what it looked like to have a rich relationship with God I Can remember every week we had to go to church in our family like it wasn't an option You know, you didn't get to tap out He dragged me out to the car if he had to and he was a master sergeant in the army So he was that kind of guy But we went to church, right? Every week he hosted in our home a Bible study So like I don't know 15 20 30 people come our house was always slammed on like whatever night It was during the week they would do this Bible study kind of drove me crazy because I was just trying to get through there get to my room and Not be bothered. Come on somebody that was me back then He served people like our neighbor her husband died and he never said this to me I just watched him do it and I heard later that he never even told her he was gonna do it But he just would mow our lawn and then immediately go next door and mow her lawn never said anything about it. Just did it And he did that for her for years and years and years a Couple years ago. I was back home and I went to this ministry building for this ministry that

Packaged Bibles for inmates and sent them encouraging notes And as I was walking in this older lady who had known my father before he passed She said Judd. Did you know your dad built that ramp? And I said, well, I didn't you know, it was a ramp leading up to the door She goes. Yeah, your mom and dad used to serve here. They used to pack Bibles they would write encouraging notes to people and Then there were some volunteers that were in wheelchairs that wanted to come up and this was something they could actually do just with their hands And your dad built that ramp so that they could get up the ramp and go in and serve and do their volunteer work. I Started thinking about like when I was growing up every Sunday. I don't know if he did this on purpose I don't know if if he knew I was watching But my dad would get his checkbook out He would sit at the kitchen table our little kitchen table and he would write a check and he would never say anything about it Every now and then he would say to me he would say hey giving is how we worship God It's how we honor God in our lives And he would do that every week and that was his worship back to God But I think about my dad because When it came to his final days I Got the call, you know, you got to go you got to come home. It's not looking good for dad He's in the hospital So I go in and they tell me like hey, you know You need to go say your goodbyes at one point like I don't know that he's gonna make it much longer and many of you have had this experience with loved ones or parents and I go in and You know, I dropped down on my knee. I put my hand on on his hand. I tell him how much I love him I thank him for being the dad that he was. I apologize for the 5,000th time for being the punk that I was For too many years, you know, some of you don't you know what I'm talking about because that was you right? And I had this moment with my dad where he had been unconscious and really in and out of Consciousness and all of a sudden and my siblings are really angry with me for this. I say this lovingly He has a conscious moment and he looks up at me and my sister and I are there and he says, um, you're good kids I love you

I'm going for a walk in the sunshine I'll see you on the other side And that was like my last conscious moment with my dad But when I think about him in that moment It didn't matter the size of our house Didn't matter how much stuff we had It didn't matter the size of his bank account in that moment man It's all about loving God and loving those people around you and at his funeral after he passed For an 87 year old man. There were hundreds of people there. It's rare for a man that old With all those people there I heard stories and stories and stories of people of what my dad Meant to them and when I was working on this message I thought you know I feel so blessed because I have seen what it looks like to have a rich relationship with God. I've seen it You know And maybe you didn't see it but can I just tell you I Want to be that model for you And for my own family what it means to have a rich relationship with God, right? Because that's what's gonna last that's really what matters in The end man all the stuff and all the things all that's gonna fill up landfills and be left over for the next generation But what really matters is your love for God and your love for others? If that's what matters at the end, it ought to be what matters to us now So Jesus says hey, don't get it wrong Only God's gonna really give you security watch out for greed in your life And then be rich in your relationship with God realize what he's already given you That will give you a peace and a security and a joy that all the things of this world can't give you Maybe you're here today. Maybe you've never crossed that line of faith I want to give you that opportunity to reach out to God To trust him to ask him to move and work in your life to place your faith and your trust in Jesus because he wants

a rich relationship with you So would all of you bow your heads and close your eyes If you'd like to become a follower of Jesus, you can begin that journey by it's repeating a simple prayer after me And say dear God, I thank you for loving me Thank you for sending Jesus into the world. I Believe he died on the cross for my sins I believe he rose again Forgive me for my sins Give me the gift of eternal life And help me face the challenges I'm up against God I surrender my life to you In Christ's name Friends with every head bowed and every eye closed if that's your prayer today If it's your commitment want to ask you to just slip your hand in the air Whatever location you may be at if you're watching online If you're in a prison facility in our partnership with God behind bars, just slip your hand in the air acknowledge You're gonna trust him. You're gonna follow him. You're gonna put him first in your life today. Reach out to him God we thank you for each person reaching out to you. We thank you for those trusting you today I pray you fill their life with your goodness your love your joy May they know that in you through Christ They can be forgiven and free and walk with your spirit moving and working in their life and have purpose and meaning every day God may you give us all peace as we trust you and as we follow you We thank you for who you are. We give you praise today in Christ's name