Anti-Fragile: Stronger Faith for Hard Times
- Levi Lusko
- Apr 27, 2020
- 27 min read
Fresh Life Church | Becoming Antifragile | Pastor Levi Lusko | Not Quickly Broken, pt. 4
Grab your Bibles if you brought one or if you have an app that can get you on to God's word. And we're going to
be this week beginning in Ecclesiastes Chapter 4. There is no shame if you have to use the table of contents to
get to the book of Ecclesiastes. That's in the Old Testament.
And I'm giving this message this weekend the title "Becoming Anti-fragile." I want to talk to you about how to
become anti-fragile. Ecclesiastes 4, verse 12, says this, "Though one may be overpowered by another, two can
withstand him. And a threefold cord is-- say it with me-- not quickly broken," which, of course, is what we've taken
as the title for this collection of messages.
The devil would have you to be quickly broken, easily broken. The devil would, if he can't talk you out of having
faith, wants you to have a fragile faith, a weak faith, a fickle faith, a fair weather faith, the kind of faith that would
have you rushing out to the store to buy a 49ers jersey, right? You're all of a sudden just gung-ho.
Oh, I've always been-- I've always been a big Chiefs fan, right? It's like wait, weren't you a big Packers fan last
week? No. Is that a Green Bay Packers tattoo on your arm? No, no. Bit 49ers fan. Always loved that Jerry Rice,
right? It's like, hmm. He hasn't played for a while. But they're winning. So got to jump on that bandwagon.
And the enemy would love for you to be the kind of a follower of Jesus, the kind of a Christian, that is only in it for
what you can get out of it. And so long as God's blessing you, great, I'm on team Jesus, y'all, right? But the
moment it gets tough, the moment it gets difficult, the moment there is any pushback, or difficulty, or opposition,
then it's like, for real? I follow you, and this is how you treat me?
The enemy would love for you to wake up every day and basically give God a trial, a hearing. All right, this is a trial
to see if you get to continue to be my God. What have you done for me lately? That would be what the enemy
would love.
And he nags at us. He just-- he digs in with these little lies, like if God loved you, would he really let you suffer?
How can there be a God when you face this kind of hard-- you're right, you say. There must not be-- and we throw
up our hands and go, I guess there must not be a God, or if there is a God, he must not be loving. Or if he is
loving, he must not be all powerful. And we walk away.
And Satan's like, yes. Because his agenda would be for you to be fragile, fickle, fair weather, in your faith. God
want you to have a faith that's rooted and grounded, a faith that's established, a faith that's robust, a faith that's
mature, a faith that's, to put it succinctly, is not quickly broken.
Nassim Taleb wrote a book. And he called it Antifragile. I came across it and just loved it. I was like, I just need to
know everything about this. And to be completely honest with you, he's a lot smarter than I will ever be. And so
much of the book, I didn't understand. But what I did take away, as he talked about economics and things that are
way above my pay grade, was this concept of fragility on one end, anti-fragility on the other end, and something
that's robust in the middle.
He explains it this way. If you're fragile and life hits you hard, you break. If you're resilient and life hits you hard,
you withstand more and then you eventually break. Being antifragile, on the other hand, means when life hits you
hard, you actually get stronger. A wind extinguishes a candle but fuels a fire.
When you're antifragile, y'all, you know that a crisis is a terrible thing to waste. So you're not throwing up your
hands and walking out on God, assuming he isn't there or doesn't care. On the other opposite end of that
spectrum, you're not just surviving through it. You're, on the other hand, getting something out of it, growing better
in the midst of it-- antifragile.
He can huff and he can puff all he wants. He ain't blowing this house down. He's turning my bonfire into a forest
fire, my faith into a raging inferno of dedication. The more he tries to blow me down, the more I turn that into fuel.
Y'all, I'm using the opposition I'm getting. I'm popping it into my mouth as though it were a power bar or a Larabar,
the Daniel diet approved snack. I'm turning it into a carrot stick and a bell pepper with some hummus on it in
Jesus' name. And I just want a Diet Coke. That's all I want. I know they're bad for me.
I love this idea because I think sometimes we settle for far less than God wants for us, or we just hope to survive.
We just sort of accept that hanging in there is enough. Like, well, I haven't been destroyed. I'm not an atheist.
That's, I guess, a starting place every time I say that.
I do want to say if you're here and you are an atheist or you would identify as agnostic, thanks for being here.
We're not ostracizing you with that language or in any way trying to infer or insinuate that we're better than you.
But to say that we as Jesus' followers, when we go through hardship, are simply surviving, I think is much less
than what God has for you.
For he doesn't want you to simply survive. He really does want you to thrive. He doesn't want you to be fragile,
hanging on by a thread, just one bad day away from failure, because that's not strength. That's not power.
The Greek playwright in the year 400 BC, Euripides, put it this way. He says, "How can you call yourself a great
man, or think yourself a great man, when the first accident that comes along can wipe you out completely." God
doesn't want you to be fragile. He wants you to be antifragile.
He wants you to not just be robust but to actually be able to get hit and become better, to become stronger,
experience more glory, more power, to be like Joseph, get put in the pit but come out as the prime minister,
believe in God, the whole way through, never compromising. You can sell me as a slave. You can lie about me.
You can forget about me.
I'm going to still trust God, still love people, still do my best, still have a sweet spirit, still hanging onto the dream,
never get jaded, never think that I stand as God's judge. But far from it, the other way around, the classic example
of something that's antifragile, of course, would be the mythical hydra. You cut one of its heads off. What does it
do? It grows two in response. It just gets better, just gets bigger.
I found a more contemporary example, one I came across a while back, a story of a football coach who was
meeting with the recruiter who was going to be going around the country, going to different schools and events,
and looking at candidates they had come across. And the coach was just kind of going over it with him, who he
wanted him to be focusing in on, you know, what he wanted to round out the team.
And the coach said to the recruiter, you know the kind of player who gets hit and gets knocked down on the
football field and doesn't get up? Once they're knocked down, it's like, I'm out. [INAUDIBLE] ice bath, right? He
goes, yeah, yeah. I know. He goes, I don't want-- I don't want a player like that. He goes, got it. Got it. You don't
want a player who gets knocked down and can't get back up.
And the coach continued and said, well, you know the player who gets knocked down, gets back up. But if they get
hit again, then they're down. They're down for the count. He goes, yeah. I know that. He goes, you don't want that
kind of player either, do you? He goes, no.
The coach continued and said, well, you know the kind of player who gets knocked down and can get back up,
and then they can get knocked, they can smash mouth it, they can get back up again? And they can get knocked
down another time, and they'll still get back up.
And the recruiter stopped him. He cut him off. He said, I get it. I understand. You want the kind of player who no
matter how many times they get knocked down, blood, sweat, tears, they'll get back up. And the coach said, no. I
want you to find me whoever this guy is who's knocking everybody down. That's what he said.
Come on, that's what God wants for you. He wants you to not only survive the hits that you take. He wants you to
make some damage on the enemy's territory. He doesn't want you just to hold your ground. He wants you to take
some ground.
And I think so often, we just are in this defensive mode, where we're down-- I'm just coping. I'm just hanging in
there. But God wants you to actually go start knocking some stuff down in Jesus' name. And when you get hit, to
grow in the midst of it and to become more powerful as a result of it.
I see this in Paul's life, Paul the Apostle, who wrote to the Romans. And he said, in chapter 8, that I'm persuaded
that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities-- you know this passage-- nor things present, nor even
things to come. These are the things that we either worry about or obsess over-- anxieties because of what's to
come, guilt, and fear, and shame over what's in the past. Nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall
be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Is that not resilience? None of
those things can take us out-- resilience.
But he didn't stop there. He also, in verse 28, said, "And we know that all things-- what things? Height, depth,
angels, demons, fears, insecurity, shames, all the stuff that comes at us-- life, death, all that stuff-- all things work
together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. You see, we're not
just going to be resilient. We're going to become antifragile so that the roaring wind actually increases the power
of our flame.
He said the same thing to the Corinthian church when in 2 Corinthians chapter 4 he talked about verse 8 and 9
how we're hard-pressed. We don't get crushed. We're perplexed because, man, crazy crap happens. But we're
not in despair. We're persecuted. But we're not forsaken, struck down. We're not destroyed.
What is he describing? He's describing resilience. And listen, you can't get to antifragility without resilience. So
there has to be that. That's a crucial step. You, of course, can't be wiped out by the enemy who seeks to come
against you, to lie to you, to steal from you, to essentially murder you. All of those things have to be in place with
resilience.
But Paul didn't stop there. He continued in verse 17. Our light affliction, all that hard stuff, which is just for a
moment, when you compare it to eternity, is actually working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of
glory. Not only are we able to be pushed on every side but not crushed, knocked down but not destroyed, to be
perplexed, but to not be in despair.
But every one of those hard things, every one of those dark days, every one of those brutal acts actually serves to
help us understand more of God. I am more of a weight of glory. I actually am better because of it. I would never
have picked to go through it. But because God allowed it, I faced it with worship, I faced it with perspective.
And on the other side of it, I'm actually better. I'm actually fitter. I'm actually faster. I actually know more of God's
grace. He has revealed himself to me in the midst of the fiery trial. This is how we can do what James said that
seemed so bizarre when he said it.
My brethren, count it all joy when you fall in the various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces
patience. Wait. What? My brethren, count it all joy when your life falls to pieces.
Now, that doesn't make sense unless you know that the testing of your faith produces patience and all of these
great things that cascade out as a result of having patience. The point is, when trials come, our nature would be to
go, that's terrible. Hate that. Where are you, God? Ah!
And instead, we're to go, I can't get stronger without weight being stacked on it. I can't build up muscle without my
muscle being torn down. If God allowed it, I'll praise Him in the midst of it. He's got a plan, and I'll be better on the
back end of it.
So where Job's wife said, when his life fell to pieces, curse God and die, He clearly has abandoned you, he
instead bowed his knee and said, you give and you take away, but blessed be the name of the Lord. Though you
slay me, I will follow you. I will trust you all the way to the end.
If you allowed it, I don't know why, you got a plan in the midst of it. So I'm going to trust you. I'm going to follow
you. I'm going to worship you.
Come on, I want to be the kind of Christian in 2020 that no matter what God allows my way, I'm going to worship,
even when it confuses me, confounds me, even when it runs contrary to what I think God's character should be
like. I'm going to trust that He's doing a good job running the universe and that when I get to heaven, I'm going to
say, you did all things well. Yeah, I wouldn't have changed a thing. Wouldn't have changed one thing.
Because you are God in heaven. I'm here on Earth. What do I know? What do I know? You have perspective. And
you have a proven track record of bringing goodness out of bad things. You're like, what do you mean? I mean
the cross. The cross is where Jesus' life ended so ours could begin.
And if he, on that bad day, could bring about the salvation of my soul, the forgiveness of my sin, and do the same
for you through the death of His son, He would bring many sons and daughters to glory, then how can I face any
bad thing in my life and not quickly assume God's going to bring good out of this? He's got a plan. He's going to
bring good out of my bad. So when I face bad, I have a robust theology of suffering.
It's not just, well, God is good. God is good all the time. All the time, God is good. All right, where's the goodness?
Where's the jelly beans and Skittles?
And then I do believe in a God of favor. I do believe in a God who wants to bless us. But when we face difficulty as
we follow Him, we're not quick to assume He must not be good. We're going to assume He wants to bring good
out of what's bad presently and that He is doing it right now.
So what does this look like, becoming antifragile? Well, it looks a whole lot like developing a root system. A root
system. Things that don't have root get scorched by the sun. And that, according to Jesus' parable of the sower
and the seeds, is one of the outcomes the devil would love to see in your life.
He loves emotional commitments that are not followed by an understanding of God's character and the depth of
what He is doing that would lead to a mature trust in him, a faith that's not skittish, a faith that's not always feeling
like I need to bolt or I need to run, a faith that learns to have the relaxed confidence that comes when you know
God's in charge and He's doing a really good job running the universe.
And when you have that confidence that comes from the cross, the scripture says, how would we think that God,
who did not hold back His son but freely gave His son to us, would not then freely give us all things? There is
nothing more precious in the universe than Jesus.
Come on, Mom. Come on, Dad. Your son, your son. He gave his son for you and for me. If He gave His son, then
anything else we face is of less value than the son. So we can trust him in that.
So when we have that kind of a faith, we don't have to be uptight as we follow him. We don't have to be fear
based as we follow him. We get to just be like, yeah, Dad. You got this. Hey, Father, you know best. So like, if
you're not worried, I'm not worried. Look at him. He seems all right. All right, we're good.
We're good? Jesus is like, yeah, I'm still King. I still reign. Like, the psalms says he sat at the flood. That's the
worst time on this Earth. But he was seated. He never stood up. It wasn't like, oh, no. If he's good, I'm good, and
we're good.
So what is becoming antifragile like? It's putting roots down into God's character, roots down into his revelation,
roots down into who he is, roots down into the essence of Christ. That's foundational. Jesus put it this way in
Matthew chapter 7. This was a story of two families. And they both built houses.
Verse 24, "Everyone who hears my teaching and applies it to his life can be compared to a wise man who built his
house on an unshakable foundation. When the rain fell and the flood came, with fierce winds beating on his
house, it stood firm because of its strong foundation. But everyone who hears my teaching and does not apply it
to his life can be compared to a foolish man who built his house on sand. When it rained and rained and the flood
came, with wind and waves beating upon his house, it collapsed and was swept away."
These two families, both living in beautiful houses. And from the outside, you wouldn't know the difference
between them. And they both had the Chip and Joanna Gaines chip lap everywhere. It was just, oh, what is this,
Magnolia? This is great. Best thing I've ever seen in my life.
And yet the foundation that you couldn't see, because this, by the way, was spoken in the area surrounding the
Sea of Galilee. And in the reading I've done, I've uncovered something interesting about the sand around the Sea
of Galilee, that during times of drought, it would harden and almost look like rock. So if you were new to the area,
you could be foolish enough and deceived enough into thinking this was rock, because it was hard hardened
sand.
So you might build a house there that would look beautiful until moisture came, until rain cycles came. And as
water returned, this erosion took place. And all of a sudden, it was revealed, you were not on rock. You were built
on something flimsy. You were built on something that couldn't hold the weight of your life.
And so now the fall and now the crash. And now that the tide has gone out, we find out who is swimming with no
bathing suit, as Warren Buffett once put it. To think about all of a sudden, now this house collapsing and the
devastation of it.
That contrasted to the man and his family who had the same beautiful home but built on the rock. And the winds
came, and the rain came. But they were strong and robust and made it through it. That's what God wants for us,
to have a root system, to have strength to us, that we were not knocked over easily. And that comes only from
following Christ, not just hearing his word.
Both men, Jesus said, that were likened unto these families heard God's word. The man whose house fell over
heard the word, i.e. went to church, i.e. knew some verses, i.e. was a casual, cultural follower. I love God. But He
said this man heard the teaching and didn't apply it, didn't do anything about it.
The power is never in the hearing. The power always is in the doing. It's not just knowing, it's applying. You can't
just know about God. You got to know God. It's got to affect your heart. It's got to leak into your life and bleed and
spill over into the essence of your soul. That's a root system that can bring you through the worst life can throw at
you.
And not only are you not crushed, you become better in the midst of it because God shows you things in the fire
that you wouldn't have been able to discover any other way. Because he is near to those who are broken-hearted.
He comes close.
And that's why in this-- every time I've ever said it, it almost sounds insensitive, especially if you're going through
something. But hear this from someone who's gone through hardship and has experienced this firsthand. It is an
incredible honor to be trusted with pain.
And as I think about the hard days my family's walked through and all that, and all that God has revealed to us,
and the ways he's been near to us and proven his nearness to us in the midst of those hard days, I would want
everything God did in our hearts through that.
If I could have it any other way, I would want those things. But I know that there is no way to know what God has
shown to us, the grace he's given to us in the midst of our worst nightmares, except by walking through those
things and seeing God right there with us every single step of the way.
All right, so root system. How do you get a root system? Well, you've got to put some key measures into place in
your life. I'm just going to give you a couple with the time that remains. I actually wrote out a list of, like, 15, 15
ways to unlock. Maybe there should be a whole series on the system. I don't know if that will ever happen.
But let me give you a couple of ways to make sure you have a good root system in your life. Jot this down. Buddy
system. You can build your root system by improving your buddy system and utilizing the buddy system.
Remember field trips? Teacher can't keep track of 80 of you. It's like, who's your buddy? Your buddy is this
person over here. All right, you keep track of each other. All right, everyone got their buddy? Who doesn't have
their buddy? Billy. Right? Billy's like, I don't know. Johnny was here a minute ago. Now he's gone.
But someone to report to the teacher. Billy was gone. You need Johnny to be able to speak up for Billy. Otherwise,
Billy's gone, but no one's looking for him. Because she's doing this headcount. And we know how that went in
Home Alone, you know. It's like the next door neighbor was undoing the yo-yo. And it messed everything up, you
know?
And so we need to rely on the buddy system. God wants your life to have the benefit of other people looking for
you. More eyes on your soul than just your own. Ever since Jesus rose-- this is heavy-- ever since he rose, his
followers have known we come together in large groups for corporate worship, and the power of the congregation,
and the I'm not alone factor.
Sometimes you can feel alone at work or at school following Jesus. And you come together with other people. Oh,
there's other people that love Jesus too. That's cool. And he's uniquely present in the midst of a gathering like this
in a way that-- you could experience him on your own in your devotional time, or scripture reading time, or prayer
time. It's special and powerful and should not be missed out on.
But is not there something about a moment like this where it's like, man, I just sense God here. He's in our midst.
He's doing something. It's beautiful. It's unmistakable. What is it? It's the glory of God and the face of Jesus Christ
reflected through his body, through his bride. And that's great.
But guess what? It's not enough. Because the church, ever since Jesus rose from the dead, didn't just gather in
settings like this. They also got together in smaller groups, in homes, usually, in public places sometimes. And
they would do life together. And the chance that you have to have a group of 6 people, 8 people, 12 people-- we
saw it in the video-- just sitting in the living room, looking at your notes from the weekend. All right, how's it going
for you in this, and what stuck out to you, and how can I pray for you, and what's hard right now?
Actually, I'm really struggling, and I'm really angry, and I'm really crazy. He's like, bro, me too. Ah, ugly cry. Right?
And just that chance to get a text that week-- hey, you were telling me this. And I just want to pray for you. God
put you on my heart. Here's a word from God. Here's a verse I came across. I got your back. As you're going into
that conversation with your spouse asking for forgiveness, I am praying for you. I specifically had a thought. You
came to my mind.
Do you have that in your life? Are there people in position? Who knows your garage code? Who, if the worst
happened, could be in your house and get the thing you need to bring it to the hospital because all of a sudden,
this happened? You need that in your life. You need people praying for you, caring. You need to rely on the buddy
system. It will help you build a root system that'll bring you through a trial.
One person, you do a big attack from the devil, you might get taken out. Having a friend that's got your back-- that
good. But how about two? How about 10? How about 12? How about you get you in a Fresh Life group and have
people around you?
Finances are hard. Marriage is crazy. Having kids and raising them-- ah, right? All the stuff, and all the just normal
junk of being human. And to have people around you is so very important. The buddy system.
The New York Times recently published the "Shocking Impact of Loneliness." They said that people are 50%
more likely to die prematurely if they live lonely, as opposed to those who are in healthy social relationships. But in
this digital age, where all of our connections are on Facebook, and a mile wide and an inch deep, and we're all
trying to impress each other with here's my life on LinkedIn, here's my life on Facebook, here's my life on
Instagram-- good Lord, if I see one more Dolly Parton challenge. But to be real, and to be vulnerable, and to be
able to have the buddy system.
Secondly, sound system. You want you a root system, you've got to crank up your sound system. It can be Sonos.
It can be Bose. It can be whatever you want. You just need to make sure it's turned up to 10 when you need it.
And what I'm talking about, of course, is there being a soundtrack in your life of praise and worship that you, like
the Bible says, are singing and making melody in your hearts to the Lord. It's powerful.
We, in week two of this series, talked about how Jehoshaphat, this king, he had an enemy coming at him. It was
three armies coming together as this evil mutant army, like in Ninja Turtles, these gross, creepy animals coming
out. And what did he do?
He said, yeah, we're going to get the soldiers doing their thing. But you know what? We're going to give ourselves
over to fasting and prayer. And we're going to send out some singers ahead of the soldiers. We want a worship
song going out before us. We want praise to go before us.
Why? Because he knew what you need to know, praise unlocks power. God works through altering and shifting
the atmosphere by the song of praise, by the exalting of the Lord Jesus Christ. When we praise God in heaven, it
changes things on Earth. Not always your circumstances, but always your heart. Always you.
You become a different version of yourself. You might go back to your situation. It looks exactly the same. But
you're different. So now you're seeing things differently.
Paul knew this. Acts chapter 16, this Paul, who developed resilience, this Paul, who became antifragile. You hit
him, you cut a head off. Boing, boing. He's got more heads. Unbelievable. This Paul and his friend Silas are
preaching, and healing, and helping.
And they get arrested for no good reason. They get beaten. They get thrown into a dungeon. They get locked up
in the stocks. And what does it say they did? Verse 25, "But at midnight, Paul and Silas were praying and singing
hymns to God." Hey, does your back hurt? My back hurts too. Sing a little louder.
They raised up a hallelujah in that prison cell. And what happened? God answered. He obviously liked their
praise. The other prisoners were listening too, by the way. When you praise God in your situation, when you come
to church ready to worship, when you don't have your hands in your pockets but you're really ready to give your
all to God, it changes the atmosphere for those sitting beside you, sitting behind you.
And what happened? The earthquake happened, and it unlocked the doors and opened them up. The
foundations of the prison were shaking. Verse 26, "And everyone's chains were loosed." It was so powerful of a
worship service, it unlocked defeat of people who weren't even singing, they just were in the vicinity.
I'm telling you what God could do if we unleash the sound of praise. God will break stuff off the people near you.
It'll have to be like at Seaworld. We'll have to have a sign around you that says Soak Zone. You get up in here,
you're going to get free. You get up in here, you're going to get happy. You get up in here, you're going to get
blessed.
It's just going to ricochet praise. It's going to-- it's like collateral damage. It's just it wasn't even intended. It's like,
God, I feel free. Because I got next to you. And you are singing such praise, I just got a lift from your spirit.
Isn't it amazing when just the Holy Spirit's upon your life, and there's just this habit, this attitude, and altering the
trajectory of your day by inserting praise in it intentionally, singing and making melodies in your hearts to God,
incorporating worship into your devotional time, being intentional on a stress-filled day that you get you some
Fresh Life worship on Spotify, that you're cranking up some Hillsong when you need it, that you know, man, I'm
going to this crazy one. I need me some hot mess praise. Like, you know that one song? Right? It's like, yeah, it
could be whatever you need it to be.
I put my son to bed. I sing to him one of my favorite worship songs from the 1980s. I sing "Lord, I Lift Your Name
on High." You came from heaven to Earth to show the way from the Earth to the cross. My debt to pay. From the
cross to the grave. I mean, a couple times through it, he's out. And maybe just out of sympathy, or pity, or
something.
But I'm telling you, I want that sound of praise so thick in his room. I want Christ to be exalted in my home. I just-- I
know I need it. Oh, you're so strong. Actually, I know how weak I am. That's why I need God's praise altering the
atmosphere in my selfish, little, easily worried, easily frightened heart.
Something happens when you unlock worship. Something happens when you learn to give God praise no matter
what you're facing. It changes who you are. Get you a sound system. Maybe you need just a bigger woofer. Feel
that bass. It'll build you a great root system.
Jesus, the night He was arrested, before He went to the garden of Gethsemane but after He left the upper room,
the Bible says, along with His disciples, He led them in a hymn. How precious that is.
Did Jesus need it? I don't know. Maybe He was just modeling it, teaching us how to respond. He was about to go
to death. We know He was agitated in His humanity, so much so that He was about to sweat great drops of blood.
But He got great comfort from singing a hymn to God.
And so will you. When you have God's song in your mouth, it will put steel inside your spine. It'll cause the wolf to
rise up inside of you that God wants there to be. If you want a root system, you've got to tap into the buddy
system and install a sound system-- and then we'll close here-- see your whole life as a part of a solar system. A
solar system.
A solar system is fundamentally objects that are in orbit around a greater heavenly body. Come on. That's what
God wants your life to be like. Let's be objects in orbit around a greater heavenly body. That is to say that we're
not the sun.
You're not the sun. I'm not the sun. None of us are the brightest thing around. None of us are the biggest thing
around. We're not the most important thing. What am I trying to say when I say let's be a part of a solar system?
I'm trying to say that Jesus Christ is the one who's glorious. He's the one who should be given all fame, all power,
all majesty. Everyone will bow their knee at the mentioning at the last day of the name of Jesus Christ. His name is
power. His name can save. It's the only name given.
And so it's the name that we celebrate and we say I'm glad to be a planet. I'm happy to be a moon. I'm an object
in motion around something that develops gravity. I'm an object in motion about something that keeps everything
spinning. Thank you, God, for doing a great job running the universe.
I'm happy to be a planet. I'm happy just to be a little moon going around, a little ring around this thing. Because
you are the one in the center. You are the one who Colossians says is the image of the invisible God. You are the
firstborn Jesus over all creation. By you all things were created in heaven and stuff on earth too, things that are
visible and things that are invisible.
If there's a throne, if there's dominion, if there is principality or power, it was created through you and for you.
Through you with your power, but also for you to bring you praise. I'm saying every planet, every sunset, every
whale, every Grand Canyon-- I'm telling you, it's all for the majesty and the renown of Jesus Christ.
You were created to bring God glory. You were created to reflect his fame. You were built to worship. It's in you.
And that's why you resonate with music, all music.
Because the Bible says, as God created the world, the angels sang. It's almost as though God was humming. He
was whistling while he worked.
Why do we respond so viscerally to music? Why is there such an emotional reaction? It's a part of our past. It's
baked into the essence of how God made this world. And the praise that will extend and unfurl on into eternity in
heaven will be unending.
The question is, right now, will we join the ultimate symphony? Will we take our reed instrument, or our wind
instrument, or our brass instrument? Will we take part in the ultimate masterpiece production that is the ceaseless
praise God receives from all of his creation, that even now is bringing Him glory and declaring His majesty?
Day unto day, they utter His name. They give Him glory. They praise His name. He is, verse 17, before all things.
And in Him, all things consist. And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning. He's the firstborn
from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence.
The key to having a solid root system is seeing yourself as a part of a solar system, existing to spin around a
heavenly body whose name is Jesus. And in all things, whether you eat-- 1 Corinthians chapter 10-- whether you
drink, or whether for 21 days, you're not eating as much and not drinking, the same things. In all of these things,
whatever you do.
Are you a carpenter? Are you a mason? Are you an EMT? Are you a stockbroker? Are you a science teacher?
Whatever you do, do it all to the glory of God. There is liberation. There is power. There is stability. If I suffer, if I
bleed, if I pastor, if I leave, I live and breathe to bring glory to Jesus.
So whether I live or die, all I want is Him to be glorified. Whether I have 10 more minutes or 20 more years, I just
want to bring awareness to who Jesus is, and how great He is, and what He's done for me. And when you see it
that way, when you look at it that way, far from being taken out by your hardship, you, in your hard times, will
discover that they are making you stronger.
So what's needed? What's needed is that tenacity. What's needed is that spirit that says, hold on a second. I'm
not going to just keep getting knocked down and getting back up. I'm going to start knocking some stuff down. I've
been given authority. I've been given power. I'm not going to hide. I'm not afraid anymore. I'm not going to cower.
Nothing that's formed against me can prosper. I've been given the name above every name. My name is written
on His hands. My name is on a table setting in heavenly places. I've got power. I've got authority. I can put my foot
down in His name and take some [? ground. ?] I can start knocking some stuff down.
In the 1930s, our nation faced something called the Dust Bowl. And during the 10 years of the Dust Bowl, this has
been called a period that was the greatest environmental disaster ever faced in this country that was entirely man
made, a man-made environmental disaster. And I could and maybe should preach a whole message on the Dust
Bowl.
And I did, actually. And it's on YouTube. So I won't go into all that. But one thing when I preached that message
that I didn't get to talk about was that there was a group of people who resolved to not give up on the area they
lived in, the area affected by the Dust Bowl.
Now, this is a period where 46 out of 48 states were in the worst drought in our nation's history. There was only 48
states back then because we didn't have Hawaii yet. Otherwise, that would've been a solid place to go during the
Dust Bowl. But 46 out of 48 states were devastated by drought.
So a lot of people were leaving to go to other places, finding no work there. Oh, because we were also in the
Great Depression. So there's that. One out of four Americans were out of work. 50% of African Americans were
out of work. It was a devastating time.
But there was a group of people. And they said, we made our home here. We made our life here. Even though we
were a part of what made it difficult to live here, we're not giving up on this area. We're not giving up on the Great
Plains. It was once America's breadbasket. And perhaps it could rise from the ashes. And when it does, we'll be
here. We're not quitting. We're not giving up.
And they called themselves the Last Man Club. Last Man. People can leave. We're going to be the last ones
standing. We're not giving up. We're going to knock some stuff down, not get knocked down.
Now, the guy who founded the club ended up leaving. So the story breaks down on some levels. But what I love,
as I was doing the research, in preparation for writing the message that I preach-- and if you want to Google it,
you can Google passion 2020, and the talk I gave is there. But they had a slogan that was on the wall at all their
meetings.
And when I came across it, I was like bang. Root system. Bang. Sound system. Bang. I'm going to show it to you.
This is their slogan. Grab a root and growl. We're not going anywhere. We're going to be the last man here. We're
not going--
How do we have that kind of tenacity? Come on, you've got to be rooted. You've got to be established. Come on,
let's grab a root and growl.
Come on, is there a growl inside of you, a holy roar, the sound of God's praise, the anthem of the fame of the
name of Jesus, in whatever you face, in every dark day? Come on, let's grab a root and growl!
So what’s needed to have stronger faith, the faith of Paul? What’s needed is that tenacity. What’s needed is that spirit that says, hold on a second. I’m not going to just keep getting knocked down and getting back up. I’m going to start living on the offensive. I’ve been given authority. I’ve been given power. I’m not going to hide. I’m not afraid anymore. I’m not going to cower.
So whether I live or die, all I want is Him to be glorified. Whether I have 10 more minutes or 20 more years, I just want to bring awareness to who Jesus is, and how great He is, and what He’s done for me. And when you see it that way, when you look at it that way, far from being taken out by your hardship, you, in your hard times, will discover that they are making you stronger.
Preached at Fresh Life Church. Used by permission.