Future Church Brisbane
Join Luke Kennedy and friends at Future Church in Brisbane, Australia.
Talks from our gatherings as well as deeper discussions and Application panels around the practicals of Following Jesus.
Future Church Brisbane
Beyond Authenticity: Building Resilience in a Fragile World
Resilience isn't just a self-help buzzword—it's woven into the very fabric of the gospel message. This powerful teaching reveals how the journey of faith inherently develops strength of character, as we're not merely saved from our past but called into a future that requires spiritual fortitude.
What if our cultural obsession with comfort and emotional validation is actually undermining our capacity to grow? Drawing from Romans 5:3 and James 1:2, we explore the counterintuitive biblical truth that suffering produces endurance, character, and ultimately hope. God deliberately uses difficult experiences to form in us what we cannot gain through constant winning or frictionless environments.
The most challenging section tackles modern parenting and the well-intentioned but harmful trend of shielding children from all hardship. Through a personal story of battling cancer, Luke Shares how mental health professionals expected his children to crumble, yet they displayed remarkable resilience—precisely because they had been taught that overcoming difficulty was normal, not exceptional. This raises profound questions about how our expectations shape outcomes.
We also confront the "cult of authenticity" that equates emotional expression with genuineness while viewing character development as somehow inauthentic. True Christian character occupies the middle ground—honest about struggles while committed to transformation. The practical pathway to resilience includes spiritual disciplines, intergenerational mentorship, and a deepening experience of God's love that meets us at our points of greatest fear.
The most powerful moment comes in identifying the voice we all hear—the one telling us to quit when things get difficult. Learning to silence this voice and replace it with God's truth becomes our pathway to strength. Ready to discover that you're stronger than you think? This message will show you how God's unending love provides the foundation for a resilient life.
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That my anxiety and my frustration and my fear, that I struggled a lot with fear, as you can understand, a lot with fear. I didn't have to stay stuck in that. I could be transformed by the whole renewing of my mind. This was good news to me. This is such good news. And then I heard Philippians 1, verse 6. I heard this and I memorized it. I put it on my wall. It said he who began a great work in you will bring it to the completion on the day of Jesus Christ. And it was like this don't give up. That was the message. Don't give up, don't be someone who easily quits, because God will not give up on you. His work is not finished with you. He will complete what he started. I was all in for that. That was good news for my soul, who desperately wanted things to be different.
Speaker 1:The expectation of resilience is part of the gospel, wanted things to be different. The expectation of resilience is part of the gospel to become a more resilient person. It is part of it. Why? Because we are not just saved from something, as my good friend says, we are saved for something. There is a purpose to why God is working in your life and it's not just about me, it is for the sake of others, it is.
Speaker 1:Resilience is important, but how does resilience happen? How do you actually become a strong person? This is the part where it's going to get challenging, because mostly it happens through the spirit of God, but mostly, how he does it is by us going through difficult things. Romans, chapter 5, verse 3, says not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings. Yay, I'm suffering, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character this is strange produces hope, and that hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our heart through the Holy Spirit who's been given to us. Recognize that hardship is part of the journey that God is taking us on to develop character, deep character in our lives.
Speaker 1:There are some things that I can only get through going through difficult things. I cannot get them through winning. All I do is win. I can't get it. I can't get it. It doesn't come that way. I can only get it through going through hard things. There's things that God can only add that way. That's how God strengthens me Character and this is from the book After you Believe by NT Wright character in the biblical sense is what happens when someone has been trained in the habits of virtue so that doing what's right becomes natural over time.
Speaker 1:When I choose to do the right thing, even when I don't feel it, even when it's hard, there's something developed inside of me that is very good for me and very good for the world around me. This is Christian character. It should be. And now, christian character right now is a superpower. By the way, it should be normal, but it's kind of a superpower. If you have Christian character, it's something that is extremely valuable.
Speaker 1:James, chapter 1. I'm doing just a few verses just to lay the little foundation and we'll get into some stuff. James, chapter 1, verse 2. This is a very similar verse. It says count it all joy. This is getting better.
Speaker 1:Rejoice Now. Count it all joy when you have trials of many kinds. Various kinds, for we know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. Various kinds, for we know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect in your life. Embrace it, let it have its full helpfulness that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing, in other words, if you haven't been tested, you are lacking something. But if you're willing to go through the test, you are lacking something, but if you're willing to go through the test, you are lacking nothing. What a promise from God.
Speaker 1:Tom Wright follows it up this way the world says follow your feelings, but Jesus says follow me. The difference is that one path leads to constant instability, the other to deep-rooted strength. Following Jesus will lead you to a stronger, more resilient life. That is true, not because it's perfect, but because God is going to lead you through the challenges of life. That's my observation. But here's my observation of the next generation is that we are not setting up the next generation to be resilient. We are setting them up to be fragile.
Speaker 1:Much of the goal of parenting today is to create frictionless environments for our kids. You don't have to go through hard things. I will save you from the hard things. And now we're hoping that those same children become strong, independent, helpful to society, confident young adults. It's not happening. They are struggling at adulting Frictionless environments. Psychologist Rob Henderson talks about this that we have robbed children of something that is desperately important to them, and that is the concept of high expectation. My expectation of you is so low that I'm robbing you of the chance to become a strong person. Does this make sense? Yeah, be careful, and my concern was that we are expecting young people to be fragile and then hoping that they are prepared for the challenge of what it means to be a human or an adult in life. The good news of Jesus, though, for us today is that you do not have to stay fragile or broken. You can get stronger in Jesus. There is a place of strength for you. That is part of the gospel. We want to raise a generation in this church that our family has been through some very difficult things.
Speaker 1:My children watched me last year go about as close to the edge as you want to get the edges you want to get. Watch me on the floor of our home for months, for about four months and what I noticed was a couple of observations. I couldn't talk during that time, okay, so very difficult to communicate with them. I was going through mouth cancer. I didn't realize this at the time, but they gave me the hardest level of radiation that you can do without killing somebody, and we went through that for a very long time. My children watched me go through all that every day.
Speaker 1:Now what I noticed was the mental health experts around them expected my children to be very fragile. They expected them to to be thank you, son, to give up, to desperately need their help and they wouldn't survive without their help. So they were expecting them to be fragile and it seemed like they were determined to find evidence that they were fragile. They were determined to find it. To find evidence that they were fragile. They were determined to find it. Microscope any slight change of behavior, any challenges. At school it was oh, now we understand. It's because you're fragile, because your dad has cancer. This is what we kept hearing. The only problem was is my children weren't fragile. They were actually really tough and really strong.
Speaker 1:The way that we had taught them to be resilient showed up in the middle of the crisis, and I remember my daughter coming home one day and saying she'd been talking to a mental health expert that was desperate to find a problem and she'd had an argument with a friend and this person led her my nine-year-old, and she's smart, so she knows what people want to hear. So they were leading her towards this conclusion of if you just say I'm really struggling because my dad has cancer, then you'll get out of this problem. They wanted her to say it and because she's smart, she did say it. And then she came home and she's crying to me and she's saying Daddy, it's not true, I didn't want to say that and it's not true. They wanted me to say it. And I'm like this has gotten crazy.
Speaker 1:I was talking to my children about this the other day at dinner. We're talking about this because I wanted to get the story right and I asked my children were you afraid when I was going through those really low moments? And Hugo, sitting here, said of course I was afraid, but at some point you just have to trust God. That's a 12-year-old. Yeah, the 9-year-old says yeah, I was afraid, but your faith has to be bigger than your fear. That's the 9-year-old. The 3-year-old can't talk yet, but she was the cute one who got me through most of it. Yeah, she would come and lay next to me and pray. She didn't know what prayer is, but she would pray.
Speaker 1:Why are the children resilient? Why? I don't know all the reasons, but I can tell you one of the reasons is because we expected them to be. We taught them to be. Why wouldn't they be? We taught them. Resilience is normal. Resilience is the normal response to going through hardship, not being perfect and if they were struggling?
Speaker 1:I hope you can hold these two concepts in. We love our children unconditionally and we have high expectations for them. Can we hold those two things at the same time? It's not performance-based love. It's I love you and you're stronger than you think you are. You can make it, you will be good. And we are robbing the next generation of that truth when we treat them like they are incapable of handling hardship and they are not. They are stronger than they believe they are, and especially in the church. I mean in the church, we have the Spirit of God living on the inside of us. Young people, you have more than what you need. You have a community of faith. This is not individualism versus community. This is God has put you in a community. He's given you His Spirit and you are stronger than you think. Who can stand against you? What could possibly stop you? You are more resilient than you think.
Speaker 1:I was saying this to my son-in-law. We have these conversations. I hope it's okay that we talk about this, hugo, in front of everyone. Okay, all right. I was saying this to Hugo. We're having these young men talks, right? We're on a bit of a journey together, and I was saying to Hugo you know, it's really easy to stand out in your generation, really easy, like it's so easy to be a champion in your generation. All you have to do is don't be fragile. Be resilient and you will already be leaps and bounds ahead of your peers. They may be smarter than you, they may have more opportunity than you, they may have more money than you, but if you are resilient, you will get through things and you will make it. And that is the truth. It's not I've got to teach my kid to be tough. It's not that I think no, we don't want to be those parents like, yeah, just toughen up, mate. It's not that. It's the truth that inside of you is so much strength that you don't realize you have, and part of being a parent is helping young people discover their own strength from God inside their lives. That's part of what we're doing.
Speaker 1:So there's this concept that Tom Wright often talks about and I've heard different speakers talk about this the cult of authenticity. All right, authenticity is good, all right, but there's this when authenticity becomes weird is when authenticity means that only actions based on emotions are genuine. If I feel angry, I'm going to yell at you and that means I'm authentic and that means it's good. Discipline, discipline, virtues it sometimes feels like that's fake. So if you are developing character, that's because it's fake. If you are out of control, that means you are good, because you're being authentic.
Speaker 1:Can you see the cracks in this theory of building a great community, self-giving, love towards others, commitment to growth is unnecessary because being real is enough and this is certainly a response to the legalism of the 90s and the 2000s and all of that. And I understand that that's. That was a way swing away from maybe the fakery of some of, even in church, maybe even especially in church, some of the fakery of church that meant just put on, pretend, let your face, just like everything's great, hallelujah brother. Like that kind of culture bred this resistance and maybe even just a disdain for that. Like we want to be honest and real. Okay, so what we've done is we've gone from that to another extreme, which is only my negative emotions are real. If I'm doing good in life, I can't tell you because that would seem like boasting, but if I'm doing really badly, then I can vomit on whoever I want because that's being real. Do you see how that's our adult act? And right in the center of that is Christian character. It means admitting my shortcomings, being honest about my shortcomings, but also having a vision towards transformation and change, that I'm not stuck in my moment, that I can get stronger. That's the story of my life. That's the story of my life.
Speaker 1:So I was talking with our ministry training group yesterday. We were going through this stuff and we were having this discussion with some of the people who were training to be pastors in our church and I was saying what's helpful for you to become resilient? Let's talk about some ways that people can become more resilient, and I thought it was a really helpful discussion. So let's just have a look at a few of these guys' feedback Practical steps of building resilience. How do you build resilience in your life? How do you get stronger?
Speaker 1:First thing I think we talked about was doing the basics. Doing the basics Most people who come to me with problems in their life that need counseling that kind of situation I can tell you it's probably 90% Don't read the Bible, don't pray regularly or they've stopped. They've stopped that for a significant period of time. They've stopped reading the Bible, stopped being in prayer, stopped doing the basics of what it means to follow Jesus. Stop doing the basics of what it means to follow Jesus and then they're coming to almost like I'm a replacement for Jesus in their lives and my advice always is come back to the basics, come back to being in the Scripture, being in community, being in prayer, and then we can deal with the other stuff. And we certainly need to deal with the other stuff. There's probably 10% of our life that needs some real help. That's reality, but it's not 90%. There's a lot of things in your life that will get solved with doing the basics of following Jesus and some of that stuff seems boring, the boring stuff, but actually it's the thing that develops character in your own heart.
Speaker 1:The second thing we talked about I thought was really helpful was about seeking wisdom, and one of the people said I feel like young people today. We don't have older people to go to for advice or wisdom. I don't know who to go to who can actually help speak into my life, and that's true. That's a real challenge. There's people. There's a real generational gap in mentorship and there's a lot of, if you're looking around, one of the blessings of this church now that we didn't have a year ago or a year and a half ago was there's some older people in our church now.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we started out almost. You know, there was probably like just a couple of people who were like over 50. Almost everyone was young. That's actually changing and that's such a huge blessing to me. Are we okay? Yeah, no, I'm saying the bar was so low. That's what I'm saying. The bar was low, it's not a slight.
Speaker 1:Come on, you're 45 anyway. Don't give me that. This is my community group. There are people here, and just give me a little bit of backup here. If you are so young, I mean over 50, this is young. Come on, I'm trying to give you props right now. Amen, brother, if you were willing to give a young person advice, can you give me a way? If you were willing to just give some advice and help someone? Just don't be shy. Okay, yes, depending. Yes, you're not over 50, but pretend you are. Your wisdom is Okay. Yes, depending. Yes, you're not over 50, but pretend you are. Your wisdom is Okay. You can ask right In this church.
Speaker 1:One of the beautiful things that I love about this church is there's no green rooms, there's no side things. There's one space you can talk to whoever you want to talk to. There's no celebrities here, there's no. If you want to talk to me, come talk to me. If you want to talk to someone, just go and say hello, people will talk to you. Yeah, there's no clicky circles here. People will talk to you. If you need help, go and say can I have a chat with you about this? And people will say sure, I'd be happy to talk to you. People, don't rush out after the service. There'll be people here. I'll be kicking people out at 1 pm today. People will be here drinking coffee, talking, chatting. You know how it's hard to get people to stop chatting in this church. I know it is. People will talk to you. People will pray for you. Yeah, you can ask for help.
Speaker 1:And then, lastly, here's my thought. Take on this is if you want to become resilient, we need a deepening experience of the love of God. Resilience is not just about grit, it's about being grounded in the love of God, meaning the love of God, the reality of the love of God, is bigger than my challenges. That's been my experience, going to the depths. 1 John 4, 18, beautiful verse. Want to remember there is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear, for fear has to do with punishment. Love casts out fear, for fear has to do with punishment. And whoever fears has not been perfected in love. We are not yet perfected. There is always more love of God to be bathed in, even this week.
Speaker 1:I went for an MRI this week, after a one-year checkup, to see if there's any cancer come back in my body. And this type of cancer is highly likely to come back. That's expected. So it's a nervous time to go and check. Because it's a nervous time to go and check because it's a nervous time and I remember some of that walking into the Royal and I'm a little claustrophobic too. So there's MRIs. I'm not super fun and feeling the nerves come back of those times when I first found out, and I remember my anxiety lifting as I'm walking into the hospital saying I'm about to find out if I have cancer or not, and then immediately the voice of God right there to me reminding me I love you, I have you in my hand, no one can steal you away. And going, breath, deep breath. I'm okay, we're okay, let's go Now. Thankfully can't see anything right now in there. So, praise God, that's good news, which is kind of honestly, that's a big deal and kind of a miracle for my situation. But God's love will meet you at your point of fear. It will meet you. You just have to look to it. This is what God kept on saying to me day after day after day in that radiation ward Look at me, look at me, look at me, don't look away. Look at me, look at me, don't look away. Keep looking into the eyes of God, looking back at you with the deepest love that you can imagine and so much more. That is the love of God. So I want to ask us today to respond to the love of God. So I want to ask us today to respond to the love of God.
Speaker 1:Some of us need to put to death inside of us, this voice inside of our head that keeps telling me I can't do it, I'm not strong enough. I know that voice. I know that voice well Again. We were having this conversation the other day. There is a voice in every young man's I can speak to the young man because that's my experience In every side of the young man there's this voice inside of your head that says quit, quit, quit, quit. You should quit. It's too hard, quit. And I said to Hugo you need to become an expert in putting to death that quit voice in your head, because it is not your friend, it is an enemy to your destiny, and don't treat it like a friend. Invite the voice of God into that situation and our lives need to be built on. I will build a street the singers are looking at me funny my life on the foundation of the reality of God's unending, unconditional love for my life. That is the strength of my life.
Speaker 1:So we're going to pray. Okay, we're going to pray. Okay, we're going to pray, we're going to respond. Has this been okay? Are we still friends? I'm not insecure about it. I'm assuming we are. But this is certainly not the tidal wave of what our culture is teaching us, and to say anything that is not in line with that cultural tidal waves of you are fragile and you need and you can't make it through without, is a risk. I feel that. But we're committed to teaching Jesus' ways and making Jesus' ways our ways, guys, and I think the result will be clear People's lives will get stronger in this church. So let's pray.
Speaker 1:Jesus, we love you. Jesus, you see every part of our lives right now. In reality, god, there is part of our lives that are fragile, that are somewhat broken, that need help, and we surrender them to you. Today, god, we're asking you, come in, and I pray your grace, your love, your spirit, the power of your spirit would come and fill and soak every area of that brokenness. God, pray, your strength would be the perfect match for our weakness. Your grace would meet us in our fear and your love would speak deeply and powerfully into people's lives here today.
Speaker 1:Pray especially for those who are going through challenges right now, and we heard that scripture count it all joy, and we don't want to do anything like count it all joy, but we submit ourselves to you, god, and we ask you that the joy of the lord would be our strength, that you would fill our lives with your spirit, your joy, joy, god, to overcome, not just endure, but I pray for a spirit of overcoming in these people.
Speaker 1:I pray over the next generation here today, that what is spoken over them would fall to the ground and that a call to follow Jesus would be burst so deeply in their hearts into a place of wholeness, not only wholeness for them, but wholeness for the people around them. I thank you for what you've done in my family, god, that the brokenness has stopped in my generation. I pray that for many people here we would move in one generation from brokenness to wholeness and all that is to come after us would be in you, would be made new. We trust our lives to you, god, into your unbelievably deep, loving hands. Cast our cares on you, for we know that you care for us, and I pray, god, for resilience and strength to be developed in these people, in our children, in our homes. Thank you God for this. Last week I've been through some challenges, god in our city and I thank you, god, for saving so much. God, so many answered prayers. We thank you for that, god. We trust you, amen.