- The great hindrance to serving the Lord, & being good stewards for Him, is work.
- I think the greatest lie ever told was, to be a Christian means things will always be
greatest or best.
- You read today’s headlines & realize that’s not true.
- Hillsong’s previous worship leader denounced their faith.
- A prominent Christian writer denounces his faith, & joins himself to the lgbtq
movement. Even walking in the gay pride parade.
- People are being emotionally pulled away from God, because a false narrative has
been given to them.
- Culture watches, they see the contentment of Christians.
- Then they see, I call it, life happen, & for many of these Christians they fall apart &
away.
Q- Why did this happen?
- It’s because nobody prepared them for what will happen.
Q- What’s going to happen?
- You’re Alive! There will be pain, hurt, trouble in this life!
- We all live in a fallen world.
- When Jesus arose from the grave I didn’t see the weeds stop growing, or the
ground stop fighting man.
- I don’t see women not having trouble, or pain in childbirth.
- The penalty for sin is lifted, for those in Christ, but the affect of sin is still in
this fallen world.
James 5:1-11
1 Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you.
2 Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are motheaten.
3 Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days.
4 Behold, the hire of the labourers who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth: and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of sabaoth.
5 Ye have lived in pleasure on the earth, and been wanton; ye have nourished your hearts, as in a day of slaughter.
6 Ye have condemned and killed the just; and he doth not resist you.
7 Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain.
8 Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh.
9 Grudge not one against another, brethren, lest ye be condemned: behold, the judge standeth before the door.
10 Take, my brethren, the prophets, who have spoken in the name of the Lord, for an example of suffering affliction, and of patience.
11 Behold, we count them happy which endure. Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy.
- My key verse was verse 7.
- Be patient like a farmer. He knows the rain will come.
- Just as we know Christ will come.
- We cannot give up on faith, because we know Jesus is Alive & Because He’s
alive, He will come back again to set up His Kingdom!
Prayer
- One of the reasons we get so distressed when trouble comes, or we are so easily
dashed is because, we forget about the hope we have in Jesus.
- This world may pass away, but He will always be our refuge.
Hebrews 6:18-20
18 That by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us:
19 Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast, and which entereth into that within the veil;
20 Whither the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus, made an high priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec.
- We may not understand God’s ways, or even know them, but that doesn’t mean it’s a
reason to not follow His way.
- This is where patience comes in!
- We can rest assured that if we’re patient, & willing to seek out God’s direction,
He will give us an answer.
- Yes, Sometimes the answer is to wait, My grace is sufficient, but in that He’s
assuring us that He knows best!
Q- Why is that so hard?
- Immediately, our response to God would be, what do You mean wait!!
- We always want to take matters into our own hands, & it won’t work that way.
- When we try to do it all by ourselves, we fail.
Q- Who saves us?
- Christ does!
Hebrews 12:2
2 Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.
- instead of us leaning on His salvation, we turn it into our salvation.
- Well If it’s our salvation then we must be a great human being, because no other
person in history has ever been able to save themself before.
- With The our salvation mindset, the world is setting itself up for failure!
- A key trait of mankind is, when we’re told not to, we want to!
- Paul describes this trait to Rome
Romans 7:7-10
7 What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet.
8 But sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence. For without the law sin was dead.
9 For I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died.
10 And the commandment, which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death.
- The very second we hear something is bad we try to keep away from it.
- Then, Just by the tendency of this flesh, we find ourselves guilty of the sin we are
trying not to commit.
- We fail because our flesh is weak.
- Instead, we give the saving part to Christ.
1 John 1:9
9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
- God took this impure person & He fashioned them to be pure/holy, just as Jesus is!
Q- Why can’t we hold onto this great assurance?
- Once again, it’s trying to make this salvation our own.
- We’re not trying to save ourselves, but trying to do the greatest for God.
- So When we mess up. We fall apart.
- God knew our nature. Listen to my last set of scriptures.
Romans 4:1-11
1 What shall we say then that Abraham our father, as pertaining to the flesh, hath found?
2 For if Abraham were justified by works, he hath whereof to glory; but not before God.
3 For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness.
4 Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt.
5 But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.
6 Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works,
7 Saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered.
8 Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin.
9 Cometh this blessedness then upon the circumcision only, or upon the uncircumcision also? for we say that faith was reckoned to Abraham for righteousness.
10 How was it then reckoned? when he was in circumcision, or in uncircumcision? Not in circumcision, but in uncircumcision.
11 And he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had yet being uncircumcised: that he might be the father of all them that believe, though they be not circumcised; that righteousness might be imputed unto them also:
- Here’s the reminder, you were saved by faith not works.
- For all that might fall away, the question goes out, do you believe in the one in whom
has saved you?
- He bore your sin, He died, He rose again, He intercedes for us, & He awaits our
reunion.
> Don’t worry by Author unknown. (www.inspire21.com)
Years ago, I was enthralled as I listened to a pastor who for several years had faithfully served the church. His executive responsibilities had taken him all over this country. As he concluded his message, he told of one of the most frightening, yet thought-provoking, experiences of his life.
He had been on a long flight from one place to another. The first warning of the approaching problems came when the sign on the airplane flashed on: Fasten your seat belts. Then, after a while, a calm voice said, "We shall not be serving the beverages at this time as we are expecting a little turbulence. Please be sure your seat belt is fastened."
As he looked around the aircraft, it became obvious that many of the passengers were becoming apprehensive. Later, the voice of the announcer said, "We are so sorry that we are unable to serve the meal at this time. The turbulence is still ahead of us."
Then the storm broke. The ominous cracks of thunder could be heard even above the roar of the engines. Lightening lit up the darkening skies, and within moments that great plane was like a cork tossed around on a celestial ocean. One moment the airplane was lifted on terrific currents of air; the next, it dropped as if it were about to crash.
The pastor confessed that he shared the discomfort and fear of those around him. He said, "As I looked around the plane, I could see that nearly all the passengers were upset and alarmed. Some were praying. The future seemed ominous and many were wondering if they would make it through the storm.
Then, I suddenly saw a little girl. Apparently the storm meant nothing to her. She had tucked her feet beneath her as she sat on her seat; she was reading a book and every thing within her small world was calm and orderly. Sometimes she closed her eyes, then she would read again; then she would straighten her legs, but worry and fear were not in her world. When the plane was being buffeted by the terrible storm when it lurched this way and that, as it rose and fell with frightening severity,when all the adults were scared half to death, that marvelous child was completely composed and unafraid." The minister could hardly believe his eyes.
It was not surprising therefore, that when the plane finally reached its destination and all the passengers were hurrying to disembark,our pastor lingered to speak to the girl whom he had watched for such a long time. Having commented about the storm and behavior of the plane, he asked why she had not been afraid.
The child replied, "'Cause my Daddy's the pilot, and he's taking me home."
