Are you Stressed by life? Need Encouragement?
Good Morning
Stand with me and lift your bible and repeat after me.
This is my Bible.
I am what it says I am.
I can do what it says I can do.
I am going to learn how to be what it says I can be.
Today I will learn more of the word of God.
The indestructible, never ending, living word Of God.
I will never be the same.
I will never be the same.
In Jesus Name
Amen?
Before you sit down, say good morning to your brothers and sisters.
The world is in turmoil.
There are wars throughout the world, people are killing people here in the United States in many unexpected places, diseases are rampant, but we walk on trying to get throughout our days the best way we can.
In the Bible, people went through turmoil also.
And they grew in their faith from it.
Turn with me to the book of Acts and go to chapter 27 and say, “Amen” when you are there.
I am pretty sure that the men on the boat with Paul were stressed. They had been on a boat for two weeks enduring high waves that seemed never ending. They were sick and had probably lost what hope they had.
That is just like what we go through in our lives. We go through storms, short ones and long ones.
You may be going through a storm right now that seems unbearable.
Imagine this. You are on the boat with Paul, and he says some encouraging words.
In verse 22 he tells them to keep up their courage and they would not die.
In verse 25 Paul says, ” Therefore, keep up your courage, men for I believe God, that it will turn out exactly as I have been told.” In verse 33 it says Paul was encouraging them to eat some food.” The result of him sharing that was (27:36) “all of them were encouraged.”
We need to be encouraged when we are in a storm, don’t we?
Be kind. Everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.
Those of us even though we may not know Christ still live here in this world and we need encouragement as we go through daily living.
Satan has one tool that he uses and that is discouragement. It causes many people to give up following the Lord and some even leave ministry opportunities because of it.
Our families, loved ones, and you and I need to be encouraged so we can cope with our daily living.
We need to have that type of an atmosphere in our lives continuously.
Paul shows us that.
He shows us first, to receive encouragement from the Lord during the storms of life, and then, how to pass it on to those who desperately need it in their lives.
Those who have received God’s encouragement in their lives must pass it on to others in prayer, song, and testimonies of how the Lord has helped them along their walk through the life they are living.
Luke’s words in verse 20 imply that Paul, Luke, and Aristarchus felt the same way as everyone else on that boat. No hope that the storm would ever end. Paul was not just an upbeat person all the time. He was reinforced by the angel’s words to Paul in verse 27:24, “Do not be afraid.”
If Paul was not discouraged and afraid, he would not have needed encouragement. Once he received God’s encouragement, he then passed it on to others. Before we can pass on God’s encouragement along with others, we must experience it ourselves. Amen?
We can receive God’s encouragement by being with those He loves. His People.
When Paul continued to head to Rome following the Lord’s calling, he landed in Sidon. A Roman centurion allowed Paul to visit his friends and receive care as even though Paul was out to help others, he needed help also. (Acts 27:4)
We all do.
In 1 Corinthians 12:12-27 It says that we are all part of the body of Christ, and we are here on earth to serve one another.
To do so, we also need to remember that the Lord is always with us. In the book of Matthew, it states, “Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
At the end of Paul’s life days before his execution, he shared in 2nd Timothy, “But the Lord stood with me and strengthened me.” Each of his many experiences that he faced serving the Lord, he stayed strong knowing that the Lord was always with him.
You and I are like Paul, going through the trials of life, not alone even though it may seem that way. We receive God’s encouragement when we remember His presence is always with us.
I have never seen the Lord or an angel, and I believe that such experiences are quite rare. But I have felt His presence many times in my life when I needed it, and it has flooded me with encouragement. Thank you, Lord!
Even though we rarely see the literal visions of God, Jesus, or His angels, we have His promise.
There was a great pioneer missionary that served in Africa for many years named David Livingstone. Late in his life he received an honorary doctorate degree from Glasgow University. When he got up to speak, he was thin and tired looking as, a result of the hardships he had gone through serving in Africa. His left arm had been crushed and was limp at his side after having been attacked by a lion, but he announced he was returning to serve there again. He shared why he was so comfortable to be headed back by saying that what kept him going was, “lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” He said, that on those words he trusted everything would not fail.
Do you trust the Lord with your daily walk here in life?
Are you stressed like the men on the boat during the storm were?
Do you want to receive encouragement today to continue your daily walk here on earth?
Try remembering that we may get encouragement from a message at church, something we read or hear in our daily lives, or from a song that we hear.
But the real encouragement that we usually receive that is better than all of those combined is the comfort we have in our heart when we rely on the one who lives in us and for us when we made that commitment to be born again through Jesus Christ.
If you have never asked the Lord to live inside you and your life, now might be that time to do so.
If you feel like you are out on the water battling through a storm. You feel that you have no hope because you have fallen away from your relationship with the Lord, now might be the time to start getting closer to Him.
If you would like to be able to overcome being stressed and move onward in your life with confidence knowing that even in a storm that seems never ending, now is the time to be renewed and strengthened in your faith in Him.
Come forward now and let prayer help us overcome the stresses of life.
Let us bow our heads and go to the one and only one who can help.
