INTRO. It seems now more than ever we are living in the era of Crisis’. Everywhere we turn we are met with one crisis after another. Day in and day out we are met with difficulties, heartaches, problems, tragedies, conflicts, you name it we are hit with it.
ILLUSTRATION: "YOU KNOW WHEN YOU HAVE HAD A BAD DAY"
You see a "60 Minutes" news team waiting in your office.
Your birthday cake collapses from the weight of the candles
You wake up and discover your waterbed broke and then realize that you don’t have a water bed.
Your income tax check bounces.
Your twin brother or sister forgets your birthday
The bird singing outside your window is a buzzard.
I think we have all had days that we would soon forget and never have to repeat again.
If we look really hard at our situations many times the crisis’ we are having in our lives are not caused by others but when we are really honest with ourselves we are the cause of much of our crisis. Even though the crisis we are experiencing may be caused by our own doing it is still a crisis and we must deal with it as such.
The crisis that we experience on a daily basis many times either bring us closer to our Lord and others or drives us in the other direction. As we encounter crisis in our lives we need to understand the God is allowing these crisis for a reason and it is our job to determine what that reason might be.
It is important to realize that when we refer to Crisis, it doesn’t always means something really bad, even though most of the time that’s exactly what it is. It can be something that is really positive.
*What would you consider a positive Crisis?
The word "Crisis" comes from a word that mean "decision."
No matter what the crisis may be, good or bad, it needs to bring each of us to a "Crisis of belief". A. Crisis of belief is a turning point where we must make some decisions that will determine whether we go on to be involved with God in something God-sized or whether we will continue to go our own way and miss what God has for us. A Crisis of belief should bring us to make three major responses.
I. A CRISIS OF BELIEF WILL FIRST CAUSES US TO DECIDE WHAT WE REALLY BELIEVE ABOUT GOD.
A. When we face a crisis of belief whether good or bad we must decide then what we believe about God.
1. Mentally thinking about what we believe is the easy part.
2. The hard part is living out what we think and even say we believe.
B. What we say we believe about God must be based Soily on what God’s Word says.
1. If what we believe is based on just what others tells us then it won’t last a life time.
ILLUSTRATION: "Drop outs"
2. The problem with most people today is they are allowing other people to have a great influence on their beliefs and when these people are gone or lets them down they drop out and most of the time never see them in God’s house.
C. We can’t believe God’s Word unless we read and know God’s Word.
1. Do you know what keeps us from reading and knowing God’s Word? SIN!!
2. Repeat after me, "THIS BOOK, WILL KEEP ME FROM SIN, OR SIN WILL KEEP ME FROM THIS BOOK. Do you believe that???
3. For this book to get in us we are going to have to get in this book.
D. All through the Scriptures we see where ordinary, common, everyday people just like you and me had to decide what they really believe about God.
1. In I Samuel 16 we see David is just one example, he had to decide what he really believed about God when he was confronted with Golitha.
a. David refused to rely on human wisdom for guidance; we know what he would have happen if he did that.
b. David’s statements in I Samuel 16 indicated that he believed God was the living God and that He was "the great deliver".
2. God used a "Giant" to bring David to a crisis of Belief.
3. I Samuel 16:33 tells us infactally what David believed about God.
a. "The Lord who delivered me from the paw of the Lion and Paw of the Bear will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine
b. David decided before he came to this crisis what he believed about God.
E. How is your response to the Crisis of belief that is occurring in your life saying about what you really believe about God.
II. SECONDLY, A CRISIS OF BELIEF WILL REQUIRE MAJOR ADJUSTMENT TO BE MADE ON OUR PART.
A. As we come to decide what we really believe about God we will then need to make some major adjustments in our lives.
B. Many of us want God to speak to us however we are not interested in making any major adjustments in our lives.
1. Biblically, that is impossible.
2. If we want God to bless and speak to us we must be willing to make some major adjustments in our lives.
3. We cannot continue life as usual or stay where we are, and go with God at the same time.
C. Every time God spoke to people in the Scripture about something he wanted to do through them, major adjustments were made.
1. Noah could not continue life as usual and build an ark at the same time.
2. Abram could not stay in Ur and father a nation in Cannaan
3. Moses could not stay on the back side of the desert herding sheep and stand before Pharaoh at the same time.
4. David had to leave his sheep to become King.
5. Peter, James, and John had to leave their fishing business in order to follow Jesus.
D. God even required major adjustments from His own Son.
1. 2 Corinthians 8:9 says that he was rich yet for your sake he became poor, so that you through His poverty might become rich.
2. Jesus emptied Himself of position and wealth in Heaven in order to join the Father in providing redemption through His death on the cross.
3. Now that was a major adjustment.
E. What kind of adjustments will you need to made now not next year or when you get older,in order for God to do great things through and for you.
1. In your circumstance (job, home, finances, and undertaking)
2. In your relationships (family, friends, business associates, and others)
3. In your commitments(to family, church, job, plans, tradition)
4. In your actions (how you pray, give, serve and others).
F. Tonight your greatest single difficulty in following God may come at the point of the adjustment you know down deep you need to make.
III. LASTLY A CRISIS OF BELIEF WILL DEMAND THAT WE TAKE ACTION THAT DEMONSTRATES OUR FAITH.
A. Once we have determined what we really believe about God and we have adjusted ourselves to Him His purposes , His ways, we will be put in a position to take action that demonstrates our faith.
1. When we agree with God that His purposes and His ways is the best for our lives it will be then you will see God doing some great things through you life.
2. The things that you will be able to accomplish will be unexplainable many time.
B. When we are faced with a "Crisis of Belief" what we do, demonstrates what we really believe.
C. Luke records a beautiful experience in Luke 10 of Jesus’ disciples joining Him in his work.
1. He invited 70 to join Him.
2. They obeyed and experience God doing through them something they knew only God could do.
E. When we demonstrate our faith with action we will see God doing things in our church, community, family, and our individual lives that only He can do.
D. True faith requires action from us. 1. James 2:26 "As the body without the spirit is dead so faith without deeds is dead.
2. What we do not what we say, especially in a time of crisis demonstrates what we really believe.
3. It’s what we do not just on Sunday but every day that shows to God, others and ourselves the level of our faith.
4. Tonight the Lord is seeking to used the crisis in our lives to transform us to a better man, woman, or young person.
5. The key is how we respond to the crisis in our lives, will we allow God to transform us or will be try to handle our own crisis.
CONCLUSION:
Tonight I ask you but more important Jesus is asking you what kind of crisis of belief are you experiencing tonight. Many it is happening for a purpose. Could it by that God is allowing these crisis of belief to get us to decide what we really believe and to get us to make some needed adjustments in our lives as well as getting us to demonstrate our faith with action. If we will do these three things then we will be better able to handle anything that the devil, this world throws at us.
Tonight we need to be really encouraged, Why? Because what Jesus says in John 16:33, Look at it!!
It doesn’t matter what the president and our Government officials do. God has overcome. Maybe God is allowing these pagan people in office to get us Christian off our back sides and start living our beliefs rather than just talking about them. Even through these times of crisis we must not compromise what we believe to what the world is trying to get us to surrender to. We as God’s people must Hold On!!
ILLUSTRATION: "HOLD ON! WAIT!"
A young convert told of his experience in the fist world war. He was in the "Lost Battalion." We were cut off from our main army and all around us were germans. Our food and water gave out and every once in a while a german would come to say "surrender." Only one shell was left, and we decided to use it as a signal. At night we turned the cannon straight up, put in the shell, and prayed and pulled the trigger. How we hoped the Americans would see it. Next morning an airplane dropped u s canteens of water and bread and a note saying, "hold on! we are coming!" This continued for several days. Then we heard cannons roaring. Soon our army came and took us to our own lines.
We Christians are being asked to surrender to the world in these last days, but God sends us His message, "hold on I am coming!
