Message based off clips from the motion picture, "The Village"
Clip one (DVD counter: 7:20-7:40)
It has been just 2000 short years, give or take a few, since the birth-life-and death of Jesus Christ. Our faith in Christ, which is simply believing that He is who He said He is - the Son of God, has not necessarily changed. Being a Christian now is a simple as it was two thousand years ago. Foundationally, Christianity is the same. It’s about belief.
John 1:12 ‘But whoever did want him (CHRIST), who believed he was who he claimed and would do what he said, He made (them) to be their true selves, their child-of-God selves.
John 3:16 16"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son,[f] that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
Something though has changed over the past 2000 years. Much like the clip we just watched, borders have been established. A line has been drawn in the sand. The line is held firmly in place by both sides. Here are some examples from each side. 1962 - Prayer and Bibles were removed from the American school system in - America, the worlds leading Christian nation and we can’t have a Bible in the classroom. Late 80’s early 90’s - many in the Christian community decided to support, and still uphold, a ban of all things Disney. If it is made by, for, or about Disney - it is off-limits. This one is interesting - it started as a line that was held firmly by those on one side and it has evolved to be held now by the other. The separation of Church and state. It’s original purpose was to protect the Church from being influenced by the state or government and now it is used as a tool to keep the government from being influencing the Church. One that is most notable because tomorrow is Halloween is the great debate over this holiday. There are many Christian leaders who advocate complete separation from this day. Tomorrow night, many people will literally lock their doors, turn off their lights, and pretend not to be home when the neighborhood kids come knocking on their door for candy. They aren’t doing this out of spite or cruelty. They are attempting to act out what they in their heart believe is the right thing to do with Halloween and that is to not acknowledge it and therefore not glorify or celebrate what they see as an evil holiday.
The purpose of the boundary line is clear, if not slightly different depending on which side you are standing on. Keep Christians and Christian principles on their side of the line and keep all things un-Christian-like on the other side of the line.
I am not attempting to criticize anyone for their beliefs - regardless of which border you tend to side with. However, I will say that as a Christian, I believe we have wandered into some dangerous territory here. Watch this clip one more time and take special note of the last line.
Clip two (DVD counter: same)
Christianity is fairly simple. We have two main jobs. The rest is by-product. The two main jobs are outlined in
Luke 10:27
'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind'; and, 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'
The most important thing we can do in our time on this earth is to love those we are on it with. My question to each of us sitting here today is this, are we doing this? Are you loving people with all you have or have you placed a border between you and them? If we are to be the tool that God uses to reach the people on the other side of the border we better evaluate our perspective of them.
Clip three (DVD counter: 9:46 - 10:00)
(Tell past story of family who wanted the church to be a safe place for their family from the world)
You know what he was essentially saying? He didn’t want the church to be like a lighthouse that draws people to safety. We wanted it to be like a safe tower that is set up high above the horizon, it is impenetrable and when ‘undesirables’ come close you can sound the alarm and run away.
Clip four (DVD counter: 30:18 - people scattering)
The movie calls the beings on the other side of the border ‘Those we don’t speak of’. The people in the village are terrified of them. Terrified that if they go into their territory, which is the woods that surround their village, they’ll be harmed. They’re terrified that if ‘those they don’t speak of’ come into the village, they’ll bring destruction. Because of their fears they live according to these borders. God’s will for us has never been to shape our lives according to our fears. Fear of rejection, fear of failure, fear of isolation. God wants us to tear down the borders in our lives that separate us from the very people we are meant to impact.
John 17 tells us that just before Jesus was arrested, He prayed. His prayer was threefold. First He prayed for Himself. Second He prayed for His disciples, the believers. He was speaking to God about Himself and believers when He said this,
8b ‘They knew with certainty that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me. 9 I pray for them.
14b for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. 15 My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one.
There it is! We aren’t suppose to separate ourselves from the world around us - we are suppose to seek God’s protection while we are in it. But look carefully at that scripture. He says that we are not of the world anymore that He is. That is a very strong statement. Does the world see a difference in you? Because look what God says in verse 18
‘As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world.’
He has sent us into the world - in other words - crashing through those borders - to fulfill the third part of his prayer,
which says
20 “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message,’.
How exciting to me to think that God is not just willing but purposes to use me to help bring others into relationship with Him. Honestly, I will tell you that sometimes that is scary. Because there are times when I know I am not necessarily communicating who I am in Christ to the world around me. Is it just me or have you ever felt like a walking contradiction? Like somebody watching how you live your life to get an insight into Godly living is like someone taking advice from a personal trainer while the trainer lights up a cigarette. Talk about scary. But I know this. God is truly the one in control. It is my job to do my best to stay close by his side daily. The closer I get, the harder it is to get out of step with Him. But with all the rest, their is no need to fear. If I were to focus on my fears I’d never have another conversation. I’d be too afraid of rejection, or failure, or just saying the wrong thing at the wrong time. But I don’t have to fear.
Clip five (DVD counter: 46:40 - 46:56)
Our faith should be like a lighthouse. It draws others because it permeates every part of our lives with hope. Examine your daily life. Do those around you know about your faith? Not necessarily because you are constantly talking about it but because you are living it? One of the greatest quotes I’ve ever heard is ‘Preach the gospel all the time... and if you have to, use words.’ What story is your life telling? Romans 12:1 says this:
‘So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life--your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life--and place it before God as an offering.Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. 2Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.’
My prayer is that our ordinary lives speak volumes about who God is! That we reach out in love, acceptance, and forgiveness to those around us in our everyday lives in such a way that others are drawn to the life they see in us. The life of Christ. That is God’s ultimate will - that we would come to know Him personally and that we would share Him honestly. And He’s patient. He wants everyone to know Him.
2 Peter 3:8 says
‘but do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. 9The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.’
He will use you to impact the lives of those around you and when he does move in love.
Clip six (DVD counter: 1:16:18 - 1:18:00)
Wow. God’s Love. Your here today because of it. Whether you’ve known God all of your life or you are just journeying toward Him. God’s love brought you here. He makes no mistakes your here on purpose. That last scripture
Sunday, October 30, 2005
Sunday, October 23, 2005
Storms of Life - Rebuilding after Loss
Rebuilding is hard work. In fact it’s much harder than building. Building from scratch is not nearly as difficult as rebuilding
because in rebuilding you have to clear away the debris. You’ve got to deal with the damage. You’ve got to pick up all the rubble. It takes a whole lot more time because you just can’t start with a clean slate. Rebuilding always takes longer than building.
That’s not only true of a city. It’s true of a life. It harder and takes more work to rebuild your life after a major loss than it does to build your life in the first place.
The fact is, as a human being, you cannot live without loss.
Everything in this world is temporary. You’re not made to live here forever. You’re made to live forever in eternity. You’re only going to get 60, 80, 100 years on this planet. That means everything is temporary – everything. So you’re going to have major losses in your life. Financial loses, health losses, losses of loved ones. Some of you have lost a marriage. And many, many other kinds of losses in life. How do you recover and how do you rebuild after a major loss? Because you’re going to go through the seasons of loss. It’s inevitable. You’re going to have storms of stress. You’re going to have torrents of tragedy. Gales and gusts of grief. You’re going to have floods of failure in your life.
When those kinds of things come into your life, the typical question we always ask is why. Why is this happening to me? Why is this going on? And folks, that is the unanswerable question. We’re not going to know on this side of eternity.
Looking back later from heaven you’ll be able to see why things happen they way they did. What we need in that time after loss is encouragement. Not an explanation. Explanations don’t encourage us. What we need is encouragement.
That’s what we’re going to look at today.
It’s actually far more helpful instead of asking why to ask the What? question. What do I do now?
What’s next? What are my first steps?
We haven’t been through these major Hurr. like a million people or more have. But we have been through other things and were going to go through things so today we’re going to look at this issue of what do I do after a major loss? What to do. You may not need this message now but this is a very, very important message for you. If you haven’t had a major loss in your life you will. I don’t want to be morbid but you will. Your time is coming.
Because nothing lasts on this planet. It’s just a matter of time.
So today we’re going to talk specifically about seven steps from God’s word on how to rebuild your life.
The story of Job. Job was the wealthiest man in the entire world. There’s a book about him in the Bible. On a single day he lost everything. He lost all of his wealth, all of his farm, all of his crops, all of his flocks and herds, all of his children, and he got an incurable, terminal disease – all on a single day. In that moment Job said, I’m going to bless the name of the Lord, no matter what happens. When good things come or when good things are taken away, it doesn’t matter. I’m going to bless God’s name. That is the mark of maturity.
What do you do when you’ve lost it all? Some of you have lost a loved one. Or you’ve lost your job. Or you’ve lost your financial security. Or you’ve lost a dream – you’ve had a heartbreak. What do you do? How do you rebuild your life? The Bible tells us to do seven things.
1. Release your grief
Loss always creates very strong emotions in us. We grieve. We have worry. We have fear. We may have depression. We may have anger. All kinds of emotions welled up in me as I watched these homes being destroyed and people dying from Hurr. We don’t know what to do with all of these emotions when we’ve gone through a major loss, particularly men. What does God want us to do with those emotions?
You don’t resist them. And you don’t rehearse them. And you don’t reduce them. And you don’t repress them. You release them. What do I mean by that?
You don’t resist them, first of all. Resisting means I’m not going to let myself feel this. A lot of people do that when they go through a major loss. “I’m just not going to let myself feel anything. I don’t want to let it get too close to me.” That is a major mistake, friends. To not feel your feelings. Feelings are meant to be felt. So you don’t resist your feelings.
On the other hand you don’t do the opposite and you don’t rehearse your feelings. Where you go over and over and over in misery and moan and you start to second guess yourself – if I’d have done this differently maybe I’d still have my job. If I’d done this differently maybe I’d still have my marriage.
Or if I’d done this differently maybe the person would still be alive. And rehearsing over and over and over is just as ineffective as resisting it.
You don’t reduce your feelings. “It’s no big deal.” It was a big deal. It hurt and it still does. And you don’t minimize your feelings and say, “It doesn’t matter.” It did matter. It was a big deal. You don’t reduce your feelings. You don’t minimize them.
And certainly you don’t repress them. A lot of people are stuffers. They push their feelings down. That’s like taking a pepsi bottle and shaking it up. One day it’s going to explode. (grabbag - Oprah)
We need to understand, you will deal with your feelings. Either now or later. You will deal with them eventually. If you don’t deal with them now, you’re just putting off the inevitable. God says, “No, I want you to release them.” Release them to God in prayer. The Bible calls it crying out to God.
Psalm 18 David says “The floods of destruction swept over me. The grave wrapped its ropes around me. Death itself stared me in the face. [Have you ever felt that way?] But in my distress I cried out to the Lord and I prayed to my God for help.” This isn’t some little pitty-patty prayer where we go, Dear God I’m not feeling too good. They go, “God! Life stinks! I’m angry. I’m hurt. I’m lonely. I’m grieving. My heart is broken.” That’s what it means to cry out to God. You tell Him passionately exactly how you feel. You can handle it and He can too.
Where do you think your emotions came from? God gave them to you. Why? Because you are created in the image of God. That’s what makes you different from animals. Animals don’t have all those emotions. But humans do. Why? Because you were made in God’s image. You can tell Him anything. You don’t have to say here’s what I think I ought to say. You just say, “God, I don’t like this! I’m depressed. I’m mad.” You cry out to God. God would rather have you be honest and release your feelings to Him than for you to fake it and pretend like everything’s all right because it’s not. You don’t resist it or rehearse it or reduce it or repress it. You release it to God.
Life isn’t always happy. And God doesn’t expect you to always be happy. In fact, Jesus said it’s ok to mourn. He said, “Blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted.”That’s a good thing
It’s a part of life. And you tell God exactly how you feel. He can handle it.
“Pour out your heart to Him. For God is our refuge.” In a storm you need a refuge. (last week) You need some covering. And God says I want to cover you. I want to comfort you. So when you go through any kind of loss in life you don’t turn from God, you turn to Him. That’s the first step. Release your grief.
2. Resist bitterness
Bitterness will do you more harm than the circumstance you went through. Bitterness is far worse than any problem you’ll ever experience. “You don’t know what I’ve gone through!” You may have been raped. But bitterness is worse. Why? Because it’s holding on to the hurt. That’s what resentment does. Your past is past. It can’t hurt you any more. The only way it can hurt you is if you choose to hold on to it through bitterness. That’s dumb. You need to let it go. You need to let go of your grudges just as you let go of your grief. And you say, “I’m going to let it go!” Because bitterness only hurts you. It never solves the problem. It doesn’t change the past. It can’t control the future. All it does is mess up your life right now.
You need to make the decision do I want to be bitter or do I want to get better? That’s the options. Do I want to be bitter or get better? Or do I want to be bitter or do I want to be happy? It’s your choice. You can choose. But you can’t have both.
Happiness is a choice. It’s a choice! It’s not based on circumstances as much as you think it is. There is no correlation between happiness and circumstances. You chose! just remember the eleventh commandment: thou shalt not belly ache!”
If you’re going to recover your life, if you’re going to rebuild your life after a major loss, a breakup or anything else, you’ve got to release your grief to God and you’ve got to resist bitterness
because bitterness will poison your life.
The Bible says this in Hebrews 12 “Watch out that no bitterness takes root among you. It causes deep trouble hurting many in their spiritual lives.” It just prolongs the hurt. So how do you do that? How do you resist bitterness? Three ways.
1. Accept what cannot be changed.
That’s the starting point. You accept what cannot be changed. And the truth is, friends, much of life is totally beyond your control. Sometimes the only way to overcome some problems is to accept them. They’re just going to be there in your life. They’re going to be there. They’re not going to change and you just accept them. Acceptance is the way to peace on some issues. It’s just like your past. Your past is past. No matter how much you resent it you can’t change it. You’re just going to have to accept it.
Faith is facing reality and not being discouraged. Faith is looking at your past and looking at your present problems and looking at your future. You’re facing reality but you’re just not discouraged by it. It’s not Pollyanna where you just pretend like everything’s great and you live in a world of unreality. No. Faith is facing reality but you just don’t get discouraged by it. Because you know God is in control. God loves you, God cares, God sees and God will help you. So you accept what cannot be changed.
2. Focus on what’s left not on what’s lost.
After a loss you need to find something to be grateful for. There’s always something to be grateful for. Like air. A lot of stuff we just take for granted. When was the last time you thanked God for air? You wouldn’t live the next minute if you didn’t have it. We take so much for granted in our lives and we need to just stop and say God I’m grateful!
Most of the world would love to have your problems. It’s like the old cliché, “I complained I had no shoes until I met a man who had no legs.”
You just need to find something to be grateful for. You focus on what’s left, not what’s lost.
3. The third thing is play it down and pray it up.
After a major loss you play it down and you pray it up. Let me say particularly, if you’re a parent and you go through a crisis you need to do this with your children.
The ones I worry about most on the Gulf Coast are the children because children are traumatized faster than anyone else. Adults will get over this. The parents don’t need to say to their kids, “This is terrible! We’ve lost everything!” They need to reassure their kids and say, “We’re going to make it. We’re here. God’s here. You’re here. We’re going to make it.” You play it down and you pray it up and you talk to God about it.
Release your grief, resist bitterness.
3. The third step in the rebuilding after a total loss is to
re-evaluate.
You reevaluate your life. It is after a major loss that you need to refocus and re-evaluate and redefine and say, What direction does God want me to take now? Disasters have a way of changing our direction, challenging our conception, and redefining our values. It is in a disaster we realize what matters most and what doesn’t matter most. You don’t know God is all you need until God is all you’ve got. Disaster clarifies what matters most.
You don’t confuse your possessions with your purpose in life. But most people do.
And in a crisis if you lose it all it redefines your life.
This happens in every area of life... what do I base my value on?
My net worth? What do i base my home on? house, nieghborhhood, & picket fence?
Or is all about relationships, home is where your heart is.
The same thing is true with church. If you think church is a place that you go to – which it is not – and you think church is a place or it’s a building and it’s stone and steeple and pew and stained glass and then all of a sudden in an instant that’s turned into rubble you’ve got to redefine what church is. Church is not a place. Church is people.
Jesus said “Where two or more are gathered in my name there am I in the midst of them.” That means wherever you’ve got a little small group of believers that’s a church. You can have church in a home. We’ve done that and we still do. In the small groups which meet on a regular basis.
God has a meaning and a purpose for everyone. That’s what gives significance. Not sex. Not success. Not salary. Not status. But in serving God and others.
You release your grief, you resist bitterness, you re-evaluate your life. The fourth thing you do after a major loss…
4. You receive help from others.
God never intended for you to go through life on your own power as a lone ranger without anybody else helping you. You were made inadequate so you would need other people. And I was created inadequate so I would need other people. God wired the us that we’re created for community. We’re formed for afamily. We’re made for fellowship. You need me. And I need you. We need each other. And you need other people in your life.
You don’t need a whole bunch of friends. You don’t need a hundred friends. You just need four or five really good ones who are going to stick with you when you lose everything. How do you know who those people are? You’ve got to get close to them. We must cultivate friendships - they take time and effort.
If you’re going to rebuild your life after a loss you must have other people in your life. You can’t do it by yourself. You can’t. That’s why you’re going to have to swallow your pride and let people get close to you. And you’re going to have to let go of some of your fears in order to let people get close to you.
A lot of people have never experienced true intimacy. Why?
Because we keep people at a distance. We don’t let them get too close. If they get too close, they’ll see my fears. They’ll see what I’m afraid of. They’ll see my weaknesses.
If they get close and they see the real me and then they won’t like me I’m up a creek without a paddle. Because I’m all I’ve got. You must risk vulnerability if you’re ever going to have intimacy. You must let people get close to you. Let your husband get close to you. Let your wife get close to you. Let your friends get close to you.
Again, you don’t need everybody close to you. You only just need a few – three, four, five people in your life who are going to be there when the tough times come and the winds blow.
So you receive help from others. Here’s the fifth step in rebuilding your life…
5. Rely on the Lord.
You receive help from others but you rely on the Lord. Let me be real clear about this. You cannot rebuild your life after a major loss without God. Not the way you’re intended to build it.
There are five qualities you need to rebuild your life. You need first, peace. You need peace of mind.
Second, you’ve got to have hope in order to rebuild your life. Then you’ve got to have wisdom. You’ve got to have courage. And you’ve got to have strength.
Where are you going to get those five things – peace and hope and wisdom and courage and strength? There’s only one place you get those things to rebuild a life. You get them from trusting in Jesus Christ. In fact, look at the next five verses. Circle those five words in these five verses.
First you need peace. The Bible says in Isaiah 26:3 “You, Lord, give true peace to those who depend on You.” Circle “peace.” You get peace from depending on God. You can either panic or pray, worry or worship. He says “Trust in Me and I’ll give you peace.”
Second, you need hope. Psalm 62 “I find rest in God. Only He gives me hope.” If you don’t have any hope you’re not living. You’re just existing. You need hope to cope. You’ve got to have hope. Where do you get it? “I find rest in God. Only He gives me hope.”
Then the next verse, Psalm 3:3 “You’re my shield, my wonderful God, who gives me courage.” You’ve got to have courage to rebuild your life. You get it from God. That verse really means, He lifts up my head. He says, “I’ll boost you up. Don’t be so down.”
And the next verse, “I will bless the Lord who counsels me. He gives me wisdom in the night. He tells me what to do.” If you’re going to rebuild your life you’re going to need some
guidance. And it’s got to be good guidance. Nobody knows what the future holds but God does. And He can give you wisdom.
And the last verse, Isaiah 12 says “God is my Savior. I will trust Him and not be afraid.” The Lord gives me power and strength. He says I’ll give you strength to rebuild your life.
Notice all of these are gifts. He gives me, He gives me, He gives me… you don’t earn them. You don’t deserve them. You don’t work for them. They’re simply gifts of God when we give
ourselves to Him.
The acid test of your faith is how you handle the losses of life. The acid test is not how you handle the weddings or the baby
dedications. But how do you handle the funerals of life. How you handle the losses of life shows what kind of faith you have. Where do you get that kind of faith?
You need to be attached to God. You lean on Jesus for peace and you look to Jesus for hope and you lean on Jesus for courage. And you listen to Jesus for wisdom. And you live in Jesus for strength. That’s where it comes from.
Let me ask you. Where do you need strength in your life right now? What are you going through? What problem are you facing that you’ve been trying to face on your own? Some of you still haven’t recovered from a loss that happened a week or a month or a year ago. And you’re still holding on to that hurt. You need to let it go. You need to start rebuilding.
6. Refuse to be discouraged.
You know that God’s purpose is greater than the problems you’re going through. And you’re not on your own any more so you keep moving. What do you do when you can’t move? You still don’t get discouraged. What do you do when you can’t move?
Notice what Jesus said in Luke 21 “By standing firm you will gain life.” Circle “standing firm.” Sometimes you can’t even move but you just stand and you stand firm. (anchors) That means you refuse to be discouraged. The word “refused” means it’s a choice and it is. Discouragement is like happiness. It’s your choice. You don’t have to be discouraged.
If you’re discouraged right now it’s because you’re choosing to be discouraged. You don’t have to think discouraging thoughts. It all depends on what you’re looking at. So you just stand firm when you can’t move.
What do you do when you’ve done all you can and it seems like it’s never enough? What do you say when your friends turn away and you’re all alone? Tell me what do you give when you’ve given your all and it seems like you can’t make it through? You just stand. When there’s nothing left to do you just stand. Watch the Lord see you through. And after you’ve done all you can, you just stand. God will do it!
The seventh step and it’s as important as all the others…
7. You must reach out to others.
God has wired the universe that when we help other people He helps us. When you start helping others He heals you. When you do it. Not then. It’s not I’m going to get my act together, then I’ll start helping other people. No. It’s when not then. It’s when you start to help other people, before your life’s all figured out. When you do that, God says, I see somebody interested in being like Me – helping others and being unselfish. Then God starts healing you. When and then. If you say, “I’ll wait until I get my act all together before I help anybody else,” then you’re never going to help anybody because you’re never going to have it all together. No. You start helping other people and that’s part of the healing process of recovering from a loss. We’re blessed to be a blessing and what we sow we reap. The way God’s figured it out is the more we help other people the more He blesses us.
because in rebuilding you have to clear away the debris. You’ve got to deal with the damage. You’ve got to pick up all the rubble. It takes a whole lot more time because you just can’t start with a clean slate. Rebuilding always takes longer than building.
That’s not only true of a city. It’s true of a life. It harder and takes more work to rebuild your life after a major loss than it does to build your life in the first place.
The fact is, as a human being, you cannot live without loss.
Everything in this world is temporary. You’re not made to live here forever. You’re made to live forever in eternity. You’re only going to get 60, 80, 100 years on this planet. That means everything is temporary – everything. So you’re going to have major losses in your life. Financial loses, health losses, losses of loved ones. Some of you have lost a marriage. And many, many other kinds of losses in life. How do you recover and how do you rebuild after a major loss? Because you’re going to go through the seasons of loss. It’s inevitable. You’re going to have storms of stress. You’re going to have torrents of tragedy. Gales and gusts of grief. You’re going to have floods of failure in your life.
When those kinds of things come into your life, the typical question we always ask is why. Why is this happening to me? Why is this going on? And folks, that is the unanswerable question. We’re not going to know on this side of eternity.
Looking back later from heaven you’ll be able to see why things happen they way they did. What we need in that time after loss is encouragement. Not an explanation. Explanations don’t encourage us. What we need is encouragement.
That’s what we’re going to look at today.
It’s actually far more helpful instead of asking why to ask the What? question. What do I do now?
What’s next? What are my first steps?
We haven’t been through these major Hurr. like a million people or more have. But we have been through other things and were going to go through things so today we’re going to look at this issue of what do I do after a major loss? What to do. You may not need this message now but this is a very, very important message for you. If you haven’t had a major loss in your life you will. I don’t want to be morbid but you will. Your time is coming.
Because nothing lasts on this planet. It’s just a matter of time.
So today we’re going to talk specifically about seven steps from God’s word on how to rebuild your life.
The story of Job. Job was the wealthiest man in the entire world. There’s a book about him in the Bible. On a single day he lost everything. He lost all of his wealth, all of his farm, all of his crops, all of his flocks and herds, all of his children, and he got an incurable, terminal disease – all on a single day. In that moment Job said, I’m going to bless the name of the Lord, no matter what happens. When good things come or when good things are taken away, it doesn’t matter. I’m going to bless God’s name. That is the mark of maturity.
What do you do when you’ve lost it all? Some of you have lost a loved one. Or you’ve lost your job. Or you’ve lost your financial security. Or you’ve lost a dream – you’ve had a heartbreak. What do you do? How do you rebuild your life? The Bible tells us to do seven things.
1. Release your grief
Loss always creates very strong emotions in us. We grieve. We have worry. We have fear. We may have depression. We may have anger. All kinds of emotions welled up in me as I watched these homes being destroyed and people dying from Hurr. We don’t know what to do with all of these emotions when we’ve gone through a major loss, particularly men. What does God want us to do with those emotions?
You don’t resist them. And you don’t rehearse them. And you don’t reduce them. And you don’t repress them. You release them. What do I mean by that?
You don’t resist them, first of all. Resisting means I’m not going to let myself feel this. A lot of people do that when they go through a major loss. “I’m just not going to let myself feel anything. I don’t want to let it get too close to me.” That is a major mistake, friends. To not feel your feelings. Feelings are meant to be felt. So you don’t resist your feelings.
On the other hand you don’t do the opposite and you don’t rehearse your feelings. Where you go over and over and over in misery and moan and you start to second guess yourself – if I’d have done this differently maybe I’d still have my job. If I’d done this differently maybe I’d still have my marriage.
Or if I’d done this differently maybe the person would still be alive. And rehearsing over and over and over is just as ineffective as resisting it.
You don’t reduce your feelings. “It’s no big deal.” It was a big deal. It hurt and it still does. And you don’t minimize your feelings and say, “It doesn’t matter.” It did matter. It was a big deal. You don’t reduce your feelings. You don’t minimize them.
And certainly you don’t repress them. A lot of people are stuffers. They push their feelings down. That’s like taking a pepsi bottle and shaking it up. One day it’s going to explode. (grabbag - Oprah)
We need to understand, you will deal with your feelings. Either now or later. You will deal with them eventually. If you don’t deal with them now, you’re just putting off the inevitable. God says, “No, I want you to release them.” Release them to God in prayer. The Bible calls it crying out to God.
Psalm 18 David says “The floods of destruction swept over me. The grave wrapped its ropes around me. Death itself stared me in the face. [Have you ever felt that way?] But in my distress I cried out to the Lord and I prayed to my God for help.” This isn’t some little pitty-patty prayer where we go, Dear God I’m not feeling too good. They go, “God! Life stinks! I’m angry. I’m hurt. I’m lonely. I’m grieving. My heart is broken.” That’s what it means to cry out to God. You tell Him passionately exactly how you feel. You can handle it and He can too.
Where do you think your emotions came from? God gave them to you. Why? Because you are created in the image of God. That’s what makes you different from animals. Animals don’t have all those emotions. But humans do. Why? Because you were made in God’s image. You can tell Him anything. You don’t have to say here’s what I think I ought to say. You just say, “God, I don’t like this! I’m depressed. I’m mad.” You cry out to God. God would rather have you be honest and release your feelings to Him than for you to fake it and pretend like everything’s all right because it’s not. You don’t resist it or rehearse it or reduce it or repress it. You release it to God.
Life isn’t always happy. And God doesn’t expect you to always be happy. In fact, Jesus said it’s ok to mourn. He said, “Blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted.”That’s a good thing
It’s a part of life. And you tell God exactly how you feel. He can handle it.
“Pour out your heart to Him. For God is our refuge.” In a storm you need a refuge. (last week) You need some covering. And God says I want to cover you. I want to comfort you. So when you go through any kind of loss in life you don’t turn from God, you turn to Him. That’s the first step. Release your grief.
2. Resist bitterness
Bitterness will do you more harm than the circumstance you went through. Bitterness is far worse than any problem you’ll ever experience. “You don’t know what I’ve gone through!” You may have been raped. But bitterness is worse. Why? Because it’s holding on to the hurt. That’s what resentment does. Your past is past. It can’t hurt you any more. The only way it can hurt you is if you choose to hold on to it through bitterness. That’s dumb. You need to let it go. You need to let go of your grudges just as you let go of your grief. And you say, “I’m going to let it go!” Because bitterness only hurts you. It never solves the problem. It doesn’t change the past. It can’t control the future. All it does is mess up your life right now.
You need to make the decision do I want to be bitter or do I want to get better? That’s the options. Do I want to be bitter or get better? Or do I want to be bitter or do I want to be happy? It’s your choice. You can choose. But you can’t have both.
Happiness is a choice. It’s a choice! It’s not based on circumstances as much as you think it is. There is no correlation between happiness and circumstances. You chose! just remember the eleventh commandment: thou shalt not belly ache!”
If you’re going to recover your life, if you’re going to rebuild your life after a major loss, a breakup or anything else, you’ve got to release your grief to God and you’ve got to resist bitterness
because bitterness will poison your life.
The Bible says this in Hebrews 12 “Watch out that no bitterness takes root among you. It causes deep trouble hurting many in their spiritual lives.” It just prolongs the hurt. So how do you do that? How do you resist bitterness? Three ways.
1. Accept what cannot be changed.
That’s the starting point. You accept what cannot be changed. And the truth is, friends, much of life is totally beyond your control. Sometimes the only way to overcome some problems is to accept them. They’re just going to be there in your life. They’re going to be there. They’re not going to change and you just accept them. Acceptance is the way to peace on some issues. It’s just like your past. Your past is past. No matter how much you resent it you can’t change it. You’re just going to have to accept it.
Faith is facing reality and not being discouraged. Faith is looking at your past and looking at your present problems and looking at your future. You’re facing reality but you’re just not discouraged by it. It’s not Pollyanna where you just pretend like everything’s great and you live in a world of unreality. No. Faith is facing reality but you just don’t get discouraged by it. Because you know God is in control. God loves you, God cares, God sees and God will help you. So you accept what cannot be changed.
2. Focus on what’s left not on what’s lost.
After a loss you need to find something to be grateful for. There’s always something to be grateful for. Like air. A lot of stuff we just take for granted. When was the last time you thanked God for air? You wouldn’t live the next minute if you didn’t have it. We take so much for granted in our lives and we need to just stop and say God I’m grateful!
Most of the world would love to have your problems. It’s like the old cliché, “I complained I had no shoes until I met a man who had no legs.”
You just need to find something to be grateful for. You focus on what’s left, not what’s lost.
3. The third thing is play it down and pray it up.
After a major loss you play it down and you pray it up. Let me say particularly, if you’re a parent and you go through a crisis you need to do this with your children.
The ones I worry about most on the Gulf Coast are the children because children are traumatized faster than anyone else. Adults will get over this. The parents don’t need to say to their kids, “This is terrible! We’ve lost everything!” They need to reassure their kids and say, “We’re going to make it. We’re here. God’s here. You’re here. We’re going to make it.” You play it down and you pray it up and you talk to God about it.
Release your grief, resist bitterness.
3. The third step in the rebuilding after a total loss is to
re-evaluate.
You reevaluate your life. It is after a major loss that you need to refocus and re-evaluate and redefine and say, What direction does God want me to take now? Disasters have a way of changing our direction, challenging our conception, and redefining our values. It is in a disaster we realize what matters most and what doesn’t matter most. You don’t know God is all you need until God is all you’ve got. Disaster clarifies what matters most.
You don’t confuse your possessions with your purpose in life. But most people do.
And in a crisis if you lose it all it redefines your life.
This happens in every area of life... what do I base my value on?
My net worth? What do i base my home on? house, nieghborhhood, & picket fence?
Or is all about relationships, home is where your heart is.
The same thing is true with church. If you think church is a place that you go to – which it is not – and you think church is a place or it’s a building and it’s stone and steeple and pew and stained glass and then all of a sudden in an instant that’s turned into rubble you’ve got to redefine what church is. Church is not a place. Church is people.
Jesus said “Where two or more are gathered in my name there am I in the midst of them.” That means wherever you’ve got a little small group of believers that’s a church. You can have church in a home. We’ve done that and we still do. In the small groups which meet on a regular basis.
God has a meaning and a purpose for everyone. That’s what gives significance. Not sex. Not success. Not salary. Not status. But in serving God and others.
You release your grief, you resist bitterness, you re-evaluate your life. The fourth thing you do after a major loss…
4. You receive help from others.
God never intended for you to go through life on your own power as a lone ranger without anybody else helping you. You were made inadequate so you would need other people. And I was created inadequate so I would need other people. God wired the us that we’re created for community. We’re formed for afamily. We’re made for fellowship. You need me. And I need you. We need each other. And you need other people in your life.
You don’t need a whole bunch of friends. You don’t need a hundred friends. You just need four or five really good ones who are going to stick with you when you lose everything. How do you know who those people are? You’ve got to get close to them. We must cultivate friendships - they take time and effort.
If you’re going to rebuild your life after a loss you must have other people in your life. You can’t do it by yourself. You can’t. That’s why you’re going to have to swallow your pride and let people get close to you. And you’re going to have to let go of some of your fears in order to let people get close to you.
A lot of people have never experienced true intimacy. Why?
Because we keep people at a distance. We don’t let them get too close. If they get too close, they’ll see my fears. They’ll see what I’m afraid of. They’ll see my weaknesses.
If they get close and they see the real me and then they won’t like me I’m up a creek without a paddle. Because I’m all I’ve got. You must risk vulnerability if you’re ever going to have intimacy. You must let people get close to you. Let your husband get close to you. Let your wife get close to you. Let your friends get close to you.
Again, you don’t need everybody close to you. You only just need a few – three, four, five people in your life who are going to be there when the tough times come and the winds blow.
So you receive help from others. Here’s the fifth step in rebuilding your life…
5. Rely on the Lord.
You receive help from others but you rely on the Lord. Let me be real clear about this. You cannot rebuild your life after a major loss without God. Not the way you’re intended to build it.
There are five qualities you need to rebuild your life. You need first, peace. You need peace of mind.
Second, you’ve got to have hope in order to rebuild your life. Then you’ve got to have wisdom. You’ve got to have courage. And you’ve got to have strength.
Where are you going to get those five things – peace and hope and wisdom and courage and strength? There’s only one place you get those things to rebuild a life. You get them from trusting in Jesus Christ. In fact, look at the next five verses. Circle those five words in these five verses.
First you need peace. The Bible says in Isaiah 26:3 “You, Lord, give true peace to those who depend on You.” Circle “peace.” You get peace from depending on God. You can either panic or pray, worry or worship. He says “Trust in Me and I’ll give you peace.”
Second, you need hope. Psalm 62 “I find rest in God. Only He gives me hope.” If you don’t have any hope you’re not living. You’re just existing. You need hope to cope. You’ve got to have hope. Where do you get it? “I find rest in God. Only He gives me hope.”
Then the next verse, Psalm 3:3 “You’re my shield, my wonderful God, who gives me courage.” You’ve got to have courage to rebuild your life. You get it from God. That verse really means, He lifts up my head. He says, “I’ll boost you up. Don’t be so down.”
And the next verse, “I will bless the Lord who counsels me. He gives me wisdom in the night. He tells me what to do.” If you’re going to rebuild your life you’re going to need some
guidance. And it’s got to be good guidance. Nobody knows what the future holds but God does. And He can give you wisdom.
And the last verse, Isaiah 12 says “God is my Savior. I will trust Him and not be afraid.” The Lord gives me power and strength. He says I’ll give you strength to rebuild your life.
Notice all of these are gifts. He gives me, He gives me, He gives me… you don’t earn them. You don’t deserve them. You don’t work for them. They’re simply gifts of God when we give
ourselves to Him.
The acid test of your faith is how you handle the losses of life. The acid test is not how you handle the weddings or the baby
dedications. But how do you handle the funerals of life. How you handle the losses of life shows what kind of faith you have. Where do you get that kind of faith?
You need to be attached to God. You lean on Jesus for peace and you look to Jesus for hope and you lean on Jesus for courage. And you listen to Jesus for wisdom. And you live in Jesus for strength. That’s where it comes from.
Let me ask you. Where do you need strength in your life right now? What are you going through? What problem are you facing that you’ve been trying to face on your own? Some of you still haven’t recovered from a loss that happened a week or a month or a year ago. And you’re still holding on to that hurt. You need to let it go. You need to start rebuilding.
6. Refuse to be discouraged.
You know that God’s purpose is greater than the problems you’re going through. And you’re not on your own any more so you keep moving. What do you do when you can’t move? You still don’t get discouraged. What do you do when you can’t move?
Notice what Jesus said in Luke 21 “By standing firm you will gain life.” Circle “standing firm.” Sometimes you can’t even move but you just stand and you stand firm. (anchors) That means you refuse to be discouraged. The word “refused” means it’s a choice and it is. Discouragement is like happiness. It’s your choice. You don’t have to be discouraged.
If you’re discouraged right now it’s because you’re choosing to be discouraged. You don’t have to think discouraging thoughts. It all depends on what you’re looking at. So you just stand firm when you can’t move.
What do you do when you’ve done all you can and it seems like it’s never enough? What do you say when your friends turn away and you’re all alone? Tell me what do you give when you’ve given your all and it seems like you can’t make it through? You just stand. When there’s nothing left to do you just stand. Watch the Lord see you through. And after you’ve done all you can, you just stand. God will do it!
The seventh step and it’s as important as all the others…
7. You must reach out to others.
God has wired the universe that when we help other people He helps us. When you start helping others He heals you. When you do it. Not then. It’s not I’m going to get my act together, then I’ll start helping other people. No. It’s when not then. It’s when you start to help other people, before your life’s all figured out. When you do that, God says, I see somebody interested in being like Me – helping others and being unselfish. Then God starts healing you. When and then. If you say, “I’ll wait until I get my act all together before I help anybody else,” then you’re never going to help anybody because you’re never going to have it all together. No. You start helping other people and that’s part of the healing process of recovering from a loss. We’re blessed to be a blessing and what we sow we reap. The way God’s figured it out is the more we help other people the more He blesses us.
Sunday, October 16, 2005
Storms of Life - What's the Family for?
We’ve been in series, ‘Storms of Life’ - review
Amidst the crisis - whatever storm we’re facing, What’s the Family for? What’s the role of the family, what’s the purpose of the family? We are all a part of a family, immediate, extended, we are all a part of family. Today let’s look at the families role in the storms of life.
This morning I thought we'd look at the purposes God intends for your family.
1. THE FAMILY IS A SHELTER FROM STORMS
A lot of people think the family is just a bed and breakfast place.
A tax deduction. But the Bible says far more than that. First it's a shelter from storm. We all have tough days. We all get rained on. We all get dumped on. We all go through bad weather. There are days when things don't work out right. And we all need a place of protection, a place of peace, a refuge where we can just let down from the storms of life and find protection.
The Bible says in Proverbs 14:26 "Reverence for the Lord gives a man deep strength. His children have a place of refuge and
security." Circle those two things. The family is meant to be a place of refuge and security.
There are many kinds of storms. Emotional, physical, relational, financial. Three storms that rock your life that you need a family to help make it through:
1) Change.
We live in an era of rapid change. new restaurants, stores, 4 or 5 new workout gyms up or being built in Katy in just the past couple of months - New subdividions, homes, construction of all kinds. It's amazing the change!
Any change for good or for bad, positive or negative, causes stress. They even have a home stress scale that says the more change you have in your life, the more stressed out you get. We need a place of stability, a base, some place that's predictable, that you can count on. Alvin Toffler calls them "Islands of security in an age of Future Shock". So we need places of stability when storms of change come.
2) Failure.
Nobody wins all the time. We all make mistakes. We all stumble. Sometime you fail the test. Sometimes you get fired. Sometimes you get passed over for the promotion. Sometimes you go bankrupt. Nobody wins all the time in life. Failure is a whole lot easier to handle when you come home to hugs and there's somebody there to put their arms around you and say, "We're going to make it!" (Ecc. 4:9-10) "Two are better than one... if one of them falls down, the other can help him up. But if someone is alone and falls, it's just too bad, because there is no one to help him.
3) Rejection.
Probably the most difficult of all is rejection. The storm of rejection. That's the toughest one to
handle. It hurts to be criticized. It hurts to be attacked. Some of the most damaging attacks you had occurred when you were a child and you can even still remember them today. Just the thought of that childhood, brings back the fears, the guilt, the shame, the hurt, the sense of feeling rejected
Would you agree that kids can be ruthless with other kids? If you don't believe in the sin nature, become a grade school teacher. Kids say the worst things to each other. Little kids don't have the sense to know what to accept and what to reject. If they don't have any positive reinforcement at home, they're going to tend to believe what all those kids say about them. It isn't true, but they're going to accept and they're going to go through life with emotional wounds. When you become a teenager you go through that difficult stage of acceptance and rejection. Remember the heartbreak of breaking up? Before I re-committed my life to Christ @ 20 - I wasn't always real sensitive. The way I
related to girls before that re-commitment was, rush 'em, mush 'em, crush 'em, then flush 'em.
However, intentionally or unintentionally we get our hearts broken in life. The fact is life is tough and rejection's hard.
Ecclesiastes 4:12, "One standing alone can be attacked and defeated. But two can stand back to back and conquer" We need shelters from storms and two can handle what one cannot handle. The goal of most games is to get home (hide-n-seek; baseball) When you're home you're safe.
That's what the home is supposed to be, a shelter from storms.
How do you turn a home into a shelter? Four words: Hear, Hug, Hope, and Help.
First you HEAR. You need a listening ear if you're going to build a shelter from storms. You've got to listen when your
family hurts and not turn a deaf ear. Listen through the ears. Hear.
Then you've got to HUG. You need to give physical
affection in your family. Lots of it. Pats on the back. Hugs,
embraces, kisses. Physically show your affection for your family.
HELP. You need to give people what they need. When you can help them, you help them out in a practical way. That's what families are for. We help each other.
Then you need to give HOPE. You build each other up rather than tear each other down. You give more strokes than you give pokes. You lift people up, you don't tear them down and
criticize them all the time.
In each of these four purposes of the family I'd like for you
evaluate your own family. Rate yourself 1 to 10. If you'd say "We are always affirming. We are always supportive. We are always encouraging." Give yourself a 10. (And I'm moving in with you!) On the other hand if you'd say we always put down more than we build up give yourself a 1.
The family is to be a shelter from storms.
2. THE FAMILY IS TO BE A LEARNING CENTER
FOR LIFE.
You learn things in your family you'd never learn anywhere else. It's a learning center.
In the family, you learn the most basic skills of life. You learn how to walk, how to talk, how to eat, how to use a TV remote -- basic skills that you have to have in life. You learn those things with your family. God wants your family to be a learning center.
Psalm 144:12 "May our sons in their youth be like plants that grow up strong." The Bible calls the family a garden. It's a garden for growing people. You grow and the rest of the family grows
too. Ephesians 6:4 "Fathers, do not exasperate your children;
instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord." Circle "training" and "instruction".
A lot of training is simply knowing which end of the child to pat. The head or the rear. But you want to move your kids through three stages. You want to move them from parent control to self control to God's control. That's your goal. You move them from parent control where you have to tell them what to do, to self
control -- they know what to do, to God control where they're
asking "Father, what do You want me to do with my life?" That's what training is all about.
Luke 2:52 "Jesus grew in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and with man." This is an important verse not only for
parenting but also for personal growth. In this passage it says that you grow, you develop as a person four ways:
Jesus grew in wisdom, that means He grew intellectually. He grew in stature, physical development. He grew in favor with God, that's spiritual development. And He grew in favor with man -- that's social development. As a parent you want to help your child develop balanced growth in all four of these areas. As a person, you want to individually develop growth in all four of these areas. You need to grow physically, spiritually, intellectually and socially. And develop in all four of these areas. If you do, you have
balance.
There are three areas in your life that you don't leave home
without. As parents we need to be especially concerned about teaching these three areas.
What you learn from your family:
1. We learn relationships from our family.
Right or wrong, good or bad, you learned how to relate to people from your family. Many of you had to relearn certain things later on in life because you learned how to relate in a dysfunctional way. (I have been retrained in a # of areas thanx to my wife) If you don't learn the right way of relating, you're going to learn the wrong way of relating in families. Your happiness in life to a large degree is determined by how you get along with people. If you can't get along with people, you're going to be miserable in life.
One of the things as parents we must be interested in doing is teaching our kids how to relate. We need to model for them good relationships -- that it takes honesty to make a relationship work, that it takes vulnerability to make a relationship work, that relationships don't just happen, it takes energy and effort and that you've got to have a lot of forgiveness if you're going to make a relationship work. Are you teaching those things to your kids? Are you teaching them how to respond to other people? Are you teaching them how to get along with people that are different from them? Are you modeling for them how to resolve conflict? (Alli) Or do you just hide it and deny it and pretend it just doesn't exist? We learn relationships in the family.
2. We learn character in the family.
Character is more caught than it is taught. you can't help but be influenced by your parents, whether you want to or not. I've heard people say, "I'm not going to be like my mom if it's the last thing I do!" And you know what happens! We pick up their character.
My kids are going to pick up good character from me or they're going to pick up bad character. I make a difference, the choices I make, the attitude I have, my reactions impact my children.
And the same for you.
3. We learn values.
We learn what's really important in life. Growing up in your family for right or wrong, good or bad, you learned about the value of money, sex, relationships, failure, success. You learned either how to tackle problems head on or how to run from them in denial. You learned how to either face life or flee from life. We pick up values from those around us. It's important that we teach the right values. You're teaching values either intentionally or unintentionally in your family.
Isaiah 38 "One generation makes known your faithfulness to the next." Your family is a relay of values from one generation to the next. You are just a link in a long, long chain. You, the person that you are, was influenced by the way your parents were raised, by their parents, by their parents...
It goes the other way too. And that helps me remember that when I'm training my kids, I'm not just raising my own kids, I'm
influencing future generations. The way I train my kids is going to influence the way they train their's and that will impact the way they train their's...
Your training in your own family isn't affecting just your own
family. It's going to affect generations as you have been affected by generations.
This is my legacy that I have to build on.
I'm not interested so much in the legacy that you've had or that I've had. But what kind of legacy are you leaving for your kids? I would say to you that you should determine in your life, regardless of my past -- it may be a bad past, a past of alcoholism and divorce and abuse -- and you say, "I'm going to break the chain! I'm starting a new legacy."
Some of you became believers in the last year and you say, "From now on our family is going to be an
influence for good and I'm going to leave my kids not with wealth, not with a big bank account but with spiritual riches and a spiritual heritage that they can pull on that when they go through storms they know that other generations before them went through the same storms and they can handle it because God is with them.
You choose your legacy you're going to leave for your kids and their kids and their kids. If you aren't thinking about it you're
leaving it up to chance. I have heard many people say this phrase. It always irritates me. "I'm not going to impose my spiritual values on my kids. I'm going to just let them make their own decision." Have you ever heard that line? What they're saying -- the translation is, "I'm abdicating my role as a parent to the television." Because your kids are going to pick up values either good ones from you or bad ones from the world and it's your choice. When a person says "I'm not going to force my kids to come to church," or "I'm not going to impose my spiritual values on my children," what they're basically saying is that God is an option. And He is not! He's not an option. The Bible says that one day as parents we will be judged for how well we did at transmitting values.
"These commandments, impress them That means take action, take the initiative! upon your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up." Teaching values is a part of our job description as parents.
If you evaluated yourself -- one to ten -- a learning center. What's being taught in your home? What are you unintentionally teaching about money? What are you unintentionally teaching about sex? What are you unintentionally teaching about what's important in life and the priorities of life? What values do you want to catch? Make a list and then start teaching them.
Amidst the crisis - whatever storm we’re facing, What’s the Family for? What’s the role of the family, what’s the purpose of the family? We are all a part of a family, immediate, extended, we are all a part of family. Today let’s look at the families role in the storms of life.
This morning I thought we'd look at the purposes God intends for your family.
1. THE FAMILY IS A SHELTER FROM STORMS
A lot of people think the family is just a bed and breakfast place.
A tax deduction. But the Bible says far more than that. First it's a shelter from storm. We all have tough days. We all get rained on. We all get dumped on. We all go through bad weather. There are days when things don't work out right. And we all need a place of protection, a place of peace, a refuge where we can just let down from the storms of life and find protection.
The Bible says in Proverbs 14:26 "Reverence for the Lord gives a man deep strength. His children have a place of refuge and
security." Circle those two things. The family is meant to be a place of refuge and security.
There are many kinds of storms. Emotional, physical, relational, financial. Three storms that rock your life that you need a family to help make it through:
1) Change.
We live in an era of rapid change. new restaurants, stores, 4 or 5 new workout gyms up or being built in Katy in just the past couple of months - New subdividions, homes, construction of all kinds. It's amazing the change!
Any change for good or for bad, positive or negative, causes stress. They even have a home stress scale that says the more change you have in your life, the more stressed out you get. We need a place of stability, a base, some place that's predictable, that you can count on. Alvin Toffler calls them "Islands of security in an age of Future Shock". So we need places of stability when storms of change come.
2) Failure.
Nobody wins all the time. We all make mistakes. We all stumble. Sometime you fail the test. Sometimes you get fired. Sometimes you get passed over for the promotion. Sometimes you go bankrupt. Nobody wins all the time in life. Failure is a whole lot easier to handle when you come home to hugs and there's somebody there to put their arms around you and say, "We're going to make it!" (Ecc. 4:9-10) "Two are better than one... if one of them falls down, the other can help him up. But if someone is alone and falls, it's just too bad, because there is no one to help him.
3) Rejection.
Probably the most difficult of all is rejection. The storm of rejection. That's the toughest one to
handle. It hurts to be criticized. It hurts to be attacked. Some of the most damaging attacks you had occurred when you were a child and you can even still remember them today. Just the thought of that childhood, brings back the fears, the guilt, the shame, the hurt, the sense of feeling rejected
Would you agree that kids can be ruthless with other kids? If you don't believe in the sin nature, become a grade school teacher. Kids say the worst things to each other. Little kids don't have the sense to know what to accept and what to reject. If they don't have any positive reinforcement at home, they're going to tend to believe what all those kids say about them. It isn't true, but they're going to accept and they're going to go through life with emotional wounds. When you become a teenager you go through that difficult stage of acceptance and rejection. Remember the heartbreak of breaking up? Before I re-committed my life to Christ @ 20 - I wasn't always real sensitive. The way I
related to girls before that re-commitment was, rush 'em, mush 'em, crush 'em, then flush 'em.
However, intentionally or unintentionally we get our hearts broken in life. The fact is life is tough and rejection's hard.
Ecclesiastes 4:12, "One standing alone can be attacked and defeated. But two can stand back to back and conquer" We need shelters from storms and two can handle what one cannot handle. The goal of most games is to get home (hide-n-seek; baseball) When you're home you're safe.
That's what the home is supposed to be, a shelter from storms.
How do you turn a home into a shelter? Four words: Hear, Hug, Hope, and Help.
First you HEAR. You need a listening ear if you're going to build a shelter from storms. You've got to listen when your
family hurts and not turn a deaf ear. Listen through the ears. Hear.
Then you've got to HUG. You need to give physical
affection in your family. Lots of it. Pats on the back. Hugs,
embraces, kisses. Physically show your affection for your family.
HELP. You need to give people what they need. When you can help them, you help them out in a practical way. That's what families are for. We help each other.
Then you need to give HOPE. You build each other up rather than tear each other down. You give more strokes than you give pokes. You lift people up, you don't tear them down and
criticize them all the time.
In each of these four purposes of the family I'd like for you
evaluate your own family. Rate yourself 1 to 10. If you'd say "We are always affirming. We are always supportive. We are always encouraging." Give yourself a 10. (And I'm moving in with you!) On the other hand if you'd say we always put down more than we build up give yourself a 1.
The family is to be a shelter from storms.
2. THE FAMILY IS TO BE A LEARNING CENTER
FOR LIFE.
You learn things in your family you'd never learn anywhere else. It's a learning center.
In the family, you learn the most basic skills of life. You learn how to walk, how to talk, how to eat, how to use a TV remote -- basic skills that you have to have in life. You learn those things with your family. God wants your family to be a learning center.
Psalm 144:12 "May our sons in their youth be like plants that grow up strong." The Bible calls the family a garden. It's a garden for growing people. You grow and the rest of the family grows
too. Ephesians 6:4 "Fathers, do not exasperate your children;
instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord." Circle "training" and "instruction".
A lot of training is simply knowing which end of the child to pat. The head or the rear. But you want to move your kids through three stages. You want to move them from parent control to self control to God's control. That's your goal. You move them from parent control where you have to tell them what to do, to self
control -- they know what to do, to God control where they're
asking "Father, what do You want me to do with my life?" That's what training is all about.
Luke 2:52 "Jesus grew in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and with man." This is an important verse not only for
parenting but also for personal growth. In this passage it says that you grow, you develop as a person four ways:
Jesus grew in wisdom, that means He grew intellectually. He grew in stature, physical development. He grew in favor with God, that's spiritual development. And He grew in favor with man -- that's social development. As a parent you want to help your child develop balanced growth in all four of these areas. As a person, you want to individually develop growth in all four of these areas. You need to grow physically, spiritually, intellectually and socially. And develop in all four of these areas. If you do, you have
balance.
There are three areas in your life that you don't leave home
without. As parents we need to be especially concerned about teaching these three areas.
What you learn from your family:
1. We learn relationships from our family.
Right or wrong, good or bad, you learned how to relate to people from your family. Many of you had to relearn certain things later on in life because you learned how to relate in a dysfunctional way. (I have been retrained in a # of areas thanx to my wife) If you don't learn the right way of relating, you're going to learn the wrong way of relating in families. Your happiness in life to a large degree is determined by how you get along with people. If you can't get along with people, you're going to be miserable in life.
One of the things as parents we must be interested in doing is teaching our kids how to relate. We need to model for them good relationships -- that it takes honesty to make a relationship work, that it takes vulnerability to make a relationship work, that relationships don't just happen, it takes energy and effort and that you've got to have a lot of forgiveness if you're going to make a relationship work. Are you teaching those things to your kids? Are you teaching them how to respond to other people? Are you teaching them how to get along with people that are different from them? Are you modeling for them how to resolve conflict? (Alli) Or do you just hide it and deny it and pretend it just doesn't exist? We learn relationships in the family.
2. We learn character in the family.
Character is more caught than it is taught. you can't help but be influenced by your parents, whether you want to or not. I've heard people say, "I'm not going to be like my mom if it's the last thing I do!" And you know what happens! We pick up their character.
My kids are going to pick up good character from me or they're going to pick up bad character. I make a difference, the choices I make, the attitude I have, my reactions impact my children.
And the same for you.
3. We learn values.
We learn what's really important in life. Growing up in your family for right or wrong, good or bad, you learned about the value of money, sex, relationships, failure, success. You learned either how to tackle problems head on or how to run from them in denial. You learned how to either face life or flee from life. We pick up values from those around us. It's important that we teach the right values. You're teaching values either intentionally or unintentionally in your family.
Isaiah 38 "One generation makes known your faithfulness to the next." Your family is a relay of values from one generation to the next. You are just a link in a long, long chain. You, the person that you are, was influenced by the way your parents were raised, by their parents, by their parents...
It goes the other way too. And that helps me remember that when I'm training my kids, I'm not just raising my own kids, I'm
influencing future generations. The way I train my kids is going to influence the way they train their's and that will impact the way they train their's...
Your training in your own family isn't affecting just your own
family. It's going to affect generations as you have been affected by generations.
This is my legacy that I have to build on.
I'm not interested so much in the legacy that you've had or that I've had. But what kind of legacy are you leaving for your kids? I would say to you that you should determine in your life, regardless of my past -- it may be a bad past, a past of alcoholism and divorce and abuse -- and you say, "I'm going to break the chain! I'm starting a new legacy."
Some of you became believers in the last year and you say, "From now on our family is going to be an
influence for good and I'm going to leave my kids not with wealth, not with a big bank account but with spiritual riches and a spiritual heritage that they can pull on that when they go through storms they know that other generations before them went through the same storms and they can handle it because God is with them.
You choose your legacy you're going to leave for your kids and their kids and their kids. If you aren't thinking about it you're
leaving it up to chance. I have heard many people say this phrase. It always irritates me. "I'm not going to impose my spiritual values on my kids. I'm going to just let them make their own decision." Have you ever heard that line? What they're saying -- the translation is, "I'm abdicating my role as a parent to the television." Because your kids are going to pick up values either good ones from you or bad ones from the world and it's your choice. When a person says "I'm not going to force my kids to come to church," or "I'm not going to impose my spiritual values on my children," what they're basically saying is that God is an option. And He is not! He's not an option. The Bible says that one day as parents we will be judged for how well we did at transmitting values.
"These commandments, impress them That means take action, take the initiative! upon your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up." Teaching values is a part of our job description as parents.
If you evaluated yourself -- one to ten -- a learning center. What's being taught in your home? What are you unintentionally teaching about money? What are you unintentionally teaching about sex? What are you unintentionally teaching about what's important in life and the priorities of life? What values do you want to catch? Make a list and then start teaching them.
Sunday, October 09, 2005
Storms of Life - The Storms WE Cause
Acts 27. This is a fascinating passage of scripture. It's the story of a storm, a shipwreck & it’s life threatening. The Bible says that all these things are put there as examples for us.
I believe this story is in the Bible to teach us how to be confident in a crisis.
There are different kinds of storms in life. In Acts 27 - This is a storm that they brought on themselves. This is the case here. How do you deal with them? I believe this passage of scripture was put in the Bible to teach us how do you deal with a crisis. How do you be calm in a crisis? How do you have that kind of confidence and courage to maintain, regardless of what happens?
The background of the story is that God had put Paul on board this ship; they were going to go to Rome. Paul's heart’s desire was to go to Rome and preach. Yet while they were on board, God told Paul to tell the crew not to leave harbor because there was going to be a storm out in the Mediterranean ocean. They ignored what God told them to do and they got impatient. There's where you get in trouble every time. When you get impatient, you're going to run right into a storm. I've talked to so many people who got impatient to get married, they got impatient to get a new job, they got impatient to move and they didn't check it out with God. They got
impatient and they sailed right off into a storm.
In 27:9+ it says, "So Paul warned them, `Men, I can see that our voyage is going to be disastrous. It will bring great loss to the ship and the cargo and to our own lives also."
And yet they went sailing right into the storm. Why? It's interesting that this passage shows us the three most common reasons people get themselves into a mess. Two thousand years later, human nature has not changed. They got themselves into a mess for three reasons:
v. 11, 12, 13. HOW WE CAUSE THE STORMS
1. v. 11 "But the centurion, instead of listening to what Paul said, followed the advice of the pilot and of the owner of the ship."
The first reason we get ourselves in a mess is we take the wrong advice from the wrong people - we listen to the wrong experts. There are a lot of crazy ideas out in the world and every week there is a new therapy and a new cult and a new idea and somebody will say, "The key to life is ... to eat bananas and yogurt." On some info-mercial Somebody else will say, "The key to life is to buy our seminar tapes." Everybody's got a way and everybody's got an expert opinion and the fact is the experts are often wrong. There's a lot of crazy ideas. Some people keep asking experts what they think until they find a person that agrees with them in the first place. It's just to substantiate their own bias. When you start asking the wrong experts, you're going to get yourself into a mess.
2. v. 12 "Since the harbor was unsuitable in winter, the majority decided that we should sail on, hoping to reach Phoenix and winter there."
The second reason we get ourselves in trouble is we follow the majority - sometimes we just take a vote. They just said, "What's the majority opinion?" The fact is, the majority is often wrong. When Moses was with the children of Israel, the majority wanted to go back to Egypt. They were wrong. A lot of times we get ourselves into a mess when we simply listen to prevailing opinion, the most popular thing.
The way we hear this today is in one little statement: "But everybody's doing it." The fact is, no, everybody is not doing anything except breathing! But when you listen to majority opinion, that's not always the truth.
3. v. 13 "When a gentle south wind began to blow, they thought they had obtained what they wanted so they weighed anchor and sailed along the shore of Crete."
Why do we get ourselves in trouble? We ask the wrong experts, we go with majority opinion and we rely on circumstances.
Notice it says there was a gentle south wind. What could be better for a nice gentle Mediterranean cruise -- a gentle breeze. They thought they had obtained what they wanted. The circumstances looked favorable. Everything looked good. It seemed like a good thing.
But the fact is, it is crazy to ignore what God says to do even if
circumstances tend to contradict it. It may look good but you may be sailing right into a storm. It may look great. We do this all the time. We go on our feelings. I've heard people say, "It must be ok because I feel so good about it." - "How could it be so wrong, if it feels so right". The fact is feelings lie. They're not always honest. The circumstances may look good but if God says "Wait in the harbor" you had better wait in the harbor because the conditions & circumstances can change. There's a revealing phrase there -- "They thought they had obtained what they wanted". People often say, They had thought they had obtained what they wanted and they go sailing right into a storm, right into a crisis.
As you follow the story, within hours they were caught in a
typhoon. They were in a hurricane. "Before very long a wind of hurricane force called the Northeaster swept down from the island and the ship was caught in the storm and could not head into the wind." We get ourselves in trouble because we listen to the wrong experts, we go by majority opinion, we listen to the circumstances.
Not only does the story teach that but the story teaches us what happens when you get into a crisis. When you're in a crisis you typically do three things. They are the same three things that the sailors did in the next few verses. They are typical reactions when you get under pressure, when you get in a crisis.
HOW STORMS TEND TO AFFECT US
1. v. 15 "The ship was caught by the storm and could not head into the wind so we gave way to it and we were driven along." v. 17 "They let the ship be driven along."
The first thing storms tend to do in our lives is cause us to DRIFT. We just let go of our goal, we forget where we're headed, we forget our values and we just start drifting. You've got to realize, back in those days, they didn't have a compass. They were in a storm and the Bible tells us later on that for two weeks they couldn't even see the stars. (drifting in a Hurr. track) They were in total darkness. When you're in a dark situation, you can't see the stars and you don't have a compass, what do you do? You drift. You just let the waves beat you back and forth. You just go wherever it goes.
Sometimes life seems like that. You get a problem and it just
batters you back and forth. You don't know where you're going, you've lost sight of your goal. There's strong currents of life that sweep you back and forth and you just want to say, "What's the use! Why fight it? I'll just go with the flow." The first thing we tend to do in a crisis is just start drifting, we forget where we're headed in life. We say, "Why make the effort?" And we start drifting along. But that's not all we do.
2. v. 18 "So we took such a violent battering from the storm that the next day they began to throw the cargo overboard. And on the third day, they threw the ship's tackle overboard." These guys are getting desperate. Then they ate one more meal and then threw their meal overboard.
Things that happen in a crisis: First we start to drift. The second thing is we tend to DISCARD.
We start throwing things out of our lives.
The sailors start throwing stuff overboard. First the cargo. Then the ship's tackle. Then the food. Then later you'll find that they threw themselves overboard. They jumped overboard and started swimming to shore.
The point is this: Often when we get in a crisis, a storm, we are tempted to throw out the very things that are precious to us or important to us or the values that we've held on to in better times.
We have a tendency to just throw everything out, discard, because we're under pressure and we just want to get rid of it all. We become impulsive. And we start looking for things to eliminate in our lives. We give up on our dreams. We run out on a
relationship. We throw away values we learned as a kid. We just want to discard it all. We just feel like giving up. It's a typical reaction. We start to drift. We start to discard and throw things out of our lives. We want to give up.
3. The third thing they did is in v. 20 "When neither sun nor stars appeared for many days and the storm continued raging we finally gave up all hope of being saved."
In a crisis you tend to drift. In a crisis you tend to discard, throw things out that are important. And in a crisis you eventually get to the point of DESPAIR. Notice it says, "Finally we gave up all hope" The last thing you throw out when you've got a problem is hope. When you've thrown that away, you've had it! That's the last thing that goes.
Close eyes & Picture this: Fourteen days in total darkness and they're in a little tiny ship in the middle of the Mediterranean being bashed back and forth to the point that they throw out everything. They throw out the ship's tackle. They couldn't guide it if they wanted to. They throw out the food. They throw out all the cargo. Now they are despairing. It says "We finally gave up all hope." They said, “We're doomed, we're finished! We don't have any hope.”
Some of you feel like that right now. You've been going through a problem this past week, this past month, or months. It's been battering you back and forth. You've been throwing things out and you've been tempted to run from it. Finally you've come to the point of despair. You want to say, "What's the use? There's no hope! It is an impossible situation." They gave up everything else and then they gave up their hope.
The point is this: They had forgotten that God is in control. They had forgotten that God had a plan. They had forgotten the fact that He can inject hope into an absolutely, positively hopeless situation.
The amazing part of this story is this: Paul's reaction. It is 180 degree complete turnabout from the way the sailors responded to this crisis. The sailors are in a panic. They are in despair. They say it's hopeless. They're discouraged, depressed, down. They don't know what to do. They've throw it all out. They've drifted for days and they've finally given up hope.
But you read about Paul and Paul's reaction. He's calm, confident. He's got courage in the crisis. Absolutely nothing is phasing him. He's not perturbed by it. When we look at this passage, we learn how to be confident in a crisis. Although those are the natural reactions that we tend to have, they don't have to be our reactions in life toward a crisis, toward a situation that tends to swallow us up.
Paul's reaction was one of confidence. I like that. The test of a man's religion is how he handles a crisis. How do you handle the difficulties in life? Anybody can be a Christian when things are going great. All your prayers are being answered, you're in perfect health, your income is going up, your family is growing.
everything is going fantastic. It's easy to be a Christian like that.
But the test of your faith is how do you handle it when the
problems come in on you and you're tempted to despair and drift and throw out the things that are important in life. Character is revealed in a crisis. It's not made in a crisis. Character is made in the day by day, little, mundane, trivial things of life. (read God's Word;pray) The routine, that's where character is made.
How can you have Godlt character if you don't hang out with God?
But it is revealed when you get into a shipwreck, when you get into a crisis, when you get into a situation that is going to swallow you up. What do you do when things look like they're falling apart and the ship is going to fall apart and disintegrate? What do you do? What do you do when you're being battered about by the problems in life?
v. 29 "Fearing that we would be dashed against the rocks, they dropped four anchors from the stern and they prayed for daylight." The safest thing to do when you get in a storm is to drop your anchors and pray! Just drop your anchors! Just stand still. Put your roots down. Situations change and the sands of time shift. The Bible says in Psalm 125:1 "He who puts his trust in God is like Mount Zion. He is immovable." You have anchors!
The typical reaction for people when they encounter a major
problem, a major crisis and they have a tendency to change
everything else at the same time -- as if they needed more change!
Why was Paul such a confident person? Because he was
encouraged by three tremendous truths. They are foundational
beliefs of the Christian life. They are anchors of the soul.
Hebrews says "Hope is the anchor of the soul."
Let’s look at the truths that will anchor you into the rock of
stability so that when the winds come along and blow you back and forth and you are in a crisis, you will have confidence. They are truths that we can build our lives on. They will stabilize you. What are they? We find them in v. 23, 24, 25.
1. v. 22 "But I urge you to keep up your courage because not one of you will be lost, only the ship will be destroyed." There is a statement of a confident person. He said, "Don't worry. None of you are going to die. You're all going to make it. This too shall pass. We're going to lose the ship, but don't worry, you're going to make it." Why did he have that kind of
confidence?
v. 23 "Last night, when an angel of God,,,, stood beside me." He said, “God sent a representative and he stood beside me.”
The first anchor in a crisis is THE PRESENCE OF GOD. God's presence. The first truth we learn out of this passage is this: Storms can never hide the face of God. You may not see Him but He sees you. You may think He's a million miles away but He sees you. He is with you. The presence of God is the first anchor. The storms of life cannot hide God's face.
Paul had a personal experience. He had a reminder. God sent a representative, an angel and said, "I'm with you! God sees you out here in the middle of the Mediterranean in this little tiny boat. It's OK. Don't worry about it. I see what's going on." Over and over again, the scriptures promise, "I will never leave you or forsake you. ... Lo, I am with you always. ... I will send you a comforter." Over and over again, the Scripture says wherever you are, God is. (last week - unseen savior) You need to trust Him.
2. v. 24 "This angel stood by me and he said `Do not be afraid, Paul. You must [circle "must"] stand trail before Caesar and God has graciously given you the lives of all those who sail with you." God came to Paul and said, "I have a plan for your life. My plan is that you go to Rome. You know you're on board this ship because I have a purpose for you being on board this ship. You're going to Rome. You're going to preach in Caesar's court and I have a
purpose for your life that is greater than the temporary storm
you are in."
That's an anchor. The presence of God is an anchor. THE PURPOSE OF GOD is an anchor.
He says, "Paul, don't be afraid. You must stand before Caesar. You're going to have some skirmishes here and there. You may even get a little wet. But you are going to stand before Caesar. It is inevitable. It cannot be changed because I have a purpose for your life."
As a Christian, every Christian ought to have a sense of destiny. I've said many times, “No person is ever born by accident, regardless of the circumstances of your birth.” You're not here on earth just to take up air. You're not here just to take up space. But God makes a purpose and a plan for every individual person. Storms are simply temporary setbacks in that purpose. Absolutely nothing can change God's ultimate purpose for your life unless you choose to disobey Him. There's no doubt God has a plan for your life. But if you choose to reject it, He will allow you to do that. But the Scripture teaches that no outside person can change God's plan for your life. He leaves that up to you. You can either accept it or you can reject it but no matter what happens on the outside, external forces cannot alter God's purpose for your life as long as you say, "God I want to do Your will!"
Last week we talked about the Christ follower must be focused on eternity - not this temp. planet. Your purpose!
3. There's a third anchor. There's a third truth that gives us
confidence in a crisis. v. 25 So keep up your courage men, For I have faith in God that it will happen just as He told me." The third anchor -- THE PROMISE OF GOD. He said, “God told me we're going to make it.” Does God keep His promises? You bet He does! There is the presence of God, there is the purpose of God for our lives, there is the promise of God. Storms cannot hide the face of God because God is with us. Storms cannot change the purpose of God because it is ultimate. Storms cannot destroy the child of God because of His promise.
"Keep courage for I have faith that it will happen just as He told me." It's a promise! Some of you are going through devastating crises right now. Your problems are overwhelming you and you think you're going under for the last time. Let me say this from God to you: You may lose the boat. You may lose the cargo. You may lose the tackle of the ship. You may even get wet. But you're going to make it because of the promise of God. God said it.
I believe it. That settles it. I relax. I am confident in the crisis.
‘It’s a Guaranteed Delivery!’
What do I do while I'm waiting for God to fulfill His promise? Some of you right now, the days are dark, and you don't like it. You feel discouraged. God brought you here not by accident this morning. He brought you here because He wanted to say to you, "Hang on!"
But what do you do while you're hanging on? What do you do while you're waiting for God to fulfill a promise? What do you do while you're waiting for God to solve the problem? What do you do while you're awaiting for the solution to arrive?
Do what Paul did in v. 29 "Fearing that we would be dashed against the rocks they dropped four anchors from the stern.
Anchor yourselves in the truths of God -- We've talked about that. And they prayed for daylight." Based on God's promise they let their anchors down and they prayed for daylight.
What do you do? You pray. If you're in a crisis right now and it doesn't look like it's going to work out and it looks like everything is going to turn out the wrong way and you don't see your way through it and it looks hopeless, what do you do? You pray for daylight! (series: Can YOU hear me now?)
The result is, morning came. V. 39 "When daylight came, they didn't recognize the land but they saw a bay with a sandy beach where they decided to run the ship aground if they could." And it says "They ran the ship aground, they all jumped overboard to swim to land" and in v. 44 "the rest were to get on planks in the water on pieces of the ship and in this way everyone reached the land in safety." It's got a happy ending. They all reached the land in safety. The entire ship. That’s THE PROMISE OF GOD -
delivered again.
Is there a storm that's about to break up your ship? Some of you feel this morning that you are coming apart at the seams. The rivets are popping. The ship is falling apart. and you think you're going under! This is a situation that is going to swallow me up! And you feel like you're going to go to pieces and you feel like your life is out of control and it's an impossible situation.
may be drifting... tempted to discard, throw it all away... full of
despair, gave up all hope, it wont make it, or last... God says, “I’m with you, I have a purpose for you, I promise!”
I believe this story is in the Bible to teach us how to be confident in a crisis.
There are different kinds of storms in life. In Acts 27 - This is a storm that they brought on themselves. This is the case here. How do you deal with them? I believe this passage of scripture was put in the Bible to teach us how do you deal with a crisis. How do you be calm in a crisis? How do you have that kind of confidence and courage to maintain, regardless of what happens?
The background of the story is that God had put Paul on board this ship; they were going to go to Rome. Paul's heart’s desire was to go to Rome and preach. Yet while they were on board, God told Paul to tell the crew not to leave harbor because there was going to be a storm out in the Mediterranean ocean. They ignored what God told them to do and they got impatient. There's where you get in trouble every time. When you get impatient, you're going to run right into a storm. I've talked to so many people who got impatient to get married, they got impatient to get a new job, they got impatient to move and they didn't check it out with God. They got
impatient and they sailed right off into a storm.
In 27:9+ it says, "So Paul warned them, `Men, I can see that our voyage is going to be disastrous. It will bring great loss to the ship and the cargo and to our own lives also."
And yet they went sailing right into the storm. Why? It's interesting that this passage shows us the three most common reasons people get themselves into a mess. Two thousand years later, human nature has not changed. They got themselves into a mess for three reasons:
v. 11, 12, 13. HOW WE CAUSE THE STORMS
1. v. 11 "But the centurion, instead of listening to what Paul said, followed the advice of the pilot and of the owner of the ship."
The first reason we get ourselves in a mess is we take the wrong advice from the wrong people - we listen to the wrong experts. There are a lot of crazy ideas out in the world and every week there is a new therapy and a new cult and a new idea and somebody will say, "The key to life is ... to eat bananas and yogurt." On some info-mercial Somebody else will say, "The key to life is to buy our seminar tapes." Everybody's got a way and everybody's got an expert opinion and the fact is the experts are often wrong. There's a lot of crazy ideas. Some people keep asking experts what they think until they find a person that agrees with them in the first place. It's just to substantiate their own bias. When you start asking the wrong experts, you're going to get yourself into a mess.
2. v. 12 "Since the harbor was unsuitable in winter, the majority decided that we should sail on, hoping to reach Phoenix and winter there."
The second reason we get ourselves in trouble is we follow the majority - sometimes we just take a vote. They just said, "What's the majority opinion?" The fact is, the majority is often wrong. When Moses was with the children of Israel, the majority wanted to go back to Egypt. They were wrong. A lot of times we get ourselves into a mess when we simply listen to prevailing opinion, the most popular thing.
The way we hear this today is in one little statement: "But everybody's doing it." The fact is, no, everybody is not doing anything except breathing! But when you listen to majority opinion, that's not always the truth.
3. v. 13 "When a gentle south wind began to blow, they thought they had obtained what they wanted so they weighed anchor and sailed along the shore of Crete."
Why do we get ourselves in trouble? We ask the wrong experts, we go with majority opinion and we rely on circumstances.
Notice it says there was a gentle south wind. What could be better for a nice gentle Mediterranean cruise -- a gentle breeze. They thought they had obtained what they wanted. The circumstances looked favorable. Everything looked good. It seemed like a good thing.
But the fact is, it is crazy to ignore what God says to do even if
circumstances tend to contradict it. It may look good but you may be sailing right into a storm. It may look great. We do this all the time. We go on our feelings. I've heard people say, "It must be ok because I feel so good about it." - "How could it be so wrong, if it feels so right". The fact is feelings lie. They're not always honest. The circumstances may look good but if God says "Wait in the harbor" you had better wait in the harbor because the conditions & circumstances can change. There's a revealing phrase there -- "They thought they had obtained what they wanted". People often say, They had thought they had obtained what they wanted and they go sailing right into a storm, right into a crisis.
As you follow the story, within hours they were caught in a
typhoon. They were in a hurricane. "Before very long a wind of hurricane force called the Northeaster swept down from the island and the ship was caught in the storm and could not head into the wind." We get ourselves in trouble because we listen to the wrong experts, we go by majority opinion, we listen to the circumstances.
Not only does the story teach that but the story teaches us what happens when you get into a crisis. When you're in a crisis you typically do three things. They are the same three things that the sailors did in the next few verses. They are typical reactions when you get under pressure, when you get in a crisis.
HOW STORMS TEND TO AFFECT US
1. v. 15 "The ship was caught by the storm and could not head into the wind so we gave way to it and we were driven along." v. 17 "They let the ship be driven along."
The first thing storms tend to do in our lives is cause us to DRIFT. We just let go of our goal, we forget where we're headed, we forget our values and we just start drifting. You've got to realize, back in those days, they didn't have a compass. They were in a storm and the Bible tells us later on that for two weeks they couldn't even see the stars. (drifting in a Hurr. track) They were in total darkness. When you're in a dark situation, you can't see the stars and you don't have a compass, what do you do? You drift. You just let the waves beat you back and forth. You just go wherever it goes.
Sometimes life seems like that. You get a problem and it just
batters you back and forth. You don't know where you're going, you've lost sight of your goal. There's strong currents of life that sweep you back and forth and you just want to say, "What's the use! Why fight it? I'll just go with the flow." The first thing we tend to do in a crisis is just start drifting, we forget where we're headed in life. We say, "Why make the effort?" And we start drifting along. But that's not all we do.
2. v. 18 "So we took such a violent battering from the storm that the next day they began to throw the cargo overboard. And on the third day, they threw the ship's tackle overboard." These guys are getting desperate. Then they ate one more meal and then threw their meal overboard.
Things that happen in a crisis: First we start to drift. The second thing is we tend to DISCARD.
We start throwing things out of our lives.
The sailors start throwing stuff overboard. First the cargo. Then the ship's tackle. Then the food. Then later you'll find that they threw themselves overboard. They jumped overboard and started swimming to shore.
The point is this: Often when we get in a crisis, a storm, we are tempted to throw out the very things that are precious to us or important to us or the values that we've held on to in better times.
We have a tendency to just throw everything out, discard, because we're under pressure and we just want to get rid of it all. We become impulsive. And we start looking for things to eliminate in our lives. We give up on our dreams. We run out on a
relationship. We throw away values we learned as a kid. We just want to discard it all. We just feel like giving up. It's a typical reaction. We start to drift. We start to discard and throw things out of our lives. We want to give up.
3. The third thing they did is in v. 20 "When neither sun nor stars appeared for many days and the storm continued raging we finally gave up all hope of being saved."
In a crisis you tend to drift. In a crisis you tend to discard, throw things out that are important. And in a crisis you eventually get to the point of DESPAIR. Notice it says, "Finally we gave up all hope" The last thing you throw out when you've got a problem is hope. When you've thrown that away, you've had it! That's the last thing that goes.
Close eyes & Picture this: Fourteen days in total darkness and they're in a little tiny ship in the middle of the Mediterranean being bashed back and forth to the point that they throw out everything. They throw out the ship's tackle. They couldn't guide it if they wanted to. They throw out the food. They throw out all the cargo. Now they are despairing. It says "We finally gave up all hope." They said, “We're doomed, we're finished! We don't have any hope.”
Some of you feel like that right now. You've been going through a problem this past week, this past month, or months. It's been battering you back and forth. You've been throwing things out and you've been tempted to run from it. Finally you've come to the point of despair. You want to say, "What's the use? There's no hope! It is an impossible situation." They gave up everything else and then they gave up their hope.
The point is this: They had forgotten that God is in control. They had forgotten that God had a plan. They had forgotten the fact that He can inject hope into an absolutely, positively hopeless situation.
The amazing part of this story is this: Paul's reaction. It is 180 degree complete turnabout from the way the sailors responded to this crisis. The sailors are in a panic. They are in despair. They say it's hopeless. They're discouraged, depressed, down. They don't know what to do. They've throw it all out. They've drifted for days and they've finally given up hope.
But you read about Paul and Paul's reaction. He's calm, confident. He's got courage in the crisis. Absolutely nothing is phasing him. He's not perturbed by it. When we look at this passage, we learn how to be confident in a crisis. Although those are the natural reactions that we tend to have, they don't have to be our reactions in life toward a crisis, toward a situation that tends to swallow us up.
Paul's reaction was one of confidence. I like that. The test of a man's religion is how he handles a crisis. How do you handle the difficulties in life? Anybody can be a Christian when things are going great. All your prayers are being answered, you're in perfect health, your income is going up, your family is growing.
everything is going fantastic. It's easy to be a Christian like that.
But the test of your faith is how do you handle it when the
problems come in on you and you're tempted to despair and drift and throw out the things that are important in life. Character is revealed in a crisis. It's not made in a crisis. Character is made in the day by day, little, mundane, trivial things of life. (read God's Word;pray) The routine, that's where character is made.
How can you have Godlt character if you don't hang out with God?
But it is revealed when you get into a shipwreck, when you get into a crisis, when you get into a situation that is going to swallow you up. What do you do when things look like they're falling apart and the ship is going to fall apart and disintegrate? What do you do? What do you do when you're being battered about by the problems in life?
v. 29 "Fearing that we would be dashed against the rocks, they dropped four anchors from the stern and they prayed for daylight." The safest thing to do when you get in a storm is to drop your anchors and pray! Just drop your anchors! Just stand still. Put your roots down. Situations change and the sands of time shift. The Bible says in Psalm 125:1 "He who puts his trust in God is like Mount Zion. He is immovable." You have anchors!
The typical reaction for people when they encounter a major
problem, a major crisis and they have a tendency to change
everything else at the same time -- as if they needed more change!
Why was Paul such a confident person? Because he was
encouraged by three tremendous truths. They are foundational
beliefs of the Christian life. They are anchors of the soul.
Hebrews says "Hope is the anchor of the soul."
Let’s look at the truths that will anchor you into the rock of
stability so that when the winds come along and blow you back and forth and you are in a crisis, you will have confidence. They are truths that we can build our lives on. They will stabilize you. What are they? We find them in v. 23, 24, 25.
1. v. 22 "But I urge you to keep up your courage because not one of you will be lost, only the ship will be destroyed." There is a statement of a confident person. He said, "Don't worry. None of you are going to die. You're all going to make it. This too shall pass. We're going to lose the ship, but don't worry, you're going to make it." Why did he have that kind of
confidence?
v. 23 "Last night, when an angel of God,,,, stood beside me." He said, “God sent a representative and he stood beside me.”
The first anchor in a crisis is THE PRESENCE OF GOD. God's presence. The first truth we learn out of this passage is this: Storms can never hide the face of God. You may not see Him but He sees you. You may think He's a million miles away but He sees you. He is with you. The presence of God is the first anchor. The storms of life cannot hide God's face.
Paul had a personal experience. He had a reminder. God sent a representative, an angel and said, "I'm with you! God sees you out here in the middle of the Mediterranean in this little tiny boat. It's OK. Don't worry about it. I see what's going on." Over and over again, the scriptures promise, "I will never leave you or forsake you. ... Lo, I am with you always. ... I will send you a comforter." Over and over again, the Scripture says wherever you are, God is. (last week - unseen savior) You need to trust Him.
2. v. 24 "This angel stood by me and he said `Do not be afraid, Paul. You must [circle "must"] stand trail before Caesar and God has graciously given you the lives of all those who sail with you." God came to Paul and said, "I have a plan for your life. My plan is that you go to Rome. You know you're on board this ship because I have a purpose for you being on board this ship. You're going to Rome. You're going to preach in Caesar's court and I have a
purpose for your life that is greater than the temporary storm
you are in."
That's an anchor. The presence of God is an anchor. THE PURPOSE OF GOD is an anchor.
He says, "Paul, don't be afraid. You must stand before Caesar. You're going to have some skirmishes here and there. You may even get a little wet. But you are going to stand before Caesar. It is inevitable. It cannot be changed because I have a purpose for your life."
As a Christian, every Christian ought to have a sense of destiny. I've said many times, “No person is ever born by accident, regardless of the circumstances of your birth.” You're not here on earth just to take up air. You're not here just to take up space. But God makes a purpose and a plan for every individual person. Storms are simply temporary setbacks in that purpose. Absolutely nothing can change God's ultimate purpose for your life unless you choose to disobey Him. There's no doubt God has a plan for your life. But if you choose to reject it, He will allow you to do that. But the Scripture teaches that no outside person can change God's plan for your life. He leaves that up to you. You can either accept it or you can reject it but no matter what happens on the outside, external forces cannot alter God's purpose for your life as long as you say, "God I want to do Your will!"
Last week we talked about the Christ follower must be focused on eternity - not this temp. planet. Your purpose!
3. There's a third anchor. There's a third truth that gives us
confidence in a crisis. v. 25 So keep up your courage men, For I have faith in God that it will happen just as He told me." The third anchor -- THE PROMISE OF GOD. He said, “God told me we're going to make it.” Does God keep His promises? You bet He does! There is the presence of God, there is the purpose of God for our lives, there is the promise of God. Storms cannot hide the face of God because God is with us. Storms cannot change the purpose of God because it is ultimate. Storms cannot destroy the child of God because of His promise.
"Keep courage for I have faith that it will happen just as He told me." It's a promise! Some of you are going through devastating crises right now. Your problems are overwhelming you and you think you're going under for the last time. Let me say this from God to you: You may lose the boat. You may lose the cargo. You may lose the tackle of the ship. You may even get wet. But you're going to make it because of the promise of God. God said it.
I believe it. That settles it. I relax. I am confident in the crisis.
‘It’s a Guaranteed Delivery!’
What do I do while I'm waiting for God to fulfill His promise? Some of you right now, the days are dark, and you don't like it. You feel discouraged. God brought you here not by accident this morning. He brought you here because He wanted to say to you, "Hang on!"
But what do you do while you're hanging on? What do you do while you're waiting for God to fulfill a promise? What do you do while you're waiting for God to solve the problem? What do you do while you're awaiting for the solution to arrive?
Do what Paul did in v. 29 "Fearing that we would be dashed against the rocks they dropped four anchors from the stern.
Anchor yourselves in the truths of God -- We've talked about that. And they prayed for daylight." Based on God's promise they let their anchors down and they prayed for daylight.
What do you do? You pray. If you're in a crisis right now and it doesn't look like it's going to work out and it looks like everything is going to turn out the wrong way and you don't see your way through it and it looks hopeless, what do you do? You pray for daylight! (series: Can YOU hear me now?)
The result is, morning came. V. 39 "When daylight came, they didn't recognize the land but they saw a bay with a sandy beach where they decided to run the ship aground if they could." And it says "They ran the ship aground, they all jumped overboard to swim to land" and in v. 44 "the rest were to get on planks in the water on pieces of the ship and in this way everyone reached the land in safety." It's got a happy ending. They all reached the land in safety. The entire ship. That’s THE PROMISE OF GOD -
delivered again.
Is there a storm that's about to break up your ship? Some of you feel this morning that you are coming apart at the seams. The rivets are popping. The ship is falling apart. and you think you're going under! This is a situation that is going to swallow me up! And you feel like you're going to go to pieces and you feel like your life is out of control and it's an impossible situation.
may be drifting... tempted to discard, throw it all away... full of
despair, gave up all hope, it wont make it, or last... God says, “I’m with you, I have a purpose for you, I promise!”
Sunday, October 02, 2005
Storms of Life - Hope in the midst of...
"Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us." Romans 5:3-5
Hope in the midst of... you fill in the blank. It could be
destruction, difficulties, discouragement, suffering, failure or any number of things.
We started a new series last week, ‘the storms of life’ - we talked about the lessons learned from Hurricane Katrina, that was timely - dealing w/ Rita locally just days later.
We dont look alike, we dont act alike, we dont dress alike. We have different tastes in the food we eat, the books we read, cars we drive, music we enjoy. You like hip-hop, I like rock. We have different goals, priorities, and motivations. We work different jobs, enjoy different hobbies. You like Nascar, I like the Dallas Cowboys. Our weights vary, heights vary.
So does the color of our skin - But there is 1 thing we all have in common:
We all know what it means to hurt.
Suffering is a universal language - our tears are the same.
When life hurts and our dreams fade, we may express our
anguish in different ways, but each one of us knows the sting of pain and heartache, disease and disaster, trials and sufferings.
Suffering is a common thread.
Peter, a disciple of Jesus, an apostle of the 1st church
addresses suffering and pain in his 1st letter. He encouraged those in pain, those hurting to look upward so they could see beyond their circumstances to One who has everything under control.
This letter is from Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ.
"I am writing to God's chosen people who are living as foreigners in the lands of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, the province of Asia, and Bithynia. God the Father chose you long ago, and the Spirit has made you holy. As a result, you have obeyed
Jesus Christ and are cleansed by his blood.
May you have more and more of God's special favor and
wonderful peace." 1 Peter 1:1-2
The 1st bit of good news Peter gives us is that we are
“chosen by God”. What a helpful reminder! We aren’t just thrown on this earth like dice tossed across a table. We have been placed here for a purpose. God has given us a purpose for our existence, a reason to go on, even though that existence
includes some tough times.
Hope in the midst of... Hope is as important to us as water is to a fish, as vital as electricity is to a light-bulb, as air is to a bird.
Hope is like an anchor.
As we continue to read Peter’s 1st letter we find 6 reasons why we can rejoice through hard times & experience hope beyond
suffering.
We Have a Living Hope
"All honor to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, for it is by his boundless mercy that God has given us the privilege of being born again. Now we live with a wonderful expectation
because Jesus Christ rose again from the dead." 1 Peter 1:3
As difficult as some pages of our lives may be, nothing that
occurs to us on this earth falls into the category of “the final chapter”. That chapter comes the day we arrive in heaven.
How can we concern ourselves that much over what happens on this temp. planet when we know that it’s all leading us to our eternal destination? Peter calls that our ‘living hope’ - Now we live with a wonderful expectation.
it’s the living hope based on the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
If Christ went through some of the most difficult trials and
enormous pain physically and emotionally - died a horrific death and came through it all back to life again. Certainly He can bring us through whatever we face in this world, no matter how deep that pit may seem to be at the time.
Do you realize how scarce hope is to those w/out Christ?
To those w/out Christ - those not putting their faith and lives in His control, hope is nothing more than mental fantasy, like
wishing upon a star - it’s Disneyland kind of hope.
“I sure hope I win the lotto” - “ I hope everything works out OK”
That’s not a ‘living hope’, that’s wishful thinking.
But those who are ‘born again’ in Christ Jesus have been
promised a living hope through His resurrection.
When times are tough, we can remind ourselves this isn’t the end of the story... it’s simply the rough journey that leads to the right destination!
If hope is like an anchor, then our hope in Christ stabilizes us in the storms of life, but unlike an anchor, it does not hold us back.
We Have a Divine Protection
And God, in his mighty power, will protect you until you receive this salvation, because you are trusting him. 1 Peter 1:5
you think ADT got your back when it comes to security? We are protected by the most efficient security system available - the Power of God! There is nothing, no suffering, no disorder, no disease, not even death itself can weaken or threaten God’s
ultimate protection over our lives. Nothing. We are divinely
protected.
Our world is filled w/ warfare, terrorism, natural disasters, and all kinds of evil - think of the innocence lost in the 1995 OKC
bombing, the 1989 Bay area earthquake, 9/11, car bombs in
Israel, these devastating hurricanes, nothing can separate us
from God’s hand.
"For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers,
neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord" Romans 8:38-39
2 words will help you cope when you run low on hope:
accept and trust.
Accept the mystery of hardship, suffering, misfortune, ect... Don’t try to understand it or explain it. Accept it.
Then deliberately trust God to protect you by His power from this very moment into eternity.
We Have a Developing Faith
"So be truly glad! There is wonderful joy ahead, even though it is necessary for you to endure many trials for a while.
These trials are only to test your faith, to show that it is strong and pure. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold--and your faith is far more precious to God than mere gold. So if your faith remains strong after being tried by fiery trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world." 1 Peter 1:6-7
Peter tells us to be glad, to be extremely joyful ‘even though’
‘even though’ indicates that joy is unconditional - it does not
depend on the circumstances surrounding us.
These 2 vs. 6-7 also reveal 3 significant things about trials:
1st ‘trial are often necessary’, proving the authenticity of our faith and at the same time teaching us humility. they reveal our own helplessness, they put our face before God.
2nd,’trials are distressing’, teaching us compassion so that we never make light of another’s difficulty - how unfair to trivialize another persons trial by comparing what he or she is going through w/ what someone else has endured.
Comparison doesn’t comfort - it doesnt help the person who has lost a child to hear about someone else who endured the loss of 2 - Teresa lost both of hers.
Feel what they feeling, walk quietly & compassionately in their shoes.
3rd, ‘trials come in various forms’ - they come in all sizes, shapes, and colors. They are different just as we are different.
Something that hardly affects you may knock the feet out of
another - but God offers special grace to match every shade of sorrow.
We Have an Unseen Savior
"You love him even though you have never seen him. Though you do not see him, you trust him; and even now you are happy with a glorious, inexpressible joy." 1 Peter 1:8
Peter is telling us here that our Savior is standing alongside us no matter the circumstance or situation. He is there even though we cannot see Him. (God is there, just like air)
You don’t have to see someone to love them - a blind mother has never seen her children, but she loves them - we have not visibly seen Him walking among us - he is there nonetheless.
‘Footprints in the sand’
We Have a Permanent Inheritance
"For God has reserved a priceless inheritance for his children. It is kept in heaven for you, pure and undefiled, beyond the reach of change and decay." 1 Peter 1:4
We can rejoice b/c we have a secure home in heaven, our place there is reserved under safekeeping, under the constant
surveillance of Almighty God.
Have you ever experienced that feeling of someone else sitting in your reserved seats at a ball-game or on an airplane. At best it’s awkward; at worst it leads to an embarrassing confrontation.
That’s not happenin’ w God - if you have connected to Him it’s a done deal. He’s not gonna look at you and ask, “You’re
supposed to be here? He will welcome you w/ open arms - your name will be on the door - that’s reason to rejoice!
We Have a Guaranteed Deliverance
"Your reward for trusting him will be the salvation of your souls." 1 Peter 1:9
How can we rejoice through our pain? How can we have hope beyond our suffering? B/c we have a living hope, we have divine protection, we have a developing faith, we have an unseen
savior, we have a permanent inheritance, and a guaranteed
deliverance.
This isn’t the kind of delivery airlines promise you when you check your bags - It’s even better than George Zimmer’s
“I guarantee it”
When it comes to spiritual delivery, we never have to worry.
God guarantees deliverance! That’s what Christ did on the cross - that’s what it was all about.
When we are down and out, only Christ’s perspective can
replace resentment w/ rejoicing.
Hope in the midst of... you fill in the blank. It could be
destruction, difficulties, discouragement, suffering, failure or any number of things.
We started a new series last week, ‘the storms of life’ - we talked about the lessons learned from Hurricane Katrina, that was timely - dealing w/ Rita locally just days later.
We dont look alike, we dont act alike, we dont dress alike. We have different tastes in the food we eat, the books we read, cars we drive, music we enjoy. You like hip-hop, I like rock. We have different goals, priorities, and motivations. We work different jobs, enjoy different hobbies. You like Nascar, I like the Dallas Cowboys. Our weights vary, heights vary.
So does the color of our skin - But there is 1 thing we all have in common:
We all know what it means to hurt.
Suffering is a universal language - our tears are the same.
When life hurts and our dreams fade, we may express our
anguish in different ways, but each one of us knows the sting of pain and heartache, disease and disaster, trials and sufferings.
Suffering is a common thread.
Peter, a disciple of Jesus, an apostle of the 1st church
addresses suffering and pain in his 1st letter. He encouraged those in pain, those hurting to look upward so they could see beyond their circumstances to One who has everything under control.
This letter is from Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ.
"I am writing to God's chosen people who are living as foreigners in the lands of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, the province of Asia, and Bithynia. God the Father chose you long ago, and the Spirit has made you holy. As a result, you have obeyed
Jesus Christ and are cleansed by his blood.
May you have more and more of God's special favor and
wonderful peace." 1 Peter 1:1-2
The 1st bit of good news Peter gives us is that we are
“chosen by God”. What a helpful reminder! We aren’t just thrown on this earth like dice tossed across a table. We have been placed here for a purpose. God has given us a purpose for our existence, a reason to go on, even though that existence
includes some tough times.
Hope in the midst of... Hope is as important to us as water is to a fish, as vital as electricity is to a light-bulb, as air is to a bird.
Hope is like an anchor.
As we continue to read Peter’s 1st letter we find 6 reasons why we can rejoice through hard times & experience hope beyond
suffering.
We Have a Living Hope
"All honor to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, for it is by his boundless mercy that God has given us the privilege of being born again. Now we live with a wonderful expectation
because Jesus Christ rose again from the dead." 1 Peter 1:3
As difficult as some pages of our lives may be, nothing that
occurs to us on this earth falls into the category of “the final chapter”. That chapter comes the day we arrive in heaven.
How can we concern ourselves that much over what happens on this temp. planet when we know that it’s all leading us to our eternal destination? Peter calls that our ‘living hope’ - Now we live with a wonderful expectation.
it’s the living hope based on the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
If Christ went through some of the most difficult trials and
enormous pain physically and emotionally - died a horrific death and came through it all back to life again. Certainly He can bring us through whatever we face in this world, no matter how deep that pit may seem to be at the time.
Do you realize how scarce hope is to those w/out Christ?
To those w/out Christ - those not putting their faith and lives in His control, hope is nothing more than mental fantasy, like
wishing upon a star - it’s Disneyland kind of hope.
“I sure hope I win the lotto” - “ I hope everything works out OK”
That’s not a ‘living hope’, that’s wishful thinking.
But those who are ‘born again’ in Christ Jesus have been
promised a living hope through His resurrection.
When times are tough, we can remind ourselves this isn’t the end of the story... it’s simply the rough journey that leads to the right destination!
If hope is like an anchor, then our hope in Christ stabilizes us in the storms of life, but unlike an anchor, it does not hold us back.
We Have a Divine Protection
And God, in his mighty power, will protect you until you receive this salvation, because you are trusting him. 1 Peter 1:5
you think ADT got your back when it comes to security? We are protected by the most efficient security system available - the Power of God! There is nothing, no suffering, no disorder, no disease, not even death itself can weaken or threaten God’s
ultimate protection over our lives. Nothing. We are divinely
protected.
Our world is filled w/ warfare, terrorism, natural disasters, and all kinds of evil - think of the innocence lost in the 1995 OKC
bombing, the 1989 Bay area earthquake, 9/11, car bombs in
Israel, these devastating hurricanes, nothing can separate us
from God’s hand.
"For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers,
neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord" Romans 8:38-39
2 words will help you cope when you run low on hope:
accept and trust.
Accept the mystery of hardship, suffering, misfortune, ect... Don’t try to understand it or explain it. Accept it.
Then deliberately trust God to protect you by His power from this very moment into eternity.
We Have a Developing Faith
"So be truly glad! There is wonderful joy ahead, even though it is necessary for you to endure many trials for a while.
These trials are only to test your faith, to show that it is strong and pure. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold--and your faith is far more precious to God than mere gold. So if your faith remains strong after being tried by fiery trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world." 1 Peter 1:6-7
Peter tells us to be glad, to be extremely joyful ‘even though’
‘even though’ indicates that joy is unconditional - it does not
depend on the circumstances surrounding us.
These 2 vs. 6-7 also reveal 3 significant things about trials:
1st ‘trial are often necessary’, proving the authenticity of our faith and at the same time teaching us humility. they reveal our own helplessness, they put our face before God.
2nd,’trials are distressing’, teaching us compassion so that we never make light of another’s difficulty - how unfair to trivialize another persons trial by comparing what he or she is going through w/ what someone else has endured.
Comparison doesn’t comfort - it doesnt help the person who has lost a child to hear about someone else who endured the loss of 2 - Teresa lost both of hers.
Feel what they feeling, walk quietly & compassionately in their shoes.
3rd, ‘trials come in various forms’ - they come in all sizes, shapes, and colors. They are different just as we are different.
Something that hardly affects you may knock the feet out of
another - but God offers special grace to match every shade of sorrow.
We Have an Unseen Savior
"You love him even though you have never seen him. Though you do not see him, you trust him; and even now you are happy with a glorious, inexpressible joy." 1 Peter 1:8
Peter is telling us here that our Savior is standing alongside us no matter the circumstance or situation. He is there even though we cannot see Him. (God is there, just like air)
You don’t have to see someone to love them - a blind mother has never seen her children, but she loves them - we have not visibly seen Him walking among us - he is there nonetheless.
‘Footprints in the sand’
We Have a Permanent Inheritance
"For God has reserved a priceless inheritance for his children. It is kept in heaven for you, pure and undefiled, beyond the reach of change and decay." 1 Peter 1:4
We can rejoice b/c we have a secure home in heaven, our place there is reserved under safekeeping, under the constant
surveillance of Almighty God.
Have you ever experienced that feeling of someone else sitting in your reserved seats at a ball-game or on an airplane. At best it’s awkward; at worst it leads to an embarrassing confrontation.
That’s not happenin’ w God - if you have connected to Him it’s a done deal. He’s not gonna look at you and ask, “You’re
supposed to be here? He will welcome you w/ open arms - your name will be on the door - that’s reason to rejoice!
We Have a Guaranteed Deliverance
"Your reward for trusting him will be the salvation of your souls." 1 Peter 1:9
How can we rejoice through our pain? How can we have hope beyond our suffering? B/c we have a living hope, we have divine protection, we have a developing faith, we have an unseen
savior, we have a permanent inheritance, and a guaranteed
deliverance.
This isn’t the kind of delivery airlines promise you when you check your bags - It’s even better than George Zimmer’s
“I guarantee it”
When it comes to spiritual delivery, we never have to worry.
God guarantees deliverance! That’s what Christ did on the cross - that’s what it was all about.
When we are down and out, only Christ’s perspective can
replace resentment w/ rejoicing.
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