Walking the Hard Road
Transformed • Sermon • Submitted
0 ratings
· 380 viewsLiving a transformed life is not easy. Transformation brings obligation to those that are weaker than you. The world need a hand up. We must be willing to travel the hard road to get them there. We look to Jesus the author and finisher of our faith as our example. What was Jesus willing to do to help out the weak. Just as he was willing to take the long hard road to the cross so we must be willing to walk the hard road for the weak today.
Notes
Transcript
Sermon Tone Analysis
A
D
F
J
S
Emotion
A
C
T
Language
O
C
E
A
E
Social
Introduction
This is our last message in this series we have entitled, “Transformed.”
Have you ever stopped to consider what it takes to transform a life.
Have you ever stopped to consider what it took to transform your life.
People are broken in every way.
Scarred up from the wounds of the past.
Feeling all the guilt and shame that comes with life.
Hiding behind any mask they can find to escape reality or just to escape those around them.
Frightened by an unknown future and uncertain path.
Wondering if anybody can truly help and if so do they even care.
This brokenness knows no boundaries of gender, race, or social status. It hits everybody the same.
This is the world that Jesus entered and the world to which he brought redemption through his sacrifice.
48 But the one who did not know, and did what deserved a beating, will receive a light beating. Everyone to whom much was given, of him much will be required, and from him to whom they entrusted much, they will demand the more.
Luke
Transformation wasn’t cheap. Jesus was willing to walk the hard road with broken people even to the point of giving his life for them.
3 He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
He was rejected and dispised
In the midst of this rejection he would heal a blind man who had been blind from brith.
As a man of sorrows he would stop by the pool of Bethesda and heal a lame man that had been waiting on a miracle all his life.
While they plotted against Him, he gave hope, purpose, and meaning to those that followed.
What does it take to walk the hard road?
The road that brings hope to the world is not an easy road. The thing that makes the road so hard is not the twists and turns but the people like you and me trying to find our way on the road, stumbling and fumbling around bumping into things, bumping into other people.
Jesus was a guide through the maze of life. He is the light that leads the way.
Now Christ lives in us. He is still walking the hard road with people. He just doing it through us.
So, I ask again, “What does it take to walk the hard road of ministry?”
One of the greatest signs that you have been transformed through Jesus Christ is you are willing to walk the hard road of transformation with others just as Jesus did.
The hard road takes a passion for People.
The hard road takes a passion for People.
1 We who are strong have an obligation to bear with the failings of the weak, and not to please ourselves.
Rom 15:
Your position of strength is your obligation to serve.
Your position of strength is your obligation to serve.
Rom 1:14-16
14 I am under obligation both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish. 15 So I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome.
14 I am under obligation both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish. 15 So I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome. 16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
Sampson, one of the most famous judges of Isreal. He lived under a Nazarite vow to God in which he never cut his hair. God honored the vow and gave him great strength. This strength was to be used to deliver Israel in times of trouble.
Instead of using his God-given strength to deliver Israel, He used it for his own desires and pleasure.
He was seduced by the enemy through a woman named Delila. She cut off his hair and he lost his strength. The enemy plucked out his eyes and threw him in prison.
Many times we are like Sampson. We have the power in the Spirit to deliver people in times of trouble, but we use it for our own desires and pleasure while the people lie in ruin.
I wonder how many Christians have had their strength stripped by the world. We have been seduced by the world into thinking God’s power and strength is for our good pleasure, and we let the enemy steal it away.
But this is not the end of Sampson’s story. With no eyes to see, he humbled himself and prayed and asked God to give him strength one more time to deliver his people, and God granted his request and in one day he wiped out more of the enemy than the rest of his life combined.
But this is not the end of Sampson’s story. With no eyes to see, he humbled himself and prayed and asked God to give him strength one more time to deliver his people, and God granted his request and in one day he wiped out more of the enemy than the rest of his life combined.
What would happen if we would humble ourselves and pray to God and ask him to renew our strength not for ourselves but for those on the hard road. I believe God would hear our prayers just as he did with Sampson and we could see the greatest victory of our lives in front of us and not behind us.
Your strength takes on purpose when you bear up the weak.
Your strength takes on purpose when you bear up the weak.
Our strength comes from the Lord.
28 Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable. 29 He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength. 30 Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; 31 but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.
Is 40:28
Through the power of God we can bear the failings of the weak.
I started thinking about the ministries that God has called us into.
Jobs for Life
FaithBridge Fostercare
CAYA
Alternative Baseball
Allgood
They are all hard roads to walk with people. But through God’s strength and might we can build them up, make them strong as well.
2 Let each of us please his neighbor for his good, to build him up.
We are to multiply the strength of the Lord in others.
The hard road takes the passion of Christ.
The hard road takes the passion of Christ.
3 For Christ did not please himself, but as it is written, “The reproaches of those who reproached you fell on me.”
Christ was willing to put your needs above his comfort.
Christ was willing to put your needs above his comfort.
2 looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
Christ’s passion was to see others transformed.
Christ’s passion was to see others transformed.
Is 53:4
4 Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. 5 But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.
It was prophesied that Christ would walk the hard road for us.
He came knowing the trials that laid ahead and still he was willing.
He also told us that we would have trouble in this world.
We go into this thing knowing it’s not going to be easy, but it will be transforming to our community and the world.
The hard road leads to the high road as we bring glory and honor to God.
The hard road leads to the high road as we bring glory and honor to God.
Romans 15:
5 May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus, 6 that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
God will grant you the endurance and encouragement to walk the hard road with others.
God will grant you the endurance and encouragement to walk the hard road with others.
The broken will be made whole.
The lost will find their way.
The hopeless will find meaning and purpose once again.
But only if we are courageous and endure the hard road.
God is glorified when you take the high road and bear fruit through his strength.
God is glorified when you take the high road and bear fruit through his strength.
3 Attitudes for the Hard Road
3 Attitudes for the Hard Road
A transformed respect for all people.
God is no respecter of persons.
He is willing to walk the hard road with anyone.
A transformed understanding of your purpose.
We are here to use God’s strength to strengthen others.
God brings all the endurance and strength needed to walk the hard road.
A transformed sacrifice for others.
You have to show up to take on someone’s burden.
It’s a sacrifice to disciple and rebuild a life.
The work of relational reconciliation is exhausting, but we are blessed to do it.
Don’t give up or give out!! “Don’t get weary in well doing, for in due season you shall reap if you faint not.
When it doesn’t look or feel like your making a difference, keep going!
When you are tired and weary from the hard road, keep going!
When your hope is starting to fade look to Jesus and keep going!
the transformation is worth the struggle so keep walking the hard road.