Belief in the Storm

Good Morning Living Word Community Church. This is pastor Jeff, and it is a pleasure to be with you here via livestream. I realize that for may of us, we are doing something evry different, in your case you are watching a tv or computer screen instead of being in the church building, and in my case I am learning how to preach to all of you that I know are there even though I am standing in an empty room. But if we know anything at all about our father, it’s that we know He is here with us, especially in tough times.

But before we start our service today, we want to begin by inviting the Lord to be with us in prayer. Let us Pray

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So today I want to spend some time talking about Belief in the Storm.

I don’t think anyone would argue that today we are having some storms. It’s amazing how much things have changed in the past week, but one thing we can all agree on is that we have some storms that we are working through right now

certainly all the issues that we are facing with the corona virus are storms that we are experiencing

All the uncertainty in the world has caused some issues in the economy, and if you are in the travel, tourism, restaurant, or hospitality industry, you are facing a trial right now.

Perhaps you are trying to go to the store expecting to buy groceries, and if your list includes toilet paper…you are CERTainly in the midst of a trial

Or maybe you are stuck at home with your children, and now in the middle of everything else you have to figure out how to teach them common core math…That is ABSOLUTELY a trial

But as believers we know that trials will come, and what is important is not necessarily the trial (we can’t control that), but what we CAN control is our response to the trials of this world

So this morning I want to talk about Belief in the storm.

Turn with me if you would to the book of Romans chapter 12, and we are going to look at verse 12 and I am reading out of the ESV this morning

Romans 12:12 ESV

Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.

Romans here gives us some information on what we can do and should do in the midst of trials and tribulations, and I believe gives us some very specific things to do if we want to stand strong during the trials of this world. The first thing Romans says is this:

Rejoice In Hope

The first thing that Romans tells us is that we should rejoice in hope. Rejoice in hope. Now let’s talk about this for just a minute. Trials and rejoicing do not necessarily seem like they should go together. We don’t think of all the things that are going on in the world and immediately think of rejoicing.

And it’s important to note here what we are rejoicing in. We are NOT rejoicing because of this virus, and all the issues that are plauging our world. We don’y go around Thank you Jesus all these people are sick, Praise God the economy is having issues.

DOn’t do that. What scripture tells us is that we should rejoice in hope. Now the word Hope here in scripture refers to is a belief ior expectation in something. What the word of God is telling us is that despite the things that are going on in the world, our hope, our refuge is found in Jesus Christ. This verse tells us that we can rejoice in the midst of the storm because our hope is not found in the circumstances, but in the Lord. It means that we stand firm in the promises of God.

It means that if we are struggling through sickness that we stand on the truth that by His stripes we are healed

It means that if we are struggling in finances or the economy that we stand in the promise that My God shall supply all my needs according to His riches in Glory.

Rejoicing in Hope is a decision to focus on the things of God rather than focusing on the trials that we are facing.

So the first thing that Romans tells us here is that we should rejoice in Hope, the second thing that Romans tells us is that we are to be patient in tribulation

Be Patient in Tribulation

Be Patient in Tribulation

Be patient in tribulation. The word of God tells us that we should be patient in tribulation,

Now this is probably one of my least favorite commands in scripture, amen? We like to skip over this part, because we want our struggles, or tribulations as it says here in Romans to be short. I don’t want to be patient, I want to hurry those things along and get them over with. But scripture tells us that we have to be patient in our tribulations . Why is that important. See there are things that we don’t learn when things are easy. There are lessons to be found in the midst of trials that we don’t learn except in the trial. There is a saying out there, that says I didn’t realize God was all I needed till He was all I had”. Sometimes we learn things about ourselves and our walk in the valley that we couldn’t learn on the mountain, amen.

talks about affliction let’s look at what it says

Isaiah 48:10 KJV 1900

Behold, I have refined thee, but not with silver; I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction.

Here, God talks about His people and say that He has refined us through affliction or trial. Have you ever seen an image of the refining of precious metals? They take the silver or Gold and they put it into a crucible and they turn on the heat, and as the metal sits in that heat, over time, impurities are dislodged and they rise to the top where they can be skimmed off of the metal making it that much more pure and that much more valuable....but it only happens over time.

Sometimes, God uses the fires of affliction to help focus on Him

Body of Christ we have to be patient in tribulations....why just like before because of that Hope we have in the Lord. We remain patient because we know that coronavirus or not, God is in control. Economy or not, God is in control. Regardless of what it looks like we know that God is in control. So we sit patient in affliction because we know that God is in control of everything that is going on in our world.

We rejoice in hope, we are patient in tribulation, finally Romans tells us that we are to be

Be Constant in Prayer

Let’s go back to

Romans 12:12 ESV

Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.

Be constant in prayer. The word of God tells us that in times of trial we are to be constant in prayer. This idea of prayer here is speaking to our spiritual; discipline. Prayer, reading the word, all those wonderful things. What I think is interesteing here is the word constant.

The root word for constant here says “to persist obstinately in”. Now if you need an example of obstinate, go to any house with a teenager in the world. It means holding to a purpose or course despite discussion or persuasion. What the word of God is telling us here is that we should hold to our prayer, and our scripture reading regardless of what it looks like.

See, often, when we are in the midst of a trial, our natural tendency is to worry and stress over things. We spend time thinking about the circumstances that are afflicting us rather than focusing on the things of God. WHat Romans is pointing out here is that we should make a point to focus on the things of God.

Don’t forget to spend time in the Word of God right now, don’t forget to spend time with God in prayer. And not just a passing thought.....we come back to that word constant, or obstinate.....it means that it doesn’t mater what everything looks like, it means that we are should stand firm in the things that we know we need to do.

Belief In the Storm

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