Blessed Inside the Bubble

Jesus became what we are so that we might become who he is. Jesus got up on the third day so that we can be saved. The greatest miracle is the miracle of salvation. But then also to win in life in the midst of life.

He took our place on the cross so that we could win. He took the humiliation. He took the nails. He took the rejection. He took the beating, He took the wounds. He took the pain. He took the agony. Not so that we can remain defeated. But so that we could win. That was one of the purpose of the cross is so that we could have an example of what it looks like to suffer but win through it.

Living in a world that has been turned upside down upon its head, we have been forced to learn new terms and terminology, phrases that can precisely capture in graphical language that we can all understand and grasp. NBA as well as many other sports in getting back to sports in a new pandemic infested world, have drafted the “bubble plan” as they seek to remain quarantined in a so-called buble environment.

This is a plan where all the players and coaches and all essential participants live, eat, sleep, workout, and perform inside of a bubble. This bubble is a certain city with certain boundaries and limitations so that everyone involved can better monitored and tracked and tested. Because going outside of the bubble, or going back home to the normal population. Therefore children and family is often left out the bubble for fear of contracting or recontaminating the sanctity of the bubble.

Friends the bible says we are to live a set apart life. Meaning that we are to be in the world but not of the world. James writes to the believers who are scattered abroad. It doesn’t mean carelessly slung in any given direction. But it means to purposely and intently and specifically position someone for a purpose.

James addresses early believers as a servant of Jesus Christ. He is speaking to the transformation that takes place when we meet Jesus not just physically but spiritually. James was a brother of Jesus. Remember Jesus’ brothers did not believe on him. But when you meet him spiritually meaning you are born again it transforms how you see yourself.

THE WORST PLACE TO BE IN IS THE BEST PLACE TO GROW IN.

Greeting - God has to get our attention before he speaks. Moses was walking one day on the back side and that’s the best degree you can have is a BS degree, a back side. But he sees a bush burning and then turns and God begins to speak. God has to get your attention before he speaks.

Wisdom is when God bypasses your intellect. God gets bogged down in human intellect. When God came to anoint the next king of Israel Samuel started going through his intellect. God says to Samuel don’t look at the outer appearance. In other words Samuel you are running this by your intellect but what I’m getting ready to do is so out of the box that even if I told you, you wouldn’t believe!

Intellect tries to minimize things into something it can understand. So God has to speak and move in mysteries. That is why when you are in the bubble it won’t make sense but your blessing will be bigger than your sense. Grace doesn’t make sense!

In TD Jakes book instinct he talks about the difference between instinct and intellect. He says he went on a safari and wanted to see elephants. They had a tour guide that was given them all the facts and statistics about where they should be. But after some time one of the natives from that land said IF YOU LOOKING FOR THE ELEPHANTS THEY OVER DER!

Patience is a virtue

God is growing our virtue. Virtue is inner strength. Remember the virtuous woman. Well if you have a lot of virtue then it means you been through a lot of trouble. Virtue comes through adversity. See its not the tests you take. But the tests you finish. So what James is encouraging them to do is stay in it until they get out of it what they supposed to.

Peter says “add to your faith virtue”.

We are all in a bubble. Sometimes we need to understand that everyone is in a bubble. We are all going through. Friends when people are hurting and scared they don’t act normal. So we are going to have to give each other change. Give God time. Time to restore the relationship, trust, faith, love, what was lost.

ALLOW GOD TO DO IT

Real change does not happen over night. I know we are use to changing things at will. Change our hair, change our profile, change our automobile, change restaurants, but in real time change does not happen at that level. It takes change time to set in. In a tree it grows for a few months then nothing seems to be happening but its growing on the inside because the woody fiber is hardening.

Wisdom is learning how to live with, deal with, win with things in your life while you are growing. Christianity is not God changing everything to fit my present state. So God will put more on you can you can bear. Grace does not show up until there is an attempt. God says many of us aren’t doing anything that requires grace.

THE PURPOSE OF TROUBLE

They were placed or positioned with a purpose. It is about our faith. Your character is equal to your faith. When God wants to grow your faith he grows you. When God grows your faith he is automatically growing everything else in your life.

The purpose of faith is not that you won’t have any trials but you to be able to manage the trials when they come. Its now that you go through but how you go through. Christians sometimes go through kicking, screaming, fighting, cussing, fussing, drama, and trauma.

So James is inspired to write this book to encourage those under trials to go through like a winner. They say the knock on Cam Newton when he won the mvp and then came back and got injured that he began to act like a sore loser. One commentator said he hasn’t learned how to be a good loser.

The bubble will TEST you.

The bubble will TEMPT you.

The bubble will TEACH you.

The bubble will TRANSFORM you.

DON’T LET PROBLEMS GET IN YOUR BUBBLE. John 14:1 Let not your heart be troubled.

DON’T LET PEOPLE GET IN YOUR BUBBLE. Mat 6:19 Don’t lay up treasure on earth where theives...

DON’T LET PASSIONS GET IN YOUR BUBBLE. 1 Pet 2:1 Put

How? By putting on the whole armour of God. You put God ON you by having God IN you. When you get saved you have a SAMPLE of God in you. But when you grow in grace and be filled with the Spirit then you over time become more of an EXAMPLE. We are all have areas that are samples and areas that are examples.

Perfection is the work of the Holy Ghost that transforms us from samples to examples.

Every morning you get up you have to put on the whole armour of God. Its not what you do when trouble comes that matters. But it matters what you do before trouble comes. What you do before trouble comes determines what you can do when trouble comes.

When..... We will be shocked but not surprised. 1 Pet 4:12

Trials do not mean we are deficient. They mean we have potential. It means that there is something valuable and powerful within you that is being pulled out. To teach means to develop. It means to draw out what is within. You have an an anointing in you. You have a gift, talent, skill, purpose, assignment.

Make it count

Never just do what you love. Joy is different from being happy. Joy has emotions but it isn’t grounded in emotions. Emotions is that side to us that makes us humans and feel the world around us. They are neither good nor bad. But we are designed to be run by them.

You aren’t generally happy at the beginning of what will bring you joy. Because it doesn’t start that way. That is why we are not to dispise small beginnings. When you begin school it starts with mundane and methodical things that aren’t that exciting.

James is writing to Christians who were beginning to hear the complaints. I thought if you come to Christ it would be exciting. Christianity is not always exciting. Because excitement depends on what you are excited about. And the question is is the excitement long term or temporary.

When you accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior you receive a measure of faith. So the trial or testing of our faith isn’t to reveal that we have no faith. But the presence of a test means there is faith. If you have a trial it means that God already sees tha you have everything you need to win in the trial.

The reason that believers should react with joy when faced with various trials is that these trials are means of testing through which God works to perfect faith. The word translated testing, dokimion, is rare, being found elsewhere in the New Testament only in 1 Peter 1:7, and in the Septuagint in Psalm 11:7 (Eng. Ps. 12:6) and Proverbs 27:21. In 1 Peter this word appears to denote the result of the testing process: ‘the proven genuineness of your faith’. In both Septuagint occurrences, however, the word refers to the process by which silver or gold is refined by fire. This is probably the meaning intended by James: suffering is a means by which faith, tested in the fires of adversity, can be purified of any dross and thereby strengthened. The idea, then, is not that trials determine whether a person has faith or not. Rather they strengthen the faith that is already present.

Patience is how we respond with people. Perseverence is how we respond to problems. its how we get to trust. God wants to know two things in this season. Will we obey him today. Will we trust him for tomorrow. He told them in the wilderness (the bubble) go out every day and get manna each morning. Don’t get more than the day. He wanted them to trust him for tomorrow.

When you’re in the bible whether or not you see the clouds or the sun is determined by your perspective. See when Jesus Christ is in your life he makes even your clouds appear as the sun. In other words he helps you to see to the other side of the clouds.

When you first take off in an airplane you always go through the clouds. You can’t change atmospheres or go anywhere far if you don’t go through any clouds. But the feeling you have once you get through them. Faith is for when you’r in the clouds and have forgotten the sun is on the other side.

Benefits of the Bubble

Keeps things out of your spirit or heart. You have to be careful what you allow to be sown in your spirit. Because out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. You have to watch your gates. You have to monitor your conversation and dialogue. One day David was in a bubble but the bible says David encouraged himself. You have to be careful what you say about yourself and what you allow others to say about you.

Our email has a focused and other column for keeping things organized. It doesn’t stop emails from coming it just organized them. You have to have that over your spirit. You have to know what to focus on and what not to focus. But you dont’ want to completely shut people off because that’s over correction. You have to be tuned in but ignoring at the same time. Some people don’t have the gift of knowing how to express themselves. They will kill your spirit if you don’t know how to chew the meat but spit out the bones.

The bubble becomes a barrier to keep things out. Helps to keep jealousy out. Helps to keep spite out. Helps to keep lying out. Helps to keep bitterness out. Helps to keep rage out. Helps to keep unforgiveness out. You have to keep all of those things out of your bubble.

When God is in your bubble amazing things can happen there. That’s why he says count it all joy because God is in it and he doesn’t change because you come out of it. He is just as good, blessed, holy, gracious, kind, powerful in as he is out. I am the Lord and I change not. Don’t way until the battle is over you can praise him in advance.

THE PURPOSE OF THE BUBBLE IS ITS THE WOMB FOR US TO GROW. Somet problems you don’t go through you have to grow through. The worst season to be in is when it calls for you to be big and but you got small choking you.! Its time to grow from being intellectual to spiritual.

BUBBLE MAKES YOU SENSITIVE

Be more interested than interesting. You have to get in somebody else’s world for them to be interested in your world.