6/17/19
By Jeannie Horton
Life Christian University student
Title: God brings you through
Topic: Reasons we can trust God in the storms of life
Introduction:
1. Jesus said that we would all face trials in life. They can make us feel weak and in despair, and God doesn’t always take them away from us. But He will strengthen you through them. Jesus understands our weaknesses that come from trials, temptations, and discomforts. He comforted and strengthened the Apostle Paul in spreading the gospel, and He will do the same for you. He will pull you through to victory.
2. In the book of Daniel, the three Hebrew teenagers refused to bow down and worship the golden idol that Nebuchadnezzar made and set up. Because of their refusal, it was ordered that the teenagers be burned alive in a fire. The teenagers called out to God saying, “If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God whom we serve is able to save us.” After they were thrown into the fire, Nebuchadnezzar noticed that they were unharmed and that there weren’t just three people in the fire walking around, there were four. Jesus was in the fire with them. Jesus saved them. He pulled them through the storm.
3. Through the storms in life, remind yourself that Jesus is on your side. God loves us so much that He will bring us some discomfort to rescue us from anything He sees in us that is unfruitful. Things that will inhibit us from doing His will. God is our hedge of protection, He can get us through all situations, and we’ll come out victorious on the other side. How we view God affects whether we turn to Him in trust during the storms of life. He is testing our faithfulness, do you trust Him?
Proposition: The storms of life conforms us to Christ’s image, bringing repentance, gives us His strength, and demonstrates His love.
Interrogative sentence: How do you view the storms in your life?
Transitional sentence: Nobody likes trials and tribulations, but what we do when the storm comes, determines how long we will be them. Do we turn to God and trust Him, or do we complain about our circumstances and try to solve them on our own? God views our storms as a way to bring about good. We’ll look at four reasons God allows the storm in our life.
1. TO BRING REPENTANCE
God knows the end from the beginning; He knows what He’s getting when He chooses us. He knows all of our shortcomings. Nothing we have done or ever will do is a surprise to Him. He loves us anyway. Out of His love, God wants to reveal Himself to us. He will do any means necessary to get our attention. He doesn’t want us to be spiritually lost or fall short of our true calling. He is a God that forgives, and He always wants to bring us to a place of repentance. He is never going to give up on you.
Peter, the disciple of Jesus, loved Him very much and was horrified over Jesus claims that he would deny Him three times before the rooster crowed, and the Lord’s death. But he did. He immediately felt a lot of pain and sorrow over his actions. After Peter denied Jesus for the third time, Jesus turned to look at Peter. Jesus looked at Peter with only love because love is who Jesus is. Taken from the book The Life & Teachings of Christ by Gordon Lindsay, it says:
In that look, Peter saw forgiveness and infinite love. He saw a revelation of Christ that he had never seen before, and it broke his heart to pieces. He wept bitterly but not in despair. It was at that moment that the new Peter began to come forth, the Peter who would less than two months later, preach a sermon on the day of Pentecost that would bring three thousand souls into the kingdom.
We see in Luke 24:12, Peter was still not only grieving from the death of Jesus, but he was also still wounded from his denial of Him. He felt so much shame over what he had done. But something within Him changed. During Jesus’ 40 days on the earth after His death and resurrection, there were ongoing appearances of Him. In John 21, after breakfast with the disciples, Jesus asked Peter three times if he loved Him. Each time Jesus questioned Peter, Jesus replied: “Feed My sheep.” After the third time, Peter was upset that Jesus had asked him for the third time. He finally said to Jesus, “Lord, you know everything. You know that I love you.” Jesus said, then feed My sheep” (John 21:17). Jesus had asked Peter three times if he loved Him because Peter denied Jesus three times. Peter was grieved after the third time, not because Jesus asked him if he loved Him three times. He was grieved because of his earlier denial. I believe in Peter’s eyes, this was his confirmation that Jesus truly forgave him. His forgiveness gave Peter the strength he needed to continue as Jesus’ apostle to do great things in the name of Christ. Peter’s ministry thus began, and his relationship with Jesus rebounded.
Transition: In the storms of life, God allows them to bring about repentance in us. God never gives up on us; He knows exactly where we are. In His never failing love, He uses our trials and tribulations to conform us into His Son’s image.
2. TO CONFORM US TO CHRIST’S IMAGE
When we face the storms of life, humble yourselves before God in complete dependence. We learn patience as we rely on Him and His strength so that His power can work through us. God will often use undesirable or even painful situations to mold us into His image. God doesn’t always deliver us from persecution, trials, or tribulations. He desires our change of heart and our conversion. Look to God. He wants us to be conformed to Christ’s image. Submit yourself to Him, and allow Him to do a good work in you.
Romans 8:29-30 says, “For God knew his people in advance, and he chose them to become like his Son, so that his Son would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. And having chosen them, he called them, he gave them right standing with himself. And having given them right standing, he gave them his glory.”
You can never outrun God. He will draw us back to Him, as we are never out of His reach. God hates sin, and if we are not in His good and perfect will, and are walking away from Him, allowing sin to creep in and consume us, He may allow a storm to change your direction. He wants to bring you to a place of repentance.
In the book of Jonah, God wanted him to go to Nineveh, but Jonah didn’t want to, he had other plans for his life. Jonah went another direction. So God prepared a whale to swallow him up. Jonah sat three days and nights in the fish’s belly. You might think, “Wow, that’s pretty gross and harsh!” While inside the fish, Jonah called out to God. God is a merciful, and gracious God, He never once left Jonah’s side. He was always there watching over him. God even commanded the fish to spit Jonah out onto dry land. Jonah was then commanded a second time to go to Nineveh, and that is when he went to preach the gospel to the people there.
God isn’t going to change His mind. Just as it says in Romans 8:29, He has called you to Him. He has chosen to become like Jesus, to be conformed into His image. He has a perfect, unique plan for each of our lives. We need to put our own plan and desires aside to do His will. We will be truly happy if we submit ourselves to His plan, and do the first time He calls you. Don’t be like Jonah, and think, “no thanks, I have other plans.” Obey Him the first time. God will pour out His blessings upon you when you’re obedient.
Transition: For when we are weak, God is strong. He steps in to give us His strength so that we can win the battle.
3. GOD’S NEVER ENDING STRENGTH
In 2 Corinthians 12, the Apostle Paul continuously praised God in thanksgiving, and boasted about his weakness; he said he was pleased with them. He says his weakness is the result of all the insults, hardships, distresses, persecutions and difficulties: all the things that he encountered in his pursuit of spreading the gospel of Christ. God doesn’t stop all persecutions against us, but He gives us grace and strength to overcome them. God didn’t stop the Apostle Paul’s persecution, and Paul was glad for it. He recognized the power flowing through him. He recognized that Christ was giving him the strength that he needed to be an overcomer, and he wholeheartedly submitted to doing the will of God. He said he was strong because God made him strong, something he could never be in his strength. He was an empty vessel for God’s use, who he knew was making him strong. Because of the Apostle Paul, many lives were converted to believe in and follow Christ.
In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus was in great distress over going to the cross that drops of blood fell to the ground. He asked God three times to take the cup from Him. But with each time, He would say “not My will, but Yours.” God did not remove the cup, but God sent an angel to strengthen Him to do the will of the Father.
I know it is tough to want to take care of all of our own problems, but let God handle them. Pray and give Him everything that concerns you. He is our good and loving Father, who will take care of you. Look to God as your strength. Ask Him to strengthen you through all trying times.
Transition: Even through our darkest times, He is always there. He never leaves us. His unfailing love wants to guide us back to Him.
4. TO DEMONSTRATE HIS LOVE
The Israelites wandered the desert for 40 years in search of the Promised Land. It was only supposed to be about a two-week journey once they left Egypt. But they rebelled. Fear and a lack of faith kept them in the wilderness. They refused to enter the Promised Land, and wouldn’t stop complaining; hardships and plagues kept happening to them. Even after God supplied them with necessary items that intended to be a blessing for them, through the plagues of Egypt, things that were intended to be a blessing for them, they still would not stop their complaining and thus kept them in the wilderness. He supplied them with water and food; He parted the Red Sea to deliver from Pharaoh’s armies. He provided them with His presence, a pillar of a cloud during the day as a way of guiding them; and the pillar of fire during the night provided light. We see in Exodus 15, God says, “If you will listen carefully to the voice of the Lord your God and do what is right in his sight, obeying his commands and keeping all his decrees, then I will not make you suffer any of the diseases I sent on the Egyptians; for I am the Lord who heals you.” God was testing their faithfulness. But, they kept complaining. To God, this felt like they were rejecting Him. They couldn’t trust Him as the God who provides, loved them, and wept with them. But what does God do? Because of His unfailing love, He kept providing for them. He never stopped pouring out His love to them.
When we find ourselves in the wilderness, in the storms of life, don’t be like the Israelites. Instead of complaining about what you don’t have, trust God to provide. Ask Him for what you need, and then give Him praise and thanksgiving. When you do that, that’s when He will pull you. Complaining will only keep you in the wilderness, and keep you from fulfilling your destiny.
Conclusion:
So when the storms of life come, how will you respond? Will you seek our loving Father whose intention is only to bring you good? Philippians 1:6 says, I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.” The storms of life test our faithfulness to Him, do you trust Him? Trials and tribulations are going to come, but what you do when they come determines how long you will stay in the pit. The storms are meant to bring about our repentance; they conform us to Christ’s image, they display God’s never-ending strength when we are weak, and they demonstrate His love. God sees you. He cares for and loves you deeply. Look to Him, and continuously abide in Him, and allow Him to do a good and mighty work in you.
