Rom. 4:16- 25, Therefore, the promise comes by faith, so that it may be by grace and may be guaranteed to all Abraham’s offspring-not only to those who are of the law but also to those who have the faith of Abraham. He is the father of us all. 17As it is written: “I have made you a father of many nations.” He is our father in the sight of God, in whom he believed-the God who gives life to the dead and calls into being things that were not. 18Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, “So shall your offspring be ” 19Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead since he was about a hundred years old-and that Sarah’s womb was also dead. 20Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, 21 being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised. 22This is why “it was credited to him as righteousness.” 23The words “it was credited to him” were written not for him alone, 24 but also for us, to whom God will credit righteousness for us who believe in him who raised Jesus our LORD from the dead. 25 He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.
1. You can be close to Jesus and still encounter storms
When Jesus said let’s go to the other side, He knew they would encounter a
2. Jesus permits storms to test your faith
When the disciples awoke Jesus He immediately asked them two questions: “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?”
3. Storms will force you to cry out to Jesus
4. Jesus will either calm you or will calm the storm
I love the fact that Jesus was asleep during the storm. This teaches us several things. First, Jesus was a man who experienced fatigue just like us.
But we also see He possessed such a strong sense of
There were two storms present that night.
- There was the atmospheric storm happening outside
5. If Jesus is in your boat, you know you’ll make it through the storm
During the storm, the disciples had
- They were going to arrive on the other side because Jesus had spoken that word.
And Jesus has
God never promised that we’d live a storm-proof life.
He just promises to be with us during the storm.
I love the paraphrased version of Isaiah 43. God says, “When you’re in over your head, I’ll be there with you. When you’re in rough waters, you will not go down. When you’re between a rock and a hard place, it won’t be a dead-end—Because I am God, your personal God… I paid a huge price for you…That’s how much you mean to me! That’s how much I love you! So don’t be afraid: I’m with you.” (Isaiah 43:27 MSG)
In a storm
Going through a storm
Or Coming out of a storm
It was important that the follows of Jesus got
Living for JESUS by
What you see right now is not all there is to see.
Kingdom faith is steadfast and stable in storms… I am reminded when Job lost
- He lost family,
- wealth, and health.
o But never lost his FAITH in God. He had some questions but never stop believing Job 27:2-6.
He had some friends that troubled but he maintained
Kingdom faith is beyond our understanding… Job 42:1-6
- The Lord asked Job where were you when I hung the stars, set the boundaries of the earth.
When Isaiah saw the Lord he responded in humility… Ish. 6:1-5
- I saw the Lord High &
Kingdom Faith is rewarded after the TEST. God vindicated Job
- Because Job’s friends misunderstood God, they misrepresented God.
- After Job prayed for his friends God
- Because Job stood, the Lord rewarded.
Kingdom FAITH is rewarded by God, not by the friends you hang with to satisfy your comforts… Job 42:12-13, 15-17.
Job 6:9b… there are reasons not to give up… one is: If you give up… you also give up the reward… Faith the Storm. In other words, trust the
We all face storms, but do you know you can faith the storms in your
Jesus and His disciples were planning to cross the Sea of Galilee. The Sea of Galilee is actually a freshwater lake.
Mark 4:35-41Job 2:10… Should we accept good from God and not bad? Lost of faith
Kingdom
People who have Kingdom Faith, welcome tests because the test comes to prove and then approve you. (1 Peter 1:3-9)
Are you ready to welcome another test?
Many blame the devil because they only know faith to be all good things… 1 Peter 4:12
Kingdom
1 Peter 4:19
Faith Beyond Your Sight & Strength
2Cor. 1:3-11; 3Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of al/ comfort, 4who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God. 5Forjust as we share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ, so also our comfort abounds through Christ. 61f we are distressed, it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings we suffer. 7And our hope for you is firm because we know that just as you share in our sufferings, so also you share in our comfort. 8We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about the troubles we experienced in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired of life itself. 91ndeed, we felt we had received the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead. 10He has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us again. On him, we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us, 11as you help us by your prayers. Then many will give thanks on our behalf for the gracious favor granted us in answer to the prayers of many.
Before I go back to share with you out of this text of scripture, I feel a prophetic word…
Someone ONCE SAID, “Never doubt in the dark what you learned in the light.”
• But we do, don’t we? When we go through times of trial, we lose
• We have a tendency to see only the bad our afflictions.There is a tendency to believe the worst over the best.
For example, at the POD (Point of desperation) you may assume that God is punishing you. It’s easy to jump to the conclusion that your suffering indicates God’s displeasure.
Do you remember the story when Jesus and his disciples encountered “a man blind from birth” (Jn 9: 1)? Jesus’ disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents that he was born blind?”
- Do you remember what Jesus said? “Neither.”
- Affliction is not always the sign that God is angry with us.
- Sometimes, in fact, we suffer “for __righteousness’
So, what do we do when we suffer?
How do we cope with what the book of James calls “trials of any kind” (Jas 1:2)?
I want to suggest: When you undergo afflictions, rehearse what you believe. Go over what you firmly hold on to in your
Remember… again, “Never doubt in the dark what you learned in the light.” So, while we tend to see the bad in our adversity, we need to see also the good.
- What I mean is: You need to see God’s
One of the first things you will see in your suffering is, God, reveals the horrible consequences of the Fall of mankind.
In 2 Corinthians, Paul and his companions hadn’t done anything wrong. They didn’t deserve to suffer. And yet, they did — to the point, Paul says, that they “despaired of life itself…. [They] felt like that [they] had received the sentence of death” (2 Cor 1:8, 9a).
Many of you know what that’s like. When you go through unwarranted
That question - as natural a thing as it is, reveals a problem with one’s understanding.
- The fact is that we live in a
- And we forget that.
- The reason innocent/good people suffer is that this is not the world God created it to be.
- When sin hit the Garden, they did not just incur guilt on themselves.
- Their rebellion affected the whole created order.
- It created a fault line in every aspect of life. If you look, you can see the effects of the Fall in our relationship to each other, you can see it in our relationship to ourselves, and you can see it even in our relationship to nature.
-We must never be surprised that so-called “good” people suffer.
-The fact is, we live in a
Even Paul. Even you.
And knowing that, we will not be surprised or perplexed by
As we grow in Christian maturity, we come to realize that the world is out of sync with the way God created it to be.
And that’s not all. We will also shout out all God has done and is doing through Jesus Christ to
If we lived in a perfect world, there would be no need for a message of salvation, but because the world is broken, people need to hear about the One, the only One, who can repair things - who can repair us! - and make everything whole again.
- That’s one way God shows us his
2nd way our afflictions show us God’s purpose is that, in them, God shows us his design for our lives.
He does not want us to depend on circumstances but rather depend on Him.
We read how Paul says that he and those with him “despaired of life itself” and “felt that [they] had received the sentence of death.” And then he tells you/us why.
- And it’s the same for us as it was for him.
- It is “so that you would rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead” (1 Cor 1:9b).
This is God’s design for our lives. He wants us to rely on him, not on what we might consider favorable circumstances.
3rd sign of God’s good purpose in your afflictions is that, through them, God strengthens our faith in Him.
I quoted from the book of James a moment ago.
Let me give you the full context.
James 1, verses 2 through 4, reads like this:
“My brothers and sisters, whenever you face
Notice James says, “You know” this.
“You know that the testing of your faith produces
This is one of the convictions you have to have locked down in your spirit before trouble comes…
One of your settled beliefs… no matter what comes or goes.When you undergo
- Rehearse what you believe.
- That’s what Paul did. His faith in God found expression in verse 10, where he says, “He…rescued us from so deadly a peril….” Then he goes on to say, “On him, we have set our hope that he will rescue us again.”
-He was strengthened in his faith.
-That is one of the
-That’s really a good thing.
4 the way we may see the good in our afflictions is the Lord also equips us to minister to others in their suffering.
There may be other ways, of course, but this one we see it in 2 Corinthians, chapter 1.
God not only reveals the awful
Paul says in verses 3 and 4, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of
In other words, what you learned in your own
There used to be a song that said, “You don’t know like I know what He’s done for me… .” Paul says it better.
- Verse 5 says, “For just as the sufferings of Christ are abundant for us so also our consolation is abundant through Christ.”
- We can console/support others in their trials because of what Christ suffered and consoled us with…
Do you believe these things?
Are they settled convictions?
Do you not only entertain them with your mind but also absorb them in your
That can be the hard part: to get these things out of your head where you agree to them readily enough - into your heart, where you really are alive.
It’s not always easy. But I think the way to do that is: When you undergo afflictions, lock in on the God
Rehearse what the WOG tells you to believe - really believe and stick to it.
In fact, I want to encourage you: sometime this week, to write down three must have convictions about God —
Three Godly beliefs that you can rely on in times of trouble.
What you would have as strong biblical base support… for how the Lord has helped you and will help you in your times of
We are living in a time where anybody and everybody has the opportunity to have a microphone through social media.
If you’re into social media don’t text, tweet, or post things that do not properly reflect God, what the scripture says about FAITH in God and fighting the good fight of faith.
Suffering comes to all because of the fall of man, but our