I heard the best sermon of my life this morning at my church by me called "The Ridge" here in Jarrell. I can almost see the church from my front yard. It's funny how close we are to it. :) I really needed to hear that sermon and the topic was perfect given my recent chest pain and almost heart attack thing I had. It was about Job and suffering. The series they are doing is "When life knocks you down" and the picture is of a turtle on it's back, which I thought was super cute. Here are my sermon notes. It was great!
"We would like to feel good about everything that God does in our lives but often times we don't. But Jesus also didn't 'feel good' about life when he was hanging on the cross." And I would add, but Jesus knew it served a purpose. Just like our suffering serves a purpose. It is like 1 Peter 1:6,7 "In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer various trials, so that the authenticity of your faith — more precious than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire — may result in praise, glory, and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ." Amen :) Our suffering turns our faith into pure and valuable gold. :)
Suffering helps us to transform our minds: "Be not conformed to this world: but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is the good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God." Amen :) When things are easy we usually don't learn as much as when things are hard. We grow in wisdom much more in the hard times.
I liked this quote that the pastor said a lot, "You can lead a life of religion right into hell." Meaning, you can do all the things you think you are supposed to do like read your bible every day and tithe etc. but if you think your good works will save you, you won't be saved. Only Jesus' death alone can save us. Amen. :)
"Why is suffering a part of life?" That was the take home discussion question. My answer would be- to glorify God. Because when we suffer and still choose to trust God and believe that he is good, God is glorified. When bad things happen to us, like we are abused as a child or someone we love dies, and we don't turn to drugs or alcohol but rather press into God more and cling to him, the world sees that and God is greatly glorified in that. Amen? Amen!
And this quote was great! "Satan can give you good things to take you away from God and God can bring suffering into your life to bring you back to him."
Also, "We can't blame every bad thing and instance of suffering in our lives on Satan. Sometimes we bring bad things on ourselves from our own bad choices." Amen.
"Satan won't take a form that is easy for you to see. He isn't going to show up in horns and a pitch fork. He was the most beautiful angel in heaven." Yep. "Satan masquerades as an angel of light."
My own side note, and this was a blog title of mine awhile ago, pain leads to holiness. Often times the people you would think of as the most holy, or they led lives worth copying, are those who have experienced the most pain. Pain makes our hearts more tender. We love more, the more pain we go through. We have empathy for others and want to help others more, the more pain that we go through. Of course some people focus more on themselves the more pain they go through, but we all choose how we will respond to pain. Will we let it make us a better person or not? The choice is ours. It has the potential to make us much more gentle, humble and loving people if we let it.
And never forget, "God allows you to go through things but his love is IMMENSE for you." Amen :)
If you are in the area, come check out The Ridge church! :) God bless!
No comments:
Post a Comment