Followers of Jesus Should Let Difficult Circumstances Draw You Toward God Rather than Pulling You Away from God and Your “Faith” – God Walks with You

Followers of Jesus Should Let Difficult Circumstances Draw You Toward God Rather than Pulling You Away from God and Your “Faith” – God Walks with You

MESSAGE SUMMARY:      

Introduction to the Bible’s Letter to the Hebrews and “Hope”: Today, the Pandemic, civil disobedience, and cultural dissonance a context for our need to learn about “Living in Difficult Circumstances”. We can both learn a great deal and gain “Hope”, in our current situation, from the situation faced by Christians in Rome who were “Living in Difficult Circumstances”. Our context for learning is described in the Bible’s book of Hebrews. The book of Hebrew’s writer wanted to give “Hope” to the persecuted Christians in Rome by pointing out the superiority of Jesus the Christ over all the problems that they were facing from their persecution by the Emperor Nero. The writer did not want Christians to deviate and leave their Faith in Jesus because the times were bleak and the difficult circumstances, they were facing appeared hopeless. In Hebrew’s, the writer wanted Roman Christians to understand that if they turned away from Jesus there was no one else with whom they could face their difficult circumstances. The message to us, in these times, is that without Jesus in our lives and in the life of our country there is no one or no institution, to whom we can turn, for help in “facing our difficult circumstances”. To this end, in Hebrews 1:10-11, we find the culmination of Jesus Divinity along with His humanity that positions His superiority for us: “You, Lord, laid the foundation of the earth in the beginning, and the heavens are the work of your hands; they will perish, but you remain; they will all wear out like a garment, like a robe you will roll them up, like a garment they will be changed. But you are the same, and your years will have no end.”.

Today’s Message – Exercising Your Faith: The Writer of Hebrews encourages the persecuted Followers of Jesus, living in Rome, to look to Jesus in so many ways. Today, in Hebrews 11:1-3,5-6, the Writer of Hebrews defines “Faith”: “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. For by it the people of old received their commendation. By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible . . . By faith Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death, and he was not found, because God had taken him. Now before he was taken he was commended as having pleased God. And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.". From this text, we can see that “Faith” involves: 1) confidence and conviction; 2) looking ahead – “faith is the ‘Hope’ that we mix into cement to harden it” {Charles Swindoll}; 3) what is not seen; {faith speaks to two of our human uncertainties: knowing the future and seeing the unseen}; 4) pleasing God; and 5) focusing totally on God.

“Faith” is like a muscle in that it needs to be used or it will grow weak through atrophy, and “Faith”, like a muscle, needs resistance to grow stronger, as we see from the Writer of Hebrews, in Hebrews 10:32,36: “But recall the former days when, after you were enlightened, you endured a hard struggle with sufferings . . . For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised.". As directed by the Writer of Hebrews to the Christians of Rome, in their difficult circumstances, we should let our difficult circumstances draw us toward God rather than pulling us away from God and our “Faith”. In the remainder of Hebrews 11, the Writer of Hebrews is telling the Followers of Jesus, in Rome and us, about all the great men and women that did great things derivative of their “Faith” in their lives that drew them close to God in their difficult circumstances. Also, their lives pointed toward the promised coming of the Christ, whom they never saw; but their “Faith” saw them through. However, as today’s Followers of Jesus, we have the Gospel and the Holy Spirit. Additionally, we know that God, through the written Gospel, is faithful; and our “faith” can be strong in our difficult circumstances as we draw our lives and actions, in our difficult circumstances, toward God.

In your difficult circumstances, God will not leave you. Through the Holy Spirit, God will walk with you. He may not fix your situation, but God will give you a way to see you through. Stay out of personal pity parties driven by your circumstances. Instead, look to God. In many cases, the “lead” of difficult circumstances may result, ultimately, to “gold” in your life.

As we live, today, “in these last days” of difficult circumstances, we should look only to Jesus rather than to any person, institution, force, government entity, or nation. Jesus is our only source of protection and the way out of our difficult circumstances which are manifested by the Pandemic, civil disobedience, and cultural dissonance. Once again, Jesus is the only “way, and the truth and the life” (John 14:6).

 

TODAY’S AFFIRMATION: Today, I affirm that because of what God has done for me in His Son, Jesus, I AM FORGIVEN. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:9).

SCRIPTURE REFERENCE (ESV): Hebrews 1:10-18; Hebrews 11:1-6; Hebrews 10:32-39; James 1:2-3; Habakkuk2:3-4; Hebrews 11:7-40.

WEBSITE LINK TO DR. BEACH’S SERMON VIDEO – “Jesus the Christ Is Our Hope In Life and Death and He Is “Hope” for the Wave of Loneliness and Uncertainty Sweeping Our World Today”:  www.AWFTL.org/watch

 A WORD FROM THE LORD WEBSITE: www.AWFTL.org.

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