Sermon Central
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There Is A Shift Coming Series
Contributed by Jamie Wright on Mar 3, 2004 (message contributor)
Summary: Guess what, we are not in a parade. This isn’t some holiday festival here in the kingdom of God. We are in a battle! You can’t face the battle as long as you are on the bottle! God uses life’s bruises! He has the ability to reverse the curse. He can
Don’t Give Up the Battle! There’s a Shift Coming! Pastor Jamie Wright Maranatha Fellowship Church
Feb 18, 2004 Wed Bible Study
Guess what, we are not in a parade. This isn’t some holiday festival here in the kingdom of God. We are in a battle!
You can’t face the battle as long as you are on the bottle!
When baby’s whine we put a pacifier in their mouths to pacify their whining. Pastors have been pacifying the people too long. As long as you are pacified you won’t receive the power; power to fight the battle. Don’t quit! Keep on fighting!
We are in a war. It is a battle. Fight the good fight of faith. Put on the whole armor of God. Our weapons are not carnal, but they are mighty for the pulling down of the strongholds of the enemy. No weapon formed against me shall prosper. The battle is not mine it is the Lords. The kingdom of God suffereth violence and the violent take it by force. Be sober be vigilant for your adversary, your enemy the devil is as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour.
It doesn’t sound like a holiday parade to me. It is war. The battle is on. You will get bruised and battered in war. You may even have a few tragedies. It isn’t the end.
God uses life’s bruises! He has the ability to reverse the curse. He can shift the momentum of the mess your in. He can transfer your problem into a promise. A SHIFT IS COMING! Don’t GIVE UP THE BATTLE!
Life is a combination of
Mountaintops vs. Valleys
Sunshine vs. Rain
Blessings vs. Battles
Pleasure vs. Pain
Joy vs. Sorrow
Triumphs vs. Tears
Victories vs. Loses
Jarius comes to Jesus about his sick daughter. Then the woman with the issue of blood comes after Jesus and stops him. Jarius is literally going crazy in his mind. Come on lets go my daughter is dying. Jesus needs to get to her. Then one of his servants comes and says your daughter is dead. He is crushed. This woman delayed Jesus and now my daughter is dead. It is over. No way can I win the battle now he thought. But Jesus heard what the servants had to say and responded with.
Mark 5:22-36 Don’t be afraid only believe. Keep on believing. Don’t give up!
1. God can turn your setbacks into comebacks!
With Jesus this is just a minor setback. God is the God of comebacks.
Luke 1:37 For with God nothing shall be impossible
2.God can turn your tombstone into a stepping stone.
This is killing me. I am about to die. I can’t take it anymore! Job’s wife told him to curse God and die. God had different plans. He took what the enemy wanted to be a tombstone for Job and made it a stepping stone.
What’s just about ready to kill you? Use it as a stepping stone to the next level.
Hebrews 5:8 He learned obedience by the things he suffered
3. The devil wants to murder you, God wants to mature you!
John 10:10 Kill, steal, destroy
What you are going through can make you bitter or better.
Be ye perfect (mature) as your father in heaven is perfect. You don’t achieve maturity by keeping the bottle and paci in your mouth. You can’t stay in the elementary things, the milk of the word. It is time to go on to the MEAT of the word. If you don’t fight some battles you will never go any further than were you are now. Why do you think you keep fighting the same battle? Because you keep quitting before it is over. The battle is already won. But you must finish it to learn something.
The teacher is always silent during the test. Rarely will a teacher respond during a major exam. God is there during the test, but he is waiting for you to finish, then he will grade you and see if you have learned anything. If you will simply finish the battle you will have learned something by the time you get to the other side and that will make you a BETTER more MATURE Christian. GET off the BOTTLE move into the BATTLE!
1Co 15:57 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
4. You are not the victim, when God has provided the victory.
On her TV program the other day, Paula White was giving some of her testimony. She was praising God for the victory. She said, I could have been the victim, I was the victim, but God has given me the victory. Sexually abused as a child, her father committed suicide when she was 5, she had a child out of wedlock, and felt abandon and alone. She is not allowing those circumstances to hold her back she is claiming the victory regardless.
