Sermon Central
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What To Expect In 2009
Contributed by Mark Aarssen on Mar 14, 2009 (message contributor)
Summary: Christians can expect the enemy of God, the Devil to be hard at work attacking them personally and attacking the church collectively. Christians can expect God to continue to be on the Throne and Christians can expect Gods plans to be right on track.
What Christians should expect in 2009
Happy New Year everyone!
What should we expect in 2009?
Will the economy continue to fall?
Will Israel and the Palestinians ignite a world war?
Will Barack Obama lead the United States through their perilous times and a new dawn?
Will Canada have a Parliament sitting in January?
Will aliens land on the White House lawn and take us to their leader?
There are thousands upon thousands of people making predictions as to what we may expect to experience in 2009. Some of them will be right and many of them will be wrong.
But what should the Christian expect in 2009?
For the most part Christians can expect the world to keep on going the way it has for thousands of years.
The world will continue to reject Jesus Christ as Gods Son and it will reject you and me for placing our faith in Him.
Christians can expect to be persecuted for their beliefs and for exercising their faith.
Christians can expect the enemy of God, the Devil to be hard at work attacking them personally and attacking the church collectively.
Christians can expect God to continue to be on the Throne and Christians can expect Gods plans to be right on track.
Satan wants to distract us from the work God has commissioned us to do by keeping us busy with the activities of a fallen world. Things like war and injustice plague and famine and all the other things he uses to manipulate our attention away from the things of God.
All those worldly problems need a response and they also need resources directed at the problems to alleviate them.
The governments of the world are kept distracted by these things. War, floods, famines, plagues and the like and as a result the governments of the world see these things as a first priority.
Addressing human misery and want are indeed important and worth while things to focus attention on. But the real need of humanity is peace with God through His Son Jesus Christ.
From: Ray C. Stedman, Body Life).
The amazing fact which the Scripture clearly declares, but which thousands of Christians have failed to see, is that God has designed that his church should be a kind of government on earth under girding visible governments. This would make possible a climate of benevolent law and order, the rule of justice and peace, and would hold in restraint the wild forces of tyranny, anarchy and murder. Christians can expect God to continue to reach out to a fallen world.
1"Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God[a]; trust also in me. 2In my Fathers house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. 3And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. 4You know the way to the place where I am going."
Christians can expect Jerusalem to be a focal point in 2009. The Bible refers to it as a cup of trembling.
Zachariah 12: 2 "I am going to make Jerusalem a cup that sends all the surrounding peoples reeling. Judah will be besieged as well as Jerusalem.
Gods bible will be lived out in the headlines of our daily newspapers.
Christians can expect the world to blame them for their problems just as Nero blamed them for setting Rome on fire in A.D. 64.
We will see an increase in violence and wars and rumors of war. The tension between the peoples of the earth will center on their religious orientation not their nationality.
Christians can also expect to see God continue to perform miracles all over the world.
We will see more and more people come to faith in Jesus Christ than ever before.
Christians can expect God to have them live out their faith and share their love in tangible ways.
Christians can expect to be involved in the program of God and they can expect God to help them in unseen ways.
Christians can expect Gods love to endure forever.
I do not know what events will transpire through the year ahead but - 2 Timothy 1:12
I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him for that day.
Let us step into 2009 trusting Jesus with our lives and our souls.
