Sermon Central
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Hands Up...worries Down!
Contributed by Charlie Roberts on Mar 25, 2017 (message contributor)
Summary: As Christians we don't have to live in fear, of not knowing what's up ahead around the corner, or what the future might bring. As long as God knows, isn't that enough? It's time we left our hands up...and our worries down!
Hands up...Worries down!
4-5 Celebrate God all day, every day. I mean, revelin him! Make it as clear as you can to all you meet that you’re on their side, working with them and not against them. Help them see that the Master is about to arrive. He could show up any minute!
6-7 Don’t fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns. Before you know it, a sense of God’s wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. It’s wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life.
Let's read 6 and 7 again...
Don’t fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns. Before you know it, a sense of God’s wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. It’s wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life.
Let petitions and praises (or thanksgiving or thankfulness) shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns.
What the apostle Paul is writing about here is an every day experience. The attack from the enemy doesn't wait for a holiday to show itself, but consistently rears its ugly nature for war everyday!
What he is saying is not to ignore it, but rather know it's going to come and be ready for it when it does!
"Don’t fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns!"
I came across a song the other day which inspired me to share this word with you today. Did you know that God will speak to you through whatever means it takes, to get your attention and His word to you?
The words go like this...it's from the song, "the God I Know" by the group "the love and the outcome"
(Chorus)
And Then I Threw My Hands Up
Worries Down
I Remember When He Showed Me How
To Break Up With My Doubt
Once I was lost but now I’m found
No Strings Attached When He Saved My Soul
I Want You To Know The God I Know
And as I listen to those words I couldn't help but think as Christians,
how we could all relate to them.
And by that I mean, we all have endured circumstances and situations and tried to get through them on our own merit and suffered needlessly. Stalled helpless right in the middle of them until our petitions turned into praises and our faith moved God to action!
Hands up everyone knows is a sign of surrender!
When our hands go up in Praise, our worries diminish with each breathe of praise we offer to God in faith, knowing that He is working on our behalf! Amen?
As Christians we don't have to live in fear, of not knowing what's up ahead around the corner, or what the future might bring.
And Paul wanted us to know as long as we are willing to praise God along with our petitions that it activates our faith as it happens and God will take care of us, no matter what the situation might look like!
the Bible says God never changes, I think we can safely say people are the same way. And by that I mean the fears and anxieties of human nature know no time.
Read with me and see if you can relate to what the people in this story were feeling 3,460 years ago?
Exodus 14:10-18 MSG
10-12 As Pharaoh approached, the Israelites looked up and saw them—Egyptians! Coming at them!
They were totally afraid. They cried out in terror to God. They told Moses, “Weren’t the cemeteries large enough in Egypt so that you had to take us out here in the wilderness to die? What have you done to us, taking us out of Egypt? Back in Egypt didn’t we tell you this would happen? Didn’t we tell you, ‘Leave us alone here in Egypt—we’re better off as slaves in Egypt than as corpses in the wilderness.’”
13 Moses spoke to the people: “Don’t be afraid. Stand firm and watch God do his work of salvation for you today. Take a good look at the Egyptians today for you’re never going to see them again.
14 God will fight the battle for you.
And you? You keep your mouths shut!”
15-16 God said to Moses: “Why cry out to me? Speak to the Israelites. Order them to get moving. Hold your staff high and stretch your hand out over the sea: Split the sea! The Israelites will walk through the sea on dry ground.
