14, November 2004
Dakota Community Church
Home, Home on the Range
Introduction:
Where seldom is heard a discouraging word! How is it around your home?
We all face difficult times. Discouragement is almost universal in a war zone.
Is there anything we can do about it?
Do we just need to suffer and tough it out?
What does the Bible say about it?
Hebrews 10: 32-35
32Remember those earlier days after you had received the light, when you stood your ground in a great contest in the face of suffering. 33Sometimes you were publicly exposed to insult and persecution; at other times you stood side by side with those who were so treated. 34You sympathized with those in prison and joyfully accepted the confiscation of your property, because you knew that you yourselves had better and lasting possessions.
35So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded. 36You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised.
1. Hold on to faith and confidence.
Did you get that?
Hebrews 10: 35
35So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded. 36You need to persevere
Romans 4: 19-20
19Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead--since he was about a hundred years old--and that Sarah’s womb was also dead. 20Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God
Luke 8: 49-50
49While Jesus was still speaking, someone came from the house of Jairus, the synagogue ruler. "Your daughter is dead," he said. "Don’t bother the teacher any more."
50Hearing this, Jesus said to Jairus, "Don’t be afraid; just believe, and she will be healed."
Matthew 14: 20
30Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, "Lord, save me!"
The word of God tells us not to lose our confidence which has great reward.
Our spiritual victory depends on our faith.
Peter walked on the water as long as he looked to Jesus and had faith in him. But he began to drown as soon as he lost his faith.
He was filled with fear because he started looking at the storm and the waves. In our own lives we can walk in victory as long as we are firm in our faith in God’s goodness and faithfulness. But we will drown in our problems and difficulties if we lose our faith and begin to doubt and fear.
Illustration:
An elderly lady was once asked by a young man who had grown weary in the fight, whether he ought to give up the struggle. "I am beaten every time," he said dolefully. "I feel I must give up." "Did you ever notice," she replied, smiling into the troubled face before her, "that when the Lord told the discouraged fishermen to cast their nets again, it was right in the same old spot where they had been fishing all night and had caught nothing?"
2. Continuing doing good works.
Galatians 6: 9
9Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.
Acts 10: 1-5
1At Caesarea there was a man named Cornelius, a centurion in what was known as the Italian Regiment. 2He and all his family were devout and God-fearing; he gave generously to those in need and prayed to God regularly. 3One day at about three in the afternoon he had a vision. He distinctly saw an angel of God, who came to him and said, "Cornelius!"
4Cornelius stared at him in fear. "What is it, Lord?" he asked.
5The angel answered, "Your prayers and gifts to the poor have come up as a memorial offering before God.
Daniel 10: 12-14
"Do not be afraid, Daniel. Since the first day that you set your mind to gain understanding and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard, and I have come in response to them. 13 But the prince of the Persian kingdom resisted me twenty-one days. Then Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, because I was detained there with the king of Persia.
Matthew 14: 13-14
13When Jesus heard what had happened, he withdrew by boat privately to a solitary place. Hearing of this, the crowds followed him on foot from the towns. 14When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them and healed their sick.
Does anyone know what event preceded this in Jesus’ life? His cousin John was beheaded!
The word of tells us not to become weary in doing good for in due time we shall reap our reward. Sometimes difficulties and trials make us feel like quitting.
We feel it is not worth suffering so much.
We feel that we may not have gotten the results we expected.
We may feel like stopping the good work that we are doing.
But God says do not stop the good work you are doing.
- Cornelius kept on praying and doing good even though he did not know the true God.
- But God rewarded him and revealed the truth to him.
- Daniel kept on praying until the answer came. He did not stop praying when the devil prevented his answer by 21 days.
- Jesus continued to heal the sick even after hearing the shocking news of the murder of his cousin John the Baptist.
When the devil has not become weary in doing evil, surely God’s children should not become weary in doing good.
So keep on doing the good work and you will be rewarded.
3. Do not hastily alter your destiny.
John 15: 16
16You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit--fruit that will last
1Kings 19: 1-7
1 Now Ahab told Jezebel everything Elijah had done and how he had killed all the prophets with the sword. 2 So Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah to say, "May the gods deal with me, be it ever so severely, if by this time tomorrow I do not make your life like that of one of them."
3 Elijah was afraid and ran for his life. When he came to Beersheba in Judah, he left his servant there, 4 while he himself went a day’s journey into the desert. He came to a broom tree, sat down under it and prayed that he might die. "I have had enough, LORD," he said. "Take my life; I am no better than my ancestors." 5 Then he lay down under the tree and fell asleep.
All at once an angel touched him and said, "Get up and eat." 6 He looked around, and there by his head was a cake of bread baked over hot coals, and a jar of water. He ate and drank and then lay down again.
7 The angel of the LORD came back a second time and touched him and said, "Get up and eat, for the journey is too much for you."
John 21: 1-3, 17-19
1Afterward Jesus appeared again to his disciples, by the Sea of Tiberias. It happened this way: 2Simon Peter, Thomas (called Didymus), Nathanael from Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two other disciples were together. 3"I’m going out to fish," Simon Peter told them, and they said, "We’ll go with you." So they went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing.
Peter decides it is all over, He is going back to doing what he knows.
You can’t go back! You must not change course in the middle of the stream.
Look what happens when Jesus shows up.
17The third time he said to him, "Simon son of John, do you love me?"
Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time, "Do you love me?" He said, "Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you." 18
Jesus said "Feed my sheep. I tell you the truth, when you were younger you dressed yourself and went where you wanted; but when you are old you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go." 19Jesus said this to indicate the kind of death by which Peter would glorify God. Then he said to him, "Follow me!"
Jonah 4: 9-11
9 But God said to Jonah, "Do you have a right to be angry about the vine?"
"I do," he said. "I am angry enough to die."
10 But the LORD said, "You have been concerned about this vine, though you did not tend it or make it grow. It sprang up overnight and died overnight. 11 But Nineveh has more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left, and many cattle as well. Should I not be concerned about that great city?"
The word of God tells us that we are chosen by God and ordained to bear fruit. Jesus is the author and finisher of our faith. Sometimes due to discouragement we feel like finishing our race.
Elijah once felt that way. He wanted to die. But God told him that he still had a long way to go.
Peter went back to fishing and but God restored him because He still had a lot of work for Peter to do. Even in our lives let us not be hasty in deciding our destiny.
Let God’s perfect will be completed in our lives.
4. Do not believe that God has forgotten you.
Isaiah 40: 27-31
27 Why do you say, O Jacob, and complain, O Israel, "My way is hidden from the LORD; my cause is disregarded by my God"? 28 Do you not know? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God,
the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom. 29 He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. 30 Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; 31 but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.
Isaiah 49: 14-15
14 But Zion said, "The LORD has forsaken me, the Lord has forgotten me." 15 "Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you!
Hebrews 11: 32-39
32And what more shall I say? I do not have time to tell about Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel and the prophets, 33who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was promised; who shut the mouths of lions, 34quenched the fury of the flames, and escaped the edge of the sword; whose weakness was turned to strength; and who became powerful in battle and routed foreign armies. 35Women received back their dead, raised to life again. Others were tortured and refused to be released, so that they might gain a better resurrection. 36Some faced jeers and flogging, while still others were chained and put in prison. 37They were stoned; they were sawed in two; they were put to death by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated-- 38the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, and in caves and holes in the ground.
39These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised.
The word of God tells us that God is always mindful of us and will never forsake us. He promises strength when we are weak and weary. However sometimes we feel that we are forgotten and forsaken. Especially when our difficulties are prolonged and our strength grows weak.
But it is precisely in these moments that we must believe in God’s faithfulness.
He has promised to renew our strength like the eagles. When old feathers fall away the eagle waits till new feathers grow on it .Then it begins to fly once again. Even in our lives sometimes the old feathers which had helped us fly in the past begin to fall away. However let us not panic but wait till God gives us new feathers and start flying again.
Illustration:
“If you are prepared to stand forever you won’t have to stand for long.”
- Emphasis should be on the forever side of that statement.
- Not just so you won’t have to stand for long.
5. Wait patiently.
John 2: 3-4
3When the wine was gone, Jesus’ mother said to him, "They have no more wine."
4"Dear woman, why do you involve me?" Jesus replied, "My time has not yet come."
Psalm 105: 16-19
16 He called down famine on the land and destroyed all their supplies of food;
17 and he sent a man before them- Joseph, sold as a slave.
18 They bruised his feet with shackles, his neck was put in irons,
19 till what he foretold came to pass, till the word of the LORD proved him true.
Galatians 4: 1-5
1What I am saying is that as long as the heir is a child, he is no different from a slave, although he owns the whole estate. 2He is subject to guardians and trustees until the time set by his father. 3So also, when we were children, we were in slavery under the basic principles of the world. 4But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, 5to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons.
The word of God tells us that God has a time for everything. In the first miracle that Jesus did at Cana he waited for God’s time. In the life of Joseph he was tested severely till God’s time came for him to be delivered. So let us remember the timing of God in our lives and not lose hope.
Conclusion:
In the frigid waters around Greenland are countless icebergs, some little and some gigantic. If you’d observe them carefully, you’d notice that sometimes the small ice floes move in one direction while their massive counterparts flow in another. The explanation is simple. Surface winds drive the little ones, whereas the huge masses of ice are carried along by deep ocean currents. When we face trials and tragedies, it’s helpful to see our lives as being subject to two forces--surface winds and ocean currents. The winds represent everything changeable, unpredictable, and distressing. But operating simultaneously with these gusts and gales is another force that’s even more powerful. It is the sure movement of God’s wise and sovereign purposes, the deep flow of His unchanging love.
Are you focused on the wind and forgetting the current?
Wade back into the deep water of His love.
1. Hold on to faith and confidence.
2. Continue doing good works.
3. Do not hastily alter your destiny.
4. Do not believe that God has forgotten you.
5. Wait patiently.
PowerPoint available on request - dcormie@mts.net
