Part 8
For the past several weeks, I have heard teaching messages from three different pastors at the local church I attend.
The content of their teaching has confirmed the words that I have been sharing in the current post series.
I am grateful for the Holy Spirit’s confirmation of His direction through the Word being shared by other ministers in the Body of Christ.
On November 12, 2023, Jeremy Pray shared from Romans 8:18-30 outlining how the Lord uses suffering in our lives today. He encouraged us by emphasizing that “God is for us!” Life can be hard; but God works it out for our good.
He listed seven statements of hope from the text of Romans 8:18-30.
He closed his teaching emphasizing that as a believer we have no cause to worry as long as everything is ok between the Father and the Son-we have no issues to fear.
Therefore, in the context of the blog series, we have ‘no issues to fear’ as believers in Christ during the time of ‘unprecedented unrest’.
The following week, on November 19, 2023, Matt Rehrer’s, sermon was a continuation of the text found in Romans 8. He shared verses 31-39.
His teaching was entitled: Anchorings, and Moorings of the Soul.
He began with showing a picture of a vessel in a severe storm that was painted by Leonardo da Vinci, entitled ‘The Storm on the Sea of Galilee’.
When I saw the picture on the screen, I immediately thought of the impending ‘unprecedented unrest’.
Pastor Rehrer shared our moorings in Christ.
- If God is for us, who can be against us? Who can wrestle me from God? Is my sin too much for God? The answers are unequivocal: No one, No one, and NO!
- “In Christ, I am not just, justified, but I am declared righteous.”
- Not only did Christ die, and was resurrected, but He, also, ascended to heaven and sits at the right hand of His Father. The act of being seated speaks to us of the permanency of His atoning work. His work is finished. His work is completed. He said, hanging on the cross before He died, “It is finished”. Jesus eternally secured our salvation.
- In heaven, He is our High Priest and He ever lives making intercession for the saints. Hebrews 7:25, NKJV, says, “Therefore, He is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him since He always lives to make intercession for them.”
Therefore, as we go through the storm of ‘unprecedented unrest’, our High Priest is making intercession for us before the throne of grace. We have that mooring.
Because of our moorings in Christ, we can walk in security. We can ‘ride out the storm of ‘unprecedented unrest’ as we stay focused on Christ.
We are secure in Christ, Who is our Ark. We are safe and secure just as Noah and his family were safe and secure inside the ark being tossed about in the ‘unprecedented storm’ that God unleashed to flood the earth.
After sharing about our moorings, Pastor Rehrer shared from the same passage our anchors in Christ.
Does God have a purpose allowing us to encounter storms in our life? Is there a purpose for suffering?
I ask, Does God have a work He is doing in the earth using a storm of ‘unprecedented unrest’ at this time in our nation and the nations of the world?
As I have previously shared, I see a two-fold purpose. The two-fold purpose is judgment and grace. God’s judgment upon those who need to be judged; and God’s grace available for those who turn to the Lord to receive the message of the Gospel. It’s a picture of Calvary. The Cross judged sin and becomes the instrument of new life in Christ.
As Pastor Rehrer emphasized, ‘in Christ’, we have an anchor of security in the present and security in the coming age. In Christ, we have safety. I do not need to live in fear and doubt. ‘In Christ’, no circumstance will separate me from God’s love. He is the anchor of my soul. ‘In Christ’, my suffering, my trial, my tribulation, my personal turmoil is not pointless.
Let me turn our attention to Hebrews 5: 5 b, 7-9, NKJV. It is written of Christ, “You are My Son, Today, I have begotten You…Who(Christ), in the days of His flesh(in a human body); when He had offered up prayers and supplications, with vehement cries and tears to Him(His Father) Who was able to save Him from death, and was heard because of His godly fear, though He was a Son; yet learned He obedience by the things which He suffered. And having been made perfect (Gr. teleios, mature, a word that means the goal, purpose or end for which something exists or is performed.) He became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him.” (inserts mine)
Q: If God’s Son, Jesus, learned obedience here on earth through suffering, robed in human flesh, how do you think, we, who are here on earth, robed in human flesh ,are going to learn obedience and grow into maturity?
A: Through suffering: suffering is the paramount means that God will use to bring His children to maturity in Christ. It comes by the way of the Cross throughout our life. It is the ‘inwrought’ discipline that takes us through the process of sanctification.
Consider Paul’s words found in Colossians 1:24-29, NKJV.
Q: What is the goal of Paul’s ministry as he understood it from the Lord?
A: “I now rejoice in my suffering for you, and fill up in my flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ, for the sake of His body which is the church, of which I became a minister according to the stewardship from God which was given to me for you, to fulfill the word of God, the mystery which has been hidden from ages, and from generations, but now has been revealed to His saints. To them God willed to make known (ginosko) what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. Him we preach, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom that we may present every man perfect (teleios, mature) in Christ Jesus. To this end I also labor striving according to His working which works in me mightily. (insert,emphasis mine)
What did Paul understand regarding the impact of his ministry ? Preach Christ, and water that preaching so that believers could mature ‘in Christ’, NOW!
I realize that this ‘diversion’ has been extensive; but I believe that it is necessary because it verifies that God is doing a work in the earth. He is stirring the ‘unrest’; He is moving the puzzle parts of the nations; and He is pouring out His Spirit saving the lost in a darkened world.
In the midst of this ‘unrest’, our security, safety, and refuge is in our ARK, Christ Jesus, the Lord.
Recalling Psalm 64:10, NKJV, “The righteous shall be glad in the Lord, and trust (find their refuge) in Him. And all the upright in heart shall glory.” (insert mine)
We now give our attention to the Senior Pastor at NCC.
On December 10, 2023, Pastor Kent Dresdow, shared from Matthew 20:17-34.
At the conclusion of His teaching, he addressed the congregation forcefully, yet compassionately as a shepherd feeding and tending his sheep.
In Matthew 20: 29-34, it records an interaction between two-blind men, calling out to Jesus, and a large crowd that was following Jesus. The two-blind men called out to Jesus saying, “Have mercy on us, O Lord, Son of David!” The crowd accompanying Jesus, “warned them that they should be quiet; but they (the two-blind men) cried out all the more saying, “Have mercy upon us, O Lord, Son of David! (insert mine)
Jesus stood still and called to the blind-men, and said, “What do you want me to do for you?” There response was direct, “Lord, that our eyes may be opened.”
Pastor Kent confronted the congregation lovingly inferring that we, in the days in which we are living, can be like these blind-men, not seeing what is happening around us and to us. He said that we need to cry out to the Lord that we may see.
How so, you ask? We are blind to the darkness and death all around us.
Strong words, but words we need to embrace in the hour in which we are living, because the ‘days are evil’.
We are not spiritually aware (seeing) what is happening daily in our homes, our families, our community, our work place, our state, our nation. He exhorted us and encouraged us to be like the blind beggars who cried out, “Have mercy upon us, O lord, Son of David!” For what are we crying out? to receive sight!
He warned us that just as the crowd told the beggars to stop it; the world, will tell us to stop it; you won’t find any help from God, from religion, from Christ. Are we going to listen to the world; or are we going to turn to the Lord?
Pastor Kent, told us that we can be as ‘blind-men’ in this age. We need to cry out to the Lord. We need to humble ourselves, ask the Lord to heal us, so that we may ‘see’.
Why? So that we will have eyes to see the world as it is; to see the Lord working in our lives; but most importantly to see the world as the Lord, Himself, sees the world.
In summary, these three sermons have been sharing the same subject matter that the Holy Spirit has been emphasizing in the current series of posts.
Jesus said, Matthew 24:37-39 NKJV, “But as the days of Noah were, so also will be the coming of the Son of Man be. For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and did not know (ginosko) until the flood came, and took them all away, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be.” (insert mine)
Jesus’s words imply blindness to what was happening in their midst. Noah obediently built an ark for the safety of himself and his family, and all the animals, creatures, and fowl God directed to come into the ark. But the people who witness the construction of the ark were blind to what was taking place.
The ark was God’s appointed place of safety for the coming ‘unprecedented unrest’ that He was going to unleash upon the world, in the form of a flood.
As I shared, in the previous post, the storm cloud have gathered; there is ‘unprecedented unrest’ in our world. It is growing throughout our nation, and the nations of the world. Do you ‘see’ it?
God has provided a place of safety for His people during this season of ‘unrest’. We are in a time of preparation to ready ourselves for the ‘unrest’. We need to pray and ask the Lord to ‘see’ what is going on, and how to be prepared for what is coming.
The truth is that all who are ‘in Christ’ are always in have a place of refuge. Do you as a believer understand that? Is that knowledge just a fact or a living reality?
We are citizens of His Kingdom. We live in a Kingdom that cannot be shaken.
Knowing (edoi) that and Knowing (ginosko) that are two different things. (inserts mine) [see the post: Knowing is not Knowing: Edoi is not Ginosko]
We are safe and secure ‘in Christ’.
We will be going through a ‘suffering’ (an unprecedented unrest) that will shake the nation in which we are living and that same ‘unrest’ will be used by the Lord to grow us in our ‘teleios’ (made perfect) which manifests itself in maturity as a son or daughter of God.
end of Part 8
tbc
a brother in Christ, deo
Living Words of Encouragement 