SONG: For I am Persuaded
For I am persuaded
That neither death nor life nor angels
Nor principalities nor powers
Nor things present nor things to come
Nor heights nor depths nor any creatures
Shall separate me from the love of God.
I. So when my body's filled with pain
And I'm tempted to complain
This one thing I know is plain
He'll see me through.
II. So whatever comes my wayAnd I will trust Him and I will pray
And with Paul you'll hear me say
His words so true.
Repeat Chorus.
III. And when my body's filled with pain
For this one thing I know is sure
Every promise is secure
His word is true.
Repeat Chorus.
TEXT: Isaiah 57:15
- Jesus did not know all in His humanity as He lay in the stable that night. But the bough of understanding and the bough of revelation were slowly opened until the crescendo of all the sins of the whole wide world converge upon His humanity. He remained faithful. We are the fruit of His faithfulness.
- Get yourself prepared. There are some things up the road. There are times when you get to the pulpit choking back in tears and put a smile on our face for the sake of the people. Because God wants us to be faithful in our circumstances.
- Isn't is strange that the ones that we most emulate is Jesus? He made of Himself of no reputation.
- When you seek authority, you become dangerous individual in this life. But when you seek responsibility, you can be trusted. Then, we are maintaining the fruit for the harvest.
- The way you can tell how much an individual's worth is to see what they would have if they lost everything they owned.
- Basically, when you preach to people, you preach your best message. You've just given yourself to prayer and you have done all the things right. And yet the Word of God seems to bounce to people's heads like a ball against the wall. It is only by the spirit of meekness that we can receive the en-grafted word of God. The best sermons, the best choir songs, everything; you just can't get it through them until that person has the spirit of meekness. They can receive the power of God when there is a spirit of meekness. That's when the Work takes effect.
- Something do happen in our life that we will never understand. There is something that if I spend up my time trying to figure up why, it will only deter me in keeping me from doing what I know I should do today. I can't go back to the road that leads the other way. But I'll tell you what I can do everyday; I can touch God.
- There's a fruit of brokenness. During a loss, there's a humiliation. The feeling of loss is replaced by an anointing like you never have felt in all of your life. I never lost my God. He was faithful.
- God would allow your ship to hit the rugged edges of life in a while so that when we can cry and acknowledge our need of Him.
- Brokenness
- humble and contrite, poor
- Blessed are the meek, poor in spirit.
- Meekness is not weakness. It gives you the power to point to your knees and acknowledge the Almighty God.
- Something uninvited happens:
- The doctor calls.
- The policeman knocks at the door.
- There's a piercing pain in our chest.
- You found yourself looking at someone's nostrils in an emergency room.
- You listen to the beep of the monitor.
- You can go through church splits.
- You can go through the pain of watching the children forsake the truth.
- You can go through watching your spouse go her way.
- It will happen. It happened to Jesus, Paul, Peter, Bible characters. They suffered. They had pains, sorrows, disappointments.
- But God has been touched by the feeling of infirmities (Heb. 4:15).
- I have cried over the loss. But the Almighty God wept more than I wept for it.
- There's a fruit that is going beyond what you see.
- Do your faithfulness. God will take that brokenness and turn it into something powerful and good.
- If there are any tears coming anywhere near you, don't get your handkerchief too quick. Save some tears. There's salt in those tears! Don't let them away. Reprocess them. Let them go back into the pores. Perhaps that's the thing God needs to get you out of the high horse and make you real.
- You are impacting someone's life. Your faithfulness is inspiring someone. Your ministry is blessing people that you'll never know.
- When we track our lives, oftentimes we get our defeats and victories all mixed up.
- Got a job but made a spiritual nose dive.
- Nothing wrong with education, but when you get impressed about yourself, you have a major problem.
- God did this to prove you. No! Don't play God.
- God didn't give me a problem to see if I had faith.
- If Job can make it, God know Job can make it.
- Job: "I don't know where You are. I'd like to find You."
- God: "I wish I could find Job."
- God knows where you are in every one of your situation, in your church problem, children's problems. Just be faithful and the fruit will follow.
- In my little brain, I was thinking about how God had put it all together. If God started it, He knows how to finish it. He would do what needs to be done. Devil, you didn't get me! Praise the Lord!
- There's something in your life that will defeat you physically, spiritually, emotionally. You feel like there's no substitute in that problem.
- He is still stable, strong and mighty. Through your brokenness, He can demonstrate His strength and ways.
- The plague of fear.
- David: When I am afraid, I will trust You, Lord.
- You know these tears.
- It's a hurt that you endure. It's a pain that you endure. But through your faithfulness, you possess your own soul. Through your patience, possess ye your soul.
- Don't ever get into God's business. We got one. It's enough there's one thing I can do and I want to be faithful. I can go to church, can smile, can preach, can pray, love the Lord.
- If he isn't healed, God is still God. God is still God when all these things wrapped up and we do not want to go in the business of judging His dealings.
- You will find much strength in your family, in your children. Let them grow in the Lord. Show them you'll gonna be faithful. If you gonna tell them, tell them something about hope. It's gonna be God.
- Since He's the Lord, let's work with what He gives us to work with. He gives us smile of dignity upon our face so that we can have confidence in God.
- It does so many wrong if you're so alone. You can make a wrong decision when you're alone. You can make wrong choice and you can perceive the wrong things. When darkness surrounds us, it is so easy to think that people don't love you. Isn't it good to have somebody to cry with?
- Without tears in the eyes, there could never be a rainbow in the soul.
- He knows the circumstances (1 Sam. 3:12).
- Send in the oyster.
- get large and washed by waves
- Becomes a pearl of agitation
- The pearl has no microscopic ingredients of the pearl because it was all absorbed in the production of the pearl.
- Your pain... Be faithful... There's a pearl in the making. Your pain will be totally absorbed in the process
There's no other friend so kind as he.
No one else can take the sin and sorrow from me.
Oh how much He cares for me.