Sunday, June 21, 2015

Moving Forward


Acts 8:1-8 Now Saul was consenting to his death. At that time a great persecution arose against the church which was at Jerusalem; and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles. And devout men carried Stephen to his burial, and made great lamentation over him.

As for Saul, he made havoc of the church, entering every house, and dragging off men and women, committing them to prison. Therefore those who were scattered went everywhere preaching the word. Then Philip went down to the city of Samaria and preached Christ to them. And the multitudes with one accord heeded the things spoken by Philip, hearing and seeing the miracles which he did. For unclean spirits, crying with a loud voice, came out of many who were possessed; and many who were paralyzed and lame were healed. And there was great joy in that city.

Pastor Kyle continues with our Sunday sermon series through the book of Acts by saying that, from the outside looking in, it’s hard to see what’s going on under the hood. Life is messy and ministry that gets involved in people’s lives is always messy, but both are well worth it. Nobody is immune to the “valleys” in life, but there is always a proactive step to move forward, even when one feels like they can’t. But, how can move forward in a painful “new normal”? (1) Take time to mourn & grieve. Even when being ravaged in a significant loss, take time because you are vulnerable. In doing so, find where you are in Christ. Not taking the time to grieve loss, buries the painful emotions which can latter appear as depression or illness. (2) Get back to normal routines, somewhat, quickly because there is comfort in daily routines. It takes different amounts of time for different people, but when the fog lifts, get back to what you do best. Seasons pass, somewhat. We learn from the trials of life and mature from the experience.

(3) Keep proclaiming Christ and sharing what God is doing in your life. In our sadness, we can either run away or towards God. We can disconnect ourselves from the Lord and His church or embrace both in faith and there will be much joy seeing Christ and seeing Christ’s work. Do not stop serving Jesus in “dry times”. Hard times enhances our personal testimony. Stress, grief and anxiety increases credibility. There is a Holy Spirit! Let me tell you about Him. (4) Be mindful of unseen spiritual battles. Not because of conviction or beliefs, but because of public opinion driving people, a powerful spiritual encounters happening all around us, all the time, competing whether Jesus is Lord or ___________________ (person, place or thing) is lord. Satan’s lies tempt us to take our eyes and heart off of God (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) and onto something else. Things are missed. The thief comes to steal, kill and destroy.

Ephesians 6:12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.”

We need to take an account of your life to see if we are just going through the motions? Is Jesus being preached? The “lost causes” are often one step away from the kingdom of heaven. We need spiritual discernment when we are caught up in personal grief. Two final things for us about moving forward from Phillip the Evangelist. (1) Ministering in the midst of personal pain can translate to supernatural power, when we lean on the Holy Spirit. (2) We cannot expect “the lost“ to come to us. We need to go to them. Many of us have lost family members and friends that are living in sin, have not heard the gospel of Salvation or do not know the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. It’s our job to reach out to them, not just by example. If you witness only by your life, then you only witness to yourself. Christ told us that we are to point beyond ourselves, unto Him and to His Cross, and that requires the use of our testimony of our redemption and forgiveness by the mercy of God through the atoning blood of Jesus Christ which transformed our life. The Lord has entrusted us with the responsibility and the joy of leading others to Himself by the Holy Spirit.


 What if all of us reached out to someone who doesn’t know the Lord? We all suffer loss in our lives. Our wounds from these losses become scars, but our scars are bridges to others broken hearts. The healed are blessed to heal others in Christ and be a blessing. Jesus Christ is the “Great Physician.” God gave us more than we need in Christ to move forward.


Brian 

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