You got to go through it!

Notes for sermon 4/24/13

Delivered by Bishop Walker

Text:  Psalm 42:5 Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted in me? hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him for the help of his countenance.

We have gotten to a point where we want God to work everything out. We want a life of little trial or pain. We want a minimum amount of kick back, but we must know that there is no way around it. There is some things that you have to go through.

God knows what is necessary to prepare you for what is on the other side. God needs you to press your way through.

I. He gives us challenging circumstances

In the transparent book (Psalms), David says he is  like a deer panting after the water. Some of you are like the deer, you are not leaving until you get what you come for!

What is this about:

1. You will have to deal with pain – No matter how spiritual you are, there is something that you will go through that will be painful  for you.

Types of pain:

1. Acute pain – If you were to ask how bad the pain is on a scale of 1-10, you would answer “It’s a 12!”
2. Associated pain – This is when you realize what caused your pain. You can simply have an encounter with someone and it triggers the old pain to come back.
3. Ambiguous pain – This means that you can’t put your finger on what caused it or you don’t have  a specific answer  for it. You can’t put your finger on it, but all you know is that you are in pain.

Effects of pain:

1. It will disorient you – It will cause you not to know which way is up!
2. It comes to disconnect you- It will disconnect you from your church and your family.
3. It comes to destroy you- No matter how much you are already hurting, it comes to destroy you.

What must we do?

1. Guard your posture- Be careful not to let the enemy make you look like what you are going through. Pull yourself together and remember that you are a child of God.

i.            Based on how you look, people ask what is wrong with you? This gives you a platform to have a pitty party. Instead we will start asking what is right with you? This will force you to tap into God’s goodness and start to think praise report.

There are people around you and you have no idea what they have been going through.

II. Confidence in the Creator

We have come to a place where we know hope is confident expectation or a firm assurance regarding things that are unclear. Romans 8:24-25 says For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for? But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.

When God makes promises, they are translated into prophecies. People have a tendency not to keep their promises, making us skeptical of other people’s promises.

Numbers 23:19 God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?

The reason why we haven’t went crazy is because we remember the promises of God. You can do all things through Christ that strengthens you. God will supply all our needs according to his riches and glory. That thing I started in you, I will perform …,  Be not weary of well doing … you shall reap if you faint not.  Weeping may endure for a night, but joy will come in the morning

Gods promises have been proven – In other words, there is nothing we are going through, that we can’t find examples for in the bible, that give us witnesses who can testify how God can handle our situations. Ask Job, who will testify that God will give you double for your trouble. Isaiah would say that they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. Nehemiah would say that the joy of the Lord is our strength.

III. I choose to celebrate

Anyone can speak well of God when all is going well, but can you speak well of God when things are going south?

You better learn to have:

1. A protest praise – This means that we protest everything the devil is trying to throw in our life. We got a habit of accepting things as they are. We accept the fact that we are sick, we accept that fact that we are broke, and we just accept everything that life throws at us .
2. The power of praise – You praise God for what is on the other side. We praise God even though we don’t have the breakthrough yet. Somebody is about to get their breakthrough!

Yet means at the same time or nevertheless. We praise God even though we are in it. Yet says if God doesn’t do it, nevertheless meaning we go through praising him, we come out praising him, and if he doesn’t deliver us, we praise him anyhow.

No matter what happens, we praise God, because we know that there is a reason for what we are going through.