Comfort In Uncertain Times

[Music] thank you so much fiona that was beautiful and cindy just such a wonderful reminder of the passover and what it means to us today and of course we are so happy that you have joined us for the service tonight and we're just pray that you'll be blessed we welcome you we pray god's blessings upon you that you will be encouraged tonight that you will be strengthened and that if you have sickness in your body that you will feel the healing touch of the lord jesus christ if you're discouraged tonight that you'll be lifted up we bless you in the name of jesus thank you for joining us i'm going to teach you the word of god tonight and i invite you if you have your bibles handy there at your home or wherever you are you can open your bible up to second corinthians 1. and we'll read there in a moment my title tonight is this comfort in uncertain times god just put that on my heart and two specific scriptures that i want to share with you tonight i know that when i normally speak that everyone that i'm speaking to doesn't isn't necessarily going through trials and challenges but tonight is different because the whole world is just facing uncertain and complex times right now and so we all need encouragement we all need to be reminded of the promises of god and to be reminded of the absolutes in our lives you know there's a difference between the facts and the truth of what we know and the truth and we have truths from the word of god i call them absolutes that we can always stand on that god is still god and he is watching over us and that even those things may seem chaotic he is still in control of our lives that no weapon formed against us will ever prosper we know uh from god's word that we have divine protection because god gives his angels charge over us to keep us in all our ways we know that god is our healer our deliverer our refuge and in him we put our trust our trust is not in man it's not in money it's not in things and everything around us is being shaken right now but i can tell you that when it's all said and done we will still be standing strong because we are the church triumphant and the gates of hell shall not prevail against us i tell you what that's worth rejoicing for even right now because jesus christ he is the way the truth and the life and these are the absolutes that we live by no matter what we're going through no matter what's going on around us things may be uncertain around us but we know these things they are sure and they are certain i want us to look at that scripture i mentioned to you in first corinthians 1 verses 3 and 4. and this is what it says praise be to the god and father of our lord jesus christ the father of compassion the god of all comfort who comforts us in all of our troubles so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from god you see god is the father of all compassion and he's the god of all comfort no one can comfort us like father god can he promise to comfort us in all our troubles and everything that we go through and then he said in return we can reach out to others and comfort those who are hurting with the comfort we ourselves have received now i understand that very well because i i went through an unwanted divorce in my early twenties and i was so depressed and hurt at that time but i found that in my time of need god comforted me through his word through people through his presence and he restored my life and he set me in on an amazing path god can restore your life i can comfort you with that thought i think about when our mother was diagnosed with cancer of the liver in 1981 we were so shocked but we knew that god was our hope that the lord was the lord our healer and the holy spirit was our comforter during that time i look back and see that he gave us such a peace that passes all understanding and the word of god it was our stabilizer and god was faithful to heal our mother and now she is 86 years old no cancer in her body and she's strong and healthy i can comfort you with the thought that god is a healing god when kevin and i shouldn't couldn't have children for eight years god was our hope and our comfort and eight years later he blessed us with three amazing children god can give you the desires of your heart when i opened a mailbomb that exploded in my lap god miraculously delivered me and spared my life i mean i should not be standing here right now but i am by the grace of god and i can tell you and comfort you with these words that god can spare your life he can deliver you from anything that you're going through when i was faced with an aggressive fear after that traumatic event god comforted me and he delivered me from all my fears i could go on and on talking about the faithfulness of god in my life and in my family's life in in the the history of lakewood church but tonight i want to comfort you with the comfort i have received if god did it for me he will do do it for you if god did it for my mother he will do it for you god is faithful and i want you to receive that comfort tonight there's another scripture in lamentations 3 verses 22-24 i'm going to preach from this scripture actually and give you three points it says this written by the prophet jeremiah god's faithful love for you never changes or ceases his let's let me see his mercies never cease great is his faithfulness his mercies begin afresh every morning so i say to myself the lord is my inheritance therefore i will hope in him i love that scripture many times we quote that's that part of that scripture his mercies endure forever which is amazing and i'm going to talk about that but there's so much more in that scripture i love even how jeremiah started out i will dare to hope when i remember these things so let's put our hope in these absolutes that the word of god teaches us number one the first one that we learned from that the first thing we learned from this scripture is this that you can count on the fact that god's faithful love for you it never changes and it never ceases now i hope you just let that sink into you because if we're not careful we will allow ourselves or the enemy and uh to talk ourselves into believing that god doesn't love us because we're not deserving of his love maybe because of our past our failures our mistakes he may not love me like he loves someone else like he loves joel and victoria but his love for you never ceases or changes maybe you think that his love is based on your works and you're just not measuring up therefore you're not really worthy of his love of his protection of his blessings james 4 8 says this that when you draw near to god he will draw near to you god has never moved his position he hasn't changed his mind about you his love for you never ceases it's never ending you know my mother tells the story of my brother paul as a little boy there was a time when he was afraid at night and one night he was in bed all alone and he just called out to our father who was also in bed and paul said daddy are you facing my direction and my daddy he was such a good daddy he said yes paul i'm i'm facing your direction towards your bedroom towards you but that wasn't enough for paul he went on to say but daddy is your face turned toward me you see paul needed to know that his daddy's face was turned toward him he needed that assurance listen i can tell you that you can be sure that your father god's face is always turned towards you he's always watching over you and he loves you with an everlasting love in fact the bible says that god's love is perfect his perfect love cast out all fear when you truly believe that god loves you as his child you will not doubt his care for your life you know it's a trying time right now and and sometimes we just allow ourselves to get all worried and fret over well what is god going to do and what am i going to do but listen your heavenly father loves you and if he loves you he's going to take care of you and let me remind you of something and god is not like the mother or father who mistreated you or withheld their love from you you see they are human they had their own flaws they had their own issues they couldn't give you what they didn't have but god is love and his love is perfect and he loves you faults in all i think about how peter failed jesus miserably in the bible when he was questioned he denied that he even knew jesus three times he did this and yet it wasn't a surprise to jesus he knew it was going to happen before this event jesus said to peter one day he said peter satan has asked to sift you but i have prayed for you that your faith may not fail and when you have turned back i love that and when you have turned back strengthen your brothers oh peter's response was so adamant he said jesus i would never deny you i'll i'd never do something like that i will die with you i'll go to prison with you but when push came to shove peter denied jesus three times and he remembered the words of jesus and he wept bitterly well jesus was crucified soon after that and peter resorted to his old job he went fishing with some of his disciples thinking he had blown it for good that is until jesus showed up on the shore the one who was crucified was now alive you see jesus never gave up on peter he he he addressed peter and he said peter do you love me then feed my sheep and that's exactly what peter did starting in acts 2 ch acts chapter 2 he boldly began to declare the gospel like never before and in one day 3 000 people got saved on that day think about what god could do through you if you simply believe that god loves you that his love is unceasing that he forgives you when you mess up and that he has a great plan for your life first john 3 1 says this look with wonder at the depth of the father's marvelous love that he has lavished on us he has called us and made us his very own beloved children you are his child i want to encourage you to rest in god's perfect love for you this is a time to trust god with your life if he loves you he will take care of you take comfort in that if god closed the lilies of the field that are here today and gone tomorrow how much more will he take care of you you know when i look back on all the things that i've gone through i can say with confidence that god's love has always been consistent in my life and he brought me out of those trials and into victory and not only that he brought me out stronger than i ever was before you know we are in difficult days now but i can i i've rest assured that god will not only take care of us that he's going to bring us out with more boldness stronger than we were before with more faith with more more joy in our heart simply because we trusted him and we're going to give him all the glory for that the second point i want to make is this you can always count on the fact that every day god will give you the grace and mercy that you need for that day i want to encourage you to be intentional about receiving god's mercy and grace you need every day right now his grace is sufficient for today right now jeremiah said in lamentations his mercies begin fresh afresh every morning therefore i say to myself i will hope in god you know my brother joel spoke this last week on about power thoughts and he said we are to tune out the negative thoughts and to tune in to what god is saying to us and god is saying this to the body of christ right now don't worry about tomorrow because my mercies are new and they are fresh and they are available for you today think about that power thought meditate on that and not the negative thoughts that come to your mind jesus said in matthew 6 34 this is the message bible he said give your entire attention to what god is doing right now and don't get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow how many of us are so guilty of doing that thinking forward about the future getting all worked up on something that's it's not even in our control when right now today we can depend on the fresh the uh the fresh mercy and grace of god you know when i have gone through difficult times in the past i realized that i could not allow myself to worry about tomorrow or the next day because i would begin to get so overwhelmed i had to depend on god's grace for today for the right now moments for the right now anxious and fearful moments i would have to say god i need your mercy right now i receive it i receive your grace i believe that you're sustaining me i believe that i have everything in me from you that will help me get through this day and i'm not going to look toward to tomorrow or the next day i'm going to trust you right now right now grace for right now moments for right now faith amen god's grace is for you right now when you feel afraid and stressed and you don't know what to do you know that old saying that says take one day at a time it's actually very powerful and and very true listen to the words of jesus in matthew 6 31 he said so don't worry about these things saying what shall we eat what shall we wear what shall we drink these things dominate the thoughts of unbelievers not believers note that these things dominate the thoughts of unbelievers but your heavenly father already knows all of your needs these thoughts these questions these doubts they should not dominate the the thoughts of believers because we know that god will take care of us and jesus goes on to say seek the kingdom of god and above all else and live righteously and he will give you everything that you need i love that listen to this this passage in the passion bible it says refuse to worry about tomorrow but deal with each challenge that comes your way one day at a time tomorrow will take care of itself so take comfort in the fact that god is helping you today right now he's sustaining you his grace is sufficient his mercies are new every morning and you know there are times when we have to we really have to comfort ourselves we have to learn to encourage ourselves we learn that from the the scripture in the old testament first samuel 30 because that's what king david did his city was attacked and the enemy had taken all of the women and children captive and his own men they were all so depressed and despondent and distressed and his own men were thinking about stoning david because of this situation so david was all alone but the bible says that he encouraged himself in the lord he drew comfort from god he drew strength from god he meditated on god's greatness he refused to give up he took time to seek the lord and he began to pray and he said god shall we go up and pursue the enemy and god answered him immediately and said yes pursue them and you will recover all i love that david is and his men they went after the enemy they pursued them they they uh defeated them and they recovered everything and more that the enemy had taken and i'll just stop and declare that over you right now i don't know what you're going through i don't know what challenges you have i don't know what has been stolen from you but i'm telling you now that god is going to help you recover all and there will be nothing missing among you amen psalm 55 22 says this cast your cares upon the lord and he will sustain you he will never let the righteous be shaken you know i think about how during this time you know we think i can't think i can't i can't take another day in this house or i i'm just so sick of this or i'm tired of this or maybe you're sick and you don't feel well or you're you're going through a trial and you just think i can't take another day of this but you can when god is your refuge and strength because he will sustain you his mercy and grace will sustain you and help you make it today the third thing that lamentations teaches us is this great is god's faithfulness can i just say it again great is god's faithfulness to you that is something we can never forget god is not a man that he should lie deuteronomy 7 9 says this god is the faithful god keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations to those who love him and keep his commandments let me tell you something god is faithful always god hears your prayers always god is present in the company of his people though he may seem silent at times he is in the midst of us and he is faithful to deliver us and bring us into victory hallelujah i want to read a scripture that has brought great comfort into my life it meant so much to me in my early 20s i meditate on it all the time it's powerful and i want it to bring comfort to you first corinthians 10 13 says this and god is faithful he will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you can bear but when you are tempted he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it i love the one translation says so that he will provide a way of escape so god is watching over us during this time he is providing a way out a way of escape because the body of christ has been praying and he has heard our prayers and believe me when we pray god moves when we pray angels go into action and god is working on our behalf i don't care if there are only 10 praying if there are 10 praying god is moving on our behalf amen i think about a story in ii chronicles 20 it's the story about a man named jehoshaphat and during his reign these three armies came together to declare war on him the bible says it was a vast army that came against him and it also says that jehoshaphat was alarmed when it happened but in his fear he resolved to seek the lord and proclaim a fast for all of judah he was the king of judah did you know that you can feel fear but you don't have to respond in fear you are in control of your response always you can respond in prayer you can respond in faith you can respond by trusting god you can respond if you feel like you can't even do that you can call a friend or go to someone and say hey i feel fear but i don't want to act on this fear pray for me we need to pray for one another and this is what jehoshaphat did even though he feared he responded in faith and he began to pray this powerful prayer that i'm going to read to you parts of it to you first of all jehoshaphat began his prayer by rehearsing who god is he said god you rule over all the kingdoms of the nations power and might are in your hands and no one can withstand you what of a powerful reminder in other words god you're stronger than this vast army that's coming against us we can say god you're bigger than this virus that we are facing we know that no one or nothing or no virus can stand against you you see jehoshaphat went from being afraid to praying and declaring his faith in god and being courageous and bold he took the emphasis off of his enemy the army he took the emphasis off of himself and his inabilities and he placed the emphasis on his great god you know of course we need to be careful we need to do our part as a family for and and just protect ourselves from this virus but we must take the emphasis off of the virus we must take the emphasis off of me i can't do this this problem is too big i feel overwhelmed this virus is powerful no god is powerful he's powerful the all-powerful one and we must keep the emphasis on our great and mighty god if we continue to dwell on the negative we will be discouraged and we will be fearful so let's dwell on how great our god is you want to see and have powerful prayers start praying like this don't come to god just with your problems and how bad everything is come and remind god in yourself how great he is listen let remember this let's let's not forget who we serve and whose we are amen god is our waymaker our miracle worker our promised keeper our light in the darkness that's who he is he is our refuge and strength and our deliverer amen don't ever forget what a great god you serve and you belong to that god the second thing that jesuphat reminded god of was the miracles of the past this is so important he said god you drove out the enemies and gave this land to abraham in the past abraham was your friend god and i'm one of his descendants and and and they prayed at that time that if calamity or plague or famine comes upon us we will cry out to you and you will hear us and save us listen how appropriate that is for today if calamity or famine or plague comes upon us we will cry out to you and you will hear us and you will save us god god is saying that to us today you called upon me in the midst of this virus and i listened and i am going to rescue you see when you're tempted to be afraid start reminding yourself of all that god has done for you in the past start rehearsing the miracles i know god's done great things for you the answer prayers the times that god has protected you and healed you and spared your life rehearse the promises of god psalm 91 says that no plague shall come near our dwelling just as the blood was on the homes of the israelites that pass overnight the blood of the lord jesus is on the doorpost of our lives and our homes and the death angel must pass over us it cannot touch us because we are god's people hallelujah remember that god has not changed he is the same yesterday today and forever what he did for you in the past he will do for you today and he will continue to do for you in the future psalm 33 4 says god is faithful and all he does i'm going to say that again god is faithful in all he does the third thing that jehoshaphat prayed i believe this is my opinion was one of the most powerful prayers in the bible ever since i studied out this story years ago i pray this prayer so often because we find ourselves in this place he said god we have no power to face this vast army that is attacking us we don't know what to do but our eyes are on you god we don't know what to do but our eyes are on you we're not without hope we have your help that simple prayer can change your life just to be willing to say in humility got it i admit i don't know what to do but my faith is in you my eyes are on you i'm fixing my gaze on you lord and i'm not going to be moved to the left or to the right by what i see by what i feel what others are doing my eyes are on you second corinthians 4 18 says this so we fix our eyes not on what is seen which is the circumstances the trials the virus but we fix our eyes on what is unseen which is jesus and his word since what is seen is temporary but what is unseen is eternal the circumstances we see today they are temporary but jesus in his word are eternal our challenges have an expiration date this virus will soon pass because it has an expiration date the discouragement you're feeling it will soon pass just keep your eyes fixed on jesus psalm 121 emphasizes this truth it says i will lift up my eyes to the hills or the mountains where does my help come from my help comes from the lord the maker of heaven and earth and he will not let your foot slip amen it continues to say this that the lord will keep you from all harm he will watch over your life the lord will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore isn't that powerful and how appropriate for today we can't come and go a lot but when we do we maybe we get a little concerned but god said i'm going to watch over you're coming and you're going and so we have to keep our eyes fixed on jesus and after jehoshaphat prayed this prayer god responded to him because you know what god always responds to our prayer he always responds to faith hey he's not going to respond to complaining and to grumbling and and griping he is touched by your tears but let me tell you something god is moved by your faith and so i encourage you to start praying faith-filled prayers jehoshaphat prayed and god spoke to the prophet and and said jehoshaphat you will not have to fight this battle this battle belongs to god hey that's powerful too many times we are fighting battles we shouldn't be fighting we need to trust god to fight those battles for us and that's exactly what happened with jehoshaphat the people of judah began to praise and worship god and god began to frustrate the plans of the enemy and do you know those three enemy armies they got confused they turned on themselves and they defeated and slaughtered one another listen only god can bring about a miracle like that god is faithful to deliver his people hebrews 10 23 says this let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess for he who promised is faithful i'm going to leave you with that scripture and with these three thoughts take comfort in the fact that god's love for you never changes it never ceases and he will care for you always take comfort in the fact that his mercies are new every morning and he will always sustain you take comfort in the fact that great is god's faithfulness and you can always depend on him you can always trust him no matter what you go through god is such a good god hey you may not be going through a great thing right now what you're going through is not good but god is good he's good all the time and he's faithful all the time amen i hope that blessed you encourage you tonight i do have an outline on the website that you could go to and download it and just go over these scriptures i encourage you to meditate on these scriptures encourage yourself let god bring comfort to you through his powerful word but i want to pray with with you before we close it's so important that we just take a time to give the lord an opportunity to reach every person anyone who wants to have a personal relationship with god today maybe that's you maybe you know about god or but you really don't know him you don't have that personal relationship with him and if you've never asked jesus to come into your life as your lord and savior you can do that today i want to pray with you i invite you to pray this prayer after me right now wherever you are just stop and pray it after me god i admit them i'm a sinner i'm in need of a savior i ask you to forgive me of all of my sins jesus i invite you to be my lord and savior i want to serve you all the days of my life amen and amen if you prayed that prayer the bible says that you just got born again on the inside jesus forgave all of your sins and he cleansed you with his righteousness you are now a child of god and he is your heavenly father he will help you navigate your life better than you could ever do on your own god has a new god has god has a plan for your life and listen he's given you a new start on life i like to say this way a new heart with a new start god has great things for you and we encourage you to just continue to tune in online with us let us teach you the word of god let us pray with you if you need prayer soon when we are back to church we encourage you to find a church that will help you to be strong in the lord and grow in the lord if you're in the houston area we want you to come here to lakewood and be a part of what god is doing here but we love each and every one of you we look forward to seeing you online this easter weekend i want to close with a blessing over you so receive this the lord bless you and keep you the lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you the lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you his peace god bless you we love you you

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Length: 33min 11sec (1991 seconds)

Published: Mon Oct 19 2020