When Storms Come [The Importance of Prayer]

i've been doing a little study on the power of god but i want to step out of that for this one session if you've been following along with us you know we do three services a week and each one is different these days i will change that when the lord gives me permission but the the title for this for this particular talk is when storms come aren't i not creative uh i live in tennessee and if you're around here we have endured endured a generational storm this week it's been a long long time since we've seen this much snow and ice i heard some report in the media i don't i can't quote it exactly but it's been decades since we've had this many days where the temperature stayed below freezing it's why we moved south it has been disruptive and it's been far more disruptive in places beyond middle tennessee we've watched news reports and seen pictures and heard a bit of information and for us it was an inconvenience for the most part in other places it's been far more significant and wrapped around this generational winter storm we have this whole pandemic which we're not free of just yet so we have seen storm after storm after storm we've seen schools closed and businesses closed we've been through national elections and those have become stormy we've been churches i mean just lots of things have been disrupted and i think it's safe to say we got a bit of storm fatigue right i mean it's but here's the reality and this is really the heart and the purpose for this talk is i don't believe that the disruptions are finished and i don't mean the pandemic and i don't mean more snow i believe there will be times of quiet and calm but i i'm convinced that the frequency of the storms has increased and will continue i don't expect them to be repeated i don't think we'll see the same thing over and over again but i do anticipate that this season of disruption is a part of our future i was reminded of a verse in zechariah that it's just selfish for those of us in middle tennessee perhaps but it's zechariah 9 verses 14 and 15. it says the lord will appear over them his arrow will flash like lightning and the sovereign lord will sound the trumpet and he will march in the storms of the south and the lord almighty will shield them so hey if you all don't live in the south and you're watching this come on down we'll teach you about sweet tea and cornbread i think our little paradigm that we've been using for months now is appropriate in this season to watch to listen to think and to act don't just mindlessly go through your routine don't just accept everything you're told watch and listen think use the mind and the experience god has given you and then be directed to what god wants you to do and act john 16 and verse 33 jesus said it very plainly i've told you these things so that in me you may have peace but in the world you'll have trouble take heart i've overcome the world in jesus vocabulary in his life in his teaching peace is not the absence of conflict jesus said my peace i give to you jesus did not lead a life free of conflict in his hometown they tried to throw him off a cliff when he was born in bethlehem they slaughtered the babies that were in the age range around his birth time he's ultimately crucified as a criminal by the romans he didn't live a peaceful life so when jesus said my peace i give to you you need to understand what he meant what you find in jesus life is that he never panicked he was never threatened he was never intimidated standing before the roman governor who held his death sentence in his hands he had the power to set him free or to condemn him to crucifixion jesus looked at pilate and he said you would have no authority over me unless my father gave it to you i have an assignment and it may be that you can make my assignment difficult but you understand that's something for which you'll give an account so when jesus said my peace i give to you he gives us this calm assurance of god's unlimited power watching over our lives and he said in the world you're going to have some trouble but be of good cheer storms come with your journey through time if you've embraced a theology that says you have so much faith and you're so biblical or you're so righteous or you're so good or you're so cute or you're so something that you can avoid the storms of life you're deceived jesus said in the world we're going to have some trouble that our heroes in the bible do in fact i want to just walk with you pretty quickly i made just a casual list it's by no means inclusive in fact we get to focus on any one of these individuals lives and tagged multiple storms but they're characters for the most part that i believe will be familiar to you and their lives are defined by tremendous storms tremendous storms moses one of the greatest leaders in the bible and maybe the greatest leader until we get to jesus the one god entrusted with the assignment to take my people from the slave pits of egypt into a promised land that flows with milk and honey that is not a simple assignment in fact that's an extraordinarily heavy lift and moses had storms exodus 15 they've seen the plagues of egypt they've seen the red sea part in fact they're 72 hours after the victory of the red sea i mean i think you'd still have some adrenaline right i mean you still got pictures on your phone of egyptians trying to swim out of that mess right i mean this is fresh stuff exodus 15 moses led israel from the red sea and they went into the desert of shore for three days they traveled in the desert without finding water warning when they came to mara they couldn't drink its water because it's bitter mara is just a transliteration of the the hebrew word mara mara is bitter so they came to the place where it's called bitter guess what the water was so the people grumbled against moses they said what are we to drink now they're not just grumbling at this point they have a crisis 72 hours in the desert with no water i'm certain they were carrying some but i don't think they could have carried enough for the hundreds of thousands of people involved and they are facing extinction they come to the place where they expected there to be water and it wasn't potable and they grumbled against moses we don't like you really you still smell like slaves what are we to drink and moses cried out to the lord and the lord showed him a piece of wood and he threw it into the water and the water became sweet and the lord made a decree and a law for them and there he tested them so i'm going to call that a storm if the people you're leading decide they're going to kill you because they don't like the choice you made storm okay as we walk through this list i'm going to do it pretty quickly and try to minimize my comments see if you can find the common thread because what we're really trying to understand is how you and i can flourish in the midst of storms that we won't be swept away we won't be overwhelmed we won't lose heart we won't abandon our course because some do i'm not going to take the time this morning to give you the bad examples but the bible is filled with them as well people whose where the storms took them off course they lost their momentum they broke stride they didn't finish the course we don't want to be included in that group the next person that didn't endured many storms but the one one we'll look at is david he came became king of israel but it took a while in first samuel chapter 30 david is not yet king he's been anointed by samuel but it's kind of a private thing israel has a king and he doesn't intend to surrender the throne in fact he won't surrender the throne until david wins a civil war do you have the imagination that god could send the prophet to anoint you to his purpose for your life but that purpose would require you having physical conflict in order to fulfill it well i thought if god said it would be just like a skip down the yellow brick road well i appreciate you thinking that it's just not biblical well i don't know if i'm really interested enough in the things of god that i'm going to engage in actual struggle to get them then you won't who told us following the lord was easy david's been anointed to be king over god's people in fact he will become the greatest king they ever have until messiah reigns but in this season of his life he's living as a fugitive in the wilderness and it says those who were deeply in debt or those who had significant problems gravitated to him in the wilderness so it's not like he's leading the best of the best the riff raft have gathered around david and while he was gone with the the the men that were with him their camp was raided and their women and their children were taken away and when they returned to their base the men with him are angry at david there's a theme emerging it says david was greatly distressed distressed it's first samuel 30 and verse 6 because the people spoke of stoning him for all the people were embittered each one because of his sons and his daughters their children had been carried away and the overwhelming group of the the men with him were so angry at david they saw david as the problem if they killed david were they going to be in a better place was going to bring their kids back was it going to restore the goods that had been stolen no if they if they had murdered moses in exodus 15 and tomorrow would they have been in a better place no moses understood who who the deliverer was it says he cried out to god and in this case when david's men's or men are about to stone him it says david strengthened himself in the lord his god and they went and took back their families in daniel chapter 2 one of my heroes in the bible daniel it's the very beginning of the book we're introduced to daniel and his friends in the first chapter they're slaves in a foreign country jerusalem's destroyed it's a very very difficult time and very early in their their lives in this new place they're still learning the the king has a dream and he demands someone interpret his dream and when the the wise men of babylon say we can't do it he said you will or i'll kill you all in fact if you can't tell me my dream tomorrow i will execute every one of you and daniel and his friends were included in that group so that's not great news if you're the new kids in town it's daniel 2 and verse 16 daniel went in and requested of the king that he would give him the time in order that he might declare the interpretation to the king so daniel went to his house and informed his friends hannah and i and michelle and azariah about the matter don't you know they were happy to hear that news so that they might request compassion from the god of heaven concerning this mystery so that daniel and his friends would not be destroyed with the rest of the wise men of babylon this particular storm again is about life and death it's destruction and it's something beyond them no amount of resources no life experience they they need god's help and daniel said may we have the evening to pray and he goes and finds his friends and he said we need to focus and in the morning he told the king his dream the king couldn't remember the dream he had had and he was demanding someone tell him both the dream and the interpretation and daniel had enough confidence in god in matthew 26 there's an event in jesus life did you know jesus life had storms you know at the end of the day he is our pattern for faith and practice and jesus faced many challenges didn't he i'm not suggesting you have to be a martyr but i'm suggesting that following jesus will not always be easy everyone won't cheer not everybody will be pleased in matthew 26 and verse 36 jesus went with his disciples to a place called gethsemane it's an olive grove gethsemane means olive press and he said to them sit here while i go over there and pray and he took peter and the two sons of zebedee james and john along with him and he began to be sorrowful and troubled and he said to them my soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death stay here and keep watch with me going a little farther he fell with his face to the ground and he prayed my father if it's possible may this cup be taken from me yet not as i will but as you will and he returned to his disciples and he found them sleeping could you men not keep watch with me for one hour what's the answer no not really watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation the spirit is willing but the body is weak before jesus leaves gethsemane he's not just praying for himself he's praying for his friends he said you needed to watch and pray not because of what's in front of me but because of what's in front of you the spirit is willing but your body's frail jesus prayed in order to have the strength to complete his assignment and he asked his disciples to watch and pray with him watch could be lost on us there were four watches in the night and the soldiers would be assigned the the watch they were given where they had to stay alert and and pay attention to whatever their assignment was guarding prisoners regarding a tomb and jesus so when he says to his disciples watch and pray with me couldn't you just watch and pray for one hour not for a a full watch not for three hours couldn't you just watch and pray for one hour there are things you can do to amplify your prayers catalyst to get to outcomes with your prayers watching and praying praying when you would be sleeping or resting some of us work goofy schedules so it's not about just at night it may be you sleep during the day but taking that time that's normally for you restful and offering that to the lord as a sacrifice say lord it matters enough to me i'm going to watch and pray for a season not just because i couldn't sleep i could have slept i choose to give you this time another amplifier is fasting skipping a meal missing food for spiritual purposes not because you want to lose your covet 19. i don't mean the virus jesus prayed peter in acts chapter 12. peter has been imprisoned the beginning of acts chapter 12 we're told that king herod arrested james one of the apostles and had him beheaded and he saw his ratings went up and so he arrested peter he thought well that got me greater public support let's do it again and he arrests peter but they're in the middle of a holiday so he said just hold him in prison until we get to the end of the holiday and then i'll deal with him so peter spends several days in prayer and some of you know the story the last the night before he's expecting his execution an angel comes and awakens peter he's sleeping chained between roman soldiers and the chains fall off and the doors of the prison open more than one door we're not told i'm quite confident there were angels there opening doors until peter finds himself standing in the street and it says when he got to the street he realized this wasn't a dream he's been in jail for several days acts 12 and verse 11 peter came to himself and he said now i know without a doubt that the lord sent his angel and rescued me from herod's clutches and from everything the jewish people were anticipating and when this had dawned on him he went to the house of mary the mother of john also called mark where many people had gathered and were praying you're catching on peter knocked at the outer entrance and a service girl a servant girl named rhoda came to the door when she recognized peter's voice she was so overjoyed she ran back without opening it and said peter's at the door and the people praying said you're out of your mind and she kept insisting no no he's really he's outside the door i'm just thinking like go open the door bring him in show in town well she stops and has an argument so i'm thinking never mind and the people of faith and power that are praying said no he's in jail it must just be his angel but peter kept on knocking you couldn't make that up and they opened the door and they saw him and they were astonished you know you can pray you know i hear people say i had no doubt i absolutely knew i knew that i knew that i knew i have to tell you in my life god continues to amaze me i understand he's invited me to some things and he's put some assignments before me but it would be completely disingenuous if i told you that i had a complete understanding and confidence of all that god would do before i experienced god amazes me routinely and i'll bow my knee again and say lord you have exceeded every expectation i had i'm not saying it's always easy i'm not telling you the deliverance comes in the timing that i would like it but i can identify i feel more at home with the girl opening the door the woman opening the door and the people praying peter motioned with his hand for them to be quiet and he described how the lord had brought him out of prison he went to honor them and what they had done tell james and the brothers about this and he left for another place there's no arrogance there's no swagger he didn't go pound on herod's door and say look what god did he left town but i believe if those men and women hadn't been praying peter would have died at sunrise the next day in acts chapter 9 there's another character maybe a little less familiar his name is ananias he lives in damascus it's not a town in israel modern day syria it's the same damascus in syria today it's an ancient city and ananias is a believer in jesus the jesus story by acts chapter 9 has made it all the way to damascus and beyond in acts 9 and verse 10 it says in damascus there was a disciple named ananias and the lord called to him in a vision and he answered and said yes and the lord said go to the house of judas on state strait street judas on straight street and ask for a man from tarsus named saul for he is praying and in a vision he's seen a man named ananias come and place his hands on him to restore his sight now in visions you not only see you have understanding he had a vision and a man named ananias was going to have a name tag it's not uncommon in a vision to have insight and understanding about what you're seeing and ananias said lord i've heard many reports about this man and all the harm he's done to your saints in jerusalem ananias is concerned that god hasn't been keeping up with the news so he pauses to help him out i know who this man is i have read the jerusalem post he is a bad bad man and i know you didn't understand that so can we just nullify the previous request and he's come here with authority from the chief priest to arrest all who call on your name and the lord said to ananias you go this man is my chosen instrument to carry my name before the gentiles and their kings and before the people of israel and i'll show him what he has to suffer for my name a storm came to damascus and the storm was named saul now saul's praying and ananias has a habit of praying and while he's praying god says go pray for him he's going hang on big fella have you seen the news and god said i have you go anyway there's another couple probably less familiar to you priscilla and aquila they're from rome they're believers in jesus the gospels made it all the way to rome hallelujah hallelujah but there's a problem we meet them first in acts chapter 18. it's acts 18 and verse 1. it says after this paul left athens and he went to corinth and there he met a jew named aquila a native of pontus who had recently come from italy with his wife priscilla because cloudy as cloudius is the emperor because the emperor claudius had ordered all the jews to leave rome and paul went to see them and because he was a tent maker as they were he stayed and worked with them it was about 49 a.d and cloudiest the reasons there's a little debate over the reasons amongst the scholars the historians but claudius expelled the jews from rome i'd call that a storm imagine getting up tomorrow and the governor or the somebody said you no longer can stay in the county where you live you got to go that's worse than ice does it qualify as a storm so they step into the narrative that we have in the book of acts and paul meets them and they become a part of his ministry team now claudius dies in 54 that edict expelling the jews was only in effect for five years and by upon his death the edict passes so jews begin to trickle back into rome it leads to a crisis in the church because when the jews were driven out they were an integral part of the leadership in the church because the church began as a jewish initiative but when the jews are expelled the non-jews get those seats and when the jews begin to come back guess what the cr the non-jews say oh no no not you so in romans chapter 9 10 11 paul has to say did god reject the jews god forbid god forbid he said it's the strongest possible language he could have used in greek so not only are they expelled from their homes and driven from their livelihood and their routines and their resources when they're able to come back the believers in the church say you're not welcome here storms in first corinthians 16 and verse 19 paul writes the churches in the province of asia send you greetings aquila and priscilla greet you warmly in the lord so the church that meets in their house they've opened their house they're not angry at god they're not angry at believers they're pushing forward in romans 16. it's the conclusion of the book of romans by the time paul writes his letter to the romans aquila aquila and priscilla are back greet priscilla and aquila my fellow workers in christ jesus as we're talking about paul we had at least pulled one storm from his life that man lived in a storm we read it in the last session he said he was in dangers in the country and in the city he was in danger wherever he went he would if you travel with paul you need to like danger but in acts 27 he's in route to to rome he's been arrested he's traveling as a prisoner he's on a ship before the ship sails he says to them you shouldn't sail there's danger ahead they sail anyway after all he's a prisoner and he's jewish why should we listen to him and there's a horrible storm they have to throw over their cargo they have to throw over the tackle and it says after many days there's no hope of anybody being saved it's acts 27 21 some of you know the story after the men had gone a long time without food paul stood up before them and said men you should have taken my advice not to sail you got to love paul but he's not just taunting them because he has another message for them and he's desperate that there be some credibility because the last time he said he had a message they didn't care and he's reminding that the last time he had something to say perhaps they could have paid attention you should have listened to my advice and not sailed then you would have spared yourselves this damage and loss but now i urge you to keep up your courage because not one of you will be lost only the ship will be destroyed that's that good news bad news kind of thing you know you're going to be okay but the ship not so much last night an angel of the god whose i am and whom i serve stood beside me and he said don't be afraid paul you have to stand before caesar and god has graciously given you the lives of all who sail with you remember when your kids and your parents told you who you chose for friends made a difference the men on board that ship survived because of one reason his name was the apostle paul paul i need you in rome the ship's gonna break apart but you'll be okay and everybody traveling with you will be okay so keep up your courage for i have faith in god that will happen just as he told me nevertheless we're gonna run aground on some island he prayed before the ship sailed and the message was don't sail he didn't have the authority to stop it so in the midst of this horrific storm days and days and days they've lost all the profit from the trip they've lost all the tackle from the trip there's really no hope of being saved he's still praying he's not angry he's not resentful he's not embittered he's not filled with hatred he's still praying don't stop praying when you don't get what you want don't stop praying when people don't listen to you that's childlike that's childish stop pouting and pray and god sent an angel and said you'll be okay tell the rest of them they're going to be okay he has to warn him again they get ready to abandon ship they're lowering the lifeboats to abandon ship and he said if you don't stay together if you don't stay on the ship you won't make it now they're listening they cut the lifeboats we think we'll ride with you smart smart the last one i want to give you is in john is john not in john the apostle john he wrote the gospel that bears his name and he's also the author of the book of revelation we meet him in the book of revelation he's in exile he's been imprisoned on an island so he's cut off from his friends and from other believers his peer group for the most part have already been martyred he's an old man it's a very very difficult place but god has a message a revelation of the end of the age what will happen what will the world look like when the king returns and and he needs someone to whom to deliver it and jesus said i know who i can trust my friend john live in such a way that the lord could trust you we read a verse last sunday that talked about living worthy living a life worthy of the lord so many of us get mad at god folks we get mad of god because we think he's unfair if god held a similar standard for us awkward live in such a way that the lord can trust you be trustworthy before him it's john 1 and verse 9. i john your brother and companion he's identifying with us he's invited you and me into the narrative but you need to hear what he says your brother and companion in the suffering we're his brother in the storms and the kingdom that's better and the patient endurance that are ours in jesus think of all the things john knew jesus he got recruited way back on the shores of the lake and he traveled with him and walked with him he was the closest of all the disciples to jesus he was there on the mount of transfiguration he was there at the last supper jesus gave john the responsibility of caring for mary in his absence he's trusted by the lord and what john tells us about his friend jesus is that we're his brothers in the suffering and the kingdom and the patient endurance you still want to follow jesus i hope you do it's worth it you won't regret it the benefits far outweigh the challenges folks life is hard without jesus there's just no hope there's despair and destruction and frustration and evil it will crush you give your life to jesus that are ours in jesus i was on the island of patmos because of the word of god and the testimony of jesus i'm an exile not because i'm a thief or an extortionist i'm there because i'm an advocate for the word of god don't turn down your advocacy for the word of god because there's pushback but this is what i wanted you to hear it's verse 10 on the lord's day i was in the spirit and i heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet and he turned around to see who was speaking you know who he saw he saw jesus and he said i fell at his feet like i was dead and he put his hand on me and he said i'm the living one i was alive and i was dead and i'm alive forever and i have the keys of death and hell and then he gives john the revelation don't be afraid of that book it's a good book it's a book filled with promise but the question i want to pose suppose if john had said it was on the lord's day and i was at the lake or on the lord's day i went to the game so i've given you a representative sample of storms physical threats natural disasters threats from individuals threats motivated by jealousy threats motivated by god's misguided people in moments of great emotion all different kinds of storms and the ones who got the best outcomes the one who found god's path through their storms can you discern the most consistent common denominator what's the essential response they prayed they were people who prayed they knew how to pray prayer was a part of them so that when they're under the tremendous emotional stress of a real storm not an inconvenience a life-threatening storm their immediate response their most comfortable the the weapon they are most adept at was prayer they knew how to pray so i want to submit to you while we're in this training season because that's the way i understand it and i don't mean just the ice though i'm going to use the ice storm a little bit because those are the circumstances of the last few days but it's a generational storm i don't expect we'll have another one of those next week you know if statistics hold i won't see another one of those so i'm not really trying to prepare you for the next ice storm i think there's more disruptions coming and they'll be different they'll be unexpected they'll be as unexpected as inches of ice were we don't have that kind of cold weather very often the first essential response is to pray on a minimum basis pray every day just don't let a day go by without praying if you need to schedule it schedule it i don't even forget to brush your teeth several days a week and maybe go out the door fellas how many of you go out there without your pants on i hope not thank you for not raising your hands it would have been ugly i mean there's some things that are so ingrained into your life they're just they're a part of your routine unthinkable prayer needs to find that space if you have little people at home with you include your children make them a part of the prayer you can pray with them and pray another way without them but let them understand prayer matters to you pray with trusted christians you need some believers that you trust you trust their integrity you trust their character that will pray with you not just in desperate times as a matter of routine if you don't pray regularly with other believers you are under prepared for the storm you you can't hire that out you can't delegate your prayer pastor pray for me i can i will but that's not the same as you knowing how to pray and it's not the same as you being in community with people that know how to pray they need your prayers you need their prayers i pray with my family it's not enough it's too isolated it's too insulated know how to fast and pray know how to watch and pray now when there are storms and when there's not if possible we will provide you as a congregation we'll provide you with some prayer tools which are specific to the storm technology enables us to do that we can't always sometimes our technology gets interrupted power is out communications are down other reasons but if we can we will provide those for more than 40 weeks we've been giving you daily battle plans prayers for the week and scripture readings to go along with it because it's a season we've never seen before and we needed to stand together in prayer when it first started we were praying every hour on the hour we've adjusted as we've walked through it now we're praying morning noon and night if we need to we'll go back to praying every quarter hour there's daily devotionals if you sign up that'll drop into your inbox and every day or at least monday through friday you'll get a little devotional and there's a prayer included in that you can share those with your friends we've written little micro books 30 days of prayers that you can keep in your home tucked away when you need them i don't you don't have to just to repeat our prayers but it's a good jump start it's a spark it'll help you get started it's a little momentum prayer folks this is not some optional thing for how we close a worship service those stories those of storms that we just walked through would have had dramatically different outcomes if they haven't prayed and prayed now i want to give you some a handful of response points to a storm a storm response and i may use a bit of the snow and ice but i'm really not talking about that i'm talking about unexpected interruptions disruptions what do we do there's more storms coming so you're being negative no i'm trying to be as honest with you as i know how to be we faced more storms in the last 12 or 14 months than we'd faced in years and years prior to that i don't think we're finished yet so the first storm response i would give you is you need to do an evaluation is my home and family secure we have power at home we have water at home did my house blow away are my kids there in the case of this past week clear the sidewalk make the driveway passable that's your home you glad you came to church for that nugget but start with your family in your home are they still here you want to establish i i learned that from my friends in israel they live in this constant scrutiny surrounded by millions of people sworn to their annihilation and the men and women serve in the military when they graduate from high school and so those young people go stand on the front lines and it's not like some reserve duty they're on the front lines where there's real enemies and but in in recent years their adversaries have come to have upgraded their technology and there are hundreds of thousands of missiles most of them iranian that are appointed at the heartland of israel and as they have improved in accuracy they found that those troops were not nearly as willing to serve on those front lines if they didn't believe their families were protected behind them so they've done several things all the israelis live within two minutes of a bomb shelter everybody i have a good friend dear friend whose son is limited in his mobility and when he sent him away to college he said you won't be able to get to the shelter in time so if you hear the siren you just get under your bed and he looked at me and he said pastor a father shouldn't have to have that conversation with his son but these israelis didn't stop with that they built the iron dome you've heard of it it's a missile defense system it's multi-layered it's to protect the the cities in the heartland of the nation from the missiles from their outside adversaries so that their troops can fight with the whole heart when there's a storm be sure your home is okay now i mean just physically and then once you've established that be sure your trusted christian friends are secure lift your eyes a little bit look around the people that you count on to pray with you be sure they're okay and then take one more step do i have neighbors that need help are there people that either live immediately around me or or people that i'm in relationship with that because of this storm are in some form of peril or risk and what can i do there's more storms coming now if you're asking the question who's my neighbor go read jesus parable about the good samaritan i'm out of time on that i can't give that one to you the second respon the first is evaluation the second is you need an intentional prayer response we've already touched that i'm not going to belabor it anymore maybe there's a scripture you can agree on together with your friends that you're praying about maybe there's a biblical response needed when you pray maybe there's repentance needed on your part or obedience on your part that you've been neglecting when you're in the midst of a storm it's a good time to clear your accounts in all seriousness there's a third response to a storm response that i would submit it's not a holiday storms are not holidays nor is it just business as usual i've got a laptop i can work at home now we were very fortunate for the most part in middle tennessee recently we've just gone through this generational winter storm but if we step back and take a macro view across our nation it will cost trillions of dollars trillions it's a tremendous hardship upon many power outages water outages many will lose their jobs because of the financial impacts of this storm that we've just ridden through some have lost their lives and if our response was looking at my house it wasn't that bad pray it's not a holiday it's not just business as usual the early response typically yields the best outcome that's true with sickness and disease it's better if you respond quickly than if you let the the organism or the disease process advance it's true with storms it's better to respond as quickly as possible sometimes just your presence or your expressed awareness of the challenge will bring comfort to people maybe you know people that are in a in another region who are suffering far more than we're suffering just send a message and not a text i'm praying for you you're not alone i'm taking an hour a day to watch and pray for you i'll be up tonight at 10 o'clock to pray for you i'm going to fast today and ask god to watch over you while you walk through this storm i've been a bit intrigued we've been there's been a lot of discussion about one of the u.s senators that took a holiday pretty tone deaf i will agree but i think everybody throwing stones needs to be somebody that didn't take a holiday this week you know sometimes the personal cost of the storm is minimal sometimes it's just inconvenient you think well no big deal but it's really not something to rush past you know i got paid so it's inconvenient but it's bearable but someone worked so you got paid there's a sacrifice invested somewhere in that line so that our sacrifices were minimal it's not like paying for groceries and not getting them if you gain free time because of a storm and there's other storms coming i'm really not talking about ice and snow if you gain free time and liberty and opportunity because of a storm invest it most of us have jobs and lives that accommodate vacation and rest periods and refreshing storms are not that number four think globally but act locally you can't respond to every storm we have a 24-hour news cycle we have global awareness you can have coffee in the morning and watch the storms in africa and we cannot respond to every storm if you imagine you can you'll be easily manipulated and you're easily broken i think a more appropriate question is how can i respond where i live how can i can think globally but i need to respond where i live in the world in which i live it will diminish frustration with what i cannot do you won't feel so powerless we can't do everything but there's things we can do where we live [Music] you know in a week like we just had maybe you build the snowman with the neighborhood kids and you give the parents a break for an hour they will rise up and call you blessed maybe you bake cookies and you share them with people maybe you build a bonfire to help with the people that are outside to make it i don't know you can you're smarter than i am don't be a creepy neighbor take somebody with you and next is preparation if there are storms coming and you know there's storms coming prepared now the challenge of this season of the storms are unique we haven't seen these things before i don't imagine we're having another week of sub-freezing temperatures but having been through that experience i'll tell you one of the questions i'm asking and that we're asking around here is what would have been helpful what may be most helpful in this recent storm there's some simple things you can do simple things you can do at home they're not elaborate or expensive maybe a shovel maybe an ice scraper well my car stays in a garage i don't need to scrape no but somebody else might ice scraper won't break you might need a pair of boots we might not have another ice storm for 20 years with a shovel an ice scraper and a pair of boots you can find a place for there's some universal preparation they're good for all storms establish relationships with people who pray you'll want that no matter what storm comes you'll want biblical awareness no matter what kind of storm rolls in you'll need spiritual listening skills you're going to need to be familiar to be spiritually aware if that hasn't been a part of your portfolio folks it's time to change your portfolio the next one understand each storm is a training exercise each storm is a training exercise david willingly faced goliath not because he was just a cocky young man it wasn't the arrogance of use he youth he faced goliath because he had repeatedly faced predators which had threatened his flock and he saw goliath as a predator upon the people of god and he said the same god that delivered those other predators into my hand will deliver this clumsy philistine joseph was prepared to go from a prison cell to the penthouse of egypt to provide a god solution because he had practiced forgiveness and moral integrity he had been in training long before he got into that prison cell each storm in our lives whether they're global storms that we all walk through together are there more individual storms that we walk through as individuals or families they're training exercises hebrews chapter 5 and verse 8 says of jesus although he was a son he learned obedience from what he suffered and the last piece of my storm preparation or storm response is to give thanks in the midst of the storm when the water's frozen and when it didn't go in your way and you didn't get the diagnosis you wanted and when the answers aren't the ones you like give thanks to the lord it breaks the bondage of disappointment and discouragement god told joshua seven times be strong and courageous and he warned him more than once don't be terrified and don't be discouraged what do you do when you are discouraged it's real it's not an imagination you're not weak discouragement comes to all of us how do you walk out of a place of discouragement well a powerful first step is to give thanks to the lord you don't have to be thankful for your circumstance you can be thankful for who god is god i thank you that although my circumstances are lousy you're all powerful god i thank you that my heart is broken but you're close to those that are brokenhearted thank you for that god i'm in an uncomfortable place and i'm tired but i know you're a faithful god that i thank you for that don't just give in to the discouragement it redirects your attention to god and it takes your focus off of the things that are challenging you it minimizes your selfish focus we don't need a lot of help to get self-focused i'll close with this verse it's acts chapter 5. beginning in verse 40. it says they called the apostles in this is very early in the story of the emerging church jesus is not long gone they're still figuring this out they're still centered in jerusalem the the apostles are still in jerusalem together they're telling their jesus story there's really i think a great deal of adrenaline and excitement because the kind of activity jesus saw is happening through their lives now maybe the city is finally going to respond and they use the sanhedrin it's that same group that orchestrated jesus execution they called the apostles in and they had them flogged that's kind of a fancy english word for they had the daylights beaten out of them then they ordered them not to speak in the name of jesus and they let them go the apostles left the sanhedrin rejoicing because they had been counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the name they were in a storm they were arrested they were threatened with execution they were beaten and they left that not saying i told you that was the wrong sermon to preach you just had to shoot your mouth off one more time didn't you big guy no it says they left that encounter rejoicing because they had been counted worthy to suffer disgrace for the name of jesus their reputations are tarnished their business opportunities are evaporating because now they're a part of that group they're being threatened with exclusion and shutdown and death and they've been physically suffering because of it and they're rejoicing it's a gift they said because they'd failed the lord some earlier attempts and you will too and i have to but hopefully we learn from every storm we get better at it years ago i was about to graduate from college and i'd changed my whole course of study to i didn't have any imagination i could do ministry but i felt like god was inviting me to serve him so i i cancelled my applications to graduate professional school and i was finishing up to get my degree on time we had a snowstorm and i borrowed some trays from the cafeteria under my coat so we could go experience a hill on campus and while we were doing that my cheek met a friend's knee and it crushed the side of my face and they drove me to the hospital and i was fortunate they were open and the doctor came in and the snowy i didn't appreciate it enough i wasn't wise enough i was young and stupid to be thankful that somebody would brave those roads to look at my reckless face then he said you need surgery now there could be nerve damage and i remember sitting there in the hospital and i in my heart i was thinking well i've just decided to serve the lord this isn't what i expected so i said to the doctor i believe god will heal me thank you but i'm going to check out it was a friday afternoon and i checked into a hotel i called my parents they were in alabama giving their testimony i said i've had a little accident half my face looks like an ashtray they wanted to do surgery and i declined i'm going to trust the lord and my dad said we'll get a plane i didn't think he could thought he could hit me as hard as he wanted to from alabama so and they flew to tulsa and i spent the weekend i'm not sure that's right did you go to tulsa it's been a long time ago i remember spending the weekend in that hotel praying until i realized that it wasn't up to me to tell god how to heal my face and i called the doctor that the first of the week with a great deal more humility and said if i were to check back into the hospital might i get on your schedule and they did the surgery but i didn't have any feeling in half my face and i went to a class a couple of days later and the professor said you know i had a similar experience and he said i didn't have feeling for months and months and months i said thank you for that encouraging word and i was going back the next week for a checkup and have the stitches removed by the time i went back that next week all the feeling was back in my face but i learned something about storms we don't dictate to god the outcomes we have to thank him in the middle of them in my imagination if i was making a commitment to the lord he should protect me from any harm my imagination was wrong we live in a fallen world in a broken world god brought me through he took me through that season in spite of my arrogance and my ignorance and my lack of experience and he will bring you through but in the midst of the storm i have learned to give thanks and if i can borrow a phrase that's becoming familiar to us we will not stop in verse 42 of acts 5 it says of those same apostles that day after day in temple courts and from house to house they never stopped teaching and proclaiming the good news that jesus is the christ if you need to arrest us you arrest us they said if you feel better by threatening us threaten on but we will not stop the storms come to our lives sometimes the global storms come and we all walk through them together and in those cases we have to we need help we have to help one another sometimes they're more personal storms but storms don't mean you're evil they don't mean god has abandoned you they don't mean god has withdrawn from the arena you keep following him i brought you a proclamation i want to close with the passage from psalm 91. if you'll stand with me i think they'll put it on the screens for us before you see it i'm going to confess i amended it just a bit i changed the pronouns to make them personal rather than say surely he will save you from the fowler's snare we're going to say together surely he will save me from the fowler's snare i don't believe that's an injustice to the text i believe the point of scripture is that god intends for us to make it personal but i want to ask you to make this proclamation with me and on behalf of those that are still suffering today because there are some not just from the recent weather events there are some because of the pandemic that are struggling greatly difficult decisions great challenges about business and all sorts of ways and our prayers make a difference saying what god has said about us makes a difference one of the great weaknesses of the contemporary church has been exposed in this season is we haven't trusted the tools we've been given we thought that our deliverance would come from some other arena a political arena or an economic arena or some other arena god is the one we trust for our futures amen so let's say this together psalm 91 1-7 he who dwells in the shelter of the most high will rest in the shadow of the almighty i will say of the lord he is my refuge and my fortress my god in whom i trust surely he will save me from the fowler's snare and from the deadly pestilence he will cover me with his feathers and under his wings i will find refuge his faithfulness will be my shield and rampart i will not fear the terror of night nor the arrow that flies by day nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness nor the plague that destroys at midday a thousand may fall at my side and ten thousand at my right hand but it will not come near me amen hallelujah if you're walking through a storm right now i would suggest you take psalm 91 and say it like medicine over your life morning noon and evening god is faithful god bless you and be safe

Channel: World Outreach Church

Views: 29,492

Keywords: World Outreach Church, World Outreach Church Murfreesboro, Pastor Allen Jackson, Pastor Allen Jackson Sermons, Online church service, live church service, christian sermons, heroes in the Bible, prayer, habit of praying, hardship, prayer life., When Storms Come [The Importance of Prayer], The Importance of Prayer, When storms come, Moses, David, Jesus, Daniel, Ananias, Peter, Priscilla and Aquila, Paul, John, Daily Devotional, Give Thanks

Id: NkVXYSwMZXg

Length: 59min 20sec (3560 seconds)

Published: Mon Feb 22 2021