Pain Part 2

Well here is like a recap of the sermon I talked about in the last post. Most of the time we ask God to helps us when really we mean, “God fix this all magically please” but in my life, I have found God does not work with me like that. Most of us also do this with our pain. Whether it be emotional or physical, we want God to just fix it but God doesn’t wave his hand and do it because the bible tells us that,

1.God is in your Pain.

This is found in Genesis 39:20-23. This is the story about Joseph, not Mary’s Joseph, but Joseph and the dream coat or coat of many colors.  You see before this Joseph was the favorite child. So much so that his 11 brothers threw him down a well and told their dad that he died. Joesph was then found by Egyptains, sold in slavery, promoted to head slave, tempted by the slave owners wife which he resisted so she tricked him and got him thrown in jail for trying to “take advantage” of her and now at this point, Joseph is in jail. The scripture reads,

“While Joseph was there in the prison, the Lord was with him; he showed him kindness and granted him favor in the eyes of the prison warden. So the warden put Joseph in charge of all those held in the prison, and he was made responsible for all that was done there. The warden paid no attention to anything under Joseph’s care, because the Lord was with Joseph and gave him success in whatever he did.”
-Genesis 39:20-23

See, God was with Joesph in his time of pain because he with him always. So no matter what type of pain,

God is in your pain. Joseph then is so blessed by God that he is promoted to head jail person and because of this the leader of Egypt come to him because he has heard that Joseph can interrupt dreams. Well he ask Joseph to do so for him and Joseph tells him he cannot but the Lord can through him (I really like this because you can imagine his smirk when he said it). He then interrupts his dream and tells the leader that there would be 7 years of like everything growing and many blessing followed by seven years of famine.

Well being a smart leader he put Joseph in charge of preparing for this and Joseph did an awesome job. After the first 7 years was over, Joseph was handing out the rations and he recognized some people and realizes they are his brothers. He then asks them to go to his chambers and then he precedes to tell them that they are his brothers. Then,

“His brothers then came and threw themselves down before him. We are your slaves, they said. But Joseph said to them, Don’t be afraid. Am I in the place of God? You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives. “
- Genesis 50:18-20

See God used his pain which is point 2.

2. God has a plan for your Pain.

Joseph was a man in a lot of pain. If we put our self in his position, we would see that Joseph a man with a lot of scars on the inside but God used his pain for good. That pain wasn’t just to save some lives, but it saved many life. Like many as in a whole nation because if it wasn’t for his past he wouldn’t of been about to help with the feminine.

This is a story I can relate to because when I was younger, I had pain and lots of it. So much so I attempted suicide 2 times. Well at the time I was like why God why? Then I found out why on our senior mission trip. On this trip, I was asked to share my testimony along with one other kid to about 200 kids and at the end of it, many many many kids came to know Christ and well since then I have shared and more have come to know God. But God used my pain so that he could save someones soul. (Looking back, I would do it all over again if just one soul was saved)

So what I to share with you is that no matter the pain, God is with you and no matter the pain, God will use it for his good. I want to challenge you that what ever your going through now, turn to God and let him use this pain. It might be hard a first and it probably will never be easy but one day, hopefully, God will use you to further his kingdom.

-Lane

Stop, Drop, and Roll

This Wednesday at youth, I talked about the key for us to become, “New models with original parts.” After thinking about it and praying about this, I came up with three different things that will help us to do this. Number one, we need to STOP.

The bible tells us to, “Be still and know” and I that to many time we do not do this. We sit and we watch tv, or we play on our computer, or phone but how often do we, honestly, sit and know that he is God? The next thing is that we need to Drop.

Now I know your thinking, like most people, that we need to drop the junk in our lives but that is not what I was talking about. The word tells us that, “If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray then they will hear from heaven.” WOW. IF we will pray we will hear from heaven. If we drop to our knees before God and pray we will hear from heaven.Prayer, who would oh thought that it was a key. A key to living a life that is for god. A life that is set apart. I know I wish I would have understood this at an earlier age than I did because i would be so much farther than I am now.

My third and final point was we need to Roll. In revelation 22:8-9, John, after receiving all of the book and all that is to happen, stop and starts to woship the angel who gave it to him. The angel stops and looks at him and says, “we are equals. Dont worship me, WORSHIP GOD!!!!” Wow. Its truely that easy isn’t it. We need to STOP, and know he is god. We need to DROP, and humble ourselves and pray and we need to Roll, and roll around in the presence of the Lord. WOW.

For me, it made since. Stop Drop and Roll is something that I learned at five, but it is now that it truely has meaning. It is only now that I am going to Stop, Drop, and Roll. So my question to you is, are you stopping, dropping, and rolling?

Lane

P.S. -  I know this is like an outline of my sermon but I was wondering what you think and if you like this kinda of post or the other kind better. Leave me a comment to vote your choice! Thanks!!!