Overcoming Tribulations in Serving Jesus

 

When we serve God, it is not always going to be fun or comfortable or glamorous. It is many times difficult and uncomfortable and laborious.

 

John writes in Revelation 1:9, “I, John your brother and partner in the tribulation and the kingdom and the patient endurance that are in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos on account of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus.”

 

John experienced tribulation as he worked to build God’s kingdom. He had to have patient endurance because he had been exiled to the island of Patmos because he was proclaiming the word of God and testifying about Jesus as the Son of God.

 

How do we have patient endurance in the face of tribulation because we are serving God and proclaiming Jesus as the Son of God?

 

Matthew 14:28-30

And Peter answered him, “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to You on the water.” He said, “Come.” So Peter got out of the boat and walked on the water and came to Jesus. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and beginning to sink he cried out, “Lord, save me.”

 

Focus on Jesus not the problem or the difficult situation.

 

If we focus on the problem or the situation, then it becomes all that we see. If we focus on Jesus, then He is who we see.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is not focusing on the difficult situation that you are facing but focusing on Jesus.

 

Revelation 1:12-13

Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking to me, and on turning I saw seven golden lampstands, and in the midst of the lampstands one like a son of man, clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash around his chest.

 

Change your perspective.

 

John was facing one way and heard a voice and turned and saw the awesome image of Jesus among the seven lampstands. When we are looking at a situation in one way and Jesus calls out to us, we must turn and look at it from His perspective.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is changing our perspective to see things through Jesus’ perspective.

 

Matthew 10:30

But even the hairs of your head are all numbered.

 

Jesus knows you.

 

Jesus knows everything about us, and He knows when we are struggling with difficult situations. He knows when we want to quit and give up. He faced every temptation and every struggle that we face, and He overcame them all and will give us victory over them.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is trusting Jesus because we know that Jesus knows us intimately and loves us.

 

Hebrews 12:2

Fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith. For the joy set before Him He endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

 

Take our eyes off people and put them on Jesus.   

 

When we look to or depend on people instead of Jesus, we will get disappointed. If we make a habit of depending on people instead of Jesus, we become frustrated and angry. When we depend on Jesus, we will experience peace and joy.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is always depending on Jesus and not looking to people to complete us.

 

Luke 1:37

For nothing will be impossible with God.

 

When Jesus is present anything can happen.

 

Jesus healed people of many different illnesses.

Jesus fed multitudes of people with truly little food.

Jesus stilled storms.

Jesus raised people from the dead.

 

Jesus is the God of the Possible, no matter what.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is believing Jesus can and will do what seems to be to us as humans impossible.

 

Serving God will never be easy in a fallen world but serving God can be possible and fulfilling as we trust God and obey Him.

 

In Jesus Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls,

Joe

How You View Yourself

 

I did a memorial service this past week for an old friend who was part of the faith family that I pastored in another community. He was a very unique individual. But the one thing that always impressed me about him was that he had a servant heart and he served others without desiring recognition. So, how do the writers of the letters in the New Testament describe themselves in the introduction to their letters?

 

Romans 1:1-7

Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, which He promised beforehand through His prophets in the holy Scriptures, concerning His Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by His resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord, through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of His name among all the nations, including you who are called to belong to Jesus Christ. To all those in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints: grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

 

What Paul Says About Himself:

 

He is a servant.

 

The word that Paul uses translated servant is the word doulos which means bondservant. This is a person who has a debt to pay and is serving another person because of that debt. Paul owed a sin debt and Jesus paid it, so Paul is committed to Jesus to serve Him.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is, because of the debt Jesus paid for us, serving Him with all of life.

 

He is an apostle.

 

Now we are not apostles in the same way that Paul or Peter or John or James were apostles. But we are called to be apostles because that word means one sent with a message. We as followers of Jesus are called to go with the gospel. We have the message that, through Jesus’ death and resurrection, we can experience salvation.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is going out into the world and sharing the gospel that, in Jesus, people can experience salvation.

 

He had received grace from Jesus.

 

Grace is God’s undeserved and unearned favor on us and love for us. Grace means that it is not because we are good, but because God is good that we can have a love relationship with Him. Grace means that I am saved, and my sins are forgiven because of Jesus’ death and resurrection.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is living based on the grace of God and not our resources or our credentials.

 

Notice also in Paul’s introduction that he spends part of one verse talking about who he is and about four to five verses talking about who Jesus is.

 

In 1 Corinthians 1:31 Paul writes, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”

 

Our lives are to boast about Jesus, not ourselves.

Our lives are to proclaim the goodness of God, not our goodness.

Our lives are to demonstrate God’s sufficiency, not our sufficiency.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is focusing our lives on Jesus and showing forth His greatness.

 

Paul ends his introduction by pointing out to the believers in Rome that they are loved by God and called to be saints, disciples of Jesus, and praying that they will experience God’s grace and peace.

 

We must know all the time that God loves us and that He has called us into a relationship with Jesus and that, through our relationship with Jesus, we will experience first God’s grace, and through God’s grace we will experience God’s peace.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is experiencing God’s love and through God’s love experiencing God’s grace and through experiencing God’s grace experiencing God’s peace.

 

Because of Who We Are in Jesus

Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls,

Joe

Who Do You Trust In?

 

What do you really trust in and depend on? That is a question I constantly ask myself as I face different circumstances in life.

 

In Psalm 44 God reveals to us some things that we must not depend on. God also reveals who we are to depend on and why.

 

Psalm 44:1-8

O God, we have heard with our ears, our fathers have told us, what deeds You performed in their days, in the days of old; You with Your own hand drove out the nations, but them you planted; you afflicted the peoples, but them you set free; for not by their own sword did they win the land, nor did their arms save them, but by Your right hand and Your arm, and the light of your face, for You delighted in them. You are my king, O God; ordain salvation for Jacob! Through You we push down our foes; through Your name we trend down those who rise up against us. For not in my bow do I trust, nor can my sword save me. But You have saved us from our foes and have put to shame those who hate us. In God we have boasted continually, and we will give thanks to Your name forever.

 

First, the psalmist reminds God’s people what God had done in the past. God drove the nations out and planted His people in the land. God afflicted the nations, but He set His people free.

 

God relates to us with grace. God’s people were not perfect, but they were God’s people, so He drove out and afflicted their enemies and planted His people in freedom in the land.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is knowing that God blesses us through His grace, not our deserving it.

 

Second, the psalmist also reminds God’s people what did not planted them in the land or set them free. They did not do it by sword or by their own arm. They did not drive out their enemies with their military might and they did not cause the enemies affliction by their human effort.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is learning to not depend on ourselves but to depend on God and His power and authority.

 

Thirdly, the psalmist reveals how God did it.

God did it by His right hand, by His authority because of who He is, Lord.

God did it by His right arm, by His power because of who He is, God Almighty.

God did it by the light of His face, His grace because of who He is, the God of all grace and mercy.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is, through God’s grace, experiencing the fullness of God, His power and authority in and through our lives.

 

Fourth, the psalmist reveals who God is.

 

God is the King.

God is the only source of our salvation.

God is the source of victory over our foe, Satan.

God is our defender and the One who puts those who oppose us to shame.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is believing God about who God says He really is.

 

Fifthly, the psalmist again reminds God’s people it was not by their bow or sword that they were saved, and so they were not to trust in who they were or what they could but to trust in who God is and what He can do.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is not trusting ourselves or anything that is earthly or human based but trusting God with everything in our lives.

 

And lastly the psalmist tells us how we are to respond to the truths that God has revealed.

 

We are to boast continually about who God is and what He has done.

We are to give thanks to God eternally about who God is.

 

Raise the Roof and Removing the Walls is boasting about who God is and thanking God for what He has done.

 

Our only hope for ourselves, our families, our nation and the world is God’s grace.

 

Trusting in God Only and Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls,

Joe

What Jesus Says About Love

 

What is the strongest force in all creation?

 

God? No, God is a person not a force.

Sin? No, through Jesus’ death and resurrection sin is overcome.

Darkness? No, light overcome darkness.

 

Love is the strongest force in all creation.

 

What does Jesus say about how we are to love God?

 

Mark 12:30

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.

 

We are to love God with all of who we are and all we possess, our will, our emotions, our intellect, and our bodies. There is nothing about us that should not love God.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is loving God with all that we are and all we have.

 

How do we demonstrate our love for God?

 

John 14:23-24

Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word, and My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. Whoever does not love Me does not keep My words. And the word that you hear is not mine but the Father’s who sent Me.”

 

We show God that we love Him by obeying His word. God’s word is the Bible and God’s word is true.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is obeying God’s word and thus showing that we really love Him.

 

What does Jesus say about God loving us?

 

John 3:16

For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.

God loves every person who has ever lived and who will ever live. And according to Romans 8:38-39 nothing can change that.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is receiving God’s love for us through establishing a relationship with Jesus as Lord and Savior.

 

John 15:13

Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.

 

Jesus laid down His perfect, righteous, and sinless life for our imperfect, unrighteous, and sinful lives. Jesus did that because of His love for us.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is receiving Jesus’ death to pay the penalty for our sin.

 

What is the result of God loving us and us receiving that love?

 

John 15:9

As the Father has loved Me, so I have loved you. Abide in My love.

 

When we receive God’s love, we will in very real and practical ways experience that love and be able to abide or live every day in that love. God’s love is not just in words but in real actions in our daily lives.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is living daily experiencing God’s practical love for us.

 

What does Jesus say about who we are to love?

 

Mark 12:31

The second is this: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” There is no other command greater than these.

 

We are to love our neighbor as we love ourselves. We are to be willing to do for our neighbor what we would do for ourselves. In Luke 10 Jesus tells us that our neighbor is any other human who has a need. Jesus connects loving God with all that we are and loving our neighbor as we love ourselves. You cannot love God and not love others.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is loving others as we love ourselves.

 

Matthew 5:43-44

You have herd that it was said, “You shall love your neighbor and hate you

enemy. But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.”

 

We are also to love our enemies and those who harm us because of our faith in Jesus. This is a command that can only be obeyed through the power of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is loving our enemies and those who try to harm us.

 

Why is loving others so essential?

 

John 13:34-35

A new command I give to you, that you are to love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.

 

The way we love others will be what marks us as a disciple of Jesus. It is our love, not our morality or our theology, that will show the world that we are disciples of Jesus.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is recognizing that loving others is what shows the world that we are Jesus’ disciples.

 

What is the strongest force in the world – Loving Like God Loves!

 

Loving God and Others and Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls,

                                                    Joe