RISING STRONG

SUNDAY SERVICE

 SERMON:

                

                     RISING STRONG 

 Intro: It is easy to go through life and sit back after encountering failure. It is easy to sit back when you feel salvation is not working out. Strength is energy that moves your spirit and body. Much of our strengths comes after we realize we don't need to be where we are .

 Prob : We give up so quickly even when there is a chance to hope, a chance to be strong.

 Purp : To enable us build courage to move on as the Lord expects us to

>>> Long time ago, there was a girl. She had her grandmother, her father and mother around her life . She was happy but not every one on the island was happy. Crops were not doing well and according to her grandmother, she was supposed to cross the Ocean to find medicine to heal the land. The parents rejected because they knew how bad the Ocean was beyond the reef. The grandmother always sang a song to motivate her to cross the Ocean and find the treatment. It was one day that she tried to sail across the ocean. But it was unfortunate for her because the ocean had a bad weather that day. It raged against her, drowning her, crashing her on the sea floor and spitting her onto the shores. She then affirmed to her grandmother that the ocean was not a good place . She couldn't cross it, she had failed. But after some time, her grandmother fell sick and was about to die. The only medicine to save her was across the ocean which needed her to sail. She had no option but to cross. Good enough, she crossed and brought the treatments that could also save the land. 

🔶SOME STRENGTHS COME FROM REJECTION. - The gift of rejection.

* Psalms 31:24 Be strong and take heart, all you who hope in the Lord.

        It is not easy to be strong alone unless something else makes us strong. In our human nature, we have been made to rely on others. You live because someone else lives. Someone else lives because you live. Ecclesiastes says that two are better than one; however, we may understand that as a positive support, but the negative support is also true.

- In Psalms, we are told to let our hearts take courage. Letting means opening up to something. Courage is not built from thin air. It is but from rejections. 

- There are things we have forcefully done simply because of pressure from our peers, our family members, our friends. Some pressure is rejection. Some friends see you and despise you and such acts as a driving force.

-- The son of Jeroham called Elkahanah had two wives. One being peninnah and the other being Hannah. Wonder how the two names Elkahanah and Hannah seem alike. Peninnah had children; she produced often. But Hannah didn't have any ; seemed a tough reality. But regardless of that, Elkahanah her husband could give same amount of portions for sacrifice like he gave to peninnah and the children. But the good character of the husband didn't make peninnah a good wife. She used to provoke Hannah to irritate her just because the Lord had closed her womb.

Such rejections and irritations drove Hannah to take step. She went to the Lord to pray with all her soul. She prayed all the time in tears. The Lord heard her and she gave birth to Samuel the following year. 

- Some strengths come from rejection. Let your heart take courage.

🔶RIDE ON EMOTIONS 

       Jesus had many friends, one of his good friends was Lazarus. He fell sick and Jesus was told. But Jesus was far and only promised to come. Lazarus was too sick that he died from that. Jesus was agonized. He wept and turned back to see the dead. He was too moved emotionally that he prayed an Ernest prayer. He prayed and Lazarus arose from the dead.

- Emotions are an important key to unlocking your potentials. There is something you may never do if you are not angry enough. 

-- Moses wanted to give all excuses to God as to why he couldn't take on the mission to lead Israel out of Egypt. He knew he was born seeing these people as slaves, they had been there hundreds of years and Egyptians were benefiting from them. So how does he step into such a project and drive them away. It was hard. He told God all excuses. The last one was that he couldn't speak eloquently. The Bible says God was angry with Moses at that point. God gave him Aaron as his spokesperson and helper. Such anger made Moses fearfully go yet fearlessly confront pharaoh. 

- Let your heart flow with emotions and ride on them. Direct energy of happiness, fear, love, anger to productive things you need. Some people know how to direct anger to destructive actions. Someone has annoyed you, you begin to destroy things around. Why can't you angrily go to God through prayer like Hannah did? Why can't you direct that anger to preaching like Jesus did when he found a market in the temple? Ride on emotions. Utilize everything that comes into you and everything that goes out of you. 

🔶KNOW YOU ARE NOT ALONE 

* John 14:16-20 Jesus went on to say, “In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me.” At this, some of his disciples said to one another, “What does he mean by saying, ‘In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me,’ and ‘Because I am going to the Father’?” They kept asking, “What does he mean by ‘a little while’? We don’t understand what he is saying.”Jesus saw that they wanted to ask him about this, so he said to them, “Are you asking one another what I meant when I said, ‘In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me’? Very truly I tell you, you will weep and mourn while the world rejoices. You will grieve, but your grief will turn to joy.

     Because Christ lives, you are able to face tomorrow. Whatever the world may throw unto you, know that he that lives in you is greater than he that is in the world.

- The battle is the Lord's and the victory is ours.

- It is easy to fall part when you know you are alone. It is easy to be strong when you know you are many. Students at fair well party testified that they were motivated because they knew they had friends. Someone comes to school simply because he knows he belongs to a group.

- There is a clan you belong to. There is a family you belong to. There is someone who loves you better than the world. 

- Never fall and sit. Salvation may seem a mountain, the world may seem to have rejected you. Life may seem hard; rise stronger.

 CONCLUSION

⚫ Explore the gifts of rejection and be stronger in God.

⚫Use your emotions to rise stronger than before.

⚫In this world, there may be many troubles, but know that Christ has overcome them all . And he lives in you .

                  GOD BLESS YOU.

By Simon Kutosi.

Sunday ,7th September 2024

                            100th msg