Resiliency - Spring Series pt. 3

That thing of climbing up in a daddy's land Let it be about you, Father. Thank you for salvation. Thank you for the opportunity to be in this house, to be able to come to the altar and pray. To be around other believers. Who encourage and support God. Where we walk into this place and we feel at home and not because of all of us, but because of you, because of your spirit.Meet us here for justice. Your work promises Thank you. God. Be with us today. Meet each of us individually. Help me to say nothing more and nothing less than you'd have me to say.

Touch. Bless you. And say thank you, God, for who we are because of who you are. In Jesus name, I pray it, man.

Hey, man. Good morning. Good morning. Okay, now, look, I know I'm not right. Or from what I hear, John last week, but hopefully we can do a little better than that. Good morning. One church. Thank you. Thank you. We're going to talk about resilience today. How does that sound? Yeah, I tell you what it must be for somebody, because I had to text run.

You know, I've. I've been in ministry 30 years, but I've only been a pastor for about, I don't know, for three or four. And I text run and said, what is this waking up preaching happened to me four times preparing this message. And that that's different. I don't wake up for nothing and I kid you not woke up from sleep all different times preaching this message.

So hang on. It's got to be something for somebody Let's jump in and look at some definitions. Okay. The definition of resilience, the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties, toughness or what my sweet daddy used to say grit I think we're missing that. Don't. These days, these times, there's something about this missing I think for us, the ability of a substance or object to spring back into shape I really wanted to do an example.

The best resilient sea example I could have is with a rubber band and then I thought about having our staff come up here with rubber bands. And then I decided very quickly that was a bad idea. And I was right because Jason confirmed it earlier, given him a rubber band with me up here is going to be a dangerous thing, right?

Maybe. But think about it. A rubber band pulls back right unless thiscity. Let me give you some of my my real life definitions, though. Okay. Resiliency. I love you, hon. Going to Disney with a man who does not like crowds who is Southern and feels like everybody else ought to know the words. Excuse me. And I'm sorry.

With several other thousand people That is true resiliency. Oh, we're going to Disney. Can you tell? We just got back from a Disney trip going to Disney with an 11 year old who is just like his daddy.

Who does not understand people bumping him or going to Disney with a nine year old who hates to get wet and the last day we're there. It rains twice Resiliency Or I've got an even better one.

Going out to eat at a conference with four male staff Ryan, thank you, Jason Hunter. And we'll And we're supposed to go meet the district to eat all of us together. And I kid you not. I work with juveniles. I'm sorry. They all run to the car, jump in and make me drive and then proceed to complain about thus driving all the way to the restaurant.

Resiliency in all seriousness, I usually, since I've been hanging around, run a pray for word every year, and I usually kind of wait it out and see what his word is. For the church And, you know, last year, for a lot of us, it was hard. Continues to be hard. So we had my flesh. I was looking for an encouraging word sure.

And I get resiliency It came at the end of a year when we had three littles or two littles and an older one living with us who were struggling in different ways. I was feeling extremely overwhelmed struggling with some older children all these things. Right. We all have them. But in the midst of that, I was a little ticked off.

I'm just going to be honest with you. The word God wants to give me is resiliency.

But then as the start of the year comes and I also had a health scare some of these things start just working out and I realized that that word resiliency was an encouragement from God. It was him telling me, Vanessa, if you have faith in me, I go before you in all of these circumstances, I go before you and I am with you.

And I will help you be resilient in any and all circumstance.

That's encouragement. Hey, man, resiliency is an effect of faith. Resiliency is an effect. Of faith. So how is resiliency an effective faith? Let's look at scripture. We're going to look at Mark. Chapter five. 24, three 34 so Jesus went with him. A large crowd followed and pressed around him. And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for 12 years.

She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had. Yet, instead of getting better, she grew worse when she heard about Jesus. She came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak because she thought, if I just touch his clothes, I will be healed immediately. Her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering.

At once, Jesus realized that the power had gone out from him. He turned around in the crowd and I asked, who touched my clothes? You see the people crowding against you, his disciples? The disciples answered. And yet you can I ask who touched me? But Jesus kept looking around to see who had done it. Then the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell at his feet and trembling with fear, told him the whole truth.

He said to her daughter, Your faith has healed. You go in peace and be freed from your suffering.

The woman was healed for her faith. She was healed for her resiliency. 12 years she battled. Some of you in here are battling for a long time to But she was resilient because of her faith in Jesus. And she pushed through crowds just touching You know, a neat thing about this is in different places in Scripture, you hear about Christ going to people and seeing people and them being healed says they are you are healed.

He says that right? Several places. But in this instant and other parts of scripture in other verses, not verses, but other. No, not books. Different versions. There we go that's close enough it says she was made whole not just healed. She was made whole and I believe that is because she searched him out. She was resilient.

If you seek after him, if you are resiliently seeking him, he can make you hold in any and all kind of circumstances. Let's look at another place, another resilient woman. Romans six, seven, great entrance and I kiss and junior, my fellow Jews who have been in prison with me, they are outstanding among the apostles. And they were in Christ before I was in this world.

We must have resiliency for the long haul to accomplish what God has called us to and to be able to have that purpose that He created us for Junior endured imprisonment. Can you imagine what that meant for a woman in that time? For the sake of Christ, she was imprisoned, more than likely raped and beaten, often but from what we see in this Scripture, she was resilient.

Because Paul called her a woman in that time. Think about that for a minute. Outstanding. Among the apostles again. Why? Because of her faith and her resiliency to serve him, no matter the cost Resiliency is an effect of faith. If we struggle with bouncing back I believe there might be an issue with our faith.

Let's look at ways to be resilient. Maybe that that'll help us ways to be resilient. Again, you have to grow your faith, right? If faith if resiliency is an effective faith, we've got to grow our faith. Accept change. How many of y'all struggle with that? They better be a lot of hands coming up and come on, Most of us struggle with change right to accept what is not in our control.

To trust God with the unknown.

Junior couldn't just walk out of prison. It wasn't in her control.

But to be called out standing among the apostles, she was resilient with that change. Right. Second, meditate on God's Word. Pray. Spend time with him.

We don't do that enough, do we?

Needs to be more. If you really want to be resilient in this time, in this world. Your meditation on God's Word has got to be more than just Sunday morning. And Sunday morning is not enough.

If you're struggling in some areas and not understanding why you can't do different or better That's probably one of the first places we got to look take action Some of us get in these situations, whether they're in our control or not, and we want to sit there and wallow and maybe we're praying, maybe we're not, but we're just sitting there Resiliency takes action to have that hard conversation get involved in church Volunteer mentor.

The woman with the issue of blood knew she had to resiliently search out Christ and touch him. She didn't just sit there and go, It's been 12 years. There's no use She took action She went through a crowd just to touch his clothes, man. I wonder what would happen for us if we had that same kind of faith, that same kind of resiliency to say, God, just.

Just be with me. Just let me hear you. Just let me see you No matter what's going on around me, I wonder what would happen Define your purpose.

Now, often we talk about defining purpose, and everybody thinks of pastors and staff. And I hope we remind you all enough in this church that every single person in this building was created with a purpose by God.

And it is up to you to be resilient, to have that faith, to figure out what that purpose is. And to act on it.

If there is a struggle with resiliency for you, it might help you to define your purpose. What is God called you to do? Junior had a purpose to share the gospel and was willing to suffer for that purpose. She suffered, but she was resilient.

Create balance, Some of us struggle with this. I'm not going to name any names on staff, all of them. I'm just going You got to have rest. You got to have family time. There's got to be time to go to church. There's got to be time to work. But there's got to be a balance with all those right If working for children even, or your spouse or whatever it might be it's common between you and the Lord.

Resiliency is going to be an issue, I promise you.

There has to be balance Cultivate relationships if you want to be resilient. Put some people around you that love the Lord that are willing to encourage you to visit you, to pick you up, to sit you down.

All right. Here's where I'm going. Get a little mean for us Christians, cultivating relationships should mean regular attendance and church and if at all possible. Being involved in a C group out of the numbers of our church, there's probably quite a bit less than a third that are involved in our groups.

I'm just saying, don't get mad at me. Talk to the Lord about it.

Cultivating relationships while hearing God's Word with a group of believers. Who are also struggling in different areas. We'll build your resiliency in this world. We need that. Like I said, it cannot be. Never really could be. But especially these days. Sunday morning is not enough anymore.

Wednesday, it's right in the middle of the week. Right. Now, why quiet What happens when we are resilient? What are the effects of this? Maybe this will encourage you Our witness I like this saying five gospels Everybody, before you first, let me hear it about five gospels. We are the fifth and most people never read the first four But your witness is going to struggle.

If we are not resilient in this world, if you give up, if you wallow, if you stay stuck. If you go around complaining all the time about everything that is wrong, but you're not pray and you're not in God's word. You're not in a C group. You go to church every now and then when it's convenient Junior, the witness she must have had enduring being in prison as a woman.

What better witness to unbelievers than for them to see you bounce back as she did from hardships of life? That's a good witness.

And people are watching, especially nowadays as Christians are crying on the fire. You know, we're on the chopping block, right? People are watching to see how we respond to everything how we respond on social media.

Hmm. Yeah. Know a man's on that. Are we all guilty? So when it's voting season one. Oh, right, right.

Because we make it. That sounds funny, but that is an effect of resilience. So there is an end to that. We make it in some kind of way. You see it for both these ladies. We have to believe that Junior got out of prison. We see clearly that the woman was not just healed, but made whole because of resiliency.

Now, I'm not saying that you you know, sometimes it's a journey, and I say that a lot. Don't get me wrong, I believe that at times there is immediate healing and situations, whether it's our body or mind or, like I said, just situations. But often it is not immediate. It is a journey because God is drawing us closer to him and as much as it hurts and is hard, it gives him the glory right blessings Sometimes we see it, sometimes we may not.

But your resiliency can be a blessing for not just you but others.

She was listed in Scripture by Paul to be outstanding among the apostles blessing healing. As I said, resiliency can bring healing. It can bring wholeness. It might not look exactly the way we all think it's going to look, but we have to trust that if it's from God, it's exactly the way it's supposed to be. Right I had the privilege of meeting a lady at a conference that I spoke at, and I asked her permission if I could read her story Her name is Krystal McKee.

And as I said, we met at a workshop that I led at the Women's Holiness Conference, Wesleyan Conference. She works with the Oklahoma Mental Health Association and she said, I am a recovered addict and a former exotic dancer. After getting saved, I felt the call into prison and recovery ministry. I have my associate's degree in my district license in April.

Sorry for my associate's degree in addiction counseling. She's attending SMU for her pastoral ministry degree and will be receiving her district license in April.

Hear this? You know what? You want to talk about resiliency. And there's a lot of us with similar stories You know what a problem she came to me with was I know God wants me to share my story in ministry, and I need help figuring that out.

Resiliency there is evidence of resiliency in this building this morning.

Some of you are here, even though you woke up in extreme pain Some of you get up and are active parents. You go to work, you come to church. Even though your depression and anxiety is screaming at you to stay in bed.

Some of you continue to love and pray for hard, wayward older children, even though they disrespect you and they're running from the Lord Some of you still come here and worship, even though you were in a hard marriage or facing a marriage ending.

Some of you continue to tag even though you were facing financial hardship Resiliency is an effect of faith.

Our church who has been a resilient church with resilient staff and leaders, we have endured a merger. Hardships of being a multi-cultural church in the district. Losing staff. Moving our pastor is a resilient pastor who is resilient. Leading through all of this. Why? Because we have faith in the one true God There's a God that's on the worship team named Trey I hired him.

Youth for Christ. Kind of thought I was his mentor a little bit and back in the day, I was complaining about ministry. Get this, not once, but twice. I'm hard headed. Y'all know that? It takes me a little while. God has to work over on me. So not once, but twice am I complaining to Trey about ministry.

And you know what that young punk said to me?

He said, Did you think it was going to be easy because it surely wasn't for Jesus?

I don't talk to him anymore.

And what a bad or. Is there any better example of resiliency? Than Jesus?

When He begged for his friends to pray for him and they fell asleep on him when his human side begged his father, Take this cup from me.

But if you don't, I will go. And he went for me and for you. And if he hadn't been resilient all the way to the cross through the grave and been raised from the father, you and I in this building would not have any hope, not in this world or the next Resiliency is an effective faith.

What happens when we are resilient, like Jesus was when Satan battles us when we are resilient? What happens to our families? What happens to our church? To our community? To our witness, to others?

Often as Christians, we hear people ask If God is real, why do bad things happen? Horrible trauma. Horrible things happen.

And they want to blame God.

That really doesn't make any sense. If you think about it. Aren't we questioning and blaming the wrong person?

We question God. We know there's Satan even in our questioning right Satan knows exactly what he's do and he wants us to question God instead of him. The true culprit He's the one that came into the Garden of Eden and tempted Do you all get that? Do you think about that?

What if we blame Satan? The true author of our pain and waged war on him instead of blaming God? This is resilience We're going to watch a video clip It's a really good movie. We've never seen it before. It is based on a true story.

And while you're watching this, I want you to think about your just one more What is God calling you? To have faith and be resilient and thinks and stuff because oh, my God. Are you and Jessi required to be hosed down there? I got you. How did that come? Trying to help. Try to find it down for you.

Oh, come on.

Good. Yeah, we got him He's picked you up, and we're to get out of here. Shrimp off the Lord. Help me get my mom. Help me get one down and get on our house. One more No. You want my family out to get my money now? I realize that was a movie clip. Yes. I'm trying to stir your thoughts and your emotions.

But the resiliency that that man had in his own body. But for others, what if we all develop that where we talk about not just resiliency in our lives for our own self, but we go a next step and it becomes that resiliency of one more prayer that leads to one more prayer that leads to one more prayer.

For people who don't know the Lord in our family.

Or one more prayer that leads to one more prayer that leads to one more prayer for emotional or mental or physical healing.

Or where we walk out those doors and it becomes one more person to come to church. And here the saving grace of a savior one more and then one more resiliency Resiliency is an effective way If the worship team come out what is your one more? What is God calling you to have faith and be resilient in prayer relationships.

A call healing Going back to my little rubber band, they're resilient. But have you ever picked up a rubber band that was old and had been used a lot? What happens? It breaks, right? It pops That's the great thing about God and the Holy Spirit and the Father in our salvation It doesn't break that. Resiliency doesn't break ever.

Not in any circumstance. You might feel like it's breaking that is your flesh and this world But God's resiliency never breaks and that is a resiliency that is ours to have And if you've never accepted Christ that resiliency can be yours.

The altar is open If you are struggling in life, I would ask that you come to the altar or in your seats, you don't have to come to the altar. But sometimes again, when we're working on faith, it's a faith thing to step forward and have others pray with you.

And again, if you don't know the Lord, there's no greater day than today. If you need help bouncing back, there is no greater answer in this world than Jesus Christ. None. He is by far the best friend I've ever had.

And if you're a Christian this morning and there are things in your life that you just can't seem to bounce back from again, give it to him Grow your faith. Be resilient for the Lord Hello. Y'all good? That's good, right? Not my preaching. I'm telling man. You know, worship. Yeah. Yep. What Sunday is and baptisms. If you would have a seat at this time.

And here's what I'm going to say to you. And I say this often when we do this, but this is important to me. It's hard to do something like this publicly. For a lot of people.

But even besides that, scripture says that when this happens, when someone gives their heart to the Lord and this is an outward show of that, that the angels rejoice in heaven. What I like to say is there is a party in heaven now, is there partying up there? What do you think we should be doing down here? We can whoop and holler to all our favorite songs, right wing scream at Yale sporting events and sitting in the living room with my husband because he's a Carolina fan and I'm a Duke fan.

And we scream, right? All these things. How much greater, how much louder, how much more celebration should be done in this House today when every single one of them come out of that water and let us be prayerful for resiliency in their life to walk the walk that they're saying to us this morning. Right. Hey, man, let's celebrate with them.