When Everything Falls Apart
Romans 8:36-39 NKJV
36 As it is written:“For Your sake, we are killed all day long; We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.”37 Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. 38 For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, 39 nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
I. INTRODUCTION
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- Hellen Keller-Only through the experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired, and success achieved
II. THE IMPORTANCE OF THE POWER OF CONNECTION
Romans 8:36-39 NKJV
36 As it is written:
“For Your sake we are killed all day long;
We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.”
37 Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. 38 For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, 39 nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
- God Is My Provider
- God Is My Strength
- The Intentional Pursuit to Commune (when the floor beneath you opens up and swallows you into a freefall and you engulfed with a flood of emotions, thoughts, and questions).
- Desire
- Discipline
- Determination
- Destination
III. SHORTEN THE DISTANCE BETWEEN YOU AND GOD
- Have A Heart of Worship
- THE INEVITABLE PLACE OF CRISIS
- Some Pain You Can’t Get Around
- You Pass Through, You Don’t Stay In
- Matthew 13:24-30 Jesus told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. ²⁵But while everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away. ²⁶When the wheat sprouted and formed heads, then the weeds also appeared. ²⁷”The owner’s servants came to him and said, ‘Sir, didn’t you sow good seed in your field? Where then did the weeds come from?’ ²⁸”‘An enemy did this,’ he replied. “The servants asked him, ‘Do you want us to go and pull them up?’ ²⁹”‘No,’ he answered, ‘because while you are pulling the weeds, you may uproot the wheat with them. ³⁰Let both grow together until the harvest. At that time I will tell the harvesters: First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned; then gather the wheat and bring it into my barn.'”
- We plant seeds of faith that produce a fruitful harvest even as we discover weeds of destructive doubts attempting to destroy our productivity
- What if God is so loving that He turns the tables on the tares and uses them to make us stronger, truer, and more dependent on Him
- Genesis 50:20 You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.
- The Innovation to Produce and Create
- Romans 8:28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.
- Notice All things- includes the losses that your grieving, the hard, the painful, the unexpected, the unbearable, unimaginable, the intolerable. All includes the disasters, divisions, and distractions intruding on your peace of mind. All includes circumstances that leave you feeling powerless, vulnerable, and unsteady on your feet.
- Make Your Trauma Transformational– Even in the moments of your greatest anguish, you often find unexpected blessings alongside and intertwined with your losses.
- Many times the greatest successes partnered in tandem with painful ordeals.
- Some of life’s greatest hardships can create some of the most potent and meaningful shifts in a believer’s life.
- On one hand, Your purpose is requiring you to step boldly into your future, while on the other hand sits the crushing of accomplishments of your life that you worked and toiled tirelessly to produce
- Some questions to think about:
- Is it possible that a prerequisite is that each person that dares to embrace their future is also called to endure a season of trial and pain?
- What if there is more to our sufferings than what we see?
- What if the dreadful places of life move us along from one stage to the next, a catalyst for our growth?
- It is crucial that we began seeing that the plans we have imagined for our lives cannot compare to God’s strategy for fulfilling our divine purpose
- CRUSHING BECOMES CREATION: I’LL BE BETTER AFTER THIS
- Routes to Progress and Success often take detours. Never is there a straight path toward either of them. Our advancement inevitably includes out-of-the-way breakdowns and unplanned pitstops that seemingly have nothing to do with our plans and purpose. Stranded and sidelined it’s easy to begin feeling anxious, afraid, and uncertain. God wants us to see the:
- Spiritual Refreshing– we discover something that compels us, inspires us, and motivates us into a new direction
- Matthew 6:33 But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.
- Suddenly we can begin to blaze a new trail that leads toward satisfaction and fulfillment that exceeds anything we could have found using our original itinerary
- Sustained Resources– Lifes devastating detours often become the miraculous milestones charting a new path towards God’s future for us.
- They force us to reset our compass on our creator
- The Crushing becomes the creation of something new
- Mark 12:1-11 Then He began to speak to them in parables: “A man planted a vineyard and set a hedge around it, dug a place for the wine vat and built a tower. And he leased it to[a]vinedressers and went into a far country.2 Now at vintage-time he sent a servant to the vinedressers, that he might receive some of the fruit of the vineyard from the vinedressers. 3 And they took him and beat him and sent him away empty-handed. 4 Again he sent them another servant, [b]and at him they threw stones, wounded him in the head, and sent him away shamefully treated. 5 And again he sent another, and him they killed; and many others, beating some and killing some. 6 Therefore still having one son, his beloved, he also sent him to them last, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ 7 But those [c]vinedressers said among themselves, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.’ 8 So they took him and killed him and cast him out of the vineyard.
9 “Therefore what will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and destroy the vinedressers and give the vineyard to others. 10 Have you not even read this Scripture:
‘The stone which the builders rejected
Has become the chief cornerstone.
11 This was the Lord’s doing,
And it is marvelous in our eyes?”
- When our harvest doesn’t go as planned, our fruitful blessing stripped from us and carelessly trampled does that not strongly resemble the winepress, the device used to crush grapes and drain their juice for winemaking?
4. Vintage Viewpoint Transformation
- If you were the winemaker or vintner you would be familiar with each step in the process of making wine. However, if you were the grapevine, the removal of your fruit and its destruction under the feet of those who seem not to care would give you a completely different perspective.
- IN the midst of our painful crushing, it is here we realize that the blessing found in the production of fruit in our lives was never Gid’s end goal. Our latest crop of fruit was merely part of an ongoing, greater process. The potency of its juice fermented into wine.
- Questions to think about:
1.Could it be possible that your current predicament is the winepress God uses to transform your grapes into His wine?
- Could being crushed be a necessary part of the process to fullfill God’s plan for your life?
- Could you be on the verge of victory despite walking through the valley of broken vines?
- A Vintage Transformation
- No matter our season of life, it is crucial to our development that we begin seeing that the plans we have imagined for our lives do not even compare with the Master’s Strategy.
- The Process from the Picking, to Sorting, to Crushing, to Fermenting Takes Time but it Builds Quality
- Survivors Rejoicing- God can use the weight of crushing your soul right now to create His choicest wine if you will let Him.
Harriet Tubman– Always Remember, you have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world.