Faith and Resilience Amidst Adversity and Challenges

There was every reason. Amen. Amen. It was an honor for us not to be here this morning, or least try to be that way. We had the fire. Then we had the inspectors come in and all this list of stuff we had to get done, and I worked very hard Friday to get everything done that we needed to. And I thought we had everything all put together, and so the guy said we were approved everything to get back into order. [00:14:28] (32 seconds)


And I thank God that in every situation that God has worked everything out to bring everybody up to speed and where we're at. We had someone Thursday come very deliberately try to burn the church down. And as they came, they drove up, just put the car right there in front of the church, got out, put everything on the porch, set everything up, and then casually walked back to the car to get whatever match, whatever they were using. I don't know what they used. But then they came back and they looked at the thing that they had set up in about 30 seconds. [00:16:12] (34 seconds)


And they were in the same country, shepherds, abided in the field. Keep and watch over the flock by night. And lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone about them, and they were sore afraid. For unto you, and they said, fear not, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you. You shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. [00:20:49] (32 seconds)


When we begin to look at the glad tidings, and we hear the scriptures talking about how the angel began to proclaim these good tidings. And I thought about that the more we were looking at it, how that for the shepherds, while they were out there doing their work, and as they were not thought about as well as other people, that to be a shepherd was somewhat of a shame. They weren't allowed to be with a lot of the other folks. So they were out there watching the sheep and all the cattle. But in their struggles, the angel appeared unto them and said, Fear not, for behold, I bring you good tidings. [00:22:11] (40 seconds)


God is telling you, fear not, I've got great joy for you. You see, the more we begin to give God all the praise and the glory, and sit back and think about this, we know He is God all the times. No matter what you've got going on in your life, you see the Christmas message is still relevant unto this day. There's many that don't want to talk about Christmas time. They're the ones that would rather worry about frosty the snowman, and the rain here, and all the other stuff. [00:23:52] (30 seconds)


I'm going to worship God at the good times and the bad times. The worship of when the lights are on and when the lights are off. I can do it. I can worship God. You see, one of the things that can look at God and really have this FNAF -type impact is that we have salvation. How many are so thankful for the blood of Jesus? How many are thankful? How many are thankful? How many are thankful for the blood of Jesus? The watching way of [00:25:35] (30 seconds)


In times past, fear just impacted our minds. Worry. Anxieties. All those things you used to have to deal with on a regular basis. But because of the Son of God came down and shed precious blood, we now can come to church and we don't have to be impacted by fear. He's not giving us fear of fear, but a sound mind. And now we can worship God and the Spirit of Truth. He said, for the sin shall not have dominion over you. You're not under the law, but under... Grace. Yes. Aren't you glad for the grace of God? [00:27:38] (36 seconds)


Aren't you glad for the grace of God? You see, we're not perfect here. And if you're looking for a perfect church or full of perfect people, you most certainly are in the wrong place. of us are trying to make it by some of us trying to do the best we can somebody said the other day i almost forgot my religion something happened they said i said well thank god you remembered your religion come on but we are working yeah we're praying yeah we want to be in his presence and i said god we are going to continue on [00:28:45] (36 seconds)


He is a comfort in the midst of all we got going on. Somebody doesn't like us. Now, the police were very concerned, and that's why when I got here, it was covered with all kind of police, and the area was all taped off and everything like that because somebody set a fire on another church Thanksgiving morning. And so they were concerned that this is a serial person. They're doing it again. They have to do it. And they wanted to nip it in the bud and stop it right now. [00:30:34] (32 seconds)


Sometimes you got to walk by faith. have no idea about what you're doing. I have no idea. God, why? You know, this happens. But I know one thing. I'm going to keep on going for Jesus. My post is going to say, we will worship Jesus. will what God is doing. I have no idea what God is about to happen. But one thing I know, there's something deep down on the inside. God has set a fire in my soul. I'm thankful for the love of Jesus. I'm thankful for the grace of Jesus. I'm thankful for the joy of Jesus. [00:32:08] (40 seconds)


Because he's a present help in the time of danger. Come on. He's my comfort. Come on. He's my peace. Yeah. And some might say, man, the sword is there. No matter what we go through, he's always right there. And so we come sometimes to our life's battle, and we don't know what to do. These glad tidings will speak to your heart. Word of God says he sings, gives us songs. Let know it's going to be all right. [00:32:59] (27 seconds)