Faith Full // When Life Happens

If you've lost faith along the way because of the circumstances of your life, it's possible or likely even that it's because your faith was being tested. You were learning in that moment and through what it was that you were walking through, you were learning what it is that you really believe about God. You were learning what it is that you truly believe about Jesus. It was being tested. And that testing is okay so long as your faith comes out intact on the other side of that testing. [00:23:02] (26 seconds)  #TestingRevealsFaith

Comes down to what we believe. That's gonna make the difference when it comes to your your your faith your pivotal circumstances in your life. People who lose faith when they walk through a difficult thing, pain, suffering, tragedy, or a positive thing when they walk away from faith, what you'll discover is that usually they had their their belief system, the things that they believed were flawed in the first place. This is why for you and me, our faith has to be centered on. It has to be focused on Jesus. Because if it's not focused on Jesus when bad times hit our lives, we're gonna do one of two things. We're gonna either, one, assume the things that aren't true. [00:33:46] (38 seconds)  #CenterFaithOnJesus

And we're told that when they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled ordinary men, they're like, man, these guys are are they've got courage, confidence, trust. They they they've got some incredible boldness in God right now. And they're like, these are uneducated, unschooled men. They were basically Jewish school dropouts. They they couldn't read likely. They couldn't write. They were nobodies as far as these guys were concerned. How in the world could they be so courageous? Here's how. They were astonished and took note that these men had been with Jesus. [00:30:46] (34 seconds)  #CourageComesFromChrist

If you stay connected to me, you will have peace. If you and I stay connected to Jesus, if we can see our pain, see our suffering, see our the the injustice, the difficulty that we walk through in this life through the lens of Jesus, we will have peace. And then he promises this. You ready? This is our promise. Ain't it lovely? In this world, you will have trouble. Did you know that Jesus does not promise you an easy life? Did you know that Jesus does not promise you that, like, just because you follow him that you're not gonna have any problems? And Jesus is saying this as he knows he's about to go through the worst thing that anybody could ever experience ever. He says, in this world, you will have problems. You will have trouble. A god who does not allow pain and suffering is not the god of Jesus. [00:39:06] (50 seconds)  #StayConnectedFindPeace

But because Jesus who chose pain and suffering and the worst possible thing that could happen to anybody did that for you. We can continue to follow. We can continue to believe. Whatever it is that you're walking through, you can continue to take heart because God and Jesus, through Jesus, has overcome the world. [00:40:53] (23 seconds)  #JesusOvercameTheWorld

And he has an opportunity in this moment to go, no. No. No. We didn't we didn't do this in any name. Like, we were just trying to help this guy out. But no, he looks right at him and he says, it's by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth. I know that Jesus is a pretty popular name around here right now, guys, but it's the one from Nazareth, just so you know. And in case that wasn't clear enough for you, it's the one that you crucified but whom God raised from the dead. That's how this man stands before you, healed, because the beggar had been brought in for all of this questioning as well. [00:30:17] (29 seconds)  #HealingInJesusName

This right here is why so many people have maintained faith in Jesus through some of the most terrible things that you and I can't possibly even begin to imagine, and yet they still trust God. They still follow him. And they would tell you and they would tell me that their faith has come out stronger on the other side of it. Their faith has come out deeper on the other side of it because it's one of the five things that god uses to grow our faith. And of those five things that god uses to grow our faith, this is the only one that you and I would not choose. We don't choose to to walk through difficult pivotal circumstances in our life. This one right here chooses you and it chooses me. [00:40:12] (41 seconds)  #TrialsGrowFaith

When anybody when I tell my faith story, when people that have great faith that you know tell their faith story, they nearly every time talk about something that happened, some event or or multiple events that happened that influenced and affected their faith. They would label it maybe not as pivotal but they would describe it as like this pivotal moment in their life. And the pivotal moments in our life, they tend to be disruptive. They tend to be catalytic things. They tend to be defining moments for the rest of our lives. Some of those things that are that these pivotal moments in your faith and my faith are positive. [00:15:38] (36 seconds)  #PivotalMomentsDefineFaith