A Kingdom That Cannot Be Shaken: Finding Certainty in Uncertain Times- Part 2

Review

• Last week, we discussed how to address the tension many of us feel between our circumstances and .
• As a church that embraces the doctrine as an aspect of our theology, this is particularly important.
• Some of the dissonance we may feel between faith and our physical reality is expressed in the Hebrew writer’s commentary on God’s Kingdom:
• • Hebrews 12:27-28
• Yes, we affirm that there is a basis for believing God for His intervention in our material lives.
• We also acknowledge that life can bring unexpected loss or unwelcomed that does not always lend itself to easy or convenient answers or explanations.

• The purpose of this current series is to prepare you for a subsequent series that will focus on divine .
• Such a might be startling or even come across as being insensitive given the pandemic.
• That many of us know people who have contracted or died from the corona virus can make the subject of healing a sore spot.
• However, the biblical evidence is clear: is a healer.
• Healing was a in His earthly ministry and there is nothing to suggest that He retired from this work after the resurrection.
• To read the and then conveniently edit out His healing ministry is grossly inappropriate.
• There is no doubt that Jesus is a healer .
• At the same time, broaching the subject of healing during a health crisis requires .
• That some people receive healing and others do not raises all kinds of cosmic questions about God’s and character.

• Once we start our healing series later this year, we’ll address some of the stumbling blocks to healing and naturally.
• I’ll not only draw from , but also from real life examples of people I’ve known through the years doing pastoral work.
• However, here’s the catch: the teaching series won’t answer all your . No one’s teaching will.
• There are some things that simply cannot be or changed. Coming to terms with this is part of our in Christ.
• To have certainty in uncertain times is to trust God even when life becomes a .
• • Deuteronomy 29:29
  • I Corinthians 13:8-12

What do you do when life hits you on the blind side? How do you react when the unexpected happens? Imagine what you would think if your newly married spouse dies. Your father takes his life. Your mother turns out not to be your biological mother of 30 years. Your sister is a prostitute. Your father reveals his secret homosexual lifestyle. Your new house burns down. Your healthy child suddenly dies, or your first pregnancy ends in stillbirth. Your total life’s savings and investment in a company or institution is lost. Your family members die in a plane crash leaving infants to care for. How do you explain or understand these tragedies? (Myles Munroe, Re-Discovering Faith, pp. 24)

• These are things that people in Word-of-faith-contexts pray against and expect to avoid or recover from without permanent consequences.
• However, there’s no getting away from the fact that there are people in Word-of-faith who experience these things or things like them.
• Some people respond to this by providing an of what went wrong.
• They may point to the of someone’s faith, the sin in someone’s life or a door someone may have inadvertently opened to the enemy.
• In some cases, this adequately explains what happened. In other cases, there simply is no explanation.

• For to unexpected and unexplained tragedy and loss, we have to look to Jesus:
• • Matthew 11:28-30
  • II Corinthians 12:7-10
• Every time there is a missing piece to the , put Jesus in that space.
• He’ll always .
• There is no challenge we face for which in Jesus is not the answer.
• • John 15:4-7
• We live in a circumscribed by what we can’t know and what we can’t do.
• Jesus is our cord.
• It’s God who does the impossible; we in the impossible by abiding in Him.
• Our daily goal should be to foster a “living, loving growing relationship with Jesus.” (Dr. A.R. Bernard)

Joshua D. Smith, Ph.D., 2020