Tony Evans Sermon: Freedom From Fear
Such a good sermon from Tony Evans about learning to walk on the problem instead of just trying to get out of it. About sinking but being pulled up again.
Freedom from fear
I need these kinds of sermons regularly, the kind that remind me that we might be surrounded by problems, but that God is still faithful. That we might sink from time to time, but we won't drown. Not when God's there to reach His hand down and pull us out.
I especially need this today, after spending the past couple days (just as we were on our way home from vacation) trying to help my alcoholic mother - calling paramedics to check on her when she wasn't acting right and couldn't remember what year it was or what her address was, listening to her sob about how she wanted her (deceased) mother, being pulled back into bed with her every time I got up as she begged me not leave her alone, then eventually forcing her to get out of bed and to get dressed and to get in my car so that I could take her to my home where I could watch her, but then driving her back to the place she was staying when she woke up at midnight mad as a hornet that I forced her to come to my house and threatening to walk or take a cab if I didn't drive her, and then finally making arrangements (without her knowledge) with my brother a day later to get her on a plane so she could get back home, hoping and praying that the airport would let her fly while she clearly smelled of too much alcohol.
(Now, today - after all the emotional and physical exhaustion from this weekend, after buckling down and doing what needs to be done and seeing it through to the end, yet knowing that it's not really over - now it's time to cry a little.)
Tony ends the sermon with this: "May God give you peace in turbulent times." If there's one thing I've learned over my life is that the turbulent times keep coming, sometimes before you even have a chance to get your feet under you from the last time life knocked you down. We can't expect life to go smoothly, to be free of painful trials. But we can have faith that God will be with us during those turbulent times. That even if we don't know what to do and don't have the strength to do it, He does! I may not have faith in myself to be able to handle life, but I do have faith in Him. Even if my faith is so small and fragile sometimes.
Oh, how little my faith is sometimes! But, oh, how thankful I am that God understands, that He helps me and loves me and guides me anyway. God can work with our tiny faith, as long as we set our tiny faith on Him!
Freedom from fear
I need these kinds of sermons regularly, the kind that remind me that we might be surrounded by problems, but that God is still faithful. That we might sink from time to time, but we won't drown. Not when God's there to reach His hand down and pull us out.
I especially need this today, after spending the past couple days (just as we were on our way home from vacation) trying to help my alcoholic mother - calling paramedics to check on her when she wasn't acting right and couldn't remember what year it was or what her address was, listening to her sob about how she wanted her (deceased) mother, being pulled back into bed with her every time I got up as she begged me not leave her alone, then eventually forcing her to get out of bed and to get dressed and to get in my car so that I could take her to my home where I could watch her, but then driving her back to the place she was staying when she woke up at midnight mad as a hornet that I forced her to come to my house and threatening to walk or take a cab if I didn't drive her, and then finally making arrangements (without her knowledge) with my brother a day later to get her on a plane so she could get back home, hoping and praying that the airport would let her fly while she clearly smelled of too much alcohol.
(Now, today - after all the emotional and physical exhaustion from this weekend, after buckling down and doing what needs to be done and seeing it through to the end, yet knowing that it's not really over - now it's time to cry a little.)
Tony ends the sermon with this: "May God give you peace in turbulent times." If there's one thing I've learned over my life is that the turbulent times keep coming, sometimes before you even have a chance to get your feet under you from the last time life knocked you down. We can't expect life to go smoothly, to be free of painful trials. But we can have faith that God will be with us during those turbulent times. That even if we don't know what to do and don't have the strength to do it, He does! I may not have faith in myself to be able to handle life, but I do have faith in Him. Even if my faith is so small and fragile sometimes.
Oh, how little my faith is sometimes! But, oh, how thankful I am that God understands, that He helps me and loves me and guides me anyway. God can work with our tiny faith, as long as we set our tiny faith on Him!
