Third Sunday after Pentecost
Romans 5:1-10
Matthew 6:22-33
Two great teachers: let us listen to them and learn their lessons!
- NOT naive. They know the world groans in agony and that people suffer.
- NOT selling us anything. They want us to thrive.
- They lead from the front.
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What did they teach us today?
1. That life is going to be hard. But there is a real sense in which we NEED it to be hard.
- Perseverance in hard times builds character and gives perspective.
- “That which doesn’t kill us makes us stronger.” Every person that has ever lived.
- “Tribulation worketh patience; and patience, experience; and experience, hope” Romans 5:3-4
2. That things are going to work out just fine. How can we have hope that things are going to work out?
- Because we have been through the cycle of “hard” many times
- We know the run will rise tomorrow; that winter will turn to spring; etc.
- We are stronger individually and communally through our struggles
- You cannot break a saint and you cannot break the Church… why? Resilience.
- Training of individuals and training of teams
- Athletes as individual saints. The cycle of hardship, recovery, and preparation.
- Strong marriages as the team. The cycle of hardship, recovery, and preparation.
3. That we need to trust the system.
- Anxiety works against the process. Birds of the air. Flowers of the field.
- Not naive. True.
- Assumes hard work.
- Assumes community. (work and community are part of the system!)
- Christ has already won the victory. He has run the race.
- We can run it “in him”; He can run it “in us”
- It is no longer I who run but he who runs in me! (Galatians 2:20)
Trust the system. It was created by the God who made the world and wants us to succeed.
Conclusion: this is why we are here today;
- to thank the Lord for making the way to resilience and eternal prosperity straight for us
- to recover from the rigors of our recent trials
- to enjoy a taste of the glory that is coming in the day when the race is finished and the prize is ours.
