“Thanking God
in the Storms of Life” By Brother Arman Jorge November 19th,
2017 Thank you,
Bob. Definitely, that was powerful message. You’re keeping me up on my toes
today. I'm gonna go straight through with my message today. This morning's
message is, “Giving Thanks in the Storms of Life.” When I was preparing for
this message, a lot of things is coming up to my head, you know, about being
thankful. And, you know, we come to church, you know, we come to church, we
pray to God, we give thanks, we honor Him, we respect Him, because of the
things that He does for us, because of the things that He blesses us with. And
we gave him honor and praise, because... Even though, sometimes we don't,
really. You know, He gave us a blessing, even though, sometimes, we don't
deserve it, He gives it to us anyway. And, my question to myself was, “Am I
saying thanks to God in a way that God wants to hear it? Am I saying thanks to
God, and is He accepting my thanks in the way, you know, that He wants to
receive it?” You know? Because, sometimes words, isn't much of a sacrifice. You
know, because sometimes you can say thanks, and then you go on living your
life, and you seem so unthankful to God, or to other people. I came across an
African proverb, and it says, “Even the hen raises her head up towards heaven,
when swallowing her grain. It says even the hen lifted up her head toward
heaven, when swallowing her grain. I've seen that; I used to work in a farm, I
have seen this hen, and going like this. You know, every single grain, the hen
swallows that grain. You know it's sort of like you and me as a person, you
know: When we’re really, really thirsty,
we go and we swallow that water, every single drop of that water and say,
“Thanks.” You know, we do, we do. And I saw this person in the Philippines and
nothing wrong with him, he drinks his water this way. He drips all over
himself. That's not a very thankful person, I'll tell you that. My first Scriptures
for the day--My first part of the message today is rules and relationships. Part 1 Rules and Relationships. My Scripture
is in Colossians chapter 2 verses 6 and 7, and it says: Colossians 2:6-7 As ye have
therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him: rooted and built up in him, and stablished in
the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving. It says when
we receive Christ in our heart as our Lord and Savior, walk in newness of life.
And built up in him, the strong foundation the solid foundation of Jesus
Christ, with what? established in his faith, whose faith? in Jesus Christ's
faith. As we grew up, we've been taught a lot of that, every time. And,
abounding with the abundance, the abundance of Thanksgiving. I have a
definition of rules. It says rules is an accepted principles or instruction
which states the way things are, or should be done, and tells you what you are
allowed or are not allowed to do. Rules. I mean, why rules? Because God wants
us to do the right thing. He wants His people in the straight path of
righteousness. You know, many of you have rules in your house. I've had rules
in my house. I am going to mention a couple of them. My rules in my house are:
Communication: no TV during the school week, except for one hour. And saying
please, and thank you; saying, please and thank you. Is that followed to the T?
Obviously not. I've constantly got to go like this, “Get back in line.” And,
truthfully, God does the same way to us as individuals. He's given us the Ten
Commandments Not because it’s to be followed to the T, it’s because it's a
guidance, it's a guide to us. To get back in the lane, once we go start going
astray. Get back in the lane, we have that reference that God has given us.
And, I must tell you, though, I must tell you, I must tell you this: Without
greater things to stand on, rules are going to be tough to follow. Without
greater things to stand on, rules are going to be tough to follow. Because,
church, this is where relationship comes in. Relationship comes in, and Jesus
is the Master of relationship. If you ever want to know anything about
relationship, you need to come to Jesus. And, who else knows the relationship
except than to His people, His child, you know? And relationship is like, you
know, my daughter, I have a good relationship with my kids. At least I think
so. At times, maybe they don't think so. But I'm going to stick to my statement
right now. My daughter Ashley she, you know, I do a lot of good things for her
and take care of her. But she showed me; she tried to connect to me, she tried
to do some things for me. She would always when she wants to be sweet to me,
she would call me, “Papi, what are you doing?” And I mean exactly like that,
and she would call me sometimes different names, “Papa, where are you?” I mean,
sweet like that. And so I'm like, you know, I'm really nosy, I asked her, I
said, “Ashley, why do you call me like that?” She goes, “Daddy, there's two
things in the letter p left: pee-pee and poo-poo. Which one you want?” And I
said, “I'll stay with Papa.” She didn't really say that; I was just trying to
kind of get a laugh out of you. But I do call her Poo-poo, though, but don't
tell her that; she's gonna kill me because I call her Poo-poo a lot. And so I want
to you know all of us all of us--each individual--all of us are equipped to
obey the rules, the rules of the relationship with Jesus Christ. All of us are
equipped to follow the rules. You know, if you don't have a good relationship
with your son and your daughter or with anybody you can forget the rules, I'm
going to tell you that right now, you can forget the rules. You have to have
that rules. I have
heard--you probably heard the story about this poor lady, poor lady called in
to a radio station. She called into the radio station and she said, “God, help
me.” On the radio station. And there was this man, an unbeliever man, who
happened to be listening to the radio program. And, so, this man said, “I'm
going to make fun of this lady.” And, so, somehow, he got her address. And, he
called his secretary, he said, “I want you to go to a grocery and I want you to
buy some groceries, a bunch of groceries and I want you to deliver to this
address.” And he gave her instructions, and he said, “When you get there, tell the
lady, if the lady asks, tell the lady, if she asks who it came from, tell her
it came from the devil.” And so, and so this lady, she was puzzled. So, okay,
she went to the grocery store, got the food; got a whole bunch of food, and
knocked on the door. Got that food, knocked on the door. She got there kind of
late and knocked on the door, and the lady opened. You know, gave her that
food. And she was like, “Oh, thank you so much.” Took that food put it on the
table. And the secretary said, “Excuse me, Ma'am, don't you want to know who
that came from?” And, the lady came back and said, “Young lady, Thank you so
much, you know, it really doesn't matter who it came from, because I know God,
if He order someone to do something, even the devil, they have to follow. Even
the devil.” Is that the kind of relationship that we want? Thy will be done.
That's the kind of relationship we should want, that kind of relationship with
God. Even the devil will follow in your favor. Part two of my message. It's
called mixed emojis or emotions. Part 2 Mixed Emojis or Emotions How are your
circumstances? Bob touched on this today. How are your circumstances? I wonder
if there's a way to thank God, that goes beyond speaking, words to live,
gratitude even when we don't feel thankful in our circumstances. Acts
twenty-seven, thirty-five, this is my next scripture. Acts 27:35 And when he had
thus spoken, he took bread, and gave thanks to God in presence of them all: and
when he had broken it, he began to eat. And the story
behind this: This is Apostle Paul, he's in the middle of transferring, going to
Rome because he's going to face Caesar. And, they were in the ship, and in the
ship, they encounter a very, very bad storm, and that's what happened, you
know? Apostle Paul and the crew, they were really--they didn't know what to
do--they were really scared. Apostle Paul decided to minister to them. He said,
“Listen, guys: It's been fourteen days that you guys haven’t eaten; you need to
eat. Don't worry, because God told me every single one of you are going to be
saved, except for the ship, not a hair on your head will fall. Nothing. You
guys are gonna be safe.” And that's what Apostle Paul shared with them. And you know,
I had a similar story to that, I asked my son Aaron, when I was going to do
this, I told him, “I was going to do a sermon, and I'd like to share your
testimony.” He says, “Dad, go ahead, if you think it will bless someone.” And,
what happened was, last year, he took an assignment to his job. And this
assignment is going to require him to go away from the family, and away from
the church for about six months. He was going to stay there for six months, and
he's got a free place to live. He's just got to take care of his food, and he
came to me, he said. “Dad. I am going to go away, and I need to do this.” I
told him, I said, “I don't think that's a really good idea. Because you're
going to be alone over there, you’re going to be separated from the church, you
know, we're not going to have a lot of fellowship. It's just you and yourself.”
But you know, sometimes in life, you just have to let people make mistakes.
They need to experience that for their life, they do. You’ve just got to be
around them and support them, and make that good connection, you know, and
that's what happened. Okay, two weeks before his assignment ends, he calls me
up one night, and he was in tears. And, excuse me. He was in tears, and he
said, “Dad, I don't know what's going on.” I said, “What's wrong?” “I can't
sleep, I can't eat, I don't know what's going on. I have lost a lot of weight
already. I don't know what to do.” And, you know, it was so easy to say, I told
you so, it was so easy, but I didn't say that. “Doggone it. I told you not to
go over there.” I didn't say that. But I didn't say that; I said to him, I
said, “I know what you're going through, I know what you're going through,” and
that's what I said to him, “I've been there, I've been there.” And, what I was
going through, I told him a little bit: “I got down on my knees, I prayed, I
connected with God, and I read His Word, and I think positive things.” And on
that phone I prayed with him, we prayed, and after we prayed I told him.
“Aaron, before you go to bed, I want you to pray again. I want you to read,
pick any chapter in the Book of Psalms and read. Pray before you read. And,
after that, go to sleep, listen to Christian music, put it on your ear, and let
it fall. If you fall asleep, you fall asleep, but think positive.” And so the
next day I called him, I woke up in the morning and I called him up, I said,
“How you doing?” He said, “Dad, I did what you said what I was supposed to do
and I was able to sleep. And I was able to go all night.” I said to him, “You have
two more weeks. I need you to do the
same thing every night. Every night, I
need you to do the same thing. Get down
on your knees, get connected with Jesus Christ, get connected with Jesus
Christ.” And, church, depression happens to be one of the major things that we
go through in life, and I got stats here, it says 25 million American suffer
from depression each year. It says 50 percent of all people who die by suicide
from major depression, and one includes alcoholics who are depressed, this figure
rises to 75 percent. It affects nearly five to eight percent of Americans ages
eighteen and over in a year. And it says more Americans today, suffer from
depression than coronary, heart disease, cancer, and HIV positive. And that’s
the fact, church. And, I tell you, Jesus
said in John, Jesus said that the thief comes to steal, kill, and destroy. But
Jesus said. Also, that I come that you might have life that you might have it
more abundantly. Church rules, rules is going to get you that college you need,
rules is going to get you the house, or that car that you always wanted. Rules
is going to get you that corporate ladder that you always been dreaming of, but
if you don't have a relationship with Jesus Christ, you don't have a
relationship with anybody, you’re just a barracuda in that company! You’ve got
to have a solid relationship with Jesus Christ if you want to go through in the
midst of a storm, by being thankful for it. We have to go through it. And another thing, and another thing: Don’t tell God how big your storm is, tell
the storm how big God is; that’s what you’ve got to do every day. Church, I was
praying the middle of the night; I woke up in the middle of night, and, praying
for this message this morning. And, I was afraid; I said, “God, I need--you
know, I know I’m talking about a relationship,” and God told me, He says, “Do
you want a relationship with me? Do you want a solid relationship with Me?” And
I said, “Yes, God, you know, I do.” And He says, and He says, “Empty your
closet, empty your closet.” I said, “God, what are You talking about? I mean,
what closet? I mean, what are You talking about? I teach Sunday School. I come
here. What are you talking about?” And
God said, “Clean your closet.” And, you
know, I remember, I remember there is a CD that I used to play a lot, when I
was single. And, I kept that CD, all the
way, until today. But, I had never played it anymore, for a long time, for
years. It’s just there, I just kept it.
And God said, “Clean your closet.” I went through that closet and searched for
that CD, and took it, and snap it in the middle, and threw it in the garbage.
Church, if there’s anything hindering your walk with God, start to throw it in
the garbage. Let’s pray.
Let’s pray: Jesus, I just want to thank you about, Jesus, your message, today.
Have you brought, have you delivered, have you received God? God, if there's anything that's hindering my
life, I need You to tell me, even when it’s an uncomfortable time of day, Jesus.
God I want you establish my faith, our individual faith, our ministries faith,
in a way that you want it, the way that the world can’t--they can say, “Who's
the God of this people?” God, open up my heart, Jesus, because there's a storm
out there, that we are going to come across, and we want to be thankful for
that, for that storm, Jesus, and You, alone, is going to bring me through that.
In Jesus name I pray. Amen.
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