I Got Fired...thank you LORD!

Today is thanksgiving, a time to remember, recognize and reflect on being thankful, having a heart filled with gratitude.  I know it’s easy to come up with some quick and meaningful expressions of why we are thankful… but what about when our health is failing, our family is broken or when we find ourselves out of work.

Four years ago, I was a lead pastor in Guelph of a church of about 300 people.  I had just returned from a missions trip to Lesotho, Africa on Thanksgiving Sunday where my faith and my love for Jesus was reignited!  

I had team members share about the trip and we shared the highlight video, but I never had a chance to preach what I learned during my trip…time ran out and I thought that I would preach it the following Sunday.  However, that never happened because the next day two members of my leadership team met with me to let me go.  It was a difficult moment, but the LORD prepared me for it.  It’s never easy to hear that you don’t measure up to expectations or fit with the needs of an organization.

James 1 

Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3 because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. 4 Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.

Perseverance – it is an active endurance, likened to a person completing a marathon.

Often our prayer is LORD remove me from this situation…NOW; however often there are huge lessons to be learned through the process of perseverance.

In the parable of the sower, we also are given a picture of the importance of letting our faith draw from roots that go deep down.  It begins with a seed of faith that is planted in our heart; however these experiences can uproot us, scorch us or drive us down deeper into what we have to know and understand about God

I honestly believe that the hard and difficult times forge our faith and mold us and enable us to grow even more in our reliance on God or it can reveal the lack of roots.

Facebook is a great place to discover where people are at.

We had someone at the Manor Church and as soon as she went through a huge trial, she shared “I don’t believe in God, my faith is gone.”

So, what’s our choice in the hard times? 

We can choose to remain thankful or choose to rant on our social media platform.

We can say, OK, this is a test of obedience.  I will choose to walk this out in faith instead of moving forward in fear.

I listened to a great message this week on this very attitude of joy.

Isaiah 54

Sing, barren woman,
    you who never bore a child;
burst into song, shout for joy,
    you who were never in labor;
because more are the children of the desolate woman
    than of her who has a husband,”
says the Lord.

1. Choose to express  JOY.

The truth here is that I can choose to express joy even though I haven’t received the answer.  Understand that this passage is speaking to the nation of Israel and is certainly applicable to the church. 

The passage is taking the natural principle of childbirth and turning it into a spiritual reality.

We are being called to SCREAM, SHOUT and be so exuberant in our worship!  It is a SCREAM of anticipation.

Shout for JOY while you can’t have kids.  Take a moment right now and think about the thing that you have the least breakthrough in, the most barren area of your life.  It may mean someone in your family who hasn’t come to know Jesus yet, it could be a family member who is battling a disease and you could be out of work right now…and what’s on the horizon doesn’t look good.  It could be a number of things.  SHOUT with extreme celebration before the answer comes.   Now this isn’t common sense and from a human perspective seems maybe presumptuous or pretentious.  However it totally makes sense from God’s perspective.

Why does it make sense?  

It is an expression of faith.  It is a deliberate choice to believe the promise and better, the Promise Giver.  Emotional expression is necessary.  This is not just an intellectual ascent that we are climbing to.

Romans 14:17 The kingdom of God is righteousness, peace and joy. As followers of Christ, we should experience a real sense of peace and joy.

Who believes the good news is actually good news??

When we came to know Jesus as our LORD, it wasn’t just so we could have a ticket to get out of hell.  It is to become married to the FATHER and as His bride to experience fruitfulness in our greatest area of barrenness.

Also recognize that worship expression can look real weird to those who are not part of it.  Just ask Michel, David’s wife, who saw David dancing in a linen garment before the LORD when the ark returned to Israel.  She despised him in her heart.  She has issues and he said I will be even more undignified than this!  2 Samuel 6:22

Don’t judge those who are worshipping God in your midst.  Give freedom for all kinds of expression.  It will look different for all of us.

Philippians 4:4 Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! 5 Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. 6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Joy is always within reach for us.  He would not command it of us, if it wasn’t in the reach of our will to do so. 

2. Choose to accept the PROPHETIC

² “Enlarge the place of your tent,
    stretch your tent curtains wide,
    do not hold back;
lengthen your cords,
    strengthen your stakes.

So, now, the desolate woman being described here is being called to express huge faith. The desolate woman is essentially being called to build the nursery even before she is pregnant.  It is that kind of faith that the LORD rewards.

The challenge being given here is if you are living in a one bedroom home, start building the addition, build the nursery.

“You need to create the room for God to fill it!” Bill Johnson

We can choose to recognize the power of the prophetic or write it off. 

So, in my exit interview, something really positive was said and I held on to it.  They expressed my ability to create things out of nothing and said that I had a pioneering spirit.

I came home and shared the good, the bad and the ugly, but when I shared those words about a pioneering spirit with Sharon, she said you’re not going to believe this but our friend Wendy had a picture while we were praying as a group before we left for Africa.

I had to leave early for another meeting so I didn’t hear the following… She shared how she saw us all in pioneer clothes and we were in a wagon.  We were heading out on a paved road that was full of turns but on each side of the road were large green trees.  She also shared with the group that the pastors from my church were waving goodbye at us!

Right away my heart was settled, I had peace and knew that God had a new adventure for us

We can make deliberate choices that show belief or not.

For me, a deliberate choice to choose joy was to take our family on a missions trip to Lesotho Africa for a month at the end of my severance package. 

The logical choice would be to find a job, but it was important to us that our children were not bitter about this situation and instead chose to see it as a great opportunity for us as a family.

We were also trusting God to show us where we would be pioneering.

3. LEARN TO WAIT and don’t give in to FEAR

Isaiah 54:13 All your children will be taught by the Lord,
    and great will be their peace.
 In righteousness you will be established:
Tyranny will be far from you;
    you will have nothing  to fear.

Sometimes we try to answer our own prayers.

In that moment following my dismissal at my previous church, I could have scrambled, quickly whipped up my resume, chase down churches looking for pastors.  I could have run to the District Office and told them to put in a good work for me…but I didn’t.

When we give in to fear, it is the gateway for the enemy who comes to steal, kill and destroy to gain a foothold in my heart and life.  It can be very crippling to our faith!

Psalm 23:4 Even though I walk through the valley of death, I will fear no evil…

Here’s the thing, we weren’t meant to set up camp in the valley, we were meant to walk through it!

Isaiah 40:31 KJV But they that wait (hope) upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.

Exodus 14:14 The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still.” (at the moment Pharaoh changed his mind about letting the Israelites go)

It is easier said than done especially when you know the finances are running out and you have a family to look after.

Psalm 34:18 The Lord is close to the brokenhearted  and saves those who are crushed in spirit.

Romans 8:28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who[i] have been called according to his purpose.

Proverbs 3:5,6  Trust in the LORD with all your heart, lean not on your own understanding.  In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your paths.

The Takeaway

Take the most barren area of your life and hold it up to God.  As we pray, open your hands to God as an act of faith.

God, I pray that you would take this _________ area (name it) and help me find joy in the most unusual areas this week.