We progress in our faith through perseverance. We each face trials, challenges, and uncertainty. We grow, not by giving up, but by facing these things head on through faith. We persevere through them.
Download: "Persevere to Progress"
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Introduction: What do you think about when you think about perseverance?
  • Me: persevering through 8 long months without LOST
  • Others (more seriously)
  • persevering through uncertainty (unknown job statuses)
  • persevering through a bad start (is this really God's work if it stalled out? stopping food pantries and clothing banks because of a bad start, etc.)
  • persevering through trial (Haiti earthquake survivors)
1. Joseph persevered through uncertainty. Genesis 39:20.
  • Joseph faced numerous trials that created uncertainty: tossed in a well; sold into slavery; working in a strange land; false accusations; tossed into jail; forgotten in jail; negotiating Egyptian politics as a ruler.
  • He recognized through all this uncertainty that God meant it for good.
  • Perseverance enables us know certainty even during uncertainty. Genesis 50:20.
2. Moses persevered through a bad start. Exodus 5:6-7.
  • When Moses first challenged Pharaoh, Pharaoh responded by making the work harder for the Jews.
  • When Moses finally freed the people, they ended up wandering in a desert for 40 years before they received the promised land.
  • Perseverance enables us to finish strong.
3. James teaches us to persevere through trials. James 1:2-4.
  • James knew that we all face different things that test our faith.
  • We only grow by facing these tests head on and persevering through them.
  • Perseverance enables us to mature in faith and become complete.
Application
  • We progress through perseverance
  • Where are you?--uncertainty, bad start, trials?
  • How do you persevere? Focus not on the trial but on what is being done in you. [counter-intuitive]
    • Do not focus on the uncertainty, the slow start, or the trial. Focus on what God is doing in you.
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Learn from Joseph, Moses, and James how to persevere through uncertainty, a slow start, and trials.
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Perseverance 02/02/2010
 
Not everything is as it seems. Sometimes, there are deeper spiritual realities at work beneath the surface of what we see. We need to trust God, remain faithful, and persevere through challenges and trials.

"Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finis its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything" (James 1:2-4, TNIV).
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