Jeremy Hoover

 
 
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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