GraceLife Sarasota GraceLife Sarasota

Have you ever felt like God was missing? You believe in God, you have faith, but you can’t see Him in your situation? We have faith, but we can’t help the fact that we feel this way as if God has gone silent & He’s nowhere to be found. We’ve all been there. We’ve been perplexed, suffering, frightened, in pain, and maybe even devastated by loss & pain. It’s one of those moments in life you just can’t see what God is doing. Even praying doesn’t seem to help ease it. Usually, because we cannot see the big picture, God is doing things beyond our comprehension. But we also know from God’s Word, He IS there! He knows how every detail is part of His grand plan of redemption. That’s the essence of the Book of Esther, a cherished story in Jewish history that’s overlooked by church leaders. There is a profound message of God's presence, hidden, but working behind the scenes to ensure His will is fulfilled. It’s a story about the precious fabric of our faith, woven by a God who’s always in control, even when He seems silent. We will learn that being faithful requires us to know there is far more going on than what we can see at any given time. We will learn how God's hand is always at work, guiding us, protecting us, and fulfilling His purposes through us.

Before we begin our new series in Esther, I wanted to take a week to talk about GraceLife’s stance God’s Word. With so many new faces, I think it’s important to take one week to explain why we do what we do here. A biblical church is characterized by unwavering confidence and trust in the Bible as the ultimate source of truth. A biblical church, which there are several in Sarasota, believes God’s Word is supernaturally inspired and infallible. Any good, biblical church will declare that they believe scripture is inspired, reliable, accurate, and preserved by God. But our belief and trust in God’s Word should be based on more than just blind faith. After all the stakes are high. If we’re going to have complete trust in God’s Word, shouldn’t we understand why? This isn’t the Easter Bunny There are compelling reasons why God's Word is reliable, miraculous, and worthy of our hope, trust & reverence. In fact, the Bible, the Word of God we have today, is just as miraculous as the resurrection of Jesus!

Look at the person next to you. Imagine for a moment you saw real signs this person was clearly drifting from God. Maybe you became aware of obvious signs of sin or immorality. Maybe gathering with us had become sporadic. If it's someone in recovery, perhaps you are seeing evidence their recovery is shaky or wobbly. Maybe you have witnessed very inappropriate conversations or relationships with members of the opposite sex. Maybe you’ve had theological discussions with them where it seems they are drifting away from the one true Gospel. Most of us would act one of 2 ways....we mind our own business, or we get arrogant and respond too strongly. My question for you is this. How far would you be willing to go to try to bring your wandering brother or sister back? How committed would you be to help them be restored to obedience & full community with God’s people? Did you know your willingness to help restore a wandering brother or sister is a critical test of your ropes of faith? Restoring straying Christians is one of our highest priorities because we are, in fact, our brothers’ keeper. In fact, even if your ropes of faith pass every other test in James we’ve studied, if it fails this one, it’s a serious problem.

Do you know people who just seem to have a special gift and commitment to pray for other people? If you’re like most of us, like me, several names quickly come to mind, and one of them isn’t your own! These are people we turn to, because it just seems they take prayer seriously. Their prayers seem to have power. They always seem to be much more interested in praying for others before they pray for anything for themselves. Why are some people better than others at prayer? Are they just special, more spiritual, more godly than the rest of
us? I have never met someone who has this gift of praying for others that was always angry or fighting with other Christians. I’ve never heard “He/she really loves praying for other people, but man they sure are mean when they aren’t praying!” I haven’t met many people like this who were cocky about their prayers, bragging about how powerful their prayers are. People like this just seem to understand how their prayers don’t start with them. They seem to give God that credit. People with this kind of prayer life are critical to building up the church and healing relationships. We need them! So, what does James have to say about this? How can we all tap into a powerful prayer life? In chapter 5:16-18, James addresses the power of prayer and its connection to our relationships with one another.

(JAMES 5:13–15) IS ANYONE AMONG YOU SUFFERING? LET HIM PRAY. IS ANYONE CHEERFUL? LET HIM SING PRAISE. [14] IS ANYONE AMONG YOU SICK? LET HIM CALL FOR THE ELDERS OF THE CHURCH, AND LET THEM PRAY OVER HIM, ANOINTING HIM WITH OIL IN THE NAME OF THE LORD. [15] AND THE PRAYER OF FAITH WILL SAVE THE ONE WHO IS SICK, AND THE LORD WILL RAISE HIM UP. AND IF HE HAS COMMITTED SINS, HE WILL BE FORGIVEN.

Have you ever wondered if your faith is strong enough to endure real persecution & suffering because you follow Jesus? I’m not talking your garden variety 1st world American “bad day”, I’m talking about real suffering. Do you have what it takes to be faithful to Jesus no matter what circumstances life might visit upon you? Have you ever come to a place where you just weren’t sure that your faith was strong enough? Do you wonder if you personally have what it might take if your loyalty to God & His church was really tested? The answer is, no! No, you don’t. In fact, no human who has ever lived has had that kind of faith. So, wait, now what? Yet all through scripture, we’re commanded to have that kind of durable, steadfast faith, no matter what we face. So, what does this mean? What do we do with a seemingly unreasonable command, that’s humanly impossible to keep? That’s precisely the question we’ll wrestle with together, as we explore the next test of our ropes of faith in James.

(JAMES 5:7–11) BE PATIENT, THEREFORE, BROTHERS, UNTIL THE COMING OF THE LORD. SEE HOW THE FARMER WAITS FOR THE PRECIOUS FRUIT OF THE EARTH, BEING PATIENT ABOUT IT, UNTIL IT RECEIVES THE EARLY AND THE LATE RAINS. [8] YOU ALSO, BE PATIENT. ESTABLISH YOUR HEARTS, FOR THE COMING OF THE LORD IS AT HAND. [9] DO NOT GRUMBLE AGAINST ONE ANOTHER, BROTHERS, SO THAT YOU MAY NOT BE JUDGED; BEHOLD, THE JUDGE IS STANDING AT THE DOOR. [10] AS AN EXAMPLE OF SUFFERING AND PATIENCE, BROTHERS, TAKE THE PROPHETS WHO SPOKE IN THE NAME OF THE LORD. [11] BEHOLD, WE CONSIDER THOSE BLESSED WHO REMAINED STEADFAST. YOU HAVE HEARD OF THE STEADFASTNESS OF JOB, AND YOU HAVE SEEN THE PURPOSE OF THE LORD, HOW THE LORD IS COMPASSIONATE AND MERCIFUL. [12] SO ABOVE ALL, MY BROTHERS, DON’T SWEAR, EITHER BY HEAVEN OR EARTH OR OTHER OATH, BUT LET YOUR “YES” BE YES & YOUR “NO” BE NO, SO YOU MAY NOT FALL UNDER CONDEMNATION.