Life.Church with Craig Groeschel - Has 2020 Knocked You Down?

Episode Date: November 22, 2020

Alongside her husband Craig, Amy Groeschel co-founded Life.Church in 1996. As the leader of Sisters, the Life.Church women’s ministry, she authors Bible studies for women, including The Call, The Pursuit, and The Hope. She is also the founder and President of Branch15, a non-profit housing ministry supporting women on the path to recovery. Amy and Craig married in 1991 and have six children.Connect with Pastor Amy on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/amygroeschelStart the Rise Up and Stand Firm Bible Plan: https://www.go2.lc/riseup  Get more from Sisters: https://www.life.church/sistersWE’RE OPENTo ensure safety at all of our Life.Church locations, our weekend services have been redesigned to create a sanitary, touchless environment that allows for physical distancing. Learn more about everything we're doing to keep you safe and how you can help by using hand sanitizer, washing your hands often, and more: https://www.life.church/updatesFind a time and attend a service with us: http://www.life.church/locationsNEXT STEPSHave you made a decision to follow Jesus? You may be wondering what’s next on your journey. We want to help! Let us guide you to your next steps in your walk with Christ: https://www.life.church/nextABOUT LIFE.CHURCHWherever you are in life, you have a purpose. Life.Church wants to help you find your next step. Our hope is that your journey will include joining us at a Life.Church location throughout the United States or globally online at https://www.live.life.church. Find locations, videos, and more info about us at https://www.life.church or download the Life.Church app at https://www.life.church/app. FIND US ON SOCIAL MEDIAFacebook: http://www.facebook.com/life.churchInstagram: http://www.instagram.com/life.churchTwitter: http://www.twitter.com/lifechurchCONNECT WITH PASTOR CRAIGYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIIdiIO-Y20hRW9niR0CA8AFacebook: http://www.facebook.com/craiggroeschelInstagram: http://www.instagram.com/craiggroeschelTwitter: http://www.twitter.com/craiggroeschel Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Well, 2020 is the year that it seems like it just won't end. The moment you think it can't get any more complicated than it is, it seems like you turn a corner and there's another challenge. And that's why I'm excited today to share with you a message that I really believe can speak into the middle of the pain that you're feeling and the trials that you're enduring. My wife, Amy Groschelle, preached a powerful message. God's word just for you.

It's called Has 2020 Knocked You Down? I just want to take a moment to show my love, first of all, because I don't get the opportunity enough to my incredible husband, our pastor, Craig Rochelle, live today. You know what? I know he's a gift to you. He is such a gift in my life. He is my best friend, just a joy of my life, and I love serving the Lord with him. And I also want to honor our church, just the gift that it is. I want to thank and praise God for the wonderful church that we belong to, live church. So it's incredible what God's been doing through his church, through our church. You know, it's 2020 still. How have you been responding in this year to

2020. For me, personally, the pandemic didn't start in March. It started in February. It started February 28th of this year. And this morning, I received a text right when I got up that morning from my husband. He was on an international trip. He was flying home. It was the big homecoming day. I couldn't wait. But I woke up to a text. that he gave me while he was in flight. He said, Amy, I have very bad news. This is not a joke. He needed me to know that.

Bobby and I had dinner with a guy who tested positive for coronavirus. He just texted us. German government is trying to contact us. We have to notify the flight attendant. According to all the articles, because they were researching on their... devices, according to that, they will take us straight to a hospital, and we won't come home for 14 days. I didn't know anything about the coronavirus, guys. This moment, my response, this was a ton of

bricks. Everything was so unknown about this virus, and my response was disbelief. I mean, I had looked at the and other parts, the world that week, and it was like Germany was like 119 people. Oh, whatever. You know, out of millions and millions, we're good. My response, immediately my mind's flooded with all the what-ifs. You're not going to be able to come home. It sounds like you're going to get this virus. He gave me more text about how this man was, he spent 80% of the time with him at the

dinner, just in very close proximity, passing him as civil wear. or everything, I thought, well, he's going to get it. I just pray, he gets it straight away because that's going to extend his quarantine. And I just had a weight of this fear, and I could actually visualize him off somewhere alone, people in their hazmats, and struggling to breathe.

He's in his 50s now. What's going to happen? How is the church going to deal with this. Will he die? I mean, all in a matter of seconds, this is what I'm processing. And I sat up in my bed, and I began to wail. I was sobbing so loudly. I was afraid that my children were going to hear me and think somebody had died. I just cried and cried and cried and cried. But you know what? God worked it out. Craig did not. Bobby did not miraculously get this virus as close as they were. And amazingly, the quarantine, it passed. It was long and it was

slow, but it passed. And all was well. Let me tell you something about three weeks. earlier from this text. At church, I had a sister's planning meeting. And at the meeting, we look at 2020 and go, okay, what's this year's theme going to be? What are we going to do for this year's event? And I said, you know, it's really weird. This is February 6th. It's so weird. But, you know, last year we did, Jesus is live. And we looked at the book of John, the first four chapters of John, and we said, you know, okay, this is, this is what we're going to do. He's our abundance. We're going to look at the life of Jesus. And so my plan was, let's do John's chapter with the reading plan, John 5, 6, 7, 8, and just continue in the book of John. But it's crazy. I told

this team together, I said, I don't know why, but I can't get First Peter out of my mind. and it doesn't make any sense, but I just can't stop thinking about First Peter. And I'm not even excited about it. I just, I think it was like, I think we're supposed to look at First Peter. Like, I keep getting it confirmed. Well, you know what?

Once the pandemic became a thing, I totally understood. Once we went through the quarantine, I totally understood. We're going to look at First Peter. In fact, there's a reading plan that we're going to go through the book of First Peter for us to study this book. And this message is to launch that.

And so I want us just to pray. Heavenly Father, I praise you and I thank you, that you go before us in all things. I thank you that you're with us. You never leave us. Lord, I give this message to you. Father, give us ears to hear. We believe that you have a word that you want us to receive from you right now today. And so, Father, speak to us. Speak through me, Jesus. In the name of Jesus, I ask. Amen.

Well, first, Peter is a New Testament epistle. That's a letter. And it's written by Peter. Peter is one of the original disciples. And he's the guy that became a rock, a small rock. Jesus named him a pillar in the early church. Peter wrote this to Jewish and Gentile Christians that were displaced, they were exiles all over Asia Minor, which is now

like the modern day Turkey area. And Peter wrote to these Christians because they were under severe suffering, severe persecution. These were not easy days to be a believer. This was around the time

of 60 AD later in Peter's ministry when Peter was ministering under, and the Christians were living under a time of the Roman Emperor Nero in the Roman Empire. And he was horrible to Christians, torturing them. Terrible things were happening. And so we believe that it's under this historical context of great suffering that Peter writes, And why does he write? Think about it. If you are Peter and you know about your brothers and sisters in Christ all around hurting tremendously, what would be your motivation to sit down and write a letter? Peter had to write this letter because he wanted to encourage them. He wanted to equip the body. And so he's telling them, hey, let's rise up and stand firm. He starts this in verse 3 and says,

praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Look at his perspective. In His great mercy, he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God's power until the coming of the salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

And then he says, in all this, you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. But these have come so that the proven genuineness of your face of greater worth than gold which perishes, even though refined by fire, may result in praise, glory, and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. So how do we respond? Peter says, how are we going to rise up and stand firm in trials that are happening in life?

He's not telling us all the ways, but he starts by saying, look, we're going to rise up and we're going to rejoice and we're going to keep an eternal perspective. That's what I want us to hear today. Peter, and what we need to know under all the trials of life is we need to rejoice and keep an eternal perspective. Now, you may think, rejoice. Are you kidding me? Do you realize what's going on in my life and how hard things have been? Do you know that rejoice isn't a feeling?

Rejoicing is not a feeling. It's not. Think about it. It's a verb. It's an action. It's something we do. we make the decision and the choice to rejoice, not in how we feel, but we actively decide to give to God praise and thanks in all circumstances for who he is. And so Peter, in the text,

he says, we're going to rejoice in our living hope. Verse six again, he said, in all this, in all of what? That we have a salvation in Christ, that we have freedom in him, that We have an inheritance awaiting for us. In all of this that Christ has given us, His forgiveness, His grace, we greatly rejoice. Receive it like you've never heard it before. The salvation you have is a reason to greatly rejoice, to know what you have, to know the love of God that you have. We greatly rejoice. It's a decision to make to praise God.

And so I had to do this in this time of Craig's quarantine. I started to journal, and I'm not a journaler, but I had to journal because there was so many emotions going on, and I had to get it out, and I really didn't have, I didn't want to burden him with it, I didn't have anything to do with all these pent-up feelings, so I got in a journal and I started to process, and I had some decisions to make about how I was going to respond. Here's what I wrote initially. I said, I'm I do not know what's going to happen, but I know I can give you thanks in all things. I don't know what tomorrow will look like, but I know you hold tomorrow and you go before us. I don't know what will become of this situation, but I know you will work it out for good, for our good. And I know we can trust you in all things. I didn't want to wake up to this news of uncertainty, but I know none of it surprises you, and this gives me peace.

At the time, I didn't know that I was doing this, but I was choosing to rejoice in what I knew, because sometimes we have to inform the pain, inform the pain of our feelings about what our faith knows is true. Okay? Let me say it again. we have to inform the pain of our feelings about what our faith knows absolutely is true. And here's what I knew. I knew God's love literally sustains us in every situation, in every way,

and that we cannot be found in a circumstance where we will be separated from the love of God. so we can rejoice. We have a living hope. His name is Jesus. And you know what? We're not rejoicing about the problem. That's not what the Bible teaches. We don't rejoice in the problems and in the pain, but we delight in who God is that he's with us in the midst of the storm, in the midst of the pain, right? I love how Paul David Tripp says it. This is so good. He says, if you are a God's child, no matter who you are, no matter what you are, what you're facing, you have reason for joy today. Today. So we're going to rejoice that we have a living hope. And we're going to rejoice that our trials are not wasted. We hear this. We see it and we see it taught. It's all over the Bible. Our trials are not wasted. Peter said it like this in our text in verse 7.

He said, these have come. What have come? The trials. They've come so that, there's a reason, the proven genuineness, the testedness of your faith, of greater worth than gold, the most important thing, even though it perishes through fire,

that this may result in praise, glory, and honor when Christ is revealed. It's our faith that results in praise to God. God is perfecting our faith in every situation. His purpose is to perfect us. And so we can lean in to whatever we're facing and we can still rejoice because it has a purpose. There's purpose in that pain. James said it like this and James won. He said, consider it pure joy. It's a choice of choosing joy. It's joy, brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of all different kinds, because, yeah, it's like, why, why, why would I consider it joy? Because, because you know, you know, it's what we know is true. We know that the testing of our faith is doing something,

it's producing something, it's strengthening us, perseverance isn't a fun thing, but when you think about what it does. It strengthens us. It's going to finish its work because God, the word says, Jesus is the author and perfector of our faith. So let it have its work. He's maturing you. He's completing you. We're not going to lack anything after those fires. It's like the precious metal that gold has to go through the fire. Why? To refine, to purify. God is wanting to mature us, to make us like him. So through this journaling season of the quarantine, that those two weeks seemed like two years.

I know it sounds dramatic, but I felt like I myself was quarantined. I had to clear my calendar. Nobody wanted to see me or my kids. We were like the people of the plague. There were no cases in Oklahoma at this time. Zero. So I was afraid, headline news, Pastor Craig brings Corona from the other parts of the world.

I just, it was crazy. I felt so lonely, eating by myself, so sad. I had to wrestle with my flesh, just wanting to feel pity. And so I had to keep giving thanks, keep giving thanks, keep giving thanks in all things. And I found myself, I got it. I'm thankful. This is good. Every day I woke up, it's like, I call Craig, are you sick? Praise God. Are you sick? Well, no, but somebody else at the dinner got sick. Okay, praise God. We'll pray for them. Every day. And I got confused because I'm like, God, everything's going okay. We have so much to be

thankful for, but I still feel sad and lonely. I didn't realize that you can feel sad, lonely, bad feelings and thankful all at the same time. But see, God was doing a maturing work in me, and there were things he wanted to teach me. And so I journaled. And here's, in a nutshell, the things that I learned. I journaled. My heart is feeling deeper empathy for the lonely, for shut-ins, for those grieving the death of a loved one, for the persecuted, for people that battle chronic illness, for those waiting for an answer to prayer, battling or recovering from a crisis, and all that have been affected deeply by a novel virus. And so I have a fuller understanding of these two things. This is what I took away. The great need for us to truly love one another,

and even greater, the need for us to know the love of God. So how do we write? rise up and stand firm in our trials. Well, we rejoice. We have a living hope. We can rejoice that our trials are not wasted. And the next part that I think Peter wanted to get across throughout his whole letter is to keep an eternal perspective. Okay? He says it in verse 7. We'll look at that again, that these trials have come so that the proven, genuine of your faith may result into praise, glory, and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. When does the praise, glory, and honor that we give to God come? When Christ is revealed.

When Jesus comes again. I saw this so many times when I read First Peter that I started to do a count. anytime there was some nuance of expression about Peter's eternal perspective that he was trying to give us, and I counted 16 references to Peter's eternal perspective for us in a short letter of 1 Peter. 16 times he says something like, when Christ is revealed or praise to him forever and ever. He got it. We need to get it. We need to understand that this life is not our home, and we need to understand that it is but a vapor.

It is a mist that will vanish, but the Word of God and who we are in Him endures forever. And so we're going to have an eternal perspective. It's when Christ is revealed that our faith will begin to praise, glory, and honor our Savior, for getting us through this crazy life. And I want to look at the perspective of Job for a minute. His eternal perspective is astounding to me. The book of Job in the Old Testament is infamously known because of the suffering of Job. The most righteously known man upon the earth suffers the worst of any man upon the earth. It's unfathomable. What is the point of this? You know what? I actually learned about Job in the quarantine. I was reading a chapter about this to my kids.

And I always thought Job was the book was about his suffering, that the point was his suffering and how we can endure suffering. He's in this example of how to get through it. And then eventually, you know, he's blessed again. And a side moral lesson is that keep quiet when you're around suffering people because his friends did a lousy job of comforting him. Is that what Job's about? You know what? Suffering isn't what Job is about. Suffering was just the plot. The theme, the point of Job was his face. It was a test of the integrity of his face. We see it in the first two chapters of Job, where God and Satan have this conversation. And Satan says, does Job love God just because you bless him?

I don't think that he really loves you. It's just that you bless him. You've had a hedge around him. You've protected him. If you took that away, he just loves you because of what you do for him, the good you do for him. So God said, okay, let's see. It was a test on humanity, not Job represented all of us. Here's Job's response.

after all hell literally broke, loose in his life, Job's eternal perspective came through, and his response was that he got up when he heard all the terrible news. He tore his rope. He shaved his head. He fell on the ground, and he worshipped. He worshipped.

He said, naked, I came from my mother's womb. Naked, I shall return. Look at that eternal perspective. the Lord gave, the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. So Joe passed this incredible test. It was a proof that mankind does have the capacity to love God, to serve him, not just because we're blessed, not just when things are good,

but let me tell you that it's when there's utterly no reason on earth because there's no benefit to us whatsoever, that our faith can still say, Yes, I love my God. I serve my God. I worship my God. Blessed be the name of the Lord, because he is that good. It's an eternal perspective that we see all throughout the Bible, and we see in the Apostle Paul, his, oh, he said to live as Christ, but to die as gain. What a perspective is that. He also said in 1 Corinthians chapter 1519, if we have hope in this life only, we're to be pitied most of all, of all people.

If our hope is only for this life, look, I'm not banking on this life. I'm banking on eternity. Come on. This life isn't where it's at. We have hope in this life because of Jesus, but our hope is in the life to come. And it was this eternal perspective. Like Job, like Job, By our faith, we can rejoice.

We can keep an eternal perspective. We can. By faith, we can. Over and over again throughout that quarantine, I kept telling myself, I kept hearing friends and families say, this two shall pass. This two shall pass. And I'm like, yes, it will.

Thank you. I need that. It will. It will pass. But you know what occurred to me? For some people, it doesn't pass. Their circumstance, they carry their storm keeps going year after year, storm cell after storm cell. So that passing, the word says that this world will pass away.

It will pass. And then there's eternity. So maybe the storm will pass. Usually it does. There's highs and lows throughout life, and that's what I began to understand. This message, this that God taught me through the quarantine, I said, this is going to carry me throughout the rest of my life, because I began to see, oh, this is just one. And then there'll be another storm. And then there'll be another storm, another great experience by another storm, another storm, another pain, another trial.

until we get to the day where I see you face to face, Lord, there's just going to continue to be situations. That's life. In this world, you will have trouble, but take heart. I've overcome. We're going to have trials, pains. It's not fun. It's a world's broken. God, Jesus is going to come and make all things new. So I began to see. It's my faith that matters. Whatever comes in the future. If I'm like Jove and everything happens,

that's the worst thing I could imagine. My faith is what matters. And man, when I understood that, when I understood that my faith was being tested in that quarantine, something happened. And it was my spiritual backbone. It cut like a steel rod.

because I knew my God had given me faith, began to rise up in faith, come hell or high water. I have faith in my God, and he's going to see me to the end. I'm going to be with him forever because Jesus is my salvation. I'm rejoicing in all circumstances. The point is our faith. I left 1st John chapter 5 the text says everyone born of God overcomes the world and this is the victory that has overcome the world our faith our faith is the victory that overcomes this world it's our faith the point is your faith and who gave you your faith it's a gift of God How are you responding to your storms?

I know, I get it. I feel them with you. I have so much empathy for you. You're afraid. You get anxious. You're in the battle of your life for your health. I feel it. I know it.

It sucks. You're irritable. Those little things in your relationships. You're struggling to keep it going. You're just trying to survive. You're just trying to make it day after day. I get it. We're human like you. We're not just pastors. We get it. This life is hard, but we have a faith. We have a God who gives us his strength. So how can you respond to your storm, even when you've been waiting

for so long for it to pass? Sisters, let me tell you, let's rise up and stand firm in faith. Just rise up and stand firm in what you know is true. Pastor Christ, said it, we can tolerate our pain as long as we know it has a purpose. So let's inform the pain of our feelings about we know by faith is true. When you're in the fire, rise up, commit yourself to God. Stand firm. Keep going. Resist the evil one and let your light shine. Let God refine you into the image of his son. That's the point. Be ready to do. Be ready to love. Be ready to go where he calls you to go. And by His grace, we can keep rejoicing. We can keep saying, blessed be the name of the Lord. Like Job, your circumstances are only part of the plot. They really are. They're just part of a

plot of a larger story, a much better story, an eternal story. It's the story of your faith. Your story of a faith and a faithful God. Let me tell you what a tested faith is. A tested faith is a persevering faith. It's a maturing faith. It's an overcoming faith. It's a purified faith. It's a love-giving faith. A tested faith is a God glorifying, glorified faith. A tested faith is a God glorifying, A tested faith is a strengthened faith. You and I were made for this. We were made by God by faith. Our faith was made to persevere. Our faith is made to rejoice in all circumstances. Our faith was made to have an eternal perspective. You were made for this. Say this, I was made for this. I was made for this. in Christ you are made to overcome.

In Christ you are made to be victorious. It's not about you. It's about faith that God has given you. It's his life in you. Why did Peter write this letter? Why did he write to these persecuted suffering Christians to encourage them and even told us at the end of his letter,

in chapter 5 verse 12. He said, I have written you to exhort you, to declare that this is the true grace of God. Stand firm in it. Stand firm. Rise up. We will rise up and we will stand firm. We will rise up and we will stand firm. So at all of our churches, let's go together to God in prayer. Father, thank you so much for a powerful word that touches our hearts, God, builds our faith, and brings comfort God to those who are in the middle of significant trials. As you're praying today at all of our churches or maybe you're watching online, I know that some of you right now, you really identify with this message because you're in the middle of a significant trial.

You might be facing some obstacles. It could be challenges in relationships. It could be physical challenges. it might be that you're having spiritual questions right now and you don't know how you're going to endure. I would encourage you with the strength and the power of God to rise up and to stand firm at all of our churches, those who say, yes, I am facing something difficult

and I need the strength of God. God, would you help build my faith and be everything that I need if you're facing a significant trial or a burden right now and you need the presence of God? Would you just lift up your hand right now all of our churches, you can type it in the chat. I need God's presence.

I need his strength, whatever it is. I need his healing. I need his comfort. And as you're crying out to God today, I just want to take a moment and pray for you and with you. God, thank you so much for your presence. And we thank you, God, that when we are weak, you are strong for us.

God, today, for all those who are hurting, we pray, God, that you would comfort us as we grieve. We ask for miracles, God. You are the God of whom all things are possible. Would you reveal yourself? Would you show up, God, and show off? And God, as we're waiting, we thank you

that even the trials can form us to the image of Christ and teach us to depend on you in ways that we couldn't do otherwise. So God, at this moment, help us to rise up and to stand firm, placing all of us. of our faith in your goodness, your promises, your will, and your ways, God, empower us to put our trust in you

and to rise up and stand firm. As you keep praying today at all of our different churches, some of you're gonna recognize, I don't even know God in an intimate enough way to call on him. Let me tell you, this is a great day for you because you could be here just for this moment. If we sat down and we talked about where you are spiritually,

You might have some questions or you might even feel drawn to the things of God, but you may not feel ready yet. And let me just explain why this is the moment for you to come. The good news is this. If you feel like I need to clean up my life first or I've been too bad, the good news is all of us need to clean up our lives. All of us have been bad. In fact, scripture teaches us that every single one of us,

we've sinned and we've fallen short of God's standard of perfection. The good news is, though, that God loved us and does love us, love us exactly as we are. And he sent Jesus, his only son, who was born of a virgin, who never sinned, who was perfect in every way. And Jesus loved people who messed up just like you and just like me. Jesus, the perfect son of God, gave his life on a cross,

shed his blood for the forgiveness of our sins. He died, and the good news is, our God raised him from the dead so that anyone, And this includes you, no matter what you've done, anyone who calls on the name of Jesus would be saved, would be forgiven, and would be made new. I'm convinced there are times when God may love us enough to allow us to get low enough. So all we can do is look up to him and call on the name that is above every name, the name of Jesus, that all of our churches are online, those who say, I need his grace, I need his

forgiveness. Today I walk away from my old life, and I give my life to him. that's your prayer today. Jesus, I give my life to you. Would you lift your hands high right now? All of our church is saying, yes, Jesus, I surrender my life to you. Those of you online, just type it in the chat. I'm giving my life to Jesus.

I'm surrendering my life to him. And today, wherever you're watching, would you just join your faith with others around you and pray this prayer with me? Pray Heavenly Father, forgive all of my sins. Jesus save me. make me brand new. God, fill me with your spirit so I could rise up and stand firm

and show your love in all that I do. My life is not my own. God, I give it all to you. Thank you for new life. You have all of mine. In Jesus' name, I pray, and all God's people said,

amen, amen. Welcome into God's family. Thank you.