In today\u2019s world, it can easi\u00adly hap\u00adpen that we are over\u00adwhel\u00admed by a lack of strength, stress and fear in our dai\u00adly lives. God gives us, through his holy word, the power to live out our per\u00adso\u00adnal cal\u00adling. In order to ful\u00adly uti\u00adli\u00adse this power, we need to know the Word like Jesus through and through.<\/p>\n
Today is the first Sun\u00adday after the big school sum\u00admer holi\u00addays. I assu\u00adme that many have had the oppor\u00adtu\u00adni\u00adty for a holi\u00adday. After this break, we are hop\u00adeful\u00adly refres\u00adhed to face the dai\u00adly chal\u00adlenges with rene\u00adwed strength. Cer\u00adtain\u00adly we all have big chal\u00adlenges, be it work, child\u00adren, hob\u00adbies, vol\u00adun\u00adtee\u00adring or even phy\u00adsi\u00adcal dif\u00adfi\u00adcul\u00adties. Most of the time, I star\u00adted with rene\u00adwed vigour after the holi\u00addays. Many things went much easier and with joy. But this ener\u00adgy is not per\u00adma\u00adnent. Per\u00adhaps the\u00adre are alre\u00ada\u00addy some who are rea\u00addy for holi\u00addays again. Hard\u00adly back, the rea\u00adli\u00adty of dai\u00adly work shows its\u00adelf, be it the pile on the office desk, a rejec\u00adtion, com\u00adplaint, tasks or the child\u00adren. The\u00adre are many events that can drain our energy. \tJesus lived true love. This is also due to the fact that he was uncon\u00addi\u00adtio\u00adnal\u00adly loved by the Father. Befo\u00adre he began his offi\u00adci\u00adal \u00abwork\u00bb, the Father said to him: \u00abYou are my bel\u00adoved Son, in whom I am well plea\u00adsed with all my heart\u00bb (Luke 3:22 HfA). The words of God \u2013 the Holy Scrip\u00adtures \u2013 are powerful \tDid you have a holi\u00adday? Do you feel reco\u00adver\u00aded? How long does this reco\u00advery last? In this day and age, it can easi\u00adly hap\u00adpen that we are over\u00adwhel\u00admed by power\u00adless\u00adness, stress and fear in our ever\u00ady\u00adday lives. Through his holy word, God gives us the strength to live out our per\u00adso\u00adnal cal\u00adling. In order to ful\u00adly uti\u00adli\u00adse this power, we need to know the Word through and through, just like Jesus. Today is the first Sun\u00adday after\u2026<\/p>","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":7483,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","wpfc_preacher":[73],"wpfc_sermon_series":[90],"wpfc_sermon_topics":[],"wpfc_bible_book":[],"wpfc_service_type":[12],"class_list":{"0":"wpfc_preacher-daniel-bieri","1":"wpfc_sermon_series-heilig-heilig-heilig","2":"wpfc-sermon-single","3":"post-7473","4":"wpfc_sermon","5":"type-wpfc_sermon","6":"status-publish","7":"has-post-thumbnail","8":"hentry","11":"wpfc_service_type-gottesdienst"},"acf":[],"sermons_blog_filters_topics":"\t\t\t\t
\nA week ago Satur\u00adday, just befo\u00adre school star\u00adted, I wis\u00adhed that we as a fami\u00adly would not only sur\u00advi\u00adve the coming school year, but thri\u00adve. It\u2019s easy to fall into sur\u00advi\u00adval mode when we are chal\u00adlen\u00adged. We humans are quite chal\u00adlen\u00adged in this day and age. The phy\u00adsi\u00adcal endea\u00advours, the men\u00adtal demands, the spi\u00adri\u00adtu\u00adal batt\u00adle and the emo\u00adtio\u00adnal stres\u00adses that should not be unde\u00adre\u00adsti\u00adma\u00adted. Joy and sor\u00adrow, suc\u00adcess and fail\u00adure, prai\u00adse and cri\u00adti\u00adcism have to be dealt with con\u00adstant\u00adly. The\u00adre are the clas\u00adsic unloved cho\u00adres such as iro\u00adning, clea\u00adning the bath\u00adroom, going to the gym, doing the tax return or working on rela\u00adti\u00adonships. The list of chal\u00adlenges is long.
\nThe Bible gives us an insight into why we often strugg\u00adle. In the crea\u00adti\u00adon sto\u00adry we read: \u00abThe LORD<\/span> God brought man into the Gar\u00adden of Eden. He was to cul\u00adti\u00adva\u00adte it and keep it\u00bb (Gene\u00adsis 2:15 NLB<\/span>). God ent\u00adrus\u00adted man with a task. At first ever\u00ady\u00adthing was fine, they enjoy\u00aded the won\u00adderful and crea\u00adti\u00adve work that God had given them. Til\u00adling the gar\u00adden was not a must, but a right, a cal\u00adling. God did not crea\u00adte peo\u00adp\u00adle to toil, no, but for crea\u00adti\u00adve co-ope\u00adra\u00adti\u00adon. Unfort\u00adu\u00adna\u00adte\u00adly, one chap\u00adter later, this divi\u00adne design has alre\u00ada\u00addy been des\u00adtroy\u00aded. The fall of man\u00adkind brought the har\u00admo\u00adnious rela\u00adti\u00adonship with God, our fel\u00adlow human beings and our work to the side\u00adlines. \u00abBecau\u00adse of you, the ground shall be cur\u00adsed! All your life you will labour to feed yours\u00adelf from its yield. You will depend on it for food, but it will always be strewn with thorns and thist\u00adles. You will have to earn your bread with sweat until you die\u00bb (Gene\u00adsis 3:17\u201318 HfA). People\u2019s lives beca\u00adme arduous, the work frus\u00adt\u00adra\u00adting. Most of us are not far\u00admers, it\u2019s not about wee\u00add\u00ading, it\u2019s often the pro\u00adblems, irri\u00adta\u00adti\u00adons with employees, supe\u00adri\u00adors, cus\u00adto\u00admers or the gene\u00adral trou\u00adble with cha\u00adri\u00adty. It\u2019s easy to get tired in life and limit yours\u00adelf to the minimum.
\nGod has crea\u00adted us as crea\u00adti\u00adve crea\u00adtures with a pur\u00adpo\u00adse, he has pla\u00adced a cal\u00adling in us. Through Jesus, our gre\u00adat role model, we can learn how he mana\u00adged to live out his desti\u00adny to the full. The\u00adre are a few clues as to whe\u00adre Jesus got this immense ener\u00adgy from. I would like to brief\u00adly men\u00adti\u00adon a few cha\u00adrac\u00adte\u00adristics and then go into more detail about one of them:<\/p>\n
\n\tJesus had a visi\u00adon, he knew his cal\u00adling: \u00abHe has sent me to bring good news to the poor\u00bb (Luke 4:18 HfA).
\n\tHe was empowered by the Father and the Holy Spi\u00adrit: \u00abThe Spi\u00adrit of the Lord is upon me, for he has anoin\u00adted me\u00bb (Luke 4:18 NLB<\/span>).
\n\tThe last cha\u00adrac\u00adte\u00adristic that I men\u00adti\u00adon is very inte\u00adres\u00adt\u00ading. Jesus knew the holy word of God through and through. After Jesus had fas\u00adted for for\u00adty days in the desert, at a very vul\u00adnerable moment, he was tempt\u00aded by the devil seve\u00adral times. But each time he was tempt\u00aded, he respon\u00added with: \u00abIt is writ\u00adten in the Scrip\u00adtures\u00bb (Luke 4:4, 8, 12 NLB<\/span>). The Word of God gave Jesus the strength to with\u00adstand tempt\u00ada\u00adti\u00adon during the power\u00adless time (fas\u00adting). Scrip\u00adtu\u00adre will also give us the strength to face our ever\u00ady\u00adday chal\u00adlenges. In the next sec\u00adtion, I will dis\u00adcuss how incre\u00addi\u00adbly strong this power is.<\/p>\n
\nGod crea\u00adted the world with his words \u2013 the ulti\u00adma\u00adte power. God\u2019s word is the ulti\u00adma\u00adte giver of life, pure power. Gene\u00adsis chap\u00adter 1: \u00abIn the begin\u00adning God crea\u00adted the hea\u00advens and the earth.\u00bb \u00abGod said: Let the\u00adre be light. And the\u00adre was light.\u00bb In the book of Hebrews: \u00abGod\u2019s word is ali\u00adve and full of power. The shar\u00adpest dou\u00adble-edged sword is not as sharp as this word\u00bb (Hebrews 4:12 New Tes\u00adta\u00adment). God\u2019s Word, the ulti\u00adma\u00adte power, let us use it so that it does not lie fallow.
\nSin\u00adce I came to faith in Jesus Christ, I have expe\u00adri\u00aden\u00adced the power of God\u2019s holy word many times. The\u00adre are some Bible pas\u00adsa\u00adges that have beco\u00adme very important to me. I would like to men\u00adti\u00adon three of them. First\u00adly from the let\u00adter to the Colos\u00adsi\u00adans: \u00abIn ever\u00ady\u00adthing you do, do it from the heart as for the Lord and not for men, becau\u00adse you know that you will recei\u00adve an inhe\u00adri\u00adtance from the Lord as a reward\u00bb (Colos\u00adsi\u00adans 3:23 LU<\/span> 2017). This Bible ver\u00adse has given me extre\u00adme moti\u00adva\u00adti\u00adon to car\u00adry out unpo\u00adpu\u00adlar tasks. I remem\u00adber my time as a bus dri\u00adver for Sur\u00adpri\u00adse Rei\u00adsen, whe\u00adre I had to do a lot of clea\u00adning. The 13-met\u00adre-long bus body, the toi\u00adlet, the car\u00adpets and the win\u00addows had to be clean and shi\u00adny. At the end of the who\u00adle ordeal, after many hours of dri\u00adving and all the clea\u00adning, the 40 m\u00b2 of win\u00addow panes had to be polished by hand. This ver\u00adse often spo\u00adke to me. It moved me becau\u00adse I had memo\u00adri\u00adsed it. The Holy Spi\u00adrit can bring a Bible ver\u00adse to mind at any time, but it is more likely that the ver\u00adse will come to mind if we know it by heart.
\nAno\u00adther ver\u00adse that gives me a lot of strength comes from Isai\u00adah: \u00abBut tho\u00adse who trust in the Lord draw new strength; they take wings like eagles. They will run and not grow wea\u00adry, they will walk and not faint\u00bb (Isai\u00adah 40:31 ETR<\/span>). What a pro\u00admi\u00adse! When we trust in the Lord, he renews the strength we need for the pre\u00adsent moment.
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\nThis Bible pas\u00adsa\u00adge speaks to me per\u00adso\u00adnal\u00adly, espe\u00adci\u00adal\u00adly in the Eng\u00adlish ver\u00adsi\u00adon: it is trans\u00adla\u00adted as \u00absoar like eagles\u00bb. \u00abSoar\u00bb is a term from avia\u00adti\u00adon that descri\u00adbes the use of updrafts. If you use the upwind, which is often ther\u00admal, you gain alti\u00adtu\u00adde almost wit\u00adhout power. During my para\u00adgli\u00adding days I often used this power. I was able to fly over a hundred kilo\u00adme\u00adt\u00adres in one flight. I ima\u00adgi\u00adne the power of the Holy Spi\u00adrit like this. We stretch our wings and he gives us the power that then moves us.
\nThe third and final pas\u00adsa\u00adge I would like to men\u00adti\u00adon is alre\u00ada\u00addy fami\u00adli\u00adar to many. It comes from the let\u00adter to the Phil\u00adip\u00adpians: \u00abI can do all things through Christ, who gives me strength and vigour\u00bb (Phil\u00adip\u00adpians 4:13 HfA). The\u00adse words came to my mind this week on a long bike ride. To sum\u00adma\u00adri\u00adse: only with God\u2019s strength can we ful\u00adly live out our cal\u00adling and make a dif\u00adfe\u00adrence in this world. \u00abWe are his crea\u00adtures, crea\u00adted in Christ Jesus to do the good works in our lives which God pre\u00adpared in advan\u00adce for us to do\u00bb (Eph. 2:10). Jesus used the incre\u00addi\u00adble power of the Holy Word of God to live out his cal\u00adling. We too should and must allow our\u00adsel\u00adves to be rep\u00adle\u00adnis\u00adhed from this powerful source: \u00abMan shall not live by bread alo\u00adne, but by every word of God\u00bb (Luke 4:4 ELB<\/span>).
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\nPos\u00adsi\u00adble ques\u00adti\u00adons for the small group
\nRead the Bible text: Luke 4:4<\/p>\n
\n\tIn what are\u00adas of your life do you feel powerless?
\n\tAre you tempt\u00aded to mas\u00adter your Chris\u00adti\u00adan life with your own strength?
\n\tDo you have enough strength to live out your vocation?
\n\tHow do you draw new strength?
\n\tDo you expe\u00adri\u00adence the power of the holy word of God?
\n\tDo you know Bible ver\u00adses? Is the\u00adre a Bible ver\u00adse that gives you a lot of strength?
\n\tWhich ver\u00adse do you want to learn by heart?<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"