Can You Stand The Rain? Rev. Reginald W. Sharpe Jr Wednesday, August 10, 2022

1:38 house. Today our last song is from a group called New Edition. You know it, you know it, you know it, you know it. The question is can you stand the rain? Everybody Tell me baby can you stand Oh yeah I'm so glad I passed a church where we don't just listen to gospel music But we know it's cool to be relatable and Christian You can be saved and have fun over here at the ship And I'm glad that I got some new edition saints in the room who know a little bit something about this. On a perfect day, I know that I can count on you when that's not possible.

2:34 Tell me, can you weather the storm? Because I need somebody who will stand by me. Through the good times and the bad times, you will always, always be right there. Son. Everybody loves them. Tell me, can you? Storms will come This we know for sure This we know for sure Can you The rain Y'all are singing church Oh what a question What a question What a question What a question Can you stand the rain I know you can stand the sunshine but can you stand the rain?

3:31 This is a love song written to a lover, right? He's asking the question. I know when it's good and it's perfect and it's sunny and there's no clouds and we getting along and we like each other. I know you can take that but I need to know when it's rocky and when you don't like me and when we wake up in the morning and my breath stinks and when I say something that offends you and I have an attitude and we disagree and we hit a hard place and there's a fracture, there's a misunderstanding and the clouds gather over our relationship. New Edition was asking, can you stand the rain? Quickly, let me ask you a question. This is not just a question for lovers. It's a question for Christians. When it comes to your walk with God, are you a sunny day Christian? And you only stick with God when it's sunny outside. You only stick with God in summertime shine.

4:25 but you disappear in December, January and February when it's cold and the weather is not particularly comfortable or enchanting. Can you stand the times in your life with God when things become rocky and the rain comes? Can I tell you that there are a lot of Christians that only stick with God because they're waiting on more sunshine. They only want to stay close to God because God has promised us sunshine but that's not the question. The question is can you stay with God when it gets rocky and times become uncertain and the doctor gives you some news that shakes you and your relationships are not what they used to be and your health is not what it used to be and your finances are not what they used to be and you don't like everybody in your family. Can you stick with God when it becomes heavy and weighty and there's pressure. There's a book called On Job by Gustavo Gutierrez and he argues in this book something called disinterested faith. Somebody say disinterested faith. He said Job had disinterested faith even when Satan brought, had a conversation with God. I was about to say even when Satan brought Job's name to God, but that ain't the text. God brought Job's name to Satan and said have you considered my servant Job and Satan says to God I promise you if you take some of his stuff I promise you if you affect his body if you hit his finances I promise you he's going to curse you to his face so the book on Job argues that the reason why the story of Job happens in the first place is because it's a wager that Satan makes to God to see if Job's faith was for real and Gustavo Gutierrez in this book on Job says that Job had disinterested faith now the opposite of that is interested faith interested faith is you stick with God because of what you can avoid

6:34 and because of what you can gain you stick with God only when you're interested interested faith means I'm in it because I'm interested and what I can get out of it so if God can keep me out of hell and get me into heaven if God can keep my enemies off my track if God can give me blessings and favor and do more than I ever expected then I'll stick with God as long as God is doing what I want God to do that's interested faith somebody say interested faith you are only interested in what you can get out of the faith but Job displayed disinterested faith I'm on my way somewhere don't go to sleep on me now disinterested faith says even when I don't get my way even when my job it becomes uncertain even when my body is fighting a battle with a sickness that i don't understand and i know i don't deserve even when my family is going through it even when i'm not all the way happy and fulfilled with where i am right now in my life i choose to stay with god not because i'm trying to get something but i just have decided i'm gonna stick with god just because it's a good thing to stick with God I need to park right here and ask you is there anybody other than the preacher and Job that have gotten to a point in your life where you have disinterested faith I know you have disinterested faith if you have lost some people that were close to you and you can still come to church I know you've got disinterested faith when it's time for praise and worship and you can still lift your hands when you don't know how you're gonna pay next month's bill I know you have disinterested faith when you don't need everything to be good for you to still look up to heaven and say God thank you for being a good God somebody with disinterested faith in the room or online give God glory not because of what God can do just because he's promised to stick with you through the storm wait a minute I want to move on but I need to make sure you understand what I'm telling you I'm trying to tell you you got to stick with God even when sticking with God is all you got you got to learn how to stick in with god and say though he slay me yet will i

8:41 trust him no i don't like what's happening but god is still god no i don't understand this but god is still my god and since the bible says let the redeemed of the lord say so since he's already saved me since he's already kept me since he's already shielded me since i'm still alive after all these months being in a pandemic god honestly if you don't do a lot more for me you've already done enough somebody who just loves god because you love god give god some worship right through here and tell god i love you tell god i bless you tell god i trust you it doesn't mean everything is perfect it doesn't mean the rain is not falling it doesn't mean the hurricane didn't hit me it doesn't mean my health is perfect it doesn't mean my family got it all together but i choose to bless you. even when I'm in the middle of a storm ask somebody around you can you stand the rain I'm trying to tell you if all you do is stick with God is because you think you about to get something from God you got a weak faith but you know your faith going to another level when you don't get your way and you don't get the answer to the prayer you prayed and you still come up in God's house and get on the virtual ship and say God this is still the day that you have made I will rejoice and be glad in it. I'm looking around the room at some testimonies of some people who've pushed through some stuff in some bad days and I'm so glad that I can see testimonies of what it looks like to have disinterested faith I'm just trying to ask you the question can you stand the rain because our text today Jesus is coming to the conclusion of his sermon on the mount and he says listen everybody that hears my words and applies it and complies with it apply my word and comply with my word they are like a man or woman that built a house.

10:47 and they built it on a firm foundation and the person who hears all this good preaching and all this good teaching and they don't apply it or they don't comply with it is like a person that builds their house on the sand and the bible says that the rain comes to both of them the bible says the storms come to both of them. The Bible says the wind comes to both of them and only one of them can stand the rain. Can I give you some things to put in your hand? Can I give you some things to put in your hand and hold in your heart? Number one, here's the issue with can you stand the rain. Number one, number one, number one, number one you can't control nature.

11:32 You can't control nature. The Bible says that they both build their houses well. They're both constructed well. Matter of fact, if you see them, if you see these houses, you would actually think that they are synonymous and similar. That they're built exactly the same, but nature does what nature does. Uh-huh, uh-huh. And the Bible says in verse 25, the rain fell, the floods came, the winds blew, and it beat on the house. Go down to verse 27, to the foolish man's house who built on sand. It says the rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat upon the house. Here it is. Here it is. You and I can't control nature. If we could, life would be a whole lot easier, wouldn't it? Watch this. You can't control nature. You cannot control the location. You cannot control the duration. And you cannot control the saturation. Too fast? You can't control the location. You can't control the duration.

12:27 And you can't control the saturation. Come on. I'm going to say it until you get it. Say, I can't control the location. I can't control the duration and I can't control the saturation what do you mean? number one I can't control the location that's who it hits I can't control the duration that's how long the storm hits I can't control the saturation that's how hard it hits I can't control how long it hits who it hits and how hard it hits because if we could control all of that I wouldn't have to ask you can you stand the rain because every day of your life we would pick sunny weather but you cannot control nature you don't get to control certain sicknesses in your body.

13:21 That's nature. You don't get the control if you came to COVID-19 or somebody else was able to overcome COVID-19. That's nature. It's not even the devil. Uh-oh, uh-oh, uh-oh. It's nature. Because sometimes we get real, real deep. Oh, the devil. No, no, no, no. Some of this stuff is just nature. Everybody's body is breaking down.

13:48 And it's nature. If you don't believe me, just keep on living and saying good morning. Gravity is pulling on all of us. And I don't care if you're geritolate, pepto-bismolate, Tylenolate. Gravity is pulling down. You can height you up. You can nip, tuck. You can dip, duck. I don't care what you tuck. Gravity is pulling down. And look at somebody say, and it's nature. When I turned 30, my knees changed. All of a sudden I had to think about what shoes I picked. It wasn't about fashion no more. I tell my wife, I need something that's comfortable. it's nature life happens and you don't control the location, who it is watch the text, the tension of this text for me is this tension of the text for me is this the rain fell, the winds blew and the winds beat on the house for both of them the wise man built well foolish man built foolishly and the rain came to both of them now if I was living at the wise man's house I would think since I'm so wise and I heeded the word of God and I gave and I tithed and I attended Sunday school and I went to vacation bible school and I make sure that I attend refuel and I make sure that every time the pastor asks for another seed offering I give above that seed offering because I trust God's word Sorry.

15:17 and some of us think because we are wise and because we have walked with God and because we have trusted God that the rain will skip your house can I tell you a secret I don't care how saved you are I don't care how smart you are I don't care how rich you are you cannot choose if rain hits your house you can't control the location and you can't control the duration how long it lasts and you can't control the saturation how hard it hits so what do we control glad you asked you can't control nature but you do control architecture because the bible says that the wise man they built with the same materials of the house but the difference is how they built the house's foundation Thank you.

16:11 there was some choices about how I'm gonna build the foundation of the house do you see this house on the screen behind me it's coming up on your screen right now do you see this house this was a house in Mexico Beach Florida after a hurricane Michael came through the Floridian Panhandle it is the only house left standing in this radius the hurricane knocked down air of the house but this little white house right here looks like there was never a storm to come they interviewed the man that built the house his name is Russell King you can google it if you think I'm just making this up to make a good point in my sermon Russell King they asked him why did your house stand he said I wanted to build it for the big one they said what's the big one he said when I built my house I wanted it to withstand the largest possible category hurricane that could come on my land so I invested in certain materials I spent money and made sure that if a storm came that it was built to stand that it was built to last that it was built to endure can I ask you a question how are you building your life you gotta pick the right site and you've gotta have the right start oh we I feel like I'm talking too fast the only difference between the foolish man's house and the wise man's house is that the wise man said I'm building mine on rock the foolish man said I'll be alright building on sand they got the same materials but they have different foundations they picked different sites and they got different starts can I tell you a streak that I don't want to tell you

18:16 I got to tell you that most of us fail at our start it's about how you start it's about how you start it's about how you start a lot of our marriages were messed up from the start a lot of our youth get messed up from the start you gotta start right and if you don't start right you can't finish right you gotta pick a foundation that's solid you gotta make sure that you pick some materials of your life that can withstand the storm listen listen with all we've been through this is not the season to be cute y'all so asleep this is not the season to be talking about well i want some red on the bottom of my shoes listen i don't care if i got red on the bottom of my shoes i just need to know is his blood still red and can it cover my life i gotta build with different materials that's why when i come to church i really don't care what you think about my praise my worship how i get down when i get in worship because i'm building my life differently because i need a foundation that can withstand some hurricanes and some tornadoes is there anybody around here who can understand i'm building a firm foundation with prayer and fasting and hanging out with the right people and coming the church and studying God's word I need a firm foundation because it's not a matter of is the storm going to come it's a matter of when the storm going to come I can't control the weather, but I do control the architecture.

19:51 Well then, how do I choose my architecture? You got to hold on to the scripture. Look at somebody and say, the scripture. Uh-huh, you thought I had something deep for you today. You got to hold on to the scripture. Since I can't control nature, and I do control architecture, I got to make sure I'm building on scripture. You think I'm making this up? Jesus said in verse 24, everybody who hears my words and acts on them will be like a wise person who builds their house on a rock. Everybody who hears my words and doesn't listen to them is going to be like a foolish person who builds their house on sand.

20:45 I knew a couple. They were crazy, but I knew a couple years ago they had the opportunity to build their own house, and they called them when they were getting ready to lay the foundation of the house, and they said, you want to come by and see us lay the foundation of the house? They were crazy, but they had good sense when it came to this. They said, yeah, we want to be there. When they showed up, they brought four Bibles. They said, before you lay the foundation, I want to put the word in every corner of my house so that every day we live on the word see we done got so caught up in everything else in church that the word don't mean what it used to mean but when I say live on his word I mean you literally build your house on what Jesus says here we are in chapter 7 at the hoop, at the conclusion of Jesus' sermon on the mount and he's been preaching about the beatitudes, how to preach, how to treat people, how to know that a fruit is connected to the root of the tree. He's been teaching how to pray. He's been teaching how to fast. He's been teaching, don't you worry about tomorrow. Chapter 7 he opens the chapter with don't judge unless you want to be judged. Jesus has been teaching and then he gets through all this teaching for three chapters and he says Everybody who listens to my word Is gonna be like a wise person Who builds their house on a rock too fast Everybody who holds on to my word Is gonna be like a wise person That builds their house on a rock Still too fast Everybody who builds their house on the rock Is listening to my word Everybody that holds on to my word Is gonna be like a person That has built their house on a rock Can I tell you why some people Have shattered in this pandemic And other people have prospered In this pandemic.

22:38 Because some folks have held on. To the word of God. When everything else told them to let it go. Preach sharp. I'm trying. Yeah you got sick. But you held on to his word. And you were living on his word. What word did you have? By his stripes. I know I'm healed. Has anybody had some financial difficulties. In this pandemic. But you chose to hold on to his word. What did you hold on to? I once was young. and now I'm old but I've never seen the righteous forsaken nor his seed begging for anything to eat anybody have some haters in this pandemic while we've been away but you held on to his word what you hold on to no weapon formed against me shall be I wish I had 20 witnesses in the sanctuary and I'll make 21 who could just take 10 seconds and thank God for his word yeah his word helped me his word helped me to push his word kept my hope strong his word do I have any witnesses that ever had to learn to hold on to his word yeah before I got here today miss Annie Benson who's in the sanctuary called me with a diagnosis that was quite problematic and it shook all of us but as soon as I hung up the phone God's word hit me and said soon as you get to church she told me she was coming he told me to give you His word, Miss Annie, is something you've heard all your life.

24:11 But in this season, you got to hold on to his word. God is our...