Fourth Avenue Church

Good morning.  Where is Rome?  That is so good.  I saw it for the first time yesterday.  I knew he was doing the video segment I was preparing the lesson for this morning.  I’m not what you expected.  I get that a lot.  Kyle is not here this morning.  His mother passed away.  He is with family.  We were talking this morning and Nicki said “our normal minister isn’t here today’.  Which would make me abnormal.  thank you.  So.  I’m Jeff Crawford.  I’m the abnormal preacher this morning.  I’m one of the shepherds at Fourth.  We are so glad to have you here.

We are talking about prayer in community or community in prayer.   I’ve been here for I don’t know how long its been.  My wife and I have been here ten years or so I think.  This is a church where you will notice a few themes.  One of those themes in community.  Its a place that tries to be very, tries to be very embracing. We are not perfect but we do our best to do that.  And then it is place where prayer is incredibly important to who we are and our identity.  I see Albert back here.  Some one who has led the way in helping us frame ourselves as a church.  Who puts ourselves in a humble poster and lifts our requests and our petitions to God.

When we talk about prayer, a lot of times we talk about prayer in terms of our individual conversations with our creator.  It is really appropriate.  That is such an important thing in the life of a believer.  But it is not the only way that prayer gets expressed.  And one of the most important things we see when we look in the Bible and when we see the example of the way the early church worked and responded was they had a posture of prayer.  It wasn’t just alone.  It was together.  It was community in prayer.  Prayer in community.

I have two things on my mind as I step to preach a little bit this morning.  One, my team, Arkansas Razorbacks are playing in the SEC championship today.  I am in Vol territory.  I am in Commodore territory. I know this.  But it relates to our passage.  Which is connecting to God through suffering.  If you are an Arkansas Razorback fan you sign up for it every single year.  My dad and I have tickets and we are going. Which leads me to my second thought, an elder in the church told me no one ever complained of a short sermon.  So I’m not going to short you, but I do have a game to get to downtown.

CS Lewis said God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience but shouts in our pain.  Its his mega phone to rouse a deaf world.  And we want to be at Fourth, a church that helps every person young and old build a thoughtful resilient faith that stands firm when the storms of life come our way.  What happens when the things we most often build our lives on.  Our accomplishments, family, our money, a good job, marriage, and our health.  What happens when those things are taken away from us?  Or our dreams of how they would turn out are shattered by the storms of life.

How do we hold onto God when feels like he may have let go of us?  What do we do when he seems silent in our sufferings?  What do we do when all we have is that haunting question.  Why?  I’ve heard over the years Christians struggle with questions like “why would a loving all powerful God allow sufferings?”  When my health crisis hit, my friend says “God never gives us more than we can handle?”