Rise Above

The podcast episode is titled "Rise Above" and the main message is about finding strength and hope in God during difficult times. The speaker first reads a passage from Isaiah chapter 40, highlighting the verse that those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. The context of this passage is that the people of God have been suffering for a long time, and God addresses them with tenderness and promises that their suffering will end. The speaker emphasizes that God does not remove the difficulties, but instead gives the people a promise of His coming in glory and reminds them of His greatness. The key verse is then reiterated, emphasizing the need to place hope in the Lord to renew strength. The speaker then transitions to the story of Jesus being tempted in the desert and highlights the importance of overcoming temptation to rise above. Three ways to help rise above are mentioned, but the specifics are not provided. Welcome to CCI Fellowship's podcast. Thank you for joining us. At CCI Fellowship, we are reaching God, reaching each other, and reaching our community. We pray that this week's message challenges you in your walk with the Lord, causes you to grow in your faith, and encourages you in your love for the Word of God. If you'll open your Bibles to Isaiah chapter 40, we're going to look at this passage. This is going to be our central passage, and we're also going to go to Matthew afterwards. But when we are in Matthew, we're going to come back still to see some portions of Isaiah chapter 40. The title of this message is, Rise Above. Isaiah chapter 40, we'll start reading in verse 28. Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow weary, grow tired or weary, and His understanding no one can fathom. He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall. And this is our key verse for this sermon, verse 31. But those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength, they will soar on wings like eagles, they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint. Let's pray. Father, we thank You, Lord, for the privilege that You give us to come together as one. To come together, united by Your Spirit, to minister to You, to sing praises to You, Lord, but also to come around You to hear Your Word being preached. It is Your Word that brings life, it is Your Word that brings encouragement, it is Your Word that causes those who are down to be lifted up. And that is our prayer today, Father, that You would lift up Your people, that You would lift up Your people with Your mighty strong arm. That no person would leave today, Father, without receiving what You have for them today and for all of us. Lord, I pray, God, that You would give me utterance, Father, to proclaim, Lord, with boldness, what You have laid in my heart. That Jesus would be glorified and that Your kingdom would be advanced in us. In Jesus' name, Amen. When we hear the phrase, rise above, or rise above our circumstances, we may get the idea that you should have faith in God, that you shouldn't waver, that you shouldn't think too much about your circumstances, however difficult they may be, that you should man up and be stronger, that you should know by now how to go through difficulty. You can even think that circumstances and trials are not as important, that looking to God is more important. And although there may be some truth in some of these, this is not what the Lord says. We just read the end of chapter 40 of Isaiah and the context of what is happening here is that the people of God have been suffering for a very long time. And God visits them and gives them a word and God knows that they are tired, He knows that they are weary, He knows that they are in despair, He knows that they are hopeless. There may be some of you here who are in that situation, that you don't see a way out, that you have been suffering for a long time and you have come to the end of the line or are close to coming to the end of the line. When people are here in this place, we may be tempted to take matters into our own hands. We may be tempted to going back to the world to abandon ship, to quit, to say, I didn't sign up for this, I just can't take it anymore. We may even think, well maybe the Lord has forgotten about me. Now I want us to take a look at verse 1 because we were at the end of chapter 40 so turn to verse 1 still in Isaiah chapter 40 because it is in this context of the people of God suffering that God addresses the people and He says to them, Comfort, comfort my people says your God, speak tenderly to Jerusalem. The language that God starts to use here is the language of tenderness and throughout the chapter is the language of tenderness. Like a father who speaks to his child whom he loves and says, I know that you have been suffering for a long time but I am here to help you. And then He tells them in verse 2 or the middle of verse 2 He tells them that the days of their suffering have come to an end. It says, And proclaim to her that her hard service has been completed. This is a message of hope and of promise that God is giving to the people. It is a message that speaks directly to the heart of the people. Like I said, God's people have been under heavy oppression and God shows up and wants them to rise above. Now the interesting thing is that God doesn't remove the difficulty when He tells them or asks them to rise above. It's not that God says, Rise above, I take away the difficulty and up you go. It doesn't work like that with the Lord. Between God speaking tenderly to His people and saying that their suffering has ended, verses 1 and 2 and the end that we read in the opening chapter in the opening verse which is God asking the people to rise above the Lord does two things between verses 2 and 31. He does two things. Number one, He gives them a promise that He is coming to them in His glory on their behalf. Verses 3 to 11 speak about this. I wish we had time to read the entire chapter because it is an amazing chapter. But look at verse 5. It says, And the glory of the Lord will be revealed and all the people will see it together for the mouth of the Lord has spoken. God is saying this in the context of visiting His people saying, Speak tenderly to Jerusalem. The time of her suffering has come to an end. And then He says, And the glory of the Lord will be revealed. On their behalf. So first He gives them a promise that He is coming to them in His glory. And then, verses 12 to 30, He reminds the people of His greatness. This point, this second point cannot be overstated. Look at verse 12. And if you are in this place, if you are in a place of suffering, if you have been enduring difficulty for a long time and find yourself in a very difficult spot please pay attention carefully who your great God is. Verse 12. Who has measured the waters in the hollow of His hand or with the breath of His hand marked off the heavens? Who has held the dust of the earth in a basket or weighed the mountains on the scales and the scales in a balance? Skip to verse 21. We can't read all of it so I'm just picking some portions. Verse 21. Have you not heard? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood since the earth was founded? He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth and its people are like grasshoppers. He stretches out the heavens like a canopy and spread them out like a tent to live in. He brings princes to naught and reduces the rulers of this world to nothing. No sooner are they planted, no sooner are they sown. No sooner do they take root in the ground than He blows on them and they wither and a whirlwind sweeps them away like chaff. To whom will you compare me? Or who is my equal? Says the Holy One. Verse 26. Lift up your eyes. Remember that phrase because we're going to come back to it. Lift up your eyes and look to the heavens. Who created all these? He who brings out the starry holes one by one and calls forth each one of them by name because of His great power and mighty strength not one of them is missing. Skip to verse 28. Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary and His understanding no one can fathom. He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary and young men stumble and fall. This reminder of God's greatness can certainly bring a lot of comfort and hope to those of us or to those people who are in difficulty. And then we land on our key verse 31. But those who hope in the Lord after God saying, this is who I am, then He says but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles. They will not grow weary. They will walk and not be faint. And so we say, okay, I want to do this. I want to have my strength renewed. I want to soar on wings like eagles. But how do I do this? So I want us to look at a practical illustration of how to rise above from the life of Jesus. So go with me to Matthew chapter 4. Like I said, we're going to come back to see some portions of Isaiah again of this 40th chapter. Matthew chapter 4 we'll read verses 1 through 10. This is when Jesus was tempted in the desert. This sermon is not about overcoming temptation. It is about rising above. But we cannot deny that whenever God asks us to rise above there will be temptation. And we are going to have to know how to overcome temptation if we are to rise above. But I just want to make it clear it is not about overcoming temptation but about looking to the Lord and rising above. So Matthew chapter 4 starting in verse 1 Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. After fasting 40 days and 40 nights he was hungry. The tempter came to him and said If you are the Son of God tell these stones to become bread. Jesus answered It is written Man shall not live on bread alone but on bread that comes from the mouth of God. Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. If you are the Son of God he said, throw yourself down for it is written he will command his angels concerning you and they will lift you up in their hands so that you will not strike your foot against a stone. Jesus answered him It is also written Do not put the Lord your God to the test. Again the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. All this I will give you he said, if you will bow down and worship me. Jesus said to him Away from me Satan for it is written Worship the Lord your God and serve him only. I want to share with you three ways to help you rise above. And the first one like I said I brought some elements of this passage to give you the three ways the first one is to seek you to establish your identity in God. And when I say seek to establish I mean we never come to the place at least on this side of heaven where our identity is 100% on the Lord. There is still room for growth. So I can say seek to establish or deepen your identity in God. If you notice in the first two temptations the devil targets the identity of Jesus. If you are the son of God do this. If you are the son of God do that. And I don't know if you noticed but Jesus was not fazed when the enemy came to question his identity. He didn't say well what do you mean? Of course I am the son of God. You used to see me before you were a fallen angel. Jesus' identity is so established and so secure in God that he is not fazed by it. And so the question is how does God establish our identity in him? Does he do it by telling us who we are? Does he do it by telling us how he sees us, what he has done for us or what he will do for us? Absolutely not. These will only take us so far but they will never cause our identity to be deeply rooted in him. This is how God establishes our identity in him. He says to us, come to me and see for yourself who I am. Then when you come to me and see me in my splendor and my glory there you find yourself. Identity is not established in knowing who you are. It is established in knowing who God is. This is why God devoted so much about his greatness in chapter 40 of Isaiah because the people needed reminding of God's greatness. It's so easy to forget God's greatness especially if you have been suffering for a while. And more so if you have been suffering for a long time. We forget. And so God comes and he reminds the people of his greatness because when we see God's greatness, when we see God's majesty and his splendor and his glory and his faithfulness and his unchanging character then we come down from the mountain per se and then we look at our circumstance and we say, well of course my great God is going to come through for me. When we come down from the mountain we don't struggle with that. That's why it's important to look to the Lord. That is identity. And what's more is that since we are in Christ then we are able to see how loved we are, how much his grace covers us, how his promises are a sure thing, how nothing can stop us because he is with us. And so the comfort that we read of in Isaiah chapter 40 and verse 1, comfort my people, speak tenderly to them, comes by realizing how mighty God is. I am weighed down by difficulty but I see. You got to look up. I see how great and how awesome God is. I am identified in seeing how great God is and then I am comforted. I am light now. I am able to rise above. Remember the phrase in Isaiah I told you to remember, lift up your eyes. All God says is look up to me. But those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. The word hope is the Hebrew word kavah which means to wait. But those who wait in the Lord will renew their strength. It means waiting expectantly for the Lord while under affliction. This kind of waiting is a posture of rest. It is a posture of confident assurance, of expectation. It is a position of strength, of being immovable, of being secure in God because of who He is. And this kind of waiting with perseverance expresses our great faith in God and that He will help us. And this stems from identity. That is why identity is so important. This kind of waiting strengthens you and renews your strength. But those who wait for the Lord will renew their strength. Now we know that in the waiting the enemy comes. The enemy always comes. But Ephesians chapter 6 and verse 10 says be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Well how are we to be strong in the Lord? I've heard that verse so many times but I don't know how to be strong in the Lord. Well one of the most effective ways is by focusing on God's greatness. And then it says therefore take up the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day and after you have done all to stand stand therefore. In other words stand your ground in light of the greatness of God. Stand your ground. Do not let the enemy push you around. So many believers today are harassed by the enemy because they let him. Don't give in. Don't agree with what he says. Sometimes I hear people saying my fear. I have a fear of this. I have a fear of that. And God looks down and says my child I have not given you a spirit of fear but of power, love and a sound mind. Or you hear people saying I have this condition or that medical condition. Don't call yours what the Lord has not given you. We must learn to reject what the devil wants to put on us and we must learn to agree with the Lord and with his word. So many times the devil comes against me to harass me and I promise you so many times he doesn't stop until I stand my ground and put him in his place. Is there something special about me? Absolutely nothing. But Jesus said that he gives us authority over the enemy. But that authority if we don't use that authority it is the same as if I'm hungry and I have money in my pocket but I don't take it out to buy some food. Authority that is not used is worth absolutely nothing. But when I stand my ground and I tell the enemy straight in his face I command you in the name of Jesus to shut your mouth. Have you been in that place where your mind is just and you're hearing all kinds of accusations and you feel guilty and you feel shame and so many things. We have all been there. Tell the enemy to shut his mouth in the name of Jesus and I promise you that he will stop. Other times I say I rebuke you Satan. I bind you Satan in the name of Jesus Christ. Jesus said whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven. To bind means to declare something illegal. Satan whatever you are doing I declare illegal and I command you to stop in the name of Jesus Christ. Satan take your hands off of my children in the name of Jesus Christ. If we don't do that sometimes the Lord is not going to do it for us. Moses is in there with all the people they're fleeing the Egyptians and cries out to God the Red Sea they're going to be crushed and God says what are you crying out to me for? What do you have in your hand? He had a staff. What is this staff? It's symbolic of authority. The Lord has given us authority. Jesus was able to stand his ground because his identity in God was deeply rooted and he wants the same thing for us. So seek to deepen or to establish your identity in God. Number two and ways to help you rise up. Number two walk in holiness. Look at verse 5 of Matthew chapter 4. Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. If you are the son of God he said throw yourself down. In other words you're the son of God. You can do anything that you want. Then he said for it is written he will command his angels concerning you and they will lift you up in their hands so that you will not strike your foot against the stone. Let me paraphrase what the devil said to Jesus that he also says to us today. He says you're a believer. You're saved. Allow yourself a little indulgence. A little sin here I'm not going to do anybody any wrong. It's not a big deal. God will forgive you. He will even quote the Bible to you. The Bible says that love covers a multitude of sins. The Bible says that God has forgiven you all of your sins past, present and future. Okay. But Jesus answered him and said it is also written do not put the Lord your God to the test. When Jesus says this he is quoting Deuteronomy chapter 6 when the people of God tested God by raising the unbelieving question Scripture says they were wondering is the Lord among us or not. And the Lord addresses this exact same theme in our Isaiah 40 chapter when he says why do you say Israel my way is hidden from the Lord. My cause is disregarded by my God. In other words why do you think that nobody will see in secret what you do. God sees what we do in secret. That is what God is saying here. We live in a day and age where so much sin is permitted in the church at large. I am not talking about any specific church. In the church at large you hear stories about this about that and believers living together before being married. Leaders permitting sexual immorality. Pastors saying gay marriage is okay come as you are. God is love it is all good. The plumb line of God's holiness and justice has not been moved since God created mankind and it will never be moved. It is man who has moved it and suffers has suffered the consequences. The Pharisees were coming to Jesus to test him and asking him about divorce and the Lord Jesus said Moses permitted divorce because of the hardness of your hearts. It was never God's will. What does this have to do with rising above? It is very simple. Sinful behaviors and attitudes open the door to the enemy who brings oppression and bondage. When I say sinful behaviors and attitudes I don't mean the things that we struggle against but we are trying to stand against. I struggle with this but pastor pray for me brother, sister hold me accountable to this I'm not talking about those. Those are out in the light and the grace of God is there with us because we are acknowledging our struggles. I'm talking about the things that we allow in our life. Sinful behaviors and attitudes and that we choose to do nothing about them. Those are the ones that open a door to the enemy and the enemy comes in and brings oppression and bondage and this keeps us from rising above. And this is exactly where Israel was in Isaiah chapter 40. Their rebellion and their sinfulness had caused them to be taken captive. So when you are oppressed by the enemy, yes it is hard to rise above unless you look up to the Lord, acknowledge your mistake and turn from your error. So the second way to rise above is to walk in holiness and the third one is to seek the approval of God and not of man. Look at verse 8, still in Matthew. Again the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. All this I will give to you, he said, if you will bow down and worship me. Jesus said to him, away from me Satan, for it is written worship the Lord your God and serve Him only. How many times do people place the approval of man above the approval of God? People wanting their labor, people wanting their work to be validated by man and they place a greater importance on the validation that comes from man instead of the approval that comes from the Lord. Proverbs 21, 29, verse 25 says, the fear of man brings a snare, but whoever trusts in the Lord shall be safe. The fear of man brings a snare. The fear of man works both ways. It works in the area of when you're seeking praise or validation or approval but it also works in a very negative way as well in the area of criticism. In other words, I'm craving, I look up to somebody so much that I want their approval so much more than I want the Lord's approval and I seek their approval and when they praise me or when they say, you did a good job here, I feel great but then when that same person sees you make a mistake and they criticize you, it destroys you. Why is the fear of man a snare? Because it always ends in disappointment. It will always cause you to stand on shaky ground and eventually it will always bring you down. That's why we must seek the approval of God above anything else. The Apostle Paul said to Timothy, study that you may show yourself approved of God, a worker that needs not to be ashamed. Study that you may show yourself approved of God, not of man, of God. There are some things that I have said in this sermon that I said to the Lord and I was talking about this with my wife maybe I shouldn't say this but then I started thinking, wait a minute Lord, do I not want to say this just because some people might take it the wrong way and get offended or do I not want to say because you, God, are telling me not to say it? That's a very valid question. And I came to the conclusion that God wanted me to say it. Because I seek God's approval more than the approval that any man or woman with all the respect that any man or woman may deserve but I seek the approval of God above anything. Now this doesn't mean that we don't receive a compliment. You know, of course we can. We receive it humbly and remember who God is and remember that it is God the one who enables us. It doesn't mean that we don't receive criticism. Constructive criticism can be very edifying if we receive it. Now destructive criticism of course is never good so we need to discern or ascertain when it is constructive and when it is destructive. But we have all heard the phrase my good and faithful servant. The parable of the talents God gave some things to each of the servants and some of them did exactly what the Lord said. They put the talents to use the money whatever it was and they multiplied and when the master came back they gave the master what had multiplied. And to each one of them God said my good and faithful servant. Every time that we set out to do what the Lord said regardless of the results God is going to say to us my good and faithful servant. Say there's a person walking by and God says go speak to them about Jesus and you go and you go and speak to them about Jesus but say that they are not interested or say I am not interested in your God and he walks away. God looks at you and says my good and faithful servant because you did what was asked of you. And that is the approval that we need to seek always. So as the worship team comes up let me just sum up ways to rise above identity is extremely important. There was a time that Pastor John taught I think it was over a year about identity and it was great because when we find our identity everything that we do stems from it. When we lose sight of who God is we lose sight of who we are and then our behavior follows. Identity, walking in holiness. We need to be that light in the world. We need to be different. We cannot be as a church conformed to the world. Do not be conformed to this world but be renewed God says. And seek the approval from God. I promise you that if you do these three things it doesn't mean that the difficulty is removed that depends on the Lord but I do promise you that if you do those three things that you will rise above and you will soar on wings like eagles. You will run and not grow weary. You will walk and not be faint. Let's pray. Father we thank you Lord for this beautiful afternoon. We are we have shrunk today Lord but so many times Jesus spoke to two or three or twelve Lord you brought us together here for a purpose. Every single person here Father including myself needed to hear this message that comes from you. Lord we pray that you would help us heed this message. That we will take it to heart. That we will as your word says mix it with faith so that it will profit us. That we may grow in righteousness. That we may grow in holiness. That we may help people who are in need to help them rise above. That we may remind people of how great and amazing and unfailing you are. God it's so easy to look at difficult circumstances actually we have looked at how great and mighty you are. But how hard it is. We can even feel like we are drowning when we refuse to look up to you. Lord I pray that you will enable each person Father especially those who are going through difficult times right now. You know who they are. Lord enable them. Enable them Father. Remind them. Give them revelation knowledge about who you are so that they will be able to rise above. And that we each Father may encourage one another. Today somebody may be there but tomorrow it can be me. And I would want to have people around me that will remind me of my great God. So Father we thank you for reminding us of how big and amazing and mighty how your glory and your splendor have no limit. Your word says that you are clothed in light in unapproachable light but yet you have made a way for us mortal beings filled with flaws. You've made a way Lord Jesus that we may come to you. Father we love you and we pray these things in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. For more information about our church contact us at fellowship.cci at gmail.com that's fellowship.cci at gmail.com or follow us on social media. We hope to see you or hear from you soon. Blessings.