Spiritual Transitions from Storm Clouds

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Okay, so this is the portion where we do a transition from whatever is provided in the chat room live on the

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Striving Fraternity Academy's class when those who watch live get to give a thing to transition to from whatever

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I'm given to the gospel. And tonight, I have been given the task of transitioning from storm clouds to the gospel.

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Storm clouds. So here is going to be my attempt to transition from storm clouds to the gospel and I will say again, the reason we do this is because of the fact that many people think that they have to wait for an opportunity to have a chance to turn a conversation or discuss spiritual things with people.

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You don't have to pray and wait for that chance. But the more you practice this game, the more you can turn any conversation into a gospel conversation, taking anything that someone says or does and looking for ways to transition that to the gospel or into a spiritual discussion.

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And so we are going to transition from storm clouds to the gospel. So here we go. And you may have a different way of doing it, you may have different things in your mind of how to do it and you should practice and try your ideas.

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So if I'm going to talk about storm clouds, you know, I can remember a time when

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I had, you know, I live somewhat in a city type, not really a city, but not really rural.

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And I would hear this discussion of rolling thunder. I never really understood what that was because we never really had that.

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When you're in an area where it's highly populated, you don't get the rolling thunders. And I remember a time, it was actually the first time that I took my family camping.

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I had been camping plenty of times, but my kids and wife had never gone camping.

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And it was the first time they went out camping and a storm came in. I mean a storm that I remember we were in the gym and we were kind of hanging out because it was at a campground, they had a gym and we were playing.

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And this storm just came in, I mean, really fast and just took our tent down, you know, one of those types of storms.

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And so I went out and reset up the tent and put it back together. And then we went back out and that night

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I actually, it was the last night of an archery league and I was shooting. We were in the running for second place.

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And so had I not shown up, we would have been in third place and the team needed me. So the family was gracious enough to let me go and shoot in the league so we can win second place.

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But while I was there, I heard the thunder. I remember pulling back,

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I mean, I'm just sitting there like this and boom, you heard that strike. And I remember that was actually where we almost thought we were going to get third place because I just went, oh, and bounced in my head and yeah, the arrow took off.

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But when I got back, I was actually kind of glad that the kids were sleeping. My wife was glad to see me.

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But as we were sitting there in the tent, we heard that rolling thunder. I mean, that's the thunder that just kind of goes on for a long time.

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And it's the type of thing that typically drives fear in people. Why does that loud, boisterous thunder cause fear in people?

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Well, the reason it does is because when you see those thunder clouds, you see those storm clouds coming, you hear that thunder, you know there is something deadly in that, lightning.

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And the reality is that we hear the danger. We know what that is, even though it could be a far way off.

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Maybe you've trained your children to see the lightning and count before you hear the thunder so you could say, see, it's a far way off.

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But the reality is, is that when we hear that, it is a warning of something dangerous because lightning is a dangerous thing.

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You get struck by lightning, the majority of people do not survive. And so we realize that those storm clouds are evidence of a serious danger ahead.

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And that is the reason I come to people and share with them another danger, one that they don't want to hear.

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Just like we don't enjoy hearing those thunder, thunderous clouds, that rolling thunder of where it's just you hear it and you have, oh, no, that's a dangerous coming, especially as it gets louder.

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And the reality is, is that the gospel is the same way. What is the gospel?

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The gospel is the fact that all of us break God's law. We do not like to hear that.

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Why? Because in the hearing of breaking God's law is a judgment that we are going to be accountable to God.

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Now, I know many people come up with different ideas. Some people create fairy tales for adults called evolution to convince themselves

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God does not exist. It doesn't go away. Just like telling yourself that the thunder is far away doesn't make it, the fear disappear.

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You see that with professing atheists. They they make these claims, but the fear of God's judgment is still within them.

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They know it. And that's the reason they have such hatred for God. And they want to censor him from all of public communication.

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But that judgment serves a purpose. It is a warning for us. A warning to get right with God, a warning to turn from trusting yourself as a good person or trusting in your works and trusting in what

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Jesus Christ alone did on the cross. God Almighty paying the payment of sin for us.

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And so with that, I challenge you to turn from yourself and turn to Christ.