Dealing With Loss, Part #2 | Pastor Mac Hammond | August 14, 2022

Recap:
Loss will be a part of everyone’s life. That’s not a bad confession, but the truth of living in a fallen world. How we deal with loss is extremely important for it directly affects our quality of life. This past weekend, Pastor Mac continued talking about how to deal with loss in a way that honors God and enables Him to fill your life with joy, peace, and contentment, even after loss. One way He does this is through helping turn your focus outward and fulfill the needs of others. This outward-focused living will always bring blessing to your life!

Dive Deeper:
How can you deal with loss well? That’s the question Pastor Mac continued to address this past weekend. Many times, we won’t understand the loss that we experience and why it happened, but we can understand what the Bible tells us about God and His promises. We can focus less on the unanswered questions and more on the revelation of who God is and who He can be to us.

God will provide each one of us with the capacity to handle the loss. Even when you feel like you’re ready to give up, God is there waiting with endless amounts of grace and peace for your daily life. The enemy will ratchet up the pressure and encourage you to focus on what you have lost or the questions of what happened, but you can deliberately choose to move your mind away from what went wrong to God and His Word.

When you realize all that God has promised to you—promises that remain true in the middle of loss—you can praise Him! Yes, it won’t be easy. The Bible calls it a sacrifice of praise, but that sacrifice of praise prepares your heart to receive more of God’s love, peace, and contentment in the middle of adversity!

What should you praise Him for? Praise Him that He is always there. Praise Him for the promise of heaven. Praise Him for the hope of restoration and the resurrection. Praise Him that He is walking with you through the valley of the shadow of death. Then turn your eyes outward. Start looking to how you can bless other people, for it’s through blessing other people that we get our eyes off our own self and onto what God is doing in this world.

Read About It:
1 Corinthians 10:13 KJV
There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.

Hebrews 13:15 KJV
By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name.

Hebrews 4:5–8 KJV
Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. So that we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me. Remember them which have the rule over you, who have spoken unto you the word of God: whose faith follow, considering the end of their conversation. Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever.

Thessalonians 4:13–14 KJV
But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.

Matthew 28:19–20 KJV
Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen.

Galatians 6:6–7 KJV
Let him that is taught in the word communicate unto him that teacheth in all good things. Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.

Discussion Questions:
1. What are some practical ways we can turn a season of loss into a season of praise?
2. Why do we need to remember that we won’t always understand God’s ways?
3. How does focusing on helping others bring us joy?

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