ALL WEATHER Series: RAINY by Ptr. Jay-R Ramirez (Victory Caloocan)

"When it rains, it pours."

In the last installment of the "All-Weather" Series at Victory Caloocan, Ptr. Jay-R Ramirez talked about the "Rainy" Weather. This sunday's message focused on Blessings in Christ.

We who are living in CAMANAVA (Caloocan, Malabon, Navotas, and Valenzuela) area don't consider the rainy weather as a blessing. Most likely we consider it as a problem. Instead of the above-mentioned statement, we say,

"When it rains, it FLOODS."

But in the Bible, people consider God sending rain as BLESSING. Here are some examples:

"But the land you are crossing the Jordan to take possession of is a land of mountains and valleys that drinks rain from heaven. 

...then I will send rain on your land in its season, both autumn and spring rains, so that you may gather in your grain, new wine and olive oil
Then the Lord’s anger will burn against you, and he will shut up the heavens so that it will not rain and the ground will yield no produce, and you will soon perish from the good land the Lord is giving you.

The Lord will open the heavens, the storehouse of his bounty, to send rain on your land in season and to bless all the work of your hands. You will lend to many nations but will borrow from none." —Deuteronomy 11:11,14,17; 28:12

Taking the text from Philippians 4:10-19, Ptr, Jay-R gave emphases on these three (3) significant phrases about blessings. In a reversed way, he enumerated them as:

• "...supply all your needs..." (v. 19). These pertains to material and financial blessings we receive not through our own but according to God's riches. Many of us desires so many things only to find ourselves unsatisfied after receiving it. We are pursuing fleeting happiness. But God wants us to be happy. As a father would do anything to make his child/ren happy, so will God. However, when we seek blessings just to be happy, we just make God a conduit and not the source. This then becomes idolatry. God doesn't want us to lack anything, He wants us to super-abound.
• "...credited to your account." (v. 17). God wants you to super-abound. In the latter part of Psalm 35:27 it says, 

"May those who delight in my vindication
shout for joy and gladness;

may they always say, “The LORD be exalted

 who delights in the well-being of his servant.”

The things we want is not happiness in itself, it's just added. Like an icing and the cherry on the cake or the whipped cream on your frap. King Solomon in all his majesty and splendor came to a conclusion that "everything is meaningless" and that "all things are wearisome" (Ecclesiates 1:2&8). The things of this world will never fully satisfy. It will only leave us empty and wanting. As Jeremiah writes, our longing for material things are just but "broken cisterns that cannot hold water" compared to the God Himself who is "the spring of living water." (2:13)

What is CONTENTMENT?

• "...the secret of being content..." (v.12). In the letter of the Apostle Paul to the Philippians, he gave so much emphasis on the source of his blessings; that is being "in the Lord". Paul knew that blessings can only be found in his Lord Jesus, who is the stream of Living Water. Jesus proclaimed Himself as the source of Living Water when He talked to the Samaritan Woman beside the well  and to His disciples (John 4:10, 7:38). King David as well, in all the riches and prosperity of Israel under his rule still finds his satisfaction in his desire to "dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of [his] life, to gaze on the beauty of the LORD and to seek him in his temple" (Psalm 27:4).  David also knew that if he "take delight in the LORD, he will give [him] the desires of [his] heart." (Psalm 37:4)

We will never satisfied apart from Christ.

In conclusion, Ptr. Jay-R exalted Jesus as the greatest source of and is the blessing Himself as he gave these powerful statements:
  

Listen to ALL WEATHER Series Podcasts of Victory Caloocan here.