Jeff Meyers, senior pastor of First Baptist Church in Opelika, said he — like many others — has had a tough past 18 months.
He never imagined an Easter where he would be the only one in the church, preaching to a camera. He never imagined the hard days the COVID-19 pandemic would bring along for his church and other churches.
Preaching from 1 Peter 1 on Nov. 17 at the Alabama Baptist State Convention, Meyers said the idea of “greatly rejoicing” in the midst of trials isn’t something he felt connected to all the time over the past year and a half.
But he saw God illustrate something for him in the way his sons coped with the pandemic — they transformed the family’s garage into a weight room. And over the months as the boys lifted weights, they became stronger.
Strength training is counterintuitive in a way, Meyers said, because for muscles to become stronger, they have to be broken down first.
“When you get in the weight room and experience any kind of resistance, it takes your muscles and breaks them down,” Meyers said. From there, the muscles heal stronger.
Consistency is key
So if you stay consistent, facing trial and difficulty can make you what you aspire to be even though it’s a hard process, he said. “How much more does that apply to ministry? How easily are we tempted to take the easy road?”
The temptation is to quit when things get tough, he said. “I want to implore you to hang in there. I want to beg of you, when you get that phone call and see the number and think, ‘Here we go,’ or when you go into a meeting and see their countenances and think, ‘Oh my, am I going to survive this?’ When you get up on Sunday morning and question your own preparation, can I implore you to stay the course?”
Meyers urged Alabama Baptists to look for the good in the midst of the pandemic and its effects on life and church statistics.
“There are still people being saved,” he said. “There are still marriages being healed. There are still lives being transformed. And don’t get me wrong, it’s hard to see it. But it’s there.”
According to 1 Peter 1:7, “the reason you do what you do is because Jesus is coming back,” Meyers said. “One day Jesus Christ will return, and I know you want to be found faithful. … Stay the course.”
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