Value 1: Faith Fueled - Communion

Manuscript Template

Title:  Value 1: Faith Fueled

Focus Statement:  

Function Statement:  

Tweetable Phrase:  

Main Text:  Hebrews 11:7 / Genesis 6:9-8:22

Supporting Text:  Romans 10:17, John 1:12, Galatians 2:15-21, 2 Corinthians 5:7, Proverbs 3:5-7

Redemptive Closure (point to Jesus):  John 1:12 or Galatians 2:15-21

Benediction:  2 Corinthians 5:7 or Proverbs 3:5-7

Questions to Review

Is the bottom line clear? Main point should be able to be said in a single sentence.

What’s the opening line? Not hello, start with a question or something to grab attention.

Is the transition from the introduction to main point clear?

What’s my main point? Make it short and memorable

Does it matter? Is the topic relevant to the congregation?

Where is the power in the text? What word or phrase highlights the tension?

How am I moving toward application?

What is my main to-do (application)? Be specific.

What does it matter? The WHY creates urgency.

How am I closing? Have a plan.

5 Things Each Sermon Must Do With the Biblical Text

Teach it: Cultural context, exegesis, what does it mean?

Illustrate it: Add emotion, illustrations, pictures, stories.

Apply it: How do we respond?

Distinguish it: How is this different? Invite the Holy Spirit in.

Portable-ize it: Make it RHYME (no WIN in COMPARISON), ALLITERATE it, make it ECHO (who are of infinite worth to the infinite God), use a METAPHORE (the Root of murder is anger...only God can uproot it from our hearts), or make it CONTRAST (a life devoted to self, leave you alone)

https://ideogram.ai/t/explore

WELCOME

Good morning!!! My name is Ryan Hanson, and I have the honor of serving here at The Light KC as the lead pastor. I’m so glad you’re here with us.

‌Welcome to those joining us online. We hope you're doing well and hope to see you in person in the coming weeks.

And a special welcome to those joining us for the first time. We’re so glad you chose to be here.

ME/INTRO - Tension

What do you think about when you hear the word FAITH?

The word FAITH gets used a lot in our day to day conversations.

If I’m honest I put a lot of faith in this thing every time I get in the car [hold up phone].

I plug it into the car, tell it where I want to go (as I’m too lazy to type it in), and start following the blue line (at least I hope it’s blue).

I don’t check that it heard me correctly and has the location correct.

I don’t check that it’s leading on the best route.

I don’t even check that I’m going in the right general direction.

I have FAITH, or probably more honestly just HOPE, that Google MAPS knew what I said, got the location correct, and will get me where I want to go in the most efficient way possible.

So far, Google Maps hasn’t let me down.

I remember a while back, Andrea wanted to go see some European soccer teams that had come to the US to play at the UofM football stadium. We bought tickets, got an Air B&B close to the stadium, and made a weekend out of it. When we set off, I had no idea where we were going as I had never gone to the UofM football stadium before. We typed in the address to the Air B&B and set off. Everything seemed pretty good for a while, until it told us to get off the expressway way too early.

Have you had this driving? When Google tells you to get off and the “miles to destination” is still far too high to justify getting off the expressway.

Well, we had FAITH, Google knew what it was doing, and we got off. We then snaked around Ann Arbor for what felt like forever. The whole time we never saw any construction or any delays to justify getting off the expressway, only lots of traffic lights slowing us down. I had almost lost my FAITH in Google Maps.

It wasn’t until the next day when we walked to the UofM stadium (because there is no parking at the Big House and you have to walk from whatever place you can find to ditch your car; hence the Air B&B) that we crossed the expressway where we “should” have gotten off at. And it was destroyed. There was no road. They had completely torn it up and were re-doing it.

It was at that moment that our FAITH in Google’s GPS was solidified. Google knew there were problems, routed us around, saving us tons of aggravation dealing with the construction, and we were none the wiser.

WE - Tension

I think this is the reality for all of us, we all put our FAITH in lots of things.

It’s sad, but when I typed into Google “What do we put our faith in?”, God wasn’t on the list. The list did include

Science / Technology

The American Dream: Hard work + determination + opportunity = success

Government

Economy / Capitalism

Military

Family / Community

Ourselves

Education

Celebrities

Is this what FAITH is? Blindly following something without question.

Are these the things we should be putting our faith in?

Is this the FAITH that God calls us to have in Him and His son Jesus?

These are the questions I’d like to talk about today as we continue our series titled “The 5W’s of Church”

We’re in week 2 of our 7 week series, we’re going to go over our church’s mission, vision, and values to answer

WHY - THE UNIVERSAL CHURCH exists

WHO - we are as a local expression of the church, The Light KC

WHAT God is calling us to do as His church

WHY we feel God put The Light KC WHERE He has in Overland Park, KS

and...HOW - we as the church feel called to live out the mission and vision God has given us

I hope you’ll be able to join us each and every week for this series as we break down the mission, vision, and values that a group of 16 of you came up with earlier this year and look forward to what that means for us and our collective future.

Last week we discussed our Mission and Vision.

This week we’re going to start looking at our values. The group earlier this year chose the values to fit the ACRONYM F.A.M.I.L.Y..

Today we’re going to talk about our first value: FAITH FUELED.

If you missed the previous messages, please feel free go to our website, TheLightKC.org, to catch up.

As we begin, please turn with me to [Genesis 6:9]

We’ll have the scripture on the screen, but if you have a Bible with you, or Bible app on your phone, I’d encourage you to turn to the passage and follow along. There is nothing that replaces having God’s word in your hand.

AND... if you don’t have a Bible, we have Bibles under the seats. If you don’t have a bible and would like one, please come see me after the service and I’ll get you one you can keep.

Let's dive in.

GOD - Text

As we dig into what it means to live a life that is “FAITH FUELED”, I want to start by looking an example of a man from scripture who did just that.

Let’s turn to Hebrews 11:7. Hebrews 11 is the chapter of scripture that lists the Heroes of the Faith. Here in verse 7, we meet Noah. It reads...

Hebrews 11:7 NIV

By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family. By his faith he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that is in keeping with faith.

Noah lived a life FUELED by FAITH. And he had to, because everything God asked him to do would have made no logical sense to any reasonable person.

Let’s look at the story of Noah in Genesis 6-7.

The story of Noah starts by describing who Noah was and what type of relationship he had with God.

Knowledge

Genesis 6:9 NIV

This is the account of Noah and his family. Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked faithfully with God.

Noah’s faith was not blind.

Noah “walked with God”.

He spent time with God.

He knew God’s character.

This is where we learn the first component of faith.

1st Component of Faith: Knowledge

We can’t have faith in something that we don’t have any knowledge / information about. This is the dividing line between faith and hope. We can hope in something we don’t understand, but we can’t have faith in it.

It seems like many people use the words faith and hope interchangeably.

We can put our HOPE in all the things Google listed earlier, but we can’t have faith in them.

Knowledge is also not the enemy of faith. Faith should grow as knowledge grows.

Romans 10:17 NIV

Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word about Christ.

But knowledge is not enough to have Biblical faith.

I can have knowledge about a lot of things, but don’t put faith in any them.

There needs to be more.

Belief

Let’s continue with Noah’s story in Genesis 6:11-14

Genesis 6:11–14 NIV

Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight and was full of violence. God saw how corrupt the earth had become, for all the people on earth had corrupted their ways. So God said to Noah, “I am going to put an end to all people, for the earth is filled with violence because of them. I am surely going to destroy both them and the earth. So make yourself an ark of cypress wood; make rooms in it and coat it with pitch inside and out.

Noah didn’t just have knowledge about who God was, he Believed that it was true. He believe God is who He said He was. Even when it didn’t make sense.

Keep in mind, what God is asking Noah to do would not have made sense. Where God asked Noah to build the ark, there was no water. It was dry ground. No sea, no rivers, no water. To make Gods request even less believable, up until this time in history it has never rained.

And beyond that, the ark God was asking Noah to build was comically huge. In Genesis 6:15

Genesis 6:15 NIV

This is how you are to build it: The ark is to be three hundred cubits long, fifty cubits wide and thirty cubits high.

A cubit is 18” or 1.5’. So God asked Noah to build a boat that was 450’ long x 75’ wide x 45’ tall. That’s a football field and a half long.

Has anyone been to the Ark Encounter in KY? They built a full-size replica of what they think the ark looked like. We stopped on the way back from the IM I did in Chatanooga and it was crazy. The size was in-comprehendible. It was so huge, I was amazed we could build it today let alone in 6,000—7,000 BC when it was estimated this happened.

Sorry I only have selfies. I didn’t take any of just the boat.

[picture of Ark - 1]

[picture of Ark - 2]

But what makes it crazier was that it was 3 stories tall. The complexity of this task must have been immense.

[picture of Ark - 3]

[picture of Ark - 4]

Based on the dates in the bible scholars estimate it took Noah between 50-120 years to build.

Not only is this a long time, but because of the lack of water in the area, and the corruption of the world at this point, Noah was probably being ridiculed quite severely the entire time he’s building the ark.

To accept the task that God gave him would not only have required knowledge of who God is, but a very deep belief that the knowledge he has of God was true.

2nd Component of Faith: Belief

But even with knowledge of God and belief that the knowledge you have is true, that is still not enough to have the faith the bible calls us to have.

Trust

To have Biblical faith, we also need trust.

3rd Component of Faith: Trust

Genesis 6:22 NIV

Noah did everything just as God commanded him.

Noah had every reason not to do what God called him to do

Most likely never built an ark before

Task is too large

Everyone was probably mocking him and telling him to stop

He lived in a dry area where there wasn’t any water, so he probably so no immediate need

There had never even been rain on earth to that point

Yet, Noah KNEW God, BELIEVED in God, and TRUSTED God enough to OBEY.

And it’s good that he did because in Genesis 7:7 the flood happened.

Genesis 7:7 NIV

And Noah and his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives entered the ark to escape the waters of the flood.

Continuing in V17...

Genesis 7:17–24 NIV

For forty days the flood kept coming on the earth, and as the waters increased they lifted the ark high above the earth. The waters rose and increased greatly on the earth, and the ark floated on the surface of the water. They rose greatly on the earth, and all the high mountains under the entire heavens were covered. The waters rose and covered the mountains to a depth of more than fifteen cubits. Every living thing that moved on land perished—birds, livestock, wild animals, all the creatures that swarm over the earth, and all mankind. Everything on dry land that had the breath of life in its nostrils died. Every living thing on the face of the earth was wiped out; people and animals and the creatures that move along the ground and the birds were wiped from the earth. Only Noah was left, and those with him in the ark. The waters flooded the earth for a hundred and fifty days.

It rained for 40 days, the whole earth was flooded, everything died, Noah and his family were saved (along with the animals), and the flood lasted 150 days.

Noah and his family were saved because of Noah’s FAITH

YOU - Takeaway

I don’t know how you read the stories in the Bible. Sometimes I read them and they feel too grand for me to relate to. Sometimes the people in the bible feel like Hebrews 11 describes them, heroes of faith. The very few people throughout history that God has called to do truly extraordinary things that are so far beyond what I am capable of, or God would call me to that I can’t even start to put myself in their shoes.

Anyone with me on this?

Anyone struggle to relate to some of the characters in the bible as too far beyond what we think we are capable of.

That’s why I appreciate that sometimes God gives us some examples of regular people like you and me that shows us that it is not just the Hebrews 11 Heroes of Faith that are capable of doing amazing things for God, but any of us are capable of true acts of faith.

God gave me an example of true faith a few years ago.

Many of you know that I have participated quite a few triathlons over the last 10 years to raise money for clean water through World Vision. Being that I lived on a lake, I ended up being the captain of our local team. People would come over regularly to swim, I’d host “practice races” at the house because we also lived by a trail that we could run and bike on safety.

One year, at the beginning of the season, I invited everyone over for a kickoff lunch and I was surprised. Someone came who was 100% blind, since birth. I didn’t know how anyone could complete a triathlon without the ability to see. We were doing 1/2 Iron Man distance races. You had to swim 1.2 miles, bike 56 miles, and run 13.1 miles. You swam in open water with tons of other people who were more than willing to swim over top of you to save their tenths of seconds. You had to bike on open roads with cars flying by you, many agitated you were wasting space on the road. And then you had to run on a closed run course, so there were no cars, but tons of people / curbs / pot holes that you could run into or trip over. I couldn’t image how this would be possible.

I spoke to him, asked a bunch of ignorant questions. It turns out he had never done a triathlon before but heard it was possible and that there were accommodations within the rules.

As a blind triathlon participant you can...

swim with a guide, but you can only tie your legs together with a relatively long string [picture of blind triathlon swimmer]

bike on a tandem bike [picture of a blind triathlon cyclist]

run with a guide, but you can only do so while both holding a relatively long string [picture of blind triathlon runner]

When I learned this, my only question was, how do you find a guide that you trust that completely?

Swimming in open water is incredibly scarry, even when you can see.

Biking on open roads, is incredibly dangerous. I’ve been on teams with 2 people who have died getting hit by cars on training rides. That’s why I am so scared to ride on roads and always trained on paved trails.

Running is always a game of hop scotch over potential tripping hazards when you’re on roads.

I couldn’t think of anyone I would trust that completely.

*** YET...the faith that these blind triathletes have in their guides is the exact type of faith we’re called to have in Jesus

When choosing his guide, my friend needed to know that his guide knew what we was doing, had done it before, and had the skills required to guide him through any challenges / dangers they would face. My friend needed KNOWLEDGE of his guide’s abilities.

When choosing a guide, my friend needed to believe that his guide was willing to use his knowledge to do what’s best for my friend. That the guide wouldn’t get caught up in the guide’s race, but adjust to the speed and ability of my friend. My friend needed to BELIEVE in his guide’s willingness to use his knowledge to help my friend complete the race.

When choosing a guide, my friend needed to trust that his guide would do everything he could to keep him safe. There are all kinds of dangers, and the guide is responsible for the safety of the blind athletes. My friend needed to TRUST that his guide would keep him safe.

*** And just like my friend needed to be very discerning in choosing his triathlon guide, we need to be just (if not more) discerning in choosing who we will put our faith in to guide us though life.

Who are we going to listen to?

Are we going to be guided through life by...

political affiliations?

family expectations?

professional aspirations?

We could choose those things as guides, and many do, but I think we all know that they fall short of getting us where we really want to be.

Or we can choose to let Jesus be our guide.

But how do we do that?

How do we build the faith in Jesus like Noah had, or like my friend had in his guide?

Knowledge (we need to get to know Jesus intimately)

reading the bible 15 minutes / day

daily habit of prayer

seek guidance from the Holy Spirit

Listen to the convictions (tugs on your conscience from the Holy Spirit, just like my friend’s guide would tug on the rope if he got off course swimming or running)

Join a small group

Get a spiritual mentor

Come to me with your questions and I’ll do everything I can to help you find the answers

Belief (we need to pay attention to what God is doing in our lives and believe He will continue to act as He has in the past)

There will be a moment when you have lots of knowledge and you need to make a choice

Will you believe the knowledge you’ve gained is true, or reject it

Trust (we don’t just believe in Who Jesus is, but TRUST that Jesus is the only one who can, wants to, and will save us if we ask)

This is where you put your knowledge and belief into practice

Sign up for one of our opportunities to serve

Start following the promptings / convictions of the Holy Spirit, as you’re led

Come to the October 16 missions night, to hear how you can better share your faith with others

So what does this all mean?

Our first value is...

Value #1: At The Light KC, we will be Faith Fueled. Faith in Jesus Christ as our savior is the foundation to all we do at The Light KC. Biblical faith is developed through knowledge in who Jesus is, by believing in what Jesus has done, and choosing to trust Jesus with our eternal lives as the only one who has the power to save us from the consequences of our sin.

WE / JESUS - Redemptive Close - Call to Action

But we need to add a caveat to our discussion on faith.

*** Faith in Jesus is the foundation to the Christian life, but the development of that faith is a process.

2 Thessalonians 1:3 NIV

We ought always to thank God for you, brothers and sisters, and rightly so, because your faith is growing more and more, and the love all of you have for one another is increasing.

Your faith should grow throughout lifetime as you learn more about Jesus, believe more and more deeply in what you have learned, and trust Jesus with more and more of your life / decisions / future.

In the Wesleyan Denomination we call it the Order of Salvation; the steps we, as Christians go through on our journey as we mature in our faith. Each step learning more, believing more deeply, and trusting more completely.

[picture of the Wesleyan Order of Salvation]

What next step is God calling you to take to grow your faith in Him?

Get more knowledge

Start to believe the knowledge you already have

Or...

Alter Call

If you have learned about Jesus; who He is, what He’s done, and how much He loves you.

If you believe that Jesus is the Son of God, who came to earth, to lived a perfect life, died on the cross, taking the consequences of our sins with Him, and rose to life on the 3rd day giving us hope in an eternal future with God in Heaven.

Maybe today is your day to put your trust in Jesus as your savior for the first time, as the only one who can guide you through this life and save you from the consequences of your sins so you can spend eternity with Him in Heaven.

Maybe you have started to drift and you’ve started putting your faith in other things, and today is your day to re-commit your life to trusting Jesus

During communion, I encourage you all to act on the next step of faith God is calling you to take by filling out the card at the center of the stage. I’d love to be praying for you, and helping you in any way possible.

Communion

It is at this time that we will observe the sacrament of communion.

We observe communion to remember everything Christ has done for us, how He loved us so much that He stepped down from heaven, become one of us, suffered everything the world could throw at him, yet did not sin, chose to die on the cross, taking the consequences of our sin upon himself, and by rising from the dead on the 3rd day, giving us hope in an eternity with Him in heaven.

We take bread to remember that Christ allowed His body to be broken for us.

We take wine (or grape juice) to remember that Christ allowed His blood to be spilled for us.

As part of the Wesleyan denomination we practice an open table. You don’t have be a member of the Wesleyan church to partake in communion here. You just have to have accepted Jesus as you LORD and savior, earnestly repent of your sin, and empowered by the Holy Spirit do everything you can to follow the commandments of God.

Children may partake at the discretion of their parents.

I encourage you to Come up to the steps first. Pray. Ask for God to show you the next step He’s inviting you to take. Fill out one of these cards so we can pray for you and support you as you walk this new path.

Take some time during the next song, examine where you heart is at and pray for God to show you any areas in your life that you need to repent of.

PRAYER 

Will you join me in prayer...

SONG 

As we enter into our final song, I want to open the steps up front as an altar to anyone who needs God this week. The steps are open for you to pray to the God who is with you, who loves you, you wants to give you His peace.

‌

You may feel a hand on your shoulder as I or one of the elders join you in prayer.

BENEDICTION 

Proverbs 3:5–7 NIV

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight. Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord and shun evil.

This week...

Let’s not blindly hope in the things of this world that so easily disappoint.

Let’s put our faith in the only one who has the power to truly save; Jesus Christ.

Let’s commit to engaging in spiritual practices to grow our KNOWLEDGE of who Jesus is.

Let’s choose to BELIEVE in what Jesus has done

Let’s choose to TRUST in Jesus Christ as our personal savior

Quick reminder...

Digging Deeper Bible Study - Wednesday at 6 PM - Programming for all ages

October 11th - Fall Cleanup Day

October 12th - Chief’s / Lion’s Watch Party at my house

October 16th - Mission Night

If you’re new, please stop by our info desk, or see me. We’d love to say “hi” and get you know you a bit better.

I hope you have a great week.

Go in peace.

You are dismissed.

DISCIPLESHIP QUESTIONS (download into APP)

How can we cultivate a deeper knowledge of God in our everyday lives?

What specific beliefs about God do we need to reinforce in our hearts to strengthen our faith?

In what areas of our lives do we struggle to trust God, and how can we work on this trust?

How does Noah's example of faith challenge our understanding of what faith looks like today?

What practical steps can we take to align our faith more closely with our daily actions?

What does it mean to believe in something wholeheartedly, and can you think of an example in your life?

How can we differentiate between trusting God and just hoping things will work out?

Can you identify one area in your life where you need more faith in God? What will you do about it?

Do you have any personal experiences where faith helped you overcome a challenge?

How can we support each other as a community in building stronger faith in God?