How can I show my faith in God_2
Heb 11:1 Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. (NIV)
Ø We are learning to have a lifestyle of faith. This is a lifestyle of trusting a faithful God.
o Learning to live like we trust him and like he is faithful.
§ Don’t ever give up because we know he will do what he says he will do.
· God showed Joseph his destiny, but DID NOT TELL HIM HOW IT WOULD HAPPEN! We have to remember this too. God will show us a little of the future but he will not tell us all that we will have to go through and change before we get there.
o * Important* How much God wants to do through you and How much you want to do for God will determine the intensity of his dealing with you.
o Secondly your response to God’s dealings will determine the intensity and the length of time that he has to prepare you. He applies “Heat and Hammer” What kind of metal you are will determine how much he has to use.
§ Trusting his word above the words of others and the world.
2 Tim 3:1-5
1 You may as well know this too, Timothy, that in the last days it is going to be very difficult to be a Christian. 2 For people will love only themselves and their money; they will be proud and boastful, sneering at God, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful to them, and thoroughly bad. 3 They will be hardheaded and never give in to others; they will be constant liars and troublemakers and will think nothing of immorality. They will be rough and cruel, and sneer at those who try to be good. 4 They will betray their friends; they will be hotheaded, puffed up with pride, and prefer good times to worshiping God. 5 They will go to church, yes, but they won't really believe anything they hear. Don't be taken in by people like that. (TLB)
2 Tim 4:2-8
2 Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage-- with great patience and careful instruction. 3 For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. 4 They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.
Col 2:5-8
5 For though I am absent from you in body, I am present with you in spirit and delight to see how orderly you are and how firm your faith in Christ is. 6 So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him, 7 rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness. 8 See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ. (NIV)
Ø We can see from these scriptures that there will be a time when
o Church will be only a form or game to people
o people would rather have FUN than worship God
o people will follow their own desires which will lead them to false teachers
§ But not only false teachers, but off balance teaching. Teaching that is only in part is in the end false.
§ This will lead to turning away from the truth and toward myths (empty words, saying, etc.)
o People will be taken captive (imprisoned) through empty deceptive philosophy, human traditions and the basic principles of this world
§ Philosophy – love of wisdom – always searching for the deeper meaning till you are simply too deep. The search becomes the goal, not the living of it.
§ Traditions of man – little and big sins, good and bad witches, the ways of this age. i.e. about sex, money…
§ Basic principles – rudiments – 1Tim 6:20 we have made science and technology our God and our theology. We think too often that science can solve anything and that given enough time we can discover all. (science can tell me what, but not why, what is here, but can only guess where it came from)
Heb 11:3 By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God's command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible. (NIV)
Ø By FAITH we understand!
James 1:21-25
21 Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you. 22 Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. 23 Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror 24 and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. 25 But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it-- he will be blessed in what he does. (NIV)
I Jn 2:15-29
15 Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For everything in the world-- the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does-- comes not from the Father but from the world. 17 The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever. 18 Dear children, this is the last hour; and as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come. This is how we know it is the last hour. 19 They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us; but their going showed that none of them belonged to us. 20 But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and all of you know the truth.
21 I do not write to you because you do not know the truth, but because you do know it and because no lie comes from the truth. 22 Who is the liar? It is the man who denies that Jesus is the Christ. Such a man is the antichrist-- he denies the Father and the Son. 23 No one who denies the Son has the Father; whoever acknowledges the Son has the Father also. 24 See that what you have heard from the beginning remains in you. If it does, you also will remain in the Son and in the Father. 25 And this is what he promised us-- even eternal life. 26 I am writing these things to you about those who are trying to lead you astray. 27 As for you, the anointing you received from him remains in you, and you do not need anyone to teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about all things and as that anointing is real, not counterfeit-- just as it has taught you, remain in him. 28 And now, dear children, continue in him, so that when he appears we may be confident and unashamed before him at his coming. 29 If you know that he is righteous, you know that everyone who does what is right has been born of him. (NIV)