Untitled Sermon

Optimism

Optimism Wednesday, January 9, 2002

A family had twin boys whose only resemblance to each other was their looks. If one felt it was too hot, the other thought it was too cold. If one said the TV was too loud, the other claimed the volume needed to be turned up. Opposite in every way, one was an eternal optimist, the other a doom and gloom pessimist. Just to see what would happen, on the twins' birthday, their father loaded the pessimist's room with every imaginable toy and game. The optimist's room, he loaded with horse manure. That night the father passed by the pessimist's room and found him sitting amid his new gifts crying bitterly. "Why are you crying?" the father asked. "Because my friends will be jealous, I'll have to read the all these instructions before I can do anything with this stuff, I'll constantly need batteries, and my toys will eventually get broken." answered the pessimistic twin. Passing the optimistic twin's room, the father found him dancing for joy in the pile of manure. "What are you so happy about?" he asked. To which his optimistic twin replied, "There's got to be a pony in here somewhere!"

Is the End of World here?

What do you believe the end of the world looks like? Why?

Many people have a firm belief that the end of world is here and the end of the world is going to bring great disaster on the earth.

People believe the end will not end in victory, but will be a final destruction that will destroy the earth.

I am an optimist when it comes to the end of the world. I believe some of our greatest days are ahead of us!

I believe that God desires to fulfill his purpose through His Children and pour out his spirit in ways we have never seen or read about before.

Where is Your Faith in What God Can Do Through You?

I was leaving the church the other day dreaming about what God can do in this church. I always look at this property and try to the see the God possibilities.

I felt the Holy Spirit bring something to me. “It seems that our faith get used the most in the midst of trials, but when everything is ok, we don’t use our faith.

I started to think what am I using my faith for? What are the dreams that I have in my heart that I am letting be dormant because I don’t have the supplies for?

Is my faith being used to stir up the Kingdom of God around me or is my faith just being used for times of trial.

Our Ancestors Lived by Faith

Hebrews 11:1–16 NLT

Faith shows the reality of what we hope for; it is the evidence of things we cannot see. Through their faith, the people in days of old earned a good reputation. By faith we understand that the entire universe was formed at God’s command, that what we now see did not come from anything that can be seen. It was by faith that Abel brought a more acceptable offering to God than Cain did. Abel’s offering gave evidence that he was a righteous man, and God showed his approval of his gifts. Although Abel is long dead, he still speaks to us by his example of faith. It was by faith that Enoch was taken up to heaven without dying—“he disappeared, because God took him.” For before he was taken up, he was known as a person who pleased God. And it is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that God exists and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him. It was by faith that Noah built a large boat to save his family from the flood. He obeyed God, who warned him about things that had never happened before. By his faith Noah condemned the rest of the world, and he received the righteousness that comes by faith. It was by faith that Abraham obeyed when God called him to leave home and go to another land that God would give him as his inheritance. He went without knowing where he was going. And even when he reached the land God promised him, he lived there by faith—for he was like a foreigner, living in tents. And so did Isaac and Jacob, who inherited the same promise. Abraham was confidently looking forward to a city with eternal foundations, a city designed and built by God. It was by faith that even Sarah was able to have a child, though she was barren and was too old. She believed that God would keep his promise. And so a whole nation came from this one man who was as good as dead—a nation with so many people that, like the stars in the sky and the sand on the seashore, there is no way to count them. All these people died still believing what God had promised them. They did not receive what was promised, but they saw it all from a distance and welcomed it. They agreed that they were foreigners and nomads here on earth. Obviously people who say such things are looking forward to a country they can call their own. If they had longed for the country they came from, they could have gone back. But they were looking for a better place, a heavenly homeland. That is why God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.

Hebrews 11:

Abel, Enoch, Elijah, Abraham, Sarah all had a promises of God.

They believed they were foreigners living on Earth

They knew they were from heaven, which mean they have all heaven behind them.

They dreamed of a Better Place, not in heaven, but heaven on the earth.

They believed there mission was to believe that Heaven can fill the earth, so there faith was to see God’s promises become a reality on the earth.

Question: Is Your Faith Active?

Are we believing God only in trials or is our faith active for God’s promises to be fulfilled?