Walk It Off
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Fresh Faith Review
Fresh Faith Review
We have about 4 more weeks in our series entitled “Fresh Faith”
We have been taking the summer to encourage our faith in Christ.
To build up our faith
To know why we should have faith
And to know where that faith should be founded.
Why? Because we have a real enemy. One who robs, kills and destroys. But the only way that he can do that is if he can kill our faith in God.
He wants to get us to a place where we are hopeless
He wants to get us to a place where we are distracted - because situations and things look bigger and better than our God.
But if we build up our faith, he doesn’t stand a chance.
We said that our faith is in a God who never turns his back on us
Our faith is in the God who can restore all things.
He is the God who can make us forget all of our troubles
And the God who will make us fruitful in the very place where we are suffering.
WE said that God would help us build our faith if:
We took on the posture of continued students - always learning who he is, what he has promised (going to talk about that today) and believe in those promises
WE allow him to cut into our lives and remove that which is bad to grow and establish that which is powerful and strong
We take on His Kingdom mentallity
Part of that is making his kingdom first in our lives
That we truly mean it when we call him our Lord and savior and King
We have to come to a place where we no longer allow the time restraints that we live under to discourage our faith in a God who has no Time Restraints
We said that we cannot allow our hurts and doubts and discouragements to change our faith in who God is or how He does what He does
His Promises are YES and AMEN
God has a plan - He will always seek the higher praise
He will always want us to have a greater testimony
And he has a plan for the next generation - Believing that will make us a church full of children and the broken
We said last week that we cannot our experiences to get a head of our faith
That we need to wait on the truth - God is greater than our sin and brokenness
That we need to wait for the Good News - Salvation - the process of change and reconciliation
And that we wait on his grace. He may not be finished with us yet, but he will never give up on us.
And if you haven’t listened to that message yet, it’s what made the difference between how Peter and Judas end their lives.
Turn with me today over to
By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to the place which he would receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. By faith he dwelt in the land of promise as in a foreign country, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise; for he waited for the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God.
By faith Sarah herself also received strength to conceive seed, and she bore a child when she was past the age, because she judged Him faithful who had promised. Therefore from one man, and him as good as dead, were born as many as the stars of the sky in multitude—innumerable as the sand which is by the seashore.
And
What then shall we say that Abraham our father has found according to the flesh? For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.”
Romans 4:3
I want to speak to you a message this morning entitled, “Walk it Off”
We tell people who are hurt to shrug it off, or play it off, or play through it or walk it off
We tell people who are drunk to go sleep it off
We tell people who have eaten a lot or bothered by something to go work it off
I want you to know that we can defeat satan and his attacks on our faith, by doing the same - Walking it off.
As you know the person who Pastor Cymbala hightlights in chapter 10 of the book is Abraham.
I’m going to do the same today. But I’m not going to be hitting the same things that Pastor Jim did.
I don’t want to speak his chapter, I want to speak something of God’s word that will speak to this chapter in your life.
God says to Abraham, I’m calling you to be the father of a great nation.
Your offspring will be as numerous as the grains of sand on the seashore.
And as I recall, he gives him 8 promises there.
And then comes the faith part - Abraham do you believe this? Then walk it off.
We have been looking this summer at who this God is
Is this the God we believe in?
Is this the God we will trust in?
Is His word something that we believe to be truth - in fact, the ultimate truth
Then I’m going to tell you, start stepping.
I have a fitbit watch. It has, based on my age, weight and goals, a certain amount of steps that it wants me to take each day.
If I’m sitting and not moving around for a while, I’ll get a little vibration on my wrist and a message that says you still need so many more steps this hour.
It’s keeping me focused and to the task
That’s what I’m praying this message does for all of us today. Just keeps us focused on faith and the task of walking in it.
Daniel and many of the Old Testament saints had to walk through the promises of God.
Joshua has to walk off the promises of God
Jesus tells us that through the promise of the Holy Spirit, we get to walk in the promises of God.
Are you doing that today?
Are you there today?
Walk It Off = Living Off the Promises of God
Walk It Off = Living Off the Promises of God
Abraham was offered a rich inheritance - but the only way to receive it was to take God at His Word and start walking.
God says leave this place and I will show you where to go
He had no map, he had no calendar, God would tell him when to stop
I want to say today, that there aren’t many of us who would do that.
And then I want to say that there are just as many of us, who are wondering why the promises of God haven’t come.
You see they go hand in hand.
Is it easy? No way. It’s the litmus of how much you really believe God’s word and how much you trust him.
I think a great example of this is over in
Now when He concluded all His sayings in the hearing of the people, He entered Capernaum. And a certain centurion’s servant, who was dear to him, was sick and ready to die. So when he heard about Jesus, he sent elders of the Jews to Him, pleading with Him to come and heal his servant. And when they came to Jesus, they begged Him earnestly, saying that the one for whom He should do this was deserving, “for he loves our nation, and has built us a synagogue.”
Then Jesus went with them. And when He was already not far from the house, the centurion sent friends to Him, saying to Him, “Lord, do not trouble Yourself, for I am not worthy that You should enter under my roof. Therefore I did not even think myself worthy to come to You. But say the word, and my servant will be healed. For I also am a man placed under authority, having soldiers under me. And I say to one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and to another, ‘Come,’ and he comes; and to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.”
When Jesus heard these things, He marveled at him, and turned around and said to the crowd that followed Him, “I say to you, I have not found such great faith, not even in Israel!” And those who were sent, returning to the house, found the servant well who had been sick.
Most of us would have wanted Jesus to come to our house
It’s not enough to just hear him, we need to see him.
But as we have been talking about, living off of the promise is taking him at his word.
Living off of the promises of God
It Makes God our Source
It Makes God our Source
I’m sure that Abraham packed stuff for the journey. He would have been a fool not to
But he didnt’ know how long the journey would last
He did not know what way he would be headed
He wouldn’t even know when he had arrived.
That was all part of the promise - You start walking. I’ll be with you. I’ll lead you. I’ll provide for you. And I’ll tell you when you are there. That’s alot to try and prepare for.
There had to be a recognition in Abrahams heart that God was going to provide
That what he provided would be sufficient
That where and when he provided would be correct.
That God was his source.
I’m sure that Abraham had lean times
I’m sure that he passed through land that would have been more than enough
I’m sure that every time he put up his tent, he wondered if he would have to pull up the stakes. And I’m sure there were times when he didn’t want to.
Church, God has made us some great promises as it relates to Him being our source.
But I can tell you that a large part of the church doesn’t believe this to be true.
Some of us came here today worried about our source of some things today.
Maybe because we don’t live like He is our source. - In trying to stay happy, we buy more than we should
We are over spent and living based on the bills.
I would believe that maybe 25 percent of us (and I’m guessing small here) didn’t tithe like He was our source
We held back that which we needed, instead of releasing that which he told us to.
If we give what the tithe should be, we won’t have enough to meet the bills or do what we want
Then God is not your source.
If God is not our source, we will never have enough
If God is not our source, we will not ever be able to help others and we will find ourselves always living with insufficiency.
But walking in the promises, isn’t effected by what we have or don’t have
It’s not limited to where we are or even how we feel
It’s released by who God is and what He can do.
It Releases us From the Hoops
It Releases us From the Hoops
(command oriented)
I guess the question here is this.
It’s hard to have faith in an abusive father. The only faith we can have in that type of situation is one who will always cause harm.
What do you see in God has your Heavenly Father? Do you know how much He really loves you?
Is your faith in a religious God? A God who can only have relationship in a religious sense?
Is your faith in a regulation God?
Is your faith in a spacial God - One who keeps his distance?
Or is your faith in a loving God?
It is that faith that will enable us to experience freedom.
It is that faith that will enable us to grow into what he has for us
Walking in the promises should bring peace to our lives, not stress and anxiety.
Walking in the promises will be hard work, because every day the doubts and fears of life are all around us, but it there will also be such a great joy in each day as well.
When Abraham was made the promise of being the father of Israel, two things happened that are natural to us living in the promises
He reacted to the promise as if he now had to perform. And so now he has to find a way to make it happen.
He trusted in the promise and sees the child of the promise (outside of natural circumstances)
Living in the promises
It Moves us Forward
It Moves us Forward
We read here that it says By faith he dwelt in the land of promise as in a foreign country, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise; for he waited for the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God.
It would take about 5 generations before this promise would be seen. And up to that point the Israelites, God’s People, are vagabonds.
They have no place to call home. This great nation - has no home.
Abraham raises up the promise - Isaac
Isaac teaches the promise to Jacob.
Jacob watches he and his sons in captivity in Egypt
The children of Jacobs sons will die in the wilderness
It is their children who finally enter into the promised land.
They had no home, but they were always moving forward. (Joseph)
The promise was still the same in each generation.
So much so that God takes on a new name associated with it. The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
What would have happned if Abraham had stayed in Ur of Chaldees? His family probably would still be there today.
You may not like where you are today. You might not have yet received the full promise
But you aren’t forsaken
You are never alone no matter where you are.
And the promise is still just as real. Do you have the faith to take another step, to face another day, because that could be the day when God finally says, we are here.
Don’t miss it, keep moving forward, keep taking ground.
And that’s my last point.
It Gets us to the Place God has for Us.
It Gets us to the Place God has for Us.
My brothers and sisters, God has a plan. God has made us promises
Do you have the faith today to say that no matter what, I’m going to walk in those promises
I’m going to walk in expectation of what God said he could do
Based on what I know of God to be.
Believing that every day brings me closer to being the child of God that he had created and called me to be.
If you will walk in the promise, you will see it.
Let’s Pray