A Faith, Hope, & Love Church
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Grow in Faith,
Bring Hope to a Dying World,
Be Known by our Love
What does it really mean to be a Faith, Hope, and Love Church?
We don’t want to play Church, we want to be the Church Jesus wants us to be. WE HAVE A MISSION!
These three are intertwined like the individual strands of a rope.
Imagine a church lacking any one of these three elements. No Faith? No Hope? No Love?
Sadly, I’d say we can find congregations severely lacking in one area or the other.
This is budget Sunday, where we share the plans, dreams, and goals of this congregation with whatever we are willing to give in order to accomplish this mission. That’s the unknown variable. What are we willing to give?
Let’s talk about Faith, Hope, & Love and then come back to budgets.
Faith
Faith
Dictionary of Bible Themes 8020 faith
A constant outlook of trust towards God, whereby human beings abandon all reliance on their own efforts and put their full confidence in him, his word and his promises.
Dictionary of Bible Themes 8020 faith
faith
A constant outlook of trust towards God, whereby human beings abandon all reliance on their own efforts and put their full confidence in him, his word and his promises.
Do we really live like we have faith, or do we still rely heavily on our own efforts?
1 Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.
2 This is what the ancients were commended for.
NOT TRUST IN OUR OWN DOING, BUT WHAT GOD IS DOING THAT WE CANNOT SEE.
FAITH = VERBS
Matthew 17:19-20
19 Then the disciples came to Jesus in private and asked, “Why couldn’t we drive it out?”
20 He replied, “Because you have so little faith. Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”
This is a Faith in “we” vs. Faith in God’s ability to do great things through us!
It doesn’t take much…mustard seed faith for “NOTHING” to be impossible for us.
WHAT KIND OF FAITH HAVE WE BEEN OPERATING WITH?
WHAT COULD WE ACCOMPLISH ON THE EAST SIDE OF SNYDER, OR SNYDER, OR SCURRY COUNTY WITH THAT KIND OF FAITH?
Hope
Hope
Hope. An expectation or belief in the fulfillment of something desired. Present hurts and uncertainty over what the future holds create the constant need for hope.
Our world desperately needs hope.
Government workers who didn’t get a paycheck for work they’ve already done.
Soldiers defending our country wondering how their families back home are going to make it.
The single mom with hungry mouths to feed wondering when her electricity is going to be shut off.
We too need hope. And what are we hoping in?
22 We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.
23 Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies.
24 For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have?
25 But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.
We hope in Resurrection, Renewal, RIGHTEOUSNESS, REDEMPTION.
5 For through the Spirit we eagerly await by faith the righteousness for which we hope.
GALATIANS
Our faith in Christ gives us Hope that he will do what he has promised, that he is going to make all things new, including ourselves, and will redeem us at the judgement.
6 But Christ is faithful as the Son over God’s house. And we are his house, if indeed we hold firmly to our confidence and the hope in which we glory.
Our faith in Christ gives us Hope that he will do what he has promised, that he is going to make all things new, including ourselves, and will redeem us at the judgement.
Love
Love
Society has this messed up.
Love A feeling of deep affection. A central theme in Scripture and Christian theology and ethics. Defines our relationship with God and dictates how we should treat others.
LOVE A feeling of deep affection. A central theme in Scripture and Christian theology and ethics. Defines our relationship with God and dictates how we should treat others.
The New International Version Chapter 5
13 You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love. 14 For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”
Love
Love is faithful and benevolent self-giving to a person. In the Bible, love is the central attribute of God, the primary fruit of the followers of God, and the defining characteristic of the kingdom of God announced in Jesus.
13 You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love.
14 For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”
Galatians
Nettelhorst, R. P. (2014). Love. D. Mangum, D. R. Brown, R. Klippenstein, & R. Hurst (Eds.), Lexham Theological Wordbook. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.
7 Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.
8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.
9 This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.
10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.
11 Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
12 No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.
1 John 4:7-12
Does East Side really love others? Not just in feelings, but in actions?
Give Generously
Give Generously
12 As for those agitators, I wish they would go the whole way and emasculate themselves!
13 You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love.
14 For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”
Tithing - Giving a tenth, 10%
Average giving today is 2-3%, less than during the Great Depression.
Jesus said you should tithe, but not to the exclusion of right living. ()
What could happen if American Christians would actually tithe?
Figures vary, but estimates range from an additional $165 - $400 billion each year.
$165 billion could...
relieve global hunger, starvation and deaths from preventable diseases in five years.
eliminate illiteracy in five years.
solve the world’s water and sanitation issues, specifically at places in the world where 1 billion people live on less than $1 per day
could fully fund all overseas mission work.
WE WOULD STILL HAVE $100 billion left over for additional ministry expansion.
Christians in America have God’s physical blessings to fix enormous global problems, and every year the giving grows smaller.
Global poverty isn’t a money problem, it’s a heart problem in the Church.
When will Christians in the US stop playing church and actually be the Church Jesus wants us to be?
Faith, Hope, & Love
Faith, Hope, & Love
Are we really doing all God has called us to do here at East Side?
Are we using our gifts, resources, relationships, and our FAITH to bring HOPE to the people of Snyder and share with them the LOVE of Christ?
If not, we better get busy.
God is calling every member of his Body to be all in for the Mission he has called us to.
ARE YOU IN?
3 We remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.
Notice each one of these has action, Work, Labor, Endurance.
5 For through the Spirit we eagerly await by faith the righteousness for which we hope.
6 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.
We try to make this far more complicated than this. Love +, No. Jews wanted to put all kinds of rules on the Gentiles. No. Love.
Finally, after showing that everything in this world passes away, that everything is temporary, and everything is meaningless if it doesn’t have love behind it, Paul concludes this way:
13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.