Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

As we look forward to Christmas, we have for this week’s advent theme: faith.

But in today’s day and age, I would argue, faith is something that has been confused and misused and needs to be set in its proper context.

Real faith needs to be defined so we can guard our hearts and minds, our understanding of faith from from both secular influences that say faith is good, no matter where it is placed, or atheistic assertions that say “faith is bad,” that “we need to be freed from the bonds of religion,” and other religious systems that say faith is good so long as it is placed in their system of works-based salvation.

Faith needs to be defined.

Faith is something that naturally has an expectation attached to it.

When we think about advent, and the song we sang last week, O Come, O Come Emmanuel, there is an expectation for some future fulfilment of our hope.

Faith is trusting that God will do everything He said He would.

It is not a passive trust where we just let everything go by, but faith is an active commitment to bring our worries, our pain, our doubts and our sin before the one who has promised to do something about it.

Other translations, like the NIV, render that word “proof” as assurance, or others as conviction.

The Greek word literally means to be 100% convinced beyond the shadow of a doubt.

According to this verse, faith is already possessing that which we hope for, having confidence in what we believe without having seen it.

Today, I want us to look to God’s Word so we can answer three simply questions:

1.

How should we respond when our faith is challenged?

2. What does it mean that faith is a gift?

3. What is saving faith?

We are starting from the broadest application of faith and working our way to the most specific and narrow application, the most important question everyone needs to answer.

We’ll get to that question in a minute, but first…

How should we respond when our faith is challenged?

When our faith is challenged, we hold fast to Christ.

Who is Jesus?

Our Sure And Steady Anchor

There are times when we struggle, and then there are times we feel like throwing in the towel because life has handed us a situation or a bunch of situations simultaneously that makes us ask the questions,

“Doesn’t the Bible say he won’t give us any more than we can bear?”

“Where is God?”

“Why didn’t God heal this person of their disease?”

“Why would a loving and benevolent God allow such evil stuff happen?”

How many of us have experienced a time when our faith felt pretty shaky because of doubt?

OR because of situations we were facing where it seems there was no palpable help from Heaven?

Or because we expected a miraculous healing for either ourselves or for a loved one and instead, there was continued suffering or even death without that miraculous healing.

How do we respond when our faith is challenged?

Let’s look at this together.

This is a verse that has been misquoted and misunderstood, and when scripture is misquoted and misunderstood, that means it will also be misapplied as well, right?

Read with me in...

Many will say this verse says God will not give us more than we can bear, but notice what it is all about: it is not our suffering, but rather it is focused on the veracity of our character before God - ie.

How we handle temptation.

Let’s be clear - this passage is not about suffering, it is about when we are tempted to sin.

God made a promise through Paul that if we press into Him, that He is faithful and will help us to not sin.

When the Devil tempts us, The Lord gives us a way out!

The author of Hebrews echoed this same idea in

What an astonishing thought!

The creator of the universe experienced the human condition so that He can help us when we are tempted.

When we are tempted, we can go to Christ, because He has been there.

If we understand that our temptation to sin is not foreign to Christ, maybe we would have an easier time going to Him in prayer with an open and honest heart saying, “I can’t handle this.”

But what about suffering?

Suffering doesn’t always have to be physical, but can also be emotional, perhaps spiritual suffering (being bombarded by doubt or spiritual oppression).

It could very well be physical suffering too.

There are people here with a variety of diseases - within our own walls here at Dishman that cause more physical pain and suffering that I can imagine myself living with on a daily basis.

Paul said that he was given more than he could bear in regards to physical suffering.

Paul and his companions were completely overwhelmed by suffering.

In verse 5 he talks about “abundantly sharing in the sufferings of Christ...” It wasn’t just a little, but they were suffering abundantly - completely overwhelmed BEYOND THEIR STRENGTH - they wanted to die.

What does beyond their strength mean?

Let’s open another translation to see if we can clarify this a bit.

The NIV renders it this way:

They suffered far beyond their ability to endure.

But what did they do?

They didn’t pull back and withdraw from Christ, but rather they were comforted by Him and learned it was for a purpose.

When our faith is bludgeoned by this crazy circus of life, whether we face suffering or temptation, we know that God isn’t trying to be a bully and we know that we were never promised life would be easy, especially as a Christian!

What we were promised, though, is that God will get us through our suffering and our temptations and He will use them to grow us more and more to the likeness of Jesus.

He is in the midst of them, not waiting for us to get through on the other side.

When our faith is challenged, look to Christ to see what it is he might be doing through it and trust to Him to get you through.

That is faith.

When you feel like what you believe about the Lord is challenged, press in!

Hold Fast!

Ways we can press in to Christ:

Prayer (A.C.T.S.)

Adoration

Confession

Thanksgiving

Supplication

Fasting

Time in diligent study of the Word

Fellowship with believers who love you

Resting and meditating on Him

Stand firm in the Lord.

Faith is not dependent on our current status, but rather the amazing God who sent His Son for us.

He is our anchor, He is our hope, He is our assurance, and He is our refuge.

We know that when out faith is challenged, we hold fast to Christ.

What is truly amazing, though, is that when we feel weak in our faith, we can focus our faith on Him because faith is a gift from Him.

What does it mean that faith is a gift?

Faith is a gift in that God bestows faith on us as He sees fit.

Who Is Jesus?

He Is Our Rest

The Bible talks a lot about faith, right?

When I was asked to preach a topical sermon on faith, the first thing that jumped into my mind at that point was, “I’m gonna need a nap about half way through because faith is a big topic!”

But luckily for you, I was given a time limit!

In all seriousness, faith is shown in scripture to be a gift of God.

Read with me in...

Notice the flow of Paul’s thought: The GRACE of our lord overflowed, along with the Faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.

He is saying that Faith and love are just as much from the Lord as grace is.

Everything in this sentence is being directed from the Lord to the Paul.

“I recieved mercy… grace… faith… love…

If faith wasn’t from God, this verse would not make any sense!

If grace is a result of faith, and faith was dependent on us and our own desire to seek after God, wouldn’t that be a salvation obtained by the work of growing in faith?

Faith is a gift that results in God’s grace, thereby making faith and grace a gift that we do not deserve.

Imagine you want to buy your kids the best Christmas present ever.

You know exactly what they want and it is that one perfect gift that is tuned into their personality and could not be a more perfect gesture of the love you have for them because your relationship.

It is the new car they need to get to and from work or school.

You take them out to the driveway on Christmas morning and show them the car and the excitement of watching them be excited is almost as awesome for you as it is for them getting the car.

The car is grace.