Four Walls of Faith
Notes
Transcript
Be alert, stand firm in the faith, act like a man, be strong. Your every action must be done with love.
Brothers, you know the household of Stephanas: They are the firstfruits of Achaia and have devoted themselves to serving the saints. I urge you also to submit to such people, and to everyone who works and labors with them. I am pleased to have Stephanas, Fortunatus, and Achaicus present, because these men have made up for your absence. For they have refreshed my spirit and yours. Therefore recognize such people.
Following Christ is not easy, anyone who tells you otherwise is lying. Building a vibrant faith that changes our personal lives and the lives of those around us takes work, but that work really isn’t a mystery. People like to think that knowing what it means to be a Christian takes years and years of study. Not really. Throughout the Bible we find the clues to what a Christ follower is and what they do. One of the best places to look is 1 Corinthians. This letter from Paul is full of insight into what it takes.
So when looking at this set of verses we find what the building of our lives as followers of Christ should be.
The Four Walls of Our Faith
The Four Walls of Our Faith
Be Alert
Be Alert
The front wall of our faith is being alert. We need to watch out for chances to strengthen the walls of our Spiritual House as it were.
There are actually three different Greek words used for the world alert, each with a different meaning. This one happens to be This… γρηγορέω Yea looks different the English transliteration is gregoreo and it means to be awake be on the alert, to watch. Why is this so important when it comes to our walk with Christ. What do we need to watch out for, what should we look for. Some would point to watching out for temptation, guarding our heart, keeping a watch for the devil, in fact that is the reading many take away from the words of Jesus that we read here…
Taking along Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, He began to be sorrowful and deeply distressed. Then He said to them, “My soul is swallowed up in sorrow —to the point of death. Remain here and stay awake with Me.” Going a little farther, He fell facedown and prayed, “My Father! If it is possible, let this cup pass from Me. Yet not as I will, but as You will.”
Then He came to the disciples and found them sleeping. He asked Peter, “So, couldn’t you stay awake with Me one hour? Stay awake and pray, so that you won’t enter into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”
We need to keep our eyes out and stay on alert for things that can pull us away from God…but when I read these verses I begin to get a deeper picture of what we should be watching out for.
So we are to Watch
Stand Firm
Stand Firm
I need to look for opportunities to stand firm in my faith. What I’m about to bring up is going to come off as controversial to some. It’s going to fly in the face of what many people believe and understand but it is one of the more striking examples of someone standing firm in their faith.
Salah Farrah…Likely not a name you have heard, and if you did you probably don’t remember the reason for it.
Back in 2016 a group of Al Shabbab gunmen ambushed a bus in Kenya. They told the passengers “If you are Muslim you are safe, we are here to kill the Christians.”
“Kill us all or leave.” The words of Sallah Farrah. Why is this so important…because Sallah Farrah was Muslim…he and the other Muslims on that bus shielded the Christians riding the bus with their lives, because they believed that their faith did not allow for the violence perpetrated by Radical Muslims.
"People should live peacefully together," he told Voice of America in December of 2016. "We are brothers. It's only the religion that is the difference, so I ask my brother Muslims to take care of the Christians so that the Christians also take care of us. ... And let us help one another and let us live together peacefully."
Why would I tell you this, because that type of faith can be missing in the walls of the Christian Faith today. The reason that Sallah Farrah was able to stand up and do what he did, is because he was made in the Image of God. While his religion is not the same, and while without recognition of the fact that the only way to Heaven is through a relationship with Jesus Christ, he was able to look for opportunities to stand firm and then to do so.
In Acts 13 we see Paul standing firm in this faith.
Then Saul—also called Paul—filled with the Holy Spirit, stared straight at the sorcerer and said, “You son of the Devil, full of all deceit and all fraud, enemy of all righteousness! Won’t you ever stop perverting the straight paths of the Lord? Now, look! The Lord’s hand is against you. You are going to be blind, and will not see the sun for a time.” Suddenly a mist and darkness fell on him, and he went around seeking someone to lead him by the hand.
Then the proconsul, seeing what happened, believed and was astonished at the teaching about the Lord.
What was happening right before this set of verses a man named Elymus was perverting the message of Christ…He was trying to keep the pro-consel from hearing the truth of Christ and this is what happened because Paul Stood Firm in his faith.
Be Strong
Be Strong
In 1996 Keisha Thomas was a part of a group protesting a March held by the KKK in Ann Arbor Michigan. Images of a black teenager leaping into harm’s way to protect an alleged Ku Klux Klan member from an angry mob have lost none of their impact 17 years later.
Keisha Thomas spoke with the BBC about the day when 17 KKK members held a rally in mostly liberal Ann Arbor, Mich., in June 1996.
Hundreds of locals had arrived to protest their presence, while police with riot gear and tear gas protected the Klansman. An 18-year-old Thomas stood with the National Women's Rights Organizations Coalition protesters behind a purpose-built fence, when someone in the crowd noticed a white man with a Confederate flag T-shirt and an SS tattoo among them. A woman with a megaphone shouted her accusation, “There’s a Klansman in the crowd.”
As the man tried to get away, Thomas was among the crowd that gave chase. The man was attacked when he showed up at a KKK rally with a Confederate flag.
He started to run when cries of “Kill the Nazi” rang out, but soon fell to the ground. Protesters began to kick and strike the man with placards.
As the blows continued to rain down, a horrified Thomas threw herself on top of the man to shield him.
When the crowd noticed a white man with a Confederate flag T-shirt and an SS tattoo among them, they chased him down the street.
"When people are in a crowd they are more likely to do things they would never do as an individual. Someone had to step out of the pack and say, 'This isn't right,' “ she said.
Mark Brunner, the photographer who took the incredible shots, was amazed at Thomas’ selflessness.
Thomas has not met the man she protected since that day, but has been thanked by his son.
"She put herself at physical risk to protect someone who, in my opinion, would not have done the same for her," he said. "Who does that in this world?"
Thomas, who had previously experienced violence, says that the man did not deserve to be attacked.
“Nobody deserves to be hurt, especially not for an idea."
She has never met the man she protected again, but months later a young man approached her in coffee shop and thanked her. When she asked what he was thanking her for, his reply was simple.
“That was my dad.”
Look what Jesus says to Peter.
“Simon, Simon, look out! Satan has asked to sift you like wheat. But I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And you, when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.”
Act with LOVE
Act with LOVE
We have consistently been talking about the fact that my relationship with God is a choice. I choose the depth, I choose how much it informs my life, I choose if it grows or shrinks. I choose how alert I am willing to be in my walk with God. Christians who spend their life fighting the devil can’t hope to fulfill the great commission. And yet so many do just that, every time I choose to prove I am right as opposed to reaching out in Love, every time I choose principles over a person, every time I quantify who’s in and who’s out, I am engaging in a very dangerous act. I am putting personal feelings, in front of a persons chance at redemption, love, grace, and forgiveness.
In Joppa there was a disciple named Tabitha, which is translated Dorcas. She was always doing good works and acts of charity. In those days she became sick and died. After washing her, they placed her in a room upstairs. Since Lydda was near Joppa, the disciples heard that Peter was there and sent two men to him who begged him, “Don’t delay in coming with us.” So Peter got up and went with them. When he arrived, they led him to the room upstairs. And all the widows approached him, weeping and showing him the robes and clothes that Dorcas had made while she was with them.
Tabitha consistently responded in love. She found that serving with Love was preferable to fighting the devil, being right. Or being holier than thou…notice i didn’t say holy scripture tells us be holy as I am holy.
Some may think I’m advocating an abandonment of righteousness, of being soft on sin, of advocating a soft gospel that says everyone’s okay. On the contrary. I am just remembering this:
All of us have become like something unclean,
and all our righteous acts are like a polluted garment;
all of us wither like a leaf,
and our iniquities carry us away like the wind.
When being right, and doing things the right way stands in the way of being salt and light. I have lost the point of a relationship with God that’s more than words and songs.
This Week’s Challenge
This Week’s Challenge
I want each of us to go home and reflect on a person we have written off as un-salvageable, a person we have passed judgement on because we don’t agree with them, don’t like the people they choose to spend time with, don’t agree with their lifestyle, that person that we know has no hope of ever feeling the love of Christ, because lets face it there’s no way that Christ could love them because they aren’t good enough.
I then want us to take time this week to make contact with them. Put on your mask grab a cup of coffee or tea or some soda and head out to a park, have a conversation that has nothing to do with God. Begin to build a genuine relationship with them, outside of the judgment zone, and when that initial outing is over, make a second one and then a third. Be intentional in building authentic relationship. And each time when you come home, stop and pray for them. Don’t pray God get them, don’t pray God show them how wrong they are. Pray that God will shine through you, that God will bless them, and keep them.