Keeping Faith Strong in trying times. Part 2
Keeping Faith Strong in trying times. Part 2 Kingaroy 280908am
A few weeks ago we began of a mini series we called.
Keeping Faith Strong in trying times. Who remembers that who doesn't.
We don't have to be told we are living in trying times.
Spiritually, Morally, Financially.
Whatever we are going through the Principles of God are the same.
Which came from a verse in Romans 4: 20 About Abraham
He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God;
21 And being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform.
22 And therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness.
So we see he didn't stagger.
He didn't allow the weight of life to cause him to stagger and he kept himself from ungodly influences so his faith did not stagger.
His faith was FULLY persuaded that Gods promises are Gods Performances.
We looked at a thought that Faith is a fight.
To fully understand what Victory is we must what it is to be in a battle.
WE are now going to go to another time and to another man .
Paul who Faith was strong in a very trying time in the History of the Church.
Paul wrote about 2/3 New Testament.
His message was in essence Keeping Faith Strong in trying times.
Lets turn to 1 Tim 6: 11 and briefly look at a few more thoughts on
Paul kept his faith strong in trying times and we see her he is giving instructions to Timothy about 'Keeping Faith strong in trying times'.
1 Tim 6: 11 But you, O man of God, flee these things and pursue (follow) righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, gentleness.
12 Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, to which you were also called and have confessed the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.
Keeping Faith strong in trying times is about those 3 F's right here.
Flee Follow Fight.
So
Faith is about Fleeing some things.
Faith is about Following some things.
Faith is about Fighting the good Fight.
From verses 1-10
3 If anyone teaches otherwise and does not consent to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which accords with godliness,
4 he is proud, knowing nothing, but is obsessed with disputes and arguments over words, from which come envy, strife, reviling, evil suspicions,
5 useless wranglings of men of corrupt minds and destitute of the truth, who suppose that godliness is a means of gain. From such withdraw yourself.
6 Now godliness with contentment is great gain.
7 For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out.
8 And having food and clothing, with these we shall be content.
9 But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and harmful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition.
10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.
Paul names some things to flee from
We Flee from things that God does not approve of...
I. FLEE
(i) False teaching lots of false teaching out there today.
3 If anyone teaches otherwise and does not consent to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which accords with godliness,
We are a Pentecostal Church that does not mean we have to believe everything we hear. From some of these TV Evangelists. Some are good and some are not so good.
Some stuff you hear on prosperity and other stuff is not bible.
(ii) Disputes and argumentative people.
v 4 disputes and arguments over words, from which come envy, strife, reviling, evil suspicions,
5 useless wranglings of men of corrupt minds and destitute of the truth, who suppose that godliness is a means of gain. From such withdraw yourself.
Some people are always looking for something to dispute over.
(iii) Love of money and things.
10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.
Money and things are not wrong as long as they don't have our heart.
God must have our heart.
Paul then says we are to Follow or Pursue what God does approve of
II. FOLLOW or PURSUE
A. Pursue (or follow) a godly life (v.6).
B. Pursue (or follow) faith.
C. Pursue (or follow) a life that can endure (v.14).
D. Pursue (or follow) gentleness (v.2c).
III. FIGHT THE GOOD FIGHT OF FAITH (v.12a).
A. We are fighting for our Christian faith (vv.3-5).
At the very heart of the Christian gospel is a cross—the symbol of suffering and sacrifice, of hurt and pain and humiliation and rejection.
Jesus has won the Victory we have to maintain the Victory we can in Him.
We must never forget we have an enemy that wants to see us come undone and destroyed.
2 Tim 2: 3 You therefore must endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.
Paul is saying to be effective Gods people have to be trained in Spiritual Warfare.
All good soldiers have bee trained and are disciplined.
I'll read an Article I was reading last week on Warfare.
This man tells of a true life experience of an American Soldier then applies Christian truth to it.
This is part of the Article.
During the Bosnian Conflict, NATO forces were sent to assist matters in protecting the Croats from Serbian aggression.
During this conflict and while in faithful service, 29 year old United States Air Force pilot, Captain Scott O'Grady, was shot down on June 2, 1995, while flying his F-16 Falcon over Serbian territory.
For 6 days he eluded and evaded the enemy safely, until he was rescued. Though O'Grady's personal courage and mettle carried him through, he said that it was the training that gave him the extra edge.
He had previously gone through a 17 day course at the U.S.A.F. Survival School at Fairchild A.F.B. near Spokane, Washington. It gave him the skills that he would unknowingly need in the future.
At the heart of his survival training course was this message:
"In order to stay alive and survive, you
must pay attention to what you have been
taught and rely on it, and your inner strength.
(Your will to survive!)"
A man has taken this Manual and added the Christian application to it.
This is part of the Manual
"Aircrew Survival Manual" (121 page book on survival) there are 13 major points that they must remember in survival. They are:
1) Stay Alert! - In peacetime, assess your situation.
Treat injuries promptly. Make contact with rescue forces as quickly as possible. (Deal with hurts and offenses quickly. Pray much.)
In wartime, conceal yourself where the enemy can't follow, but where you have a clear view and several avenues of escape!
(Stay on the straight and narrow way, have a clear view of Jesus, and look for the way of escape!)
2) Conceal yourself - Hide from the enemy. (We are hidden in Christ!)
Don't expose yourself to the enemy don't go to where the enemy is.
Drug party etc. Alcohol .
3) Don't wander - Stay near your aircraft, it makes it easier for rescuers to find you.
(We must stay near the Cross!)
In wartime, depending on the location of the enemy, head toward the nearest known recovery zone.
(Always go to the House of God!)
Never take a straight path, but zigzag. Every 10 paces stop, look, and listen for human or animal movement.
4) Move Carefully - (Walk in the Word of God)
Watch for booby-traps! (We are not ignorant of Satan's devices!)
Avoid leaving any signs of travel.
(We're temporarily here on this earth, just passing through!)
Cover foot prints - bury wastes - camouflage campsite.
5) Find Water - You can survive weeks without food, but you must have water.
(We must drink from the fountain of Living Waters!) Avoid dehydration! Don't drink "foul water."
6) Find Food - Select edible insects, plants, and small animals.
(We need the Bread of Life!)
7) Improvise - Use all equipment possible to survive, and bury what you do not need!
(Use God's arsenal - Ephesians 6 - The Armour and Weapons of God).
Bury every weight and the sin that doth so easily beset us!)
8) Light a Fire - (Build a Holy Ghost Fire!)
9) Cook your Food - Kills parasites. (Meditate on the Word)
10) Sleep Carefully - Choose a place that won't be easily searched out. Don't stay in one place too long. (Sleep to rest - not for laziness. We must never stay too long in one place in God. We must move on and move up in God!)
11) Stay Dry - Keep clean and dry. (Keep yourself unspotted from the world!)
12) Send Signals - (Pray without ceasing!)
13) Don't Despair - Maintain a positive attitude at all times, and banish the possibility of failure from your mind!
Remember that everything possible is being done to locate and rescue you!
Others have been in the same situation and have survived by following the same training!
Find solace and strength by praying, and thinking about your family, and what you plan to do when you are recovered!
He survived because he evaded the enemy!
Captain Scott O'Grady was welcomed home as a national hero, not because of great heroics - killing the enemy or destroying enemy armories - but he was a hero simply because he successfully evaded the enemy!
CLOSING
2 Cor 4: 13 And since we have the same spirit of faith, according to what is written, "I believed and therefore I spoke," we also believe and therefore speak,
Once we are Born Again we are given the SAME Spirit of Faith.
IT what we do with it that is so important.
2 Timothy 1: 6 Therefore I remind you to stir up the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands.
7 For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.
Notice a SPIRIT of FAITH and a SPIRIT of FEAR.
The Truth the word of God teaches and Abraham and Paul and David and Hannah and Ruth all found was this
that the Spirit of Faith defeats the Spirit of Fear every time.
We'll leave it there we Can have Keep Faith strong in trying Times.
By Fleeing by Following by Fighting.
Musos back.
It would be wrong to preach on Faith and not give opportunity to use Faith.
If you are believing God for something at the moment.
Come and Stand before Him and we are going to pray and believe like Abraham
be strong in faith, giving glory to God;
21 And being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform.
Faith by its very essence Stirs people into action we cannot have a Strong faith and remain passive or stagnant.
Lets close
Rom 4: 16 Therefore it is of faith that it might be according to grace, so that the promise might be sure to all the seed, not only to those who are of the law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all
17 (as it is written, "I have made you a father of many nations") in the presence of Him whom he believed; God, who gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did;
18 who, contrary to hope, in hope believed, so that he became the father of many nations, according to what was spoken, "So shall your descendants be."
19 And not being weak in faith, he did not consider his own body, already dead (since he was about a hundred years old), and the deadness of Sarah's womb.
20 He did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God,
21 and being fully convinced that what He had promised He was also able to perform.
22 And therefore "it was accounted to him for righteousness."
23 Now it was not written for his sake alone that it was imputed to him,
24 but also for us. It shall be imputed to us who believe in Him who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead,
25 who was delivered up because of our offenses, and was raised because of our justification.
Faith stirs us into prayer
Faith stirs up into a Godly confession
Faith stirs a Godly declaration from our lips
Faith stirs up commitment and loyalty
Faith stirs us into action.
Lets put Faith into Action.
Lets have a Faith that will remain strong in trying Times.
2 Faith heroes of the old covenant are mentioned here Abraham and Rahab.
You would not find two people with such diverse backgrounds.
Abraham the Father of the Jews, Rahab a gentile prostitute.
Abraham was a good man, Rahab a sinful woman.
Abraham was a friend of God. Rahab belonged to the enemies of God.
What was there common ground a Dynamic Faith in God.
That's is the power of Faith (Backgrounds don't matter).
See backgrounds have the potential to wreck faith.
Faith is not limited by our Background. Don't you love that.
Look at some that Jesus chose to be his early Church.
See it does not matter to God where we have come from what we have been involved what bondage has been on our lives.
Faith destroys the power of backgrounds and the past.
Paul had a past, Peter had a past, Mary Magdalene had a past , we all have a past, but faith destroys the power of the past over lives, it destroys negative backgrounds.
In God, when we have Faith in Jesus our background is gone.
Cast into the sea of God to be remembered no more. Don't you just love it.
Faith in God elevates us takes us out of the old life into a Brand New life in God.
We will close today with God breaking the power of Gideons background to give Him a strong faith in a trying time.
Judges 6: 11 Now the Angel of the LORD came and sat under the terebinth tree which was in Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, while his son Gideon threshed wheat in the winepress, in order to hide it from the Midianites.
12 And the Angel of the LORD appeared to him, and said to him, "The LORD is with you, you mighty man of valor!"
13 Gideon said to Him, "O my lord, if the LORD is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all His miracles which our fathers told us about, saying, 'Did not the LORD bring us up from Egypt?' But now the LORD has forsaken us and delivered us into the hands of the Midianites."
14 Then the LORD turned to him and said, "Go in this might of yours, and you shall save Israel from the hand of the Midianites. Have I not sent you?"
15 So he said to Him, "O my Lord, how can I save Israel? Indeed my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father's house."
No I can't don't you know my background.
God in essence is saying . A Rea faith in me your backgrounds does not matter.
Over a period of time he breaks the power of Gideons backgrounds and Gideon becomes what he spoke over Him a mighty man of Valour.
We can too.
Our backgrounds don't matter.
It's like James is saying here that we need to have the same type of Faith as Abraham had
v 22 How did Abraham's Faith work.
How was Abraham justified by Faith.
Lets go to Genesis 15
How did God bring about the change in Abraham.
Genesis 15 :
15:1 After these things the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision, saying, "Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward."
2 But Abram said, "Lord GOD, what will You give me, seeing I go childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?"
3 Then Abram said, "Look, You have given me no offspring; indeed one born in my house is my heir!"
4 And behold, the word of the LORD came to him, saying, "This one shall not be your heir, but one who will come from your own body shall be your heir." 5 He took him outside and said, "Look up at the heavens and count the stars--if indeed you can count them." Then he said to him, "So shall your offspring be."
6 Abram believed the LORD, and he credited it to him as righteousness.
7 He also said to him, "I am the LORD, who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to take possession of it."
8 But Abram said, "O Sovereign LORD, how can I know that I will gain possession of it?"
The Revelation of the Promise then the Covenant where God says I will keep my part of the Covenant.
9 So the LORD said to him, "Bring me a heifer, a goat and a ram, each three years old, along with a dove and a young pigeon."
10 Abram brought all these to him, cut them in two and arranged the halves opposite each other; the birds, however, he did not cut in half.
11 Then birds of prey came down on the carcasses, but Abram drove them away.
17 When the sun had set and darkness had fallen, a smoking firepot with a blazing torch appeared and passed between the pieces.
18 On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram.
We see here How God changed Abraham's life, we looked at this part once before.
God took Abraham outside of the paradigm of his thinking.
The Perimeter of our Thinking.
Faith changes thinking, think outside the box.
LOOK.
Faith changes Focus . Look at the stars Look at the possibilities.
Faith challenges our old way of thinking and focusing.
All that we have been taught through our lives, the humanism, all those things we have been taught to make our senses alert but does nothing for Faith.
Noah build a huge ship, God says Noah It is going to rain, You have not seen Rain but trust me But I'm going to send rain and flood the earth.
Talk about outside of the Paradigm of our thinking.
Thinking outside of the Box. We've seen nothing yet.
Ephesians 3: 20 Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us,
The Lord says to Joshua have the COI March around Jericho for 6 days and on the 7th Day march around it 7 times and then Shout and the Wall will fall down.
Joshua 6: 3 "You shall march around the city, all you men of war; you shall go all around the city once. This you shall do six days.
4 "And seven priests shall bear seven trumpets of rams' horns before the ark.
Faith makes us obedient to our Joshua, to Jesus Christ as the Captain of the Host.
When He asks us something to do something we do it.
Faith cause us to be Men of War,
Faith increases the Priestly Anointing to be strong upon us, so we will have ultimate respect for the Ark, for the Covenant of God.
v 5 Says God took Him outside.
Thinking inside the Box verses thinking outside of the Box.
1. Inside is Fear outside is Faith, don't look in look at the problem , look at the possibility.
2. Inside is lack outside is reward God says I am your reward.
3. Inside it is impossible outside all things are possible to Him that believes.
Faith will always make us think outside of the Box.
Faith challenges the way we think, what we focus on.
What can I do where you have placed me.
Faith renews our mind, it takes us out of the realm of senses into the realm of the possibilities in the spirit realm.
Now this is not flaky.
Faith takes us out of We'll all be ruined said Hanrohan,
to a Focusing on the promises of God.
We'll bring this to a close today with a few verses from Romans 4
Then next week we will go on and look at
5 Qualities to Faith as evidenced in Abraham's life.
5 Qualities to keep our Faith strong in trying times.
Abraham's Faith
1. Trusted Gods Goodness
2. Trusted Gods word
3. Loved God more that anything else
4. Was a Faith that is willing to sacrifice.
5. Was a faith that had action.
We will look at these next week....
Next Week we will go on..
5 Qualities to Faith as evidenced in Abraham's life.
5 Qualities to keep our Faith strong in trying times.
Abraham's Faith
1. Trusted Gods Goodness
2. Trusted Gods word
3. Loved God more that anything else
4. Was a Faith that is willing to sacrifice.
5. Was a faith that had action.
We will look at these next week....
We'll leave it there.
I'll ask the Musos Back.
Would those that have been through a test of faith these last few weeks please come out and stand in the presence of the Lord.
The Lord says He has
Seen the tears the challenges the attacks
The Lord says He is with you He is am taking you on to new level with me.
The Lord says He can perform what He has said he can do.
Hunger after my presence Hunger after my Kingdom Hunger after my word.
There are so many ways we could look at Faith
The Power of Faith, The Presence of Faith
The Purpose of Faith, The Outworking of Faith,
Jesus simply said
In Mark 11: 22 "Have faith in God," Jesus answered.
23 "I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain, 'Go, throw yourself into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him.
The scriptures are clear without Faith we cannot please God.
Hebrew 11:33 declares that OT saints through faith obtained promises and it is clear from John 14: 14 and 15:7,8 that promise obtainers glorify God.
To really look at Faith we have to look at the Father of Faith.
Abraham.
5 Qualities to Faith as evidenced in Abraham's life.
5 Qualities to keep our Faith strong in trying times.
Faith that must
1. Trusts Gods Goodness
2. Trusts Gods word
3. Loves God more that anything else
4. A Faith that is willing to sacrifice.
5. A faith that had action.
But for that to happen there are
5 Qualities to Faith as evidenced in Abraham's life.
5 Qualities to keep our Faith strong in trying times.
A Great Bible Teacher mentions 5.
Abraham's Faith:-
1. It trusted in God's goodness.
He had this simple philosophy about God. God was a GOOD God.
So He then Trusted in the goodness of God.
First of all that Abraham's faith trusted in God's goodness.
Over and over again in Abraham's life he had opportunity to doubt God's goodness why did God tell him to leave Haran in the first place?
Bless Test Bless etc. etc.
Did God really mean to bless him? How did Abraham know?
God might conceivably have asked Abraham to leave Haran in order to destroy him! But somehow Abraham learned to trust God's goodness.
Again Abraham could have wondered when he came to the land of Canaan and found that it was in a severe drought.
Instead Abraham went to Egypt and came back to Canaan later.
Abraham trusted God's goodness and was willing to put his whole life in the hands of that goodness.
Abraham's decision to let Lot graze his animals wherever he wanted.
Lot probably thought about three seconds about that decision!
We can overhear him thinking "Should I take the green fields or the rocks?
The green fields or the rocks? I think I'll take the green fields!"
But somewhere along the line Abraham learned to trust in God's goodness so when Lot chose the best land Abraham wasn't threatened.
Abraham knew that God was going to bless him wherever he was, good land or bad land. And Abraham was right!
David said the same thing in
Psalm 27: 13 I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living.
Faith sees and knows of the goodness of God, Focuses on the goodness of God.
2. It trusted in God's word.
Notice secondly that Abraham's faith trusted in God's word.
Over and over again Abraham had opportunity to doubt God's promise.
Abraham had opportunity to doubt God's promise right from the start.
"Why would you choose me, God?" Abraham could have asked.
Abraham could have chosen to stay home.
Abraham could have gone but doubted whether or not God would do anything.
And then later Abraham could have doubted God's promise when he hadn't had a son by age 99!
But over and over again Abraham asked God about the promise, God confirmed the promise, and Abraham believed God. He trusted God's word,
he trusted God's promise, and he was willing to live by it. In fact,
Abraham trusted God's word so much that when God asked him to go sacrifice Isaac, Abraham knew that God was trustworthy. The request seemed absurd. That he should have another son seemed impossible. But Abraham knew that God's promise was trustworthy, and he walked in that confidence!
3. It loved God more than anything else. Friend of God.
I've already said that Abraham's faith expressed a profound trust in God.
But Abraham's faith also loved God more than anything else.
Over and over again Abraham had opportunity love things more than God. Abraham even had the opportunity to love things about God more than God.
Abraham could have fallen in love with the promise.
Abraham could have fallen in love with God's goodness.
Abraham could have loved God's blessings more than God.
Or Abraham could have loved God only because he was a blessing giver.
Abraham could have loved the land of Canaan more than God.
Abraham could even have loved Isaac more than God.
Over and over again Abraham had opportunity to love some thing more than God, but over and over Abraham chose to love God above everything else.
At the very core of his life, Abraham was a man walking with his God.
Like Job, if you stripped away Abraham's possessions, if you stripped away the promise of blessing, if you stripped away the promise of a great name,
Abraham was at heart a man living with his God.
Abraham loved God and wouldn't let anything else get in the way.
Faith seeks the face of God not just what he will give us His hand.
Faith will serve God without all the trimmings.
4. It was familiar with sacrifice.
But notice also that Abraham's faith was well acquainted with sacrifice! In following God Abraham made tremendous personal sacrifices! First Abraham had to leave his home. He had to leave his father's household.
That must have been incredibly hard! First Abraham lost a brother in Ur. Then his father died in Haran. How then could Abraham leave his mother and his brother Nahor?
How could he leave them and travel four hundred miles to a place he didn't know? How could he leave knowing that he would probably never see these family members again?
How could he leave knowing that he would probably never hear from these family members again?
You know, they didn't have Telecommunications in Abraham's day!
No E:mails. Only C Mail Camel mail a little bit slower
Four hundred miles was a long way to travel, a long way to be separated from family!
But Abraham left family behind.
He left his homeland behind. But there was more.
Not only that, but Abraham had to live in a rocky land. That's a hard life for a shepherd!
If you think that this business of raising cattle in a drought season is hard, just a think about this a minute:
How would you live if you had to graze your herd on whatever you could find hidden between rocks?
And what if that was the way you had to do every day of every year? But there was more that Abraham sacrificed.
As James points out in 2:21 God considered Abraham righteous because he offered Isaac on the altar.
Now, if you know the story a question automatically comes up in your mind. "Abraham offered Isaac on the altar?
I thought God provided a ram in a tree for Abraham to sacrifice?"
Both things are true.
James is right: Abraham did offer up Isaac on the altar that day. In fact, Abraham bound Isaac with cords, placed him on the altar and was ready to kill him when the Lord stopped him and provided a ram to be sacrificed.
But that day Abraham had to make a decision in his heart of hearts: who is more important to me, Isaac or the God that gave me Isaac?
And that day Abraham allowed his love for Isaac to take a back seat to his love for God.
5. It perfected itself in action.
Finally notice what James says in 2:22 "His faith was made complete by what he did." Do you want a perfect faith?
Do you want a faith that is whole and complete?
A faith that isn't missing big chunks? A faith that isn't full of holes?
Then pay attention to this statement!
"His faith was made complete by what he did."
Gen 22: 16 And said, By myself have I sworn, saith the LORD, for because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son:
17 That in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies;
18 And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice.
The Lord is giving Abraham a picture of the way Faith works.
Stars representing the Spiritual Faith must Focus on God on the Spiritual but then also there is an outworking of that the Sand. the feet on the ground the outworking of what God has shown us.
Sand representing the Natural
An old Scottish preacher said that Faith and Works are the two feet with which a man walks in Christ, one without the other produces a spiritual cripple.
How True.
The Spiritual aspect of Faith:- The Stars the Seeing the Believing, the focusing
The Natural aspect the Sand:- The Sand the Doing the touching the hands on, the feet on the ground stuff.
"His faith was made complete by what he did."
But what is it that James is referring to here? what action of Abraham's faith made his faith complete?
His sacrifice of Isaac.
The willing to sacrifice the most important thing to his heart next to God.
Sacrifice is too easily talked about, but sacrifice is at the heart of the Christian life! What did God ask Abraham to sacrifice?
Everything. Isaac was the fruit of God's promise to Abraham.
Isaac was the only indication that Abraham had that God's promise would come true.
Isaac was the only link Abraham had to a future that his eyes would never see this side of the grave, a future that his hands would never touch.
God promised to give Abraham a great name and to make him a great nation and Isaac was the only link that Abraham had to that promise! And God asked Abraham to sacrifice Isaac!
Abraham's whole life was tied up in the life of that child, and God asked Abraham to sacrifice him! And still today God asks us to sacrifice what is dearest to us. Jesus said "Take up your cross and follow me." And we should well stand at the foot of that cross and wonder first what it will cost to hang there. God requires nothing less of us than what he required of Abraham: nothing less than everything we have.
That's the kind of faith that Abraham had, and that's the kind of faith that God wants us to have!
Faith that must
1. Trusts Gods Goodness
2. Trusts Gods word
3. Loves God more that anything else
4. A Faith that is willing to sacrifice.
5. A faith that had action.
Because Abraham believed God had a dynamic Faith in God,
5 'C's
(i) He had a Credit with God. Faith gives us a credit with God.
(ii) He had a Call from God. Faith enables us to heed the Call.
(iii) He had a Covenant with God. Faith bring us into Covenant.
(iv) He obeyed the Command of God.
(v) He developed a Companionship with God and all that =
v 22 His faith was made Complete.
Who wants a complete Faith.
That is the Recipe.
In the Coming weeks lets be a People that will like Abraham exercise our Faith.
And see God do some mighty powerful things.
Amen.
I'll ask the musos back....
I would like to Pray for people this morning. Baptism of the Holy Spirit a Fresh Touch of the Anointing of Gods Spirit an infusion of the Holy Spirit.
Any one with sickness in your bodies.
Lets exercise Faith Here this morning.
We all have needs we all have something we are believing God for.
Lets exercise Faith.
If you are believing God for something.
Come forward as an act of Faith and Stand before the Lord and we are going to pray and release Faith together.
Healing, a family member a financial need.
Direction for Life.
Some time ago we looked at a message on Elijah's Faith
"Faith says these are the days" It was about keeping faith buoyant.
We'll quickly recap for those that were not here.
I Kings 17:1 And Elijah the Tishbite, who was of the inhabitants of Gilead, said unto Ahab, As the LORD God of Israel liveth, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my word.
We looked at the Conviction of Elijahs Heart.
1. He had an unshakeable confidence in the true and living God.
2. He was convinced of the need to stand before God each day in Prayer and then one day in Eternity.
3. He was totally convinced that the resources God had provided for Him were sufficient.
So we concluded that we can have a Buoyant faith in an evil day. By
1. Having an unshakeable confidence in the True God.
2. Maintaining intimacy with God.
3. He had unswerving trust in the provision of God for us even in hard times.
That even though today is an evil day an evil day has never stopped God or a people that believe in Him. Today's message will go on from there.
We looked how Cherith was the training ground for Mt. Carmel.
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Introduction
Sermon text with italics and bold and John 3:16 and v. 20.
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