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Romans 4:17-25
INTRO
Pastor to a dead church, “I’ve stopped expecting you to make leaps of faith, but it would be nice to see a hop now and then.”
I have faith we’ll get to all the points in todays message.
The point of preaching is to change lives.
But, we must become willing to change.
Will resting on God’s Word lead me to change?
PRAY
On faith we know the Bible teaches that justification comes by faith alone.
The Bible puts it this way:
On the 14th last month I stood here noting that Paul argued this point by looking at the life of Abraham.
Abraham believed God would give him a baby at an advanced age.
Genesis 15:6 tells us, and this is before Abraham was a Jew, he believed God and it was, “credited [it] to him as righteousness.”
Jews, Paul, and the church all agree that Abraham is a man of great faith.
Today last half Romans chapter four.
What do you believe and know about faith?
How will your faith affect what God will do in this church?
Good questions to ask.
Let’s come back to them after looking at todays text.
Our passage gives you the spiritual food to properly answer those two questions.
I’m labeling the points:
Author of Faith
Adversity with Faith
Aspiration of the Faithful
Author of Faith
Knowing God who, “calls into existence” is the key point.
As awesome as your faith, its not so much if it’s not faith in God.
We think Abraham’s faith is awesome, but its not because he is Abraham, but because his faith is in God.
Where you put your faith is key.
Abraham believed before he was a Jew.
But there is more.
Before Jesus, Abraham believed in the resurrection of the dead!
In Genesis 22:5 Abraham obeyed God by raising a knife over Isaac; he believed God would raise Isaac if he died.
God is the Author of everything.
The world, universe, and you and I.
God created everything out of nothing.
Faith is not in being a Jew, a Christian, or attending church.
True faith has God as its object.
Two things I can ask you now are:
Is your faith in God?
How to you see God?
TRANS - There is human hope and heavenly hope.
Human hope might be trusting in science, our abilities, or medicine.
In our next topic we examine the place for reason and faith; hoping against hope.
The Biblical explanation might shock some of you.
Adversity with Faith
I see two challenges to Abraham’s faith:
One is believing God’s promise for a baby.
Less obvious the time waiting on God’s promise.
Some think having faith means ignoring facts.
These people consider faith and facts exclusive of each other.
Know the word for this?
Faith without reason is fideism.
The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy notes fideism:
faith is in some sense independent of, if not outright adversarial toward, reason
What about reason without faith?
Reason without faith is called rationalism.
Let me be clear, are you listening?
In no way is faith less than reason nor is reason less than faith.
Biblical faith is both.
Was Abraham ignorant or simple by having faith God would give him a baby?
No, Abraham put his mind into action and put reason and faith to work.
He knew the impossibility of birth at an advanced age and the impossibility of God lying, and understood that nothing is impossible with God.
Abraham didn’t take an unreasonable step of faith nor did he stop in his tracks when the facts added up to “impossible.”
How might this apply to FBC Tavares?
APP - Facts are that SBC churches are declining & LCBA churches have fewer numbers then 10 years ago.
Yet, Lake County is Florida’s 3rd fastest growing county.
Programs, events, new music, everything FBC Tavares and other churches have done is not even keeping pace with area growth.
Those are the hard to face facts.
But, other facts offer hope.
You can change the way you do things in the future.
FBC Tavares can do more for the kingdom that at anytime in her history starting in 2022.
Few facts:
You own prime real-estate.
You have bright young leadership
New results happen when churches change how they do things.
Now is the time to trust God who called your new pastor, who is blessing you with property, and who wants grow His church.
Your big part is to support your pastor’s vision, and pray a whole lot for unity.
In my short time as AMS, I’ve already helped too many pastors deal with people opposed to the vision God gives these men.
Don’t a few misguided people get in the way of what God is doing.
Being a church that God will bless is not going to be easy.
Faith might even ask this church to risk a whole lot.
Remember the rich young ruler.
Jesus asked him to risk everything for the kingdom.
Can you imagine if he did as Jesus said?
What great thing might had happened.
Okay, so God proposed something outside our comfort zone like he did with Abraham and Sara.
STORY - Abraham comes in and says, “Guess what happened to me today?”
Sara says, “Tell me.”
“God and I talked and he said you are going to have a baby!”
Rolling her eyes, Sara says, “Where’s the bottle?”
Ab says, “No, really God said we’re gonna be parents.”
As a church, God says make every effort to believe and do together.
Believe in God and make every effort to be unified.
Right?
Some will suggest ideas, some will contest ideas, but in the end it must be both faith and reason that you discuss.
Like with Abraham and Sara, they experienced God’s will and power together.
It was a little hard to believe, but they did believe.
Against all church changes, type of music, adding and dropping ministries, tearing down and building gathering places, service times, and giving big time, you will need to be one in order for God to grow this church.
Your choices will not be easy or every church would be growing.
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