GOD IS DOING A NEW THING: Do we have the faith? - May 14, 2023

 GOD IS DOING A NEW THING: Do we have the faith? - May 14, 2023

INTRODUCTION

I have a sermon series to preach but not yet.

I believe God is doing a new thing!

I can almost taste it.

Faith is what moves us from reserved caution to trusting abandon.  Faith is always active.  Trust always does something.

There are five different kinds of faith affecting our lives.

1. NATURAL FAITH. This is faith in a bank where money will be safe,

faith in a mailbox that our letter will be delivered, or faith in an employer

that we will be paid at the end of the week.

2. INTELLECTUAL FAITH. A woman baking a cake and following a recipe is

exercising intellectual faith. She believes that the cake will result from

pouring in certain ingredients.

A few years ago Paula and I went to my parents to see a total eclipse of the sun. Scientific facts led us to accept by faith that the eclipse would come at a certain time and none of us were

disappointed, as it came right on schedule. The next one is scheduled to come

in 2024, and all of us believe that it will be on schedule, too.

3. HISTORICAL FAITH. We believe that Napoleon actually lived and

led a great army. We believe that George Washington was the first

President of the United States and that Abraham Lincoln gave the Gettysburg

Address. This is historical faith.

4. SAVING FAITH. This is Bible faith that God will keep His promise

and save us by grace, through faith.

5. VICTORIOUS FAITH. This is the faith of a child of God that helps

him to exercise prayer and obedience in the Christian life, believing that God

will give certain rewards and benefits because He has promised to do so.

“This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith.”

‭‭1 John‬ ‭5‬:‭4b‬ ‭NIV‬‬

I.  FAITH

“And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.”

‭‭ Hebrews‬ ‭11‬:‭6‬ ‭NIV‬‬

A.  Faith is the fundamental truth of the Christian life.

Three schoolboys were asked to write their definition of faith. One wrote: "Faith is TAKING hold of God." The second wrote: "Faith is HOLDING onto God." The third wrote: "Faith is NOT letting go!"

Each schoolboy was right!

B.  Why would you come to Him if you did not believe He exists and rewards seekers?

Evolutionists say that life arose as a result of spontaneous generation; that it all began as inorganic matter, or pre biotic soup, a puddle of green slime. They call it a "fortuitous concourse of atoms." Doesn’t that sound intellectual? A flash of lightning hit the puddle of scum and life began. Now why would intelligent people believe that?

Dr. George Wald (Nobel Prize winner in Biology and professor of Biology at Harvard) said, "There are only two possibilities as to how life arose; one is spontaneous generation arising to evolution, the other is a supernatural creative act of God, there is no third possibility. Spontaneous generation, that life arose from non-living matter, was scientifically disproved 120 years ago by Louis Pasteur and others. That leaves us with only one possible conclusion - that life arose as a creative act of God. I will not accept that philosophically because I do not want to believe in God, therefore I choose to believe in that which I know is scientifically impossible, spontaneous generation arising to evolution."

C.  “Saving faith” is only the beginning.

If I stand on the ground floor of a 27-floor building and press the button for an elevator, I am confident (I have faith) that the elevator will arrive. Indeed, it does, and the door opens.

I am now presented with a vehicle that, I am confident (I have faith), will take me to the top of that building, provided I step into it. When I do, my faith in that elevator takes the form of personal trust.

I step into it, and it does the rest. My faith in the elevator does not empower the elevator, it trusts in the elevators power to take me to the floor I want to go to.

Faith is simply stepping into Christ, trusting in His power to save me.

“Faith alone saves, but the faith that saves is never alone”

John Calvin

II.  FAITH IN ACTION

“What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. But someone will say, “You have faith; I have deeds.” Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds. You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder. You foolish person, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless? Was not our father Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did. And the scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,” and he was called God’s friend. You see that a person is considered righteous by what they do and not by faith alone. In the same way, was not even Rahab the prostitute considered righteous for what she did when she gave lodging to the spies and sent them off in a different direction? As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.”

‭‭James‬ ‭2‬:‭14‬-‭26‬ ‭NIV‬‬

A.  Faith needs action.

B.  Faith and deeds must work together.

My mom - faith in God, did what she had to do, remained faithful

C.  Faith without deeds is dead.

John Wesley once said: "Give me a hundred men who love nothing but God and hate nothing but sin, and I will shake the whole world for Christ."

It doesn’t take many… but it does take someone who decides to be faithful.

In December 1944, the German army launched an unexpected attack. In what was to become known as the Battle of Bulge, the Nazis drove deep behind Allied lines. Writing in WW II about the reaction of the American troops to this attack, James Jones said

“No one of these little road junction stands could have had a profound effect on the German drive. But hundreds of them, impromptu little battles at nameless bridges and unknown crossroads, had an effect of slowing enormously the German impetus… These little die-hard ‘one man stands,’ alone in the snow and fog without communications, would prove enormously effective out of all proportion to their size.”

III.  FAITH IN IMPOSSIBLE CIRCUMSTANCE

“Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.”

‭‭Ephesians‬ ‭3‬:‭20‬-‭21‬ ‭NIV‬

‘You see things as they are, and ask ”why?” But I dream things that never were, and ask “why not?”  George Bernard Shaw, who opposed organized religion

Alice laughed. "There’s no use trying," she said: "one can’t believe impossible things." "I daresay you haven’t had much practice," said the Queen. "When I was your age, I always did it for half-an-hour a day. Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.

Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking Glass

A.  God can do more than we ask or imagine.

“Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Truly I tell you, it is hard for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.” When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished and asked, “Who then can be saved?” Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.””

‭‭Matthew‬ ‭19‬:‭23‬-‭26‬ ‭NIV‬‬

“The disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said again, “Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.” The disciples were even more amazed, and said to each other, “Who then can be saved?” Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God.””

‭‭Mark‬ ‭10‬:‭24‬-‭27‬ ‭NIV‬

“Jesus looked at him and said, “How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God! Indeed, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.” Those who heard this asked, “Who then can be saved?” Jesus replied, “What is impossible with man is possible with God.””

‭‭Luke‬ ‭18‬:‭24‬-‭27‬ ‭NIV‬‬

B.  All things are possible for God.‬

‬ 1.  The Exodus

2.  David and Goliath

3.  A talking donkey

4.  A baby Messiah

5.  A non-kingly Messiah

6.  The blind see, the deaf hear, the lame walk, the sick become well, the dead rise

7.  A dead Messiah

8.  A leadership of nobodies

9.  A missionary who was a persecutor

"We have a God who delights in impossibilities."

Billy Sunday

"Faith, mighty faith, the promise sees, And looks to that alone; Laughs at impossibilities, And cries it shall be done."

Anonymous

CONCLUSION

One night at dinner a man, who had spent many summers in Maine, fascinated his companions by telling of his experiences in a little town named Flagstaff. The town was to be flooded, as part of a large lake for which a dam was being built. In the months before it was to be flooded, all improvements and repairs in the whole town were stopped. What was the use of painting a house if it were to be covered with water in six months? Why repair anything when the whole village was to be wiped out? So, week by week, the whole town became more and more bedraggled, more gone to seed, more woebegone. Then he added by way of explanation: "Where there is no faith in the future, there is no power in the present."

From a sermon by Todd Catteau

Faith is the fundamental truth of the Christian life.  Faith must have action.  Faith in the impossible is faith in the God who can do all things.

INVITATION

It is our custom to offer an "invitation" following the preaching of the Word.  You may want to follow Jesus.  You may want to proclaim your faith.  You may want to repent (stop doing ungodly things and start doing Godly things).  Perhaps you want to be baptized for the forgiveness of your sins and receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.  Possibly, if you have already responded to God’s call in these ways, you would like to become a member of Kenwood Church.  If you have been moved by the Holy Spirit to make a decision in your life, you can come forward now.  If you would like, I would be honored to speak with you following the service about what God is doing in your life.