Archive for the ‘Faith’ Category
difficult faith
God had done amazing things for his people. God freed the people from slavery in a way that only God could and he gave them the wealth of their captors as he did it. God opened the Red Sea as an escape from the Egyptian army and then decimated the enemy. God gave them water when they were thirsty, food when they were hungry, and, in intimacy, he spoke to them through Moses. During the day God went ahead of them in a pillar of smoke and at night in a pillar of fire. As God’s treasure he had freed them from slavery and was taking them home to the Promised Land – their destiny. Read the rest of this entry »
the birth of Jesus and the faith of Joseph
[there is no audio for this sermon]
Jesus coming into this world followed over fifteen hundred years of preparation. In a sin-filled and dark world God was laying the foundation for this one event that would change everything. He had created a nation, Israel, that was designed to point to this one event. Their history was a living example of God’s salvation. Their worship rituals were full of practices that were designed to point to their ultimate fulfillment in Jesus. The priesthood in Israel pointed to Jesus as the ultimate high priest. The sacrifices pointed to Jesus as the ultimate sacrifice. The temple, that place where God connected with his people, pointed to Jesus – the ultimate temple where God is at home with us. And the list goes on… Read the rest of this entry »
Fears in Following Jesus
Much of the four gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, John) is committed to two great things – watching and learning from Jesus’ actions, and listening to his teaching. Luke chapter twelve is an example of how and what Jesus taught in order to move his disciples into the call we all face – the call into the mission, the call to actually live for Jesus. Jesus’ primary goal here is seen in the second half of the chapter (starting in verse 35). He wants his servants to be AWAKE and ready, AWAKE and committed to the mission, AWAKE and working, AWAKE and living in the reality that he will be coming back to finalize this phase of history. Read the rest of this entry »
Following God: the sacrifice of Isaac
It’s easy to read stories about the great Old Testament characters in a way that doesn’t really connect with my world – after all these amazing things happened over 2,000 years ago. That is a big mistake. The story we’re going to visit today is your story – it is my story. The story of Abraham’s call to sacrifice his son is the same call we have on our lives – the very same call. God is calling each of us to a relationship, a faith, that gives him everything. Read the rest of this entry »
faith in obedience
Many of us have heard or read Luke 17:6, “If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea.’ and it will obey you.” Here’s an opening question for you this morning. What do you think when you hear those words? Read the rest of this entry »
Jesus – object of our faith
If you were on a dark, cold, and stormy sea in a small inflatable life raft and I asked you if you would survive the night, you may answer, “I have faith in this life raft”. But tell me, if you make it through the night, will it be because of your faith or because of the life raft? Read the rest of this entry »
not faith, but Christ
by Horatius Bonar (1808-1889)
Faith is the necessary link between our need and the One who can save. Horatius Bonar wrote this masterful piece that can help us not put our faith in our faith. Read the rest of this entry »
Peter – faith amid turmoil
I’ve often heard Christians say, “While we need to trust God, we don’t want to act foolishly.” As those who want to follow Jesus we need to be VERY careful how we think about that issue. For us, being foolish means we don’t trust God when he asks us too – we refuse to walk by faith. If we adopt our culture’s definition of what it means to be wise, and prudent – we will never walk by faith. Our culture would focus on being independent, God is pleased when we are dependent. Read the rest of this entry »
Rahab – faith in God’s design
The story of Rahab is very important – in many ways. It takes place during a critical transition of the Hebrew experience. The, once slaves, were about ready to move into the next phase of their relationship with God.
Abraham – faith in God’s vision
Today we are going to start a series on faith. We are going to look at a few biblical characters in an effort to discover aspects of faith that are important. Today we’re going to look at Abraham and how he, not only listened and followed God, but how he also had an understanding of what God was doing. Read the rest of this entry »
Embracing Change – We should be masters of this
There are few things in life that cause us more difficulty than change. From the youngest age we’re moving our agenda toward stability, comfort, and self-sufficiency. Not only do we get comfortable thinking this way, it becomes “wired” into the way we understand life. When change inserts itself (as it always does) we often go into crisis mode.
