First Baptist Church
Fairbanks, Alaska
805 Sixth Avenue
(907) 456-4923
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Fairbanks, Alaska 805 Sixth Avenue (907) 456-4923 |
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“Faith” Ephesians 3: 12-19 Mark Howdeshell (2 September 2007) Eph 2:8-9 8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith — and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast. Introduction “FAITH”---- That’s the word for this week. What is it? What do we do with it? How do we get it? We have faith in many things. Name a few……………. · Complete exercise in faith. o Torie sitting in a chair. (faith in objects) o Take a deep breath. (faith in nature) o Blink your eyes. (faith in your body) o Ryan falling off the stage. (faith in someone else) Ok….so we have faith in many things. Heart of the Matter As Ephesians 2: 8-9 states, faith is essential for our salvation. Faith enables grace. Grace is made available through His mercy and love. We take “faith” for granted much of the time. Isn’t it time to take it serious? Review of Last Message Last week we talked about grace. Grace is given to us as a gift of God, but can only be given if we have faith in Him. It is through our faith that grace justifies us fully through the blood of the cross. The Meat of the Message 1. Faith is introduced in the Word as the marital bed (Exodus 21), as the word between God and Moses (Deut 32:51), and the God-man relationship (Joshua 22:16). Furthermore, Saul defined faith as the commands of God (1 Sam 14:33) and Malachi defines faith as the bond between man (Mal 2:10). All of these examples of faith have one thing in common, though. They are all expressed as faith being broken…and of God being disappointed.
Josh 22:16-18 16 "The whole assembly of the LORD says: 'How could you break faith with the God of Israel like this? How could you turn away from the LORD and build yourselves an altar in rebellion against him now? 17 Was not the sin of Peor enough for us? Up to this very day we have not cleansed ourselves from that sin, even though a plague fell on the community of the LORD! 18 And are you now turning away from the LORD? Faith in the OT is most often noted as being broken by sinful man. OT faith could be physically broken because there were so many physical requirements to remain holy and just before God. God eliminated all of the physical requirements when Jesus died on the cross. Faith is not mentioned one time in the NT as being “broken.” 2. Faith is best defined in the NT in Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. The philosophic definition can go like this…. “I believe…therefore I know.” It is in sharp contrast to the antithesis…I know, so I believe. The first implies that you know because of your intuition, not your logical processes. What are logical processes? Your five senses is a good start to understand this. If you can feel, see, taste, touch, or smell something… then you can believe it. You can see that this chair is sturdy enough to hold me…therefore you and I believe that it will. OK….where do we get it? Rom 10:17-18 17 Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ. God has chosen to use us…and His Word to be the seeds of faith. Do you take that responsibility seriously? It doesn’t come from a book, a TV, an iPod, or even the radio. Faith comes from hearing the message. Our responsibility is to get them to a place to hear the Word, tell them the Word, or let them read the Word. It’s all about God’s WORD!! 3. Faith motivates our actions. Depending upon what we have faith in…spiritual or otherwise… will determine certain things that we do. If I have faith that my car will start every time I turn the key, then I’ll wait until the last moment to leave. If the car starts to fail me, I’ll leave earlier just in case it doesn’t start! Matt 9:20-22 20 Just then a woman who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years came up behind him and touched the edge of his cloak. 21 She said to herself, "If I only touch his cloak, I will be healed." 22 Jesus turned and saw her. "Take heart, daughter," he said, "your faith has healed you." And the woman was healed from that moment. Has your faith called you to action? How did you respond? It is easy to say, “I have faith in God.” It is much harder to live your faith as a testimony to Him. The Word tells us that God will recognize a lack of faith, too. Matt 13:58 And he did not do many miracles there because of their lack of faith. 4. How powerful is faith? Matt 17:20 He replied, "Because you have so little faith . I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there' and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you. The Word tells us just how significant this is when it refers to the mustard seed in other places. Matt 13:31-33 31 He told them another parable: "The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field. 32 Though it is the smallest of all your seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and perch in its branches."
The mustard plant in that region can grow to the extent that man can climb its branches. This huge plant resulted from the growth from a seed smaller than 1/20th of an inch in size. Likewise, our faith should grow from an immature new Christian’s small seed into a big plant that others may take refuge in…rest in its shade…climb its branches for safety if necessary.
Eph 2:8-9 8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith — and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast. Eph 3:12-19 12 In him and through faith in him we may approach God with freedom and confidence. 13 I ask you, therefore, not to be discouraged because of my sufferings for you, which are your glory. 14 For this reason I kneel before the Father, 15 from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name. 16 I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 18 may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19 and to know this love that surpasses knowledge — that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Even demons know all about Jesus….and they tremble at the name. Knowing about Him IS NOT ENOUGH!! It is through our FAITH in His redemptive resurrection power that we unlock the secret to the entire universe….JESUS IN OUR HEARTS!! The Bottom Line We exercise faith in something every minute of our lives, but it is only through faith in the One who died on the cross for us that we unlock the blessings of God upon our lives. Share your faith with all those you come into contact with and share the Word of God to help them unlock their faith! |
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