Romans
14:23 “For whatever is not from faith is sin.”
Pastor Kyle continues in his Sunday
sermon series: “I need a miracle” stating that the way that God worked in Bible
times is how He still works today and His miracles authenticate the words of
the Bible. Isaiah
45:5
“I am the Lord, and there is no other; there
is no God besides Me.” Because there is only one God, we shouldn’t
speak of Him as “our” God (as if there were others), but as the Lord God. People
can be sincerely devoted to some other god, but can be sincerely wrong. In
serving the wrong god, there will be no voice and no action. Sometimes fear
puts on a very nice tuxedo and pretends to be wisdom. Faith is defined by
Webster’s 1828 dictionary as the assent of the mind
or understanding to the truth of what God has revealed. Simple belief of the
scriptures, of the being and perfections of God, and of the existence, character
and doctrines of Christ, founded on the testimony of the sacred writers.
1 Kings
18:37 “Hear me,
O Lord, hear me, that this people may know that You are the Lord
God, and that You have turned their hearts back to You again.”
Kyle
gave us five things to do when implementing a bold move of faith. (1) Make up
your mind to follow God alone with your life and your likes (God’s Word, our
prayers, our trials and experiences upon this journey). In 1 Kings 18:21, Elijah
stood in front of the people and said, “How
much longer will you waver, hobbling between two opinions? If
the Lord is God, follow him! But if Baal is God, then follow him!”
We cannot have one foot in t he God-rejecting world system and one foot in the
faith. Know that this is what God wants to do, but also know that God has
others to carry on … the body of Believers. (2) Have faith and a backup plan. Be
“all in” with the Lord but have an “ace in the hole”. Daniel 3:17-18 “If we are thrown into the blazing furnace,
the God whom we serve is able to save us. He will rescue us from your power,
Your Majesty. But even if he doesn’t, we want to make it clear to you, Your
Majesty, that we will never serve your gods or worship the gold statue you have
set up.” Who really is God? Obey God and have a Plan “B” if the Lord doesn’t
deliver our way. He may have a “better” plan in mind for us.
1
Corinthians 3:6-7 “I planted, Apollos
watered, but God gave the increase. So then neither he who plants is
anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase.”
(3)
By faith, plan for success, not failure. We tend to plan for the worst case
scenario and think of reasons that it will not work. Think through the details,
but include God 100%, with no tricks. The goal is never “a show”, but to bring
people back to the Lord. Faithfully water and plant. (4) With faith, confront
the Problems “head on”. It is naive to “hope for the best”. Life is not about
avoiding conflicts in our life. We start confronting problem by looking at
ourselves. We must always show grace and leave room for non-believing hearts to
be transformed. (5) Leave room for God to do a miracle work of faith in the
hardened heart. 1 Timothy 2:5 tells
us, “For there is one God and
one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus.” We bring the
light of the gospel of salvation by Christ to the lost and point to the foot of
the Cross. The Holy Spirit changes the heart. John 16:8-9 “And when He (the Holy Spirit) has come, He
will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: of
sin, because they do not believe in Me.”
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