Good News Baptist Church
Sundays December
      • Bible Trivia
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  • Light Of The World (Sing Hallelujah)
  • Hark The Herald Angels Sing
  • What Child Is This (Greensleeves)
  • O Come All You Unfaithful
  • Manger Throne

  • Introduction

    Last Sunday and last Wednesday we looked at the first two parts of this small series called Faith Like Christmas. Today, we finish off the series and after the sermon time, we will have our regular Life Group times and be able to discuss the things from the last two sessions.

    Faith Requires Risk

    Sunday we looked at the fact that faith requires risks. We saw that faith is so much more than just belief, it is the a heart-level trust that moves us to obedience, even risky obedience. As we studied the Christmas story, we homed in on the risks that Mary and Joseph took as they responded to their individual messages in faith. They risked comfort, reputation, and a predictable future in order to submit to God’s plan for their lives.
    We saw that true faith will always come at a cost, will ultimately be tested, and is willing to stand alone if others abandon us.
    We concluded with a call for believers to stop “playing it safe” in their walk with God - to truly have faith and obey whatever God is prompting them to do regardless of what the risks were.
    Then on Wednesday, we continued with the series with

    Faith Brings Great Responsibility

    We looked at faith bringing with it increased responsibility. We saw how Joseph and Mary’s decision to obey God did not lead to an easier life, it led to the daily weight of raising Jesus - feeding him, teaching him, protecting him, and nurturing him both in his physical, emotional, and spiritual development.
    Again, I don’t completely know how it all worked, but the Bible says clearly that Jesus grew in stature, in wisdom, and in favor with God and man.
    It meant that Jesus had to learn all the things that children learn, and Joseph and Mary were his teachers. God handed Mary and Joseph the responsibility of modeling the Heavenly Father’s love to the Only Begotten Son of the Father and the second person in the Trinity, co-eternal with God.
    At what point do you think Joseph ever felt like he measured up to fatherhood that Jesus had experienced for eternity past with the Heavenly Father? Do you think that Mary ever came to a point where she thought, “Now I have finally reached the example of perfect love that Jesus has experienced from the Father since before the foundation of the world.” NEVER! But what a responsibility they had. They were responsible for raising Jesus and for allowing God’s love to flow through them as they did so.
    Just a note for parents, you and I may not be raising the only begotten children of God that will one day save the world from their sins - no, that was only Jesus - but our responsibility as parents is the same - to love them as God loves us.
    Mary and Joseph could have never fulfilled their responsibilities by sitting on the sidelines. No, they had to actively and excellently do their duty as parents, knowing that they were imperfect, knowing that they could never measure up to God the Father, but also knowing that God would equip them to raise Jesus as a human little boy.
    This brings us to today’s message. I do not anticipate this being very long, but I think an important point needs to be made to conclude this series with a sermon titled Faith Comes with Benefits.

    Faith Comes with Benefits

    I want to be very clear about this right now - there is a very popular doctrine or teaching about faith that is commonly referred to as the Prosperity Gospel. This is, without a doubt, a false teaching. Like most false teachings that are disseminated successfully, people that espouse this take truths and mix it with lies. They take truths and twist it to sound how they would like it to sound. They take actual Bible verses and pull them out of context - whether that is cultural context, audience context, or Scriptural context - taking the Bible as a whole to analyze the meaning and application.
    I will say this, however - that just as there are some that teach this doctrine out of malice, there are those that teach it out of ignorance. Because to a certain extent and to a certain few, the practices will yield the results that are preached.
    Example: If I were to start preaching that in order for you to stay healthy and to be blessed financially by God, that in order for God to look down on you and love you more or be happy with you, you should be giving sacrificially to the church every chance you get. And if I were to continue to preach that and say to those that have given multiple times who have not seen the results of their bank accounts filling or their health getting better that they either did not give the right amount, did not give in faith, or had a combination of the two.
    If that were to happen, there would be some things that I expect would occur in this church. I would expect that none of you would ever return, or, even better, pull up the constitution and and unanimously vote me out of being your pastor any more, because I would be espousing something that is very anti-biblical for one of two reasons: 1) I am ignorant of the scriptures (in which case I am disqualified from being a pastor), or 2) I am manipulative and greedy (in which case I would also be disqualified from the pastorate).
    But let’s say, for argument’s sake, that everyone here just decided to leave, the chairs would not be empty for long. They would be full of desperate people. They would be full of immature Christians seeking to earn God’s favor. And they would give. And, as the church’s accounts began to grow, the pastor would begin to get paid more. And then, I would preach from my “experience.”
    I would say something to the effect that “before I started to give seed money to the church, I struggled financially. But guess what? When I started to sow that seed and give above and beyond what I thought I could, God came through and look at me now. My house is paid off, I am debt free, and I paid cash for that brand new Mercedes that is parked outside.”
    For me, that worked. But just because something works for me, does not make it Biblical. There are principles that are good and Godly and true. Does God bless our giving to the church and to His work? Yes! Most definitely. Does God always bless financially? NO! Does He promise health? NO! Does He promise that if you have enough faith and give enough money that you will have a comfortable life? NOPE!
    CAN His blessing be financial? Absolutely. Can God heal? Yes He can. Does that necessarily mean that this is His way of doing things 100% of the time? NO.
    So to be clear, we do not teach, espouse, advocate for, or agree with the tenants of the Prosperity Gospel. Jesus did not come to make us healthy and wealthy, He came to defeat sin and heal us from the that spiritual sickness.
    Also, to be clear, it is not a sin to be healthy or wealthy. There is no sin in having money or having health, and just like the prosperity gospel exists, the doctrine of asceticism also exists stating that possessing anything more than what you need to survive is sinful. Both extremes are wrong, both mix truth with lies and twist scripture.

    God Blesses When We Live by Faith

    But there ARE benefits that come with faith. There is a gigantic return on faith, but that does not necessarily mean that it will come the way that the world measures returns. Jesus assured His disciples of many different blessings for following Him, and they should be an encouragement to us.
    There are two types of blessings that I want to point out briefly today, and they are not mutually exclusive. But the two categories I want to talk about briefly are Temporal Blessings and Spiritual Blessings

    Temporal Blessings

    There are temporal blessings. These are blessings that are temporary, and may or may not have any spiritual significance. These blessings can include health and provision and prosperity. Some of these temporal blessings are meant to pay back that which we have given up for following Jesus. We have looked at this passage before, but it has been a while so I will ask you to open your Bibles to Mark 10.
    For sake of time we will not read the whole chapter, but I do encourage you to read the whole context of this conversation that Jesus has with His disciples starting in Mark 10:17 and ending in verse 30.
    There are a select group of verses that I want to point out starting in v.26, but let me tell you the context of what is going on first.
    A rich young ruler approaches Jesus and asks, “What must I do to be saved?” Jesus then answers that he needs to keep all of the commandments. The young man tells Jesus that he has kept all of these commandments since he was a boy, and Jesus looks at him with love. I believe this phrase is included for several reasons, but one of them is because I believe Jesus was looking at this man’s heart, seeing that even though the honest attempt at keeping all of the law was there, he was still sinful.
    So Jesus answers the young man, and, as we have seen so many times before, he doesn’t answer according to the words that the young man said, he answers according to what He sees in this rich young man’s heart. Jesus says, “Very well, you have one thing left to do. Sell all you have, give the money to the poor, and follow me.” The young man, the Bible says, became very sad and turned around and left because he had many possessions.
    And this is where we pick up. Mark 10:23-27
    Mark 10:23–27 KJV 1900
    23 And Jesus looked round about, and saith unto his disciples, How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God! 24 And the disciples were astonished at his words. [Do you know why they were astonished at these words? It is because the common thought of the day was that if someone was healthy and rich, then that person was right with God. If you were poor or if you were sick, then the belief was that you were guilty of some egregious sin or that you were living in sin. And this was not unique to that era only. This thought process goes all the way back to the book of Job when his friends ignorantly accuse Job of being in such an awful state because he had not confessed his sins to God. We still live battling those thoughts. This is why Jesus says, “Don’t judge.” We cannot always see what God is doing through circumstances in others. But the disciples are amazed. How could this person not be on his way to heaven? And Jesus, knowing the hearts of his disciples, clarifies: But Jesus answereth again, and saith unto them, Children, how hard is it for them that trust in riches to enter into the kingdom of God! [Jesus knew that this man had faith, not in Jesus, but in money, in riches. And since we receive the grace of salvation through faith in Jesus, this man could not enter into the kingdom of heaven.] 25 It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God. 26 And they were astonished out of measure, saying among themselves, Who then can be saved? [Even though Jesus had clarified that it was those that trusted in their riches that could not enter the kingdom, the disciples still did not get it.] 27 And Jesus looking upon them saith, With men it is impossible, but not with God: for with God all things are possible.
    And this sets us up for one of the most honest questions we find coming out of Peter’s mouth. This is a question that comes from worry and doubt. Peter is wondering if they, the disciples, will have entrance into heaven.
    Mark 10:28 KJV 1900
    28 Then Peter began to say unto him, Lo, we have left all, and have followed thee.
    Matthew 19 records this event as well, and he adds another thing that Peter said. Matthew 19:27
    Matthew 19:27 KJV 1900
    27 Then answered Peter and said unto him, Behold, we have forsaken all, and followed thee; what shall we have therefore?
    If this man would have had eternal life by selling all his goods and donating them to the poor, what will we have to show for all that we have left behind? See, all that Peter had left behind, had he sold it, would not amount to anything compared to what the rich young ruler would have sold.
    And I love Jesus’ response. We will read it from Mark, because Mark includes a detail that is important to note.
    Mark 10:29–30 KJV 1900
    29 And Jesus answered and said, Verily I say unto you, There is no man that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my sake, and the gospel’s, 30 But he shall receive an hundredfold now in this time, houses, and brethren, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands, with persecutions; and in the world to come eternal life.
    The cost of faith is that you have to leave things and sometimes people too. The disciples had truly left everything and everyone for Christ. This is what Jesus tells them - Those that leave family and lands (homes) for the sake of the gospel and for Jesus’ sake will receive that back in this time.
    This is in a figurative sense, not necessarily in a literal sense. When Tahsha and I came here to Iowa, I did not get 100 more brothers and sisters and parents. But I have brothers and sisters in Christ here, more than my own family.
    Tahsha and I live nearly 900 miles from her parents and just over 1,300 miles from my parents. In between there, we have brothers and sisters and many friends. We have seen this promise fulfilled over and over again. We have brothers and sisters here. My kids are hundreds of miles from grandparents, but there are a few people here that love them and treat them as grandparents. There are a few people here that love Tahsha like a daughter, and they treat us and love us and pray for us like parents.
    We’ve left our homes, but Cedar Rapids feels more to us like home than anywhere else.
    We didn’t go searching for it, we simply wanted, and want, to follow God’s direction in our lives. He has provided all of this in Christian brothers and sister in Christ.
    Is it a risk to follow Jesus? Yes. Does it cost things? Does it cost money? Does it cost relationships? Yes, Yes, and Yes. Does God compensate for it? Absolutely. But even if He didn’t do it physically, and sometimes the physical blessings are not present, He gives blessings that cannot be taken away.

    Spiritual Blessings

    People and homes and things can all be taken away. That’s why we call them temporal. But Nobody can strip away the spiritual, heavenly blessings. Physical blessings, temporal blessings should never be what motivates us. Those things eventually go away and disappoint. No matter how much money you have, it will always be vulnerable - vulnerable to loss, to devaluation, to theft, etc. The same goes with other possessions and health. People will 100% disappoint you eventually, no matter how close they are. In fact, the closer they are, the bigger the disappointment.
    So we ought to follow the advice from Matthew 6:19-20
    Matthew 6:19–20 KJV 1900
    19 Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: 20 But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal:
    The context for these verses is Jesus talking about prayer, giving, and fasting and how none of those should be done for the applause of man. That is an earthly treasure, a temporal one.
    But we are to lay up for ourselves treasures in heaven. Treasures that cannot be stolen away.
    I’ll give some examples from people right here in this congregation. These examples are not me trying to rob them of spiritual blessings, as we have just read that no one can do that. These examples are to highlight what laying up treasures in heaven looks like.
    Back in September, we got involved in an outreach ministry called Good News Clubs. It is run by CEF, the Child Evangelism Fellowship. God opened a door for us to serve in nearby Cleveland Elementary. We had about 24 regular volunteers - adults, teens, and children - that help with that ministry in the fall (and I hope we have more when we start it again in the spring), but they have, provided their heart motivation was right, accumulated spiritual, heavenly blessings because of that.
    I was able to speak to a boy named Quincy about salvation. He was only about 6 years old. As we spoke, I saw a progression of how God was working in his heart. He asked about salvation, and that first week that we talked, he would not admit that he was a sinner. I ended our talk about salvation there, and we agreed to talk more the next week if he had any questions. Week after week, he asked about salvation. After a few weeks of showing him the Gospel, I asked again, “Quincy, have you ever sinned?” And he answered, “Yeah… I lie a lot,” in a whisper. “Yup, that’s a sin.” The next week we talked, and that was the week that Quincy accepted Jesus as his savior, asking Him to forgive his sins.
    Y’all, that is an experience that I will treasure forever. But not just an experience, it is the knowledge that God used me to change someone’s eternity. And that is something that no one will ever be able to take away from me. Several other workers had experiences like these. Seven kids total were saved across 7 weeks. And not only do the teachers and helpers that spoke to these children have those spiritual blessings, but every person that volunteered shared in those things as well and has a part in changing the eternity of 7 young individuals.
    But there were others who could not be present and could not go to the Good News Clubs. There were a few of you who would tell me regularly, “Pastor, I am praying for the kids at the Good News Club. I am praying for the workers, and I am praying for children to be saved.” You know what? Those people may never have stepped foot inside the library at Cleveland Elementary, but they have a part in these spiritual blessings and heavenly treasures too.
    There are spiritual rewards, but there are also other spiritual blessings, spiritual blessings that you can enjoy and experience the effects of right now.
    John 14:22–23 KJV 1900
    22 Judas saith unto him, not Iscariot, Lord, how is it that thou wilt manifest thyself unto us, and not unto the world? 23 Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.
    This is not talking only about salvation, but abiding in Jesus, living our daily lives with Him, and walking with Him. In so doing we get to experience the presence of the Father in our lives, not in the way of “well, God is everywhere so that means He is right here with us,” but in an intimate way, in a relational way. Right after this chapter, comes chapter 15 in which Jesus says, “I am the vine, you are the branches, and my Father is the husbandman (the one that tends to the vine).”
    When we abide in Christ, we get His joy, we get His peace, His guidance, His strength, His wisdom. Read the rest of John 14 and you will see that those that are in obedience to Jesus enjoy the guiding presence of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is able to teach us in all things. Abiding in Christ means we produce fruit. There are various fruits that the Christian can produce. One of those fruits is the fruit of the Spirit that has many characteristics - love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance. Another fruit is obedience - obedience in our commission to make disciples.
    And these spiritual blessings cannot be stripped away by anyone. If my joy comes from the Lord, regardless of my situation, I can have joy. This is why, in the middle of a dungeon, Paul and Silas were found singing and praising God instead of complaining about how unfair life was.
    This is why James says that when there are diverse trials of our faith, we are to count it all as joy, knowing that God is using this to produce patience in us, and that patience will work in us a contentment and a completeness in Christ.
    Faith comes with benefits.

    God Empowers When We Live by Faith

    The fist benefit that we say was that God blesses us when we live by faith, now we will see that God empowers us when we live by faith.
    You and I cannot possibly live the way God wants us to live in our own strength. The Beatitudes are impossible to produce in our own strength. The fruit of the Spirit cannot be produced by our own willpower. It must be generated by God Himself dwelling in us.
    Galatians 2:20–21 KJV 1900
    20 I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. [Paul says, it is not me the one that is living this life. I am dead to my desires, to my goals, to my selfishness. Those things exist, but I do not let them influence me or control me. The one that controls me is Jesus Christ. The life I live is by the faith in the Son of God. I cannot live a righteous life on my own. I cannot stand before God in my own merit. I cannot accomplish God’s purpose without Jesus empowering me to do so. He confirms this in the next verse.] 21 I do not frustrate [that word means to despise or to reject] the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.
    Paul is saying that he does not discount or take for granted the grace of God. What grace? The grace of salvation, the grace of being able to live our life empowered by the Holy Spirit. The grace that makes us righteous before God.
    And he goes on to say that if it were possible to live righteously before God by fulfilling the law, the Jesus’ death was in vain. But it is IMPOSSIBLE.
    Faith empowers us to live like God wants us to live. It is faith in our obedience to Him that allows us to do the Godly things and to live Godly lives. It is faith that makes what we do pleasing to God.
    Last Sunday we opened up with the passage Hebrews 11:6 that speaks about faith. I want to read this one more time today, then we will close out with an encouragement from Philippians.
    Hebrews 11:6 KJV 1900
    6 But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.
    If you are trying to live your Christian life on your own and through your own strength, you will not be pleasing to God. All that you are doing is building with what the Bible calls “wood, hay, and stubble,” and in the end, when the motives behind the actions get tried by fire, you will only have a pile of burnt ash to show for it.
    Our principle purpose for existing is to honor God and please Him. It cannot be done without faith.
    You might think, “But Mike, faith brings so much risk sometimes. It brings with it some great responsibilities. It is difficult to walk by faith, I don’t think I can do it.” My response to that is this - you are absolutely right. But it is not impossible, because when we act in faith, God gives you the grace to continue and to finish.
    We have seen in Galatians that the life we live now can be lived by the faith in the Son of God, and now in Philippians 1:6 we find that God desires to finish the work that He has started in us.
    Philippians 1:6 KJV 1900
    6 Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ:
    What work did God start in every believer? The work of sanctification. The moment we got saved, we were sanctified positionally in God’s eyes. We went from being enemies to being sons and daughters. We stand righteous before the Lord through the sacrifice of Jesus. From that moment, the Holy Spirit begins to sanctify us progressively. As we walk with Christ, the Holy Spirit convicts our hearts of sin that needs to be confessed and repented of. He empowers us to do so, and as we do, He continually makes us more and more like Christ as our walk with Him progresses.
    It is not up to us to do this work, the sanctification process is performed by God. We simply need to obey His promptings. And yes, they come with costs and risks and responsibilities, but they come with great benefits, not the least of which is that the Holy Spirit gives us the strength and the grace to obey.
    Note this verse one more time. “He that began a good work, He will perform it. He will accomplish it, execute it, perfect it. Not we - He.

    Invitation

    I’ll ask Tahsha to come and to play the piano as we have a moment of invitation. And right now I’ll ask you to bow your heads and close your eyes. This is the part of the service in which you deal with the Lord as He has spoken to your heart throughout the message.
    Is there anyone who would say, “Mike, this sermon was for me, there are things that God has spoken to my heart about, and by faith and through His grace, I am going to confess what needs confessing and obey what needs obeying, and I am going to have that conversation with God right now.” Is there anyone like that?
    I want to encourage you that if God has spoken to your heart about anything today, you would make things right with Him. Then, after the service is over, I am encouraging you to speak to someone about it. God has placed us in this faith community called the church for a reason. That reason is not for you to go it alone, but for you to have accountability and encouragement from your brothers and sisters in Christ.
    I understand that it is a leap of faith to tell others your shortcomings, but ultimately it will help you grow and be a better disciple of Jesus Christ.
    For the unsaved: You cannot please God without faith, and if you cannot please God, you cannot join him in heaven. The Bible clearly states that the only way to be saved is to have faith in Jesus Christ. Acknowledging that He is God in the flesh who was born of a virgin over 2,000 years ago. he lived a perfect life, yet was crucified. He shed his blood for the payment of our sins and defeated death and sin when he arose from the grave, proving that He is who He says He is.
    Faith in Jesus is more than just acknowledgement, it will lead you to confess that He is Lord, that you are a sinner, and to ask Him to save you from your sins.
    You cannot save yourself. You cannot erase the sin that is in your heart, only Jesus can.
    Is there anyone that would say, “Mike, I sure would like to know more about this salvation through Jesus,” would you raise your hand?

    Life Groups

    Last week I posed a challenge after the sermon.
    1. Take a risk by faith and God’s guidance.
    Relationally - Reconcile with someone, forgive someone, witness to someone that you have been hesitant to do so with
    Financially - Give generously to someone or to something that God lays on your heart
    Obedience - Obey God in a way that you have been refusing or postponing
    2. Come ready to discuss
    What did God ask you to do this week that required risk or obedience?
    How did you respond, and what happened?
    What did you learn about God’s character through that experience?
    Is there anyone that would like to discuss their experience?
    3. Think of a time you took a costly step of obedience. Looking back, what “returns” (of any kind) came from it?
    4. When blessings are obviously material (job, raise, health), how do you guard your heart from trusting the gift more than the Giver?
    5. How does knowing that God Himself will complete the good work He started in you affect
    your fears about risk, obedience, and failure?
    6. If the Christian life “cannot be lived in our own strength,” what practical step will you take to depend more consciously on Christ’s life in you (Galatians 2:20) each day?

      • Mark 10:23–27KJV1900

      • Mark 10:28KJV1900

      • Matthew 19:27KJV1900

      • Mark 10:29–30KJV1900

      • Matthew 6:19–20KJV1900

      • John 14:22–23KJV1900

      • Galatians 2:20–21KJV1900

      • Hebrews 11:6KJV1900

      • Philippians 1:6KJV1900

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