Dishman Baptist Church
Second Advent -
Romans 8:11CSB
Isaiah 53:5CSB
Luke 2:10–11CSB
Colossians 3:16CSB
- IntroductionAs we look forward to Christmas, we have for this week’s advent theme: faith. But in today’s day and age, I would argue, faith is something that has been confused and misused and needs to be set in its proper context. Real faith needs to be defined so we can guard our hearts and minds, our understanding of faith from from both secular influences that say faith is good, no matter where it is placed, or atheistic assertions that say “faith is bad,” that “we need to be freed from the bonds of religion,” and other religious systems that say faith is good so long as it is placed in their system of works-based salvation. Faith needs to be defined. Faith is something that naturally has an expectation attached to it. When we think about advent, and the song we sang last week, O Come, O Come Emmanuel, there is an expectation for some future fulfilment of our hope. Faith is trusting that God will do everything He said He would. It is not a passive trust where we just let everything go by, but faith is an active commitment to bring our worries, our pain, our doubts and our sin before the one who has promised to do something about it.
Hebrews 11:1 CSB 1 Now faith is the reality of what is hoped for, the proof of what is not seen.Other translations, like the NIV, render that word “proof” as assurance, or others as conviction. The Greek word literally means to be 100% convinced beyond the shadow of a doubt. According to this verse, faith is already possessing that which we hope for, having confidence in what we believe without having seen it.Today, I want us to look to God’s Word so we can answer three simply questions:1. How should we respond when our faith is challenged?2. What does it mean that faith is a gift?3. What is saving faith?We are starting from the broadest application of faith and working our way to the most specific and narrow application, the most important question everyone needs to answer. We’ll get to that question in a minute, but first…How should we respond when our faith is challenged? When our faith is challenged, we hold fast to Christ. Who is Jesus? Our Sure And Steady AnchorThere are times when we struggle, and then there are times we feel like throwing in the towel because life has handed us a situation or a bunch of situations simultaneously that makes us ask the questions,“Doesn’t the Bible say he won’t give us any more than we can bear?”“Where is God?”“Why didn’t God heal this person of their disease?”“Why would a loving and benevolent God allow such evil stuff happen?”How many of us have experienced a time when our faith felt pretty shaky because of doubt? OR because of situations we were facing where it seems there was no palpable help from Heaven? Or because we expected a miraculous healing for either ourselves or for a loved one and instead, there was continued suffering or even death without that miraculous healing. How do we respond when our faith is challenged?Let’s look at this together. This is a verse that has been misquoted and misunderstood, and when scripture is misquoted and misunderstood, that means it will also be misapplied as well, right? Read with me in...1 Corinthians 10:13 CSB 13 No temptation has come upon you except what is common to humanity. But God is faithful; he will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation he will also provide a way out so that you may be able to bear it.Many will say this verse says God will not give us more than we can bear, but notice what it is all about: it is not our suffering, but rather it is focused on the veracity of our character before God - ie. How we handle temptation. Let’s be clear - this passage is not about suffering, it is about when we are tempted to sin. God made a promise through Paul that if we press into Him, that He is faithful and will help us to not sin. When the Devil tempts us, The Lord gives us a way out!The author of Hebrews echoed this same idea inHebrews 2:18 CSB 18 For since he himself has suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are tempted.What an astonishing thought! The creator of the universe experienced the human condition so that He can help us when we are tempted. When we are tempted, we can go to Christ, because He has been there. If we understand that our temptation to sin is not foreign to Christ, maybe we would have an easier time going to Him in prayer with an open and honest heart saying, “I can’t handle this.” But what about suffering? Suffering doesn’t always have to be physical, but can also be emotional, perhaps spiritual suffering (being bombarded by doubt or spiritual oppression). It could very well be physical suffering too. There are people here with a variety of diseases - within our own walls here at Dishman that cause more physical pain and suffering that I can imagine myself living with on a daily basis.Paul said that he was given more than he could bear in regards to physical suffering.2 Corinthians 1:8 CSB 8 We don’t want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters, of our affliction that took place in Asia. We were completely overwhelmed—beyond our strength—so that we even despaired of life itself.Paul and his companions were completely overwhelmed by suffering. In verse 5 he talks about “abundantly sharing in the sufferings of Christ...” It wasn’t just a little, but they were suffering abundantly - completely overwhelmed BEYOND THEIR STRENGTH - they wanted to die. What does beyond their strength mean? Let’s open another translation to see if we can clarify this a bit. The NIV renders it this way:2 Corinthians 1:8 NIV 8 We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about the troubles we experienced in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired of life itself.They suffered far beyond their ability to endure. But what did they do? They didn’t pull back and withdraw from Christ, but rather they were comforted by Him and learned it was for a purpose.2 Corinthians 1:9 CSB 9 Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death, so that we would not trust in ourselves but in God who raises the dead.When our faith is bludgeoned by this crazy circus of life, whether we face suffering or temptation, we know that God isn’t trying to be a bully and we know that we were never promised life would be easy, especially as a Christian! What we were promised, though, is that God will get us through our suffering and our temptations and He will use them to grow us more and more to the likeness of Jesus. He is in the midst of them, not waiting for us to get through on the other side. When our faith is challenged, look to Christ to see what it is he might be doing through it and trust to Him to get you through. That is faith. When you feel like what you believe about the Lord is challenged, press in! Hold Fast!Ways we can press in to Christ:Prayer (A.C.T.S.)AdorationConfessionThanksgivingSupplicationFastingTime in diligent study of the WordFellowship with believers who love youResting and meditating on HimStand firm in the Lord. Faith is not dependent on our current status, but rather the amazing God who sent His Son for us. He is our anchor, He is our hope, He is our assurance, and He is our refuge. We know that when out faith is challenged, we hold fast to Christ. What is truly amazing, though, is that when we feel weak in our faith, we can focus our faith on Him because faith is a gift from Him.What does it mean that faith is a gift? Faith is a gift in that God bestows faith on us as He sees fit. Who Is Jesus? He Is Our RestThe Bible talks a lot about faith, right? When I was asked to preach a topical sermon on faith, the first thing that jumped into my mind at that point was, “I’m gonna need a nap about half way through because faith is a big topic!” But luckily for you, I was given a time limit! In all seriousness, faith is shown in scripture to be a gift of God. Read with me in...1 Timothy 1:13–14 CSB 13 even though I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, and an arrogant man. But I received mercy because I acted out of ignorance in unbelief, 14 and the grace of our Lord overflowed, along with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.Notice the flow of Paul’s thought: The GRACE of our lord overflowed, along with the Faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. He is saying that Faith and love are just as much from the Lord as grace is. Everything in this sentence is being directed from the Lord to the Paul. “I recieved mercy… grace… faith… love…Ephesians 2:8 CSB 8 For you are saved by grace through faith, and this is not from yourselves; it is God’s gift—If faith wasn’t from God, this verse would not make any sense! If grace is a result of faith, and faith was dependent on us and our own desire to seek after God, wouldn’t that be a salvation obtained by the work of growing in faith?Faith is a gift that results in God’s grace, thereby making faith and grace a gift that we do not deserve.Imagine you want to buy your kids the best Christmas present ever. You know exactly what they want and it is that one perfect gift that is tuned into their personality and could not be a more perfect gesture of the love you have for them because your relationship. It is the new car they need to get to and from work or school. You take them out to the driveway on Christmas morning and show them the car and the excitement of watching them be excited is almost as awesome for you as it is for them getting the car. The car is grace. They can’t do anything with it until you give them the keys. When God gives us faith, it pairs perfectly with the grace He offers us through the blood of Christ. Is the small keyring with the one key on it any less important a gift than the car? By no means!“So what… faith is a gift? How does that impact me?” you might ask. Remember that God is the giver of every good and perfect gift, but He is also the all powerful, Holy God of the universe. In Luke, chapter 17, the disciples asked Jesus to increase their faith. Turn with me to Luke, chapter 17.Luke 17:5–6 CSB 5 The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith.” 6 “If you have faith the size of a mustard seed,” the Lord said, “you can say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it will obey you.In Jesus’ classic method of correcting people, He was helping the disciples understand that their focus was on the wrong thing. Having a certain amount of faith was placing the responsibility for salvation back on them. When we think about the amount of faith we have, we are looking intrinsically - “how much faith is inside me?” Rather, what they should have focused on and what we should focus on is the power of God. What is it that would get a mountain to get up and move? Is it merely the act of having faith or the one in whom our faith is placed? A mustard seed is an extremely small seed that is extremely insignificant in appearance. But notice that even with such a little quantity of faith, the quality of the work of God could still accomplish anything. It had nothing to do with them, but rather everything to do with Christ. Doctor John Piper says this:...it does not depend decisively on the quantity of our faith, but on His power and wisdom and love. In knowing this we are helped not to worry about our faith and are inspired to trust God’s free initiative and power.So, oddly enough, in telling the disciples that their focus should be on God’s power and not on the mere search for more faith, Jesus is putting them, and hopefully us here today, too, at ease. Their battle was already won - God’s power was enough… Focus on that instead of the quantity of your faith. In doing so, won’t you be even more faithful?Jesus continues in verse 7...Luke 17:7–10 CSB 7 “Which one of you having a servant tending sheep or plowing will say to him when he comes in from the field, ‘Come at once and sit down to eat’? 8 Instead, will he not tell him, ‘Prepare something for me to eat, get ready, and serve me while I eat and drink; later you can eat and drink’? 9 Does he thank that servant because he did what was commanded? 10 In the same way, when you have done all that you were commanded, you should say, ‘We are worthless servants; we’ve only done our duty.’ ”Here, Luke is showing us that no matter what, the master can never be indebted to the servant. The reason the master does not thank the servant is that the servant is not giving the master more than what the master deserves. He is not treating his master with grace - he is doing his duty. Grace is being treated better than you deserve. So it is with us in relation to God. We never treat God with grace. We never give him more than he deserves. Which means that He never owes us thanks. God never says “Thank you” to us. Instead he is always giving us more than what we deserve, and we are always owing Him thanks.What does this have to do with faith? It has everything to do with faith. Exercising faith is doing our duty. It is not a favor we do for God, but rather what is right - because He deserves it. The grace he offers us is through faith is measured out solely by His good pleasure and the kicker is that faith is given as a gift.We know that when out faith is challenged, we hold fast to Christ because He is our sure and steady anchor. We also know that faith is a gift from God and our best response to Him is to rest in this all-powerful God because He will continue being God regardless of how we try to quantify the faith He gave us. And as we continue narrowing our focus, we come to the most specific question, what is faith? Particularly, what is saving faith?What is saving faith? Saving faith is the understanding and trusting Christ to be your only way to be reconciled to God and inherit eternal life. Who Is Jesus? Our SaviorNow, remember back a few moments ago when I said we would look at the most important question you will ever be asked in your life. Your answer to this question will have ramifications and implications in your life and in the lives of those around you for all eternity. Who do you say Jesus is?Our hope and desire for everyone in the church, and everyone in the world for that matter, is to know and trust Jesus and be secure in His saving grace. A faith that is capable of saving us needs to be informed why we are in need of saving, what we are being saved from and what we are being saved too.Why do we need salvation? Because we are sinners!!! Every last one of us! Who in here has never sinned, by show of hands? If anyone raises their hands, we know they’re sinning now, by lying about it!Romans 3:23 CSB 23 For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.What are we being saved from? We have two paths in life, one that leads to life in Christ, and one that leads to death and destruction.Look at the word picture Paul gives us of Hell in2 Thessalonians 1:9 CSB 9 They will pay the penalty of eternal destruction from the Lord’s presence and from his glorious strengthWhy do we need to be saved? Because we are sinners! What are we being saved from? Eternal destruction in Hell. But what are we being saved to?2 Thessalonians 1:10–12 CSB 10 on that day when he comes to be glorified by his saints and to be marveled at by all those who have believed, because our testimony among you was believed. 11 In view of this, we always pray for you that our God will make you worthy of his calling, and by his power fulfill your every desire to do good and your work produced by faith, 12 so that the name of our Lord Jesus will be glorified by you, and you by him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.We are being saved to a life with the purpose of bringing glory to Christ. As believers, a desire to do good works for the Lord is what fuels our good works - and that desire comes from faith.Who is Jesus? Who do you say He is? My hope and prayer for you is that you say, Jesus is my savior.ConclusionFaith. When we face challenged to our faith, we hold fast to Christ, our sure and steady anchor. As we hold on to Him and weather the suffering and the temptation with our focus on Him, He will get us through. So when the devil thinks he can get you to question your faith, remind him that you know full-well your sinful condition, but are also assured of the promise of God, that when you humble yourself before Him, He will lift you up.James 4:7–10 CSB 7 Therefore, submit to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9 Be miserable and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.When we feel like our faith is not enough, remember that your focus should be on the power of God. Faith will increase naturally the more and more you allow God to become your source of rest. We rest in Christ because we know that no matter how much or how little faith we have, God accomplishes His plan through His own power - that includes our salvation. He knew He wanted His elect to be saved, so He granted them the gift of faith which lead to the gift of grace. We can rest knowing that He is sovereign over everything, including us!That’s why He came 2,000 years ago. That is why we celebrate Christmas. It is not about the gifts, or the music or even being around the family that we pretend to like being around during the holiday season. Christmas is about declaring, “Joy to the world, the Lord is come! Let earth receive her king!!” It is about declaring the substance of our faith - Christ the Messiah. It is about not only observing and remembering the first advent of the Lord, but reminding ourselves of how great it is that Jesus is coming back. Our faith has found a resting place in Jesus. Faith points us to Christ. Faith points us to His greatness, His glory, His power and the fact that He will be coming soon to gather the church together and put an end to the foothold of sin in our lives - Can someone please say, “Amen?”Let’s pray.Father, thank you. Thank you for coming and blowing away all the expectations of the religious leaders so long ago so that you could get at the heart of the matter, faith. Thank you for the perfect life you lived and the sacrifice you made on the cross so that through faith we would receive the grace we need to be forgiven and put back into right relationship with You. As we prepare to close our service today, I ask that you would put your hand upon the hearts of the folks here and any who may be watching online, that you would graciously remind them of your sufficiency. Help them find an anchor in You so they can weather the suffering and temptations they face. Help them find rest in You because You are sufficient in all You do in us and through us, and for any today that questions if they have experienced faith that capable of saving their souls from Hell, I ask that You would send your Holy Spirit upon them and continue to draw them closer to Yourself. Strengthen our faith through Your Word and through the testimony of Your power and sovereignty through the Holy Spirit to us we pray, in Jesus’ name, Amen. Hebrews 11:1CSB
1 Corinthians 10:13CSB
Hebrews 2:18CSB
Hebrews 4:14–16CSB
2 Corinthians 1:8CSB
2 Corinthians 1:8CSB
2 Corinthians 1:9CSB
1 Timothy 1:13–14CSB
Ephesians 2:8CSB
Luke 17:5–6CSB
Luke 17:7–10CSB
Romans 3:23CSB
2 Thessalonians 1:9CSB
2 Thessalonians 1:10–12CSB
James 4:7–10CSB
1 Thessalonians 5:23CSB
Dishman Baptist Church
509-926-0575
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