1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:07,360 So as I said, we've rounded third on this sermon series, a couple left in this sermon 2 00:00:07,360 --> 00:00:14,000 series and then we go into the season of Advent where we're going to be looking at the mess. 3 00:00:14,000 --> 00:00:18,400 One of the reasons why Jesus comes is to make sense of the mess that a lot of different 4 00:00:18,400 --> 00:00:22,600 peoples and nations had found themselves during that time. 5 00:00:22,600 --> 00:00:28,840 But we'll get to that and we're continuing in the book of Hebrews, simply irresistible, 6 00:00:28,840 --> 00:00:33,720 simply the irresistibleness of grace, the irresistibleness of Jesus. 7 00:00:33,720 --> 00:00:37,360 Yet there are times we tend to resist that. 8 00:00:37,360 --> 00:00:43,480 And what kind of kingdom, what kind of Christianity, what kind of Jesus are you perpetuating in 9 00:00:43,480 --> 00:00:47,480 your world, in your families, in your schools, in your jobs? 10 00:00:47,480 --> 00:00:51,120 Are people looking at that and going, no, that's easy to resist, I want no part of that? 11 00:00:51,120 --> 00:00:55,600 Are they looking at that going, huh, something is different? 12 00:00:55,600 --> 00:01:01,520 And so we start a very kind of well-known chapter, Hebrews 11, the heading of my Bible, 13 00:01:01,520 --> 00:01:05,200 we use the English standard version is, by faith. 14 00:01:05,200 --> 00:01:10,000 This is all about faith and I love, and again, Brad, when you and I were emailing back and 15 00:01:10,000 --> 00:01:16,000 forth on what Sunday would work, though I do plan my sermon series out, we can never 16 00:01:16,000 --> 00:01:19,800 sync up all of the beauty of the differences and the different things we're going to learn 17 00:01:19,800 --> 00:01:20,800 on a Sunday morning. 18 00:01:20,800 --> 00:01:27,520 And to be able to say thank you to a missionary of almost 30 years, missionaries cannot do 19 00:01:27,520 --> 00:01:29,600 what they do without faith. 20 00:01:29,600 --> 00:01:31,480 I think you would agree. 21 00:01:31,480 --> 00:01:37,680 And one of the interesting things in this chapter is not only how it starts but how 22 00:01:37,680 --> 00:01:40,700 it continues, it's all about the aspect of faith. 23 00:01:40,700 --> 00:01:46,720 That by faith, and there's so many different testimonies and stories of the Old Testament 24 00:01:46,720 --> 00:01:49,800 that the writer of Hebrews is wanting this audience to understand. 25 00:01:49,800 --> 00:01:52,760 And he's using it as a sermon illustration. 26 00:01:52,760 --> 00:01:56,000 And we're not going to go through all of them, but I encourage you to read them throughout 27 00:01:56,000 --> 00:02:01,840 today or this week that by faith, so and so did this, by faith, so and so did that. 28 00:02:01,840 --> 00:02:06,960 And the thing we know about all those stories, for the most part, they didn't do it well. 29 00:02:06,960 --> 00:02:10,060 They fell, they sinned, they made a mess of it. 30 00:02:10,060 --> 00:02:15,600 And so as I told you in the beginning of service, what comes to mind for you that by faith, 31 00:02:15,600 --> 00:02:16,600 this happened? 32 00:02:16,600 --> 00:02:21,440 Now, we don't have time to really get into it, but I want you to think in turn about 33 00:02:21,440 --> 00:02:23,160 those things. 34 00:02:23,160 --> 00:02:25,660 By faith, you blank. 35 00:02:25,660 --> 00:02:27,560 By faith, you whatever. 36 00:02:27,560 --> 00:02:30,440 Or by faith, you didn't do this. 37 00:02:30,440 --> 00:02:33,400 Because we've all had that. 38 00:02:33,400 --> 00:02:38,480 Where all of a sudden, we see that we are about to enter a sin spiral or we know that 39 00:02:38,480 --> 00:02:42,120 what we're about to do goes against God's word. 40 00:02:42,120 --> 00:02:46,180 And by faith, you don't do it. 41 00:02:46,180 --> 00:02:51,840 I always find it funny that people by faith, right, when they have made some bad choices 42 00:02:51,840 --> 00:02:56,980 or they're seeking forgiveness from somebody, they said, God gave me the faith to go and 43 00:02:56,980 --> 00:02:58,300 seek forgiveness. 44 00:02:58,300 --> 00:03:02,440 God gave me the faith to go tell someone that they hurt me. 45 00:03:02,440 --> 00:03:08,120 But rarely do I hear that by faith, Jim, I didn't do this. 46 00:03:08,120 --> 00:03:11,140 By faith, I didn't do that. 47 00:03:11,140 --> 00:03:12,920 It goes both ways. 48 00:03:12,920 --> 00:03:17,800 So our confessions speak very directly to this idea of faith. 49 00:03:17,800 --> 00:03:20,660 So let's break it down given the Heidelberg Catechism. 50 00:03:20,660 --> 00:03:25,840 Question and answer 21, Lord's Day 7, what is true faith? 51 00:03:25,840 --> 00:03:29,800 Now I should take that off the screen and ask anyone that's ever been catechized, looking 52 00:03:29,800 --> 00:03:31,160 at you Schleichers, right? 53 00:03:31,160 --> 00:03:35,480 You guys went with Dan Arzman, you guys walked through this, right, the Schleicher girls 54 00:03:35,480 --> 00:03:40,440 through Catechism and where's Cam, right, and all the other Catechism folk, right? 55 00:03:40,440 --> 00:03:43,320 I see, I know Matty Montman went through Catechism here. 56 00:03:43,320 --> 00:03:46,160 You should all be able to know this by heart. 57 00:03:46,160 --> 00:03:47,160 No? 58 00:03:47,160 --> 00:03:48,160 Nothing? 59 00:03:48,160 --> 00:03:49,160 Got nothing? 60 00:03:49,160 --> 00:03:50,680 All right. 61 00:03:50,680 --> 00:03:51,680 So let's read it. 62 00:03:51,680 --> 00:03:54,200 By or what is true faith? 63 00:03:54,200 --> 00:04:02,840 True faith is not only a sure knowledge by which I hold as true that all God has revealed 64 00:04:02,840 --> 00:04:10,360 to us in scripture, it is also a wholehearted trust, which the Holy Spirit creates in me. 65 00:04:10,360 --> 00:04:18,400 By the gospel, that God is freely granted not only to others but also, but to me also 66 00:04:18,400 --> 00:04:23,280 forgiveness of sins, eternal righteousness and salvation. 67 00:04:23,280 --> 00:04:27,960 These are the gifts of sheer grace granted solely by Christ's merit. 68 00:04:27,960 --> 00:04:32,200 I know you would have said all of that perfectly, I get it. 69 00:04:32,200 --> 00:04:34,280 It's a knowledge and a trust. 70 00:04:34,280 --> 00:04:40,720 Another way to say that is an understanding and a conviction of who Jesus is. 71 00:04:40,720 --> 00:04:45,880 That is true faith. 72 00:04:45,880 --> 00:04:51,740 And I think if we look at the world today, we need faith more than ever. 73 00:04:51,740 --> 00:04:56,120 You can look out at the world today and the ground is not only groaning but the ground 74 00:04:56,120 --> 00:04:58,240 is shaking. 75 00:04:58,240 --> 00:05:02,200 The ground is crying out. 76 00:05:02,200 --> 00:05:08,040 Not only are there disturbances all around us, there's disturbances within us. 77 00:05:08,040 --> 00:05:13,280 The wolves in sheep clothing are everywhere. 78 00:05:13,280 --> 00:05:19,760 And here's the catch, none of this is a surprise to God. 79 00:05:19,760 --> 00:05:23,440 Christ foretold all of this, His scripture has told us. 80 00:05:23,440 --> 00:05:27,800 Now I'm not here ringing a bell, wearing a sandwich board saying the end is nigh, the 81 00:05:27,800 --> 00:05:28,800 end is nigh. 82 00:05:28,800 --> 00:05:30,600 I'm not Jonah. 83 00:05:30,600 --> 00:05:34,760 But understand that God's not taking a chance on this. 84 00:05:34,760 --> 00:05:36,080 We've talked about this. 85 00:05:36,080 --> 00:05:43,840 And what He's doing, He's calling people of faith to not only stand and not only walk, 86 00:05:43,840 --> 00:05:51,640 but what would it look like for the sheep to sit down with the wolves? 87 00:05:51,640 --> 00:05:54,240 Now for some of you that maybe make you angry. 88 00:05:54,240 --> 00:05:57,960 I'm sorry, but Jesus says that's what's going to happen. 89 00:05:57,960 --> 00:06:01,200 That the lion's going to lay down with the lambs, right? 90 00:06:01,200 --> 00:06:07,240 That people are going to be in community in the hopes that evangelism is going to occur. 91 00:06:07,240 --> 00:06:11,480 That the sheep are going to do the job that the shepherd has taught them to do and we 92 00:06:11,480 --> 00:06:13,780 do so by faith. 93 00:06:13,780 --> 00:06:17,300 We set the scene, Psalm 11. 94 00:06:17,300 --> 00:06:21,960 If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do? 95 00:06:21,960 --> 00:06:26,280 I don't know about you, but the foundations of a lot are being destroyed today from the 96 00:06:26,280 --> 00:06:29,160 inside and the outside. 97 00:06:29,160 --> 00:06:31,280 It's very easy to see. 98 00:06:31,280 --> 00:06:35,360 If you have no idea what I'm talking about, open your eyes. 99 00:06:35,360 --> 00:06:37,720 Open your ears. 100 00:06:37,720 --> 00:06:40,320 Don't ostrich this life. 101 00:06:40,320 --> 00:06:41,320 What does that mean? 102 00:06:41,320 --> 00:06:45,360 Ostrich is in conflict when things get all kind of exciting. 103 00:06:45,360 --> 00:06:47,040 Ostrich put their head in the sand. 104 00:06:47,040 --> 00:06:49,280 We don't do that. 105 00:06:49,280 --> 00:06:50,680 We walk. 106 00:06:50,680 --> 00:06:51,680 We live. 107 00:06:51,680 --> 00:06:53,480 We stand by faith. 108 00:06:53,480 --> 00:06:57,800 We are called the righteous because of Christ. 109 00:06:57,800 --> 00:07:01,920 Outside of Christ, we are not righteous and this doesn't pertain to us, but with Christ, 110 00:07:01,920 --> 00:07:04,240 we are. 111 00:07:04,240 --> 00:07:09,280 So we have the definition of faith from the catechism, but understand all of our catechisms, 112 00:07:09,280 --> 00:07:14,440 all of our confessions are bound and the foundations are given by the Scriptures. 113 00:07:14,440 --> 00:07:17,120 Without the Scriptures, the I had a catechism means nothing. 114 00:07:17,120 --> 00:07:18,600 The Belgian confession means nothing. 115 00:07:18,600 --> 00:07:23,080 The canons of Dort mean nothing. 116 00:07:23,080 --> 00:07:26,280 Luther's small catechism, I could go on and on. 117 00:07:26,280 --> 00:07:28,640 But what does Scripture say about faith? 118 00:07:28,640 --> 00:07:30,440 Well, let's go to that. 119 00:07:30,440 --> 00:07:36,520 Hebrews 11, now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things 120 00:07:36,520 --> 00:07:42,160 unseen for by it, the people of old receive their commendation. 121 00:07:42,160 --> 00:07:46,600 By faith, we understand that the universe was created by the word of God so that what 122 00:07:46,600 --> 00:07:49,680 is seen was not made out of things that are visible. 123 00:07:49,680 --> 00:07:57,000 By faith, Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain through which he was commended 124 00:07:57,000 --> 00:07:58,480 as righteous. 125 00:07:58,480 --> 00:08:04,920 God commending him by accepting his gifts and through his faith, though he died, he 126 00:08:04,920 --> 00:08:05,920 still speaks. 127 00:08:05,920 --> 00:08:11,280 By faith, Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death and he was not found because 128 00:08:11,280 --> 00:08:13,080 Christ had taken him. 129 00:08:13,080 --> 00:08:19,880 Now before he was taken, he was commended as having pleased God and without faith, it 130 00:08:19,880 --> 00:08:26,920 is impossible to please him for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists 131 00:08:26,920 --> 00:08:32,200 and that he rewards those who seek him. 132 00:08:32,200 --> 00:08:37,200 Though said a little differently than our Heidelberg catechism, it's still the same 133 00:08:37,200 --> 00:08:38,880 thing. 134 00:08:38,880 --> 00:08:40,560 So April, we'll go back to that first slide. 135 00:08:40,560 --> 00:08:49,720 Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for and the conviction of things not seen. 136 00:08:49,720 --> 00:08:52,760 If you've grown up in church at all, you understand this conversation. 137 00:08:52,760 --> 00:09:02,600 You understand that we are to have confidence, never cockiness in Christ, confidence that 138 00:09:02,600 --> 00:09:03,840 we stand on God's word. 139 00:09:03,840 --> 00:09:08,880 We stand on what he says. 140 00:09:08,880 --> 00:09:09,960 We don't add anything. 141 00:09:09,960 --> 00:09:11,280 We don't take away anything. 142 00:09:11,280 --> 00:09:17,640 We stand on God's word and an assurance that he is at work. 143 00:09:17,640 --> 00:09:20,760 I wonder, let me pose this question. 144 00:09:20,760 --> 00:09:25,280 If you did not have the assurance of faith, and what does that mean? 145 00:09:25,280 --> 00:09:28,880 That God is at work with you, that his word holds true, that he will be with you till 146 00:09:28,880 --> 00:09:30,520 the ends of the earth, right? 147 00:09:30,520 --> 00:09:33,240 That Isaiah, when you pass through the waters, I will be with you. 148 00:09:33,240 --> 00:09:36,400 When you pass through the flames, they will not set you ablaze. 149 00:09:36,400 --> 00:09:37,680 I am the Lord your God. 150 00:09:37,680 --> 00:09:41,520 He says the Holy One of Israel, your Savior, that he is with you. 151 00:09:41,520 --> 00:09:46,240 I look out and I know that I know some of you are going through it. 152 00:09:46,240 --> 00:09:47,600 That some of you are upset. 153 00:09:47,600 --> 00:09:48,600 Some of you are angry. 154 00:09:48,600 --> 00:09:49,600 Some of you are hurt. 155 00:09:49,600 --> 00:09:52,320 Some of you are tired. 156 00:09:52,320 --> 00:10:00,120 What would life look like without the assurance of faith in those moments? 157 00:10:00,120 --> 00:10:03,320 This one's not rhetorical. 158 00:10:03,320 --> 00:10:10,920 What if you did not have the assurance of faith when life got hard? 159 00:10:10,920 --> 00:10:11,920 Give up. 160 00:10:11,920 --> 00:10:14,000 That's a great answer. 161 00:10:14,000 --> 00:10:15,000 Up there. 162 00:10:15,000 --> 00:10:16,000 Hopeless, right? 163 00:10:16,000 --> 00:10:19,000 Or, yeah, or you say homeless. 164 00:10:19,000 --> 00:10:21,000 Well, probably both, right? 165 00:10:21,000 --> 00:10:22,000 Yeah, absolutely. 166 00:10:22,000 --> 00:10:23,000 Others. 167 00:10:23,000 --> 00:10:24,000 Empty. 168 00:10:24,000 --> 00:10:27,000 Ooh, that's a good one. 169 00:10:27,000 --> 00:10:28,000 Hell. 170 00:10:28,000 --> 00:10:32,800 Maybe you wrote that on the card. 171 00:10:32,800 --> 00:10:36,960 We're going to talk about that, but that's not going to be until next fall. 172 00:10:36,960 --> 00:10:38,360 Others. 173 00:10:38,360 --> 00:10:39,920 Hateful. 174 00:10:39,920 --> 00:10:41,240 Wow. 175 00:10:41,240 --> 00:10:44,600 What was it? 176 00:10:44,600 --> 00:10:47,000 Someone else? 177 00:10:47,000 --> 00:10:49,000 The end. 178 00:10:49,000 --> 00:10:50,000 Yeah. 179 00:10:50,000 --> 00:10:52,560 Nothing good, right? 180 00:10:52,560 --> 00:10:58,360 If you had no assurance of faith, I'm going to ask it even though I don't want to hear 181 00:10:58,360 --> 00:10:59,560 the answer. 182 00:10:59,560 --> 00:11:03,000 Did any of you show up on a Sunday? 183 00:11:03,000 --> 00:11:08,400 Collectively, you can all say, thanks, felt good. 184 00:11:08,400 --> 00:11:09,960 But it's true. 185 00:11:09,960 --> 00:11:12,840 Not that I assure your faith by any means. 186 00:11:12,840 --> 00:11:17,300 I did not say that I will be with you always to the very end of the age. 187 00:11:17,300 --> 00:11:18,580 That was Christ. 188 00:11:18,580 --> 00:11:22,600 That we stand on the promises of Christ because He said it. 189 00:11:22,600 --> 00:11:23,600 We believe it. 190 00:11:23,600 --> 00:11:24,960 There it is. 191 00:11:24,960 --> 00:11:30,800 That we have that assurance of faith, that hope of things to come. 192 00:11:30,800 --> 00:11:33,720 And we break it down by what God has done. 193 00:11:33,720 --> 00:11:40,100 Hebrews is telling us, He's showing us what He has done and why we should have faith. 194 00:11:40,100 --> 00:11:42,800 He understands that we have transactional mindsets. 195 00:11:42,800 --> 00:11:45,360 All right, if I do this, you do this. 196 00:11:45,360 --> 00:11:46,720 If I do that, you do this. 197 00:11:46,720 --> 00:11:49,400 If you don't do this, I'm not going to do that. 198 00:11:49,400 --> 00:11:50,400 We go contracts. 199 00:11:50,400 --> 00:11:51,840 We make contracts all day. 200 00:11:51,840 --> 00:11:56,280 We talked about that during the covenant sermon a couple weeks ago. 201 00:11:56,280 --> 00:12:00,520 We make those decisions all day. 202 00:12:00,520 --> 00:12:08,000 If you do something for somebody else and it's not reciprocated, be honest, you'll think 203 00:12:08,000 --> 00:12:09,000 about that. 204 00:12:09,000 --> 00:12:12,040 You may look at that person even differently. 205 00:12:12,040 --> 00:12:16,440 Or you may go, yeah, I'm probably not going to help them again. 206 00:12:16,440 --> 00:12:18,000 We do it all the time. 207 00:12:18,000 --> 00:12:22,240 But then what Hebrews does, and April, we go to the next slide, is it's a breakdown 208 00:12:22,240 --> 00:12:26,480 by faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God. 209 00:12:26,480 --> 00:12:30,640 He's giving us the foundation so we can trust the word of God. 210 00:12:30,640 --> 00:12:36,680 That your assurance of faith isn't bound by this, but its foundation is the word of God. 211 00:12:36,680 --> 00:12:40,360 How many of you have ever gotten to burning bush talking to you? 212 00:12:40,360 --> 00:12:43,760 Max, did you just raise your hand? 213 00:12:43,760 --> 00:12:47,800 Okay, we'll probably have a conversation after this, if it was. 214 00:12:47,800 --> 00:12:52,400 How many of us have had a talking donkey and don't say, I have a Pastor Jim? 215 00:12:52,400 --> 00:12:53,800 Don't say that. 216 00:12:53,800 --> 00:12:58,600 But understand that God, those are divine connections, divine appointments where God 217 00:12:58,600 --> 00:13:01,040 speaks to those individuals. 218 00:13:01,040 --> 00:13:02,920 That's divine revelation. 219 00:13:02,920 --> 00:13:06,160 Understand that he gives us that every day. 220 00:13:06,160 --> 00:13:08,320 That he speaks to our wants and our needs. 221 00:13:08,320 --> 00:13:10,600 He speaks to our hurts. 222 00:13:10,600 --> 00:13:13,240 He speaks to our successes. 223 00:13:13,240 --> 00:13:16,320 He speaks to our missions, to our evangelism. 224 00:13:16,320 --> 00:13:22,040 He speaks to those things so that his scene was not made out of things that are visible. 225 00:13:22,040 --> 00:13:23,520 He created it. 226 00:13:23,520 --> 00:13:24,960 We talked about this. 227 00:13:24,960 --> 00:13:28,680 Boom, created, light, dark. 228 00:13:28,680 --> 00:13:34,520 And I don't care what your theology of Genesis is, whether you are a seven day, 24 hour, 229 00:13:34,520 --> 00:13:35,520 or you're not. 230 00:13:35,520 --> 00:13:42,600 Again, that's not really a Selvitic issue if you understand that God created it. 231 00:13:42,600 --> 00:13:46,800 That God sustains it by the word of God. 232 00:13:46,800 --> 00:13:50,520 He is the one that is doing the work. 233 00:13:50,520 --> 00:13:56,280 And how we see if you go through God, the whole Cain and Abel thing, right, go to the 234 00:13:56,280 --> 00:13:59,400 next verse. 235 00:13:59,400 --> 00:14:03,120 Each was given the man of faith, oh no, sorry, go back. 236 00:14:03,120 --> 00:14:04,120 We're not there yet. 237 00:14:04,120 --> 00:14:08,600 But if we continue on with Cain and Abel, like it says when we read 1 through 6, that 238 00:14:08,600 --> 00:14:13,800 by faith, one was accepted and one was not. 239 00:14:13,800 --> 00:14:18,720 Now, we could dive into why that was, but that's set for another sermon. 240 00:14:18,720 --> 00:14:21,720 That understand that by faith we walk. 241 00:14:21,720 --> 00:14:24,440 By faith we live out our faith. 242 00:14:24,440 --> 00:14:29,600 By faith, my hope is we do that via flesh and blood and not always on the internet. 243 00:14:29,600 --> 00:14:33,180 But by faith we work out our faith. 244 00:14:33,180 --> 00:14:35,720 That the world will see that. 245 00:14:35,720 --> 00:14:36,720 I've said this before. 246 00:14:36,720 --> 00:14:42,720 I'll probably say it again, that when life is hard, people will look at you. 247 00:14:42,720 --> 00:14:46,440 If you're a person of faith, if you're known as a Christian in your world, and I'm not 248 00:14:46,440 --> 00:14:50,600 necessarily talking about your family, but the outside world, if you're a teacher, your 249 00:14:50,600 --> 00:14:55,200 classroom, your administration, if you're in business, your boss and all of those things, 250 00:14:55,200 --> 00:15:02,800 right, if you're known as a believer and life gets hard, I guarantee you people will look 251 00:15:02,800 --> 00:15:06,320 at how you respond. 252 00:15:06,320 --> 00:15:08,320 Did that happen for you guys? 253 00:15:08,320 --> 00:15:12,840 In a country where Christianity is not kind of primary? 254 00:15:12,840 --> 00:15:15,600 I guarantee you that Brad Naomi knew that. 255 00:15:15,600 --> 00:15:23,000 They had to live that out and people were watching that by faith we do this. 256 00:15:23,000 --> 00:15:25,920 By faith we walk. 257 00:15:25,920 --> 00:15:27,040 And why? 258 00:15:27,040 --> 00:15:32,660 Because he not only created and foundation and given everything, he also gives to us 259 00:15:32,660 --> 00:15:38,440 the Holy Spirit to allow us to give us not only the knowledge, but the conviction of 260 00:15:38,440 --> 00:15:43,480 truth that we can walk out the life that God's called us to live. 261 00:15:43,480 --> 00:15:48,200 Now go to Corinthians, April, that by the manifestation of the Spirit for the common 262 00:15:48,200 --> 00:15:53,080 good, for to one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, to the other the 263 00:15:53,080 --> 00:15:58,440 knowledge according to the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another 264 00:15:58,440 --> 00:16:07,600 gifts of healing by one Spirit and understanding that these gifts are given to the church. 265 00:16:07,600 --> 00:16:12,620 It's given to the people of faith, all of those that have done the spiritual gifts inventory. 266 00:16:12,620 --> 00:16:17,440 By faith you walk in those. 267 00:16:17,440 --> 00:16:20,880 For those that have taken it and for those that haven't, you take it, you get a ranking 268 00:16:20,880 --> 00:16:21,880 of your gifts, right? 269 00:16:21,880 --> 00:16:25,440 It's not gospel truth, it's a ranking of your gifts. 270 00:16:25,440 --> 00:16:29,600 Now I've also had a couple of people not like what they've gotten first off, so they continue 271 00:16:29,600 --> 00:16:31,160 to take it, right? 272 00:16:31,160 --> 00:16:34,400 Because they want it to say what they want to say. 273 00:16:34,400 --> 00:16:35,400 They're doing it wrong. 274 00:16:35,400 --> 00:16:37,080 That's not how it works. 275 00:16:37,080 --> 00:16:41,300 But we walk in the gifts that God has given and he's given it to the church. 276 00:16:41,300 --> 00:16:44,340 He's given it to build up the body of Christ. 277 00:16:44,340 --> 00:16:50,360 He's given you gifts to help your faith. 278 00:16:50,360 --> 00:16:53,280 And I see it all the time in churches, right? 279 00:16:53,280 --> 00:16:58,960 The 80-20 rule, that 80% of the things are being done by 20% of the people, right? 280 00:16:58,960 --> 00:17:04,040 I can't stand that statistic because that's how you get church burnout. 281 00:17:04,040 --> 00:17:08,640 That is why at Munster Church we want you to walk in your gifted areas. 282 00:17:08,640 --> 00:17:13,840 If you're not gifted at teaching, shocker, don't teach. 283 00:17:13,840 --> 00:17:16,600 It's okay, you're only going to spin your wheels. 284 00:17:16,600 --> 00:17:20,920 Maybe you want to learn about teaching, you want to shadow someone that has the gift of 285 00:17:20,920 --> 00:17:25,280 teaching and we have some very gifted teachers here. 286 00:17:25,280 --> 00:17:30,360 Or maybe you have the gift of evangelism or the gift of hospitality. 287 00:17:30,360 --> 00:17:34,120 Just because you have the gift of hospitality doesn't necessarily mean that you lead the 288 00:17:34,120 --> 00:17:35,440 small group. 289 00:17:35,440 --> 00:17:40,000 Your house just may be the host church or the host house. 290 00:17:40,000 --> 00:17:48,560 All of this is to help support and supplement your faith. 291 00:17:48,560 --> 00:17:51,960 I don't have too many people at this church come into my office and say, pastor, there's 292 00:17:51,960 --> 00:17:55,640 nothing to do at this church. 293 00:17:55,640 --> 00:17:57,160 Woe to the person that says that. 294 00:17:57,160 --> 00:17:58,360 No one has said that yet. 295 00:17:58,360 --> 00:18:02,560 Some people have alluded to it, but they've not actually said it. 296 00:18:02,560 --> 00:18:06,920 Yet I've had in churches where people have come and said, I've done everything and I'm 297 00:18:06,920 --> 00:18:10,480 exhausted and I go, do you want to know why that is? 298 00:18:10,480 --> 00:18:14,240 No, enlighten me, because you've done everything. 299 00:18:14,240 --> 00:18:17,140 Not everyone has all the gifts. 300 00:18:17,140 --> 00:18:19,720 We have been gifted, if you're an arm, be an arm. 301 00:18:19,720 --> 00:18:20,720 If you're a knee, be a knee. 302 00:18:20,720 --> 00:18:23,380 If you're an earlobe, be an earlobe. 303 00:18:23,380 --> 00:18:26,080 That is part of working out your faith. 304 00:18:26,080 --> 00:18:30,320 When it all comes together, as Corinthians tells us, it is the body of Christ. 305 00:18:30,320 --> 00:18:34,680 It is a beautiful, beautiful thing. 306 00:18:34,680 --> 00:18:39,440 But we're going to have times when we under plan for maybe the amount of people that come 307 00:18:39,440 --> 00:18:45,160 to an evening dinner or a trunker treat at a church and we have almost double the amount 308 00:18:45,160 --> 00:18:46,400 of people we think we will. 309 00:18:46,400 --> 00:18:53,040 But what was so awesome to see, right, Yoshi was able to see all the people that rose up 310 00:18:53,040 --> 00:18:55,520 to the occasion to do the different things. 311 00:18:55,520 --> 00:18:57,240 It's a good thing. 312 00:18:57,240 --> 00:18:59,200 It's a great thing. 313 00:18:59,200 --> 00:19:03,020 But I also had people that stepped into a maybe minor gift area. 314 00:19:03,020 --> 00:19:05,320 By the end of the night, they were exhausted. 315 00:19:05,320 --> 00:19:08,760 And I said, good, because the job got done. 316 00:19:08,760 --> 00:19:11,900 Now if that was how it always was, then we aren't being good stewards. 317 00:19:11,900 --> 00:19:15,720 The council, the elders, me, the deacons, we're not being good stewards of your gifts. 318 00:19:15,720 --> 00:19:20,800 If we always rely on the same people to do everything and everything and everything, 319 00:19:20,800 --> 00:19:25,880 guess what, when they stop doing stuff, they're gone. 320 00:19:25,880 --> 00:19:31,280 Because it felt more like a job than a faithful growth area of their giftings. 321 00:19:31,280 --> 00:19:34,760 And so we understand that the gifts are for our faith. 322 00:19:34,760 --> 00:19:37,460 The gift is for the action. 323 00:19:37,460 --> 00:19:38,920 We saw it in Cain and Abel. 324 00:19:38,920 --> 00:19:45,360 Right, Cain and Abel, there's gifts by faith, we see, that Abel offered his gifts and it 325 00:19:45,360 --> 00:19:50,320 was more acceptable than Cain, but he offered in by faith. 326 00:19:50,320 --> 00:19:51,320 Abel did that. 327 00:19:51,320 --> 00:19:58,040 You go through the entire chapter of Hebrews, chapter 11, by faith Abraham, by faith Abraham, 328 00:19:58,040 --> 00:20:05,840 by faith Moses, by faith Jepha and David, all of these people, that by faith they did 329 00:20:05,840 --> 00:20:09,120 it. 330 00:20:09,120 --> 00:20:15,320 It's powerful, friends, that by faith we walk. 331 00:20:15,320 --> 00:20:22,920 But the first thing is first, you have to understand that God is the one giving you 332 00:20:22,920 --> 00:20:28,440 faith and that faith is something that you can grow by the spiritual disciplines, by 333 00:20:28,440 --> 00:20:34,080 reading God's word, by prayer, by fasting, all of those things. 334 00:20:34,080 --> 00:20:37,520 God just doesn't say, okay, Rick, I'm giving you faith, here you go, brother. 335 00:20:37,520 --> 00:20:38,520 And then he backs off. 336 00:20:38,520 --> 00:20:41,320 He doesn't say, Rick, you figure it out. 337 00:20:41,320 --> 00:20:44,120 No, he comes alongside of us. 338 00:20:44,120 --> 00:20:46,800 And here's the key. 339 00:20:46,800 --> 00:20:53,480 God will always be good stewards of the seed of faith he puts in you. 340 00:20:53,480 --> 00:20:58,360 And that we believe the Holy Spirit gets you excited about that faith, regenerates that 341 00:20:58,360 --> 00:21:05,920 faith in your soul and gives you those orders to say, go, go make disciples. 342 00:21:05,920 --> 00:21:09,680 And he's there every step of the way. 343 00:21:09,680 --> 00:21:13,160 I love coaching kids, and I'm going to close with this. 344 00:21:13,160 --> 00:21:15,280 I love coaching kids in sports. 345 00:21:15,280 --> 00:21:17,280 Baseball is my favorite. 346 00:21:17,280 --> 00:21:19,600 Basketball is where I got a vocal bleed. 347 00:21:19,600 --> 00:21:21,400 I do a lot of yelling. 348 00:21:21,400 --> 00:21:24,720 But what kind of coach would it be? 349 00:21:24,720 --> 00:21:28,880 Day one of sixth grade, or sorry, six-year-old T-ball. 350 00:21:28,880 --> 00:21:34,440 If I said here's a T, here's a ball, here's a bat, they're six-year-olds, by the way, 351 00:21:34,440 --> 00:21:35,440 have at it. 352 00:21:35,440 --> 00:21:40,240 I gave you the tools, I'm out. 353 00:21:40,240 --> 00:21:41,240 It's not going to go well. 354 00:21:41,240 --> 00:21:44,440 There's going to be kids knocked out by other kids with bats. 355 00:21:44,440 --> 00:21:47,080 That's how that will go. 356 00:21:47,080 --> 00:21:50,720 And Coach Jim won't be able to coach anymore. 357 00:21:50,720 --> 00:21:52,280 God doesn't do that. 358 00:21:52,280 --> 00:21:55,760 God doesn't say, okay, here's my word. 359 00:21:55,760 --> 00:21:59,360 I'm not going to throw it. 360 00:21:59,360 --> 00:22:01,240 He doesn't just say, here you go. 361 00:22:01,240 --> 00:22:05,520 You think God would waste his voice that way? 362 00:22:05,520 --> 00:22:07,120 No. 363 00:22:07,120 --> 00:22:11,200 God's voice is not wasted on you. 364 00:22:11,200 --> 00:22:16,440 God's voice is speaking to you right now in your soul, in your gut, in your spirit. 365 00:22:16,440 --> 00:22:19,400 If you're convicted, that is God's voice. 366 00:22:19,400 --> 00:22:23,160 If you're encouraged, that's God's voice. 367 00:22:23,160 --> 00:22:27,920 If you feel, and maybe I'm just going to put this out there, not just because we have a 368 00:22:27,920 --> 00:22:32,840 missionary in house, maybe you're feeling called to missions. 369 00:22:32,840 --> 00:22:38,240 Maybe there's just an annoying voice in your life that says it's time to go, it's time 370 00:22:38,240 --> 00:22:40,080 to go, it's time to go. 371 00:22:40,080 --> 00:22:42,920 And you're like, nope, nope, nope. 372 00:22:42,920 --> 00:22:45,220 Talk to Brad and Naomi. 373 00:22:45,220 --> 00:22:46,520 Maybe they struggled with it. 374 00:22:46,520 --> 00:22:50,000 What we heard is they're struggling being, or they've struggled a little bit with being 375 00:22:50,000 --> 00:22:52,000 called home. 376 00:22:52,000 --> 00:22:56,040 You talk to Brad and Naomi for five seconds and they have a heart for people and a heart 377 00:22:56,040 --> 00:22:59,040 for faith and gospel and medical and missions. 378 00:22:59,040 --> 00:23:04,160 So to be called home to be with grandkids, ugh. 379 00:23:04,160 --> 00:23:06,600 And I don't even have them yet. 380 00:23:06,600 --> 00:23:09,200 But that sounds exhausting. 381 00:23:09,200 --> 00:23:15,320 But by faith, they are coming home for a new chapter of life. 382 00:23:15,320 --> 00:23:20,920 By faith, what are you going to do? 383 00:23:20,920 --> 00:23:27,600 I've had some people tell me, I don't like this series, pastor, because it seems like 384 00:23:27,600 --> 00:23:31,800 you're telling me I have to work out my salvation. 385 00:23:31,800 --> 00:23:33,560 And I said, go back and listen. 386 00:23:33,560 --> 00:23:36,280 That's not what I'm saying. 387 00:23:36,280 --> 00:23:45,320 It is the byproduct of faith in you to go and bring the gospel to people. 388 00:23:45,320 --> 00:23:52,360 If you are not there yet, if you do not claim Jesus as Lord and Savior, I'm sorry, you can't 389 00:23:52,360 --> 00:23:54,560 evangelize. 390 00:23:54,560 --> 00:23:57,560 You can't give what you don't have. 391 00:23:57,560 --> 00:24:02,520 But that gift of salvation is right there. 392 00:24:02,520 --> 00:24:07,720 And if you're here this morning and you want that, maybe you've made mistakes in your life 393 00:24:07,720 --> 00:24:11,200 and you go, I can't have faith because I've done this, this, and this. 394 00:24:11,200 --> 00:24:15,320 No, it's because of those things and that understanding that Jesus died for you, that 395 00:24:15,320 --> 00:24:19,960 faith is yours. 396 00:24:19,960 --> 00:24:21,760 Receive it. 397 00:24:21,760 --> 00:24:23,800 Profess it. 398 00:24:23,800 --> 00:24:25,520 And get to work. 399 00:24:25,520 --> 00:24:32,520 Bye.