The reason I tell you this story is because there are some major life lessons for us to learn. I have been looking forward to preaching this message for a few months now because I know it is a message that you need to hear. Some of you know that I am going back to college for a degree in Christian Counseling. As I have been in class over the last four months I have noticed that most of our problems stem from a lack of knowledge of this truth. In my last class I had to apply scripture to differing counseling situations and I was tempted to use this passage in every one of them. We don’t teach this well in our culture and to be completely honest we are paying the price for it today and I think it is going to get worse if we don’t start fighting against our culture. Tonight I want to start that fight and I will challenge you to meditate on this truth so that it will burn inside you and become who you are. Not only do I want it to burn in you, but I also want you to take it to those around you. When you begin to own something as important as this, don’t keep it to yourself. Help others understand it as well. Help other believe it. Help it to burn inside of them too.

The question that we are going to talk about tonight is a question of value. How do you know how valuable you are? Do you even know where to begin figuring this out? Where do you turn to determine what your worth? I’m going to leave these questions hanging right now but hopefully all of them will be answered before I wrap up tonight. If you have any questions at the end of the night, please come and talk to me.

Our passage for tonight is 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 but to get us started I want to read it in context. I also want to say that when many people preach on this text, they miss the point. They apply this scripture to the symptoms rather than the cause and we know that never helps anyone. Tonight I want to help you see the cause. So hear we go with 1 Corinthians 6:12-20:

12 You say, “I am allowed to do anything”—but not everything is good for you. And even though “I am allowed to do anything,” I must not become a slave to anything. 13 You say, “Food was made for the stomach, and the stomach for food.” (This is true, though someday God will do away with both of them.) But you can’t say that our bodies were made for sexual immorality. They were made for the Lord, and the Lord cares about our bodies. 14 And God will raise us from the dead by his power, just as he raised our Lord from the dead.

15 Don’t you realize that your bodies are actually parts of Christ? Should a man take his body, which is part of Christ, and join it to a prostitute? Never! 16 And don’t you realize that if a man joins himself to a prostitute, he becomes one body with her? For the Scriptures say, “The two are united into one.” 17 But the person who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with him.

18 Run from sexual sin! No other sin so clearly affects the body as this one does. For sexual immorality is a sin against your own body. 19 Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself, 20 for God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body.

Now, there is a lot that Paul is talking about in that passage but I want to skim over most of it and then settle on one of the points that I think is extremely relevant to you today. As you read through this passage you notice that Paul is setting up an argument against sexual immorality. He starts off by saying, “You say, ‘I am allowed to do anything’—but not everything is good for you. And even though ‘I am allowed to do anything,’ I must not become a slave to anything.” I am going to touch briefly on this and then move on. There are many of you that are asking the question, “How far is too far?” in relation to sex and in relation to sin in general. We all want to know how far we can go down the wrong road before it is considered “sin”. Please hear me tonight when I tell you that you are asking the wrong question! I challenge you to tell me a time when that question has helped you out and not gotten you burned. I can almost guarantee you that you can’t find one. That is like asking how far you should let the other team beat you before you begin to try. That is not the question of someone chasing after God, it is the question of someone drifting away. When you are chasing after God, you aren’t asking how far you can go into sin, you are running away from it.
Next Paul says, “You say, ‘Food was made for the stomach, and the stomach for food.’ (This is true, though someday God will do away with both of them.) But you can’t say that our bodies were made for sexual immorality.” Did you hear what Paul is saying? He is saying that evolution is wrong! You might be asking why I might jump to that conclusion and I’ll tell you. Paul says that our bodies are not made for sex, our purpose is not procreation. When you begin to look at evolutionary theory most of what drives it is dying and procreating, that is it. As you begin to study what evolutionary biologists are writing they continue to say more and more that we were made to have sex. What drives survival of the fittest is females finding strong males to mate with and by doing so they are creating stronger/better offspring. That is exactly the opposite of what Paul is saying. He is saying that your stomach was made for food but your bodies are made for God! They were created in God’s image and designed to worshipfully glorify God.
I am going to skip over verses 15-17 for times sake and head to 18-20. He says, “Run from sexual sin! No other sin so clearly affects the body as this one does. For sexual immorality is a sin against your own body. Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself, for God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body.” Now, this is where most people will take this passage and twist it, missing the point entirely. I have heard well meaning leaders preach “Run from sexual sin” and “You must honor God with your body” many times but these are only symptoms. They are not the cause. I don’t want to solely focus on these two commands, I want you to understand why he commanded them.
Let’s go back to the question I asked at the beginning. How do you know how valuable something is? Let’s take my guitar for an example. How much is it worth? Some of you may say that it’s worth nothing, others, who like it, will say it’s worth a lot. In the end how do you know what it is worth? Hear me closely, when I say this. In reality, my guitar is worth the highest price that anyone is willing to pay for it. So, Karna may say that it is only worth $100; Willy may say that it’s worth $300; and Rachel may say it’s worth nothing. Actually everyone in this room could tell me this guitar is worth nothing, completely worthless, but if Willy gave me $1,000 for my guitar, it is worth $1,000.
Now take this and apply it to yourself. How do you determine your worth? Do you determine your worth by what people tell you? You may have had people tell you that your worthless. Maybe they’ve never came out and said it but they have treated you that way. Does that mean your worthless, that you have not value? Maybe you have had times in your life where everyone around you told you that you are worthless. Does that mean it’s true? NO! It’s just like the guitar. It doesn’t matter how many people say that you are worth nothing. “God bought you with a high price.” He has determined your value and worth. As a result nobody else has the right to tell you otherwise because none of them will be able to out-pay God. He bought you with a high price. He gave everything for you. Do you realize how valuable that makes you? This may sound cliche but I’ll say it anyways. That makes you priceless. The God of the universe, who created everything, died on the cross to buy you. You have uncomprehendable worth.
I think this is what Paul is trying to get at. He is saying that you are extremely valuable, so start treating yourself that way. I remember when my my brother and I got that Joe Montana card. We ran to the hobby shop and bought this ridiculous case to put it in. It was Plexiglas and inch thick. We knew how valuable this card was and we didn’t want anything to damage it. You’re the same way. Realize how valuable you are, then don’t let anyone damage you. NOBODY! Protect yourself and your body. Once you realize this and begin to live it (and we need to live it, not just realize it), I won’t have to tell you the other stuff. It will flow out of this understanding.
You will no longer ask “How far is too far?” because you want to do everything you can to protect yourself. You will begin to realize what you are made for. You are made to worship God, not to have sex (a side note: If we hold to the view of evolution, then we have no value. You can’t have purpose without design and you can’t have value either. No wonder we are seeing things fall apart around us. When we see ourselves without value and without purpose, we will do whatever it takes to feel like we do).  On top of all of this we will be so thankful that God has purchased us out of a life of slavery to sin and hopelessness that we will run to Him. We won’t hold on to our sin in a loving embrace but we will kill it. I heard a great saying at the Pastor’s Conference. Doug Wilson said, “The only way we should ever hold onto our sin is the same way David held Goliath’s head, in victory.”
Realize tonight how valuable you are. Jesus Christ died to purchase you. He wanted you. Let that set in. Meditate on it. Let it burn inside you. Then take it to those around you. Not only do you need to start treating others as if they have value, but you also need to show them hoe valuable they are. Spread this Good News. Jesus Christ purchased you from slavery to sin. Believe it and be saved.

There were three ways that you could see this in our team. First it was because every time we stepped onto the field, we gave it everything we had. We knew that we had a job to do and if we didn’t do it, the rest of the team was let down. If one of the linemen took a play off, either the quarterback or the running back were going to get hurt. If the linemen were giving it everything they had but the wide receivers were slacking, not only would the team be ineffective, but the linemen would get sick of blocking. As a result of this, we played with everything we had because we knew there were other people relying on us and we knew that there were other people breaking their backs for us. We all relied heavily upon each other and were determined not to let the others down.

The second way you could see this in our team was the intensity with which we trained. As a team we didn’t just lift weights every once in a while, it was at least once a day, maybe twice, and we never trained alone. We always were training with our teammates and the entire time we were lifting or running, you had someone cheering you on or screaming at ya (in a good way). When you thought you couldn’t do another lap, someone would come along side you and help you do another one. When you thought you couldn’t do another squat, someone would come alongside you and motivate you to do another one. It was intense.

The third way that you could see this is by how we related to one another. Nobody on the team looked down on anyone else on the team. There was nobody else on the team that played a less important role than the others. Not even the “star players” looked down on us little freshman. We all had a place or a purpose on the team and none of those roles were more important than the other. Although I was only a freshman, and never started a game in college, I still had to help prepare the guys that were going to be starting. That means that all week long I had to give everything I had in order to help someone else succeed. If I slacked off, they wouldn’t be as well prepared as they could have been. Everyone had an important role. Everyone had worth. That is why we were such a solid football team.

Now why spend so much time talking about football in our Wednesday night message? Because I think our churches need to look a lot more like the good football teams. It saddens me to think that churches do such a poor job at this but it also gets me excited to think about what would happen if we start to do this better, the way God intended it to be. Let’s take a look at our passage for today.

1 Corinthians 12:12-26 says this, “12 For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. 13 For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit.

14 For the body does not consist of one member but of many. 15 If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. 16 And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. 17 If the whole body were an eye, where would be the sense of hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell? 18 But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. 19 If all were a single member, where would the body be? 20 As it is, there are many parts, yet one body.

21 The eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you,” nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” 22 On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, 23 and on those parts of the body that we think less honorable we bestow the greater honor, and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty, 24which our more presentable parts do not require. But God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it, 25 that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. 26 If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together.”

This is a pretty large passage so let’s take it paragraph by paragraph and see what God is trying to tell us tonight. The first paragraph says, “12 For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. 13 For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit.” Do you notice any words that repeat themselves in this passage? Yeah the words “body” and “one”. Whenever you see words repeated like that, you need to pay attention. Paul wants us to take a look at our bodies. Look at how many different parts there are. Some are pretty cool looking, some are pretty weird looking, but they all come together to form one body that functions wonderfully. He says that it is the same with Christ. Why does he say that? Verse 13 starts off with the word “For” and that tells us why he is saying it is the same in Christ. You could almost translate it as “Because”. Paul is saying that when you become a Christian, you are filled with the Holy Spirit. Everyone who is filled with the Holy Spirit has the same Spirit. It doesn’t matter where they live, what they look like, or how they were raised. They are all filled with the same Holy Spirit. Because of this, we are to function as a body.

Like I mentioned a few weeks ago, we have an extremely diverse group that meets here on Wednesday nights. Some would see that as a bad thing, but I see it as an awesome thing! In order for a body to function properly it needs to have diversity. If everyone who met here on a Wednesday night acted and thought the same, we couldn’t truly operate as a body. That is exactly what Paul says next in this passage.

He says, “14 For the body does not consist of one member but of many. 15 If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. 16 And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. 17 If the whole body were an eye, where would be the sense of hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell? 18 But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. 19 If all were a single member, where would the body be? 20 As it is, there are many parts, yet one body.”  If all the members were the same, it would no longer be a body. It would only be a bunch of members. You must have diversity in order to have a body. Be happy with how God has created you. Don’t complain because you don’t have the gifts that someone else has. God didn’t want you to have those gifts. He gave you the gifts you have for a reason. Be happy about it and be excited.

The next paragraph says something similar but with a different twist. It says, “21 The eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you,” nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” 22 On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, 23 and on those parts of the body that we think less honorable we bestow the greater honor, and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty, 24which our more presentable parts do not require.” Do you hear what is being said in this passage? Make sure you do! If you want to see me get wound up and angry, ignore what this passage is saying. I have begun to see more and more of this in our group and in churches in our community and honestly it angers me greatly. Paul says, “The eye cannot say to the hand, ‘I have no need of you,’ nor again the head to the feet, ‘I have no need of you.’” I see this over and over again. People grow up in the church and as new people come in, who maybe look different or act different, they basically say “I have no need of you”. They stay away from them, they treat them differently, and with their actions they tell them “I have no need of you”. Who are you to say that you have no need of someone when “God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose”? God chose to give you a different role than He gave them, but that doesn’t mean that your better than they are or that they are unnecessary. Every role is important. Every role is needed. Every role has worth.

So how does this passage end? I think this is the main point, the reason why Paul was writing all of this. He says, “But God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it, 25 that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. 26 If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together.” God has designed the body, his church, so that those who are looked down upon are actually the ones that will receive the greater honor. Take a minute to think about that. How would this idea change the way you look at other people? How you treat those in the room tonight?

He not only designed it for that reason but he also designed it so that everyone would care for each other equally. That isn’t saying that God designed the church so the leaders would care for everyone equally, but that everyone would care for everyone equally. As a member of this group, it is your job to care for each other equally. Not just those in your clique but EVERYONE, EQUALLY.

He has also designed it so that there would be “no division in the body”. When you begin to look at people in this way, unity will emerge. When you see that everyone is needed and that everyone is caring for each other the group will grow closer and closer together. You will begin to experience what Paul says in verse 26 that, “If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together.” If one of you is suffering, we all suffer. If one of the leaders is suffering, we all suffer. It doesn’t matter if it is Brandon, Alli, Troy, Rachel, David, or Jason. If one is suffering, we all suffer. Why wouldn’t you do something about that? We are a team. A team with a huge variety of people, that we need in order to function. Everyone of us needs everyone else.

It is no different from a football team. Our group needs to reflect the three things that my football team did. First, that we will do everything we do to the glory of God. We will serve Him with passion and intensity. Realizing that our team, our church, is relying on us. We will leave it all on the field for God’s glory and the sake of His church. We will strive not to slack off or grow tired because we don’t want to let our team down. We will train with intensity and “spur each other on” so that we won’t grow tired as the game closes to an end. When we see someone who feels like they can’t go on any further we will encourage them or yell at them (in an encouraging way) in order to help keep them going. And we will see the value in everyone who is on our team. Some have been “playing the game” longer than others but everyone has a place and a role on this team. Everyone had value and purpose. Everyone is needed to accomplish the goal. Nobody is more important than the other. You all need each other.

Our football team that year was undefeated. Nobody even came close to beating us. If the church would begin to operate in the way that God has designed it, it could say the same thing.

That’s why I think God loves football!

Posted via email from ignite-bethel’s posterous

Along with this conviction I have also noticed how pride can really blind people to see the obvious truths in scripture. I have had numerous discussions with people lately about some controversial topics in Christianity. I tried my best to keep these conversations from getting heated, they did get a little heated, but for the most part the conversations were good, except two things. First as the conversation went on farther many people made lots of claims about things that I had never heard of in scripture. They would say this or that but never way where it was mentioned in scripture. When I finally asked them to show me where it says these things, they were unable to show me. The second thing is a big one. The other thing that I noticed is that when people have decided that they know everything about a particular topic, pride come creeping in and blinds them from even looking at the truth (Sadly I have noticed this in my own life as well). As I showed them passages of scripture that, I felt, argued my point, they came up with some really off the wall responses to what the passage really meant. They were so determined to be right, rather than seeking the truth, they were blind to even seeing what God’s word is telling them.

Tonight I want to challenge you as believers to strive, to fight, to stay away from these two ways of thinking and acting. There are many of you in this room who believe something but you are completely unable to explain why you believe it. To be completely honest you don’t even know why you believe it. The majority of your belief system is based on what people have told you to believe rather than basing it on God’s word. Go to God’s word for your guidance. Search God’s word for the answers. They are there waiting for you. You need know why you believe what you believe or you will never live it and you will never actually believe it.

As for the other issue, the one that deals with pride. There are many of you here in this room tonight who have grown up in the church your whole life. You have gone to private school, Sunday school, and have attended church every night. Your family has done devotions after supper every night since you can remember and you have tried your best to get up every morning to read the bible yourself. As a result of this, you think you have it all figured out. Pride has begun to creep into your life and is beginning to blind you from the truths of God’s word. You look at certain topics that we talk about and you shut your brain off because “you’ve already heard all this before”. The question I have for you tonight is, are you living it? Does your life represent what you say you believe? If your life isn’t changed by what you believe, you really don’t believe it. The truth about scripture is that that more you read it, and the more you understand it, the more you will realize that you don’t understand it all. If you feel like you have all the answers, you don’t, and pride has begun to creep into your life.

The scripture we are going to talk about tonight is one that many will skim over and miss some of the beauty and power that is in it. I don’t want you to do that. I don’t want you to miss out on the power that our God has in our lives. Open your eyes, ears, and heart tonight to hear God’s word!

The passage that we will be discussing tonight is Hebrews 7:25 and it says, “Therefore he is able, once and forever, to save[e] those who come to God through him. He lives forever to intercede with God on their behalf.” Now before we go any further I want to point out a couple things. First, I usually have been happy with the NLT translation and it accuracy of interpretation, but not this time. If you look at this verse you will notice a little [e] after the word “save”. This is a little footnote that says, “Or is able to save completely.” As I have studied this passage, this is a better translation. So for the rest of the evening I am going to switch from our normal translation and use one that does a better job, the ESV. The ESV says, “Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives.” This passage is one that you should hold onto for great peace and hope.

As I mentioned at the beginning, this deals with something I have been convicted of lately. I have heard many pastors talking of preaching “Half a Gospel” and how many pastors are only preaching part of the gospel and are leaving out parts. At first when I heard this I couldn’t believe that anyone would do this, until I realized I was to some extent. There are many times when I have stood in front of you and told you that “Christ has died for your sins” and if you believe in Him you will have eternal life. There is power in that statement. It brings conviction on those who hear it but there is more power when you preach the rest of it. You see, when we stop at Christ’s death for our sins, we are left at square one. He has paid for our sins but now what? Hasn’t He also done something else? He has also risen from the dead! Now some would say that is a minor difference and really the power lays in the death but I think the writer of Hebrews says differently. Let’s take another look at this verse.

“Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives.” As we see this verse there is one thing that should stand out in your head as you read it, the word “consequently”. This means that we should read the verses before it to understand what he is saying. So let’s look at verses 23-25. “The former priests were many in number, because they were prevented by death from continuing in office, but he holds his priesthood permanently, because he continues forever. Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.” So the verses before hand are talking of the Jesus’ priesthood and how it is better than the Levitical priesthood. It says that it is better because “he continues forever” then it says “Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him.” Why is that important? As you begin to break down the argument you will see why it’s important. The writer of Hebrews is basing Christ’s ability to save on the fact that he lives forever, not solely because of the cross. You can see this by him using “consequently” at the beginning of the verse and “since” at the end of the verse. You could reword the verse to say this, “Since he always lives to make intercession for them, Christ is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him.” Have you ever thought of that?

This verse is saying that Christ died to cleanse you from your sins. It is only because of his death that the penalty for your sins can be removed. But it is also saying that since Christ rose from the dead and is living forever at the right hand of the Father, he can intercede for us, he can pray for us. This is how he is able to completely save us. If he had only died for our sins, they would have been removed but we still would not have access to the Father. It is only because He also lives that we have access to the Father.

This puts a whole new outlook on the Paul’s saying in 1 Corinthians 15, “And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile.” I used to look at this passage as saying that the resurrection proved Christ’s divinity but now that I understand Hebrew more fully, I don’t think that is what Paul is saying. He is saying the same thing; if Christ isn’t living forever, then we have no access to God and our faith is in vain.

Now some may look at this and wonder why the big deal. They may think that this is solely someone who love theology making distinctions that really have no impact on our lives. This is completely untrue! When we have a better understanding of this concept it give us great peace and hope in our lives. There are many but let me give you two areas where it gives me great peace and hope.

First, it give me hope as I daily struggle to follow Christ with all of my heart, soul, mind, and strength. Let’s look at Romans 8:34 where Paul talks about this same thing. He says this, “Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.” What a powerful comfort to those who are following Christ! Who can condemn you? Nobody! Christ lives and is pleading to God on your behalf. It doesn’t matter how many times you stumble and fall in your walk of faith, Christ is able to completely save you because he is pleading your case in heaven. This should not only cause you great peace but should also give you great courage. Step out in faith, be bold, take a chance for God’s kingdom, all the while knowing that if you fall and mess up, Christ is still pleading you case and nobody has the right to condemn you. NOBODY!

Secondly it give me peace to know that since Christ “always lives” he is able to save to the “uttermost”. This means that those in my life whom I love, who are not following Christ, some are walking away, some are running away, some are wandering aimlessly through life, all of these Christ is able to completely save. He is always alive and is able to completely save to the uttermost. The “uttermost” is long way and a huge distance. None of you can run or fall farther than the uttermost. All are able to be saved, none are too far from God. Christ is able to save because He lives forever. What an amazing truth!!

Tonight if there are any of you who are not sure where your life lays, or where you have put your faith, I plead with you to choose Christ tonight. He is able to completely save you from all of your sins, no matter how far you have fallen, but our verse says that you must come “through him”. There is no other way. Christ not only died on the cross for your sins and made them white as snow but he also rose from the grave. He is sitting at God’s right hand and is willing to plead your case, if you will turn to Him, if you will follow Him. Will you do that tonight? Will you choose life?

1 As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man who had been blind from birth. 2 “Rabbi,” his disciples asked him, “why was this man born blind? Was it because of his own sins or his parents’ sins?”

3 “It was not because of his sins or his parents’ sins,” Jesus answered. “This happened so the power of God could be seen in him. 4 We must quickly carry out the tasks assigned us by the one who sent us. The night is coming, and then no one can work. 5 But while I am here in the world, I am the light of the world.”  6 Then he spit on the ground, made mud with the saliva, and spread the mud over the blind man’s eyes. 7 He told him, “Go wash yourself in the pool of Siloam” (Siloam means “sent”). So the man went and washed and came back seeing!

Now this story goes on to tell us more about what happened but tonight I want to focus on a small part of the story but, nonetheless, a huge part of it’s meaning.
Jesus and his disciples are walking through town and they come across a man who was blind. Not only is the man blind but he has been blind since birth. Now I find it interesting how the disciples respond. At this point Jesus has already done a bunch of miracles. He turned water into wine; he had healed an officers son; he healed a lame man; he has fed the five thousand. So Jesus has done some big miracles, including healing people. Wouldn’t you think his disciples would ask Jesus to heal the man? Here is a man who has suffered from birth and Jesus has the ability to heal him but the disciples don’t ask about that. They ask another question.

“Why was this man born blind? Was it because of his own sins or his parents’ sins?”

I think they ask this because they know Jesus has the ability to heal the man but they want the answer to the deeper question. Why is there suffering in the world? Why has this man had to deal with blindness his entire life? Have you ever asked that question? We normally don’t even think about this question until it hits close to home. Maybe a friend gets really sick, or one of your parents lose their job, or maybe their fighting all the time, or maybe your family is worried about losing their house, or maybe you are struggling with school and you wonder why things don’t click for you like they do with everyone else. When life gets hard we want to know why, we want to know the cause. I’m sure the blind man had asked himself that before, don’t you think? Why does everyone else get to go through life seeing things clearly and I have to go through life in darkness? Is it something I did? Am I being punished for my parents sins?
There is something inside of us that yearns to understand the purpose behind our suffering. If we are able to understand even a little bit, we will be able to make it through. Something inside of us understands that there is purpose and design in everything, even our lives. We know that when bad things happen to us or to other people, there has to be some reason for it, even if it is punishment for something we’ve done wrong. That is the cause that we immediately jump to isn’t it? When Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans it wasn’t long before pastors were on television claiming that it hit because the city was sinful. They immediately jumped to the conclusion that it was a result of their sin. Now I’m not saying that it wasn’t because of their sin but I am saying that there is another option that we sometimes overlook. God can discipline us for our mistakes and will demonstrate his holiness on sinful cities but we must look deeper to the underlying reason for suffering. Jesus gives that to us in his answer to his disciples.

“It was not because of his sins or his parents’ sins,” Jesus answered. “This happened so the power of God could be seen in him.”

In the first few words of Jesus’ answer he dispels both of the disciples conclusions. They had asked the question as if those were the only two options. He was blind either because he sinned, or his parents sinned. They thought they had it figured out but Jesus helps them to see it deeper. Jesus answers, “[Neither], this happened so the power of God could be seen in him.” Can you imagine what must be going through the blind man’s mind as he hears this answer? There had to have been a million things running around in his mind. There must have been an overwhelming sense of relief. It wasn’t because of anything he had done. It wasn’t his fault. It wasn’t his parents fault either. I’m not sure how long the sense of relief must have lasted but I’d guess his mind went another direction shortly.
Many of us in this room might freak out, might curse God, might even turn away from Him if we found this out. You’re trying to tell me that the blindness isn’t my fault or my parents fault but that God did this? God caused me to be blind! I had to deal with this pain and suffering my entire life and because of God? These are the hard questions of our faith. These are the questions that many atheists use to try and debunk God. So what are we saying then? Is God unjust? Absolutely not! There is nothing unjust about God.

One of the things I am saying is that there is always a purpose behind your pain. If God wasn’t in control of everything, you couldn’t say that. God would be constantly trying to fix things and he would always be a step behind. That’s not the God we follow! He is bigger than that, greater than that. Jesus gives us the answer of purpose in the man’s blindness by saying, “This happened SO the power of God could be seen in him.” That word “so” is a purpose word and in the Greek it is a clause means purpose. So Jesus is saying that the purpose behind the man’s blindness is that God’s power could be seen in him, that God would be glorified through him. Isn’t that amazing to you? Our only purpose in life, the reason we are on earth, is to glorify God and Jesus is telling the man that he’s fulfilling that through his blindness. Also think about how many people have been helped as a result of this event. This happened two thousand years ago and we are still talking about it today. Many people have received comfort in their pain as a result of his suffering. Isn’t that amazing? There is always purpose behind your suffering, even when we don’t understand it.

Some may say that is all fine and dandy but I still think that God was unfair to do that. I want to give you an illustration to help you understand this a little better. The illustration isn’t perfect but hopefully it will help you to get a better grasp of what I am talking about. Last night I was looking at Lauren’s immunization record and at her two month appointment she received six shots. Six shots! Now, how do you think a two month old baby handles the whole process? Not very well. As a parent you literally have to hold your child down on the examination table, while they are screaming bloody murder, as the doctor gives them the shot. What do you think is going through the child’s mind at that point? They don’t understand why this is happening, all they feel is the pain of the needles and the fact that their parent is holding them down while it happens. They fight and cry and scream because they don’t want to go through the pain and they can’t understand why their parent isn’t saving them from the pain. Isn’t that what mom and dad do? How can they hold me down as I am going through this? Now, think of it from the parents perspective. How hard do you think it is to pin your child to the table as they scream and cry? It’s very hard. The question I have for you is, would it be loving for the parent to not give them the shot? What if the parent knew that the child would end up with Polio or Hepatitis without the shot yet didn’t give them the shot, would that be loving? Of course it wouldn’t!

That’s what is happening with us in our pain. We are in the middle of the pain and all we want is for it to stop. We don’t understand why it is happening to us. So we scream and cry and fight it every step of the way. From God’s point of view, He knows we are in pain but he sees the bigger picture. He knows that the purpose for our pain is to cure us of a deeper disease, a disease that will kill us if not cured. He hates seeing us go through the pain but also knows that it would be unloving to avoid the pain. In the end it is the most loving thing for Him to do.

What happens as we mature and begin to understand why we get shots? Do we continue to fight them and scream about it? Some do, but most understand that there is a purpose behind the pain and they no longer fight it. We should do the same as we mature in our faith. We should realize that there is a purpose behind our pain, even when we can’t see it. We should walk into it knowing that God has it all in control and is doing it for a reason. James says, “Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. 3 For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. 4 So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.” Why should we consider it joy when we face pain? Because we know that God is using it to cure us of our faults. James says that the end result of our pain is that we will be “fully developed,.. perfect and complete, needing nothing.” That should cause us great joy!

So what do we do when we are in the middle of the pain and we can’t comprehend how God could use this for the good? We trust that God is good, that God is faithful, that God loves you, that God has a plan for your life, and that God is in control of that situation. Once you understand that all of those are true, you rest in the fact that God has a plan and a purpose for your pain. He is using it to perfect you and to conform you into the likeness of His son.

19 “Don’t store up treasures here on earth, where moths eat them and rust destroys them, and where thieves break in and steal. 20 Store your treasures in heaven, where moths and rust cannot destroy, and thieves do not break in and steal. 21 Wherever your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will also be.

22 “Your eye is a lamp that provides light for your body. When your eye is good, your whole body is filled with light. 23 But when your eye is bad, your whole body is filled with darkness. And if the light you think you have is actually darkness, how deep that darkness is!

24 “No one can serve two masters. For you will hate one and love the other; you will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.

25 “That is why I tell you not to worry about everyday life—whether you have enough food and drink, or enough clothes to wear. Isn’t life more than food, and your body more than clothing? 26 Look at the birds. They don’t plant or harvest or store food in barns, for your heavenly Father feeds them. And aren’t you far more valuable to him than they are? 27 Can all your worries add a single moment to your life?

28 “And why worry about your clothing? Look at the lilies of the field and how they grow. They don’t work or make their clothing, 29 yet Solomon in all his glory was not dressed as beautifully as they are. 30 And if God cares so wonderfully for wildflowers that are here today and thrown into the fire tomorrow, he will certainly care for you. Why do you have so little faith?

31 “So don’t worry about these things, saying, ‘What will we eat? What will we drink? What will we wear?’ 32 These things dominate the thoughts of unbelievers, but your heavenly Father already knows all your needs. 33 Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need.

34 “So don’t worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today’s trouble is enough for today.

So Jesus starts off this passage by saying, “Don’t store up treasures here on earth, where moths eat them and rust destroys them, and where thieves break in and steal. Store your treasures in heaven, where moths and rust cannot destroy, and thieves do not break in and steal. Wherever your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will also be.” So what is Jesus trying to tell us? On the surface it looks pretty basic right? Don’t store up stuff on earth, store it up in heaven. We all get that and have heard it a bunch of times, but do we really understand it? Do we really live our lives that way? And how in the world do we know which one we are doing? Jesus says, “Take a look at where you heart is, then you’ll know where your storing up treasure.” He is also saying the opposite, “Take a look at where you treasure is, then you’ll know where you heart really is.” Look at your life, how you spend your time and money, where is your treasure at? Now realize that your heart is also there. It is not possible for your heart to be in heaven, if your treasure is on earth. So Jesus starts off this passage by telling you to take an inventory of your life, look at how you live, and then determine where your heart is.

Then he says something that sound very mysterious. He says, ““Your eye is a lamp that provides light for your body. When your eye is good, your whole body is filled with light. But when your eye is bad, your whole body is filled with darkness. And if the light you think you have is actually darkness, how deep that darkness is!” To be honest, this passage threw me for a loop for quite a while. It seemed to be completely random. I kept asking myself, “How in the world does this fit in with the rest of this passage?” After a lot of study, I think I finally understand it and it is a beautiful analogy that flows directly out of what the last few verses talked about.
There are some translations who would translate it to say, “But when your eye is single,” rather than saying “healthy”. This threw me for more of a loop until I read a description of what they meant by a “single eye” or by a “healthy eye”. When any eye is healthy, it sees everything clearly and uniform but an unhealthy eye sees everything distorted or with double vision. What Jesus is saying that we must have a single focus, or single minded. The eye is the organ that guides the rest of the body, if it is seeing double the body doesn’t know where to go. Our lives are the same way. If our eye is unhealthy, if we have one eye on heaven and the other on earth, the rest of our life will be unhealthy, especially our spiritual life. So many people try to have one eye on heaven but will not take the other eye off earth and they wonder why their spiritual life is failing. This is why. God calls us to have a singular focus, to have healthy eyes, and they must be focused on Him. Isn’t that what he was getting at in that other verses? Stop laying up your treasures, or focusing your life, on earth. All of that stuff disappears. Focus your life and your treasure on heaven where it lasts forever.
As we move to the next part of this verse, Jesus takes this to another level. Here’s what he says, ““No one can serve two masters. For you will hate one and love the other; you will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.”  This sounds really familiar to the conclusion we came to in the last couple passages, but with a twist. Jesus lays it out plainly. You can not serve two masters! You must have a singular focus! He not only says that but says, “For you will hate one and love the other; you will be devoted to one and despise the other.” Basically you could say it this way. You will EITHER hate God and love money OR be devoted to God and despise money. You will EITHER hate money and love God OR be devoted to money and despise God. Based on the context, I think you can apply this saying farther in your life. You could fill in anything. You will EITHER hate (Fill in your specific challenge) and love God OR be devoted to (Fill in your specific challenge) and despise God. What is it for you? What is it that makes it so hard for you to have a singular focus on God, to store your treasure in heaven, to have your heart in heaven? If you are wondering why your passion for God is weak or dry, you need to look at where your heart is, where your focus is, where your priorities are. Remember, you can’t serve two masters! Which master are you going to choose to serve? Which one is worth serving?
Then we get to a word that needs to stop and make us think, in this translation it says “That is why” but in the Greek it says “Therefore”. A catchy little phrase that you should always remember is, “When you see the word ‘therefore,’ you should always ask what it’s there for.” This word, “therefore,” is tying this next section into the last three sections we talked about. It’s saying, “Because of everything we have just talked about, do this.” So what comes after therefore? Let’s take a look at the rest of the passage to get a better idea of what it’s saying.

That is why I tell you not to worry about everyday life—whether you have enough food and drink, or enough clothes to wear. Isn’t life more than food, and your body more than clothing? 26 Look at the birds. They don’t plant or harvest or store food in barns, for your heavenly Father feeds them. And aren’t you far more valuable to him than they are? 27 Can all your worries add a single moment to your life?

28 “And why worry about your clothing? Look at the lilies of the field and how they grow. They don’t work or make their clothing, 29 yet Solomon in all his glory was not dressed as beautifully as they are. 30 And if God cares so wonderfully for wildflowers that are here today and thrown into the fire tomorrow, he will certainly care for you. Why do you have so little faith?

31 “So don’t worry about these things, saying, ‘What will we eat? What will we drink? What will we wear?’ 32 These things dominate the thoughts of unbelievers, but your heavenly Father already knows all your needs. 33 Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need.

A lot of things are said in this passage, but what is the main reason that we should not worry? What does Jesus base his entire argument on? He talks about God caring for everything in nature but that isn’t his entire argument. That’s what we tend to focus on but there’s more. Look at verse 33, “Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need.”  Isn’t that exactly the point he’s been getting at the whole time? Jesus keeps pointing us to God, to seeking Him. He says, “You don’t have to worry about all of this stuff, if you are seeking God and His righteousness, if your focused on Him, if your serving Him, and if your heart and treasure are in heaven.” If we are seeking God with a singular focus, storing our treasures in heaven, we will find that our needs are met. We’ll find that God has taken care of them without our worrying about it because he “already knows all [our] needs.”
There are many who would look at this passage and say, “Telling me not to worry, when I’m already worrying, doesn’t help me,” and their right. That’s not what this passage is saying. It’s not saying, “If you are worrying, stop worrying. You should know better.” It’s saying that if we are worrying, we need to start seeking God. We need to look at where our treasure is. We need to see where our focus is. We need to figure out who we are serving. After all of that, ultimately, we must seek God wholeheartedly and in the end we will have no reason to worry and our needs will be met. I keep thinking of Philippians 4:6-7 that says, “…do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.”  There are many people who have this verse memorized and it is talking about the same thing. It’s not saying, “stop worrying,” it’s saying that you should seek God. Pray to Him, read his word, do everything you can to get close to God. In the process you will find that your needs have been met.

I have experienced this over and over. “Do Something” was the fruit of this. I was freaking out one day because I had waited too long on a few things and couldn’t figure out what to for our summer missions trip. My head was spinning, my heart was racing, I was definitely worrying about it. At that point Philippians popped into my head. So I walked off to our bedroom, got on my knees and cried out to God. While I was on my knees God gave me the idea for “Do Something”. Every problem, frustration, and concern that I had disappeared and look at how God used that event to change lives in a huge way. That’s what I’m talking about.

There’s one more thing I want to say about this passage. What about those who don’t seek God and His kingdom, who have one eye on heaven and one on earth? Should they worry? I would say that they definitely should worry. They’re not serving God, they are serving themselves and by serving themselves, they are hating God. On top of that they are storing up all of their treasure and all of their hope in things that will eventually leave them. How can they really be happy? It is impossible to be completely happy in anything that is eventually going to leave you because when it’s gone, your happiness is gone with it. If I was that person, I would definitely be worried!

“Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need.” — Matthew 6:33

“Now we see things imperfectly as in a cloudy mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely.” 1 Corinthians 13:12

What are some things you believed as a child that seemed logical at the time but now you know are untrue? I think every kid I know has made this comment at one time or another. “Mommy, Daddy, the sun is following us!” They say it with so much excitement and to be completely honest, as far as they know and can understand, the sun is following them. As they grow in knowledge and understanding they are able to come to a clearer understanding of the truth but while they are young they see through a “cloudy mirror” or as other translations will say, “through a glass darkly.”

The subject of our conversation tonight is one that has caused many controversies throughout the ages and has also caused many people to scratch their heads. Some have rejected Christianity as false because of this doctrine and others have tried to come up with explanations that fall far short, but help them comprehend the subject better. It is a common problem for humanity to be unaware that they see through a “cloudy mirror.” We are so arrogant to think that if it doesn’t make sense to us, then it can’t be true. If we can’t comprehend how something works then it must work differently. It is arrogance that has caused this doctrine to be twisted and distorted, and because of it many peoples faith has been shipwrecked.

The doctrine, or teaching, that we are talking about is the doctrine of the Trinity. This doctrine is extremely important because it ultimately determines how we view our salvation. Our salvation is directly tied to how we view Jesus, and how we view Jesus is directly tied to how we view God, and how we work our our salvation is directly tied to how we view the Spirit. If we are to be true to God’s word, there are three truths that we must hold to for a correct understanding of the Trinity. As I go through these three statements, I will give you the scripture that backs up the statement. Because of time I won’t be able to give you all of the scripture, but I will at least give you some.

The first statement that we must hold to is God is three persons. When we look to scripture there are many passages that lead us to understand this point. There are even passages throughout the Old Testament that help us understand that God is more than one person. In Genesis God says, “Let us make human beings.” Why does he say us? The Jews didn’t understand this but we have the benefit of the New Testament to give us more clarity. Here is a passage that I think shows this point perfectly, Matthew 3:16-17.

After his baptism, as Jesus came up out of the water, the heavens were opened and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and settling on him. And a voice from heaven said, “This is my dearly loved Son, who brings me great joy.”

As we look at this passage, all three members of the Trinity are present and are distinct in and of themselves. Jesus is coming out of the water; the Holy Spirit is descending upon him; and then the Father speaks from heaven. This verse shows us that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are three separate persons and debunks theories that say God is one in three separate forms. At this point you could represent each of them in three separate circles.

The next statement we need to believe is that Each person is fully God. This is where it gets a little more complicated, but not too much. This is also where Jehovah’s witnesses would depart from us. They believe that the Father is greater than the Son and the Holy Spirit but this is not true according to scripture. The Father is fully God; the Son is fully God; and the Holy Spirit is fully God. Let me show you where it says this in scripture.
There really is nobody who would argue against God the Father being fully God. It seems like a oxymoron to say that God is not fully God. In Genesis 1:1 it says, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” By looking at this verse and the rest of the Bible we can see that the Father is fully God. The Old Testament and New Testament speak of Him as being sovereign over all creation and Jesus also prays to Him. There really is no controversy over this idea.
So where in scripture does it say that Jesus is fully God? As we know, this is where much debate has been focused. I could give you verse after verse that would show you that the Bible says Jesus is fully God but I will leave it to one. In John 1:1-4 it says, “In the beginning the Word already existed. The Word was with God, and the Word was God. He existed in the beginning with God. God created everything through him, and nothing was created except through him.The Word gave life to everything that was created, and his life brought light to everyone.” As we read farther into the book of John, he makes it clear to us that “the Word” is Jesus. So with that knowledge, John is saying, “In the beginning [Jesus] already existed. [Jesus] was with God, and [Jesus] was God.” When it says that Jesus “was with God” it is helping us understand that Jesus is a separate person from God the Father, He was alongside Him. Then it takes it a step farther and says that Jesus “was God”. Jesus also makes many claims like, “The Father and I are one” and so on. These all lead us to the conclusion that scripture teaches us that Jesus was fully God.
What about the Holy Spirit, does it actually say in the bible that he is fully God? This is important to know because there are some that believe the Holy Spirit isn’t really a person but is a power. They would claim that when scripture talks about the Holy Spirit, it is talking about God’s power. Besides the fact that there are many cases where this idea of the Holy Spirit wouldn’t make any sense, there is also scripture that teaches that the Holy Spirit is fully God. Let’s take a look at Acts 5:3-4. It says, “You lied to the Holy Spirit, and you kept some of the money for yourself….You weren’t lying to us but to God!”  Do you see what Peter is saying in this verse? First off he is rebuking Ananias for lying to the Holy Spirit. Can you lie to a power? No, that doesn’t make any sense. This helps us to understand that the Holy Spirit is a distinct person. Then Peter says, “You weren’t lying to us but to God!” First Peter says that Ananias lied to the Holy Spirit and then a sentence later he says that he lied to God. This is showing us that they are distinct, yet one in the same. The Holy Spirit is also fully God.
If you were to draw this in a picture it would look much like the one I showed above.
So the first two statements that we’ve talked about were: God is three persons and Each person is fully God. So far that is not too hard to grasp right? When we throw in the third statement, it become impossible for us to comprehend fully. The third statement is that There is one God. There are not three persons who are all gods, that would be polytheism. Scripture teaches us that there is only ONE God. The best verse that talks about this statement is Isaiah 45:5-6. It says, “I am the Lord; there is no other God. I have equipped you for battle,though you don’t even know me,so all the world from east to west will know there is no other God. I am the Lord, and there is no other.” Just to make sure that the people of Israel get the point God states it twice that He is “the Lord; there is no other God.” We see it over and over in scripture that we are a people who serve only ONE God, not three. So how does all this work? Is there a picture for it? Honestly I can’t give you a picture to help you understand completely what it looks like but I can you what it does not look like.

Here are three pictures of what it doesn’t look like;

God is not divided into three equal parts as in Fig. 1. This would not fit with our second claim that Each person is fully God, it would show they are all ⅓ God. Fig. 2 would tell us that the three persons of God are just added on to his original being. Yet scripture doesn’t teach this either. Each person of the Trinity posses the same attributes as the other persons of the Trinity.  How about Fig. 3? This is probably the most common way people try and explain God. They use the analogy of water to explain it. They would say that water can be a liquid, a solid, and a vapor all the while still being H2O. Yet this analogy falls far short because water can’t be all three at once. There are people who believe that the different persons of the Trinity are just different ways of looking at God. He is still one God but reveals himself in three different ways.
All of these diagrams fall short because you would have to show that all three circles are separate and yet one at the same time, all the while being still remaining a full circle. This is baffling to many and remains a mystery of God. We will never fully understand this while we are here on earth. Remember, we see through a “cloudy mirror.”
So what does this have to do with our lives? Doctrine does us no good if it doesn’t help change the way we live. Although there are many ways of applying the Trinity to your lives, I want to help you see one major one.
The most amazing thing to comprehend about our God is that He is amazingly diverse and yet completely unified. God has the ability to be three different persons and yet only one being. And since God is the epitome of unity in diversity, we shouldn’t be surprised when we see it reflected into his desire for our human relationships, especially the church! In 1 Corinthians Paul says “there are many parts” yet “one body” and Jesus’ final earthly prayer was “I pray that [the church] will all be one, just as you and I are one.” As believers in Christ we are called to be unified, despite our diversity.
I want everyone to stand up and form a circle around the room. As you stand here, take a good look at everyone standing around the circle. We are an extremely diverse group and whether you like it or not, and God has called us to be unified!

We are not supposed to be separated into little cliques. We are not supposed to look down our nose at those in this circle who we think we are better than or, on the flip side, look with hatred at those we feel are self-righteous. We are supposed to be unified and acting as a body.

There may be someone in this circle who you may not like, who drive you absolutely crazy. Too bad, that’s just an excuse. Remember our new saying, “If it’s important to you, you will find a way. If not, you’ll find an excuse.” We can make all the excuses in the world about why our group is not unified, and all it’s going to say is that it’s not important to us. This should be important to us. Anything that is at the essence of who God is needs to be important to us! That means you need to find a way and stop making excuses.

God has called us to be a unified body and tonight we are going to start that process by praying as a body. Everyone grab your neighbors hand and we are going to pray. I’ll have someone open and someone close. Anyone who would like to pray for something, feel free to jump in. Let’s Pray.

On November 23rd, Ignite will not be meeting. We like to take this night off from meeting an encourage families to spend the evening together.

We will resume meeting again on November 30th but we are starting at 6:00pm for our Amazing Race. We should wrap up the night at our usual 8:30pm.

If you have any questions feel free to send an email my way. You can also check out our event calendar on the website, or if you don’t want to be techy, then you can check out the copy in our youth area. I try to keep these updated as much as possible.

Last week we spent some time talking about how the gospel was presented in the Old Testament.  I showed you that the men and women in the Old Testament were not saved by the sacrifices they made but by faith in a faithful God and faith in a Messiah. Many of you have heard this before, but have you taken the time to understand what it means?

Some of you may be asking, “Why do you always talk about being saved? And what do we need to be saved from?” This is a legitimate question and I want to give you an answer tonight.Many of you have heard me and others say, “If you want to be saved you must put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ.” I wonder if you have ever wondered what that means or what does that look like. What does it mean to put your faith in Jesus Christ? What does it look like to put your faith in Jesus? Why should you put your faith in Jesus? What is faith? I want to answer these questions tonight because they are extremely important. If we are not saved by our works, and faith is required for us to be saved, then it is extremely important for us to understand what it means to have faith and what it looks like to put faith in Jesus.

First off I want to explain what I mean when I talk about “being saved”. This is a term that many Christians use and don’t realize that many people, who have not grown up in the church, don’t understand. As Christians we believe that the Bible is God’s word, which means that whatever is said in the Bible is true (I don’t have time to explain why we believe this tonight, but if you would like to talk more about it, find me afterwards). So when we read a passage in the Bible that says in Matthew 7:13-14,  “You can enter God’s Kingdom only through the narrow gate. The highway to hell is broad, and its gate is wide for the many who choose that way. But the gateway to life is very narrow and the road is difficult, and only a few ever find it,” we see that there is a path that leads to life and there is a path that leads to death, or hell. My desire is for you to be saved from the path that leads to death. I don’t want to see anyone fall down a path that will lead to their destruction. I don’t want to see anyone end up in hell. That is what I want you saved from. And what I was saying last week is that the only way to enter through the narrow gate is by faith. The only way you will be able to follow the path that leads to life is by putting your faith in Jesus Christ. If you don’t, you’ll end up on the wide path that leads to death. Please understand me tonight, you want to be on the path that leads to life. As Troy always says, “It may be hard, but it’s worth it.” Before you leave this place tonight, make sure you understand what it means to put your faith in Jesus Christ.

The main question to answer tonight is, “What does it mean to put your faith in Jesus?” I thought the best way to understand this question is to take a look at Hebrews 11. This chapter in Hebrews has been called the “Hall of Faith” because the author spends the entire chapter giving us example from the Old Testament of men and women who faithfully served God. When you need a place to turn to understand what faith is, this is one of the best places to go. Let’s take a look at the first few verses:

Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot see. Through their faith, the people in days of old earned a good reputation. By faith we understand that the entire universe was formed at God’s command, that what we now see did not come from anything that can be seen.

There are many people who think this is a complete definition of what faith is. I would disagree with them, along with Calvin and many of the other reformers. I would argue that these verses give us a good idea of what faith is and then by the end of the chapter we have a complete definition by looking at the various examples of faith that are given. .
As we look at these first verse, we see two things that come from faith: confidence and assurance. It says that “Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen.” What does this mean? What are we supposed to hope in? How do we know what to hope for? Are we saved by hoping in anything? Let’s look at one of the examples in this chapter to find the answer. In verse 7 it says, “It was by faith that Noah built a large boat to save his family from the flood. He obeyed God, who warned him about things that had never happened before. By his faith Noah condemned the rest of the world, and he received the righteousness that comes by faith.” What did Noah put his hope in? He hoped in a promise that God had given him. God promised Noah that if he built a large boat his family would be saved from the terrible flood. But was it hope that saved Noah? No, it was faith! Noah had confidence that what he hoped for would actually happen, which would be considered faith. He had so much confidence that he build a large boat when the world thought he was crazy. That takes a massive amount of confidence.
A true faith, a saving faith, is not one that confidently hopes in whatever it wants, there are many false religions that do that. A saving faith is one that confidently hopes in the promises of God. Paul talks of this in Romans 8 when he says, “We, too, wait with eager hope for the day when God will give us our full rights as his adopted children, including the new bodies he has promised us. We were given this hope when we were saved. (If we already have something, we don’t need to hope for it. But if we look forward to something we don’t yet have, we must wait patiently and confidently.)” (verses 23-25). Paul says that when we were saved we were given something to hope in and we must wait patiently and confidently for it. This is what we mean by a confident hope in God’s promises. A true faith rests on the promises of God. This is how Noah waited patiently and confidently, because his faith rested on God’s promise.
The second part of the definition in verse 1 is that faith “gives us assurance about things we cannot see.”  A true faith is on that gives us assurance of things unseen. Let’s look at another example from this chapter to help us better understand this element of faith. In verses 8-10 it says, “It was by faith that Abraham obeyed when God called him to leave home and go to another land that God would give him as his inheritance. He went without knowing where he was going. And even when he reached the land God promised him, he lived there by faith—for he was like a foreigner, living in tents. And so did Isaac and Jacob, who inherited the same promise. Abraham was confidently looking forward to a city with eternal foundations, a city designed and built by God.” Abraham followed God with an assurance that was second to none. When God told Abraham to go to a land that God will show him, he went right away. He had no idea where God was taking him, he just went. He had assurance in something that he could not see. This was coupled with a confident hope in God’s promise.
These two things are not either/or parts of faith, they are both/and. It’s not that you have either a confident hope in a promise or an assurance in something unseen. If we have a true faith we have a confident hope in God’s promise and an assurance in things unseen. Remember what Jesus told Thomas? Thomas said that he wouldn’t believe in Christ’s resurrection unless he saw the wounds on his body. Jesus tells him, “You believe because you have seen me. Blessed are those who believe without seeing me.” We must not only confidently hope in God’s promises but an assurance must accompany it as well.
At the beginning I said that those two elements were not a complete description of faith, so I want to add another element to help us distinguish if we have a true faith. If we look at all of the examples listed in chapter 11 there is one thing that drastically stands out. Let’s take a look at them. It says that by faith:

• Abel brought a more acceptable offering to God than Cain did
• Noah built a large boat to save his family from the flood.
• Abraham obeyed when God called him to leave home.
• Abraham offered Isaac as a sacrifice.
• Isaac promised blessings.
• Jacob blessed each of Joseph’s sons.
• Joseph said confidently that the people of Israel would leave Egypt.
• Moses’ parents hid him for three months when he was born.
• Moses refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter.
• the people of Israel went right through the Red Sea.
• the people of Israel marched around Jericho for seven days, and the walls came crashing down.

What do you notice about all of these examples of faith? Everyone who is mentioned in this chapter DID SOMETHING because of their faith. Over and over in this chapter it says that by faith “so and so” did something. What is this trying to tell us? Is it saying that we are saved by our works? Absolutely not! Is it saying that we are saved by a combination of faith and works? “No, because our acquittal is not based on obeying the law. It is based on faith. So we are made right with God through faith and not by obeying the law” (Romans 3:27-28). So what is this telling us? Here’s what James says. “You say you have faith, for you believe that there is one God. Good for you! Even the demons believe this, and they tremble in terror. How foolish! Can’t you see that faith without good deeds is useless?” (verses 19-20). Can you see it now? We are definitely not saved by our works but our works flow out of a true faith like a fountain. If we say we have faith but our life hasn’t changed, it is a dead faith that is useless, even if you once “made a decision”.
Do you have a true faith that will save you from death? Do you know that you are saved? Could you explain to me how you know and why you know it? These are huge questions for all of you to ask yourselves tonight. These are not things that we should gloss over and make light of. These are questions with either eternal consequences or eternal rewards.
If you have never put your faith in Jesus Christ, if you are unsure that you are saved, if you feel like you have failed the test of a true faith, then make tonight the night when all of that changes. Confidently hope in the promise that Christ died for your sins, that you have been made right forever with God, and that you have been granted salvation (HC Q.21). Have assurance that Christ rose from the dead and that God will keep his promises. Then take a look at your life. Make sure your life represents a life that is overflowing with faith. Make sure the things that you do are overflow from the fountain of faith. Then continue to ask God to draw you closer and closer to Him the more you walk in your faith. Ask God to turn you into someone who will be looked upon as worthy to be listed in the “Hall of Faith”.