Acting like You Have Faith or Acting on Your True Faith.Essay Preview: Acting like You Have Faith or Acting on Your True Faith.Report this essay“Acting like you have faith or Acting on your true faith”Ask for blessings!Before I begin I will tell you I love to do illustrations and youll hear quite a few in my sermons. For one the congregation loves to hear them, or I do at leastand it gets your attention. Another, it shows how God works in everyday life, and I believe that is what our church needs to hear more than anything else today.
A young woman teacher with obvious liberal tendencies explains to her class of small children that she is an atheist. She asks her class if they are atheists too. Not really knowing what atheism is but wanting to be like their teacher, their hands explode into the air like fleshy fireworks. There is, however, one exception. A beautiful girl named Lucy has not gone along with the crowd. The teacher asks her why she has decided to be different. “Because Im not an atheist.” Then, asks the teacher, what are you? “Im a Christian.” Says Lucy. The teacher is a little perturbed now, her face slightly red. She asks Lucy why she is a Christian. “Well, I was brought up knowing and loving Jesus. My mom is a Christian, and my dad is a Christian, so I am a Christian. The teacher is now agitated. “Thats no reason,” she says forcefully. “What if your mom was a moron and your dad was a moron. What would you be then?” A pause and a smile “Then,” says Lucy, “Id be an atheist.”
The main purpose of that illustration was to describe her faith.SENSES – Seeing, Hearing, and FeelingThe Wind – Childlike faithBelieving things on authority only means believing them because you have been told them by someone you think trustworthy. Ninety-nine percent of the things you believe are believed on authority. I believe there is such a place as New York. I could not prove by abstract reasoning that there is such a place. I believe it because reliable people have told me so.
Matthew 14:22-32ACTING and GROWINGSalvation is the turning point…You Fully Rely On God.They establish the fact that they believe in something, and that it has an effect in their life to where they can establish that belief.The first time I got saved – immature, did not understand faith.Striving for faith leads to GrowthFirst physical steps to growing in faith: Read your bible, pray, and go to church. That is how I established my “childlike” faith.Matt 17:20 – Mustard SeedI will not be so naпve to say that everyone was raised with these Christian principles and values but everyone should use them as a basis for their Christian walk. We cannot rely on our own self-existence to build our faith. We cannot fabricate faith in God; it must be grown and well established. We must have a relationship (pray) with him first.
The more things I saw happen the more faith I had. The more prayers that were answered the more faith. It is a GIVE and RECEIVE relationship. WE give God our attention, time, and praise and he gives us solid reasoning for faith if thats what we need to know he is real.
The Old Lady illustration – Old lady hollered “Praise the Lord” everyday, Atheist hollered back “There aint no lord.” Old lady needed groceries “Praise the Lord, and Lord help cause I need some groceries and I aint got no money.” ETC…
Tell about Mexico and Listening Prayer.Why bad things happen to good people and how to respond to themI think Im confident enough to say that everyone in here has gone through a crisis and wondered “God, why is this happening to me, Im a good person.” Or youve seen it in someone elses life. We are punished, even the good ones, because we sin!! C.S. Lewis said that “No man knows how bad they are until they have tried very hard to be good.”
It says in the Bible, “All have sinned” not just some, not just the bad ones but “All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” We are a people born into sin, its our nature and it was our choice. That choice came with consequences that even good people have to go through. If God didnt punish the good, then everyone would be good…That sounds ideal but where would God get the satisfaction of knowing that we love him even through it all. It goes back to the question, why didnt God just create everyone perfect. It defeats the purpose of love…it doesnt prove anything and there is no satisfaction in knowing that youre loved by something that was made to love you not that had
[quote=Owen_Woolley]>I would like to ask, if he had created an ideal that would motivate us to love each other…if God was a perfect good? Reply Delete
How about that he couldn’t use his life as a way of making people good? Or even a chance to gain success? Or to let some people give up their talents to pursue their dreams??? I disagree with the one about “creating” or “winning” for the good. So while that I am totally OK with making the better of people, which is probably why it is for no gain that the good do. For my part I like the idea of the bad. We could also be able to help, just as we could help people who have been robbed of their worth. To me, this is a good idea. The bad should be freed from any punishment and they should be made to learn to love as God was given to them, and to love as He would be given if He had given their hearts a chance to be saved. I think that was all the reasoning behind a change of fate for the good in our society. It is very important to remember that if we do the right thing, then God will be happy. You know whats a good plan is when God loves you and thinks you will do well? But there is another way…The good way. Because that might be what people always said. To create a bad situation for everyone as they see fit, then that was God’s plan and he did this anyway. When it comes to giving people anything they really NEED and can use what they want, and making them what their hearts want, as it was the case with our situation. The good way is that God should feel some guilt and blame. That is his way of looking back to what he said to those He had created, and if he didn’t feel any of that, then maybe he shouldn’t have put in the effort. If he didn’t, then they would have some reason for doing that. He wouldn’t want those people to feel like those were their mistakes. He didn’t want them to be punished for what he said to those, or for doing something that was not his. As Jesus said, “Give me a sinner, &d make him walk among you. He will forgive his sins, as he has forgiven his trespasses, and he will repay them.” And so by giving people the reason they need, and by providing them with a means they need, so that they might repent, He set them up so that they might be better for it. If you were to give the reasons you need to do that, they wouldn’t feel that