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| Rev. Brent Russett |
Pastor of Sunnyside Wesleyan Church in Ottawa:
http://www.sunnysidechurchottawa.com/ _______________________________________________________
PODCAST LINK to CFRA broadcast - Sunday, September 4th, 2016:
'The Power of Faith'
Good morning. And welcome to good news in the morning. My name is Brent Russett. I am the Senior Pastor at Sunnyside Wesleyan Church here in Ottawa. I have been pastoring there for 26 years. One of the things I love to do is show how God’s word that was written a long time ago, connects with our world right now
I am glad you have turned your radio on this morning. Starting your day with God’s word, is a really good place to start. Of course if you are not a morning person, and you want to re-listen, or get the manuscript for this program, you can find us on the internet at Goodnewsinthemorning.ca . There you can keep up to date with what is happening around Good News Christian Ministries.
I want to say a special welcome to our international listeners, who listen via the internet. We are glad that you have found us, and that you are finding this ministry an encouragement.
This program is kept on the air by many faithful people. "This morning's sponsor, Sandy Davidson, salutes Christian Counselling Ottawa. CCO, a registered charity, has been healing hearts and homes in the Ottawa area for 40 years". I know a number of people who have been helped through their ministry. Thank you, Sandy Davidson, and thank you Christian Counselling Ottawa for your faithful ministry.
This morning I want to talk to you about the power of faith. We are all people of faith. Whether or not you believe in life after death, or not, what you believe is a matter of faith, for neither position can be proven. Even science has built-in assumption of the nature of reality which has to be taken on faith.
But people who follow Jesus are called to be people of faith and live a life of faith. For those of you who follow Jesus, I hope our time together will help you to grown in your faith. For those of you who are not followers of Jesus but are curious about what it means to live a life of faith, I hope that you will learn something this morning.
The Apostle Paul mentored a young man named Timothy. For a while, Paul was like the senior pastor in the city of Ephesus, and Timothy was the assistant pastor. The Paul left the city and Timothy took over the leadership role of the church. After a while Paul writes Timothy a letter, continuing to mentor him.
The letter starts out
1 Timothy 1:3–6 (NLT)
3 When I left for Macedonia, I urged you to stay there in Ephesus and stop those whose teaching is contrary to the truth. 4 Don’t let them waste their time in endless discussion of myths and spiritual pedigrees. These things only lead to meaningless speculations,* which don’t help people live a life of faith in God.*
In other words, Timothy, your job is to help people live a life of faith in God. Or other translations have, your job is to advance God’s work – which you do by faith in God.
Paul goes on.
5 The purpose of my instruction is that all believers would be filled with love that comes from a pure heart, a clear conscience, and genuine faith. 6 But some people have missed this whole point. They have turned away from these things and spend their time in meaningless discussions.
Then Paul goes on to give us his life mission statement.
5 The purpose of my instruction is that all believers would be filled with love that comes from a pure heart, a clear conscience, and genuine faith.
Timothy, your role is to help people live a life of faith. And the reason I do what I do is to help believers to be filled with love – that comes from a pure heart, a clear conscience, and a genuine faith.
I want to pick up on the genuine faith piece this morning. It is faith that advances the work of God. It is our calling to live a life of faith in God. I am convinced that if you are a follower of Jesus and want to see the work of God advanced in your life, then faith will be involved. I am convinced that if you want to see God work in and around you, faith will be involved. I am convinced that faith is fundamental for being transformed into all that God wants for us.
I know when we want to deal with problems in our lives, our tendency is to come up with self-help strategies. We will use our intellect or our will power to create a solution. But the basis for transformation in the Christian life is faith.
MUSIC – Jeremy Camp – Walk by Faith – 3:18
Come with me to Hebrews 11 It starts out by giving us a definition of faith
Hebrews 11:1 (NIV)
11 Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.
Hebrews 11:1 (NLT)
Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot see.
Faith always has an object. You put your faith in something. This morning when I am talking about the power of faith, and I am really talking about the power of faith in God. I am talking about the power of God on your behalf that is activated by your faith.
It is my hope this morning that as we take a look at what it means to live a life of faith, that you will see how your faith can grow, and that as you walk into that that you will experience the transforming power of faith.
Someone said, “Faith is like WiFi. It is invisible but it has the power to connect you to what you need.” My hope is that you will get connected to God in such a way that you will find what you need in him.
When I hear about Christians talk about faith, they normally talk about it in on of three ways.
One way we tend to talk about faith is that we refer to ourselves as people of faith.
Maybe not using those exact words. But as you know, in our world there are people who believe in God and those who don’t believe in God. There are people who believe in a spiritual world, and those who don’t believe in a spiritual world. Here is what the Bible says
Hebrews 11:6 (NIV)6 without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.
We as Christians are people of faith because we believe that God exists.
We can’t prove that God exists. There is no fool proof method to prove God. There are all sorts of indications that he exists. I think if you were walking through a forest and found a watch, you might infer that there was someone who made that watch. I think as you walk through our world, you might infer an intelligent designer. But it is possible to believe that it all happened by chance. Although I believe that that belief is a bigger leap of faith.
But we as Christians are people of faith because we choose to believe that God exists.
We can’t prove that God exists. But neither can anyone prove that he doesn’t exist.
Now as Christians we not only believe in the existence of God, But we believe that he interacts with our world. Or as our scripture put it, he is the rewarder of those who diligently seek him.
God didn’t just set the world in motion and then walk away. He is involved in this world.
We are people of faith. That sets us apart from people who don’t believe in God, or who don’t believe that God is involved in our world.
The world looks very different to those who believe in God and those who don’t believe in God.
People who believe this life is all there is, - are different than those who believe that you will be rewarded in the next life for what you do in this life.
People who believe in a spiritual reality pray, are thankful, (and they know the object of their thanksgiving) and orient themselves towards God. People who don’t believe in God have a different orientation.
People who believe in a God who reveals himself, take their cues about what is right and wrong from God. Those who don’t believe in God take their cues about what is right and wrong from what they value. If they value people then our views of right and wrong will often align because God values people.
If they value money, or power, or other things then we will have very different views of what is right and wrong.
Christians are people of faith. This doesn’t make us any more valuable. Lost people matter to God as much as we do. People without faith matter to God as much as people of faith do. Our faith doesn’t make us more valuable.
I hope our faith makes us better people – and although I have found that to be generally true I have not found that to be consistently true. I know great people who don’t have faith. I know some people who have faith, that aren’t good people – which makes me wonder if they do have faith -but that is a topic for another time.
But people who have faith view the world differently than people who don’t have faith. We think of ourselves as people of faith. Are you with me so far. The first level of faith is described by our verse.
Hebrews 11:6 (NIV)
6 without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.
We believe in God and that he is at work in our world. That gives us a different perspective on this world. It makes us live a different way in this world.
That is the first level of faith. That is the first way that we tend to talk about faith.
The next level of faith or the next way we talk about faith is saving faith.
Not only to we believe in the existence of God. But we believe that God revealed himself in the person of Jesus Christ. Our faith is centered around the person and work of Jesus Christ.
Jesus, God’s only begotten son, came from heaven to earth to show us who God is and what he is like. He also came to make a way that we could enter into a relationship with God.
God loved us. But our relationship with God was broken by sin. The bible describes it various ways. But it was as if we were in a relationship with God, and then we said to him, I’m breaking up with you, and I am going to pursue other loves, other lovers.
That is what Adam and Eve, our spiritual parents did. We followed in their footsteps. We loved ourselves, and other things in this world – with the illusion that they would satisfy.
If you have ever been betrayed by someone you loved. If you have ever been spurned and dumped and cheated on – then you will get just a little of what we did to God.
God could have just left us. After what we did to him we certainly didn’t deserve anything good from him. But God sent Jesus to make a way back for us. He took the guilt from our betrayal on himself. And God gave us his favour.
Ephesians 2:8–9 (NIV)
8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—9 not by works, so that no one can boast.
You are saved by grace. That is God’s unearned, unmerited favour. But what puts that grace into action is faith. God offers us this wonderful gift. The gift of having our sins forgiven, having a way cleared that we might enter into a relationship with God, the gift of having God’s life in us, the gift of eternal life. God offers this free gift. There is nothing we can do to earn it. We can’t be good enough to get it. We can’t buy it.
It is a gift, but the only way we can receive this gift is through faith. We have to believe that there is a gift. We have to believe in Jesus and what he did for us.
He died and took our sin on himself. It is his righteousness that is given to us so that we can have a relationship with God. When we trust in him, when we believe him, when we receive him, we are in fact taking hold of the free gift that was offered to us.
Faith in Jesus connects us to all that God wants for us.
If you have never put your faith in Jesus, I would urge you to do that today. Simply pray a prayer like: "Jesus I believe in you. Come into my heart, forgive me of my sin, give me eternal life, I am going to follow you." It is not the prayer that matters, it is putting your faith in Jesus that matters. Trusting him connects you to what you need.
When you do that, that is the beginning of our spiritual journey with Christ. It is so simple, yet I don’t think any of us who follow Jesus have come anywhere close to plumbing the depths of what it all means.
So as Christians we tend to talk about that kind of faith as saving faith. Faith in Jesus
So as Christians we are people of faith, because we believe that God exists and that he is involved in creation. That gives us a very different perspective on life than people who don’t believe that.
But now only are we people of faith, we are people who have experienced saving faith. The grace of God has been at work in our lives, we have entered into a loving relationship with God, he has put His Spirit in our lives, because of the fact that we have put our faith in the person and work of Christ.
So we are people of faith, and we have been saved by faith.
But there is a third way we tend to talk about faith – We tend to talk about “miracle-working faith.” We may not use that phrase but you get the idea.
Mark 11:22–24 (NIV)
22 “Have faith in God,” Jesus answered. 23 “Truly I tell you, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and does not doubt in their heart but believes that what they say will happen, it will be done for them. 24 Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.
There is a component of faith to answered prayer.
James puts it in the negative. He is talking about praying for wisdom
James 1:6–7 (NIV)
6 But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. 7 That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord.
I need to say that the idea of miracle working faith has heresies on both sides of it and it is hard to hold to the middle. Some people treat God like a vending machine. If you can just believe enough then you can have whatever you want – If you want to become rich, then just believe and you will become rich. If you can just believe enough you will be healed. God has to do it, if you have enough faith.
God is not a vending machine. You don’t drop in the appropriate faith coinage and then God has to pop our a miracle.
But there are people who tend to treat God like that.
There are other people who believe that faith and prayer doesn’t really matter. It doesn’t change what God is going to do. All it does is change us. When it comes to answered prayer, faith is irrelevant.
The reality is, it is faith that matters, but it is not the only thing that matters. The verses I read about miracle-working faith, are not the only verses about prayer.
I don’t pretend to understand why God seems to answer some prayers and not others. I don’t always understand how the will of God and miracle working faith go together.
But I do know that faith is a significant component in answered prayer. Believing that what you pray for will happen, is important in seeing it happen.
In other words, if you go to God in prayer, and you don’t believe that he is listening, or if he is listening, that he doesn’t want to give you what you are asking for, then you probably are not going to get what you are asking for. Believing that God wants to give you what is good is important.
But it is not the only thing that is important. Learning to hear God’s voice, and learning to understand his ways, is really important when it comes answered prayer.
Remember when Jesus was in his home town and he wanted to do help people through miracles – but he was unable to because of the lack of their faith. I think it is fair to say that often God wants to do good things in our lives, but is unable to because of the lack of faith.
This morning I have drawn your attention to three kinds of faith. We are people of faith, because we believe in God who is at work in this world. There is saving faith, because we believe in what Jesus has done. There is miracle working faith, the kind of faith that matters for answered prayers.
Paul talks to Timothy and says, you call is to help people grow in faith. If you want to grow in faith, you will need to grow in those three areas. If God is real and active in this world, then growing in faith means acknowledging and depending on his presence throughout our days.
If we are to grow in saving faith, it means that we continue to rely on Jesus for the things that need work in our lives. You were saved, but you are being saved.
If we are going to grow in miracle working faith, then we will have to ask God for specific things and trust him to work. I recommend you start small. That kind of faith is like building a mussel. If you have exercised in a while, you start where you are not where you want to be.
I want to urge you. Grow in faith.
Let’s pray:
Lord, I pray for each person here that they would grow in faith. That you would allow them, by your Spirit, to see who you are and recognize you more and more in their daily lives.
Lord, as they grow in faith, I pray that they would also grow with a heart tender towards you and others.
In Jesus’ name, I pray, AMEN.
I want to tell you about an exciting event that well be happening on Friday September 30th at 7 p.m. Rev. Ernie Cox, one of the most beloved Christian music entertainers in the Ottawa area is going to be in Concert at Sunnyside Wesleyan Church. Admission is free, but we will be taking up an offering in support of Good news in the morning. Mark it on your calendars Friday September 30th at 7 p.m. at Sunnyside Wesleyan Church.
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And Thank you for listening this morning.
This program is on the air by the grace of God and donations of many faithful people. A special thanks Sandy Davidson who sponsored this program in honour of Christian Counselling Ottawa. May the Lord bless both you and the work you honour.
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May you know Jesus Christ personally and profoundly. May the Holy Spirit reside deep within your heart . And may the heavenly Father surround you with His constant and abiding and accompanying love
MUSIC – His Eye is on the Sparrow. 3:43 – Selah.
By Rev. Brent Russett
Pastor of Sunnyside Wesleyan Church in Ottawa:
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PODCAST LINK to the CFRA broadcast:
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