Sermons from Good News: You can grow in faith.

Note before sharing the sermon: you can grow in faith by training your spirit, as shared in previous sermon posts. I'm doing that with keeping up the daily Bible reading program plus the daily devotionals and prayer prompts via the Bible app I currently use. Also a good reinforcement for maintaining this discipline is to also have a small regimen of training my body and training my mind. For training my mind, I did puzzles for a while, and currently do Solitaire (great for mid-range strategizing). For training my body, I have a dumbbell near my bed which allows me to do a few reps for building my arm muscles. (In my early thirties, I set a goal of getting back into shape starting at age 35. I think I missed that goal by a few years, but at least I'm going after it now!) Further, I've been going for walks through the neighborhood almost daily (except for a couple months in the middle of winter) for quite a few years now. I need to be careful that I don't prioritize training my body and my mind over training my spirit, but having these other fitness routines helps to reinforce the importance of having these routines. The more I exercise my body, mind, and spirit, the more endurance I'll have. And the same goes for you.

Church 5/8/2024

Thesis: You can grow in faith.

1 John 5:4

for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith.

Focus: verses from Romans 4

Consider Abraham and Sarah. Abraham was the father of faith. God gave them a promise that they would have a child in their old age.

This is a case study on faith.

Romans 4:18-21

18 Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” 19 Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead—since he was about a hundred years old—and that Sarah’s womb was also dead. 20 Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, 21 being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised.

Point #1: Faith gets stronger as you feed on God’s word.

Romans 4:17-18

As it is written: “I have made you a father of many nations.” He is our father in the sight of God, in whom he believed—the God who gives life to the dead and calls into being things that were not. Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, “So shall your offspring be.”

Point #2: Faith gets stronger as you focus on God’s promises.

Romans 4:19-20

Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead—since he was about a hundred years old—and that Sarah’s womb was also dead. Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God,

“Faith lives in promises just like fish live in water.”

Point #3: Faith gets stronger by giving God glory.

Romans 4:20-21

Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised.