Church 7/13/2024
Offertory scripture:
Your giving to God is the result of entering into a relationship with Him.
John 14:5-6
Offertory scripture:
Your giving to God is the result of entering into a relationship with Him.
John 14:5-6
Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?”
Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
Sermon message:
Thesis: focus on building faith.
You need faith for every part of the Christian life.
1 John 5:4
for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith.
One thing that builds our faith is us focusing on God.
Example: Mary when the angel told her she would have a baby.
Luke 1:37
1 Timothy 6:12
Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses.
2 Timothy 4:7
I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.
Romans 10:17
Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word about Christ.
Paul focused on God. It built his faith. We too can and must.
John 3:16
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
Matthew 6:10-11
your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
Philippians 4:19
And my God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus.
Matthew 17:24-27
24 After Jesus and his disciples arrived in Capernaum, the collectors of the two-drachma temple tax came to Peter and asked, “Doesn’t your teacher pay the temple tax?”
25 “Yes, he does,” he replied.
When Peter came into the house, Jesus was the first to speak. “What do you think, Simon?” he asked. “From whom do the kings of the earth collect duty and taxes—from their own children or from others?”
26 “From others,” Peter answered.
“Then the children are exempt,” Jesus said to him. 27 “But so that we may not cause offense, go to the lake and throw out your line. Take the first fish you catch; open its mouth and you will find a four-drachma coin. Take it and give it to them for my tax and yours.”
Jesus and Peter were ordered to pay the temple tax. Peter asked Jesus what to do:
Matthew 17:27
Matthew 17:27
“But so that we may not cause offense, go to the lake and throw out your line. Take the first fish you catch; open its mouth and you will find a four-drachma coin. Take it and give it to them for my tax and yours.”
Faith comes from the Word of God.
Point #1: Peter takes need to Jesus.
Take your needs to Jesus. He will then take it to the Father directly. Now we can go to God the Father and pray in Jesus’s name.
Be careful: others, including Christians, can make us worried.
Faith is knowing the situation and knowing that Jesus is the solution.
Faith is not denying the situation but instead declaring the answer in the face of the situation.
Point #2: Jesus tells Peter to do something.
Forgive and let God handle the situation.
What Jesus told Peter to do sounded ridiculous. But he did it anyway.
Point #3: Peter does what Jesus says.
It sounded ridiculous. But it was God and it was powerful. God comes through.
When you have a need, the Bible says: “give.”
God makes “ridiculous” beautiful and wonderful.
Point #4: Peter experienced the impossible.
It pays to do what God asks you to do, even when it may seem ridiculous.
Although I am a part of my church's band and play at (almost) every service at the beginning, on Saturdays (our Sunday service equivalent) I also lead the closing praise & worship song just by myself. I was set to do that again on this day. However, because sometimes God will intervene and redirect the end of the service, I may end up not doing this part. That happened this time, for two reasons:
1. My pastor wanted to publicly bless my love and me in front of our church ahead of our wedding which is now almost here. He appointed a couple people to lay hands on us and pray over us, which was wonderful. Afterward, he had us sit down. Presumably he was going to ask the entire church to extend a hand over us as he prayed. But instead...
2. During our church service, someone attempted an assassination over Donald Trump while he was speaking at a rally in Butler, PA. As a church we ended up praying for him, for his healing, and for his protection. Because it had just happened, we were not sure how critical of a condition he was in. We later found out that (thankfully) only his right ear had been grazed and that he was otherwise fine. But we spent the last few minutes of the service praying for him. It was heartwarming on Monday to see YouTube clips of him making an appearance at the Republican National Convention which is being held in Milwaukee this week. I will release another post in the next day or so dovetailing off this, but just want to declare, Praise God, President Trump is fine and will make a full recovery. Our nation needs him, and more and more people across the land are seeing that.