The Freeway Of Faith (Step Off The Bus, Gus!) Series

Lot of strange things happening out there on the freeways these days…

Joke - A man was driving along the freeway when he noticed a lady by the side of the road trying to change a flat tire on her car. He stopped and offered to help. It was hot and humid, and it was hard and dirty work, but he felt good because he was helping someone who couldn't help herself.

When he finished replacing the tire with the spare, he moved around the car to lower the jack, and the lady said to him, "Let the car down easy, please. My husband’s asleep in the back seat."

Joke - Three rough guys on Harleys pulled up to a highway cafe where a truck driver, just a little wimpy guy, sat on a stool quietly eating his breakfast. The 3 bikers came in and saw him, so they sat down on each side of him. One reached over and took the little guy’s toast. Another took his toast. The third guy took his coffee and dumped it out on his plate. The truck driver didn’t say a word. He just got up, paid for his breakfast, and headed out the door. The 3 guys were disappointed they couldn’t provoke him into a fight. As the waitress came over, one of them said, “Boy, he sure wasn’t much of a man, was he?” The waitress said, “I guess not, and he’s not even much of a truck driver either. He just ran over 3 motorcycles outside.”

Joke - A family was going to move from St. Joe, IN to Hillsboro, OH. They would be renting a Ryder truck to haul all their worldly possessions, and they needed to get just the right size for the job. The husband, being a practical man and an analytical thinker, took the moving help guide from Ryder and began to calculate, room by room, the exact cubic footage they would need to fit it all in. The wife questioned me, uh, him, but I, uh, he reassured her that doing it by the book was the best way, and that he had it all under control. So I finished the math, reserved the truck, and moving day was approaching. A few days before it was time to load, Carrie saw one of the trucks. “That’s the same size we’re going to be using,” I told her. She said, “I don’t think that’s big enough. You better get the next size up.” “Honey, I’ve studied this out. It’s going to be fine.”

Moving day. 2/3 through packing, a couple of the guys helping us load look at the truck and me and say, “I don’t think it’s going to be big enough.” Sure enough. I get on the phone - Ryder doesn’t make trailers. So, I had to go out and rent a U-Haul trailer. So, from IN to OH, there was a not-quite-big-enough Ryder truck pulling a U-Haul trailer, followed by a car and a wife who hates to say “I told you so.”

Lot of interesting stories out there on the freeways! Lots of people going different places. Lots of people using different ways to get to the same places too.

I want to speak this morning about another freeway – the freeway of faith. It’s the road to life & freedom in Jesus, and, as Paul says in Galatians, it’s the only way to get there. Not everyone believes that.

-I know there are a lot of other routes claiming to be alternates. But have you ever come upon one of these signs that says, “Road closed 12 miles ahead. Local traffic only.” Yea. I didn’t believe it either. They really do mean it! And when God’s word tells us that there’s only one road to life in Jesus, we can believe it!

That road is the Freeway of Faith, the one we read about in Gal 3:15ff…

I want us this morning to take another look at that freeway, and hear from God’s word what we should be doing about it. First…

I. Came Before the Law Way

Ro 5:6-8 “at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

-It’s not just speaking about the right time in human history – AD 33. It’s talking our perspective and about timing in our lives: when we were still powerless; while we were still sinners. God made the way to Him before we were even made!

The freeway of faith began to take shape when God called Abraham; promised to him a miracle child, a boy named Isaac; to him was born twin sons, and the older would serve the younger. His name was Jacob, but God changed it to Israel – He who struggles with God; from Israel came 12 sons, 12 tribes of people who collectively grew into a great nation in Egypt; and according to His plan, God brought them out of Egypt and led them to the land of Canaan and they drove out the nations there; God raised up kings for Israel – Saul, David, Solomon, and then the kingdom split; the weakened Israelites were overrun by their enemies; 10 tribes completely vanished; the 2 that remained, Judah and Simeon, were captured and exiled; as the NT opens, descendants of the tribe of Judah are named as earthly parents of Jesus; the baby is born, and at about age 30 enters into a 3 year ministry that culminates in His crucifixion on a Roman cross; in 3 days His tomb is empty; for 40 days He teaches His disciples then ascends into heaven; 2 angels at the scene say to them “This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven."