Can You Believe It?

23, January 2005

Dakota Community Church

Can You Believe It?

Introduction:

Yes you can!

Answering that question is a no brainer, like choosing life or do you want a spank?

We are believers – it is what we instinctively do.

Quote:

"I am an historian, I am not a believer, but I must confess as a historian that this penniless preacher from Nazareth is irrevocably the very center of history. Jesus Christ is easily the most dominant figure in all history." - H.G. Wells

It is who and what we are – we have staked eternity on it.

What are we believing for here at Dakota Community Church?

What kind of Church are we going to be?

We will be whatever we believe for.

1. We are believing for a Church with a strong Word foundation.

In the wilderness the children of Israel had to collect manna everyday, only for that day. If you don’t get the word every day you will not survive.

John 8: 31-32

To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. 32Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

It is the truth you KNOW that makes you free.

A word church is a free church!

Psalm 107: 20

He sent forth his word and healed them; he rescued them from the grave.

A word church is a healthy Church. You don’t need to touch the hem of His garment, you are the Body of Christ, and you are wearing the garment now!

Psalm 119: 111

Your statutes are my heritage forever; they are the joy of my heart.

A word church is a joyful church! The bible says that in His presence is fullness of joy; tell your face about it! The joy of the Lord is our strength so a church without joy is a weak church.

Psalm 119: 165

Great peace have they who love your law, and nothing can make them stumble.

A solid foundation in God’s word will bring peace and stability to your life. A congregation of this kind of people is a great place to belong!

Psalm 119: 105

Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path.

Illustration:

Ravi Zacharias, a Christian intellectual who travels around the world lecturing in secular settings on spiritual themes, tells of an experience he had in Columbus, Ohio. He writes, “A few weeks ago, I did a lectureship at Ohio State University. As I was being driven to the lecture, we passed the new Wexner Art Center. The driver said, ‘This is a new art building for the university. It is a fascinating building designed in the post-modernist view of reality.’ The building has no pattern. Staircases go nowhere. Pillars support nothing. The architect designed the building to reflect life. It went nowhere and was mindless and senseless. I turned to the man describing it and asked, ‘Did they do the same thing with the foundation?’ He laughed. You can’t do that with a foundation. You can get away with the infrastructure. You can get away with random thoughts that sound good in defense of a world view that ultimately doesn’t make sense. Once you start tampering with the foundations, you begin to see the serious effects.”

The problem in our culture is that ideologically we not only have staircases going nowhere and pillars supporting nothing, but we are also tampering with the foundations. The whole world is built on the foundation of God’s Word. The Bible is not just a book of religious writings; its words are what the world is built upon. God is the Designer and Architect of the world. His will and his laws are the foundation of life. If the foundation is not there, the whole building begins to crumble, no matter how beautiful it is. But we live in a relativistic age which questions truth and out rightly rejects the Word of God. Unless there is a turnaround, we will find our culture collapsing upon itself. When God created the world he built it upon his laws and principles. And whether we agree with them or not, like them or not, we either accept them or accept the consequences of breaking them. Those laws and principles are carefully spelled out in God’s book, the Word of God, which we call the Bible. If all of life is based on the principles found there, then it is extremely important that we are acquainted with what this book says.

A word Church is a church that knows the direction the Lord wants it to go.

Do you struggle with what you are supposed to do? Get into the word.

Whenever there is confusion the best thing to do is to go to the word. Councilors are great but the word is the best. Both together are really great.