Faith & The Journey Series

Series: The Journey

Message: Faith and Pilgrimage or Faith and the Journey

Text: Genesis 12:1-9; Romans 4:17; Hebrews 11:8-10

Date: September 25, 2011

Pastor: David McBeath

INTRODUCE OFFERING AND VIDEO

It is because of Christ’s sacrifice on the cross that we can have the gift of life! In John 10:10 Jesus said that he come to earth that we might have abundant life! ….

PRAYER—use offering for vision, pray for team, children’s church, Jam, make JC know

INTRODUCE VIDEO

As the ushers are providing you and opportunity to worship God with your tithes and offerings, I want you to watch the following video about the Journey and Adventure of Faith. Take a look and especially take note of the statements on each slide.

INTRODUCTION

When I put my boys down for bed at night, they love for their daddy to tell them a story. Do you know what kind of story they like? They like it when I tell them a story where they go on a journey, where they go on a great adventure and they love it when that adventure is hard and scary!

My stories almost always start the same way: Once upon a time there were three boys or three young men name Ian, Gavin, and Keegan. My stories always talk about bad guys, or monsters, or dragons who are keeping my boys, their friends, and their neighbors from being able to live good and normal lives.

Of course my boys are always the heroes of these stories. They overcome their fears and set out on enormous journey’s and adventures that take them thru Dark forests, horrible castles…to do battle with these the evil forces, horrible monsters, vicious dragons and bad guys.

Guess who wins in each story? My boys do! Or course!! …Well, not all the time. Sometimes I kill them off in the story—but their life of faith gives the townspeople the guts to stand against the evil (whatever) and win.

My boys love these stories! They eat them up!!! Why? They don’t want to live an average life! They want to live a life of Great Adventure! That’s also why so many of us are drawn to stories like the “Chronicles of Narnia” or “The Lord of the Rings” or even “Harry Potter.”

Aren’t these stories similar to what happened to Abram? God saved him and called him on a scary but amazing adventure, a journey of Faith that will end up saving a nation, and eventually the world. And Like Abram, God Calls Us to Follow our Leader, JESUS, on GREAT ADVENTURE into GOD’S AMAZING GRACE to save and restore our communities, our cities, our nation and our world with the Good News of Jesus!!!

The song we just listened to by Steven Curtis Chapman may be old. It may be a little cheesy. But don’t we still resonate with it because we want this Great Adventure of faith to be true of our life?

If this is the case, why do many of us look like this guy and have this question: “Is this all there is to the Christian life?” Anybody ever feel this way? Or maybe you resonate with these lyrics from Switchfoot’s song “Meant to Live?”

Fumbling his confidence

And wond’ring why the world has passed him by

Hoping that he’s meant for more than arguments

And failed attempts to fly, fly…..

…..We were meant to live for so much more

Have we lost ourselves?

We were meant to live for so much more

Have we lost ourselves…

…We want more than this world’s got to offer

We want more than the wars of our fathers

And everything inside screams for second life!

Why do we feel this way as Christians? What can we do about it? How can we give hope to a world that feels this way?

We are going to answer these questions by looking at Genesis 12:1-4. It is here where our forefather, the patriarch of our faith, Abraham, began his Great Adventure, his journey of Faith. [READ?]

THE JOURNEY OF FAITH IS A GREAT ADVENTURE

Like Abram it is evident that our Journey of Faith is a Great Adventure. When I accepted Christ at the age of 6—I had no idea following Jesus would take me from going to college to be a Meteorologist, to Seminary, to being a Youth Pastor, to being a Senior Pastor. I had no idea following Jesus would take my from Bloomington, Indiana to Grand Rapids, Michigan to Rome, Georgia to St. Louis, back to Indiana and then to New York. It’s been quite a journey!

My journey of Faith has been hard, also. Sometimes, it’s hard to do what is right and follow God’s voice. Here’s an example from my life: While I was in between ministry positions I had to get at a janitorial firm. That wasn’t really the hard part though. The hard part was getting fired from. Yes, I got fired and it was my faith that caused me to get fired!