FROM HOPE TO FAITH
The title of my sermon today is, "From Hope to Faith." From Hope to Faith. How can we get from hope to faith? We will dig into the scriptures today to see just what God asks us to do to move from having hope to having faith.
Fred Rogers. Anyone know who Fred Rogers is? Fred Rogers is the creator of Mr. Rogers Neighborhood, the long running children's television show. Not only did he create the TV show but he also was an ordained minister. As a seminary student he made a habit of attending different churches in order to hear many preaching styles. One Sunday he endured what he said was quote "the most poorly crafted sermon I had ever heard in my life". Fred turned to his friend who had attended the church service with him, to find her with tears in her eyes. Her experience was just the opposite of his. She had heard exactly what she needed that day. Same sermon, same church but each person moved extremely different. Fred said quote, "that is when I realized that the Holy Spirit had transformed that feeble sermon for her - and as it turned out - for me too." You see, Fred's friend came to worship God, to see God - Fred came to listen to a sermon. Don't prepare today to hear a sermon - prepare to worship God and allow Him to speak to you today -no matter what I say or do - listen to God not to me.
Let's pray. Dear Heavenly Father, I pray that you transform these words you have laid upon my heart, into words that you want your people to hear. Words that will motivate and encourage your people, the people of Neptune Church of God, to do great things in your name, to honor you and to glorify you. Fill all of us up with your Holy Spirit, allow us to see you, to know you, and to hear your voice. Amen.
From hope to faith. What is hope? The dictionary defines hope as "A feeling that what is wanted will happen." A feeling that what is wanted will happen. What is faith? The dictionary defines faith as "unquestioning belief, complete trust or confidence." Unquestioning belief, complete trust or confidence. Do you understand the difference? Hope is a feeling that something will happen. Faith is total confidence, no doubt something is going to happen.
What would be a few examples of hope? How about starting your car? OK what if is brand new, right out of the showroom? Is it going to start? Well it should but there still is that little doubt in the back of your mind. How about if your car has been sitting outside all night, it's 15 degrees below zero, the wind is blowing and it's snowing - that is when you hope your car starts!
How about flying in an airplane? Now you know all the stats. It is safer to fly in an airplane from New York to China than it is to drive your car here to church today. But if you have ever flown, when that big airliner is lumbering down the runway, don't you have a tendency to pull up on the armrests just a little to help get that big bird in the air? Sure you do! And when it's time to land, aren't you glad to hear that landing gear lock into place? To see the flaps come down and the air brakes start to work? And just before those tires touchdown, don't you hold your breath for just a split second?
Now what can we have faith in? How about this. We all climb up on the roof of the church and we all jump off. Now, I have faith that we are going to follow the law of gravity and plummet off the roof, down to a very quick stop onto the sidewalk. Even Jesus, didn't want to test that law of nature when the devil tempted him. You see, God doesn't want us to do anything stupid - he just wants us to have faith in Him and join Him where He is working.
I think we have hope here at Neptune Church of God. Hope that we can stay open. Hope that we can find another Pastor. Hope that we can begin to attract new people. The task today is to learn to take our hope and change it into faith. Let's get out our Bibles and turn to 2 Timothy 1:3-7.
READ.
May God add his blessing to both the reading and hearing of His Holy Scripture.
Paul wrote 2nd Timothy after his release from prison in Rome in AD 62-63 after his 4th missionary trip. During his imprisonment, he wrote 1st Timothy and Titus. If you remember, his imprisonment in Rome was not to demanding. He lived in a rented house and visitors could come and go as they pleased. Now, as he writes 2nd Timothy he is in prison again. This time under Emperor Nero about 4 years after his imprisonment in Rome. This time instead of living in a rented house he is in a cold dungeon, chained like all the other criminals. He was so far removed and isolated, his friends had a hard time finding him. He knew his work was almost done and that his life was almost over.
He wrote 2nd Timothy because he was extremely lonely. Not only his friends had trouble finding him but all of them had deserted him except for Luke. Paul wanted Timothy desperately to come be with him. You see, Timothy was special to Paul. Note in verse 6 the second part, "fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands." You see, Paul had led Timothy to Christ. Paul also was very concerned about the welfare of the churches he had planted on his missionary journeys.
You know the Bible is timeless. Let's look at these scriptures as though Paul had just sent an e-mail to the Neptune Church of God. Paul gives us the recipe to healing the churches hurts. He gives us the recipe to bind the church together. He gives us the recipe to change our hope into faith. Let's reread the 3rd verse to find the first part of the recipe.
"as night and day I constantly remember you in my prayers. " There is the first ingredient. Prayer. We must begin to be a praying church. Not just on Sunday but every day. Marianne reminds us each Sunday to pray for the church, to pray for the people on our pray list. In 1st Thessalonians Chapter 5 verse 17 - the whole verse says "pray continually". We are to never stop praying! A few weeks ago the General Conference held a Prayer Summit in Michigan for all our Pastors. Every one of the pastors I have talked to, who attended that Prayer Summit, came away a changed Pastor. They all said they went back to their churches with renewed energy and renewed faith that God was going to work through them and their church do to great things.
Two weeks ago we had a very special ending to the late worship service. Darrell Prichard gave the sermon that day. When it was time for the musicians to play the closing song, Keith Moorman motioned for each of them to sit down. Keith then explained that God was leading him not to sing but to pray. So he invited all the people in the congregation to join him at the steps and pray with him. I think everyone in attendance joined him and prayed either silently or out loud for God to use this church as his vessel to do great things. That is where we all have to be as a church - on our knees before God.
Now don't get confused. Just because we pray to God doesn't mean that God is going to start moving. no, no , no. In fact, it will be just the opposite. You see God is always moving, God is always working - if we are not in constant communication with Him through prayer, we can not see where He is working. Once we start to pray, we will begin to see Him. To see where He is working.
So the first ingredient is Prayer. What is the 2nd ingredient? Let's read the 6th verse. "The gift of God". The Gift that Paul is talking of here is Spiritual Gifts. God gives us Spiritual Gifts when we become Christians. Now let me clarify that. Most of us have taken a Spiritual Gifts Inventory. Those are good measures of what you have done and how God has used you in the past. They really don't show you what God wants you to do for Him in the future. Through Experiencing God we learned that once we are communicating with God and we see where He is working, He invites us to join Him. If we join Him, He will provide the Gifts needed to accomplish the task He has laid out for you to do. No question - have faith - He will provide. If you are a member of the Church, you should have studied the "We Believe" book during your membership classes. On page 16, it says.....
Let's reread that one section, "The Churches of God encourages its members to exercise faith and submission in discovering the Spiritual Gifts the Holy Spirit bestows upon them." How do we do that? First is prayer - 2nd is reading God's Word. Read the Holy Scriptures. The scriptures clearly show how God has used people, just like you and me through history to do great things for him. We are no different than the "GREAT" Biblical characters. Think of Moses - he told God there was no way he could do what God was asking him to do - but God gave him the gifts he needed. What about Jonah - he is my favorite. He tried to run away from God and from the task God wanted him to do. But in the end, God gave him the gifts to save Nineveh. God gave him the words - a sermon - you know what the sermon was? Here it is "Forty more days and Nineveh will be overturned." That was it! The very first day "The Ninevites believed God. They declared a fast and all of them, from the greatest to the least put on sackcloth." Nineveh was saved, all the people converted - it was estimated there were 120,000 people living in Nineveh. Isn't that awesome!
You see, the 2nd ingredient is to read scripture. Learn from the Word of God how others used the gifts He gave them. In the coming weeks you are going to hear of ways which you can join together as small groups to read God's word, share your thoughts with others about what God is telling you and what you see God leading you to do. We will be organizing Experiencing God groups. We are looking into starting an AIM Class. We are developing a Leadership Video class that uses John Maxwell's '21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership." All of these will help to get us back into the scriptures. Now let's not wait on these classes to start. Here is my proposal. Starting tomorrow, set your alarm clocks 15 minutes earlier than normal. Go to your place of prayer with your Bible in hand. Pray for the church, pray for our people and pray that God will use you, speak to you and show you how he wants to use you. Spend ten minutes praying. Then open your Bible and start to read the book of John. Why John? Well John wrote this book to encourage and build up believers and to win new converts. I think it is a good fit for us at this stage of the churches life.
The last ingredient. Let's read verse 7. This is one of my favorite verses. One that I have lived by for a long time. "For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline." We need to shed our timidity and move with power, love and self-discipline. When we start to pray and we start to read God's word, He will invite us to join Him where He is working. When He invites us we must GO! We can not be timid. God wants us to join Him with Power and love and self-discipline. God will give us opportunities - he will open our eyes to allow us to see those opportunities. Luke 24:31 says "Then their eyes were opened and they recognized Him." It is through the Grace of God your eyes will be opened and the keys to that grace is prayer and reading scripture.
God normally will not give you a ten step plan to accomplishing a task. Usually He will just ask you to take a small step of faith. You do not know for sure where that step will take you but with faith in God you know it is a step in the right direction.
So hope to faith - we must get there and we must get there through prayer, reading scripture and joining God where He is working, not a spirit of timidity but with the spirit of power, love and self-discipline. How does God want us to join Him. Here is an interesting coincidence that occurred while I was preparing this sermon. The word before hope in my dictionary was HOP. I think God wants us to HOP into joining Him wherever He is working. He doesn't want us to simply stick a toe in the water to test it - He wants us to HOP our whole self into the work - leave nothing behind. What was the word after hope in my dictionary? HOPPER. Hopper's definition "A container from which material is fed into something else." God wants to fill us up with His Spiritual gifts so we can feed it into the work He is doing. If we hop in to God's work with hope, He will use us as His hopper to pour out His blessings upon the work He invites us to join Him in doing. This will help to turn our hope into faith.
Without prayer and without reading scripture and without joining God where He is working you know what happens? Here is another interesting coincidence. The word before faith in my dictionary - fairy tale. The word after faith in my dictionary - fake. That's right, without prayer, without reading scripture and without working with God we are living a fairy tale and we are fakes.
I pray that everyone here today commits to rising 15 minutes early, pray for 10 minutes and read John for 5 minutes then when God invites you to join Him - Hop in and be His hopper. This will turn your Hope into Faith!
Dear Lord, please help us to throw away the spirit of timidity, help us to use the spirit of power and the spirit of love and the spirit of self-discipline that you have given to us. Give us the power to pray unceasingly, give us the spirit of love to read your word and give us the spirit of self-discipline to take a step in faith to join you when you call us. Open the eyes of our heart, so that we may see you, so that we may hear your voice and that we may know you more. In Jesus Christ's name we pray, Amen.
