Mission Statement:
The Redeeming River Church is a family of believers committed to preaching the cross with conviction, reaching the lost with compassion, and equipping the saints with the Word!
Our Vison:
The Word tells us in Proverbs 29:18 “Where there is no vision, the people perish”. Therefore, we know that where there is a God breathed vision the people have life. It is because of God’s specific plan for us that we can clearly see where we are going.
7 We Will Be’s
· We will be a life giving church whose waters flow from the River of God through all cultures and generations!
· We will be a life sustaining church where the heartbeat of God will keep our families spiritually healthy.
· We will be a life birthing church where new ministries are conceived, delivered, nurtured, and sent out.
· We will be a people of faith and expectancy who are not moved by what we see, but stand in the God who we know!
· We will be a people of devotion who are committed to the work of the Lord through the local church!
· We will be a people of worship who honor the Lord for who He is and not what He will do for us!
· We will be a growing church whose walls will not contain us!
Before We Even Start Preaching This Morning Let Me Tell You What Faith Is Not!
· Faith is not goosepimples running up your spine when you get the Holy Ghost Jig!
· Faith is not when you are taught to Blab it and Grab it!
· Faith is not when you squint your eyes and perch your back and you can say Jesus!
· Faith is not when you scream at God and the people at the altar need windshield wipers because you can feel an abundance of rain from an excited evangelist with more zeal than Holy Ghost Power !
· Faith is not when you got a job that pays 2000 a month and you go and buy a house that cost 2500 a month
· Faith is not even when you have an ailment and you pretend it doesn’t exist while in the quiet place you are all besides yourself
I. FAITH IS THE SUBSTANCE OF THINGS HOPED FOR
A. HAVE YOU EVER HOPED FOR SOMETHING?
1. Have you ever hoped for something?
2. I hope that one day I will be able to make more money...won’t have anymore pain...my child won’t be on drugs
3. Hope is attached to a vision
6. I hope to make money because ...
9. Oh if the enemy could take your vision...if he could distort it
10. Oh if he could steal your hope
11. If he could get you out on the edge of defeat and then pull the hope right from under you
12. Our text tells us"Now faith is the substance of things hoped for"
13. It would be like saying "now chocolate is the main ingredient in the candy bar that I want to eat"
14. How many of you know that you can’t have a chocolate candy bar without chocolate?
15. Faith is the main ingredient to get where I hope to get to
16. Faith is the supernatural knowing that even though I cannot see what I long for it still exists and is right around the corner
17. Matthew 17:20
20 And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you.
18. Somebody’s mountain this morning is not just a mound of dirt and rock but
19. I came in here this morning to talk to somebody who is on their last breath
20. The mountains too high and the valleys too wide
B. ARE YOU EXPECTING GOD TO MOVE?
1. I remember a song
2. I came here expecting God to move, to move in mighty wonders as he promised He would do...as the saints lift up His name the Spirit falls like rain...I came here expecting God to move!
3. What are you expecting God to do in your life, in your job, in your family, in your church?
4. Expectation is more than hope
5. When you hope you want it to happen
6. When you expect you have reason to believe that it is GOING to happen
7. But in the Old Testament hope means more when the bible says hope in the Hebrew it means
8. shelter, trust in, expectation
9. Psalm 31:24 - you have to hope in the Lord
24 Be of good courage, and he shall strengthen your heart, all ye that hope in the LORD.
10. Psalm 42 - you don’t have to be depressed
5 Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted in me? hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him for the help of his countenance.
11. Lamentation 3:26 - your salvation is coming
26 It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the LORD.
12. In the New Testament it hope means more than it might happen as well
13. It means expectation!
14. Acts 24:15 - The end is already signed by God, Sealed by the blood, and Delivered by the resurrection!
15 And have hope toward God, which they themselves also allow, that there shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust.
15. Romans 5:3-5 - When you have a hope...expectation...a vision of the future...you will not be ashamed!
3 And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience;
4 And patience, experience; and experience, hope:
5 And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.
C. I WILL NOT BE ASHAMED
1. One thing that is hard for me to get use to with my children...
2. Ah dad you aren’t in style!
3. What?
4. He is ashamed of me sometimes to go into public because he thinks that I do not dress trendy
5. But trends are fickled
6. They can’t make up there mind
7. One day this is in style and next week it is just the opposite
8. But you see I am confident that I am in style...but your style is not neccessarily mine
9. There is one style that never fades away
10. The cross never goes out of style
11. The crown of thorns never goes out of style
12. The love that crucified my Lord is not fickled
13. That’s why I can say like Paul in Romans 1:16
16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.
14. That’s why I have to sing His praise Psalm 21:13
13 Be thou exalted, LORD, in thine own strength: so will we sing and praise thy power.
15. We know that He has made the everything Jeremiah 32:17
17 Ah Lord GOD! behold, thou hast made the heaven and the earth by thy great power and stretched out arm, and there is nothing too hard for thee:
16. We know that if nothing else existed God would still be Exodus 3:14
14 And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you.
17. I will not be ashamed of my Savior - John 11:25
25 Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live:
II. A PEOPLE WITH A KNOWING
A. WITHOUT FAITH
1. We live in a society that does not operate in faith
2. We cannot trust our neihbors
3. We cannot trust our church friends
4. We cannot trust our family
5. But yet God says you gotta put trust in me
6. We have been programmed to be reactive instead of proactive
7. Even churches instead of being the agent of change in the culture
8. We become whiners and at best counselors
9. Hebrews 11:6
6 But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.
10. Without faith we cannot please God
11. Without diligintly seeking Him we cannot receive anything
12. Without knowing who He is we cannot understand the vastness of His great love
11. I serve a God who is a rewarder
12. I serve a God who is an encourager
13. I serve a God who has promised to supply all my need
14. I know a God who ...
15. Oh...Somebody give Him some praise!
B. WITH FAITH
1. I don’t think that it is a time for the church to lay back and just wait for a savior to come and deliver us
2. Does somebody here this morning feel like Jeremiah 20:9
9 Then I said, I will not make mention of him, nor speak any more in his name. But his word was in mine heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I was weary with forbearing, and I could not stay.
3. Is there any Shadrachs in the House? Meshaks? Abednigos? ...Daniel 3:17-18
17 If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king.
18 But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up.
4. Is there any John’s in the House who are willing to be boiled in Oil for the Lord
5. Is there any Peter’s in the house who just came out of the upper room and are about to open your mouth
6. Where’s Lazaurs this morning? Somebody used to be dead but you are about to be a full fledge Pentecostal
C. DO YOU KNOW HIM
1. Once in a while I watch tv
2. I watch the news and I hear story lines about certain individuals, things they have done, the way they look
3. But how many of you know that just because you see a news clip and you know how somebody looks
4. Just because you know how somebody sounds
5. Just because you know what others say about somebody
6. You still just know about them
7. You don’t necessarily know them
8. Somebody in here knows about Jesus
9. But you don’t know Him
10. I make the same plea to you that David made in Psalm 34:8
8 O taste and see that the LORD is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in him.
11. I extend to you the invitation that Jesus Gave in Revelation 3:20
20 Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.
12. God has given you a treasure 2 Corinthians 4:6-7
6 For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
7 But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.
