Putting Faith In Action Series

Romans 1:8-17

Getting on the same page as God about:

Putting Faith in Action

Introduction

A. You may have seen today’s sermon title and thought faith in action no problem

B. This one I can sleep though

C. I do that, I have faith, I am moving, no problem

D. If that is what you are thinking, your not alone

E. That is what I said when I first looked over the passage

F. I thought I had this whole faith thing under control

G. I didn’t, when I was working on this sermon God was working on me

H. I had to confess a lot of things

I. I realized I was not on the same Page as God about putting my faith in action

J. I hope that you will open your hearts and let God speak to you today about passage

K. I have broken this portion of Paul letter to the Romans into five sections

a. Praise

b. Prayer

c. Persistence

d. Pursuit

e. Power

L. We are going to what these five sections teach us about putting our faith in action

I. Praise (8)

A. Explanation

1. Vs. 8 is very fascinating to me

2. Remembering the fact that Paul at the point of this writing did not know the Romans

3. But yet he still thanks God for their faith that has been reported

4. While it is true that Paul was never there, I am sure that he ran into people who had been there

5. Being that Paul had this great desire to go to Rome He probably would take every opportunity that he had to talk to someone who was in Rome or who had a relatives in Rome

6. He would ask them what the Church was like

7. More then likely most everyone that Paul talk to gave a favorable report about Roman Church

8. Because of these reports that kept flowing in, Paul does something so simple, but yet powerful

9. He Praises God for what is happening

B. Application

1. Now you might be sitting there and saying if we are talking about Faith what does praise have to do with faith

2. See Paul single was a great Church planter, everywhere he went he planted churches

3. There were a lot of churches out there that would consider Paul their founding Pastor

4. But not the Church of Rome. Paul was not involved in that

5. However, Paul had faith!

6. The faith in the God be powerful enough to plant His Church without using Paul

7. Putting your faith in action is not saying that you have to be the one to do everything

8. To Put faith into action requires trust in the Lord

9. Trust In the Lord that God is all powerful and can accomplish his task

10. You can talk and talk about having faith, but until your willing to let God work His plan out, with or hear is the hard one without you, you do not have faith

C. Illustration

1. There was a young lady who was studying to become a Missionary in India. She felt a call to the mission field at a very young age, and had been preparing for it ever since. When she was in College she received a phone call that her only sister and brother in law were in a car wreck and both died, leaving behind 3 children. She was the only one that was able to care for the kids. So she dropped out of school, got a job, and became a mom. She often asked God, why? Why when you wanted me in India did you let this happen? Why Lord? Well she faithfully did her job raising those precious children. The one day as she was sitting in her rocking chair thinking about India the oldest child came up to her and said, “I think God wants me to go to India as a Missionary” she cried, Here God was letting her raise this kid called to India. She was happy. About two years latter the middle child told her the same things. Two years after that the youngest said that same things

2. All three ended up in India as Missionaries

3. That is putting your faith in action. She never lost focus on God

4. That is faith in action, and that is God showing his faithfulness, AMEN!?

II. Prayer (9-10)

A. Explanation

1. Do you ever wonder what a man of faith is like; a man who puts faith in action is like?

2. Well lets look at vs. 9 and 10 notice what Paul says

3. First thing he does is tells us that he is under the power of Christ

4. That Christ is in control of him