This Sunday as we finish the second part of our "Water-Walking" message here at the Gaylord E-Free Church, we will see that "Water-Walking," like Peter did for a few steps on the Sea of Galilee, involves three elements. It involves extreme obedience. It involves extreme faith. And it involves extreme worship.
Let's look at that second aspect for a second - extreme faith. But what is faith? I think faith involves three aspects.
First, according to Hebrews 11:1, faith is a confident assurance. In other words, faith doesn't say, "I think" or "I hope" or "I'm keeping my fingers crossed." Faith says "I KNOW!"
Second, faith is based on the Word of God. Romans 2:17 says that faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. Faith isn't based on a feeling. Faith isn't based on an experience. Faith isn't based on some word of prophecy or word of knowledge. Faith isn't based on a dream or a vision. Faith is based on the Word of God - THE BIBLE!
Finally, faith always involves an action. James 2:17 says that faith without works is DEAD! If it doesn't result in some step it isn't Biblical faith.
So, if you put it all together, "What is faith?" Faith is a confident assurance based on the Word of God that produces an action in my life.
And faith is what it takes to be a "Water-Walker."
After experiencing a storm in his life, a man I know was told this by his Father,
ReplyDelete"Either God has a plan or He doesn’t. Your stress my son, is a sign of the lack of faith that God has a plan"
We have to spend our life studying the Bible, studying the life of Jesus. Then, when storms come, we will remember God's promises and through Christ's example, know how to respond.
He has a plan and if we take action on His plan for us we will truly live a full life. The thing with God is that He never shows me the journey, He just shows me the next step.(thank goodness for that) The question is, will I have faith in His plan for me and take that next step. It takes courage to take that step. Courage is taking action not in absence of fear but in spite of fear. That faith & courage comes from knowing who He is and the only way to know who Jesus is, is to spend time with Him. Lets all make that daily time a priority in our lives and we will see God move at Efree!!
Thanks for this today! Carrie & I appreciate your leadership!
All I can say to your comment, Ryan, is "AMEN"! Maybe I should get you to be a ghost writer for some of my sermons???
ReplyDeleteMy Dear Friend, Craig Ford! I am so sorry! You submitted a wonderful comment to this post and my big fat finger hit the wrong location on my i-phone screen and I accidentally deleted it instead of publishing it! Please for give me!
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