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Grace Emmanuel Church
Pastor Sam Chess
THE POWER OF FAITH
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What is going on in your life that you are trusting God for, that
can not possibly happen, apart from the direct personal attention of
God.
Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is the substance of things
hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. (NKJV)
Every person, in Scripture, who had faith, were people who were able
to catch a glimpse over the hill of what is… and grasp a picture in
their spiritual mind of what God wanted to be! Into their minds came
the assurance of what was not as if it already were!
I. Faith in God’s faithfulness still requires ______________ on our
part!
Patience.
Hebrews 6: 11 We want each of you to show…diligence to the very
end, in order to make your hope sure. 12 We do not want you to become
lazy, but to imitate those who through faith and patience inherit
what has been promised.
A) The Power Pair…. The Triumphant Twins… The Dynamic Duo…
What is the third element that has to be present with faith and
patience to complete the package? ___________________________
Hebrews 11:8 By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would
later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did
not know where he was going. (NIV)
Hebrews 11:7 It was by faith that Noah built a large boat to save
his family from the flood. He obeyed God, who warned him about things
that had never happened before. By his faith Noah condemned the rest of
the world, and he received the righteousness that comes by faith. (NLT)
Hebrews 11:13 All these people were still living by faith when
they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw
them and welcomed them from a distance…
7 By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy
fear built an ark to save his family.
8 By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later
receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not
know where he was going. 9 By faith he made his home in the promised
land like a stranger in a foreign country
17 By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a
sacrifice. He who had received the promises was about to sacrifice his
one and only son, 18 even though God had said to him, "It is through
Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned
23 By faith Moses' parents hid him for three months after he was
born, because they saw he was no ordinary child, and they were not
afraid of the king's edict.
24 By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be known as the
son of Pharaoh's daughter. 25 He chose to be mistreated along with the
people of God rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a short
time. 26 He regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater
value than the treasures of Egypt, because he was looking ahead to his
reward.
29 By faith the people passed through the Red Sea as on dry land;
but when the Egyptians tried to do so, they were drowned.
30 By faith the walls of Jericho fell, after the people had marched
around them for seven days.
31 By faith the
prostitute Rahab, because she welcomed the spies, was not killed with
those who were disobedient.
Deuteronomy 11:8 “Therefore, be careful to obey every command I
am giving you today, so you may have strength to go in and take over
the land you are about to enter. 9 If you obey, you will enjoy a long
life in the land the Lord swore to give to your ancestors and to you,
their descendants-a land flowing with milk and honey! 10 For the land
you are about to enter and take over is not like the land of Egypt from
which you came, where you planted your seed and made irrigation ditches
with your foot as in a vegetable garden. 11 Rather, the land you will
soon take over is a land of hills and valleys with plenty of rain-12 a
land that the Lord your God cares for. He watches over it through each
season of the year!
13 “If you carefully obey all the commands I am giving you today,
and if you love the Lord your God and serve him with all your heart and
soul, 14 then he will send the rains in their proper seasons-the early
and late rains-so you can bring in your harvests of grain, new wine,
and olive oil. 15 He will give you lush pastureland for your livestock,
and you yourselves will have all you want to eat.
16 “But be careful. Don’t let your heart be deceived so that you
turn away from the Lord and serve and worship other gods. 17 If you do,
the Lord’s anger will burn against you. He will shut up the sky and
hold back the rain, and the ground will fail to produce its harvests.
Then you will quickly die in that good land the Lord is giving you. 18
“So commit yourselves wholeheartedly to these words of mine. Tie them
to your hands and wear them on your forehead as reminders.
Psalm 66:18 If I had not confessed the sin in my heart, the Lord
would not have listened.
1 John 3:21 Dear friends, if we don’t feel guilty, we can come to
God with bold confidence. 22 And we will receive from him whatever
we ask because we obey him and do the things that please him. (NLT)
James 1:22 But don’t just listen to God’s Word. You must do what it
says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves.
23 For if you listen to the Word and don’t obey, it is like
glancing at your face in a mirror. 24 You
see yourself, walk away, and forget what you look like.
25 But if you look carefully into the
perfect law that sets you free, and if you do what it says and
don’t forget what you heard, then God will bless you for doing it.
(NLT)
1 Kings 11:38 If you do whatever I command you and walk in my
ways and do what is right in my eyes by keeping my statutes and
commands, as David my servant did, I will be with you. I will build you
a dynasty as enduring as the one I built for David and will give Israel
to you. (NIV)
1 Kings 12:26 Jeroboam thought to himself, “Unless I am careful,
the kingdom will return to the dynasty of David. 27 When these people
go to Jerusalem to offer sacrifices at the Temple of the Lord, they
will again give their allegiance to King Rehoboam of Judah. They will
kill me and make him their king instead.”
28 So on the advice of his counselors, the king made two gold
calves. He said to the people, “It is too much trouble for you to
worship in Jerusalem. Look, Israel, these are the gods who brought you
out of Egypt!”
29 He placed these calf idols in Bethel and in Dan-at either end of
his kingdom. 30 But this became a great sin, for the people worshiped
the idols, traveling as far north as Dan to worship the one there. (NLT)
Conclusion:
Hebrew 4:1 Therefore, since the promise of entering his rest
still stands, let us be careful that none of you be found to have
fallen short of it. 2For we also have had the gospel preached to us,
just as they did; but the message they heard was of no value to them,
because those who heard did not combine it with faith.
2 και γαρ εσμεν ευηγγελισμενοι καθαπερ κακεινοι αλλ ουκ ωφελησεν ο
λογος της ακοης εκεινους μη υγκεκερασμενους τη πιστει τοις ακουσασιν
(They did not share in the faith of those who obeyed!)
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