I want to give a brief background so that you may all know me better.
My name is Janette Cook. I have been married to my husband Bill for almost 20 years. We have three beautiful children. I have been a part of the Calvary Family for most of my life. Calvary was the sending church for my family as missionaries to Brazil, where I was born.
I was asked to share my personal experience in the ministry of Foster Care. I am NOT a writer, but here goes…..
Our journey into the world of Foster Care started 19 years ago, when my husband Bill and I suffered a devastating loss. We lost our first child, Shelby due to “miscarriage”. God blessed us with two healthy children. Michael is now almost 17, and Jonathan is almost 14. Although, I would make jokes about being able to have a Family Four Pack, my heart longed for more children.
When I was nine years old, I was diagnosed with a blood disorder called Idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP). The symptoms of this disease are similar to Leukemia. After our second healthy delivery, my Dr. strongly recommended no more pregnancies. So, we felt that we had completed our family and it would just be the four of us.
Fast forward 6 years…
I was completely in love with my family, but my heart still longed for more… I felt guilty in that we had been SO blessed. I looked into adoption in Brazil, where I am a citizen. I sought counsel from an attorney, but it didn’t “feel right”. I had no peace about international adoption. During that time, two families I knew had adopted through Foster Care. I began praying for clarity and peace about that ministry. I came to realize that perhaps I wasn’t meant to love one more child forever, but to love many children for a time.
During the time of prayer, I had a recurring dream. Several times I dreamed about a black haired baby girl, sleeping in a cream colored bassinet. It was SO REAL…. Each time it was exactly the same! I would be sitting in my blue rocker and the bassinet was to my right.
In January of 2009, Bill and I began classes to become licensed through the state to be a foster home. In May, we had our license, a room ready for two children, clothes in multiple sizes were ready. And we waited…. The summer passed, and still we waited. No calls had come for placements, and I began to doubt. I was given a bassinet that was in pretty bad shape, so I took it apart and cleaned it thoroughly. I remember pulling the frame of the bassinet across our living room, and it hit me like a sledge hammer! I had seen this bassinet before. It was the exact one from my recurring dream.
On Friday, August 7, 2009 I answered “THE CALL”. I was told a baby girl was ready to be discharged from the hospital and they wanted to place her with us. Around 3pm, a CPS worker brought our first Foster Child into our home. I didn’t want to act “crazy” so I left the baby asleep in her car seat until after the worker had left. I closed the door behind the worker, and walked over to the infant carrier on our floor. I pulled the canopy back and was shocked! I looked up at the ceiling and said, “God, You better not be messing with me!” There she was….our little girl. The very baby God had revealed to me so many times in my dreams. Our Gracie….
No. This is not normal. This is not the way we expected things to go. We certainly didn’t expect this child to be “abandoned” with no further contact from her birth family. We didn’t expect to be blessed so soon, with the GIFT of a “forever child”. Yet, there we were…
The months that followed were full of lots of love, learning, and opportunity. God placed other children in our home, and continued to show us glimpses of Himself in each child we cared for. In the past seven years, God has blessed us with the care of 21 “bonus” children.
We have had some very difficult things to learn. Lessons I never even imagined would be things I needed to know. We have had children with varying degrees of drug addiction, abuse, neglect, and emotional difficulties. At the end of each time with our Bonus children, I look back and see that God gave grace. He gave strength. He gave understanding. He gave knowledge. He gave compassion. He gave opportunity…… Wow. What opportunity!!!
Since Bill works a full time job outside of the home, I am the one who takes the children to appointments, visitations, therapy, etc. Many times, I am in a position to meet birth parents. There have been some very eye opening lessons in that for me. I have been able to love and minister to some of the parents in ways I never imagined.
There are many times that I miss those chances to be God’s hands. Out of fear, self-doubt, whatever the case may be. Oh, how I wish I could have those times back again!!! I have spent the past seven years watching God walk through our home. He walks beside me and my husband as we strive to be His hands to these precious little ones. But….. What about the deep, dark places we can’t see? What about the inner workings of these little minds? What about the long term effects that their little bodies will endure? What about the neurological misfires, that are constantly sending false signals to their bodies? What about the emotional scars they carry? What about the physical scars that show the world what they have been through? What about the psychological scars they hide from everyone?
My head spins trying to remember the tiniest clue that I may have missed.
My heart is crushed under the weight of the love I feel.
My soul cries out to My Father for strength.
My eyes burn with the unshed tears as I realize a hard truth… My love is important….But it will never be enough!
There have been many days, when I crawl into my bed and cry. Did I do enough? Did I try enough? Did I love enough? Did I have faith enough? Those are questions that plague every foster Parent. Here is what I have learned through those difficult times…..
I VOLUNTEERED! I offered my heart on an altar of sacrifice to be broken again and again. Why? Why would someone do this? The answer is so simple, my friends. Because, I would much rather MY heart be broken when I say goodbye to a child I love, than for a child to never know what being loved feels like. I followed a call from my Father, and put my family into the path of many people who will have a chance to see God. With each child who comes into our home, I am reminded that God is providing us with a fresh opportunity; a window of time where He allows us to be His hands, His feet, His comfort to these children and their parents.
Like many Christians, I struggle to keep time set apart each day for communion with God. Although, I may not read a daily devotion…let me assure you that God speaks to me each and every day! I hear Him in the prayers of our little ones, I see Him in the smiles on their faces. I feel His peace as I hold one of His babies close to my heart.
During the past several years, we have had a personal family struggle with our son’s health. As many of you know Jonathan was gravely ill for three years and had to have his entire colon removed to save his life. During the dark days of his illness, God never once failed us! He always provided help when we needed it. We did take a short break from foster care for three months to allow Jonathan time to regain some normalcy after his colectomy. As soon as his health allowed, we rejoined the ranks. Our home doesn’t feel complete unless those beds are filled!
In our journey to help other families in their foster/adoption journey, God has opened another door for us. Bill and I have recently started a support group for foster and adoptive families. This has been something that I have prayed about for YEARS. I told our support group the following:
“I am NOT a social worker. I am NOT a medical professional. I am NOT an author or speaker or many of the other things I admire about others in the world of foster care.
I AM a wife. I AM a mother. I AM an advocate for my children and passionate about our family ministry.”
Each foster parent has a story. Each story is unique. Each calling is different, but I wouldn’t change ONE THING about ours.
What a privilege and honor it is to be His servant!!
Thank you! Thank you to each one of our prayer partners, who takes the time each day to pray for our family! Thank you for the encouraging words, and the love our friends and church family shows each of these special children!
If you would like to find out more about how YOU can make a difference in the life of a foster child, contact Janette Cook at cookiemomster.jc[at]gmail.com.
This week I'd like to share an article that lays out some practical ways you can read the Bible for personal application. I'm sure you can relate to experiences I have had in which I have read a passage of Scripture and thought of very little I could apply to my life. Even when I found passages that were applicable, I often struggled as to whether it applied to me, or just to those it was written to.
My hope in sharing this article is that we as a church would desire to grow in our understanding of how the Bible speaks to us. The steps mentioned in this article are not a "cure all" to understanding the Bible, but they are helpful tools in deepening understanding. Let it be our prayer that the Holy Spirit would reveal the truth of the Word of God to us and that we become whole-hearted followers of Jesus Christ!
In Christ,
Brandon H.
5 Ways to Read the Bible for Personal Application by Joe Carter
The Bible is a book about God, not a book about us. And yet as Paul says, everything in the Bible was written for us:The Bible is a book about God, not a book about us. And yet as Paul says, everything in the Bible was written for us:
For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through the endurance taught in the Scriptures and the encouragement they provide we might have hope. (Roman 15:4, NIV)
The Bible was written to others—but speaks to you. The Bible is about God—but draws you in. Your challenge is always to reapply Scripture afresh, because God’s purpose is always to rescript your life.
When we reapply Scripture to our own lives, the Holy Spirit is re-scripting our lives so that we may become more like Jesus.
What Spiritual Formation Is (And Is For)
Every day we are becoming either more like Jesus or less like him. The direction we move is largely up to us, for we don't drift into Christ-likeness. Becoming more like Jesus takes effort and intention; it takes spiritual formation.
Christ-like spiritual formation is the name for that process by which Christians in union with Christ and guided by the Holy Spirit, become conformed both internally and externally to the character of Christ for the purpose of communion with God.
Learning how to personally apply the Bible to our own lives is therefore essential to our spiritual formation.
How then do we personally apply the Bible to our own lives? We generally apply the Bible through five ways:
1. Direct commands
The most obvious passages for personal application are those in which God gives direct commands. For example, Jesus’s command to “love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you” (Matt 5:43) is not an optional requirement. When we find such clear, direct commands in Scripture we know they are intended to directly “re-script” our lives.
2. General truths
Scripture frequently provides general truths that are broadly applicable to a variety of situations, and then leaves it to us to discern how they should be applied. In Matthew 22:21, Jesus says to give back to “Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.” Rather than giving us a list of what belongs to God and what is due the government, Jesus expects us to use godly wisdom to apply this general rule and work out the details for ourselves.
3. Direct analogy
There are many issues of controversy and concern in the modern age that are not directly mentioned in the Bible. In some circumstances, though, we can personally apply Biblical principles to situations that are similar to those mentioned in the Bible.
Those actions of persons and groups are to be judged morally wrong which are similar to actions that are judged to be wrong or against God's will under similar circumstances in Scripture, or are discordant with actions judged to be right or in accord with God's will in Scripture.
(For an example of how to apply direct analogies, see this article.)
4. Indirect analogy
We apply Scripture through indirect analogy when a passage teaches us by example rather than through a stated rule. This is the old-fashioned “Sunday school morality” in which we look to the Old Testament narratives to learn how we should or should not act. For example, in the story of the attempted seduction of Joseph by Potiphar’s wife, we learn to flee from sexual sin and adultery (Gen 39:7-12).
We must be careful, though, not to think the personal application that can derived from such stories is the primary purpose of the narrative. Although Joseph’s actions were a godly example, they resulted in his being thrown in prison — a situation that God used to carry out his larger purposes. Whenever we apply the Bible indirectly, we need to keep in mind the key truth that the while the Bible is for us it is not about us, but about God.
5. Indirect extension
The vast majority of Scripture is composed of neither direct commands nor generally applicable truths. Take, for instance, the various lists of names and genealogies found in the Old Testament. How do we apply those passages to our own lives? As Powlison says,
In one sense, such passages apply exactly because they are not about you. Understood rightly, such passages give a changed perspective. They locate you on a bigger stage. They teach you to notice God and other people in their own right. They call you to understand yourself within a story—many stories—bigger than your personal history and immediate concerns. They locate you within a community far wider than your immediate network of relationships. And they remind you that you are always in God’s presence, under his eye, and part of his program.
The “endurance” and “encouragement” Paul refers to comes from reading the Old Testament and understanding that we are part of God’s story. We can see the promises God made to his people, see how he was always faithful, and be encouraged to endure knowing that he will likewise always be faithful to us.
Application Is for Spiritual Formation
Whether directly or indirectly, by analogy or by extension, the entire Bible is personally applicable to our lives. How it applies may not always seem obvious, of course. But if we seek the guidance of the Holy Spirit the Father will not only open our eyes so that we may reapply his Word, he will use it to re-script our lives to make us more like his Son.
Jonah 2:9 “But I with
the voice of thanksgiving will sacrifice to you;
what I have vowed I
will pay. Salvation belongs to the Lord!”
There’s a simple truth about repentance written all
throughout Scripture that tends to get treated like a secret. I mean, God wrote
it in a book and it’s been published throughout the entire world, so it’s
really no secret. But it’s often treated like one. Some people don’t like to
talk about it because they say it’s too personal, or they’re too embarrassed,
or that they don’t completely understand it themselves. But we’re going to
unwrap this ‘secret’ to repentance and lay it out on the table for all to see
so we can experience a spiritual breakthrough.
Jonah announces while in the fish’s belly that salvation is
of the Lord. This is both a confession and an acknowledgement of a lesson
learned and it’s really quite astounding. In fact, the entire theme of the
Bible can be summed up in that statement, “Salvation belongs to the Lord.”
See, there are different people in the world and they have
different beliefs about salvation. There are the Rebellious People, who
defiantly say, “I do not need salvation.” Next are the Religious people, who
stubbornly say “Salvation is of me.” Then there are the Repentant people, who
humbly say, “Salvation is of the Lord”
Until you come to the realization that salvation belongs to
the Lord, you cannot and will not experience spiritual breakthrough. That is
true for people just coming into a relationship with Christ today for the first
time, but it is also true for people that have already started a relationship
with Jesus but desire a deeper spiritual breakthrough. And, by the way,
everybody falls into one of these two categories: those in need of salvation
today, and those in need of a spiritual breakthrough.
Both types of people cannot come to the realization that
salvation belongs to the Lord on their own, however. It first requires God
extending an invitation to them. He says, “Come and know me.” That is called
grace. We can only respond to the invitation and start a relationship with Him.
That is called faith.
So the first type of people accept God’s grace by faith.
Let’s call that saving faith. The second type who have already accepted God’s
grace continue in their faith. That’s called living faith.
So are you ready for the secret? Here it is in one sentence:
Grace is not just the
way you have your first encounter with God, but how you have every encounter
with God.
Accepting God’s grace through faith is how you are going to
have a spiritual breakthrough. If you depend on your works to make you better,
if you depend on your knowledge to get you closer to God, if you depend on your
talent to do great things, you won’t make it. We have only one thing to depend
on and that’s God’s grace.
But that’s just it. So many of us so many times rely on
ourselves for our spirituality. “If I just read my Bible more I would be more
spiritual.” But we have to have a change of mind; a change of dependence. And
that’s exactly what repentance is.
The word ‘repent’ literally means “to change one’s mind.” The question then is,
“What do I need to change my mind about?” In this case, to have a spiritual
breakthrough, we have to change our mind about who we depend on.
When I was teen, my friend showed me what it means to be
dependent on the wrong thing. We had gone to spend the weekend at his
grandparents’ cabin with his family. One day we were exploring down by the
river, and we found this giant branch sticking out over the water about three
stories high. So my friend says, “Hey! Let’s make a rope swing!” So he goes and
gets a dog leash, he climbs the branch, ties the leash up, but realizes it’s
too thin to hold on to. So he does the logical thing and grabs a log and ties
it to the other end. Then he says, “Ok, who’s first!?” And the rest of us are
like, “Bro, you made it, you have to do the first swing!”
So he climbs up a little and sits on a lower branch for a
while trying to work up the courage. And in one awful moment he jumps off the
tree trunk and puts all of his weight on this homemade rope swing, depending on
it to hold him. But as it tightens, the log rolled, and he slipped. And fell.
I’m pretty sure my heart stopped as I watched him plummet to what I felt
strongly was his death. He fell about two stories down into about one foot of
water with huge rocks underneath. I’m thinking, “Oh my soul! I just witnessed
the death of my best friend!” For about two seconds, that felt like two hours,
he’s underneath the water, then he bounces up and says, “Well, that didn’t
work!” He was lucky to walk away with a small scratch on his knee. Needless to
say, nobody else depended on the dog leash rope swing.
If you and I are going to move to a new level of spiritual
breakthrough we must change our mind about who we depend on. Are you depending
on your own goodness and effort for a spiritual breakthrough? Or are you ready
to depend on God’s grace to give you a breakthrough? You’ll be launched to new
heights with barely enough time to hang on when you let go and let God.
But how does Jesus give us His grace? I mean, what in the
world is grace anyway? Next month, I’ll answer the question; What is the process
by which Jesus gives us His grace?
That was gorgeous on so many
levels. I feel like the Holy Spirit took
those words this morning. Somebody out
there; that was just what you needed. I
want you to to know that God was speaking that to you.
The past number of weeks, God’s had
this one thing on my heart night and day, when it comes to my life, when it
comes to the life of this church. It’s
this phrase: TAKE A STEP OF FAITH.
I’ve been asking this question, what
is it in your life that God is challenging you to trust Him in? What relationship is it in your life? Maybe busted like the song was talking
about. Maybe your marriage, kids, a
grandchild who’s in trouble and God is telling you, “I want you to trust
Me. I want you to step out. Stop manipulating. Stop talking. Stop fretting.
Come and bring it to me. Trust me.”
There’s a relationship you need to
end, but it’s hard. There’s a lot of
emotional attachment there. God’s called
you to take a step of faith and trust Him.
Do that hard thing, believing that the Lord will be with you. I don’t know what it is. It could be a habit, an addiction, and God
wants it in 2016 to go. He is calling
you up higher. It is time. God is saying for you to “come seek Me in My
word. I want you to read the Word. I
want you to get hungry like you haven’t been hungry in a long time. I want you to get humble like you haven’t
been in a long time. It’s time. I want you to see me. Want you on
your face in prayer. Come after
Me. Take that step of faith. Stop being
satisfied with being dissatisfied.”
Take a step of faith. I don’t know what it is for you, but this
morning I want to pose a terribly important question. If faith is this critical thing in the scriptures...
Can I say? It is! From Genesis to Revelation.
Hebrews 11:6 But without faith it
is impossible to please (God)…
Without these steps of faith, it
doesn’t matter what your spiritual resume looks life. You can’t please Him.
Hebrews 10:38 Now the just shall
live by faith…
It’s supposed to be the life blood
of your spiritual walk. Somebody wrote
this:
“Faith is all important in the life
of the soul. Without faith it is
impossible to please God. Faith will get
me anything, take me anywhere in the Kingdom of God, but without faith there
can be no approach to God, no forgiveness, no deliverance, no salvation, no
communion, no spiritual life at all.”
I can promise you this, every single
breathing soul in this auditorium, up in the balcony, back in our children’s
wing; God is calling you to take some step of faith. But that begs a very important question:
WHAT ISFAITH?
I know we call have notions about
what faith is, especially if you’ve been in church for a while.
Is faith simply a feeling in your gut like
anger, or attraction, or indigestion?
I feel like this thing is going to happen, so I must have
faith. Or if you don’t feel
something is going to happen, I don’t know what’s wrong with me, I guess I
just don’t have faith.
If you ask the Biblicist “Faith is the substance of
things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen.” (What does that mean?)
How do I take a step of faith? What does
that look like? Should I feel nothing?
Should I feel something? Do I do nothing? Do I do something? How do I know where God is calling me to step
out in faith and Preacher, what would it look like if I did.
We are going to look to an
appropriate place to find our answer this morning. We’re going to look to what has been called the
“Faith Chapter” in the Bible (Hebrews 11) and go further than that and look at
the specific illustration of a man who was referred to as the “Father of the
Faithful” to find out exactly what faith is.
Hebrews
11:8-11 By faith Abraham,
when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an
inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went. 9By faith
he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country,
dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same
promise:10For he
looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God. 11Through
faith also Sara herself received strength to conceive seed (to have a baby), and
was delivered of a child when she was past (baby havin’) age, because she judged him faithful who
had promised. 12Therefore sprang there even of one, and him as
good as dead, so many as the stars of the sky in multitude,
and as the sand which is by the sea shore innumerable.
We’re
going to take Abraham, the father of the faithful, and we’re going to go back
to Genesis and unpack this. I don’t know
about you, but I don’t deal with “vagueries”, with just concept. I need it simpler, plainer than that. If faith is this important God, and if You’re
calling me to do it, Lord please tell me what it is! We’re going to see
precisely what it is this morning in the life of Abraham (Genesis 11). So turn, click, flip, power up, rainman it,
whatever.
Before
we start looking at particular instances let me tell you this; faith is always
three things.
Faith
is:
Knowledge
– Belief – Subsequent Behavior
(Head – Heart – Hand)
Genesis 11:27-31 Now
these are the generations of Terah: Terah begat Abram (who became
Abraham), Nahor, and Haran; and Haran
begat Lot. 28And Haran died before his father Terah in the land
of his nativity, in Ur of the Chaldees (that’s a city). 29And Abram and Nahor took them wives: the name of
Abram's wife was Sarai; and the name of Nahor's wife, Milcah,
the daughter of Haran, the father of Milcah, and the father of Iscah. 30But
Sarai was barren; she had no child. 31And
Terah (Abraham’s
Daddy) took Abram his son, and Lot the
son of Haran his son's son, and Sarai his daughter in law, his son Abram's
wife; and they went forth with them from Ur of the Chaldees, to go into the
land of Canaan; and they came unto Haran, and dwelt there.
Not
overly fascinating at first glance. It
really just looks like Terrah living in a city called Ur of the Chaldees, which
is modern-day Iraq. By the way, they
have found all sorts of remnant of this place and it’s a fascinating study if
you want to look up Ur and a ruler named Ur-Nammu and the ziggurat he built. This is an incredibly advanced city; it was
like the mecca of modern civilization back in that day. Had advancements that other cities couldn’t
dream of – it was the place to be!
Terrah had his family there, raising them in Ur of the Chaldees. At some point, the bible says he gets stirred
up by something to go to the Canaan. He
only makes it as far as a city called Haran; so he moves his family there and
he stays there. That doesn’t tell us a
whole lot about Abraham, it simply tells us Abraham went with his daddy. He takes his wife Sarah, who the Bible makes a
very important parenthetical note to tell us she can’t have children. So at first glance, maybe Terrah got a better
job. Maybe Terrah was like “I’m tired of the fast-paced city life. I want to
move a little out of here.” Get to and
maybe “I don’t want to be in Canaan, maybe we’ll stop short.” What I want to tell you is there’s a lot more
going on here than meets the eye.
Do
you remember in the first message of this year, I preached a message on
Stephen. This man of God and he stands up in front of the Sanhedrin in the book
of Acts and he preaches this gorgeous sermon.
The bible says his face was glowing like an angel and he is filled with
the Holy Spirit. Stephen in Acts 7 tells
this same story, but gives us details Genesis didn’t give us. This is what Stephen tells us:
Acts 7:2-32And
he said, Men, brethren, and fathers, hearken; The God of glory appeared unto
our father Abraham, when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Charran
(HARAN) (God
appeared to Abraham when he was in Ur of the Chaldees, BEFORE they ever moved),3And
said unto him, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred (your family), and come into the land which I shall shew
thee.
Abraham
in Ur, God speaks to him and says, “Abraham, I want you to leave your Daddy. I
want you to leave what you know and what you’ve grown up with. I want you to
leave the land...” which to the people of that day was everything. “I want you to leave behind what you know and
come out to a place you don’t know. I
want you to take a step of faith and trust Me.” They make it as far as Haran,
but they don’t make it all the way to where God called them. OK?
We’re going to come back to that.
·Knowledge
What
we are seeing is God calling this, what will one day be the Father of the
Faithful. Calling him to his first steps
of faith and it starts with Knowledge.
Here’s what I mean:
Romans 10:17 So then faith
cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
Faith
always starts with God telling you “this is what I want you to do. This is how I want you to live. This is how I want you to treat your wife or
husband. This is how I want you to raise
your kids. This is how I want you to
interact with your schoolmates and the citizens around you. This is how I want you to worship me and
relate to me. These are the things I
want you to avoid and these are the things I want you to do.” God says to Abraham, “I want you to trust Me
and leave it all behind. Take a step of faith, leave your Daddy behind, and
come on out.” It starts with the word of
God and knowing what He says. Here’s the
thing friends, this book is filled with instruction on how God wants us to
conduct our marriage. How God wants us
to raise our kids. What our values
should be in this pagan land around us.
Where He wants us to invest our time, money, abilities. There are all these things God calls us
to. All these things that He tells us,
“This is My will for you”. There are
also times when God takes a passage, and I’ll tell you He’s done this with me,
that wasn’t originally written for you; it may have been written to Abraham or
written to Moses, but God illuminates that thing and it shines on your heart
and the Lord says, “I want you to do that. I want you to follow Me like
that.” You say, “how will I know if
that’s coming from God?” Because it will
be consistent with [the bible]. God will
NEVER tell you to do something He told you not to do in the Word. God will never lead you in a way that He
wouldn’t lead you through this book. It
starts with the Word from God. Let me
ask you this, before we go any further, how important is it that we gather
together in the House of God to find out what He said? How important is it that we gather in Sunday
School classes to break this book down a little bit? How important is it that we spend time each
day in the Word and say, “God, you invented life. Tell me how to live it. You invented this beating heart, breathing
lungs, firing neurons. God show me how to live.” Faith starts with KNOWLEDGE of
what God said about your life.
You
know I like three points, so here’s the first one:
THOUGHT #1: The Word of God will most often contradict
your perception, understanding, and intuition.
Hebrews
11:1-3, 13 Now faith is the
substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. 2For by it
the elders obtained a good report. 3Through
faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that
things which are seen were not made of things which do appear. Here’s
what he’s saying, God tells you life, the world, and He work in way that you
can’t physically perceive. When He created the universe... you know what
evolution is? It’s man’s lame attempt to
try to figure out how we all got here.
There must be some linear “this” must’ve crashed into “this” and this
explode... instead of saying “You know what, maybe there’s a God in Heaven
who’s so big and vast beyond my comprehension that He just spoke it into
existence.”
Faith, most often, is not you go
with your gut. Faith, most often, is not
you projecting out in the future; “you know, I wouldn’t mind marrying
them. I think they’d make me happy. I think that line of work would be the one
that I ought to follow, that seems like it would make me money and give me a
good life. I think if someone does this
to me, my natural response should be to do this to them.”
You know what? Faith is God telling you your natural
response will be wrong about 99% of the time.
Faith is God saying “Listen, I am asking you to step out on things that
you wouldn’t naturally do.” We’ve been studying
the beatitudes in Sunday Schoool: love your enemies, bless those who persecute
you, love those that hate you? Who comes
up with that on their own? What’s
natural is, “if you’re nice to me, I’ll be so sweet to you but the moment you
cross me, I will break you.”
“You want to talk about me, if I
hear about it, you’re going to know about it.”
“You want to hurt me, want to hurt
my family, I’ll crush you.”
That’s natural.
Jesus said, we are so warped by sin
that what we think is natural, is unnatural.
We have it so flipped upside down, when Jesus said love you enemies, it
seemed upside down to us that He said that.
What is faith? It is going with God’s version of how your
life should be lived and saying, “Lord, you know what? I hear you.
I’m going to trust you. “
Here’s Abraham, and he knows God’s
called him to do it, but it goes against everything in his gut. “I’m going to leave behind my kindred, my
family? I’m going to leave this city
that has a lot going for it and go out in the boonies with dangerous people and
not know what’s going to happen to me?”
And he’s just a human being, not a superhero. He struggles with that.
So here’s the next piece of this
puzzle. Faith starts with Knowledge of
God’s Word. In a particular area of your
life, no matter how you feel, what you think, what your gut tells you, God says
“this is the way I want you to do it.
This is what I want you to believe.
That’s what I want to do.” He knows it but here’s the next step.
·Belief &
Behavior
Faith is Knowledge, Belief, and
Behavior. You know I like three points,
but I can’t separate belief and behavior.
They go together – INSEPARABLY.
In other words, if you don’t act on it, you don’t really believe it yet.
James 2:19-20 Thou
believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and
tremble. 20But wilt thou know, O vain (FOOLISH) man, that faith
without works is dead?
You say, “God I believe Jesus. I believe you’re the one and only
Savior. I know it and I BELIEVE in
Jesus.” But Jesus says, “listen, if it
doesn’t go past there to actually expressing itself through your life, you
don’t really believe it.”
That’s not faith if it’s dormant
somewhere in the regions of your academic understanding. You know what Tony Evans said one time and
I’ve never forgotten it, he said “if you want to know about your faith, don’t
check your feelings, check your feet. That’s
what you really believe.” Some of us are
like “Oh man, I’m in trouble” Well, I
guess so was Abraham. Now there’s a
little conjecture here on my park, OK, but I believe (and I think it’s
justifiable to the text) Abraham gets this word from God, “Abraham, I want you
to trust me. I want you to step out. I
want you to leave your family. I want
you to come on out of that land and go with me.” And Abraham’s like, Lord, you
know I want to follow you, I want to do the right thing, but maybe I can leave
some of the family... Some of those cousins I’m not crazy about, a brother in law
about there like I’ll leave that dude behind
but I can’t leave my Daddy. And
Lord, you know, Canaan is pretty scary and I don’t know. I’ll talk Daddy into coming with me to
Haran. It hadn’t made it to his hand or
behavior yet. Listen, this is where a
bunch of us are living, 99% obedience.
I’ll give you a little bit God but
I’m also going to put a toe in the water, but keep the rest of me out so if you
don’t keep your promise I can bail out of this thing. You know something? I read in the AA book, which has a lot of
good stuff by the way, these alcoholics said we have learned that half measures
availed us nothing. Abraham doesn’t
trust God enough yet, he doesn’t have enough faith to do what the Lord said to
do. Look what happens,
Genesis 11:31-32 And Terah
took Abram his son, and Lot the son of Haran his son's son, and Sarai his
daughter in law, his son Abram's wife; and they went forth with them from Ur of
the Chaldees, to go into the land of Canaan; and they came unto Haran, and
dwelt there. 32And the days of Terah were two hundred and five
years: and Terah died in Haran.
Before we go to far here, you can
easily read into this, oh Abraham wouldn’t obey God so God killed his
Daddy. I don’t believe that’s the way to
frame that at all but I will tell you this:
THOUGHT #2: God will use your pain to strengthen your
faith.
When his Dad died, I think it shook
Abraham hard. It jolted him and now some
of the stuff he used to love so much, he didn’t love as much anymore. Some of the stuff that captivated him and
kept him a little bit scared a little bit cautious didn’t seem to matter
anymore. He shook off some stuff . Some of the stuff that he believed about life
when his Daddy died, changed his view.
Changed his beliefs. God let Abraham get shaken hard.
This may be a sermon later so I
don’t go too far, but even that section where Jesus tells Peter the devil (some
translations say) has demanded to have you that he may sift you like wheat, but
I’ve prayed for you that your faith will not fail. FAITHFUL.
And when you get turned around again, strengthen your brothers. Satan has demanded to have you that he may
sift you like wheat.
You know how wheat gets sifted? They put
those wheat kernels in with all the stuff.
You really want the wheat between all the stuff. They shake it. Shake it hard and the stuff falls through,
but the wheat is left. God says, you know what?
Job-style, the devil thinks, Peter, if you get shaken hard your faith
will fall through. He thinks you’ve only been serving me for what you can
get. He thinks you’ve only been
following me because I’ll bless you. But, Peter I’ve prayed for you. I know there’s more than that. I know there’s faith there. Peter gets shaken hard in his faith doesn’t
fall through, thank God. Do you know
what falls through? His self-confidence, pride, arrogance, and his belief that
he can do it. Some of you are being
shaken hard and it’s not because God’s forgotten about you or hates you. He is going to shake out some stuff. He’s going to shake off some old beliefs that
enable you to trust Him to take this step.
Some of you, I love you, are dwelling in the same old land you’ve been
in forever; half-hearted steps, half-hearted commitment. I’ll be here, I won’t be here. I’ll follow you, I won’t follow you. I live in sin, I’ll be back. I’m telling you, I love you, if you’re His,
he’s going to shake you hard.
You know what? After it, you’re going to
trust him. I gotta move on...God will use your pain to strengthen your faith. Here’s Abraham. God gave him a Word, “Abraham trust me. Step out.
Leave the land, leave your daddy...”
“God, I’m not quite ready. I’ll do
this....” Life hits him hard.
Genesis 12:1-7 Now the LORD
had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and
from thy father's house, unto a land that I will shew thee: 2And
I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name
great; and thou shalt be a blessing: 3And
I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee
shall all families of the earth be blessed.
That
is a promise to Abraham the father of the Jewish people. That is still a promise to the Jewish
people. Can I say? When you bless the Jewish people, God blesses
you. When you curse the Jewish people,
God will curse you. Sometimes I pray
that our country and our President could re-remember that.
4So
Abram departed, as the LORD had spoken unto him; and Lot went with him: and
Abram was seventy and five years old when he departed out of
Haran. 5And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother's
son, and all their substance that they had gathered, and the souls that they
had gotten in Haran; and they went forth to go into the land of Canaan; and
into the land of Canaan they came. 6And
Abram passed through the land unto the place of Sichem, unto the plain of
Moreh. And the Canaanite was then in the land. 7And
the LORD appeared unto Abram, and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land:
and there builded he an altar unto the LORD, who appeared unto him.
Do
you see that?
THOUGHT #3: When you take a step of faith – God will show
Himself to you.
I
have a little boy, Vance, he comes up with the funniest things. He’s like his Mom; that’s one of the things I
love about Jenny, she is razor quick.
Vance has got that same thing. He
got up the other morning, I’m trying to have a little time with the Lord, and
he gets up so early. I’m like, “hey bud,
don’t you want to go back to sleep for a little bit?” He goes, “Dad, once I’m awake, it’s
over.” He told me the other day, I was barbecuing
some chicken and he came out there. We’re
having some guy time: daddy, son, BBQ, meat, smoke time and he asked me, if he could
flip them and we were talking. There was
a real beautiful red sky, some of you saw that red sky that night. He said, “you know Dad, sometimes I see that,
clouds like that, the red sky, and I think about when Jesus comes back.” And I was like, “Oh yeah, me too son. I think the same thing sometimes.” I love his
honesty, he said, “I sure hope that when I die and Jesus comes back that I go
with him and I get to go to heaven because you know you really can’t know...” [laughing]
I love his honesty, he’s like “I haven’t been to heaven, I haven’t seen
it.” You know what I told him? And I don’t know if he got his yet, told him,
“Son here’s the thing, Jesus is real and you can’t see Him with your eyes and
hear Him with your ears, but when you see Him and you take a step of faith, when
you do what He told you to do, He will show himself very real to you. You will know that you’re his. You know what he said, “is the chicken
ready? Can I turn the chicken?” I was like “well I got that one second there
Lord, I’ll take it!”
What
is the step of faith God is calling you to take? If you don’t know, can I
promise you, He wants to tell you. Some
of you are here and the truth is, just like Vance, you can say with honesty, “I
don’t know.” Like we were singing and
playing about, it doesn’t matter where you’ve been or what you’ve done. Your little efforts of coming to God on your
own will only get in the way. Like
somebody drowning, trying to help the lifeguard. Jesus will save you by His sacrifice and His
sacrifice alone. He can forgive all your
sins. He can give you His righteousness. You know what, your one part in that thing
is? I believe that I’m a sinner. I believe Jesus that you have the power to
save me. I believe that the bible says
you’re real and you’re true. Jesus,
today I’m asking you to be my Lord and Savior and forgive my sins and come into
my heart. My friend, he’ll do it today! Can I get an amen from those who know
him? He’ll do it today! For the rest of us, somebody in here, you
know what’s getting in your way? You’re ashamed of yourself. You feel like He couldn’t take somebody like
you. I want to tell you something, He
can and He will. Take a step of faith. Ask Him to increase your faith. Trust Him in the little things. You know, the statement for our church is we’re
here to help people become wholehearted followers of Jesus Christ. I’m not sure that’s not too big for people. I
think people get freaked out when they hear that. You know what our mission is, to help people
take a step of faith. That’s it. Not jump over tall buildings in a single
bound. Take a step of faith today.
We’re
going to have a verse of invitation. If
you need to come talk to God this morning, if He stood you up and maybe your first
step needs to be this morning right down to an alter saying “Lord, I’m serious
about this.” There’s no magical power to
this part, but sometimes you feel the need to physically step out and do
something. If you need to come and pray,
amen. If you need to come talk to a counselor,
take me by the hand and I’ll have Ron or one of our folks talk to you at length
on whatever you need to talk about. Set
up something for this week if you need longer.
But all over this place, can we take this truth we just heard personally? May God just do what only He can do. I leave it at that. Let God do whatever He wants to do this morning. If you need to come right now, we’ve prayed,
we’ve talked, I invite you, God invites you.
Whatever it is, whatever you need to bring to him, whatever step of
faith you need to take, let’s step out right now all over this place while
Brandon leads us.
"What Is Faith?" Brian Loveless Sermon on January 24, 2016 at Calvary Baptist Church, Grand Prairie, Texas.
