Andy Stanley – Faith, Hope, Luck Part 3
No formula of “good things” ever gets God to bend to our will
- circumstantial faith is merely a way of trying to get control over God
- faith isn’t seeing God in the details, although that happens
-- foundation of faith is a person who lived 2000 years ago
-- faith = God is who he claims to be and that he’ll do everything he promised to do
-- bridge between faith and hope are the promises of God
--- the only things that we can count on god to do is what he promised
--- hope – I really hope this happens
--- faith – God, these are your promises and I’m holding you to those
God has not promised:
- to keep bad things from happening (just look at his disciples—they were beaten, stoned, martyred, stranded on an island, etc) John 16:33 – we will have trouble
- wealth (just look at his disciples—they were all poor)
? – if there’s nothing in it for us, why believe? Because Jesus is raised and this is true
- healing (John 5 – Jesus healed only one of the multitude of sick people)
- to reverse consequences of sin (sometimes he will, but not always. These are things we hope for that sometimes God answers)
- can never get God to do anything just by doing __________
Hebrews 4:14-16
“Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize (empathize) with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”
- Jesus is able to empathize with our weaknesses because he has experienced those things
-- Jesus spent a night dreading the events of the next day
-- Jesus knows what it’s like to be betrayed
- every time we fail, Jesus has been obedient in those situations so God credits Jesus’ righteousness to us
- because of this, let’s go to God with confidence not formality (enemy of intimacy) out of fear of offending God
-- we can go to God boldly, with extreme emotion, bare, exposed, dependant
--- so that we may receive mercy/grace
- if we come boldly, we’ll receive something from God EVERY TIME
God has promised:
1. mercy: God will take our issue seriously because they are our issues (not necessarily because they are serious)
-He takes it seriously because he loves us, just like a father takes his children’s issues seriously because he loves his kids even if the issues themselves are trivial
-- God knows what we’re struggling!
-- John 11, Jesus weeps outside of Laz’s tomb because he was empathizing with our struggle
--- Jesus isn’t too big or too great to deal with us
2. grace: strength/energy/ability to endure
-- God hasn’t promised us to deliver us from our circumstances
--- he has promised to deliver us through our circumstances
-- every time he will give us the grace to endure whatever we’re struggling through
3. his presence!
- must go boldly to him! Must rely/depend on him even when we can’t see him!
- we want a “can of intervention” from God
-- we want him to do our bidding and our will
-- we want grace and mercy to us and justice to others
- this is the age of grace and mercy to all
- the age of intervention will come
-- it will be the end of the world as we know it
-- there will be a day when we get whatever we want; it will be the end of sin/sorrow/death
-- it will be bigger than our little worries/desires
-- it will also be the end of God’s extension of mercy/grace
- when we see god’s grace, it isn’t because we had great faith but because God is good and gracious
-- our faith is in the person of Christ not our ability to get God to do what we want
-- we can pray for anything we want! And we can go straight to God!
--- lean on God! lose everything that comes between us and God!
Showing posts with label Hebrews 4. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Hebrews 4. Show all posts
Thursday, November 20, 2008
Faith, Hope, and Luck part 1
Andy Stanley – Faith, Hope, Luck pt1
Faith/belief implies cause/effect relationships in the world
- I make decisions based on my belief system
- something is propping up my belief system about why I think god does/doesn’t do stuff
to those who lost/abandoned faith:
- when faith is shaken/lost, whatever was propping us up has moved and therefore we came crashing down
2 things erode faith:
- lifestyle decisions
-- being raised that cheating/lying is wrong, but going to work in a place where it is a part of the culture
--- 3 choices: don’t cheat, quit, change beliefs
--- most often beliefs change so we start to think cheating is ok, belief system has changed
- unexplainable circumstances
-- god doesn’t do what we expected him to do
-circumstantial faith: I’m believing or trusting in god based on my ability to find God in those circumstances
-- faith that is crushed by unexplainable circumstances/lifestyle decisions is circumstantial
-- WE ALL HAVE SOME ELEMENT OF THIS IN OUR OWN FAITH!
-- always very fragile because life is not consistent!
--- every time we think we have it figured out, life doesn’t seem to match up
--- fragile bc we suck at interpreting events; always a biased/limited perspective
--- we suck also because our timeframe is too limited and small
--- Joseph: for 15 years, God didn’t do anything for him, but he still had faith
--- if my faith is resting on my ability to hear/understand God, then I have a fragile faith because my faith rests God being visible/evident/a feeling
---- we can misunderstand God (just like we misunderstand another person)
moments can often launch faith, but were never meant to be the object of our faith
-- they can be evidence of God, but never God themselves
-- when those moments become our God, my faith is resting on God being clearly manifested in my life (but he won’t be; see Joseph)
when tough times come, I can either exp pain or pleasure
-- circumstantial faith will not stand up, I’ll choose pleasure over pain
-- means what I believe in wasn’t worth it, means it won’t be here tomorrow, won’t/can’t hold me up
- the foundation of Christianity isn’t an exp, my ability to make the world make sense, an answered prayer
-- foundation is so much different and makes Christianity stand out
Hebrews 4:14 (see below)
- context: written to jewish Christians who had no reason to believe in god; sold everything bc they thought JC was coming back and were now suffering; written to encourage them not to give up their faith based on their circumstances
- this is the foundation of faith
- Jesus is the high priest; priest is a person’s representation before God
-- because of Jesus, we have access to God
“Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession.”
- things are tough/hard/prayers aren’t answered, but don’t lose faith because we have (present tense) a God who came, lived, loved, and died
- therefore our foundation isn’t an event or experience; IT’S A PERSON!
-- we have this person
- this is what makes Christianity unique
-- 2000 years ago something happened
-- we’re not trying to interpret events or circumstances or experience or answer to prayer
-- it’s a fact in history; cannot be changed
-- we believe because of something that happened years ago; not because of circumstances right now
--- it’s not what we see/exp, it’s what God did many years ago
stories of god’s good answer to prayers are nice
- based there’s almost always a small aspect of circumstantial faith because god has made them happy
-- true faith is seen through the storm and through the crap of our lives
--- true faith isn’t based on my exp, but on a person who lived 2000 years ago
God doesn’t ask us to trust him based on our ability to figure him out
-- asks us to trust him with everything because God entered into human history because He loves us
-- doesn’t ask us to trust because he answered prayer but because of the person/life/love of Jesus
-- answered prayer isn’t proof of God’s love; proof of god’s love is Jesus
Hebrews 12:
“looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.”
foundation of our faith is not an event in our lifetime or our ability to understand God’s movement in our life
- it is a person, Jesus Christ
Faith/belief implies cause/effect relationships in the world
- I make decisions based on my belief system
- something is propping up my belief system about why I think god does/doesn’t do stuff
to those who lost/abandoned faith:
- when faith is shaken/lost, whatever was propping us up has moved and therefore we came crashing down
2 things erode faith:
- lifestyle decisions
-- being raised that cheating/lying is wrong, but going to work in a place where it is a part of the culture
--- 3 choices: don’t cheat, quit, change beliefs
--- most often beliefs change so we start to think cheating is ok, belief system has changed
- unexplainable circumstances
-- god doesn’t do what we expected him to do
-circumstantial faith: I’m believing or trusting in god based on my ability to find God in those circumstances
-- faith that is crushed by unexplainable circumstances/lifestyle decisions is circumstantial
-- WE ALL HAVE SOME ELEMENT OF THIS IN OUR OWN FAITH!
-- always very fragile because life is not consistent!
--- every time we think we have it figured out, life doesn’t seem to match up
--- fragile bc we suck at interpreting events; always a biased/limited perspective
--- we suck also because our timeframe is too limited and small
--- Joseph: for 15 years, God didn’t do anything for him, but he still had faith
--- if my faith is resting on my ability to hear/understand God, then I have a fragile faith because my faith rests God being visible/evident/a feeling
---- we can misunderstand God (just like we misunderstand another person)
moments can often launch faith, but were never meant to be the object of our faith
-- they can be evidence of God, but never God themselves
-- when those moments become our God, my faith is resting on God being clearly manifested in my life (but he won’t be; see Joseph)
when tough times come, I can either exp pain or pleasure
-- circumstantial faith will not stand up, I’ll choose pleasure over pain
-- means what I believe in wasn’t worth it, means it won’t be here tomorrow, won’t/can’t hold me up
- the foundation of Christianity isn’t an exp, my ability to make the world make sense, an answered prayer
-- foundation is so much different and makes Christianity stand out
Hebrews 4:14 (see below)
- context: written to jewish Christians who had no reason to believe in god; sold everything bc they thought JC was coming back and were now suffering; written to encourage them not to give up their faith based on their circumstances
- this is the foundation of faith
- Jesus is the high priest; priest is a person’s representation before God
-- because of Jesus, we have access to God
“Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession.”
- things are tough/hard/prayers aren’t answered, but don’t lose faith because we have (present tense) a God who came, lived, loved, and died
- therefore our foundation isn’t an event or experience; IT’S A PERSON!
-- we have this person
- this is what makes Christianity unique
-- 2000 years ago something happened
-- we’re not trying to interpret events or circumstances or experience or answer to prayer
-- it’s a fact in history; cannot be changed
-- we believe because of something that happened years ago; not because of circumstances right now
--- it’s not what we see/exp, it’s what God did many years ago
stories of god’s good answer to prayers are nice
- based there’s almost always a small aspect of circumstantial faith because god has made them happy
-- true faith is seen through the storm and through the crap of our lives
--- true faith isn’t based on my exp, but on a person who lived 2000 years ago
God doesn’t ask us to trust him based on our ability to figure him out
-- asks us to trust him with everything because God entered into human history because He loves us
-- doesn’t ask us to trust because he answered prayer but because of the person/life/love of Jesus
-- answered prayer isn’t proof of God’s love; proof of god’s love is Jesus
Hebrews 12:
“looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.”
foundation of our faith is not an event in our lifetime or our ability to understand God’s movement in our life
- it is a person, Jesus Christ
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