SPEAKER_00: Every Sunday at Northwest Church of the Nazarene in Columbus, Ohio, our congregation is challenged to grow spiritually.
SPEAKER_00: This podcast shares the sermons, insights, and messages that encourage our congregation to mature spiritually.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: We're fighting a battle that he already won.
SPEAKER_01: Well, today we're going to be looking into faith.
SPEAKER_01: And faith for the impossible is the title for today's message.
SPEAKER_01: And we all have lived by faith.
SPEAKER_01: Even though we may not have faith in something, and the world may not have faith in something that they can sing, well, I have faith.
SPEAKER_01: We all live by faith.
SPEAKER_01: And I say that because we all enrolled and went to a college with faith that that's going to work out.
SPEAKER_01: We got a new job with faith that's going to work out.
SPEAKER_01: We we got married.
SPEAKER_01: Or we find someone with faith that is going to work.
SPEAKER_01: We also have, you know, um went to a restaurant and ordered a meal with faith that is going to be good, and we're not going to be sick.
SPEAKER_01: We live out in faith.
SPEAKER_01: But today we're going to be looking not at faith in itself, but the object of faith as we look into a passage that speaks about faith, but faith that is very significant.
SPEAKER_01: And we're going to be talking about Abraham.
SPEAKER_01: Now, Abraham is one of the best known Bible characters and world characters.
SPEAKER_01: He's the father of nations.
SPEAKER_01: But he wasn't a Jew or he wasn't an Israelite.
SPEAKER_01: He was someone from Ur who was a regular person who encountered God.
SPEAKER_01: And God did not do anything particular or anything extraordinary, a miracle or or anything.
SPEAKER_01: He just spoke with him and did something that changed his life.
SPEAKER_01: He made promises.
SPEAKER_01: And the problem that he had, the problem that the world had was that you do not have is that he did not have a faith on anything beyond what he knew.
SPEAKER_01: So when he met God, he had faith in God.
SPEAKER_01: But he had faith in the promises that God made.
SPEAKER_01: And the promises were that he was going to be with them and he was going to allow him to experience fatherhood.
SPEAKER_01: Now, at this time he was 75 years old.
SPEAKER_01: And if you tell a 75-year-old, married to another person in their 70s, that they're about to have a child or that they were going to be parents, they would do what Abraham and Sarah did.
SPEAKER_01: Laughed.
SPEAKER_01: But yet the promise was made that they'll be a parent, that there would be a father to the nations.
SPEAKER_01: And many other promises were made.
SPEAKER_01: Now, what's interesting about Abraham is that God made the promise, and it took decades to fulfill those promises.
SPEAKER_01: And many times we look at the promises of God and want them to be fulfilled right now.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, God has promised this.
SPEAKER_01: I want it to happen right now.
SPEAKER_01: I want it to be fulfilled right now.
SPEAKER_01: So when it's not fulfilled, we start doubting.
SPEAKER_01: And when we start doubting, our faith becomes a challenge.
SPEAKER_01: And when our faith facing the circumstances begins to fade, our trust in God begins to erode.
SPEAKER_01: So today we're going to be looking at a passage that not only will help us strengthen our faith, but it will help us realize what God is doing through this not only passage, but what God is doing through Abraham as we consider his word.
SPEAKER_01: If you'd stand with me and open your Bibles in the book of Romans to the letter that Paul writes to the people of the church in Rome, and a reminder, this letter is not written for us individually, it was written for the church as we recognize what God has in store for us today.
SPEAKER_01: Romans chapter 4, we're going to read verses 13 to 25.
SPEAKER_01: And thus say the word of the Lord as we consider uh his word.
SPEAKER_01: Chapter 4, verse 13.
SPEAKER_01: It was not through the law that Abraham and his offspring received the promise that he would be heir to the world, but through the righteousness that comes by faith.
SPEAKER_01: For if those who depend on the law are heirs, faith means nothing, and the promise is worthless.
SPEAKER_01: Because the law brings wrath, and where there is no law, there is no transgression.
SPEAKER_01: Therefore the promise comes by faith, so it may be by grace and may be guaranteed to all Abraham's offspring, not only to those who are of the law, but also to those who have the faith of Abraham.
SPEAKER_01: He is the father of us all.
SPEAKER_01: As it is written, I have made you a father of many nations.
SPEAKER_01: He is our father in the sight of God in whom he believed.
SPEAKER_01: The God who gives life to the dead and calls into beings that were not.
SPEAKER_01: Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations.
SPEAKER_01: Just it had been said to him, So shall your offspring be.
SPEAKER_01: Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead, since he was wavered through unbelief regarding the promise of God.
SPEAKER_01: But was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised.
SPEAKER_01: This is why it is credited to him as righteousness.
SPEAKER_01: The words it was credited to him were written not for him alone, but also for us, to whom God will credit righteousness.
SPEAKER_01: For us who believe in him, who raised Jesus Lord, Jesus our Lord from the dead, he was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.
SPEAKER_01: Father, we pray that you speak to us through your word, and may we be challenged, not only in receiving what you have in store for us, but in sharing with others this faith that you have built in us.
SPEAKER_01: We pray this in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
SPEAKER_01: You may be seated.
SPEAKER_01: We find in this passage a very powerful truth is that the promises of God will come true.
SPEAKER_01: The promises of God will come into our lives, whether we believe them or not.
SPEAKER_01: Because many look at the promises that are in scripture, look at the promises that Jesus spoke, and have a hard time believing the promises because of the circumstances.
SPEAKER_01: But we are talking about a faith in the impossible, and the faith of the impossible allows us to recognize God's promises.
SPEAKER_01: So we begin by recognizing the promises.
SPEAKER_01: So Abraham received the promises, he received what God has told them that would happen to him.
SPEAKER_01: And instead of waiting, instead of saying, Well, I don't know what to do about it, he went and he began to work.
SPEAKER_01: When God says leave, and he left, and he began a family, and God fulfilled every promise.
SPEAKER_01: Not immediately, but even when the times were difficult, even when he had to fight with the circumstances, with people who were against him, with people who were trying to kill him, with situations with his nephew, situations with those in his life, he held on to the promise.
SPEAKER_01: And by holding on to the promise, he was always faithful.
SPEAKER_01: And he pursued his faithfulness.
SPEAKER_01: You see, the role of faith is expecting that God will be faithful.
SPEAKER_01: If we read verse 16, we we see therefore the promise comes by faith.
SPEAKER_01: It's faith, so they may be by grace and may guarantee to all of Abraham's offspring.
SPEAKER_01: Well, we're not Abraham's offspring, but then he continues not only those who are of the law, but also to those who have the faith of Abraham.
SPEAKER_01: He is the father of us all.
SPEAKER_01: If we have the faith of God of Abraham, if we have the faith of God of Isaac and Jacob, then we are all part of this.
SPEAKER_01: He's the father of our faith.
SPEAKER_01: A.W.
SPEAKER_01: Tozer says that God is looking for people through whom he can do the impossible.
SPEAKER_01: But the problem that we people have is that we plan on things that we can accomplish ourselves.
SPEAKER_01: And this is why it's so important that we recognize that the God of the impossible is the God that is calling us to have faith.
SPEAKER_01: Not faith that we can accomplish the things that we plan, not faith that we can accomplish the things that we set aside, not faith that we can accomplish the things that we prepare, but faith that God can accomplish the impossible.
SPEAKER_01: The faith is in God, it's not on our accomplishments, it's not on our capabilities, it's not on our availabilities, is the faith is in God that can do great and amazing things.
SPEAKER_01: And this is why it's so important that we recognize God's promises.
SPEAKER_01: Because once we recognize his promises, we start recognizing that the object of our faith is not us.
SPEAKER_01: And that's why the world struggles with faith.
SPEAKER_01: And that's why the world struggles to believe, and that's why the world struggles to have to have knowledge of God, because they are looking at themselves, because they're looking at their ability to have faith, and they cannot recognize that there is a God that has created a God that is seeking a relationship, a God that can do the impossible until you start hearing witnesses, testimonies, as we did this morning, of God's faithfulness, of God doing the impossible when all seems lost.
SPEAKER_01: And God is calling us to remember and to recognize the promises.
SPEAKER_01: But it's also something else that we read in this scripture is that Abraham evaluated his faith, not circumstances.
SPEAKER_01: How often do we evaluate the circumstances?
SPEAKER_01: Well, we see this, this, this, this, this, this happening.
SPEAKER_01: It's data, and some people love data, they love the information, and they evaluate what is happening, they evaluate the situation, the circumstances, and they start figuring out different theories on why that what why that is happening.
SPEAKER_01: But that's not what Abraham did.
SPEAKER_01: Abraham did not evaluate the circumstances, he evaluated his faith.
SPEAKER_01: So when he took his son to be sacrificed, because God told him to sacrifice his son, when he took his son, he didn't evaluate the circumstance, he didn't evaluate why did God do this, he didn't evaluate it, he evaluated his faith.
SPEAKER_01: Is my faith stronger than the my the relationship I have with my son?
SPEAKER_01: And because of his faith, he set aside the circumstances, evaluated his faith.
SPEAKER_01: So when we have a difficult circumstance in our life, when we have a situation that we're trying to figure out what to do, instead of evaluating the circumstance, how about we start evaluating our faith?
SPEAKER_01: Say, Lord, what are you doing in these circumstances?
SPEAKER_01: How are you preparing me through this situation?
SPEAKER_01: How are you preparing me through this?
SPEAKER_01: But when we read this passage, this passage was not written for us individually, it was written for the church.
SPEAKER_01: So when we look at it as a church, and we say, God, what are you preparing us as a church for what you're about to do?
SPEAKER_01: How are you setting us within circumstances for what we can do to be faithful?
SPEAKER_01: How much faith do we have in the Lord of the future who has been faithful in the past and he is faithful in the present?
SPEAKER_01: And of course, he's going to be faithful in the future.
SPEAKER_01: So we evaluate our faith, not our circumstances.
SPEAKER_01: Because the more we evaluate our circumstances, the more we look into the circumstances, the more discouraged we're gonna be.
SPEAKER_01: The more upset we're gonna be, the more angry we're going to be.
SPEAKER_01: So we can be angry, we can be upset, discouraged, or we can look at our faith and say, you know what?
SPEAKER_01: My eyes are not in the circumstances, my eyes are not in the things of this world.
SPEAKER_01: My eyes are on Jesus Christ, the one who is faithful, the one who has made the promises.
SPEAKER_01: So, what are we to do?
SPEAKER_01: Well, the first thing we are to do is trust God.
SPEAKER_01: Well, anyone could do that.
SPEAKER_01: You don't need to have a seminary degree to realize that all we have to do is trust God, but is trust God.
SPEAKER_01: Because if we trust ourselves, if we trust the things of the world, we're gonna be disappointed.
SPEAKER_01: And again, we're not evaluating our faith, but when we trust God, then we start to see God doing wonderful things.
SPEAKER_01: We trust in the future.
SPEAKER_01: So what are so what are we dependent on?
SPEAKER_01: Are we dependent on our abilities, on our education, on our formation, on on our schooling, our experience, our many years of of Christian life?
SPEAKER_01: Or are we dependent on the Spirit of God?
SPEAKER_01: Are we dependent on the faith that we have that God is going to be faithful?
SPEAKER_01: Or are we dependent on the circumstances and what we have seen, circumstances like this happening around the world or in the world.
SPEAKER_01: So when we trust God, we start building faith.
SPEAKER_01: And what is the best way to build faith is through gratitude.
SPEAKER_01: Because if we are grateful to what God is doing, if we are grateful to for His um for His mercies, if we're grateful for what He is doing, then we will see that God will use our gratefulness because a grateful heart will see God, a grateful heart would see God's work, a grateful heart will see God's hand.
SPEAKER_01: And we read in Acts 4, verse 32 all the believers were one in heart and mind.
SPEAKER_01: No one claimed that any of their possessions were their own, but they shared everything they had.
SPEAKER_01: They had one heart.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because they had one faith, and because the faith is what led them.
SPEAKER_01: So together, when we trust God as people, as individuals, as people of God, then God will unify us.
SPEAKER_01: Unity comes when we all have faith that God is faithful, they all have faith that God will be true.
SPEAKER_01: Faith is a communal experience.
SPEAKER_01: We help others, we encourage others to grow in their faith.
SPEAKER_01: That's why it's so important that we have a church family because we encourage each other in growing in our faith.
SPEAKER_01: So we trust God, but we also remember the faithfulness.
SPEAKER_01: We also remember the faithfulness.
SPEAKER_01: One of my favorite stories is the story of Peter and and stepping out of the boat and walking toward Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: And we look at that story and think of it, oh, Peter just failed.
SPEAKER_01: Peter just went and failed because he looked at Jesus, looked at himself, and on the moment it took his eyes off Jesus, he sank.
SPEAKER_01: Well, I read uh um from uh um from John Ortberg in his book, If you want to walk on water, you've got to, you have to get out of the boat.
SPEAKER_01: And he's talking about failure from a different perspective.
SPEAKER_01: And this week, when I was preparing this passage, God really spoke through these words, and I want you to to hear these words.
SPEAKER_01: Um, John Artberg states the decision to grow always involves a choice between risk and comfort.
SPEAKER_01: This means that to be a follower of Jesus, you must renounce comfort as the ultimate value of your life.
SPEAKER_01: And that's sobering news to most of us because we're not we're into comfort.
SPEAKER_01: But water walkers master failure.
SPEAKER_01: Did Peter fail?
SPEAKER_01: Well, failure is not an event, but rather a judgment about an event.
SPEAKER_01: Failure is not something that happens to us or a label we attach to things, it is the way we think about outcomes.
SPEAKER_01: Did Peter fail?
SPEAKER_01: Well, I suppose in a way he did.
SPEAKER_01: His faith wasn't strong enough, his doubts were stronger, he saw the wind, he took his eyes off and where they should have been, and he sank.
SPEAKER_01: He failed.
SPEAKER_01: But here's what I think I think there were eleven bigger failures sitting on the boat.
SPEAKER_01: They failed quietly, they failed privately, and their failure went unnoticed, unobserved, uncriticized.
SPEAKER_01: Only Peter knew the shame of the public failure, but only Peter knew to things, to other things as well.
SPEAKER_01: Only Peter knew what it was to attempt to do what he was not capable of doing in his own.
SPEAKER_01: Then feeling the euphoria of being empowered by God to do it, once you walk on water, you never forget it.
SPEAKER_01: Not for the rest of your life.
SPEAKER_01: When I read that, I realized that many times when we take a step out of the boat, out of the safety, out of the comfort, and take a risk with our eyes in Jesus, yes, we will experience the ephoria of his presence, the euphoria of doing something that we can only do with God.
SPEAKER_01: The problem is when we take our eyes off Jesus and look at ourselves, and yes, we will sink.
SPEAKER_01: But I never thought that it took more faith, it took more for Peter to get off the boat than he did for the eleven who were still very comfortable in the boat.
SPEAKER_01: The failure is to trust comfort more than to trust trust God.
SPEAKER_01: The failure is to trust our own, it's our own delight, our own comfort, than to trust and to risk things for the sake of God.
SPEAKER_01: But for God to work, we may need to get off the boat.
SPEAKER_01: For God to work, we may need to have the faith to say, God, I do not know what you're about to do, but I willingly, like Abraham did, leave everything and go.
SPEAKER_01: I am willing to risk for your cause and doing something that is socially awkward, doing something that I do not understand, do something that mothers may criticize, or I may fail publicly.
SPEAKER_01: And trust me, I have failed publicly.
SPEAKER_01: But when you keep your eyes in Jesus, you will experience the euphoria, the beauty, the joy of walking alongside his presence, being led by the Spirit and seeing amazing things.
SPEAKER_01: So let's not rely on our faith and weaken our faith just because we're afraid of circumstances.
SPEAKER_01: But let's look at our faith in the midst of our circumstances and say, God, I am willing to go.
SPEAKER_01: I am willing to be.
SPEAKER_01: I am willing to trust.
SPEAKER_01: I am willing to surrender everything that you may be God in my life.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: So I have a challenge for you this week.
SPEAKER_01: And the challenge is to identify an impossible situation and surrender it to God.
SPEAKER_01: Last week I challenged everyone in the congregation to find one person in your life that you can invest in, that you can love, that you can bring into your life, that you can connect with.
SPEAKER_01: So one day they may see Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: And God will open the opportunity for you to not only share, but to disciple them into a journey with Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: And maybe that is the one impossible situation we have right now.
SPEAKER_01: That God is just calling us to do something, but we just find it impossible to find that one person.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe the impossible situation is something in your life that you are wondering, you know, what is God doing in all this?
SPEAKER_01: Or there may be a difficult situation that you have an uncertain future, or you have a situation that you don't even know what to do.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe is a health problem that no one is able to identify.
SPEAKER_01: But whatever impossible situation you may have in your life today, identify that situation and surrender to God and say, God, I'm gonna trust you on this.
SPEAKER_01: God, I want my faith to be stronger than my doubts.
SPEAKER_01: God, I want my faith to be able to overcome this.
SPEAKER_01: And when we do that, we will recognize his faithfulness, that he is faithful.
SPEAKER_01: And even though we may struggle in our journey, even though we may think that we are in an impossible circumstance, we remember that God is faithful.
SPEAKER_01: And we may find ourselves in the new unknown, in risky, with the possibility of failing publicly, but I'd rather fail publicly with Jesus Christ than fail privately without him.
SPEAKER_01: So when we go, may we be bold to say, God, I want to go with you, even though I may not understand, and we have the faithfulness because he has been faithful.
SPEAKER_01: I like to ask Shannon to come forward as we conclude our service with a song.
SPEAKER_01: God has been faithful.
SPEAKER_01: God has been true, God has made promises that he will make them come to be true.
SPEAKER_01: And today, as we find ourselves in him, he will lead us into a journey with him.
SPEAKER_01: So as we pray, let us ask the Lord to reveal to us his faithfulness how true he has been.
SPEAKER_01: Father, we in heaven, we pray for your mercies.
SPEAKER_01: We pray for your joy.
SPEAKER_01: We pray for for your move, for your touch.
SPEAKER_01: But today, Father, we pray above all that you would speak to our lives.
SPEAKER_01: Father, we pray that you would anoint us with your power, with your presence.
SPEAKER_01: But today we also pray that as we look upon your face, that we are reminded of your faithfulness, that we are reminded of your grace, and that we are reminded of everything you've done.
SPEAKER_01: That we are reminded how good you have been to us, and that we know that tomorrow, even though we may not know what may bring, that we know who holds it, and that you will be faithful tomorrow.
SPEAKER_01: We pray this in your Son Jesus Christ's name.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: As it is known in our community, Northwest Church is committed to discovering and engaging in a life-changing relationship with Jesus Christ, with inspired worship and intentional ministry.
SPEAKER_00: People from all walks of life are welcomed and received as family members.
SPEAKER_00: Our family is diverse, multicultural, and although not perfect, in love with Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Join us online at nwnat.org or by visiting us in Columbus, Ohio.
SPEAKER_00: God bless you.