Faith That Works

Brad opened the service with a recap of recent messages he's been giving on the themes Jesus alone and Grace alone, and last week's message by Elsa, The Glory of God alone. "The only way to understand grace is through faith," he said, add that someone asked him last week, "how good is good enough?"

So today the message would focus on looking at the meaning of this phrase, "faith alone."

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There will be a clean up day the Saturday after Labor Day weekend. A binder with various categories of needs was passed around for helping with Sunday school, Nursery service, a Women's Bible study group that is starting, a Women's retreat and Wednesday night programs. Sign up to participate or help.

Gwen shared that Rally Day is Sept 9 and they will be making dirt pies to help sink home the message "Deepen your roots with us." Gwen is therefore seeking volunteers to make pies. Recipes will be provided.

Signe nee Armstrong stood and said, "I would like to praise God for this church and the new faces here." Signe and Peter were married here in this church forty years ago. She said is is wonderful to see God’s presence in this community and the work that is continuing on.

A time of worship followed, led by Brad. Afterwards tithes and offerings were taken. The Scripture reading today was from John 6:51-58  

Faith That Works

Pastor Brad gave a good sermon that addressed one of the most devisive issues in the history of the church, going back as far as the first disciples. The argument centers on faith. One group takes this position, “That’s true, you can’t earn being saved but we don’t want cheap grace. Saving faith includes the intention of following Jesus as Lord.”

The pushback comes from those who say, “You can’t say that because that add works to faith. No one is saved by works. We’re saved by faith alone. Grace plus nothing is what gets us saved.”

Brad used this morning's message to weigh in on his own opinion here. "If you are asking my opinion, both sides are misled," he said. "The problem with both groups is in the manner in which they define being saved. They focus on the minimum entrance requirements for heaven."

Brad asked, “When did Jesus set this as an option? Heaven is not where you want to be if you want only to do the minimum."

Saving faith is not about minimum entrance requirements. Saving faith is when you put total trust and confidence in God.

Another confusing thing in the matter is this: What is the relationship between faith and works?

Paul in several places cites Abraham as the father of our faith. In Romans 3:28 sums up his position thus, "For we maintain that a person is justified by faith apart from the works of the law."

James, whose letter affirms a place for works and appears to disagree with Paul said this about Abraham in James 2:23... "And the scripture was fulfilled that says, 'Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,' and he was called God’s friend."

The nature of faith that matters to God is faith that changes a life.

There is a difference between what I think I believe and what I actually believe. Brad pointed us to the story of Moses. When the plagues were done and Pharaoh gave Moses the go-ahead to lead his people to the Promised Land, the Israelites with one voice said they would follow Moses. But when they reached the Red Sea and were blocked in they complained, “Hey, weren't there enough graves in Egypt to bury us there?”

All too often we're the same. When things get shaky we discover what our real beliefs are.

Our core convictions are demonstrated by our behavior. We show that we believe gravity is real because we do not step off tops of buildings. Our behavior is the real barometer of our beliefs. If we claim to believe something and act differently, it’s apparent that our beliefs are not what we claim.

Martin Luther declared that faith cannot help but do good works. It is as impossible to separate faith from works as it is impossible to separate heat and light from fire.

So what do you do when you feel that you don’t trust God enough?

Brad read from Rom 4:1-3 and 16-21.

In the New Testament Abraham has been presented frequently as model of faith. In Genesis 12 God tells him to leave home, that his offspring will be a blessing for the entire human race.

And yet, in the very next chapter we find Abraham lying to Pharaoh to conceal the identity of his wife. Why did you do this thing if he had believed God's initial promise? In Genesis 20 Abraham again fails to trust God.

Brad tells the story of Abraham’s failings but then places this story into context of the day. This story did not depend on the largeness of Abraham’s faith. It depended on God’s promise. It’s better to put a little faith into a great God than great faith in a little God.

It’s not the quality of your faith that saves you. It is the object of your faith that saves you.

There has never been anyone like Jesus, the only worthy object of faith Don’t focus on the quality of your faith. Focus on the object of your faith, Jesus.

Faith Works

It was another sunny Sunday morning. For our Introit today, Darlene played Great Is Thy Faithfulness to usher us into the service followed by a cute puppet skit about Father’s Day for the children’s challenge by Darlene and Ruth Ann.

Today’s Scripture readings:
Gen. 18:1-15
Romans 5:1-8

Faith Works
Pastor Shannon began his sermon by explaining the well known saying, “Re-arranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.” Essentially, it is shortsighted to focus on deck chairs when there’s an iceberg ahead.

In life, we also have an iceberg ahead. It is called death, and with it comes judgment. (Hebrews 9:27) We will give an account for our lives and it’s a big deal.

“Now wait a second, Brad,” you might say. “I’ve got it covered.” And then you might go ahead and quote John 3:16 or Ephesians 2:8-9. But today’s passage from the second chapter of James adds a little turbulence to this self-satisfaction.

14What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? 15Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. 16If one of you says to him, "Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed," but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? 17In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead…. 24You see that a person is justified by what he does and not by faith alone.

It would appear, in light of the many passages pertaining to salvation by faith alone, that these words are out of line. There are four options, however, when we read these words.

1) It’s a contradiction that proves the Bible is not true and unreliable.

2) If this is the truth, then we’d better get to work on doing good deeds. We have a lot of catch up to do.

3) Hope that James is wrong.

4) Dig deeper and try to understand these things with more clarity.

If you analyze this passage a bit more thoroughly, there are some interesting insights one can obtain. In verse 14 notice the word “claims”… The word implies that there is a distinction between genuine and bogus faith. Brad compared intellectual belief with correct answers. This kind of faith, involving only mental assent, is actually a “dead faith” according to one commentator.

Jesus Himself said, "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.” (Matt 7:21) Just saying you believe doesn’t mean anything. As James affirms in verse 19, “You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder.”

In other words, demons have an emotional response to the truth in addition to an intellectual one, yet this does not make them righteous or change their hearts.

To bring a deeper understanding of the truth, James references the life of Abraham.

20You foolish man, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless[d]? 21Was not our ancestor Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? 22You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did. 23And the scripture was fulfilled that says, "Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,"[e] and he was called God's friend. 24You see that a person is justified by what he does and not by faith alone.

What is interesting is that a superficial reading of the passage implies that Abraham was saved by his works. This story of Abraham being asked by God to sacrifice his son is from Genesis 22. Isaac was the promised heir, yet God asked Abraham to put him on the altar. It took a remarkable obedience on Abraham’s part to follow through on what he was asked. James appears to state that Abraham was righteous for what he did.

But the Old Testament verse regarding Abraham being credited as righteous, cited by James in verse 23, preceded the act that certified Abraham’s faith by more than two decades. Verse 23 is from the passage in Genesis 15:1-6 where indeed Abraham is credited as righteous “by faith alone.”

It is clear from what James explains here that faith and works go hand in hand. Our deeds are an outward act of obedience that authenticates the faith in our hearts. This outward authentication certifies that what happened in our hearts is real.

We get right with God by grace through faith. And our actions certify that this inward faith is alive, not dead.

In short, our mind, emotions and will are involved in true faith. We surrender our will to God’s will, and affirm that God needs to do for me what I cannot do myself.

It’s an internal reality that will manifest itself outwardly, will pour itself out and demonstrate to others that this faith is real.

James 2:26 sums up: “As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.”

Pastor Brad used the metaphor of a high performance car to illustrate what our lives are supposed to be. We are designed for high performance, and to be anything less is to miss what we were made for.

In summing up, the pastor reinforced the importance of a total involvement of our mind, emotion and volition in the living out of our faith.

1. We need to test our faith. Is it merely intellectual assent or something more?

2. Celebrate! We need to celebrate God’s work in our lives.

3. Authenticate… the work of God in us. Genuine faith involves the will and an outpouring of good works.

To God be the glory.