Christian Forum Site - View Single Post - Couldn't go to church today. Share highlights of your sermon w/ me

Fluffy · 05-04-2008, 09:22 PM

I went to a different church today, different from my usual. I had been getting these teaching tapes for sometime now, and my daughter lives in the town where his church is at. (sorry, Duane Sheriff Ministries) It was great!
His message: Faith: Living by Faith
Faith is not an option, we live by it and it pleases God. The three cooperative powers (or governing principles) that work in conjunction with faith is Hope, Love and Patience.
Proverbs 13:12 He mainly focused this morning on hope.
When hope is deferred, it makes the heart sick. He knew of a whole congregation that was sick at heart. And it was because they had had preachers come in that had a heart for, say, children. And would get them fired up and then before they could get anything accomplished the higher ups would send that preacher to another place and send them a new one that would be on fire for something else. And on and on it went. So when he finally got there, and he was on fire for something, they loved his sermons and loved him, but there were no changes. He met with some of the elders and they explained to him what had happened in the past. Now he understood. Their hope had been deferred so many times, they were sick at heart, and didnt want to get their hopes up again. How sad.
He said that when we dream, envision something, hope for something, and it comes to you, then it is like the tree of life.
Fascinating. Those people that are on fire for God, have a zeal for Him is not because of their personality or character, but because they have had their hopes realized. They have seen God moving. They have seen answers to prayers.
We need to get our hope up. If we dont have hope, faith has nothing to bring to substance.
Romans 4:16-18
Galations 5:6
Hebrews 11:1

God declares your end at your beginning ( you may not be there now, but you will be!)
God quickens the dead- He can revive dreams
Abraham believed and hoped against all hope
Faith works in hope
Mark 11:24
Alot of people pray too fast and dont get their hopes fired up, or their dreams fully envisioned and then only go halfway, quit before they see anything happen.
Hope, believe and stand!
Put your hopes in the right place
And never discourage those that are hoping.
Imagination-in Hebrew the word is Conception.
Genesis 5:6 and 8:16 man's imaginations was so polluted by the enemy, judgement came to cleanse it.
Your imagination can work against you or for you.

Hope is of the soul
Faith is of the spirit
Sould and spirit work together
Hope and faith work together.

(I hope this made sense, I was using my notes I had made and had a little trouble keeping up!)