I have so enjoyed speaking on “Building Faith” these past 5 weeks. I began the series by saying I will be speaking to myself over the next 5 weeks and you all will get to listen in! The New Testament speaks about faith over 245 times. The entire Bible speaks about faith over 336 times…depending on which translation you use. Hebrews 11 says that without faith it is impossible to please God. In Matthew 17, Jesus said with faith the size of the tiny mustard seed, impossible things could be accomplished. Why would a pastor not want to teach on such a beautiful topic as faith? I hope it was helpful to consider how God builds our faith…since without faith it is impossible to please God.
Now, leading up to Easter, I will be teaching a series on prayer. Many of us over the years have used the little prayer guide A.C.T. S. It stands for Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving and Supplication (praying for others). My goal will be to teach on one of these aspect of prayer each week. When I teach Class 201, I spend a good bit of time talking about prayer and equipping our church family to be people of prayer. This series will be more like the nuts and bolts…the practical application of prayer. I am trusting it will indeed result in the JIBC family and friends being people of prayer. Not a bad way to be known right? People of the Book, people of Prayer, people of Mission and people of Worship. That is kind of a lofty goal…but it is worth the effort. After that, we will be right up to Palm Sunday, Good Friday and Easter! The teaching topics for these services kind of pick themselves! We will look forward to a Holy Week celebration.
In Luke 4:22, we read of Jesus “All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his lips.” I know I have a long way to go, but that is my goal...to be like Jesus in His teaching, to be known for gracious words. The very word Gospel means “good news”. Of course Jesus could be prophetic and speak a strong, harsh word...usually to the hyper religious...
not the “sinner”. He was delivering hope not despair, talking about the way to life, not death; rarely spoke about hell (although of course he did...and of course I do). Someone said Jesus spoke about hell 3% of the time, heaven 10% of the time and the other 87% he spoke about life and how to live an abundant life. Yeah, I think that is where I will try to come down! Like Jesus, known for his gracious words.
Be blessed.
Pastor Tom
