"BACK TO THE BASICS!"
Rom 15:13 May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
ć A disturbing trend seen too often in many churches is the apparent apathy of many Christians
o They may attend services, but it appears that they are only "going through the motions"
o Their singing, their praying, their Bible Study, their zeal, seems listless
To rephrase Thoreau: "The mass of [Christians] lead lives of quiet desperation."
I suspect the problem is one akin to an athlete or a sport team which is "in a slump" Such a person or team "goes through the motions", but they are not performing up to their true potential The solution in sports: Work on "the fundamentals"
ć The same is true with Christians; when we find ourselves "in a slump"...
o We need to stress the fundamentals
o Rev 2:4-5 Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love.
Remember the height from which you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place.
o We need to get "Back To The Basics!"
I. ENERGIZE YOUR "FAITH"
A. DEFINING "FAITH"...
1. A Scriptural definition of faith is found in
2. He 11:1"Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see."
3. VINE’S describes faith as "a firm
conviction"
4. Faith is a ¡K
_F_antastic
_A_dventure
_I_n
_T_rusting
_H_im
-- Corrie ten Boom
B. IMPORTANCE OF "FAITH"...
There was a farmer who had three sons: Jim, John, and Sam. No one in the family ever attended church or had time for God. The pastor and the others in the church tried for years to interest the family in the things of God to no avail. Then one day Sam was bitten by a rattlesnake. The doctor was called and he did all he could to help Sam, but the outlook for Sam’s recovery was very dim indeed. So the pastor was called and appraised of the situation. The pastor arrived, and began to pray as follows: "O wise and righteous Father, we thank Thee that in Thine wisdom thou didst send this rattlesnake to bite Sam. He has never been inside the church and it is doubtful that he has, in all this time, ever prayed or even acknowledged Thine existence. Now we trust that this experience will be a valuable lesson to him and will lead to his genuine repentance. "And now, O Father, wilt thou send another rattlesnake to bite Jim, and another to bite John, and another really big one to bite the old man. For years we have done everything we know to get them to turn to Thee, but all In vain. It seems, therefore, that what all our combined efforts could not do, this rattlesnake has done. We thus conclude that the only thing that will do this family any real good is rattlesnakes; so, Lord, send us bigger and better rattlesnakes. Amen."
1. Faith in God is essential to pleasing Him-
Heb 11:6 And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.
2. Faith in Jesus is essential to finding forgiveness and eternal life
John 8:24 I told you that you would die in your sins; if you do not believe that I am [the one I claim to be], you will indeed die in your sins."
John 20:30-31 Jesus did many other miraculous signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.
C. ENERGIZING YOUR "FAITH"...
1. The Word of God is designed to produce faith
Rom 10:17 Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ.
John 20:30-31 Jesus did many other miraculous signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.
2. Through diligent reading of the Bible, we can "energize" our faith!
II. FORTIFY YOUR "HOPE"
She was a physician’s wife. He was a man of a strong, sunny nature who carried good cheer into his patient’s homes to sustain them in weakness and discouragement, and still carried back enough to fill his own home. His frail wife needed all the sunshine and vigor of his personality to sustain her; and it did not fail. She seemed to live so much by the strength of his spirit that, when he passed away suddenly after a month of especially hard work, her friends said, "It will kill her!" But the ties between husband and wife were too strong to be broken by the incident of death. The memories of the past were as real as his presence had been. The religious life and the faith in God that they two had shared together did not fail her. By the doorway of the living room, she fastened the card that he had sometimes left in short absences on his office door: "Gone Out--Back Soon." Those who came with consolation, went away themselves consoled. They felt, behind this frail form and lips that smiled while they quivered, a mysterious power, a spiritual experience that had united two souls in a marriage that death itself could not annul. More than one went out from her presence to find, in the years that followed, a strong, although secret, consolation in the deathless companionship through memory of his lost ones, and in the cheery suggestion of that brief message. The Gospel of Jesus is in those four words: "Gone Out--Back Soon."
A. DEFINING "HOPE"...
1. VINE’S says that it involves "the happy
anticipation of good"
2. It is NOT wishful thinking, or an insecure
"I hope so"
3. But as VINE’S describes it further, it is "a
confident expectation"
4. A common definition of hope is "desire plus
expectation"
B. IMPORTANCE OF "HOPE"...
1. Hope is necessary to persevere
a. Rom 8:25 But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.
b. 1Thes 1:3 We continually remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.
2. Hope is necessary for our motivation to become pure
a. I Jn 3:2-3 Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure.
3. Hope is necessary to increase opportunities to evangelize
a. 1 Pet 3:15 But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect,
C. FORTIFYING YOUR "HOPE"...
1. The Word of God was written to produce hope
a. Rom 15:4 For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.
b. Through its revelation of God’s dealings with man in the past, we know God keeps His promises This encourages us to expect Him to deliver on His promises for the future
2. Peter encourages us to "rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ"
a. 1 Pet 1:13 Therefore, prepare your minds for action; be self-controlled; set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed.
a. Where do we read of the "grace" that is to come when Christ is revealed? In the Scriptures, of course! Nothing "fortifies" our hope better than those wonderful passages that reveal the eternal destiny of the saints!
When an athlete gets discouraged, he or she is often told to "keep your eye on the prize!" So the Christian must do, and it is with the aid of God’s Word that we can keep our focus where it ought to be.
III. ACTIVATE YOUR "LOVE"
A. DEFINING "LOVE"...
1. Paul gives the best definition of love
a. 1 Cor 13:4-8 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.
2. A simple definition that is easy to remember: "active goodwill"
B. IMPORTANCE OF "LOVE"...
In a moment of teenage carelessness, a 16-year- old girl wrecked her mother’s car. She was uninjured, so she called home to tell her parents, fully expecting an angry reaction. Instead, her father asked only about her physical and emotional condition. When he arrived at the accident scene, he checked to make sure she was unhurt before turning his attention to the mangled auto being towed away. When it was time to go home, he handed her the keys to his car and got in on the passenger side. No angry tirade from this father! Just a lot of love and an overwhelming vote of confidence. Years later, she commented, "Words can’t describe what my father’s Godlike act did for my self-esteem that day." She said this left a spiritual impact on her because she saw in her father the character of the God he loved.
1. Expressing love gives us "assurance" of our salvation
a. I Jn 3:14 We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love our brothers. Anyone who does not love remains in death.
b. I Jn 3:18-19 Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth. This then is how we know that we belong to the truth, and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence
2. Expressing love assures us that God will answer our prayers
I Jn 3:22-23 receive from him anything we ask, because we obey his commands and do what pleases him. And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us.
C. ACTIVATING YOUR "LOVE"...
1. Jesus taught us how to love by His sacrificial life
b. God taught us how to love by giving His Son as a propitiation for sins
2. Through careful meditation upon what the Bible reveals about God’s love for us, we can "activate" our love for others!
IV. ENHANCE YOUR "JOY"
Most of us have experienced what happens to motorists when one of those huge graders goes to work on a highway repair job. when the machine is operating on a busy road, traffic is halted and the cars lined up in opposite directions are allowed to proceed alternately. A veteran operator of one of those big machines decided one day to try to relieve the tension that inevitably results from such a traffic backup. Consequently on both the front and rear of his grader a sign now appears, declaring, "The Road to Happiness is Almost Always Under Construction."
A. DEFINING "JOY"...
1. The Greek word is CHARA, and is closely related to the word CHARIS (GRACE)
a. CHARIS (grace) is "undeserved favor" which in turn gives joy, pleasure, delight
b. CHARA (joy), then, is the response we have to undeserved favor
2. I like to think of joy as the "delightful response" to the grace we receive from God
B. IMPORTANCE OF "JOY"...
1. Joy is an essential element of what constitutes the Kingdom of God
a. Rom 14:17 For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit,
2. It is often the loss of this virtue that is most evident in the lives of many Christians!
C. ENHANCING YOUR "JOY"...
1. Both Jesus and His apostles gave us words whereby our joy might be full
John 15:11 I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.
1. Faith, hope, love, joy, peace: simple words, yet so essential to the "abundant life" Jesus has to offer those who come to Him
2. Why are they often in short supply in the lives of many Christians?
a. Because they neglect two fundamental tools God provides for them These tools? The Word of God and prayer!
3. Brethren, whenever you find yourself in a spiritual "slump", let these two avenues of communication with God be the key to:
a. Energize your faith!
b. Fortify your hope!
c. Activate your love!
d. Enhance your joy!
e. Enjoy your peace!
Disclaimer: The work found here comes from a multitude of sources including but not limited to Sermon Central, personal sermon collections and others. In all cases where similarities may occur I have taken materials such as outlines or creative ideas and added my own illustrations as led by God. There is no attempt to claim sole authorship for anything offered here. Enjoy and God Bless.
