Sermon Central
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Confessions Of Faith
Contributed by Jeffrey Cox on Aug 23, 2004 (message contributor)
Summary: We must confess with our voices that we have what we are believing for. This is a public acknowledgement of our faith, and lets everyone know what we are believing and where we stand. We must make sure that what we say matches what we are believing for.
Confessions: public validations of your faith or public rejections of your faith
*A word spoken is as an arrow let fly!
*Prov 25:11 “Like apples of gold in settings of silver Is a word spoken in right circumstances”
I. Words are important. Prov 18:21 “Death and Life are in the power of the tongue.”
A. Think about Genesis; God created by speaking it into being. “Let there be light!” He didn’t have to say it, but he did.
1. Jesus said, “Lazarus come forth!”
2. “Rise and walk.”
3. Jesus spoke to the fig tree
4. He spoke to demons
5. Prayer is speaking to God
B. How powerful are words? Can they do the supernatural, or only support a belief? Can we use these words, or are they only for God to use?
C. What we say can hurt us! We can speak curses on ourselves or others inadvertently if it is not rebuked. “You are gonna die from that someday” I don’t receive that! Psalms 91:16 says I will have long life!”
D. God isn’t moved because you said something; he is moved because you said something and believed it.
1. What if you just can’t believe it? I’d still rather say what God says than what the world says.
II. What does God say about you?
A. Phil 4:13 “I can do all things through Christ”
B. Phil 4:19 “My God supplies all my needs.”
C. Prov 28:20 “The faithful man shall abound with blessings”
D. Acts 16:31 says your whole house “will be saved.”
E. Isaiah 54:13 “Great shall be the peace of your children”
F. Psalm 91:16 says your will be “satisfied with long life”
G. Jer 30:17 “I will heal thee”
H. Isaiah 53:5 “By his stripes we are healed.”
I. 1 Cor. 2:16 “we have the mind of Christ”
J. Ps 37:4 “he will give you the desires of your heart.”
III. What do we say about ourselves? “I feel sick,” “My eyes don’t work too well anymore,” “I have a lousy job,” “I’m gonna flunk that test,” “I can’t,” “I have a bad back,” “My car is going to break down soon,” “My kids are brats,” etc.
A. What does God say about these things? What would Jesus say about them?
1. Jesus said, “It is written” when he was confronting a problem. He quoted scripture! What do I mean by that? I mean finding some place in the bible in which God promises you exactly what you are believing for, and say that instead of the words of doubt and unbelief that we have mentioned before.
aa. For example, when I found out that my 2 smallest boys needed glasses, I found a scripture that matched exactly what I believed, and so I confessed Ezra 9:8 that says our God will enlighten our eyes. I taped it on my refrigerator and on their bedroom doorframe. 1 Kings 8:58 states that “Not one word will fail,”so I believe that what He promised will happen.
2. This is our best weapon, quoting scripture. I hear the same thing when this is said: I can’t remember all those numbers and books and stuff. It all gets confused. I say that it doesn’t matter the book, chapter, or verse. It is the words of God that are the key element there. Look at the following examples from Christ himself.
aa. In Luke 3:4 “as it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet, "The voice of one crying in the wilderness, `make ready the way of the lord, make his paths straight” Jesus quoted the scripture and book, but not the chapter and verse.
bb. In Luke 4:8 Jesus answered him, “It is written. `you shall worship the lord your god and serve him only.’ " Jesus only quoted the scripture, and not the book, chapter, or verse.
1. Remember, though, quoting scripture is not going to send you to heaven. Even the devil quoted scripture. Matt 4:6 the devil quotes the bible to Jesus as a weapon.
B. If we say what is opposite of God, is that right? Isaiah 8:20 says that “if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.”
1. If we are believing for healing from a cold, yet we say that we are sick, we are nullifying our faith. How can you really believe that you have the mind of Christ, if you keep saying “I forget everything.”
2. This is the key, don’t say things that are opposite of what you are believing for!
C. If we believe something other than what God says about you, is that right? Can you still be called a Christian?
D. When we say what God says about us, and claim that as a promise that we are given, it is called a confession.
