Preached by Chris Broom, 10/12/2008

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James and Jennifer Haynes visit from the Portland International Christian Church

Fall Faith Series, part 3 – Faith Doesn’t Wait for the Grave to Say, “I’m Saved!” – Outline

(Click here for part 2)

Ecclesiastes 12:1 Remember the Lord in your youth. / Life gets harder & more complicated.

Why would we want to wait for the grave to say I’m saved?

We will wait for the grave to say “I’m saved!” if…

• we are selfishness (What if Bob told Barb that he wanted to wait til the day before he dies to marry her?)
• we love our life more than we love God.
• we don’t love others or care about their salvation. No compassion (Matthew 9:35).

If we willing to lose our life here on earth, we will save it for eternity, but if we want to save our life here, we will lose it for eternity. We can’t eat our cake and have it, too (Luke 9:23-26).

• I believe you can be saved at any age, as long as our intention is that… for the rest of my life, i’ll be faithful.
• Because of going back to an old lifestyle, a friend of mine contacted aids and was dying. We have to chose if we will serve God or not.
• When we believe what we have read in scripture it forces us to act.
• “Faith is not belief. Belief is passive. Faith is active….” – Edith Hamilton / “Faith… Must be enforced by reason… When faith becomes blind it dies.” – Mahatma Gandi
• It gets to a point where nothing is left but to make a decision, step forward and take the dive. I can’t prove everything to you. You have got to believe. It’s time to make a decision, and make it now.  Once you get on the other side, you’ll think…why did i wait? What was i thinking?

Philippians 1:21

• Some of us enjoy our life here to much and we better enjoy it because it’s the only heaven we will ever see.
• Life is hard. It is tough. But it’s the only Hell a true disciple will ever see.
• Paul was willing to put off the grave and therefore being with God for only one reason… fruitful labor!
• The heart of a true disciple is to help others grow in their faith and joy.

Matthew 8:5-13

• The faith of the centurion astonished Jesus.
• Would Jesus be astonished by us?
• Our goal is to have astonishing faith.
• The centurion had great faith because he understood authority.
• He was a man with authority over him. Are we men and women with authority over us?
• We don’t like authority.
• Jesus is in authority. If he tells the paralysis to go, it will go.
• Jesus states the He had not found one person in Israel with such great faith.
• Therefore, the subjects of kingdom will be thrown out where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth.
• People can talk the talk, but walking the walk takes faith.
• IF there was more of Jesus’ authority in our lives, there would be more healing in our lives.
• The servant was healed that very hour.
• It will be done just as we believe it will (faith).
• 6 weeks to Turkey Day:.. what cha gonna do… Get busy!
• Do we claim to have faith and live like everyone else that doesn’t even claim to be Christian?

Matthew 21:27

• Jesus’ authority is questioned here.
• Many want to come to church and hear the teaching, but with no authority.
• We cannot teach people to obey without authority.
• Here, Jesus asks the religious leaders if John’s baptism was from Heaven or not. They wouldn’t answer but reasoned that if they said they did believe it was from Heaven, Jesus would ask them why they did not obey.

Matthew 21:28-32

• Jesus tells them that the tax collectors and prostitutes believed John and were getting saved!
• The religious leaders saw this and still did not obey because they didn’t believe it was from God.

Matthew 21:33-41, 43, 45-46

• The sinners said they would not go and work but later changed and went to work.
• The religious leaders said they would go and yet didn’t go to work.
• Jesus rebukes them intensely and tells them that the Kingdom of God shall be taken from you & given to a people that will produce it’s fruit.

The New John Gill Exposition of the Entire Bible comments on Matthew 21:33-46 as follows:

• The kingdom of God shall be taken from you: by which is meant, not their political estate, their civil government, which was of God, and in a short time was to depart from them; nor their legal national church state and ordinances only, or the priesthood, and the appendages of it; all which, in a little while, were shaken and removed; but the Gospel, which had been preached among them by John the Baptist, Christ, and his apostles.
• (this) Gospel may be taken away from a people, as from the Jews, because of their contempt of it, and opposition to it, or lukewarmness and indifference about it, or unfruitfulness under it; and when God has no more souls to gather in by it in such a place, and which is a very unhappy case, whenever it is the case of any people: for when the Gospel is taken away, the riches of a people are gone; the glory of a nation is departed; the light of it is put out; the spiritual bread of a people is no more; the means of conversion and spiritual knowledge cease: all which have a melancholy aspect on posterity.
• (the Gospel was) given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof. Though God may take away the Gospel from a people, as he did from the Jews; yet he does not, nor will he, as yet, take it out of the world: he gives it to another “nation”; to the Gentiles, to all the nations of the world, whither he sent his apostles to preach, in order to gather his elect out of them:
• for this cause it (the Gospel) was taken from the Jews, and given to the Gentiles. (Jeremiah 13:17 “my soul shall weep in secret places for your pride”);  “because of your grandeur, which shall cease; because of the Excellency of “the kingdom of heaven, which shall be given to the profane”;’  i.e. the nations of the world.

Four areas we need to watch so that the Kingdom is not taken away from us:

• Contempt of it: Do we have contempt for God’s plan of salvation because of what it requires of us? Or because of our disdain for the authority of God in our lives and that God works through people to call us to obedience. (Contempt From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: Contempt is an intense feeling or attitude of regarding someone or something as inferior, base, or worthless-it is similar to scorn. Contempt is also defined as the state of being despised or dishonored; disgrace, and an open disrespect or willful disobedience of the authority of a court of law or legislative body.[1]
  One example of contempt could be seen in the character Ebenezer Scrooge from the Charles Dickens book A Christmas Carol. Scrooge was cold hearted, hating everything about Christmas and looked down upon everyone around him, especially the poor.)
• Opposition to it: Are we actually apposing the efforts to evangelize the world because of our sin. It’s God who tells us to go and teach all to obey him.
• Luke warmness and indifference about it: lack of passion, force, affection, enthusiasm, … A distressing coldness of tone & manner. If we believe this is true, how can we live as though it isn’t? By following our flesh, that’s how!
• Unfruitfullness under it: When we get choked and stop doing the work of the Kingdom, we will be unfruitful!

Jimmy Carter said, “I have one life and one chance to make it count for something – my faith demands that I do whatever I can, wherever I am, whenever I can, for as long as I can with whatever I have to try to make a difference…”

Let’s build a church where tax collectors and prostitutes are getting baptized!

-Chris Broom

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