Faith Must Work(From our 9-29-24 Worship)
Watch the video version here: https://youtu.be/oY_Tz1kPLH4
Transcript:
When I say the phrase the American dream, what comes to your mind? Probably some rags to riches story where a person is able to maybe in one generation completely changed not only their life, but maybe their entire family tree. And you think about that. How do you How do you achieve the American dream for a California born man named Richard Montanez.
The way that he achieved the American dream was maybe a little out of the, out of the ordinary. His was achieved with Flamin Hot Cheetos.
Now, Mr. Montanez was working in a Frito Lay factory in 1992 when Flamin Hot Cheetos were first introduced. They were introduced into a test market, they went wild, and then all of a sudden they lost them nationally. and then, uh, all over the world. But the interesting thing is, is when, when he developed this new flavor, he was not a product engineer.
He was not a scientist or a chemist. He was a janitor. And you say, How did the janitor develop flaming hot cheetos? Well, it's a long story, but the crux of it is, is that One day, the president of Frito Lay made a video to show internally the company. He was trying to boost morale. And one of the things he said in that video is, is, I want everybody in the company to act like an owner of the company.
Well, for most people, that message went in one ear and out the other. They didn't pay much attention to it. But it meant something to Mr. Martinez. So, a few days later, he was at work and Besides his regular duties, the other thing that he did was if something happened on one of the lines and the line stopped when they had to fix the machine, generally what had to happen was they had to empty out the entire line to clean it and reset it and started again.
So Mr Martinez was at work one day and a machine broke down at the very end of the line, the machine that put the powder on the cheetos, you know, let's sticks to your fingers. So there was this whole section of Cheetos that were fully cooked, but they hadn't. They didn't have powder on them yet. So, Mr.
Martinez, I'm not being an owner. Instead of just taking those and gathering up and throwing them away, he gathered up and took him home. And when he took him home, he decided that I wonder if I could develop something else to put on the outside of this. that would be, you know, be better than a normal Cheeto.
So he pulled on some other, uh, typical Hispanic, uh, treats of the day, and he created his own recipe. He dusted those Cheetos that he took home, and he started passing them out to friends and neighbors, and everybody loved them. You see, there was something, something about his recipe that spoke to the Hispanic market especially.
It would And they kept encouraging. You got to go. You got to go take this to work. You got to tell him about this. You know, it'd be such a wonderful thing. But he's he's a janitor. Well, eventually they encourage him enough and he does something pretty brave. Mr. Martinez goes to work. He gets through the company phone book and he looks up the number for the CEO's office.
And a janitor in a Frito Lay company. Calls the CEO's office and it may be a slight miracle that the secretary didn't laugh in his face and hang up the phone. But within just a few minutes, Mr Martinez was on the phone talking to the CEO of Frito Lay and he told him about his idea. He said, Well, I'll be there in two weeks.
I want you to make a presentation. You see, when we think about how you achieve the American dream, It's kind of funny to say, well, his was achieved by Flamin Hot Cheetos, but that's not really how it was achieved. It was achieved by what? By hard work. And work that went above and beyond just normally sweeping the floors, isn't it?
Not only did he have to work to develop this new flavor, but when the CEO of Frito Lay looked at him and said, Okay, in two weeks you can make a presentation in front of the entire board for Frito Lay. Mr. Martinez was a man who had dropped out of school, not even high school, dropped out of school very early to help support his family working in the, in the fields as migrant workers.
So, you know, the whole public speaking and marketing and all those skills were not exactly something he had in his back pocket. For two weeks he went into a mad dash to develop those skills. He even had to go out and buy a suit and tie, and he didn't have time to figure out how to tie the tie, so his neighbor had to tie it that morning and put it on him.
And of course, he made that presentation and the rest, he says, history. Think about hard work. It's maybe not a message that's so popular today. And yes, it is the key to the American dream, but it's also, when you think about it, it also has to do, a lot to do with, with a Christian in a spiritual walk. The Bible has a lot to say about work.
Gotcha. Bible's going into Philippians chapter two, all here in the book of Philippians, this book that, that mentions joy, 13, 14 times a man setting in prison, writing them, telling them to be joyful, to rejoice in the Lord always. And again, I say, rejoice. Look at what he tells them in chapter two, beginning verse 12.
Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed. So now not only is in my presence, but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it's God who works in you both to will and to work for his good pleasure. Paul here is having a much larger conversation, and he's basically trying to encourage them in spite of everything that's going on around you.
Don't give up and don't quit. That was a message they needed in their day. And I'm gonna tell you, it's a message that we need in our day as well. But do you notice the action words here? Work out your own salvation. God works in you to work his own good pleasure as you've always obeyed. You get the idea that that work is required.
Work is required to be a Christian. I could put up here. Ephesians to 10. We're here's workmanship, creating Christ Jesus for good works that we should walk in them. I mean, the Bible goes on and on about work, but this morning in the little bit of time that we have together, I want to take this concept of work and I want to link it to something else.
Maybe you not thought of it. These two things in relation to each other. But I'm hoping that the things that we learned today can help us to be better. for our God. So that being said, I want to link work to something else. Okay. And this other concept that I want to link it to is found in Galatians chapter five.
We're gonna be flipping around several places today. So I apologize. Get your get your fingers ready. But, uh, Paul here in the middle of chapter five, he's talking to a church full of people. who are for whatever reason are very tempted to leave New Testament Christianity, and they're tempted to go back to the old law.
Like, this just doesn't seem to be working out for us. We're just gonna go back to what we know. And Paul is trying very much, very adamantly, to discourage them from that. Look at what it says, beginning verse four. You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law. You've fallen away from grace.
We're through the spirit by faith. We ourselves eagerly await for the hope of righteousness. For in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love. You are running well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth? This persuasion is not from him who calls you.
A little leaven leavens the whole lump. So Paul is warning them against these false teachers who would encourage them to, to basically, you know, just go on back. It's okay. It's okay. You can, you can kind of have Christ, plus you can have elements out of the old law. But I want you to back up here in verse, in verse six.
And here Paul talks about circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything. It doesn't matter whether you're Jew or Gentile. It doesn't matter whether you're red, yellow, black or white. That does not count in the kingdom of God. Well, what does count faith working through love? You see this morning, I want to link faith to work and ask you, you know, if you were to find faith for me, how would you define it?
Would work or action be in that definition anyway whatsoever? I think usually define faith is, you know, it's like this inner resolve that I have. It's this this trust in God that I have. And we talk about maybe how we feel on the inside. Why am I doing what I'm doing? Well, I have faith. Absolutely. That's a part of it.
But the Bible is very, very distinct and very clear. That faith also involves action. Faith working through love. And I want us to go look at, look at this and expand on it a little bit, a little bit further, because I think it makes a lot of, a lot of sense when you start to examine it. So, we're gonna go to James chapter two.
Got your Bibles, we're gonna spend some time here. James chapter two, James is a very practical book. It's been called the Proverbs of the New Testament. James is very much a practical wisdom type book. In the beginning of chapter 2, he talks to them about if a man comes into your assembly wearing gold rings and fine apparel and you tell him, sit here in the good seat.
And a man comes into your assembly who has his own rags and you say, sit over here at my footstool or sit in the corner. He's warning them about Treating people with partiality Basically treating people different based on our opinion of how rich they are and how dangerous that is because we don't know All the people whether rich or poor all have souls.
They all need Christ just like we need Christ But as we get further up in the chapter in verse 14 Carry along with this same idea of treating people with partiality Okay, he's gonna talk about faith And why we should treat people the way that we treat them. Look at verse 14. What good is it? My brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works, can that faith save him?
If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food and one of you says to them, go in peace and be warmed and feel without giving them the things needed for the body. What good is that? So also faith by itself. If it does not have works, it's dead. But someone will say you have faith that I have works.
Show me your faith apart from your works and I will show you my faith by my works. You believe that God is one. You do well, even the demons believe and shudder. That's an interesting thought in and of itself, isn't it? Demons believing and shuddering. Do you want to be shown you foolish person that faith apart from works is useless?
Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar. You see that faith was active along with his works and faith was completed by his works and the scriptures was fulfilled. It says Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness and he was called a friend of God.
You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone in the same way was not also rehabbed. The prostitute justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out another way for as the body apart from the spirit is dead. So faith apart from works is dead. You see, James, here's just trying to be very practical.
A lot of people in our day in time want to talk about a works based salvation. And they'll say, well, you can't work your way into heaven. And I agree. James is not talking about about a merit based salvation. He's not talking about earning your salvation. James is talking about because you've been saved, you should work alongside God because that's what God wants us to do.
We're his workmanship created in Christ Jesus that we may walk in good works. He created us for that. We don't work to earn our salvation. We should work because we're saved. You think about this? If you back up into inverse 15 and 16. If you see somebody naked and hungry and you say, you know what? Be warmed in field and you don't give them any.
What good is that? It's no good. It's no good at all. I mean, we think about the golden rule here. If you were the one naked and hungry and somebody come to you and said, be warm to feel what would you want them to do? You want them to give you clothing and give you food. So how can we claim to follow God and not do the thing that God would do?
We think about the old bracelets. What would Jesus do? Jesus would give them food. Jesus would give them clothing. Jesus would be more likely to do what the Good Samaritan did with the man who was, who was beaten and robbed on the wayside and stripped naked and left for dead. Jesus would be the one to come and pick him up, put him on his own donkey, put wine and oil on his, on his wounds, bandage him up, leave him with the innkeeper and say, here's two denarii, if he owes anything more, I'll pay it when I return.
Our faith has to work. It has to work. We don't all have the same. We don't all have the same opportunities. We don't all have the same, uh, chances to do different kinds of work. This isn't about how much work that you should do. That's not what this is about. God, God give the parable of talents. Some people were able of one talent.
Some people were able to and some were able to five. God didn't give to them more than what they could done. You know, the one man, the one talent man might have had a case if if the master had given him five talents. Lord, you just put too much on me. I didn't know what to do with it, but that was not the case.
He didn't give him more than he could handle. He gave him exactly what he could handle. Faith of that works is dead. And I want to illustrate it this way. Think about first Peter three five. Peter says, But in your heart's honor, Christ, the Lord is holy, always being prepared to make a defense. Anyone asked you for the reason of the hope that is in you yet do it with great gentleness and respect.
So Peter says, Be ready to answer for the hope that was in you. Can I ask you a question? How does anybody know that there is a great hope within you if they haven't seen it come out of you somehow? How are they going to know that you have a hope within you if it doesn't come out of you somehow? You think about Hebrews 11, and I've read this several times, and I think I've got it wrong for a long time.
This, this verse is translated several ways. I'm going to use the New King James Version here. Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. For by it the elders obtained a good testimony. Faith is substance and evidence. Now, James says that faith of that works is dead. You know, I've often read this passage and thought about substance and evidence, substance and evidence.
Well, that must be just something on the inside of me that, you know, you know, why do you believe? Well, I believe in God. But what if it's more than that? What if my work for God is the evidence that I believe God is real? Why are you doing that? Why do you work for God like that? Because. because I believe in God because I have a hope of eternal life.
What if the substance of my faith is when somebody asked me, why do you have a hope within you? Well, let me tell you what God has done for my life and about that. Not only that, but let me tell you about these other people that are around me that that you know what, that we've all kind of worked together.
And not only has my faith changed my life, but my Faith has helped change their life as well. What if the substance and the evidence of faith is not some abstract thing, but a real, a real quantitative something that you can lay your hands on? What if it's the result of our work? You don't think about Jesus, Jesus teaching in this house and and for four people have brought this paralytic.
to Jesus to be healed by him. And they can't get in the door and they can't get through the window and they can't get any other way. So what they do, they tear the roof off the place. Literally look at what it says when they could not get near him because the crowd, they removed the roof above him. And when they made an opening, they let down the bed on which the paralytic lay first five.
And when Jesus saw their faith, He said to the paralytic son, your sins are forgiven. How did Jesus see their faith? He saw it in a tore up roof. He saw it in a lame man literally laying in front of him. A group of friends who would do anything imaginable, including tearing the house down to get their friend to Jesus.
He saw their faith in the no doubt the beads of sweat on their fore. on their forebrow. They're struggling and straining. They've done carried this man an untold distance and now now they get to play crane. You know, they get to lower him down in there. How did they do? I don't know, but I can tell you what I bet they about busted a gut doing it.
He could see their faith. If Jesus was to walk in the back door right now, could you see my faith? Could you see yours?
I don't know. But if you couldn't see yours, why can't you see yours? What's stopping you from working for the Lord? Is it fear? Is it a lack of knowledge? What is it? Whatever it is, there's nothing so big that God and his people that we can't work through it and work over and get around it and get over it.
We wrap up our thoughts this morning. I I want to go back to the parable of the talents and. and another passage that I feel like I've read past way too many times in my life. We know the five talent in the two talent man, right? They took what Jesus gave them and they went and multiplied it and look at what he, what the master told the servant.
His master said to him, well done, good and faithful servant. You've been faithful over a little. I will set you over much entering the joy of your master. Why was he faithful? Why was he faithful? He was a servant. Okay, I'll give you that. He took what God give him and he did something with it. But why did he hear?
Well done. Why did the servant here? Well done. I think you heard well done because he had done well. He had done something. Why did the one talent man? Why was he condemned? Because he didn't do anything. Master, give him something valuable and credible. Give him something to allow him not only to make for the master.
It's not about growing more money for the master. The master owns all the cattle on a thousand hills. It was about the growth of the servant. And he didn't do anything.
If we want to hear well done, we're going to have to do well. Not do perfectly. not do so much that we can't even hope to achieve it. That's not what I'm talking about. I'm not talking about this, this comparison where we, you know, I'm not doing as much as Doug or I'm not as much Chandler. I'm not called to do as much as me or somebody else.
God hasn't called you to compare to other people. He's called you to compare to your potential. God just wants you to rise to the level of your potential. What you can do. And it's not too much for him to ask. I don't know what you need is this morning. I don't know what what's on your heart. But if we can help you in any way, we won't do that while we have the Invitation.
Transcript:
When I say the phrase the American dream, what comes to your mind? Probably some rags to riches story where a person is able to maybe in one generation completely changed not only their life, but maybe their entire family tree. And you think about that. How do you How do you achieve the American dream for a California born man named Richard Montanez.
The way that he achieved the American dream was maybe a little out of the, out of the ordinary. His was achieved with Flamin Hot Cheetos.
Now, Mr. Montanez was working in a Frito Lay factory in 1992 when Flamin Hot Cheetos were first introduced. They were introduced into a test market, they went wild, and then all of a sudden they lost them nationally. and then, uh, all over the world. But the interesting thing is, is when, when he developed this new flavor, he was not a product engineer.
He was not a scientist or a chemist. He was a janitor. And you say, How did the janitor develop flaming hot cheetos? Well, it's a long story, but the crux of it is, is that One day, the president of Frito Lay made a video to show internally the company. He was trying to boost morale. And one of the things he said in that video is, is, I want everybody in the company to act like an owner of the company.
Well, for most people, that message went in one ear and out the other. They didn't pay much attention to it. But it meant something to Mr. Martinez. So, a few days later, he was at work and Besides his regular duties, the other thing that he did was if something happened on one of the lines and the line stopped when they had to fix the machine, generally what had to happen was they had to empty out the entire line to clean it and reset it and started again.
So Mr Martinez was at work one day and a machine broke down at the very end of the line, the machine that put the powder on the cheetos, you know, let's sticks to your fingers. So there was this whole section of Cheetos that were fully cooked, but they hadn't. They didn't have powder on them yet. So, Mr.
Martinez, I'm not being an owner. Instead of just taking those and gathering up and throwing them away, he gathered up and took him home. And when he took him home, he decided that I wonder if I could develop something else to put on the outside of this. that would be, you know, be better than a normal Cheeto.
So he pulled on some other, uh, typical Hispanic, uh, treats of the day, and he created his own recipe. He dusted those Cheetos that he took home, and he started passing them out to friends and neighbors, and everybody loved them. You see, there was something, something about his recipe that spoke to the Hispanic market especially.
It would And they kept encouraging. You got to go. You got to go take this to work. You got to tell him about this. You know, it'd be such a wonderful thing. But he's he's a janitor. Well, eventually they encourage him enough and he does something pretty brave. Mr. Martinez goes to work. He gets through the company phone book and he looks up the number for the CEO's office.
And a janitor in a Frito Lay company. Calls the CEO's office and it may be a slight miracle that the secretary didn't laugh in his face and hang up the phone. But within just a few minutes, Mr Martinez was on the phone talking to the CEO of Frito Lay and he told him about his idea. He said, Well, I'll be there in two weeks.
I want you to make a presentation. You see, when we think about how you achieve the American dream, It's kind of funny to say, well, his was achieved by Flamin Hot Cheetos, but that's not really how it was achieved. It was achieved by what? By hard work. And work that went above and beyond just normally sweeping the floors, isn't it?
Not only did he have to work to develop this new flavor, but when the CEO of Frito Lay looked at him and said, Okay, in two weeks you can make a presentation in front of the entire board for Frito Lay. Mr. Martinez was a man who had dropped out of school, not even high school, dropped out of school very early to help support his family working in the, in the fields as migrant workers.
So, you know, the whole public speaking and marketing and all those skills were not exactly something he had in his back pocket. For two weeks he went into a mad dash to develop those skills. He even had to go out and buy a suit and tie, and he didn't have time to figure out how to tie the tie, so his neighbor had to tie it that morning and put it on him.
And of course, he made that presentation and the rest, he says, history. Think about hard work. It's maybe not a message that's so popular today. And yes, it is the key to the American dream, but it's also, when you think about it, it also has to do, a lot to do with, with a Christian in a spiritual walk. The Bible has a lot to say about work.
Gotcha. Bible's going into Philippians chapter two, all here in the book of Philippians, this book that, that mentions joy, 13, 14 times a man setting in prison, writing them, telling them to be joyful, to rejoice in the Lord always. And again, I say, rejoice. Look at what he tells them in chapter two, beginning verse 12.
Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed. So now not only is in my presence, but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it's God who works in you both to will and to work for his good pleasure. Paul here is having a much larger conversation, and he's basically trying to encourage them in spite of everything that's going on around you.
Don't give up and don't quit. That was a message they needed in their day. And I'm gonna tell you, it's a message that we need in our day as well. But do you notice the action words here? Work out your own salvation. God works in you to work his own good pleasure as you've always obeyed. You get the idea that that work is required.
Work is required to be a Christian. I could put up here. Ephesians to 10. We're here's workmanship, creating Christ Jesus for good works that we should walk in them. I mean, the Bible goes on and on about work, but this morning in the little bit of time that we have together, I want to take this concept of work and I want to link it to something else.
Maybe you not thought of it. These two things in relation to each other. But I'm hoping that the things that we learned today can help us to be better. for our God. So that being said, I want to link work to something else. Okay. And this other concept that I want to link it to is found in Galatians chapter five.
We're gonna be flipping around several places today. So I apologize. Get your get your fingers ready. But, uh, Paul here in the middle of chapter five, he's talking to a church full of people. who are for whatever reason are very tempted to leave New Testament Christianity, and they're tempted to go back to the old law.
Like, this just doesn't seem to be working out for us. We're just gonna go back to what we know. And Paul is trying very much, very adamantly, to discourage them from that. Look at what it says, beginning verse four. You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law. You've fallen away from grace.
We're through the spirit by faith. We ourselves eagerly await for the hope of righteousness. For in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love. You are running well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth? This persuasion is not from him who calls you.
A little leaven leavens the whole lump. So Paul is warning them against these false teachers who would encourage them to, to basically, you know, just go on back. It's okay. It's okay. You can, you can kind of have Christ, plus you can have elements out of the old law. But I want you to back up here in verse, in verse six.
And here Paul talks about circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything. It doesn't matter whether you're Jew or Gentile. It doesn't matter whether you're red, yellow, black or white. That does not count in the kingdom of God. Well, what does count faith working through love? You see this morning, I want to link faith to work and ask you, you know, if you were to find faith for me, how would you define it?
Would work or action be in that definition anyway whatsoever? I think usually define faith is, you know, it's like this inner resolve that I have. It's this this trust in God that I have. And we talk about maybe how we feel on the inside. Why am I doing what I'm doing? Well, I have faith. Absolutely. That's a part of it.
But the Bible is very, very distinct and very clear. That faith also involves action. Faith working through love. And I want us to go look at, look at this and expand on it a little bit, a little bit further, because I think it makes a lot of, a lot of sense when you start to examine it. So, we're gonna go to James chapter two.
Got your Bibles, we're gonna spend some time here. James chapter two, James is a very practical book. It's been called the Proverbs of the New Testament. James is very much a practical wisdom type book. In the beginning of chapter 2, he talks to them about if a man comes into your assembly wearing gold rings and fine apparel and you tell him, sit here in the good seat.
And a man comes into your assembly who has his own rags and you say, sit over here at my footstool or sit in the corner. He's warning them about Treating people with partiality Basically treating people different based on our opinion of how rich they are and how dangerous that is because we don't know All the people whether rich or poor all have souls.
They all need Christ just like we need Christ But as we get further up in the chapter in verse 14 Carry along with this same idea of treating people with partiality Okay, he's gonna talk about faith And why we should treat people the way that we treat them. Look at verse 14. What good is it? My brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works, can that faith save him?
If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food and one of you says to them, go in peace and be warmed and feel without giving them the things needed for the body. What good is that? So also faith by itself. If it does not have works, it's dead. But someone will say you have faith that I have works.
Show me your faith apart from your works and I will show you my faith by my works. You believe that God is one. You do well, even the demons believe and shudder. That's an interesting thought in and of itself, isn't it? Demons believing and shuddering. Do you want to be shown you foolish person that faith apart from works is useless?
Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar. You see that faith was active along with his works and faith was completed by his works and the scriptures was fulfilled. It says Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness and he was called a friend of God.
You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone in the same way was not also rehabbed. The prostitute justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out another way for as the body apart from the spirit is dead. So faith apart from works is dead. You see, James, here's just trying to be very practical.
A lot of people in our day in time want to talk about a works based salvation. And they'll say, well, you can't work your way into heaven. And I agree. James is not talking about about a merit based salvation. He's not talking about earning your salvation. James is talking about because you've been saved, you should work alongside God because that's what God wants us to do.
We're his workmanship created in Christ Jesus that we may walk in good works. He created us for that. We don't work to earn our salvation. We should work because we're saved. You think about this? If you back up into inverse 15 and 16. If you see somebody naked and hungry and you say, you know what? Be warmed in field and you don't give them any.
What good is that? It's no good. It's no good at all. I mean, we think about the golden rule here. If you were the one naked and hungry and somebody come to you and said, be warm to feel what would you want them to do? You want them to give you clothing and give you food. So how can we claim to follow God and not do the thing that God would do?
We think about the old bracelets. What would Jesus do? Jesus would give them food. Jesus would give them clothing. Jesus would be more likely to do what the Good Samaritan did with the man who was, who was beaten and robbed on the wayside and stripped naked and left for dead. Jesus would be the one to come and pick him up, put him on his own donkey, put wine and oil on his, on his wounds, bandage him up, leave him with the innkeeper and say, here's two denarii, if he owes anything more, I'll pay it when I return.
Our faith has to work. It has to work. We don't all have the same. We don't all have the same opportunities. We don't all have the same, uh, chances to do different kinds of work. This isn't about how much work that you should do. That's not what this is about. God, God give the parable of talents. Some people were able of one talent.
Some people were able to and some were able to five. God didn't give to them more than what they could done. You know, the one man, the one talent man might have had a case if if the master had given him five talents. Lord, you just put too much on me. I didn't know what to do with it, but that was not the case.
He didn't give him more than he could handle. He gave him exactly what he could handle. Faith of that works is dead. And I want to illustrate it this way. Think about first Peter three five. Peter says, But in your heart's honor, Christ, the Lord is holy, always being prepared to make a defense. Anyone asked you for the reason of the hope that is in you yet do it with great gentleness and respect.
So Peter says, Be ready to answer for the hope that was in you. Can I ask you a question? How does anybody know that there is a great hope within you if they haven't seen it come out of you somehow? How are they going to know that you have a hope within you if it doesn't come out of you somehow? You think about Hebrews 11, and I've read this several times, and I think I've got it wrong for a long time.
This, this verse is translated several ways. I'm going to use the New King James Version here. Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. For by it the elders obtained a good testimony. Faith is substance and evidence. Now, James says that faith of that works is dead. You know, I've often read this passage and thought about substance and evidence, substance and evidence.
Well, that must be just something on the inside of me that, you know, you know, why do you believe? Well, I believe in God. But what if it's more than that? What if my work for God is the evidence that I believe God is real? Why are you doing that? Why do you work for God like that? Because. because I believe in God because I have a hope of eternal life.
What if the substance of my faith is when somebody asked me, why do you have a hope within you? Well, let me tell you what God has done for my life and about that. Not only that, but let me tell you about these other people that are around me that that you know what, that we've all kind of worked together.
And not only has my faith changed my life, but my Faith has helped change their life as well. What if the substance and the evidence of faith is not some abstract thing, but a real, a real quantitative something that you can lay your hands on? What if it's the result of our work? You don't think about Jesus, Jesus teaching in this house and and for four people have brought this paralytic.
to Jesus to be healed by him. And they can't get in the door and they can't get through the window and they can't get any other way. So what they do, they tear the roof off the place. Literally look at what it says when they could not get near him because the crowd, they removed the roof above him. And when they made an opening, they let down the bed on which the paralytic lay first five.
And when Jesus saw their faith, He said to the paralytic son, your sins are forgiven. How did Jesus see their faith? He saw it in a tore up roof. He saw it in a lame man literally laying in front of him. A group of friends who would do anything imaginable, including tearing the house down to get their friend to Jesus.
He saw their faith in the no doubt the beads of sweat on their fore. on their forebrow. They're struggling and straining. They've done carried this man an untold distance and now now they get to play crane. You know, they get to lower him down in there. How did they do? I don't know, but I can tell you what I bet they about busted a gut doing it.
He could see their faith. If Jesus was to walk in the back door right now, could you see my faith? Could you see yours?
I don't know. But if you couldn't see yours, why can't you see yours? What's stopping you from working for the Lord? Is it fear? Is it a lack of knowledge? What is it? Whatever it is, there's nothing so big that God and his people that we can't work through it and work over and get around it and get over it.
We wrap up our thoughts this morning. I I want to go back to the parable of the talents and. and another passage that I feel like I've read past way too many times in my life. We know the five talent in the two talent man, right? They took what Jesus gave them and they went and multiplied it and look at what he, what the master told the servant.
His master said to him, well done, good and faithful servant. You've been faithful over a little. I will set you over much entering the joy of your master. Why was he faithful? Why was he faithful? He was a servant. Okay, I'll give you that. He took what God give him and he did something with it. But why did he hear?
Well done. Why did the servant here? Well done. I think you heard well done because he had done well. He had done something. Why did the one talent man? Why was he condemned? Because he didn't do anything. Master, give him something valuable and credible. Give him something to allow him not only to make for the master.
It's not about growing more money for the master. The master owns all the cattle on a thousand hills. It was about the growth of the servant. And he didn't do anything.
If we want to hear well done, we're going to have to do well. Not do perfectly. not do so much that we can't even hope to achieve it. That's not what I'm talking about. I'm not talking about this, this comparison where we, you know, I'm not doing as much as Doug or I'm not as much Chandler. I'm not called to do as much as me or somebody else.
God hasn't called you to compare to other people. He's called you to compare to your potential. God just wants you to rise to the level of your potential. What you can do. And it's not too much for him to ask. I don't know what you need is this morning. I don't know what what's on your heart. But if we can help you in any way, we won't do that while we have the Invitation.
