“Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. This is what the ancients were commended for.” Hebrews 11:1-2

Hebrews chapter eleven is a list of the great heroes of the faith. They are listed there not because they did great things or because of their names or titles but because they could not do great things, so they trusted God to do the great things for them. They changed the world as a result of their faith in God.

The men and women of Hebrews 11 are spiritual athletes who persevered and never gave up. They were not quitters. This was the kind of message many of the Christians needed to hear at the time of writing of this epistle. Many were experiencing opposition and persecution (10:32-39) and were in danger of giving up the race and turning back.

Do we need this kind of message today? As we run our race of faith, we face similar obstacles and distractions that the patriarchs and prophets faced. Tough times demands tough faith and the more we trust God the stronger our faith muscles become.

If we are going to endure the course of life set before us and run with the winners of the faith, we too need to run by faith. We must understand what it means to live by faith.

What is faith?

The usual definition of faith is that it is “believing inspite of evidence.” No definition could be farther from the truth. To believe inspite of evidence is really superstition, not faith; because faith is only as good as its object. If you have faith in your doctor, you will get what your doctor can give you. If you have faith in God, then you will get what God can give you.

What kind of faith did the runners in Hebrews 11 have? It was faith that was acted out or practiced. It was not just mental assent (intellectual faith) or emotional concern (faith in faith); it involved obedience to God s Word. Note the verbs given in Hebrews 11: Abel offered a sacrifice; Enoch walked with God; Noah built the ark; Abraham offered up Isaac; Moses left Egypt; and so on.

According to the Bible, true faith is obeying God inspite of feelings, circumstances or consequences. The runners of the faith race had to deal with their emotions, their circumstances and the consequences of their decisions. They did not deny their feelings; they could not change their circumstances; they could not predict their consequences. But they trusted God and he saw them through.

The object of faith is God. Everybody has faith in something - a job, money, friends, a political party, you name it. The difference with the Christian and the non-Christian is not that one has faith and the other doesn't. The difference is that the Christian has faith in God. It is the object of faith that makes the believer's faith real and powerful.

Dr. J. Oswald Sanders has stated it perfectly: “Faith enables the believing soul to treat the future as present and the invisible as seen.” Abraham left an earthly city because he saw, by faith, a heavenly city (11:10). Moses forsook Egypt because he saw a greater inheritance for his people. Faith believes God will prevail, God will triumph no matter what the conditions are because faith believes that God will fulfill his word and promises.

Dino Miciano

Connecting People to God and to One Another – Matt. 22:37

We've come together this morning for 2 primary reasons: One is to honor the Lord Jesus Christ with our worship. The other, is to honor our mothers. Both are lifetime tasks.

I don't suppose that anything has ever been said or ever will be said that is eloquent enough to articulate the true value of a mother.

Mothers not only speak the same language but they also share many of the same qualities: inquisitiveness, tenderness, sympathy, compassion, mother's intuition. Few things are more powerful than the tears and prayers of a mother. Few things are more tender than a mother's hug or compassionate touch.

If you were looking for the perfect mother to leave your one and only child with who would she be? Would she be wealthy? Would she live in a nice place? Would she be famous, well educated? Mature? Experienced? What would be her characteristics?

Today let's look at the characteristics of the mother that God chose to raise His one and only Son. And as we look at Mary we will see that she is a model of motherhood.

The angel Gabriel told Mary that she was highly favored by God. Why? What was there about Mary that had so caught the Creator's attention?

Mary was highly favored of God . . . because of what Mary already had . . . a proper perspective of God.

When Gabriel tapped her on the shoulders that day, Mary was greatly troubled. She was no doubt a little on edge having an angel of the Lord speak to her. And the message that Gabriel brought her was a very troubling one. After all, she was engaged at the time to Joseph.

As this “unique” pregnancy became known Mary (a young teenage girl) faced many troubling possibilities: rejection by Joseph, the task of raising her child alone, in addition she jeopardized her reputation as she could be accused of unfaithfulness towards Joseph. All of this no doubt troubled Mary.

Not to mention, Mary could've felt insecure, unworthy and insufficient for this great task of being the mother of the savior of the world. Mary could've said; “Lord I'm just a young girl; I'm not ready to be a mother; I'm not wealthy- maybe it would be better if you got someone else.”

But that's not what Mary said. Instead she proclaimed, “I am the Lord's servant, may it be as you have said…”

Mary had the right perspective;

She knew who God was and who she was - His servant. She believed that nothing was impossible for her God. And if the Lord Almighty wanted to give her the task of raising the Son of God - then she would accept it.

Mothers today like Mary, need to have the proper perspective - they too are servants of God, in all things and especially in raising their children. Each life is knit in the womb by the hand of The Almighty - and just as Mary had the responsibility to raise Jesus for God - all mothers share that same responsibility. They need to view their work as mothers as being God's servant raising His children for him… And though they may feel at times overwhelmed and inadequate for the task…they need to realize like Mary that, “nothing is impossible with God.”

A Blessed Mother's Day to all moms!

Dino Miciano

Connecting People to God and to One Another – Matt. 22:37

Philippians :5-8 reads :

5 In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:
6 Who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;
7 rather, he made himself nothing
by taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
8 And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
by becoming obedient to death—
even death on a cross!

Being other's centered in an abstract sense is insufficient. We must put some action into the thought. Jesus models this to us.

In Philippians 2:5-8, Paul traces the steps in the incarnation of Christ.

• He made himself of no reputation. The Greek word used here is the word “kenoo” which means to empty. It does not mean he stopped being God. He did for a while hide his heavenly fame in an earthly frame. Even though he attained every bit of his divine nature while he was a man, he willingly submitted his life to the Holy Spirit.
• He became a human in a sinless physical body.
• He used that body to be a servant.

What grace! “He came from heaven to earth, to show the way. From the earth to the cross my death to pay. From the cross to the grave, from the grave to the sky, Lord I lift your name on high.”

Have you ever noticed in the Gospels that no one served Christ, rather he served others? He served fishermen, prostitutes, tax collectors, the sick, and the depressed. Matt. 20:28 reads, “just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

Jesus even washed the feet of his disciples to demonstrate how low he would go to serve them.

Two thousand years ago, Christ came to shed his blood for our sake on the cross of Calvary. He went through it knowing that it would save our lives while he would lose his. This alone shows us how much he loves us. The cross, which was a symbol of punishment and death, became a symbol for the Christian church of salvation and eternal life. Today it is the most recognizable Christian symbol around the world.

How radical would the church be if each and every follower of Christ “emptied themselves” to be filled only with a sense of duty to others for the glory of God.

Dino Miciano

The Movement Continues

• 
  The belief of French philosopher Voltaire:
  
  
  The Bible and Christianity would pass within a hundred years. He died in 1778. The movement continues.
  
• 
  The pronouncement of Friedrich Nietzsche in 1882:
  
  “God is dead.” The dawn of science, he believed, would be the doom of faith. Science has dawned; the movement continues.
• 
  The way a Communist dictionary defined the Bible:
  
  “It is a collection of fantastic legends without any scientific support.” Communism is diminishing; the movement continues.
• 
  The discovery made by every person who has tried to bury the faith:
  
  The same as the one made by those who tried to bury its Founder: He won´t stay in the tomb.
• The facts.
  The movement has never been stronger. Over one billion Catholics and nearly as many Protestants.
• The question.
  How do we explain it? Jesus was a backwater peasant. He never wrote a book, never held an office. He never journeyed more than two hundred miles from his hometown. Friends left him. One betrayed him. Those he helped forgot him. Prior to his death they abandoned him. But after his death they couldn´t resist him. What made the difference?
• The answer. His death and resurrection.
  For when he died, so did your sin.
  And when he rose, so did your hope.
  For when he rose, your grave was changed from a final residence to temporary housing.
• The reason he did it. The face in your mirror.
• The verdict after two millenniums. Herod was right: there is room for only one King.

(Excerpts taken from He Chose the Nails by Max Lucado)

Connecting People to God and to One Another – Matt. 22:37

“And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, [18] may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, [19] and to know this love that surpasses knowledge--that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.”

Ephesians 3:17b-18

In his book Written in Blood, Robert Coleman tells the story of a little boy whose sister needed a blood transfusion. The doctor explained that she had the same disease the boy had recovered from two years earlier. Her only chance for recovery was a transfusion from someone who had previously conquered the disease. Since the two children had the same rare blood type, the boy was the ideal donor.

“Would you give your blood to Mary?” the doctor asked.

Johnny hesitated. His lower lip started to tremble. Then he smiled and said, “Sure, for my sister.”

Soon the two children were wheeled into the hospital room::Mary, pale and thin; Johnny, robust and healthy. Neither spoke, but when their eyes met, Johnny grinned. As the nurse inserted the needle into his arm, Johnny's smile faded. He watched the blood flow through the tube.

With the ordeal almost over, his voice, slightly shaky, broke the silence. “Doctor, when do I die?” Only then did the doctor realize why Johnny had hesitated, why his lips had trembled when he agreed to donate his blood. He thought giving his blood to his sister meant giving up his life. In that brief moment, he'd made his great decision. Johnny, fortunately, didn't have to die to save his sister. Each of us, however, has a condition more serious than Mary's, and it required Jesus to give not just His blood but His life.

Two thousand years ago, Christ came to shed his blood for our sake on the cross of Calvary. He went through it knowing that it would save our lives while he would lose his. This alone shows us how much he loves us. The cross, which was a symbol of punishment and death, became a symbol for the Christian church of salvation and eternal life. Today it is the most recognizable Christian symbol around the world.

But more than the cross, Christ also endured the nails, the crown of thorns, the soldier's abuse. All that was required was the shedding of the blood but he endured the cross and much more. Hopefully we will all hear God saying: I did this because I love you.

I pray this morning that we will all learn to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ. It is a love that surpasses knowledge so stop trying to analyze it just receive it by faith. The bible promises that when we do, we will be filled with the fullness of God. God can only be understood through the love of Christ displayed on the cross.

Dino Miciano

Connecting People to God and to One Another – Matt. 22:37

Justification is the act of God whereby he declares the believing sinner righteous in Christ on the basis of the finished work of Christ on the cross.

1. It is apart from the Law (v.21)
   - The Law revealed God’s righteousness although it could not provide it. Only Jesus Christ could provide righteousness. Galatians 2:21 says, “. . . If righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing.”
2. It comes through faith in Christ (v.22a)
   - Faith is only as good as its object. Many people say “I trust God” but this is not what saves us. It is personal, individual faith in Jesus Christ that saves and justifies the lost sinner. Even the demons from hell believe in God and tremble yet this does not save them (James 2:19).
3. It is for all men (v. 22b-23)
   - God gave the Law to the Jews only and not to the Gentiles but the righteousness Jesus provides is for all men. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile when it comes to being condemned. “All have sinned . . .” God declared all men guilty so that all may receive the gift of salvation.
4. It is by grace (v. 24a)
   - God in his mercy does not give us what we do deserve and God in his grace gives us what we do not deserve. We are justified without a cause. God just gives his salvation to us. Every good and perfect gift comes from God.
5. It cost God greatly (24b-26)
   - Salvation is free but it is not cheap. Three words express the price God paid for our salvation: Propitiation, redemption, and blood. Propitiation means the satisfying of God’s holy Law, the meeting of its just demands, so that God can freely forgive those who come to Christ. Blood tells us what the price was. Jesus had to die on the cross to satisfy the Law and justify lost sinners – this is redemption. It didn’t cost me anything to be saved but it cost God his only Son. Jesus fully met the demands of God’s Law and also fully expressed the love of God’s heart.
6. To establish the Law (27-31)
   - The doctrine of justification by faith is not against the Law because it establishes the Law. God obeyed his own Law in working out the plan of salvation. God does not have one plan of salvation for the Jews and another for the Gentiles. When we boast then we should boast of our Savior because of the works he has done.

The major subject of salvation is not the sinner but the Heavenly Father. He gets the glory and not us.

The main emphasis of salvation is that it’s a gift, not a reward or a wage.

Dino Miciano

Connecting People to God and to One Another – Matt. 22:37