Hebrews 11

By Faith

11:1 Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.

Hebrews 11:1 (ESV)

I'm reading through Hebrews, and I've come to Hebrews 11 in my morning Bible study.  Many Christians know this verse especially, but also are familiar with this whole chapter.  I wanted to just comment for a moment here:

1.  Assurance: this is trust that bears the fruit of action.  Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, and we act as if the hoped for is realized.  I believe it was C.S. Lewis who commented that the Christians that have been the most useful in this world were firmly planted in the next world.  This assurance leads to action, not to pondering. 

2.  Things hoped for: not just 'stuff' things, but rather the ideas and concepts of eternity, the 'things' God has promised.  It's a generic word in Greek that translates roughly to 'things' without the connotation of 'stuff' from America.

3.  Conviction: again, this is a word that shows action should be happening, not just contemplation.

 

In all, we should take from this not that contemplation is bad, but rather that contemplation should lead to decision, and decision leads to action.  Let your faith be shown in what you do as much as what you think or say. 

Sermon Outline from Nov 7

Text: John 3:1-7
Theme: Knowledge isn't enough
Date: November 7 2010 AM
Location: FBC Almyra
I. Nicodemus
1. Religious
2. Educated
3. Confused
4. Lost
II. Many of us have been these things before!
1. Raised in church?
2. Smart---at least in what matters to us.
3. Confused---what will save us?
4. Lost—without Christ
III. What did Nicodemus need?
1. The truth:
2. He needed to understand that:
1. Nothing about us guarantees heaven
2. It will take the work of the Spirit of God
IV. What do we need?
1. The Truth
2. We need to understand that:
1. Nothing about us guarantees heaven
2. It takes the work of the Spirit of God
V. What else?
1. Nicodemus expected that God would work only within Israel
2. The Lord Jesus Christ pointed him to a better reality:
VI. Verse 8: The wind blows....the Spirit moves
1. We as believers are the work underneath the movement of the Spirit
2. We cannot expect to restrict God's work to our own:
1. Preferences
2. Predictions
3. Preparedness
VII.Are you:
1. Born Again and from Above? Are you trusting in Christ as your salvation?
2. Behaving as directed by the Spirit?
3. Believing that God will work through you in the world?

 

Audio link here.

 

Doug

Hibbard Standard Time

“The times change we change with the times”---Sir Humphrey Appleby

It’s the time of year where, here in America, we mess with everyone’s heads and change the clocks again.  Back in the Spring, we moved the time setting so that we were an hour ahead of the sun, and now we’re going back to being in sync with the daylight.  We supposedly saved some daylight in the process, but it doesn’t work enough to power solar stuff at night….anyway.

Officially, we change the time at 0200 Sunday, but I doubt anyone stays up to change their clocks at that point.  Most of us are so computerized these days that it will happen while we sleep.  However, manual changes are usually done right before bed.  At least by most folks.  This, however, can cause some chaos with your Sunday.  For many people, it’s not that big of a deal.

A few years ago, though, our family was involved in a commuting pastorate---we lived in Mississippi (in a house we would love for you to buy right now!) but I pastored in Northeast Arkansas.  It took being well-coordinated on Sunday mornings to make the day work.  We were sitting around Friday night and it clicked: Why wait?  We had nothing Saturday that we couldn’t just make sure we were aware of the time difference, and that would give us the whole day to adapt, and we wouldn’t forget.

Ever since then, time change weekends typically involve a day or so of Hibbard Standard (or Hibbard Daylight) Time.  For example, we “fell back” this morning, and will spend all day an hour behind everyone else.  This is actually beneficial, because the Arkansas Razorbacks play at 6:00 Central Time tonight, and the game would not end before bedtime for the kids.  However, on Hibbard Standard Time (HST), they start at 5, and the kids don’t go to bed until 8, so barring any major lightning delays, we’ll be on espn3.com watching the game!

Basically, for the day, we’ll have to be aware of our time difference, but we’ll live just an hour off the people around us.  We will take responsibility to make sure that we interact appropriately, such as realizing that the local post office closes at 815 HST, and so we won’t get that package mailed today!  It works for us, besides the fact that for us, today the time is right on: noon is when the sun will be overhead.

All it took for us to get to this point was for us to realize that we can live our life a little off-center from the rest of our culture.

And if you know I’m a preacher, you see where this going, right?

In what ways are we living synchronized with our culture?  In what ways do we have to do this, and it what ways do we not have to?  Not just on things that are unChristian (those should be non-negotiable), but in things that we can claim are ok, but just become a bit of a trouble?  Are there ways that we should, perhaps, detach from the times, just a bit?

Or are we so caught up changing with the times that we hardly notice what is happening to us?

 

Doug

Re-arranging things

As we were out taking care of some errands Thursday, my phone buzzed with a little warning.  It was the weather app I have for my Blackberry, and it was telling me that we had a “Freeze Warning” for the next couple of nights.  Now, I have the weather app on my phone to wake me up in case of a tornado outbreak, but to the phone, a “warning” is a “warning” so it dutifully started making noise and blinking at me.

So, after considering the implications of a freeze, we came home, and finally tackled shuffling things in the garage so that both cars can fit in there.  It’s been on my list for, well, the whole time we’ve lived here, but it just hasn’t been that critical.  However, when you’ve got two vehicles with more than 150,000 miles on them, weather protection is a good idea.

Meanwhile, in the process of rearranging, I found my hedge clippers, a missing battery charger, and a few other miscellaneous items that I couldn’t find, and had begun to suspect Almyra had some thieves with a bizarre set of theft desires.  I’m glad to report that this isn’t the case, rather I just misplaced things in the move.

Now, both cars are in the garage.  We’re working on the planned goal of giving away all of the too-small bicycles.  We do still have a purple bunkbed to pass on, as I am not sure if the friends from Alabama that wanted it, but just changed jobs and don’t own a truck probably can’t get it.  (If you’re headed to Bama anytime soon, specifically Jacksonville, and want to drop off a bunkbed, send me a message!)  It’s not totally perfect yet, but the garage has made some progress.

It’s actually a pretty good picture of life.  What?  Our lives are a garage?

No, but our lives are ordered (or disordered!) based on urgency.  Urgency is driven by what we value.

For example, I value the opportunity to sit with my family with light and heat and eat meals.  So, I need a certain amount of finances.  And if I have to expend my finances to repair/replace vehicles that would have frozen and broken down in the winter because I didn’t put them in the garage, well, now that’s a problem.

So, my values that rate my family highly required that I tackle (with much help!) addressing the garage situation with urgency.  When it was just about finding a hedge trimmer, it wasn’t urgent.  Why?  Sculpted hedges aren’t valued in my life.  Not at all.

In life, what we value should become what drives our actions, and sometimes that will require us to act with a driven urgency, even in tasks we aren’t particularly fond of, like cleaning a garage.  It’s not that there aren’t other things to do, even important things.  Rather, it’s that there are items and tasks that must be taken care of with marked urgency because of what we value.

This applies to life, to politics, to churches.  Really, to most everything.  If your political values prefer certain issues to others, you will urgently support a candidate even if they disagree with you in party or other, lesser issues.

In our churches, and in our Baptist cooperative work, the question that we must often ask is this: what do we value most?  As Christians, we should value most what our Lord Jesus Christ values, and then our actions should be of marked urgency in doing whatever will best accomplish those values.

Even if it means that dishes go unwashed so that garages be rearranged.

Doug

Thoughts on Voting

Well, we voted today.  It was completely peaceful, there were no protesters or threats of violence for voting.  In fact, we got a piece of divinity made by Mrs. Martha Ann and some of Mrs. Susan's chocolate cake just for voting. (Actually, I think we got those because of being the pastor and family, but we got them at the polling place.)

It was smooth, easy, and relaxed.

So, to the 1.5 Million Americans who died in uniform for our freedom, to the 2 Million more who wear the uniform today, and to the countless millions that served proudly, honorably, and have moved on to other things, from the Hibbard Family, we say Thank You.

From the bottom of our hearts.

Doug, Ann, Olivia, Angela, and Steven.

Sunday, October 31 Sermon Outline

Sunday October 31 Sermon Audio Link is here.

Here's the rough outline of today's sermon:

Sermon:

Text: Romans 1:16-17

Title: Reformation Day

Theme: Living by Faith

Location: FBC Almyra

Date: 10-31-10 AM

16  For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.

17  For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “But the righteous man shall live by faith .”

Illustrate works-based salvation: a never satisfied God, a strict, angry, demanding God. Present the idea of a longing to be right with God, but not able to do so because His demands cannot be met. What are His demands?

1. Be holy, as He is holy (1 Peter 1:15-16)

2. Be right in heart not just deed (Jeremiah 11:20)

3. Love God with all we have (Mark 12:30)

4. Love is shown in obedience (John 14:15)

1. Righteousness: address concept: righteous is being right before God.

   1. Not on man's standard

   2. Strictly on God's standard.

2. Faith: trust, given and strengthened by the work of God (Ephesians 2)

1. Ashamed of the Gospel

   1. Are we ashamed of the Gospel?

   2. What is the Gospel?

      1. 1 Corinthians 15:3-4

         3For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,  4and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,

      2. The substituting atonement of Christ for our sins

      3. His power revealed in resurrection

2. The Gospel is the Power of God

   1. For Jew and Greek

      1. Jews first: where did Christ preach, and what was His people group? And Peter, and Paul?

      2. God honored His commitment to bless the people of Israel by bringing Christ to them first

   2. Greek next

      1. Everyone is either Jew or Greek (in the terms Paul is using. To the Greek, you were either Greek or Barbarian)

      2. This encompasses the whole world.

      3. God honors the promise of Genesis 12: from Abraham comes the Savior of the world, in whom all peoples are blessed.

3. All who believe

   1. Believe: fully committed in life

   2. Believe: enabled to do so by the power of God

4. How do we live?

   1. We can never measure up to the righteousness of God

   2. This is the essence of this text:

      1. It is the faith God grants us, that grows within us that we live by, and that we are justified by. There is nothing else by which we can approach God

      2. We have only the faith that He will honor His word to do so

5. What should we do?

   1. Stop trying to please God by our actions

   2. Rather accept His offer of grace

   3. Live by faith

      1. Consider Galatians 2:20-1

      2. 20  “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.21  “I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness comes through the Law, then Christ died needlessly.”

6. If you have never acknowledged Christ as Savior and Lord, if He is pouring out grace on you then you need to acknowledge, accept, receive, and surrender to Him. He is calling out to you

7. If you have, then are you living by faith? Are you fully trusting in Him?

Fires and responsibility

No, this is not a plug for Smokey Bear, although he's got a good point.  If you're done with a real fire, put it out.

Instead, this is what I was contemplating this morning as I released a more greenhouse gases and sequestered carbon through my chimney.  Yesterday, we built our first fire in the fireplace here in Almyra.  It was a bit of a challenge, because the fireplace is huge, and I didn't take the time to split some good kindling.  Overnight, the fire fuel burned up, but there were a few coals left, and I brought in some smaller wood to get started this morning.  I got the fire mostly restarted, and then it seemed to simmer down to just some coals again, but with lots of wood and heat in the fireplace.

So I got down in front of the fireplace, took a deep breath, and blew hard right at the hottest part of the wood. The wood burst into flame, and now we've got a good crackling fire in the fireplace.

A few thoughts on this:

1.  Take the time to prepare the fire properly.  Yesterday, had I taken time to split some thin pieces, or even gathered twigs from the yard, I could have started the fire much more quickly.

2.  Properly tended, a fire will never stop burning.

3.  When everything is right, a little movement of breath will cause a fire to ignite.

So, what about the "responsibility" word in the title?  Well, churches and the work of God are somewhat like my fire experience over the past 2 days:

Our churches are meant to be hot in obedience to God.  We should be a place where the flame of the Spirit burns brightly as we are the light of the world.  So:

1.  Take the time to prepare the fire that is your life properly: split the wood, discipline yourself to take the time you need to be ready for the work of God.

2.  Properly tend: keep the Word of God close, and ready in your mind and heart.

3.  The Holy Spirit will breathe in and through, ignite the wood of your life from the glowing coals of the Word.

It's your responsibility to be ready, and to bring into your life the Word.  The Spirit of God will follow.

And guess what?  The same thing is true of the church you're a part of: if the church gathers, seeks the Word, and is willing to let the Spirit "blow where he wills" (John 3), God will ignite your church such that He will change your community through it.  And if your community is changed with the Gospel, you'll change your region, and you'll change the world….

 

Doug