Call to worship:
49 Remember your word to your servant,
in which you have made me hope.
50 This is my comfort in my affliction,
that your promise gives me life.
51 The insolent utterly deride me,
but I do not turn away from your law.
52 When I think of your rules from of old,
I take comfort, O Lord.
53 Hot indignation seizes me because of the wicked,
who forsake your law.
54 Your statutes have been my songs
in the house of my sojourning.
55 I remember your name in the night, O Lord,
and keep your law.
56 This blessing has fallen to me,
that I have kept your precepts.Psalm 119:49-56
Gathering Video
Questions for reflection:
How have you seen the sufficiency of Christ in seasons of loss?
In what ways is God’s goodness on display through suffering?
What is the surprising inclusion at the close of Hebrews 11?
Corporate Prayer:
“Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread,
and forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil. For yours is the kingdom, the power and glory forever
Amen
If you are able to support the church financially, we invite you to give securely by clicking the button below:
Notes//Quotes//Slides:
Hebrews 11:32-40 -Faith reading
Roll Call Part 4
Slides Roll Call Part 4
Slide 1
Big Idea
Whether we clearly win or appear to lose, we’re all called to a life of faith.
1) The obvious winners
2) The apparent losers
3) The surprising inclusion
Slide 2
“Notably, most of the individuals mentioned fell into significant sin. Gideon led the people into idolatry at the end of his life (Judges 8:22-28). Barak doubted that the Lord would give him victory over the Canaanite king Jabin (Judges 4:1–9). Samson visited prostitutes and gave the secret of his strength to Delilah (Judges 16:1–22). David committed adultery and had Uriah killed (2 Sam. 11). This sin brought suffering and made the lives of these individuals and their families harder than they needed to be. Nevertheless, Hebrews 11 remembers them for their faith, reminding us that true faith can be exercised by sinners. This encourages us as well. We dare not take the Lord’s grace for granted, but we also should not despair that God overlooks true faith in His sinful people. John Calvin comments, “In all the saints, something reprehensible is ever to be found; yet faith, though halting and imperfect, is still approved by God.
Ligonier.org
Slide 3
Defeatory – A defeat that leads to a victory
Slide 4
“Some were tortured, refusing to accept release, so that they might rise again to a better life. Others suffered mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were killed with the sword. They went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, mistreated— of whom the world was not worthy —wandering about in deserts and mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth.”
Hebrews 11:35-38
Slide 5
“Those on the second half of the list were just as much people of faith as those on the first half! In fact, you could argue that they had greater faith, because it’s not as easy to trust God when you’re being scourged, stoned, or sawn in two as it is when you’re seeing foreign armies put to flight and the dead raised to life. While all of us, if we could, would sign up to be in the first group, we need to recognize that sometimes God is pleased to withhold spectacular results and bless us instead with His grace as our sufficiency in overwhelming trials.”
Steven J Cole
Slide 6
See JPEG sent separately under Files and by email to Jon
Slide 7
You don't answer all my questions
But You hear me when I speak
You don't keep my heart from breakin'
But when it does, You weep with me
You're so close that I can feel You
When I've lost the words to pray
And though my eyes have never seen You
I've seen enough to say
I know that You are good
I know that You are kind
I know that You are so much more
Than what I leave behind
I know that I am loved
I know that I am safe
'Cause even in the fire to live is Christ, to die is gain
I know that You are good
Big Daddy Weave
Slide 8
And all these, though commended through their faith, did not receive what was promised, since God had provided something better for us, that apart from us they should not be made perfect.
Hebrews 11:39-40
Slide 9
“Here, however, it ("made perfect") is used in the corporate sense with the idea of completeness. No part of the true Christian community can be complete without the rest. There is a strong element of solidarity behind this idea … which is also evident in some of the New Testament metaphors for the church, like body or building.”
Donald Guthrie
Slide 10
““’Us’ means us Christians; we who are Christ’s have our place in God’s plan. And that plan provides that the heroes of the faith throughout the ages should not ‘be made perfect’ apart from Christians… Only the work of Christ brings those of OT times and those of the new and living way alike into the presence of God.”
Leon Morris
Slide 11
Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired carefully, inquiring what person or time the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories. It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves but you, in the things that have now been announced to you through those who preached the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things into which angels long to look.
1 Peter 1:10-12
Slide 12
Big Idea
Whether we clearly win or appear to lose, we’re all called to a life of faith.