The Tree Church

Guest Speaker Pastor of X Church, Tim Moore

I thank the Father

I thank the Son

I thank the Holy Spirit

I thank God!!!!!!!!!!

There’s a faith that is defiant.

That’s the power of Your name.

There’s no power like the mighty name of Jesus!!

I’m singing out the glory of YOUR name.

YOUR love has made us new.

FAITH. There is more to life than our possessions. God created us for more. We need to actually learn to live by faith. 

Faith is more than believing in God. Following Jesus is about taking steps of faith. It require us to take steps/ sometimes it is easier to remain in neutral than to move forward. Faith is an action word. We can find ourselves in a very comfortable faith where nothing happens. Why is it in the Bible that God works miracles but we don’s see them happen now? God has more for us. 

This is the life of King Saul and his son Jonathan. The Israelites were constantly battling the Philistines. Jonathan attacked and defeated them in battle. 

1 Samuel 14:

14 Now it happened one day that Jonathan the son of Saul said to the young man who bore his armor, “Come, let us go over to the Philistines’ garrison that is on the other side.” But he did not tell his father. 2 And Saul was sitting in the outskirts of Gibeah under a pomegranate tree which is in Migron. The people who were with him were about six hundred men. 3 Ahijah the son of Ahitub, Ichabod’s brother, the son of Phinehas, the son of Eli, the Lord’s priest in Shiloh, was wearing an ephod. But the people did not know that Jonathan had gone.

We will often be presented with obstacles in our life. We choose how we react. Saul chose to stay by the fire and camp out with his men. Jonathan chose to fight. We can choose to camp out in our faith life or we can take steps to advance and take ground from the enemy. We can complain or we can move forward. 

Fear keeps us from the future God desires for us.

God prewired man for fear to protect us. It allows us to fight or flight. There is also freeze. We can be frozen in fear. It makes us camp in indecision. We can over analyze our indecision it becomes an obstacle to progression in our walk. Instead of trying to find God’s will for our life we can miss it.

Joshua 1:

3 Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon I have given you, as I said to Moses. 4 From the wilderness and this Lebanon as far as the great river, the River Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites, and to the Great Sea toward the going down of the sun, shall be your territory. 5 No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life; as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave you nor forsake you. 6 Be strong and of good courage, for to this people you shall divide as an inheritance the land which I swore to their fathers to give them. 7 Only be strong and very courageous, that you may observe to do according to all the law which Moses My servant commanded you; do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may prosper wherever you go.

Jonathan knew that his father would not agree with his decision. He moved forward any way! We cannot rely on others to validate our decisions.

1 Samuel 14:4-7

4 Between the passes, by which Jonathan sought to go over to the Philistines’ garrison, there was a sharp rock on one side and a sharp rock on the other side. And the name of one was Bozez, and the name of the other Seneh. 5 The front of one faced northward opposite Michmash, and the other southward opposite Gibeah. 6 Then Jonathan said to the young man who bore his armor, “Come, let us go over to the garrison of these uncircumcised; it may be that the Lord will work for us. For nothing restrains the Lord from saving by many or by few.” 7 So his armorbearer said to him, “Do all that is in your heart. Go then; here I am with you, according to your heart.”

Faith is more than a feeling. We need to follow Jesus, not our heart. Things will not always feel complete. Faith is the boldness to act in  our fear. It is moving forward when we don’t know the end of our decision but we know that God is calling us to it. It is moving on a perhaps. 

Faith is not the absence of fear, it is taking a step in the midst of it.

1 Samuel 14:

4 Between the passes, by which Jonathan sought to go over to the Philistines’ garrison, there was a sharp rock on one side and a sharp rock on the other side. And the name of one was Bozez, and the name of the other Seneh. 5 The front of one faced northward opposite Michmash, and the other southward opposite Gibeah. 6 Then Jonathan said to the young man who bore his armor, “Come, let us go over to the garrison of these uncircumcised; it may be that the Lord will work for us. For nothing restrains the Lord from saving by many or by few.” 7 So his armorbearer said to him, “Do all that is in your heart. Go then; here I am with you, according to your heart.”