Sermon from February 23, 2014

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• When we’re empty, our faith needs REFILLED .
  
• When we forget, our faith needs REFOCUSED .
  
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  • Case Study: Paul Acts 27&28
    
  • Acts 23:11 NLT That night the Lord appeared to Paul and said, “Be encouraged, Paul. Just as you have been a witness to me here in Jerusalem, you must preach the Good News in Rome as well.â€
    
  
  
  
• When Satan steals, that property must be RECAPTURED .
  
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  • Case Study: Church at Ephesus Revelation 2
    
  • Revelation 2:2,4 NCV “I know what you do, how you work hard and never give up . . . 4 “But I have this against you: You have left the love you had in the beginning.”
    
  • “There was a time in our lives when we loved Jesus so much more than we do today. Our appetite for God’s Word was voracious. Our love for God’s house was enthusiastic. Our eagerness for spreading the gospel was so strong . . . Now, how is it? Yes, we still love the Lord. We still come to church. But what happened to all that energy and passion?†– Jim Cymbala, “Fresh Faith†1999
    
  
  
  
• When God speaks, our faith must be RESOLVED .
  
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  • Case Study: Abraham Acts 7:2-7
    
  • Acts 7:2-7 NLT Our glorious God appeared to our ancestor Abraham in Mesopotamia before he settled in Haran. God told him, ‘Leave your native land and your relatives, and come into the land that I will show you.’ So Abraham left the land of the Chaldeans and lived in Haran until his father died. Then God brought him here to the land where you now live. “But God gave him no inheritance here, not even one square foot of land. God did promise, however, that eventually the whole land would belong to Abraham and his descendants—even though he had no children yet. God also told him that his descendants would live in a foreign land, where they would be oppressed as slaves for 400 years. ‘But I will punish the nation that enslaves them,’ God said, ‘and in the end they will come out and worship me here in this place.’
    
  
  
  

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• - A refreshed faith involves a willingness to OBEY .
  
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  • Heb 11:8 By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going.
    
  
  
  
• - A refreshed faith involves a willingness to WAIT .
  
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  • vs 9 By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise.
    
  
  
  
• - A refreshed faith involves a willingness to SACRIFICE .
  
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  • vs 17 By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had embraced the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son, even though God had said to him, “It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.