Faith,Hope and Love

This is the outline of the message I brought to the Renmark and Renmark West Uniting Church this last weekend. 

White Plumed Honeyeaters,Renmark West.Young bird on left looking to be fed.

FAITH,HOPE AND LOVE-Renmark Uniting Church 10/5/15

Lesley’s Aunty Doreen, and Audrey’s sister, was a very sincere Christian and she often used to say that unless a sermon mentioned the Book,The Blood and The Blessed Hope, it wasn’t of much substance.

Hopefully to day with a topic that is in three parts we can come close to that.

Faith, Hope and Love.

When we went on a family holiday to Kangaroo Island some years ago we found a quaint museum in a cottage at Kingscote.

It was in one of three identical pioneer cottages on the Island called Faith,Hope and Charity.

At least one of the cottages was destroyed by fire some years ago but it gives you some idea of the faith of the early pioneers on Kangaroo Island.

Well  Faith,Hope and Love are all mentioned in one famous and well known passage in the Bible.

1 Corinthians 13.

It is quoted often during weddings.

13 If I speak in the tongues^[a] of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. ² If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. ³ If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast,^[b] but do not have love, I gain nothing.

⁴ Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. ⁵ It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. ⁶ Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. ⁷ It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
⁸ Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. ⁹ For we know in part and we prophesy in part, ¹⁰ but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. ¹¹ When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. ¹² For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
¹³ And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

So lets start with Faith and The Book 

What is the definition of Faith?

It is found in the Book. The Bible.
Hebrews 11 to be precise.

Hebrews 11 “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

² For by it the elders obtained a good report.

³ Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.”

And how does our Faith grow and materialise?
Where does it come from.
We are not born with it although we might get brought up in a Christian family which can help and sometimes hinder.
Romans 10:17 says this:
^“17 So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”
If you are continually exposed to the word of God, and sometimes only briefly acquainted, that is how faith manifests itself in us.
For when we engage with the Bible(the Book) we are engaging with Jesus.
Why can I say that?
Because the Bible(The Book)  also tells us this.
John 1:

“1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

² The same was in the beginning with God.

³ All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.

⁴ In him was life; and the life was the light of men.”

^{and this}

^“14 And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.”

^“14 And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.”

So if Jesus is the Living Word, this book is living and when we read it,or hear it, we are entering into the mind of God,the mind of Jesus, His revealed will and message for us.

Hence faith comes to us by reading,and hearing the word of God and as the Holy Spirit speaks to our hearts.

I can testify to the reality of this in my life.

I was not a Christian when my wife and I married and she was. 

I had a principle I wanted to follow in marriage in that we should do things together.

I said "I will come to church with you but don't expect me to become like you."

I was not prepared to become a Christian even though I had always had a basic belief there must be a God. 

Well sitting in Church for 3 years, mostly hiding in the back corner, I ran out of arguments against God as I heard the Word of God explained and expounded to me by two wonderful ministers.

Even though I resisted that long, the Holy Spirit was speaking to me virtually every time I went.

I became a Christian then at the age of 28, just before our first son was born.

From 1 John 5 we read this;

⁶ This is the one who came by water and blood—Jesus Christ. He did not come by water only, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth. ⁷ For there are three that testify: ⁸ the^[a] Spirit, the water and the blood; and the three are in agreement.

And it is the Spirit who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth.

There is a great deal that can be made of that passage but that is for another time.

We come to Hope
The blessed hope referred to earlier is a term used by Christians to point us to the hope of Jesus coming back again as He promised.
What is known as the second coming of Christ.
And this is a great hope we can look forward to as Christians. We don’t know when He is coming we just need to be ready.
Abiding in Him.
Just being Christian really.
(There is a wonderful thought that if we as Christians are alive when He returns,to catch us up to Heaven,we will not go through physical death if we are alive at that time.)

But there is hope that keeps us going on a daily basis.

The hope for a possible cure of an illness, healing of the injuries from an accident
The possible restoring of relationships
The possible healing of an addiction
The possible relief and help when in times of great trial like those affected by earthquakes, floods and fires.
Our hope in these things is sustained by our faith in God and of God.
He is the one who gives us His faith.
Sometimes our hopes don’t seem to be realised in the way we would want them too.
Sometimes they are.
The hope of the mothers and families of the boys put to death in Indonesia was that they would be spared.
But the even greater Hope that materialised is that the boys might not have come to know Jesus as lord and saviour if they had never gone to jail.
They might have died without hope.
But they died with a far greater hope.
The real hope and assurance of forgiveness of sin and eternal life.
We too have that hope if we trust Jesus alone for our Salvation.

We come to Love
We heard this earlier:
⁹ “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. ¹⁰ If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. ¹¹ I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. ¹² My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.

 ¹¹ I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.

And in 1 Corinthians 13 again we are reminded;
⁴ Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. ⁵ It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. ⁶ Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. ⁷ It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

It would be a challenge for us to insert our own names in the place of love in that passage.
And live that out.
I learnt of this idea from a sermon by J Oswald Sanders.
He suggested you do this each day for several weeks and we will change.
In reality if we are really abiding in Jesus,
 then in His strength,

only His, 

we can love like that.

Not only those near and dear to us, but those we wouldn't think to love or want to.

We can only live like that if we have entered into the exchanged life with Jesus.
If like the Apostle Paul we can say "it is o longer I that lives but Christ who lives in me!"

¹³ And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

What a privilege to know the faith,hope,love and friendship of our Lord Jesus Christ


 

Bible readings:

Psalm 98

A psalm.

¹ Sing to the Lord a new song,
    for he has done marvelous things;
his right hand and his holy arm
    have worked salvation for him.
² The Lord has made his salvation known
    and revealed his righteousness to the nations.
³ He has remembered his love
    and his faithfulness to Israel;
all the ends of the earth have seen
    the salvation of our God.

⁴ Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth,
    burst into jubilant song with music;
⁵ make music to the Lord with the harp,
    with the harp and the sound of singing,
⁶ with trumpets and the blast of the ram’s horn—
    shout for joy before the Lord, the King.

Let the sea resound, and everything in it,
    the world, and all who live in it.
⁸ Let the rivers clap their hands,
    let the mountains sing together for joy;
⁹ let them sing before the Lord,
    for he comes to judge the earth.
He will judge the world in righteousness
    and the peoples with equity.

John 15:9-17

⁹ “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. ¹⁰ If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. ¹¹ I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. ¹² My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. ¹³ Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. ¹⁴ You are my friends if you do what I command. ¹⁵ I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. ¹⁶ You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. ¹⁷ This is my command: Love each other.

ORDER OF SERVICE

Call to Worship:  Geoff Thompson

Psalm 98 from UC suggested readings.

¹ Sing to the Lord a new song,
    for he has done marvelous things;
Hymn: 196(AHB) “O sing a new song to the Lord”

Prayer of confession praise and thanksgiving

Hymn:  “And can it be,” 138 AHB

Bible reading: Psalm 98

Offering and Prayer: Geoff

Hymn: God is love let heaven adore Him.93 (AHB)

Bible reading: John 15:9-17

                   

Hymn: “To God be the Glory great things He has done.”85 (AHB)

Sermon: Geoff Thompson 

 

“Faith,Hope and Love”

Hymn:  “My hope is built on nothing less” 344 C of C hymn book

Benediction: from suggested UC handout material

Then from Hymn Book vesper as usually sung