Formation Church - Chandler, Indiana

Joy In the City - 12/29/2013

Jesus Christ Emmanuel

What’s in a name? A lot, right? We plan to name our son Lincoln Ryle Edwards. Edwards communicates what family he belongs to… it connects him to a line of people. Lincoln is a strong name, a name that communicates strength and wisdom. Ryle is after JC Ryle, an English pastor and Theologian who was a star cricket player and was described by JI Packer as a man of granite with the heart of a child. In fact, the biography I recently read is titled, The Man of Granite. A lot of thought goes into the naming of a child. It’s often a source of many conversations or arguments between the mother and father. It’s one of the first things people ask. When Zacharias and Elizabeth have a baby in Luke, their friends and family question their decision to name their son John. 2nd guessing new parents is a Christmas tradition. :) However, Joseph and Mary didn’t need to determine what they would name their 1st born child. The angel told them that they would name Him Jesus. Scripture also tells us that He would be called Christ & Emmanuel. This morning I want us to look at these 3 names. Jesus Christ, Emmanuel.

Extraordinary Jesus, Ordinary People - 12/1/13

Stories of Faith are Stories of Obedience - 11/24/13

Stories of Faith are Stories of Grace - 11/17/13

Stories of Faith are Stories of God's Strength - 11/10/13

Genesis 11 is a list of Abraham’s ancestors. It’s a family tree. Then it gets to Abraham, talks about his relatives, and then it says this: Genesis 11:30 But Sarai was barren; she had no child. The Family tree was going to stop right there. Sarah was barren, so that was the end of the story. But then God did something amazing. Stories of Faith are stories of God’s strength in our weakness. When we see just how small we are, we see how big God is. When we see just how weak we are, we see how strong God is. 

Sarah’s story of faith is a story of God’s strength in her weakness. Today, childlessness is difficult. It is something that we have prayed about here in our church for some of you. In the age of Abraham and Sarah it wasn’t just difficult, it was viewed as failure. If you were barren, people believed it was a sign that God had cursed you. So not only do you have to deal with the disappointment of being without a child, you have to deal with the judgment of everyone assuming that you have done something so horrible that God has cursed you. In Abraham and Sarah’s day, people saw Children as a blessing from God. In our culture, as a whole, today, children aren’t viewed as a blessing. In our church, they are. It was so clear to Sarah that she wouldn’t have a child that when the Lord told Abraham that they would have son, she laughed. Sarah was convinced of her weakness. Sarah knew she was barren. It had been her constant disappointment. It was something she had cried about numerous times. She had seen other women playing with their kids and had to excuse herself to a tent somewhere to cry. She had felt an ache in her heart for a very long time. She knew she would never have a child. She knew it so well that she had processed it, gotten over it, and when she heard a promise that she would have a child she was now so convinced, so past it, that she was in a place where she could laugh about it. Sarah was weak, she knew that. I. Sarah was convinced of her weakness. 

For her to have a child would be a miracle. That’s the point. Abraham and Sarah and everyone looking on were at the point that it would have to be a God thing. Sarah considered herself a lost cause. Sarah considered herself so far gone, it was joke to say she would have a baby. If you’re at the point where you could laugh at the idea of what God wants to do, you might just be ready. Sarah Was. To the degree that you do not believe in yourself you can believe in God. To the degree you believe in God you cannot believe in yourself. The Bible makes it clear you can’t serve two masters. You can't serve God and yourself. You can't believe in God and You. If you believe in God, you believe that you are not God Sarah knew she was weak and that’s fine. Sarah laughed at what God said he was going to do. That was a sign that she didn't have faith in God but it was also a sign she knew her weakness. When that weakness was mixed with faith in God’s strength, she experienced God’s great work in her life. II.

Sarah considered the Lord Faithful Hebrews 11: 11Through faith also Sara herself received strength to conceive seed, and was delivered of a child when she was past age, because she judged him faithful who had promised. Sarah knew that she was weak and she came to know that the Lord is strong. If you realize this morning that you are weak, I encourage you to consider the Lord and find Him faithful. Hebrews 11:11 says that Sarah judged Him faithful who had promised… 

This word for judged means that she considered, she thought on, she decided. Sarah decided that the one who made the promise was faithful. What if you were just as convinced of God’s faithfulness as you are of your weakness? Sarah decided God was faithful. The end of this story is not that Sarah decided that the Lord is faithful. The end of this story is that the Lord is faithful. He comes through. Sarah receives the promise that God had given. Every story of Faith ends with God keeping His promises. Every child of Sarah that had faith in God found Him to be worthy of that faith. They found that He had built them a city, something far more beautiful and wonderful than anything in this life. The story of faith in Julie Mannings life is one of millions and millions of stories of faith where God has been found to be faithful. The story of faith in Bob and June’s life that we watched last week is one of millions and millions of stories of faith where God has been found to be faithful. I know that you are different from everyone else, that your story is unlike anyone else’s story, but your story can be a story of faith just like all of these. Whether you are an orphan, or you are barren, or you are disabled, or you are lonely, or you are addicted, or you are whatever, your story can be a story of faith if you consider Him faith. 

Your story can be a story of faith if you consider him faithful.