This week Dr. Keith O'Neal begins his new series, Faith that Stands the Test with a message entitled Facing the Golden Image. This sermon series is designed to help our faith grow and subsequently please God at a new level. Here are a few key points

• If we cannot please God without faith, then we must exercise our faith muscles to grow and mature in our walk with God
• As part of this process, we ALL have to face the Golden Image in our lives
• This Golden Image is not the same for all of us
• It also changes during the course of our walk with God
• Your Golden Image will likely be different than mine, but it must be faced and conquered if we want to fully please God
• For the purposes of this message, the Golden Image is anything that challenges God’s voice, commands, scripture, or His principles
• It is that thing we face that puts us at odds with the will of God
• Jesus often spoke in parables and stories so people could make comparisons and understand what He meant
• I like to use examples so you can find yourself in the story and know the right response

Man’s earthly beginnings are documented in the book of Genesis After the first man and woman were created, the inference is they were created to live forever in a state of innocence and would populate the earth with additional people. Because they disobeyed God and sinned, mankind was plunged into a position of attempting to reconnect with God. God set forth the mechanism for all of us to do this and He has set the ground rules for it to happen. The terms, “Salvation” and “Redemption” enter the picture because man now has to be redeemed from our sinner status

It is clear that God did not desire to completely discard human beings, but decided to reach out to reconcile the relationship between us and Him. Thousands of years later, we have questions regarding His motives, His system of redemption, and how we MUST respond to it. The bottom line is that Jesus loves us and is constantly reaching out for relationship. Our faith is relevant because of how we must respond to His overtures toward us.

Find complete sermon notes on the Destiny Website or Mobile App.

James 1:14-17 (NKJV)

14 What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him? 15 If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, 16 and one of you says to them, “Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,” but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit? 17 Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.

Dead faith does not produce anything from God. This month’s series has been, “Faith That Stands the Test”. The test is whether you will trust God for HIS results as He leads you through life’s ups and downs. The right perspective regarding what God can and will do, will help us stand our personal tests. Recently, while reminiscing about my personal path to my current life, I thought about the number of times I thought God had either forgotten me or had abandoned me. The truth is, neither was true
God in His sovereignty and omniscience uses EVERYTHING at His disposal to get me where He wants me to be. Even our enemies are ANOINTED to bless us in the long run. Your crises are serving God’s purposes. Your haters are anointed to work on your character and push you where God wants. Your difficult circumstances, pains, losses, failures, rejections, and lack were all anointed to bless you. I say anointed because they were empowered by God to rub you for your good.

This series is designed to bring clarity to doctrines of salvation (soteriology). The bible has much to say about this, considering it is God’s purpose to redeem mankind. Since God is the redeemer, He must tell us HIS requirements for restoring our relationship with Him. The Bible is full of warnings to endure until the end. These warnings are not to unbelievers, but to believers. Inheritance is neither automatic nor inevitable. Throughout scripture, God’s relationship with man was not simply transactional. There is a difference between “Position” and “Promise”.

Have you ever seriously thought about WHY Jesus came to earth? God’s word is really the only place we have to find out the answer to that question.
· Jesus Himself lets us know the principal reason He has come
· In Luke 19 we hear about Zacchaeus
· He had become very rich as a tax collector
Luke 17:6-10 (NLT)
6 Zacchaeus quickly climbed down and took Jesus to his house in great excitement and joy. 7 But the people were displeased. “He has gone to be the guest of a notorious sinner,” they grumbled. 8 Meanwhile, Zacchaeus stood before the Lord and said, “I will give half my wealth to the poor, Lord, and if I have cheated people on their taxes, I will give them back four times as much!” 9 Jesus responded, “Salvation has come to this home today, for this man has shown himself to be a true son of Abraham. 10 For the Son of Man came to seek and save those who are lost.”
· God’s narrative is that He has come to seek and save lost mankind
· Scripture is where we go to find out HOW Jesus is going to save us
· We must embrace the narrative we have been given
· If our eternal security is based upon the biblical narrative, we have to know what it is.

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SHOW LESS

The last couple of weeks, we’ve been talking about the eternal security of the believer. In this series, I am emphasizing the need to continue what you’ve started, and finishing what you’ve continued. Church and the kingdom of God is ALL about redemption, salvation, and heaven. Several years ago, before we bought this property, Borg Warner went out of business here. I know of several people who were very close to having enough time to retire with full benefits. One female worker was short by ONE DAY and they did not grant her retirement benefits. The fact they were close DID NOT allow them to get the benefits. Once you enter into a relationship with Jesus, there’s no looking back.

It has been said to Keep the Main Thing the Main Thing! It simply reminds us to keep our priorities straight. This can be way more difficult than it seems. Our ability to prioritize is dependent upon how we perceive urgency. Our eternal destination is ALWAYS an urgent topic because of its implications. In reality, we don’t always FEEL the urgency during our everyday activities. The truth is, if going to heaven is important to you, then you must understand how grace and works relate to one another. Your salvation is literally dependent upon you having an understanding of them.

Easter Sunday is over and most people return to business as usual, sometimes never really thinking deeply about Christ’s death, burial and resurrection, until next year’s Easter celebration. However, after hearing all that Christ has done to bring humans into close relationship him, he then asked, What will you do with the empty grave?