A Life of Faith (03-29-2020)

A Life of Faith (03-29-2020)

Worship

“My Goal is God Himself”

– 1 –
My goal is God Himself, not joy, nor peace,
Nor even blessing, but Himself, my God;
’Tis His to lead me there—not mine, but His—
At any cost, dear Lord, by any road.

– 2 –
So faith bounds forward to its goal in God,
And love can trust her Lord to lead her there;
Upheld by Him, my soul is following hard
Till God hath full fulfilled my deepest prayer.

– 3 –
No matter if the way be sometimes dark,
No matter though the cost be oft-times great,
He knoweth how I best shall reach the mark,
The way that leads to Him must needs be strait.

– 4 –
One thing I know, I cannot say Him nay;
One thing I do, I press towards my Lord;
My God my glory here, from day to day,
And in the glory there my great Reward. 

The hymn for this week is “My Goal is God” by Frances Brook. This is a precious hymn that is very special in that it has such an intense focus on God Himself being our Goal, our Prize, and our Reward. We can make the focus of our lives a lot of different things: our career, our families, our health (or lack thereof), money (or lack thereof), success, status, the pursuit of happiness, etc.; the writer of this hymn had a profound realization that God is the highest and best thing to live for. I am reminded of the verses penned by the Apostle Paul in Philippians Chapter 3 where he talks about counting everything else as loss, that he might gain Christ, know Him, and be found in Him because knowing Christ is so surpassingly excellent than anything else (verses 4-9).

Verse 1 of our hymn starts out with this profound thought: my Goal is God, not His blessings, not anything else, it is just God Himself. It is so true that God blesses us with so many things–but do not get trapped looking for or being content with the gifts while forsaking the Giver! The verse doesn’t stop there, the writer has another profound thought, that God is responsible to bring me ALL the way to that end–it may take many different roads, it may take many different costs–but God will faithfully bring us to that end, when we will have Him and only Him Himself.

So verse 2 continues this thought, and even employs some strong language: “So faith bounds forward”, not just merely inching on, not slowly limping (even though this may be our experience from time to time), faith BOUNDS forward to its goal in God. “And love can trust her Lord to lead her there” and we are upheld by Him every step of the way until we reach our Goal.

Verse 3 talks about how sometimes the road is dark (i.e., we may not know exactly where we’re going or how we’ll get there), and we may/will have to make large sacrifices with the cost being often great. Oh but praise the Lord, God is so worth it, and He knows how to bring us there, He knows perfectly well! May we sing and pray and praise with verse 4 where we “would not say Him nay”, meaning we don’t say “no” to the Lord, we just humbly go His way and say “yes” to Him again and again, and the ‘one thing’ we do is just press on. Dear brothers and sisters, God can be our glory here, from day to day, and He will be in eternity our “exceedingly great Reward” (Gen. 15:1).

May the Lord bless us all and give us such a life to faithfully follow Him, trusting that He will carry us faithfully to the end!
— Ian K

“Simplicity”

– 1 –
I come in simplicity,
Longing for purity
To worship in You
In spirit and truth, only You.
Lord, strip it all away
Till only You remain;
I’m coming back to my first love,
Only You.

Chorus
You’re the reason I sing,
The reason I sing,
My heart will sing,
How I love You;
And forever I’ll sing,
Forever I’ll sing,
Yes, my heart will sing,
How I love You.

– 2 –
I come with my broken song
To You, the perfect One,
To worship You in spirit and truth, only You.
Give me a child-like heart,
Lead me to where You are,
I’m coming back to my first love, only You.

Most of us may be familiar with the song “Simplicity” by Rend Collective. This is such a sweet love song to the Lord. Keeping in the title of the song, I very much appreciate the “simplicity” and straight-forwardness of the song. It is so wonderful that we may come to the Lord with our child-like faith, not because we know so much, or have done so much for the Lord, but just because we love Him. I really appreciate the honesty of verse 2, that we come to the Lord with our ‘broken song’ that is far from perfect, and yet we come to the perfect One. Psalm 8 says that it is out of the mouths of babies and nursing infants that the Lord has perfected praise (v. 2): He is the One that makes our praise pleasing to Him. Furthermore, praise the Lord that He is the One who will always receive us when we come to Him, He will never cast us out and turn us away (John 6:37), even if we feel like our songs and prayers are less than adequate. May we have such a sweet and simple love for our Lord, and be confident that He will be happy to receive us and our broken songs to make them perfect praise. 
— Ian Konopinski


Children’s Content

“Faith is Just Believing”

Coloring Pages


Message

A Life of Faith

Message given by Rex Beck

Hebrews 11:1, 6
1Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen…. 6And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.

Galatians 3:7-9
Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham. 8And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “In you shall all the nations be blessed.” So then, those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.

Genesis 17:15-19
15And God said to Abraham, “As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name. 16I will bless her, and moreover, I will give you a son by her. I will bless her, and she shall become nations; kings of peoples shall come from her.” 17 Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed and said to himself, “Shall a child be born to a man who is a hundred years old? Shall Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child?” 18And Abraham said to God, “Oh that Ishmael might live before you!” 19God said, “No, but Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his offspring after him.

Romans 4:16-22
16That is why it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his offspring—not only to the adherent of the law but also to the one who shares the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all, 17as it is written, “I have made you the father of many nations”—in the presence of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist. 18In hope he believed against hope, that he should become the father of many nations, as he had been told, “So shall your offspring be.” 19He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was as good as dead (since he was about a hundred years old), or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah’s womb. 20No unbelief made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, 21fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. 22That is why his faith was “counted to him as righteousness.”

Genesis 22:1-19
1After these things God tested Abraham and said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” 2He said, “Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.” 3So Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and his son Isaac. And he cut the wood for the burnt offering and arose and went to the place of which God had told him. 4On the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place from afar. 5Then Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here with the donkey; I and the boy will go over there and worship and come again to you.” 6And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son. And he took in his hand the fire and the knife. So they went both of them together.7And Isaac said to his father Abraham, “My father!” And he said, “Here I am, my son.” He said, “Behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” 8Abraham said, “God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.” So they went both of them together.

9When they came to the place of which God had told him, Abraham built the altar there and laid the wood in order and bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. 10Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to slaughter his son. 11But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” 12He said, “Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him, for now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.” 13And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him was a ram, caught in a thicket by his horns. And Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son. 14So Abraham called the name of that place, “The Lord will provide”; as it is said to this day, “On the mount of the Lord it shall be provided.”

15And the angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time from heaven 16and said, “By myself I have sworn, declares the Lord, because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, 17I will surely bless you, and I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore. And your offspring shall possess the gate of his enemies, 18and in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice.” 19So Abraham returned to his young men, and they arose and went together to Beersheba. And Abraham lived at Beersheba.

Hebrews 11: 17-19
17By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was in the act of offering up his only son, 18of whom it was said, “Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.” 19He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead, from which, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back.


A message for your enjoyment throughout the week

Visions and Revelations

by Titus Chu

6 thoughts on “A Life of Faith (03-29-2020)

  1. Faith is what we have. Faith is what we have been given. We have been chosen to have faith, even if the faith less than a mustard seed. Even if our faith is only two percent, the Lord looks at it and counts it as something worthy. Praise the Lord! Even if our faith is not great. even if our faith is not strong, the Lord is pleased with it. It counts to Him!

    We don’t need to be discouraged if our faith is small, the Lord will honor it and bring it to fullness in His own time and for His glory.

    Halleujah! We are sons of Abraham!

  2. Amen. “My Goal is Goad Himself” is a beautiful hymn. The Bible says in Phiippiand 3:14 ” I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.”

  3. God promised Abraham this because of his faithfulness.
    “I will surely bless you, and I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven
    and as the sand that is on the seashore.”
    What a beautiful blessing to receive from Almighty God!

    Stay faithful saints.

    “For we walk by faith, not by sight.”
    1 Corinthians 5:7

    “Seek The Lord and his strength, seek his presence continually!”
    – 1Chronicles 16:11

  4. So often we get discouraged, but I liked what a sister had said, even if I had a little faith, it counts to God

    From Chip

  5. Hell-o Saints, I am here with my youngest grand son Nate! We are listening to the children portion, great job?
    I have the Lord’s Table set, because Nate asked me where is the lord and pointed to my dresser where I keep it the bread and the blood, to remember the Lord. He wanted to help me set it because he see’s me very often setting the Lord’s table. It reminds me let the children see you worship the Lord and they will follow. Praise God, let our children see us worship! Amen

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