RC Sunday Devotion - Faith Redefined

[Music] hey hey welcome everybody my name is sean o'rourke thanks for joining today i'm here to uh we'll do a couple minute devotion right now so wherever you're at just prepare your heart prepare your mind just to encounter jesus together we're going to open his word we're going to pray we're just going to kind of unpack something i feel like i've been wanting to share for a little bit now so i'm so excited i get to share with you guys so if you want to check out more things about our church there's some stuff you can probably click on after this and stuff that's going to happen but i just want to dig in with you guys i'm so glad to be able to spend some time with you it's been a long time since i've been able to share so so excited to be able to do that today so wherever you're at let's just read our hearts for the lord let's just ready our hearts for what he wants to speak to us right now what he's going to be writing inside of us as we open up his word and as we as we ponder some things with jesus so i'm going to pray and i'll just encourage you just to to quiet your heart for a moment and turn your affection towards him jesus i thank you lord that you are so good god you're better than i think you're better than my days would even indicate lord even on the best of days god you're still better lord i thank you that whether we're in the pit or the palace jesus that you are god your lord that we can extravagantly hope in you jesus for all things father i thank you right now for just breaking depression for breaking darkness lord for breaking lies of the enemy over everyone who listens to this in jesus name i thank you lord that you're breaking those things off right now in jesus name so that we can know you better lord so that we can know you better jesus i just welcome you holy spirit just to come right now be with us in a unique way holy spirit we love you lord in jesus name amen okay so um i'm just gonna hop right in about two weeks ago um actually no a little less than two weeks ago about a week ago um i was working from home and i heard a knock at my door so pretty common just went to the door see who was there maybe a neighbor a delivery person a friend and i go to the door and it's my neighbor it's actually my next door neighbor and my next door neighbor is a lovely lovely couple and uh we see each other often in passing or you know we we uh we make sure to connect with one another usually about once or twice a week we just um our houses are are pretty close together and we share a front yard and um and my direct neighbors are just amazing at yard work amazing at yard work they're unbelievable they they make me have to step up my game some of you can relate so um wonderful people so they knock on the door uh and and his name his name we'll just call him rob so rob knocks on my door and rob says hey sean hey i'm sorry to interrupt i have a question to ask you i said yeah what's going on he said could you help me could you go down my roof and clear off some debris some leaves some sticks that have fallen recently would you mind getting up there and doing that now we have ranch single story homes a ranch uh housing layout so as a result it's only really one flight one it's you know 10 feet off the ground i get up on my roof kind of often so i looked and i said oh of course yeah hey give me give me five minutes let me throw some boots on and i'll be right over there and he said well no hold on hold on um i want you to do this for us because it'd be really helpful but i want to mow your lawn in return or do trim work for you i want to make sure that that i give you something and i looked at rob and i said no you like i so appreciate that but no worries i'm happy to to to hop up there and and uh and and clear us off your roof that you don't have to worry about giving me anything in return and at that moment he actually stopped and his countenance changed and he actually was was uh started to be upset and i could tell he actually started to backpedal and he said no no no no i need to give you something in return so if you don't want to do this i'm going to go ask somebody else if you don't allow me to to mow your lawn sometime this summer you can let me know when and i said okay hey no problem hey thanks so much i really appreciate it that sounds like a great plan so i go over next door and i get up on the roof and i clear stuff off you know up there for 10 minutes or so and they're thanking me well from the you know their lawn and they're just super sweet people and i get down and you know pack everything up ladder and come back over to my house and i walked into my house i went in just past the threshold and all of a sudden i just had this encounter with jesus and i and i i felt the presence of god in such a unique and powerful way and i just stopped there and just started to worship him and just started to to encounter the holy spirit and um you guys might have similar situations where all of a sudden the lord will just come in a moment and it's so important that we respond to his presence and so i just stood there and um just had an amazing time with the lord and in that moment the lord just showed me some things and unpacked some things for me he just showed me something about covenant show me something about relationship that's what i want to talk about today you know the bible says some things about faith that are really important a lot of us are familiar with this verse this verse it says faith is the assurance of things hoped for the conviction of things not seen faith is such an important part of our life faith is it's the currency of heaven according to bill johnson it's a wonderful analogy a wonderful illustration of the importance and significance of the faith we carry actually ushers in the reality of another kingdom the kingdom of god faith is so important that we can't we we're actually called to live by faith not by sight and here is a great definition of faith according to the bible is faith is the assurance of things hoped for in the conviction of things not seen now sometimes we we connect faith to um we confuse faith for the gift of faith the gift of faith would be a spiritual gift according to um to first corinthians the gift of faith is where we have faith for something in a moment faith that god's going to move an unction of belief of something that's bearing witness inside of us of what god's about to do uh it could be healing it could be someone getting healed it could be god moving miraculously uh it could be a solution to a problem that no one else is seeing we have faith of what's going to happen we have faith of what's going to move that would be the gift of faith versus the um the calling of faith is one of belief that's one that according to the bible it says all of us have been given faith in measure meaning all of us actually have the ability to commune with god through faith to believe in god we have the ability to have a relationship with the lord because we've already been given the opportunity for faith we've already been given um a measure of faith that each of us already have and then that faith uh when combined with the gift of faith all the sort all of a sudden that all you know all sorts of things can happen pretty quickly but moving to that life of faith so i just want to talk today just about the life of faith about about faith and what it looks like and what that definition is now if you're like me um i love corporate worship some of you out there maybe you don't you're not in a church environment that has worship our church environment we have worship and we tend to spend a lot of time in worship we tend to sing songs to the lord we tend to come together as a community and there's something just so special and powerful about that corporate gathering of praise and worship being given to the lord and being in an environment of that however worship is not just a sunday morning expression of your love or gratitude or a sunday morning expression of your faith worship according to the bible actually has to do with work so it says this uh let's see if i can get this up here it says this in colossians 4 it says work willingly of whatever you do as though you are working for the lord not for people remember that the lord that the lord will give you an inheritance as your reward that the master you are serving is christ that our worship the amount of time we work is much bigger than the amount of time we're in a worship service so our worship has to take on an expression outside of just that worship service it often is going to look like work according to the bible that our work can become our place of worship when we do it with integrity when we do it with honor when we deal with excellence when we're doing it for the lord not for people when we're when we're focusing on letting our yes be yes and following through on our promises we're actually according to the bible we're worshiping jesus when we see as what we do as serving him not just people now that's the context of everything but there's something really powerful about what i want to touch on today and that's this that's that we're in covenant with a god we're in covenant with a god who actually is a rewarder of those who seek him that faith is the conviction of things hoped for however there's a further explanation of what faith looks like according to the bible in hebrews 11 verse 6 it says without faith is impossible to please god because anyone who wants to come to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him that the lord is a rewarder of those who seek him it's that that is the second part that is the and that is a part of faith it's impossible to please god unless you believe that he rewards you when you seek him that's a paradigm shift see most of us might be brought up in an environment where we come to the lord and we're not really concerned about our reward our reward is his presence our reward is him and that is totally true totally valid however there's a further expression here of faith where faith is is is coming to the lord seeking him believing that he exists and that in itself can be is such a reward of being in relationship with jesus it is the reward it is the inheritance however there's something even more about our relationship with lord that faith with the lord that faith is actually part of biblical faith is believing that he wants to reward you as you seek him that he's not just he's not a god that wants you to serve him he wants to actively reward you for seeking him now that's not to say we earn things with the lord but there is context here that biblical faith looks like the lord releasing rewards to us as we seek him as we as we believe in him when my neighbor came over and my neighbor said sean i want you to would you want would you do this for me but i want to give you something in return i had this encounter with the lord afterwards when i came inside and i just felt the presence of the lord and just turned my affections and worship the lord started to show me that i need to raise my expectations of the active reward of who god is the active rewards that he wants to release to us that we don't serve a god who sits idly and all of our rewards come in heaven we actually serve a god who by faith we serve and he releases blessing to us part of the definition of faith is we believe that he is going to actively reward those who are sincerely and diligently seeking him so i say this today to upgrade our expectations that he is your reward and he's also your rewarder that the things that that that that you're looking for in life that that god actually has those in store but he wants to reward you today currently you see when we attach our faith to that we're going to start seeing the rewards come in and it's not to it's not a bless me club but apparently the lord is extremely interested in seeing his people rewarded for seeking him that to imagine a god who doesn't reward that is not the god of the bible that's not that's not the god of of the bible that's not who jesus perfectly revealed he's a rewarder of those who seek him so today whatever you're seeking him in whether and your service can be obedience by working by your work becoming your worship you're going through what feels like a daily thing which feels like an uneventful moment you're actually positioning yourself from gr for great rewards from your heavenly father because he is the rewarder of those that are living in faith that are living by faith that are working as though this worship this is worship for you we have to open up our minds and our floodgates to to have a greater expectation anticipation that he will reward every need that you have physically financially relationally spiritually emotionally that the lord wants to reward you he wants to fill up your heart he wants to fill up those places in your life because it says to cast all of your anxieties on him because he cares for you why because he wants to come into those places into those gaps in your life he wants to come into those places see he is better than we think he's better than we can ask think or imagine so i want to close today with a charge to raise our expectation to widen our anticipation of how the lord wants to release rewards into our life actively as we seek to live by faith that we see in possibilities bowed to the name of jesus that we see circumstances change things we didn't even pray about but simply because we're walking by faith we have an expectation of victory an expectation of being more than a conqueror through christ an expectation of getting all of my needs met an expectation that i don't serve a god who's far away is going to give me a reward one day i serve a god now who wants to come into my life and show me his glory who wants to show me who he is and that i have to purpose myself to be a recipient to receive what it is that he wants to give by grafting this into our belief system that he has rewarded those who seek him we're going to position ourselves to recognize rewards as god's releasing them because it says that every good and perfect thing is from your father every good and perfect thing is from the father of lights so i'm going to pray right now and i just i i challenge you to increase your expectation if you need healing increase your expectation if if you need breakthrough in an area of life you need opportunity that's the thing you're looking for lord i need more opportunity increase your expectation as you partner yourself and living a lifestyle of worship and faith so lord i thank you right now holy spirit for increasing god for widening and for charging lord an expectation of of of things that have not yet come lord i thank you right now god for missing things that you're gonna make those things come to pass those things that feel like there's a gap you're gonna come lord and fill those gaps lord i thank you that we can believe in you for greater things jesus for those around us the god we can believe that you are the god who makes impossible situations bow to your name and lord i just thank you that the part of your nature is that you are you are a rewarder of those who live by faith of those who seek you jesus of those of those who are turning our hearts and affections towards you i thank you jesus lord i bless your people today and i just bless any one of you out there today is your day if you want your circumstances changed if you want to give your life to jesus if you just want to see him in a greater way maybe you already know him today is your day to turn your hearts to the lord and lay down everything that you're holding and take hold of all that he is so laura thank you so much and i bless you guys thank you guys so much for joining today i will see you guys again real soon if you're part of zion we'll see you next week um if you're not check out our website we would love to connect with you further bless you guys [Music]

Channel: Zion Christian Fellowship

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Length: 17min 31sec (1051 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 12 2021