Deepening Faith: Foundations for a New Year

"Amen. Good morning, church. Happy New Year. Not everybody's excited about 2025, okay? Happy New Year. Good to see all of you. It's good to be back. If I missed you last week when Cole Travis preached and for any reason you missed his message, you will wanna go back and give that a listen. Cole is such a dynamic communicator and did such a great job of preaching in my absence last Sunday. And I am delighted to be back. The Bales family got some R &R after a busy December and Christmas season. I hope you and your family got some rest and some good time together as well. And if you have your copy of God's Word, grab that and turn with me to Hebrews chapter 11. Hebrews chapter 11. As you're turning to Hebrews 11, I'll remind you this is the first Wednesday of January. And so usually first Wednesdays are nights of worship for us dedicated to prayer and praise. This Wednesday will be another night of worship for us, but it will be slightly different in that we are ordaining our newest deacons to join our deacon body here at Prestonwood. And so in this room at 6 .30, this Wednesday night, I would invite all of you to join us. You get to watch one of the coolest things take place. And that is the institution of the ordination of deacons to serve God's church." [00:34:01] (85 seconds)


"There are only two offices mentioned in the New Testament, the office of elder or pastor, and then the office of deacon. And our deacons are servant leaders in God's church. And on Wednesday night, we'll have a new group of men and their families that'll be a part of that. And we will ordain them and our deacons will lay hands on them. And pray over them and the role that God has entrusted to them to serve his church. And so I would encourage you that it will be a night of prayer and praise and it'll just look slightly different. And so join us this Wednesday at 6 .30 right here in this room. Now, as we head into 2025, it's the perfect time of year for us to take a spiritual assessment of things." [00:35:27] (41 seconds)


"So we assess things all the time. Don't steal that, okay? That's mine. But we assess, we do diagnostics on our car. If we want to know, you know, I'm not a car guy, like whatever, you know, you want to know what's going on. Somebody who knows cars is assessing it. They're diagnosing and making sure that things are where they should be. Healthy relationships do assessments, right? If you've been dating someone for an extended period of time or married to someone, then you know sometimes you just need to have a healthy assessment. Hey, how am I doing here? How are we doing? Do you think we're getting enough time together? Do you think we're connecting? Do you think we're hitting our goals and objectives in this area of our life or in that area of our life, right? So things that we care about, we pay attention to, we assess these things. Well, faith should be no different for us. And so we're going to talk about that in detail today. And I'm going to try to simplify the conversation as much as possible. This is going to feel elementary and that's by design. So we'll talk about it in three ways. First, we're going to attempt to let the Bible define faith for us. And here's why that matters, because you would agree with me that in a world that embraces spirituality, but not necessarily Christianity, faith is a term that gets thrown around loosely. So the Bible gives us a good definition of faith. So we're going to say, what is faith biblically? How do we define it? And then we're going to ask the question, why does faith matter? In other words, why should I care about faith? In a world that is taking in a bunch of ideas and a bunch of opinions with very little Christian conviction, then why should I care so greatly about my faith? And then lastly, this is the practical part of our conversation today, is how do I build my faith?" [00:38:11] (109 seconds)


"That's not fingers crossed, I hope it gets better. Biblical hope, assurance in things hoped for, is a belief in something that God alone can provide. That's biblical hope. It's different than worldly hope. It's different than circumstantial hope. Biblical hope is an assurance, in something that God alone can provide. And then he says it's a conviction of things that are not seen. Well, conviction is a steadfast belief in something, regardless of the consequences that are associated with believing it. Okay? Conviction is a steadfast belief in something, regardless of the consequences that come from believing. I'll give you a number of examples, because you and I know what it means to live a convictional faith. So this affects how we vote." [00:42:36] (60 seconds)


"Conviction affects how we tithe. Conviction affects how we live. Conviction affects how we love. Conviction affects what we watch. Conviction affects how we spend. Conviction affects how we parent, how we teach, how we live within our communities, what kind of name. This is a conviction of things that God alone can provide. This is a convictional faith. It is a steadfast belief in something, regardless of the consequences that come from believing it. And the Bible says, according to Hebrews 11, 1, that faith is the assurance of what is hoped for. This is a biblical belief in something that God alone can provide. And it's the conviction of things that are not seen. So this is a steadfast belief in something, regardless of the consequences that come from believing it. Now, I'll give you a secular explanation of how you and I deploy faith all the time." [00:43:56] (50 seconds)


"So, if you've ever flown in an airplane, and when you get on that plane, you believe that the scientific properties that allow that plane to get off the ground, to be propelled into some way so that it can then get into the air and remain in the air, there is, don't email me, okay? Some type of science that is deployed, it makes planes fly, okay? But that is an assurance, okay? That's faith because you have an assurance that you're going to fly, okay? The science is going to prove true. Right? And that plane is going to elevate off the ground. If you believe that the most efficient way to travel around the world is by air, that's a conviction, right? And so you have the faith to want to travel by air because of the belief you have that the plane is going to elevate, it's going to work, and the most efficient way for you to get around the world is in an airplane. plane. We deploy faith every single day." [00:44:44] (62 seconds)


"But I will tell you, I think far too many Christians stay grounded because I don't believe that we transfer what we use when it comes to airplane thinking to everyday living as a person who is devoted first and foremost to following Jesus Christ. I think we're grounded far too many times. So, What is faith? It is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things that are not seen. Now, the question is next, why does faith matter? Why does faith matter? Now, again, I'll just tell you, for some, you're immediately wanting to say, well, this is a foolish question for us to be asking. But in our world, where spirituality is prevalent, but sincere belief in God is absent, you would agree the term faith is thrown around often without having any real meaning behind it. In fact, all of the data tells us today that the fastest growing spiritually designated group in the United States are identified as religious nuns. Religious nuns. What that means is that these are men and women who do not identify with any single form of spirituality or identifiable religion. And so they're a category unto themselves. Religious nuns. They have no distinct belief in anything. And currently, according to Pew Research in 2022, religious nuns make up 30 % of the adult population in the United States. 30%. But here's the scary thing. If these trends continue, researchers tell us that it will be greater than 50 % by the year 2070." [00:45:48] (106 seconds)


"So why does faith matter? Well, because it turns out that very few people have it, and that trend is growing. But listen, we're salt and light. So the church has been called, Christ's followers have been called to shine the light of genuine biblical faith into dark places and to preserve a biblical conviction in areas where things might be eroding and changing around us all of the time. And so I'm going to give you two, as followers of Jesus Christ, two distinct reasons. One, why faith matters. If you're a Christian, here's why faith matters to you. First, it is only by faith that we are justified. First, it is only by faith that we are justified. In other words, all of our right standing before God is because of our faith. Again, what is faith? It's the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. In the work of Jesus Christ on our behalf." [00:47:20] (63 seconds)