Sermon prepared by the Holy Spirit

& Pastor Andrew T. Okai

Twenty second Sunday in Pentecostal

October 16, 2016

Sermon texts:2 Timothy 3:16; Luke 18:8; Genesis 32:24-26

Sermon theme:The Principles of Persistent Faith

 

Introduction

Grace, mercy, and peace...

 

Today from all of our readings, we find the subject regarding persistence... so we want to spend a little bit of time this morning talking about that...

 

I feel that this subject is important because one of the schemes of the evil one is to get God’s people caught up into believing that Christianity lives in a modern era; and so there is a new age theory on how it is orchestrated... (So many Christians today have moved away from what they term as the old system and leaning toward what they term as the new...)

 

What they would consider today as old is: church attendance, bible studies attendance, Sunday school, prayer, the preaching of solid biblical truth...

 

What is new–church for many Christians today is the place where people go for special ceremonies or celebrations –thanksgiving, Christmas, baptism, weddings, funerals, etc.

Bible study: according to a survey done by Religious News service in 2013 more than half of Americans think the bible has too little influence on a culture & only 1 in five Americans reads it...

Sunday School has been substituted for sports on Sunday morning...

And prayer or prayer meetings are no longer a discussion in church gatherings...

 

These facts set the stage for our sermon today; this is exactly what our Lord Jesus saw looking into the future when he asked the question found in our gospel text today... Luke 18:8b however, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?”

The reason why Our Lord is looking into future of the church and asking this question is because faith is the life of the church...

2 Corinthians 5:7for we live by faith, not by sight.

How do we receive faith? Romans 10:17consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word about Christ.(What are you hearing?)

 

Listen to what Paul says again from our second reading:

2 Timothy 4:3for the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.

 

So today speaking to you on the subject “The principles of persistent faith” let’s together see some of the things that the church needs to know...

 

The church needs to know God

2 Timothy 3:16 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness...

This I consider as the first requirement for living out the Christian life of faith... (Our ignorance to the word of God is keeping us exposed more and more to the myths and lies)

This is what Satan wants – his attacks against the word of God have become even more evident today then ever before... (Even in the church, from the pulpits...)

This was the primary reason why the pilgrims came to this land – to freedom of liberty in order to freely live out their faith...Thomas Jefferson wrote: “If a nation expects to be ignorant and free in a state of civilization, it expects what never has been and never will be”

What he is saying is; when people are ignorant, they quickly go into bondage. 

 

The church needs to believe God

Luke 18:3 And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, ‘Grant me justice against my adversary.’

So this widow was very vulnerable (Because she was a widow...)

She knew the power that this judge had – and how he was the only one there that could help her out... (THIS IS US FOLKS)

Let’s zero in on the phrase “who kept coming” (Acting based on what she knows about this judge...)(she stalked his life...)

What this suggests to us also is that our belief must be the driver of our action... (Steering us toward God...)

I know that in this parable Jesus is talking about being persistent in prayer: but he is also saying that our prayer life becomes strengthened when we knowwhom we are praying to and what we are to be praying about... (One example of my own experience)

 

The church needs to trust God

Genesis 32:24-26 So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak. When the man saw that he could not overpower him, he touched the socket of Jacob’s hip so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man. Then the man said, “Let me go, for it is daybreak.” But Jacob replied, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.”

This is from our first reading for this morning... Narration...

When a Christian truly learns to trust God, it doesn’t matter what is going on around you – you will keep holding on... (Even with a dislocated hip Jacob was trusting...)

The one who trust God is the one who is not just responding to the changes around him... (Like the child who is holding on to his mother as he/she faces terror)

See the who who trusts God is the one who knows that he is the same yesterday, today, and forever...

Yes we live in a time of great uncertainty, yet we remain certain that he is certain...

Yes we live in the time of great changes, yet we remain confident that we never changes...

Yes we live in the time of faithless generation, yet we remain faithful because he is faithful...