{"id":60,"date":"2014-09-08T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2014-09-08T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thewordthisweek.com\/index.php\/2014\/09\/08\/sunday-10-august-2014-faith-is-what-matters\/"},"modified":"2014-09-08T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2014-09-08T00:00:00","slug":"sunday-10-august-2014-faith-is-what-matters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thewordthisweek.com\/index.php\/2014\/09\/08\/sunday-10-august-2014-faith-is-what-matters\/","title":{"rendered":"Sunday 10 August 2014 – Faith is what matters"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Word This Week:

<\/span><\/span>Genesis 37:1-4, 12-28<\/a>
<\/span> Psalm 105: 1-6, 16-22<\/a>
<\/span>Romans 10:5-15<\/a>\u00a0
<\/span>Matthew 14:22-33<\/a>


Let us pray:
In the name of God, Father Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.<\/span>
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<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span> Good Morning\/Evening
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<\/span> I wonder did you notice a theme throughout our readings today? It is strongest in the New Testament readings but the reading from Genesis and our Psalm also point us to a key theme.
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<\/span> That theme brothers and sisters is faith. Our Genesis account begins he account of Joseph, who as we know goes on to become a symbol of faith. Joseph maintains his faith throughout his ordeals, from being sold into slavery by his own brothers, Joseph goes on to become a ruler in Egypt.\u00a0
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<\/span> The Psalm spells out for us what Joseph\u2019s faith achieved \u2013 he was tested, he suffered, but he held firm to his trust in God and was eventually rewarded, enabling him to save his people from famine.\u00a0
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<\/span> Lets then look t what St Paul has to say to us.\u00a0 Paul in our reading from Romans is establishing for us very clearly that it is not through our external obedience to the Law of the Old Testament that we will find salvation.\u00a0 Moses he says taught that righteousness is achieved through obedience to the Law \u2013 but we are now set free from the Law, a Law which we could never hope to obey in every way at all times.\u00a0 We are all weak, we all fall short and stumble in our relationship with God.\u00a0 The Law was established to show us how to live, as a holy people in proper relationship with God \u2013 but because of our broken nature and our inability to meet the requirements of the Law, God gave us another way.
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<\/span> The basis for right living and right relationship (righteousness) is being at one with the word which dwells within – \u2018The word is near you, on your lips and in your heart\u2019.<\/strong> Paul points us to the answer Jesus Christ is the Word that is in our heart, and on our lips and if we confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.<\/strong>
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<\/span> So often we hear people say things like \u2018oh I\u2019m a good person, I\u2019ll be going to heaven\u2019.\u00a0 The point that Paul is making to us is that being a \u2018good person\u2019 is simply not enough, if we are striving to be \u2018good\u2019 enough to get into right relationship with the perfect, all powerful, all knowing creator and sustainer of all that is \u2013 seen and unseen \u2013 we will fall short.\u00a0 If we have committed even one breach of the Law \u2013 if we have failed just once then we have broken our relationship with God, and we cannot ever repair it by ourselves.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 You see God is eternal \u2013 therefore if we offend against God our offence is eternal.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0
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<\/span> But God so loves us that he could not bear for us to be separated from Him for all eternity \u2013 so he gave us a way home.\u00a0 God himself became incarnate as a human being, and lived a perfect life, so that as a human being he could offer himself as the one, perfect and sufficient sacrifice for the sins of humanity, and as God incarnate that sacrifice is eternal \u2013 ever lasting.\u00a0 His offering of himself is available to everyone \u2013 as Paul says there is no distinction between Jew and Greek<\/strong>, which Paul\u2019s audience would have understood to mean salvation is open to all.\u00a0 That is the Gospel, the Good News \u2013 that God has opened the way for us to be in right relationship with Him, even though we fail, even though we mess up, no matter what we have done we an be reconciled with God \u2013 and the way to that reconciliation is \u2013 Faith.
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<\/span> All we are asked to do to receive this gift of salvation, this gift of life eternal is to place our faith and hope in Jesus.\u00a0 Nothing we can do will earn it, being \u2018good\u2019 will leave us short.
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<\/span> Faith then, is the key \u2013 faith is what counts \u2013 not how well we meet the external requirements of the Law, not how good a person we are \u2013 because even the very best of people fall shot of the glory of God.\u00a0 So why then do Christians do so many good works? We are called to lives of love, compassion, forgiveness and charity not because we can earn salvation through them \u2013 but because we have already been saved \u2013 when we are reconciled to God through Christ we are brought into union with Him, and through that union with God we seek to emulate Jesus love, compassion and faithfulness in our own lives.
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<\/span> The Gospel reading from Matthew also points us to faith \u2013 Peter sees Jesus walking on the water and says \u2018Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.\u2019\u00a0 <\/strong>Jesus says to Him \u2013 \u2018Come\u2019. \u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>Now as we well know peter was far from being the perfect disciple, it is Peter who denies Christ and abandons Him at his trial before the crucifixion, it is Peter who is rebuked by Jesus, for speaking word\u2019s from Satan when He tries to stop Jesus talking about his coming death and resurrection.\u00a0 It is Peter who is rebuked by St Paul at Antioch for hypocrisy about eating with gentiles.\u00a0 Peter then was a flawed human being \u2013 just like me and you, and yet through the power of His faith in Christ he was able to step out of the boat and begin walking on the Sea of Galilee \u2013 now I was at the sea of Galilee a few weeks ago and I can tell you that the water there is just like the water here and if you try and walk on it you end up getting very wet very fast.
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<\/span> But Peter could do it \u2013 such was the power of his faith \u2013 that is of course until he allowed fear to cause him to doubt.\u00a0 Now lots of preachers will tell you that the reason that Peter began to sink is that he took his eyes off of Jesus \u2013 but the text doesn\u2019t say that \u2013 Jesus after rescuing Peter says\u00a0 \u2018You of little faith, why did you doubt?\u2019\u00a0 <\/strong>You see it was doubt that made Peter begin to sink, it was doubt that put up the barrier.\u00a0 And where did the doubt come from? \u2018But when he noticed the strong wind, he became frightened\u2019. <\/strong>
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<\/span> You see Peter\u2019s faith had allowed him to something incredible, something supernatural \u2013 but then he allowed fear to take hold, and he began to doubt\u00a0 – he began to ask himself the questions we all ask when we are fearful \u2013 what if\u2026 what if the wind is to strong and the waves to big \u2013 I could drown\u2026 Do you ever have fears that make you push your faith aside? I know its something that has happened to me..
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<\/span> What if they think I\u2019m some nut job for talking about Jesus? What if they ask questions I can\u2019t answer? What if my friends don\u2019t want to have anything to do with me? What if they think I\u2019m some judgemental dinosaur if I take a stand on moral or justice issues?\u00a0
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<\/span> Fear is a tool of the enemy to turn us away from Christ.\u00a0 Fear is his tool to make us stumble, to question and doubt.\u00a0 Do not let fear rule your hearts, and when you feel fear creeping in and causing you to stumble \u2013 use Peter as your example and cry out to Jesus for help, and he will reach out and save you before you sink.
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<\/span> Of course the fears we encounter in our free democracy are insignificant compared to those elsewhere in the world.\u00a0 The Christians in Iraq have been given a choice by the ISIS terrorists to either convert to Islam, pay an exorbitant \u2018protection tax\u2019 for not converting (which generally amounted to everything they owned \u2013 or if they refused to do either of those things then to be killed.\u00a0\u00a0 We need to be praying for those Christians, and for other minorities targeted by ISIS.\u00a0 We need to pray that those Christians will be delivered from this terror, and that they will know the presence and peace of Christ with them, that they might hold firm in their faith.\u00a0
<\/span>
<\/span> So then, brothers and sisters, as you go on with your loves this week, look to Christ and place your faith and hope in Him.\u00a0 Know that it is through your faith you are reconciled to God, and not through any external works of human goodness.\u00a0 Understand that Christians are called to lives of love, compassion, forgiveness and charity not because those things can earn us salvation, but because we have already been saved.
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<\/span> Finally do not let fear and doubt cause you to stumble and sink, but as St Paul calls us to: \u00a0confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, and you will be saved.

The Lord be with you.<\/span><\/span>
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<\/span> <\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

9_sap_-_10_aug_14.mp3 File Size: 8254 kb File Type: mp3 Download File The Word This Week:Genesis 37:1-4, 12-28 Psalm 105: 1-6, 16-22Romans 10:5-15\u00a0 Matthew 14:22-33Let us pray:In the name of God, Father Son and Holy Spirit. Amen. Good Morning\/Evening I wonder did you notice a theme throughout our readings today? It is strongest in the New Testament … Continue reading “Sunday 10 August 2014 – Faith is what matters”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-60","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewordthisweek.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewordthisweek.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewordthisweek.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewordthisweek.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewordthisweek.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thewordthisweek.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewordthisweek.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewordthisweek.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewordthisweek.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}