The Well: Sermon Video

Abraham had moments where he doubted, feared and wavered, but the overall trajectory of his life was a growing faith in God. He believed God’s promises, “and it was counted to him as righteousness” (Romans 4:6). Though we may stumble at times as well, faith that matures over time is marked by increasing trust and action in response to the Holy Spirit and God’s Word.

Noah wasn’t perfect, but he was a man of faith who walked with God, even when everyone else around him did not. People thought he was crazy for building a boat bigger than they had ever seen, yet Noah had the faith to stand out and do what God called him to do. What is God calling you to do in radical obedience to Him?

Brad explains what has happened with Cultivate so far, sharing how the First Fruit money is being used in the community, showing photos of the renovation up to this point at the Fig Garden Campus, and revealing blueprint and elevation plans for the relocation of the North Campus. How can you be part of what God is doing in our city? Find out here.

What does it mean to have biblical faith? The people mentioned in Hebrews 11 were hardly perfect, yet they were commended for their faith because they had moments in their lives where they were walking in intimacy with God and demonstrated faith in Him. In all of their frailties and all of their issues, God chose to use these men and women for His glory.

This week we are going to look at the last two miracles of the nine Matthew records. Through them, we see the sovereignty of King Jesus over disability and the demonic. Matthew shows Jesus to be the promised Messiah who was prophesied about in Isaiah 35, which tells us that when the Messiah comes, His kingdom will be marked by the blind being able to see and the mute being able to speak. In this passage, we see just that, when Jesus opens the eyes of two blind men and opens the mouth of a man who has been made mute by demonization.

Through the interactions with the people in this passage, Jesus continues to show those around Him that He does not fit into the pattern they thought He should. He would not be an add-on to their religious practices. Rather, He was someone and something completely new, someone who shows incredible compassion to people because He understands the heart of God and demonstrates it fully.

After seeing Jesus perform many miracles, not only are the disciples still unclear about who Jesus is, the religious people are as well. As He forgives sins, heals the sick and injured, and spends time with sinners, He shows them the kind of person He is, and declares that His desire is for His followers to be compassionate to others. May we be a church that loves people the way He has shown His love to us.

At the end of chapter 8, we see Jesus entering a pagan land. It’s there that he comes across some demon-possessed men who were living in a tomb, deeply disturbed and prone to violence. Mark 5 adds some details to the story, specifically about one of the men, saying that Jesus set him free and he was returned to his right mind. When Jesus goes to leave the region, the man wants to go with Him, but Jesus tells him to stay and tell people what happened, and God uses this guy to influence a region for Him. The beauty of the gospel is that it frees you from the chains of your past and allows you to bear fruit right where you are – because your story of life transformation in your context is powerful to those who get to see you change.

At this point in the book of Matthew, the disciples have been with Jesus for a while. They have spent time with Him, listened to Him teach, and they have seen Him do miracles and heal people. Jesus has demonstrated who He is, but when the storm hits, their lack of faith shows they do not really believe He is who He says He is. When we are experience storms in life, do we truly believe in the almighty God and trust that He is sovereign, even through our most difficult circumstances?

As believers, God is sanctifying us, and His desire is for all of us to become mature followers of Him. In this passage, Paul writes to the church at Thessalonica about how a body of believers is to interact together. We want to invite you into a process of life change that clarifies eight steps of a mature follower of Christ. Where are you in the process? And what’s your next step?