WELL DONE, GOOD AND FAITHFUL SERVANT
WELL DONE, GOOD AND FAITHFUL SERVANT
February 19th, 2023
Pastor Mike Slater
WELL DONE, GOOD AND FAITHFUL SERVANT
This morning’s message centers on a commitment to be “faithful.” It is a message that on my last Sunday I want to leave with each of you. In the Bible, Abraham has been called the Father of the Faithful. Because of his faith in God, he left his home in Ur of the Chaldees. By faith, he gave up the known and the familiar for the unknown and the unfamiliar.
He committed his life and his family and all of his possessions to the leadership of God, who called him to a new life in a new land. To find that new land and new life required years of hard work. All of the men and women of faith in the Bible have had similar experiences.
How do we practice Christian faith today? Faith is not so much an academic subject for discussion or a theological term from the Bible, as it is something on which our very life hinges. There is a desperate need today for people of Christian faith-people who will make things happen by God’s power, according to His will.
Please enjoy this morning’s worship service. I know the music, our worship, and the message will be an inspiration to each of you. I am glad you are here and we get to spend this morning together.
Encouraging One Another,
Pastor Mike
Key Scripture: 2 Corinthians 5:7-10, James 2:14-26
2 Corinthians 5:7-10
7 For we live by faith, not by sight. 8 We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord. 9 So we make it our goal to please him,whether we are at home in the body or away from it. 10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each of us may receive what is due us for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.
James 2:14-26
Faith and Deeds
14 What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? 15 Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. 16 If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? 17 In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.
18 But someone will say, “You have faith; I have deeds.”
Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds. 19 You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder.
20 You foolish person, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless[a]?21 Was not our father Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? 22 You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did. 23 And the scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,”[b] and he was called God’s friend. 24 You see that a person is considered righteous by what they do and not by faith alone.
25 In the same way, was not even Rahab the prostitute considered righteous for what she did when she gave lodging to the spies and sent them off in a different direction?26 As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.