October 18, 2009, sermon notes.
 
Scriptures For America
P.O. Box 766
La Porte, Colorado  80535

www.scripturesforamerica.org

 
Sunday morning church service from the La Porte Church of Christ,
with Pastor Peter J. Peters, and the church congregation singers.
 
 
 
SINGING, PRAISE, AND WORSHIP. 
"Blame God," was a new song debuted by Chris Blankenship.
Opening prayer to be a light for the world.
We pray for repentance and spell casting DC sorcery cease with the pistol prayer.
Grant Your repentance to us, O Lord!
We are going to take this land back by faith.
"This Land Is His Land, He Made It Our Land," song one.
"This land was made for liberty, this land of Christianity."
Circuit Riding Preacher Song Book #1, sound bite from Bill in Austin, Texas.
Sing along to all these songs. The perfect singing style is "Joyful."
Sing with joy and from your heart and draw closer to God.
"Just A Closer Walk With Thee," song two.
"Jesus, keep me from all wrong, ...as I walk close to Thee."
Prayer for us to draw closer to You, our Father in heaven,
when we draw near to You, You will draw near to us."
"On The Wings of a Dove," song three.
The La Porte Church of Christ sends out their love to the extended congregation.
"Faith Is The Victory," song four.


 
 
COMMUNION SUPPER EXHORTATION
It is a continuing challenge to teach the new people coming into the truth.
"Such Great Faith," as the truth came to the man,
as the difference between faith and belief,
as both are equally important, but they are two different things.
Faith is acting on what you believe, as belief only will get you nowhere.
In communion, we are acting on what we believe.
Jesus is our perfect sacrifice, and we act on our belief when we partake of communion.
You become a Christian when you repent and are baptized.
You abide in the Vine through communion.
That we abide in Him, as He is the Vine and we are the branches.
Don't dry up and get thrown into the fire.
A family flew in from Oregon to be baptized, four in number.
More and more people are getting baptized.
A man in the south got baptized with his father.
A man from England is coming to be baptized.
Praise and thank you to Jesus!
Communion is foolishness to the world.
We believe and we act on it,
and we are grateful to Jesus that we may come to His table.
We are in that kingdom, and we act on what we believe.
Thanks to Our Heavenly Father for His only begotten Son given to us.
A call for the Holy Spirit to grant discernment of the healing and the blessings from Jesus perfect sacrifice for us.
We partake together and HalleluYah!




 
SERMON NOTES for October 18, 2009. 
Today's message title is, "Getting Greater Faith - Part One."
The concepts are many in getting faith.
Getting Greater Faith.
If you want to get something, you've got to go after it, and set a goal to attain it.
Prayer for getting greater faith, in the name of Jesus Christ.
Grant to us a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of You,
and the call for answering this prayer for greater faith.
 
It requires, "Getting,"a faith concept down.
So many have the idea that faith is something you have or don't have.
Understand there is great faith and little faith.
Make up your mind which one you want.
You gotta go after it.
Great faith and little faith are both in the Bible.
The Centurion had great faith.
The Matthew 8:25-26 apostles had little faith.
 
 
More is required for the saints to get faith.
The 4 year old grandson was admonished to, "Use your manners!"
but he didn't know what manners were.
Get faith, use faith, and be faithful,
but Christians have not been taught the faith concepts.
Faith is something you can have in a great way or a shallow little way.
Jesus made a choice to have great faith.
So many have a satisfied attitude when the winds are not whipping up the waves.
Get your faith while the seas are calm.
Built upon the rock, the house stood by faith.
Get your faith in the non-stormy times.
Quantity and quality have faith levels.
"Increase our faith."
Hebrews 12:2, "Fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God."
And what about the quality of our faith?
The Author and Perfecter of faith has to do with quality.
 
"I Am, " confessional, and a new one, "I am being perfected."
It's about time! Where is He perfecting us? In our faith!
 
Question: Do you want to get greater faith?
Raise your hands and praise the Lord, HalleluYah!
There are storms a coming.
Get the faith and get it now.
Do you want more faith, and does Jesus Christ want you to have more faith?
Repentance to the will of the Lord.
God will get you there, as He knows how to break stubborn saints.
Humble yourself before God or you will be humbled.
 
Christians have not been taught the truths of faith.
They don't know the difference between faith and belief.
Faith concepts of the early church have been lost in the last 2000 years.
Anything in life that has value and a worth, you have to go after it.
The sheeple set goals for physical, and financial things, etc.,
but they don't set spiritual goals.
 
 
 
The "Yeah, but...." department.
Concept and warning, and the dirty birds have their feathers ruffled,
and some of the sheeple have their wool tied in a knot.
Get this truth point, as Jesus set a goal to have great faith when He was a youth.
He did what He did as a man. Jesus was a man, as the Son of God who became a man.
"The word became flesh and dwelt among us."
"Man, let Me show you what a man can do with faith!" said Jesus.
We are sons of God, children of God.
The sheep claim He was the Son of God, and that justifies their lack of faith.
The Lord slaps the preacher and says, "Now practice what you preach, Pete!"
 
 
A play called, "Annie Get Your Gun."
A song, "Anything you can do I can do better." was in that play.
Let's sing it and put it where it belongs.
Song, and singing and prayer brings in the faith.
The story of the Choo-choo train and the big mountain.
The "I Think I Can," mentality, as we look at the unseen thing happening for us.
First, think you can!
The Choo-choo train changed his way of stinkin' thinkin'.
He got over the hill, and faith is no different in the way it works for us.
Satan is singing the, "No You Can't!" bass part of the song.
Shut up, you Satan!
Jesus will tap His foot and say, "Yes you can!"
John 14:12, "He who believes in Me.....greater works than these....."
Faith comes by hearing and we need to hear these things.
 
Yeah but, as a man Jesus could do nothing....unless.
John 5:19, "Therefore Jesus answered and was saying to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, unless it is something He sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, these things the Son also does in like manner."
Last week's message was designed to leave you hanging.
 
 
"Such Great Faith," was last week's sermon message,
that left us hanging regarding the Centurion.
Matthew 8 story read again.
"Just say the word!"
"I too, am a man under authority."
Why did Jesus say this man had greater faith than anyone else?
Jesus had seen many faithful acts, but this man's act was greater than all others.
If you know the answer,
then you will have a great faith concept that can enhance your faith.
 
Matthew 8, this Centurion was the apostle Paul's father.
Very interesting human interest part of the story.
The Tribe of Benjamin, and king Saul was from that tribe,
so many of the boys received that same name.
The story of the events are reviewed.
The Centurion was probably a wealthy officer type.
He left his wife a wealthy widow, as he died.
She remarried later, a Roman high civil servant, and they became believers.
Romans 16:13, read.
Rufus was Paul's half-brother.
Conversation between Paul and his father as to the appearance of Jesus.
The natural realm of sight and physical senses, as we believe this is important.
Here's the point, the conversation, the father would have said,
"I never saw the man nor heard his voice, etc."
Did any go to the Luke 7 account of this story?
We can harmonize these two accounts perfectly.
"He sent some jewish elders....worthy.....loves our nation....built our synagogues....
sent friends.....I am not worthy.....just say the word.....
and he does it........not even in Israel have I found such great faith."
He came to Jesus through the authority of the messengers, but not physically.
The Holy Spirit is the messenger that intercedes.
Through Him, we can have direct communication.
An important point to understand faith, in the faith realm,
it is in the realm of the unseen.
This man of faith had never even seen Jesus!
John 20:25, doubting Thomas, read, "Unless I shall see....I will not believe."
26-29 verses read.
"See my hands.....be not unbelieving...but believe...
blessed are they who did not see and yet believe."
His act of faith was greater because he was operating in the unseen.
The greatest faith came through the realm of the unseen.
 
Hebrews 11:1 KJV, "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for,
the evidence of things not seen." 
It tells us there is a place of the unseen, and we can see it!
We haven't been taught these things.
Sunday school illustration question,
"How many believe that the preacher is at the pulpit preaching?"
Don't you see him? It is a stupid question,
because your physical senses tell you he is there.
In the supernatural, you know the things exist because you don't seen them.
I want you to see the unseen, in the eternal realm.
2 Corinthians 4:18, "While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal."
2 Corinthians 5:7, "We walk by faith and not by sight."
The early church looked at the unseen.
Get away from the idea that the seen world is necessary,
but it doesn't have to be that way.
The more blessed comes to the eyes of understanding,
looking into the realm of the unseen.
Heb.11:27, "Not fearing the wrath of the king...."
God is in the unseen,
as your cannot not see Him with these physical eyes in your head.
 
Go back to what Jesus said. What He did, He did as a man.
Man, let Me show you what a man can do with faith.
"The Son of man can do nothing of Himself........sees the Father doing ...in like manner."
 
The preacher's prayer style is changing some
and he will elaborate more on why in the next message.
Begin to take a look-see into the unseen.
"The Son can do nothing of Himself," because he was a man.
Heal the sick, cast out demons, greater works than I did, you shall do. 
You are a son of God.
Drive this point home, that the sheeple need to know it.
Make the timidity of the sheep, reacting in fear,
as Jesus commanded and rebuked the waves.
He asked, "Why are you so timid?"
We need to come boldly to the throne of God, through our High Priest Jesus.
 
 
Illustration of the allegations against the preacher.
The calves were weaned off the cows this day last week.
He picked the day because of the moon cycle.
Accused of being a lunar moon worshipper.
Farmers almanac and the Fence Post tell that the moon affects us,
and makes many go loony.
The moon is a big rock over your head, and it affects the blood.
The gravity and the blood is in the hooves, and the calves settle down better.
The horses were saddled and ready, and the cows are a mile away,
down at the river bottom.
A storm moved in, and the preacher took the reigns, and he rebuked the storm.
The things of God are foolishness to the natural man.
The sheep want to fit into the flock.
Jesus got up and said, "Stop!" as He rebuked the wind and the waves with authority.
 
We've got to learn our authority again.
We have got to see the unseen, as the  storm changed,
and the day turned pleasant and warm.
"The Son of man can do nothing of Himself..."
Jesus looked into the unseen and He saw it being done,
doing God's will on earth as it is in heaven.
We have got to get the simplicity and the complexities of faith
down in our sheep brains.
 
Go after faith, and get it while the sea is calm, before the coming tempest.
We need to get the faith concepts and the ingredients in our lives.
Anything Jesus did, you can do better, as He told us so.
 
The Centurion got it done in the unseen, as he never saw Jesus face to face.
 
Closing prayer in accordance with Numbers 6:24-26.
"Faith Is The Victory," closing song.
 
2 Corinthians 5:7 "We walk by faith and not by sight"