National Community Church Audio Podcast

Pastor Mark wraps up our "By Faith" series in Hebrews 11 with a focus on verses 34-40. Between infertility, poverty, anxiety, disability, loneliness, sickness, persecution, depression, a difficult divorce, a debilitating disease, a tragic death, he sums up the passage with this: Life is unfair, then we die. We may not get all the answers we want in difficult circumstances but regardless we look to Christ who persevered through suffering for the joy set before him. Therefore we ought to, "Consider Him who endured such hostility from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart."

In the world of increased digital connections, we also see a decrease in meaningful connections with our local communities. This matters for the body of the Christ because though following Jesus is a personal decision, it is ultimately a communal practice. Listen as Pastor Joshua Symonette, gives encouragement and biblical guidance for how we can reorient our lives to prioritize those around use.

God calls us to Himself, the most stable, certain, freeing place we can be. Yet when we encounter obstacles we sometimes hesitate to lead with faith and obedience to God. Dr. Dick Foth points us to Hebrews 11, using Abraham as an example of how we are to trust God through uncertainty.

The phrase "by faith" is repeated eighteen times in Hebrews 11. Sixteen of those are biographical — "by faith, Noah", "by faith, Moses", "by faith, Abraham". All of those "by faith" statements are as unique as Noah, Moses, and Abraham. The same is true of you. Listen as Pastor Mark unpacks how to cultivate faith with your fingerprint on it. Not your parent's faith. Not your pastor's faith but yours!

What step of obedience is God prompting you to take by faith today? It is easy to understand life through what we can see with our physical eyes. However, we see examples from Moses for how to see by faith in God's wisdom and understand which is far greater than our understanding. Pastor Joel draws out four challenges from Moses' journey with the Israelites, to help us see our world through the eyes of faith. Consider how your perception changes as you engage each challenge!

Faith has no finish line—you never arrive. Faith is use it or lose it. If you don’t stretch your faith, it atrophies. How do you stretch? You believe God for greater things! The way you steward a miracle is by believing God for even bigger and better miracles. That’s how you go from faith to faith.

God’s Spirit is not constricted by time and place. He reaches us in the deepest and farthest places. Though we sometimes get to do specific actions by the power of the Holy Spirit, we always get to be people who demonstrate the fruits of the Spirit in our character. Listen as Dr. Dick Foth illustrates, through stories, how we can consider this in our daily lives.

Faith is taking the first step before God reveals the second step. The first step is when and where miracles happen. Those are the days when decades happen. We often get stuck waiting for God to give us more information, but that’s when we need to go, set, ready!

We might feel our imperfections or difficulties disqualify us from being used powerfully by God, but the word of God reminds us that God’s Spirit often moves most powerfully in our weaknesses and difficult circumstances. He turns what we perceive as imperfections into powerful tools for His purpose. Listen as Pastor Collins uses the life of Joseph in Genesis as an example to illustrate this.

What does it look like when the Holy Spirit shows up in your everyday life? Not just in the big moments, but in the normal ones too. Listen as Annie F. Downs bring us back to the first time we see the Holy Spirit in Genesis 1. She draws out how we can be more attentive to daily moments when God's Spirit is "hovering" over us.

Without the Holy Spirit, good luck! With the Holy Spirit? All bets are off and all things are possible! Not only is the Holy Spirit interceding for you, Jesus is advocating on your behalf. Two-thirds of the Trinity is interceding to the other third of the Trinity on your behalf. That’s where Holy Confidence comes from.

Before God does something through you, often times he will do something in you. Before Peter and John saw the lame man healed in Acts 3, Acts 2 happened. They sought the Holy Spirit in the Upper Room, and the Spirit showed up, filled them up and sent them out. Listen as Pastor Joel walks through the story in Acts 3 to unpack 6 challenges in following a Holy Spirit prompt.

Anything less than Spirit-filled and Spirit-led is dead religion. The true adventure begins when we starting living the Spirit-led life. It’s anything but boring! The Spirit gives us revelation beyond human knowledge, anointing beyond human ability, and power beyond human strength. Without the Holy Spirit, most of us are below average. With the Holy Spirit, all things are possible!

When Jesus walked out of the tomb, the word impossible was deleted from the dictionary. All bets are off. All things are possible. Why? The same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead dwells in us! It’s only impossible until it isn’t.