I Am Persuaded!

Discipleship Questions for Sunday

October 7, 2007

Scripture Readings:

 

First Reading: Habakkuk 1:1-13, 2:1-4

Psalm: 95

Second Reading: 2Timothy 1:1-14

Gospel: Luke 17:5-10

 

Habakkuk 1:1-13
1The burden which the prophet Habakkuk saw. 2O LORD, how long shall I cry, And You will not hear? Even cry out to You, "Violence!" And You will not save. 3Why do You show me iniquity, And cause me to see trouble? For plundering and violence are before me; There is strife, and contention arises. 4Therefore the law is powerless, And justice never goes forth. For the wicked surround the righteous; Therefore perverse judgment proceeds. 5" Look among the nations and watch- Be utterly astounded! For I will work a work in your days Which you would not believe, though it were told you. 6For indeed I am raising up the Chaldeans, A bitter and hasty nation Which marches through the breadth of the earth, To possess dwelling places that are not theirs. 7They are terrible and dreadful; Their judgment and their dignity proceed from themselves. 8Their horses also are swifter than leopards, And more fierce than evening wolves. Their chargers charge ahead; Their cavalry comes from afar; They fly as the eagle that hastens to eat. 9" They all come for violence; Their faces are set like the east wind. They gather captives like sand. 10They scoff at kings, And princes are scorned by them. They deride every stronghold, For they heap up earthen mounds and seize it. 11Then his mind changes, and he transgresses; He commits offense, Ascribing this power to his god." 12Are You not from everlasting, O LORD my God, my Holy One? We shall not die. O LORD, You have appointed them for judgment; O Rock, You have marked them for correction. 13You are of purer eyes than to behold evil, And cannot look on wickedness. Why do You look on those who deal treacherously, And hold Your tongue when the wicked devours A person more righteous than he? -- NKJV Psalm 146
1Praise the LORD!
 Praise the LORD, O my soul!

2While I live I will praise the LORD;
I will sing praises to my God while I have my being. 

3Do not put your trust in princes,
 Nor in a son of man, in whom there is no help.

4His spirit departs, he returns to his earth; 
In that very day his plans perish. 

5Happy is he who has the God of Jacob for his help,
 Whose hope is in the LORD his God,

6Who made heaven and earth, 
The sea, and all that is in them; 
Who keeps truth forever,

7Who executes justice for the oppressed, 
Who gives food to the hungry. 
The LORD gives freedom to the prisoners. 

8The LORD opens the eyes of the blind; 
The LORD raises those who are bowed down; 
The LORD loves the righteous.

9The LORD watches over the strangers; 
He relieves the fatherless and widow; 
But the way of the wicked He turns upside down. 

10The LORD shall reign forever-
Your God, O Zion, to all generations. 
Praise the LORD!
-- NKJV


 

- AND -

Habakkuk 2:1-4
1I will stand my watch And set myself on the rampart, And watch to see what He will say to me, And what I will answer when I am corrected. 2Then the LORD answered me and said: "Write the vision And make it plain on tablets, That he may run who reads it. 3For the vision is yet for an appointed time; But at the end it will speak, and it will not lie. Though it tarries, wait for it; Because it will surely come, It will not tarry. 4" Behold the proud, His soul is not upright in him; But the just shall live by his faith. -- NKJV

Psa. 95:1

  Come, let us sing for joy to the LORD; let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation.  2 Let us come before him with thanksgiving and extol him with music and song.  3 For the LORD is the great God, the great King above all gods.  4 In his hand are the depths of the earth, and the mountain peaks belong to him.  5 The sea is his, for he made it, and his hands formed the dry land.  6 Come, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the LORD our Maker;  7 for he is our God and we are the people of his pasture, the flock under his care. Today, if you hear his voice,  8 do not harden your hearts as you did at Meribah, as you did that day at Massah in the desert,  9 where your fathers tested and tried me, though they had seen what I did.  10 For forty years I was angry with that generation; I said, “They are a people whose hearts go astray, and they have not known my ways.”  11 So I declared on oath in my anger, “They shall never enter my rest.”

2Timothy 1:1-14
1Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, according to the promise of life which is in Christ Jesus, 2To Timothy, a beloved son: Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. 3I thank God, whom I serve with a pure conscience, as my forefathers did, as without ceasing I remember you in my prayers night and day, 4greatly desiring to see you, being mindful of your tears, that I may be filled with joy, 5when I call to remembrance the genuine faith that is in you, which dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice, and I am persuaded is in you also. 6Therefore I remind you to stir up the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands. 7For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. 8Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me His prisoner, but share with me in the sufferings for the gospel according to the power of God, 9who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began, 10but has now been revealed by the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ, who has abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel, 11to which I was appointed a preacher, an apostle, and a teacher of the Gentiles. 12For this reason I also suffer these things; nevertheless I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep what I have committed to Him until that Day. 13Hold fast the pattern of sound words which you have heard from me, in faith and love which are in Christ Jesus. 14That good thing which was committed to you, keep by the Holy Spirit who dwells in us. -- NKJV

 

Luke 17:5-10
5And the apostles said to the Lord, "Increase our faith." 6So the Lord said, "If you have faith as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, 'Be pulled up by the roots and be planted in the sea,' and it would obey you. 7And which of you, having a servant plowing or tending sheep, will say to him when he has come in from the field, 'Come at once and sit down to eat'? 8But will he not rather say to him, 'Prepare something for my supper, and gird yourself and serve me till I have eaten and drunk, and afterward you will eat and drink'? 9Does he thank that servant because he did the things that were commanded him? I think not. 10So likewise you, when you have done all those things which you are commanded, say, 'We are unprofitable servants. We have done what was our duty to do.'" -- NKJV

 Discipleship Questions:

 

1.     Please read the following verses from the Bible and discuss what they tell you about faith:

 

Matt. 9:29

  Then he touched their eyes and said, “According to your faith will it be done to you”;

Matt. 13:58

  And he did not do many miracles there because of their lack of faith.

Matt. 15:28

  Then Jesus answered, “Woman, you have great faith! Your request is granted.” And her daughter was healed from that very hour.

Matt. 21:21

  Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, if you have faith and do not doubt, not only can you do what was done to the fig tree, but also you can say to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and it will be done.

John 14:12

I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.

Acts 6:5

  This proposal pleased the whole group. They chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit; also Philip, Procorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolas from Antioch, a convert to Judaism.

Acts 14:9

He listened to Paul as he was speaking. Paul looked directly at him, saw that he had faith to be healed.

Rom. 1:8

  First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is being reported all over the world.

Rom. 1:17

For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.”

Rom. 1:17

For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.”

Rom. 3:27

  Where, then, is boasting? It is excluded. On what principle? On that of observing the law? No, but on that of faith.  28 For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from observing the law.

Rom. 5:1

  Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,  2 through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.

1Cor. 16:13

  Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be men of courage; be strong.

2Cor. 5:7

We live by faith, not by sight.

Gal. 3:26

  You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus,

Eph. 2:8

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—

 

BUT FOR ME THE GREATEST OF ALL “FAITH” QUOTES IS:

Gal. 5:6

For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.

 

2.     So – how much faith do you have?  Please read the following and discuss: “In today’s scripture we hear a most troubling expression of a lack of faith in God by the prophet Habakkuk:

 

Habbakuk 1:1 “O LORD, how long shall I cry, and You will not hear?  Even cry out to You, “Violence!” and you will not save!”

 

But thankfully he concludes in our second reading with the great affirmation:

 

Habakkuk 2:1-4 “I will stand my watch and set myself on the rampart, and watch to see what He will say to me.

 

And then the topic of faith is tacked by St. Paul in His great letter of encouragement to his young disciple Timothy.  In our reading we heard St. Paul write:

 

2Tim. 1:12

That is why I am suffering as I am. Yet I am not ashamed, because I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him for that day.

2Tim. 1:13

  What you heard from me, keep as the pattern of sound teaching, with faith and love in Christ Jesus.  14 Guard the good deposit that was entrusted to you—guard it with the help of the Holy Spirit who lives in us.

 

Ah!  The key here is in the words, “because I know whom I have believed and am persuaded or convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to Him for that day!”

 

Can you say that?  Can you say, “I’m at peace because I know whom I have believed in!  I’m not frightened of being proven a fool one of these days by the cynics who don’t believe in anything!”

3.     Please read the following and discuss: “St. Paul knew Jesus and therefore knew that he would never be ashamed!

 

Do you know Jesus or do you just know about Him?  Even knowing about Him can be enough but as we come to know Him better and better our faith grows. 

 

The key then to growing our faith is to grow in our “knowing” Jesus.  Not our knowing about Jesus but our knowing Jesus!

 

And how do you and I come to know Jesus?  How do you come to know anyone?  You spend time in their Presence.  Let me say that again, “You spend time – time - in their presence.” 

 

You linger near them – in their Presence.  There may be a lot of silence and there may not be an overwhelming sense of “presence” but just to linger in someone’s presence begins a “knowing.”

 

There is a great truth that I want to share with y’all right now and it’s this “When we draw near to Jesus, He will always draw near to us.”

 

This is a given!  This follows the law of love.  Love always reaches out!  Love always lowers itself to the one needing to be touched.

 

In James we read: James 4:8

 

Come near to God and he will come near to you.

 

This is what prayer and worship are – they’re other ways of saying “lingering in His presence.”

 

We draw near to God by talking to Him and by waiting for His reply.  This is prayer. 

 

We draw near to God when we listen to His Word being read and when we come in obedience to His Table to receive of His Body and Blood.

 

To pray means to linger in His Presence even if we can’t “feel” it.  To simply place yourself in a place of waiting upon Jesus is to pray and in this posture our “knowing” will grow.

 

Do you have any sense of “knowing” Jesus?  Any sense at all!

 

He wants to be known so He’s not hiding Himself from you and me.  He wants to be known – how do we know that?

 

He sent a rescue mission for us – Jesus Christ!  He wants to be “known!”

 

And He wants to be Present to us always in all situations – Remember, “Lo, I am with you to the very end of the age!”

 

Jesus said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you!”

 

Do you “Know” Him!  Is He real to you! 

 

You only need this much faith to reach out to find Him!  - faith as small as a Mustard seed!

 

4. Faith as small as a Mustard Seed.  Remember I began this reflection with the question, “How much faith do you have?”

 

We have hopefully come to the conclusion that faith in Jesus Christ is infinitely important but how much faith is enough faith?

 

Ah!  Listen once again to our Gospel reading:

 

Luke 17:5

  The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!” 6  He replied, “If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it will obey you.

 

Ah, how much faith?  Faith as small as a tiny mustard seed.

 

We all have that much faith don’t we?

 

That’s not much faith at all!  It’s miniscule!  It’s almost invisible!  It’s not hard to have this much faith at all!  We all have that much faith assuming we’re not in open rebellion or immobilized by fear or the terrible malady of our sad generation that of “unbridled overweening cynicism.”

 

Most of us can muster up the faith of a mustard seed – it’s just not that much at all but the real question is “taking that tiny bit of faith and holding it up in the darkness and saying, “OK, I’m going to believe that you’re real and that you’re right here with me now please let me get to know you better and better so that I can say with St. Paul:

 

Yet I am not ashamed, because I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him for that day.”