Our name | Mission | Vision | Leaders Ministries | Schedule | Directions | Contact Home   Gateway Church gathers for worship Sundays at 10:30 a.m. Location: 6425 Jefferson Rd. (Hwy. 129) in Athens, Georgia. For directions, click here. Ministry of the Word: Recent sermons Our quarterly e-magazine Gateway Today For the Gateway family Pastor Jerry's Weekly E-Mail A GATEWAY SERMON SUMMARY AUDIO Faith, mighty faith Jerry Varnado, pastor Gateway Church, Athens GA June 19, 2005 Main Scripture text: 1 John 5:1-5. Because of sin, the world we live in does not function the way God intended. But there's Good News: there is a means to overcome the world's ways and live the way God desires us to live. The Apostle John says our battle against worldly ways is focused in three main areas: 1) The cravings of sinful man; 2) The lust of his eyes; and, 3) Boastful pride about what we have and do. The cravings of sinful man refers to natural appetites out of control. Part of the reason God gives us His Holy Spirit is to give us power to control those urges and appetites. The lust of the eyes is about things we want -- not only material things but also influence and power. Boastful pride about what he has and does &endash; this deals how we are tempted to satisfy our needs for respect and security. God intends for those needs to be met by the fact that He loves us enough send His Son to die for us. How can we overcome these common temptations? What enables us to "overcome the world"? John 5 tells us the answer: "our Faith." Listen to verses 4 and 5 of John 5 from the Bible paraphrase called The Message: Every God-begotten person conquers the world's ways. The conquering power that brings the world to its knees is our faith. The person who wins out over the world's ways is simply the one who believes Jesus is the Son of God. A couple of weeks ago we sang a Charles Wesley lyric that my wife, Beverly, has reset to a contemporary tune. It's called, Faith, Mighty Faith. I think it is this "mighty faith" that overcomes the world. According to Charles Wesley there are four characteristics of mighty faith: 1) Mighty faith sees God's promise. We must see something in our mind's eye before we can foster its development. We must foster its development before we can make it real. It all begins with vision, seeing the promise of God. 2) Mighty faith looks to that promise alone. No matter what the present circumstances look like, mighty faith hangs on to the fact that God keeps His promises. 3) Mighty faith laughs at impossibilities. The world will try to convince you that fulfillment of the promise of God is impossible. But mighty faith just laughs, because it knows "all things are possible with God." 4) Mighty faith says, "It shall be done!" If you have a true promise from God -- and you need to be sure about that, through prayer, through counsel, through studying God's Word -- you can rest assured that the outcome is not in doubt. God will come through. It shall be done! Supporting texts: Romans 12:1-2 | 1 John 2:15-17 | 2 Timothy 1:7 | Ephesians 1:18-21 | John 14:27 | 2 Peter 1:3-8 | Mark 10:27 A mp3 audio file of this sermon is here (36:00). (Download to a PC by right clicking on the link and choosing "Save Target As." Mac users: click, hold, and choose "Download Link to Disk." Depending on your connection speed, the file may take several minutes to download.) An audio tape of the sermon summarized above is available free of charge (U.S. requests only). Request a tape by calling or writing the Gateway Church office. Please specify tape number 050619a: Faith, Mighty Faith. © 2005 Gerald R. Varnado To the Gateway Church home page How to contact us