Faith Brighter than Gold
Sunday Evening English Worship
May 5, 2019 - 5:00 pm
Messenger: Don Frank
Bible Passage: 1 Peter 1:7-9
Introduction: So my friends, how was your Golden Week? I hope you had some good rest time. I did - and also had a bit of part-time work. And during the whole week, I really enjoyed looking at all the cherry blossoms that are even now still blooming. I love all the fresh colors of Springtime!
Now, I have a question for you this evening. Where did the name "Golden Week" come from? For those of you watching online, Golden Week is the longest string of holidays in Japan. And this year is special because the elderly emperor has retired and his son has become the new emperor. So, this year's Golden Week had even more holidays than usual! For many people, they had 10 days off in a row!
According to the info I gathered on the Internet, Golden Week started back in the early 1950s. It was the custom of movie companies to release new movies during this week because everyone had an extended holiday and could go to the movie theaters and watch the new releases. Because all the movies that came out in 1951 were a big success, in 1952 one of the movie producers started calling this time Golden Week. I like to think that it's because everyone could spend some golden time together. But probably it means that more gold was coming into the pockets of the movie producers!
And speaking of gold and Golden Week, the next aspect of God that I'd like to study with you tonight is the Faith of God. God is totally 100% faithful in everything that He does! And to many of the Bible writers, the God of Faith and faith in God are more precious than gold! And that's the title of my message tonight, Faith Brighter than Gold. And I'm taking our Bible passages for this evening from the Psalms and from1st Peter.
1. How Faithful Is God?
Let's begin by asking a question: "How Faithful Is God?" I wish I had all the time in the world - and then I could really answer that question completely! There are countless examples from the front cover of the Bible to the back that tell us how faithful God is. One of my favorites that talks about God's faithfulness is Psalm 119:90 (CEV) and it reads like this, "You remain faithful in every generation, and the earth you created will keep standing firm." From Adam right down to today, God has never stopped being faithful. He loves all of His creation and, day by day, is constantly watching over His universe. He didn't just create everything and then go off on a very long Golden Week vacation! He is faithful to us, non-stop! That's His nature - to be peaceful, to be patient, to be loving, to be abundant - and to be faithful. Now, I know that's pretty hard to understand. We humans are so very far from being faithful. We fail day by day, but God never fails and cannot fail! We are imperfect, but God remains the perfect God of all time and space!
Once we really know that God is truly faithful, not just in our minds, but in our hearts, then what might that make us think of? Shall we take a look at the words of King David in Psalm 12:6 (NIV) - And the words of the LORD are flawless, like silver purified in a crucible, like gold refined seven times. Ah, we come back to the theme of gold! Golden Week, right?! David shares with us that the promises of God are perfect and precious like silver and gold. And the God who backs up those promises is just as pure and precious. In our world today, the most precious item that we can think of is gold. And yet the book of Revelation says that Heaven has streets that are paved with the stuff! Our loving Heavenly Father is indeed faithful and precious.
2. How About Our Faith?
Let me begin the second half of our evening's study with another question: "How About Our Faith?" We move over now to the New Testament, to the book of 1 Peter 1:7-9 (MSG) which reads, 7 Pure gold put in the fire comes out of it proved pure; genuine faith put through this suffering comes out proved genuine. When Jesus wraps this all up, it's your faith, not your gold, that God will have on display as evidence of his victory. 8 You never saw him, yet you love him. You still don't see him, yet you trust him - with laughter and singing. 9 Because you kept on believing, you'll get what you're looking forward to: total salvation. Wow, what an amazing bit of teaching about our faith, courtesy of the Message version of the Bible! Our faith is compared to gold. We saw that in our first point. God is faithful and that is so precious. We also saw that God’s promises and indeed the faithful God backing up those promises is as pure as gold and silver. And Peter says something similar about our faith.
Let’s take a look at one verse at a time beginning with verse 7. Reading again it says, "Pure gold put in the fire comes out of it proved pure; genuine faith put through this suffering comes out proved genuine. When Jesus wraps this all up, it's your faith, not your gold, that God will have on display as evidence of his victory." We can see here that our faith is compared with gold. And just like gold, it has to be put to the test. I often wonder why Life is pretty difficult sometimes. And the reason is printed here very clearly. Just like our previous Bible passage, Psalm 12:6, to actually make gold pure, you have to take it through the fire 7 times. Then Peter goes on to say that when Jesus comes back again, He's going to display our faith, not our gold! And this is going to give God glory by showing that He had victory in our lives!
Then, looking at verse 8 it says, "You never saw him, yet you love him. You still don't see him, yet you trust him - with laughter and singing." I think the interesting part is the last phrase. We trust Him with laughter and singing. Other Bible versions say, "inexpressible and glorious joy." We may feel that we don't have much joy in our lives these days, but God promises us that we are going to have more joy than we know what to do with! Boy, that's what I needed to hear! Now I can keep going and keep trusting Him!
Conclusion: So, on to verse 9 as we close out our study for this evening, it says, "Because you kept on believing, you'll get what you're looking forward to: total salvation." And what's going to happen when we keep having faith in Him? We are going to receive the super-special reward that we've always wanted: total salvation! God is completely faithful in everything He does. And we can see that constantly throughout the whole Bible. We can keep asking Him everyday for the power to be faithful and He will give us the power of His Spirit to keep us on the right track. And besides that, He has promised us that He would save us perfectly! Is there anything else you need? I think that wraps it up perfectly.
Closing Prayer: Let's close out our evening by reading together part of our final Bible passage this evening.
1 Peter 1:7
Pure gold put in the fire comes out of it proved pure; genuine faith put through this suffering comes out proved genuine. When Jesus wraps this all up, it's your faith, not your gold, that God will have on display as evidence of his victory.
Now let's look at our closing prayer, based on God's Word and pray it back to Him together:
Dear Heavenly Father, we are so happy to be with You tonight. Thank You for being with us as we go through tough times. We know that You are purifying our faith. We also know that You want to display our faith to everyone. Jesus, we can't wait for Your return. Then we know that our faith will be complete. Be with us everyday and strengthen our faith by deeper prayer and more sweet study of Your Word. Bring us back together again safely and soon to rejoice in Your Presence. We pray this now in Jesus' precious name, Amen.
May 5, 2019 - 5:00 pm
Messenger: Don Frank
Bible Passage: 1 Peter 1:7-9
Introduction: So my friends, how was your Golden Week? I hope you had some good rest time. I did - and also had a bit of part-time work. And during the whole week, I really enjoyed looking at all the cherry blossoms that are even now still blooming. I love all the fresh colors of Springtime!
Now, I have a question for you this evening. Where did the name "Golden Week" come from? For those of you watching online, Golden Week is the longest string of holidays in Japan. And this year is special because the elderly emperor has retired and his son has become the new emperor. So, this year's Golden Week had even more holidays than usual! For many people, they had 10 days off in a row!
According to the info I gathered on the Internet, Golden Week started back in the early 1950s. It was the custom of movie companies to release new movies during this week because everyone had an extended holiday and could go to the movie theaters and watch the new releases. Because all the movies that came out in 1951 were a big success, in 1952 one of the movie producers started calling this time Golden Week. I like to think that it's because everyone could spend some golden time together. But probably it means that more gold was coming into the pockets of the movie producers!
And speaking of gold and Golden Week, the next aspect of God that I'd like to study with you tonight is the Faith of God. God is totally 100% faithful in everything that He does! And to many of the Bible writers, the God of Faith and faith in God are more precious than gold! And that's the title of my message tonight, Faith Brighter than Gold. And I'm taking our Bible passages for this evening from the Psalms and from1st Peter.
1. How Faithful Is God?
Let's begin by asking a question: "How Faithful Is God?" I wish I had all the time in the world - and then I could really answer that question completely! There are countless examples from the front cover of the Bible to the back that tell us how faithful God is. One of my favorites that talks about God's faithfulness is Psalm 119:90 (CEV) and it reads like this, "You remain faithful in every generation, and the earth you created will keep standing firm." From Adam right down to today, God has never stopped being faithful. He loves all of His creation and, day by day, is constantly watching over His universe. He didn't just create everything and then go off on a very long Golden Week vacation! He is faithful to us, non-stop! That's His nature - to be peaceful, to be patient, to be loving, to be abundant - and to be faithful. Now, I know that's pretty hard to understand. We humans are so very far from being faithful. We fail day by day, but God never fails and cannot fail! We are imperfect, but God remains the perfect God of all time and space!
Once we really know that God is truly faithful, not just in our minds, but in our hearts, then what might that make us think of? Shall we take a look at the words of King David in Psalm 12:6 (NIV) - And the words of the LORD are flawless, like silver purified in a crucible, like gold refined seven times. Ah, we come back to the theme of gold! Golden Week, right?! David shares with us that the promises of God are perfect and precious like silver and gold. And the God who backs up those promises is just as pure and precious. In our world today, the most precious item that we can think of is gold. And yet the book of Revelation says that Heaven has streets that are paved with the stuff! Our loving Heavenly Father is indeed faithful and precious.
2. How About Our Faith?
Let me begin the second half of our evening's study with another question: "How About Our Faith?" We move over now to the New Testament, to the book of 1 Peter 1:7-9 (MSG) which reads, 7 Pure gold put in the fire comes out of it proved pure; genuine faith put through this suffering comes out proved genuine. When Jesus wraps this all up, it's your faith, not your gold, that God will have on display as evidence of his victory. 8 You never saw him, yet you love him. You still don't see him, yet you trust him - with laughter and singing. 9 Because you kept on believing, you'll get what you're looking forward to: total salvation. Wow, what an amazing bit of teaching about our faith, courtesy of the Message version of the Bible! Our faith is compared to gold. We saw that in our first point. God is faithful and that is so precious. We also saw that God’s promises and indeed the faithful God backing up those promises is as pure as gold and silver. And Peter says something similar about our faith.
Let’s take a look at one verse at a time beginning with verse 7. Reading again it says, "Pure gold put in the fire comes out of it proved pure; genuine faith put through this suffering comes out proved genuine. When Jesus wraps this all up, it's your faith, not your gold, that God will have on display as evidence of his victory." We can see here that our faith is compared with gold. And just like gold, it has to be put to the test. I often wonder why Life is pretty difficult sometimes. And the reason is printed here very clearly. Just like our previous Bible passage, Psalm 12:6, to actually make gold pure, you have to take it through the fire 7 times. Then Peter goes on to say that when Jesus comes back again, He's going to display our faith, not our gold! And this is going to give God glory by showing that He had victory in our lives!
Then, looking at verse 8 it says, "You never saw him, yet you love him. You still don't see him, yet you trust him - with laughter and singing." I think the interesting part is the last phrase. We trust Him with laughter and singing. Other Bible versions say, "inexpressible and glorious joy." We may feel that we don't have much joy in our lives these days, but God promises us that we are going to have more joy than we know what to do with! Boy, that's what I needed to hear! Now I can keep going and keep trusting Him!
Conclusion: So, on to verse 9 as we close out our study for this evening, it says, "Because you kept on believing, you'll get what you're looking forward to: total salvation." And what's going to happen when we keep having faith in Him? We are going to receive the super-special reward that we've always wanted: total salvation! God is completely faithful in everything He does. And we can see that constantly throughout the whole Bible. We can keep asking Him everyday for the power to be faithful and He will give us the power of His Spirit to keep us on the right track. And besides that, He has promised us that He would save us perfectly! Is there anything else you need? I think that wraps it up perfectly.
Closing Prayer: Let's close out our evening by reading together part of our final Bible passage this evening.
1 Peter 1:7
Pure gold put in the fire comes out of it proved pure; genuine faith put through this suffering comes out proved genuine. When Jesus wraps this all up, it's your faith, not your gold, that God will have on display as evidence of his victory.
Now let's look at our closing prayer, based on God's Word and pray it back to Him together:
Dear Heavenly Father, we are so happy to be with You tonight. Thank You for being with us as we go through tough times. We know that You are purifying our faith. We also know that You want to display our faith to everyone. Jesus, we can't wait for Your return. Then we know that our faith will be complete. Be with us everyday and strengthen our faith by deeper prayer and more sweet study of Your Word. Bring us back together again safely and soon to rejoice in Your Presence. We pray this now in Jesus' precious name, Amen.