Faith to Finish: The Perseverance God Honors

Scripture References

• Matthew 17:20
• Luke 16:10
• Zechariah 4:10
• Romans 5:3-4
• 1 John 3:13
• John 16:33
• Galatians 6:9
• Isaiah 43:2
• Revelation 21:4
• John 8:12
• Philippians 1:6
• Lamentations 3:22-23
• Ephesians 6:13

Introduction

In 1926, a young American swimmer named Trudy Ederle waded into the frigid water at Cape Gris-Nez, France, and started swimming toward England. Twenty-one miles of open sea, riptides, jellyfish, and fog lay between her and a finish line no woman had ever reached. Week 3 of “At the Movies” used her story, told in the film “Young Woman and the Sea,” as a living parable of Jesus’ words in Matthew 17:20: faith as small as a mustard seed can move mountains. But mountains don’t move in a moment. The speaker traced a consistent pattern in Scripture: before God entrusts anyone with something great, He first watches how they handle something small–and then He asks them to keep going when everything in them wants to quit. To move mountains for God’s glory, you will need four kinds of faith: faith to start small, faith to face opposition, faith to endure when it hurts, and faith to finish what God started.

Refined by Fire: Trusting God Through Life's Trials

Scripture References

• Daniel 3
• Daniel 1
• Daniel 4
• Proverbs 18:10

Introduction

• Fire comes to every life. Drawing from Daniel 3, the message shows how God uses that heat to expose impurities, set us free, and reveal His own reflection in us.
• Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego’s refusal to bow, their “if ___, then God” faith, and the Fourth Man who met them in the furnace form a pattern for handling our own unexpected trials.
• Whether God delivers us from, through, or by the fire, He is always good–“even better on the bad days.”
• This talk closes a four-week run in the “En Fuego” series. Previous weeks dealt with anger and with Elijah’s Mount Carmel showdown. Tonight’s focus: how God refines character when the heat is turned up.