This week Dr. Keith O'Neal begins his new series, Faith that Stands the Test with a message entitled Facing the Golden Image. This sermon series is designed to help our faith grow and subsequently please God at a new level. Here are a few key points

• If we cannot please God without faith, then we must exercise our faith muscles to grow and mature in our walk with God
• As part of this process, we ALL have to face the Golden Image in our lives
• This Golden Image is not the same for all of us
• It also changes during the course of our walk with God
• Your Golden Image will likely be different than mine, but it must be faced and conquered if we want to fully please God
• For the purposes of this message, the Golden Image is anything that challenges God’s voice, commands, scripture, or His principles
• It is that thing we face that puts us at odds with the will of God
• Jesus often spoke in parables and stories so people could make comparisons and understand what He meant
• I like to use examples so you can find yourself in the story and know the right response

Man’s earthly beginnings are documented in the book of Genesis After the first man and woman were created, the inference is they were created to live forever in a state of innocence and would populate the earth with additional people.  Because they disobeyed God and sinned, mankind was plunged into a position of attempting to reconnect with God.  God set forth the mechanism for all of us to do this and He has set the ground rules for it to happen. The terms, “Salvation” and “Redemption” enter the picture because man now has to be redeemed from our sinner status

 It is clear that God did not desire to completely discard human beings, but decided to reach out to reconcile the relationship between us and Him. Thousands of years later, we have questions regarding His motives, His system of redemption, and how we MUST respond to it. The bottom line is that Jesus loves us and is constantly reaching out for relationship. Our faith is relevant because of how we must respond to His overtures toward us.

Find complete sermon notes on the Destiny Website or Mobile App.

James 1:14-17 (NKJV)

14 What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him? 15 If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, 16 and one of you says to them, “Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,” but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit? 17 Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.

Dead faith does not produce anything from God. This month’s series has been, “Faith That Stands the Test”. The test is whether you will trust God for HIS results as He leads you through life’s ups and downs. The right perspective regarding what God can and will do, will help us stand our personal tests. Recently, while reminiscing about my personal path to my current life, I thought about the number of times I thought God had either forgotten me or had abandoned me. The truth is, neither was true
God in His sovereignty and omniscience uses EVERYTHING at His disposal to get me where He wants me to be.  Even our enemies are ANOINTED to bless us in the long run. Your crises are serving God’s purposes. Your haters are anointed to work on your character and push you where God wants. Your difficult circumstances, pains, losses, failures, rejections, and lack were all anointed to bless you. I say anointed because they were empowered by God to rub you for your good.