JR. Forasteros - September 30, 2018

Practical Teaching

5 Things God Uses to Grow Your Faith

Something big happens in our faith with God's story becomes our story. Practical teaching helps us see that we can trust God in our everyday lives. Because Jesus tells us there's a big difference between knowing about God and actually following God. So how do we learn to listen to God speaking in our daily lives?

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Exactly one week to the day after we got married, my wife Amanda and I moved to Dayton, OH. The next day, a Sunday, we started at our new church there. And then, as soon as church was over, we made that all-important pilgrimage many newlyweds make: IKEA.

We bought quite a few things for our new life together, but the crown jewel was a king-sized bed. It was so sweet – it had this headboard that looked like a park bench, was sleek and black.

Or rather, it was in the picture. Because, if you know IKEA, you know everything is sold “some assembly required”. Our bedroom in our new apartment was approximately 5 cm longer than the bed, which turned out to be a recipe for a pretty significant disaster.

Our marriage almost didn’t last 8 days.

By the time that bed was together, there was a hole in our wall (made by an errant bed piece, not a fist!) and we weren’t on speaking terms. It was bad.

IKEA furniture is famously hard to assemble – we’re far from the only couple who has experienced something similar. A big part of the challenge is that IKEA, being a Swedish company, makes their directions totally pictorial – no written instructions. To say they’re not very clear is an understatement.

We’re going to talk about the Bible today, and a lot of us think about the Bible somewhat like we do IKEA instructions. There might be a couple of things in there that are clear, but a lot of it seems confusing.

A lot of us have settled for a faith that’s a lot like the picture of IKEA furniture.

We know more or less what a faithful life should look like. But for some reason – maybe we’re intimidated or busy, we haven’t unboxed our faith and actually started to build a life of faith.

Let’s talk about what not just hearing God, but actually following looks like.

The good news is that God is our partner in this. God invites us to grow in our faith as we learn to follow.

Join us Sunday as we explore the difference between knowing about God and following God.

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