Hard to Swallow

Hard to Swallow
John 6:51 NLT

• God is covenant establishing and covenant keeping.
  
• A covenant brings peace and security in relationships – we were alienated from God.
  
• The covenant is blood bought and composed of the oath of loyalty, provision and protection.

Gospel of John

• Theme: Jesus the creator!
  
  • John 1:1-5
    
• Perspective: Weary in Weakness – Self-absorbed and myopic humanity
  
• Discovery: Humanities’ great needs are exposed and remedied by God’s gracious compassion and provision

The work of a believer is to believe!
John 6:35-70 NLT

Faith, Doubt and Unbelief (willful disobedience)

• Temptations
  
• Signs
  
• People of Faith

People of Faith!

• Sometimes people of faith are a lot like Mr. Magoo.
  
• In a comical form of lunacy we walk not by sight, but by faith!
  
• We are totally dependent on God in His story for His grace and favor.
  
• We should not take ourselves so seriously!

Choose To Believe

• John 20:24-29 – “Doubting” Thomas
  
• “I know down in my knower!”
  
• An overstatement of great faith!
  
  • “I don’t believe it, I know it!”

Sermon in a sentence
Faith is not the absence of doubt, it is the overcoming of doubt.

The Reality of Faith & Doubt

There lives more faith in honest doubt than in half the creeds.
- Alfred Lloyd Tennyson

• Hebrews 12:1 “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”
  
• “You can believe in your heart while you doubt in your head.”
  
• We must break through the three barriers of faith:
  
  • Cynicism – Ignorance – Empiricism