Big God with Study Guide

Britt Merrick

Description

Faith is trust. It is a confidence in the power and goodness of God that leads us to make good decisions and allows us to surrender our lives to him. As we strive to mature spiritually and lead lives pleasing to God, we all want more faith. Hebrews 6:12 says that we are to be "imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises." One of the best ways to grow in faith is to imitate the lives of people who have shown great faith. Hebrews 11 guides us through the lives of men and women--like Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Sarah, Moses, Rahab, David, and others--who have done just that. Real people with real lives and real problems, who had faith in a great God and trusted him at pivotal moments in their lives. By drawing on some of the greatest lives of faith in the Bible, readers will come to see that God was worthy of these men's and women's trust and faith during biblical times in the same way that he is worthy of ours today.

Sujets

• Philosophie et théologie

Informations

• Publié par: Baker Publishing Group
• Date de parution: 15 juin 2012
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781441224200
• Langue: English

Extrait

PRAISE FOR BIG GOD
Britt Merrick is the best “young” Bible expositor I have ever heard. Big God is his breakout work. With remarkable content, a fabulous presentation and the Spirit’s anointing, Britt writes with the same power with which he speaks.
Jay Carty
Author and Former Basketball Player (Los Angeles Lakers)
I thank God for men who not only teach the Word accurately but also live it out. This book describes the faith God wants us to have, and Britt’s life exemplifies it.
Francis Chan
Author of Crazy Love
Britt Merrick has written a powerful, challenging, practical, exciting, and thoroughly Bible-based book that will stir your heart and convince you more strongly than ever that God is worthy of all our trust.
Wayne Grudem
Research Professor of Theology and Biblical Studies
Phoenix Seminary, Phoenix, Arizona
Pastor Britt’s powerful book is well known to my family. The instruction, lessons and Spirit-filled knowledge were the basis of our Bible study for more than a year at Reality Carpinteria, where my family and I attend. Big God will allow those seeking a closer walk with Jesus Christ to realize the endless love that our Lord offers us every moment … and why our greatest goal is to live in harmony with Him. Pastor Britt’s courage in the face of adversity demonstrates that he lives his life according to Scripture. Learn from this brave, humble man of God. Your family will be blessed by his great wisdom and gifts.
Kathy Ireland
Author, Entrepreneur and Model
Britt and the entire Merrick family are an inspiration to many believers, including myself. The honesty and vulnerability they witness in this book remind me of how big our God is, and it encourages me to go toward the impossible by faith.
Bryan Jennings
Professional Surfer and President of Walking on Water Ministries
The greatest defense of faith is not all of the evidence or the rationale. The greatest defense is truth backed up by a lifestyle. Britt Merrick shows us how the heroes of faith did it, how he seeks to do it and how we can too. When we embrace a big God, we will have a big faith.
Josh D. McDowell
Speaker and Author of Evidence that Demands a Verdict and Evidence for the Resurrection
I am very encouraged when I meet young leaders such as Britt Merrick. He is a voice of the future; a leader we all can follow. Not only can he tell a story and motivate a crowd, but he is also biblically solid. It doesn’t get any better than this.
John M. Perkins
Author of Follow Me to Freedom and Let Justice Roll Down
God has not promised that our skies would always be blue or that the road would always be smooth. He has promised that He will always be with us in the fiercest storm to see us safely through. It is one thing to know this intellectually, but quite another to know it experientially. Britt writes out of experience, and thus has proved thorough his own experiences the faithfulness of God, which makes this book authentic not just in theory but also in actual practice.
Pastor Chuck Smith
Pastor, Calvary Chapel of Costa Mesa
Costa Mesa, California
I have written many books about spiritual breakthrough. It is something we all want. In Big God , Britt Merrick shows us a key to all spiritual breakthrough: simply having faith in a big God. Thank you, Britt.
Elmer Towns
Author of Fasting for Spiritual Breakthrough
BIG GOD

© 2010 Britt Merrick
Published by Baker Books a division of Baker Publishing Group P.O. Box 6287, Grand Rapids, MI 49516-6287 www.bakerbooks.com
Baker Books edition published 2014
ISBN 978-0-8307-6260-6
Previously published by Regal Books
Ebook edition originally created 2012
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—for example, electronic, photocopy, recording—without the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file at the Library of Congress, Washington, DC.
All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the New American Standard Bible , © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.
Other versions used are:
CEV — Contemporary English Version . Copyright © American Bible Society, 1995.
ESV— Scripture taken from the English Standard Version , Copyright © 2001. The ESV and English Standard Version are trademarks of Good News Publishers.
KJV — King James Version . Authorized King James Version.
NCV —Scriptures quoted from The Holy Bible, New Century Version , copyright 1987, 1988, 1991 by Word Publishing, Nashville, Tennessee. Used by permission.
NIV —Scripture taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version ®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved.
NKJV —Scripture taken from the New King James Version . Copyright © 1979, 1980, 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
NLT —Scripture quotations marked NLT are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation , copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.
This book is dedicated to my wife, Kate, who has taught me more about the beauty, bigness and love of God than anyone. I love you.
When she speaks, her words are wise, and she gives instructions with kindness. PROVERBS 31:26, NLT
CONTENTS
Acknowledgments
Preface
1. When My Heart Is Overwhelmed
2. The Hall of Faith?
3. Faith Worshiping (Abel)
4. Faith Walking (Enoch)
5. Faith Working (Noah)
6. Faith Willing (Abraham)
7. Faith Waiting (Sarah)
8. Faith Well-Tried (Abraham with Isaac)
9. Faith Winning (Moses)
10. Faith Welcoming (Rahab)
11. Faith Warring (David and the Rest)
Epilogue
Study Guide
About the Author
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I would like to thank my parents, who first taught me that God was bigger and more valuable than anyone or anything else. Because of them, I have had the desire to follow Christ into mission. That mission has been particularly shared with an amazing group of people known as “the staff” of Reality Carpinteria and Ventura. They have brought me so much love and friendship, and without their work I never could have completed this work. I look forward to many more years of pursuing faithfulness and fun for God’s glory with all of you.
A huge thank you to Bill Denzel at Regal who really made this book happen and in whom, through this process, I have gained a great friend. To my fellow church planter Pastor Dave Lomas of Reality San Francisco who, while training under me to plant a church in that amazing city, spent many fun and fruitful hours with me in the study discussing Hebrews 11. Thank you—this book is yours, too.
I must also lovingly acknowledge my children, Isaiah and Daisy, who make my heart sing and constantly teach me about God. Finally, to the congregations at Reality Carpinteria and Ventura: We discovered and labored over and rejoiced in these truths together. This is your book. I love all of you and consider it the privilege of a lifetime to be called “pastor” by you.
PREFACE
In each of our lives, we have moments in which we must make significant decisions that can change the path of our journeys. This book is about those choices and people who have made them. These are people we’ve read about before but may have never really considered how significant their choices were—both to them and to all of us people of faith who look to their lives as examples of God’s faithfulness. This is about their trust and the big God they put their trust in. Through these stories we see that He was worthy of their trust, their faith. And He is worthy of our trust today.
1
WHEN MY HEART IS OVERWHELMED
Hear my cry, O God; attend to my prayer. From the end of the earth I will cry to You, when my heart is overwhelmed; lead me to the rock that is higher than I. For You have been a shelter for me, a strong tower from the enemy. I will abide in your tabernacle forever; I will trust in the shelter of Your wings.
PSALM 61:1-4, NKJV
I MUST CONFESS THAT MY HEART WAS OVERWHELMED during the writing of this book. You see, during the days and nights I was going into the depths of faith as lived out long ago by some of our Bible heroes, my little five-year-old daughter fought cancer. When this book went to press, I didn’t know if the cancer had been completely eradicated. At the time she was in the middle of chemotherapy and radiation treatments.
What I do know—what I am absolutely certain of—is that my God is big, and He is worthy of my faith. My God is a big God, who held my daughter in her hardest moment and holds her now. He also clasps my family and me in the palm of His hand. Nothing is too hard for Him. This trial with my daughter’s health has already shown me how God grasps and sustains me in ways that I never thought possible. Let me tell you the story.
Monday Morning
Because I’m a pastor, Monday is my day off. My wife, Kate, and I enjoy spending those days together. This particular Monday, we really needed some rest and relaxation. It had been a busy summer but finally the kids were back in school. Kate and I planned one of our surf dates. We don’t have many “date nights,” instead we have “date days” so we can go surfing when the kids are in school.
As we prepared to head to the beach, I got a call from Daisy’s school. The caller said, “Daisy’s fallen down and she doesn’t look good. She’s having a hard time staying conscious.” We found out later Daisy had vomited and knew something was wrong. She told the lady caring for her, “You need to call 911. I need to go to the doctor.” Daisy falls all the time so the concern over this little fall didn’t make sense. Nonetheless, my wife and I rushed to Daisy’s school, grabbed her and took her to the eme