Ecclesiastes 6:7 All the labour of man is for his mouth, and yet the appetite is not filled.

Can you relate to this verse? Have you ever felt this way? Or have you lost your appetite for tasty things?

It has been a long time since I visited upon you my readers the issues of the sermon. The issue of preparing a sermon which will touch the lives of a congregation is very difficult. Our congregation is not filled with nothing but the mature in faith. Neither is it only babes in Christ. Even if the pastor knew the maturity level of each and every believer and made his sermon relatable to them, where would that leave the unbeliever in the midst?

Do we have unbelievers in our midst? I would hope so for if we do not, then we are not doing the most vital of all callings within the body of Christ, making new disciples. Please, oh please, do not tell me that you only desire to worship with people who believe as you do?

Give me a house full of unbelievers over those who cannot be helped. An unbeliever in our midst is an open mind seeking to find something they know they do not have. The babe in Christ wants to grow, give me more of these. But you, so mature in faith, so wise, so learned, so full of bold confidence, have you stopped growing?

Hebrews 5:2,12 Who can have compassion on the ignorant, and on them that are out of the way; for that he himself also is compassed with infirmity. For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat.

Again I ask, have you lost your appetite?

In machinery torque is defined as the measured ability of a rotating element, as of a gear or shaft, to overcome turning resistance.

Note that torque is measureable. The scale is called foot pound. The instrument for recording the amount of torque is a dynamometer. The scale on this device will remain at zero until what? Until that element is put into motion. Given the design of the rotating element was meant to produce torque, the potential for torques exists in the design. It is a thing hoped for but not seen until put into motion.

Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

Faith is to the Spirit as torque is to an engine. Faith is built into the design but is only evidenced when put into motion.

James 2:26 For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.

Image if you would that you pop the hood on your car and the engine is missing. James 2:26 is the spiritual equivalent to that image. No spirit, no faith, no move of the spirit, dead works.