The elements of something are the simplest building blocks which are required to build it.  Lets look at 3 building blocks of faith: 1) A faithful God  2) God's unchanging Word and 3) The hearer of the Word.  The first 2 never change, the one that changes is the hearer!  Let's grow as hearers, absorbers and doers of the Word!

In order to exercise our faith, first we must believe that God will do something for us! The next step is beleiving that God will do something in us.  When God does something for us and in us, the next stage is believing that God will do something through us!  God first changes us and then uses us to change the world!

Faith is like a muscle.  If you use it, it grows and gets stronger.  If you don't use it, it becomes weaker and weaker over time.  Faith must also be current, yesteday's faith doesn't count today! The beginning of faith is in believing in God to do something for us.  We must believe God is our source and expect Him to meet our needs and be present in our lives on a daily basis.

We are made for community but community doesn't happen by accident! It must be intentional.  Our society and culture consumes so much of our time and energy that at the end of the day, we often just want to be left alone.  But many are living disconnected lives where parts of their emotions slowly die.  It is in community where we flourish best!

We are busier than ever and have more connections than ever but even with that, George Gallup did a study that showed Americans are some of the loneliest people on the planet!  We need real relationships that can only be built in community!