We Believe: Faith

Good morning and welcome to CCC. We actually had a fall day or two this week. I love the fall temps and fall in general. Before long the air will have a bite to it and the smell of chili will fill the air.

Please join me and our leaders and teachers as we pray for God to continue to move in our children’s ministry. We are now offering Children’s Sunday school (one class at this time for the kids that come) and Children’s Church. We still need more teachers and helpers. If you stop and look around the world today you see the result of Children’s ministries and youth groups playing games and not teaching the Word of God. Our world, especially our country is so far from God and without teaching and mentoring and bringing up this generation in the Word of God it will just continue to get worse and worse. You, sons and daughters of the King of kings are called to stand in the gap and teach the next generation about our Father!

Let’s Pray

Start OBS

This morning we continue with We Believe sermon series with We Believe: Faith. This message has taken a couple of forms and in fact may even take a different form as we get going this morning. Praise God He is alive and speaking to us through His Holy Spirit this morning.

What is faith? Faith is a foundation of our Christian beliefs....it is something that must be present and in fact something that must drive all True Christians.

Faith however is something that the enemy has worked to water down and unfortunately the church has helped him do just that.

Faith is thrown around like a Christian buzzword instead of a key piece of a Christians foundation. Jesus is the corner stone and faith is what attaches us to that cornerstone. Pretty important.

Faith has eternal impact, in fact faith to a Christian should be more important than the air we breathe.

The Bible gives us a couple definitions of faith

Hebrews 11:1

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“Now faith is the reality of what is hoped for, the proof of what is not seen.”

The reality of what is hoped for......what is hoped for and what is the reality of that hope....His name is Jesus! Your deliverance from sin and death by Jesus’ blood and death on the cross!

What is that reality....salvation.....healings…the ends meeting when there is no humanly way possible for them to meet.....doors being open that the world welded shut

Proof of what is not seen. Holy Spirit.....learning the Bible....God revealing Himself to you.

I believe the Bible gives us a few other definitions that I want to explore before we unpack all of this.

Proverbs 3:5-6

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“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not rely on your own understanding; in all your ways know him, and he will make your paths straight.”

Faith in action. This defines what faith looks like. Trusting in the Lord with every ounce of your being and relying on HIM not your understanding. That is faith!

Why is Faith important?

Ephesians 2:8-10

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“For you are saved by grace through faith, and this is not from yourselves; it is God’s gift— not from works, so that no one can boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared ahead of time for us to do.”

You are saved by grace through FAITH....not your faith....not your works....God’s gift. Faith in God is what saves and is expected of all God’s Children.

Hebrews 11:6

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“Now without faith it is impossible to please God, since the one who draws near to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.”

Impossible to please God without faith. That is a huge statement right there. For you to hear well done my good and faithful servant when you meet Jesus face to face you must have faith.

Many Christians miss faith because their definition of faith is wrong. They place their faith in the wrong things.

They have faith in the healing and not the healer.

They have faith in the deliverance and not the deliverer

They have faith in the salvation not the One who saves.

That is faith based on what you understand. That is not the faith that God speaks of and expects you to have.

To help us unpack this and leave here today with a rock solid understanding and application of true faith I want to turn to God’s Word

Matthew 17:14-20

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“When they reached the crowd, a man approached and knelt down before him. “Lord,” he said, “have mercy on my son, because he has seizures and suffers terribly. He often falls into the fire and often into the water. I brought him to your disciples, but they couldn’t heal him.” Jesus replied, “You unbelieving and perverse generation, how long will I be with you? How long must I put up with you? Bring him here to me.” Then Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of him, and from that moment the boy was healed. Then the disciples approached Jesus privately and said, “Why couldn’t we drive it out?” “Because of your little faith,” he told them. “For truly I tell you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will tell this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”

This father had faith…faith that Jesus was who He said He was.

His son has a demon that caused seizures. These seizures caused his son to fall into the fire and the water. This was life or death for this father and son.

The father brought his son to the disciples but they failed. Notice the father didn’t go away angry or sad or disappointed. He didn’t blast the disciples and Jesus and church on facebook because they failed him.

No this father had faith in Jesus not the healing. He continued until he found Jesus because he understood who Jesus was.

When this encounter was finished and Jesus and the disciples were together again in private Jesus has some harsh words for His disciples

“You unbelieving and perverse generation” He goes on to ask how long am I stuck here with you?

They had the power to drive out this demon but not the faith. Jesus drove out the demon because He knew who God is, that the battle is won because of God and that this demon had no choice but to obey God and come out of this child.

The disciples asked Jesus why did we fail.....Jesus responds Your lack of faith. They knew Jesus. They knew the miracles that He did. They had even driven out demons and healed on their own.

I don’t know this from this scripture itself but I would guess that they started to get caught up in the hype. They started to place their faith in the works and not the one doing the works.

Jesus goes on to say if you have the faith of a mustard seed you can move mountains.

I believe this is both literal and figurative. If God wants to move the Rocky mountains through you I have no doubt that just a word would accomplish that feat because that is just a small thing to God

I also believe this applies to the mountains in your lives. Doesn’t matter what that mountain is

Your failing marriage

Your struggling kids

Your financial hardships

Your distance from God because of your unconfessed sin

Your addictions

Your pride

Your diagnoses

Your whatever

Most define faith as believing their whatever will be dealt with and they will be delivered from it but they miss the point just like the disciples.

Your faith must be in the one who can deliver you or move that mountain in your life. The father knew Jesus and sought Jesus not just the healing....if he just sought the healing he would have left when the disciples failed.

Nothing is impossible for God so stop doubting Him.

God has been laying a word on my heart all weekend. He started on Friday and was really laying it on my heart yesterday and in fact God woke me up early this morning to come in and deal with this word.

Fear.

Fear is the lack of faith. When a child of God…a true Christian has true faith in Jesus nothing is impossible for them because nothing is impossible for Jesus!

James 1:2-8

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“Consider it a great joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you experience various trials, because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its full effect, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking nothing. Now if any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God—who gives to all generously and ungrudgingly—and it will be given to him. But let him ask in faith without doubting. For the doubter is like the surging sea, driven and tossed by the wind. That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord, being double-minded and unstable in all his ways.”

Great pastor is going to having joy in trials again. You bet I am because this is another wonderful passage of faith in action.

A great teaching on how to apply faith and what happens to you as a result of that application

The first thing this passage teaches us is what your mindset must be when you face trials.

God says consider it great joy when you face trials. Most boo-hoo when they face trials. Poor me. Why is this happening? Why would God do this to me? Because He loves you and He understands the process

Most just want the trial to go away and the miss the growth that was to come from the trial

God says realize what this trial is doing my child. It is producing endurance and endurance produces Christian maturity

Most people want to be great, but most never will because they refuse to pay the price to be great

Most Christians want to be mature Christians while on this earth but most won’t because they refuse to pay the price to be mature. Endurance.

Enduring trials is a part of a growing Christians life. God uses these trials to produce endurance and that endurance then when it has its full effect grows you to be fully mature in Christ.....lacking nothing

Everyone in here wants to be fully mature in Christ lacking nothing.....the question is are you willing to endure to obtain it?

The next thing this passage teaches you is that you may realize in this process you lack wisdom.

What wisdom…God’s wisdom. God’s wisdom says have great joy in trials. If that is not you. If you need to have your mindset corrected....if you lack the Godly wisdom to say Praise God for this trial that is not a problem

God just said ask Him and He will fill you with more wisdom than you could ever use on this earth.

He also, however, said ask without doubt.....fully believe.

This is another wonderful passage and promise but it will cost you something to claim it.

Remember this is God’s wisdom....endurance produces maturity.....that type of wisdom

Maybe God will tell you when you ask for wisdom....son or daughter you are too busy....your focus is on work…your work…not my kingdom work

I can hear you now.....great pastor is going to lecture us about church attendance again. You are correct.....look around.....church attendance used to not even come into questions. Sunday morning....Sunday night....Wednesday nights those were the bare minimum......everyone wants to go back to the old days…why because in the old days God was the focus.......putting God first…being in God’s house MUST be a priority in your life. If your church attendance is not important to you.....it will not matter at all to your kids and grandkids and those around you.....that is one reason we live in such a dark and evil world is God’s children have become infatuated with the world and not their only love God! You bet church attendance matters

Many of you do kingdom work at your earthly work. That is a fact however many of you rely on that as your worship....no that is your service. Many focus so much on work and hobbies, well pastor I spread the gospel at my hobbies…praise the Lord…again the minimum you are to do as a Christian.

Many are so busy that gathering with the saints in corporate worship is not important to you. Again people may get their feathers ruffled here but if you kept a true accurate diary of your week, minute by minute, just by looking at that you and I and even someone who had never met you could see what is important to you. Where do you spend your time. What do you do when you are not at work? You see where you spend your time points to what is important to you.

The last teaching of this passage that we will look at today is this

Ask in Faith

Many ask....most have faith but they do not ask in faith

Many ask…most believe God can do what they ask but believe He won’t in their lives or situations. That is double minded

I don’t believe ask in faith has anything to do with outcomes and everything to do with fully believing in the one who can produce outcomes.

I mentioned that God put the word fear in my heart. He didn’t put fear in my heart I want to make that clear no what He put in my heart was faith over fear.

That faith that defeats the fear in your life comes from being able to ask in faith.

I believe asking in faith says that you understand who God is

None should perish but all come to repentance. That is God’s heart. That is His focus.

Most of yall are praying for God’s judgement and wrath in the life of those who hurt you. That is not God. Yes if they never accept Jesus they will face God’s judgement and wrath and that should tear you up because it breaks God’s heart…God desires repentance…maybe He wants that repentance to come because you had full faith in Him and handled that situation in His way not your way.....when is the last time you truly prayed for repentance in someone’s life who hurt you. Not a get even type of prayer but a true God they are lost and it breaks my heart that they don’t know you.....move in their life to bring them to you!

God says if you love me keep my commandments. Many pray remove this cup…God I love you but I can’t do that

Ask in faith means you don’t have to fear that…whatever it is God is asking and calling you to.

Ask in faith means you ask God to convict you.....you ask God to lead you....You ask God to change you so that you can follow His commands and love Him. That is asking in faith.

Faith is a mindset.

Faith is a lifestyle

Faith is a result of truly meeting God

Truly grasping who God is and what He did for you

Faith transforms you into who God created you to be.

Faith is an intentional choice…Will I follow God? Will I truly believe God is God

If the answer to that is yes you are a powerful warrior. You are untouchable in terms of salvation. You have joined God in total victory over the devil and sin and death. Nothing is impossible for you. That is God’s truth not mine

If all that is true then your life will show it. First fear will not define you…you, through the Holy Spirit and God’s Word will defeat fear in your life.

I Timothy 6:11-16

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“But you, man of God, flee from these things, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance, and gentleness. Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of eternal life to which you were called and about which you have made a good confession in the presence of many witnesses. In the presence of God, who gives life to all, and of Christ Jesus, who gave a good confession before Pontius Pilate, I charge you to keep this command without fault or failure until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ. God will bring this about in his own time. He is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings, and the Lord of lords, who alone is immortal and who lives in unapproachable light, whom no one has seen or can see, to him be honor and eternal power. Amen.”

This is faith in action.

Flee from these things....what are those things well if you look back in the scripture one of those things is the love of money. The love of the world. The love of self. Flee…run..get away from those things.

However you are also to pursue some things with the same passion and zeal. Pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance, and gentleness

Pursue. Go after with all that you are and all that you have

Righteousness

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is a condition acceptable to God. Doing the right thing because it is the right thing to do as defined by God

Godliness

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is reverence, respect for God. Not taking God lightly or for granted. Being in awe of God. God’s children need to get back to living in awe of God

Faith, Love and Endurance

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We have talked a lot about these three recently and today. Pursue them. Embrace them. let them define who you are

I love how Paul moves from things to flee from and things to pursue into the mindset that faith produces in your life

Fight the good fight. Get out there and live from Jesus

Let your faith in God destroy your fear. Fear will always be a part of your life here on this earth.

Evil is scary. The depths that some will go to prove their point is scary. The fact that the United States of America is no longer founded and rooted in God’s Word is scary but you and I don’t fear that.

Why because we have Faith in the one writing the story. We have faith that God is who He says He is and that everything happening is designed to bring Him glory and the lost home to salvation through repentance.

If you truly believe nothing will stop you from pursuing God!

Never stop chasing. Never stop fighting. Not fighting to win but fighting to believe and live your life in full faith.

Not fighting for God because He doesnt need you to fight for Him but fighting to follow Him.

Fighting to allow the Holy Spirit to lead you in applying God’s Word to your life.

Fighting to allow God’s Word to define you and help you realize there is nothing to fear in this world once you have accepted Jesus because this world lost its power over you when you accepted Jesus.

If you have never accepted Jesus, won’t you come in faith this morning.

Maybe God smacked you upside the heart this morning that you are not defined by faith but fear. Come lay that at the cross here at the altar this morning and leave here living a life full of faith.

Invitation song about my fears fear Jesus