How does your faith in God measure up?

Anthony question: How do you measure a man’s faith in God?

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

Tonight, we are going to measure our faith. How does your faith in God measure up?

In our survey, we are going to use a scale of 1 to 10.

1 on our scale is the measure of faith that God gives ALL men. Romans 12:3.

Romans 12:3 KJV 1900

For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.

Every person on this planet is given a measure of faith by God. It is enough faith to accept God’s offer of grace. That’s level 1 on our scale.

For comparison purposes, Abraham will be the 10 on our scale. (Heb. 11:17-19).

Hebrews 11:17–19 “By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac: and he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son, Of whom it was said, That in Isaac shall thy seed be called: Accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead; from whence also he received him in a figure.”

Abraham knew that God would raise Isaac from dead even if Abraham sacrificed him because Isaac was the child of promise.

Many times, we try to spiritualize this by saying that God would have never asked Abraham to sacrifice Isaac. That’s wrong. As far as Abraham knew, God required Isaac, and Abraham had the faith to know without certainty that God would raise Isaac from the dead if necessary.

That kind of faith is a 10 on our scale.

In your life, God is not going to ask you to physically sacrifice your child, but He might ask you to offer that child up to Him on the altar of service. He might require you to give up your job so He can use you for whatever He wills you to do.

Abraham had that kind of faith. Do you? Yes or No? (Matt. 17:20)

To complicate our survey, consider what Jesus said.

Matthew 17:20 “And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you.”

Jesus says a little faith can move mountains, and a little faith will erase all impossibilities.

Uh-oh!!!! How many of you have moved any mountains lately? Do we have any here that have Abraham’s level of faith?

Since we have not moved many mountains lately, how many of you would like to see your faith increase? How many of you would like to see your faith go from a 1 to a 10 on our scale? Can I tell you how your faith will increase?

1. To increase your faith, you must be a student of God’s word. (Rom. 10:17)

Romans 10:17 “So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”

Faith comes from hearing God’s word.

Many churches have preachers who do not go very deep into God’s word. As a result, too many Christians are stuck on a measure of faith instead of progressing to unwavering faith as Abraham had.

Most churches, today, want preachers to preach life lessons instead of God’s word. Well, dear friend, you can read Dennis the Menace for life lessons or watch Leave it to Beaver.

Your faith grows from hearing God’s word.

Why do you think I give you the outlines? It is my desire that you take the outlines home and use them as an outline for a personal Bible study.

Do you do that?

Romans 1:17 “For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith.”

What does that verse mean? It means as you study God’s word, God takes the measure of faith you have and grows your faith. As a matter of fact, a byproduct of an increasing faith is the revelation of God’s righteousness to you. The righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith.

Literally, when you read the Bible, who talks to you? ______________.

Is growing your faith important enough for you to become a student of God’s word? How many mountains have you moved lately? Would you like to move some?

If we want our faith to measure up, we must engage in God’s word. There is no substitute.

Remember, Abraham is a 10 on our faith scale.

How could Abraham have the faith he did? How could Abraham have the absolute faith that God would raise Isaac from the dead? Because he knew God’s word. (Genesis 15:3-6)

Genesis 15:3–4 “And Abram said, Behold, to me thou hast given no seed: and, lo, one born in my house is mine heir. And, behold, the word of the Lord came unto him, saying, This shall not be thine heir; but he that shall come forth out of thine own bowels shall be thine heir.”

Genesis 15:5–6 “And he brought him forth abroad, and said, Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them: and he said unto him, So shall thy seed be. And he believed in the Lord; and he counted it to him for righteousness.”

If you want to be like Abraham, you must know what God says. (Not what grandma says or what I say)

2. To increase your faith, you must be obedient.

Obedience is that word we hate because obedience is only made possible by submission.

C.S. Lewis: “Obedience is listening to God’s word and acting on it, aligning one’s will with God’s, and surrendering to His authority.”

You cannot be obedient until you are listening to and acting upon God’s word. The foundation is God’s word. If we are to build upon the measure of faith God has given us, we must have a strong foundation built upon God’s word.

If we have God’s word as a foundation, we can start building our faith by being obedient, but to what must we be obedient?

A. We must be obedient to God’s commands.

As a Christian lives more of a godly life, his or her faith will start increasing. (Rom. 6:1-4).

Romans 6:1–2 “What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?”

Romans 6:3–4 “Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.”

When you and I were saved, we were given a new life, a life that should not be bound or defined by sin.

If you are saved and want to dabble in sin, your faith will never increase.

Obedience to God’s commands means two things specifically. (Matthew 22:37-40).

Matthew 22:37–38 “Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment.”

Matthew 22:39–40 “And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”

Obedience to God’s commands is based upon you loving God with every fiber of your body. When you do that, you will be able to love anyone you come into contact with as you love yourself. You will be able to be obedient to the other commands of God found throughout the Bible, and that obedience will produce faith.

Examples: 1 Thessalonians 5:14-23.

1 Thessalonians 5:14–18 “Now we exhort you, brethren, warn them that are unruly, comfort the feebleminded, support the weak, be patient toward all men. See that none render evil for evil unto any man; but ever follow that which is good, both among yourselves, and to all men. Rejoice evermore. Pray without ceasing. In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.”

1 Thessalonians 5:21–23 “Prove all things; hold fast that which is good. Abstain from all appearance of evil. And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

The Thessalonian church was the model church, and doing the things Paul commanded the Thessalonians to do is only possible if we love God will of our being, and that obedience to that command will grow our faith.

B. We must be obedient to God-given opportunities. James 2:17-18.

James 2:17–18 “Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone. Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works.”

Too many Christians have a dead faith because they are not obedient to the opportunities given to them by God.

It is an obedience that is receptive of the needs of others. Matthew 25:34-40.

Matthew 25:34–36 “Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me.”

Matthew 25:37–38 “Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink? When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee?”

Matthew 25:39–40 “Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee? And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.”

A faith that is alive is a faith that is receptive to the needs of those around us.

To grow our faith, God presents us with opportunities to serve our fellow man, and when we do, our faith will grow.

God-given opportunities also refers to serving in the local church. 1 Corinthians 12:7-11.

1 Corinthians 12:7–9 NLT

A spiritual gift is given to each of us so we can help each other. To one person the Spirit gives the ability to give wise advice; to another the same Spirit gives a message of special knowledge. The same Spirit gives great faith to another, and to someone else the one Spirit gives the gift of healing.

1 Corinthians 12:10–11 NLT

He gives one person the power to perform miracles, and another the ability to prophesy. He gives someone else the ability to discern whether a message is from the Spirit of God or from another spirit. Still another person is given the ability to speak in unknown languages, while another is given the ability to interpret what is being said. It is the one and only Spirit who distributes all these gifts. He alone decides which gift each person should have.

If you are saved, you were given a spiritual gift that enables you to help the body, to serve the body of Christ.

God expects you to be obedient to that gift so that you can serve every member of the body. If you say you have no gift, you are denying God’s word. (Matt. 25:24-28).

Matthew 25:24–26 ““Then the servant with the one bag of silver came and said, ‘Master, I knew you were a harsh man, harvesting crops you didn’t plant and gathering crops you didn’t cultivate. I was afraid I would lose your money, so I hid it in the earth. Look, here is your money back.’ “But the master replied, ‘You wicked and lazy servant! If you knew I harvested crops I didn’t plant and gathered crops I didn’t cultivate,”

Matthew 25:27–28 “why didn’t you deposit my money in the bank? At least I could have gotten some interest on it.’ “Then he ordered, ‘Take the money from this servant, and give it to the one with the ten bags of silver.”

This is a serious warning to the Christian, I believe. You were given a gift when you were saved. If you are disobedient in using that gift to benefit the body of Christ, that gift will be taken from you and given to someone else, and as a result you will suffer loss of rewards, and your faith will not grow.

C. We must be obedient to God-given opportunities to share the Gospel.

We are all to share the gospel. (THE GREAT COMMISSION)

Mark 16:15–16 “And then he told them, “Go into all the world and preach the Good News to everyone. Anyone who believes and is baptized will be saved. But anyone who refuses to believe will be condemned.”

I do not know what to say except there is no excuse for not sharing the Gospel, but obedience to sharing the Gospel means being receptive to God about specific individuals God wants you to share the Gospel with.

Phillip/Ethiopian eunuch

Peter/Cornelius

Peter/Day of Pentecost

Ananias/Saul of Tarsus

Paul and Silas were given an opportunity to share the Gospel one night, and an entire family was saved.

Acts 16:25–28 “About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them. Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the jail were shaken, and immediately all the doors were opened, and everyone’s chains came loose. When the jailer woke up and saw the doors of the prison standing open, he drew his sword and was going to kill himself, since he thought the prisoners had escaped. But Paul called out in a loud voice, “Don’t harm yourself, because we’re all here!””

Acts 16:29–32 “The jailer called for lights, rushed in, and fell down trembling before Paul and Silas. He escorted them out and said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” They said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved—you and your household.” And they spoke the word of the Lord to him along with everyone in his house.”

How many of you believe it was God’s will that Paul and Silas to be in jail just to share the Gospel with that jailer and his family? Paul and Silas knew it too and were obedient to the opportunity instead of attempting to escape, and as a result, an entire family was saved.

Conclusion:

How did you measure up?

Would you like for your faith to grow?

How many of you would like to reach Abraham’s level of faith?

You can. You can do it, but it is not a sprint to the finish line. It is a marathon. A marathon that is made possible to complete by God’s word and obedience.

You must never forget. Abraham was an old man at the time he had the faith to believe that God would raise Isaac from the dead if he had to do so. The moral of this is that it might take you years to get your faith to be as Abraham’s, but the goal is attainable through God’s word and obedience.