Limitless Faith

Intro

Over the next four weeks Jeff and I are going to be doing a series called Limitless Life. Which is all about what it looks like to live the limitless life that God offers to us as his children, and what that can look like. Before we dive in I want to make one thing very clear this is not a series on self help. do these four things and you will be and have everything you dreamed. Thats not Christianity.

Self help doesn’t work because the problem with self is self. so self can’t fix self. The reason that we as believers can have a limitless life is not because of us. It is because Jesus’s life is limitless. Because Jesus rose from the grave his life will go on with no limit and if we are united with him in his death and burial. by surrendering our lives to the father and receiving forgiveness from our sins than we will also be united with him in his resurrection into a life that will go with no limit.

John 10:10 CSB

A thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I have come so that they may have life and have it in abundance.

The limitless life that we are are promised doesn’t start when we get to heaven it starts now. Jesus has a full, abundant, limitless life for every single person in this room.

I know most of you believe that. but maybe you’re like me and there are times when your exhausted trying to do what you think you have to, to experience it. and its left you dry and empty.

If thats you this series is for you. its not about do these things and you will achieve a limitless, full and abundant life.

“A limitless life isn’t found in trying harder but in abiding deeper.”

A limitless life isn’t about what we produce for God—it’s about what we receive from God and live out through Christ.

We are going to look at four things through this series that I believe scripture shows we need to live the limitless life that we all want. But these aren’t things we achieve they are things we receive from the father through being in relationship with him.

The first thing that we need to live the limitless life that we all want to live is a limitless faith. Lets start by seeingt how the Bible defines faith.

Hebrews 11:1–3 CSB

Now faith is the reality of what is hoped for, the proof of what is not seen. For by this our ancestors were approved. By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was made from things that are not visible.

Faith at its core is trusting what you can’t see. The way we know as believers what we should place our faith in is based on what God has said. We place our faith in what God has said even if we havent seen it because we trust him.

1. Faith Trusts What You Can’t See.

The only way that you will be around someone with your eyes closed is if you trust them. and then it takes a whole other level of trust to allow someone to lead you somewhere with your eyes closed. My kids love to set up their mountain of stuffed animals in certain ways and then they want to show me. but I am not allowed to see them when I walk in the room they want me to close my eyes and then they will lead me.

I was sitting on the couch a few saturdays ago enjoying the day off and the rest, probably doing something spiritual like reading theology books. and they came to me and said daddy follow us but close your eyes. so I do it I trust them. and they lead my shin right into the coffee table. Now when they lead me i cheat a little I keep an eye open

But when we follow God to places we can’t see where we are going there is no cheating there’s no way to peak and make sure he’s leading us in a safe direction. All we have is trust.

And for the planner in me the person who likes every detail of every vacation planned out, that is terrifying.

But here is what I have come to believe is more terrifying. Think about if you have seen it too. Trusting in the things I can see is even more terrifying. Who would I trust to lead me through life the politicians? My friends as well meaning as they may be no I was with them when they throw a whole can of lighterfluid on a campfire. My family? even those who love you can lead you into a coffee table without meaning to? myself? Here is what I found out about myself and I wonder if you have found the same thing. As I look back on my life and the decisions I’ve made one thing is clear. I cannot lead myself to a limitless life. I cannot trust myself to lead me to a full, abundant, limitless life. Can you? There’s too much data out on me.

For me it would take more faith to believe that I can lead myself to the limitless life I want than to put my faith in a God i can’t see who’s promises I have seen come through.

But there still times when when my faith seems too small. what do we do when we know our faith needs to grow?

Romans 10:17 ESV

So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.

I love the simplicity of what Paul is saying. He doesn’t say faith comes from living well, it doesn’t come from ministering, it doesn’t come from giving.

He says faith comes from hearing the word of God. I wonder if you’re here this morning and your faith feels weak because you have been trying to grow it through doing instead of listening.

If you want to live a limitless life, that is full of limitless faith. You have to change your mindset from trying harder to believe to instead staying close enough to hear.

2. Faith Grows When You Hear God.

You can’t have faith in someone you don’t trust, you cant trust someone you dont know anything about. How do we we know about God His word tells us everything he wants us to know about him.

You may have heard or experienced your faith growing because of an experience. Likely it was a hard time. Most Christians if you ask them when they felt the most full of faith and closest to God was you will hear them say it was when they were going through a storm. If thats you could you raise your hand. If the closest you have felt to God is when you were going through a difficult time.

I am so thankful that we have God who comes near to the broken hearted. I want to point out something about that experience that you may not have thought about. The reason you felt closer to God wasn’t just because of that difficult time. difficult times on their own dont increase faith. Unbelievers go through difficult times too and it may push them farther from God.

The reason you felt closer to God in that time is because you had already heard his word. You knew that you weren’t abandoned because you had heard it. You knew he was near because you had heard it, You knew that his love for you transends circumstance because you had heard it. You knew that Jesus promised in this world we would have trouble but you could take heart because he has overcome the world because you had heard it. Because you had heard God’s word you trusted, and your faith grew as you saw what you had heard play out in your life.

And as you grew closer you could hear him more and more clearly. Your faith grew in the middle of terrible circumstance because you were close enough to hear.

But then we get through the difficult seasons and we go back to everyday life and instead of continuing to stay close enough to listen to grow our faith we try harder. and we get burnt out, our faith stagnates, and we wonder why. and we even start longing for how we felt when we were going through the fire.

What your longing for isn’t the difficult time its how dependent your were on hearing God and his word in that season. You can have that without losing a parent, you can have that without going through a sickness, or a broken relationship. Your faith can grow to a limitless faith even in the good times if you change from wanting to grow your faith by trying harder on your own to staying close enough to him to hear his word. You choose to be dependent on him. You let him take you by the hand with your eyes closed and listen when he tells you to go forward turn or stop.

What are you doing today are you trying to grow your faith by trying harder under your own power? or are you growing your faith by listening to God’s word?

You might be here today and think I like that idea Daniel I get it. but the reality is my faith isn’t big enough to close one eye and follow let alone two. What do I do then? Jesus shows us.

The verses we are about to read are the end of a story where Jesus, Peter, James and John are coming down from the mountain where he was transfigured, where they saw Moses and Elijah with them and heard God’s voice. Right after that they step down from the mountain top into the valley of the other disciple’s failures. There was a demon they couldn’t cast out and Jesus expresses frustration that they couldnt do it and he does it himself and this interaction is what happens after.

Matthew 17:19–20 CSB

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.”

In Mark’s account of this story he gives an extra detail that paints the full picture why their faith was so little. Mark 9:28-29

Mark 9:28–29 CSB

After he had gone into the house, his disciples asked him privately, “Why couldn’t we drive it out?” And he told them, “This kind can come out by nothing but prayer.”

That means that they didnt even ask for God’s help before they tried to perform this feat for God. the reason their faith was so little and the opposite of the limitless faith that we are after is because their faith wasn’t in God it was in theirselves. They were trying to do things for God without God, and then were confused why it wasn’t working.

3. It’s Not the Size of Your Faith—It’s the Size of Your God

God is big enough that even the smallest amount of faith is big enough for whatever you need. It isn’t about the size of your faith. it is about the size of the object of your faith.

People have big faith in small things all the time. It doesn’t make the object of that faith any more true any more reliable. A faith can never be limitless if it is in something that is limited. I can have all the faith in the world that my Lakers are going to win an NBA title this season even with two of our top players hurt. That doesn’t change the reality that the Thunder are going to do unspeakable things to us in the next round of the playoffs if we get through this one. All my faith even if it was big doesn’t matter because the object of that faith has its limits.

But when it comes to our faith in God. He is the only thing in the universe that you can put your faith in that is truly limitless. and the smallest possible faith in a big limitless God is stronger than the biggest possible faith in anything else. Jesus used the example of the mustard seed which was the smallest seed in the region. smaller than a tik tak. but when it grew it grew to the largest garden plant that they had.

It is not your job to get your faith big enough to meet how big God is.

Take that pressure off yourself this morning. What Jesus wanted from the disciples in Matthew 17 is the same thing he wants from you this morning.

Take what faith you have. no matter how small and place it in Him instead of you, your job, your money, your friends, or even your family. Take your little bit of faith, your little bit of trust and place it in him and he will grow it without limit.

Matthew 17 shows us that Jesus isn’t impressed by the amount of your faith, but by dependence.

A limitless faith is a faith that is fully dependent on Jesus.

If you want to live a limitless life that is rooted in the limitless life that Jesus has and offers to you. You have to point your faith no matter how small towards the source of limitless life Jesus.

You have to stop looking at yourself and say I don’t have the faith to live out my faith, I don’t have the faith to give up this sin, I don’t have the faith to lead my family in a way that honors Jesus, I don’t have the faith to make a difference in the life of the church. Stop obsessing over the faith you don’t have and start giving what faith you do have to the father. who will take your little bit faith and grow it to limitless faith when it is focused on Him.

Conclusion

Today as we close I want you to think about how you look at your faith. I hope today you have seen that the limitless faith that you want. it isnt built on sight, striving, or the size of your faith.

You want a faith that is without limit you need a faith that is built on trust, proximity to God, and is focused on the object of your faith.

So stop trying to see everything, stop trying to grow it on your own, and stop worrying if it’s enough—just take the faith you have, trust the God you can’t see, stay close enough to hear Him, and place it in the One who is bigger than it all.

In a moment I am going to pray. and in that time I am going to leave time for you to be alone with God and we are going to all ask God to reveal to us what the object of our faith is, is it Him or is it us.

So as you leave today, don’t walk out trying harder—walk out staying close enough to hear Him.