Faith is a Substance of?
Notes
Transcript
Sermon Tone Analysis
A
D
F
J
S
Emotion
A
C
T
Language
O
C
E
A
E
Social
What is faith really?
What is faith really?
Is faith a forced belief?
Is faith in something?
Is faith in that something will happen?
Or
Is faith something more beautiful and more tangible then that?
Faith = belief in God
from a root word = trust in or to have confidence in or be persuaded.
To make friends of.
Sense; To have a strong confidence in or reliance on someone.
I have often explained faith is; you know that you know.
You may not be able to fully explain why you know but you just know.
Synonyms for Faith: believe in, connect to, abide in, trust in, confidence in, reliance on, obey, be persuaded by, joined with..
Faith is always about God or a person.
Faith is relational.
In other words faith is the proof of your connection with.
Faith, Hope, and Love are all intertwined. 1 cor 13.
These are all relation attributes.
Love is the soil that Hope grows in.
Hope is the soil that Faith thrives in.
Example:
If someone where to tell me that Danie is a coward, lazy, liar, I would never in a millions years believe them. Why? Because my faith in her come from proof of our connection for the past 25 years. I know that I know that she is brave and hard working and super honest.
She does not have be around me for me to know that about her. That faith in her is a steady rock on my life about her nature. Even if she had a bad week where she acted outside of her character, I already know who she truly is. I would be the first person in her life to help her realize that if she ever forgot.
The father of faith is Abraham.
I would say Abraham was one of the closest to God and he has been given the name of father of faith.
3 For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.” 4 Now to him who works, the wages are not counted as grace but as debt. 5 But to him who does not work but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness, 6 just as David also describes the blessedness of the man to whom God imputes righteousness apart from works:
This scripture is pretty profound.
It is describing what bring you closer to God.
Works do not bring you closer to God.
Believing the nature of God is what brings you closer to Him.
God justifies the ungodly.
God chooses the ones who are not like His nature.
Was Abraham close to God because of what he did?
Abraham was close to God because he believed in God. or He knew who God is.
Abraham believed God so much he was labeled the father of believing in God.
14 When they came to the crowd, a man came up to Jesus, falling on his knees before Him and saying, 15 “Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is a lunatic and is very ill; for he often falls into the fire and often into the water. 16 “I brought him to Your disciples, and they could not cure him.” 17 And Jesus answered and said, “You unbelieving and perverted generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring him here to Me.” 18 And Jesus rebuked him, and the demon came out of him, and the boy was cured at once. 19 Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, “Why could we not drive it out?” 20 And He said to them, “Because of the littleness of your faith; for truly I say to you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible to you. 21 “But this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting.”
Prayer and fasting is symbol of choosing connection with God over any other source of life.
Faith is a substance of a connection with God or a person.
Faith is the substance of love for God or a person.
Faith is what is there even when you are not around God or a person.
Faith in, is always in a person or God.
Faith in prayer or promise is not faith.
Faith is you know that you know about your connection with that person.
Lies have come to plant unbelief in a person or God.
Lies have come to plant unbelief in God’s people.
How do we grow in faith?
If faith is proof of a connection with God, then we grow faith by connecting.
We don’t grow faith by seeing if we can heal.
We don’t grow faith by trying to deliver someone.
We don’t grow faith by throwing money at things.
We don’t grow faith by any works that we can do for God.
Faith comes by hearing Christ. (Rom 10:17)
We can grow faith by hearing God in all those areas and then acting on what we heard.
We grow faith by hearing and letting what Jesus is telling you sink in that area of our hearts.
Faith without works is dead:
(James 2:14-26) talks about faith with out works is dead.
If you do works to get connection with God that is considered dead works.
We are to repent from dead works (Heb 6:1)
If your connection with God inspires work that believe in that connection, those are works of Faith.
You will know the difference because one fulfills you from the inside the other changes your state from the outside only.
Example:
If Danie is honest, but never again does works of honesty, her faith and our faith her in that area will die.
Some of us have faith in areas because we know what God’s nature and ability in that area of life. We don’t just have faith in God in that area we have faith in our connection with Him in that area.
Finances, Deliverance, healing, heart healing, hearing God’s voice,
God wants to grow in His connection with us in areas we don’t know Him or know Him a little in.
Closing:
Faith is the substance of your connection with God.
You will know it is faith because no one or no thing can change you mind about that connection.
Love is the soil that Hope grows in.
Hope is the soil that Faith thrives in.
When you read your bible this week, replace the word faith with relationship or connection. See what Jesus will speak to you about it.
Activation:
Jesus, what area of connection with You, do You want me to have more faith in?
How can I connect to You in that area?
Resources:
43 And a woman who had a hemorrhage for twelve years, and could not be healed by anyone, 44 came up behind Him and touched the fringe of His cloak, and immediately her hemorrhage stopped. 45 And Jesus said, “Who is the one who touched Me?” And while they were all denying it, Peter said, “Master, the people are crowding and pressing in on You.” 46 But Jesus said, “Someone did touch Me, for I was aware that power had gone out of Me.” 47 When the woman saw that she had not escaped notice, she came trembling and fell down before Him, and declared in the presence of all the people the reason why she had touched Him, and how she had been immediately healed. 48 And He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace.”
1 Therefore leaving the elementary teaching about the Christ, let us press on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God,
14 What use is it, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but he has no works? Can that faith save him? 15 If a brother or sister is without clothing and in need of daily food, 16 and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and be filled,” and yet you do not give them what is necessary for their body, what use is that? 17 Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself. 18 But someone may well say, “You have faith and I have works; show me your faith without the works, and I will show you my faith by my works.” 19 You believe that God is one. You do well; the demons also believe, and shudder. 20 But are you willing to recognize, you foolish fellow, that faith without works is useless? 21 Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up Isaac his son on the altar? 22 You see that faith was working with his works, and as a result of the works, faith was perfected; 23 and the Scripture was fulfilled which says, “And Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness,” and he was called the friend of God. 24 You see that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone. 25 In the same way, was not Rahab the harlot also justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way? 26 For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead.
17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.
7 for we walk by faith, not by sight—
42 and they were saying to the woman, “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves and know that this One is indeed the Savior of the world.”
1 If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing. 4 Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, 5 does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, 6 does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; 7 bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 8 Love never fails; but if there are gifts of prophecy, they will be done away; if there are tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be done away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part; 10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away. 11 When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child; when I became a man, I did away with childish things. 12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known. 13 But now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the greatest of these is love.
5 For I am mindful of the sincere faith within you, which first dwelt in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice, and I am sure that it is in you as well.
Faith:
Enhanced Strong’s Lexicon 4102 πίστις
4102 πίστις [pistis /pis·tis/] n f. From 3982; TDNT 6:174; TDNTA 849; GK 4411; 244 occurrences; AV translates as “faith” 239 times, “assurance” once, “believe + 1537” once, “belief” once, “them that believe” once, and “fidelity” once. 1 conviction of the truth of anything, belief; in the NT of a conviction or belief respecting man’s relationship to God and divine things, generally with the included idea of trust and holy fervour born of faith and joined with it. 1A relating to God. 1A1 the conviction that God exists and is the creator and ruler of all things, the provider and bestower of eternal salvation through Christ. 1B relating to Christ. 1B1 a strong and welcome conviction or belief that Jesus is the Messiah, through whom we obtain eternal salvation in the kingdom of God. 1C the religious beliefs of Christians. 1D belief with the predominate idea of trust (or confidence) whether in God or in Christ, springing from faith in the same. 2 fidelity, faithfulness. 2A the character of one who can be relied on.
from:
Enhanced Strong’s Lexicon 3982 ἐπισείω, πείθω
3982 ἐπισείω, πείθω [peitho /pi·tho/] v. A primary verb; TDNT 6:1; TDNTA 818; GK 2167 and 4275; 55 occurrences; AV translates as “persuade” 22 times, “trust” eight times, “obey” seven times, “have confidence” six times, “believe” three times, “be confident” twice, and translated miscellaneously seven times. 1 persuade. 1A to persuade, i.e. to induce one by words to believe. 1B to make friends of, to win one’s favour, gain one’s good will, or to seek to win one, strive to please one. 1C to tranquillise. 1D to persuade unto i.e. move or induce one to persuasion to do something. 2 be persuaded. 2A to be persuaded, to suffer one’s self to be persuaded; to be induced to believe: to have faith: in a thing. 2A1 to believe. 2A2 to be persuaded of a thing concerning a person. 2B to listen to, obey, yield to, comply with. 3 to trust, have confidence, be confident.