THe People God Uses
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Gift of Faith
Gift of Faith
And it is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that God exists and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him.
Last week I introduced a small series that we will be walking through entitled “The People God Uses”
We learned that we were created for His pleasure!
Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.
I listed 5 areas of concern in the preparation process for God’s service
Life in the Spirt, Words of our mouth, Service we perform, handling of our money, and the power of prayer
We saw that there is a process we must all pass through in preparation for His service
The foundation of our life needs rebuilt, the rough edges smoothed out, and our faith needs strengthened!
Our focus is the events surrounding the healing of the lame man in Acts 3:1-10
Peter and John went to the Temple one afternoon to take part in the three o’clock prayer service.
As they approached the Temple, a man lame from birth was being carried in. Each day he was put beside the Temple gate, the one called the Beautiful Gate, so he could beg from the people going into the Temple.
When he saw Peter and John about to enter, he asked them for some money.
Peter and John looked at him intently, and Peter said, “Look at us!”
The lame man looked at them eagerly, expecting some money.
But Peter said, “I don’t have any silver or gold for you. But I’ll give you what I have. In the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, get up and walk!”
Then Peter took the lame man by the right hand and helped him up. And as he did, the man’s feet and ankles were instantly healed and strengthened.
He jumped up, stood on his feet, and began to walk! Then, walking, leaping, and praising God, he went into the Temple with them.
All the people saw him walking and heard him praising God.
When they realized he was the lame beggar they had seen so often at the Beautiful Gate, they were absolutely astounded!
We see here a practical demonstration of the Word of faith in action
Jesus told His disciples that
You can ask for anything in my name, and I will do it, so that the Son can bring glory to the Father.
But!
Until now you have asked nothing in My name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.
You see, when our prayers are inline with the Son brining glory to the Father, then our joy will be full as God is glorified! Look at the event again
It was in the Name of Jesus of Nazareth that faith was exercised - “he took the man and helped him up” - that resulted in honor being given to God -
Peter saw his opportunity and addressed the crowd. “People of Israel,” he said, “what is so surprising about this? And why stare at us as though we had made this man walk by our own power or godliness?
For it is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob—the God of all our ancestors—who has brought glory to his servant Jesus by doing this. This is the same Jesus whom you handed over and rejected before Pilate, despite Pilate’s decision to release him.
You see the Holy Spirits job is to bring attention to Jesus - Jesus’ role is to bring honor to the Father! The father brings honor to the Son!
The Word of faith spoken here was
But Peter said, “I don’t have any silver or gold for you. But I’ll give you what I have. In the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, get up and walk!”
The action of faith was
Then Peter took the lame man by the right hand and helped him up. And as he did, the man’s feet and ankles were instantly healed and strengthened.
The moment we begin to step out in faith Satan rears his ugly head and mouth full of lies!
Oh, what if he falls? What if he doesn’t get healed, you will look like a fool!
Satan will remind us of every reason healing doesn’t exist today!
When Jesus encountered the lame man at the pool of Bethesda He asked him a simple question, “do you want to be healed”
It wasn’t complicated or a trick question, a simple yes or no would have sufficed!
Instead the man began to lost the reasons he could not be healed!
The problem is we look at the situation from our standpoint of our insufficiency
Faith looks at the situation from God’s stand point and sees every sufficiency in God’s abilities!
Jesus told His disciples
So the Lord said, “If you have faith as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be pulled up by the roots and be planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you.
This point wasn’t about the size of the seed but rather the accomplishment of that seed over the obstacles to grow! Pushing its way to the surface under the weight of the soil pressing down upon it!
Peter challenged them
And as the lame man which was healed held Peter and John, all the people ran together unto them in the porch that is called Solomon’s, greatly wondering.
And when Peter saw it, he answered unto the people, Ye men of Israel, why marvel ye at this? or why look ye so earnestly on us, as though by our own power or holiness we had made this man to walk?
The God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob, the God of our fathers, hath glorified his Son Jesus; whom ye delivered up, and denied him in the presence of Pilate, when he was determined to let him go.
Why are you surprised, don’t you know the God of your fathers?
If they truly knew Him then they would have expected it!
Peter then goes on to clarify that it was
And his name through faith in his name hath made this man strong, whom ye see and know: yea, the faith which is by him hath given him this perfect soundness in the presence of you all.
Doo you see it? “through faith in His name”
Remember - Ask anything in my name and I will respond
In Matthew 17 the disciples were unable to cast out the demon and asked jesus why
Then came the disciples to Jesus apart, and said, Why could not we cast him out?
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.
So how to we build our faith to be strong in the Lord?
So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
Its clear! To build our faith we must spend time in the Word of God!
The more time we spend with Him the more we are conformed to the image of Christ in our lives and our desires and motives become His!
That’s why man cannot find fulfillment outside of the will of God!
And what more shall I say? For the time would fail me to tell of Gideon and Barak and Samson and Jephthah, also of David and Samuel and the prophets:
who through faith subdued kingdoms, worked righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions,
quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, became valiant in battle, turned to flight the armies of the aliens.
Women received their dead raised to life again. Others were tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection.
But what was the cost of their standing in faith?
Still others had trial of mockings and scourgings, yes, and of chains and imprisonment.
They were stoned, they were sawn in two, were tempted, were slain with the sword. They wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented—
of whom the world was not worthy. They wandered in deserts and mountains, in dens and caves of the earth.
And all these, having obtained a good testimony through faith, did not receive the promise,
God having provided something better for us, that they should not be made perfect apart from us.
You see faith isn’t for improving our lives, although God blesses us, Faith isn’t for getting a bigger car although God will provide all our needs, even faith isn’t for God healing our diseases, although He does, Faith, is the source of our strength and resolve to stay at the work to which He calls us!
Look at Heb 11:39
And all these, having obtained a good testimony through faith, did not receive the promise,
They didn’t see the fulfillment but trusted the One who would fulfil for a great reward
As we know
Faith shows the reality of what we hope for; it is the evidence of things we cannot see.
I think it takes more faith while we are waiting for the fulfilment of the promise than receiving it in full!
The people God uses have an unwavering trust in the Word of God
Therefore I tell you, stop being perpetually uneasy (anxious and worried) about your life, what you shall eat or what you shall drink; or about your body, what you shall put on. Is not life greater [in quality] than food, and the body [far above and more excellent] than clothing?
Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father keeps feeding them. Are you not worth much more than they?
And who of you by worrying and being anxious can add one unit of measure (cubit) to his stature or to the span of his life?
And why should you be anxious about clothes? Consider the lilies of the field and learn thoroughly how they grow; they neither toil nor spin.
Yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his magnificence (excellence, dignity, and grace) was not arrayed like one of these.
But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and green and tomorrow is tossed into the furnace, will He not much more surely clothe you, O you of little faith?
Therefore do not worry and be anxious, saying, What are we going to have to eat? or, What are we going to have to drink? or, What are we going to have to wear?
For the Gentiles (heathen) wish for and crave and diligently seek all these things, and your heavenly Father knows well that you need them all.
But seek (aim at and strive after) first of all His kingdom and His righteousness (His way of doing and being right), and then all these things taken together will be given you besides.
Let’s pray!
