Clash Of The Titans
Titan Faith vs Titan Fear
When faith exists, there is no room for fear.
"There are two primary forces in this world, fear, and faith. Fear can move you to destructiveness or sickness or failure. Only in rare instances will it motivate you to accomplishment. But faith is a greater force. Faith can drive itself into your consciousness and set you free from fear forever." --- Norman Vincent Peale
Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot see. --- Heb 11:1
Faith is looking at things, people, situations from God’s perspective.
I. When We See Life Through The Lenses of Fear
/ 4 And these are their names: from the tribe of Reuben, Shammua son of Zaccur;
5 from the tribe of Simeon, Shaphat son of Hori;
6 from the tribe of Judah, Caleb son of Jephunneh;
7 from the tribe of Issachar, Igal son of Joseph;
8 from the tribe of Ephraim, Joshua son of Nun;
9 from the tribe of Benjamin, Palti son of Raphu;
10 from the tribe of Zebulun, Gaddiel son of Sodi;
11 from the tribe of Joseph, from the tribe of Manasseh, Gaddi son of Susi;
12 from the tribe of Dan, Ammiel son of Gemalli;
13 from the tribe of Asher, Sethur son of Michael;
14 from the tribe of Naphtali, Nahbi son of Vophsi;
15 from the tribe of Gad, Geuel son of Maki. --- Num 3:4-15
A. We Magnify Our Difficulties
31 And the men who went up with him said, “We are not able to go up to the people because they are stronger than us.” 32 And they presented the report of the land that they explored to the Israelites, saying, “The land that we went through to explore is a land that eats its inhabitants, and all the people whom we saw in its midst are men of great size. --- Num 3:31-32
B. We Belittle Ourselves
There we saw the Nephilim (the descendants of Anak came from the Nephilim), and we were like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their eyes. --- Num 3:33
C. We Miss Out On God's Purposes In Our Life
28 Say to them, ‘Surely as I live,’ declares Yahweh, ‘just as you spoke in my hearing, so I will do to you; 29 in this desert your corpses will fall, and all your counted ones, according to all your number, from twenty years old and above who grumbled against me. 30 You yourselves will not come into the land that I swore by oath to make you to dwell in it, but Caleb son of Jephunneh and Joshua son of Nun. 31 But your little children, whom you said would be plunder, I will bring them, and they will know the land that you rejected. 32 But for you, all your corpses will fall in this desert. 33 And your children will be shepherds in the desert forty years, and you will bear your unfaithfulness until all your corpses have fallen in the desert. --- Num 14:28-33
Why is the Lord bringing us to this land only to let us fall by the sword? Our wives and children will be taken as plunder. Wouldn’t it be better for us to go back to Egypt? --- Num 14:3
Fear brought them back to what was familiar, to the good old days.
Fear impedes us from living out God's purposes and withholds God's blessings intended for us.
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II. When We See Life Through Lenses of Faith
A. Mountains in Our Life Can Be Moved
And Jesus answered saying to them, “Have faith in God. “Truly I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says is going to happen, it will be granted him. “Therefore, I say to you, all things for which you pray and ask, believe that you have received them, and they will be granted you. --- Mk 11:22-24
God has given each person a measure of faith.--- Rom 12:3
“You don’t need more faith. There is no ‘more’ or ‘less’ in faith. If you have a bare kernel of faith, say the size of a poppy seed, you could say to this sycamore tree, ‘Go jump in the lake,’ and it would do it.” --- Lk 17:6 (MSG)
“If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it will obey you.”--- Lk 17:6
Nothing is impossible with God. Lk 1:37
When I am afraid, I put my trust in you --- Ps 56:3
God uses adversity to strengthen our faith and during such times of fear and difficulty, our faith grows the most.
B. God's Promises in Our Life Will Be Unlocked
“For all of God’s promises have been fulfilled in Christ with a resounding “Yes!” And through Christ, our “Amen” ascends to God for his glory.” --- 2 Cor 1:20
“And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.” --- Heb 11:6
Story of Esther
“Do not think that because you are in the king’s house you alone of all the Jews will escape. For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father’s family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this?” --- Esther 4:14-20
Story of George Muller:
As a result of one man's decision to walk by faith in God and fulfill God's purpose, countless beautiful lives were transformed.
/ "So we’re not giving up. How could we! Even though on the outside it often looks like things are falling apart on us, on the inside, where God is making new life, not a day goes by without his unfolding grace. These hard times are small potatoes compared to the coming good times; the lavish celebration prepared for us. There’s far more here than meets the eye. The things we see now are here today, gone tomorrow. But the things we can’t see now will last forever." --- 2 Cor 4:16-18
1. Faith helps us to enter into God's presence
2. Faith taps on God’s strength and focus on God's plan despite of all the challenges
3. Faith expands our capacity to see beyond the majority
4. Faith enables to see God's presence and power in our circumstances
5. Faith gives us grace to see our situations as He does
Faith comes by hearing and hearing the Word. --- Rom 10:17
”The righteous shall live by faith." <Hab 2:4