Joshua Boyd: We're going to start a new series today.
Joshua Boyd: You know, we talk about faith very often at Faith Alive Church.
Joshua Boyd: And it's much more though than just a favorite subject.
Joshua Boyd: It's really the mission of this church to keep faith alive.
Joshua Boyd: And that is something that the Bible talks about, because the Bible talks about faith that is fake.
Joshua Boyd: They call it a feigned faith, or basically fake faith.
Joshua Boyd: There's faith that's dead, the Bible talks about.
Joshua Boyd: So you can have faith that looks like it's alive, but it's really not doing anything.
Joshua Boyd: It's dead.
Joshua Boyd: So we obviously want to keep faith alive at Faith Alive Church.
Joshua Boyd: So understanding what faith is and how it works is really a vital to our success as Christians.
Joshua Boyd: God works by faith.
Joshua Boyd: And the good news is that He's given us a portion of it, a measure of His faith.
Joshua Boyd: So even the faith that we have, the true faith, is actually a gift from God.
Joshua Boyd: It comes from God Himself.
Joshua Boyd: So our new series today is called The Journey of Faith.
Joshua Boyd: Because faith isn't just a one-time event.
Joshua Boyd: It's not just a, oh I, yeah, I believed God when I was born again and that I'm done.
Joshua Boyd: I'm now on the journey.
Joshua Boyd: I'm now, you know, walking on the path.
Joshua Boyd: No, faith is a journey to it.
Joshua Boyd: There's a journey to it.
Joshua Boyd: Living by faith, which is a command in Scripture, doesn't come overnight.
Joshua Boyd: It doesn't happen.
Joshua Boyd: I mean, anything that we're that we learn in life, we don't just learn it once and we're done.
Joshua Boyd: We have to learn and learn and learn and put it into practice to make sure we're good at it.
Joshua Boyd: Because you can learn something, and if you're not putting it into practice, you lose it.
Joshua Boyd: You know, they say you never forget how to ride a bike, but don't ride one for 20 years and it may be a little wobbly the next time you do it.
Joshua Boyd: Um and you certainly won't be as proficient as a professional cyclist because they do it eight, ten hours a day, every day, so they're good at it.
Joshua Boyd: And we look at, you know, I like to watch cycling, and when I watch cycling, I and I go on my bike, I'm thinking I feel like I could do that.
Joshua Boyd: Then I realize, no, I can't.
Joshua Boyd: Um because I just don't put the effort into it.
Joshua Boyd: It's not that I'm not, you know, not designed for it.
Joshua Boyd: I am probably past the prime age of what they most most of them are doing, but the point is that they've put their the so much effort into it.
Joshua Boyd: And that's true for athletes and musicians and doctors and scientists and all of us really that are in the profession, we didn't just learn it and then that was it.
Joshua Boyd: We learn every day.
Joshua Boyd: We have to practice it every day in order to get better at it in order to be a success.
Joshua Boyd: Faith is no different.
Joshua Boyd: Um it takes the but faith for some believers, it doesn't really happen because living by faith doesn't come automatically.
Joshua Boyd: It takes the right actions to work.
Joshua Boyd: So let's think about when you when you were saved, when you were born again.
Joshua Boyd: Did you wake up one day and suddenly decide that you were going to get saved?
Joshua Boyd: No, there was a process.
Joshua Boyd: There had to be some things in place, some the right ingredients coming together, all mixed up in order for that event to take place.
Joshua Boyd: So let's look at what the word says about the salvation process.
Joshua Boyd: So today's part one of our journey of faith series is salvation.
Joshua Boyd: Let's take a look at a very common salvation passage in Romans 10.
Joshua Boyd: So we're going to look at Romans 10, starting with verse 9.
Joshua Boyd: I've got it on the screen.
Joshua Boyd: We'll read a few verses here.
Joshua Boyd: It says that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and shall believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
Joshua Boyd: For with the heart man believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
Joshua Boyd: For the scripture says, Whoever believes on him will not be put to shame.
Joshua Boyd: For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord, for the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon him.
Joshua Boyd: For whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.
Joshua Boyd: Verse 14 How how then shall they call on him in whom whom they have not believed?
Joshua Boyd: How they how shall they believe in him whom they have not heard?
Joshua Boyd: How shall they hear without a preacher?
Joshua Boyd: How shall they preach unless they are sent, as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace, who bring glad tidings of good things.
Joshua Boyd: But they have not all obeyed the gospel, for Isaiah says, Lord, who has believed our report?
Joshua Boyd: So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
Joshua Boyd: Verse 15 actually is a quote of Isaiah where it says, How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel.
Joshua Boyd: Isaiah's version says this.
Joshua Boyd: This is Isaiah 52, 7, this is New Living.
Joshua Boyd: How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of the messenger who brings the good news, the good news of peace and salvation, the news that the God of Israel reigns.
Joshua Boyd: So for you and I, for anyone to receive salvation, there's some prerequisites that have to happen.
Joshua Boyd: There's some things that took place or have to take place.
Joshua Boyd: You have to call on the name of the Lord and ask him to save you.
Joshua Boyd: That's what that was the act of what we did.
Joshua Boyd: We prayed.
Joshua Boyd: We said, Lord, I'm asking you to come into my life.
Joshua Boyd: I'm asking you to be my Lord and Savior.
Joshua Boyd: And you may have done it in a church, you may have done it in your home, in a friend's house, you know, that act of coming down to the altar, as they used to say, that was the final step of you, of things that came together.
Joshua Boyd: But for you to even take that step of saying, okay, I raised my hand, I believe, I'm coming down to the altar, however, we did it, we had to hear.
Joshua Boyd: We had to hear something to go, oh, uh I have a now, I have a chance to believe that.
Joshua Boyd: I've heard something that I've never heard before.
Joshua Boyd: And like both Isaiah and Romans is saying here, it's all about the good news.
Joshua Boyd: There's good news of peace, there's good news of salvation.
Joshua Boyd: So we heard some good news, which is why Jesus emphasized the gospel, the good news.
Joshua Boyd: He didn't go around telling people they're going to hell, didn't go around telling people that God's going to judge you for your sins, God's going to condemn you.
Joshua Boyd: That's not the good news.
Joshua Boyd: The good news of the gospel is hey, there's something better.
Joshua Boyd: There's a life you can live that's better.
Joshua Boyd: There's a life you can live that has peace.
Joshua Boyd: There's a life you can live that you won't experience death.
Joshua Boyd: You'll be, you'll have an eternal life where you get to go to heaven.
Joshua Boyd: There's some good news there.
Joshua Boyd: Amen?
Joshua Boyd: How many remember your your moment of salvation?
Joshua Boyd: I do.
Joshua Boyd: For me, it was as a child, it was, but it was in a it was in a church setting, and I just remember, you know, I grew up in a Christian home, so you know, I know I think my mom would say I was born born again at an even younger age, but I remember distinctly being 12 years old and just hearing something and going, that's what I want.
Joshua Boyd: I want that.
Joshua Boyd: And literally going down to an altar and praying with somebody.
Joshua Boyd: And I remember that, and then I remember not only the the the moment, the day, I could picture the building still, but I remember think it, I just remember coming out of it with a joy, and that even as a young preteen, thinking there is something different now in my life.
Joshua Boyd: And that's that was my moment of salvation.
Joshua Boyd: But again, it didn't happen because I woke up one day and go, heh, what should I do today?
Joshua Boyd: Let me go get saved.
Joshua Boyd: No, I heard.
Joshua Boyd: I heard something good and I had an opportunity to believe.
Joshua Boyd: So we have to call on the name of the Lord.
Joshua Boyd: Let me just put this on the screen.
Joshua Boyd: We have to call on the name of the Lord.
Joshua Boyd: We have to ask him to save us.
Joshua Boyd: That's the last step.
Joshua Boyd: But then we have to, we have, before that, we have to believe something that we've heard.
Joshua Boyd: And before that, we have to hear.
Joshua Boyd: And the verses we just read in Romans goes even before that.
Joshua Boyd: But for somebody to hear, they have to have somebody to preach it to them, to tell it to them.
Joshua Boyd: That doesn't mean it has to be from a preacher, it just means they have to have somebody to tell them the good news, to proclaim the good news to them.
Joshua Boyd: That could be from a coworker, a relative, or a friend, or a neighbor, or a stranger.
Joshua Boyd: Somebody has to tell a person the good news for that for even step one to happen.
Joshua Boyd: So there's even, we could expand this out to probably ten steps that the word just went through.
Joshua Boyd: But once we hear the good news, the gospel, we have a choice to believe it or not.
Joshua Boyd: But there's more than just believing.
Joshua Boyd: I think too many churches, too many people emphasize, even in the faith circles, too many people emphasize the believing part.
Joshua Boyd: But if I stopped at number two and I never called on the name of the Lord, I never asked the Lord into my heart, there still would not be salvation.
Joshua Boyd: Because I can believe all day long, but if I didn't do something that next step, the event didn't take place.
Joshua Boyd: The Bible says in James, the devils believe.
Joshua Boyd: The devils believe there's a God.
Joshua Boyd: They believe in Jesus.
Joshua Boyd: Are they saved?
Joshua Boyd: No.
Joshua Boyd: They haven't done number three.
Joshua Boyd: In other words, believing by itself isn't the end result.
Joshua Boyd: And it's an important result.
Joshua Boyd: If we don't believe, then we're still missing a step.
Joshua Boyd: And if we don't hear, we're still missing a step.
Joshua Boyd: So we have to put ourselves into position to hear.
Joshua Boyd: Whether that's gathering in obedience, as the word says, don't forsake the assembling of yourselves together, or listening to the word, or or or you know, spending time in the word in prayer with the Lord, there's you can hear even then.
Joshua Boyd: And when you hear something, you have the option.
Joshua Boyd: Do I believe this or not?
Joshua Boyd: And that sounds funny when you're talking about the word.
Joshua Boyd: It's like, of course I believe the word.
Joshua Boyd: What I'm talking about is when you see something in the word that's pointing to you and saying, This is for you right now, this morning, you're like, hmm.
Joshua Boyd: Am I gonna receive that?
Joshua Boyd: Am I gonna believe that?
Joshua Boyd: And if I am, what do I have to do with that?
Joshua Boyd: Because it doesn't stop at believing.
Joshua Boyd: That's only the second step.
Joshua Boyd: It goes on to a next step, salvation.
Joshua Boyd: I mean, uh, to have salvation, there's another step.
Joshua Boyd: You have to call on the name of the Lord.
Joshua Boyd: The faith it takes to believe the good news comes from God Himself.
Joshua Boyd: We have a portion.
Joshua Boyd: The Bible says we have been given a measure of faith.
Joshua Boyd: That means we've been given, God took the faith that he has, he took a little part of it off, and he gave some to Michelle.
Joshua Boyd: He gave some to Georgia, and he said, Here, this is yours.
Joshua Boyd: And it doesn't mean that he gave one person more than the other.
Joshua Boyd: That's not what it's saying.
Joshua Boyd: It's saying we have not a faith that we've had to grow on our own.
Joshua Boyd: God gave us the very faith even to believe.
Joshua Boyd: So even with salvation, think about it, the good news is there's something good to go to, and God's gave you the ability to even believe that and to latch on to it and to hold on to it and to experience salvation.
Joshua Boyd: So the very the God's giving you all the tools you need.
Joshua Boyd: It's like saying, you know, Denmark, I need you to, I need you to mow my lawn.
Joshua Boyd: Here's the lawnmower, here's the lawnmower, here's the gas, here's everything you need to do it.
Joshua Boyd: And all he has to do is start up the engine and ride the mower.
Joshua Boyd: It's a riding mower, it's not a push.
Joshua Boyd: He's like, oh, I'm there, where am I?
Joshua Boyd: No.
Joshua Boyd: I think too many people think that God has kind of left everybody on, you know, once once Jesus came and died and was risen again and went back to heaven, there are people who teach that, okay, that was it.
Joshua Boyd: God's done.
Joshua Boyd: He's done everything he's going to do.
Joshua Boyd: Yes, in terms of the act of salvation, the act of what he did for love, it is done.
Joshua Boyd: But he's still working in it in the lives of every person to give us the very ability to believe him.
Joshua Boyd: And this really is where this verse comes into play, Ephesians 2, 8 and 9.
Joshua Boyd: For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves.
Joshua Boyd: It is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.
Joshua Boyd: We can't take any credit.
Joshua Boyd: We can't take any credit for salvation.
Joshua Boyd: We can't take any credit for even the believing.
Joshua Boyd: I think there's too much emphasis sometimes on when people ask, hey, how'd you get your prayer answer?
Joshua Boyd: Well, it was my faith.
Joshua Boyd: Well, who gave you that faith?
Joshua Boyd: Who gave you the answer?
Joshua Boyd: Who gave you the ability to even think about there being an answer to prayer?
Joshua Boyd: All comes from God.
Joshua Boyd: None of it is of works.
Joshua Boyd: None of it is by what we are doing.
Joshua Boyd: None of it is all, you know, the I know I've said this before, but some people sometimes wonder what it which one is it talking about when it says it is the gift of God?
Joshua Boyd: Just consider all of it.
Joshua Boyd: The grace is a gift of God, the faith is a gift of God, the salvation is a gift of God.
Joshua Boyd: It's all a gift of God.
Joshua Boyd: Let's not get into, well, which one is it referring to?
Joshua Boyd: It's a um, what do they call that, a vague pronoun.
Joshua Boyd: No.
Joshua Boyd: It was it referred to?
Joshua Boyd: All of it.
Joshua Boyd: All of it is a gift of God.
Joshua Boyd: We cannot take credit for any of it.
Joshua Boyd: God had mercy on you and I.
Joshua Boyd: He sent his son to die for us and to take our place to save us from our destruction.
Joshua Boyd: Then he gave us a measure of faith, a drop of that faith that he has.
Joshua Boyd: Just enough, or not, well, I wouldn't say just enough, but he gave us that in order for us to even step into the door and believe on him for salvation.
Joshua Boyd: Then we believe the good news.
Joshua Boyd: But again, is believing the last step?
Joshua Boyd: Are we saved then?
Joshua Boyd: Not yet.
Joshua Boyd: There's still one more step.
Joshua Boyd: We've seen it, but let's take a look at Abraham.
Joshua Boyd: Abraham is the one that God called him the father of faith.
Joshua Boyd: So he's the first, he wasn't the first one to believe God.
Joshua Boyd: You know, even Hebrews 11 goes into, it mentions Abel, it mentions Noah, it mentions Enoch, all came before Abraham.
Joshua Boyd: So there are people who had acts of faith, of believing God before Abraham did.
Joshua Boyd: You know, Noah lived almost a thousand years.
Joshua Boyd: He lived over 900 years long.
Joshua Boyd: Um and it's recorded that he believed God about, we know at least a hundred and some years.
Joshua Boyd: It took about a hundred years to build the ark.
Joshua Boyd: Why do I say that?
Joshua Boyd: Because I think the people who came before Abraham, they they believed God for a short amount of time.
Joshua Boyd: They had that element of their moment of fame, if you will.
Joshua Boyd: Abel says, believe God for his sacrifice.
Joshua Boyd: Enoch walked, believed God on this earth.
Joshua Boyd: Enoch lives 365 years.
Joshua Boyd: And then the Bible says he walked with God, and God said, Hmm, why don't you just come up with me and took him?
Joshua Boyd: He was not.
Joshua Boyd: So he he got basically raptured by faith.
Joshua Boyd: But Abraham was the first to really live by faith.
Joshua Boyd: He trusted God with everything up to the point that he knew when God said, Go put your son on this altar and sacrifice him, he trusted God so much that he knew, Romans says, he knew that God could raise his son from the dead.
Joshua Boyd: He had that much trust in the Lord, in the word of the Lord, because his son was already a promise.
Joshua Boyd: His son was already a fulfilled promise of what the Lord would say, what the Lord said he would do.
Joshua Boyd: So if the Lord said, Go kill your son, well, he must gonna raise him up from the dead because this is my promised son.
Joshua Boyd: Abraham believed God that much that God said, You know what?
Joshua Boyd: I'm gonna change your name.
Joshua Boyd: So much so, remember, we talked about around Christmas time that when you have a name, you have a purpose.
Joshua Boyd: So Abraham's purpose changed.
Joshua Boyd: He went from Abram to Abraham.
Joshua Boyd: God changed his name because he changed his purpose.
Joshua Boyd: So Abraham became that father of faith.
Joshua Boyd: Abraham, I'm not going to read through the story because it would take a while for us to get there, but we'll just summarize it.
Joshua Boyd: This is starting in Genesis 12.
Joshua Boyd: God told Abraham, this is the first mention of God speaking to Abraham, okay, Abraham, get out of your country.
Joshua Boyd: It's time for you to leave this country where you've where you're born, where your whole family was has all has always lived.
Joshua Boyd: I'm gonna go and go somewhere.
Joshua Boyd: Where am I going?
Joshua Boyd: I'm gonna tell you.
Joshua Boyd: So Abraham goes to his family, his father's still alive.
Joshua Boyd: He goes to his family, says, Hey, I'm I'm leaving.
Joshua Boyd: Where are you going?
Joshua Boyd: I don't know yet.
Joshua Boyd: I'm heading that way.
Joshua Boyd: How do you know when you how you do how you're gonna know when you get there?
Joshua Boyd: I don't know.
Joshua Boyd: The Lord will tell me.
Joshua Boyd: You know, I think too, that takes faith.
Joshua Boyd: It takes some trust and believing.
Joshua Boyd: I remember when I was 24 years old and I left Florida to go move to Tennessee, I at least knew where I was going.
Joshua Boyd: Um, you know, I got on, I got my moving van, towed in my car, and got on the interstate and was was driving.
Joshua Boyd: Now it was back then for me, it was still a big act of faith because it was I didn't know what the future would bring in this new new place all by myself.
Joshua Boyd: But at least I had a I did have a destination.
Joshua Boyd: Abraham, you know, can you imagine all the logistics it took back then to load up you know camels and pack up and not even know where you're going, not even have that.
Joshua Boyd: I mean, I I have to know where the rest stops are when I go somewhere anymore.
Joshua Boyd: It's like, where are we going to stop?
Joshua Boyd: Where are we going to get gas?
Joshua Boyd: Where are we going to eat?
Joshua Boyd: Not only where are we going, but what's all of our little milestones in between there?
Joshua Boyd: But Abraham was like, I'm out, we're going.
Joshua Boyd: And he even convinced his nephew Lot to go with him.
Joshua Boyd: So now Lot had a must have had a little bit of faith in there to go, okay, I'll go with you.
Joshua Boyd: But that's using that measure of faith that God gave Abraham.
Joshua Boyd: But Abraham couldn't just believe God to say, okay, get out, okay, Lord, I believe that you're speaking to me.
Joshua Boyd: I believe you've told me to get out of my homeland.
Joshua Boyd: I believe you're telling me.
Joshua Boyd: But what if Abraham never actually took the step to do it?
Joshua Boyd: There would not have been the branding of the father of faith.
Joshua Boyd: Because it's not a it's it doesn't stop at just believing.
Joshua Boyd: He had to obey what he heard.
Joshua Boyd: He had to actually leave.
Joshua Boyd: He had to actually go somewhere.
Joshua Boyd: He just obeyed because he believed what he heard from God.
Joshua Boyd: Salvation is no different.
Joshua Boyd: There's one more step beyond believing.
Joshua Boyd: We don't stop there.
Joshua Boyd: Believing is important.
Joshua Boyd: It's vital because it's one of our, we go back to my steps here.
Joshua Boyd: It's one of our steps of getting to salvation.
Joshua Boyd: But it's not the final step.
Joshua Boyd: We have to actually ask, pray, do the Bible says, any whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.
Joshua Boyd: So I can believe that God wants to save me.
Joshua Boyd: I can believe that God has done the work to save me.
Joshua Boyd: But if I don't call on the name of the Lord, if I don't ask him to come into my heart, because we read verse 10, Romans 10, 10, you have to confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead.
Joshua Boyd: So there's an action that happens, not just a I believe.
Joshua Boyd: And I'm not, again, I'm not downing the I believe part.
Joshua Boyd: We got to have that part too.
Joshua Boyd: But all these ingredients have to come together for there to be a result.
Joshua Boyd: For there to be the fruit that God wants to happen.
Joshua Boyd: And if we stop at any one of them, other than the last one, we don't get the result.
Joshua Boyd: We don't get the promise that God has given us.
Joshua Boyd: If we never hear, then we never have an opportunity to believe.
Joshua Boyd: We can't believe on nothing.
Joshua Boyd: We will believe something.
Joshua Boyd: And if we believe the truth and believe the good news, it doesn't stop there.
Joshua Boyd: We have to do something just like Abraham did.
Joshua Boyd: Along with the faith to receive it, it is a gift of God by his grace.
Joshua Boyd: But the reason I felt like this series should be called The Journey of Faith is because salvation is just the beginning.
Joshua Boyd: And I've spoken to Christians who have the mindset, because they said it verbally, I'm saved, I'm good.
Joshua Boyd: In other words, salvation was the first and last time they ever tried to use their faith.
Joshua Boyd: It was like, I'm in, I'm going to heaven, done, check.
Joshua Boyd: I don't have to do anything else.
Joshua Boyd: I've got my ticket, it's stamped, and whenever that happens, I'm ready to go.
Joshua Boyd: But there is no living by faith.
Joshua Boyd: There is no life of faith.
Joshua Boyd: They just wanted to get their ticket in the door, and now they're just wandering through life aimlessly, not living by faith.
Joshua Boyd: And that's really the difference of what Abraham was the first one to do.
Joshua Boyd: And I never really thought of it until I was looking at this and studying for this message that that's why Abraham was a father of faith.
Joshua Boyd: Not because he believed once and was done, but because he lived a life of it.
Joshua Boyd: And his faith grew.
Joshua Boyd: I mean, the first one was a small one, leave leave your home.
Joshua Boyd: Okay, I can do that.
Joshua Boyd: Worst case, I come back.
Joshua Boyd: You know, there's always a plan, you know, we well, we uh we all think that way.
Joshua Boyd: You know, I can go to plan B.
Joshua Boyd: But then it got to his faith grew and his faith grew and his faith grew to the point where you're gonna have a child and you're a hundred years old.
Joshua Boyd: Okay, I'll believe that.
Joshua Boyd: Well, the child comes.
Joshua Boyd: Okay, faith in action had happened.
Joshua Boyd: And won't get into all the details, but there had to be some action for a child to come, even at a hundred years old.
Joshua Boyd: So there is a result, though, and he got his result.
Joshua Boyd: And now God says, go sacrifice your son.
Joshua Boyd: Now, could he have done that when he first left his home country?
Joshua Boyd: No.
Joshua Boyd: His faith had to grow, and his faith had to grow through hearing, believing, and doing.
Joshua Boyd: Hearing, God, believing it, and then doing something about it.
Joshua Boyd: And God kept increasing what he was telling him.
Joshua Boyd: Abraham had to keep increasing what he was believing and what he was doing.
Joshua Boyd: To the point where he was so confident that he, when God told Abraham to go sacrifice Isaac, and Sarah said, Hey, where are you going?
Joshua Boyd: He goes, We're going up to the mountain to make a sacrifice.
Joshua Boyd: We will both be back.
Joshua Boyd: That's what it says.
Joshua Boyd: It says, we will return.
Joshua Boyd: It doesn't say, I'll be back, I'm not sure about this kid.
Joshua Boyd: I mean, seriously, so Abraham already knew God could raise him from the dead if that's what it took.
Joshua Boyd: But that didn't come with just that early start of faith.
Joshua Boyd: And that's where most people have left their Christian walk, is their salvation faith.
Joshua Boyd: I believe some good news that I can go to heaven.
Joshua Boyd: That's good because the start is great, but it's just the start.
Joshua Boyd: It's just the beginning.
Joshua Boyd: The journey of faith is a life of faith.
Joshua Boyd: And if we want the results that we see in the Bible, we want the results of the things that we are hoping for and, you know, what's the word?
Joshua Boyd: Just we can see some glimpses of that God wants for us, we've got to exercise that faith.
Joshua Boyd: We've got to exercise what we're hearing, we've got to believe what we're hearing, and we've got to do it.
Joshua Boyd: There's some action that we have to do every single time.
Joshua Boyd: It isn't just, Lord, I believe that you can answer my prayer because you can do anything.
Joshua Boyd: Yes.
Joshua Boyd: But what's that next step that God is telling you to do?
Joshua Boyd: There's always an action involved with it.
Joshua Boyd: Jesus suffered and died for more than just us to get saved.
Joshua Boyd: I mean, if that was the case, I've heard this is not original to me.
Joshua Boyd: But I mean, if God just wanted us to go to heaven, then we could get saved and he could kill us, and we're done.
Joshua Boyd: We're done.
Joshua Boyd: You know, there's it's like, okay, yeah.
Joshua Boyd: Uh you're saved, okay.
Joshua Boyd: Boom.
Joshua Boyd: Heart attack.
Joshua Boyd: We're done.
Joshua Boyd: We're in heaven.
Joshua Boyd: Welcome back.
Joshua Boyd: Right, right.
Joshua Boyd: Welcome to my home.
Joshua Boyd: This is this is how I had to get you here.
Joshua Boyd: All right.
Joshua Boyd: No.
Joshua Boyd: That's that's he wants us to live the life of faith on this earth.
Joshua Boyd: In fact, the Bible, the Bible says the reward that we get in heaven doesn't come from what we do in heaven.
Joshua Boyd: It comes from what we do here on this earth.
Joshua Boyd: And if we want to be faithful in a lot, not just faithful in a, you know, or you know, faithful and have that, you know, the one talent, the five talents, the ten talents, and the people who actually got it, got the reward for their work, they're the ones who are faithful with what they had and faithful in everything they did.
Joshua Boyd: So if we want to if we want a better reward in heaven, it starts with what we do here on this earth.
Joshua Boyd: Salvation, though, is complete deliverance from destruction and death.
Joshua Boyd: The Hebrew word for salvation, anybody know it?
Joshua Boyd: It's Yeshua.
Joshua Boyd: It's Jesus.
Joshua Boyd: It's the name Yeshua, the very name of the Son of God.
Joshua Boyd: So Jesus is salvation.
Joshua Boyd: Some of you may recall in our Bible study back in November, we watched that a few messages by Keith Moore on the teaching of faith for healing.
Joshua Boyd: I'm still watching those.
Joshua Boyd: I'm still feeding on those because it really has ministered to me.
Joshua Boyd: Um I'm still listening and studying the scriptures on it too.
Joshua Boyd: I've been look looking it up.
Joshua Boyd: And this message, honestly, is a fruit of some of that study as I still reflect on it.
Joshua Boyd: Because there's so much more to understand about our journey of faith.
Joshua Boyd: And our journey of faith isn't just, well, I've been a Christian 20 years, because some so many times, again, we got in the too many Christians have just gotten in the door at salvation and done not much since in terms of building their faith, exercising their faith.
Joshua Boyd: If we understand how being born again works, how that salvation process works, then we understand how the life of faith works.
Joshua Boyd: This isn't just for being born again.
Joshua Boyd: Let's take a look at, we're starting to wind down.
Joshua Boyd: Let's take a look at Isaiah 58.
Joshua Boyd: Isaiah 58, 8 says, Then your salvation will come like the dawn, and your wounds will quickly heal.
Joshua Boyd: Your godliness will lead you forward, and the glory of the Lord will protect you from behind.
Joshua Boyd: Even in the Old Testament, salvation carried the context of more than just spiritual deliverance or being born again.
Joshua Boyd: There's a physical deliverance in the word salvation itself.
Joshua Boyd: Here he says, Then your salvation will come like the dawn, your wounds will quickly heal.
Joshua Boyd: One of the names of God, one of God's purposes is Jehovah Rapha, the Lord who heals.
Joshua Boyd: Forgiveness and healing have the same source of deliverance and therefore have the same process to believe it and receive it.
Joshua Boyd: Even a verse that we Americans like to use a lot in prayer for their nation, 2 Chronicles 7.14, if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, I will forgive their sin and heal their land.
Joshua Boyd: So you have forgiveness and healing as part of the same answer to a prayer of, Lord, we need salvation, we need deliverance for you know in a nation or a people or a person.
Joshua Boyd: Forgiveness and healing are tied together.
Joshua Boyd: In the Greek language, in the New Testament, the word so-zo, so-zo, um is defined as to save, to rescue from danger or destruction, to save a suffering one from perishing, to make well, heal, restore to health.
Joshua Boyd: So when we see the word saved in the New Testament, it's the word sozo.
Joshua Boyd: And it's also translated healed.
Joshua Boyd: It's also translated made whole.
Joshua Boyd: That same word, the translators just kind of use whatever the context of the situation is and put a English word, different English word on it.
Joshua Boyd: But in the Greek, it's the exact same word that saved, healed, made whole.
Joshua Boyd: So if we look back at Romans 10 and we look at where it talks about verse 13, for whosoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved, shall be sozoed, shall be healed, shall be made whole, it's the same method, it's the same process.
Joshua Boyd: Whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved, shall be rescued from destruction, shall be healed, shall be restored to health.
Joshua Boyd: When we obeyed, we obeyed when we believed the word to be born again.
Joshua Boyd: We asked Jesus into our heart, we came down to an altar, we did some act of obedience of what we were hearing.
Joshua Boyd: This was the first act of obedience by faith, and it sealed the deal for salvation.
Joshua Boyd: Physical salvation, such as healing, comes about the very exact same way.
Joshua Boyd: So if we kind of expand our list a little bit, we have God who's already who's offered the act of mercy, sending his son as salvation for us all, spiritually, physically.
Joshua Boyd: We have, number two, someone has to share the good news.
Joshua Boyd: That could be us to a coworker, it could be us to a neighbor.
Joshua Boyd: We have to then hear the good news.
Joshua Boyd: We have to believe the good news, and then we have to obey the good news, call on the Lord.
Joshua Boyd: And this is true for salvation in your eternal life, is true for salvation of your body, which is healing.
Joshua Boyd: So when we're looking at praying for healing, we don't need to just hope.
Joshua Boyd: We don't need to just believe that God can do it.
Joshua Boyd: We need to believe that God is doing it and we'll be obedient to follow his word.
Joshua Boyd: I mean, because how many, when you prayed the prayer of salvation or when you think about salvation, how many of you go, well, I hope God will save me if I pray this prayer?
Joshua Boyd: Or if I'm praying with somebody else, like, I hope it's God's will to save you and not send you to hell.
Joshua Boyd: No, we know the Bible says God's will is that all men everywhere be saved, all people everywhere be saved.
Joshua Boyd: That's His will.
Joshua Boyd: It's not happening because not everybody is doing all the steps.
Joshua Boyd: Not everybody is hearing it, not everybody is believing what they've heard, and not everybody is acting on what they've believed.
Joshua Boyd: And it's the exact same process for the salvation of your body, for this, for the healing of your physical body.
Joshua Boyd: We have to first hear that there is healing available.
Joshua Boyd: We have to believe with that same measure of faith that God has given us.
Joshua Boyd: And then we have to be obedient to what he says.
Joshua Boyd: And with healing, especially, and with other salvation areas in your life, maybe it's deliverance from a problem at work, or maybe it's other areas that you need salvation or rescuing.
Joshua Boyd: There's going to be, you know, there's going to be something you hear from the Lord.
Joshua Boyd: The Lord's going to tell you to do something.
Joshua Boyd: You know, for healing, for example, you'd look at all kinds of examples of how people came to Jesus for healing or got healed while Jesus was on this earth.
Joshua Boyd: It wasn't all the same.
Joshua Boyd: Jesus didn't go around and just randomly and suddenly start laying hands on somebody and instantly they were healed.
Joshua Boyd: There were times when there were crowds and he did that.
Joshua Boyd: But look at all the stories that are recorded in the Bible of people coming to Jesus.
Joshua Boyd: Jairus is one of them, Lord, if you come to my daughter, the Bible says she will be saved.
Joshua Boyd: She will be so so.
Joshua Boyd: It uses the word saved there, even though she's really needing healing.
Joshua Boyd: So Jairus came, and I believe out of what he heard, he heard there was somebody that could actually do something, and he believed it, and he acted on it.
Joshua Boyd: The woman with the issue of blood, she kept saying to herself, if I can just touch the hem of his garment, if I can just come, because I believe there's somebody, there's something in him, I believe there's something, so there's an act I need to do, there's a step I need to take.
Joshua Boyd: I just can't sit back in the end of the crowd and receive my healing.
Joshua Boyd: I have to go do something.
Joshua Boyd: And I believe she heard something in her spirit, just like we do every day.
Joshua Boyd: Every child of God can hear from God.
Joshua Boyd: You won't hear an audible voice, it won't be thunder, lightning, all the big stuff that people want to want it hope it to be, because that would be obvious and clear.
Joshua Boyd: But we do have to hear in our spirits.
Joshua Boyd: And we do, we do, we we do and we can, because God has always wanted to talk to us.
Joshua Boyd: God is not trying to hide himself from us.
Joshua Boyd: We have clear instruction in the word on how to obey to receive eternal salvation.
Joshua Boyd: Confess with your mouth, believe in your heart.
Joshua Boyd: With healing, there's still instruction, but like Abraham, we have to listen.
Joshua Boyd: We have to hear and obey, even when we don't understand all the steps of the journey.
Joshua Boyd: It's like, Lord, why do you want me to do this?
Joshua Boyd: Why do you want me to just hear and obey?
Joshua Boyd: And God will give you that next step.
Joshua Boyd: You may not know steps A through Z, but you'll know step A and B, maybe C and D, but not much further.
Joshua Boyd: God won't give you the end, but He will give you the next step.
Joshua Boyd: Our part is just to be, okay, Lord, I'm gonna be obedient.
Joshua Boyd: I don't care what it looks like, I don't care how foolish I may look, I don't care what anybody else thinks, I'm just gonna do it.
Joshua Boyd: Think about Naaman in the Old Testament when the prophets told he came to this prophet in obedience.
Joshua Boyd: I hear you can heal people.
Joshua Boyd: And the prophet said, a prophet didn't even come out to him.
Joshua Boyd: He sent his servant, and his servant said, Go wash in the in the Jordan River seven times.
Joshua Boyd: Go dip in the river.
Joshua Boyd: And this captain of an army said, What?
Joshua Boyd: He didn't even come out himself.
Joshua Boyd: He's like, Who is he?
Joshua Boyd: Who am I?
Joshua Boyd: Doesn't he know who I am?
Joshua Boyd: And it took uh one of his servants to go.
Joshua Boyd: If if he told you to do something even greater, would you would have done it?
Joshua Boyd: Why don't just why don't you just obey what he said?
Joshua Boyd: So he had to first believe it, and then he had to actually do it.
Joshua Boyd: And steps or dips one through six, nothing happened.
Joshua Boyd: So he's like, okay.
Joshua Boyd: Nope.
Joshua Boyd: Nope, still.
Joshua Boyd: Okay, that's two.
Joshua Boyd: He had to go through in the seventh time, the Bible says his flesh was like a baby.
Joshua Boyd: His flesh was like a you know, clean, leprous person suddenly healed.
Joshua Boyd: By obedience to a word.
Joshua Boyd: Yes, it was a miracle, yes, God did it, but he had to do something first.
Joshua Boyd: Or he had to do something and to get that healing.
Joshua Boyd: So when we're talking about and believing God for healing, and this journey of faith won't all be about healing, but what I'm what the point is, is that this journey of faith, our life of faith, affects all areas of our life.
Joshua Boyd: Because when we're trusting and believing God and praying for things in our life, there's always these steps every single time.
Joshua Boyd: This isn't just for salvation.
Joshua Boyd: This isn't just for that first step of being born again.
Joshua Boyd: This is how we walk and live by faith.
Joshua Boyd: Amen.