How Faith Works I Pastor Josh Cossey

Have you ever wondered what happens when faith moves beyond mere belief into bold action? Pastor Josh shares a powerful message from Hebrews 11:6, revealing three dimensions of faith that can transform your spiritual journey. Through personal stories of loss, miracles, and divine provision—including an unforgettable encounter with a wallet near a toilet—he illustrates how saving faith leads to salvation, providential faith sustains us through trials, and great faith unlocks God's rewards. Whether you're seeking spiritual growth or facing life's challenges, this message offers practical steps to strengthen your faith and experience God's active presence. Don't miss this inspiring exploration of living faith in action.

📖 Key Scripture: Hebrews 11:6c
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Transcript

Everybody. It is good. It is good to be back at Grace Church. I love every time I get to come here. I do want to just welcome everybody at Alamance.

Everybody watching online. It's an honor to preach to you guys today. Can we welcome our Alamance campus? Come on, everybody. Pretty exciting what God's doing since the last time I was here.

And every time I get to come, it's always great to be here in the Raleigh, Durham area. And, you know, I'm from Oklahoma. I was born and raised there. I was born and raised in Norman, which is, if you don't know, that's the home of the Sooners. Not important, but anyway.

But I'm a football fan, so I like coming to basketball country, and I'm sorry to tell you, I don't have a strong allegiance. Everybody always asks me, are you a Duke fan, North Carolina fan? It's like, I don't. We play middle school basketball in Oklahoma. You know, it's like football season, and then, who cares?

And I know y' all are the opposite. I've always thought that until last night. And I mean this. I've always known you Grace Church and the people of this area. I've always known you to be.

How do I say this? Kind of. Kind of professional. There's a vibe here, you know, buttoned up a little bit. There's just a class on North Carolina folk that I've always gotten to know.

But last night, I went to a North Carolina state football game, and it's different over there. Everybody, I don't know, they had not prepared me. I thought, these are my people. Are they from Oklahoma? And there's some country folk in the medical triangle.

And if that offends you, I'm sorry. I don't mean it. It was a lot of fun, actually. Evan and I, he's with me from our church, and we're. We had a great time over there.

And so I found that interesting to say the least. But it is always a joy to be here. I learned so much every time I come. I love Kendrick and Nana and the team here very much. And not just as a pastor.

I've learned so much from Kendrick and from Nana, more as a dad, as a husband. The way they've led their family, they're not quite a decade, but a little bit ahead of us. And. And so watching the model that they've set out, I know you're blessed by that as a church, and I don't just say that as a platitude, but sincerely, I honor them. And I'm always honored to preach here.

I agree with what Adam said. He said, if you're a guest, come three times. Please come back next week. Cause this week is not gonna be that great. And the preaching only improves the further I get away from North Carolina.

And so with that in mind, open your Bibles to Hebrews chapter 11. I'm gonna share a message with you today that in some ways, it's not necessarily a life message, but very much a life verse, an anchor scripture for my life. We're gonna read out of Hebrews 11. Really? Just one scripture?

We'll move around the Bible to some other places. But one scripture is gonna be our central focus. I didn't get a chance. Last time I was here. I brought my older boys, Holston and Noah.

I have my first senior in high school this year. And so I didn't get a chance to bring any of them. But I will show you my family. We just took Christmas pictures. I think this is a Christmas picture.

So, as you can see, we have it all together. You're welcome. Just for about three seconds on a cold November day. But I do love my family. I got my first senior up there, Holston, and.

And Noah is 16. We got two drivers. My only girl is Harper. And then little Nolan there, he just turned 11. And so lot to be thankful for.

Let's read the Bible together. Hebrews11.6 says, without faith, everybody say faith, it is impossible to please God. What pleases? Not a trick question, but just so we're on the same page, what pleases God? It's faith.

God's greatest desire from you is that you would believe Him. Not that you get everything right. Not that your works line up perfectly with his instruction. Even though that's a better way to live than we often settle for at the end of the day. It's not perform for me.

That's not the heart of God. It is believed. Fear not. The Bible says, fear not, believe only. And so without faith, it's impossible to please God.

For whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who diligently seek him. One scripture. This verse teaches us a lot about faith. Faith is a spiritual word that can seem vague to a lot of people, kind of abstract. And people that aren't believers, that don't follow the Bible say, well, I have faith, right?

They're spiritual people. And so faith, we kind of would prefer obedience. And, okay, what do I do? Tell me what to do to make God happy. Tell me how to perform.

Because I can check the box. And faith can sometimes seem a little more vague than that. But hopefully from this scripture today, I'm gonna give you some. Not just concepts of faith, but three types of biblical faith that can help you come to a better understanding. We named our church Faith Church 15 years ago.

Started in a little cafe gematorium. And so I very much have a heart for people to not also take faith to the extreme and treat people as, hey, if you pray hard enough and believe hard enough and, and have enough faith, you'll never have a problem. Cause that's not biblical as well. So what is biblical faith? From this one scripture, real simple, we're gonna talk about three types of faith all inside.

Hebrews 11:6. And so if you're taking notes or you're filling in the blanks or typing in your phone, here is number one. It is saving faith. One time everybody say saving faith. The Bible says, if anyone would draw near to God, you must believe.

You must believe. This is where our relationship with God starts. Whoever, whosoever will, the Bible says, whoever would draw near. If you wanna come to God, it doesn't start with you getting your act together. It doesn't start with you kind of earning your way to his love.

Whoever comes to God, here's where it starts. You must believe. This is saving faith. It's where my relationship with God. If you're a believer in this room, this is where your relationship with God started.

The Bible talks about this in a lot of different places. None better really to explain saving faith than Ephesians chapter one and the early part of chapter two. We're gonna read some scripture here together, kind of this first, this first step of faith, where it starts for all of us, saving faith. What does this look like in real time? Ephesians 1:13 says, in him you also.

In Christ, you also. When you heard the word of truth. What's the word of truth? The gospel of your salvation. You believed faith comes by hearing, hearing by the word of God.

So when you hear the gospel, and this is a supernatural work of the Spirit, you believe in him, Saving faith. And so where does this work start? You're sealed with the promised Holy Spirit. And so this is a work of the Spirit, saving faith. We hear the gospel and there is an initiated gift of God.

That's saving faith. We can't even come to God, the Bible says, unless the Spirit draws us. And so even the ability to raise your hand or pray or say yes to God, it is a work of the Spirit. It is saving faith. Why is this type of faith necessary?

I'm glad you guys asked me. Ephesians, chapter 2, verse 1. Because you were dead. Look, you were dead in trespasses and sins, all of us in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience among whom we all lived, who lived like this, all of us. And here's what it looked like.

We followed the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body, and were by nature children of wrath like the rest of mankind. And so this really is foundational to our view of God and our understanding of salvation. That the Bible says that we are not born good. And I understand sometimes modern philosophy, kind of postmodern, even versions of postmodern Christianity, teach us that we are born good, we are innately good. I'm also convinced those people have never raised toddlers.

Come on. Right? They didn't raise kids. I don't know about your kids, but I didn't have to teach my kids to steal sincerely. I didn't have to teach my kids to rebel.

I didn't have to teach my kids to cover their tracks, to hide their sin. They learned that from their great, great, great great grandparents, Adam and Eve. We all learned it right? We were. We all followed our passions.

None of us are righteous Romans, says not even one. Even those of us that behave better than the rest, we are like the rest of mankind by nature against God. So that's where we are on our own. But look at what the Bible says. But God.

But God being rich in mercy. Throw that scripture back up there. But God being rich in mercy being because of the great love by which he loved us. Even when we were dead, we were spiritually dead. We're spiritually dead in our trespasses.

He made us alive together with Christ. By grace you have been saved. For by grace you have been saved. Through faith. It is not of your own doing.

It is a gift. God. Y' all missed it. That's a good place to say amen. By grace we have been saved.

Through faith he made us. Just as he created Adam in the beginning, he made us, created us alive together with Christ. It's a work of the spirit. Saving faith. Great theologian Wayne Grudem explains saving.

It is the God given ability to trust in Jesus Christ as a living person for the forgiveness of sins and for eternal life. It is a God given ability. Let me encourage you with this church. I know I'm not Your pastor. But I'm a pastor.

Just a pastor at heart. Adam mentioned earlier, hey, grab those invite cards. On your way out, grab an invite card. And sometimes we can hear that as a church and it's like, yeah, yeah, yeah, grab an invite card. But here's why I say that today we believe that people that don't know Jesus need to come to know Jesus.

And that is the reason we exist as a church. We don't exist just to sing songs that we all like or to just learn more. That stuff can be important and, and healthy. But at the end of the day, Grace Church, we wanna see more people come to know Jesus. Amen.

And so that simple invite card on the way out, saying, hey, come with me to Christmas services. Maybe rearranging your schedule and saying, hey, we were gonna come this time. Cause that fits us best. But when can you come? We'll go with you.

When can you attend a candlelight service? When can you come on that family weekend prayer? Because we'll rearrange our schedule to your world that doesn't know Jesus. They're more open this season to hope than they normally are. And people will come.

Oftentimes statistics show that they'll come if they're invited personally. Not just an announcement, not just a Facebook post. Yeah, that might help. But if you really grab a card and invite somebody, you'll never know the power of just a single simple invitation that we make our target clear. We want people to come to Christ and be saved.

We want people to experience what we've encountered through Christ. Saving faith. This is a gift of God. It's not of our own works. It's not of your own works.

So let me just ask you. I know it's not the end of the message, but let me ask you this question. Are you in this room and have you experienced saving faith? Are you born again? Have you surrendered your life to Jesus?

Not. Have you ever been to church or heard a message? Because this message I'm preaching cannot save you, but Jesus can save you. Not. Do you agree with most of the Bible or understand it all?

Have you had a moment where you surrendered your life to Christ? Cause if you haven't, you don't have to wait till the end of the service. You can right now say yes to Jesus. And here's how you know that today is your day to do that. Right now is the moment.

If you can sense something on the inside of you that you can't explain, but you can't deny pulling you and you're not sure what to do with that sense, that feeling? Let me tell you what that is. That. That is God, rich in mercy. Because of his great love in which he loved you.

He is calling you. And it is a work of the Spirit to even respond and say, yes. It is the power of saving faith. I'm thankful for saving faith. Amen.

I'm thankful for saving faith. Here's number two. It is providential faith. Without faith, it's impossible to please God. He that would even come to God must believe.

And then there's just two words. Must believe that he is, that he exists, that God is who he says he is. This is providential faith. It is that God is who he says he is. Here's another way to think about it.

I'll give you this confession make. Maybe it's something that's really helped me in different seasons of my life. It's this confession. God, you're in control, and God, you're good. God is in control and God is good.

Second Corinthians 9, verse 7 says that we walk by faith and not by sight. So our faith is not determined by what we see. It's not determined by our circumstances. Faith is determined. We walk by faith, not by sight.

God, even when I don't understand what you're doing, even when I can't make sense of what's going on in my life, God, you're in control and you are good. If that's the only thing you can pray, let that confession build your faith. We've walked through a challenging season for our family. My mom in particular, and me and my brother. I have one older brother.

I'll just tell you this about my family. I grew up with amazing parents. I had the best parents. I had the best dad. If your dad is a good dad, I'm sorry, but he's number two.

Like, man, I had the greatest dad in the world. I was so blessed. My dad set an example for me, was patient with me, loved me. He's the greatest Christian I've ever known. About 18 years ago, my dad walked through kidney failure and real big test for our family, started dialysis.

We experienced a miracle. My brother actually gave up his kidney, but not just to my dad. It was a partner transplant. If you don't, I'm sure many of you may know about that, especially in this part of the country. But not all states do them.

If you don't know, not all states allow organs to fly over. And so there's like 36 states that allow. My brother's kidney went to Dayton, Ohio. And seven families traded in the same day. I remember they rolled my dad's kidney.

It was in an ice chest through the lobby of the hospital. And it's kind of like, I think that's going in my dad. And so my dad got a kidney transplant 15 years ago. And two years ago, he started going through rejection. And it was a hard two years.

I lost my dad in June. My dad passed away in June. And so, you know, this last week was first holiday. And so there's a lot of first. A first graduating grandson is.

He's not going to be there here in a couple months for the graduation. And I'm going to tell you this. It's hard. Like, I miss my dad. Bad.

I miss my dad. Last night when OU beat lsu. Yes, they did. I just had one thought. Thank you, Jesus.

Actually, my real thought was, man, I just want to text my dad. And I was talking to Anna this morning, who has experienced some loss and just had a chance to hopefully encourage her and be encouraged by her. But I'll just tell you this right now. I do not understand it. Standing up here preaching to you.

I mean, my dad was. I just. He was not only a great dad, but he was just an amazing Christian. My dad never drank alcohol, never smoked a cigarette. My dad never went to a movie theater.

And I don't think that gets you into heaven. But I just want you all to know, like, I grew up extra Christian. I grew up extra Jesus. Okay, so it was sent. I didn't go to movie theater.

We weren't allowed to go to movies. I went to see my first movie when I was 17 years old. I sent to see a movie and got grounded for a month. And I probably deserved it. Cause I went to see a pretty bad movie.

Remember the Titans. Remember the Titans. Demonic. That's how the devil gets you. It's through Denzel and football, right?

And so I went to see Remember the Titans. My parents found out, grounded me for a month. I'm just saying. And I say that jokingly, but. But sometimes, man, the enemy comes in.

And if anybody deserved more than 69 years, I feel like my dad should be on that list.

So I don't understand it all. I don't understand that detail in God's plan. But here's what I have determined. And I built my life on before the storm. I believe in providential faith that God is in control.

That I don't see it all clearly. And he does. And I may not understand it all on this side of eternity, but I'M not gonna lose my relationship with God over a mystery. And I'm not gonna doubt decades of faithfulness because of a season where I've got a pretty big question mark. I share this with you prayerfully, hoping that for one or two of you, it may be an encouragement for God.

You're in control and you're good. I don't exactly. I would have chosen a different plan.

I saw it unfolding differently. Every prayer isn't answered in the way I think the answer should come. But I do know this. The ark of God, the trajectory of God is trustworthy and I can build my life on his word. God, you're in control and you're good.

It's providential faith. Not only did you save me, but you provide for me what is good, what is for me. Here's the last faith. It's great faith. It's that he that comes to God must believe that he is and that what's the last thing he rewards those that seek him.

He is waiting to bless. He is waiting to reward those that seek those that pursue those that activate their faith and trust God and step out and accomplish and seek and knock and ask and live his way. And this is where a lot of people get thrown off when it comes to faith. Because again, faith is a big word. It's not just singular.

The Bible shows us different meanings of it. Yes, Josh, are you saying we're not saved by works? Yes, but James says, I'll show you my faith by my works. And so now there's this invitation. Listen, it's not required to get into heaven, but if you'll live by faith, you'll experience God in action.

It's great faith. The Bible shows us this over and over again. No better place than Hebrews chapter 12. It's the hall of faith. Kind of like the hall of fame, but it's the hall of faith.

It shows us that if we build our life with God's principles, then we'll be able to realize his promises, that there's that invitation that's available to us. Look at what Hebrews 12 says, talking specifically to about faith by faith. Look at these lines. They're all throughout Hebrews 12, not chapter and verse on the screen. I just want you to see these phrases.

By faith. Abel offered. He made an offering that was acceptable to God by faith. Noah constructed. So don't over spiritualize this.

He built something. He built something that God gave him the instructions for. That did not make sense in. In the natural. And it saved his family.

So When God calls you to do something that doesn't make sense in the natural, don't be surprised that on the other side of that obedience, there's not provision and there's not blessing for your family. By faith, Noah got to work. By faith, Abraham obeyed. What did his obedience look like? He left his home.

So he said goodbye to some things that belonged in past generations and he started something new. By faith Sarah, conceived by faith. Moses. When he was grown, he refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter. So here's what Moses did.

Young people sitting up in the front, college students. By faith, Noah walked away from a culture that was anti God and said, I'm not gonna identify with that. I'm gonna live differently. Even though it cost me, I'm gonna refuse what, what culture is saying about my identity. And I'm gonna find my identity in God's word.

By faith. The people crossed the Red Sea. By faith, the walls of Jericho, so on and on and on. Again, you get the point. By faith, they took action.

And then one of my favorite scriptures in The Bible, Hebrews 11, verse 29, says this. And what more shall I say? For time would fail me.

I don't have enough time. If I were to write down. Here's what the author Luke is saying in Hebrews. If I were to write down all that God's done, there's not enough pages in the world. I don't have enough time to tell you of Gideon and Barak and Samson and Jephthah, of David and Samuel, the prophets who through faith, everybody say faith, great faith, conquered kingdoms, enforced justice, obtained promises, they stepped into God's promise.

They stopped the mouths of lions, they quenched the power of fire. They escaped the edge of the sword, were made strong even in weakness, mighty in war, put armies to fly. Here's what the Bible is saying. There were people in the Bible that we can model and follow after. And you know what they did.

This might kind of be Oklahoma language here, but they did the stuff.

They didn't just hear about it, they did it. They took action. They didn't stay on the sideline. They lived in a way that pulled faith out of the abstract and put it in action. When you live by faith, you'll experience God in action.

You're doing that as a church. Those watching in Alamance right now, you are the evidence of a church living by faith. Hey, we're gonna believe God for more. Hey, we're gonna step out, we're gonna. By faith.

Alamance that they set up and Tore down this morning. Why'd they do that? They did it by faith. People are gonna come to Christ. God has a plan.

We're gonna make a regional impact. The Bible says by faith. They offered, offer, make an offering. By faith. We build, we obey.

The Bible says she conceived. Moses refused culture. They conquered. They were made strong even in weakness. They started, they finished.

How? By faith. Our church will be 15 years old in January. We're gonna have a big birthday party. And God's been faithful to our church.

We started in a little cafe gemmatorium, and. And then we moved to a high school. And now we meet. We have two campuses. One is in an old warehouse kind of in a smaller town outside of Oklahoma City, and it's a renovated warehouse.

Where our central campus meets in Oklahoma City is an old grocery store next to Dollar General. Nice. It's nice. Everybody and I joke with our church. I say, you're gonna miss that Dollar General someday.

Cause we bought 20 acres of land three years ago. And I tell them. I'm like, you're gonna miss that. You get to come to church and get a little Jesus and toilet paper, right? In case you forgot, just right next door.

So it's in the same strip mall, an old grocery store. But three years ago, we purchased 20 acres of land. And our church kind of has a sense of this, but they don't even know some of the things. I'm gonna tell you right now, that in January and February, we're gonna launch the building project together. And we've got done the drawings.

And again, they've been along that journey, but they haven't seen the pictures. And we're gonna show the pictures on that birthday weekend. Hey, we're 15 years old. And I'm gonna tell them a story on that weekend that I've shared with them over the years. But I don't tell often about the start of our church.

Cause I've been thinking in this kind of big step, we're gonna take about how faithful God's been. How when you step out and you believe God, you get stories. Listen to me. When you step out and believe God, you're gonna get stories. You're gonna get passed down stories.

So I'm gonna tell you the story that I'm gonna tell them here in about a month and a half. You ready? When Faith Church started, we were God. It was Christmas night, 16 years ago. I drove around with my dad.

We drove up to the northwest part of the city. And I'm from the south side. I had not been to this part of the city. But we had gotten a prophetic word that. That the northwest corridor was where we were supposed to start.

And so I was driving the roads, really learning about the city. I went home and printed off this map and I drew a red triangle. This is before really, you know, phones. I printed it off on MapQuest. Y' all remember MapQuest?

You'd print your map. And it was kind of. And so I printed off map, and I carried that around with me for about a year, till we planted. And then when we moved back a year later, I took that inside that map. It's like, well, where's the location?

There weren't any movie theaters. It was a small college, but most of them were schools. And I went and met with the superintendent, or tried to meet with the superintendent. Didn't get to the superintendent, but I met with the chief operating officer of Putnam City School district. And there's 41 schools in Putnam City, all lower schools, elementary schools, middle schools, high schools, 41 locations.

And the meeting went amazing. I met Mr. Hooper. He called me preacher, and he said, I like you, preacher. That was the last thing he said to me after that first meeting. And he said, you got the green light from me.

And I'm thinking, praise God, this is gonna be easy. And he said, you got the green light for me. You just need a principal to say, yes, no problem. I'm a likable person, I thought. And anyway, and so I started meeting with these principals and, you know, 10 no's, 20 no's, 30 no's.

We're starting to have launch team meetings. We launch in three months, we launch in two months. No building. We thought we had a building. Will Rogers Elementary School, which is a big name in Oklahoma.

Will Rogers. And then it didn't work out, and then had five more schools. I remember the day we got to 41 no's. Everyone said, no, man. Lord, I got this map from my mom's printer.

You called us here. We moved back. We got two little boys. We said yes. I went down to Mr. Hooper's office and I said, they all said, no.

What am I supposed to do? God told me to do this. And he was a believer. He said, man, I'm so sorry, preacher. I can't override a principle.

And I'm thinking just in those milliseconds, like, no, no, no, no, no. You don't understand. Part of me just wants, like, reach across the table and be like. But God said by faith, Moses, I had written on that, MapQuest, Hebrews 11:6. The scripture I'm preaching to you right now, I wrote on that little map.

God rewards those who diligently seek him. And it's hard to believe that when you don't have the reward. And I remember leaving that office and this is where the story gets kind of weird. I'm sorry if we don't know each other well. I might never come back.

This might be the last time after this one. I have to go to the bathroom. And y' all know what that means, right? We all have to use the restroom. Raise your hand if you go to the bathroom.

Just in general. Okay, good. Okay, we're all. And I just say this. I had to go to the deepest part of the bathroom.

Y' all know what we're talking about, where you shut the door and you're by yourself. And it's crazy. I look down as I'm seated and there is a wallet next to the toilet. Don't ask me how I know this. It has seven $100 bills in it.

And it was laying open. But I was. It did cross my mind. Tiffany hates this part of the story. I was like, God, are you sowing into our church plant right now?

What the enemy meant for evil, God meant for good. He was. I just felt like. And I picked up the wallet. I'm like, you know, finish.

And I go hand it to the secretary there, get in my truck, drive down the road. And I'm about 10 minutes away and Mr. Hooper calls me and he says, hey, are you far? I said, I'm about 10 minutes away. He said, well, I just thought I'd call and tell you that the superintendent of the school district wanted me to call you and thank you for turning his wallet back in. He wants to meet you.

Can you drive back over here? He told me that I'm not supposed to leave work today until I personally call all 41 schools in the school district and I find you a school to start your church in. And isn't that awesome? Yes.

And I drove back over there and we sat and talked and he made a few phone calls. It just so happened that there was a new principal, the only one I hadn't asked. He started really paying attention and he called Ashley Hoggett. And that afternoon we went over to that little school, Tiffany and I. And it doesn't sound biblical, but I believe it with all my heart.

If God has to put a wallet next to a toilet to get you to your promise, he will. And here's what you'll get. You'll get a Faith story that you'll tell somebody 15 years, 16 years later, and you'll tell it your kids and it'll build your faith. Our church is crazy sometimes. This is no joke.

I didn't tell 8 o' clock this, but they were kind of quiet. Anyway. We looked at this, Nana. We looked at this property three and a half years ago. And we asked our church to come out and view it.

And if you were a guest that weekend, you may have come out. Cause it's exciting and you would have thought we were crazy. Cause people were walking around the property and someone had dumped. We didn't know this. We had looked at it several times before inviting our church.

And we had made an offer. And so we were in the process of raising those initial funds and. And we didn't know that evidently someone had thrown a toilet away just on the backside of our property. We're walking around, there's like 600 people on the property. And all of a sudden I hear somebody scream from the tree line, pastor, there's a toilet back here.

And it's like, welcome to Faith Church. Right? Somehow God has plans for all churches. Some somehow ours are always connected to toilets.

But when it's your story and you step out in faith, what are you waiting on? What are you waiting on right now? What are you believing God for? What are you hesitating on? Because you don't think God will use you.

Maybe it's a dream, a business. Maybe it's starting a small group. God wants to use you to your home to see people's lives changed by Jesus. What is causing you to hesitate and not live by great faith? I'm not saying that you have to.

I'm saying that you get to. I know you're born again if you're a believer. Saving faith. Okay, providential faith. But then there's this invitation of Hebrews 11:12, great faith.

You can step out and trust God. Let me just answer this. How do I build my faith? If you were to say, okay, Josh, how do I grow in this? I would tell you these few things.

Hebrews 10:17 says, faith comes by hearing, hearing through the word of Christ. How do I build my faith? Number one, read the Bible and confess the Bible. Read the Bible, read the Bible until when life squeezes you, Scripture comes out. So read the word and say the word.

Number two, speak words of faith change. Number three is really connected to number two. Change your input, change your content. Change what's coming in your eye gate your ear gate. Turn it down, turn it off, whichever One you like.

Turn it off, right? It's not leading to life. It's pulling you back. Not to a place of faith. Be planted in a faith environment, be in a small group, make church a priority.

It might be what Adam said earlier, grabbing Nana's book, spending the Advent, saying, you know what? I'm gonna get serious. I'm not just gonna let Christmas go by and fill it with presents. I'm gonna do this devotion. I'm gonna dial in and I'm gonna be like Peter in Luke 17, where he asked Jesus.

You can ask Jesus this. Lord, increase our faith. Increase my faith. I want it to grow. I want it to be strong.

Faith's like a muscle. The more you stretch it, the more you work it out. You'll experience God in action. Lord, increase our faith. All over this room.

Will you bow your heads with me for a moment? I want to pray with you.

Just as we give God these last few minutes, Holy Spirit, speak in this room. Thank you for your word, Lord. Now be loud in this room over these last few minutes. Let me ask you this. Where is God calling you to have greater faith, to trust him, to obey, to construct, to build, to say yes, to conceive, to conquer, to defeat that enemy, that adversary, that habit, that addiction.

To get honest by faith, to not stay where you are. Maybe it's being made strong in a weakness, not in your own strength. But, God, I'm going to trust you. Where do you need great faith for some? Where do you need to trust God's providence in misunderstanding?

I would have chosen a different plan. But, Lord, I know you're good, and I trust the trajectory of your faithfulness. I'm coming back. I'm not walking away. Some of you have been tempted to walk away.

You've been tempted to walk away, and you're going to say again today, Lord, I know that your way is the best way to live. And I'm building my life again on the firm foundation of your providence. Here's my last question, Saving faith. Are you here today and you're not living a life fully surrendered to Jesus? Maybe you've never had that moment where you said yes to Jesus.

Jesus, forgive me of my sin, change my life. I trust you to forgive me, and I receive your eternal life. If you've never had that moment, you can do that right now. You can say yes to Jesus. Maybe it's a prayer of rededication.

All in. From this day forward, I'm going to live for you. If that's you and you're here I don't have to really convince you because you know that it's you. You can sense it. Something on the inside, unexplainable, is pulling you.

I'm going to tell you what that is. That's God's love.

That's we didn't earn it, we don't deserve it, we don't measure up. But because of Jesus, we can know God. And if that's you today, I want you right where you're seated. I just want to lead you in this prayer. Just say, lord Jesus, come into my life and save me.

Forgive me of my sins and make me new. Jesus, thank you for dying on the cross for me, for rising from the grave, for giving me eternal life, for giving me new life. Today I receive that new life and confess you as my Lord, my Savior and my King. And I will live for you as you show me how. Listen, if you just prayed with me, I pray you take a step of faith.

Come and tell somebody if you need prayer today, come and pray with somebody. Take action on this message if it was for you. Lord, I thank you for the chance to share your word. Today I pray an impartation of faith on every person here that they would have a story to pass down for generations to come. Saving faith, providential faith, that we'd step into greater faith in Jesus name.

And everybody said amen. Come on, if you're thankful for it, let's put our hands.