SPEAKER_00: So, why don't we start by just recapping, and I I will not preach to you again the armor of God, but as I was thinking about this morning, I thought about that important piece of the armor called the shield of faith.
SPEAKER_00: So in Ephesians chapter 6, look at that, they queued up.
SPEAKER_00: You can see where I'm going this morning.
SPEAKER_00: Above all, it says in the King James, the New King James, above all, take the shield of faith.
SPEAKER_00: It's underlined for you, right?
SPEAKER_00: The idea that everything's important, but in all circumstances, is what I read to you in the English Standard Version.
SPEAKER_00: In all circumstances, you must walk by faith.
SPEAKER_00: Faith is not optional.
SPEAKER_00: Faith is not something that you can just presume, well, I have faith because I gave my life to Jesus 20 years ago.
SPEAKER_00: How many of you are with me?
SPEAKER_00: How many of you know what I'm talking about?
SPEAKER_00: How many of you know that your faith can get weaker?
SPEAKER_00: And thank God your faith can get stronger.
SPEAKER_00: But there are factors that determine whether your faith is increasing and growing and getting stronger, or if your faith is getting weaker and downgraded to the point where you lack the ability to lay hold of all that God would have for you, would have for us.
SPEAKER_00: And as we just talk about faith, and I don't know, we'll maybe go on faith for a few Sundays, we'll see how the Lord leads.
SPEAKER_00: But I need you to understand that just as we say nothing happens around here without prayer, what do we really mean?
SPEAKER_00: Nothing around here happens without faith-filled prayer.
SPEAKER_00: Because we're not talking a bunch of empty words and religious slogans, because if there's no faith in our prayer, we're wasting our time.
SPEAKER_00: If there's no expectation in our gathering together, then we could do this for you know another thousand years and it won't really make that much of a difference.
SPEAKER_00: We need to have faith that's alive, faith that's active, faith that's growing.
SPEAKER_00: And we don't have time to get into all of this today, but Jesus makes this very evident.
SPEAKER_00: There are people who have little faith.
SPEAKER_00: And thank God that that means they do have faith.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: You know, of course we do receive that as kind of a rebuke and a correction, like, hey, you've got faith, but you could do better.
SPEAKER_00: Your faith should be bigger by this point.
SPEAKER_00: Your faith needs to grow.
SPEAKER_00: Then we see other people that Jesus is shocked and amazed, and he says that I cannot believe I have found faith like this person has, this great faith.
SPEAKER_00: How many of you would like some great faith for your life?
SPEAKER_00: And I don't pretend to be the one who's walking, you know, up on a cloud that has all the faith for all the things.
SPEAKER_00: And one of the reasons that I am preaching this to you this morning and taking us to the scriptures is because I know that if what God wants to do with faith alive only depends on my personal faith, then I am going to be doing pretty good to look after what God has already entrusted me with.
SPEAKER_00: Because this is a big thing.
SPEAKER_00: Don't get me wrong, I am believing God for more.
SPEAKER_00: I am pressing into God for my faith to increase to carry more.
SPEAKER_00: But you know what's even better than having a pastor who alone is pressing into God so he can believe for more so that the church can advance?
SPEAKER_00: Is to have a church where everyone's faith is growing and where you're beginning to carry more in the presence of God and you're laying hold of things because this is not a one-man show.
SPEAKER_00: Are you with me?
SPEAKER_00: I'm not that entertaining of a show.
SPEAKER_00: I guess I'm a little bit funny.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
SPEAKER_00: I I don't really consider myself that funny, but but, you know, and I think about this, even, you know, I I hear amazing ideas, I hear things, and my heart says, yes, that's awesome.
SPEAKER_00: I would love to see that happen.
SPEAKER_00: But again, when when God begins to inspire ideas and initiatives and, you know, things that that this body could possibly do, you have to understand that it's not.
SPEAKER_00: I come to the pastor and I say, you know, now let's do this, and you're just trusting that I've got the faith to carry it.
SPEAKER_00: If you're bringing it, it's because you've prayed about it.
SPEAKER_00: It's because you're building your faith for it, and it's because you are committing yourself to growing in faith to carry it forward.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, come on.
SPEAKER_00: Come on.
SPEAKER_00: Kind of clappity clap over here, a little, I don't know how I would describe that, kind of like a ripple effect.
SPEAKER_00: It's kind of like it's like, uh, we're with you, and then dies out.
SPEAKER_00: And I don't know.
SPEAKER_00: There's lots that we could talk about faith, obviously.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible is a book about faith, but let's turn to Romans chapter four and begin there.
SPEAKER_00: About where the apostle Paul, he's talking, you know, about some deep stuff, and we can't get into it all.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, Romans is about as deep as it gets, okay?
SPEAKER_00: So we're just kind of jumping into the middle there, and we're gonna pull some things out.
SPEAKER_00: We don't have time to get into everything that's going on in Romans up until this point, but Paul is gonna make some points out of the life of a man who's considered a father of faith.
SPEAKER_00: Who's that?
SPEAKER_00: Abraham.
SPEAKER_00: And it's interesting that he again and again comes back to Abraham as an example of faith.
SPEAKER_00: Even James, and perhaps we'll get there today, James also goes back and looks at Abraham.
SPEAKER_00: And some people have wrestled because they seem to be looking from slightly different angles, but they're still walking in the same faith.
SPEAKER_00: They're just emphasizing different sides of the same truth.
SPEAKER_00: How many of you know that Paul and James are not contradicting one another?
SPEAKER_00: Some of you are like, why are you even talking about this?
SPEAKER_00: What's that about?
SPEAKER_00: Those of you who know these books will know what I'm talking about.
SPEAKER_00: Paul is a guy who says it's it's just by faith, right?
SPEAKER_00: Works don't enter in.
SPEAKER_00: Works has nothing to do with it, and then James comes along and says, Well, you actually do need works to make sure your faith is alive.
SPEAKER_00: So keep that in the back of your mind.
SPEAKER_00: They're not contradicting one another, they are emphasizing different sides of the same truth.
SPEAKER_00: So we're in Romans chapter 4 and verse 13.
SPEAKER_00: It says, For the promise to Abraham and to his offspring that he would be heir of the world did not come through the law, but through the righteousness of faith.
SPEAKER_00: For it is the adherent, for if it is the adherents of the law who are to be the heirs, faith is null and the promise is void.
SPEAKER_00: How many of you know Paul is walking us through some logic, some thinking here?
SPEAKER_00: He's not saying that faith is null and void.
SPEAKER_00: He's saying that if we depend on our own works, the works of the law, if we depend on something outside of the death and resurrection of Jesus to stand righteous before the eyes of God, then good luck.
SPEAKER_00: How many of you know that we have no ability to stand righteous, pure, clean, on firm footing outside of Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: There is no one who can keep all the commandments and can do all the things and can be righteous enough, or Jesus would have gone to the cross in vain.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you, God, for Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: So it's not that faith is null and the promises are void.
SPEAKER_00: What does he continue saying in verse 15?
SPEAKER_00: For the law, for the law brings wrath, but where there is no law, there is no transgression.
SPEAKER_00: Again, Paul's being deep here.
SPEAKER_00: He's been building up to this point.
SPEAKER_00: He's gonna unpack more moving forward.
SPEAKER_00: We just need to move along because we're looking at faith.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 16, and that is why it depends on faith.
SPEAKER_00: In order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his offspring.
SPEAKER_00: And this is what Paul's talking about in the whole letter.
SPEAKER_00: There's Jewish believers in Jesus, and then there's Gentile believers in Jesus, Jews who have been brought up with the scriptures, with the prophets, with the promises that the Messiah would come, and then people who yesterday were worshiping idols and had no clue what God was doing in the earth.
SPEAKER_00: And Paul is saying, Jesus is for Jew and Gentile alike.
SPEAKER_00: And the Jews, you know, as much as they had good things, the word of God is good, the promises are good, the prophets are good, the main thing is we all have Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And if we all have Jesus, we all stand righteous before God.
SPEAKER_00: So we were in verse 16, and continuing on, it says, not only to the adherents of the law, but to also to the ones who shares the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all.
SPEAKER_00: As it is written, I have made you the father of many nations.
SPEAKER_00: How many of you know that Jews today look back to Abraham as their ancestor?
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: And many of them can track their genealogy back to, you know, what tribe I'm from, what house within that tribe, and they can go, go, go, go, go all those generations all the way back.
SPEAKER_00: He is the father of the Jewish nation.
SPEAKER_00: But how many of you know that God's promise to Abraham wasn't just I will make you the father of a nation, but that I will make you a father of nations, and through your seeds, through your descendants, but ultimately through the promised seed that is Jesus, all the nations of the earth will be blessed.
SPEAKER_00: Thank God for that.
SPEAKER_00: That's why this morning we've got Canadians of you know all sorts of different descent here, Irish, Ukrainian, we've got others who have more recently immigrated to Canada.
SPEAKER_00: We've got Hispanics, we've got Africans, we've got, you know, of course, our First Nation brothers, we've got all these different not that they immigrated, I didn't mean to lump that together.
SPEAKER_00: That sounded weird when I thought about it.
SPEAKER_00: But the point is, this gospel is for all.
SPEAKER_00: For all.
SPEAKER_00: But the linchpin, the thing that brings it all together, the equalizer, the thing that makes us equal in standing is the faith that we hold in Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: So I have made you the father of many nations in the presence of God, whom he believed.
SPEAKER_00: I love this.
SPEAKER_00: Abraham wasn't just a random guy that God said, I'm gonna do this whether you believe it or not.
SPEAKER_00: He chose him, and then what we see through scripture is that God gives a gift of faith that we need to then cherish, nurture, and grow.
SPEAKER_00: And we have opportunities in our life, encounters with God, where we have to learn to respond in faith when God speaks.
SPEAKER_00: We have opportunities here every Sunday, by the way, to respond or not respond in faith.
SPEAKER_00: Because again, it's not just about learning information to go on with your week, it's that is the word of God that is being spoken.
SPEAKER_00: Will I receive it or not?
SPEAKER_00: Will I open my heart?
SPEAKER_00: Will I make room for it?
SPEAKER_00: Will I allow it to flourish in my life?
SPEAKER_00: Do we come in with any sort of faith?
SPEAKER_00: Or are we just coming to learn something new?
SPEAKER_00: It's good to learn new things.
SPEAKER_00: But God protect us from what the apostle Paul talks about in his letters to Timothy, and he says, there's lots of folks out there with itching ears, looking for lots of people to tickle those ears, to scratch that itch, to give them something else to think about, to talk about.
SPEAKER_00: It's gotta go beyond that.
SPEAKER_00: It's gotta be more real than that.
SPEAKER_00: All right, there's a lot in here, people.
SPEAKER_00: So Abraham, it says, whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist.
SPEAKER_00: How many of you know we believe in a God who spoke Genesis chapter one?
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: It says there in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.
SPEAKER_00: The earth was out formed, without it was void.
SPEAKER_00: There was there was what was it on the face of the waters?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, the spirit was on the face of the waters, but it was chaotic.
SPEAKER_00: But then what does it say?
SPEAKER_00: And God spoke.
SPEAKER_00: Let there be light.
SPEAKER_00: Let there be.
SPEAKER_00: The same God that said, Let there be light, and there was light, still talks to us today.
SPEAKER_00: Are our hearts as receptive to the word as the earth was to his word?
SPEAKER_00: It takes his spirit to bring those changes, to bring the light, to bring it, but we can also close ourselves off.
SPEAKER_00: So when we hear that God is a healer, for example, do we receive that as information that that's great, God heals?
SPEAKER_00: Yes, I'll file that away.
SPEAKER_00: I even have, you know, some examples where I see Jesus healing.
SPEAKER_00: And I know the scriptures say that he's the same yesterday, today, and forever.
SPEAKER_00: So that means today he's still a healer.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you, Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And that's good, but it's a it's a big step between God is a healer to I am going to receive healing.
SPEAKER_00: And that step is a step of faith.
SPEAKER_00: Because between here and there is an unvisible, in unvisible, invisible, unseen.
SPEAKER_00: You know what I'm talking about.
SPEAKER_00: I can't unseen it.
SPEAKER_00: That there is something that God has said.
SPEAKER_00: I am a healer.
SPEAKER_00: By my stripes, you are healed.
SPEAKER_00: My promises forget not all my benefits.
SPEAKER_00: I am the one who forgives your iniquities and heals all your diseases.
SPEAKER_00: But if I'm standing here and I have sickness and disease, and that's my lived reality, I can stand here and with the knowledge that God is a healer and that it is his will to heal, but at some point there has to be a faith connection that says, I am gonna step out beyond what I can sense, I can touch, I can feel, and I am going to step into the unseen promise of God to receive healing.
SPEAKER_00: Now, this this applies to healing, it applies, you know, to financial breakthrough, it applies to anything when God speaks, our spirit responds.
SPEAKER_00: You know, Paul again he talks about these things.
SPEAKER_00: You know, it's that relationship where our spirit gives witness to his spirit, right?
SPEAKER_00: That we are the children of God.
SPEAKER_00: But there's sometimes the disconnect between our lived reality and the God-declared reality.
SPEAKER_00: Faith is the thing that closes the gap between the seen and the unseen.
SPEAKER_00: And sometimes that means that we need to begin to talk like God talks.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes that means we be we have to begin to partner with that word one way or another.
SPEAKER_00: Ultimately, it's God's word that is spoken and that creates, but I also know that there is the power of death and life in my tongue, says the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: And so, just like we see, God is the one who speaks to those things.
SPEAKER_00: I always remember this more like King James, New King James style.
SPEAKER_00: How about you?
SPEAKER_00: That speaks those things that are not as though they were.
SPEAKER_00: And sometimes, do what you want to do.
SPEAKER_00: You can't get a financial breakthrough, and you need to start to step by faith into God's word about these things.
SPEAKER_00: And I love that example that Brother Nestor gave this morning, right?
SPEAKER_00: He was talking about tithes and offerings, and he's like, Lord, I just don't understand.
SPEAKER_00: I'm starting out, you know, in life and marriage, and I'm trying to make ends meet, and I can't seem to pay my bills, and everything's seems to be going wrong.
SPEAKER_00: How many of you know that between my seen, lived, and felt reality that I never have enough, and God's word that says that if you trust me and you give me the first fruits of all of your increase, I will cause your barns to be overflowing and all of these blessings, I will open the windows of heaven over you.
SPEAKER_00: It takes faith to go from the hurt, broke, seen, felt reality to step in and say, I believe God's word more than I believe what I'm living.
SPEAKER_00: I believe that beyond my human logic that says, you know, how many of you know human logic?
SPEAKER_00: It's pretty straightforward.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not a mathematician, but in human logic, 100% minus 10% equals 90%.
SPEAKER_00: If I have$1,000 and I give away a hundred of those dollars, I now have only$900 left.
SPEAKER_00: So if my bills aren't met with$1,000, in my human logic, there certainly won't be met with$900.
SPEAKER_00: But between here and there is the difference of my strength, my humanity, my thoughts, my ability, and stepping into the declared promise of God.
SPEAKER_00: So we see this man Abraham, and he hears some pretty outrageous things from God, and we don't have time to go through his whole story today, right?
SPEAKER_00: But we know: do you think it's by chance that the guy God calls to be a father of nations is gonna be married to a barren woman?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, let's just be real for a moment here.
SPEAKER_00: It's like you think God didn't know that there was reproductive issues going on here.
SPEAKER_00: God knew this is a setup for a miracle.
SPEAKER_00: This is a setup for the glory of God.
SPEAKER_00: This is a setup to show that it's not in our strength and our ability, but in my promise and in my word.
SPEAKER_00: You know, if Abraham and Sarah were just having kids left, right, and center, we wouldn't have these amazing stories to build our faith, and they would have been like, well, I'm just one virile old dude.
SPEAKER_00: Come on, I got some laughs from some of the folks in the room out of that one.
SPEAKER_00: You know, Abraham.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, I better stop.
SPEAKER_00: But seriously, they could have gloried in their own ability.
SPEAKER_00: God doesn't want us to glory in our own ability.
SPEAKER_00: He wants us to walk by faith.
SPEAKER_00: Faith alive, he wants us to live a life of faith.
SPEAKER_00: Come on.
SPEAKER_00: That means you, your house, whatever it is that you are facing, you need to get a word from God.
SPEAKER_00: Come on.
SPEAKER_00: You need to get a word from God about your situation.
SPEAKER_00: So if you're sick, you need to get a word from God about healing.
SPEAKER_00: If you've got lack, then you've got to get a word from God about provision.
SPEAKER_00: If you're going through struggles and strife in your household, then you need to get a word from God about reconciliation, about peace, about the presence of God in your home.
SPEAKER_00: If you're going through, you know, depression and anxiety, then you need to get a hold of a word of God about joy, unspeakable and full of glory.
SPEAKER_00: And at some point, and I can't just, you know, make this happen, but I promise you that if you honor the word of God, God will not disappoint you.
SPEAKER_00: God will not disappoint you.
SPEAKER_00: And am I saying that this is just gonna be bam, I just need a verse and I'm on my happy way.
SPEAKER_00: No, you need to dig in until your faith grows to meet the circumstance that you are in.
SPEAKER_00: Abraham went through a 25-year process to see his promise come to pass.
SPEAKER_00: And all of you are like, I don't got 25 years.
SPEAKER_00: Especially in our Canadian society, right?
SPEAKER_00: And I'm not saying every process is 25 years.
SPEAKER_00: Your process might be instantaneous almost.
SPEAKER_00: You maybe just need that release of a word of God over your life that says, this is what I say, believe it, grab a hold of it, receive it.
SPEAKER_00: And you can grab a hold of it today.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you, God.
SPEAKER_00: Let's see some of that happen.
SPEAKER_00: But this is the thing.
SPEAKER_00: You've got to lay hold of it no matter what does happen, because God's word doesn't get thrown out the window the first moment it doesn't work on our time frame the way we want it to happen.
SPEAKER_00: You know, and Abraham again, he what?
SPEAKER_00: God had promised to make him the father of many nations.
SPEAKER_00: They even dabbled with, okay, well, I don't remember God saying anything about it's gotta be Sarah.
SPEAKER_00: So Sarah comes over and it's like, here's my maidservant Hagar.
SPEAKER_00: How many of you know the Bible is a very interesting book?
SPEAKER_00: I think I've said this before.
SPEAKER_00: I remember when my mother-in-law, you know, she came to faith later in life.
SPEAKER_00: And like a like some people, they just dive right into the Bible as, you know, that that's a good place to start.
SPEAKER_00: Like she had come to faith, God healed her, and all of this, but you know, it was a little later that she really got serious about reading the Bible, and she went back to Genesis.
SPEAKER_00: And I remember I was, we were visiting, or I can't remember, but she's just like, I think she was somewhere around like Jacob's story, and she's like, What's going on?
SPEAKER_00: Like, by the time you get there, you've seen Abraham sleeping with his servant and his wife's arranging this.
SPEAKER_00: You see, oh, how how old are the ears in the room?
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
SPEAKER_00: Like, you've got Lot and his daughters, you've got all sorts of stuff going on, and she's like, I thought this was a holy book, right?
SPEAKER_00: Like, but aren't you glad that this book is a book about reality?
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't whitewash our humanity, it doesn't put people on super, you know, high spiritual pedestals like they were all amazing.
SPEAKER_00: The man who we call the father of faith thought that the way to bring God's supernatural promise to pass was to sleep with his slave.
SPEAKER_00: I hope we can skip that step.
SPEAKER_00: Hope is a really weak word for that sentence.
SPEAKER_00: But we better keep reading.
SPEAKER_00: Now that I've mentioned hope, actually, I'll read verse 17 again.
SPEAKER_00: It's such an important verse.
SPEAKER_00: It says, as it is written, I have made you the father of many nations.
SPEAKER_00: That's the promise.
SPEAKER_00: The lived reality is barrenness.
SPEAKER_00: The lived reality is I am a wanderer in a strange land.
SPEAKER_00: You're saying I'm gonna be a kingdom, I'm gonna have kings come out of me.
SPEAKER_00: All of this stuff, I'm wandering from place to place.
SPEAKER_00: I live in a tent.
SPEAKER_00: You will be the father of many nations.
SPEAKER_00: And he says, so shall your offspring be.
SPEAKER_00: And of course, we know the story.
SPEAKER_00: Look up, Abraham, look at the stars.
SPEAKER_00: Can you count them?
SPEAKER_00: Look at the sand on the seashore.
SPEAKER_00: Can you count the grains of sand?
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes we need to step away from our situation a little bit and remember that he is able, if he is able to make the stars, to know them all, if he's made all of these things, what can he not do?
SPEAKER_00: What can he not do?
SPEAKER_00: And if he has spoken it, then the same voice that put the stars in the sky and the sand on the seashore is sure to make something happen for you and for me.
SPEAKER_00: Faith.
SPEAKER_00: I love verse 18.
SPEAKER_00: It says, In hope he believed.
SPEAKER_00: How many of you know faith is a stronger word than hope?
SPEAKER_00: Maybe I should just turn there for a moment.
SPEAKER_00: Most of you are familiar with this amazing faith passage at Hebrews chapter 11.
SPEAKER_00: I'm just keeping, we'll be right back to Romans chapter 4.
SPEAKER_00: It says, now faith, Hebrews 11, verse 1.
SPEAKER_00: It says, now faith is the assurance of things hoped for and the conviction of things not seen.
SPEAKER_00: Now, again, I always think of this in the New King James, and it says that faith is the substance of things hoped for, and the conviction, the evidence of things not seen.
SPEAKER_00: Just think about this for a moment.
SPEAKER_00: You've got something that's unseen, and you're hoping for it.
SPEAKER_00: How many of you know most of the time, you know, the things that we hear and we're like, that would be nice, wouldn't it be amazing?
SPEAKER_00: God says that, and I I know, you know, there's there's a part of that where my heart resounds, I know that's true, but a lot of us are satisfied to live at the hope level.
SPEAKER_00: If you're satisfied to live at the hope level, you may never see the promise of God fulfilled in your life.
SPEAKER_00: Hope is important.
SPEAKER_00: Hope is life.
SPEAKER_00: Like, if you don't have hope, then life is dark.
SPEAKER_00: Then, like you gotta wake up with hope every morning, and our hope is ultimately in Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: But there's something that has to go beyond, wouldn't that be nice?
SPEAKER_00: I hope one day to I have faith, because faith, I don't see the Bible say hope is substance, but I see the Bible say faith is the substance of things hoped for.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, there's an invisible reality that God has promised, and it's like we can kind of vaguely perceive it through the eyes of the spirit, you know, our hearts respond, but it's kind of vague.
SPEAKER_00: It's kind of like we reach out for it and we can't lay hold of it.
SPEAKER_00: It's kind of like, you know, you're you see a design in the smoke and you reach out to grab it, and by the time your hand's there, it's gone.
SPEAKER_00: But faith gives substance to the things that we hope for.
SPEAKER_00: Faith gives substance to the things we hope for.
SPEAKER_00: And by the way, if you're listening today and you're thinking, that's great.
SPEAKER_00: I hope some people in this room have amazing faith and I get to be around to watch it.
SPEAKER_00: You have to understand that faith is absolutely essential to our relationship with God.
SPEAKER_00: Because look down in verse 6, while we're still there in Hebrews chapter 11, it says, without faith, it is impossible to please God.
SPEAKER_00: Do yourself a favor, maybe you've studied it, maybe you've been there before, read Hebrews chapter 11 again.
SPEAKER_00: I could have easily preached there today.
SPEAKER_00: I I think I didn't because I would be preaching.
SPEAKER_00: And I would lose my voice again.
SPEAKER_00: And you can pray for my voice, by the way.
SPEAKER_00: So back to Romans chapter 4 and verse 18.
SPEAKER_00: In hope he believed.
SPEAKER_00: Faith is giving substance to the hope that the word of God is gonna come to pass.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know where that happened exactly in his 25-year faith walk with God, but at some point his hope turned into faith, and there was enough substance to it that it became a reality in his life.
SPEAKER_00: Sarah conceived, Isaac came, he became the father of a blessed nation in the presence of God, whom he believed.
SPEAKER_00: Where was I?
SPEAKER_00: Help me out, people.
SPEAKER_00: 18.
SPEAKER_00: In hope, he believed against hope.
SPEAKER_00: Hope against hope.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not even sure what that means.
SPEAKER_00: Like, how do you hope against hope?
SPEAKER_00: I I guess again, that kind of shows you that when you're on the hope level, there's there's conflicting ideas and thoughts that are working against each other, that you need to lay hold of something stronger, more substantial, something called faith.
SPEAKER_00: So he believed in hope, he believed against hope that he should become the father of many nations as he had been told.
SPEAKER_00: So shall your offspring be.
SPEAKER_00: And he did not weaken.
SPEAKER_00: Look at that.
SPEAKER_00: He did not weaken in faith.
SPEAKER_00: Now, again, that doesn't say that he went from, you know, having this just small spark of faith that's mostly hope, but there's very little substance to it yet.
SPEAKER_00: But I've heard the promise, it says that he did not grow weaker in his faith.
SPEAKER_00: I wish I could say at every stage of my life in my pursuit of God that I never had a moment where my faith grew weaker.
SPEAKER_00: But if I'm being honest with myself, I've had much faith and I've had less faith.
SPEAKER_00: And you know, I don't know if I've ever had great faith.
SPEAKER_00: I've seen some cool things happen, but I don't know if I've ever walked in great faith consistently.
SPEAKER_00: But look at what we're seeing here.
SPEAKER_00: The idea we need to be a people.
SPEAKER_00: If we are the children of Abraham, if we are people of faith, we walk by faith and not by sight, the Bible says, then we need to be people whose faith is growing, whose faith at least is being maintained, is not growing weaker.
SPEAKER_00: Faith alive, we cannot afford weak faith.
SPEAKER_00: Come on, you cannot afford weak faith.
SPEAKER_00: Like I know I say that as your pastor, and I have, you know, all these things in my heart that I'm believing for, for you, for this place, for you know what God wants to do in our community.
SPEAKER_00: But you need to keep your faith strong.
SPEAKER_00: Because when your lived reality begins to shake, and that that's the thing, right?
SPEAKER_00: It's so easy to fall into that trap where you know something that you once had to believe God for is now your lived reality, right?
SPEAKER_00: How many of you have received promises from God and you're in a better place today than when you started?
SPEAKER_00: Thank you, God, for that.
SPEAKER_00: But how many of you know once you're actually living in the fulfillment of that promise, it's very easy to let go and just be satisfied and just say, well, life is better, praise God, and wait for a crisis to come along before you really start to grow your faith again.
SPEAKER_00: But we need to look to Abraham and say, no, our faith, we don't shut it off because we got what we wanted, which by the way, I hope you're not hearing me today that that this is all about getting what you always wanted.
SPEAKER_00: Because that's not the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, the here's the good news it's better than what you always wanted, it's better than your personal selfish desires.
SPEAKER_00: So because if we step in and now we see it, now it's our lived reality, and we just disengage our faith without us even realizing it, our faith is growing weaker.
SPEAKER_00: And when the next crisis comes along, and we should have been stronger than ever.
SPEAKER_00: When the next piece of bad news hits you, when the next transition at work happens, when the next sickness hits you or someone you love, all of a sudden you're scrambling, and it's like, you know, uh Pastor Brent always liked to talk about fish in a tank, right?
SPEAKER_00: It's like, what's their memory about like 10 seconds?
SPEAKER_00: It's kind of like how we are in God sometimes.
SPEAKER_00: It's like we're starting from zero every time around the block.
SPEAKER_00: How many of you know God doesn't want us to be starting from zero?
SPEAKER_00: We're supposed to go from faith to faith, from glory to glory.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: So shall your offspring be.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 19, he did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was as good as dead.
SPEAKER_00: That's a pretty grim, you know, uh estimation of his own condition, right?
SPEAKER_00: I'm as good as dead, but he did not allow what he saw in the mirror, what he felt when he woke up in the morning, or the fact that he hadn't yet had children with Sarah determine what he was gonna do, how he was gonna speak, or whether or not he was going to let go of the promise of God.
SPEAKER_00: He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body.
SPEAKER_00: Now, I like that it says it that way, because there are some people who have got around faith teaching, and what do they do?
SPEAKER_00: They say, I don't want weak faith, so I'm not even going to consider my body.
SPEAKER_00: It says his faith did not weaken when he considered his body.
SPEAKER_00: So I want you to understand faith is not turning a blind eye to reality, it's not making up some fantasy land, something that you know isn't happening.
SPEAKER_00: It is okay, this is it.
SPEAKER_00: This is rough, this is not good, but that does not change what God says.
SPEAKER_00: That does not change who God is, and that does not change how I'm gonna pray, how I'm gonna worship, how I am going to give because God has told me, commanded me to do these things.
SPEAKER_00: We live according to the word of God, whether it makes sense or not, whether the world thinks we're crazy or not, whether our family thinks we're taking it too far or not, we are going to live according to the word of God.
SPEAKER_00: We walk by faith and not by sight.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't weaken his faith, in his faith when he considered his own body, which was as good as dead, since he was about a hundred years old, or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah's womb.
SPEAKER_00: No unbelief made him waver.
SPEAKER_00: I love that.
SPEAKER_00: Again, it doesn't say that there's no unbelief trying to come on him.
SPEAKER_00: And we can really condemn ourselves as believers, as faith people.
SPEAKER_00: It's like, oh, I'm having these negative thoughts, I'm not sure.
SPEAKER_00: Unbelief will come your way.
SPEAKER_00: But you have to say that might be what I see, that might be what I think, but this is what God thinks.
SPEAKER_00: This is what God says.
SPEAKER_00: No unbelief made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith.
SPEAKER_00: You see how it's kind of book-ended there.
SPEAKER_00: It started off by saying he did not grow weak.
SPEAKER_00: And maybe that's where you and I are at this morning.
SPEAKER_00: We've got faith, and we're like, okay, let's shore up the faith we got, let's not let it get any weaker.
SPEAKER_00: But then you gotta go from I'm standing on the faith that I have, I'm lifting that shield of faith in the circumstances that I'm in.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe I was starting to droop down because I heard something that didn't, you know, I didn't like and I don't know, and now I'm trying to figure it out.
SPEAKER_00: No, I'm lifting the shield of faith again.
SPEAKER_00: And now I'm gonna grow.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna get stronger in faith.
SPEAKER_00: How many of you think we need stronger faith in faith alive?
SPEAKER_00: Stronger faith.
SPEAKER_00: Can I speak to the prayer warriors for just a moment?
SPEAKER_00: You need to come in, believing, not just to, you know, get through another service and pray for some people.
SPEAKER_00: You need to build up your faith that when you lay hands on people, something is happening.
SPEAKER_00: Not that it might happen, not that it would be nice if it happened, not just, I hope, wouldn't that be great if it happened?
SPEAKER_00: But begin to step beyond that and say, the word of God says that when I lay hands on the sick, they shall recover.
SPEAKER_00: And that's the sort of confidence and faith that I am gonna lay hold of.
SPEAKER_00: I see what the Bible says about how Peter walked and his shadow touched people and they got healed.
SPEAKER_00: So, God, the same Spirit of God that raised Christ from the dead, dwells in me.
SPEAKER_00: So God Ah, do something through me today.
SPEAKER_00: We're not here to go through the motions.
SPEAKER_00: We're not, and we can have some very exuberant motions and pride ourselves in being a lively church.
SPEAKER_00: I love lively, I love boisterous worship if you haven't noticed.
SPEAKER_00: I love, you know, all of those things, but you know what I love more than that?
SPEAKER_00: The substance that only faith can bring.
SPEAKER_00: Faith.
SPEAKER_00: Can you say faith?
SPEAKER_00: Increasing faith.
SPEAKER_00: Growing faith.
SPEAKER_00: Look at this.
SPEAKER_00: By but he grew in his faith as he gave glory to God.
SPEAKER_00: Again, I don't know what that looked like exactly for Abraham.
SPEAKER_00: But wherever you are in your lived circumstances and your faith walk with God, if you get into the presence of God to glorify him, to praise him, to worship him, how many of you know that your praise can be part of giving substance to those things that you hope for?
SPEAKER_00: Because again, sometimes we come in and we feel sick, we feel tired, we feel beat up by life, we feel discouraged, we feel like we have no joy, we have no freedom, we come in and it's just like I'm just here, active presence, right?
SPEAKER_00: At least my brothers and sisters see me, see you next week.
SPEAKER_00: You might come in feeling like that, but at some point you gotta step beyond that and give glory to God and remember what his word says about worship.
SPEAKER_00: I will raise my hands in the sanctuary, I will shout with joyous praise, I will dance before the Lord, I will worship him because there is breath in my lungs.
SPEAKER_00: What am I telling you people?
SPEAKER_00: If we determine our level of praise and worship, if we determine how we're gonna honor God with the first fruits of our resources and what he blesses us with, depending on how we feel and what we're living, then we're stuck how we feel and how we're living.
SPEAKER_00: But if we step beyond how we feel and say, this is God's word, well, then we're stepping into the shoes of Abraham and we're looking to the stars and we're saying, if you say it, God, yes and amen.
SPEAKER_00: Yes and amen.
SPEAKER_00: He grew strong in faith as he gave glory to God, fully convinced that God was able to do as he promised.
SPEAKER_00: God is able, God is able, God is able.
SPEAKER_00: Or I wasn't looking for round two, okay, three, whatever.
SPEAKER_00: Or we just put our finger on where the disconnect can be.
SPEAKER_00: That our lived experience has made us doubt that God is who he says he is, that our ups and downs of our faith walk, our being thrown about in the storms of life, has caused us to shrink back, for our faith to grow weaker, to the point where we're like, yeah, maybe.
SPEAKER_00: And that's not faith.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe we should just end here in James chapter one.
SPEAKER_00: And for a guy who has some very straight-up stuff to say about faith, he's sure a faith guy when you read what he says here in the first few verses of James chapter one.
SPEAKER_00: Now he's talking about believing God for wisdom, but he says some things that are principles for our whole walk of faith.
SPEAKER_00: And don't worry, we're just about wrapping up.
SPEAKER_00: James chapter 1, verse 5 says, and if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.
SPEAKER_00: Just let that sink into your heart for a minute this morning.
SPEAKER_00: God is a generous God who will give to all.
SPEAKER_00: Because the enemy of your soul, the enemy of your life will lie and bombard you with negative, with doom, with just it can't happen for somebody else, not for you.
SPEAKER_00: And he will accuse God and he will paint God as a you know tight-fisted, I'm only gonna do it, you know, to the rare person under extraordinary circumstances.
SPEAKER_00: James had an understanding about God, that God is a God who, when he is approached, when his children come, as Jesus said, he is a good father, a better father than we could ever be.
SPEAKER_00: He gives generously to all without reproach.
SPEAKER_00: Let that heal your heart for a minute this morning, this day.
SPEAKER_00: God is more generous than you give him credit for.
SPEAKER_00: God wants to do more for you than you have yet believed for him to do.
SPEAKER_00: And any voice in your head that says, God doesn't want to do it for me, maybe for someone else, it says, all here, and I'm in that all.
SPEAKER_00: God is more generous than we give him credit for.
SPEAKER_00: And he will give to all without reproach.
SPEAKER_00: It will be given to him.
SPEAKER_00: But the here's the catch.
SPEAKER_00: But let him ask in faith with no doubting, and that's the battle we fight right there, right?
SPEAKER_00: His faith grew strong, even though there was unbelief wanted to creep in there.
SPEAKER_00: You must, what did we say last week, get in the fight.
SPEAKER_00: Do not try and reason with unbelief.
SPEAKER_00: You will lose that logical battle.
SPEAKER_00: Because there is lots of physical evidence, in the contrary, but faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things unseen.
SPEAKER_00: And you know what?
SPEAKER_00: If I know that the entire universe came out of nothing by the word of God, then I know that in the unseen word of God, the promise of God, there is more power than all the created order that exists and is exposed to my sight.
SPEAKER_00: Let him ask with faith, without doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind.
SPEAKER_00: For that person must not suppose that they will receive anything from the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: He is double-minded and unstable.
SPEAKER_00: Not exactly the verse I wanted to end on, but I probably need to wrap up.
SPEAKER_00: Were you on today?
SPEAKER_00: I see Jamie, so I'm calling Jamie.
SPEAKER_00: How many of you think it's time to shore up our faith, to cast out unbelief, to get out of the mental struggles that the enemy puts us through.
SPEAKER_00: And you know, even last week, as I challenged everyone to get in the fight, I this week I was reminded again and again: you get in the fights, the enemy plays dirty, he plays with your mind.
SPEAKER_00: You cannot think your way out of a spiritual battle.
SPEAKER_00: If you feel bombarded, if you feel downcast, if you feel like your mind's wavering between two opinions, do whatever you need to do to just say enough.
SPEAKER_00: This isn't about what I think, this isn't about if it makes sense, this isn't any of that.
SPEAKER_00: What did God say?
SPEAKER_00: And God is speaking over all of us good things.
SPEAKER_00: Because he is a good father who loves us, who is generous, stand to our feet, amen.
SPEAKER_00: That it's by faith that we are saved because of who Jesus is and what he did on the cross for us.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, we thank you for the blood of the Lamb that takes away the sin of the world, and we thank you that having paid the price for our sins and died in our place, the death couldn't hold Jesus, that he has overcome hell, death, the grave.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, that he rose and he's seated at the right hand of the Father.
SPEAKER_00: Lord God, I ask you today for our faith to not weaken.
SPEAKER_00: Lord Jesus, we believe, help our unbelief, help us deal with the voices, with the reasonings of the enemy, Lord God.
SPEAKER_00: And as the apostle Paul said, we tear down strongholds, arguments, Lord, these things that would exalt themselves above the knowledge of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, we want to know you more.
SPEAKER_00: We want to know you more.
SPEAKER_00: We want to break out of strongholds of unbelief.
SPEAKER_00: We want to break out, Lord God, away from the lives of the enemy, Lord God, and we want to step beyond the limitations of our lived experience and lay hold of your promises.
SPEAKER_00: Lord God, I thank you for hope.
SPEAKER_00: And I know that this is a people and a place full of hope.
SPEAKER_00: But God, we're asking that there would be faith that gives substance to that hope.
SPEAKER_00: Give substance, Lord God, because we don't want to sit, Lord, waiting and wondering when and why are we still not seeing it.
SPEAKER_00: But Lord, to step out in faith in the unseen, Lord God, faith for healing increase in the name of Jesus, faith for provision to increase in the name of Jesus, faith for boldness, Lord God, to increase in the name of Jesus, faith, Lord God, to step beyond our limitations, increase and grow.