TRUTH Be Told Podcast - S2E12 - The Importance of Faith

The Importance of Faith - S2E12

https://www.buzzsprout.com/2523935/episodes/19426676

In this week's episode of the TRUTH Be Told Podcast, join Evangelist Michele Love and Pastor Steve Hofmeister as they discuss the importance of Faith. Luke 17

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#Luke17

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:00

Welcome to the Truth Be Told Podcast. I'm Pastor Steve and Rover Love.

SPEAKER_01 0:05

And we've got Ray. Ray's with us today, too. Stephen Mazak, whichever one he's a prayer warrior in training. Yes. He is definitely going to be a prayer warrior for your kids, for you. We're excited about that. So he is joining us today. Like I said, we are here at the bus. We are out and about God's church. My husband called it street church today. So we are out on the streets. We are giving people food and meals. We had a beautiful service this morning about faith. And Steve and I were just talking and thinking, we need to, hi guys! We need to um, we're in a shopping center, by the way. Um, but we need to uh talk about faith with you guys a little bit more. So I think we're gonna piggyback what we what we started in church and we're gonna kind of dive into it a little bit deeper right now. How about that?

SPEAKER_03 0:56

Yep, sir. Let's break, let's uh roll our opening. Yes.

SPEAKER_00 1:09

Thanks for joining us for this week's episode of Truth Be Told. Truth Be Told is a conversational exploration of biblical truths. Your host is Reverend Michelle Love and Reverend Stephen Hoffmeister, Voice of Truth Center, Bel Air, Maryland. Let's join Reverend Love, Pastor Steve, as we discuss this week's topic.

SPEAKER_03 1:32

Heavenly Father, we thank you, Lord, for another episode of the Trick People Podcast Father. We just thank you for this amazing day being out here in the open air proclaiming your word with the Hope One Wheels Blessing on Board Bus. Father, we ask that you just bring those who need some love, need some prayer, need some food. We've got it all for them, Lord. We just ask that you send them this way. Father, be with us as we talk about the topic that the Spirit has laid upon us for today's episode. Yes. In Jesus' name.

SPEAKER_01 2:04

Thank you. Yes, Lord. So our service this morning, we started in uh, I think it was Luke 17, right? I'm going by memory this morning, but we're talking about faith. I don't know. God said stay put where you are, so that's what I'm gonna do. So um we were talking about uh faith this morning and how our faith is a pivotal part of well, it's everything, actually, wouldn't you say, guys? Faith is without faith, uh who really are we? Like, who are we without faith? You know, because our our design and our uh whole being is in Christ, and in Christ, in God, in the Holy Spirit, in truth, and so how can we have an amazing quality of faith in God? That's where we're gonna head. So we're gonna start reading in Matthew 17. Um, and I think my page just blew, so hold on a second. Um I'm a little lost. Oh, here we go. I'm sorry, guys. I'm still coming off all the excitement of the people that just came and got a bunch of stuff. And it was really cool because they had this little translation thing on their phone, so we were able to talk to them. All right, we're gonna talk about a boy being healed. Matthew 17, verse 14 through 21. And when they had come to the multitude, a man came to him, Jesus, kneeling down to him and saying, First of all, I love that. Because this man gave Jesus Christ reverence and honor. Like that is super cool. He didn't just approach Jesus and say, I need this, I need that. He knelt down before him. Do we do that? Do we do that?

SPEAKER_04 4:18

A little bit more.

SPEAKER_01 4:18

You know that's faith. When you give the Lord reverence and honor like that, that is saying, I am coming humbly to your throne of grace and mercy. Before I say anything, I'm bowing down, I'm going prostrate, which is fully on the floor. I am kneeling before I say anything. And that's what I love about this verse. He's saying he knelt down, and this is what he said to the Lord, verse 15 Lord, have mercy on my son. Now, y'all know God knows about mercy for someone's son. Oh, yes, because of what Jesus, his son, did for us. That's all about mercy. Right, yes, for he is an epileptic and suffers severely, for he often falls into the fire and often into the water. Who's really doing that to that boy? Who's doing that to that boy? Satan has put the ailment of epilepsy on this man's child. Now, think about this epilepsy all these years ago. I think cancer was back then, I think all kinds of things were back then. So this man kneeling down, remember, he's kneeling down, coming to Jesus, saying he's scared for his son. I'm scared of what's gonna happen to my son. So I brought him to your disciples, but they could not cure him. So how do you think? Let's talk about this for a minute. How do you think Jesus felt at that moment? The disciples, all 12 of them, who were literally hanging out with Jesus for quite a long time, and now all of a sudden, this man is coming. Hi guys! This man is coming, saying none of them could heal him. How do you think Jesus felt? Give me some feedback, y'all. You're not talking at all. I think it's kind of like in your in your message, it was like, come on! I talk to you guys better than this. Yeah, wait till the next verse. But how but for Jesus, yeah, you're that's exactly right. Like, have you learned nothing?

SPEAKER_04 7:08

Have you learned nothing from me? I believe, honestly, that people might not have as much faith as they think. They think they have enough, but when it comes down to it, they need more.

SPEAKER_01 7:21

What do you so we were talking about what Jesus felt at that moment, but here's what he said. You ready? So he said, You have little faith, oh faithless and perverse generation. How long shall I be with you? How long shall I bear with you? Bring him here to me. Boom.

unknown 7:44

Yes, right.

SPEAKER_01 7:45

So Jesus immediately said, I'm gonna take care of this for you because you humbled yourself before me, you asked me, and I'm going to do this for you. At the same time, what else did he do? What else did Jesus do, Steve? Love you guys.

SPEAKER_03 8:15

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 8:16

Oh, faithless and come on, y'all. Get back in here. Come on. I'm not doing this podcast by myself. Sorry, guys. Oh faithless, we should. We're talking to this thing. Oh faithless and perverse generation. I could say that right now, Lord. How long shall I be with you? How long shall I how how shall I bear with you? Jesus was frustrated.

SPEAKER_04 8:41

Yes, yes.

SPEAKER_01 8:41

Okay, I'll just do this podcast by myself. Jesus was frustrated because they were not listening, they did not have ears to hear, and that is the problem with Christians today. They want to sit there on a Sunday service and take it all in, but they ain't listening, they ain't hearing, and they're not doing what these what these heartfelt, God-fearing preachers are preaching. And I'm one of them, so I'm just gonna say it out there.

SPEAKER_02 9:11

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 9:11

If you're not listening to the truth that is coming from the Holy Spirit through your preacher, why are you there? I could say the same thing, and I'm sure a lot of other preachers could say the same thing. Oh, you faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I bear with you? Come on, y'all. It's time to step up with listening to truth when it's taught to you. There are preachers that teach and teach. I'm one of them. I don't get paid to do what I do. I get paid from him in all kinds of ways, but I don't get this, it is not a paying job for me. So when I when I when the Lord says go here, there, and everywhere, and I preach and I teach and I evangelize, and nobody's listening, because you really got to listen to obey. Obeying God's word is what we're called to do. It is faith in action. When someone is preaching the Bible to you, you pray, Lord, give me ears to hear, so I can do what the word says.

SPEAKER_03 10:25

And you think about it, you think about how he said that, it was another foreshadowing of how short his time was going to be with him, how he worded that. Yep. You know, how long do I have with you? How long do I bear with you? Bear with you. Right. He's saying right there, look, I only got a little bit of time. You're running out of time, yeah. Right.

SPEAKER_01 10:45

To teach you what I need to teach you. Wake up, get with it. Yes. And this is right now, y'all. Absolutely. The times we are in right now. If you say, I want to live for the Lord, I want to have this great, huge faith, I want to be everything that God has called me to be, then you have to do the word, you have to put in the work. Stop sitting there letting everybody pour into you, and you do nothing. You do nothing. You've got to give to the people who are given to you. You've got to go out like we are today in the world. And if you don't know how to do it, like this is new for Ray. Ray is meeting people, he's talking to people, he's helping people. He took the step of faith to say, I am here with voice of truth, and I am a part of something greater than myself.

SPEAKER_04 11:41

Amen.

SPEAKER_01 11:41

And that's what we're all here for. Guys, we're running out of time. We are running out of time. So let's finish this scripture. And then we're going to talk about the rest of this. And Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of that little boy, and that child was cured from that very hour. So we're going to go back for a minute, but then the last we're going to read a couple more spots of this. Then the disciples came to Jesus privately, because you know they didn't want to say it in front of everybody. Okay, they went to Jesus privately, and they said, Why could we not cast out the demon? And Jesus said to them, Because of your unbelief. For assuredly I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, that little tiny mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, Move from here to there, and it will move, and nothing, you ready for this? Nothing will be impossible for you. Nothing will be impossible for you. So let's backtrack this whole scripture, verses 14 through 20. So it started off this man coming to Jesus, saying, Please help my son. He's gonna something's gonna happen to my son. Oh, and by the way, your pot your disciples couldn't do it. Jesus got a little, you know, antsy, frustrated. But then Jesus took care of the mission. This is important. You ready? He didn't let the circumstances of the disciples hinder the mission. If people aren't on board with you, you keep moving. If they're not getting it, you keep teaching, preaching, evangelizing, and moving forward. Some will get it, some will go, some will leave, some will be on the fence trying to figure out what the heck to do. It is not your position as a shepherd to carry them along. You care for them, you love them, and you feed them. The duty to grow in their faith in word and in truth is not on you as a leader. It's on them as the flock. We are to give them truth. We are to pray for them, we are to give them word, we are to show them the hands and the feet of Jesus Christ. The rest is on them. We plant the seeds, we water the seeds, God grows it. But these flock, this flock of believers has to do their part. Give me some feedback, y'all.

SPEAKER_03 14:47

Yeah. Well, you're right. That's the great 100%.

SPEAKER_01 14:50

The leader of the shepherd. So, what do you what do we do about it? What can we tell people to do about it?

SPEAKER_04 14:56

You gotta step up and decide. Maybe you gotta pray to the Lord and and see where you belong in your walk with Jesus. And decide, you know, at that point, it's like, I mean, either you're gonna you're gonna go to church every Sunday, you're gonna sit back and do nothing, or you're gonna step up and say, I want to do something, then you gotta figure out what.

SPEAKER_03 15:17

Right. A lot of times, and I can speak for this personally, a lot of times you come into it with this predisposition of thinking where you're supposed to be versus where God actually wants you to be. Where you're called to, yeah. You gotta be willing to shut up. I'm gonna go put a folder like that. You gotta be willing to shut up, listen to God, what he wants, and not what you think he wants. And he will tell you. And it's not easy, and he will tell you.

SPEAKER_01 15:45

You have to listen, that's true. Which what Ray just said, he will tell you. You're I always say this. What's what's the one phrase I always say? You're either in or you're out. You're not both.

SPEAKER_04 15:58

All right, I personally never understood that fully, but I've learned that through through Pastor Love's teachings, okay, and God helping me to see and understand even more of the Bible, okay. Believe me, I love listening to the word, but I was never one to carry it out. And I realized that God, no, I need to carry this out, and this is where I need to be. And God told me I am sitting where I'm supposed to sit right now.

SPEAKER_01 16:28

Yep. And if you're if you're in, you have to be all in, right, right?

SPEAKER_04 16:33

Like be all in.

SPEAKER_01 16:35

You can't be sitting on the fence, you can't be swaying back and forth trying to figure out what religion you want to believe in. Because let's face it, there religion is man-made. That's not even any part of the Bible. A religious mindset was the Pharisees and the Sadducees. That is the true example of what religion is. You don't see all of these religions in the Bible. I'm not dis dissing religions, but there's one faith. There's one God, one Jesus, one Holy Spirit, and one Bible. And this is God's way. And you're either in with that or you're out with that. You don't believe it. And and we pray for the people who don't believe this truth every single day because there's there's an end coming. There's an end coming. It's promise. And the Lord is so full of compassion and long-suffering that he's waiting for more people to accept Jesus Christ, his son, come into the kingdom of God and live your life for him. It ain't always easy, y'all. No, but it's worth it.

SPEAKER_04 17:50

As he takes you out of your comfort zone. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 17:54

Absolutely. God is out of the box, we are out of the box. God doesn't do things the way others do them, the way normal people do them. God does them the way he does them. We don't do things normally. We are set apart and cast out for a reason, a purpose, a plan, and a call. Go ahead.

SPEAKER_03 18:15

If we did things normally around here as people would normally do it, we would not be sitting in a parking lot on a Sunday morning with a 33-foot RV that's been beautifully wrapped with priced all over it. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 18:29

Plug in Harford Sun. Yeah, Hartford Sunday. That's it. Bring it on.

SPEAKER_03 18:35

Yeah. So it's true.

SPEAKER_01 18:38

It's true. I mean, if you think of the concept of salvation, you have to die to live.

SPEAKER_02 18:44

Right. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 18:45

You have to some the Bible even says you have to sell all of your goods, join the mission, and that way the money you get from selling your goods helps the poor and needy. So that nobody ever has a lack. Because those who gave up their life, who deny their self, give it all up. We give it all up to serve God. It's pretty powerful. I want to read one more scripture if you guys are okay with it. Romans 4, verses 1 through 4. It's about Abraham. What then shall we say that Abraham our father has found according to the flesh? For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. For what does the scripture say Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness? Abraham did not come into the fold until he believed in God. Now to him who works, the wages are not counted as grace, but as debt. You have to trust God even though you don't see it. Remember what he did with Abraham. Pack up everything and go. Abraham didn't even know where he was going. What did he do by faith? He packed up his family. He packed up all of everything God told him to pack up, and he left. And he had no idea where he was going. That's faith. God said go, but God didn't say where to go. God tells us to go out. And then I sat with God, he gave me six places. This place today was place one. He kept giving me a vision of this bus. There's a hill behind us, there's a main road, Route 40 is behind us. And that's where the vision he kept showing me that vision and showing me that vision and showing me that vision. And here we are today. And now we speak it out. Lord sending an awning, Lord sending an awning, Lord's putting an awning on this thing because we need it, so we don't have to have the tent. Everything that's in the bus, we prayed it would be filled. When you ask God to move a mountain, which is a need, obstacle, a hindrance, a problem in your life, you have to believe that when you prayed for that obstacle or that thing, that he heard you, and then you speak it out of your mouth. Whenever there's a need, what do you do, guys?

SPEAKER_03 21:46

Speak it out.

SPEAKER_01 21:48

You pray and speak it out. And if it doesn't come tomorrow, what do you do? It's coming. The awning is coming in Jesus' name, the funds are coming. For us to put every to refill the bus in Jesus' name. And that's how you do it. That's prayer. That's faith. That's what Abraham did.

SPEAKER_04 22:11

I can testify because I've been I've been with this mission for a year. And I've watched it all take place. And somehow I never I was I've been wowed like so many times. I mean, from Steve backing up on that, right? Michelle, look, Michelle is like nose. And I mean, I think it's I know I've had a little bit of doubt. Steve, you probably have some doubt at some point. We all had our season, I'm sure. I'm telling you. She made it all happen. God made it all happen. You're right. God made it all happen.

SPEAKER_01 22:46

God shows us.

SPEAKER_04 22:49

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 22:51

We're just waving to folks. But we're probably gonna wrap this up in a minute. Does anybody have any final words before I pray?

SPEAKER_03 22:57

No, I mean I think it's just, you know, in Samacea, it's just that you have to have faith. You've got to buckle down and take faith seriously. You've got to speak things out. Because if you're not speaking them out, they're not, it's just not gonna happen. Right. And we've seen that dozens upon dozens of times here in this ministry. And uh, like I said, you know, as I said already, us sitting here today is an is evidence of that. Yes. Because everything that's happening right now is because we spoke it out, we brought it up in prayer, and we had faith that it was gonna happen.

SPEAKER_01 23:30

And then we wait on the Lord. And then we wait on the Lord. That's the part that I think I'm gonna say one more thing before we pray. It's really important that submission to God, surrendering to his will, and the ability to just really listen and obey. And that is what is part of that is this when you read God's word and you're prompted to pray about a need or something, it could be somebody else, somebody you don't even know, after you pray, you have to listen, which means you have to settle yourself down and hear God. Keep the Bible closed, keep your journal closed, because God speaks to us in many different ways. If after you settle down, you're not hearing anything immediately in your spirit, ask God to show you a sign or a wonder or a vision so that you understand how you're to move forward with what you just prayed. Because we have to be swift to listen. Because after we listen and get the steps or the plan or the answer, you have to obey. When you submit to God, you're in complete obedience to God. When you submit to God, you're praying to God. How else can you submit to God if you're not in communications with Him? All God wants from you is your attention, your submission, and your surrender. Because He has so much to bless you with. But if you're not listening and you're doing your own thing, and you're not in the Word, you will not know what to do. And a preacher cannot tell you what to do. A preacher confirms what God has shown you. It's very important the times that we're in right now to understand how incredibly important it is to stay in God's presence and to put God in everything, to pray about everything, be anxious for nothing, pray about everything. Philippians 4. State your request to God and be thankful and watch him work. Anything else, Steve, before I pray? No, I think that's a pretty good wrap-up. Yeah, this was a good word. Faith is everything.

SPEAKER_04 26:05

I like that. I like to add a little bit to everything. Sure, sure. Um, and I can tell you that I'm learning learning I haven't learned, but I'm learning. Is taking the first step that has to come from me. Okay. And if you're unsure, just take the step, take another step. And check, check, check, check yourself a little bit. Make sure you're making the steps. Take the step, God will help you take the steps. And then once I believe, this is what I believe, you don't know if it's correct or not, but I believe once God sees you taking the steps, he's gonna help you, and then next thing you're gonna be you're gonna be trotting. Absolutely. But it it begins with the first step.

SPEAKER_01 26:51

It does, most important.

SPEAKER_04 26:52

And where does that come from? The faith, having the faith that God's gonna give you.

SPEAKER_01 26:59

That's exactly nailing it on the head. It's Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit's very much here with us. So Lord, continue to bless us as we're here today at the par at the park at the shopping center in the parking lot. Continue to send some folks so we can bless them with meals and prayer and groceries and whatever else is needed. Thank you, God, for filling the bus. Thank you, God, for putting the awning on. Thank you, God, for your grace and mercy upon this ministry and upon all of us, Lord. We just love you and we need you and Hi! Oh, you are so sweet. We're gonna give this lady a hug. We love you all. To God be all the glory in Jesus' name. Amen.

SPEAKER_00 27:49

We hope today's program has helped grow your understanding, will help grow your closer relationship with our Lord and Savior Christ. We believe in God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. We believe in our prayer.org. We have to first consider supporting our ministry and don't at voicewebs.org. Thank you for listening.