Fix Your Faith: Growing A Steady, Enduring Trust In God.

It’s easy to have faith when things are going great, but what about when problems occur?
Life has a way of shaking our confidence, but God wants to give you a trust that is steady, deep, and unshakeable. We’re starting an encouraging new message: “Fix Your Faith: Growing A Steady, Enduring Trust In God.”
Whether you’re in a season of doubt or just want to strengthen your spiritual foundation, this is for you. Find out how to build a faith that doesn’t just survive the tough times but grows stronger through them.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:20

Good morning and welcome back to the Preacher Man Podcast Sermons and Lessons. Thanks for listening this morning. We um started a new series of lessons for May, and we were doing a focus on our faith, and I call it Fix Your Faith, because while some may think that their faith is fine where it is, they've been Christians a long time. If if you go and look and see what how faith is described in Hebrews, which is a like I said before, a beautiful definition of faith. Other versions refer to it as a certainty. And I get into that a little bit in the lesson, so I don't want to take it away too much from the in my intro, but the idea here is that faith is a something that we can get our hands on. Faith is something we can nurture, with something faith in. Faith is something that we can grow. So while we may not need to, while some may feel like they need to fix their faith, some may feel like they need to maybe our maybe my faith needs a little nurturing. Maybe my faith needs a little maybe need to put a little more work into it. So then my faith will be better. I said it before in Australia, there's nothing wrong with a little preventative magnetism on anything. Your vehicles, your house, and your water. So let's go ahead and jump into it. And let's listen to the sermon that was preached last Sunday titled Fix Your Faith Growing a Steady and Enduring Trust in Guide. The text was based from Hebrews 11:1 and Psalms 627 and 8. And we'll be back afterwards with some closing thoughts.

SPEAKER_01 3:22

And so you being able to help them and sing with them is only going to give them more motivation to do more and to serve more in our churches. And I fully agree with Rick. I am very, very confident in the future of this congregation, but in a church as well that has young people who are coming in to worship and being a part and serving where and when they can. This morning I want you to open your Bibles to Hebrews chapter 11. Hebrews chapter 11, we're going to start there real quick and then we'll jump over to the Old Testament and talk a little bit about Psalm 62 that was read well this morning. A couple of interesting things as we start a new thing to fix, if you will. I guess you want to say that. I want to spend the month of May focusing on our faith. I want to spend the month of May looking at why or why or what we need to do to fix our faith. And some of you might be thinking, well, Preacher Mann, I don't think my faith is broken. Well, and bear with me because I want to explain to you or talk to you a little bit and really get you to do a self-evaluation on yourself in kind of a way. A couple of quotes from some famous people about faith. Martin Luther King Jr. Faith is taking the first step even when you don't see the whole staircase. I like that. Some of you may know or may not know who Corey Kinbaum is, but uh if you come find me and I'll tell you about her. She's a pretty impressive character that I've read in history. She writes, Faith sees the invisible, believes the unbelievable, and receives the impossible. And then finally, Helen Keller said, faith is the strength by which a shattered world shall emerge into light. I think that's a pretty important way of a pretty good description of that, considering who quoted it and who wrote it. As we go through this lesson this morning, I want you to think about this question. Is our faith supposed to grow and mature? Or is our faith codependent on what we put our faith in? When we think about this, and I kind of had this slide made in particular because I wanted there to be vegetation around it and describe it, because if we do want our faith to grow and increase, then just like a garden, it needs tending to. Your faith needs tending to. So in many ways, uh we may not be fixing our faith, we may just be tending to our faith. You know, I remember uh growing up uh on the ranch, um, every year mom would, well, my mom and dad both, they would plant a large, large garden. Three rows of everything. Three rows of green beans, three rows of okra, three rows of tomatoes, three rows of this, three rows of that. And every one of us boys, when we would get home from school, part of the list of things that we were to do around the place was that we were to uh at least tend to and uh weed out at least two roads out of that garden. And and and and really when we were trying to prioritize our jobs, that was always the first one because if we could get out there and we could get it tended to, then there'd be, I mean, because mom and dad would also work the garden in or not. So sometimes you might get lucky. You might have all the all the roads might be tended to, and you only had to be one row. But you still had to tend to a row in the garden. Uh and a lot of those uh vegetables that we grew and planted wound up uh being to be preserved, decanned, and put down in the root cellar so that we would have them for later. I think it's important for us to understand this. Before we can tend to our faith or fix our faith, we we need to have a good idea about what faith is. And many of you, you've already turned to Hebrews 11, verse 1, already can see that this is typically what some would say would be a beautiful definition of what faith is. Hebrews 11 1. Now faith is certainty of things hoped for, a proof of things not seen. How many times have y'all have y'all read that and read it in the sentence form that it's put into as one complete sentence? And so you think that all of this, this whole verse, is one definition. I would submit to you this morning that really this definition has two examples pointing to one thing. In your New King James and some of your other versions, the the verse says, faith is the substance of things, hoped for. And I think we can see that there is a substance about faith, there is a certainty about faith that helps us be able to, well, in many ways, get our hands on it. Use it, mold it, work it, tend to it, and fix it if it needs to be worked on. Let me give you an example of what I'm talking about here. Um, yeah. This is a box of brownie mix. And I know for a fact that this is the brownie mix that my wife uses when she decides or is going to make a pan of brownies. This is the substance, the certainty of things hoped for. Because when she sends me to the HEB to grab this box, I am definitely hoping that in a couple of hours from then there's going to be a pen of burnies cooling on the kitchen. And the reason why I have so much certainty about this substance is because I have seen her do it more than one time. And so, just like Faye, this is the I have a substance here that I am of things hoped for. I have seen her make these brownies before. I have eaten these brownies before. I have I have and I have enjoyed them multiple, multiple times. So that's definition number one. This is the same brand, but it's not brownies. It's a cake mix, particularly a perfectly moist strawberry supreme cake mix. Now, I can almost state with really a whole lot of certainty that my wife has never made a strawberry cake. Now she's made all kinds of cakes, but I don't think she's ever made a strawberry cake. But if she were to send me to HEV and she were to tell me I want you to pick up a box of this, then I can have proof of things not seen. Because I know, I have faith that what is in here on the outside is what's in on the inside. And I also have certainty and faith that when my wife puts this all together and it comes out of the oven, it's going to be as good as man brings. You see what I'm talking about here? You have two different definitions of a substance, of a certainty that helps us move into a state of belief. A certainty of things hoped for and a proof of things not seen. What you really need to understand is, people, is that faith is not some kind of wish list. Faith is certainty for the things that, well, look at it this way it is a it is a certificate, it's a certificate of things you don't own yet.

unknown 13:20

That's right.

SPEAKER_01 13:21

It's the solid ground on which you stand under your hopes. And so, now that we have the substance, I'm gonna put my clicker talk in the water. Yeah. Now that we know that we can see how this substance is supposed to work, this certainty of things hope for, we have to define where are we going to use this certainty? Where are we going to use this substance? We have to many that, so in other words, we have to make a decision on where we're going to put our faith. Or who we're going to put our faith in. What are we going to put our faith in? Now let me give you a little timeout here. Sometimes we're such an either-or kind of people. We either like Pepsi or we either like Coca-Cola. We either like vanilla ice cream or we like chocolate ice cream. Now, some of us can kind of put it on a line and go, well, you know, this is my favorite, this is my least favorite, but I like them all. Don't misunderstand this statement when I tell you this. You are allowed to have faith in things and people in places and situations in groups. It's in our DNA. I have a lot of faith in my spouse. I have a lot of faith in this congregation. I have a lot of faith in these three young men who have so far done an outstanding job. We got one song left to lead. And so, just because I have put faith into these things that I have mentioned, just like you all have, it doesn't take away from the kind of faith that God wants me to have in him and with him. When you put your faith in the Lord, it doesn't take away from or make you feel like you're being pulled in one direction or the other. I don't have a faith that when I get into my pickup truck tomorrow morning and I stick the key, or actually it's a push button, start.

unknown 15:58

So when I push that button that says start, it's going to turn on.

SPEAKER_01 16:04

When it doesn't, does that mean my faith is weak?

unknown 16:08

No.

SPEAKER_01 16:09

It means there's something wrong with the truck. So what do I do? I have faith that, well, maybe I need to push it again. Start it again. Once we have a substance, we have to decide where we're going to send it. And Psalm 62, that was read this morning, helps us with a location. It says, well, all right, there it goes. Say verse 7. My salvation and my glory rest on God. Faith is only going to be as strong as what it's placed in. Just like we said before. I have faith that when my wife makes those brownies, they're going to come out brownies and not something else. Right? Okay, so our faith then, our trust then, in many ways, should be steady because of the refuge we are hiding in is impenetrable. Because the right God of my strength, my refuge is in God. You see, I mean, all of these analogies are kind of coming together and pointing toward the same direction. So we often think that faith can mean, well, you've got to be quiet about it. Teach to yourself. Hold on to it now. Don't let go of it. But we've got to, we we've often, maybe some of us have been persuaded to think that we've got to be, we've got to keep our mouths shut about our faith so that we don't show how scared we are. Pretending we aren't scared because we have such a great faith. Well, David kind of nips that, takes that way out of it, takes that and throws it out in the trash. What does he say in verse 8? He says, trust in him at all times, you people. Now get this. He's talking about faith here. Pour out your heart before him. God is a refuge for us. You are encouraged to pour out your heart because you know that God, in many ways, can be seen as a safe container to take and hold whatever you are willing to put in his hands. This statement has been coming up to me. I've been seeing it, I've been reading it, I've been thinking it, and I think it applies now. Sometimes the best way to get something done is to get out of the way and let God handle it. That's right. Too many times we are trying to do, we're trying to pull Abraham and help God out.

SPEAKER_02 19:35

Well, sir.

SPEAKER_01 19:37

God don't need no help. That's right. God's got this. And God is big enough, strong enough, wide enough, powerful enough, all over the place enough to where we can put anything in on his plate. And when we do that, it demonstrates that not only do we have faith in God, God has faith in us. And it's only going to grow, it's only going to get bigger, it's only going to get stronger. God is a safe place to put your concerns, your fears, your troubles, your desires, your struggles, your addictions. Those dirty, nasty thoughts that just pop up in the middle of the night at 3 o'clock in the morning, and you sit back and go, why did I do that? Or why am I thinking this way? Tell it to Jesus. He is a friend that is well known. Because when you think about when you think about Jesus and God and faith, another example that you could think about is the idea of a conduit. Any of you who have worked in the house, building a house or building a building or construction or anything like that know that you need conduit for your home. So all the lines can run through the same way and they're protected and they're guarded over. Jesus says that you're Jesus says four to seven times. Four to seven times, depending on what translation you're reading out of, really. When he heals someone, when someone comes up to him and needs healing, four out of seven times, approximately, Jesus will make this statement. Your faith Has saved you. Your faith has made you whole. These typically emphasize that a person's faith in him, but when you do that, you are literally turning Jesus, and I'm not being disrespectful here. It's just, this is part of, hey, this is part of what we believe. You're turning Jesus into a conduit. A direct conduit from the Heavenly Father through Jesus to you. Which is where Jesus wants to be in the first place when you think about it. So you have a conduit, Jesus Christ, doing something amazing, tending to appealing, bringing someone relief, and he turns around when they say thank you or amazed or shocked and say, hey, hey, man. Your faith is what he. Your faith is what saved you. Your faith is what made you hope. He says it to the woman with the blood issue in Matthew 9. He says it to the blind beggar, Barnabas, in Mark 10. He tells the, he, when, when the leper, who, in the Samaritan, who actually has the common sense to go back and tell Jesus, thank you for healing him, he says it to him in Luke 17. When the sinful woman anoints his feet and dries his feet with her hair, he says this to her in Luke 7. And in the blind man in Matthew 9, he says, Your faith has healed, according to your faith, you have been healed. The phrase implies that faith, it's not some passive thing that we can just keep in our back pocket and use whenever we need it. Individuals like the woman with the issue of blood or Barnamaeus actively looked and searched for Jesus with the intent to engage him. What did the woman say? If I could just touch the hem of his room, I'll be healed. Barnamayas wouldn't shut up. Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me. Jesus, God shut up. No, Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me. Finally Jesus says, give him over here. Yes, sir. What can I do for you? I won't see. The application is to, with our faith, that substance, that certainty of things hoped for, is to actively pursue God and Jesus no matter what the obstacles are. In football, well, I don't know if they still do the football or not. I don't know if they still do the football or not. I'm gonna have I'm hoping that maybe someone who one of my coaches will be here this morning. Do they still have the tires that are bolted onto this big square frame and there's tires bolted on both sides, and you have to run through the tires in order to get to the other end? Did they still do that in football? No? Man, that was tough. That was hard. But see what? It helped you get it helped you your confidence knowing that, you know, sometimes there's gonna be obstacles in your way, and you've got to depend on your strength, your training, and your equipment to get you from point A to point B, no matter how many tires are lined up against you, or how many other players are lined up against you. That's how bad we should pursue God with a faith. And Jesus said, if you have faith the size of a mutton seed, you can go tell a mountain to jump in a lake.

SPEAKER_02 26:05

Yes, sir.

SPEAKER_01 26:07

So imagine what happens if a well-tended, well-watered, weed-free faith, what happens when it starts growing? It starts developing, it starts doing things, and it starts being a part of your life. And your faith in God supersedes a faith that for on anything physical on this earth. And what's interesting about this is that all in these whole, all through these healings, that Jesus said it's the faith of the person who did it. In the layman's who got dropped down from the ceiling, it was the faith of the friends, which should also be a lesson for us all, is that I hope that you are surrounded by faithful friends. I hope your friends have the same kind of faith that you do, or even more, because you're going to need it one day. But when they when Jesus talks about being made whole, he's not talking just physical, he's talking spiritual, soul, body, mind. It's the idea of seeking to complete a complete restoration. When your faith is on and in Jesus Christ, and you have that certainty, you have that hope, peace, salvation, soundness, comfort, wisdom, all come flooding in to be a part of that situation. You see, church, the power is not about the amount of faith. We talked about that a minute ago. Mustard seed faith can move mountains. So it's not about the amount, it's about the object of that faith. What you are bringing onto, what that substance is. That substance is Jesus Christ. You can relate a little bit's power. You can relieve a woman's benevolence, you can relate on all things reinforcing our own efforts or the efforts of others who are only human, like you and Daniel. Ask yourself this question and really think about it. When's the last time the good Lord let you down? When's the last time? So when you look at that Goliath, when you the next time you have a Goliath-sized problem, and you've asked yourself, when's the last time the good Lord lets you down? You can look at that Goliath-sized problem, and instead of saying, he's too big to hit, you can say he's too big to miss. If you don't take care of your equipment, it's going to break down on you. They're wrong around. If you don't maintain your vehicle, you're going to be in, you're going to be in a, you're going to find yourself in a situation you don't want to be in. If you don't exercise and don't move it, you lose it. You lose your strength. So the same thing applies to faith. But in the end, what we can really understand about all this is that to see to see it this way. If you were to go to Jewitt today, or if you were online and you found a picture of a house in Team, Texas, it was for sale, and you took a visual tour of that house, you saw them out visually on the computer, or you take pictures of it inside and out, and you love that house. The price is right, you know the realtor, so you call that person up and you say, I want to buy that house sight unseen. You cut a machine, you mail a leaf, in a couple of weeks, a big envelope arrives in the mail. And on that envelope, and on that piece of paper, it has this, it has that address, and it says on the very top, title D. When someone hands you the title to a house, whether it's in Teague, Texas, or Kalamazoo, Michigan, and you've never seen it, walked through it, stepped foot in it, or done anything to it, you don't even walk through the front door. You can rest assured that that house is yours. You know when? Because you have a substance called the title to that house. The paperwork. Hebrews 11:1 says faith is just like that title deed. Yeah, you might not experience the miraculous healings that you read about in the Bible. You might not get some of the things that you are wanting, but you are going to definitely get the thing that you are needing. You might not get healing, you might not get the answer just yet, but your faith is that title deed that says it belongs to you because God signed the contract. That's how we're going to discover what it means to nurture, build, fix, tend to our faith in many.

SPEAKER_00 33:44

Other characters in the Bible who were being healed by Jesus, and you consider the fact that Jesus literally, and I it's it's sometimes I find it difficult to say this because I it could it could be taken or sounding like I'm disrespecting the Messiah, but when it comes to being healed from a disease, leprosy, blindness, not being able to walk, Jesus makes sure to point out the fact that the faith of the the faith that they have, or the faith of a friend, is what heal them. Jesus was simply a connection device between their faith and Jehovah God. And he makes sure to point that out. Some might think, well, he was just doing that to show his to show his humility. I think more importantly, he was trying to show us physically or with the examples of a miracle, just how important it is to not only have a faith, but have a faith in someone like him and God, who has never let anyone down. So I would encourage you to join me to keep track of these next couple of lessons through the month of May and just see where maybe there's a part in your life where maybe faith needs to play a bigger role. Maybe the tiny bit of faith that I have because I know I have I have I would consider must my faith a mustard seed faith. Even though it is powerful enough to move a mountain, sometimes I I don't I don't activate it. I don't I don't use it in other places and um it it can be seen. I believe there's no limit into what our faith in God and that connection with Jesus Christ can do. We just have to really dig down and see what faith is all about. And we're gonna look at plenty of examples. Uh uh this coming Sunday is Mother's Day. And I have a I have a sermon in honor of that, but it is the a faith like mom's is what we're calling it, and I encourage you to uh tune in and listen to that when we get it uploaded. So, like always, I would love to hear from you. If you have any questions or comments about the show or about a previous podcast or um just something you just want to know and talk about, uh please uh contact me and uh we might be putting it on the podcast. And uh you can reach me by emailing me at preacherman1178 at gmail.com. That's preacherman1178 at gmail.com. Hope you have a great weekend. Look forward to seeing you back here next week for more Preacher Man podcast sermons and lessons. I'm gonna let you have it back now. This is the Preacher Man signing off. Always remember who you are and whose you are.