SPEAKER_01: Welcome to Faith Builders.
SPEAKER_01: I'm so glad that you tuned in today.
SPEAKER_01: My name is Michelle Steele, and we're going to build our faith concerning an established heart.
SPEAKER_01: The heart is so important because with the heart man believes.
SPEAKER_01: With the heart, man believes unto righteousness, Romans chapter 10 says.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible says the just, the righteous, shall live by faith.
SPEAKER_01: What we believe, it will affect where we live for eternity.
SPEAKER_01: What we believe will affect every area of our life.
SPEAKER_01: What you believe determines what you can receive from God.
SPEAKER_01: If you don't believe it, God can't force it on you.
SPEAKER_01: He is not going to violate what you what you don't believe in to make it come to pass in your life.
SPEAKER_01: And so we want to believe God.
SPEAKER_01: That's who we want to believe.
SPEAKER_01: We want to learn how to develop a strong, established heart.
SPEAKER_01: And so today is lesson number five in this 12-part series, the established heart.
SPEAKER_01: And we are learning how we can our part, our responsibility in developing the heart so that we can stand in faith.
SPEAKER_01: And we've talked about firmly relying trust being established for believing.
SPEAKER_01: We've talked about the word foundation.
SPEAKER_01: And we are talking today about the fixed trusting heart.
SPEAKER_01: And so you can get the study guide on our website, lifeoffaith.net.
SPEAKER_01: We also have a flash drive with all of the audio and the study guide as a downloadable PDF.
SPEAKER_01: You can download it straight from our website, lifeoffaith.net.
SPEAKER_01: You can also watch these videos for free again at the YouTube channel that you can find connected with our website.
SPEAKER_01: So we have these available to help you grow in this truth and be established for believing.
SPEAKER_01: Today we're talking about the fixed, trusting heart.
SPEAKER_01: And I want to look at Psalm 112, specifically verses 6 through 8, as we learn how to have this stable heart.
SPEAKER_01: And Isaiah 112 is a chapter about us, the righteous, who we are in Christ, those who have accepted Jesus as Lord and Savior of their life.
SPEAKER_01: Here's the description of your life.
SPEAKER_01: It says in verse 6, Surely He shall not be moved forever.
SPEAKER_01: The righteous shall be in everlasting remembrance.
SPEAKER_01: He shall not be afraid of evil tidings.
SPEAKER_01: Trusting in the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: His heart is established.
SPEAKER_01: So this is repetitious almost in how much he is emphasizing in this between verses six through eight, how much the emphasis is placed on the fact that we are supposed to be stable.
SPEAKER_01: The person who is believing God, the person who is righteous in a right relationship with God is not supposed to be moved.
SPEAKER_01: Shall not be afraid of evil tidings.
SPEAKER_01: That gives you the picture of somebody coming to you with the panic in their voice, the panic on the other end of that phone line saying, What are we gonna do?
SPEAKER_01: And you don't respond to their panic.
SPEAKER_01: You already have established yourself in trust with God.
SPEAKER_01: Now last week we talked about having firmly relying trust, taking God's word and developing such an estimation, such a respect, such a receiving of God's word that it has more influence over you than what you can see with your eyes, what you can feel, what the symptoms say, what the reports say, that you have taken the word of God and you've developed your trust in that word so that it is firm, a firmly relying trust.
SPEAKER_01: I take God at His word, and I am not easily moved off of that.
SPEAKER_01: And so this says, the righteous, it says, He shall not be afraid of evil tidings.
SPEAKER_01: So when a bad report comes, that doesn't move me.
SPEAKER_01: I don't fall apart.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not going to bust into tears.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not going to become hysterical.
SPEAKER_01: I'm going to hold myself together.
SPEAKER_01: I'm going to reach down into my spirit and I'm going to start pulling out the wisdom of God.
SPEAKER_01: I'm going to start calling the end from the beginning and saying, No weapon formed against me shall be able to prosper.
SPEAKER_01: God is my keeper.
SPEAKER_01: He is my refuge, my shelter.
SPEAKER_01: In him I trust.
SPEAKER_01: He is my fortress.
SPEAKER_01: And so I will not be afraid of evil tidings.
SPEAKER_01: And then the next part of verse 7 says, His heart is fixed.
SPEAKER_01: And that's not talking about fixed like repaired.
SPEAKER_01: That's talking about fixed like fastened.
SPEAKER_01: Like you would take something and you would chain it down.
SPEAKER_01: You would strap it down.
SPEAKER_01: You've got it fixed.
SPEAKER_01: You've got it nailed down.
SPEAKER_01: You've got it tightly secured on that situation.
SPEAKER_01: I've the word of God.
SPEAKER_01: My heart is so secured on the word of God.
SPEAKER_01: My heart is so fastened to the word that nothing I see is going to move me off the word.
SPEAKER_01: Nothing I feel is going to move me off the word.
SPEAKER_01: No evil tidings are going to move me off the word.
SPEAKER_01: My heart is fastened to the word of God.
SPEAKER_01: Trusting.
SPEAKER_01: So the fixed heart is a trusting heart.
SPEAKER_01: The fixed, fastened, secure, established heart is trusting.
SPEAKER_01: Now trusting is a verb.
SPEAKER_01: That means that's what it is actively doing.
SPEAKER_01: And so trusting, we would, we would kind of, you know, if you were in English class, you would say, well, there are action verbs that are like physical actions, like running and walking and speaking and singing.
SPEAKER_01: Those are physical action verbs.
SPEAKER_01: But trusting is an action verb.
SPEAKER_01: In English, we would probably try to say, well, you know, like thinking is is like a mental verb.
SPEAKER_01: But in the spirit, it's different.
SPEAKER_01: In the spirit, trusting is a spiritual action.
SPEAKER_01: It's not mental.
SPEAKER_01: It's not just something that's that's you know an idea.
SPEAKER_01: It's not conceptual.
SPEAKER_01: No, trusting is what my spirit is doing.
SPEAKER_01: While my mouth is moving because I'm speaking, my spirit is moving because I'm trusting.
SPEAKER_01: While my uh feet would be moving if I was walking, my spirit is moving because I'm believing, I'm trusting, my spirit is doing something, it is actively engaged in a spiritual activity.
SPEAKER_01: And that's important because a lot of times people leave their faith to the last thing that they work on.
SPEAKER_01: And they they're working on their fitness, their work, and that's good.
SPEAKER_01: They're working on their their you know financial budget, and that's good.
SPEAKER_01: But don't leave all of these other things in a place of higher priority, and then leave your spiritual development at the end and say, Well, you know, I oh maybe I can just let me get a verse out real quick.
SPEAKER_01: Let me just pull a verse out of the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, I had five minutes in it.
SPEAKER_01: No, this is more than what the the little um bread box that you can pull your first out of and get, or that little, you know, just one single verse that comes up to you.
SPEAKER_01: We trusting in the Lord is what you do.
SPEAKER_01: You're a believer.
SPEAKER_01: This is your profession.
SPEAKER_01: It's my profession.
SPEAKER_01: It's what I do.
SPEAKER_01: I'm a believer, and so it needs to have a place of priority in my development.
SPEAKER_01: That I am I'm I'm feeding on the word of God, I am casting down imaginations, I am walking in love, I'm forgiving those who've done anything against me.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because trusting, being a believer is my profession.
SPEAKER_01: This is what I do.
SPEAKER_01: My whole life depends on what I believe.
SPEAKER_01: And so this is an action verb in the spirit, trusting in the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: His heart is established.
SPEAKER_01: The heart of the believer, the heart of the righteous needs to be established.
SPEAKER_01: It says his heart is this is established, he shall not be afraid.
SPEAKER_01: So if my heart is established and fear comes, I don't have to yield to it.
SPEAKER_01: If your if your response moves over into fear quite easily, you can change that.
SPEAKER_01: Don't get under condemnation.
SPEAKER_01: Don't say, yeah, I fall apart on a dime.
SPEAKER_01: No, don't get under condemnation.
SPEAKER_01: Just say, hey, I don't want to do that anymore.
SPEAKER_01: I want to change it.
SPEAKER_01: I remember um I've I've said this to the ladies in our our churches over the years, and we've got our our location in Kansas that we've pastored over 20 years, and now here in Little Rock area for over 10.
SPEAKER_01: And um when I deal with ladies, I encourage the ladies, we are not hysterical.
SPEAKER_01: You know, it the scripture talks about us being Sarah's daughters, and that we are not easily yielded to hysteria.
SPEAKER_01: And that isn't automatic because you know, most women are taught to be emotional, most women are trained to be emotional and and and expected, and so it's permitted, you know, to fall apart.
SPEAKER_01: It's permitted that she's not going to be able to handle this.
SPEAKER_01: And when I began to see myself through the lens of the word of God, I began to decide I don't want to live that way anymore.
SPEAKER_01: I've I I've I've never enjoyed being the victim.
SPEAKER_01: I never liked to play the victim card.
SPEAKER_01: I've played the victim card in my past, but I decided to when I got uh a hold of the fact that I'm a more than a conqueror through him who loves me, that I was gonna tear up my victim card and not play it anymore.
SPEAKER_01: And so becoming hysterical is something that I took off the multiple choice of my responses.
SPEAKER_01: When I am dealt a situation that hysteria is on the multiple choice, I never pick it.
SPEAKER_01: No, I think I'll just stand on the word.
SPEAKER_01: I think I'll just go to God, I think I'll pray about it.
SPEAKER_01: I think I'll do anything.
SPEAKER_01: I'll rejoice.
SPEAKER_01: That's what I'll do.
SPEAKER_01: I'll rejoice because he's faithful.
SPEAKER_01: I'll rejoice because greater is he who is in me than he who is in the world.
SPEAKER_01: And when I've learned that I had an option, and then I began practicing taking that option, I learned that I do not have to ever be afraid.
SPEAKER_01: You never have to be afraid another day in your life.
SPEAKER_01: There's always an option for you to trust God, always an option for you to believe God.
SPEAKER_01: And so that's what we want to learn.
SPEAKER_01: We want to learn how to be established so that we are not moved, so that we are not afraid of evil tidings, that our heart is fixed, fastened, stable, secured, trusting in the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Our heart is established, and we shall not be afraid.
SPEAKER_01: So this fixed, trusting heart, this established heart is a heart that is not wavering.
SPEAKER_01: And wavering is something that the Bible talks about a lot.
SPEAKER_01: And we are, because of the way the word of God tells us about wavering, we know that it's possible for us to never waver another day in our life.
SPEAKER_01: It's possible for me to develop myself on the word of God so that I am established in believing and not established in wavering.
SPEAKER_01: So this warning comes to us in James chapter 1, verse 6.
SPEAKER_01: And I'd love to share the amplified Bible because it says, only it must be in faith, and it says, if you're asking for wisdom, it must be in faith that he asks with no wavering.
SPEAKER_01: So that right there tells me it's possible for me to live a life where I'm no longer wavering, where wavering is not something I do.
SPEAKER_01: It must be in faith that he asks with no wavering, no hesitating, no doubting.
SPEAKER_01: So that gives us a greater picture of what hesitating, what wavering is.
SPEAKER_01: It's hesitating.
SPEAKER_01: Wavering is is taking that step and then uh maybe it's not gonna work.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, I'm gonna believe God.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, maybe I need to go back and try something different.
SPEAKER_01: No doubting.
SPEAKER_01: For the one who wavers, hesitates, or doubts, is like the billowing surge out at sea that is blown hither and thither and tossed by the wind.
SPEAKER_01: Or we could say blown here and there and tossed by the wind.
SPEAKER_01: I love this show.
SPEAKER_01: It's a it's a show that we like to watch.
SPEAKER_01: It's actually from the UK.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, and they have it on YouTube, and it's about these lifeboats that go out in these storms.
SPEAKER_01: And I am so shocked, and they're volunteers too.
SPEAKER_01: These people on these lifeboats, these R N L I lifeboats, are volunteers.
SPEAKER_01: And they will get a call from the Coast Guard, and these people all have pagers, and their pager goes off, and they run down and they get in the boat and they go out into the ocean in some of the worst storms and worst situations you would imagine.
SPEAKER_01: And so I like to watch these shows, and I am shocked because until you've seen it on video or been in something like that, you just think, you know, uh something maybe that you've a little bit of, but it is those waves are are so big, those waves are are so that way it is so moved, and it's just they have this one situation that they say when the waters are coming crashing around a certain cliff, and they call it being in a washing machine.
SPEAKER_01: And the water is not just all coming in one direction, but because the waves are converging from all these different directions on this one location, and they're can and it's it's like churning.
SPEAKER_01: The water is churning, so it's a wave, a wave, a wave from all these different directions.
SPEAKER_01: This is the what the Bible uses to describe the life of a waverer.
SPEAKER_01: We don't want that life, we want to be established.
SPEAKER_01: I don't want to be constantly moved, I don't want my life to be churning with constant drama going on.
SPEAKER_01: I am not dramaidal, I am not interested in having drama, always something that's that's got me in a place of despair.
SPEAKER_01: No, I want the peace of God that passes all understanding, being the governing force over my mind and over my heart.
SPEAKER_01: And so faith is required.
SPEAKER_01: Faith is the lifestyle necessary to have that wavering, is going to produce this churning, that washing machine, that uh constant turmoil in your life.
SPEAKER_01: And it is impossible to receive a promise of God if you're always moving.
SPEAKER_01: You've got to be fixed, you've got to be established.
SPEAKER_01: The promise is coming to the address of faith.
SPEAKER_01: But if you're wavering, you're never at one address.
SPEAKER_01: It talks about the billowing surge out at sea, the waves that are tossed here and there.
SPEAKER_01: Those waves are never in one fixed location.
SPEAKER_01: So the fixed, trusting heart stays connected to the word of God.
SPEAKER_01: The wavering heart moves away from the faith connection.
SPEAKER_01: The word waver, actually, the definition from the strong's concordance means to separate thoroughly, to separate completely.
SPEAKER_01: And so you can be in faith about something and you're connected to the word concerning that thing.
SPEAKER_01: You're connected to the promise of God concerning that thing.
SPEAKER_01: But if you separate from it and you say, well, it's not working, and I don't feel anything, and I guess I didn't get it when hands were laid on me, and I guess I didn't receive from God, I gave and it didn't, it didn't come back to me.
SPEAKER_01: Good measure, pressed out, shaken together.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because I don't feel it and I don't see it, and I've got all these circumstances.
SPEAKER_01: That wavering is a separation.
SPEAKER_01: It's to withdraw from, is another train, another definition from the strong, to withdraw from.
SPEAKER_01: So I can be connected to it with faith, but if I waver, I withdraw from the promise of God.
SPEAKER_01: So the wavering heart moves away from the faith connection.
SPEAKER_01: The word of God instructs us that we've got to pay attention to the right things in order to stay fixed on the truth.
SPEAKER_01: And I find this in Hebrews chapter 2 in verse 1.
SPEAKER_01: It says, Therefore, we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard.
SPEAKER_01: And so I don't use the word heed a lot in my everyday talk.
SPEAKER_01: I would say we need to pay closer attention.
SPEAKER_01: Give the more earnest heed or pay closer attention to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip.
SPEAKER_01: That tells me if I'm not keeping my focus on the promise of God, if I'm not keeping my attention, paying close attention to what the word of God says, that it's possible to let it slip.
SPEAKER_01: And to let it slip, you can even look at the wayside soil and the parable of the sower.
SPEAKER_01: They never got it rooted into the ground.
SPEAKER_01: They never accepted it into the ground.
SPEAKER_01: And Matthew says it's because they didn't understand it.
SPEAKER_01: It says, if anyone hears the word of the kingdom and understandeth it not, then that word is like the word sown by the wayside, and the enemy comes at wants to steal it, or he just moves you away from it and it slips away from you.
SPEAKER_01: And so the antidote is give attention to it.
SPEAKER_01: Give attention to the word.
SPEAKER_01: And I remember Brother Hagin used to say, if the if you don't see yourself with the thing you're believing for, the thing that you requested from God in seven prayers to seven steps to answer prayer, he said, then it's because the word has departed from your eyes.
SPEAKER_01: If the word is not in the focus, the enemy is going to move you away from it, and you'll be finding yourself wavering and separated from the answer.
SPEAKER_01: So give earnest heed, give closer attention.
SPEAKER_01: One of the ways that will help you is use your mouth because the mouth helps the heart stay fixed.
SPEAKER_01: Hebrews chapter 10, verse 23 says, Let us hold fast, hold tightly the profession of our faith without wavering.
SPEAKER_01: So you can hold tightly to the promise with your confession, with your declaration of faith.
SPEAKER_01: Hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering, for he is faithful who promised.
SPEAKER_01: The word hold fast in the strong's concordance means to keep secure, keep firm possession.
SPEAKER_01: Now, if you've ever watched football, and I don't, but I have been in the room while my husband was watching football.
SPEAKER_01: And I would see, and my son played uh sports too.
SPEAKER_01: So I would see that there were times that everybody was jumping on the ball, like it got fumbled on the football field, and everybody on the field from both teams are piling on top of this ball.
SPEAKER_01: And their purpose is whoever is found in possession of the ball is the one who gets to play, right?
SPEAKER_01: Well, that holding fast, so that person who sees the football fumble on the field and they they reach out to grab it and they throw themselves on it, and they're using all of their weight, all of their authority to grab that football and pull it into their possession, and then they're holding it.
SPEAKER_01: That's the word used when it says hold fast.
SPEAKER_01: It's the word cat echo in the Greek language, and that's the description.
SPEAKER_01: That word, it's a compound word, and one of it, one of the parts of That word means to dominate, to subjugate, to bring it under authority.
SPEAKER_01: And the other part means that that that clinging, that holding fast, that bringing it into your possession.
SPEAKER_01: And so this is what we do with our mouth.
SPEAKER_01: Our mouth helps our heart stay fixed.
SPEAKER_01: The word profession is defined as confession by acknowledgement.
SPEAKER_01: I believe that, or that belongs to me, or by his stripes I am healed.
SPEAKER_01: Or greater is he who is in me than he who is in the world.
SPEAKER_01: No weapon formed against me shall be able to prosper.
SPEAKER_01: And that is a holding fast.
SPEAKER_01: I'm using my mouth to hold what's in my heart.
SPEAKER_01: Growing in spiritual maturity helps us to become established.
SPEAKER_01: Ephesians chapter 4 says that we would so that we would henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the slight of men, by cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive.
SPEAKER_01: So someone who is established on the word has gained some maturity.
SPEAKER_01: They've developed, and they're no more children, because one of the trademarks or one of the identifiers or the evidences of spiritual immaturity is that I'm easily moved.
SPEAKER_01: Moved off the truth, moved off of the doctrine of the salvation by the blood of Jesus, moved off of whatever the case may be.
SPEAKER_01: How did they move me?
SPEAKER_01: Because I wasn't established.
SPEAKER_01: How did I get moved off of that promise?
SPEAKER_01: Because of what I saw?
SPEAKER_01: Because of what I felt?
SPEAKER_01: No, that happened because I was moved by what I felt.
SPEAKER_01: I was moved by what I saw because I had not established my heart and developed the spiritual maturity.
SPEAKER_01: So spiritual maturity is another way of helping you not be moved.
SPEAKER_01: It says in the the Romans chapter 4, verse 16, that the promise is secure.
SPEAKER_01: And so since the promise is secure, we can be secure in our faith.
SPEAKER_01: Romans 4:16 says, Therefore it is a faith that it might be by grace to the end, the promise might be sure to all the seed, not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all.
SPEAKER_01: So if we God has established faith on our part and grace on his part, so that the promise is established, so that the promise is sure.
SPEAKER_01: So God's not backing off his part of the promise.
SPEAKER_01: So the promise is secure on God's part.
SPEAKER_01: We've got to establish our hearts on the word so that the promise can be sure to us as well.
SPEAKER_01: So when we take the time to get into the word of God and allow the word of God to be deposited in our heart through our eyes, through our ears, and we've focused on the word of God so that we begin to believe God's word.
SPEAKER_01: We're establishing the heart so that we're not moved away from the truth, not moved away from the salvation that's ours in Christ, not moved away from the rescue that's available in Him.
SPEAKER_01: I'm so glad you tuned in today.
SPEAKER_01: We've got more in this established Heart 12 lessons.
SPEAKER_01: This study guide is available at lifeoffaith.net.
SPEAKER_01: It's downloadable as a PDF as well.
SPEAKER_01: You can also find the MP3 at our website, lifeoffaith.net, or you can download that as a downloadable uh format.
SPEAKER_01: I'm so thankful you tuned in today.
SPEAKER_01: I'm so thankful that you're building your faith and framing your world by the word of God.
SPEAKER_01: I look forward to seeing you next week.
SPEAKER_01: Thanks for tuning in.
SPEAKER_01: The key to a stable life is to establish your heart on the word of God.
SPEAKER_01: In this 12-part series, Pastor Philip Steele and I explain how to establish your heart in faith on God's Word.
SPEAKER_01: God's plan for the believer is to have their heart fixed, trusting in the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Psalm 112, verse 8 says, His heart is established.
SPEAKER_01: While this is available for you, it's not automatic.
SPEAKER_01: You have a responsibility to set the Word of God as the foundation of your thoughts, actions, and decisions.
SPEAKER_01: This insightful 12-part series is available in digital or physical format, including a comprehensive study guide with the sermon outlines, the Bible verses, and study points to help you internalize these truths and apply these revelations on a daily basis.
SPEAKER_01: The 12-part series, the established part, will help you strengthen your position in God and live victoriously over the situations you face in life.
SPEAKER_01: You can watch these videos through our YouTube channel at Life of Faith Church in Little Rock or Life of Faith Church, Kansas.
SPEAKER_01: Also, you can order these resources by calling 501-4877 or visiting lifeoffaith.net.
SPEAKER_01: Call or go online now.
SPEAKER_00: You are invited to Life of Faith Church in Little Rock, where we are building people's faith, producing life, city, state, nation, and world.
SPEAKER_00: Our address is 116-20 Rainwood Road, just one block off Rodney Parham, near Green Mountain Drive.
SPEAKER_00: Our Sunday service begins at 10 a.m.
SPEAKER_00: and offers classes for children and youth, in addition to the adult service in the main sanctuary.
SPEAKER_00: On Wednesdays, we have an hour of power as we dive into Bible study.
SPEAKER_00: We have a place reserved for you and your family at Life of Faith Church.
SPEAKER_00: For more information, visit lifeoffaith.net.