SPEAKER_00: Welcome.
SPEAKER_00: It is such an honor to have this time with you.
SPEAKER_00: My name is Michelle Steele, and we are talking about the established heart here on this program of faith builders.
SPEAKER_00: The established heart.
SPEAKER_00: What does it mean to have an established heart?
SPEAKER_00: What does it mean to have your faith built?
SPEAKER_00: When you talk about spiritual things, you have to understand the value and the importance and the priority.
SPEAKER_00: In your life, your spiritual development needs to have a place of priority because you do not want to be caught in the middle of a disaster, a situation in your family, an attack against your finances or against your health, and then try to scramble to get your heart established.
SPEAKER_00: You want to already have an established heart so that you can move through that difficult situation.
SPEAKER_00: You can see your life and your family through that adversity without having to have loss and destruction and experience long difficult seasons.
SPEAKER_00: It is so much easier to move through things when you are spiritually strong than when you are trying to build your strength and deal with the situation.
SPEAKER_00: And so being established in your heart means having the faith of the word of God built into you.
SPEAKER_00: It requires a depositing of the word, it requires a doing of the word.
SPEAKER_00: It requires you being willing to invest that spiritual development.
SPEAKER_00: And I want to say time, but sometimes people can spend time and not get the results that they need because they're not giving their attention to the right things in the Word of God.
SPEAKER_00: And so I want to talk to you today about the established heart.
SPEAKER_00: Before we get started, we are on lesson number six, I believe it is, this it being established.
SPEAKER_00: So in this lesson, we want to give our focus to the uh that work of putting it into place.
SPEAKER_00: This is a 12-lesson series.
SPEAKER_00: And so we have a study guide that you can use for a family group, a personal Bible study.
SPEAKER_00: It has all of the scriptures that we've used, the points that we're making.
SPEAKER_00: It's also on Flash Drive.
SPEAKER_00: You can go back and watch it for free on our YouTube channel.
SPEAKER_00: We want you to grow in this truth and we want you to be established in your heart.
SPEAKER_00: And so it's available at lifeoffaith.net.
SPEAKER_00: Today I want to first talk about the importance of being established in faith.
SPEAKER_00: I want to just read to you how many times the emphasis is put on our lifestyle of faith.
SPEAKER_00: Habakkuk 2.4.
SPEAKER_00: I'm just going to pop through these real quick.
SPEAKER_00: Habakkuk 2.4 says, Behold, his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him, but the just shall live by his faith.
SPEAKER_00: Romans chapter 1, verse 17 says this again.
SPEAKER_00: It says, Therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith, as it is written, the just shall live by faith.
SPEAKER_00: Galatians chapter 3, verse 1 says, For therein is the righteousness of God, it says again, the just shall live by faith.
SPEAKER_00: Hebrews 10, 38.
SPEAKER_00: Now the just shall live by faith, but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him.
SPEAKER_00: So we see the emphasis throughout the Word of God that if you've got it one time in the Bible, it's important.
SPEAKER_00: But we've seen multiple times where the Word of God has said to us, the just shall live by faith.
SPEAKER_00: It's our lifestyle.
SPEAKER_00: Romans chapter 10 says that with the heart man believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth, confession is made unto salvation.
SPEAKER_00: So what my heart believes affects my relationship with God.
SPEAKER_00: It affects my eternity, my location in eternity.
SPEAKER_00: Everything about my life is affected by my faith.
SPEAKER_00: And my husband wrote the book, Every Day is a Faith Day, because God told him how valuable it was for him to emphasize to people that they need to work on their faith every day.
SPEAKER_00: Mark 11, 23, Jesus said, For verily I say unto you that whosoever shall say to this mountain, be thou removed, be thou cast into the sea, and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe those things which he says shall come to pass.
SPEAKER_00: He shall have whatsoever he says.
SPEAKER_00: So what you have in life is affected by what you believe in your heart, your ability to believe God and not doubt, but maintain a force of faith in that situation, for you to have what God has made yours in the covenant, you're gonna have to use faith.
SPEAKER_00: And faith is our lifestyle.
SPEAKER_00: So it's important that we invest this time, that we become established in faith.
SPEAKER_00: For us to be skilled in believing, we've got to learn how not to doubt.
SPEAKER_00: James chapter one, we talked about this a little bit last week.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, that it's possible for us to live a lifestyle of faith without wavering.
SPEAKER_00: But it's not just gonna happen because you own a Bible and you've got multiple translations of the Bible and you've got one on your phone, your iPad, you've got it in the backseat, you've got it beside your nightstand, you've got everywhere.
SPEAKER_00: If it's not in your heart and in your mouth, it's not working for you.
SPEAKER_00: So we've got to become established in our heart with faith.
SPEAKER_00: And so wavering, it's possible for wavering to be uh something of the past, something that we refuse to participate in.
SPEAKER_00: James chapter 1, verse 6, and this is from the Amplified Bible, says, only it must be in faith that he asks, asking for wisdom.
SPEAKER_00: It must be in faith that he asks with no wavering.
SPEAKER_00: And this can be about whatever you're asking for.
SPEAKER_00: You've got to ask in faith, no wavering, no hesitating, no doubting.
SPEAKER_00: For the one who wavers, hesitates and doubts is like the billowing surge out at sea that is blown hither and thither and tossed by the wind.
SPEAKER_00: And and we talked last week about how there's a certain um activity in the middle of a storm when the waves are crashing against the rocks, and some sailors call it being in a washing machine because the water is coming from every direction and it's so agitated.
SPEAKER_00: And a person who lives a lifestyle of wavering, their life is so agitated.
SPEAKER_00: They're never in one solid, stable, firm location.
SPEAKER_00: They're constantly being tossed by the wind.
SPEAKER_00: And the wind represents troubles, bad reports, difficult situations.
SPEAKER_00: Those situations are gonna come, but they don't have to overcome you.
SPEAKER_00: It is possible for you to live the faith that is the victory and be established in it.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 7 says, For truly let not such a person imagine that he will receive anything he asks for from the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: So not just that thing in in that maybe is causing the biggest part of the wavering, but if you're wavering in one area, it's gonna make you question God in another area.
SPEAKER_00: If you don't think God can heal your body, how are you gonna stand in faith for him to meet your need?
SPEAKER_00: And and it's gonna have an effect all the way back.
SPEAKER_00: I remember it was a very difficult time in our lives, and we were under financial difficulty.
SPEAKER_00: There was financial difficulty in the body of Christ, in the whole world.
SPEAKER_00: And and so we were experiencing, and at the same time, there had been some people who had made some decisions and left the church, and so it affected our lifestyle, it affected our paychecks.
SPEAKER_00: And so I had gone and acquired a second job outside of the church, and this was years ago, and I was I I remember I felt as though my whole destiny was slipping away from me, and I was I was doing what I thought was spiritual, it looked spiritual from the outside, but God called me on the carpet.
SPEAKER_00: I was on my way to this second job, and um I had this worship song on, and I was worshiping, but it was more of a pity party.
SPEAKER_00: It was more of a I feel so sad for myself, and and I'm losing everything, and everything I'm I believe for is going to, you know, down the drain, and and so I'm I'm crying.
SPEAKER_00: This song, the song was uh a song that says, God, you are full of power, you are all powerful.
SPEAKER_00: Um, and it's in Spanish, poderos odios.
SPEAKER_00: And so I was singing, poderos odios.
SPEAKER_00: I was singing this song and crying with there was sadness.
SPEAKER_00: And so listen, if there's sadness, if there's fear, if there's worry, those are evidences because faith is certain.
SPEAKER_00: If I had faith, if I had faith, there would have been a victory sound in my voice, not a not a gloom, despair, and agony on me sound.
SPEAKER_00: And so I'm sitting there singing, and in that moment, the Lord showed me dominoes, and it was it was dominoes that were all set up in a pattern, and you've probably maybe done that when you were a kid or you've seen it done, where they would set these dominoes, and these dominoes would go all the way around the room, and as soon as one fell, it started an effect, and they all started falling until the last one falls.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm seeing this while I'm going on my job, I'm praise God, I didn't drive off the road, but I'm seeing this in my heart, in my spirit, and these dominoes are falling.
SPEAKER_00: And as these dominoes are falling, the Lord began to reveal to me this is my faith.
SPEAKER_00: And he said, if you don't get a hold of yourself, and if you don't start using the faith you know how to use, and and and believing me to see this turnaround, it's gonna go all the way back until you don't even believe you're saved anymore.
SPEAKER_00: Because it what I was having trouble with in the finances, believing God for my finances, he was showing me it's gonna affect everything in your life till you don't even believe God saved you anymore if you let it keep going.
SPEAKER_00: And boy, I cleaned up my act.
SPEAKER_00: I got hold of my thoughts and I started casting down imaginations and I started putting the right thing in my heart and in my mouth, and I started calling the end from the beginning, and within a matter of two months, I was back on track, back at my full-time position at the church, and it was it was a wake-up call for me because what God was showing me is that what you believe about this situation will affect everything.
SPEAKER_00: If you let wavering come in here, it's going to have a domino effect in your life.
SPEAKER_00: And so I just want to encourage you with that today.
SPEAKER_00: Don't let this go on any further.
SPEAKER_00: Stop and investigate, examine yourself and see if you be in faith.
SPEAKER_00: He said, the person who is hesitating and doubting and wavering, this is again the amplified, let not such a person imagine that he will receive anything he asks for from the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: So everything is affected by what you believe.
SPEAKER_00: For being as he is, a man of two minds.
SPEAKER_00: So it calls the wavering person because a wavering to waver, you have to be believing one minute and then backing off that, separating from it the next.
SPEAKER_00: And so it says, two minds.
SPEAKER_00: You're double-minded, you're trying to believe God one minute, and the next minute you're crying about it, saying it's not working.
SPEAKER_00: That's what I was doing.
SPEAKER_00: So a man of two minds, hesitating, dubious, irresolute.
SPEAKER_00: I think that is a good picture.
SPEAKER_00: Irresolute.
SPEAKER_00: A person who makes who has a resolution.
SPEAKER_00: A resolution is something secure.
SPEAKER_00: A person who is resolute about something is a person who is steadfast.
SPEAKER_00: That person, their mind is made up.
SPEAKER_00: They got a made-up mind.
SPEAKER_00: They are certain.
SPEAKER_00: But an irresolute person is a person who is going back and forth.
SPEAKER_00: That person is unstable, the amplified Bible says in verse 8.
SPEAKER_00: Unstable, unreliable, and uncertain, listen, about everything he thinks, feels, and decides.
SPEAKER_00: It's going to affect the whole entirety of your life.
SPEAKER_00: And so that's why you've got to get a hold of it now.
SPEAKER_00: That person is unstable, unreliable, and uncertain about everything he thinks, feels, and decides.
SPEAKER_00: So here we see how we've got to be established in faith.
SPEAKER_00: We've got to be skilled.
SPEAKER_00: We've got to give our development to this believing God.
SPEAKER_00: If faith is present, faith is the confidence, the grounds, the substance of the thing that we're believing for.
SPEAKER_00: The amplified says of Hebrews 11:1, now faith is the assurance, the confirmation, the title deed of the things we hope for.
SPEAKER_00: You can have a title to something and not have that thing in your possession.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe somebody else is driving your car today, but that title is your title.
SPEAKER_00: It's in your name.
SPEAKER_00: You have the title to it, you have the possession of it.
SPEAKER_00: And it may not be, you may not be sitting in it in this moment, but it's still yours.
SPEAKER_00: And so when you're believing for something, you can have the title deed of faith that says, it is mine.
SPEAKER_00: For instance, these eyes have never seen my name written in the Lamb's Book of Life.
SPEAKER_00: These fingers have never touched the Lamb's Book of Life and put my fingers on the place where my name is written, but I have a title deed.
SPEAKER_00: I have a certainty.
SPEAKER_00: I have an assurance.
SPEAKER_00: I have the grounds.
SPEAKER_00: My name is written in the Lamb's book of life.
SPEAKER_00: Praise God.
SPEAKER_00: And so this establishing of the heart is what we want to give our emphasis to.
SPEAKER_00: And establishing is for the purpose of believing.
SPEAKER_00: And one of the texts that we've used is Psalm 112, verses 6 through 8.
SPEAKER_00: It says, the person who is righteous, this whole chapter from Psalm 112 is about the righteous, that describing you and I.
SPEAKER_00: It says, Surely he shall not be moved forever.
SPEAKER_00: And it's possible for you to reach a level of spiritual development where you are not moved.
SPEAKER_00: You're not moved by anything that's going on in the news.
SPEAKER_00: You're not moved by anything you see posted on Facebook.
SPEAKER_00: You're not moved by the report that comes back from the doctor.
SPEAKER_00: You're not moved by those outward evidences because you already have a firm established foundation.
SPEAKER_00: It says this righteous person shall not be moved.
SPEAKER_00: The righteous shall be an everlasting remembrance.
SPEAKER_00: He shall not be afraid of evil tidings.
SPEAKER_00: See, that's what we've got to be on guard against that.
SPEAKER_00: If you practice not being afraid of evil tidings, if you practice when you get an a report that is an evil report, something that is a negative report, that you you automatically rein yourself in and you're you've got control, you've got self-control.
SPEAKER_00: It's a fruit of the spirit.
SPEAKER_00: And you're like, I'm not gonna give my worry to I'm not gonna give worry to that because I don't worry.
SPEAKER_00: I believe God.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not gonna move over into uh um uh fretting and anxiety.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna maintain my course, he shall not be afraid of evil tidings, his heart is fixed, trusting in the Lord, his heart is established, he shall not be afraid.
SPEAKER_00: Have you made that your goal?
SPEAKER_00: Have you made that a desire?
SPEAKER_00: Lord, I never want to be afraid.
SPEAKER_00: Another it's possible.
SPEAKER_00: I know we live in a society that that sells fear.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I mean, lots of money is made every Halloween on terror, horror movies.
SPEAKER_00: A lot of of what we have in our society gives this license to fear.
SPEAKER_00: But you and I should never be afraid another day.
SPEAKER_00: It's possible.
SPEAKER_00: It's possible for you to live a fear-free life.
SPEAKER_00: If you ever find a scripture in the Bible where God's dealing with his people about fear, he sees fear as being something that is just doesn't even make sense.
SPEAKER_00: It's unreasonable.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Why would you be afraid?
SPEAKER_00: I am your God.
SPEAKER_00: Why are you afraid?
SPEAKER_00: I am with you, I will comfort you, I will uphold you with the right hand of my righteousness.
SPEAKER_00: It's like if God be for me, who can be against me?
SPEAKER_00: Who would I fear if God is for me?
SPEAKER_00: And so God wants us to have that awareness.
SPEAKER_00: He wants us to have that as an established perception in our life.
SPEAKER_00: My heart is established, I shall not be afraid.
SPEAKER_00: So the heart of the righteous person is a heart that should be firmly fixed by trust.
SPEAKER_00: The Young's living, it has this uh translated in an interesting way.
SPEAKER_00: It says, prepared is his heart.
SPEAKER_00: When it says established, my heart is established, the Young's Living translation says it's prepared.
SPEAKER_00: So this is not something that happens without our participation.
SPEAKER_00: To have a prepared heart, you've got to purposefully have a prepared heart.
SPEAKER_00: You've got to work on it.
SPEAKER_00: It's not just gonna happen because you've accepted Jesus as Lord.
SPEAKER_00: It can because you've accepted His as Lord, Him as Lord, but you've got to make the development of your faith, your established, your trust.
SPEAKER_00: And we talked about faith being a firmly relying trust in a previous lesson.
SPEAKER_00: So the Hebrew word fixed is often translated prepared.
SPEAKER_00: So my heart is prepared.
SPEAKER_00: So trust then is a leaning toward God.
SPEAKER_00: The book of Proverbs in chapter 3, verse 5 says, Trust in the Lord with all of your heart and lean not to your understanding.
SPEAKER_00: So it's using trust as a leaning.
SPEAKER_00: It says, Trust in the Lord, lean toward him, don't lean toward your understanding.
SPEAKER_00: So trusting is leaning toward God, it's putting your weight in his direction.
SPEAKER_00: It's it's again that firmly reliance, that dependence on God.
SPEAKER_00: I'm leaning toward God, I'm trusting in him in all your ways.
SPEAKER_00: Acknowledge him, and he shall direct your paths, verse 6 says.
SPEAKER_00: So trusting in the Lord is trusting in him about every direction in my life.
SPEAKER_00: It says in Psalm 91, we declare our trust.
SPEAKER_00: In verse 2, it says, I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge, my fortress, in Him will I trust.
SPEAKER_00: Have you said it lately?
SPEAKER_00: Have you declared it?
SPEAKER_00: Your life needs to hear who you're trusting in.
SPEAKER_00: Because when you're talking about the problem, and when you're talking about reasoning issues, reasoning it out, well, I'll just do this.
SPEAKER_00: Well, I'll just do that.
SPEAKER_00: You're saying who you're trusting in.
SPEAKER_00: Well, well, we'll just try this.
SPEAKER_00: You're saying I'm trusting in that method.
SPEAKER_00: And so you need to, you need to hear yourself say it, and your situation needs to hear who you're trusting in.
SPEAKER_00: I will trust in the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: When you get an evil report, open up your mouth.
SPEAKER_00: I will trust in the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: I will not fear, I will trust in the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: And then another way of fixing the heart.
SPEAKER_00: So we're looking at trusting, fixing the heart, preparing the heart.
SPEAKER_00: I'm leaning toward God, I'm declaring that I'm trusting God, and then singing and praising.
SPEAKER_00: These are actions of a fixed heart.
SPEAKER_00: In Psalm 57, verse 7, it says, My heart is fixed, O God, my heart is fixed.
SPEAKER_00: And again, we're not talking about repaired.
SPEAKER_00: We're talking about it is it is um uh it is stable, it is strapped down, it is firmly secured and anchored.
SPEAKER_00: My heart is anchored, it's it's secured, it is fixed.
SPEAKER_00: I will sing and give praise.
SPEAKER_00: That's what my heart will do.
SPEAKER_00: See, a worried heart is fretting, and it's got all of these thoughts of the worst scenario rolling through it.
SPEAKER_00: But the fixed, trusting, secure, stable heart is singing.
SPEAKER_00: So that's an evidence for you.
SPEAKER_00: That's an that's the activity that my heart should be participating in if my heart is fixed and trusting in the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Have I been singing this morning?
SPEAKER_00: Come on, you got to check it yourself.
SPEAKER_00: I can't check that for you.
SPEAKER_00: You got to look at your own heart.
SPEAKER_00: So when we look and make a comparison, I want to compare just real quickly Peter in Mark chapter 5 and J.
SPEAKER_00: Iris in Mark chapter 5.
SPEAKER_00: Because I'm sorry, Peter in in Matthew 14 and J.
SPEAKER_00: Iris in Mark chapter 5.
SPEAKER_00: So in Matthew 14, Peter he was walking on the water at the word of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: He said, Lord, if it's you, bid me to come.
SPEAKER_00: And so it Jesus said, Come, and he steps out on the water.
SPEAKER_00: And he he he stepped out in response to the word come that Jesus spoke to him.
SPEAKER_00: But he got his mind off of that.
SPEAKER_00: And it says that he began to see the wind and the waves.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 30, but when he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid and beginning to sink.
SPEAKER_00: So he did not begin to sink until he took his eyes off the word Jesus, off the word come, the word Jesus spoke to him.
SPEAKER_00: When he took his eyes off that, that's when he began.
SPEAKER_00: And it didn't say he immediately sank.
SPEAKER_00: Now I've stepped down off the edge of a pool before, but I've never stepped off the pool and sank by degrees.
SPEAKER_00: I sank immediately.
SPEAKER_00: I was one minute above the water, and the next second I was under the water, but not Peter.
SPEAKER_00: Peter began to sink.
SPEAKER_00: Beginning to sink.
SPEAKER_00: As he's beginning to sink, he realizes and cries out, Lord, save me.
SPEAKER_00: And of course the Lord did.
SPEAKER_00: But J.
SPEAKER_00: Iris receives J.
SPEAKER_00: Iris, he has asked Jesus to come to raise his daughter, to save his daughter.
SPEAKER_00: He said, If you put your hands on her, she will live.
SPEAKER_00: And in the midst of them making their way to J.
SPEAKER_00: Iris's house, they come to J.
SPEAKER_00: Iris and say, Your daughter's already dead.
SPEAKER_00: Don't trouble the master anymore.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus overheard what they said and he looked directly at J.
SPEAKER_00: Iris and he said, Do not be afraid, only believe.
SPEAKER_00: So he's saying, You can keep your faith line open and you can stay fixed to the answer that you've already connected to, and you can get the result that you started out for if you will not yield like Peter yielded to fear.
SPEAKER_00: He began, he began to sink when he became afraid.
SPEAKER_00: And so that fear, by degree, began stealing from him the faith he was walking by.
SPEAKER_00: But J.
SPEAKER_00: Iris had the opportunity to keep his faith on the course.
SPEAKER_00: And you have the opportunity to develop your faith and establish your heart so that when a situation comes, you can maintain your heart.
SPEAKER_00: You can keep that connection of faith.
SPEAKER_00: And you can keep the course, stay the course to the thing that God has promised you.
SPEAKER_00: Your family, your salvation, your healing, your financial turnaround, you can receive by this connection of faith.
SPEAKER_00: I'm so glad you tuned in today.
SPEAKER_00: We've got more available concerning the established heart in this 12-part series.
SPEAKER_00: The established heart.
SPEAKER_00: This is a study guide.
SPEAKER_00: It's also available in a flash drive.
SPEAKER_00: You can also download the audio and the PDF version of the study guide and use it for your personal study and go through all 12 lessons.
SPEAKER_00: Use those lessons, preach them, teach them, study them, and grow and establish your heart in the things of God.
SPEAKER_00: LifeofFaith.net is our website.
SPEAKER_00: You can find out more information.
SPEAKER_00: Subscribe to our YouTube channel, get our podcast, get a be a part of what God's doing at this local church.
SPEAKER_00: We're so glad that you tuned in today.
SPEAKER_00: And I look forward to next week when we'll be able to talk more about the established heart.
SPEAKER_00: Remember to build your faith and frame your world by the word of God.
SPEAKER_00: In this 12-part series, Pastor Philip Steele and I explain how to establish your heart in faith on God's Word.
SPEAKER_00: God's plan for the believer is to have their heart fixed, trusting in the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Psalm 112, verse 8 says, His heart is established.
SPEAKER_00: While this is available for you, it's not automatic.
SPEAKER_00: You have a responsibility to set the Word of God as the foundation of your thoughts, actions, and decisions.
SPEAKER_00: 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_00: 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_00: You can watch these videos through our YouTube channel at Life of Faith Church in Little Rock or Life of Faith Church, Kansas.
SPEAKER_00: Also, you can order these resources by calling 501-4877 or visiting lifeoffaith.net.
SPEAKER_00: 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.