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Grace Emmanuel Church
Pastor Sam Chess
THE POWER OF FAITH 3
Q: Where in your life do you have hold of a line of faith,
the other end of which connects directly to heaven and you know
that what you have hold of, on this end, links you directly into
the throne room of heaven where God himself is giving personal
attention to your specific need and the return answer here on
earth is as good as done, even though you haven’t seen evidence
of it yet?
Grabbing hold of faith…
I’ve had a lot of you talk to me this week about what was going on
in your life… Some of you are facing some of the most uncertain times
you have faced in months/years. An unusual number of you are standing
with one foot planted and the other foot in the air not certain of what
you next firm step is going to be. I ask one of you, this week, how you
were navigating though the circumstances of your life, and the first
words out of your mouth was…. “by faith”.
I’m not going to stand up here today and tell you that walking with
God is going to take all the bumps out of the road of life. Your
relationship with God doesn’t guarantee an end to life’s uncertainties.
Walking with God doesn’t automatically fill your bank account, smooth
out your daily schedules, calm every relationship, set up a flawless
plan for your future….
Walking with God involves effort on our parts….
If God put us on this earth to get us ready to reign with him in
eternity, when this life is over…. If we, each, started this life in a
fallen sinful state, which required Jesus to come to earth, as a man,
and pay the debt of sin we owed, If salvation can only come through our
trust in his sin payment on our behalf… If the rest of life is the
process of God transforming us from the old sinful people that we were
into “new creations in Christ Jesus”
It would be senseless for us to believe that the rest of our lives
was to be an effortless float into heaven. The Apostle Paul likens our
lives to an athlete in the race of a lifetime.
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Our human problem is that we, early on, come to realize that life
involves effort but we get confused about what kind of effort we are
supposed to exert. We’re told, by just about everybody, that real
success in this life comes down to what you can believe in yourself to
accomplish.
That is exactly opposite of the entire message of the Bible.
From one end to the other the Bible calls each of us to live a life
of faith in our Creator….. a life where we learn to depend, not on
our own efforts, but to depend, increasingly, on God to do in us,
and through us, what we could never hope to accomplish on our own.
I have given you example after example in this series of people
who depended on God alone and he did eternal things through them
that changed the world around them forever. Those who learn to
trust, deeply, in their God are painted as the greats, in Scripture
and those who spend their lives trusting in themselves are painted
as the failures in Scripture.
If you are solving all of life’s issues on your own, you are not
walking in faith.
The whole point of faith is that you are trusting in what you do not
yet see.
Hebrews 11:1-2 What is faith? It is the confident
assurance that what we hope for is going to happen. It is the
evidence of things we cannot yet see. 2 God gave his approval
to people in days of old because of their faith. (NLT)
I need to get the point across that many of the people in our
history books who forced their way into success by exerting their
skills and wills over their fellow man do not get even a sentence of
recognition in God’s history book. People that we look back on, in our
history, as great conquerors or great tyrants are “gnats of
distraction” that God brushes away to get to the real heroes….
The little ladies prayer group in Scotland that prayed until
God sent a sweeping revival to Scotland, Wales, and England
that eventually changed their whole society, wiping out
injustices like forced child labor and moving the masses from
bars to churches.
Two men in a hayloft in New England who set out to pray
until God brought renewal to their community that ended in what
we call the Second Great Awakening ,that swept not only New
England, (at one point in Rochester NY it was said that their
was not one person who had not committed their life to Christ)
but swept across the Mississippi river and brought the rugged
West to it’s knees. The Second Great Awakening ushered in the
modern mission’s movement that eventually send missionaries all
over the world.
We don’t remember those people’s names….. but when God pulls out his
history book…these are the kind of people who fill the pages.
God wants each of us to be running the race with everything inside
of us…. But we have to make sure we are running the right race, on the
right track. It will do little good for any of us to “sweat and pant”
our way through this life only to discover that we are running on a
parallel track to the divine track for which we were created.
I gave you a demonstration last week that defines how faith is
supposed to be working in our lives.:
II. Faith is a conductive force!
Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is the substance of things
hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. (NKJV)
There has to be some mechanism that will allow the power in this
cord to find its way into this bulb so that your world can be
changed. Here it is. This switch will allow the current waiting in
this line to run into the bulb where it can make a difference.
(Flip switch)
That’s what faith is…. All the power of the universe is waiting
to be unleashed in this world by those who have the gumption to
find and turn on the switch. Our faith is that conductive switch.
When we leave it off, all the power of heaven is left
untapped, unused…and so many things that could have been so, so
different; remain unchanged.
Why would human beings….any human beings, including us in this room
have so much of all God has to offer available to us and leave it
untapped???
Remember the first man….Adam..created in the very image of God,
the air in his lungs the very breath of God. His faith in his
Creator was total. Then in one moment of weakness Adam commits
spiritual, high treason against the God who created him and,
instantly loses his perfect standing before God.
After Adam’s rebellion, when he meets God for the first time…do
you remember the first words out of Adam’s mouth??
Genesis 3: 8 Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the
LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day,
and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden. 9 But
the LORD God called to the man, "Where are you?" 10 He answered,
"I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid ……
There’s a new one….An emotion that Adam and Eve had never
experienced before.
They had been consumed with faith and once their faith
connection with God was severed it was replaced by consuming fear.
From the beginning: these two have worked like oil and water…they do
not mix…in fact they are mutually exclusive.
Important principles:
The opposite of faith…… is fear!
Faithless people who claim to be fearless are lying to
themselves. The greatest example of fearlessness is the one
who is able to put himself completely in the hands of his
Creator for eternal purposes.
Fear and faith never function in the same space at the same
time.
When you are fearful, faith is driven away…when faith
comes into your life fear is dispelled like a light coming
on in a dark room
Fear activates all that is not of God the way faith
activates all that is of God.
Spiritual Growth involves leaving behind our fear of total,
radical commitment to our Creator and diving into a complete
trust relationship with Him. This is the highest pinnacle of
life a human being can reach this side of eternity.
Several of you have confided in me recently….an unusual number of
you…that you find yourselves on the ropes in the area of finances,
jobs, need for work, need to sell property, etc. We, as a church, are
walking a thin line of faith where we are in total trust for God to
help us build the building on Kitterman cash We have seen God supply
unbelievable, miraculous provision up to this point but we continually
find ourselves against the ropes waiting for God’s provision for the
next list of things needing done. Let me put this all together in the
category of “God as our provider” and let’s see how this faith walk is
supposed to work in our lives.
III. Faith in God as our Source
God as Provider
The whole idea of God as our willing provider is woven into the very
fabric of the whole Bible. From creation on, God created not just a
world for us to live in but a vast universe for ornamentation (cosmos).
The Patriarch leaned that God was their provider before they learned
anything else about him. (El Shaddai….. not El Cheapo)
The Israelites found out about God’s provision in the desert. They
were ticked off because of a food shortage…God gave them manna…all they
could eat. They wanted meat. He caused enough quail to fly off course
over the desert until there were enough to feed three million people.
When they didn’t have enough water it flowed right out of a rock… it
would have taken a constantly flowing river 8 feet deep and 12 feet
wide to quench the thirst of 3 million people….but that’s who God
was..who he wanted us to see him as.
Jesus was in the business of provision…. Food for five thousand,
wine for a whole wedding, healing for whole villages. He’s the one who
said the famous words:
Matthew 6: 25"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your
life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will
wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more
important than clothes? 26 Look at the birds of the air; they do
not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly
Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 28"And
why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field
grow. They do not labor or spin. 29 Yet I tell you that not even
Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30 If
that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today
and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe
you, O you of little faith? 31 So do not worry, saying, 'What shall
we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' 32 For
the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father
knows that you need them. 33 But seek first his kingdom and his
righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well
God is teaching you, here, the principle of Him as the ultimate
provider. But there is a huge difference between you and a sparrow. .
The sparrow doesn’t have a huge FPL bill sitting on his desk. God
clothes the lilies of the field but they don’t have to pay GAP prices.
Here’s the real difference between you and Mr. Sparrow.
He doesn’t have to have faith. He hasn’t been saved from a life
of sin. He isn’t preparing for an eternal life in heaven. You are.
Mr. Lily lives his life and dies and that’s the end of Mr. Lily.
Mr. Sparrow meets the front of Greg Jensen’s truck and that’s all
she wrote…..not you!
You’re here in this world, to learn faith, to get you ready for
the next world!
So in your world you are going to eat like Mr. Sparrow and dress
like Mr. Lily but you are going to have to trust God for it!
God’s is, even, more concerned that you learn to walk in faith than he
is in what you eat.
So when we talk about God’s provision we have to look at God’s
principles about provision and they are very clear:
The prophet Elijah had been pouring himself out, in ministry and
when a famine hit God takes him on a sabbatical into the mountain where
he drinks from a brook and twice a day birds (ravens) bring him
breakfast and dinner.
After a while, the brook starts to dry up and God instructs him to
go to a house in Zarephath where a widow will care for him. Perhaps he
imagined a rich widow with plenty…but when he arrives he finds a
scrawny widow with nothing.
10 …When he came to the town gate, a widow was there gathering
sticks. He called to her and asked, "Would you bring me a little
water in a jar so I may have a drink?" 11 As she was going to get
it, he called, "And bring me, please, a piece of bread."
12 "As surely as the LORD your God lives," she replied, "I don't
have any bread—only a handful of flour in a jar and a little oil in
a jug. I am gathering a few sticks to take home and make a meal for
myself and my son, that we may eat it—and die."
Well, that didn’t work out very well…..God sends Elijah to be cared
for by a woman who didn’t have enough to even keep herself alive.
13 Elijah said to her, "Don't be afraid. Go home and do as you
have said. But first make a small cake of bread for me from what
you have and bring it to me, and then make something for yourself
and your son.
This is such an important Scripture-wide principle. In order for God
to be your provider and you to learn faith at the same time… God can’t
just toss everything you ever need or want into your lap. You’re going
to have to trust him for it.
Don't be afraid. Go home and do as you have said. But first make
a small cake of bread for me from what you have and bring it to me,
and then make something for yourself and your son.
(Perhaps you’re not hearing well, Elijah….if I give away what I
have, there won’t be enough for me!) One of God’s great principles
kicks in here…. Give away at least part of what you have….allow room
for faith to provide what you don’t have!
That’s not even logical…..exactly! I’ve already spent 1½
messages telling you that faith is not based on human reason.
14 For this is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: 'The jar
of flour will not be used up and the jug of oil will not run dry
until the day the LORD gives rain on the land.' "
15 She went away and did as Elijah had told her. So there
was food every day for Elijah and for the woman and her family. 16
For the jar of flour was not used up and the jug of oil did not run
dry, in keeping with the word of the LORD spoken by Elijah.
Doesn’t it sound insane to say, If you want to have enough you must
give some away. How do you get all you bills paid…give away some of
what you have…How do you get out of debt…give yourself out of debt.
It’s God’s universal principle that provides for our needs…. and
teaches us faith at the same time.
I Corinthians 6: 6 Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will
also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap
generously. 7 Each man should give what he has decided in his heart
to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a
cheerful giver. 8 And God is able to make all grace abound to you,
so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you
will abound in every good work.
The measure you sow will be measured back to you!
If a farmer scatters a hundred seeds in the corner of his
field he can’t expect to reap thousands of plants all over
the field.
What you sow is what you will reap!
Luke 6:38 If you give, you will receive. Your gift will
return to you in full measure, pressed down, shaken
together to make room for more, and running over. Whatever
measure you use in giving--large or small--it will be used
to measure what is given back to you." (NLT)
When you sow determines when you will reap!
This is not rocket science….when do you reap a crop???
After you have sown…..
1 Corinthians " 10 Now he who supplies seed to the sower and
bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and
will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. 11 You will be made
rich in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion,
and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God.
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