You Gotta Have Faith

"¹² For our proud confidence is this: the testimony of our conscience, that in holiness and godly sincerity, not in fleshly wisdom but in the grace of God, we have conducted ourselves in the world, and especially toward you. ¹³ For we write nothing else to you than what you read and understand, and I hope you will understand until the end; ¹⁴ just as you also partially did understand us, that we are your reason to be proud as you also are ours, in the day of our Lord Jesus.
¹⁵ In this confidence I intended at first to come to you, so that you might twice receive a blessing; ¹⁶ that is, to pass your way into Macedonia, and again from Macedonia to come to you, and by you to be helped on my journey to Judea. ¹⁷ Therefore, I was not vacillating when I intended to do this, was I? Or what I purpose, do I purpose according to the flesh, so that with me there will be yes, yes and no, no at the same time? ¹⁸ But as God is faithful, our word to you is not yes and no. ¹⁹ For the Son of God, Christ Jesus, who was preached among you by us—by me and Silvanus and Timothy—was not yes and no, but is yes in Him. ²⁰ For as many as are the promises of God, in Him they are yes; therefore also through Him is our Amen to the glory of God through us. ²¹ Now He who establishes us with you in Christ and anointed us is God, ²² who also sealed us and gave us the Spirit in our hearts as a pledge.
²³ But I call God as witness to my soul, that to spare you I did not come again to Corinth. ²⁴ Not that we lord it over your faith, but are workers with you for your joy; for in your faith you are standing firm."
II Corinthians 1:12-24

Good Morning Beloved,

Welcome to worship, we're so glad you're here today. 

I have often heard many people refer to themselves as a man or woman of faith. Yet, if you pose a few questions to them along that subject, you will quickly discover they have no idea what a man or woman of faith really is.

Faith has become just a word we use when thinking of somebody who is religious. Their faith is rooted in their religion. We often hear people say that we are a country of different "faith."
Beloved, this certainly is not what Paul is talking about here in his letter to the Corinthian church. Paul is reminding them that when we follow Christ, we surrender our authority. We do not continue doing what we want to do, but rather we are following Christ, doing what He commands.

As a matter of fact, Christ made that pretty clear in John 14:15, when He said, "If you love Me, you will keep My commandments."

Faith is something that people frequently speak of, yet I tend to find that many of them have little or no understanding what faith is really about. I have been a Christian for a long time and I am still trying to fully understand this thing we call faith. However, as I continue to walk with Christ and surrender myself to the Holy Spirit, I begin to understand more and more each day what a life of faith is all about.

I believe, this is what Paul is trying to encourage the Corinthians. If you are really serving Christ, you will have the whole world against you. Paul uses his own life as an example of that. If there ever was a Christian that lived the life, it was certainly the apostle Paul. Because he lived the life, or, as we say, "he walked the talk," therefore, Paul had many people who were against him. And, if it were not for his faith in God, Paul never would have survived in the ministry God had set before him.

As I begin to understand the power of faith, I begin to appreciate what the Christian life is really all about. Some have been taught, the idea that the Christian life is just a ticket to heaven. You just say a little prayer, you're saved and go to heaven. That's all there is to it.
However, for those who have been a Christian for a long time, we realize that there is a lot more to it than that.

The thing that Paul is emphasizing here is the fact that we cannot understand how God is leading us through mere human resources. Many times what God is calling us to, does not make sense or even appear to be possible, from a human standpoint at the moment. However, our ministry to the Lord can only be truly understood through our faith in Jesus Christ.

My going to heaven is a great reality, however, before I get to heaven, there is another reality called "living by faith." When we come to understand the power of faith in our life, we begin to live the kind of life that honors and glorifies the Lord Jesus Christ.

One of my favorite people is George Mueller. What a man of faith he was. He never asked anybody for anything, not even money. Everything that came in through his door came because of his faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. His philosophy was something like this, if I cannot pray it into reality, that I really do not need it. If you know anything about George Mueller, you know that he prayed in millions of dollars but none of it stuck to his wallet.

Someone once told me, that if you want to become a millionaire very quickly become either a politician or a televangelist. Check out some of the richest preachers in the country. I think it might surprise you. The thing that really surprises me the most, is none of that money came through faith as we are looking at it today. There are some people, who can talk anybody into giving almost anything!

There is one particular televangelist, who is constantly egging her congregation on, to give the first fruits of their money during the month of January. Essentially, it means that you take all of your salary that you would get for January and give it to the church. Now, if they give their "first fruits" during the month of January, they will be abundantly blessed by riches throughout the rest of the year. However, if they don’t give, they will face dire financial consequences. Believe it or not, there are a number of people who buy into this malarkey.

I do not believe that that is the work of faith but rather it is the work of a con artist! If you have to beg for it, intimidate people to get it, then maybe you do not really need it. In other words, if you cannot pray it into existence, then maybe you do not need it.

So today, I want us to look at what this faith is all about that Paul is talking about. I will do my best to try to keep it simple, however, for many people, it tends to be a very complicated subject. However, I believe this is a subject that we really need to understand if we are going to live the kind of Christian life that pleases God.

First, let's bow our heads in prayer.

Heavenly Father,

Father we thank You for this astonishing Word You have for us today, commit it to our hearts, that we might never forget Your message for us. We are grateful for those who have responded to Your prompting to assemble together with us, both here and abroad. We give You thanks for this most incredibly important gift that You’ve given us, the gift of conscience. As we continue to grow in wisdom and knowledge of the Word our conscience calls us to a higher standard.

Lord, we are so thankful for the guidance of the Holy Spirit, that helps us to live in obedience to Your Word and know the fullness of joy and blessing.

Father, we thank You for Your saving grace. We especially pray for those who do not yet know Jesus Christ, whose conscience is failing to assault them of their sin, we ask that You would reach down to them, renew their conscience, that there would be no way to escape the realities of sin, other than to surrender to Christ and be obedient to His teachings.

We pray this in Christs' name
Amen

The wisdom of our culture today, tells us that feelings of guilt are nearly always erroneous, nearly always harmful, and we really need to abandon them, letting ourselves "off the hook," so to speak.
However, is that good advice? I believe, that our conscience, is our God given warning system, inside of us, that causes us to know when we've said or done something inappropriate or unacceptable by God's standards. Conscience is the ability to sense in your own heart if there is sin there, if there is something wrong there, if there is guilt and shame. That is a great gift from God. Like the gift of pain, which warns you that you are hurting your body so you don’t kill yourself.

In Romans 2:14-15, Paul says, "For when Gentiles who do not have the Law do instinctively the things of the Law, these, not having the Law, are a law to themselves, in that they show the work of the Law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness and their thoughts alternately accusing or else defending them,"

Open your Bibles with me, if you would, to the book of II Corinthians.
Allow me to read to you from this rich text from the Lord, through the guidance of the Holy Spirit, spoken through the apostle Paul. II Corinthians 1:12-24.

"For our proud confidence is this: the testimony of our conscience, that in holiness and godly sincerity, not in fleshly wisdom but in the grace of God, we have conducted ourselves in the world, and especially toward you. For we write nothing else to you than what you read and understand, and I hope you will understand until the end; just as you also partially did understand us, that we are your reason to be proud as you also are ours, in the day of our Lord Jesus.
In this confidence I intended at first to come to you, so that you might twice receive a blessing; that is, to pass your way into Macedonia, and again from Macedonia to come to you, and by you to be helped on my journey to Judea. Therefore, I was not vacillating when I intended to do this, was I? Or what I purpose, do I purpose according to the flesh, so that with me there will be yes, yes and no, no at the same time? But as God is faithful, our word to you is not yes and no. For the Son of God, Christ Jesus, who was preached among you by us—by me and Silvanus and Timothy—was not yes and no, but is yes in Him. For as many as are the promises of God, in Him they are yes; therefore also through Him is our Amen to the glory of God through us. Now He who establishes us with you in Christ and anointed us is God, who also sealed us and gave us the Spirit in our hearts as a pledge.
But I call God as witness to my soul, that to spare you I did not come again to Corinth. Not that we lord it over your faith, but are workers with you for your joy; for in your faith you are standing firm."

There are several aspects of this power of faith that I want to talk about: The cause of faith, there are
several things that guide humanity.
Human reasoning
Human instinct
Education
Experience

These things guide us in making decisions every day of our life. And these qualities enable us to live a human life. There is nothing wrong with these things in themselves. The problem is, they only enable us to live the human life.

Faith. What role does it play in the life of a Christian? If we are going to live that spiritual life, the life in Christ, we need to have different motivation and power in our life. Let's be honest, human resources run out and Scripture expects more of us than what these limited resources can supply.
This is where we begin.

So, how important is faith to you? Where does this faith really come from? The apostle Paul says in Hebrews 11:6, "And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him."

And, in Romans 10:17, "So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ."
This faith that Paul is speaking about enables us to live the Christian life. Apart from this faith, we cannot live the Christian life; it is completely a different dimension. Only a person who has been "born again" can access this type of faith. However, it is possible to live a Christian life without this faith. But it is impossible to please God without this faith.

When we start to realize that human nature is not enough to bring peace and joy into our heart we then begin to see we need something other than that. Human nature is corrupted by depravity. Human nature is corrupted by depravity. And that, is where faith steps in.

There are many people who do not realize that without faith comes certain consequences. They believe that "faith" is some sort of a "fix-it," for all their problems. Beloved, there a great many people will give testimony that when they really put faith in Jesus Christ, that is when the problems really began.

So what are the likely consequences? As I live by faith, it is pulling me away from the world around me. I have found that I have an energy that is not of this world, nor is not compatible with this world. As I trust God, more and more, I find myself turning my back on all of the human instincts and reasoning, experiences and education. These things work in the human realm, however, they do not in the spiritual realm.

In other words, our Christianity fails miserably, when we attempt to operate by the human realm, which is, for the most part, what is happening today in or culture. To follow Christ and have my faith in God means we must turn our back on everything else, no matter if it makes sense or not, and trust God, fully and completely. This is a very difficult thing to do and many people falter here because in many ways, it just does not make sense.

Beloved, following Christ does not make sense from the human aspect. This is rarely considered. Nevertheless, we need to understand that not all faith is the same. Some have the idea that faith is just faith and that is all there is to it. However, there is a certain caliber of faith that needs to be considered.

Caliber = the quality of someone’s character and the level of someone’s ability. It is also, the internal diameter or bore of a gun. So, what caliber of faith are you working with today?

It is true, all faith is focused in God. Remember, "So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ."

In Closing...

My faith comes from my relationship with God, which is based upon the word of God. I don’t make up my own set of rules for my walk of faith. It directly relates to my relationship with Jesus Christ through the word of God. Therefore, the caliber is very important. Nobody would use a BB gun to shoot an elephant, am I right? The caliber of a BB gun is just not equal to the task.

Spiritually speaking, I believe, we are using a spiritual BB gun to try to defeat the enemy. We need to meet the enemy on God’s terms and not the enemy’s terms. David and Goliath are a great illustration of this. David’s faith was not in his slingshot, but rather in "the name of the Lord." David did not meet Goliath in his own wisdom, but rather of faith in God that brought him the victory over Goliath.

What is the Goliath in your life these days? What caliber of faith do you need to overcome that Goliath? I believe this also affects our prayer life.

There are many new generation Christians, who take prayer very casually. When something happens, people will say especially on social media, "my thoughts and prayers are with you." And, while that is a very nice and sweet thing to say, it often makes the person "feel better," however it has no bearing on it at all.

Allow me to illustrate; let's suppose that I needed open heart surgery. What kind of doctor would be required to do that surgery? A chiropractor? Or should I call my dentist to see if he is available this week to do my surgery?

Of course not!! The nature of the surgery determines the caliber of the doctor. Not every doctor is qualified to do open heart surgery. This is where spiritual warfare really takes on the image.
What is drastically needed are men and women qualified in this area of spiritual warfare. We need qualified prayer warriors!

Allow me to change the illustration, just a little bit here. Let's just take the military of the United States, for example. If you look at the military, you would find of the vast number of people with very different ranks and qualifications. Now, if we are going to do the battle and go to war, and we intend to win the war, we need to bring together a variety of people and weapons, in order to defeat the enemy. Make sense?

As a Christian, we need to gather and bring a variety of people and spiritual weapons to defeat the enemy.

So, I ask you again, what is your caliber of faith? What is it that God can use you in defeating the enemy? I need to understand that the cause of faith has to do with human limitation and that my consequences will be separating me from the human element in bringing me to a caliber of faith that can be used by God to defeat the enemy.

Its just like you have your vehicle checked over every so often and you have a medical checkup once or twice a year, well we need to have a faith checkup.

As we examine ourselves, we need to ask, is my faith growing and developing in such a way, that God can use to defeat the enemy?

The apostle Paul understood that the fellowship has been brought together not just for the sake of fellowship, although, don't get me wrong,  there is absolutely nothing wrong with that, but, it is also to defeat the enemy through spiritual warfare.

Beloved, certainly I am not the boss of your faith but I am praying, that by working together with you, we can make your faith stronger.

May your faith grow stronger each day.
May it be so.. 

And now may the Lord bless you and keep you;

the Lord make His face shine upon you,
And be gracious to you;

The Lord lift up His countenance upon you,
And give you peace.

Now and forever, in Jesus' name
Amen

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