1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:08,120 My friend Ed attended church Sunday morning and Sunday night faithfully. 2 00:00:08,120 --> 00:00:10,160 Rarely ever missed. 3 00:00:10,160 --> 00:00:19,080 He and his wife and their daughter were present in services and active in the church. 4 00:00:19,080 --> 00:00:27,080 He had worked for a particular corporation in Cincinnati for a number of years, but as 5 00:00:27,080 --> 00:00:32,760 sometimes happens and today more frequently than then, the corporation was sold to another 6 00:00:32,760 --> 00:00:38,280 larger one and as a result of that, Ed lost his job. 7 00:00:38,280 --> 00:00:45,000 He went unemployed for a number of months and then was able to find a job with another 8 00:00:45,000 --> 00:00:52,220 company where he was happily employed for about two years until some kind of a corporate 9 00:00:52,220 --> 00:00:59,280 shakeup again involved Ed losing his job and by this time he was in his early 50s. 10 00:00:59,280 --> 00:01:08,680 He began to work for yet another position with a company, but alas he was too old or 11 00:01:08,680 --> 00:01:15,040 overqualified or for some reason didn't fit the qualifications the company was looking 12 00:01:15,040 --> 00:01:17,920 for. 13 00:01:17,920 --> 00:01:24,280 As a result of that, months went into years with Ed being unemployed. 14 00:01:24,280 --> 00:01:28,440 Gradually his health began to decline. 15 00:01:28,440 --> 00:01:35,800 At the same time he began to drop out of church losing interest in spiritual things and the 16 00:01:35,800 --> 00:01:41,040 last report I had was that he never goes to church. 17 00:01:41,040 --> 00:01:51,440 He's basically imprisoned in his own home and has lost interest in spiritual things 18 00:01:51,440 --> 00:01:57,760 altogether. 19 00:01:57,760 --> 00:02:05,120 Tom and Mary were both saved living in the inner city with their large family. 20 00:02:05,120 --> 00:02:18,400 As they began to attend church regularly, they began to grow spiritually and then all 21 00:02:18,400 --> 00:02:26,840 of a sudden one of their children, the one who really had the most promise because so 22 00:02:26,840 --> 00:02:34,120 many of the other children had years of inner city living sewed into their lives and were 23 00:02:34,120 --> 00:02:44,000 rather wild, but the one boy who had the promise of becoming something became sick with leukemia. 24 00:02:44,000 --> 00:02:51,440 It went on for several years and during that time they prayed and expected that God would 25 00:02:51,440 --> 00:03:02,680 heal Bobby, but God didn't and there came a day when Bobby died about 12 years of age. 26 00:03:02,680 --> 00:03:10,200 That marked the high point of their spiritual lives and from then on they began to spiral 27 00:03:10,200 --> 00:03:13,320 downward. 28 00:03:13,320 --> 00:03:22,040 They were not in church any longer and it came to the point that after a long series 29 00:03:22,040 --> 00:03:30,000 of events that I can't go into this morning, Tom broke into Mary's house where she was 30 00:03:30,000 --> 00:03:36,440 living separated from him and shot her to death and then turned the gun on himself and 31 00:03:36,440 --> 00:03:37,440 killed himself. 32 00:03:37,440 --> 00:03:48,760 A murder-suicide of two people that claimed to be Christians and came to our church. 33 00:03:48,760 --> 00:03:51,720 What happened to these people? 34 00:03:51,720 --> 00:03:57,040 What happened to their faith? 35 00:03:57,040 --> 00:04:05,680 Perhaps that which caused them to lose confidence was the fact that they had built up in their 36 00:04:05,680 --> 00:04:16,480 minds wrong expectations of God and when God didn't come through according to their expectations 37 00:04:16,480 --> 00:04:21,360 they became cynical of him. 38 00:04:21,360 --> 00:04:30,520 Mike Bellah in his book Baby Boom Believers says, we Baby Boomers are our own worst enemies. 39 00:04:30,520 --> 00:04:34,880 It is not our times but our expectations that have defeated us. 40 00:04:34,880 --> 00:04:40,320 But when I suggest lowering them, which is most often what I do suggest, I get strong 41 00:04:40,320 --> 00:04:46,240 negative reactions from religious over-expectors like Richard. 42 00:04:46,240 --> 00:04:49,680 Richard is a proponent of the success gospel. 43 00:04:49,680 --> 00:04:57,120 He believes you can never over-expect from a God who owns the cattle on a thousand hills. 44 00:04:57,120 --> 00:05:01,040 His words to me were filled with emotion, born of deep conviction. 45 00:05:01,040 --> 00:05:04,520 You're conforming to the world, argues Richard. 46 00:05:04,520 --> 00:05:08,840 You're not believing God, oh ye of little faith. 47 00:05:08,840 --> 00:05:12,240 Okay Richard, maybe you're right, I reply. 48 00:05:12,240 --> 00:05:14,860 Tell me what is faith? 49 00:05:14,860 --> 00:05:16,860 Is it trust? 50 00:05:16,860 --> 00:05:17,860 Reliance? 51 00:05:17,860 --> 00:05:22,360 Yes, says Richard, both of those. 52 00:05:22,360 --> 00:05:25,600 The trust in whom, Richard, or what? 53 00:05:25,600 --> 00:05:30,560 Well God of course, replies Richard. 54 00:05:30,560 --> 00:05:32,560 Any God, I ask? 55 00:05:32,560 --> 00:05:33,960 No, returns Richard. 56 00:05:33,960 --> 00:05:38,400 Biblical faith is trust in the true and living God. 57 00:05:38,400 --> 00:05:43,160 Okay, I say, and what do I believe about this God? 58 00:05:43,160 --> 00:05:45,880 Is he holy and loving? 59 00:05:45,880 --> 00:05:48,080 How about detached and limited? 60 00:05:48,080 --> 00:05:50,160 Well yes and no, replies Richard. 61 00:05:50,160 --> 00:05:53,200 He is holy, he's not limited. 62 00:05:53,200 --> 00:05:56,280 Who decides, Richard, I ask? 63 00:05:56,280 --> 00:05:59,400 Can I envision God any way I please? 64 00:05:59,400 --> 00:06:01,840 No, he replies. 65 00:06:01,840 --> 00:06:06,080 You must believe in him as he really is. 66 00:06:06,080 --> 00:06:08,840 And who decides what he really is, Richard? 67 00:06:08,840 --> 00:06:09,840 Do you? 68 00:06:09,840 --> 00:06:10,840 Do I? 69 00:06:10,840 --> 00:06:17,440 What about Romans 10, 17, so faith comes from hearing and hearing by the word of Christ? 70 00:06:17,440 --> 00:06:21,680 Would you agree, Richard, that the Bible defines God for us? 71 00:06:21,680 --> 00:06:25,760 It tells us what we should believe about him? 72 00:06:25,760 --> 00:06:29,960 He replied, I guess so, what are you getting at? 73 00:06:29,960 --> 00:06:32,000 Simply this, Richard. 74 00:06:32,000 --> 00:06:40,240 The Bible not only defines God's character, it defines God's actions. 75 00:06:40,240 --> 00:06:48,840 Not only should my concept of God come from the Bible, my expectations from God must also 76 00:06:48,840 --> 00:06:53,000 be biblical. 77 00:06:53,000 --> 00:06:58,160 Perhaps it is because our expectations of God have not been biblical that some of us 78 00:06:58,160 --> 00:07:02,560 are on the verge of throwing overboard our faith. 79 00:07:02,560 --> 00:07:07,040 What do you expect from God? 80 00:07:07,040 --> 00:07:13,000 Are your expectations biblical? 81 00:07:13,000 --> 00:07:16,320 You say you believe in the God of the Bible, that is good. 82 00:07:16,320 --> 00:07:22,920 But what do you expect the God of the Bible to do for you? 83 00:07:22,920 --> 00:07:32,920 If your expectations are not biblical, you may be in for the letdown of a lifetime. 84 00:07:32,920 --> 00:07:40,680 Even biblical concepts are shrouded in foggy mystery more than that of faith, at least 85 00:07:40,680 --> 00:07:41,680 in our day. 86 00:07:41,680 --> 00:07:45,080 What is faith? 87 00:07:45,080 --> 00:07:47,720 How does faith work? 88 00:07:47,720 --> 00:07:49,840 What does it do? 89 00:07:49,840 --> 00:07:56,680 We know that faith is important, but frankly I'm not sure that we know how to exercise 90 00:07:56,680 --> 00:08:02,680 it and to receive results in our lives. 91 00:08:02,680 --> 00:08:10,280 The heroes that are talked about in Hebrews 11 were men and women who exercised faith 92 00:08:10,280 --> 00:08:11,280 and got results. 93 00:08:11,280 --> 00:08:16,800 I'd like you to turn to that chapter with me. 94 00:08:16,800 --> 00:08:21,000 Our Wimri verse in fact comes from this chapter, verse 6. 95 00:08:21,000 --> 00:08:26,080 I hope that it's a verse that you've hidden away in your heart this week. 96 00:08:26,080 --> 00:08:29,440 But that verse comes out of a context. 97 00:08:29,440 --> 00:08:38,360 The context is about Enoch actually in verse 5, who is mentioned along with Abel and Noah 98 00:08:38,360 --> 00:08:45,400 and Abraham and Sarah and many others as being men and women who believed God with certain 99 00:08:45,400 --> 00:08:47,400 results in their lives. 100 00:08:47,400 --> 00:08:54,720 Regarding Enoch specifically in verse 5 it says, by faith Enoch was taken up so that 101 00:08:54,720 --> 00:09:01,240 he should not see death, and he was not found because God took him up. 102 00:09:01,240 --> 00:09:09,080 For he obtained this witness that before his being taken up he was pleasing to God, and 103 00:09:09,080 --> 00:09:12,960 without faith it is impossible to please him. 104 00:09:12,960 --> 00:09:18,720 For he who comes to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of those 105 00:09:18,720 --> 00:09:20,680 who seek him. 106 00:09:20,680 --> 00:09:27,480 It seems to me from that verse we understand what it was that those early heroes of the 107 00:09:27,480 --> 00:09:28,480 faith believed. 108 00:09:28,480 --> 00:09:30,800 There were certain things they believed. 109 00:09:30,800 --> 00:09:35,600 In the first place, very simply, they believed that God is. 110 00:09:35,600 --> 00:09:43,120 And then they believed that they should seek God. 111 00:09:43,120 --> 00:09:48,120 And they believed finally that God is a rewarder of such. 112 00:09:48,120 --> 00:09:49,960 That's what they believed. 113 00:09:49,960 --> 00:09:53,680 They believed in God's existence. 114 00:09:53,680 --> 00:10:00,640 They believed in God's worth, that is that he's worthy of being sought. 115 00:10:00,640 --> 00:10:04,920 And they believed in God's nature. 116 00:10:04,920 --> 00:10:09,920 That because those who seek him are rewarded, therefore God must be merciful because we're 117 00:10:09,920 --> 00:10:17,280 sinners and God is loving and God is just. 118 00:10:17,280 --> 00:10:22,040 God promises that he will be found by those who seek him. 119 00:10:22,040 --> 00:10:27,080 In both the Old and New Testaments we can come upon various verses that tell us that 120 00:10:27,080 --> 00:10:29,600 God delights to be sought. 121 00:10:29,600 --> 00:10:31,720 Seek the Lord while he may be found. 122 00:10:31,720 --> 00:10:36,480 Call upon him while he is near. 123 00:10:36,480 --> 00:10:42,240 God will be found by any who seeks after him. 124 00:10:42,240 --> 00:10:47,200 God responds to faith, for faith honors him. 125 00:10:47,200 --> 00:10:53,600 If you would walk with God, you must learn what it means to walk by faith. 126 00:10:53,600 --> 00:11:01,160 There are three important definitions that I hope will help us together better understand 127 00:11:01,160 --> 00:11:02,160 faith. 128 00:11:02,160 --> 00:11:11,040 I'd like for us to define what faith is, to define what faith does, and finally to define 129 00:11:11,040 --> 00:11:13,680 how faith works. 130 00:11:13,680 --> 00:11:17,400 Walk with me along this line this morning, will you? 131 00:11:17,400 --> 00:11:21,480 In the first place let's talk about what faith is. 132 00:11:21,480 --> 00:11:27,280 But to do that it might be helpful to think briefly about what faith is not, because here 133 00:11:27,280 --> 00:11:30,120 is some of the confusion of our day. 134 00:11:30,120 --> 00:11:36,680 In the first place, faith is not mere positive thinking. 135 00:11:36,680 --> 00:11:45,200 To hear statements like, your mind can work the miraculous, or what you can conceive, 136 00:11:45,200 --> 00:11:48,200 you can achieve. 137 00:11:48,200 --> 00:11:55,560 The statements of PMA, positive mental attitude, that whole idea comes out of a secular origin, 138 00:11:55,560 --> 00:12:04,440 but it has been Christianized by some, and then propped up with biblical verses to become 139 00:12:04,440 --> 00:12:11,840 a major teaching of people like Norman Vincent Peale, for example. 140 00:12:11,840 --> 00:12:18,600 As I think of him, I'm reminded of what the late Dr. Vance Havner said regarding the Apostle 141 00:12:18,600 --> 00:12:20,360 Paul and Norman Vincent Peale. 142 00:12:20,360 --> 00:12:28,080 He said, Paul appeals, but Peale appalls, and I think he's right. 143 00:12:28,080 --> 00:12:37,320 And then we have the more recent disciple of Dr. Peale, Robert Shuler, and the whole 144 00:12:37,320 --> 00:12:45,400 variety of prosperity gospel preachers, who in language that is sometimes uniquely their 145 00:12:45,400 --> 00:12:49,560 own, talk about faith as a positive mental attitude. 146 00:12:49,560 --> 00:12:58,760 Now of course, having a positive mental attitude is good, and it does give results in life. 147 00:12:58,760 --> 00:13:03,280 There's no question about that, but the point I'm making is that we must not make the mistake 148 00:13:03,280 --> 00:13:07,400 of equating that with faith. 149 00:13:07,400 --> 00:13:11,280 I'm not arguing for negative thinking. 150 00:13:11,280 --> 00:13:14,640 Positive thinking is good, but please do not equate that with faith. 151 00:13:14,640 --> 00:13:17,640 They're not the same. 152 00:13:17,640 --> 00:13:22,080 Secondly, faith is not presumptive acting. 153 00:13:22,080 --> 00:13:29,200 It's important for us to distinguish between faith and presumption. 154 00:13:29,200 --> 00:13:35,960 Someone has defined presumption as acting on what God has not promised. 155 00:13:35,960 --> 00:13:40,720 An example of that might be the children of Israel after they failed to God and disobeyed, 156 00:13:40,720 --> 00:13:43,800 rebelled against him in unbelief at Kedish Barnea. 157 00:13:43,800 --> 00:13:51,320 You may remember that God announced to them through Moses, his servant, judgment upon 158 00:13:51,320 --> 00:13:52,760 their whole generation. 159 00:13:52,760 --> 00:13:57,840 God said that this generation from 20 up will die in the wilderness. 160 00:13:57,840 --> 00:14:05,120 And at the end of that, he said, now turn this way toward the Red Sea. 161 00:14:05,120 --> 00:14:11,160 And when Moses announced God's judgment to the people of Israel, they were grieved. 162 00:14:11,160 --> 00:14:17,200 They were upset, and immediately they decided they would go into the land anyway. 163 00:14:17,200 --> 00:14:22,640 And so the very next day, a contingent of them went up into the high woods country to 164 00:14:22,640 --> 00:14:24,640 attack the Canaanites. 165 00:14:24,640 --> 00:14:25,640 Moses said, don't go up. 166 00:14:25,640 --> 00:14:26,640 God's not with you. 167 00:14:26,640 --> 00:14:30,080 But they went ahead anyway. 168 00:14:30,080 --> 00:14:33,640 And the Canaanites soundly defeated them. 169 00:14:33,640 --> 00:14:34,640 What happened? 170 00:14:34,640 --> 00:14:36,880 They presumed upon God. 171 00:14:36,880 --> 00:14:38,960 They were not going in faith. 172 00:14:38,960 --> 00:14:41,360 They were going in presumption. 173 00:14:41,360 --> 00:14:47,240 They acted upon what God had not promised then. 174 00:14:47,240 --> 00:14:48,720 Faith is not presumptive acting. 175 00:14:48,720 --> 00:14:49,920 Well, then what is faith? 176 00:14:49,920 --> 00:14:55,840 I would define it, I suppose rather narrowly, but this way. 177 00:14:55,840 --> 00:15:03,720 Faith is a trusting obedience in light of a properly interpreted promise of God in the 178 00:15:03,720 --> 00:15:07,480 Bible. 179 00:15:07,480 --> 00:15:15,280 Faith is a trusting obedience in light of a properly interpreted promise of God in the 180 00:15:15,280 --> 00:15:16,280 Bible. 181 00:15:16,280 --> 00:15:22,240 Now in that definition, I'm saying that faith involves an action, not merely an attitude. 182 00:15:22,240 --> 00:15:25,240 It starts with an attitude. 183 00:15:25,240 --> 00:15:29,600 But it must also produce an action. 184 00:15:29,600 --> 00:15:35,040 And perhaps we'll see later, even if that action means not doing anything but waiting 185 00:15:35,040 --> 00:15:38,000 when one desires to go ahead. 186 00:15:38,000 --> 00:15:42,040 But it's more than an attitude, though it starts there. 187 00:15:42,040 --> 00:15:44,600 It's an action. 188 00:15:44,600 --> 00:15:50,960 Faith also involves quality and not quantity. 189 00:15:50,960 --> 00:15:58,640 We should not talk in terms of how much faith one has or does not have, but whether in noon 190 00:15:58,640 --> 00:16:00,920 is that faith placed. 191 00:16:00,920 --> 00:16:06,000 There is broad teaching today that certain things don't happen to certain people because 192 00:16:06,000 --> 00:16:11,440 they don't have enough faith. 193 00:16:11,440 --> 00:16:16,160 And yet the emphasis in the Bible is not the quantity of faith, how much you have, it's 194 00:16:16,160 --> 00:16:18,920 the quality of it. 195 00:16:18,920 --> 00:16:23,160 In whom is it placed? 196 00:16:23,160 --> 00:16:28,160 Someone has said that faith is only as valid as its object. 197 00:16:28,160 --> 00:16:31,080 And it's right. 198 00:16:31,080 --> 00:16:34,840 The quality of faith is determined by the object that it's placed in. 199 00:16:34,840 --> 00:16:45,080 And then I'm saying too that faith involves a promise interpreted and not isolated. 200 00:16:45,080 --> 00:16:55,920 It is possible to go to the Bible and to pull out a phrase of words or in fact a whole verse 201 00:16:55,920 --> 00:17:02,280 and to say, well, this is what I am popping my faith on. 202 00:17:02,280 --> 00:17:07,800 And yet we had better be very careful in doing that. 203 00:17:07,800 --> 00:17:14,800 Because not every promise in the Bible is to us. 204 00:17:14,800 --> 00:17:19,000 I've heard some well-meaning people go to Isaiah, for example, and pull out a verse 205 00:17:19,000 --> 00:17:25,880 or a phrase and they say, here is the basis for my faith. 206 00:17:25,880 --> 00:17:30,640 If you examine that verse or that promise in its context, you find out it's not talking 207 00:17:30,640 --> 00:17:38,520 to believers in this age at all, it's talking to Israel in the Old Testament. 208 00:17:38,520 --> 00:17:46,040 And so faith involves a promise that is interpreted, not isolated, off by itself. 209 00:17:46,040 --> 00:17:53,800 Perhaps the greatest need today is to learn how to interpret the Bible properly. 210 00:17:53,800 --> 00:18:01,360 There's a terrible shortage of that kind of knowledge among the people of God. 211 00:18:01,360 --> 00:18:04,680 And it's not difficult to learn how to do it, it's just that people don't stop and 212 00:18:04,680 --> 00:18:07,080 think how to interpret the Bible. 213 00:18:07,080 --> 00:18:10,160 We don't have time to talk about that this morning. 214 00:18:10,160 --> 00:18:13,760 But if you don't know how to interpret the Bible, if you don't know some of the simple 215 00:18:13,760 --> 00:18:20,080 rules that we use to arrive at a literal proper interpretation, then you need to pick up some 216 00:18:20,080 --> 00:18:25,000 tapes or some books that are available that would help you along that line. 217 00:18:25,000 --> 00:18:33,360 Because faith is a trusting obedience in light of a properly interpreted promise of God in 218 00:18:33,360 --> 00:18:34,360 the Bible. 219 00:18:34,360 --> 00:18:42,520 There are people who have become cynical in their faith because they took a promise of 220 00:18:42,520 --> 00:18:51,760 God out of its context, applied it to themselves, God never intended for them, and God didn't 221 00:18:51,760 --> 00:18:55,800 fulfill that promise in their lives, and therefore God gets blamed for it. 222 00:18:55,800 --> 00:19:00,120 But God's not to blame, it's the expectation of the person who improperly drew upon that 223 00:19:00,120 --> 00:19:01,120 promise. 224 00:19:01,120 --> 00:19:04,760 That's to blame. 225 00:19:04,760 --> 00:19:09,640 What faith is, trusting obedience. 226 00:19:09,640 --> 00:19:13,600 Let's talk briefly about what faith does. 227 00:19:13,600 --> 00:19:16,240 I'd like to suggest four things that faith does. 228 00:19:16,240 --> 00:19:20,880 In the first place, it honors God, it pleases Him. 229 00:19:20,880 --> 00:19:28,400 In fact, we read of that right here in our immediate context in verse 5 regarding Enoch. 230 00:19:28,400 --> 00:19:34,640 By faith he was taken up, before he was taken up though he had this witness that he was 231 00:19:34,640 --> 00:19:36,240 pleasing to God. 232 00:19:36,240 --> 00:19:37,360 Why? 233 00:19:37,360 --> 00:19:43,040 Because he was a man of faith in those days before the flood. 234 00:19:43,040 --> 00:19:46,400 Faith honors God, that's what it does. 235 00:19:46,400 --> 00:19:52,200 In the first place it recognizes his trustworthiness. 236 00:19:52,200 --> 00:19:58,280 It also recognizes his right to direct us. 237 00:19:58,280 --> 00:20:01,880 It further acknowledges my dependence upon Him. 238 00:20:01,880 --> 00:20:04,080 It honors God. 239 00:20:04,080 --> 00:20:08,680 That's what faith does. 240 00:20:08,680 --> 00:20:13,120 In the second place, it brings salvation. 241 00:20:13,120 --> 00:20:17,720 Faith not only honors God, but it is the sole means by which we may be saved. 242 00:20:17,720 --> 00:20:22,640 I wonder in fact if that isn't really the context of verse 6 in Hebrews 11. 243 00:20:22,640 --> 00:20:28,960 At least it starts, it seems to me, with salvation in that verse, though it may be applied more 244 00:20:28,960 --> 00:20:32,000 broadly than that. 245 00:20:32,000 --> 00:20:36,800 Faith comes, rather salvation comes, alone by faith. 246 00:20:36,800 --> 00:20:42,160 By grace are you saved through faith. 247 00:20:42,160 --> 00:20:46,520 And doubt not of yourselves, it's the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should 248 00:20:46,520 --> 00:20:47,520 boast. 249 00:20:47,520 --> 00:20:54,680 Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. 250 00:20:54,680 --> 00:20:56,080 What does faith do? 251 00:20:56,080 --> 00:20:58,600 It brings salvation. 252 00:20:58,600 --> 00:21:05,840 If there is one listening to me today who has not placed his faith in Jesus Christ, 253 00:21:05,840 --> 00:21:12,400 then you may know with dreadful certainty that you are not a saved person. 254 00:21:12,400 --> 00:21:22,160 For those who are saved are only those whose faith has been placed in the Lord Jesus Christ, 255 00:21:22,160 --> 00:21:25,640 the one who died for sin and rose again. 256 00:21:25,640 --> 00:21:33,160 In the third place, faith achieves results. 257 00:21:33,160 --> 00:21:37,280 By this I am saying that it accomplishes certain ends. 258 00:21:37,280 --> 00:21:43,240 I am not saying that it always accomplishes the results that we desire. 259 00:21:43,240 --> 00:21:49,800 In fact, God may have a higher goal than what we are immediately praying for, but the fact 260 00:21:49,800 --> 00:21:57,320 is that when we believe God, it accomplishes results. 261 00:21:57,320 --> 00:22:01,720 Sometimes results that are hidden from our eyes, but God knows. 262 00:22:01,720 --> 00:22:12,360 I take for example Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Sarah, who are patriarchs of the faith. 263 00:22:12,360 --> 00:22:20,780 They believed God, but it says in verse 13, all these died in faith without receiving 264 00:22:20,780 --> 00:22:24,080 the promises. 265 00:22:24,080 --> 00:22:30,480 They believed the promises that God gave them regarding the land, the seed, etc., etc. 266 00:22:30,480 --> 00:22:38,400 But they died, they went to their graves without those promises being realized in their lifetime. 267 00:22:38,400 --> 00:22:41,000 Therefore their faith was invalid, right? 268 00:22:41,000 --> 00:22:42,000 Wrong. 269 00:22:42,000 --> 00:22:46,840 Their faith was valid because it was placed in a God who cannot lie and who gave them 270 00:22:46,840 --> 00:22:50,320 those promises. 271 00:22:50,320 --> 00:22:54,680 And the fact is that one day they will be resurrected to share in the fulfillment of 272 00:22:54,680 --> 00:23:00,040 the promises given to them 4,000 years ago. 273 00:23:00,040 --> 00:23:06,400 But it wasn't given to them when they thought it might be. 274 00:23:06,400 --> 00:23:13,520 Faith accomplishes results, they are not always on our time schedule, they are in our way. 275 00:23:13,520 --> 00:23:16,840 You see another example of this most clearly in Hebrews 11. 276 00:23:16,840 --> 00:23:23,320 At the end of the chapter, the writer begins to summarize. 277 00:23:23,320 --> 00:23:25,280 He can't go on in detail like he has. 278 00:23:25,280 --> 00:23:30,840 He says, what can I say about Gideon, Barak, Samson, and so on? 279 00:23:30,840 --> 00:23:37,400 And then he mentions some of the spectacular things that happened by faith, verses 34 and 280 00:23:37,400 --> 00:23:38,400 35. 281 00:23:38,400 --> 00:23:47,200 35 begins, women received back their dead by resurrection and others. 282 00:23:47,200 --> 00:23:53,520 Now once you notice what happened to others who also lived by faith. 283 00:23:53,520 --> 00:24:00,760 They were tortured, not accepting their release, in order that they might obtain a better resurrection. 284 00:24:00,760 --> 00:24:12,320 And others experienced mockings and scourgings, yes also chains and imprisonment. 285 00:24:12,320 --> 00:24:18,480 They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were tempted, they were put to death with 286 00:24:18,480 --> 00:24:19,480 a sword. 287 00:24:19,480 --> 00:24:27,640 They went about in sheep skins, in goat skins, being destitute, afflicted, ill-treated, 288 00:24:27,640 --> 00:24:33,680 men of whom the world was not worthy, wandering in deserts and mountains and caves and holes 289 00:24:33,680 --> 00:24:34,680 in the ground. 290 00:24:34,680 --> 00:24:43,520 Who were the prosperity gospel preachers in those days, pray tell me? 291 00:24:43,520 --> 00:24:55,080 These are men and women who lived by faith, who sometimes lost their lives or lost their 292 00:24:55,080 --> 00:25:01,680 goods, their families. 293 00:25:01,680 --> 00:25:09,360 And yet they weren't soured, yet they did not become cynical in their faith, they did 294 00:25:09,360 --> 00:25:12,280 not throw it overboard, why? 295 00:25:12,280 --> 00:25:15,640 Because they had the right expectations of God. 296 00:25:15,640 --> 00:25:25,160 They knew what they should expect and what they shouldn't expect. 297 00:25:25,160 --> 00:25:31,680 Only God knows how he fulfilled his promises in their lives as a result of their faith. 298 00:25:31,680 --> 00:25:34,320 Faith achieves results. 299 00:25:34,320 --> 00:25:42,280 All these, having gained approval through their faith, did not receive what was promised, 300 00:25:42,280 --> 00:25:44,480 says God. 301 00:25:44,480 --> 00:25:47,600 It is the fullness of salvation that Messiah would bring. 302 00:25:47,600 --> 00:25:49,640 They all died previous to that. 303 00:25:49,640 --> 00:25:55,800 He goes on to say, because God had provided something better for us so that apart from 304 00:25:55,800 --> 00:25:58,720 us they should not be made perfect. 305 00:25:58,720 --> 00:26:04,280 That doesn't mean that they weren't saved, it means that their faith, their salvation 306 00:26:04,280 --> 00:26:09,280 would be brought to its fulfillment, to its natural consummation apart from us in this 307 00:26:09,280 --> 00:26:10,280 age. 308 00:26:10,280 --> 00:26:17,240 You see, God has a much different perspective on things than you and I have. 309 00:26:17,240 --> 00:26:22,480 We get involved in some issue, let's take the abortion issue for example, and we pray 310 00:26:22,480 --> 00:26:24,480 and we work hard. 311 00:26:24,480 --> 00:26:30,520 And let's suppose in the end we're defeated and we say, well what happened to God? 312 00:26:30,520 --> 00:26:31,800 What happened to our faith? 313 00:26:31,800 --> 00:26:36,520 What happened to our prayers? 314 00:26:36,520 --> 00:26:45,320 We mustn't judge God with unreal expectations. 315 00:26:45,320 --> 00:26:49,560 Faith accomplishes its results, but sometimes we don't know exactly what those results 316 00:26:49,560 --> 00:26:50,560 are. 317 00:26:50,560 --> 00:26:59,800 Or the timing is completely different than we anticipate the timing to be. 318 00:26:59,800 --> 00:27:07,000 We get upset because a spouse is leaving and we don't want that spouse to leave, rightly 319 00:27:07,000 --> 00:27:09,440 so. 320 00:27:09,440 --> 00:27:15,120 And we pray and we beg God and we say, oh please God, interfere, God change the heart 321 00:27:15,120 --> 00:27:18,760 of my husband, my wife. 322 00:27:18,760 --> 00:27:22,700 And what happens? 323 00:27:22,700 --> 00:27:27,960 Sometimes the divorce goes through and the spouse marries somebody else and sin. 324 00:27:27,960 --> 00:27:32,400 Is that time to overthrow our faith? 325 00:27:32,400 --> 00:27:38,120 Do we become cynics then that God hasn't come through, God hasn't been faithful? 326 00:27:38,120 --> 00:27:39,120 No. 327 00:27:39,120 --> 00:27:40,920 Not if we're wise. 328 00:27:40,920 --> 00:27:45,000 We've got to expect what is right of God. 329 00:27:45,000 --> 00:27:57,000 There's one thought there, God is not in the business of overruling the will of a person. 330 00:27:57,000 --> 00:28:01,040 He works with the will, but he doesn't overrule that a person can harden his heart or her 331 00:28:01,040 --> 00:28:07,320 heart against God. 332 00:28:07,320 --> 00:28:12,720 Faith always achieves results, but not always as we measure them. 333 00:28:12,720 --> 00:28:14,760 Keep that in mind. 334 00:28:14,760 --> 00:28:17,400 And finally, what does faith do? 335 00:28:17,400 --> 00:28:20,360 It gains approval. 336 00:28:20,360 --> 00:28:21,360 It gains approval. 337 00:28:21,360 --> 00:28:26,560 It says regarding these people of old, they gained approval through their faith, though 338 00:28:26,560 --> 00:28:29,800 they didn't get everything God promised them in their lifetime. 339 00:28:29,800 --> 00:28:32,080 It will come yet. 340 00:28:32,080 --> 00:28:37,920 God has his time and his way to fulfill it, but it hasn't been yet. 341 00:28:37,920 --> 00:28:44,760 Back in chapter 11 verse 2 it says, by it the men of old gained approval by faith. 342 00:28:44,760 --> 00:28:46,040 So what does faith do? 343 00:28:46,040 --> 00:28:48,960 It gains approval from God. 344 00:28:48,960 --> 00:28:52,720 God testified to these people they were faithful. 345 00:28:52,720 --> 00:29:00,160 It is God's stamp of divine witness to the legitimacy of the faith of these people. 346 00:29:00,160 --> 00:29:06,040 Oh, that God might put that stamp on your faith and mine. 347 00:29:06,040 --> 00:29:12,680 And that because our expectations are what they ought to be of God, and our faith is 348 00:29:12,680 --> 00:29:22,680 a trusting obedience to a properly interpreted promise of God in the Bible, God says, I approve 349 00:29:22,680 --> 00:29:23,680 that faith. 350 00:29:23,680 --> 00:29:28,600 Doesn't mean that we're going to get everything we wanted. 351 00:29:28,600 --> 00:29:31,560 We may lose that loved one. 352 00:29:31,560 --> 00:29:35,200 We may die to that illness. 353 00:29:35,200 --> 00:29:40,960 We may not get that job, but God hasn't failed. 354 00:29:40,960 --> 00:29:46,800 God is working on a grander scheme than we are. 355 00:29:46,800 --> 00:29:49,360 We've talked about what faith is and what faith does. 356 00:29:49,360 --> 00:29:54,640 Let's talk briefly about how faith works. 357 00:29:54,640 --> 00:30:02,560 I believe that faith works in the first place like a muscle needing exercise. 358 00:30:02,560 --> 00:30:07,120 The more it's employed, the greater the tests it can pass. 359 00:30:07,120 --> 00:30:11,280 You understand what I'm saying? 360 00:30:11,280 --> 00:30:14,480 Faith is like a muscle that needs to be exercised in our lives. 361 00:30:14,480 --> 00:30:19,480 The more we exercise it, the greater the tests that we can pass. 362 00:30:19,480 --> 00:30:24,080 I noticed that Abraham was not tested with the offering of Isaac until much later in 363 00:30:24,080 --> 00:30:30,880 his life after he had learned some things about faith and his faith had grown stronger 364 00:30:30,880 --> 00:30:34,280 in the living God. 365 00:30:34,280 --> 00:30:38,200 God knows when we can take the test that he passes us through. 366 00:30:38,200 --> 00:30:46,960 He never sends us through a test to cause us to fail, but always to prove our faith. 367 00:30:46,960 --> 00:30:50,760 God never delights in seeing us come short, though sometimes we do. 368 00:30:50,760 --> 00:30:57,960 But God measures out our trials so that as we pass through them, he knows that if our 369 00:30:57,960 --> 00:31:04,000 faith is properly resting, we will pass it. 370 00:31:04,000 --> 00:31:10,000 As we pass this test, we'll be able to pass this test that may be harder, and this test, 371 00:31:10,000 --> 00:31:12,720 and this test. 372 00:31:12,720 --> 00:31:16,880 There are people who have gone through experiences in life and I look at them and I say, I do 373 00:31:16,880 --> 00:31:20,680 not know how they've managed that. 374 00:31:20,680 --> 00:31:24,560 I could never do that. 375 00:31:24,560 --> 00:31:31,320 But God knows that my faith perhaps is not as strong as theirs. 376 00:31:31,320 --> 00:31:36,120 My faith has to be proved a little longer. 377 00:31:36,120 --> 00:31:39,680 And then the devil comes along and he says, yes, but you know something? 378 00:31:39,680 --> 00:31:45,560 If you really desire to live the life of faith, God's going to do something terrible to you 379 00:31:45,560 --> 00:31:47,840 to really prove that faith. 380 00:31:47,840 --> 00:31:49,760 That's just the way that he works. 381 00:31:49,760 --> 00:31:52,400 He's a liar, has been from the beginning. 382 00:31:52,400 --> 00:31:58,600 But let's suppose that God does allow something to come into our lives that is grievous. 383 00:31:58,600 --> 00:32:03,680 Does that mean that God doesn't love us? 384 00:32:03,680 --> 00:32:08,480 Does that mean that somehow now God has turned against us? 385 00:32:08,480 --> 00:32:10,720 Not at all. 386 00:32:10,720 --> 00:32:16,920 God is up to something that is far grander than we can possibly understand at that moment. 387 00:32:16,920 --> 00:32:22,080 Friend, God is not cruel. 388 00:32:22,080 --> 00:32:23,200 God is not mean. 389 00:32:23,200 --> 00:32:28,080 God is loving and God is kind. 390 00:32:28,080 --> 00:32:33,800 And God does allow us to pass through tests because that matures us and grows us. 391 00:32:33,800 --> 00:32:42,000 God is more concerned about what we are than our comfort. 392 00:32:42,000 --> 00:32:47,280 God is concerned about our character, not our comfort. 393 00:32:47,280 --> 00:32:53,080 So God is always about in our lives testing us and proving us and maturing us and taking 394 00:32:53,080 --> 00:32:54,480 us on. 395 00:32:54,480 --> 00:32:58,920 Faith is like a muscle needing to be exercised. 396 00:32:58,920 --> 00:33:05,400 Then faith works like a child taking a parent's hand. 397 00:33:05,400 --> 00:33:09,600 Seems to me that that's a simple illustration of faith. 398 00:33:09,600 --> 00:33:14,520 It communicates dependence and at the same time brings security. 399 00:33:14,520 --> 00:33:19,760 Can you put yourself back into that childhood time of your life? 400 00:33:19,760 --> 00:33:26,960 When perhaps you did not know who your parent was, I can remember occasions like that, being 401 00:33:26,960 --> 00:33:32,200 in the store and running off and then suddenly finding myself alone and not knowing where 402 00:33:32,200 --> 00:33:37,680 my mother was and beginning to be worried and running down the aisles looking to find 403 00:33:37,680 --> 00:33:43,800 where she was and then seeing her and running up to her and grabbing her around the leg 404 00:33:43,800 --> 00:33:44,800 or taking her hand. 405 00:33:44,800 --> 00:33:47,840 Can you remember occasions like that? 406 00:33:47,840 --> 00:33:48,840 What does that express? 407 00:33:48,840 --> 00:33:55,560 Well it says that you're dependent upon that parent and also that by taking that hand or 408 00:33:55,560 --> 00:34:03,680 hugging that leg, you are expressing the fact that you find security in your parent. 409 00:34:03,680 --> 00:34:05,920 And so it is with God. 410 00:34:05,920 --> 00:34:13,040 The problem that we face is that our human tendency is to be independent of God. 411 00:34:13,040 --> 00:34:23,040 It is frankly not easy to live by faith in the culture that we live in. 412 00:34:23,040 --> 00:34:32,040 Because so many of our needs we can meet ourselves one way or another, good or bad. 413 00:34:32,040 --> 00:34:38,680 We can take it into our own hands and we don't really need to involve God, thank you. 414 00:34:38,680 --> 00:34:41,680 We can do it ourselves. 415 00:34:41,680 --> 00:34:47,840 It is much more difficult for people in this country to live by faith than in some impoverished 416 00:34:47,840 --> 00:34:51,280 country I believe. 417 00:34:51,280 --> 00:34:55,160 Because we have so much and can produce so much and help ourselves. 418 00:34:55,160 --> 00:34:57,840 Therefore we tend to be independent of God. 419 00:34:57,840 --> 00:35:04,560 We need him certain times but most of the time we can go along pretty well. 420 00:35:04,560 --> 00:35:13,680 Because of that we fail to learn the walk of faith that God approves. 421 00:35:13,680 --> 00:35:18,040 I've asked God to show me what it means to live by faith in our culture. 422 00:35:18,040 --> 00:35:27,800 What does it mean for me in my middle-aged time of life in a nice home, in a comfortable 423 00:35:27,800 --> 00:35:33,640 suburb, in a church like this, what does it mean for me to live by faith? 424 00:35:33,640 --> 00:35:36,360 You might ask yourself the same question. 425 00:35:36,360 --> 00:35:38,760 How do we apply faith to our lives? 426 00:35:38,760 --> 00:35:40,760 How does it work for us? 427 00:35:40,760 --> 00:35:47,560 If you strip away all of the things that we tend to attach ourselves to you find in the 428 00:35:47,560 --> 00:35:52,520 end that you're a child, a child of God. 429 00:35:52,520 --> 00:35:58,800 What you really need to do is to take him by the hand and express dependence on him 430 00:35:58,800 --> 00:36:02,280 and find your security in that hold. 431 00:36:02,280 --> 00:36:03,280 How does faith work? 432 00:36:03,280 --> 00:36:07,680 It works like a pilot trusting his instruments. 433 00:36:07,680 --> 00:36:12,680 Because in the end it brings you to the right destination even when you cannot see the way 434 00:36:12,680 --> 00:36:13,680 there. 435 00:36:13,680 --> 00:36:17,960 We have some pilots here in our church. 436 00:36:17,960 --> 00:36:21,200 Some of them are trained to fly by instruments. 437 00:36:21,200 --> 00:36:29,240 Those are the kind I prefer to fly with because you never know when instruments may be needed. 438 00:36:29,240 --> 00:36:33,640 All flight is all right but it's nice to have the knowledge to fly by instruments. 439 00:36:33,640 --> 00:36:37,680 Not only the knowledge but the training and there's a difference. 440 00:36:37,680 --> 00:36:42,160 One may know how the instrument works but you have to be trained in it because we have 441 00:36:42,160 --> 00:36:46,160 the tendency to follow how we're feeling. 442 00:36:46,160 --> 00:36:51,280 Pilots who do that and who fly into a cloud bank are in a heap of trouble because it's 443 00:36:51,280 --> 00:36:58,480 not uncommon for that pilot in a case like that to begin to lose his orientation and 444 00:36:58,480 --> 00:37:03,320 to feel that the plane is turning one way and to adjust for it and as a result of that 445 00:37:03,320 --> 00:37:06,320 put himself into a spin. 446 00:37:06,320 --> 00:37:08,600 I heard a tape of a pilot one time who did that. 447 00:37:08,600 --> 00:37:13,960 It was in a cloud bank and to put his plane into a spin could not find out what was wrong, 448 00:37:13,960 --> 00:37:16,960 couldn't figure it out and crashed and killed himself. 449 00:37:16,960 --> 00:37:22,840 But all if you just had paid attention to the instruments and knew how to use them because 450 00:37:22,840 --> 00:37:26,520 the instruments will guide you. 451 00:37:26,520 --> 00:37:28,800 You have to learn to rely on them, to trust them. 452 00:37:28,800 --> 00:37:34,480 Not the way you feel, not the orientation at the moment, not what you can't see but 453 00:37:34,480 --> 00:37:35,480 the instruments. 454 00:37:35,480 --> 00:37:42,040 And if you concentrate on the instruments eventually you'll get to the destination 455 00:37:42,040 --> 00:37:43,040 that you're looking for. 456 00:37:43,040 --> 00:37:45,560 That's how faith works. 457 00:37:45,560 --> 00:37:49,240 I'm talking to some people today who are in the middle of cloud banks in your lives and 458 00:37:49,240 --> 00:37:51,000 you don't know what's up. 459 00:37:51,000 --> 00:37:53,200 Your orientation at the moment is lost. 460 00:37:53,200 --> 00:37:56,760 You don't know what's out there in front of you. 461 00:37:56,760 --> 00:38:02,200 Well, friend, get your eyes on the instruments that God has given you. 462 00:38:02,200 --> 00:38:09,200 The promises, the properly interpreted promises of the word and let your faith work just like 463 00:38:09,200 --> 00:38:13,840 a pilot trusting his instruments. 464 00:38:13,840 --> 00:38:17,920 Faith is the key to the storehouse of God's blessings. 465 00:38:17,920 --> 00:38:21,240 I don't know of a Christian who would say, well, I don't care about the blessings of 466 00:38:21,240 --> 00:38:22,240 God. 467 00:38:22,240 --> 00:38:23,240 I want the best that God has. 468 00:38:23,240 --> 00:38:30,440 But if we want the best that God has then we must learn what it means to walk by faith 469 00:38:30,440 --> 00:38:31,440 and not by sight. 470 00:38:31,440 --> 00:38:41,680 If we want God's approval in our lives then what we do must be of faith. 471 00:38:41,680 --> 00:38:43,320 Faith can be described variously. 472 00:38:43,320 --> 00:38:46,600 I think we see here in this chapter faith that worships. 473 00:38:46,600 --> 00:38:52,080 You see in Abel, for example, who offered to God a better sacrifice than Cain. 474 00:38:52,080 --> 00:38:57,520 We see faith that walks like Enoch, one of the two men before the flood who walked with 475 00:38:57,520 --> 00:39:01,160 God, it says, Noah and Enoch. 476 00:39:01,160 --> 00:39:09,640 We see a faith that works as in the case of Noah who built an ark. 477 00:39:09,640 --> 00:39:18,320 We see a faith that roars such as that in verse 30 when the walls of Jericho fell down 478 00:39:18,320 --> 00:39:23,720 by faith, not because the walls believed by the way, but because the children of Israel 479 00:39:23,720 --> 00:39:28,880 believed and therefore the walls fell down, a faith that wars. 480 00:39:28,880 --> 00:39:37,120 And we see a faith that waits, Abraham and Sarah, live like aliens in the land of promise 481 00:39:37,120 --> 00:39:42,760 that God had given them, a foreign land it was to them and yet it was their land. 482 00:39:42,760 --> 00:39:45,120 What a contradiction it seemed to be. 483 00:39:45,120 --> 00:39:58,320 They lived in tents as did Isaac and Jacob, but they were willing to wait for God's time. 484 00:39:58,320 --> 00:40:06,080 Frankly I see in the lives of some of you faith that worships, it thrills me. 485 00:40:06,080 --> 00:40:12,240 And I see a faith that walks with God and my heart is challenged. 486 00:40:12,240 --> 00:40:17,320 And I see a faith that works and I'm thrilled. 487 00:40:17,320 --> 00:40:22,040 And a faith that roars and is victorious. 488 00:40:22,040 --> 00:40:24,960 And I see a faith that waits. 489 00:40:24,960 --> 00:40:28,200 Faith is multi-dimensioned in our lives. 490 00:40:28,200 --> 00:40:31,440 How pleased God must be with you. 491 00:40:31,440 --> 00:40:35,880 Your faith causes you to find God's approval. 492 00:40:35,880 --> 00:40:42,920 But the fact is that all of us, even the most faithful of us is on a journey. 493 00:40:42,920 --> 00:40:46,080 None of us has arrived yet at the destination. 494 00:40:46,080 --> 00:40:48,880 Our faith needs to be exercised. 495 00:40:48,880 --> 00:40:52,000 Our faith needs to reach up and take God's hand. 496 00:40:52,000 --> 00:40:58,280 Our faith needs to stay steady on the course that God is laying out for us. 497 00:40:58,280 --> 00:41:01,720 Warren Wiersbe says faith is living without scheming. 498 00:41:01,720 --> 00:41:08,880 Let me ask you a question, are you busy scheming? 499 00:41:08,880 --> 00:41:15,440 How you can get what you want without God interfering? 500 00:41:15,440 --> 00:41:19,440 And without God's blessing on it too, by the way. 501 00:41:19,440 --> 00:41:28,720 Is your life a series of schemes as to how you can concoct and produce what you want? 502 00:41:28,720 --> 00:41:33,400 Or how you can manufacture the end that you desire? 503 00:41:33,400 --> 00:41:36,200 Just leave God out of it? 504 00:41:36,200 --> 00:41:40,280 That's living by scheming, not by faith. 505 00:41:40,280 --> 00:41:46,280 Well let me ask you this, is there something that God has clearly stated in his words that 506 00:41:46,280 --> 00:41:51,440 he wants you to put into practice in your lives, in your life? 507 00:41:51,440 --> 00:41:55,440 Something that up till now you have not done because you just haven't believed God for 508 00:41:55,440 --> 00:41:56,440 it. 509 00:41:56,440 --> 00:41:59,120 Or some of you in your giving have been that way. 510 00:41:59,120 --> 00:42:04,200 You've not been faithful in giving because you just don't know how that money can cover 511 00:42:04,200 --> 00:42:06,680 everything plus a gift to God. 512 00:42:06,680 --> 00:42:09,200 Will you believe God? 513 00:42:09,200 --> 00:42:14,880 God says put him first and he'll provide for your needs. 514 00:42:14,880 --> 00:42:20,360 What are your expectations of God? 515 00:42:20,360 --> 00:42:23,640 Have your expectations been biblical in the past? 516 00:42:23,640 --> 00:42:25,920 Or have they been unbiblical? 517 00:42:25,920 --> 00:42:31,000 And therefore you find in your heart today a doubt, maybe even a creeping cynicism that 518 00:42:31,000 --> 00:42:37,680 you don't really like but it's there because quote, God has failed you, close quote, in 519 00:42:37,680 --> 00:42:38,680 the past. 520 00:42:38,680 --> 00:42:44,280 Well was it God or was it your expectations that were wrong? 521 00:42:44,280 --> 00:42:46,160 Because God has never failed. 522 00:42:46,160 --> 00:42:54,400 There may be though that those who are in greatest spiritual peril are those whose lives 523 00:42:54,400 --> 00:43:01,440 are filled today with success and who are experiencing prosperity and who are tempted 524 00:43:01,440 --> 00:43:06,320 to live therefore independently of God. 525 00:43:06,320 --> 00:43:09,200 Maybe that describes you. 526 00:43:09,200 --> 00:43:14,160 I would pray today that we might determine to live by faith. 527 00:43:14,160 --> 00:43:19,880 I don't know how God may interpret that and apply it in your specific life but he'll show 528 00:43:19,880 --> 00:43:20,880 you. 529 00:43:20,880 --> 00:43:27,040 He wants us to gain approval, he wants us to be added to the list of Hebrews 11 of men 530 00:43:27,040 --> 00:43:36,280 and women who know what it is to trust him and in our faith to war and to wait and to 531 00:43:36,280 --> 00:43:41,200 work and to walk and to worship. 532 00:43:41,200 --> 00:43:46,360 The worshiping may include sacrifice that God will call upon us to make. 533 00:43:46,360 --> 00:43:53,280 The walking will include God in our daily activities, putting him number one. 534 00:43:53,280 --> 00:43:59,960 Working faith means that God will cause us to be involved in serving him. 535 00:43:59,960 --> 00:44:06,520 Wearing faith means that God will call upon us to enter into the battle for souls, to 536 00:44:06,520 --> 00:44:09,480 enter into spiritual warfare. 537 00:44:09,480 --> 00:44:15,120 Waiting faith may mean that God is calling upon us to be willing to be quiet, to be still 538 00:44:15,120 --> 00:44:24,160 and know that he's God or to accept God's holding pattern, God's delay and gratification 539 00:44:24,160 --> 00:44:26,920 of our desires. 540 00:44:26,920 --> 00:44:28,960 How does faith need to be applied to your life? 541 00:44:28,960 --> 00:44:39,440 Will you take the project this week and say, God, show me how to use the key to your blessing? 542 00:44:39,440 --> 00:44:42,440 Let's bow together. 543 00:44:42,440 --> 00:44:51,640 Oh, Father, I'm sure I would speak for most of us here today as we would confess that 544 00:44:51,640 --> 00:45:00,120 our faith has at times been inactive or improperly placed. 545 00:45:00,120 --> 00:45:06,840 We've had unbiblical expectations of you, but we want to learn what faith really is 546 00:45:06,840 --> 00:45:16,440 and what it does and how it works because we want the key turned in our lives so that 547 00:45:16,440 --> 00:45:19,720 the door to your blessings may be opened. 548 00:45:19,720 --> 00:45:28,520 Oh, Lord, I pray that you would impress upon us your faithfulness and that resting upon 549 00:45:28,520 --> 00:45:33,320 that we then would learn also to be faith-filled. 550 00:45:33,320 --> 00:45:37,720 In Jesus' name, amen.