May 8th, 2022 SUNDAY MESSAGE
JOIN US AT 10 AM TODAY!
Transcription Notes:
HAPPY MOTHERS DAY!!
Last week, we talked about RAISING our EXPECTATIONS. SO, did we all come in EXPECTANT as the GIFTED people of God that God might do something extraordinary today?!
In studying for this sermon I came across the life of a pastor and evangelist named George Mueller who led a small church in Bristol, England during the time of Charles Dickens and here is an excerpt from one publication about his life:
“Each day as George walked the streets, he saw children everywhere who had no mom or dad. They lived on the streets or in state-run poorhouses, where they were treated badly. George felt God calling him to open an orphanage to take care of the children.
George prayed, asking God to provide a building, people to oversee it, furniture, and money for food and clothing. God answered his prayers.
"The children are dressed and ready for school. But there is no food for them to eat," the housemother of the orphanage informed George Mueller. George asked her to take the 300 children into the dining room and have them sit at the tables. He thanked God for the food and waited. George knew God would provide food for the children as he always did. Within minutes, a baker knocked on the door. "Mr. Mueller," he said, "last night I could not sleep. Somehow I knew that you would need bread this morning. I got up and baked three batches for you. I will bring it in."
Soon, there was another knock at the door. It was the milkman. His cart had broken down in front of the orphanage. The milk would spoil by the time the wheel was fixed. He asked George if he could use some free milk. George smiled as the milkman brought in ten large cans of milk. It was just enough for the 300 thirsty children.
The needs of the orphanage were met each day. Sometimes a wealthy person would send a large amount of money, or a child would give a small amount received as a gift or for doing chores. Many times food, supplies or money came at the last minute, but God always provided without George telling anyone about his needs. He just prayed and waited on God.”
Mueller cared for over 10,000 orphans during his life, started a bible college, support 130 missionaries. He is known for his extraordinary Faith in God…
If you’ve been in church circles, we’ve all heard a stories of people who made a leap of faith and:
Gave everything up to become Missionaries moving overseas or
Put their reputation on the line or
Dropped everything they had or
Walked into a dangerous situation because
…they were being obedient to something God called them into or they were furthering the Kingdom in some way.
OR maybe you’ve been in an emergency where a moment of faith is REQUIRED because:
you have come to the end of your means or
you have lost control and had no choice but to put everything in the hands of God,
So you stepped out in faith out of necessity
Some people are good at though! Have you met one of those people who just trust God.
The one person you knew seemed to be unphased, cool, calm, and collected no matter what saying: “God’s got this.”
There just seems to be people who have an extraordinary measure of faith to trust God NO MATTER WHAT?!?
It’s a gift isn’t it?
1 Cor. 12:4-9
4 There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit distributes them.5 There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. 6 There are different kinds of working, but in all of them and in everyone it is the same God at work.
7 Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. 8 To one there is given through the Spirit a message of wisdom, to another a message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, 9 to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit,
TODAY, we are talking today about the GIFT OF FAITH!
Like last week, I want to give some definitions to this then I will give some explanation:
First, the “Gift of Faith” is not the same as “SAVING FAITH” as in the “trust in Christ that required by every in order to BE SAVED.”
It is a special measure of faith that God uses to:
work miracles or do healings
To sustain a person through difficulties
To take a risk on behalf of a Kingdom endeavor
At its core, the definition of FAITH is TRUST!
The Greek word “Pistis” is often translated as TRUST in the bible.
It is having “confidence or certainty in something.”
Let me round the definition out with a couple other opinions:
Faith is the ability to ENVISION what God can do, and TRUST him to accomplish it, even when it feels IMPOSSIBLE!
They say, “I know that God said it and I just believe it.”
They have big prayers, big goals, big dreams, and they are often NOT shocked when God does it
…saying “that’s just what God does.”
I heard someone who was asked to describe their gift say: “I more naturally trust in God first before stressing about it.”
…and it is this faith that fuels or ENERGIZES the supernatural work of God in our lives!
NOT THE ONLY WAY BUT OFTEN “Your faith has healed.”
So, part of the reason we are teaching on this gift on it’s own is because, if we want to see God do extraordinary things, we are going to have to exercise extraordinary faith.
Faith is the fuel that the other gifts run on and there are some who are given an extra measure of it…we need those with this gift to inspire us, show us how to trust, and lead out!
…because MOST OF US have TRUST & CONTROL issues!
Meaning: I trust ME more than I trust any of you to do this thing, to make the plan, to execute a project, to do the task!
but, what we often DON’T know is that we also mean we trust OURSELVES MORE than we trust God.
Hebrews 11:1 gives us the BEST definitions of Faith. It says this:
11 Now FAITH is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. 2 This is what the ancients were commended for.
BUT, WE tend to have “confidence in” and “assurance about” what we DO see!
We trust what we can measure, predict, understand, and control
These things are even considered more REAL to us than others.
In his book, A Praying Life, Paul Miller explains why this happens writing:
“...(some thinkers) divided the world into FEELINGS, things that are true only for me, and FACTS, things that are true for everyone. Kant lumped prayer and religion together with other things we can’t be certain of, such as love or right and wrong (insert faith here!). They belong to the feeling world of personal opinion reflected by the top half of this chart. In the bottom half of the chart are things we are certain of, such as trees and cars. They are public and real—true for everyone.”
Check out this ILLUSTRATION from the book:
Miller continues:
“Author Nancy Pearcey summarized this split between facts and feelings, saying, “The lower story became the realm of publicly verifiable facts while the upper story became the realm of socially constructed values.”...When you lump God together with feelings and subjective opinion, then God is marginalized. Prayer feels odd.”
…and so does EVERYTHING ELSE in that upper portion, including FAITH and ACTIONS based on trusting something that is unseen!
This is what I tried to point out in the first sermon with the attic and house illustration: that top portion is the attic and the bottom is the floor we live in.
It’s not that we DENY that the things in the upper portion exist
but we put them up in the attic of our brain because it’s not
something that we think we regularly NEED, see, or even touch,
It’s something that doesn’t affects my day-to-day living.
As a result of this, we no longer have an INTEGRATED view of the world like the early Church did, we have a moment in history that dis-integrated these things and that separates our understanding of things seen and unseen.
SO, modernism and “the Age of Enlightenment” have had a much stronger negative effect on faith than we realize! NOT ALL BAD.
It’s like having to two arms and only using one of them while acting like the other doesn’t exist!
In fact, we tend to see those who blend the two worlds and operate regularly on faith as odd, or irresponsible, even disconnected with reality!!
They say: Let’s PRAY about that.
We say: That’s cute but, eventually, we need to make a PLAN.
They say: Let’s ask God to find out more on the situation.
We say: Nah, let’s just GOOGLE!
They ask: “How do we do it, God?”
We ask: What’s the latest best practice, business model, or book?
We say: “there is no way to do it!”
They say: “I don’t know how you’re gonna make a way but I know you will…”
When WE see pharaoh's army behind us and the seashore in front
the normal person screams “HOW ARE YOU GONNA GET OUT OF THIS?!?!”
while People with the Gift of Faith calmly wait and relish the disclosure of Gods movement with awe and wonder: “Okay God, how ARE you gonna get us out this one?”
So, there is often a tension and conflict here instead of us hearing this scripture and realizing, those with extraordinary faith are a GIFT to us and put here for OUR benefit!!
We tend to get annoyed!
We wonder: “why aren’t you strategizing, considering the options, and doing your homework?” and
The person with faith can look at the rest of us frustrated thinking: “why aren’t you trusting God?”
So there is a tension of “who or what are we going to trust?!”
I think that, in order for FAITH to play a significant, active role in our lives and to translate into BIG MOVES of God, we MUST stop hindering those with this gift!
Let them help us pull it down out of the attic and let it saturate our day to day.
Let FAITH operate along with (and sometimes “instead of”) those things we tend to see as more trustworthy.
I think one level of maturity is when we trust in GOD’S solutions before we trust in OTHER solutions!
but, keep in mind, if you have lots of other solutions, or you grew up with LOTS of solutions at your disposal, you have been trained to go to those things first.
When you have less resources to answer your problems, you didn’t have solutions outside of God so you have a muscle of faith that may be a little more developed!
AND, if you’re someone who thinks miracles, healings, and supernatural events just don’t happen anymore, maybe you’re so well resourced, so ENVELOPED by the culture we just described that your whole life, and the WAY you operate does everything it can to avoid the context where you will need to take a step of faith!
PRIVILEGES and ADVANTAGES are actually HINDRANCES to a walk of FAITH!
The more you HAVE, the more you will HAVE TO OVERCOME to see big moves of God!
AND…I want to encourage us ALL to make bigger and bolder Kingdom moves
that force us to stop and pray: “uhhhhh…Jesus, I am in over my head here and I need you to step in!!”
If we stifle those for whom this comes naturally, we continue to see the stale operation of normal possibilities, regular achievements, and best practices
that will sometimes work and sometimes not work.
That will produce normal results when it does…
Before we end, I want to go back to Hebrews because there is a something else attached to the Gift of Faith. REMEMBER…
Hebrews 11:1-2 say…
11 Now FAITH is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. 2 This is what the ancients were commended for.
THEN, there are over 15 examples of incredible faith given by the writer from the history of God’s people!
Starting with Creation
Abraham, Joseph, Moses.
We can't go through them all but here is the ending…
29 By FAITH the people passed through the Red Sea as on dry land; but when the Egyptians tried to do so, they were drowned.
30 By FAITH the walls of Jericho fell, after the army had marched around them for seven days.
31 By FAITH the prostitute Rahab, because she welcomed the spies, was not killed with those who were disobedient.
32 And what more shall I say? I do not have time to tell about Gideon, Barak, Samson and Jephthah, about David and Samuel and the prophets, 33 who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was promised; who shut the mouths of lions, 34 quenched the fury of the flames, and escaped the edge of the sword; whose weakness was turned to strength; and who became powerful in battle and routed foreign armies. 35 Women received back their dead, raised to life again. There were others who were tortured, refusing to be released so that they might gain an even better resurrection. 36 Some faced jeers and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. 37 They were put to death by stoning; they were sawed in two; they were killed by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated— 38 the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, living in caves and in holes in the ground.
39 These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised, 40 since God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect.
12 Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, 2 fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith.
What?!?! That’s an insane track record…and it doesn’t always end in the rescue even when people act on Faith!
So, LISTEN: Is it safer to operate without faith?? YES!
But we are called to be and committed to be a COURAGEOUS people
What kind of stories of faith HAVE you and ARE you building up?!
As a young christian, the testimonies of people who radically embraced Jesus call on their life was amazing and empowering to me. It told me there were supernatural possibilities at work and…
I remember listening to the stories of others thinking:
Wow, Angel- First Bptist BHC
Or Meh?! GOLF SCORE?
I want to remind you that the next generation of the church is watching and being discipled to think about what is “normal” in the Kingdom of God
Is it Courageous Faith or boring stories of chasing the American Dream?
Maybe they’ll break through…
What are you going to do if your children read these words (BIBLE) and actually believe it?
What if they actually try it out, what will your response be??
I’ll be honest, it probably doesn’t look like clean cut little boys and girls who follow all the rules and live in the safety of cleanly manicured lawns avoid risk at all costs.
Since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses from biblical history, we can be inspired and JOIN THEM!
Since this time, George Mueller, and THOUSANDS of people have stepped in and stepped up to the challenge of crazy steps of faith - I assume many with this very gift - and it inspires us to do the same!!
We can be a participants in being that next cloud of faith-filled witnesses!!
We’ve said it before: “that was THEIR story of faith so what is YOURS”?!
Listen!! You NEED great stories of faith SO, when was the last time you me - WE - took a big leap of FAITH?!
Testimonies of Faith inspire others to and challenge them to do the same…
If this is your gift, WE NEED YOU! Be UNBOUND today in the hearing of this word!
We invite you who sit comfortable in the season of RISK so that when the rest of us see you, we are comforted, it rubs off, and we take heart because the next time, we want to do the same!
We invite you to help us who struggle to overcome OUR unbelief, challenge us, inspire us, help us raise our expectations!
To become a faith-driven army of people who see the works of healing, deliverance, prophecy, miracles, and the radical love of Jesus saturate the world around us THROUGH US!
COMMUNION:
(1 COR. 11:23B-26)
“The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, 24 and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.” 25 In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.” 26 For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.”
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
PRAYER REQUESTS:
We are hosting prayer team meetings for both the congregation at large and individuals to sign up for individual prayer.
SUGGESTIONS FOR WORSHIP:
“Praise & Worship” Spotify playlist and “Praise & Worship” YouTube playlist (slightly different from each other), both of diverse music that are being constantly updated!
Bethel Music :
Bethel Music’s hours of live music YouTube Playlist, also being constantly updated
Bethel provides chords to most (if not all) of their songs here (just have to register email, but free!)
Live worship moments from the Upper Room YouTube Playlist
Journal writing! (I’m a writer too, so sometimes creative writing and writing my thoughts to God is my form of worship.)
Declare and worship with truth by singing and praying scriptures.
WORSHIP NIGHT! Dedicate a night to worship with friends and family, your house church or neighbors, those who need prayer, love worship, or just enjoy music through a video chat platform like Zoom. You can have one person leading at a time (switching off to whoever else wants to lead) while others sing along, pray, or prophesy, etc.
Serving your community, both online, in person, or both, is a great way to worship God, from spreading encouragement and God’s Word online to physically serving food to others. If you are able to go out and serve, click here for opportunities.
COMMISSIONING:
As Jesus said in John 20:21,
"Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you."
Go, be the Church!
In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Amen.