We continue with our theme of Moving Forward with Faith.
As usual, I’m going to start with a question:
What do you expect God to do in your life?
The fact is that we tend to get what we expect from life.
We tend to see what we expect to see.
We tend to hear what we expect to hear.
We tend to feel what we expect to feel.
We usually accomplish what we hope we can accomplish.
But Jesus says in Matthew 9:29 “By your faith it will come to pass.” (NLT)
or as the New King James translates it
“According to your faith be it done to you.” (NKJV)
So maybe instead of asking what do you expect God to do in your life?
Perhaps the question I should ask you this morning is what do you have faith in God that you will do in your life?
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It is important that we all learn to truly live by faith.
Would you like to have more faith?
Have Have you ever asked God for more faith?
You are not alone, even the apostles asked Jesus to show them how to increase their faith.
The truth is that God builds our faith by testing it.
Faith is like a muscle and when it is stretched and pulled, it develops.
James 1:3 reminds us “For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow, because when your stamina is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.
You can’t develop your faith by simply sitting in church, singing a few songs, and listening to someone preach for a few minutes on a Sunday.
Your faith develops as it is tested by the circumstances, situations, issues, and problems of everyday life.
James 1:12 reminds us that “God blesses those who patiently endure trials and temptations.”
Do you feel like your faith is being tested?
If we’re honest, we know it was tested last week and we know it will be tested this week too.
At any time of the day our faith can be tested.
Our reactions to the circumstances, the situations, the problems, the problems of everyday life, that we all face highlight where we really put our faith and our trust.
We can try to trust in our own strength and wisdom or by faith we can trust in God the Father.
Every day have opportunities to build our faith. Walk by faith and not by sight.
Trust God in the details.
It is that we want more faith, we want to grow, we want to advance in faith
– but we want the easy way to it…
we want faith – but we don’t want proof, we don’t want proof.
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There are many ways that God can test our faith, but I want us to consider just three of them this morning, all beginning with the letter P.
The first is this: Our faith is tested by the problems of life.
Problems, pressures, difficulties, difficult circumstances. The stresses of everyday life in a broken world.
In Psalm 25:16-18,21 King David prayed
“Turn to me and have mercy,
because I am alone and in deep anguish.
17My problems go from bad to worse.
Oh, save me from them all!
18 Feel my pain and see my anguish.
Forgive all my sins.
21May integrity and honesty protect me,
because in you I have put my faith.& #8221;
Have you ever felt like this?
Your problems seem to be going from bad to worse.
Let me remind you of the words of the Apostle Paul in Romans 5:3-5
“We can rejoice when we encounter problems and tests, because we know that they help us develop resistance. 4And perseverance builds strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation. 5And this hope will not lead to disappointment. Because we know how much God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love.”
Problems and tests help our resistance. Nothing happens by accident in the life of a follower of Jesus.
Some problems we bring ourselves.
Some problems are the result of other people’s actions or decisions,
We can be both the perpetrator and the innocent victim.
Your past may have shaped you, but it does not define you. In Christ, by faith you have the victory.
If you are a child of God this morning, nothing can enter your life without the permission of God the Father.
Things don’t sneak up on God.
God will never say, “Well, I didn’t expect that to happen.”
There are no mistakes in God’s plan for the life of a believer.
Problems help us to have a deep-seated faith in a God who is bigger than us.
In Matthew 13, Jesus tells the parable of the seed and warns that he who does not have deep roots will not last long.
In Matthew 13:21 He says “As soon as they have problems or are persecuted they will turn away for believing in the word of God.
The problems we face in life are not easy.
If life were easy, then we wouldn’t require any faith.
It is in problems, in difficulties that we learn to trust God, to go deeper, to extend ourselves in prayer. .
The Bible often compares our problem, problems, and difficulties to an oven.
The furnace of a refining fire that heats it so high that gold and silver melt and all impurities are burned away.
God speaking to the prophet Daniel in Daniel 12:9 says of His people “Many will be purified, cleansed and refined by trials.”
What impurities are in your life? that still need to be burned?
Again God speaking of His people through the prophet Zechariah in Zechariah 13:8-9 said
I’ll put that group through the fire
p>
and I will purify them.
I will refine them like silver
and I will purify them like gold.
They will call my name
And I will answer them.
I will say: ‘This is my town,’
and they will say: & #8216;The Lord is our God.’
In your problem do you know that the Lord is your God?
Do you know that God the Father is with you?
Do you know that God has a plan for you?
Do you know that God the Father has a purpose for your life and He will help you overcome it?
God’s purpose for you is much greater than the problem, situation, circumstance, pain or difficulty you have. are going on right now.
God uses problems. He tests our faith and builds our faith in life’s easy times and troubles.
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Second point
Our faith is tested in the precepts of God
His precepts – His commandments that we are destined to follow.
Yes, I know that we live under grace and not under law.
Yes, I know that Jesus died to free us, but that does not give us the freedom to live. and behave as we want.
Take the book of James as an example: in just 108 verses there are 54 commandments that we as born again believers must follow.
If you pick up your Bible and look through the New Testament, you will find over 1,000 precepts, commandments, that we as believers must follow.
Some of the precepts and commandments of God with which we feel comfortable, others can make us uncomfortable,
some cost us and others we believe are impossible to follow.
Precepts like Matthew 6:34 “do not worry about tomorrow, for tome The arrow will bring its own worries. Today’s problem is enough for today. , because this is the will of God for you who belong to Christ Jesus. 8220; be kind to one another, merciful, forgiving one another, just as God forgave you through Christ”
Is that a commandment you omitted?
Sorry. You don’t know what they did.
How can I forgive that?
Forgive as God through Christ has forgiven you.
How about the command in James 5:16 “Confess your sins to one another and pray for one another that you may be healed.”
We may be fine with praying for each other part, but the Confess your sins to one another part…
It’s about trust, isn’t it?
I’m not suggesting that you stand up now and tell everyone what you’re struggling with right now, but is there someone you trust that you can ask to pray for you?
God’s precepts test our faith.
Are you going to trust what God says is right to do,
Or are you going to believe what you think is the right thing to do?
All the precepts, all the commandments are there to test our faith.
When God gives us a mandate in the Bible, it is a requirement that is imposed on our lives and it is a test of our faith.
The test Are you going to trust what God tells you? do, what He says is right.
Or will you trust your own opinion, what you think is right in your own eyes?
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In Hebrews 11 – The Faith Chapter we read about so many who trusted God and acted by faith, Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Rahab, Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel and all the prophets.
They had faith
The people followed God’s precepts, followed his commandments, and grew in faith.
Faith may require risk.
It is not about being comfortable and understanding everything in advance.
It is about allowing God to test and grow our faith.
Is God asking you to take a step of faith?
You will do it?
you may not understand
but by faith will you do it?
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Our faith is tested through the problems of life.
Our faith is tested through the precepts of God
God tests our faith through difficulties, through demands.
Third point
Our faith is tested through Our Patience.
If every prayer had an instant answer,
>if all your needs were met before you knew there was a need,
if the problems never happened,
then we wouldn’t need faith
our faith would never be strengthened.
But it is not like that, we must be patient.
2 Corinthians 6:6 reminds us that “we test ourselves by our purity, our understanding, our patience, our kindness, by the Holy Spirit within us, and by our sincere love.”
Do you enjoy waiting for things to happen?
Are you looking for the shortest queue at the supermarket?
On a trip, looking for the fastest route?
Both in our daily life and in our spiritual life we want to avoid delays.
The truth is that our faith often grows the most when we have to wait patiently for God to act.
What we see as delay is from God. perfect moment.
Think of the people of Israel on their journey from Egypt to the Promised Land.
A trip could have taken weeks, it took them forty years.
The Bible tells us that God led them on their journey from Egypt to the Promised Land.
So why was there such a delay?
Perhaps because God was more interested in developing their faith than in getting them from one place to another as quickly as possible. route.
Deuteronomy 8:2 says “God led you all the way in the desert these forty years to test you to find out what was in your heart.”
In my own life, it is probably in the area of patience that God has worked the most to develop my faith in Him.
He has tested my patience and developed my faith.
Three times in my secular career, my position was fired.
Difficult moments in which I had to learn to wait…