What I'm seeing a lot in the church
and just talking to couples and families is
faith is faltering.
Faith is wavering.
A lot of the counseling appointments are because
of faith.
Shane, my faith is falling apart.
I can't seem to, where's God at in
the midst of my dilemma, my trouble?
Where, where is this, where's He at?
My faith is weak.
My faith is faltering.
So I want to give a message tonight
just to you.
And we began in Matthew chapter 9 verse
14 last week.
And it talks about, we're talking about when
the disciples of John came to him saying,
why do we in the Pharisees fast often?
And I'm not going to go and read
that all again, because I gave a whole
message on it last week.
And it really was more topical on this
area of fasting and mourning and where the
direction of our nation is, what God's word
says, what the direction of the nation is.
It's very scary, very scary reality.
And there comes a time where I believe
the church needs to speak out and say,
listen, return to him, people return to the
fear of the Lord, return to God.
You've backslidden, come back to the central focus,
come back.
Oh, backsliding church.
And that's what we need to talk about
sometimes.
And that's what I talked about last week.
So if you didn't, weren't here, go listen
to last week's message.
And a lot of this will make sense.
But I left off at verse 16, and
it's an interesting text because I've heard about
a dozen or so different sermons preached in
different directions on this.
And this is where Jesus is talking about
fasting, but don't fast because the bridegrooms here.
But when the bridegrooms leaves, we will fast.
And then he says, no one puts a
piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment
for the patch pulls away from the garment
and the tear is made worse.
Nor do they put new wine into old
wineskins or else a wineskin would break and
the wine is spilled and the wineskins are
ruined.
But they put new wine into new wineskins
and both are preserved.
And I've heard a lot, a lot of
pastors take that a lot of different directions
about what Jesus is doing now in grace
versus the law or being filled with the
spirit, all different kinds of things.
But what I want to do just talk
about briefly, because I'm trying to go through
verse by verse is it looks like in
context, he's saying, listen, in the same way
that you don't fast when the bridegrooms here,
you fast when it's the time of morning,
you don't put an unshrunk piece of piece
of cloth on an old wineskin because when
that wine ferments, the whole thing will break.
So he's just giving, I believe, a practical
application.
Listen, here's what happens when this when the
wineskin breaks and you use the cloth and
and this is the same way of fasting.
You don't fast when the bridegrooms here.
You don't fast in a time of rejoicing,
you fast in a time of mourning.
So to me, it doesn't you have to
read all these little things into it and
which are good, they're biblical.
But I think he's just showing a parallel
there of what of what that fasting looks
like.
And basically what I can pull from this
is the right thing done at the wrong
time is the wrong thing.
Did you catch that?
Remember that Christians, the right thing done at
the wrong time can be the wrong thing.
And we just saw this this week, we
went to memorials, as I just talked about,
and that this is not a time to
quote Romans 828 to the parents.
You guys know what that says?
All things work together for God are all
things work together for good for those who
are called according to his purpose.
You don't quote that to somebody who's burying
their child this week.
The right verse, wrong time.
We also see this in instructing our kids,
sometimes we can do the right thing at
the wrong time.
Last week, my son, my wife, remember he
cut his little finger at the pocket knife
I gave him.
And I said, oh, he's all the stuff
they say, how, why are you doing that?
Why are you playing with that knife?
I told you not to play the knife
like that.
See, that's what's going to happen.
He's crying.
No, that's why I told you don't play
the pocket knife in the house with another
knife.
See, that was not the right thing to
say at that time.
That's after the crying's done and you come,
you know, come for dinner.
Listen, son, this is what I told you.
So the wrong thing or the right thing
at the wrong time, remember that in your
marriages to you can say the right thing
at the wrong time and get in a
lot of trouble.
I'm actually convinced that many arguments in marriage
are because we said the right thing at
the wrong time.
And all you do with that is you
throw fuel on the fire.
If you have a little fire going, try
to throw some gasoline on it, watch what
happens.
That's exactly because our life and death is
in the power of the tongue when we
speak.
So be very careful, the right thing in
the wrong.
And that's what Jesus saying, listen, you don't
do this and do that.
You do you do these certain things.
So I don't want to spend too much
time on that, because I want to talk
about this whole issue of health.
My faith is faltering.
And in doing so, I want to pull
in different passages from the Bible showing how
we can build our faith, because your faith
right now, even tonight is either building or
it's being pulled down.
It's either growing or it's withering.
Do you realize that one or the other
faith like sin doesn't stand still.
It either grows or withers depending on whether
we feed or starve it.
And faith is the same way it's got
to be built, it's got to be encouraged.
So let's look at that.
And I want to throw out this question
before I get to that.
How can say, you know, that the gentleman
I prayed for and I ran, if you
don't know a story, it's unbelievable.
I think he's in solitary confinement now being
in prison for his faith.
Lord knows what's going on with him.
How can he hold on to his faith
while others walk away at the slightest hint
of trouble?
Did you ever think about that?
I mean, you think you just say, oh,
hey, all is all is the real God.
Let me out of here.
Why doesn't he denounce him?
Where's that faith come from?
I've seen people walk away over childish things,
over little traumas.
Also, how can martyrs who've been killed in
the past rejoice, but others fall away because
they love this world more than the things
of God?
So faith is interesting.
Either somebody has solid faith that we look
at and say, that's unbelievable, or it's like
a like a little fragile piece of, you
know, what's a fragile thing?
Oh, yeah, those things.
OK, let's say just just a fragile piece
of glass and faith is like, which is
any minute outrageous, fallen, drop it and fall
apart.
But your faith, which is barely holding on,
like, oh, there it goes.
It's why does somebody have solid faith, rock
solid faith?
No matter what comes, the storms may come,
but their faith is not is not going
to waver.
What about Joe, though he's slain?
Yet why trust him?
God said, listen, devil, go do what you
want, but don't destroy his body.
And all hell broke loose.
We talked about that before, but he held
on to his faith.
How is that possible?
Well, I want to share that with you
tonight.
And where I'm at right now is in
Matthew chapter nine, verse 18.
And what's interesting about this is this is
where Jesus goes through and let me just
read it.
Actually, verse 18, while he spoke these things
to them, behold, the ruler came to Jesus
and he worshiped him, saying, my daughter has
just died, but come and lay your hand
on her and she will live.
So Jesus arose and followed him and so
did his disciples.
And suddenly a woman who had a flow
of blood for 12 years came from behind
him and touched the hem of his garment.
For she said, if I just touch his
garment, I shall be made well.
But Jesus turned around and when he saw
her, he said to her, be of good
cheer, daughter, your faith has made you well.
And because of this man's faith, Jesus went
and rose that girl out of death.
And now he's healing this lady.
And then it comes to verse 23, when
Jesus came into the ruler's house and saw
the flute players and the noisy crowd wailing.
He said to them, make room for the
girl is not dead, but sleeping.
And they ridiculed him.
But when the crowd was put outside, he
went and took her by the hand and
the girl arose.
In verse 27, when Jesus departed from their
two blind men, followed him, crying out, saying,
son of David, have mercy on us.
And when he had come into the house,
the blind man came to him and Jesus
said to them, do you believe that I
am able to do this?
And they said, yes, Lord.
And then he touched their eyes, saying, according
to your faith, let it be done to
you.
So throughout scripture, you see, according to your
faith, because of your faith, drawing faith in
all the time.
But we know the dangerous side of that
is then faith dictates everything.
I'm we become God because our faith dictates
the sovereignty of God.
And that's part of what you'll hear sometimes
the faith movement or positive confession, these types
of things where your faith is really almost
like God's a genie in a bottle or
he's a butler, whatever you want.
My faith is so strong that I can
get God to do whatever he wants.
But the Bible doesn't really teach that.
It teaches that faith is solid.
We must have faith in the promises of
God.
We must have faith in his sovereignty.
But at the end of the day on
this side, God is sovereign.
His sovereign will will prevail.
But it is challenging to get to a
scriptures like this, because how do you apply
these things practically?
Because on one hand, Jesus is our model
that we're to follow.
Right.
But on the other hand, he's a model
that we cannot follow.
We see the perfect model here.
Here, follow me.
Do do as I did.
But on the other hand, we come short.
We can't follow this perfect model.
And so we get to these scriptures.
How does this healing work and how faith
and healing?
And I'm not going to go over this
again because I already went over this a
few months ago and it's in your bulletins.
If you want to know more about a
healing, what the church's view on healing is,
there's a message they're healing, seeking to clear
the confusion.
And in a nutshell, let me just say
this.
The reason many prayers aren't answered is because
we think in the present tense, like microwave
Christianity, when it comes to this issue of
healing, we're not God.
Jesus was God.
He was walking on Earth as God, the
incarnate son of God.
So he knew the perfect will of God.
So everybody he came in contact with was
healed because he knew the will of God.
He was God.
So in our feeble lives, right, we try,
we pray for things and it doesn't happen.
And we pray for this.
It doesn't happen.
This person's healed.
This person is not.
It's like we walk around like, oh, gosh,
is this for today or is it not?
And I don't think we need to live
like that.
We need we can boldly pray for people
for healing.
Lord, I have the faith or I pray
for healing.
But you're sovereign.
You're in control.
It's your will, not mine.
And this side of the camp says the
opposite, sometimes they say, Shane, you can't say
that you can't say if it's God's will,
because that means, you know, you're praying kind
of a half hearted prayer.
And I don't believe that at all.
I think it takes a lot of faith
to say, Lord, I'm praying.
I'm praying.
I'm trusting you, Lord.
I know you can do this.
I know you can.
But even if you don't, I will still
serve you.
I will still love you.
I will still follow you, follow you.
So that's what faith is.
Remember the three the three boys caught in
the fiery furnace right before they went in
there?
They said, King, we're not going to bow
to you.
Our God can deliver us.
We're not going to bow to you.
Our God can deliver us.
But even if he doesn't, we will not
bow to you.
That's a very good view on healing, too.
And I'm Lord, why aren't you?
Even if you don't, I'm still going to
follow you because this has been a lot
of confusion.
I've seen churches split over this.
I've seen arguments loud, loud and name calling
people not talk to each other again on
this issue of healing.
And I think we all just need to
be honest and say, I'm not real sure.
I know God can heal.
I know it tells me to exercise my
faith, but sometimes people aren't healed and that
sometimes people are healed that don't have faith
and they won't even pray.
And what's going on here?
It's called sovereignty.
God's sovereign control, because a lot of times
through healing, we want it now.
Microwave Christianity.
But God's doing something in that person's life
or maybe like Johnny Erickson Tata, right?
You've heard of her on the radio.
She'll she'll say that God has kept me
here to glorify him.
This is my ministry.
He's not healing me.
And she'll say that.
And I knew a guy in town.
I still know where he lives.
He says the reason she's not healed is
because she doesn't have enough faith.
It's pathetic.
Really?
I mean, this is unbelievable.
Where do you guys come up with this
information?
Not from here, but they'll take this scripture
according to your faith because of your faith.
So that means now I can use faith
like a genie in a bottle, right?
I want this.
But on the other hand, I don't want
to dismiss faith because scripture says without faith,
it's impossible to please God.
According to your faith.
It'll be done to you.
So I think faith plays an active role
in our prayers.
We have to go to God.
We have to pray as if he's going
to he's going to do things and heal
people.
That's how we we approach him, because there's
something powerful about faith that I don't think
we understand.
Number one is because we don't have a
correct definition of faith, because sometimes we think
right faith is believing whatever I want to
happen to have faith that this is going
to happen.
Well, let's look at what the Bible says,
what faith is and how can we build
our faith?
Is your faith faltering?
Because all of us, let's be honest, our
faith goes like this sometimes, right?
You're not always on the mountaintop.
If you are talking to me afterwards, because
I love to know how you do it.
Tell me your secret and be careful, because
you're probably not being honest.
Most people, there's a there's great faith and
then there's Lord, I'm having some difficult times.
There's the valleys and then there's mountaintop experiences
and there's bottoms and there's ups, there's highs,
there's lows.
That's the one Paul even said.
I despaired of life.
Paul, Paul, poor Paul.
What's wrong with him?
Didn't he have enough faith?
He felt like dying sometimes.
He would say, oh, wretched man that I
am.
Who will deliver me from this body of
sin and death so we can relate to
these guys?
So with that said, let's let's look at
faith.
What is the definition of faith?
Hebrews is the best part to turn Hebrews.
Chapter 11, I believe I should have wrote
that down.
I'm sorry.
Look, I believe it's chapter 11, verse 11.
If not, let me know.
Now, faith is the substance of things hoped
for the evidence of things not seen.
So faith is the substance.
It consists of the things that are hoped
for.
Are you hoping for some things that God
has promised you or that line up according
to his will?
That's faith.
And it's the evidence of things not seen.
So it's faith.
I'll use Ronnie Chelsea's example.
I hope they don't mind, but they have
faith because they better have faith.
Could I have faith that this this is
not going to be the end of their
ministry?
They're going to be leading a lot of
people in worship someday.
I see I have I have faith.
So I hope you guys do.
They probably have that promises in their heart
that, Lord, I know you're wanting me to
lead thousands into praise and worship.
I know I can.
Lord, I know I have that faith, but
help me with my unbelief.
I have this thing that's hoped for, even
though I don't see it.
That's called faith because God's going to grow
that.
And same thing in our own lives, in
your life, in your life.
You know, I have a praying for family
members.
Lord, I can feel I know you're going
to bring them to the Lord.
To you, to Lord, I know you're going
to bring them to you and I can
feel it.
And you just keep that's it's the substance
of things not seen, basically things that haven't
happened yet.
I have faith because God, you are the
God of restoration.
You're going to restore my marriage.
But what about if he doesn't?
Is he still God?
Because I know people I've prayed with people
up here crying here, crying back there when
we first started the church.
And guess what?
It didn't get restored.
And they would say, Shane, I'm I'm praying,
I'm petitioning, I'm fasting God to restore my
marriage.
And the spouse is out found somebody else.
What do you do with that is your
faith.
That's why your faith always has to be
linked to him, not the circumstances.
If your faith is connected to your circumstances,
you'll walk around like a double minded man.
The Bible says double minded woman unstable in
all their ways because my faith is tied
to my circumstance.
No, your faith is tied to God no
matter what comes.
It's tied to him.
So faith, that's the definition of it.
It's not whatever you want, however you want.
It's it's it's the substance of things hoped
for, the evidence of things not seen.
Now, here's the key.
Faith is not mind over matter.
You know, he's trying harder.
I'm going to try harder.
It's mind over matter.
Come on, chair, move.
You know, I've got the faith and, you
know, Star Wars stuff.
That's not faith.
Faith, based on what I put together, looking
all the scripture, it's aligning our life with
the will of God.
We recognize his promises and we have the
same desires as he has.
And we look forward to the opportunities he's
given us.
But on the flip side, faith is also
the anchor that holds us in the storms
of life.
In a nutshell, faith is God at the
center of your life, holding it all together.
And I look to him no matter what
comes.
I will look to him no matter what
may transpire.
I will look to him.
But we'd like to we'd like to look
at what's happening to us.
Right.
Do you know the word happiness comes from
half a stance, half a stance?
And it means what's happening to me right
now.
That's where that word happiness comes from.
I have happiness because of what's happening to
me right now.
And then tomorrow, when I don't have happiness,
what's that called?
Sorrow, depression, gloom.
So our life is lived off everything what's
happening to us.
So how can these people, especially in the
underground church, experience tremendous joy and peace and
persecution because their eyes are set on him
and you have to constantly put your eyes
on him because the world will pull you
away.
You often hear me say by default.
Right.
I explained to my kids the other day
what that means.
You don't have to do anything and you'll
gravitate away from God.
You don't have to do anything.
Just sit here.
Go home.
Just sit, watch TV.
You just gravitate away from God.
The flesh just pulls you away.
It's like my little kids now.
They like to put little sticks in the
curb and gutter.
You know, as long as the water's clean,
right?
It's running down the street.
Put a little make little boats.
You never see those going the other way
up the hill.
Just drop it in there and there it
goes.
That's what happens to people.
You drop in the world.
There they go.
You drop in the world.
There they go swimming downstream with the culture.
So the Christian faith is this way.
It's against the current.
It's upstream.
So you can't look at your circumstances because
that will just pull you back down.
And that's why spiritual disciplines are so important.
That's why the church doesn't talk about him
on holiness and prayer and fasting and worship
and reading the word of God.
Very good things, because those keep me against
the flow of the culture and point me
into the direction of Christ.
They're called spiritual disciplines for a reason.
They're not spiritual recommendations.
As soon as they become recommendations, we don't
do them, do we?
Because we don't want to, they hurt.
So here's the main reason people falter that
I've seen over the years.
You can look in the word of God.
God's not doing this or that.
And we become sour.
We become bitter.
You know, there's a lot of bitter, resentful
Christians that are mad at God.
There's a lot.
And I just want to tell you tonight,
I don't know if there's any here tonight,
but it's not God.
Don't be mad at him.
It's once we turn our life over to
him.
I think it's okay to be emotional and
get upset and go through things, but ultimately
you don't want to hold on to that.
And you hold on to that bitterness, upset
about God.
You don't want to live your life that
way.
James one, three, the testing of your faith.
Here we go.
Get that word.
The testing of your faith produces patients.
So everybody who pays for praise for patients,
you're not going to get up in the
morning and have patients.
Guess what's going to happen.
You're going to have difficult kids or difficult
marriage or difficult coworkers, coworkers to foster patients.
And then the beginning of this verse counted
all joy brethren.
When you fall into various trials.
No, I don't like that verse at all.
Count it all joy.
It's not joyful.
It hurts, but he's saying, listen, look at
your, look at your affliction.
Look at your tribulation.
Allow that tribulation to, to lead to patience
and endurance and the attributes of God in
your life.
But it's through that suffering.
Look at what it says.
The testing of your faith.
When faith is tested, it comes out tried.
And you show me a person who's ever
been tested.
They have the golden spoon, right?
Or silver spoon in their mouth.
Nothing.
They have weak faith.
They get, they get shaky leg as soon
as something bad comes up.
But you show me who somebody who stood
the test of time.
They've got some years under their belt.
They've got strong faith.
They can look cancer in the eye.
They can look whatever in the eye and
say, I have faith and I'm not wavering.
Well, another key verse by faith, we understand
here we go again in Hebrews by faith.
We understand that the world were framed by
the word of God so that the things
which are seen were not made of the
things which are visible.
So you're saying by faith, we see that
there's a God, right?
By faith.
So when it comes to faith, you don't
have to apologize for your faith.
You got that?
You don't have to apologize for your faith.
I hear a lot.
People say, oh, that's I know it's silly.
I know it seemed outlandish.
There's some God I know, but it's my
faith thing.
No, they need to be apologizing.
You walk outside, look around.
His invisible attributes are clearly seen.
You know, we talk about the oxygen level
and the nitrogen level and the planets and
the earth just tilts just a certain way.
The sun comes right up in the moon.
Everything's just right.
And it just all happened.
You don't have to apologize for your faith.
We understand by faith.
We understand why, because his invisible attributes are
clearly seen.
Romans one, God's invisible attributes are clearly seen.
So he said, there's no God.
Just look around.
His invisible attributes are everywhere so that they
are so powerful.
His invisible attributes are so powerful that the
Bible says that you are without excuse.
So when it comes to the judgment day,
he'll say, well, I didn't know you're without
excuse.
Creation screams creator.
You walk in here.
You think these chairs just put themselves in
that right order?
Over a million years, they would do that.
They would build themselves and put the screws
on the legs.
How much more of the universe?
How much more of the world keeping everything
together?
God says you're without excuse.
It's everywhere, everywhere.
And people like to, you know, they debate,
oh, there's no God.
And who gave you that sense of morality
in your heart?
Everybody knows there's a conviction there.
If there's no God, why are you so
mad at him?
If there's no God, why do you want
to get rid of him?
Why?
Because it's that it's in there created in
his image because of the fall of sin
without Christ, without turning to God.
We're caught in that sinful nature and we
don't want to have anything to do with
God.
I remember at the memorial today, there's people
sitting in front of me, I could tell
as soon as the pastor got up there,
I didn't preach it that one.
But as soon as he got up there,
people are like, oh, it's time to go.
Time to go to the bathroom.
Hi.
We're talking.
Look on the phone.
I don't want to talk.
Don't don't bring up the word of God.
Don't talk about those things.
Why?
Where does that come from?
Where does that antagonistic spirit come from?
So it says right here, by faith, we
understand that the world's were framed by the
word of God.
God spoke it and it came into existence.
That is not some, you know, something.
Well, I just have faith and blind faith
and we really don't know.
And of course, there's an element of faith
involved.
But at the same time, look at what
you're putting faith into.
A creator that sustains everything.
Look at the look at the when I
was studying like the makeup of the body,
the skeletal system, the muscular system, the neural
neuromuscular neurotransmitters and all the stuff about how
the body works and in fitness, I was
just how can somebody not think that somebody
put all this together?
I just blew my mind.
This isn't some silly kid that needs, you
know, Christianity's a crutch and I better just
look.
Look at how the body's made up.
Scientists can't even design a telescope or anything
as good as the eye, the human eye.
How can bring in and bring out the
light?
Everything they can't even invent that.
Nothing compares out of the brain.
How it holds all this information, how can
disseminate right, wrong, remember back to therefore to
make a choice in the future and make
a choice now.
Where does all that come from?
From premortal ooze that came up out of
it and then one cell turned into two
cells and then this and then there's a
man, there's a woman there.
Here we go.
That's silly.
That's foolishness.
I mean, I don't mean to joke about,
but it's outright foolishness to think nothing.
Something came from nothing.
Order came from disorder.
All this came from chaos.
It makes no sense.
So that's one step of faith.
Do not apologize for it.
God does not seem silly and outlandish.
It makes perfect sense if you look around.
Just look outside, walk outside the next time
you're having difficulties, look outside, look at the
universe, look at the stars at night and
say, Lord, if you hold these in your
hand, clearly you hold my situation in your
hand.
Think about next time you think, oh, God,
I don't know if he heard my cries.
I don't know if God can handle this
one.
Just walk outside.
Just look around.
Look at what he's done already.
And then I've got four or five points
here.
The first one is by faith, Abel offered
to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain.
You know the story in the Bible, right?
It's not fiction.
It's truth.
Abel offered a more excellent sacrifice to God
than Cain.
So Cain killed him.
Jealousy.
But by faith, it says by faith, Abel
offered to God a more excellent sacrifice.
So conversely, faith falters when worship and righteousness
falter.
This was about worshiping.
Cain was bringing his offering of worship.
So your faith will falter when worship falters.
That's why I promote worship so much after
the service, before the service, whenever you can
get in your car, get into worship, because
that builds your faith.
Why?
Because it's it's a spirit in you crying
all the father drawing close to the father,
not get away from me, father.
Right.
We want.
Many people don't want worship.
And I just can't understand it.
I just don't understand that because that builds
your faith as your heart's crying out to
God and worshiping.
Say, I don't know how.
I don't think any of us have mastered
it, but you got to try.
Put on music, get your heart in the
right frame of mind and begin worshiping him,
and it might hurt a little bit.
That's why the Bible says draw near to
God and he'll draw near to you.
It's not easy.
It's not.
It's simple, but it's not easy.
So we see that faith by faith.
He came and he worshiped God.
So your faith will falter and falter if
you're not a worshiper.
Your faith will not be as grounded as
somebody who is a worshiper because they're connected.
That's the time.
Do you think we connect with God in
a meaningful, powerful way right now sitting here
in some way?
But really, think about it.
Just listening.
Oh, yes.
Good ideas.
Here he goes again.
I do this.
I do that.
And then we get in our car, go
eat dinner and wake up.
Where is that meaningful relationship with God happening?
If you're not worshiping, guess what?
It's not happening.
That's one thing we want to teach our
kids, if we can teach them how to
worship God, don't follow my coattails, go in
your own room and cry out to God
and worship him because that builds faith.
It's hard to knock a worshiper off the
steps.
The enemy can't come into a worshiping heart.
What he does is he gets that heart
out of worship.
They might be in the word, but they're
not in worship.
And that's how he draws us away.
So faith, faith falters when we don't worship.
I like what Warren Wiersbe said, we don't
live on explanations, we live on promises.
You cannot live your life on asking God
for an explanation.
Why did you do this?
And why is this happening?
Why do you guys have some why's in
your life?
I have about a hundred.
Why?
Why that?
Why this?
Why that?
Why?
But our faith cannot be based on explanations.
It has to be based on the promises
of God.
And how do you get your heart back
on the promises of God?
Through worship and the word of God.
You see how important that is?
Just as a side note, I've talked to
mainly a lot of men, counseling over the
last few years from here, other churches everywhere.
I don't have a lot of time to
do as much as I want, but talking
to these guys, marital issues, pornography, addiction, all
kinds of things.
I always say, tell me about your time
of worship with God.
You think anybody has ever said, oh, Shane,
man, every morning, every morning, I'm up worshiping
God for an hour, hour and a half.
I'm crying out to him.
Sometimes I end up on my floor, prostrate
or sit in my chair or take, I'm
just worshiping him.
It's so powerful.
You think I've ever heard that?
Never.
Because it's hard for sin to grow in
a worshiping heart because that's where it's crucified.
So you can know the word of God.
The demons know the word of God and
they tremble.
And don't get me wrong.
I love the word of God.
I've committed my life to studying this and
grasping the deep truths that are in this
Bible.
I love it.
We preach it.
I proclaim it.
I use it and whatever.
But without worship, without worship, it becomes just,
well, I know it, but it doesn't apply
to my life that well.
I can I can follow the principles.
I don't do this.
I don't.
You know what the old saying, I don't
drink and chew and hang out those who
do.
And OK, great.
All these rules are rules.
It's a relationship and worship happens in that
relationship.
Why do you think it's hard to worship?
Why do you think you don't have time
for worship?
Why do you think you're too busy to
worship?
Why?
Because that's the warfare.
That's the weapons of our warfare.
You think a pornography addiction is going to
gain a stronghold when you're sitting, worshiping God
for an hour every morning.
It's impossible.
There's struggles, but I'm talking about a stronghold
that grabs a man or a woman and
takes him in in a worshiping heart.
That's why he wants to get you out
of worship.
And that's why worship seems so hard.
I don't know what to do.
I don't.
I just sit there.
I get bored.
My mind.
Yeah, it takes a little effort.
Actually, a lot of effort.
If you draw close to me, I will
draw close to you.
The Bible says that actually I was going
to use this illustration later, but I better
do it now because it definitely applies when
you guys say like illustrations, right?
That verse drawn near to God, drawn near
to God.
Have you heard it drawn near to God
and he will draw near to you?
It's almost sometimes we read like a bedtime
story and drawn near to God.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
OK, but today that drawn near to God,
I looked it up.
It's Helco, the Helco in the Greek.
It's a it's a dragging.
It's a forceful dragging.
It's not just it's a it's a contending.
It's a going against the grain.
It's a going against what your flesh desires.
So what I brought to give this illustration
some some a hundred pound dumbbell.
It's a hundred pound dumbbell.
So this is I don't know what this
represents.
Whatever you want.
That's you.
That's what God says.
Drag drawn near to me and I will
draw near to you.
But that's heavy.
Yeah, that's heavy.
But he says, I will help you draw
near to me.
Pull it.
My flesh doesn't feel like it.
I don't want to do this.
Draw near to me and I will draw
near to you.
I'm getting tired more now.
You don't know what I've been through.
Drawn near to me and I will draw
near to you.
Fight with all your soul.
Pull against the flesh.
The flesh too heavy.
I'm giving you says no.
Drawn near to me and I will draw
near to you.
Drawing it's that dragging, but it's hard.
It's heavy.
There's a burden to carry.
Yes, but that's the load.
There's a load to carry.
Have you ever heard that phrase?
Let go and let God.
It's not in the Bible.
Here's what happens.
Oh, I let go.
Where's God?
Let go and let God.
It sounds good, but doesn't doesn't work.
Come on, rope.
I let go.
Where are you at?
Jesus said, Take my yoke upon you.
It is life.
My burden is is life, but you'll have
to carry something.
If you seek me with all of your
heart, you will.
It's not just little, you know, grab a
little piece of hair.
You know, this is seeking him with all
of your heart.
If you seek me with all of your
heart, you will find me.
If you draw near to me, I will
draw near to you.
But it's a hard drawing.
It's not an easy.
It's almost like you're fighting everything in you.
I don't want to get up in the
morning.
I don't want to do that.
My flesh doesn't want to worship.
He says, draw near to me and I
will draw near to you.
And then when it's getting difficult, he picks
it up and he helps us.
So don't get me wrong.
I'm not putting all I better get this
out of the way.
I'm not putting all this effort into, you
know, the last thing I want to do
is be called the moralist and it's man's
effort.
It's all up to me because it's not.
It's all up to God.
But I can't just let go and let
God when God calls me to draw near
to him, draw near and you will find
me, seek me with all of your heart.
These are promises you can bank on.
The problem is people don't want to seek
him with all their heart.
They won't seek him with a little bit.
I don't want to turn into some weird
guy.
I don't want to do you know, I
don't want to seek him with that sounds.
The Bible says it's crystal clear, draw near
to him and he'll draw near to you.
But it's not the kind of just, oh,
that sounds great.
It's a warfare.
It's contending.
It's battle.
Paul says, put on the whole armor of
God that you may be able to withstand
the wiles of the devil, the trickery of
the devil as you're drawing close to him.
Guess what?
Those fiery darts are going to be coming.
They're going to be pulling you away from
that.
So it's that drawing is a difficult thing,
but it's the most important thing you'll ever
do.
Draw near to him and he will draw
near to you.
And then we also by faith, we see
that Noah by faith, Noah being divinely warned
of things not yet come things, not let
me read it by faith, no, being divinely
warned of things not yet seen, move with
godly fear, prepared an ark for the saving
of his household by which he condemned the
world and became heir of the righteousness, which
is according to faith.
Well, in a nutshell, let's just look at
that first sentence by faith, Noah being warned
of God moved with fear.
What happens if Noah didn't do anything?
I don't know.
Speculation.
If Noah didn't do anything by faith, Noah
being warned of God moved with fear, moved
with reverence to the building of an ark
and the saving of his family.
So this tells me faith falters when we
don't obey God, when we don't move.
If God is telling us to do something
and, you know, I don't have to go
over the whole list of things.
If you know God is telling you to
do something, listen, it can be from get
rid of this relationship you're in to get
rid of this habit you have to get
rid of whatever it is.
If we disobey God, it hurts and our
faith doesn't grow.
What does it do?
It withers.
So there's many people walking around in the
church born again.
Believers walking around with faith is weak and
faltering because they're disobeying the clear commands of
scripture.
What God has called them to do for
without faith, it's impossible to please God.
And how do we please him by obeying
him?
And listen, nobody obeys him perfectly.
If you've mastered that as well, see me
after the second service.
So it's not perfection.
You hear me say that often.
It's not perfection.
It's about direction.
Where's the direction of your heart?
And listen, I'm trying to build your faith.
I can't tell you what you want to
hear.
I got to tell you what you need
to hear.
And I've seen people when they're on fire
for God, when they're walking in the will
and ways of God, they're quick to repent.
And we know, don't we?
Right now, God's convicting us.
Listen, you need to work on that area.
You need to get rid of that.
You need to do this when we move
with fear, move with reverence.
According to what God has done, it builds
our faith.
It's a faith builder.
What about Abraham?
By faith, Abraham?
Oh, here's that word again.
Obeyed by faith.
Abraham obeyed when he was called.
God told Abraham, go to a land that
I will show you.
Where is it at, God?
What I can tell you that just go
to a land that I will show you.
OK, can you give me a what mountain,
what city?
No.
By faith, Abraham went out and God led
him step by step, week by week, month
by month.
God led him by faith, Abraham.
By faith, Abraham obeyed when he was called
to go out.
And I've learned that God will guide us
sometimes more by withholding information than by giving
it.
Some of you are going to get down
the way home.
God will guide you more by withholding information
than by giving it.
But we want all the information.
And when he withholds it, it causes us
to walk in a certain direction.
Well, he's not.
Oh, I need to walk.
And he'll withhold the information to get us
to move in a certain direction.
He said, Abraham, just go out.
I will show you.
I will guide you.
OK, well, I'm going to start walking and
God will guide him.
That's a very healthy thing.
Lord, I don't know what you're going to
do in my life with employment, retire.
Lord, you know, I've got events coming up.
I got plans aren't coming together.
Everything's not working.
Lord, I don't know, but you do.
So all I'm going to do is walk
as if you're in control because he is.
You might as well just admit it now.
He's in control either way.
No matter what we do, he's in control.
He'll guide us.
And we said, OK, Lord, I'm going to
walk out and trust that you're going to
guide me.
I don't think he's going, oh, why did
they do that?
I wish they would just stayed in disobedience.
I wish they would just got mad at
me.
Why are they walking out in faith?
The reason is you can't move a vessel
and direct a vessel that's not already moving.
Remember, I told that story before when I
was little, I used to sit out on
the lake with my dad in the boat
and I'd steer it, you know, just sitting
there fishing.
He's like, what are you doing?
Like, why is the boat not going?
It's not moving anywhere, dad, because you can't
steer it until it's moving.
It has to be moving.
Then you steer it.
Same thing with us.
God, by faith, we walk by faith.
You don't sit on the couch and prop
up your feet and watch TV.
You won't find any support for that.
You will.
By faith, you'll take a rest and Sabbath.
OK, I got it.
But by faith, you're moving out.
You're moving.
You're ministering to others.
You're helping.
And then God directs us as we move.
One of the best ways to know what
God's will is for your life is to
step out and serve.
Step out and serve.
You know what I was doing exactly 14
years ago?
Exactly 14 years ago, I was right back
there ushering, looking at the parking lot and
cleaning the bathrooms after the servants.
But, Lord, I feel called to preach.
Serve me.
I'll guide you through humility.
Humble yourself.
And when you step out and serve, that's
all I did.
The pastor said, hey, you want to give
your testimony sometime?
Sure, I'll try it out.
Boom.
The rest is history.
But stepping out and serving.
I've seen people start ministries by just how
can I serve at the church?
They start because then your giftings become evident.
This whole sermon and none of this in
my notes.
I'm hoping it's helping somebody.
But when you step out and you begin
to serve, God will direct you through that
service.
Well, I don't like helping children's ministry.
Well, God can direct you through that.
That's a little, you know, promotion right there.
We need children's ministry helpers.
Basically, we need helpers in all areas, ushering,
sound, media, children's ministry.
We've got a big church, but not many
helpers.
Why is that?
Well, let's just be honest.
Because I remember why I didn't do it
when I was I was in church one
day.
You knew that, right?
Four years ago, I sat in the pews.
I don't want to.
Come and feed me.
I'm just leaving high on the Holy Spirit.
And I'll just.
I don't want to.
I definitely don't want to work with kids.
I don't get it.
I'm not.
My gift's not children's ministry.
So I'm not working with kids.
And we run from the things that God
wants us to help in.
Think about it.
When we're serving, we're happier.
When we're serving, God leads us.
When we're serving, it's not about us.
Everything, joy comes, peace.
But when we don't serve, when we just
get a lot of scripture and we like
to tell people off and come to church,
that's not biblical Christianity.
Biblical Christianity was this would penetrate their heart
and then they would go out and serve
and help.
That's an outlet.
You've got to have an outlet for that.
By faith, Sarah.
By faith, Sarah also received strength to conceive
a seed, and she bore a child when
she was past the age.
Faith falters when we fail to enforce, reinforce
the promises of God.
You're you've constantly have to reinforce the promises
of God up here.
You want to know why?
Because the world's doing the opposite.
That's why you need a spiritual shower as
often as possible.
You've got to reinforce who God is.
How do you do that?
That's why I promote this so much.
Reading the word of God with worship and
prayer.
That's a powerful combination.
That's a trinity of the Bible.
The power, the Holy Spirit, the power, the
power of prayer, the Bible and worship, working
together.
This is how you find out the promises
of God.
Spend times in Psalms and Proverbs.
But most people, that's the hardest part for
me, is I tell people this.
It sounds good, but it doesn't happen.
And then they want to get on this
pill or they want to try this or
they want counseling.
Well, try this.
No, I don't want to.
I don't want to do that.
But that's how faith is built, by reinforcing
the promises of God.
Just because you read it last week or
last month or last year, we've got to
keep reinforcing those promises.
Why?
Because the mind just wants to forget about
it.
It'll just drift.
It will drift away from God.
We have to keep reinforcing those things.
And there's so many things I could cover.
Many people say, how do I know the
promises of God?
Well, how do I know the promises of
God?
What are they?
Well, here's a verse I want you to
try to memorize sometimes.
Proverbs 16, 3.
Commit your works to the Lord and your
thoughts will be established.
Once you commit your works to the Lord,
I mean everything.
Commit your life to him, fully surrender.
Lord, my life is surrendered to you.
I commit everything to you.
It's yours.
Do with it what you will.
You better be ready to answer that prayer.
The bank account might go down instead of
up.
Friendships might go down instead of up.
Difficulties might come instead of go away.
Commit your works to the Lord and your
thoughts will be established.
He'll begin to plant thoughts into your mind
of godly desires of what he wants you
to do because you're aligning your will with
his.
I would just give two closing thoughts before
I close this.
There's no such thing as half as a
halfway Christian or a mediocre Christian or a
part-time Christian.
There's no such thing.
Much of scripture is applicable to the fully
surrendered life.
The problem is many people live as dual
agents.
Who they are on Facebook is not who
they are in the church.
And who they are in the church is
definitely not who they are on Facebook.
Think about that.
They're dual agency.
We love the things in the world, but
also we want to come to church now
and then.
So when it comes to this issue of
faith, if you want your faith to be
built, it's built on the fully surrendered life.
That's why I make that such a vital
point.
That's where true faith comes from, finally in
fully surrendering everything.
And that's why it's so hard because we
always want to hold on to things, don't
we?
Oh, I can't give that up.
I can't give that up.
So the Bible knows nothing about halfway Christianity,
halfway coming to God.
It's fully surrendered life to build faith and
faith withers when he is not at the
center of your life.
That's basically what it boils down to.
And God is not at the center of
your life.
Faith will falter.
But without faith, it's impossible to please God.
Without faith, it's impossible to please God, for
he who comes to God must believe that
he is and he is a rewarder of
those who diligently seek him.
That's a powerful scripture, but without faith, it's
impossible to please God and he is a
rewarder of those keep this in mind, of
those who diligently seek him.
It's in that diligence.
It's not like I tried it for five
minutes.
Shane doesn't work.
You know, if you ever say I try
God out and it doesn't work, I tried
Jesus out.
It doesn't work.
You got the wrong attitude.
You don't try him out as if he's
a choice in a menu.
You bow to him because he's the Lord
Jesus Christ and you diligently seek him with
all of your heart, with all of your
mind, with all of your strength.
And that comes to this final point.
Faith falters when we fail to trust God.
I'm reminded of that story, that guy who
has a 10 story building and he crossed
to the other building is 10 stories high
on a tightrope, just walked all the way
across and he said tomorrow I'm going to
push a wheelbarrow across this tightrope.
Oh, that's going to be hard.
And he went and had lunch and one
guy said, I believe you can do it.
I've got faith.
You can do that.
I think I'm convinced you're going to do
it.
And the guy said, well, good.
I need somebody to sit in the wheelbarrow
tomorrow when I push it over.
You think the guy did it?
But think of it.
Don't we do that to God?
Oh, God, I know you can do.
I know.
But I'm not going to step in the
wheelbarrow.
I'm not going to take the risk.
No, I know you can, but I'm not
going there.
So faith is really about trusting God.
No, no matter what happens, if I could
boil this message down to a quick bullet
point, no matter what happens.
Trusting God, no matter what happens, as the
song says, it is well with my soul.
Well, it's easy for him to say right
as well with my soul.
Remember what I talked about two weeks ago,
the story behind that?
I actually did a little research on it.
I want to share with you about the
guy who wrote that song in 1871, the
great Chicago fire virtually ruined Horatio Spafford, his
name.
It was almost the biggest trial of his
life, but not the biggest.
Two years later, 1873, he puts his wife
and four daughters on a ship that sailed
for England.
And the ship runs into another ship and
sinks very quickly.
And all four girls died.
Eleven year old Tanetta, nine year old Elizabeth,
five year old Margaret and two year old
Anna and his wife barely escaped.
He hears about the accident and receives a
telegram from his wife with these two crushing
words saved alone.
That's all it said.
He gets on a ship and heads to
be with his grieving wife.
And as he passes over the part of
the ocean where the girls went down and
were at the bottom, he wrote, what peace
like a river tendeth my way or sorrows
like sea billows roll, whatever my lot thou
has taught me to say, it is well,
it is well with my soul.
So the next time you sing that song,
why don't you put a little context behind
it?
And we look at the guy who wrote
it.
I want to look at the wife, her
four, her four daughters on the same ship.
She couldn't she couldn't save them.
But you have to you have to look
to God, Lord, it is well with my
soul because we look to him.
You can't look to circumstances.
The circumstances will destroy you.
If you look at your circumstances, it will
destroy you.
I believe that's where a majority of fear
and anxiety and depression comes in because we're
looking here instead of looking here.
Not to mention two years later, lost his
son to scarlet fever, eight months old, I
think.
So when we sing these worship songs, guys,
listen, this isn't some, oh yeah, look at
that.
These guys went through the pain and agony.
That's actually that's where real worship comes from.
Through that pain and agony and brokenness, the
heart cries out and breaks and cries out
to God.
And that's worship.
An arrogant heart can't worship God.
A pain free heart knows nothing about the
power of God.
Only a broken and contrite heart that cries
out to God can say, it is well
with my soul.
It is well with my soul.
I feel like hell.
I feel like I've been ran over by
a train.
But Lord, it is well with my soul
because you are in control.