0:01 And today we're going to start by we're going to take a series of going through all of these three things that we've considered, faith, hope, and love. And I'm going to begin by talking about faith today and we'll continue talking about faith some 0:12 more tomorrow morning. And so um we'll look at this first the first point, faith. Faith is dependence on God and that's what I'd like to talk to to you about this morning. I'll talk to you about it in two parts. How many of you would say that you 0:31 understand faith? How many of you say, "Yeah, I think I got it. I I think I know what faith is." Someone? Yeah? His hand is No, he's just resting. No one, really? Okay. Well, actually you're all in a good boat. Let me show you a verse in 0:50 1 Timothy chapter 3. This is the mighty Apostle Paul himself. 1 Timothy chapter 3. So, if your answer was no, "I don't know what faith is." you're in good company. 1 Timothy 3:9 Paul says, "Holding to the mystery of faith." 1:10 Look at that. Paul and I like we saw this morning, he wrote this book towards the end of his life and towards the end of his life Paul says, "Okay, I've been walking with the Lord." He could have thought, "I've been walking with the Lord all these 1:21 years." And at the end of his life he says, "It's a mystery." So, if you feel like it's a mystery, you're in a good place. Faith is a mystery, but it's one we can hold onto. It's one that the Lord can reveal to us step by step and the more 1:33 he reveals it in his life, we're just baffled by it. And that's why faith is one thing I believe. Faith is the reason that God has hidden it hidden these things of eternity from the wise and intelligent because they can't get 1:47 faith. They can get logic. They can get science. They can get the complex theories, but faith no, you have to be foolish to get it. And that's why it's a mystery. Now, is faith really that big of deal? You think, well, okay, faith, what Why 2:02 does it matter? How about victory over sin? That I like that topic. I can see why that would mean so much to God. Or forgiveness of sins. Yeah, I can see why that's important to God. Faith, why why is faith such a big deal? 2:14 Look at this verse in Hebrews chapter 11 verse 6. In fact, God says so emphatically that faith is the most important thing, well, one of the most important things for him when he says this. He says in Hebrews 11 verse 6, "Without 2:28 faith, it is impossible to please me." Without faith, it is impossible to please him. Without faith, it is impossible to please God. So, let's say you had all these other things in life. You've been a good Christian. You gave your life to 2:43 Christ and all these other things, but you don't have faith. It's impossible to please God. It doesn't matter what you can count on, what your family background is, or how long you've been a Christian, so-called, and you don't have faith today, and he 2:57 says, "You're just not pleasing to God. Without faith, it is impossible." Look at the finality, the certainty of that word. It is impossible to please God. You might as well not try. Might as well get faith and try. Or another verse in 1 John 5 verse 4, 3:11 you may be familiar with this one. It says, "This is the victory that overcomes the world." You may think, "This is the victory that overcomes the world." And if you didn't know this verse, you might be tempted to think, 3:23 uh my victory over sin, or my loving my enemies, or uh the church. No, this is the victory that overcomes the world, our faith. Have you seen that in your workplace, when you go to work and you face that trialing temptation, or you face a 3:39 situation of of a boss or employer, fellow employees that are harass you, or some other situation that's vexing, or in your college, some temptation, or some situation that's really hard, and you want to overcome, and you think, well, I'll battle in 3:52 prayer. Yes, that's good. Or I'll read the word of God. Yes, that's good. But you do any of those things without faith and it's not a big you're not going to overcome. But you have faith, even a little bit of faith, and you can 4:04 overcome in that situation. That's why faith is important. So, I'd like to spend some time defining what faith is for you. And you know, they say a a picture is worth a thousand words. And if that's true, I I think a video's 4:18 probably worth a million words. So, I could either sit here and talk to you for uh let's see, if I a million a million words is about 12 minutes. I could talk to you for 12 minutes on faith, or I could show you a video. I'm 4:32 going to do that instead. Have any of you ever climbed? Done any rock climbing? Or seen it, maybe? I'll give you a little bit of a an explanation of how rock climbing how that works. Um maybe you can see it. So, you can see 4:48 that he's actually hanging off of there. When before he started climbing, he would have attached himself to a rope. And uh and then passed it through a what's called an an anchor or a a point in the rock somewhere. So, let's say I 5:03 started climbing up this wall. I tie it into a rope that's firmly set into my harness. And uh and then uh at the other other end of the rope is my climbing partner. And in the safest way to climb, you always there's a few of those climbers 5:17 out there, but one of them is attached to the other end of the rope. And so, let's say I'm I'm leading, I'll start to climb up. And after I reach a certain point, let's say 20 ft or so up, I'm going to put something in the wall or or hook 5:30 something into the wall and then pass the rope through that. And then I'm going to climb above that. But all the while I'm attached to my climbing partner in on the at the other end of that rope. And as I climb higher and higher, I set 5:43 more and more points till these guys have climbed quite a few hundred feet above the ground, you can see. And all along they've set those anchors, and this move that he he tried to make is a pretty difficult one because you're 5:54 going kind of climbing upside down, as it were, to get around a little overhang. And if it wasn't for who was at the other end of the rope or his anchor holding holding him up, he would have crashed down to the bottom. Faith is dependence on God. 6:11 Did this guy fall? Yes, he did. Do you fall? And sometimes when you fall, do you think it's the end of the world? Just as he's falling, I'm sure he thought this is the end of the world. And if he had thought See, the it also 6:30 depends on your you also depend on your partner being ready, holding onto the other end of the rope. That anchor that you have put into the wall holding, because if that pulls out, you're going to fall down below your your climbing partner. 6:47 He fell. And I'm sure he felt like it was the end of the world for him, but it wasn't. And this is the point I wanted to use to illustrate what faith is. Faith is dependence on God. Faith is knowing who it is that's at the other end of the 7:02 rope of your life. Who and what you have set your anchor to is what faith is, is what determines your faith today. It's not so that you can do mighty miracles and healings and all that stuff is good. But faith ultimately is this, are you 7:18 dependent on God? Is your spiritual walk, whether you fall or go up, whether you're walking fine or tumbling all the time, it's the question of are you still attached to the rope that God is holding onto? Or have you let go? 7:34 So, two kind of people could fall. Two kind of people could be climbing up the same rock wall. One is attached to a rope, and he's safe. Another one could be climbing by himself and he could fall. So, both of them fell but only one of them died. 7:52 Faith. So, what is faith? I'd like to give you two analogies that help help me remember what faith is. Think of this. Faith is to the spiritual Faith is in the spiritual realm. I'm going to talk about two realms here, the 8:09 spiritual and the natural because the natural is a good way for us to think about spiritual things. It's a good analogy. Faith is to the spiritual what eyes are our sight is in the natural. So, imagine if you were blind. I don't 8:24 think there's anybody here that's blind, but imagine if you were blind. Imagine if you were blind and what your life would be like. Or let's say this, that you've had eyesight and good eyesight all your life and now all of a 8:35 sudden you go blind. Imagine trying to live your life. Imagine trying to play cricket. Imagine even not even that. Imagine trying to find your way to the bathroom in the middle of the night. Imagine trying to find your way to 8:46 whatever. Imagine you hear the phone ring and you don't know where it is. You have to rely on your ear. Faith is to the natural what I sight is to the Faith is to the spiritual what sight is to the natural. And here's the 9:00 reason I say that. That verse in 2 Corinthians 5 says, 2 Corinthians 5 verse 7, "For we walk by faith, not by sight." So, he's comparing. He says, "You're used to walking by sight." So, he's saying in the natural you'd be 9:14 walking by sight. In the spiritual you should be walking by faith. That's the equivalent. So, just as much as you rely on your eyes to walk and to live and to do everything that you do in your earthly life. Try this for a moment. Try just for just 9:30 for Let's do this as an exercise maybe. For 30 seconds close your eyes and I mean it. Close your eyes. No peeking. And and try to try to reach for an object that you know is ahead of you. Maybe try to reach for the shoulder of 9:41 the person that's ahead of you. Or or try to reach for that chair or that pen that's in your pocket. Or something else and see how hard it is. It takes you twice as long, maybe three times as long to do what you would normally do. 9:53 Have you seen that trying to live the Christian life without faith is just like that. It's like walking around blind. And a lot of people are trying to do that. Many of us, my testimony for many years is that I thought I could live without 10:07 faith. I thought that I had the victory over sin. If I somehow grit my teeth and got victory over sin, it didn't matter if I had faith or not. That's like saying, "After 10 years, I finally put my shirt on." You could have opened your eyes and put 10:21 it on in a minute. Instead, for 10 years you struggled and you got it wrong and you put it on wrong, put it on backwards, so you took it off, and then you put it on the right way, and then you realized that it still doesn't fit because something else is 10:32 wrong. You got both hands in one sleeve. Is your Christian life seeming like that? Then it's time to have faith. It's time to open your eyes and say, "Hey, God has given me eyes to see. God has given you faith with which to walk in 10:44 your Christian life." So, faith is to the spiritual what sight is to the natural. And that's why What do you have faith for? Let me give you this uh Let me give you an example that will help you understand. If I told you, 10:55 "I have faith that I will have children." Or that I will have a child. Is that a good thing? By the way, I have a 2-year-old daughter. If I tell you that I have faith for something I already have, it's no big deal. That's not faith. That's just 11:09 seeing with my eyes. And most of us try to claim things in the spiritual life that we already have. I have faith that uh I am saved. Yes, God has done that. But do you have faith that God is going to preserve you to the end? 11:22 That that job that you want he's he's going to give you because you have faith in him if you if that's his will? Or that area in your life that has beaten you down and beaten you down and beaten you down and you've struggled 11:33 with that for 10 years that God is going to give you the victory over that. Not that you're going to grit your teeth and win the victory somehow, but that God is going to give you the victory in that area. That area of lust perhaps or that 11:44 area of using your tongue in in in in in in foul language or in careless talk and you've been addicted to that for years. Do you have faith for that which you don't see? Faith, Hebrews 11:1, that other verse I have on there, is the assurance of things hoped 12:01 for, the evidence, that means it's as good as seeing it, of things not seen. So, faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. If I told you that I have faith that I'll have 10 children, okay, then 12:13 you believe me. Wow, that man has faith, if it's real. Now, I I don't have that faith. Or if I had faith that I'll climb Mount Everest or something like that. Faith is the evidence of things not seen. So, when God when you see 12:24 something in God's word, when he promises you in Romans 6:14 that sin shall not have dominion over you and you believe it, even though you don't see any evidence of it in your life right now, but you really lay a hold of God and say, "God, this promise 12:38 is going to be true in my life. I believe you." Then you have faith. And then you're pleasing in God's eyes. He says, "Yeah, there's How is it that somebody could have victory over sin in a particular area and God is not pleased 12:51 with them because they don't have faith? And there's somebody else, you, sitting over there defeated by the same sin year after year, but you have decided that tonight, the 19th of December 2009, you're going to believe God at his word 13:03 and God is pleased with you." And he's rejected that other person who who has victory over sin that we make such a big deal out of. And here's you struggling to to overcome and you decide today that you're going to believe and 13:15 you're going to take God at his word. Done with gritting your teeth and trying to manufacture a victory so that other people so that you can have a testimony and you're going to have real faith and God is going to give you the victory. 13:26 And then he's pleased in your sight. That's faith. Faith is the evidence of things not seen. When you read scripture and there's things in here that you have not seen. Spiritual realities in your life that you have not seen in your life yet. Have 13:44 faith for that. Don't have faith for healing or any of these earthly things that people seem to claim. You know, a lot of a lot of people today the only context in which they talk about faith is raising their hand or healing the healing healing 13:57 healing and miraculous things and things like that. I'm I don't see the Bible focusing on the that sort of thing. Yes, Jesus healed, but he came to seek and save that which was lost. He didn't came to heal people of their physical ailments only. That 14:11 wasn't the promise in the Old Testament. He came to seek and to save that which was lost. So, if you read the New Testament and you see a promise in here, a spiritual promise, that you haven't You read a promise in here that you haven't seen in 14:21 your life yet. What I mean by haven't seen is it's not a reality yet. Your honest testimony when when the lights are turned out and you're laying down in your bed and and it's just you and God, your honest testimony is, "Lord, that's 14:32 not true. I haven't seen that yet." Victory over with lusting with my eyes. I haven't seen that yet, Lord. But tonight I'm going to have faith that you'll give that to me. I'm I'm going to pursue you and going to continue to 14:41 believe you until you give it to me. Or whatever that area is that you struggle with. So, how do we have faith? What is What does it mean to have faith? Let me show you these four areas. Turn to Hebrews chapter 11, verse 11. Here's 14:58 what it means to have faith. When I say have faith, see, we're trying to split down these words like Sandeep brought out this morning. We use these words so casually. Faith, yeah, faith, yeah, that's one of the things that's in the 15:07 Bible, right? Faith, I know that. Love, yeah, I know what love is. Joy, yeah, it's the fruit of the Spirit, all that sort of stuff. But we can so easily just cast off these things that we've heard since our childhood and never take time 15:18 to meditate on them and see, what does God really mean? Hebrews 11:11 it says Here's what it means to have faith. Hebrews 11:11 by faith even Sarah, it's talking about Sarah, herself received ability to conceive at the age of 15:35 90-ish. Even beyond the proper time of life because so let let me break down the story for you. I'll break down this verse for you. By faith Sarah was able to bear children at the age of 90 even though she had never born children 15:50 before and it's never happened in the history of mankind before that, never happened in the history of mankind after that and probably never will. But Sarah somehow was the one person in the history of mankind that at the age of 90 16:01 could bear children. How did she do this? Because she considered him, this is verse 11, Hebrews 11:11. She considered him faithful who had promised. What she said was God, you said something and you're faithful. Yeah, I sometimes I 16:20 feel like I'm not faithful and I'm lacking in faith, but you're faithful. She considered him faithful and so she believed him. She she considered him faithful in what he had promised because God had promised, you will have a son. 16:34 And she considered him faithful. God, you're not a liar. And so in your college or in your workplace when people say, "It's okay if you lust or it's okay if you read this magazine or it's okay if you tell a dirty joke once in a while. 16:49 Nobody can really get by without You mean I can't lust not even once a year? You mean I I can't use a bad word not even once a year?" And they'll tell you it's not possible. You can be the one Sarah that proves that it is because you consider him 17:02 faithful who promised, who said, "Every careless word that you say, you'll have to give account for." If you lust after a woman, men, or woman, if you lust after men, it's all you've already committed adultery in your heart. Consider him faithful 17:16 and the same God who says that says, "I'll give you the victory. I will write my commandments on your heart and give you the victory." Or further down in this chapter, what else does it mean to be faithful? Hebrews 11:27, it says, 17:31 Hebrews 11:27, "By faith Moses and the Israelites left Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king." See, he's talking about fear. How do you go through a circumstance in your life without fear? You know, we face circumstances in our 17:46 life always. When you're coming up to a big exam, or you're coming up to the results of that big exam, or some other circumstance in life. Your boss calls you up because he's somehow not happy with how things are going at 17:56 work. And you've been working hard, and you know you've been doing your best, but you're afraid he might let you go today. And it's that circumstance of fear. And Moses faced that, too. In verse 27, it says, "He left Egypt." He 18:06 didn't He wasn't afraid of the wrath of that person. Or some of you, maybe you face circumstances with your family that are not Christians. And they persecute you, and you're afraid of being a bold witness. Or let's say you want to be a 18:16 bold witness for God in your work or your college, and you're afraid of what they might say. Consider Moses, who left Egypt not being afraid. Why? Because he saw him who was unseen. Faith is considering him who is faithful, who's promised, and seeing him 18:36 who is unseen. So, when you see that terrifying circumstance in life, and you go through that terrifying circumstance in life, I have a strong encouragement for you. You could either focus your eyes on that circumstance, or you could 18:47 focus your eyes on him who is unseen. See how big that terrible thing that's about to happen to you is, or see how much bigger your God is, whom nobody else can see. Now, then you're a man or a woman of faith. Seeing him who is 19:01 unseen. You see God. You see that circumstance, and you think, "Man, there's no way." Or you see that You're getting to the age of 35, and you're not married yet, and things seem hopeless. And anybody else in your in your in your 19:13 circumstance, in your shoes would probably just see life as hopeless. I'm going to be single for the rest of my life. And then there's others who by faith see God. God, your promise is true. You're going to give me a husband or a 19:24 wife. Or something else in your life, whatever it is. I'm just trying to pick examples here. Whatever it is that you feel that you're somehow you're afraid of or you're anxious about. See him who is unseen, and then you 19:37 won't have anything to fear. 1 Corinthians chapter 2 verse 4 and 5. If you're able to encourage you to turn with me to these verses because it's very good to know. These are promises of God. These are checks that are sitting 19:51 in your house. And it's time to sweep the cobwebs away and find these little checks that, you know, man, that that man gave me a check of $100 and I need $100 right now. Where is it? I misplaced it somewhere. It's time to go through the house, do the 20:04 sweeping and cleaning and find that those $100 checks that are hidden all over God's word. It's time to break the cobwebs of this book and explore it and find the little nuggets of treasures that are hidden here. 1 Corinthians 2 20:15 verse 4 and 5. What does it mean to have faith? Paul says when he's writing to the Corinthians, "My message, he says, I didn't come and preach to you. My message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom." He says, "I 20:27 didn't come here with fancy words and PowerPoint." No, never mind. I didn't come with fancy words and persuasive words of wisdom and demons- but I came in demonstration of the spirit and of power so that your faith should not rest on 20:41 the wisdom of men, but on the power of God. That's what it means to have faith, that you rest on the power of God. What are you resting on? Are you resting on the fact that you you got to come to the CFC Youth Conference? 20:55 You're considered one of the good youth, perhaps? Or that you're attending CFC and used to attend some other dead church? Is that what you're resting on? Or are you resting on the power of God? Are you resting on the fact that there's 21:06 a good body here in CFC? That's a good thing, don't get me wrong. I'm picking a good thing and I'm saying that even if you rest on that, it's not faith. But if you rest on God whom you can't see because of what's in his word, 21:19 then you have faith and then God is pleased with you. Faith is resting on God's power, not on man's wisdom. So, let's say you So, let me let me use an example for this. Let's say you believe something in God's word because you read a an 21:37 apologist or a theologian who somehow convinced you that that that's what the doctrine really means. That's okay. But if you want to have faith and if you want to be pleasing in God, you'll go back to that verse and say, "Yes, Lord, 21:48 I know this big theologian or that famous God of man of God wrote a book in which he expounded on this and that's what he said and that's the wisdom of man." And then you go to God and say, "Lord, you give me your power. 22:00 You give me your wisdom." And that's faith. Resting on God's power and not on man's wisdom. And finally this, Hebrews 11:39 and 40. This is what it means to have faith. It means Hebrews 11:39 and 40, you know, after he goes through these, you know, 22:16 the Hebrews is the chapter of faith. After going through all these examples of faith, he says, "All of these men of faith and women of faith having gained approval through their faith." So, they you know, it's the only way to please God, we said 22:31 faith. And so they had faith and they pleased God, but even they did not receive what was promised because God had provided something better for you. He provided something better for us so that apart from us they should not be 22:44 made perfect. Faith is gaining approval from God even when you do not immediately receive what is promised. Let me say that again and that's written on there. Faith is gaining approval from God even though you don't immediately 23:00 gain what is promised. Faith is gaining approval from God even though you don't gain immediate or don't get what's in immediately what's promised. So, let's say you say, "Lord, I know you promised me that you're you're going to get you I'm going to 23:14 have a wife. I'm going to have a husband. You're going to lead me to marriage one day. You I I I know that you're going to you haven't called me to be one of those single brothers or single sisters. I'm going to get married, but I don't immediately see 23:25 that." Faith is to gain approval from God by my life. I say, "Lord, I'm still going to be pleasing in your sight. Sure, I'm 40 now perhaps, and I I I it seems like earthly I earthly wise I should give up hope of getting married, but I'm still 23:38 going to gain approval from you." That's the testimony of Abraham. God promised Abraham a son and told him, "Change your name to father of a multitude." And Abraham said, "Lord, okay, give me my multitude and then I'll change my name to father of a 23:55 multitude. Right?" No. Abraham changed his name to father of a multitude, and one day somebody knocked on the door. "Hey, Abraham, I heard you changed your name. What's your new name?" "My new name is father of a multitude." "Where's your multitude?" 24:08 "One day." "One day." And so, the devil will come to you and says, "Oh, you changed your name to CHILD OF GOD, OVERCOMER over Satan, overcomer over sin. Where is that?" "One day." That's what it means to have faith. That 24:22 you're not just making it up. You're not just saying, "Okay, I'm going to take my sin lightly and continue to live in that." No, I take it seriously, but I know that my God one day is going to give me that promise, and until then, 24:33 I'm going to gain approval with him. That's faith. The other analogy, faith is to the spiritual what age growth, that means growing in age, is to the natural. See, you and I look at each other and we say, "Hey, how old are you?" and you say how 24:47 old you are based on when you were born and you can do a subtraction and you go, "Okay, that's how old you are." You're you're the age of 23 because you were born in 19 '86, let's say. You're the age of 23 today cuz you were born in 24:58 1986. See, in the spiritual world it doesn't work like that. In the spiritual world, you could have walked with God for 23 years, but have no faith at all. You trusted him with 23 ago 23 years ago for the salvation of your soul, but today you don't trust him 25:14 for your in your finances. Or you don't trust him in your marriage relationship. Or you don't trust him in the relationship with brothers and sisters. Or in the relationship with your boss. But you trusted him with your eternal 25:24 destiny all those years ago. If faith is something that you're banking on for many years ago, then it's not faith. Faith is to this in the spiritual realm what growth is in the natural. So, let me break it down for you. 25:37 You are older with God in 2009 since you were in 2008 if you have grown in faith. Let's say this at the end of 2008 you had so much faith. And now at the end of 2009 you have more faith then you have grown. You're older 25:53 spiritually. You're more mature. More pleasing to God. But let's say somehow circumstances in this year have managed to reduce the amount of faith that you have in God or in his purpose in your life or in the fact that he's 26:05 called you to serve a purpose in your generation. If somehow you lost sight of the fact that God called you before the foundations of the world with your name in his book and say I have a purpose for him. I have a purpose for her. 26:17 If somehow you've lost sight of that this year, then sadly you've regressed. You've gotten younger in the sense. You know God less. God knows you less. You are as old naturally today as you have grown up since you were born. So, if you've grown up a certain 26:35 amount since you were born, whether physically and emotionally and mentally and all that stuff, you consider you're mature now. Most of you are at the age of maturity naturally. God says spiritually you're mature if you've grown in faith. And that's that 26:50 verse in Romans 1:17. I I I can't move on without reading that verse to you. Romans 1:17 "I am not ashamed of the gospel." Paul says in verse 16, "For in it, in the gospel, the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith. As it is 27:06 written, the righteous man shall live by faith." And I want to mention something here. Notice that it doesn't say the righteous man shall die by faith. A lot of people gave their lives to Jesus so they want to go to heaven. If 27:18 that was really all God intended for us, he might as well the moment we gave our lives to Jesus have taken us up to heaven. Time to die. You gave your life to Jesus, you had faith. Time to die. No. According to this verse, you gave your 27:29 life to Jesus, time to live. You gave your life to Jesus, NOT TIME TO GO to heaven, time to live on this earth and live out that faith. And people to see the power of faith. For people to see this gospel that Paul was not 27:42 ashamed of because it is the power of God. Because in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith. The righteous man shall live by faith. Instead, sadly, most Christians are just waiting to die. The righteous man shall live by faith. 27:55 So, you know, when I when it says faith to faith, that means each year you should say, "Hey Lord, I have more faith today. I'm trusting you more today than I did last year." And if that's not your testimony, it can be. It can be. 28:12 See, I really believe that the best year of your life is ahead of you. How many of you agree with me on that? The best year of your life is ahead of you. Great, I'm glad you all with me. See, sadly, I have met some people in 28:23 their life that, you know, when when you ask them, "Hey, what's your spiritual experience like?" They have to go all the way back to 1989 or something like that. "That was the best year of my life, man. I had that mountain top 28:32 experience. I I I met the Lord and I gave my life to him and then, oh, 2 years later he filled me with the Holy Spirit and I felt the chills go down my spine. Oh, man, that was the best year of my life." If if that's all it was, if that was as 28:44 good as it gets, then the Lord might as well have taken that person up to heaven. But why did God allow you to still be alive today? Why didn't he allow you to be one of those that just today got into an accident on some road in Bangalore 28:58 and died? Why weren't you the one that died today? Why? So that you could grow in faith, so that you could be more pleasing on this earth, so that you could live, not live for yourself, but live for God and be pleasing to him. 29:09 That's why he's kept you alive today. And if you see that, if you and I see that, brothers and sisters, God can do amazing things through us. Then we truly serve the purpose of God in your generation, cuz that's what the world 29:21 needs. I have a saying that I like to think of. The world doesn't need more exegesis. Exegesis means sermons. The world doesn't need more sermons. The world needs more examples. The world doesn't need more exegesis. The world needs more examples. The world 29:36 needs to see people who are living by faith, not just preaching by faith or just talking about faith or writing about faith in letters. Or you ask them what faith is. Oh, faith is the They can quote Hebrews 11:1. Faith is the 29:50 assurance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. By it the men of old gained approval. They can maybe recite the whole of chapter 11. That doesn't scare the devil. But when you live it out in your life, when you're in that circumstance where 30:02 you have no reason to have faith, no reason to have hope, when all hope is gone and you think this is hopeless, I might as well give up, and I know you all have been there cuz I've been there many times. And I still The devil tries to take me 30:13 there many times. Then it's time to have faith, time to believe God. How do you get faith? So these two things, two analogies. What is faith? Faith is to the spiritual what sight is to the natural. So the next time you 30:32 think that somehow you can live your Christian life without faith, picture living your earthly life blinded. Somebody pokes your eyes out and now it's time to walk and function. As such a man who has seen with his eyes or woman who has lived the earthly life 30:48 and they have their eyes blinded for a while, you know what their desperate cry is? Oh, please give me my eyesight again. That ought to be the cry of any of us who are not living by faith. Let's say today Let's say you live for for faith Let's 31:02 you live by faith all the days of this year and now you got to December 19th and today you decided not to live by faith. You know what should be the bursting cry of your heart? Oh, let me see again. I've walked around in 31:15 blindness this whole day. I've lost MY FAITH. I TRIED TO overcome that sin by my own strength. That's unbelief. That's unfaith. And then you wake up tomorrow and say, "Okay, I I'm so glad I can see again. I'm so glad I can walk by faith again." 31:31 Faith is to the spiritual what age growth is in the natural. How much you have grown in faith is how old you are spiritually. Think back to that picture of that man climbing that rock. And and going over the lip of that rock 31:45 and he's hanging over and he can look down and see, "Man, it's a long fall." And he's he's trying to climb up and sure he has work to do, but he knows who's at the other end of the line. He has confidence in what's at the other 31:58 end of that line. Who are you depending on? Are you depending on the fact that you can come back on a Sunday morning and get another pep talk or you come back on Wednesday evening get another pep talk or once you have conferences is the highlight of your 32:12 life and then it goes downhill from there. If that's what you're depending on, no. Depend on God. He'll never let go of the rope. Other people, they might. The youth conference, you might come to a youth conference one day and 32:24 don't have the chills down your spine. Don't have a big high emotional experience. But if you're holding down onto God, I guarantee you, not me, the word of God guarantees you you'll he'll never let you down. He will not you'll never let your foot 32:36 stumble or slip. Cuz he never sleeps. He never slumbers. This is the God who's holding on to your rope. I hope you're the other at the other end of that rope. How do you get faith? I'm going to show you four areas in which how you can get faith. Now, I I 32:51 hope by this point I have wetted your appetite. I've gotten you thirsty and hungry for faith. Will you say, "Okay, Lord, I I realize I need faith now. Now, how do I get it?" And let's It's like I I painted this beautiful picture of a 33:03 sumptuous meal, nice nice, delicious roti and chicken curry and and all all kinds of stuff. Put your favorite and nice dessert, gulab jamun, to go with it. I've painted this beautiful picture. I hope you're not hungry for the real 33:14 thing. Which is, how do I get some of this? Where can I go and buy that that delicious chicken piece that's sitting there on the picture now? I hope that's that's your that's your that's the way your your your heart is right now. That you're saying, "Where 33:27 can I get some of this faith?" Let me show you, and I'm not going to give you faith. The Holy Spirit, God, is going to give you faith, but here's how here's how you can get it from him. James 2:5. James chapter 2 verse 5. How do we get faith? 33:48 It starts by becoming poor from the world's viewpoint. James 2:5. Listen, my beloved brethren, did not God choose the poor of this world to be rich in faith? 34:06 The poor of this world God has chosen to be rich in faith. How do you get rich in faith? By becoming poor in this world. And I'm not talking about necessarily, maybe in some cases, if you love your money, God's trying to 34:19 tell you it's time to give away your money, like he told the rich young ruler. But it may not be money. It may be something else that you value in the world system, fame, popularity, charm and beauty, good looks. If you choose to be poor, I'm not saying 34:36 therefore we should all look as ugly as we as we can. That's not what I'm talking about. I'm saying that in our mindset, we don't value those things. I say, "Yes, I I'd like to look presentable and I'd like to look good, 34:46 but I don't value that. That's not what I consider expensive." I consider myself I I the way I live my life, I'm poor from the world's standpoint. So, if you feel like the world looks at you and think, "Well, that's just a nobody. I don't know him. 34:59 I don't know her. Who's who Who is she? Who is she? Who's he?" If the world looks at you like that, there's a pretty good chance you might get rich in faith according to this verse. Cuz God has chosen the poor of this world to get rich in faith. 35:13 And I want to encourage you, if you're not poor in this world, if the world thinks something big of you, if people think something big of you because you have all these gifts and all these talents and all that stuff, in your mind 35:23 become poor, and then you'll get faith. So, it starts by becoming poor from the perspective of other people. If people think nothing of you, then you you you can get faith. Now, people might think something of you, but you realize that that doesn't 35:39 mean anything to you. You put that aside. The reputation of men means nothing to you. Let's say you're starting to get a reputation. God has given you some responsibility in the church, perhaps. And you're growing up, and that's a good thing. 35:49 But don't count on that. Don't bank on that. Be attached to God. Let God be the only one that has you, as they say, on belay. On belay means when before you start climbing, you're supposed to hear from your partner, "On belay." That means, 36:01 "I'm ready. I got my hands on the rope." Cuz this is not on belay. This is oh, that's just hanging out. When the partner's saying holding onto the rope, he's he's on belay. That means he says, "You can start climbing now." 36:14 Have you heard the the Lord say to you, "You're on belay. You can go ahead. I got the rope." Go ahead and live. Yeah, you might fall, but I got the rope. Becoming poor from the world's viewpoint, that's how you get faith. 36:27 If you think big of yourself or you you're chasing after the the dream, used to be the American dream, now perhaps it's the Indian dream, the corporate dream, or the sports dream, or some other standard you have set for 36:38 yourself. I'm going to attain to that. It's good to work hard, it's good to play sports and do well at them, but that's not where your affection is. You poor from the world's standpoint, then you can be rich in faith. Secondly, 36:52 how do we get faith? Romans chapter 10 verse 17. Romans 10 verse 17, so faith comes from hearing and hearing by the word of Christ. 37:11 Faith comes from hearing the word of Christ. How many of you have heard the word of Christ? I'm not talking about right now. I'm talking about this morning when you woke up. And tomorrow morning when you woke up, and the day before that when you woke 37:22 up. Do you hear the word of Christ? Do you see now why the our Sunday school teachers and our older brothers drilled it into us, study God's word. Oh, I don't have time. I I got to go to work early in the morning and I love my sleep 37:34 and I got to have breakfast and the bus is I if I miss the bus, then I have to walk. No wonder we're so full of unbelief and unfaith, cuz we're not hearing the word of Christ. I'm hearing it twice a week, on Sunday morning and Wednesday evening, 37:46 and that's about it. That's as much faith as you have. And then there are others who say, "Lord, this is the only way I can get faith. Help me to hear the word of Christ." Faith comes from It's It's right there. It's plain and simple. Do you want 37:59 faith? Comes from hearing the word of Christ. Yes, it comes from hearing his word in his written word, but also through the through the Holy Spirit speaking speaking to you. You know, sometimes I recently I've been getting in the habit when I'm in my car, 38:12 I just turning the radio off. I I like to listen to I mostly listen to Christian music, and that's good, it's uplifting. But every now and then I lately I've been turning it off a lot, cuz I love the quietness. Sometimes I want to take those earphones 38:24 off from my from my me see a music player and just listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit. Cuz somehow these sometimes these other noises can so crowd my ears that I've lost I've I've lost the sense of the Holy Spirit's voice. I can't tell which 38:38 one's the Holy Spirit. I can tell which one's that band and that other band and that preacher and that other preacher, but the Holy Spirit, no, I haven't listened to him in a long time. Faith comes from hearing the word of 38:48 Christ. Yes, it's good to listen to sermons. Yes, it's good to listen to Christian music. But then it's also good most importantly to listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit. Encourage you young people, the time will come and I know 38:58 this from the other side of the fence now because I heard my elders tell me this before I got married. The time will come when you'll be married and you'll long for the good old days when you were single and you had free time to read 39:09 God's word. And you'll wish you had paid more attention to those older brothers who said, "Use the time of your youth not to read the paper, okay, that's okay, or to study the the this and that and and all that stuff and read this book and that 39:22 book and this new book and that other surf the internet for 3 hours a day and all that stuff and you don't have time to read God's word." Once you're married and have children, that you'll wish you had that time. I do. I wish I had more time to read and 39:34 meditate on God's word. Faith comes from hearing the word of Christ. How else does faith come? Hebrews chapter 12 verse 2. After talking about all these faith all these examples of faith, he says, "Okay, now you want faith? 39:54 Therefore, Hebrews 12:1, since we have such a great cloud of witnesses of faith, since we have so many great examples of faith, let us also have faith. How? Verse 2, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith. 40:10 Fixing our eyes on Jesus. Fixing our eyes on Jesus. That means as I'm climbing, my eyes are fixed on Jesus. I know God has the the anchor on the other end of my rope, but my eyes are fixed on Jesus and how he lived on this earth. 40:26 And even more than WWJD, what would Jesus do? I fix my eyes on WDJD. What did Jesus do? Rather than my supposing, "Yeah, Jesus would have done this." You know, I heard somebody say, "Jesus would have had a cigarette. I don't think there's 40:42 anything wrong with that." There's no verse in the Bible that says he did or he didn't, but I'm more interested in what he actually did. He went about doing good. He loved mankind. He served his father. He came to do the 40:53 will of his father. Fixing your eyes on Jesus. And we've heard this in the church many times. The secret to to victory in that circumstance that you're going through, whether it's a a battle with sin or a battle with some 41:05 other some other stranglehold that the enemy has in your life, whether it's a bothersome neighbor or a boss that harasses you or a co-worker that just seems to bug you or something else. The secret to victory in your life is to ask 41:17 God to give you revelation on how Jesus went through the same circumstance. It may not be with the same person that he you were tempted or the very specific same temptation, but you know he was tempted in all points as you are. So, 41:29 ask God ask the Holy Spirit to give you wisdom on how Jesus went through that same circumstance. And believe me, he will. That's my honest testimony that when I got to the point where I says, "Okay, I'm going to be done gritting my 41:40 teeth to overcome in this particular area. I'm going to fix my eyes on Jesus and ask the Holy Spirit to give me wisdom on how Jesus went through that same thing." So, I get through that difficult part of the climb, that little 41:51 lip that I need to climb over, and then I fix my eyes on Jesus. Oh. Or another example I like to think of. Let's say you're doing your math. You're learning maths. And you're you're struggling with 2 + 2 = 1. No, no, wrong. 2 + 2 = 2. No, wrong. 2 + 42:09 2 = 3. Does your life feel like that? Trial and error? Did I Did I get victory this time? No, messed up again. 2 + 2 = 5. 2 + 2 = 7. No, you're trying. And then one day Jesus shows you his answer sheet. 2 + 2 = 4. He says, "Just copy 42:21 it. Write it down." You can't take any credit for it because Jesus is your example. It was his answer. He gave you the victory. Think about that in your circumstances in life. When you're struggling to figure out this this thing that seems so simple to 42:36 everybody else and then you don't seem to get it. You know, it says in one place that the law is like a schoolmaster. And so the schoolmaster, the law, our guilty conscience is beating us over the head and the devil's beating us on top of that saying, "2 + 2 42:47 is not three. 2 + 2 is not one. 2 + 2 is NOT SEVEN. YOU GOT IT WRONG AGAIN. YOU FELL INTO THAT SAME SIN AGAIN." How many times do I need to tell you 2 + 2 is not eight? And you go on life after life beating yourself up. 42:59 And the devil just sucks up uh sucks us away from serving God's purpose in our generation because we're too beat up to get up and serve his purpose. Instead, listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit. Jesus, what was your answer? 43:14 How did you answer? And you may not find a specific circumstance that exactly matches the description of what you're going through, but you will find salvation, believe me. Don't believe me, believe God's word. It's there. 43:27 Fixing your eyes on Jesus, that's how you get faith. Cuz you will get faith. He's the author and perfecter of faith. What does it mean the author and perfecter of faith? That means he writes the faith. An author of a book is 43:38 somebody who writes the book. If Jesus has written your faith, if Jesus has written the answer that you wrote on your copy sheet, then it's good. If it's Jesus' answer, then you know it's right. But if you've manufactured an answer, 43:49 somehow 2 + 2 = 1 and you convince yourself that that's victory, that that's that's that's the correct answer, no. I hope you all have tried that long enough. And if you haven't, give up before it's it's too late. Before 44:03 uh give up right now. It's not worth the trial and error method method of victory or sin. Instead, fix your eyes on Jesus. He's got the right answer. That's why it's so important to spend time every day listening to the voice of Jesus. 44:18 You know, even if you can't do it in the morning, sometime during the day, if you're sitting on the bus, close your eyes and say, "Lord, what do you want me to do today? How can I serve your purpose in this generation today?" 44:30 Sometimes our lives can become so broad, "Okay, Lord, how can I serve your purpose in in my life this year?" You know what? That's probably a little too broad. "How can I serve your purpose in my life today?" How many of you are waiting to serve 44:41 God's purpose after you leave the camp? Good. How many of you want to start serving his purpose tonight? Yes, I hope so. If you wait till Monday morning when the camp's over, you've tried it before, right? If you put off till tomorrow what should 44:58 be done today, it'll never get done. I'll say that again. If you put off till tomorrow what needs to be done today, it'll never get done. If you want to start serving God's purpose in your generation, start tonight. When you go 45:10 to bed and you're having fellowship among in your rooms, sisters and brothers, serve God's purpose. Talk about those things that are of eternal value. Sure, you can talk about who won the the dodgeball game and the cricket 45:21 game and all that stuff and have a good time, but let it be eternally drawn drawn towards eternity. And it's of faith. And this last point, how do you get faith? Romans 4:22, this is this is the best part. I saved the best for last. Hebrews 45:37 4: No, Romans 4:22. It tells the story of Abraham and how he had a child. And God gave him this child and says, "Therefore, also his faith was reckoned to him as righteousness. Now, not for his sake only was it 45:57 written that it was reckoned to him, but for our sake also to whom it will be reckoned as those who believe that's that word faith in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. What's he saying there? Let me summarize this. He says 46:08 many times Abraham believed God and it was reckoned to him as righteousness. Reckoned is a word that most of us probably don't use in everyday conversation. Let me tell you another word that that probably you'll understand better. Credited. 46:19 Anybody ever received some credit for something? I Most of you probably have in some sense or the other. But credit is essentially saying here's something you haven't earned it, you don't deserve it, but I'm just going to give it to you. A 46:31 gift. Abraham believed God and he got the gift of righteousness. Do you want righteousness in your life? Would you want victory over sin in your life? Believe God and he will just give it to you as a gift. How does that work? 46:44 It's a mystery. That's why faith is a mystery. God is in a in essence saying, you just believe me. You just put your faith in me and I'll give you righteousness. You don't You don't work up a righteousness. You don't have to earn it. You don't 46:58 have to do so many things. You don't have to follow a particular thing for 3 weeks in a row or a month and then you earn righteousness. No. Most of us have tried that and we've earned a righteousness that stinks because it's a filthy rag. And here you 47:11 are walking around with filthy rags in your pockets and everybody's like, "Man, where's that smell coming from?" Man, did you take a shower today? No, it's that filthy rag that's in your pocket that you're so proud of. That 47:21 righteousness that you worked up for 2 years and you're proud that you finally got victory in that area. Well, that's a good thing. But did you get it from faith? Then it's a sweet aroma to the Lord. Then it's a sweet aroma to 47:32 God. God credits righteousness to your spiritual bank account. That's how you get faith and that's how you get righteousness. When you believe God, he just puts it into your bank account. You wake up one morning you realize, "Man, somebody put 47:46 a million dollars in my bank account." Spiritually, that's what happens to you when you go to bed at night and says, "Lord, tomorrow I am going to trust you. I'm not going to trust myself. I know there's there's not I I have a one rupee 47:57 left in my bank account and I don't know where that next paycheck's going to come from but I'm going to trust you. And you wake up the next morning and I don't know if there's actually money in the bank account or not but spiritually 48:09 there is because when you have faith let it be said of you Santosh believed God. Santosh had faith in God and it was credited to him as righteousness. Put your name there. Believed God and God deposited righteousness in his bank 48:24 account. Do you want God to to deposit bank righteousness in your bank account, your spiritual bank account? Seems so empty. Going bankrupt every day in righteousness, falling into sin after sin after sin. If you feel bankrupt 48:37 ask the Lord to credit you with some righteousness. But you have to believe him. He doesn't give it to anyone. Gives it to them who believe him. Them who have tied themselves in to the rope that he's holding on to and say, "Lord, I'm 48:48 leaning on you. I'm leaning on all these other things I've leaned on the fact that I'm a I was born a Christian home or or the fact that I wasn't born in the Christian home and I came to know you." All those things are good. It's good to 49:00 have an assurance of salvation. But when you lean on God he deposits stuff. One day you wake up and there's another million dollars in your bank account. You think, "Wow, I'm a rich man today." Not rich in money. I hope you don't have faith for money. 49:14 That money will burn up like we heard this morning from somebody. God will If you if you got a million doll- a million rupees in your bank account at the end of your life you can't take it with you. But if you got a million rupees a 49:26 million whatever God's currency worth of faith that's a full suitcase of faith. I hope you're going to have a full suitcase of faith even if your physical bank account is empty. Let's pray. By and by when I look on his face, 49:55 beautiful face, thorn-shadowed face, by and by, when I look on his face, I wish I'd given him more. More. By and by, when he holds out his hands, welcoming hands, nail-pierced hands, by and by, when he holds out his hands, I 50:12 wish I'd given him more. In the light of that heavenly place, light from his face, oh, beautiful face, in the light of that heavenly place, I'll wish I'd given him more. More, so much more, more of my life than 50:31 I ever gave before. By and by, when I look on his face, I wish I'd given him more. Today, if you hear his voice, harden not your heart. Today is the day of salvation. Today is the day to give him more. Cuz after we die, after the Lord's return, it will 50:50 be too late. The bags will have been packed. Whatever's in the suitcases whatever's there. There's nothing left. And as much faith as God has been able to pour into your life today, because you read his word, because you heard his 51:01 voice, because you made yourself poor from the world's perspective, because you fixed your eyes on Jesus, because you were done with the old law way of trying to earn righteousness, so that you could have a reputation before men. 51:18 Throw that reputation of men into the garbage. What What the rest of the brothers and sisters in the church think about you, throw it in the garbage can right now. And let God give you his approval. Heavenly Father, do this in my life and 51:32 the lives of my brothers and sisters. Lord, I believe you want to fill my heart with faith. You want to fill me with a reassurance that you're holding onto that rope, and even though I might fall sometimes, my desire is not to 51:42 fall. Even though I fall, Lord, help me to remember that you're holding onto that rope, and get back up, and move on with you and climb this mountain. We might get scraped and bruised every now and then, too, Lord. But the joy of that mountain top when 51:54 you will finally call us home and welcome us into your presence and say, "Well done, good and faithful servant. Enter thou into the joy of thy master." I long to hear those words. And I long to be able to sit with you for all 52:05 eternity. Close to you and near you and be able to see you with my eyes. Because now I can only see you by faith. But that's good enough for now, Lord. I see you by faith. That's good enough for me. Knowing that you're holding onto me. 52:22 Help me to depend on you for everything, Lord. I pray that you'll get to the point where I can't even move a finger or take one step without being dependent on you. Fill us with the Holy Spirit. Holy Spirit, I pray, come upon us 52:34 tonight in a mighty and powerful way, Lord. Not so that we can get gifts or anything supernatural. Not an emotion, Lord. I don't I don't care for emotion. I've got plenty of emotions. But today I want power with you, Lord. I want power 52:47 that will transform my life. I want I want an experience with you that's greater than a feeling. An experience with you that's power. Power to set me free from these things that have held me in bondage for year after year after 52:58 year. Give me faith, Lord. Help our unbelief. You know that you know you Thank you that you understand that we're so full of unbelief so often. That that's our tendency to be full of unbelief. Give us faith. I believe you will, Lord. 53:13 And that's the meaning of that word, "Amen." It means it shall be so. So if you say amen to this prayer, brother or sister, if you say amen to this prayer, I urge you, not just with your tongue, say it in your in your heart, "Amen. It 53:26 shall be so." Because you're going to see that as a reality. Immediately after this message is over, for the rest of this evening, but then again tomorrow morning, and the day after that, and the day after that, it shall be so. 53:41 In Jesus' name. Amen.
