0:00 So we opened up hearing about how God is a big God, and I wanted to share five points about faith. Faith is the word that God's been laying on my heart recently. Each time Jess and I have had a new baby, there's a certain period of getting past some challenges, 0:24 some unknowns with a new baby. I realized how things are going to be. Is the baby healthy? Is it staying healthy? I feel like a lot of your efforts in the early days are just making sure that the baby's eating and sleeping and breathing fine, just trying to keep them alive, basically. 0:40 And so the word on my heart has been faith, trust in God. Don't get caught up in doubt or worry, but remember how God, this child is much more God's than mine. And this is just one example of my life, but faith, I realized it's, I want to be full of faith, 1:02 not mainly because I want to accomplish what I want, but because it's how the Bible says we please God. The only way that we can please God is by, if I want to live for him and please him, if I want him to have pleasure out of my life, I see that the Bible says there's only one way, 1:18 and that's to have faith. A lot of things have changed. We hear, we've learned so much about the old covenant, difference between the old covenant and new covenant and how they're different. But there's one thing that's exactly the same, and that's how people have pleased God and become 1:34 righteous in his eyes. The old covenant and new covenant are the same in that way, that in the old covenant, people pleased God and became righteous in his eyes by faith. And in the new covenant, it was exactly the same. In Hebrews 11, that's really clear. It lists out all the people 1:50 of the old covenant saying, these people pleased God because of their faith. They believed in him. They trusted him. And then, um, and it's that chapter starts out, um, in verse six, it's Hebrews 11, six says without faith, it's impossible to please God. And if you go a few verses earlier in the previous 2:09 chapter in Hebrews 10 38, it says my righteous one shall live by faith. And if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him, but God gets pleasure out of a person who's full of faith, not shrinking back, but full of faith. And so I know if my life goal is to please the Lord, to live 2:26 for him, that I should aim to be one thing. And that's a person of faith. So we've learned a lot about what faith, real faith, uh, there's a lot of counterfeits, uh, out there, but we've learned good foundations for what real faith is. And I just wanted to sum up some of the things that I've been blessed 2:41 by as I've been part of this church and have challenged me and helped me and opened my eyes and changed my life. So I wrote down five points. The first one is that, uh, God, the first, the fact that God is eager for us has really blessed me seeing God as eager. Like brother Zach has said, 3:02 uh, define faith. Faith is the belief that God is more eager to give me what is good than I am to receive it. I love that quote because it says something about God. It says that it's, it's kind of like the, the picture of the prodigal son where, uh, you see the prodigal son walking back to the father, 3:18 but the father running out to the prodigal son, the, the son that betrayed him and, um, basically said, drop dead to his dad. His dad was so eager to that. When he started walking back, the son, the dad was so eager, he was an eager father. And so to me, that says, this is the type of faith I 3:36 want to see God as an eager running father. It's so it's, um, so easy to come to God and think I have to pull on his arm to get him to do something good for me, but that's not how God is at all. Um, it's amazing to think that God is a father in heaven who is loves me more than I love him so much 3:57 more and who's actually wants to spend time with me more than I want to spend time with him. He's eager to pull me away alone. Like the, some of the, um, the children were talking about getting alone with God. God is walking with us and so eager to say, I want to have some time with you. And to think 4:13 that he wants that with me is just blows me away. But what kind of father is it that, um, what kind of father do I have? I can't even comprehend him that he's so eager to spend time with a wretch like me, to have fellowship with me. It's amazing. Um, he's an eager father. Jesus healed so many people while 4:34 he was on earth and people would come to him and ask him, Jesus, can you please do this for me? But I wonder how many people came to Jesus and thought to themselves, yeah, he's going to be eager to, to heal me, or he's going to be eager to give me something. Probably hardly any, uh, probably 4:50 hardly any said, Jesus is so loving and merciful. Um, I'm going to go to him. He's going to be happy to heal me. I think probably most people went with a little bit of faith saying, yeah, I think he'll, maybe he'll do something for me. Maybe he'll, he can spare a little bit of his time. Um, I'll try 5:04 not to trouble him too much, but, uh, maybe he could do something for me. Um, and he, and Jesus did, he rewarded their little bit of faith, but, um, it's so rare for someone to be so full of faith to come and say, God is eager to do this for me. He's, he wants to, um, deliver me more than I want to be 5:23 delivered. He's going to be so happy when I come to him. But, um, I don't know how often people came to Jesus like that when he was on earth, but I want to be one of those people. Um, but I've noticed one thing that can tempt me to feel that God is not eager. And that's, that's that he doesn't always 5:40 seem to answer my prayers right away. It's sometimes how can he feel eager? How can he, my view of him be one of the eager God, if sometimes I feel he feels silent or sometimes he feels like, um, he's not answering right away. Um, I, or I want some word and I'm struggling with something 5:57 and he seems to delay for a while. Um, why doesn't he just answer me right away all the time or give me what I need right at that second. Let's say I've had a struggle with some sin for a long time. Why doesn't he just deliver me from it? And, um, or some discouragement that I've, 6:12 I need something and he just seems silent. And I think that the answer for me is that God is eager, but he's also patient. He wants, he's not mainly concerned about speed. He's mainly concerned about quality and just like how he, um, God had a plan to remake the earth into something very 6:32 good, but he didn't do it one day with one word. He went over six days and that's the way that he is. He's manifesting his patience and his long suffering. And, um, and he wants to, um, to do more for me over a period of time than he could do for me if he just answered it right away. And so, um, uh, 6:51 just like our memory verse was saying first set the loans, 524, he is faithful and don't worry, he'll also bring it to pass. He will definitely bring it to pass. Just trust him. He is eager, but, uh, and he is going to bring it to pass, even though you haven't seen it just yet, 7:05 haven't seen the whole full completion of it. So that blessed me to remember he's eager, but he's eagerly, um, working in, but he's eagerly patient too. He's patient working quality, uh, in my life, not just speed. Um, the second thing is, um, the other point that I felt has changed 7:24 my life a lot is something that Sandeep has shared a year years ago that faith is dependence and confidence in God. Dependence, meaning it's not about clenching my fist and gritting my teeth and feeling, I felt like, oh, I have to work up some holy feeling in myself so that I believe, 7:41 um, I don't really feel I believe yet. I need to try to work something up in myself so that I'm feeling I believe, but, um, it's not, it's not about that. It's instead saying, uh, coming to God and recognizing everything's hopeless unless God does something, unless the, um, unless he builds it, 7:57 the builders labor in vain. It's the leaning on God with confidence saying, Lord, I know I can't do anything without you, but I can do all things through you. It's that dependence plus the confidence. I think the, the most, the worst state in our life is when we feel we're in control and we don't need 8:12 anybody. I have enough. I'm holy enough. I have enough knowledge. Kind of like the, the rich young ruler who came to Jesus, Lord, I have everything figured out, but what, what could I possibly lack? Um, Jesus said, you're too rich. Um, not in money, but in yourself, you need to become poor in spirit. 8:29 You need to be need to become needy, lower yourself and give away everything so that you can come follow me. Um, and you don't have confidence in it anymore. So you give up all your confidence in yourself. And, um, and so that was his word. And so to me, that's encouraging because it says anybody can be needy. 8:46 Anybody can, uh, anybody can come to God and, and recognize that they are nothing. But, uh, can you imagine if it, instead of blessed are the poor in spirit, Jesus said, blessed are the rich in spirit. Um, praise God, praise God. He didn't say that we don't, we all have to work up to something, 9:04 some level of life before God can accept us. No, it's, um, it's, uh, God isn't like that. Jesus had so much joy because he said, praise you father, that you've hidden these things from the wise and the clever. Um, it would be so hard, uh, for people to work up to being wise and clever. Can you imagine 9:25 if God was like that? You have to be wise and clever before you can come to me. But God said, no, I'm going to flip things around to what you think I want. And you have to become babies, uh, needy, helpless. Um, and any one of us can do that if we humble ourselves. So praise God for that. 9:40 Um, the next point number three is that, um, faith is not for gain, for gaining what I want for myself, but about accomplishing what God wants in my life. It's not the belief that God will give me whatever I want, but it's adhering to the fact that he's a loving God and wants the best for me, even if he 9:59 doesn't give me exactly what I want. I think it's important to recognize that his desires for me are so much higher than my desires. And to keep reminding myself of that, we all have desires for ourselves, but God's are so much higher than our own. And that's why sometimes, uh, he doesn't grant 10:15 us our desires in the way that we, we think. Um, I am so low in my desires for myself, but his aim is higher. It's kind of like the, um, like overcoming and for example, I'll want something in my life, but he says, says, I have something higher for you. It's breaking a chain of sin that's been in your 10:32 life for a while that you haven't seen. That's so much higher than anything I could, any selfish desire that I could have for myself. Faith breaks chains of sin. Does, uh, I was reading, I was blessed when I was reading about how circus elephants, they, uh, when they're babies, they have 10:49 ropes tied around their necks and chain and tied to a stake in the ground. And so they try to get away and they, it pulls on them. Um, and so the, the, the circus leader, they always tie up the elephants and they're chained, uh, they're roped to the stake that's pounded in the ground. And over time, 11:06 the elephant grows and has this rope around its neck. Um, but over time, this elephant becomes huge, but it has stopped trying to get away because it said, well, I'm just used to, um, not being able to get away. I don't think I can. So it stops. It's like, uh, the, the circus leader, it doesn't even 11:24 really have to care about the rope or about the elephant wandering away because the elephant is used to being defeated and not having any freedom. Um, but if it, if it only knew how much power was within itself, it could walk away and pull that stake out of the ground and walk to wherever 11:38 it wanted, but it doesn't because it's used to, um, being trapped in a prison. Um, but I realized that we can be like that feeling like we're stuck and not realizing how powerful the Holy Spirit is to break us away from whatever we felt, uh, whatever we felt, oh, I've always just had this. Um, there's 11:57 no, you know, I'm just going to have to live with this. Uh, we can be kind of like that elephant, um, and not have any hope of breaking this chain of sin just because we've had it for so long, we're used to it. But, uh, faith can break that. Faith can, faith says, uh, I can walk away. God, 12:15 I can, there's this, what is the stake? Um, God has, he's made me the Holy Spirit inside me. He's given me the strength of an elephant. What is this sin? Um, kind of like the, uh, Joshua and Caleb in the Old Testament. We could easily take them. God's given us this land. It's good. It's good land. 12:32 Um, uh, and God can break us of that. It's, um, just one example I've, I've seen is recently I've been thinking of the sin of self-centeredness that, uh, I've just the, when my mind kind of revolves around myself way too much. And maybe I don't really, I think one of the reasons why I don't, 12:53 maybe I don't think about it too much is because I just say, oh, just how people are. I can kind of feel like that. I don't say it with my mouth, but I can kind of feel, oh, it's just how I am. But, um, I have to realize one, that it's a sin, but two, that God doesn't want me like that. And he'll 13:06 easily, he can easily break that, um, from me. I feel like it's one of the most ingrained sins that can be neglected for a long time is self-centeredness because it's very subtle. And, um, and the question for myself is, do I see myself as a prisoner to it? That it's just, it's just something that I'm born 13:21 with that every human is going to have, or do I see it as a little rope in the power of the spirit, like the elephant that can break me from it. We need to have plain and simple faith, like a child, like we were singing this morning. My God is so big, so big. He can snap anything, uh, some little, 13:36 little rope and, um, God is faithful as word can't be broken. It may, it's going to take a little bit of time, but he's going to do it. He's going to break the rope. If we just believe, just believe, that's it. Um, plain and simple faith. Point number four, um, faith praises before the trial has ended. 13:59 Um, through, there were, uh, through a few of the challenges that have come through the birth of our baby that we had a few weeks ago, I've noticed, um, um, that being more intentional to praise God in the midst of the challenges has really been so crucial to giving us peace 14:14 and helping, uh, helping us be strong in a situation that being more intentional to praise God and say, Lord, we know you're going to, you're amazing. You're going to work everything out. Um, it has helped lift us and, uh, and so that it's really be putting that with those words to life 14:31 that we say, sing the right song on the right side of the, um, the Red Sea, just like the Israelites, they sang after they crossed the Red Sea. But if they sang before, that would have been so much better. They wouldn't have frantically been running across the sea with, um, they're looking behind them. 14:46 They don't just walked in the victory that God gave them restful and glorifying the Lord and honored, glorifying him so much more. Faith says that our loving father will work everything out. It's just, everything's going to be fine. Um, on the last day, we'll look back and we'll say, Lord, why was I 15:01 worrying? You did all things well. Why did I, why was I frantic? Why was I fretting all this time? You did all things well. Um, he'll work everything out for us for, we don't have to fear for our family, for our church, for everyone who loves God. He's going to work everything out just fine. Um, 15:16 one of the specific examples I felt is as we've struggled a little bit with Joseph, baby Joseph, uh, nursing, getting enough milk, his weight was going down. And so we've had a lot of doctor's appointments, checking, make sure he gets enough milk. And the, the simple word that Matthew for 15:30 Matthew six was so comforting. Don't worry about your food, what you're going to eat. Doesn't God even feed the birds of the air? Um, how much more will he feed a child, a child, not only, uh, our child, but his child, he's, our baby's so much more gods than ours. How much more? 15:46 And so it's plain and simple promise. God was easily going to feed, um, our child. How, why would he not when he feeds birds, um, of the air? And so it's just, um, so, so simple that he's just going to work everything out. We don't need to worry about these material things. And 16:03 he provides, he provides the, all these earthly needs so easily for the purpose that we can, our mind can be free from not having to worry about all these things so we can focus on him. And he ends the chapter like that. Seek first the kingdom and his righteousness. Don't worry, 16:17 don't worry about all these things for the purpose of, um, focusing on his kingdom and his righteousness. That's why he, we don't have to worry about where we're going to live, what kind, how much money we're going to make, our salary, what we're going to eat. He'll easily provide all these things for us. 16:31 Um, and he, he promised, he gives us that promise so that we can focus on him. But, uh, one thing I did want to clarify in that is that faith doesn't mean I don't talk about my struggles at all. It doesn't mean I'm not honest about them. Uh, how's, uh, how's Joseph nursing? 16:46 Oh yeah, he's eating great. He's, uh, gaining weight. Uh, no, he, for a while he wasn't. I have to be honest about it. If I'm not, if my child's sick, I'm not going to say, oh yeah, he's healthy. He, um, don't, don't pray for him. He's healthy. Faith doesn't lie. Um, but, uh, 17:05 faith isn't fake. It's honest. Um, here's a question. Who said these words in the Bible? Now my soul is troubled. Does anybody know who said those words? Was it an immature believer in the old Testament who, um, wasn't filled with the spirit, somebody living under the 17:21 old covenant, uh, somebody who's a slave to his emotions. Now my soul is troubled. Uh, John 12, 27 says that Jesus said those words. He was honest. Um, and it didn't mean he didn't have perfect faith. He did have perfect faith, but he was honest. Uh, and to me, that's really encouraging 17:38 that we, um, we have faith in God, but we're honest about our struggles. Yes, we do have struggles. We have trials. Um, but look what Jesus said. If you turn there, John 12, 27. Uh, look how he ended that word. He said, now my soul has become troubled. And what shall I say? Father 17:57 saved me from this hour. But then after that, he said, but he used the word, but, but for this purpose, I came to this hour. Um, I took a couple of lessons from this, from this verse. One is that faith is always looking at the bigger picture. Uh, Jesus was looking at the, he had, his soul was deeply troubled, but two, 18:17 but, but he was, he was looking at the bigger picture and that gave him comfort. And two, there was a, but at the end of the struggle, he didn't just say, now my soul is troubled, troubled, but this is this very purpose. Why I came with faith. We can be honest about our struggles. 18:33 We don't have to be fake, but there's always a, but God at the end of it. Uh, yes, this is a hard struggle. I'm not going to lie and say it's easy, but God is faithful. This is one of the hardest things I could possibly imagine, but God is strengthening me. My name is still written in 18:47 heaven. God loves me as much as he loves Jesus still, and nothing can separate me from the love of Christ. Paul used a lot of words, but in second Corinthians four verses eight to 12. Um, if you notice the word, but he said, we are afflicted in every way, but not crushed perplexed, but not 19:05 despairing persecuted, but not forsaken struck down, but not destroyed always caring about the body of dying of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may also be manifest in our body. And then down in verse 12. So death works in us, but life in you. It's like he was saying, we're being persecuted to death, 19:23 but praise God, that's nothing because he's saving you through it. Um, so faith always looks at the bigger picture and has a, but God, after talking about any struggle, we're honest about our struggles, but we always come to his word and say, but praise God, look, there's something better. The, um, 19:39 there's something that he's doing. The, the affliction is light compared to the glory that it's to be revealed to us. There's this affliction, but look how small it is compared to the glory to be revealed. And then the last point, um, was a temptation that the devil often uses. The last point that I 19:56 wanted to share about faith is the devil comes to us with the two words, what if he often uses the words, what if I've noticed that a lot in my life, what if he tormenting with, what if, what if, what if the devil uses those, but faith has two words of its own. And it says, even if 20:12 not what it's not, what if this terrible thing happens, it's even if this terrible thing happens. Um, it's like how Job said, even if he slays me, the worst, worst thing that could, even if he slays me, all these things have happened to me, but even if he slays me, 20:27 I'm still going to trust him. God is still faithful. He's still trustable. Um, one of the most, um, amazing things that's talked that said about Abraham is that in Hebrews 11:19, it basically, it says that he considered that God's going to raise Isaac from the dead. 20:43 He was going to obey God. He said, even if God allows me to kill my own son, I know he's going to keep his promise. Even if he's going to raise him from the dead. Um, and he, even though that wasn't, uh, what God did, God prevented him from ever killing his son. 20:58 It was still faith. It was still faith in Abraham's part saying, God's going to keep his promise. Uh, even if Isaac dies, God can still figure out a way to keep his promise. And I figure it's going to be Abraham. It's going to be God raising Isaac from the dead. Um, or it's kind of like, uh, 21:15 Daniel's three friends, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. And he said, uh, God can save us from this fire, but even if he doesn't, he's still God. And we're still, we know that following him is still better than, uh, and being in the fire and suffering the fire is still better than bowing down to you and 21:31 forsaking him. So this faith, faith is an even if, uh, is an even if faith. It's not a, what if, um, even if this happens, God is still on the throne. My name is still written in heaven. God still loves me. Even if who will separate us from the love of Christ will tribulation or distress 21:49 or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword. Even if all these things happen, we're still, we still have the love of Christ. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any 22:06 other created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Romans 8:38-39. Even if any of these things happen, we still have God's eternal promise. We're never going to be separated from the love of Christ. And that means we're not going to die 22:20 because death would have separated us from God's love. But, um, God's promised us eternal life with him forever. That's the only way that he could pour out his love for us, uh, for us forever was to give us eternal life with him. Um, so the challenge I, uh, have for myself is to reject every thought of 22:37 what if and start saying, even if, um, always go to God's word and say, look at what I have. Um, and, uh, so praise God for his word, what he's given us. Um, and I, uh, I want to be a person that pleases him, lives to please Him by being a person of faith.
