Will He Find Faith?

Well, I know that you know that the most valuable thing in your possession is this book.

This book has all the answers to everything you need. If you will follow what's in this book, if you will pay attention to what is in it, if you allow it to go into your mind and if you allow it to direct your paths along with the Holy Spirit that opens our minds to understand what's in that book. This book is the most valuable thing you have. In this book, we find instruction on how to live.

We find a lot of history in this book that helps us understand the world the way it is today and many things that happened along the way that explain so many of the problems that we had today as well. In this book, we find prophecy so we can kind of look when we understand the history and where things came from and nations came from. We can look at the prophecy and see where the world is going. And of course, it gives us great hope when we see the promises that Christ and God the Father made to us and how their plan that they had formed before the foundation of the world is still intact today, still marching forward. You know, as we look through the Old Testament, the New Testament, it's encouraging, too, to see the words that Jesus Christ spoke. The disciples, when they were on earth, had a unique opportunity that I think any of us would want. For three and a half years, they had Jesus Christ walking with them where they could talk to them, ask questions, eat with them, and be with them day in and day out. They got to know Him very well. They understood or they got to understand what He was about. And after they received the Holy Spirit, all the things they didn't understand all came together to help them march forward. And in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, it's like we have a notebook, a notebook of the times that they spent with Jesus Christ. We have His words recorded in there, and in those words, we find places where He was encouraging His disciples, just like He would encourage us today. Other places where He's admonishing His disciples, you can't think that way. And we need to take those personally. And as we read through those notes and as those scriptures, we need to let God talk to us. And we need to understand those things and understand that what they learned, we need to learn as well. Turn with me, if you will, back to Matthew 8. Sometimes Christ would use the same phrase over and over when He would be talking to His disciples, and they would get the message, I would hope, as they would hear Him say something to them. And then a few weeks later or maybe a month later, He would say the same thing to them again, that this is something they should be paying attention to. And when we read the words and we see Christ using the same phrase multiple times, or really we should be paying any attention to anything He says. But if we see something that He says over and over, we might want to pay attention and apply it to ourselves as well. Let's look at Matthew 8, beginning in verse 25.

Let me see. We're going to begin in verse 24. This is the occasion, though, when the disciples are out on the boat, there's a great storm on the water that's coming about, and of course they're afraid. And if you've ever been on a boat where you haven't been close to shore and you're not sure you can swim the shore and the waves are tossing you to and fro, it can kind of be a harrowing experience. You don't know what's going to happen and you're kind of at the mercy of all the elements. It's a time that requires great faith. Well, the disciples find themselves in this situation. There's a storm here, there's a boat, they don't know what to do, they're getting a little afraid. In verse 24 it says, suddenly a great tempest arose on the sea so that the boat was covered with the waves, but he, Christ, was asleep. His disciples came to him and awoke him, saying, Lord, save us, we're perishing. And he said to them, Why are you fearful, O you of little faith?

Why are you fearful, O you of little faith? They hadn't learned yet, but one of the things that Christ tells us over and over again is, Don't be afraid. We heard about fear a little bit in the sermonette. He doesn't want us to be afraid. And he says, Don't be fearful, O you of little faith.

If we had faith in Christ, if we had faith in God, we wouldn't be fearful. And that's what he's telling them there. This is a physical, physical element that's happening here. Don't be afraid. Don't let it cripple you. Don't be of little faith. Look at it and know that when God is involved, he has your best interest at heart. And what he did then was he calmed the sea. And they learned, Don't fear, have faith. Don't be of little faith. Over in Matthew 14, we find another time that the disciples were on the water. This time they didn't have Christ in the boat with them.

And they were out at night. And when they looked up, they saw what they thought was an apparition coming at them, looking like it was walking on water. And again, they were afraid. They saw something that they had never seen before. And in their imaginations, they couldn't picture anyone walking on water. But here in chapter 14 and verse 30, we find them faced with this spectacle.

Chapter 14 verse 30. Let's back it up. Let's start in verse 26. When the disciples saw him, Christ, walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, It's a ghost. And they cried out for fear. But immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying, Be of good cheer. It's I. And he had to remind them, Don't be afraid. And Peter answered them and said, Lord, if it's you, commend me to come to you on the water. So he said, Come. And when Peter had come down out of the boat, he walked on the water to go to Jesus. No trepidation, no wavering, no hesitation. Christ said, Come. He jumped out of that boat. And he did what was physically impossible. He walked on the water. For who knows how long, but he walked on the water. Verse 30. When he saw that the wind was boisterous, he was afraid. He began to look around. He began to see the waves twirling, probably looked down at the water and thought, What on earth? There's no way I could do this. And he became afraid. And he began to sink. And as he was sinking, he said, Lord, save me. Immediately Jesus stretched out his hands, caught him, and said to him, O you of little faith, why did you doubt? O you of little faith, why did you doubt? You had the right reaction. You jumped in and you walked. And he kept his eyes on Christ. And as long as he did that, he did the physically impossible. There's many things in our lives that God may ask us to do along the way to his kingdom. And we might look at ourselves and say, you know, that's just impossible. There's no way I could do that. And there's no way I want to do that, even. And, you know, when we have that attitude, we're exactly right. If we look to ourselves, as Peter looked down and saw that water and thought, there's no way I can be walking on this water, we're exactly right. There's no way we can do it if we look to ourselves for that strength. But if we have faith in God and realize whatever he asks us to do, he will give us the power, the strength, the ability to do, no matter what it is. Peter learned that. He started off right, but somewhere along the line, in that short walk out to Christ, he began looking at the things below and he began to doubt. Oh, you of little faith, Christ told him. Why'd you doubt? Don't ever doubt. Peter started out along the way. He did the impossible for a period of time. And then he began to doubt. And he sank. There's a lesson in us for that, too. We can start off in faith with Jesus Christ, with God. We can believe we can do everything he asks us to do, but it's not something we get credit for if we just go halfway or a quarter of the way or three-quarters of the way. Peter didn't get credit for going halfway. He needed to go all the way out there. He needed to complete the walk and not doubt at all. So, same lesson for us. Never doubt. Never doubt your calling. Never let the winds of time or the words of someone ever create doubt in your mind about why you were called, who you were called, and what you were called to. You keep your eyes on Jesus Christ, just as Peter should have. And had he done that, he would have completed his walk.

But along the way, Christ said, oh, you of little faith. Why did you doubt? We don't ever want to hear those words from Jesus Christ. Oh, you of little faith. Why did you doubt? You keep your eyes fixed on him, and you keep your eyes walking toward him. Over in Matthew 16, we find Christ talking to his disciples. This is right after the incident where Christ fed a crowd of 5,000 with five loaves and two fishes. And as they're preparing to leave that place in verse 5, it says, when his disciples had come to the other side, they forgot to take bread with them.

And Jesus said to them, Take heed and beware of the love and of the Pharisees and the Sadducees.

Well, they had been thinking about bread and the fact that they'd forgotten to take any food with them. And they reasoned among themselves, saying, He said that because we have taken no bread. Well, He knew what they were thinking. And being aware of it, He said to them, Oh, you of little faith. Oh, you of little faith. Why do you reason among yourselves because you have brought no bread? Don't you understand? Don't you remember the five loaves of the 5,000 and how many baskets you took up? Don't you remember the seven loaves of the 4,000 and how many large baskets you took up? How is it that you don't understand that I wasn't speaking to you concerning bread, but to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees, the doctrine of the Pharisees and the Sadducees? Oh, you of little faith. They were concerned about the things and thought He was upset because they forgot something when they had just seen Him perform the impossible with the crowd of 5,000. And He fed them with five loaves and two fishes. And He was teaching them, Don't concern yourself. Don't be unduly concerned, I should say, with the physical things of life. Let's turn back to Matthew 6 because He has the power to provide whatever we need and whatever circumstance we're in. In Matthew 6, the Sermon on the Mount, Christ is speaking to the people and He's focusing them on the kingdom of God. Let's pick it up in verse 28 of Matthew 6. He says, Why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow, they don't toil, they don't spin. And yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow was thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?

Won't He clothe you too, O you of little faith? Are you going to spend all your time worrying about that? Spending all your time focused on the physical things of earth when He promises that if you seek first the kingdom of God and have your focus on that, He'll add all those things to you. He knows what we need even before we know what we need. O you of little faith, he says, focus on the kingdom, do those things and God will provide.

Let's go back to Matthew 17. Matthew 17, verse 14.

It says, When they came to the multitude, a man came to Christ, kneeling down and saying, Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is an epileptic, and suffers severely. He often falls into the fire and often into the water. A very serious situation here. So I brought him, the man says, to your disciples, but they couldn't cure him.

They couldn't do anything about this. And Jesus, maybe a little disappointed, maybe, maybe a little irritated, answered and said, O faithless and perverse generation, how long will I be with you? How faithless and perverse generation.

Now, he had said that to that generation of people at that time, before. He wasn't talking to the disciples here, but what he was addressing was the generation that he was living in. And he says, bring that boy over here to me. And Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of him, and the child was cured from that very hour. The disciples came to Jesus privately and said, why couldn't we cast it out? And Jesus said to them, because of your unbelief, because of your little belief. If you look up the Greek word there, it means little belief. Because your faith was just too small, you just didn't believe you could do it. You just didn't believe I could do it. Perhaps the problem was the disciples were looking at themselves and thinking they were going to be the one to cast that demon out. And when we look at ourselves to do these things, it's never going to work, because the power always comes from God.

And he goes, because of your unbelief, your little belief, for assuredly, he says, I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you'll say to this mountain, move from here to there, and it'll move, and nothing will be impossible for you. Nothing. Anything I ask you to do, anything I give you authority to do, you will do it. If you have faith just like a little mustard seed, it's not even the tip of my finger. If you have just that little faith, you can do it.

But it's not the faith in us, it's in the faith in God that he will do what he says, that he will give us the power to do these things. It's never about us, it's always about him. And the disciples, I hope, learned a very strong and a very good lesson that day, as they heard about their little faith. And maybe as they thought back upon their little faith comments that Christ had made to them along the way. Because when they looked at this situation, and they realized they had done it, they could have done it, had their faith been in the right place. They'd been given the authority to cast out demons. Go back to Matthew 10 and verse 1.

It wasn't that they didn't have God's command and God supporting them in doing these things, he wanted them to do it. Matthew 10 verse 1, when Christ had called the twelve disciples to him, he gave them power over unclean spirits to cast them out and to heal all kinds of sickness and all kinds of disease. He gave them that power. He wanted them to be able to go out and in his name help those people, anoint those people, heal those people, and ask him to heal those people. And they'd seen him do it. It wasn't as if they'd never seen anyone healed. Back in Matthew 9, there's several healings that take place before he gives them the authority to do that. In Matthew 9 verse 1, it says, He got into a boat, crossed over, came to his own city, and behold, they brought to him a paralytic, lying on a bed. When Jesus saw their faith, notice when he saw their faith, not in him, or not in themselves, but their faith in him, he said to the paralytic, Son, be of good cheer. Your sins are forgiven you. Your sins are forgiven you. And the man was healed. Sometimes when Christ heals, he says that your sins are forgiven you.

Sometimes sicknesses can be as a result of sins. Sometimes sicknesses can be as a result of people not forgiving others, not forgiving themselves. Medical science, you can go into several places and hospitals, and you can see that people that don't forgive sometimes have themselves so stressed and so balled up that it makes them sick. And if people will forgive, sometimes the healing begins at that point. Perhaps that's part of what this man's problem was. We don't know what his history was. But there's a reason Christ said, Your sins are forgiven you. Sometimes we have to forgive ourselves. Sometimes we can make huge mistakes and wonder how on earth we could have done that. But we have to forgive ourselves. And we will forgive ourselves if we really believe and have faith that Christ forgives us. Because if we can't forgive ourselves, we're telling Christ we don't believe you. We don't believe that you forgive our sins after we repent. And so he tells this young man here, Be a good cheer. Your sins are forgiven and he was healed. Down a few verses here in verse 18. It says, While he spoke these things to them, behold a ruler came and worshiped him, saying, My daughter has died, but come up and lay your hand on her and she will live.

Not a sickness this time. This is just, she's dead. And this ruler came up and he had such faith in Jesus Christ that he believed if Jesus Christ would just say for her to live, she would live again.

That takes a lot of faith. Just lay your hand on her and she will live. So Jesus arose and followed him and so did his disciples. And suddenly, as they're walking, a woman who had a flow of blood for 12 years came from behind and touched the hem of his garment. And she said to herself, If I could just touch his garment, I'll be made well. I believe that much that if I can just touch him, he doesn't even have to turn around and look at me. He doesn't even have to say anything to me. If I can just touch him, I'll be made well. She had that much faith in him that he could do this.

And when she touched his garment, Jesus turned around and when he saw her, he said, Be a good cheer, daughter. Your faith has made you well.

You believed. You believed with all your heart. And I'm answering that faith. She firmly believed that he could. No hesitation, no doubt, no putting herself through a process and exercise and convincing herself. She just knew at the core of her heart if she could just touch the hem of his garment, she'd be made well.

And so they went on. When Jesus came to 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. She's sleeping.

And they ridiculed him. They laughed. Who does he think he is, saying, She's sleeping? We all know, she's dead. But when the crowd was put outside, he went in and took her by the hand and the girl arose. The ruler had faith. He believed. He had absolutely no hesitation. He had no doubt. He didn't go back into his mind and say, Well, she's dead. She stopped breathing. And this man is just a man. He had absolute faith that he was able to do that. And Christ answered that faith. And the report says, When out into all the land, out into all the land. Because when things like that happen, people talk about it. It's important when things like that happen for people to hear so that their faith can also be in Christ. And as they heard about what he did, people learned to have faith in Christ and what he could do. Verse 27, when Jesus departed from there, two blind men followed him, crying out and 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'm able to do this? Do you believe it? And they said to him, Yes. No hesitation. No wavering. Yes, Lord. And he touched their eyes and he said, According to your faith, let it be to you. We could go on and on and on and show examples of healing where people had faith. Christ forgave their sins and they believed in him and they never doubted and they never wavered and they never put it in a physical sense because they knew what they were dealing with was something beyond the physical, that it was God they were dealing with. And he wasn't limited by water, space, medical science or anything, anything that happened, he could heal. They had that type of faith and he was able to do that.

Let's turn over to Matthew 13. Matthew 13 verse 54.

Because Christ certainly had complete faith in God. He is an example to us. He never wavered. He was able, he just displayed always complete faith in God. And verse 54 says, It came to pass when Jesus had finished these parables he departed from there and when he had come to his own country he taught them in their synagogue. So they were astonished when they heard him speaking and they said, where did this man get this wisdom? Where did he get these mighty words?

Isn't this the carpenter's son? Isn't his mother Mary? Don't we know his brothers? Don't we know his sisters? How could we listen to him? Hey, you know what? We've been impressed by what he said, but look who he is. We know who his mom is. He grew up here. We remember him when he was a little boy. Why would we pay attention to him? And they started reasoning among themselves. And they wouldn't, they didn't want to, to believe. So in verse 57 it says, they were offended at him. They didn't want to listen. They kind of put it in too much of a physical thing and didn't see what was right before them. And Jesus said to them, a prophet is not without honor except in his own country and in his own house. And he didn't do many mighty works there because of their unbelief.

They limited Jesus Christ. Their lack of faith limited him. He didn't do many mighty works there because they didn't believe. How sad is that? That they had him in their midst. And because they didn't believe, they limited him. Would we ever want to be in a situation where we limit what Christ can do for us? As we read through, you know, these examples here in the Bible, when God says, oh, you of little faith, don't fear. Oh, you of little faith, don't doubt. Oh, you of little faith, don't worry about all these physical things and spend all your time on that. Spend your time laying up for yourselves treasures in heaven. Oh, you of little faith, you didn't believe that I could heal. You didn't believe that I had the power that transcends physical senses and physical logic. He let them know the status of their faith. Where's the status of our faith?

If Jesus Christ came into the room today and he talked to us and he sat here and looked at each of us, would he tell us, oh, you of little faith, why did you do this? Oh, you of little faith, why did you doubt your calling? Oh, you of little faith, I might not have healed you the second that you were anointed, but you had to finish and you had to have the patience and you had to trust that God would heal you, whether it's in this time or the next, that he will heal, he promised he would. You know, not every one of the disciples and people that are listed in Hebrews 11, the faith chapter, had their prayers answered the minute that they were given. In fact, the men in Hebrews 11, many of them lost their lives, still waiting for that hope or still waiting for that promise, but they never lost faith. They never lost sight of what God had called them to. And even though life threw curveballs at them and even though life threw all sorts of things at them, they never lost sight of it. And no matter what faces us, we don't ever want God to say to us, oh, you of little faith.

Faith is an important, important, I mean, there's the understatement of the day, an important element of our life, an important element of our calling. We've already seen that with it, we please Him. Hebrews 11, verse 6, says that if we don't have faith, it's impossible to please Him.

Faith is at the core of who we are. Let's look at a few things that faith produces in us. Turn with me over to Ephesians 2. Ephesians 2. In verse 8, Paul writes, For by grace you've been saved through faith. By grace, God's grace, you've been saved through faith. Salvation comes by faith. Believing that God will save, believing that God forgives, believing that God has a plan and believing that God will do exactly what He says when we respond to Him the way that we're supposed to. For by grace, you've been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it's the gift of God.

Not of works, he says, lest anyone should boast.

So salvation comes by faith. Turn back to Romans. Romans 5, verse 1. Romans 5, verse 1. Paul again writing, he says, Therefore, having been justified by faith, justification comes by faith, being washed clean comes by faith, being reconciled to God comes by faith, believing what God says, using the faith that He gives us as part of the fruit of the Holy Spirit comes by faith, believing what He says, believing. Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand and rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Back up a few verses into chapter 4, and we find Paul talking about Abraham. We know Abraham was the father of faith. We know that throughout his life he demonstrated complete faith in God. He promised, God promised him a son. And you know what? The next day Sarah didn't conceive. The next year, the next decade, she didn't conceive. It was 25 years before that child was conceived. Passed all the time that physical science and reason would have said that they could have ever had a baby. But Abraham never lost faith. Abraham never wavered. He always believed that God would give him that son even past the time that the natural childbearing years would have passed. Here in verse 19 of chapter 4, it says, not being weak in faith. Abraham wasn't weak in faith. God didn't look at him and say, oh you of little faith. Not being weak in faith. Abraham didn't consider his own body already dead since he was about 100 years old or the deadness of Sarah's womb. He didn't even consider it because he knew God transcends the physical. Anything was possible with God. He didn't waver at the promise of God through unbelief. He didn't hesitate and say, well, I must have misunderstood. At the time his past, God must have changed his mind. He never stopped believing. He never stopped walking on that water, never took his eyes off of Christ, and he completed the path toward where he was. He didn't waver at the promise of God through unbelief. But was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God. Strengthened in faith. The longer it went, he strengthened himself by continuing to believe what God asked him or what God told him he would do and being fully convinced that what God had promised he was also able to perform. Verse 22 says, and therefore it was accounted for him or to him for righteousness. His faith was accounted to him for righteousness because part of faith is obedience. To write down Romans 1 verse 5, talks about that, if we have faith, we obey. So we see that with faith we please God. Without faith, we don't please him. Salvation comes from faith. Justification comes from faith. Righteousness comes from faith. God provides through faith. We don't have to fear if we have faith. We have faith that his will will be done because he said it will be. No matter what it is that confronts us. What is faith? I think Romans 4 verse 21 gives us a pretty good clue of what faith is. And then we'll go to the verse you're all thinking about next. Faith is being fully convinced that what he has promised he is able to perform. We know the promises of God. We know what he's promised to us. Are we fully, fully convinced that what he's promised he will perform?

Hebrews 11 verse 1 says it this way. Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. You didn't even have to turn in your Bible to see that one.

The substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. The New Living Translation translates verse 1 this way. Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen. And it gives us assurance about things we cannot see.

We can't see that our sins have been forgiven, but we believe we have faith they have been faith they have been.

Faith comes from the Greek word pistis, P-I-S-T-I-S. Here's what Strong says, pistis, the Greek word, means. It says it means properly, persuasion. To be persuaded, come to trust. Faith, they expand on it saying faith is always a gift from God and never something that can be produced by people. In short, for the believer, faith is God's divine persuasion and therefore distinct from human belief. And yet it involves belief. So we believe that God is. Hebrews 11, 6, it says, we can't without faith it's impossible to please Him because we must believe that He is and that He's a rewarder of those who believe in Him. But it's beyond belief. It's a trust. It's beyond just pure belief. We absolutely trust from the heart at a place that only God can define for us and that only we know. It's an unwavering trust that we never doubt, we never question, we never think about and try to put in physical realms because God isn't in the physical realm. We just believe and absolutely trust in Him and trust in what He has said. Let's look at one more place that it talks about faith among many others, but one more we'll look at today back in Ephesians 6.

Ephesians 6, this is the chapter, of course, that's talking about the armor of God.

And it goes through the various parts of the armor that the Roman soldiers would have won. In verse 16, it wraps it all up after it describes the helmet and the breastplate and the shoes and everything else that goes with it. In verse 16, Paul says, above all, take the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one. After everything else is put on, make sure you have that shield. And with that shield, you'll be able to quench, or you'll be able to divert the darts that are thrown at you. That thing is going to protect you. That's going to keep you on the straight and narrow path.

Let me read what the Barnes notes have to say about this part of the Roman armor. It says, the shield was usually made of light wood, or a rim of brass, and covered with several folds or thicknesses of stout hide, which was preserved by frequent anointing. The outer surface of the shield was more or less round, it was polished smooth and anointed with oil, so that arrows or darts would glance off or just rebound off of it.

So someone would shoot an arrow, send something their way, it would just bounce right off of the shield. Faith here, he says, is made to occupy, in verse 16, a more important place than either of the other Christian graces. It bears as to the whole Christian character, the same relation which the shield does to the other parts of the armor of the soldier.

It protects all, and it's indispensable to the security of all, as is the case with the shield. The shield was an ingenious device by which blows and arrows might be parried off, and the whole body defended. It could be made to protect the head, the heart, or thrown behind to meet attacks from there. As long as the soldier had his shield, he felt secure. And as long as a Christian has faith, he is safe. It comes to his aid in every attack that is made on him, no matter from what quarter. It's the defense and guardian of every other Christian trait, and it secures the protection which the Christian needs in the whole of spiritual warfare.

A pretty important piece of equipment. Now, you've all seen movies. You remember the movies where the people are dressed out in their full gear, and they have their shield there. And you know that shield is kind of like an extension of their body. When you watch what they do, and something's shot at them, it's like that shield goes right out to the place, and that arrow gets diverted off of them. If they send something from the back, that shield's right there, and that arrow gets diverted off of them.

It protects them. And God likens the faith that we have, the faith that he gives us, the faith that he wants to grow into us, like that shield. When fears come our way, if we have that faith, and we know how to operate that shield, and we've been operating it, and we have it, let God being grown in it, those fears bounce right off.

They're not going to affect our faith. They're not going to take us off of the path that we're in. When doubts come, and people want to put doubts in our minds, they hit the shield, and they bounce right off, because we have absolute faith in God that has been developed over years. When financial troubles come, and we may lose jobs, we may have not the financial resources we did before, and we may worry about where the next meal is coming from. We may think, where is the home coming from?

We learn with that field of shield of faith, God will provide, and that dart comes, and it reverts right back off to the other way, because we believe what God said. You seek the kingdom of God first, and all these things will be added to you. When illnesses come, tough illnesses, times of pain that don't seem like they would even go away, we let that arrow bounce off, because we believe that God will heal. And He'll heal in His own time, because He has a separate purpose for all of us that He's working out. And we don't let any of those things affect us, because we have that faith that's been perfected as the years that we walk with God and as we follow Him.

And as we do the things to build faith that we'll talk here about in a moment. Faith. We have to have it. Without it, we can't please God. Without it, we won't be in the kingdom. Without it, we won't stand through the things that the Bible tells us we're going to see between now and the time of Christ's return.

You want to be there when Christ returns? You have to have faith. The shield has to be there. There will be plenty of fiery darts, plenty of fiery arrows thrown at you. You can never leave sight of what the goal is. You can never doubt what God has promised. You can never waver.

But you have to stand right through it all in order to receive what He has promised. How do you get faith? The faith we're talking about is not just a passive faith. It's just a matter of saying, I believe. You know that. You can read James 2 verses 18 through 24, where James talks about faith and works. And he says, faith without works is dead. We have to have works. Our faith is going to be demonstrated and displayed by works. You read back through the men of Hebrews 11 and the women in Hebrews 11. Their faith was thrown by their works.

In John 14 verse 12, Jesus Christ said in His last discourse with the disciples before He was arrested, You've seen Me do many things, and when the Holy Spirit comes, you will do greater things than these because you believe. That's what He's called us to be. That's what He's called us to do. But we have to have faith. We can never let it waver. We can never put our faith in other places only in God. One God. How do we get faith? Well, first of all, we already read, it's a gift from God. Galatians 5, 22 lists it as a fruit of the Spirit. So we know it comes from God. It's not anything we conjure up ourselves. It's not something we decide one morning we're going to have faith. But there is something we can do. We can certainly pray about it. We can ask God to increase our faith. But there are things that we have to do in order for that faith to come about.

Remember the story of the spies who went into the Promised Land. And as they were ready to cross over, they sent 12 spies in, remember? And 10 of them came back with a bad report. Even though God had told them all the 40 years that he was taking him to a Promised Land, and he told them, I'm going to give you this land, 12 went over and 10 of them looked at all the physical things around them. They looked at the size of the people, the number of the people. They looked at the size of the forts. And they came back and their report was, we can't do it. We can't do it. The people are too strong. The forts are too mighty. They're too big. We can't overcome them. Joshua and Caleb came back and they said, it's a good land that God has given us. It's a good thing that he has given us. And they never even focused or talked about the number of men, the size of the forts, the number of armaments there. They just believed what God said and they came back with a good report, the land is good that God has given us. But the other 10 focused on all the physical things. They're too big. They're too strong. We can't do it. They doubted. They didn't believe God. And so they lost out.

One had faith, unwavering faith, that even in the face of strong, strong physical problems or physical obstacles that they believed still and never doubted that God could deliver. Where the others let the physical obstacles sacrifice. They were willing to sacrifice the promised land. And if you go back and look in that that section in Numbers where it talks about that, the people of Israel actually wanted to stone Joshua and Caleb. They didn't want to hear that. They wanted to believe the other 10. Oh, it's too hard to do it. We can't do that. Let's go back to 1 Samuel.

Another man that we think of, we talked a little bit about Abraham. We'll talk about him a little bit more in a minute, is David. When we think about faith and we know the great stories of the Bible and all the examples of faith that are written there, probably one that comes to our mind is of David. When he was a young boy, he heard about this Philistine, this giant, that was threatening the armies of Israel. And he was incensed that this giant would be threatening Israel. In 1 Samuel 7, verse 26, I'm sorry, 1 Samuel 17, verse 26.

So as David spoke to the men who stood by him, saying, What shall be done for the man who kills this Philistine and takes away the reproach from Israel? Who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God? Who is this guy that's standing up against God and his people? And he had to be wondering, and why are you letting him do that? Don't you know who's on your side? Don't you know that no matter how big he is, he's not bigger than God? Down in verse 31, it says, When the words which David spoke were heard. So he went around that camp and he talked about these things, and people started talking about what he was saying. The words got reported to Saul, and he sent for him. And David said to Saul, Let no man's heart fail because of him. Your servant will go and fight with his Philistine. David marched right in there, the young guy, and he said, You know what? Don't worry about it anymore. I'm going in there and fighting him. You don't have to worry about someone else to make this happen. I'll just do it. And Saul said to David, You're not able to go against his Philistine to fight with him. You're just a youth, and he's been a man of war from his youth.

He's looking at the physical and saying, You're no match. But David said to Saul, Your servant used to keep his father's sheep. And when a lion or a bear came and took a lamb out of the flock, I went out after it and struck it and delivered the lamb from its mouth. And when it arose against me, I caught it by its beard and struck and killed it. Your servant has killed both lion and bear, and this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, seeing he has defied the armies of the living God. He spoke with confidence. He spoke with power. And in verse 27 or verse 37, he sewed it up. Moreover, David said, The Lord, who delivered me from the paw of the lion, and from the paw of the bear, he will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine.

David knew it wasn't him fighting those bears. It wasn't him fighting those lions. God was with him. God delivered those into his hands. And he saw the Philistine giant Goliath as absolutely no different. God will deliver him in because God will deliver his people. And there was no wavering, no doubt, nothing that Saul said in that conversation that made David stop and think. His shield of faith was in full gear. When Saul threw out the arrows of doubt, they just deflected off of David. When he threw out the arrows of fear that made him think about his own life, they just deflected off. He wasn't going to be deterred from what God had he was going to do. And there in that verse, you see Saul just let David do it. Saul said to David, go, go, and the Lord be with you. When he heard Saul or when he heard David talk in the way that he did, when he felt the faith that David had, when he saw that David's faith was in God, it was like Saul had no more arguments left. And you know, I kind of want to believe that Saul had faith at that time. When he heard David, when he heard the words of faith, when he heard the examples that David had, it was almost as if Saul said, go, and God be with you.

Knowing that as God was with him, that giant was history. When we hear things, when we hear about faith, it helps our faith. Let's go back to John 20 for a minute. And we could go through story after story after story of the faith of the people in this Bible, both Old Testament and New Testament, and they should be encouraging to us and through it all, we should be able to see God's hands and know that what he did for them, he will do for us as well. In John 20, verse 31, after Christ's resurrection and after he'd appeared to the apostles and walked with them a while, John 20, verse 30, it's a conclusion to this chapter and it says, truly Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which aren't written in this book, but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God.

These things are written. These things have been recorded so that you believe, because if they weren't written, how would we know?

Everything in this Bible is here for a reason. The things written in Christ were written that we may believe, that we may have faith in him. Over in Romans 10, faith comes from God. It's a gift. We pray and ask God to increase our faith.

But here in Romans 10, verse 17, we find that we have our part in the faith that has grown as well.

Romans 10, verse 17, so then faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God.

Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God.

If you look at the Greek word translated hearing there, it's a ko'i, a-k-o-e. It can also be translated report. Faith comes by a report and that report by the Word of God.

When Joshua and Caleb came back from the Promised Land, they had a good report.

They talked about what God had promised and that they were well able to take it. We have recorded in the Bible for us story after story, example after example after example of faith. God recorded those for a reason. Because we need to know those. They need to become part of our shield. They need to become part of who we are. So that when a fiery dart is thrown our way, we recall back to an example of similar in the Bible and that can just bounce off our shield like any non-threatening dart. Faith comes by hearing. You have to read the Bible. You have to pray every day and keep in communication with God. You have to hear what He has to say. And if you don't hear, if you don't take the time to read and know what's in this book, that's the most valuable thing in your possession, there's going to be chinks in your armor. There's going to be chinks in your shield. Some darts may find their way through, and we don't want that to happen. Faith comes by hearing. Today we have a Bible in front of us, and we can read the things that have been recorded for us back in Old Testament.

They didn't have the luxury of having a Bible in front of them.

But you know the word report doesn't always mean just the written word. The word report was a verbal word as well. Let's back up a few verses in chapter 10 here and see what God was talking about or Paul was writing about as he concluded here in verse 16 that faith comes by hearing. Let's pick it up in verse 13. Whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.

How then shall they call on him in whom they haven't believed?

And how are they going to believe in him in whom they haven't heard? And how are they going to hear without a preacher? And how are they going to preach unless they're sent? As it is written, how beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace, who bring his tidings of good things.

People down through the ages heard these things. They were gathered together and they heard God's Word. In Christ's time, they gathered together all the time, every Sabbath, to hear God's Word preached. We gather together every week, or we should be, to hear the Word as well as read it.

Verse 16, but they haven't all obeyed the gospel. Isaiah says, Lord, who has believed our report?

So faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God.

Do we want faith? We better know what's in this Word of God.

We better show God that we want that armor strong, that we want that shield to have no holes and no pits in it by diligently reading the Bible every day.

Do we want the armor of God? Do we want the shield to be perfect that it'll deflect those darts off? God sees how diligent we are and he'll answer those prayers, or he'll answer our actions. If he sees us at church every week and the opportunities that we have to hear his Word, he knows we're looking to him. We're looking to him to build our faith because it only can be built by him. And he says, faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. There's another way that faith gets built as God gives it to us. Let's turn to Genesis 22.

Genesis 22. We have the man Abraham, the father of the faithful. And in verse 1, Abraham, who his entire, well not his entire life, his adult life after he was called by God, he perfected or he obeyed God. Genesis 26 verse 5 says he obeyed God in everything he did and he passed test after test after test of his faith. And with each test, he obeyed God. And he passed test after test after test of his faith. And with each test, he obeyed God. Test after test after test of his faith. And with each test passed, that faith became stronger. Genesis 22 verse 1 says it came to pass after these things that God tested Abraham.

He was going to test his faith and he was going to do it in a way that was absolutely, you know, that Abraham would have never thought. He said, I want you to take this son Isaac, this son Isaac that you waited 25 years for, that you had faith I would give you, and I want you to take him out and I want you to sacrifice him. Abraham handled this test beautifully. He could have reacted in so many different ways when he heard that. But he knew that over and over, as we have recorded in Genesis, in chapter 12, in chapter 15, in chapter 18, God kept promising him, you will have a son, that son will have descendants and your descendants will be nations, kings will come from you, nations will come from you, and you, all nations of the earth will be blessed. Abraham believed those things, but here in chapter 22, God said, I want you to sacrifice Isaac.

Abraham could have scratched his head. He could have doubted it. He could have hesitated and say, wait a minute, wait a minute. That isn't what you said was going to happen. Notice what we have recorded that Abraham did. In verse 3, Abraham rose early in the morning. After he heard this, he saddled his donkey. He took two of the young men with him and Isaac, his son, and he split the wood for the burnt offering and arose and went to the place which God had told him. He just went out and did it. He didn't argue. He didn't doubt. He was just going to follow what God said because he had absolute faith in him. And on the third day, Abraham lifted his eyes and saw the place afar off. And Abraham said to his young men, stay here with the donkey, the lad, and I will go yonder and worship, and we will come back to you.

We will come back to you. Not I will come back to you. Stay here and we'll come back to you.

Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering, laid it on Isaac, and took the fire and knife, and the two of them went together. With Abraham believing, we'll come back to you. Not just I'll come back to you. We'll come back to you. But Isaac spoke to Abraham, his father, and said, Father. Abraham said, Here I am. And he said, Look, the fire, the wood, but where's the lamb for burnt offering? If this was me, I would have choked up at this point. I wouldn't. I don't know. It would have been hard for me to respond. Abraham didn't waver. Abraham said, My son, God, will provide the lamb for a burnt offering. No wavering, no doubt. God will provide what it is that we need for this offering. So the two of them went together. And so you know the story. Abraham stretched out his hand, ready to take the life of Isaac as he was commanded, when the angel of God said, Stop. Stop. Now I know there's nothing that you won't withhold from me. He passed the test. His faith was intact. He believed everything God had said and everything God said was still there. Not one of the things were different. All the promises of Genesis 12, 15, 18, all still there. A test that he had passed and now his faith was stronger than ever. And sure enough, in verse 13, as he said, God provided the lamb for that offering. God provided it. James 1, verse 2, says the testing of our faith produces patience.

That's how it grows. If we ask God for more faith, if we ask God to increase our faith, how is he going to do it? He's going to test us. There's going to be things that happen. Tharke's thrown our way. And he's going to say, well, did you pass that test?

When the test of fear comes, and as the Bible says in Revelation, and someone or some power is saying you either bow down to this power or you don't eat, you bow down to this power or you die, much like Shadrach and Abednego faced. People with faith don't waver. They have faith in God, because he transcends the physical and what he's called us to is far more than just this physical life.

When the arrows of doubt come, and people, things, whatever, wants to create doubt in our mind about our calling or anything as we follow God, as we follow God, we have our eyes, if we have our eyes firmly fixed on Jesus Christ, if we know his voice, if we know where he's going, if we see him and if we know what he's like, we don't doubt, we don't waver, we just keep marching forward. And those arrows of doubt glance right off of us. When illnesses come, and a doctor says, that organ's not going to regenerate itself. You're not going to live. You're not going to survive. Or, this is going to be with you the rest of our life, we don't. Or, you have to do this medical procedure or whatever it is.

We may do things, but we never lose faith in God. It's him who heals. These other things may help, but it's always God who heals. It's always God who promises it.

And when financial problems come, we don't have to worry. We don't sacrifice our lives and our faith for that because we remember the examples that God gave of old. We remember how he fed Israel in the desert with manna. Something never expected. They never saw that coming, but God took care of them. He brought water from Iraq. When Elijah was taken to a place of safety, God fed him by a raven that brought him bread every day. Do you think that he can feed us in whatever situation that he wants? Or that we find ourselves in? David said that he hasn't seen the righteous starve. He believed that God would provide. And that was before Matthew 6, 33, was ever written. If we have the faith and we keep our eyes on the kingdom and seek first his kingdom, all these things will be added. That's where Christ wants our focus. And so whatever test comes, whatever arrows are shot our way, the shield just becomes stronger and stronger and stronger, as long as we have our focus where it needs to be. As long as our faith is in the right place, and as long as our faith is never directed at us but always directed to God and Jesus Christ. And Jesus Christ.

With that in mind, is there any wonder that Paul could say in Romans 8, 18 that he counts it all joy? Or that, no, he said, the sufferings of this age don't even compare to the glory which God will reveal in us. Because he saw those trials that came as opportunities to grow faith and to draw us closer to God. So when he suffered the many things that he did, and you read it what Paul said in 1 Corinthians, how many things that he endured, he saw every single one of them as an opportunity to develop faith. So when he was faced with his death in 1 Timothy 4, he said, I finished the race. There's laid up for me a crown of righteousness because his faith was intact. When these things happen to us, we need to look at them as opportunities to build faith. Because God's what God wants from us. And when we do that, it pleases him. Let's turn back to Hebrews 10. Of course, in Hebrews 11, we have all the examples of faith of the men that are in there. And it says at the end of chapter 11, they never saw the promises in their lifetime. But it's reserved for them. They will see it when God resurrects them. But in the verses leading up to chapter 11, here in chapter 10, we find something that we can hold on to. Verse 35 of chapter 10. Therefore, he says, don't cast away your confidence. Don't throw it away. Don't let something come and take it away. Don't throw away your confidence, which has good reward. Keep the faith. Keep working toward that. Keep letting God develop that in you. It has good reward. But you have need of endurance. Romans 5 through through 5. Paul talks about how trials produce perseverance, perseverance, endurance, character, and then hope. You have need of endurance. You need to learn these things, he says, so that after you have done the will of God, you may receive the promise. For yet a little while, and he who is coming will come and will not tarry. And the just shall live by faith. But if anyone draws back, if anyone sinks along the way, that they've been walking along on the water, but somewhere along the line, they sink. God says, my soul has no pleasure in him. Christ is the author and the finisher of our faith. He didn't call us to get halfway there or three-quarters of the way there. His intent and will for us is that we get all the way there.

And verse 39 is a message to you and me. We are not of those who draw back to perdition. We are those who believe in the saving of the soul. Your lot, my lot, remember, it's not our lot to draw back to perdition. That isn't what God called us for. He called us to have faith and to have it right to the very end. It's not for us to draw back. It's not for us to sink. He wants us to have faith and to let him build it in us by doing the things that he says will build that faith in us, that faith that will shield us and that will be that very secure, safe feeling and safe armor around us. It's not for us to draw back. It's for us to march forward, ever keeping our eyes on Jesus Christ. Back in Luke 18, Luke 18 verse 8, Christ asks a rhetorical question that should haunt us in the right way, should motivate us in the right way. The last part of Luke 18 verse 8, he says, nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he really find faith on the earth? Will he really find faith on the earth? Your job, my job, your commitment, my commitment, and everyone God's calls is the answer to that yes. Yes, he will have faith. He will find faith on earth because we will follow him. We will rely on him and we will keep our trust and our eyes on him right until the time he returns and offer through all eternity beyond that.

Keep that in front of you. Keep that and let God develop the faith in you that will see you through to the very end.