Your Faith Must Have A Reason

[0:00] Welcome. Thank you for choosing to listen to another word-filled message by David Entry. Preaching is the means by which God manifests His word and nourishes our spirits. May the life of God enter into you and you as you listen to this message. Be blessed.

[0:19] Let's all say the Apostles' Creed. Alright, shall we all go? I believe in God, the Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ, His Holy Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and was buried.

[0:42] He descended into hell. The third day He rose again from the dead. He ascended into heaven and seated at the right hand of God, the Father Almighty. From thence He shall come to judge the living and the dead.

[0:55] I believe in the Holy Spirit. The Holy Universal Church. The communion of saints. The forgiveness of sins. The resurrection of the body. And the life everlasting.

[1:08] Amen. Hallelujah. So, we discussed He was crucified. Dead and He was buried. And it's interesting, it also coincided with Easter.

[1:19] And so, today I really feel tempted to rather talk about, I believe in the resurrection of the body. The resurrection of the body. Before I even continue, faith is not opposite to science.

[1:32] Sorry, Christian faith. It's not opposite to science. Some people say, you either believe in science, or you believe in religion. Or believe in faith. Faith is not opposite to reason.

[1:46] Reason. Reason. Reason. Any faith you claim to have, which is not based, which cannot be supported by reason, is a weak faith or not a Christian faith.

[2:00] Because the Christian faith is reasonable. Our Christianity is usually, is easily built around experience.

[2:11] Experience in itself is not bad. But experience is not enough to guarantee and sustain the future of your spiritual journey. Because experience is subjective.

[2:22] Whilst facts are objective. Anybody who builds their life around dreams, are bound to be deceived by the devil. But usually, people who are arrogant tend to want their way.

[2:34] I believe. I believe this is it. And Christianity said, go and disciple. Yeah, come on. It says that, teaching them, go and make disciples. Matthew chapter 28, verse 18.

[2:45] Said, go into the world and make disciples. Come on. The next verse. 19. Go ye therefore, and make what? Disciples of all nations. All nations.

[2:57] Baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit. But look at the next thing. That's very important. Teaching them. Teaching them. The weight of Christianity is hinged on teachings.

[3:11] No experience. Even though we will not downplay experience. Paul changed through experience. He had an encounter.

[3:23] Unforgettable experience. However, they said, go to Damascus or you'll be told. For you to last, you need teachings. Teaching them. That's how to make disciples. Teaching.

[3:33] Most people don't submit to anybody. They have this pseudo-Christianity. Sido-Christianity. And yet, you don't have results. When I say results, listen, let's not confuse material things that unbelievers can produce.

[3:48] That's not the results I'm talking about. Those things are good. We have hinged testimonies just only on material things that unbelievers can get without declaration. It's not bad. Declaration make a difference.

[3:59] But don't confuse me. Don't be confused. I'm talking about results of spiritual impact on others. Credible. It's undeniable results. Paul said in 2 Corinthians 3, he says that they are asking for letters of credentials.

[4:14] You are our letters. You change lives. You are our letters. You are our letters. Ministered by us. By Christ through us. You are our epistles written in hand.

[4:27] Known and read by all men. So, please, may I advise you? Judge your Christian weight by the number of people you have impacted to be closer to Christ than your personal idiosyncrasies, personal experiences.

[4:42] Acts chapter 1, verse 22. Appoint somebody. We have to choose someone who will replace this and be part of us. Join us to witness, to be witness of the resurrection. Must become a witness with us of the resurrection.

[4:56] They were witnesses of the resurrection. But they started through somebody's personal experience. Personal. Hey, oh, God taught me.

[5:07] You are genuine, but you're wrong. Don't weigh your Christian spiritual maturity by gifts or by experience. And most of those experiences, especially when you say, I was sleeping and an angel appeared to me.

[5:22] Oh, those things, throw them away. Angel appeared to me. So, what should we do with it? So, what? And you want us to take what you are saying because of your personal experience over again in the scriptures.

[5:33] There are so many basic instructions in scriptures. I do not even need an angel to tell me this is your wife. If you can follow proper Christian principles and discipleship, you don't need the voice of God to choose a wife.

[5:45] or choose a husband when there are mentors around you who are spiritual, who are praying with you, working with God.

[5:56] So, the Christian faith is a reasonable faith. In fact, I'm going on something else, but I think it's important. Especially, many of us are in a category, demographics, and we need really to be told that Christianity is not just based on how you...

[6:16] To understand that most people when they speak in tongues, why do you ask them to pray? Some people, some people, listen, some people's prayer is not friendly.

[6:27] What do I mean? Okay, maybe friendly might not be the right word, but you can, it's not relatable. Prayer is the communication with God. Don't enter into a certain spiritual mood.

[6:40] As you grow in your work with God, you have to grow out of that. Monosyllable prayer or repetitive syllables in your prayer.

[6:52] Every statement, oh God, dear God. It's okay to start with that, but as you go and grow, sometimes, Father, we think, just be real. Communicate.

[7:04] Yes, I'm saying. This whole spiritual, spiritual, spiritual, spiritual people, and those same people very soon, they tell you, I'm depressed. Yes. I taught you, I taught you as that spiritual.

[7:16] No, I'm not even talking about a prayer. I'm depressed. I'm tired of living. I'm depressed. I taught you as spiritual. So you are not really spiritual. You are not.

[7:28] Most of it is a facade. That's why they talk to people like that. They always have to look a certain way. And you know, when they want to look spiritual, they tell you, they try and ask some sentimentalism.

[7:43] You know, when God speaks to me, people don't, and they make their catchphrase, people don't understand. Anybody who begins to talk and say people don't understand, you have to be wary of them.

[7:56] Especially when they're claiming spiritual. Your claims of spirituality, you start winning, so establishing them, teach them, let them, through your relation with them, they are becoming Bible filled.

[8:08] The scripture must dwell in you. It's a sign that you are Christian. No quotations, please. Some people, they make so much noise in church. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But you can't see traces of these scriptures they are making noise about, showing in their church.

[8:23] And especially those believers who every little time, I'm depressed, I'm stressed, I'm depressed. The word of God is not dwelling in you. It's not dwelling in you. Grow up in your spiritual walk.

[8:34] What kind of Christianity is this? And that's right, most of it is emotional Christianity. But it's the spirit of truth when it comes, John chapter 16 verse 13.

[8:46] But the spirit of truth when it comes, John chapter 15 verse 26, it calls him the spirit of truth. The spirit of truth is the spirit that truth is facts, not spirit of feelings.

[8:58] It's that the time is coming when the true worshippers shall worship the father. In spirit and in truth, not feelings. This kind of anti-intellectual Christianity, get over it.

[9:12] Do you hear what I said? This anti-intellectual Christianity, it can't last. Yes, it lasts. In Acts chapter 17 verse 2, in Acts chapter 18 verse 19, yeah, in Acts chapter 18 verse 4, yeah, verse 4.

[9:31] What does, okay, look, Acts chapter 17, then Paul, asked his customer, went into them and for three sabbaths, did what? Resigned, risen with them in there.

[9:42] Somebody with such an experience, you think he would just, he risen with them in there. Acts chapter 18 verse 19, and he came to Israel and left them there, but he himself entered the synagogue and risen with the Jews.

[9:55] He risen with the Jews. Acts chapter 18, I think, verse 4 or so. And he risen in the synagogue every sabbath day. This is a preacher where he was reasoning with them.

[10:06] In Acts chapter 20, 24 verse 25. Acts chapter 26, verse 25. Acts 24, 25. Now, as he risen about righteousness, self-control, and judgment, Felix was afraid.

[10:20] He risen, risen, risen, risen, risen, be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind.

[10:30] Something changes in your actual life when it starts working in your mind. Risen, chapter 26, verse 25. Now, as he risen about righteousness, 26, please, verse 25.

[10:44] But, he said, I am not mad of noble festers, but I speak words of truth and reason. As he was talking, festers said, too much learning is making you mad.

[10:59] You have so much fact. He said, he's making you mad. He said, no, I'm not mad. Because King Agrippa knows what that. The king is very much aware of all these things I'm talking about. He said, I'm speaking words of truth and words, reason.

[11:10] In other words, when you add one, or if when you add two and two, it makes sense. When you add one to 15, you have 16. That Christianity, that will tell you when you add one to 10, you will get one 10.

[11:24] I'm mad. Please, please. Yes, and we say it's a miracle. You believe in miracles. In 1 Peter 3, verse 15, it says that sanctify the Lord God in your heart and be ready always.

[11:43] If I use the word always prepared. It said, sanctify the Lord God in your heart and be ready always to give an answer to every man that, whether born again or not born again, that asks you a reason for the hope inside you.

[11:59] The hope you have must be reasonable hope. It must not be anti-intellectual. Am I talking to somebody? That's why sometimes rich people, they go to universities and then they meet reason and they are overtaken.

[12:15] Their faith is overthrown because reason has met their faith and they realize that their faith has not been built on reason. That's why we do a lot of teachings in church and we reason from scripture because everything written in scripture is true.

[12:28] So when we talk about Noah, Noah lived. When we talk about Mary Magdalene, there was once upon a time, this man, Chronicles of Nanya, what was his name?

[12:40] C.S. Lewis. C.S. Lewis, he's a trained novelist. He writes fictions and he deals with myth, mythology. He's a special, he's a very intelligent man.

[12:52] He said, I am trained and I deal with myth but when I came to the Bible, I knew the stories about Jesus is not myth. When I see a myth, I will know it. These are, these are, these are no fictions.

[13:06] These are real stories that Jesus resurrected. Somebody was running to the tomb. Peter was running, John overtook him. These are interesting facts. You, in Mark, did you see that someone, when he just was arrested, I didn't ever know that guy was there.

[13:21] Not the disciples. He ran away and left his clothes and ran away naked. And you're wondering, why did they bring that in? One day, I'll look for the revelation and then tell him.

[13:37] But it's very interesting. And the resurrection, why would you resurrect and commit the initial people to see a resurrected Jesus? Why should it be women? Why should it be women?

[13:49] Because in those days, women were not valued. You have a major court case. You don't go and bring a woman to come and testify for you. Or you are trying to prove something to society.

[14:00] Those days, women didn't have that credibility. That, that, that culture. That's how it was. But he resurrected and showed himself first to women. Why women?

[14:11] It's a fact. And the women went to tell the men who were afraid. You think, many people think that they were in the room singing, praising worship. Christ is raising.

[14:26] No, no, no, no. They were afraid. Bible said they were afraid and they've locked themselves in the room. And the women said, listen, we've gone, the tomb is empty. And they went to go and prove the women wrong or to go and check if this thing can be so.

[14:40] But none of them expected a resurrection. These are facts. These are facts. Every name you see in the Bible is not a fiction. These are facts. So our faith is a reasonable faith.

[14:54] That is why everything you are doing in your Christian life, you must be able to explain it from the text. And yesterday, I was telling KP2 that it requires a certain level of comprehension, of grammar to also be able to explain something.

[15:10] Because if you don't do that, there are a lot of preachers who miss the grammar, the comprehension. It's just saying, clean, somebody ran without clothes, they were naked. And then they are also saying that the person went to meet Jesus and preaching pulls out all kinds of things and expounds on it.

[15:27] They say, do it. But teaching must be line upon line. It must be true to what the thing is saying. So sometimes, in Acts chapter 17, verse 11, the burial Christians, after Paul has taught, they will go back and search the scriptures.

[15:41] Search. That's what most of us don't do. Search the scriptures to see if the things that Paul was saying, to search the scriptures daily, whether those things were so.

[15:51] After I teach in church, don't take it fully. Accept it, but check the scriptures. That's why I like the scriptures when they're on the screen. Check the scriptures.

[16:03] Check the, you don't need my dreams. It's not necessary. Are you trying to say, God doesn't speak to us through dreams? He does. He can. But any spiritual life built around dreams and visions is bound to fail.

[16:16] It's bound to fail. Peter said that we have seen Jesus transform before our eyes, but let's go back to the word of truth. So that's what I'm saying. Every now and then, God will have, give us vision.

[16:26] Just like, just before we started, I started preaching. Look at what God was showing us to do. But all these things, which even though they are true, they are still subjective. Do you understand? They are still subjective.

[16:38] I said, God said I should pray for you. And then he said, come, get up and come. And then he runs and comes. I said, God said, I should say this to you. You know, I might mean it, but I might be wrong too. Do you understand that?

[16:50] I might be wrong. Maybe I thought I had God him, but maybe God meant that one. Or maybe God meant his brother. So that's why I said we prophesy in part.

[17:01] We see in part and we prophesy in part. First Corinthians chapter 13. Which, thank you, we see in part, we prophesy in part. So don't, don't be fooled by people who every statement, the Lord said, the Lord told me, the Lord told me, the Lord told me, the Lord told me, the Lord told me.

[17:19] Before, I'm not saying they are lying, but before you leave, you take their word for, look at their results. Impact on human lives. Spiritual impact. Not results, I have money, I have a car, but impact on spiritual lives.

[17:32] That's actually what shows that God, God people, somebody is gossiping, by another person, say God has been telling me this, God is telling, you are not, your life is not consistent with God's word.

[17:44] You are not tithing. Yes, you keep saying God is showing me visions. He will show you, you are stealing. So he'll show you how you are stealing from me. So it's important to build our spiritual lives on facts in scripture.

[17:58] Now, the scripture, I made a statement that is quite strong. The scripture is grammar. Grammar. Don't read into it first. Read from it.

[18:11] Read from what the, when the text says something, find out what that statement means. Instead of trying to read a meaning into the statement. Find what this statement, what does it mean?

[18:24] If you don't understand the statement, use another version. That might be different, but rendered differently. So you understand the statement. But don't quickly read into it.

[18:35] And that's what a lot of religious people do. Busy reading into the text. However, let me also add this caveat. So important to understand. I said that Christianity must be built on reason.

[18:49] Right? Facts. In other words, the fact of our Christian life is not because you are pure. It's because Christ died for us. It's because we are forgiven.

[19:00] Why, what makes me the, gives me the right to say God lives in me? Because the Bible says so. That's first, before I say, and I feel it. My feeling shouldn't be the main reason. The Bible said this is the main reason.

[19:12] So then if the Bible said it, said it, and I don't even feel it, I have to go with what the Bible says. It's a letter week say, I am strong. Let the six say, I am healed.

[19:23] So what the Bible says is what I go with. It's my facts. So not how I feel. Then, but if the Bible says something, that God lives in me, and I actually feel it after I'm born again, I feel it.

[19:41] It's just confirmation. And it's, oh wow, wow, this is so real. Now, you got to listen to this so you don't miss it.

[19:51] People don't get born again by reasoning. Reasoning alone doesn't get people born again. Because you can reason and reason cogently, clearly, unambiguously, and prove, and yet they'll say, I don't care.

[20:10] I don't want to believe it. So, believing is a function of the heart. With the heart, man believes. Not with the mind. With the heart, man believes.

[20:22] And with the mouth. So, your mind must receive a message, and once you understand it, your heart then will choose to believe what you have received. Unfortunately, there are people who say they are born again, and they don't know what it means to be born again.

[20:36] That's a mindless born again. Born again ship. Mindless born again ship. You must be able to tell, that this is why I am born again.

[20:47] If you are here, and you can't explain what makes you born again, why you say you are born again, then I think you have to go back to the book. Yeah. Thank you.

[20:59] That's why we organized New Believers Class. To help you to get it. Get it. Oh, okay. That's what it means. That's what it means. Many people think born again means, many people think, I'm now baptized.

[21:13] So, I'm born again. I have to baptize. I have to baptize. Now, to be honest, most people, from Caribbean descent, when they say, I have to be baptized, what they are trying to say is, and now I'm ready to live their life.

[21:27] Walk the walk and talk. So, it's not just the baptism. They know that, if you are born again, you have to be baptized. So, baptism is an out. They value baptism more than altar call.

[21:39] Because there are people who come to altar call, you haven't changed. You. You haven't changed. You haven't changed. There's someone who hasn't come to altar call, but changed and said, I want to be baptized. So, you must be able to explain what it means to be born again.

[21:52] Why are you born again? If you can't give an explanation for the faith and the hope that is in you, I think you are spiritually not grown. You must be able to defend why you come to church.

[22:06] Anyway, pastor will ask about me, so I have to go. Easy. Am I communicating something? I just want people to grow because the way for persecution that is coming to the world, if I don't seize the moment now and teach you, you said, teaching them all things that I've commanded you, Matthew chapter 28, verse 19 and 20, verse 20 particularly, teaching them all things whatsoever I, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you.

[22:39] I have to teach them to observe it. So if I don't teach you and I just lay hands on you, you see, I was trying to tone the thing down because there's no guarantee for the future in that.

[22:50] Even though it's good, it changes stories. Changes stories. Pastor, so if God is moving, would you stop it? No. We don't actually get it. That's why as soon as I studied it, the grace came, let's just use it now because we don't get it.

[23:04] And it's not like, okay, today I'm going to do it. No. So it's a flow of the Lord. But there's a dimension to which you flow and then you also know as a teacher and a pastor, so there's a lot of thinking and reasoning behind our worship.

[23:24] Even though it doesn't take reasoning to be born again. You can reason with people and then conviction. There's a difference between conviction and convincing.

[23:36] You can convince a person by it doesn't mean they are convicted. But when you are convicted, it's the work of the Holy Spirit. John chapter 16, verse 8 and 9.

[23:48] It says that the Spirit, when it comes, He will convict the world of sin. It's like it cuts to your heart. You just know and you either rebel against Him or you yield.

[24:01] He will convict the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment. Paul said in 2 Timothy chapter 1 verse 12, said, nevertheless, none of these things move me.

[24:14] I am persuaded. That's convinced. That's not conviction. That's convinced. He's been convinced, persuaded that whatever I commit to Him, I'm persuaded.

[24:26] I'm not ashamed. I'm persuaded that He is able to keep whatever I committed to Him. I'm convinced. There's a reason why He's saying that means there must be facts behind His persuasion.

[24:38] Am I communicating something? Oh, so I didn't preach the Apostles' Creed. That is why we need the Apostles' Creed.

[24:50] The Apostles' Creed is the reason for our faith. The Bible is not true because we believe it. We believe it because it's true. We are not foisting the credibility to it.

[25:03] We don't come to it to credit it with importance. It's important. That's why we come to it. There are two different things. So we search the Scriptures daily.

[25:14] We give our hearts to the Scriptures. If your Christianity is not built on Scriptures but built on experiences, it must be. Other than that, now there's a wave of prophets who have come who don't understand what Christianity is about.

[25:27] The God doesn't have a prophet. So Paul said in Acts chapter 20, verse 24 to 26, that one, he said, I did not shun to declare to you. He said, I am innocent.

[25:40] I am innocent. Me, the preacher. Paul said, I am innocent. Therefore, I testify to you that I am innocent of the blood of all men. Why? This is a serious thing.

[25:50] Those of you who want to be pastors, there are pastors who are guilty of the blood of men. Why? Why? What makes you guilty? Go to the next verse. For I have not shunned to declare to you the whole counsel.

[26:03] Don't declare partial counsel. It must be whole counsel of God. It's a holistic teaching. It's all inclusive, all encompassing.

[26:16] It touches on every other thing. But if you make it one way, you have shunned to declare the whole counsel of God. I told KP2, do you understand why a pastor must be studious?

[26:28] Because if you don't study, what are you going to say? Every time you come to church, you must learn something. I'm not talking about biology or social of current affairs. Stop chasing tradition. Stop chasing convenience.

[26:41] And if you're a genuine Christian, focus on feeding. Go to church. Believe God to feed. Jesus said, blessed is he who is not offended in me. That one doesn't apply to your life. Because you're not growing.

[26:53] You are so much full of yourself that everything you take is so personal to an irrecoverable level. That we can't even help you to recover. Because you've taken it so personal.

[27:04] Pastor said, those who are big after I pray for them, they should lose me. So for two years this thing is still on your mind. Am I teaching at all? This is what church is about.

[27:16] We gather to hear the word of God, be given instruction, be taught from scriptures. We need to teach you how to live a Christian life. Listen, the gospels are only four. And the gospels are telling us about the life of Jesus.

[27:28] Acts is only one. It's telling us about how the early church expanded. Apart from that, the rest are epistles. Epistles. The last one is Revelation. So if you take Revelation, so Revelation is one.

[27:41] Gospels, how many? Acts. If you add them, how many? Six. New Testament, how many? You don't even know. 27. 27 minus 6, what is it? 21.

[27:54] 21. Romans, 1st and 2nd Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1st and 2nd Thessalonians, 1st and 2nd Timothy, Titus, Hebrews, Philemon, Hebrews, James, 1st and 2nd Peter, 1st, 2nd, 3rd John, Jude.

[28:14] All of these ones are epistles, letters to teach us how to live the Christian life, how to conduct your life as a Christian, how to, your marriage, how you enter into relationships, how you behave in church, how you serve, how we preach, all these things.

[28:30] Chunk of the New Testament is teaching us about how to live the Christian life. Why do we spend much of church life to be, you will be prosperous, you will break through, receive amen.

[28:40] Every time, every time, we are raising you to blow up, not to grow up. You need to grow up.

[28:54] Hey, some people might not like what I'm saying. I actually don't care. because I don't want to have a church of a crash, crash, crash.

[29:18] The people are not growing. Baby, baby, baby, Christians, for two years, three years, four years, you have been complaining about the same things that the new believers should complain about. Complaining, every little, complaining, complaining.

[29:29] I'm tired of that kind of church. I need to inject true Christianity, teach the word. Somebody must grow. Somebody must grow. So we don't have to pray for you about everything.

[29:41] Some things, it doesn't become a prayer topic because you're working with God so much that some things don't become a problem. Why don't you tell you that to smile and smile? Did you receive something?

[29:53] It's only those in front who are saying yes. But there are some people at the back that don't have to. Amen, amen. See that we have to close. Now, now, what's your blessing in this season?

[30:13] I can see my teacher. I pray God will give me grace to keep feeding you. Lift up your hands and tell God, pray that God help me to be a doer of your word, not a hero.

[30:29] Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus. Father, we thank you. Help us to be doers of your word and not hear us only.

[30:43] We are grateful to you. Thank you. In Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Amen. Thank you for listening to this message by David Entry.

[30:56] To hear more from David Entry, follow him on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn. You can also subscribe to Karis Church on YouTube. Don't forget to share and subscribe to our podcast so you are always up to date.

[31:09] Be blessed. Vendory Entry for more podcasts. You can also see you next time time. Thank you. Bye, God. Bye, God. Bye.

[31:21] Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye.

[31:32] Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye.