[0:00] All right, tonight, the Lord has been dealing with me, and we're going to name just tonight Tried Faith. Tried Faith.
[0:12] I've been teaching this, and he won't let me move on, so there must be something in it that I need. So if the message doesn't resonate with you, I must be preaching to myself, and so you just have to bear with me as I talk to me tonight.
[0:30] About faith, about Tried Faith, because faith don't make sense. It just doesn't make sense.
[0:43] But the Bible said you should have it. And sometimes we're stuck in this place because you're asking me to do something that don't make sense. To believe in the thing I don't see.
[0:56] To trust in this thing that... I think I'm getting a little bit of feedback. To trust this thing that just doesn't make sense.
[1:08] Because the Bible says that without faith, it is impossible to please God without it. But then the question is, what is it?
[1:20] It's not some magical or mystical thing that... Faith, and in the Word, it describes, it gives a definition to what faith is.
[1:31] It says, faith is the substance of things hoped for. And the evidence of things that are not seen. And so if you look at the equation of faith, that one major component of it is hope.
[1:50] And the question is, do you have hope? And we can say, yeah, we got it. But if we're truly honest, some of us have lost our expectation.
[2:08] That's what hope is. Hope is an expectation that something will happen. And it says that faith is the substance, it's the tangible things of what you hope for.
[2:24] And if I was to take your hope and make it tangible, what would I see? What could I grab a hold of? It said it's the substance of things hoped for, but it's evidence of things not seen.
[2:39] So how can evidence not be seen? Now, when you go to court, if you don't have evidence, the case is thrown out.
[2:51] You've got to have some. But how do I have evidence I can't see? It says faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen.
[3:03] And God revealed to me that the substance and the evidence is not the thing that you're hoping for. The hope and the evidence is you. You are the hope and the evidence of the things not seen.
[3:19] Because although you don't see it, you still got to move towards it. That's what faith is. It is. In Hebrews 11, they call it the Hall of Fame of Faith.
[3:33] It starts to talk about all of these people in the Old Testament who had faith. It talks about Noah, who built the ark getting ready for something he hadn't seen.
[3:47] Abraham, to leave and go to a place you haven't seen. For Sarah, to conceive a thing in your age that you have not seen.
[4:02] And so the faith is not the thing that was produced from it. The faith was the obedience that they walked in. My God.
[4:14] Faith, faith, faith, faith. And this is always a tough subject to speak about because, especially at church, because we all believe we operate in it.
[4:26] But it's funny because when you go through Scripture and you look in the New Testament, the people who were closest to Jesus were the ones who struggled with faith the most. The disciples walked with Jesus.
[4:41] But it was always something, someone who was outside the circle, who exemplified more faith than the ones who were in the circle. See, the woman with the issue of blood wasn't in the circle.
[4:54] She had to fight her way into... There were blind men that were not in the circle, and they couldn't see Jesus, but they fought themselves, their ways into the presence of Jesus.
[5:06] And all those that were around him, when the man brought his son to Jesus, and they tried to cast out the demon that was in the man's son, and Jesus wasn't there when he got there, he said, they asked Jesus, why couldn't we cast this demon out?
[5:22] We're in the inner circle. He said, this comes out by faith. The ones who were closest to Jesus were the ones who struggled with faith the most.
[5:34] Sometimes we can get too casual with him. And because you come to church every Sunday, you come to Bible study on Wednesday, you never fully understand what God could do because you didn't got too casual.
[5:54] That we come to church and never get to know the one who is over the church. It was the ones who are outside the circle.
[6:07] Just a... What, two Sundays ago, preached on Glory Carrier. And God was showing me that faith and glory go hand in hand. That if you're going to see glory, you've got to show your faith.
[6:20] See, Jesus told Martha at the tomb of Lazarus, he said, didn't I tell you if you believe, you will see the glory? That your faith will open up glory.
[6:37] And sometimes we're waiting on God to do the thing he gave us the faith to do. Amen. All right. All right. I'm going to take my time.
[6:48] All right. So I want to read something here. I want to go to... Let's go to Matthew 17. Matthew 17. We're going to walk through the scripture a little bit.
[6:59] Matthew 17. Starting at verse 20. This is the same passage of scripture I was talking about with the man who brought his demon-possessed son to Jesus.
[7:17] And this is Jesus talking to them. And he said... So Jesus said to them, because of your unbelief, for assuredly I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, move from here to there.
[7:36] And it will move. And nothing will be impossible for you. However, this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting. Jesus is having a conversation.
[7:48] He says, you have to have faith as a mustard seed. And we get this confused. I was talking to a group of believers. And sometimes you got to be careful of the translation you read. Because if you look at this in a New Living Translation, it will say, faith, the size of a mustard seed.
[8:05] But when you look at the King James, it says, faith as a mustard seed. That's a big difference. Because if you subscribe to the faith, the size of a mustard seed, you will settle for little faith.
[8:22] But if you subscribe to faith as a mustard seed, that means the faith, it doesn't matter the size, it matters the impact. So you got to understand what a mustard seed is.
[8:41] But when you plant it, it grows fast and big. It's the impact of the mustard seed that's important, not the size.
[8:59] And so Jesus is saying, have faith as a mustard seed, like a mustard seed that can grow in any condition. That is self-sowing. That when you plant one mustard seed, you don't have to go back.
[9:11] Because if the seed so happen falls on the ground, it will produce more like it. You got to have faith that multiplies.
[9:23] We go from faith to faith. Glory to glory. That when you get faith involved, nothing is impossible. As a mustard seed.
[9:37] But Jesus said that the kingdom is like that of a mustard. When it becomes a tree, birds can perch. That your mustard seed faith don't just bless you, but it will bless everybody around you.
[9:49] It grows, it multiplies, and it don't take long to do it. A mustard seed grows fast. But in the word, it also says this, unless a seed falls to the ground.
[10:03] And dies. Then all it will be is a seed. That when it dies, it produces more.
[10:15] You, and this is what frustrates me with believers. Because we spiritualize, over-spiritualize faith. We blame God for not moving. We say, oh, I'm just waiting on the Lord.
[10:29] Just waiting on him to speak. When God has already given you the instructions. And he's waiting on you to move. We were going to Kansas City.
[10:42] We went to Kansas City this past weekend. And while we were driving, so my wife, first of all, let me say this. I'm hard-headed. I take pride in finding different directions inside streets and back roads.
[10:59] And I take pride in that. Knowing where I am and being able to go back without getting directions. I just, I like to memorize that stuff. My wife loves to use GPS. And so the GPS will go off.
[11:11] She said, babe, they told you to turn. I said, I know where I'm going. Woman, I know what I'm doing. Oh, but I've come to trust in the GPS. So on our way to Kansas, I put in my version of the map that I like.
[11:28] And we're going down the road. And it seemed like at the last minute it was telling me to take this turn, take this turn. And we've driven to Kansas many of times. I know the way to go. I can tell you 24, 40, 57.
[11:40] I know how to get there. But the instructions I had, man, were a little different. And I didn't realize until after I got out of the driver's seat and my sister got in the driver's seat and she plugged her phone up and she had something called Waze.
[11:59] And Waze is a little different. Waze would tell you that there are some obstructions along the way. Waze would say, be careful, there's a car on the shoulder coming up.
[12:13] I said, my map doesn't tell me that. They said, there's something in the middle of the road. I'm like, how do Waze know that? And it's funny because what they called the Christian faith in the Bible was called the way.
[12:31] And sometimes when you can't see, you got to depend on the one who is over the way, who can see what you can't see. And here it says, faith comes by hearing.
[12:49] Hearing by the word of God. And so while I'm driving, I am listening out for what Waze is saying. Because now my faith is being operated with what I hear.
[13:02] And many of us put so much trust in what we see and God's saying, your faith comes by what you hear. Faith comes by hearing.
[13:13] But you have to be careful because doubt comes from hearing too. You got to be careful with what you're listening to. You will believe what you hear.
[13:28] That the most important thing is not your sight. We walk by faith, not by sight. Your most important thing in your walk is your hearing. Because God will speak to you and then you will see what he speaks.
[13:45] You will very rarely see it and then hear it. You will hear it and then you'll see it. So it's important when you pray, you always take the time to... Because the faith will come by the hearing.
[14:04] Faith comes by hearing. Hearing by the word of God. And so we got to be careful what we hear. It's important. So I said tried faith. Tried faith.
[14:15] Because a faith that's worth having is a faith that can be tried. A faith that's worth having is a faith that can be tried.
[14:26] If your faith is never tried, we can't tell if it's really faith. Because it produces something. The problem with us following and trusting in God with our faith is because we're so afraid of failure.
[14:43] That if I do what God told me to do, it doesn't make sense. What if I fail? What if I don't see what he said? But the whole thing is not the outcome.
[14:59] It's your obedience. The outcome is not the success. Your obedience is the success. God is not worried about the outcome.
[15:10] He's worried about your obedience. Because your obedience would tell him what you're ready for. Oh God.
[15:22] See, when you're faithful over a few things, he will make you ruler over much. He want to see what you do with the little instructions you get to see if I can trust you with the big ones.
[15:38] It's the little. Oh God. He wants to see if he can trust you. Faith in the kingdom is your currency. Faith is like money in the kingdom.
[15:52] It doesn't matter how much money you have naturally. If you've got faith spiritually is what God is looking for. The woman who came with the issue of blood, she said she spent all her money.
[16:06] She didn't have any. But when she got on her knees and crawled through the crowd and she said, She said, She said, If I could just touch the hem of his garment, I might be made whole.
[16:30] Maybe I'll be made whole. I will be made whole. Your faith will determine what you speak. Jesus said the mustard seed as a mustard seed.
[16:44] Right. But he said, You will say to this mountain, Move. Your faith will make you open your mouth.
[16:54] See, Some of us like to practice closed mouth faith. And your faith can't be closed mouth.
[17:06] You got to speak it. He said, You tell the mountain to move. The problem is we speak to our problems and we don't speak to our problems.
[17:21] Your faith will have you speak to your problems, not about your problems. Too many times we complain about what we got.
[17:32] Oh, my knees are hurting me. Oh, my. And we speak about our problems. And God said, Why don't you talk to your problem? And tell your problem to move.
[17:49] According to our problem, we may look small. But according to God, our problem is small. It's your perspective.
[18:01] I'm not looking at my problem according to my stature. I'm looking at my problem according to his stature. It's all small in the presence of God. And so with his authority, by faith, I speak to it.
[18:17] Not only do I speak to it, I got plans to where you going to go. He said, when you got faith as a mustard seed, you don't mind speaking to your mountain, and you will tell your mountain where to go.
[18:32] Move from here to there. Which means I'm getting you all the way out the way, so you don't try to come back and get in my way. I got plans of where I'm going to put my problems.
[18:49] Mustard seed. As a mustard seed. You'll start to speak to it. There's some things in your life you need to speak to. And it has scared you.
[19:01] We're in fear. Speak to your problems. Faith. Faith, faith, faith. Let's go to Daniel 3.
[19:15] Try faith. Try faith. Daniel 3. Very familiar passage of scripture. Starting at verse 15.
[19:35] A little bit of context. The three Hebrew boys had just been brought before King Nebuchadnezzar. Because they refused to bow down to him. And they brought him before him.
[19:47] And he says, listen, I'm going to give you one more chance. To bend your knee. To me. Verse 15. He said, now, if you are ready at the time you hear the sound of the horn, the flute, harp, lyre, and sultry, and symphony with all kinds of music, and you fall down and worship the image, which I have made good, but if you do not worship, you shall be cast immediately into the midst of a burning, fiery furnace.
[20:15] And who is the God who will deliver you from my hands? Shadrach. Shadrach. And Abednego. And Abednego. And said to the king.
[20:27] They talked to him. They said to the king. old Nebuchadnezzar called him by name. We have no need to answer you in this matter.
[20:39] If that is the case, our God, whom we serve, is able to deliver us from the burning, fiery furnace, and he will deliver us from your hand, old king.
[20:51] But if not, let it be known to you, old king, that we do not serve your gods, nor will we worship the gold image which you have set up.
[21:03] Then Nebuchadnezzar was full of fury, and the expression on his face changed towards Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. He spoke and commanded that they heat the furnace seven times more than it usually was heated.
[21:17] The Hebrew boys, because of their faith in their God, said we're not going to bow our knee. Matter of fact, we're not going to even be careful with what we say.
[21:31] I'm not even going to be careful with how I answer you. Because I know my God is able to, and even if he don't.
[21:44] See, you got to have even if he don't faith. Yeah, I'm hoping and I'm wishing for this, but even if he don't, I know he's still able to do it, even if he don't do it.
[21:58] He's able, even if he don't faith. See, I'm not going to be careful in how we answer this. See, he got, he got upset. He said, make it seven times hotter.
[22:10] And it still didn't change their answer. When it gets hot on you, what answer do you reply? Do you say even if it don't, or do you give in to your problem?
[22:27] I'm talking about tried faith. So we're not going to be careful with this. They threw him in the furnace. See, your faith has to let you know that if he can't keep me from the furnace, he's going to keep me in the furnace.
[22:44] We've seen the songs. He's been my fourth man in the fire time after time. How can he be the fourth man if you never put yourself in a position to be put in fire?
[22:56] We never experienced the fourth man because we try to protect this man. But if you ever put your faith out there, you will experience the fourth man in the fire.
[23:16] Nebuchadnezzar said, hold up, didn't we put three in there? But I see another. And he looks like the He looks like Oh God, that you will get people's attention and put it on God if you ever put yourself in a position for your faith to be tried.
[23:44] We got safe faith instead of tried faith. We play our faith too safe.
[23:58] There's some things God has told you to do this year and you still haven't done it. You got so many what ifs and God is saying what if even if he don't Oh God, let's go to Hebrews 11.
[24:25] We want some Bible study in the night. Hebrews 11. When you look at it, and if you start at the top, really I want to go to let's see Okay, let's just start from the beginning.
[25:02] It says, Now faith, Hebrews 11 verse 1. Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. For by it the elders obtain a good report. Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God so that things which are seen were made of things which do not appear.
[25:23] Don't you know that God made creation by faith? We're made in the image of God. We're supposed to operate in the same faith of who we were made in the image of.
[25:40] The world, he didn't have something to look at and made the world. He spoke it by faith. And he believed to see what he spoke. It says, By faith which are seen were not made of things which do appear.
[25:56] By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain by which he obtained witness that he was righteous. God testifying of gifts and by it being dead yet speaketh.
[26:07] Okay, and it talks about Enoch. Here it is. For without faith it is impossible to please him. For he that come to God must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.
[26:26] It said, you must first believe that he is is what? Anything you need him to be. It left it that he is that's present.
[26:42] What is he? Everything. Anything you need him to be. You gotta believe that. He said, you must first believe that he is. If you don't believe, why you come to him?
[26:57] So when you come to God, first believe that he is and that he's a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. Talks about Noah, what he did by faith. He prepared an ark to the saving of his house by faith.
[27:12] Abraham, who was called out of a place, he went to a place that he didn't know. He surjoned. Look at verse 13. These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off and were persuaded of them and embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.
[27:40] That some of them that believed for the thing, they never seen it. And even though they didn't see it, it didn't stop them from moving by faith.
[27:52] So some of them didn't experience the promises, but they died in faith. They didn't see it in the physical, but they seen it afar off.
[28:06] So they confessed, they embraced, they were persuaded. They died by faith, in faith. James says this, faith without works is dead.
[28:24] Sometimes we struggle with that because we think about work. Because we receive salvation not by work, it is a gift from God of grace. But James says that faith without works is dead, and you got to really look and study the word work.
[28:39] The Greek word for work is ergon. E-R-G-O-N. Ergon. You can see tasks and things like that, but I had my son who was studying with me one day, and I said, man, tell me what ergon means.
[28:54] And he started to search, and he stopped at a definition that he liked. He says, doing something productive. So I said, son, let's take that definition and put it in the place of work in the scripture.
[29:12] Faith without doing something productive is dead. Faith without doing something productive is dead.
[29:30] If you want to make your faith alive, start doing things productive according to what you believe. I can't say I have faith to lose weight and I'm trying to eat everything I see.
[29:46] That's not productive towards my faith. I gotta do the things that are productive for my faith. A farmer does things that is productive.
[30:00] when he plants a seed, he doesn't see the tree yet. That doesn't stop him from cultivating. It doesn't stop him from watering because he knows he sees it afar off.
[30:14] He knows if I create the conditions for my faith to be successful, you gotta create the environment for your faith to thrive.
[30:27] the environment matters. Why does God, Jesus, when he was talking parables, always talked about agriculture?
[30:43] Have you noticed that? It's always about reaping and sowing and seed falling in certain places and planting because that is how the kingdom is set up.
[30:54] Everything a farmer does is what you need to do in the spiritual realm. That the soil is more important sometimes than the seed.
[31:13] Now, why plant if you don't get the ground ready? Why plant if you don't know what season you're supposed to plant in? there are planting seasons, there is harvest seasons, every season is not a season to plant.
[31:35] You gotta know what season you're in. Oh, God, it took a turn. You gotta know what season you're in. Jesus, he said, you hypocrites, you can tell the sky, you don't know what season you're in?
[31:49] You can't feel that things have shifted and changed? You don't know what season it is? Know when it's time to do what, we do some things out of season.
[32:07] Know what season of life you're in. That if you're in winter, it's okay, because all seasons are important. Sometimes the roughest winters bring the best springs.
[32:26] Sometimes the best harvest comes after a rough winter. Winter sometimes is a dead season. All seasons, every season, whether it is winter, spring, summer, all seasons are your season.
[32:48] Some people say, oh, it's just not my season. It's a new, every season is your season. Because all things work together. For the good of them who love the Lord and are called according to his, every season is your season.
[33:07] I'm an ex-athlete, I played football, football, and the toughest season to go through is the off season. It's the off season.
[33:19] Because there's no cheerleaders, there's no band, there's nobody out there that pushes you during the off season. It's boring. You typically do things in the off season that you won't do in the regular season.
[33:32] I ran stadium steps in the off season. I will lift certain things in the off season. But the off season determined my in season.
[33:44] The success I seen in season was because what I did during my off season. I can tell what kind of off season you had by how you conduct yourself during the season.
[34:01] And some of us are not prepared for the season God wants to put you in because you hadn't been diligent in your off season. You got to be harder on yourself in the off season.
[34:12] You can't just enjoy everything in the off season. You don't have to have people around you encouraging you in your off season. You got to learn how, like what David did, encourage yourself.
[34:27] That's when you get disciplined. It's when you can encourage yourself to do what you're supposed to do. And God said if you take care of the off, don't get weary in well-doing.
[34:39] In due season, you will reap if, because he's saying what did you do in your off season that's going to prepare you for your due season. Don't get weary in the off season.
[34:53] Because eventually, end season is coming. And if you're going to see the glory of the end season, it's going to be determined by the discipline in your off season.
[35:08] I'm trying to encourage you. I'm trying to get you ready like a coach. That if you're in your off season, this is not the time to lounge and relax and eat what you want.
[35:22] Your diet matters in the off season. what you look at matters in the off season. God wants to prepare you for your end season.
[35:38] Don't get to the end season out of shape. When you're out of shape in season, you get put on the bench. In the glory you should be walking in, somebody else would step in front of who took advantage of their take advantage of your off season.
[36:06] If you're in it right now, your off season is okay. It don't mean God don't love you. It doesn't mean you're not on the team. It's the saying that you're just in the off season.
[36:20] He's preparing the end season for you. the schedule is already set. We know what a championship going to be played. We know what the trophy looked like. We know what that looks like.
[36:32] The thing is, are you going to be there to receive it? what you do in the off season will save what you would, the success of your end season.
[36:47] But it's going to come from your faith, tried faith, the discipline of your faith. It's going to keep you pushing even when you don't feel like going, even when you're ready to give up, even when the fire gets turned up seven times hotter.
[37:07] That God is preparing you for the glory of the fourth man in the fire. That was glorious. To go through the fire and not smell like smoke and not get burned and look over and see Jesus?
[37:24] fire. They didn't see Jesus outside the fire. They saw him. Then when I get in the fire, it creates the opportunity for me to see Jesus.
[37:45] Just hold on. We're going to see Jesus. we're going to see Jesus in the fire. Matter of fact, it says the Lord is a consuming fire that there is no fire that's hotter than my God.
[38:06] That if you put me in the fire, he's hotter than the fire you could ever put me. And sometimes he answers by fire. sometimes the fire is his answer.
[38:20] So why will I avoid the answer when he's sending himself for me to see him in? I can go all night. All right, stand to your feet. We're done. You're off season.
[38:33] You might be in the off season of your life right now. God is preparing you for your end season. He is preparing you for your end season. glory of your end season.
[38:50] When you can show up in the uniform, in the shiny helmet, in the new cleats, the new, oh God. He's giving you a new garment for your new season.
[39:02] The end season. I'm going to turn it over. I want to pray for you before we turn it over. Elder, let's pray. Heavenly Father, I thank you tonight for the words you spoke.
[39:12] that we won't get discouraged during our off season. That all seasons work together. That all seasons are our seasons, God, and they're ordained by you.
[39:24] As long as the earth remains, there will be seed time and harvest time. That seasons will come, God, and we know you are the God of the seasons. And so we trust you in whatever season you got us in, and we will make the best of it.
[39:38] So we thank you tonight, God. God, I speak a blessing over your people in this room. Now, although it's a quiet moment, God, you're speaking. You're increasing our faith.
[39:50] It comes by hearing. And we thank you tonight, God, because you are faithful. The one who promised is faithful. And so we thank you, God.
[40:03] We will go even to the rest of this week with a new perspective. bring on any fire that is there. We know you are a consuming fire, and we trust you.
[40:16] We put our faith in you, because we know we will see you. Hallelujah. And we give you glory. It's in Jesus' name I pray. Amen. Amen. Amen.
[40:26] Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.