Okay, so my name is Seth Powers. We are preaching. Well, I think we actually have covered a couple of these topics.
! We have three words that we focus on as a church every year. One of them is faith. I think somebody else may have done a round on faith.
Did Josh do, did you do like a three, all three at the same time? Okay, well, anyway, I'm going to do one on specifically the word faith today.
Before I start, I want to read a verse from Psalms. Psalm 119, verse 89. Your word, O Lord, is eternal. It stands firm in the heavens.
So, God's word is outside of us. God's word is never going to pass away. Jesus says heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.
And that is what our faith is based on. That's basically the summary of my whole sermon. Okay? A little preview.
Our faith is not based on what we see or our feelings or what we experience. It's based on a thing that's outside of all of that, that proceeded from God and will never go away. Okay?
It'll never go away. So, Hebrews 11, verse 1. I would, I'm not going to ask people to turn to most of the passages I'm going to read, but I do ask you to turn to this one.
This is the key passage here. Hebrews 11, verse 1.
Hebrews 11, verse 1 says in the ESV,
Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.
The Young Living Translation says,
And faith is of things hoped for, a confidence, of matters not seen, a conviction.
And the NIV, the 1984 NIV says,
Now faith is being sure of what we hope for, and certain of what we do not see.
So, faith is confidence.
It's assurance.
It is trust.
It's being convinced.
It's conviction.
Now there's a lot of synonyms here we can use for this.
It's being convinced that something that we have not seen is true.
Okay?
It's being totally convinced that a thing that you've never seen or experienced or anything is true.
Okay?
That's what faith is.
That's what that's saying right here.
And it says the assurance of things hoped for.
Okay?
So, hope and faith are different things.
Hope is also virtue.
You know, faith, hope, and love.
1 Corinthians 13.
These are good things.
But hope is a different thing than faith is.
Hope is an expectation of good.
Okay?
You can go like an optimistic person.
They're a hopeful person.
They think things are generally going to go good.
A pessimistic person is things are generally going to go bad.
Okay?
So, hope is you have an expectation that things are going to turn out good.
Things are going to be good.
It's the opposite of an expectation of fear.
An anxious person has, they're hopeless.
They have an expectation of bad, of failure.
Right?
So, hope is good, but hope is not faith.
A lot of times people will say, I have faith for something, when really I think what they mean is I have hope for something.
Okay?
I, I, God's good.
So, man, I'm just going to believe God for this thing that I hope will happen.
Well, that's a different thing than faith.
Okay?
Faith is, faith has more concreteness to it.
Romans 10.17 says,
So, faith comes from hearing and hearing through the word of Christ.
And KJV puts it, the word of God.
You get a little extra flavor there.
We, the foundation of our faith isn't just, I want a thing to happen and I believe it's going to.
The foundation of our faith is God said it.
Okay?
Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of Christ.
Okay?
So, faith is different from hope in that I can hope in a thing and want it to happen, but I don't know that it's going to happen.
I just got to trust God's good.
Okay?
Things are going to work out good.
Faith is different.
God said something.
And I hopefully expect with total confidence, it is true and it will happen.
That's faith.
Okay?
Based on what God said.
It's based on actual promise.
It's concrete.
Okay.
Anyway, this is basically the difference between faith and hope.
Hope is, last half full, trust in the goodness of God.
Things are going to go well.
Faith is a hopeful confidence in what God said is true.
Even if I've never seen it yet, that's okay.
God said it.
I read it.
There's a Bible that has what God said in it.
And because he said it, I believe it.
Okay.
So, an example of what this looks like is Abraham.
We're going to open up and read a little bit about the man who's called the father of faith.
Romans 4, 3, it says,
What does the scripture say?
Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness.
God said a thing to Abraham.
He said, you know, multiple things.
One of the things he said is, hey, I'm going to give you a son.
I'm going to make you, I'm going to make your offspring, you know, like the stars in the sky.
And he believed it.
At that moment, God says, you are righteous because you believed this thing that I said that you have no experience of.
You didn't have an expectation of it.
And as we'll read a little bit here, you're already past the time when that could happen naturally.
Okay.
And so, Abraham's believing said something about how he viewed God.
He said, if God said it, it has to be true.
It has to be true.
He believed God.
Because God said it, I believe it.
And God credited it to him as righteousness.
I want to read a little bit more about this story in Romans 4, starting in verse 16.
Therefore, the promise comes by faith.
This is speaking of salvation here.
Okay.
This is speaking of the promise of the free gift of righteousness through faith in Jesus.
And it's using Abraham as an example, but it's a little of the context.
Therefore, the promise comes by faith so that it may be by grace and may be guaranteed to all Abraham's offspring,
not only to those who are of the law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham.
He is the father of us all.
As it is written, I have made you a father of many nations.
He is our father in the sight of God in whom he believed, the God who gives life to the dead
and calls things that are and calls things that are not as though they were.
Awesome little turn of phrase there.
It's a God who brings life from the dead and says something that is not as if it is.
God can do that.
He's God.
Okay.
No one else can do that, but God can do that.
Continuing.
Against all hope, Abraham and hope believed and so became the father of many nations.
Just as it had been said to him, so shall your offspring be.
Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead since he was about 100 years old
and that Sarah's womb is also dead.
Now pause here.
Sometimes we can think of faith as sort of just ignoring reality.
Okay.
That's not what it is.
He faced it.
It's like my body's good as dead.
I can't have a kid.
And my wife's womb's dead.
She can't have a kid.
These are just the facts.
There's nothing that we can do to help this thing along.
God said we're going to have a kid, but we have no agency to fulfill that promise.
There's no work in front of us to do to move like a little bit towards it.
Nothing.
I got to face the facts.
There's nothing I can do about this at all.
That's what you do.
Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God,
but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God,
being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised.
That is why it was credited to him as righteousness.
He was fully persuaded that God had the power to do what he had promised.
He was persuaded of two things.
I can't do it.
God can do it.
And it will happen.
That's faith.
I want to continue here.
What does this have to do for us?
What does this have to do with us?
It has a lot to do with us.
Verse 23.
The words it was credited to him were written not for him alone, but also for us.
To whom God will credit righteousness.
For us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead.
He was delivered over to death for our sins.
And was raised to life for our justification.
This is how God can say a sinful person can be righteous.
It's by faith.
God said,
When Jesus died,
you died.
And he poured out his blood for your sins.
And God put our sin on him.
Okay?
And forever believes in Jesus.
God puts our sin on him and his righteousness on us.
He calls the things that are not as though they were.
He brings forth life from the dead.
On what basis?
Because God said it.
It has this much to do with our experience up until that point.
Okay?
You might have had zero experience of what it means to be free from the burden of sin and the guilt that weighs on you.
Zero.
No power to say no to sin.
Okay?
Well, the best thing to do is just face the facts.
I've tried everything already and it ain't working out.
Okay?
My body's as good as dead.
You know, Sarah's woman's dead.
That's facing the facts.
And it's good to face the facts.
It's good to face the facts that you are a sinner.
And that there's nothing you can do to make yourself right with God.
But he didn't stop there.
There's another man who is righteous.
And for all who believe, God will take that righteousness and count it to you.
He will call the thing that's not as if it were.
And it's amazing.
Okay?
That's righteousness by faith.
This is why Abraham is the father of our faith.
Anyway.
I'm going to move on here.
Why is faith essential?
I think we're already hitting on it here.
Salvation.
Okay?
Faith is essential for salvation.
Hebrews 11 verse 6 says,
And without faith it is impossible to please God,
because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists,
and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.
Without faith it's impossible to please God.
People try to please God naturally by their own efforts.
God says,
Live righteous and you will do well with me.
And so they try.
And they try to live righteously.
And the more they try to live righteously,
the more they find that they can't.
And so they try harder.
It's because it's not according to faith.
It's impossible to please God except by faith.
Through this other way that God has made to please him,
which is through his son.
We just talked about this here.
Without faith it's impossible to please God.
Hebrews 4 verse 2 says,
We also have had the gospel preached to us just as they did,
but the message they heard was of no value to them,
because those who heard did not combine it with faith.
So faith is essential.
We can hear the gospel.
We can know the right answers.
These are like the know the right answer person.
They can say the words.
They can articulate to you what it means to be saved.
They can articulate maybe even what the gospel is.
But they're not combining that message with faith,
like actual trust.
Not putting my trust in that to make me right with God.
I'm putting trust in what I can do to make myself right with God.
It's impossible to please God that way.
And it makes the gospel of no value to us.
Okay?
Romans 3 verse 21 through 25 says,
That's everybody.
Everybody has fallen short of the glory of God.
There's not a single person who isn't in this category other than one man.
His name is Jesus Christ.
All have fallen short of the glory of God.
And are justified by his grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,
whom God put forth as a propitiation,
or in other words,
a payment by his blood to be received by faith.
It's a free gift,
but it's not an automatic gift.
We have to receive it by faith.
This is key.
The gospel, it says,
The gospel is preached to this other group of people,
but it didn't help them.
It didn't profit them.
Why?
Because they did not combine it with faith.
You have to actually believe it for it to do it.
So faith receives the promises of God,
and it starts with the promise of salvation through Jesus.
Without faith, all these promises in the Bible,
they have no value to us.
Okay?
Because you can't work towards a promise.
A promise is not some,
it's not wages.
Wages are what you get when you do a job.
You know,
I go to work,
I work my job,
and I get a paycheck.
Okay?
Even Stephen.
I did a thing,
and I got paid for it.
Promises aren't like that.
Promises are,
they're free.
And you don't merit them.
God gives them to you.
But you have to receive it by faith.
You can't say,
well,
I worked for a half of that.
You know?
I mean,
I didn't do it for perfect,
but I worked for part of it.
I did as much as I could
to try to fulfill the requirements of that promise.
Surely you're going to give it to me.
No.
That's not how you get a promise.
All the promises are through faith.
God is glorified to give gifts.
Who's glorified when they get what's due them?
We are.
Okay?
God is jealous for his glory.
That's why all the promises of God
are according to faith,
beginning of salvation.
So what's the opposite of faith?
2 Corinthians 5, verse 7 says,
For we walk by faith,
not by sight.
I think this is a really helpful
way of phrasing
or kind of give a different perspective
on what unbelief is.
So the opposite of faith,
opposite of belief,
is unbelief.
But Paul says,
we walk by faith,
not by sight.
Okay?
So unbelief is basically,
it's walking by sight.
It's not just the absence of faith.
Like, I don't believe in anything.
You know, I'm just a nihilist.
It's not like that.
You actually believe in things.
You actually believe in a lot of things.
But you believe in things that you can see.
You believe in things that you can do.
You believe in things that you've experienced.
Things that seem reasonable.
Okay?
You walk by sight.
The Bible also calls this confidence in the flesh.
Okay?
And it's,
it is the true biblical opposite
of what this saving faith is.
You're putting your faith in a lot of stuff.
But it's not in what God has said.
And that is,
like the phrase,
believe in yourself.
Okay?
Really popular phrase.
Believe in yourself.
I mean,
you might as well just say unbelief.
Okay?
Believing in yourself
is confidence in the flesh.
Yeah.
And if there's anything
that God calls me to do
that I can't do,
well, it's just like,
well, sure,
you didn't mean that.
You know?
So maybe I'll try to adjust
what the Bible has said
about that thing
to make it something
that's a little bit more achievable.
Because I'm looking at myself
and I say,
well, I can't do that.
You know,
Jesus says,
if you look at a woman
to lust after her,
you've already committed adultery
in your heart.
I've heard so many guys
just start immediately
trying to do gymnastics with that.
It's just like,
you know what?
Just, you know,
that's impossible.
You know?
What is he saying?
Like, no.
Like, who could?
Well, it's because
you can't.
Just because you can't
doesn't mean that
God can't say it.
Why?
Because it's by grace.
It's God doing something.
He's not setting the requirement
that's according to something
you can do.
He set a requirement
that's according to something
he can do.
Okay?
So, I mean,
that's just an example,
but it's essentially
believing in yourself.
You know,
we say this thing
a lot of different ways.
You know,
trusting in yourself,
trusting in your own effort.
You know,
it's all the same thing.
It's just unbelief.
Your confidence isn't a thing
because otherwise,
you know,
you wouldn't be able
to function as a human being.
You have to have faith
in something.
That's just not faith
in the one thing that matters.
Okay, Romans 9,
verse 30,
through 32,
and then the first part
of chapter 10
talks about this.
It says,
What then shall we say
that the Gentiles
who did not pursue righteousness
have obtained it,
a righteousness
that is by faith?
So interesting.
They weren't even trying.
They weren't even pursuing righteousness.
And they got it.
Wow, that's crazy.
By faith.
But Israel,
who pursued a law of righteousness,
has not obtained it.
Why not?
Because they pursued it
not by faith,
but as if it were by works.
For being ignorant
of the righteousness of God
and seeking to establish their own,
they did not submit
to God's righteousness.
For Christ is the end
of the law for righteousness
to everyone who believes.
So unbelief,
it manifests.
It manifests.
It's got to tell.
Okay?
How do you know
someone's in unbelief?
You don't know my heart.
How can you tell?
Well, there actually is a tell.
Unbelief manifests
as pursuing righteousness
by your own efforts.
You'll never arrive.
Okay?
We were talking about this
a little bit last night
about like the image
of like a carrot
dangling in front of a horse.
You know, the horse
is pulling a carriage
and you can, you know,
dangle the carrot
in front of them
and they're always trying
to chase the carrot
and they never get there.
It's like that.
Okay?
Unbelief manifests
as pursuing righteousness
by your own efforts.
God commands
a certain standard
in his word
and you're going after it
as hard as you can
with everything in you
and it's actually a sign
that you don't believe in God.
It just seems,
it seems counterintuitive.
But remember
what we just talked about here.
There are two groups of people.
One attained to righteousness
and they weren't even pursuing it.
And another missed it
and they were.
Why?
Because they were pursuing it
as if it were by their own works
and not according to faith.
They felt they could do it.
It just kind of shows
the arrogance,
you know,
the inflated confidence
they had in their own ability
to do what God
is calling them to do.
So,
unbelief,
believe in yourself,
walking by sight,
trying to attain
your righteousness
by your own effort.
These are all
the opposite of faith.
Okay?
You know,
you get the two extremes.
Faith is on one end.
It's trusting what God has said.
It's not just
blind faith
where you just are sort of
hoping things are going to turn out.
Like,
that's not what it is.
It's God has said something,
therefore I believe it.
On the other end,
it's God has said something,
so I'm going to try as hard
as I can to do it
by my own effort.
And those are,
they're opposite of each other.
So,
faith comes by hearing,
hearing by the word of Christ.
Faith is the assurance
of things hoped for,
the conviction
of things not seen.
It's being convinced
that God said it is true.
Okay?
And I want to read,
I want to read
some promises.
22.
22 promises to believe.
I want to encourage all of us
just to believe these things.
Number one,
all the promises of God
are yes
in Jesus Christ.
I love that you sing that song
this morning.
This is very timely.
2 Corinthians 1,
20 says,
for no matter how many promises
God has made,
they are yes
in Christ.
You want to get
the promises of God?
They come through
a person.
One person.
If you try to get
those promises
outside of that person,
you can't get it.
How does God
give us his promises?
Through one man,
Jesus Christ.
He's the mediator.
A mediator is someone
who goes between us
and God.
As many as the promises
that God has made,
they are yes
in Christ.
Okay?
And if we have Jesus
by faith,
we have access
to all the promises
of God.
Number two,
salvation.
This is the number one promise.
We've got to get straight
on this one first.
Number two,
salvation is through
faith in Jesus Christ,
not by works.
Back to the Abraham passage.
How did he finish
that whole thing up?
What was the point
of this illustration
of Abraham believing God
and facing the facts
about how dead his body was
and it's not able
to actually produce
any of the promises
that God's saying,
but he still believed God
and he grew strong
in faith.
And because of that,
God fulfilled it.
What was the point?
That is why his faith
was counted to him
as righteousness,
but the words
that was counted to him
were not written
for his sake alone,
but for ours also.
It will be counted to us
who believe in him
to raise from the dead
Jesus our Lord,
who was delivered up
for our trespasses
and raised for our justification.
The point is,
we can have salvation
through faith,
not by works.
And God did it for Abraham.
He'll do it for us.
Number two,
sin will not be
pastoral view.
This comes from Romans 6.14.
It says,
for sin will have
no dominion over you
since you are not
under law,
but under grace.
Not only does he
save us from the penalty
of sin,
the blood of Jesus
washes us clean,
he also gives us grace
to say no to sin.
And there's a promise.
Remember,
this is not a command.
He didn't say,
make sure sin doesn't
reign over you,
which there are
other commands,
but you start with a promise.
It's not going to happen.
It's an amazing promise.
It won't be master over you.
That's how I approach
saying no to sin
is not do better,
try harder,
but God said something.
And even if I haven't
really experienced it yet,
he said it.
I've never experienced
saying no to sin,
but he said it.
I'm going to believe it.
You know,
I couldn't do anything
to pay for any of my sins.
When that debt
stood between me and God,
there wasn't a single thing
I could do
to take that debt away.
So God had to do it
through Jesus.
Well,
why do you think
it's any different
for the powers
in your life?
You think there's
a single thing
you can do
to break the power
of sin in your life?
No.
It's a promise.
God said it.
In Christ,
sin will have no
dominion over you
any longer.
You're not under the law
anymore,
you're under grace.
Number four,
there is now
no condemnation
for those who are in Christ.
That comes from
Romans 8,
verse 1,
which says,
there is therefore
now no condemnation
for those who are
in Christ Jesus.
Okay?
Very straightforward.
You're not condemned
anymore.
You have the same
relationship with God
that Jesus has.
If you're in Christ,
do you think Jesus
is insecure about
his relationship
with God the Father?
He has no reason
to be.
He's perfect.
He's God.
Guess what?
Through Jesus,
you get the same
relationship.
Therefore,
there's no condemnation.
You have the same
relationship with God
that Jesus has.
It's amazing.
Number five,
Christ freed us
from the law
that condemns us
and motivates
self-righteousness.
It says this in,
you get this from
Romans 7,
verse 4 and 6.
It says,
likewise,
my brothers,
you have also died
to the law
through the body
of Christ
so that you may
belong to another,
to him who has been
raised from the dead
in order that we
may bear fruit
for God.
But now we are
released from the law
having died to that
which held us captive
so that we serve
in the new way
of the Spirit,
not in the old way
but the written code.
There could be
a whole sermon on that.
But suffice it to say,
we're not married
to the law anymore.
We're married to Jesus.
And he's a totally
different husband.
The law has very
high demands
and doesn't help you
with any of it.
Jesus came to fulfill it.
He's the one who does it
in us.
It's by the Spirit.
Number six,
Christ does a better job
living the Christian life
than we do.
This comes from
Galatians 2.20.
It says,
This is Paul speaking,
I am crucified
with Christ.
Nevertheless,
I live.
Yet not I,
but Christ liveth in me.
And the life which I now
live in the flesh,
I live by the faith
of the Son of God
who loved me
and gave himself for me.
There's another
part in Galatians here
where Paul talks about
his conversion
is the revelation
that Christ was in him.
It pleased God
to reveal his Son
inside of him.
That was his conversion.
He discovered something.
Jesus came to live
inside of his heart.
And that is really
the secret of the Christian life
is we're trusting Jesus
to be himself.
Okay?
I can cease
from trying to
do this on my own
because Jesus Christ
came into my heart
and he lives inside me
and I can trust
that he's going
to be himself.
And he's a lot better job.
He does a lot better job
being himself
than we do
trying to imitate him.
Okay?
Number seven,
in a similar way,
Christ removes
our religious masks.
This comes from
2 Corinthians 3
verses 12 through 13
and 16 to 18.
And I'm going to paraphrase this
because it's probably
a little bit too long
of a passage,
but it talks about
this veil
that Moses wore
over his face
when he came down
from the mountain
with the Ten Commandments.
His face is all glowing.
And he would wear this veil
so that people
wouldn't see
that the glow
started to go away
over time.
He liked to keep
that first impression.
Okay?
But Paul says
for those who
are in Christ,
he says the veil
is actually done away
in Christ.
It says when one
turns to the Lord,
this veil is removed.
And where the Spirit
of the Lord is,
there's freedom.
And we all
with unveiled face
beholding in a glass
the glory of the Lord
are being transformed
into his image.
This is the secret
of being vulnerable.
This is the secret
of not putting up
like a religious show
to other people
about how good you are.
You know,
how are you doing?
Great, brother?
And you've had a horrible week.
You know,
you're struggling
with some serious sin.
But you can't say that
because then the glory
will come down.
They'll think less of you.
We all struggle
with this stuff.
But in Christ,
he takes away.
It's amazing.
And you can actually know
if someone's turning
to the Lord
by whether or not
they're still
wearing their mask.
And it's very liberating.
When the mask comes off,
it's super liberating.
One of the most loving
things you can do
to somebody
is just stand
on this promise
and just be open
with people about your sin.
Okay.
I'm going to read
these faster.
We're only
seven in.
Okay.
Number eight.
Christ will preserve
his sheep.
This comes from
John 10, 27-28.
He says that
they will never perish
and no one will ever
snatch them out of his hand.
This is a promise.
Again,
those are promises.
Number nine.
Christ will be with us
in making disciples.
The Great Commission,
the end of Matthew 28,
verse 19-20,
says,
Go therefore
make disciples
of all nations,
baptizing in the name
of the Father and Son
and the Holy Spirit,
teaching them to observe
all that I have commanded you.
And behold,
I am with you
always
to the end of the age.
One of the biggest holdups
in people
getting the courage
to share the gospel
is because they feel
that they're doing it alone.
You're not.
Jesus Christ is right there.
Do you feel insecure
sharing the gospel
if you got to do it
with the Lord Jesus Christ
bodily,
there in presence?
I mean,
talk about like
a confidence booster.
I mean,
that's the way he's saying it.
That's the point.
He's with you.
Number ten.
His power is made perfect
in your weakness.
Second Corinthians 12,
9 says this.
He said to me,
this is after Paul's praying
that God's going to take away
this thorn in his flesh,
this whatever it was.
I don't know.
He didn't like it.
Whatever it was.
He felt like it was
holding him up
from doing what God
had called him to do.
He said to me,
my grace is sufficient
for you,
for my power
is made perfect
in weakness.
Therefore,
I will boast
all the more gladly
of my weaknesses
so that the power
of Christ
may rest upon me.
It's a lie
that the weaknesses
in your life
are preventing you
from doing
what God has called you
to do.
It's actually good.
You can trust in God
and his power
made perfect
in your weakness.
So these promises
are awesome
just to shut down
the lies of the devil,
by the way.
Number 11,
the Holy Spirit
will give us power
to be Christ's witnesses.
This comes from Acts 1.8.
He says,
you will receive power
when the Holy Spirit
has come upon you
and you will be
my witnesses.
We can get baptized
by the Holy Spirit
and God will give us
power to be his witnesses,
both in life
and in words.
And we need it.
You know,
that deep sense
of insecurity
and just like,
you know,
maybe like,
maybe some of you
struggle with this,
maybe some don't
as much,
but the thought
of going and being
a witness to somebody,
sharing the gospel
like a stranger
is just like,
ugh!
You need to be
filled with the Holy Spirit.
The disciples went
from being these
super insecure,
fearful guys
to just being
filled with boldness
after the day
of Pentecost
because they got
baptized in the Holy Spirit.
You will receive
power.
We need to be
baptized in the Holy Spirit
and he'll do it.
Number 12,
the Holy Spirit
leads us into all
the truth.
John 16,
verse 13 says,
when the Spirit
of truth comes,
he will guide you
into all the truth.
You're worried
about not understanding
the full counsel of God,
not understanding
like everything
the Bible teaches,
everything I need to know.
There's a promise here.
The Holy Spirit
will lead you
into all the truth.
Be entrusted.
Do you believe it?
Number 13,
Christ will build
his church.
This comes from
Matthew 16,
18.
Number 14,
Christ gives the gifts
to build his church.
So he's going to do it.
He says,
the gates of hell
will not prevail against it.
I'm going to do it,
not people.
I'm going to do it.
I'm going to do it
through people,
but it's me.
I'm the boss.
I'm the one
actually doing it.
And to do that,
it says,
he will give gifts.
That comes from
Ephesians 4,
verse 7 through 8.
But grace was given
to each one of us
according to the measure
of Christ's gift.
Therefore,
it says,
when he ascended on high,
he led a host of captives
and he gave gifts to men.
He's going to build
his church
and then he's going to
set each member
in the body
as he sees fit
with the diversity
that gets the manifold
grace of God
in order to do it.
He's going to do it.
He promised it.
Verse 15,
or number 15,
Christ gives leaders
for the church.
So much of the gifts
continuing in Ephesians 4,
starting in verse 11 and 12,
it says,
he gave the apostles,
the prophets,
the evangelists,
the shepherds and teachers
to equip the saints
for the work of ministry
for building up
the body of Christ.
He promised he's going
to do it.
And he's going to give
the right ones.
He's going to give
the right kinds of ones,
not all the same.
Evangelists,
pastors,
teachers,
apostles,
the whole deal.
He's going to do it.
Number 16,
the Father will discipline
us for our good.
This comes from Hebrews 12,
verse 6.
It says,
for the Lord disciplines
the one he loves
and chastises every son
whom he receives.
Jesus says in another place
in Revelation,
he says,
those whom I love,
I rebuke.
How do you know
you're a child of God?
He gets bankers.
Okay,
they look a lot different
when you're an adult,
but still,
he keeps you
in his love,
he disciplines you,
he will not let you
get away
with your own
selfish stuff.
That's awesome.
You know what that is?
I love you.
You're my kid.
If you weren't my kid,
you can do whatever you want.
It's a lot different
when we're God's kid.
When we're God's kid,
no.
I love you.
I'm going to discipline you
for your good.
Number 17.
Discipline produces
peaceful fruit.
This comes from
Hebrews 12, verse 11.
This is a related note here.
For the moment,
all discipline seems painful
rather than pleasant,
but later it yields
the peaceable fruit
of righteousness
to those who have been
trained by it.
That's good for us.
It's also good
for parents with kids.
Okay?
It's not fun for anybody.
The Bible commands us
to spank our children.
Okay?
To discipline them.
Kids don't like it.
Parents don't like it.
It's not pleasant.
It's painful.
But what happens afterwards?
It yields peaceful
fruit of righteousness
to those who have been
trained by it.
And we just got to trust
this is God's word.
These are his promises.
This is the same for us, too.
No one likes getting disciplined
by the Lord
when they're going through it.
It's painful.
But you know what?
On the other side,
there's peace.
There's peace.
Just kind of as an aside,
you see kids
who have been raised
in kind of like
a gentle parenting
kind of mindset.
No peace.
I mean,
they're just on hints
because they've never been,
this has never happened to them.
And when we,
that's a picture
of when God just leaves us
to our own devices,
you know,
interest-led parenting.
You just do whatever you want.
There's no consequences.
There's no peace
on the inside.
That anxiety
just builds
and builds
because God
has baked something
into our heart code
that says,
if you love me,
you won't let me get away
with doing wicked things.
And every time
you let your kid
get away with something wicked,
you know what?
You're telling them,
I don't love you.
And it brings tremendous peace
when the Father
comes into our life,
he washes us clean from sin,
and he leads us
to repentance
by the Holy Spirit,
and he starts disciplining us.
Security.
Peace.
I don't enjoy discipline,
but man,
I have peace with God.
This is amazing.
The same is true
with our kids.
Okay.
Wrap it up here
just a few more.
19,
he puts the lonely
in families.
This is a promise.
This comes from
Psalm 68, verse 6.
God sets the lonely
in families.
He leads out
the prisoners
with singing,
but the rebellious
live in a sun-scorched land.
So if you're lonely,
come to the Lord Jesus.
You know,
get right with him.
But no,
this is true.
God puts the lonely
in families.
And if you have
pervasive,
consistent loneliness,
and
like,
just consider.
Just consider something.
There's a reverse
side of this coin.
The rebellious live
in a sun-scorched land.
Like,
some of the most
lonely people
I've met,
I've been surrounded
by people
just trying to reach out
to them,
trying to help them,
trying to hang out.
But wherever they go,
they still just feel lonely.
Misunderstood.
Well,
it's actually saying
something about
what's going on
in their vertical
relationship
more than something
about what's going on
in the horizontal
relationship.
And God won't let
them feel lonely
until that gets right.
Okay?
So,
you know,
I kind of say that
as an aside.
If that's your experience,
I just encourage you,
come to the Lord.
Okay?
Come to the Lord.
Get a restored
relationship with him.
And trust him.
This promise is true.
He's going to put you,
he's going to remove
that loneliness,
he's going to put you
around other believers
in a familial environment
where you feel
that closeness.
Okay?
Number 20,
he works all things
together for good
for believers.
This comes from
Romans 8, 28.
It says,
and we know
that for those
who love God,
all things work
together for good.
How many things?
All of them.
Bad things?
Yes.
Good things?
Yes.
Things that you
expected were going
to happen?
Yes.
Things you did not
expect were going
to happen?
Yes.
All of them.
For those who are
called according
to his purpose.
So there is a
clarifier here.
This is not just
God works everything
together for good
for everybody.
This is God works
everything together
for good for those
who love God
and are called
according to his purpose.
Remember,
his purpose comes
a little bit earlier
in this chapter
that we would be
conformed to the image
of his son Jesus.
Is that your purpose?
Or you got another
kind of purpose?
Your purpose is the same
as God's purpose.
Guess what?
It's impossible
for anything
in your life
to not work
together for good.
Nothing.
It all has to work
together for good
because you're called
according to God's purpose.
It's an amazing promise.
21,
faith results in rest
from our own efforts
to please God.
We've already talked
about this,
but I want to share
a specific promise
in Hebrews 4
that speaks to this.
It says,
for we who have believed
enter that rest.
For whoever has
entered God's rest
has also rested
from his works
that God did
from his.
It's a real thing.
Christians work
really hard
by the grace of God,
but the true,
a believer
who has entered
God's rest,
they're free.
Okay?
I don't have to do
anything to please God
anymore,
so I'm not going to try it.
That sounds really scandalous,
but it's true
because I've realized
something through God's work
that there's only one man
who pleases God.
His name is Jesus.
There's only one man
whose works
were sufficiently righteous
to please God.
Jesus.
When I believe that truth
and I enter into
his rest
and his righteousness,
there's a result.
I stop my attempts
to try to please God.
And it's very free.
It's a very liberating life.
We obey
not because we want
to be saved,
but because we have
been saved.
It's just a different motive.
Last one,
it's good to consider
with all these things,
that faith
is the gift of God.
This comes from
Ephesians 2,
verse 8.
It says,
for as by grace
you've been saved
through faith,
and this is not
from yourselves,
it is the gift of God.
So,
God gives it.
So I just want
to encourage you,
if you're lacking faith,
if you want more faith,
or you don't even know
if you have it at all,
there's a promise
in Matthew 7
that says,
ask and it will be
given to you,
seek and you will find,
knock and it will be
opened to you.
Ask God.
Okay?
Just give it up to the Lord.
Say, you know what,
I resonate a lot more
with walking by sight
and trusting in what
I can do
and what seems reasonable
to me
and believe in yourself
type of thing
than I do with the whole
God said it
and I'm absolutely convinced
and it's going to happen.
So,
if you're in that
first category,
just repent
and ask the Lord.
Say,
Lord,
I want this real deal.
I want the real thing.
And if you have
the real thing
and you've been walking
in more of that
category of walking
by sight,
we can repent.
The Holy Spirit
leads us to repentance
and we can remember
the promises of God.
There's another promise
in Colossians,
or it's a command
that says in Colossians,
as you receive
Jesus Christ the Lord,
so walk in Him.
The same way
you came to Jesus
on day one,
walk in Him
like that today.
How'd you do it?
By faith.