PRODUCING FAITH
“By Faith” SERIES - Week 4
It has been said that Faith Is:
Faith is the one indispensable element necessary for defeating the Devil and all of his demons
Faith is the faucet that turns on the flow of God’s blessings in our lives.
Faith is the latch that unlocks heaven’s door
Faith is the ladder that we climb into the presence of the Lord
Faith steps blindly into the empty void but always find the Solid ROCK Jesus Christ beneath its feet.
Texts:
8 By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went.
9 By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise:
10 For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.
11 Through faith also Sara herself received strength to conceive seed, and was delivered of a child when she was past age, because she judged him faithful who had promised.
12 Therefore sprang there even of one, and him as good as dead, so many as the stars of the sky in multitude, and as the sand which is by the sea shore innumerable. — Hebrews 11:8-128 I tell you that he will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth? — Luke 18:8
FAITH isn’t a FEELING, FAITH is a
No matter what fears try to attack you, with prepared FAITH, you will win! - You can Have FEARLESS FAITH!
OUR faith STANDS in the
This week we will uncover the secret to FAITH that PRODUCES!
Productive Faith is kind of misleading because truly ALL FAITH produces something, it is impossible for True Faith to
…, With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible. —Matthew 19:26
Undeveloped, Unproductive Faith – We haven’t allowed our faith to become what it could become.
16 And I brought him to thy disciples, and they could not cure him.
17 Then Jesus answered and said, O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? how long shall I suffer you? bring him hither to me.
18 And Jesus rebuked the devil; and he departed out of him: and the child was cured from that very hour.
19 Then came the disciples to Jesus apart, and said, Why could not we cast him out?
20 And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you. —Matthew 17:16-20
FAITH becoming A
When Seeds Are Planted….they
- All you need is a SEED of FAITH – it will become a
Not faith in doctors, money, position, etc.. but faith in God, FAITH IN THE - Allow your Faith to be handed to God, to be PLANTED in GOD
- What mountain in your life is intimidating you right now?
- When you PLANT
3 For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith. —Romans 12:3
This story by Missionary Del Tarr points out the price some people pay to sow the seed of the gospel in hard soil.
I was always perplexed by Psalm 126 until I went to the Sahel, that vast stretch of savanna more than four thousand miles wide just under the Sahara Desert. In the Sahel, all the moisture comes in a four month period: May, June, July, and August. After that, not a drop of rain falls for eight months. The ground cracks from dryness, and so do your hands and feet. The winds of the Sahara pick up the dust and throw it thousands of feet into the air. It then comes slowly drifting across West Africa as a fine grit. It gets inside your mouth. It gets inside your watch and stops it. The year’s food, of course, must all be grown in those four months. People grow sorghum or milo in small fields.October and November…these are beautiful months. The granaries are full – the harvest has come. People sing and dance. They eat two meals a day. The sorghum is ground between two stones to make flour and then a mush with the consistency of yesterday’s Cream of Wheat. The sticky mush is eaten hot; they roll it into little balls between their fingers, drop it into a bit of sauce and then pop it into their mouths. The meal lies heavy on their stomachs so they can sleep.
December comes, and the granaries start to recede. Many families omit the morning meal.
Certainly by January not one family in fifty is still eating two meals a day.By February, the evening meal diminishes.
The meal shrinks even more during March and children succumb to sickness. You don’t stay well on half a meal a day.
April is the month that haunts my memory. In it you hear the babies crying in the twilight. Most of the days are passed with only an evening cup of gruel.
Then, inevitably, it happens. A six-or seven-year-old boy comes running to his father one day with sudden excitement. “Daddy! Daddy! We’ve got grain!” he shouts. “Son, you know we haven’t had grain for weeks.” “Yes, we have!” the boy insists. “Out in the hut where we keep the goats – there’s a leather sack hanging up on the wall – I reached up and put my hand down in there – Daddy, there’s grain in there! Give it to Mommy so she can make flour, and tonight our tummies can sleep!”The father stands motionless. “Son, we can’t do that,” he softly explains. “That’s next year’s seed grain. It’s the only thing between us and starvation. We’re waiting for the rains, and then we must use it.” The rains finally arrive in May, and when they do the young boy watches as his father takes the sack from the wall and does the most unreasonable thing imaginable. Instead of feeding his desperately weakened family, he goes to the field and with tears streaming down his face, he takes the precious seed and throws it away. He scatters it in the dirt! Why? Because he believes in the harvest.
The seed is his; he owns it. He can do anything with it he wants. The act of sowing it hurts so much that he cries. But as the African pastors say when they preach on Psalm 126, “Brother and sisters, this is God’s law of the harvest. Don’t expect to rejoice later on unless you have been willing to sow in tears.”
And I want to ask you: How much would it cost you to sow in tears? I don’t mean just giving God something from your abundance, but finding a way to say, “I believe in the harvest, and therefore I will give what makes no sense. The world would call me unreasonable to do this – but I must sow regardless, in order that I may someday celebrate with songs of joy.” — Based on a sermon by missionary Del Tarr who served fourteen years in West Africa with a missionary agency. – Leadership, 1983.
When we put our faith in God’s hands like a seed we plant, we are giving Him something to work with, and He will send the miracle we need.
1. Recognize that
My God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus. —Philippians 4:19
God will use many different instruments to supply our needs — but He alone is the source, and He alone cannot fail.
2. Give
Give, and it will be given to you… —Luke 6:38
We must
Anything we give: mercy, love, time, patience, forgiveness, finances, prayer, etc.
Our giving reflects our
3. Expect a
Whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them. —Mark 11:24
- The moment we ask God for something—the moment we do our part and plant our seed of faith—we should believe God that the answer is on its way.
Give God something to work with today. No matter how
- Remember: God always sends the right answer at the right time, in the right way. His timing and methods are always exactly right for our lives!
PLAN OF ACTION:
1. What is it that you need to PLANT with FAITH IN GOD today?
2. PLAN TO DO SOMETHING this week to PLANT YOUR FAITH. Remember Faith without works is DEAD! It can’t become a PLANT and Grow until you put your seed of faith in God’s Hands.
3. Bring your CARD that you write your seed of Faith on, and leave it at the altar today!
4. What is God speaking to you…what have you already seen happen in your life…post it on social media with the hashtag …. #BYFAITH what God will do…etc.. (be wise - don’t name names etc…)