One Faith

[00:00:01] Thanks for tuning in to the Met Church podcast. Here at the Met, we are all about connecting people to God and one another. If you have any questions or want more information about what's happening here at the church, then head to our [email protected] we would love to stay connected with you throughout the week through social media, so be sure to connect with us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Now. Enjoy the message. [00:00:24] Well, good morning, and before he gets away, let's give Josh a big round of applause. He turns 50 this week. Josh, happy birthday. My brother, a musical genius. Man, this guy's amazing. He really is. And I appreciate all he and all of our band do to provide the music for our worship each and every week. They're simply the very best, and I'm glad that God has given them to us. I'm glad. Yep, that'd be good. All right. [00:00:54] And these singers aren't bad either, are they? They do a great job leading in worship as well. So I'm glad to see all of you here this morning, especially those of you who are visiting with us. I hope you have a great experience. [00:01:04] Love to welcome you back to be a part of the church. Next weekend, we're in a series where we're taking the seven things the apostle Paul said in Ephesians 4 that are essential in the life of a church. And we've been taking them each and every week, kind of exploring them a little bit and then trying to apply them to our life and see how, you know, that impacts us on a daily basis. And this weekend, we're talking about the next of those seven important essentials where the Bible speaks of one faith, one faith. And what that simply means is there is just one revealed body of truth, one faith, one revealed body of truth. And that is the truth we find in God's word. In fact, if you have a Bible, look in Ephesians 4. We'll read this text this morning, beginning in verse 44 of Ephesians 4, where he says, There is. Here we are, number one, one body, number two, one spirit, just as you were called, number three to one hope. And then number four, one Lord, one faith. This morning, next week, one baptism. And we'll close with one God, the Father of all, the one who is above all and through all, and the one who is in you all. And so this morning, again, we're talking about this idea of one faith, one revealed body of truth. One thing that we are to be in agreement on, that we believe in, and that is veracity, the reliability. I Brushed my teeth. I can't do anything with them. [00:02:30] Reviability of God's holy word. And so we're going to be looking at that for a little while this morning. Look, we are all free to believe anything we choose to believe. We really are. I heard about a little boy and he was in that. Child psychologists call it the Machiavellian intelligence stage, where kids imagine incredible things, they believe they can do amazing things, they morph into superheroes and all this kind of thing. It's called developing their Machiavellian intelligence. And he was in that zone. And this mom was a little worried about her son because he wasn't kind of growing out of that when some of his peers were already past that. He was still there. So it bothered her enough. She talked to the school counselor. She said, should I be concerned? He's still imagining things and he's still making up these fantastical stories that it can't be true, but he believes there to be true. [00:03:19] And the child psychologist at the school said, look, I can handle this. I've seen this before. She said, let's meet together and we'll talk about it. So they set an appointment for 10 o' clock the next morning. And the counselor was like 15 minutes late. Mom and the little boy are there, they're waiting and waiting. The counselor finally gets there and she comes into the room kind of hurried and a little out of breath. She goes, oh, I'm so sorry, so sorry I'm late. She said, you'll never believe what happened. She said, I'm going down the road and this 15 foot gorilla jumps out of the tree on the hood of my car and was jumping up and down on the hood of my car. And she said, I was scared to death. I've never seen a gorilla that large. And she said, then all of a sudden, out of nowhere, this little tiny Chihuahua came. And the Chihuahua jumped on the hood of my car, attacked the gorilla and chased him off. And so I was able to get here and meet with you. And the little boy just looked at her, completely unfazed. It didn't even. I mean, he didn't. And she goes, do you believe that story? I just said. He said, yes. And he said, well, how could you believe that story? He said, because that was my dog. [00:04:19] Well, well, it is important that we all believe the right thing because our beliefs really determine our behaviors. And ultimately those things determine who we become. And when it comes to our beliefs concerning God's word, the Bible says there is but one faith. There is, but One revealed body of truth. Again, that is God's word. Listen to Jude 3 said. Jude 3 said we should earnestly contend for the faith. Earnestly contend for the Notice. He didn't say a faith. He said we should earnestly contend for the faith. And by the way, he didn't say be contentious about it. He said, contend for it. In other words, we should know what we believe and we should know why we believe what we believe. I heard about someone who asked a lady one time, what is it that actually that you do believe? [00:05:12] And she said, well, I believe what my church believes. And they said, well, what does your church believe? And she said, well, my church believes what I believe. And they said, well, then, what do you and your church believe? She said, we just believe the same thing. [00:05:24] I mean, most people sadly could not probably tell you what they actually believe when it concerns their faith. And that is so important because we're left here on this earth to be witnesses. Now, remember in Acts 1:8, he said, you should be my witnesses. And what a witness is, is someone who expresses an experience as someone who simply can tell someone else, this is what God did for me, and I know what he did for me. He can do for you. We are to express an experience. And it's so important, ladies and gentlemen, that we understand that our experiences are based upon God's Word. God will never lead us apart from His Word. He will need never lead us to do anything that violates His Word. His Word is essential to everything that you and I hold and embrace as Christ followers. In fact, the foundation of our faith is God's Word. Listen to Romans 10:17. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. So it is so important that we understand this revealed body of truth we find in God's Word. Now, with that said, understand, there is a Satanic strategy that's been around since the beginning of time. And the Satanic strategy is to put question marks where God has placed periods. The very first, think about it. The first temptation in the Bible. You go back to Genesis 3 and where the train jumped the track. The very first temptation in the Bible, the enemy, the devil, questioned God's word. He asked Eve and ultimately asked Adam, has God said, are you sure God? Is that really what God said? And what the devil was trying to do is shake her faith in the veracity and in the reliability of God's Word. Did God really say that? Do you really understand that? Did God mean that, what he said? And since that time, there has been an attack on truth in Fact, if you listen to the news and if you follow anything that's going on in our world, have you found yourself to be confused? It's like listening to people who talk about a football game or sporting event. You can listen to two different people who witnessed the event, and they'll bring about two different completely perspectives of the game that you just saw. [00:07:34] I mean, in fact, you hear all of these different perspectives and you kind of understand where Pilate was coming from in John 19, where he was hearing the religious group say one thing, the defenders of Christ saying another thing. His wife was in his ear saying something else. And finally, Pilate asked this question about chapter 19, about. About verse 38 or so. He said, what is truth? [00:07:56] What is truth? And I think the average person today listening to what's going on in our world can become as confused as a termite and a yo yo in terms of what is truth. [00:08:07] I hear all these different perspectives and I just simply am struggling to know. Well, listen, that's by design. [00:08:13] Because, see, there was a. [00:08:15] There was a philosophy that came about in the theological world after World War II called German rationalism. [00:08:23] We know it as neo orthodoxy. It introduced a way of thinking about theology called existentialism. And that's just a big word that simply means that I don't take the Bible as it is and interpret it exactly as. As. As it says. [00:08:38] I look at the Bible and I have a very open mind concerning how I'm reading the Bible. And if what I'm reading in the Bible doesn't make sense to me, then I don't have to accept it. [00:08:49] In fact, I don't even believe the Bible is God's word. I believe the Bible contains God's word. [00:08:56] That came from neo or new orthodoxy. That opened that door to existentialism. And the next step from there is subjectivism, where all of a sudden you say, well, that may be how you interpret it. I interpret it very differently. We see that in our culture today when someone says something like this, this is my truth. You have your truth and I have my truth. We all have our truth, and there's no one standard by which we measure truth. Everybody has a truth. [00:09:23] Well, that comes from the idea that there can be no reliable source of truth. And if there is no one faith, if there is no one revealed body of truth, then you're free to believe whatever you want to believe. And your truth can be your truth, my truth can be a truth. [00:09:37] And it leads you ultimately to moral relativism. What's right to you. May not be right for me. And what's wrong for you may not be wrong for me. It's all relative. [00:09:46] When I was a kid, my mom says would tell this story that she goes into the bedroom and I'm covered with baby powder. She was all over me. It's all over me, the carpet, the walls, everything. And she said the first thing I said to her was, I didn't do it. [00:10:03] I didn't do it. Well, that was my truth. [00:10:07] My truth was that I did not do that. My mother had a different truth. She was basing her truth on the facts. And I'm just simply suggesting, guys, when we move away from God's Word and when we come away from. If we cannot embrace as a church the veracity. I'm going to stay with that word till I get it. And the reliability of God's Word. If we cannot accept that God's Word is the. Is the final authority on all things. His Word was inerrant in original manuscripts. It is infallible. His Word can be trusted. And if we can't land on that, then what that leads you in is into subjectivism and moral relativism. And all of a sudden a church begins to drift. So no long. No wonder Paul was trying to anchor that church at Ephesus on the reality and the truth of God's Word. I mean, the Bible says concerning itself, let God's Word be true and let everybody else be a liar. [00:11:02] I'm telling you, I wouldn't rely on my Word to be good enough to get me into heaven. [00:11:08] I don't want anyone else in the room to rely on Bill's Word. I want you to rely on God's Word. Let me tell you what my understanding of my role as a pastor is each and every week. My role as a pastor is not to stand in front of the Bible and be entertaining and all you see is me or stand on top of the Bible. [00:11:28] My job is to stand under the Bible and behind the Bible. [00:11:32] My job is to present God's Word as it is to people as they are and allow the power of the Holy Spirit to interpret into your heart and life in the way you need to hear it. [00:11:43] I'm just the messenger boy. [00:11:45] My job is just to tell you this is what God's Word has to say. And I believe in the transformative power of God's Word through the energy of the Holy Spirit, that He can take His Word and he can apply His Word into someone's life where one person receives rebuke and another One receives encouragement. [00:12:02] I've seen that happen. I've told you. I've been out in the lobby where somebody says, oh, man, did my wife send you an email? Man, you stepped on my toes or something like that. And I'm thinking, what'd that say? I can't remember exactly. What did I go into that? I don't remember. I don't remember saying anything that would have, you know, gone in that direction. And then no sooner had I had that conversation, somebody else says, that was really probably one of the most encouraging messages I've heard you talk about. And I'm thinking, what? [00:12:27] I mean, how is it that one person heard me say the same thing and felt rebuked and another person heard me say the same thing and felt encouraged? Well, that's not me. That's the Holy Spirit that takes the word of God and applies it to their heart in the way that they needed to hear. [00:12:43] So my assignment each and every week is to bring God's word and to make sure I'm faithful in declaring God's word so that you can receive it and with the power of the Holy Spirit, apply it into your daily life. [00:12:56] By the way, somebody says, well, you know, I'm interested in the Bible, but I'm only interested in the parts that Jesus said. Have you ever heard that one? Just the red letters. And by the way, Jesus didn't get into a lot of cultural issues, and Jesus didn't get into a lot of the issues about. He didn't say anything about these things. Never did Jesus talk about any of these things. It's not in the red letters. Well, let me help you with that. In Hebrews, chapter 10, verse 7, the Bible says, lo, I come in the volume of the book. It the Bible is written of me. [00:13:28] Let me give you another one. In John 5:39, Jesus said, Search the Scriptures for in them they speak of me. Listen, the whole Bible's about Jesus, not just the red Letters. [00:13:42] From Genesis 1:1 to Revelation 22:21. Listen, it's all his word. It's all about Jesus. I can give you a good outline for the Bible. You ready? This is going to be heavy and deep. A good outline for the Bible. [00:13:54] Genesis 1:1 to Malachi 4, the Bible could be outlined this way. Jesus is coming. [00:14:01] All the signs, the symbols, the types, all the symbolism in the tabernacle, in the temple, everything said, messiah's coming. Jesus is coming. You get to Matthew, you go through John, all the way up to the ascension of Acts 1. The second point of the outline is Jesus is here. He's coming. He's here. And you leave Acts 1 from the Ascension until you get to Revelation 22 and the outline point three, Jesus is coming. Again, you get the theme. It's all about Jesus. He's God's first word. In the beginning was the Word. The Word was with God. The Word was God. He is God's full word. Everything you need to know you can find in the Bible. Maybe not everything you want to know, but he's the fullness of God. All the fullness of the Godhead rested in him. He's God's first word. He's God's full word. And. And by the way, he's God's final word. [00:14:50] Everything you read and everything I read in the Bible is all about Jesus, not just the red letters. It's all about him. And so if the Bible says it as a Christ follower, that should settle it. Whatever the issue is, whether we agree with it or not agree with it, we ought to embrace and believe strongly in the veracity of God's holy word. In fact, there's a prophecy that Amos gave the prophet Amos in Amos, chapter eight that's powerful and relevant to the day in which you and I are living. He said in verse 11, behold, the days are coming, says the Lord God, that I will send a famine on the land. Listen. Not a famine of bread, not a famine of a thirst for water, but listen, a famine for hearing the words of the Lord. [00:15:34] The prophet predicted a day he saw. He foretold of a day when people there would be a famine. Of hearing God's word, people would not receive it and they would not rely upon it. And people would not apply it in their life. And they would say something like that. That's your truth. I have my truth. That's your interpretation. I have my own interpretation. [00:15:53] When Peter was writing about the Bible and the Bible he says, was written under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, meaning the Bible was God breathed. It's what the word inspired means. He said this concerning the Bible. He said, there is no scripture given of any private interpretation, meaning that you and I don't have the freedom to take God's Word and apply it to any situation and make it mean anything we want it to mean or, or say anything we want it to say. [00:16:20] If that were the case, then I could say, well, the Bible teaches against wrestling. It says wrestle not. [00:16:26] And the Bible encourages you to, you know, to do crazy things because people in the Bible did crazy things. And so I could. In other words, you could take bits and pieces of the Bible and put it together and make it say pretty much anything you want it to say. [00:16:39] But when you read the Bible, you read it in context and you ask the question as you read it, what did it mean then? [00:16:45] What does it mean now? What does it mean to me? Because I want to apply God's Word into my life. Because his word is powerful. His word is the Greek word rhema, meaning it's living, it's life giving. His word is alive. The Bible says, sharper than a two edged sword. It has the ability to discern the thoughts and the intents even of our heart. [00:17:06] So we need to embrace God's word, one truth. And that is what we stand on and what we rely on. It is one faith. Look with me. It's the second passage this morning I called to your attention. It's in Hebrews, chapter 11 and it talks about this one, faith. It says in verse one. Now faith is the substance, mark the word substance of what we hope for and the evidence. Now mark the word evidence of what we do not see. This is what the ancients were commended for. [00:17:34] He says by faith we understand. Mark that word, understand substance, evidence. Understand that the universe was formed at God's command so that things which are seen are made out of what is invisible. We understand that from science. Everything that we see is made up of particles that we cannot see. And that's what he's saying in the Power of Faith. It goes on to say down in verse six that without faith it's impossible to please God. Not just difficult, it's not possible to please God without an element of faith in our life. And here's why. Because anyone who comes to God must believe two things. Number one, that he exists and number two, that he will reward those who earnestly seek Him. Look at those three things that he said. We have to consider when we think about one faith. Number one, you think about substance. [00:18:20] Faith is substance. Faith is not vague. [00:18:24] It's not something that cannot be defined. Faith is substance. Now think about the word substance for a moment. If you break the word apart substance, if you do an etymology on that word, then quickly you understand. Sub, like a submarine is something that goes beneath the surface. Sub stance is something upon which I stand. [00:18:45] So if faith is substance, then faith is that which goes beneath me, upon which I stand. You see that my faith. That's why we say keep the faith, the faith based upon God's word. I stand on God's word. [00:19:01] I mean I rely on his promises. If God Says it, that settled it. Because he cannot lie. He will not go against his word. So when you're going through a dark experience in life, you remind yourself, stand on this substance, stand on this faith. God, you promised never to leave me. You promised never to forsake me. [00:19:20] When you're going through a financial upheaval and you've been faithful in giving, and you say, God, you promised, my God shall supply all my needs according to your riches and glory by Christ Jesus. And I'm standing on that God, you've told me, and you've absolutely given me strong direction, and you've confirmed that this is what I'm supposed to do with my life. But I'm not seeing that come to fruition yet. I'm still going to stand on that faith substance. [00:19:47] Faith is that upon which we stand. We stand on our faith. And then he went on to say the second word. You see, this is evidence. [00:19:55] As we sing about. There's evidence of faith everywhere, all around us. I mean, if you think about your life, you're a living evidence of the faith of God. You've seen God do things in your life that were incredible. [00:20:06] We have people in this room this morning that I promise you could share with you the day if we had time. Of things they've seen God do in their life that was just miraculous. There's no other way to describe it than absolutely miraculous. [00:20:17] And I believe God is able to do miracles. [00:20:20] But I've told you before, Jesus never performed a miracle and called it a miracle. [00:20:28] He never called anything that he did miraculous. You know why? Cause he couldn't surprise himself. [00:20:35] He never healed somebody of his blindness and went, hey, God, did you see that? I didn't know I could do that. [00:20:40] That was cool. [00:20:42] He never went to a funeral and broke up the funeral and calls the person back to life. By the way I looked one time, I was preparing a funeral message. I said, I want to see what Jesus did. What kind of funeral message is, there's not one in the Bible? Cause every funeral he ever attended, he broke it up. He called them back to life. [00:20:59] And I'm just saying, he never called someone back to life who had died and looked at himself and went, that was a miracle. [00:21:07] Did you guys see that? [00:21:08] I'm going on the road with this. We're buying a tent. I'm getting a jet. We're going on the road. We're going to market this. [00:21:16] It just didn't happen. [00:21:18] In fact, a lot of times he'd do the miraculous and say, don't Tell anybody about it. [00:21:22] I don't want him to take this in the wrong direction. [00:21:25] Miracle is a word we use. You know what all a miracle is? It's something that happens that we can't describe by any natural means. We just say it's a miracle. [00:21:34] I mean, we had recently one of our members who. They found some tumors in their body. And when they went in for some final tests on that, the doctor came out and said, I'm amazed there's no tumor there. [00:21:47] And the doctor just simply said, the only thing I can tell you is it's kind of miraculous. And I see that a lot in my line of work. [00:21:54] Well, what he simply was saying, or the doctor was simply saying, is this something I can't explain. Medical science can't explain what I just saw. But I saw what I saw. And the word I'm gonna use to describe that which I can't explain is a miracle. That's where the word comes from. But I'm saying Jesus didn't call it miraculous. Cause he can't surprise himself. He did that stuff all the time. [00:22:13] I'm saying there's evidence everywhere. And so when I began to realize that my faith has evidence, I can talk to other people. I can tell you from my own experience the work God has done in my life, the grace that he's given me to give me to be able to stand and continue to do what I do. I'm just saying there's evidence. [00:22:30] Faith is substance upon which I stand. Evidence. [00:22:34] And then he went on to say, it's understanding. You know what understanding is? Understanding is the truth I stand under. [00:22:40] It's what I know to be true. It's my understanding of a matter. I'm standing under the truth that I know to be true. [00:22:47] And my understanding is based upon God's word. [00:22:51] The Bible says, trust in the Lord. [00:22:54] Proverbs 3, 5 and 6. Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Don't lean on your own understanding. He didn't say not to have understanding. He said, don't lean on your own understanding. Cause you don't know all of the facts. But in all your ways, acknowledge him and he'll make your path straight. I'm leaning on him. And my understanding is God will not fail. And God will take care of me. And. And God will provide all that I need. That's my faith. [00:23:16] So faith is one of the most powerful things that you and I could possess. [00:23:21] And by the way, faith is something. An element of faith is something we actually were born with. [00:23:27] In Romans, chapter 12, verse 3. The Bible says this God has dealt to everyone. Now listen to the phrasing of this, the measure of faith. Romans 12:3. God has given everyone the. Now, he didn't say a measure because that would lead you to believe. God gives more faith to some people than he does to other people. He said when you started out before you knew Jesus, he dealt you a measure of faith. Now, what does that mean and why is that important? That's important because everyone has the ability to place their faith, that faith which God has given us in Christ Jesus. [00:24:02] And because it says the measure and not a measure, it means that no one requires a greater amount of faith to believe in Jesus. Thank you. Than someone else. [00:24:11] We were given the same amount of faith. Now, once I've exercised that faith and I placed my faith and trust in Jesus Christ, then the Bible says I'm to add to my faith. First Peter 5. [00:24:23] But that's after I've stepped through the threshold and I've trusted Jesus as my Savior, Then I add to my faith. And as I add to my faith, I began to grow as a Christ follower. [00:24:32] So faith is something God has dealt to everyone. Everyone has enough faith to believe in Jesus. It's just what they put their faith in. [00:24:39] The power of faith is in its object, of who you put your faith in. [00:24:43] You trust in Jesus, and the Bible says at that moment you become his child. And then you begin to add to your faith daily. And you begin to add to your faith and you grow in your walk with him. [00:24:55] And with that backdrop, I want to just give you four quick thoughts and we're heading home. And, yeah, I do see what time it is. And you're going to be done in eight minutes. Give me eight minutes. [00:25:04] Don't worry about that. Eight minutes. Who's playing at noon? Anybody you're interested in? Oh, we're good. I'll get you home shortly. [00:25:12] Number one, what does faith allow us to do? I'm gonna give you this real quick. Four things. Number one, when you embrace one faith and you place your faith in God's word, faith gives you the ability to think what others don't think. [00:25:24] To think what? It changes the way you think. [00:25:30] Your mind. My mind is probably the most powerful thing God ever gave us, is our mind, the power of our mind. The Bible says, as a person thinks in their heart, so will they be. Zig Ziglar said, you're not what you think you are, but what you think you are. [00:25:44] The mind is a powerful thing. We listen, we go in the direction of our thoughts. You're here this morning because you thought yourself here. [00:25:51] When you leave in a little while, you'll go to the restaurant or you'll go wherever you go, because you first of all thought yourself there. By the way we came into the world head first. [00:26:01] You go from one dimension into the other with your head, your head, your mind. That's why the Bible says, guard your hearts and minds. That's why part of the spiritual armor in Ephesians 6, the first one is the helmet of salvation. Guard your head, your mind. [00:26:18] And if you were going to subdue an animal, you would subdue the animal at the point of its strength. [00:26:25] If you see a snake on your back patio, what point part of the snake are you most concerned about? You're not concerned about the tail, you're concerned about the head. [00:26:33] That's the part of its strength. If you've got a vicious dog running at you while you're out walking or running in the mornings before you start your day, and that dog's coming at you, you're not worried if it's wagging its tail, you're worried about the teeth. [00:26:45] Because if you're going to subdue the animal, you subdue it at the point of its strength. I'm just saying that to say the devil knows the point of our strength is our mind, and the battle is on our mind. And if he can shake our faith, if he can shake our how we think about God and how we think about what we're going through, he can defeat us in our daily life. [00:27:04] You're not what you think you are, someone has said, but what you think you are. [00:27:09] Think about Abraham when God said, you're going to be a father of many nations. He didn't have any kids and he was about that age where he's almost past being able to have. And he goes to Sarah, the angel says, you're going to have a child. And she laughs. [00:27:24] Are you kidding me? It's not happening. Well, we know what happened through Abraham and Sarah. We know the story. But my point is, one of the things that happened before that child was born is God changed the way they thought about it. [00:27:39] They thought about it differently based upon their faith, and their faith was based upon what God said. [00:27:47] So it changes how you think second thought. Not only does it, you think what others don't think. Secondly, you see what others don't see. [00:27:55] Faith changes how you and I look at life. [00:27:58] Think about David and Goliath in 1st Samuel 17. [00:28:02] Remember, the brothers were hiding from Goliath they were fearful. You know why they were hiding? Because they saw how much bigger Goliath was than they are now. Before I criticize them, I'm going to say that's where most of us are. [00:28:16] We see how much bigger our problem is than we are and we try to figure it out. It doesn't, you know, figure out. We try to work it out and we can't seem to work it out. And the problem just gets bigger and bigger and bigger. And we have this thing and before you know it, we just almost feel defeated and unbelief puts our circumstance between us and our God. [00:28:36] And then David comes on the scene. And David wasn't denying how big Goliath was. [00:28:41] Faith is not denying the obstacle. Faith is not denying your circumstance. [00:28:46] Faith is changing how you look at it. It's changing your perspective. And here's what I mean by that. Instead of seeing how much bigger your problem is than you are, here's the difference. Look at how much bigger God is than your problem is. You see the difference. [00:29:02] David just said, wow, I'm no match for this guy. I mean, in my flesh up. There's no way but God is able to. He saw how much bigger God is than Goliath was and that changed not only how he thought, that changed how he saw his circumstance. [00:29:21] Some of you, this morning you came, you've been living a little bit on the defeated side of life. Maybe it's marital, financial. Maybe it's your health. Maybe it's just some challenge out in front of you that looks insurmountable. Change the way you think and change the way you see it. [00:29:35] And what will give you the ability and the power to do that is your faith in God. [00:29:39] Here's a third thought. Faith gives you the power to hear what others don't hear. [00:29:44] You can hear from God and you can hear what others do not hear. Listen to Isaiah 30, verse 21. Your ears shall hear a word behind you saying, this is the way, walk in it. [00:29:57] Isaiah said, God will speak to you. He'll speak to you in a definite way if you're attentive to him. Isaiah in fact, or rather Elijah in 1 Kings 19, Elijah said, God wasn't in the whirlwind and he wasn't in the lightning and the thunder. Instead, God for me was in a still, small voice. [00:30:16] God spoke to my heart in a definitive way, in a direct way. He said I was sensitive to the Lord and he spoke to my heart. [00:30:24] And I'm just telling you guys, if you're sensitive to God. And you're listening for God. God will speak into your life, and he does it based upon your faith. Here's the last thought. [00:30:35] So faith gives you the ability to think what others don't think, see what others don't see, hear what others don't hear. Number four. You can do what others can't do. [00:30:44] Faith gives you a divine enablement to do what others simply cannot do. [00:30:50] God gives you an ability. [00:30:51] I told you a few weeks ago, anything he's called you to do, he'll enable you to do it, equip you to do it, and empower you to do it. If he's called you to it, you can do it. [00:31:00] God has the ability to bring you to a point. And look, if it doesn't require some element of faith of what God's leading you to do, then I'd wonder if it's God. [00:31:09] If you say, I got it, no problem. I nail it. Then God's gonna stand back and say, okay, help yourself. [00:31:15] But sometimes he puts us out there in a place where you say, I think I may have outputted my coverage. [00:31:21] I mean, when you think about Simon Peter, when Jesus came walking on the water, Jesus didn't tell him not to come out of the boat. He didn't tell him. He said, go ahead. Go for it. Come on. Come on out, man. You're gonna. You're gonna experience something you've never experienced before. He started doing something he had never done before because his eyes were completely focused on Jesus. And he had the faith in believing God would not call him to do something he was not capable of doing. And he walked on water. [00:31:47] And the only reason he sank. Listen, the only reason he sank is he took his eyes off Jesus. [00:31:53] The Bible said the moment he took his eyes off Jesus, and it says, when you read the record, it says he put his eyes back on the storm. He looked back at the circumstance. Let me tell you, it's easy to get your eyes on Jesus in here. But when you get in the car on the way home and you pick up the debate with the bait or the little boogers aren't getting along in the backseat, or you're facing the pressure of your life, it's easy for you to get your focus off Jesus and start looking at your circumstance and start feeling like you're sinking. [00:32:19] So I want to challenge you as we leave the room this morning, keep your eyes on him. [00:32:23] As long as you're focused on him, you'll be able to think what others don't think. You'll Be able to hear what others don't hear. [00:32:29] You can absolutely do what others cannot do. Keep your eyes on Jesus. Because the only reason Simon Peter began to sink, he took his eyes on Jesus, put his eyes back on the water. [00:32:39] And I love what happened in that moment. Jesus didn't rebuke him. [00:32:43] Simon Peter probably prayed the shortest prayer in the Bible. He didn't have time to pray any longer. He'd drown. [00:32:50] He said, lord, save me. That's all he had to say. And the Bible says Jesus grabbed him by the hand and brought him back. [00:32:57] Some people say, well, how impetuous or how prideful was Simon Peter that he walked on the water. Well, I'd rather look at the other 11 in the boat and think about how cowardly they were to stay in the boat when Simon Peter walked on the water. [00:33:10] I'm glad he had the courage to step out by faith and do the thing God called him to do. God is still. I'm just saying, as I quote, God has called people to do incredible things. I think most of us may be living well below the level God designed us to live on. [00:33:24] I believe as long as God has given us life and breath, he has something incredible for us to achieve. [00:33:29] Keep the faith. Keep your focus on him. No, he will never fail you because he cannot fail you. Keep basing your faith on God's word, believing that he has a purpose and a plan. You are immortal until he's finished with you and you. And the moment he's done with you. Listen, the moment he's done with you, you'll know it. [00:33:48] And anybody close to you will know it, too. It's called death. [00:33:51] But until that moment, you keep pressing into God, believing him. And he will not fail. Let's pray. [00:33:59] Father, thank you for your word. [00:34:01] Thank you for the challenge that we always receive when we study your word. [00:34:07] Lord, we say your word is practical because it's something that we can actually apply. [00:34:12] There's never a time we studied your word that we didn't walk away with. At least something that we could apply to our life in the coming week. It's practical. [00:34:21] And then we see your word is not just practical, but possible. [00:34:25] You don't set the bar so high that we can't aspire to it. It's possible. Help us to apply this in our life. It's possible. [00:34:34] But number three, Lord, we know your word is powerful. It can transform everything about us. [00:34:41] So I pray, Lord, this morning, we truly will be doers of your word and not hearers only lift the burden that that person is carrying this morning. [00:34:50] Forgive the sin that that one is struggling with today. [00:34:53] Begin the process of solving the problem that person's mind is so consumed with. [00:34:59] I pray this morning, Lord, if there's one among us or watching online that hasn't trusted you as Savior, that right now you'd give them the courage to pray this simple prayer and say, Lord Jesus, with everything I know about me, I now trust all that I know about you. Come into my heart, forgive my sin, be a reality in my life. [00:35:22] And I ask this in Jesus name. Amen. [00:35:27] Thank you so much for tuning in today. If you have any questions or prayer requests, please contact us by visiting metchurch.com so that we can follow up with you this week. We look forward to seeing you next week.