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Build Your Faith
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But, dear
friends, remember what the apostles of our
Lord Jesus Christ foretold.
They said
to you, "In the last times there will be
scoffers who will follow their own ungodly
desires." These are the men who divide you,
who follow mere natural instincts and do not
have the Spirit.
But you,
dear friends,
build
yourselves up in your most holy faith and
pray in the Holy Spirit.
Keep yourselves in God's love as you wait
for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to
bring you to eternal life.
Be
merciful to those who doubt; snatch others
from the fire and save them; to others show
mercy, mixed with fear--hating even the
clothing stained by corrupted flesh.
Jude
17-20 |
Jude, the brother of
James, the brother of Jesus… told us that difficult
times would come – and we are in those difficult times.
Scoffers are everywhere. These men and women divide
Christians and teach compromise and watering down the
gospel. To counteract this, we are instructed to build
our faith by praying in the Holy Spirit – by letting the
Holy Spirit direct our prayers.
This does not work for
selfish people! Selfish people want God to be their
“short order cook.” Doesn’t work that way!
We are instructed to be
merciful to those that are struggling in their faith.
Some people need to be rescued from the fires of hell,
and everyone needs to be shown mercy. We are not judges;
we are God’s loving children.
Would Jesus say
that we have great faith or little faith?
“Therefore I tell you,
do not worry about your life, what you will eat or
drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not
life more important than food, and the body more
important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air;
they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet
your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more
valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a
single hour to his life?
“And why do you worry
about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow.
They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even
Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of
these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the
field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into
the fire, will He not much more clothe you,
O you of little faith?”
Matthew 6:25-30
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Six different
times Jesus stated that people had “little faith.”
*
Three times He used the term “great faith.”
Four-year-old Jimmy
was asked to return thanks before the family
Thanksgiving dinner.
Bowing their heads in eager anticipation the family
members waited for Jimmy’s prayer. He began his prayer,
thanking God for all his
friends,
naming them one by one. Then he thanked God for Mommy,
Daddy, brother, sister, Grandma, Grandpa, and all his
aunts and uncles.
Finally he began to thank God for the food. He gave
thanks for the turkey, the dressing, the fruit salad,
the cranberry sauce, the pies, the cakes, even the Cool
Whip.
Then he paused while everyone waited--and waited. After
a long silence, the young fellow looked up at his mother
and asked,
"If I thank God for the broccoli, won't he know that
I'm lying?"
One day, Joe, Bob
and Dave were
hiking in a wilderness area when they came upon a large,
raging, violent river. They needed to get to the other
side, but had no idea of how to do so.
Joe prayed to God, saying, "Please God, give me
the strength to cross this river."
Poof! God gave him big arms and strong legs, and he was
able to swim across the river in about two hours,
although he almost drowned
a
couple
of
times.
Seeing this,
Dave prayed to God, saying, "Please God, give me
the strength and the tools to cross this river."
Poof! God gave him a rowboat and he was able to row
across the river in about an hour, after almost
capsizing the boat a couple of times.
Bob had seen how this worked out for the other
two, so he also prayed to God saying, "Please God, give
me the strength
and the tools,
and the
intelligence, to cross this river."
Poof! God
turned him into a woman. She looked at the map, hiked
upstream a couple of hundred yards, and then walked
across the bridge.
Pray wisely, allow the
Holy Spirit to direct our prayers!
James 2:20
states, “faith without works is dead.”
Therefore we must walk in
obedience to the Lord, ministering to others.
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The Sack Lunch
One day a man was flying
from the west coast to Chicago. After
storing his carry-on luggage he took his
seat.
Just before take-off, ten
soldiers filled all the vacant seats
surrounding him. "Where are you headed?" he
asked the soldier seated nearest to him. "Chicago
- to the Great Lakes Base; we’ll be there
for two weeks for special training, and then
we're being deployed to Iraq."
An hour into the flight
the stewardess announced that sack lunches
were available for five dollars. Since
Chicago was several hours away he ordered a
lunch. However he noticed that the soldiers
were not ordering.
One soldier asked his
buddy if he planned to buy lunch. "No, that
seems like a lot of money for just a sack
lunch. Probably wouldn't be worth five
bucks. I'll wait till we get to
Chicago." His friend agreed.
The man
looked around at the other soldiers. None
were buying lunch. Thoughtfully he walked
to the back of the plane and handed the
flight attendant a fifty dollar bill. "Take
a lunch to all those soldiers." She grabbed
his arms and squeezed tightly. Her eyes wet
with tears, she thanked him. "My son was a
soldier in Iraq; it's almost like you are
doing it for him."
Picking up ten sacks, she
headed up the aisle to where the soldiers
were seated.
She stopped at the man’s seat and asked,
'Which do you like best - beef or
chicken?"Chicken," he replied, wondering why
she asked. She returned a minute later with
a dinner plate from first class. "This is
your thanks."
After he finished eating,
he headed for the restroom at the back of
the plane. A man stopped him. "I saw what
you did. I want to be part of it. Here,
take this." He handed him twenty-five
dollars.
Shortly after returning
to his seat, the Flight Captain came to meet
him; he held out his hand, and said, "I want
to shake your hand."
The man was quite surprised. The Captain
explained, so everyone could hear, "I was a
soldier and I was a military pilot. Once,
someone bought me a lunch. It was an act of
kindness I never forgot."
The other passengers applauded the act, much
to the embarrassment of the
kind man. Later
another man quietly gave him $25.00.
Upon landing in Chicago
another man gave him $25.00; as he passed
the soldiers waiting for a bus ride to the
base he gave them the $75.00 saying, "It
will take you some time to reach the
base…I’m guessing that by then you will need
another sandwich. God Bless You." |
How,
then do we build up our faith?
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Faith comes by
hearing/understanding God’s Word. (Romans 10:17)
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Walk with God by
faith, not by sight. This results in
obedience.
Obedience does not produce faith; faith produces
obedience.
Romans 1:17 states,
"The righteous will live by faith.”
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Walk in God’s
love. God’s love is more than merely
tolerating our weakness and shortcomings. He loves
us and He wants to bless us. John 17:23 (NLT)
states, “I in
them and You in Me, all being perfected into one.
Then the world will know that You sent Me
and will understand that You
love them as much as you love Me.
Think about that! God
the Father loves you as much as He loves Jesus!
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God
wants
to bless you!
Matthew 6:28-34 (New
Living Translation)
“And why worry about your clothes?
Look at the lilies and how they grow. They don't work or
make their clothing, yet Solomon in all his glory was
not dressed as beautifully as they are. And if God cares
so wonderfully for flowers that are here today and gone
tomorrow, won't He more surely care for you? You have so
little faith!
“So don't worry about
having enough food or drink or clothing. Why be like the
pagans who are so deeply concerned about these things?
Your heavenly Father already knows all your needs, and
He will give you all you need from day to day if you
live for Him and make the Kingdom of God your primary
concern.
“So don't worry about
tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries.
Today's trouble is enough for today.”
Receiving God’s best takes
commitment
When Ken was
ten-years-old he had to help the family by picking
cotton. He hated the job! Equally frustrating was the
fact that his granddad could pick circles around him.
One day in total
frustration he asked his granddad, “Grandpa, why is it
that you can do so much more than I can. You not only
get to the end of the row before I do, you even lap me!”
Grandpa replied,
“Well, son, the truth is you never set your jaw to do
nothing!”
In other words, he had
not made a commitment to do all he could do. He was just
getting by, but wanting the same results that his
grandpa got. Honey, life does not work that way!
Recently I listed
9 hindrances to prayer:
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Fear
– of failure, of responsibility, and fear that God
does not want to answer your prayer.
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Guilt – for past sins and failures.
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Doubt – that God loves you enough to answer your
prayer.
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Unforgiveness – unwillingness to forgive those
that have hurt or disappointed you. God has
commanded us to forgive; He expects us to forgive.
Disobedience stops the answers to prayer!
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Unresolved Anger – there is a time and place for
anger. Even God and Jesus got angry. But they got
over it…and they did not sin while they were angry.
If you never get angry, you probably do not care!
But do not let anger take charge of your life.
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Self-Centeredness – God knows why we are asking;
He understands our selfish ways. We might as well
understand them too! If the intent does not honor
God He probably will not answer the prayer.
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Motive – if you want the honor for answered
prayers… if you want God to help you get even with
someone, you will not get what you desire.
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Busyness – Substituting service to God and for
God will not replace or substitute for our prayer
life. Both service and prayers are commanded.
Saying, “The Lord knows how busy I am” will not
impress God. It may simply be time to readjust our
priorities.
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Impatience – God does not work for us, nor does
He follow our time schedule. Racing your engine at a
stop light will not make it turn green any sooner.
While miracles are very important, some things take
time. A notice on the counter where our new church
sign was made said, “Your failure to plan ahead
does not create a crisis for us.”
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A woman was there who had been
subject to bleeding for twelve years. She had suffered a
great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent
all she had, yet instead of getting better she grew
worse.
When she heard about Jesus, she came up
behind Him in the crowd and touched His cloak, because
she thought, "If I just touch his clothes, I will be
healed."
Immediately her bleeding stopped and she
felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering.
At once Jesus realized that power had
gone out from Him. He turned around in the crowd and
asked, "Who
touched My clothes?"
"You see the people crowding against
You," His disciples answered, "and yet You can ask, 'Who
touched Me?'"
But Jesus kept looking around to see who
had done it. Then the woman, knowing what had happened
to her, came and fell at His feet and, trembling with
fear, told Him the whole truth. He said to her,
"Daughter, your
faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your
suffering."
Mark 5:25-34
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The
woman with an issue of blood could have been stopped on
every count as she sought out Jesus for her healing.
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Fear
– of failure or punishment for being out in public.
She was unclean.
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Guilt – Focusing on her failures rather than
God’s power.
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Doubt – Wondering if she was worthy of healing.
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Unforgiveness – towards the physicians or the
public.
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Unresolved Anger – toward her illness or other
people.
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Self-Centeredness – Why must I suffer?
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Motive –
Seeking self glory rather than God’s
glory.
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Busyness –
No time or energy for prayer.
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Impatience –
Well, if God wants me well, He can
just heal me.
She focused on Jesus and received her
healing! What is your focus today?
November 23,
2008
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