July 11, 2007

• Pastor Don started out his sermon on 7/1 by pointing out that a lot of people have faith, but their faith has not been tested. We really do not know where we stand in faith until it has been tested.

  We then read Psalm 37:1-8 Do not fret because of evildoers, nor be envious of the workers of iniquity. For they shall soon be cut down like the grass, and wither as the green herb. Trust in the LORD, and do good; dwell in the land, and feed on His faithfulness. Delight yourself also in the LORD, and He shall give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the LORD, trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass. He shall bring forth your righteousness as the light, and your justice as the noonday. Rest in the LORD, and wait patiently for Him; do not fret because of him who prospers in his way, because of the man who brings wicked schemes to pass. Cease from anger, and forsake wrath; do not fret–it only causes harm.

  We repeated three times “Do not fret–it only causes harm.”

  Pastor Don pointed out that when our backs are to the walls, if God does not show up and we don’t know what to do, we have to work at not fretting. We have to realize that God is God. We need to get into His Presence, feel, touch, and be assured that He is there. He has the situation under control no matter what circumstances say to the contrary. He has a solution to our situation. His mercies are new every morning. Great is His faithfulness.

  So much of what we get from the media, from TV and radio, indoctrinate us for defeat. Bills, our mental situation, greed, other people can deflate us. Lazy faith won’t work. If we have lazy faith we are casting aside our future hope and deciding that God doesn’t intervene in our situation anymore. We have gone wrong and believed a lie, God is still on the throne. We do not want to be trapped in the fragments of our mind. We do not want the natural to dominate our Spirit.

  Paul said, 1 Corinthians 2:4-5 And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in a demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.

  God is the God of power. He has sent to us the guarantee of the seal of His Holy Spirit.
  We need to listen to the Holy Spirit. There are four things we can get wrong if we are not trusting God.

  1. PARALYSIS OF ANALYSIS: When the situation is tough we can get caught up in analyzing the situation and doing nothing – this can lead to depression and confusion. We can think through the problem, realize the problem, but not have a proper analysis of the problem. We need to spend time with God, and not keep analyzing. Overanalyses can cause us to not be able to move forward or backward. In this life if you stand still it only gets worse.

  2. YOU MUST ADJUST YOUR PERSPECTIVE, the very manner that you look at things. Often the way we look at things is with unrealistic hope and expectations. Our perspective is wrong. God has an answer. Pastor Don gave an example of a person who had spent years getting into financial trouble and prayed about the situation, wanting faith, and a quick answer to his problems. Pastor Don pointed out that he had unrealistic expectations. There was no problem in asking God for help, believing in faith for His intervention, but he was unrealistic in expecting that the answer should come quickly. Sometimes we want a quick answer, but it took us a long time to get to the situation we are in, so why does the answer to our problem have to be quick? After David was anointed, he still was a foolish boy, and needed to grow up. The 17 years that he hid out from Saul matured David. When we face a challenge, we often forget where we came from. God brought us out of a situation and put us where we are, put us here for a reason. We need to look over our shoulder and see where we came from and get the right perspective, then alter our wrong perspective about the situation. We often say, “My problem is too big,” and end up in the paralysis of analysis, coming to the wrong conclusion. We reduce ourselves to being too small in our eyes. Forgetting that we are a child of God. Our God is a BIG GOD. We are a child of a BIG GOD. He is bigger than we think. Our ally is the Creator of the Universe. When we get the right perspective our problem is brought down to the proper proportion. God is in our situation and we walk in divine help. We are more capable and able than we think because God is inside of us. Remember: BIG GOD, little devil.

  3. BEGIN TO DISCERN THE NATURAL AND SUPERNATURAL
  Pastor Don pointed out that sometimes we can start out our day “normal” and then go off the wall. Sometimes unimportant events cause strife. When we have an uncharacteristic response or our mood changes abruptly, we have to discern where the mood came from. Sometimes it is a supernatural force that is affecting your mood. When you get a thought you need to discern if it comes from God or from the devil. You need to remind yourself that what you are responding to is a stupid thing, and that you don’t need to get upset about it. Ask yourself why there is strife in the air? Am I being set up? If you have a thought you can’t get out of your mind, where did it come from? Sometimes ideas and thoughts come from the pit of hell and not from you. Sometimes the devil does make you do it.

  4. LAZY APPLICATION OF CARNAL FAITH Carnal faith is when you, by yourself, believe something and you, by your flesh hold onto something to bring it to pass. And often it is very shaky faith. On Monday you believe, Tuesday you doubt, Wednesday you need to believe, Thursday you forget about it, Friday you are reminded, so you say a faith statement about it, Saturday you doubt it and Sunday you are back in faith. Carnality needs to line up with the Spirit and then you can say, “Yes, I believe.” Pastor Don pointed out that you hope you get a good grade, take a test, and then start wondering if I passed the test, hope I get a good grade, then say, “oops, I need to believe by faith.” Sometimes that is the way we approach things when we are on a mission. God told me to…… and then you work it out using carnal faith. Carnal faith will work, but only as long as we hold onto the faith. God is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. He is looking for faith. Jesus said, that He hopes that He will find faith on earth.

  We need to assess where we are in our faith. The position of carnal faith is challenged in the environment, and know that I believe it right now. Where are we in our faith.

  1 Corinthians 3:18-19 Let no one deceive himself. If anyone among you seems to be wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written , “He catches the wise in their own craftiness.”

  5. WE NEED A MOMENT OF INSANE FAITH, CRAZY FAITH. Where it is totally insane for you to believe what God has put on your heart. Faith that can’t be denied. Faith that moves mountains, changes lives, brings miracles. The faith of Jesus. Believing what is unbelievable. Everything believable is foolishness. God wants to give us crazy faith, changing the world, contrary to circumstances.

  1 Corinthians 3:20 and again , “The LORD knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are futile.” We need to give the glory to God, even when circumstances do not justify our faith. Some of us need a name change. God changed Abram’s name to Abraham. He was aged, and had no children, but God named him “Abraham, which means The father of many nations.” Every time he had to introduce himself as Abraham, people would ask, how many children do you have? None, but I am Abraham, the father of many nations.

  God placed in us the ability to have insane faith, faith that God can do something for us and through us. Real faith is blind. Blind faith is that you believe it, but can’t see it. I can’t see it, but I can believe for it in faith.

  Pastor Don then went on to talk about Judges 6 and Gideon, pointing out that Gideon had to get out of his perspective. God called Gideon a mighty man of God, but Gideon was hiding out from the enemy. Without God, Gideon was not a mighty man, but with God, he became mighty. He had to look at the evidence and remember whose he was. God rewarded Gideon’s obedience to His commands. Our situation will not change until we accept that we are in a mess because we have not obeyed God. We can get out of our messes by obedience to God.

  Pastor Don then taught what he shared with us on the Friday Bible study about Gideon.

  A few extra comments about Gideon. God rewards obedience, any situation cannot be changed until we accept that we failed, that we wouldn’t be in the mess we are in if we had obeyed God. God did not pledge to keep us out of trouble if we are not in obedience to Him, but to deliver us when we turn back to Him and choose to obey Him..

  Tell our problems to Jehovah Jireh and He will deliver us.

  God gave Gideon a chance to have Insane Faith. Carnal faith fades with circumstances, but God gives us chances to step out in Insane Faith. He says, “Trust Me for something greater than you and your carnal faith can believe for.”

  Moses stood before Pharaoh, parted the Red Sea, lead the people through the wilderness in moments of insane faith.

  Joshua and Caleb believed with insane faith that God had given them the land, and that God would help them deal with the giants. They saw the giants as small and their God big.

  Hannah believed in faith she would have a son, Eli the priest thought she was drunk, she was drunk with insane faith, and gave birth to a great prophet, Samuel.

  Gabriel appears to a little virgin girl and tells her she will give birth to the Messiah. She answers with insane faith and says, “Let it be to me according to your word.”

  Jesus walked on the sea. A carpenter who was Lord of Lords, King of Kings, all knowing, who went to the Cross in a moment of insane faith, and saved mankind from sin and death.

  With crazy faith we realize that God gives us ability, favor, and grace to do things that seem too big for us to accomplish with carnal faith, to help us get beyond the paralysis of analysis.

  Everything is ok if we are honest with God about our faith. God will help us to get from Point A to Point B.

  Pastor Don had people come forward who needed a blessing from the Holy Spirit for the things that they need insane faith for. The Holy Spirit showed up big, and blessed many people. Those people were instructed to find a person in the congregation to share what they are believing for with insane faith. And then the ones who did not come forward to the altar also were told to share what they are believing for with carnal faith. Pastor Don is looking forward to hearing many testimonies.

  Hoping you find moments of insane faith in your lives.

  Heather

  • 3:28 am
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