Sermon Central
-
Mixing Faith With The Word
Contributed by Dr. David Wesner on Jun 15, 2015 (message contributor)
Summary: We can’t have someone else’s faith.
For 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.
The Israelites failed to trust what God was saying to them in the wilderness.
God promised that he would care for them and give them victory.
They didn't believe God.
They grumbled and complained, and wanted to turn back to Egypt.
This is the human condition: people will KNOWINGLY go back to horrible conditions rather than believing and standing and trusting almighty God! OMG!!
This unbelief BECAME their disobedience.
Here is that same verse in another translation:
We received the same promises as those people in the wilderness, but the promises didn't do them a bit of good because they didn't receive the promises with faith.
We cannot receive what we do not believe.
And we also thank God continually because, when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but as it actually is, the word of God, which is at work in you who believe.
They had received the Word and it was WORKING!!!
Hebrew 4:12
For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.
As we read the Word, it is like a living being who is studying us, and revealing to us what we need in the very moment we are reading it.
The Word is examining us; we are not examining it.
It has already diagnosed our illnesses.
It is examining our hearts.
It knows, as we read it, where we are in our faith!
It exposes what it knows about us to us.
It reveals back to us what it wants us to know about ourselves.
It tells us what is important for us to know about ourselves in order to have what it offers us.
The Word becomes a supernatural power that enables us as we believe it.
The Word exposes all our deceptions and replaces them with TRUTH!
It examines our thoughts, and knows exactly how to increase our believing.
Q. Are we trusting the promises of God or aren't we?
We have to see things the way God does, or it won’t matter how much Word we read or hear.
What the Israelites were seeing did not line up with God!
I repeat: The word did not profit them, not being mixed with faith.
Good recipes are a mixture of all the right ingredients.
Mixing the Word with anything other than faith won’t bring life.
We can wander in the wilderness like the 12 tribes IF we, LIKE THEM, don’t believe we can take the promised land and drive out the inhabitants.
These thoughts will rob your faith:
I’m unloved.
I’m not worthy.
I’m too insecure.
I’ve got a problem with lust.
I’m not as talented as other people.
I have such a temper.
We can cancel our own future with what we don’t do now.
Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God,
Even before Abraham received God’s promises, he had faith that he would!!
You say:
I’m in financial trouble. How can I have faith for that?
God says tithe and I will open the windows of heaven and pour out a blessing so big your storehouses won’t be able contain it all!
If we seek God first and His righteousness, what we need will be given to us.
Is that what we are trusting will happen?
Or, we can choose to live in fear. We can go back to Egypt.
You say:
I’m struggling with inner turmoil from my childhood.
God says we are new creations.
Our childhood is no longer ruling us!!!
God has erased all the sorrow and pain.
Is your faith mixing with that Word?
Or, we can be swallowed up by the junk.
What are some things we can do to INCREASE our faith?
Step #1
When God speaks to us from His Word, we have to do something about it.
Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.
We have to demonstrate to God that we believe what He has spoken to us.
Mixing faith with the word is more than committing it to prayer and then doing nothing.
We will not see the Word come to pass if we do not to step out in obedience.
Many people are afraid to step out in obedience fearing they will get it wrong.
