Sermon Central
-
Your Measure Of Faith
Contributed by Dr. David Wesner on Jun 9, 2015 (message contributor)
Summary: When we choose to have faith in God’s Word and then ACT on that Word, victory is the result.
We live in a realm of impossibilities.
Everyday we are told something is impossible.
God lives in a realm of possibilities.
The thief (the devil) comes only to steal and kill and destroy;
That is the realm of the impossible.
Things are stolen, killed and destroyed.
I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.
That is the realm of the possible.
You CAN HAVE an abundance in life!!
Things AREN’T killed, stolen or destroyed.
How do we get the realm of the possible into the realm of the impossible??
Through faith.
1st John 5:4
For everyone born of God overcomes the world (the realm of the impossible). This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith.
What else can this victory (over the realm of the impossible) be except to make things possible?
THAT VERSE SAYS: It is FAITH that gives us the VICTORY.
Faith in what?
Ourselves?
No. In God.
What does God offer us as a basis of FAITH IN HIM?
His WORD.
When we choose to have faith in God’s Word and then ACT on that Word, victory is the result.
And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards (with abundant life) those who earnestly seek him.
If we believe he EXISTS, we must also believe He can do what the Word says He can do.
To do otherwise is a CONTRADICTION.
But our minds try to tell us:
I believe in God, I just don’t believe EVERYTHING He says!! What????
But my righteous one will live by faith.
God has ALREADY equipped all of us with the ability to have faith.
This happens at salvation.
For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you.
God has dealt to every man THE measure of faith.
Our first thought:
Maybe God gave me a smaller measure of His faith than He gave someone else!
God is no respecter of persons.
The measure you were given when you received Jesus as Lord was enough to cause you to be born again.
It is enough to bring victory over anything the world can throw at you.
That’s what we just read in 1st John 5:4.
It is up to each of us to feed, increase and release our faith.
Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ.
The MESSAGE isn’t heard through just ANY WORD, it is heard through the WORD OF Christ.
We hear ALL KINDS OF WORDS in a day.
Especially when we are standing believing.
ALL KINDS OF REPORTS.
But it doesn’t matter what MAN says.
Only what God says!
For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks.
For your words to be so powerful that they cause things to come to pass, they must have the force of faith behind them—you must believe in your heart.
Your mouth will speak what is in your heart.
If faith-filled words are put in there, faith-filled words will come out.
Your words work for you or they work against you.
You don’t have to TRY to get faith.
It comes by hearing the Word.
Faith COMES by hearing, but it isn’t RELEASED by hearing.
To RELEASE means: SPEAKING and ACTING on the Word you HEAR.
What you CONFESS corresponds to the level of the Word of God that is working in you.
When you are filled with God's Word, faith comes up working in you.
When you neglect your study and meditation time and take on the cares of this life, you stop the force of faith from coming out of your spirit.
In the same way the physical body needs food for strength, the spirit of man needs spiritual food for strength.
The Word of God is life to you.
The more Word you have going into your spirit, the more life is coming out.
There was a story about a woman who died in poverty.
She was living in horrible conditions.
When they went into her house, they found thousands of dollars she had hidden all over the place. She never used it, and died in poverty.
It is not enough to believe.
You have to get what you believe OUT of your heart and into SPIRITUAL circulation.
Done by SPEAKING.
"I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain, 'Go, throw yourself into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him.
