Fully Persuaded Faith | Pastor Noah Ray | Sunday Service

Church, are you doing good this morning?

I want to take just a moment and I want to kind of just we're gonna go to Romans chapter 4 in just a second.

Romans 4 · chapter mention

We're gonna look at uh the life of Abraham.

But I believe this morning not only is the love of God present, but I I just I feel this morning that there is a there's a new level of faith that God wants to deposit into our heart this morning.

I believe that for some of you, you have been believing and praying and asking God things for weeks, months, and even years.

And I felt it all week long, but I believe that there's a new grace that God is giving us this morning in the in the area of faith.

As we were worshiping this morning, I felt like the Lord just spoke to my heart.

There's strength that's coming to your faith today.

Strength is coming to your faith this morning.

How many of y'all believe that?

Do you receive that?

Will you stand with me this morning?

Romans chapter 4.

Romans 4 · chapter mention

I want you to grab your Bibles.

We're gonna look at the life of Abraham.

Today is just a backdrop.

Pastor Summer and Pastor Caleb the last two weeks preached incredible messages.

Can we put our hands together for them?

I mean, Pastor Caleb two weeks ago, and then Pastor Summer last week, just phenomenal words.

But I want to continue in this series this morning.

Romans chapter 4.

Romans 4 · chapter mention

Romans chapter 4.

Romans 4 · chapter mention

We're gonna start in verse 18 today.

And here's what it says Romans chapter 4, speaking of the life of Abraham.

Romans 4 · chapter mention

It says, against all hope, Abraham in hope, everybody say hope, believed, and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, so shall your offspring be.

And verse 19, without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead.

Since he was about a hundred years old and since Sarah's womb was also dead.

Verse 20, I want you to see this.

Yet, everybody say yet, he did not waver.

He did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith.

Didn't weaken, he was strengthened in his face, and he gave glory to God.

Verse 21 being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised.

Come on, we're gonna talk about faith this morning.

That God had the power to do what he had promised.

And then verse 22.

And this is why it was credited to him as righteousness.

This morning I want to preach for just a few minutes from the topic fully persuaded faith.

Fully persuaded faith.

Just turn to one person around you and say, you need this kind of faith this morning.

Fully persuaded faith.

Well, when you bow your heads, we're gonna pray.

Father, I thank you today that your presence is in here.

You're speaking to our heart.

I ask today, God, as we leave here, we will leave with a new level of faith.

To believe you, God, for impossible things.

Father, I pray for people that are standing in this room and watching online that have been believing for weeks and months and years.

God, I thank you right now in this moment, God, that the same spirit of faith that was on Abraham rests on us this morning.

That we will believe you, God, for the impossible.

I thank you this morning for what you're doing.

We call it done in Jesus' name.

Amen and amen.

You may be seated.

In the year 1859, uh, there was a man named Charles Blonden.

Everybody say Charles Blonden.

Charles Blonden was the greatest tightrope walker of his day.

He was the greatest tightrope walker of his day.

And Charles Blonden had a dream that he wanted to cross Niagara Falls on a tightrope.

That's a dream I've never had before.

But I'm glad he had it.

So Charles Blonden has this dream that he wants to cross Niagara Falls on a tightrope, and so he comes over to the states.

25,000 people gather around on this day, June 30th, 1859.

And he crosses on a tightrope, 1,100 feet of rope, suspended 200 feet above water.

Now, y'all, I don't like even being on this stage right now.

Much less being on a rope 200 feet above water.

Okay.

Charles Blondon crosses over the Niagara falls on that length of rope, and the crowd just goes, wow, 25,000 people, no harness, no safety net, no nothing.

He just crosses over.

Well, the time goes on and he comes back a couple different days because he does it with such ease that the crowd wants him to come back.

So he comes back and he crosses a couple more times, and every time he gets a little bit more brave.

So he crosses over as Story would tell it.

He crosses over on stilts one time.

Another time he crosses over with a plate in his hand.

Another time he crosses over as the crowd's going crazy, and he just sits in the middle of the rope for a little while.

I guess because he could.

One of the last times that he crosses over, he takes a wheelbarrow in his hand and he begins to cross this large stretch of tightrope with a wheelbarrow.

The crowd goes crazy and they're cheering him on, going wild.

And there's a man that he could hear in the in the audience that was extra loud.

So he looks at this man and and he's he looks at him, he says, Do you think that I can cross this tightrope with somebody in this wheelbarrow?

He says, Yeah, of course I believe.

He asked him again, Charles Blonden asked him, he said, Do you think that I can put somebody in this wheelbarrow and get them safely across to the other side?

And he said, Sure, I believe.

So Charles Blonden doubles down.

One more time.

He says, Are you sure you believe that if someone got in this wheelbarrow that they could get on the other side safely across?

He says, Of course, you're you're Charles Blondon.

Of course you can do this.

And Charles Blonden responded, then get in the wheelbarrow.

True story.

The man never got in the wheelbarrow.

Can I tell you what faith looks like?

Faith looks like getting in the wheelbarrow.

Faith looks like not just watching somebody and looking at somebody cross.

Faith is getting in the wheelbarrow.

And I want to talk this morning about what faith is in our life.

Faith is not just saying that God can do it, faith is trusting enough to step out, get in the wheelbarrow, and walk with God.

That's what faith is.

Because I want you to know this morning that everything, everything, if you're right, if you're taking notes, write this down, in the kingdom of God is accessed through faith.

Everything in your life is going to be accessed through faith.

Graduates, let me tell you this morning, you're going to need some faith.

You're going to need to step out on faith, trust God, and believe God.

Everything in our walk with the Lord is accessed through faith.

Now, there's two primary roles that faith plays in the life of the believer.

I want you to write this down.

Number one, you need to know this.

Number one, we are saved by faith.

There ain't enough good you can do to earn it.

You can't work your way to God, you can't make it happen.

We are saved by faith.

Right?

So in Ephesians chapter 2, Paul says this, we are saved by grace through faith.

Ephesians 2 · chapter mention

Means you couldn't work for it, you couldn't earn it, you couldn't be good enough.

We are saved by grace through faith.

But number two, not only are we saved by faith, number two, you need to know this.

We live by faith.

Okay?

So we're saved by it, but we're also called to walk in it.

That's what faith is.

It is not just how we begin with God, but faith is how we walk every day with God.

That is the life of faith.

Faith is how we trust when we don't understand.

Faith defined is this.

I want you to write this down.

Faith defined is just a belief in or a confident attitude towards God.

Sometimes faith can just be this ambiguous term that's kind of hard to put parameters around, but I believe that faith is confidence and trust towards God.

And we see this in the life of Abraham.

This morning, I want to take just a few minutes and I want to give us three keys to faith.

Three keys to faith that I think are gonna help build our hope and our spirit to really remind us how to trust and believe God for greater things.

How many of y'all believe in God for greater things?

We're gonna believe that this morning.

Three keys to great faith.

Number one, one if you take a note, write this down.

Faith trust what God said.

We gotta start here this morning.

Number one, faith, it trust.

Everybody say trust what God said.

It believes what God said.

And I don't know if there's a better biblical picture when it comes to the life of faith and an example of faith than Abraham.

Abraham lived this principle out.

There were in scripture in the book of Genesis, we see there are three key moments in Abraham's journey of faith.

Three key moments in Genesis chapter 12, in Genesis chapter 15, and then in Genesis chapter 21.

Genesis 12 · chapter mention Genesis 15 · chapter mention Genesis 21 · chapter mention

And I want to show you these for just a moment because I think it helps to articulate that Abraham didn't just talk about trusting God, he actually had to trust God.

Because in all of our lives, there comes a moment when you can talk about trusting God or you can actually step out and trust God.

And that's what happened in his life.

In Genesis chapter 12, if you got your Bibles, verses 1, 2, and 4.

Genesis 12 · chapter mention

I want to show you this.

I'm not gonna read all of it.

But this is the first moment in Abraham's life in his journey of faith.

It said, the Lord said to Abraham, Go.

Everybody say, Go from your country, your people, and your father's household to the land that I'll show you.

He had very little details.

He really had very little idea of all the plans.

God said, Go, and then you skip down to verse 2 and 4.

So Abraham went as the Lord told him.

How many of you know it takes faith just to simply go?

It took Abraham having faith to go.

God called him to go.

No details, no instructions, no Google Maps, no technology, just go on a go.

Why?

Because faith trusts God's word when you don't know where.

God, where is the finances coming from?

Where's the strength coming from?

Where is it coming from?

When you get to that place in life, that's where trust kicks in.

That's where faith kicks in.

When you don't know all the answers, you're walking in faith.

This is the life of Abraham.

God gave him a word and simply said, Go, and he went, not knowing where.

We see in Genesis chapter 15, kind of the next step of faith that happens in the life of Abraham.

Genesis 15 · chapter mention

In Genesis 15, verses 2, 4 through 5, here's what happens.

Genesis 15:2

He's having this conversation with the Lord, asking, Hey, you've told me to go, you're going to call me into a great nation.

And here's what he says.

Then the word of the Lord came to him.

This man will not be your heir, but a son who is your own flesh and blood will be your heir.

He took him outside and he said, Look up at the sky and the stars.

And if indeed you can count them, he said to him, So shall your offspring be.

Have you ever had a moment where you ask God, God, how in the world are you gonna do this?

That's where Abraham's at in this moment.

Not only is he asking God, where am I going, now he's asking God, how are you gonna do it?

Faith not only trusts God where, but faith trusts God's word when you don't know how.

Faith kicks in when you don't know how it's gonna work out.

And then the third moment with in the life of Abraham is Genesis chapter 21.

Genesis 21 · chapter mention

This is kind of the fulfillment of it.

God fulfills this promise here.

And in Genesis chapter 21, verses 2 through 3, Sarah became pregnant and bore a son to Abraham in his old age, at the very time.

Genesis 21:2–3

I want you to see this.

I was reading this verse over and over again early this morning.

At the very time God had promised.

At the very time God had promised.

God, why haven't you provided yet?

Why haven't you done it in this time frame?

And it's simple because he's in his timing, not our timing.

It happened with Abraham when God's timing came.

The very time God promised, and Abraham gave him the name Isaac.

So why do you need faith in this journey called life?

Why do you need faith?

Because sometimes you don't know where.

And sometimes you don't know how.

Can I get an amen?

But what we learn along the way is that God is in it all.

I think there was a moment when Abraham got to Genesis chapter 21 and he realized, oh, okay, this is what you've been doing this whole time.

Genesis 21 · chapter mention

But here's what happens, church, is we read Genesis chapter 21, or Genesis chapter 12 to Genesis chapter 21, and we read it like it's this short time frame.

Genesis 21 · chapter mention Genesis 12 · chapter mention Genesis 21 · chapter mention

And we forget that Genesis chapter 12 to Genesis chapter 21 is 25 years.

Genesis 12 · chapter mention Genesis 21 · chapter mention

In Genesis 12, God says it, he does not see the fulfillment of it until Genesis chapter 21, a 25 year span.

Genesis 21 · chapter mention

But we read it like it happened in a couple days.

25 years.

And that is what I call the tension of faith.

Is that you're believe you've heard God say something, but you have not fully seen the fulfillment of it.

And it's in that space that you have to keep hoping and believing and trusting that what God said will come to pass.

That if he said it, he is good on his word.

And I want you to get this next statement in your heart because it really the message hinges on this is that the test of faith is living in the tension of I know God said it, but I don't see it.

This is the tension of faith.

Faith is not tested when everything is visible, faith is not tested when everything looks good.

Faith is tested when you're in the in-between.

That is the tension of faith.

And when I say tension, I don't mean conflict between you and God.

I'm talking about the space between God said it, but I haven't seen it.

Have you ever been there before?

I know God gave me the promise, but I have not seen the fulfillment of it.

That's the tension of faith.

That's the 25-year gap that Abraham lived in.

For 25 years.

Okay, yeah, sure, I'll step out and I'll go.

I don't know where I'm going, but we're going somewhere.

We're gonna be happy campers along the way.

And then he gets to Genesis 15, and God gives him the promise, and time goes by, and time goes by, and that gap begins to get wider and wider until he gets to Genesis 21, and God fulfills what he promised.

That is that's the test.

Faith is tested in the gap between God said it, and I don't currently see it.

That's the tension of faith.

It's the space between I know he said it.

I just I don't have it yet.

I don't have it in my hand.

In the Ray household, we are um we're we're Amazon Prime people.

Is anybody is anybody Amazon Prime people?

We're a lot Amazon Prime people, okay?

Like, I'm gonna have to give my Amazon Prime guy a our delivery guy, a Christmas card, because he comes by our house so much.

This week I was on, I had to get something for for the house for the family.

So I get on the Amazon app and and I order it.

And um, and then immediately when you order it, you get the confirmation, it's on its way.

Right?

Like you get you get the email, it's it's there, okay?

I have the receipt that it's gonna be there in two days.

Or sometimes it's overnight.

Thank the Lord.

And overnight delivery is different, y'all.

Got it by the time I wake up, okay.

You place the order, and then I have the res.

I don't have the package in my hand yet, but I know it's mine.

It's it's on.

The way I may not have physically opened it yet.

I may not have used the product, but I know it's mine because I have a receipt.

Like I've got the proof.

That's what faith is.

You've got the receipt.

Now, here's what happens though is we order something on Amazon Prime.

We order it, we click OK, and we don't ever once think, is that gonna arrive to my front door, do we?

Never.

You are never ever staying up at night thinking, man, I really, really hope that that thing that I impulsively bought on Amazon, I really, really need it to get there.

You don't do that, you just know, and then you walk right out in two days, you see the package through your window and you go and you grab it.

Come on, somebody.

But here's what happens when God gives us a promise.

If it goes an hour, a day, or weeks past, we begin to live in doubt and question and wonder and get depressed over is God gonna do what he said he would do?

And I'm afraid sometimes, y'all, we have more trust in Amazon than we do Jesus.

We know Amazon's gonna get it to the front door, but is God gonna fulfill his promise?

It's the tension of faith.

I know he said it, but I have not seen it yet.

I haven't seen it yet.

This is what Jesus can I I I give you a verse real quick.

Genesis in John chapter 13, Jesus explains the tension of faith so well.

John 13 · chapter mention

He explains it so well.

He's talking with his disciples, he's washing their feet, he's explaining what the cross is gonna look like, and he says this in verse 7.

He says, You don't realize now what I'm doing, but later you'll understand.

You don't get it now, but later you're going to.

Abraham, you don't understand in Genesis 12, but you're gonna understand in Genesis 21.

That's what faith is.

It's we obey now and we understand later.

We say yes now, we trust now and we have clarity later.

Faith trusts what God says.

Number two.

Faith knows the God who said it.

Not only does faith trust what God says, it knows the God who said it.

I want to show you just a couple verses.

Romans chapter 4, verse 3.

Romans 4:3

I want you to see a couple words here.

It says, what does scripture say?

That Abraham believed God.

He believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.

And then in James chapter 2 repeats this, and the scripture was fulfilled that says Abraham believed who?

James 2 · chapter mention

He believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness, and he was called God's friend.

What I love about this is that through the faith journey that Abraham went on, not only was God developing his faith, God was developing the relationship that he had with him.

A life of faith grows out of a closeness to God.

Okay?

If we're going to live lives of faith that trust God and wholeheartedly walk with God, then we have to be in closeness with God.

It's hard to trust a God that you don't know.

It's hard to walk closely with him if we don't trust who he is and what he says.

In Genesis chapter 21, he gets this fulfillment of the promise.

Genesis 21 · chapter mention

And then one chapter later, God tells Abraham, I want you to take your son, the one you've been waiting on 25 years, and I want you to go sacrifice him.

Go take him, sacrifice him.

Here's what it says take your son, your only son, whom you love, and sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on the mountain that I will show you.

Here's what you find nowhere in Genesis chapter 22 is Abraham complaining, Abraham questioning God, Abraham asking for an explanation.

Genesis 22 · chapter mention

You don't find that anywhere.

As a matter of fact, the very next verse, after God tells him to do that in verse 3, it says, early the next morning, all Abraham did, he saddled up and he went on his way.

He never once questioned God, never once demanded anything.

Why?

Why?

Because Abraham was in such a close relationship that God never had to give him an explanation for what he was doing.

He had walked with God long enough and the relationship had developed there that he knew God's character.

And I want you this morning, as you live out your faith, as you grow in your faith journey, we have to be people that know the character of God.

That he's a good God.

And if he asks you in Genesis, like he did in Genesis 22, to sacrifice something, it's because there's something better on the other side of it.

There's something better on the other side.

I want you to write this down.

Faith knows God.

But faith does not know all the details.

I want you to get this in your heart.

Faith knows God, but it does not know all the details.

The more I know God, the more I trust God, the more I'm in relationship with God, the less I have to know everything.

We know this scripturally that God does not lie.

God cannot lie.

Amen.

But the longer I walk with the Lord, the more I realize God does leave out details of things.

He doesn't lie, but he will leave out details.

Come on, he told Joseph, you want to lead a nation?

Joseph said, Yes.

You want your brothers to come and bow down to you?

Yes.

He just didn't tell them about the pit.

And he just didn't tell them about Potiphar's wife.

And he just didn't tell them about prison.

Moses, you want to lead a nation?

You want to lead a nation out of slavery?

Yes.

He just didn't tell him about 40 years of wandering in the wilderness.

And Pharaoh chasing behind him.

Why does God do that?

Because God is not trying to just get us to a destination.

He's trying to teach us how to walk with him in every season.

And if he showed you every detail of everything you've asked for him, you would never do it because your faith would not be ready.

So we just leave some things out.

And he says, Will you trust me just to be in relationship?

And we walk together in this thing.

So there's going to be times where God's going to leave out some details.

Because your faith is not strong enough to do what He's asked you to do.

So He says, just start walking with me.

That is Genesis chapter 22 with Abraham and Isaac.

Genesis 22 · chapter mention

Just start walking with me.

Faith trusts what God said.

Number two, faith knows the God who said it.

And then number three, I'm closing.

Faith stays convinced that God will do it.

Faith stays convinced that God will do it.

I love the faith, the phrases.

He's strengthened in his faith.

That he's fully persuaded.

Abraham was fully persuaded.

In other words, he knew exactly what God was going to do because he had a promise that he was hanging on.

Can I tell you this morning, when you get a promise, do everything you can to hold on to that promise.

I don't care what reality looks like.

I don't care what people look like, I don't care what people tell you.

Hold on to the promise of God.

Be fully persuaded in what God told you.

Because if He told you and if He spoke it to your spirit, it will come to pass.

We've got me and my wife, we have three kids, um, Hadley, Judah, and Maverick.

And um Maverick, when Maverick was born, of course, we're we're so excited and just loving life.

And family of three, the doctor comes in and they begin to do some some tests on Maverick.

And uh they they put the hearing things on him, and he failed his first couple hearing test while we were in the hospital there.

And um, the doctors told us, they said, it's probably not really anything, but you need to go and you need to have them checked at a specialist.

So we took Maverick to multiple specialists, and we get there, and they said it's probably not what you think it is, it's probably not anything bad, but we just need to continue running tests.

So time kind of went on, and we just kept going back and kept going back.

And honestly, the the longer we went back, the worse Mavericks hearing in his right ear kept getting.

Kept getting worse and worse.

And every time we would go, me and Jordan, there's this room that they put you in when they when they're testing your your hearing.

And it is the most quiet room you've ever been in in your life.

I mean, it's like it's so quiet, it makes your head hurt.

So they I I would sit there with Maverick and they would put all these wires and stuff in his ear.

And trying to get a one and a half-year-old to stay that still is a miracle all in itself.

Okay.

So they put us in that room, and we go back, and this happened multiple times, and I'll never forget it towards the front part of our journey with Maverick.

We're sitting in this quiet room, and I'm holding him, and me and Jordan have no idea what's going on.

And he's got these wires coming out of his ears.

And I felt like the Lord spoke to me because I've been praying, God, I need a word.

I felt like the Lord spoke to me, Noah, I'm gonna heal him, but it's not gonna all happen at one time.

I thought, okay.

So we kept going back and we kept going back, and and his hearing kept declining.

And we just kept believing and we kept praying and we kept hoping, and we didn't really tell a whole lot of people, just really family, close friends, the staff.

Hey, we need you praying because we don't know which direction.

At one point, the doctors had told us he can either go up or he can have no hearing at all.

We don't know which direction this is gonna go.

So, over a course of over a year and a half, almost two years, we're going back and forth with specialists, and we would have up moments and down moments and up moments and down moments.

But the whole time, I knew the Lord had spoken to me.

I knew that God had told me he was gonna heal him, but it wasn't gonna all be at one time.

And I remember there were times when we'd walk out of the doctor's office and we'd gotten a really bad report.

And I just I remember looking at Jordan telling her, I know what the Lord said.

So we kept going back and then it began to progress.

And then we'd kind of go down, and then it would progress, and I never forget one more time.

We went into this room, and I was holding him and had all the wires coming out, and we walked out of that room after it gotten a little bit better.

We walked out, they pulled the things out, and they said Maverick has 100% hearing in both of his ears.

I'll never forget that moment as long as I live.

And I mean Jordan, we got to the parking lot and we're just sobbing, and it was a moment, it was a watermark moment for me where the Lord reminded me, Noah, if I told you something, I'm good on my word.

And it was almost a two-year process where we were up and down, we had no idea, but I knew God was gonna heal him.

I was fully persuaded that God would do what he said he would do.

And I think there's some of you, God's put a promise in your heart, God's put a word in your spirit, and you may have not seen it yet.

But I believe this morning God is strengthening your faith to continue to believe what God told you.

That you can be fully persuaded.

Will you stand with me?

We're gonna pray this morning.

I want to invite my prayer team forward today.

I want to go back at the beginning of the message.

I believe this morning that God is giving a grace for you to believe things at another level.

Some of you, your faith has weakened.

You've been believing so long that you're close to just throwing in the towel.

And I believe the Lord put this word on my heart to strengthen what God told you, to add fuel to the fire.

That if he did it for Abraham, he can do it for us today.

That we can believe God for the great things in our life.

Why don't you just to bow your heads and close your eyes just right where you are?

Some of you this morning, you there's things you need prayer for.

It may not have to do with this message.

Maybe you need healing, maybe you just need a touch from the Lord today.

I'm gonna pray for us.

We're gonna spend a moment just worshiping.

And I want you to respond today.

But I do believe there's specifically there's some of you that you had some fully persuaded faith, but somewhere along the line, it's just it's kind of waned a little bit.

And I believe this morning that God wants to elevate your faith, that he wants to put new, bold faith inside of you to believe God for the great thing today.

Come on, will you just, if you feel comfortable, I want you just to extend your hands just towards heaven right now in this moment.

And if this you, I want you just to begin to respond.

If you want to receive prayer this morning, our prayer team is to my right and to my left.

There's some of you you need to you need to receive prayer over the thing that you're believing for.

Some of you, there's healing, there's sickness, there's a moment that God needs to touch.

But some of you, God wants to resurrect some new faith inside of you.

Father, I pray right now over your people.

I ask today, God, that you would do something new and fresh inside of them.

God, for those who have been believing for something for weeks, months, and years, and they just feel like it's kind of their faith is waning.

Father, I pray a new strength and a new faith inside of them.

Faith to believe you, God.

Come on, I want to, Joey.

Let's sing this for just a moment.

I want you to respond today.

I want God to move.

There's faith in the house this morning.

Come on, let's let God touch us for a moment.