The Measure Part 5 - Kingdom Faith with Pastor Marci Glisson

Hallelujah. So we've been on a journey

talking about faith, true biblical faith, true biblical

faith. And we've seen through the

Scripture, through these last few services that true biblical

faith is not for the weak, right?

It's not for the casual Christian.

Come on, true biblical faith. He says that we are to live by

the righteous. What shall live by faith?

And he tells us that we are to what?

Walk by faith and not by sight? But so many believers, and

everybody in this world still lives by sight.

And he tells us that we are to live by faith, to live by faith.

So what is true biblical faith? We've been talking about this

for several weeks. And we started out of Hebrews

Hebrews 11 · chapter mention

Chapter 11 and verses one through through through three.

It says, now faith is the substance of things.

What hope for the evidence of things not seen.

So true biblical faith cannot be seen, OK.

And we said it is out of this world.

That's why people think you're crazy when you do great exploits

that God asks you to do when you step out in faith because you're

stepping out on in the unseen. Hallelujah.

And we talked about faith is a firm persuasion.

Are you firmly persuaded for those of you that have called on

the name of the Lord that you are saved, that you are His

child? Amen.

So if you have confessed Jesus Christ as your Lord, then guess

what? You should be firmly persuaded

that you are His child and nothing should be able to take

you right away from your faith or your belief in knowing that

His word says those that call on His name, right?

Repent of their sin and call on His name shall be saved.

Hallelujah. You make Him Lord of your life.

You're firmly persuaded. Nobody can talk me out of that,

right? Nobody can talk you out of it,

right? You're firmly persuaded that

you're his child. Hallelujah.

Well, that's how we should be firmly persuaded when it comes

to doing everything else that God says in His Word that

belongs to His children. He says we have an inheritance.

Amen. There are some things, some

promises that belong to His children, not just when we get

to heaven, but right here in the earth.

He says that we can rule and reign in this life.

Amen. So that means there's some

things that we don't have to, you know, participate in, like

the world participates. We don't have to participate in

depression because he says the joy of the Lord is my strength.

We don't have to participate in that.

We don't have to participate in lack of our finances when he

says, my God shall supply all of my needs according to his riches

in glory. Amen.

Hallelujah. We don't have to participate in

allowing sickness and disease to eat up our body because it says

that over 2000 years ago when he died on that cross and he took

on those stripes, that by his stripes I am healed.

Amen. We don't have to participate in

everything else that the world or unbelievers participate in

and welcome in their life, right?

Because if we are going to be true believers and walk by

faith, Amen, then we're going to have to be firmly persuaded in

everything that he says belongs to us.

So we said the biblical definition of faith is a firm

persuasion based on what we believe, right?

And at that we have accepted as truth, because many people can

hear the Word and see things in the word, but they can still not

believe it for themselves and not accept it as truth for

themselves. Yes, it is my truth.

And that's the only thing you should be saying is your truth.

This right here is my truth. Nothing else.

Come on, this is my truth right here.

And this is what I stand upon. And I'm firmly persuaded that

His word will not fail me. Amen.

That He says heaven and earth is going to pass away, but it's His

word that will remain till the end.

Hallelujah, glory to God. So we said a firm persuasion

based on what you believe, what you have accepted as truth, what

you adhere to so firmly that it actually governs your life.

That it actually governs what you think, what you say, and

what you do. This is true biblical faith.

That what His Word has said about me as His child, I adhere

to it. I believe it as my truth.

I act upon it, and the result of me acting upon it is that I'm

going to think like he thinks. I'm not going to think like the

world thinks. I'm going to act like he says

that I should act. That is holy just as he is holy.

Come on. I'm going to talk like he talks.

That means when something's going on in my life and there's

an odd against me, I'm going to say, but it is written.

But it is written, Hallelujah. Whatever his word says, I

believe it. I walk by faith.

I live by faith. Come on, Hallelujah.

And this is true biblical faith. This is my reality.

It may not be everybody else's reality, but this is my reality

right here because I am firmly persuaded, Glory to God, this is

my confidence, this is my conviction, and this is what we

are to live by every day, not just on Sunday, not just on

Wednesday, not when things are just going good.

Every day, in the good times, in the bad times, come on every

day, I am to live by it, I'm to walk by it.

And I believe that what his word says will have to come to pass

Amen. Hallelujah.

So it is a firm persuasion, a confident expectation with a

corresponding action. That means you will act upon

what you believe you'll act upon it.

So whatever it is that He says in His Word that you're to do,

you're going to act upon it. Amen.

Because this is what true biblical faith is.

And we said that this word substance, faith is the

substance. We said that substance is what

you build your life upon. It is the foundation.

It is what you are standing upon.

I am building my life upon the substance of faith.

This is the foundation of my life.

Amen. This is the foundation.

This is what I build my life of faith upon.

This is the substance. And we know that this substance

of faith comes from His Word. The substance of faith comes

from His word because Romans tells us what faith comes from

hearing and hearing from the Word.

So faith this, the word of God is the substance of faith.

So every time you open up the word and you read it, faith

comes alive. If you'll have ears to hear,

come on if you'll know that. Hebrews 412 says that His word

is living and active, sharper than any 2 edged store, able to

penetrate between Come on joy and mirror, soul and spirit,

glory to God, and that His word, when it's sent out, it shall not

return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I

have sent it to do. Are you firmly persuaded in His

word? Come on in His word because it's

the substance of faith. Glory to God and how believers

cannot be taking this as their daily bread blows my mind.

And we wonder why Christians don't even know what they stand

for, what they believe in, and can't even be bold enough to

speak it in a world that needs the Kingdom of God to eyes up

with Bold faith people, biblical faith people, Hallelujah, that

actually stand upon the Word of God is not ashamed of what the

Word says because it is not old, it is not irrelevant, it does

not change. It's the same yesterday, today

and forever. God changes not man may change

what the word is saying. They may try to get rid of

scriptures out of their new written Bibles.

But I'm telling you what His word does not change.

It is consistent generation after generation after

generation. Glory to God, Hallelujah.

So again, we're looking at the fact that true biblical faith is

a firm persuasion. Come on within your heart.

And he tells us that we are to live by this faith, build our

life upon this, walk in it. And we said that once we got

born again, we all were given Roman says this what the measure

of faith. The measure of faith.

Romans 12/3. Let's look at this, for I say so

through the grace which has been given to me, to everyone that is

among you, not to have high thoughts above what he should

think, but think to, but to think so as to be wise.

For as God has dealt to each a measure of faith, and we said

that the minute we called on the name of the Lord, that faith was

what planted within our hearts, the seed of faith.

The minute we called on, the minute we heard the word that we

needed a Savior, that we needed to be delivered, that we needed

to be forgiven, the seed of faith was planted within our

hearts. That word planted within our

hearts, we believed it and what did we do?

And we confessed it with our mouth, Hallelujah.

We received the word, we believe the word, we release the word

and it confess and through confession that He is the Lord

of my life. Hallelujah.

And once we did that, the seed of faith, I like to say, was

impregnated within you. Faith just dropped in you and

came alive. Hallelujah, the seed of the

word, Hallelujah. And we said this, that that is

the law of faith. The law of faith is that we are

to hear the Word, believe the Word, receive the Word, act upon

the Word by speaking and doing whatever it is the Word says for

us to do. And when we do that it we see

this principle or this law of faith operating for whatever it

is that God says in His Word belongs to us.

So the way you got born again is the same way that you're going

to receive every promise of the inheritance that He says belongs

to you as His child. You're going to hear it what the

word said. You're going to believe it.

Come on, you're going to confess it and speak it out, and you're

going to act on that word, whatever it is, whatever it is

that He says in His word. So from here on out, that's what

we must do to continue to live by faith and obtain all the

promises of God. He's not just dropping it down

on you. People just think, oh, I'm born

again and God's got to do all this.

He's in control and he has to do all these things for me.

No, he does nothing without your participation.

Because if he could, then everybody would be born again

and he wouldn't be sending anybody to hell.

No, everybody has to participate in what God says belongs to us.

Everything, everything, Amen. So this is a picture of what

true biblical faith looks like. This is that spiritual law that

is in operation. And actually I didn't give you

the scripture for that, but I want you to see it.

Romans 327 says this. When then is boasting, it is

excluded. But what kind of law of works?

No, but by the law, a law of faith.

This was him in Romans talking about the law and circumcision

and him saying, no, this is about the law of faith in Christ

Jesus now. And so he calls it the law of

faith, that when we are in Christ Jesus now, we are

participating in the law of faith.

Nobody wants to hear those terms law anymore, but you better

thank God there's a law of faith because that's how you got born

again because of his law that he read in his word that said if

you call on my name, you shall be saved.

Amen, glory to God. And so this is a faith, law or

principles and how we are to obtain from him and what it is

he says belongs to us. OK, so we've got that clear

right now. This is the one point I wanted

to talk about because we're going to go from here.

So, you know, I talked about the seed of the word out of Mark 4,

right? The parable of the seed, the

sower. And we talked about the fact

that there was different places that he sowed the seed and it

was related to what we were going to do with the seed that

was sown. If we're going to let it be on

the wayside, if we're going to, you know, all the other things,

let it get choked out, the word right, all those things.

But then he goes on and says, but we are going to see a

harvest of either 3060 or a hundredfold return.

And that is up to us. That is up to us.

So what kind of return do you want in the earth from your

faith? Do you want a 3030 fold return?

Do you want a 60 fold return or do you want 100 fold return of

your faith working in the earth? You want to see all God's

promises and everything that He said belongs to you.

You want to see it? Amen.

You want to walk in it? Hallelujah.

But again, it's up to us. So again, we've all been given

the measure of faith, right? So we are all on the same

playing field. Nobody's been given more faith

than someone else. We've all been given the measure

that each individual needs to accomplish what it is that he

says our assignment is or our purpose is in the earth, Every

single one of us. It's not more measure of faith

for the pastor, right? Or a more measure of faith for

whoever a business. No, we've all been given the

measure, right? And so it's up to us to produce

and allow that measure to increase within our lives.

We are responsible for the increase in our lives.

We're responsible for the increase in our life and how we

are going to work our faith. We're not getting born again by

works. We're working our faith in the

earth that He gave us. You see what I'm saying, right?

So I'm not talking about works, you know, to get to heaven.

I'm talking about the works and the things that He has assigned

every individual in the earth to do.

And we are to do it by faith. And we've all been given the

measure of faith to be able to accomplish whatever it is.

But again, we are the ones that's going to determine what

type of return we get on our life of faith.

Amen. So let's go here to let's go to

Romans chapter one, verse 17. I want to show you that faith

should grow, is expected to grow and can grow.

We don't just get born again by our faith, through grace, by our

faith. And that's where we stay or that

that's all that God expects of us.

You got born again, you're good to go.

That's not what he expects. Anything God does, there's

multiplication and increase. Period.

Look at it in the Word. Everything he does or you can

say. Everything he puts his hand to

prospers. Everything.

Is to increase and grow within our life.

You know, I've already taught on the elementary principles and we

saw that we're to go from babies right from infants to, you know,

maturity. So He expects for us to grow and

we can see through Scripture where He shows us that faith can

grow and should grow. And so again, we are here in the

earth to allow faith to grow within our hearts.

So Romans 17 says, for in it the righteousness of God is

revealed. From what?

Faith to faith. Another scripture talks about

glory to glory. So you are to go from faith to

faith, or you can say it this way.

You are to grow from faith to faith.

You're to grow from faith to faith.

Amen. Because every time you begin to

act upon His word and what you have heard for Him that He said

to you, for you to do, every time you begin to act upon it,

you're in faith. And He expects there to be more

and more and more accomplished. So you are to grow from faith to

faith. OK, We see that Scripture here.

Now look at Romans 4. We talked a whole lesson about

Abraham, the father of faith or the father of us.

All right? He's our example of faith.

OK. And Romans 420 through 21 says

this. Yet with respect to the promise

of God, He did not waver in unbelief, but what grew strong

in faith, He did not waver in unbelief, but grew stronger.

So every time we are in a position of faith, it should be

helping us grow stronger every time that is to produce within

us more faith, to go to faith. So it's it's for us to grow

stronger when we're in the middle.

And we talked about Abraham, listen, he had to believe God

that his wife would conceive the promised child.

That was a faith battle, right? And this is where we're seeing

it. He wavered not, but he grew in

that faith battle. He had to believe God, right?

What about when God called him to go to a place that he could

not see? He didn't know where he was

going, but God said, get up and go to Abraham.

Get up to get up and go, and I'll show you the place that I

have for you. So by faith, he had to get up

and go. So his faith grew so that then

the next time he's in this situation, his faith is a little

bit stronger so that he could believe God for this promised

child. But then guess what else?

He tested him again and expected his faith to be even stronger

that he said, now you give up that promised child, right?

And put him on the altar. But his faith grew, and if he

saw that God was faithful then, and he saw that God was faithful

again, come on, then he had no problem trusting God again and

saying he must be able to raise him up from the dead.

His faith grew stronger every time.

Every, every single time God asked him to do something else.

His faith was growing stronger and stronger.

And you know what? When he was giving up to say,

I'm going to lay the promise on the altar and sacrifice it.

You know what God's saying, There's some things I'm asking

of you that you need to lay on the altar once and for all and

sacrifice that thing unto me so that I can take you into another

place of faith that I've been waiting to take you in.

But you're unwilling because you said, but God, I believe God for

this. But are you willing to let it

all go so that He can take you from faith to faith to another

place that he's wanting you to go to?

And how many of us are unwilling to put it on the altar even?

I mean, this is OK. We had to believe God for our

house. If he said pick and sell it all,

sell it all. I'm calling you to Timbuktu.

God. I believe God for this house.

I believe God for this. I believe God for this, that you

promised me this, you. But at any moment, are you

willing to say, I'll lay it all down because I know you did it

here, I know you did it there, I know you did it here, I know you

did it there. My faith is so strong because of

all the things you've done for me, and I've seen the hand of

God move upon my life. I'm willing to lay it all down

once again and step out on Nothingville, step out on my

faith to go to another place of faith.

But again, I said the Christianity in the United

States is there's no sacrifice. That is not true biblical faith,

bottom line, bottom line, that is not true biblical faith that

you would never have to sacrifice anything for God.

It's not true. Don't see it in the Word from

Genesis to Revelation, any time God asks anybody to do anything,

they had to be willing to let it all go, period, period.

And I still can't get Noah out of my mind because, you know,

and the reason why I think about Noah so much is because he says

in the last days, it's going to be like the days of Noah.

And so Noah's always on my mind. And I think about the fact that

God told him, I want you to build this ark, gave him the

dimensions of it and everything had never seen.

They had never seen rain before. What are you going to do with a

big old ark in the middle of a desert, right?

Or wherever it is. I'm not good with geography, so

whatever. Anyway, all I know is there's a

big boat and they had never seen rain, right?

So here they are here. How long did he take?

120 years? I don't know that it literally

took him 120 years to build it, but it was 120 years before the

rain came. So however long it took him,

surely it was years upon years upon years.

We know that he was mocked, he was persecuted, he was called

crazy. He looked like a crazy loon out

there and Sing look like a crazy man.

Well, they said that about, you know, John the Baptist, too.

Oh, you mean you get talked about when you're trying to

follow God? Poor little baby can't handle

any persecution. I mean, this is the society that

we're living in today. And so they don't.

So this was a sacrifice for Noah to stand out there and build

that ark for all these years, having to trust God that he

would do what he said he would do.

And while all along people were mocking him and talking about

him and calling him crazy. But God, did he come through?

And did he do it to save and deliver?

Yeah, so when he's asking things of us to do in faith, there's

always, always a reward in the end.

It's always about someone else. It's not just about you.

It's not just about you. It's not just about you stepping

out in faith to do whatever you need to do for your little

family. No, when God asks you to do

something, it's supposed to influence more than just your

family because people will see, wow, look what God is doing in

your life. Glory to God, Hallelujah.

So where were we? He grew strong in faith,

Abraham, and had to go through this process every time the Lord

asked of him to do something. His faith grew stronger and

stronger and stronger every time that he stepped out and obeyed

God. Amen.

Hallelujah. So let's go to 2nd Corinthians

1015. I just want to prove to you that

faith is to grow. Not boasting beyond measure,

that is, in other men's laborers, but with the hope that

as your faith grows, we will be within our sphere.

Look at that, enlarged even more by you.

So again, he expects us to grow our sphere of influence, or

we've talked about this, enlarging our tent or enlarging

our capacity to be able to be a better, a greater influence for

the Kingdom of God. And I'm not just talking about

an influencer on social media. I won't go down that trail

anyway. 2nd Thessalonians 1 and three.

It says this. We ought to always to give

thanks to God for you brethren, as is only fitting, because your

faith is greatly enlarged, say greatly enlarged, and the love

of each one of you towards one another grows even greater.

And we know in Galatians, which I don't even have time to go

here, but Galatians 220 I believe it is talks about that

faith worketh by love, faith works by love.

And so when you see what God is doing and how He's asking you to

walk in faith to accomplish something so that your influence

can grow and enlarge your capacity, it's always so that

His love can be seen through your life.

Because without love, your faith is not going to work.

So he's letting them know because you've done this faith,

your faith is enlarged and your love is even greater.

Glory to God. So just wanted to give you that

little tidbit. OK, now let's go to Mark 4.

Mark 435 through 41. I want to show you where in

Scripture it proves to us that, number one, you can have no

faith #2 you can have little faith #3 you can have great

faith. And #4 this is even greater.

You can have full faith, full faith, no little great fool in

the Scripture. So here he is here in Matthew

625 through 34. It says, for this reason, I say

to you, do not worry about life. And I'm using Scriptures about a

promise that he has said. So with this, with no faith,

this is a promise that we aren't to have to worry about tomorrow

because God knows exactly what we need, right?

We're going to read it in just a minute.

But it's showing us a, a spiritual principle or a promise

that belongs to us in faith. But he lets us know that you can

have no faith. Look at here.

So he says on that day when evening came, he said to them,

let us go over to, oh, this is not it.

Oh, sorry, it's the next one, little faith.

OK, this is not it. So Mark is about this.

OK, So he said to them, let us go over to the other side.

Leaving the crowd, they took him along with them in the boat,

just as he was, and the other boats were with him, and there

arose a fierce Gale wind, and the waves were breaking over the

boat so much that the boat was already filling up.

And Jesus himself was in the stern asleep.

You know, he was in the bottom of the boat asleep on the

cushion. And they woke him up and said,

Teacher, don't you care that we are dying?

Perishing 39 says this. And he got up.

He rebuked the wind and said to the sea, Hush, be still.

One translation says, peace be still, right?

That's better than this little translation here, Hush, it says,

this it says, And the wind died down, and it became perfectly

What calm. And he said to them, Why are you

afraid? Do you still have no faith?

Why are you still in fear? Do you still have no faith?

You're still in fear after you've seen me do miracles after

miracles after miracles? Why are you still in a position

of no faith? He calls it like it is.

You still have no faith. So there, what happened?

He had given them the word, let's go to the other side.

That was where faith then should have been received, believed and

acted upon. But they didn't do it.

They let the circumstance, they let the winds, the waves,

everything, the the boat filling up.

They're standing in the middle of the boat and it's filling up.

And instead of hearing what God said and reminding themselves,

but God said, he said that we were going to the other side

instead of rising up and speaking out, it is written.

God said, let's go to the other side.

So he expects us to go to the other side.

It is written. Faith comes from hearing and

hearing from the Word. Jesus is the manifestation of

the Word. He is the Word.

So the word spoke, they could hear.

All they had to do is believe it, act upon it in the middle of

the circumstance, in the situation.

But instead he said, why are you still in fear?

You have no faith. OK, let's go to little faith,

Matthew 6. You know this is a no when you

know, and I've said this, the opposite of faith is fear.

If fear is involved in whatever situation or circumstance in

your life, then guess what? You are not in faith because you

cannot have fear and faith in operation at the same time.

You can have love and faith in operation because perfect love

casts out all fear. Perfect love casts out all fear.

You see this and so you are not in faith if you are in fear, OK,

If there is fear, you're not in faith.

Now you can deal with that fear and you can get over into faith.

You can say no. It is written.

God said this. I take that clap, that thought

captive that's giving me anxiety, that's making me worry,

or whatever the case may be. I submitted up underneath the

word of God. The word says perfect love, cast

out fear. I'm going to act upon the Word

instead of fear. And this is how you do it with

anything, with every situation, with anything and everything

that he says belongs to us. This is true biblical faith.

Now look at little faith, Matthew 625 and 34.

This is where we say, see this. For this reason, I say to you,

do not be worried about life. Do not be worried about life.

And how many Christians do we know that are still worried

every day about life? Do not worry about life, Don't

worry about life. Say it, say it again, say it

again. You need to say this every day

if you are what we call a worry wart.

That was my first sermon I ever had to preach.

Do you know that? Because guess what?

I was a warrior. And in Rhema to graduate, we had

to preach a sermon before our classmates before we could

graduate Bible school. And I preached this scripture

right here because I was learning that I didn't have to

worry about life. Do not worry.

I was not going to be a warrior, Hallelujah.

I was not going to let the worries of this life consume me.

So don't worry about your life as to what you will eat or what

you will drink, nor for your body as to what you will put on.

It is. Not life more than food and the

body more than clothing. Look at the birds of the air.

They do not sow nor reap, nor gather into the barns.

And yet your heavenly Father feeds them.

He's fed me a many a time. And y'all have heard a few of

those testimonies in these last few weeks.

Don't worry about it. Don't worry about it.

It says, are you not worth much more than a bird?

Say I'm better than a bird, you're better than a bird.

Amen. So don't worry.

So he says this, he says look at the birds of the air.

Did I already read that verse 27?

Who and who of you being worried can add a single hour to his

life? And why are you worried about

clothing? Observe how the lilies of the

field grow. They do not toil, nor do they

spend. Yet I say that not even Solomon

in all of his glory clothes himself like one of these.

But if God so clothes the grass of the field which it is alive

today, and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, he will He not

much more clothe you. You of what little faith?

Little faith? So a warrior about these things

has little faith. Little faith just judges.

Isn't that what he says? Test and see.

Judge yourself. If you are in faith, this is the

way you can do that. Am IA person of no faith that

I've I've heard what he said, but I don't act upon it when I

circumstance or situation comes about or am IA person of little

faith that I still worry about some of these things about life.

See how you can measure where your faith is.

See this he says do not worry then saying what will you eat or

what will you drink or what will you wear for clothing for the

Gentiles eagerly seek all of these things talk about

clothing. Another testimony, you know,

you've heard we had nothing right through 15 years of our

marriage. And so we were living with my

dad at the time in Atlanta, Marietta.

And this was before we moved over or maybe after.

Yeah, it was after we had come back from the Roach infested

apartment, remember? And that night in the Roach

infested apt, I found out I was pregnant with Brianna.

This was 30 years ago. So anyway, so I had two boys.

So I'm like, oh, I finally get to have a little girl, you know,

I was so excited be able to dress her up in all these Pretty

Little clothes and all these things.

But guess what? I didn't have no money to buy

baby clothes, right? So don't worry, don't worry

about what this child's going to wear, you know?

So here is a good faith project for me once again that we're

living with my dad and and have Brianna.

So she's being born. Well, all of a sudden we got

three big black, you know, the big black garbage bags, the

hefty ones for the 55 gallon, you know, trash cans.

We got three huge bags of little girl clothes.

So many of them still had the tags on them.

Nice clothes thanks to a sister-in-law that went into

debt when she had her little girl and bought all these

clothes that she never even wore she gave us.

She came up and gave us 3 big bags of clothes.

Listen to this. I did not have to buy Brianna

clothes until she was five years old and starting school.

Didn't have to buy her a stitch of clothes.

Not what I wanted to. I was like, come on, God, can't

I just go pick out something, you know, for a little girl just

to say I bought it, you know? No, she had plenty, Plenty until

she was five years old and started school.

God provided. Don't worry about what you're

going to wear about clothing. Listen, I've got you, I'm taking

care of you. Hallelujah.

Glory to God. Thank you, Lord, thank you,

Lord. And he still does it today.

Amen. He still does it today.

For those who will believe, for those who will trust, for those

who will say I'm not going to worry.

God knows I have need of this and I'm doing what He's asking

me to do. He is going to take care of me.

I'm not going to have little faith.

Amen. And he goes on and tells you

what the requirement is, right? So that you won't have to worry.

And he goes on in verse 33 and says this, But what?

Seek first the Kingdom and His righteousness.

And that's what I was doing. That's what I was doing.

I was seeking first His Kingdom. I was seeking first doing

whatever His word was saying to do.

I was seeking first stepping out and going, and wherever He was

leading us to go to fulfill the call and the purpose that was on

our life that we didn't even have a clue of, but God

navigated us the whole entire time because we trust in God.

Amen. And we saw first the Kingdom of

God and His righteousness #3 great faith.

So we saw no faith, little faith.

Let's look at great faith. This is found in Matthew chapter

Matthew 8:5–10

8, verses 5 through 10. And when Jesus entered into

Capernaum, a centurion, you've heard pastor, minister on the

centurion right came to him, imploring him and saying, Lord,

my servant is lying paralyzed at home, fearfully tormented.

And Jesus said to him, I will come.

Here's the word here's the word for him.

I will come, I will come he says and what heal him.

This was a promise to him. I'm going to come and I'm going

to heal him so he could grab hold of faith right there at

what Jesus's word just spoke to him and he said this in verse 8.

But the in the I get so excited. I'm sorry, the centurion said,

Lord, I am not worthy for you to come under my roof, but just

what? Say the word 1 translation just

says, say the word only and my servant will be healed.

He had such great faith that all Jesus had to do was just speak

the word of healing over his servant and he could guarantee

that when he went back, his servant was going to be healed.

He had faith in the what word, the substance of faith.

Come on, what Jesus has said to us.

We have to get back to faith, true biblical faith and what the

word says to us about our situation.

Hallelujah, so that we can walk and see how this person had such

great faith. Now verse 9, it says, for I also

am a man under authority and this is the key.

He recognized authority. Lots of people want to act like

they want to heal, they want to act all kinds of way, but

they're not even submitted to God in the 1st place and

submitted to His word and they wonder why things are happening

in their life because they're really not submitted to His

authority. But that's a whole nother

teaching that my husband does a wonderful job about.

So he says for I am a man under authority with son soldiers

under me. And I say to this one go and he

goes and to another come and he comes and to my slave do this

and he does it. Now when Jesus heard this, he

marvelled and said to those who were following, truly I say to

you, I have not found such what great faith with anyone in

Israel because the man believed him at his word and he

recognized that he was in authority and he was submitted

to authority himself. Hallelujah, great faith.

You want to operate in great faith, get submitted to some

real authority in your life. Hallelujah, the authority of the

fear of the Lord right here first and foremost, and then to

your pastors. Let's look at this last one

here. Great no faith, little faith,

great faith. And now we're going to look at

full of faith, Acts chapter 6 and verse 8, and Stephen, one of

Acts 6 · chapter mention

my favorite stories of Stephen, full of faith and power, because

when you're full of faith, power will follow.

Power will follow. Did great wonders and miracles

among the people. He was full of faith.

He was full of faith. And that in Ephesian tell us

that as believers, as the body of Christ, that we are to obtain

to the unity of faith, that we are to walk in the fullness, the

maturity. That's what He wants us to

attain to the fullness of God, to the fullness of God, to the

fullness of God. Stephen was full of faith and I

love in the next chapter, he was so full of faith.

He did miracles. He'd had power and we know that

the heavens opened up when he was, he was preaching God's

word, preaching talking about all that God had done and

accomplished and, and, and what they were wanting to stone him

to death because they were gripped, they grabbed their

ears, they screamed and they didn't want to hear.

And the heavens opened up and he had a standing ovation.

Jesus himself stand up right there.

This man was full of faith, full of faith.

So we see he expects us as believers to grow in our faith.

So we've said this, that faith comes from hearing, but faith

will only grow by doing. This is very simple.

Faith comes from hearing, but your faith can only grow by

doing. That's how faith grows.

That's how you go from no faith to little faith to great faith

to full faith because I'm hearing the Word and I am doing

the Word, whatever it is that he's saying to do.

Isn't that what Mary said to the servants during the wedding when

the wine ran out? This is not in my notes.

It's the the wine ran out and he and she, you know, went to her

son and he said a few things, but he went back to the servant

and told them, the servants, whatever she says to do, do it.

And I say, huh, right. Whatever he says to do, do it.

And I say whatever he says in his word to do, do it, Just do

it. Would Nike support me?

It's all you got to do. It's all you got to do is just

do it. Whatever he says to do.

Come on. It is that simple.

It's that simple, guys. I'm telling you, this is not

complicated. It's not a complicated order,

OK? It's easy.

It's easy. You just do it, OK?

Hallelujah. Just say I'm going to do it.

Whatever he says to do, I'm going to do it.

Hallelujah. Glory to God, because your faith

will not grow outside of your doing so.

That's why you can see believers sit in church and just go

through religious exercises because they're hearing the

Word, but they are not acting upon it.

They are not just doing it. They're not doing it.

They're miserable. They have a frown on their face.

They're always in chaos and trouble and acting just like the

world. Instead of reigning like the one

He says. We have a reigning spirit that

we don't have to participate in all of those things.

Amen. Because we're actually doers of

the Word. Whatever His Word says to do, I

just do it. I do it in every situation, in

every circumstance, no matter what's going on, I'm just going

to do the word. And when I do it, every single

time, my faith begins to grow stronger and stronger and

stronger and stronger. Amen.

Hallelujah. So let's look at James real

quick. We still have a few minutes.

Let's look at James. And this is where we can see

this, and we've said this earlier in these lessons, but I

want to see it again. James 214 through 26 is in the

full context, but I'll just start reading.

In verse 17 it says Even so faith if it has no works is what

dead being by itself. But someone may well say, well

you have faith and I have work. Show me your faith without works

and I will what show you my faith by my works.

It says you believe that God is 1.

You do well the demons I we already talked about this

scripture. The demons do well or you do

well. The demons also believe and

shudder, and it says in verse 20, but are you willing to

recognize you fullest fellow, that faith without works is

useless? It's useless.

Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he

offered up his Isaac, his son on the altar?

You see that faith was working with his works, and as a result

of his work, faith was what perfected.

And the Scripture was fulfilled, which says, and Abraham believed

God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness, and he was

called the friend of God. You see that a man is justified

by works and not by faith alone. In the same way, was not Rahab

the harlot also justified by works when she received the

messengers and sent them out by another way?

For just as a body without the Spirit is dead, so also faith

without works is dead. It's dead, a lot of people

sitting in churches with dead faith.

So we can even say dead faith, no faith, little faith, great

faith, full of faith. I just love the Scripture

because it just is simple. Amen.

It's just simple. So again, we see that we are to

act upon the Word. And you know what our greatest

example was? Jesus was Jesus.

Jesus said in John, we're going to be closing John 519.

It says, therefore Jesus answered and was saying to them,

truly, truly. I say to you, the Son can do

nothing of himself unless it is something he sees the Father

doing. For whatever the Father does

these things the Son also does in like manner.

Jesus does nothing. The next scripture in John 12,

49 does nothing. On his own initiative.

He does nothing. He's the greatest example of

being a doer. Though Jesus heard what the

Father said and what acted upon it, He did it.

And he said, I only do what I hear, the Father.

And then he also said, and I only say what the Father says.

So again, he heard, He did, but not only did he hear, and he

did, He spoke, He spoke. So again, true biblical faith,

you're going to hear it, you're going to do it, you're going to

speak it, you're going to say it because that's what releases the

power of God in an act, the power of God for your situation.

You have to speak it. You have to say it so that it

releases the power of God in whatever it is that you're going

on. And Jesus was this perfect

example. Look at John 124950.

I, it says, for I did not speak on my own initiative, but the

Father himself who sent me has given me a commandment as to

what to say and to what to speak.

I know that His commandment is eternal life.

Therefore, the things I speak, I speak just as the Father has

told me. And you know what?

That's what we should speak. Whatever the Father has said to

us, whatever He has told us, whatever promise He said that we

can walk into in this life, we are to speak that, believe that,

come on and say it so that we can then receive it.

We are to act upon it, where to speak it, where to do it, and

that way we can obtain the promises of God that He says

belongs to us.