Acting In Faith

And I just thought I'd start out with a message.

My message is entitled Acting on Faith.

So if you have a Bible, we're going to make our confession like we do when you're here.

But you're not here, you're there wherever there is.

I just encourage you.

I know that everybody lives busy lives.

I know some people listen in their car on their way home from work.

Some, you know, maybe you're at home, maybe you're making dinner and it's crazy, and the kids are doing their homework.

But if you can just get away for this one little bit and prepare an atmosphere and grab your Bible and listen and tune in all together, I'm telling you it makes a difference to pay attention to what the Holy Spirit is saying through me this evening.

So let's make our confession together.

Let's say this together.

Say Heavenly Father, I'm so glad that I tuned in this evening.

My spiritual ears are open to what you're saying.

I'm full of faith.

I'm empowered tonight by the Holy Spirit.

I'm listening.

I'm making changes that I need to make in order to obtain all that you have for me.

In Jesus' name, amen, hallelujah, I'm just going to preach the message entitled Acting on Faith Acting on Faith.

So, while you're turning to Hebrews, chapter 11,.

Hebrews 11 · chapter mention

We're going to start right off with chapter 11, verse 1.

And you might be tempted oh, no, faith again.

Another message on faith.

No, I'm telling you, faith is required to please God.

Let's learn even more about faith this evening together, and you know it's Wednesday night and so we can relax a little bit as well.

But I just wanted to remind you.

Maybe you're out there, maybe you're interested in joining our Wednesday night studio audience.

You know we've got Robert that's walked in the door tonight, but just contact our office.

We have a special entrance that you can enter on Wednesday nights, and we have several people in our studio audience.

We won't start naming them all, but you're welcome to join us next Wednesday, on any Wednesday night.

If you want to make the drive, fight the traffic and be here, just contact our office, give us a little heads up and we'll know to be expecting you.

Anyways, hebrews, chapter 11, verse 1, I'm going to be reading out of the Passion Translation Bible for most of the evening and we'll read a little bit out of the New King James here in just a little bit, but you already know what it says.

Hebrews 11:1

But you don't know what it says in the Passion, maybe the Passion translation, but the first two words are the same.

It says now faith.

Aren't you glad?

For now faith.

That faith is now.

Faith is in the present, amen.

We're going to read about all the past faith of all these people in the Hall of Fame of Faith right here.

But I'm telling you, our faith operates in the now.

Amen.

Now faith brings our hopes into reality and becomes the foundation needed to acquire the things we long for.

It is all the evidence, everybody say all.

It is all the evidence required to prove what is still unseen Amen.

It's all the evidence required.

And so you know, I was just going to talk about Kenneth Hagin for a little bit.

You know he was a mighty man of God.

His son is alive today carrying that torch there in Ramabible Training Center and Ramabible Church in Broken Arrow, oklahoma, and they do a wonderful job and my daughter happens to attend that Bible school.

But Kenneth W Hagin's father was Kenneth E Hagin.

He was kind of the word of faith, father, if you will, and he said believing and speaking opens the door to the supernatural.

And he said that the door to the supernatural swings on two hinges believing and speaking.

And I like what Brother Mark Hankins added to that.

He said that door to the supernatural.

It does swing on believing and speaking, but there's a door knob, there's only one door knob, and it's on our side.

So it's up to us to believe, it's up to us to speak.

Our words are so important.

I'm telling you.

The spirit of faith opens the door to the supernatural.

And so maybe you're thinking tonight no, oh, not me, no, I'm just, that's somebody else's job.

That's too important.

No, god requires faith to come out of your mouth.

He requires you to believe him for great things.

And if you'll get in position and realize that we're the believer and God is the performer it's not us, it's not up to us to do the performing, it's up to him to do the performing man.

I'm telling you, once you realize that's your position, it's so easy.

It's so easy to believe God for great things, and I'm going to prove it to you tonight by talking about acting on faith.

The simplest definition of faith is that faith is an act, amen.

And so it is the evidence required to prove what is still unseen.

This testimony of faith is what previous generations were commended for.

Faith empowers us to see that the universe was created and beautifully coordinated by the power of God's words.

He spoke and the invisible realm gave birth to all that is seen Amen.

And so you say, man, jay, that's really the passion translation.

I'm just not getting it.

I just mean that is so close and so clear to what the original King James version of the Bible is talking about.

I'm telling you and I really like what Mark Hankins added that God's word in your mouth is just as powerful as God's word coming out of his own mouth.

And look what God did, look what came out of God's mouth that created everything that we see, everything that's in the scene realm that you see, came from God saying let there be light.

Man, without light we can't see.

Light is required.

And boom, god said let there be light.

And boom, there was light.

And so that same power you harness, that same power in your own mouth.

And so how important it is to guard our mouths, what comes out of our mouths is so vital and so very important, and so I'm just gonna eye it on my motor here for a little bit.

A few more verses, and then we'll get to the crux of what we're talking about tonight.

We'll pick it up in verse four "'Faith moved Abel to choose a more acceptable sacrifice to offer God than his brother Cain, and God declared him righteous because of his offering of faith.

By his faith, abel still speaks instructions to us today, even though he is long dead.

Isn't that amazing that your legacy of faith will outlive your time on earth and still speak?

Your actions through faith and by faith will still be speaking to all of the upcoming generations.

Isn't that powerful?

I mean, if it happened for Abel, it's gonna happen for you and your family.

And so, in verse five, faith translated Enoch from this life and he was taken up into heaven.

He never had to experience death, he just disappeared from this world because God promoted him" Listen to this, this is powerful.

"'for before he was translated to the heavenly realm, his life had become a pleasure to God'".

How was his life a pleasure to God?

Well, the Bible teaches us that Enoch walked with God for over 300 years, and so it was in that relationship that pleased God.

Let me see, yeah, he walked with God for 300 years in a close, habitual fellowship, close relationship.

In the Ruach, in the early morning hours, every day, enoch walked with God, and they became so close over so long of a time that the Lord just took him into his presence, amen.

And so it was because of that relationship that pleased the Lord.

That's how Enoch was able to please the Lord.

We're about to read verse six and it's gonna sound really familiar to you and it's so important, but I love the passion translation and uses the conjunction word and and without faith it's impossible to please God.

That's what it's gonna say.

And without faith?

So it's putting these two things together.

See, without faith it's impossible.

But if you wanna learn how to please God, it's through a relationship with him, and that relationship can be real, that relationship can be habitual, that relationship can be close, amen.

And without faith living within us, it would be impossible to please God.

So I'm telling you, without faith, I mean, you can try to please God until you're blue in the face, you can trip over everything in the natural and you're never, ever, ever gonna be able to please them without faith.

You know there's a song on the radio right now.

I actually kinda like it, and I better not say what it is because it makes me sound critical, and I'm not critical, but the whole song is basically begging God how I just wanna please you.

I just, I just wanna move your heart.

How can I?

Is it in this, is it in that?

Is it, oh my God, please Lord?

And they're begging and they're whining and they're.

How in the world can we do it?

But the Bible is really clear how to please the Lord.

It's by faith and through faith and it's by acting on our faith.

Every man has been given a measure of faith.

How do we grow in faith?

Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

That means in that relationship that I was talking about, in that same kind of relationship that Enoch had.

You know, the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ created a way for you to have, and me to have, a relationship with the Lord, that we can lean our whole entire human personalities back into him and know that he has our back, that we can walk with him and talk with him.

And he sent the Holy Spirit to live and dwell on the inside of us.

That is just like Jesus dwelling, even better, but just as Jesus was dwelling with the disciples in the flesh.

They could ask him anything and he was right there, able to answer all their questions, able to perform miracles, right there in their midst.

But we have that same Holy Ghost living on the inside of us and therefore we can perform miracles.

Therefore, we can see, through the eyes of faith, amazing things.

We can recognize God moving in our lives.

Amen.

It's one of my points.

We're going to get to it here in a second.

For we come to God in faith.

Let's finish verse 6.

For we come to God in faith, knowing that he is real and that he rewards the faith of those who passionately seek him.

So, first of all, when we come to God, we must believe, and we must believe that he's a rewarder of those who diligently seek him.

This says passionately, diligently seek him.

You know you're going to get a reward because while others are watching TV, or while others are watching the news, or while others are addicted to social media all day long we're giving their thumbs a workout, you are in there reading your word, fellowshiping with the Lord, diligently seeking him.

You're not seeking after the reward.

The reward just happens out of our diligence to seek him and spend time with him, in a relationship with him, amen.

We're going to skip down to verse.

I believe it's 13.

I refuse to put my glasses on just for that one.

Okay, these heroes all died still clinging to their faith.

Again, this is the hall of fame of faith.

Right here we're going to.

We skipped over Abraham and Sarah and others, noah, and it says these heroes all died still clinging to their faith, not even receiving all that had been promised them, but they saw beyond the horizon the fulfillment of their promises and gladly embraced it from afar.

They all lived their lives on earth as those who belonged in another realm.

I'm telling you, that's the way we live our lives.

We know that we don't belong in this realm.

We belong in the heavenly realm, and it's through the eyes of faith that we see into that realm.

It's through our heart of worship and our heart of gratitude that we press on and press through and into that heavenly realm.

I'm telling you, it's amazing thing, for clearly, those who have this is verse 14, for clearly, those who live this way are longing for the appearing of a heavenly city.

Amen, we are longing for that, for a heavenly city, amen.

And so we walk and live by faith and we act on faith.

And so at this point I want to switch over to the new living, the new King James version of the Bible, and we're going to start in verse 23.

And you know, you know Hallelujah.

I'm just getting a little bit more organized here with my notes.

Let's talk about Moses, let's talk about what happened to the life of Moses and let's pull in the faith of both Moses and his parents.

And let's talk about that for a little bit.

See, his parents made some serious decisions right off the bat.

Let's just read about it Verse 23.

By faith, moses, when he was born, was hidden three months by his parents because they saw he was a beautiful child.

In other words, through faith, they could see, even as a baby, that Moses had the call of God on his life.

You know, as a parent we can always recognize the call of God on our kids' lives, well before they even recognize it, and we can cultivate that, pray over that, speak good things over that calling and nurture that calling, respect that calling.

And I'm telling you of all of the duties as a parent.

That had to be Selina and I's favorite one.

And I can tell you right now, working with the young people.

You know, my wife is the youth pastor, but I still get to help back there and pour myself into young people and preach from time to time and love on them.

But that's really having the heart of a pastor.

That's really my favorite thing as well is to recognize the call of God on kids' lives, even before their parents.

Do you know, maybe that teenager doesn't even have parents that come to the church, or maybe they've been abandoned, maybe they're adopted.

And to recognize that call, man, that's a serious thing.

And to begin to cultivate the call of God and pull that out of them and pour the dreams and desires of God into them.

Man, I'm telling you it's exciting, but anyways, where was I at?

Because they saw, you know, moses' parents saw he was a beautiful child and they were not afraid of the king's command.

Oh, but, jay, they must not have read Romans 13.

We got to obey all those in authority over us.

We got to do everything the king says.

We got to do everything the president says.

We got to do everything the government says Every edict, every mandate.

No, no, we don't.

Do you read the same Bible?

I read, man.

It's full of stories of Jesus himself going against authority, going against the religious scholars of the day, going against the legal system of the world and preaching the gospel when he was told not to.

And that's what the book of Acts is all in all of the book of Acts, we have Shadrach, meshach and Abednego, we have Daniel we have too many to name right and here, in this story too, we have the parents of Moses directly disobeying an order from the king.

And I'm telling you, in this day and age, right now, it's time to obey the king of kings and the Lord of lords over anything a quote, unquote king would tell us to do on this earth Amen.

So Moses' family, moses' parents, walked in faith and disobeyed the king's command.

And it says in verse 24, by faith.

By faith, moses, when he became of age, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God rather than to enjoy the passion, the passing pleasures of sin.

We're going to go over this again here in a second and reread it, but I just write off the bat point number one your faith will affect your identity, your identity, your location, everything about who you are.

Your faith affects who you are.

And let me tell you you are in Christ, you've been redeemed.

You've been bought with a price.

You are priceless and you stand before the Lord, redeemed.

The blood of Jesus has already been shed and you stand spotless, blameless before the Lord.

That's who you are, that is your identity.

But we attain that by and through faith.

You know it says by faith or through faith over 20 times right here in this one chapter of the Bible.

You know, years ago I was probably in my early to mid 20s and, you know, hadn't been married very long and Ethan was pretty little kid and I would like to hang out with all kind of men, different men in the church, but one in particular.

He had been to Bible school and I kind of looked up to him spiritually and so we were on a trip together and having a conversation and he just started off kind of complaining about the word of faith and word of faith people and how he thought that we emphasize faith way too much and way too heavy.

And just you know, the first couple sentences I was like uh-huh, yeah, I was kind of like a green.

And then he got to like the three or four, five sentences in and I have that feeling on the inside and I knew what he was saying was completely bull, completely wrong, completely contrary to everything that I had been taught.

And I don't remember exactly how I confronted that, but I'm telling you it wasn't nearly as strong enough and as strong as I would if that same thing happened today.

And I'm telling you this message right here the word of faith message and who I am in Christ shaped my childhood, made me who I am as an adult, rescued me out of so many situations, gave me a beautiful marriage and a wonderful family and an amazing ministry all because of the grace of God, god's ability, the mercy of God, the forgiveness of God, the blood of Jesus, but shaping who I am, in my identity, in him.

And if all the things that he's done for me, it wasn't just for me.

He'll do the same thing for you.

Jesus has already done the same thing for you.

All you have to do is obtain that through and by faith, by grasping and grabbing a hold of the faithfulness of God.

I'm telling you there's no respecter of persons.

What he did for me, he'll do for you.

What he's done for our pastor and my entire family and this whole entire church family, he'll do for you.

Nobody is left behind.

Jesus died for all, not just for some.

We're all God's elect, we're all God's chosen.

It's just certain people.

They don't obtain it, they don't grab a hold of it.

They don't respect it, they don't honor it, they don't change, they don't do what it takes to follow, to pick up their cross and follow after him, amen.

And so we're gonna reread verse 24.

It says by faith, moses, when he became of age, he so, in other words, what does that mean?

Somewhere in his teenage years.

So from the time he was a baby to the time he was a, in teenage years, he lived in Pharaoh's house, as he was called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, and yet he chose to identify.

Basically, he went from being a prince to being a slave.

In his identity, however, as we know, he went to being called a son of God, amen.

And so he chose to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin.

Okay, so this scripture points out that sin for a season is pleasurable.

You can imagine as a prince in the house of Pharaoh, all the wonderful feasts, all the wonderful food, all the amazing entertainment, all the comforts, just the even the day to day stuff.

I'm sure was fun, like picking out the fastest horse and riding it.

I don't know anyways.

The coolest looking chariot?

I don't know anyways, except for the kings.

You can't?

You know he couldn't ride the king's chariot.

Maybe I don't know what all the rules were, but you know, sin is pleasurable for a season.

But he chose to suffer with the people of God rather than to have all that fleeting entertainment.

Why?

Because even at a young age, coming of age, it says, he knew his destiny.

He knew his purpose.

His mother had poured that into him and he hung on by faith, through faith, to that destiny, and that destiny changed his identity.

So and again, number one, your faith will affect your identity.

But also, number two, your spirit of faith will affect your choices.

And you say, jay man, I've have a lifetime of bad choices, every single one of them.

If I could just go back, I would do it.

No, today is the day of forgiveness, of redemption.

You've been redeemed.

Today is a new day.

The old has passed away and, behold, all things have become new.

You're a new person, a new creature, a new creature of being that's never existed before.

Act like it.

Grab ahold of it.

Grab ahold of that revelation, meditate on it, chew on it over and over and over again.

Allow the Word of God to renew your mind, renew your thinking.

Rise up in the authority that we've been granted by Jesus himself.

Speak the Word only Amen.

Begin to meditate on this chapter right here, of all the wonderful things and choices that these men made that got them into the hall of fame of faith, amen.

So let's keep reading Verse 26, esteeming the reproach of Christ, greater riches than the treasures in Egypt, for he looked ahead by faith to the reward Number three faith always sees the reward.

Faith always sees the reward.

Again, we learned in 11.6, verse 6 earlier that God is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.

So we know we can always see the reward.

God is a rewarder.

And here Moses, even at that age, he could see the reward, the reproach of Christ, greater riches in Christ, that greater purpose in Christ than being called Pharaoh's daughter.

So he had an identity change, he had a change in his choices and he began to see the reward that God had for him.

Amen, you know, god always is a rewarder for those that diligently seek Him.

And again, it's not hard to please God, it's not hard to follow after God.

It's easy to please Him by faith and through faith and through a relationship with Him.

And all I can say is that God pays amazing over time.

You know, I was going to tell a story from a long time ago.

Maybe it was around that same period of time of the story I was probably in my mid to late 20s, maybe.

We had a big group of extended family over to the house and to our house and I remember it was kind of new and we had bought all this food and sat down on the couch and began to debate.

One of my family members who was not saved and he was really just letting me have it and he'd read the Bible before and actually had scriptures that were like against using the Bible, against me, and I'm telling you, obviously I could have handled that better, but he pushed every button there was to push and it was challenging to react and stay in love because I really, just I really wanted to tell like it was and how was it.

I didn't say this, but this is what I wanted to say.

You know, here I am living in this amazing house, driving an amazing vehicle, working at an amazing church, following the will of God, eating really good food, et cetera, et cetera, and you're going to, you know, get back in your beater and go across town to, you know, your leaky roof and miserable life, because you don't have the purpose of God, you don't know the plan of God for your life.

And so instead, no, I chose to love.

I chose, I chose to begin to get the mat off.

And that's how you know, that's how you win.

A debate is through love, and it's not all about winning, it's about loving right and so, and then that's what I did, and to this day, when I still see that relative, that's the attitude I have.

Amen, god's working on him, amen, and he's putting labors in his path to win him over to the gospel.

Amen and so.

But but God pays amazing overtime.

Serving him has really paid off in my life and I know it's paid off in your life too.

We have amazing testimonies.

God has an awesome track record of doing awesome, amazing, wonderful, huge miracles.

There's never any little miracles, thank God.

There's never a little miracle.

There's always giant, huge, amazing miracles.

Right, every miracle is amazing.

We don't take any of them for granted.

So faith always sees the reward man, he's bringing blessings to us that overtake us.

Amen, hallelujah.

So let's keep going.

I got to turn the page to keep going.

Verse 27,.

By faith, he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king, for he endured as seeing him who is invisible.

So again, wait a minute.

So it started with his parents disobeying the king's edict or command.

And then, here, by faith, moses forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king, for he endured as seeing him, god who is invisible.

So, because he could see through the eyes of faith and recognize God moving, he did not follow the king's edict, he did not keep the Israelites under the control of Pharaoh, amen.

And he became the Israelites way of escape out of slavery, amen.

And so, number four your faith sees and recognizes God.

Your faith sees and recognizes the spirit of God moving in operation.

You can see and know his will, you can see and know his way.

You can see and know and sense his moving and follow his direction down to the smallest detail.

All because by and through your faith Amen.

Your faith, amen.

Our faith is focused on what other men and women around us can't see.

Our faith is focused on him.

You know it tells us that here.

Let's flip over there real quick to Second Corinthians, four Verse.

You know we use verse 13 in the offering all the time, but we'll skip to verse 18.

Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to himself through Jesus Christ and has given us the ministry of reconciliation.

Wait a minute.

Is that not the right?

I'm in the wrong chapter.

That's why, hey, and since we have the same spirit of faith, maybe I'll go ahead and put my glasses on, since we have wait, that's still not the same.

That's 13, 18.

While we there it is, yes, I have a Bible While we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen, for the things which are seen are temporary.

The King James Version says temporal, but that just means temporary, for the things which are not seen are eternal.

The things that we see through our eyes of faith are eternal.

We can see into eternity through the eyes of faith, and we're not just stuck on what's temporary.

You know, your emotions are temporary.

When you're led by your emotions, you make very terrible decisions.

But when you can see through the eyes of faith, you can see into eternity, you can see into the eternal man.

I'm telling you, you make godly decisions each and every time.

You're following the leading and the prompting of the Holy Spirit, amen.

Let's go back to Hebrews 11.

We'll finish this out verse 28 and 29.

It says by faith, he kept the Passover and the sprinkling of blood lest he who destroyed the firstborn should touch them.

In other words, well, one more verse.

By faith, they passed through the Red Sea as by dry land, whereas the Egyptians attempting to do so were drowned and destroyed and died.

And so the rest of the Hall of Fame of Faith wanted to point those two things out of Moses sticking to the Passover, he led that.

He oversaw that.

He made sure they had everything that they needed to put the blood with it.

They applied the blood via Hyssop on the doorpost, and their firstborns inside were not killed, amen.

And then, by faith, they passed through the Red Sea.

Can you imagine over 1 million Israelites coming to the Red Sea?

They didn't know that God was just going to part it.

And boom, it parts.

Can you imagine just what that was like?

Did you ever put yourself in their shoes, and especially Moses' shoes?

So my last point, point number five your faith follows God's way of escape.

Your faith follows God's way of escape.

God always has a way of escape and we recognize it and we follow it by and through our faith.

And there's story after story in the Bible, daniel's story when Daniel obeyed it, helped his friends out.

When Paul, on the ship that broke apart, he saved the entire ship.

All those men on that ship were saved, even though they shipwrecked, and they all floated into shore, grabbing a hold of the broken apart ship.

His faith, god, created a way of escape that saved everybody on board, not just Paul's life.

And so what I wanna point out?

That your faith, that you're operating in and through, is not just for you, it's saving your family, it's pulling your kids into their destiny and filling them with purpose through your faith.

And it won't happen if you're not operating in faith.

And how do we operate in faith?

Like we said in the beginning, through believing and through speaking.

And I'm telling you, there's such a lack of words, effective words through love, man, if you're not a good encourager.

I just encourage you right now to become a good encourager by your faith, by your relationship with the Lord, and the more you pray, the more you allow.

The love of God has been shed abroad in your heart, and that means that the love of God is in there.

It's not you're not struggling for it, it's already in there.

You've obtained it, you've grabbed ahold of it, and now you just need to learn to express it.

And the more you express the love of God, to God himself, in your prayer life, the easier it is to express that same love to your spouse, to your kids, to your extended family and even, in different ways, to your boss and to your coworkers.

And that looks completely different.

Yeah, you know, I get it, jay, that might get you fired.

No, that's gonna look completely different, but it's still the love of God and people can feel that love of God.

They're attracted to that love of God.

Sometimes they don't even recognize it, they don't even know what it is.

Hey, man, there's something different about Joe over there.

I wanna be like Joe, but we operate in God's love.

But I'm telling you it's by faith, it's through faith and that we can see God's way of escape.

And that way of escape, man, maybe it's saving your whole office from closing down, when we've had story after story about that where the lowest man on the totem pole in the company saves the whole company.

Maybe they sign a contract that saves millions of dollars a year.

Maybe it's something that.

Or maybe it's something really a lot more simple than that that somehow turns the whole company around.

I'm telling you, when you're listening to God, when your faith is recognizing God moving and you're expecting God to move, you know God himself doesn't have to walk in the room right now, but his plans walk in the room, his will walks in the room.

Are you gonna recognize it and follow after that and respect it and jump when the Holy Spirit says jump, amen.

And so I hope these five points tonight helps you to act by faith.

It's by faith and through faith that we please the Lord.

Without faith it's impossible to please Him.

So we can stop right now trying to do it on our own.

We can stop right now trying to be the performer dancing and all the spinning plates that people do, trying to keep up with the Joneses.

We've surpassed the Joneses.

How did we do that?

Through faith and by faith.

And it's not a pride thing, it's just God's gonna reward you because while they're over there playing video games, you're in there reading your word, being diligent, and he rewards your diligent fellowship, amen.

So I hope that helped you tonight.

These five things on acting by faith.

Amen, lift your hands and receive the word of God.

Lord, we just thank you that there's no distance in the spirit.

Holy Spirit, thank you for attaching yourself to every word that was spoken tonight and, lord, we just thank you that you're penetrating even the hardest of hearts tonight with your word, that it's gone forth, and even later on, as people play this back, lord, you're able to reach through and speak to them and change their hearts, change their minds.

You set them on a right path towards you, lord, you're turning their hearts back to you, lord, and we just thank you for the power of your word, for the power of your truth, lord.

From this place, lord, we speak the truth.

It's you that we preach, him.

We preach and we're grateful for it.

We have an attitude of gratitude In Jesus' name, amen.