Faith From Start to Finish pt. 2

I'm going to be reading this afternoon from Romans chapter 1 book of Romans chapter 1 verse 16

Romans 1 · chapter mention Romans 1:16

last Sunday I

began to preach out of this text and I

Mentioned that my

my main objective was just to be sensitive to God and

Realizing that there was much that the Lord had placed on my heart and so therefore I reserved the right to

Pick up where we left off. I think I only got to my first point last Sunday, so

If you would bear with me today, but if I you know open up your hearts to the word of the Lord it reads this way

For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ

For it is the power of God to salvation

salvation for everyone who believes

for the Jew first and

also for the Greek

For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith as

It is written that just shall live

by faith

Our thought is faith from start to finished. I'm gonna invite you to pray with me once again

I know we've been praying and praising but we're gonna pray especially now that God will speak to it

Don't put your faith in me. Don't put your faith in man. Put your faith in God and in his word

I am simply a vessel. I'm a conduit. I'm just an instrument that God is going to use today, but it's not me

It's the Holy Ghost. Let's pray father. I love you and I thank you God for coming and dwelling in our midst this afternoon

We humbly Lord submit ourselves to you your purpose your will your plan for our life

And I ask God that is we revisit this text today that you would bring new meaning

New purpose God new insights for our life for our faith. I pray Lord in Jesus name

God let this word be settled in someone's heart as we grow father from faith to faith and from glory to glory

In your name Jesus, we pray

Everyone say amen

Amen you can be seated in God's presence

Last week I began by sharing a little story about how I needed to gas up my car for a road trip and

much like a

car needs gas to keep going

everyone needs a

Refilling or a feeling to a faith to make it to the end

And this is this is very important. We understand that

One feeling of faith powered by the gospel is good to get started

But as you continue in your walk with the Lord as you continue to serve the Lord and as you continue to grow in him

Will require

additional

feelings additional moments of growth of faith and this is the idea that

As we're looking at this text that Paul writes concerning the gospel

He says I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ because indeed it is the gospel of Christ that gives us the power of

Salvation how many of you today are thankful for the salvation that we have through the gospel. Amen

It is the gospel of Christ that is the power of God unto salvation

And last week I won't belabor the point because you can go back and listen to it

But last week we established the fact that the gospel of Jesus Christ is what empowers us

To be saved and that that first level of faith is so important saving faith

Saving faith is the initial

Faith that we receive to receive Christ into our life when we are born again of the water

And of the spirit when we are introduced to Christ when we begin our

Christian journey there is a measure of faith that God gives to us to begin like that first

Philip of gas to begin that journey and the gospel is

The good news of Jesus Christ it is that Christ came and died on the cross for our sin

and was buried and

Resurrected three days later. That is the gospel of Jesus Christ when we speak of the gospel

We are speaking of the good news of the message of Jesus Christ

What Christ came to do for us and we should never get to a place in our

Christian walk in our

Spiritual journey where we outgrow the gospel. We will never we ought never outgrow our

Need for the gospel for Paul writes that it's not only the gospel that powers our salvation

But he continues on talking about how in it we see the righteousness of God

Revealed so the point number one was saving faith and now what I want to do is build on that theme of the

gospel

Empowering us to move from saving faith

the faith that we had when we first believed to

sanctifying faith so if I can for a few moments, I want to

build upon the foundation of saving faith and talk about

sanctifying faith

Sanctifying faith is the faith to continue now. This is very

Crucial to our relationship with God. We must learn

What it means to continue on in our Christian

development

Paul writes for in it the righteousness of God

That's a key term righteousness for the righteousness of God is revealed or it's come to light

from faith to faith

so there's much I can dissect regarding this just this one verse but

From from the surface we see that the righteousness of God is being revealed and it's being revealed in

Continuum in other words from faith to faith as you grow from faith to faith

God will release more and more

Revelation of his righteousness

He doesn't dump it all on you like a dump truck in the beginning and then just sort of leave you to figure it all out

It's a continual process. It is an ongoing

working out of our faith that God begins to reveal

levels if you will of righteousness and

Degrees if you will of righteousness think of it for those of you who may have been

You know in karate or taekwondo or something, you know, you start off as a white belt

You know I'm saying they don't give you a black belt

Now if you keep working at it, eventually you'll work your way up

Right to to orange or to yellow or to green and purple and all these different colors

But but you start off at the white belt. So when you get saved, you're a white belt Christian. Praise be to God

Well, you got a white belt

But then as you continue to grow in your relationship with God, right you graduate from that and you move on to different colors until

You eventually, you know eventually before it's all over you want to be a black belt

How many of you want to be a black belt Christian? Oh

Come on how many of you want to kick the devil in the head, you know say to power. All right

You want to be a black belt somebody said no, I want to be a ninja. All right. Well

Keep working on it. Hallelujah

But it's a process and you graduate from belt to belt from from faith to faith as you

Continue to devote yourself to the scriptures a studying of the scriptures prayer

Consecration all of the fundamentals the basics and I think that look we got to get back to the basics. Amen somebody

We got to get back to the basics the basics are important never graduate from those things

But you move on to greater things like Paul said, let us go on to perfection

So there's more that God has that same gospel that that saved you also

Sanctifies you it empowers you to live out the gospel then so Paul writes in Romans chapter 4

Romans 4 · chapter mention

Excuse me chapter 6 and verse 4 for your consideration

Therefore we were buried with him through baptism unto death

That just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father

Even so we even so we also should walk in

newness of life

One of the things about the gospel that it does is

Not only does it communicate the love of God to us, but it it communicates a pattern of living

It shows us what every Christian ought to go through as well that when we are saved when we are

Born again. We also go through a process of being crucified buried and resurrected with Christ

There's a lot of symbolism there when we are baptized

We are buried with him when we receive the Holy Spirit

That is a type of resurrection and this is all leading to a continual process of

Like Paul said, I die daily. So you don't just

Experience it on day one, but throughout your Christian life. We are crucified with Christ

There is a continual death and resurrection that is occurring so that we don't get stagnant so that we don't

Become static in our faith

But we are walking in a continual newness now people

What we tend to do Christians tend to neglect

The power of the gospel to grow in righteousness and the newness of life

And what begins to happen over over a period of time is we

If we're not careful can begin to sort of select different things

Within scripture that we will focus on that we will

Zero in on in our faith, maybe because it appeals to us maybe because there's something there that we find

Interesting or it touches on on an area in our life

And so we'll devote ourselves to that and and and they're all good things. Maybe it's prayer or

Study and scholarship of the word

Or or worship and and diverse forms of praise and music. There's all sorts of

themes within the word of God that can call to us and

As a natural tendency we will devote ourselves to that thing

To get better at it to to grow in it and and that's great to have those kinds of desires

But we also must understand that that God is calling us to grow in

balance and that there is an equilibrium in our faith that we're not

Lopsided that we're not spending all our time just honing and working on our craft

You know and our area of ministry or the one thing that we really love

Tune in the neglect of the other Christian disciplines and fruits of the spirit that we need to be working on

And so this is often a trap that we see people fall into the

They excel in an area and they're devoted to that and so their prayers and everything kind of revolves around

excellence in that area

But then what begins to happen is we start to take our eye

Off of other things that christ is calling us to grow in and so I believe that this is what

Sanctification will do when we yield ourselves to the the spirit of God to the word of God to sound teaching to build

Preaching and we submit ourselves to that and to the authorities that God has helped

Put into our lives to help us to grow we ought to grow in balance. We ought to see

Diverse fruits and gifts begin to flourish in our lives so that we don't just become

Pigeon-holed, you know in one specific thing

But we begin to grow and flourish across the board and so for example

Some are solely interested maybe in just uh, like I said working on their ministry

Some are solely interested in perfecting their their outward persona. They're they're consumed

Mainly with the image and the perception that people have of them

And so they will devote much of their life to uh, just ensuring that they maintain this

Particular image in the hearts or in the minds of people

But they do that to the neglect of actually allowing the spirit of God to change their attitude

And to change the internal things and the hearts and the spirit how many of you

You don't have to say yes or not, but how many of you?

Would agree or think that that there is a disconnect there is a contradiction when maybe we perfect the outward

And the exterior of our life the persona of who we are, but then on the inside

We are cold or our attitude has gone awry and our hearts our spirits are no longer

Where they need to be that's a disconnect. That's a disconnect and this can happen

It can happen to anybody it can happen anywhere and for this reason paul warns that there are those who have a form of godliness

But they deny the power thereof they deny the power to change them

And so they lack spiritual fruit. They lack genuine

Spiritual fruit we we need to grow in our spiritual fruit. Amen

We need to grow in our our spiritual fruit

And and and and be the type of christian whose branches are not just branching out very beautifully

You might recall the moment in jesus ministry that perplexed his disciples when he cursed the fig tree

Right because it was all shade and it was all green, but it had no fruit

It looked good. It maybe even smelled good

You know, it was glossy. It was very shiny

It was very it's very very presentable, but it had no fruit nothing that people in the real world

Not some spiritual nebulous people. I mean in the real world can actually eat of the fruit

And be blessed by it

And that is a picture of what can happen to the christian life. We become all branches and no fruit

Amen

We become all branches and no fruit

Amen

We become all all greenery and and no and no fruit

Have you has this ever happened to you? Have you ever have you ever picked up a piece?

Of fruit from a basket and and you were about to take a take a bite into it

You're about to like start to unpeel that banana only to realize that it was fake

Yeah

It looks so real and they're getting better at this. I gotta tell you i've been some places where man, I mean the food looks

real

It's like man looks delicious

You pick it up and you realize that is hollow

And that is fake and that is just it's just plastic

And you know, that's how some christians are

They look like they have a lot of shiny fruit

Like they're very spiritual and they're very holy but you pick up the fruit and you want to take

There's nothing there

And you got to ask where's the love?

Where's the where's the joy? Where's the faithfulness the kindness to fellowship with others?

Where's the where's the the gentleness the meekness?

And this is something that I believe that if we're going to be the hands of the feet of christ if we're going to see

Uh god move in our life and our testimony our christian walk not only be uh be appreciated

And effective here among us as a church

But outside of these walls that we have to continue allowing the sanctifying work of the holy spirit to produce

These luscious these these uh fruits in our life so that we can be known by that and not something else

Amen hallelujah. Jesus

Uh, maybe you're not you know, it's a good thing

We ran earlier or jumped around because you may not jump around right now this message

But but that's all right. Praise be to god. We need the holy ghost not just to speak in tongues

Not just to to prophesy

What is the purpose of the holy ghost if you speak in tongues, but you can't control your tongue?

What is the purpose of the holy ghost

Let me tell you this i'll put it to you this way that speaking in tongues is a gift of the spirit

But controlling your tongue is a fruit of the spirit

And I think that we can draw more examples but

Not to do to to to belabor the point

But this is important that we understand that that we can speak in the tongues of angels

We can we can speak in tongues and we can have our prayer language and be tapped in to the spirit that way

And feel all sorts of things and and and we could even god could even use us, you know

There could be like an anointing that is upon us, but that doesn't equate to fruit

Fruit is a separate thing fruit is not something that that you can fake. It's not something that you can

manufacture in other ways fruit it only comes when the gospel of jesus christ through a sanctifying work

Is working through us and changing and developing and working and humbling us and and and and pruning

Us and it's a process and it's not easy

This this is what I am preaching about today. It's not an easy process and and we can understand that because

Uh, it's very difficult. It's it seems for for christians today to really get a hold of this the gospel

Will it ought to produce spiritual fruit? What are the spiritual fruit? They are love and joy peace

long suffering and kindness and goodness faithfulness

Amen a gentleness and self-control

And jesus said to his disciples that you will know them by their fruits

Not by their suits

Amen don't judge me by my suit today

But but by my by my fruit and not by the way we we look and and it does it does how we

Is how we present ourselves?

Important absolutely we we believe that as well. We believe that the process of sanctification is both internal and

external

But it's not one at the expense of the other

it's not all external sanctification all of the outward markings of a

being a

Pentecostal or an apostolic to the neglect of our

Relationships our attitude love gentleness kindness giving self-sacrifice all of that and it's not

Also on the reverse where it's all

Internal process of sanctification where i'm clean on the inside and i'm wonderful

You know how many of you some of you are probably none of you know this song remember

But there's a be a song when I was growing up that said jesus on the inside

Working on the outside. Oh what a change in my life

Man i'm up here all by myself with that one. That's all right

Jesus on the inside working on the outside. Oh what a change in my life

Jesus on the inside working on the outside. Oh what a change in my life

Oh

What a change

In some people are saying jesus on the inside

Jesus on the inside

He's just on the inside

But he's working on the outside

He's supposed to right that's the idea

and the fruit

Is how people will know us and the fruit that we're growing it so paul insists

He's adamant about this that that the power of the gospel reveals the righteousness of god

It reveals the righteousness of god it fuels our faith as we undergo this continual process of sanctification

And this is why he says from faith to faith now i've heard people use this term and and maybe i'm guilty as well

We got to go from faith to faith

from glory to glory and usually

When we hear that it's it's spoken of like in this dramatic sort of

We got to go from dimension to dimension like like you know a level of power to another level of power and

When really when when paul was talking about faith to faith he wasn't talking about growing from like one dynamic

Expression of faith to another dynamic expression of faith

He's talking about

sanctification

He's talking about the righteousness of god in us taking us from faith to faith

So now I am living on if i've been serving the lord now or if i've been saved for 10 years

My faith at year 10 ought to look different than it did at year one

It ought to look different than it did at year nine

Amen it ought to continue to grow and by faith we mean i'm trusting god more

I'm more I ought to be more obedient than I was five ten years ago

I ought to be more submissive than I was five ten years ago

I ought to be more humble than I was five ten if the spirit of god is

Sanctifying me and the gospel is working in me then there ought to be a continual growth from faith to faith

Because somebody say amen today

And paul continues

because this is all about walking in the newness of life and

And righteousness being an ongoing work and the progressive work of newness he continues in verse five in roman

He says this for we have been united together in the likeness of his death

Certainly, we also shall be in the likeness of his resurrection

Knowing this that our old man someone say old man

Yeah, that's the old you you know the that's that's your your past

That's your your past self

was crucified with him

That the body of sin might be done away with

That we should no longer be slaves to

sin

So as the process of sanctification continues in our life, we're going from faith to faith

We are in some senses being freed or liberated from

slavery to sin

But it doesn't mean that we are just free to do whatever we want

Because now we are under a new government

We are under a we are citizens of a new kingdom now

We are a child of god and as a child of god there are there are

Things there there are areas in our life that that need to continue to grow in newness of life

So are you growing in christ is the question and that's a very important question. Are you growing in christ?

The question is not do you attend church?

Because you can attend church you can check in

And check out every sunday, but the question is are you growing in your faith? Are you growing in grace?

Amen

If you're praying god, I want to grow in grace prepare to get offended

Grace is only grace when it's given and when you are in a position where you need to give grace

Amen

Hallelujah, I might just change somebody's prayer this week lord. Oh the whole thing about grace, you know, hallelujah

Are you growing in in your giving are you growing in christ likeness in gentleness long suffering?

And this is what the gospel will produce in our life. It does it come at a cost

Yes, it does

But the cost is worth it because as I am growing together with him like paul said I want to know him in the

In the power of his resurrection and in the fellowship of his suffering

It's a costly journey

But the but the reward at the end of it all is worth it because now i've got fruit in my life

In fact now i've got a testimony now i've got evidence in my life of the goodness of god

And i'm still standing and i'm still here

I haven't gone bitter. I haven't grown sour on the branch. I haven't go hallelujah

I haven't lost my faith. I haven't lost my joy. I haven't lost my courage

God is still with me. I'm growing

I'm developing i'm becoming more like christ. How many of you want to be more like christ? Hallelujah

Hallelujah god, I want to I want to grow in that sanctifying faith and the third which

Is important after sanctifying faith is you move to?

sustaining faith

sustaining faith so watch the progression it begins with

saving faith

to sanctifying faith and then as an extension of that sustaining faith paul said the just i'm gonna say the just

The just shall live

by faith

we walk

by faith

and not by sight

And I have to preach to you today about the importance of sustaining faith. What is sustaining faith?

Sustaining faith is the faith that sustains you

It is the faith that keeps you it is the faith that watch this undergirds you

It is the faith that holds you up

And it's the faith that you hold on to

It is the faith that you with everything you have like glue it it keeps everything together

from falling utterly apart

uh

Sustaining faith is that faith that gives you endurance?

The bible says that he that endures to the end

Shall be saved. It's very important to have sustaining faith. Why?

Because your faith will be tested your life will be tested

You in some way or another will go through or your family and let me put it that way will go through

Things where you need something greater something beyond yourself to hold the pieces together

Hallelujah, that is sustaining faith. It matters how you finish. Amen somebody

It's not just about how you start is how you finish. It's how you end the race

It's how you respond to adversity

It matters who you become after the trial is over. Oh, thanks be to god

Job said this after his trial. He said when he has tested me I shall come forth as

Cold hallelujah the longer you serve the lord

The hotter the temperature of your trial will be

See, we have this in our mind that the longer we serve him the easier it gets down the road

You're gonna have a hard time

Uh comparing that with the figures in scripture

Because as we see men like abraham and moses and jacob in the old testament and in the new testament with paul

And peter the longer we serve the lord

Who said it was going to get easier?

The refining fire will continue to burn in your life

So that in the end we come forth as gold hallelujah

This is the picture that should be in our mind today of sustaining faith

Because when our faith stands trial, he's got to be able to stand strong

When our faith stands trial, he's got to be able to hang in there

And be unshakable

And be unbreakable how many of you want to have that kind of faith today?

I said, how many of you want to have that kind of faith?

Jesus never said that following him would be easy

He never said there wouldn't be any trials. He never said there wouldn't be any problems

He never said there wouldn't be any pain or there wouldn't be any trouble. That's not what god promised

But what he did say is that in the world you will have tribulation

But be of good cheer. I have overcome

The world clap your hands and let's give the lord some praise here this afternoon

And it is the power of the gospel

The power of the gospel that propels us that sustains us

Uh through every season of trial and testing it is the power of the gospel that we hold on to

It is that blood that jesus shed for me

Way back on calvary

It is that blood how many of you know the blood is still powerful today?

Oh hallelujah said how many of you know the blood still works today?

Today it reaches to the highest mountain it flows through the lowest valley

The blood that jesus shed the gospel he was wounded for our transgressions

bruised for our

Iniquities that same gospel that saved you my dear brother our sister

Is the same gospel that will sustain you it will sustain us in the hour of temptation

It will sustain us in the hour of trial. It will sustain us in the hour of peril

It will sustain us in the hour before jesus returns

It will sustain us in every season and every time

Oh, i've come to encourage somebody here today to hold on to your faith this afternoon

Hold on to that sustaining faith

The faith that you have received

The faith that was transferred to you hold on if the same spirit

That raised jesus from the grave

Dwells in us

That means you have the same power

To rise up in victory

How many victorious people do we have in the house of the lord today?

Amen, would you stand on your feet with me this afternoon? Would you stand on your feet today?

How many victorious people do we have in the house today?

But you gotta hold on to your faith brother

I love the honesty of david when he writes in psalm 27. He said I would have lost heart

He said I would have lost heart unless I had believed

That I would see the goodness of the lord

In the land of the living

He said I almost gave up

I know you may not want to raise your hand on this, but how many of you almost gave up? That's

I almost gave up

Oh lord, I almost quit

I almost lost heart

But it was my faith that tomorrow

Would be better

It was my faith that god is still in control. Whoo. Hallelujah. It was my faith

That if god before me who could be against me? Oh, I may not see my miracle yet, but I still believe he's a miracle

Worker

Oh, I may not see my blessing yet, but I still believe he's a blister. Come on. Do I have any witnesses out there?

I may not see my healing yet, but I believe that god is still a healer

I haven't seen my family member saved or restored yet, but I believe he's still a restorer

I believe he's still in the saving. How many of you know god's still in the saving business?

He's still in the saving business

Oh, I haven't seen it yet. You just hold on to your faith. In fact, I want to pray for somebody today

I'm not sure where you're at in your faith

I'm not sure what level where you feel this message may have touched an area in your life

We've I've got to grow in my relationship with god. I gotta grow. Oh, hallelujah. I gotta grow

Oh, jesus is in this place today and it's the power of the gospel