How To Build Your Faith • Part 4

We've been talking about ways to have a healthy growing faith the last few weeks and it's something I don't normally do I don't normally do series you know in in 23 years pastoring here I can count on one hand how many little series that I've done but just felt led as we were kind of in our Matthew study to go through these different aspects of of having a growing faith and things that you can do in order to make that happen we're on the fourth part of that series of how to have a healthy growing faith and each week I've been giving you another reason to care about why you have a healthy growing faith we've been making the point every week that you know as believers were called to live by faith and so since that's the case it would kind of makes a lot of sense to to care about our faith and make sure that it's moving in the right direction it's not plateauing it's actually moving forward you know that that each month each year we should be saying you know I'm growing I'm I haven't I'm not staying the same I'm not the same Christian I used to be I'm growing I'm putting my faith in God more now than I used to and so forth and I want to share a verse with you from Romans chapter 15 I'll put this one up on the screen and then we'll I'll have you open your Bibles in just a minute to something else but in Romans 15 verse 13 Paul wrote to the church in Roman to you and I and he said

now I want you to notice something about that that that verse first of all it talks about trusting in God trusting in him well that's the part that really kind of grabbed my attention because trusting in God is something we do you guys when our faith is healthy when our faith is healthy we trust in God we put our trust in God when our faith is weak when it's sickly we struggle to trust in God all right what this passage talks about is kind of a logical progression of our lives when we have a healthy growing faith and what it tells us here is that when you have a healthy faith you're gonna trust in God and when you trust in God this passage says that you are going to overflow with hope you you are filled with hope because of your trust in God you start saying God I trust you well that builds hope it starts to hope begins to bubble up in your life well then what happens you have hope that has an effect it actually what Paul tells us here is we begin to be filled with joy and peace because of the hope that we have and when we have joy and peace in our lives well it not only benefits you as a believer I mean it's pretty nice thing to have you know but it also speaks powerfully to the two unbelievers people who are watching your life I gotta tell you some it is such a powerful reality of Jesus Christ living in someone's life when they are going through challenges difficulties hardships and they are walking in these two things joy and peace you know it wasn't that long ago now that we did a memorial service for a brother of ours who attended Calvary Chapel for the last several years Gary Minor we did his memorial service over in Vail but about two and a half weeks before Gary went to be with the Lord I I visited him at his house and we just we had a great talk we just he and I together just sat and talked about man we just talked about everything you name it we talked about it but I walked away from that meeting and my heart got ministered to you know it's like as a pastor I go to minister to people but sometimes I walk away and I'm the one who gets ministered to you want it and you want to know what ministered to my heart when I talked with Gary here he was he knew he knew he was soon going to be going to be with the Lord he knew it even though he was still able to sit up in a recliner and talk and and he had a firm handshake when we met and stuff but he you know he knew he knew that the the days were coming down but there was a peace in his life that just filled the room he knew where he was going he knew who he was trusting in you know and all those things were in place and now really it was he was just kind of waiting you know for the Lord to say all right come on home but they but he wasn't agitated he wasn't burdened he wasn't worried he wasn't upset he was just yeah here I am you know and I walked away just kind of going oh yeah it was just so nice and I actually even shared that at the memorial what a difference that makes you know joy is something that doesn't come because of circumstances you know joy is something that comes from the Lord comes from the Holy Spirit and and and peace when you're going through a hard bumpy road and you're just kind of like just peaceful you know and you're saying things like you know God's in charge he's Lord and I trust him there's something there that's supernatural do you know what I'm saying to you because that's not naturally what we do when life starts to kind of you know turn upside down we usually are like yeah you know we're freaking out and we're and we're telling people that we're freaking out you know everybody that want it comes near us and they will listen we'll tell them just exactly how much we're freaking out you know and and and I want to just challenge you something with something here this morning those of you who know that you know that you know that you are born again today by the by the by the power of the Spirit when you are when you are interacting with other people and I'm particularly talking about those who don't know Jesus do they see in you a joy and a peace that is supernatural or do they see that freak out whack out weird out sort of a natural response to the difficulties of life well you know I don't say that to to upset you in any way I do say it however to challenge you that you might ask the question and say you know is my faith healthy enough is my faith strong enough is it in a healthy place so that when life becomes just upset I continue to walk in a attitude of faith and trust in God that says Lord you know you understand and you're gonna take care of me or does my attitude convey instead kind of a like basically the essence of I'm not sure what's gonna happen I'm really upset and I don't know where I can turn because to be completely honest with you sometimes we Christians convey the latter there isn't that sense of peace there isn't that sense that is like Paul talked about there in Romans there isn't that overflow there isn't just that that that flood of peace and joy in our lives you know why because our faith isn't strong and healthy that's why we want to have a strong and healthy faith you guys that's why we've been talking for the last four weeks about how you can have a strong and healthy faith and what I've been doing is I put four things up and not that they are the only four things but I put four things up on the screen for you each and every week which I will do once again let's put them up guys and and they are the things that we've been covering in the last four weeks the word prayer fellowship and obedience and I I have not suggested that this is a comprehensive list this is that these are the things though that I felt like the Lord wanted me to talk about now I'm gonna kind of switch gears a little bit on you here this morning and I'll tell you why or how and why the first three things that we've been talking about here as it relates to having a strong and healthy faith I've been talking to you from a positive perspective in other words here's what the word can positively do in your life to give you a strong and healthy faith here is what prayer can do to impact your faith and make it strong and healthy here's what fellowship slash koinonia connectedness to the body can do to strengthen and encourage you in your faith we talked last week about the calling that we have in Christ to build one another up in our faith and and we went through all those things all these messages are on the on the internet in our math on our Matthew study if you want to go back And some of you might have missed them But what I'm going to be doing today as we come to this subject of obedience I'm not going to talk to you necessarily about how obedience can strengthen your faith Although I think it probably can but what I'm going to do is I'm going to slant this one instead from a more negative Perspective and I'm going to be sharing with you how Devastating a lack of obedience can be to your faith in fact how it can pummel your faith how it can push it down and and just decimate it to the point where You are so weakened as it relates to your faith. You can hardly even pray You can hardly even believe God for anything. And what I'm going to do is I'm going to have you join me over in Timothy first Timothy, so join me there open your Bibles, please First Timothy we're gonna be in the first chapter We're gonna look together at a couple of verses that Paul Wrote to Timothy and to you and I he wrote to Timothy, you know by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and Therefore he wrote to us, right? The Bible is for you and I it is our it is our our life manual So here we are in first Timothy chapter 1 skip down to verse 18 Paul Rice, he says

Probably at Timothy's ordination So that by recalling them you may fight the battle Well, or your Bible may say so that you may fight the good fight stop there for just a moment We'll keep reading in just a moment. But I want your attention because we need to make this point Our life in Christ our Walking out of our life in Christ you guys it's a battle There's a battlefield. There are adversaries on that battlefield and you two are on that battlefield and it is a battle it is a fight That's what you do on a battlefield You fight and Paul is speaking to Timothy about that very reality Sometimes you know as a Christian you know, you know, you know, you know, you know Reality sometimes, you know as Christians we want to tie into the whole world mentality of life is a party And we want to come to Jesus and we want to even make it a holy party You know, we want to christen this idea that the world Portrays to us that life is going to be this big, you know Just one big bash and we're gonna have a blast. Here we go. You know, no the the Bible portrays this life as a battle and it's hard and there are difficulties and Challenges every single day and so Paul writes to Timothy. He says he says he's Tim I you know You're my son in the faith and I want to just really I want to really encourage you and I want you to think about Those prophecies that were spoken over you And I want you to recall them into your heart and mind because they were obviously promises given specifically to Timothy So that you can fight the good fight. He goes on to say look at this. This is important in verse 19. He says

Did you notice that Paul uses faith two ways in that single passage in verses 18 and 19 first? He talks about your faith he says I want to encourage you in your faith and so forth and and I want you to hold on to faith and A good conscience then he talks about the faith which means Christianity. He says some people have let go of faith in a good conscience and Therefore they have shipwrecked. They've been shipwrecked is in regards to their faith or the faith and so forth now Paul is telling Timothy That there are people who have not held on to these things like faith and a good conscience and Therefore they've been Shipwrecked. So what does it mean? Here's the question we're gonna ask this morning. First of all, what does it mean? To hold on to a good conscience. Well, first of all, what is the conscience? I guess that's the question we need to answer the conscience is a mechanism that God has placed in all mankind that kind of sits in judgment over our Actions and our words and it's I believe that it is something that is part of it's a it's kind of a that just that Part of the leftover from are being created by God and and it's it's it's there to tell us what's right and wrong now The conscience can be compromised the conscience can be corrupted the conscience can Become Insensitive, you know to be able to feel any sense of right and wrong Any longer in fact Paul wrote to later on in this very letter to Timothy Let me let me show you what he said in first Timothy chapter 4 He goes on and says the Spirit clearly says that in later times Some will abandon the faith There's the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons He tells us what the characteristic of those teachers is such teachings come through hypocritical liars. Look at this whose consciences Have been seared as with a hot Iron, in other words, they've been branded with sin. Hey, I don't know if you've ever seen an animal that's been branded but when That happens when a red hot iron is placed against the flesh of an animal It burns away all of the hair. It obviously burns the top layers of skin leaving a crusty Residue of burnt flesh on top, but it also burns away the nerve endings That are right there on those top layers of skin so that that that area where the animals been branded However, big or small it may be is now basically not going to feel anything and Paul says that our consciences can become like that from the standpoint that they become seared they become Burned away if you will as it relates to just our ability to feel And we no longer have that that pinprick that says hey, that's wrong You shouldn't do that. Now again, the conscience is something that's given to everyone believer or unbeliever And obviously in an unbeliever can become very very corrupt and so forth now as Christians We have an added element to this whole idea of conscience we have the Holy Spirit living inside of our hearts as well who will work in concert with our conscience and Speak to us now. It's more than just a pinprick now. He is now speaking to us he is bringing wisdom and and dimension and understanding to our actions and our Misactions and and our misdeeds to the point now where we just it's not just this momentary feeling of guilt like an Unbeliever might have if they if their conscience is pricked we now can grieve the Holy Spirit You know, that's what we can do. Well, and I'm willing to bet you've probably felt it because I sure have Do something say something and just this immediate Curdling of the spirit and it's just you know, you know that you know, you've grieved the Holy Spirit and you need to do something about it and And so it's it's even a little more pronounced in our in our lives Peter spoke about this I don't have this up on a slide But he even talked in first Peter his first letter about the pledge of a good conscience toward God So How is it that we actually let go of a good conscience as Believers now, let's bring it back to believers. How do we let go of a good conscience? Like like Paul said some of the some of the brothers did by the way He went on there if you still have Timothy in front of you He went on to actually mention them by name those guys that let go of faith in a good conscience How do we do that Well, it's by Breaking through that barrier that conscience creates now with the Holy Spirit for you and I that's buttressed by The wisdom and insight and revelation of the Word of God we break through it and we say I'm not gonna do it I'm not gonna follow it. I'm not gonna be obedient I'm gonna do what I want to do and I basically go out and I just fulfill the flesh I just do what I want to do, right? It's called sin and That's how we let go of a good conscience and the problem with a conscience Well, I should say this the problem with violating or breaking through a conscience is that when you do it it gets easier to do Right. I mean if I do something that I know is absolutely wrong and I'm just gonna do it Anyway, and I bust through it then, you know I've broken down a barrier that was meant to be there and now it's easier to go and break down a next time and The next time and and the next time and so forth And so when I do that, here's here's the point you guys remember because we're talking about faith We're talking about how it affects our faith When I give in to the flesh and I say, you know what I'm gonna I'm gonna I'm gonna satisfy the flesh Even though I know that there's a barrier here. There's the barrier of conscience, but even greater than that there's the barrier of God's Word that is established as a right and a wrong and a Revelation of truth and I bust through that just to do what I want to do What happens at that point is that my faith becomes immediately? Compromised or I should say the ability My ability to exercise my faith becomes compromised. And my ability to come to the Lord now, in a moment of trial or difficulty or whatever, has now been compromised, has now been weakened through sin. Because my faith, you see, isn't strong and healthy anymore. I've weakened it through sin. I've let go of a good conscience before God. I've busted through. There's a great quote from one of my favorite authors, George Mueller. I've shared many things with him. I love the way he puts this. Check out this quote. He says, It is not possible to live in sin and at the same time draw down from heaven everything one needs for this life. I couldn't have said it better in a hundred years. It is absolutely true. It is impossible to live in a condition of unrepentant sin and to draw down from heaven the things that you need. Well, it's one of the reasons, not the only reason, it's one of the reasons why sometimes when people are going through difficult time, they go and they seek out prayer from other people. And we're supposed to do that, don't get me wrong. We're supposed to get prayer from other people. But sometimes people are getting prayer from other people because they can't carry it themselves. They just can't. Their faith isn't strong enough to even go before the Lord. They are in such a compromised state as it relates to their faith. Even lifting up the smallest prayer concerns is too much for them. They are weak now. Their faith is weak. And, you know, sometimes people can have a weak faith just because they're new in the Lord. That's not what we're talking about. We're talking about those who have given in to sin and has allowed that sin to interfere with the ability of their faith to now look to God and wait on God and trust in God and hope in God. They do not overflow with joy and peace and so forth because that healthy faith is not there. So what's the answer? What's the answer when sin has compromised my faith? What is the answer when now trusting in God for even the smallest thing is hard? And I don't even know how I'm going to do this. And there's this issue in my life and my faith has been compromised because I've given in to sin. What am I going to do? What's the answer for me? Am I just going to always bring my prayer needs to other people and not pray about other things myself? That's not going to last very long because other people might not always be in my life. Things, people, situations come and go. Eventually it comes back to me and I have to ask myself, what am I going to do? What am I going to do? What do you do when faith has been compromised? Do you turn to works? Do you say, well, my faith isn't very strong so I guess I need to kind of build myself back up so I'm going to be a good person. That's what most of us try to do and we know that we violated the word of God. We violated conscience and so on and so forth. What do we do? First thing we do, we start making promises to God. God, I'm never going to do that again. And that lasts about a day. If you're lucky, maybe a week. And then you fall right back and you're into it worse than you were before. So you see, works doesn't work. Trying to be a good person doesn't work. You can't be a good person. You can't impress God with your goodness. You can't say, God, I promise I'm not going to do this anymore. And that's usually the road that we take. And the reason we do is because my faith is no longer strong enough to carry this because of sin. So I'm just going to opt for works, but again, it doesn't work. So what am I going to do? So imagine you go to someone and you say, listen, sin has just ravaged my faith. It's a shadow of what it used to be. I had a strong faith at one time, but I've just given in to sin repeatedly and my faith has been weakened and compromised over and over. And I've got these things going on in my life and I'm in a tailspin. I don't know what to do. Here's what's crazy, guys. Are you ready for this? This is the weirdest thing in the world. You know what you have to do when your faith has been compromised and it's weak? It's going to sound strange. You've got to reach out to God by faith. Listen, there's no plan B. There's no alternative. When God said in the Word, the righteous shall live by faith, He meant it. He meant there's no other way to live but by faith. But you say, well, now wait a minute. My faith has been decimated. My faith has been compromised. It's in a weak condition. Doesn't matter. Here's what you do when your faith has been weakened. You repent of your sin. You get down on your knees and you say, God, I can't do this. You know, I repent. I open my heart to you, God. I cry out to you with all my heart. And you know what God does? He rushes in. He picks up that child that has absolutely destroyed their faith and made it just a weak thing. And he begins to pick them up and build them up and strengthen them to start again. But listen and hear me please. There is no alternative to faith. When the Bible says you and I shall live from faith to faith, that's exactly what it means. There's nothing in between. And apart from faith, it is impossible to please God. Apart from faith, you can't live the Christian life. That's why it's so important that we protect it, you guys. That's why it's so important that we keep it built up. Because there's no other way to live. And we don't want to mess with this thing that's so precious. This thing that he has given to us to be able to stand, as Paul says in Ephesians, and after having done everything, to stand in the trust and faith that come through Jesus Christ. So, where's your faith? Let me show you this passage from Hebrews. This is really cool. Hebrews chapter 10 says, Let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings. That all sounds good and fine. But then it goes on to say, Having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience. This is a really interesting passage. The very first part of it just sounds like somebody who just has this perfect healthy faith that never has to deal with issues of life. But you know what? When you have a guilty conscience, which we do from time to time. Let's face it. We compromise our faith. We bust through. And we do things we shouldn't do. And then we have a guilty conscience. We've let go of a pure conscience, a good conscience. What are you going to do? You go back to God. You draw near to Him. And you come with, first of all, a sincere heart. And a sincere heart says to God, I am such a screw-up. And it's just this reality of just being real with God. You stop playing games. You stop trying to impress God. You just say, I am nothing in your sight. It's coming to God with a sincere heart. Just open. I am open, God. And you know what? You see me and all that I am and all that I am not. And it's mostly what I'm not. And you know me. But I come to you now. I come to you. And I bring even my decimated faith. And I come back to you now with an assurance of faith. Because your word says to me that if I will confess my sins, you are faithful and just. And you will forgive me and cleanse me from all unrighteousness. And now I come back to you with the faith that I myself have ruined. And I ask you to build it up. And I ask you now, God, to take some of that precious blood that I trampled on. And I ask you to sprinkle my heart. And cleanse my guilty conscience. And restore unto me, as David said, the joy of my salvation. And bring my faith back to a place of health. And help me, Lord, not to go there anymore. Keep me. Here's what David said. He said, Lord, keep me from willful sin. Keep me from willful sin. You know what he's talking about when he says willful sin? It's where an area is right there in front of you. You've got the barrier right in front of you. And you bust through it anyway. That's willful. It's one thing to sin in ignorance. It's another thing to sin willfully. So David said, keep me, Lord, from willful sin. Then I will be innocent of great transgression. So there's no other workaround. And that is why the Apostle said in Acts 24, last thing I'll put up here for you, he says,

It's something that is a part of my life. It's something that I consider to be an aspect of the utmost importance. I'm gonna keep my conscience clear as it relates to you on the horizontal level and I'm gonna keep my conscience clear as it relates To God on a vertical level if your conscience is not clear You're not going to be able to draw down remember as Mueller said those things from God that you need For the for your daily life and the only option is to get down on your knees and repent That you might come back to a place of healthy faith You