Understanding and Strengthening Your Faith

In this sermon, Harold addresses the concept of faith, exploring what faith is, its value, how to gauge it, and ways to increase it. He begins by turning to Hebrews 11 and examines the definition of faith as 'the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.' He discusses the importance of faith in pleasing God and its role in a Christian's life. Harold also provides examples of great faith from both the Old and New Testaments, including figures like Abraham, Joshua, and the Centurion. He emphasizes the significance of faith in overcoming trials and temptations. Harold concludes with practical steps on how to strengthen one's faith, including prayer, studying Scripture, and enduring trials. He calls on the audience to reflect on their own faith and act accordingly.

00:00 Welcome and Introduction
00:18 The Importance of Faith
02:40 Defining Faith
07:39 Examples of Great Faith
15:40 The Value of Faith
24:20 Testing and Strengthening Faith
40:57 Concluding Thoughts and Call to Action

Transcript

I join in expressing our appreciation for the presence of each of you. I would join in saying, if you're a visitor, we're certainly grateful that you're here and we trust that all of us will be edified and uplifted. We talk about how good the song leaders do sometimes I want you to know that we didn't even plan this, but we're talking about faith tonight, so that's great.

If you have your Bibles, I'd invite you to open to the book of Hebrews in the 11th chapter. You're probably familiar with the chapter and know that it's a chapter about faith, and we're going to reference part of that chapter in the very early of our lessons, but we'll not just stay right in the book of Hebrews, the 11th chapter, but if you'll mark your Bible that Hebrews 11 and then.

You'll be there when we start full scripture. I have a question that I want to ask him, and that question is, how great is your faith? How great is your faith? There's possibly a couple of ways that you could try and answer that. We could say, how great is our faith and mean? What's the value of faith and faith?

Is very valuable. And we'll talk about that some in the lesson. But the other way you can look at that question, how great is your faith, is to ask yourself, how deep is my faith? Or how great is my faith personally? How strong is my faith? And that's the the sense in which I wanna talk about it this evening.

How great is your faith? There's a book. Called Standing Strong by John Maut. He's a denominational fellow has some things wrong. He's very Calvinistic in his opinion on imputed righteousness. But I was reading his book and he has a chapter called Faith Our Defense Shield, and he didn't talk about how great our faith is, but he said some things that caused me to.

To think how great is my faith? And I thought maybe it would be good as we thought that together. How great is your faith? There's really just four main points to the lesson and I'll go ahead and give you where we're going. You're taking note. You may jot these down and see how close we get to it, but first of all, we're gonna talk about just what is faith.

It would be odd for us to talk about how great our faith is and then us not even understand what we're talking about when we talk about our faith. So we'll, we'll spend a few minutes talking about what faith is. The second thing I want us to do, I want us to talk about the value of our faith. What difference does it make if our faith is great or small?

Little or kneel Faith has a value. And I want us to notice some of the value to it so that when we talk about how great our faith is, you'll know what the value of it is to you, why you need a great faith. And then thirdly, we're going to talk about how do you gauge your faith? I asked, how great is your faith?

How do you answer that question? What do you what? What do you depend on to answer that question? Then we're going to talk about how can I increase my faith? It just seems logical to me that if we talk about how great our faith is, if somebody comes up a little bit lacking their idea of how great their faith is, that it would be good if we talk about, well, if my faith's not what it should be, how great or how can I make it?

Great. So let's begin by talking about faith and what it is. And usually if you talk about faith, and you should ask somebody what faith is, A good many people are going to turn to the book of the Hebrews into the 11th chapter in verse one. So if you're in the book of Hebrews and the 11th chapter in verse one, look at verse as it reads.

It says, now faith is the substance of things hoped for. The evidence of things not seen. Evidence or the hope or, or it's the substance of things. Hope for the evidence of things not seen. I've heard some people say that's not a definition and can be pretty dogmatic about that not being a definition. But it seems to get to the point pretty good.

To me, faith is the substance that which our hope stands on. Hope, of course. We usually think about as being desire plus expectations. So you've got something that you are, you're wanting, but you don't have it in hand. It is something that you desire, something that's good, and this is what's holding that hope up, this faith that you have.

And it's the assurance of the things we, we want and that we desire. He says, this is where we get the very thing we're looking for, the evidence that these things stand. It's from our faith. We've heard about it and understand it, and now we desire it. And so that's a pretty good definition it seems to me of faith.

But if you want a real definition, W Vines and his expository dictionary, Greek words says its firm persuasion. A conviction based upon hearing that part about. Upon hearing you remember the scripture, we'll mention it later too about Faith comes by hearing Romans 10. So you've got this conviction, but you didn't just think this up on your own.

It comes about by hearing, particularly if we're talking about our faith in the scriptures. Whatever it is. Hopefully you've got it from reading the word of God. And now you, you believe in that and you have hope in that. And that's what hope really is, or what faith really is. If we just give you.

Definition may be that will ring through to you. Faith is the conviction or the existence of God. Christ promises and instructions given by God in Christ and found in his word. You wanna know what our faith is to be based on. That's it. We should have faith in God. We should have faith that Jesus is the Christ, the son of the living God.

We should have faith in the scriptures that what we're looking at is the word of God, and we need to believe that word of God to have faith in that word of God. And if you were to ask, what's great faith, then I'd say is trusting completely and unconditionally in God, Christ, and his word, obeying that word.

That's what faith is. It's believing in God, Christ. His word and not just saying that we, we accepted as truth, but faith is also going to be obedient as we'll. Notice there are some really good examples of of faith in the scripture. Think about Abraham. You're in the book of Hebrews, the eighth chapter, or I mean the 11th chapter.

Look at verse eight. By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to the place where he would receive an inheritance. He went out not knowing where he was going. The idea is that here God speaks to him and he tells Abraham, get out of the land you're in and go where I show you and I'm going to give you a great promise.

I'm gonna give you that land. And Abraham, all he has is God's word, but he has faith in God. He, he trusts God And so he up and he goes. Goes to where God leads him on that occasion. I just finished a, an article in for Faith and Facts Magazine talking about Romans the fourth chapter. And in that chapter he talks about how that God made the promise to Abraham that he would have a child through his own body, and that out of that would come many descendants.

When you go back and look at the scriptures, you find God giving him this promise of, of he's going to have a great nation come from him. And first of all, Abraham thinks, well, maybe it's going to be through my servant e Ezer. And so in John or Genesis 15th chapter, God speaks to, to Abraham and tells him, this is not your heir.

LE's is not air. It's going to be through your body. You're going to have this seed and it's going to grow into a great nation, an inheritance from it. Then Abraham tries and thinks about it and they decide, well, maybe it's gonna be through Sarah's handmade. And so God speaks to him again and says, listen, it's going to be your child through your body, and it's gonna be with Sarah.

And you remember the story, how Sarah laughed at that. Abraham kinda laughed at first. God says, this is the way it is. And you see up to this time, every time that God speaks, Abraham listens. He understands, he thinks I'm going to have a C, but maybe it's, it's my servant e Ezer that he's talking about. God says, no, it's not that.

It's going to be through your body. And so now he knows it's through him. Now Sarah suggests, well, I'm old. Maybe it's through my Handmade, and God speaks again and says, no, it is going to be you and Sarah. And they're past age bearing children. They think they are, but he believes, and he, Romans four says, he didn't stagger at that promise.

He thought God said it. That's the way that it's going to be. That's great faith. Then you can look on down again in the book of Hebrews in the 11th chapter in verse 17, and he talks about how God has made this promise that you're going to have seed and, and out of this seed is going to come a great nation.

And then God tells him, take Isaac up and offer him on an altar. And Abraham is going to do it. He doesn't doubt. And so, God, if, if I do this, how are you going to do the promise? You couldn't fulfill the promise? He just leaves up to God, if you tell me to do this, I'm going to do it. Hebrews would suggest he perhaps thought that he was going to be God was will let him slave him and then God was going to raise him from the dead.

But God stopped him, of course, and in his mind, Abraham had offered him up, but it was faith again. He was so convinced in knowing that God's word is right. That even if it was to slave Isaac, I don't know how he would say, but God's going to do it some way. He's going to fulfill those promises. I've got that much confidence in him.

You think about Joshua, he was a man of faith. We have the earlier occasion in the book of numbers and the 13th chapter when the thighs are sent out and they, they go out and look at the promised land and then come back and say, wow, it's, it's great. Grapes are great. Everything's good. But some of 'em will say, we can't take that land.

They're, they're like giants. We, we can't take that land. Joshua and Caleb, they said, no, we can take it. God has promised it to us. He told us to go and take it. If he promised it, it's sure it's steadfast. We can take it. That's their faith. Then you see Joshua later being made leader, and here's this city, wall city that's real fortified, and God says, I want you just to march around it and take the city.

And Joshua didn't question it. He just says, okay, that's what God says, then that's what I'm going to accept to be the truth, and that's where my faith is going to be in him. And so they were able to take the city. You find some good examples of faith in the New Testament too. Think about Matthew, the eight chapter in verse five through 13.

A servant or a brother, a master has a servant that's sick and he wants Jesus to come and heal him. So much so that he goes out to see Jesus meets him and tells him, and Jesus says, I'll come and heal your servant. And the. Centurion says, no. Said, I'm not worthy of you coming into my house. I'm a man of authority.

I say, go and they go. I say, do this, and they do it. You just say right where you are, you just say, servant, be healed, or whatever, and I know that you can heal my servant. And Jesus answered by saying, this is great faith. P. Praise him for his great faith. Basically what he's doing, he's, he's saying, I trust the word of Christ.

I trust who Christ is, and I know that whatever he says, that's going to be what happens. And then you find a little later in Matthew, the 15th chapter in about verse 21 through 28, there's a woman whose daughter is possessed by demon and. She comes to Jesus. He's a Canaanite. She's not a Jew, she's a Canaanite, and she's trying to dece Jesus to heal her daughter.

And Jesus says, shall we give that? Which belongs to the kids, to the, to the dogs? And she says, even the dogs get the crime. Think about what that meant. Jesus saying, I'm really right now concentrating on the Jews and I've been sent to the house of Israel, and she's saying, you got such great power that you could just throw me a little crumb of your power and my daughter would be healed.

And Jesus seeing that faith said she was a woman of great faith. All the time. What you're seeing is here's somebody listening to Jesus's words or listening to God's word and saying, I can put my trust in that word. And that's what we're talking about when we talk about faith. We're talking about believing God's word, believing in God, believing in Christ, believing in His Word, and just knowing that that word is certain and that whatever God says that's going to come to pass.

We can have faith in that. We can have great faith in that. In fact, now what difference does it make whether we have faith or not? Well, if you're still in the book of Hebrews in the 11th chapter, look quickly down to verse six and notice that he says, but without faith, it's impossible to please him.

Talking about God. For he who comes to God must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him. You can't find a greater reasoning for faith than that. I don't know, think that a person without faith can't please God. And certainly we ought to want to please God and need to please God.

And the only way you can do it is if you have faith. Second thing is we live by faith. You remember in the book of Romans, in the first chapter in verse 16, Paul says, I'm not ashamed of the gospel or of the gospel. It's the power of God under salvation to everyone that believes to the Jew first, and then also to the Greek.

And then he says, well, therein is the power. And he says, the just shall live by faith. I want you to think about that. The just shall live by faith. Here's the value of faith that faith gives us life. He says, now he's not talking about our physical life. There are people that don't believe there's atheism, they have physical life, but this is connected with the gospel.

I'm not ashamed of the gospel. It's the power of God and the salvation. And then he tells us for them, those that have faith, they shall live. He's talking about spiritual life. He says that comes about by faith that you remember Ephesians two and verse eight that we're saved by faith, not by works. But I wanted to tell you that when we say we're saved by faith and not by works, that doesn't mean faith without works.

It just means you can't do enough works to save yourself. That God is going to accept you and count you righteous and give you life because of your faith, not because you have earned your salvation. Well not take the time to read it all, but if you were to go to the Book of Galatians in the third chapter, verse 10 and 11, Paul is in that same chapter still trying to show people why we need the gospel, the power of God under salvation through faith.

He points out that the only way that a person can be justified by works is if he were to do everything perfectly. I mean, people could raise their hand if we said, all you perfect. People will raise your hand. None of us could rightly raise our hand, and he's not saying that we're saved by faith and, and faith doesn't have works.

In fact, James would tell us plainly that Faith without Works is dead. He would talk about Abraham. We talked about Abraham. He talks about how that by his works, his faith was, he was justified when he offered up Isaac or was going to. And so when we talk about the just shall live by faith, that's not to say that we don't have to do any works.

And if you've got some of the modern thinking that, well, if I do anything. I, I can't say that it's by faith that's not. So by work would mean you've done everything perfect and we've all sinned and fallen short. But to say that we're saved by faith is not to say there's not something that we have to do in these things.

You look at Abraham justified by faith, but he was offering Isaac according to what God said. Showing his faith. And we have to do that also. And so the just shall live by faith. That that faith is what's going to justify us. Not that we've lived the perfect work and the perfect life. And that's telling us also that our salvation is by grace.

You can't have salvation without grace unless you are perfect. And none of us are perfect. And so our salvation is by grace and. Faith. I wanna also to point out to you that when we talk about by faith that we're we live, that if we stop believing at some point, we lose that life. The writer of Hebrews again, this time, the 10th chapter in verse 38 says, the just shall live by faith.

But if any drawback, my soul shall have no pleasure in him. You're going to be justified by faith. But if you draw back, if you lose that faith, you stop living by that faith. He says, my soul has no pleasure in you. You're not going to be saved. And so this idea of once saved, always saved. Scriptures don't teach that.

It teaches that if you draw back, you have to worry and you are in danger. But if you live by faith, then you have the promise of eternal life. So first of all, we pointed out the value of faith is that you can't please God without faith. The second is that faith is what gives those of us that live in Christ our life, that by faith we live.

And then the third thing I want you to know is that faith not only is the source of our life, but it directs our life as Christians. I think you could probably reason from James, he talks about faith without works is dead. He talks about, you see my works thereby, you know, my faith and so forth. But there are passages that also talk about faith and they seem to be moving from just the personal belief to looking at the scriptures as the source of our faith.

There's Ephesians four where he talks about there's one faith. Sly talking about, he's given us the scriptures that teach us everything our Jew contend to earnestly for the faith, once for all delivered. He's talking seemingly about the scriptures that that's been given to us and he's telling us, contend to earnestly for these things that that are given.

And so we understand now that faith directs our life. And I wanna suggest to you that the stronger your faith is. The more God-like the more Christ-like you'll be, the more fruits that you'll have to offer up unto God. So remember when we talk about why have faith, that part of it is that faith will direct our life as Christians, that Christian life, that we have faith that gives us faith, also directs what we do in that life.

Then I want you to know that faith also is a part of our armor. You remember in the book of Ephesians in the sixth chapter, and Paul talks about the armor of God, but when you get to verse 16, he talks about taking the shield of faith, and he says, by that, we quenched the fiery darts of Satan. Satan is against us.

Peter talks about in one Peter five and verse eight that he's as a roaring line walking about seeking whom he might divine. Make no doubt about it. Satan wants you. He wants you to quit serving the Lord. If you're serving the Lord, he wants you to serve him. If you're not a Christian, he's glad at that and he's gonna do everything he can to keep you from being a Christian.

And if you're a Christian, he's going to try and tip you and, and sway you to stop serving God. Paul said this shield of faith, this is our armor to, to defense and to quince those fiery darts of Satan. How would you like to be facing Satan with no defense? It would be a sad situation. And so here we've talked about, here's what faith is.

It's a, a strong trust in God and God's word in Christ as as, or Jesus has the cry. You talk about what the value of it is, you can't please God without it. And it's, it's the way that we live is through faith and it's, it's the way that we quench the fiery darts of Satan. And so it's important to us.

And so I ask you again, how strong is your faith and how is it that you, you can test that and determine.

Let me suggest to you that the strength of our faith is found in obedience again from the book of Hebrews, and this time, the 11th chapter, and we've referenced this verse already, but verse eight, listen to what it says. By faith, Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to the place, which he would receive as an inheritance.

Abraham believed, but he also obeyed, and that's the way he knew his faith. Look back, if you would, for a moment to the Book of Acts in the sixth chapter, and this is of course, the gospel has come to Pentecost. People were converted and then there's persecution. They begin to go other places and so forth.

But in chapter six in verse seven, the word of the of God spread and the numbers of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem. And a great men, a great many of the were obedient to the faith. Obedient to the faith. Faith can be obeyed. And that's one of the ways that we tell whether or not we have faith and how strong our faith is, is by our obedient.

Paul opened the book of Romans in the first chapter, and we've read from some of it, but look if you would to Romans the first chapter in verse five. Paul says, though, or through him talking about Jesus, we have received grace and apostleship for obedience to the faith. So here, Paul, it is starting the book of Romans out and he's talking about how that there's obedience connected to faith.

And then turn over, if you would, to chapter 16 and the close of the book and listen beginning in verse 25. Now to him, who is able to establish you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ. According to the revelation of the mystery kept or kept secret since the world began, but now made manifest and by the prophets scriptures made known to all nations according to the commandment, to the everlasting God, for obedience to the faith, there has to be obedience with our faith.

True faith obeys God and does what he says. Not just when we want to do it, but all the time. I, I think that sometimes people think themselves to be faithful when they're really not. They're selfish and lemme tell you what I mean, God tells me to worship and so I'm gonna worship. God tells me how he wants me to worship.

He tells me to sing, make melody in my heart. But I really like the instruments, so I'm, I'm, I'm going to worship God. He tells me to worship him. I'm gonna worship him, but I will forget that other part. Are we even sure that we've got faith when we're worshiping or if the worship was something or sometime that we didn't like?

We still say, well, I'm going to do this because God commanded it, or would we be like with the singing, that's not what I want. I'm gonna do it my way. I heard the story long, long ago about a father who bought some property and he laid it out and he said, okay, I want, I want the house on the north side.

I want the barn on the east. I want the well over on the west. And so his son started building and he put the house in the north. He put well, or the barn over on the west, but he took the well and he moved it up by the house. And when his father said something to him, he said, well, dad, I did what you want to out of the three times.

And his father answered and said, no. It just so happened you wanted the house where I wanted it, wanted the, the barn where I wanted it. And when it came to the, well, you put it exactly where you wanted it. And if you had not wanted the house, the well, or the barn where I wanted it, you would've changed that too.

You know, maybe we need to think sometimes, how great is my faith and is it faith that drives me or just my want to. It needs to be faith, and it doesn't mean, it doesn't necessarily mean whether it's to my liking or not. What really needs to happen is that I just learn to like what God likes, what God tells me, but that I do something because God tells me to do it.

That's faith. Not that it must fit my desires and my needs, and so. The strength of our faith can be be measured by our obedience. Are we obedient people and are we doing it because God tells us to do it, or did he just happen to tell us something that we wanted to do anyway? Through faith, we'll obey,

we can determine our faith by how steadfast we stand against temptations. Physical trials. Physical trials. You remember the passage we referenced in the book of Ephesians in the six chapter and verse 16, how that the shield of faith can quench fiery darks of the wicked one. That's what we should use to overcome the devil if the devil is getting through our shield a lot, striking us with his darts.

We better examine our shield of faith. That may be an indication. It's not as strong as what we need it to be and trials. Look, if you would for a moment to the book of one Peter and the first chapter one, Peter one, and I'm gonna start reading with you in verse three. Peter of rights and says, blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his abundant mercy, has forgotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance, incorruptible and undefiled that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you who are kept by the powers of God through faith for salvation, ready to be revealed at the last time.

This, you greatly rejoice now that for a little while if need be. You have been grieved by various trials that the genuineness of your faith being much more precious than gold, that perishes, though it be tested by fire, may be found to the praise, honor and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ. I want you to notice, particularly that he talks about our faith being tried by these trials.

It seems to me from my study that that trials can be anything from temptations to something that's not a temptation. Satan tempts us and, and the difference, if you look at it, Satan is trying to induce us to evil. You look at the garden and not using this or saying, the scripture says this, but you think about it for a moment.

Why did God have the tree of knowledge of good and evil there? Governor does tell us, but I can tell you one thing it does. It tested them to show whether or not they would be obedient or not. God put it there so that he would know, but he wasn't inducing them to do evil. He wanted them to stay away from that, that tree of knowledge of good and evil.

But Satan comes and he tips them. He tries to, to get them to eat, to induce them to do evil. He wants them to fail and fall short. And so every temptation is a trial, so to speak, and it's Satan that's behind them trying to induce us to be evil. You look at Job and all the problems he had. Where did that start?

That started with Satan. Satan wanted to. Do all these things in hopes that he could show Joe wasn't as righteous as God thought he was. He's trying to get him to fall. But you find some things like God telling God Abraham to go and offer Isaac, and when it's all through, God says, now I know. And the difference is that Satan is trying to induce us to do evil.

God's hoping that we will overcome the evil and that we'll stand firm, and that our faith will be shown by these things. But that's one of the reasons we need this faith and, and one of the reasons, and one of the ways that we can tell how great our faith is, if we're constantly given into the temptations, then it shows that our faith, faith is weak.

Maybe we, we don't want to, but we yield to it. It just, again, shows us our faith is weak and we need to somehow get it better. Or maybe we, we talk about the trials that we go through and, and the way we stand those things is faith. I want you to turn back again, if you would, to the book of Hebrews and the 11th chapter and quite frankly, this is where the sermon came from.

I was reading that book and, and he referenced these passages. He's not using them this way, but I looked at it and I thought, wow, how great of my faith. Just listen for a moment. By faith, the walls of Jericho fell down after they were encircled for seven days. By faith, the heart Rahab did not perish with those who did not believe when she had received the spies with peace.

And what more shall I say for. The time would fail me to tell of Gideon and Barrack and s Samson and Jth, and also of David and Samuel and the prophets, who through faith subdued kingdoms, worked righteousness, obtain promises, stop the mouths of line, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword.

Out of the weakness were made strong became vi vigilance in battle. Turned to fight the armies of the aliens. Women received the deads raised to life again. Now I notice all those people are victorious and they went through these things and were able to go through it with faith. But now listen. He says others were tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection still.

Others had tri, had trials of mocking and surging. Yes and of change in imprisonment. They were stone, they were sewn in. Two, were tempted, were slain with the sword they wandered about in sheep's skin and goat skin. The in destitute, afflicted, tormented of whom the world was not worthy. They wandered in dozens in mountains and dens and caves on the earth and all these having obtained a good testimony through faith.

Did not receive the promise. Right there is where I said, how great is my faith? Could I stand? Those kind of things. I want to think I can, but how great is my faith? Maybe we need to figure out ways to increase our faith, and if we're looking for ways to increase, may I suggest prayer in the Book of Luke in the 17th chapter in verse five, the disciples.

Said, Lord, increase our faith. If the disciples, the apostles he's talking about could say that to Jesus, can't we make that prayer today? Lord, increase our faith. And if you wanna really be awestruck about it go back and read the context. What made the apostles say, Lord, increase our faith. When you read the verses above, you're gonna find Jesus saying You ought to forgive somebody, not just if he sins against you, but if seven times in a day he sins against you and says, I repent seven times in the day.

You need to forgive him. And they said, Lord, increase our faith. We need to pray. Perhaps that also shows that all the threatenings is not the physical things we saw in Hebrews 11. That that it can be the hard things like forgiving somebody, but Lord, increase my faith. Faith comes by here and we mentioned a while ago in the very beginning that faith comes by hearing Romans 10 17.

Faith comes by hearing and hearing the word of God, and so we need to be reading. We need to be studying. We need to, to hear it preached, we need to meditate upon it. We need to memorize it. We need to take examples like Abraham and, and know what he did that made him such an example of faith for us and see that, that even though he and and Sarah were pass the age of cha childbearing, God says, I'm going to give you a son.

And Abraham's faith didn't wa waver. He didn't stagger over that once God told him that we see how that faith or how that the word can help us overcome those temptations and, and trials, we, we see Jesus in the book of Matthew in the fourth chapter and Satan coming to him in tempting him and every time Jesus answers him with the scripture, we need that faith so that we can answer.

We need that faith so we can have a shield that can quench the fiery darts of Satan. And then may I suggest to you that maybe our faith will be strengthened sometimes through through trials. You look at James, you remember James talking about particularly wisdom and and trials and so forth, and he, and he just says, you know, if any man likes wisdom, they didn't pray to God.

But he talks about temptations coming and trials coming so that they can gain patience. And sometimes we're gonna gain our strengthens in able to get bigger and stronger by having gone through some trial and knowing that we've overcome that by faith, that'll strengthen our faith. But let me again suggest to you, have you thought about what that means?

That takes courage and faith right there. If we get stronger through trials and I pray for greater faith, I may be praying for trials to come. So that I can go through some small ones so that someday I can go through even a bigger trial if necessary and be faithful. And yet that's what's needed to have strong faith.

Lemme suggest to you that the question, how great is your faith? It's not meant to merely provoke thought. It's meant to be something that stirs our soul. It's a question that reaches into the heart and demands honest answers. And faith is not just a concept to be admired. It's a conviction to be lived.

We need to be people of great faith, not just in Word, but in life. We need faith that pleases God, a faith that stands strong, a faith that obeys. A faith that endures. A faith that overcomes. And so I ask you again, how great is your faith If you happen to be here and you have enough faith to say, I need God, I need Christ.

You haven't done it yet, then act on that faith. Confess, Jesus is Lord in Christ. Submit to God's command to be baptized for the remission sins, trusting that when you do that, that he is going to forgive you of your sins and you rise up to walk in youness of life. Have you got that much faith? Have you exercised that faith or will you do it even tonight as together we stand and sing?