True Biblical Faith

0:00:01 - Speaker 1 Real life presents the Jack Hibbs podcast with intention and boldness to proclaim truth, equip the saints and impact our culture. 0:00:10 - Speaker 2 So what's true biblical faith? Let's find out about it right now. 0:00:17 - Speaker 1 You can get the outlines of this podcast by going to jackhibbs.com Today. If this podcast lifts you up and encourages you to live a more fulfilled life in Christ, then make sure you leave us one of those five star ratings. To us that's like saying amen or yes. Then that rating will encourage others to listen. Now open your hearts to what God's word has to say to you. Here is Jack Hibbs. 0:00:46 - Speaker 2 Hey everybody, welcome back to the podcast, and we are going to be talking about right now today, the issue of faith. There's a lot of naturally so a lot of opinion, a lot of conversation about what faith is, and the more you listen to people talk about faith, the more you realize people don't really know much about what they're talking about. What I mean by that is there is faith that we don't think of as faith or being faith, where there's this general dependence, even an unconscious dependence, on things that we actually put faith in. So example, one of those unconscious actions by us to exercise faith is getting in your car and starting the engine. You assume normally I have to worry about your engine starting. You put on your seatbelt. You never even think about it at least I don't think about it until the alarm goes off when I'm halfway down the road because I don't have my seatbelt on. But once you put it on, you are now assuming this thing is going to provide for me a pretty decent level of protection in the event of an accident. We get on an airplane. Nobody is thinking, man, I hope this thing makes it off the end of the runway. You already have become so accustomed to putting trust and reliance upon and dependence upon so many things in life, but little would you ever think of, if ever, calling it faith. You would not, example, get into that car and say, hey, everybody just want to make an announcement, I have absolute faith in my seatbelts. Or nobody sits down in an airplane and says, hey, I just want everybody to know. I got total faith that the thrust of these engines are going to produce enough power and speed to overcome the issue of drag and we are going to lift off by the end of the runway. It's going to be spectacular, everybody hang on, it's going to be great. Nobody says that because everybody assumes it. But when it comes to true faith in the context of eternity, right, because everything I just mentioned to you has nothing to do about eternity. But the Bible says that without faith it's impossible to please God. The Bible tells us, in fact, listen later on, read the entire book of Hebrews, chapter 11. The book of Hebrews, chapter 11, is the chapter of the lifestyles of the righteous and faithful, and it's all based on their relationship with God, and all of those mentioned are commended for their great dependence upon God. You might be quite shocked by the way as to who is appearing in the Hall of Faith. They are listed there. Some of them are pretty shady characters, which is very encouraging, right? But in Hebrews, chapter 11, verse 6, check this out. 11 verse 6 says this but without faith, it is impossible to please Him. That is God, for he that comes to God must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. So faith is the key. But watch this. Today we live in an age where we've got false teachers saying you just need more faith. Have you had enough faith? And they put the burden upon you in the area of the magnitude of your faith. Now I want you to know something. Jesus answered people's requests, even when he told them if your faith is the size of a mustard seed. He's speaking parabolically, of course, but he's saying there's just about nothing as small. It's smaller than a grain of sand, than a mustard seed. If you've got that amount of faith, we can work with that. So when somebody says you don't have enough faith, notice what they're saying. They're saying you are lacking in knowing the operation of God or your true relationship to this faith issue. If you had listen, what's implied is if you have a lot of faith, then God's got to move, god's got to do. What you're going to say because you've got a lot of faith, that is insane. You can have gigantic true biblical faith, but if it's against the will of God it's not going to happen. And nobody's a greater example than Jesus Christ himself when he prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane to his Father. Father, if there's any way that this cup can pass from me, let it pass. Let's find out another way for man to be saved. But there was no answer, it was silent. Then the Bible says the Father dispatched angels to minister to Jesus. And, by the way, I am a firm believer that when you look at the night that Jesus was in the Garden of Gethsemane and to the cross and post resurrection, it is easy to conclude that our salvation was literally determined, determined. It was in the mind of God. It was done at or in the Garden of Gethsemane when Jesus said if there's any other way for man to be saved, let's do that instead. When there was no answer back from the Father, then Jesus was under orders by the Word of God to proceed. You know, psalm 138 says I've estanged my word above my own name. God said, wow. So Jesus proceeded with the prophetic plan that he would die in the cross for our sins. But notice that after the Garden of Gethsemane moment, he's no longer wavering, he's no longer in the Gethsemane in the place of crushing is what it means. He's no longer in that anymore. He takes charge, he takes control. From that moment on it's forward to the cross. I believe our salvation was determined in the Garden of Gethsemane by his obedience, and then it was paid for at the cross and then it was justified. That is your salvation at the resurrection. So, having said that, when the Bible tells us in Habakkuk 4-2 that the just shall live by faith, what does this mean? And when it talks about us that without faith it's impossible to please God, it all comes down to us going to God, believing who and what he is and what he has revealed himself to be. It's not our great faith, it's who and how great he is. So when we think about this stuff, think of this how does faith operate? What does it look like when it moves? And I really like that, because faith is a verb, it's active. Now some of you're gonna get upset with me, but you're gonna get upset with me because you're about ready to get hit with some truth. Are you ready? It's gonna sting, it's gonna smack you a little bit and you're gonna. You're not gonna like this, but if you're Christianity, okay, so you call yourself a Christian. I get that. But if you call yourself a Christian, then I have to ask you and you have to ask me if we're Christians, who around us? Who do we know? Who are the others that are dependent upon my faith in Jesus? I'm gonna say that again. If tonight or today you say you're a Christian, then I am supposed to come back to you and say you've named the name of Christ, you declared that you're a Christian, that All of it is wrapped around a verb regarding faith in him. So what does that look like among those in your family and those that you know and that will determine if your faith is actually real? You can shout all day long. You can have tambourines and twirl around with little ribbons and shout faith, faith, faith means absolutely zero, until there are people in your world that are able to report back to any stranger or any reporter or any fellow Christian that ask hey, what about Jack's faith? Is it for real? What do you know about it and they ought to be able to tell you something that is called a testimony or a witness. So be very careful. If you say today that you have faith in Jesus, do you really have faith in Jesus? Meaning this, bluntly put are there others dependent upon your faith? In other words, if you don't show up on church on Wednesday or Sunday or whatever is going on in your church world, if you don't show up, is anyone going to miss you? Is anyone going to say, oh man, we got a gaping hole tonight. Mike didn't show up, he couldn't make it tonight. If you can go to church and nobody knows you're there, listen carefully. If you can go to church and nobody knows you're there, then you're not doing church. I know this is a smack, but check it out. You might say well, that's why I don't go to a big church. Guess what Size of the church is irrelevant. It's not optics, it's not that the pastor is pastoring a church of 25 people and notices on this Sunday there's 24 people because you're not there. That's not what I'm talking about. It's not size of the church. Forget that stuff. It's your involvement in the church that makes your faith real. There can be a real church of 25 people or a fake church of 25 people. There can be a real church of 25,000 people or there could be a real church of 25,000 fake people. How do we know? When we proclaim faith in Jesus, is it active enough to make a difference in people's lives so whereby they become dependent upon our interaction in the ongoing life of the church? In other words, if a drummer doesn't show up, no, look, I happen to pastor an extremely large church, but I can tell you this the only way that that happens is because there's it's probably safe to say, with all of the ministries that go on here, there's probably oh, I mean, I'm just being ignorant right now there's got to be a thousand or a couple thousand volunteers that make things happen in all ministries. Okay, so, for example, if, if the drummer doesn't show up you got sick, you know at 4am before Sunday morning service, then they call up another drummer. You say, wow, it's amazing to have multiple drummers. We've got a lineup of drummers. We've got a lineup of singers, we've got a lineup of guitarists. That's not the point. The point is we've got people to depend upon. Are you with me? And if somebody's sick, we know that. So the love team goes, the care bears go and love on him or her because they're sick, and then somebody calls up or moves over from the other worship ministry activity, the other drummer. That's how church works. What about children's ministry? Same thing. If somebody can't show up at children's ministry, we call up reinforcements. Point is, is someone dependent? Is the church that you attend? Are they dependent upon you being there, being there and friend? If that's not true, then you've got to get involved now. Okay, because faith is an active, it's a verb, it's engaging, it's not a confession, it's an action, okay. So watch this. How much faith is enough faith? Well, as I said earlier, very, very little. God will take it. Do you remember the man that Jesus said stood on the corner when he saw the Pharisee praying? And the Pharisees said thank you, god, as he looked up to heaven and said thank you that you know that I am who I am and I'm not like those sinners over there, the you know the sinners across the street. And Jesus said then there was the man who wouldn't even look toward heaven but looked down and beat upon his chest and said Lord, be merciful to me, a sinner. And Jesus said I tell you, guys, which one went away, justified in the sight of God. It wasn't the Pharisee. So Jesus will take a little bit of faith. The point is, where's your faith gravitating? Where is the if your faith was a compass and you know, the tip of a compass needle is usually fluorescent, green or red, and as you move around through the woods of the desert, that needle heads north, right, always north, always north. And so when you do that, that's a good picture of your faith. Is your faith always pointing towards Jesus? In other words, is Jesus, like the needle in the compass, always attracted to North? Is your life always attracted to faith in Jesus? Not faith in you, not faith in your abilities, not faith in the team, not faith in money, not faith in anything else but faith in Jesus. So it goes like this how do you know if your faith's for real when God says to you I want you to step out and do something. Listen up, everybody. There must be an element of faith in action. See what do you mean by that? I'll tell you what I don't mean. I'm going to answer this by showing you what I'm not saying. All of us have experienced what I'm about to say, and that is when somebody comes to you and I and they say the Lord told me to tell you that you need to quit your job, you need to marry Billy and you need to buy a donkey and you need to get pink tennis shoes. That's what God told me to tell you. Okay, number one, if you're a believer, let God tell you himself. All right, because I mean, who's going to wear pink tennis shoes? But if God tells you to wear them, then wear them. But don't have somebody else tell you, because now what's happening is that you are now putting your faith in what someone else said rather than going to God. But watch this no matter what anybody says, you've got to get it from God because you've got to exercise faith. And until you exercise faith, you're just doing what people A told you to do or B, what you think you ought to do. You say, well, what am I doing? C are you implying that? C is God told me to do this. Yes, but listen, this is radical. I have been so blessed in my life to have Heard the Lord. Now I can say, regarding the things of the past, I heard God leading me, but I didn't know it was fully him until after I took the step. And is that scary? Scary, is that terrifying? It's terrifying. Is it gut-wrenching? Totally. Don't tell me that when Moses got to the Red Sea, that he was not petrified. In fact, he gets to the Red Sea and all the children of Israel are behind him and he stands up in a rock. The Bible tells us, and he says stand still and see the salvation of God. And God says Moses, what in the world are you doing? Talking, don't talk. Put your foot in the water, go. Pharaoh's right behind you. Guys. I love that scene. I kind of view it this way Stand still and see the salvation of God. Translation what the heck am I going to do next? What's going on? And God told him go into the water. Moses had to put his foot in. He exercised faith. Then the water opened up by the way. Round. Two was with Joshua crossing the Jordan. They had to do the same thing Put your foot in the water and then I'll part it. No, no, no, god, open it up first, then I'll go. God says good luck. Made the luck of the Lord be with you, because I'm not going to roll that way. It's got to be by faith, whereby you are humbled, you are gutted. True, walking with God, I mean, let's be honest, it guts you of yourself, which is a really good thing, okay, and then you become radically dependent upon God. I hope you get this plane off the end of the runway. I think you're going to keep me safe in this chariot. It's got to be by faith or else it's not faith. If you say, hey, listen, I heard God say to do this, do that With perfect detail. I personally doubt it's God. There's no element of faith in that. But when God says, like he did with Abraham watch this Again. Hebrews 11, by the way, 11, 8. Abraham went out following God, not knowing where he was going. Boom, I got to tell you. That describes my life. When I think God is leading and guiding, I sit still. I read more of the Word and I know this I can never outweigh God. As long as I'm listening, I can never outweigh Him. I'm not talking about procrastination, that's a sin I'm talking about. I can never outweigh God. I can outrun Him, and that's not a good thing to do. Joshua did that in the book of Joshua at the battle of AI and learned a big lesson People died because he ran ahead of God and he didn't consult the Lord. But I know this. There's a sweet spot where God has shown me enough whereby now, watch this, watch this, don't miss this, please. Has God shown you enough that if you don't proceed, you will know that you're disobeying what he has revealed to you thus far? Has he shown you enough for you to make the next step that if you don't do it, you will be disobedient? Once you know that, then you take that step and your foot goes in the water and then it begins to open up. You go across humbly. You know that God is holding up the water. You go across the issue on dry ground, you get to the other side and you stand there in shock, not because you didn't think God was that big, but because faith works like that. When I see people on religious programs boast about their faith, I turn it off. If I see people talking about how great their faith is and you need to have faith, like me, or you're a loser I turn it off. If people are saying, listen, have faith, man, come on brother, come on, brother, just have faith you need to stop and say, hey, shut up everybody. What is this Quite zippin' Faith in what Listen Oprah Winfrey and that clan. They're very, very big on. You need to have faith in faith. You need to have faith in faith. Never, do not ever, put your faith in faith, Because that's putting faith in you. And you're going to listen, buddy. It's going to be a bad, nasty fall. You're going to be disillusioned, you're going to think God misled you and you're going to be completely messed up. But when you put your faith in him to do what you believe he's telling you to do, your actions must be by faith. He will not tell you everything, or else it's not by faith, but he'll give you enough for you to step. And as you step, one foot in front of the other, like Abraham did, going following God, not knowing where he was going. That's wild, that's amazing. Can you imagine I understand to a point if it was just Abraham? Look, if you get about five guys three to five guys together and they get in their pickup trucks and start heading off somewhere, where are we going? I don't know, dude, let's go. That's just kind of like a guy thing. But when it comes to God, god gives us these partners in life. In most cases, and if not all cases, it's a husband or a wife and Amos 3, verse 3, says how can two walk together unless they're in agreement? So if you're married and you're seeking God about a decision, okay, then you guys need to be in agreement. It's quite amazing. Imagine Sarah at some point Sarah had to say, or Sarah at the time had to say hey, abram, you've been talking to this God. You say you met this. What's his name? Yah Yahweh. God that has told you to leave our home in Ur of the Caldees and follow him. He's going to show you some place where we're supposed to inherit. Well, abram, I've loved you all these years. You're a good man and you're very committed to this. I see the importance of this. All right, let's do this. You could argue it took more faith in Sarah than it did with Abraham, but the point is they walked in agreement. So, my friend, listen, make sure that your faith is in the Lord Jesus Christ and in his word to lead you and to guide you. Do not put faith in faith, do not put faith in other people, do not put faith in yourself and do not put faith in your own logic or your thinking. There is a way that seems right to a man, but that way ends in death. So says the Bible. Hey, everybody, if this has been a blessing to you, we'd love for you to subscribe and hit the button. You could stay up to date. You can certainly share this with other people. Give us a podcast review, give us five stars, if you're generous. And then, as always, it's time we believe this strongly. It's time to live out what we believe in. It's time for real life. 0:24:13 - Speaker 1 This Jack Hibbs podcast, as well as all the broadcast outreach opportunities, are listener supported. Will you consider partnering with us through a special gift? Go to jackhibbs.com to learn more and stay connected.