Jesus wants us to have faith. Faith is essential, but what does it mean to have faith, and why is it so important?
Welcome everyone to Redemption Church in Plano Tx. I am glad to see everyone in the room. Greetings to everyone online. Thank you for receiving the Word of God with us.
Without
We are in the 2nd week of our series – Without.
Last week we talked about doing without. There are material possessions that if you don’t possess them, the sense is: ‘you are doing without.’
If you are without Jesus, you are not just doing without. Jesus told us, “Without Him we can do nothing.”
John 15:5(NIV) “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.
Without Jesus we can do nothing.
The great news is that you can have Jesus, and with Jesus, you can do all things!
Today we are going to talk about living without faith.
Without Faith
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When we search the scriptures for things we should never try to live without, faith appears near the top of the list.
Turn with me to the “faith chapter” in Hebrews 11.
Hebrews 11 teaches us about faith. What it is, how to use it, and the chapter then gives us a large list of people in the Bible who lived “BY FAITH.” Those listed are our great examples of FAITH.
Hebrews 11:6(NIV) 6 And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.
Without faith it is a little more work to please God…
Without faith it is more difficult to please God…
Without faith you will need to go to twice as many worship services to please God…
Without faith, pleasing God will a little more time… more holiness… more prayer…
These few words in Hebrews 11 are very important.
“And without faith it is impossible to please God.”
Without Faith = Impossible
Do you want to please God? You should want very much to please God.
As I read through the New Testament this year, scripture has been revealing the importance of pleasing God. The writers often encouraged the churches to please God.
2 Corinthians 5:9(NIV) 9 So we make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it.
Colossians 1:10(NIV) 10 so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way:
Colossians 3:20(NIV) 20 Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord.
Galatians 1:10(NIV) Am I now trying to win the approval of human beings, or of God? Or am I trying to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ.
1 Thessalonians 2:4(NIV) 4 On the contrary, we speak as those approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel. We are not trying to please people but God, who tests our hearts.
Acceptable in His sight, God takes pleasure in, well done… These are phrases that appear throughout your Bible, describing what pleases God.
We should seek to live a life that pleases the Lord, and that life must include faith! Without faith it is impossible to please God.
Here is some good news…
God is not impossible to please
We have all known that difficult person who is impossible to please. If they ever said they enjoyed something, you might fall over in shock.
It is wrong to view God as impossible to please. We need to understand what pleases God.
The pharisees misunderstood what pleased God. They tried to please God with an impossible standard of law keeping.
The people of Israel misunderstood what pleased God. They thought their keeping of tradition would please God.
The disciples often misunderstood what would please Jesus. They tried to shew away children, Samaritans, and women with a scandalous past.
Is it possible that we misunderstand what pleases the Lord?
The denominational name of your church does NOT please God.
The style of worship does NOT please God.
The church building design and sanctuary décor does NOT please God.
Without Faith = Impossible
Without faith it is impossible to please God. If you do not have faith, then it doesn’t matter how you are trying to please God, it is impossible to please Him without faith in Him.
Faith pleases God
I have always marveled at what marvels Jesus.
Jesus never marveled at the beauty of the temple…
Jesus never marveled at the riches of men…
Jesus never marveled at the talents of people…
We marvel over these things… but not Jesus.
Faith Marvels Jesus
A Roman soldier approached Jesus in faith and asked for the healing of his servant… and Jesus was amazed.
Luke 7:9(NIV) 9 When Jesus heard this, he was amazed at him, and turning to the crowd following him, he said, “I tell you, I have not found such great faith even in Israel.”
A Canaanite woman approached Jesus in faith and asked for the deliverance of her demon possessed daughter… And Jesus commended her faith.
Matthew 15:28(NIV) Then Jesus said to her, “Woman, you have great faith! Your request is granted.” And her daughter was healed at that moment.
Jesus marvels at faith. Faith causes Jesus to stop and say, “this is great faith!”
What would he say of us today? Faith pleases God! Would he be pleased with us today?
There is another interaction that caused Jesus to marvel. When Jesus went to His hometown of Nazareth in Mark 6, he went to no doubt teach and heal the people. All the great miracles and truth he had put on display in other cities, Jesus really wanted to display God’s Kingdom in his home town of Nazareth… But Nazareth would not BELIEVE.
Mark 6:6(NIIV)He was amazed at their lack of faith. Then Jesus went around teaching from village to village.
The presence of great faith, or a lack of faith will cause Jesus to marvel in amazement.
Without Faith = Impossible
God is so pleased by faith. God will never be pleased without faith.
God has built everything on faith.
Hebrews 11:3(NIV) By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.
When God spoke in Genesis 1 and said, “Let there be light” and there was light, it set up a foundation that is still in effect today. God created the world with an unseen building block. Scientists now have proven this to be true with the discovery of the Atom.
Science now knows that everything is made up of unseen atoms, yet your Bible in the 1st century A.D. made that declaration, not with a microscope, but by faith!
From the beginning of creation, God has been pleased by faith. Faith is the building block for everything. Only faith will please the Lord.
We must be people of faith!
We should understand that faith is essential.
Most of us probably know that we are saved by grace through faith. Faith is a part of our saving relationship.
Help me, faith-filled Christian. What verse am I about to go to in an effort to show the importance of grace, faith, and salvation?
Ephesians 2:8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God.
By grace, through faith, Saved! I remember last year preaching about tying your faith to God’s Grace, and then tying your works to your faith.
Faith is essential for salvation.
If we aren’t careful, we will relegate our faith to a one-time experience.
If we ask some Christians, “are you a believer,” their minds will go back to the time they first believed the Gospel and they said a prayer. Then, after thinking of that moment, they will say, “yes I am a believer.”
Praise God for that initial moment of faith, but faith must be more than a moment.
Think of the faith you had when you confessed publicly your belief in Jesus; you need to live by that same faith today.
That faith you had when you were baptized into Christ and came up out of the water a new creation, you need to live by that same faith today.
Faith is more than a moment.
Scripture tells us to “live by faith.”
[Romans 1:17(NIV) For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed—a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.”
Galatians 3:11(NIV) Clearly no one who relies on the law is justified before God, because “the righteous will live by faith.”
Hebrews 10:38(NIV) “But my righteous one will live by faith. And I take no pleasure in the one who shrinks back.
Galatians 2:20(NIV) 20 I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.]
Scripture tells us to walk by faith.
[2 Corinthians 5:7(NKJV) For we walk by faith, not by sight.]
Our faith must be lived out today. Our faith must be walked out today. Faith TODAY is the only way to be pleasing to the Lord TODAY!
Paul drops a truth bomb on us concerning faith in Romans 14. I want you to consider this.
Romans 14:23(NIV) …everything that does not come from faith is sin.
We understand that sin is not pleasing to God. Do we understand that everything that DOES NOT come from faith is sin?
Everything we do should come from faith.
If it does not come from faith, it is sin.
If it does come from faith, it is pleasing to God!
The Israelites got is serious trouble with God in Malachi 1. They were doing things that did not please God.
Here is what the Israelites were doing. They were bringing offerings to the temple for sacrifice.
Wait isn’t this what God told them to do? Yes, God told them to bring these offerings to the temple… but their offerings were no longer coming from faith, but out of empty tradition.
They started bringing not the best sacrificial lamb, but instead chose to bring a lame 3-legged lamb, or a bland and blemished lamb. They started to bring their offerings not from faith, but from ease and self-centeredness.
God was not pleased at their offerings, for they did not come in faith.
Malachi 1:10(NIV) “Oh, that one of you would shut the temple doors, so that you would not light useless fires on my altar! I am not pleased with you,” says the Lord Almighty, “and I will accept no offering from your hands.
Be careful that your offering comes from faith.
Worship from faith.
Pray from faith.
Serve from faith.
Give from faith.
God would rather you not do any of this if it is not coming from faith… because without faith it is impossible to please God.
1 Peter 1:18 For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors,
That empty way of life is void of faith.
Are you handing down a religious tradition birthed from a living active faith?
Are you attending a religious ceremony, or are you by faith pleasing the Lord?
Are you living by faith? Walking by faith?
Faith was never meant to be one moment in time where you were first saved.
Recapture that faith today.
Everything you do should come from faith. When was the last time you truly operated in faith?
People of faith are pleasing to the Lord.
Is the Lord pleased with you today?
Do something in faith today. Operate in faith.
Worship in faith.
Pray with someone in faith.
Declare God’s goodness by faith.