Episode 972: Growing Faith | Part 2

Well, we're talking about faith. What strengthens our faith? We started the series last week talking about how one of the best things you can do to strengthen your faith is to bring your honesty, bring those doubts, those frustrations, even your anger before God. You know, half of the Psalms are David just complaining to God. God, where are you when I need you, you know? And yet he concludes that, yet therefore I trust you. And then we talked about doubting Thomas, and Thomas wouldn't believe until he had more evidence, but to bring those doubts and those struggles before God is a great way to begin that faith journey. Now, the word faith in of itself is kind of a struggle because of its different connotations, even in our world today, our culture today. It's been using so many different ways that can lose its meaning. For example, somebody going through a challenging time, and we might even say, keep the faith, which is just another way of saying, keep your chin up. We use it as a modifier like faith-based charities. We use it to describe any and all belief systems outside of Christianity. And Christians, we have to understand that really faith is only as good as the object in which it is placed. So there are a lot of perversions of it. For example, if you've been here for any amount of time, you've heard me criticize prosperity theology. It has really perverted the concept of faith because faith is reduced to a technique that can be used to manipulate God. They wouldn't say it that way, but that's what it is. They would say that there are certain spiritual laws that you can get anything that you want, that they reduce God to this cosmic genie who is there to provide for every selfish desire we've ever had, like prosperity. One of the founders or beginners of prosperity theology was Kenneth Hagen. He taught that even unbelievers can use this formula to get what they want. Now I'm about to quote Kenneth Hagen. So if you've been dozing the last few seconds, don't wake up and go, gosh, the pastor is quoting this prosperity theologian. I'm quoting this to say this is not the way. God has a certain law of prosperity and when you get into contact with that law and those rules, it just works for you, whoever you are. When you come into contact with God's laws, they work. So that particular practice in prosperity theology has corrupted faith. You see instead of faith being theocentric, in other words God centered, faith in our culture has really become anthropocentric, which is human centered. And this is how a lot of people use that word today. It's all about having faith and here this subtlety, the amount of faith, don't lose that, the amount of faith. Because if you have enough, in other words in the amount, it will be enough to rescue you. But hear me say this is your pastor who loves you. That is not what the Bible teaches whatsoever. Faith is all about a person. It's about trusting in Jesus. You see faith is only powerful because of who it relies on. It's not faith and faith, it's faith in God. So remember, for example, your faith wasn't crucified for you. Your faith didn't promise to be with you to the end of the age. Your faith didn't promise to hear your prayers or forgive your sins. Faith can do any of those things, but Jesus can. It's faith in Jesus that matters. So since faith is God-centered, not me-centered, the more I trust in the character of God, the more I can tune my ear to what he's saying. The more I spend time in his word, the more faith grows. So the central passage today is in Matthew chapter 8. But on top of that, I'm going to quote Romans chapter 10 verse 17 a couple of times in this message. Faith comes from hearing and hearing through the word of Christ. So when it says faith comes from hearing, what that means is that faith first comes to us, not by our heart, not by our mind, or even our will, it comes through our ears. And faith is valued by hearing more than same because you'll hear a lot of people say, "Well, if I can see it, I will believe it." Again, that goes back to doubting Thomas from last week when he said, "Until I can put my hand in his nail-scarred hands, I won't believe." But the Bible says that faith comes not by what I see, but what I hear. 2 Corinthians 5 verse 7, "We walk by faith, not by what?" Sight. It's the difference between a faith that depends on signs and miracles and a faith that depends on the character of God. There's a huge difference there. It's the difference between one that seeks the hand of God versus one that seeks the face of God. You see, some people, again, those in a prosperity of theology, but many others as well, some seek God only for what he can do for them. That's seeking the hand of God. Others, though, seek God for who he is and seek his face. So if you want to grow in your faith, it's through hearing, but what are we hearing? The word of Christ. So the food for your faith really is the word of God. This means that the reason we study his word, what we're doing right now in this setting, what you did an hour ago in your life groups, what you do in your personal quiet times, what are we doing? We're hearing God's word. We're feeding on God's word. Pastor John Piper said faith feeds on the word of God. Without a steady diet, it gets weaker and weaker. If you are dissatisfied with your Christian courage, enjoy and purity of heart, then check the way you're feeding your faith. Now every once in a while, and it's not very often. Certainly nobody in this service. But every once in a while, somebody will complain and say, "Well, Pastor, I'm just not getting fed. I need to go find another church where I can really get fed." And what I would say to you is, first of all, who says those things? In the physical life, it's always toddlers to say those things, right? As a grandfather, I'm go-go to my grandkids. The one of the first things they learned when they're at Go-Go's house is, "Go-go, I want a snack." And I can't lie to them and say there's nothing in there because they know exactly where that box of goodies are. And they know exactly how to find them and use the step ladder to get to those snacks. And so that's a very important thing that Go-Go feeds them. But one day when they're older and they're not toddlers anymore, my hope is is that they will feed me. Maybe in the nursing home. But you see, it's only toddlers physically and spiritually and emotionally that desire to be fed. What I'm saying to you is that what I'm doing right now before you ought to be a B12 shot. It ought to be a supplement. You should not depend on me for all of your spiritual sustenance. I really feel sorry for you if you did. For example, I might not be hitting on all cylinders, you know? It may just not be a good week for me. But what you do is on a daily basis, you hear God's Word, you read God's Word and it strengthens your faith. So let's dive into the outline, faith that amazes and read our main passage from Matthew chapter eight. It says, "When Jesus had entered cappernum, a centurion came to him asking for help." Lord, he said, "My servant lies at home paralyzed, suffering terribly. Jesus said to him, shall I come and heal him?" The centurion replied, "Lord, I do not deserve to have you come under my roof." But just say the word and my servant will be healed. For I, myself, am a man under authority with soldiers under me. I tell this one, "Go and he goes." And that one come and he comes. I say to my servant, "Do this and he does it." When Jesus heard this, he was amazed and said to those following him, "Truly I tell you, I have not found anyone in Israel was such great faith." Then Jesus said to the centurion, "Go, let it be done just as you believed it would." And his servant was healed at that moment. So first of all, let's talk about this man, this centurion. Centurion just means 100, which means he was a Roman officer in charge of at least 100 men. And if you didn't know this, the Jewish people back then despised the centurions. They despised anybody that was a Gentile, but in particular, if you were a part of the Roman army who persecuted them. But evidently, with this officer, it was different. Luke chapter seven tells us that this centurion actually was a friend of the Jewish people. He even built a synagogue in that region. So because of that, there's no doubt he's been touched by the Jewish faith. There's no doubt he was aware it was going on in the region that he likely had heard reports of this teacher named Jesus who was teaching in the synagogues and healing people. And the crowds were following him. And he seemed to be doing things that were predicted in the Old Testament that only the Messiah would do. So what brought this man to Jesus? Again, verse six, "My servant lies at home paralyzed, suffering terribly." Now, there have been questions about whether this is this centurion servant or his child. And you'll get why this is important here in just second. But the word here in the Greek is pice move. Pice typically means child in the New Testament. It's where we get the word pediatrician. But there are a few places in the New Testament where it means servant. So let me give you some examples in the New Testament where this word means child. Matthew two, "Herod slew all the children from two years old and under." Matthew 17, the child was Matthew 21, the children, crying in the temple. We're saying, "Hosanna to the Son of David." But here in chapter 12 verse 18, which by the way is a prophecy about Jesus, Matthew uses the word "pice" to mean servant. Again, let me read again, behold my servant, whom I have chosen. This isn't direct quote, and you can check it for yourself, of Isaiah chapter 42. Isaiah often talks about the suffering servant in Isaiah 42 as one of those messianic passages. So let's go back to our original point. It could read, "Lord, my child lies in the house sick of the palsy, grievously tormented." Or it could read, "Lord, my young servant lies in the house sick of the palsy, grievously tormented." So the reason I lean toward it being a servant more than a child, because I believe it's connecting this messianic prophecy about Jesus in Isaiah 42. But what we do know is what the centurion really cared, that he really cared for this person, and wanted him healed. The reason this is very unusual is because slave owners back then had little or no regard for their servants. So let me just give you a couple of quotes from historians back then. Aristotle said, "A slave is a living tool, just as a tool is an inanimate slave." The Roman law expert, Gaeus wrote that it was universally accepted that the master possessed the power of life and death over a slave. And then finally, Barrow maintained that the only difference between a slave, a beast, and a cart was that the slave talked. So what I'm saying to you is that it's very unusual. The fact that the centurion cared about this servant says a whole lot. Now let's talk about the encounter he had with Christ. We go on in verse eight, the centurion replied, "Lord, I do not deserve to have you come under my roof, "but just say the word, and my servant will be healed, "for I myself am a man under authority. "With soldiers under me, I tell this one go and he goes, "and that one come and he comes. "I say to my servant, do this and he does it." So remember, most Jews would not even speak to a Gentile. Much less enter his home, and so you can tell the man sensitive to that restriction that Jesus might have this same problem with entering his home. But he also expresses his unworthiness to have someone like Jesus enter his home, which is unusual for a man an authority to have such humility. And so this is where the man reveals his absolute faith in Christ when he says this, "Just say the word, "and my servant will be healed." Because again, where is he getting that from? Well, he's an officer in the Roman army. So he knows how authority works. All he had to do is say the word, and it was done. He knew all military authority rested on the emperor that no one would dare disobey this centurion because to disobey him would be the same as disobeying the emperor himself. So he used that background to reason. Jesus obviously had an authority greater than the emperor. Jesus had supreme authority because he's God. And the centurion is confident that Jesus can heal, but this is the key. He's confident in the word of Jesus. See in his world, all you had to do was speak, and it was as good as done. That's how he sees Jesus. So let's talk about his faith because his faith actually impressed Jesus. Verse 10, "When Jesus heard this, he was amazed and said to those following him, "Truly I tell you I have not found anyone "in Israel with such great faith." Now here's what's fascinating. That word, the Greek word, theomazo amaze. That word is only used one other time in Scripture, but it's in the negative. In Mark chapter six, it says that Jesus was amazed at their lack of faith. He's talking about the people in his hometown of Nazareth, the place where people knew him the best, and yet they refused to believe. And that also amaze Jesus. Whereas the centurion says, "Jesus, "you don't need to come to my house, "just say the word and it'll be done." The people in Nazareth, they didn't even, they didn't even think he had anything special about him. So I would say to you today, it's very hard to shock Jesus, but when you do, it'll either be because you have a great faith or you don't have any faith at all. The Jewish people prided themselves on being a people of faith. So this would be incredibly insulting that Jesus said, I've not seen such great faith because they descended from Father Abraham, the Father of faith, and believed that they were the keepers of the one true faith, and yet they didn't have the faith like this Gentile, like this foreigner, like this Roman officer. Instead, they rebuked Jesus over and over and over for having little faith. They accused Jesus of having little faith. You sense the irony there? The irony also is that the only person that Jesus marveled at when it came to faith was a Roman officer, not a Jewish person, not even a disciple, that his spiritual resume was unimpressive. He could see what the covenant people of God were unable to see and just so that you know, I believe Jesus is still amazed by that kind of faith. So let's read it again. Verily I say unto you, I have not found so great faith. No, not in Israel. And here's what happens next. Jesus said into the centurion, go your way and as you have believed, so be it done unto you and his servant was healed in the self same hour. So what about us? Let's look at number two in our outline and let's talk about it in our maturity, the difference between great faith and little faith. Since that distinction is drawn in scripture, that contrast is drawn in scripture. By the way, going back to when I said the amount of faith, don't miss that, that the prosperity theology people talk about the amount of faith, a level of faith, that it's not about quantity. It's not about the amount of your faith. It's not about the degree of your faith. That is not scriptural at all. And yet, that is creeped into even us non-prosperity theologians. When you hear people talk like that, they don't understand the biblical idea of faith. You see faith is simply this. It's confidence and something that God has said. We go back once again to Romans chapter 10. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by what? The word of Christ. So little faith is just not being convinced of the truths, but great faith is, again, not the amount or the size of your faith. It's just the truths that you believe. It's as simple as that. That's what Jesus prays in the faith of the centurion. He knew that the words of Christ were sufficient into accomplish the healing. So what about us? We have promises. Do we believe them or not? That's it. It's not the amount of faith. It's not to the degree. It's whether you believe them or whether you don't believe them. So here are some of the promises. Do you believe them or not? One is that scripture promises that Christ will make us more and more like himself after we're born again. Do you believe that? He tells us he'll never leave us nor forsake us. Do you believe that? He tells us that he's given us everything that we need for life and godliness. Do we believe that? He tells us that if we put him first financially, he will take care of our needs. Do we believe that? He tells us getting the word of God in our lives will aid us in our transformation. He tells us his word is sufficient. My question is, is do most people that call themselves Christians believe these things? Because here's the truth. If we don't practice those things, it's because truly, we don't believe them. Your faith grows the more you simply believe what God says. Not the amount, not the degree, whether you believe it or not. And you know the test is whether you believe it is whether you practice those things. Because to know what not to do is not to know. You see, sign faith is always inferior to word faith. We often see in scriptures in the New Testament that the Pharisees were always asking Jesus for a sign. For example, in Matthew 16 and the Pharisees and Sadducees came and to test Him, Jesus. They asked Him to show them a sign from heaven. So when we demand signs, what are we doing? Just like the Pharisees, what are we doing? We're asking God to prove Himself, but to prove it on our terms. And we see this pattern throughout scripture, the Old Testament as well as the New Testament. And what did Jesus respond? He said, well, an evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign. But no sign will be given except the sign of Jonah. Now what's the sign of Jonah? Well, the sign of Jonah is the resurrection of Christ Himself. That's the sign. That's the proof that you need. That's the evidence. And by the way, who are sign seekers? Jesus said they're evil, they're unfaithful. People who are always demanding for God to prove Himself, just like in the Old Testament, God delivers them miraculously out of slavery in Egypt. He parched the Red Sea. He feeds them with mana. He guides them with a pillar of cloud in the day and a pillar of fire at night. And yet they still demanded signs. They still wouldn't believe. Now, before we climb up on our little high horse, we need to ask ourselves how many times have we done the same thing? Think of how many blessings God has given to you. Think of the way that God has delivered you from sin and death for those of you who are born again. And yet, sometimes we are like spoiled children, aren't we? Demanding that God jumped through our hoops to bring about the solution that we want to see happen and generally refuse to help. to trust that God really does know what he's doing. See a faith that is dependent on constant miracles really is a shallow faith. It's a sign faith. And sign faith is always inferior to word faith. Now Jesus, as you know, if you read the gospels, he did perform many miracles. In fact, the gospel of John says, many more they could even be recorded in this book to show that he was God, but Jesus did new miracles to attract followers. The signs tended to addict people to guess what? More signs. So whenever people flock to Jesus because of his miracles, his miracles actually become an obstacle to genuine faith. Why? Because they wanted a miracle worker and what they needed was a savior. Which is why my joke has always been when he fed the 5,000, and said they wanted to make him king. Well, they wanted to make him Burger King more than anything else, right? It isn't that a hilarious joke, because it's true. They would have been content with Jesus feeding him the rest of his ministry. The test of faith is not a reaction to signs and wonders. The true test of faith is our reaction to what Jesus says. So it really comes down to faith taking Jesus at his word. So one more time, lest you miss it. Romans chapter 10, so faith comes from hearing and hearing by the word of Christ. To take somebody at their word, what does that mean? Those in your life that you take them at their word, it means you trust them implicitly and to trust them, what do you need? You need to know their character. And so that's why we need to read God's word, because it's more, we develop more and more trust in God's character, the more we read his word. So when I say to seek God's faith rather than his hand, which one do you think is more scriptural? Well, let's just seek God's face. Let me give you just a smattering from the Psalms. Psalm 27, my heart says, if you seek his face, your face, Lord, I will seek. Psalm 24, they will receive blessing from the Lord and vindication from God their Savior, such as the generation of those who seek him, who seek your face. Psalm 105, look to the Lord and his strength, seek his face always. Psalm 119, I have sought your face with all my heart. Be gracious to me according to your promise. So think about every day life. What happens when you cardize? What do you do? You call the tow truck. What happens when your wife, I goes out, you call the streaming company. What happens when your tooth aches? You go to the dentist. But when your life comes crashing around you, God tells you to do something different. To seek his face. To learn how to trust him and you'll be content no matter the answer to your prayer, because it's only when you get to know God that you know how to pray. The Bible doesn't instruct us to seek God's hand, but to always seek his face. To seek who God is before you can seek out what he can do for you. First Chronicle 16, look to the Lord and his strength. Seek his face always, but here's the problem. The problem when we only seek God's hand is said so well by Pastor Dan Allender. If God's goodness is looked for primarily in terms of fortune, then the verdict on his heart toward us will always be pending a new set of facts. So you trust, your trust in God will always be dependent on what he does for you, and you'll come away disappointed. Which is why, last week, I wanna cover it just for a brief moment again today, there's a difference in there's two different levels of faith. There's that childlike faith, which by the way, the Bible doesn't condemn, it's how we became born again. For those of you who are born again, you had to have a childlike kind of faith, a faith that's dependent on God doing something for you. You had faith that God would save you, and of course he promises to save you. That's childlike faith. We also see it in other places in scripture, like David, when he's about to fight Goliath, he has faith that God's gonna give him victory. So he has that childlike faith and says, pass me that slingshot, right? But there's a different level. The Bible invites us to a different level in our maturity, a more mature kind of faith called fidelity faith. It's rooted in God's character more than what God does. It's a tried and true faith that's experienced loss and disappointment and endowed. And so my question to you is this, how do you know which one you have? Well, how do you pray? Do you pray, Lord deliver me out of this situation? Or do you pray Lord deliver me in this situation? Do you see the difference? And then finally, Hebrews chapter 11 gives us probably one of the greatest insights on the answer of evil and suffering. We talked about that last week too. We call Hebrews 11 the hall of faith because it lists out all these wonderful people of faith and scripture and it describes them in this way. Who through faith conquered kingdoms? Gained what was promised. Who shut the mouths of lions? Quench the fury of the flames. Whose weakness was turned to strength. But others were tortured. Some face jeers and flogging, while still others were chained and put in prison. They were stoned, they were sought in too. They were put to death by the sword. They went about destitute, persecuted, and mistreated, and the world was not worthy of them. So get this. In this passage, in Hebrews chapter 11, you see a contrast. Did you catch it? A contrast between those who experience supernatural deliverance and those who did not. And there's just one little word that divides the two that makes this passage so powerful. Did you catch it? It's the word others. Because after the word others, he goes on to describe people who did not experience miracles, who were tortured and suffered these horrible things. So why is that word so important? That word others. Well, I'm gonna tell you why. The Greeks had two different words for the word others. One was the word heteros which meant others of a different kind. And the other word was alos which meant others of the same kind. So guess which word, this word here in Hebrews 11 is. It's others of the same kind. And this is truly the answer, a part of the answer to evil and suffering. In other words, those who were delivered and those who suffered and were not delivered, they were the same. They were exactly the same. There's no difference in their faith. The people who suffered were being punished by God or somehow less deserving of God's miracles. They were others of the same kind. But there is one difference. There is something that is slight. God said about the second group that the world was not worthy of them. The writer of Hebrews listed all of these people who had great faith, but he reserved the highest praise for the people of faith who never received a miracle, other than being delivered in the heaven. So never think that just because you aren't seeing the miraculous deliverance from your circumstances that it's because you don't have an amount of faith. That's enough. The real test of faith comes not when a person escapes a trial, but when everything in them wants to give up and yet your faith sustains you. The world is not worthy of people like that. Some of you in this room, some of you listening online, you will experience miracles that deliver you out of situations and don't we praise God for that? But there will be some of you who don't escape and don't receive the miracle, but the miracle that you're delivered into heaven and into the arms of Jesus is the ultimate miracle, listen it. So I want you to stand with me this morning as we have our time of invitation. I want to give you an opportunity to receive the ultimate miracle, which is the miracle of heaven. So as we sing this song, I want to make sure that you are invited to this wonderful place called heaven in this relationship with Jesus. It's expressed as we respond to the gospel in this acrostic, if you'll just give me a few seconds. The letter G in this acrostic reminds us that God created you for one reason or one reason only and that is to have a relationship with you. But the problem is with you, even if I don't know you, you sin and I sin because the Bible says, all have sin and come short of the glory of God. So because of that sin, there's a separation. God can't be near sin. God desires to be in a relationship with you, but he can't because you have sin in your life. A holy God can't be near sin. So it creates this dilemma for all of human kind and all of human history, there's a dilemma. And the world outside of Christianity teaches, well, if you just do good things, it'll all work out in the end. But can you imagine the anxiety that must create? Have you done enough? Well, God's plan is much more perfect than that 'cause it's God's plan. God's plan from Scripture is this. God the Father sent God the Son to live a perfect life so that he could die for our sins and our place on the cross. And he uttered this phrase, it's so powerful while he's on the cross, he says, it is finished. It's actually an accounting term. It means it's paid for. Your sins are actually paid for through the blood of Christ on the cross. But know this, a gift is not a gift if it's not received. You have to receive that gift. So what's God's invitation? God's invitation is this. Every person who trusts in Christ alone is promised salvation. You're promised that gift of eternal life. And what's amazing about this, if you've never experienced being born again, what's amazing about it, Is this the greatest miracle you'll ever experience? that God supernaturally changes you in that moment. The moment you say yes to Him, it remains that relationship remains unbroken all the way into eternity. I can't imagine anybody saying no to that invitation. But you know what we tend to do? We tend to put it off, don't we? So I am not this Sunday. I got lunch plans. I gotta go take a nap, right? So we put it off and I believe, I believe with all my heart, that Satan's greatest lie, so there's no hurry. Wait 'til it's a deathbed confession, you know. But that's not God's plan for you. God's plan for you is much greater than that. So as you decide whether you wanna make that decision, our pastors are gonna stand here at the front as we sing this last song. But let's pray first. Father, thank you for your goodness and the good news of the gospel. We pray for those who might be listening, even in this moment, who have yet to make their reservation in heaven, who have yet to open the door of their heart. Lord, we pray that today would be the day of their salvation. And Lord, for those of us who are born again, may we walk out of these doors as missionaries in our hurting world that we would be salt and light and share the very message of the gospel, the good news of the gospel. And so Lord, during this time of invitation, let it not be wasted, let this not be just the last song that we tack on at the end of the service, but let it be about transformation for every one of us as we become more and more like you. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen, and let's sing together.