I read something recently that says that Christians do not exhibit faith in many ways, same way we relate to the world. In other words, does your faithfulness, does your life of faith look any different than the world? Because we can claim to have faith, but do our lives bear faith, the testimony of faith?
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The Bible calls us to walk by faith, to live by faith. And when someone walks by faith, it's going to go against those who walk by sight. It's going to look different. You're going to think, this person's out of their mind. They're living and they're walking in such a way that it contradicts what the world would say.
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I want to challenge you this morning. Some of you need to try something new. Not to just be trying something new, but I'm talking about by faith. To get out of your comfort zone and do something for God. That you actually witness the Holy Spirit's power living in your life and living through you.
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How many of you claim Christ, but never let anybody to Christ? You never let anybody to faith in Christ. You claim to be a follower of Christ, but your life looks no different than the neighbor that is not a Christian. Do you live in such a way that people see you and say, I know that person's walking by faith or living by faith.
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Someone in this room, you need to do something that scares you. Something by faith. Because you've walked this walk called your Christianity and it's not by faith. It's by your bank account. It's by your comfort. And you're walking by sight and you're not walking by faith. And someone in this room, you need to step out of that and do something for God that only God can do through you.
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Christianity is not about gathering in one place a couple times a week and just soaking all this stuff in. You know, there's a time for that. The Bible tells us, commands us to gather together. Don't forsake the gathering of yourselves as some are doing. He says, gather, but folks, Christianity is about living out your purpose through faith.
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Is there a danger that we've misplaced our faith? Is there a danger that Christians have got into this place that we're self-serving? In other words, we want us to be served? I think there's a danger that we've misplaced our purpose. And we've misplaced our purpose how faith influences our lives as Christians and the church.
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Understand there's an enemy, and what he would love for us to do as Christians is remain safe. Safe and satisfied. Not like the safety of Christ and the Holy Spirit, but the safety that's by sight and not faith. He wants you to be quiet. He wants you to be undisturbed. He would love for me not to preach this message today.
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There's an enemy, and he loves it when churches are faithless. He loves it because we don't have any impact. We don't have any influence on the lost world. When his members file into the building, they listen to music. They listen to a message. They throw some money in the offering plate. They get to the place. We say amen, and they walk out, and they live faithless. They live for themselves.
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Paul is burdened with the spiritual health of the church. Folks, this is not the only time Paul wrote a letter to the church. In 2 Corinthians 11, verse 28, he says, and if you read chapter 11 leading up to verse 28, Paul is really just giving his testimony. And he's saying all the persecution, all the pain, all the agony, everything he's going through. But then he gets to verse 28, and he says, besides everything else, in other words, everything else that I'm personally going through, every battle that I'm battling, everything that I'm facing personally, Paul says, I face the daily pressure of my concern for all the churches. Man, what a pastor's heart. Paul says, I'm dealing with stuff, but my heart's with you. I'm going through some stuff, but I'm battling, I'm contending for the church. He says, I'm not doing this for myself. I'm doing it for Christ.
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Paul focuses on this significance of love in faith within a letter. Understand if there's not, if we can't love one another, we're not going to grow in faith. And we're not going to reach the loss. If we can't grow this community of believers in faith, you know, if we can't express love to one another in the body, we must, we must remain faithful to Christ. We must remain faithful to Christ. Before anything else, we must remain faithful to Christ.
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Have you ever noticed that without love, the truth will always splinter. But with love, the truth holds us together in this community. So Paul is trying to write to the church and he's writing to the church for an intention of growing us closer in community.
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A church that lacks confidence in faith will function like a business and not the house of God. A church that lacks confidence in faith will function like a business and not the house of God.
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Our faith cannot rest on a pastor. It can't rest on a religion. It can't rest on church membership. Our faith must be in Christ. And I know I'm going over this so many times, so many times, so many times, trying to make a point.
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Every action, every step that we make stems from your heart. So Paul is saying, I'm encouraging you at the place that counts. I'm not talking, I'm not here to flatter you, I'm not trying to, you know, to entertain you. Paul is saying, I'm writing you to your heart. I'm trying to encourage your heart. This is where confidence needs to come from. In the Christian's heart, our innermost part.
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A heart that lacks confidence by faith, folks, will be led astray. It will. If you don't have faith, you're going to fall for anything. Christian, if you don't have strong faith, you're going to be lured away. You're going to listen to people's opinions, you're going to listen to people's gossip, and you're going to be lured away. So, he's writing to them at their heart. Strengthen your faith. Have confidence in your faith.
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Sometimes we allow human traditions to steer us away from faith. I never did it like that before. I'm afraid to do that. Those are the people that's going to be secure and you won't be undisturbed. You're going to leave here today and be like, well, I heard the message but I really didn't get it because you're not looking to step out in faith. You're satisfied and you just want to sit where you're at.
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What happens is we miss the blessings if we're faithless people. And we're not doing it for a blessing, we're doing it because we love God and we adore Him and Paul is saying, this is the community of faith. If we're a community of faith, we're going to be living out faith.
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The church that doesn't function by faith doesn't represent the Christ of the gospel. The church that doesn't function by faith doesn't represent the Christ of the gospel.
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To understand having this solid confidence of faith that helps us to stand and help us to hold us together. Because when we have faith, there's nothing in the world that can stop us. When our faith is in the Lord Jesus, there's nothing that can stop us. Again, I'm not saying go and just do things blindly because our faith is not blind. Our faith is in Christ.
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Faith is two ways. It's inward and it's outward. Inward faith is what we believe. Outward faith is what we do. And Jesus taught this in Matthew chapter 7 in verse 16 through 17. He says, by their fruit, by their fruit, what you see is that outward faith. You will recognize them.
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Our faith must be sincere and it must be founded in Christ. It's not, it's this transformation that happened in your life when he saved you. He transformed you from darkness to light. He transformed you from lost to life, from blind to be able to see. He took you from out of the pit of hell and he placed you on. It's that faith that Paul is writing. He says, don't allow anyone to water that down. Don't allow anyone to mislead you and drag you away from that kind of faith.
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Understand you're saved by faith. You're called to live by faith. This is the work of Jesus Christ by faith, inspired by the Holy Spirit that lives in you.
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We can only build on the foundation that's already been established. In other words, we can't build on words of encouragement. I wish I could. I wish I could come in here and encourage you and say, you know, I'm sorry, you're just going by a bad time and just give it all to Jesus and everything's going to get better. It doesn't sometimes. We've got to build it on faith because that's what the church is built on, faith of Jesus Christ.
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Live your life by faith. Walk by faith instead of looking and trying to figure everything out and trying to, you know, and I'm not saying, you know, have blind faith. No, not blind faith. Keep your eyes on things above. Not on earthly things.
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What I want to walk away, I want you to walk away with is church, you can be confident in faith. Why? Because the fullness of Christ lives in the people called the church. This community of believers can have confidence in faith because Jesus is head of the church. He is the chief cornerstone.
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We're saved by faith and we're commanded. It's not a suggestion. He says, walk by faith. He didn't say if you feel like it, if it was convenient. He says, no, walk by faith.
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