Eliphaz Salik | Activating Faith

[Music] hi everybody great to have you with us tonight welcome to the midweek encounter church service the online church community thank you for being a part of this each week and god bless you if you're watching this for the first time lovely and great to see you and have you with us tonight please go to our website check us out there you can see us on facebook and other places but thank you for being with us and of course we'd love to see you sunday mornings too at 9 00 or 11 o'clock every sunday morning in our church services uh tonight we want to and just to alert you to a couple future things going on here at the church we have the men's zoom that happens every tuesday morning men of purpose our ministry for men here at encounter church join us every tuesday on zoom at 7 a.m we normally go from 7 to 8 a.m and you can go to our church website check us out there find out what's happening and we're still in the book of acts and going through some great studies so if you're watching and you're a guy love to see you there even this coming tuesday and you can go to our church website to find out some more information about that as well as a new class we're having start here this coming sunday september 12th with pastor sharon mahoney she's going to be talking about uh the finished work of the cross the finished work of the cross finding out your identity discovering what jesus accomplished the power of his resurrection how it influences your daily christian walk very important class very powerful teachings each week starting this sunday 9 15 a.m here at the church facility in the matthew room so glad that you're going to be able to come to that if you can make it also we appreciate your continual support financially god bless you as you continue to give and the different ways to give you can see on the scroll here on the screen and god has opened up many avenues for for folks to support the kingdom of god thank you for supporting encounter church so let's open in prayer and then you're going to see one more video announcement and pastor eliphaz will be with us god bless this tonight's teaching thank you for the folks that are watching thank you for your hand upon every family every person tuning in tonight in a mighty way in jesus name thank you god bless you watch this announcement and then pastor eliphaz will be with us hi there encounter family it's pastor reese and i want to encourage you to be a part of wednesday's at encounter on wednesday nights we set aside time to just really seek god now on our first wednesday services we gather with our worship team with the the prayer ministry with the pastors and we really have a time of god's manifest presence and his power we see miraculous things happen on the second third fourth and fifth if we have it wednesdays those are special times where we have a space and a place for each of us to disconnect from all of the influences around us and go deeper in our personal relationship with god the times are from seven to eight pm and i encourage you to be a part of wednesday's at encounter hey good evening encounter family i'm pastor elfaz thank you again so much for joining us this wednesday evening you know god's got some wonderful things happening and we're so glad that you're a part of this online streaming service today uh you know i just want to share with you today about faith you know faith is something that we've heard of so many times and you know we say to people have faith god's going to come through or you know have faith for this but sometimes i always question my own life what am i believing what is it that i'm really believing what is this faith that we talk about and i'm sure that some of you might have that same question about what is faith you know the bible says that faith now faith is the substance of things hoped for the evidence of things not seen and you know that's some really good bible verbage for what it is but how do we really apply that every day and you know jesus when he was here on earth he he said to us he said don't worry about anything now if you've ever been in this world you're worried about something right and yet jesus says in matthew chapter 6 he says this he says so why do you worry about clothing like meaning what what what you're gonna wear or he says consider the lilies of the field how they grow they neither toil nor spin and yet i say to you that even solomon in all of his glory was not arrayed like one of these now if god so clothes the grass of the field which today is and tomorrow is thrown into the oven will he not so much more clothe you and then he ends with this oh ye of little faith i think that's super interesting that jesus is saying don't worry don't worry about what you're going to wear don't worry about what you're going to eat don't worry about where you're gonna live and then he goes on to say therefore do not worry saying what shall we eat what shall we drink what shall we wear for after all these things the gentiles seek i think it's an important comparison that jesus is making here he's saying listen you who believe in me jesus need not worry about the things that those who don't believe in me worry about and yet if you if you're here in this world sometimes it's easy to get caught up in the rut how am i going to pay my bills how am i going to take care of this issue how am i going to take care of that issue what are my kids going to do what am i going to do i got a car payment to make i've got a house payment to make and there's so many other things like that and yet jesus is saying to us listen if you know me don't worry about those things because those who don't believe worry about those things for your heavenly father knows that you need all these things see god our father in heaven when we say the lord's prayer let your kingdom come let your will be done we start with our father it's saying that your father in heaven he already knows what you need you see we don't see our god we don't see our father in heaven all the time but we know that he's real and when we know that it's out of faith it's how to believe even though we don't see we know that he exists because we see the work of his hands we can see the trees around us or we can see the beautiful mountains here in colorado or wherever you are you can see something else beautiful the sunrise the sunset and we know that he exists because of everything that he's created and his just wonderful grace and then jesus goes on to say in matthew 6 33 but seek first the kingdom of god and you've heard this many times kingdom of god is like this kingdom of god is like that seek first the kingdom of god and his righteousness and all these things meaning your food your clothes everything else will be added to you therefore do not worry about tomorrow for tomorrow we'll worry about its own things sufficient for the day is its own trouble you know i think about jesus because he was just so wonderful and we've read about him in the word and you know we've heard about him in church and yet i think about this passage and say god how do i live this life of not worrying about anything where does that even start how does that happen i mean how many pastors do you know and and you hear them say hey i'm worried about this i was concerned about this and i'm depressed about that or you know all kinds of things because we're human too and yet jesus is talking to his people to his saints to his disciples and he's saying don't be like the world don't worry about those things how do we live in that and i want to take us back to hebrews 11 where it gives us a definition of faith it says now faith is the substance of things hoped for the evidence of things not seen and then paul goes on to say this he says for by it the elders obtained a good testimony by what by faith the elders obtained a good testimony and then this is famously known as the hall of faith chapter here in hebrews 11 it says this by faith abel offered to god a more excellent sacrifice than cain through which he obtained witness that he was righteous i think it's really interesting over here that the bible talks about faith causing abel to become righteous it says god testifying of his gifts and through it he being dead still speaks listen faith never dies faith will always speak and it is faith i believe that is the kingdom of god faith is the kingdom of god when we go outside of what we can see and when we go outside of what what's what's ailing us whatever that might be in your life once you get past that that is the beginning of faith i believe that's where we say yes god i see the situation i see my bank accounts drained i see my child is sick i see that i'm sick i see that my family member isn't isn't treating me nice i see that my boss isn't treating me nice but by faith i know god that i trust in you and you're gonna take care of the situation so i'm not gonna live out of this circumstance i'm gonna live like the circumstances already been resolved and that i believe is faith right there and so just understanding that and just accepting that that that thing that the situation doesn't dictate who i am it's god who tells me who i am once you're there that i i believe is seeking the kingdom of god because the kingdom of god is not of the flesh the kingdom of god is totally unseen totally supernatural and yet our spirit that god has put inside of us the same spirit that raised christ from the dead that spirit inside of us is what gets activated when faith is activated when we say okay i'm not looking at the at the things by sight i'm closing my eyes to that and now i'm going to open my spiritual eyes and start looking towards heaven and how do we do that here's how it says it says by faith enoch was taken away so that he did not see death and was not found because god had taken him for before he was taken he had this testimony that he pleased god and then it says this but without faith it is impossible to please him for he who comes from god must believe that he is here's the first part about faith there's many things that many people believe in there's many things that the world tells you to believe in oh just trust me i can do this for you or hey believe that person or believe that that company faith outside of jesus christ faith outside of god almighty faith outside of the holy spirit the three in one is no faith at all without faith in god there is no faith and so i think as a christian we need to understand that jesus has to be our all in all and if there's anything else in your life or in my life that's outside of that that is not the faith that god is calling for that is unrighteousness in fact and this is what it says right here and uh hebrews 11 verse 8 by faith abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to the place where he would go and receive as an inheritance and he went out not knowing where he was going i think that word obeyed is really important because it's saying that he obeyed even when he didn't know when he was where he was going you know i think many of you today are in a situation right now where you didn't expect to be and yet you know what the word of god says and it's really difficult to do because you can't see the end you can't see where you're going to go and yet that's what faith is all about it's going to the place that you don't understand it's going to the place where you where you can't make sense of it because that's what obedience is all about without obeying there is no access to faith because then otherwise you're just saying the things that you ought to say according to the word but you're not actually activating it you're not actually living it because if i tell my daughter or my son if i say to them hey go pick up your mess that you made over there in the in the living room and they say okay dad i believe i can go do that but then they just sit there and they don't actually go and pick it up yeah they believe they can do it but they never actually activated that belief and i know it's a very simple example over there but i think sometimes we can be that way with god god says hey don't worry okay god i know i shouldn't worry and yet when we live our lives when we go to work when we're around our family we're just complaining about things and saying i can't believe this happened i can't believe who the president is i can't believe who the president is not all those kinds of things in our daily life whatever that might be for you i'm just giving you some relevant examples when you're activating your mouth to say things out of the lack of faith you're not really believing what god said you're not really believing that he's put his spirit inside of you you're not believing that you're more than an overcomer but as an overcomer you say listen come what may no matter what's happening no matter what fiery pit the devil's got prepared over there my god will save me because he is able to save but even if he doesn't i know that he'll make a way and we won't complain we won't bow down to what the enemy has to say i want to remind you of this piece right here it says right here in genesis chapter 15 verse 6. this is what it says about abraham it says that abraham he believed the lord and it was accounted to him for righteousness and this is where god has talked to abraham in genesis chapter 15 verses 4 through 6 he's saying to him listen abraham leave your family leave your father's house go to the place i'm going to show you and then he says i'm going to give you so many children and remember abraham didn't have a single child at this time he said man give you so many kids that you won't be able to number them there'll be as many as the stars up in the sky there'll be as many as the sand on the seashore you won't be able to count them and it says this right after that he says and he abraham believed the lord and he accounted to him for righteousness he counted it to him i think that word accounted is really really important over here because we think of accounting what do you think if you think of numbers and you think of an accountant doing math there's another translation the niv says it was credited to him if you've heard that word credit what is that what comes to mind your bank account there's a credit there's a debit debit is a minus credit is an ad see i believe we have a faith account and every time we believe god and we walk in that belief god adds to that account and your faith keeps growing and growing and growing versus the opposite if we listen to what he says but then we don't actually act on it we're actually getting a debit in our faith account i know we want to have activated faith where our bank account of faith is growing more and more and more i know you do i know i do and so how do we do that this is how we do it we actually believe it and then we act on that belief it's good to actually listen and understand and hear the word of god because it helps increase your faith but therefore you don't actually live it out what's the point see this is what abraham did abraham actually took the initiative to listen to god i trust you god so now i'm going to leave everything behind i'm going to go to the place that you're going to show me that i don't even know about yet i just want to i just feel strong in the spirit right now that there's somebody watching here and maybe one of one or more of you who really think that you're going to be acting on a step of faith right now because you don't know where to go and yet you've heard god's voice clearly in your head you know where he wants to take you you know the direction but you don't know the end of that it seems difficult it seems messy it seems like you're going to leave everything you've worked for and yet i believe that god is going to make something bigger than what you can imagine happen because he spoke to you and when you give up that thing whatever that is that you're holding on to and you say yes lord you say yes god i'm gonna follow you because that's what you said to me i can hear your voice clearly that's where god activates faith that's where you get the opportunity to receive the blessing from god and when you're walking in an activated faith it's a totally different life you live because your eyes will tell you all kinds of things and yet your spirit is at peace because your spirit is saying i got you holy spirit is talking to you i got you this is not nothing to worry about he believed the lord and it was accounted to him for righteousness you see i think sometimes we seek the kingdom of god by saying okay i'm going to go to church i'm going to put my kids in children's church i'm going to do all the rules all the stuff and and yet none of those things can make us righteous the only thing that makes us righteous is what god says here it says because you believed me and you acted on it that is righteousness and so again you can give give everything you have to the poor and yet if you don't obey christ and actually do what he said it's gonna be very difficult it's gonna be very difficult to actually say that i am righteous because the righteousness of christ is free for all if we accept it if we believe it and so what does this righteousness look like it's really simple seek the kingdom of god by saying okay god i believe i trust and his righteousness looks like this we actually act on that and we act on what we act on love that's the key god this is what jesus said about about all the commandments all the laws he said on this one thing hang all the law and prophets that you love the lord your god with all your heart with all your soul all your strength and you love your neighbor as yourself if that's a part we can figure out how do we love those that hate us how do we pray for those who persecute us how do we bless those who curse us if those are the things that can be activated in our life every day where we're literally walking around unashamed unafraid not not afraid of who we're gonna run into not afraid to call somebody that we hate or that that that's done something wrong to us and we just say you know i love you let bygones be bygones once we get to that point it changes everything in our lives because then there's no fear of any kind of harm there's no fear of any judgment because we have no control our our lives not controlled by who we know or what they've done to us our lives are in full submission to christ and we say our instructions come from heaven above so there's nothing no harm that anybody can do to us that's what love is all about and that's faith activated when we can live and walk in love all the time everywhere we go with our co-workers with our family with our friends with our pastors with our co-workers whatever it might be jesus christ is love and when we say yes jesus i love you and then actually live that love to everyone everywhere it changes everything because then we walk by the spirit and now by the flesh and so i want to leave you with these three things god speaks god has given us his word god gives us pastors and teachers and leaders and evangelists god gives us all kinds of of different prophetic words why he gives them to us so that we'll obey obedience is key in the in the life of a christian because if we don't obey we can't activate faith because faith requires obedience to the word of god if we say we believe then we actually obey and obedience is an action word you actually have to do it i believe this is number three so number one god speaks so we can obey number two obedience requires faith and number three faith is seeking god's kingdom when we believe we're actually seeking god's kingdom and righteousness is actually acting on that faith when you act on that faith and you act and live a lifestyle of what you really believe that is faith working in righteousness and so when the bible says seek first the kingdom of god and his righteousness it means act in love all the time everywhere you go believe it that god will take care of you believe that romans 8 28 that all these things work together for the good of those who love god and those who are called according to his purpose believe that you can do all things through christ who strengthens you believe that jesus christ died for you on the cross and rose again and because of his resurrection you're absolutely free free from all the things that the enemy brings your way free from all the lies that the world has to offer free from literally every debt and so you know if you want a closer walk with god i encourage you that if you've learned something from this message today if this has spoken to you today i just want you to just take a moment just bow your heads close your eyes wherever you are and just for a moment just say god i want to have this kind of faith just say that just say god i want to have this kind of faith where nothing bothers me where i just trust in you i believe in you you know i believe that there's somebody watching right now that you you don't even know jesus you're like what are you talking about this god i don't know this god and you want to know him it's real simple right now if you incline your heart in your mind if you say lord talk to me the way that pastor is talking about right now i want to know this god he'll talk to you so just if you can lift your hands up as a sign of surrender and just say god i want to know you just say that with me say god i want to know you you know i believe he prayed that prayer in sincerity god's actually going to talk to you he's going to speak to you if you need a bible we here at encounter if you want to send you a bible go ahead and just type in your address and your name or you can just email us at info ec denver dot org email us info at easydenver.org with your your information and we'll get in touch with you and we'll mail you out a bible as well as a bible reading plan that you can find on our website at easydenver.org and so god bless you we really hope you've been encouraged we're here for you if you have any prayer requests feel free to send those in to us as well we want to pray with you and stand in faith for breakthrough for you you can send in your prayer requests at prayer easydenver.org have a great evening we hope to see you soon go with god hi there i'm pastor reece and you've been watching one of our streaming messages here from encounter church i want you to know that at encounter church we are a diverse community of people who seek god together and share jesus and love to our city and world and that's our heart towards you we want you to have an amazing relationship with god we want you to understand how much god loves you we want you to know that he has real practical solutions for the challenges you face in life whether those are emotional challenges or physical challenges or financial challenges uh whatever they are jesus is there to help you and to to guide you and steer you through that but all of that potential help is just it's just waiting there until you release it and the way we release it is by making a decision to welcome jesus into our hearts as both our saviors as the as the one who forgives us of our shortcomings and failures our sins if you if you would allow me but also as our lord as as someone that we go to and say you know not my will but yours be done you know christ i don't know how to to fix this i've made a mistake i've done something i've messed this situation up but i'm looking to you to help me when we do that when we invite jesus into our hearts uh he literally makes us become born again is what the king james uses it's it's a term which reflects to us experiencing a new life that wasn't there before and so right now i just like to pray with you if you would like to experience that new life if you'd like to invite christ into your to your heart as your lord and savior right now just say this with me say dear jesus i believe in you i need you forgive me of my my failures and my sins and become my lord lead me into a better way of life and i ask this in faith amen you know if you did that know that god heard that prayer and god responded and we'd like to send you some information that we believe would be a help for you if you would just email us at ec ecdenver.org we'll we'll get that out to you if you don't have an email file you can you call us at 303-770-0400 and you can speak to somebody in our church office and we'll be able to connect with you as well god bless you we love you we will look forward to seeing you next time right here at encounter church [Music] you

Channel: Encounter Church

Views: 70

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: Encounter Church, Reece Bowling, Pastor, Centennial, Church, Sunday, Wednesday, Service, Colorado, Marilyn Hickey, Sarah Bowling, Sermon, Message, Holy Spirit, Preaching, Teaching, God, Jesus, Christ, Worship, Live Stream, Bible, Pat Mahoney, Aaron Malone, Judah Dawkins, Sarah Malone, Niki Martschinske, Band, Music, Bethel, Bethel Church, Denver, UpperRoom, Robby Dawkins, Bethel Worship, Elevation, Jesus Culture

Id: 8RQXAWxVj28

Length: 23min 2sec (1382 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 08 2021