Monday - Believing In The Lord

[Music] good morning class yeah hi I'm Keith Moore and we welcome you to faith school in fact we've saved you a seat right up here in the front of the class so we can see you real close make sure that you're getting it so get prepared get your Bible something to take notes on come into the class and join us faith school is the place where our faith is fed our spirit grows stronger and we learn how to be overcomers this is how God has called us and instructed us to live to receive to overcome to please him very important so let's pray let's release our faith for utterance and for ears to hear that will get exactly what we should get today and this week in faith school classes Father in Jesus name we thank you so much for the opportunity to be in your word to be taught by your spirit and to grow in this marvelous thing called faith that you have created the world's by and that you have called us to live by we ask for exactly what we need for now that we might grow up in you fully and we purpose to be not forgetful hearers hearers only but doers of it in Jesus name Amen thank you lord well get your textbook you know what that is that's the Bible and turn to Genesis the fifteenth chapter please Genesis chapter 15 verse 5 and we see in this passage abraham who's called a father of faith responding to god telling him that his seed is going to be his offspring is going to be like the stars in the sky this was something that abraham couldn't have reason as true and we'll see what his response is faith and a great example for us Genesis 15 5 says God brought him forth abroad and he said look now toward heaven and tell the Stars if you be able to number them and he said so shall your seed be so if you know the story of Abraham and Sarah in the earlier days when I say days decades of their life they were unable to conceive and have a child and so God's telling him not only are you going to have a child you're going to have so many children and their children is going to have so many children that they're going to be as numerous as the stars well what do you do with that revelation with that information you'll see in verse 6 it says and he believed in the Lord and he counted it God counted it to him for righteousness something you'll see will keep coming back to this in faith school as the days go by faith and believing is a choice it's a choice and you'll see when God revealed to Abraham he said look up in the night sky can you count all of these stars then he tells him something you're gonna have this many offspring so the juncture that Abraham is at right now is does he believe this or does he not is this illogical unreasonable impossible or does he trust the one who told him this does he believe notice that it said he believed in the Lord do you see that phrase and he believed the Lord this isn't a significant phrase Hebrews 11:6 tells us that he that comes to God must believe that he is and he must believe that he is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him so there's two different things that you're believing about God you're believing that he is that he exists and if he is God then of course he has the knowledge he has the ability but you must believe something else and this is where believing in him comes in yes you believe he exists yes you believe he's all-knowing and all-powerful but you must believe in his character in His goodness in his love for you in his willingness to use his knowledge and his power for you for your benefit and the scripture says faith works by love so it's not just believing that God exists when you say I believe in God well James says that the devil's believe in God and they trembled but it doesn't benefit them believing in the Lord is more than believing in his existence and so when when Abraham looked up in the night sky and he is considering what God's just told him how many stars are there of course this is before the days of telescopes and satellites and all these things and even then he knew he could not count these now we understand it's billions upon billions of stars and that's just what we can see so what do you do with that information you're going to have billions upon billions of offspring and it at the present you don't have one and it looks like you're getting too old to have one and Sarah couldn't conceive as a young woman what what does he have to do here he simply has to make a choice he has to choose whether he believes this or not and what does he base his his choice on based on what he believes about the one who's telling him based on what he believes about the character and faithfulness that it's impossible for God to lie and that God said it he's able to do it and if he said he would do it he will do it he won't fail you he won't let you down so just in a moment Abraham decides yes it's true I believe it I believe it and and it pleased God so much that it was counted to Abraham for righteousness he counted him righteous of course this is back you know before the law this is back before the coming of Jesus faith allowed him to be counted righteous in the eyes of God it is such an important thing to understand that faith is a choice believing is a choice you'll hear people use this phrase oftentimes people are saved I can't believe that I'm sorry I just can't believe that that is an untrue statement no matter who said it no matter what circumstances they're talking about by reason of the nature of faith what and what faith is there's no such thing as a person who can't believe they're what they should have said is I choose not to believe it I choose not to it if they would choose to they could billions of people on this planet right now believe all manner of things that are completely untrue they have chosen to believe it and after you choose to believe something that's untrue long enough you become deceived you think it is true it was a choice every day people hear things and they make a choice either believe it or they don't now when it comes to other people you don't want to be overly quick to believe you don't want to be overly quick to trust people this is something that Christians have misunderstood a lot of believers think if you love people it means you blindly trust them and this is not true you can love somebody and not trust them at all you know if they're lying to you on a regular basis and you trust them when you know their words not good you're just being foolish and easily misled easily deceived no it's only God that when we hear what he says we don't hesitate we decide immediately I believe it if God said it now if Joe said it well that's not funny if Betty said it well we may have to double-check that right you don't just instantly believe everything that any person tells you but if the Lord said it in his word in the written word of God if the Lord says it to you by his Spirit if the Lord says it we should make a decision immediately before you know before we understand it before we can wrap our mind around it just by right of who he is and what he is and his faithfulness to us when has he ever lied to us when has he ever told us something that was wrong never it's impossible for him to lie so with that kind of track record and that kind of character and that kind of ability we should be just like just like Abraham when the Lord tells you something no matter how far-fetched it may seem no matter how impossible it may seem your seeds gonna be you're gonna have billions upon billions of offspring it didn't take Abraham long at all he heard those words and he said I believe it yes sir I believe I accept that I believe it thank you and it pleased God faith pleases God when you just trust him based on his character based on him never lying to you based on his goodness and his faithfulness somebody say I trust God believing is a choice go with me if you would Genesis 45 is the story of Jacob and how that you know Joseph had been sold by his brothers and his father was sure that he had been killed and so for years and years he had mourned his sons be he assumed he was killed by a wild animal and in Genesis 45 26 his brothers you know had gone up to Egypt because there was famine in the land and they had discovered that Joseph was not only alive but he is second in command over the whole nation of Egypt and of course they were shocked but they when they returned from Egypt verse 26 they told him saying Joseph is yet alive and he's governor over all the land of Egypt and Jacobs heart fainted for what he believed them not you see this they saw him and talked with him and they come home and they say daddy Joseph is not dead he's alive we just saw him and Jacob hears this and all of them are saying the same thing and they tell their experience with him and then what does Jacob do he he decides can you see faith believing is a choice he decides and says his heart fainted for he believed them not now perhaps we'll see this a little bit later on but you see the evidence of a choice to believe versus a choice not to believe a choice to believe will result in peace and joy a choice not to believe what happened to him his heart fainted can you see this his his spirit is faint he's and this leads to despondency to despair and this is such a good lesson because this man has endured torment and grief for years in that his son had been killed out in the wild by an animal and it was not true then he hears the good news that his son is alive and well and a ruler in Egypt and he's still not free from his heaviness and mourning and depression at this moment because he won't believe it he chose not to believe it said out loud believing is a choice believing is a choice faith is a choice it's a choice to believe it's a choice not to believe and so when you hear the phrase I'm sorry I just can't believe that you know that's not right you know that's not true that's not accurate this person whoever said it just made a choice not to believe it they could have made a choice to believe it and there are a bunch of things that we shouldn't believe don't believe everything you hear right I mean there's a lot of stuff you'll hear in the world and people around you and even well-meaning people they'll pick up something and repeat it and repeat it and repeat it and just because a bunch of people have decided to believe it doesn't make it true we should always be checking when the word is it is it in line with the word we should always be checking in our heart that we have a witness that it's true and there's been numerous times and I know Christians if you've walked with the Lord very long you've seen this - there's been numerous times that it seemed like there was evidence for it other people said Dave there was sure of it and they believed but in my heart something just didn't sit right with me it just I thought hmm I don't have a witness that that is true so it wasn't God telling me it was people telling me and so when you don't have a witness that it is true don't choose to believe this man you see Jacob he experienced torment and vexation for years because he walked by sight and decided what he you know those bloody clothes and those things that that his sons told him which were not true now when he hears the truth he still won't believe it it's a choice finally they did convince him they brought all these wagons verse 27 they told him all the words Joseph had said and when he sent a bunch of wagons full of goods and stuff from Egypt back to his dad and when he saw the wagons that Joseph had sent the spirit of Jacob their father revived and he said it's enough Joseph my son is yet alive I'll go and scene before I die so he's walking by sight can you see that completely by sight he decided his boy is dead because of the bloody clothes that he saw then he wouldn't believe he's alive until he saw all the wagons and all the stuff so he he's not walking by faith he's walking by sight but can you see what walking by sight will do to you it will make you spiritually and emotionally and mentally unstable and it will make you subject and susceptible to pain to torment the vexation that you should have never gone through all those years of crying to you can't cry anymore all those years of hurting of grief was for nothing nothing it certainly affects your life big time what you decide to believe and what you choose not to believe and thank God it's our choice nobody can force us to believe something we don't want to believe and we have the Holy Word of God to check everything by and we've got the author of the book living on the inside of us that helps us cause us to know the Bible said the Spirit of God bears witness with our spirit a chai every child of God has the Holy Spirit in in them as their personal teacher and when you hear truth if you'll be open and honest and sincere when you hear truth the Spirit of God will bear witness with that truth and in your heart you'll find that sounds right to me but then someone else inside of you will add their witness to it it's a confirmation it's something stronger than your own perception and so you you don't have to just get you don't have to flip a coin you don't have to try to build a consensus and see how many people think it or agree about it thank God that's what first John is talking about you have an an unction of the Holy One you know all things you have an anointing that teaches you and you're not dependent on any other man I'm gonna paraphrase a little bit here to tell you what's true and what's not true you're not reliant on somebody else thank God in a world full of confusion and deception and misinformation and ignorance and all this we've got the author of truth living inside of us and and he's not in confusion when he tells you something and he confirms it to you and he shows it in the word it's time to trust in the Lord with all of your heart and not lean to your own understanding you use your head but when your heart bears witness this is true then like Abraham he couldn't fathom how that could all come to pass billions of offspring he just decided based on who said it can you see it based on who said it who he is his character his performance with me in the past he's never lied to me never failed to me never never failed me so all I have to know is he told me he did so my faith is in him can you see that faith in the Lord in his character in his goodness his faithfulness thank you Lord said out loud I have faith in the Lord hallelujah I trust him we trust him thanks be to God go with me to first Corinthians the 11th chapter and notice this I think this is some humorous in some ways but there's a lot of Revelation here to first Corinthians 11 and verse 18 first Corinthians 11 18 Paul said the Spirit of God through him writing to the church at Corinth he said first of all when you come together in the church I hear that there be divisions among you and I partly believe it did you see that phrase I partly believe it what what does that mean I partly believe it well they're telling him somebody's telling him that there are divisions of people have separated themselves into groups and cliques in the church and I don't know what reports he heard but he said I partly believe it that means parts of it he believed and parts of it he didn't accept this is important to know isn't it even if you're hearing some things so we already referred to that earlier we trust God completely immediately without reservation without analysis we don't trust other people that way even people we love even people we respect now with me class we don't just blindly immediately unquestionably believe everything people tell us no matter how much we love them or how much they love us why because they're human they can be wrong and they can be sincerely wrong they can they can believe it but be deceived they can they're not not nothing trying to do something malicious or trying to hurt you or deceive you they just chose to believe bad information and then they're trying to pass it on to you so this is how many believe Paul was a spiritual man is a spiritual man and so this is how spiritual people function and operate he's hearing them and he he loves them and cares about them and he perceives that part of what they're telling him is accurate but he's checking his heart he's not just hearing them he's hearing what the Lord saying to him about what they're telling him and in that process he concludes part of that he doesn't believe part of that he doesn't believe so thank God for the Holy Spirit who can enlighten us who can help us and show us the parts to believe and the parts not to believe right he's God well you know our class has already winding up again it seems to go by pretty quickly doesn't it but how many believe the Spirit of God is helping us out is teaching us you know so many people if it had just paid attention to the Holy Spirit they wouldn't have followed bad advice they wouldn't have followed wrong leadership or wrong this or that and messed up their life no we are not dependent on other people we have the Holy Spirit thank you Lord praise God pray this prayer out loud father God thank you for the Holy Spirit teach me how to follow him better to yield to you to yield to your spirit in the big things and the small things of life I trust you completely without reservation thank you for showing me what to believe what not to believe what to trust what not to trust what is you what is not you and I will follow you in Jesus name Amen praise God praise God well until next time we our faith students of a faith God we live by faith we walk by faith we overcome this world by faith we're strong in faith giving glory to God [Music] you you

Channel: Faith Life Church - Keith Moore

Views: 8,742

Rating: 4.9032259 out of 5

Keywords:

Id: j394n_HZNUc

Length: 27min 29sec (1649 seconds)

Published: Mon Oct 01 2018