(Music Playing) Good morning, class. <i> Class: Good morning.</i> I'm Keith Moore and welcome to
Faith School. We've saved you a seat right
here in the front and we want you to get ready. Get your Bible and get you
something to take notes on and come join us. And Faith School, praise God, is
the place where our faith is fed, where our spirit grows
strong, and where we learn how to overcome. Let's say that again: "Where my
faith gets fed, my spirit grows strong, and I learn how to
overcome, hallelujah, to be an overcomer." Well, if you were with us on
last week's classes, we learned that faith is not just a
theological position. Faith is not just a set of
things that we adhere to mentally. People ask each other, they say,
"What faith are you? What faith are you?" And that means what set of
beliefs do you adhere to? We learned that, "The just shall
live by faith." We saw it four different
Scriptures, as we talked about last week, that said the exact
same phrase. And we found, faith is not just
a set of beliefs, faith is a way of life. It's how God functions. It's how He operates and He has
commanded us to be imitators of Him, as dear children, and to
follow Him to live like He does, to function and operate like He
does. If you weren't with us, you can
go back and look at those, and receive those lessons, and get
caught up with us. Because today we're going on
this week, we're advancing and moving further. Our faith is getting fed. Our spirit is growing strong. And God has already ordained
that we be more than conquerors, overcomers. Let's pray. Let's release faith that exactly
what we need to hear and see today and this week, is what
will happen. "Father, in Jesus' name we agree
together for everyone watching and listening, that their hearts
and our hearts will be open and receptive, and our eyes, and our
ears, and our minds, would be able to comprehend and receive
Lord, answers, direction, help, exactly what You know we need. To be able to rise up and
overcome every problem, and every work of adversity, and to
receive every good thing from You. And, we thank You in advance for
causing that to happen in us, in Jesus' name. Amen. Thank You, Lord." Let's turn in the Scriptures
today to Hebrews the eleventh chapter. Hebrews chapter eleven. And we're going to look at verse
one, and we're going to begin talking about, What Faith Is. Much-you know, much talk, many
ideas about faith. A lot of people have varying
opinions, but you know, in school you have textbooks, and
in this school, Faith School, we have the Bible as our final and
complete authority on the subject. And so, we're not to just have
theories and ideas about what these things are. Let's go to the Word and let's
let the Lord tell us what He said, and then accept that,
instead of trying to find different ways to say it, or you
know, different ways to describe it, or your own thing. You hear people say, use this
phrase, say, "Well you know, I have to hold on to my truth." Well, that's an incorrect
phrase. Truth is truth and it's
independent of what you think or I think. And so, the Scripture said Jesus
said, "If you're My disciple, if you're My student and learner,
you'll know the Truth and the Truth will make you free." In Hebrews eleven we're given
the answer to, what faith is. We're given God's definition of
it. Hebrews 11:1 it says, "Now faith
is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not
seen." Faith is the substance of things
hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Young's Literal translation, a
very, very accurate translation, Young, by Dr. Young, the same
man who authored Young's Concordance, he says it like
this, "Faith is of things hoped for a confidence, of matters not
seen a conviction." If you look up the word in the
concordance, what, you know, faith is exactly, you'll find
the word, "persuasion." You'll find the word
"assurance." You'll find the word "trust." And in the simplest way of
saying it, that's what faith is. Faith is being persuaded of
something. If you're persuaded about it,
you're assured about it. If you're assured and persuaded,
you trust it. You trust it. When you have faith in
something; you can have faith in your car, that it's going to
start when you need it to start, that it's going to go when you
need it to go. And, your faith can be misplaced
because your car can let you down. You can have faith in people,
and the faith can be well-placed or misplaced. They can come through like you
expected them to, or they can fail. But what we're talking about is,
faith in God, and God is faithful. Faithful means He is worthy of
trust. He is completely reliable. It's one of the reasons why
we're told the Scripture says, "It is impossible for God to
lie." It's also impossible for Him to
fail. So, if what He told you will
never be anything other than the complete Truth, and if He told
you He would do something and He will never fail to do that, you
can trust Him. You can rely on Him. When we were talking about faith
in Faith School, we're talking about faith in God. Not just faith in yourself. Not just faith in principles. Faith in the Person, the Person
Who created the heavens and the earth. The Person that when you're born
again you call your Father. Let's say it out loud class. Say: "God is my very own Father,
and I am His very own child." Hallelujah. And, why am I saying that? Because to say the next thing,
"I trust my Father. I trust my God. If He says it, I believe it. If He says He'll do it, I expect
that to happen no matter what it looks or feels like." So, faith is persuasion. Faith is being assured. Faith is trusting. Go with me to Romans four and
you'll see one of the best illustrations of this that I
know of. Romans four talks about Abraham. We'll begin about verse sixteen
or so. Romans 4:16. And Abraham is held up to us as
the preeminent example of faith. In fact, we're told, those of us
who are of faith, we're the children of Abraham and we walk
in the same steps of faith that Abraham did. In Romans 4:16 it says, "It is
of faith, that it might be by grace; to the end the promise
might be sure to all the seed: not to that only which is of the
law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham; who's
the father of us all." He's the father of faith,
father. We're faith children of our
faith father. Verse seventeen. "(As it's written, I have made
you a father of many nations,) before Him Whom he believed,
even God, Who quickens the dead, and calls those things which be
not as though they were." Now, this is a big revelation
about faith and how faith works. And, eventually we're going to
get to this and camp on in a while. But verse eighteen, Abraham,
"Against hope believed in hope, that he might become the father
of many nations; according to that which was spoken, so shall
thy seed be." And it goes on to say in verse
nineteen, "And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own
body now dead, when he was about a hundred years old, neither yet
the deadness of Sarah's womb:" But he was strong. Hallelujah. Verse twenty. "He staggered not at the promise
of God through unbelief;" he, "was strong in faith, giving
glory to God;" Everybody say: "Strong in faith
giving glory to God." And in fact, when we do trust
God, it honors Him, it glorifies Him. When we doubt the One Who's
never lied to us, Who's never failed us, never failed to come
through, it's dishonorable, it's disrespectful. He was, "Strong in faith, giving
glory to God," and verse twenty-one, do you see this? "Being," what? Being, "Fully persuaded that
what He," God, "had promised, He was able also to perform." This is the very definition of
what faith is. What is faith? Faith is being persuaded. Faith is being convinced. Faith is being assured. So, what we have to overcome in
order to become this way, we have to overcome ignorance, and
we have to overcome indecision, or as the Bible calls it
"wavering." Wavering. If you're vacillating, maybe it
is, maybe it's not, maybe He will, maybe He won't, are you
persuaded? Well, no. Are you convinced? No, you're not yet convinced. What's the solution to that? Well, the Scripture says, "Faith
comes by hearing," hearing what the Lord said. Hearing the anointed Word,
that's how you get persuaded. Which is why we saved you this
seat here in Faith School. You keep hearing what the Lord
said, and if you're open-hearted and minded about it, you can get
to the place where you stop wondering, you stop wavering,
you stop vacillating, and you become persuaded. You become convinced. You keep on feeding on the same
thing, you can become fully persuaded. And when you become fully
persuaded, you become strong. Strong in faith. No longer wavering, no longer
vacillating, strong in faith. And that gives glory to God. And one of the reasons, one of
the ways it gives glory to God is it allows Him to do what He
wants do in your life, and when His good things are manifested,
and healing is manifested, that glorifies God. You needs are met, that
glorifies God. Your children are helped, you
overcome something that's been keeping you down, you have
victories, all of this glorifies God. Say it out loud again: "Strong
in faith, giving glory to God." Strong in faith. We see that Abraham was fully
persuaded that what God had promised, He was able also to
perform. Now 1 Peter; let's go to there. First Peter the first chapter
and the seventh verse. No matter what you may be
dealing with, it's possible to overcome anxiety. It's possible to overcome
indecision. If you remember in the writings
of Kings, you'll see that the prophet challenged the people. They had left God and were
serving Baal and idol-worshipping. And he said to them, he said,
"If Baal is god, serve him. But if Jehovah is God, serve
Him." He said, "How long are you going
to halt between two opinions?" And that's the thing that you
have to overcome. It's been much misunderstood,
people have thought that every prayer should be prayed with an
"if it be Thy will." "Lord, You know, I'm asking for
money to pay my bills, if it be Thy will. Lord, I'm asking for-I'm asking
for help in my body, for healing, if it be Thy will." But, that's a lack of
understanding. We should commit to the Lord and
say, "Lord, You know, I'm willing to do Your will," and
when you come to a thing that's your will could be different
from His, you want to submit your will to His. But Brother F.F. Bosworth, who
wrote the great book <u> Christ the Healer</u> , he made ths
statement, and it's a significant one. He said, "Faith begins where the
will of God is known." Faith begins, that's where it
starts, not where the will of God is debated, but where the
will of God is known. What is faith? Faith is persuasion. Faith is being persuaded. So if you don't know whether
it's God's will to help you pay your bills or not, you can't
have faith about that. If you're not sure whether it's
God's will for you to be healed or not, you can't have faith for
that. And so even though people have
been well-meaning and it sounds good to say "if it be Thy will"
on every prayer, yet it's wrong thinking. And this kind of thing
undermines your faith. And you'll find in reading about
people like Abraham, and if you look at the great Hebrews
eleven, that great hall of fame of faith, none of these people
were debating the will of God. They had heard from God. They were convinced of what God
said He would do, of what God wanted them to do, and they were
no longer questioning the will of God. If you're questioning, you're
not persuaded. And if you're going to be in
faith you got to get persuaded. So instead of just pleading and
wondering and wavering-we live in a world that's full of
confusion, and wavering, and vacillating, but we don't have
to be that way. If we'll get in the textbook, if
we'll let God build in us the consciousness of His revealed
will, we can get very, very stable and very strong, and
we'll be in position to lay hold- instead of just wait and
wonder we can lay hold and receive. I mentioned the Scripture to you
earlier, but I want to go a little bit different direction,
if that's okay. Go to the Book of James. James the first chapter and
let's notice this because it's talking about the same thing. James one and verse five. James 1:5 says, "If any of you
lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that gives to all men liberally,
and upbraids not; and it shall be given him." Did you know your Father's a
Giver? He's the Giver. And we all need wisdom every day
of our life. Wisdom is one of the most
precious, valuable things there is. If you got wisdom about a thing,
you see where it's going and how it's going to end up and wind
up. And if you know that, then you
know what you need to do now in order to get from here to there. And if you're in a situation
where you don't know what's going on, and you don't know
which way to go, and you don't know how this thing's going to
turn out, the Father said, "Ask Me. Ask Me for wisdom," and He won't
upbraid you because you didn't know. He'll give to us liberally. "It'll be given him." Verse six. But notice what we have to do. But let him do what? "Let him ask in faith," so it's
not just asking, but it's asking in faith. Again, what is faith? It's asking, persuaded. It's asking, being sure. "Let him ask in faith," what? "Nothing wavering." Wavering is the opposite of
being persuaded. What's wavering? Well, he describes it. "He that wavers is like a wave
of the sea that's driven with the wind and tossed." When the wind's blowing on the
water, the water moves with the wind whichever way the wind's
blowing. The wind blows south, the water
moves south. If the wind's blowing north
today, the water moves north. And if you don't know God, and
you don't have faith, that's the way you'll be. That's the way I'll be. We'll be whichever way the wind
is blowing today. And if our feelings, and people
are talking this, and we're experiencing this, then we'll be
blown this way, and we'll think this is how it should be today. But tomorrow, if it's blowing
another way, we'll think well, you know, I prayed a prayer and
I felt good when I prayed, and maybe God will do it. And tomorrow you don't feel so
good. Well, maybe He won't. I don't know. I hope He do. Hope He do. Hope He will. Maybe He won't. Up, down, in, out, just
whichever way the wind is blowing, wavering. And if you're that way, what did
the Scripture say? Verse seven. He said, "Let not that man," or
woman either, "think that they shall receive anything of the
Lord." Boy, I don't like the sound of
that, do you? Not receiving anything. Don't - why wouldn't you
receive? Not because it's not God's will
but because you weren't convinced it was God's will. You're wavering, you're
wondering. Maybe it's the will of God for
me to prosper and maybe it's the will of God, but I don't know. Maybe not. I've heard people say that God
doesn't like that kind of thing. And maybe it's God's will for me
to be healed, but I don't know. You know, I've heard people say
other things. I've heard people say that,
"Maybe God's teaching you something through this," and
see, in that situation, what did the Scriptures say? "You won't receive anything." You won't receive anything. We've got to overcome. We talked about us being
overcomers. Overcome what? Overcome confusion. Overcome wrong thinking. Overcome things that have been
taught contrary to the Scripture and the will of God. Overcome our own feelings and
get settled, get rooted, get grounded where we can say, "This
is the will of God. I know it. I've seen it. I've got thirty-two Scriptures
for it. God never changes. It was His will then, it's His
will now. It'll always be His will." Only when you get to this kind
of persuaded and fully persuaded heart, are you able now to
exercise faith. No longer questioning the will
of God because you found it in the Bible. No longer vacillating. No longer wondering. Read it again. Well, excuse me. I didn't finish reading this. Verse eight, verse eight. He said, "A double minded man
is," what? "Unstable in all his ways." So, you can see that is the
very opposite of what faith is. Faith is being persuaded. Abraham, he heard what God told
him that he was going to be the father of, you know, so many
children that you couldn't count them. More than the stars, more than
the sand on the seashore. And even though that just seems
so impossible, he just believed it. He stopped questioning it. He stopped wondering about it. He just accepted it and was
fully persuaded of it, and having been fully persuaded, the
Bible said that, "God counted it to him as righteousness," and he
was called the "friend of God." What many have thought was
humility in just continually saying, "Well, if it's the will
of God... If it's the will of God... If it's the will of God," has
been a refusal to heed the Word of God which requires us to feed
on it until we get persuaded and we're no longer asking what the
will of God is in that area. We've accepted what He told us
is His will, and we're standing strong on it. Instability is the result of
wavering. That's lack of faith. We live in a world where people
don't know who they are, they don't know what they are, they
don't know why they're here, where they're going, is there a
God? We don't know. Is there life after death? Nobody knows. Oh yeah, somebody knows. You can know if you accept the
Word of God and the Spirit of God as the authority. If you don't, then you'll just
wrestle with other men's ideas throughout your whole life and
you'll be unstable, unstable. We're on a mission here at Faith
School to stamp out instability. We're going to become fully
persuaded. We're going to become strong in
the Lord and the power of His might. Strong in faith, giving glory to
God. Let's go over it again. What are we seeing in class
today. What is Faith? Many think it's this mysterious,
unknowable thing. Faith is being sure. Faith is being confident. Faith is being fully persuaded,
hallelujah. Everybody say it out loud:
"I have faith, and my faith is strong, glorifying God."
