Biblical Concept of Faith (5)

[Music: Choir singing hymn] [Narrator] Family Tent Fellowships cannot be more spiritual than the individuals and families that constitute them. God will build us a godly home. These are words of restoration and instruction in righteousness from Family Tent Ministries. May you be blessed as you listen. [Speaker 1] We thank our God again for another time in His presence. We thank Him for His love and for His mercies. We thank Him for His grace. We thank Him for His goodness. We thank Him for all who He is and all that He is to us. As we all connect again together this Monday for our discipleship class, I trust the Lord that it's going to be a time of refreshment, a time of blessing, a time of encounter in the name of Jesus Christ. Let's have a word of prayer and then we move on from that point. Let us pray. Precious Father, we thank You again for today. We give You praise and glory. We give You honor and adoration. We appreciate You for all who You are. We thank You for all that You are to us. Lord, as we peep again this evening with the scriptures, Lord, we pray that You will speak to our hearts. Lord, we pray that You will meet us at those points in our walk with You where we need You most in the name of Jesus Christ. Lord, our eyes are on You. Let nothing prevail against Your purposes for our lives in the name of Jesus Christ. Mighty and everlasting Father, we look unto You. Our brethren who are connecting with us on Telegram, our brethren who are connecting with us on Mixlr, Lord, we who are here physically, Lord, we pray. Visit each and every one in such a way that we would understand exactly what You are saying in our lives in the now in the name of Jesus. Thank You, blessed Father. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen. Praise the Lord. Last week, we were able to see what Apostle James by the power of the Holy Spirit was pointing to us in the epistle, James 2. We have gone through the whole of chapter 2 from around verse 8 down to when we concluded the chapter. And we want to take it from that point today. We concluded last week that looking at scripture very closely, James said faith is not only an allegiance towards God, it's also an allegiance towards the people of God. And in looking at that, we were able to draw the line and we told ourselves when we went to look at the writings of Paul in 1 Corinthians 11, how the Corinthian church, they were taking each other for granted. They were not taking the communion waiting one for another. And we saw what eventually happened. How God made some to be weak, the consequence that some were weak, some sick, and of course, some died because they were taking themselves for granted. I want to read a scripture this evening just to round up that matter, to wrap up that matter as we continue in this biblical concept of faith. Look at something that the Bible says in Romans 13:8-10. It says: "Owe no one anything except to love one another, for he who loves has fulfilled the law. For the commandment, 'You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not bear false witness, You shall not covet,' and if there is any other commandment, all is summed up in this saying, namely, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' Love does no harm to a neighbor; therefore, love is the fulfillment of the commandment." So you notice that in summing up the matter we raised last week, when we said from the standpoint of the Bible, faith is allegiance to God and allegiance to God's people. Rahab did not only believe in their God. She took time to protect those people. She took time to enter into a relationship with them. She took time to sign out covenant with them. And that is what the Bible calls expression of faith. Today, we're seeing something very important as we close that matter on James. That actually, it is the horizontal relationship that is the sum total of Christianity. Our horizontal relationship, relationship with one another is the sum total of Christianity. May we not miss it out on this matter in the name of Jesus Christ. Once we begin to live correctly horizontally, it is almost definitely certain that in all our horizontal relationship, as we change to father, to mother, to colleagues, to wife, to children, on and on like that, you will be seeing people that express faith in the true sense of it. Okay, so we want to move on to see this matter yet a bit more as we move to the book of Exodus to consider the life of heroes. We will still come back to make a detailed look at Hebrews 11, but we will get there at the appropriate time. And please, I would also want to say that we said we would respond to a particular question somebody raised about James when we were through with the book of James. But the reason why we didn't respond to it again today was that on the platform, the same person gave an answer that the person now have a proper understanding of what that scripture, the question the person raised, that somehow the person got the proper understanding of what the scripture is saying, so that the question was no more relevant for an answer. I'm having a voice here that some of us are not on Telegram because the question was raised on Telegram. The person gave the answer back on the Telegram platform. But a voice is raised here that look, those people on Mixlr will not have the benefit of that answer. It might be good we still respond to what the person said. So I will note that. I will try and see how I come to a summary at about 6:00 PM of what I want to say now, and then I will treat the question. I won't forget to say the question will not be treated. So let's journey to look at the book of Exodus to consider the birth of Moses. Sometimes it is good to look at these stories and not just look at the summary in Hebrews 11. Of course, we will eventually come to the summary at the appropriate time. Exodus chapter 1. It says from the verse 7, "But the children of Israel were fruitful and increased abundantly, multiplied and grew exceedingly mighty, and the land was filled with them. There arose a new king over Egypt who did not know Joseph. And he said to his people, 'Look, the people of the children of Israel are more and mightier than we. Come, let us deal shrewdly with them, lest they multiply and it happen in the event of war that they also join our enemies and fight against us and so go up out of the land.' Therefore, they set taskmasters over them to afflict them with their burdens. And they built for Pharaoh supply cities." Verse 12: "But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew, and they were in dread of the children of Israel." I just want to make you see something. Don't be afraid of adversity or your adversary. Once it is important for you is for you to live right. No matter how much your adversaries and your adversity tries, they will always fail. What is important for you as a child of God is to be sure that your life is right with God. Don't be too bothered about how my adversary, they will do this, and for that reason, begin to get afraid, begin to fear. What is important is to live right. If you live right, the Lord will not only be your strength, the Lord will be your refuge. He said the more they tried to play around them wisely, they didn't come out openly. They came with a kind of strategizing to reduce their number. But the Bible says the more they tried to reduce their number, the more they grew, the more they multiplied, such that they were now afraid of them. May that be your testimony in the name of Jesus Christ. When the way of a man pleases the Lord, his adversary must be at peace with him. When the way of a man pleases the Lord, I remind you of the children of Israel when they were traveling and Balak wanted Balaam to curse them. Balaam could not curse them. He said, "Look, there is no iniquity in Jacob; there is no perversity in Israel. So there is no enchantment against Jacob, and there is no divination against Israel." That is the truth about it. You live right. If you are not naked, you can never be exposed. Praise the Lord. Now, they did everything. So what happened? Verse 13: "So the Egyptians made the children of Israel serve with rigor. And they made their lives bitter with bondage in mortar, in brick, and in all manners of service in the field. All their service in which they made them to serve was with rigor. Then the king of Egypt spoke to the Hebrew midwives, of whom the name of one was Shiphrah and the name of the other was Puah. And he said, 'When you do the duties of a midwife for the Hebrew women and see them on the birthstools, if it is a son, then you shall kill him. But if it is a daughter, then she shall live.' But the midwives feared God and did not do as the king of Egypt commanded, but saved the male children alive. So the king of Egypt called for the midwives and said to them, 'Why have you done this thing and saved the male children alive?' And the midwives said to Pharaoh, 'Because the Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women, for they are lively and give birth before the midwife came to them.' Therefore, God dealt well with the midwives, and the people multiplied and grew very mighty." It doesn't matter how your enemy try. If your life is right, you will keep going forward. That's the truth about it. I just want to note this. I don't want to go into the issues about what some people say, that there are Hebrew midwives, there are Hebrew women who give birth without midwives. And I have always corrected that. That is not a biblical truth. There are no Hebrew women who give birth before the midwife came. The midwife only lied to Pharaoh. They assisted the women in giving birth. So don't build a faith on what does not exist in the Bible. Please, if there is no place in the Bible where Hebrew women give birth without assistance of midwife. That's just for the sake of making comment. And it's also good to also note this. The Bible says put away all lying, put lying away in all its forms. Some people have said God blessed these women for telling lies, so even there are some kind of lies. You need to understand that to whom much is given, much is expected. These people don't know God. They don't understand God. They don't have any law. The law came through Moses. There was no law. There was nothing stipulating how the people of God should live. They are not even God's people. They handled it the way they understood it should be handled. They handled it their own way. It's not necessarily God's way. Bible didn't call that God's way. Bible just told us what they did, in the way they could handle it at their level. So please, don't turn the weakness and the failure in people's lives to God's principles for our living. The principles of God for our living is clear. Please, don't make a hill out of what does not exist. So they tried to suppress them. They used all tricks they could. They could not. Because all the trick did not work, it now became open confrontation. That was what happened immediately before the birth of Moses. Verse 22: "So Pharaoh commanded all his people saying, 'Every son who is born, you shall cast into the river, and every daughter you shall save alive.'" Our focus again in this place is not trying to understand biblical concept of masculinity and femininity. But I just want to make you know something. Even the enemy understands this matter that even many Christians are not understanding. The devil understand that masculinity and femininity, they are not the same thing. But that's not our focus. Our focus here is that there was a decree. When that decree was made, it was around this time that the Bible now brought us into what I initially read, chapter 2, verse 1. "And a man..." oh, that is the thing that interests me about this reading. "And a man." It is enough for you to understand the word of our Lord Jesus Christ when He said, "If you can have faith as small as a mustard seed." We don't need a giant to express faith. We don't need mighty men to express faith. We just need a man. We just need a woman. We just need a husband, we just need a wife. We just need a boy. We just need a girl. These people that the Bible later described as heroes of faith, heroes of faith became heroes not because ordinarily they were heroes, that is why they have faith. They were ordinary people who expressed faith; they were now called heroes. Because sometimes there's a mix-up. It looks like it take a hero, it takes getting a hero, and then there will be faith. No. The people that the Bible described as these things, they were ordinary people. That's what I want you to see. In your ordinariness, may you do mighty things in the name of Jesus Christ. The Bible says it was when this decree was made, in the midst of such a Draconian rule and decree, that the Bible says, "And a man." And a man of the house of Levi went and took as a wife a daughter of Levi. May our sons and daughters live the life of faith. I'm going to make you see how the Bible introduced these people. These people that we're later coming to see in Hebrews 11. And the Bible begins to mention the things they did. And you'll be wondering, are they people with two heads? Are they people with this? No. One man, after they make the decree, one man married a daughter of somebody, they were Levites. It will look like the wedding now took place after the decree. But because the focus of this story is Moses, that is why this story look a little disjointed. What the divine mind want us to see is the circumstance that surrounded the birth of Moses. But you know that Aaron, Miriam, they were the elders of Moses. They have been born to those ones. So it's not as if the wedding now took place after the decree. But because the focus of this story is on Moses, what the divine mind want us to see is the circumstance that surrounded the birth of Moses. But in that bid, the Bible says, "And there was a man." That there were some people who ordinarily, there was nothing special about them in the ordinary sense of it. It was just a man and his wife. They already have two children. There was a girl and a boy, Aaron and Miriam. They already have those ones. So it's not as if the wedding now took place after the decree. But because the focus of this story is on Moses, what I want you to see is that extraordinary faith is expressed in the life of ordinary people. It is not extraordinary people that practice or that express or that demonstrate extraordinary faith. No. It is ordinary people who demonstrate extraordinary faith. We're looking at biblical concept of faith. And to buttress this point, you will find it in 1 Corinthians 1, from verse 26. "For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, nor many noble were called. But God has chosen the foolish things of this world to put to shame the wise. God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty. And the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are. So that no flesh should glory in His presence." God is not looking for people who will begin to say, "If you know how intelligent I am, that is why this thing could work this way." God is not looking for people who will share His glory. God is not looking for people who want to tamper, that will not throw the honor to God. It's a serious matter with God. So please get it. I am, you're the one that we need. My circumstance is limiting me, you're the one that we need. The way things are, it will not be able to work, you're the one that we need. I don't know how you are looking at yourself. Somebody has said you are not intelligent. Somebody has said you are not brilliant. Somebody has said your marriage is this way. Somebody has said this your life. Somebody has said this, somebody has said that. See, somebody said Joseph was a fornicator. Somebody said he was a useless servant. But God was seeing a child of purpose. God was seeing someone through whom Israel would be redeemed in the land of Egypt. God was seeing someone that will be a type of Jesus. The matter is not how you see yourself or how men are seeing you. The matter is God's standpoint. What is God saying? What is God doing? That is what is fundamental when it comes to the matter of faith. Because I began to have a serious turnaround about this thing when for example, I was surprised when the Bible was talking about heroes of faith and the Bible mentions Samson. And the Bible mentions even at the point of death that man expressed great faith. Whatever you are listening to me, what the Lord needs from you is if you can just trust Me a little more than you are trusting Me now. If you can just believe Me a little more than you are doing now. If you can just look beyond yourself and you will see Me. That's what God is telling you. If you can look beyond yourself and see God. If you can look beyond your immediate situation, your immediate circumstance, your immediate challenge, your immediate limitation, and you can see the almightiness of God. It's already 6:01. I've promised I will answer that question. I'll make sure I do before we stop today by 6:15. But let me just say something that because that's where I want to climax today's teaching: biblical concept of faith. Now, so the woman conceived and bore a son. Who is this son? This son is Moses. You'll be thinking that what God should have done, He should have been that God could have allowed the first two to be boys so that Miriam will now come around this time. There would have been no problem. Why did God now arrange it like this? Female came when there was no problem. Male came when there was problem. I don't know what you are telling yourself. I don't know how you are reading your story. You might be saying, "Ah, I wish I've been born in the days of my parents. Ah, I wish I went to school in the days of my parents. Ah, I wish that Nigeria was not this bad by the time I was born, I would have made it more in life." You are reading your life. You are putting your life within the circumstance, the situation that surrounds your life. The situation that surrounds your birth. If a believer you are thinking that way, you don't understand faith. You don't. It was the best time for Moses to be born that Moses was born. Yeah, that was the best time. It was the actual time. And I'm telling you, whatever is the affliction, the challenges, the trouble, the pandemonium, the whatever, the decree going on, the crime, I don't know what is going on that is surrounding you now, and that is where you find yourself in the space of time, tell yourself, "This is the best time for me to be here." Look unto God and say, "Baba, I thank You for bringing me here at this time. Whatever be the decree, I am the kind of person that can face it. That is why I'm here now. And in the midst of this, I will do exploit." I pray for you. Bible said the people that know their God shall be strong and they will do exploit. In that your circumstance, may you be strong. May you do exploit. In that circumstance, it is the best time for you to appear. You are part of those to do exploit. Don't count yourself out, count yourself in, lay hold on God for a miracle in the name of Jesus. It is the best time for you to be there. I want to close what I'm saying now with a simple thing that happened. Let me show you a practical one that happened with my life. This thing, I can't remember now whether it was in the same semester that happened to me. I came from not too much a very... my father was a salary earner, but he had so many of us, we were 13 in number. So at a time about six or seven of us were in the university at the same time. So his salary could not really cope with everybody, so he put a lot of things together. That's my family background. So sometimes what is given to you when you want to leave for school by the beginning of the semester cannot take you for one week. And in those days, not the days of handset that you can call. This is happening. They expect you to come back after one month. And what you are given, obviously cannot take you. And you are on your way to school. So one of those days after my father gave me everything I needed that he could give, he gave me. I went to the market. I went to use that meager allowance to buy everything that I needed. As I finished buying, I don't know how many steps I've taken away from the market, when the Holy Spirit whispered in my spirit that all these things you bought, go to so-and-so sister in so-and-so place, go and give her all these things. Of course, the following day I'll be going to school, so with what? If not that I'm familiar with how the Lord speaks to me, I know I would have been binding Satan and doing so. So I left. I took all those things and I went to give to the sister. When I got to the door, I knocked. I gave to her at the door because it was getting to around 7:00 PM. It was getting dark somehow. I didn't enter the house. I just gave to her at the door. I turned back and I went home. The following day, I left for school. That was how that episode went. It was much, much later, I met with that sister some few months back, she's now a very big person. Do you know that the story that followed was that months later, don't forget that there's no handset to call anybody, when I returned from school and all of that, that night, what happened was the sister had nothing to eat. There was nothing for that night to eat. Then her younger sister was on a visit. So there was nothing to eat. The sister cried. She said in her weeping, she just talked to God, "God, please help me. What do we do this night?" It was in response to that cry that the Holy Spirit took me to that place. But do you know that I went through the semester and everything went well? I'm giving you practical example, and I can multiply this for you, different instances. Instances where I have just on campus, I have just my only food for that night. We got to the fellowship and we were told that, "Who are the Ondo State brethren here?" I lift up our hand. He said, "Ah, there are some new students, they said they're from Ondo State. We want them to follow you people home." And we said, "Okay." New students just coming so that they can have a place to sleep. I remember the case of this Ayonidede that followed me home that day. When we got to the house, the last thing I had for that night, I cooked it and we both ate. And then the following morning, I told the young boy who just resumed that see, what we ate last night was everything I had. I don't have any other thing again. And the boy said, "Ah, no problem." He was carrying a very heavy bag when we were coming to the hostel. I don't know what was inside. He now said, "When I was coming, my parents were concerned, so they gave me all kinds of food." By the time the young man opened the bag, there was rice, there was beans, there was groundnut oil, there was Maggi, I mean, all kinds of things. That was what took me again for another one month. Myself and him, we were now eating. May God deliver you from your fear. God was trying to make provision for my life. If I had said, "No, God, I don't have anything in my house," that is how I would have lost one month's provision. Let us pray. Wherever you are this evening, please talk to the Lord. Talk to the Lord. I don't know what I have said, I don't know how it came to you, but we're looking at biblical concept of faith, the life of faith. I'll close myself on that, that we serve a God who creates seemingly impossibilities to express His extraordinary. He brings them around so that He can express extraordinary. That is the God the Bible reveal. [Speaker 2] Our Heavenly Father, we thank You for speaking to us again, for blessing us, for sending Your word to us again. Thank You, Lord, in the name of Jesus. Lord, as we go with this word that You have given us another oil and You have filled us with another empowerment of the Holy Spirit, Lord, please help us to go brooding upon this word, praying over our lives, meditating and making up our mind that if God in His infinite mercy have chosen us, we worms, feeble thing, God has chosen us to wrought His work of faith and want to wrought His work and great work in us. Help us, O Lord, to arise in faith and follow the mighty God, the Almighty God that has called us into this work in the name of Jesus. And Lord God Almighty, help us because it is only by this way we will see the incredible mighty power of God at work in us. Please let our life, let our life experience this. We surrender to You, Lord, that we want to experience this Your great, exceedingly, immeasurable, incalculable mighty power of God. We want to experience it. And all that You need from us is that we just surrender and say, "God, we follow You." Help our heart to follow You. Help us to follow You. Help us to follow You. Help us to trust You enough to live by Your word in the name of Jesus, because it is by this that we will see You, we will see the miraculous, we will see the mighty hand of God in everything, in everything that concerns us in the name of Jesus. Thank You, faithful God. We pray, Lord, that Your blessings will be multiplied upon Your servant today and forever in the name of Jesus. In Jesus' unfailing name we pray. Amen and forevermore. Amen. [Narrator] This message is coming to you from Family Tent Ministry, a Christian ministry involved in reaching the lives of singles and married through preaching and teaching of God's word, discipleship, family life enrichment, social and community development, and mission heat. Our regular activities are discipleship class every Monday, 5:00 PM; Adolescents and Singles' Club every first Saturday of every month at 10:00 AM; Marriage Forum second Saturday of every month at 10:00 AM; family life seminars; regular school outreaches and everyday counseling. For further counseling, you can reach us at our location: Life Camp by the first bridge, Ilaro community opposite the Rejoice filling station along Ije-Are road, Akure, Ondo state, Nigeria. You can also reach us through our social media handles: familytent@yahoo.co.uk, familytentministry01@gmail.com, www.familytentministry.org. Our phone numbers are 080-3386-1136, 070-3361-3848. God bless you all. [Music: Choir singing hymn]