Biblical Concept of Faith (9)

[Speaker 1] Churchly fellowships cannot be more spiritual than the individuals and families that constitute them. God-we-desire a godly home. These are words of restoration and instruction in righteousness from Family Tent Ministry. Will you be blessed as you listen? [Speaker 2] Almighty God we serve. Hallelujah! Heaven and earth adore Him. Even angels bow before Him. What a mighty God we serve. Oh, hallelujah! What a mighty God we serve. Hallelujah! What a mighty God we serve. Hallelujah! Heaven and earth adore Him. Even angels bow before Him. What a mighty God we serve. His name is higher, higher than all other names. His name is Jesus. His name is Lord. His name is higher, higher than all other names. His name is Jesus. His name is Lord. Our Father, we are grateful unto You. Our God, we thank You. Our God, we bless Your holy name. Our God, we lift You high. Our God, we thank You again for the opportunity to gather this evening. We are really, really grateful. Lord, as we gather, we pray that the gathering of Your people shall be unto You in the name of Jesus Christ. Our Father, we look up unto You, Lord, our God, we pray that You will speak to our hearts. You will meet us where we need You most. Lord, You will cause us to encounter You very individually this evening in such a way, Lord, that our lives will not remain the same. Thank You, everlasting Father. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen. [Speaker 3] We thank God again as we gather this evening for our discipleship class. And we will be taking the matter from where we left last week. This is the ninth edition or episode of Biblical Concept of Faith. And last week, we were trying to understand the kind of faith that the Bible expressed, the kind of faith the Bible teaches us. When we saw that even leaders may not know all of God, we saw that the faith the Bible teaches us is that the Christian life is a life of personal, continuous, consistent intimacy with God. Anybody that will practice the Christian faith must have a personal, continuous, consistent intimacy with God. We also saw last week that the Christian life is actually a dependent life, a life that is totally dependent on God. That was the things we looked at last week, and today we'll be moving on from that point. So, I want us to look at something in that Exodus chapter 14 as we try to move on today from where we left the matter last week. Look at Exodus chapter 14. I want us to see something in Exodus 14 that something we need to note, something we need to see that God is intentional and very, very deliberate about. Exodus chapter 14. Look at that statement that God made about Pharaoh, that I will be honored over Pharaoh. Exodus 14, verses three and four. "For Pharaoh will say of the children of Israel, 'They are bewildered by the land. The wilderness has closed them in.' Then I will harden Pharaoh's heart, so that he will pursue them; and I will gain honor over Pharaoh." Now, I just want us to look at something quickly as a background before we now move on to try to look at how do we, therefore, understand faith in biblical respect? How do we understand faith? Now, when you look at this reading, God said, "I will gain honor over Pharaoh." Now, God was going to create a difficult situation. The purpose of the difficult situation is not that the Israelites will perish. The situation will be terrifying because Pharaoh will pursue them. Before them, the Red Sea. God is going to create that situation. God is bringing about that situation because God wants to gain honor over Pharaoh. Now, what I want you to see in scripture here, trying to relate this matter to other matters. Now, look at the book of Joshua. Please note the matter here. I will harden Pharaoh's heart, so that he will pursue them, and I will gain honor over Pharaoh. And over his armies. I will gain honor over Pharaoh and over his armies. That is one thing God intended to do. But I want to make you see that this intention of God is not in isolation. I want to relate what we are reading here to two other incidents in the scriptures. Let's go to the book of Joshua. Joshua. Let's look at the book of Joshua. Let's see how the Bible presents a matter to us. In Joshua chapter two, we saw that Joshua sent two spies to view the land of Jericho. We heard something that Rahab said that gives us insight into this matter of God gaining honor over Pharaoh and over the Egyptians. Look at what Rahab said. I'm reading Joshua chapter two from verse eight. "Now before they lay down, she came up to them on the roof, and said to the men: 'I know that the Lord has given you the land, that the terror of you has fallen on us, and that all the inhabitants of the land are fainthearted because of you. For we have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea for you when you came out of Egypt.'" Did you get what I'm trying to make you see? When God said, "I will gain honor over Pharaoh," you notice that the honor of God had spread to where? To Jericho. It has spread abroad, such that the people of Jericho, they too, they were completely, emotionally, and psychologically disorganized. Why? They heard that God dried up the Red Sea before the Israelites. What I'm trying to make you understand, brethren, is that the people of Israel, they are still coming to encounter the people of Jericho. But ahead of their life, God had already done something that made that enemy to be afraid of them. There are things that God will make to happen in your life because of God's long-term good or program for your life. There are some mountains that God will allow to come before you today because God wants to use that mountain to make way for you in a point in time in your future. God decided to create that mountain, to made that situation come to be, so that the enemy they'll be coming to fight later, already, what has happened to that enemy? The enemy had been defeated. Now, for you to see that this thing is consistent with God, look at Joshua chapter four. Joshua chapter four. We want to look at Joshua chapter four from verse 21. "Then he spoke to the children of Israel, saying: 'When your children ask their fathers in time to come, saying, "What are these stones?"'" Now, which stones are we talking about here? I'm just trying to save time. When they cross River Jordan, they were asked to take 12 stones and put at the bed before the water returned to its full. Now, remember that they crossed River Jordan at a time when the water was filled to the brim, at a time when it is most difficult for people to pass through it. So, God told them to gather stone and put it there as a sign. He said, "so that when your children ask you in time to come, 'What are these stones?', then you shall let your children know, saying, 'Israel crossed over this Jordan on dry land'; for the Lord your God dried up the waters of Jordan before you until you had crossed over, as the Lord your God did to the Red Sea, which He dried up before us until we had crossed over." Now, why? Look at what is in the last verse. Verse 24. What did the Bible read? Joshua chapter four, verse 24. Why did God dry up the Red Sea? Why did God dry up River Jordan? What can you read here? "'That all the peoples of the earth may know that the hand of the Lord is mighty, that the hand of the Lord is powerful, so that you might always fear the Lord your God.'" I'm trying to make you see something. That many times God bring mountains before us, so that His name can be declared where? Among men through our lives. God deliberately made that mountain to come. It was God that said, "Stay here, stay here, stay by the river." You know there is a shorter road, which is the road of Philistines. God told them to do the long road by the wilderness. Then God said, "Stay by the river. Pharaoh will say that, 'Hey, then I will harden his heart to pursue.'" So, that difficult, life-threatening situation was created by who? God. Why? So that the people of the earth will know that God is powerful. What I'm trying to make you see, brethren, is that the Bible is making us to see this thing we call our faith. Our faith. That God do bring about mountains in our lives so that the nation, people, our neighbors, our colleagues, they may know that the Lord our God is powerful. So that God can make way for our lives. Look at it. Look at chapter five, verse one. Look at what the Bible record. "So it was, when all the kings of the Amorites who were on the west side of Jordan, and all the kings of the Canaanites who were by the sea, heard that the Lord had dried up the waters of Jordan from before the children of Israel until they had crossed over, that their heart melted; and there was no longer any courage in them because of the children of Israel." Did you hear what happened to them again? Chapter five, verse one. That their heart melted and there was no longer courage in them. What you don't understand is that the Bible says "so that the manifold wisdom of God might be declared to principalities and to powers." Sometimes, God allow mountains around our life, then God come to remove those mountains, so that God can make the enemy to surrender, the enemy to be perplexed, to shame the enemy, to reduce the enemy, to confound the enemy. That is what the Bible is making us to see. That many times when God bring mountains before us, I want you to know that God has a plan. Sometimes it will be so that everybody will know that our God is powerful. Sometimes it is because God want to deal with your enemy. Sometimes it is because God wants you yourself, you yourself, to fear God. God wants you to know Him in some dimensions. And God wants you to know God in that dimension. Sometimes, God can bring a mountain before you. For example, you will realize that at the end of the day, was Job a better person in the knowledge of God or not? Was he a better person? He was a better person. All that Job knew about God, all that Elihu knew about God was if you sin, anytime there is a judgment of God, then you must have sinned. And Job has a sense of although he had a good walk with God, but he had a sense of entitlement that once you serve God, then God must be responsible for certain things. That was why he was saying to God, "Except You can tell me where I'm wrong, You are not just for what You have done." He was thinking that since you have lived right, everything is correct, then God has no right to do any other thing apart from doing good. But God needed to show him that I can do with My servant the way I like. Jesus did no wrong, yet He suffered because God had a purpose. Is that not it? That is what God wanted Job to understand. So, sometimes so that you can fear God, when God sees that you don't know Him in some dimensions, and God wants you to know God in that dimension, sometimes God can bring a mountain before you. These are the three things I want to point to as we quickly go to look at how can we explain the experience of Jochebed? How can we explain the experience of Jochebed, trying to explain faith? Let's go back to Exodus chapter two where we left the matter before we went to chapter chapter 14. Exodus chapter two. Now, we have read "and a man of the house of Levi went and took as a wife a daughter of Levi. So the woman conceived and bore a son. And when she saw that he was a beautiful child, she hid him three months. But when she could no longer hide him, she took an ark of bulrushes for him, daubed it with asphalt and pitch, put the child in it, and laid it in the reeds by the river's bank. And his sister stood afar off, to know what would be done to him. "Then the daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe at the river. And her maidens walked along the riverside; and when she saw the ark among the reeds, she sent her maid to get it. And when she opened it, she saw the child, and behold, the baby wept. So she had compassion on him, and said, 'This is one of the Hebrews' children.' "Then his sister said to Pharaoh's daughter, 'Shall I go and get a nurse for you from the Hebrew women, that she may nurse the child for you?' And Pharaoh's daughter said to her, 'Go.' So the maiden went and called the child's mother. Then Pharaoh's daughter said to her, 'Take this child away and nurse him for me, and I will give you your wages.' So the woman took the child and nursed him. And the child grew, and she brought him to Pharaoh's daughter, and he became her son. So she called his name Moses, saying, 'Because I drew him out of the water.'" That is the story. How does this story sound? How does it sound? Happy ending, abi? Happy ending. But how did we get to this happy ending? By rational, logical decision? How did we get here? By irrational, stupid, foolish decision. Am I correct? That is what we want to look at. Do you know why we are looking at it? The Bible says "by faith Moses' mother"—we have read that in Hebrews—it said "by faith." So, what is the Bible calling faith? That is what we want to look at. What is the Bible calling faith? Bible said that thing was by faith. But does that look like faith? You take a child, put him in a basket, place him on water, put the sister there, be looking at what will happen. Of course, what want to happen? That crocodile will eat it. Or that the water will carry the basket away. What are you expecting to happen? But the mother was expecting a miracle. And the Bible calls it faith. And what is faith? If you look at that Hebrews 11, verse one. Can somebody read that for us? Hebrews 11:1. "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." So, when Jochebed placed Moses on the water, the Bible said she was acting in faith. What was the faith? The Bible said faith in that case, in that context, is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Which means the mother already concluded, something made her to conclude that nothing will happen to that boy. She had evidence for what she had not seen. She had evidence that good is going to come out. It now say "it is by this faith that Moses' mother when they saw..." You get the point I'm making? So, there was an assurance of what they were hoping for. They were hoping that Moses will not die. They were assured that and they have evidence for it that nothing will happen. That's why she said, "Miriam, be watching. Nothing will happen to that boy." So, they had this assurance that nothing will happen. The Bible calls it faith. Now, let's see how we want to go about that very quickly. Which means, brethren, we can say that faith in the case of Jochebed, how do we define faith? In the case of Jochebed, we can therefore say faith is losing your mind in an accustomed mystery or under unaccustomed sovereignty. We want to take it one by one. What we saw in Jochebed is that faith is losing your mind in an accustomed mystery. Faith is losing your mind in a mystery that you are accustomed to. You are losing your mind. That losing your mind is not just anyhow. We are losing our mind under the situation of a mystery that we are familiar with. We are familiar with. That's what I mean by accustomed. You are used to it. Jochebed, the Bible said she acted by faith. She have an assurance of what she hoped for. She have evidence for what she had not seen. So, which means Jochebed is used to this kind of faith. Jochebed is used to God. So, when she saw God giving her instruction, what did she do? She went ahead. So, she was losing her mind in a mystery that she's familiar with. She's familiar. That's what I mean by accustomed. She's she's she's accustomed to that mystery. She understands that mystery. It is this same thing that you find in our father—let me say another dimension here—it is this same thing that you find in our father Abraham when he was told to go and sacrifice Isaac. When he was told to go and sacrifice Isaac, what do you notice? He went ahead, took the knife, ready to kill the boy. Why? He was accustomed to it. If you read it in Hebrews, Hebrews said "for he believed that God will raise him up from death." That's what the Bible says. Look at Hebrews 11. Bible says he believed. So, it it it it was something he was familiar with. "By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises offered up his only begotten son, of whom it was said, 'In Isaac your seed shall be called.' Concluding that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead." Do you see something? Which means that what Abraham was doing, was it something he was not familiar with? No. He was familiar with it. So, faith is losing our mind in an accustomed mystery. Something you are familiar with. Something you are used to how God speaks. He knows. Losing, you are losing your mind. You are acting foolishly. You are not following your mind. Because if you are to follow your mind, you won't do it. You lose your mind. It's like when Peter said, "I have toiled all night and I caught nothing. But at Your word anyway, I will act contrary to my mind." Abraham was going to kill the boy. He just concluded that if the boy is dead, God will bring him back to life. And he went ahead. Why? He was familiar with that voice. He was familiar. So, we can say that faith is can be seen as losing our mind in a situation where we are familiar with a mystery. The mystery we are talking about is God. God speaking to us. God giving us insight. God asking us to do something. God leading us. And at those instances when God says, "Go this way. Go that way. Move like this." Even though it will look like ah, this thing, I want to beg you, lose your mind. Lose your mind. Go the way of God. Because if you don't lose your mind at that instance, you know what will happen? Be expecting a negative consequence on your life. That is what the Bible makes us to see. So, faith, therefore, the biblical concept of faith is making us to see that in our walk with God, in this faith life with God, in this walk of faith, in this way of faith, there are times in our life that God will want us to do what? Lose our mind. God will give instruction. Sometimes by the sea, get out of the boat, come. Normally, the general way to go on the sea is to use boat. But at some time, God will just say, "Leave the boat. Come." If you don't leave that boat and begin to come, you might have negative—or you begin to come because eventually you notice when Peter cried to Jesus and Jesus pulled Peter, what did Jesus say? He said, "Peter, why did you doubt me?" You don't need to doubt Me. The same thing with Gabriel. He said, "Me, Gabriel, that came from God, from God's presence. You see what you are telling? [Yoruba language: co-se-se]. Me, Gabriel, you will not be able to talk until this thing happen." It is just because somebody doubted the integrity of God. Somebody cast a doubt on the integrity and the ability of God. Lastly, I also want to mention, having said all of this about faith, I also want to mention that this situation of doing things to the contrary, doing things that looks like are we are we stupid? What do you expect from this thing that you are doing? When you look through the Bible, it does not only happen with men who have come to know God for a long time. It also do happen with men that God is intending to know Him. It also do happen. God do occasion it too with men that He wants to know Him better. Sometimes, somebody you will think that when did this one start work with God? You'll just be surprised that it might really be God. It might be God. The first instance I want to show you is in the Old Testament again. It is the instance of Naaman. You remember Naaman? Naaman was the captain of the Syrian army. They captured an Israelite girl who told the wife that if the master can go to Israel, the leprosy will be healed. And so, the matter took a journey to Israel. It sent to the king of course, eventually got to Elisha. And when it got to Elisha, Elisha said what? "Go and wash yourself in River Jordan seven times and you will be healed." And we saw that that man was not familiar. He wasn't familiar with God. So, that thing was just God's sovereign mercy to make Himself known to him. It was just because he's not familiar with it. And you see what he said. He said, "Ah, insult upon injury. A whole me, Naaman. Are there no better river in Syria to go and wash myself inside than that I will now come..." He was talking about the Abana river, River Pharpar, "Are there no better rivers? Somebody is now bringing me to ordinary River Jordan, [Yoruba language: iru-emi si] River Jordan to come and bathe inside River Jordan." He just he just got angry because he was not familiar with it. He was not familiar with it. But as he was going, look at how mercy worked. The servant said, "Ah, Oga, Oga, don't let us behave like this now. The prophet did not ask you to do any big thing now. If he have asked you to do some big things, abi you would have done it? Just go to the river and just bathe now." That man went there, not with faith o. He just joined as a matter of advice, let me just go and okay, okay, okay, let's go. Let's do it. Anyway, let me get there and do it. What I'm trying to make you see is he went there. God was doing something that ordinarily will look like somebody who was not familiar with a process was brought into it. And he went into the place, and I believe off it says that I have leprosy and he's going that he's going to enter into a river to wash seven times and then and he went and by the seventh time the miracle took place. And when it took place, you see that the instruction God gave that man, the way God want that man to walk was not something he was familiar with. Yet God brought it about in that situation. The second one I want to show you is the case of Jairus when Jairus went to invite Jesus, Mark chapter five, that his daughter was was ill and the girl was dying. The Bible says while they were on their way, there was an interruption. The interruption was the woman with the issue of blood. While Jesus was was attending to who touched Me, who did not touch Jesus, the girl died. When the girl died, they came to tell Jairus, "Don't bother the master again because the girl is dead." What did Jesus tell Jairus at that instance? Jesus faced Jairus and He told him, He said, "Don't be afraid, only believe." Now, the point was that, why did Jesus address him? They already came to give him the reason why Jairus ran to beg that he should come was because the girl was dying. The girl had not come to the point of death. And then they went to invite Jesus. But they came to tell Jairus that the girl by now fatality has happened. The girl is dead. That event took place, ended the faith of the faith of Jairus. But what did Jesus tell him? "Only believe, don't be afraid." He wasn't familiar with how what Jesus can do. He was not a disciple. He only heard about Jesus and he went to call Him. And you see Jesus told him. What I'm trying to make us see is this way of God is not only with men, God work in this way with people who have a walk with His-it's a way of God. But at the same time, it's also a way of God to draw people to Himself. It's a way of God to draw people to Himself. So, brethren, as we close this evening, we have been able to look at three main things today. The first aspect was that one, why will God bring a mountain around our life? What are the three things that make God to bring mountains around our life? Number one, so that peoples, His name can be declared through our lives. His name can be declared. Two, to shame the adversary. Their heart melted when they saw what God did. Three, to make us to know God better and better and better. Sometimes the way God will make you to know Him better is that God will bring a mountain around your life and then God will give you a way out of that mountain. By the time you are out of that mountain, you have known God better. That is the first thing we looked at. The second thing we looked at is trying to explain faith from the life of Jochebed. And we saw that looking at what happened with Jochebed and the instance of Abraham and the instance of David, faith will mean losing your mind in an accustomed mystery. Under situation of what you are familiar with. As you begin to get familiar with God, God at different times can bring things to give you instruction, and God expect you to suspend your mind, just follow God. That is faith. Suspend your mind, just follow God. As you follow God, you are living a life of faith. And however, we concluded that God also use this thing to bring those who does not know Him, to draw them closer to Him. Okay, let's go ahead to pray this evening. Biblical concept of faith. Biblical concept of faith. We have been able finally to complete the story of Jochebed, bring together the story of Abraham, David, bring all of these things together, and moving on from here next week on this matter will be in another direction in looking at biblical concept of faith. Today, let's go ahead to pray. Let's ask the Lord. Let's ask the Lord that God, You are a God of miracle. By the time You are preparing my life for the miraculous, help me not to miss the mark. Because if you miss the mark, it may have negative consequences on your life. For Zechariah, there was a negative consequence. For the 10 spies, there was a negative consequence. For Peter, thank God for mercy. He cried out to the Lord and the Lord said, "Why did you doubt Me?" You don't need to doubt Me. Let's ask the Lord this evening that God Almighty, You are the shepherd of my soul. Wherever You may lead, help me to follow. You are the shepherd of my soul. You are the shepherd of my soul. Wherever You may lead, help me to follow. Let us also pray. God might bring a mountain into your life because God want His name to be declared in your life. Instead of complaining and murmuring, why not take time to understand, why is this thing in my life? God might be bringing a mountain because He wants His name to be declared in your life. And if you are not careful to discern that, you may misfire. misfire. Talk to the Lord that God Almighty, help me, Lord, help me, Lord, help me to understand Your workings around my life. Help me, Lord, help me to always understand Your workings around my life. Your workings around my life. When You are working around my life, help me to know it. Help me to understand it. Help me to know it. Help me to appreciate it. Help me to walk in it. In the name of Jesus. In the name of Jesus. In the name of Jesus. God can make some things in your life so difficult and almost very impossible because He want to use you for the miracle. And instead of saying, "My God, my life shall be a miracle," you might start saying, "Ah, me, I'm an unfortunate child. I'm an unfortunate child. Everything is not going right for me anymore." You might start reducing instead of saying, "God, my life will be a miracle! My testimony will be a miracle! My testimony will be a miracle!" Oh, it reminds me of of something I watched. I can't remember the name of the minister now. I can't remember his name immediately. But he was giving the testimony of his son who became a pilot. When they gave birth to that child, the child was unusually small. And that smallness of the child also affected the brain. The brain was they said it is experiencing Down syndrome, that the brain cannot cope like those colleagues. Through primary school, through secondary school, that was the situation of the boy. Anyhow, anyhow, the boy manage and manage and manage and manage and manage to finish secondary school. He managed to finish secondary school. By the time they asked him, "What does he want to become?", the boy said he wants to become a pilot. The father the father did not see how the boy can become a pilot because of his mental capacity. It was something almost impossible because of the brain level. But do you know that somehow, some way, somehow, somewhere, the boy entered university, went through university successfully. When he finished the university, there was an invitation for training in Dubai. They want to train people to become pilot. The boy wrote the exam. He came I think he he was selected among the five that were trained. He went for the pilot training. And you know to be a pilot, the father told him, "Pilot are those whose brain are smart, whose brain are fast, whose brain are sharp. Your brain is not like that." Today, that boy is a pilot. How God worked on that brain. The father was talking about the miracle. From birth, it was Down syndrome in the brain. But eventually, a pilot. The brain become a sharp brain, a smart brain, a fast brain that the father said, "Your brain is not like that. You cannot be a pilot." What I'm trying to make you see is the miraculous, the miraculous. I want you to pray. You are serving a miraculous God. And sometimes God might bring situation because He want to make you feel that I serve a miraculous God. He want you to know him better. I want you to pray. God Almighty, help me to understand Your workings around my life. Help me, it could even be around your children. That's why I gave that testimony. God may want to use your child to display a miracle. And instead of giving up on that child, God may just want to show you that I'm a miraculous God. I work miracle. I want you to pray that God, help me to understand Your workings around my life. Help me, when You are working around my life, help me to see it. Help me to understand it. Help me to know it. Help me to appreciate it. Help me to walk in it in the name of Jesus. In the name of Jesus. In the name of Jesus. Thank You, eternal Father. Blessed be Your holy name, our God. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Let's share the grace together. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with us now and forevermore. Amen. [Speaker 1] 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 aid. 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 out-reachings, and everyday counseling. For further counseling, you can reach us at our location: Life Camp by the first bridge, Ilere community, opposite Very Joy 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 08033861136, 07033613848. God bless you all.