FBCWest 716 | Faith
Recorded On: 06/14/2026
Bulletin
Hymn # 391 “Stand Up for Jesus”
SCRIPTURE READING – Psalm 9:1 & 2
Giving of Selves and Our Offerings
OFFERTORY PRAYER
OFFERTORY MUSIC – Pru Hungate
Praise and Worship
“Echo Holy”
“Behold the Lamb”
“Great I Am”
Proclamation of the Word
Message by Pastor Joe
“Faith”
PRAYER TIME / Time of Reflection
“At the Cross (Love Ran Red)”
Acknowledgements and Announcements
Sermon Notes
Hebrews 11:1 What faith is
Hebrews 11:6 Without faith impossible to please God
Hebrews 11:8 –10 & 17 – 19 Abram an example of faith
Matthew 17:19 & 20 What the size of a mustard seed can faith do
Luke 7:40 – 50 Saving faith
Romans 5:1 Justified by faith
2 Corinthians 5:6– 9 We walk by faith
Galatians 2:20 We live by faith in Christ
Habakkuk 2:4 The righteous lives by his faith
Mark 9:14 – 24 Help by unbelief
Romans 10:17 Faith comes by hearing the word of God
Jude (1) 17 – 21 Build up your most holy faith
Scritpures
Transcript of Service
Faith, we're going to discuss what faith is, what it's not, how essential is it, what amount of faith is necessary to be effective, how to live by it, and how to encourage you to listen to today's broadcast. You would think being a church, I would need to discuss faith because faith is what we're all supposed to. But it seems that a lot of Christians don't understand faith. They think faith in essence is an assumption. If I just believe for it, it will happen. Faith.
I can believe and believe really hard that very soon I will look better than a young Brad Pitt. That's an assumption. God has not said, Joe, someday you'll look like a young Brad Pitt. I'm just assuming something because that's what I would like to have happened. But that's not faith. Believing something because you want it is not, again, that's an assumption. Faith is what God says, and then we believe that he will do what he says. So if you have your Bibles and you should, we're going to go through what faith is all about.
And I'm just going to give up on this. So if you have your Bibles, then you should turn to Hebrews chapter 11, and we're going to go through several verses of that, and then we'll go from there. So Hebrews chapter 11 verse 1 says this, insurance of things hope for the convictions of things not seen. So when God tells you something, you may not have yet experienced it, but you are assured because God is the one who said it. And so you are convinced, conviction, even though you have not yet seen it. And so again, that is not assumption. I am basing my faith, my belief, because God has said something. So when God says it, and we then believe it, faith.
And so you'll hear, again, a lot of people would just say, well, if you just have enough faith, faith is important. But what is it faith in? It is faith in God. It is faith in what he has said that he will accomplish or what the circumstances say. No matter what the dire surrounding world tells you, if God has said something different, then you believe him, not even what your eyes say. And so therefore, it is that assurance. And so that is why God has said, if you believe on Jesus and His sacrifice, that if you confess with your mouth, Jesus is learning, believing your heart that God raised in the front, then you will be saved. That therefore, I believe it.
I don't believe I'm going to heaven because I hope so. I believe that I'm going to heaven because I trust what He told me to do, and I do it. And so therefore, faith is that. And it's for by it, men of old gained approval. And we're in a past few of the verses.
And then it says, without faith, it is impossible to please Him. I want you to understand that without faith, it is please God. It doesn't matter how holy of a life you live. It doesn't matter how much money you give to charity or how much work you do for charity. It doesn't matter how many cathedrals you build or how the world may say, oh, what a awesome and holy and perfect do not please God. It is not possible to please God unless you have faith. That tells me that faith is very important. And it should be our desire to please Him because He is God.
And so we should want to please Him, but the problem is, too many people are putting efforts in the wrong thing to please Him. And so they try to build churches or congregations or do great works or do all these types of things. But what we please God in is when He tells us we believe it and we act upon it. So without faith, it is impossible to please Him for He who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is rewarder of those who seek Him, or as the King James diligently seek Him. We come to faith in God because Himself to us.
And then He also says, if you seek me, if you follow me, I'll reward you. That's what faith is all about. Seeking God and seeking those things of Him and that He rewards us.
So we must seek Him and that reward. And this says this. And so we're going to give some examples of faith and action.
Abraham, when he was called, obeyed by going out to a place which he was perceived for an inheritance and went out not knowing where he's going. So the writer of Hebrews is taking us all the way back to Abraham's saying, when God first called Abraham, he goes, I want you to move from your family. And I want you to go to a place I'm going to show you. He didn't even tell him where he was going. He just said, trust me and I'll let you know when we get there. Kind of like our life. God says, just trust me.
And I will send you on a journey. And I'll let you know. Also often we have this tendency to want to arrive. The classic thing, the children say, are we there yet?
Are we there yet? Are we there yet? And then we tend to be that in our lives. Are we there yet?
And God is saying, journey. The journey with God is worth whatever destination it is. So Abraham said, OK, God, you want me to go with you somewhere and you're going to show to me. And I'm going to receive it as an inheritance. It could be a great land. He's going, so he's not knowing where he's going. And by faith, he lived as an alien in the land of promise as in a foreign land, well in intense with Isaac and Jacob, several heirs of the same promise. Writer says, Abraham lived his entire life and his next generation and the next generation never receiving the land which they were shown.
They lived there as tent dwellers, as temporary occupiers of the land, which God was going to give them. But they understood God's promise. And so they had not received it yet. They believed God that that was the promised land.
And that would be theirs at some point. All too often on the journey of faith is, well, God hasn't delivered yet. Maybe he wants to show you something.
Maybe he wants to show you that the trip is even better than the destination. Because this face, all of us, most of us, want to go to heaven. Heaven isn't great because there's streets of gold and angels or whatever.
Heaven is great because God's... So if you don't want to hang out with God, then probably I would suggest not the place for you. So if you're all worried about the ultimate destination, but you're not happy with traveling with God, the destination is being with Him.
Okay, the travel and understanding you can trust Him in the journey. For He was looking for the city which has foundations whose architect and builder is God. Even Abraham is saying, you're going to need this land. And that's wonderful, whatever. But I'm looking forward to dwelling. Even then Abraham was saying, God, you gave me a promise of children and all kinds of stuff. You gave me a promise of eternity with you.
That's where I want to be. But Abraham had was in Hebrews chapter 11, verse 17, he says, by faith, Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac and who, and he who was received the promise was offering up his only begotten son. Basically God said, I'm, if you can count the stars or the send them to see that many descendants. And those descendants are going to come through Isaac.
Then God says, I want you to kill Isaac. I want you to offer him up as a burnt offering. Which seems to be counterintuitive to what God has said. I'm going to fulfill my promise through Isaac, but I want you to kill Isaac.
Kind of sounds like, well, that's not a good plan. Did Abraham object with God? No. He to whom it was said, in Isaac, your descendants, he'll be called. He considered that God is able to raise people even from the dead from which he also received him back as a type. The miracle was not that, and the act of faith was not that the God would stop him from killing Isaac. Abraham so believed God, he says, okay, that's the promise. You want me to kill him, okay, I'll kill him because I know you could raise him from the dead.
Faith. No wonder God was Abraham. Was this faith perfect? No. Before Isaac was ever born, God told him that he would have all these descendants. So what would happen when there was difficulties they would go to Egypt? And he told Sarah, his wife, my half-truth, tell him you're my sister, which was partially true. Because he was afraid that the leader would kill him to take the wife.
Well, if Abraham dies, unless God raises him from the dead, then he can't fulfill his promise. And so faith doesn't mean you're perfectly, there are times tested. But reminding our faith is what sees as God. Not our actions. So faith is believing God. It's not possible to place Him without faith.
We've seen a couple of examples. But we had this idea that we have to have great faith. Or he's a great man of faith. Well, that's a great woman of faith. We have all these things because we assume that these people have a faith. I want you to see what Jesus says in Matthew 17, verse 19, in 20 says this, then the disciples came to Jesus, privately, and said, why could we not drive it out now? They had difficulty trying to drive out a demon. They had done other miracles in performance, but there was something that they had in this situation.
And notice what Jesus says. And he said to them, because of the littleness of your faith. Or truly, I say to you, if you have faith, the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, move there, and it will move, and nothing will be impossible to you. How much faith does it take to move a mountain? Most of us without reading this would say, well, a whole lot of faith. Jesus says, if you have a faith that if I had the mustard seed by hand, you couldn't see it because my wood covered up. Well, because he says, you could not do this because you had a little faith. Well, apparently their faith was even less the size of the mustard seed.
Because Jesus, by the faith of a mustard seed, you could tell a mountain to move, and it will move. Again, it's going back. If I were to tell a mountain to move, that would be assumption. Because God has not told me to tell a mountain to move yet. But if God tells me, hey, Joe, I want you to take Mount Baldi, to the coast to where Fresno is. And in faith, I could say, Mount Baldi moved, and it would move if I had the faith of the size of the mustard seed. But I can yell at Mount Baldi all I want.
God says to me to do something that is not faith, that is assumption. And so it does not take great faith to do great things. The faith of a size of the mustard seed will be things so that it will seem, and possible to you. Take a whole lot of faith. But where is it that faith and where it has come from?
Jesus is out of banquet. And there is this woman, whoever, a sinner, and she's putting oil on Jesus' feet and crying and using her tears as water and using her hair to dry his feet, and she's just there. And everybody's kind of has contempt and thinking to themselves, why is it Jesus telling her to stop? And Jesus answered him, Simon, that's who was the guest, I mean who was the host of the event. So I'm going to have something to say to you, you recite, say it, teacher. A Monday night, one old 500-day-nare in the other 50. When they were unable to repay, he graciously forgave them both. So which of them will love him more?
Kind of a test. But it's the correct answer. And he said, and he's budging, he doesn't want to say, this is the right answer, he goes, I suppose. I guess the answer you want me to say is, the one whom he forgave more. He said to him, you have judged correctly. You've got to lay on the test. You've got to answer right.
The one who's forgiven, turning toward the woman. He said to Simon, do you see this woman? I entered your house and you gave me no water for my feet. But she has wet my feet with her chair and with her hair.
You gave me no kiss, but since the time I came in, she has not ceased to kiss my feet. You did not annoy my head with oil, but she anointed my feet with perfume. For this reason, her sins which are many have been forgiven for she loved much. But he who is forgiven little loves little. So my question to you, do you really realize how much God has forgiven you?
I'm drawing up in the church. We have a tendency to be insulated because we think we're pretty good people. But there is not a moment in our day that we do not sin, and God continues to forgive us, even when we know better. He is forgiven and forgiven. Those of us who are the most holy, have been forgiven much.
Then he said to her, your sins have been forgiven you. Her faith, her love, her forgiveness, she found saving faith because of her love for Jesus. How much in our faith do we love Jesus? So we said to the woman, your faith has saved you.
Go in peace. Her faith saves her. You might want to have faith to do a great things.
She got the greatest thing. Her faith saves her. She will one day be at a banquet supper of the Lamb. For she will be a guest at a table.
But I suspect her attitude will still be the same, loving Jesus and be willing to kiss his feet and anointed his feet because we are only there because of him and what he's done. Some other things that faith does, Romans chapter 5 verse 1 says, therefore having been justified by faith through our Lord Jesus Christ, faith justifies us. That is a word that is so important. Our faith doesn't excuse us. Our faith says, well, you know, you did some bad things and it's okay, you're excused. There's no penalty. I am guiltless. If you're in a court of law and you're tried for something and they say, well, you did it wrong, but we excused you.
That's excused. This says, no, no, your action correct. Faith justifies us. Justifying faith. So I could agree on chapter 5, 6 or 9 says this. Therefore being always of good courage. The next thing, always being of good courage and knowing that while we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord. So knowing the current circumstances, we should be of good courage.
Why? Because God has said, this is not all there is. That no matter what happens, I will turn good for those who love me and are called according to my purpose. That this life is not all that there is that we want. So being absent from the Lord, for we walk by faith not sight. We don't walk blindly.
We walk and so, we live our lives according to what God has said. We live by faith, not assumption. We don't bounce in the world because we are not seeing, we take the path that God has taken to do because God has told us that's what we are to do. We walk, we live by that faith. We walk. It's a daily process.
It's, again, it's the journey. It's not the destination. We walk with Him.
I think one of the worst things that happened was not necessarily just their spiritual death, but they were kicked out of the garden. But what happened while they were in the garden? God would walk with them in the cool of the union and now they don't. We can, with God, in faith. We have good courage to say and would prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord. That should be our ambition. That should be our desire. Now we'll be honest with you there today.
Lord, I want to be there, but maybe not yet. There's a couple of things I like to see first and whatever. And so sometimes my ambition isn't quite what it ought to be, but that's what our ambition should be. Therefore, we also have as our ambition, whether at home, to be pleasing to Him. So even if I say, God, maybe keep me around just a little more longer. Again, while I'm here a little more longer, ambition should be to please Him. Well, how do I please Him? The hate writer told us because it's impossible without faith.
Relations, chapter 220, says this, I have been crucified with Christ and is no longer a who live, but Christ lives in me. In the life in which I now live, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself up for me. I say, because Jesus died for me, gave Himself up for me. I'm going to be like that woman who loved Him.
And I'm going to understand that no matter what I may think my life ought to be, there'll be greater joy, greater results, beyond things that I can even imagine if I live by faith. Have a cook. I'm going to go back to the Old Testament.
Again, we talked about in Genesis Abraham and as Genesis says, which was not brought up when God told Abraham about the offering, it said that Abraham believed God and it was accounted with record to Him as righteousness. From the very first book until the very last about works, it's about faith. Prophet Abraham said this, behold, that's for the proud one, his soul is not right within him. If you're proud, God's saying you've got a problem.
But the righteous will live by his faith, living by your faith, walking in your faith, and justified by your faith. How essential it is to the believer. Mark chapter 9 verse 14 through 24 says this, an event in Jesus' ministry. When they came back to disciples and they saw a large, and some scribes are working with them, immediately when the entire crowd saw him, they were amazed and began running up to greet him. And he asked them, what are you discussing with them? And one of the crowd answered him, teacher, I brought you my son, which makes him mute.
And whenever it sees us, it slams him to the ground, and he foams at the mouth, and rinds his teeth, and stiffens out, I told you your disciples to cross about, but they could not do it. They answered them and said, oh, being generationed, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring him to me. So again, the deal is, the disciples had not even muster seed faith.
And they brought the boy to him, and when he saw him, immediately the spirit threw him in. And falling to the ground, he began rolling around and foaming at the mouth. And he asked his father, how long has this been happening to him? And he said from childhood, so it's not a new event. There's often thrown him into the, close into the fire, and into the water to destroy him. But if you, anything, take pity on us and help us.
This father who is desperate, who brought him to the disciples, so all of a sudden, his faith in what could happen is being shaky, because they have seen Jesus and the disciples heal. So it's not like this is a new event, but they could not. And so the father's, on his little lessen muster seed faith, so it goes, if you can do anything, and if you can, all things are possible to him, who believe. And, having trouble again, that's okay. So I'm going to need you to move the, the next slide. See the boy's father cried out and said, I do believe, help my unbelief. Now, if there was ever an honest prayer, that's it. God, I'm trying, I believe.
I believe you can do it. But in those corners of my, I don't believe, help me. Help me. That should be our prayer. God, when I'm not saving, if I'm not believing in you, help my unbelief.
And the scriptures has that. Are you ready? You want to know how to increase faith?
Here it is. Romans chapter 10, verse 17. So faith comes from hearing and hearing by the Word of God. You want to increase your faith? You want to know what God has to say, so that you can believe him, read the scriptures.
Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. It's not what so and so says about the Word of God. It's not some great author. Read the Word of God.
I speak to you and hearing his Word will help you to increase faith. Because guess what? Ephesians tells us that we have been saved by grace through faith and that, not of yourselves, it is a gift of God. God gives us. So faith is what makes it's pleasing to God. And faith justifies us. And we walk in it and all these things and nothing is impossible to say. And why not see faith?
Now we have prayer meeting. Everyone's in it. Almost everyone's in it. And people in the room and people who aren't in the room, but have either asked those of us who are there or email or whatever to pray for them. And there are a lot of serious prayer requests. And there are things like a loss of a loved one or a cancer diagnosis or something or their lives are kind of messed up or their family's lives are messed up.
And they want guidance from God or whatever it might be. Call. I'm not saying it never happened.
I'd rank all everybody ever asking for more faith. But if faith is something to all of these things, why aren't we seeking faith? Those are things.
If the goal standard is faith, and everything else is just rocks, why do we want rocks and not the goals? Faith is not assumption. We've seen some examples of faith. We've seen how faith should affect our lives. And we've seen how to increase our faith by the word of God. Jude, and his interest in an revival, Jude, chapter 1, verse 17 through 21.
Here's a statement that you can use on a trivia game. There is no chapter 1 in Jude. Because there is no in Jude. There's only verses. But for some reason, it says Jude, chapter 1, verse, whatever.
But there ain't. Jude, chapter 1, verse 17, to 21 says this. But you beloved, so he's talking to Christians. You beloved words that were spoken beforehand by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ. And that they were saying to you, and the last times there will be mockers following after their own ungodly lust.
And that's kind of what's happening now. These are the ones who caused the world, and unfortunately some of the people who claim to be believers in the church. But you, us, the beloved, the ones who are true believers, building yourselves up on your most holy faith. Praying in the Holy Spirit, building up your faith, which is holy, which is separate, which is unique, which is God. Sing.
Tells it up. Now, if I want to get stronger, usually what I do is I do. Try to lift weights, or you, you know, you do other things to strengthen the body. The way you strengthen faith, the way you build it up, is you hear the, and you act on it. Abraham could have said, God, I believe you. You're going to send me off to this great place, and I'll go there someday.
You know, I got a vacation schedule. You know, Sarah is kind of angry, and it's just not a good time. I'll let you know, God, when it's a good time. Isn't that what we do with God? God says, come with me. Journey with me.
Travel with me. Walk with me. We say, I got to get through school first, and then whatever, and then after school. I got to get my first job, and well, I got to work really hard to get it from motion. And then I got to get to work with God. Eventually, I believe you said what you're saying, and some day, God, it's not fit in faith.
We walk by faith. God tells us to do something, and we do it in response to faith. But what if you tell me to tell this mountain to move and it doesn't? It's not on me. It's on you, God, because you're the one who told me to say it.
I'm going to trust you. And if it doesn't make any sense, God, you know, you promise Isaac, I'm supposed to kill him. I don't think God, but I trust you.
Regardless of the circumstances, I will act upon your word. So build up your faith, by reading the word, and then doing the word, which is James told us to do. I will show you my faith, by my actions. I will show you my faith. I will show you my faith.
I will show you my faith.