Reformed Baptist Church in O'Fallon, Missouri
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The Fruit of Faith

Sermon Transcript

The following is a lightly edited transcript generated from the audio; it may contain small errors.

Persuaded of God’s Love

Romans 8. I’ll try to keep it brief because I know you guys want to get to the food. Oh wait, this is the food. This is the food, amen? I tricked you there.

My pages are stuck, stuck together. I just wrote my Bible. Shoot, I’m going to get that fixed later. Now, we’ve been looking at it one more time, and we’ll look at it one more time, plus some other scriptures. Let’s start in verse 31, no, 28. For we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose, for whom He foreknew He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the first born among many brethren. whom he predestined, these he also called, whom he called, these he also justified, whom he justified, these he also glorified. There’s a whole bunch of sermons there we’re not going to get into. What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? What’s the answer? No one. That’s the I answer, right? Exactly. He who did not spare his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not also with him freely give us all things?

Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? What’s the answer? No one. Will God who justifies? What’s the answer, answer? No. Right? Who is he that condemns? No one. Is it Christ who died and furthermore is also risen? Who is even at the right hand of God who also makes intercession for us? Who shall separate us or what shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or or a pal or a sword, as it is written, for your sake we are killed all day long, we are counted as sheep for the slaughter. Yet, in all these things, we are more than conquerors. That phrase more than conquerors is actually one word in the original, and commentators, they like to fight over this kind of stuff, how to translate it, but several have translated it, we are super conquerors. Isn’t that cool? We’re not just conquer, we’re not just champions, we’re super champions. It’s like, you know, in Hollywood they have stars, but then they have the big stars. We’re the big stars. We’re the super champions. In aAnd all these things we are super conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life nor angels nor principalities nor powers or things present nor things to come nor height nor depth nor any other created thing shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.“ And don’t you want to say amen? Amen.

So what we’ve already learned is that Paul was persuaded, and persuaded means he really believed, really believed that God loved him. He believed this based upon God’s revelation, God’s word. Right? But as I pointed out last week, God doesn’t just say nice things to us.

God’s goodwill, which he utters in his word, is also backed up by his actions of benevolence and kindness. He doesn’t just say nice things, he does nice things. Kind of like Carol House, because you like nice things. Right? You know the passage in James where a poor man comes to a Christian that has goods and the Christian says, go be warm and filled, I’ll pray for you [audio unclear] God himself in the person of his Son Jesus Christ came to earth. He suffered and he died on a cross was buried he was resurrected and ascended back into heaven and he did that for us the Bible says and it demonstrated his love in action so Paul was persuaded of God’s love because God not only said that he loved Paul, but God proved that he loved Paul. He proved it by the giving of his Son. But Paul also was persuaded in spite of his circumstances. Now Now as we pointed out last week, when you look at this passage in verse 35 on, Paul talks about a lot of negative things. Tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril or sword. And yet none of these things shook his persuasion that God loved him. Now I don’t know about you, but when I’m going through hard times, I can begin to doubt. You ever doubt? Things are going really rough. Like God, where are you? Why is this happening? Do you really love me? Have you forgotten? Hey, I’m over Here Paul was persuaded in spite of his circumstances, but he was also persuaded because of his circumstances.

And you’re thinking, well, that sounds like a contradiction. And it does sound like a contradiction because the Bible is full of these. It turns everything on its head, if you will. It seems that these circumstances would have convinced Paul just the opposite, that God did not love him. But he believed in spite of his environment, but he also believed because of his environment.

What do I mean? I mean that his experience in the trials and in the affliction, his experience of God in times gave him a deepened sense of the reality of God’s love. His faith transcended, if you will, his environment, and he experienced God’s love in the very midst of the trials. He says, in all of these things, notice, in all of these things, we are super conquerors.

Faith That Experiences His Love

And you ask, well, how can this be? Well, he’s really already told us, if we look at Romans 5, if you go back there for a moment. In Romans chapter 5, Paul alludes again to tribulation or trials.

We’ll start in verse 1. He says, therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God. version might say, let us have peace with God, which is an exhortation. I think it’s an indicative. We have peace with God as a result of what Christ said on the cross, through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand and rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. We have access to grace and And we stand in grace because of the work of Christ. And not only that, but notice verse 3. We also glory or boast in tribulations. We boast in tribulations knowing, key word there, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance, perseverance character, and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint, or some versions may say, does not make us shamed. Because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us. Now there’s a couple key words I want you to see here. One of them is knowing. Paul says that not only do we glory in the fact that we now have peace with God, not Not only do we boast in the fact that we have access to grace, not only do we boast that we stand in grace, we stand in grace. It’s our standing in Christ. But we also boast in tribulation. How can we do this? Because we know that this tribulation produces perseverance, character, hope, and our hope is not ashamed because the Holy Spirit is poured into us. This is not faith in spite of simply trials. This is faith which is generated as a result of trials. Now, it’s very interesting. Some of your versions will read differently. This word here, my version says character in verse 4, it says, and perseverance produces character, and then character hope, yours might read a little different. The original American Standard Version said, approvedness, which is a really odd word. Approvedness? No one uses that word, right? But the word actually means proof or evidence. So we could read it this way. Knowing that tribulation produces perseverance or endurance, produces proof and proof hope. The question becomes proof of what? What’s the proof? Proof that we’re standing in grace? Proof that we have peace of God? Proof that what’s the proof?

I think what Paul is saying here is that in his tribulations, not only did he believe in spite of, but going through the tribulations, those experiences produced in him a certain kind of steadfast character which demonstrated to his self, to him, was proof to him that his faith was genuine. And knowing that his faith was genuine, he had hope. This is really the crux of the matter when we talk about faith. You see, Paul’s faith was both intellectual faith, it was assent, but it was also experiential faith. He not only assented to certain things, but in trials or tribulations, he believed and he endured, and that was the evidence or the proof of his faith. So he believed God’s revelation, that’s the intellectual part.

He believed Romans 8-28 that all things were working for good, but he also experienced God’s love through the Holy Spirit in those trials. So he knew God’s love in both senses of the word to know, because when we say we know, or when the Bible talks about knowing, it means it can mean it in two different ways. It can mean knowing in the sense of content, or it can mean knowing in the sense of truly believing and resting in something. Paul knew both intellectually and he knew experientially that he was loved by God.

And it was that knowledge of God’s love for him which made him a super conqueror. That’s what he’s telling us. You see, his mental ascent was matched by spiritual conviction.

Reality Becomes Possession

Therefore, reality became realization. Now, let me explain that. Do you know something is true whether you believe it or not? Now, there are certain things in mathematics, which is probably my worst subject, I don’t believe. And I don’t believe them because I don’t understand them. But you know what, they’re still true. And my son Aethan explains them to me. My son Aethan says to me one day, he says, like, Aethan took my couple of Greek classes and, you know, I want him to keep his Greek up. So I’m like, hey, why don’t we just like once a week, you know, review some Greek and do some Greek together, you know, this is your, like, we got a nerdy family and you’re right. He said, okay, well, what if we also do this? What if once a week I’ll teach you some math? I’m like, nah, that ain’t going to happen. Nope. I remember when I checked out of math. It was fourth grade. Done. I’m done with this. I had to take remedial I had to take remedial math in college just to get in. It was pretty humiliating. Where was I? Oh. So something can be true whether you believe it or not. And there’s many things we actually trust that we don’t understand. You know, we don’t understand electricity. Not really. Even scientists don’t really fully understand it. But we all trust that we flip the switch on and it works. So, you know, before I became a Christian as an adult, I wasn’t raised in a Christian home, quite the opposite. You know, did all kinds of bad things, drugs and alcohol and carrying on. And I was thinking about when I got saved, which was many, many years ago. The dinosaurs had died, by the way, but it was the one that made it. And, you know, When I truly trusted Jesus Christ, you talk about the windows of heaven, it was like the veil is removed. And all of a sudden, I saw and I understood certain things, many things in the Word, right?

But you know what’s amazing is that before I believed, the day before I believed, the hour before I believed, the minute before I believed, those same things. Things that I did not know were still true. Now when I believed they did not become true. They were true, but I didn’t believe them. And by not believing them, they had no transforming power in my life. Are you hearing me? I don’t believe to make something real. That’s not how it works, and that’s part of what’s wrong with the word faith approach. They say believe and you make it real. You don’t make anything real. believe what God has revealed to be real. And when you believe what God says, and remember what God says is true, right? What God says is reality. That’s reality. So when we believe what God says, that reality becomes real to me, but I don’t make anything real. I do not create reality. God defines reality. I simply bring myself into alignment with what God says is true. And I must do that by faith because there’s no other way. And when I truly assent and [audio unclear] The position in Christ becomes our possession. When God said to Israel, I’m giving you the land, He gave them the land. And yet the first generation died in the wilderness. But the land was rightfully theirs because God had given it to them. But they didn’t take it. Then when God renews the commission to Joshua, you know what he says? He says, wherever you put the soul of your feet, yours. In other words, I’m giving this to you, but you have to take it. The first generation did not believe and therefore they didn’t enter into the Promised Land, but it was no rless true that it was their land given to them by God. It was no rless true, but the reality did not become a realization and the position did not become a possession because other unbelief. Two of the spies believed Joshua and Caleb and guess what? They went in and the difference between the two that went in and the ten that died in the wilderness was faith. That was the difference. It was not a different reality, a different promise from God, a different plan. It was the same plan from the beginning and those who believed inherited the promise and those who did not, did not inherit the promise. Paul’s faith in God’s love, and we could say Paul’s faith in many things about God, was not just a mental conviction, it was a practical reality. And it was made real to him through his experience, not just in spite of it, because in his experience, In his trials, he experienced the reality of God’s love to the ministry of the Spirit.

And this is what he prays for us at the church. Look at Ephesians 3. Ephesians 3 verse 14, For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man. That Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, and that you being rooted and grounded in love may be able to comprehend or take hold of or grasp.

With all the saints, what is the width and length and depth and height of what? The love of Christ. same thing he’s talking about in Romans 8. To know the love of Christ which passes knowledge that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. That phrase, the love of Christ which passes knowledge, we could translate it the unknowable love of Christ. It could be translated But then you think, well then I can’t know it. But actually, it’s unknowable in human terms and by human means, but it is knowable through the Holy Spirit. That’s why, that’s what he’s praying for. He’s praying for the Holy Spirit to grant us revelation for Jesus Christ to dwell in our hearts through faith. Through faith. And we can know that which it is humanly impossible to know. And that’s the love of Christ. So Paul knew this love by God’s word, by God’s work, by God’s Spirit, and even by his own experience. And the question is, can we say the same? Can we say I am persuaded of God’s love? Do I really believe that God loves me, me, so much that he would give me his precious son? Do I believe that God loves me enough to pardon me of all of my sins? Do I believe that God loves me enough to grant me his Holy Spirit? If you’ve answered yes to these questions, then you should be able to trust God now in every situation of your life. Every situation. Because the question is not do we simply believe something that God has revealed in his word about something that happened 2,000 years ago, but do we believe God today?

Do we believe Him now? Like Paul, are we persuaded that God loves me now in the many varied situations of my life?

The Peace That Proves Faith

What is the evidence of this faith? What is the proof? Paul had proof. What is the proof? Well, I can mention many things, but because of time, we’ll only mention one. And that is this, is that if we truly believe, if we truly believe and are persuaded of God’s love, then we will walk in godly peace. Godly peace. Let me explain what I mean by that. And I’ll explain it by what it’s opposed to. Godly peace is not, I’m not a real fan of Jesus movies. You guys might like Jesus movies. have trouble relating to the Jesus character. You know what I mean? He’s always a white guy, right? Often fair-haired. If he’s Jewish, he’s probably olive skin, dark hair, you know, curly hair, long nose. No, we get the fair-haired. You know, look like he came off a beach in California. You know, the surfer Jesus. And he always has this weird, you know, look on this weird look on his face and I think it’s supposed to be representing serenity. I can’t even reproduce it because it’s just too awkward, but it’s like it never changes and he floats. I’m Jesus. You know what I mean? It’s like, dude, he went to the bathroom. He’s a real person, human, you know, the whole deal, the whole package. [audio unclear] He goes, yeah, things are fine, I’m good, me and God we’re awesome. When in fact the person is backslidden and carnal. They’re so carnal they think things are fine. You get what I’m saying? That’s not what I’m talking about. I’m talking the peace that God gives to the soul through the ministry of the Holy Spirit. And this peace of God, especially as it relates to faith in God, is opposed to several things. It’s the opposite of anxiety or fear. Anxiety or fear. Let’s look at Matthew 6. We’re just going to read it. I won’t comment much. But I want to remind you of this passage. I preached on this passage a while back. Matthew 6, 25. Excuse me. Therefore, I say to you, do not worry about your life, What you’ll eat or what you’ll drink or your body, what you’ll put on, is not the life more than food and the body more than clothing. Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather in the barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? Well, that is the question. And that’s the same question we’re asking. Paul, it’s the same thing we’re asking. Do you think you’re important enough to God that he cares about your situation? Do you think that God loves you in your situation? Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to a stature? So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow, they neither toil nor spin, yet I say unto you that even Solomon and all of his glory was on a raid like one of these. Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow’s thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, oh ye of little faith? Therefore do not worry, saying, what shall we eat, or what shall we drink, or what shall we wear? For after these things the Gentiles seek. Your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things, but seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things will be added to you. Therefore, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble. Three times Jesus says, do not worry, do not worry, do not worry, and yet Christians worry. I have to tell you, I preached on this text four to six weeks ago. The following week, I heard four different people express to me in conversations fear and anxiety and worry. And they didn’t even realize they were doing it. This is such a common phenomenon, such a common sin, such a taken for granted, okay thing to do that we even have phrases like, well, you know me, I’m a worry wart. The answer is, well, I know you, you’re a sinner.

Because if Jesus says not to do something, and if he says it three times in a row in one passage, then it’s a bad thing to do! Then stop doing it! The amazing thing, and we all do it, so, you know, I’m not just beating you up, it applies to me, I’m preaching to myself too, okay? But here’s what happens. If I say to you, do you believe God loves you? Well sure, do you believe the gospel? Yes, this is the gospel of love. This is the ultimate sacrifice. God gives us a son on a cross. My gosh, what else could he do? Does God love you? Of course. And then the next morning, you’re worrying about something. There is a disconnect between what is being professed and what is being possessed. And the thing we must see is this faith has got to become this faith. It is not okay to believe the gospel as if it’s fire insurance or something or a ticket to heaven later and then walk in unbelief in your life. That is not what we are called to do. As Paul said, as you have received the Lord Jesus Christ, as you have, how did you receive him? By faith. As you have received the Lord Jesus Christ, So walk in him. You receive him by faith and you walk in him by faith. And if we are truly walking in faith, if we truly believe this gospel, I mean, listen to what the gospel says, listen to what you say, listen to what you profess. You are professing the God of the universe loves you enough to become a man and die for you. Keep that! [audio unclear] Because you are sin. That’s why. [audio unclear] And then doubting at work tomorrow, not believing today, because the word sounds good.

And then being at home, doubting in your family. Believing means believing moment by moment, because we walk by faith. We don’t just get saved by faith. We walk by faith. Philippians 4, turn there. Number four, what does Paul say? He says, Rejoice in the Lord when you feel good. Rejoice in the Lord on Sunday morning. I don’t think that’s what it’s saying. Rejoice in the Lord always, always. And again, I say rejoice. Let your moderation or forbearance or gentleness be known to all men because the Lord is at hand. Now some people think that means the Lord’s coming back soon. I don’t [audio unclear] There it is again. It is beyond, you can’t really explain it, it’s beyond explanation, but it’s real. The peace of God will guard and keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. We are told not to fear, we are told not to worry, and this applies to every day of our life and every area of our life. Say Amen.

And some of you need to start living it. We’ve got to start living this thing. We cannot sit here on Sunday morning and sing praises to God and sing all these wonderful songs about how God loves us and then walk out of this room and walk in fear. We cannot do that anymore. You’ve got to start believing God in the nuts and bolts of life, in the crooks and the crannies, in the dirt and the diapers and all of it. You start believing the word of God, because if He loves you this morning, He loves you tomorrow morning. And He loves you every moment. This godly peace, which is the fruit of faith, is also opposed not only to fear, it is opposed to grumbling or murmuring or anger. This is another common problem in the Christian community. People complain. You hear complaining a lot in the church. You hear complaining about many things.

Israel’s Unbelief in the Wilderness

We see this in Israel. We’re going to look at a couple passages. I’ll try to be brief here. I know it’s almost time to go. But go to Exodus. I want you to just see something quickly about this. This could be a whole sermon. This could be a whole series. But I want you to see this. You know the story, right? Israel is in bondage 400 years. I want you to get the historical picture. 400 years. God says, okay, it’s time now. [audio unclear] He goes, he does these amazing miracles, these plagues. He parts the Red Sea. They walk through on dry ground.

They get on the other side, and the beginning of chapter 15 it describes they had a worship service. Well, that is appropriate. Amen To put it mildly and they sing praises to God for the deliverance that he granted them and all the glory. It’s the glorious story But then notice church is over verse 22 of chapter 15 So Moses and Israel brought Israel from the Red Sea. Now they were on the shore when they had their worship service, the sight of that amazing miracle. And they went out into the wilderness of Shur, and they went three days in the wilderness and found no water. Now when they came to Marah, they could not drink the waters of Marah, for they were bitter, and therefore the name of it was called Marah. Because the word Marah means bitter. And what did the people do? [audio unclear] What shall we drink? Now, three days, three days. They saw the ten plagues, they saw the pillar of fire, they saw the sea open up. Three days later, they were complaining. It is an astounding description of human nature. What does God do? He takes a branch or a tree, of course symbolic of the cross, throws it in the bitter waters. The bitter waters turn sweet and they drink. Notice this, it says, verse 26, if you diligently heed the voice of the Lord your God and do what is right in his sight, give ear to his commandments and keep all his statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you which I brought on the Egyptians, for I am the Lord who heals you.” These waters were healing waters. Then they came to Elam, where there were 12 wells of water and 70 palm trees, so they camped there by the waters. I mean, I just want to point out the amazing grace of God. I mean, they’re complaining in juxtaposition to what God had just done.

The nearest of time, three days after all of these miracles, God ought to say, you know what, let’s just start over. Because you guys clearly don’t get it. But not only did He give them water, did He refresh and heal the waters, He gave them 12 wells. I mean, you talk about a picture of grace, right? Amazing grace. So the story goes on, and then in 16 they journeyed from Elam, and all the congregation of Israel came to the wilderness of sin, not sin like sin the way we mean it, but just the name of the place, which is the Elam and Sinai on the 15th day of the second month after they departed from the land of Egypt. So what happened? Well, then the whole congregation of the children of the Jew complained against Moses and Aaron in the woods. Now, okay, so they complained about water. God gives them water. God gives them 12 wells of water. So then God says, well, we’ve got to move on now. Well, you think they’d say, okay, God provided this situation. I guess He’ll provide the next stop. They go on and now they start complaining about food. First they complain about drink. the complaint about food. Now, when you read this story, when you read Exodus and parts of Numbers, and you read about the wilderness experience, you find the same pattern, a new location, a new complaint, a new location, more murmuring, over and over and over and over, the same pattern. God’s grace to them is astounding. It is truly astounding. But the thing I want you to see is that, and if we had time, I’d really, you need to read the whole story attentively, because there’s something very key in this whole thing, is that when you read through this account, and it’s many chapters and there’s many examples of this repeated pattern, over and over and over it says that the people complained about Moses, Moses, or they complained about Moses and Aaron, or they complained about the water, or they complained about the food, over and over and over and over. In other words, they were complaining about their environment. They were complaining about people in their lives. But when the Lord speaks, and when the Lord comments on their complaining, this is what the Lord says, and he says this repeatedly too, verse chapter 16, verse 7, And in the morning you will see the glory of the Lord, for he hears your complaints against the Lord. And Moses says, what are we that you can You can complain against us. In other words, you can complain against us, but that’s not the problem. Your complaints are really directed toward the Lord. And Moses said, This shall be seen when the Lord gives you meat to eat in the evening, and in the morning bread to the foal. For the Lord hears your complaints, which you make against him. And what are we? complaints are not against us, but against the Lord. Yet when they complain, they never directly complained to God, but they were really complaining against God. How can this be? Because God was governing their situation. And so if God brought them to the bitter waters, when they complained about the waters, they were complaining about what God gave them. And so it goes on today. And so Christians will complain about their work. They’ll complain about their boss. So they might complain about their schooling if they’re still in school. We hear parents complain about their children. We hear spouses complain against their spouses. We. Christians complain about their church. Complain about their pastors. complained about their pastors, on and on and on and on it goes. And if you walked up and said, are you complaining against the Lord? They would say, well of course not. Of course not. I would never complain against the Lord. It’s just that my boss is an idiot. I would never complain against the Lord. My children are just so annoying. Well, do you understand what’s happening? Again, As in worry, radical disconnect. It is saying, my life is not connected to God. My life somehow goes along and God is not involved in this. God is not governing this. Well, that’s not what the Bible teaches. Jesus said that that he feeds the sparrows. Not a sparrow falls to the ground without Father’s knowledge. Are you not of more value than they? Every hair of your head is numbered. He knows your job situation. He knows your boss is an idiot. He knows your children are annoying. He knows you don’t have enough money right now. God knows all of these things. The question is, do you believe he loves you or not? And when we complain, It is unbelief. It is. I don’t mean to sound hard hearted toward any trial you’re in. You have my sympathy but I’m telling you your unbelief is stifling the Holy Spirit in your life. And your trial which is designed for your good to transform you is that trial is doing its work because of your unbelief. Remember Paul said in the tribulation, in the trial, perseverance, proof. The Holy Spirit poured out in my heart because he was believing in the trial. Amen? He was believing in the trial. Not just putting up with, I mean, can you imagine Paul sitting in his tent, this is a bunch of crap. These people throwing rocks at me. I got to sit in prison. Can you You see it? You can’t see it. You can’t even begin to see it. Because that’s not a super conqueror. That’s not a winner. That’s a whiner. And we’re not called to be whiners. We’re not called to be complainers. We’re called to be victors in Jesus. Doesn’t mean it isn’t hard. It doesn’t mean at times you don’t even weep and cry. I understand that. Pain is pain. I understand that. But pain is not murmuring. Pain is not anger. God is not complaining, those are different things. You can have the victory in Christ, but you have to believe. And you have to believe that He loves you in that trial. That He’s working in your life, in that trial, in that situation, whether it’s work or home, boss or children, whatever it is, God is working in your life and you have to believe to receive.

Your pet complaint is not an exception to the rule. And the rule is, do all things without murmuring and complaining. That’s the rule. We must learn to see all of our life governed by God, but we can only see life that way when we learn to walk by faith. And any trials that He gives you, they are intended to perfect you. And anger and murmuring are signs of unbelief. are sins against God. The last thing I wanted to say, I don’t only have time, so we’ll just conclude. There are many other fruits of faith, but the reason I’ve been talking about God’s love is because if we don’t believe that God loves us, and I mean believe it in the moment, then we’re not walking by faith. We have to understand, in many ways, this is the root of the matter. Much Much of what I call practical unbelief, not theoretical unbelief, much of the root of practical unbelief is rooted in not believing that God really loves us. And that is an unbelief in spite of what we are professing regarding the gospel. So we must understand that the gospel, the gospel that saves, is the gospel that saves It’s the same gospel. It’s the same love. It’s the same God. But it requires the same faith. Are you hearing me? Anyone? Anyone? The same faith. the same faith. We must truly believe, truly God’s love for us. For faith to be true, it must be put to the test. And the test is simply everyday life. You don’t need to wait for a crisis. When at home with the kids, do you believe or do you get angry? When at work, do you believe or do you grumble? When you are sick, do you ask God to heal you or do you complain to others? And we can go on and on and on. Peace is the fruit of genuine faith in every situation of life. I’d like to read Isaiah 26 as we close where the prophet says this, You, meaning God, will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you because he trusts in you. Trust in the Lord forever. Amen.

Closing Prayer

Let’s stand and pray. Father, we thank you that you have proven by your actions, not just your words. You have proven your love. You’ve demonstrated it for us.

We thank you for that. We thank you, Lord, that there is no reason for us to doubt you. none. But Lord, You know our hearts. And You know at times we do doubt, at times we are anxious, at times we murmur. And I ask for each one of us to acknowledge those things for what they are, that they are sins. And I ask that each one of us would repent of those sins, humble ourselves before you, and allow you to transform us through the Holy Spirit that you’ve poured out on your church. And Lord, teach us individually and as a church, teach a sword what it really means to walk in faith. We pray that you would do this, Lord, for your glory, that you would be honored in our testimony. We pray in Jesus’ name, amen.