Have Faith Doubt Not Part 2
Have Faith Doubt Not part 2 from Pastor Lawson Perdue. On this episode of Grace For Today, explore how faith works from Abraham’s example. You can choose to believe God above natural circumstances and experience God’s supernatural goodness.
Destined to Win
When Jesus saved you, your destiny changed completely! He radically transformed us and brought us from death to life, from sin to righteousness, and from defeat to victory. Pastor Lawson goes through the book of Ephesians in detail and shows us exactly why we are destined to win. We are no longer fighting to be overcomers, we are made victorious through Jesus and any weapon formed against us will not prosper! Jesus came to give us life and have that life more abundantly! Because of God and his great love, we are destined to win!
Have Faith Doubt Not Part 2 Transcript
[Pastor Lawson] Praise the Lord, friends. We’re gonna be talking today about how faith works. And the scripture actually talks about this in Romans chapter 4:17. Speaking about Abraham, it says that God gave a word and said, “This is how your seed are gonna be.” And did you know what? Abraham chose to believe God above the natural situation. And if you wanna move into what God has, you gotta choose to believe God. Praise the Lord, friends. Today I’m teaching on have faith, doubt not. And we began yesterday talking about this scripture in Matthew chapter 21:21, where Jesus says, “If you have faith and doubt not, you shall say unto this mountain, ‘Be thou removed and be thou cast in the sea,’ and it shall obey you. And all things whatsoever you ask in faith believing, you shall receive.” Your faith as a believer will work. And we as believers do not have a faith problem. The challenge is we have a unbelief problem. We have a doubt problem. And the fact is many people who are born again, who’ve received Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior feed on the same information that the world feeds on. They watch ABC, NBC, CNN. They watch the same news that the world watches and they constantly feed theirselves. Even you can watch the conservative news and be really challenged because a lot of times, these people are just focused on the natural situation. They’re just focused on the outward realm, but if you will focus on the word of God, man, the word of God has the power to absolutely change your life. If you believe it. And again, it’s not a faith problem. It’s a doubt and unbelief problem. But what is it that feeds our doubt? If you focus on what the world says, what the outward situation says, what the natural situation says, you’re gonna have the same results as the world. And many times Christians are focused on what the doctor said. They’re focused on what the stock market is, what the interest rate is. Listen, I’m in business. I look at these things. They affect me. I understand. But at the same point in time, I focus more on what God says, and on what the word says, than all these things in the world. And if you feed on the world, more than you feed on the word, it’s no wonder you’re challenged receiving from what God says. So what is faith? In its simplest form, Faith is trust confidence, assurance, it’s belief. It’s knowing God. Great people of faith are people who know God, what’s a, what is down. It’s a lack of confidence. It’s a lack of assurance. It’s fear, questioning, wondering. You know what? Faith your faith has the power to move mountains. But what is standing in your way? What’s keeping you from what God has promised you? Well, I’m gonna look at an example today in Romans chapter four, verse 17, we’re gonna read through verse 21. We’re gonna talk about Abraham and Sarah. Abraham is called the Father of our Faith. Now I believe that God used Abraham in the realm of faith to show us faith. Not because he was a great giant in the faith realm, because in some aspects, Abraham was a chicken. I mean, who goes out when they’re over 90 years old, and tells a foreign king that his wife is his sister? Man, my wife would kill me if I did something like that. But Abraham actually in the natural realm was dealing with a lot of fear. And so if you want to keep operating faith, you know what? You can’t, again, focus on this natural thing. You gotta focus on what God said. So Abraham, just like you and I are challenged. Abraham was challenged in the outward realm, but you know what? We don’t have to be. We’re gonna be challenged, if you live very long after you’re born again, you’re gonna face some challenges. You’re gonna face some difficulties. You know what? But if you will make a choice to believe the word of God above all these other things, you can move beyond these situations and you can move into what God’s promised you. I had a friend that went to Bible school with me. He was a tremendous student of the word of God. And yet when he went out from Bible school and tried to pastor man, he would pastor a church for, I think his first church was six months and then he quit. And then his second church, he pastored for about, you know, two months and he quit. And you know what? Anytime the honeymoon was over, he just dropped out and quit. Well, did you know what, life is not a honeymoon all the time. There are challenges. We’re we are in a world that, you know what? There are situations, there are challenges. There are difficulties. There are problems that come up in this world that are contrary to what God promised you, but that’s why God gave you the promises so you can believe him. And when we look at the life of Abraham in Romans chapter four, it’s a really phenomenal example of really walking by faith in how faith works. We see that Abraham was challenged. And again, I don’t think God called him the Father of our Faith, and made him the example because he was this faith giant that never had any problems, but you know what? Abraham had some challenges. He had some difficulties, and he had to learn how to use his faith just like you and I have to learn to use our faith. Now it says in verse 16, Romans 4:16, talking about how to receive the promise. It says, “Therefore it, is of faith that it might be by grace.” You know, there are really two realms in the New Testament that stand out far beyond any other realm. And they are the realm of grace and faith. And grace essentially is what God has done for us and the person of Jesus when He died and rose again, and faith is our positive response towards grace, or our positive response toward the gospel. And so it says here in verse 16, “it is of faith that it might be by grace.” Did you know the same way that you get saved is the way that you received the promises. You got saved by grace through faith. That’s what Ephesians 2:8 says. And did you know what? The way that you got saved is you heard the gospel. You heard about what Jesus did for you, and you believed it. You heard that, that Jesus came and Jesus lived a seamless, holy, perfect, pure life. And Jesus died on the cross for your sins. And God raised him from the dead and made him Lord. And you believe that Jesus is Lord because you believed that you confessed Jesus’ is Lord and you were saved. Well, did you know what faith in all these realms works the same way as it worked with salvation, you hear the gospel, you hear that Jesus took stripes for your healing and you, and that he is your healer. And you believe that Jesus took stripes for your healing, and He is your healer. And you believe that you’re healed the Lord. And so you say, I am the heal to the Lord by Jesus stripes. I am healed. Did you know what? You’re not trying to change God. You found out who God is, and you believe it. And because you believe it, you say some things that are different. And so He says the promise is of faith, that it might be graced to the end, that the promise might be sure or secure to all the seed. Man, it is not about what we’ve done. If we make the promise about what we’ve done, none of us will be qualified to receive. I like something that my good friend, Andrew says. He said, “God has never had anybody qualified working for Him yet.” You know what qualifies you to work for God? Is the blood of Jesus Christ. Now there’s also in certain realms, the call of God. And that’s very, very important, but at the same point in time, if the blood didn’t qualify us, we wouldn’t be qualified. And it’s the same thing that qualifies you to receive the promises, to receive salvation. And the promises you received by grace, through faith, you received because Jesus secured it in his death and resurrection, and you heard the gospel and believed it. And so he says it is by of faith that it might be by grace, that the promise might be sure to all the seed, not only to that, which is of the law under the old Testament, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham. Also to those who are in the new covenant, who is the Father of us all. Now he begins to tell us in verse 17, how faith works as it is written. I have made you a father of many nations before him, before God whom Abraham believed even God who quickens the dead, gives life to the dead, and calls those things that be not as though they were, you see what? This is, how faith works. God will speak a word of life into a dead situation. And you know what? If you’ll believe it, you can receive it. See, Abraham was 99 years old and Sarah was 90. It looked like they would never have a child. They would be had been married for years and years. They’d never been able to have a child together. And yet God came and spoke a word and said, “Abraham, I have made you a father of nations.” He said, “Well, what about Sarai?” He said, as for Sarai, her, name’s not gonna be Sarai. her name’s not gonna be princely anymore. Her mother is, her name is gonna be Sarah, a mother of many nations. Have I made you a and or a mother of princes? And you know what? Abraham believed God. Now God speaks a word of life into a dead situation. And when God speaks a word of life into a dead situation, you’ve got a choice to make. Either you’re gonna believe what God says, or you’re gonna believe what this lying circumstance, what this situation says that’s different than God. And so when you look at this in verse 17, verse 18, it says who against hope, believed in hope that he might become the father of many nations, according to that, which was spoken. So shall thy seed be. What happened when was God spoke a word in this situation, it was absolutely impossible in the natural realm. It was absolutely against natural hope, but Abraham against natural hope hoped in God. He believed in God. It says, who quickens the dead and calls those things that be not, he believed what God said. He says that he might become the father of many nations, that he might become what God said. This was the word that God spoke. In verse 17 he says, according to that, which was spoken. So shall thy seed be. Now what he’s talking about, this word that God spoke in Genesis 17, “a father of many nations, have I made you”. Do you know, he’s talking about that word, but he gave a word prior to that in Genesis chapter 15, when Abraham said, what are my seed gonna be? You know, I don’t have anybody, but Eliezer of the house, you know, my, basically, these different ones. And God said, listen, he is not gonna be your heir. There’s gonna come forth one from your bowels. That’s gonna be your heir. And I’m gonna make your seed like the stars of the sky. And he took him outside and showed him the stars of the sky basically said, I’m gonna make your seed enumerable, like the stars of the sky. And you know what God did for Abraham, exactly what he said. But what God did was took him out and showed him a natural thing. What God was trying to do was create a picture on the inside of him. And you know what? This is what the word of God does. When you start believing the promises of God, you start believing what the word of God says, the word of God will change the picture on the inside of you. And when it changes the picture on the inside of you, did you know what, the picture on the outside of you will come to conform to the picture on the inside of you. I’m gonna tell you a story in just a little bit about how really I began to operate in the realm of faith. And it’s when Andrew Wommack came to Lamar, Colorado. Andrew was not a big name minister, then. He hadn’t even started on radio, at that point of time on a regular basis, we lived in Lamar, Colorado. Andrew held six Bible studies around the area there. We went to a traditional church, a non-faith filled, non spirit filled, you know what I call it, kind of a religious dead church. But Andrew came and started this Bible study. And my mother took me to this Bible study and I went and heard Andrew Wommack preach and it changed my life. Do you know what? As a 14 year old child, I thought I don’t have to be sick, poor, defeated by the devil, but I can believe God. And you know what? When I started believing that, my life started changing. And you know what? I started believing at a young age, you have to realize my mom was a school teacher. My dad had epilepsy. He worked on the farm. He didn’t make very much money. They lived in a trailer house. I mean, they drove cars with hundreds of thousands of miles on ’em. But when I heard the word of God, I start believing that, you know what? I can take care of my family. I can drive a nice car and have it paid for praise God. And I started believing these things and do you know what God has done much more than that. My faith developed and I’m believing far more than just having a good family and having them well taken care of. That has happened in my life. But you know what? I live in a very nice house. God has blessed me tremendously. I thank God. You know what? I may not have arrived. I may not have received everything. And I tell you, my faith is working. I am believing God for more today than I’ve ever believed him for in my life. And you know what? I am never gonna quit believing God. I have people that criticize me for my faith. I have people that come against me and you know what? They don’t know exactly what I’m believing for. They don’t ultimately have the vision, but you know what? You go ahead and criticize all you want to. I’m gonna keep my faith in God. And I’m gonna tell you, unless you’ve done more than somebody else in the realm of faith, you need to keep your ugly mouth shut. There are people that come and criticize different people that have never done anything. And if you haven’t done more, just shut up, stop the criticism, amen. That doesn’t get anybody anywhere that doesn’t help the body of Christ. It doesn’t do anything. Amen? And so stop that criticizing and get ahold of the word of God for yourself. Start believing the promises of God for yourself. And you know what? It, the Bible actually says that other people’s unbelief will not make the faith of God without effect. You can read that in the beginning of Romans chapter three. And did you know what? There’s a lot of people that are blaming everybody else for their problems, but you need to quit blaming everybody else. You need to take personal responsibility for the things that you have the ability to change, the things in your personal life. And you know what, realize that you can’t change other people’s life. Sometimes people are in a mess because they’re trying to change things in other people’s life, change other people, and you can’t do that, but you just need to let go of those things. And you know what? You need to just start believing God, quit blaming everybody. And if you’ll start believing God, you’ll, your life will start getting better. My life started getting better the moment that I started believing, praise God, and it’s got better and better and better, and God is no respect of persons. He’s only a respecter of faith. And so if you’ll start believing the word of God, word of God will work for you. I’ll be back right after this short break. Blessings. Friends, this week we’ve been sharing on faith in God will change your world. And I am so happy to be sharing with you this faith package. I have this book from my good friends, Mark Hankins, Mark and Turner Hankins on the spirit of faith. We have World Changing Faith, one of my best series. We have Four Keys to Faith. And then finally we have Have Faith and Doubt Not. These are some of my very, very best teachings on the realm of faith. And if you begin to understand faith, I believe it will literally change your life. It’s changed mine. Praise God. It’s changed my financial position. It’s changed my spiritual condition. It’s changed my physical condition and it’s all good. God wants to do good things in your life. And he does it through grace and faith. So if you want to get this teaching, just give us a call today or check us out online. Thanks so much in blessings. Praise the Lord friends. We’ve been teaching on faith and how faith works. And we talked about this in Romans chapter four, verse 17, God spoke a word of life into a dead situation. Abraham had not had a child, had not even got Sarah pregnant. They’d been married for years and years. They greatly desired a child, but nothing was happening. Nothing was hap going on. Abraham was 99 years old. Sarah was 90. It looked like it was impossible, but God spoke a word of life into that situation. God said a father of many nations, have I made you. And you know what? God will speak a word of life in a dead situation. It goes on and said that God quickens the dead. God gives life to the dead. And God calls those things that be not as though they were, as though they were already done. It says this in verse 18, Abraham against hope, believed in hope. When all natural hope was gone, when it looked, there’s like, there’s no way that this could happen in the natural. He believed he hoped in God. You know, faith is the substance of the things we hope for, evidence of things not seen, Hebrews chapter 11, verse 1. And so he hoped in God. What a lot of people are calling faith is really hope, but there’s a difference between faith and hope. Faith, hope knows that God can. Faith note says that God’s already done it. Praise God it’s already finished. I already have it on the inside. And so against hope, he believed in hope that he might become the father of many nations according to that which was spoken, so shall thy seed be. Years before in Genesis 15, God took Abraham up and showed him the skies. When he’s asking, who’s gonna be my heir, and he said, there’s gonna come forth one out of your bowels. And Abraham believed that word. You know, revelation that comes from God is progressive. And God gave Abraham a little bit of the truth. And he believed that. And then he gave him more of the truth and he believed that. And then he had that progress and he actually had a son and then God gave him even more revelation. And so it works a little bit at a time, but this look at verse 19, Romans 4:19 says this, “[Abraham] being not weak in faith,” now I put in Abraham, but we’re talking about Abraham. “He considered not his own body. When he was about a hundred years old, neither the deadness of Sarah’s womb.” Listen, it was not going on. Abraham was 99, almost a hundred. Sarah was 90. I’m telling you, she wasn’t even having hot flashes. Ever bit physically, as far as a cycle and having a child was over, it was done. It was not happening. But Abraham did not consider that. Look at this in verse 20, “He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief.” You see, you don’t have a faith problem. You got an unbelief problem. You got a doubt problem. Jesus said, “Whatsoever you ask, all things believing you shall receive.” He said, “…if you have faith and doubt not.” You see, so many people are feeding on all this information that the world gives and they wonder why they’re not having good results. Well, you gotta quit feeding on that. Start feeding on the word, start speaking what the word of God says, start saying what God says. And so it says here in verse 20, “Abraham did not stagger at the promise of God through unbelief.” You know, where does unbelief come from? Unbelief comes from focusing on circumstances that are contrary to the word of God. Unbelief comes from wrong teaching. If you have been taught religiously and not from what the scripture says, there are a lot of people that have a lot of religious unbelief. Unbelief comes from all these different areas and you’ve gotta begin to feed on the word of God. You begin, you have to, you know, go to the word and say, “What’s the word say?” A And notice what it says, “He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief,” but he was strong in faith. He believed God. And he gave glory to God. It says in verse 21, “… being fully persuaded, what God promised he was able to perform. Therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness.” Now, when we look at this, there’s a number of things that happened. Abraham had to choose to consider the promise more than the problem. He had to focus on what God said. You know that we talked about this before, but James 1:25 actually says, it says, “Whoever looks into the perfect law of Liberty and continues therein, this person not being a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.” Again, you can look into the mirror of the circumstances and look at what the natural situation says. And you can look in the mirror of the word. And sometimes the mirror of circumstances says something completely different than the word. You know, the scripture says in the beginning of Genesis, chapter 39, that Joseph was being sold on the auction block and the Lord was with him and he was a prosperous man. Do you know what Joseph, at that point in time probably didn’t own any more than a loin cloth. And yet the scripture says the Lord was with him and he was a prosperous man. It wasn’t because of what he had on the outside. It’s because of what he had on the inside. Praise God. It’s because of his relationship with God. And if you will choose to believe God above everything else, you can move into these things. So you’ve gotta choose to believe what the promise is. You consider the promise more than the problem. If all you do is sit around and look at why you’re sick and what the doctor says about your disease and go Google all that . . . Lord. Jesus. I can’t even imagine doing that. All these negative circumstances that are contrary with what the Bible says, you know what to see what’s wrong with you. You’re gonna have a lot of challenges in the faith realm. You gotta choose to have faith over unbelief. You see Abraham staggered, not at the promise of God through unbelief, but he was strong in faith, giving glory to God. You see, we’re not only dealing with faith. We deal with unbelief. What are the primary sources of unbelief? Did you know what? Wrong teaching. circumstaries, circumstances that are contrary to the promises. Another area that brings unbelief is lack of knowledge. When you don’t know what God said. Did you know the Bible says that “my people are destroyed for a lack of knowledge.” We talked about this before, but in Romans 10:17 says “Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God or faith comes by declaration and declaration by the mouth of God.” I wanna say it a different way. I, faith comes by knowing God. Great people of faith are people who know God. Do you know what? God’s character in God’s will flow together. God makes promises because of who he is. God acts out of who he is. It is impossible for God to act contrary to his nature. So when you understand who God is that he said, I am the Lord who provides for you. I am the Lord, your healer. I am the Lord, your righteousness. I am the Lord, your sanctification. I am the Lord, your peace and your provision. When you begin to understand this is who God says, the promises that God makes are consistent with who that he is. And so when you begin to know, God, did you know what you’ll begin to and understand who he is and understand his promises. God’s promises flow from who that He said He is. So we need to know who, not only know God, but we need to know who we are and what we believe. You see, if you go back to Romans 14 or 4:21, it says, “Abraham being fully persuaded, that what God promised He had the power to perform.” You know what? If you believe in God and you believe who He says, He is . . . If you really believe that and you go to the scripture and study it, you can begin to see who God said, that He is manifest in your life. You see in mark chapter 10:27, Jesus said this, He said, “with men, this is impossible. But with God, all things are possible.” You see, you gotta begin to believe that He has the power to promise what He performed. What did God promise to Abraham? He promised that He had made him a father of nations. You see Timothy. Paul says this in 2 Timothy 1:12. He says, “I know who I have believed in. And I’m persuaded that He is able to keep what I’ve committed to him against that day.” When you believe in God, and you understand who He is, you start moving towards those things that He promises. You see, the Bible talks about Abraham and Sarah, and it says this and Hebrews 11:13, “These all died in faith not having received the promise, but they were persuaded of them and they embraced them. And they confessed.” You know, even though maybe you’ve not received it in the physical realm, you need to get persuaded of the promise. You need to embrace the promise and you need to confess what God says about you. Amen? Let faith in God. Jesus said, have faith in God, let faith in God, take you into your promised land. Friends, I wanna say a very special thank you for staying tuned today. You know what, I believe that Charis Christian Center and Grace for Today is good ground. And I have good reason to believe that I sow here. And I know other people that they have been tremendously blessed through sewing into Charis Christian Center. And if you want to give a gift or you need prayer today, I want you to give us a call. We would love to hear from you. Thanks so much and bless it.
[Narrator] What is faith? Do I need more of it? And how do I exercise what I have? In this package containing Mark Hankins book, The Spirit of Faith and CD series, World Changing Faith, Four Keys to Faith, and Have Faith Doubt Not, you’ll learn the answer to these questions and more. You can get this special package for $59. When you call 719-418-4000 or visit CharisChristianCenter.com.
[Narrator 2] Get ready, Colorado Springs. Charis Christian center is turning 21 and we’re inviting you to come celebrate with us. With guest ministers for both our 8:30 and 10:30 AM services. We’ll have pastor Bobbey Crow from Cuidad Victoria, Mexico, and Andrew Wommack. You won’t wanna miss it. So make plans to join us Sunday morning, October 2nd. Go to CharisChristianCenter.com for more details or call us at 719-418-4000. Thanks for watching Grace for Today. This broadcast has been made possible by our faithful partners. If you would like to become a partner, need prayer, or have a question, please call us at 719-418-4000 or to partner online, go to Charis Christian center.com/give. You can write us at PO box 63733, Colorado Springs, Colorado 80962. See you next time on Grace for Today.