FTR 3

Luke 1:35, 38 "And the angel answered and said to her, 'The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God.'"

38"Then Mary said, 'Behold, the maidservant of The Lord! Let it be to me according to your word.'"

Mary's response to this heavenly visitor is one of the greatest examples of faith in the entire Bible!

She has just been informed that she will conceive a child by the power of the Holy Spirit.

And not just any child, but the Christ Child!

Rather than stumbling over this incredible announcement she simply responds with child-like faith--"Let it be to me according to your word."

I want to talk about faith today--what it is, where it comes from, how it grows, and how to operate in it as Mary did.

The word "faith" is mentioned 243 times in the Bible.

And of those, faith is mentioned only twice in the O.T.--All the rest are found in the N.T.

Jesus mentioned faith 12 times in Matthew's gospel, 5 times in Mark, and 12 times in Luke. Interestingly, the word "faith" is not found once in John.

When Jesus met someone, He often commented on their faith--whether it was strong, weak, great, and so on.

He talked about "Little faith," "Great faith," "Healing faith," "Mountain-moving faith," and "Saving faith."

Of the six foundation stones mentioned in Hebrews 6, "faith toward God" is the second one.

So let's talk about FAITH...

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First, what is it?

Faith is a belief in something without actually seeing it.

Heb. 11:1 "Now faith is confidence in what we hope for, and assurance about what we do not see."

So faith is a confidence that something you don't see with your natural eye is there nonetheless.

The Bible makes clear that "invisible" does not mean non-existent.

We recognize this all the time in other areas of life.

We flip on the radio dial while driving down the highway fully expecting that invisible radio waves are going to be pulled from the atmosphere, travel down a little wire antenna, and bring us sound.

Jesus talked about the wind. No one has ever seen it, but you know it's there by the bending of the trees.

So it is with God. You can't see Him, but the evidence for His existence is all around us!

Invisibility does not mean non-existence.

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And lest you think believing in something you can't see is only something religious people do, think again...

Evolutionists believe that a BIG BANG happened some millions of years ago that supposedly launched the universe, though they never saw it.

They also believe that a single-celled amoeba EVOLVED over millions of years of time into thousands of various species, though they never personally observed any of this taking place!

So.....Though evolution cannot account for the beginning of the universe, cannot explain how the first matter appeared, evolutionists still choose to "believe" that it happened!

Hence, evolution is just as much a "faith" based belief as is Christianity!

So, BIBLE FAITH means that the person with faith has total confidence in a God he cannot see, and trusts that His promises will come true.

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Second, every time we find someone in the Bible with genuine faith, that faith always results in action.

They put FEET TO THEIR FAITH! They ACT on what they believe to be true.

Bible faith requires obedience to God’s Word, not just passive belief.

James wrote, "In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead" (James 2:17).

Now, when God commands a person to do something, he may not always understand why.

In fact, logically, it may not make any sense at all.

It made no sense to the little boy with a sack lunch to hand it over to Jesus for the feeding of 5,000 people, but he obeyed and saw a miracle.

It made no sense to Moses to simply hold his rod out toward the sea with Pharaoh's army closing in, but he obeyed and saw a miracle.

God wants us to step out by faith in obedience to Him, knowing that His way is perfect!

It says in the book of Acts, “Then the word of God spread, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests were obedient to the faith” (Acts 6:7).

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Now, why is faith so important?

Faith is important because it is the foundation of the entire Christian life!

“But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him” (Hebrews 11:6).

Nothing can be known ABOUT God or received FROM God apart from faith, right down to what you believe about the world's beginning!

Heb. 11:3 "By faith we understand that the entire universe was formed at God’s command, that what we now see did not come from anything that can be seen."

The Bible says, "The just shall LIVE by his faith” (Romans 1:16-17).

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Now, where does faith come from?

Why do some people seem to have huge faith while others struggle with just a little bit?

Do we just kind of "work faith up?"

ANSWER: Scripture teaches that GOD HIMSELF IS THE SOURCE of our faith.

Faith, like all other good gifts we receive, comes from above.

The Bible says, ‘A man can receive nothing unless it has been given to him from heaven’” (John 3:27).

Faith is not the result of our own will or ability.

Listen closely to the next verse: "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God" (Eph. 2:8).

Salvation is not earned, it's a gift.

And we are saved by faith, which is also a gift!

The Apostle John writes, “But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God. 13 They are reborn—not with a physical birth resulting from human passion or plan, but a birth that comes from God” (John 1:12-13).

The trigger God uses to bring faith to a person's heart is the Word of God.

When a person hears the Word of God, starting with the gospel, it creates faith in their heart.

"So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Romans 10:17).

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So let me summarize so far:

Faith is the act of placing our trust and confidence in the God Who is invisible to the naked eye.

The source of faith is God Himself, and He has generously made faith available to everyone through His Word, the Bible.

But faith is much more than a passive, inactive condition of the mind.

Faith requires acting upon our beliefs--putting feet to our faith--it requires obedience.

Jesus told the man with the withered hand, "Stretch forth your hand." He did and was healed.

He told Mary and Martha to "roll away the stone" from their brother's grave. They did so and he was raised...

He told the ten lepers to "go and show themselves to the priest." It says, "As they went they were healed."

So having faith involves believing God’s Word and then stepping out and doing it.

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Now, let's talk about a few things that can hinder our faith.

First...

I. Walking in the flesh instead of walking in the Spirit will hinder faith.

Some of the evidences of a person living in the flesh are listed in Galatians 5---adultery, fornication, idolatry, hatred, strife, murder, jealousy, and drunkenness.

And the evidences of walking in the Spirit are also listed in Gal. 5...

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law" (Galatians 5:22-23).

Which best describes your life?

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Then secondly,

II. The Neglect of the Holy Spirit will hinder your faith.

We can either spend quality time with God, which strengthens our inner man, or we will spend time on fleshly things, which hinders our faith and our spiritual growth...

The Bible calls this "SOWING" to either the flesh or the spirit.

Paul makes no bones about this:

He says, “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life” (Galatians 6:7-8).

We SOW TO THE SPIRIT by spending daily, quality time with God in prayer and in His Word, and by faithfully attending the gathering of the saints in church.

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Then thirdly, we hinder our faith by:

III. The Neglect of the promises found in the Word of God.

Listen to this verse:

Heb. 6:12 "We do not want you to become lazy, but to imitate those who through faith and patience inherit God's promises."

It is the PROMISES OF GOD that pour fuel onto the fire of our faith.

But Laziness toward the things of God result in neglect.

“Therefore we must give the more earnest heed to the things we have heard, lest we drift away” (Hebrews 2:1).

Rather than having a casual--take it or leave it--attitude toward our faith, We are to give EARNEST HEED to His promises, which also keep us from drifting.

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SUMMARY:

Everything we've seen today about faith describes Mary's faith to a tee!

She believed God for what she could not yet see.

She acted on His promise saying, "Be it unto me..."

She sowed to the Spirit by "pondering all these things in her heart."

She stayed focused on the promise God had made.

She obtained the promise by giving birth to the Christ Child!

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Do you have faith toward God today?

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