Living Faith Series

Living Faith

A. Explain Series

1. 1 Corinthians 13:13 – And now these three remain:

faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these

is love.

2. Over the next couple of weeks we are going to be

talking about each one of these three virtues. We

are going to try to increase your faith, give you

a better hope, and enrich your love for one

another.

3. Why are we doing this?

a. Because these are the basics, these are what

are beliefs are made of. Sometimes we tend to

stray away from the basics. When we study

scripture, we make it to difficult and look for

a deep theological meaning when in all reality,

all we need is to accept it unconditionally and

have the faith of a child.

4. Today I want to talk to you about Faith. What it

means to have faith and to live by faith. We are

going to discuss three main things today: we are

going to talk about the kind of faith you need to

enter the kingdom of heaven, we are going to give

you some examples of Faithful Servants, and we are

going to discuss ways to Strengthen Your Faith

B. Faith of a Child

1. Illustration of Sally giving all her money to a

doctor to save her little brother.

2. The faith of a child, what a wonderful thing.

a. In Matthew 18:2-4 – He called a little child

and had him stand among them. And he said: “I

tell you the truth, unless you change and become

like little children, you will never enter the

kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever humbles

himself like this child is the greatest in the

kingdom of heaven.

3. Why does Jesus say this?

a. Let’s think about that for a minute and I want

you to think back to your childhood days.

b. When you are a kid, you have no worries.

1. You don’t have to worry about where your next

meal is coming from.

2. You don’t have to worry about paying bills,

loans, or car insurance.

3. You just don’t have the worries of this world.

4. Really the only thing that you worry about is

being able to get hoime from school in time to

play outside before it gets to dark.

4. You have no worries because you know you are

being taken care of by your parents, your mother

and your father.

a. You know that if you break the rules that you

will get punished.

b. You know that if you obey the rules then you

will be rewarded.

c. You know that your parents will do everything

they can to protect you b/c they love you

unconditionally.

5. In the faith of a child:

a. They accept what their father tells them b/c

they know that he loves them unconditionally and

would never hurt them.

b. They have not experienced right or wrong yet so

they just accept the teaching b/c they trust

their father.

6. Do you see where I am going with this?

a. Do you see why Jesus wants us to be like

children.

b. Hebrews 11:1 - Now faith is being sure of what

we hope for and certain of what we do not see.

7. Jesus wants us to have this kind of faith, the

faith of a child, so that we will be able to

accept Him unconditionally. He wants us to believe

in that which we cannot see and to be certain of

what we hope for.

C. Examples of Faithful Servants

1. Hebrews 11:4-31

2. Hebrews Ch.11 is known as God’s Hall of Fame.

3. We were given many examples of faithful servants

so that we could learn and see what it means to

have faith.

4. Faith is a scary thing b/c it is taking a chance

on that which you cannot see, it is trusting your

gut feeling, and it is leaving your comfort zone.

5. Abraham – scared to leave his family and friends.

- sacrifice his one and only son.

6. Moses – to go back to Egypt after killing someone.

7. Israelites – When they passed through the Red Sea.

8. But something inside them put them at peace. They

could not see Him but they knew their was a God,

they could just feel it all over.

D. Ways to Strengthen Your Faith

1. First, you must read God’s word and become

familiar with it.

a. 2 Timothy 3:16 – All scripture is God breathed

and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting

and training in righteousness.

2. Second, you must pray unceasingly for you, your

family, and those around you.

a. 1 Thes. 5:17-18 – Pray without ceasing. In

everything give thanks for this is the will of