Faith Cometh By…

Faith is one of those doctrines. For example:

• It is so simple a child can understand it

• It is so deep that you can spend a lifetime studying it, and never be able to comprehend it fully

One of the reasons that we do not see the hand of God moving in our churches today, is because of the lack of faith we have in the Lord. But the problem is not only a lack of faith, but the quality of faith the church today is operating on is pathetic.

Illus: Did you ever get water in your car gas tank? If you did, you know your car might run, but it does not run very smoothly.

And the church may be running today, but it certainly is not operating as it should.

When a church has problems with faith, the church ties the hands of God.

For example, remember when the Lord went to Nazareth, in Matthew 13? This was where Jesus was raised as a child. The Bible says in verse 58, “And he did not many mighty works there because of their unbelief.”

In the same way, the hands of God are tied today because of unbelief!

But there are Christian people today who have GENUINE FAITH. Those congregations that have strong faith in the Lord, still see the hand of God moving in their midst.

Illus: For example, a small congregation in the foothills of the Great Smokies built a new sanctuary on a piece of land willed to them by a church member. This was a church that had strong faith in the Lord.

Ten days before the new church was to open, the local building

inspector informed the pastor that the parking lot was inadequate for the size of the building. They were told that until the church doubled the size of the parking lot, they would not be able to use the new sanctuary.

Unfortunately, the church, with its undersized parking lot, had used every inch of their land except for the mountain against which it had been built.

In order to build more parking spaces, they would have to move the mountain out of the back yard.

However, the pastor announced the next Sunday morning that he would meet that evening with all members who had "mountain moving faith." They would hold a prayer session, asking God to remove the mountain from the back yard, and to somehow provide enough money to have it paved, and painted, before the scheduled opening dedication service the following week.

At the appointed time, 24 of the congregation's 300 members assembled for prayer. They prayed for nearly three hours. At ten o'clock the pastor said the final "Amen." "We'll open next Sunday as scheduled," he assured everyone. "God has never let us down before, and I believe He will be faithful this time too."

The next morning, as he was working in his study, there came a loud knock at his door. When he called "Come in," a rough looking construction foreman appeared, removing his hard hat as he entered.

"Excuse me, Reverend. I'm from Acme Construction Company over in the next county. We're building a huge new shopping mall over there, and we need some fill dirt. Would you be willing to sell us a chunk of that mountain behind the church? We'll pay you for the dirt we remove, and pave all the exposed area free of charge, if we can have it right away. We can't do anything else until we get the dirt in, and allow it to settle properly."

The little church was dedicated the next Sunday, as originally planned!

Consider some things that are true about faith, for example; where does it come from?

Illus: It certainly is not something we can order out of a Sear’s and Roebuck catalog, and have the UPS man deliver it to our door the next day.

WHERE DOES FAITH COME FROM? I would like to suggest that it comes from at least two places, according to the Word of God.

I. FAITH COMES FROM GOD’S WORLD

Psalm 19:1 says, “The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament showeth his handiwork.”

Look at the word “Declare,” this is the Greek word caphar, (saw-far) which means to SHEW FORTH, TO SPEAK, TO TELL.

Illus: Have you ever been in someone’s ceramic shop? If you have, most likely they will take you around their ceramic shop and show you all the ceramics they made with their own hands.

And if you are into ceramics, you look at all the things they have made, and you find yourself saying over and over again, “Isn’t that beautiful!”

These things they show you are their handiwork. Now if you want to see God’s handiwork, the Bible says you have to look at this beautiful creation.