Last week we started a new teaching series we entitled, “Faith: the currency of Heaven”. We said that just as the dollar is the standard of currency for doing business in this country, so it is that faith is the currency of Heaven. If we are going to do business with God, and receive all that Jesus purchased for us with His precious blood, we are going to have to get those things, receive those things by faith.
Revisiting our analogy from last time, we can go into Heaven's “store” and find there everything we need to live, and thrive, and be blessed as children of God in this world we presently live in. Did you hear me? I said in this life! In this world! Jesus said in John 10:10, “The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.” Kenneth S. Wuest translated verse 10, “The thief does not come except to steal and to kill and to destroy. I alone came in order that they might be possessing life, and that they might be possessing it in superabundance.” Listen, the only way you participate in and receive this abundant life is by faith. All of this abundance, all of these blessings, are waiting in Heaven's “store” for you and I to come and claim them. Ill. Shopping list in front of Aldi. If you don't look at the list, you might miss something that is available to you. Ill. TV guide.
Look at Hebrews 11:1. We said last time this is not a definition of faith, but rather a description of faith. It doesn't tell us so much what faith is, as much as it tells us what faith does. We offered four definitions of faith last time. I want to quickly reiterate those today: 1) Faith is trusting God, 2) Faith is taking God at His Word; 3) Faith is acting like God's Word is true, and 4) faith is resting in the Promises of God.
Today, I want to explore in a little greater detail the first thing we introduced last time, and that is, what faith is. Before we can really look at what faith is, we must start with some things faith is not.
I. WHAT FAITH IS NOT:
A. Faith is not hope. Talk about Bible hope. An earnest, intense, expectation of their being a change. Not wishing. Hope is a necessary partner to faith however.
B. Faith is not mental assent. Many will mentally agree that the Bible is true. That is not faith however.
C. Faith is not denial. SPEAK
II. FAITH IS A MATTER OF THE HEART:
A. Mark 11:23, 24 Notice if you will, that faith both believes and speaks. Speak on mountains.
B. Doubts attack your head, your thinking. He said doubt not in his heart.
C. John 20:24 – 29 – When it comes to matters of God, too many believers are from Missouri! The world says: “Seeing is believing!” The Word says: “Believing is seeing!”
III. THOMAS FAITH Vs. ABRAHAM FAITH:
A. Romans 4:17 – 21 Thomas had to see before he would believe, Abraham had to believe before he saw.
B. Faith makes a decision – To side with the word against all evidence to the contrary. SPEAK
C. Abraham never denied he was old. He never denied his body was as good as dead. He never denied Sarah's womb was dead. He also never denied the Promise of God!
D. The one who promised was also able to perform what He promised. SPEAK
Conclusion: Hope, though a necessary partner to faith, in and of itself has no substance to it. It expects a change, but lacks the ability to produce the change. There is no reality to hope. Faith reaches out and gives substance to hope. Faith takes the unrealities of hope, and brings them into the present! Let's Pray
