OPEN: When I listen to Christian radio in the evenings, I’ve often tuned in to a call-in program featuring a wise, grandfatherly gentleman who has that calm reassuring voice capable of melting fear. One night a lady, who was obviously crying, called in and related the following: “I was born blind, and I’ve been blind all my life. I don’t mind being blind but I have some well meaning friends who tell me that if I had more faith I could be healed.”
The preacher asked her, “Tell me, do you carry one of those white canes?”
“Yes I do,” she replied.
“Then the next time someone says that hit them over the head with the cane,” He said. “Then tell them, ‘If you had more faith that wouldn’t hurt!’”
APPLY: If we only had more faith. As foolish as that particular phrase was to say to a blind woman we all know that we could ALL use more faith in our lives. Because we know Faith is important to us as Christians
The Bible tells us that “… the righteous shall live by faith” (Romans 1:17)
Philippians 3:9 says that our “…righteousness … is through faith in Christ….
Ephesians 6:16 says we have a “… shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.”
And Hebrews 11:6 declares “…without faith it is impossible to please God…”
So it would seem we can never have enough faith in our lives.
Even the smallest amount of faith is so powerful that it can change our lives/circumstances/world
Jesus said: “…if you have faith and do not doubt… you can say to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and it will be done.” Matthew 21:21
Faith has power… and I want as much of that power - and as much of that faith - as I can get in my life.
I. So… how do I get more of this FAITH?
Galatians 5 tells me that “faith” is the fruit of the Spirit in my life. The NIV translates Galatians 5:22 to say that the fruit of the Spirit is “Faithfulness”, but the word (in the Greek “pistis”) is actually “FAITH” not faithfulness… and there is a difference between those two words
Faith means I believe in something, I trust in something, I depend on something.
Faithfulness is the way I live because I believe in that “something.”
So Galatians is telling me that the kind of faith I want is something God’s Spirit develops in me. Romans 12:3 hints at this when it says “… think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you.”
When you and I became Christians WE believed in Jesus.
It was our faith that led us to
…repent of our sins
… confess Jesus as our Lord and Master
… and be baptized into Christ.
We believed. We had faith. We trusted God enough to want to belong to Him.
It was a simple, elementary faith
It was an acceptance of the fact that Jesus loved us and wanted us to belong to Him.
But the problem for many Christians is that this is as much faith as many ever get in their lives. Many never seem to develop beyond being infants and “babes” in Christ. And that’s not healthy.
The writer of Hebrews criticizes some of the Christians of his day saying:
“… by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food!…. Hebrews 5:12-13
II. You know what he’s saying to these folks??? GROW UP
He’s saying they need to mature in their level of faith to the point where they just naturally teach about God all the time… even when they’re not thinking about it.
They should be bringing people to Jesus. They should be teaching those people about Jesus. Their faith should be so strong that people around them can’t help but see and hear about what God has done in their lives.
Too many Christians rob themselves of this experience because they never grow up in their faith.
ILLUS: Imagine if you will a person who has just inherited a grand mansion. It’s elegant and it’s luxurious - and it’s filled with large beautifully decorated rooms. So the day comes for this person to take possession of this beautiful home… and he walks in the front door.
He’s so impressed by the foyer to this grand mansion that he plops down his luggage, unrolls a sleeping bag, and that’s where he lives for the rest of his life - right there in the entrance to his home. He never uses the dining room. He never lives in the living room. And he never sleeps in any of the bedrooms. He lives and he dies just inside the front door.
Now... is that dumb, or what?
But that’s what many Christians do with their salvation. They get in the front door… and that’s all the farther they want to go. They’re saved, but they’ve allowed themselves to live impoverished lives
If that’s ALL we do with our faith… we rob ourselves. Because God wants to do so much more with us. Ephesians 2:10 says “…we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”
God has great things planned for us. But if all we do is plop down in the entry hall, it ain’t gonna happen.
III. So, what is all this about the Holy Spirit developing faith within our hearts?
Now, this was a relatively unique concept for me. I’ve not given this idea much thought before. And as I was pondering the applications of it, I remembered a man-made doctrine taught by a denomination I once encountered. It’s the doctrine called “The 2nd Work of Grace”.
Essentially, “2nd Work of Grace” is the teaching that you get the Holy Spirit on two occasions
1st – when you’re saved the Holy Spirit comes into your life
2nd – later in life, you essentially get a booster shot of the Spirit that leads you on to a higher level of maturity.
Now, I say this is a “man-made” doctrine for two reason:
1) the phrase never shows up in the Bible. That doesn’t necessarily disqualify doctrines, but it should make us at least look at such teachings closely.
2) there’s absolutely no Scriptures that teach this idea.
When you can’t find a phrase in the Bible and you can’t support it with Scripture… then you have a man-made doctrine.
But while this is a man-made doctrine I understand where this denomination gets the concept.
ILLUS: I was baptized into Christ when I was 12 years old. I was saved. I had received His promised Holy Spirit and I was excited. I loved Jesus and I did every thing that I could think of to be His child. In fact, at that age I knew I wanted to be preacher.
But when I about 22 years old something happened in my life.
I had just heard a man teach about fasting several months before and it intrigued me so much I wanted to try it out. Now, frankly it was a fairly pathetic fast (I don’t think I did it quite right, and I may have even “cheated” by some standards). But after that fast something clicked inside of me. Something changed.
I first noticed this change as I was teaching an evening home Bible study. Ordinarily it was a fairly tame affair. The group was usually very polite. But that first evening after my fast, it was as if the Bible had become clearer to me. I seemed more intense in my teaching and the people at the study were giving rapt attention to my efforts to teach. They hadn’t done that before.
I’ll be honest. I don’t think it was me that had become so much more interesting. I believe the Spirit had given me a “booster shot”.
ILLUS: Several years later, I attended a “Prayer Seminar” (“Every Home For Christ”). While I was there I learned how to pray in a deeper and more powerful way. My entire approach to prayer changed. I changed. And I saw God do some miraculous things in my life and in the church I served.
Once again… it was like I had gotten a “booster shot” and my walk with Christ grew deeper and stronger.
There are a number of Christians who’ve undergone experiences like these.
Some call it a “Mountain top” experience”
I call it a “BOOSTER SHOT”
That denomination I spoke of earlier calls it “2nd work of grace”
I believe it is a real and true experience (pause) BUT.. I don’t accept the idea of a “2nd work of grace”. It’s far too limited an application. I believe what happens is a 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th and more works of grace. I believe that – if we let Him – God can repeatedly increase our level of faith and our heighten our connectedness with Him by His Spirit actively working in our lives.
II Corinthians 3:18 describes it this way: “But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.” (KJV)
We are changed (says II Corinthians) from glory unto glory. It’s like going up a flight of stairs. The closer we walk with Jesus, the more we take on His image and climb those stairs of maturity into His likeness. And I’m sure there’s more than “two” steps on that flight of growth the Spirit takes us on.
Sometimes the changes God’s Spirit would make in our lives will be dramatic… sometimes they’ll be subtle and almost imperceptible. But any Christian who satisfies themselves with putting their bedroll down in the entry way will miss all that. And they will miss the excitement and the adventure of growing up into Christ.
IV. How do I get this “booster shot” of God’s Spirit?
The idea (as it’s explained in Galatians 5) is that the Holy Spirit develops this fruit in our lives when we WALK with Him. Galatians 5:25 says: “If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.”
If I’m “walking” with someone that means I’m spending time with them. It implies that I have deliberately decided to be in that person’s presence.
If I’m going to walk in the Spirit then I need to spend quality time with Him and allow Him to stretch me.
· That means going beyond a Sunday Morning worship experience. Sunday Church is important to us. But if that’s all I ever do with my faith… then I might be guilty of unrolling my sleeping bag in the entry way of God’s mansion.
· It even means going beyond Sunday School or mid-week Bible study. These activities are important because it allows me to be exposed to more ideas of how I can become a stronger Christian. But “walking” in God’s Spirit means I’m personally involved with Him.
· IT MEANS:
o Personally studying my Bible to see what God will TELL ME to do
o Personally praying in such a way that I visualize myself in God’s presence
o Try out things I find in Scripture… fasting for example.
o Occasionally going retreats & seminars to learn more of how to walk with Him.
I’ve also noticed that the times when people walk closest to God’s Spirit are times when they encounter difficulties and suffering in their lives. And - in my life – I’ve found that it has been at those times when I’ve grown most in my faith. As one person once described it:
“If you are ever to be strong in the Lord and the power of His might, your strength will be born in some storm.” (Streams in the Desert)
CLOSE: Let me close with this observation.
Galatians 5 tells me that when I have the Spirit in my life – when I walk in the Spirit – there will be certain fruit that will be evident in my life: Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Faith… and so on.
That doesn’t mean that a person without Jesus cannot show love, or experience joy, or know a certain amount of peace, or… even have faith…
The difference is that, WITH the Spirit in my life, WITH my walking with God’s Spirit (every moment I can manage to do so) it’s as if I plug into a power source that makes all of those attributes more powerful in my life. In fact, this power source in my life can be so powerful and consuming that even those who are not Christian will notice it. I was intrigued by a confession made by a skeptic named Dana Tierney in Reader’s Digest a couple of years ago. She said:
“Over the years, I’ve come to think I’m missing out. My friends and relatives who rely on God - the real believers, not just the churchgoers – have an expansiveness of spirit. When they walk along a stream, they don’t just see water falling over rocks; the sight fills them with ecstasy. They see a realm of hope beyond this world. I just see a babbling brook. I don’t get the message.
SERMONS IN THIS SERIES
The Unknown Quality of Love = Galatians 5:22-5:25
Plugging the Leak in your Joy = Galatians 5:22-5:25
The Prescription for Powerful Peace = Phil. 4:1-4:9
The Puzzle of Powerful Patience = Galatians 5:13-5:26
God’s Idea of Kindness = Luke 6:25-6:42
The Tree Of Goodness = Galatians 5:22-5:23
Getting A Booster Shot Of Faith = Galatians 5:22-5:23
