Romans | Week 3 | Daniel Goulding | Echoes Church

We are in week three of a series we started a couple weeks ago walking through the book of Romans. Again, tall tasks, the book of Romans in nine weeks. I have friends that have taught it in four years, and we're trying to just do it kind of in big chunks and themes over nine weeks. So, hopefully, you've downloaded our app. You're going through the daily devotional content that we're pushing out there. It's really the only way for the book of Romans to be more than what it's gonna be on a Sunday, which is like drinking from a fire hydrant. Hopefully, you're getting some more of it, during the week, but I wish I'd say there's a little bit of reprieve today, but there is not. We are continuing in week three covering a big topic, but one I think that is important for us to understand. So if you got a bible, join me in Romans chapter three

verse 25. I'll read a couple verses for us, and then we will we'll pray and we'll jump in. Here's how Paul starts in Romans three verse 25 today. It says, God presented Christ

as a sacrifice of atonement through the shedding of his blood to be received by faith. Here's the first time Paul's gonna mention this thing called faith. He did this to demonstrate his righteousness because in his forbearance, he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished.

He did it to demonstrate his righteousness at the present time so as to be just and the one who justifies those who here it is again, who have faith in Jesus. Romans chapter one verse 17, we read this week one. I wanna read it again today. It says, for in the gospel

for in the gospel, the righteousness of God is revealed. It's a righteousness, third time, that is by faith. For the first to the last, just as it is written, the righteous will live fourth time by faith.

Friends, Paul in week three is going to lean and encourage us to be people who make a decision to go, I am living by faith. Would you pray with me, father? God, we need you that what we are trying to do today

is something that we can't do without your power. And so holy spirit, we are asking for you to speak, for you to encourage, for you to convict, for you to change us because Jesus we know being in your presence, it will. It'll change us. Father, show us today what faith looks like. This is the mighty and holy name of Jesus. All God's people said,

amen and amen. I'm sure you guys have heard by now, but Elon

Musk is officially a trillionaire. You know? It's exciting times. What what he couldn't do with 800,000,000,000, he can now do with a trillion dollars. We're worried that there might be some financial pressure coming, but praise God, he got an extra $203,100,000,000,000

dollars. He's good now. And it's funny to watch social media. Like, people are losing their mind. We should take all of his money. It's like, okay. What is that gonna solve? Right? Like, again, it's a conversation for another day, but can we just agree, like, capitalism is still it's the best system we have. Alright? Like, it's not it's not a it's not a message for capitalism,

but the beautiful part about how the market works is you bring value to it. You can get paid from it. K? That's the basics of how capitalism works. And Elon Musk has solved some pretty significant problems. Right? Right now, if you see me driving around, I'm driving a cyber truck. If you're like, is that where all my Tithe's money is going? Yes. It's going to my cyber truck. No. I'm just kidding. My wife's got a Model y. Got re rented in a couple weeks ago. And when I was getting a rental, they were like, hey. You can rent this car for this amount or a cyber truck for $2 more. I was like, give me the cyber truck, and I'm gonna have some people ask some questions at church. But man, the self driving in that thing is mind blowing. I'm like, I would give Elon Musk a trillion dollars if I had it. It's

incredible what he has solved. The way that he's gotten people to go to the moon and back, like, the guy is solving some significant problems,

and I'm I'm thankful that he was able to get a bunch of money. But the thing I was thinking about is, like, he solves, like, autonomous vehicles. He's gotten people to the moon and back, all these amazing things, and yet still somehow you and I have to remember 27

different passwords for every Internet account that we have. I'm like, how can we not solve that? Like, can somebody put some attention to figuring out how to help me remember my password outside of who my childhood pet was? Like, who knew how significant that decision was going to be for the rest of your life? Your childhood dog's name is going to be this significant thing and it's funny as much as I belabor, especially if you've had to try to do it with your

parents at all, my parents and technology are like, it's like oil in water. My siblings and I have a running Google Doc of all of the mistakes that they've made, the 37 different workarounds we have for all of their things, and the most frustrating part is because all of us live out of state, when we show up, my parents are like, can you help me figure this out? And so we get them a new password, but it's the one that like, it just can somebody solve

one password to get into all the accounts to the glory of God, and hopefully, you'll get a trillion dollars for solving that problem. Right? And you're saying, what are you talking about in church, bro? Again, I wish I had a solution for that. I I I don't. But what Paul was going to say is that though we might not have a single password to get into all of our online accounts, there is one thing that is the most important thing when it comes to unlocking

the life of following Jesus, that if you want if you want all the benefits of following Jesus, there's one thing that kind of opens the door, and it's this thing that we just read four times. It's it's faith. That faith is without a doubt the most critical element

to a life surrendered by and fueled by the spirit of God. And I think the reason that sometimes you and I don't we we don't live into the fullness of the life that Jesus died for us to have is because we we as people, as westernized Americans, we're very cerebral.

We go to logic and reasoning and and yet the scriptures talk about this thing called faith that that at sometimes it defies logic and reasoning. Have you ever stopped to think about like why was it that Jesus couldn't do miracles in his hometown? It's because everywhere else when he showed up, was like that's the miracle

worker. That's the guy that can do supernatural things. And then he would come home and it was like, that's Joe's son, bro. That's the carpenter. Like what are you talking about? Right? And all of a sudden it was just logic and reasoning and there was no faith so there

was no miracles. Friend, I'm here today to tell you that everything

of significance in God's kingdom, it's accessed through faith and if there's one thing that you need more than anything else, Paul is going to argue through the book of Romans, you need faith and faith is the thing that unlocks everything else. If you're sitting here this morning and you're desperate for God to move in your marriage, I'm telling you what you need is you need faith. If you're here today believing God for a medical miracle, for a financial breakthrough,

the scriptures will argue Paul will say what you need more than anything else is faith. He will use the word faith 270

times throughout the book of Romans. Again, you gotta remember the book of Romans is his it's his manifesto.

It's him trying to tell the world about this guy named Jesus. It's him that with the longest letter that we have that he wrote talking about who Jesus is and the implications of the gospel in our life. 270 times he will try to tell you guys, here's the key. Don't miss it. It's faith. So the question is again, what is faith? Because we all we all think about what faith is and people will tell you like a nice platitude when you're going through something hard. Well, you just you just gotta have faith and you're like, What what is that? Is that like when you know your friend in the group chat is like, well, I'm sending you good vibes and intentions. You're like, what what is that? How do you even send those? You're like, sent them. How do you send good vibes and intentions? I don't know, but I think sometimes that's what we think faith is, but I wanna show you today that faith is much more than just good vibes and intentions. Here's the definition of faith biblically. Hebrews chapter 11 verse one says that faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen.

Now what beautiful language that it's a confidence that what we're hoping for is actually going to happen. It gives us assurance

about things that we cannot see. See, this is what biblical faith is. It's not that I just disregard all the facts. It's that I realize I serve a supernatural God that sits out time of time and space that isn't relegated to just if if logic and facts line up, then God can do it. No. No. No. I think what faith is biblically is like this combination, this anger between belief plus trust. Right? It's not it's not blind.

It's not it's not just disconnected from anything. It's tied to the fact that, hey, two thousand years ago we believed that God stepped out of heaven, lived a life that we couldn't die the death that we deserved and we believe that he actually came back to life. That's the cornerstone of our belief system and if the cornerstone of this whole thing is supernatural,

then then I can have trust that when God says something is going to happen in my life,

even when it seems like it goes against everything I'm seeing in my life, I'm gonna believe God versus my circumstances. K? Again, put in your notes this way that I don't think faith I don't think that faith just denies the facts, but it denies that the facts get the final word.

That the faith that Paul says has the ability to unlock the life that Jesus died for you to have is not a faith that denies facts. It just denies that the facts have the final say. Friends, we serve a God who is in his very nature supernatural and what is impossible with man,

it is possible with God. And if you're here today needing a supernatural God to show up, let me tell you, you find yourself in in a healthy environment because that is that is who our God is. Amen? He continues the author of Hebrews in chapter 11 verse six and he says that it is actually impossible to please God

without faith. He goes so far to say that friends, the only thing that actually brings God any joy or any pleasure, the only thing that we do that pleases God is faith.

And again I'm thankful for the fact that we're part of the nondenominational Christian church but I think sometimes because it's so new, I think sometimes we've we've been disconnected from church history, and church history is a big deal. And I'm thankful that we can walk in a church today and we can, you know, wear jeans and t shirts and doo doo tattoos or allowed to preach and we've got coffee and air conditioning, like, all of that stuff is amazing. But I think sometimes because we've been divorced from church history,

we forget the significance of this idea of of faith. Right? The entire movement of Jesus was one that was birthed in, fueled by, and is gonna be continued by by faith. Now again, church that we're a part of today, I would say it was started in A. Thirty three. K? That was the year of Jesus' death, burial, and resurrection

and eventually Jesus told the disciples, hey, wait for me. They gathered in the upper room consistently

and they waited for God and on the day of Pentecost, the spirit of God showed up and empowered a group of people, a bunch of knuckleheads. And all of a sudden, the church was born. And it wasn't an institution, it was a people. And for the first few hundred years, the church was on fire. It was spreading like wildfire

despite the persecution, despite being thrown into lion's dens and crucified and and lit on fire. The the church was the church was thriving because it was such a countercultural message. But again, here's why I think we've gotta talk about faith today because our natural propensity as humans is not towards faith, it's towards religion.

And we hear a message of faith, but then we go, yeah, but what do I have to do? And what what happens over what what what has happened throughout church history

is this natural trajectory towards religion and man made control, and that's what happened to the early church which started as a movement of people eventually starts to become a bit institutionalized. And as the church became institutionalized,

it started to stand for things that like, no, that was not the message. And so what happens is is in March,

they call together what's called the Council of Nicaea, and it's a really important date. Again, it's it's kind of ironic that a Roman emperor is the one that calls it together because traditionally the Roman empire was the one that was persecuting the the Christians, but because his mom is a Christian,

he actually calls together all the high the high ranking believers that are running the institutions. Like, guys, we've gotta hash this out. And at the Council of Nicaea, they wrestle through some of the core doctrines of who we are as followers of Jesus and they solidify

a lot of the stuff we still believe today. The doctrine of the Trinity, the doctrine of atonement, they put together a lot of the books of the bible, and again, they all walk out of that room stacked hands on guys, this is the faith that we're gonna live for, that we're going to die for. And again for a few hundred years, the church did okay but what started to happen is what always happens to our hearts as humans. We we run we run really well into rebellion

and we settle right into religion just as quickly. And what eventually happens is the church again starts to move as the institutions get bigger, the the people get more powerful, the church starts to again stand for things that it was never supposed to stand for. The next big movement in church history is in October.

We see what's called the great the great schism. This is where the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church split off, and we see this great divide, and there's some theological debates that they're dividing over, but what comes out of this, the reason that this matters, just stay with me, the reason that this matters is what is introduced is this thing called indulgences.

K? And the church started to tell people, hey, this is how you pay for your sin. All of us have sin. Here's how to remedy it. You you have to buy these things. You've gotta pay for these things or you can you can go on these crusades and you can you can through works, through achievement, through purchase,

you can atone for the sin that you struggle with. And again, it was not a message that the church was ever supposed to stand for and I think some of the roots of it are still in our understanding and our framework as humans today, but eventually this message just takes the church into some really dark places.

These are the years in church history that were kind of like how college was for a lot of us. Thankful Like that there weren't lot of photos and social media was in its infancy. Right? Like, there's not a lot of documenting of those years because there were some dark years for the church. And the problem was is the people of God had no ability to realize that the church was kind of blinding them because they didn't have the scriptures available to them in a language that they understood.

They were relegated to following God based on what the religious leaders told them to do. And this was kind of status quo until the early fifteen hundreds, and then there's a there's a a Roman

Catholic monk that essentially, after reading through the book of Romans, says, wait. Hold on. Paul says that it's about faith 270 times. It has nothing to do with buying it, it has nothing to do with earning it, it's all it's all actually a gift that we receive by faith, and in fifteen seventeen AD,

we see Martin Luther go to the door of a church and he nails to it the 95 disagreements he has with the Catholic church. And as a result of that, we see the Protestant Reformation. And now you and I sit here today as people who are the result of a guy that was willing to say, guys, it's all about faith. We cannot allow

our lack of understanding of it to pull us into something that isn't real and isn't true. The reason again I give you the quick one zero one of church history is history isn't just a story of what happened, it's a story of what always happens if we're not careful. It is our story on display.

Our hearts will naturally move towards religion, but we've gotta fight for what Paul says is the thing that unlocks all things which is which is faith. There's three things this morning that I wanna show you what I believe faith is. If you're taking notes, the first one is that faith is a gift. K? This is your, what is the Christmas present doing on the stage? The reason that I made it a Christmas present is because tomorrow with our creative team, I have to have a Christmas planning meeting. I'm like, it's a 105 degrees outside. How can we think about, you know, Santa Claus and hot chocolate in the middle of the summer? But that's what we're gonna do. We're gonna start talking about about Christmas, and and here's what I think Paul, I think what the Bible says over and over and over again that Paul emphasizes is that faith is a gift. You gotta realize that faith is not something that you can earn. When your boss pays you on Friday, that's not a gift. That's what the scripture says is a wage because you earned it, but the very nature of a gift is something that you can't earn

unless you're a parent and your kids give you a gift because you paid for that gift and the truth is it's probably not how you would have spent your money but welcome to parenting.

First thing that the scripture says that faith is it's a it's a gift. Paul says in Romans chapter 12 verse three that because of the privilege and authority that God has given me, I give each of you this warning. Don't think of yourself better than you really are. Be honest in your evaluation of yourself. Here's how was gonna say, here's how we should evaluate ourselves. Measure yourself by the faith

that God has given you. Here's the measuring stick of us as followers of Jesus is how much faith, not that you've earned, not that you've achieved, but that God has given to you, and this is kind of the tension,

is that the measuring stick for how well we're doing before the eyes of a holy God is how much faith we have. The problem is is faith is a gift that we receive. So the question starts to be like, okay, so so if it's a gift, how do we get more of it? What's the importance of it? Again, Paul doubles down in Ephesians chapter two before I get to how we get more of it. He says, for it is by grace that you have been saved through faith. This is not from yourselves. Again, here it is. It is a gift

of God.

And so if it's a gift that you have to receive, the question is is well how do we get more? Like it's the gifts you really actually want. Know a lot of stuff on Christmas you get, you're like I don't want more of these. No no this is the gift that you really want. How do we get more of those gifts? Paul says in Romans chapter 10 verse 17

that faith comes from hearing. That is hearing about the good news about Christ. There's only one way to get more of the faith that unlocks everything that is a gift that we receive. It comes by hearing

the good news of the gospel. It comes by hearing the message of Jesus preached. What Paul is telling us is that maybe when we gather as a church, something much more significant is happening than just checking the box of a religious duty, That maybe when we enter into an environment like this and we worship God collectively, when we hear the word of God preached, we hear the good news of Jesus talked about, what begins to be deposited into our hearts is the thing that we need more than anything else which is faith.

It's a gift that I've got to receive. It says that every day when you wake up and make a decision, everything that you're putting into your soul, everything you're listening to, everything you're watching, it is putting something inside of your soul. I would say it's either fueling faith or or fear,

and so much of our world today is designed to sow fear into you. And what God says that you and I need more than anything else is we need we need faith.

So it tells me that again, if you're sitting down and you're reading your bible Monday through Friday, you're following along in our devotional guide, it's much more than just checking the box of religious duty. It is literally every day going, God, the thing that I need more than anything else is faith. The only way that I get it is by hearing the goodness of the gospel. Every day when I make a decision to listen to to worship music versus you know the ratchet rap music that I used to listen to, it's it's because I'm trying to deposit faith inside of me that God, everything that I'm listening to, everything that I'm consuming, it's putting something

inside of me. Again, I wrote it down this way, that the more you hear God, the more faith is deposited in your life.

Friend, I'm telling you, we've gotta position ourselves, we've gotta posture ourselves to continually hear the word of God, why? Because faith is a gift. You can't earn it, but you can position yourself in ways to begin to get more of the gift that God wants to give you. But at some point, you gotta open the gift, right, which is always sometimes a scary thing, especially like I had an aunt that every time she would send us a gift for Christmas, you you were terrified,

but the older we got, we were kinda more excited to see. Like, there was one year she did turtlenecks that she hand painted with puffy paint for me and all my siblings who were in high school at that point. We're like, awesome. These are amazing. Right? You're you're a little bit scared to open it, but here's the here's the next thing that the scriptures talk about, that faith is it's more than just a gift. It's also

it's also like a key. K? It's a key that unlocks some things. And just again, for visual illustration, I I bought a set of keys. It's supposed to just be one, but Amazon only can do so much. Right?

It's also amazing to me that in three hours, I can press key, I get this thing that looks like it was made in the eighteen hundreds. It comes from China. It shows up at my house for seven ninety nine. Like we're we are living in the future, people. Right?

But the second thing that the scriptures say that faith is is that it's a key, and it's a key that you gotta use. It will unlock some things in your life if you're you're aware of what it can do. Now you gotta stay with me for a second. I gotta kinda put on a seminary hat to explain some theological to you, but just stay with me. This is what the key of faith can unlock if you will allow it to. Romans chapter three verse 22 says that we are made right with God by placing our faith in Jesus Christ,

and this is true for everybody who believes no matter who we are. For everybody who has sinned, we all fall short of God's glorious standard. Again, this is the beautiful equalizer of the gospel message. It's that every single one of us, regardless of race, creed, religion, historical background,

family lineage, wealth status, that all of us, we all stand before God condemned. We can't fix it. We can't we we can't just stop cussing for long enough. We can't do enough good things to fix the brokenness that is in all of us. But verse 24 says, yet God, in his grace, he freely

he makes us right in his sight. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty of our sin. K. There's three things I wanna show you that the gift of faith, the key of faith begins to unlock. The first one is justification.

Now again, this is just a big theological term. It's a legal term to make something just as if it never happened. The easiest way to remember justification is just as if. K? Justification is just as if it never happened. When you receive

the free gift of salvation through Jesus, the first thing that you unlock is you unlock justification where you are completely,

you are completely forgiven before a holy God. The God that you used to be hostile towards, you are now completely justified in front of. You didn't earn it. You just received it, and you now, just as if it never happened, you can stand before God in right relationship

with him. Again the picture that I always see is that like Etch A Sketch. Remember the Etch Sketch when you try it? I try to do anything. I watch people do pictures on it, mine always just looked like a three year old scribbling, but the good news is you could always just shake it and start over. It's the same thing we do with our kids. You just shake them and start them over. Right? I'm just kidding. Don't shake your kids.

But at any point you could shake it and it was completely gone. What Paul is saying is that when you receive the free gift of salvation as if it had never happened,

you are justified before God. He says this in Galatians chapter two verse 16. He says, yeah, we know that a person is made right with God by faith in Jesus Christ, not by obeying the law. And we have believed in Christ Jesus so that we might be made right with God because of, again, our faith in Christ Jesus,

not because we have obeyed the law. He doubles down again. We'll get to it in a few weeks. Romans chapter eight verse one. He says, so therefore there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus.

Why does the doctrine of justification matter to you and I? Because it tells us that when you and I give our lives to Jesus, we have been completely restored as if it never happened, but you gotta understand the problem is again, Paul's gonna get into this in the coming weeks. The problem is is we are still broken people living in a sinful world. Though our our future is secure, though we are justified before God, there's still a brokenness that's in us that is getting worked out, and Paul's gonna talk about how there's like this internal war, and I still do the things that I don't wanna do, and the things that I wanna do, I can't figure out how to do those things, and this is the tension. This is the plight of our humanity.

Though we are completely justified before God, yes and amen, you will still wrestle with sin. You will still do the thing that you swore you would never do. You will go back to the thing that you thought you had victory from, but the thing you have to remember, the reason that theology and doctrine matters is that when you are when you are going back to God and all you can think about is the sin that you swore you would never do again, the pornography problem that you thought you had gotten over, the alcohol that you swore you had defeated,

but all of a sudden you go, man, I'm I'm right back there again. When you sit down with God, you will be tempted to focus on your sin, but I'm telling you, you are the only one in that relationship that is remembering your sin because in God's eyes, you and I are completely justified

and we have to wage war with that sin not to get justification again but because it's how we make sure there isn't a separation that begins to settle into our relationship with God. Again, I'm here this morning to tell you, friend you gotta remember

that God doesn't see your sin any longer when you've accepted Jesus as your savior. The bible says he's cast as far as the East is from the West and you can by faith, you can unlock justification.

But there's more. It gets better. K. Here's the second thing that the key of salvation, the key of faith unlocks. The second thing is is righteousness. Now there's a difference between justification and righteousness. Justification is forgiveness, but righteousness is like complete reconciliation.

I don't know if you've ever had a friend or I think maybe better, a sibling, where you guys got into a fight and your parents are like, okay, you gotta go make up, you gotta forgive them, and so you begrudgingly, you forgive them, but you're like, I still wanna spit on them if they get anywhere near me. Right? I've forgiven them. I just don't wanna be around them. Right? Like forgiveness has happened. Yes. But reconciliation

hasn't happened. And here's what's amazing about the gospel was that God doesn't just reconcile us and have sympathy on us. No. No. He actually completely restores the broken relationship.

It's why the scripture say that you and I can boldly approach the throne room of grace, that we have a father in heaven that that actually wants to to meet our needs, that wants to know us, that wants to journey with us not because of what we've done, but because we've been justified and we've also become we've been made righteous. Romans chapter four verse two says it this way. It says, if his good deeds about him were acceptable to God again, he's gonna use Abraham here as his illustration, as his application.

He says, if Abraham

if his good deeds had made him acceptable to God, he would have had something to boast about, but that wasn't God's way. For the scriptures tell us that Abraham believed God and God counted to him as righteous because of his faith. Again, Paul writing the the the letter of Romans to a mostly Jewish audience

talking about the greatest of all of them, Abraham. He's like, guys, you think that Abraham achieved his relationship status with God by behavior. He didn't. It had nothing to do with behavior. Had everything to do with belief. It's belief that changes everything. It's faith that changes everything. He continues

in verse 23 and says here's why it matters what happened to Abraham. He says, and when God counted him as righteous, it wasn't just for Abraham's benefit. The question should be, well, whose benefit was it for? You ask good questions at the ten forty service. Verse 24, it was recorded

for our benefit assuring us that God will also count us righteous if we believe in him, the one who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. What he's saying is that not only can you be completely reconciled to God as if your sin had never happened, but God actually, just like he referred to Abraham as a friend of God,

he wants you to be a friend of his. And I just wonder what would happen if more of us started to view God as a friend.

Again I'm not saying we sing songs about his holiness, is God completely other than and set apart? Yes and amen. Yet that holy God wants to, if you can unlock it through faith, he wants to have a relationship with us as a friend, and you and I are the ones that have to get over the sin stuff that we struggle with because God has already, he's already done what was necessary

to pay for it. Okay? Again, I wrote it down this way, that our righteousness has nothing to do with how I feel, it has everything to do with what he did. This is again why theology matters is you and I will be tempted

to begin to approach God based on how we're doing, good or bad, But we gotta remember that my righteousness has nothing to do with how I feel. It has everything to do with what he did. So what does faith unlock? It unlocks justification and righteousness, but but wait. If you call now, there there's even more. K? There's even more if you call today in three easy payments. You can also unlock not just justification and not just righteousness, but also grace.

And this is again, this is one of those things that I don't think we fully understand

because when we hear grace, what we think is we think get out of jail free. And does grace cover that? Yes and amen. But grace, Paul is going to say, is actually much more than just a get out of jail free card. That grace is the thing that will empower you to live the counter cultural Christian life. If you wanna begin to win the war, the battle of sin in your life, what you need is you need grace. How do you get it? You unlock it by faith. Here's what Paul says. Romans chapter five verse one and two. He says, therefore since we have been justified through faith,

we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. Here's what Paul says. Here's what you can unlock by faith. You can unlock justification

just as if it never happened. And what happens is then you can also have righteousness restored to you. You can live life with God not not as a not as a slave, not as a servant, but as a friend because of what Jesus did on the cross. He reconciled the relationship, and it is completely healed. And here's what that will unlock for you, which is what you and I need more than anything else. It is it is a grace

to live the counter cultural Christian

life. What we need more than anything, the power that we need to to overcome sin, the power that it takes to trust God with your resources, all the things that we need in this life. It's not willpower. It is not more discipline. Those all have a place to play, but what Paul says is that what we need more than anything else is we need more we need more grace.

It's grace that gets us in the door. It is grace that gets us through. Friends, faith is a

gift, but it's also a key. The last one, if you're taking notes, is that faith a is muscle. Again, this is a three pound dumbbell, so don't judge me. Know all of are like, he's about to curl a three pound dumbbell. It's my wife's, all right? Now

here's the tension, that faith can be a gift, faith can be a key, yet still there's so many times we will find ourselves going, But my faith just feels so weak. It it feels like it's just it's just not that strong. You gotta realize that even though you you have access to the gift, God wants to give you the key,

you've gotta do something with it. And so much of this life is learning that faith is also it's also a muscle, and you gotta learn to you gotta learn to exercise it. You gotta learn to use it. And, again, why sometimes it's important to start with a three pound dumbbells because you just gotta you gotta start small. It's why the scriptures say that when you're faithful with the little things, God will make you faithful with with much. You've gotta exercise faith in in small areas, and what will happen is is you'll begin to develop a faith muscle, and you'll begin to see God move in bigger ways. But again, I don't know if you've ever taken a few weeks off of the gym or a few decades off of the gym, and then you show back up and you know it's good for you. You know it's gonna lead to something good for you.

But for the first few days, man, it's miserable, especially if you do legs. Right? Like, you're getting help off the toilet. Like, it's it's bad for a few days. Right? Like because what happens is is you you show up and you start to do this thing that is good, but you are out of practice.

Your muscles aren't used to the strain. It's all foreign to you, and what you're gonna do when you work out is you're literally gonna tear the muscles,

and you're gonna build them back. And then you're gonna tear the muscle, and you're gonna build them back. And what happens is, again, the people the people that I look at and go, man, I want a physique like that. The problem is you ask them, man, how long have you been working out? They're like thirty years. And you're like, is there a microwave version? You know, I've heard peptides are a thing. Can I get a peptide to fast track this thing?

The problem is that you can't fast track it. There's no shortcuts to a physique that you want just like there is no shortcut to the faith that you want. Here's what's so interesting about Paul using Abraham as the example of faith, the pinnacle of faith. Did you know what Abraham's story is? Abraham's

story is a guy that God had spoken a crazy promise to. But for year after year after year, Abraham lived in the disappointment of his reality not matching up with the promise that God had spoken.

God came to him when he was 75 years old and said, you are going to birth, and through you I'm gonna birth a nation. You are gonna be the father of so many people. Like look at the grains of the sand. As many as there are, you're gonna have more kids than that. And that's a weird promise to give a 75 year old man who had never had a single kid. He's like, bro, we're we're old. Like, what are you talking about? But there was something in his heart that that came alive. But again, here's the problem. Especially when we've been told that everything that God wants to do in your life, he's gonna do in two seconds. It's just not true. I wish that it was. I wish I could tell you and say, guys, here's what's gonna happen. If you can learn to trust God, all your problems are gonna go away. Things are gonna be amazing. You will only ever walk in abundance from this day forward, but I I can't give you that promise.

But what I can give you is a promise that regardless of what you walk through,

there is a God that is more than able. There is a there is a faith that you can grab a hold of that I I'm telling you, it it is worth more than anything that this world has to offer. Here's how Paul closes using Abraham as the ultimate example of faith, as a guy that learned to flex the muscle of faith. He says this in Romans four, he says, even when there was no reason for hope,

Abraham kept hoping.

He kept believing that he would become the father of many nations for God had said to him, that's how many descendants you will have. And Abraham's faith did not weaken. Even though about a 100 years of age, he figured his body was as good as dead and so was Sarah's womb. See, he wasn't ignoring the facts, but he said that there was a promise that's been spoken over my life that speaks louder than the facts. Faith doesn't ignore the facts. It just ignores that the facts have the final say. Abraham said, I I can either hold on to what my my circumstances would tempt me to hold on to, or I can hold on to this word that was spoken to me. In a season of hardship, I'm telling you, you've gotta make a decision what you're gonna hold onto. Look how it continues. Verse 20 says, Abraham never

wavered in believing God's promise. In fact, his faith grew stronger. And in this, he brought glory to God. Verse 21. Here's why this whole message matters. Here's why I hope we can all land one day that he was fully convinced that God is able to do whatever he promised.

Friends, here's why this message matters to us. Here's why we should pay attention. Because there is a God that has spoke some crazy promises over your life as well. It's not just Abraham.

It's not just one guy that God spoke some promises to. There are promises that God has spoken over your life as well, that you are more than a conqueror. That this thing that you think is gonna destroy you, I'm telling you, is not gonna destroy you. That relationship that you think is dead, I'm telling you, God can revive anything. That addiction that's become such a part of your story that you just think you're gonna die from it, I'm here to tell you that there is power. There is resurrection power in the name of Jesus, and you've gotta make a decision.

We have to make a decision. You can either choose to live by facts or by faith, but sometimes sometimes faith has to look at facts in the face and say, I am choosing to take God at his word.

I'm choosing to believe that there is a God who can still revive, who can still restore, who can still take what is broken and bring it back to life. Friends, I'm telling you, what you and I need more than anything else in this life is is faith. But hear me. The faith that is is not exercised eventually, it will be eliminated.

It's why God often gives us small steps of obedience first. I will never forget the first time that I made a decision to trust God with my money. Was It back when we used to pass a bucket. We don't have anybody we trust to collect those buckets here, so we don't do that. But I'm just kidding.

I'll never forget. I put like $20 in the bucket,

and but I felt like God telling me, hey. It's time to trust me here. It was an area of my life that I was refusing to hold hand over to God. So And I made a decision sitting in Sunday, passed in front of me, I put the $20 in the plate. Man, I'm telling you, for the rest of the time as I passed around, I was looking at that plate. I was like, I'm about to go get that money back. Right? Like, it's I'm gonna take it back, and and I didn't realize that that decision fifteen years ago was me learning

how to exercise the muscle of faith. And today, I can tell you that I that I'm a pretty generous person, but it's because fifteen years ago, I made a decision to trust God in what felt like insignificant

seemingly ordinary decisions. I say all that this morning to tell you, I don't know what it is in front of you. I don't know what step of obedience God has been encouraging you to take, but let me just remind you that at some point you've gotta make a decision. You're gonna live by fact or by faith? But friends, there is a life that is on offer.

Not that you earn, not that you achieve, but you receive by faith if you choose to take God at his word and to live into the promises that he has spoken over you. Amen? Let me pray for you. Father, God I thank you. God I thank you for every single person that's here today. Father, I'm thankful for atmospheres

of faith like this, and that God for just a few moments

that what feels like a performing arts center of a high school can be a tabernacle of meeting where the spirit of the living God will dwell with us, will transform us from the inside out. And father, we're here today and we are desperate for you. And so father, I'm I'm

I'm believing that you are gonna move in power and might. And God, I don't know everything that's going on with every person that's here, but I know that you do. And God, know that there are people that are here today and in the sound of my voice that are desperate

for you to show up. Father, would you move in power? Would you move in might? Would you begin to show us? Would you show us your face? Would you show us who you are? In Jesus mighty and holy name, all God's people said, amen and amen. You guys are amazing. Thank you for letting me yell at you for a couple minutes.