Growing Big Faith - Practical Teaching

Apply practical teaching to help you grow big faith.

Matthew 7:24-27  "Anyone who listens to My teaching and follows it is wise, like a person who builds a house on solid rock."

25  "Though the rain comes in torrents and the flood waters rise and the winds beat against that house, it won't collapse because it is built on bedrock."

26  "But anyone who hears My teaching and doesn't obey it is foolish, like a person who builds a house on sand.  27  When the rains and floods come and the winds beat against that house, it will collapse with a mighty crash."

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Jesus was surrounded by the crowds that came to hear him teach, they probably didn't realize that they were in for a long sermon that day, he taught about the lifestyle of those that follow him. Some of the things that he told them in this famous sermon was that they should be meek and humble, they should store up treasure in heaven and love their enemies.

Jesus ended the sermon with a parable, he told the crowd that "anyone who listens to My teaching and follows it is wise," he didn't want his audience to just know more he wanted them to do something with what they learned.

It’s one thing to know a lot about weightlifting and another thing to actually lift weights. It’s one thing to know a lot about nutrition and another thing to eat healthy. You can have every book on nutrition and weight loss, you can have a bunch of gym memberships, you can have the best looking work-out clothes but it isn't helping you one bit if you don't apply it to your life.

The Religious leaders of Jesus day proved that knowledge can easily puff up your ego and you can overlook the fact that the things that you know need to be put into action. It’s one thing to know a lot about the Bible and another thing to actually live out what it teaches.

Luke 11:28  Jesus replied, "But even more blessed are all who hear the word of God and put it into practice."

That’s why the Christian life isn’t just about knowledge. It’s when our acts of faith intersect with God’s faithfulness that our faith grows. From Jesus’ parable of the wise and foolish builders, we discover that hearing and learning are not enough. There has to be application because it’s obedience that makes all the difference.

Apply what you know.

James 1:22-25  But don't just listen to God's word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves.  23  For if you listen to the word and don't obey, it is like glancing at your face in a mirror.  24  You see yourself, walk away, and forget what you look like.  25  But if you look carefully into the perfect law that sets you free, and if you do what it says and don't forget what you heard, then God will bless you for doing it.

The Sermon on the Mount is a great big list of things to do but there isn't any value in knowing all these things if you are not going to apply them and put them into action. Being in church every Sunday doesn't have any value if it doesn't affect the way that you live.

I shouldn't just read the Bible to know more, I need to study the Bible and look for practical application. If I go to the church and see myself in the mirror of God's word and then I walk away and ignore what I saw then I am just wasting my time and I could have stayed in bed.

Help me Lord to apply and live out what I know about you and your will for my life.

Growing Big Faith

Five tools that God uses to grow our faith.

Numbers 23:19  God is not a man, so He does not lie. He is not human, so He does not change His mind. Has He ever spoken and failed to act? Has He ever promised and not carried it through?

Galatians 2:20  I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

1 John 5:4 For every child of God defeats this evil world, and we achieve this victory through our faith.

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We saw in the previous post, "The Man That Amazed Jesus," the  incredible faith of a Roman military commander. We saw that If you want to impress Jesus you won't do it with knowledge and it wasn't by obedience, the only thing that is recorded in the Bible that amazed Jesus was big faith.

The importance of faith can be seen in the Old Testament from the Garden of Eden to the entrance to the Promise Land we see God's people making a decision whether they will trust God. (Genesis 3:1-6, Joshua 24:14-15)

The importance of faith can be seen in the New Testament in the letters to the early church. The apostle Paul told the church in Galatia that his old life is dead and now he lives by faith. John tells us in his first letter that faith is essential in the battle with this evil world.

Faith has always been a big deal for God's people. There are incredible displays of faith recorded in the Bible that are much bigger than the faith that the average church member in the United States seems to have. In our world you don't see very many people trusting God and keeping their cool as they are being tossed into a furnace or put into a den of lions. (Daniel 3:18, Daniel 6:1-28)

We make choices that are unwise because we don't trust God's goodness and his promises. So many of us struggle with depression, fear and overcoming life's difficulties because we lack faith. Having complete trust in God is a challenge for all of us, it is difficult to put your life in the hand of somebody else and let them take control. 

Imagine how differently you would respond to difficulties, temptations, and even good things if you knew with certainty that God was in all of it and was planning to leverage it for good. In other words, imagine what it would be like to have perfect faith.

-Andy Stanley

Have you ever seen somebody step out in faith in a big way and you thought to yourself "are they crazy?" A lot of times people with incredible faith are viewed as clueless, people wonder if they have considered all of the information about their situation. We try and reason with them about what they are doing and give them more information in an attempt to make them have less faith.

God wants his people to trust him and have big faith, that's why he went out of his way to build a relationship with his people, he built a relationship with Israel before he gave them the ten commandments. After Israel had a relationship with God they declared that they trust him and chose him over foreign gods.

Five tools God uses to grow our faith:

1. Practical Teaching 2. Providential Relationships 3. Private Disciplines 4. Personal Ministry - Part 1, Part 2 5. Pivotal Circumstances

In order for us to grow and thrive in our spiritual lives, to have faith and to be fruitful, we need to be aware of these tools that challenge us and give us the opportunity to grow and become stronger in our Christian faith.

I am going to study through this Andy Stanley series for the next few weeks. Andy says that this is not a to do list that you check off to make faith happen. It is an observation in his ministry that God uses these things to help us grow closer to him and that we should put ourselves into environments where God can use these to work in our lives.

Help me Lord to grow to trust you more through this study.

Judging Isn't Always Wrong

We need to be careful who and how we judge.

Matthew 7:1  "Do not judge others, and you will not be judged.

Matthew 7:3  "And why worry about a speck in your friend's eye when you have a log in your own?

Matthew 7:6  "Don't waste what is holy on people who are unholy. Don't throw your pearls to pigs! They will trample the pearls, then turn and attack you.

Matthew 7:17  A good tree produces good fruit, and a bad tree produces bad fruit.

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People love to quote Jesus words without looking at the context and without checking out his other statements about the same topic.

Matthew 7:1 is probably one of the most misused verses in the Bible. Jesus doesn't condemn all judging but he does want us to be careful about how we do it.

Judging is a very necessary action and it is a healthy part of our daily lives. Without good judgment we would put ourselves in harms way or we would believe every lie that we hear. We need to form an opinion of the conduct of the people around us but our tendency is to judge too harshly and without mercy. If you look at the context of Matthew 7:1 you will see that there are instances that he told us to judge.

Judge at the right time

Timing is everything, Jesus told us to judge ourselves before we judge other people. (Matthew 7:2) Consider how bad that plank is in your own eye before you do a lot of damage trying to retrieve a speck of dust from somebody else eye. We need to be careful that we don't justify ourselves too quickly and rush to help save those that are around us that need our "help."

People who continually find fault with others only invite judgment upon themselves, in pointing to the faults in others, they attract attention to themselves. We all have faults, and though they themselves may be unaware of them, other people see them very clearly

Judge the value of the gospel

Jesus tells us that we should avoid offering the gospel to quarrelsome people that will not realize it's value. Those who present the gospel must be able to judge the difference between people who genuinely want to know about God and people who only want to mock and abuse. We are to recognize that there are some people so hardened to receiving the message that they will not listen

There were times that Jesus discerned that his audience would not appreciate the value of the gospel. We need to be careful that we don't rush to judge our audience and withhold the gospel message from someone that may have been open to it.

Judge the fruit 

Jesus talked many times about checking out the fruit that you see being produced on a tree and deciding for yourself what it tells you about that tree. If the person claims to be a believer but

Philippians 1:11  May you always be filled with the fruit of your salvation--the righteous character produced in your life by Jesus Christ--for this will bring much glory and praise to God.


The world is right to judge us. If you’re a follower of Jesus you should behave like one, nonbelievers expect you to act like Jesus. They expect you to care like Jesus and respond to people the way that Jesus did. Our character should prove that our faith has meaning.

Stop judging the world.
1 Corinthians 5:12-13 It isn't my responsibility to judge outsiders, but it certainly is your responsibility to judge those inside the church who are sinning.  13  God will judge those on the outside; but as the Scriptures say, "You must remove the evil person from among you."

While the world can judge us we shouldn't be judging the behavior of people outside of the family of God. We shouldn't be running around pointing our finger at them and criticizing them. Jesus didn't walk around and tell everybody he saw how bad they are. He didn’t coerce, threaten, or guilt people into following him.

Jesus loved people and his love drew people to him. We will never win the world to Jesus by doing anything other than loving the world. The early church did a great job of this and they were able to change the world but once the church became established politically in the Roman Empire this came to an end.

Political power and influence over non-Christians will not achieve the work of the Great Commission. Too often we judge nonbelievers while failing to hold ourselves accountable for our behavior.

The Man That Amazed Jesus

A lot of people were "amazed by Jesus" but this man "amazed Jesus."

Matthew 8:8-10  But the officer said, "Lord, I am not worthy to have You come into my home. Just say the word from where You are, and my servant will be healed.  9  I know this because I am under the authority of my superior officers, and I have authority over my soldiers. I only need to say, 'Go,' and they go, or 'Come,' and they come. And if I say to my slaves, 'Do this,' they do it." 

10  When Jesus heard this, He was amazed. Turning to those who were following Him, He said, "I tell you the truth, I haven't seen faith like this in all Israel! 

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Jesus ministry was just getting started and he had already created quite a stir. Jesus preached a long sermon that didn't put anybody to sleep, the Sermon on the Mount probably lasted for quite a while yet it seems that nobody complained, any preacher would love to have that happen. (Matthew 5:1 - 7:29) Instead of being mad that he took so much time, the crowd was amazed at what he said, there were plenty of rabbis and religious leaders in town that were good enough to attract some followers but none of them taught like Jesus. (Matthew 7:28-29)

After Jesus finished his amazing sermon he did some amazing things. As he was traveling to Capernaum he met an untouchable leper, instead of staying a safe distance from him, Jesus reached out and touched him, he told the man he was healed and that he needed to obey the law by going to the priest for an inspection and to offer the sacrifices that were required in Leviticus 14:1-20.

After Jesus healed the leper he finished his trip to Capernaum where a Roman centurion asked Jesus to heal one of his servants who was dying. This was an unusual man, Roman military commanders were not known for humility in their request or for their concern about their slaves, this officer was kind and sensitive to the needs of his slave.

Jesus was happy to continue traveling across town to the man's home but the Roman army officer refused to bother Jesus with the extra effort. The centurion told Jesus that as an officer he has the authority to make things happen, he believed that Jesus also had authority to make things happen, he believed that Jesus could speak the word and the healing would take place.

A lot of people were amazed by Jesus. 

The shepherds were amazed by Jesus when they visited his place of birth, John the Baptist was amazed that Jesus asked to be baptized, and in today's scripture the crowds were amazed at his teaching. (Luke 2:15-20, Matthew 3:13-17, Matthew 7:28-29)

It isn't enough to find Jesus amazing, there have been plenty of people that could say that, what will you do about this amazing person? Will you have faith in his promises?

The man that amazed Jesus.

This guy amazed Jesus, wouldn't it be cool to have someone say that about you? This guy deserved to get a t-shirt that says "I amazed Jesus." Jesus saw the incredible faith of this Gentile, he might have been the first Gentile convert, faith that exceeded most of the Jews. Jesus used this opportunity to warn the Jews that many of them wouldn't be a part of God’s kingdom.

If you want to impress Jesus you won't do it with knowledge and it wasn't obedience, the only thing that is recorded in the Bible that amazed Jesus was big faith. Jesus wasn't amazed when people did the right thing and refused to sin and he didn't get excited that somebody kept a long list of rules.

Completely trusting God
Hebrews 10:22-23  Let us go right into the presence of God with sincere hearts fully trusting Him. For our guilty consciences have been sprinkled with Christ's blood to make us clean, and our bodies have been washed with pure water.  23  Let us hold tightly without wavering to the hope we affirm, for God can be trusted to keep His promise.

Imagine if you had amazing faith, imagine how different your outlook on life would be if you had absolute confidence that God was with you and that you could come into his presence. Imagine having complete confidence in God's goodness.

It was a lack of trust that broke the relationship in the garden, Satan got the original couple to doubt God's goodness and whether his intentions were good, God has been working to fix the broken relationship ever since then.

Lord help me to trust you completely, I want to have faith that stands despite life's trials, faith that is amazing to you and to the people that are around me.

RELATED ARTICLES:

Big Obedience Comes From Big Faith (diggingtheword.blogspot.com)
Fluctuating Faith Levels (diggingtheword.blogspot.com)
Leap Of Faith (getmorestrength.org)

Decision Making For A Better New Year

Making decisions with eternity in mind.

John 11:40-42 Jesus responded, “Didn’t I tell you that you would see God’s glory if you believe?” 41 So they rolled the stone aside. Then Jesus looked up to heaven and said, “Father, thank you for hearing me. 42 You always hear me, but I said it out loud for the sake of all these people standing here, so that they will believe you sent me.”

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The story about Lazarus sickness and eventual death before Jesus arrived to help him is a well know story to a lot of us. I hadn't realized the ideas about time management and decision making that are an integral part of the story until I saw this Bible study by Stephen Cole at Bible.org.

Sometimes our thoughts turn to how short our time is here on earth and we begin to wonder how well we are using each moment. These thoughts usually pop up when we have to open up a new calendar to begin a new year or sometimes it is a death of a family member or friend that makes us think about the importance of using our time wisely.

There are so many options that are pulling at us to use up more and more of our time. In the old days we were concerned with our vocation eating our time but in our society the television, the internet and our cell phones are all on the list of things that are eager to consume large chunks of our time.

I wonder almost everyday if God is happy with the way that we use our time. I wonder how much my life should look like the people in the early church. I wonder if we should spend less time on day to day stuff that doesn't have much eternal impact. How much of a "fanatic" should a Christ follower be?  How different should he look from the rest of the world?

Looking at the story of Lazarus we see that Jesus puzzled the people that were around him, they blamed him for the tragic outcome of not taking action right away, his time management skills were being questioned. It turns out that Jesus has a different system for making decisions:

How Jesus did not make decisions:

1. Jesus did not make decisions based on the pressure of His friends (John 11:1-4).
2. Jesus did not make decisions based on the emotions of the moment (John 11:5-6).
3. Jesus did not make decisions based on the threats of His enemies (John 11:7-11).

How Jesus did make decisions:

1. Jesus made decisions based on what would glorify God (John 11:4).
2. Jesus made decisions based on walking in the light of God’s purposes (John 11:9-10).
3. Jesus made decisions based on helping others come to faith and helping them grow in faith (John 11:15, 25-26, 42, 45).

Jesus always kept his purpose in focus, everything that he did was to help us believe that he is the Messiah, he didn't allow anything to distract him from his mission. Jesus delay created an opportunity to help the disciples to grow in their faith and it helped prove his identity as the Messiah to those that didn't believe yet.

We use our time correctly only when we live in submission to God’s purposes for our life. Instead of a short sighted evaluation about how to use our time we should look at our use of time in light of eternity.

God’s glory takes priority above everything else. I need to make my life count for God's purposes and for his glory. I need to pray that I will do his will on earth so that others will come to know him and to help them grow deeper in their faith.