How to Cultivate Faith

SPEAKER A You once to every time in the sight of the good or evil sky don't break on you that I choice of life forever with that darkness. And. SPEAKER B The Bible assures us in Ephesians two, verses eight to ten, for by grace you have been saved through faith. And that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. Welcome to faith to faith Here are your hosts, Ettienne McClintock and Braedan Entermann. SPEAKER C Dear listener, greetings and a warm welcome. We're delighted to have your company on the program today. And just as we start, we invite you to bow with us in prayer as we ask God to bless our time together. Gracious Father in heaven, it's such a privilege to have access to Your Word. We thank you that you through Your Word, light our path and you direct our ways. And Father, we just now commit this program into Your care. We pray for a fresh measure of Your Holy Spirit to guide and lead us as we study this beautiful topic on faith is our prayer in Jesus name, amen. SPEAKER D Amen. SPEAKER C Now, I've had people talk to me from time to time and say, listen, oh, I just don't have your faith, or I wish I had more faith. But how does faith come to us? And also do we start with zero in the bank? I mean, how does it work? SPEAKER D Well, if we look in Matthew chapter six, this is Jesus'sermon on the mount and it's jam packed with amazing insights. But there's one I want to point our attention to this morning, matthew, chapter six, and we will be looking at verse 31. So in Matthew six, verse 31, it says, therefore so Jesus is concluding what he's been talking about. He says, therefore, do not worry, saying, what shall we eat? Or what shall we drink? Or what shall we wear? For after all these things, the Gentiles seek. And when it talks about the Gentiles, there it's talking about all the nations around the world. They've got these three basic priorities what shall we eat? What shall we drink? And what shall we wear? All of the Gentiles seek after these things. But then Jesus says so there's needs. SPEAKER C And there's wants, isn't there? So you have got the basic needs. You got to drink and you got to eat to live and you got to wear you want to clothe your nakedness. SPEAKER D It's interesting. We don't do that just for fun, do we? SPEAKER C No, there's a basic need, there a human need that has to be met. However, we take it a little bit further. It goes from needs, once the basic needs are met, to wants, which means we want more. We want more clothing. So your $300 suit or your $200 suit is no longer good enough. Now you can buy a 3000, $5,000, $10,000 suit if you wanted to. More exotic shoes. And also, as far as shelter is concerned, now you want a mansion, and people in pursuit of that will drive themselves very hard. There's always the desire for something better. And once they have it, are they satisfied, necessarily? SPEAKER D They're not. SPEAKER C I remember talking to a guy who owned a boat. I forgot he spent a million dollars on this boat. Beautiful looking thing, vessel. I had a little $3,000 run around and he had this magnificent launch. Anyway, he parked it up and someone with a boat that was five times worth more than his bigger, better, more bells and whistles parked beside him. All of a sudden, his boat, which I thought was magnificent, looked quite ordinary compared to the other vessel. But then, of course, you can go bigger again and bigger again. So, I mean, the human heart can crave and try and satisfy the desires through pursuit of these things. Some people are workaholics, and they pursue success and they pursue financial mean because finances can actually mean power. It means more options, and they'll get driven and they'll drive, and they may make their first million at a young age, and then they go after the 100 million and then the billion. But once they get there, are they actually satisfied? Why do they keep on pursuing it? Because they want more. Because what they have at the moment doesn't quite satisfy. So this pursuit of the gentiles that you've just read about here is obviously very obvious. It goes beyond just our needs because then it develops into wants, because wants are what we don't need necessarily, and of course, that pursuit. But what is it that drives our pursuit? What are we actually after? SPEAKER D We're obviously after something because there's a deep desire for life. If we didn't desire life, we wouldn't bother about clothing or food. We just die. But we've got this intrinsic desire for life, and we have an intrinsic desire for a certain type of life who wakes up in the morning and goes, I want to have a terrible life. I want to have a terrible life. I want it just to be terrible and painful and terrible. Here we have not just a desire for life, but a certain type of life. Hence the desire and the drive that people have to not just meet their basic needs, which solves the basic life thing, but they want to have a certain type of life, and they seek it. They try to get fame, they try to get approval, they try to get accomplishments and all these different things. SPEAKER C That's right. SPEAKER D And the saddest thing is that after a lifetime's expedition in whatever pursuit to find that missing thing, the one who has what, when we're looking at it, it seems like they have everything. They still seem to be lacking. And I think Jesus identifies what we're lacking in verse 33. SPEAKER C Okay, so that's the preceding verse. SPEAKER D Yeah, that's right. So just before that it says, for your heavenly Father knows you have need of all these things. God knows that deep in our hearts we have this desire for life and he's provided for that. But we keep looking to these things to answer our heart's greatest desire. And in verse 33 it says, but seek first the kingdom of God, end his righteousness and all these things shall be added to you. So it's almost like Jesus is he recognizes that we all need food, we need clothing and different things like that. But he recognizes that there's a desire that's in all of our hearts for that type of life that can only be found in involving God and receiving what God has to offer to us. Yes, we have this desire. And there's a quote by C. S. Lewis, I think I'd like to read now. C S lewis said this. He said, if we find ourselves with a desire that nothing in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that we were made for another world. SPEAKER C I love that. That is very good. Yeah, I agree with that. Know, even Jesus in the Gospel of John, when he's talking to this woman, this Samaritan woman, he talks about the fact that if we drink at the wells of this world, we will drink and thirst, drink and thirst, drink and thirst. We have to keep on coming back because drinking once does not satisfy. But what he offered was something that you can drink and you will not thirst again, and it'll be like a well springing up inside of you. So this is really that principle you just spoke about there by seeking first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. Now what does it mean to seek the kingdom of God? Because it talks about righteousness and his kingdom. Now what is the kingdom principle there? What is that talking about? SPEAKER D Well, the kingdom of God really for Bible students, it takes their mind back to the book of Daniel, where you've got these competing kingdoms of the world, babylon, Meta, Persia, Greece, and Rome. In the prophecies of Daniel, they're competing for power. There's these crazy monarchs who with one word can make your house a pile of ash and chop you in pieces. And these competing for power. And then at the end of all of those prophecies is the coming of the kingdom of God. And in every single presentation of these prophecies, god's kingdom is presented as being a very, very different type of kingdom. It's a kingdom built upon selfless love and service to others rather than the gold of Babylon. God likens his kingdom to the humble rock, the humble, solid, trustworthy rock. And as we look at the life of Jesus, he said, the kingdom of heaven is like this, the kingdom of heaven is like this. And he explains what the kingdom is like. And as the king, he washes people's feet, he serves them and he shows that his kingdom is very different. And so when we are seeking for God's kingdom, we are seeking to be a part of a very different type of kingdom in the kingdoms of this world. It's dog eat dog, it's trying to climb the ladder at the expense of other people. SPEAKER C It's survival of the fittest, it's survival. SPEAKER D Of the fittest, it's crush or be crushed. And Jesus says seek to be part of a different type of kingdom because it's in this kingdom that you'll find your greatest joy, you'll find your greatest peace. Because really when you wreck someone else's life or just live to hurt others, what real lasting joy and fulfillment do we have? We weren't made for that. We were never designed to live in the kingdoms of this world, the kingdoms that are driven by Satanic selfishness. We were designed for God's kingdom. And then secondly here it says seek God's kingdom and his righteousness. That's in other words to say seek to have the mindset and character of God. SPEAKER C Yeah. The righteousness of God. Where do we find out about that righteousness? I mean, I think in a previous program we spoke about talking about the Gospel of Christ, that Paul was not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ because it was the power of God unto salvation. Now what was the power in it? Because the word dunimus power there, which is the creative energy of God even to raise people from the dead. It says therefore in it the righteousness. So in the Gospel, the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith. So the Gospel reveals the righteousness of God. So if we want to seek the kingdom of God and his righteousness, we need to seek it through the Gospel, the good news of salvation. Now that takes me. So we're in Romans chapter one, but I just want to jump to Romans chapter eight and maybe we'll go to Romans chapter ten sometime after that. But Romans chapter eight, verse three, it says for what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did. So there's something we couldn't do because of the weakness of our flesh. God did. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and on account of sin, he condemned sin in the flesh. For what purpose? That the righteous requirements of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the spirit. Now the righteous requirements of the law is what we are to pursue. But how? Not through ourselves, because we cannot do it. Verse three says we couldn't do because we're weak through the flesh. But God does it. And he does it through Jesus Christ, who came in the likeness of sinful flesh, condemned sin in sinful flesh for the purpose of having the righteous requirements fulfilled in us. SPEAKER D That's right. SPEAKER C Yeah. Now, the interesting thing, that the righteous requirements of the law. So the law and righteousness are really the same principle as I think one Psalm 119, verses 172 says, for all thy commandments are righteousness. And the wisest man, well, second wisest next to Jesus, but the wisest man that ever lived. In his book, Ecclesiastes talks about all his vanity and he talks about all the vain things people pursue. And you just spoke about that principle where people will be in search of things they'll pursue richness or fame or fortune or whatever it may be. The richest man that was living at that time said that that's all vain, it's all vanity. And then he says at the end of Ecclesiastes, well, let's hear the conclusion of the whole matter. So he's just taken what we call twelve chapters to explain all the vanity in the pursuit of things in life and how they are meaningless because they're temporary. What if you just lose your life tomorrow? You've pursued all these things. What if you gained nothing? He says, unless you're the conclusion of the whole matter, fear God and keep his commandments, for this is man's all, or this is the whole duty of man. So that commandment keeping, which we by nature cannot do because it says we are weak through the flesh. God did, but he did that through his Son, who became one of us, so that we would be enabled to keep the righteous requirements of the law. So that's the righteousness we are to seek. Now, do we have by nature an interest in righteousness, an interest in good things? SPEAKER D We actually don't, okay. We don't have a natural. The things of the Spirit of God are foreign to us, and only the Spirit of God can make them known to us, because spiritual things are spiritually discerned. SPEAKER C Right. SPEAKER D And put an actual desire in our hearts for righteousness. And it's interesting in Romans, it talks about the gift of righteousness and that is those three words are such good news, the gift of righteousness. SPEAKER C Yes. SPEAKER D I believe that's in Romans, chapter three, I think God longs to give us righteousness. He wants to give us a new mind, a new heart, a new way of thinking and being, which so amazingly, it actually helps us to become everything that our hearts desire. Yes, what we truly desire is the joy that comes through selfless giving. But so few people discern that that's where their fulfillment will come. But I find it so interesting, you asked at the beginning that a lot of people say, I just don't have faith, or where do I get faith from? All of us have this desire, this implanted desire inside of us that just seems to be calling us to something better than this world can offer. Okay? And so I think as we go to our next verse, I think it's romans twelve three, we're actually going to find out, where did this come from? Why are we keeping on seeking? Why don't we just give up? Why do we keep seeking for something more than what we are, even though we seek it in the wrong places? SPEAKER C Yeah, that's right. Yeah. Romans chapter twelve. So we've jumped from Romans chapter eight. Now to Romans Chapter twelve. I'll read the whole verse, but it's really the last sentence that we're after. For I say through the grace given to me to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith. So here we see that this is addressed to everyone who is among you. So this is paul is writing to Romans. He's addressing everyone that's amongst us. And then he says that God has dealt to each one. So everyone among us, that includes everybody, right? Each one has been dealt a measure of faith by God. Is that true? I mean, does everybody have enough faith, enough deposit in that bank account that they start off with, with life? We have this account of life that we open up when we are born. Does God immediately deposit within that account a measure of faith for each person so they have something to respond to, some goodness and the pursuit of righteousness? SPEAKER D It seems like it. The Bible says here, to each one a measure of faith is given. We might think that's a very small measure, like sometimes people might struggle, but God says, I've given you a measure, I've given you an amount. I've given you an amount. And it's interesting, if we go back to the Book of John, we see the same principle revealed in John chapter one and verse nine, speaking about Jesus. It says, that was the true light which gives light to every man coming into the world. SPEAKER C Wow. SPEAKER D So here we have the same kind of thing. Every single person is in some special way that's not immediately evident in the text, but we look other places to find the answer. But in some very special way, every single person born on this planet receives light from Jesus. SPEAKER C Wow. SPEAKER D He doesn't leave them in darkness. And Jesus actually says in John chapter eight, he says, I am the light of the world. He who follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life. It's interesting, the light of life, the light that brings life. And so he comes as the light of the world to give light to this dark, to the people who live in the shadow of darkness. That's right, the valley of darkness. And it says that every person has been lighted up in some way. In some way. Every single person that comes in is receiving some kind of light from God. SPEAKER C Yeah, that's incredible. Hebrews chapter twelve tells us that Jesus is the author and finisher of faith. John, chapter one, verse four says that in him that's in Christ was life and the life was the light of men. Christ, through his life as a human being, authored faith for us. And that light, that light came from his life. That authorship was the light that shines into every person. As he says in verse eight sorry, verse nine. That is the true light that gives light to every man who comes into the world. So God gives this light. This light is also the principle of faith, which we can respond by because that light is a gift. Christ is a gift to the world, but with that gift he brings everything within his train, even what he authored, salvation. He authored faith as well. And Ephesians, chapter two and verse 18. You would have heard this in the opening remarks of this program. It says, for by grace you have been saved through faith. That is not of yourself, it is a gift of God. So what has been gifted to every person? Grace has been gifted. But not only that, faith has been gifted. It says, by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is a gift of God. So God has given faith as a gift to each person. When do we receive that endowment of faith? When we are born? Every person that enters this world is lit by Christ and has been given that measure of faith. That is a wonderful thought. SPEAKER D Because if God didn't shine so if this verse didn't exist and Jesus didn't shine light upon every person, what's the implication? It's that every single one of us is in darkness. SPEAKER C That's right. SPEAKER D And that darkness, according to the Bible, is living without a knowledge of what truly satisfies the heart. Because the light is the knowledge of God's goodness and his grace and his greatness. And so living in a darkened world is living in a world where we if you've ever tried to walk in the dark somewhere I remember one time I was in a room that I was very unfamiliar with. I may have shared this on the program before, but very unfamiliar with the room. I was staying at a friend's house and I couldn't find the light switched. I was walking around bumping into things and I desperately had to use the bathroom and almost gave up in despair. I was just longing for some light to see where things were. And this is by nature what we are. We're fumbling around in the dark and just like the gentiles that said are seeking, just trying to like seeking after food, clothing, shelter. Food, clothing, shelter. Just seems like the one orientation is but they go further, just trying to get something that their hearts are desiring for. And then the light switches on and then we see what we were really made for. We see our way forward in this world. And God comes to this world because he knows that he made us for something better than the darkness. He made us for something far better than darkness. When the devil snuck in and implanted lies in the Garden of Eden, yes, god said, devil, I will not let you take them down. I cannot let them suffer in a world of darkness. And just before the flood, we've done a presentation on the flood. It says that the thoughts of men's heart were only evil continually and there's violence everywhere. Yes, that's what happens when the devil is in control. That's what happens when the darkness is over the minds of humanity. And God says, I just cannot bear to see the abuse, the pain, the suffering and vainly seeking all these different ways to find peace and find happiness. And God says, let me shine some light. Let me shine some light. SPEAKER C That is beautiful. So you said before that by nature, we don't desire righteousness, but somehow people want something good. They want the good guy to win, don't they? So whenever you watch a movie, typically people don't want the bad guy to win. They want the bad guy to receive justice, and they want the good guy to receive justice as well. Something's been taken or something bad has happened. They want justice to prevail, and they want good to win over darkness. That principle is the principle we're talking about here, that desire for a right outcome, for right doing, for righteousness to prevail and justice to prevail. But by nature, you said we didn't have that. So we've got to go back to the book of Genesis, the Book of Origins, where we read about the fall of man. And Adam and Eve are just sinned. They're now hiding from God. God comes in search of them. And then he addresses Adam, then he addresses Eve, then he addresses the serpent. But when he addresses the serpent, the one who caused this fall, this sin between and the separation between God and man, god says to him in verse 15 of Genesis three, and I will put enmity between you and the woman. Now, the woman in the Bible represents the church. So this is a greater symbol of God's people. This is not really just talking to Eve per se. This is much broader than that. And it says, and between your seed. So this is the seed of the devil and her seed. And then it says, he, being the seed, shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel. So he had a promise of a Savior, but through the Savior, this principle of enmity would be implanted. And we've just been told that the same Savior, the one that lights the whole world and lights every man that comes into the world, that's how that enmity is started. So we're going to talk about cultivating that enmity in the next program or cultivating our faith in the next program. But I just want to unpack that a little bit further. That enmity, because we see two enmities here, an enmity against Satan and against his seed and against his doctrine and against evil. But then we also see that there's another enmity, which I think is the natural enmity you referred to, Romans, chapter eight. And verse seven says that the carnal man, so the fleshly man, the natural man, what we are by nature is at enmity against God and he is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can he be. So there seems to be two enmities here. Now, this enmity here, is it natural or not natural for man? SPEAKER D I don't think it'd be like what it says here. I will, I will put enmity. SPEAKER C Okay. SPEAKER D And so God would never say I will unless it was something you needed to do, right? SPEAKER C Yes. SPEAKER D And so he says, I'm going to do something. I'm not going to let you go down this path to eternal pain. And just like the life that we live here, it's one of pain and suffering and to eternal death. He says, I can't let you go down there. I'm going to put within you I'm going to put within you a desire like there's some kind of a hostility against evil. SPEAKER C Yes. SPEAKER D This hostility against evil and God implants it inside of every single one of us. SPEAKER C That's a beautiful thought. So in the pursuit of success, in the pursuit of fame and fortune or whatever your pursuit may be, if it's something that's based on the kingdoms of this world, which are temporary, by the way, if you're pursuing that, you pursuing a desire that's implanted by God in your inmost being a pursuit for something that you're trying to achieve. You may have heard the saying they're looking for love, but in all the wrong places. It's a pursuit for love and happiness. But you may be going about the wrong way. Because what happens is your interpretation of that desire for something better has made you now go down this path. But it might be based on vain and empty promises where God says, I will give you something better. And I want to go to that text in Hagai. It's a beautiful text. Haggai, chapter two. And Hagai is always a difficult book to find because it's such a small book. It's part of the minor prophets, not that any of the prophets'writings were minor, it's just the size of the writings. SPEAKER D And so we're going to be looking at verse seven, is that correct? SPEAKER C Yeah. Have you got it? Do you want me to read it? Yeah. Because you're there before me. SPEAKER D This is God speaking and I will shake all nations. SPEAKER C Okay. So those are the nations which are temporary because we know that God will shake them and destroy them and then set up an everlasting kingdom, which is the kingdom of kingdom of God. Yeah, that's right. SPEAKER D And I will shake all nations and they shall come to the desire of all nations. SPEAKER C So God will shake the nations, but all these nations desire something. Who is the or what is the desire of all nations? Because it sounds like that all is universal, no one is excluded. SPEAKER D I love this. It identifies everyone is desiring something and I love it. Probably the question to ask is who is the desire of all nations? SPEAKER C Yes. SPEAKER D And it says here so I will fill this temple with glory. And it says, the glory of this latter temple shall be greater than the former. Now, this temple, the temple that was built after the Babylonian destruction, wasn't as glorious as the first one. But the only reason why it was more glorious is because the desire of all nations walked in there. Jesus, the Son of God, the creator of the universe, who came to this planet, visited that temple as the one who had the answers to humanity's deepest desires and longings. And Jesus came to this world to not just save a select little group of people there in Palestine, but to save the world. And right now, all around the world, people of every culture and nation are still being drawn to that desire. No wonder there is people all around the world that are calling on the name of Jesus because he is actually what he reveals and is what our hearts truly long for. SPEAKER C Yeah, that's true. That's incredible. So the desire of nations is actually Jesus Christ, because he would be the one who would fill the glory with his glory, fill the temple of God. And it says that the former will be less in glory than the latter. And the latter glory is actually the glory of God revealed in his Son John, chapter one. We'd be just reading that before. In verse 14 it says and the word which was with God in the beginning and who was God, became flesh and dwelt among us. And it says and we beheld his glory. The glory is of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. Dear listener, thank you for joining us today as we studied this principle that God has given to each one a measure of faith. That faith is a gift of God and sufficient to start our life account with that deposit from the Lord so that we can cleave to His Word and we can pursue the kingdom of God and his righteousness. We look forward to catching up with you next time. Until then, God bless. SPEAKER B Thank you for joining us on Faith. To Faith. If you would like more information about today's program or if you have any questions, please contact 3ABN Australia Radio by Phoning. 02 4973 3456. 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