By Faith
Key Passage: Galatians 2:20
Date: June 7, 2024
We’re singing for us. What a blessing that was. Galatians chapter number two. A very familiar verse, verse number 20, Galatians 2:20. Amen. And really believe the Lord would have us just focused on a little portion of this verse. There’s so much there. If we’re trying to cover the whole verse, we wouldn’t get to Mother’s Day lunches to about 4 o’clock and mothers would be mad. I’d love to get another switching. I’d tell you what, by the mothers. And so we’re just going to try to get a little phrase out of this verse, Galatians 2 and verse number 20. If you’re there, would you say amen? Good deal. If you’re able to, helpful lives, would you please stand? We just try to show the Bible respect when we read the text verse.
And it’s worthy of it. Galatians 2 and verse number 20 of God’s Word. And the Bible says, “I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live. Yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. And the life which I now live in the flesh, I live.” Here’s the part of what you know is I live by the faith of the Son of God.
That’s an amazing state. He didn’t say lived by his faith. He said in the life which I live in the flesh, this is a messed up world, a lot of hurts and pains in this world, a lot of sorrows, a lot of tears, a heartache. The life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
Would you pray with me and ask the Lord to just put another building block in the life of a great Christian in your life? Would you do that? Lord, we come. We sure need you, Lord. Sometimes your truth is so rich and so deep, it’s hard, Lord, for a simple preacher like me to describe and explain it. But Lord, I preach it’s in your Spirit. Would you apply the truth? Or would you make it real in shoe leather, if you would, for your people? And Lord, if someone here’s not safe, Father, do pray. I ask, Lord, would they get saved today? And Father, we’ll thank you for what you do. We ask for this, Lord, in the name of Jesus, we pray. Amen.
Thank you so much for standing. You may be seated.
Years ago, there was a church in town that had a church auction. Some of you are here, I don’t know, it may have been 12, 13 years ago. I’m bad about that. Years ago. And we found out some of the things that were going to auction off, and we were needing church nursery furniture, different things. And so we went. One thing in particular we wanted to get, we wanted to get a tent. Had a large tent. It’s the tent we just used at the yard sale. We’ve used it years and years and years. God’s used that tent to see people saved. Many, many different ways he has used that tent over the years. We’ve used it. Some of the men that help us put it up, they say it seems like we’ve used it about 10,000 times, you know. Mr. Back says that, you know.
But we went to this auction, and we had already designated $1,500, $1,500 to get this tent. And we’d set it aside, we’d voted and whatnot, and we were ready to go for $1,500. And we thought, well, surely a tent’s not going to go for more than that. Well, we went out there, and we started bidding on this tent. And, you know, I don’t know where it started at $500, maybe. And I’m not good at all that stuff. But, you know, I’m raising my hand. And some other guy over there, I was trying to tell our deacons, “Go knock him off so we won’t bid any higher,” you know. But they wouldn’t do it, you know.
And so just kept going higher and higher, and we got up to 1,100, and 1,200, and 1,200. I’m thinking, man, we’re getting close to 1,500 and 1,400 and 1,400, 1,500. I’m like, man, that’s all we got. I think maybe we had the $1,500, I’m not sure. But then, sure enough, the guy they didn’t knock off—it’s all their fault, you know. I know they had their switchblades on them, you know, brass knuckles and guns too, you know, but they wouldn’t take care of business. But anyway, he bid a little bit higher. I thought, man, that’s all we got.
And a widow lady from our church was at the auction. She’s in heaven now. Many of you know who it was? I can say she’s in heaven. Ms. Darlene Hart. She came up behind me over here on this side and she put her hand on the shoulder. She whispered in my ear. She said, “Pastor, I’ll give $500. Keep bidding.”
Oh, he kept bidding. It took exactly $2,000 to purchase that tent. Now, that tent is $7,800 to rent one time. We rented it. I don’t know how it. We’ve used it about a million times, it seemed like around here. But I ran out of money. And praise the Lord, someone else did.
Now, the Christian life, it requires a lot of faith. It really does. If you and I, if we’re going to be successful Christians, it requires a lot of faith. You know, Hebrews 11, it is what we typically call in the Bible. It is the Hall of Fame, not of baseball or football, but the Hall of Fame of Faith. And it talks about a lot of these great Christians in the Old Testament. It’ll talk about Noah and the Ark. It’ll talk about the walls of Jericho. Remember they marched around and it just fell down flat. It’ll talk about Abraham that left his hometown under the leadership of God. And he was looking for a city whose foundations and builder maker was God. And it lists to all these great Christians, Gideon and Enoch, what were God, was not, and all these different. And here’s the thing: 15 times it’ll say “by faith,” “by faith,” “by faith,” “by faith,” “by faith,” “by faith.” Five times it’ll say “through faith,” “through faith.”
I was talking to a pastor one time, good, he’s been a great counselor for me, he’s older, and God’s blessed his ministry a great way, and I get advice from it. Remember one time he said, “Look, Brother Paul, every big decision we’ve made in our ministry, it’s always been out of faith. They’ve all been decisions of faith.” I’m just saying the Christian life requires a lot of faith if you can be successful.
Thought about the man that was palsy, he was lame. Remember the four men that took him up the rooftop? Jesus was in that house and there’s people around. They took him up the rooftop and they tore the roof apart and they’re letting him down. And the Bible says, “And when Jesus saw their faith, he healed that fella.” He said, “Man, your sins be forgiven you. Take your bed and walk out of here.” And I always thought it’s interesting: there wasn’t enough room to fit him in there before, but once he got up and started walking, everybody cleared out. We’re going to let that man through right there. There was room then, you know. But when he saw their faith, Jesus was healing blind folk. The Bible says, “Then he touched their eyes, saying, ‘According to your faith, be it unto you,’” and their eyes were opened. Five times Jesus said, “Thy faith hath made thee whole.”
Now stick with me for just a moment. We’re going to tie the two together just a moment here. Moms and ladies, my hats are off to you. I really, in many, many ways, think it requires more faith to be a good, godly wife of a good godly mom than… This is my mind, my country mind. This is how I’ll compare it. I love to drive motorcycles. I love it in the woods, you know, mountains wherever, on the road, you know. The faster, the better. I like it all. I might be scared of death, but I love it all, you know. I mean, I love all those things. And I’m glad to do those things. My wife and I rented a Victory, I think it was. Man, I love that, but that’s a wonderful riding bike. And I don’t mind that. My wife said, man, we’re on the interstate. We rode four hours on the interstate in Florida. And she said, man, you pass by those semis and you feel the breeze coming off and pushing you a little bit here. I don’t mind all that if I’m driving. But if I’m on the back of a motorcycle, I’m—I’ll cry like a girl. Scared to death. It takes about a hundred times more faith to be on the back of that thing than to be on the front of that thing.
I think it’s a little bit of truth to marriage, children. I think it takes a whole lot of faith for ladies. I really do. Just a great amount of faith. By the way, mothers, I think a mother that’s just intense in her prayer life of faith for children is just my kids, my son. Every once in a while my wife would pray this prayer: “God hears the prayers of praying mothers.” I’m telling you, he does. But my wife would pray, “Lord, if there’s anything going on in John’s life, would you show it to us?” And John would say, “Oh, no.” It got to the point when Tammy, Mom, his mom would pray that, he said, “I start checking up in my life, what’s going on? And I need to find out because it’s going to come out real soon here.” But the prayers of faith, mom, is just amazing.
The Christian life, it requires a lot of faith. It’s impossible to please God without faith. Hebrews 11:6, you know the verse. If I’m to be the husband, the dad, the pastor ought to be, it’ll be out of faith. But can I, can I, can I take the mask off and be transparent, as they say, with you for a second here? There’s times that I feel like, man, my faith is depleted. And when you’re young, you got that youthful faith. I ain’t so young anymore, you know. Now, some of you, you’re a little bit, you know, you’re a little bit beyond me. You’re in your 80s or whatnot. I’m still in 51, you know, but… And I ain’t like I was in 30 when I had all that faith. Anybody out there? Yeah, I can relate to that a little bit. Maybe life and problems has just, if you will, depleted your faith. Maybe you say, “Man, I need the $2,000, but I only got $1,500.” Maybe you’ve had some issues and some knocks so hard that’s hit you that it’s not the faith out of you that you need to be the Christian you ought to be.
Now, what do I do when I’m there? Here’s the wonderful thing. You say, “Hey, I need $2,000 of faith, if you will, and I only got $1,500.” And just like Ms. Darlene came and she put her hand on my shoulder, and she said, “Hey, I got $500. Keep bidding.”
Jesus Christ comes to you when you say, “I don’t have the faith to be the Christian I ought to be, to be a successful Christian. I don’t have that faith.” Jesus says, “No, you don’t, but Jesus says, I do.” And Jesus comes and puts his hand on your shoulder and he says, “Hey, I got the faith you need for every trial, every situation you’ll ever face. Jesus has the faith you need.”
Did you notice that passion? Would you look back at it? Galatians 2:20. Would you look back at it one time there? And that little phrase, would you notice it there? He says, “I’m crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. In the life which I live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God.” You see, friend, the more I grow in the Lord, the more I rest in him in everything, even your faith. I live my life by the faith of the Son of God. You see, your faith will run out, but His never. He’ll always have the faith you need.
Now, listen to this statement, listen closer. To get anything, get this: if you get this real good, I’ll give your permission to sleep the rest of the service. Nah, I revoke that one right there. Listen to it, would you please? Our flesh is always in every way trying to get you to rely on self, across the board. It’s always trying to get you to rely on you. The more I grow in the Lord, the more I rely on Christ for everything. You ever sing that song, “Christ is all I need. Christ is all I need. All I need”? As you grow, the more you realize that song is true. He has everything. And the more you grow, you see, in our life and the physical world, the more we grow, the more independent we become. I was saying, Ms. Michelle, Ms. Tiffany, singing up here. Ms. Tiffany, her daughter is married. She’s independent, if you will. Now, she sends a text about every other day saying, “Mom, can you send me some Starbucks or something besides that?” But beyond that, she’s self-sufficient, if you will. But in the Christian world, it’s the opposite. The more you grow in the Christian world, it’s not more dependent on you; it’s more dependent on Christ for everything, even for the faith you need. He’s got it for it. He’s got the faith. When you’re just depleted, he comes along and says, “Hey, I got what you need.”
Apostle Paul, God used the pen, 2 Corinthians 3:5: “Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think anything as of ourselves, but our sufficiency is of God.” Well, we call it the root sin, pride, and part of that is Satan always trying to get me to rely on me for everything. But when you grow and you realize Christ has got everything, he even has the faith you need for everything in your life. Faith. “I don’t have any faith.” That’s all right. He does. He’s got the faith you need.
When my faith has not been enough and I’m just, man, I just, I don’t have faith, I look back at those seasons of my life—y’all wait me out there—and I look at those seasons of my life and I realize those are the seasons that Paul is relying on Paul. Paul don’t have much faith. But he does have it. He’s got the faith you need. And there’s times that I look back and I say, “Where in the world did I get the faith for that?” It sure wasn’t from this old boy. I know this old boy. He don’t have faith like that.
I was thinking about preparing for this message, and this really, it wasn’t from me. But years ago, my son and I—it was maybe 14, 15, I don’t know. He was one of those smarter teenagers. We have none of them in our church here, none of them, right? Come on, teenagers, it’s your chance here, you know. Mom and dads, you might want to have a word or two in there, I don’t know, you know. They’re perfect. All the teenagers now are angels, right? Amen. All right, we’ve got a multitude out there. Assembly’s shaking her head, yes, over there, you know. But he was kind of going through that stage. We’re out visiting one day. Somebody, a couple, visited our church, and we’re out visiting them one night, Thursday, I believe it was. And you ever get just a hankering—that’s what we call it in Tennessee—you ever get a hankering for something? I had a hankering for lemonade. I just wanted some lemonade. And that’s very unusual for me, but every once in a while I just get a hankering. My hankering here lately, unfortunately, has been for Dr. Pepper. I’m addicted to that a little bit. I see some of your levels right there, you know.
But anyway, I just had a hankering that night for lemonade. And so I told John, my teenage son, I said, “Hey, let’s—I want some lemonade. I think the Lord’s going to give me some lemonade.” John was like, “Dad, how was he going to give you a lemonade?” He’s not going to give you a lemonade. You ever have a teenager someone kind of challenge you and it just kind of rubs you the wrong way? Anybody like that? And I was like, Lord, inside, I’m like, “Lord, would you show this boy you’re real? You hear your prayers.” I don’t know. I’m usually not like this, but I believe this: God gave me the faith that night. I said, “We’re going to pray.” So I’m telling you, John, God’s going to give us a lemonade. John, you know, by that point, he knows not to go too far off because he’ll get grounded or get a whip. I’ll take his cell phone. That always speaks to teenagers, you know. So he’s being nice, but he is a little bit like, “Oh, get out of here,” you know. I was pretty sincere. “Lord, you got to give us some lemonade to show my son you hear your prayers.” I believe God would do it. Now, that wasn’t for me. That’s not like me.
We went to an apartment, Chesterton Hall apartments, pretty close to the airport there. I visited a couple. They had visited the Sunday or two before in church. I don’t know. They were very nice to invite us in to their apartment there. And we sit down on their couch, whatnot, and they said, “Can we get you something to drink? Can we get you some lemonade?” Boy, I’m nudging John. “Hey, look at that, man.” Now, I don’t have faith for that. If I were to leave church today and say, “Can you pray for lemonade?” I’d pray. And I said, man, inside, I don’t have faith because God’s not given to me. I’m simply showing you, God gives you faith.
The life which I live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God. Your faith is limited. That’s why if I’m relying on my faith, how much faith I can muster up, I’m going to live in fear. Because you’re going to be thinking, “Man, I know my faith’s about right here. I’m barely hanging on, you know, on the side of the cliff. Somebody going to come along and step on my fingers up top there, you know.” But I realize, hey, listen, I’m not living by my faith. I’m living by Jesus, and he always has the faith you need. I’ve seen many of great Christians facing death, and I’ll go visit him in the hospital and say, “I’m ready to go, pastor.” So where does that faith come from? From God. Whatever you’re facing, he can give you the faith you need for that situation.
Then you say, “Well, all right, how does that happen?” Well, probably in several different ways, but look over it in Galatians chapter 5. It’s very briefly here. How practically does this happen? Galatians 5 adds a little bit to it, I believe. It talks about the fruit of the Spirit. Now the Spirit, there’s capital S. It’s talking about the Holy Spirit of God. In the Bible, sometimes it’s called twice. He’s called the Spirit of Christ, right? So I get this faith from Christ. And the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Christ. Remember that 1 John 5:7? These three are one. Let us look at something about the Spirit. Galatians 5, look in verse number 22, please? Galatians 5, look in verse number 22, if you would, please. “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness. What’s the next word? Wow. Faith. Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.”
Now, so the Spirit, the fruit produces this nine-fold. It’s like one fruit has got nine flavors in there, if you will. And one of those is faith. Now, let me say something about this sometimes. Well, let’s talk about this way. Have you ever made, anybody here, be awesome of me now. Have you ever made fruit? Anybody? Now, if you make some cobbler, that would be good things, you know, peach cobbler, whatever, we’ll take that out of fruit. You don’t make fruit. And sometimes we think, “Well, I’m going to muster up enough faith.” Honestly, friend, you can’t muster up true faith. Now, you have a decision to do with it, but God gets it. Look, okay, fruit, we had a peach tree for about—seem like 200 years—never got one peach off of that thing. Typically, you plant fruit trees and you fertilize them and you prune them and you take—you make the conditions right, and it produces fruit. Now, with the Holy Spirit of God, I yield to him. I obey him. I ask the Father for the fullness of the Spirit. I try to have my ear tuned in to the still small voice. I’m trying to listen to the Spirit, and I yield to the Spirit of God. I sow, I walk to the Spirit, and then it produces the fruit, which part of the fruit is faith. Sometimes they’re, well, these nine things, you need to produce them in your life. You don’t produce them in your life. The Holy Spirit produces them in your life. See? But here’s the thing: it’s a good sign if I lose my faith, I’m probably not filled with the Spirit. I don’t have meekness and temperance and, you know, all those love, peace. I’m not yielded somewhere along the line. I’ve quenched and grieved the Spirit of God. But here’s the thing: if I don’t have faith, I’m just living in fear. This is what we’re going to… All right, I’ve got to get faith somewhere. You’re not going to go out and just produce it. It’s a fruit. But you go back and you say, “Hey, where have or how have I offended the Spirit of God and I’ve quenched and grieved him? And Lord, would you forgive me? And would you fill me with your Spirit again?” He’s never left the indwelling of you, but his empowering is not there in you. And you go back and you get right with the Holy Spirit and you yield to him and you confess your sin. And it’s amazing when I got the Holy Spirit working inside of me, you know what? I have faith. Nothing Pastor Paul produces because Pastor Paul don’t have much faith. But he gives and he grows this faith in me. And I can live the life by the faith of the Son of God through the Spirit of Christ. See? That is what he wants for you.
Now, we’re almost done. I’m trying to get you out here early so you can beat the Presbyterians at the restaurant, okay? I’m working on it. Hard to do, you know, because they get out early. I shouldn’t say that now. Don’t go over there next Sunday, all right? Mother’s Day, I’m trying to be good here. Jesus has the faith you need for every moment of your life, and you can live by Jesus’ faith. You say, “How do you know that?” Because the Bible. “The life which I now live, I live by the faith of the Son of God.” I got that from the Bible. You know the verse, Romans 10:17: “So then faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the…” Yeah, that’s part of that formula. I know, hey, I don’t have to live by my faith; I live by His faith, Jesus Christ’s faith. I close the Bible. I know I can have a Spirit of God, the Spirit of Christ, dwelling in me, giving me faith and growing my faith, well, from the Bible and many other passages. The Bible.
Friend, don’t live in fear. So many people are living in fear. And here’s the thing: the devil is so sly. We as Christians, we know, man, if I’m going to be successful, I need faith. And so the next thing Satan says, “Well, I’m going to put you in fear that you won’t have enough faith.” And I say, “You know what? I don’t have to.” Jesus has got it. Got all the faith you need.
You know, it’s amazing the Christian life really starts with faith. Can I be honest with the faith? The faith that someone puts in Jesus Christ is not even from them. The Bible says he’s given to every man, Romans 12:3: “He’s given to every man the measure of faith.” Remember those parables of the talents? Remember the talents over there? Remember that? And two different ones, so the numbering will give it. Both of them. One guy got one talent. And that guy took his talent and took that talent. Remember what he did? He took the talent and he dug a hole and he buried it in the earth, right? And what happened? He said, “Hey, you wicked and slothful servant,” and he cast him in outer darkness where there would be weeping and gnashing of teeth, just for not using the one talent. Yeah, because that one talent was faith. God had given him faith, but he didn’t want to put that faith in the Son of God, which is in heaven right now. He buried it in the earth. See, everybody’s got faith. He’s giving everybody a measure, the measure of faith. Some will choose to put it in science, and that’s a joke because about every 30 years, they really change science books. Check it out if you don’t believe me. Check it out how much evolutionists have changed. Wow. Some will put their faith in their friends. Some will put their faith in themselves. But everybody’s got the measure of faith. Some will put it in the earthly things and their talents and their charisma and their careers and all that. But look, when you take that faith that he’s given you and you put it in Jesus—“Jesus, you’re my only way to heaven”—boom, that’s when you’re saved.
It really starts off with His faith, just what you do with Him. And then as you grow and you learn to rely more on Jesus, remember what Jesus said? He said very the very last day, “He that believeth in me, the works that I do shall he do, and greater works than these shall I do because I go unto my Father.” And as I grow, man, I don’t have to muster up all this faith. That ends up in pride. Man, I don’t have to do all that. I can’t create fruit. But I rely on Him even for faith. See? Starts with faith. And to the last second of your life, He’ll give you the faith that you need to be the successful Christian He wants you to be.
I wish Brother Warren was here today. He’s in and out, very sick from time to time. And I believe this, earlier this week I talked with him, and he was going to try to be here today. But Brother Warren, he’s amazing, man. How many of you know Brother Warren? Come on, you all know Brother Warren. He’s usually sitting up here. He’s usually sitting up here, and he’s usually giving these ladies a hard time. That’s Brother Warren. He’s the guy once you get to know him about this much, when you come, he’ll point at your shirt or your tie every single time, and he’s just hoping you’ll look down. Then he’ll say, “Yeah, I got you.” That’s Brother Warren. Always him. He’s always after you. If you have not heard about his story at McDonald’s, you ask him about it next time you see him. I can’t give you all the details because we won’t beat the Presbyterians to the restaurant if I tell you about it, right? Brother Warren, now let me—let me be honest with you for a second about Brother Warren. Brother Warren lives in a camper, just himself and his dog, Buck, that old likes to eat part of his camper. We’ll just say it that way.
He’s got bladder cancer, about to start treatments for that. He’s got diabetes. He had a hole in his foot for probably—took, I don’t even know if it’s all the way gone—but a year or so. They had threatened to take off his foot at one point. His sons live in another state. He has a relative he was close with, and there are some issues there. Brother Warren’s always trying to get people in church living with the Lord and the kind of little issues there, just him. Bad health. He can only sleep about an hour at a time. He says, “It’s killing me. He said, I’ve got to wake up every hour in a camper alone, just him and the dog.” I’m not sure how old Brother Warren is. His balance is not good. You’ve seen it. If he doesn’t have his hearing aids in, you’ve got to yell at him, and he may hear them.
He’s not here, and I want to be wise about it, but he had driven himself to the VA in Nashville a while back. Many of you know, and he got neuropathy and things in his feet, and his foot slipped off the brake and hit the gas, and he hit someone in their car. Someone was hurt. I’m just talking, that’s the condition of Brother Warren. But he’s amazing. Brother Warren has, more often than not, he’s trying to encourage me. He’s on top. He loves to joke and joy in life. He listens to preaching all the time. He reads all the time—Christian stuff. He’s got friends up north. One guy is trying to start a church, and Brother Warren’s always trying to encourage him, “Go start a church.” And he’s named Brother Kevin. He’s always trying to witness everywhere he goes. He wants to go door to door. He used to set up a prayer station in front of Dollar General and witness to people as they came in and out. Just amazing. His attitude and his spirit. You talk to him long, he’ll say this so often: “God’s been so good to me, preacher. God’s so good to me.” I’m like, “Wow.” I’m not sure if this is his favorite, but one of his favorite verses, maybe his favorite, is Galatians 2:20.
What I’m preaching about this morning, he’s pointed out to me. I’ve seen it, but he said, “Hey, preacher, do you notice that part over the English is 2:20? ‘The life which I now live in the flesh, I live.’” And he’s—you know what is that, preacher?" “Hey, yeah, quit hitting on me. I know it, all right, you know.” “The life which I live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”
Would you bow your heads and close your eyes, please? Our heads are bowed, our eyes are closed.
If you’re there in your seat and you say, “Preacher, you know, I’m going to look to Jesus, not to myself, for the faith that I need for my Christian life. I’m not going to try to just muster it all up at me. I’m going to look to Jesus. I’m going to depend and rely, put my faith in Jesus, even for the faith that I need to be the Christian He wants me to be.” God spoke to my heart about that right there. If that’s you this morning, would you just lift your head and say, “Preacher, I’m going to look to Jesus for the faith that I need”? God bless you. God bless you. He’s guided. It’s such a higher standard of living for a Christian when you depend on Him for your faith instead of yourself for your faith. He’s always got it. God bless you. God bless you. Thank you so very much for letting the Lord work in your hearts. Thank you so very much. You can put your hands down this morning.
One more question, we’re done. You hear this morning, you say, “Preacher, there never has come a time as far as me going to heaven, me missing hell, not going to hell, but me going to heaven. I never have put my faith that’s been given to me—I’ve never put that faith in Jesus that He’ll get me to heaven. I need to be saved.” There’s never come a time that I’ve taken the faith that I have and put it in the hands of Jesus to get me to heaven. I need to be saved. That’s me. I don’t know that I’m going to heaven, not saved. I need to do that. Heads bowed and eyes closed. And I suppose if that’s you, would you slip your hand up? “Preacher, I need never take the faith He’s given me and put it all in Jesus to pay for my sin, to take me to heaven. I need to do that.” Anybody like that? You slip your hand up. Just slip it up. Oh, He loves you. He gives that faith, and He’s given salvation Himself. He’s given you everything indeed. You just choose to put that faith in Jesus. Would you please stand? Would you please stand? We’re going to have a word of prayer. As soon as we’re done praying, we’ll sing an invitation song. During that time, would you come down into an old-fashioned altar and say, “Lord, I’m going to believe You for everything, even for the faith.” That faith pleases Him, and that’s faith in Him to give you faith. He will. Would you let Him know that? No more fear. I’m going to live by faith. If you’re not a born-again Christian, there’ll be a man down front, there’ll be a man in back. Would you go shake their hand? They’ll take the Bible, serve for the Bible, how you can know for sure you go to heaven. Would you please come?
Dear Lord, thank you so much. You’ve supplied everything I need and we need to be successful. Lord, I’m not talking about money—why I’m successful. I’m talking about successful in being the men and the ladies you want us to be. Father, would you make it real, even the faith that we need? Jesus, you supply it for us. Help us to go to the source even now. In Jesus, then we pray. Amen.
Would you come as we sing? Would you come? And wait for anybody else when you come, you say, “Hey, I want to believe in You, Jesus, for the faith I need.” He’s got it. He’s got it all.
You know, Satan is always trying to get us to live in fear. He just—he loves you live in fear. Fear you make major mistakes, and fear you quit, and fear you lose your power, your energy. He’s always trying to get you live in fear. God in the Bible over and over again, 63 times it says, “Fear not,” those exact words, “Fear not, fear not.” And He tells you, “Look, I’ve even got the faith you need. I have to live in fear.” Through Christ, everything you’ll ever need, the grace you need for every moment—it’s all supplied through Christ. Would you choose to live in faith by the faith He’s given you? Would you do so? Just as I am.
Original File: By Faith - Pastor Paul Chisgar Sunday AM 50921