Abounding Grace

Pastor Ed Taylor: Today on Abounding Grace, be encouraged to go to God for faith. So don't write yourself off. Just come to God with your faith. Come to Him with what you have. It's amazing we think that we have to have all of this to come to God, but He receives you as you are. Just come as you are.

But you've got to come. You can't just sit out. Some of you aren't even in the room. You're out on the radio, maybe driving around, or you've got another appointment, and you're skipping out on worshipping God today. Look, you've got to come to Him. Without faith, it's impossible to please Him. You have to come to Him for the faith the Bible says that He gives to all of us, a measure of faith. You have to come to Him.

Larry: Do you want greater faith for this new year? If so, stick around for Abounding Grace. We're developing our four-part miniseries entitled Greater. Here in part two, we'll consider what it takes to obtain greater faith. Now we learned last time that time in the Word is a good place to start. Let's join Ed Taylor for more from Hebrews chapter 11.

Pastor Ed Taylor: Coming back to Hebrews: faith, faith, faith. Mark these words in verse one: substance, substance. It's the word hypostasis, H-U-P-O-S-T-A-S-I-S. It's the Greek word. The New Testament was written in the common language of the day, Koine Greek. The Greek word means foundation or assurance. Faith is the foundation or the assurance of things that we hope for. And then that second word, you can write next to it: conviction. Conviction. It is the foundation of things hoped for and the conviction of things not seen.

This tells me something about faith. Faith operates in the context of things that have not yet happened and cannot be seen. Faith happens in those areas of life that are not visible to the human eye and are unable to be figured out by man's mind. Faith operates in those places where I have this hope in God, but I can't see it right now. I don't know what God's going to do. I'm not sure what the future holds, but my hope is not in a circumstance, but in God.

That's where our faith is. Our faith is not in something that's going to happen. Our faith is in Someone whom we trust with all the affairs of our life. And it is the very foundation and the conviction. So what true faith does is it leads us to live out our beliefs. You know that you're walking in faith when you're living out what you believe. If you believe God is good, then you're going to live that out in your life. You believe God's going to come through, then you're going to live that out in your life.

And I'm sure you have people in your life right now when I say, "Hey, do you know anybody that's a woman of faith?" a name pops into your mind. Why? Because they live out their faith. They live it out. They have conviction. You might throw your hands up, "Woe is me, woe is me!" but there's always that friend that says, "No, no, no. The only woe that you have is you don't trust God. Because when you trust God, you're operating in the realm of faith." And who doesn't want that for a new year?

I need to trust God. I need to trust God with my prodigal kids. I need to trust God in my singleness. I need to trust God with my marriage, with my money, with my future. Everything about me starts with today: what I hope for, the substance, the foundation, and the conviction of my faith in God. Now, faith is not wishful thinking that something one day might come to pass somehow one day in the future. I hope it happens. One day my prince will come. That's not faith. That's cartoon stuff. That's fairy tales.

Faith has a substance. The Christian's hope and faith is a belief in God against the world and against everything that we see. We trust God against everything that we see. We see the world falling apart and we go, "Wait a minute, God said it was going to happen." I trust God as everything's falling apart. You go, "Well, Ed, it's not falling apart in the world. Everything's falling apart in my life." Well, I trust God when everything's falling apart in my life. Why? Because Jesus said, "In this world, you'll have tribulation. But I can be of good cheer because I've overcome the world."

Faith is not wishful, hopeful thinking one day, maybe. No, faith is a substance. It has a foundation and a conviction to it in those areas that we can't see. Let me tell you something else faith is not. Faith is not what has been laid out through televangelists and teachers over the years: some kind of power where you can tell God what to do, where you can use it for your own selfish purposes. You just have to have more faith. If you gave to my ministry, more faith, you'd have more money and you're going to have more faith.

There's a new word now, actually, that's being introduced that's very, very popular, and I hope none of you are into it. But if you are, stay away from this nonsense. It's not biblical. And it's this whole idea of manifesting. I'm just going to manifest. I'm just going to manifest a million dollars. Well, come and do it right here right now. Come and do it. We'd love to see that happen. You can't do anything that God won't do for you. You can't do anything. Well, you know what, Pastor? You don't know how I drove here today.

I don't really care how you drove here today, but let me tell you something: it didn't start with you. It started with God. He's the one that provides. It's not you making something happen. It's not you and me, like, I have more faith than you. Because the flip side happens too, right? It's like something negative happens: Well, you don't have enough faith. What are you talking about? I've given everything I can to God. What do you mean I don't have enough faith? I trust God with my life. Yeah, but why are you suffering?

Well, because God knows what He's doing with my life. That's why. Sin's a part of this world. It's not because I don't have faith, although there probably are times where I want more faith. I want greater faith. I want to trust God. But even that's not wasted, because God's going to use my lack of faith to cause me to trust Him more as I see my life apart from Him. The person of faith believes and lives out his or her beliefs. That has to be our new year: a life committed to what your mind and spirit are convinced are true.

Why? Because of verse two. We've already seen this, but you've written it down in your Bible already. For by it... What does "it" refer to, church? Say it out loud. Faith. So by faith, by this foundational conviction in the unknown circumstances in a well-known God, by faith, the elders obtained a good testimony. The testimony of our lives is directly related to our faith. And it's by faith that good testimonies come, the testimony of your life. That's the rest of chapter 11 over and over again: by faith, by faith, by faith.

You can take the "by faith" and then attach it to the verb of what faith moved them to do. That was their conviction. And it's amazing what happened all throughout chapter 11. By faith, the elders obtained a good testimony. So let me ask you a question. Do you want to obtain a good testimony, church? It's going to happen by faith. Do you want a great testimony? It's going to happen by greater faith. And God is ready. He's ready to give it to you. He's ready for your life to be a testimony.

Again, mark that word "testimony." It's the Greek word martyreo. Sometimes it's also translated martyros, but here it's martyreo. It means to be a witness or to testify of the truth. And we get our English word "martyr" from this word, the idea of dying for your faith. The elders have obtained a good testimony. They have given you this picture of the faithfulness of God through their lives. And how did they do it? by faith. We'll see in a moment here in verse six: without faith, it's impossible to please God.

Because it says he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He's a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. The testimony of our lives will come directly related to our faith. Reading through chapter 11, and just read it with me real quick here. Verse four: by faith, Abel offered. Verse five: by faith, Enoch was translated. Verse seven: by faith, Noah moved with godly fear. Verse eight: by faith, Abraham obeyed. Verse 11: by faith, Sarah herself also received strength to conceive seed.

You jump down to verse 17: by faith, Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac. Verse 20: by faith, Isaac blessed Jacob. Verse 21: by faith, Jacob, when he was dying, was blessed, each of his sons. Verse 22: by faith, Joseph, when he was dying, made mention. Verse 23: by faith, Moses, when he was born, was hidden three months by his parents. Can we just pause there for a second and say your kids are blessed by your faith? Can you imagine? Can you imagine building a little box?

You're thinking, "What am I going to do with my kid? I don't have many choices here. The leader of the known world wants to take my kid out. What are we going to do? I know what we'll do. Let's build a little box and let's cover it up, put our kid in the box, and launch him out on the Nile." How could you do that unless you trusted God for the betterment of your child? Now, I'm not suggesting you build a box and launch your kid out on the Aurora Reservoir.

I said, "Well, this is what the Bible says." That's not a good application of what the Bible says. But I want you to know your faith in God will bless your children. Your faith in God is blessing your children. I don't care how they're behaving right now. I don't care what their attitude toward God is. Your steady life toward God in faith blesses your children, even your 50-year-old children or your 60-year-old children or the babies that you're swaddling in the nursing mom's room.

This was an amazing thing that in verse 23: "By faith Moses, when he was born, was hidden three months by his parents because they saw that he was a beautiful child and they weren't afraid of the king's command." They weren't afraid. They trusted God. That's a whole Bible study in and of itself. But here's where we're headed. In 2025, we too will get a testimony related to our faith. We too will have a testimony related to our faith. These men and women were just like you and me, except they had far less to depend on than you and I do.

They had no radio, no television, no internet. They had no technology of any kind, no worldwide travel, no airplanes, no trains. They didn't even have VeggieTales to teach them the Bible stories. But you know what they did have? Faith. They did have faith. And it's a warning for us today too, isn't it? To just examine our lives and see where our faith is leaking out on all these other things: trusting all these other things in our lives and not just trusting God, not just looking to Him.

There's a tell in my life that I know that I'm starting to wander away from trusting God in a situation, and it usually surrounds this phrase, whether I'm thinking it or I say it, where I'm in a situation and I start to think or say, "I really need to figure this out." Because that's how God wired me: to figure things out. I have that gifting of administration and leadership, and that gifting of administration and leadership sees chaos and wants to bring order to it. That's just my natural way of thinking.

However, when a difficulty comes my way or something needs to be figured out, that can't be my first... I can't turn to me figuring anything out first. I need to learn to turn to the Lord. He already knows. I really don't need to figure anything out. What I need is wisdom of God. I don't really need to figure stuff out. What I need is to turn to the Lord. What I need is to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. And then what will happen? All these things will be added unto you.

The Father knows that we need these things, the Bible says. But when I start thinking about figuring things out, I know I'm not operating in the realm of faith, necessarily. I need to pay attention to that. I wonder what it is in your life that you have seen where you just know that it is leading you away from God. It doesn't mean it's sin and it doesn't mean like you're rebellious or anything. It just means that you have created something in your life that doesn't require faith for a situation that does require faith.

Because your whole life requires faith, because we just learned: without faith, it's impossible to please God. And I know that's at the heart of every true believer. We want to please God. So looking forward to a new year, greater faith is a life that pleases God in greater ways where you finally surrender, throw up your hands, ask God for His wisdom, learn how to worship, follow Jesus in your walk. You too can obtain a good testimony by faith, a greater testimony with greater faith.

Before you write yourself off, before you take a Bible study like this and put it into a category of, "That will never be me. I'll never experience greater faith. I'm not a great woman of God. I'm not a great man of God. I'm just an ordinary person." Before you do that, even if you do that, let me remind you: God loves to use ordinary people. You want to know why? There's no other kind of people. Just normal folks like you and me. God will use us as we look to Him.

Let me show you. Turn over to 1 Corinthians chapter one. Don't write yourself off. Don't think you're insignificant. Don't think you don't have anything to offer God, offer this community, offer this church. No way. The exact opposite is told us. You just need to believe God. This is what He says. He says in verse 25 of 1 Corinthians chapter one: "The foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men." We say, "Okay, Lord, I look to You. You're wise and You're strong."

And then He says in verse 26, "For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called. But God has chosen..." what does your Bible say? The foolish things. Oh, by the way, if you like to write in your Bibles, just circle that and write next to it: "That's me." That's me. God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things that are mighty.

The base things of the world, the things that are despised, God has chosen the things that are not to bring to nothing the things that are, because in verse 29, He doesn't want any flesh to glory in His presence. God loves to use ordinary people like you and me. If you'll just come to Him in faith, just trust Him with your life. God has chosen the foolish things. I find no greater explanation in the Bible of why I get to be a pastor and serve you than this verse right here.

God has chosen the foolish things. He didn't go to the seminary looking for me. He didn't go to the Bible college looking for me. He didn't have me go get trained so that I'm all ready to move to Colorado. God found me in the gutter with a broken, completely destroyed life. That's how I walked into church. Into a church just like this, actually. I walked into a church really, really messed up, without any hope of the future. It was actually a shock, maybe it is for you too, that you're in church.

It was a shock for me to be in church. What the heck am I doing here? All these people singing, and the music, I just didn't get. I wasn't into that kind of music. But God knew what He was doing all along, so that I couldn't stand here and go, "Well, you know guys, I'm in the pulpit today because I am very smart. I have learned a lot. If you come into my office, I don't have wallpaper. I have degrees. They're all over my office. I collect them like baseball cards."

No, I'm just an ordinary guy that serves an extraordinary God, just like you. And the testimony that I get to hand down to you is by faith. I trust God. I trust Him in His Word. I trust that what He says is true. I live it out in my life. I come to Him when I fail, and I repent and I have a walk with the Lord, just like you do. So don't write yourself off. Just come to God with your faith. Come to Him with what you have.

It's amazing we think that we have to have all of this to come to God, but He receives you as you are. Just come as you are. But you've got to come. You can't just sit out. Some of you aren't even in the room. You're out on the radio, maybe driving around, or you've got another appointment, and you're skipping out on worshipping God today. Look, you've got to come to Him. Without faith, it's impossible to please Him. You have to come to Him.

For the faith the Bible says that He gives to all of us, a measure of faith, you have to come to Him. And you have to admit that... look, you're not going to be... Some of you do have a lot of degrees, and I'm grateful. I think if my life wasn't backwards, I would have schooled. I'm one of those guys you'd probably be mad at because school is very easy for me. I would have been a degree collector for sure. It would have been very easy. I love learning. It's super simple for me.

But I couldn't do that. My life took a left turn. I couldn't recover from it. The left turn sent me in a whole new direction in my life that God knew what He wanted to do. It was the best direction for my life, even though it was hard and challenging. But some of you, you didn't take that. You went the straight and narrow. So you did get degrees, and you're in very important places. The Bible says He says here, "Understand this: that you see your calling, brethren, not many wise."

It doesn't say not any, it just says not many. So you don't look down on the fact that God opened a door for you to be in this place in society, and you've got this position, and you have this place of influence, and you have these degrees. That's not the issue here. The issue is this: without faith, none of that matters for the Kingdom. It might make you progress in the world a little bit and give you a little more money, a little more influence, a little more security, which is all wonderful and great.

But when it comes to the Kingdom, your wisdom, your nobility, your upbringing, your family, your personal strength, your physical strength, that's not what gives God the glory. What gives God the glory is He uses weak things and base things and those that are despised. God has chosen. God has chosen you for this coming year. To me, that's a huge open door for us. God doesn't always call the qualified into service, but He always qualifies those that He calls.

He always gives to us what we need. We learn in Ephesians chapter two verse 10 that we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. The Hall of Faith starts with us. This is the beauty when we think of Hebrews chapter 11 and we think to a new year of greater faith. We just know that God is working in us first. He says in verse three: "By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God."

The Hall of Faith actually starts with us, because when we think of God as Creator and we go, "By faith we understand how the world was created," I wasn't there. Were you there when the world was created? None of us were there. So when we look back to the Word of God, we're like, "I trust. I trust that this is what God has done," the evidence is overwhelming for creator God in our lives that elicits what from us? Faith. We trust God. You want greater faith this coming year? I do too.

Larry: You're listening to Abounding Grace with Ed Taylor and a message entitled "Greater Faith." Hear it again at aboundinggraceradio.com. As we begin a new year, we picked out a timely resource from Jim Cymbala titled Jesus Everyday: Living by God's Unshakable Promises. Pastor Jim recalls many occasions where he would read a devotional and a promise from God's Word, and it encouraged him to put his full trust in Christ for the circumstances of that upcoming day.

He wants the same experience for you, which is why he wrote this uplifting devo. We'll send you a copy with our thanks for a gift of $25 or more to Abounding Grace. Just call us at 877-30-GRACE and ask for Jesus Everyday. That's 877-30-GRACE or go online to calvaryco.store. Pastor Ed, would you tell our listeners a little bit about our live call-in show called Calvary Live?

Pastor Ed Taylor: Well, yeah, Larry. I'm sure a lot of people listening around the country didn't know that we here at Calvary, we own a radio station network that we call Grace FM. It's two stations right now that covers, check this out, it covers 80% of Colorado's population, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, Bible teaching verse-by-verse. On Saturdays, we have music. Amazing that God would entrust to us Grace FM.

Every day, Monday through Friday, we have a call-in show we call Calvary Live. This is where you can call in, no matter where you are. You're like, "Well, I don't live in Colorado. How can I hear it?" You can listen to Grace FM on our app. You can get the Grace FM app or the Calvary Church app. Or you can listen at our website, gracefm.com. And it's 4:00 PM Mountain Standard Time.

Now, I know our Bible study airs on the stations that carry Calvary Live, especially our friends on the Radio by Grace network. So if you're listening on Radio by Grace, you're listening on Hope FM, Truth FM, I know our friends in Kingman, Arizona are... Calvary Live is all over. Now, Calvary Live is a live call-in show from 4:00 PM to 5:00 PM Mountain Standard Time, Monday through Friday.

And here's the idea: it is not a Bible answer program as much as it is access to a pastor. After every service here at Calvary, our pastors go to the front of the stage and we minister and pray and just connect with people after the Bible study. I love doing it. If I don't have an appointment, I'm down there and I love praying. I love hearing the stories. I love it. I just love ministry.

And I have found over the years that so many don't have that kind of access to a pastor after or behind... after the service or except when they're in the pulpit. They don't have access to a pastor when they're not in the pulpit. So we created this call-in show so you could have access to a pastor. And you can call and we'll answer questions and we'll pray with you and we'll talk things out.

The idea is a lot like if you were in our office or if we had a short little meeting in the sanctuary where we're just talking ministry together, asking questions, answering questions, praying together, seeking the Lord's wisdom together. We call it Calvary Live. There's also a podcast, so you can get the Calvary Live podcast and just take it with you and listen whenever you want. Different pastors host it. I get two days a week. Couple of the other guys get days a week. It's really, really good. Calvary Live is available on our website live every day online on the app. Just visit us calvaryco.church. All that info is there.

Larry: Calvary Live can be heard by podcast on Apple Podcasts as well as on many of the stations that air Abounding Grace. So check your station's program listing and then join us next week when we'll continue our series, Greater, here on Abounding Grace with Pastor Ed Taylor.