Matt Slick Live

The following program is recorded content created by the Truth Network. It's Matt Slick Live. Matt is the founder and president of the Christian Apologetics Research Ministry, found online at carn.org. When you have questions about Bible doctrines, turn to Matt Slick Live for answers, taking your calls and responding to your questions at 877-207-2276. Here's Matt Slick.

All right, everyone, welcome to the show. It's me, Matt Slick. Listen to Matt Slick Live. I hope you're all having a good day, a good time. And if you want to give me a call, as usual, all you got to do is dial 8772-07-2276.

I want to hear from you. Give me a call. You can also, if you're so inclined, you can email me at info at carm.org, info at carm.org. And put in the subject line radio comments or radio question, and we can get to it. All right, now on Fridays we have our staff meeting.

And it was a really interesting staff meeting. We have, just a long story short, talk about the new site that's coming. We have been uh or we Programmers. We have a guy who's really good. He's working on the site and Boy, is it going to be zippity doo-dah?

It's going to be fast. It's going to be radically different than what it looks now. We're getting rid of the navigation on the left. We are going to, but even though there's some of that, will still be present. In different ways.

And we're going to just make it a lot simplified. And the search function will be central. You type in a question. It's going to keep track of what you've done, going to keep track of where you've been on the site. And it doesn't know who you are.

It just knows that you're there. There's advanced technology.

So you'll say, hey, you've been to this site. You want to learn lessons from the things you've learned. It's really interactive and it's not intrusive at all.

So it's really good. And there's laws about we found out about information and what you can have and can't have. And it's all anonymous. And so. We're going to have a feature that if you want, you can maybe sign up or something like that, or do what's called a QR code and transfer things from different computers and different disses and that.

It'll be really interesting. And it's going to be on a different server set up, so it's going to be so fast. It's going to be fast and good, and hopefully it'll be released in about four to six weeks. That's what we're hoping. And we'll see what happens.

And it's supposed to be What our tech guy says, he's an expert in programming and he's worked for, I guess, for Facebook and/or Microsoft. He says it's going to be the only website. That he's even aware of that does what it'll do. This is all cutting-edge the uh technology, cutting-edge.

So uh, it'll be brand new, nobody else is going to have it. I don't know if it's a big deal. Because we might look at the site and go, Yeah?

Now what? Who knows? But it's pretty cool, and we're excited about that. All right. Like I said, if you want to give me a call, the number is 877-2072276.

And I need some feedback on the sound because I'm using a different microphone system right now, and I've made a couple of adjustments. And we're just trying to figure out little by little so that we can get this working. We don't know what the problem is. It's been an interesting dilemma working for the sound because apparently my voice is a little bit bassy, and that causes a bit of a problem in some areas. I can talk like this, but you know, it's not a very good idea.

And we're trying to figure some things out.

Someone says it's choppy still. We don't know what's going on or why it is like that. I'm not going to worry about it. What I'm going to do is turn some stuff off. But I don't hardly have anything running at all right now, anyway.

So, I've got a really advanced system, so it should be fine. Everything should be fine. It's a really advanced, very fast computer. It's three years old. You know, three years old.

I wouldn't mind getting another one. I love computers. One of my favorite things to do. Literally, one of my favorite things to do. Forget sports.

It's like get the CPU, the motherboard, the RAM, get all the parts in packages, unwrap them. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Put a little bit here, a little bit there as you put it into the box. Wire it up, you know, put the.

coolant system in, fire it up, put the O S on I I'd love doing that. Yeah, I know I got issues. But I do like doing that. A lot of fun.

So, uh Anyway, no big deal. All right. So, since uh They've got nobody calling right now. What we're going to do is get to some emails. I get a lot of emails.

I don't have any hate mails lately. You know, it used to be I had some great hate mails for a long time. I get hate mail. And on Fridays, I'd read hate mail. And I loved them.

It was great. We got to interact with the hate males and. It was it was good. You know, I I enjoyed it. I did.

All right, well, whatever.

Okay, so, um Let's try this. Let's get to radio questions. How about. Let's get down over here and try this one right here. Let's see.

In 1 John 5:6, this is the one who came by water and blood, Jesus Christ, not with the water only, but with the water and the blood, and the Spirit who bears witness, because the Spirit is the truth.

Okay, don't know if that's the question. Oh, please explain it. That's the issue. All right, so we go to 1 John 5:6. And we look at this, 1 John 5 6.

And let's see.

So, uh Jesus says the woman came by water.

Now This is a This is not exactly easy to interpret.

Some have said that the water is the The spear piercing his side.

Some have said the water is baptism, some have said the water is birth. And it says water and blood.

Now the phrase water and blood seems with seems to in To imply the issue of the crucifixion when it looks like water and blood came out when he was crucified, when they stabbed him. And so it might be a reference, probably is a reference to the crucifixion. He says, not with water only, but with water and the blood. He. Exemplify, he exaggerates it, or repeats it, I should say.

And it says, It is the Spirit who testifies because the Spirit is the truth. And there are three that testify.

So it's an interesting verse, and I can't tell you exactly what it means. And it's kind of interesting because in the book of 1 John, There is uh There's a lot of things like this where he's not as clear as we'd like him to be. But this is just one of them.

So, uh So anyway Yeah, I'm just thinking of different interpretations.

Some say the water is baptism, and then blood is crucifixion. And I'm just not satisfied with any position really, personally.

So I really can't tell you exactly what it is. I wish I could, but I can only give you examples of what it looks like it says in different uh areas and categories and things like that. Yeah. Alright, now what I want to do... We have nobody waiting.

Last night we had a Bible study at the house. Yeah. And this was an unusual study because I'm going to go through some stuff here. And I'm learning as I go through it.

So How do I say this? You ever had an instance where you're reading a scripture or someone says something about a scripture or something, and you've heard it a hundred times, but all of a sudden, for some reason, It just hits you differently.

Well, that happened to me about a week or so ago. And it was dealing with the issue of faith. And I forgot what the actual spark was that started me looking. But what I did was I I extracted every single instance of where the word faith in Greek occurs. And faith is translated into the English believe and to have faith and things like that.

And so it's over 200 verses. And what I did was uh I put it into a table, And I'm going to do this where I'm going to go through I haven't done it yet. I'm going to go through and just look at every instance and then put a category next to it. For example, the first occurrence is in Matthew 8:10.

Now, when Jesus heard this, he marveled and said to those who were following, Truly I say to you, I have not found such great faith. With anyone in Israel.

Now, that is just someone who believes and trusts in him. All right, well That wasn't the focal point. And it wasn't the issue of justification by faith the way it hit me. And I'm trying to explain what it was, and I've learned some interesting things which I've never heard of before. Doesn't mean people haven't taught it, just haven't heard it.

Yeah. And I'm going to go through some of the stuff I've I've picked up. I'm going to read a few verses and just think about them a little bit. And this is not very well arranged, so it might be a little bit sporadic here.

So you gotta bear with me. Put him Matthew 9.2. They brought to him a paralytic laying on a bed, seeing their faith. Not the faith of the paralytic. but the ones who brought him and probably including the paralytic, sing their faith, He says, Take courage, son, your sins are forgiven.

And So I checked in the Greek, and it's definitely plural, their faith.

Now what does that mean? He saw their faith and he forgave this guy's son uh sins.

So I'm not sure what to do with that. I'm just not sure what to do with it. Could it be that what he's talking about is seeing the faithfulness that they all have? And then the man, the paralytic, obviously would have agreed to go. And so, seeing their whole faith, but it includes the paralytic, he says, your sins are forgiven.

And What I'm reminded of is where it says he could do no miracles because there's a lack of faith in that area. I forgot what verse it is. Because people didn't have faith. And so he wasn't able to do miracles. Jesus couldn't.

Now, it's not to say he couldn't by his divine power, but there was a. A limitation or a uh a boundary set related to people's faith. This is volunteer thing that God would do. It's interesting. He says in Matthew 9:22, he says, Daughter, take courage, your faith.

Has made you well. In Matthew 9:29, he touched their eyes, saying, It shall be done to you according to your faith. Wait a minute. I oughta check that out. I didn't see that before.

Matthew 9.29. Their eyes Uh Leave the girl she hasn't died but is asleep. The crowd came. He took her by the hand and raised her up. The news spread.

Jesus went on from there. Two blind men.

Okay, that's why followed.

Okay, so that makes their okay, good. And uh Then he says, Woman, I'm just going to read parts because I don't know the context of everything. Your faith is great, it shall be done to you as you wish. Another place, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, nothing you ask will be impossible to you. If you have faith and do not doubt, You know, then see to this mountain, it'll be cast into the sea.

He said, seeing their faith, he said to the paralytic, this is a repeat verse in Mark. And Mark 5: Your faith has made you well. Mark 10, your faith has made you well. Luke 5:20, seeing their faith, your sins are forgiven. Parallels.

All right. In Luke 17:5, something's here. I'm going to get this. There's some more stuff here. This is some interesting stuff I've come across.

Maybe some of you already know this. I'm always learning. But there's a verse A verse that speaks to me says: The apostle said to the Lord, Increase our faith. Uh And so And there's a verse in the Bible: Lord, I believe, help my unbelief. Yeah.

And that verse is uh Mark 9.24. You know, Lord, I believe, but have my unbelief. And the Apostles said to the Lord, Increase our faith. And uh You know, I'm thinking through these things.

Well I got s some surprises to show you here that I've discovered. Um I've got a break coming up.

So hold on. We'll get back to this, but there's some interesting stuff I've I've learned.

So, please stay tuned, folks. We'll be right back after these messages. Please. Just stay tuned. It's Matt Slick Live, taking your calls at 877-207-2276.

Here's Matt Slick. Hello, Ruby. Welcome back to the show. Hope you're enjoying what I'm going through and listening and stuff like that.

Now, my study is just on the word faith, and it's not even on the word belief. And what I did during the break was I did an Excel thing, Excel spreadsheet, and I compiled a search of the word faith and the word to believe. They're basically the same word, but they're cognates. One is a verb form, one is a noun. And so the combo of them is over 540 words.

540 verses. And what I'm going to do is, I'm going to put them all into one file. I'm going to go through every single one of them. And I'm going to look, and there's a reason. I'm going to divulge the reason here.

in a little bit.

So In Luke 17, 5 They said to the Lord Jesus, increase our faith. And here's a question. Here's a question. Do you trust Jesus enough to save you? But not enough to heal you.

You trust Jesus enough to save you, but not enough to meet your bill bills. Do you trust Jesus enough to save you? but not enough to work out that problem you just uh came across. And this is a question I've been asking myself. It's a question I've been asking myself because I trust my Lord, my Savior.

to save me from my sins. I have confidence in that. But here's a confession. As I've been going through this, I've been asking myself this question. Do I believe God enough?

two Heal my wife. to heal me, to provide for little things. And what I'm finding out is, to my shame, No, I don't.

Now, do I believe God can, for example, heal my wife? Yes, I do. Do I believe he will? The answer is no. Or Is it?

Sometimes we don't know our own hearts very well. And sometimes this kind of a question about our own self can lead to confusion, uh confusing answers. I know that he can. And I know he does. But I will heal my wife, for example.

My wife has a lot of medical conditions, a lot. And so I ask myself, well How much do I really believe? And in what categories? And this is what's bothering me. Because it's like saying I have enough faith for him to save me.

but not enough faith for him to help me. It's like saying that. And then I asked myself other questions. Do I really believing? Do I have much faith in God?

That's the question that's disturbed me the most. Do I have enough faith in God to believe in Him for what He'll do? And I'm I'm ashamed to say. I don't think so. I'm ashamed of that.

Because it's foolishness. And so I'm wondering, well wait a minute. I'm just being honest. You know, you have to face yourself, you have to go through things, God shows you things about yourself. at the right time.

And You know, I pray for my wife. For her healing. Nightly. I pray for the salvation of my daughters nightly, And for years we've been praying this, and so nothing has happened that we're aware of. doesn't mean God hasn't done things.

Okay.

Well, I can't help but wonder if there's a principle here. God, where are my car keys? I need help falling carcasses. In fact, let me tell you something. As I was studying this, I was becoming more alarmed at How faithful am I?

How much do I believe? It's just the kind of thing you've got to ask yourself those questions. And really take a a solid, deep self-assessment. And so As it says, Lord increase my faith, they said, Increase our faith, they said. And I thought, I'm gonna.

Ask that. In Luke seventeen five. Increase our faith. Increase my faith.

Well, I believe that in ha to in order to have your faith increase, you have to have it tested. and see God's faithfulness.

So, in my context of where I was at that time. I was having, oh, this is so aggravating to me, aggravating, oh man. I was having some particular problem. Yeah. finding a solution on my computer to a certain sound issue.

I spent about eight hours. And I'm an ex-tech guy. I know what to look for. I went through everything, could not figure it out. Several days.

frustration. I couldn't believe it. And it occurred to me. Hey. I'm going to pray and ask God.

Yeah, you'd think Someone who teaches theology. wouldn't be as stupid. as he was by not trusting God and asking God for help early on. I said, Lord. I've been working on this for so long I'm so tired of it.

Please help me. You know, and I prayed and I asked. Literally within ten minutes. found the solution. No joke.

And I'm just dropping my head like, oh man. There it is was so easy. And then Needed to find something in the house the next day. Couldn't find it, and I needed my wife's medical, this and that. And I just said, Hey, Lord.

Couldn't you help me find it? Within five minutes I found it.

Now These are rather mundane little Tests. to increase faith. But I'll tell you what happened. Ooh. These little things he cares about And would would I have discovered the solution to the Sound problem without that prayer?

Would I have discovered where that object was and used my wife's health thing, medical checkup thing? Would I found it without that prayer?

sooner? Later? I don't know. I can't tell you. But I know this.

that after having prayed there it was. And I choose to believe in him. On this, I choose to acknowledge his goodness in that. and it increased my faith, A nookie. Just a nuggy.

Like, yeah, you are there. And I'm going to continue to lift things up. and practice the action of believing.

Now I've got a question. Or maybe it's a statement. I'm not sure which one it is. I think maybe it's more of a statement. How does this relate to you?

Know how it relates to me. Yeah. your prayer life. is proportional To your confidence in God. Your prayer life is proportional to your confidence in God.

So I pray for the salvation of others. I pray for deliverance of things. But I In all honesty, when I assess my own prayer life, I realize If my faith was reflective of how much I pray, or my prayers are reflective of how much I faith, I believe, then I guess I don't believe very much. And isn't that stupid? Yeah, it is.

Is that a failure? Of course it is.

Now, with me, I'm different than a lot of people. I'm autistic. I use my mind a great deal. I can't help but wonder if Am I using my mind? and my knowledge and my abilities more than dependence on God.

And I have to say to some degree yes.

Well, that falls into the category of idolatry, doesn't it? Yeah. And I see these things and wonder about these things, and yet I'm amazed that God still loves me. Wow. Maybe you have issues like this.

Maybe there's some things that you have with your faith in God, your faith struggle. End with God. and you're wondering about it. I don't know. who I talk about it.

Give me a call because I got more to share with you after the break about this. We've got a couple callers coming in, but we'll get to it after this break. May the Lord bless you. Be right back. Please stay tuned.

It's Matt Slick Live, taking a call at 877-207-2276. Here's Matt Slick. Rebody, welcome back to the show. If you want to give me a call, the number is 877-207-2276. Fail, North Carolina.

You're on the air. Hi, Matt. How are you? Oh, I'm okay. Hanging in there.

What do you got? It's been a long time, Matt.

Okay.

Okay, listen. I'm going to try to help you out. And you know what? I'm walking right into Sam's Club. I hope I don't be talking too loud.

All right. But listen. If I walked up to you And I said, Matt, I'm going to give you $1,000. Oh, good. I'll be there.

Right. Yeah, okay, I'm glad you said that.

Okay, you'll be there, right? And you would say, thank you, Phil. Thank you, Phil. Thank you. You just say, I said, oh, you're welcome, Mark.

You're welcome.

Now If you believe God, And you have faith. for something that you just prayed for. You should start praising him like you have already received it. Most people don't do that. They wait till they see it and then they praise God.

No. Belief means that it's like the word hope for believers. We believe that it's already happened.

So we start praising God. Oh, thank you, Lord. Thank you for that healing. Lord, thank you. And it's not baking it.

It's showing God that you believe that you have already received, and that He is a rewarder to those who diligently seek Him. But we don't.

So when you wait to praise him, we When you see him, your faith is shadow them. Yeah, there are some issues I could discuss there, but I understand what you're saying. Because the Bible says. Matter of things too. Isn't it double on?

Go ahead. The other thing you made is the comments When Jesus said he He sold their fate. T-A-T-I, yeah. He sold. Mm-hmm.

No good, man. Because sometimes we have Uh prayer group And friends. That pray with us. If they believe the same thing you believe, then they move on the fact that they believe that it's already happened.

So, if one sees that, they don't see just one person's face, they see everybody's face, including the person. If the person is conscious of it, if the person is conscious, including the person that they're praying, that they're they're praying for. Yeah, I'm going to be careful about what's called the name it and claim it positive confession movement. I'm not sure.

So I'm just, you know, I'm just saying, but the Bible does say: believe that you have received it. And that's what it says. Correct.

So. Yeah, this is it's interesting because uh because my f you know, our faith is only as good as who we're placing it in. But it's I haven't gotten into this yet, but it looks it looks like faith is a charismatic gift also. I just showed you.

Well, let's go to Galatians 3, verses 22. Um, or Galatians 5, verse 22, and it talks about the fruit of the spirit. And one of the fruits of the Spirit is faith. That faith is not a nat it's not a regular faith, it's a supernatural faith. Everybody doesn't have that supernatural faith.

It's, you know what, it's sort of like sanctification, it's a process. That's right. It is a process. I don't like it. But yeah, I'm totally with you.

That's right. But it says faithfulness in Galatians 5:22, faithfulness. Is uh from well, my Bible doesn't say faith. I say my Bible says faith, yeah. It actually is.

Yeah, it's if you're not. NESP. But look at the Greek. And uh. Yeah.

Okay.

Mm-hmm. All right. Max, I can't believe you don't remember me.

Well, I talked to you. I call it all the time. I talk to a lot of people. Yeah, but that's only one fail. That's only one fail.

Yeah, the name rings a bell. But you've got to understand, I've been doing this for so long that my brain gave up a long time ago trying to remember people. I can't remember my wife. I have a picture of her with her name on it, you know, and it says wife, kiss her, no one else. Oh, okay.

So that's how bad it is. All right. I hear you.

Okay.

Yeah. Save me. Save me up for a talk. I'm going to talk to you again. All right.

Yes, I'll be calling back later on.

Okay, thanks. All right, well, God bless. Have a blessed day. Bye-bye. You too.

All right, now let's get to Tommy from South Carolina. Tommy, welcome. You're on the air. Yes, thank you. I just want to share a book that I uh did a main Bible study at church with this college.

The man's name they wrote is Dean Incera, I think that's how you pronounce it. It's called the Unsaved Christian. Oh, I heard it. Oh idea. It's really good.

It's just it doesn't seem possible. How could a Christian be unsafe, but it's talking about cultural Christianity? Right. And it says Just want to share um One thing it says in the front of the book, uh one of the greatest threats to Christianity in America is cultural Christianity, and it may Be the most popular and dangerous type of Christianity practice in America, particularly in the Bible Belt. Right.

And uh they're looking the same. It does a good job in going through different uh types of uh Like the culture club, Country Club, Christian, Christmas and Easter Christian, God and Country Christian, Social Justice Christian. I'm down the line.

So, um But I was, you know, I I was at in about forty years ago, I was in the same boat. I was Yeah, I thought I was a a believer and uh until I read uh I was in college when I read Matthew seven twenty one, but you just said, not everyone that says to me Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom of heaven. That sort of woke me up. Right. And uh, you know, I thought we'll.

I I go to church at times and that's I didn't do anything really bad, and you know, good people go to heaven. That was my, you know. Uh Martin. Thinking, I guess. But it woke me up in um Anybody just want to share that?

Sure. Yeah, um it's in my mic uh It was written about about, I think, twenty nineteen, but it's a good book for Bible study and all. Yeah, uh I'm gonna check it out. But yeah, it there's uh You know, this issue of faith and believing is a profoundly important issue with the Christians. And a lot of times we just fail.

And me, I study stuff. I'm a bit. Yeah. The author the author of this book, he was he was in seminary and he um He after he graduated, he a fellow coworker was going to the Went out in California out in that out west, somewhere to minister, and he said, Well, you're gonna go in a hard, difficult area. And his friend said, No, you're.

you're in the more difficult area 'cause uh people around here think that uh And the They are they are Christians. And it's going to be hard to diff uh it's hard to uh convince them otherwise, you know. Right, it can be. But uh Yeah. All right, well I appreciate it, brother.

Thank you. Yeah. Okay.

Okay.

All right, thank you.

Okay, God bless. All right. Okay, now let's get to Jermaine from California. Hey, Jermaine, man, welcome, buddy. You're on the air.

I'm doing okay, Matt. How's it going today? Oh, it's going. Just musing out loud, thinking out loud. I know when I do that, sometimes people enjoy that.

They get to. They learn, I learned as a process.

So there you go. What do you got? Yeah, my uh question was on Romans. Chapter eleven, especially honing in on around verse 11, the whole chapter is important, but With all the recent events going on, I see a lot more conversations being sparked up about Jews and Gentiles. And um For me, Romans 11 and other places in the Bible.

doesn't that pretty much make us all Equal I mean, since some of us were Gentiles and weren't necessarily in a covenant Don't those verses pretty much verify that God counts us. much the same as as one of Abraham's children. Yeah, there's verses, there's neither male nor female, nor Greek, etc., in Christ. And that means there's no division, no distinction. We're all one in Jesus.

That's Galatians 3 talks about that.

So that's what, you know, they're definitely there. But Romans 11 is basically the issue of Paul talking about the Israel and God's not done with Israel yet, but they stumbled, they they blew it, and so we're grafted in, things like that. But, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, good good stuff.

Yep.

So, would would when people try to make a difference? I mean, are they are they in error? Uh Trying to make a difference? In what way?

Well, I do know some people they they consider I mean, I've seen some people in Israel, and I've seen people who claim to be. of Israel, like the Hebrew Israelite Israelites and Some of the others they like to claim that they have a special relationship with God that no one else has. And some of them I've seen take that to the extreme that Therefore, they are special and You know, everybody else is pretty much a dog.

So and when I read versus like Yeah. Yeah, not everyone. Right. when I read Romans and Galatians and other areas, it just seems to say to me that You know, God considers us his children as well. Like we're we're equal in that sense.

That's right. That's right. And this is It's one of the things that we need to focus on, I think, with the problem of racism that's alive and well all over. In Christ, we're just one. person, when people.

And that's how we need to see each other. That's what I think. Amen.

Okay, brother, there's the break.

Okay.

Hey, we'll talk to you later, man. God bless Jermaine. Have a good weekend. All right. Hey folks, we'll be right back after these messages.

Please stay tuned. It's Matt Slick Live, taking a call at 877-207-2276. Here's Matt Slick. All right, buddy, welcome back to the show. Let's get to a caller.

I'll get back on the issue of faith and share a couple things with you. Let's get to Steve from Utah. Steve, welcome. You're on the air. Yes.

Hello. Hello. Can you hear me? Yes, I can. I hear you fine.

Hi, Matt. How are you? I'm all right. Hanging in there, man. What do you got?

So I got a question. My pastor at church a couple of weeks ago, mentioned some stuff about John was boiled in oil And I hadn't ever heard that before, so I looked up where that actually came from. And it came from one of the apocryphal or Gnostic Gospels, correct? Tertullian Yeah. Tertullian's one of the church fathers.

And he died around 240 AD.

So my question is, is Since it's not in the canon, Should he even be saying anything like that? I mean, he's usually really solid, so I don't know. what really happened to John other than it's not in the canon.

So what he should be saying is Tertullian Who was a church father said this? Is it true? It's not in the scriptures, we don't know, but this is what history says.

So just take it or leave it for what it is. That's fine doing that.

Okay, not a problem.

Okay?

Okay, yeah, and he survived that, which is totally amazing. And then he got exiled to Patmos. Right. Yeah, and then he went to Pat Malls. They tried to poison him, too, though, didn't they?

I don't know about that, but maybe. But so, what we have to do is say: when I'm preaching and teaching, and if I quote something like that, it'll say, Tertullian says, and I'll make a note, it doesn't mean it's accurate, but it doesn't mean it's not accurate either. It's just not inspired. This is what church history says: take it or leave it for what you want, and we move on. And that's fine, okay?

All right?

Okay.

Yeah, I just wasn't sure if that would be something that should be being taught or even mentioned, but like you say, it. Likely did happen, so likely. Most probably. Mm-hmm. All right.

So, anyway, I just wanted to ask you about that. I appreciate it, Matt. Thank you. Sure. No problem, brother.

All right, well, God bless you.

Okay.

All right, we have nobody waiting, so what I'm going to do is get back into something in this study on faith and belief. Yeah. And I'm going to read something out of the scriptures, which when I researched it, I went I never knew that. I never knew that. Check this out.

This is And 1 Corinthians 12. Starting at verse 7. Starting at verse 7. Okay.

but to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. For to one is given the word of the wisdom through the Spirit, another word of knowledge.

So one has a word of wisdom, one a word of knowledge. These are the charismatic gifts. According to the same spirit to another. Faith. by the same Spirit with another gifts of healing, Faith is in the context of a charismatic gift.

I've never heard that before. And when I saw that, I was like. No way. Faith is a charismatic gift, but yet it's something we do as well. It is something given to us by God.

Faith is granted by God first. Excuse me. Philippians 1.29. He grants us faith. And it's by the same spirit.

that we have that faith. And I'm not sure what to do with this yet. I just think it's interesting. And it's like, hmm. Because the Bible says pursue spirituals.

It says to do that. And Pneumatica in the Greeks pursue them. And I just, oh, that's interesting. Here's something else I found was interesting. This is 1 Timothy 6:11.

But flee from these things, you man of God, and pursue righteousness, godliness. Faith love, perseverance, and gentleness pursue faith And I and I'm smiling. pursue faith?

Now, I understand what it means to pursue righteousness. I want to be. Righteous, practice righteousness. I want to be godly. I want to be loving.

I want to be gentle. I want to be faith Full? I want to be Living by faith, Habakkuk 2:4, the righteous shall live by faith. Yeah. What does all this mean?

You know, I I can't ha I'm trying to illustrate it.

Okay.

So let's just say that God is looking down from heaven. at all of eternity. and all of us. And he has rewards for us. in heaven.

And these rewards are going to be incredible. And his love for us is just awesome. And he lets us walk. through this earthly realm of trials, tribulations, sickness, failures, problems.

Now he could take his hand and insert it into our lives and fix this, make that better. And I can't help but wonder wonder. Is he saying in his apparent absence. And I say apparent because he's not absent. Uh But his apparent absence when he lets us experience these things, even though we pray through them.

Could it be? that this very act of faithing having faith in God in and through these things. Is what pleases him.

Now, the Bible says in Romans 11: without faith, it's impossible to please God. Could it be that the act The willing, purposeful act of trusting in Christ through everything. to deliver you. And even if he doesn't, as it says in Prov in Job, where's that verse? Yet though he slay me, I will believe in him.

Let's find that virtually fast. And Our faith, it's Job 13, 15. And so This issue of having faith in God. I can pursue love and godliness, but have never been taught No one's ever told me that I remember. Pursue faith.

Pursue the trust in God, pursue the dependence on God, in our attitude and our heart.

so that we don't worry. We don't. Don't worry. That we have complete trust and faith in God. That's hard to accomplish.

It's hard to be there. And Like I said before the break, I can't help but wonder Or believe, I'm trying to believe this. Your A mount of prayer. reflects your amount of faith.

Now One of my favorite authors is George Mueller. and George Muller was called it the Orphan King.

Now tell this story again. I love the story. He was a pagan guy, and he got saved. Became a pastor, was called by God to open up an orphanage. This is in England in the 1800s.

And What he did was when he had an inclination on his heart, He would not say anything to anybody. He would pray and ask God to increase it or decrease it. If it was from God, it would increase. If it was not from Him, it would decrease. If it was His own flesh, it would decrease and go away.

And he prayed like this for weeks. An act of faith. And once he was convinced that through the Word of God, Because he would wait for the Word, the Scriptures, to be illuminated in his mind and heart about what he's praying about, that he thinks God might be leading him to. He would wait upon the Lord associated with His word. He talked about how he was reading one day, and the scripture was illuminated in his mind and his heart with strength.

And it was confirmation. Yes. and it was to build an orphanage. At that point He was not concerned with how it's going to be done. I mean, he was, but he wasn't concerned or worried because it was God's problem, not his.

He's going to be a mere instrument. And so he would just trust God. And so he did. And he prayed, because that was the act of trust. the act of trusting.

He would pray and ask God for all kinds of things for the orphans. Needed a house at first. I got a big building later. A house at first, and people to be on staff, and furniture. And he prayed.

weeks. And then this couple comes up to him and said, We heard about what you want to do, and we want to volunteer. We don't need to be paid. We will live on the house at the house. And that's been given to him for this purpose.

Someone had given him a house. And We will live here all we need a single room. and we'll take care of the kids. Oh, and by the way, here's our furniture from our house. that we've sold so that we can work with you and serve God.

And Things like this would happen to him. And he was a man of faith. And a man of prayer. They were related. And what was really interesting, there was an experience that he had in Rote, and it really touched my heart.

They had this orphanage. It was a big building at that time, you know, years later. hundreds of orphans. They were in England. and it was winter, and the cold north wind was blowing.

and they had a furnace in this building, and the furnace was going to fail. The experts came out and looked at it and said, it's working now, but not for much longer. It's going to break.

So there's a problem. B back in the day they didn't have electricity.

Well they technically did, but they couldn't afford it. And they thought they could uh schedule when the furnace would be turned off. And they would uh you know, put um you know people work on it. And But the cold wind would be blowing, so they thought maybe we could put kerosene lamps for heat in each room.

Well, all it would take was one to be knocked over. and you could have a a fire that could kill hundreds.

So that was not an option. electricity was not an option. What were they going to do?

So he said Oh man. He says, as he wrote, Well, there's only one other option, that's for God to take care of it.

So he prayed for two things. Didn't pray once. He prayed it repeatedly. Lord. when it's time to turn the furnace off, would you please have a warm south wind blowing instead of the cold cold north wind?

And he asked Would you please put it upon the men's hearts who work to work well and work hard, so this could be accomplished quickly. till the children could be taken care of.

So George Mueller rested in the hands of God. It was God's will, God's work. When that Dave to turn the furnace off so he could repair it. occurred. There was a warm south wind blowing.

The cold north wind had stopped. The men worked something like eighteen hours. And George asked if the uh the foreman, could you ask him to come back in the next day? to finish. Early.

and all of the men said no, they would not. Instead, They worked through the night. And they finished it all at one gigantic Work. And when they turn the furnace on, the cold north wind started again. George Mueller was a man of faith.

You can get his book, Answers to Prayer, by George Mueller. I've read it several times. You need to read it again. That's what faith is. Faith is not an intellectual undertaking.

It's a heartfelt experience in our lives, related to our prayers and trust in God. and we depend on him, and he delivers us. and He warms our heart, heals our soul. and we glorify him in the process. Amen.

There's the music. May the Lord bless you by His grace. He'll be back on the air on Monday. I hope you have a great weekend. I hope that the Lord blesses you.

I hope this hour has been a blessing to you. May the Lord be kind and gracious to you all. And we'll see you or talk to you by God's grace on Monday. Have a great weekend, everyone. God bless.

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