1
FAITH THAT IS MORE THAN ENOUGH
Faith That Is More than Enough
Theme: God is looking for people who will dare to believe Him.
Text: Hebrews 11:32-34 (NLT) Well, how much more do I need to say? It would take too long to recount the stories of the faith of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, and all the prophets. {33} By faith these people overthrew kingdoms, ruled with justice, and received what God had promised them. They shut the mouths of lions, {34} quenched the flames of fire, and escaped death by the edge of the sword. Their weakness was turned to strength. They became strong in battle and put whole armies to flight.
Introduction: I believe that God takes delight in turning what man perceives to be impossibility into reality. "What is impossible from a human perspective is possible with God." (Luke 18:27)
God has never changed, nor has He lost His power to deliver His people. It’s just that His people too often imagine that their circumstances are beyond even God’s ability to change.
Ask nearly any believer if God can change their situation, their city, or even nation, and they would say absolutely. Ask them to become an instrument of change and suddenly they become weak kneed and hesitant. The church in the United States has lost her world changing fire. We have exchanged the liberty we have in Christ Jesus for security.
We have abandoned miracles for marketing techniques. The Holy Ghost and fire, for well-structured safe church services, that excel in comforting the nervous but lack in creating an environment that welcomes God.
No amount of man centered religious gymnastics can ever replace the power of God’s Holy Word, or the fire of God’s presence.
More than anything, the church in America needs a fresh outpouring of God’s Spirit! We need more of God and a whole lot less of man.
I. God Is Looking For Those Who Will Dare To Believe Him.
A. Asa was a man was one of the greatest kings of Judah, yet he did not finish well. 2 Chronicles 16:7-9 (NKJV) And at that time Hanani the seer came to Asa king of Judah, and said to him: “Because you have relied on the king of Syria, and have not relied on the Lord your God, therefore the army of the king of Syria has escaped from your hand. 8Were the Ethiopians and the Lubim not a huge army with very many chariots and horsemen? Yet, because you relied on the Lord, He delivered them into your hand. 9For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is loyal to Him. In this you have done foolishly; therefore from now on you shall have wars.”
“There is something about faith that will cause God to step over a million people to get to you.” Smith Wigglesworth
1. Asa had believed God for deliverance for the nation on several other occasions and God had supernaturally delivered their enemies into his hands. Yet on this occasion he chose to rely on his own understanding, and compromised his faith in God.
2. I believe Asa stands as a great example of the American church in this hour. If we do not get our eyes back on God, and His ability we will not stand either.
B. Our God is more than enough.
Ephesians 3:20-21 (NKJV) Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantlyabove all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, {21} to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.
Psalms 23:5 (NKJV) You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You anoint my head with oil; My cup runs over...
Romans 8:32-39 (NKJV)He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? {33} Who shall bring a charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. {34} Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. {35} Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? {36} As it is written: "For Your sake we are killed all day long; We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter." {37} Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. {38} For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, {39} nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
1. We limit God by our thinking, because we imagine that He is limited by our circumstances.
2 Corinthians 4:18 (NKJV) while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.
2 Corinthians 5:7 (NKJV) For we walk by faith, not by sight.
2. Our measure of belief will determine God’s measure of supply.
Mark 9:23 (NKJV)…"If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes."
2 Kings 4:1-7 (NKJV) A certain woman of the wives of the sons of the prophets cried out to Elisha, saying, “Your servant my husband is dead, and you know that your servant feared the Lord. And the creditor is coming to take my two sons to be his slaves.” 2So Elisha said to her, “What shall I do for you? Tell me, what do you have in the house?” And she said, “Your maidservant has nothing in the house but a jar of oil.”
3Then he said, “Go, borrow vessels from everywhere, from all your neighbors—empty vessels; do not gather just a few. 4And when you have come in, you shall shut the door behind you and your sons; then pour it into all those vessels, and set aside the full ones.” 5So she went from him and shut the door behind her and her sons, who brought the vessels to her; and she poured it out. 6Now it came to pass, when the vessels were full, that she said to her son, “Bring me another vessel.” And he said to her, “There is not another vessel.” So the oil ceased. 7Then she came and told the man of God. And he said, “Go, sell the oil and pay your debt; and you and your sons live on the rest.”
3. God’s supply in our lives will conform to the dimensions of our dreams and visions.
2 Kings 13:13-19 (NKJV) So Joash rested with his fathers. Then Jeroboam sat on his throne. And Joash was buried in Samaria with the kings of Israel. {14} Elisha had become sick with the illness of which he would die. Then Joash the king of Israel came down to him, and wept over his face, and said, "O my father, my father, the chariots of Israel and their horsemen!" {15} And Elisha said to him, "Take a bow and some arrows." So he took himself a bow and some arrows. {16} Then he said to the king of Israel, "Put your hand on the bow." So he put his hand on it, and Elisha put his hands on the king's hands. {17} And he said, "Open the east window"; and he opened it. Then Elisha said, "Shoot"; and he shot. And he said, "The arrow of the Lord's deliverance and the arrow of deliverance from Syria; for you must strike the Syrians at Aphek till you have destroyed them." {18} Then he said, "Take the arrows"; so he took them. And he said to the king of Israel, "Strike the ground"; so he struck three times, and stopped. {19} And the man of God was angry with him, and said, "You should have struck five or six times; then you would have struck Syria till you had destroyed it! But now you will strike Syria only three times."
C. If we cannot dream or imagine the answer, we will never be able to believe God for an answer.
1. Our faith will always conform to the shape of our vision.
Romans 10:17 (NKJV) So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
Mark 4:24 (NKJV) Then He said to them, "Take heed what you hear. With the same measure you use, it will be measured to you; and to you who hear, more will be given.
2. What we hear, and the way we process what we hear will have a direct effect upon our faith.
3. The way we see ourselves and our circumstances will determine how we act and how we act will determine what we receive.
Numbers 13:25-33 (NKJV) And they returned from spying out the land after forty days. {26} Now they departed and came back to Moses and Aaron and all the congregation of the children of Israel in the Wilderness of Paran, at Kadesh; they brought back word to them and to all the congregation, and showed them the fruit of the land. {27} Then they told him, and said: "We went to the land where you sent us. It truly flows with milk and honey, and this is its fruit. {28} "Nevertheless the people who dwell in the land are strong; the cities are fortified and very large; moreover we saw the descendants of Anak there. {29} "The Amalekites dwell in the land of the South; the Hittites, the Jebusites, and the Amorites dwell in the mountains; and the Canaanites dwell by the sea and along the banks of the Jordan." {30} Then Caleb quieted the people before Moses, and said, "Let us go up at once and take possession, for we are well able to overcome it."{31} But the men who had gone up with him said, "We are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we." {32} And they gave the children of Israel a bad report of the land which they had spied out, saying, "The land through which we have gone as spies is a land that devours its inhabitants, and all the people whom we saw in it are men of great stature.{33} "There we saw the giants (the descendants of Anak came from the giants); and we were like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight."
Numbers 14:1-10 (NKJV) So all the congregation lifted up their voices and cried, and the people wept that night. {2} And all the children of Israel complained against Moses and Aaron, and the whole congregation said to them, "If only we had died in the land of Egypt! Or if only we had died in this wilderness! {3} "Why has the LORD brought us to this land to fall by the sword, that our wives and children should become victims? Would it not be better for us to return to Egypt?" {4} So they said to one another, "Let us select a leader and return to Egypt." {5} Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before all the assembly of the congregation of the children of Israel. {6} But Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, who were among those who had spied out the land, tore their clothes; {7} and they spoke to all the congregation of the children of Israel, saying: "The land we passed through to spy out is an exceedingly good land. {8} "If the LORD delights in us, then He will bring us into this land and give it to us, 'a land which flows with milk and honey.' {9} "Only do not rebel against the LORD, nor fear the people of the land, for they are our bread; their protection has departed from them, and the LORD is with us. Do not fear them." {10} And all the congregation said to stone them with stones. Now the glory of the LORD appeared in the tabernacle of meeting before all the children of Israel.
Conclusion: Those who dare to believe God will always be the minority.