.  Living Hope Fellowship Church....Sermons by the Pastor 

THE JUST SHALL LIVE BY FAITH

by Chuy Chavarria, preached 07/29/09

             My name is Chuy, and I am excited about the vision Pastor Kevin has for the family center.  As I work with Pastor Kevin, I realize how much love God has put in his heart for people and for the church.  I see that his passion for souls is great, and I pray that God will put that in all the body of Christ.  I’ve cried out to God to put in us a burden for the work at hand.  Without the burden of the Lord, we just don’t bother “doing”!  When God gives us a true burden by His Spirit, then we have a purpose, and everything we do becomes meaningful.

God called us into the kingdom of Christ, and what we are doing with our hands is led by the Spirit of God, and the effects of it are an eternal work.  Sometimes when I work with the pastor, I am tired and I want to go home, but in my spirit I thank God that He has allowed me to be partaker of this work.  The enemy says what we are doing is not effective, but when we work and sweat and someone brings us a cold drink of water, that is effective; we are refreshed.  Praying and fasting is also working in the kingdom of God, and it breaks yokes of bondage. 

When Pastor Kevin tells me his vision, it is like a child with a new toy.  It is like he is SEEING it, and he gets excited.  I want God to impart that vision to your spirit also.  As the Pastor explained what this “family center” was for, I saw destitute people who had no other place to go.  It is for youth and others who have no love at home.  I saw wayward kids sitting there, and young people who had no purpose at all.  I began to see these souls actually sitting there, and I was thankful.  I recognized what I would have been today without Christ.  I saw how God had workers at hand who prayed for me and reached out to grab me for the kingdom of God.  I understand why I am here at Living Hope Fellowship.

God is good all the time.  God is ALWAYS good.  When we go through trials, God is good.  Out of the sorrow of repentance comes thankfulness that God is our Father.  We do not always at the time understand or appreciate discipline, but I am thankful for God’s correction, because HE sees the bigger picture.  He is wiser than we can imagine, and He is on our side.  Romans 8:31 says, “What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?”

When we say, “God I’m going to live for you.  I am denying myself, taking up my cross, and I’m following you.”  The devil says he can’t have you doing that, and all of hell will come against you.  God is good all the time, even when we don’t understand what He is doing in our lives. 

Romans 1:17 says, “. . . The just shall live by faith.”  How do we get faith?  Romans 10:17 says, “So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”  Faith is not something you try and say, “I believe it, so it will be.”  It comes by the Holy Spirit which quickens the Word of God.  Many of us trust God in our salvation, but then we tend to be hesitant with God.  God says we shall not take His Word and live outside of it.  We have to live by God’s Word. 

Deuteronomy 8:3 says, “. . . that he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the LORD. . . .”  I asked the Lord, “How do I know that I am walking by faith?”  He answered that my faith would be tried.  He said that true faith is sacrificial.  When you deny yourself, it is a sacrifice. 

Faith is this – I have to deny myself.  Galatians 2:20 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 by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.” 

True faith heeds Romans 12:19 that says, “. . . Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.”  True faith allows reproach with hands off.  Everyone walks in circumstances where God takes you to test and strengthen your faith. 

Joseph loved God and was faithful, but his brothers were jealous.  God allowed them to sell him in to Egypt, because God had plans for Joseph and the children of Israel.  Joseph was faithful and found favor with God.  Read the account of Joseph’s life and how he was strengthened in his faith and love toward God even though he was persecuted.  This man did nothing wrong, but he was continually opposed.  God was doing something in the inner man, and He caused Joseph to be victorious.  By faith God cleans out an individual of all the sins you can’t see. 

When Joseph revealed himself to his brothers he said in Genesis 45:5, “Now therefore be not grieved, nor angry with yourselves, that ye sold me hither: for God did send me before you to preserve life.”  He finally understood that it was of God from the beginning, and he didn’t hate his brothers, because God’s pure faith operated in his life. 

This is the word that the Lord has for you also.  When the enemy opposes you, know that God is good!  Go to God’s Word and see what He says.  Bind the enemy in the name of Jesus, and don’t take things into your own hands.  Let God handle it. 

I met my pastor in an institution; I was an inmate, and he was a guard.  He was always reading the Word of God.  I was close to getting released, when I found out that a man I was ministering to was trying to connect me with his evil doings.  I got angry.  I asked Pastor Kevin to pray about a situation, but I didn’t tell him anything about it.  The next day he told me, “Stay away from that person and don’t do anything.”  God used the pastor to teach me the sacrifice of faith.  God removed that man to another place.   The devil was ready to destroy me, but God sent a man who hears from His Spirit to tell me what to do.  The enemy cannot be victorious in our lives if we will serve Christ Jesus.  Know that God is on your side, and He has all the resources, ALL the power.  The devil is nothing in comparison. 

When Jesus Christ came into your heart, He came by faith.  The devil constantly tries to take us away from living by faith so that we will live by our own ways, flesh, intellect and counsel.  God is stripping everything away from us.  That is the only way He can keep us living by faith, trusting in Him.

When the bride of Christ overcomes, and God surely does that work in us, people will want what we have.  Satan is scared that we will walk by faith and enter into the promises of God!  He knows that he has been defeated.  He knows that when Christ’s Spirit fully operates in us, people will be asking, “What must I do to be saved?” 

Let’s follow God and learn to live by faith.