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Living
Hope Fellowship Church
WHERE IS
YOUR FAITH?
by Pastor Kevin Badgley
WHERE IS YOUR FAITH?
Preface
(faith)
The disciples were in a ship
in a terrible storm, and they were about to die. They woke
Jesus up, and in Luke 8:25 He said, “. . . Where is your
faith?
Your faith is your trust. It
is what you believe. Faith is not something from your
head. It must come from the heart, according to Romans
10:9-10.
God wants you holy before
him. The only way to do it is by faith. Acts 26:18 says we
are sanctified by faith that is in Jesus Christ.
We must have faith
in God to please Him!
WHERE IS YOUR FAITH?
by Pastor Kevin Badgley
Good day, beloved. Luke 8:22-25 says, “Now it came to pass
on a certain day, that he went into a ship with his
disciples: and he said unto them, Let us go over unto the
other side of the lake. And they launched forth. But as
they sailed he fell asleep: and there came down a storm
of wind on the lake; and they were filled with water,
and were in jeopardy. And they came to him, and awoke him,
saying, Master, master, we perish. Then he arose, and
rebuked the wind and the raging of the water: and they
ceased, and there was a calm. And he said unto them,
Where is your faith? And they being afraid wondered,
saying one to another, What manner of man is this! for he
commandeth even the winds and water, and they obey him.”
Beloved, where is your faith? Where have you put
it? Where do you generally keep it? When somebody loses
something they generally look in the last area where they
had it. When you can’t seem to find it, you generally go to
the last place you saw it, used it, or left it (or at least
you think you did.)
Jesus asked his disciples a question. He said, “. . . Where
is your faith?” Evidently it wasn’t there in the boat with
them. They didn’t think about the fact that Jesus was in
the boat! How could they be destroyed? What if he had
stayed asleep? What if they had never cried out to the
Lord? What would have happened? Think about these things!
Jesus asked them a question. He’s asking you the same
question right now. Where is your faith? Where is your
trust? What have you put it in? Have you put it in the
bank? Have you put it in the stock market? Have you put it
in your new automobile or your new toy? Have you put it in
your latest invention? Have you put it in the “faith”
preacher on T.V.? Have you put it in the latest program, or
the latest book, or the latest video tape? Have you put it
in the latest high technology? Have you put it in your
doctor or your government?
If so, God help you; you need deliverance. Your faith must
be in Christ, because Jesus is the author and the
finisher of our faith (see Hebrews 12:2). Since He’s the
author, the creator, the giver, and the finisher of our
faith we must have more of Him to have more faith.
When you have more faith, God will honor your words and meet
your needs. God will create, if He has to, that which would
bless you, that which would draw you closer to Him, and that
which would bring you to the presence of the Almighty God.
Where is your faith? Where have you put it? Have you lost
it? Somebody came to me one time and said, I don’t have
any faith. You’ve got enough faith to know that God is
real, so you’ve already got enough to go all the way with
Jesus, if you just would. Where have you put your faith?
You wouldn’t even know that there was a God or His Son
Jesus if it wasn’t for the Bible. He was recorded there
before He was in history books.
Your faith is your trust. It is what you believe. Faith is
not something from your head. It must come from the heart.
Romans 10:9-10 says, “That if thou shalt confess with thy
mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that
God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For
with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with
the mouth confession is made unto salvation.”
You have a choice to believe the truth unto
righteousness or to believe a lie unto damnation. God
requires us to believe the truth to be saved. Romans 14:23
says, “. . . for whatsoever is not of faith is sin.”
Hebrews 11:6 tells us that without faith it is impossible to
please God. Hebrews 11:1 says, “Now faith is the substance
of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”
Faith is what you rest in, what you stand on, and what you
believe with until God manifests it. Are you listening?
You can’t have faith in something that’s not right or you’re
not getting right. Many people have been teaching other
people, Well, you don’t have to believe that anymore.
You don’t have to pray that way anymore. They have
changed their faith and put it somewhere else. One day that
person will look up, and their faith will be gone. Their
faith will have left them, or rather they will have left
their faith.
Jesus said in Revelation 2:4, “Nevertheless I have somewhat
against thee, because thou hast left thy first love.”
Jesus is supposed to be our first love. He is the author
and the finisher of our faith - the maker of our faith.
Therefore, if we’ve left our first love, we’ve left our
first faith! It is evident in the land. It is evident
that the people (in the church world) have left their faith
somewhere else.
They have created things to put their faith in, and that is
called idolatry. They have idols, and have put their faith
in them. Some idolize the big time preachers, and some
idolize the less known preachers. It doesn’t take much for
some people to put their faith into something. Just a
little bit here, and a little bit there, and that’s enough
for them. They put all their eggs (faith) in one basket,
you might say. They will sell out, but they sell out to the
wrong place. They put their faith, misplacing it, in
something that cannot profit. They put it in something that
cannot save, nor make them holy, nor redeem them from the
curse of the law.
God is asking us today the same question that He asked the
disciples. When the storm comes, what do you do? When the
raging waves come over the top of the boat that is floating
you, what happens? Do you cry out? Do you say, We are
going to die. We are going to perish. If you do, then
your faith is little.
Jesus said, “Where is your faith?” You need to start
looking. Some people don’t even know that they have lost
it. We have seen people go to put a piece of paper in their
pocket, and we watched it fall out. They didn’t notice it,
and they turned and walked away. Then we reached down and
picked it up, telling them that they dropped it.
Right now, that is what God is saying to you. You’ve
dropped something. That little slip that you’ve dropped out
of all that other stuff that you are carrying around was the
most important thing. It was the combination to all the
things of God’s Word. That is faith. You are not going to
get there any other way. Knowledge won’t get you there.
Wisdom and understanding won’t get you there. Crying at an
altar won’t get you there. Shaking the preacher’s hand
won’t get you there. Giving to the latest ministry won’t
get you there.
You have to obey God. That is an act of faith. If you
aren’t having the faith of God moving in you and through you
by God’s Holy Word, then what are you moving in? Where have
you left the real faith? You see, there is the faith of
God, and there is the faith of the devil and flesh.
Men have changed God’s Word. They have rewritten it and
called it another translation. There is a “Jesus” they
mention in their changed words. They call these newly
translated Bibles - versions, but I call them perversions.
God says that they are perversions. There is a “Jesus” and
a “spirit” that comes with those perversions, and there is a
so called “faith” that comes with them to believe lies and
be “blessed”.
In Deuteronomy 13:1-5 it says, “If there arise among you a
prophet, or a dreamer of dreams, and giveth thee a sign or a
wonder, And the sign or the wonder come to pass, whereof he
spake unto thee, saying, Let us go after other gods, which
thou hast not known, and let us serve them; Thou shalt not
hearken unto the words of that prophet, or that dreamer of
dreams: for the LORD your God proveth you, to know whether
ye love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all
your soul. Ye shall walk after the LORD your God, and fear
him, and keep his commandments, and obey his voice, and ye
shall serve him, and cleave unto him. And that prophet, or
that dreamer of dreams, shall be put to death; because he
hath spoken to turn you away from the LORD your God, which
brought you out of the land of Egypt, and redeemed you out
of the house of bondage, to thrust thee out of the way which
the LORD thy God commanded thee to walk in. So shalt thou
put the evil away from the midst of thee.”
If it does not line up with God’s Word, even if there
is a miracle or a wonder, don’t be deceived. It’s not a
wonder of God that is created by faith in God. Rather, it
is a lying wonder by faith in that which cannot profit. It
cannot bring holiness, and without holiness no man shall see
the Lord (see Hebrews 12:14).
Jesus is asking the church where the faith is that used to
be in Him. Where is the faith that used to operate through
Christ in you? Have you cast it aside? The church of the
living God has cast their faith aside, and they have picked
up something else. It is easier, not nearly as much
trouble, and you see things quickly. Even though there
isn’t that much to them, some people are satisfied with that
faith, those signs, and with that word.
Jesus said
in Acts 26:16-18, “But rise, and stand upon thy feet: for I
have appeared unto thee for this purpose, to make thee a
minister and a witness both of these things which thou hast
seen, and of those things in the which I will appear unto
thee; Delivering thee from the people, and from the
Gentiles, unto whom now I send thee, To open their eyes,
and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power
of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of
sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by
faith that is in me.”
The awesome call and promise of God is conditional, like the
rest of God’s Word. God loves man unconditionally, but His
blessings, glory, salvation, and deliverance comes
conditionally. This is the condition; it is by faith that
is in Him. It is not faith in a device or some doctrine
that man has made up to keep man happy until they can slip
off into death. It is the faith that holds onto God by
patient waiting, by fasting and prayer, by seeking God’s
face, by his Word, (the true Word–the King James Version
Bible), and then obeying what He has commanded us to do.
God wants His people on fire for Him. He wants His people
to be filled with faith. Then you will see the glory and
the salvation of God in the land. Then you will see
revival, and you will see your family brought in. You will
see yourself delivered. It is only going to be by faith
that is in Christ.
Romans 10:13 says, “For whosoever shall call upon the name
of the Lord shall be saved.” There are many names for the
Lord. There are even many Jesuses. However, there is only
one true Lord, and one true faith.
The Living God wants people to wake up and to realize that
they have misplaced their faith. He wants them to find it,
get a hold of it, and call out for Him to turn on the light
of His true Word. By the Holy Ghost He wants them to search
diligently until they find that lost coin, and then call the
neighbors in to rejoice because they have found their
faith!
They can say, Hallelujah, I have found the Lord, I’ve
come to God, and this time I’m staying with him. I’m not
going to put my faith in anything that looks easier, more
pleasurable, or that looks like it might be a better way,
but I’m going to keep my faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
I’m not misplacing it again. I’m not going to lose it
again. I’m going to leave it in the Lord Jesus.
Today, Jesus is asking, “Where is your faith?” Where have
you laid it up? Have you laid it up in things of the world,
or have you laid it up as treasures in heaven? Matthew 6:20
says, “But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where
neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not
break through nor steal.”
God wants you holy, holy, holy before him. The only way to
do it is by faith. Acts 26:18 says we are sanctified by
faith that is in Jesus Christ.
Father, I pray that you will touch people and
cause them to seek after that which you have given them
before. They have misplaced their faith. God, cause them
to find it. In Jesus’ name I bind the devil that has
stolen from them, and kept them from the faith that is in
Christ, and from the victory that is theirs. God, in the
name of Jesus, redeem us. Set every captive free, and bring
back the faith that is in Christ. Amen.
CONTACT INFORMATION:
PASTOR KEVIN BADGLEY
LIVING HOPE FELLOWSHIP, P. O.
BOX 111, GRAND CHAIN, IL 62941
CHURCH / FAX (618) 634-2541
E-mail
livinghope@hughes.net
www.livinghopefellowshipchurch.org
These condensed Bible
studies have been published to help new Christians in their
new walk with the Lord. Kevin Badgley, the author, is the
pastor of Living Hope Fellowship Church.
This is a Living Hope
Fellowship publication.
©
Living Hope Fellowship, Inc.
livinghope@hughes.net-lhfchurch@hotmail.com
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