Adventures in Student Ministry

Gift of Faith

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Intro: Purpose of Gifts
Point people back to Jesus
The common good of the Body,
Build up the church and help it mature.

Each gift must function within the Love of God, or else it is a cheap fabrication of what God truly has for us.

TS: Today, we will talk about the Gift of Faith. But first, we need to establish some groundwork as to what Faith is, and two other forms of Faith outside of this Gift of Faith.

What is faith?

  1. Hebrews 11:1(ESV)
    1. Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.
    2. Faith is not something that exists in a vacuum. Some elements come together to form the substance of faith. Faith is the combination of things existing in the past, affecting the present, and shaping the future.
  2. Within this singular verse and then panned out to the larger chapter, we see the elements that combine to form faith.
    1. Past – The people listed in Hebrews 11 didn’t simply walk into faith; there was a testimony that preceded their action. Whether they physically heard the words of God spoken to them, or they had been taught the ways of God before a moment of activation of their faith.
      1. This is a scriptural principle found in Romans 10:17 (ESV)
        1. So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the words of Christ.
        2. We see this throughout Hebrews 11
      2. Able grew up with the stories of God from his parents
      3. (Genesis 6:9) Noah grew up a godly man serving God 
      4. (Joshua 1:8) When the walls of Jericho fell, the people of Israel already had the book of the law 
      5. (Joshua 2:9-11) Rahab had heard the testimony of how God provided for the people of God 
      6. This aspect of the past is a distinctly intellectual aspect of faith, but intellectualism is not the full scope of faith.
    2. The Present – Hebrews 11:1 says “conviction of things not seen”
      1. This is a state of being in the very moment that a person is. 
      2. A person has moved from an intellectual process of receiving God’s testimony to a very emotional response. Conviction is not simply a thought, but it’s about deep inner certainty. 
      3. In Matthew 13, – parable of the Sower – plant dies because it’s in rocky ground. – person who receives the word of God with joy. There’s an emotional response to the testimony of God, and it grips us in a very real way. 
      4. This present state, much like the first, is not the full scope of Faith. Intellectualism and emotionalism, each on their own, can do nothing for a person. True faith is formed with the third element.
    3. The Future – Hebrews 11 says, “the assurance of things hoped for.”
      1. When we are sure of something, we move with confidence. Our mindset is shaped, and the assurance transforms our actions. A purposeful change or action occurs.


TS: Now that we have established the elements of Faith, how do they play out in the three forms of Faith?

Saving Faith – This is the faith that is active for salvation – the scriptural reference for it is:

  1. Ephesians 2:8 (ESV)
    1. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,
  2. How does this save faith work?
    1. Past – We hear the testimony of God
      1. Preaching
      2. Testimonies of others
      3. Creation itself Testifies of God
        1. Psalm 19:1 The Heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.
        2. “We may ignore, but we can nowhere evade the presence of God. The world is crowded with Him. He walks everywhere incognito.” – CS Lewis
    2. Present
      1. This is where we are convicted of our sins.
      2. Do not misunderstand; man is not doing the convicting, nor is it our self-pity and guilt. Holy Spirit is convicting us of our sin, using the testimony of God to push us forward to the next stage of saving faith.
      3. John 16:8 – And when he (Holy Spirit) comes, he (Holy Spirit) will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment:
    3. Future
      1. Having heard the word of the testimony and being convicted by it, we take a step forward with the intentional action of repentance.
      2. Hearing opens the mind, conviction grips the heart, but true saving faith crowns Jesus Lord, only when we take an intentional act of laying down our rights.

TS: So now we see how the structure of Faith plays out in Saving Faith, what about the fruit that comes with walking with the Spirit, the fruit known as Faithfulness?

Faithfulness

  1. Past – Faithfulness means to be reliable, steadfast, and unwavering. These very words suggest that there is a starting point to the action.
    1. The tension of confession and fellowship. Can’t have true fellowship without confession, but you won’t have confession without fellowship. Someone has to step out and give the example.
    2. God has been the example of faithfulness since the beginning
      1. Lamentations 3:22-23
      2. The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, His mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning, great is your faithfulness. 
    3. The Present – Hearing and experiencing the faithfulness of God stirs something up inside of us. There’s an emotional response
      1. In Psalm 13, David is crying out during the season when he was on the run from King Saul. He feels alone, afraid, and abandoned not just by people, but even by God himself.
      2. Psalm 13:5 – But I have trusted in your steadfast love;
            my heart shall rejoice in your salvation.
      3. When we reflect on God’s faithfulness, hope is restored, peace takes root, and hope blossoms in the hearts and minds of believers.
    4. The Future – The longer we walk with God, the more we experience his faithfulness, the more we find ourselves in a position to step forward and continue to trust Him, even amid challenging times.
      1. Faithfulness is not a moment of obedience, but a lifestyle of submission to Him. Remember that this is a fruit of walking with the Holy Spirit daily, not just on Sundays.
      2. Faithfulness doesn’t mean we don’t have fears; Jesus struggled in the garden, yet he says, “Not my will, but yours be done.”
      3. Faithfulness isn’t a flash of emotion or an intellectual exercise. It’s the steady, day-by-day echo of trust in God, who’s never broken His word. It’s born in remembering His past goodness, stirred by His present mercy, and proven in a future of consistent obedience.

TS: So we have Saving Faith, then we have Faithfulness, but what then is the Gift of Faith?

Gift of Faith

  1. This particular gift is interesting in that it’s often interwoven with the other gifts. After all, who’s going to attempt to operate in miracles if they do not first operate in faith? Who’s going to operate in prophecy if they don’t first operate in faith?
  2. The Past – First we need to understand that just like in Saving Faith and the Fruit of the Spirit known as Faithfulness, the gift of Faith is not something we manufacture,
    1. Mark 11 Jesus curses a fig tree. His disciples are amazed. He reponds with the following in Mark 11:22-23
    2. And Jesus answered them, “Have faith in God.Truly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will come to pass, it will be done for him.
    3. Have faith in God > Ἔχετε πίστιν θεοῦ (echo pistis theos) > Have God’s Faith)
    4. Operating in the Gift of Faith first requires us to understand that this isn’t yours. This is a supernatural faith given to us for a purpose. It’s a faith that involves believing in something far greater than us and submitting ourselves fully to God.
  3. The Present – Being grounded in this mindset allows us to walk in humility and authority.
    1. In Acts 3 when Peter and John see the lame man at the gate called Beautiful they spoke with authority and power, but note their words in Acts 3:12
      1. And when Peter saw it he addressed the people: “Men of Israel, why do you wonder at this, or why do you stare at us, as though by our own power or piety we have made him walk?
    2. We cannot walk in pride when we operate in this gift.
      1. Not just pride that puffs us up, but also false pride that almost belittles the work of God.
  4. The Future
    1. When we walk in humility and authority, we can step out and do the miraculous.  We can be like Peter and step out onto the water, we can lay hands on the sick and see them made well, we can prophesy, can speak to that mountain in our lives and tell it to move.

Response

The reason we took the journey we did tonight is due to a simple reality. We cannot operate in the Gift of Faith if we are not walking in faithfulness. We cannot walk in faithfulness unless we have truly walked in the saving faith and given our lives to Jesus. 

Where are you in this discussion? Are you needing God’s faith and looking to move the mountains before you with that Gift of Faith? Are you simply needing people to surround you and help you to walk in faithfulness? Are you here today, you’ve heard the testimony of God’s faithfulness and Holy Spirit is knocking at the door of your heart, asking you to make a move beyond intellect and emotion and into actionable faith?