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[ Silence ] [Music] ♪ Have faith in God ♪ ♪ Have faith in God ♪

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♪ Have faith in God ♪ ♪ When your prayers are answered ♪ ♪ Your heart is weak ♪ ♪ It has never faltered ♪

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♪ Wait on the Lord ♪ ♪ Trust his word and be patient ♪ ♪ Have faith in God, he'll answer you ♪ ♪ Have faith in God, he's on his throne ♪

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♪ Have faith in God, he watches over you ♪ ♪ He cannot fail, he must reign ♪ ♪ Have faith in God ♪ ♪ Have faith in God ♪

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♪ Have faith in God ♪ ♪ In your pain and your sorrow ♪ ♪ His heart is touched ♪ ♪ With your grief and despair ♪

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♪ Cast all your cares ♪ ♪ And your burdens upon Him ♪ ♪ And lead them there, oh lead them there ♪ ♪ Have faith in God, he's on his throne ♪

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♪ Have faith in God, he watches over us all ♪ ♪ He cannot fail, he must prevail ♪ Have faith in God, have faith in God. May be seated.

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Through all else failed about you, Have faith in God, He provides for His own. He cannot fail, through all kingdoms shall perish. He rules and reigns upon His throne.

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Have faith in God, He's on His throne. Have faith in God, He watches for His own. He cannot fail, He must prevail. Have faith in God. Have faith in God.

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O gracious God, our Father, speak now to our hearts the word you would have your servants hear. We ask in the strong and perfect name of Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen. Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

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For by it the elders obtain a good report. By faith, we understand that the worlds were framed by the Word of God so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear. Steadfast faith in God.

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Faith makes life worth living. Faith is the essence of being. Faith is the foundation on which we stand and the hope we seek to fulfill. Faith is the ground of our being and the goal of our striving.

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Faith. Steadfast faith in God. Faith that does not waver. Faith that remains no matter what happens.

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The darkness of night. Jesus speaks to his disciples In the early hours of the morning, he comes walking on the waters.

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He says to them, "Be of good cheer. I'm here." Peter leaps out of his boat and begins walking on the water. going toward Jesus. But he looks

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down and he sees that the waves are boisterous and the winds are contrary and he begins

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to sink. He was walking on the water when he kept his eye on Jesus. But he begins to sink when he begins to worry

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about the waves and the winds. Jesus stretches out his hand and says "O ye of little faith, wherefore did you doubt?" It was doubt that caused Peter to begin to sink.

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By faith he was able to walk on the water. And here in this particular passage where the writer seems to soar into the summits of the good news, he says that faith is the substance of things hoped for. In other words, we are able to do the miraculous when we keep our eyes on Jesus, the author

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and finisher of our faith. So we travel by faith. And when we speak of faith, we do not speak of that which is merely intellectual assent. We're talking about the totality of one's personhood, not just the mind.

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We say many things as far as the mind is concerned, but emotionally we may react in a different way. But we're talking about the total of one's being. So that New Testament meaning of faith,

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or we may say the biblical meaning of faith is to put one's trust in the living Lord. Now it's possible for us to put our trust in many things other than the living Lord.

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So it is trusting in Jesus And it is going beyond reason. I think sometimes the problem with many of us in exercise of faith is that reason gets in the way.

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And we begin to reason how am I going to do this and that. It is said that Immanuel Kant, the great philosopher, never married. He submitted everything to such close scrutiny

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so he never got married because marriage itself is a venture in faith. And we don't know what will happen. You see, faith goes beyond reason

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because it leaps into the unknown. Not being able to fully see the outcome, faith dares to leap. I remember I was attending college

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and in the summer I worked to try to get as much money as I could to go back And I always needed every day I could to get as much money as possible for the next school year.

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And I was elected as a messenger by the church to go to the Congress, to meetings such as we're having here, only it was a state meeting.

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And of course, the reason said, you know, you need to stay on that job and work and make as much money as you can. For God knows you need it.

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And yet faith said that you should go on. And I prayed over the matter and prayed and I felt that God wanted me to go. Well, you're gonna lose those days from work.

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You're not gonna have them. Well, faith says go on, go on. You just be without those days. So I got permission to go and I went on.

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That's faith going out, not really knowing what's gonna happen. That's what Abraham did. He went out not knowing where he was going.

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- Yes, Lord. - So I went to the meeting, and the total surprise to me, the president of the Congress said,

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"I want all of you to give an offering today "for Marvin Griffin and Tim Chambers." and they gave about $100 and he divided that between the two of us.

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And I had more than I would have made if I had worked. Well, that's the way faith rewards us. But you have to leave. Some will never know the joys of trusting in God

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until you make that leap in the darkness. And you see, faith, I'm talking about authentic faith. Faith has eyes that see in the dark. The eyes of faith.

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So the dynamics of faith, the problem is, the dynamics of faith indicate that you have to Put yourself in God's hands. It's like this chair.

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You know, if I don't put myself in this chair, it won't hold me up. I have to sit in it. I have to just sit in the chair and relax

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and let it hold me up. And that's what, it's to trust ourselves in the hand of God and let him hold you up. That's faith.

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But so often we are like that lady who got on the train, she was huffing and puffing and she had her bag and she finally got on the train, the porter helped her up and she got on

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and the train was running and she was still standing there holding her bags and the porter finally said to her lady, you may put them down now, the train will carry them for you. That's the way it is with faith.

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Faith. Now in the dynamics of faith, We need to consider the subjective and the objective. The subjective is the person who has the faith.

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That's the person who is exercising faith. The objective is that in which we put our faith. In other words, and so we have to consider the subjective is what kind of person is this that's putting this faith in in the

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unknown and the reality or the authenticity of the subjective and the authenticity of the objective these have to be considered because so often we have a wavering faith. You know we say well I'll trust you so far. You've heard that old saying said I'll be with you through thick and thin but when it gets

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too thick I'm gonna thin out. You know so when we consider the subject, what kind of person is this? We have people who run here and there. We run from church to church we run from city to city place to place but we make the mistake of putting our faith in that which is false I mean by that is we put our faith in

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our jobs and when our jobs run out we go to pieces because we put our faith in our job sometimes we put our faith in our children I remember a man who had lived and he had done everything and organized everything around his son and all of a sudden his son died and he went to pieces. Because all of these things

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down here are relative, and you have to put your faith in that which is eternal. And God has a way of always pushing us, you know, whenever you create an idol and you worship this idol, God always has a way that there comes a time when this idol is smashed and you look beyond the idol and you see who's really

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God in this and He's still on the throne and He still has control. It's this faith is the substance of things hoped for, evidence of things not seen. So the ultimate, God himself is the ultimate, he is the utmost, he is the one that is beyond all others and we are to put our trust in Him, O Father of faith that will not shrink,

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though pressed by many a foe, that will not murmur on the brink of any earthly woe, that will not murmur or complain beneath the chastening rod but in the hour of grief or pain will lean upon its God. Our faith is according to our hope. Faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen. The thing to

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keep in mind my brothers and sisters is whenever we put our faith in that which is finite rather than that which is ultimate that we also take certain risks. You know, you get on a plane, that's finite. And I get on them all the time, but it's still finite. Anytime you get on one, you're not sure you're gonna get off. It's finite, and

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it just stands to reason that it's made of machinery, and that sometimes, somewhere, some of this machinery is not gonna work. And even though we make all kinds of investigations, as long as we make machinery, there's always going to be the time when some of it is not going to work at some way. So if we really, really,

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really want to be sure, unquestionably sure, we have to go beyond the finite to the infinite and we have to reach for the one who is above all. So put your trust in things eternal for faith is the substance of things hoped for. It is the assurance that what we hope for will be realized in history. So faith is

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commitment. You know one of the main problems in our churches today is commitment. Faith is commitment. It is commitment to live the good life. It is commitment to serve, it is commitment to give, and faith moves forward with certainty. The pilgrim of faith says I know. Even though there may be no visible

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evidence on the scene, faith presses on saying I know. There's some things we can be certain about. The Hebrew children said well I know we know that our God is able. We don't know what he's going to do in this particular situation but we know him. We have faith in him and we know that he is able to take care of us. We

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know that. Now the pilgrim of faith is able to say that. Paul says I know some things we cannot be certain about but there are other things that we can be certain about when we are in the realm of faith, the realm of faith. I was a member of the Board of Regents at Texas Southern University. We had about

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$50,000 I think it was that we had put in the safe and it was thought to be secure to be deposited in the bank. We had a night watchman. The night watchman always made his rounds, punched the clock, and of course the night watchman on this particular night made his rounds as usual. He made his rounds, he punched the clock.

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But there was someone who discovered when the night watchman made his rounds and when he punched the clock and somewhere between the times that he punched the clock someone came in and took an acetylene torch and cut the the door of the safe right from one from top to bottom and opened the safe and went

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in and took the $50,000 and we never found out who did it. In other words you have to be concerned about who you are depositing, who you're committing your life to and those deposits that you are making, who's receiving them and whether or not they can keep them.

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Oh, we had an investigation, we called in everybody and we said, "Why was this amount of money left in there? "Why wasn't it taken directly to the bank?" But it was gone.

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Well, Paul says, "I know. "I know whom I have believed." He's talking about Jesus Christ. He said, "I have no doubt about it.

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"I've been through the rain, I've been through the storm. I know in whom I have believed that he is able to keep that which I have committed to him against that day. So faith is the substance of things hoped for.

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It's the real thing in your life, the faith that you have. The older people, I remember my grandfather would compare this passage, he said that when he talked about substance, he said, "Well, it's like collard greens. You know, you cook the greens and that," and he called that pot liquor that was left there

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and even though many had taken the greens and eaten them, that the pot liquor had more good nutrients left there than that other part that had been taken. the real substance was there. Well the real substance of our life is in our faith and Jesus Christ is the author and the finisher of our faith and when we

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trust in him we will never need to worry, to doubt about our future because our Our future is secure. Faith, faith. Oh, the faith that looks up to him, as we sing.

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My faith looks up to thee, the Lamb of Calvary. So Jesus is the one who receives our commitment. He receives those deposits that are being made. And whatever we send up, as we used to sing,

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I'm sending up my timber every day. He's able to keep that, which we commit unto him. Faith, yes. Faith in Jesus Christ means that you never walk alone.

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Faith in Jesus Christ means that there's never gonna be a burden too heavy for you to bear because he gets underneath that load and he helps you to carry it.

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Faith in Jesus Christ means that you always have someone to share your grief. Faith in Jesus Christ means that when you are weak, you have someone beside you who is strong.

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Faith is the substance of things hoped for, evidence of things not seen. As we sing the hymn of invitation, We invite you to exercise faith in Jesus Christ.

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Not in the preacher, not in some creed, but in the living Lord of history, Jesus Christ. Faith to believe that he has saved you. faith to believe that God redeems the world through him.

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We invite you to come, extend the blessed invitation. Step out on his word, accepting him as Lord and savior. We invite you to come. ♪ I thank the Lord for you ♪

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♪ Come and walk down the street ♪ ♪ Savior, hear my prayer ♪ ♪ Thou giv'n me power and grace ♪ ♪ Take all my guilt away ♪

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♪ Pull me free from this deadly strain ♪ ♪ And the old people ♪ ♪ May thy rich praise and glory ♪ ♪ Spread to my native land ♪

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♪ Rise in its sky ♪ ♪ And still rest I believe ♪ ♪ O'er pain and love to thee ♪ ♪ New born and changed to speak ♪

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♪ The living word ♪ ♪ How much darkness has spread ♪ And we surround his grave, He loved thy life.

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In darkness turn to day, Hide sorrows, tears from day, Lord, let me ever spread your wings aside. ♪ When the wind lies quiet and free ♪

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♪ When the soft sound of spring ♪ ♪ Shall all be gone ♪ ♪ Let's take a leap in love ♪ ♪ In a distrust-free school ♪

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♪ Oh, let me say the word ♪ ♪ The right song ♪ Would you turn to the first page in your hymnal for the Church Covenant? [BLANK_AUDIO]