Today we will kick off our FUEL series. Fuel stands for: Faith in Unity Engaged in Love I’d like to begin by telling you the story of how Fuel became the name of our church. Laura and I were on a leadership retreat with another church and They had asked me to come along because they were discussing the direction and future of their church and since I had been a marketing guy they wanted me to help with some of those things. Everything was on the table as an option, even a name change. As we talked and prayed, God brought the word FUEL to me. Everyone got excited about it, because it was a great word to communicate what the church is supposed to be. We should be a fueling station for believers to get filled up. As scripture says, we are supposed to equip the saints for the work of the ministry. As much as we liked the word FUEL, we knew it needed to have more meaning, so we started working on what each letter would
represent. After a couple more hours of talking and praying, God gave me FUEL=Faith in Unity Engaged in Love. In the end, I felt really good about this direction, but ultimately they decided to keep their name and current direction. About 6 months later God told me it was time to start a church...and of course then I understood what that planning retreat was actually for. It was for God to download the direction for a church that hadn’t been launched yet. So now, that you know the back story, let’s begin to break down FUEL. The first word we will study is Faith. Today, we’ll begin to discover what faith is, what faith is not, why it is necessary and how we can have more of it. Let’s begin by talking about what faith is not. Faith is not just believing in something. You can believe in something and still not have faith in it. James 2:19 “You believe that God is one. You do well; the demons also believe, and shudder.” People will say, “I believe in Jesus”. And to that I say, congratulations, you’ve reached the same conclusion as the demons...and it will do you the same amount of good that it does them. None. I know that sounds harsh, so let me explain what I mean. Believing is just step one...but you can’t stop there if you want to move into faith. Faith is not sight. People say, “I’ll believe it when I see it”...but that is not faith. According to the Bible, sight is the opposite of faith.
2 Corinthians 5:7 says “For we walk by faith, not by sight” So why shouldn’t we walk by what we can see? Because as we all know “Seeing is Believing”...But again, believing is not the same as faith. Faith requires something that is beyond just belief. For example, I don’t need to have faith for these lights to come on when I flip that switch, because I’ve seen it work hundreds of times. I believe the lights will come on because I’ve seen it. You may have seen someone’s life change dramatically when they accepted Jesus. It was like a light switch was flipped on and they became a different person. So, based on what you saw, you can believe that Jesus is real. But just believing Jesus is real doesn’t help you, until you get to step two. Remember, even the demons believe. Your believing has to turn into faith before you can benefit from it. Faith comes into play when we deal with things we can’t see. OK, faith isn’t seeing or just believing, so what is faith? Well let’s see what the Bible says: Hebrews 11:1 “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” This concept can be hard to wrap your head around, because “substance” is physical, but Faith is spiritual. “Evidence” is is visible, but “things not seen” are just that...not seen. So how do we reconcile these two seemingly opposite things?
This is the concept that derails so many Christians when it comes to understanding faith. The only way we can understand how physical visible things relate to spiritual invisible things is by digging further into God’s Word. James 2:17 “In the same way, faith by itself, if not accompanied by action, is dead.” The physical visible “evidence” of faith operating in your life, is the action that you take. This is the heart of the matter and how we go from belief which is step one, into faith. We have to take action. Faith requires more than just words. You can say that you believe something, but if you don’t act on it, do you really believe it? That is how you put your faith to the test...are you acting on it or just talking about it? It’s certainly true that your faith begins with speaking, but must move into action to become fully alive. Belief + Action = Faith Here is a Kingdom Key: Action is the means by which you bring faith to life. Why is faith so important? Because we are saved through faith Romans 10:9-10 “9 that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; 10 for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.”
Your salvation begins with a belief and then is followed by speaking what you believe...in faith. Ephesians 2:8-9 “8For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; 9 not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.” You don’t work for your salvation, but your actions (that are motivated by your trust in God) are the proof that faith is at work in your life. Faith requires us to be fully persuaded that we can trust God, because trust is the only thing that will motivate us into action. True faith creates trust, and trust allows us to take action. I’ll use a sports analogy to help you understand what I mean. Having Faith is like playing football, at the position of receiver. It begins with personal preparation. You have to study the playbook (bible), or you won’t recognize the play when the quarterback (God) calls it. It’s up to the receiver to be in line with what the quarterback is doing. Because the quarterback’s goal is to move the team forward. God’s goal is to move His Kingdom forward and it’s up to us to keep our life in line with His goals. When the quarterback calls a play in the huddle, a receiver should recognize the play and know where he is supposed to go as the play begins.
This is the main key...because the ball is going to be thrown before he arrives at the location he is supposed to receive it. He doesn’t actually see where the ball is, because his back is to the quarterback. But as long as he and the quarterback are working from the same playbook, he can trust that when he runs his route, the ball will arrive at the same time he does. Running the route before he sees the ball is the action that shows he has faith in the quarterback and his ability to deliver what he said he would. And it proves that the receiver is willing to run on faith, not sight, having the assurance that the quarterback will keep his promise of delivering the ball. One other thing to understand is that being a receiver is an offensive position, not a defensive one. Our enemy is on the defense and is going to try and keep you from getting to your position of receiving. He will hit us and harass us to distract us from running the route we know is in the playbook. When we get hit, the choice is ours to continue in faith or change the route. If you don't run the correct route, you can avoid getting hit by the enemy, but you will never be in the right position to receive. Faith is required to receive what God has for us...and that includes salvation. You can be sure that God is going to deliver on his promise to move the Kingdom forward, but the question is: Are you going to be in a position to receive what He has promised? Faith is vital to the life of a believer. We are here to please God by doing what He has called us to do. We can’t please God without faith.
Hebrews 11:6 But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. Diligently seeking is active not passive In God’s Kingdom we are called to believe and have faith (take action) first, and then we will “receive” from Him. Mark 11:24 Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. When we pray, we must believe that it has already been received and then take action on that belief, before we see the result. Believing without seeing, is what Faith is all about. If we waited till we saw the result before we believed, it wouldn’t be faith at all...it would be sight. Where does faith begin? Romans 12:3 “For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith. So we all start on a level playing field when it comes to our initial measure of faith that God gives us. The chapter goes on to describe how each of us is important to the body of Christ with our own unique gifts. We should be striving to develop our gifts further in order to serve the other members of the body.
Take a minute to think about people from your past who you looked up to spiritually, because they had matured in their faith. We’ve all probably known someone who seemed to have more faith than the average Christian...or at least more than we had. How did they get there? What is the secret to growing our faith? Romans 10:17 “So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” Faith comes by hearing, so to get faith, you need a hearing aid, which is the Word of God. Only by seeking God’s kingdom will you get “hearing”. That hearing allows us to understand the Word. I will try to explain it as a circle that grows in strength each time it goes around. Ever played Monopoly? Every time you go around the board you get $200. Your bank account grew every time you passed “GO”. This is a concept I can describe by talking about something I am very familiar with. Feedback in a sound system. My career began as a recording engineer working in studios. Laura and I met while traveling with a christian group. She was a singer and I was the sound engineer. So let me tell you how feedback works. Feedback is created by a circle of sound. Here is how it works. When I speak, the sound goes into this microphone. Basically the microphone “hears” my voice. From there it travels through the mixer board and then to an amplifier the increases the volume of my voice. It then is sent to the
speaker and comes out into the room louder than the volume that I originally spoke. The key to understand is that the sound is amplified inside the system. Now, feedback is created when the microphone “hears” the amplified speaker more than my original voice. Because it the sound goes through the system and begins a loop or circle of sound that grows quickly and increases in volume every time it goes around...because each time it goes around it passes through the amplifier and gets a little louder. So feedback is created by a circle of sound. In the same way, Faith is created by a “circle of seeking”. Look at the verse again. Romans 10:17 “So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” 1: We read the word of God first. 2: As we read His word, God opens our ears to give us “hearing” because we are truly seeking Him. 3: Now we are able to really hear/understand the Word as we read. 4: Being able to really hear and understand what the word is saying, causes our faith to be amplified. So then our faith action gets amplified by our hearing, and our hearing gets amplified by the Word of God, and the Word of God gets amplified in our life by our faith action...and so the loop continues, and our faith grows stronger each time around. When our faith grows it makes us want to seek more.
As we seek more we hear more. As we get increased hearing of the Word, our faith grows to another level...which causes us to want to seek even more. And thus the circle of faith grows each time it goes around. Are You Ready to Start Growing Your Faith?
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