Something Out of Nothing — Jim Cymbala

Faith Pleases God and Comes by Hearing

It's amazing that the thing that pleases God the most we pray almost the least about. The Bible tells us that without faith. It's what? Impossible to please God, but very rarely. Do you hear anyone say pray for me?

I want God to increase my faith not true. What most of us do is we try harder to believe not a good recipe not a good formula. We try harder if we see our faith failing we try harder as if faith is Something that we can manufacture, but there's something about faith.

Well first of all faith is hard to describe because the Bible looks at it in so many different ways that you don't know. Which how it's looking at faith is it how faith begins? Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God.

What is faith? It's like a trust a heart trust a reliance, but then there's more spiritual aspects of faith. It's what faith produces. But a couple of things we know about faith from Hebrews 11 and just the first few verses.

Faith as Confidence in Future and Invisible Realities

That I just want to remind you of and it's encouraged me today, so I thought I could share with you. Let's just look at familiar passage at least the first verse now faith is confidence in what we hope for and Assurance about what we do not see.

That really isn't defining what faith is. It's kind of saying what faith produces or how faith acts or works now faith is the Confidence in what we hope for and assurance about we do not see and notice there.

There are two things that faith is involved in is the future and the invisible. Faith is being sure. Having confidence in what we hope for hope always means future. So people who have strong faith have an assurance that things that God has spoken about are going to come to pass.

Even though they can't prove it by empirical evidence. So faith has a lot to do with future events. But not like you just wish they would happen you know they're gonna happen. How do you know they're gonna happen faith tells you so?

I'm gonna give you another interesting definition of faith. That's helped me, but let's look at the second part of that verse. It's the assurance of what we do not see. So the other thing that faith is always dealing with is the invisible world.

The two worlds that faith works in is future things the promises of God coming to pass even though they haven't Happened yet giving us an assurance that they will happen so sure are we that they're gonna happen.

So with such assurance that people have given up their lives and gone to an undeveloped China back in the 1800s and risk disease. To spread the gospel because they just knew when the Lord came he would say well done my good and faithful Servant.

Now who would give up everything you have to do that faith makes you do that. Because you have an assurance that it's worth it in the end people without faith only think of aura now. People who live only in the now have lost their faith.

Faith is always dealing with future realities and notice invisible realities. Invisible things become real to faith. It's the Assurance about what we do not see. How can be you be sure of something you do not see?

Faith makes you sure of it. You look at a person in the street. You just see a person in the street, but another person full of faith sees a soul in there. How do you see that soul. No faith tells you there's a soul in there?

The Lord says I will never leave you nor forsake you. Some people are afraid and say I'm all alone. I'm all forsaken. Another person says no God is with us, and you go. Where do you see him? No faith tells me he's right here.

I can see him. He's at my right hand therefore I shall not be moved. That's all by faith. Someone has defined faith this way. Faith is the organ by which we perceive The invisible world as a reality. Faith is the organ the spiritual organ of the soul the antenna that picks up things that are going to happen in the future that God has promised and Invisible realities and it makes them more real than then the pulpit makes it more real than the flowers.

Makes it more real than the monitor speaker. Faith makes invisible things real whenever people are walking in faith. They are being moved by invisible things, and if you say to them. Why are you doing that?

They can't explain it to you because faith is perceiving that they must do that that God wants them to do that. But God can't be put in a test tube so they can't prove it to you, but faith knows. It's real.

Faith knows that's gonna happen. Faith knows that's gonna happen. Faith is almost like a kind of vision. In fact if you study the book of Hebrews 11 that chapter and if you Stick in the word seeing or vision you'll find out that it fits where it says by faith.

Moses did this by faith. Abraham did this by faith. By vision by an ability to Perceive the reality of God and his faithfulness. That's what faith does and the just shall live by. Not just get saved by faith.

Notice how do we get saved. We knew that Jesus died for us. Where did you see that with your physical eyes? Where did you see that? The blood has never lost its power. How do you prove that nah faith says nah the blood of Jesus?

Washes me white as snow. Well. How can you prove it. No faith knows it? Faith knows it now notice this other verse in verse 2. This is what the ancients were commended for. Who are the ancients. It's the Old Testament saints the people that God approved of and commended.

The Faith of Imperfect Saints

Were the people who had faith. What kind of faith they had assurance about future things. They were confident that invisible things were real. That's what God commended them for. Did he commend them because they never sinned.

Nope. Did he commend them because they never made mistakes. No no no no. They commend them because they were perfect and obeyed the law. Exactly no, then he would have commended no one. What did he commend people for their faith?

There's something about faith that God treasures like above everything else there's something about someone who looks to him and trusts and relies on his word to come to pass and Just acknowledges. I know you are here.

I cannot see you. I perceive by my spiritual senses something my physical senses don't tell me. And God treasures that. What were the ancients commended for. What was David commended for. What was Abraham commended for?

Because of their faith did their faith ever falter. Yes. Did their faith have to grow. Yes? Did they ever make mistakes. Yes. Abraham lied like a rug at one time and almost lost his wife to a foreign ruler.

Fact he did it twice. Jacob was a man of faith, but he was. You didn't want to buy a used car from Jacob no matter what happened. And Moses you know. But see they all made mistakes, and that's just what the Bible tells us.

We don't know the other mistakes. I like to remind you all of that the mistakes that we know people made that's not what their life story is. That's just what God told us to tell him. God permitted us to know about.

We don't know all the other things. No. No, we know just fragments. God just wanted us to know they faltered. How many are encouraged that you can falter and still be a man of faith. Still be a woman of faith.

That's what they were commended for faith without faith. It's impossible to please God. But God has all of us in is in the school of faith. He wants you and I to learn to trust him like I was doing that day when I needed to pay the first mortgage.

I Had to believe in something invisible. I had to believe that something would happen in the future. Which I couldn't prove, but I had to believe it. The first example of faith is found in this strange third verse, and I just want to leave you with that.

Creation by God's Word

Because it just struck me in a new way yesterday. By faith we understand that the universe what's the universe everything we see the planets the stars. No matter where the Hubble telescope leads us and they're saying whole new.

It's incredible, you know the you know the stars. We thought they knew that there were a lot of stars they didn't even know about the stars. There's other galaxies. There's other worlds. How did that all come into being by faith?

We understand that the universe? Everything that's physical was formed at God's command. So that what is seen? Was not made out of what was visible by faith. We understand that the universe was formed at God's command.

What did he use? That's the tricky part. So what is seen was not made out of what was visible? Now most of us have situations in life where if we knew if God could only put that together with that and Get my resume into that guy's hand and that person retired.

Oh Lord. Do it Right. Because there's a there's there's stuff to work with. But the first example of faith is this. That everything we see. Every bit of matter every atom every molecule. Came into being by the Word of God and he had nothing to work with.

He just spoke it all into existence. Even the scientists are trying to you know. Fool around with a Big Bang Theory where they say possibly that X number of years ago time energy and matter all exploded at one time into existence.

In other words at one time we cannot fathom this there was nothing and Then God created everything we see. What did he work with? Did he take a little bit of this and a little bit that and put it together like he made man with mud and water?

And and and dust and then breathe. No no no he worked with nothing. He just spoke it and it came into me. Now you know why that helps me tonight. Is because sometimes I've had situations in life where I say There's no way that this could happen humanly.

God Creates a Way Where None Exists

There's nothing to work with. But God doesn't need anything to work with. I love that. Are you happy that God doesn't need anything to work with? I'm so happy sometimes I've looked inside of me and I see how God wants me to be and God knows I search myself or he gives me an opportunity to speak somewhere or whatever and I look inside and if there was something to work with I would feel a little bit better.

But I feel so empty and bereft of any ability and then God reminds me I don't need anything from you to work with. I just work. The problem you're facing today, and you're trying to figure out how it could happen.

Stop figuring out how it could happen. All God has to do is go and it happens. Can we put our hands together come on. Isn't God awesome? Everything we see. This is one of the great apologetic proofs of God that people like Ravi Zacharias.

I was just in Moscow with him last week and I was the other speaker with him. Not a good feeling at all for me. He preached before I spoke. He was out in Mars. He was out in Venus. He's just all over the place making these wonderful points and the poor translator imagine trying to translate Ravi Zacharias into Russian and The people were praising God with me.

We had no idea what he was talking about for at least five minutes. But we were all like yes, and when I hear someone like that. And then you come back tomorrow afternoon or tomorrow night pastor Jim symbol is gonna be Speaking and you look inside and you say and then you're reminded God doesn't need anything.

God just says no, I'll do it myself. I'll do it myself. So the situation you're facing. It's like you can't see a way. Listen. God makes a way where there is no way. Because all he has to do is speak it he creates things out.

That's the point. He creates things out of nothing and sometimes when we see nothing our heart Sinks and our faith dies because we say if only there was something God could work with. But this first description of faith is by faith.

We understand that everything we see was created by things that are not seen by the Word of God and All the scientists have agreed that matter is not eternal. It's not eternal it all had a beginning so the even if you want to go down to a one-cell amoeba and You want to go down to that?

Who made that first thing? With nothing to work with. Oh, I am so happy that God Can just speak and it comes to pass. Now listen, you have a wayward child. You're facing a situation right now and you're just saying there is no way.

Trusting God with Impossible Situations

I want to remind you that the God we serve Made everything we see by just in one split minisecond, he just said Be there and it was. So what's too hard in your life? What's too hard in my life? What's too hard in the youth ministry?

What's too hard this Friday night for the youth and the transitions for God to do? What's too hard for that person that you want to witness to. What's too hard for God to do? You know, our problem is our God is too small and our problems are too big.

I want to declare to you doesn't matter what your problem is. God is so immense. Can we just say amen to that so immense? He's so much bigger and what he wants from all of us is to trust him tonight. That's how we're gonna end the service.

Prayer for Faith, Witness, and God's Power

We're gonna just send spend some time leaning on Jesus. Learning to lean learning to lean on Jesus finding more power than I ever dreamed. I'm learning to lean on Jesus. Everybody with some heavy-duty problems anxiety.

You need a miracle in your body and and and you feel as I was reading God's Word. God was sparking faith in you. Everybody just needing something Immense from God tonight. Maybe you're in one of those.

I can't pay the mortgage. I need some angel to drop an envelope down or something like that. Whatever the situation me might be. Could you just come out of your seat and stand up here in the front and lean with me.

I need God to do some things for me tonight that I do not have the equipment. I don't have the ability. I don't have the strength. I Can't do it. I've tried to do it. I can't do it Lord now I'm asking.

We've brought our problems our impossibilities, but we know with you. Nothing is impossible. You just spoke and Mary was pregnant. Holy Spirit came upon her. You didn't need anything to work with Lord.

You just spoke and Now God, I pray that between now and Sunday. We're gonna be able to talk to someone. You'll give us an open door to talk to someone about Jesus. Because we can't just selfishly keep this to ourselves.

And we can invite someone to the nine o 'clock service at 12 noon service. God just give us the the boldness the faith the power the love the compassion. But mostly the faith. To see things that are invisible and count on your power and your blessing Lord.

You said that if we would work for you and speak for you as we were doing it you would Stretch out your hand and work with us. Many of us don't see what you can do because we're not Doing our part reaching out, but when we reach out you said you would be there.

So show us your power this week. Give us a beautiful manifestation of your grace in our lives. Grant us the Shalom of God whether we work in the post office or police department. Housewives Board of Ed wherever we are.

God grant us that beautiful shining presence of your peace and Help us lastly to love each other from the heart not in word and tongue, but indeed and in truth Lord Love. Somebody that needs love today through one of the members of your body Lord.

We pray Asking all these blessings in Jesus name bless the women's ministry tomorrow the Thursday night special prayer meeting on human trafficking and Friday night. Give us a double blessing with the youth and then the transitions here Lord.

We ask all these things in Christ's name and everyone said Turn around a hug a bunch of people and let our folks from London know that they're welcome. Okay. God bless you. See you soon.