Church 3/13/2024
Sermon message:
Thesis: Hindrances to faith
What could be hindering our faith? Sometimes there are spiritual hindrances.
We are in a fight, and we need to fight the good fight of faith.
1 Timothy 6:12
Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, to which you were also called and have confessed the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.
We don’t fight against flesh and blood. Other people are not our enemies. But the devil is our enemy.
What is stopping or hindering your faith? What is the enemy doing? By what strategies is he trying to prevent you from winning the fight of faith?
Point #1: Not understanding what it means to be a new creature in Christ.
When you receive Jesus Christ, you are a new creation, a new person.
2 Corinthians 5:17
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.
You are born again, and born from above. This means not only are you forgiven of your past sins; but also that the old person, the old nature, has passed away.
Of course Satan doesn’t want that. So he will try to sabotage your fight of faith.
Point #2: Not understanding our place in Christ Himself.
You are in Christ, and Christ is in you.
The New Testament is full of lines that say: “in Christ,” “in Him,” and “in Whom”. (133 times in total!) All these lines speak to your identity and place in Christ.
Point #3: Not understanding righteousness itself.
Righteousness = right standing with God.
2 Corinthians 5:21
For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
Don’t let the devil tell you otherwise.
1 John 1:7
But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.
Jeremiah 31:34
No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.”
Even when we make a mistake after having receiving Christ, it’s still good and important to confess it. Think of having a dislocated joint, it’s still part of your body but a bit out of joint and needs to be popped back in.
1 John 1:9
If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
Don’t hesitate to confess; the devil will try to hold this over your head and hinder your faith. So confess to God. You want to have your faith snapped back into joint.
Point #4: Not understanding our right to use the name of Jesus.
Caveat: don’t take Jesus’s name in vain. Use it rightly. Speak faith. Declare that you are in Him, and that you have His righteousness. In this, you do have the right to use Jesus’s name. Confess the name of Jesus. Confess the truth as stated in the Word of God especially as it relates to His name.
Have faith and do not doubt in your heart.
Mark 11:23
For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says.
Acts 19:13-16
13 Then some of the itinerant Jewish exorcists took it upon themselves to call the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits, saying, “We exorcise you by the Jesus whom Paul preaches.” 14 Also there were seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, who did so.
15 And the evil spirit answered and said, “Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are you?”
16 Then the man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them, overpowered them, and prevailed against them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded.
John 16:23-24
“And in that day you will ask Me nothing. Most assuredly, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in My name He will give you. Until now you have asked nothing in My name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.
Mark 16:15-18
15 And He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. 16 He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned. 17 And these signs will follow those who believe: In My name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues; 18 they will take up serpents; and if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.”
(Sermon to end here and pick up next time.)