Beyond the Echo Chamber: Does What You Hear Build Real Faith?

[00:00:39] [SPEAKER UNKNOWN]:
and more.

[00:02:22] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_04]:
Holy night

[00:07:13] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_02]:
Hold the star of Bethlehem The Word of God has become flesh And unto us a child is born The Savior of this broken world Come on, sing this.
[00:07:42] Sing come let us adore Him Peace has come for our King is with us And fully God and fully man
[00:08:06] The Lord comes for all with open hands He rules with love on David's throne All praise belongs to Christ alone Oh hear the angels' voices Sing come let us
[00:08:39] For our King is with us Sing holy Sing holy, holy, holy Jesus we
[00:09:08] Let's sing this out, come on.
[00:09:12] O come let us adore Him O come let us adore Him O come let us adore Him Christ the Lord Sing that again.
[00:09:35] O come let us adore Him
[00:09:43] Let us adore Him, O come let us adore Him
[00:10:13] Amen.
[00:10:18] Why don't you be seated here for a moment.

[00:10:43] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]:
Well, good morning.
[00:10:47] Today, we continue the celebration of this season of Advent by lighting the peace candle.

[00:10:54] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_05]:
John 14, 27.
[00:10:56] Peace I leave with you, my peace I give you.
[00:10:59] I do not give to you as the world gives.
[00:11:02] Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.
[00:11:06] Psalm 29, 11.
[00:11:07] The Lord gives strength to his people.
[00:11:09] The Lord blesses his people with peace.

[00:11:14] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_06]:
When Jesus speaks these words to his disciples, the world around them is anything but peaceful.
[00:11:19] Fear, political tension, and uncertainty fill the air.
[00:11:23] Yet, in the middle of all the noise, Jesus speaks a different word, a word of peace.

[00:11:30] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]:
In our world today, the loudest voices are often the voices of worry, division, and anxiety.
[00:11:36] But Advent invites us to listen deeper.
[00:11:38] It asks, do you hear what I hear?
[00:11:41] Do you hear the steady, quiet voice of Christ offering peace that isn't dependent on our circumstances?
[00:11:49] God's peace doesn't mean the absence of trouble.
[00:11:52] It means the presence of Jesus in the midst of it.
[00:11:56] His peace settles our hearts, stills our fears, and reminds us that He is near.
[00:12:02] As we light the candle of peace today, we remember that Jesus is the one who speaks peace into every storm, every season, and every heart willing to listen.
[00:12:24] Won't you stand as we continue to worship?

[00:12:47] [SPEAKER UNKNOWN]:
Alleluia Alleluia For the Lord God Almighty reigns
[00:12:54] Alleluia!
[00:13:01] Alleluia!

[00:13:04] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_04]:
For the Lord God Almighty reigns!
[00:14:35] Let us pray.

[00:15:19] [SPEAKER UNKNOWN]:
Do you believe in the kingdom?

[00:16:31] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_04]:
Let us pray.

[00:16:40] [SPEAKER UNKNOWN]:
Let us pray.

[00:18:36] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_04]:
Do come, let us adore Him

[00:19:18] [SPEAKER UNKNOWN]:
God bless you.

[00:20:04] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_04]:
Lord, as we sing of the gift and the sacrifice of Jesus, we just can't help but become overwhelmed with gratitude for how you saved us, how you rescued us from the pit.

[00:20:29] [SPEAKER UNKNOWN]:
God, we had no chance.
[00:20:30] We had no future.
[00:20:30] We had no hope.
[00:20:33] We had no peace.
[00:20:33] But you love.
[00:20:33] We thank you, God.

[00:20:47] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_04]:
O come let us adore Him O come let us adore Him O come let us adore Him Christ

[00:21:19] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_06]:
We're giving praise this morning.
[00:21:27] We adore you, Lord.
[00:21:28] Before you take a seat, won't you just turn and share love and peace with one another?

[00:22:06] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_07]:
Well, good morning.
[00:22:07] It is so good to be with you guys today during this Christmas season.
[00:22:12] Christmas is my favorite time of the year, so I feel blessed to be with you guys today.
[00:22:16] And if this is your first time here, we would love to get to know you better.
[00:22:21] If you would stop by Guest Central, we have a gift that would be just for you.
[00:22:24] And coming up this week, we have our Grace Women's Cookie Exchange on December 11th from 6 to 8.30.
[00:22:36] We are excited about cookies and these ladies have been working so hard on this event and I know it's going to be really sweet with the cookies and just in general.
[00:22:47] So you can sign up using the QR code on the screen or reaching out to Tammy or Bonnie and their contact information is on the screen and we look forward to celebrating together.
[00:23:00] and then also this week we have a parents night out on December 12th from 6 to 8 p.m and the kids are going to have pizza popcorn and a showing of the star which is a fun faith-filled christmas movie parents you get to enjoy a few hours to yourself while the kids get to be with other friends and celebrate the true meaning of christmas please register your child by December 10th using our website or you can use the ipad in the lobby
[00:23:28] and then last but certainly not least Christmas Eve is coming so soon and we would love for you to join us for our Christmas Eve service which will be perfect for you your family and your friends while we experience the true beauty and meaning of Christmas and we have a ton of these invitation cards to give out so feel free to take as many as you would like to give to your friends your neighbors your co-workers or anyone you know and our service times will be at 3 and 5 pm on that day
[00:23:58] And now we will move into our time of tithes and offering where we partner with God by bringing our financial offerings to Him in obedience for what He's done for us.
[00:24:09] We have three ways that you can give.
[00:24:11] One is through our website or through our app.
[00:24:14] And lastly, you can use the offering boxes in the back of the sanctuary on your way out.
[00:24:18] And if you would join me in praying for our service today.
[00:24:23] Jesus, we thank you so much for the opportunity we have to be here today in your presence.
[00:24:28] Lord, you were with us when we woke up, you're with us now, and you're with us through whatever we face when we leave these doors.
[00:24:35] Would you take this offering that we give and use it for your kingdom and your glory?
[00:24:40] Would you speak through Pastor Steve today?
[00:24:42] Help us to hear your voice above all others, that we would leave this place excited about what you're doing in us and what you're going to do eventually.
[00:24:51] And we pray all of these things in Jesus' name.
[00:24:54] Amen.

[00:25:10] [SPEAKER UNKNOWN]:
Thank you.

[00:25:17] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_03]:
Well, good morning.
[00:25:18] Man, it's good to see you today.
[00:25:21] Beautiful, beautiful morning, and I hope all of you are making it through the holiday season and not allowing it to dictate your life and where you are in your walk with the Lord.
[00:25:32] Hopefully, you're taking it by the reins.
[00:25:36] So anyway, I'm Pastor Steve.
[00:25:37] I want to welcome you here this morning.
[00:25:39] And a couple things I noticed.
[00:25:40] First of all, we had an announcement for cookies, in which case we had a really...
[00:25:44] And then we had an announcement for free childcare.
[00:25:49] And like nobody said anything.
[00:25:51] I'm really shocked.
[00:25:52] Parents, where were you on that?
[00:25:54] That was an amazing opportunity.
[00:25:56] Like you can go shopping, right, without kids.
[00:25:59] And hey, we're going to take care of them.
[00:26:01] We're going to love on them.
[00:26:03] but um definitely encourage you to take advantage of that this uh this week and a couple other things as well through the advent season it is easy to get lost isn't it it is easy to get distracted i want to encourage you uh we actually have put together some devotional material for you to process through this season so if you've not already i encourage you to either text advent to the number on the screen or you can use that qr code
[00:26:28] and that's just gonna give you some great questions and thoughts to go through as we're going through the Advent season so we don't lose the meaning of this season amen amen and so make sure you're doing that they put a lot of time into just getting a good resource for you additionally every once in a while we like to do this thing called blessing envelopes and how many of you know that this time of year could be a little bit financially difficult
[00:26:55] And if you find yourself in a time of struggle financially, we just want to bless you.
[00:27:01] So no questions asked, no judgment.
[00:27:03] After service, Pastor Kerry is going to be at the table over here on your right-hand side, back of the sanctuary.
[00:27:09] And we have what we call blessing envelopes.
[00:27:11] We would just like to bless you.
[00:27:13] So again, no...
[00:27:15] No questions asked.
[00:27:17] If you need a blessing and you just, hey, that would be nice for this season right now, we'd like for you to just meet us back there and Pastor Kerry will be able to help you with that.
[00:27:26] Additionally, some of you here today, you're like, man, I just feel really blessed.
[00:27:31] And so if you'd like to give towards that,
[00:27:34] Go ahead and meet Pastor Carrie back there and go ahead and let her know how you'd like to contribute to that.
[00:27:39] Again, we just wanted to bless you and do that as easy as possible.
[00:27:43] So if that's you this morning, we'd love to see you back there in the back.
[00:27:46] Amen?
[00:27:47] Man, it is so good to be with you this morning as we continue our Advent series, Goodness and Light.
[00:27:52] And how many of you are grateful for Andrew last week?
[00:27:55] Did a great job bringing the message.
[00:27:58] So proud of my team and so grateful to be able to work with them.
[00:28:01] They're just a lot of fun.
[00:28:03] But this morning we're in the second week of Advent.
[00:28:05] This week we celebrate peace.
[00:28:07] And I want to encourage you, a couple weeks ago I did a message on peace and reframing
[00:28:14] I looked at a scripture that Paul wrote and would love for you to take a look at that.
[00:28:20] It was a couple weeks ago.
[00:28:21] But we talked about three levels of peace or different areas of peace.
[00:28:25] First of all, peace with God, which is vertical peace.
[00:28:29] You guys know that because of sin, we are separated, we are enemies, we are estranged from God.
[00:28:34] and Jesus came to reconcile us to God and so listen to this church there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus amen isn't that good news because all of us we deserve something don't we but there is now no condemnation because of what Jesus Christ has done that is absolutely worth celebrating
[00:28:53] Additionally, we have internal peace, because as the syncs mentioned, life can get noisy.
[00:29:01] It can be filled with anxiety and fear and the what-ifs.
[00:29:05] That's almost the soundtrack of our world, isn't it?
[00:29:08] But Jesus offers us a very different soundtrack, His peace.
[00:29:13] And so much of the turmoil that we experience comes from, guess where?
[00:29:17] Right up in here.
[00:29:18] Amen.
[00:29:18] And so Christ can calm the storm inside you even before he calms the storm around you.
[00:29:24] And then lastly, and this is really important through this season, is peace with others.
[00:29:30] This is kind of horizontal peace is what we call this.
[00:29:32] Because the angels sing this.
[00:29:34] They sing glory to God in the highest and on earth.
[00:29:37] Peace among those with whom He is pleased.
[00:29:42] So Advent peace asks, where is God calling us to be reconcilers?
[00:29:47] In our families, in our church, upcoming family gatherings perhaps, community.
[00:29:56] Listen, it's not just a feeling, it's a calling.
[00:29:58] Jesus said this, blessed are the peacemakers.
[00:30:01] Not the everything in life is perfect kind of peace, but the in the middle of the night, in the middle of the chaos, God breaks in.
[00:30:10] It's that kind of peace.
[00:30:11] And that's exactly what we find in our text this morning.
[00:30:15] This morning we're going to continue our series, Did You Hear?
[00:30:19] What I Hear?
[00:30:19] is the title of this message.
[00:30:21] And we're going to look at the same scripture we looked at last week.
[00:30:24] In Luke chapter 2, starting at the 8th verse, and if you missed last week, I encourage you to go ahead and listen to it online, but I'm going to jump in this morning for the sake of time.
[00:30:34] It says this, And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over the flocks at night.
[00:30:40] If you remember last week, Andrew talked about how shepherds were kind of the lowest rung of society.
[00:30:45] That was a job that nobody wanted to do.
[00:30:47] I would kind of compare it to a job today, but I don't want to offend anybody.
[00:30:51] So I'll just move right on from that.
[00:30:53] But it was a job nobody wanted to do.
[00:30:55] These were kind of what would have been considered the low lives of society.
[00:31:00] And look what happens here.
[00:31:01] It says, An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them.
[00:31:08] They were enveloped in it.
[00:31:09] And guess what?
[00:31:10] They were terrified.
[00:31:13] But the angel said to them, Do not be afraid.
[00:31:16] I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people.
[00:31:21] Today in the town of David, a Savior has been born to you.
[00:31:25] He is the Messiah, the Lord.
[00:31:28] This will be a sign to you.
[00:31:29] You will find a baby wrapped in clothes and lying in a manger.
[00:31:33] And then suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, Glory to God in the highest heaven and on earth, peace to those on whom his favor rests.
[00:31:47] When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, Let's go to Bethlehem and see the scene that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.
[00:31:58] So that's the scene, right?
[00:32:01] Ordinary night, ordinary shepherds, and then suddenly it wasn't ordinary anymore.
[00:32:08] Isn't that how God shows up sometimes?
[00:32:10] An angel of the Lord appears, the glory of God shines all around them, and these grown men are absolutely terrified.
[00:32:16] I don't care how tough you are, you would be as well.
[00:32:19] But I want us to kind of have a little thought experiment this morning.
[00:32:23] What if this story actually ended in verse 9?
[00:32:27] It says this, it says, An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified.
[00:32:33] What if that was it?
[00:32:36] The skies lit up, the glory of God everywhere, an angel appears in blazing splendor, and then he kind of just disappears without saying a word.
[00:32:49] That'd probably be an amazing experience.
[00:32:52] Those shepherds would definitely have probably one of the craziest stories to tell their buddies around the campfire.
[00:32:58] But here's the problem.
[00:33:00] It's just an experience.
[00:33:01] It's not a direction.
[00:33:03] It might move their emotions, but it wouldn't build their faith.
[00:33:06] because listen without the message they wouldn't have known who had come they wouldn't have known what it meant they wouldn't have known what they were supposed to do the glory got their attention but it was the word that gave them instruction and invitation and that's not just true for shepherds 2 000 years ago is it it can be true today how often do we chase these big spiritual moments big feelings and big goosebumps and big experiences
[00:33:33] No, I think there's a place for those things.
[00:33:35] But listen, it's the word about Christ that actually produces faith in us.
[00:33:44] Now, this is relevant to us because we often treat spiritual growth like it's this vague, mysterious thing.
[00:33:50] Anybody kind of think like that?
[00:33:51] Like, I really don't know about this whole spiritual thing.
[00:33:54] It doesn't make sense to me.
[00:33:56] Maybe we can feel as if we're randomly floating through our spiritual lives, not sure how to move forward, not even really sure what maturity could look like.
[00:34:06] Have you ever felt like that?
[00:34:07] Am I the only one?
[00:34:07] Like, I love Jesus.
[00:34:08] I just don't really know what I'm doing here.
[00:34:12] But over and over in Scripture, this is what I want to share with you this morning.
[00:34:15] God actually gives us some very clear progressions, right?
[00:34:20] Step-by-step pictures of how transformation and faith can grow within us.
[00:34:25] Last week, let me give you an example.
[00:34:28] Andrew preached a message, Do You See What I See?
[00:34:30] And he gave to us one of those progressions.
[00:34:34] He briefly talked about our eyes.
[00:34:36] and that how whatever we put in front of our eyes right it's not just it doesn't just stay out there but matthew 6 jesus actually says that the eye is the lamp of our body our soul in other words your eyes are like windows and anything that goes into your eyes gets planted into guess what
[00:34:54] your heart right and then jesus actually continues uh in luke chapter 6 45 he says this for out of the mouth out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks another version says for the mouth speaks what it is full of and some of you got something some bad stuff in your heart because like you're full of something not good because something's not good coming out of your mouth right and so do you see the progression there
[00:35:18] We see something, it goes into our heart.
[00:35:20] What is in our heart comes out of our mouth.
[00:35:22] But there's actually another step because James takes it
[00:35:27] He says that our tongue in James chapter 3 our words there he gives us two examples he says like they're first of all like a rudder on a ship now I don't know many of you have boats out there and you know that you got doesn't matter how many engines you have on that boat there is a rudder down there and wherever that rudder goes that points that's where your your boats going right and then he gives us another example of horses and he says you got this massive animal
[00:35:53] That has a small bit in their mouth and that small bit will direct that entire animal and that's what he says he compares that to
[00:36:04] Your words.
[00:36:06] Your words, what you say, directs your life.
[00:36:09] And so we see this pattern, don't we?
[00:36:11] This progression.
[00:36:12] What goes into your eyes plants into your heart, right?
[00:36:16] What is in your heart, out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth, speaks.
[00:36:20] And then what happens there?
[00:36:22] Whatever we speak, our life tends to go that direction, doesn't it?
[00:36:28] Now, what's interesting in our culture, we kind of flip this, don't we?
[00:36:31] We're obsessed with behavior and outcomes.
[00:36:33] Just fix that habit.
[00:36:34] Just stop doing what you're doing.
[00:36:36] Change your behavior.
[00:36:38] Meanwhile, in Scripture, we see that if we want to change the direction of our lives, we have to look deeper, don't we?
[00:36:45] We have to go back to the root.
[00:36:47] What are we allowing into our heart?
[00:36:50] Because it affects what we say, and what we say affects where we go.
[00:36:56] Now, why am I bringing this all up this morning?
[00:36:58] Because in Romans 10, Paul gives us another very clear progression about faith and hearing and the importance about what we hear.
[00:37:07] And so I want to work through that scripture with you this morning, starting in Romans 10, verse 9.
[00:37:11] How many of you guys know that anytime you go to Romans, it's going to be a heavy message?
[00:37:14] I'm sorry.
[00:37:15] It just is.
[00:37:16] Romans is an amazing book.
[00:37:18] I encourage you to dive into it.
[00:37:20] And this is what Paul says.
[00:37:21] if you declare with your mouth now what do you declare with your mouth where does that come from first of all we just learned that don't we so it's very similar if you declare with your mouth jesus is lord and you believe in your there is the connection heart that god raised him from the dead you will be saved somebody say hallelujah for that right
[00:37:43] Thank you.
[00:37:44] For it is with your heart that you believe and you are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.
[00:37:57] As Scripture says, anyone, I love this, anyone who believes in Him, it doesn't matter your past, your present, what you think right now, what is going on, anyone who believes in Him, whenever we put to shame, for there is no difference between Jew and Gentile, the same Lord is Lord over all and will richly bless all who call on Him for everyone.
[00:38:19] Say everyone.
[00:38:20] Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.
[00:38:25] But then Paul continues the progression here.
[00:38:29] He says, So I want to look at this progression for a moment because it affects our faith.
[00:38:52] Right?
[00:38:53] What we believe.
[00:38:54] And this is what it says.
[00:38:55] It starts with this idea of being sent.
[00:38:59] Now, we just went through like three months of the book of Acts, and so you better know the answer to this question.
[00:39:04] Who's sent?
[00:39:06] Yes, thank you.
[00:39:07] Everybody said, if you believe in Jesus, you are an ambassador of Christ, okay?
[00:39:12] So all of us are sent.
[00:39:13] All of us are empowered to preach the message, right?
[00:39:18] And that leads me to the next thing.
[00:39:19] If you are sent, if you are an ambassador of Jesus Christ, what are you supposed to do?
[00:39:25] Preach, yes, preach the good news.
[00:39:27] So if you are sent, you are empowered to preach.
[00:39:32] You're supposed to give the message, right?
[00:39:35] Because what happens when you preach, hopefully you're in proximity of people who've never heard the message because what are they going to then do?
[00:39:43] Here, it is going to go in their ears and something supernatural happens.
[00:39:48] It goes down into their heart and they believe they have faith.
[00:39:52] And where does that faith lead?
[00:39:53] In this scripture, it leads to them calling on the name of the Lord.
[00:39:57] Every one of you this morning, how many of you believe in Jesus because you heard the gospel?
[00:40:01] Everybody, right?
[00:40:02] If you believe in Jesus, somebody took the time, whether it was a pastor or a friend or a parent, to share with you the good news of Jesus Christ.
[00:40:12] That's how it works.
[00:40:14] We are sent.
[00:40:15] Those who are sent preach.
[00:40:17] They preach around people who need to hear it.
[00:40:19] Those people hear it.
[00:40:20] It is planted in their hearts where they believe, and then they call on the name of the Lord.
[00:40:25] Listen, God doesn't keep us guessing, does He?
[00:40:27] He gives us principles, these progressions of how life and how faith actually work.
[00:40:32] It's actually pretty simple, isn't it?
[00:40:35] Now, if you look back at the shepherds in Romans 10 gives us the principles, but we actually, in the story of the shepherds in Luke 2, we see it play out exactly like that, right?
[00:40:47] Sent.
[00:40:48] Who does it say the angels are?
[00:40:50] It says that they're the angels of the Lord who sent the angels.
[00:40:54] The Lord, right?
[00:40:55] The Lord sent the angels.
[00:40:57] And what did they do?
[00:40:58] They proclaimed the good news.
[00:41:00] They preached, I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people.
[00:41:05] Today in the town of David, a Savior has been born to you.
[00:41:08] The Messiah, the Lord.
[00:41:09] So they preached.
[00:41:10] Who heard that?
[00:41:13] Not a hard question?
[00:41:15] The shepherds.
[00:41:15] Good job.
[00:41:16] A+.
[00:41:17] The shepherds listened.
[00:41:19] They didn't just see a light show in the sky.
[00:41:21] They heard the Word.
[00:41:23] And they recognized that it wasn't just a great TED talk or an opinion.
[00:41:27] It was truth.
[00:41:29] It impacted them deeply.
[00:41:31] It sparked something so much deeper than emotion, something in their spirit.
[00:41:36] And it caused them to do what?
[00:41:38] Believe.
[00:41:39] They trusted the message enough to move.
[00:41:42] Their faith shows up in their feet and they leave the fields.
[00:41:45] They head to Bethlehem and they expect to find exactly what God said they would find.
[00:41:50] And they did.
[00:41:51] And then lastly, they called on the name of the Lord.
[00:41:53] They responded by glorifying God.
[00:41:56] Isn't that amazing?
[00:41:58] That's all of our stories, or it should be.
[00:42:00] That's the process of faith building within us.
[00:42:05] And at the end of this passage in Romans chapter 10, Paul wraps, I think he wraps it up beautifully, and I want to read it from the ESV.
[00:42:12] It says this, So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.
[00:42:18] So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.
[00:42:26] You see, the glory got their eyes, but the word got their hearts.
[00:42:30] And that word produced faith that moved their lives.
[00:42:34] And this brings us to my one point this morning.
[00:42:38] You guys know I start off usually with like three points, and it always ends with just one point, because I just talked way too much.
[00:42:45] But here's my one point this morning.
[00:42:47] Hearing God's word builds faith.
[00:42:49] It's that simple.
[00:42:50] Hearing God's word, what this says here, grows faith.
[00:42:55] If faith comes by hearing...
[00:42:58] Then what you listen to matters.
[00:43:03] We don't always think of it this way, but every day we are being discipled by what we listen to.
[00:43:08] If you spend hours, think about this, listening to business tycoons and podcasts and financial gurus, then your faith for their strategies and their view of life and success, all of those things, that's going to grow.
[00:43:22] If you listen to sports talk radio, to commentators, well, your faith is going to grow in their predictions, in their rankings, their take on your team.
[00:43:33] If you constantly listen to political commentaries and the talking heads on the news, your faith will grow in certain candidates, in certain parties, certain narratives.
[00:43:42] Some of you just need to knock that off.
[00:43:49] Man, because we serve King Jesus.
[00:43:53] What you listen to shapes your view of the world.
[00:43:57] Even with music, think about it.
[00:43:58] It affects you, doesn't it?
[00:44:00] A song can shift your mood, stir up old memories, fuel anger, feed lust, or draw your heart towards worship.
[00:44:08] Our playlists aren't neutral.
[00:44:09] They are training our hearts on what to love and what to expect.
[00:44:14] And so here's the point.
[00:44:16] Whatever we give our ears to will eventually shape our faith.
[00:44:20] We start trusting, we start leaning towards what we listen to most.
[00:44:25] Listen, if that's true on this human level that we all relate to with business voices and sports and political voices, how much more is this true with the voice of God?
[00:44:37] How much more impactful is that?
[00:44:40] If faith comes from hearing the word about Christ, then the logical conclusion is
[00:44:48] This, and I tried to give something really, like a really cool soundbite for you guys to remember, to be like, oh, that's really catchy, but all I came up with is this.
[00:44:58] God's Word grows faith.
[00:45:02] Hearing, in fact, I think she put hearing, which is actually better.
[00:45:05] Hearing God's Word grows faith.
[00:45:08] That's it.
[00:45:09] Hearing God's Word grows faith, and why is that important to us?
[00:45:13] Why do we need faith in our life?
[00:45:14] I want to talk to you a little bit about faith this morning.
[00:45:16] First of all, faith leads to salvation.
[00:45:18] Ephesians 2 verses 8 through 9 says this, For it is by grace you have been saved through what?
[00:45:25] Through faith.
[00:45:25] It is by grace.
[00:45:27] It is a gift from God.
[00:45:28] It's not by something that you've accomplished.
[00:45:30] And even the faith that we receive is a gift from God.
[00:45:34] But it says this, It is by grace you have been saved through faith.
[00:45:37] And this is not from yourselves.
[00:45:38] It is a gift of God, not by works, so that no one can boast.
[00:45:43] So we are saved by grace, God's gift, but that gift is received through faith.
[00:45:48] And that faith, it is born, it is strengthened as we hear the words of Christ.
[00:45:54] We are all here because we've heard the good news.
[00:45:59] And so second, our faith opens doors to the miraculous, including healing.
[00:46:06] So throughout the Gospels, Jesus connects faith with healing.
[00:46:11] Do you guys realize that?
[00:46:13] Constantly.
[00:46:14] The woman with the issue of blood, Mark 5.34, Jesus said to her, daughter, listen to what he says, I love this, he says, your faith has healed you.
[00:46:22] Go in peace and be freed from your suffering.
[00:46:24] To the blind, Bartimaeus, in Mark 10.52, he says, go,
[00:46:30] Your faith, there it is again, your faith, not my faith, not my power.
[00:46:34] Now we know it's that, but he doesn't say that.
[00:46:37] He says, your faith has healed you.
[00:46:39] To the one leopard who came back to thank Jesus in Luke chapter 17, 19, this is what Jesus says, rise and go again.
[00:46:45] Your faith has made you well.
[00:46:50] Now, we know that Jesus is power, right?
[00:46:53] It's the power of God that is doing this.
[00:46:55] But Jesus makes sure to highlight their faith, their trust in Him, their confidence in His Word.
[00:47:04] And then in Mark 6, verse 5, we have this pretty sobering moment.
[00:47:09] Jesus goes to his hometown, and he's surrounded by people who know him.
[00:47:12] And this is what Jesus says, or what it says about Jesus.
[00:47:15] He could not do any miracles there, except lay his hands on a few sick people and heal them.
[00:47:22] Look at what it says.
[00:47:23] He was amazed at their lack of faith.
[00:47:28] It's not that Jesus suddenly, you think he like ran out of power, he's like, oh man, like some of you guys need to pray some more because I like ran out of power.
[00:47:35] That's not what happened.
[00:47:37] It's that he chooses to work where there is trust, where there are hearts that are open to him.
[00:47:44] I do want to be careful here, because this does not mean that every time someone isn't healed, it's because they don't have enough faith.
[00:47:51] I want to make that very clear.
[00:47:53] Life and suffering are far more complex than that, and Scripture is very clear that even people of great faith walk through pain and sickness and unanswered questions.
[00:48:02] We see it throughout Scripture, okay?
[00:48:07] But this is what we can say today.
[00:48:11] In many situations, Jesus responds to faith in a powerful way.
[00:48:17] We should never use that truth as a weapon to shame people who are hurting, but we do hold both of these truths together.
[00:48:23] We keep asking, we keep believing, we keep praying in faith, and at the same time, we trust a good Father even when we don't understand the outcome.
[00:48:37] Now there's one more verse that I think is really important to this, and it is Hebrews 11, verse 6.
[00:48:42] It says this,
[00:48:45] And this is kind of a logical verse I think some of you will appreciate.
[00:48:48] It says, And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to Him must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him.
[00:48:59] Now that makes sense, doesn't it?
[00:49:00] You can't pray to a God that you don't believe in.
[00:49:03] But it's not just a God that you don't believe in.
[00:49:06] Listen, you also have to believe that He is a good God.
[00:49:10] And so when we believe those things, when we have faith, then we're going to come to Him.
[00:49:15] But this is what I want you to catch.
[00:49:16] Faith isn't a bonus feature for the especially gifted, spiritually, you know, people, the overenthusiastic.
[00:49:26] Faith is the fundamental way that we relate with God.
[00:49:30] You can't come to God if you don't believe He exists.
[00:49:34] You're not going to ask Him to be a part of your life or to come into situations or bring your problems to Him if you don't believe that He's listening and that He is a good God.
[00:49:44] It is the fundamental way that we relate to Him.
[00:49:47] We don't merely come to Him with behavior, we come with belief.
[00:49:51] Where there is faith, there is room for God's presence and His power and God's pleasure to rest on His people.
[00:50:01] So faith is essential to our spiritual life, for your salvation.
[00:50:06] Faith receives the miraculous, the healings, breakthrough, provision, courage.
[00:50:10] Listen, no wonder the enemy wants to keep us busy and distracted and not hearing anything, everything else in this world except for the Word of God.
[00:50:19] Because he knows what it will do in your life.
[00:50:23] A great example of this we actually found in Matthew chapter 14.
[00:50:26] You see, Jesus is with his disciples.
[00:50:29] There's this huge crowd.
[00:50:31] Jesus needs to be by himself for a time period, and so he tells the disciples to get in a boat and cross the sea, and he's going to meet up with them later.
[00:50:37] Well, a storm comes, and these are
[00:50:40] And so we see this...
[00:51:03] This dialogue between Peter and Jesus in Matthew chapter 14, 28.
[00:51:08] And this is where it starts.
[00:51:08] It says, Lord, if it's you, this is what Peter replied, if it's you, tell me to come to you on the water.
[00:51:17] First of all, that's a pretty crazy statement, isn't it?
[00:51:22] If it's you, Lord, don't just say, hey, it's me, Peter.
[00:51:25] Say the magic word or the password.
[00:51:27] It's like, no, no, no.
[00:51:27] Just actually, I believe who you are.
[00:51:29] If it's you, if you tell me to come, I know I can come.
[00:51:33] And so, to this crazy request, what is Jesus' response?
[00:51:40] One word.
[00:51:40] One word.
[00:51:43] Jesus looks up, and I bet he was smiling like, oh, this is going to be good, right?
[00:51:50] And he looks at Peter, and he says, come.
[00:51:53] Come.
[00:51:56] One word.
[00:51:58] One word.
[00:52:00] That's it.
[00:52:01] Not a 10-point sermon.
[00:52:04] No explanation on how he's going to overcome the laws of physics.
[00:52:09] Just one word from the mouth of Christ, come.
[00:52:16] And Peter heard that word and entered into his heart.
[00:52:21] And Peter believed.
[00:52:23] And I can picture Peter, he does something crazy.
[00:52:26] It says, Peter then got down out of the boat
[00:52:29] And he starts walking on water and he came towards Jesus.
[00:52:35] He heard one word, church.
[00:52:37] He believed one word.
[00:52:40] And in that moment, that one word superseded all of the laws of physics.
[00:52:44] In that moment, that word superseded his understanding of reality.
[00:52:49] It superseded everything that Peter had ever experienced about water and ships and storms.
[00:52:55] In fact, every other voice around him would say, Peter, stay in the boat.
[00:52:59] Don't listen to that!
[00:53:01] But Peter heard one word, and what he heard increased his faith.
[00:53:05] And before you know it, he's doing things that nobody else thought was possible.
[00:53:12] That's what faith does when it hears the word of Christ.
[00:53:14] It steps out of the boat.
[00:53:15] It moves in obedience.
[00:53:17] It experiences what would be impossible without that word.
[00:53:21] And that's why hearing matters so much.
[00:53:24] What you put into your ears, what you allow into your heart matters.
[00:53:29] It changes you.
[00:53:30] It affects you.
[00:53:31] So let's get practical for a few moments.
[00:53:39] I have a pretty long
[00:53:42] Closing, which isn't that pretty normal for pastors?
[00:53:46] I want to get practical with you.
[00:53:49] Because if faith comes by hearing, then I think that one of the most important, and faith leads to salvation.
[00:53:55] Faith leads to God's ability to move in your life miraculously, supernaturally, beyond what we actually can experience, like understand.
[00:54:04] If that's what faith does in our lives,
[00:54:08] And faith comes by hearing.
[00:54:11] I think the question we have to ask ourselves is this, am I posturing myself to hear God's Word?
[00:54:18] Am I posturing myself to hear God's Word?
[00:54:20] Not am I looking for a cool spiritual moment, not, you know, any of those things, but what am I consistently letting into my ears?
[00:54:32] Because I know where that goes.
[00:54:34] Your ears, like your eyes, they are not neutral.
[00:54:38] Whatever we hear shapes our faith.
[00:54:42] And so think about your week.
[00:54:45] Are you regularly listening to music that's encouraging to shake body parts?
[00:54:49] Or music that is stirring your faith?
[00:54:51] Because it matters!
[00:54:53] Are you fulfilling your commute with your workout, your kitchen with voices that induce anxiety and anger and comparison?
[00:55:01] I don't know why I'm so anxious.
[00:55:02] Well, it's probably because you watch four hours of a drama at night.
[00:55:06] That's why.
[00:55:07] What are you letting into your ears?
[00:55:14] Or is it voices that stir hope and truth and worship and faith?
[00:55:18] I'm not saying every song that you ever listen to, every show you watch has to be perfect, but I am saying if God never gets the loudest voice in your life, why are you surprised that your faith is small?
[00:55:32] Why do you not expect the miraculous in your life?
[00:55:36] Him to actually transform you?
[00:55:38] Why do you not believe He's big enough for the problems that you face?
[00:55:44] For some of us, the Holy Spirit might be nudging something very simple today.
[00:55:47] Turn this down.
[00:55:49] Turn that up.
[00:55:50] Swap one playlist this week.
[00:55:52] Instead of one more episode, listen to my Word, my worship, my people for a bit.
[00:56:00] Two of the clearest ways, I'm just going to be really open with you, that we hear God's Word.
[00:56:03] Two very practical ways.
[00:56:05] One is through God's Word, right?
[00:56:07] God wrote His Word for a reason.
[00:56:09] He wants us to read.
[00:56:10] He wants us to listen.
[00:56:13] So dive in.
[00:56:14] And additionally, do you guys know where else we hear God's word?
[00:56:18] Church, great, yes, right here.
[00:56:20] You hear how many scriptures?
[00:56:21] And hopefully, you can do whatever you want with my opinions, by the way.
[00:56:24] It's not my opinions that matter, it's the word of God.
[00:56:28] Right?
[00:56:29] And so we make decisions to prioritize these things in our lives.
[00:56:34] And we need both of these things because if you do private Bible study but you're not with people, then usually your faith gets a little bit weird, a little bit out there, a little bit isolated.
[00:56:42] But if you only show up with God's people but you never open His Word yourself, then your faith tends to stay shallow and secondhand.
[00:56:52] Hearing the word personally and hearing the word in community are basic rhythms of a healthy soul.
[00:56:57] Now, I know what some of you are thinking this morning.
[00:57:00] I know it because many of you have gone to church and you're saying, here we go.
[00:57:04] This is the part where the pastor says, well, you just need to pray more.
[00:57:07] You need to read your Bible more.
[00:57:09] Every sermon, that's the application, isn't it?
[00:57:12] Pray more, read your Bible more, do more stuff, right?
[00:57:14] And I agree.
[00:57:15] Sometimes pastors, Christians, we can oversimplify deeply complex issues in our lives.
[00:57:23] Right?
[00:57:23] Trauma is real.
[00:57:25] Mental health issues are real.
[00:57:27] Family systems, generational patterns, those things are very real.
[00:57:30] Life is not simple, and we don't want to slap a verse on a deep pain and just call it a day.
[00:57:38] Amen?
[00:57:40] But, let me give you an example.
[00:57:44] Every time I go to the doctors, every time now, there's two things that they always say I need to do.
[00:57:52] I pay a lot of money.
[00:57:54] It's not cheap.
[00:57:55] Medical care, insurance, it's not cheap, is it?
[00:58:00] But every time they say the same thing.
[00:58:02] You know what those two things are?
[00:58:03] What do I need to do?
[00:58:05] I heard of exercise and diet, right?
[00:58:10] You need to pay attention.
[00:58:11] It doesn't matter.
[00:58:12] Every year I go back, that doctor says, you need to really focus on your diet.
[00:58:16] You need to really focus on your exercise, right?
[00:58:18] Anybody relate with that?
[00:58:20] As complicated...
[00:58:23] As our bodies are, there are some basic foundations.
[00:58:27] Eat wisely, move your body, sleep, hydrate regularly.
[00:58:32] These things don't solve everything, but listen, they do impact almost everything in our lives, don't they?
[00:58:38] And in the same way, in the world of your spiritual health, there are a lot of complexities.
[00:58:43] But generally speaking, there are essentials that we need to hold on to.
[00:58:50] Being with God in prayer, that's not...
[00:58:53] and Exception.
[00:58:53] That's an essential.
[00:58:55] You are spiritually starving if you're not in prayer.
[00:58:59] Hearing God in Scripture, that is essential.
[00:59:03] Walking with God's people in community, that is essential.
[00:59:06] Obeying what He says, that is essential.
[00:59:09] These are not the only pieces of the puzzle, but church, listen, they are the baseline.
[00:59:16] And so when you hear
[00:59:19] Your pastors say you need to pray more, get into God's Word.
[00:59:22] You need to stay planted in community.
[00:59:25] It's not because we don't understand the complexity of your lives.
[00:59:28] I think often we do, but it's because like a good doctor, we're trying to bring you back to what actually builds and sustains your spiritual health.
[00:59:38] And if you don't have these things, you're gonna keep coming to church and say, man, he just keeps calling me.
[00:59:43] Yes, because without those things, they affect everything else.
[00:59:50] If faith comes by hearing, then prayer is where we talk and listen.
[00:59:55] Scripture is where we see and we hear God, what God has said.
[00:59:59] Community, right here, is where we hear the Word echoed and embodied through others.
[01:00:06] These aren't chores that we do.
[01:00:07] They are places where God's Word grows our faith.
[01:00:11] And we've got to get that into our heart.
[01:00:16] and so we've talked a lot today about how faith comes by hearing how God speaks and faith rises in our hearts and some of you here this morning if you're honest maybe you'd say I don't know that I've ever really put my faith in Jesus I've been around church I've heard some things about God if I've never made it personal though I've never said Jesus you are my Lord I trust you with my life listen what Romans 10 says it says if you declare with your mouth
[01:00:41] because here's the thing we know you've heard the word this morning and so if you declare with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and you believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead you will be saved you will be saved salvation is not you climbing your way up to God it's God coming to you in Christ and then you responding simply out of faith and so I just want to encourage you this morning if you could bow your heads and close your eyes I want to give you a moment
[01:01:09] and if you're here this morning and you sense that tug on your heart that you need to put your faith in Jesus maybe for the first time as a real sincere step after drifting for so long but I just want to encourage you to raise your hands this morning I just want to pray with you I'm not going to embarrass you just raise your hand make eye contact with me I want to pray with you that's all I want to do I'm not going to stay here too long if nobody raises their hand that's fine but I would be wrong not to offer you this opportunity one more moment anybody
[01:01:39] Amen.
[01:01:40] So I wanna ask you to stand this morning because I wanna pray for all of us.
[01:01:46] Staying in this moment, if you already know Jesus, but today you'd say, I want God to be the loudest voice in my life.
[01:01:54] I want him to grow my faith as I hear his word.
[01:01:57] Maybe some of you this morning and you have felt like your spirituality has just been very surface and it's time to step deeper.
[01:02:07] You recognize that it has been weak because you've not pursued it.
[01:02:12] you've not given it priority and it sat on the shelf and now you're saying today i need to make some changes that's you you're saying lord i'm yours i want to hear from you more clearly i just want to encourage you to put your hands in front of you like you're receiving a gift this is the season of giving gifts and we just want to receive from the lord this morning i just want to pray for you as you hold your hands and receive this as i pray father i thank you for every son every daughter with their hands raised and their hearts open to you this morning
[01:02:42] In a world filled with noise would you give us grace to turn down the voices that distract and Lord to turn up your voice awaken in us a fresh hunger for your word and for your presence and for your people help us to build simple steady rhythms of prayer and scripture and community not as religious choice because we feel like we have to do these things but as places where your word grows our faith
[01:03:13] And this morning, some of you feel spiritually stuck, and I just speak strength over your faith as we embrace His word this morning.
[01:03:22] For those of you who feel weary, we just pray encouragement over your hearts today.
[01:03:27] For those who have let other voices get louder than the Lord's, we just realign our ears right now.
[01:03:33] We make that decision.
[01:03:34] We realign our hearts to you.
[01:03:37] Lord, let this Advent be a season where we hear you more clearly and trust you more deeply.
[01:03:44] And if that is your prayer this morning, say amen.
[01:03:47] Amen.
[01:03:48] Amen.
[01:03:49] Amen.
[01:03:49] We'll stand there for one more moment.
[01:03:51] Put your hands out as if you're receiving.
[01:03:53] I'd like to speak a blessing over you as you go.
[01:03:55] Amen.
[01:03:57] How many of you guys need the Lord's peace this season?
[01:04:01] Amen.
[01:04:02] As you're thinking about family gatherings, that one crazy uncle,
[01:04:07] Thinking about the stress of finances, health issues, whatever it is, I just encourage you this morning to speak peace over those situations.
[01:04:20] And I just pray an increase of faith in those situations as you hear God's word that you would trust Him more, that those seeds that have already been planted would rise up within you, seeds of healing, seeds of miraculous, seeds of provision.
[01:04:35] Seeds of health, seeds of freedom.
[01:04:39] And so Lord, we just pray a rising up of the seeds of truth of your word that have already been planted in us right now.
[01:04:46] And Lord, we just speak peace over every home, peace over every family, over every gathering that we are stepping into.
[01:04:55] And Lord, we just acknowledge and we proclaim that this will be a season of joy, a season of diving deeper into you and into what you have for us.
[01:05:07] And so the Lord bless you and keep you.
[01:05:10] The Lord make His face shine upon you and be gracious to you.
[01:05:14] Oh, listen to this.
[01:05:15] The Lord turn His face towards you, smile at you, and let Him let you know that He loves you dearly.
[01:05:24] Give you peace.
[01:05:25] Amen.
[01:05:26] Amen.
[01:05:26] Have a great week.