The Seduction of ‘Faith’: When Trust Becomes a Technique

[00:00:55] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_02]
[00:00:55] Welcome to Lake City Church. Say house, amen. Singing to the Lord. It's been a long two weeks, but we back. Before you're seated this morning, turn around and high-five your neighbor and welcome to Lake City Church.

[00:11:20] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_04]
[00:11:20] Hi, and welcome to Lake City Church. If it's your first time joining us this morning, take out your worship guide and fill out the guest card. Or if you're joining us online, fill out the online guest card at lakecitychurch.org. Thank you so much for joining us.

[00:11:51] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_05]
[00:11:51] new or newer to lake city church we would love to invite you to our next steps next steps is where you can meet our lead team and our pastors you can ask every question you've ever had about lake city church or you can take your next step to joining a volunteer team getting involved in a life group or even becoming a member of lake city church go on our website and register today hey guys we're tpq college worship and we're so excited to be with you at revival 26 we're coming so

[00:12:21] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_10]
[00:12:21] expected and ready for God to move. It's going to be absolutely incredible. He's meeting us for such

[00:12:26] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_07]
[00:12:26] a time as this. We can't wait to meet you there. What's up, young men ages 14 and up? This one's for you. Coming up February the 28th at 8 a.m. right here at the church, we're having what we call the Rite of Passage. This is where young men step from biblical immaturity into biblical and spiritual maturity, and we would love to have you there. Check the registration link in the Church

[00:12:45] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]
[00:12:45] Center app today. Where my boys at? If you're a man here at Lake City and you know it, then this one is for you. Ironman meets on every second and fourth Saturday of the month. You got breakfast, you got a word, you got hangout. It's gonna be great. Be there. We're so glad you're here. We

[00:13:02] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_11]
[00:13:02] love you. God loves you. Make it a great day. Lake City Church, give God praise. Who's excited to be back in the house this morning? Let's go. It's always a good day when we get to worship together. Amen. Amen. Why don't y'all stand to your feet right now? Let's have revival right now.
[00:13:20] Y'all ready? Let's go. Hey, speaking of it, we got revival conference two weeks from now.
[00:13:28] Thank you to everyone who's been praying for that. This is the portion of service we call giving back to God as they throw the four ways to give on the screen. What they didn't say about the rite of passage, right? For young men, any young men in the house, young men, 14 and up, All right. We have a ceremony for you guys. And what they didn't say is you get a giant sword.
[00:13:52] What is more manly than a giant sword? Come on. So anyways, y'all look on the church center app for that registration. It's going to be a great time as we give back to God. We want to say thank you for your generosity. Everyone who's given to revival conference, what we are believing for is to see a move of God in this next generation. Amen. That there's going to be hundreds of students in this auditorium in two weeks committing their lives to jesus that we're going to see salvation and we're going to see a move of god and a revival in the next gen amen so can we pray for that this morning if you guys could bow your heads close for close your eyes holy spirit move in this place move in these people god we pray that lake city would be a as we enter into worship this morning, as we continue to praise your name and sing to you.
[00:14:53] Let your spirit fall in this place, changing and transforming lives forever. In your name we pray.

[00:15:01] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_14]
[00:15:01] Amen. Let's worship him today, church. Every choice we make, every word we speak,

[00:23:03] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_06]
[00:23:03] Every step we take is a seed placed in the ground.
[00:23:11] Some seeds are sown in faith, trusting God with what we cannot see yet.
[00:23:18] Some are sown in fear, holding back, protecting ourselves, choosing comfort.
[00:23:26] And most days, we don't notice the ground changing.
[00:23:30] But over time, something always begins to grow.
[00:23:35] Galatians 6 reminds us, a man reaps what he sows.
[00:23:39] What we reap is never accidental.
[00:23:42] it reflects what has been planted nurtured and allowed to take root because the future we hope

[00:23:52] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]
[00:23:52] for starts with what we sow right now if you live and in person for the technology but it just doesn't be being here live and in person doesn't there's something about being together you know there's a spiritual something and and i'm glad those of you watching online god bless you those and the overflow areas. I know you're sensing the presence of God, but there's something about being in the room together and I just love the fellowship that we have together.
[00:24:41] I want to go back to something you saw in the video a few minutes ago. Next Sunday at 1 p.m. right after the third service, we have the Next Steps Luncheon. So if you are new or newer to Lake City Church and you've never been to one of these luncheons, I want to invite you to go online, register for the luncheon, because we would love, I would love the opportunity to meet you and share a little bit more about our vision and our values and how you can become a part of what God is doing here at Lake City Church. So go online, register for that. Also, I have a big announcement and I need everybody to turn your hearing aids up, okay? Diana, well, maybe you don't have a hearing aid. Neither do I. Dinah sometimes says, she says I need one. I don't know about that. I think she's the one that needs it, but maybe we're in a new stage of life. I don't know, babe, but turn up while you've got, because I want you to hear this, and that is that three weeks from today, March the 1st, Sunday, March 1st, we are going to four services. 8 o'clock, 9 o'clock, 10, 15, and 11, 30. During this construction phase, in order for our parking area to get bigger, it first has to shrink a little bit, and we just have more people than we have parking spaces. That's a problem.
[00:26:06] It's a good problem, but it's still a problem, and so we are adding the 8 o'clock service, and I want to know, where are all of my early birds? Can I see your hand? All the early birds.
[00:26:18] I think they were all at the earlier service.
[00:26:25] I'm telling you, we must have had 100 people that said, I'm an early riser.
[00:26:30] But I'm going to encourage all three of you early risers and some of you who just weren't listening and paying attention.
[00:26:37] If you're an early riser, I want to invite you to come to the 8 o'clock service.
[00:26:42] That will give us a little more space in this service for new people to come.
[00:26:48] And all of this is just temporary.
[00:26:50] You're going to see a few changes.
[00:26:51] But just remember, it's all temporary because in about 13 months, we're going to be in this new building over here.
[00:26:58] It's going to be really exciting.
[00:27:00] But until then, we've got a few things we're going to have to work with, right?
[00:27:04] So how many of you will be patient with us through this process?
[00:27:08] Okay, I hope so.
[00:27:10] So all my early birds, three weeks from today, 8 o'clock service, 8, 9, 10, 15, 11, 30.
[00:27:16] so with that said I want to share a message with you this morning that is it's really near and dear to me because I have experienced the truth of this word and I want you to experience it as well so would you just bow with me let's pray before we jump in Father we're so excited about being together and the thing that makes it so exciting is that you're here in the midst of us so for the next few minutes Lord would you please speak to us Holy Spirit may you cause the word of scripture to come alive in our spirits give us revelation maybe that we've never seen before Lord may you challenge and change us today and everything you reveal to us will be obedient to it and we just say thank you we pray all this in the mighty and the powerful name of Jesus and everybody said amen hallelujah thank you I don't know my yo's kind of went to sleep at the first service. So you guys have the you're number one in the yo contest here today.
[00:28:22] But our teaching series, we're back to our teaching series is called sowing and reaping. And our theme verse comes from Galatians 6-7 where it says don't be deceived, God is not mocked for whatever a person sows he will also reap. Now that means that everything in your life is grown from the seeds you have sown. The good things and the not so good things. It's called the law of sowing and reaping. This morning I want to talk to you about sowing seeds of faith. I'm talking about faith toward God. You might wonder well how important is faith? Well Hebrews 11 6 tells us that 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.
[00:29:18] Please hear this. Everything you receive from God is received on the basis of faith.
[00:29:26] Everything, whether it's faith for salvation, whether it's faith for healing, whether it's faith for answered prayer or anything else, it all begins with faith. Hebrews 11 1 explains it this way. Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Not seen. In other words, faith sees it before you can see it. Faith sees it before your natural eyes can see it.
[00:29:58] Many years ago, a busload of young adults borrowed their church bus and they came to our farm to help us with some farm projects but when they crossed the low water bridge coming to get onto our property their bus became stuck in the creek and as you can imagine they were very upset after all it was the church's bus but when I told them that it was no big deal that I'd get my great big four-wheel drive tractor tractor and that I would pull the bus out of the creek you know what they believed me. They believed me so much so that their mood instantly changed and they began to thank me as though I had already pulled them out of the creek.
[00:30:45] By faith they saw it out of the creek before they actually saw it with their natural eyes. And that's the kind of faith that God wants us to have toward him and toward his word. In Matthew chapter 8 a centurion, a commander in the Roman army came to Jesus on behalf of his servant who was at home paralyzed, the Bible said he was in terrible suffering.
[00:31:10] When Jesus told the centurion that he would go to his house and heal his servant, the centurion said, no, Jesus, you don't need to come to my house. Just say the word and my servant will be healed. To which Jesus says in Matthew 8, 10, Jesus told the man, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith. Go and it will be done just as you believed it would. And his servant was healed at that very hour. When I read this account, there's one statement that it just grabs my attention in a big way. It's the statement where Jesus says, it will be done just as you believed it would. Just as you believed it would. I think the reason that some people don't experience miraculous things in their lives is because they don't believe for miraculous things.
[00:32:14] Jesus was saying you get what you believe for. So I've got to ask you, what are you believing for?
[00:32:23] Are you exercising your faith for good things, for yourself, for your family, for other people?
[00:32:32] I mean, this almost sounds too good to be true, but it isn't.
[00:32:36] I like what John Wimber once said.
[00:32:39] He said, faith is spelled R-I-S-K, risk.
[00:32:46] And in the natural realm, sometimes our exercise of faith does seem risky, doesn't it?
[00:32:51] Yes, it does.
[00:32:52] like the woman with the issue of blood in Matthew chapter 9 she said to herself if only I can touch the hem of his garment I will be healed she was willing to risk rejection she was willing to risk ridicule she was willing to risk embarrassment but she pressed through the crowd with the belief that she would be healed and so in Matthew 9 22 Jesus said to her your faith your faith has healed you and the woman was healed from that moment she sowed a seed of faith and the soil of her situation and she reaped a miracle 70 years ago when my dear mother held my lifeless scarlet fever ravished body in her arms she called and she called our country pastor to come over and pray for me. She sowed the seeds of faith. And when he laid his hands on me and he commanded life to return in the name of Jesus Christ, she reaped a miracle. And here I am.
[00:34:06] By the way, my sister is here. She can attest to this story. It's absolutely true. But the question I want to ask you is, what do you need from God? What do you need from God? Plant a seed of faith.
[00:34:23] Sow a seed of faith and reap a miracle. One day, two blind men approached Jesus and asked to be healed. And to that, Jesus asked this pivotal question. He said, do you believe that I'm able to do this in Matthew 9 28 they answered yes Lord we believe it says then he touched their eyes and said according to your faith will it be done to you and immediately they were healed but notice first they said yes Lord we believe we believe faith is saying yes I believe yes I believe when you're stuck in some difficult situation of life, when you are hurting, when you are in some kind of desperate need, faith is saying, yes, Lord, I believe that you have the power. Yes, Lord, I believe you have the ability to help me. Maybe you're going through something right now. Maybe you have a desperate financial need. Maybe a family member or friend needs healing. Maybe it's you who needs the healing. Maybe your child is far away from God. Maybe your marriage is crumbling. In the midst of these challenges, the question is, will you rise up and say, yes, Lord, I believe. I believe you will help me. Yes, Lord, I believe. After the blind man said, yes, Lord. Notice what Jesus then said to them. He said, quote, according to your faith, will it be done to you? Folks, this is one of the most powerful statements in all of scripture spoken by the Son of God. Think about it. According to your faith, will it be done to you? So the question is, what do you have faith for? What do you have faith for? Now, I know some people who have faith for sickness.
[00:36:31] this. I believe I'm getting the flu. And they do. Some people have faith for poverty. Well, I don't believe I'll ever have enough money for that. They don't. Some people have faith for failure. I don't believe that I could ever accomplish that. They won't. Because Jesus said, according to your faith, will it be done to you? Can you see why cultivating your seed of faith is so important? It is. I love where Paul the Apostle writes to the believers in 2 Thessalonians 1 3 and he says, we ought always to thank God for you brothers and rightly so because your faith is growing more and more. He was proud and thankful because their seed of faith was growing and I gotta tell you, that will make any pastor proud, any pastor thankful when his people are growing in their faith.
[00:37:31] but here's the truth faith doesn't grow by itself it has to be cultivated so how can you cultivate your faith number one it's in your notes fill in the blanks number one celebrate the power of God celebrate the power do you know you serve a mighty God do you realize that some Christians I want to just grab them by the lapel and shake them a little bit hey your God is a powerful God do you know that day. We should just celebrate the power of our God. In the Old Testament, the Israelites, they experienced some amazing things, some miraculous things, like when God delivered them from bondage, from the bondage of Egypt through a series of supernatural interventions, like when God parted the Red Sea, like when God made a dry path right in the middle of the Red sea, and they walked across on dry land. Wow! And then after that, in Exodus 15, 6, Moses and his older sister, Miriam, they wrote a song, and it celebrated the awesomeness of God, saying, quote, your right hand, O Lord, is majestic in what? In power. Your right hand, O Lord, shatters the enemy. They were celebrating the fact that our God is majestic in power. And you know what? We too should celebrate the fact that our God is majestic in power. I'm telling you, this may be a revelation to somebody, but your God is not weak. Your God is not infirm. He is all-powerful.
[00:39:15] He is more than enough to deal with any problem, with any need that you may have. So celebrate His power and your faith will grow number two embrace trials as opportunities for growth you're not going to like this one but the sign in the gym says no pain no gain in the gym of life weight and resistance works our faith muscle and it helps it to grow first peter 1 7 talks about embracing trials it says these speaking about trials have come so that your faith of greater worth than gold which perishes even though refined by fire may be proved genuine and may result in praise glory and honor when jesus christ is revealed folks this isn't easy but when you are in the midst of a trial that trial represents an opportunity for you to say yes lord i believe trial represents an opportunity for you to say yes Lord I believe and for your faith to grow those things will actually cause your faith to grow when you put forth your faith in God number three a third thing you could do to cultivate your faith is to read the word the inspired word of God will strengthen your faith it will cause it to grow Romans 10 17 says so it says so then faith cometh, how? By hearing and hearing by the word of God. Folks, there is absolutely no substitute for reading or listening to the word of God. But I've got to tell you your faith will not grow watching movies. Your faith will not grow playing video games. Your faith will not grow listening to Bad Daddy.
[00:41:14] In fact, I think Bad Daddy is a bad idea. What do you guys think? I say turn the channel. Tune in to the Great American halftime show. But I'll tell you what will, come on, y'all. Some of y'all are getting there.
[00:41:32] But I will tell you what will make your faith grow, and that is the Word of God. Reading the Word of God. You guys didn't think I knew about Bad Daddy, did you? He's a bad dude, at any rate. Number four, the fourth thing you could do to cultivate your faith is to speak the word. Speak the word. Read the word, but then speak the word. There's power in spoken words.
[00:42:00] Be careful that you speak the faith-filled words of God, the faith-filled promises of God.
[00:42:10] Because Proverbs 18, 21 tells us that the tongue has the power of life and death. Do you want to speak life or do you want to speak death? Count me in on life. The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit. What kind of words are you speaking? By the way, the reason cursing is called cursing is because it pronounces a curse on the cursee as well as the cursor. You don't want to be damned, do you? You really don't want to damn others, do you? You don't want to go to hell. You really don't want others to go to hell, do you?
[00:42:51] No, of course not.
[00:42:53] Then speak words of life over yourself.
[00:42:55] Speak words of life over your family.
[00:42:57] Speak words of life even over your enemies.
[00:43:00] Speak the faith-filled words of God, and it will help your faith to grow.
[00:43:08] Number five, if you want your faith to grow, ask God for more faith.
[00:43:16] Ask God for more faith.
[00:43:18] In Luke chapter 17, the apostles realized that they needed more faith to do what Jesus was asking them to do.
[00:43:25] do you ever feel like God is asking you to do something but you need more faith what did they do in Luke 17 verse 5 it says the apostles said to the Lord increase our faith increase our faith one of the most I think one of the most vulnerable and yet powerful prayers we can pray is Lord increase my faith increase my faith I'm telling you That is one prayer that you can pray with all confidence, knowing that he will definitely do it.
[00:44:02] Lord, increase my faith.
[00:44:06] This morning, I don't know what you're going through, but I do know that everything you receive from God will be received on the basis of faith.
[00:44:17] And to that, you should pray, Lord, increase my faith.
[00:44:23] Increase my faith so that I might sow the seeds of faith and reap a miracle.
[00:44:29] amen and amen let's pray together father thank you for your word cause your word to sink deeply into our hearts and into our minds I pray in Jesus name would you go ahead and stand together with me and while we stand in this moment of prayer I want to pray a couple of prayers the first one I want to pray I want to pray for people who need a miracle from God you need something from God today. And the prayer I want to pray for you and for all of us is simply that God would increase our faith for a miracle. But while heads are bowed, if you say, I need a miracle. I need God to do something supernatural in my life, in my family, in my situation. Would you just lift up your hand? Just lift it up. God, you see hands all over the room today. And Lord, my prayers, God, would you increase our faith? God, for that one who is praying for a loved one who is far away from God, Lord, increase their faith. Lord, for that one who is going through desperate financial difficulties, Lord, would you increase their faith? God, for that one who is battling some sickness that the doctors say there's no answer for, God, would you increase their faith. Lord, whatever the need is, God, would you increase our faith? Lord, we want to plant the seeds of faith, and we want to reap a miracle. So God, we simply ask you for that faith.
[00:46:18] And Lord, we pray that you would bring forth a miracle in the lives of your people. In Jesus' name.
[00:46:25] While our heads are still bowed and our eyes are closed, I want to pray one more prayer, and I'm going to do it a little differently today. I know that in this room there are people who aren't really sure about their relationship with God. The question I always ask is this, if you were to die today, like right now, boom, do you know beyond any shadow of a doubt that you're ready to stand before God? You know, if you're not sure you can be. And I don't want anyone to leave this room today without knowing 100% that your life is right with God, that you have believed in Jesus Christ for your salvation.
[00:47:10] So while heads are bowed, I'm going to ask everyone in this room to simply repeat this prayer after me.
[00:47:17] Every one of us, we're going to say this prayer.
[00:47:19] And if this pertains especially for you, you just pray it with faith in your heart.
[00:47:25] But we're going to all say this together.
[00:47:27] Repeat this after me.
[00:47:29] Say, God, I know that you love me because you sent your son Jesus.
[00:47:36] And Jesus died on the cross for my sins.
[00:47:40] So today I repent of my sins and I ask you to be my Savior, my Lord.
[00:47:48] From today on, I'm going to live for you.
[00:47:53] In Jesus' name, amen.
[00:47:56] Amen, amen.
[00:47:57] Come on, y'all, let's give God some praise.
[00:47:59] Lord, we just say thank you.
[00:48:01] Thank you, Lord Jesus.
[00:48:08] If you prayed that prayer from your heart, maybe it was the first time, the first time in a long, long time, we have some materials we'd love to give to you.
[00:48:16] In the back, there's a sign in the lobby.
[00:48:18] It says, I said yes to Jesus.
[00:48:20] Go back there and get that goodie bag full of things, including a Bible.
[00:48:24] I want you to have that Bible because it will help you in your journey of faith to understand what God is saying to you.
[00:48:31] But we're gonna go into our time of communion.
[00:48:35] And every time we do this, we're reminded of the fact that God loved us so much that he sent his one and only son, Jesus.
[00:48:44] And Jesus loved us so much that he sacrificed himself, his body and his blood for us, for our salvation.
[00:48:52] And so, Father, in these moments, Lord, we just prepare our heart.
[00:48:57] We think about that little cracker that reminds us of the broken body of the Lord Jesus.
[00:49:03] We think about that little cup of juice.
[00:49:07] It reminds us of the blood of Jesus that was shed for us on Calvary's cross.
[00:49:13] And God, we just say thank you for your love.
[00:49:15] Jesus, thank you for your sacrifice.
[00:49:18] Lord, we just love you and we remember you.
[00:49:21] We remember your love and your sacrifice and we thank you for it.
[00:49:26] In Jesus' name, amen, amen.

[00:49:30] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_14]
[00:49:30] God, we say thank you in so many ways.

[00:53:10] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_09]
[00:53:10] And now that you've shown us, God, that we can plant the seeds in our lives, the seeds of faithfulness, the seeds of forgiveness, God, the seeds of the Spirit.
[00:53:22] God, I pray that from the word that was preached today, each person in the house would just take this and they would bury it deep before you, God, and you would grow a new crop in their life, something new, something fresh, God.
[00:53:33] Help us to plant the right things and sow a seed of faith, God, that we'd reap a harvest of faith.
[00:53:42] God, we thank you for your word.
[00:53:44] We thank you for what you've done.
[00:53:46] God, we thank you that we get to be Lake City Church together.
[00:53:51] In Jesus' name, in Jesus' name.
[00:53:54] And everybody said, amen, amen.
[00:53:57] Well, we love you.
[00:53:59] God loves you.
[00:54:00] Make it a great day.