Tough Faith

I'd like to begin by reading from Revelation chapter 3, starting at verse 7. And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write, The words of the holy one, the true one, who has the key of David, who opens and no one shall shut, who shuts and no one opens. I know your words. Behold, I have set before you an open door which no one is able to shut.

I know that you have but little power, and yet you have kept my word and not denied my name. Because you have kept my word of patient endurance, I will keep you from the hour of trial which is coming on the whole world to try those who dwell upon the earth. When we start going through this open door which he has set before us, two things happen right off the bat.

First, our faith is confirmed with signs following. Lives are touched. Captives are set free.

People are changed. We see fruit coming. We know that we're making progress in the kingdom of God.

But while we're making progress in the kingdom of God, a second thing begins to happen. The kingdom of darkness trains its guns on us and starts shooting. We begin to feel the fires of persecution.

Weird things start happening in our daily life that would try to undermine our faith. A little voice begins to whisper, Where is God now? Progress in the kingdom of God and attack from the kingdom of Satan always go together. Jesus taught that very clearly.

In John chapter 15, when he talks about the branch which abides in the vine bearing much fruit, he also warns that that branch that bears much fruit is going to be given a hard time by this world. Read the whole chapter. And the seed which lands on rock springs up and then withers away.

Withers away when times of persecution and trial arise because of the word, Jesus said. It withers away because it lacks moisture, because it has no root. And that root which it doesn't have and desperately needs is the root of a tough, solid, reliable faith.

What was needed then and what is needed now is a tough faith, a faith that keeps on going when the climate gets hostile and dangerous and when the atmosphere begins to change into something hard. I know your works. Behold, I have set before you an open door which no one is able to shut.

I know that you have but little power and yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name. This is a word given to a church which is not sitting in a rose garden. It's a church which is walking through trial, going through fire, moving through storm.

It says, keep going. Don't give up. I'm with you.

I've set before you an open door which no one is able to shut. Now the apostolic believers, the early believers, understood that trial, opposition, and outright persecution were like levers which can be used to strengthen our faith. Example.

Pentecost is hardly over for preaching and healing in the temple. They're thrown in prison overnight. The next day they're dragged up in front of the rulers of Jerusalem and they're threatened and then they're released.

They go back to the church, the gathering of believers, and they pray. And they pray knowing that this trial which is coming against them is giving them more nerve to ask God for His power. Their faith manifested in their prayer is stronger, not weaker.

Listen to it. It's taken from Acts 4, verse 28. And now, Lord, look upon their threats.

Look what they're doing to us. And grant thy servants to speak thy word with all boldness, while thou stretchest out thy hand to heal, and signs and wonders are performed in the name of thy holy servant Jesus. And when they had prayed, the place where they were gathered was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God.

Tough faith. Faith that waxes not weaker but stronger when the flames begin to come at it. Surely that's the kind of faith we need.

For a hothouse faith, which has to have just a controlled atmosphere of safety and comfort in order to survive, simply won't work for the world we're living in, the place where God has put us and the work God has given us to do. The only faith that's going to make it that will enable us to break through the opposition which is already standing against us and coming at us is a faith which knows that God is with us in the midst of all that that He is in control when everything looks to be out of control and that He will sustain us, laughs at the storm, walks through that open door, even if it leads to a den of thieves or a hurricane. Isaiah 43, 1. But now, thus says the Lord, He who created you, O Jacob, He who formed you, O Israel, fear not, for I have redeemed you.

I have called you by name, you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you. And through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you.

When you walk through fire, you shall not be burned. And the flame shall not consume you. For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel.

This passage has been used in the grief seminar almost every week since it began. And this passage is really the foundation of this tough faith. In it, in these few verses, is everything we need.

When you pass through the waters, I will be with you. And through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you. When you walk through fire, you shall not be burned.

And the flame shall not consume you. Notice. He doesn't say you're not going to have to pass through the waters, or the rivers, or the fire, or the flame.

You're going to pass through those things, and I'm going to transform everything that happens to you into something redemptive. First of all, tough faith. Know that it has been redeemed.

Fear not, for I have redeemed you. I have brought you out from underneath Satan's power. You are free from Satan, free from the guilt of your past, free from death, paid for by the blood of my Son, Jesus.

Now you're redeemed. You're free. This is the foundational faith that is renewed to us every day and refreshed to us really every week when we come and break.

Your sins are forgiven. You're redeemed. Be at peace.

Secondly, tough faith. Know that it absolutely and eternally belongs to God no matter what. I have called you by name.

You are mine. This is exactly what Jesus says to those who are committed to Him here today. You didn't choose me.

I chose you, He said, and ordained you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should remain. You're mine. I've redeemed you, and you're mine.

And you're going to be all right. You walk with me. And He says that to us, and we need to know that we belong to Him.

My sheep hear my voice, and I know them. And they follow me, and I give to them eternal life, and no one's going to snatch them out of my hand. Now when we walk with Jesus, when we strive to obey Him and please Him, when we trust Him, then He calls us friends.

Not just servants. You're my friends. And He becomes our rock, our fortress, our high tower, our protection, our everything, our anchor, the one anchor we can be sure of.

Thirdly, tough faith. Find certainty in God with everything else in the world. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you.

The waters are uncertainty. We're living in a totally unpredictable world. We never know what's going to happen next.

We spend our lives going through the waters. We have no control over the weather, over the economy, over war and peace, over other people, over our own health, over crime, violence, corruption in high places and low. In the midst of all these things over which we have almost no control, the one certainty, I am with you.

And I'm not going to leave you. And I'm not going to forsake you. Tough faith finds comfort.

Perhaps a better word would be strength. When everything comes against it, when you pass through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you. The rivers are when our circumstances pile up against us and everything goes wrong at once.

And yet we're not overwhelmed. Somehow he's there. And we don't sink.

In fact, instead of sinking, we keep pushing up against the current. And we conquer. You know, it's like knocking on 15 doors and having 15 doors in a row slammed in your face.

And there's something inside you that says, why don't you quit? Give up. It ain't going to work. But then the Lord from within says, which no one is able to shut, find it.

Keep going. And you keep knocking and knocking and knocking. Who knows how many doors and finally it opens.

And you have victory over that situation in the name of the Lord and in his power. Tough things. Finds fellowship with Jesus in the fiery furnace.

So he says, when you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned. The fiery furnace is trial, tribulation, tough times, things are going wrong. You don't know what's happening.

But you know he's there. You're like Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. You're being refined in the furnace.

But there is one in that furnace with you. You're not alone. Who is like the son of God.

And he keeps you. And so we read in 1 Peter 4, verse 12. Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal which comes upon you to prove you as though something strange were happening to you, but rejoice insofar as you share in Christ's sufferings, that you may rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed.

If you are reproached for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. So when they start hitting us, when the fire begins to get a little bit hotter, that voice of the spirit of the Lord within us says, Keep going. Don't give up.

I'm with you. You're going to make it. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me.

Thy rod and thy staff, tough fate, keeps rising from the dead with you, and the flame shall not consume you. Moses looks at this bush, and it burned, but it wasn't consumed. It burned, but the leaves were still green.

What's this all about? Moses is looking at a sign of the death and resurrection of Jesus, which is much later fulfilled. When they got him on the cross and killed him, they said, Now we have it. He's done.

He's consumed, finally, in his baptism of fire. On the third day, back at it again, with infinitely more power. Death, resurrection.

And they tried to snuff out Peter and Paul. They tried to discourage them, to demoralize them, to paralyze them, to stop them any way they could. And these guys kept coming back with more power than ever.

They kept rising up out of the flames. And they continued to do that until their work was done. And that's how it is with all followers of Jesus who are willing to submit to the flames, who are willing to walk through trial, trouble, opposition, persecution, misunderstanding, hatred and rejection for him.

What happens is that we keep rising up out of the flames, stronger than ever. Again and again, with more life than ever. Finally, tough faith knows whom it has believed, who it believes in.

For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior. Notice it's not faith in a concept, not faith in a religious ideal, not faith in a religious system or organization or a religious celebrity, but faith in the living God and in Jesus, the crucified and risen one, and in the Spirit who brings God down into our midst right now. He is our Savior, our salvation, and our life right now.

2 Timothy 1, verse 12, Paul says, For I know whom I have believed, and I am sure that he is able to guard against that day. Until that day, what I have entrusted to him, whom, not what, whom, I know who it is. And if he tells me he's with me, then he's with me.

And I'm going to live that, and I'm going to die believing that. But now, thus says the Lord who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel, Fear not, for I have redeemed you. I have called you by name, you are mine.

When you pass through the waters, I will be with you. And through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you. When you walk through fire, you shall not be burned.

And the flames shall not consume you. For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior. We will pass through the waters.

We will pass through the rivers. We will walk through fire. We will feel the flames.

But in all of that, we will conquer all the evil that comes against us.