God Tests Us to Free Us From All Self Confidence

We sang some wonderful hymns this morning. I hope we didn't miss the words we sang. One of them was, Be thou supreme, O Jesus Christ, my inmost being filled.

To be thy slave and to do thy will is what brings me the greatest joy. I hope you meant that when you sang it. I find I struggle to sing that honestly.

If I was to be completely honest, I think it was Tozer who said that Christians don't lie, they tell lies, they just sing them on Sunday mornings. And I think about that often, not to point at Christians. I think, Lord, when I sang what we just sang, did I really mean it? To be thy slave.

Do you really want to be a slave? Like, really? Hundreds of years ago, in this country, there was a war ultimately to free people from slavery. There have been people who have fought with their lives and died so that slaves could be set free. And praise God for that.

There should be no slavery on this earth. But the kingdom of heaven is all about slavery to God. Not in the way that we think of slavery.

And that's the thing is that the word slavery has been corrupted by the evil of it on this earth. But if you really meant what we sang, to be thy slave and to do thy will is the greatest joy. Felicity was the word we sang.

Greatest joy. What will bring you the ultimate fulfillment is if you can identify yourself as Paul did, the bond-slave of Jesus Christ. I'd like to speak on that a little bit today.

Our memory verse was also in Ephesians chapter 2. I'd like to begin there briefly so that we see the context in which that memory verse comes. Ephesians chapter 2. As you know, we're a church that intentionally doesn't put the Bible verses on the screen because we wanted you to see it not on somewhere else but in your own Bible. But if you do need a Bible, we have some in the back that you can get.

So feel free to use that for today or take it with you if you don't have one. You must see it in your own Bible, not somewhere else. That's why we only put the reference, not the words themselves.

Ephesians chapter 2. The verse we memorized was verse 8. By grace you have... Now by the way, that verse begins with the word because or for. For. That means you're gonna have to go back and look at some of the previous verses.

But because by grace you have been saved through faith and that not of yourselves. While we are being saved by grace through faith, where are we? I just want to touch on that for a minute or so. When we think about being saved by grace through faith, it's easy for us to think about us still in prison or in the pit and somehow God is in the process of setting me free from sin and from myself.

I'm still locked up but God is slowly unlocking the door and kind of gradually he's going to let me out of prison. Is that what you think when you think about being saved by grace through faith? While this process of sanctification and salvation is going on, where are you brother, sister, child? You're a child of God who has been saved by grace through faith and you haven't seen the fulfillment of that salvation yet. You haven't seen the fulfillment of that sanctification yet.

Where are you? Before this he tells us in verse 4 that God being rich in mercy because of his great love with which he loved us even when we were dead in our transgressions made us alive together with Christ. There he says it again by grace you have been saved and now itself verse 6 raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. So while you're going through this process of sanctification while you are still being fully saved from the power of sin in your life, where are you? You're not here still in prison.

You're not still in the pits. You're seated in the heavenly places. I don't think we could fully understand this with our human intellect and mind that somehow God has already seated me there in heavenly places according to this verse.

See we don't have to try to figure it out with our minds and a lot of theologians even fall into the trap of trying to fully understand God's Word with their minds. We can attempt it. We must apply our minds so that our minds are renewed but ultimately there's a reality in God's Word which is just simply true and you can only experience the reality of it by faith not by understanding but by faith and when God says I've already seated you in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus even though I'm here on this earth that's where I am.

I'm seated in the heavenly places. So Lord I want you to set me free from this impatience that I have and this irritability and bad moods or the love of money or unforgiving attitudes, bitterness, jealousy, lust, anger, whatever it might be. Set me free Lord but help me never to lose sight of the fact that you already established my current position in Christ Jesus there in the heavenlies.

See a few lines later in chapter 4 Paul says I'm a prisoner therefore chapter 4 verse 1 I the prisoner. Paul's writing this I think I don't remember exactly but he's at certainly when he wrote scripture often he was in prison. How is a prisoner say I'm seated in the heavenly places.

You have to see the kingdom of heaven and see that God has placed you there. I wanted to start with that because it's very important dear brothers and sisters that no matter what your circumstance on this earth is like even if it is being a prisoner we must remember our position is there. Outwardly the world might see us a particular way.

You might even see yourself a particular way a prisoner. You look at Paul and say what do you mean seated in heavenly places? You're seated in a jail cell Paul. You're seated tied up to a Roman centurion or a Roman soldier.

What do you mean seated in heavenly places? And Paul would say you need to have your eyes open to see the kingdom of heaven. And so whatever your earthly circumstances like even if you feel like you're in a prison in your earthly circumstance health wise perhaps job wise relationships wise even if it feels like you're in a prisoner you ought to be able to say Lord I believe by faith you've seated me in the heavenly places. I've been thinking about the life of Paul because we've been reading about that in our daily Bible reading that we're going through as you know if you're following the same plan I'd like you to turn with me please to Acts chapter 21 and we've been seeing I've been challenged and meditating on the life that Paul lived and what if I could visualize what was the graph of his life from the time he was born let's say.

We don't know much about his childhood and the first 20-30 years or so we don't really know. I think he was converted in his late 20s maybe around 30 years old on the road to Damascus. Those first 20-25 to 30 years we don't know much about other than that he was trained in the highest Bible school of his day under Gamaliel.

He fulfilled the law he was blameless according to the law he was raised in a God-fearing Jewish home to obey the law and he obeyed the law and then he met Jesus on the road to Damascus and his life changed and I don't know what the graph of his life looked like before that. I think it sort of looked like from his eyes going up in the eyes of the world. At a 12 year old he was probably the outstanding student in school with knowing the law.

He won all the scripture memory competitions I imagine and everybody thought Paul man he's going to be amazing one day he's going to be quite the Pharisee of Pharisees and sure enough he says in Philippines 3 I was a Pharisee of Pharisees. He achieved his goal whatever that aspiration was and then he reached met Jesus on the road to Damascus and the graph of his life from an earthly point changed. It started to go down.

He started to experience persecution and trouble, difficulty, pain, suffering. Look at some of that but here we read in Acts 21 towards the end of his ministry he served God faithfully. He's planted churches and you'd think that his life ought to be one of sort of saying okay Paul I've tested you enough you can sort of coast on into my kingdom now until the end of your life.

I want to ask you dear brother, dear sister, dear child what do you expect the end of your life to look like? See in the world when you start out in your job you're the runt. You're the one that's doing all the hard work. You're everybody like oh something to be done give it to him he's the newbie and give it to her she's the newbie so you start out doing all the hard work and your goal in life is to get paid more while doing less.

That's what everybody in the world is. I want to get paid more and do less. So you become a manager and you become a director, VP and CEO.

Now I'm probably oversimplifying the reality of it. A lot of CEOs probably have to work quite hard travel and all that but the reality is the grunt work you don't have to do as much anymore because you've been there long enough and say yep you know you're a VP you shouldn't be sitting there writing code anymore give it to somebody else you can if you don't show up for a meeting it's okay but her and him they better come to all the stand-ups that we have every meeting they need to be there nobody questions the VP for not showing up but you newbie you better show up that's how it is in the world and as you gain reputation in the world and as you prove your time as it were you get to the point where less is expected of you you're not being confronted anymore and you kind of get to be an easy life and then you retire and that's that's the graph of this world right you reach that point as it were you've attained retirement as it were is that what you think the Christian life is like when you read the testimonies of godly men and women who were used by God the most we go through them on our monthly prayer meetings you see how God used them and the end of their lives you read the Apostles you read Fox's book of martyrs or martyrs mirror you see these godly men and women who proved that they were not living for a single thing on this earth what was the end of their life like men like Paul here what was the end of his life like what did it get to be like when he had God had tested him and tested him and test him did he reach a point where you could say well okay God could say okay Paul I've tested you enough now you're good yeah in Acts 21 you read for example in verse 11 this is the testimony of Agabus who was a prophet and he could see the future God gave him a revelation of what was the future in Paul's life and comes to Paul and says in verse 11 coming to us this Agabus took Paul's belt and bound his own feet and hands and said this is what the Holy Spirit says in this way the Jews at Jerusalem will bind the man who owns this belt and deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles and when he had heard this we as well as the local residents began begging Paul not to go to Jerusalem Paul you're so valuable to the kingdom of heaven and you ought to have a comfortable life we'll just stay here with us and we'll bring you a meal three meals a day we'll do your laundry we'll treat you like the CEO ought to be treated you planter of our church sadly that's going on in Christendom today the higher you get the more you're weighted on hand and foot as it were Paul answered verse 13 what are you doing in other words if I could paraphrase what are you saying have I not done a good enough job of showing you what the kingdom of heaven is like what are you doing weeping and breaking my heart for I'm ready not only to be bound but even to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus and since he would not be persuaded we fell silent remarking the will of the Lord be done you see how the will of the Lord in the kingdom of heaven is so different from what we think of here and I've come to see then that the Christian life is not about us reaching a certain point of Lord I passed enough tests now that I don't even need to be tested anymore I've reached a point where I'm done with school I think I hope never to have to take another test again maybe the DMV will want me to do one when my eyes get worse and and all that but school-wise you know part of the reason why I chose to be done with school when I was done with school because I wasn't really a big fan of taking tests and for you children there's hope coming you can be freed of test-taking at some point in your life but it's not like that in the Christian life because God is not interested in us reaching some level of accomplishment we says I've tested you enough but God tests us until he has fully proven our complete dependence on him the point of tests in the Christian life is that God can prove that we are completely dependent on him and that will only happen at the end of our lives and God's goal from the time we are born again from the day we are born again until the time we stand before Jesus until the end of our life his goal is to bring us all to bring Santos you say I'll make it personal to the point where there's zero dependence on myself and a hundred percent dependence on God that's why he tests us and the test will end when that dependence on God is complete Psalm 105 there's a wonderful little word hidden here about Joseph Psalm 105 Psalm 105 verse 17 it says he sent a man before them Joseph who was sold as a slave they afflicted his feet with fetters he himself was laid in irons until the time that his word came to pass the word of the Lord tested him think about that for a moment if you remember the story I don't have time to show it to you when Joseph was young he told his brothers and his parents hey one day you all are going to bow down to me and they make they made fun of him his brother certainly did he was younger than most of them except Benjamin and then even his father said what do you mean I'm going to bow down to you no it actually happened all of his brothers bowed down to Joseph as you know many many years later even Jacob did but God had spoken a word to Joseph in a dream God has spoken a specific word and then what happened after that was a time of testing for until Joseph was 30 assuming that he had the dream when he was 13 or 14 years old what followed the word of the Lord was 15 or 16 years of testing testing where there was absolutely no evidence that that would ever be fulfilled in fact from an earthly standpoint it look he was going in the opposite direction from his brothers and his father and mother bowing down to him his brothers took advantage of him they try to kill him then they sold him as a slave and here's Joseph thinking Lord I thought you told me this that you have a calling for my life I thought you told me that there's a purpose with which you placed me here on this earth and I'm trusting you and the word of the Lord tested and that's the testing that God allows us all to face in our lives when we he said Santosh my plan for your life is for you to become like me Romans 8 verse 29 to be fully conformed into the image of Jesus that's my destination he's put it as a promise this hope I have is an anchor we read in Hebrews 6 an anchor which cannot be shaken which is fixed at the right hand of the throne of God with Jesus this hope I have and I believe that at the end of as I've said here often on the last page of the book of my life it's written Santosh conformed into the image of Jesus I've seen it but now what is it just sort of a coasting no God's gonna test the word of the Lord is gonna test me and say do you really believe it and I'm gonna prove it in your life prove it until you realize that the only way that you can be conformed into the image of my son Jesus is if you're fully dependent on me and if you find a little bit of self-dependence and self-reliance I can do this and in fact the older we get the more difficult it is because we are we're fighting an interesting battle where the older we get the more self-confident we are it what we're good at whether it's your job or your some earthly ability I mean you remember the first day you drove right how nervous you were and remember how you drive now you've been driving for 20 years let's say you can even put one hand sometimes you can let both hands off the wheel and just sit there you know and take it at the right time that's how confident you are because that's the direction you're headed more and more confident in your own ability outwardly inwardly God's trying to do exactly the opposite he's trying to make you less and less confident in your own ability and confident only in his ability let me give you a practical example some years ago somebody asked me for some advice about in a Q&A session about being a parent they said Santos you know you have six kids and what how do you balance you know being an elder in a church and ministry and job and being a father and a husband all that and I said you come a few years too late if you had come here if you had asked me that question when I had one or two kids I would have given you all kinds of advice but now I have six kids and I have only one word of advice fall on your face and say Lord help me that's the only advice I can give you you see how God wants to do that work one kid yeah I can give you this trick and that trick and yeah you know the sleep method or whatever the different things we tried after four or five I'm not saying you have to have that many kids to learn that lesson hopefully you can learn it before that but you realize that all these earthly techniques and formulas are useless in the kingdom of God if you just want to raise good kids to be successful in the world yeah read some good parenting book and some advice from somebody that's done well but if you want to raise them for the kingdom of God if you want the Holy Spirit to come and fill their lives fill their hearts and to do a work in their lives that's beyond your ability to ever do then you ought to be more and more dependent on God and less confident in your own ability and so there's this interesting journey of opposites as it were where yes in the world I'm becoming more confident in my ability to do certain things it's just nature without my even trying the more you drive the better you'll get at it the more you kick the sock of all the better you'll get at it but inwardly God wants to work a freedom from self-confidence in us that results in a complete confidence and dependence on God alone this is very important let's start to Romans chapter 1 again our memory verse for this week was by grace you have been saved through faith so it's the grace of God that saves us but it's through faith he uses faith to save us it's the grace of God it grace is his power the power of God through Jesus Christ and victory over sin and all of that but the method when it says by grace you have been saved through faith so the grace is the power that God uses to save us but the means that he uses to save us is faith that's the meaning of that verse by grace through faith and this through faith is what I'm speaking about where the means by which God saves us is through faith faith my definition of faith which I learned from seeing understanding scripture is a complete dependence on God that's essentially it faith is complete dependence on God I'll show you scripture that will support that it's just my phrasing of what I see in God's word faith is that utter dependence of God so by grace the power of God he saves us by the means of keeping us completely dependent on him which means if you don't have the grace of God you're not going to be saved if you only have the grace of God but he's not able to work this faith this dependence on him this complete freedom from dependence on yourself if that's not there then he can't save you that grace is there but the faith is not there by grace through faith through that dependence on God and helplessly saying Lord I need you to save me I need to be more dependent on you and less dependent on myself and less confident myself that's how we are saved Romans 1 we read in verse 16 I mentioned this verse a couple weeks ago I've been meditating on it even more since then Romans 1 verse 16 I am not ashamed of this gospel I hear Paul saying compared to again the previous message that he'd heard which was the old covenant message which you could say I believe he would say I'm ashamed of it somewhat because he goes on to say in Romans 7 when I believed in the law I found all kinds of sin wretched man that I am I'm ashamed of who I am under the old covenant but you bring me into the new covenant because of Jesus Christ I'm not ashamed of this Paul's not perfect yet he's not made fully like Christ he's got a long way to go there's still sin in his flesh that he's being cleansed from and yet he can say even though I'm not yet made perfect I have a long way to go before I become like Jesus I'm not ashamed of this gospel because it is a power the old gospel which is not really gospel the old message was letters the letter the law was a letter it's called the letter of the law the letter kills but this gospel brings life the spirit brings life we read and so it says this gospel I'm not ashamed of it because even though I've got a long way to go there's a power that's working inside of me even though I'm not quite the husband I need to be I'm not quite the father I need to be I'm not so many things I'm so far from being like Christ there's a power in me that's why it's good news and one day I will be made complete it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who has faith who believes to the law first to the Jew first and also to the Greek for in it Romans 1 verse 17 in this gospel the righteousness of God is revealed you see what perfect salvation looks like what the righteousness of God reveals looks like is revealed how from faith to faith as it is written but the righteous man shall live by his faith so the righteousness of God is why is this gospel something that you don't have to be ashamed of you too ought to be able to say I'm not ashamed of the gospel why because God is now not telling me Santos you need to do this and you need to do that and you need to do the other thing he's saying you're completely incapable of doing any of it and the sooner you realize that the more you realize it the more you will experience the righteousness of God the more helpless that's what faith is the more helpless you are the more dependent you are on me the more you grow in that dependence on me faith to faith to faith to faith less dependence on yourself less confidence in your ability to be pleasing to me but more reliant and dependent on my ability to keep you pleasing to me then you will experience the righteousness of God that's why it's I don't have to be ashamed of it you can look at me Santos you're still so this or that and I say yes I know I repent and I said it right as soon as I can and I fall on my face and I weep but I'm not ashamed of it because it's no longer me trying to do it anymore God is doing it in me by my dependence on him faith to faith yesterday I had more confidence in my ability to please God today I have less confidence in my ability to please God is it that simple for you yesterday let me say it again yesterday if this ought to be our testimony day by day daily growing in faith practically means yesterday I had some level of confidence in my ability to please God today I have even less I'm actually more conformed into the image of Jesus more experiencing his righteousness according to this verse the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith but it is faith to faith means I was this dependent on myself and this dependent on God today I'm less dependent on myself and more dependent on God less confident in my own ability more confident in God's ability this is growth from faith to faith so the closer you get to God the more dependent you are on him that's how you know you're getting closer to God so become a very simple test how do I know that I'm closer to God today than I was yesterday it's not oh I know more of the Bible or this or that I'm used more those are earthly things I know that I'm closer to God today by this very simple fact that I'm more dependent on him and less dependent on myself because I'm growing in faith and the opposite of that actually you read in Hebrews chapter 3 Hebrews 3 verse 12 this is the opposite of growing closer to God as I just said growing closer to God means becoming less confident in my own ability and more confident in God's ability for salvation for righteousness the opposite of that you read in Hebrews 3 verse 12 take care brethren that there not be in any of you an evil unfaithful unbelieving more self-confident heart which falls away from the living God you see the opposite now going closer to God is less confidence in myself more confidence in God falling away from him is more confidence in myself and less confidence in God that's unbelief it's not like you know when you say this word unbeliever unfortunately it's become this sort of black and white thing of believer unbeliever are you a believer for most Christians sadly that simply means did you say a prayer on such and such a date and sign some sort of card and you know go forward and ask for prayer not here to mock any of that but believer has so much more to it than simply saying I made a decision on a particular date to me believer is very simply this are you dependent on God and are you growing in that dependence on God otherwise you're take care brethren that there be not in any of you an unbeliever heart a heart that's becoming more confident in yourself and less confident in God less dependent on God this is falling away that there's less dependence on God and that's why he says verse 13 we must encourage one another why is it that we are a church that believes that we should be involved organically in each other's lives we only have a certain number of planned meetings but as you know if you're a visitor here you may not know this but for those who are members of the church you know that we are in each other's life throughout the week every day somebody might share something you might call each other you we know each other were praying for each other somebody might share a message of encouragement on our group text groups and things like that this is he Hebrews 4 verse 13 Hebrews 3 verse 13 sorry encourage one another day after day that means every day there's the possibility for you to becoming to be less confident in yourself and more confident in God or more confident in yourself and less confident in God so because every day you're moving in one of these two directions we must encourage one another encourage one another every day because there's a possibility of your husband that your wife in her thoughts in her ambitions in her motives may have somehow started to slip this way more confident in her own ability there's a possibility to your wife that your husband may have slipped back a little bit into confidence in his own ability so encourage him encourage her encourage your brother encourage your sister encourage your children your teenage children who are being taught in the schools to be more dependent on themselves and more self-confident because they've worked so hard to do this and they can impress everybody with their ability on the soccer field or the basketball court or in this classroom encourage them lest they become more confident in their own ability how does that happen being hardened by the deceitfulness of sin the end of verse 13 this is the deceitfulness of sin see the deceitfulness of sin is not okay you can go commit adultery now we'll murder somebody I don't think any of you is planning to do that what is the deceitfulness of sin if somebody invites you to go out and commit murder rob a bank I guarantee everybody of us will be like no thanks I don't I don't need that but trust yourself a little bit more have a little bit more confidence in your own ability ah that's deceitful you won't see it as sin right away but it is and your heart will become hardened and you'll fall away from the living God who's he writing to friends he's writing to believers take care RLCM I would say that they're not being any of us an evil heart that starts to trust in our own ability and falls away from the living God it's in God's Word I didn't write it he did Hebrews chapter 10 so the journey of we're on we're seeking to be on is this journey of growing in our dependence in God growing in faith Hebrews 10 verse 38 a similar word to what we read in Romans 1 verse 17 my righteous one shall live by his faith and if he shrinks back my soul has no pleasure in him if he shrinks back if he starts to trust his own ability my righteous one he's talking about his righteous one the proof that he's righteous is he's living by dependence on God living by dependence on God and God takes such delight here's my little child who is just trusting me he's leaning on me she's leaning on me they're just trusting me they're trusting me but if he starts to shrink back if he starts to trust in his own ability because he's been a Christian for 10 years now he's a preacher he's a senior member of the church he's got an established home his marriage has been pretty good for a number of years his children are grown up and they're doing well if he starts to trust in his own ability and say as it were soul take thine ease you worked hard to get to this point just coast along Jesus is coming soon if he shrinks back and starts to trust in his own ability my soul has no delight in me my soul has no delight in who the same righteous one who once upon a time was pleasing to God God says I'm sorry I can't delight in you anymore I know you've been my child for 20 years now but you're starting to move the other way you're becoming more confident in your ability you know this is why you hear about people who walked with God for so many years and then fall into all kinds of sin sexual sin and money loving sin and all kind of pride and all that why does it happen because we're on the knife edge as it were brothers and sisters I'm not saying this to discourage you because God is on your side to help you but be watchful you and I are on a knife edge every you know what a knife edge it's like a narrow ridge where if you're not careful you could slip off and on either side where the the choice of whether you will remain and grow in your dependence on God versus grow in your confidence in yourself and your own ability is there and in fact I'll tell you it's more difficult for you if you've been a Christian for a long time and it's especially difficult if God uses you in some way in the ministry I recognize that as the one who preaches here often in this church is called to be an elder in this church I recognize that perhaps for me of all it's the most dangerous because here I am thinking well Lord I you know I preach the message or I did this I did that other thing and I'm trusting in my own ability and God could find more pleasure in a little child sitting here than even one of us older men and women because he sees the little child that saying Lord I don't know much you know all those adults they seem to know where this verse is and that word they know how to explain brother Santo she knows how to teach and all that but I don't know much God says I'm more delighted that little child because she is completely dependent on me and not in her own ability children you can bring pleasure to God in that that's what Jesus said in Matthew 18 unless you are converted and become like little children you won't see the kingdom of God you know that you are seeing the kingdom of God you're getting closer to God because you're becoming more like a child helplessly dependent on the father then he goes on to say in Hebrews 11 about faith my righteous one shall live by faith and he says in verse 6 first of all let's read this Hebrews 11 verse 6 without faith it is impossible to please him you could say well Lord I've I haven't sinned in certain number of days I haven't fallen you know that old sin I used to fall into all the time Lord look it's been 342 days I've been counting aren't you pleased with that he says no but you're not doing it out of dependence on me you're not growing in your dependence on me if that victory if that being a better husband and be freed from alcoholism or drug addiction or bad moods or whatever it might be if that's coming out of dependence on God then he's pleased with it let me make a bold statement God is more pleased with your dependence on him even if you fail then with your victory in a particular area if it didn't come from dependence on him it's a long sentence let me break it down God is more pleased by your dependence on him even if you failed in that particular situation then if somehow you overcame didn't give in to sin in that particular situation but it wasn't from dependence on him you see that how that's the essence of Christianity and somebody could come to a life where their life looks a lot cleaner than it used to ten years ago they used to be drunken they used to watch bad movies they used to be addicted to this and addicted to that they used to yell and scream at their spouse at home but things have cleaned up a little bit and I think ah you must be pleased with me God says no I'm pleased with faith and God could see a husband and wife that fell in a particular area and yelled at each other but then they fall on their face and say Lord I don't want to be like that will you help me I can't do it on my own I'm crying out to you and God says I'm pleased with that couple that's crying out to me for help and this other couple that's glorying in their 50 or 30 40 years of marriage but they're not doing it out of dependence on him he says without faith it's impossible to please me Hebrews 11 verse 6 without faith it's impossible to please me now faith verse 1 Hebrews 11 verse 1 faith is the assurance some translations say substance of things hoped for the evidence the conviction of things not seen for not seen for by it the men of old gained approval so faith I would describe it this way based on what we just read in Hebrews 11 verse 1 and Hebrews 11 verse 6 is that the faith looks like this what does having more faith from faith to faith to faith to faith is that God actually allows me to see less as it were and while I'm seeing less because he goes on it I didn't read the whole verse let me read verse 6 again and then we'll come back and talk about what I was just gonna say Hebrews 11 verse 6 without faith it is impossible to please him for he who comes to God must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of those who seek him some translations say would diligently seek him he's a rewarder of those who diligently seek him so what is faith faith is when I'm growing in faith it means God can allow me to see less I don't have to see more of the circumstance or what God is doing I don't have to understand more God can cloud more things from me because I'm growing in faith I'm not relying on my eyes I'm not relying on my ears I'm not relying on my intellect and my ability to figure out what is God doing in this situation that is self-confidence that is trusting my own ability God's trying to lead me on this path of more dependence on him and so he can actually hide more for me am I preaching something new I hope not what do you think brother sister as you walk with God more he starts to explain things to you a little bit more that's not been my experience the more I walk with God I find that he hides more from me and he doesn't explain it I used to he used to explain things a little bit he has to allow me to see how it's all gonna work out more quickly like within a I was like oh yeah yeah yeah okay God I see what you're doing that's great I find that that doesn't happen anymore at first you might think well Lord I don't hear you as clearly anymore I don't see I don't see the explanation of what you're doing as clearly as I used he says Santos you're growing in faith I don't have to explain it anymore because you're trusting me more and you're like Lord I know you don't need to explain it I'm just gonna trust you that's becoming like a child the teenager says where are we going how long we're gonna be there the four-year-old says I'm just in the car dad you're with me it's all good mom you're with me it's all good you see the difference they don't need an explanation why why not no mom said so dad said so yes okay that's it you see how growing in faith looks like Lord you don't have to explain to me why you're taking me through this trial because I believe I see that you're after something far more than explaining things to me in fact you're working against my own confidence in my intellect and my own understanding and my own ability and that's why he increases the test that's why he could take Paul to all of that trial and I'll show you some verses where Paul says I'm perplexed I don't know what God's doing remember reading somewhere Hudson Taylor saying that in one of his writings he says when I was a new believer I God showed me more of what he was doing and now as I've walked with him more it seems like him in a fog more I'm in darkness Earthrise earthly wise I don't understand now he's taking me through a trial is just like what's going on I don't know but he's holding my hand and I've learned to put my confidence in the hand than my own eyes his hand than my own eyes does that make sense brothers sisters not since here but does that speak to your heart in some way God wants you to have confidence in his hand not in what he has shown you and for years I try to say Lord why aren't you showing me what are you doing explain it to me and he did because I was still immature because I was still a new believer and now he's saying Santosh I'm not going to explain it to you I'm just gonna ask you to trust me that's the proof that you're growing in faith he says in 2nd Corinthians 5 but let's turn to 2nd Corinthians chapter 11 but this journey so faith for me the fact that I'm growing in faith means that I'm seeing less actually and in the midst of that seeing less I'm diligently seeking God more and I have a hope that he's going to finish it that's Hebrews 11 verse 1 and 6 put together as it were the assurance of the substance of things hoped for the evidence of things not seen so I hope for it I don't see it with my eyes in fact I saw things a lot more clearly 10 years ago now I'm seeing things less clearly more dimly as it were but my confidence and my hope is in the inside so faith as it were allows you to see what's inside the trial as opposed to the trial itself faith allows you to see with eyes with with with a an understanding in your heart what God is doing inside through the trial as opposed to the trial itself trying to explain the trial I the picture I like to think of picture language when I think about you know this hurricane was there recently had a few of them in Florida and I saw a video of what Megan showed it me of what it was like in the eye of the storm you know what the eye of the storm is right in the middle you look at this visualization of the storm from a satellite image and it's this spinning thing and it's chaos chaos chaos and if you're in there it's stuff being blown around houses being uprooted roofs being blown off and all that but you get to the eye of the storm and it's calm it's really amazing you see that the eye of the storm there's rest faith allows you to be in the eye of the storm while the storm rages around and perhaps you've been caught up in the whirlwind and the unrest and the unbelief because you're there in the storm itself and God says come come into the eye of the storm let me let me bring you to a place where you're relying on your eyes less and your excellent understanding of it and my explanation of it less and just simply rest in me and and find your rest in the eye of the storm and you'll find that all is rest remember that story where there was a storm all around and then there was the eye of the storm where was that a pillow in the back of the boat where Jesus was sleeping that's the eye of the storm waves raging around disciples in a panic and Jesus fast asleep 2nd Corinthians chapter 11 you read a little bit about what Paul's life was like as he 2nd Corinthians is one of the last letter letters he wrote towards the end of his life certainly and look at what he says in 2nd Corinthians 11 verse we can reading in verse 23 here is Paul bragging Paul bragging here it's okay to brag in certain cases if you know if you do the right type of bragging it's good to brag it's okay to brag here's Paul bragging 2nd Corinthians 11 verse 23 are they servants of Christ I speak as if in saying I more so I am more a servant of Christ and let me explain to you what I mean far more labors far more imprisonments beaten times without number often in danger of death five times I received from the Jews 39 lashes three times I was beaten with rods once I was stoned three times I was shipwrecked a night and a day I have spent in the deep verse 26 I've been on frequent journeys in dangers from rivers dangers from robbers dangers from my countrymen dangers from not my countrymen that's the Gentiles dangers in the city dangers in the wilderness dangers on the sea dangers among other Christians who call themselves Christians verse 27 I've been in labor and hardship many sleepless nights in hunger and thirst often without food in cold and exposure apart from such external things there is the daily pressure on me of concern for all the churches verse 30 if I have to boast I will boast about these things see how Paul came to the place he says listen let me tell you the storm around me is this bad it's like worse and then it got worse and then it got even worse but I'm gonna boast about it because I found the eye on the storm I found a place where I'm rest at rest with God I have come to I've grown in my faith I'm holding on unto the hand of God alone not my own eyes wonderful promise it's going on to say let's skip a few verses chapter 12 verse 7 because of the surpassing greatness of the revelation yes he talks about the revelation of the third heaven but I believe God Paul got this revelation that God gave him I believe which is this Paul I'm not interested in explaining everything to you I'm interested in your growing from faith to faith because it is this is how the salvation how you will be saved I'm not ashamed of this gospel because it is the power of God unto salvation from faith to faith and God Paul got this revelation that God when he was allowing the circumstances around him to increase and press in on him even more externally and internally in his own thoughts he saw that God was growing his dependence on him that's who he says I'm gonna boast about that because of the surpassing greatness of the revelation for this reason to keep me from exalting myself that was given me a thorn in the flesh a messenger of Satan could you imagine what would it be like if your honest testimony is that you knew that a circumstance in your life is a direct messenger from Satan some sickness perhaps or some person some thing in his life is directly a messenger from Satan what if God told you hey Santosh tomorrow I'm gonna send you a messenger from Satan what would you do would you be in a panic like hold on the messenger from Satan is coming you know like the angel of death with this little hook thing this is actually what happened to Paul the closest man to Christ on this earth at that time the messenger of Satan says knock knock I'm here God has allowed me to come and Paul says what Lord why are you sending me why are you allowing your messenger from Satan Paul I'm after faith greater faith in your life where you can have a messenger of Satan in your own body and you're leaning on me are you facing a messenger from Satan in your life in some way now don't think of that neighbor or that person who cuts you off on the street that's not the messenger from Satan it's some circumstances probably your own pride some self-seeking some selfish ambition you have here on this earth but if there is a messenger from Satan in your life in some way it could be sickness yeah sickness is not from God he allows it but he doesn't send sickness but if there is a pressing circumstance is there something that's squeezing you so horribly that you're completely helpless trust God hold on to his hand don't try to figure out why God's doing it there's no more the question why I don't need to know the answer why God but simply resting in him saying yes Lord your hand is with me you're with me you're walking with me through this and he says concerning this messenger from Satan I begged the Lord three times Lord take this away from me why is this messenger of Satan here in my house and my body and he said to me listen my grace is sufficient for you because my power is perfected in weakness and so Paul got this revelation God you're doing something much greater than explaining the problem to me you're building faith in me you're crushing my self-confidence you're increasing my ability to lean on you so I will boast most gladly therefore I will rather boast about my weakness so that the power of Christ may dwell in me you see what Paul was doing he's saying listen this is the worst hurricane I've ever had I thought the worst one was last year this hurricane in my life is even worse I can brag about it because I have found the place of rest where I'm holding the hand of God now we're not sadists we're not people who look for suffering we're not ascetics we're not looking for the most miserable life we can live let's sleep on a bed of nails let's you know just eat a piece of bread every day and all that we're not looking for that but when God allows circumstances in our life that are beyond their control beyond our control we say Lord I'm not gonna try to understand the answer why think back on your prayers brothers sister child think back on your prayers have they been over the last year let's say have they been prayers of why Lord why me what are you doing how could how this how is this all gonna work out is that been the prayer no please no nothing you hear in this church is to discourage you is to challenge you to grow in faith to say Lord okay and no more do I want to explain or to understand why I'm simply gonna hold on to your hand help me to find your hand help me to find the joy of simply saying to be your slave and to do your will that is my greatest joy and Jesus you know he was the greatest example of this Paul says in Galatians 2 that the life I now live in the flesh Galatians 2 verse 20 I live by the faith of Jesus that means Jesus had a faith this dependence on God Jesus himself had it you read that throughout the book of Hebrews we've been looking in Hebrews even that Jesus came down to this earth to be our forerunner that's the essence of the new covenant to be an example to us that means if he says Santos you've got to live by faith he says I'm not just gonna tell you you need to I'm gonna show you and Jesus himself as God he never ceased to be God fully God emptied himself of the only one that doesn't need that that is is entitled you can say to be self-confident is God the only person who's entitled to be self-confident doesn't need any dependence on anybody else is God because he is God the beginning in the end he has eternal life he's eternal so he's the only one that is entitled to be fully self-confident and self-dependent everybody else all everybody is everything and everybody else must be dependent on him to experience to be pleasing to him Jesus in a sense you can say when it says in Philippians 2 that he emptied himself of that place he didn't stop being God but he emptied himself of that ability to not be dependent on anybody else and came to a life where he was dependent on the father if you don't believe me let me show you two because you must see it in God's Word John chapter 5 Jesus was with the father as the Son of God from before time the Alpha and the Omega the beginning in the end he was the word where the word was with God and the word was God you read in John 1 this is speaking about Jesus but then when he came down to this earth he had a mission not just to take me back to heaven but to teach me this life of faith and to show me that the greatest privilege the greatest joy in my life would as a human being as a crew as God's creation would come from being dependent on God and he says Santos I tried to tell you about it in the Old Covenant but now I'm going to show it to you and so he came down to this earth helpless picture Jesus the Son of God who had no need to be dependent on anybody lying there in a manger if Mary hadn't nursed him and taking care of him he could have died physically but he wasn't even does necessarily dependent on human beings he was dependent on his father and when he left his throne above and came down to this earth he says father I am going to paraphrase that Philippians chapter 2 I imagine this conversation father all these years I haven't needed to be dependent on anybody but I'm going to lower myself because Santos needs an example of faith he's the author and perfector of our faith I'm going to teach Santos how to live a life of dependent on dependence on you so that he too can come to this life and be with us for all eternity he can experience that unity and oneness with us that we've had for all eternity so I'm going to come and I'm just going to rely on you to take care of me from beginning to end and he began as a helpless little babe in a manger in a cow shed around all the filth and the smells around him completely helpless can you imagine all the germs that were there in that cow shed you know here we are today we have incubators and ICUs for children at risk is there any child that's more at risk than the son of God lying in a cow shed around all the germs around him yes from an earthly perspective but from God's perspective from the kingdom of heaven that was the safest child that has ever been born no harm could come to that child because here was a human being fully dependent on his father that's the example for us at the end of his life one of his last words his father I've lived my whole life dependent on you into your hands I commend my spirit commit my spirit I'm just I've been leaving it in your hands my whole life and I'm just leaving it into your hands now this is faith John 5 or Jesus says in verse 19 truly truly I say to you the son can do nothing of himself unless it is something he sees the father doing the son can do nothing of himself what Jesus Colossians 1 tells us that he created everything all that we see is created by his hand in him we move and have our being the same Jesus says I emptied myself of that and put myself in a place where I say I can do nothing on my own mission verse 30 he says again I can do nothing on my own initiative zero let me paraphrase God Jesus is saying I am useless good for nothing and unless you you learn that secret Santos you will never experience my righteousness oh that you will learn the secret of being a zero being helpless being good for nothing and that Christ may fill you and you may be more dependent on him more and more dependent on him you know that's why Jesus prayed we were praying yesterday in our men's prayer meeting yesterday morning and I said where the Lord laid on my heart as we came to pray you know who I read in the Bible prayed the most Jesus you know you hear about Elijah's prayer Jabez's prayer Habakkuk's prayer different people's prayer Jesus prayed the most he would spend night you look at the scripture you see there's a time it's recorded that he prayed in the morning it's another time that's recorded he prayed in the evening there's a time you're recording he prayed all night multiple times and that's just the ones recorded sometimes he prayed with loud crying and tears you read Hebrews 5 verse 7 who do you think prayed the most of all human beings I want to say it was Jesus yet he never sinned see we pray because we've sinned say oh Lord I've sinned I'm sorry please forgive me we pray I want to be more like you yes that's good but we haven't seen what prayer really is if that's the extent to which we've seen prayer I need to pray because I need more of God's Holy Spirit or I felt I was a I got irritated last week I don't want to be like that anymore Jesus prayed because he saw that the moment he loses this dependence on the father he's going the other way he prayed to remain dependent on his father until the last day of his life that's why he prayed and on that last night Luke 22 do you think Jesus you know I was talking about how God hides things from us as we grow closer to him you think Jesus saw everything clearly when he was here on this earth you know at one point he says no one knows when the son of Paul Jesus is saying no one knows when I'm going to return not even me only the father knows because he had put himself in this place as a man where he didn't need to know I mean you don't think Jesus could have said father can you tell me when I'm gonna come back what's the date just tell me at least I Father says no you're a man I need to teach you dependence on me where I can hide things from you keep you in the dark and you'll still trust me yes Lord Jesus says and the greatest example of that is in the Garden of Gethsemane in Luke 22 where in verse 39 Jesus is wrestling now this isn't just about okay it'd be nice to know the date this is life or death eternally this is Jesus saying father you're gonna forsake me for three hours on the cross which is gonna feel like an eternity because I'm gonna experience being forsaken by you for the sake of Santos your sin and is there any way that can you show me Lord is if it's possible let's look at this Luke 22 39 he came out and proceeded as was his custom to the Mount of Olives and the disciples also followed him when he arrived at the place he said to them pray that you may not enter into temptation and he withdrew from them about a stone's throw he knelt down and he began to pray I mean he's got hours left to live he says I need to pray there are Christians who think I don't need to pray I'm not eating anything right now so nothing to pray for right look at Jesus praying what's the temptation he's facing much deeper than we realize father I'd never want to come to a place where I'm independent of you I want to be dependent on you until the end and I'm I'm almost on the last few hours of my life and I know the devil is trying to bring me to away from that because this is what caused the devil to fall and become the devil independence of God this is the first temptation Genesis chapter 3 the tree of the knowledge of good and evil as opposed to the tree of life dependence on him and he says I need to pray and he's his father if you are willing remove this cup from me yet not my will but yours be done you see he's not sure father I'm in the dark I don't know is it your will I don't know you see the uncertainty that God allowed his own son the father allowed his own son to experience you think that for Jesus on the last few hours of his life living a perfect life never having sinned everything would be clear father says son I can't hold that to you because I need an author and a finisher for Santos's faith somebody who trusted me from the beginning until the very end and I'm gonna hide this most important of questions that has ever been asked and then when he's on the cross is my God my God why have you forsaken me perhaps the greatest question that has never been answered why have you forsaken me God you can't even call him father as he became sin who knew no sin that we might become the righteousness of God Jesus question goes unanswered other unanswered questions in your life brother sister Jesus is your example he's reaching out his hand and saying listen trust me I'm going to do a work of salvation I'm interested in your faith growing not in you figuring out what's going on not in me going easy on you because you think it's getting a little too tight or a little too uncomfortable listen the comfort and the discomfort and all that stuff I can take I'll take care of you the father says I'm not gonna let go of you the eternal God is my refuge and underneath that are the everlasting arms he says I've got you in my hand will you just trust me don't give up on me just because I haven't explained to you what's going on don't give up on me because I haven't explained to you what's going on this is God calling us up from faith to faith and let me close with this in 2nd Corinthians chapter 5 2nd Corinthians 5 we read what have I tried to do here I think of this verse often when I get when I sit down to speak 2nd Corinthians 511 knowing the fear of the Lord we persuade men I'm appealing to you as I believe the Holy Spirit's been appealing to my own heart because I know the fear of the Lord what is he talking about verse 6 therefore in the midst of whatever hurricane you're going through being always of good courage and knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord because we walk by faith not by sight or I would paraphrase as I've been saying today we walk by holding on to Christ's hand not by him explaining what he's doing we walk by faith not by sight and tomorrow he's going to explain less to me and ask me to trust him more and next week he's all going to explain even less to me and ask me to trust him more this is walking by faith to faith to faith and on the last day of my life he could hide everything from me and leave me completely dumbfounded completely like I have no idea what God is doing but I'm holding on to him faith we walk by faith not by sight because he says verse 8 we are of good courage I say and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord therefore we also have as our ambition whether at home or absent to be pleasing to him for we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body according to what he has done whether good or bad this is righteousness what deeds Oh Lord I was good for so many years and bad for so many years it outweighs is that what you read when you read verse 10 no Lord I trusted you fully until the very end those are the deeds of righteousness Abraham believed God it says and it was counted in him as righteousness what is the deeds that you will be recompensed for it will be the deeds that came as a result of leaning on God and trusting him and being dependent on him and the more you walk by faith and less by sight he says I saw that Santos nobody else saw it I saw it and I was pleased by it I recently come to a new definition of heaven what will heaven be like heaven for me will be that God finally has all of me unhindered that's heaven you know there was a song I heard what years ago is like heaven is wonderful place we could play football and some all kinds of mansions and stuff and sure when you're when you're a child when you have a little bit of faith when you're new in the faith you think God's great heaven's gonna be wonderful no more pain no more suffering no more tears that's good but when you grow in faith it's no longer about he will wipe away every tear which he will there will be no more pain revelation 21 read it but heaven is not about those things for me anymore it is finally God has all of me unhindered right now he doesn't right now he has some of me as much as I'm aware of I've given to him and the rest I want to give to him fully and finally heaven will be this God has all of me unhindered is that what you want brother sister you see that's why Jesus says unless you take up your cross and deny yourself you cannot be my disciple you see that's why we preach about death to self because it's life to eternal where God has all of me self is completely done away this is our hope let's pray father thank you for the wonderful hope you've given us the calling in Jesus Christ thank you Lord Jesus for the example you set us beginning and ending your life in faith I want that life Lord Jesus depending on you forgive me for how I've tried to figure out things and ask and demand an explanation of you for what you're doing in my life I repent of that Lord I want faith I want to depend on you more today than I did yesterday and more tomorrow than I did today so I say Lord in faith that you can and trusting you that you can take me through something where you explain even less to me and I want to trust you help us and may we be such a church may it be that when you come down to this earth you will find faith in us in Jesus name