Lessons in Faith

There was a time in my life where I lacked spiritual maturity. There was a lot I didn't know about God, about me, about God and me. I remember I was at a prayer meeting at someone's house back then, and lo and behold, who should walk in the door but Adrian Rogers.

Well, as soon as Dr. Rogers got there, the whole room was charged with electricity. At the end of the meeting, I waited my turn to introduce myself to him. When I finally stood before him, I asked him a question, and he gave me an answer.

And I replied, gee, I didn't know that. And Adrian Rogers took his two big hands and placed them on both sides of my face as he yanked me off the ground to where my face was one inch from his and in his big booming voice he declared, There's a lot you don't know, young man. Well, he scared me to death, but he was right about two things.

I was still a young man, and there was still a lot I didn't know, especially about God. But age is no guarantee that you will have spiritual maturity. I knew two pastors who were both 72 years old.

One had spiritual maturity, and the other did not. One was greatly used of God, and the other was not. One was willing to go out on a limb for God and take big risks for God.

The other was content with the status quo. One had faith. The other did not.

In Hebrews, my Bible says, without faith, it's impossible to please God. And I believe my Bible when it says, with God, all things are possible, and all things are possible to him who believes. The more faith we have, the more useful to God we are.

Why did God use D.O. Moody so much? Moody was a man of faith. He lived on the full stretch for God, trusting God to work wonders. And God used Moody like few others.

Moody was an uneducated man who believed in a big God. Moody did big things for God because he had a big faith in God. An example of Moody's faith can be seen in the following remarks, recorded by a close associate of his, who was sharing a hotel room with Moody right before a big evangelistic meeting in Buffalo, New York.

Moody's companion wrote in his diary, the storm which had been gathering grew more severe, and about time to get ready for the meeting. It seemed to be at its worst, I said. Guess there won't be many out tonight in the storm.

With sort of a grunt, Moody replied, there'll be a house full if you believe there will. And sure enough, when we got to the auditorium, it was packed. Well, I like that story, friends, because I believe the faith life can be summed up in the words of Vance Hafner, who said, if we serve such a dynamite God, then why are so many of us living firecracker lives? Well, I was living a firecracker life until years ago.

I asked God for a change. I asked God to build in me something I didn't have. And I've seen God move like I've never seen him move.

But I've been privileged to have known some men of faith, like Adrian Rogers, who did big things for God and his generation, because Adrian believed in a big God. Adrian Rogers was the pastor of the biggest church among Southern Baptists. It had a membership of 30,000.

He served several times as president of the Southern Baptists, and God opened doors for Adrian Rogers in remarkable ways. He was invited to the White House by one president, and he flew on Air Force One with another president. God used him to witness to Muhammad Ali in a hotel room in the Bahamas, while the boxing champ was lying in a bed with a tub of ice cream on his belly.

Ali asked Dr. Rogers, How can you say Jesus is the Son of God because he was born of a virgin and didn't have an earthly father? Adrian Rogers replied, Champ, I want you to understand this. Jesus was not the Son of God because he was born of a virgin. He was born of a virgin because he was the Son of God.

Dr. Rogers had a radio and TV ministry that reached all over the world. Well, why did God use him so? Because he was a man of faith who believed God could do what man could not. Listen, friend, you only get one life to impact your generation.

What you do with it is up to you and will be determined by the size of your faith. And you can put that down big, plain and straight. We serve a dynamite God who is super-duper.

And if we really believe that we can be used to God to do super-duper things for God, then he will use us. It was on New Year's Day 1932 when John Song exercised his faith and prayed to God to enable him to lead 100,000 people to the Lord within that year. Well, God answered that prayer of faith for Song by giving him 100,000 conversions.

The next year, John Song prayed for 200,000 souls to be saved. And God worked in might of revival and honored that as well, shaking China under Song's powerful ministry. Perhaps God doesn't use us more because we don't have enough faith.

Jesus kept asking his disciples, where is your faith? This series of lessons on the faith life has been born out of personal experience. Years ago, I was hungering and longing for a deeper reality of God in my life. And I got desperate enough about it that for the next four days, I shut myself up with God in prayer.

And I searched the scriptures and searched my heart. And I realized I lacked faith. I decided that day I wanted to become a man of faith.

And I asked God to show me what faith was from his perspective. And over the next seven years, God was faithful to that prayer as he built faith in me. Faith that was hammered out on the anvil of affliction and developed in storms of adversity.

In Hebrews 11, 6, we read, but without faith, it is impossible to please him. That statement alone, friend, should drain all the blood from our faces. And make us honestly face the fact of our faith or lack of it.

The verse goes on to say, for he that cometh to God must believe that he is. And that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. Faith is believing God is who he says he is.

And believing that he is able to do what he has declared. If you ask God for a thing and sincerity of heart, and if that thing is in line with God's will, then he will be faithful to bringing that thing into a reality in your life. I asked for God to make me a man of faith and he did just that.

I've seen him do the inexplicable and unexplainable. Like the time I had to get to a meeting over 30 miles away, meaning there and back I had to drive over 60 miles and only had enough gas in my car to barely drive about 28 miles, not even. I was flat broke and I had no money for gas, but I had to get to that meeting.

So I got in my car and I drove that 30 miles with the needle on my gas gauge, never budging an inch. Then I drove the 30 miles home and the gas needle still never budged an inch. Then I was so elated.

I drove that car up and down the streets of my neighborhood, hooting and hollering and praising God, watching the needle suddenly go down to literally nothing until I pulled into my parking spot. God kept that car from using the gas that was in there until I got safely home. Can he do such a thing? Well, I believe there is an account in the book of Second Kings in chapter four concerning the prophet Elisha and the widow's pot of oil, where God worked his work and the oil stayed.

Well, some seminary professor may tell you that God doesn't work that way anymore. Well, maybe he doesn't work that way for that seminary professor because he doesn't have that kind of faith. We will study in this series, the faith life, what it is and how to attain it.

The following messages are intentionally brief and to the point, but they have a sharp point. And in this series, we will study four little lessons on the faith life. Faith in obedience, faith in adversity, faith in prayer and faith in action.

Hang on to your head, friend, because here we go.