The Faith Mandate

Hi everybody, welcome back to Ignite. I want to talk to you very seriously right now with a lot of fluff. I just want to drill down to why is it that God mandates that you share your faith? Why is he making so important? Why is it from Genesis to Revelation to talk about proclaim the good news? Everywhere you look, it's just what you're supposed to do. Why? Why? Why? Why? Why is it that important? Well, it's important because that's how we reached the last. And of course it is. But do you know that secondarily to his real reason for having you share your faith? I mean, do you love yourself? If you love yourself, you should be sharing your faith. If you want to have joy, if you want to know God's speaking to your heart, if you want to know all these things that God has done, everything you want God to do for you, do you know? It's all tied up in the sharing of your faith. You understand that? I've never heard this preach, but I can tell you, after 50 years of doing it, 50 years this year, I will be caring I've been doing it every day for 50 years. We find that the reason we have joy, the reason we have unshakable faith, the reason that we know God's answering our prayers is because we came to this simple truth 50 years ago that God's purpose for us is to share our faith. That's why it's the great commission. Okay? Let me ask you a question. Do you live your life according to Proverbs 3.5? In that case you don't know what that is. That's the one that says, trust the Lord with your whole heart. Don't depend on your own understanding, in all your ways, acknowledge him and he would direct your path. So do you live your life according to that? I asked that question a lot. I find almost everybody raising their hands of cards. Yeah, we believe that. But the statistics tell us that over 80% of Christians are living in fear. That's like 80% of you listening to me right now. Thank you. All things are going wrong. I mean, I don't care where you are. If with your own family, with your own health, with your own job, with your own community, with your own church, not to mention what's going on in Washington Sea and around the world and world economic far. I mean, there's a lot to be afraid of if you allow yourself to be. Over 80% of Christians living in fear. So obviously that means over 80% of Christians are not trusting the Lord with their whole heart. If you're not trusting the Lord with your whole heart, all kinds of things fall apart. Do you know, in James 1, James 1 is such a great book. It's the one book I've actually memorized. And I did that 40 years ago, I guess. I love the scriptures in this wonderful book. But very first chapter, you know, he says ask whatever you want, but don't ask with wavering. If you're praying and fearing at the same time, if you're praying in faith and wavering and having lack of faith, and not really sure if God's going to answer your prayers, he says that you're unstable in all of your ways. And he actually says don't expect me to answer your prayers. So this honoring God with your whole heart, having a whole hearted faith is really important. Okay. So I got to need jerk back to, I'm sorry folks, Romans 8, 28, where he says, and this is God saying it. And he's saying it to each one of you. He's saying, I will make everything, everything in your life for now until you get to heaven. For now until you do, I will make everything in your life work together for good if you do two things. If you love me with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength, everything within you, you just love God. If you really love God, a lot of years I didn't love God. I said to God, I said what you do when you're Christian. I love you Lord, but I didn't. He wasn't what I talked about. He wasn't what I live for. I was on my way to heaven, but I wasn't loving him with my whole heart. He's saying loving him with your whole heart. And whatever you love with your whole heart, you're going to tell people about him. So back to that love of the church at Ephesus, he says, you've left your first love. I'm no longer your first love. And then if I'm no longer your first life, you're no longer doing the first work, you're no longer telling people about me. There's a mere image of that. So now he's saying the whole thing with a huge promise. He says, if you love me to those who love me, I love the King James best in this particular scripture. I will make everything your life worked together for good to those who love me, to those who live for my purpose. It's always his purpose to seek and say the last. It's so simple. And that destroys fear. When you live in the promise of Romans 828, I think it's the second most important scripture. After John 316, he destroys fear. Fear is gone. You destroy fear with effortless faith. When you live for his purpose, when you live to seek and say the loss, when you live to move everybody every day closer to Jesus, when you do that, God defeats fear with effortless faith. Do you have that? And when you do that, guess what? God directs your steps. Proverbs 3.5. That's when you have wholehearted faith. And when you have wholehearted faith, you can trust them over with your wholehearted faith and acknowledge him. And he will direct your steps. You want to have God direct in your steps. Of course you do. You need to have wholehearted faith. How do you get to wholehearted faith? You live for his purpose. The whole entirety of our Christian life is living for God's purpose. That's your purpose, his purpose. And then in James 1, he says, when you ask in faith, I'll give it to you. Ask whatever you will. I'll give it to you. But ask with wholehearted faith, unwavering faith. That's what God is saying to you right now. That's what I'm saying to you right now. Wow. And then there's an added bonus, John 15 11. He says, I love this. Is that last parable? Or he said, if you're obviously worth the branches, he's the tree. If he didn't flow through us, we're just dry brush to be thrown away into the fire. But when he flows through us and we bear fruit, he says, my joy remain with you and your joy remain full. Wow. When you experience God speaking through you every time he does that, he brings you alive and you know God is speaking to you and using you and loving you and answering your prayers and directing your steps and giving you joy every day. And that will ignite your life. I've got to tell you last scripture, Isaiah 4310. He says, I have put you as my witness. This is the one scripture out of all the scriptures. This is the one that actually says, why? Okay, why are we doing all this? It's secondary to win the loss. It's primarily to win you. Isaiah 4310. He says, I point you as my witness so that you will believe so that you will know and understand that I am God. He didn't say so to you to understand more. What did you read saying is you're not going to really know me until you do this. You want to really know God? You want to have faith that is invincible? You have faith that defeats fear. You ought to have God directing your steps. You want to know God's answering your prayers. You want to know God is giving you joy every day. Then move everybody every day closer to Jesus. Have a new year. That's the message of our ministry. I know ignite your life. See you next time.