Noah Never Saw Rain: Put Your Faith to Work Like a Servant

Sermon outline

Faith is a servant to be kept at work: believe from a right heart, say it with your mouth, and, like Noah who built an ark before he had ever seen rain, act on what God has told you before you see it.

1. Other little ships: people are watching to see if faith works for you

   Other little ships sailed with Jesus, and in the same way other lives around you are waiting to see whether faith will work in your life. When the disciples saw faith in action they asked, 'What manner of man is this?' Jesus did not ask the Father to still the storm; He rose and rebuked the wind Himself. The moment you decide to believe God, whether for healing or with your biggest offering, a furious storm arises, because Satan wants to separate you from your faith and turn you from your confession.

   Illustration: A neighbourhood has tried everything for someone who is sick, and then a born-again, Spirit-filled member of FCI says, 'In the name of Jesus, be healed', and the people ask what manner of man this is.

   “If he can separate you from your faith, then he's got you where he wants you to be.”

   • Mark 4:35-41
   • 2 Thessalonians 1:3
   • Mark 11:23-24
   • Philippians 4:19

2. Faith is your servant: put him to work

   When the apostles asked Jesus to increase their faith, He answered with the picture of a servant who comes in from the field and is told to prepare his master's supper before he rests. Reading it also from the Amplified Bible, he says Jesus was likening faith to that servant. When faith delivers something to you, do not tell it to sit down: command it again immediately.

   Illustration: A waiter in a restaurant: you send him for a passion fruit drink, then a cheesy garlic roll, then a Greek salad, then the main course, and each time he comes back you send him again. He is there to serve you.

   “Faith is your servant. Make him work for you.”

   • Luke 17:5-10

3. With the heart you believe, with the mouth you confess: speak to it

   Salvation in Romans 10:10 is the Greek soteria, which takes in deliverance, preservation, healing, wholeness and prosperity as well as eternal life, so confession is made unto each of those. Religious people beg God for help, but Jesus stood up in the boat and spoke to the storm, and He spoke to the fig tree, which dried up from the roots because He cursed it at its life source. Sickness has a root too, and the power of life and death is in the tongue. He tells the young people that if they change the way they speak their future is bright and life is worth living.

   Illustration: You may be sitting on a broken-down sofa that is collapsing, but you say, 'Lord Jesus, thank you for a brand new Gomma Gomma, burgundy in colour', and your words instruct an angel to go and bring it.

   “If I want healing, my mouth's got to say it, but it's got to come from a heart full of faith.”

   • Romans 10:10
   • Matthew 12:34
   • Mark 11:12-14
   • Mark 11:20-22
   • Matthew 18:18
   • Proverbs 18:21
   • John 10:10

4. The poor need the gospel, and it is the anointing that breaks the yoke

   It matters which church you attend: a church can be solid on the Word and void of the Spirit, and the letter kills. Education is good, but it is the anointing that lifts you. Jesus was anointed to preach the gospel to the poor, not to hand out food; the church does help people in need, he says, but quietly, without making a show of it or slipping back into works. The good news to the poor is that Jesus took their poverty, to the sick that by His stripes they were healed, and to the hopeless that Jesus is their hope, because we live beyond the cross in a finished work.

   Illustration: He saw on television people in another country being nailed to a cross as a celebration. You do not have to do that, he says: Jesus has done it for us.

   “You were poor, but you don't have to be poor anymore.”

   • 2 Corinthians 3:6
   • Isaiah 10:27
   • Luke 4:18
   • Matthew 6:1-4
   • Deuteronomy 28:3-6
   • Ephesians 2:8-9
   • 2 Corinthians 8:9
   • 1 Peter 2:24

5. Lean on God, not on man: God moves when man makes a demand

   Cursed is the man who leans on the arm of flesh; make God your prop, and let it be His Spirit that moves men and women to bless you. God fed the prophet by ravens at the brook and then commanded a widow with her last morsel to feed him, and her miracle came when she released it. So take no thought for tomorrow: worry is negative meditation. Do what God told you to do, in love, forgiveness, tithes and offerings, and then hold Him to His word.

   Illustration: In Mauritius the taxi driver answers everything with 'no problem', even while he is perspiring and the buses are hooting at him. And some Christians have a powerful V8 in the garage, full of petrol, with the key in hand, but stand outside saying 'I believe' without ever getting in and starting it.

   “God moves when man makes a demand.”

   • Romans 8:31
   • Jeremiah 17:5-7
   • 1 Kings 17:2-16
   • Matthew 6:25-34
   • Acts 16:31
   • Isaiah 45:11
   • 2 Corinthians 4:13

6. Your heart is your production centre

   Where your treasure is, your heart will be, and a good man brings good things out of the good treasure of his heart. Your money, favour and honour are in your heart, which is why you must forgive easily and let go, so that nothing clogs it. Then say it: let the poor say 'I am rich' and the sick say 'I am healed', because it takes faith to confess what you do not see. God has given you a new heart, and He is greater than a heart that condemns you.

   “When God said forgive somebody else, he didn't have the other person in mind. He had you in mind.”

   • Matthew 6:21
   • Matthew 12:35
   • Proverbs 4:23
   • Joel 3:10
   • 2 Corinthians 5:7
   • Romans 4:17
   • Ezekiel 11:19
   • Ezekiel 18:31
   • 1 Peter 3:4
   • 1 John 3:20

7. What faith does: it provides substance and evidence

   Hebrews 11:1 is not so much a definition of what faith is as a description of what faith does. He gives two truths: faith provides substance, from a Greek word meaning assurance, and faith provides evidence, meaning proof that results in conviction. 'Things hoped for' points to the future hope of the church; 'things not seen' are present realities such as the forgiveness of sins and Christ's intercession in heaven.

   “Hope is faith relating to the future. Conviction is faith relating to the present.”

   • Hebrews 11:1-7

8. Abel: a right heart made the offering acceptable

   Both brothers brought a sacrifice, so why was Abel's better? Not because it was an animal and Cain's was from the ground, nor because of blood, since grain offerings were acceptable to the Lord elsewhere in scripture. Cain did not have a right heart, and Genesis shows it was so even before his offering was rejected. Abel offered by faith, out of a pure, willing and cheerful heart.

   “The character of a worshiper made one offering acceptable and the other not.”

   • Genesis 4:1-10
   • Hebrews 11:4

9. Noah never saw rain, but he believed and built

   God gave Noah the pattern for the ark and warned him of a flood, and Hebrews says he was warned 'of things not seen as yet'. Genesis 2 explains the phrase: God had not caused it to rain, and a mist watered the ground, so Noah had never seen rain or a flood. He was moved to build by faith alone. In the same way, do not wait to see what God has spoken to you before you believe it; Abraham believed God for Isaac, and Ishmael came from trying to help God in the flesh. Press in like the woman with the issue of blood.

   Illustration: God may have told you He will make you a millionaire, and you say, 'I'll believe when I see it', because nobody in your family ever owned a big house. Be like Noah.

   “All he saw was mist. He never saw rain. But he believed.”

   • Genesis 6:8-17
   • Hebrews 11:7
   • Genesis 2:1-6
   • Genesis 17:5
   • Mark 5:25-29

10. Expectation has a posture

    Get up every morning and say that it is well with you, whatever you see, and do not accept symptoms. People may laugh and think you have given up, but the spirit of faith is working in you and the seed God deposited is sprouting. If you expect nothing, God cannot give it to you.

    Illustration: A cricketer out in the field cannot stand idly while the other side is batting; he has to be ready for the ball. And he does not know whether his provision will come by a parrot, a raven or a budgie, only that it is coming.

    “Excitement is an indication of expectation.”

    • 2 Corinthians 4:13