Run Towards Your Giant: Faith Is Not a Product of Reason

Sermon outline

Faith is a force of the recreated spirit, not of reason: it sows a seed in the face of a need, runs towards the giant instead of away from it, and sees results in the name of Jesus.

1. Come back to the Word of God

   He meets many well-meaning, honest people who tell him they are not sure what God wants them to do. They have been serving the Lord, and some go to church, but somewhere along the line they have become a little lost and bewildered. His answer is to come back to the Word, because it gives direction.

   Illustration: Conversations with people who say, 'I really am not sure what I'm to do. I'm not sure what God wants me to do.'

   “If you come back to the Word of God, it will clearly define your walk with God.”

2. Start giving your way out of trouble, and honour the tithe

   Your seed is always your bridge out of trouble, and whatever God has placed in your hands is enough to get you out. He learned seed faith from men of God such as Dr Oral Roberts, and he never travels to a meeting without carrying a seed to sow. He defines tithing as returning ten per cent of your income to God after you have earned it: Abraham tithed, and Jesus took note of the Pharisees' tithing.

   Illustration: The widow of Zarephath used her seed to create a harvest in a famine, and Joseph used his gift of interpreting dreams to go from the prison to the palace.

   “Make every payday a seed-sowing day, and your results will be guaranteed.”

   • 1 Kings 17:8-16
   • Genesis 41
   • Genesis 14:20
   • Matthew 23:23

3. A testimony: the building and the 10,000 rand seed

   He tells how the church began at home with his wife and two sons on three garden chairs, grew past twenty and then forty members and moved to a school. Later God showed him a large building in a dream, and he met the man from the dream who gave him the owner's number. The owner wanted a 100,000 rand deposit within fourteen days. Before any of that money came, the Lord had spoken to him about a seed, so he emptied his account and sowed 10,000 rand into another ministry. They bought the building and paid it off within eight to nine years.

   Illustration: He rushed the 10,000 rand cheque to a pastor who was about to go on to the platform at a conference and asked him to agree with him for the building. Within days a businessman friend, over supper, asked what he was up to and told him to come by the office in the morning, where a cheque for 100,000 rand was waiting.

   “So whenever you have a need, God speaks to you about a seed.”

4. Love your Bible, and honour those who brought you the Word

   He reads Mark 11:23-24 again and says that when you see your Bible as a book that teaches you to do business with God and with man, you will love it, read more of it and practise it. He thanks God for Derek Prince, for Dr Yonggi Cho, whose books he read, and for the men and women in the United States who spent millions buying television time to teach the Word to people like him who were in church but not getting the Word in that dimension. He says he has been serving the Lord for forty years, and urges every viewer to accept Jesus as Lord and Saviour.

   “It teaches you how to do business with God and with man.”

   • Mark 11:23-24

5. Faith stands at all costs: run towards your enemy

   Do not run away from your circumstances or your enemy. The wicked flee when no one pursues, but the righteous are as bold as a lion, and we have that boldness because of Christ. He used to feel condemned whenever he missed the mark, until he learned that righteousness is a nature God imparted to his spirit at the new birth, so that he stands before God as the righteousness of God. Faith answers every symptom and every doubt now, not later.

   Illustration: As the Philistine moved closer to attack, David ran quickly towards the battle line to meet him. He did not cower.

   “I don't want you to run away from your enemy. I want you to run towards your enemy, towards your circumstances, and you will overcome.”

   • Proverbs 28:1
   • 2 Corinthians 5:21
   • 1 Samuel 17:48

6. Things never are as they look

   When Saul and the Israelites heard the Philistine's words they were dismayed and terrified, and whenever they saw the man they fled. When Peter saw the wind he was afraid and began to sink, and when he cried out, Jesus reached out and saved him.

   Illustration: A whole army running from one man, and Peter sinking at the sight of the wind.

   “Things never are as they look.”

   • 1 Samuel 17:11
   • 1 Samuel 17:24
   • Matthew 14:30-31

7. The force of faith

   He reads Hebrews 11:1-3 and says it is tremendous to have that kind of faith operating in your life. He gives an example from the years when he was still in secular employment and helping his pastor on his days of leave. The name of Jesus is higher than every other name, and at that name we will see results.

   Illustration: In the church car park a woman who was not a Christian asked for prayer for her child, who kept jerking and had lost its sense of balance after a wardrobe fell on its head; the hospital had done what it could. He took the child and commanded healing in the name of Jesus. The next morning she came back in tears to say the child was completely healed, and the family asked to receive Jesus and come to church.

   “At the name of Jesus, we will see results.”

   • Hebrews 11:1-3
   • Philippians 2:9-10

8. Faith is not a product of reason

   Faith is a product of the recreated spirit and does not work by logic. He reads how the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the elders questioned Jesus' authority: they reasoned among themselves about John's baptism and could not answer. Any reasoning a believer does should be based on the Word of God, which will never fail.

   Illustration: The religious leaders weighing up what the people would think, and ending with 'we don't know'.

   “Faith doesn't operate by logic and by reason. It operates by the recreated spirit.”

   • Mark 11:27-33
   • Isaiah 1:18