If I Have Him, I Have Everything: What It Means to Believe

Sermon outline

To believe is to lean your whole life on Jesus Christ, the only way to God, and to trust that every promise of God is yes and amen to you.

1. All things are possible to him that believes

   There are no meaningless details in the word of God. The Greek word for believe, pisteuo, means to have faith in, to entrust your spiritual life to Christ and to commit to Him. There is natural faith, which even unbelievers have, but Christians have the God kind of faith in His word.

   Illustration: Leaning on Christ so heavily that if the prop were moved you would fall over.

   “Your mind, your soul, your spirit, your whole life is leaning on Christ.”

   • Mark 9:23

2. Examine what you were brought up to believe

   Whatever you were raised to believe is not necessarily right, because parents pass on their belief system. As your knowledge grows there must come a point where you intelligently ask whether what you hold dear is the right way. Religion generally teaches people to do good, but God sometimes raises someone from outside the church, as He did Paul, to teach the church.

   Illustration: Parking a wheelbarrow in a garage does not make it a car; being born into a belief system does not make it correct.

   “There must come a point in your life where you have to intelligently ask yourself, is the thing I'm holding dear to, is it the right way?”

   • Exodus 20:13
   • 1 John 3:15

3. I am the way and I am the door

   When Jesus said 'I am the way', He did away with the idea that many paths lead to God, and 'I am the door' means no one passes into eternal life except through Him. You can be a good person who helps the poor, but without Christ you are lost, because the god of this world blinds people to the truth. Sincerity does not save; trusting and receiving Christ does, and that means receiving Him as the only Lord, not adding Him as one more.

   Illustration: As a young man at college, still a Hindu, he used to light a candle, open a Bible and pray, 'Lord, you know, I really want to know you.'

   “It's not your sincerity that will save you. It is your belief in the Lord Jesus Christ.”

   • John 14:6
   • John 10:9
   • 2 Corinthians 4:4

4. The sin problem and the craving only Christ satisfies

   Every person is born in sin and has a spirit that craves God, which people try to satisfy with fame, fortune and possessions. Solomon had everything and still called it vanity, because what was missing was Christ, the eternal connector and bridge to God. Life has no guarantees, so he implores everyone listening, in church, on radio and on television, to receive Christ now, as one who came from another religion himself.

   Illustration: A man who doesn't know how to fish refusing to listen to an experienced fisherman, and catching nothing all day.

   “I need an eternal connector to God. A bridge that will take me from this life to the other life.”

   • Psalm 51:5
   • Ecclesiastes 1:2
   • 2 Corinthians 5:18-19
   • James 4:14

5. The truth and the life: the risen Lord

   Jesus is the truth: He was put to death and rose again, and He spoke of going to 'my Father and your Father'. His name is above every name. This is good, old-fashioned gospel: he believes only in Christ, and like Paul he can say that for him to live is Christ.

   Illustration: Dressing that morning, he asked the Lord 'what is life?' and thought of a vapour that appears on glass and vanishes.

   “Take away the car. Take away the suit. Take away my money. Take away everything. If I have him, I have everything.”

   • John 20:17
   • Philippians 2:9-10
   • Philippians 1:21

6. Point one: believe that all the promises of God are yea and amen

   The word 'promise' means an announcement, a pledge, a divine assurance of a good message, and every promise in Christ is yes and amen. Science and human wisdom come to an end, but God's wisdom begins there; God is too big to figure out, yet He lives in the Christian by the Holy Spirit. So a Christian is not trying to be healed, wealthy or satisfied; he already is. Whoever God was with prospered, like Joseph. When Jesus called Lazarus from the tomb, death had to let him go, proving He is the Son of God who gives life.

   Illustration: Looking down from an aeroplane, or out at the vast ocean, and realising for the first time how big God is.

   “A Christian is not one that's trying to be healed. A Christian already is healed.”

   • 2 Corinthians 1:20
   • Genesis 39:2
   • John 11:39-44
   • John 10:10
   • 1 Corinthians 14:33
   • Acts 3:15
   • Matthew 7:24-27