Advancing In Faith – Dr. Charles Stanley

Dr. Stanley explains how, if a person is to grow in his or her faith, dependence upon God is critical. He also demonstrates ten important ways faith matures. You, too, can have the presence, power, and wisdom of almighty God to help you through anything you must face in life.

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And the son of god, Jesus, the lord said, I am the way the truth and the life.
No one comes to the father, but by me. Therefore, go into all the world.
Teaching and preaching the gospel to every single person that are modest parts of the earth.
In touch, the teaching ministry of Doctor Charles Stanley.
Next on in touch, advancing in faith.
When you trusted Jesus Christ as your savior, the Holy Spirit came into your life and sealed you forever as a child of god.
That was the beginning of a life like you never dreamed of.
You probably heard about people being Christians and one that looking at them what it was like.
But for you, it was a brand new life. It’s a brand new life for all of us.
That’s why Jesus called it being born again. But that was just the beginning.
Because from that point on, you would begin the walk of a believer, of a Christian.
And that walk will take you lots of different places.
Taking difficult situations and circumstances, all kind of situations.
But walking with the lord Jesus Christ is the most exciting life that a person can possibly live because there are no limitations.
You’re walking with the son of god. Your destiny is fixed forever.
And your companion is absolutely unbeatable. It’s the son of god.
He says, I’ll never leave you nor forsake you.
So While Salvation is a one time experience, the walk is continuous.
So what you can you expect when you think about what can I expect in this walk?
So I wanna put those up on the screen. And one of them is simply this.
As we walk with him, we’ll get to know him in an intimate and personal way.
And that’s very important, not just as somebody we read about, an intimate and personal way.
Secondly, we’ll discover his will and purpose for our life.
Which is so very important for him and for us.
Then you will learn to listen to him and obey him.
That’s part of the walk, listening and obeying and trusting him.
Then, of course, you’ll experience his presence, his power, and his wisdom.
Because he says I’ll never leave you nor forsake you. And so all three of those are available to us.
Then, of course, you will understand that the Christian life is truly a walk of faith.
That it’s not something we just feel alone. It is a walk of faith.
You are saved once and for all, and the walk is continuous forever till he calls us home to be with him.
So what I wanna do in this message is I wanna talk about how how do we advance in our faith, and the title of this message is advancing in faith.
I want you to turn, if you will, to a chapter in Matthew that, uh, is a very popular chapter because we know it so well.
It’s a 14th chapter. And there are many many messages that can come out of a single passage of scripture, but I wanna talk about this whole issue of how we advance in our faith.
And I want to use Peter as a good example.
Somebody might say, well, but Peter had relapses in his faith. Let me ask you a question.
How many of you have suffered faith failures? Come on. Yeah. All of us have.
We’ve all suffered faith failures, so don’t judge Peter quite yet. So look what’s happened in his life.
Verse 22. Immediately, he made the disciples get into the boat, and go ahead of him to the other side while he sent the crowds away.
After he had sent the crowds away, he went up on the mountain by himself to pray.
And when it was evening, he was there alone. Don’t you know he enjoyed those moments?
But the boat was already a long distance from the land, vetted by the waves, the wind was contrary.
And in the fourth watch of the night, he came to them walking on the sea.
When the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were terrified and said, it is a ghost, and they cried out in fear.
But immediately, Jesus spoke to them saying, take courage. It is I. Do not be afraid.
Peter said to him, Lord, if it’s you command me to come to you on the water, and he said, come.
And Peter got out of the boat, and walked on the water and came toward Jesus.
But seeing the wind, he became frightened and beginning to sink.
He cried out, lord save me, immediately Jesus stretched out his hand and took hold of him and said to him, you of little faith, why did you doubt?
When they got into the boat, the wind stopped.
And those who were in the boat worshiped him saying, you are certainly god’s son.
Now let’s think about something.
That all of Peter’s life, he knew as an absolute fact A man cannot walk on water.
He knew that. There was no question in his mind about it.
But when Jesus said, come, Peter, he stepped out of the boat onto the water and began to walk across the top of the water to Jesus.
And then, of course, like all of us probably would have done, he looked around and saw this big wave coming and he began to sink, and Jesus had to save him.
So you say, well, he had a faith failure. But look at this.
Look at how far his faith had come from sitting in a boat safe with Jesus, fishing.
And now he’s out of the boat, in the storm and walking on water.
I say you have to give 3 chairs for Peter. I mean, look what happened to his faith.
Well, you say, well, what’s that got to do with my faith a whole lot?
Because you see, most people wanna stay in the boat. That’s where they wanna stay.
In fact, a lot of people don’t even wanna get in the boat.
They wanna stay on the shore where it’s safe and talk about trusting god.
But that is not the will of god for us.
Faith is a confident conviction, not a feeling, a confident conviction that god will do what he promised.
Now most people wanna go by the feelings.
A confident conviction that Jesus Christ will do what he promises to do. That’s what faith’s all about.
And it’s interesting to me that many, many people who will trust Jesus Christ to save them. Look.
They bet their whole eternal future on the fact that by confessing, repenting of their sins and trusting Jesus Christ as their savior, no matter what happens in this life, they go into heaven.
They’ll trust him for that. But on a daily basis, they can’t trust him for simple things, little things, provide things for them that they need or healing for their body, whatever it might be.
So god wants us to grow. The Christian walk is a growing walk.
It is it it is to be an advancing walk.
So the question is, how do we grow in our faith? How do we advance in our faith?
I’m gonna give you 10 ways. And first, let me say, I know they work.
So I wanna give you a list of 10 things. Don’t misunderstand one of them.
Because it’ll transform your life, your future, if you will learn to trust him, And what we are talking about is how to advance in your faith.
It doesn’t make any difference where you are. You may be sitting on the day that you were saved.
You may not have advanced one step. You’re just there, but today, you can change all of that.
And so the first step is simply this, and that is Remember this, if we’re gonna grow in our faith, we have to face listen, we have to face and overcome obstacles test trials and temptations in our life.
That’s the way we grow in our faith one way. Somebody says, well, now can’t we just pray for faith?
Well, if you mean just say, god, give me faith. And all of a sudden, you have great faith answers.
No. If you say, god, I want you to give me faith. Get ready. Because here’s what he’s gonna do.
He’s gonna give you a test, a trial, or allow you to have a temptation in your life in such a way that what happens All of a sudden, you have to decide whether you’re gonna trust them or not.
So growing in faith is not simple. Growing in your faith can be painful.
But listen, tell me something any greater than to than to have great faith in your life that when you come to god, you have confidence and assurance that this god whom you believe you you’re trusting in him that he’s gonna answer your prayer, and you stop hesitating about what he may or may not do.
And all of a sudden, everything in your life begins to change. But it begins listen.
It begins just with that. Facing now look, not just facing obstacles and difficulties, but facing them and overcoming.
Hanging in there. Don’t give up and quit because something looks a little hard, or here’s what you do.
Sometimes people say, well, you know what?
I just knew it was the will of god and I prayed and prayed and didn’t happen.
Must not been the will of god. Don’t give. That’s the devil’s lie. Don’t give up.
And find yourself receding back into doubt and unbelief just because god wanted to grow your faith and answered your prayer.
He didn’t tell you. He don’t give it to you in 24 hours.
You said I want you to grow my faith. God says, okay. Here we go. Now here’s what he’ll do.
He looks at your life, your life, your life, your life, your life, and my life.
And what does he do? He just designs the test the trial, whatever it might be, that perfectly suits you, fits you in order to grow your faith, not somebody else’s faith.
So god knows exactly how to strengthen our faith and help us to advance.
And because he is going to use us, in proportion to our faith.
He’s going to bless us and proportion to our faith.
Everything he does in our life relates to our faith.
And therefore, if you want greater faith, first of all, recognize that there will be test trials, maybe hardships, may not be much any of any of that, but he’s gonna test you in some way because, listen, he’s got to get he’s gotta get you off dead center.
Something has got to challenge you to say yes to him when it looks difficult and looks like you can’t do it.
If it’s something that’s just a pushover, Well, that’s not gonna be that’s not gonna build your faith.
Building faith brings a test. Then, of course, understanding the very nature of god.
Until a person begins to understand who god is the face not gonna grow, we say, well, I know that he’s omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, but he’s more than that.
And we forget this that god is holy. He’s righteous. He is also a god of judgment.
He’s a god of love and mercy and forgiveness and kindness.
He he is a god that attributes of which are numerous.
It’s when I begin to understand and believe in my heart that this god in whom I serve, he has all power.
He he is a merciful god. He is a loving god. He’s an understanding god He knows it all.
He knows exactly what I need. He knows how much it can stand.
He knows how hard the test must be, can be, and must not be.
And so it’s god working in our lives, and he knows exactly how to do it.
If my faith is gonna grow, I’ve gotta understand who this god is.
Likewise, I must meditate on the word of god. Listen to me carefully.
Jot that down, and then I want you to listen.
If you’re going to grow in your faith, this is absolutely an essential. Remember what this book is?
The Bible Listen. The Bible is the word of god. God voiced the truth through these who pended.
This is god’s book. If I wanna go about god, there’s a place to go.
If I wanna know how god acts, there’s a place to go.
If I wanna know what god can do, will do, has done, there’s a place to go.
You cannot grow in your faith and ignore the reading of the word of god.
And this is why I say over and over again, we should start the morning meditating on god’s word or in the evening or whenever it’s convenient to you.
But if listen, if you leave this out, you don’t have any direction God gives direction through his word.
And you can read one verse of scripture, and today, it may not mean anything. Tamara, listen.
You read that verse of scripture, you’d say, uh, oh, what what’s this?
You know that god is speaking to you. And here’s what happens. He speaks to us through his word.
And in the process of doing what he brings to your mind and heart or protecting you in some situation or providing something that you need in the process of doing that.
It’s like god unfolds his word in actions.
And what builds my faith is when I read this and here’s what he says, then I watch it happen.
A person who neglects the word of god, here’s what you’re saying.
You say, I want god to do this and not do that, but I’m not interested in what he’s saying.
I’m interested in what I’m saying.
I’m only interested in what he’s saying or or proving that I am when I’m opening the word and finding out what did he say about this situation?
What did he say about that?
I don’t think think you can come up with any situation, circumstance in which god doesn’t have, not just an opinion, but the truth about it.
So if I want to grow in my faith, I’ve gotta find out how does god act.
And when I think about the Bible, the Bible is the fuel for my faith.
If I want my faith to grow, then here’s the fuel right here. Who is this god?
How does he operate? How does he act? How does he work? What did he say? What did he promise?
What did he say about my situation? My circumstance in this particular day?
Then, of course, we must apply the principles of the word of god. And that is principles.
That is principles by which we live, for example, at Life Principle Bible, there are 30 principles primarily in the life principle Bible that cover just about everything imaginable.
For example, one of those principles that sits so simple is We report we saw more than we saw later than we saw.
It can’t change. It’s a principle of god. Their principle is about waiting upon the lord.
That principle is about god answering prayer.
That principle is about you but you see, if you don’t apply them to your life, you can read it and it won’t work.
Application, when you when you read the word of god, whether whether you read the 23rd Psalm, something that’s so familiar with some of the passage, ask the lord, lord, How do I apply this to my life?
And what happens is when you apply the principle, god honors it. He works in your life.
What happens to your faith? Your faith begins to grow and grow and grow because you see the evidence of god working in your life.
Then, of course, observing the ways of god, how does he work?
And when you and I begin to understand who god is and how he works, for example, here’s one of the ways that god works.
He uses suffering to strengthen your faith. He uses suffering to bring you to your knees.
He uses suffering, for example, to bring you to a fresh new commitment.
He brings suffering and trial and hardship to open your heart help you understand that you need him in your life.
That’s just one way. For example, one of the ways of god is he’s silent.
Sometime you talk to him, silent. Nothing happens.
I can remember that one of the critical moments in my life, when I was seeking direction, uh, earlier in my life, it was a critical moment.
God was absolutely silent. He was so silent to me.
I’d read the Bible and not say, god, do you see what that says?
And and, uh, I’m sure he didn’t get angry. In fact, I I remember getting down one night.
I had the hymn book, and I’d read some hymns to him and say, God, here’s what I’ve been singing all my life.
Here’s what you where are you? And god is silent.
But then when he answered, he answered in the most awesome way.
I wouldn’t even tell you this morning. I don’t have time.
But I can tell you, one of the ways of god is he’s silent. Sometimes he makes his weight.
So there there are all kinds of ways of god to preach the whole series on it.
But I’m simply saying the way we grow in faith is we began to understand his ways.
How does he work? He listen, one of the ways he works He uses the most inopportune situation.
He operates in the most unusual ways sometimes with the most unusual people that you think could never seeded anything, and god uses them in an awesome way.
He wants your faith to grow. That’s what advancing is all about.
And then, of course, by observing the work in the lives of other people, and I think about uh, how god certainly stimulated my faith to grow by spending 1 week with my grandfather.
You heard me say that before. I listened to him for 1 week.
He told me how god had worked in his life. They were etched in my mind.
And I remember thinking, Well, god, if you worked in his life that way, and my grandfather was a pastor and evangelist, and then one of the godliest men I’ve ever known, I thought, god, if you work in his way, though, in his life that way, how do you work in my life?
And I began to read the old testament characters and my my most favorite ones, primarily, And I thought, well, lord, if you worked in his life that way, then you worked in their life that way, what will you do in my life?
If I obey you and trust you, what will you do in my life?
My grandfather absolutely catapulted my faith in 1 week.
We grow in our faith by watching god work in other people’s lives.
And then, of course, if I could take one statement and say if you wanna grow your faith, you practice this statement.
Obey god, leave all the consequences to him.
If you will if if you will practice that statement, and I meet people all the time, who walk up to me and say, Doctor Stanley will beg god to leave all the consequences to him to remind me that they heard it and they’re listening and they’re practicing it.
And, um, even small children that parents have taught them to repeat that. Think about this simple truth.
Obey god leave all the consequences to him. That is faith in perfection.
I’m gonna do what he says no matter what it costs, matter what it requires, and then I’m gonna let him work.
I’m gonna watch him work. I’m gonna leave all the consequences to him. Why?
Because I believe that god will honor obedience. That’s what that’s all about.
I believe that god not will, but always honors obedience. He never overlooks obedience because obedience honors god.
It pleases god. We’re we’re trusting god when we obey him.
And he says in Hebrews, the chapter we know about faith, that in order to please him, I must believe in him.
I must trust him. I must put faith in him.
So I would ask you where you are in your own faith.
Then of course, uh, I think about, uh, through answered prayer. God certainly builds our faith around some prayer.
Listen, this is why we should teach little children to pray about little insignificant things, but significant to them Listen, very early in life so that they learn if they talk to god whom they know very little about, but as a good parent, you would teach them some things about god.
Through Jesus, if if they would do what god says, here’s what he’ll do, and he answers their prayer.
And I can remember both of my kids at times when I understood that and I realized they knew how to talk to god and how to ask of god and to receive from god, they knew how to trust god.
The thing that builds faith is not just praying, but praying with expectation.
Praying with confidence, praying with boldness, praying with assurance. You say, well, sometimes I’m not I’m not sure.
You keep praying. God will give you the assurance that you need. It’s a matter of trusting him.
And you think, for example, how little, what a simple example this is.
Here’s the little boy, standing up on the ladder and his father says, just jump. That’ll catch you.
Oh, what you may drop me, and he goes through all of that.
And then finally, he looks at his dad and jumps right in his arms.
He had to get off the ladder to get his father’s arms.
You have to get off of your seat in faith and jump in the arms of god and watch what he does in your life.
Listen, my goal is god’s goal that you are able to be and become and do and achieve what god has in mind for you.
Do not let anybody tell you you can’t.
You can do anything god has called you to do because he listen.
The word of god says you have all of god’s power and heaven behind you to enable you to do it.
That’s what he promised his disciples, and every single one of us is just as important.
How could you ever deny god the privilege of sharing his message with somebody?
Now one of the ways we also, growing our faith is my worship. Now think about this.
Watch this carefully. We come to church on Sunday morning, and one of the first things we do is we sing.
And, uh, here you are sitting in the pewter.
You’re standing up and you’re singing how great thou art, but but now watch that.
You just confessed and made a statement when you sang that song that god is great. Right?
And what you said? That’s what you said. Now you said, well, uh, I was just seeing it. Mm-mm. Mm-mm.
Hasn’t got the name doing it, how you said it.
You said it in the song, you said how great thou art.
You said, for example, the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin.
What can wash away my sin? You ask that question in a song. What can wash away my sin?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus. You just confessed again an awesome biblical truth.
You’re saying Jesus paid it all. Yeah. He paid it all all for my sin debt.
And here’s what you’re doing.
When you’re singing, Jesus paid it all, all to him I owe When you’re saying that you you what are you doing?
You’re confessing something and you’re confessing truth And what you do what you you’re you’re building up your faith.
And you’re and you’re sitting in the midst of a whole group of people, hundreds of people who are singing the same thing.
And what happens? You get so excited because you believe it. You can’t sit still. You stand up.
And you cheer and you clap, you carry on.
If you didn’t believe that song, you wouldn’t you wouldn’t stand up, you’re believing it.
You’re you’re you’re trusting that to be true.
You want it to be true because you need it to be true because god wants us to be men and women and children of faith.
Trusting in a god who has proven himself over and over and over to be faithful to us in every way.
So When against the round of the preaching, you’ve already heard enough truth in a hymn to get you saved and to get you blessed and to get you through the week.
Then I would say this last thing. If you’re gonna grow in your faith, here’s what you gotta do.
You have to confess your faith failures. Don’t try to fool god. He’s not gonna be full.
You have to confess them. Listen. Confess it. Deal with it.
What whatever that, um, whatever that means in your life, because nobody else knows, uh, uh, how that may work in your life.
But, uh, you confess it. Deal with it, be honest.
And then you ask him to forgive you, and you say, lord, give me another opportunity.
Give me enough opportunity to trust you, and he will do it.
He’s not gonna cut you off because you fail at something. He never did, Peter.
Look, Peter fail over and over and over again, and he’s the one that at Pentecost preach that awesome sermon.
God is very forgiving, but the important thing I want you to see this morning is this.
You have a god who loves you unconditionally, who is willing to forgive you of your sins and save you if you ask him to do it.
You have a god once you’re saved who will walk in you and through you, who will be to you everything you need, What he wants to do is to use you to the maximum of your potential to bring himself glory.
He wants to be good to you. He wants to do good in your life.
Good for him and his mind may be something that you wouldn’t consider good, but god knows the end result.
What he wants, he wants his people to trust him, to believe him so he can bless you to the maximum of your potential.
And so he can use you to demonstrate to others who he is and that he is the person everyone needs Jesus Christ.
That’s what he’s about. Don’t sit on your faith.
Don’t just say, well, this got me this far, but how far could you go?
What can god do in your life?
You and I could never estimate that unless we just say, lord, here am I. Now listen carefully.
Here’s my challenge to you. Take a moment. Look in your life just for a moment.
Does god bring up anything in your life that you know is not right?
Beyond this. Don’t say, oh, well, no.
If the spirit of god brought something up, then he’s working.
Is there anything in your life that you know is not right?
Some attitude Something maybe you’re doing or something, your attitude towards somebody.
Is there anything in your life? Is that right?
Are you willing to lay it down?
Are you willing to ask him to forgive you and repent of it, which means you change?
Whatever that is, you wouldn’t have forgotten to change that. You wouldn’t have to deal with it.
If it’s somebody or if it’s something, it could be years ago, it could be today, whatever it might be, are you willing to deal with it?
If you’re willing to deal with that and you say to god today, lord, I believe the truth that I’ve heard.
And I’m just presenting myself to you, Lord, afresh, and I knew this morning.
I want you to build my faith. I wanna see what you can really do in my life.
And here I am I’m asking you to cleanse me because I want to discover what you had in mind.
The day you set my feet on this earth, and gave me life.