Faith or Fiction: Is Your Walk Full or Fictitious?

Sermon outline

The people who had God's ear obeyed Him and believed the whole of His word, and a believer who keeps the calling God gave him in the comfort of part-time faith is living fiction, not faith.

1. Three men who had God's ear

   Elisha's servant saw the hills full of chariots of fire, the Syrian army was struck blind and led into Samaria, and instead of killing them Elisha had them fed, and they never attacked Israel again. Joshua told the sun and moon to stand still and the Lord heeded the voice of a man. David, sent to bring a hundred Philistine foreskins as a death sentence, brought back two hundred and behaved more wisely than all Saul's servants. What they had in common: they were obedient, and they believed the word of God in its entirety, not one truth at a time.

   “If God said A, it was A. If God said ABC, it was ABC.”

   • 2 Kings 6:8-23
   • Proverbs 16:7
   • Joshua 10:1-14
   • 1 Samuel 18:17-30

2. Is your faith full or fictitious?

   We have no Philistines at the gate, but we work in hostile, cut-throat environments. Have we asked God for something for years? Are we asking according to His will or expecting Him to answer our way? Self-effort dressed up as faith misses the transformation. Some truths are formative and some become compromises, like turning the other cheek or forgiving the one who abused you.

   “Does he listen when I speak?”

3. Use it or lose it: spiritual muscle

   As physiotherapists say of the body, a muscle not used to its full stretch shortens. Spirits adapt the same way: stretched only so far, that is as far as they go. Foundational truths are carried around like a handbag and taken for granted, but they must be exercised constantly or we never enjoy the full benefit God created for us.

   “Our spiritual muscles are meant to be developed and strengthened.”

4. God honours His word above His own name

   In 2 Kings 3 Israel and two other armies were winning against the king of Moab, yet after he offered his eldest son on the wall the tide turned and he won. He asks whether it was Israel's disobedience or God favouring the underdog, and answers that God honours His word and the faith exercised. The centurion who told Jesus only to say the word received his miracle the same hour, though he was outside the fold, because without faith it is impossible to please God.

   “God honors his word above all else, including his own name.”

   • 2 Kings 3:26-27
   • Matthew 8:5-13
   • Hebrews 11:6

5. Ministry is your whole life

   Ministry is not the four walls, the pastor's family or the church departments only; it is our whole existence, family, work and career. He redefines the terms: lay ministry is giving God a fraction alongside everything else, and full-time ministry is giving yourself wholly, whatever your job, so that God's work stays at the forefront of your mind. Paul magnified his office. From Romans 11 the Gentiles were grafted into Abraham's tree by belief and can be cut off again, for God is both kind and severe. Timothy is told to give himself wholly to these things and not neglect the gift.

   Illustration: During the strictest lockdown the church fed over 300 families every month: securing the goods, packing parcels and delivering them, while others said it was too risky but still went to the mall for coffee.

   “Full-time ministry is giving ourselves wholly.”

   • Romans 11:13-24
   • 1 Timothy 4:12-16
   • 2 Timothy 2:15

6. Full-time ministry means the wilderness

   After the dove descended at His baptism, Jesus went straight into the wilderness to be tested, not exalted. Giving yourself wholly means leaving what you enjoy and letting God prune and test you, not the club on Saturday and church on Sunday. When asked to do something hard, never answer by criticising it; go home and pray for understanding. Many are saved with obvious gifts, stay in lay ministry because it is comfortable, and set heavy callings aside. Two answers betray it: not knowing what there is to do in church, and needing to build a legacy, which usually means money, a car and a house in Umhlanga.

   Illustration: A young man trying to clear the debt from his working years by taking on more debt: you cannot take more of what you lack to fix what you lack.

   “You can never learn from anything that you criticize.”

   • Matthew 3:16-4:1
   • Isaiah 59:19
   • Matthew 6:33

7. Leaving the One to chase the ninety-nine

   From Romans 12 in the Living Bible: give your bodies as a living sacrifice of the kind He accepts, not the kind we think acceptable, and do not copy the customs of the world. We sing about leaving the ninety-nine for the one, yet follow the hustle culture of the world and leave the One who gave us everything. Every gift, prophecy, serving, teaching, giving or administration, must be done well, in church and in business.

   Illustration: The song Reckless Love: He leaves the ninety-nine to find the one, but we leave the One to follow the ninety-nine.

   “I left the one who gave me all to follow the 99.”

   • Romans 12:1-11
   • Matthew 6:8

8. The gifts and calling of God are without repentance

   God never takes back the gifts and calling He gives, and He never needs to apologise for them. That is a comfort under criticism, but it also means He does not withdraw the consequences of leaving them unused. God did not find someone else for Nineveh; He pursued Jonah until he was put down exactly where he was meant to go. There is no plan B: you are the plan, and God is fixated on you fulfilling it.

   Illustration: Like a lovesick boy who cannot take his eyes off a girl, God is fixated on you, your blessing and your calling.

   “There is no plan B with God. You are the only plan.”

   • Romans 11:29
   • Matthew 10:30
   • Jonah 3:2

In this message