We Are Co-Workers, Not Co-Benchwarmers

Sermon outline

Every child of God is able to overcome the world by faith, a spiritual law birthed only by the word of God, which works when we fill our lives with the word, confess it, base our faith on what God said, keep our hearts clean and act on it.

1. Co-workers, and able to overcome the world

   We are co-workers in God's service, God's field and God's building, not co-vacationers or co-benchwarmers, and as workers together with Him we are backed by heaven. Satan's main trick since Eden is to make us doubt God's word. Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, God's commands are not burdensome, and every child of God is able, not maybe, to defeat the world by faith.

   “We're not co-vacationers or co-benchwarmers, but we are co-workers.”

   • 2 Peter 1:12-13
   • 1 Corinthians 3:9
   • 2 Corinthians 6:1
   • 1 John 5:1-4

2. What faith is and is not

   Words can sound and be spelled the same and mean different things. "Faith" is used for a religion, a denomination, or a faith-based organisation; he means the faith that overcomes the world. Belief without action is not faith either. Paul calls it the law of faith, a spiritual law like gravity or aerodynamics that works every time it is applied.

   Illustration: Where he grew up, the young men called a girl a "cherry"; a cherry is also a small red fruit; then a car brand called Chery arrived in South Africa. Say you saw a beautiful cherry on the way to church and three different pictures appear. And try standing on the bonnet of your car after church, holding up the key and declaring that you believe you will drive home: you can stand there until the cows come home until you get in and start the car.

   “You can stand there until the cows come home believing, but until you get up with faith corresponding action, jump in the car and start the car.”

   • Romans 3:27

3. The just shall live by faith

   Faith is not a movement or a season but how the just live every day, as surely as we breathe. If anyone draws back, God has no pleasure in him, and without faith it is impossible to please Him. Storms in recent years shook many people's faith because the word in them was not on the rock. Make deposits in the word daily, so you can withdraw in a crisis, not just Netflix.

   Illustration: Trusting God for a property they knew He had given them, he and his wife saw red flags, consulted their natural faculties, and went to look at three or four others. None was right. He came home defeated, Hebrews 10:38 rose in his spirit, he repented, went back to trusting God, and they got the property.

   “Your flesh doesn't know what your spirit man can do.”

   • Hebrews 10:38
   • Hebrews 11:6
   • Luke 18:8
   • Ephesians 6:16

4. The word is medicine, and faith comes by hearing it

   Like a capsule that dissolves and travels to the part of the body that needs it, God's word knows how to fix every problem. The woman with the issue of blood kept hearing and saying until she acted; the lepers were told to go; the blind men had to say what they wanted. Faith comes only by hearing the word, not the news or self-help books, and unbelief is not non-belief but believing the wrong thing. When you face an illness, get the name of it, do not search how many have died of it, and speak what the word says.

   Illustration: One night his head was spinning and thoughts flooded in that he was going to die. Then the promise that he would see his children's children came to him; his son was four, so he laughed at the devil and began to confess, "I will live and not die."

   “Unbelief is not non-belief. Unbelief is believing the wrong thing.”

   • Romans 10:17
   • Psalm 128:6
   • Mark 5:25-34

5. 1 and 2: Fill your life with the word, and confess it

   One, attend to God's words, keep them before your eyes and in your heart, for they are life and health to all your flesh; make 2023 the year the word is final authority. Two, confess it daily: the book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but meditate on it, ponder and mutter it, and you will make your own way prosperous. Swim against the current even if ten thousand speak unbelief.

   Illustration: If he bumped into Pastor Wesley at Gateway and was invited for coffee, he would love to go, but if he had an urgent meeting at the bank he would have to say another time. Attending to the word means it takes priority over everything else competing for your time.

   “Through this word, you can make your way prosperous.”

   • Proverbs 4:20-22
   • Joshua 1:8

6. 3 and 4: Faith rests on what God said, and works with other forces

   Three, faith must be based on what God has said: God is not a man that He should lie; let God be true and every man a liar. Our job is to believe that God will do His. Four, faith works together with other spiritual laws and will not work in an unrepentant or unforgiving heart, or alongside doubt. Faith works by love.

   Illustration: A car with no battery goes nowhere; with a battery and no tyres, it still goes nowhere; with a battery and tyres and no fuel, it goes nowhere. Confession, believing in the heart, corresponding action and forgiveness must all be in place.

   “This type of faith will not work in a heart that has unforgiveness.”

   • Numbers 23:19
   • Romans 3:4
   • Galatians 5:6

7. The greater One lives in you

   In 2021 a woman who had closed her business phoned him, very ill and convinced she was going to die. Reluctant, he asked the Holy Spirit what to do and was told not to pray but to teach her Mark 11:22-25 in the Passion Translation: speak to your mountain rather than telling God about it. She spoke to her mountain, and he told her to act as though she had received: get dressed, do her makeup and hair. Within weeks she asked him to come for a thanksgiving; she had stood on the word daily, saying, "I will live and not die." Thank God for the manifestation before it comes, and walk as if you already have the promise.

   “Faith needs corresponding action for it to work.”

   • 1 John 4:4
   • Mark 11:22-25

In this message