The Life of Faith | Jabin Chavez | City Light Church

Let's go to God's Word, Hebrews chapter 11, verse six. We are beginning a series entitled By Faith. This is the command of Scripture and really the promise of Scripture that we can live a life by faith, that we can walk by faith and not by sight. And that the Scripture said in Romans one, that just live by faith. 23 times in the New Testament you see this little phrase, by faith. 18 of those 23 times are actually in the book of Hebrews chapter 11. And so really what we're gonna be doing over these next five weeks is studying the book of Hebrews chapter 11. Today we're gonna talk about the life of faith, but next week we're gonna talk about the feet of faith. We're gonna talk about the obedience of faith. We're gonna talk about the generosity of faith. This is gonna be a really fun series, a great series. I'm really just gonna give you kind of my life message over this next few weeks. Hebrews 11, six, let's define faith. Without faith it is impossible to please God because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him. We're only reading one verse today, so I think we should read it out loud. Y'all ready, y'all ready to read it with me? Two of you.

Will anybody else read the Bible with me? Okay, okay, good. It's not illegal, we can do it. It's not Canada. Here we go. Hey, easy. Y'all ready, here we go. And without faith it is impossible to please God because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him. All right, can you say amen to God's word? Let's talk about the life of faith, the life of faith. Father, bless this moment. Thank you for the invitation from heaven to live a life of faith. And our response is yes, in Jesus' name, amen? Amen. Amen. Faith is acting like and living like God is telling us the truth. That's faith. Faith is living in a way and acting in a way that what God told us through the word of God, he's telling us the truth. God is not lying to us. God is not tempting us. God is not teasing us. God told us the truth. When he gave us these promises and when he gave us these commands,

we believe this is the truth of God's word. And we believe that if we will live in such a way that we actually believe that, we actually act that way, we actually live that way, that God is telling us the truth. I believe on the other side of that is the rewarding life of faith. Faith is living like, acting like God is telling us the truth. Faith does not mean that we get everything we want. I wish it did. But it is the conviction that if we're gonna get anything from God, if we're gonna receive anything from God, if we're gonna have any kind of God connection, it will require faith. So faith doesn't give us everything, but if we expect to get anything, experience anything with God, it's gonna require faith. Now faith is the substance of things hoped for. This is what faith is. Faith is, I want you to catch this. Faith is a substance. It's like, you can sense it. You can actually see faith. Mark chapter two, the Bible says Jesus saw their faith. You can see faith. You can experience faith. You can hear faith. Y'all ever heard somebody, you can hear their faith. And you know this is true because you've heard fear.

You've heard doubt. Y'all know any negative people? You've heard unbelief. You can hear faith. You can experience faith. You can feel faith. Faith is more than a feeling and more than an emotion, but you can feel it, you can sense it. Faith has a body posture to it. Faith has an expectation to it. Faith has a lean in to it. There's something about faith. Faith is a substance, now watch this, of things hoped for and the evidence. What is faith? It is the evidence, the proof, of the thing that is not yet seen. I haven't seen it yet, but I got the evidence that I will see it. And the evidence that I'll see it is faith. It's the proof that what God put in my heart and the promise God gave me, I shall see it. It shall come to pass. I shall hold it in my hands. How do I know that I'll see it? I know that I'll see it because God gave me the faith for it and the faith is the evidence that I'll see it. Yesterday I walked into my dry cleaner, I've been going to the same. Dry cleaner for eight years ever since I moved here.

And I've talked to this same lady every week. And she's an older lady, Eastern European lady. And she's a little bit tough and a little bit rough. And I walked in yesterday and she said, how are you? That's my Eastern European accent. How are you? And I said, I'm okay. This window, these allergies. Oh my God. She starts yelling at me, zinc, zinc, zinc. I said, what? She said, you need to take zinc. It will help you. I said, okay, okay, okay. So I pick up my clothes, I go in my car and I open my little Amazon app and I buy my zinc. Bought my little zinc gummies. Some of you take other gummies. I, you know, I'm not here to judge. I'm glad you're here. Amen. I mean, you popped a gummy before you got here. That's why that little smile, you're like. I like this guy. So I took my, so I ordered my zinc gummies. Immediately, I got an email from Jeff Bezos. Not really, but from Amazon saying they're on the way. I don't have them yet. Haven't taken them yet. Haven't seen them yet.

Haven't felt them yet. Not in my stomach yet. Not working on my allergies yet, but I got them. I got them because I got a receipt. I got them because I have evidence that they're on the way. Don't got the gummies yet, but I got evidence. I got the faith that I'm gonna get my zinc, zinc, zinc gummies because Jeff Bezos told me they're coming. Now, if I'm gonna believe Jeff, I hope that I'm gonna believe Jesus. I'm talking about receipts. I'm talking about evidence. Come on somebody, help me preach a little bit. I'm talking about faith that says my family will serve the Lord. That says my body will be healed. That said God can provide in any economy. That says heaven is my home. Haven't seen it all yet. Haven't felt it all yet. Haven't held it yet. But I got the evidence that says it shall come to pass. Come on, faith is the evidence. Give me a good amen right there. This is faith. Without God we cannot and without faith God will not. Faith. So let's talk about faith a little bit. I'm just gonna, I'm only gonna scratch the surface today, but I'm just gonna try to help you with a few thoughts.

And here's the first thought. Faith is a new way of life. The life of faith, I want this to get in your spirit, is a new way of life. I can't take my old ways of doing life and try to fit it into this new life called faith. This new life is a rat, I say faith not religion. Faith not moralism. Faith not self-improvement. Now I don't think all religion is bad. I think it's good that you're here. I think it's good if you have a, you know, if you've got the discipline of, you know, here's our tradition. We go to church. Okay, that's good. I don't think moralism is bad. I think it's good to be a moral person. I think that's good. I don't think self-improvement is bad. I watch podcasts all the time. I'm trying to improve my thinking and my thought life and my behavior. That's good, that's all good. But that's not faith. Don't get it twisted, that's not faith. This is faith, Hebrews 11, six, let's go back to it. He is, that means there is a God. God has a name and his name is Jesus. One more time, he is.

I have to believe that. I think this will come up on the screen for us. He is, there is a God. God has a name and his name is Jesus. If you're wondering what God is like, if you're wondering how God acts, if you're wondering, I need a picture of God, Jesus is God in a body, Jesus is God with a face. If you wanna know who God is, look at Jesus. Here's what we know about Jesus, he is a rewarder. God is good, he's a rewarder, he is good. And now here's my response to that reality. I will earnestly seek him, I'm gonna give him my life. I'm gonna live my entire life based around this amazing good God. Now I said the life of faith is a new way of life and I wanna get into this with the Apostle Paul. The Apostle Paul was a good, moral, religious person. I want you to just track with me. He's a good, moral, religious person. And here's what he says about his life with Christ. Galatians 2. I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. Watch this. The life which I now live in the flesh, in our earth suit, I live by faith. I didn't live by faith, though I was good and moral and religious. I now live by faith.

This is huge. Because Paul had to crucify and die to what he was in order to live a life of faith. Because what I want to do is I want to bring my background and my culture and my race and my Americanism or my Westernisms or my all of this stuff into my walk with God. And I want to build a walk with God around who I already am. But Paul said, I actually had to crucify all that. I'm not saying you can't be proud to be an American or you can't be proud to be, you know, I'm a Mexican American. I'm proud of that. I eat a tortilla with everything. Come on, somebody. I love my culture. I'm not telling you to lose. Paul never lost his Jewishness. He was always a Jewish man. But as it pertained to connecting to God, he had to die to some things so that he could walk by faith. Because if you're not careful, you'll just bring all of who you were to Jesus and then you're going to try to fit Jesus into who you are instead of dying to who you are to fit into this new thing called faith. I'm not trying to be deep for deep sake. I'm telling you, this is a big deal.

This is a big deal. Because there's so many things that I can think about God and think about myself and think about that I'm trying to force into my walk with God. And I actually have to crucify that so that I can actually live by faith in the son of God. And here's who he is. Here's who my faith is in, the one who loves me and gave himself for me. Big deal. Big deal. Because this is not Paul going, I stopped going to the strip club and I stopped gambling and I stopped doing cocaine and I stopped cussing and I stopped beating people up and I... This is Paul going, I had to die to being good. Because all of that was focused on me. And faith is taking my eyes off of myself so that I can actually live for God and trust God. So I wanna say it like this. Faith cannot be an addition to my life, but a brand new definition of life. A new foundation that now redefines every area of my life. Faith is a brand new, radically different thing. I used to live this life in the natural and I used to live this life all on me. And I used to live this life all focused on what I could do. But now faith is entering this new life that is all about Jesus and what he's done. And this is so radically different.

And for some of you, this won't be very challenging because you don't really have a religious background, but for someone like me, born and raised in church, born and raised in a very legalistic, very angry style of church, man, I was under that and I've experienced that and I saw the terrible fruit of that. That was all about us and what we need to do, what we need to do, what we need to do, what we need to do. And there was so, the pressure and the weight of the world was on our shoulders. And I think sometimes even for some of you who are more churchier, you want me to be harder? You want me to preach the truth? Like this isn't the truth? And what we really want is we want a, because we don't like ourselves, we want a preacher to come in and beat us up for an hour to somehow appease our own guilty conscience as if that could transform our heart. And I have to dive that because see, even I'm 42 and I still carry this in as much as I'm preaching it and believe it. I still carry this in. I still walk in feeling unqualified. I still walk in going, I don't think I have enough faith. I still walking in going, man, I could be doing better. And though those things are true, I don't live that way. I actually have to die to that to walk by faith.

This week I was with a friend and he was being so kind to me, so honoring of me and he was saying, man you've paid the price and man you've lived a life for God and you've, you know, no one knows the price you paid no one knows the walk with Jesus and he was being so kind and I was like, oh man, thank you and I think, you know, alright, I like that but you know what, there was such a side of me that was just going, oh this is all grace like, if you think I paid for this through my works I'm still the most shocked person in the world that God would allow me to do this see, faith in Jesus will make you look like a genius but you know the real you and you know, I'm not, again, I'm not talking about secrets I'm talking about you know how big God is and how good God is and how weak you are and I like living there because I've got to take the pressure off of myself because religion will always demand more of you more of you you're not worshipping enough, you're not giving enough, you're not reading the Bible enough you're not praying enough, you're not giving enough, you're not good enough and you know what, you could look right back at that spirit of religion and go, you're right but my faith isn't in me I even have to chill out sometimes, I come into church and I'll be standing right there in worship and they're saying, Jesus be the name and I find, I go back to that old little Pentecostal kid in the 1990's of American craziness evangelicalism, charismatic chaos that I was raised in I was raised in this season of like, it was called the God chasers like you've got to chase God, you've got to be hungry for God are you desperate for God and do you really, are you really serious about God? so I'll still find myself in worship like a, Jesus be the name and I'll feel it like God I'm really serious

and then I have to like, ah, easy I'm a child of God, Jesus be the name you get all the glory as if, like the uglier I can make my face, the more faith I have in God the more you smile, the less holy you are, oh my God so Jesus demands change of us but I want to show you the change he demands because it's going to freak you out truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children this is where we get the phrase, childlike faith some of you are too old rigid, grumpy, religious you've got to become like a child you want to enter the kingdom, you want to experience the kingdom you want to enjoy the kingdom, it's going to take childlike faith childlike faith is simple let's just think about children for a second they're innocent, they're joyful and here's something I've learned about kids they're expectant yesterday I was making my coffee at home I'm on a budget, come on somebody, I'm on a budget so I'm making my coffee at home, praise the Lord and I hear my nine-year-old daughter hey dad, can you make me a waffle? yeah, thanks what do you want on it? Syrup? No syrup, maybe just some butter okay, cool so chill

never looked up from her iPad the entire conversation just so easy so relaxed and her ease had everything to do with my character and my track record and the way I've taken care of her because she hasn't missed breakfast in nine years you know how sad it would be? if I'm making my coffee and there she is in the kitchen on her knees, oh father if it be thy will would thou feed this your servant on today it would prove brokenness how do you pray? how do you worship? My faith has to be in the goodness of God, like a child. She got her waffle. She probably got another one this morning. I was already gone by the time they woke up. She'll have another one tomorrow. I'm not bragging on myself. It's a waffle, amen. It's an Eggo, okay, don't. I'm not bragging on myself. I'm telling you, I have to get there with God. It's a new way of thinking.

Number two, faith is all about Jesus. Faith is all about Jesus. Faith is not about you. See, I think we think about like grace. Grace is God's part, faith is your part. Don't think that way. Faith is all about Jesus. The very faith we have is a gift from God, according to Ephesians 2 and Romans 12. It is a gift from God. Faith is a gift from God. The foundation of faith must be God and his character. You cannot produce faith, manufacture faith, or create faith. Faith comes by hearing, Romans 10, 17. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ. As I hear the word, the seed of the word of God produces in me faith. I can't manufacture faith. I can't make up faith. I can't produce faith. I can only receive faith by the scriptures. So faith is not earning. Faith is not trying. Faith is not even desiring. Because all desire that I produce, that is not founded on, and finding its sourcing in the word of God is not faith. So desire is not necessarily faith.

Desperation is not necessarily faith. Faith is hearing and believing. Faith leads to works, but it's not a work. See, because there's nervous people in here right now. They have, but what about James? What about James? But James said, faith without works is dead, but faith without... You're right, you're right. It's there, it's there. We'll get there. We will get there in this series. But let me remind you of this. Faith without works is dead, yes, but works without faith is dead religion. And you can have works without faith. You can be moral without faith. You can be moral without faith. I'm talking about something greater than that. I'm talking about faith. Two people in the New Testament, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, two people in the New Testament who had great faith. Jesus looked at them and he marveled. Jaw drop, dumbfounded, shook. He looked at him and said, you have great faith. Two people, not Mary. Shout out to Mary, amazing. Not Mary, not Elizabeth, not John the Baptist, not any of the disciples, not Lazarus,

not Mary or Martha, no one in Jesus' inner circle did he say had great faith. This is crazy. Let me just say something. They all had deeply religious upbringings and backgrounds and none of them had great faith. Actually, the opposite. Most of them, Jesus would say, where is your faith? What happened to your, why don't you have faith? Two people in scripture have great faith. One was a Canaanite woman and one was a Roman soldier. Two things you need to know. They were not Jewish. They did not know the law and they had no religious background. They were both Gentiles. And because they didn't carry all of this religious baggage and trauma into their walk with Jesus. This is, see, I can remember being six and my mom quoting an Old Testament scripture that says if you dishonor your parents, birds will come and pluck your eyes out. So I still wear sunglasses sometimes in the lobby just in case I gotta. You know what that does to a six-year-old? Two people didn't have any of that. All they had was the words of Jesus. All they had was the story and the testimony of Jesus in front of them. They saw Jesus and they heard Jesus

and it produced in them great faith. And I wanna remind you, when you come to Jesus, all of your, you don't come to Jesus with a list. of all of the reasons why He should do something for you. That's not faith. I come to Jesus and I simply respond to who He is and His goodness. This is how the people, the multitudes came to Jesus in Luke five, the crowds of people, they came to hear Him and be healed. Hear and be healed, hear and be healed, hear and be set free, hear and be delivered, hear and be saved, hear, let your broken heart come back together, hear and let your mind be, hear and be healed. It's so powerful. So I'm not actually coming to church to prove anything, I'm coming to receive something. Always come to church with the expectation that you will hear and be healed. Now do we serve? Of course, do we give? Of course, do we help? Of course, how can we do all that? But we first come not to check a box, but to hear and be healed. That's childlike faith. That's what I'm talking about. Faith is all about Jesus. So my prayer is less, I'm not really praying,

Lord, increase my faith. That's a Bible prayer you could pray, but that's not really my prayer. My prayer is, Lord, keep my eyes on you. Because if I can keep my eyes on Jesus, I know I'll have all the faith I need for the season I'm in. Even if I don't like this current season, God will give me the faith to get through it and to pass through the valley of the shadow of death and to get through anything that hell throws at me, why? Because my eyes are on Jesus. Come on, give me a good amen right there. Clap your hands. Faith. I'm gonna have the worship team come. We're almost done. Faith is, thirdly, receiving God's promises. Faith is receiving God's promises. Hebrews 11, six reminds us he is a rewarder. He is a rewarder. That there is a reward for your faith. That God is good. That faith honors God and God honors faith. He is a rewarder. How do I receive from God? I wanna show you how to receive from God. John 1, 12, yet all who did receive him. You can't receive from God till you first receive God. All who did receive him, those who believed.

So receiving and believing. What does he do? He gives the right to become. Now my becoming, my growing, my changing, my developing comes from a place of believing and receiving. And the same way that I came to Jesus and received him as my Lord and Savior and believed in Jesus Christ, the same way that I did that, that's now how I live my entire life. The same way that I got saved is how I stay saved. The same way that I entered the kingdom is how I grow in the kingdom. I don't get saved by grace and saved by faith in his name and then stay safe through works, that's not it. I live this, I was utterly dependent. June 10, 1998, I'm 15 years old. I'm in Del Rio, Texas and I'm utterly dependent on God's mercy and God's grace. And I said, Jesus, save me. And here I am, 27 years later, 42 years old, saying, Jesus, I need you. The faith that saved me is the faith that is changing me. Complete dependence on God. Okay, so how do I receive that practically? 2 Corinthians chapter four. Since we have this same spirit of faith according to what is written. So watch, faith comes by hearing, right? So it's written.

Now I believe it and I speak it. I get in the word, I believe the word, I say the word. That's faith. I get in the word, I believe the word, I say the word. That's faith. Get in the word, believe the word, speak the word. That's faith. Receive the word, believe the word, speak the word. That's faith. It begins in my heart, but it always comes out of my mouth. And this is the power of faith, that I don't go to God with my list of, God, here's five reasons. that you should answer my prayer. I go to God and I say, you said, you did, you promised. This was your idea, I didn't save myself. I didn't give myself these commands and promises. I didn't write this book, this came from you. And now I go to God, not with my pedigree, not with my list, not with my works, but I go to God with his list. I go to God with his pedigree. I go to God with his promises. I go to God according to his character, faith. Come on, somebody shout with me right there. Faith in God. Do you receive that today? In Jesus' name.