Gift of Faith

GIFTS OF THE SPIRIT – GIFT OF FAITH
DR. JIM DIXON
SEPTEMBER 22, 1985
HEBREWS 11:1-16

The year was 1912. The date was April the 14th. The time was 11:37 P.M. The great ship Titanic was racing across the Atlantic, attempting a new speed record for an Atlantic crossing, moving at the brisk pace of 22 and 1/2 knots on its maiden voyage from Southampton in England to the city of New York. The Titanic had been warned repeatedly that it was racing through iceberg-laden waters, but the authorities had ignored those warnings and at 11:37 P.M. on April 14th, the phone rang in the wheel room. The officer did not answer the phone. He ignored it. It rang again and again, He waited three minutes before he answered the phone, and when he picked up the phone, there was a message from the crow s nest “Iceberg Dead Ahead!” It was too late. The great ship Titanic, at 11:40 P.M., crashed into a massive iceberg, an iceberg that rose more than 100 feet above the surface of the water. That iceberg ripped a hole in the Titanic the length of a football field, 300 feet long. The lower compartments of the Titanic began to flood with water. After 2 and 1/2 hours the great ship went down, not to be seen again for 73 years, until September 1, 1985, when a United States-French team discovered the ship once again 560 miles south of Newfoundland, 13,000 feet beneath the water, its great hull resting on the ocean floor—a watery grave for 1,513 people.

I think for most of us, it’s been kind of an eerie thing to see the photographs in the papers these last few weeks – the wine bottles still corked, the plates unbroken. Many things on that once great ship could be retrieved and used again. Jewelry, diamonds, allegedly worth millions of dollars could be retrieved and worn again, radiating beauty once again. Even food aboard that ship, we are told, could be used again. Thirty thousand fresh eggs apparently still edible, perfectly preserved though somewhat salty, their porous shells able to resist the 2.8 tons per square inch of pressure that exists more than two miles beneath the sea. But the greatest cargo, the most valuable cargo aboard that ship had nothing to do with food. It had nothing to do with diamonds or jewelry. The most precious cargo was people and 1,513 people cannot be retrieved. They are forever lost to this age of the world.

There were 2,218 people aboard the Titanic when it left Southampton in England. It’s hard for us, I’m sure, to imagine what it must have been like for them on the night of April 14. Early in the evening, they surely felt safe. They were aboard the largest ship in the history of the world. A 46,000-ton vessel, the Titanic had the length of four to five city blocks, 882 and ½ feet long, almost 100 feet wide. It had nine steel decks and it rose to the incredible height of an 11-story building. Deep within her, her massive engines generated energy equivalent to 55,000 horsepower and the great ship was said to be unsinkable. The people felt safe, if they felt safe, they surely felt comfortable as well because no ship had been more luxurious with beautiful staterooms, deluxe accommodations, smoking rooms, barber shops, beauty parlors on virtually every deck, a massive gymnasium, the first on-deck swimming pool in the history of the world, the first on-deck miniature golf course in the history of the world, squash courts. The Titanic had everything. The people felt safe, they felt comfortable, but it was an illusion because the Titanic had a destiny —- a destiny with disaster.

When the Titanic hit that great iceberg, what followed was 2 and 1/2 hours which has been described as a mixture of heroism and panic. The problem was there simply weren’t enough lifeboats. There were only lifeboats sufficient to carry 1,172 people, approximately 52% of the passengers onboard. Some of the lifeboats, in the confusion, left early with less than half rapacity – 1 ,513 people were left aboard the ship. I think it is – hard for most of us to imagine for fathers, husbands to place their wives and their kids into those lifeboats, knowing that in all likelihood they would never see them again. Some wives who had no children, refused to go on the lifeboats—choosing rather to stay with their husbands and die with them. It was shortly after 2:00 A.M., April 15 when the Titanic went down. It was said that the band continued to play until the last moments. Some said the band was playing, Nearer My God To Thee.” Others deny it. We’ll never know. But when that Titanic went down, 1500 people were left floundering in subfreezing temperatures in the water. Scientists tell us that in probably less than one hour all of those people had perished. But 705 people were rescued—705 people were saved—as they were picked up in their lifeboats by a ship called the Carpathia and some say another ship called the Californian was nearby and could have rescued more. We’ll never know. The Californian didn’t respond.

But this we know. The Bible tells us that this earth, this planet is like a great ship—a great ship moving through time and space and aboard this ship called earth many people feel safe and feel secure, but the Bible warns us that we are heading for Armageddon, for the consummation of the world and for the final judgment. The Bible tells us that God is not willing or wishing that any should perish, and therefore God has provided a lifeboat and that lifeboat is called Jesus Christ and there is room in this boat for every single person on the face of the earth. The Bible tells us that there’s only one way that we can enter that lifeboat and that is through faith.—faith in Jesus Christ—receiving Him as Lord and Savior of life. The Bible says, “there’s no other name under Heaven given among men whereby we may be saved. ” The Bible says, “by grace you are saved through faith.” It is a gift of God. It’s not your own doing. It’s a gift of God not of works lest anyone should boast. The Bible Says, “God loved the world so much that He gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him would not perish but have everlasting life.”

Faith, the means of salvation, and if you are a member of Cherry Hills Community Church, you signed a statement, a form, saying that you had placed your faith in Jesus Christ and stepped into that lifeboat. You signed a statement that you had placed your faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior of life—saving faith. Saving faith is not perfect faith. It simply means you had faith sufficient to invite Jesus Christ to come in. It doesn’t mean you didn’t have doubts. It simply meant you had faith sufficient to invite Christ to be the Lord of your life and the Savior of your life. It is my hope and prayer that everybody in this room has saving faith and has stepped into that lifeboat and received Christ as Lord and Savior.

The Bible speaks of a different kind of faith. It is called the Gift of Faith and God would have to understand that the Gift of Faith is different than saving faith. Every person in the lifeboat, every Christian has saving faith, but only a few Christians have the Gift of Faith, a special gift given by the power of the Holy Spirit. This morning I would like to share two very brief teachings concerning the meaning of the Gift of Faith.

First of all, the Gift of Faith is confidence—unwavering confidence in spite of one’s circumstances. Unwavering confidence even when confronted with seemingly insurmountable obstacles. There have been Christians, people of the Household of God, through the centuries who have had such faith. This was the faith of Moses as he approached the Red Sea. It was the faith of Joshua as he approached the city of Jericho, the fortress city. It was the faith of Daniel as he was in the lion’s den. It was the faith of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego as they were in the fiery furnace.

I think all of us have times in our lives when we feel like we’re in the fiery furnace. Time in our lives when we feel we’re in the lion’s den and sometimes we wish we had more faith. Faith to believe even in the worst times.

In 1973, a church in Netcong, New Jersey purchased eight acres of land along Route 46. They wanted to build a new sanctuary and a new facility. The front four acres were flat, and the back four acres were mountainous, and they rose up. The church decided to build their sanctuary on the front four acres and to leave the back four acres alone. When they finished the sanctuary, they placed a little bit of parking lot space around it. They knew that all their people couldn’t park there but they assumed that their people could park on the streets and around the neighborhood. Just as they were about to move into the new facility, the city told them that they couldn’t move. in. They were denied occupancy. They were told that they couldn’t move into the new sanctuary until they had sufficient parking on their own property, and they would have to build parking lots on the back four acres. The church wasn’t able to do this because of the fact that the back four acres were mountainous and rose up forty feet immediately behind the sanctuary they had just built. The church couldn’t afford to remove the mountain, so the church was in a horrible jam.

The next Sunday at the old site at their worship service, the pastor, a man named Ray Crawford preached a sermon on Matthew chapter 17, verse 20, where the Lord Jesus said, “If you have faith as a grain of mustard seed, you shall say to this mountain be taken up and cast into the sea. It shall be done for you.” Pastor Crawford asked his congregation how many people believed that. People kind of looked at each other and only a few people raised their hands. He said, “Next Wednesday night we’re going to have a prayer meeting. I only want people who believe to be there. If you believe God can remove a mountain, come on out Wednesday night at that prayer meeting.” There were only a few people there, but they prayed that God would take away the mountain behind the new church site. That was on Wednesday and on Thursday the church received a phone call from the phone company, and a representative of the phone company said that they were building a new phone company facility on some property, part of which had kind of swampy land and they needed some dirt to put into the foundation. They said the mountain behind your new church site is just perfect, with a perfect mixture of sand and clay and gravel, and we wondered if we could take that mountain away for you and use it for our new telephone building. Obviously, the church agreed. It took the phone company days to remove 40,000 square yards of earth. They took that mountain down and then they leveled the back four acres, and they prepared it for three parking lots. They actually prepared it for paving. When they had done that, they gave the church a check for $5,400 just to pay for the dirt they had taken.

Now I’m sure there are a lot of people in that church who had wished that they’d showed up at that prayer meeting on Wednesday night! The truth is that most of them just didn’t believe that God could do that. The Gift of Faith believes that God can remove mountains. If you have this gift, you tend to be an optimistic person. You have confidence in the mountaintops as well as in the valleys, in the midst of the storms and seas of life. You have a joy and a confidence that is unshakeable. And if you have this gift, perhaps you tend to be somewhat frustrated with people who are pessimistic. You tend to be somewhat frustrated with people who are doubters, people who complain, people who always see the problems and never see the solutions. But God didn’t give you this gift to make you frustrated. He gave you this gift that you might use it for ministry in this world. Insofar as you have the Gift of Faith whatever measure of faith you have God wants you to use that as you reach out and love and seek to give hope to somebody else who is in despair. Seek to give faith to somebody who as doubting—that you might minister and love to other people who are in the depths of depression or despondency.

That is why, in the fifth chapter of Galatians we’re told “that faith is only made effective through love.” That is why, in the thirteenth chapter of the book of I Corinthians, the Apostle Paul says, “if I speak in the tongues of men and of angels but have not love, I’m a noisy gong or a clanging symbol, and if I have prophetic powers and I understand all knowledge and all mysteries and if I have all faith so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.” You see the Gift of Faith by itself is worthless but if in love, you would reach out to others with that gift, you can minister in the name and. the power of Jesus Christ.

When Barbara was pregnant with Heather almost 11 years ago, she had been in labor for 22 hours at Aurora Presbyterian Hospital, and I told the story—how late on a Friday night a salesman came by with a fetal heart monitor—the hospital had just opened—wanting to test the machine, and they hooked the machine up to Barbara and discovered that our daughter, Heather, was dying, and they rushed Barbara in to do an emergency Caesarean Section. When they first told Barb and I that the baby was in danger and that Barb would have to have an emergency Caesarean Section, it was kind of a shock. Barb was really tired after 22 hours of labor, and she began to cry. I remember I reached down, and I held Barb’s hand, and I told her everything’s going to be alright, but she looked at me and I’m sure she could tell that I was concerned. It was about that time that Mark and Nancy Moore came over to the hospital. Mark and Nancy are friends of ours, and Mark is Associate Pastor at Faith Church in Aurora, and he and his wife do most of the hospital calls at Faith. I truly believe that they both have the Gift of Faith. They came in and there was a smile on their face and a love in their hearts and a confidence, and it was just what we needed. As they talked and prayed with use when they left there was a calm that had not been there before. They ministered faith to us.

When my father had quadruple bypass surgery a year or so ago, my brothers and I went out to California to be with my mom and dad—to be with him as he was waiting for surgery. You know I think I can honestly say, I mean my dad’s a tough guy, but I’m sure one thing he never wanted to do was go to the hospital. Like most of us, I think one thing he really feared was surgery and going under the knife, but you know he went into that surgery with a confidence and a smile on his face that was supernatural. I believe that the faith that God gave him, the special measure of faith God gave him in that moment was to some extent ministered through us and through members of his family. God intends for it to be that way.

You see, the Gift of Faith has confidence in the midst of the bad times. It has confidence when confronted by seemingly insurmountable obstacles, and it is a confidence that is meant to be shared.

I have a second a final teaching this morning concerning the Gift of Faith and it is this: we don’t really understand the Gift of Faith until we understand that the true Gift of Faith is rooted in the promises of God. The Gift of Faith is not based on Faith is rooted in the promises of God. The Gift of Faith is not confident that God will do whatever we say. The Gift of Faith is confidence that God will do whatever He says. The Gift of Faith believes the promises of God.

Now throughout Christian history, there have been many who have believed the promises of God. This was true of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and of many Christians in more recent times. Many of you, I am sure, have heard of George Mueller. He was as famous in his time as Billy Graham is in our time though George Mueller was not an evangelist. He owned and operated an orphanage in Bristol, England. When George Mueller was very young, he had a great love for children and he felt that God was leading him to form and develop an orphanage there in England, but he was afraid because he didn’t know where he’d get the money to build the facility and where he would get the money to buy the food to feed the kids. He hated to fundraise. He hated to ask for money, but he was reading a passage from Matthew, chapter 6, where the Lord Jesus said, “If you seek first My Kingdom and my righteousness, I will give you everything you need.” Having read that, he went into a time of prayer, and as he prayed, he sensed that the Holy Spirit was speaking in his spirit and he was firmly convinced that God made a promise to him, that God told him that he would never have to raise or ask for a single penny, that God would provide the money for the orphanage. That if he would just be faithful and minister with an orphanage, God would provide whatever was needed, that the kids would never go without a meal, that God promised him the kids would always be fed, they would never no without breakfast, lunch or dinner. With that confidence and believing that God had promised that George Mueller opened his orphanage. For 60 years, George Meuller never asked for a single penny but it’s a matter of historical record that millions of dollars came into him. Some just through checks in the mail. Some people just came up and handed him money. With all that money, he built an incredible orphanage facility with five dormitories—each dormitory holding 500 orphans. It was one of the largest orphanages in the world, and over that period of 60 years, 10,000 orphans grew up in that Christian orphanage.

There were times when things seemed kind of shaky. When George Mueller just didn’t have any money. Times when he was afraid he couldn’t feed the kids. After one evening after dinner, the cupboards were bare and they’d eaten the last of their food, they didn’t know what they were going to do for breakfast but the next morning the kids rose and George Mueller told all the kids to go into the dining hall. He had the people set the tables. They put plates and glasses and napkins and silverware and all the place settings, and the kids just sat there with no food and George Mueller said, “Let’s pray. Lord you promised years ago that you would never let these kids go without breakfast, lunch or dinner and I believe that and I thank you right now for the food You are about to provide.” Well, the kids thought George had flipped, but it was a few moments later that there was a knock at the door. They opened. it and there was a man standing there who was a baker. The man said, “You know I couldn’t sleep all night. God woke me up. I got up at 2:10 A.M. and I just felt like I was supposed to bake bread for the orphanage and I baked all night. Do you need bread?” and he brought in rack after rack after rack after rack of bread so that those hundreds of kids would have food to eat. A few moments later there was another knock on the door. I know this is hard to believe, but these things are documented. Another knock at the door and it was a milkman. He said his milk truck had just broken down outside of the orphanage. He said he had to take the truck and get it repaired but he said “I’ve got to get rid of the milk. It’s just going to go to waste. Could you use some milk?” and they brought in these big containers of milk. And that’s how it was with George Mueller through all the years because he believed the promises of God. He said that prayer before that breakfast—not because he had some kind of a “name it and claim it” philosophy but because he knew that God had promised to provide food for those kids and he believed the promises of God. At the end of George Mueller’s life, he had written 3,000 pages in his diary – more than 1,000,000 words. In his diary, he recorded 50,000 specifically answered prayers, George Mueller became famous all over the earth for the orphanage run by faith and when he was in his 70s, he was asked to go speak in Quebec, in Canada for an assembly there.

Throughout his life he’d been asked to speak throughout the world, and he sometimes went, but in his 70’s, this seemed like a long trip to make from England all the way to Canada. He wasn’t sure he should go so he prayed about it. As he prayed, he just sensed that the Lord was saying, “George, I want you to go and I promise that I’ll bless you there and I’ll use you there, I want you there that Saturday night when you’re supposed to speak.” So, George Mueller went and he got aboard a ship for the Atlantic crossing and when they came to the cost of Newfoundland, the ship was just surrounded by a dense fog, and so the ship was made to wait there by the coast of Newfoundland and for 22 hours the ship did not go. This was Wednesday night, and George Mueller was to be at Quebec by Saturday night. The captain of the ship was standing out on the deck. He had been there for the better part of the 22 hours just waiting for the fog to break but it was thicker than ever. Suddenly the captain felt a tap on his shoulder and he turned around. It was George Mueller. George said “Captain, I’m supposed to be in Quebec on Saturday night. You’d better get this ship moving.”‘ The captain said “I can’t move this ship. We’re in the midst of a dense fog. We don’t travel like this. We have to wait.” George said “God. promised I’ll be in Quebec on Saturday night. You either get me there or some other way I’ll be there.” The captain said, “That’s fine but you’re not going on this ship because we’re socked in.” George Mueller said, “Well lets you and I go downstairs and have a word of prayer and let’s ask God to take away this fog.” The captain thought George Mueller was crazy but he thought he’d humor him and so he went downstairs with George Mueller. He said “Mr. Mueller you don’t understand. This fog is really thick.’ George Mueller said, “I don’t have my eyes on the fog but on the one who controls every detail of my life.” They knelt on the floor and they began to pray and George Mueller said a very simple prayer. He said “Lord, You promised me that You would have me in Quebec by Saturday and You promised that You would use me there And I know that You keep Your promises, so Lord I ask you to remove the fog so this ship can go.” When George Mueller was through praying, the captain felt like he ought to say something. He felt kind of awkward and so he started to pray but George Mueller tapped him on the shoulder again and said, “You don’t need to pray. First of all, you don’t really believe God’s going to take the fog away, and secondly I already know that He’s done it.” He said, “Let’s go upstairs and out on the deck.” When they went outside, the fog had totally lifted, and the sky was clear.

I know that’s hard to believe. It takes faith just to believe a story like that. But you see that story wasn’t told by George Mueller. It was told by the captain of that great ship. Throughout George. Mueller’s life, there were people who encountered those kinds of episodes simply because George Mueller believed the promises of God.

Now I don’t believe for a second that God will remove fog or cause it to rain or cause the sun to shine whenever you pray. George Mueller didn’t believe that either. God’s sovereign. He’s not our servant but you see, George Mueller knew that God had made a promise to him and on the basis of that promise, he prayed that prayer because he believed the promises of God.

Now you may not have the Gift of Faith, but God has still made promises to you. If you’re a Christian, God has promised to life. He’s promised to give you a never-ending future in an eternal and glorious kingdom, in the new heavens and the new earth, and if you’re a Christian, He’s promised one day to give you a resurrection body that is glorious, indestructible and no longer subject to decay. In the meantime, if you’re a Christian, God has promised to provide for you. He’s promised to feed you and clothe you as he clothed the lilies of the field and as He feeds the birds of the air. If you’re a Christian, God has promised to make your life abundant and fruitful, productive, if you would abide in Jesus Christ and in the Word of Christ as a branch must abide in the vine. If you’re a Christian, God has your promised to forgive you if you would but repent and confess sin. If you’re a Christian, God has promised to bless you, promised to work together all things for good if you love. Him. God has promised never to fail you or forsake you but to be with you always. These are the promises of God and I believe that somehow Christians just don’t have faith in these promises. It seems to me that most Christians don’t really believe the promises of God because if they did, if we did, we’d have a lot more joy. We would have a lot more confidence in this world. We’d know that God was taking care of us now and forever and we’d have a confidence and a joy that was unshakeable, so if you don’t have the Gift of Faith, perhaps you would want to surround yourself with people who do have faith, but better still, God wants you to pray that your faith might increase.

One of the most beautiful passages in the scripture is Luke, chapter 17, where we’re told that the disciples said “Lord, please increase our faith.” God wants us to be a confident people. You know there’s that little story in Mark, chapter 4, where the disciples are crossing the Sea of Galilee and they’re on the boat and there’s a horrible storm, perhaps the storm came from the west off the Mediterranean Sea or it may have come from the north from the regions of Mt. Hermon, but it was a violent storm and the sea was violently heaving and the boat was rocking and water was coming into the boat and the disciples began to be panicked and they feared for their life. And all this time Jesus was on the boat and He was sleeping. The disciples went to Him and woke Him up and they said, “Master do you not care that we perish?” The Bible says that Jesus stood, that he rebuked the wind and He said to the sea, “Peace Be still” and the Word of God tells us that there was a great calm and the disciples thought to themselves “who is this that even the wind and sea obey him?” and Jesus said to the disciples, “why were you afraid, oh you of little faith?”

You see, the Lord wants us to trust Him in the good times and in the bad, He wants us to trust Him in the midst of the storms of life and that is why the Bible says, “without faith it is impossible to please God, for he who would draw near to God must believe that He exists and He is the rewarder of those who seek Him.” Let’s pray.