This is some text and ideas that I have been actually meditating on off and on for maybe a couple of years. Didn't know I would ever have a chance to put it in a sermon, but it's something that's been on my mind and heart for some time. The title is, How Does Faith Really Work? And we looked at Daniel 9, 1 to 3, Jeremiah 10, 29, 10 to 14 and Hebrews one to six. And I won't reread those, but maybe read them again in the part that they show up in the message. How does faith really work? And how do we get it? We all know that faith is really important to the Christian life. an essential element in our service and our growth, personal growth. Yet often how it really works and how we get it may seem to elude us at times. I hope to help us see how we get faith and how it really works in us. Today, I will survey many Bible texts as I'm prone to do, and I will tell some stories, as I'm prone to do, of faith and action for you to see how it really worked in others. And maybe you will learn how it can work in your life as well. I hope to be practical today and not theoretical. Too many Christians are simply consumers or spectators in the Christian life, and not soldiers or warriors. Today, I hope to stir you up to join the saints of battle, in the battle, or at least become Christian entrepreneurs and not merely consumers or spectators. Our first text is actually the third one that was read today is seen in Hebrews 11 two, Hebrews 11 two, which tells us that men of old obtained a good report by faith I think this means that the saints of old, and it would certainly be true of us today, got a good report card on how well they exercised personal faith in their lives. This is the context of Hebrews 11, the hall of fame of faith. Further, Hebrews 11.6 tells us that without faith, it is impossible to please God. I don't think the writer is speaking of saving faith here, even though it may be included, but looking at the faith, personal faith that we have working out and through our Christian life and service. We all want to please God and make God happy, do we not? We must first, it says in verse 11, six, believe that God exists. not merely in an intellectual way, but that he exists as the great I am of Hebrews, excuse me, of Exodus 3.14, where when Moses was asked, Moses asked God, who shall I say has sent me? And he was speaking of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. That's the historical God that the Jews knew, but God said, tell them I am has sent you. And this is the God of the eternal past, present, and future, the self-existent God that's with us in the moment that we're in. We sometimes have actually used the word Yahweh for the name of God. He also rewards those, we see in this text, that those who diligently seek him. This means an aggressive pursuit of God for his blessings and favor in helping our personal lives. Now I think before we go any further, we should try to define faith. And that's seen in Hebrews 11.1. And this is a standard classic definition by faith. And I know we've read it many times, and sometimes it seems a little up here and hard to get our mind around this, but I'm gonna read it. Now faith is a substance of things hoped for, and the evidence of things not being seen. That's right out from the King James Version. In other words, I think what he's saying is that it hasn't happened yet, but faith says it will happen and it will be done. And that's the way I think we need to see it. And we're gonna look at how that unfolds in the Christian life. Words in this verse 11.1, words like substance, evidence, are words of a physical or tangible reality. Whoa, wait a minute. That may sound a little bit like a modern teaching that we do not support. Name it and claim it, faith. What is the difference between the name it and claim it idea? Well, it's mostly related to the prosperity gospel, which we do not really support or believe. That would be where you pray, name it and claim it for a new Lexus or a fast jet to carry you around like some of these prosperity gospel preachers do. You pray for a Lexus or expensive mansion in the mountains or a house at the beach rather than advancement of the kingdom of God. Don't pray for material blessings. to consume it on your own desires. But seek first the kingdom of God and all these things will be added unto you. It's okay to have a new car. We've got a Lexus. I'm very happy with it. I'm told that it will handle a wreck pretty well. And I don't need a Lexus. I'm very happy with my Escape. You can pray for material things, but it's to meet your basic needs. Matthew 6 says, seek first the kingdom of God and all these things will be added unto you. Faith is not presumption and God is not our fairy godmother. God is not our good luck charm or genie in the bottle. He's a sovereign God and he wants us primarily to pray for things that will build his kingdom and build his church. In our survey of the Bible text, we will see four steps on how faith really works, four steps how faith really works. And I'm going to give you the outline very quickly and then get into it. First, you read the word. Then you pray the word. then you believe the word, then you obey the word. If you like an acronym, that's RPBO. All of you remember that, RPBO. Read the word, pray the word, believe the word, and obey the word. Our first text that was read is Daniel 9, one through three. a pivotal moment in the history of the Jews. Daniel, it says, in the first year of his reign, that is Darius, Daniel understood by the books the number of years specified by the word of the Lord. Read the word of the Lord. Through Jeremiah, the prophet, that he would accomplish 70 years in the desolations of Jerusalem. Then it says, Daniel says, then I set my face toward the Lord God to make requests by prayer and supplication with fasting, sackcloth and ashes. A rather long prayer follows here, and I'm not going to get into the details of the prayer, but Daniel saw from the Word of God, he read the Word, the first step, and he saw that God was ready, it was time to finish the desolations of Jerusalem. We don't know precisely the year, but it was around 70 years that the people of Israel had been in captivity in Babylon. And he knew the time was about up. So our first step in learning how faith really works, and this is how it will work in your life if God is going to work in your life in some way. He, you will read the word of the Lord. You get a promise or a command from the word. And that means from God himself. Not your own ideas, not your own mind, but you read the word and let God tell you what he wants to do. What does God say he wants to do? What does God say he will do? And the second step is pray the word as Daniel did. So he saw the promise and he knew that 70 years was about up. for the people of Israel, and it was time for them to go back to the land. So he began to pray for it. And there's something mysterious in the mind of God, and we can't unlock this fully. but we see that he commands things to happen and he decrees that they will happen. And then he calls on us as believers to participate in it and to pray for it so that indeed it will happen. One of my favorite texts for this is Ezekiel 36, 37, and 38, where the Lord says, well, no, 36, he says, and the nations that are left around you shall know that I am the Lord, and have rebuilt the ruined places, and planted what was desolate. I, the Lord, have spoken it, and I will do it. Very strong words here of the decree of God, that something is going to happen, and he's decreed that it will happen, it must happen, and it indeed will happen. Thus, in verse 37, thus says the Lord God, I will also let the house of Israel inquire me to do this thing for them. So God has determined that some things will happen, but He's going to ask us to pray that indeed they will happen. If God gives a command, such as Matthew 28, 18 to 20, for example, do you think He really wants it to happen? I think so. God really means it. Therefore, we pray for it and we seek to fulfill the Great Commission, Matthew 28, 18, and 20, and we see how we fit in to that command. Jesus responded to the disciples in Matthew 17, 19 through 20, And when they asked after they were seeking to help a person that had a demon, and he said, they said, why could we not cast it out? You know, it was your plan. Or in modern terms, they were asking, why are we so ineffective and unable to get the job done? Matthew 17, 20, Jesus answered them, and he said, it's your unbelief, your lack of faith. that holds you back. This is what's limited you. Then he goes on to tell them what can be done by faith. Saying, if you have the faith of a mustard seed, which is a small seed, and you say to this kingdom, move from here to there, it will be done. Now I don't think he's saying literally move a kingdom. It's a figure of speech, a hyperbole, that you can do big things in God's kingdom with small faith. And that's what I think he's telling us. And I remember back in the 70s when I was in seminary, at Grace Seminary, my favorite Old Testament professor, Dr. Wickham, he was an Old Testament scholar, but he was a big supporter of modern missions. He really had a burden for missions, and he did everything he could to benefit and help missions, even though he was an Old Testament man. And I remember one time in class, and I think I might have shared this before with you, but you're going to have to hear it. We're going to repeat it now. But I remember he shared one day in class, he called William Carey the greatest Christian who ever lived after the Apostle Paul. Now I really respected Dr. Whitcomb. And, but I thought that praise was a little over the top. Surely there must've been somebody after the Apostle Paul greater than William Carey. But it caused me to study his, start studying his life. And I read a couple of biographies of William Carey. If he was not the second greatest Christian of all time, he certainly became in my mind, the top five. And he was the one who said, expect great things from God, attempt great things for God. That was his life motto. After his conversion, and he was a cobbler, a shoemaker, in those days I think it was a little bit of a higher profession maybe than we might see today because people had to have their shoes custom made and they had to be repaired. He might have been like a very high-quality car mechanic today, but he was on the upper level of the working class. But he was not a professionally trained minister. He got converted and became a part-time Baptist preacher. and he would sit at his cobbler's bench in England while repairing his shoes. All day, eight hours a day, he would sit at the bench, work on shoes and pray over a map of the world. He had a map of the world in front of him, praying for the heathen nations, one of which was India. He was a particular Baptist. We don't use that term so much today, which meant he was a Calvinist. He was also a brilliant linguist, although not formally educated. And he had mastered as a cobbler, not formally educated man, Latin, Greek, and Hebrew before he left for India. They say that if he was in a crowd today, he was a slight build. Apparently he had a balding issue when he was a young man. They said if he'd been among 25 people, you would have overlooked him. He was not an impressive person on a physical manner. In 1792, he wrote an essay entitled, An Inquiry Into the Obligations of Christians to Use Means for the conversion of the heathen. And as I was studying this, I learned something new, which did sort of surprise me. I thought I knew already most everything about William Carey, but I learned that at that particular time in the evangelical and Christian world, Many believed that missions was only for the apostles. It wasn't the obligation of the ordinary Christian to go cross-culturally and evangelize the nations. I don't know how they got that, but it was a widespread belief. And when he was talking about going to India, one of his fellow Baptist ministers rebuffed him and said, Brother Carey, When God wants to save the heathen, he will do it without you or me. That was actually said. But when he finally went to India in 1793, those same Baptist ministers who weren't so keen on the idea at first supported him very, very strongly. He went to India and ministered for 41 incredible years. and died in 1834. These same Baptist ministers who stood behind him in England, John Rylands, Andrew Fuller, Marshman and Ward, who actually joined him on the field some years later, became well known and influential due to their support and their association with William Carey. William Carey was not a lone ranger missionary or Christian. He was, he had a team, had a team in England and a team on the field. And as he was leaving, he spoke to Andrew Fuller and he said, I will descend into the pit if you will hold the ropes. And indeed, Fuller did that his entire life. He spent his whole life praying for Cary, traveling England, raising funds, and calling on the churches in England to support foreign missions. Too much here to describe today, but I have a book, and you can borrow it from me, and it's called The Legacy of William Cary, A Model for the Transformation of Culture. and I believe Charlie Davis has a copy and you can borrow his copy if you want to read it. And what's so amazing, this is a book by Vishal and Ruth Mangawati. They are from India and have been described as a leading evangelical scholar from India. But they wrote about the comprehensive nature of his ministry. He wasn't just giving the gospel, but he was doing Bible translation. He was a botanist. He was a college professor. And he also worked, he trained other Bible translators and I think he translated the Bible with his team into six languages and a partial translation of many more. In his day, people would come to Indian to his Serampore was the mission they had and they would study under him so that they could go to other countries to translate the Bible into these languages. I think China and Persia were other examples where this happened. So it was a very significant ministry. But he was also a social reformer. And he was instrumental in outlawing the practice of sati, S-A-T-I. Many of us probably do not know what that term was. It took him 25 years to get the British government to outlaw sati. And that's where a widow in India, when a husband would die, The widow was expected to climb upon the funeral pyre of her dead husband and be burned or cremated along with him. It took him 25 years, but he got the government, the British government, to outlaw that practice in India, and it was very widespread in the Hindu culture. He was a botanist, an educator, a linguist, a college professor, and a reformer. Cary read the word. He prayed the word sitting at his cobbler's bench in England for years before he was called and prayed over the map of the world. He believed the word and then he obeyed the word. And this is how faith really works. You read it. Remember, R-P-B-O. the word, pray the word, believe the word, and obey the word. And this is our formula too. This is your formula if you want to do things for God. It's all about God and not about you. You should pray for the expansion of God's kingdom and not for your own desires. This is what William Carey did. And it's a model today. Faith really works out itself in We bring to pass new ministries, kingdom ministries, new churches, and new organizations through following these steps. Usually, something starts through a weakness or need that we see in the church. We see something that's lacking, something that's missing in the culture. Maybe we see it in A lack of Christian education and homeschooling, which has been the cause of my wife and I for 40-something years. Maybe we see a lack in higher education, Christian higher education, or a lack in missions, world missions. SIM was born, as we just learned, in 1893. And Bob Hay, who's here with us today, his father for many years was the president of that mission. What error do you see that needs to be corrected? What needs do you see in the world? You must begin to see the need yourself as an individual, but you will work on it corporately. You read a verse that says, you read a verse that applies to something that you see you need, and you pray, and you cry out to God, and you say, God, do something. He taps you on the shoulder. He says, you do something. I will help you. I want you to see faith that really works itself out in your life. All the great works of God start in this fashion. We know the story here in our own town of the founding of Columbia Bible College. And I just attended a lot of the activities to remember the 100th anniversary. Emily Dick, and the praying women of Columbia, South Carolina were instrumental in the founding of Columbia Bible College in 1923. And now it's called CIU or Columbia International University. At one time, and I don't know how these figures have changed today, but at one time, 80% of CIU alumni were serving in some foreign mission field, 80%. That's incredible. So God has really used that institution and it's still going and we still pray for it and still support it and there are many in our own church that are graduates or had some connection with it. The five Alca missionaries were martyred in 1956 trying to take the gospel to an unreached tribe in Ecuador. Some promising, outstanding young men, Jim Elliott, Ed McCully, Nate Saint, there were several others, I don't recall their names, but they were in their 20s, and they were cut off in their prime. Some asked, why this waste? Our pastor at the time, when we got married in 1969, told me and Gail this story from shortly after their martyrdom in 1956. He said a prominent missionary, and you wouldn't think that a leading missionary statesman would think this way, and he didn't call his name, but he said a prominent missionary said to him at the time, oh Ed, what a waste, what a waste. And Ed Stelling said, you wait, you just wait. The final chapter of that story has not yet been told. Now 70 years later, books such as The Shadow of the Almighty, Through Gates of Splendor, movies have been made, have been written and movies have been made. And that tribe has a functioning church today. They have the Bible in their language and many thousands of our Christian youth have been inspired for world missions to the remote part of the earth. God does not waste our good works, nor does he let martyrs die without the impact of their life carrying on. I remember reading something about it when the missionaries, I think it was the widows of these men, some of them went into the tribe years later and apparently they were being killed and they were armed. The missionaries had rifles. And they came in and killed two of the men, and there were several that were still surviving. And they began to fire shots into the trees and in the woods to drive them off. And they ran off, and they realized, hey, they're not going to kill us. So then they came in. ended up killing all five of the men. And they always wondered, why did they not shoot us? They had the capacity to stop us, but they didn't do it. They had that question hung in the back of their mind for several years until the wives went in and were able to explain that they had come to take the gospel to them. So God doesn't waste lives like that. When they're martyrs, there's usually great impact that takes years to unfold. John Wesley was influenced by the Moravian evangelist Peter Bowler before his conversion. Now, you may remember the Moravians were a worldwide missionary group. And Wesley began to preach. before he was actually converted. And he discussed this problem. He knew he wasn't converted, but he was preaching and talking about God, because he was an ordained Anglican minister at the time. And he asked Peter Bowler, how can I do this if I lack the reality of conversion in my own life? And Peter Bowler gave an answer that I remember when I heard it in a church history class in seminary. It's one of the great, Mysterious answers to a question like that that's ever been given. And Peter Bowler, who was an evangelist himself, said, he gave this strange advice to Wesley. He said, preach faith until you get faith. And when you get faith, you will preach faith. And that's a famous saying from church history at that time. A short time later, Wesley, while attending the Moravian Chapel in Aldersgate, when he experienced his conversion as a born again Christian, as the preacher was reading Luther's introduction to Romans at the time, Wesley described the moment, he said, My heart was strangely warmed and I felt I did trust Christ alone for my sins. And most say that that was the moment of Wesley's conversion. So yes, we have a lot of stories to tell about people who followed this pattern of read, pray, believe, and obey. Some final thoughts. And some final brief ideas to help you find a faith that really works in your life. Don't be a dabbler in the Christian life walking ministry. Don't just flip from here to here. God calls you to do something for a time. Stay with it for a while. Don't just flit around. And a lot of Christians just sort of dabble. I think that's one of the biggest things I've seen and one of the biggest complaints I have when I talk to some of my fellow Christians. They don't really stick with something and get behind something. If you are called to a work of ministry, stay there for a while. God may move you on and do something else, but stay there for a while. You may be called to attach yourself to another person's dream or vision of ministry, but it can become yours just as much as the founder. Look at the people who flocked around William Carey. He was the leader, and we hear a lot about him, but Marshman and Ward joined him in India, and they were just as famous as Bible translators as he was. Andrew Fuller held the ropes all his life until he died in 1814. John Rylands was another one, and there's a famous theological library called John Rylands Library in England today. So these men became great in their own minds, in the minds of the public because of their support of William Carey in missions. You may be called to demonstrate a Christian marriage. may be that your calling to be a witness in marriage, what a godly marriage should be like. You may be called to teach child raising techniques or build a business for Christ to show what a business can be that really is dedicated to Christ and his kingdom. In our case, me and Gail, in 1977, when we first started homeschooling our oldest son, he's now 53, He was six at the time. We did not see that as a major calling at all. It was just about Gail and Ray and their oldest son at that time. That calling came 20 years later after we had been working in the area of the Vineyard of Christian Education and Homeschooling for 20 years. We launched the Exodus Mandate in 1977. Now it's been 45 years going for me and Gail in that, and we've seen the fruition of our dream and faith 45 years later. Along with our many sister ministries, and I wish I could take credit for it all, but we certainly were part of the mix of growing homeschooling and Christian schooling. But along with our many sister ministries, We're seeing millions of families and children now moving into K-12 Christian education. The way it happened for us, and I'll go back to 1995 briefly, but again, I was following the formula, read, pray, believe, and obey. That was my formula at the time without realizing it expressly. But we, I wrote a little track called The Exus Mandate and the subtitle was Let My Children Go. And I published that in 1995 in a little Christian paper in Greenville, South Carolina. And I began to advocate in 1995, just kind of locally with a few friends, the need to get your kids out of the public school system into the safe sanctuary of Christian schools or homeschooling. And that was all it was. It was just something very local, more I didn't see it in any greater way, but we had been doing it for over 20 years already, so it wasn't a new thing. We had been experimenting and learning things about it for 20 years before 1995. But I went to a conference in Washington, D.C., and it was a big event. About 800 people attended. About half of them were staffers on Capitol Hill either in the House or the Senate that dealt with the education issue. And about half of the 800 people were people like me from the countryside who had come in for the event. And it was all about what public school was doing to the culture and the need. And it was basically, the thrust of the conference was somebody do something. They had no plan. And I remember, The only plan they had was repeal bad laws. And I remember sitting there for a day just being amazed at it, thinking, wow, these are the best Christian leaders. And some of the groups that were there would be ones that you wouldn't know about today, Concerned Women for America, Homeschool Legal Defense. They were our leading groups that are still, most of them are around today operating and doing good work. And I remember thinking, wow, nobody's got a plan. I mean, and I said, I knew the left had a plan because they had been corrupting the children for 100 years using public schools. And all our people could say was somebody do something and repeal bad laws. And I remember just being utterly, stunned at it. And I had been working on my little plan in South Carolina from 1995. And I felt that day God said, and I told the Lord, I'm going to get several million children out of these government schools. And I remember feeling a little silly when I thought that. I said, who am I to do something like that? So I took the next six months and I went and visited three people to ask, present my plan and my idea and I wanted them to tell me if I was crazy or not. And one of them was my brother who had in the 70s been a member of this church when he was working at the University of South Carolina just a few blocks away. He was a member of this church and then he went on and he became Strom Thurmond's top aide on defense and foreign policy issues. And at the time that I talked with him about what I wanted to do, he was working at the Heritage Foundation in Washington, D.C. as their top defense and foreign policy person. And he was a Christian. At the time, he was a member of the PCA Presbyterian Church, and I shared with him what I was doing, or wanted to do, and he said, you should do it. You should try to do it. It'll be a surprise move. It won't be looked upon as a political thing, but a religious education thing, and you may not attract any enemy fire. And then he told me this, he said, We have already lost the culture war. This was in 1997 that I had this conversation with my brother. We have lost the culture war. The Christians and conservatives have lost. The left knows it, but we don't know it. And they're just going to take 30 or 40 years to clean us up and finish us off. And that's what they're doing right now. We're in the end of a 30 year period and they're cleaning you up and trying to finish us off if you haven't noticed it. So I went ahead and then I talked to Hank Hamilton who had been a member of this church in the past and he's a crusty old colonel in the army like I was, and I shared it with him, and this is what he said. It is dry, sort of wet. He said, Ray, if you try to do that, you'll become the most hated man in America. And I said, whoa, what do you mean? He said, yeah, the Christians will hate you because they don't want to obey God when it comes to raising their children. but the left will hate you because they know you have figured it out and what they're doing. Well, we went ahead and launched it in November of 1997, and the Lord has blessed it. And as I said, I'm part of a mix of dozens of groups and organizations and ministries that are doing the same thing now. So I certainly am only part of the mix, but we are enjoying this moment in our life to see what has happened. through Exodus mandate. The next final item is start small in your Christian service. Be faithful in little things and you will grow into bigger things. Start with a Sunday school class or some kind of program that's working with children. Teach in a Christian school. David the shepherd boy was willing to challenge the giant Goliath in 1 Samuel 17, 36. How could he do that? Well, he said to King Saul, he said, you can't go out and fight the giant, you're just a boy. He said, your servant, David said, your servant has killed both a lion and a bear that came to harm my flock. And God will deliver this uncircumcised Philistine to me also. He started small and he worked up to killing giants. And that's the way God works. Start small, do things, little things and prove yourself faithful. The next thing I would say in wrapping up is balance your outside reading besides the Bible. Read biographies of great Christian men and women to build your faith so that you too can do great things in the kingdom of God. Read about William Carey. according to my professor, the second greatest Christian that ever lived, and read about Hudson Taylor when he went to China. Read about Amy Carmichael of Donover. There's so many good stories that we can read to build our faith, to think big and think better about what God can do with us. If you read only theology, and don't recommend against it, but if you only read theology, you will have a good order and structure in your Christian faith, but you may lack vision, faith, and courage to do bold things for God. If you read only devotional books, I don't recommend against it, but you may become depressed if you only look inward and find that you don't measure up. Read about these great men and women that have accomplished great things for God. God has a personal plan for each one of us after we're saved. Each one of us has a place. Find your niche and your place in the body of Christ. And most often, it will involve missions. And I'm happy about this church that we stand behind our missionaries. We hold the ropes. And it's not a casual thing. We pray for them. regularly on Wednesday nights we support them financially but Paul said in Ephesians 2 8 where we're saved by grace through faith but we often forget verse 10 after salvation he says of us we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. Find the good works that God's prepared for you once you've been saved. You can experiment. You can get advice from your elders or your pastor. But find what God has created for you to do. You may, yeah, obedience to the word of God is its own reward. James 1, we're wrapping up here now pretty quick. James 1.22 said, be doers of the word and not hearers only deceiving yourselves. God doesn't want you to be a spectator or consumer of Christian teaching only, but he wants it to act out in your life. And then he goes on to say, but he who looks into the perfect law of liberty, the same text, and continues in it and is not a forgetful hearer. If you're not acting on the word of God that you heard in the teaching you're getting, you can become a forgetful hearer. But a doer of the work, interesting there, it says the work, not the word, doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does, and that includes you and me. Find your niche. your place in the kingdom of God while you're young, if you can. It's good when you get saved at a nine-year-old or seven-year-old like I was, and then you can continue to grow and be in a Christian home in a good church, but some of us, it will not be that way. We'll get saved when we're older, but God still has a place for you. Remember the promise of Ephesians 3.30, And when you pray, God is able to do exceedingly, abundantly, beyond all we ask or think. This is the kind of God we serve. So God can take a little dream or a little plan and grow it into something very big. And I like that verse because it piles up the words, exceedingly, abundantly, more than we ask or think. Let's pray. We thank you, Lord, for the promises and showing us how you really work. We thank you that we are supposed to read the word, read it constantly, because when we read it, Lord, you speak. We pray the word. You tell us something, and we repeat it back to you, Lord. We tell you and remind you of what you said you wanted to do. We believe the word. and we obey the word. So we thank you for this opportunity to share and we pray that in this group already many good things are being done, but if someone is here today that needs to find their niche and their place in your plan, we pray that they would seek it with all their heart. In Jesus' name, amen.