Real Faith

Last night I was continuing my study through Genesis at Ballenger Creek Baptist Church. We started on Abram last night. Boy, was I excited! I preached about faith, since Abram was such a man of faith. But as I studied for the sermon I became amazed at faith. Maybe it is because the other week my dad came and preached on faith to our church, and it was a HUGE blessing. The thought came to my mind that when we say that Abram had faith, we normally equate his faith with his actions. Rightfully so! Faith is not a concept or an idea; it is a literal, physical thing that we can see through a person's actions. I fear that modern Christianity has so over spiritualized faith because if we were to have the real, Biblical faith we would realize how little faith we really have. Many of us claim to have faith in
God, but never back it up with our actions. Here are a few verses I found on faith:

Matt 17:20, “And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you.”- in this passage, Jesus tells his disciples that there faith will produce real, physical results such as removing mountains!

Hebrews 11:1, “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for; the evidence of things not seen.”- Do you notice the concrete words in this verse. Substance, evidence. A pulpit is substance, hope is not substance; a piano is substance, time is not substance. Substance is something physical. Faith is substance.

James 2:17, “Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone.”
 

James 2:17 is where I'd like to stop for a second. James is, in my opinion, one of the greatest books in the Bible because it takes the doctrine and faith that was already being taught in the church but then gives it practical application. In essence, James is saying that your actions show the faith you have. I want to challenge you today with something: If you say that you have faith that God will bring revival and people will be saved but our never actually try to win people to the Lord, then you really don't have faith! If you say that you have faith over God's plan for your life but you never go to church or read the Bible, then you don't have faith! If you say that you have faith that God will bless your church but never give tithes or offerings, then you don't have faith! When we say that we have faith, God is saying "OK, prove it. Show me." Faith is not a stagnant thing, it is acting.
Once a little farming town was suffering a drought. It got so bad that the church in town called for an emergency prayer meeting to pray for rain. One family was about to leave their home for the prayer meeting when the little girl said, "I forgot something, I'll be back." The little girl ran away for a second and came back with an umbrella. The father looked at her with confusion and said, "Daughter, why are you bringing an umbrella with you? It hasn't rained here for months!" The little girl then said, "But daddy, we are going to the church to pray for rain. I'm bringing an umbrella just in case it does."
Faith is not just praying for rain; faith is taking an umbrella with you.