How to Grow Your Faith Muscle
Joel Gorveatte · Tidal Church Moncton · July 17, 2022 · Recharge series
Joel Gorveatte teaches from James 1 and Hebrews 11 that God grows our faith like a muscle through problems, finances and obedience. He closes by sharing how he and his wife are stepping out like Abraham to move to New York City.
More from Joel Gorveatte · The Recharge series
Topics: Faith, Mission & Outreach, Discipleship
Transcript
[0:00] In Matthew chapter 9, verse 29, Jesus said, "According to your faith will it be done to you." In other words, there is something about the level of your faith that determines the quality of your life. And how do we know that? Well, Hebrews 11, verse 6 says, "Without faith it is impossible to please God." Now, if that's true, then maybe that might explain why so many Christians never seem to experience the fullness of life that the Bible talks about, because, get this, weak faith results in weak Christians.
[1:03] Let me say it again: weak faith results in weak Christians. And so that's what we're going to talk about today. We're going to try to answer the question: how does God grow your faith? Now, if you want to grow, for example, let's say you want to grow big, you know, massive bodybuilder muscles like mine. I was not a joke. What would you do? Well, you don't just sit back and eat potato chips and watch movies on the couch. What do you do? You have to lift heavy things. You have to put the muscle under strain and tension, and then you have to give it good nutrition and the things that are necessary to grow. In other words, you have to have a training plan. If you want to grow your cardiovascular health, maybe you start a running training plan or a cycling plan or an aerobic plan of some type. If you want to grow your knowledge, you need some kind of educational plan. It doesn't just happen by accident. And guess what? God also has a training plan for your spiritual growth.
[2:28] And how does He do it? Are you ready? You might not like the answer. You see, how God grows your faith goes against the very nature of what our culture says life is all about. Even many Christians sometimes fall into thinking that Jesus is just about making your life more comfortable, that God wants to make everything easy and nice for you, and Jesus just wants to take care of all your problems. But that is not exactly what the Bible says. You see, here is God's training plan. Are you ready? Here it is, James 1, verses 3 and 4.
[3:14] "You know that the testing," everybody say, "the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that," everybody say, "so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything." You see, God's training plan for your faith, which is the essential ingredient of life, is that God grows you into a spiritual giant by the testing of your faith. For example, 1 Peter chapter 1, verses 6 and 7: "For a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials.
[4:04] These have come so that your faith, of greater worth than gold, may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed." Now, it's not that God creates the problems, but when these problems come into our lives, God has a way of using them to test us and stretch us and grow us spiritually. Listen, you know, comfortable people generally have weak faith. Isn't that true? Many times people who choose comfortable, easy lives never grow into the spiritual giant God created us to be.
[4:56] And Isaiah 48:10, God says, "I have refined you, though not as silver. I have tested you in the furnace of affliction." Nobody puts that on a greeting card, do they? And so number one, God grows our faith through problems, and number two, God grows our faith through finances. Check out 2 Corinthians chapter 8, verses 7 and 8: "Just as you excel in everything, see that you also excel in the grace of giving. I'm not commanding you, but I want to test the sincerity of your love."
[5:43] You see, God tests whether He can trust you or not by watching what you do with money. And so maybe one of the reasons that many Christians never experience the fullness of joy and the abundance of life that the Bible talks about, that God wants for us, is because, in part, maybe we've been treating our finances exactly like the world rather than doing things God's way. For Tracy and me, some of the greatest miracles that we have ever experienced in our life, over and over and over again throughout the years, one of the most tangible ways that we have seen God's demonstration of power and the miraculous is because every year we have always given between 12% and 15% of our income. Every dollar we receive, the first goes to God, and every time we step out in faith, God blesses us back with more than we could ever imagine. Not just, when I say blessing, I don't just mean financial. It unlocks so many things when it comes to trusting God. See, Jesus says in Luke 16:11, "If you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches?"
[7:17] And I think one of the reasons that God has blessed Tracy and me so much throughout our lives, not just financially but relationally and spiritually and in leadership and in positions of authority and opportunities beyond what we could have ever imagined, I think it's because God has tested us financially and seen that we are willing to do whatever He asks us to do. He has entrusted so much to us because He has seen how much we trust Him. And it's not just us. Listen, it's so many of you out there too. I have heard your stories, the testimonies of how God in your life has done the miraculous again and again, especially even in this area of finances, because you've always been willing to do what God asks you to do.
[8:10] And so number one, God grows our faith through problems. Number two, God grows our faith through finances. And number three, God grows our faith through obedience. In the Old Testament, God led the Israelites through the desert for 40 years, and during that long time in the desert, in that dry and thirsty land, God promised that He would provide for them everything that they need. And so the way that God did that, one of the ways, is every day He would cause this kind of food to literally fall from the sky. The Bible called manna.
[9:00] And they were to go out and gather enough for their family, but just enough for one day at a time. Now, why would God make such a crazy request of them? Well, Exodus 16:4 says that the people are to go out each day and gather enough for that day. And God says, "In this way, I will test them and see whether they will follow my instructions." Abraham. Abraham was a guy who was 75 years old when one day God comes to him, and you know, Abraham is 75 years old. He's about ready to hang up his hat and retire, and God says, "Oh, I'm not done with you yet, because there is no retirement in the kingdom of God." Amen.
[9:58] And so God comes to him and says, "Abraham, I want you to pick up with everything. I want you and your wife to move to a land that I will show you." And Abraham asks God, "Where are we going?" And God says, "I'll tell you later." And Abraham says, "I have so many unanswered questions." And God says, "I know." And he says, "Well, how are we supposed to get there?" And God says, "I'll tell you later." "How do we know when we've arrived?" God says, "I'll let you know." Would you go? But 75 years old, and he just steps out in faith. The Bible says, Hebrews 11:8, "By faith Abraham obeyed and went."
[10:43] Because, listen, faith involves risk. Faith involves risk. One day God goes to a guy named Noah. He says, "Noah, I want you to do something crazy. I want you to do something that all of your neighbors are going to think that you've lost your mind. They're gonna make fun of you and ridicule you for what I'm about to ask you to do. Noah, what I want you to do is to build a boat called an ark." Now, that doesn't seem so strange until you read what the Bible says, that Noah lived out in a desert, in a place where it had never rained in a way that they had ever seen before, and God asks him to build a boat. Are you crazy? Would you build a boat out in the middle of the desert when, as of his speaking, there is not a cloud in the sky?
[11:44] But even though not yet a single drop of rain had yet fallen, Hebrews 11:7 says, "By faith Noah built the ark." He did it anyway. And so all of that leads to a big announcement, and we're gonna pivot here because this next part is so important that I'm going to read it. This is a significant announcement today about some changes that are coming that here at Moncton Wesleyan. We know that bold faith in God is always accompanied by bold obedience to God.
[12:30] And when it comes to bold obedience, God has been speaking to Tracy and me about doing something crazy bold: moving to New York City. Now, let me explain. Seven years ago, the Wesleyan district superintendent from New York called and asked if we might be willing to plant a church in Manhattan, the heart of the largest city in North America. And so seven years ago, we didn't feel like we were to say yes at the time, but God planted a special seed in our hearts for New York City. And so Tracy and I felt a heavy burden that we were supposed to support the work of church planting in one of the hardest places in the world.
[13:30] And so we committed to support Brandon and Jen Peterson, who ended up starting Resurrection Life NYC, a Wesleyan Church plant in the Upper East Side neighborhood. Let me tell you a little bit about it. The Upper East Side is right beside Central Park and has 250,000 people in just one little neighborhood. And to this day, there are only about five or six gospel-centered, Bible- believing churches in that one neighborhood for 250,000 people. And those few churches combined only average about 1,500 or 1,600 in attendance on a given Sunday.
[14:24] That is less than 1% of people who are worshiping Jesus in a gospel-centered, Bible-believing church on the Upper East Side. So with only six mostly small churches for 250,000 people, it makes that neighborhood one of the biggest mission fields in the entire Western Hemisphere. And so we have continued to pray and support that church plant, and now they have become a training center for other young church planters. And so every time we go to New York City, we always go and support them.
[15:11] In fact, last summer in July, Tracy and I flew to the city to just walk the streets and pray, and we thought, maybe God might call us to go there. But things were so hard last year in the midst of COVID, and we knew that we couldn't leave Moncton Wesleyan in such a time of need. But isn't it wonderful how restrictions have been lifted this year, and the church is booming and our staff is thriving, and God is doing amazing things in our midst. And then a few months ago, Pastor Brandon called me.
[15:56] And as soon as I picked up the phone, I could sense what he was about to ask me. And he said, "Joel, we desperately need Christian leaders here in Manhattan. We need help training and equipping church planters. And God keeps bringing you to mind. Would you consider moving to New York City to come alongside of us in ministry? And I said, well, let me get this straight: you want us to move to the hardest place possible for churches in one of the most expensive cities in the world, and you have no money, no compensation, and no way to support us financially. Wow. What an appealing offer.
[16:48] We'll pray about it. And so not long after, we were at the Wesleyan General Conference in Saint Louis back in May. And the guy playing piano, leading worship on the platform, was wearing a New York Yankees baseball cap. And in that moment, God pressed Hebrews 11 so heavily on my heart that I started to weep, partly out of faith and partly out of fear. And so what does Hebrews 11 verse 8 say? It says, "By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going."
[17:49] And over the next few weeks, we started to get the sense that God was calling us to the path of Abraham. Would we be willing to step out in faith and, with no safety net other than Jesus, go reach people in one of the hardest and most expensive places in the world? And as we got into Hebrews 11, there were things I'd never noticed before. I always knew that verse about Abraham by heart, that we talked about earlier when we read through Hebrews 11. But after we had prayed about it for month, I finally thought, you know, maybe I ought to open up the Bible and see what the rest of Hebrews 11 says about Abraham.
[18:42] So I finally felt led to open up my Bible and see what it says about him, and I was struck in Hebrews 11 by verse 9. That says, "By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country. He lived in tents rather than a permanent dwelling," which sounds an awful lot like living in an apartment. And it says his wife was beyond childbearing age. And we are empty nesters. And our kids both took jobs this year and moved away.
[19:28] And God says, if Abraham will do this, his spiritual impact would multiply for many generations. And so not only was God leading him to a place without explanation, and not only would God not answer his questions until after he stepped out in faith and moved there, but something in verse 10, something in verse 10 jumped off the page that I had never noticed before. It says, "For Abraham was looking forward to the city, the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God."
[20:18] And so what if God wants to build His kingdom in the hardest city, but He's having trouble finding equipped spiritual leaders who are courageous enough, or maybe some might say crazy enough, to go? And so by the end of the month, Tracy and I came to the firm conclusion that this is what we're supposed to do. It seemed crazy, but we went to bed that night with the conviction we were supposed to follow the path of Hebrews 11. That night Tracy and I surrendered to God and said, "Okay, Lord, we will go, like Abraham."
[21:12] The next morning, the very next morning, was the Tuesday prayer meeting our church hosts every week at 7:00 a.m. I got up for prayer that next morning and asked, "Lord, would You please give me something to confirm this decision that we have made?" And often I'll go to Tuesday morning prayer and the Lord will give me some kind of passage of Scripture, or someone will pray something that is exactly what I need to hear that day. And so I wondered what God might give me that morning. I really needed it. And do you want to guess? Thomas, our prayer leader, said, "As we get ready to pray today, I feel led for us all to open our Bibles to Hebrews 11 as we pray, like Abraham, having the courage to step out in faith and do what God calls him to do."
[22:17] Can I say, I just about fell off my rocker! How gracious is our God! The next Sunday, after we had already made the decision, I was here in the Celebration Center and the band was up here rehearsing and getting everything ready for service. And I texted Tracy, and here is the actual text I sent her. I wrote, "How gracious is God to continue to give assurance? In 27 years as a pastor, never has anyone ever worn a New York Yankees jersey up here on the platform until today.
[23:06] Either God wants us to be in the city or He wants us to be Yankees fans, or perhaps both." And so even after we made the decision, again, and again, and again, God has confirmed this calling that we are supposed to go. And that is painful, because this is the most amazing church ever. And I've been casting a regional vision to our board about how God wants to use Moncton Wesleyan to make an impact on Atlantic Canada. But the more that I've cast the vision, the more we have sensed that somebody else is supposed to lead you to accomplish it.
[23:59] And for Tracy and I to stay here, we might get in the way of what God wants to do through this amazing church. So let me answer two questions. Two questions: number one, what's next for Tracy and me, and then number two, what's next for this church? Well, for Tracy and me, all we know is that we are supposed to go as bivocational urban missionaries, helping raise up Christian leaders in the city. So apart from serving as a volunteer pastor at Resurrection Life NYC Church Plant, we don't actually have a job yet.
[24:47] So if you know anybody who is hiring, please let us know. And because New York is so expensive, we basically have to sell all of our cars or the motorcycle, and furniture, and get rid of everything we own. And so if we have anything you would like, please let us know. Our hope is to move around the beginning of the school year. And what about Moncton Wesleyan? Well, the leader of our board, Kevin Campbell, is going to be here in just a moment. He's going to come out and tell you what to expect in the coming days.
[25:34] You need to know you have an amazing board. Amazing, and you, they have been incredibly supportive. And you have a fantastic pastoral staff, and I believe that God is moving us out of the way because the Lord has a new pastor for you who is more wonderful and amazing than you can possibly imagine, and God is going to reveal that in His own time. So don't worry, things are going to be good around here. And I will still be the pastor here until the last Sunday of August. But in the meantime, would you please, as we pray for you, would you please pray for us as we seek God's will and as we look for jobs in New York City? And may I encourage you to remember this? We are a sending church.
[26:38] We have sent missionaries around the world. And now you are sending and blessing God's kingdom. Once again, you see, God has always done amazing things through Moncton Wesleyan because of your faith and generosity, and that's why we are 100% confident that God's greatest days for this church are yet to come. Amen? Amen. We love you. Don't doubt it.