 Okay, okay, so we've the class recording is on good morning everyone to BC 111 our course on faith Thank you for being in the class today. Let's pray and let's get started together Father we thank you for the opportunity to gather together like this year in person and online and Even our e-learning students. We thank you for each one even as we Take time to be in your word To hear to listen to understand Father I pray that the Holy Spirit will lead us that the Holy Spirit will write upon the table of our hearts will write the truth of Your word into our hearts so that together Lord, we will be able to do your word practice your word and See amazing results in our journey of faith as individuals and as a collective body Teach us train us equip us by your spirit and by your words We thank you in Jesus name Amen, amen Okay So last class we kind of paused and I said you need to ask I think some of you wanted to ask some questions I hope you remember your questions All right, but I'm going to quickly review The lesson we were covering and then we will open up for your questions And then we will proceed from there So I'm going to share the PDF just to quickly review. We've been talking about One minute on PDF. Yes, okay so we've been talking about collective faith and and Just quickly review some of the things we shared We talked about The importance of being in agreement This is based on what Jesus said in Matthew 18 that he said if we agree on earth And ask anything it will be done. So Jesus himself taught us the importance of being in agreement and And Then we talked looked at examples of collective faith in action We looked at the early church in Acts chapter 4 How they prayed together in Acts 4 and then we saw the outcome of what happened The miracles that took place on the streets through Peter's shadow and so on We talked we saw how Peter was released from prison as the Disciples were praying We also saw Acts 14 the example or the incident when Paul was stoned and The disciples gathered around him and prayed and immediately miraculously. He was healed and he woke up and And he got up and he went back into the city and he continued on his journey preaching We talked about how our collective faith puts up Solid front meaning a defense or protection a wall when we stand in order and have faith together and We saw that as a community we can keep increasing in faith and Keep growing in faith. And so this is a journey that we make together as a community We also mentioned a few things about things that will destroy collective faith murmuring complaining being in competition and strife Or self or pride or jealousy these things destroy collective faith That means when we come together to have faith if people are in Jealousy stripe and all those things it disturbs the faith that we want to see exercised And so in view of that We must learn how to minister as a team and most of the time we will be ministering as teams Right. It's not that we are ministering alone You know, we have others with us who are also believers who love the Lord and you know, we minister as a team So we need to learn to flow together not in competition. You're not trying to outdo each other but flow together You know be sensitive to Working together as a team. So we need to nurture and protect genuine team ministry. So we Went on to that. We also, you know talked about a little bit. We had quite a bit of discussion on Will the unbelief of one person affect the collective faith of the group that was a lot of questions We were discussing on that. So I shared my thoughts and what we see in scripture and This was the last part which we didn't cover I'll just cover it and then we will take up questions on the same topic on collective faith So what happens when we face failure in collective faith, right? And this has happened, you know, there are times when, you know On a couple of occasions, we call the church together to pray for something I mean when I say church was not everybody came but sometimes 20 people 30 people would gather together to pray for one particular thing And There have been times when we failed like we didn't see the outcome Okay So especially example you're praying for a child who Became sick and died for the child to come back to life So there you know once one whole night. We all gathered in the house One house He prayed whole night. I think there must have been at least 30 people 40 people Through the night praying but nothing happened next day We did the funeral, but then a lot of people work, you know, very very You know What is the right word to use maybe discouraged maybe questioning what happens, you know, why did it? But he, you know, resurrect the child And so we have to As a leader as a pastor you have to provide an explanation or you have to Address this you can't pretend that that never happens So, you know, how would you handle it? How would you do that? What would you say, right? So some of the things one is a bit dead to self reputation. So it's not about my name It's not about the name of a PC You know, it's look we as a community are journeying into this. There are times we see amazing results and there are times we may see failures Okay in success and in failure. We are together. We succeed together. We fail together When we succeed together, let's learn, you know, what did we do right? When we fail, let's learn Where did we fail? What went you know, we have to seek God. So don't So, you know, it's not about an individual's reputation Right. Secondly, don't defend God. We don't have to defend God. God. God is our defender. We are not his defender Right. So it's like so don't feel the pressure to try to defend God. So God you're big enough to defend yourself I'm only Under shepherds, I'm only trying to lead the people the best I know how I don't have all the answers I'm also learning turning with God, but God knows everything. Right. So We don't put the pressure on yourself to try to defend God, you know God please handle this, you know, you you move on the hearts of people you take care of them Okay Thirdly Don't give explanations by trying to fault others. This is a very bad thing to do You know, don't say are those three people they didn't pray properly You know, if you have a group of 30 40 people don't pick on Couple of people, you know, don't say they didn't pray properly. They didn't do it, right? You know, don't fault people Especially when we don't know ourselves for sure. We don't know But the thing is when we start faulting people. Oh, they were like this or they were like this then they get hurt You know, they get hurt. So don't fault people don't try to put the blame on others just Number four is encourage others and then say hey look we prayed We know we didn't see the result that doesn't mean God is bad. That doesn't mean his word has changed God is still the same His word is still the same You and I are growing You and I are learning how to exercise faith It's like, you know, we get the example of learning to ride a bike or drive a car You may have some Accidents that doesn't mean you can never learn to ride a bike What do you do you get up and start riding again? So We say, okay, let's go on. Let's see how we can move in this Yeah, and so number five is don't quit. We don't give up. So we tell the people let's continue Let's keep moving forward Even the disciples fail, but Jesus didn't disqualify them or nine of you You could not cast the devil out. So from today onwards, you're no longer my disciples. He didn't say that Yeah, they fail But what did they do they came and asked Jesus, why couldn't we do it and then he taught them? He said because of your unbelief If you have faith, you will tell the mountain to move a little more So even when they experience failure, Jesus didn't disqualify them. He taught them. So look, you can learn something you know, so We have to be like that. We have to learn. Okay It's nothing wrong with God. Nothing wrong with the will of God. Nothing wrong with the word of God nothing wrong with the Holy Spirit Nothing wrong with our calling is that we have to learn about faith About how to exercise it just like how Jesus taught his disciples, you know, this is what you do so let's pause here before we go forward and Take up any questions Any questions from the online class any questions from those of you here to On this whole subject of collective faith, I know we had a lot of discussion last week, but Let's open up. Do you remember your questions? Okay Go ahead you have the mic with you What was it question You remember a question from last week. Go ahead Pasha can set and give temptation according to the level of faith Can Satan give temptation or tempt us according to our level of faith Okay, so there is no chapter in verse on this the only verse that I can think of is first Peter 5 8 and 9 Where the Bible tells us so question is does Satan tempt us in Proportion to the level of faith So scriptures that come to my mind say first Peter chapter 5 verse 8 and 9 Also first Corinthians chapter 10 verse 13 It's not talking so Peter chapter 5 was 8 and 9. It's talking about the devil as a roaring lion Walks about seeking whom he may devour and the Bible says you resist being firm in your faith So I resist being firm in my faith but it doesn't tell us, you know, how Intense the temptation will be doesn't say that In Ephesians chapter 6 when Paul is talking about the armor of God He says be strong in the Lord first and be strong in the Lord in the power of his mind Then he says put on the full armor of God And then he says having done all to stand stand So that you may be to withstand in the evil day That means he's saying you put your whole armor There will be an evil day that means there'll be a time when the devil is coming with intensity But if you have the armor you'll be able to stand But again, he doesn't tell us Whether the intensity the evil day whether the intensity with which the devil comes is in proportion to our faith or it doesn't connect that there What the Bible does say first Corinthians 10 13 is that God will not permit us to be tempted Beyond what we are able to bear But he will in the middle temptation give us a way to escape So we can overcome that's from God say that means God is saying I will be with you and I'll make sure You can overcome So to answer your question The Bible doesn't state anything in relation to that in the sense that okay, the devil will tempt you in proportion to your faith or something but What we can think is the devil is Going to tempt us in order to cause us to fail right, so He's obviously going to come with whatever he can Small or big or doesn't matter. He's going to come his intent is I want to cause this person to fail so that much we know and He can keep coming back with more temptations more craftiness more cunning But so so to answer your question, we don't know exactly how he comes up with the strategies But whatever it is we have to be firm in our faith first read of 5 9 Ephesians 6 13 14 If we have the armor of God we can withstand in the evil day That means no matter how intense it is we will be able to withstand it First content 10 13 No matter what you're facing God will help us to overcome So that we can say based on the scriptures It's okay All right, go ahead second question is we have collective faith and we are praying for some subject So if they that not done and we don't get the result it can discourage all the peoples That is true so Like when I'm bringing alone so it can harm only me But if we are praying together all we have faith It is true, but then there are some things that we have to do collectively Right. See there are some battles Which are personal battles we fight alone And then there are some battles that we have to fight as a community together Right. So that's what we have to come together and fight spiritually. I'm talking and Along that process maybe sometimes we face it back some failures But that's where all of us have to know that God will cause us to triumph Right. So the question women last words You know, when we have collective faith we come together to pray for something together If we fail then so many people are discouraged Whereas if I pray alone only one question is discouraged. So we are discussing that um There are things that we have to do collectively right and even if we face a setback of failure We must collectively encourage ourselves And go forward Right. And this is where as a leader you need to know how to encourage the people You know a good example. I think it's in first Samuel chapter 22 David and his and his Army he had a small army at that time. He was not king yet And uh He had an army of about 400 people They had left all their Property everything family all in a place called Zik lag They'd gone away to fight somewhere else, but another enemy came Hongkong that Took all their positions away the people away So when they came back They saw everything destroyed And they were all so discouraged Right. They went to fight one battle, but another enemy came and took all these things away And at that moment it says that David's soldiers were angry with him His own people were angry because they like, you know, David what happens? And but then it says David encouraged himself in God You know, so He encouraged himself in God and then he prayed and said God what must we do and God said I want you to go and pursue You will recover everything So he told his people Those of you want to come with me come with me We are going to go and pursue And we will recover, you know So some of them went and they recovered everything You know, so that's when leadership is so important when everybody's discouraged The leader should encourage Himself in God and bring encouragement to others and show that God will still lead us in victory That's what David did Your question, right for God Okay, good in Matthew um 26 where um Jesus asked his Disciples to pray with him but they how they fell asleep, but um I mean, why did Jesus need his disciples to pray for him? Hmm. Okay So rents question is in Matthew 26 Jesus asked his disciples specifically the three of them Peter James and John. He said I want you to pray with me Then they fell asleep So the question is why Did Jesus need his disciples to pray with him, right? So that's something beautiful that we must understand if you go with me to Romans 15 In prayer, we actually strengthen one another In Romans chapter 15 the apostle Paul Is actually requesting for prayer from the believers at Rome and In verse third Romans 15 verse 30 he says Romans 15 verse 30 um Now I thank you brethren through the Lord Jesus Christ to the love of the spirit That you strive together with me in prayers to God for me You strive together With me in prayer so when we pray together What is happening? We are striving together. So example if I am fighting an enemy by myself Then it's only me against them But if others are praying for me, it's like Example if three others are praying for me, then it's like four of us are coming together to fight the enemy We are striving together through prayer, right? So that's what happens in the spiritual realm That is when we get people to pray with us For us in a given situation We are striving together or we are battling together through prayer This is a spiritual thing. So it's through prayer. We are striving together with this matter so remember That on the earth though Jesus Jesus was deity though he was God When he walked on the earth, he limited himself to a man So the people say hey, why does God need help? Yeah, but when he walked on the earth He didn't walk in the powers of deity. He limited himself to a man. So as a man He needed You can think about this even Jesus who was the anointed one. He needed the striving together of his own disciples Join with me now. This is a very crucial time I have to say yes to the will of the father and I have to go to the Cross this is the most important thing. This is why he came. So he says pray with me So not convinced Kind of so if the disciples without parade will have changed anything So it would not see it would not have changed the will of the father The father's will was for Jesus to go to the cross That's the father's will Jesus already knew it You know in John 12 24 25 he says for this purpose I came I mean I came for this purpose to die on the cross You know, so he knew that's the will of the father. That would not change What would have happened was Jesus would have been even more Enabled and empowered To say yes to the will of the father. So eventually he did it Right Even though the disciples went to sleep He still said yes. He said father not my will But your will be So he did but How would the praying of the three disciples have helped him? It should have enabled him. It should have strengthened him To say yes That was the difference the permanent Okay, any other questions prince Yes, prince It says like in bible in psalms or david says like help me to remember all my days were numbered So is it like our lifespan here on earth is already predestined how many years we will live I'm sorry Is so all so the bible tells us all our days are numbered. So god knows the number of our days. So is it like How many years we live on this earth is already predestined by god? Yeah, so Let's let's put it like this God's will Is for us to live out the full course of our lives Or we can know we know that from scripture example in uh, old test when exodus uh, chap to 23 Was this 25 and 26 he says The number of your days I will fulfill That means I will help you live out the full course of your life Then again in psalm 91 14 with long life I will satisfy you and show you my salvation. I will god is saying I will give you a long life And like this are many other scriptures where long life prowess 22 was for by humility and the fear of the lord our riches And a long life prowess 22 was for so A long life is a promise that god has given to us, but I have my responsibility for every promise See every promise of god is conditional Whether conditions have been stated or not. Sorry the question that that was asked here by prince. I forgot to repeat the question is The bible tells us that the number of our days have been numbered So psalm 90 and also in psalm 39 god knows the number of our days Does that mean how many days we will live on earth is already predetermined? So that's the question. So what we are saying is god has promised long life to all of us It's his promise, but every promise is conditional whether conditions are stated or not Every promise is conditional so for a long life god is saying I'll give you a long life if There's a there are conditions What are the conditions example part of it would be I need to take responsibility for my own health So a person cannot say oh god will give me a long life. So I will be reckless with my health That means they abuse their body They do all the wrong things for their body They don't take care of their body then body will collapse So example if god had if the long life for this person was 80 years But he didn't take care of when he died when he was 30 It is wrong for us to say god planned only 30 years for him no God planned 80 years for him but he Abused his body he didn't take care of it and he died at 30 right or example if a believer is Riding or driving his car very rashly gets into an accident and he dies Can we say oh god only wanted him to live for 25 years? No You know god had promised a long life But that is conditional you have to live properly take care of yourself Be careful, you know, and so if a believer is reckless and gets into an accident that costs his life We can't say god only planned 25 years no Okay, so The word of god Doesn't change But every promise of god is conditional again question Okay, any questions online students you're welcome to ask as well. I'm just uh Yeah, go ahead And in one of the God's generous books that I read Like they were I wanted the evangelist they were having a healing ministry or they were having a service something and He felt He actually spoke to the people and told that The holy spirit Is not moving here because of one person's unbelief so I mean and you said last time right if About the collective faith like I asked you and you said that if The majority is in faith god will answer the prayer But And he still moves you told right custom moves even Even if one person is an unbelief. Yeah, but in that situation the host would not How is that? Okay, so I'm trying to understand your question. So rents question is um She heard an evangelist say that There is someone here with unbelief So the holy spirit is not moving something like that whereas Last class last week I shared examples many examples We were looking mainly at the ministry of jesus where um, even though there were people Maybe in unbelief in some cases um Like example the man who brought his Even possessed son Or when they went to jesus house These were examples where It's possible that others were an unbelief and yet miracles happens. And so what we concluded last week was The unbelief of one or more people is not going to prevent the person who is in faith from ministering to people, okay, so Having said that and I still believe that I believe that is true But the other side is unbelief can prevent the person from receiving Okay, so example matthew five matthew chapter six was five and six matthew chapter 13 verse 52 Jesus was in his own hometown of nazra And the bible says in both these scriptures matthew 13 52 matthew six five and six That in his own hometown jesus could not do many mighty works Except he healed a few sick people Because of their unbelief Okay, that means jesus was anointed He wasn't faith But the people didn't receive any mighty miracles Except a few small things few sick people were healed That means they didn't receive because of their unbelief Right, so here it's about an individual receiving a miracle But they were not they were not able to receive a miracle because of their own personal unbelief right, so it's not like Their unbelief prevented jesus from serving somebody else It was their unbelief Prevented them from receiving through jesus so Perhaps i'm relating that to this evangelist's case perhaps That the evangelist was ministering if one or more people weren't unbelief Even though he may be anointed maybe even though the presence of god may be there The people in unbelief will not be able to Receive for themselves But it should not prevent others who are in that same place were in faith From receiving So in a same in the same meeting in the same environment There will be people who are in faith Who will receive There may be people who are in unbelief who won't receive And Plus you have to think about this and this is true That sometimes in spite of the unbelief of people God will still work miracles for them example The man by the pool of Bethesda He didn't have faith. He didn't even know who jesus was He got healed the blind man whom jesus said go wash in the pool of siloam He had no idea who jesus was people asked him who healed you I don't know Somebody came put mud on my eyes told me to go wash. I washed I came I got my side then afterwards he found out it was jesus so Before he didn't know But so god still moved sovereignly work miracles. So that's something we must keep in mind Okay All right any questions from online class? Okay, we're going to go forward to our next lesson move forward and I think You know this week next week we will wind up the course And I will have to create some assessments for you to review the whole course. So Let's do this now The next part I just want to but the remaining parts of the course are just showing us Some of the outcomes of walking by faith One is as this was lesson number 19 The joy resilience and rest of faith So When we walk by faith It's going to fill us Or keep us in a place of joy Okay, there's a joy to this journey of faith because faith Is taking us out of the limitations of this natural realm You know That you are not limited to just this natural realm. You are connected to god Who is bigger who is greater than the natural realm? So even in situations that may be looking difficult in In circumstances that look very difficult sometimes Contrary to everything you're expecting Even in those situations you and I can have joy Big true faith because our faith is in god Right. So look at some of these scriptures Romans 15 13 may the god of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing so You're filled with joy and peace Because you believe Or true believing or unbelieving Right. So because of your belief in god or your faith in god, what's happening? You're filled with all joy and peace in believing In first Peter 1 7 through 9 Peter says, you know, uh, your faith Though it is tested by fire It is going to bring praise honor and glory when Jesus Christ comes verse 8 he says You've not seen him, but you love him and believing You rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory That means your faith is being tested I haven't seen Jesus yet But you believe and because you believe You're filled with joy Inexpressible that's beyond what you can, you know, even Communicate this is how much joy I have you're filled with joy even though your faith is being tested So they were going through trials they were going through difficult times persecution And so Peter is saying see you are believing in Jesus You haven't seen Jesus But because you believe you have joy in your heart And even though your faith is being tested, so keep in mind you can be joyful Even through difficult situations When you have faith in God Your faith in God puts you in a place of peace and joy Put you in that place peace and joy number two faith Makes us resilient Resilient means we don't quit. We don't give up Even if you fall down we get back up on our feet and we keep going So resilient means you can't put me down. You can't Take me out. I come I keep coming back I keep getting up. I'm resilient. I never give up. I don't quit So faith makes us resilient people who are who are not quitters keep fighting We come back fight again Because we know our God cannot be defeated Right, so we keep fighting. We stand strong and faith also enables us to be in a place of rest So that's very interesting because There may be turbulent things turbulence all around us But because we have faith in God we can be calm So we are in a place of peace It's not saying there are no problems No, there may be problems challenges trials all those difficulties hard hard situations And yet in the middle of all of that you can be in a place of rest That means calm You're not stressed. You're not anxious not worried Disturbed No You are in a place of rest meaning calm As a 28 verse 16 he says a lens on a sure Sure stone is offering to jesus and notice what it says the end of that verse whoever believes Will not act hastily Right, or if you look at the Bond's commentary It says to make haste means to run away out of fear Right That means whoever believes is not acting out of fear That means if you or if you put it in a positive way if you believe You are in a place of assurance Not fear not anxiety not anxious You're not acting out of that hastily that means out of fear out of being scared No You believe So you're in a place of calm assurance You Live like that you operate from that place Right other other scriptures where god has promised He said in quietness and confidence will be your strength So then in faith when you're in a place of quietness and confidence That is also a place of strength. Yeah, that is where we operate from and Many other scriptures where god tells us, you know, be still be still so Faith enables us to be still we it and it creates that Knowing this battle belongs to god god is fighting and god will come through on my my behalf so When we walk by faith As people of faith We can have joy We can be resilient And we can have peace or rest So These are the, you know, we could say the benefit of walking by faith in god which A person without faith in god May not be able to experience, you know when things are bad. They're very anxious very disturbed. They get a panic attacks They get all kinds of things. Yeah But a person who's in faith Walks in joy walks in peace walks in quietness calmness and is able to be resilient May fall down seven times when you get back up again because god will help us overcome You know, that's what faith does In our lives. So that's how precious this faith is in god So i'm gonna pause here We will Go for a break. Let me just see if there are any questions any questions from the online class everyone's fine here Yes, pastor Okay, all right the others in class can hear you as well. All right So let's go for a break. We'll come back and I think we have five minutes extra break today So I'll come back in 15 minutes and we will continue with our next lesson. All right See you soon. Thank you