 Okay, good morning everyone. Thank you for connecting to the class today. Welcome and Just wait for a few moments I guess others connecting and Okay, let's just pray and get started. Hopefully the others will Join us soon Let's just pray together Can I request somebody to pray Jeffy now, would you like to pray? Your mic is okay. Okay Alan Would you like to pray? That's what's happening. Yeah All right, I'm not sure Sir, I pray okay the big car go ahead, please Thank you father. Thank you father. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Oh, thank you father Thank you father for a new day that you have given to your children Lord Thank you for your mercy and grace upon your children Lord. Yes father Lord I pray for this class that we learn from our pastors Lord Whole spirit we want your presence among us Lord help us Lord and open our mind Lord That we understand understand your love Lord that how much you love your children Lord Lord Give your and your knowledge Lord give your wisdom Lord Jesus Oh Lord help us to increase in our faith in our life Lord Jesus. Yes father Because you are the mighty father Lord. Thank you for this new law new day for Lord Jesus That you've given for your children Lord Lord many a many a people pass away from this earth Lord Yes father, but your grace your great grace your great mercy That you're doing for your children Lord. Oh, thank you father. Thank you father For this day Lord Jesus Lord. I pray Lord for your name Lord Jesus. Thank you father. Amen. Amen Thank you Thank you. All right. Welcome everybody Thank you for a big cup of praying Okay, so we're going to continue this morning in our Study on the subject of faith Last week We spent our time both lectures talking about Abraham's walk of faith we We looked at the journey of faith that Abraham had and You know we we drew insights or lessons from how Abraham walked in faith and God is telling us that we ourselves have to walk in The same steps of the faith of Abraham so We follow the example that Abraham said for us and how he Walked in faith in God So we follow his example Today what we want to do is just talk a little bit about Faith hope and love how these three are related Is It's a small lesson and not pretty big and then we want to look at the believers walk of faith where We want to understand that Faith is part of everything we do as believers that Everything we do comes out of faith in God and has to be based on faith in God. So that's the Second lesson we would cover today Right, so the first lesson which we're doing is about faith hope and love which is Simple it's a very short one. Just want to bring our attention to a few things And then we will talk about the believers walk of faith where we're emphasizing that where we will emphasize that everything we do Has to come from a place of faith in God. All right now Whatever we've learned about Abraham's walk of faith the steps of his faith of the faith of Abraham Which we did last week. I want you to keep it in mind I want you to you know, just apply it to your life situation. Whatever you're going through And we're going to revisit that When we outline for us In an upcoming lesson on what are the steps of faith? You know, how do we if you want to exercise your faith for something? How would you go about it? Right. Our goal is not to write a formula But our goal is to outline You know, this is how you normally would go about exercising faith in God so so all of us understand the the steps in the another walk of faith or the The journey we have to make in faith as we exercise faith in God So we will come back to some of those things that we spoke about last week in a future lesson So today let's just Do a short lesson first on faith hope and love, right? Now the Bible talks about these three Aspects facets to a Christian walk faith Hope and love and I just want us to The main purpose of this lesson is to help us see that these three are interconnected and That while we are on earth Faith hope and love are very important for us as believers faith hope and love now There is a difference between faith and hope hope is Future dense that means I Am expecting something to happen in the future For instance, we all hope For our place in heaven that means it's a hope in We have it's a hope that we know it's not going to be fulfilled right now But it is something we will have after we leave this world Whether we we know whether we all die and go to heaven or should the Lord Jesus come and take us to heaven Which are away? It's a hope that we have that means we know it's there But it is something in the future. It's there Right. It's we know we cannot have it right now because it's after we leave this place So it's a hope It's a hope of we have we all have the hope of seeing Jesus face to face Now it's something in the future. That means one day We will be in the presence of the Lord in the sense of seeing him face to face right now We are here. We are living this earthly life We know he's with us But we have the wonderful hope that we will see him as he is like person chapter 3 verse 1 says So there are many things that we hope for that means there are things out in the future now Similarly like what we've said in terms of our Christian hope Similarly, there is hope of our expectation of things that we want to have in this present life So what I had just mentioned are things that we hope for in the future life, which is good It's based on the Bible But in this present life also we hope for certain things meaning These are things that we want to have or we desire to have but faith Is present tense And faith is important because faith brings Is connected to this hope and faith brings this hope Into the present into the reality now into the realm of reality So hope is in the realm of desire. That means it's an expectation But faith brings it out from the realm of expectation or desire into the realm of the present So for example Somebody may hope Let's say a person who's unwell Has the expectation of being well And they see themselves well, which is good. You must have that hope. It is very important Hope is you know, the desire the expectation of being well. That's very important But then faith brings the expectation that hope into the now because faith We read from the definition of faith Faith is the substance of things hoped for it is the substance it is the the evidence it it you know, it's the Tangible expression of something that's that is in the realm of desire So faith takes what is in the realm of hope or expectation or desire And brings it into the present So for example, some of you may You know may hope that one day You will god will use you powerfully in the ministry, you know Whatever maybe, you know, you hope to be a wonderful pastor who will have a wonderful church And minister to many hundreds of people or maybe you hope to be a wonderful Traveling minister that you'll go many places and travel and preach Or somebody may have a hope The desire and expectation to be a very successful businessman Or you know, or a whatever profession they are in maybe a teacher or a educator or whatever they're doing So that is in the realm of hope that is in the realm of desire It's the realm of expectation and it is important Hope is very important because the bible says hope is the anchor of the soul That means you know When when there are Storms and winds are blowing, you know an anchor is steadies you, you know, so it's the picture of a ship You know What happens to the ship and when there is heavy winds and things that are shaking the ship they drop anchor So the anchor is like a heavy heavy Usually metal something that goes down to the reaches deep down to the ocean bed And it steadies the ship. So while the storms are blowing you drop anchor. So the ship is steadied. It's not Tossed up and then you you know So that's the picture. Hope the bible says is the anchor of the soul In the hebrews chapter 6 and I'll just give you the reference you know Hebrews right Yeah Verse 19 hebrews 6 19 this hope we have as an anchor of the soul but sure instead fast Which enters the presence behind the veil. So hebrews 6 19, right? It says hope is an anchor of the soul The soul is our realm of mind and the realm of the mind emotions and so on So hope is very important from that perspective, right? So hope is a very important part of our christian life not only in terms of hoping for Things in the future the life year after but also in the in the in in Things that we desire in this life Which you know we desire in the future But how does faith come in? faith brings hope brings that expectation That desire From a future tends into the present, right? So faith pulls it in and says, okay. I'm going to have it right so Faith and hope are very important and Many times we begin with hope You must have hope A sick person must have the hope or the desired expectation to get healed And then they can have faith to bring it in You know, so you need to have hope that you will be a success You need to have hope the desire the expectation that you know, you will live a fruitful life or meaningful life For god here or not. So you need that and then When when you have hope then your faith begins to work your faith begins to work in bringing that hope Into the now to bringing that desire and expectation from a future from your future into the present Okay, so Did we all understand that? faith and hope Uh, did we understand it? Yeah, okay all right Okay, Divya you have a question Yeah, I was uh, also thinking of uh In in biblical terms, uh, yeah hope is uh So, uh, it is not just a wishful thinking, right? I wish something would happen But uh, this is based on What god sees True and that makes the difference, right? Yes. So this is yeah, correct. As you pointed out Uh, this is not a wishful, you know, I wish something good will happen. Can I think no hope is also based on the promise of god Right now what undergirds are hope? It's the promise of god So let's say you read a promise And then you visualize you envision that promise It's not there in your life right now, right example sick person Right, he reads the bible. He says, you know, god forgives our sins and heals all our diseases So hey that means I can be healed Uh, right now, uh, you know, that person may be suffering some sickness But hope is hope comes alive. Maybe the doctors also have given up all hope right But hope comes alive because of what god has said. So there is a hope now Yes, I can be healed One day I could come out of the sick beds Right, so the person be based on the promise of god based on the word of god The person begins to have this picture of them being well Of being all right being without the sickness. So they have the hope Uh, they have the desire coming out, you know, god, I want to be like that free from the sickness Uh, it's a desire is expectation that has been created based on the word of god because god said Same thing other things in life, you know in the ministry You have the expectation that you will have a fruitful ministry Why because of the word of god god said that if you are by I know if you abide in them Then he said you in the jesus said in john 15, you abide in them. You will be very fruitful Right, you will bear much fruit. So say god, I want uh in jesus said I've chosen you that you should go and bear fruit So you have the expectation that uh, you'll be you will have a fruitful life in ministry So various things, you know, whether it's in the family, whether it's for your marriage, whether it's for your children Whether it's for your finances every area of life Based on the promise of god You have an expectation that expectation is called hope it's called Use the word hope but that expectation the desire that some one day that will be a reality That is hope Yeah, yeah, thank you. Thank you best So it's based on the promise of god But now And I hope is very important Because when you have hope Then you can put your faith to work the problem is people give up without hope then If you don't have hope Then you cannot have faith because faith Is the substance of things hoped for So if a sick person, you know, I'm just using different life examples So if a person is sick and they've given up hope That means they say lord jesus I'm ready to come home So they have given up hope in this life But they have decided to put their hope in the life hereafter nothing wrong But if they've shifted that hope into the life hereafter then you can't exercise faith for healing because they've said lord jesus I'm ready to come home and that is also hope But it's a hope of being with jesus to die and go to be with jesus It's hope It's be it's our christian hope that is also based on the promise of god and that is wonderful but in that situation It's difficult to exercise faith for healing because the hope What they're expecting or what they're desiring or the expectation is I'm going to be with jesus So they've given up hope In this present life, they're not expecting to become well But They have put their hope in the life after which is fine That is also part of our christian hope That we will be with jesus and when we die to be absent in the body is to be present with the lord That is also fine But what i'm saying is When that is our hope then exercising faith for healing here and now Is cannot be exercised Do we understand that? I mean do we all understand it? Yes, yes So Hope is important because faith Then works in line with hope And brings what you hope for From the future Into the present So that's why you know when people go through difficult things in life First thing Encourage hope in them So if a person has I'm just giving example If they're faced a catastrophic failure in life You know maybe They have Lost everything something happened, you know, and they've lost everything In life in life What must we do? We have to bring revive hope in them That means hey Right now You've lost everything But can you see a picture of yourself? having Things restored in your life And not just restored but maybe double It is possible And we have to bring that hope based on the word of god So it's not just hey have we you know think positive or positive thinking or you know just be an optimist It's not like that. It's based on on the word of god So we could use for instance. We could say hey look at Job He went through very difficult times But the bible says That god restored to him Twice as much as he had God is not a specter of persons if god will do it for job. He will do it for you So he lost everything But God restored double So based on the word of god In that situation where they are very hopeless Or in that situation where they have lost everything first thing to do is awaken hope That that expectation That yes it is possible That things can be restored in my life Maybe even double Or you can look at Isaiah 61 beautiful passage versus one through eleven Uh where it says, you know, the spirit of lord is upon me and and if you read that it says, you know, uh, he will He will give beauty for ashes So you can tell them see right now your life is in ashes. Whatever's happened has been catastrophic. It is Burnt everything down, but the bible says god will give you beauty for ashes And you see a picture of yourself Of your life being beautified And the bible says you will become You know, you'll become the planting of the lord And god says later on I think it's verse eight. He says Instead of your shame You will have double honor So you tell them, hey The bible says here in asia 61 You will have double honor. Can you can you see yourself having double honor instead of Being in a place of shame Can you see yourself? You know asia 61 and verse seven And instead of confusion you will have joy So the first thing to do is to awaken hope That at least you should be able to see This is not the end But god can bring something beautiful So when they're able to see that And they're saying god, please do it. Yes lord right now my life is you know things have happened like this but I'm having expectation That you will make it beautiful. I'm having expectation to give me double honor I'm having expectation. You'll give me joy Then what happens? So that is the first thing awaken hope then Okay, let's exercise faith In that hope to bring that hope into your life because faith is the substance of things hoped for It gives substance. It makes it reality right faith gives substance to what is hoped for So faith and hope work together They're like twins if you want to say it like And hope is the first point and faith comes right after But they are twins they work together Sorry, I'm just using a simple You know simple example You need both and if people give up hope That means they don't even have expectation They don't even have something they desire It's very difficult to have faith It's very difficult Yeah, so Rebecca. Yes Hope is very necessary to exercise faith or increase our faith. It's very necessary Okay, so for all of us always In every situation Guard your hope because hope is the anchor for your soul Hebrews 6 verse 17 he saw it steadies you Then you extend faith and Through faith in God that hope will become a reality One of the best ways to have hope is to capture a picture of it in your mind That means to see yourself the way God says you will be You say, how can we do that? Well? God told Abraham And we talked about this last week, you know in Genesis 15 Abraham had lost hope because it had been 10 years And nothing was happening in his life nothing was going 10 years He'd lost hope So he spoke to God one day he said God, you know, what happened to the promise? Um Yeah, so sunny that's Hebrews chapter 6 and verse 17 On verse 19, sorry Hebrews 6 verse 19 It says that hope Is an anchor for the soul Hebrews 6 19 verse 6 19 again so Abraham had lost hope And he was talking to God he said God Nothing's happening and that night God woke Abraham up And i'm i'm i'm i'm referring to jenice says chapter 15 God told Abraham Abraham Come out of your tent Look up in the sky Look up in the sky What do you see And you know, it was a clear middle eastern sky You saw stars so many many many many many stars and God said Abraham That's how many your descendants will be So God was painting a picture In Abraham's mind Of his future So you can imagine every time Abraham doubted or felt like doubting He just had to remember that picture the night sky It had been So to speak photographed in his memory God told me That my future would be like that Oh that night I saw so many stars in the sky And God said my future will be like that So he had a picture That was his hope One day my descendants will be like that And with that picture with that hope With that expectation He walked by faith He walked by faith Until it became A reality in his life Isaac was born And then from Isaac came Others Jacob and he saw and so on So the best way to have hope Is to paint a picture of the promise of God For your life Have a picture Of what your future will look like Based on the promise of God So you see yourself Living, experiencing the promise It may not be that in your life right now It's okay It's okay because hope is like that Hope is in the future It's an expectation It's a desire that's out there But it's based on the promise of God And you have a picture of yourself walking in that promise Living that promise Experiencing that promise And once you have that hope You can then begin to exercise faith Because hope is your desired outcome And faith gives substance to things hoped for It brings that out of that realm of hope Into the realm of reality And what we are learning is We are learning about faith We are learning how to exercise faith And we will be talking about that in future lessons But what I'm emphasizing now is Have hope first Then Based on that hope You're exercising faith So faith and hope are very important They go together But for ourselves And when we are helping other people We need to encourage hope Encourage based on the word of God Based on the word of God Encourage hope Even when it seems hopeless At least if they can have some hope Then they can exercise faith Now Connected to this Is the whole area of feelings You know what plays To feelings have There are times God created our feelings He created emotions, of course And thank God for what we can feel Sometimes we feel this presence I mean you're aware when I say feel Means you're aware of this presence But sometimes We don't feel But the Bible says we walk by faith and not by sight So when it says not by sight It simply means not by the physical senses So all the physicals Not just only what you see but Everything else So What I just want to emphasize here Yes There are times We won't feel anything There are times we will feel It's nice you feel And there are times you don't feel anything The senses cannot You know recognize things You know Your hope But Their hope May not immediately affect your feelings You still feel terrible You still feel like You don't feel any different But that should not Your feelings should not Feelings should not dictate Our faith Now we have this incident recorded for us In John the 20th chapter And You know versus 24 to 29 John chapter 20 Versus 24 to 29 Could somebody read that please John 20 Versus 24 to 29 They could read it from your Bible please John chapter 20 Versus 24 to 29 John chapter 20 Versus 24 to 29 Now Thomas called the twin One of the 12 Was not with them when Jesus came The other disciples therefore said to him We have seen the Lord So he said to them Unless I see in his hands The print of the nails And put my finger into the print of the nails And put my hand into his side I will not believe And after eight days his disciples were again inside And Thomas with them Jesus came The doors being shut And stood in the midst and said Peace to you Then he said to Thomas Reach your finger here And look at my hands And reach your hand here And put it into my sight Do not be unbelieving But believing And Thomas answered and said to him My Lord and my God Jesus said to him Thomas because you have seen me You have believed Blessed are those who have not seen And yet have believed Amen Amen Now just try to imagine this whole Scene that's taking place And you know the disciples So Thomas is one of the 12 disciples He has been with Jesus From the start of the ministry Till this point One of the 12 Now some of the others come back to the group The 12 they say we've seen Jesus This is after his crucifixion and resurrection So they say we've seen Jesus Now Thomas is walking by his five senses There's nothing wrong You know we have to walk by our five senses We do that every day You know and we go about our everyday life Based on our five senses You know So okay Based on his five senses he says hey Unless I see Unless I touch I won't believe Now it sounds very logical Because You know how does he know that these other disciples are not making up a story You know they're simply saying we saw the Lord We'll get everybody to believe That we saw the Lord So he's just being cautious He's just being careful That's all So unless I see or as I touch I won't believe And then Jesus appears in the room Where these 12 disciples are And all 12 of them are amazed They're seeing Jesus And try to imagine this scene Jesus turns to one person He looks at Thomas Out of all the 12 He looks at one Thomas Put your hand Touch And notice what he says West 27 Do not be unbelieving Don't be an unbeliever Do not be unbelieving But believing And then you know Thomas responds and But then Jesus says Blessed are those Who have not seen And yet have believed So believing Doesn't have to be based on the senses You and I When we believe Even when our senses have not given evidence to our believing Jesus says you are blessed And the reason Jesus expected Thomas to believe Without seeing is because he had already given the word Many times he had spoken Hey, the Son of Man will be crucified But after three days I will rise He had already given the word So what did he expect Thomas To do? Believe the word Believe the word So Thomas was acting very normal Maybe like I said Maybe he was just being cautious But his caution was based on the five senses But what Jesus wanted us Wanted him to do is to believe based on his word He has already said I'm going to rise The word was already given So for us to walk in faith We must believe Even when our five senses Cannot give evidence to what we believe Blessed are those who believed Who have not seen That means their five senses have not Experienced it But they still believe Blessed So faith and feelings Or faith and the senses We must believe Even when our senses don't give evidence To what we believe And that's the definition of faith Hebrews 11-1 Faith is the evidence of things not seen Hebrews 11-1 Right? The second part of it Faith is the evidence of things not seen That means faith believes Even though the senses cannot give evidence to it So one part of our senses is our feelings So there'll be times when you don't feel You can still have faith And you must still have faith Even when you don't feel And that faith is based on the promise of God It's based on what God has said Now thank God when we do have feelings When you feel You may feel wonderful You may feel good and feel this Okay, that's thank God for it Enjoy the feelings, it's fine But remember We walk by faith Not by sight Your faith is not in the feelings Your faith is in the word of God And you walk by that Now in connection to that The other thing we want to quickly mention Two things I want to mention before we finish this lesson Is faith and doubts Right? So there are times There will be doubts Right? And can somebody read for us Mark 11, 23? I just want to emphasize one point here So Mark 11, 23 Could somebody read that for us please? When you believe that God exists And that he loves you And wants to meet your needs Then Or then you're believing Clear faith in your heart On the other hand, doubt is just as real Mark 11, 23 Can you read it from the Bible please? This is just some notes I have put Mark 11, 23 Yeah Truly I tell you If anyone says to this mountain Go throw yourself into the sea And there's no doubt in their heart But believe that When they say Will happen It will be done for them Okay, thank you So Mark 11, 23 Right Jesus said You know verse 22 he says have faith in God And verse 23 he says You say to the mountain Be removed, be cast in sea And there's not doubt in his heart So here's the thing There are times We have to battle doubts In our journey of faith and our walk of faith We will have to battle fight against doubts Doubts Are an enemy of faith And doubts Come as thoughts to our mind And one of the key instigator of those doubts Is Satan himself The devil as demons are at work They try to cause doubt How do they try to cause doubt By putting thoughts That question the promise of God By putting thoughts that Are opposite to the word of God By putting pictures or imaginations That are opposite toward the promise of God So Satan is demons Cause doubts And these come and impinge on our mind In our thinking and our imagination So just because you have a doubt come into your mind Just because you have a pitch of fear Of unbelief come into your mind Doesn't mean you've lost faith Jesus said in Mark 11, 23 that he read You don't doubt in your heart So you can have faith in your heart Even though you're battling these thoughts of doubt And pictures of doubt in your mind Because the battle will go on That's the enemy doing it That's fear coming So just because you have a battle going on in your mind Against those thoughts of doubts Against those thoughts of unbelief You can still maintain faith in your heart You know I believe I believe in my heart Of course the thoughts come to our mind I believe in my heart I believe the word of God I do not doubt in my heart So you can have faith in your heart While you're battling those thoughts of doubt Those pictures of doubt That are assailing your mind Because those come from the enemy He's trying to cause you and me to lose faith Right? But you stand strong Yes Sani your question Please Yeah so what about I guess when somebody Doesn't have faith in our heart Then I guess faith can't work What happens with that? Yeah so if they That's true If they have not yet had You know started Believing with the heart So then the You know the basic thing applies This they have to You know start hearing the word of God Hear the promise of God So that that word Can birth faith So based on that word They have hope created And based on that word Faith begins to come into their hearts So we have to start from there If they still don't If they did They haven't believed yet Then to hear the promise Look at the promise of God And let the promise of God Birth faith In our hearts Okay I understand So you're saying they doubt in their heart To just hear the word So that faith can come And it can birth in their heart Okay Understood Yes All right thank you Right So so far what we have spoken of is Faith and hope Both are very important They are like twins They go together They work together Let me talk about Faith and feelings Feelings will come Feelings will go You know it's okay But your faith Is in God's word Not on the feelings Blessed are those who believe Without having seen So even when there's no feelings You still believe And now we're talking about Faith and doubts And what I'm saying is You know Doubts will come And very often they just come from the enemy So he'll keep coming Keep putting thoughts of doubt Pictures of doubt Imaginations Doubting the word of God He keeps coming to our minds And you know that's just the enemy at work But you can still have faith in your heart You don't doubt in your heart You fill your heart with the word of God Because faith comes by hearing the word of God Fill your heart with the word of God Guard your faith in your heart Even though these thoughts of doubt come in the mind And we just reject those thoughts of doubt You doubt your doubts Say no doubt, I reject it God is good God is a God who cannot lie God's word is truth I am settling on the word of God So you reject those doubts Okay Alright, so we're gonna take a little break now Alright, okay, I see Divya's question Right, so we will pick up both these questions The Divya's question and the question from Isaac As soon as we get back from our break Yeah, just 10 minute break, we'll come back And we'll pick up with these questions Okay, thank you, let's just take a quick break