December 16, 2025 • 24 mins
Romans 4:9–15 | Big Faith and Real Growth
In this episode of Sage Spirituality, Joil Marbut continues the journey through Romans 4:9–15, unpacking Paul’s gospel-centered argument that righteousness has always come by faith, not law or religious markers. Using Abraham as the foundation, Paul reminds both Jews and Gentiles that God’s promises are received through faith alone—a truth that can feel almost too good to be true.
From there, the conversation widens into what big faith really looks like. Faith is not a feeling or passive belief, but an active trust that grows through testing, obedience, and surrender. Joil explores how God uses trials to strengthen faith and offers practical wisdom on cultivating growth through the “three C’s”: crowd, consumption, and commitment.
The episode also tackles an important and often sensitive topic—distinguishing between healthy spiritual authority and spiritual abuse—offering clarity, compassion, and biblical grounding. This is an invitation to deeper trust, wiser discernment, and courageous faith that steps fully into God’s promises.
Thank you for joining us at the table.
Visit us at sagespirituality.com for more.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Intro (00:05):
You're listening to Sage Spirituality, reaching back,
leaning in, and seeking out adeeper experience with God with
your host, Joil Marbut.
Joil Marbut (00:20):
I want to welcome you back to this journey through
the gospel according to Paul.
We're walking through the bookof Romans bit by bit, chapter by
chapter, verse by verse, andwe're focusing on Paul's just
(00:40):
absolute deep wellspring of thegospel.
Paul's taking his time here anddividing the Word of God or
dividing theology so that Jewsand Gentiles, legalistics and
licentious, can both understandand fully embrace the good news
(01:03):
of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
So before we jump into our texttoday, what I want to do is I
want to ask you for a favor.
Will you share?
Will you subscribe?
And will you rate our podcast?
You help us so much when you dothat.
We get messages from around theworld, people listening to Sage
Spirituality, and they're partof this community.
(01:26):
They're at the table with youbecause of your faithfulness.
So today we're going to jump inagain to Romans 4, and we're
going to go Romans 4, 9 through15.
And the Apostle Paul wrotethis: he said, Does this
blessedness then come upon thecircumcised only or upon the
(01:46):
uncircumcised also?
For we say that faith wasaccounted to Abraham for
righteousness.
How then was it accounted?
While he was circumcised oruncircumcised, not while
circumcised, but whileuncircumcised.
And he received the sign ofcircumcision, a seal of the
righteousness of the faith whichhe had while still
(02:08):
uncircumcised, that he might bethe father of all those who
believe.
Though they are uncircumcised,that righteousness might be
imputed to them also, and thefather of circumcision to those
who not only are of thecircumcision, but who also walk
in the steps of the faith whichour father Abraham had while
(02:32):
still uncircumcised.
Verse thirteen, for the promisethat he would be the heir of
the world was not to Abraham orto his seed through the law, but
through the righteousness offaith.
For if those who are of the laware heirs, faith is made void,
and the promise made of noeffect, because the law brings
(02:56):
about wrath.
For where there is no law,there is no transgression.
Now, Paul is again focusing onthe Jewish contingency inside of
the church in Rome.
You see, the Jewish peoplewould look at Abraham as an
absolute perfect example.
(03:18):
He was their spiritual father.
He was their founding father,if you will.
And they started connecting himbecause of circumcision, they
started connecting him with thelaw.
Yet Paul is pointing out thatAbraham was accounted logismo.
(03:39):
I don't know if if you haven'tlistened to the last episode, go
back and listen and understandthat Greek word logismo.
It wasn't accounted to him asrighteousness after he was
circumcised, but before.
You see, God dealt with Abraham400 years before we had the
Mosaic law.
(03:59):
God was dealing with Abraham onthe basis of faith.
And Paul is pointing out thatrealistically Jesus' coming
takes us back to that beginning,back to that place where we're
(04:20):
all children of Abraham.
Abraham is our father of thefaith.
And when we look at this, it'sand we hear the gospel, and just
like the Jews and probably theGentiles, when they were
listening to this presentationthat sounded just too good to be
true, and it was based on onething that was key, and it was
(04:43):
our faith by grace through faiththat we receive what God's
promised us, eternal life.
And when we talk about this somany times, just like those
people in Rome, just like thosebrothers and sisters in Rome
(05:06):
2,000 years ago, we strugglewith this good news because it
is so good, we just can't wrapour head around it.
Some people want the perks ofthe promise, but they don't want
the commitment.
Remember that we have talkedabout faith, and faith is not
(05:31):
just some kind of warm assent orwarm fuzzy feeling, but faith
is active.
It brings change into our life,it brings fruit into our life.
And right here, Paul ispointing out again, I love the
way he does this in verse 11.
He says that faith, actually,the works of faith are signs and
seals.
(05:52):
It's just an indicator to allowus to see what's going on.
Now, I think this brings us toa place in this conversation
today, probably not unlike whathappened with Jesus in Luke 17,
(06:13):
1 through 6, where his followerscame to him and said, Lord,
increase our faith.
I think a lot of times in ourlife we could look at it and
say, Man, I wish my faith wasbigger.
I wish my faith was was, I wishI had giant faith.
I know people have said, I wishI had bulldog faith or
(06:36):
mountain-moving faith, or I wishI had faith like uh a Smith
Wigglesworth or some great manor woman of God that had
performed amazing uh works forGod's glory.
But you know, when we talkabout our faith growing, our
(06:57):
faith does indeed grow by beingin proximity to the Word of God,
brings it forth, it makes itsprout.
But how does it grow?
Well, first, I think it's veryimportant for us to understand
that God wants to increase ourfaith.
George Mueller, the greatmissionary, said this.
He said, God delights toincrease the faith of his
(07:19):
children.
We ought, instead of wanting notrials before victory, no
exercise for patience, to bewilling to take them from God's
hand as a means.
I say and say it deliberately: trials, obstacles, difficulties, (07:29):
undefined
and sometimes defeats are thevery food of faith.
We should take them out of hishands as evidence of his love
and care for us and developingmore and more that faith which
he is seeking to strengthen inus.
That's such a beautifulunderstanding.
(07:51):
God wants to increase ourfaith, but God has his way of
making our faith grow.
So that brings me to thisquestion.
If I want my faith to grow, howdoes my faith grow?
Well, right here, as GeorgeMueller said, and knew from
experience, it's by beingtested.
It's by being tested.
(08:13):
The Apostle Peter said this in1 Peter 1 6 through 8.
It is it in this you greatlyrejoice, though now for a little
while, if need be, you havebeen given grieved.
You have been grieved byvarious trials, that the
genuineness of your faith, beingmuch more precious than gold
(08:35):
that perishes, though it istested by fire, may be found to
praise, honor, and glory, allglory at the revelation of Jesus
Christ, whom having not seenyou love.
James, the Apostle James, kindof concurs with the Apostle
(08:56):
Peter, and he says in chapterone, My brethren, count it all
joy when you fall into varioustrials, knowing that the testing
of your faith producespatience.
But let patience have itsperfect work, that you may be
perfect and complete, lackingnothing.
Both of these texts pointtoward the same landing spot.
That God will grow our faith,and He will grow our faith
(09:20):
through testing.
He will grow our faith throughtesting.
Now we should not rely on ourfeelings.
There are many times I don'tenjoy having my faith tested, I
don't enjoy going throughtrials, but I realize God is
using those things, and I can'ttrust my emotions or my
(09:41):
feelings.
The prophet Jeremiah said it inJeremiah 17, 9.
The heart is deceitful aboveall things and desperately
wicked.
Who can know it?
The apostles tell the prophetstelling us, do not trust in your
heart.
Don't trust the things you see.
Don't trust your feelings.
Trust God.
(10:01):
Know that God's in control andknow that God is working even in
the difficult times.
You know, when we're beingtried, it's exercising our faith
to trust God where we are.
That means if we're in thevalley of the shadow of death,
(10:23):
we're trusting God.
If we're in a place that wedon't understand, we're trusting
God.
If we're in an extremely,extremely challenging situation,
we trust God.
It's by trusting God that we'rebuilding our faith, that our
faith is growing just like amuscle that's pushed under
(10:44):
stress, little by little willgrow and get more and more
powerful.
You know, when we are beingtested, it's also important for
us to submit.
It's submit to our spiritualauthority.
In one of our future podcasts,we'll cover Romans 13, where
Paul points out that allauthority is God-given.
(11:05):
And, you know, so many timessome people I've known they
never grow because every timethey feel like things are
getting heavy or things aregetting tight in the church
they're in, they just leave andfind another place that's
easier.
So many times they say, I'mstepping out in faith, or we're
looking to, you know, God'smoving us somewhere else.
(11:26):
But for some reason, God'salways moving them to an easier
place.
Yet when we look at the Bible,it seems very clear to me that
God, when he was moving people,he was always moving them in the
opposite direction toward morechallenging situations and more
challenging times.
I can give a personaltestimony.
I remember when I made thedecision to go into full-time
(11:48):
ministry, I took an 85% pay cut.
It was crazy.
On paper, it made no sensewhatsoever.
I was working more hours,making less money, but I learned
to live on faith, truly live onfaith.
Faith is never based onfeelings.
Now, if we are going to submitto our spiritual authority, we
(12:11):
have to be able to distinguishthe difference between spiritual
authority and spiritual abuse.
T Cannon, she's a survivor ofspiritual authority.
And she described two differentscenarios.
She said, if I go to thedentist for a root canal and
experience discomfort from theprocedure, that's pain, but not
(12:31):
abuse.
Yet if I go to the dentist fora root canal and the dentist
jabs me over and over with thenumbing anesthesia to get a
thrill, that's abuse.
In the same way biblicaldoctrines can be offensive, but
if taught in a biblical way,they are for our good.
Abuse happens when a personwields biblical doctrine or
spiritual authority tomanipulate, dominate, deflect,
(12:55):
or direct the narrative in hisor her favor, whether it's meant
to inflate an ego or gratify alust or protect a reputation.
I know that there are peoplethat have been hurt by spiritual
leaders, by leaders that haveused scripture in a wrong way.
They haven't been Christ-like.
Their life did not embody theservant leadership of Jesus.
(13:19):
And can I just take a second,if that's you right now, and
you've been hurt by a pastor, bya church, or by an
organization, or anything likethat, and you're you're just
struggling, can I apologize?
Can I apologize on behalf ofthe church, the real church, and
(13:40):
real Christians?
Can I apologize right now forthat pain that you felt?
Yet all pain that we feel isnot spiritual abuse.
Kim Pennington, a PhD inChristian ethics and philosophy
(14:01):
at Southwestern BaptistSeminary, she was talking about
this and she said, are youhaving a disagreement with
someone?
That's not spiritual abuse.
You have to look for long-termpatterns of behavior.
You know, if you're just havinga disagreement with your pastor
or you're having a challengingtime with some of the preaching
(14:25):
or something, it's just makingyou feel uncomfortable because
maybe it is true doctrine andtrue gospel and true theology.
That's not spiritual abuse.
But if there's a long-termpattern you can distinguish.
If you look at a pastor andthere's a constant turnover and
people are constantly coming inand going out, leaders are
leaving, etc., etc., then youcan realize there's something
(14:48):
wrong.
Now, I will challenge you now,because part of our spiritual
growth in faith is learning toobey God even when we don't feel
it.
And I would encourage you toforgive.
And you forgive simply becauseGod has told you to do it.
(15:09):
It doesn't mean that youjustify their actions.
It doesn't mean that you don'thold them accountable, but you
do forgive.
Even when you don't want to doit.
You know, I love the in Matthew22, we're mandated to love God
(15:30):
with all of our heart, soul,mind, and strength, and to love
our neighbor as ourself.
And we know that how that storyplays out.
That's where we get the parableof the Good Samaritan.
And when we talk about who isit that we're supposed to love,
I love this idea.
When Jesus gave that parable ofthe Good Samaritan,
(15:52):
realistically he was telling theJews, the person you're
commanded to love as yourneighbor is the one you hope
God's not telling you to love.
So I challenge you today.
I'm challenging you today totake a step of faith.
Forgive, pray for them, and getto a place where you can love
(16:17):
them, even though they've hurtyou.
I'm convinced the reason thatthe enemy wants to convince you
to follow your heart and choosenot to love.
Because when we choose not tolove, it takes away the most
Christ-like element from ourlives.
(16:38):
The most Christ-like thing wecan do is love our enemies.
Not just loving those that loveus, but loving our enemies.
Now I want to take a step realquick, and I want to give you a
very practical way.
This is not inside of thistext, but it's something I've
lived by for a long time, andthese are three C's of growing
(17:01):
your faith.
Three C's of growing yourfaith.
Your crowd will determine howyour faith is growing.
1 Corinthians 15, 33 says, Donot be deceived.
Bad company ruins good morals.
Proverbs 27, 17, iron sharpensiron, and one man sharpens
(17:21):
another.
As one of my mentors told me,show me your friends and I'll
show you your future.
Or in another way, show me yourfive closest friends and I'll
show you what you'll become.
The people around us that areclosest to us are determining
our level of faith.
Surround yourself, not bylegalistic holier than thou
(17:46):
people.
Find people that will challengeyour faith and push you to
become a more faithful servant.
Second thing is yourconsumption.
What are you consuming?
Romans 10, 17, faith comes byhearing, hearing by the word of
(18:08):
God.
The Center for BiblicalEngagement has done unbelievable
studies on the power of theWord of God.
But the Word of God only haseffect in your life if you're
reading it at least four days aweek.
If you're reading your Bibleonce a week or once a month,
you're gonna have there's notgonna be any change.
But if you start reading yourBible four, five, seven days a
(18:31):
week, for me, it's every day.
I do not miss reading my Biblebecause I realize that I have to
consume the Word of God togrow.
You know, we can look at ouraddiction to smartphones.
And in the National Library ofMedicine, there was an article
(18:54):
published in 2021.
Uh, the title is ExcessiveSmartphone Use and is associated
with health problems inadolescents and young adults.
They say that depression,anxiety, OCD, ADHD, and alcohol
use comes from excessivesmartphone use.
(19:16):
That people that are addictedto their cell phones have
problems with cognitive emotionregulation, impulsivity impaired
cognitive function, addictionto social networking, shyness,
low self-esteem.
The medical problems are sleepdepravity, reduced physical
fitness, unhealthy eatinghabits, pain in migraines,
reduced cognitive control, andchanges in the brain's gray
(19:42):
matter volume.
If you want to know if you'readdicted to your cell phone,
then do yourself a favor andshut it off for a day and see
how it makes you feel.
And if you feel anxious, youfeel jittery, you feel like,
man, I I you know I'm I'm kindof naked here.
I don't have my phone.
(20:03):
Then I would challenge you toput yourself into a process of
detaching from that consumptionso that you would be able to
focus more on the eternal thingsof God.
There are two billionChristians in the world, yet
less than 30% will read theentire Bible.
(20:25):
Can you imagine that?
Three out of ten Christiansaround the world, I would
imagine those numbers are muchlower in the United States.
There's some places whereChristians are persecuted and
they literally put their life onthe line to read the Word of
God, and it's such a treasure tothem.
In fact, 82% of AmericanChristians only read their
(20:49):
Bibles on Sundays while they'rein church.
The final C it's your crowd,your consumption.
And the third is yourcommitment.
Psalm 37, 5 says, commit yourway to the Lord, trust in him,
and he'll act.
Proverbs 16, 3 says, commityour work to the Lord and your
(21:13):
plans will be established.
Martin Luther King Jr.
said in a real sense, faith istotal surrender to God.
When we talk about faith, weeventually have to come to a
place where our faith isreflected through our
commitments and made stronger.
Missionary E.
Stanley Jones said this (21:34):
if you don't surrender to God, don't
think you don't surrender.
Everybody surrenders tosomething.
Everybody surrenders tosomething.
This is going to be illustratedby a daredevil, Clifford
Claverly.
Clifford Claverly was atightrope walker from Canada,
(21:59):
and he made a decision to walkacross a high wire at Niagara
Falls.
And he walks across thehighwire, but he doesn't just
walk across with a pole.
He walks across pushing awheelbarrow.
All right?
So he pushes the wheelbarrowall the way across.
(22:20):
And he gets to the other sideand the crowd goes wild.
And he says, Now that you'veseen what I can do, do you
believe I can do it again?
And everybody says, Yes, webelieve that.
He says, Do you think I can doit with another person in the
wheelbarrow?
Everybody says, Yes, justthinking, man, it's going to be
awesome.
(22:41):
And then Calvary says, Whowants to climb in?
It got really quiet.
Nobody volunteered.
You know, eventually, in ourfaith, we're going to have to
make a decision to trust God, toget into, to put our money
(23:03):
where our mouth is, to climbinto the wheelbarrow, make a
commitment, a true commitment toGod.
Not only to believe, but toserve, to be a part of his
kingdom, to serve in our church,to make a commitment day in and
day out to read the Word ofGod, to pray, to grow our faith
(23:27):
so we can be everything Hecreated us to be.
I want to thank you again forbeing here with us at Sage
Spirituality.
I look forward to you comingback with us here at the table,
where we're going to reach backin church history and lean into
Scripture and go deeper in ourrelationship with God.
You're listening to Sage Spirituality, reaching back,
leaning in, and seeking out adeeper experience with God with
your host, Joil Marbut.
Joil Marbut (00:20):
I want to welcome you back to this journey through
the gospel according to Paul.
We're walking through the bookof Romans bit by bit, chapter by
chapter, verse by verse, andwe're focusing on Paul's just
(00:40):
absolute deep wellspring of thegospel.
Paul's taking his time here anddividing the Word of God or
dividing theology so that Jewsand Gentiles, legalistics and
licentious, can both understandand fully embrace the good news
(01:03):
of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
So before we jump into our texttoday, what I want to do is I
want to ask you for a favor.
Will you share?
Will you subscribe?
And will you rate our podcast?
You help us so much when you dothat.
We get messages from around theworld, people listening to Sage
Spirituality, and they're partof this community.
(01:26):
They're at the table with youbecause of your faithfulness.
So today we're going to jump inagain to Romans 4, and we're
going to go Romans 4, 9 through15.
And the Apostle Paul wrotethis: he said, Does this
blessedness then come upon thecircumcised only or upon the
(01:46):
uncircumcised also?
For we say that faith wasaccounted to Abraham for
righteousness.
How then was it accounted?
While he was circumcised oruncircumcised, not while
circumcised, but whileuncircumcised.
And he received the sign ofcircumcision, a seal of the
righteousness of the faith whichhe had while still
(02:08):
uncircumcised, that he might bethe father of all those who
believe.
Though they are uncircumcised,that righteousness might be
imputed to them also, and thefather of circumcision to those
who not only are of thecircumcision, but who also walk
in the steps of the faith whichour father Abraham had while
(02:32):
still uncircumcised.
Verse thirteen, for the promisethat he would be the heir of
the world was not to Abraham orto his seed through the law, but
through the righteousness offaith.
For if those who are of the laware heirs, faith is made void,
and the promise made of noeffect, because the law brings
(02:56):
about wrath.
For where there is no law,there is no transgression.
Now, Paul is again focusing onthe Jewish contingency inside of
the church in Rome.
You see, the Jewish peoplewould look at Abraham as an
absolute perfect example.
(03:18):
He was their spiritual father.
He was their founding father,if you will.
And they started connecting himbecause of circumcision, they
started connecting him with thelaw.
Yet Paul is pointing out thatAbraham was accounted logismo.
(03:39):
I don't know if if you haven'tlistened to the last episode, go
back and listen and understandthat Greek word logismo.
It wasn't accounted to him asrighteousness after he was
circumcised, but before.
You see, God dealt with Abraham400 years before we had the
Mosaic law.
(03:59):
God was dealing with Abraham onthe basis of faith.
And Paul is pointing out thatrealistically Jesus' coming
takes us back to that beginning,back to that place where we're
(04:20):
all children of Abraham.
Abraham is our father of thefaith.
And when we look at this, it'sand we hear the gospel, and just
like the Jews and probably theGentiles, when they were
listening to this presentationthat sounded just too good to be
true, and it was based on onething that was key, and it was
(04:43):
our faith by grace through faiththat we receive what God's
promised us, eternal life.
And when we talk about this somany times, just like those
people in Rome, just like thosebrothers and sisters in Rome
(05:06):
2,000 years ago, we strugglewith this good news because it
is so good, we just can't wrapour head around it.
Some people want the perks ofthe promise, but they don't want
the commitment.
Remember that we have talkedabout faith, and faith is not
(05:31):
just some kind of warm assent orwarm fuzzy feeling, but faith
is active.
It brings change into our life,it brings fruit into our life.
And right here, Paul ispointing out again, I love the
way he does this in verse 11.
He says that faith, actually,the works of faith are signs and
seals.
(05:52):
It's just an indicator to allowus to see what's going on.
Now, I think this brings us toa place in this conversation
today, probably not unlike whathappened with Jesus in Luke 17,
(06:13):
1 through 6, where his followerscame to him and said, Lord,
increase our faith.
I think a lot of times in ourlife we could look at it and
say, Man, I wish my faith wasbigger.
I wish my faith was was, I wishI had giant faith.
I know people have said, I wishI had bulldog faith or
(06:36):
mountain-moving faith, or I wishI had faith like uh a Smith
Wigglesworth or some great manor woman of God that had
performed amazing uh works forGod's glory.
But you know, when we talkabout our faith growing, our
(06:57):
faith does indeed grow by beingin proximity to the Word of God,
brings it forth, it makes itsprout.
But how does it grow?
Well, first, I think it's veryimportant for us to understand
that God wants to increase ourfaith.
George Mueller, the greatmissionary, said this.
He said, God delights toincrease the faith of his
(07:19):
children.
We ought, instead of wanting notrials before victory, no
exercise for patience, to bewilling to take them from God's
hand as a means.
I say and say it deliberately: trials, obstacles, difficulties, (07:29):
undefined
and sometimes defeats are thevery food of faith.
We should take them out of hishands as evidence of his love
and care for us and developingmore and more that faith which
he is seeking to strengthen inus.
That's such a beautifulunderstanding.
(07:51):
God wants to increase ourfaith, but God has his way of
making our faith grow.
So that brings me to thisquestion.
If I want my faith to grow, howdoes my faith grow?
Well, right here, as GeorgeMueller said, and knew from
experience, it's by beingtested.
It's by being tested.
(08:13):
The Apostle Peter said this in1 Peter 1 6 through 8.
It is it in this you greatlyrejoice, though now for a little
while, if need be, you havebeen given grieved.
You have been grieved byvarious trials, that the
genuineness of your faith, beingmuch more precious than gold
(08:35):
that perishes, though it istested by fire, may be found to
praise, honor, and glory, allglory at the revelation of Jesus
Christ, whom having not seenyou love.
James, the Apostle James, kindof concurs with the Apostle
(08:56):
Peter, and he says in chapterone, My brethren, count it all
joy when you fall into varioustrials, knowing that the testing
of your faith producespatience.
But let patience have itsperfect work, that you may be
perfect and complete, lackingnothing.
Both of these texts pointtoward the same landing spot.
That God will grow our faith,and He will grow our faith
(09:20):
through testing.
He will grow our faith throughtesting.
Now we should not rely on ourfeelings.
There are many times I don'tenjoy having my faith tested, I
don't enjoy going throughtrials, but I realize God is
using those things, and I can'ttrust my emotions or my
(09:41):
feelings.
The prophet Jeremiah said it inJeremiah 17, 9.
The heart is deceitful aboveall things and desperately
wicked.
Who can know it?
The apostles tell the prophetstelling us, do not trust in your
heart.
Don't trust the things you see.
Don't trust your feelings.
Trust God.
(10:01):
Know that God's in control andknow that God is working even in
the difficult times.
You know, when we're beingtried, it's exercising our faith
to trust God where we are.
That means if we're in thevalley of the shadow of death,
(10:23):
we're trusting God.
If we're in a place that wedon't understand, we're trusting
God.
If we're in an extremely,extremely challenging situation,
we trust God.
It's by trusting God that we'rebuilding our faith, that our
faith is growing just like amuscle that's pushed under
(10:44):
stress, little by little willgrow and get more and more
powerful.
You know, when we are beingtested, it's also important for
us to submit.
It's submit to our spiritualauthority.
In one of our future podcasts,we'll cover Romans 13, where
Paul points out that allauthority is God-given.
(11:05):
And, you know, so many timessome people I've known they
never grow because every timethey feel like things are
getting heavy or things aregetting tight in the church
they're in, they just leave andfind another place that's
easier.
So many times they say, I'mstepping out in faith, or we're
looking to, you know, God'smoving us somewhere else.
(11:26):
But for some reason, God'salways moving them to an easier
place.
Yet when we look at the Bible,it seems very clear to me that
God, when he was moving people,he was always moving them in the
opposite direction toward morechallenging situations and more
challenging times.
I can give a personaltestimony.
I remember when I made thedecision to go into full-time
(11:48):
ministry, I took an 85% pay cut.
It was crazy.
On paper, it made no sensewhatsoever.
I was working more hours,making less money, but I learned
to live on faith, truly live onfaith.
Faith is never based onfeelings.
Now, if we are going to submitto our spiritual authority, we
(12:11):
have to be able to distinguishthe difference between spiritual
authority and spiritual abuse.
T Cannon, she's a survivor ofspiritual authority.
And she described two differentscenarios.
She said, if I go to thedentist for a root canal and
experience discomfort from theprocedure, that's pain, but not
(12:31):
abuse.
Yet if I go to the dentist fora root canal and the dentist
jabs me over and over with thenumbing anesthesia to get a
thrill, that's abuse.
In the same way biblicaldoctrines can be offensive, but
if taught in a biblical way,they are for our good.
Abuse happens when a personwields biblical doctrine or
spiritual authority tomanipulate, dominate, deflect,
(12:55):
or direct the narrative in hisor her favor, whether it's meant
to inflate an ego or gratify alust or protect a reputation.
I know that there are peoplethat have been hurt by spiritual
leaders, by leaders that haveused scripture in a wrong way.
They haven't been Christ-like.
Their life did not embody theservant leadership of Jesus.
(13:19):
And can I just take a second,if that's you right now, and
you've been hurt by a pastor, bya church, or by an
organization, or anything likethat, and you're you're just
struggling, can I apologize?
Can I apologize on behalf ofthe church, the real church, and
(13:40):
real Christians?
Can I apologize right now forthat pain that you felt?
Yet all pain that we feel isnot spiritual abuse.
Kim Pennington, a PhD inChristian ethics and philosophy
(14:01):
at Southwestern BaptistSeminary, she was talking about
this and she said, are youhaving a disagreement with
someone?
That's not spiritual abuse.
You have to look for long-termpatterns of behavior.
You know, if you're just havinga disagreement with your pastor
or you're having a challengingtime with some of the preaching
(14:25):
or something, it's just makingyou feel uncomfortable because
maybe it is true doctrine andtrue gospel and true theology.
That's not spiritual abuse.
But if there's a long-termpattern you can distinguish.
If you look at a pastor andthere's a constant turnover and
people are constantly coming inand going out, leaders are
leaving, etc., etc., then youcan realize there's something
(14:48):
wrong.
Now, I will challenge you now,because part of our spiritual
growth in faith is learning toobey God even when we don't feel
it.
And I would encourage you toforgive.
And you forgive simply becauseGod has told you to do it.
(15:09):
It doesn't mean that youjustify their actions.
It doesn't mean that you don'thold them accountable, but you
do forgive.
Even when you don't want to doit.
You know, I love the in Matthew22, we're mandated to love God
(15:30):
with all of our heart, soul,mind, and strength, and to love
our neighbor as ourself.
And we know that how that storyplays out.
That's where we get the parableof the Good Samaritan.
And when we talk about who isit that we're supposed to love,
I love this idea.
When Jesus gave that parable ofthe Good Samaritan,
(15:52):
realistically he was telling theJews, the person you're
commanded to love as yourneighbor is the one you hope
God's not telling you to love.
So I challenge you today.
I'm challenging you today totake a step of faith.
Forgive, pray for them, and getto a place where you can love
(16:17):
them, even though they've hurtyou.
I'm convinced the reason thatthe enemy wants to convince you
to follow your heart and choosenot to love.
Because when we choose not tolove, it takes away the most
Christ-like element from ourlives.
(16:38):
The most Christ-like thing wecan do is love our enemies.
Not just loving those that loveus, but loving our enemies.
Now I want to take a step realquick, and I want to give you a
very practical way.
This is not inside of thistext, but it's something I've
lived by for a long time, andthese are three C's of growing
(17:01):
your faith.
Three C's of growing yourfaith.
Your crowd will determine howyour faith is growing.
1 Corinthians 15, 33 says, Donot be deceived.
Bad company ruins good morals.
Proverbs 27, 17, iron sharpensiron, and one man sharpens
(17:21):
another.
As one of my mentors told me,show me your friends and I'll
show you your future.
Or in another way, show me yourfive closest friends and I'll
show you what you'll become.
The people around us that areclosest to us are determining
our level of faith.
Surround yourself, not bylegalistic holier than thou
(17:46):
people.
Find people that will challengeyour faith and push you to
become a more faithful servant.
Second thing is yourconsumption.
What are you consuming?
Romans 10, 17, faith comes byhearing, hearing by the word of
(18:08):
God.
The Center for BiblicalEngagement has done unbelievable
studies on the power of theWord of God.
But the Word of God only haseffect in your life if you're
reading it at least four days aweek.
If you're reading your Bibleonce a week or once a month,
you're gonna have there's notgonna be any change.
But if you start reading yourBible four, five, seven days a
(18:31):
week, for me, it's every day.
I do not miss reading my Biblebecause I realize that I have to
consume the Word of God togrow.
You know, we can look at ouraddiction to smartphones.
And in the National Library ofMedicine, there was an article
(18:54):
published in 2021.
Uh, the title is ExcessiveSmartphone Use and is associated
with health problems inadolescents and young adults.
They say that depression,anxiety, OCD, ADHD, and alcohol
use comes from excessivesmartphone use.
(19:16):
That people that are addictedto their cell phones have
problems with cognitive emotionregulation, impulsivity impaired
cognitive function, addictionto social networking, shyness,
low self-esteem.
The medical problems are sleepdepravity, reduced physical
fitness, unhealthy eatinghabits, pain in migraines,
reduced cognitive control, andchanges in the brain's gray
(19:42):
matter volume.
If you want to know if you'readdicted to your cell phone,
then do yourself a favor andshut it off for a day and see
how it makes you feel.
And if you feel anxious, youfeel jittery, you feel like,
man, I I you know I'm I'm kindof naked here.
I don't have my phone.
(20:03):
Then I would challenge you toput yourself into a process of
detaching from that consumptionso that you would be able to
focus more on the eternal thingsof God.
There are two billionChristians in the world, yet
less than 30% will read theentire Bible.
(20:25):
Can you imagine that?
Three out of ten Christiansaround the world, I would
imagine those numbers are muchlower in the United States.
There's some places whereChristians are persecuted and
they literally put their life onthe line to read the Word of
God, and it's such a treasure tothem.
In fact, 82% of AmericanChristians only read their
(20:49):
Bibles on Sundays while they'rein church.
The final C it's your crowd,your consumption.
And the third is yourcommitment.
Psalm 37, 5 says, commit yourway to the Lord, trust in him,
and he'll act.
Proverbs 16, 3 says, commityour work to the Lord and your
(21:13):
plans will be established.
Martin Luther King Jr.
said in a real sense, faith istotal surrender to God.
When we talk about faith, weeventually have to come to a
place where our faith isreflected through our
commitments and made stronger.
Missionary E.
Stanley Jones said this (21:34):
if you don't surrender to God, don't
think you don't surrender.
Everybody surrenders tosomething.
Everybody surrenders tosomething.
This is going to be illustratedby a daredevil, Clifford
Claverly.
Clifford Claverly was atightrope walker from Canada,
(21:59):
and he made a decision to walkacross a high wire at Niagara
Falls.
And he walks across thehighwire, but he doesn't just
walk across with a pole.
He walks across pushing awheelbarrow.
All right?
So he pushes the wheelbarrowall the way across.
(22:20):
And he gets to the other sideand the crowd goes wild.
And he says, Now that you'veseen what I can do, do you
believe I can do it again?
And everybody says, Yes, webelieve that.
He says, Do you think I can doit with another person in the
wheelbarrow?
Everybody says, Yes, justthinking, man, it's going to be
awesome.
(22:41):
And then Calvary says, Whowants to climb in?
It got really quiet.
Nobody volunteered.
You know, eventually, in ourfaith, we're going to have to
make a decision to trust God, toget into, to put our money
(23:03):
where our mouth is, to climbinto the wheelbarrow, make a
commitment, a true commitment toGod.
Not only to believe, but toserve, to be a part of his
kingdom, to serve in our church,to make a commitment day in and
day out to read the Word ofGod, to pray, to grow our faith
(23:27):
so we can be everything Hecreated us to be.
I want to thank you again forbeing here with us at Sage
Spirituality.
I look forward to you comingback with us here at the table,
where we're going to reach backin church history and lean into
Scripture and go deeper in ourrelationship with God.
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