Church runs by the life of faith in those who choose to serve. Never step back, just grow in faith. How do we grow? Just as we got saved, we receive from Him through Faith. (Romans 1:17; Mark 4:24; Colossians 2:6)

Speaker(s): Thomas Schaller, Barry Quirk
Sermon 12391
6:30 PM on 10/16/2022

P. Schaller –

Turn with me please to Romans 1:17. I’d like to – I pray the Spirit will really open our heart to a truth tonight
that we hear about it a lot in life. It’s about faith. Living by faith. Maybe if I have the iPad up
here I might draw a sketch. Maybe not, but let’s bring it up anyway. Good evening. Praise the
Lord. Great to be here. What a beautiful day we had today in the faith.

Romans 1:17, I’ll draw a little picture of a guy here. By the way, P. Scibelli travels I think tomorrow.
Right, Pastor? Please keep pastor in prayer. We can pray for you at the end, pastor. He travels
to India and Nepal, right? For two weeks. Keep him in prayer. How does he go to India? By an
airplane, right? That decision is a decision of faith that your life is a natural life. We have a
natural man up here on the screen. People live naturally. That’s normal. We go to school. We
learn how to live. We learn to pay our bills. We have our way of life and it’s natural.
But the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith. So, we have the idea of living from
faith to faith and righteousness is revealed. The just shall live by faith, vs.17. By the way, here’s
one picture. Simple. The just—live– faith. The just shall live by faith. The just. That’s you and
what happens to us? We live. And how does it work? By faith.

Do you really live? What’s live mean? Live. Really live. How? By faith. So, when you become a
believer, there’s something more in your life than you had before. You have the righteousness
of God revealed to you as you live by faith. Another way is in Mark 4. Turn with me to Mark 4.
We have a lot of volunteers in our faith. They are volunteers in the day school, the nursery, in
the Sunday school. They are volunteers in street evangelism. They are church planters. They are
people that work and serve. Mark. 4:24-25. Take heed what you hear. Be careful what you hear.
Take heed to what you hear because not everything you hear will lead you in faith. It might tear
your faith away. There are people that lose their faith because of what they hear. Vs. 24-25. If
you are hearing and believing and living in faith, then that will be measured to you. There will
be an increase. There will be a measurement given to you.

I have a bottle cap here. Maybe that’s what my faith is and that’s what’s measured to me.
That’s what God gives me. A bottle cap. That’s my measure. I don’t believe much so I have a
bottle cap of faith but that’s what’s given to me. What if I believe God for my life? I say, Lord, I
will give to you my life and measure back to me what you want to give me.

Vs. 24. More is given and more is given. Where do volunteers come from? Where do you find
people saying I’m available. I’ll do it. I’ll help out. Where do they come from? I think it’s an issue
of spiritual life where it’s not about people recognizing my volunteerism because it’s not really
volunteerism as much as it is a life of faith. I’ll go by faith. How does P. Scibelli go to India? By
faith. How does Linda stay at home without him? By faith. How have they done this for
decades? By faith.

That’s maybe you say a radical example but you could be sure that it started from one degree
of faith where God gave him a measure, a bottle cap, and he started to believe God in his life
and lived by faith. From faith to faith to faith and that’s what it looks like here.

Vs. 25. What? He that has. Could we say he that has Christ. He that has faith in Christ. He that
has truth in his heart. He doesn’t have. There are people that have a natural life but they don’t
have any faith and that will be taken away from them, their life. Everything goes. The bank
account goes. The land goes. The money goes. The job goes. The career goes. The natural life
goes. We’re buried in the ground. It’s all gone. Nothing there. But he that has, what? Faith. He
that has been living by faith is increasing with an increase and he’s finding the joy, the love, the
life.

Turn to Matthew 16 with me. Vs. 24. Let’s go back to this picture. This one. If any man come after
me, let him deny himself. His natural life. And come after me. What’s the thing coming after me
is a life of faith. I’m going to believe God. I remember when I first came into this church 50
years ago. I didn’t know what was going on. I didn’t know if I wanted to keep coming here. I
didn’t know if I wanted to read my Bible. I didn’t know what I wanted in my life. I was somehow
lost but born again and saved. I didn’t know where I was. I was in Maine. I’m from New York. I
was just there this summer. But I found who are these people? I remember a lobster fisherman
shaking my hand, and my hand was like damaged! For like a week! So, who are these people?
What are they saying? What is the message?

And it was Christ is real. Follow Christ. Deny yourself. You will find a new life. Christ will be with
you. God will fill you with the Holy Spirit. You will know Christ in a personal way and follow him
by faith.
Yeah, but you know. Yeah, but. Yeah, but. This is the natural man, right? Yeah, but. What a
story this is. Look at Matthew 16:25. Aren’t we good at that, huh? Save my life. Of course, you save
your life. You protect your life. You guard you life. You save your life. You live for your life. It’s
your life. You got one of them. I’m saving my life. I’m living for myself. Of course, I am. What?
You think I’m stupid? My life is the most precious thing I have.

What did Jesus say? This is an issue. It’s an issue of faith, isn’t it? What does it say? Lose my life.
Really? Yeah. I’ll lose my life. It will be lost. Maybe if not drugs, boredom. Maybe alcohol.
Maybe a broken heart. Maybe an addiction. Maybe depression. What am I losing? I’m losing my
time. I’m losing my opportunities. I might get to the top but only to find that it’s not such a
great deal. I’ll try again. I lose my life by saving my life.

Vs. 25. For my sake. Now turn to Hebrews. Two more verses. Heb. 11. You’re very quiet. Maybe
that’s a good thing. Hebrews 11. It’s amazing I think. Hebrews 11:6, I always think of standing on the
edge of a cliff and God says jump. And I will catch you. I sometimes think of the fear of jumping.

It’s 300 feet down. The fear of it is crazy. I trust God and jump and he catches me you know half
way down or immediately or way at the bottom. There’s no way to know will he catch me. I’m
going to jump because I believe he will catch me. I believe he will. That’s faith.

I don’t know exactly how it works but it’s something beyond us. I kind of find it goes this way.
He catches you and he lifts you up and you are able to look at this world here like the table and
you are able to look down from a new perspective. God, you enlarged my heart. You gave me
something because I live by faith. I got something bigger than myself. You blessed me. There’s
an increase in your heart. There’s an increase in your life because you live by faith. And this
pleases God. Because it’s good for you and I to get beyond ourselves, our protection, our
guarding ourselves, our way of naturally living. Our limited life. And to find him and this is what
happens in this chapter.

Vs. 6. Does he reward you? What kind of reward? Maybe this kind. He shows you. He tells you
secrets. He opens up your heart and your mind. You get to see life in a new way. Not in any way
that we are perfect people or we are better than other people. We are just blessed to have God
as our friend. We are just blessed to say God did give me a bottle cap but that was just the first
step to the swimming pool. He gave me a swimming pool. He has rewarded you. He has given
you value. He gave you words. He gave you the Spirit. He has given you comfort. He has
increased your life. But there are many areas where we are challenged and it doesn’t stop. I
think we have to continue in our faith.

Let’s go to Colossians 2:6. As you received him. How did you receive him? Remember the Billy Graham
Crusades and watch them on video or on the YouTube channel. I watch the Billy Graham – some
of those are remarkable meetings that he had for a half an hour. Twenty seven minutes of
preaching to 50,000 people. What would you say in 27 minutes if you had 50,000 people
listening? I mean he was covered with prayer and a lot of love and he did such a great job. It’s
in our history as a country and we needed it as we do now. They would walk forward. How did
they come? By faith. How did you become a believer? By faith.

How do you walk, vs. 6? Forgive somebody by faith. Forgive. Pray by faith. Think of 1 Tim. 2
where it says we pray with hands, arms up in the air. Hands. It says two words about it. Hands
without wrath. Look at me now. Wrath means like clenched fist. Wrath. Anger. Without wrath
like this and then without – what was the other word? What? Sorry, my hearing aid isn’t turned
on! I can’t hear. Without wrath and doubting. Yes, thank you. Okay. Without wrath like anger
and without doubt lift up hands. What’s the thing about lifting up hands? To me like why would
God have us lift up hands? I think because it’s a little exercise – a bottlecap maybe – to raise
your hands by yourself in your bedroom.

By yourself raising hands is faith. Faith. Live by faith.
Noah built the ark by faith. Abraham left home by faith. Sarah had a child by faith. When you
read the story, she doubted and laughed about it but I’m sure as her belly started to grow, she worshipped God, had a child and the Bible says it was by faith. Her and Abraham got together
one night by faith. They were old people but they lived by faith.
And Moses left Egypt by faith. Maybe you went to Bible school by faith. And maybe you started
to go to Homiletics class by faith. Maybe you went to P. Renaldo’s class by faith. And P. Matt
Gehret. And then we went out on the street here in Baltimore.

Baltimore needs what we have to say. And we do it by faith. And maybe to another city in America by faith. Maybe you talk to your relatives by faith. Maybe you have a conversation with somebody and just because you
live by faith you talk about Jesus to them with love and you live by faith. Maybe you say prayers
at night and maybe you get on the phone with somebody in the morning and just say let’s have
a prayer, a fervent prayer in the Spirit, and let’s pray by faith and maybe God will answer us.
Maybe our church we have corporate faith as a church. We have seen beautiful things happen.
I can’t wait until we have our little patio out here in the mud puddle out there outside the door.
That’s going to change.

We got pavers and guys that do it and it’s going to happen. God has
blessed us in many ways. And Cody Walker got his CDL license to drive the bus. We’re handing
out helmets to people that get on the bus! Cause we live by faith and trust that Cody can drive
the bus! What a good guy he is – isn’t he – and he has a girlfriend. Halleluiah! Emily. Probably
listening.

Hey! I want you to think about it. What can happen in your life when you live by faith. That’s all.
I just love it. Our kids need to know that mom and dad go to church. Mom and dad live by faith.
They drive in the car going to church. When our kids were little, we would give them –
remember the ice cream sandwiches at 7-Eleven for 25 cents? I’m still looking for those. Those
are amazing! Twenty five cents. We’ll stop by and get an ice cream on the way home after
church and just get an ice cream sandwich for 25 cents.

All of your life never back up. But grow in your faith. You will not regret it. Many things happen
because of that faith that we have. That’s what I want to say tonight. Why don’t you before we
do the offering, why don’t you just turn to each other and just say, I feel in my heart I want to
be refreshed in this thought that if I live by faith, God will show up. There will be a reward.
There will be a visitation. There will be comfort. I believe if I live by faith not back off but obey
God and live by faith, I will find God in my life in a very personal way in the Body. So go ahead.
Talk about it for a minute. Holly, thank you for that text, too.

P. Barry Quirk –

Alright. Hello. (Justin just told me we were breaking the bank when we were
buying 25 cents ice cream. He remembers. The wound is deep! Okay.) I’m closing the bottle but
it’s not that I’m lacking faith. I don’t want to lose the faith that we have. Wow! Somehow I find
myself standing up here after P. Schaller’s preached the most incredible things and we could
just go home. I have nothing to say that could add to that but we’ll try.

Wasn’t that a great thought? Incredible. Incredible. I just have been enjoying so much the
themes and kind of watching life happen through Hungary. We went to Hungary and we saw
God move. Since I’ve been back, just watching in the messages and watching our pastor’s heart
for us.

This morning he made a few statements that I think were really awesome. One he said, he
quoted G. Campbell Morgan. Remember this? He said, “Revival belongs to the Lord but we can
set our sails to catch the wind.” Isn’t that an awesome thought? It’s God’s authority that drives
a revival but if we are not there with our wings, our sails or wings – whatever you got use them!
If you’re not there with your sails open, then there’s no moving. We don’t benefit from the
revival. And he talked about Jonah being, learning a lesson. Jonah who God called to go to
Nineveh goes down to the ticket office and buys a ticket in the opposite direction. Where’s
Nineveh? That way? okay, I’m going to go that way. And he ends up in the belly of the fish,
right? And he said it was interesting, Jonah’s thinking, what is going on? How come I’m in the
belly of the fish?

But really the question he should have been asking is what’s in my belly, right? What’s inside of
me and how is it that I can see the Lord? He said that Job asked if – what did he say? Job 23:6,
“will he plead against me with his great power? No, but he would put strength in me.” If I were
to meet God, would he plead against me with his great power? No, he’d put his strength in me.
What an awesome God. That’s his desire to put his strength in us, and his desire for Jonah was
to put his strength in him.

And ultimately while he was in despair and in the belly of the fish, he’s looking towards the
direction of the Lord. He’s changing his mind. The pressures of life and I think this is the thought
that I took away from that this morning. The pressures of life, the cramping of life that we find
ourselves in. We make decisions. Those decisions result in being put in tight spots and cramping
and we think how did I get here? What did I do? And God’s just saying look to me and I’ll
enlarge your heart. Look to me and I’ll enlarge your place. I’ll give you my grace and my mercy.
Didn’t we just hear that again tonight? Isn’t that awesome? So, God is faithful. Let’s make a
point to put ourselves in a place where we can set our sails to catch the revival.

God is not withholding his love from us. He’s desiring that we would receive it and that we would live in it.
He’s not withholding his mercy. He wants us to be in a place where we can see it and live in it.
His grace, brand new every single day. His mercies are brand new every single day. So, there’s a
beautiful progression. He said that love in Daniel 10:19-20. Love casts out the fear. Love
brought peace to us. And we’re strengthened in the inner man. What a beautiful thought, isn’t
it?

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