Becoming a Man of Unwavering Faith (11 page)

The Bible states, “My son, give attention to my words; incline your ear to my sayings. Do not let them depart from your eyes; keep them in the midst of your heart; for they are life to those who find them, and health to all their flesh” (Proverbs 4:20–22).

The man of unwavering faith ends up doing mighty exploits for God!

A
s men of faith, we have Jesus’ clear command to go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature, “that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem” (Luke 24:47). We’ve always placed a major emphasis on the Great Commission at Lakewood Church and always will.

But notice that Jesus states the beginning point is
at Jerusalem
, which means where you live. In essence, Jesus was saying, “Certainly, My heart is to reach every nation. But if you don’t first reach your Jerusalem, you won’t do much for the rest of the world.”

Song of Solomon 1:6 says, “They made me the keeper of vineyards, but my own vineyard I have not kept.” God has made us keepers of vineyards. What is our
vineyard
? Our families, our friends, our neighborhoods, and our
associates. We’re not going to keep other vineyards and forget our own vineyard. As men of unwavering faith, we’re going to have faith for our families and friends!

Yes, God has commanded us to go into all the world with the Gospel, but never at the expense of neglecting our own families. Oh, what a condemnation would come over us if we must confess that “my own vineyard I have not kept”!

What if I won the whole rest of the world to Jesus and neglected my own family? I can’t fathom even one of my children dying without their faith being in Christ. Or my daddy, my mother, my nephews and nieces, or an old friend. God has made me a keeper of my family, and I am responsible to be a godly example and watch over them and pray for them.

Occasionally, someone will say to me, “Well, you know, I’m just not going to influence my child as to what religion is right. He needs to grow up and make his own choices.”

How ridiculous is that? The world is influencing your child—the drug culture, pornography, television, the entertainment world, and liberal thinking in the school! It’s time for us to rise up and bring our faith to our own families!

Perhaps you have read the book
Acres of Diamonds
by Russell H. Conwell. It’s the story about a man who had such an insatiable desire to find diamonds that he sold his property and went off to search for them. He traveled all over the world but never found any diamonds. Meanwhile, the new owner of his home discovered that a rich diamond mine was located right in the backyard of the man’s property. Conwell’s message to his audience: “Dig in your own backyard!”

I heartily support those who desire to take the Gospel to all of the world. But I’m telling you, the greatest treasure you have in the world is in your own backyard—your own wife and children and extended family. That is your own vineyard.

In Malachi 3:17, God said, “ ‘They shall be Mine,’ says the L
ORD
of hosts, ‘on the day that I make My jewels…’ ” I hope you realize your children and wife are diamonds for God. Treasure them!

Let me ask you this. If you were charged with the crime of being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you? Do your neighbors know you belong to Jesus? Your children? Your other family members?

The Word of God is repeatedly clear regarding the bringing of our faith to our families and our neighbors:
“Therefore you shall lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul, and bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall teach them to your children, speaking of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. And you shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates” (Deuteronomy 11:18–20).

After Joshua had led the people of Israel into the Promised Land and was apportioning the land to the people, he declared,
“As for me and my house, we will serve the L
ORD
”
(Joshua 24:15). As men of faith, we need to stand up and declare the same.

Will you stand up? Where are the men who are embracing their responsibilities as husbands and fathers, bringing their faith to their families day in and day out? Where are the daddies who take time for their sons and daughters rather than work, work, work, because of the love of money? Listen, making money is not the most important thing in the world. Making a life is. You can make money without making a life.

Has your child ever heard you say one thing about Jesus to them? Do you read the Word and pray with them? Have you ever put your hands on them and prayed for their healing? Have your children ever seen you hold
your wife’s hand and bow your head in humility before God and seek His face? Oh, how important it is for the man to take the charge of his household and say with Joshua, “I don’t know what the others are going to do, but as for me, my wife, and our children, we will serve the Lord!”

Mark 5 records the remarkable story of Jesus casting the demons out of the man called Legion, “who had his dwelling among the tombs; and no one could bind him, not even with chains, because he had often been bound with shackles and chains. And the chains had been pulled apart by him, and the shackles broken in pieces; neither could anyone tame him. And always, night and day, he was in the mountains and in the tombs, crying out and cutting himself with stones” (vv. 3–5).

After the deliverance, we are told
that the man was sitting clothed at the feet of Jesus and in his right mind. “And when He got into the boat, he who had been demon-possessed begged Him that he might be with Him. However, Jesus did not permit him, but said to him,
‘Go home to your friends, and tell them what great things the Lord has done for you, and how He has had compassion on you.’
And he departed and began to proclaim in Decapolis all that Jesus had done for him; and all marveled” (vv. 18–20).

When the man begged Jesus that he might go with Him, Jesus said, “No, I want you to go home. You’ve been demon-possessed, running around naked, living in the graveyard, trying to commit suicide, coming home bloody. Your children know it; your wife knows it; your neighbors know it; the whole city knows about it. You need to go home and tell them all the great things the Lord has done for you!” Which is precisely what he did, and it caused the people of Decapolis to “marvel”!

As men of faith, we believe God for our loved ones: our boys, our girls, our aunts, our uncles, our relatives, our neighbors—our own vineyard. We must do something about our own vineyard.

You may be the only one who can stand in faith for your family circle
.

Unfortunately, too many men today are bound in a
manner like the demon-possessed man. Some are bound by anger and violence. Some are bent on destruction. Others are addicted to drugs or alcohol or pornography. That’s what the devil does, and no man can deliver himself.

But now notice what Jesus can do. The demoniac saw Jesus afar off and the demons in him cried out, “Don’t torment us before the time!” The demons were afraid in the presence of Jesus. And Jesus commanded those demons to come out.

All we have to have is Jesus.
I want you to know there’s no one who is beyond the touch of Jesus! That’s what Jesus can do. He can bring you to calmness and tranquility, and you’ll be sitting at His feet. He’ll give you a sound mind so that you can think straight and live right.

Go back to your wife, your children, your mother, your daddy, whoever is at your home. They know what kind of man you’ve been. They know the torment you’ve been in. Go home to where you live! And don’t just stop with your home; go to all your friends who were aware of your condition. Go to your home and to your friends and do two things: Tell them what great things the Lord has done for you and tell them that He has had compassion upon you!

But don’t just tell them what God’s done for you;
tell them about His compassion. You know it’s hard for anyone who has lived a life of sin to believe that God loves them. But Christ came into this world for sinners; He died for sinners; He paid the sinner’s price by going to hell in their place, and God raised Him from the dead. God loves everybody! He has no favorites.

We must tell people of the compassionate, loving heart of God. He loves them! He wants them, and He needs them. And they’re welcome in the kingdom of God.

But praying is not enough. You’ve got to go and tell.

In Acts 27, Paul was in a storm at sea that was so bad that those on the ship hadn’t seen the sun or the stars for fourteen days. Finally, the Bible says, “All hope that we would be saved was finally given up.” All hope in the natural realm was gone.

And yet in the midst of the hopelessness, Paul had an angel appear to him who said, “Do not be afraid, Paul; you must be brought before Caesar; and indeed God has granted you all those who sail with you” (v. 24). All hope was gone, yet every one of them was saved.

If you have a situation and all hope is gone, you can turn it around with Jesus so that everything will turn out all right! God never sent that storm, but He invaded that
storm and directed its winds. He said, “Oh, you’re trying to kill my servant Paul? I’ll tell you what I’ll do. I’ll direct the winds of this storm, and I’ll put Paul over there on the island called Malta, which is filled with suffering sick people. Everyone on that island is going to come to know the healing power of the Lord Jesus Christ!”

You may be in a storm today. God never sent it, but He will invade it. Let Him come in. Let Him direct it, and you’ll find that in the storm, you’ll reach your island of needs, your dreams. Let your storm cause you to bend your knees and look away from man unto God. Let your storm make you realize that you’re not sufficient in yourself! Our sufficiency is of God!

“Live clean, innocent lives as children of God, shining like bright lights in a world full of crooked and perverse people” (Philippians 2:15
NLT
).

In Acts 16 is the marvelous story of the apostle Paul who cast a demon out of a young woman who was a soothsayer. But the result of Paul’s actions was that an angry mob got together and the magistrates were called out. They punished Paul and Silas, stripping their backs bare and beating them unmercifully. Then they took them to the jail and charged the jailer to keep them safe.
He threw them into the inner dungeon and put their feet fast in the stocks.

Then the Bible says, “Suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken; and immediately all the doors were opened and everyone’s chains were loosed. And the keeper of the prison, awaking from sleep and seeing the prison doors open, supposing the prisoners had fled, drew his sword and was about to kill himself. But Paul called with a loud voice, saying, ‘Do yourself no harm, for we are all here.’ Then he called for a light, ran in, and fell down trembling before Paul and Silas. And he brought them out and said,
‘Sirs, what must I do to be saved?’
So they said,
‘Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household.’
Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house. And he took them the same hour of the night and washed their stripes. And immediately he and all his family were baptized. Now when he had brought them into his house, he set food before them; and he rejoiced, having believed in God with all his household” (vv. 26–34).

At midnight, Paul and Silas were in the stocks with their backs bleeding, and they prayed and sang praises to God! Anybody can sing when the sun shines, but a real Christian can sing whatever is happening. It may be dark
around you, but it’s light on the inside.
When you have revelation knowledge in you; when you know who you are; when you know how it’s all going to come out in the end, you can praise God in the darkness.
If you’ll praise Him in the darkness, He’ll bring you out into the sunshine!

When Paul prevented the jailer from taking his own life, the jailer’s immediate reaction was to fall before Paul and Silas and ask, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” The testimony of Paul and Silas was so clear that the jailer desperately wanted the life of Jesus for himself and his household. The jailer was saying, “I want to be like you. I want to have the joy you have. I want to have the victory you have. I want to have that something you have.”

Paul’s answer was simple and clear: “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.” Not believe just
in
Jesus, but
on
Him. Trust yourself to Him. Commit your whole life to Him as your Lord and Savior, and you shall be saved. And then here’s what I’m talking about,
“And your household!”
It’s not just good for Daddy; it’s good for the whole house!