Have you struggled with depression, suicidal thoughts or self-harm? Joyce and her guest, Nancy Alcorn of Mercy Multiplied, share supportive insights and tools to help you.

Faith is a powerful force that changes things.

and if we can ever understand how

valuable faith isn’t that faith creates

things and it changes things that it

moves mountains and it solves problems

[Music]

the Bible teaches us in Romans 12 that

unto every man is given the measure of

God’s faith and actually if you go ahead

and study that it’s that God gives the

measure of his faith for each one of us

to do what he’s asked us to do in life

because Jesus didn’t die so we could all

struggle he didn’t die so we could just

have this hard hard hard life and just

struggle and be frustrated all the time

and he specially doesn’t want us to

struggle trying to make the Christian

life work amen

so he gives us faith faith is a word

that we throw around a lot as Christians

and and I know that you know even maybe

sometimes we’ve heard so much about

faith that you know even tonight when I

said I got to teach on faith this

weekend I didn’t get the reaction that I

would have got if I would have said I’m

gonna teach on how to control your

emotions everybody won and but I just

don’t think that we understand or maybe

we just need to keep relearning and keep

understanding how important just that

little simple childlike faith is to this

whole walk with God and and how

important it is to peace to

righteousness

to joy it’s amazing the problems that

are solved the moment that you decide to

trust God in everything unto every man

is given the measure of faith so don’t

even try to say well I wish I had faith

you have faith if you wouldn’t had faith

you wouldn’t come here tonight because

you had faith that if you came I’d be R

you had faith when you parked your car

in the parking lot that when you leave

tonight and go out there it’ll still be

there you had faith that you would get a

seat have a place to sit you had faith

that you would enjoy this and get

something out of it it’s amazing how

much faith we use every single solitary

day and why we have such a hard time

putting faith in God

is very interesting every time you sit

in the chair you have faith that’s going

to hold you up I say I’m not sitting

there going oh my gosh I hope this thing

doesn’t cave in oh no it’s like I just

sat down the chair

I didn’t even check it out first it’s a

chair chairs you sit in so I just sat

down in the chair I came in tonight and

I had the faith that if I put all my

stuff on this podium that it would hold

it up you operate in faith all the time

every time you got in traffic in your

car you better be in faith every time

you send one of your teenagers off to

school you better be in faith so we do

have faith I’ve been doing quite a bit

of study on faith again in the last few

months and I think really there’s

certain foundational subjects that we

have to study and refresh ourselves in

all the time Paul told the people that

he never got tired of telling them the

same things over and over because it it

rekindled their faith and stirred them

up in faith in those areas so if you

walked in here if I were to come up here

tonight so how many of you are confused

there would have been hundreds of hands

go up if not thousands and so I can just

say to you that if you’re confused

you’re not operating in faith at least

not about that thing you’re confused

about because the moment you trust God

confusion goes because when you trust

God you don’t have to try to figure

anything out anymore and the moment you

stop trying to figure things out

you don’t get confused

if I would have said how many of you are

worried oh we would have lots of hands

go up but if we’re worried then

obviously we’re not in feet no that

doesn’t mean that we don’t have faith in

God but I want to talk to you about

something different this weekend I want

to talk to you about not just having

faith every person has faith but I want

to talk to you about releasing your

faith about releasing your faith because

faith is a powerful force that changes

things

it does things faith is the only thing

that can cause you to enter the rest of

God which is the absolute most glorious

place to be because you don’t have to

try to figure stuff out you don’t have

to try to change things that you’ve

already tried a million times to change

and the more you try to change the more

frustrated it makes you because you can

just finally say well God I’m trusting

you with this and if you can’t change it

then I guess they don’t need to be

changed how many years was I frustrated

trying to change my husband and changing

my kids and changed my neighbors and

change me and change changin

oh what a relief it was to me to find

out that only God could change people

and then I didn’t need to be working on

everybody else I had enough issues of my

own to work on amen

how do we come to this point of having

this kind of faith that will let us

enter the rest of God well I’m not going

to give you some fancy super spiritual

answer I’m just going to tell you what I

think the truth is I think that the only

way you can learn to stop worrying and

stop trying to figure things out stop

being jealous of what other people have

and all the crazy things that we do and

I’m going to talk to you more about some

of those things later

I just honestly think that in addition

to studying the word I think that we

just have to try it our way long enough

to find they just get worn out enough

they just say okay god I surrender come

on we got to talk about surrender this

weekend I surrender I finally just said

you know what God you knew what you were

getting when you got me because you know

that beginning you know the end and

everything in between you know every

flaw that I have every fault that I have

you know every weakness that I have as

well as my strengths and I just decided

I was gonna stop apologizing for myself

25 times a day and just tell God I’m

willing I’m willing to let you do any

work in me that you want to do but I am

NOT gonna spend every day of my life

trying to change myself now that doesn’t

mean that I don’t operate in any kind of

discipline or self-control but really to

tell you the truth it’s the Word of God

that changes us and you’d be much better

instead of trying to change yourself to

just study the word more and trust God

to do what he says that only he can do I

finally decided decisions are so

important I think a lot of people come

to stuff like this and they just listen

and never make a decision I want you to

make decisions this weekend I want you

to decide to do things God’s Way and

then I want you to leave here knowing

that you can’t do it unless he helps you

and I want you to leave leaning leaning

leaning relying leaning trusting leaning

and relying on him to do what only he

can do you see when I sit in this chair

I’m leaning on it

glory to God so wonderful hoof

I might even preach from here a little

bit tonight you never know well I mean

this is a pathetic example but it gives

kind of a little example of what it’s

like to lean on God you know as you as

you lean on him then you take the

pressure off of yourself and I might add

until we do learn to lean on God we’re

not going to have any victory in our

life let’s go to mark 11:22 so you’re

ready for a little journey now about

faith right how many of you see what I

mean you know we can talk oh yes I’m a

faith person yes yes I go to a faith

church I booked some faith yes yes well

why do you worry why are you confused

why are you jealous why are you upset

because you see we can have something

never put it to good use God actually

dealt with me about I guess it was

December sometime in December about even

our giving and he said you’ve gotten in

a habit of giving that’s what God put in

my heart you’ve gotten in a habit of

giving which how many of you know giving

is a good habit but listen to what he

put my heart you’ve gotten in a habit of

giving but you don’t release your faith

with your giving anymore just do it and

of course you know when you give you

will you will be blessed but there’s a

there’s another whole level you can come

into if every time you give you release

your faith my god I’m giving in

obedience to your word and this is what

I’m trusting you to do you’re gonna see

in just a minute that the three ways you

release your faith at least the three

we’re going to talk about tonight so

simple if you get this they can be

life-changing through praying through

saying and through doing what you

believe God wants you to do you release

your faith when you really pray when you

pray sincerely in faith hope you release

your faith how many of you understand

your faith can’t work unless you release

it

just having it doesn’t do any good you

can have money in the bank and still

starve to death

you can have food in the refrigerator

and go hungry you can have a coat in

your closet and still go out and fries

so having something is no guarantee that

you’re going to use it and one thing’s

for sure if you don’t know you have it

and that’s the sad thing about a lot of

Christians is nobody’s telling them what

they have and so one of the things I

want to do is tell you a lot tonight

about what your inheritance includes and

it’s not something you have to keep

trying to get you have it you don’t have

to keep trying to be right with God

you are right with God through the blood

of Jesus Christ and if you believe that

then out of that position you have by

faith in God you will begin to behave

more rightly because you’re not you

can’t you can’t give away something you

don’t have that’s why it’s so important

to receive the love of God into your own

life because how can you love yourself

and love other people if you don’t have

the love of God you can’t give away what

you don’t have mercy is another good

example if you don’t receive God’s mercy

but if you’re real harsh and hard on

yourself and legalistic and and every

time you do something wrong you’re

punishing yourself for your mistake and

we we do have ways to punish ourselves

for our mistakes we give up a lot of joy

because we don’t think we deserve it

when you learn to receive the mercy of

God it softens your heart and you begin

to be more tender-hearted toward other

people because you realize that God has

been merciful to you so it’s very

important that we know what’s ours and I

just want to teach you a little little

higher level of what we talked about in

faith because the Apostle Paul said it’s

no longer I that live but Christ that

lives in me and the life that I now live

I live by faith