Bible Study by Curtis Hartshorn
Video Title: Bible Study on Faith: Why Should I Work on My Faith — Curtis Hartshorn
Creator: Bibletalk.tv
Original Video: Bible Study on Faith: Why Should I Work on My Faith — Curtis Hartshorn / Bibletalk.tv https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3H8cj0WrKvA
License: Creative Commons Attribution license (reuse allowed)
Video Title: Bible Study on Faith: Why Should I Work on My Faith — Curtis Hartshorn
Creator: Bibletalk.tv
Original Video: Bible Study on Faith: Why Should I Work on My Faith — Curtis Hartshorn / Bibletalk.tv https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3H8cj0WrKvA
License: Creative Commons Attribution license (reuse allowed)
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00:00Welcome to our class on Reaching New Levels of Faith.
00:04My name is Curtis Hartzorn. I'm a minister with the Chakoda Church Christ in Chakoda, Oklahoma.
00:10And I am so thrilled about this opportunity. This is a dream come true to me.
00:17I feel kind of like Esther, you know, when Mordecai came to her and was explained,
00:22you've come to this position and you need to go to the king.
00:26And who knows whether you have attained royalty for such a time as this.
00:31As I look at my life and the way that I've transitioned and the things I've learned about faith
00:37and then to be able to connect with BibleTalk.tv is such a tremendous opportunity.
00:45BibleTalk.tv currently has over 16 million views and 100,000 subscribers on YouTube.
00:53And so to speak to this large of a venue is just a tremendous thrill for me to get to do this.
00:59Let me tell you a little bit more about myself. I was immersed into Christ at the age of 20.
01:05And I did not believe in God. I went from having no faith, no believing in God,
01:10to devoting my life to preaching of the gospel.
01:15And so when I first started in the ministry, I was amazed at how Christians would grow up in the same environment.
01:24They would hear the same sermons. They would go to the same classes.
01:27Some of them even growing up in the same households.
01:29Some would flourish in their faith and others would fizzle out.
01:34And I always wondered about that.
01:36Why, when they have the same opportunity, would some grow and some wouldn't?
01:40And that really launched me into thinking about how we grow up spiritually.
01:47How does faith develop?
01:51And I started doing, at first, classes that I would teach.
01:55And then I got invited to do seminars or gospel meetings or workshops.
02:00I know it's in different parts of the country. We call those different things.
02:03But you know what I mean.
02:04I did sermon series. I was urged to write a book.
02:08And I did write a book. It's called Reaching New Levels of Faith.
02:11You don't have to have this book to take the class.
02:14But I just wanted to let you know that it's there.
02:16And you can obtain that through a link at BibleTalk.tv.
02:20I've written other books too. I've written four books.
02:22And so those you don't need.
02:25But what I would encourage you to get is a student workbook.
02:30If you would get on our website and order that, we can send that to you.
02:36Or it is also a downloadable PDF if you'd like to make copies of that.
02:41I would love to, during this class, if you would have that with you.
02:46Those notes. They'll help you so much.
02:48I'm going to put blanks up on the screen with the answers filled out that are in your workbook.
02:53And it will help you to pay attention better to get more out of the class.
02:57More importantly than that, I really want to encourage you to have a Bible.
03:01An open Bible in front of you.
03:03Now I understand that we listen to BibleTalk.tv in different venues.
03:09Some of you are listening to it as you're driving down the road.
03:12And so obviously you can't have a Bible in front of you.
03:15But if at all possible, I know we're multitaskers. I know we're busy people.
03:19But if you could sit down and look at the passages that we're talking about,
03:24instead of just hearing them, you will get so much more out of the lesson.
03:28So I really want to encourage you to do that.
03:32As I've done these seminars and things, you know, one of the first things that I discovered,
03:36I used to launch in and talk about what faith is and what the different levels of faith and I would go.
03:41And then it occurred to me that I was talking to people that didn't even want to grow in their faith.
03:47And I would talk to some and they'd say something kind of like this.
03:51Well, I believe in God. I've repented of my sins. I've been baptized into Christ.
03:58So right now I have sufficient faith to go to heaven.
04:02Why do all this work to grow my faith?
04:05That's a fair question.
04:07And so I want to start this first lesson by answering that question.
04:13Why should I develop my faith?
04:17I'm going to give you six reasons why you should want to grow in your faith.
04:25Six reasons to develop or increase your faith.
04:29The first one is, God wants me to grow.
04:33If you'll turn to Matthew chapter 17 with me.
04:37And while you're turning there, let me set the scene for you.
04:40Jesus has been up on the Mount of Transfiguration.
04:43He's been there with three of the apostles, Peter, James, and John.
04:47While he was up there, the other nine remained down in the village
04:52and they had been approached by a man who wanted to have his son healed.
04:57And the apostles, oh yeah, we can do this.
05:00And they tried and they failed.
05:03And so when Jesus comes on the scene, it's a disaster.
05:07Let's start reading Matthew chapter 17, starting with verse 14.
05:11Now, when they came to the crowd, a man came up to Jesus,
05:15falling on his knees before him and saying,
05:17Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is a lunatic and is very ill,
05:22for he often falls into the fire and often into the water.
05:27I brought him to your disciples and they could not cure him.
05:31And Jesus answered and said,
05:33You unbelieving and perverted generation, how long shall I be with you?
05:40How long should I put up with you?
05:42Bring him here to me.
05:44And Jesus rebuked him and the demon came out of him and the boy was cured at once.
05:51Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said,
05:55Why could we not drive it out?
06:00And he said to them,
06:02Because of the littleness of your faith.
06:07For truly I say to you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed,
06:11you'll say to this mountain, move from here to there and it will move.
06:16Nothing will be impossible to you.
06:21After Jesus fixes the situation and he's obviously very disappointed,
06:27he calls them an unbelieving and perverted generation.
06:30He is so disappointed with their lack of faith.
06:34And even when the disciples come to Jesus afterwards,
06:37kind of hat in hand and they're so embarrassed, I'm sure.
06:42And they say, Jesus, why couldn't we drive it out?
06:45We've seen you do this many times. It looks so easy.
06:48How come we couldn't do this?
06:50And Jesus' answer here is key.
06:53Because of the littleness of your faith.
06:57Oglopistes is the Greek word used here. It's one word.
07:00And it means puny faith.
07:03You got this puny faith and that is the problem.
07:06Your faith is so small.
07:09And then he says, truly I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed.
07:15My translation says the size of. Some say as small as.
07:19And I know why the translators add those words.
07:21But really that's not in the Greek. It's actually only as a mustard seed.
07:26Meaning having the quality of a mustard seed.
07:31Now, one of the qualities of a mustard seed is it's small.
07:34But that's not the quality that Jesus is emphasizing.
07:39Because he just rebuked them at the beginning of verse 20 for having puny faith.
07:44And turn around and say, boy, I wish your faith was small.
07:46That doesn't make sense.
07:48What he's saying is, I wish your faith was like a mustard seed.
07:52Well, what's a mustard seed like?
07:54Well, he already explained back in chapter 13.
07:57If you'll back up there and read this with me.
08:00Matthew chapter 13.
08:03In one of his parables, it says in verse 31.
08:07It says he presented another parable to them saying,
08:10The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which man took and sowed in his field.
08:19And this is smaller than all the other seeds.
08:24But when it is full grown, it is larger than the garden plants and becomes a tree.
08:34So the birds of the air come and nest in its branches.
08:39Jesus says the kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed.
08:44And let me explain something about the phrase kingdom of heaven.
08:47That phrase appears 32 times in the Bible.
08:50All of them are in the book of Matthew.
08:52No other writer in the Bible uses this phrase kingdom of heaven.
08:56When Matthew uses this phrase, he's not talking about heaven.
08:59Just read them. Just look them up and read all 32.
09:02You'll be able to tell he's not talking about heaven.
09:04He's talking about the kingdom.
09:06The people that are subject to the king who are going to heaven.
09:10In other words, he's talking about the church.
09:13So the kingdom, the church is like a mustard seed.
09:16It starts off small.
09:18We know from reading Acts, it did start off very small.
09:21But it became huge.
09:24Just like a mustard seed.
09:26This picture that I have on the screen for you right now is a mustard seed.
09:31An actual mustard seed.
09:32It's not the smallest seed in the world.
09:34Some grass seeds are smaller than that.
09:37But look how tiny that thing is.
09:39And yet, let me show you what it becomes.
09:42There's an actual mustard seed tree that you're looking at.
09:46So that tiny little seed becomes this huge tree.
09:51When Jesus says, your faith should be as a mustard seed.
09:56What he's saying is, it's okay if it starts off small.
09:59But I want your faith to grow.
10:02I don't want it to stay small.
10:05God wants your faith to grow.
10:08This is the first of six reasons that I've given you why you should develop your faith.
10:13But I could stop here, couldn't I?
10:15If you love God and God wants your faith to grow, that's enough reason, I would think.
10:21God doesn't want you to stay where you're at.
10:24He wants you to move forward in your faith.
10:28That's the first reason.
10:29I'll go ahead and give you the others.
10:31Number two, we either move forward in our faith or we're moving backward.
10:39There's never an in-between.
10:41There's never just, I'm holding my own.
10:44We're always moving forward or we're moving backward.
10:47In the book of Hebrews, if you'll turn with me there, please.
10:53The Hebrew writer is writing to Hebrews, Jews, who had become Christians.
11:00But they were looking back at the old Jewish ways.
11:03Oh, wasn't that kind of neat?
11:04And so as a result, they weren't really growing.
11:06They weren't moving forward in their faith.
11:09And the Hebrew writer is writing to try to convince them to grow in their faith.
11:15And look what he says in Hebrews 5, verse 11.
11:18It says, Concerning him, and the him here is Melchizedek, who he has been comparing to Christ and Christ's priesthood.
11:25He's talking about some rather technical thing.
11:27But he says, Concerning him, we have much to say, but it's hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing.
11:35This word is the same word that's used in chapter 6, verse 12, where it's translated sluggish or lazy.
11:42You've become lazy in your hearing.
11:44You're not progressing the way that you should in hearing the gospel and growing in your faith.
11:51Verse 12, For though by this time you ought to be teachers,
11:56you have need again for someone to teach you the elementary principles of the oracles of God.
12:04And you have come to need milk and not solid food.
12:09For everyone who partakes only of milk is not accustomed to the word of righteousness, for he is an infant.
12:18But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil.
12:29The Hebrew writer says, you know, you're at a point in your Christianity where you ought to be teachers.
12:38But instead, instead of being on the solid food, you're actually on the milk.
12:44You're still in an infancy state. In other words, this isn't good.
12:48If you're not progressing in your faith, that's not good.
12:51If you're actually, if you're not moving forward, you're actually moving backward.
12:56And you can argue, so no, I'm just holding my own.
12:59But if you're not growing in God's eyes, that's negative progress.
13:07Because think about the way that we grow up physically.
13:13We start off, we're infants and then we become toddlers and then pre-adolescence and adolescence.
13:19We go through these stages of our faith and I'm going to, or stages of our life,
13:24and I'm going to teach you the stages of faith that kind of match up with those.
13:27But what if a child is growing for a while and then they just stop growing?
13:33Would you, if you were a parent, would you be okay with that?
13:36You say, well, at least they're holding their own.
13:38No, you would be alarmed. You'd be going to the doctor and say, hey, something's wrong here.
13:44Well, that's how God feels when we're not progressing in our faith.
13:48And He has expressed that by inspiring this Hebrew writer to write this.
13:53By this time you ought to be teachers.
13:56But here you are and you're in your late teens and you're in your early twenties
14:01and you're walking around with a baby bottle.
14:04That's not good. You should be progressing. You should be moving forward.
14:08He said by this time you ought to be teachers.
14:10Maybe by this time you ought to be a song leader.
14:12Maybe by this time you ought to be leading prayers or teaching classes
14:17or attending church more regularly than you are or have a stronger prayer life.
14:21You should be progressing in your faith.
14:26We're either moving forward or we're moving backward.
14:30And so a reason to want to grow in your faith is so that you are not moving backward.
14:35Let me give you a third reason why you should want to grow in your faith.
14:39Without spiritual growth, we won't have numerical growth in our congregations.
14:46At least not for long.
14:48I mean, it's possible to go out and be all fired up and baptize a lot of people
14:52and yeah, our numbers swell.
14:54But if there's no spiritual building of the faith underneath that,
14:59if we're not maturing these baby Christians, it all falls down.
15:06We've got to have spiritual growth as well as numerical growth.
15:11In other words, we have to have edification as well as evangelism.
15:14The passage I get that from is in Ephesians chapter 4, if you look at that with me.
15:21Paul, who was undoubtedly a great authority on how to build a church.
15:27He planted many churches and got them going.
15:31One was this church in Ephesus who he's writing this letter back
15:34and he's sharing with them some things that they needed to be doing.
15:38And he tells them in Ephesians chapter 4 verse 14,
15:43As a result, we're no longer to be children,
15:47tossed here and there by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine,
15:52by the trickery of men and by craftiness and deceitful scheming.
15:55What's he talking about here? Growing up spiritually.
15:58We shouldn't be children anymore. We should be moving on.
16:01But verse 15, speaking the truth in love,
16:04we are to grow up in all aspects into him who is the head, even Christ,
16:11from whom the whole body being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies,
16:19according to the proper working of each individual part,
16:24causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.
16:30What's he talking about here? He's talking about spiritual growth.
16:34He says you've become Christians and Paul had baptized, most likely,
16:40a lot of these people that he's writing to.
16:42He says now it's time to grow up, put aside these childish ways,
16:46grow up in all aspects into him.
16:49We're talking about growing in our faith.
16:52We're growing to be more like Christ who was the epitome of faith, obviously,
16:56the author and the perfecter of faith.
16:59We're growing up to be like him. The whole body is doing this.
17:03As we're fitted together, he talks about what every joint,
17:06all the sinews of our body, what that pulls together,
17:10and it causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.
17:18If you want the church to grow, and I hope you do,
17:21I mean, I've talked to a few Christians who don't want the church to grow,
17:24so we're fine just where we are.
17:27If you don't want the church to grow, your will is in opposition to the will of God
17:31because God wants all men to be saved.
17:33That's a precarious place to be.
17:36I hope you want the church to grow.
17:38If you want it to grow, we've got to learn how to develop faith.
17:44The best way for you to help the church to grow in their faith
17:47is for you to work on your faith and grow in your faith.
17:52Then you can help others when you've been through those experiences.
17:56So there's a great reason to want to grow in your faith.
17:59Let me give you a fourth reason.
18:02If God doesn't get you, then Satan does.
18:07Ooh, that's a scary thought, isn't it?
18:11If God doesn't get you, if he doesn't have your heart,
18:15Satan is going to have your heart.
18:18And there really is no middle ground.
18:20Let me show you from Scripture in 1 Peter 5.
18:23We'll look at a couple of scriptures here.
18:25The first one in 1 Peter 5.
18:28Notice what Peter says, starting in verse 6.
18:31Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God
18:35that he may exalt you at the proper time,
18:38casting all your anxiety on him.
18:40Why? Because he cares for you.
18:44Now the next verse says,
18:46Be of sober spirit, be on the alert.
18:49Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion
18:54seeking someone to devour.
19:00Peter starts by talking about giving our heart to God.
19:04Place yourself under the mighty hand of God.
19:06In humility, come into the presence of God.
19:09Give yourself to him.
19:11Cast your anxiety upon him.
19:14He cares for you.
19:16Give yourself to God. Why?
19:18Because verse 8 says,
19:20We have an adversary, the devil.
19:23And he is walking around like a roaring lion
19:26looking for somebody to devour.
19:29If you know anything about lions,
19:32lions are hunters.
19:34And they will study a herd.
19:37And they're watching to see who the slow ones are,
19:40who may be the young or the weak.
19:43And that's the ones they're going to pick off.
19:45That's how Satan works.
19:49You need to want to work on developing your faith
19:52because if you don't, you're in Satan's hands.
19:57Satan's going to pick you off.
19:59He is desiring to have you.
20:02And he will if God doesn't have you.
20:06This is all the way through Scripture.
20:08In 1 John 3 is another passage that talks about this.
20:12John agrees with Peter,
20:14both inspired by the Holy Spirit, of course.
20:171 John 3, verse 7 says,
20:19Little children, make sure no one deceives you.
20:22The one who practices righteousness is righteous,
20:25just as he is righteous.
20:27The one who practices sin is of the devil,
20:30for the devil has sinned from the beginning.
20:32The Son of God appeared for this purpose
20:34to destroy the works of the devil.
20:37No one who is born of God practices sin
20:40because his seed abides in him.
20:42He cannot sin because he is born of God.
20:45By this the children of God
20:48and the children of the devil are obvious.
20:51Anyone who does not practice righteousness
20:54is not of God,
20:56nor the one who does not love his brother.
21:00John says there are children of God.
21:06But the ones who are not children of God
21:09are children of the devil.
21:11That's what the Bible says.
21:14And you may say,
21:16at this point in my life I'm just neutral,
21:18haven't really decided if I'm going to follow God or not.
21:21If you have not, you're still of the devil.
21:24That's what the Bible says.
21:25There's no neutrality.
21:26This isn't a game.
21:27This is a war, a spiritual war.
21:29And you have to choose a side.
21:31You're either with God
21:33or you're not with God.
21:35And if you're not with God,
21:36the Bible says you are with the devil.
21:39And if you continue to do evil,
21:41and if you hate your brother,
21:43the Bible says you are of the devil.
21:46Jesus' words up here on the screen is,
21:49he who is not with me is against me.
21:51And he who does not gather with me scatters.
21:55Matthew chapter 12 and verse 30.
21:57In Jesus' own words he says,
21:59you need to be with me
22:02because if you're not, you're against me.
22:05There is no neutrality.
22:07We have to decide.
22:09If God doesn't have us, then Satan does.
22:12Is that not enough reason to want to work on your faith?
22:16Let me give you another reason.
22:18Do you know without faith you can't please God?
22:22Hebrews chapter 11.
22:24If you'll flip back and look at that again,
22:26back to the book of Hebrews chapter 11.
22:30He says here in verse six,
22:33and without faith it is impossible to please him.
22:37For he who comes to God must believe that he is
22:40and that he is a rewarder of those who seek him.
22:46Do you want to please God?
22:49Well, I'm sure you do,
22:50or you wouldn't be watching this video.
22:54Well, if you want to please God,
22:56you have to have faith.
22:59And we've already established
23:00God wants you to have a growing faith.
23:03A growing faith that secures your relationship with him.
23:06The stronger your faith is,
23:07the more secure you are in your walk with God.
23:11I want to please God.
23:12How about you?
23:13Well, let's work together to develop our faith.
23:17There's five reasons why we should want to grow in our faith.
23:21I have one more for you.
23:23Faith development fosters healthy and harmonious relationships
23:28in the family of God.
23:30Now, this point came about after I'd done several seminars,
23:35workshops, gospel meetings,
23:38where I would hear back from church leaders,
23:41elders, ministers.
23:42I would call back and say,
23:43hey, how did everything go?
23:45What do you think?
23:46And over and over again,
23:47I was hearing something like this.
23:49I would hear, it's kind of strange,
23:51but since you have done that a month ago or whenever it was,
23:55we're closer as a congregation than we've ever been.
23:58It increased our unity talking about faith.
24:02When I heard that, I thought, hmm, that's interesting.
24:05How could that happen?
24:07Well, what happens is,
24:10when I understand how faith develops
24:13and how my faith develops and other people,
24:17I say, well, they're going through the same things that I am.
24:20Maybe they're at affiliating faith right now.
24:23Or maybe they're going through this particular struggle.
24:27When we get to searching faith,
24:29we're going to talk about the four basic struggles of searching faith.
24:31And everybody goes through at least one of those struggles.
24:34But we don't all go through the same ones.
24:37And so they are understanding,
24:40once you understand that there's different people
24:42that have different struggles,
24:43you say, okay, well, man, they're going through that right now.
24:45It makes you be more patient,
24:47a little more understanding.
24:49I mean, it really is a great benefit
24:51when we start developing our faith
24:54because you realize others are struggling too.
24:57In 2 Timothy 2,
25:01if you look at this with me, please.
25:042 Timothy 2,
25:06and look what Paul says to the younger Timothy,
25:09starting in verse 24.
25:11The Lord's bondservant must not be quarrelsome,
25:14but be kind to all, able to teach,
25:17patient when wronged,
25:20with gentleness correcting those who are in opposition,
25:23if perhaps God may grant them repentance,
25:26leading to the knowledge of truth.
25:28And they may come to their senses
25:31and escape from the snare of the devil,
25:34having been held captive by him
25:38to do his will, meaning to do the devil's will.
25:42It says the bondservant of Christ
25:45really shouldn't be argumentative.
25:48We shouldn't be quarrelsome.
25:51We should be kind to all
25:54because we understand each other.
25:57We need to be patient when we're wronged.
26:00You know, it's going to happen.
26:01It's bound to happen that in a church
26:03where people are interacting,
26:04somebody's going to say something wrong.
26:06Somebody's going to do the wrong thing.
26:08And it's going to offend you.
26:11And you can get mad about it and you say,
26:13well, I'm not going to have anything to do with them
26:15or maybe I'm not going to go to church anymore.
26:17Or you can understand
26:20that that person has faults
26:22and they're trying to work on their faith
26:24just like you're trying to work on yours.
26:26And when you do that,
26:27there'll be a gentleness about you,
26:30more of an understanding
26:32where we don't let those things get us down.
26:35We understand that God will grant them repentance.
26:39They're going to change.
26:40I'm going to change
26:41and I'll talk more about that later on.
26:43But others are struggling too.
26:46When you're developing your faith,
26:48you'll be more patient
26:50and your congregation will have more patience.
26:54And elders will get along with each other
26:56and elders and ministers will get along
26:58and everybody in the church,
27:00that filters down when we understand
27:03that we all need to grow in our faith.
27:07We're trying to reach new levels of faith
27:09and I've given you six reasons
27:11why you should want to progress,
27:14move further in your faith.
27:17I am so pumped up and excited about this class,
27:20but I need you to be motivated
27:22because if you don't watch it till the end,
27:24if you don't go through all 16 lessons,
27:26then it's not going to do you near as much good.
27:30I want you to get all of this material
27:32and so you're going to need to be motivated to do that.
27:34So pick out one of those six
27:36or come up with your own.
27:37Maybe you have a better reason
27:39why you want to grow in your faith.
27:41But get a motivation for wanting to develop your faith.
27:45In our next class,
27:46we're going to talk about what is faith.
27:49And I'm going to go through
27:52and show you exactly just what this is about.
27:55And then I'm going to teach you
27:56the different levels of faith.
27:57We're going to talk about the struggles of searching faith.
27:59As I already mentioned,
28:00there's a lot of stuff that I want to teach you.
28:02But for now, just think about your motivation.
28:05Why do you want to go on with this?
28:07Really hope to see you in our next class.
28:09Thank you for listening.
28:10We'll talk to you again.