February 15, 2015, Berkshire Hills Baptist Church Sermon: Focus On the Faith, Jude, Pastor Doug Mann First of all we need to see here that he says we need to build up ourselves. It is @ choice we have to make. I can't go to you; I can try to encourage you, I can try to edify you to be a better Christian. I could try to encourage you to have a stronger faith, but who makes the final decision of having stronger faith in our life? We do. And so we need to build up ourselves in something particular: "Your most holy faith." You know, the disciples had come to Jesus and said, "Teach us to believe." Jesus had a simple message. He said "have faith in God." That was it, [00:04:55.18] In John 14 when He had just told Peter that you're going to deceive {probably meant deny me} me, you're going to reject me three times, Peter felt low, discouraged. And the very next verse, Jesus said, "Don't let your heart be troubled, you believe in God, believe also in me." Faith, It's just trusting in God, a holy faith. In Colossians 2:7, "Rooted and built up in him and, stablished in the faith as ye have been taught abounding therein with thanksgiving.” How do we build up our living faith? You know, there's saving faith and where do we get that? Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. So if the Word of God teaches us about saving faith, what will teach us about living faith? That very same word of God. (00:05:56.04] That's not a far stretch, is it? We are to build up our faith as we've been taught and to build up our faith and establish it in the word of God. And as we do this we understand that as we learn more about living my faith, we'll also learn more about living for God and serving him. Many times, we fail to serve God, to go out into whatever ministry has for you. And I understand as we get older, our ministries can change, But it doesn’t mean God's done with you yet. You know when God's done with you, when you take your final death and you're standing before Him. You can be pretty much assured God's done with you. I know at the Nursing Home, I encourage people there, the believers there. I say, “Listen, God can always use you. You may be in a wheelchair, you may not be able to get around, but as long as your mind is active, you can pray for people.” There is always something God wants you to do. [00:07:04.23] And how do we encourage ourselves to serve God with whatever ministry. I's the faith. You know, many missionaries have said, God how can I go to this country here? I don't know the language, I don't have the money - you know, and come up with a thousand different reasons. You know what allows them to go? Faith. They believe that's where God wants them, and they believe that when they get there God will take care of them. ‘And it's the same thing in our life. We need to build up ourselves in our most holy faith, that means - holy is the faith that comes from God that will strengthen us, comes to God from His word, that will build us up and allow us to go literally day by day. [00:07:57.01] and we wake up in the moming and say Lord, | just can't go Things happen in our li