Your Faith Level | Senior Pastor Kenneth Carpenter
by Kenneth Carpenter
First Apostolic Church of Maryville (Maryville, TN)
Kind: sermon
Scripture: Hebrews 11:1, Hebrews 11:6, Luke 18:8, Luke 22:31-32, Romans 14:23, Genesis 12:1-3, Genesis 11:31-32

Source: https://acts238.life/repository/sermons/kenneth-carpenter--your-faith-level
Published by Acts 2:38 Life from the sermon transcript on that page.
Free to copy and share with attribution.

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turn with me in your bibles to the book of hebrews chapter number 11 and verse number one praise god hebrews chapter 11 verse number one we want to welcome the monks family with us tonight visiting from i believe they told me the great state of uh oklahoma pastor would you wave your hand at me this evening brother monks it's so good to have you at first apostolic with us tonight thank you so much thank you so much thank you for being with us tonight and we uh look forward to seeing you fellowship and for a moment or so after after the service now faith is the substance of things hoped for the evidence of things not seen just go down to verse number six if you would of the same chapter someone say praise the lord but without faith it is impossible to please him for he that cometh to god must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him would you lay your bibles down tonight would you follow pastor's lead would you just put your hands on your heart right now father in the name of jesus our compass tonight is your word lord we we receive direction from your word a world is upside down sometimes our lives can be upside down lord but god thy word is a lamp and a light thy word is a hammer and a fire thy word god will be here when the world is on fire lord tonight help us as a church congregation to receive your word tonight in jesus name i pray amen and amen receive that word tonight you may be seated i want to minister tonight for a few moments on your faith level we hear a lot and we're intrigued with prophecy we're intrigued we hear a lot there's probably not a day goes by that someone doesn't send me a clip of some one prophesying for telling the things that are to be flawless as the ages are ending i want you to know tonight from the bottom of my heart that i don't want this message tonight to be a message of gloom doom despair i don't want this message i don't want you god knows that you face enough negative news in the world without coming to church and feeling like well the message was negative it was negative i promise you tonight the intent of your pastor's heart and what i have prayed about for tonight is that i want us as a church congregation to be spiritually healthy as we see the clothes of this age i don't believe i have to convince us tonight this world not just our nation but this world is in a mess right i mean we all do could we all come to a an agreement tonight things are not getting better right things are not getting better and they won't they won't get better but the church is predestined for victory for glory and for heaven it's predestined for that but as we are living in the times that we're living now it's not mayberry anymore it's not walton's mountain anymore it's more like sodom and gomorrah it's more like the days of noah sound familiar so in this time what do we need to know do we need to know prophecy yes yes sir and yes ma'am we do do we need to know what the signs of the end of time are absolutely we need to know this but we also equally could you say equally equally we need to know what it's going to take to get us through the era that we're living in and that my friend is faith faith we read tonight that faith is not an optional thing it's not an optional thing we read in verse six that without faith it is not difficult it didn't say what it didn't say without faith it's difficult to please god it said without faith it is impossible to please god it's impossible then he went on to say that he that cometh to god must believe that he is and that's the elementary of walking with god that's the very elementary of walking with god he that cometh to god must believe that he is see that word believe and the scripture i'm about to quote has been horribly misapplied it has been applied as the start and the finish of salvation but i believe with all my heart in this passage of scripture believe thou upon the lord jesus christ and thou shall be saved i believe that with all my heart but what i don't believe about that scripture is that that scripture is both the beginning and the end believing is the seed that matures into what is called faith believing is the seed that matures and we all started with that seed of believing upon the lord jesus christ we all started that small seed that was dropped into our heart but then it goes on he that cometh to god must believe that he is and that he is a what can you help me what is he he is a rewarder of them that diligently sounds like he's talking about folks that come to church on wednesday night sounds like he's talking about folks that come up around the altar and pray and seek god they that diligently seek him now jesus spoke of the end of time in luke chapter 18 and verse number eight he spoke of the end of time and he says in luke 18 and verse 8 he says i tell you that he will avenge them speedily talking about god answering prayer nevertheless when the son of man cometh shall he find faith on the earth of course the he's talking about a woman in a very difficult time an unjust judge that feared not god nor man and this woman kept coming day in and day out and saying avenge me and of course he uses this here to say that god will avenge us god will answer our prayer but then he simply left us with this nevertheless when the son of man cometh shall he find faith on the earth and that's a question mark i'd like to answer it tonight i'd like to answer it on behalf of kenneth ray carpenter and i'd like to answer it and give you an opportunity to answer it lord i believe lord i believe lord i believe god it's a difficult time but god i want you to know that i believe it's perilous times it's perilous times it's perilous times but god i believe it's perilous times you know there's those sitting here tonight in this congregation that you were first introduced to this scripture when there was war outside of the borders of our country and we were drawn to the altar when we would hear things such as russia moving and all of this and wars and rumors of wars it stirred us up but now it's perilous times it's perilous times in our town it's perilous times it's perilous times in our world shall he find faith lord i believe lord i believe i believe you know i've read and studied that there are two times i'm glad to know this i'm glad that the lord put this in the scripture for us but do you know that satan does not have automatic access to you unless you let him unless you let him there's only two ways the enemy can have access to your life is number one you let him in or number two god brings down the hedge that he has around you and allows him to come in please tonight listen to this the devil doesn't even have the keys to his own house when jesus christ died and rose again he stripped satan of the keys of death hell and the grave satan doesn't even have the keys to his own house church hear me tonight if satan doesn't have the keys to his own house don't you give him the keys to your house don't you give him access to your own house tonight don't let him come in through music don't let him come in through entertainment don't let him don't give him the key to your house two times in the bible satan had to go before the lord and ask for permission we know of the first time was in the book of job satan asked for permission and he said the only way i can get a hold of job is for you to let down the hedge isn't it beautiful tonight that god has a hedge around his children isn't it beautiful tonight that that that that god has a a hedge you know why he has a hedge around us because he loves us you protect what you value you protect what you love god has a hedge around you and i the enemy the enemy cannot get in that hedge unless god is going to allow the enemy to test us that's the only way he said you gotta let me in gotta you gotta hedge around him and god said all right satan i'll let the hedge down and let you go in well there was a there was a second time that i've read that satan came to god and asked for permission it had to do with simon peter it had to do with simon peter and uh evidently in the spirit world in the spirit world sister nelson in the spirit world satan came to jesus and he said jesus he said i desire to sift peter like wheat and i i would imagine although although it's not written i would imagine the old the old foot used the same way of presenting it why jesus if you'll let me sift him like wheat he'll probably turn around and get his rod and reel in his boat and never preach never never never never praise you again let me sift him like wheat you know now sifted wheat is when they take wheat and they beat it against a rock they beat it against the rock until they break the hull that has the kernel that makes the bread in other words i want to tear simon peter apart i want to find out what's in him i want you to see he's empty he's an empty shell i want to i want to see what is i want to see what is in him and so the lord granted him permission but then the lord the lord kind of gave simon peter a heads up luke 22 verse 31 luke 22 and verse 31 and the lord said simon simon you've heard me teach this before anytime there's a double word used it's to get your attention simon simon listen to me simon simon pay attention behold satan hath desire to have you that he may sip you as wheat but i have prayed for thee that thy what that thy faith fail not oh can i tell you what's going to see you through when hell breaks out against you it's going to be your faith he said when satan told me that he wanted to have you to sift you like weak he said peter i started praying for you and i am praying that your faith level doesn't run out always keep the faith i don't care how low you get knocked down i don't care how far you get set back you got to always keep your faith it'll be your faith that'll cause you to come back up again it'll be your faith that in the midst of disaster the midst of moral failure it'll be your faith that bounces back up that says i i'm still in this race can i tell you that one of the toys one of the toys i remember playing with is not only the marbles that my sister and my brother-in-law's been finding at the house someone said i'm glad you're getting your marbles back i am too all right but one of my favorite christmas toys i can remember playing with was a a little fella called bobo the clown bobo the clown bobo the clown was a little inflatable toy and when you blew bobo the clown up he kind of wobbled like this right here well being a typical boy i like to wrestle with bobo because back then and wrestling was something maybe some of you remember um wrestling with don and ron wright anybody here remember wrestling with remember yeah i figured you would remember i figured that yeah oh that's right i figured you yeah i figured that i figured that yeah so we were all wrestling we were all wrestling and i get a hold i i get a whole sister so i'd get a hold of bobo and i'd wrestle bobo to the ground and i'd hold bobo the ground i think jerry would count him out one two three and i'd get up with a little we used to we we used to have we our batman capes were were bath towels we'd tie around our neck and i'd get out and i would i'd i'd do this right here only to look back and see old mobile had come back up you know why bobo would always come back up he was designed to come back up you see mattel the tory factory had put a little sand in his bottom in the bottom there and you could hold bobo down to the ground you could count him out a hundred times but when you got back up bobo got back up and i thought god i want to be just like bobo i may get knocked down i may get held back i may get held down i may be underwater i may have all kind of situations around me but you listen to me i am gonna bounce back up brother copeland i am going to come back up i might have gotten knocked down but i'm not knocked out come on how many want faith tonight will you give him some praise right now i want to have faith i'm praying for you that your faith will not your mate can leave you but don't let your faith leave you your kids can walk out on you but don't let your faith leave you your job can lay you off but don't let your faith leave you your health can leave you but don't let your faith mighty god somebody help me tonight you gotta keep your faith oh i wish somebody shout like it's sunday night you maybe see heather you remain standing now i'm going to tell you something right now heather maybe i ought to come down and ask you before i do this because anytime i brag on somebody in jesus satan's going to work overtime to try to steal your testimony but do you know why heather's made her way back oh the church has loved her yes but that's not the main reason heather made her way back you know why she made her way back faith faith somewhere in the midst of all of her life somewhere in the years of searching for answers and finding this is not the answer this lifestyle is not the answer somewhere in all of those dark low places that you went sister heather there was a little bit of bogo the clown faith that said she's gonna come back up she's gonna rise back up she's gonna walk back in that's why satan wants to rob you of your faith because listen he can put you on a bar stool he can put you in a prison but he knows as long as you got a little faith you're gonna bounce back up because that's what we need oh is somebody help me right now come on i wish somebody help me right now oh you are going to come back up rejoice not against me oh my enemy when i fall for i shall arise because i've got faith in my heart hallelujah oh how about you and you know what he said brother carpenter i know of people that believed it all the way to the end good they died in the faith and if you're ever going to die for god's sake die in the faith if you're ever going to die if you listen if this sickness takes you on to glory then die with your last breath die with your last moment of being conscious saying i praise your name lord i magnify your die with that faith please understand tonight that we are flawed people serving a perfect god please don't act like you got that turned around we are flawed people see don't ever think because you've got faith means you've got perfection you do not have perfection just because you have faith you can have faith and still be flawed but aren't you thankful that a perfect god is willing to work with a flawed people flawed romans 14 23 this is how important faith is is how important faith is romans 14 23 and he that doubteth is damned if he eat now he's talking about a great division of whether it was permissible by god to eat meat or not paul comes around and says if you have doubt he that doubteth is damned if he eat because he eateth not of faith for whatsoever are y'all listening for whatsoever is not of faith is sin man i have repented of a lot of things but how many of us tonight put your feet out just a little bit please i want to step on them as i step on mine how many of us have repented for the sin of worrying fretting worried worried what if this happens worried what if this false worry you know the bible simply tells me that anything that's not of faith is sin god forgive me of fretting god forgive me of looking at the forecast of my life and fretting and worried things are not going to turn out the way they're going to turn out you see on this faith walk that we've got things don't always look like the promise that god gave us anything that's not of faith is sin lord forgive me and i i'm i'm as serious as i can be right now but god i want you to forgive me that i have ever and i do and and you do too you just don't have the might that we allow ourselves to slip from a world that god has his hand upon us that we are god's children into a place to where i begin to think that i'm out here all alone and and god i'm concerned about this or that again tonight god works with flawed people abram abraham who lived 175 years but for about 95 years of his 175 years he was known as abram he was known as abram now this man abram who would later become abraham which would later we would call him the father of the faithful why because abram is really the one that blazed the trail for the faith ministry abram was a pioneer he was the daniel boone he was the wright brothers of faith you see the bible tells us that abraham or abram lived in a city called er of the chaldees it is today what we know is modern day iraq is where he lived he lived maybe 75 miles from where they built the tower of babel he lived in an area that were with some by archaeologists uh is some of the earliest signs of cities and libraries and the culture we find more about there's more known about the culture of abram what he grew up in that is that than any other person archaeologists have found that it was a very educated place er was a very educated place but also er was an extremely sinful city they worship many gods the first being the moon they worship the moon they worship the father of the night they worshipped the moon and then as they worshipped the moon they also worshipped the fire they saw fire as a deity to be worshiped and of course as we look in the bible we find that any time man begins to worship anything other than the one true creator he goes down a road of just sinful acts as a matter of fact their acts in worship even how they worship their moon god and their fire god and their many gods involved sexual activities in their open temples there at ur they they served many many different gods as a matter of fact the name abram means means the father now don't get excited to think that he was named after god he wasn't named after god he was named after the fire god that's what he was named after abra abram was as far away from the one true god than anyone could ever be but a day came a day came when abram heard the voice of god whether audibly i don't know or maybe just like he speaks to most of us right here he heard the voice of god say abram leave er of chaldee leave your father's house leave this land and your kindred and go to a land that i will give you and i will bless you and i will make your name great and in you abram shall all the families of the earth be blessed let me show you two things that's in the dna of faith there's two things that are in the dna of faith you can't have faith without it a command from god and an obedience from man two things that are in the dna of faith god gives a command and you believe the command and you act upon the command god said here it is abram leave this place i want to bring you out of er of caldes i want to you to remove yourself from your father's house and from your kindred and go into a place i'll show you now watch this now and i will make you can i tell you this evening that god wants to bring us first out of sin before he begins to make us a blessing he will never make you a blessing while you're still in your sin he has to remove you from the land of earth he has to see if you have faith and if you have faith as abram had the two the dna the ingredient the faith is a command from god and an obedience from man i'm a firm believer there's a lot of people that'll say well i just don't believe that mess i just don't i'm struggling with this and they want to say i'm struggling with understanding they're not struggling understanding they're struggling with faith that's what they're struggling with but now remember we serve a perfect god and i wouldn't care if you kind of feel you kind of follow along we serve a perfect god and we are a lot of people how is this look with me to genesis chapter 12 and verse 1 for just a moment genesis chapter 12 and verse 1 would you say praise the lord now the lord had said unto abram get thee out of thy country from thy kindred from thy father's house and to a land that i will show thee i will make of thee a great nation i will bless thee and make thy name great thou shalt be a blessing and i will bless them that bless thee curse him that curseth thee and in thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed could you see if you notice something here in the early part of this verse now the lord had said you understand it this is not the first time god said this for the lord you see this for the lord had said it it means he had already said this before well where did he say it at well let's go back to genesis chapter 11 and verse number 31 genesis 11 31 and terah took abram his son and lot the son of haran his son's son and syria his daughter-in-law his son abram's wife and they went forth with them from er of the chaldees to go into the land of canaan and they came into heroin and dwelt there and the days of terror were 205 years and terah died in heroin now wait a minute haron is about 400 and those of you who google this you you i might miss it by a couple hundred miles but haron is about two four hundred miles from earth it is almost to canaan but not quite but now i wanna i want you to think with me tonight brother after i thought god said to abram get out of this land get into the land that i will show you i will make of you what in the world is the whole family doing with abram what is that this this was something that i gave great study to i i i really looked at this and when you understand the dynamics of the culture and of the day you find that the father of a family was really like a tribal leader he was really like a tribal leader it gives more more meaning to the word firstborn because the firstborn son really came into power when the father died he became the replacement of the tribal leader so more than likely when god spoke to abram and remember we serve a perfect god but we're flawed people and god said to abram get out of this place and from your father's house and go to the lamb that abram shared it with his father he shared it with terah his father he told terah that a god had spoke to him now these are a matter of fact brother claiborne mentioned it today that that at the times of ignorance god winked at it god winked at it you know why god winks at it because god understands we're flawed and it is possible to be developing faith and to be flawed at the same time see some of us that have given up on living for god because we believe in sinless perfection and we don't even try because we're flawed i've come to offer you some hope tonight god even works with us when we're flawed i see abraham abram going to his father and saying father a god spoke to me and a god said leave your kindred leave this place go to the land go go to this land that i will tell you of and i can see er i can see tira saying let's go tera goes lot goes and tira and lot are both not in god's perfect plan it is possible and probable that when you come out of the world you do not come out in perfect obedience to god it's not that you purposely mean it you just don't know that tera wasn't supposed to go you just don't know that lot wasn't supposed to go you just didn't really understand and so they traveled about they traveled about 400 miles give or take a few and there they stopped why did they stop possibly because tyra t tyra was up in age terah may have been tired of traveling and they stop there please tonight whether you've been in the church two weeks you've been baptized two weeks or you've been in the church 50 years please don't stop because all along your journey in life you're going to need this thing called faith our youth need faith to come out and break peer pressure god knows our youth is facing the pressure there has never been listen there has never been a generation with the opportunities and the pressure to sin like this generation if our youth have ever needed faith mighty jesus of heaven they need our faith they need the faith of god to be able to stand strong but not only that our elderly and i know we live in a world that cast a light oh you're not supposed to say elderly you're not supposed to say older people that's our culture but our because our culture is devaluing our elders but i'm going to tell you something it's a blessing to have a wrinkle on your face if it be found in the ways of god see what i mean there's a blessing if you've got some wrinkles on your face i know the world is telling you you need to do everything you can to erase these wrinkles but i'm going to tell you something if your wrinkles can be found in the way of holiness that is a good thing but do you know just like our young people that are not here tonight many of them need faith our elderly in this church whose health is failing and bodies are failing satan listen he doesn't care if you're 19 or 99 he'd like to take you to hell he'd like to creep into your bedroom at night at a 17 year old and have you look at something on the internet that you ought not to look at and damn your soul or he'd like to creep in the window in the nursing home and tell you there is no god god wouldn't let you suffer like this so our young people need faith and our elderly need faith tonight we've got to have the faith to make it all the way home the bible says and terah died in the bible names have meanings and sometimes we can really get a good picture of what god is trying to tell us through names it was never god's will for terah to go and it sure wasn't god's will for them to stop in between er and canaan but terah died would you like for me to tell you what the name tira means tira means delay that's what it means in the hebrew delay there are tiras all over this room tonight there are tears watching on the internet tonight what do you mean by that they have put their walk with god on paws and they're delaying when i get a little older when things get a little different when this happens and that happens can i tell you it's about time for tyra to die we need to have a death of terah you need to get back in the race you need to get your prayer life back you need to get the joy back in your salvation you you you need to allow tyra to die go ahead and bury him let tira die because right after terror dies that chapter ends and then the bible says now the lord had said unto abram get you out of this in other you know what god is saying get back in the race get back in this thing you know that it's right you know that it's real you you know this is right come on get back in would you please would you please get back in would you stand with me tonight some of you got hurt and you got infected and can i tell you what the name of your infection is delay going to get out of the choir for a little bit gonna turn my sunday school book in for a little bit just gonna sit back for a little bit can i tell you put some antibiotics on that wound put some antibiotics on that wound get back in the race come on your salvation your salvation needs it um we're hanging the steel beams here and the company was here putting them up and i was watching and all of a sudden i heard the workers start hollering and they were bandaging they were bandaging a young man's hand up a young steel worker had reached his hand up over there was a razor point on one of the pieces that were going up and that young man sister jeter he sliced his entire hand open he's bleeding profusely and they wrapped his hand up and as i stood there with him for a moment and he he he spoke a little english but mainly spanish and i was praying but the last thing that boy said to me he said i'm hurt but i'll be back and i stood there and i thought i'd like to put that in a message i'm hurt but i'll be back and we've all been hurt but we all need to come back i'm hurt listen folks the lord's about to come let's let tyra die let's let it die be obedient to the word tonight lift your hands up right now be obedient to the word the word says open your mouth and make a joyful noise to the lord begin to praise him right now that's right listen to that lord listen to that lord that's the sound of obedience right now lord that's a that's a sound of obedience tonight lord listen to your people god listen to your people lord they they heard their pastor say the word open your mouth and let the praise come out and they're doing it right now lord oh mighty god mighty god mighty god mighty god oh lord touch our minds tonight lord lord help us to develop that dna of faith help us lord to understand we can't please you without faith help us lord to understand that satan wants to knock the faith out of us help us god to have faith that we are going to get back up the days are going to change the climate is going to change i am going to be the head and not the tail i am going to be above and not beneath i am going to be more than a conqueror please lord let the people receive this word tonight in jesus name we pray amen and amen would you give the lord a hand of praise tonight hey thank you all for coming out tonight may the lord bless you real good you