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[upbeat music]

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In touch with Dr. Charles Stanley

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Reaching the world with the gospel of Jesus Christ

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through sound biblical teaching

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Next on In Touch,

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Levels of Faith in the Life of the believer

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When you face difficulties and trials

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and hardships in life,

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how do you respond? Do you respond

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with doubt and fear and anxiety and fretting

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or do you respond by faith?

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And if you respond by faith, what level of faith?

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You say what do you mean by "What level of faith?"

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That's right, what level of faith?

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You say, "Well, how do you know what these levels are?"

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Well we're going to talk about it.

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How do you distinguish one from the other?

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What does it mean in my life?

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How does it affect my life?

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Speaking of levels of faith, well we all operate

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on one of three levels of faith.

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And the older we are the more faith we ought to have

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That's how we ought to go in our faith.

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But some people will stay all of their lives on the lowest level because

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Number one, maybe they don't even know that there are levels of faith.

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Secondly, too afraid to launch out. Too

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fearful to trust God. And so what happens is

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you go through life and you miss His best

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because you never grow in your faith.

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And that's what I am going to talk 
about in this message, and that is the

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levels of faith in the life 
of the believer.

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And it is very evident in scripture 
that faith is very, very important

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in the eyes of God, and that He sees

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faith as very important in our life.

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And so, what we want to talk 
about in this message

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is this: How to raise your faith level.

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How to get in a position, where you and 
your relationship to God, or

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the way you trust Him will position you, listen,
to be blessed to the maximum

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of your potential because

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the way you trust Him determines 
the way the blessings come.

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You don't trust Him? You 
don't get blessed.

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You trust Him? You get blessed.

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And the more you trust Him, and 
the way that you are able

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walk in these levels of faith,

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the greater the blessings that 
come in your way.

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Think about how absolutely 
essential and important faith is.

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And let's think about it in this light:

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If you look at the life of Jesus, 
look at His ministry,

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here is what you discover. You discover

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that the theme of faith permeated 
the whole ministry

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of Jesus. No matter what.

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And I want to give you a few 
verses of scripture ...

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Now, I won't have you turn to all
of these because

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I have enough of them for you to turn to.

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But I want you to think about some 
of these verses for example,

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you find in the scriptures concerning

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His healing ministry. Listen to what

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He is continually saying, when He's 
confronting people,

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whether they are paralyzed, whether they are blind,

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or whatever the situation may be.

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Listen, for example, in Matthew 9

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He says to this lady, "Daughter, your 
faith has made you well."

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Then in Matthew 15, "O woman, your 
faith is great;

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be it done unto you as you wish."

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And in the second chapter of Mark. When 
these fellas are

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tearing up the roof of this man's house and letting

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their friend down by ropes,

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so they could finally get to Jesus 
and be healed,

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Jesus said to them seeing their faith,

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"Son, your sins are forgiven.

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Then he says in Mark 10 to the blind beggar,

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"Go your way, your faith has made you whole."

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And again He says, your faith has saved you. Receive

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your sight. Your faith has made you well.

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Be it done unto you according to your faith.

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All through the gospels, Matthew, Mark,

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and Luke especially, what you find

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is Jesus- the theme of his relationship

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to this people, this needy people,

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who have a health problem,
whatever it might be

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it's always, listen, based on their faith.

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Remember he said on one occasion?

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He couldn't do any miracles in a particular place because of their unbelief.

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They didn't have any faith. They wouldn't trust Him.

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And often times, you and I miss out on God's best blessings

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because we won't trust Him.

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We don't believe that He loves us.

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We don't believe that he will provide our needs. We don't

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believe that He will heal us. We don't believe

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that He cares that much for us.

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But if you look at His ministry, what 
was he continually saying?

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It was, listen, it was trust Him. Faith, faith, faith, faith, faith.

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So if that's true in His ministry in His day,

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if it was so important that he magnified the subject of faith,

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nothing's changed. Because, you see, in our lifestyle

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in our life times, in the culture in which we live,

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It makes no difference in what generation or what culture

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Faith permeates every aspect of our life.