"When the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth?" Those are the words of Jesus Christ in Luke 18:8. And it makes you wonder, this phrase makes me wonder. I wondered, is that a prophecy? Is it saying that when Christ comes He might not find faith on the earth? In some ways, it might be kind of scary saying that the church of God might be lacking faith, that I might be found lacking faith if I'm here when Christ returns. If or when the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth? Can we take that as a warning that our own faith unbeknownst to us might actually be insufficient?

I want to tell a little story about many years ago on Facebook, which I don't do a lot with Facebook anymore, but one thing, it went through kind of an evolution, if you've been on Facebook for a while, where, I mean, we just accepted friend request willy-nilly, no consequences. Just, you know, didn't matter if they're from other countries, especially if they're friends with anybody else that we know from the church of God circles.

And I remember taking many such friend requests of that type, several of them from people in Africa that just seemed too eager to connect with their brethren in the church. You do have to watch out, though, as we've all learned for spammers and scammers, and people that, you know, they start asking for money, and it's gotten very bad.

But there was one of these gentlemen who seemed very sincere that I spoke with at that time, man from Africa. And we just started up a conversation about faith and some of the struggles he face in his country, struggles I face, different things. It was pretty wonderful, pretty wonderful. Seems like those kind of interactions are more rare now on Facebook than they were in that time when that was kind of new.

But one of the interesting things he talked about was a struggle of faith that you and I don't have much experience with. And he wrote to me and he told me about how people in his country, not necessarily in the church, but people just, by and large, would pray and pray and pray to God for rain because they had been in a terrible drought for a long time. They didn't have kind of the access to those branches of the supply chain to make up for things like that. They depended on local production. They would pray for rain, and it wasn't raining. And it kept going. This year didn't get the rain again, year after year. And people would lose faith in God, whatever faith they had, thinking, "God doesn't care about us, or maybe there's not a God. We're asking for rain and it's not coming. People living on a very thin margin like that, I mean, they risk dying. They were starving to death in conditions like that. It's very serious.

Droughts can cause doubts. They've always happened, but now I think we've come to a situation in modern society... I mean, you know, you've seen the news we are in major droughts in many different parts of the world, including the United States. And the big difference, even though there's been droughts all throughout history in various places, is that now we have millions and millions of people living in these areas that really can't support them when you come to one of these droughts. The American Southwest that's in I think 42% of the U.S. is under moderate to exceptional drought.

I mean, we've got whole cities, massive populations living in what is otherwise a desert siphoning off from these reservoirs that are at historic lows. They said it's the worst drought in 1200 years. We've got our landmark, these famous rivers and lakes and reservoirs drying up, Lake Powell, Lake Mead, the Colorado River. People living there require record amounts of water, not just for daily use but for the agriculture that takes place that feeds them, and for the livestock that also feeds them, and all these things.

I mean, it's just one more hammer to the world that we've had in the last few years. And again, it's not just the U.S., it's also taking place in China. What's happening there has been described as the worst drought anywhere on record in terms of the number of people affected, the size of the area, the extreme temperatures they're experiencing, very bad situation.

And what's happening through all of this, you know, they're facing a very real crunch on their ability to produce. Their factories are being shut down because they don't have enough electricity. They rely on hydroelectric power for a lot of their electricity. They also have a higher demand for air conditioners because of the number of people and the extreme heat that's going on, so it's slowing down production. There goes another poor supply chain. It's like every time I speak, like, something else has happened to the supply chain that's just crushing it. I would feel very bad if I was the supply chain this year.

In Europe, experts are saying the drought in Europe could become the worst in 500 years, so another record drought there. The Rhine River in Germany has fallen to levels too low for the thriving dinner cruise industry that's taken root there. People can't get their nice pleasant cruise down the Rhine because the water level is too low for the ships to pass, but guess what? Ships transporting raw materials for factories also can't pass. That's a major route. So, again, just more and more disruption, more and more.

And on top of that, you've got crop failure taking hold in various places. In France, about half the corn crop, last time I checked, is going to be unsuitable for human consumption because of the drought going on. They've got these very ominous hunger stones that are being revealed as the rivers recede. And doesn't that sound bad, a hunger stone, like you're going to be hungry after you see it? And people have known this for a long time, whenever there's a bad drought and the river levels get low enough and you see that rock, were in trouble. So, what they do is they would write the year on it. So, you know, some of these, they haven't been revealed for hundreds of years. And they can see the inscriptions like, oh, wow, yeah, we're in a bad one. We're in a bad one.

All of this is happening. We can really see how the world is teetering on the edge of disaster more and more, where we've got the suspension of modern comforts down to things that are very life-threatening going on in the world today. It all has a very prophetic feel to it. We wonder, especially with this happening in Europe, is this something that's going to drive European nations together and be one more kind of catalyst for the rise of the beast power? The realignment of power we know is coming in Europe that will most likely be led by Germany, as we understand. Could be the beginning of a puzzle piece like that.

And we know that droughts are a precursor to famine. This is one of the things that the alarm has been sounded on for almost a year now that we are headed for a famine. We got fertilizer shortages, all the many things. And here we are with these awful droughts. They're talking about these bad famines before the droughts really were making the news the way they are. So, what's happening now? Well, here's the fact, whether by drought or other factors, we know that there are going to be unprecedented famines before the return of Christ. That's something that's promised, one of the four horsemen.

Also, there will specifically be droughts because when the two witnesses begin their ministry, they're given the power to shut up heaven so that it doesn't rain in the days of their ministry. There are going to be droughts. Doesn't seem like we're in the big one just yet. We haven't seen the two witnesses. There are also many other things that haven't happened yet, but it does make us start to feel like we ought to be prepared.

Now physical preparations, we talk about from time to time, those are a matter of just earthly wisdom. Honestly, we can have a bad tornado any day of the week and you might be without electricity for a few days, without running water. It's good to have a supply of things on hand, emergency food for a few days, whatever it is. You know, those kind of things happen in all parts of the world periodically. That's just normal. It's good, though, not to overdo that physical preparation to the point where we're trusting in it. God warns us very specifically against that. Our trust is not in the flesh or in the physical, our trust is in God.

So, that brings us to the other way that we can and must prepare. The way that you can never over-prepare is to spiritually prepare. Our spiritual preparations for famines and droughts and whatever may come is absolutely paramount. What we need is the kind of faith in God that can endure even through very intense and very prolonged trials, if necessary.

So, today, I'd like to talk about what does that kind of faith look like? The kind of faith that can endure a terrible drought and famine, what does that look like? How can I make sure that I have enough faith so that when Christ returns, He will find faith on the earth? We can answer that in the affirmative. This is something that relates to...we talked about during baptism counseling. So, for those that I've counseled in baptism or talked with those things about faith is one of the cornerstones of what it takes to have a relationship with God. For many of us, it might have been a very long time since we've gone over those fundamentals of what faith are, so it's good to remember. Turn with me to Hebrews 11, and we'll get started. Hebrews 11, of course, is known as the "Heroes of Faith" chapter or the "Faith" chapter. And it teaches us a lot in a very short span. We'll start in verse 1, and begin reading. Now verse 1 is for many people a memory scripture. It can be a little bit opaque I think, so we're going to break it down.

Hebrews 11:1 It says "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen."

I think for me those words always just seem very mysterious. You know, what do you mean it's the evidence of things not seen? Like, my faith is evidence that there is a God, like, because I believe? Is that what it's saying? And actually, no, no, that's not what it's saying. "Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." The word evidence there, the other translations put that as being conviction of things not seen. It's being convinced that they're there, even though we don't see them.

So much of what God has done through all of history is unseen to us. There are forces like the force of gravity. We can see its effects but we don't see gravity. It'd be kind of weird if we did. Wonder what it would look like. So much of what God has done since creation is unseen. In fact, if we get down to it, the entirety of the events of the Word of God are unseen to me and you. We heard about that in the sermonette, you know, blessed are we if we have not seen and yet believe. We have witnessed testimony that is reliable, we can test it and understand it, but ultimately, it comes down to an exercise of faith if we're going to believe the Word of God or not.

Verse 2, so we're learning about faith. Faith is some kind of conviction of things not seen, right? It's a belief, right? That's the sense we're getting out there. Faith involves belief. You already knew that, I know. But we're going to parcel it out and we'll get to a more concrete working definition of faith as we go. Faith involves belief.

Hebrews 11:2 "For by it," that is by faith, "the elders obtained a good testimony."

In this chapter, if you've read it before, you know it's got a lot of examples of people doing things by faith, acting out their faith in their life by obeying God even through difficult circumstances, and there's examples of all the different things they've done. So, by faith, a person can obtain a good testimony. Faith, if it's going to result in a good testimony, it's because not just a person believes but they are doing something as a result of their belief. You don't really get a good testimony just from sitting around thinking good thoughts. That doesn't get you anywhere really. It doesn't move you in any direction. Faith, therefore, is going to involve actions. Specifically, it's got to be a willingness to act on the things we feel convicted about. It's fundamental to faith.

Hebrews 11:3 "By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the Word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible."

Okay, so verse 3 gets kind of interesting. What we're getting told here is a specific article of faith. In other words, this is something non-negotiable that you and I have to believe if we're going to say we have faith in the God of the Bible. We can't bend on this. By faith we understand. So, if we don't understand this, it's really not faith. "By faith we understand the worlds were framed by the Word of God." That all this visible stuff was made out of invisible stuff, that it came to be through the Words of God. In the beginning, He said, "Let there be light."

I mean, there's a big, big challenge to that in the world today, isn't there? We know our young people face that at schools, many of us face that in college. We might face it from coworkers, people we talk with, just because somebody is pushing us and pushing us and pushing us to accept a secular narrative on those things. They're not more informed than the Bible. In fact, they're totally the wrong way. Atheism has become in its own right a false religion that evangelizes harder than anybody. Really, these evangelical atheists, I like to call them in my mind, they've very fervently done so under the guise of public education. They've more or less taken over the enterprise, not the starship.

And they spread absolute foolishness on these things about, you know, well, there's always been matter, there's always been energy, these things are eternal. And they kind of miss the connection that, oh, so you're saying that something has always existed. And the concept of existence loses its meaningness, and it's a lot of confusion that they get themselves in, but they prop it up in a very intellectual style to make us feel like they know better than us, and they don't. They're not speaking according to the Word of God. They just don't.

And thankfully, there's a lot of scientists today that are pushing back against that, that are speaking out. And sometimes having awful repercussions for their jobs for it depending on where they're employed. And they're sharing how their study of science strengthens their belief in a creator, how it supports a belief in a creator, whereas many will ignore whatever in their discipline would support the existence of God.

One organization that does a really great job of that that I've been tapped into for a while, I wanted to share just in case you're interested or want a good resource. They have a weekly newsletter. It's called the Discovery Institute. They do very good work, the Discovery Institute, about kind of that age-old argument between science and religion, are they incompatible? You know, and is there a creator? Does the evidence point to a creator or not? They do a very good job answering in the affirmative that there is a creator.

Hebrews 11:6 Talking about faith. "Without faith, it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him."

Did you notice the word must? More things that are non-negotiable here. We must do these two things, at least. We must believe that God is. In other words, the belief that there is a creator is non-negotiable. If we don't have that, we don't have faith, and none of the good things promised in the Bible can apply to us if we don't believe that. We also have to believe that He's a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. As part of believing that God is good, it's part of understanding that God has a law that's for our good and that it's something that has to be sought out and sought after.

In other words, the faith that leads to salvation requires certain beliefs about God, not just any belief will do. People can have faith in a whole lot of nonsense and falsehood. And so they do very often. This is a belief in the truth. God's truth is objective reality. It's not based on any one person's individual feelings or experience of what is true or what's not. People want to talk all the time around this in the world. This is the way of the world today. It's creeping in more and more to say that, "Well, I have my truth, I'm going to live my truth, speak my truth," as though they have a truth, you have a truth. We can have separate truths and they're both equally valid. Well, no, no, there is a truth with God.

If we're going to...not to walk that back, but to give perspective, yeah, everybody does have their own valid lived experience, okay? And it's good for us to be compassionate towards people, to listen patiently to people about the hardships that they've had, to try to understand the best we can where they're coming from, not to be presumptuous to think that we can, in our minds, reduce a whole person's life experience down to something that I can understand easily. But we have to also be grounded in the reality that there's only one truth, there's not multiple contradictory forms of truth. God, the Father, is the one that actually knows the one truth in all its fullness. And through His Spirit, He reveals certain facts and things about that to us through His Word and His Spirit. And very thankfully, God has given all judgment of that one truth, the objective reality. He's given that judgment to Jesus Christ, and He judges perfectly by the perfect standards of God's righteousness.

It's an amazing fact that you and I cannot even understand or perceive the truth of God unless He has first opened our eyes to it. That's a humbling thing. And every one of us is blessed in that very special way. We've been called to the truth. In fact, very often, within the church of God, people don't ask, how did you come into the church? We ask, how did you come into the truth? I always like hearing it that way.

One older gentleman asked me in a certain way, he said, "When did you first receive these truths?" Sounded kind of poetic, I thought. I like that. You know, actually, just reading through the Psalms very recently, I always thought that was just kind of what we call church speak, you know, things that we say that aren't really in the Bible, we kind of made them up and they sound good. No, no, no. If you read through the Psalms, I was reading through maybe starting in Psalm 60, through 70-something, somewhere in that number, I saw over and over again, David talks about, "We walk in the truth. God's mercy and truth follow Him." There's an emphasis on the truth in the pages of Scripture and were well founded in asking people, how did you come into the truth? You cannot have the faith described in the Bible without being founded and grounded in certain revealed truths of God. That's just a fact.

And the church of God consists of those that God has revealed that truth to by His indwelling Spirit that He's put in us. He's called His Spirit to dwell in us so that He may guide us into all truth. That's a fundamental thing that we understand about the action of the Spirit. And it happens a little bit at a time, and much of that work is left undone, even by the time we finish our race because we're imperfect. We are only capable of so much.

You know, as an organization, the United Church of God, we do our best to codify what we have collectively understood by the Spirit as the revealed truth of God regarding the teachings of Scripture. We put that into our fundamental beliefs the best we can, we put that into our booklets the best we can. I put that in my sermons as best I can. You put that into your speech with others as best you can.

Believing in the truth. I have three things that are essential to faith. The very first one is believing in the truth. In my notes, I put in the truth in all caps. That way, I would know I needed to either yell it or tell you it was really important. Because it's not enough just to believe. You have to believe the right things. You have to believe in the truth of God. The second one, which we've also seen here in Hebrews 11, the second one is obedience to God's law. Belief in the truth is essential to faith, but secondly, obedience to God's law is also essential to faith.

For that, let's turn over to James 2, the Book right after Hebrews. James 2:18-20. In fact, this is probably the most poignant explanation of the difference between belief and faith that you can get, that can even be made. This is as good as it gets and it's powerful.

James 2:18-19 "Someone will say 'You have faith, and I have works.' Show me your faith without your works, and I'll show you my faith by my works." I mean, that's already a mic-drop moment right there, isn't it? It's like, "Okay, show me your faith that doesn't have any action behind it, I'll demonstrate my faith by my actions." That's powerful enough, but get this. Verse 19, "You believe there's one God." Okay, you've got to believe in the truth. "And you do well. Even the demons believe- and tremble!"

The demons, if you think about it, they believe in the truth of God. They believe in the one God completely. They don't deny His existence. They don't question over who He is. They even know enough to be afraid of God. "But do you want to know, O foolish man, that faith without works is dead?" You know, for demons, if they 100% know, no doubts, that God exists, that He created all things, that there's no other God, etc., they know what the will of God is, what's the difference? They just aren't willing to obey. Think about that. They know the will of God, they just aren't willing to obey it. Because they don't obey, their belief in the truth does them absolutely no good. They come up 100% empty and unfruitful. Even perfect belief without obedience, it does no good. "Faith without works is dead." You can't just know it, you've got to show it, and you've got to keep showing it. That's the third point.

You really have to continue steadfastly in faith. That's the third point that's essential to faith, it's continuing steadfastly because faith that is lost along the way, faith that is abandoned and left behind, well, that faith doesn't do any good at all. The only faith that will benefit a person is living faith, faith that is ongoing, faith that is growing.

Let's talk about how that happens. And really I want to divert for a few minutes on some things that get in the way, part of our own perspective. I think all of us, well, I can speak from my experience, I struggle with faith sometimes. I think we all struggle with faith sometimes. We wonder if we are lacking in faith, just like that verse.

Luke 18:8 says, "Will He really find faith on the earth?"

Well, if He's depending on me, I don't know if I'm doing good or not, God. How do I judge that? Let's talk about some situations, some questions we might ask ourselves that rattle around in our head that do not necessarily indicate a lack of faith. Number one, just taking action on our own as opposed to waiting on God, does that mean we're lacking faith? And think, "Well, I'm taking something into my own hands instead of waiting for God to work it out." Is that a lack of faith? Well, it can be, but that's a very nuanced question. Depends on what you mean. For example, if we break God's law because we're lacking faith or we're tired of waiting on God, we break His law in order to expedite something, yeah, that's lacking faith if we've... I mean, the pillars of faith are obedience and belief. So, if I stop obeying, I'm lacking faith because faith would have me obey.

Saul did that. One of his first, I mean, big problems as king, he had to go into a battle. He knew he needed God's blessing, he knew they needed a sacrifice, but they didn't have a priest, so he's looking around waiting for Samuel. And what does he do? Instead of waiting for God to work it out, he goes ahead and does the sacrifice. Problem with that is not that...I mean, wanting to sacrifice to God, that's a good thing after all, but God had been very specific in His law that only a priest was qualified to offer sacrifice. Saul swept that aside, thought, "Well, this is just what's got to get done to get God's blessing, and so I'm going to go ahead and do this, even though this is not the way God would want me to do it. It blew up in his face. Big mistake.

Here's a hypothetical that...Somebody actually posed this to me back. Many years ago, I was doing some private tutoring, and this gentleman, his family had been Jewish, they weren't religious at all by his generation. And he told me the story of why. This is a challenge I've heard come up in other ways from people. It's just a common scenario people like to challenge us with for whatever reason, I don't know why.

But this was how he put it. So, his grandfather was Jewish and he moved to this rural area where he didn't have anyone around, no support, and he was down to his last scraps of food. And he goes out and the only thing there, only thing he can find to eat is a pig, a big fat pig. And he looked up at God and he looked down at the pig. Of course, he slaughtered the pig and fed his family, and now the family is not Jewish anymore.

People have asked me that in other contexts. I thought it was a very interesting story just the way he told it because I've always thought it was just a hypothetical scenario people pose. I've heard people pose that and, you know, if that were the case, if we were starving, our family starving, what do you do? What folks like to do is put you down in a little box that you feel like you can't get out of, okay? If I really think about it, well, I mean, do I have neighbors? Where's the nearest person I can go and beg for food? Can I do something else to get out of this? Probably. You can just wait and see how God works it out. You ain't got to eat right then. Anyway.

Okay, so if we're breaking God's law to take a matter in our own hands, absolutely that's a lack of faith. No way to get around it. But the question to remind us, taking action on our own instead of waiting on God, does that mean we're lacking faith? Well, here's how not necessarily. If we are taking reasonable responsibility for what is in our power to control, that is not a lack of faith. That's why as fall approaches, you are not going to look up at your gutters and you're not just going to pray, God, I hope you clear out those gutters for me. I have faith that you are going to clean out those gutters and I won't have to lift a finger. You better get up there and clean your gutters. God makes you responsible for certain things, doesn't He? He does.

Another example, maybe this hits closer to home. A lot of times this comes up over medical issues, am I lacking faith by seeking treatment on this? Where do we draw the line on that? If I've got a broken arm and my arm is snapped in half, and it's the bloody bone sticking out, am I just going to pray that God puts this back right? I think God expects me to take reasonable action and at least put a cast on that thing and get the bloody nub back connected where it's supposed to go.

But we do this with our children. When Elena asks for something, right? If it's something that I know she can be responsible for on her own, sometimes I won't do it. I'll tell her "No, that's your responsibility. You need to put those shoes away. You can go get your own water bottle. It's right over there. You've got two legs."

Even when...I like that phrase. When Israel was crossing the Red Sea, right? They were stuck there at the edge of the sea, nothing they can do, and God did not pick them up and put them on the other side of the water. He opened a way. "You got two legs, walk." He didn't say it that way but it's true. Yes, we need to pray for the things only God can do, but we also have responsibility to do what we reasonably can for ourselves. With God, we always have to put in our part in the relationship. Most often, our parts really involves more than just believing and just asking. That's part of putting it in God's hands, but another part is also doing what we reasonably can to help our situation.

Faith means believing that God can do what we can't do, while also taking responsibility for what we can. Part of that is just humbly admitting our limits compared with God's greatness, knowing even that God's answer might be no, or not yet. We don't know what God is going to do in a lot of cases, but it's important that we believe that He can help. It's important we believe that He hears us.

Second question, sometimes get in the way of faith. What about, does this feeling inadequate, or feeling weak, or feeling worried, or feeling anxious about a big heavy situation, or even feeling depressed over what's going on around us, does that mean I'm lacking faith? Is anybody here afraid of flying? None in this room. I don't see any hands. Well, we all know how this goes. A lot of people do have a fear of flying. My dad was afraid of flying. He still would take a plane once in a while, but he didn't like it the whole way through. That's the thing. So many people do this. They know on paper it's the safest way that mankind has yet devised to travel, and they book their ticket, they purchase it, and they are kept up sweating at night because they know they're going to have to get on a plane in three weeks. And they get there and they're nervous the whole time they board. They're nervous while they're waiting to take off, they're nervous while they take off. They are nervous the whole time they're sitting in that seat, whether there's turbulence or not. They're nervous and anxious about it until they're on the ground. They exercise faith, faith that, yeah, I know this plane is going to make it through. They weren't comfortable with the situation, but they had faith.

Luke 12:50. This isn't just a nice analogy. It helps us understand, but it represents a reality that is even revealed through the person of Jesus Christ in His ministry. Luke 12:50. And this comes right in the middle of just a lot of Christ's teachings to His disciples. The guys really did not understand a lot of what Jesus said, especially anything concerning His death and resurrection. We know it was just that the blinders were kept on by God for that until after it happened. So, here in the middle of a bunch of other teachings, He bursts in talking about something that was clearly on His mind. It comes real quick, if you read through the whole section, but we'll just look at Luke 12:50.

Luke 12:50 It says, "I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how distressed I am until it's accomplished!"

What were the disciples thinking on that one? Like, "Guys, He was already baptized, remember? We already saw that happen. What's He talking about?" Of course, we know Jesus was talking about His death that was to take place. His baptism had pictured His death, and He actually had that death on the cross to go through. And look at how it affected our Savior. "How distressed I am until it is accomplished!" I mean, Jesus felt distressed. Yes, He did.

We might have read over, I know I've read over that many times without fully processing it there. We might imagine Jesus just waking up, getting out of bed every day, didn't have any aches or pains. He felt great and ready to face every day like He was not caring the world, smile in His face, pep in His step. He's sitting here telling us He's distressed and probably all the works of ministry that He did were a welcome distraction.

From the awful events that He knew were going to take place that He was really not looking forward to. I'm sure He woke up just feeling terrible looking at the things He knew were ahead that were coming and He couldn't stop it. He knew it was the right thing that He had to go through. He went on with His duty anyway. It's a perfect example for us to follow, in fact. We have that duty to obey God even when it's hard, inconvenient, distressing, or depressing, not just when everything is going great.

The key here is that Jesus Christ did not ever, ever, ever lack faith. That's not what is happening here when He is feeling distressed. That can only mean that to feel that way, whether we're feeling distressed, depressed, powerless, or distraught is not a lack of faith. It can represent a temptation to lack faith or to act against our faith. Maybe if we because we're feeling that distress want to do something wrong or whatever it is to get ourselves out of a situation that we're just ready to be out of. It can be a temptation that we choose not to act on. The feeling itself is not in any way simple or an indication that we're lacking faith. Those feelings are just part of the human condition. And Jesus Christ also wrestled with His humanity, and He overcame it. Just like He overcame the temptations of satan the devil, He overcame the weaknesses of the flesh by resisting the temptations His own body had against Him. It shows it's possible for us.

Turn to Luke 22:41. We see this in a little more depth when He actually gets to that point. I like to show that in Luke 12 because it shows how it was on His mind day-to-day even when He had a whole line of people to heal and a whole crowd of people to teach, it was there coming into His mind. Like, He couldn't stop it. We get that way sometimes when we're tested. Luke 22:41. Now this is where He's at the point. This is where the Passover Supper has ended. He knows Judas is out there about to come with a mob to betray Him and take Him over. This stuff is imminent. And look at how He's feeling.

Luke 22:41-42 "He was withdrawn from them about a stone's throw. He knelt down and prayed, saying, 'Father, if it's Your will, take this cup away from me; nevertheless not My will, but Yours.’"

I mean, He was in pretty bad shape. He's up all night praying because He obviously can't sleep knowing what's going on, didn't even try to, it seems like, and praying to God through it.

Luke 22:43 "An angel appeared to Him from heaven, strengthening Him."

You might think, "Well, that's nice, you know, Jesus just talk to angels sometimes." No, He was at a low point and He certainly needed to be strengthened, so God gave Him the help that He needed under exceptionally difficult circumstances because He needed it because He was feeling it, just like you and I feel it sometimes. Verse 44 puts it bluntly.

Luke 22:44 "Being in agony, He prayed more earnestly." He kept going to God about this whole night. "And His sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground."

His body was just betraying Him, you know. He knew He wanted to do the will of God and His body was just not cooperating with that in the moment. That's deeply uncomfortable, sounds like, physically, mentally, emotionally, all of it. But faith is what kept Jesus Christ doing the will of God, anyway, right up to the end. How do we get more faith? What does that even really mean? Turn with me back to Luke 18:8 now. This is the quote that I started with.

Luke 18:8 Christ says starting in the middle of the verse, "Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth?"

So, I was considering this passage, I went looked at the Greek there and found that there's actually a definite article with the word faith. It's not just faith, it's the faith or this faith, that's what the definite article is. Not just any faith, but the faith or this faith in Greek. And we can ponder that for a second, will He really find the faith on the earth? Does that question make sense? Might think, well, okay, not all faith is created equal. Certainly, there's going to be some kind of faith, there's going to be faith in falsehood, false doctrines, all this stuff, lies, and evil. Is He saying that...? Will He really find the faith on the earth? Like, will He really find the church of God being faithful?

Well, there's a problem with that view why it can't be that because Christ had already said that He had founded the church of God on this rock, the gates of Hades will not prevail against it. There was a promise from God that the church of God would be there, and here is a clue. It would not be the church of God if the people didn't have faith. "Without faith, it's impossible to please Him." It's all that in Hebrews.

So, it's not saying the faith. So, what about the other way? The definite article can go is it's saying, will He really find this faith? And that just begs the question, well, what faith? What faith is this faith? What's He referring to? You got to look at the context. So, we're going to go back and do that. At the beginning of 18:1.

Luke 18:1-5 "He spoke a parable to them, that men always ought to pray and not lose heart." Again, the only faith that matters is that that endures, continuing steadfastly in faith. So, here's a parable, so that "men always ought to pray and not lose heart. He said, 'There was, in a certain city a judge who did not fear God nor regard man. There was a widow in that city and she came to him saying, 'get justice for me for my adversary.' And he wouldn't for a while; but afterwards he said in himself, 'Though I do not fear God nor regard man, and because this widow troubles me I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me.'"

Okay? So, he didn't care that she was a widow, and hard on her luck. Didn't care that the law of God said specifically to uphold the cause of the widow. They didn't care about any of that, but just because she kept bothering him about it, kept coming to him about it, that was enough for the unjust judge to take action in her favor. So, here's the resolution of the parable in verse 6.

Luke 18:6 "The Lord said, 'Hear what the unjust judge said, and shall not God avenge His own elect who cry out day and night to Him, though He bears along with them?"

You know, the people of God would not be crying out day and night if there was nothing wrong. There's plenty wrong, always has been, always will be since sin entered the world. It always will be until, you know, God sets those things right. Let me qualify that. "His own elect that cry out day and night to Him, though He bears along with them."

Do we ever give up hope and stop asking God for the solution to our problems? If that were the case, that might be an occasion where we're lacking faith because we've stopped asking God, stopped believing that God can and will address it, whether it's now or whether in the kingdom. We need to be praying to God always.

And I'm not trying to just wave my hands in here and comfort people with false hope saying, "Your faith is enough, don't worry about it," well, we have to worry about it. Absolutely have to. We all have room to grow in faith, even absent truly prophetic trials, the Great Tribulation. We don't have to be going through the Great Tribulation to be greatly tested. In fact, I think every person has been, every person who's been in the faith has been.

Well, we need to understand if we think we're struggling with faith, we have to remember these fundamentals of what faith really is. So, when Christ said, "Will this faith be found on the earth?" He meant a faith that keeps on asking.

Here are the different parts of faith and the things we might struggle with if we are truly struggling with faith. Faith struggle number one, am I struggling with belief in the truth? You know, if we struggle with that, if we're really struggling to believe that God is there that He's listening, whatever it is, we can ask God for help with that part.

In fact, there's a good example of that, Mark 9, where a man, his child has died and he's coming to Christ asking for help. And he says, "Lord, I believe help my unbelief." And what does Christ do? Of course, He resurrected that child from the dead, you know, and that's an immensely difficult situation this guy was in. That was a crisis. And he found himself maybe not believing God could do this because he's never seen anything like that done. Said, "I believe help my unbelief." If I don't have it, help me get it. That's a step we can take with God.

We might struggle at times with such basic things. We can all end up struggling with this just from the experiences we have. We might struggle to believe that God exists, we might struggle to believe that He really will forgive my sins, awful as they are when I repent. We might struggle to believe that He really will provide a future that will make the hardships that I face today feel irrelevant by comparison. And our faith has to be grounded in the truth. We need to be constantly reading the Word of God and taking it to heart, constantly seeking understanding. "He's a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him." If we're seeking Him, He does lead us in His truth. Whatever the truth part of it, we need to know that at that point. We got to be sure we're not just ticking the generic box of belief in God, but that we actually are maintaining a relationship with Him through His work, which is the source of truth for us. Seeking to understand the truth of what He's doing in the broken world around us. Asking God to help us believe when we're in doubt. Those are keys to overcoming the struggles of the belief side of faith or struggling with the belief side of faith.

Well, the second struggle in the faith is the struggle to obey God, right? That's the other part of faith. You've got belief in the truth, you've got obedience. So, am I struggling to believe in the truth or am I struggling to obey God's law? Let me tell you if you're struggling to obey God in any way, that's absolutely normal, absolutely expected. We know that we're here in these physical bodies that are weak and subject to temptations. They just are. It's the situation we're in because we're supposed to overcome. Even Jesus Christ felt temptation and had to spiritually, mentally, physically prepare and show up to a fight with satan in the wilderness being tested. He had to show up in prayer before God that night when He was going to be delivered over, and He did so, He depended on God The answer is to keep asking God, "Lead me out of temptation, deliver me from the evil one. God, give me what it takes to obey you."We can't ever think that, "Well, you know, God will understand I'm under extreme duress here. I know this thing is wrong to do, but I'm going to go ahead and do it." Can't do that. Don't lose faith that God can and will deliver us if we continue obeying Him, even if it's not going to be yet, even if we're going to suffer in one way or another.

The third struggle of faith I think is really all summarized in this is that we have to endure to the end. It's the hardest because we can get worn down over time. Some trials last a lifetime for people, and they're waiting right down to their last breath and they're not delivered yet. It's going to be in the kingdom of God. Keep the faith. Things are hard. When help seems very far away, or when the wicked prosper and it doesn't seem fair, or when your plans don't work out when everything goes wrong, when you're being delivered over to death, when you're burdened, when you're weary, keep the faith.

Endurance means this, you don't ever let the hardships of physical life cause you to abandon those other two pillars, belief in the truth and obedience. Even when the whole world is hungry and starving to death in a massive famine at the end times, even when homes are destroyed, when people's lives are wrecked, when the economies of the world crumble and wars are ravaging everything, even when false prophets are prevailing and everyone around you is accepting lies that caused them to do wickedness and violence against other people, maybe including you and wanting you to turn unrighteousness, too, keep the faith.

Whether we end up living through the tribulation and whether we're all the way there in the end times or not, trials, 100% will make a struggle. Every one of us is going to struggle. But faith is believing in God's truth, anyway. Faith is doing God's will and following His law, anyway. Faith is never giving up the hope of the promises of God and Jesus Christ.