The statement surprised me a little, because I would have assumed that the most important message would be that of salvation. But then I was reminded that the Bible tells us, "By grace ye are saved through FAITH."
So, we can see that you can't even be saved without faith. Anyone seeking to be born again must be told that the moment they receive Jesus as their Savior that they are then born again.
Well, it takes faith to believe you're born again the moment you pray the sinner's prayer.
The Bible also records how Jesus said repeatedly, "Be it done unto you according to your FAITH." Essentially, Jesus is telling us that everything we possess in life is according to what we believe. Again, faith is so important.
Then the Bible tells us, "This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our FAITH." We see through this scripture every test that comes against us in the world is overcome by our faith. Faith is the route of victory.
Again, the Bible tells us "We walk by FAITH and not by sight." The word "walk" in the Bible always refers to your daily lifestyle, your manner of living. We walk out our daily lives according to our faith.
Then we're told in the Word that, "Without FAITH it is impossible to please God." Someone can do good works and give lots of money away; they can be good people, and be faithful to attend church, but without faith we can't be pleasing to God, no matter what we do.
Faith pleases God. We could even accurately quote that same verse like this, "Without faith it is impossible…." Everything from God is impossible to obtain without faith.
Your Faith Requires Repetition
Now we can see how correct this minister was in making the statement that, "The most important message in the Bible that needs to be taught is faith." We need to continually hear the message of faith over and over and over.
Every person who is in a body-building program knows that repetition is what causes the muscle to be enlarged. Even so it is with our faith. Repetition of hearing the same message over and over and over again and doing that Word causes our faith muscles to grow.
A weight lifter doesn't go into the workout room and tell his trainer, "I'm not going to lift that weight today because I still remember it from yesterday." No, it's not the memory of it that builds the muscle, but the "doing" of it that causes growth.
When we hear a minister preach a message that we've heard before, then we need to welcome that because repetition builds us. When we hear a sermon on tape that really ministers to us and feeds our faith, we need to hear it over again because repetition strengthens us.
It Never Gets Old
When we read something in the Bible that comes alive to us, then we need to feed on that over and over, for repetition builds into us.
It would be perfectly right for a minister to get up and preach the same sermon over and over and over again because that repetition causes us to be strong in that message when we hear it repeatedly and do it.
The Bible never gets old, no matter how many times we hear the message because there's life in it. The more we hear it, the more life flows into us.
The Bible tells us that "Faith comes by hearing and hearing…." Our greatest need is to be continual hearers of that which builds our faith and to be faithful to do it!
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