Anne Cetas wrote this: “Kevin walked into the nursing facility after his dad passed away to pick up his belongings. The staff handed him two small boxes. He said he realized that day that it really didn’t take an abundance of possessions to be happy. His dad, Larry, had been carefree and always ready with a smile and an encouraging word for others.”

The reason for his happiness was another “possession” that didn’t fit into a box: an unshakable faith in his redeemer, Jesus.

Community, hear me when I say we all can have unshakable faith; it just depends on where your faith is; unshakable means just what it says, unshakable; who don’t want unshakable faith?

When you have unshakable faith, you don’t worry even when ordinarily you have every reason to be. Unshakable in that you hold firm to your belief no matter what; unshakable meaning that it can’t be moved. It can’t be washed away, can’t be burned, can’t be crushed, can’t be beat down and it can’t be destroyed.

Anything that is unshakable means that it is solid. It can be that way when your faith is in the right thing. I am talking to all of us when I say “if your faith is SHAKABLE, then we need to examine what it is that our faith is in.

Because the truth of the matter is, if our faith is in anything other than Jesus Christ, our faith is on shaky ground. This brings us to another point — this should cause us all to take a serious look at what we value in life.

What are the most precious things to you and me? Because what we love determines where our faith is. In this last day of 2022, it’s time for all of us to sit down and take a spiritual assessment and see what we value in life.

Do I value things, possessions, education, money, houses, being likable or social status? What are the most important things to me, and where do I place my faith?

Let’s be honest because this message will help us to have “Unshakable faith!” In anything that we do in our Christian life we are to model Jesus Christ as our example; if we say we are followers of him then we are to model after him (1 John 2:6); and that means getting our priorities in line with the will and word of God.

Let me establish in this brand new year that true happiness does not depend on things. Some people act like they think that it does — they live like they think that it does, that if you have a whole lot of material things like money, prestige, education, and the finer things of life that it will somehow make you complete and fulfilled.

And so they spend their lives pursuing the material and they place their faith in the material. But this is a false sense of faith; understand me this morning, there is nothing wrong with possessing things and enjoying them.

For the Bible tells us that “God gives us all things to enjoy (1 Tim. 6:17b)”… there is nothing wrong with education; we need it to advance in life and to better ourselves; there is nothing wrong with money, we need it to survive, for money does make the world go around; but the Bible says “it’s the love of money that is the ROOT of all evil (1 Tim. 6:10).”

Being a homeowner myself there is nothing wrong with owning a home; that’s what we work for, for the one thing we all need is to have a roof over our head; having a social standing in the community is a good thing when the service that we give calls for it; these things are a part of life but was never meant to bring us true happiness. True happiness community, is not what you have externally; but true happiness is what you have internally; and it’s not just a good feeling but it’s in a person, the person Jesus Christ; in the pursuit of happiness folk are disappointed, discouraged, depressed and suicidal all because they discover that things and possessions don’t bring true happiness.

In that regard they have a “shakable faith!” In these days and times we’re living in now we had better have a “Unshakable faith;” friends, as preacher prophet let me say, some people put all of their faith in the government, they look entirely to the government; but the government is shakable.

Some, put all, and I mean all of their faith in the “Center of Disease Control;” but you’d better change that; the CDC is shakable. Others put all of their faith in their 401-k; but if the stock market crashes, so can your 401k.

Jesus said “Take heed, and beware of covetousness: for a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of the things which he possesses (Luke 12:15).”

Community, it grieves my spirit to see how some families fall apart, get mad and take one another to court over money and material things after a loved one dies; some stop speaking to one another for years; because they fail to see that life is not about the things that we have.

Community friends, don’t build your faith on things and jobs, and money and people in 2023; be rich where it counts; build your faith on Christ and Christ alone; make him your faith; and if you do, in 2023 he’ll give you an “Unshakable Faith!”