Faith does not come from within ourselves. Look through your entire Bible and you will see many passages that command an individual to “believe,” and several passages that state that men cannot believe, but you will never find a single passage that says men can believe. A command to believe is not evidence that men can believe. Faith is a gift from God (Eph. 2:5, 8). If faith is something within myself that I can exercise of my own will (which is not free, but is slave to either sin or God [Rom. 6]), then it is something I can boast about. Ephesians 2:9 condemns this.
How do we receive the gift of faith, then? By the hearing of the Word: “Faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the [preaching of the] word of Christ.” That is the method that God chose to establish. Those individuals whom He has chosen unto salvation (John 6:37; 15:16; Rom. 8:29-30; 9:20-24; Eph. 1:4; et al), when they hear, because He has changed and opened their heart to what they hear (Acts 16:14), freely exercise faith. If God did not first work in them, then they would never receive what they are hearing.
Whether you like it or not, this is biblical truth. That is why the preaching of the Gospel is foolishness to many. Because they fail to realize that God has chosen this method with which to work His gift of faith within His chosen elect. All these gimmicks that churches are trying to apply are an effort for them to save people rather than using God's simple method and allowing God to save them. If God did not reach out to save any of us, then none of us would ever be saved because we are dead in trespasses and sins and we hate God with a rebellious hatred.
Jeremiah 18 and Romans 9 both speak to the reality of God's sovereignty and His being able to do with His creation as He sees fit. He answers to nobody. If He elects to save some individuals while leaving the rest dead in their sin, He is free to do so. He is not under obligation to save any of us, and He certainly is not obligated to save all of us. His choosing to save some is for His glory, in order to show what a good and kind God He is, even though we all deserve an eternity in hell apart from Him. It is grace and grace alone that saves us.