Hallelujah. So we've been on a journey
talking about faith, true biblical faith, true biblical
faith. And we've seen through the
Scripture, through these last few services that true biblical
faith is not for the weak, right?
It's not for the casual Christian.
Come on, true biblical faith. He says that we are to live by
the righteous. What shall live by faith?
And he tells us that we are to what?
Walk by faith and not by sight? But so many believers, and
everybody in this world still lives by sight.
And he tells us that we are to live by faith, to live by faith.
So what is true biblical faith? We've been talking about this
for several weeks. And we started out of Hebrews
Chapter 11 and verses one through through through three.
It says, now faith is the substance of things.
What hope for the evidence of things not seen.
So true biblical faith cannot be seen, OK.
And we said it is out of this world.
That's why people think you're crazy when you do great exploits
that God asks you to do when you step out in faith because you're
stepping out on in the unseen. Hallelujah.
And we talked about faith is a firm persuasion.
Are you firmly persuaded for those of you that have called on
the name of the Lord that you are saved, that you are His
child? Amen.
So if you have confessed Jesus Christ as your Lord, then guess
what? You should be firmly persuaded
that you are His child and nothing should be able to take
you right away from your faith or your belief in knowing that
His word says those that call on His name, right?
Repent of their sin and call on His name shall be saved.
Hallelujah. You make Him Lord of your life.
You're firmly persuaded. Nobody can talk me out of that,
right? Nobody can talk you out of it,
right? You're firmly persuaded that
you're his child. Hallelujah.
Well, that's how we should be firmly persuaded when it comes
to doing everything else that God says in His Word that
belongs to His children. He says we have an inheritance.
Amen. There are some things, some
promises that belong to His children, not just when we get
to heaven, but right here in the earth.
He says that we can rule and reign in this life.
Amen. So that means there's some
things that we don't have to, you know, participate in, like
the world participates. We don't have to participate in
depression because he says the joy of the Lord is my strength.
We don't have to participate in that.
We don't have to participate in lack of our finances when he
says, my God shall supply all of my needs according to his riches
in glory. Amen.
Hallelujah. We don't have to participate in
allowing sickness and disease to eat up our body because it says
that over 2000 years ago when he died on that cross and he took
on those stripes, that by his stripes I am healed.
Amen. We don't have to participate in
everything else that the world or unbelievers participate in
and welcome in their life, right?
Because if we are going to be true believers and walk by
faith, Amen, then we're going to have to be firmly persuaded in
everything that he says belongs to us.
So we said the biblical definition of faith is a firm
persuasion based on what we believe, right?
And at that we have accepted as truth, because many people can
hear the Word and see things in the word, but they can still not
believe it for themselves and not accept it as truth for
themselves. Yes, it is my truth.
And that's the only thing you should be saying is your truth.
This right here is my truth. Nothing else.
Come on, this is my truth right here.
And this is what I stand upon. And I'm firmly persuaded that
His word will not fail me. Amen.
That He says heaven and earth is going to pass away, but it's His
word that will remain till the end.
Hallelujah, glory to God. So we said a firm persuasion
based on what you believe, what you have accepted as truth, what
you adhere to so firmly that it actually governs your life.
That it actually governs what you think, what you say, and
what you do. This is true biblical faith.
That what His Word has said about me as His child, I adhere
to it. I believe it as my truth.
I act upon it, and the result of me acting upon it is that I'm
going to think like he thinks. I'm not going to think like the
world thinks. I'm going to act like he says
that I should act. That is holy just as he is holy.
Come on. I'm going to talk like he talks.
That means when something's going on in my life and there's
an odd against me, I'm going to say, but it is written.
But it is written, Hallelujah. Whatever his word says, I
believe it. I walk by faith.
I live by faith. Come on, Hallelujah.
And this is true biblical faith. This is my reality.
It may not be everybody else's reality, but this is my reality
right here because I am firmly persuaded, Glory to God, this is
my confidence, this is my conviction, and this is what we
are to live by every day, not just on Sunday, not just on
Wednesday, not when things are just going good.
Every day, in the good times, in the bad times, come on every
day, I am to live by it, I'm to walk by it.
And I believe that what his word says will have to come to pass
Amen. Hallelujah.
So it is a firm persuasion, a confident expectation with a
corresponding action. That means you will act upon
what you believe you'll act upon it.
So whatever it is that He says in His Word that you're to do,
you're going to act upon it. Amen.
Because this is what true biblical faith is.
And we said that this word substance, faith is the
substance. We said that substance is what
you build your life upon. It is the foundation.
It is what you are standing upon.
I am building my life upon the substance of faith.
This is the foundation of my life.
Amen. This is the foundation.
This is what I build my life of faith upon.
This is the substance. And we know that this substance
of faith comes from His Word. The substance of faith comes
from His word because Romans tells us what faith comes from
hearing and hearing from the Word.
So faith this, the word of God is the substance of faith.
So every time you open up the word and you read it, faith
comes alive. If you'll have ears to hear,
come on if you'll know that. Hebrews 412 says that His word
is living and active, sharper than any 2 edged store, able to
penetrate between Come on joy and mirror, soul and spirit,
glory to God, and that His word, when it's sent out, it shall not
return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I
have sent it to do. Are you firmly persuaded in His
word? Come on in His word because it's
the substance of faith. Glory to God and how believers
cannot be taking this as their daily bread blows my mind.
And we wonder why Christians don't even know what they stand
for, what they believe in, and can't even be bold enough to
speak it in a world that needs the Kingdom of God to eyes up
with Bold faith people, biblical faith people, Hallelujah, that
actually stand upon the Word of God is not ashamed of what the
Word says because it is not old, it is not irrelevant, it does
not change. It's the same yesterday, today
and forever. God changes not man may change
what the word is saying. They may try to get rid of
scriptures out of their new written Bibles.
But I'm telling you what His word does not change.
It is consistent generation after generation after
generation. Glory to God, Hallelujah.
So again, we're looking at the fact that true biblical faith is
a firm persuasion. Come on within your heart.
And he tells us that we are to live by this faith, build our
life upon this, walk in it. And we said that once we got
born again, we all were given Roman says this what the measure
of faith. The measure of faith.
Romans 12/3. Let's look at this, for I say so
through the grace which has been given to me, to everyone that is
among you, not to have high thoughts above what he should
think, but think to, but to think so as to be wise.
For as God has dealt to each a measure of faith, and we said
that the minute we called on the name of the Lord, that faith was
what planted within our hearts, the seed of faith.
The minute we called on, the minute we heard the word that we
needed a Savior, that we needed to be delivered, that we needed
to be forgiven, the seed of faith was planted within our
hearts. That word planted within our
hearts, we believed it and what did we do?
And we confessed it with our mouth, Hallelujah.
We received the word, we believe the word, we release the word
and it confess and through confession that He is the Lord
of my life. Hallelujah.
And once we did that, the seed of faith, I like to say, was
impregnated within you. Faith just dropped in you and
came alive. Hallelujah, the seed of the
word, Hallelujah. And we said this, that that is
the law of faith. The law of faith is that we are
to hear the Word, believe the Word, receive the Word, act upon
the Word by speaking and doing whatever it is the Word says for
us to do. And when we do that it we see
this principle or this law of faith operating for whatever it
is that God says in His Word belongs to us.
So the way you got born again is the same way that you're going
to receive every promise of the inheritance that He says belongs
to you as His child. You're going to hear it what the
word said. You're going to believe it.
Come on, you're going to confess it and speak it out, and you're
going to act on that word, whatever it is, whatever it is
that He says in His word. So from here on out, that's what
we must do to continue to live by faith and obtain all the
promises of God. He's not just dropping it down
on you. People just think, oh, I'm born
again and God's got to do all this.
He's in control and he has to do all these things for me.
No, he does nothing without your participation.
Because if he could, then everybody would be born again
and he wouldn't be sending anybody to hell.
No, everybody has to participate in what God says belongs to us.
Everything, everything, Amen. So this is a picture of what
true biblical faith looks like. This is that spiritual law that
is in operation. And actually I didn't give you
the scripture for that, but I want you to see it.
Romans 327 says this. When then is boasting, it is
excluded. But what kind of law of works?
No, but by the law, a law of faith.
This was him in Romans talking about the law and circumcision
and him saying, no, this is about the law of faith in Christ
Jesus now. And so he calls it the law of
faith, that when we are in Christ Jesus now, we are
participating in the law of faith.
Nobody wants to hear those terms law anymore, but you better
thank God there's a law of faith because that's how you got born
again because of his law that he read in his word that said if
you call on my name, you shall be saved.
Amen, glory to God. And so this is a faith, law or
principles and how we are to obtain from him and what it is
he says belongs to us. OK, so we've got that clear
right now. This is the one point I wanted
to talk about because we're going to go from here.
So, you know, I talked about the seed of the word out of Mark 4,
right? The parable of the seed, the
sower. And we talked about the fact
that there was different places that he sowed the seed and it
was related to what we were going to do with the seed that
was sown. If we're going to let it be on
the wayside, if we're going to, you know, all the other things,
let it get choked out, the word right, all those things.
But then he goes on and says, but we are going to see a
harvest of either 3060 or a hundredfold return.
And that is up to us. That is up to us.
So what kind of return do you want in the earth from your
faith? Do you want a 3030 fold return?
Do you want a 60 fold return or do you want 100 fold return of
your faith working in the earth? You want to see all God's
promises and everything that He said belongs to you.
You want to see it? Amen.
You want to walk in it? Hallelujah.
But again, it's up to us. So again, we've all been given
the measure of faith, right? So we are all on the same
playing field. Nobody's been given more faith
than someone else. We've all been given the measure
that each individual needs to accomplish what it is that he
says our assignment is or our purpose is in the earth, Every
single one of us. It's not more measure of faith
for the pastor, right? Or a more measure of faith for
whoever a business. No, we've all been given the
measure, right? And so it's up to us to produce
and allow that measure to increase within our lives.
We are responsible for the increase in our lives.
We're responsible for the increase in our life and how we
are going to work our faith. We're not getting born again by
works. We're working our faith in the
earth that He gave us. You see what I'm saying, right?
So I'm not talking about works, you know, to get to heaven.
I'm talking about the works and the things that He has assigned
every individual in the earth to do.
And we are to do it by faith. And we've all been given the
measure of faith to be able to accomplish whatever it is.
But again, we are the ones that's going to determine what
type of return we get on our life of faith.
Amen. So let's go here to let's go to
Romans chapter one, verse 17. I want to show you that faith
should grow, is expected to grow and can grow.
We don't just get born again by our faith, through grace, by our
faith. And that's where we stay or that
that's all that God expects of us.
You got born again, you're good to go.
That's not what he expects. Anything God does, there's
multiplication and increase. Period.
Look at it in the Word. Everything he does or you can
say. Everything he puts his hand to
prospers. Everything.
Is to increase and grow within our life.
You know, I've already taught on the elementary principles and we
saw that we're to go from babies right from infants to, you know,
maturity. So He expects for us to grow and
we can see through Scripture where He shows us that faith can
grow and should grow. And so again, we are here in the
earth to allow faith to grow within our hearts.
So Romans 17 says, for in it the righteousness of God is
revealed. From what?
Faith to faith. Another scripture talks about
glory to glory. So you are to go from faith to
faith, or you can say it this way.
You are to grow from faith to faith.
You're to grow from faith to faith.
Amen. Because every time you begin to
act upon His word and what you have heard for Him that He said
to you, for you to do, every time you begin to act upon it,
you're in faith. And He expects there to be more
and more and more accomplished. So you are to grow from faith to
faith. OK, We see that Scripture here.
Now look at Romans 4. We talked a whole lesson about
Abraham, the father of faith or the father of us.
All right? He's our example of faith.
OK. And Romans 420 through 21 says
this. Yet with respect to the promise
of God, He did not waver in unbelief, but what grew strong
in faith, He did not waver in unbelief, but grew stronger.
So every time we are in a position of faith, it should be
helping us grow stronger every time that is to produce within
us more faith, to go to faith. So it's it's for us to grow
stronger when we're in the middle.
And we talked about Abraham, listen, he had to believe God
that his wife would conceive the promised child.
That was a faith battle, right? And this is where we're seeing
it. He wavered not, but he grew in
that faith battle. He had to believe God, right?
What about when God called him to go to a place that he could
not see? He didn't know where he was
going, but God said, get up and go to Abraham.
Get up to get up and go, and I'll show you the place that I
have for you. So by faith, he had to get up
and go. So his faith grew so that then
the next time he's in this situation, his faith is a little
bit stronger so that he could believe God for this promised
child. But then guess what else?
He tested him again and expected his faith to be even stronger
that he said, now you give up that promised child, right?
And put him on the altar. But his faith grew, and if he
saw that God was faithful then, and he saw that God was faithful
again, come on, then he had no problem trusting God again and
saying he must be able to raise him up from the dead.
His faith grew stronger every time.
Every, every single time God asked him to do something else.
His faith was growing stronger and stronger.
And you know what? When he was giving up to say,
I'm going to lay the promise on the altar and sacrifice it.
You know what God's saying, There's some things I'm asking
of you that you need to lay on the altar once and for all and
sacrifice that thing unto me so that I can take you into another
place of faith that I've been waiting to take you in.
But you're unwilling because you said, but God, I believe God for
this. But are you willing to let it
all go so that He can take you from faith to faith to another
place that he's wanting you to go to?
And how many of us are unwilling to put it on the altar even?
I mean, this is OK. We had to believe God for our
house. If he said pick and sell it all,
sell it all. I'm calling you to Timbuktu.
God. I believe God for this house.
I believe God for this. I believe God for this, that you
promised me this, you. But at any moment, are you
willing to say, I'll lay it all down because I know you did it
here, I know you did it there, I know you did it here, I know you
did it there. My faith is so strong because of
all the things you've done for me, and I've seen the hand of
God move upon my life. I'm willing to lay it all down
once again and step out on Nothingville, step out on my
faith to go to another place of faith.
But again, I said the Christianity in the United
States is there's no sacrifice. That is not true biblical faith,
bottom line, bottom line, that is not true biblical faith that
you would never have to sacrifice anything for God.
It's not true. Don't see it in the Word from
Genesis to Revelation, any time God asks anybody to do anything,
they had to be willing to let it all go, period, period.
And I still can't get Noah out of my mind because, you know,
and the reason why I think about Noah so much is because he says
in the last days, it's going to be like the days of Noah.
And so Noah's always on my mind. And I think about the fact that
God told him, I want you to build this ark, gave him the
dimensions of it and everything had never seen.
They had never seen rain before. What are you going to do with a
big old ark in the middle of a desert, right?
Or wherever it is. I'm not good with geography, so
whatever. Anyway, all I know is there's a
big boat and they had never seen rain, right?
So here they are here. How long did he take?
120 years? I don't know that it literally
took him 120 years to build it, but it was 120 years before the
rain came. So however long it took him,
surely it was years upon years upon years.
We know that he was mocked, he was persecuted, he was called
crazy. He looked like a crazy loon out
there and Sing look like a crazy man.
Well, they said that about, you know, John the Baptist, too.
Oh, you mean you get talked about when you're trying to
follow God? Poor little baby can't handle
any persecution. I mean, this is the society that
we're living in today. And so they don't.
So this was a sacrifice for Noah to stand out there and build
that ark for all these years, having to trust God that he
would do what he said he would do.
And while all along people were mocking him and talking about
him and calling him crazy. But God, did he come through?
And did he do it to save and deliver?
Yeah, so when he's asking things of us to do in faith, there's
always, always a reward in the end.
It's always about someone else. It's not just about you.
It's not just about you stepping
out in faith to do whatever you need to do for your little
family. No, when God asks you to do
something, it's supposed to influence more than just your
family because people will see, wow, look what God is doing in
your life. Glory to God, Hallelujah.
So where were we? He grew strong in faith,
Abraham, and had to go through this process every time the Lord
asked of him to do something. His faith grew stronger and
stronger and stronger every time that he stepped out and obeyed
God. Amen.
Hallelujah. So let's go to 2nd Corinthians
1015. I just want to prove to you that
faith is to grow. Not boasting beyond measure,
that is, in other men's laborers, but with the hope that
as your faith grows, we will be within our sphere.
Look at that, enlarged even more by you.
So again, he expects us to grow our sphere of influence, or
we've talked about this, enlarging our tent or enlarging
our capacity to be able to be a better, a greater influence for
the Kingdom of God. And I'm not just talking about
an influencer on social media. I won't go down that trail
anyway. 2nd Thessalonians 1 and three.
It says this. We ought to always to give
thanks to God for you brethren, as is only fitting, because your
faith is greatly enlarged, say greatly enlarged, and the love
of each one of you towards one another grows even greater.
And we know in Galatians, which I don't even have time to go
here, but Galatians 220 I believe it is talks about that
faith worketh by love, faith works by love.
And so when you see what God is doing and how He's asking you to
walk in faith to accomplish something so that your influence
can grow and enlarge your capacity, it's always so that
His love can be seen through your life.
Because without love, your faith is not going to work.
So he's letting them know because you've done this faith,
your faith is enlarged and your love is even greater.
Glory to God. So just wanted to give you that
little tidbit. OK, now let's go to Mark 4.
Mark 435 through 41. I want to show you where in
Scripture it proves to us that, number one, you can have no
faith #2 you can have little faith #3 you can have great
faith. And #4 this is even greater.
You can have full faith, full faith, no little great fool in
the Scripture. So here he is here in Matthew
625 through 34. It says, for this reason, I say
to you, do not worry about life. And I'm using Scriptures about a
promise that he has said. So with this, with no faith,
this is a promise that we aren't to have to worry about tomorrow
because God knows exactly what we need, right?
We're going to read it in just a minute.
But it's showing us a, a spiritual principle or a promise
that belongs to us in faith. But he lets us know that you can
have no faith. Look at here.
So he says on that day when evening came, he said to them,
let us go over to, oh, this is not it.
Oh, sorry, it's the next one, little faith.
OK, this is not it. So Mark is about this.
OK, So he said to them, let us go over to the other side.
Leaving the crowd, they took him along with them in the boat,
just as he was, and the other boats were with him, and there
arose a fierce Gale wind, and the waves were breaking over the
boat so much that the boat was already filling up.
And Jesus himself was in the stern asleep.
You know, he was in the bottom of the boat asleep on the
cushion. And they woke him up and said,
Teacher, don't you care that we are dying?
Perishing 39 says this. And he got up.
He rebuked the wind and said to the sea, Hush, be still.
One translation says, peace be still, right?
That's better than this little translation here, Hush, it says,
this it says, And the wind died down, and it became perfectly
What calm. And he said to them, Why are you
afraid? Do you still have no faith?
Why are you still in fear? Do you still have no faith?
You're still in fear after you've seen me do miracles after
miracles after miracles? Why are you still in a position
of no faith? He calls it like it is.
You still have no faith. So there, what happened?
He had given them the word, let's go to the other side.
That was where faith then should have been received, believed and
acted upon. But they didn't do it.
They let the circumstance, they let the winds, the waves,
everything, the the boat filling up.
They're standing in the middle of the boat and it's filling up.
And instead of hearing what God said and reminding themselves,
but God said, he said that we were going to the other side
instead of rising up and speaking out, it is written.
God said, let's go to the other side.
So he expects us to go to the other side.
It is written. Faith comes from hearing and
hearing from the Word. Jesus is the manifestation of
the Word. He is the Word.
So the word spoke, they could hear.
All they had to do is believe it, act upon it in the middle of
the circumstance, in the situation.
But instead he said, why are you still in fear?
You have no faith. OK, let's go to little faith,
Matthew 6. You know this is a no when you
know, and I've said this, the opposite of faith is fear.
If fear is involved in whatever situation or circumstance in
your life, then guess what? You are not in faith because you
cannot have fear and faith in operation at the same time.
You can have love and faith in operation because perfect love
casts out all fear. Perfect love casts out all fear.
You see this and so you are not in faith if you are in fear, OK,
If there is fear, you're not in faith.
Now you can deal with that fear and you can get over into faith.
You can say no. It is written.
God said this. I take that clap, that thought
captive that's giving me anxiety, that's making me worry,
or whatever the case may be. I submitted up underneath the
word of God. The word says perfect love, cast
out fear. I'm going to act upon the Word
instead of fear. And this is how you do it with
anything, with every situation, with anything and everything
that he says belongs to us. This is true biblical faith.
Now look at little faith, Matthew 625 and 34.
This is where we say, see this. For this reason, I say to you,
do not be worried about life. Do not be worried about life.
And how many Christians do we know that are still worried
every day about life? Do not worry about life, Don't
worry about life. Say it, say it again, say it
again. You need to say this every day
if you are what we call a worry wart.
That was my first sermon I ever had to preach.
Do you know that? Because guess what?
I was a warrior. And in Rhema to graduate, we had
to preach a sermon before our classmates before we could
graduate Bible school. And I preached this scripture
right here because I was learning that I didn't have to
worry about life. Do not worry.
I was not going to be a warrior, Hallelujah.
I was not going to let the worries of this life consume me.
So don't worry about your life as to what you will eat or what
you will drink, nor for your body as to what you will put on.
It is. Not life more than food and the
body more than clothing. Look at the birds of the air.
They do not sow nor reap, nor gather into the barns.
And yet your heavenly Father feeds them.
He's fed me a many a time. And y'all have heard a few of
those testimonies in these last few weeks.
Don't worry about it. Don't worry about it.
It says, are you not worth much more than a bird?
Say I'm better than a bird, you're better than a bird.
Amen. So don't worry.
So he says this, he says look at the birds of the air.
Did I already read that verse 27?
Who and who of you being worried can add a single hour to his
life? And why are you worried about
clothing? Observe how the lilies of the
field grow. They do not toil, nor do they
spend. Yet I say that not even Solomon
in all of his glory clothes himself like one of these.
But if God so clothes the grass of the field which it is alive
today, and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, he will He not
much more clothe you. You of what little faith?
Little faith? So a warrior about these things
has little faith. Little faith just judges.
Isn't that what he says? Test and see.
Judge yourself. If you are in faith, this is the
way you can do that. Am IA person of no faith that
I've I've heard what he said, but I don't act upon it when I
circumstance or situation comes about or am IA person of little
faith that I still worry about some of these things about life.
See how you can measure where your faith is.
See this he says do not worry then saying what will you eat or
what will you drink or what will you wear for clothing for the
Gentiles eagerly seek all of these things talk about
clothing. Another testimony, you know,
you've heard we had nothing right through 15 years of our
marriage. And so we were living with my
dad at the time in Atlanta, Marietta.
And this was before we moved over or maybe after.
Yeah, it was after we had come back from the Roach infested
apartment, remember? And that night in the Roach
infested apt, I found out I was pregnant with Brianna.
This was 30 years ago. So anyway, so I had two boys.
So I'm like, oh, I finally get to have a little girl, you know,
I was so excited be able to dress her up in all these Pretty
Little clothes and all these things.
But guess what? I didn't have no money to buy
baby clothes, right? So don't worry, don't worry
about what this child's going to wear, you know?
So here is a good faith project for me once again that we're
living with my dad and and have Brianna.
So she's being born. Well, all of a sudden we got
three big black, you know, the big black garbage bags, the
hefty ones for the 55 gallon, you know, trash cans.
We got three huge bags of little girl clothes.
So many of them still had the tags on them.
Nice clothes thanks to a sister-in-law that went into
debt when she had her little girl and bought all these
clothes that she never even wore she gave us.
She came up and gave us 3 big bags of clothes.
Listen to this. I did not have to buy Brianna
clothes until she was five years old and starting school.
Didn't have to buy her a stitch of clothes.
Not what I wanted to. I was like, come on, God, can't
I just go pick out something, you know, for a little girl just
to say I bought it, you know? No, she had plenty, Plenty until
she was five years old and started school.
God provided. Don't worry about what you're
going to wear about clothing. Listen, I've got you, I'm taking
care of you. Hallelujah.
Glory to God. Thank you, Lord, thank you,
Lord. And he still does it today.
Amen. He still does it today.
For those who will believe, for those who will trust, for those
who will say I'm not going to worry.
God knows I have need of this and I'm doing what He's asking
me to do. He is going to take care of me.
I'm not going to have little faith.
Amen. And he goes on and tells you
what the requirement is, right? So that you won't have to worry.
And he goes on in verse 33 and says this, But what?
Seek first the Kingdom and His righteousness.
And that's what I was doing. That's what I was doing.
I was seeking first His Kingdom. I was seeking first doing
whatever His word was saying to do.
I was seeking first stepping out and going, and wherever He was
leading us to go to fulfill the call and the purpose that was on
our life that we didn't even have a clue of, but God
navigated us the whole entire time because we trust in God.
Amen. And we saw first the Kingdom of
God and His righteousness #3 great faith.
So we saw no faith, little faith.
Let's look at great faith. This is found in Matthew chapter
8, verses 5 through 10. And when Jesus entered into
Capernaum, a centurion, you've heard pastor, minister on the
centurion right came to him, imploring him and saying, Lord,
my servant is lying paralyzed at home, fearfully tormented.
And Jesus said to him, I will come.
Here's the word here's the word for him.
I will come, I will come he says and what heal him.
This was a promise to him. I'm going to come and I'm going
to heal him so he could grab hold of faith right there at
what Jesus's word just spoke to him and he said this in verse 8.
But the in the I get so excited. I'm sorry, the centurion said,
Lord, I am not worthy for you to come under my roof, but just
what? Say the word 1 translation just
says, say the word only and my servant will be healed.
He had such great faith that all Jesus had to do was just speak
the word of healing over his servant and he could guarantee
that when he went back, his servant was going to be healed.
He had faith in the what word, the substance of faith.
Come on, what Jesus has said to us.
We have to get back to faith, true biblical faith and what the
word says to us about our situation.
Hallelujah, so that we can walk and see how this person had such
great faith. Now verse 9, it says, for I also
am a man under authority and this is the key.
He recognized authority. Lots of people want to act like
they want to heal, they want to act all kinds of way, but
they're not even submitted to God in the 1st place and
submitted to His word and they wonder why things are happening
in their life because they're really not submitted to His
authority. But that's a whole nother
teaching that my husband does a wonderful job about.
So he says for I am a man under authority with son soldiers
under me. And I say to this one go and he
goes and to another come and he comes and to my slave do this
and he does it. Now when Jesus heard this, he
marvelled and said to those who were following, truly I say to
you, I have not found such what great faith with anyone in
Israel because the man believed him at his word and he
recognized that he was in authority and he was submitted
to authority himself. Hallelujah, great faith.
You want to operate in great faith, get submitted to some
real authority in your life. Hallelujah, the authority of the
fear of the Lord right here first and foremost, and then to
your pastors. Let's look at this last one
here. Great no faith, little faith,
great faith. And now we're going to look at
full of faith, Acts chapter 6 and verse 8, and Stephen, one of
my favorite stories of Stephen, full of faith and power, because
when you're full of faith, power will follow.
Power will follow. Did great wonders and miracles
among the people. He was full of faith.
And that in Ephesian tell us
that as believers, as the body of Christ, that we are to obtain
to the unity of faith, that we are to walk in the fullness, the
maturity. That's what He wants us to
attain to the fullness of God, to the fullness of God, to the
fullness of God. Stephen was full of faith and I
love in the next chapter, he was so full of faith.
He did miracles. He'd had power and we know that
the heavens opened up when he was, he was preaching God's
word, preaching talking about all that God had done and
accomplished and, and, and what they were wanting to stone him
to death because they were gripped, they grabbed their
ears, they screamed and they didn't want to hear.
And the heavens opened up and he had a standing ovation.
Jesus himself stand up right there.
This man was full of faith, full of faith.
So we see he expects us as believers to grow in our faith.
So we've said this, that faith comes from hearing, but faith
will only grow by doing. This is very simple.
Faith comes from hearing, but your faith can only grow by
doing. That's how faith grows.
That's how you go from no faith to little faith to great faith
to full faith because I'm hearing the Word and I am doing
the Word, whatever it is that he's saying to do.
Isn't that what Mary said to the servants during the wedding when
the wine ran out? This is not in my notes.
It's the the wine ran out and he and she, you know, went to her
son and he said a few things, but he went back to the servant
and told them, the servants, whatever she says to do, do it.
And I say, huh, right. Whatever he says to do, do it.
And I say whatever he says in his word to do, do it, Just do
it. Would Nike support me?
It's all you got to do. It's all you got to do is just
do it. Whatever he says to do.
Come on. It is that simple.
It's that simple, guys. I'm telling you, this is not
complicated. It's not a complicated order,
OK? It's easy.
You just do it, OK?
Hallelujah. Just say I'm going to do it.
Whatever he says to do, I'm going to do it.
Hallelujah. Glory to God, because your faith
will not grow outside of your doing so.
That's why you can see believers sit in church and just go
through religious exercises because they're hearing the
Word, but they are not acting upon it.
They are not just doing it. They're not doing it.
They're miserable. They have a frown on their face.
They're always in chaos and trouble and acting just like the
world. Instead of reigning like the one
He says. We have a reigning spirit that
we don't have to participate in all of those things.
Amen. Because we're actually doers of
the Word. Whatever His Word says to do, I
just do it. I do it in every situation, in
every circumstance, no matter what's going on, I'm just going
to do the word. And when I do it, every single
time, my faith begins to grow stronger and stronger and
stronger and stronger. Amen.
Hallelujah. So let's look at James real
quick. We still have a few minutes.
Let's look at James. And this is where we can see
this, and we've said this earlier in these lessons, but I
want to see it again. James 214 through 26 is in the
full context, but I'll just start reading.
In verse 17 it says Even so faith if it has no works is what
dead being by itself. But someone may well say, well
you have faith and I have work. Show me your faith without works
and I will what show you my faith by my works.
It says you believe that God is 1.
You do well the demons I we already talked about this
scripture. The demons do well or you do
well. The demons also believe and
shudder, and it says in verse 20, but are you willing to
recognize you fullest fellow, that faith without works is
useless? It's useless.
Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he
offered up his Isaac, his son on the altar?
You see that faith was working with his works, and as a result
of his work, faith was what perfected.
And the Scripture was fulfilled, which says, and Abraham believed
God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness, and he was
called the friend of God. You see that a man is justified
by works and not by faith alone. In the same way, was not Rahab
the harlot also justified by works when she received the
messengers and sent them out by another way?
For just as a body without the Spirit is dead, so also faith
without works is dead. It's dead, a lot of people
sitting in churches with dead faith.
So we can even say dead faith, no faith, little faith, great
faith, full of faith. I just love the Scripture
because it just is simple. Amen.
It's just simple. So again, we see that we are to
act upon the Word. And you know what our greatest
example was? Jesus was Jesus.
Jesus said in John, we're going to be closing John 519.
It says, therefore Jesus answered and was saying to them,
truly, truly. I say to you, the Son can do
nothing of himself unless it is something he sees the Father
doing. For whatever the Father does
these things the Son also does in like manner.
Jesus does nothing. The next scripture in John 12,
49 does nothing. On his own initiative.
He does nothing. He's the greatest example of
being a doer. Though Jesus heard what the
Father said and what acted upon it, He did it.
And he said, I only do what I hear, the Father.
And then he also said, and I only say what the Father says.
So again, he heard, He did, but not only did he hear, and he
did, He spoke, He spoke. So again, true biblical faith,
you're going to hear it, you're going to do it, you're going to
speak it, you're going to say it because that's what releases the
power of God in an act, the power of God for your situation.
You have to speak it. You have to say it so that it
releases the power of God in whatever it is that you're going
on. And Jesus was this perfect
example. Look at John 124950.
I, it says, for I did not speak on my own initiative, but the
Father himself who sent me has given me a commandment as to
what to say and to what to speak.
I know that His commandment is eternal life.
Therefore, the things I speak, I speak just as the Father has
told me. And you know what?
That's what we should speak. Whatever the Father has said to
us, whatever He has told us, whatever promise He said that we
can walk into in this life, we are to speak that, believe that,
come on and say it so that we can then receive it.
We are to act upon it, where to speak it, where to do it, and
that way we can obtain the promises of God that He says
belongs to us.